Ranma was sitting in Nabiki's room, getting ready to go to Akane's to
complete his studying for the night when Nabiki spoke up.
"Ranma, did you know that Kasumi isn't the only one that can cook." Nabiki turned in her chair and had a predatory grin on her face.
"Sure. Pops can cook a mean cabbage if he wants to."
"I mean there is someone in this house other than Kasumi that can really cook something other than charcoal, poison, and cabbage."
"Who? Your dad?"
Nabiki started to laugh, slowly at first, but soon was holding her face in her hands, wiping tears off of her cheeks. After a minute or so she took a deep breath, collected herself, and said, "Akane can't cook, it's in her genes. And guess who's genes she inherited?"
"He's that bad?"
"Yep."
"I suppose you mean me? I can't cook. I got lucky the other night."
Nabiki started to giggle again as she teased her study partner, "So the truth comes out." Nabiki had suspected that Ranma couldn't cook; he might be able to pull off a few dishes with some luck, but to cook good tasting meals with any sort of consistency requires practice, and she knew that he has never worked over a hot stove for any length of time.
"No, Ranma. I mean I can cook."
"Sure. You spend just enough time in the kitchen to find the crackers, chips and cakes."
"Really, Ranma. I can, and I'm good."
"So why do you always order take out?"
"I hate cooking."
"Now that I believe."
"But I can cook."
"Yeah. Right."
"I can prove it."
"Try me."
"Okay. If you compliment my cooking, you have to take me out to dinner. If you don't like what I cook, I have to take you out to dinner."
"You sound confident."
"I am."
"Bring it on."
***
"Who's he?" Ranma asked as he pointed to a tall skinny student talking to Nabiki. It looked like he was trying to talk to her, and she was having a hard time getting him to leave her alone.
Hiroshi looked at where Ranma was pointing. "I don't know. New student maybe?"
Daisuke eyed the stranger before responding to his partner's inquiry, "Nope. If it were, we'd know about that. Maybe he's a visitor."
Ranma looked at Nabiki and the person in question again. There was something about the person that wasn't right, and somehow he knew that the stranger was bothering Nabiki, and that made him angry. He walked over, and stood behind Nabiki, assessing the other person. He saw a pockmarked face on top of a skinny body, heard a voice that was wheezing and cracking.
Nabiki was tapping her foot and had her arms crossed, a sure sign that she was annoyed. Ranma stood behind Nabiki and cleared his throat.
Nabiki jumped a little, not expecting anyone to be standing behind her, nor have that person be so close. When she recognized Ranma she smiled and leaned backwards, forcing Ranma to catch her.
"Ranma-kun," Nabiki cooed, "you can't stay away from me for long, can you?" She pulled Ranma's arms around her and nuzzled her hair against his neck.
Ranma tried to figure out what Nabiki was doing, it wasn't like her to initiate physical contact; he couldn't remember any time when Nabiki tried to have any contact with him. When she pulled his arms around her small, soft waist, a vision of Akane seeing them like this was formed in his head. But when Nabiki rested against him and rested her head just under his ear, the vision dissipated.
Dimly aware of his surroundings, Ranma heard the pimple-faced boy stammer, "Yaha, Nabiki. I'll be seeing you soon again sometime gotta go now take care bye!"
As the boy left the scene, Ranma felt Nabiki gently let go of his arms he gently tried to step away, but when she started to stumble backwards, he immediately threw his arms around her again.
"Whoa! You okay, Nabiki? You almost fell."
Nabiki sighed then said, "I'm fine, Ranma. I just wasn't ready for you to let go of me yet." And then she blushed a little.
Ranma leaned forward a little and allowed Nabiki to regain her balance before letting go of her.
When the boy was finally out of sight, Ranma apologized, "Sorry about that. He gave me the creeps."
"Thanks, Ranma. He didn't get a clue as to when to leave."
The two students stood there, not knowing what to do next when the bell rang. "Gotta go!" Ranma said as he turned around, "See you later."
"Later." Nabiki said. She watched the boy start to retreat before calling out, "Ranma!"
"What?" Ranma stopped and turned to face Nabiki, who had a coy smile on her face.
"Next time, don't be in such a hurry to let go of me."
Nabiki gave a wink at her rescuer as she started to walk away.
***
It all started with a simple challenge, "Pops, you said you could eat everything they put in front of you. It's time for you to prove it!" Genma, being the man he is, did not refuse. He even went on a special training mission to ensure his victory.
