Ranma ½ Live Cosplay!

Chapter 4: New Plans

(Back in Ranma's Dimension, the next day)

Kuno was looking very smug as he walked onto the school grounds with his new sword and as he stepped through the gates, everyone got silent and looked at him. He knew that the reason for their awe was because of the very fact that he had finally done what he'd been saying all along that he'd do. He had defeated Ranma Saotome, and while sure he had sent his love Akane with the foul cur, Ranma. He figured that all he had to do was wait and his pig-tailed goddess would hear of what he'd done and show up to become his woman.

What Kuno did not know was that with both Ranma and Akane gone, there was an empty space in the structure of the school. A space that, like all things in their area, hated to leave empty and the entire school body was going to see to it that the space was filled for sure. There would be guys trying to fill Ranma's spot and take on Kuno but only a few handfuls would dare risk being banished by Kuno's sword.

There was a problem with Akane's most desirable girl in the school slot as well, and every girl was going to try for it. Only one thing stood in their way, Nabiki. Nabiki had the inside dirt on almost every girl in the school and could potentially make their vive for the spot very, very difficult with the boys of the school.

Nabiki on the other hand didn't really care about what the other girls wanted. She figured that Akane would take care of her spot if she wanted it back at all, not that she had really wanted it in the first place because all it ever did was turn her into a boy-hating girl and made things very difficult for Ranma to handle being her fiancé.

Nabiki was usually able to turn Ranma's disadvantages to a nice, tidy sum for her and that suited her fine. She had always planned on doing it only until Ranma owned up and finally married her sister since she could tell that they really liked each other. However if Ranma had married someone other than Akane, well… she had her ways to continue making things difficult for Ranma unless Akane didn't want that to happen.

Nabiki was standing at her window, staring at Kuno who was brandishing his new sword like it was a toy as he shouted loudly for all challengers to come at him and bragged about having defeated the evil Ranma Saotome.

Nabiki didn't care about Kuno's posturing but she DID care about getting her sister back, and she supposed having Ranma back as well would be a bonus as well. She could always charge Ranma for the rescue, she supposed but she didn't feel like it. Even though Ranma could be a jerk at times, he was actually a pretty nice and decent guy who was a easy target for her to get money off with the only exception being Kuno as he was the most stupid guy she knew.

Nabiki was silently mulling over all this when one of her cohorts, which was the closest thing to having a friend in the school, started to call her name to bring her back into class. With one final look at Kuno as he dashed into the building just as the bell started to ring to which she hoped he would be late to class for. She knew one thing was for sure; she was going to raise her prices sharply until Kuno came back for any pictures of Akane that she still had left to sell.

(Back at the Cosplay Club, also the next day)

Jasmine walks in first followed by Alice, then Akane with Pepper down on the first floor getting some stuff out of a machine.

Ranma was sleeping on a make shift bed since he couldn't go home with the girls last night because they all lived in a girl's dorm on the school's property. He looked like he usually did in the videos from whenever he slept, which needless to say was a leg sticking out of the covers, head tilted to the side and hair a little bit of a mess with his trademark ponytail still perfectly tied up behind him.

Jasmine and Alice smile as they look at Ranma sleeping, which gets Akane's green-eyed monster of jealousy raring as she thought that they might like-like Ranma and the last thing she wanted was Ranma to end up with fiancée's for her to deal with in this dimension!

Jasmine says, "Look at that, it is just like in the anime! This is still very strange to me. Seeing one of our favorite anime characters come to life and end up sleeping on our clubhouse floor." With Alice agreeing as she nods.

Akane was never one to hide her anger and says with it clearly in her voice, "You guys know that I'm in the room too, don't you?" with her eyes staring hard at them and her hands closing up into fists. Even her own battle aura was starting to flicker around her body.

Both Jasmine and Alice gulp as they remember what she'd done to Ranma and their clubhouse door. The very last thing they wanted was to be sent flying through a super-strong punch of Akane's. They also thought their chances of surviving unharmed were a lot lower than Ranma's and they didn't want to kiss their cosplay careers goodbye quite yet.

Jasmine says, "C-calm down Akane! I didn't mean anything by it!" Alice joined in and says, "Yeah! We were just admiring how your guy, Ranma looked just he did on video!"

Just then Ranma wakes up and says, "Hey guys, Hi Akane… G'morning" noticing her battle aura he gets up to his feet and says, "Are you all set for our morning sparring already?"

Akane turns away from Jasmine and Alice as she yells, "Yeah! And don't expect me to go easy on you Ranma!" With Ranma smiling as he says, "Don't worry Akane, I never expect you to go easy on me."

Akane yells at Ranma as if he'd just said the wrong thing and starts her attack. Ranma on the other hand was calm and confident looking, which looked totally opposite to how Akane looked at that moment.

Neither Jasmine or Alice could tear their eyes away as Ranma seemed to so very casually avoid every punch or kick that Akane threw at him as if he was walking through the street and stepping around someone that was in his way. They both had trouble following how fast Akane's hands were going after Ranma and they knew that given how angry she could be, a single punch from her would knock Ranma through the wall easily.

Eventually Ranma started to block her punches but he appeared to do so gently as if blocking her punches was as easy as closing a book to him. Both Jasmine and Alice couldn't believe what they saw, even though they'd seen it on their TV screens before.

Ranma says, "You're doing good Akane. I think you're actually trying to hit me today." And seems a little surprised when Akane growls, "I AM trying to hit you!"

Akane directs a punch at Ranma's face to which he dodges easily and then reaches out to push her at her forehead, sending her backwards onto her rear. She looks up at him with a surprised look on her face before there is a sound behind her that sounds like clapping.

