Chapter 13 Ukyo Moves Out
Nabiki was in her room working on her ledger as she normally did every Friday night. She noticed that several of her accounts were becoming due, so she made a mental note to visit those people who owed her money to encourage them to bring their payments current. She was pleased with the state of the family finances. Even though she had curtailed her sale of photographs of Akane and Ranma, the amount of money they were bringing in teaching students on the weekend had more than offset that. She had cleaned up nicely at the Martial Arts Gymnastic Meet and all of her other operations were also showing a nice profit. Her college fund was growing nicely, and she had established new college funds for both Kasumi and Akane as well. Overall, she was even in a position to make some more investments.
Ukyo knocked on her doorframe to get her attention. Nabiki closed her ledger and motioned for Ukyo to come in. Ukyo hesitated, and then said, "Nabiki, I need your help. I appreciate your family allowing me to stay these last few days, but now that Ranma's mother has moved in, I thought that I ought to find a new place to live. I can't stay here forever after all. What I was wondering is do you know of any locations where I might be able to open a restaurant? One that has its own living space?"
Nabiki thought for a moment. "I think I know of a pretty good spot. There used to be a restaurant there once before, and if I recall correctly, it had a small apartment above it. I know the owner, as well; he owes me a few favors. I can get a good price for the lease. What's my help worth to you?"
"I think we can come to an agreement on a percentage of the profits," Ukyo said, "I don't think I can spare any of the cash I have. I will need a lot of it to get the restaurant up and running after all."
Ukyo and Nabiki spent the next several minutes haggling about how much Nabiki's help was going to cost, but they eventually came to an agreement. Nabiki thought she wasn't getting enough; Ukyo thought she was paying too much. That meant it was a good deal. Nabiki said, "I'll call the owner and set up a time to see the storefront tomorrow. If you like it, we can close on the lease and I'll start arranging for all of the permits you'll need. If we need one, I'll set up a crew of people to come over and help set up the place as well. I'll consider part of my contribution, okay?"
"Sound's good, partner. Thanks for the help. Ranma-honey was right when he said to come to you," Ukyo said. She smiled and left.
Early the next afternoon, after class was over, Ukyo and Nabiki met the property owner at the storefront. After bowing politely to each other and making introductions, they went in to check the place out. The downstairs area was actually in pretty good shape. There was plenty of room for Ukyo to install her grill, there were several sets of tables and chairs and a dozen booths. There was a back room that obviously had been the original kitchen. It had several sinks, and counters for food preparation, and all of the appliances appeared to be working and in good shape. Also, there were two small restrooms on the first floor. There was a small staircase, hiding behind a tattered curtain. They went up the stairs and found that they ended in a small landing with a door. Opening the door they found a small living room, with windows overlooking the street. There were also two doors, both of them open. One door obviously led into a bathroom, while the second opened up into what was supposed to be the bedroom. The bedroom windows overlooked the back of the property, and the light shining in through the windows flooded both the bedroom and living room. While the rooms had been vacant for some time, a thorough cleaning appeared to be the only thing they needed to be made livable. Ukyo nodded to Nabiki, very pleased with what she had seen. Nabiki began negotiating the lease price with the owner; after a surprisingly short time, Nabiki declared herself satisfied and pulled out a lease agreement. She wrote in the amount they had agreed to, and signed the papers. After the lease was signed, the owner handed the keys to Ukyo, bowed again and left.
"I'm glad you were on my side, Nabiki," Ukyo said with a smile, "I guess there's no reason why I can't clean this place up and move in here tomorrow."
"I'll get a crew over here to help as well. I have a locksmith that will come by and change out the locks as well. There's a few pieces of furniture up in the dojo attic that you can have until you can get some stuff of your own. I'm pretty sure there's a least a futon and a dresser up there," Nabiki said, "Knowing Ranma, if you promise to feed him, he'll bring them over." They both laughed at that, knowing Ranma's appetite. Then she went on, "I'll catch you later tonight; right now I'll go get the permit process started. I have a clerk at city hall that will do most anything for me." With that, Nabiki left, leaving Ukyo to survey her new domain. Ukyo had noticed a broom and some cleaning supplies downstairs in the kitchen, so she went down and brought them up. She started out by getting rid of the few cobwebs she had found, and then sweeping out all of the dust from the hardwood floors. About two hours later, Ukyo was satisfied with the apartment. The floors were clean; the windows were sparkling. The small amount of accumulated trash had been disposed of. All she needed now was some furniture and it was ready for her to move in. By that time, a small group of students from Furinkan High had shown up, looking for work. She had them start cleaning the downstairs area. With as many people as Nabiki had sent, it wasn't long until the downstairs was as spotless as the upstairs. The floors were mopped and polished, the tables, chairs and booths were clean and shiny and the windows were sparkling clean. The locksmith had come and gone so all that was left was to put in the grill, stock some supplies, hang some curtains in the windows and open doorways and she would be ready to hang her sign outside and go into business. After getting everyone's name to ensure that they would get their first meal free, she thanked everyone as they left. She locked up and headed back to the Tendo home for what was probably her last night there.
