Author Notes: Thank you everyone that read the first chapter and commented. I had way more readers than I expected. Please enjoy the next chapter, this is where the fun starts. :)
Last time: Akane and Ukyo decide they're tired of the whole
competition of the fiancées. They decide to get all the
fiancées together at Ucchans to talk things over.. Will it
end in a blood bath? Read on to find out.
"WITHOUT RANMA" Part Two
By Shikoku and Steel
Akane looked over at the clock that sat on her desk. 7:48 pm
She nodded to herself and continued rolling up her sleeping
bag. So far she'd managed to keep Ranma from suspecting
anything. He'd been too busy fighting Mousse, Ryoga AND Kuno
to notice anything was up. If only her luck would hold out
so she could sneak away without him catching her.
She shoved the sleeping bag into her backpack and closed it
tight. Standing, Akane slung the pack over her shoulder and
opened the window behind the desk. She climbed out the
window and onto the roof where she found the person she
LEAST wanted to see.
Ranma blinked when he saw her come up on the roof with him.
He had only been sitting here thinking a bit about his day
and the fights he had went through. He definitely hadn't
been expecting Akane. "Akane?" He noticed her bag. "Where
are you going?"
Akane swallowed. "Oh, just going over to a friend's house."
she answered casually. Inside she was far more nervous than
she appeared to be. She hoped she could get away without
making him suspicious.
"Through your window?" Ranma asked. He wasn't suspicious
yet, just confused.
"Uh.. yeah. I was.. um, practicing sneaking in and out of
places." Akane lied. "You know, like Ninja do." She REALLY
hoped he'd buy her pathetic excuse.
Ranma blinked, then shrugged. "Gee Akane, is your martial
arts skills THAT bad that ya even havta practice going
through a window?" He shook his head, smirking arrogantly.
"Next time just come to me, and I'LL show ya how it's done."
He grinned proudly at how nice he was being to his fiancee.
Akane's left eyebrow twitched as she felt the familiar
sensation of her anger flaring to life. "No thanks Ranma."
Akane tried not to snarl through her clenched teeth. She was
trying to control her anger; she had someplace to be and
couldn't let herself get... sidetracked. "I can handle it on
my own." she told him, then turned in the direction of
Ukyo's restaurant and hopped to the ground.
Ranma watched her leave. He wore a contemplative look on his
face, which was kind of unusual for Ranma, contemplating
that is. "Geesh.. she looked like she was going to hit me..
but didn't.." This was not like his fiancee. He wondered
what could have caused her to hold her temper like that...
Hopping off the roof, Ranma began to follow her to find out.
Akane quickly made her way to Ukyo's restaurant, unaware
that she was being followed. She knocked on the door and was
let in by the young chef.
"Anyone here yet?" she asked Ukyo, pulling her pack off her
back.
"Ooooh, yeah.. " Ukyo answered, "And they are ticked.."
The okonomiyaki chef led Akane to the corner of the dining
room, where all the tables had been cleared out sleeping
bags in their place. Sitting cross-legged on two sleeping
bags glaring at each other silently were Shampoo and
Kodachi. A light blue battle aura encircled both of them in
a familiar manner.
"Uh, hi.." Akane hesitantly greeted them.
Both girls turned as one and stared at her for a sec. Akane
was just starting to squirm a bit, when they both muttered a
greeting.
Ohhhh yeah, THIS is gunna go over well. Akane thought
sarcastically. She threw a 'this was YOUR idea' look at
Ukyo, then started pulling her sleeping bag out of her pack
to roll out on the floor..
Ukyo shrugged helplessly, but she too settled on the floor,
next to Kodachi. She took a second to look at her two ticked
off guests and the only skeptical one. She had no idea where
to begin. "Uhmmmmmm.." she started, but her guests beat her
to the punch.
"What you want talking, Spatula-Girl?" the beautiful
purple-haired Amazon asked. "You and Tomboy giving up on
Ranma?" By the look on her face, it was obvious she thought
that was too good to be true.