Everyone looks at the clapper and it turns out to be Pepper, who had come through the door during all the fighting with some instant ramen sitting on the table in front of her. Pepper says, "Bravo! What an incredible fight you two! After seeing you two fight each other for real, has made me have a whole new appreciation for your show! No wonder the two of you can kick the ass out of all your opponents."

Akane stands up and lightly blushes under the compliment and says, "Thanks Pepper! I still have a long way to go before I'm anywhere near Ranma's speed though."

Pepper shakes her head and says, "Don't worry about it Akane, your strengths compliment Ranma's perfectly and together you make a damn near invincible team." She picks up a instant ramen cup and tosses it at Ranma, then another at Akane with the two of them easily catching it even as she says, "Now come on and lets eat up. We've got a busy day ahead of ourselves if we're going to get ready in time for the cosplay contest."

As Ranma and Akane walk towards the table, Pepper pours some water into a kettle in the small kitchen area that was really just a sectioned area of the club which had a mini-fridge that held various things for eating or drinking, a electric portable stove top, a microwave and a few various other things one might need to cook or make small, single person meals with.

Pepper puts the kettle on top of the stove and turns it on, leaving it on high so that it'll boil the water faster and while that happens, Ranma, Akane, Jasmine, and Alice sit down at the small rectangular table with their flimsy metal chairs that had padding on only the seat part. Once the water in the kettle heats up, Pepper retrieves it and turns off the stove before walks around and pours water into everyone's instant ramen cups including her own.

Ranma says, "Thanks for the Ramen, Pepper." To which Pepper says, "You're welcome Ranma." And then she eats some of her ramen.

Akane still had a smidgen of jealousy running through her from when Jasmine and Alice had admired the way Ranma was sleeping says, "All she did was boil us some water Ranma, even I can do that."

Ranma says without thinking, "Yeah, but I can remember when you couldn't even do that right." His eyes go wide for a second as he realizes what he just said and Akane growls, "I can't believe you just said that!"

Pepper says, "Akane, if you smash Ranma through anything, it is coming out of YOUR share of the prize money to Japan." Which gets the reaction she wanted, a stopped in mid-throw punch at Ranma.

Akane says, "What! But you heard what Ranma said! You can't do that!"

Pepper says, "I can, I'm the financial person for this group. I make all the decisions for where and how all the money is spent." She doesn't even look at Akane as she says that, preferring to use her fork to get ready another bite of ramen from her cup.

She then says, "Besides, in both the show and the manga, Ranma was always saying things first with his mouth and thinking second but at least he always told it like how it was which just showed his honesty. Personally, I always liked the fact that he was always very honest and straightforward with the people he cared about."

Akane lowered her fist, which Ranma looked relieved to see, as she seemed to think over Pepper's words. She had to admit, while Ranma did often say such thoughtless things at the wrong time, they always had been the truth.

Ranma had not liked what Pepper said about being so honest and straightforward with the people he cared about, since he was a martial artist and all. But then, he couldn't argue since he also knew that she and the other girls had watched and read all about his life as it had unfolded from the moment he'd met Akane up to when they had tried to get married.

Jasmine and Alice had continued to eat their ramen in silence, thinking that Pepper had far more guts than they did in stopping the fight between Akane and Ranma considering that she knew just how strong Akane was. The fact that Pepper had seemed so cool during it, totally blew them both away even though she'd shown her coolness under fire in other situations when their club was in trouble financially and while they panicked, she would come up with ways for them to make money.

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence as Akane thought about what Pepper said and Ranma was just plain hungry so he ate everything that was put in front of him with his usual zest for food that came with being a Saotome. Jasmine and Alice didn't want to start anything so they just ate in silence as well while Pepper finished her ramen and then went over to the mini-fridge where she got a juice pack from it.

Once that was done, Jasmine, Alice and Pepper discussed with Ranma and Akane their plans for the contest with a couple ideas of how to "WOW" everyone. One of the ideas was to have a show of their martial arts first off to warm them up and then show off Akane's great strength by having her do something no other ordinary girl her size could possibly pull off.

Akane wasn't too happy with one of their ideas at first but reluctantly agreed that it would wow them and make them wonder how they did it since it was supposed to be pretend.

Ranma still didn't like the idea of using his curse as a way to entertain people and wanted to show off some his flashier martial art skills to wow them instead such as the trick in which he could create a brief tornado or for indoors, he'd simply snatch chestnuts from a fire which the girls mentioned was one of his most well known moves. The girls reluctantly agree that they'd do the water-splashing trick as only a last resort in case they failed to wow them, enough which seemed to put Ranma at ease with the whole cosplay thing.

AN: Well, it has been some since I've done a new Ranma chapter. I apologize for that, I've kinda put this one on the back burner as I did all those other stories. I plan to get back to some of my other old stories and updating them as well before I forget what I even had planned for them. LOL! Anyway, as you can all see, Ranma and Akane are still very much the same even in another dimension while their friends and family miss them both a lot. As for what I have planned for Kuno, you'll just have to wait and see but trust me... it'll be good and it will make him wish he'd never defeated Ranma. I'm sure the fans of Ranma 1/2 know what the moves are called to which Ranma was thinking about doing but in case there are some who don't know all of his moves, I thought I'd describe them. :)

steven: Thanks for the review and sorry about the long wait for the latest chapter. So enjoy! Oh, and just curious... why do you want Ukyo as a gf? Because she can cook so well?

Motokonobaka: As for any other characters being pulled out of dimensions... you'll have to wait and see. I'll try to update again before another year passes, lol!

ruzelle: Thanks for the review, and yes there will be more chapters until I finish this story! I may sometimes put them on the back burner while I do one of my many /18 posted at last count I think\ stories but I plan on finishing each and every one of them!