Chapter 47: A Dog's World

Rie was headed home from her shift at Ucchan's, feeling a little guilty about leaving Ukyo to close up alone as always, but she did have quite a bit of homework. How Ukyo managed to work those longer hours and stay on top of school, Rie could only wonder at.

As she began to cross a small river on her way home, she noticed a familiar teen in a white robe sitting by the water. Curiosity getting the better of her, Rie climbed down to the path along the river and walked over.

"Mousse-san, is everything okay?" Rie asked as she got closer.

The Chinese boy turned her way, his glasses on his forehead. He stared at her a moment, a sadness growing into his eyes, before he pulled his glasses down to see her properly.

"Hello... Kawai, was it? You're Kuonji's waitress, right?" Mousse said.

"Yes, that's right. I... I suppose I'm a bit forgettable compared to the wild folks around here," Rie replied, honestly fine with blending into the background. It put less stress on her.

"I think I heard that you and Shampoo have been getting on better terms?" Mousse asked, his voice flat.

"A little. Apparently she finds acting like a guy so much a bit stressful," Rie explained.

Mousse slid his glasses back up onto his forehead and sighed. "That's nice."

"So, what has you out here, all on your own?" Rie asked.

"My life has lost its focus, and I don't know what to do with myself," Mousse said, turning back to the river. "My main goal in life has been trying to win Shampoo over for as long as I can remember. But now? Who knows."

"You've really given up on getting Shampoo to fall for you?" Rie asked.

"She shaved my head. In our culture, that's one of the greatest dishonours you could inflict on someone," Mousse explained. "And I cut her hair, so... I insulted her almost as much."

Rie nodded, not totally following it, but understanding that honour was very important to martial artist. (Well, most of them... Hibari seemed less invested in all that.)

"So, why are you staying?" Rie asked.

"I don't know. I told myself it was because I didn't want to see Shampoo end up with Saotome and Oozora. That the dishonour the curse brought onto her rivalled what I'd done by cutting her hair, and that I couldn't see her end up having to play husband to two guys who wanted to act like wives, but... instead she's a girl around them more often than not. They're not doing anything as bad as I'd expected," Mousse muttered. "So... I don't know why I'm still here."

"I guess it must be inertia at—wait, two boys?" Rie asked.

Mousse laughed quietly, confusing Rie. "It's what I thought at the time, but... who knows anymore?"

Rie felt herself just as confused as before his response. She supposed she'd have to ask Hibari about that later... it could explain Shampoo's reluctance about discussing why she'd gotten engaged to both Ranma and Hibari. (An engagement to two people confused Rie enough in general, extra layers were just a bigger headache.)

"It's a bit strange talking to you though, without my glasses you look just like Shampoo. Same hair colour, similar height, and... and whatnot," Mousse muttered, blushing slightly.

"Well, why don't you wear your glasses more?"

"They give me a headache. And they look terrible," Mousse replied.

Rie nodded, pulling out the case for her contacts and removing said contacts from her eyes to stow away.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to see what your prescription is like," Rie replied. "Let me try your glasses."

"Uh, okay," Mousse said, handing his glasses over. "What was that in your eyes?"

"Contact lenses," Rie explained as she put on Mousse's cokebottle glasses. "Oof, who made these things? They're totally different focuses, and... they seem bubbly."

"They were a gift from the village glassworker. The pair I had as a child didn't fit anymore," Mousse replied. "But, what are contact lenses?"

Rie pulled the sloppy glasses off and turned to the fuzzy blob she knew was Mousse. "You get paid for your delivery work, right?"

"Lately, yes. I think she's hoping I'll buy a ticket back to China with the money," Mousse replied.

"Well then, what do you say to going shopping for proper glasses tomorrow? We might even be able to get you some contacts. I don't think your prescription is too much stronger than mine," Rie replied with a smile that she nervously realised Mousse probably couldn't really see.

Rie found herself a bit too nervous to eat lunch with the others. She knew she had to ask Hibari about what Mousse had said, but... she worried about it going poorly. After a bit of internal debate she decided there was nothing wrong with waiting another day.

"Is that Mousse?" Hibari asked as she, Ranma, and Shui headed off from school.

"It certainly looks like it," Shui replied. "What are they doing together?"

"Well, we could follow and find out?" Ranma offered.

The other two nodded, and the trio set off, keeping their distance so as not to be seen. (And all of them struggling not to make too many quips about Mousse never seeing them, whatever they did.)

