The next school day had been uneventful, except when Ranma and Akane had to avoid a certain "kendo master". Tatewaki Kuno had positioned himself near the entrance of the school, in hopes of catching his rival off guard. But when his back was turned, they peeked around the stone pillar and saw him waiting there. So, instead of entering through the front gate, the couple scaled a side wall and entered the school by way of the gymnasium.
Entering the classroom, they discovered that Ukyo hadn't showed up yet. She still didn't appear by the time the late bell rang.
At lunch they both agreed something might be wrong and that one of them should find out what. Ranma volunteered for the duty.
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After school was over and the couple was home, the boy announced he was going for a walk. He made his way over to the restaurant owned by Ukyo. It's name was Uchan's, after the nickname Ranma had given her when they were little kids. He stood outside and glanced in. He saw her behind the cooking counter making her speciality, okonomiyaki; or Japanese pizza.
He went in and sat down at the end of the bar.
Without looking at the new customer at first, Ukyo happily says, "Greetings and welcome to U- oh, it's you," realizing who it was. The perkiness in her voice was gone as well.
"Hello to you too," he says back.
"What do you want?" she asked, a sour tone present in her voice.
"I want to talk," answered the boy.
"Sorry, I don't have time to chat," she told him flatly and she went to a different customer.
She handed the guy his bill and took his payment.
"Thank you, come again," she called to the guy as he left.
Without any other customers at the time, Ukyo was forced to deal with the remaining one.
"What do you want?" she hissed.
"I want to talk with you," he repeated.
"I won't talk unless you order something," she replied, crossing her arms.
"Fine, I'll take a house special," he told her.
"Right away," she says, pouring the batter.
She worked while he talked.
Noticing she was alone, he asked, "Where's Konatsu?"
"He's not here. After a group a guys hit on him he started questioning himself and his identity. He left about three weeks ago on a journey of self-discovery. I don't even know if he'll come back," she explained, flipping the pancake of dough.
"Oh," he said, then he asked, "Why weren't you in school today?"
"I felt sick this morning, but I'm okay now," she answered, pouring the sauce and piling on the toppings.
When Ukyo finished making the pizza she served it to him. "Here you go," she said in a flat tone of voice.
"Thanks," he says, adding, "I don't think you were sick this morning. I bet something is bothering you."
"What makes you say that?" she wondered, giving him a quizical look.
"Because you were always so cheerful around me, but now you're not," he explained, taking a bite, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," she told him in a quick response.
"Come on, I'm your friend, you can tell me anything," insisted the boy, smiling.
"Just a friend," she snaps, "Is that all I am to you, a friend?"
"The truth comes out. You're mad because Akane and I are together now, aren't you?" he wondered.
"Can't get anything past you," she snapped again, turning her back to him.
"I thought you'd be happy we're together," said Ranma, sounding worried.
"I am, but a part of me wishes it was us that was together, not the two of you," she replies, turning back around with tears welling up in her eyes. "I've spent the last two years loving you, trying everything I could to get you to love me in return and now you want me to stop all of a sudden? It's not that simple."
"I understand that, but I want to know one thing: could you take it?" asked the boy, holding a finger up.
"Take what?" wondered Ukyo, sounding confused.
"The chaos that has been a permanent fixture in my life," said Ranma.
"I could try," she answered, her voice sounding a little unsure of itself.
"Trying isn't going to cut it. You've only seen a fraction of what I have had to endure. Akane is the only one of you girls that has played a part in it, a lot more than the rest of you. Hell, I'm surprised either one of us hasn't gone insane from all the things that have happened to us. I have no doubts that after I'm married the chaos will continue to occur. You say you love me, but do you think you could withstand everything that might come along? Akane has proven she loves me and is willing to fight alongside me against whatever comes to challenge us," he explained, putting it bluntly.
His words cut deeply into her soul. She knew he was right and it hurt her to admit it. Ukyo turned her tearful gaze to the floor, taking in what he said with a heavy heart and tears streaming down her face.