"Yes, Shampoo, I am." Akane answered before the chef could
say anything. "Ranma has made it abundantly clear that he
not only doesn't love me, but he can't even STAND me and I
refuse to marry someone who doesn't love me. The three of
you can have him, I've had it with this nonsense."
All three of them, even Ukyo gaped at her after that
announcement. None of them were sure how to respond to that,
not even sure whether to celebrate or to remain suspicious.
Akane was REALLY giving up on Ranma? Could ANYONE even DO
that?
Kodachi finally broke the silence by laughing her head off.
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOHO!"
"O...kay..." said Ukyo, blinking at Kodachi's reaction.
Shampoo leaned over and put her hand to Akane's forehead.
"You feeling ok, Akane?" she asked. "Hmmm.. no have fever,
you really serious?"
Akane batted the amazon's hand away from her head and
nodded. "I AM serious, Shampoo. Dead serious."
"You know, I really think she is.." Ukyo quietly backed
Akane up. "And I'm thinking of giving up on Ranchan, too."
she added.
(Outside, sitting on top of a garbage can and a wooden crate,
Ranma was suffering from a BAD case of jawdrop as he spied
on the girls through a window from the side alley. Not to
mention the painful feeling of his ego shattering..)
Back inside, everyone was now gaping at Ukyo, even Akane.
Kodachi started laughing louder.
"Hiya!" Shampoo exclaimed, quickly looking from Ukyo to
Akane and back. "What kind of disease you got? You can no be
serious!"
Ukyo nodded. "I really am. I mean, Akane's right. The four
of us chasing after Ranma is just stupid. I mean, he doesn't
seem to WANT to choose which of us to marry, and he doesn't
show any sign of ending this any time soon. Heck, it
wouldn't surprise me if he ENJOYS it. I for one, am tired of
sucking up to him just so he could choose me over you guys.
It's just pointless." With that she slumped down with her
arms crossed over her chest. "I'm not wasting any more of my
life waiting on that baka."
Shampoo looked close to fainting. Kodachi had fallen over
from laughing her head off. Akane put a hand on Ukyo's
shoulder and smiled in a reassuring manner.
Ukyo looked at Akane and smiled, grateful for her support.
Shampoo however was still trying to make sense out of
everything. "So you call us here to tell us, you no want
Ranma no more?"
Ukyo shrugged and nodded. "Pretty much, though we also
thought you two could stop chasing him too." This was the
hard part..
Kodachi scoffed. (She'd finally stopped laughing.) "I shall
NEVER give up on my Ranma-Darling!" she declared.
(In the alley you could practically HEAR Ranma's ego
swelling..It was quite a relief compared to the painful
stabs to his ego had been experiencing before. Even if it
WAS Kodachi that was saying it. He shivered and kept
listening..)
Shampoo looked suspicious again. "This your plan? Say you
give up Ranma, then make us give up Ranma, so you can chase
Ranma again with no competition, no?"
"Actually no." said Akane. "I've had it with that hentai
baka. I'm tired of him always calling me names and making
fun of me. You guys can HAVE him, I'm through with him for
good!"
Shampoo nodded, seeming to accept that. She had always
thought that Akane hadn't liked Ranma, so really this wasn't
too much of a surprise. But Ukyo on the other hand...
The brunette shook her head. "Part of me will always love
Ranma. I mean, he's been my best friend since I was five,
but I'm tired of being the aggressive one. If he wants to
marry me, HE can do the chasing for a while. As for now, I
think I'm gonna get back to doing what's important to me and
stop wasting my time on him. I mean, I can make Ucchans SO
much better if I wasn't always chasing after Ranma and
competing with you guys.." She took on almost a dreamy look
as she thought of all the improvements she was planning on
making..
She thought about how if she stopped giving free food to
Ranma (a.k.a. the Black Hole) she could save up the money
she'd been wasting to hopefully buy a bigger building and
maybe even some full time staff!