Nabiki met her at the front door of the Tendo home and took one look at her and said, "You look beat. Let's go get you cleaned up and we can talk while we relax in the furo." Ukyo just nodded in agreement. A long soak in the hot water was just the thing she needed to relax her muscles. Even though she was a martial artist and in excellent shape, all that time on her knees mopping the floor had worn her out.
After cleansing their body, shampooing their hair, and rinsing off with the cold-water buckets, the two girls entered the furo. Ukyo sat there in dreamy silence, while Nabiki talked about her afternoon at city hall getting the permits. She said "According to my clerk, we should have the permits in a couple of days. Once you have the grill installed, I will get the inspector in. That will be the final step in getting the permits approved. I don't see any reason why we can't be open next weekend."
The next day, after breakfast, Ranma, Akane and Nabiki helped Ukyo move into her new home. Nabiki had remembered correctly, there were several pieces of unused furniture that were useful up in the dojo attic. Kasumi was sewing up some curtains to hang in the windows and doors and had promised to have them ready that day. By noon, Ukyo had her grill up and operational and all the furniture was in place upstairs. Everyone collapsed on the bar stools in front of the grill and watched Ukyo christen her new restaurant by making its first set of okonomiyaki. After everyone had some food, they sat around talking and eating. Nabiki was pleasantly surprised at how good her food was. 'This will work, Ukyo can really cook and we should get a lot of business. All we need to do now is advertise,' she thought. About the time they finished eating, Kasumi came bustling in, followed by Gemna, with all of the new curtains. They spent the next hour or so getting all of the curtains hung.
Ukyo's eyes were full of tears of happiness as she looked at her pride and joy. One of her dreams had always been to open her own restaurant, and with the help of her friends, her dream had come true. She went around and hugged everyone in thanks, though she couldn't help but smile to herself when she saw the other three girls bristle when she hugged Ranma. She deliberately held him for just a moment too long and then said, "Thanks, Ranma-honey, girls. I appreciate all your help." Kasumi invited her back for dinner, but Ukyo declined saying she wanted to stay home. After that, the rest of them waved bye and left.
The next day, as Ranma was walking into the house, Nabiki called, "Ranma, you have a letter." Nabiki handed him the envelope and he opened it.
He snickered, "Ryoga challenged me to a fight tomorrow at the park by the lake. I guess I need to show up there Thursday or Friday to see if he makes it. We need to keep an eye out for him though, there's no telling where he'll really turn up."
"Where am I now?" Ryoga cried out, standing in a dusty street on Friday afternoon.
A voice said, "Outside my restaurant, Ucchan's." Ryoga turned and saw the boy that he had met previously outside of Nerima.
"Do you know where Ranma Saotome is?" Ryoga asked plaintively, "I'm supposed to fight him."
"Oh, you must be Ryoga. Ranma is waiting for you at the park. I'm on my way there to set up concessions if you want to follow me over there. I'm one of Ranma's fiancées," Ukyo said.
"Fiancée? I thought you were a boy?" Ryoga said.
"Nope, one hundred percent woman," Ukyo said, "Come on Sugar. If you don't want to be late again, you need to follow me."
Ryoga followed the girl through the streets of Nerima until they reached the park. There they found Ranma talking to Nabiki and Akane. Ukyo peeled off and set up her okonomiyaki stand with flyers for her new restaurant. Then she began yelling, Get your fresh okonomiyaki right here!" Soon she had a large crowd gathered around the grill.
Ranma walked over to Ryoga to try one last time to make him see reason. He asked, "Ryoga, can we talk about this first?"
Ryoga replied, "There's nothing to talk about Ranma, because of you, I've seen hell!"
"Ryoga, I don't want to fight ya. The only thing that I ever did ta ya was fight ya over the bread during lunch. I thought ya got over that, after all ya let me take ya ta school and back, remember," Ranma said.
"Saotome, enough talk. I came here to destroy your happiness," Ryoga growled.
"You're too late, then. Pop already took care of that," Ranma said with a smirk, "All ya can do is ta try and hurt me. Pop's done more ta destroy my life than ya ever could."
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!!" Ryoga screamed as he attacked with his umbrella. Ranma dodged him easily, and ran in and kicked him in the stomach and hit him in his arms causing him to drop the umbrella. Ranma hit him with an uppercut to the jaw that knocked Ryoga back several feet.
