The Dozen Faces of Ukyo

The rest of the day went by pretty uneventfully. Ukyo had stuck near Ryoga most of the time but soon realized that she was not needed; Ryoga was handling himself really well. The only time anything threatened the façade was when Akane would talk to him out of the blue but thankfully, his contact with her on that day was minimal.

After classes, Ukyo followed Ryoga to the gym where he tried out and immediately made it into the Judo team. The coach had been impressed, especially since Ryoga barely had to put much effort into his demonstration. His martial arts lifestyle had made it easy for him to take up the forms and styles of Furinkan High's Judo team.

What struck Ukyo the most when waiting for him on the sidelines of the gym was how well their plan was working when she spotted several female students hanging out on the sidelines watching Ryoga perform. Most of them were in pairs or in trios, heads close together, shooting him furtive glances and giggling.

When he was finished, she watched as a few girls ran up to him to hand him a towel. Ryoga looked flustered but took the one closest to him and thanked her. Ukyo watched as he looked up and spotted her from the crowd, immediately walking over to her after another half bow and thank you to the girl who handed him a towel.

Ukyo couldn't help by smile, how was this guy always so polite?

"Hey, sugar," she said once he was near, "Ready to head out?" She noted that some of the girls were staring at her as they made their way out of the gym but she was back in her male uniform so didn't think anything of it.

"It's kind of hard to spot you sometimes," said Ryoga once they left the school grounds, laughter in his voice. "Since I'm imagining all the other girls as you."

Ukyo laughed. "Then how did you spot me?"

Ryoga shook his head. "I don't know. I can kinda uh, sense you."

Ukyo raised a brow as they crossed the street. "Sense me?"

"Yeah, you know. I don't know. It's kind of warm, like sun rays or a heat from a ceramic teapot."

Ukyo looked at him and Ryoga blush. "I-I mean that's what I sense when you're near."

"Oh," responded Ukyo, finding herself unexpectedly pleased by his statement.

"So how do you think the plan is going?" Ryoga asked her. They were nearing Ucchan's, Ukyo's Okonomiyaki restaurant.

"It's going really well. Akane and Ranma thought you were acting a little strange but I think Akane is starting to accept that this is a side of you she's never seen." In fact, thought Ukyo, she remembered actually seeing Akane glance at Ryoga a number of times during the day. Her face was mostly confused but once or twice, she was sure she saw a look of perhaps girlish interest in her expression. Of course, she wouldn't tell Ryoga that right away. If she did, she was sure he's break the front and immediately ask her to marry him or something equally as extreme. Ukyo internally rolled her eyes.

"You know" she said as they walked into Ucchan's and waved at Konatsu, "I actually think this plan is going to work this time. We just need to find a way for you to be near Akane a lot, maybe even after school hours."

"A-after s-school?" Ukyo turned to look at Ryoga, whose eyes were wide and a ridiculous grin was printed on his face.

"Cut that out, will ya!" Now that they were out of school, it was obviously that Ryoga retreated back to his normal self. Ukyo rubbed her temples. "Ugh, we've got to do something about that."

"A-about what?"

"Your love sickness! You almost did that when Akane talked to you today. How are we ever going to get you two to be alone together during and after school if you keep doing that?"

Ryoga frowned and stared at the floor and lamented once again his awkward and shy nature.

"Ugh! Stop that! There's nothing wrong with you," she suddenly stated, realizing that she genuinely meant it. "We just need Akane to look long enough to want to be around you more."

Ryoga sighed. "How are we going to do that?"

"You just got to do as you're doing now, Ryoga. Then we need to find a way to get you to spend more time with her without it being obvious and the way that I see it, the more you're with her, the more she's watching you and the more she becomes interested."

She started heading up the stairs to her apartment, "When I figure out how to do that, I'll let you know. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? I've got to prep for the dinner rush."

"Uh, Ukyo?"

She stopped only a few steps from the top and turned to him.

He was standing in the middle of her restaurant, his thumbs twiddling together, his gaze on the floor, and a soft blush on his cheeks. "Can you uh… help me get to my house?"

--ssssssss--

The following few days, nothing had changed much for Ukyo and Ryoga. They went to classes, talked with Ranma and Akane, who were either always with their respective friends or together, Ryoga went to judo, then they went to Ukyo's to chat about the progress of their plans, and Ukyo took him home. The only thing that seemed to change was that girls, who were not Akane, kept putting themselves in Ryoga's way.

"Oh, sorry Ryoga!" said a girl, bumping into his side lightly and giggling profusely with her friends.

Ryoga gave his half grin and nodded to her, his ever brooding and dark characteristic having been finally perfected now that he had a handle on his awkwardness and nerves.

He had been heading over to the school library as he had an empty period with nothing to do and thought he could waste time by reading up on some martial arts technique manuals he had procured from his travels.

Someone else suddenly bumped up against him. He looked, another girl, well to his eyes, another Ukyo. She was smaller than the real Ukyo and her hair was short.

