Chasing the Rainbow

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any related characters in any way, shape or form.

Author's Notes: I want to thank you all for your reviews; they are inspiring and, in many cases, thought provoking. While we do have our basic concepts for this story in general, and a fairly solid grasp of where we're going (for example, you're not going to see some sort of "Un-Ranma", a collective embodiment of all the parallel versions of Ranma who lived miserable lives, spring out of the mirror and start rampaging- that's just a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere moment), your comments, your thoughts, your opinions and your insights all give more material with which to mould this story from concept to reality. For that, I want to thank you.

Chapter 2: First Date

Shampoo fought with the urge to burst out singing in her happiness as she walked down the street, Ranma not only following her, but also doing so willingly- Ranma was actually willing to go on a date with her! A part of her was suspicious about why he was so willing… she knew for a fact that she hadn't done anything to try and bargain with him, and that she hadn't stumbled across anything that would persuade him to try and get on her good side… why was he acting this way? Was he under mind control of some kind? No, that didn't make any sense. If someone else had put him under some kind of mesmeric effect, then why would he be approaching her instead of following them around? And his attitude was wrong for being under another of those lady-killer bandaids; the fact he actually waited for her faithfully at the park instead of wandering off after the first pretty girl he saw proved that. So he was most definitely acting under his own free will.

'Not that you would care that much if he wasn't; so long as he's with you, it's all well and good, isn't it?' Whispered her traitorous conscience.

'Can you blame me?' She tried to defend herself. 'He barely looks at me unless I'm throwing myself in his face! I just want him to pay me some attention, to realize that I love him!'

'Maybe he wouldn't be so nervous if you'd stop all the dirty tricks- that doesn't exactly make you look like a loving girl, you know.' Her conscience pointed out.

'I'll stop it when he starts paying attention to me any other way!' Shampoo declared. In fact, she was so caught up in this mental argument that she failed to realize that Ranma had been speaking until the boy in question tapped her on the shoulder, making her visibly start and yelp before she caught herself. "Ah, what is it, airen?" She asked.

"Just wondering if you got some specific place chosen, that's all." He answered casually. At the least, he tried to sound casual; Shampoo knew her reluctant husband's behavior patterns pretty well, if you asked her, and so she could tell that he was genuinely curious… and, perhaps strangely, a little nervous.

She hesitated to answer, though, as she was rather unsure of where to take him herself. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't help but remember that all of their other "dates" had been flops as well. That trip to the movies for the Instant Nanniichuan? Even if worrying over that nitwit Akane had distracted him, she had to admit that neither of them really enjoyed the movie. It was kind of boring, not to mention striking at topics that were too close to home for comfort. Boat riding in the park, with the lady-killer bandaid? …Yeah, that was a great idea when both of them had Jusenkyo curses and Shampoo's cursed form sent Ranma running for the skyline.

In fact, now that Shampoo really thought about it, she couldn't remember one single solitary time when doing something romantic had ever worked out for them. Gah! This couldn't be! There was no way fate could be so cruel as to have Ranma actually ask her on a date, only for her to be unable to think of anyplace to go! She had to do something... and then a bolt of inspiration struck. Yes, it was really only a delaying tactic, but right now she'd take anything she could get. Besides, this would be fun in its own right. Putting on a mischievous smile, she leaned in towards Ranma's face, the pigtailed boy, as always, retreating- though less than he normally would, on this occasion.

"Ranma want to know where Shampoo going to take Ranma?" She asked, her tone reaching a level of saccharine it had never been before. The pigtailed boy nodded, and she promptly leaned even closer. "Shampoo tell you..." She began, lowering her voice so that Ranma was forced to lean in to hear her. "...If you can catch me!" She suddenly shouted, turning and leaping for the nearest roof as Ranma visibly jolted from the shock. She was already three houses over when she heard Ranma's indignant call from behind her.

"Hey, no fair! Wait up!"

She giggled to herself and instead poured on the speed, trusting that Ranma would be able to follow her wherever she went and however fast she went.

Up they went, crossing the gaps separating the nearby houses first with simple jumps, and then Shampoo started putting flips and twists that Ranma quickly copied, and then tried to beat, creating a sight that would have made Olympic gymnasts and professional free-runners jealous as they passed overhead fast enough that by the time anyone registered the sound of their footfalls or laughter, they were already long gone.