Shampoo meanwhile, looked like she had been punched in the
side when Ukyo started talking about better things.. She
realized with a guilty sigh that it really HAD been a long
time since she found time to hold a decent practice
session.. Her martial arts skills had been suffering a bit
since coming to Japan..
The purple haired beauty took a moment to think back on her
life in the village before she'd met Ranma. One of the
things the elders had drilled into her at an early age had
been that NOTHING should come between a warrior and her
training. Especially not a MAN. She wondered when she'd
forgotten that..
"Shampoo.. think you may be.. right.." she finally said in a
quiet voice.
"SAY WHAT?" the other three girls cried in shock.
(Outside, Ranma fell off of the wooden box he'd been sitting
on. Not Shampoo, too!)
Shampoo sighed. "You right. Shampoo can do much much more
better things than chase Ranma... but Shampoo NEED Ranma to
have strong children for future of amazon village." She
raised her chin stubbornly.
Ukyo sighed. "But Ranma's NOT the strongest guy out there.."
(Back outside, Ranma fell off the box again after he had
climbed back on it. Now they were insulting his fighting
skills?)
"It's true." Akane agreed. "There're a lot of guys out there
who're WAY stronger than Ranma. Saffron and Kirin come
readily to mind. The only reason Ranma beat them is because
of a fluke, not because he's stronger. He caught them off
guard, nothing more. If he hadn't caused the palace to get
flooded he NEVER would've beaten Kirin. If they fought
again, I'm sure Kirin would win." Having seen all of Ranma's
fights in person, Akane was quite knowledgeable in who could
and couldn't beat Ranma.
"And then there's Toma." Akane continued. "He and Ranma
didn't even really have an actual fight. They knocked blows
a couple times, then Toma was thrown from the coal car. That
was hardly what I'd consider a decisive battle." She shifted
her sitting position. "Come to think of it, MOST of Ranma's
battles have been rather anti-climatic and rather boring
when you get right down to it.."
Shampoo still looked a bit skeptical, but seemed to be
really thinking about this.
"He's beatable, Shampoo." Akane said, quietly. "I've done
it, Ukyo's done it, and even you've done it. All four of us has
when we were mad enough. Ranma can't beat us that way. His
greatest weakness is his fear of women. He refuses to fight
any of us, so when we ARE seriously ready to kill him, he
can't defend himself. If you drag him to a village of women
warriors expecting him to be the best, you're sadly
mistaken. Ranma's too arrogant to submit to any of us, and
he pays for it by our anger. I'd say at heart he's deeply
afraid of us."
Surprisingly, Kodachi had stayed silent through all of this.
Not surprisingly however, was that she was working on a slow
(make that quick) boil of anger that was going to explode..
and soon. Her anger was also evident on her face which was a
REAL bright red..
Shampoo meanwhile, sat quietly listening to everything that
Akane and Ukyo told her. Inside however she was fighting a
battle with herself. Half of her (the half that was Chinese
amazon, Cologne's heir) was shouting about all this
'blasphemy' she was hearing and urging her to kill them both.
However, the other side of her, which was just an ordinary
girl, knew exactly what she wanted and was willing to take
this opportunity to fight for it for once.
A few seconds passed, but for Shampoo it seemed like much
longer. Finally she visibly relaxed and wore the expression
of someone that had made up her mind.
"Shampoo no want Ranma anymore." She said in a relaxed
voice. It caught the other girl's attention and even
distracted Kodachi for a second.
(Ranma fell off his crate again.)
"You don't?" Ukyo said, a bit surprised that their arguments
had worked, but not quite yet believing. "Then what DO you
want?"
In answer to Ukyo's question, Shampoo leaned forward towards
Akane. Gently grabbing her face with both hands, Shampoo
kissed the youngest Tendo daughter on the lips. And it was
most definitely NOT the kiss of death..
Akane's eyes got REAL big as she watched Shampoo reaching
for her face. In the eight seconds it took for their lips to
make contact, her brain had turned from perfect working
order into utter chaos. Only one thought circled clear
through her mind: She didn't know whether to scream or
faint. What she actually did however, surprised EVERYONE,
especially herself! She kissed back.
