Ryunosuke remained in the same fist-outstretched position she had been in when her final attack connected with Ranma's face, sending him flying into the east wall of the Tendo Dojo. As the red aura that had surrounded her fist dispersed, she stared at Ranma's motionless body with weary satisfaction.

"Heh... heh... got him," Ryu said, smiling weakly. She felt the world spinning, and before she knew what had happened, she, too, had collapsed onto the floor. Her final attack had taken every last iota of energy she had left, and now she could only lie there and rest until her body recovered enough for her to get up.

"H-hey... Ryu..." called a weak, muffled voice.

Ryu lifted her head just enough to look over at Ranma, still lying immobile with her face to the floor. In a voice weak with fatigue, Ryu mumbled back, "Damn... you're still awake? You're even tougher than I thought."

"That was a dirty trick, you know?"

"Whatever. Worked, didn't it?"

"Well... yeah..."

After looking thoughtful for a second, Ryu added, "You know, you ought to be proud. You're the first person ever to remain conscious after getting hit by that technique."

"Joy."

After a few moments of silence, Ryu spoke up again: "So, uh... who won? We both collapsed, and it looks like neither of us can get up."

"Hell if I know," Ranma muttered, lifting her eyes to meet Ryu's. "Wanna call it a tie?"

Ryu managed a weak grin. There was something strangely reconciling about two opponents beating the pulp out of each other to the point where fighting was no longer an option. Perhaps it was the fact that their anger had been physically spent, or maybe the free time afforded by not being able to move allowed them time to realize that this particular fight had been needless and more than a little hasty to begin with. Either way, neither Ranma nor Ryunosuke could bring themselves to be all that pissed at one another anymore.

Finally, Ryu shrugged and said, "Heh. Sure; why not?"

Ranma returned her smile and said, "All right, then. What say we drag ourselves to supper?"

The pigtailed girl used her arms to raise herself to her knees and from there unsteadily rose to her feet, but Ryunosuke had a much harder time picking herself up from off the floor. She struggled like someone who had done one too many pushups but refused to stop, trying and failing several times to raise herself. After the third failure, she groaned wearily but then gasped as she felt a hand touch hers. She looked up to see Ranma standing over her, offering her a hand. Ryu blushed slightly, but she allowed him to help her to her feet.

"Wow... Even after taking the full brunt of my final attack, he still has a lot more energy left than I do," Ryu thought, marveling. "Ranma really is something else... no wonder he's considered unbeatable in these parts."

The two turned toward the exit in order to leave but were surprised to see a stocky, bald figure standing in the doorway. Genma Saotome stepped from the shadows outside and gave five quick claps before tossing his "son" a kettle of hot water.

"Bravo, boy, bravo!" Genma said. "Not only did you defeat the legendary Fujinami Final Attack, but you proved you can be a gentleman, too. You make me proud, m'boy!"

"Pop... thanks, I guess," Ranma said, pouring the water on herself (which then became "himself"). Eying his dad suspiciously, he asked, "So, uh, exactly how long have you been watching us?"

"Woooo! What, has my boy been doing something with this sweet young thing that he shouldn't have been? Say it isn't so!" Genma teased.

"Sh-shut up, ya old fart! We were both girls; that'd be gross! We're not perverts, y'know," Ryu stammered, turning beet-red.

"She's right! Grow up, Pop," Ranma snapped, turning a little red himself. "Did you come in here for a reason, or are you just here to try to embarrass me?"

Genma's eyes narrowed, and after glancing left and right, he quietly shut the door. Clearing his throat, he began, "Well, to tell you the truth, there is something that I need to tell you two, and I'd just as soon do it here so it's only the three of us."

Ranma grimaced and muttered, "Uh, oh... Every time you say something like that, it usually means trouble for me. All right, out with it. What's up?"

Genma pushed his glasses up with his index finger and settled a serious gaze on the girl leaning onhis son's shoulder. "Ryunosuke, that attack you used on Ranma just now--the 500-yen T.K.O.--your father taught you that technique, didn't he?"