Up ahead, Shampoo was grinning as she glanced back to see Ranma starting to gain on her, before turning her attention to the rapidly approaching fence in front of her as her smile widened, and she jumped. Ranma slowed slightly as Shampoo pulled off a triple front-flip and landed on one hand on the fence, applauding while Shampoo balanced back onto her feet and bowed, before dashing off again with a mischievous giggle as Ranma recovered and followed after.

The fence rapidly gave way to a canal and the pair began alternating from one side to another even as the canal widened to several meters as the pair raced into the city of Nerima proper, passers-by blinking at the blurs that flipped up onto the railings of a bridge and then hopped across the roofs of several cars before landing on the top of a small office building, Shampoo pausing just enough to catch sight of a good place to continue their little chase before flipping away from Ranma's attempt to tag her.

"Ah ah ah! Not fast enough!" With a giggle, Shampoo danced just out of reach before leaping across a gap onto another building as Ranma shook his head with a smile and resumed chasing after her, the pair vaulting over air-conditioning units and sliding across cables and wires strung up between buildings like tightropes as the pair seemed to appear as a pair of acrobatic shadows to anyone who bothered to look up, which was fairly rare as the population had been inured to that sort of sight, as Shampoo led Ranma to a nearby park.

The pair flipped and spun from tree to tree, then dropped to the ground. Shampoo was just about to entertain letting Ranma catch her when a shiver went up her spine- and hot on its heels came the last voice she ever wanted to hear.

"Shampoo? Is that you? Oh! It is! Be myi bride, Shampoo!"

Shampoo stiffened in equal parts shock (where had he come from?), fear (for Ranma's sake) and annoyance (not him, not now!)… seconds before two great, hairy, musty-smelling, horribly cold arms wrapped around her, all the proof she needed (as if Ranma's leaping back with a cry of fright wasn't enough) that, yes, Maomolin was here and he was, indeed, going to hit on her.

"There you are, myi sweet Shampoo. It's been so long… what are you doing out here?" The hulking bakeneko asked, his obnoxious whiny voice completely at odds with his husky frame.

"Shampoo go on date with Ranma, not that it any your business!" Shampoo snapped. Not for the first time, in the privacy of her head, she cursed that stupid old woman who had offered to sell her the Bells of Maomolin. Damn old bat hadn't mentioned the legend of Maomolin actually haunting the bells, otherwise Shampoo wouldn't have bought the stupid things. All she had been told was that legend claimed the bells would draw two lovers together, not that "lovers", in this case, meant "Maomolin and whatever poor woman was given a bell"- she had far too much experience with the supernatural, both at home and since moving to Nerima to pursue Ranma, to just shrug off legends and things like that.

"Date? With him?" The ghostly cat growled (as best that word could be applied to him). "Well, not if I have anything say about it! Buzz off, human!" He hissed at the quailing Japanese boy, who backed away against his will, courtesy of thrice-damned Genma Saotome and his incompetent training!

Shampoo snarled, something that should have sent warning bells clamoring in the minds of anyone who knew her. She was not going to let her heaven-sent miracle be derailed by some incompetent idiotic ghostly feline! Martial arts meant many things, sometimes more than one to the same person. Among the things it meant to Shampoo was this: she could bend like a gymnast, and deliver a kick like an atomic mule. Maomolin's scream caused glass to shatter as the ball of her foot struck home in the one place that no male, irregardless of species or mortality, liked to be struck, whereupon, his arms having flown open in his pain, Shampoo drove one elbow into his stomach and then her fist shot up into his jaws, sending the giant bakeneko collapsing on his back, out cold. She made a show of squeezing her knuckles and walked away from the unconscious ghost, Ranma giving her an expression of equal parts amusement, wariness and respect.

"We go now?" She asked, only half rhetorically.

"Sure… but, where, exactly?" He asked.

Shampoo balked, and then her face fell. "Shampoo not know!" She cried out in sudden anguish. "Shampoo forget when stupid ghost cat show up!"

