The Melting Process Part 3

By Ryouga's Best friend

Disclaimer- I own nothing! I'm typing this story in a cardboard box. Sigh…

A/N- Right back on the war horse and moving forward to battle the evil armies of Writer's Block and Laziness. As you may have noticed the last part feature a calm and normal "date" between Ranma Saotome and Nabiki Tendo. Now one might say "That went far too smoothly, where were all the other characters?" The answer can be found in this part of the story. Due to Ranma's lack of long term planing on his vague "make Nabiki happier" mission he never thought twice to what would happen when everyone found out about his outing with Mrs. Tendo. The result should be quite volatile but entertain for those far from Nermia reading this from the comforts of their home. J

Recap:

"Night Ranma," She said with a wink as she ascended the stairs leaving her companion frozen at the bottom of the stairs. She reached her room and broke into snickers. "He's so fun to tease," she said to herself as she took a seat on the bed. But that was a lot of fun…that had to be the most fun I've had since on a date… her thought trailed off when she realized she'd been on a date with Ranma Saotome, Marital Arts playboy. On top of that Nothing bad had happened, his mysterious chaos completely absent to whole evening. "I even gave him a goodnight kiss…" she was silent for a long time just staring at the ceiling unsure of what to think.

Meanwhile in a room just down the hall Ranma groaned as he stared into his empty wallet. "It was a good first step but I'm not sure I can afford this plan if it keeps up like this…" He said with a sigh laying back on his futon. He absentmindedly rubbed his cheek as he stared at the ceiling. "I can't believe she kissed me…" he said in wonder before falling silent for the rest of the night.

Part 3

It was just past midday the two days after Nabiki's outing with Nermia's most wanted man. Now she was planing to lounge around the house, and bask in the laziness of summer. Though apparently Kami had other ideas, as she was currently running for her life Kodachi, Shampoo, and Ukyo. She dashed into a nearby alley and tried to stifle her breathlessness hoping the to lose the trio. Her mind cycled back to that morning when all the chaos began….

Nabiki awoke that day feeling pretty good, she had spent the previous day relaxing and bugging Ranma and Akane who were more at odds than usual. It seemed the date had cause more friction than Ranma had hoped and Nabiki, in a mischievous mood, gave a much more racy (and fictional) description of the date. When confronted with Akane's vague accusation of going on a date, and not know the added details she heard, he admitted to going out. Enraged she thrashed him and stomped out angry and crying. Now the normal formula would be Ranma sulking for a bit and then rushing off to apologize, the her sister would relent and they'd make up. But there was a flaw today, Akane had stumbled across some of her friends Sayuri and Yuka. They were good girls but horrible gossips. Before Ranma could find his fiancee the distraught girl had already given Nabiki's version of events to the girls and by the end of the day the Nermia rumormill took off and set the stage for today.

Anyway, back to that morning. The middle Tendo had gotten dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. The room was tense, Akane was deadly silent. Her Father and Mr. Saotome were sending off very tense vibes. Ranma looked very nervous as he glanced between the three of them. Even Kasumi looked a little on edge. This was a bomb waiting to blow. "Morning…" She greeted cautiously taking her seat across from the shaken Martial artist.

"Um, hey." He returned. Akane glared and said nothing. The fathers gave a distracted "Good morning" and Kasumi gave slightly strained smile. Breakfast started in silence that no dared to break, finding delicate words were accentual to calming the situation and no one was sure what those were. Though before Kasumi or Nabiki could decide where to begin it was already too late.

"Ranma…" Soun began. "I heard you took out my daughter while we were out with the master…" He said in a deceptively calm voice. "Now don't you think this was something you SHOULD have done with your fiancee?"

"Look Mr. Tendo…" Ranma began but was cut off by the slamming of Akane's fist to the wooden floor.

"Don't bother making excuses Ranma, I don't want to hear it!" She shouted.

"Look 'kane your blowing this way ou-" he tried again but there was no use.

"You went behind my back and took my sister out on a date! There's nothing you can say that'll excuse you from that. You never ask me out!" She continued, much more hurt than angry. Nabiki furrowed her brow. Didn't Ranma say he asked her out before me? She wondered unsure of this development. "It's bad enough you go off with your fiancees but my sister! You jerk!" she finished with a thunderous slap that knocked him into the backyard. She ran upstairs tears streaming.