"Uh, yeah... It's been in our family for a while now. I think my grandpa came up with it," she said, looking at the older man curiously. "How do you know about it?"

The panda-man scratched his bald head and stared at the ground. After a few moments of silence, he reluctantly replied, "Your father used that very attack to defeat me in single combat many years ago, and he won an important concession in the process, a 'little arrangement', you might say."

It took a few moments for his words to sink in, but once they did, Ranma sweatdropped and his face turned a sickly blue color as he realized what his father had probably done... again. He looked over at Ryu, who also looked rather shocked.

"A... a concession?" Ranma asked. "Pop, you don't mean--"

"--my dad gave you popcorn and a drink for free?" Ryu finished.

The Saotomes pulled a simultaneous faceplant.

Ryu continued, "Geez, I can't believe it! That old cheapskate never even let me go to the movies, much less bought me any popcorn! That must have been some fight."

Ranma recovered from his faceplant, rushed over to where his father was standing, and grabbed the middle-aged man by the neck.

Eyes blazing with anger, Ranma spat, "Pop, this better be about popcorn, 'cause if you've done what it sounds like you've done--"

"Aaack! Stop choking me, boy! I can't very well tell you what happened if I'm dead!" Genma gasped, his eyes bulging out.

Realizing that he had a point there, Ranma reluctantly released his father and muttered, "All right, but this had better be good."

Genma looked whimsical and he stared off into space. "It all happened when I was in seventh grade..."

------

Young Fujinami gave his friend an annoyed look and shouted, "You have glue in your ears or something, Saotome? No means no, already!"

Young Genma playfully ribbed his buddy and retorted, "Oh, come on, Fujinami; don't be that way. After all, don't you want to improve your skills in the martial arts?"

Fujinami frowned and replied, "Of course I do, but give a fella' a break. If I have to give up any more food this week, my old man will have my hide!"

For several weeks now, Genma and Fujinami had engaged in a sort of 'battle-betting' game similar to what Ranma would play with Ukyo many years later. The two would each wager something, they would fight, and the winner would collect his winnings (because of this duo's natural tendencies and the Fujinami family business, the prize was almost always food). Fujinami had definitely come out on the short end of the stick on this game. These were the days before the little creep had mastered the fine art of the dirty trick, and his martial arts skills still needed much honing. Genma, on the other hand, was already the wily, powerful character we all know today, sans many years and a lot of lard. As a result, while Fujinami had managed to win an occasional sandwich here and there, he had lost massive amounts of food to his gluttonous chum through a recent string of defeats.

"Fujinami, don't be a sissy! Just wager something and let's do this," Genma urged him impatiently. "Come on! You're getting better every time, and you've already beaten me a couple of times, right?"

The skinny boy stopped in the middle of the dirt road and pondered the offer. On the one hand, he couldn't afford another loss; his dad was every inch the hard nose he himself would eventually turn out to be, and one more loss of prestige and sell-able food would mean getting the snot beat out of him and extra chores for a year. On the other hand, if he played his cards right and used that new technique his dad had taught him the other day, he might very well come out the winner on this deal...

"Well, all right, Saotome, but only if we wager something big," he said. "I'm tired of fighting for peanuts. I'll wager... lessee... 1,000 yen!"

Genma looked him with wide eyes and said, "Have you lost your mind? I don't know if you've noticed, Fujinami, but I'm poor! I barely even have enough for lunch money, so there's no way I can fork over 1,000 yen. I'm fine with playing big, but you need to pick something other than money, 'cause I'm flat broke."

"Hmm... Well, what else could we wager?" Fujinami muttered aloud. The wheels and cogs in his devious little brain turned until the proverbial light bulb appeared above his head. "Aha! I've got it! How about this: if you win, you eat for free at the Hamajaya for a whole year!"

Thoughts of fast food bliss danced in Genma's mind, and he drooled buckets. Suddenly remembering the other half of the wager, he sobered somewhat and said, "That sounds great Fujinami, but what'll I wager? Not everyone's family owns a restaurant, you know."

A devilish gleam sparkled in Fujinami's eye, and he said, "Genma, you're a really strong guy, and I'm willing to bet that your kids will be really strong, too. Since I want my kids to be masters in the martial arts, I figure they could really benefit from a spouse that can kick butt. What I'm getting at is this: for your wager, I want your promise that if one of us winds up having a girl and the other has a boy, they'll be engaged to be married. Deal?"

Genma hesitated for a second, worrying about the possible repercussions of this bargain, but the temptation of a year of free food finally proved too much for his notoriously feeble conscience. Besides, he reasoned, the future was a long ways off, and even if he lost, it wouldn't be his problem anyway.

"Deal!"

------

Genma Saotome was snapped out of his little reverie by two strong arms putting him into a chokehold that left him sputtering for air.

"I can't believe you, you old fool!" Ranma screamed into his ear. "You mean to tell me that you were trading my future happiness for food before you even got to high school?!"

Upon hearing the point of the elder Saotome's little fable, all of the color had drained from Ryunosuke's face, leaving her in a state of near-shock. She had been prepared for, even expected, some act of deviance on her father's part the moment his name was mentioned, but this new twist had completely thrown her for a loop.

The corner of her mouth twitched once or twice, and then she erupted in a peal of nervous laughter. She said, "Oh, oh, I get it! D-don't you see, Ranma? Your dad is just having a little fun with us, that's all! Heh, heh... You know, he really had me going. For a minute there, I actually thought our dads really had engaged us or someth..."

Ranma was shaking his head and giving her a look of restrained exasperation, while Genma was drenched in a cold sweat and trying to avoid looking her in the eyes. Ryu's hesitant smile slowly morphed into a look of horror as the reality of the situation sank in.

Dropping to her knees, she moaned, "Oh, shit... This can't be happening... I-I-I... I'm engaged to a near-stranger? Holy hell... I need to sit down."

Ranma glared at his father and tightened the headlock. He snapped, "Now, see what you've done? Dammit, Pop! What do you always do this stuff to me?"

Genma, turning purple, gasped, "N-now don't be hasty, boy! Think about it; it happened when we were in eighth grade, for Pete's sake! I bet Fujinami doesn't even remember it anymore!"

"No, no... Dad never forgets something that he's owed," Ryu said despairingly, holding her head in her hands. "He still has a boxful of IOUs from kindergarten that he collects on every now and again... makes a killing on compound interest..."

Glancing up at his son and finding him looking angrier than ever, Genma quickly added, "Look, I kept in contact with Fujinami until about 15 years ago, and I didn't think there was anything to worry about! After all, I naturally assumed that his only son was a boy!"

"That's no excuse and you know it!" Ranma growled, choking his dad even harder. "You made the deal a long time before he told you that!"

Genma, now flashing all the colors of the rainbow, rasped, "Boy... I... I had a... good reason, honest! Hear me out! Aaaaaaagggghhhh!!!"

Furious but also curious, Ranma released his father and let him catch his breath. Ryu and Ranma moved in closer to hear what Genma's explanation for this latest fiasco would be. He straightened himself, brought his breathing down to a calm level, and his face adopted a very stern expression. The dojo fell silent as Genma eyed the young pair.

His glasses gleaming in the light, he said, "You see, kids... Fujinami's mom made some of the best ramen in all of Japan."

Ranma and Ryu cracked the already-damaged dojo floor even further with a massive faceplant.

Genma put a hand behind his head and let out a belly laugh. He chuckled, "So you see, I had to try! I... ulp!"

Ranma and Ryu were both giving him death-glares and putting off enough angry aura to cook an egg. They cracked their knuckles in unison.

"DIE, OLD MAN!"

