I'll just say this, I love Gosunkugi and I got to use one of my favorite manga moments. So Enjoy:)
Spatulas and Bandannas by Shikoku
Chapter Nine: Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens...
"Oh, no... No way, there's no way you're gonna talk me into this. Nuh, uh!"
Ryoga sighed. "C'omon, There's nobody else who could do this. You're Furinkan's only hope. Don't you want to make our school proud?"
"No," she said quickly and stubbornly. "There's no way, I don't have enough time to learn this! I'd just look stupid."
"I'm gonna teach you everything you need to know. You're a very fast learner. It won't take long at all, and you'll do great."
"But.."
"What about Akane? Are you really gonna let her down? She's been working so hard for this, if you won it'd be almost like she had. Couldn't you do it just for her?"
She sighed, finally having been beaten. "Fine, I'll do it, but if Kuno so much as looks at me, while I'm wearing this thing, I'm taking it out on you, ya jackass."
Ryoga nodded, as he watched Ukyo take the leotard and left to change.
From behind him, Ranma, who happened to be in her girl form, sighed in relief. "I'm glad you finally talked her into it. There's no way I'd be caught dead in public wearing that."
Ryoga just smirked. "Oh, that's okay, I figured Ukyo'd be a better gymnast than you anyway."
Ranma scowled at him. "You take that back, Ryoga!"
"Why should I?"
Ranma tried to kick at Ryoga, but the bandana-wearing boy dodged. "That's why, ya stupid jerk. I would too make a good gymnast."
"I don't know," Ryoga said, innocently as he continued to dodge Ranma's punches.
"Would too, would too, would too!" Ranma cried.
"Would what?" Akane asked as she entered the dojo. Her ankle had been bandaged, and she was forced to use crutches. But her ankle should be all better in a couple of days. However, her bruised ego and disappointment about missing the match would take longer to heal.
"Ranma wants to be a gymnast all of a sudden." Ryoga explained.
"And I'd make a good one, to boot." Ranma added, smugly.
Akane merely looked at her skepticly. "I don't know... with a load like that I doubt you'd even make it over the uneven bars..."
Ryoga burst out laughing, but Ranma gazed at her, not quite understanding. "What do you mean by that..." Then she looked down at her bowling ball sized chest and answered her own question. "Oh," She said, blushing a little.
Akane joined in Ryoga's laughter, and Ranma grew angry. "Hey, at least I got some, Akane! You wouldn't have a descent figure, even if you could combine them."
Akane slapped him. "You... jerk," She finished, not being able to think of a worse thing to call him. She then burst out crying and ran out of the dojo.
Ranma gazed after her stunned. Her hand print still engraved in red on her face. Suddenly an elbow clobbered her from above. Ranma looked up to see Ryoga, looking ticked off.
"Ooh, you really did it this time, Ranma." He growled. "How could you say something like that?"
Ranma stuttered not sure what to say, whether to yell, apologize, or just hit the stupid pig-boy back. But he was right. She had gone too far. "What should I do?"
"Talk to her, apologize." Ryoga ordered, softly.
Ranma nodded and left the dojo.
"What was that all about?" A voice asked from behind him. Ryoga turned and gasped. Ukyo was dressed in a leotard all right, a tight dark green one that showed off her figure and highlighted her green eyes. Her rich brown hair was pulled back in a tight frenchbraid the end was draped over her shoulder. Ryoga instinctively covered his nose, again.
Ukyo shook her head in amusement. "Now don't start with this Ryo-chan. How are you gonna train me, if you can't even use both hands.?"
Hesitantly, Ryoga uncovered his nose.
Ukyo smiled. "Good, now where do we begin?"
Ryoga picked up the ribbon. "Here's the ribbon..."
Girl-type Ranma finally found Akane on the bridge, that she had favored. The black haired girl was standing, slightly leaning on her crutches, gazing out at the river. Her pajamas and long bluish black hair were gently being tousled in the wind.
Ranma stopped not sure what to do next. She was panting a bit from her running. How Akane managed to run to this bridge so fast with crutches was beyond her. Not knowing anything else to do, she hesitantly approached the silent girl. "Uh, Hi," She said softly.
"Hi," Akane said back, in a dead voice, neither sad nor angry. She didn't even turn to look at her. This silent, uncaring Akane frightened Ranma much more than an angry Akane any day.
"Uh, Akane... I'm uh, sorry..." She stumbled over the words, sighing in relief after she finally said what she had came to say.
"It's okay, Ranma.." Akane answered, still not looking at her."
Ranma began to feel afraid. "Of course, it's not okay, Akane. I was acting like a real jerk." Akane still didn't seem to be listening to her, so Ranma grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to face her. "I'm sorry," She whispered, shocked to see Akane's tear stained face and the sadness in her beautiful brown eyes. More than anything Ranma wanted to make her smile again... She was so cute when she smiled.. "Really sorry..."