Rie and Mousse headed towards one of the main shopping areas nearby, the crowds helping the pursuers sneak closer. The shopping pair were utterly oblivious however.

"The optometrist isn't too far away. The test should take about 20 minutes, and then we'll figure out what your options are," Rie explained.

Mousse nodded. He wasn't really sure what to say, but the idea that proper glasses would be so much nicer than the ones he'd been left with for so long.

"Ah, here we are," Rie said. "There shouldn't be too long of a wait for an appointment."

Outside, the following trio had an issue: the eyeglass store was much too small and quiet for the three of them to sneak in. After looking around a bit, they dipped into a nearby burger joint, Hibari and Rie grabbing a window seat while Ranma grabbed a few burgers.

"Mousse already has glasses. What are they up to?" Shampoo asked, before being distracted by Ranma also returning with milkshakes. "How hungry do you think we are?"

"I, uh... the cashier's from Wakaba, and she, uh... maybe has a crush? She seemed really nervous," Ranma explained as he sat down.

The trio ate their fast food impatiently as they waited for Rie and Mousse to exit the store.

Across the street, Mousse was just finishing up his eye test, and learned that his prescription needs were indeed within the range of contact lenses.

"We'll try some a pair now, just to make sure they fit you comfortably, and that the prescription is a good fit," the optometrist explained.

Mousse nodded, feeling almost giddy as the middle aged man prepped a pair of contacts for him.

"Here you go," the man said.

"So, I just stick them in?" Mousse asked.

"I'll let you know if you're doing anything wrong," Rie replied.

Mousse swallowed, feeling a bit nervous about sticking something in his eyes. He reminded himself that Rie did it every day, and took the plunge, slipping both in and blinked a couple times.

Suddenly the world was so much clearer than he was used to. Blinking and growing more used to it, he turned to Rie, wanting to thank her, when something else struck him.

"Kawai-san, you're really quite beautiful," Mousse said.

Rie blushed furiously, not used to being flirted with. Especially not be a boy as handsome as Mousse. Now that he wasn't hiding his eyes behind those thick glasses or squinting to see without them, he was even more attractive. It was all too much for her, and she couldn't manage a reply.

"This is so wonderful. Just saying thank you isn't enough. I should buy you something. How about a nice dinner? Oh, and can we go see a movie? It's been so long since I've been able to really enjoy watching one," Mousse continued, grinning away.

"Sure, yes," Rie replied, trying to ignore how this was basically transforming into a date with a boy who wasn't just handsome, but also nice and tall. (Maybe not quite as tall as Shiina, but quite surely better looking.)

Mousse finished up his purchase, and the pair left the store. All the while Rie felt flustered about the way Mousse kept looking at her and smiling.

"Is there a restaurant nearby you like?" Mousse asked with a smile.

"Oh, uh... there's a Korean BBQ place nearby I like? It's a little expensive though," Rie offered, looking around to see if there was anywhere cheaper (and a bit less 'meaty', just in case this was really a date).

While she didn't spot any specific restaurants, she did notice three familiar faces trying to dip behind a car as they piled out of the burger joint across the street. Already running at a frazzled state herself, the trio's faces as the car they tried to hide behind drove away left Rie collapsing into a furious giggling fit.

Mousse was severely confused by her sudden shift in demeanor, and was left looking around in confusion. After a moment he spotted the trio across the street and was able to identify them quickly by Ranma's fashion sense and Hibari's red hair.

The trio crossed the street, blushing a little at being caught, and arriving just as Rie got a hold on her giggling fit.

"He-hey there, Mousse," Ranma said with a slightly awkward wave. "What a coincidence, running into you here."

Mousse was a bit annoyed, but found himself a bit distracted by the opportunity to get a clear view of the bratty trio. Reluctantly, he admitted Ranma was a bit more handsome than he'd given the other lad credit for. Hibari was cuter than he wanted to admit. As for Shui, he found felt his heart fluttering a little still, but the annoyed look in the cursed girl's eyes just didn't feel equal to the soft kindness he saw in Rie's. He'd pretty well given up on Shampoo already, but this sealed the deal.

"Were you too spying on us?" Rie asked, sounding more curious than upset.

Hibari shrugged. "I'm not sure spying is precisely the term I'd used, but, we were curious about you heading off with Mousse."

"That sounds like spying," Mousse replied, crossing his arms.

"Rie's very soft and innocent. You are a schemer. So we wanted to keep an eye to make sure she would be safe," Shui replied, crossing her arms as well.