As such, Ranma and his father were standing in the registration line for the "Eat-Until-You-Die Contest." Genma was brimming with confidence that first prize, a complete set of restaurant quality cookware, to be his. He was so confident that he challenged his son to enter the contest just to prove his own superiority.
Unfortunately for Genma, Ranma had no pretense of even trying to win. He entered so he could watch his father first hand get sick. In fact, Ranma had no intention of eating all that much in any case as he was planning on encouraging his father on to eat more food. As a spectator, he thought that he couldn't get close enough to actually rattle his father's cage enough to take the extra bite. As a contestant, he planned on sitting next to his father, cheering and insulting him until either he won or became sick, and hopefully both.
Once registered, Ranma and his father found a pair of adjacent seats near the kitchen. As the rules were explained, the Saotomes found that contestants that drop out must wait upon the survivors, bringing full plates of food and removing the empty plates. Ranma immediately started working out how to keep the panda-man's plate full and ensure that the judges gave full credit to his father's consumption - assuming they could believe how fast his father could eat.
When the whistle blew to start the contest, Ranma and his father cleared their plates in seconds, and had two refills before the third contestant want up for his first refill. Ranma and his father kept their pace up until each had eaten seven plates of food. It was at this point that Ranma decided he was full and didn't want to get sick, so he started bringing plates to his father. By this time, the third place contestant had finished his second plate of food and almost everyone had conceded the win to the fat bald man with glasses.
Genma had completed ten plates when the judges stopped Ranma from getting any more food. "Let the others try to catch up," they said. Ranma looked at the kitchen and saw that there wasn't much food left, and that his father was actually eating faster than chefs could heat the pre-cooked food.
In the end, Ranma never did bring another plate to his father, who had finished with ten plates. Ranma was in second place with seven plates, and third place was six dishes.
After the prizes were awarded, Ranma interrupted the interview between his father and a contest official by publicly announcing that the person that should accept the first prize should be Kasumi Tendo.
Genma was about to protest, but seeing the serious look on Ranma's face and Kasumi's delight, he relented, making a weak but pompous speech about being a good father.
Second prize was two large grocery bags packed with food. Ranma managed to be humble as they brought forth the bags, and thanked the sponsors. Unfortunately for Ranma, his father was still hungry and as soon as Ranma put the bags of food down on the table to talk to Kasumi, his father started quaffing Ranma's prize. When Ranma and Kasumi returned their attention to the two bags of groceries, they discovered that his father had eaten the contents of one bag and was doubled up in pain with a stomachache. Ranma smiled, at least he had the satisfaction of seeing his father pay the price for his indulgence.
With his father clutching his stomach in pain, Ranma watched Kasumi receive a collapsible cart for carrying groceries and a letter stating that she was now the owner of a shopping spree at the grocery store of her choice.
When Soun arrived, Ranma bid him and Kasumi farewell for the afternoon and left to find Akane and Nabiki. Akane was supposed to be entering some contest and Nabiki was to be wondering about the midway.
He found Nabiki first, and watched her as she tried to toss a 100 Yen piece into a shallow glass bowl a few meters away. Nabiki's throw was fairly accurate, but her coin bounced off the rim, never going into the bowl. A second toss was dead on, the coin should have dropped into the center of the bowl but somehow bounced out.
Frustrated, Nabiki handed Ranma a coin and asked him to see if he could win something. Ranma tossed his coin, and it too bounced out of the bowl. Ranma became suspicious and asked Nabiki for one more coin. She handed a coin to Ranma, who shut his eyes and launched the coin at high speed at the bowl.
This time the coin never bounced out of the bowl. When Ranma looked to see what had happened, he saw that the coin was suspended in mid-air at the same level as the bowl's rim. It was then that Nabiki realized that there was a thin membrane covering the bowl, hence making it impossible for anyone aiming for that bowl to win.
With an understanding of how this operator ran his games, she called him out and called him a cheat. The discussion ended when Nabiki threatened to have Ranma find other irregularities. With the word "irregularities", Ranma started making some comments about liars. The operator, a coward, relented, and awarded Nabiki any prize she wanted for her silence. She saw a red glass letter opener and indicated that what she wished to take home.
After thanking Ranma for his assistance, Nabiki mentioned the speed-cooking contest that Akane entered a few hours ago.
"Cooking contest?"
"It appears that my little sister is intent on exacerbating the population reduction problem."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. Just come along with me." Nabiki picked up her box and tugged on Ranma's shirt. When she felt Ranma start to follow her, she let go, and grabbed his hand, not wanting to lose him in the crowd of the midway.
Once there, they stood in front of the score board and discovered that Akane has done well. Apparently she had answered all of the quiz questions posed to her correctly, which easily qualified her for the next round.