Akane sighed. "Do you really mean that Ranma...?"
Ranma nodded. "I do. I'm sorry, Akane. I sometimes don't know why I say things like that..."
"Let's not talk about it, anymore," Akane murmured, softly. The two continued to stare into each other's eyes. Both weren't sure what to say or do now. They were both worried that if they did say something the moment would be ruined. But it was destined to be ruined, anyway.
"Die!" Ranma managed to dodge just as a giant sword came down between herself and Akane. Ranma looked up to see Shampoo.
The Chinese girl glared at her. "Girl-type Ranma, I kill!"
Ranma eeped and began to once again run for her life with the purple-haired girl right on her heels. Leaving Akane to sigh and shake her head sadly, they had been so close...
But soon another Nerimian night was over awakening another day full of possibilities. Oh, what weirdness will befall us this morning? the native Nerimians thought as they opened their shops and started their days. Of course, how weird the day would be depended on the local martial artists...
Akane yawned as she stretched, lazily getting out of bed. Last night had been a good sleep and already she could feel her ankle heeling, as well as her hurt feelings. That Ranma. How could someone be so frustrating even to the point where you'd gladly kill him and hide the body one minute, then turn around and be so sweet and caring? Akane shook her head. She had given up trying to figure that one out long ago.
Instead she got dressed and went downstairs. As she passed Ranma's room, she wondered briefly if he had ever gotten home alright, but thought it better not to intrude on him just yet. Instead she had better see how Ryoga and Ukyo were fairing.
She was surprised to see that her friends weren't at the breakfast table. She had thought for sure that they would have been up by now. Maybe they're still in the dojo... She thought and went to check.
She wished she hadn't. The dojo looked as if a hurricane had blown through it. Gymnastic equipment was strewn about everywhere, and in the middle of it all lay Ryoga and Ukyo both asleep. Ukyo having been sprawled out on her back with her head resting on Ryoga's shoulder. Ryoga didn't seem to notice, as he snored lightly before rolling over to let poor Ukyo's head hit the floor.
"Owe," Ukyo moaned, rubbing her head, before whapping the still sleeping boy.
He abruptly sat up. "What'd you do that for?" But he sounded too tired to be threatening.
She shrugged. "I don't know it just felt right." She broke out in a huge yawn.
Akane cleared her throat. Normally she would have found their behavior amusing, but they had a gymnastics match that was only an hour and a half away. And both the trainer and her stand in were half alive. "You guys didn't stay up all night did you?"
Ryoga blinked dully. "No... not all night..." He said, sleepily.
Akane sighed in relief.
"Yeah," Ukyo nodded. "We been asleep for at least thirty minutes."
Akane facefaulted. They were doomed.
"What dost thou desire of me?" The great Tatewaki Kuno asked the lowly Gosunkugi, regally. It was the day his twisted sister was to fight the beauteous Akane Tendo and this... weakling had asked to speak with him. Now they were in front of Kodachi's school a couple of minutes before she was due to fight.
Gosunkugi trembled a little from Kuno's presence. "It's about Saotome and Hibiki's weakness..."
At that, Kuno became excited. He grabbed Gosunkugi's collar. "Speak, man. What hast thou discovered about the vile sorcerers?"
Suddenly, a heavy weight landed on the upperclassman's head. He looked up to see that it was Ranma Saotome himself. Behind him came Ryoga Hibiki. "Do you mind?" Kuno growled, trying to swat at the pest. But Ranma managed to evade each blow without even moving.
Ignoring Kuno and Ranma, Ryoga glanced at Gosunkugi. "We got your note."
"What note?" Kuno asked, still trying to get Ranma off of him.
"Oh, I called them here, Upperclassman Kuno." Gosunkugi explained. To confirm this Ranma showed Kuno the note:
Saotome and Hibiki,
Meet us on top of Upperclassman Kuno's head at
St. Herebreke High before the match.
Signed, Gosunkugi and Sasuke
"Only we both couldn't fit on top of your head at the same time," Ranma added.
Kuno looked at the voodoo practicing boy, rather calmly considering. "And why on top of my head?"
"It'd be easier to discover their secret weaknesses if they were together at one spot." Gosunkugi explained. He then pulled out a cardboard box with "Scary Stuff" written on it in black magic marker He proceeded to throw the box's contents at the three martial artists. Ranma, Kuno, and Ryoga were showered with snakes, spiders, mice, worms, and gerbils.
Although Kuno passed out in fright, Ranma and Ryoga merely looked bored, "Sooo, you've been trying to discover our weaknesses, huh?" Ranma asked.