Ranma tried lightening up the conversation, "I guess all the major events we've been through are what brought us together in the end."
Lifting her head up, the okonomiyaki chef asks in an almost pleading tone, "Did I ever have a chance? Could you have ever loved me? Please tell me at one point in the last two years that you loved me."
"I'm sorry," he apologized, sounding sincere.
"You're sorry? All you can say is 'I'm sorry'? I thought we could be something special," she yells at him, her sadness turning into anger.
"We are something, Ukyo," he assured her, keeping his tone soft.
"Yeah, friends," she scoffed, crossing her arms once again and turing her eyes away, "Nothing more."
"No, you're wrong. We're more than friends," he corrects her, adding, "Ukyo, I love you."
"You do?" she asked, looking back at him and giving a faint smile.
"Yeah, I do. I love you like a sister. That's how I feel, I feel like we're family," said Ranma, smiling back.
"A sister?! Is that suppose to make me fell better?!" she asked, sarcastically angry, her smile gone.
"It is and I want you to be happy. Someday you'll find your own true love," he told her, trying to sound reassuring.
"I don't want to find another true love, my love is for you," answered the girl, pouring her heart out to him.
"But I don't love you that way," he responded.
"I know, you love me like a sister. Well, what if I don't want to be a sister to you anymore!? What if I wanted to be more than that!?" she wondered with tears of anger in her eyes.
"It must be hard being the odd person out in a relationship," said the boy.
"You have no idea how it feels!" she shot at him as the tears streaked her face.
The phone rings and she picks it up after the second ring.
"Uchan's, how may I take your order?" she asks, her perkiness returning while wiping her tears away with her forearm.
"Yes, maam. It'll be there in less than thirty minutes," she said, finished taking the order and hanging up the receiver.
Before she starts preparing the order, Ukyo hands him a bill and says with a cold, hard tone of voice, "I've got to make this order."
The boy could tell there was a subtle, yet hidden message in her sentence, it told him she wanted him to leave.
Ranma pays her and replies, "I still want us to be friends. I never meant to hurt your feelings, but could you think about it, please?"
The teenager stands up and walks out.
She scoffed again while working on the order, 'Stupid Ranma,' she thought, evidently still mad at him, 'Thinking I'll continue to be his friend.'
Completing the pizzas, she boxes them and ties them together. Leaving her giant spatula behind, Ukyo walks out the front door and locks up behind her. She starts for the customer's home.
'What makes him think I like being his friend, anyway?' she thought angrily, stopping at an intersection.
The sounds of a siren in the not so far off distance doesn't bother her. Waiting for the light to change, the sirens got louder.
'And yet, even after I yelled at him, he still wants me to be his friend,' thought the girl, starting to feel guilty.
She steps onto the crosswalk with a sullen look on her face. She takes a few steps, when a blaring car horn catches her attention. Looking up, she sees a car barreling down on her at a high speed. With her eyes wide with shock, she wasn't able to move. She was frozen in fear. She still couldn't move as the automobile came closer and closer. Seconds before the car hit her, someone darted out, grabbed her and pulled her to the safety of the sidewalk. The speeding auto zipped by with a police cruiser in hot pursuit.
"Are you okay?" asked the worried stranger, as a crowd began to form.
Opening her eyes, she looked at the stranger, only to find it wasn't a stranger. "Ryoga, you saved my life," answered Ukyo, sounding surprised as she sat up.
He put his hand behind his head and said, "Yeah, I guess I did," and chuckled a bit.
"Thank you," she happily replied, reaching out and wrapping her arms around his neck.
She quickly released the hug when she realized what she did. "Sorry about that," she apologized, starting to blush.
"That's okay, I don't mind," responded the stunned teenager, his eyes looking forward as his face began to turn red as well.
Glancing down, the boy says, "Your elbow is bleeding."
Looking down she agreed, "Yeah, I guess it is. I must've skinned it on the sidewalk."
Ryoga took one of his bandanas, wrapped it around the wound and tied it off.