"I was just helping Mousse-san to get some better glasses. His old ones were so terrible," Rie explained.

"No kidnapping plans?" Shui asked.

"None," Mousse replied. "I was just going to take Rie out for dinner and a movie to thank her for her help."

Suddenly Shui and Hibari's eyes lit up. Shui saw a chance to get Mousse to stop following her so constantly, while Hibari was caught up in the romance.

"Very charming. Good luck," Shui said, patting Mousse on the shoulder.

"I know just the restaurant," Hibari announced. "They're usually reservation only, but my dad's connections mean we can always get in. It's got the best sukiyaki. Come on! It's just a couple blocks from here."

With that, the red haired girl grabbed Rie's hand and began leading her off. Mousse, feeling defensive after Hibari had stolen his last crush, grabbed Rie's free hand as he hurried after.

Shui and Ranma were left watching the others hurry off in a bit of confusion, before Ranma began to laugh.

"She's such a romantic," the pigtailed boy said. "Who knows how long it'll take before she's satisfied things are runnin' smoothly. C'mon, I'll walk ya back to the Neko Hanten before Cologne has a fit about missin' her two best employees."

Shui smiled. "Sounds nice."

The pair were nearly back to the Neko Hanten when spotted a pointy haired teen whose sharp sunglasses felt quite familiar to Ranma.

"Saotome!" Kotatsu blurted before marching over and producing an envelope. "I've come to hand you and official challenge!"

Ranma looked down at the envelope and raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

Kotatsu blushed furiously before turning away. "It... it explains in the letter."

Ranma ripped the envelope open, and began to read the letter.

"Hey, wait! What are you doing reading it right away?" Kotatsu blurted.

"You are very flustered. This is not love letter, is it, Sparta?" Shui asked.

"Seems like it? If I understand this... don't make much sense though," Ranma replied, scratching his chin. " 'I challenge Saotome Ranma (boy mode) to a fight to prove who is more of a man. If Saotome Ranma loses, then Ranma (girl mode) will agree to be my... boyfriend?"

"What's confusing?" Kotatsu asked. "I said I fell in love with both you and Hibari, even though you're boys, but... I want to be the more guy one in the relationship."

"What? Like, even if I were interested in ya, which I ain't, if I was your boyfriend... we'd both automatically be the guy in the relationship? If I were your girlfriend, then you'd be the guy, but... boyfriends means two guys," Ranma replied, turning to Shui for support.

Shui just shrugged.

"Obviously you're the girly one," Kotatsu shouted.

"I— whatever," Ranma replied. "Ya wanna fight tomorrow after school? Hibari'd probably want ta run the bettin' ring, and it'd be nice ta have something useful outta the fight."

"Sounds good," Kotatsu said sharply, before turning to Shui. "And, you... stay away from my future boyfriend, buddy."

"I had a claim first," Shui replied with a shrug. "You are also no threat to me though. Have fun getting beaten up tomorrow."

Kotatsu's mouth scrunched up in rage, before he turned and marched off.

The betting pool was pretty shallow, as no one really knew who Kotatsu was. Still Hibari thought she'd make some good pocket change unless things went really strange.

The small crowd gathered around the school baseball field, waiting for the fight to start. Kotatsu was already waiting as Ranma strolled out casually, a bored look on his face.

"Are you ready to fight, Saotome?" Kotatsu shouted.

"I dunno," Ranma sighed, as we sauntered up to the angry young Sparta. Suddenly, once he was within a couple metres of Kotatsu, Ranma slipped into puppy eyes and a cute feminine pose. "A-are you really such a meanie that you'll hit me?"

While the taunt had it's intended effect of making Kotatsu flustered, Ranma was quite oblivious to the blushes spreading across the audience as teens with crushes on one version of Ranma felt the strong reminder that there might be two forms for the pigtailed teen, but that Ranma was the same person in either form.

"Ooh, is airen starting to open to acting girly in birth form?" Shui asked from beside Hibari.

"Maybe," Hibari muttered, before something struck her. "What did you just call him?"

Shui blushed. "Meant tongzhi, honest. Slip of tongue."

Hibari would have said more, but Kotatsu and Ranma had started to fight.

"Stop making those flirty faces when you look like that!" Kotatsu shouted as he lunged with a jab.

"But you said you wanted a boyfriend. Just a girly one," Ranma said, batting his eyelashes as he dodged Kotatsu's strikes.