"Wow! How'd she do that when she can't cook?" Ranma asked in surprise at the perfect score Akane posted.
"We are talking about my baby sister, remember? Just because she can answer a bunch of questions doesn't mean she can cook."
Still holding hands, Nabiki and Ranma walked into the kitchen stadium and found a couple of seats.
It was in the kitchen that the contest was to really begin. At each stage there were prizes given out, with the winner being awarded a two week long cooking class. Akane knew had no chance of winning first place, but she hoped she would get enough points to win something.
The first step was easy, all Akane had to do was boil water. That was it. She did not have to cook anything. She picked up her pot, and walked over to the sink to fill it full of water. On the way back, she tripped, spilling water everywhere. She went back to sink, and refilled the pot, and this time returned safely to her stove. Placing the pot the stove, she reached for the lid and spilled the pot. Getting frustrated, she grabbed the pot, put the lid on the top, and walked back to the sink. She turned the faucet on, and splashed water all over herself, for she forgot to take the lid off the pot. She took the lid off the pot, filled it full of water, put the lid back on the pot, and walked back to her stove. She placed the full pot on the stove and sat there, waiting for the water to boil. And she waited. Then she waited some more. She walked up to the pot, and tested the water. It was cold. She looked at the stove, and saw that she forgot to turn the stove on. She took the pot off the stove and put it on a neighboring table, turned the stove on. She put the pot down, and took the lid off the pot to check to see if the water was still there. When she saw smoke coming from the stove, she realized the lid was on the stove and not on the pot, which was on table. Quickly she lifted the lid off the stove and put it on the pot, which she then placed on the stove. After making sure that everything was correct, Akane sat down on the ground, waiting for the first signs of boiling water.
It was four minutes later when the water boiled, but in the process of trying to boil the water, Akane had gone from a tie for first place to last. Since Akane was able to finally boil the water, the judges awarded her a set of salt and pepper shakers and escorted her out of the kitchen, fearing that if she went into the next round that they would have the makings of a major fire.
Through the whole ordeal, Ranma and Nabiki winced, prayed, and cried. They tried to cheer Akane on, but her failures were so bad that they had to console themselves with the fact that she had not yet destroyed the stadium.
As Akane left the competition floor, Ranma and Nabiki left their seats and headed for the fair's exit to meet up with everyone, their day over.
"Ranma, did you know that Kasumi isn't the only one that can cook." Nabiki turned in her chair and had a predatory grin on her face.
"Sure. Pops can cook a mean cabbage if he wants to."
"I mean there is someone in this house other than Kasumi that can really cook something other than charcoal, poison, and cabbage."
"Who? Your dad?"
Nabiki started to laugh, slowly at first, but soon was holding her face in her hands, wiping tears off of her cheeks. After a minute or so she took a deep breath, collected herself, and said, "Akane can't cook, it's in her genes. And guess who's genes she inherited?"
"He's that bad?"
"Yep."
"I suppose you mean me? I can't cook. I got lucky the other night."
Nabiki started to giggle again as she teased her study partner, "So the truth comes out." Nabiki had suspected that Ranma couldn't cook; he might be able to pull off a few dishes with some luck, but to cook good tasting meals with any sort of consistency requires practice, and she knew that he has never worked over a hot stove for any length of time.
"No, Ranma. I mean I can cook."
"Sure. You spend just enough time in the kitchen to find the crackers, chips and cakes."
"Really, Ranma. I can, and I'm good."
"So why do you always order take out?"
"I hate cooking."
"Now that I believe."
"But I can cook."
"Yeah. Right."
"I can prove it."
"Try me."
"Okay. If you compliment my cooking, you have to take me out to dinner. If you don't like what I cook, I have to take you out to dinner."
"You sound confident."
"I am."
"Bring it on."
***
"Who's he?" Ranma asked as he pointed to a tall skinny student talking to Nabiki. It looked like he was trying to talk to her, and she was having a hard time getting him to leave her alone.
Hiroshi looked at where Ranma was pointing. "I don't know. New student maybe?"
Daisuke eyed the stranger before responding to his partner's inquiry, "Nope. If it were, we'd know about that. Maybe he's a visitor."
Ranma looked at Nabiki and the person in question again. There was something about the person that wasn't right, and somehow he knew that the stranger was bothering Nabiki, and that made him angry. He walked over, and stood behind Nabiki, assessing the other person. He saw a pockmarked face on top of a skinny body, heard a voice that was wheezing and cracking.
Nabiki was tapping her foot and had her arms crossed, a sure sign that she was annoyed. Ranma stood behind Nabiki and cleared his throat.