A sound like a clap of thunder erupted from the dojo... as did Genma, flying skyward at speeds upward of 150 miles per hour. Inside, the only sound besides the echoing sucker-punch was the pitter-patter of little bits of plaster and splinters falling away from a Genma-shaped hole in the ceiling.

Ranma and Ryunosuke both lowered their clenched fists and sighed, feeling somewhat better for having served justice on that perfidious panda. When their eyes met, however, the awkwardness began anew.

Ryu blushed deep-red and stammered, "Uh, l-look, Ranma, I... that is, we..."

Ranma was also embarassed but, being a (reluctant) old pro at this routine, managed to keep his cool fairly well. He put his hand on her shoulder in a buddy-like way and gave her the biggest smile he could manage.

"Ryu, let's talk."

-------------------

Fifteen minutes later found Ranma and Ryunosuke sitting against the wall of the dojo, staring out the new skylight at the night sky.

"So, let me get this straight," Ryu said, looking at Ranma out of the corner of her eye. "This has happened to you several times before? And you still have three unsettled engagements hanging over your head?"

Ranma nodded, not taking his eyes from the stars. "Yup, that's about the size of it. Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo all have claims on me that are all pretty legit in their own right, but as to which one is the most legit, that's anybody's guess."

"I see," Ryu said quietly. "And now there's me, too."

"Looks like it."

A period of uncomfortable silence passed in which Ryu did her best to summon up enough courage to discuss this further. Despite being a girl, Ryunosuke Fujinami was the ultimate badass, a widely-feared street fighter who took crap from neither man nor beast. When it came to matters of romance, however, she was about as green and unexperienced as it got. Her typical solution to boy problems was to just beat them up and go about her business, but this time was different. This guy wasn't being a pervert or even remotely coming on to her; their current predicament was no more his choice than it was hers. This situation required finesse; rather than fists, Ryu would have to work this out with... (ulp!)... words.

"Come on, Ryunosuke," she told herself. "Just lay down the law, already! If you don't get this cleared up now, who knows how far this thing could go? Just tell it to him straight, and if he give you any lip, then kick his ass..."

So, after taking a deep breath, she sat straight up and heatedly said, "Look, man, you're nice and all, but there's no way in hell we're getting married, y'understand? I ain't ready for that kind of stuff, and--"

"Okay."

"--there's too much going on in my life already, and... huh? Okay?"

Ranma finally took his eyes off the stars and returned her puzzled stare. "Yeah, I said 'okay.' What, did you think I was about to propose or something?"

The tables turned, Ryu suddenly became very flustered and sputtered, "W-well, n-no, but... I mean--"

It finally hit Ranma that while getting engaged again was just a big annoyance to him, this sort of thing probably seemed like a matter of life and death to most people, particularly a naive, extremely confused girl like Ryunosuke.

Attempting to be more patient and gentle with her, Ranma explained, "Look, Ryu. I don't have any intention of marrying somebody just because my pop told me to, and you shouldn't, either. Things like that are too important to let someone else decide for you. I have to deal with enough of that crap in my own life; I'm sure not going to force it down someone else's throat."

Realizing that the situation had been defused and that they were of the same mind on this issue, Ryu relaxed and even smiled a little.

Noting this, Ranma grinned and continued, "I mean, think about it. I'm promised to so many girls that an engagement to Ranma Saotome is practically worthless, anyway. You could probably buy one on the internet for fifteen yen."

Ryu unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh; realizing that her "tough" routine was as unconvincing as it was unneccessary by this point, she finally gave in and snickered at the joke. Ranma joined in, and the awkwardness from earlier essentially came to an end.

In a relieved tone, Ryu said, "So basically, we're just going to ignore this whole engagement thing and go about our normal lives, right?"

"Right, right!" Ranma said, highly relieved himself. He thought, "Whew! About time this engagement thing resolved itself without me getting hurt or sexually harassed... and it's the sexually-confused, violent girl who winds up being my only reasonable fiancee. Who'd have thunk it?"