Getting bored, Ranma turned one dodge into a rounded knee to Kotatsu's gut, causing the other lad to stumble back a bit. Ranma then pressed the advantage, unleashing a lightning barrage of amaguriken strikes. He had to admit that Kotatsu did a better job of blocking than Ranma expected, but he still managed to get in an uppercut and sent Kotatsu sprawling.

Ranma dropped the feminine posture as he glared down at Kotatsu. "I'm more of a man than you anytime I want to be. You gonna give up now?"

Kotatsu grimaced before wiping some blood from his face. "Alright, so you're pretty good, but let's see how you handle the little trick I picked up with my trip to China!"

"Trip to China? Why'd ya go to China?" Ranma asked, more confused than threatened.

"I did my research. The Joketsuzoku are the ones behind all the fancy techniques you and your friends use. So I thought I'd go straight to the source," Kotatsu replied with a smirk.

Ranma just let out a tired sigh before sliding into a more ready stance. He didn't know what nonsense he'd be up against now.

Kotatsu hopped to his feet, sliding into an almost sumo like pose with wide spread and deeply bent legs. "Come try me."

"It's a defensive technique?" Ranma asked.

"The ultimate defence," Kotatsu declared. "It's the famous changchen butouming de fangyou. You could shoot a bullet at me and I could block it in this stance."

Ranma moved forward, testing with a few probing jabs. Kotatsu blocked perfectly, fancy footwork accompanying the hand movements. A quick attempt at amaguriken proved just futile.

Backing off a bit, Ranma had an idea. He walked another metre away or so, before sitting down. "It looks like a really intense stance. How long can ya hold it for?"

"What? You... you're just going to wait for me to get tired?" Kotatsu said, lips quivering.

"Yeah? I mean, you can't hurt me, and I can't hurt you. Not much else available," Ranma replied.

"Boo! We want a fight!" a member of the crowd shouted.

"No one said I had a time limit," Ranma shouted back angrily.

Some of the crowd drifted off over the next few minutes (grumbling about a boring fight), though most of them stayed while Ranma and Kotatsu sat in their stalemate. After five or so minutes, Kotatsu's legs began to visibly wobble, and the spiky haired teen struggled to stay in his stance.

Ranma hopped to his feet and walked over with a grin. "Ya surrenderin' now?"

"Not a chance," Kotatsu muttered.

Ranma sighed, before looking up at the clouds above. "Ah man, they're startin' to get kinda dark. I hope it doesn't rain."

The crowd followed Ranma's eyes up, before almost everyone produced an umbrella.

"Always need to be prepared when Saotome's fighting," a boy in the crowd muttered.

"I, uh," Kotatsu mumbled as he looked up to the sky too. "Maybe we can put this on hold?"

"Why? Afraid to have me beat you up when I'm in girl mode?" Ranma replied.

"N-no, not that," Kotatsu said, starting to sound worried as the clouds grew darker.

Ranma's eye twitched as he figured out what it probably meant. "You managed to get a curse at Jusenkyo, didn't ya?"

"I-I... uh... all the sign posts were in Chinese, okay? I got a little mixed up," Kotatsu grumbled.

Ranma grinned and produced a water bottle. "Well, lets see what curse ya got."

"Woah, hey! P-put that away!" Kotatsu yelped, barely dodging a small splash of water from Ranma.

What ensued was a bit of chaos as Ranma chased Kotatsu around, sloshing water the other boy's way every so often.

"What a dignified display of martial arts," Hibari said to Shui, giggling to herself.

Kotatsu gave one last dodge as Ranma lobbed a final splash of water Kotatsu's way.

"Ha! You're out of water!" Kotatsu declared, laughing confidently.

And then it started to rain.

The younger Sparta suddenly vanished into his clothing. The whole crowd rushed over, arriving just as the cursed boy emerged, now in the form of a small mutt, those angular sunglasses still on his face.

Ranma crouched down and bonked the dog of a boy on the head with a soft chop. "You've lost, Sparta. I'd feel guilty about kickin' a dog, but I might make an exception for you."

The dog whimpered before turning and fleeing, tail literally between his legs.

Ranma stood up and sighed. "I really hope he doesn't show up again any time soon. I don't need more weirdos in love with me."

Hibari walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's annoying, but, hey... we can make some money at least."

She then turned to the crowd. "Speaking of: time for payouts. People who lost first please."

Hibari's ensuing negotiations brought a smile back on to Ranma's face. She was so cute when she got scheming.