Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½.

Interference

….

Ranma watched as the Server left after having placed their morning meal and made his usual offering. Four days had passed since the Tendo sisters had visited and not much had changed. Despite the Godling's announcement three days ago to train Ranma and Akane the stream of worshippers and the Servers themselves had demanded all of the puppet's time. Thus any such training was prevented from taking place. Which was just as well, as Ranma hadn't been able to come up with any workable plans to sneak around the place without some more knowledge of the layout, nor had Akane. Ranma trotted over to his bowl and lowered his head to eat. The scent of ramen noodles in broth brought Ranma to a momentary halt before his hunger took over and he ate anyway.

The ramen had reminded him of Shampoo and her actions a week and a half ago. Once the Servers of the Godling began invading his life the Amazons had stepped back in order to not interfere with the process. Shampoo had still managed to greet Ranma at least weekly with an over-friendly hug and a bowl of ramen. That day, the day before he and Akane became shisa, Shampoo brought over something Ranma found much more horrifying.

Ranma remembered it clearly as an unforgettable nightmare. He, or rather the Godling with him along for the ride, was sitting on the floor meditating when several Servers and priests all dressed in heavy robes began to gather around. Once they were standing in a semi-circle around him the first one bowed and spoke. "My Reverence, as you know tonight is the full moon and tomorrow is the final sacrifice to secure your presence in this realm," he stopped, hesitating.

Ranma felt the Godling raise his head to look fully at the group, but nothing more.

A second Server continued, "We believe we have chosen the correct maiden, but," the man paused.

Ranma felt his heart freeze, a maiden? Why did they need a maiden? This time it was a human sacrifice? He struggled momentarily to regain control, to shout for this madness to end, for the 'Servers' not to harm anyone.

Another of the priests bluntly stated, "She is proving….difficult to persuade or subdue."

The barest glimmer of hope reached Ranma. Perhaps they would not manage to obtain this maiden, perhaps they would fail and he would finally have a chance at evicting his invader. The door opened, stealing his attention, and a shadow fell across the floor. The familiar figure of Shampoo dressed proudly in her Amazonian armor marched in to the center of the circle with a limp body over her shoulder.

Placing her load on the ground she spoke to the gathering, "The Amazons are proud to honor The Great One and serve Him," a dark glint lit her face, "I, Shampoo, brought the sacrifice, please look after my people."

Ranma's mind screamed with denial at the sight of the blue-black locks that covered the woman's face. He hadn't missed Shampoo's dark almost gleeful look when she had presented the body of the woman.

Meanwhile, the Servers questioned how the Amazon obtained the maiden and protested that she was needed alive.

Smugly the Amazon explained, "Shampoo snuck up and knock her out. She not know what hit her."

Staring in horror, Ranma watched as the Servers began discussing tying the woman up so she couldn't escape while Shampoo smirked in the corner. He attempted, once again to move the slightest amount on his own, if nothing else then to slap himself and wake from this nightmare. When it became evident that Ranma couldn't do anything the reality of the situation began to sink in.

Before, he had never truly hated any of his suitors or rivals. Ranma had always thought that when push came to shove his various suitors and rivals were in fact his friends, and he had had more than enough adventures when that had proven the case. But here, Shampoo had, in his eyes, finally shown her true colors. He could see from her eyes that once she learned that Akane was to be sacrificed she turned on her in a heartbeat for her own gain. How could he have forgotten the 'obstacles are for killing' Amazon warrior he had first met? He wondered how long Shampoo would have continued to pretend to be a friend if The Great One hadn't interfered in their lives.

Shaking his head to dispel dark thoughts, Ranma focused on the present. By now he had finished his breakfast and was lapping up some water to clean his palate. Glancing at Akane, Ranma noticed that she had also finished eating and was watching the gate, lost in thought. His ear moved back briefly when he noticed her bowl still had ramen in it. She hadn't been eating as much lately and that bothered him.

An idea occurred to him and, grinning inwardly to himself, Ranma silently padded towards Akane. Once he was in position a few meters away from her he gathered his weight on his hind legs waiting for the perfect moment. When Akane's ear twitched in his direction Ranma pounced, tackling her.

"Omphf, Ranma!"