Ryoga looked thoughtful, "Well...that would explain this." He pulled Sasuke out of the bushes who was holding a videocamera and microphone. Sasuke laughed, nervously, having been caught.
Ranma shook his head. "Come on, we're martial artists. We ain't afraid of nothing."
Immediately, Kuno was back up again. "You lie! Even I the "Blue Thunder" is deathly afraid of these things!" He shoved an armful of the scary stuff into their faces.
Ryoga shook his head. "Sorry," and the two began to walk away, eager to get good seats for Ukyo's fight.
Kuno glared at Gosunkugi and Sasuke, before following them... and falling into a pit.
"Oops," Sasuke murmured. "We forgot about that. Sorry, Master Kuno."
"And what is a pit doing at my sister's school?" Kuno asked, not sure if he wanted to know. Slowly, he crawled out of the deep hole.
Gosunkugi answered for Sasuke. "We wanted to see if Saotome and Hibiki were afraid of falling."
For a minute, Kuno looked ready to strangle them, but he managed to compose himself. "Go and find out their weaknesses and don't come back until you actually have it!"
Gosunkugi and Sasuke ran.
"The nerve of those guys, thinking we have weakness." Ranma shook his head, indignantly.
"Weakness." Ryoga snorted. "Yeah, right. Two able guys like us, we're afraid of nothing.
Suddenly, a high-pitched voice filled the air. "Nihao!"
"Sh- Sha- Shampoo!" Both Ranma and Ryoga gasped at the same time.
Ranma was about to run, but then he remembered something. "Oh, wait, I'm not a girl right now, but boy are you in trouble."
Ryoga momentarily turned to glare at him, before the bubbly amazon glomped him.
Immediately, Ryoga's nose started throbbing. Oh, man...
Shampoo hugged him tightly and looked up at him cutely with her wine-colored eyes. "Ryoga take Shampoo on date?" She asked, hopefully.
Ryoga quickly freaked out and tried to pry her loose before Ukyo could see this. "N-No! I have to watch Ukyo's match, that's it! Uh, can you let go of me...?"
Ranma shook his head. "Pathetic, really..."
"I'd like to see you do better!" Ryoga shouted at the pig-
tailed martial artist before a curtain of cold water was
pored down his back.
"Oops," A girl from an above window gasped. "Sorry about that, didn't see you." She shut the window and left.
Ranma shook his head wandering how this always managed to happen. He turned and to his surprise saw that not only had Ryoga shrunk down in his clothing, but Shampoo had too. Shampoo's cursed, too? He reached down to lift a corner of Shampoo's discarded Chinese blouse. There he saw it... The most horrifying thing imaginable... just the sight of it gave him goosebumps... and he just knew he was gonna be having nightmares tonight...
What he saw was a cute pink cat. "Meow?" Shampoo-cat said,
cutely.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH"
Ranma screamed before running like his life depended on it.
Shampoo eyed him curiously before following after.
Meanwhile, P-chan managed to wiggle out of his clothing and saw Ranma's retreating form. I wonder what's the matter with him...? Quickly, he too, chased after him. He couldn't get separated from Ranma. He might get lost and miss seeing Ukyo's match. Then Ukyo'd kill him.
Sasuke and Gosunkugi sighed as they both sat discouraged on a nearby park bench.
"We'll never discover their weaknesses," Sasuke sighed.
"Yeah, I mean it's not just gonna walk right by us..." Gosunkugi added.
"AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"What was that?" The two asked each other at the same time.
Suddenly, A half-crazed Ranma ran by screaming his head off with a cat and a pig after him. "That's it!" Gosunkugi cried, standing up. "Are you pondering what I'm pondering."
"I think so, but Mistress Kodachi really doesn't look good in yellow."
Gosunkugi wondered briefly why he had this impulse to bonk the ninja on the head, but he shook that feeling off as just too much WB. "I think we finally figured out Ranma's secret weakness..."
"Oooh," Sasuke nodded.. "Right, let's go!"
Laughing evilly, the two ran off to begin thinking up a plan..
Shampoo-cat licked a paw, as she stared disinterestingly, at the prone Ranma .He had finally stopped running after running into that tree. What's the matter with him anyway? The cat turned amazon wondered. "Stupid boy" She meowed.
Suddenly, a shadow covered her, and she looked up to see the scariest sight ever to cross her eyes.
"You are just what I need.." A shrill voice cackled..
And a hand reached down and grabbed the cat by the back of the neck.
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!..."
Next time on Spatulas and Bandannas, What does the
Mysterious stranger (Yeah right) have planned? Now that
Sasuke and Gosunkugi know Ranma's weakness what are they
going to do about it?
Find out in chapter ten.
All characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi!