previous chapters may be found at or at the lost library of florestica
Standard Disclaimer applies: I don't own Ranma, I'm just doing this for fun, not to make money.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Kasumi sat in the bathtub reflecting on her day. She'd actually gone on a date, something she hadn't done since grade 9. It had been fun, even though Ranma had clearly been uncomfortable at first. He seemed to expect an attack at any moment, and from what she'd heard of his previous dating experience, she couldn't really blame him.
It was awkward at first. Ranma didn't seem interested in talking, and Kasumi's conversational gambits at small talk were mostly unsuccessful. But once they got to the festival, Ranma relaxed some, and began to open up. As they wandered aimlessly around, looking at exhibits and booths selling various trinkets, he told Kasumi stories from his travels across China and the wilder areas of Japan. When they came to the carnival section, he proved highly adept at the ring toss and ball toss games, eventually winning for Kasumi a large Winnie the Pooh plush doll.
Kasumi sighed and said, "Akane never knew just what she was throwing away with her mistrust. He was so nice to me tonight."
She lifted her head as she heard the outer door to the bath slide open. A male voice said, "Oh. The sign's up. Someone's in there. guess I'll come back."
"It's alright, Ranma. I was just about to get out." Kasumi said quickly, before he could leave.
"Uh, ok. I'll wait outside." Ranma said and started to open the door.
"Just wait there, I don't mind."
Silence greeted the Tendo homemaker as she climbed out of the tub, toweled off and pulled on her nightgown and robe.
She opened the door to the changing room and smiled at Ranma.
"The bath is still warm, enjoy."
As she walked past him, she reached over and took hold of his arm. Very quietly, she said, "Thank you for a wonderful time tonight. It's been a long time since anyone has done anything like that for me."
She leaned over and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek, then swept out of the changing room, shutting the door behind her.
Ranma touched the place on his cheek where the warmth of her lips seemed to linger.
"Sure, no problem"
Ranma did his own reflecting later on, up in his room. He did enjoy himself tonight, and was amazed at how smoothly everything had gone. Even running into Ryoga and Shampoo hadn't seemed as awkward as he'd feared it would be. Though why Ryoga seemed to make a pass at Kasumi was beyond him. But Shampoo actually seemed pretty happy. Ranma felt a stab of guilt at realizing that Shampoo had probably never been on a normal date before. Every one the two of them had been on was always really about something else. Either Shampoo blackmailed it out of him, or she had something he wanted.
"Maybe she just likes being with someone who likes being with her, but isn't all obsessive like Mousse." He mused.
The date with Kasumi had been fun, and not nearly as boring as he had feared. Sure Kasumi was a housewife, but it didn't mean her interests stopped at the door. He had been secretly worried all she would want to talk about was cooking and gossip about the neighbors. But to his grateful surprise, she had a range of interests nearly as eclectic as his. He'd never known before tonight about her deep love of spy novels. Her favorite author was apparently a British man named Jack Higgins. His stories featured various desperate characters who fought overwhelming odds and held to their own rough and tumble code of honor and justice. The concept appealed to Ranma.
There had also been a lot to eat, which was a big plus in Ranma's book. Kasumi didn't cook most of it, which was unfortunate, but it was still pretty good. Those octopus balls were yummy. But the box dinner that Kasumi had packed for them to eat while watching the fireworks had been incredible. Her cooking was always great, but there had been something special about that dinner. Like she had taken special care or simply given her all to it.
Ranma wondered what life could be like if he stayed with Kasumi forever. Pretty good, he thought.
Ryoga sighed as he looked at the stars. He was laying on a hillside, the grass dry and warm with the dying of summer. Shampoo lay beside him, her head on his chest, where she'd fallen asleep.
"She's so beautiful," he whispered, stroking her hair.
The night had been surreal for the eternally lost boy. As the time till the festival had approached, Shampoo had seemed to get more and more angry with him for ruining her date with Ranma. But when it was time to leave, She had smiled at Ryoga and told him she was going to try to have a good time, and just forget about Ranma for tonight.
They had ended up having a very good time. Ryoga's Casanova point letting him know just what to say and do, and never letting his nervous nature come to the fore. He regretted it hadn't been with Akane, but he had admit it had been a very good date. he'd even managed to avoid going out of control and hitting on other women, aside from one unfortunate slip with Kasumi.
Then they had come to this hillside to watch the fireworks. The two martial artist had laid down in the comfortable grass, close to each other but not indecently so. But as they watched the beautiful blossoms of fire and light, Shampoo inched closer to Ryoga. Finally she was curled up against his side, and stroking his cheek. Ryoga assumed that it was the Casanova point that made him take her hand in his and gently claim her lips. She kissed him back fiercely, passionately, and wrapped her arms around him. They stayed there for several minutes, stopping only to breathe and whisper sweet nothings. Eventually, they wound down and Shampoo remembered herself.
"Ryoga," she said quietly, "Shampoo so sorry. Shampoo know you not Airen, and she know you love Kitchen Destroyer Girl, but Shampoo so lonely. She so far from her home, she never see her friends anymore, never see her mother. Shampoo just want feel loved for a little while."
She kissed him again, lightly and oh so gently, her lips salty with the flavor of her tears. Then she slid down and laid her head on his chest, continuing to cry. She made quite a wet spot on his yellow tunic before she finally drifted to sleep, leaving Ryoga alone with his thoughts.
In the darkness a dozen yards away, starlight gleamed off a pair of round glasses.
Later that evening, Shampoo led Ryoga back to the cat cafe and set up a cot for the young man. Cologne looked up from her reading at the sound of the door, and went to investigate. Looking down the stairs from the top of her cane, she watched Shampoo kiss Ryoga's forehead before climbing the stairs to go to her own room for the night.
"Shampoo, unless these old eyes are finally giving out, that young man is not Son-in-Law." The old woman said quietly.
Shampoo gazed at her grandmother with a troubled look on her face.
"Perhaps he should be, Great Grandmother."
Cologne's face creased (more) with worry as she put a hand on Shampoo's shoulder.
"Child, you know that he doesn't love you. It's only that pressure point talking. He's obsessed with that Tendo girl, as surely as the Part Timer is obsessed with you."
Fresh tears slid down Shampoo's cheeks as she replied. "Shampoo knows, but it was so nice to be loved, even for just a day. Even though Shampoo know it not real."
The Amazon elder pursed her lips and thought for a moment, then spoke again.
"If you wish to try, Shampoo, this one is almost as good a fighter as Son-in-Law. If you can steal his heart, he would be a fine addition to the tribe, and father many strong daughters. But be careful, Child. I don't wish to see you get your heart broken yet again."
Shampoo gave Cologne a hug and said, "Thank you, Great Grandmother. Shampoo will be careful"
The next morning, Ryoga awoke from a sound slumber to find himself tied to a tree. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was and how he got there.
"So, finally awake, Hibiki? Good."
Striding around from behind the tree came Mousse, holding a quartet of throwing knives in one hand and smiling cruelly.
"Thought you could steal my Shampoo away from me, Hibiki? Right in front of me, no less? It's bad enough having to compete with that idiot Saotome, but having a directionally challenged buffoon like you interfering in our future happiness is the limit!"
"Future happiness? Mousse, what are you talking about? I went on one date with her. That's more than you've ever had with her." Ryoga struggled with his bonds as he talked, testing the strength of the stout cords that held him to the tree.
"That's why I'm mad, you moron! I've stood by her all this time, and when her loneliness overcomes her, who does she turn to? YOU! Not me, the faithful one who's been there for her, who's longed for her, but you, some idiot transformed by a pressure point into the perfect man."
Mousse twirled the knives in his hand for effect. They flashed in the early morning light very prettily. Ryoga swallowed noisily.
"So I'm going to get you out of the way, Hibiki. At least till that damned pressure point wears off, or maybe permanently, I haven't made up my mind yet. I suppose if you begged, I might lean one way or the other. Also, I happen to have a little bit of the spring of drowned duck water left. Do you want to see if we can make a pig fly?" The myopic martial artist chuckled with glee.
At the suggestion of tampering with his curse, Ryoga decided he was tired of being tied up, and definitely tired of listening to Mousse. With a mighty heave, Ryoga uprooted the tree and bent at the waist, clobbering Mousse with the trunk. He then twisted to the side and streched out his arms, snapping the stout cords like string.
Mousse groggily got to his feet and stared at Ryoga in horror.
"That was braided parachute line! What kind of monster are you, Hibiki?"
The eternally lost one grimaced, balled his hands into fists hard enough to make his knuckles pop audibly, and replied, "The kind that's thoroughly pissed off at you, Duck Boy."
With a inarticulate battle cry, Ryoga charged at Mousse, cocking back his fist to pummel the Master of Hidden weapons into the ground. Mousse quickly backpedaled, desperate to get some distance between himself and the seemingly homicidal lost boy.
With a flick of his wrist, he launched all four of his throwing knives at Ryoga, trying to stall him. Ryoga quickly parried three with a thrown bandanna, but wasn't quite fast enough to dodge the fourth. It lodged itself in his upper arm. The pig cursed martial artist swore and pulled out the knife, taking a second to wrap another bandanna around the wound.
Mousse took full advantage of Ryoga's distraction and leaped to the top of a nearby streetlight. From there he let loose a barrage of thrown weapons, shuriken, chains, swords on chains, explosive eggs and anything else at hand. Ryoga whipped off his belt and knocked projectiles from the air as fast as he could. He still got stung by a handful of small shuriken, and couldn't quite get out of the way of what seemed to be a silver sink with faucet still attached, but he came out fairly unscathed.
"Is that the best you've got, Mousse? Is that all you can do, Duck Boy? You seem to like throwing things, try this on for size!"
Ryoga whipped a cloud of bandannas off his head and into the air, filling the space between him and the streetlight with an orange-and-black cloud of death. Then after a second's delay, he lobbed Mousse's own knife back at the Hidden Weapons user.
Mousse lashed out with a pair of chains from each arm and expertly deflected all of the ki-sharpened cloth weapons. Then he dropped his defense to gloat.
"It seems that you can do no better, Hibi-urk!"
The blind martial artist was cut off mid taunt by his own knife hitting him square between the eyes. His body hit the pavement with a sickening thump. Ryoga slowly walked up to his fallen foe with a grim expression on his face. Mousse's face was red, and he had a dark square bruise between his eyes shaped like the pommel of his throwing dagger.
Ryoga grunted. "Asshole. I should have made the other end hit him. Oh, well. Let's get you home, Mousse."
Ryoga picked up the young Chinese man and slung him over his shoulder, preparing to head to the Cat Cafe and actually looking down the road towards Yokohama, when a voice from behind him startled him.
"Thank you, Ryoga. You could have killed stupid Mousse and you didn't. After what he did, few would have blamed you. As much as he makes Shampoo angry, Shampoo not want him dead."
Ryoga turned to see the purple tressed amazon standing at the edge of the park he and Mousse had fought in. She walked up to Ryoga and kissed him softly on the cheek, then took his hand and led him back to the restaurant she called home.
All the way back, Ryoga's mind was in a whirl. He couldn't stop thinking of Akane, he loved her, and loved being P-chan for her. But at the same time, he couldn't forget how it felt when Shampoo kissed him, and what her hand, still holding his, felt like.
Akane loved Ranma, Ryoga grudgingly admitted, but she loved Ryoga as long as he was P-chan. But it seemed that Shampoo was at least interested in loving Ryoga as a man. Or was it just the way the pressure point made him act that interested her? He resolved to find out.
Ranma sat in his room, reading the latest Dragonball manga and eating some 'Hello Panda' cookies.
Goku was getting thrashed by some silly looking, but apparently powerful opponent. Ranma grabbed a cookie and bit the head of the cartoon panda off, pretending in his mind's eye that it was his father.
A few pages and minutes later, his hand reached out for another cookie, only to find the box empty.
"Crap, I want some more pandas." Ranma said.
He got up and checked his stash in the closet, empty. 'Damn old man.'
Stepping into the hall, he went to check his second stash, a shoe box in Nabiki's closet he rented from her with the proviso that she was the only on who went through it.
His spirits dropped when she answered her door with a brown smudge of chocolate in the corner of her mouth. Glancing behind her, he saw two of the familiar red boxes on her bed, clearly empty.
"Aww, Nabiki. My pandas."
With a slightly guilty look, she stepped into the doorway, belatedly blocking his view of her room.
"Look, Saotome, I'm sorry, but I got an incredibly strong chocolate craving, and your pandas were the closest source. You know I need chocolate like a vampire needs blood. Now here, take this 1000 yen and go get yourself 2 more boxes."
She handed him a wadded up bill, though he had to tug a bit to get her to actually let go.
"But Nabiki, each box is only 250 yen."
"Of course Saotome. The extra is for my two boxes."
"So not only did you eat my cookies, I'm now your errand boy, too?"
"Look, Ranma-baby, you came here cause you wanted Pandas, right? Since there aren't any here, you'll obviously go get more, and a big strong guy like you can easily bring back an extra two boxes for little old me, right?"
Ranma sighed in frustration, then said, "Fine, whatever. I'll be back in a bit."
"I'll be waiting Saotome. Don't make me wait too long, Ranma-baby," Nabiki purred as she closed her door.
Ranma looked up from the money in his hand to see Kasumi standing in the hall.
"What was that all about, Ranma? Cheating on me so soon? And with my own sister? Oh, to be tossed aside at such a young age, used and abandoned by Ranma Saotome, enemy of women." She sighed dramatically and leaned against the wall in faux despair.
Ranma panicked. "No Kasumi!! It wasn't anything like that at all! Nabiki ate my chocolates and gave me money to go get more and then told me to get more for her, too! That's all I promise I wouldn't do that to you, Kasumi!!" Ranma blurted and was about to employ the Crouch of The Wild Tiger when he heard Kasumi giggle.
"Nabiki is right, it is a lot of fun to tease you, Ranma. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. But since you're going to the store anyway, would you mind?"
Ranma frowned, his heart starting to slow from its previous frenetic pace. "That wasn't very nice, Kasumi."
"No, but it was funny. So will you do something for me?"
"Sure, Kasumi, what do you want?"
She sidled up to Ranma and daintily slapped 250 yen into his hand.
"A box of chocolate pandas."
Ranma blinked at her and said, "Uh, sure"
Ranma strolled slowing through the park, a plastic bag dangling from his hand with four boxes of 'Hello Panda' cookies in it, the fifth being in his other hand.
He tossed one in his mouth and crunched happily on it as he walked past a fountain.
He sat down on the fountain's edge and relaxed for a minute. It was a really nice day out. It had been a cold night last night, but the late morning sun and a warm breeze off the ocean had dispelled the chill from the air.
He thought about what Cologne told him two days ago, about the nature of Ki.
'When the Doc hit me with those bones the other day, I didn't feel any emotional charge to them, so he must be past that stage of development. But that means I'm way behind. Even if I learn to use an emotion based Ki attack, I'll be at a disadvantage. I need to jump past that to the next stage, but how?'
Totally engrossed in his thoughts, Ranma's hand slipped from his lap to dip into the water of the fountain.
"Aah! Cold!"
He shook the water off of his hand and rubbed it against his pants. The pool still held the chill of the night before. It was as cold as ice.
'Ice.'
Ranma's eyes widened in realization. He slapped his fist into his palm.
"Ice! That's it! I can use that Soul of Ice thing the old ghoul taught me to bypass the emotional Ki attacks. It's like a shortcut!"
He quickly stood and focused briefly, entering the Soul of Ice. He thrust his hands out in front of him and let loose his battle aura. The fountain clearing of the park lit up with an eerie blue glow. He tried with all his might to channel his aura into his hands, into the air between them.
Suddenly, he stopped, grabbed the bag full of cookies and put it on a bench 30 feet away, then came back and started over.
Slowly, oh so slowly, his aura condensed between his hands, swirling there like a glowing spirit seeking release. When it built up to the point where Ranma could no longer contain it, he jabbed his hand towards a nearby tree and mentally "pushed" the ball of icy Ki away from himself.
Something akin to a snowball smushed into the tree at slightly over the speed of a badly throw baseball.
Ranma sagged to his knees in mental exhaustion. This was going to take a lot of work.
To be continued...