Kodachi fainted. That is, after she made a few gagging
noises and almost had a heart attack.
Ukyo's eyes grew real big, and her mouth fell open in shock.
All she could do was stare as Shampoo kissed Akane.
(If Ranma had been on his crate he would have fallen off
AGAIN, but he had already torn down the street, fleeing from
an alley cat.. Good timing, ne?)
Several LONG seconds passed, which seemed like forever to
everyone (except Kodachi who was still unconscious) before
Shampoo and Akane finally parted. Both were panting slightly
from lack of oxygen..
The minute she got out the trance-like state she had been
in, Shampoo started blushing really badly. "Shampoo sorry."
She said, meekly. She released Akane's face, folding her
hands into her lap and staring down at them, embarrassed-like.
Akane blinked, several times, and inhaled deeply. That
was.. an interesting experience.. She'd never thought about
kissing a girl before.. It was odd how she wasn't repulsed
by it..
Ukyo picked her jaw up off the floor. She moved her mouth a
few times before sound came out. "Woah..."
Akane nodded. "Woah." she agreed, blushing.
The brunette turned toward Shampoo. "Uhm..." No other ways to
ask but to just come out with it, she mused. "What was that
for?" She was more curious than anything.
Shampoo managed to blush even more. She mumbled something
that wasn't quite audible.
"What was that?" Ukyo asked, straining to hear.
"Shampoo always liked Akane, okay?" Shampoo snapped back,
not having wanted to repeat herself. There. Her biggest
secret was finally out.
Akane blinked again. "Really?" she asked, shocked.
Almost ashamed, Shampoo nodded.
"Wow.." Ukyo said. This had certainly been the last thing
that she had expected from Shampoo.
Shampoo hesitated, but then added. "Is more.."
Ukyo and Akane were almost afraid to ask, but Shampoo looked
directly at Ukyo. "Shampoo like you, too."
"You're... you're kidding!" Ukyo said in shock.
Glumly, Shampoo nodded.
Akane was just staring, dumbfounded..
The brunette sat where she was, thinking. She glanced at
Akane, the image of Shampoo kissing the dark haired girl
still fresh in her mind. She shrugged suddenly and leaning
over, took Shampoo's face in her hands and kissed the
amazon.
It was almost a mirror image of the scene before. At first
Shampoo could only stare in wide-eyed disbelief as Ukyo
moved towards her in slow motion. She felt the blood in her
body start to pound, only to turn into an electric jolt when
Ukyo's lips met hers.
Shampoo closed her eyes and kissed back as her arms found
themselves circling Ukyo's waist.
Though she may have dressed and passed herself off as male,
Ukyo had never dreamed she'd ever kiss a girl, let alone
actually enjoy it. The kiss between her and Shampoo lasted
quite a bit longer than the one the amazon and Akane had
shared.
Of course, that's when Kodachi regained consciousness. And
what did she see? Ukyo kissing Shampoo as her arms slid back
from the purple haired girl's face to wrap around the
slender, strong shoulders.
A number of emotions and thoughts crossed through Kodachi's
mind.. First she was shocked to be seeing this..then she
thought she was going to faint again.. then she felt her
stomach lurch, and she KNEW she was going to throw up, and
Kodachi's revulsion filled her with anger. "You.. you..
HENTAIS!" She stammered before finally screeching the last
word.
Akane blinked. She'd been so busy staring at Ukyo and
Shampoo that she'd forgotten the other girl was there.
"Huh?" she said in an intelligent manner. Her eyes kept
flicking back to the pair that was still kissing in a
distracted manner.
Ukyo ignored Kodachi completely, being far too engrossed in
more important things than a yelling, narrow-minded nit-wit.
She pulled Shampoo closer and turned her head a bit to the
side to increase the contact..
As for the amazon, she was too caught up in Ukyo's kiss to
really notice (or care for that matter) what was going on
around her. She too, didn't pay Kodachi the slightest bit of
attention, but instead moved with Ukyo to intensify the
kiss.