Ranma grinned as he looked down at Akane, but he soon lost the grin when a mischievous glint lit her eye and a set of claws found his stomach and sharp teeth gripped his forearm. Ranma found himself losing his position on top as Akane used her grip to roll them over and switch positions. He retaliated by grabbing her forearm with his mouth and pulling it out from under her.

Akane responded by pulling a nasty trick. She stepped on his tail. Ranma yowled before glaring at her. "Oops," he briefly heard Akane murmur as her eyes widened with fear. It was on now.

Claws extended Ranma pushed forward and tried to pin Akane beneath him. Too bad Akane had other ideas. Using her claws she braced herself and pushed right back.

They wrestled in a mess of claws and teeth and fur when two figures entered the gate and they froze. Ranma, his forelimbs and hind limbs on opposite sides of Akane with his chest over her upper back, had his mouth firmly clamped on one of her ears and could only guess that Akane had her mouth open.

In the past week-and-a-half Ranma had found this whole freezing business rather annoying, like a fly that just wouldn't leave. Part of it was the stopping whatever they were doing, but another part of the annoyance was that people didn't really notice them, just as Akane had said; they were treated as inanimate statues and beyond a slight glance ignored.

This time, however, Ranma desperately hoped the woman and boy, as the figures revealed themselves to be, would not notice them and hurry into the temple. He had no desire to find out what they'd do or think of the shisa frozen in an embarrassing and awkward position.

For a moment it appeared that they would just pass as the young woman marched at an agitated pace directly for the steps. The little boy being dragged along unfortunately noticed the two shisa.

"Momma," he pointed and stared at the two shisa, and Ranma felt heat rise to his face.

By then the mother and son had reached the bottom of the steps and the mother turned urgently to kneel before the boy. "Listen, Yotaro, sweetie," she repeated to pull the boy's full attention to her, "Mommy has to do something really important. She has to pray to The Great One. It's really important that you wait here, do you understand me?"

The little boy nodded in response to his mother's serious tone and she in return kissed his forehead.

"Good. Now, stay here." The woman got up and, after making sure the boy would stay, entered the temple.

To Ranma's carnage the boy immediately turned toward him and Akane.

"What are you doing, doggy?" the boy asked as approached and reached out for them.

Ranma could feel the pads of his feet begin to sweat.

Eagerly Yotaro reached out and tugged on Akane's mane, "you're soft!" he exclaimed, surprised. He began to roughly stoke Akane's neck and shoulder. Then not to leave Ranma out he reached his chubby little hand out and tried to scratch Ranma's chin.

Ranma felt Akane quake slightly from the boy's attention, and when he scratched his chin Ranma grit his teeth-unfortunately on Akane's ear; he felt her wince-in order to not jerk away from the boy's prodding fingers.

Yotaro shuffled over to the other side of Akane, to stand next to Ranma's hind leg. Grabbing a handful of fur from both of them the boy yanked and clambered up using Ranma's knee as a step-stool. Once on Akane's shoulders he wiggled and wormed his way around until he sat on Akane with his head resting on Ranma's mane. Reaching up and tugging painfully on Ranma's ear Yotaro squirmed a bit to settle in before Ranma felt the boy go limp as he fell asleep.

Finally able to move again Ranma let go of Akane's ear, but was careful not to move anymore in case Yotaro slid off.

Akane immediately moved her ear around as if testing to see if it was broken. She muttered sarcastically, "Thanks for not eating my ear."

"Hey!" Ranma loudly whispered, "That wasn't my fault, the little brat was jabbing my throat!"

"Stop moving! He's sliding!"

He froze. Ever-so-slowly Ranma shifted his knee so that the boy's feet were stabilized against it. The male shisa then leaned forward and began to soothingly lick Akane's ear. She twitched her ear away at first before letting him continue. After a thorough washing he asked, "There, is that better?"

Akane sighed, "How are we going to get out of this mess?"

"Dunno, wait for his mother to come back?"

As if on cue the Godling appeared escorting the young mother out of the temple. She followed Him practically groveling at His feet, "Thank you! Thank you, I'm ever so grateful," the woman bowed over and over.

Simultaneously at the gate a different woman appeared. One that Ranma was much less happy to see. Twisting his head slightly toward the newcomer he froze his mouth open as Akane's snapped shut.

In the center of the gate stood Shampoo her eyes burning with determination.

…...

Happy New Year.

I did some more research on shisa. Apparently "shisa" is what they are called in Okinawa, in other areas they are called shishi or komainu.