Ryoga pulled off several of his bandanas and threw them at Ranma. He dodged each of them, and as they went by him, knocked them out of the air. Ryoga cursed to see all of his attacks had come to naught. He pulled off his belt and straightened it out into a blade and charged Ranma. Ranma jumped away, but wasn't quite quick enough to avoid the stroke. He felt the blade slice into his side.
"That did it Ryoga, now I'm done playing with ya!" Ranma roared as he closed in for the kill. He leapt over Ryoga, kicking him in the head as soared over him. Landing quickly behind Ryoga, he hit one of the pressure points in Ryoga's arm causing him to drop the blade. Then he hit two more pressure points in rapid succession on Ryoga's neck, causing Ryoga to lose consciousness. Ryoga collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Akane and Nabiki ran over to Ranma. Nabiki asked, with concern in her voice, "Are you all right, Ranma?" Then she saw the blood pouring out of the wound in his side. She ripped the shirt of his back, baring the wound, paling as she did so.
Ranma looked at the wound in his side, and said, "It's just a scratch." He then sagged into Akane's arms while Nabiki cleaned the wound with a towel. She kept pressure on the cut, with the towel, while Kasumi ran over with her first aid kit. Kasumi got the bleeding under control and slapped a bandage on it.
"Ukyo, bring me some cold water!" Nabiki called. Ukyo ran over with a pail, and gave it to Nabiki. Nabiki poured the water over Ryoga, turning him into a pig. "Ukyo, grab P-chan here and his clothing. We need to get Ranma over to the clinic for Dr. Tofu to patch him up," she said.
As they neared the clinic, Kasumi took off toward home. Akane and Nabiki helped Ranma into the clinic, with Ukyo coming up behind with P-chan. Dr. Tofu ran over and helped Ranma into the exam room and asked, "What happened?"
"Ranma got sliced open. You need to take a look at the wound," Ukyo said.
Tofu carefully removed the bandage. The bleeding had pretty much stopped. He began cleaning the area around the wound to expose a long shallow gash in Ranma's side. Tofu stitched him up quickly and neatly, and then placed a clean bandage over the wound. "Ranma, you need to not exert yourself for a few days to let the wound heal. Try to stay in bed or at least lying down as much as possible. I'll come by in a few days to check on you," Tofu said, "Now, who did this to you?"
Nabiki pointed to the pig who was still unconscious. "Ryoga here," she said, "He's got a Jusenkyo curse too and blames Ranma for his life being ruined. He's almost as big a nutcase as Kuno." Ukyo dropped Ryoga's clothing on the floor.
"You can change him back with hot water. We're going to take Ranchan home," Ukyo said.
"Doc, what happens if I change? Will the stitches be ok?" Ranma asked, "As much of a water magnet as I am, I can't imagine not getting wet."
Tofu sighed, "You're probably right. Put on one of these gowns, and then you can change and we'll see what happens." Ranma put one of the gowns on and allowed Tofu to pour cold water over him. As he changed, she felt the stitches move. Tofu moved the gown out of the way enough to remove the bandage and inspected his handiwork. "Everything looks okay, Ranma, but you probably ought to stay this way until you heal, just in case," Tofu said.
Ranma went into the waiting room and found that Kasumi had returned carrying a shirt. Ranma put the shirt on after discarding the gown. Tofu then joined them and saw Kasumi. "K-k-kasumi, what are you doing here," he stammered as his glasses fogged up.
"Doctor, you're so silly. I brought Ranchan a new shirt of course. Nabiki tore the other one to shreds," Kasumi said. Tofu began dancing around the waiting room and then took Betty out for a night on the town.
Ranma got some hot water and walked back into the exam room. She threw one of the gowns over P-chan and then changed Ryoga back. The shock of the transformation was enough this time to wake Ryoga up. Ranma told him, "Get dressed, Ryoga. Then you and I are gonna talk."
Ryoga asked, "Who are you, Miss? Are you a friend of the Tendo's?" Ryoga blushed.
"I'm Ranma, baka," Ranma said in disgust, "I thought ya knew that. And I don't even want to know what made ya blush." She left Ryoga in the exam room.
After waiting for several minutes, Ranma went back in to check on Ryoga, only to find him gone. 'Now how did he get lost in a room with only one door,' Ranma wondered.
"Let's go home, Ryoga disappeared somehow," Ranma said.
Somewhere, a bewildered boy was saying to himself, "Ranma turns into a girl, a cute girl, a well-built cute girl." As a vision appeared in his mind, his nose started bleeding. "Stop that, she's a boy, arrrrgh!" he screamed, "Ranma this is all your fault. I can't believe I was thinking what I was thinking. Asking you out on a date! Arrrgh!!!!! Ranma, now because of you, I have really seen Hell!!!"