"I'm sorry!" said the small girl, bowing deeply. He recognized her as a freshman he had seen once or twice, watching him afterschool during his judo practices. She seemed genuinely sorry for bumping into him unlike the previous girls before her.

"It's alright," he said and readjusted the backpack strap on his shoulder. He smiled at her.

The girl blushed, her expression shy. Ryoga stopped walking for a second. While he knew he wasn't actually looking at the real Ukyo, the face he was looking at was Ukyo's and she was sporting a pretty little blush and it struck him as odd. She looked quite cute.

Ryoga felt himself starting to blush. I need to stop picturing all these Ukyos, he said in his head as he excused himself from the girl, after repeating that he didn't mind that she bumped into him. It wasn't the first time, he realized, that something like this happened. His imagining of Ukyos everywhere was starting to get to him and in all honestly, was starting to scare him.

He turned a corner. A large group of girls were walking his way; he noticed cards and small packages in their hands. They suddenly spotted him. Ryoga's eyes widened. About a dozen Ukyos were running toward him, trying to push the Ukyos on the left or the right out of their way in their haste.

"Move it! He's mine!"

"No! You move! I'm going to give him mine first."

"Girls, I saw him first!"

Ryoga's eyes widened even more as the group gathered speed. Ryoga turned quickly, almost losing his footing and began to run as the dozen Ukyos chased him, his bag swinging wildly from his shoulder.

He ran pass classrooms, turned corners, down the stairs, up the stairs but somehow could not shake them off.

At one point, he found himself running pass Akane and Ranma.

"Ryoga?" Akane yelled but he was running too quickly to turn back to answer her.

He spotted it. If he could just turn the next corner, he would be near the gym and he could lose the throng in the men's dressing room. But just as his body was making the turn, he slammed right into something and landed on his bottom.

"Hey!" came a voice he recognized all too well as it was the faces of the real owner of that voice were chasing him.

"Ukyo!" he said jumping up, his eyes wide and frantic.

"Ryoga?" Today she was wearing the girl's uniform and that made Ryoga hesitate. He couldn't use the uniform as a definite way of distinguishing the real from the fake. "Forgive me!" he said and pulled her up off the ground and hugged her.

Ukyo froze and a second later, her giant spatula came down on Ryoga's head.

"I just needed to make sure!" he yelled.

"What are you talking about?!"

He grabbed her hand, his other hand clutching his book bag and began to run.

"Why are you running, jackass?!" cried a surprised Ukyo, trying to keep up with Ryoga's steps. Just then she heard cacophony of footsteps and voices catching up to them.

"What is that?" She heard Ryoga's name being called and sounds of girls yelling and pushing each other.

Ukyo's eyes widened. "Are they after you?" she asked and the only response she got was a Ryoga's increase in speed.

"Wait. Wait, wait! Ryoga!" she yelled, yanking hard to pull Ryoga to a stop.

"What?"

She jerked her head to the left, urging him to be quiet and she pulled Ryoga through a door, quickly shutting it behind just as the horde of teenage girls passed them.

Letting out a huge breath of relief, Ryoga sagged against the wall of what he realized was the school's utility closet.

"Why were they chasing you?" the real Ukyo asked once she caught her breath.

Ryoga shook his head. "I don't know."

It was then that Ukyo had some idea. She had heard a bunch of girls the previous day saying that they were going to confess their love to Ryoga and request that he be their boyfriend. She told him what she knew and then groaning, sat down on box. Perhaps one part of their plan was working a little too well.

For a few minutes, there was just silence between them, each lost to their own thoughts. Then all of a sudden, Ryoga started to laugh. It was a rich, vivid laugh. At first it was silent, merely shaking his frame but then started gathering strength and it was loud, open, and full. Ukyo was confused but this laugh, one she had never actually heard before, eventually forced a small smile on her face.

"Why are you laughing?" she asked, all of a sudden intensely curious as to what thought produced such a deeply positive outburst.

Ryoga's laughter died down and he grinned at her. "It was just that I was imaging those girls with your face and well the thought of a dozen of you wanting to give me love letters was just so unbelievable!" And then he started laughing again.

Ukyo moved to stand, glaring at him. "I don't see what's so funny, Hibiki."

Ryoga's hand gently grasped onto her wrist. She looked at it then turned back to look at his face, his eyes were tearing up. "F-forgive me," he said, trying to speak through the laughter.

Despite herself, Ukyo found herself grinning. "You, idiot. I guess it is kind of funny when you think about it like that."

Ryoga shook his head and silence reigned again for a short while. "Wow, I can't believe all those girls wanted to give me love letters. Me!"

Ukyo smirked, "Yeah well, I think maybe our plan is working too well in that aspect."

His eyes glazed over and he sighed. "Too bad all I ever see is you, Ukyo. If I hadn't, then maybe I could have fallen in love with one of those girls and—." A large object suddenly hit him on the head, sending to the ground.

Ukyo had hit him with her spatula. "You, jackass!" she grumbled and left the utility closet without him.