Nabiki jumped a little, not expecting anyone to be standing behind her, nor have that person be so close. When she recognized Ranma she smiled and leaned backwards, forcing Ranma to catch her.
"Ranma-kun," Nabiki cooed, "you can't stay away from me for long, can you?" She pulled Ranma's arms around her and nuzzled her hair against his neck.
Ranma tried to figure out what Nabiki was doing, it wasn't like her to initiate physical contact; he couldn't remember any time when Nabiki tried to have any contact with him. When she pulled his arms around her small, soft waist, a vision of Akane seeing them like this was formed in his head. But when Nabiki rested against him and rested her head just under his ear, the vision dissipated.
Dimly aware of his surroundings, Ranma heard the pimple-faced boy stammer, "Yaha, Nabiki. I'll be seeing you soon again sometime gotta go now take care bye!"
As the boy left the scene, Ranma felt Nabiki gently let go of his arms he gently tried to step away, but when she started to stumble backwards, he immediately threw his arms around her again.
"Whoa! You okay, Nabiki? You almost fell."
Nabiki sighed then said, "I'm fine, Ranma. I just wasn't ready for you to let go of me yet." And then she blushed a little.
Ranma leaned forward a little and allowed Nabiki to regain her balance before letting go of her.
When the boy was finally out of sight, Ranma apologized, "Sorry about that. He gave me the creeps."
"Thanks, Ranma. He didn't get a clue as to when to leave."
The two students stood there, not knowing what to do next when the bell rang. "Gotta go!" Ranma said as he turned around, "See you later."
"Later." Nabiki said. She watched the boy start to retreat before calling out, "Ranma!"
"What?" Ranma stopped and turned to face Nabiki, who had a coy smile on her face.
"Next time, don't be in such a hurry to let go of me."
Nabiki gave a wink at her rescuer as she started to walk away.
***
It all started with a simple challenge, "Pops, you said you could eat everything they put in front of you. It's time for you to prove it!" Genma, being the man he is, did not refuse. He even went on a special training mission to ensure his victory.
As such, Ranma and his father were standing in the registration line for the "Eat-Until-You-Die Contest." Genma was brimming with confidence that first prize, a complete set of restaurant quality cookware, to be his. He was so confident that he challenged his son to enter the contest just to prove his own superiority.
Unfortunately for Genma, Ranma had no pretense of even trying to win. He entered so he could watch his father first hand get sick. In fact, Ranma had no intention of eating all that much in any case as he was planning on encouraging his father on to eat more food. As a spectator, he thought that he couldn't get close enough to actually rattle his father's cage enough to take the extra bite. As a contestant, he planned on sitting next to his father, cheering and insulting him until either he won or became sick, and hopefully both.
Once registered, Ranma and his father found a pair of adjacent seats near the kitchen. As the rules were explained, the Saotomes found that contestants that drop out must wait upon the survivors, bringing full plates of food and removing the empty plates. Ranma immediately started working out how to keep the panda-man's plate full and ensure that the judges gave full credit to his father's consumption - assuming they could believe how fast his father could eat.
When the whistle blew to start the contest, Ranma and his father cleared their plates in seconds, and had two refills before the third contestant want up for his first refill. Ranma and his father kept their pace up until each had eaten seven plates of food. It was at this point that Ranma decided he was full and didn't want to get sick, so he started bringing plates to his father. By this time, the third place contestant had finished his second plate of food and almost everyone had conceded the win to the fat bald man with glasses.
Genma had completed ten plates when the judges stopped Ranma from getting any more food. "Let the others try to catch up," they said. Ranma looked at the kitchen and saw that there wasn't much food left, and that his father was actually eating faster than chefs could heat the pre-cooked food.
In the end, Ranma never did bring another plate to his father, who had finished with ten plates. Ranma was in second place with seven plates, and third place was six dishes.
After the prizes were awarded, Ranma interrupted the interview between his father and a contest official by publicly announcing that the person that should accept the first prize should be Kasumi Tendo.
Genma was about to protest, but seeing the serious look on Ranma's face and Kasumi's delight, he relented, making a weak but pompous speech about being a good father.
Second prize was two large grocery bags packed with food. Ranma managed to be humble as they brought forth the bags, and thanked the sponsors. Unfortunately for Ranma, his father was still hungry and as soon as Ranma put the bags of food down on the table to talk to Kasumi, his father started quaffing Ranma's prize. When Ranma and Kasumi returned their attention to the two bags of groceries, they discovered that his father had eaten the contents of one bag and was doubled up in pain with a stomachache. Ranma smiled, at least he had the satisfaction of seeing his father pay the price for his indulgence.