"Oh my Akane…" Kasumi said standing and heading after her. Nabiki almost followed but figured it would do more harm than good. She was never very good at dealing with other peoples feelings…she had enough problems with her own.

"You go right up stairs and apologize to your fiancee boy!" Genma ordered pointing upstairs. "To think my own son would partake in such and underhanded action." He dramatized with crocodile tears.

"Whatever, that Tomboy doesn't listen to me." Ranma grumbled rubbing the side of his face. Nabiki meanwhile was trying to process this new information Mr. Saotome seems awfully surprised about this… Didn't he force Ranma to buy the tickets. All this doesn't add up She thought looking to Ranma as he hopped the backyard wall ignoring his screaming father.

"I think I'll have a talk with him myself…" She said heading outside hoping to catch him before he got to far. "I don't like being played with."

Nabiki had gone a few blocks and found no sign of the wayward Martial artist. She was on her way back when she heard a familiar and unwelcome laugh. Even without the shower of rose petals she knew that is was "Kodachi…" she greeted coolly

"Nabiki Tendo…" Kodachi returned in a similar tone. She was dressed in her leotard, ribbon in hand. "I have heard rumors that YOU of all people went out with my Ranma-sama. As laughable as that claim was I thought I'd check to make sure." She said in an haughty tone. Laughable! How dare she say that, doesn't she know who she's dealing with Nabiki thought as she narrowed her eyes.

"Well for you information I was out on a date with him, he asked me to go to the movies with him." She explained crossing her arms. She was greeted with the "noble's" laugh.

"Ranma-sama ASKED you. That is a good joke Miss Tendo, like he or anyone would ask you out." She said with another round of laughter. Nabiki kept a cool front but was burning inside. She gained an unkind smirk.

"But it is true, he swept me off my feet. It was one of the best times I've had in sometime. Who would've thought he was such a good kisser?" She said innocently causing Kodachi to choke. Her jovial mood disappeared and she gained a dangerous look.

"How dare you kiss My darling?" She stated preparing to use her razor ribbon, Nabiki kept her cool.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Or would you like "your Darling" and everyone else to hear of that fling you had with one Hitomi Kuria." She said eyes narrowed, pleased as her opponent paled and lower her weapon. Nabiki gave a triumphant smirk as she had won their battle of wits. She hardly had time to get out of the way when the ribbon suddenly lashed out cutting through her sleeve and drawing blood.

"Looks like I have one more reason to kill you…" Kodachi said, her eyes flashing with madness. Nabiki swallowed, pain aching from her arm, she began backing away. This wasn't part of the plan. "Prepare to die Tendo!" She cried lashing out again. Nabiki decided to cut her losses and make a break for it. She jigged and jagged about through the streets as the mad gymnast followed roof hopping after her prey. Just as Nabiki had started to review her options she found herself thrown aside when the wall next to her exploded. As the middle Tendo painfully sat up she looked to see the normally bubbly amazon waitress glaring down at her, Bonbori in each hand.

"Mercenary Girl should stay out of Amazon business." She said firmly, "You become obstacle. Obstacles are for killing!" She said bringing the metal mace down to the prone Tendo who let out a gasp and rolled to the side, the blow left a spider web of cracks in the pavement.

"That harlot is mine peasant!" Kodachi commanded as she landed nearby.

"Leave crazy girl, Shampoo want kill her herself."

Nabiki watched the to argue with wide eyes Their arguing about who gets to kill me! This can't be happening, this stuff doesn't happen to me She thought shaking slightly as she pulled herself back up and bolted down the street, catching the attention of her pursuers.

"She try get away," Shampoo stated charging after her.

"I think not, that girl must be silenced!" Kodachi yelled following close behind. Nabiki was running as fast as she could, adrenaline masking her pain enough she could keep up her pace, though Shampoo was much more athletic and was quickly closing the gap. Nabiki tried to keep her focus forward which was good because she could she the projectiles being thrown at her. She dived to the side to avoid the, taking a few more cuts tumbling to the ground. Fortunately for her Shampoo and Kodachi also had to avoid them and couldn't take the opportunity to kill her. Ukyo landed in a combat stance, large spatula ready.

"Not you too Ukyo…" Nabiki said shakily holding her leg, which was bleeding slightly. The chef's gaze was firm, but not homicidal like the other two.