But Kodachi was not to be ignored. (At least that was her
opinion). She wasn't done shrieking her mind yet. "How dare
you! You've taken a mind that was pure as the snows of the
first winter, and filled it with the site of your wicked,
WICKED acts. You are DIRTY! And you've contaminated me! I
will NEVER forgive you."
Akane was starting to fidget as she watched the two kissing
and she was paying less and less attention to the enraged
Kuno. "Uh... whatever..." she mumbled, not even looking at
Kodachi. The kiss Ukyo and Shampoo were sharing was
effecting her WAY more than she'd thought it would, and that
WASN'T a bad thing..
Shampoo and Ukyo meanwhile, managed to make the kiss even
MORE intense.
Kodachi's stomach finally got the better of her, and she had
to rush to Ukyo's bathroom, where she started losing her
lunch.. several times.
The other three didn't notice at all. Two of them were far
too gone in their mega-kissing and the other was completely
absorbed in watching. The whole world could've fallen out
from under them and they wouldn't have noticed. They seemed
too wrapped up in their own universe and the rest of humanity
no longer existed.
They didn't even notice when Kodachi came out of the
bathroom, ranted at them some more, then left.
The world didn't start again, until finally, after what
seemed like forever, Shampoo and Ukyo parted lips. (They had
finally run out of air.) In silence, the three girls sat
there panting, or at least Ukyo and Shampoo did, but ALL of
them looked like they had just stuck their fingers in a
light socket.
Ukyo finally broke the silence summing up everything with
one word. "wow.."
Shampoo nodded sagely. "Hiya..." she added.
"Oh yeah.." Akane added, speaking of both their experience
and her own.
Silence reigned again before Ukyo could ask her own
question. "How long..?" she asked Shampoo. "I mean, thought
like this?" she blushed, clarifying herself.
"Shampoo always thought like this," the purple beauty
shrugged.
Akane blinked. "Really? Wow.." Ukyo nodded in agreement.
"Why so surprised?" Shampoo asked, slightly confused.
"Well.." Akane started, slightly embarrassed. "It's just
that I've.. um.. never thought of girls as... well.. uhm..
kissable..." Major blushing going on here. Her head looked
like a tomato.
"Yeah.." Ukyo nodded, also blushing a deep red.
Shampoo didn't seem to notice their embarrassment. "Well,
Shampoo never thought kissing boys much good. Is more work
so amazon tribe no die out. Kissing girls much, MUCH
better."
Since Akane couldn't possibly get any redder or more
embarrassed, she thought about that statement. "Well.. come
to think of it.. I've.. um.. never actually kissed a guy..."
That one time while Ranma was under the Cat-Fist didn't
count, because one: he didn't even remember it, and two: it
was barely a peck. The one with Shampoo was a WHOLE lot more
than that. She would've blushed if she could have.
Ukyo nodded, also looking embarrassed. "Yeah, uh, neither
have I actually.." She wondered if kissing Ranma would be
anywhere near as good as kissing Shampoo had been..
"Shampoo kiss both boy-type AND girl-type Ranma, but prefer
Girl Ranma."
That would explain why she never seems to care what form
Ranma is in when she glomps him. Akane mentally noted.
The brunette suddenly took on a curious expression. "Uhm..
Does your great-grandmother about this?" she asked, making a
gesture with one hand that signified she was talking about
Shampoo liking kissing girls.
Shampoo nodded. "Oh, yes, Great-Grandmother know."
"Uh, does she..ur.. mind?" Ukyo couldn't believe she was
talking about this.
Shampoo looked confused. "Why she mind? Is very common in
village only few amazons prefer Man to Woman."
Akane's jaw hit the ground. "You're kidding!" That was..
quite a concept..
Ukyo looked surprised, too. She never would have guessed
this.
"Amazons believe females better than males, why so surprised
that they want to make life mate with gender they find much
better?"
"You have a point.." Akane conceded.
"Yeah.." Ukyo agreed, wondering how on earth this COULD make
so much sense. "So what's with Ranma and Mousse?" she asked,
bringing up the two men in Shampoo's life.