"There you go," he tells her.
She thanked him again and he helped her to her feet. Gazing into each other's eyes and holding each other's hands, the two teenagers' heads began to inch closer together. Before they were about to kiss, Ukyo suddenly remembered what she was suppose to be doing and looked around for her delivery. She found it and was amazed it was only slightly damaged.
"I've got to go. Thanks again," she said, her face bright red as she walked away in a hurry.
"Anytime," he called, still blushing.
The crowd dispersed while he was left standing there feeling a little awkward.
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She made her delivery with only a minute to spare.
Walking home, Ukyo thought to herself, 'Why did I hug him? I shouldn't have done that. And I almost kissed him too. What could I've been thinking?'
Looking down at the make-shift bandage, she continued to think, all the while smiling at the thought, 'It was very brave of him to jump in front of that speeding car. Both of us could have been killed. And it was nice of him to wrap up my elbow too. Ryoga was definitely in the right place at the right time today.'
She reached the restaurant and re-opened it, going back to work making her customers happy with the okonomiyaki. Every second she could spare, she thought about how nice Ryoga was to her.
By closing time Ukyo was dead tired. She slowly climbed the stairs to the second floor where she lived in an apartment over the restaurant. She unwrapped the bandana from around her elbow, cleaned the wound and gave it a proper bandage.
Holding onto the bloody bandana, she smiles and says to herself, "Thanks, Ryoga."
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Kicking a stone down the street, Ranma thought to himself, 'I hated to do that to her, but at least she knows how I really feel about her.'
A police siren gets the boy's attention. He stops, looks up and watches a speeding automobile zoom past him with the police right on his tail.
Continuing on his way, the teenager said to himself, 'I hope she still will consider me a friend after that spat we had.'
Ukyo's voice echoes in his head, 'What if I don't want to be a sister to you anymore? What if I wanted to be more than that?'
Remembering the last time he broke her heart, Ranma couldn't help but feel sorry for her: His father had just asked him which one he liked best: Ukyo or okonomiyaki. Telling his father he liked okonomiyaki more gave Genma a great idea. Instead of taking both Ukyo and her father's okonomiyaki cart as was their deal, Ranma's father steals the cart and with the boy in tow, leaves the girl in the dust.
Her voice rings in his head again, 'You have no idea how it feels!'
'I wish I did,' he thought, with a gloomy look on his face.
Finally making it back to the Tendo home, the teenager opens the front door and is greeted by Akane.
"Did you see her?" she asked.
"Yeah," he answered, unenthusiastically.
"Is something wrong?" wondered the girl, ushering him into the common room.
They sat down at the coffee table and he repeats, "Yeah."
"What's wrong then?" she asked.
"I talked to Ukyo and we ended up having an argument," he tells her, sounding gloomy.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ranma," apologized Akane.
"It's not your fault, it's mine," he said.
"Why is it your fault?" she wondered.
"I said to her I thought of her as a sister and she told me she didn't want to be a sister," he replied, putting his head in his hands.
She started rubbing his back and says, "It's going to be okay."
"I hope so," responded Ranma, adding, "I don't even know if she still wants to be our friend or not."
"She'll let us know when she's ready to," Akane assured him.
Lifting his head up and looking around the room, he asks, "Where is everybody?"
"Dad is over at your parents house, Nabiki is at a friends and Kasumi went over to see Dr. Tofu," she answered.
"We're alone?" he wondered.
"Yeah. Come on, there's something I want to show you," she said, pulling him towards the kitchen.
Entering the kitchen, the teenager is swarmed with pleasant smells.
"What smells so good?" he asked, his attitude changed for the better.
Taking the lid off of one pot on the stove revealed white rice. The other pot had nicely prepared vegetables and various pieces of seafood simmering on a low flame.
"Kasumi made this?" he asked, sounding hopeful.
"No, well she helped," replied Akane.
"You made it?" he wondered with a surprised tone. He thought to himself, 'That explains why everybody left.'