"Sorry sugar, but you went too far this time." She said simply all ready to fight. Nabiki looked from her to Shampoo to Kodachi, and slowly began backing up stumbling to her feet. After that she took off again bringing her back to where she was now. Hiding in a dead end alley, breathing hard and bleeding from several cuts of near misses. She was curled up trying to look as small as possible when the three appeared at the entrance staring down at her with cold eyes.

"You guys are crazy, it was just a stupid date!" Nabiki screeched at a last attempt to talk some sense into them, but it fell onto deaf ears. Though through luck or design it was at that time that the wall behind her exploded as Ryoga and Ranma tumbled through on the ground between the girls.

"Come on Saotome stay still and let me punish you!" the lost boy growled as he through Ranma into on of the walls. The pig tailed boy looked quite the worse for wear, as did his opponent. They must've been at this for some time.

"Yeah right pig boy! Your really pissin' me off!" He shot back Knocking Ryoga to the ground with a quick combo of punches.

"Ranma!" Nabiki said, never happier to see him as she did right then. He looked up with perplexed look.

"Nabiki? What the hell are you doing out here?" He asked and then noticed the state of her. "What happened?" he moved to check if she was okay but had to lean out of the way as Ryoga kicked up and through the wall.

"You dare ignore me!" Ranma Grabbed the leg and twisted it and Ryoga into a painful hold.

"Quiet the adults are talking." He said in a condescending voice as the lost boy squirmed under him. He was about to ask again when something flashed out of the corner of his eyes. Nabiki flinched but nothing came she opened her eyes to see that Ranma hand caught Kodachi's ribbon between his fingers, stopping it just before it would have hit her.

"What's going on here?" He asked the gather girls in a calm tone. Ukyo squirmed under the gaze though Shampoo and Kodachi remained firm.

"That horrid woman has to die!" the gymnast said pulling on her ribbon to free it.

"Shampoo agree, she go too far." The amazon said calmly. Ukyo looked at the ground and said nothing.

"There isn't any reason to kill anyone, all we did was go to the movies." He explained as he added another joint lock to case Ryoga's wiggling.

"There was more than that…" Ukyo said quietly, "Wasn't there?" Ranma's thoughts went back to the kiss Did they here about that? He worried his face reddening slightly.

"I don't know what your talking about." Ranma said unconvincingly. He can't lie to save his life…or my life for that matter. Nabiki thought with a sigh.

"I knew it, There's no other choice." Kodachi yelled with nods from the other too. Ranma sweated as Kodachi took out another ribbon and the chef and amazon were poised the strike. Nabiki screamed and curled away from the oncoming weapons. Ranma cursed and rolled back kicking the tangled lost boy into the girls. He quickly gathered the middle Tendo up and launched up toward the roof tops. It took a few minutes for her to open her eyes and realize she was safe. She was silent for the trip, having never been carried through the air before It's like I'm flying… They finally came to a rest in the courtyard of a shrine. Ranma placed her down and took a seat across from her, catching his breath.

"You okay?" he asked between gasps, She nodded slowly.

"…Ranma…"

"Yeah?"

"You didn't ask Akane and your father never made you get the tickets." She said simply causing Ranma to stiffen. "So Why? Why did you take me out?"

"I just thought you'd like it…" he said with a shrug, Nabiki was confused. He took me out…Just cause he thought I'd like it. But why? It doesn't make sense. No one would do that for me…

"Bu…"

"That's strange…"

"What?"

"I have no idea where we are." Ranma said scratching the side of his head. Nabiki looked around, she didn't recognize this shrine either. "I guess in all the commotion with Ryoga and the girls I got us lost…"

"Idiot…"

Continued later…

A/N: Rightie another chapter flowed pretty quickly, I'm surprised at how quick this is coming to me. Now one my say that Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi were OOC. I agree, they were some more than others. But it was nessicary to advance the story that they REALLY overreact. It not only would put Nabiki off balance it would also help with moving the setting to where I wanted… the two lost somewhere. They'll be a large amount of Ranma/Nabiki stuff next chapter while the rest of the cast calms down, it should set the stage for the actual romance to start soon. The next part will come along when it does I won't rush it, I want the character interaction to be good.

I'd like to thank those who reviewed the last part and I hope you enjoy this one as well. Je ne!