Ryu interrupted his thoughts by quietly saying, "Hey, man... thanks for being so understanding about this. And also, sorry about earlier. I do tend to fly off the handle when I get pissed off, and that's gotta change if I want to do this woman thing right. Let's start over; no fights or any of this engagement crap hanging over our heads. All right?"

With that, she extended her arm in a handshake. Ranma could barely believe this was happening; he and Ryu were literally at each other's throats less than 30 minutes ago, and now they were acting like longtime friends. Things never, ever turned out this well for him... but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Ranma shook her hand and sheepishly said, "Sure thing, and I'm sorry about earlier, too. Even I know I can be a real jerk sometimes. I shouldn't have led you on like that about the notes, and I sure shouldn't have lost my temper and tried to beat up a girl... even if she did almost wind up kicking my butt."

"Hey, whaddya mean, 'almost', huh?" Ryu said, playfully ribbing Ranma. "All of these cracks in the floor say otherwise, bud!"

At that moment, Kasumi cautiously opened the door and peeked inside. She released a sigh of relief and smiled; despite the damaged state of the dojo, it was plain to see that the pair that had resolved their differences with no fatalities. The eldest Tendo sister opened the door all the way and stepped inside, drawing Ranma's and Ryunosuke's attention.

"It's so nice to see you two getting along again," she said, smiling warmly. Upon getting a closer look at them, a look of concern crossed her face, and she added, "But it looks like you had a bit of an... um... heated argument in the meantime. Are you both all right?"

Not quite understanding what she was talking about, Ranma and Ryunosuke turned and stared at one another. Ranma had a trail of dried blood running from his nose and the beginnings of a shiner on his left eye, likely the result of Ryu's final attack. Ryu, on the other hand, had a trickle of blood from a broken lip and numerous bruises on her face courtesy of Ranma's Chestnut Fist. With a hint of dry humor, both realized that they looked like pro boxers that hadn't known when to quit.

Kasumi pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Ryunosuke, saying, "Here; you two need to clean up before coming to supper. Follow me, and I'll get you both some bandages. Again, though, are you both okay? You do look a little rough, you know?"

Ranma waved her concern off, saying, "Hey, don't worry about us. The one who's really gonna need the bandages is Pop, once he comes down."

"Comes... down?" Kasumi asked, confused. Her eyes followed Ranma's finger to the hole in the ceiling. "Oh, I see."

-------------------

Later that night, Tendo residence...

Ranma cast a weary glance at his alarm clock, and he groaned with disappointment when he saw that it was already 12:30 a.m. After stifling a yawn, he turned back to the sheets of paper in front of him. Ranma had been sitting like this at Akane's desk for several hours now, and the numerous paperwads littering the floor behind him spoke to the effort he was expending on this project. His sleepy, bloodshot eyes kept wandering to the switch on the desk lamp, and once his hand even started to make its way in that direction to shut it off and call it a night, but he grit his teeth, slapped his face lightly, and redirected his gaze back to the paper with dogged determination.

"C'mon, man," he told himself. "You made a promise to her. You gave her your word as a martial artist. You can't go to sleep until it's all planned out."

After supper earlier that night, Ranma had had a little talk with Ryunosuke before she went home to her tent. He renewed the promise he made to her the night of the storm: he was going to help her become more of a woman, more of a lady, even if it killed the both of them. Ranma realized that he had totally dropped the ball where today was concerned, and he knew that if he was to keep his promise and make his training regimen work, he had to come up with an organized plan. He had been doing that for hours, and while he had made some progress, there was still much that needed to be done.

His body kept telling him that it needed rest, and his brain told him that he should go to bed because he had school bright and early the next morning. Even so, Ranma continued to plan on into the night for reasons that even he didn't completely understand. There was his promise, of course, and Ranma took such things very seriously, but there was something about Ryu personally that contributed to his drive. Was it pity for her situation? Guilt over putting her through one of his infamous engagement ordeals? A personal liking for the spunky little tomboy? A combination of all of these factors? Or something else? When he finally finished in the wee hours of the morning, Ranma shuffled the handful of papers and placed them in a neat stack on the desk.