Shampoo snorted, crossing her arms. "Shampoo just chase
Ranma for future of Village. Need strong children, so need
strong man. Plus.. Shampoo like girl-type." she shrugged.
"Mousse just stupid duck."
"Does Mousse, uh, know..?" Ukyo still couldn't say it.
Shampoo sighed. "He know. Is why he have long hair and wear
robe like dress. He hope if act feminine he win Shampoo
over, but Shampoo know underneath he just stupid male.
Shampoo try tell Mousse that she no like him, and no CAN
like him, but he too stubborn." She shook her head. "He
still hope he make Shampoo like boys."
Akane nodded, absorbing this information. A part of her
mind stepped back from this scene and thought about it. It
definitely was NOT what she'd been expecting to happen when
she'd pictured it earlier that day. For one thing, there'd
been a lot less violence. She really hadn't been expecting
to actually sit down and TALK. The image she'd had in her
mind had her fighting for her life, which she was most
certainly NOT doing..
Ukyo meanwhile, was absorbing this information as well,
though in her case, she was thinking more about what Shampoo
had been saying. Who would have guessed things would turn
out this way? Ukyo hadn't the slightest idea on what to do
about it.
Shampoo however, was just quietly waiting to see what Akane
and Ukyo would do with her.
"Now what...?" Akane muttered softly to herself. She
glanced sidelong at Ukyo and suddenly the image of the
brunette and Shampoo kissing flashed through her mind. She
blushed and looked at her hands that were clasped in her
lap.
Ukyo sighed.. "Well, I guess there IS one thing TO do.."
she said slowly, as if she wasn't sure if the two other
girls would like what she was about to say.
"What?" They both looked at Ukyo expectantly.
"Well, everything that's happened tonight got me thinking..
I have to find out something.." She hesitated, blushing a
bit again. "Oh what the hell, I'll just do it!"
And before she knew what was happening, Akane found herself
once again being kissed by a girl, but this time it was by
Ukyo..
"MMmph!" Akane said in shock, but it was more from the
electric jolting sensation that shot through her body than
from surprise of being kissed. She readily kissed back. Her
arms quickly went around Ukyo's neck, pulling the brunette
close as her eyes went shut. She remembered how good Ukyo's
kiss with Shampoo had looked and she wanted that.
Shampoo looked on, dumbfounded. She didn't know whether to
be amused or jealous.
Ukyo, meanwhile was enjoying kissing Akane. Ukyo's own eyes
had shut and one arm was around Akane's waist while the
other circled Akane's shoulders and was playing with her
short bluish-black hair. She rumbled her pleasure as Akane's
grip on her tightened, and her own hold on Akane tightened
somewhat.
In her mind, she came to the conclusion that she liked
this.. REALLY liked this.. And not just kissing Akane,
either, she had as much pleasure out of kissing Shampoo. The
thought made her giddy, and she didn't know if she was going
to burst out laughing or throw up. All she knew was that
life for her would never be what they call 'normal' again.
Some small part of Akane's mind was jumping around screaming
at her that what she was doing
was just INSANE! She wasn't this way! She shouldn't be
kissing a girl! And she REALLY shouldn't be ENJOYING it!
Another part of her mind popped up and made the argument
that kissing Ukyo COULDN'T be wrong cuz it felt just so darn
RIGHT. And while the two parts bantered back and forth,
Akane's conscious mind ignored EVERYTHING in her mind except
one thought. This was GOOD.
Shampoo was feeling the opposite feelings of Ukyo and Akane.
Instead of feeling weighted down or confused, for the first
time since coming to Japan, Shampoo finally felt at ease
with herself. She was so glad she finally told someone the
truth about herself and it was even better that neither of
them despised her for it. Shampoo felt the first glimpse of
hope that maybe, just maybe, she would finally have some
friends in Nerima.. and she was happy.
Shampoo would worry about the problems that would be the
result of her confession later..
TO BE CONTINUED...