"Hey, it's no big deal." Ranma said with a smile. "Why don't we just take a look around? There's gotta be an arcade or something around here; as long as we spend the day together, that's all that matters, isn't it?"

Shampoo blinked and gazed at Ranma suspiciously. She couldn't help it; as much as she wanted this, this was still so unlike Ranma… but what possible plan could he have? She had nothing he wanted (as galling as that was to even think), and it wasn't like him to mess around with peoples' heads unless they started it, so there was no reason she could think of why he would be doing this… Finally, she decided that she'd just keep an eye open and enjoy it: who cared why he was doing it, so long as she was getting a date out of it! Besides, she knew, in her heart, that once Ranma started dating her, he would realize that she was the only one for him. She gave him a bright smile, then latched eagerly onto his arm. "Let's go, airen." She told him.

Wandering aimlessly around the Tokyo area would not have been Shampoo's first choice of activities on a date, but she had to admit that it had its charms. They had been walking and taking in the sights for… over an hour, she guessed, and making small talk with Ranma was an activity not to underestimate- he so rarely talked to anyone, never mind to her. They'd covered a number of topics, from their respective handwriting skills (he admitted to her that he still hadn't made much progress since that fight with Sotatsu Jikei'ien) to a shared love of video games (that was a welcome discovery- that he seemed receptive to the idea of coming around to visit to play her Super Nintendo even more so), and had gotten quite involved in them. So much so that they barely noticed that they had drifted into a rather seedy area until they had been surrounded by some of the less-friendly locals.

Shampoo looked at the unwanted intrusion and wrinkled her nose disdainfully; there was only about ten or twelve of them, all somewhere in their late teens or early twenties, and not one of them had anything approaching the stance that marked them as a decent threat. Akane wouldn't have even the slightest hesitation about taking these fools on, and certainly would have won without a scratch. One particularly goofy-looking fellow, apparently the leader if one judged by the amount of tacky "thug accessories" he carried, leered at her slovenly and laughed.

"Hey, pretty lady, why don't'cha come widda real man?"

"Already have one. You go now." Shampoo sniffed.

The thugs responded with an array of leers, cackles, dirty comments and slobbering. Goofball sauntered over, some inane pickup line on his lips even as he made his biggest mistake and reached out to try and touch Shampoo. Shampoo didn't even need to consciously think about what she did- while it was true that she could appreciate the romantic aspect of being rescued by Ranma, this sort of "opposition" would invoke only the wrong moods. Ranma himself, meanwhile, had preemptively taken several steps away to let her do her work, cracking joints and knuckles in his usual pre-beatdown tic.

A delicate hand reached out and fastened onto the intruding wrist like an iron clamp. A slight pull, a certain twist of the hips, and goofball was yanked off of his feet and thrown to the ground, his shoulder audibly dislocating as Shampoo 'neglected' to let go, her free hand darting in to tap his knock out point so that he didn't even have time to scream. In the blink of an eye, the gang leader was down, and there was a stunned silence that lasted for all of 2.5 seconds before the others proved themselves no brighter than goofball and attacked. The fight lasted maybe 10 seconds, tops. Shampoo smirked as she watched one thug kick his legs frantically from where he was stuck head down in a garbage can. She turned to her beloved Ranma, and blinked in surprise to find him stealing the money from their opponents.

"What you doing?" She asked.

"I figure this'll teach them more of a lesson then the beating will. Besides, think of it as lunch being on them." Ranma grinned back.

"It lunch already?" Shampoo asked in her confusion, then realized that she was feeling rather hungry, now that she thought about it. "What we do for food?" She questioned, joining him in the looting.

"Don't know." Ranma admitted, then slapped the thug whose pockets he was about to empty. "Hey, you know if there's a joint to eat at around here?"

"There's a Yoshinoya joint nearby…" The mangled goon groaned, naming the most famous donburi franchise restaurant. He promptly coughed up the directions, and Ranma thanked him by not stealing his money. Pockets jingling with yen, the two teen martial artists casually left the beaten gangers behind and headed towards the Yoshinoya restaurant.