With his father clutching his stomach in pain, Ranma watched Kasumi receive a collapsible cart for carrying groceries and a letter stating that she was now the owner of a shopping spree at the grocery store of her choice.
When Soun arrived, Ranma bid him and Kasumi farewell for the afternoon and left to find Akane and Nabiki. Akane was supposed to be entering some contest and Nabiki was to be wondering about the midway.
He found Nabiki first, and watched her as she tried to toss a 100 Yen piece into a shallow glass bowl a few meters away. Nabiki's throw was fairly accurate, but her coin bounced off the rim, never going into the bowl. A second toss was dead on, the coin should have dropped into the center of the bowl but somehow bounced out.
Frustrated, Nabiki handed Ranma a coin and asked him to see if he could win something. Ranma tossed his coin, and it too bounced out of the bowl. Ranma became suspicious and asked Nabiki for one more coin. She handed a coin to Ranma, who shut his eyes and launched the coin at high speed at the bowl.
This time the coin never bounced out of the bowl. When Ranma looked to see what had happened, he saw that the coin was suspended in mid-air at the same level as the bowl's rim. It was then that Nabiki realized that there was a thin membrane covering the bowl, hence making it impossible for anyone aiming for that bowl to win.
With an understanding of how this operator ran his games, she called him out and called him a cheat. The discussion ended when Nabiki threatened to have Ranma find other irregularities. With the word "irregularities", Ranma started making some comments about liars. The operator, a coward, relented, and awarded Nabiki any prize she wanted for her silence. She saw a red glass letter opener and indicated that what she wished to take home.
After thanking Ranma for his assistance, Nabiki mentioned the speed-cooking contest that Akane entered a few hours ago.
"Cooking contest?"
"It appears that my little sister is intent on exacerbating the population reduction problem."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. Just come along with me." Nabiki picked up her box and tugged on Ranma's shirt. When she felt Ranma start to follow her, she let go, and grabbed his hand, not wanting to lose him in the crowd of the midway.
Once there, they stood in front of the score board and discovered that Akane has done well. Apparently she had answered all of the quiz questions posed to her correctly, which easily qualified her for the next round.
"Wow! How'd she do that when she can't cook?" Ranma asked in surprise at the perfect score Akane posted.
"We are talking about my baby sister, remember? Just because she can answer a bunch of questions doesn't mean she can cook."
Still holding hands, Nabiki and Ranma walked into the kitchen stadium and found a couple of seats.
It was in the kitchen that the contest was to really begin. At each stage there were prizes given out, with the winner being awarded a two week long cooking class. Akane knew had no chance of winning first place, but she hoped she would get enough points to win something.
The first step was easy, all Akane had to do was boil water. That was it. She did not have to cook anything. She picked up her pot, and walked over to the sink to fill it full of water. On the way back, she tripped, spilling water everywhere. She went back to sink, and refilled the pot, and this time returned safely to her stove. Placing the pot the stove, she reached for the lid and spilled the pot. Getting frustrated, she grabbed the pot, put the lid on the top, and walked back to the sink. She turned the faucet on, and splashed water all over herself, for she forgot to take the lid off the pot. She took the lid off the pot, filled it full of water, put the lid back on the pot, and walked back to her stove. She placed the full pot on the stove and sat there, waiting for the water to boil. And she waited. Then she waited some more. She walked up to the pot, and tested the water. It was cold. She looked at the stove, and saw that she forgot to turn the stove on. She took the pot off the stove and put it on a neighboring table, turned the stove on. She put the pot down, and took the lid off the pot to check to see if the water was still there. When she saw smoke coming from the stove, she realized the lid was on the stove and not on the pot, which was on table. Quickly she lifted the lid off the stove and put it on the pot, which she then placed on the stove. After making sure that everything was correct, Akane sat down on the ground, waiting for the first signs of boiling water.
It was four minutes later when the water boiled, but in the process of trying to boil the water, Akane had gone from a tie for first place to last. Since Akane was able to finally boil the water, the judges awarded her a set of salt and pepper shakers and escorted her out of the kitchen, fearing that if she went into the next round that they would have the makings of a major fire.
Through the whole ordeal, Ranma and Nabiki winced, prayed, and cried. They tried to cheer Akane on, but her failures were so bad that they had to console themselves with the fact that she had not yet destroyed the stadium.
As Akane left the competition floor, Ranma and Nabiki left their seats and headed for the fair's exit to meet up with everyone, their day over.