"She'd better appreciate all of this," he thought as he groggily made his way to his room. "Yeah, I'm sure she will... or won't she? Aw, who cares...?"

In all honesty, Ranma didn't know what to think of his pupil just yet; Ryunosuke could be so darned violent and tempermental one moment, but the next she could be kind, reasonable, sweet, naive, innocent, and... yeah, even a little cute, in her own odd way. In that respect, she reminded Ranma of another certain short-haired, tempermental girl he knew, but the thought barely had time to register before floating out of his exhausted brain. All that mattered at this point to our poor, pigtailed zombie was becoming one with the futon, a task he had no trouble with. The moment his head touched the pillow, he was out like a light.

-------------------

Same night, Ryunosuke's tent...

After spitting out her toothpaste and rinsing off the toothbrush in a cup of water, Ryunosuke grabbed the tiny square mirror hanging from the roof of her tent and scrutinized her face. She smirked upon noting that the cuts had already healed and that the bruises were already looking much better. She honestly had expected as much. Having become accustomed to taking as many severe beatings as she did on a regular basis, her body had developed a freakishly-efficient immune system that healed all but the most severe injuries by the next day.

"Judging from the way he fought and the life he lives, Ranma will probably be good as new by tomorrow, too," she said to herself. "Speaking of tomorrow, it's gonna be another busy day... I'd better hit the sack."

Ryu began to undress in order to put on her pajamas. After unzipping and removing her jeans and unbuttoning her shirt, she began to continue her usual routine by unwrapping her sarashi, but the sight of the white bra cupping her breasts stopped her in her tracks. As the reality of the fact that, yes, she really was wearing a bra, and yes, it really was hers to keep, washed over Ryunosuke, her heart swelled with a mixture of pride, fulfillment, and a deep sense of gratitude. What a difference a day made... in 24 hours, she had accomplished two longtime dreams by finally wearing women's clothing and by finally exchanging her restrictive sarashi for a decidedly-more-comfortable brassiere. They were goals she had worked toward unsuccessfully for years on her own, and now they were a reality thanks to the help of her mentor and fiance.

Her fiance! Ryu shook her head in disbelief; she still couldn't get over how weird that sounded, even if they had agreed to ignore the designation. In retrospect, she realized that her father's covert engagement plot shouldn't have come as any surprise. After all, with her dad's unnatural desire to transform his daughter into a manly hunk, it was only logical that he would attempt to be just as controlling in terms of her marriage prospects as he was with every other aspect of her life. In fact, the only real miracle about this situation is that it hadn't before.

Upon reflection, Ryu also realized that she had been damned lucky that things had turned out as well as they did. Almost as a rule, Ryunosuke Fujinami was not a fan of male half of the human race (given that the majority of her experience with guys came from her demented father and the amorous attentions of Ataru Moroboshi, she is not to be blamed for this). Adding to that the fact that her own semi-confused sexuality made the prospect of romance and marriage nigh-unworkable, she couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't more upset about this whole "surprise engagement" thing than she actually was. Maybe it was Ranma's quick dismissal of the whole thing that made her feel so at ease about the situation, or maybe it was the fact that she knew her father would never force her into what he would probably view as a "gay marriage."

Putting on her pajamas and lying down on her futon, it dawned on her that it probably had a lot to do with Ranma Saotome himself. Although he had proven that he could occasionally be a real asshole, particularly in the hour leading up to their fight, throughout the rest of the day he had proven to be one of the most genuinely nice guys she had ever encountered. He was generous, sweet, forgiving... and most impressively in Ryu's book, he had a right hook that could crack concrete. What's not to like about a guy like that?

Ryunosuke smiled, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep, but not before thinking, "Yeah, being engaged does suck, but if I gotta be engaged to someone, I could do... a lot worse than... Ranma... ZZZZZZZZZZZZ..."

-------------------

That same night on a tiny, deserted island just off the Japanese coast...