Donburi wasn't something Shampoo ate on a regular basis, but it wasn't something she hated either, and so she had no qualms about sitting down at a free table and relishing a nice heaped bowl or two. She broke the chopsticks apart and licked her lips as the bowl of oyakodon was placed before her, Ranma smiling at her from behind his own bowl of katsudon.

"Lucky for us that they were stupid enough to try something, eh?" He asked.

Shampoo stopped eating for a moment to nod in agreement. "Even if was not so lucky for them." Several minutes later, she stopped eating when she saw a sign in the window. "Why this place run eating contest?" She asked curiously.

Ranma cocked his head, then followed her gaze to the sign before shrugging and taking several more mouthfuls of pork and rice. "Eh, probably some Battle Diner managed to make a deal with this place for publicity or something."

"Battle Diner?" Shampoo asked.

"Oh yeah, that's right, you weren't involved in that, were you? I mean a practitioner of Martial Arts Dining." Ranma explained.

Shampoo made no effort to hide her disbelief; Martial Arts Dining? As in, a fighting style based around eating contests? How in the world was that supposed to work? Then her train of thought went down the track questioning how, exactly, Ranma had met someone from such an obscure (not to mention ridiculous) fighting style, and her brows narrowed in anger. "Another fiancée?" She asked.

"Nope. He was after one of Mr. Tendo's daughters." Ranma answered casually.

Shampoo stared, and then: "This Shampoo have to hear." She stated.

Ranma, without the slightest hesitation, explained how his father and Soun Tendo had lost a challenge to the Chardin family of Martial Arts Dining while on one of their training journeys, offering to betroth one of their daughters to one of his sons in lieu of paying their debt. When said son had appeared, Ranma had offered to defeat him and get him to call the deal off, mainly because the Chardin boy had humiliated him by beating him in front of the school. When he was finished, Shampoo sat and stared in disbelief, before shaking her head and giving a mocking grin.

"Well, Shampoo no can suggest Shampoo and other girls use that method to settle who gets Ranma, yes? Is too-too stupid."

"I don't know, I've seen worse…" Ranma murmured. He promptly clammed up and refused to say any more when Shampoo looked at him, partially hopeful, primarily curious. "So, what do you want to do now?" He asked, refusing to acknowledge her questions.

Biting back the urge to pout, Shampoo gave it some thought. "We still have plenty money. We go to arcade?" She suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Ranma replied.

"Darn." Ranma pouted slightly at the sight of the 'PLAYER TWO WINS!' screen in front of him, "I guess that proves being good at martial arts does not equal being good at arcade fighting games."

Shampoo nodded, though she was still grinning from the win. "Was good fight though, Shampoo almost thought airen was going to win."

The pair were inside a local arcade, and after a shot at several Raiden games to test their reflexes and King of Fighters to see if having martial arts skill translated to videogame skill, they started looking around for something different when Shampoo spotted the lightgun games and nodded her head towards them, smiling wickedly when Ranma demurred.

"Ranma looking for challenge, right? Shampoo not think of better way that testing accuracy and speed, or is airen afraid Shampoo win?"

Ranma snorted at the challenge. "All right, you're on."

With that, the pair grabbed the guns for House of the Dead 2 and got ready to start their unofficial contest, "First to game over, loses."

With that the zombie gore-fest began as the pair seemed to instinctively correct for the deliberately off-aim of the lightguns as a crowd started to gather as the pair stormed through the levels, the contest finally ending at the fourth stage boss as the crowd applauded to Ranma and Shampoo's bows. A quick check of their money and time later, and Shampoo reluctantly decided that it was time to wrap up the date. About twenty minutes later, Ranma and Shampoo were in the outskirts of Nerima. Even though Ranma had brought up that they would have to separate here and go home their separate ways, lest the others caught up in the Nerima tangle discover what they had done and break out all hell, Shampoo was hopping with glee. True, today hadn't been the most romantic of events, but considering that she had actually had a successful date with Ranma, never mind one that he had agreed to of his own free will, she was over the moon!

"...Are you happy, Shampoo?" Ranma asked suddenly.

Shampoo looked at him askance, one part of her touched that he would ask, one part suspicious of why he would ask, one part happy that he cared, and one part of her wondering if he needed his eyes examined. She settled for giving him her happiest grin and wrapping her arms around him. "Shampoo too-too happy! Shampoo could die of joy right now, that how Shampoo feel!"