"Yes I did. Both Kasumi and your mother are trying to teach me how to cook again. Each time I did something wrong like grab the wrong ingredient, they would gently correct me before I put it in the food," explained the girl.
"How's it taste?" he asked.
"I don't know, I wanted you to try it first," she answered.
The boy's smile faded very fast. Every time he has tried some of her cooking, he has always ended up being sick to his stomach.
She notices the look on his face and says, "It can't be that bad."
He thought to himself, 'She's right. After all, Kasumi and mom did help her make it.'
"Alright, I'll try it," replied Ranma.
"Good, go sit down and I'll bring it out to you," she told him.
Obeying her orders, the boy sat at the coffee table with two glasses of water and waited. She brought out two plates of food, placed one plate in front of him and took the other for herself. Not wasting any time, he dived right in. He grabbed a piece of shrimp and some rice with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. Almost immediately he pulled it right back out.
"Careful, it's hot," she reminds him as she sat down.
"Thanks," he says, after taking a mouthful of water.
Waiting a minute, he tries again with the same piece of shrimp.
"How is it?" asked Akane, sounding eager.
Swallowing what was in his mouth, he tells her, "It's better than I thought it would be," and continues eating.
Seeing him eat her cooking gave her all the approval she needed. She took a bite and was surprised herself by how good it tasted.
"Is there any more?" he wondered when he finished his plate.
"You can have as much as you want," answered the girl, smiling.
Ranma stood up and went into the kitchen for another plate of food. When the meal was over, the boy had three helpings and she had two and there was enough left for one more plate.
"Dinner was great. My compliments to the cook," said the boy, rinsing the plates.
"Thanks. Was it as good as Kasumi's cooking?" wondered Akane, loading the pots into the dishwasher.
"Close, but not quite there yet. A few more lessons and you'll be fine," he answered, putting the dishes in the dishwasher along with the pots.
"You think so?" she asked, sounding hopeful.
"I know so," he assured her, smiling at her.
"That's good, because I really want to be a good wife for you," said the girl, looking towards the floor.
He walked over to her, lifted her chin up and said, "I think you'll make a great wife someday."
"Thanks," she replied, smiling.
They stared into each other eyes as their faces moved closer and closer together. Their lips were about to touch when the front door opened.
"I'm home!" called Nabiki.
Backing away, Akane responds, "We're in the kitchen."
Peering in, the middle sister says, "I guess dinner was a success."
"Why is that?" asked Ranma
"Because Akane didn't burn the house down," she answered flatly.
"Hey!" cried the younger of the two girls.
"What? With the way you cook, I'm surprised to see Ranma is still standing," said Nabiki.
Akane knew her sister was right, but she didn't want to admit it. "Why don't you try some? There is some left if you want it," replied the little sister.
"I'll heat it up later. Right now I want to borrow Ranma for a minute," responded the older girl, pulling the boy into another room.
"What?" he wondered.
"I'm just letting you know I've got the people to watch Shampoo and Kodachi on Friday. They didn't have anything else planned that night so they agreed to help," she explained.
"Great. Have you booked the restaurant yet?" he asked.
"Not yet, I've gotten it narrowed down to two places. I'll let you know as soon as I decide which one," she told him.
Akane walked into the common room and called out towards the hallway, "What are you two talking about in there?"
"Nothing," said Ranma, before whispering to Nabiki, "Okay," then he walked away.
Entering the common room he says, "She wanted to know when I was going to make my next payment on your ring."
"Oh, okay," replied the girl, sitting down.
He sat next to her, while she turned on the television.
"A high-speed chase roared through downtown Nerima today. Thankfully it ended peacefully with the driver giving up without a fight," said the newscaster, "Turning over to weather, it looks like the next few days are going to be nice and clear all the way to the weekend. A high of seventy-five for tomorrow, Thursday looks to be in the mid seventies and Friday as well. Tonight will be mostly clear, lows in the fifties. Both Thursday and Friday nights look to be in the low to mid fifties. Coming up after the break: sports and a stock exchange update..."