Two figures, the only living beings on the half-acre island, sat alone in their tiny cafe. The first was a short, thin, middle-aged man with a small moustache who wore glasses and a bandanna tied around his head. The other was a pretty "girl" with long, brown hair that wore a full-length yellow skirt. Both were huddled around a box of tissues in the middle of table; inexplicably, the pair had been sneezing almost nonstop for the last several hours.

"AAAACHOOOOOO!!!"

"Bless you, father," said the girl, before giving a delicate sneeze herself.

"Ugh... Thank you, Nagisa, and bless you, too," the man said, pulling out another tissue.

The girl (who incidentally wasn't a girl) looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Father, I was thinking..."

"Yes, sweetie?"

"... do you think that old wives tale about sneezing when someone is thinking or talking about you could be true?"

After blowing his nose, the man grumpily said, "Well, beats me, but if it is true, I wish whoever it is would shut up and stop gossiping about old Shiowatari and his dau... dau... ACHOO!"

"Bless you."

"Thanks."

After a few moments of sniffling, the man brightened and said, "Hey, I know! What we need is a snack to un-stuff our noses and take our minds off our troubles. How about that sea urchin ice cream? It ought to be ready by now."

Nagisa became very excited at the prospect of food; she retrieved it from the fridge before Shiowatari had even finished his sentence. They both scooped out a bowl's worth and dug in.

"Wow! This really is good, isn't it?" Shiowatari said, contentedly patting his belly.

In between mouthfuls, Nagisa said, "You bet... (slurp, slurp)... it's... (slurp)... to die for!"

END OF CHAPTER 6

----------------------------------------------

I guess my first order of business would be to explain the end of this chapter since it's a little obscure. Toward the very end of Urusei Yatsura, it was revealed that Ryunosuke's dad had engaged her to the daughter of his childhood friend. (Sound familiar, Ranma fans? Well, if it doesn't, stop drinking and read the rest of this later.) As it turns out, the "daughter" was actually a cross-dressing son named Nagisa. While on the surface this might sound like a match made in heaven, it actually turned out to be much more like hell. Unlike Ryu, Nagisa loved being a drag queen, and to make things worse, he was gluttonous and way too touchy-feely for anyone's comfort. To top things off, Nagisa was a ghost, dead as a result of eating a ludicrous amount of sea urchin ice cream. They sort of revived him (he was now alive but still vulnerable to anti-ghost charms) and he moved into the Fujinami household. Ryunosuke hates this guy unconditionally, and her relationship to him is much more "Ranma-chan and Kuno" than "Ranma and Akane." Anyway, although Nagisa and Shiowatari won't make their debut until much later in the UY timeline, I thought it would be fun to show their demise here.

Now, regarding the Ranma-Ryu fight and the reader response to it... Although I realize that by now I should have developed a thick skin when it comes to this particular subject, it never fails to amaze and frustrate me that many in a fanfiction section nearly infamous for off-the-wall ideas still consider Ranma getting beaten by anything less than a Z-Fighter some sort of inviolable taboo. If Ranma can become a catgirl-wizard-demon who marries Ryoga after being appointed "Sailor Senshi of the Asteroid Belt", then is it really so far-fetched that given the right conditions (such as a powerful sucker punch, underestimation and mercy on Ranma's part, and a hell of a lot of good luck on Ryunosuke's) he could lose a close fight? I say it's well within the realm of possibility, and if you disagree, then tough luck. I'm the author, and it's my call.

Now that I've opened and swallowed that can of worms, allow me to end on a much more friendly note. As always, I appreciate all of your support and hope that the story is still a fun, engaging read. If it isn't, please let me know where I err so that I can do better in the future. Again the emphasis is on "please let me know," regardless of whether the opinion is thumbs-up or thumbs-down. I'll keep writing and updating even if I don't get a single review, but knowing that people are still reading and do still care is always a powerful morale boost when it comes to writing this stuff. Thanks again, and see you next chapter.