"I... uh... I'm glad you're happy." Ranma said softly, his head bowed. "We... I... you wanna do this again?"

Shampoo's heart felt like it had just stopped from a mixture of joy and shock. Was Ranma…? Had he just…? Faintly realizing he was staring at her, unable to find her voice, she nodded frantically, and Ranma gave her a faint smile.

"Okay… I guess I'll see you next time."

He began to work his way free of her embrace… but Shampoo suddenly realized what he was doing and tightened her grip.

"Where Ranma going? We not complete date just yet…" She purred. Ranma gave her an expression that could only be described as 'frightened', and despite herself she found it intoxicating. "Date no is complete until couple give each other goodbye kiss…"

"A kiss…? But… we haven't… we don't… I…"

Shampoo refused to give him a chance to muster a coherent response; selfish as it was, today had been just too perfect for her to be able to consider passing this by. Taking advantage of the fact he was well and truly in her grasp, she cut off his words by pressing her lips gently, but insistently, to his own. Now, if only he would kiss back… she released him at last, watching from between seductively hooded eyes as he stumbled back.

"See you later, my airen…" She breathed huskily, then turned and walked away. Of course, once she was sure she was far enough away that Ranma couldn't see her, her façade of the elegant seductress faded away in an instant to reveal her true self; love-struck and stunned senseless by the joys of the day. In a blissful daze she headed back to the Nekohanten, barely coherent of her surroundings.

And so ends Shampoo's first date… a pity for her when she discovers that she hasn't won the war just yet. And I rather doubt she's going to be pleased to learn that Ranma basically took notes from this session with her to use in his first session with Ukyo, as you'll see soon enough.

Now, there's the matter of voting options. There have been a number of thoughtful, well-written reviews on the subject, and each has had its own stance to say. I've been doing a lot of deep thinking on the subject as a consequence, and finally I've decided to trim out both interpretations of the "Nobody From Nerima" from the poll. I know that the "Minor/Original Character" option was a plausible one, but as has been pointed out to me, it can be quite hard to make an OC not seem like a Mary Sue at the best of times; in this story, with a fundamental setup that basically boils down to "Ranma has realized he hasn't been giving the other girls a fair chance and decides to do so", it just strains disbelief.

For the curious, Natsume is literally on the edge of acceptability, as Ranma's sense of honor (or, rather, desire to remain with his family) means that he's not going to just throw away the Tendo/Saotome arrangement just yet- particularly as he's seen things about Natsume that imply she could be a case of having his cake and eating it too. If she becomes the Tendo Dojo's heir, he can uphold his father's pledge and still marry a girl he can genuinely respect, care for, and otherwise have a happy relationship with. I am on the fence with her, though, as I've seen the reviews pointing out how she falls into much the same "territory" as an Original Character; it feels too hypocritical to say Ranma is going to give Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi a fair chance, then have someone he has no background with just walk in and steal him. I might decide to remove her from the list, but currently I have no plans to do so. Because she's a "package deal" with her little sister, who I don't think is more than a year or so younger then Ranma, I've decided that if one "Faux Tendo" is valid, then both are valid.

Similarly, it's been pointed out that having built up all this anticipation, made all this set up, and then having Ranma decide, essentially "Nope, I'm not going to fall in love with anyone" is a waste of suspense and a frankly terrible option. Now, don't get me wrong; this does not mean that Ranma is guaranteed to get hitched in the final chapter- this story is more about Ranma deciding which of the girls is the one he wants to truly be his fiancée, the one girl he is willing to commit to with the intent of marriage at some point in the future. He may end up being wed at the end, he may not, what this story centers on is him learning which of the girls has his heart, after seeing so many timelines where he was drawn to one girl or the other.

So, in summary, these are the valid voting options for "Ranma's Girl"; I'm sorry to those of you who wanted Ranma to get with an OC or Kaori Daikoku or Ling-Ling or whoever, but I think a subject matter like that would be best reserved for a different story.
Natsume "Tendo"
Shampoo
Ukyo Kuonji
Kodachi Kuno
Kurumi "Tendo"