Chapter No. 7
"The rain stopped"

Sure enough, dawn came over Nerima. The fresh yet lingering tranquillity in the morning air was yet to be disturbed by morning bustle. It was hard to imagine that any zaniness could occur in such a peaceful neighbourhood. Perhaps that was why Akane preferred the morning to any other time of the day. It offered a brief respite to the day's events, come what they be. Akane embarked on her routine jog and hummed in content.

She left Ryoga (Or P-chan, as we must now call him) in her room. She had been sleeping with him the night before and had enjoyed the experience. P-chan had seemed so docile and subservient, and Akane wondered if the little pig had ever been shown much attention before. Did P-chan ever know his mother?

The answer is yes, although that is beside the point. The point is that P-chan at length woke up, found Akane missing and cried pathetic piggy tears. Then he resolved to search for his beloved on the streets. He ought to have known it was a bad idea, but as they say, love is blind and, especially in P-chan's case, lacking in any kind of bearings at all.

Not only did P-chan fail to stumble across Akane, he only narrowly avoided being squashed by a high school girl who was tossing black roses around and laughing as if she was on something. Then Shampoo happened to come by riding a bicycle faster than a Formula One racing car. She ran over him and pedalled on blithely, much to P-chan's annoyance. He hadn't known Shampoo had a bike. If he had, he probably would have been spared a lot of grief during his travels with her in tow. Stupid girl never thought of other people. Grumbling, P-chan got to his feet and trotted after Shampoo as fast as his fat, little legs could take him.

Shampoo stopped in front of a neat, fair-sized house that was maddeningly familiar to P-chan. "I back!" she called as she deftly disentangled herself from her bike.

The door opened and Dr Tofu's beaming face appeared at the entrance.

"Ah, welcome back, Shampoo! You delivered those medicines as I asked. What a great sense of direction you have, considering you've only been my assistant for a day! Come on in!"

Feeling his heart rise within him at the sight of a friendly, familiar face, P-chan hopped past Shampoo and presented himself to Dr Tofu with a hearty oink.

"Oh, what's this?" Dr Tofu adjusted his glasses and peered curiously at the little pig seated upon his doorstep. "Do you want warm milk?"

"Not cat," interposed a chuckling Shampoo. "Is Ryoga."

"Ryoga?" Dr Tofu blinked inquisitively, but Shampoo had already retreated indoors. She reappeared a moment later carrying a kettle of scalding water, which she promptly tipped on P-chan.

"OUCH!" It might have been from being a piglet for longer than usual - Ryoga squealed as if he was still P-chan. "Not so hot, dumbass!"

"Whatever. You wear clothes. Shampoo pay not see Ryoga naked."

It was with haste that Dr Tofu ushered Ryoga inside and offered him suitable attire. As the doctor prepared tea for Shampoo and Ryoga, he asked, "So you fell into Jusenkyo, huh?" He shook his head with sympathy. "You poor thing."

"I know," nodded Ryoga. It actually felt pretty good to have someone interested in hearing him mope about life in general.

"Well, cheer up!" Dr Tofu insisted. (Or maybe not, Ryoga thought.) "Life's not too bad! You can live with a curse like that. Ranma does."

Ryoga looked up sharply.

"He turns into a girl," Dr Tofu laughed. "How about that? Isn't that worse than being a pig?"

Ryoga was stunned. "A girl?" Then he said quickly, "A pigtailed girl? Red hair?"

"That's the one!"

Ryoga felt faintly ill. His stomach sort of turned over.

"Idiot Ryoga!" Shampoo declared scornfully. "You see? Shampoo right! Ranma cursed."

Ryoga groaned. The idea that Ranma had been under his nose for an entire day was like a disembowelment to him. Also, the fact that he had thought of this girl-type Ranma as cute and good-looking made it all the worse.

"He's living with Akane!" he moaned. "Under the same roof! Gah!"

"Well, he is her fiancé," said Dr Tofu.

"God damn it," Ryoga and Shampoo said simultaneously.

Ryoga would not have been surprised if someone told him he was a character in a comedy manga and that far away, people were laughing at his misfortune. Slapstick wasn't funny when you were the one getting hurt and Ryoga wondered what was wrong with him that he should deserve such unjust treatment. He always thought that if people ever got their eyes checked, they might see that his life was actually painful, not uproariously funny. Really, was it his fault he had such a tragic sense of direction? Or that the only things that were ever attracted to him were flies and bad weather? For Ryoga to find a girlfriend was the rough equivalent of climbing Mt Everest without bottled oxygen and Sherpas. It wasn't fair that he was born ugly!

"Idiot," Shampoo said in her usual acid tone. "Ryoga not ugly."

Ryoga paled. "Was I saying all that out loud?"

Shampoo nodded. "You is stupid," she added. "Attitude wrong. Self-hating men such turn-off."

Ryoga felt indignation boil up inside him. Why was Shampoo so eternally mean to him? Hadn't she been the one who had called him worthless in the first place? He couldn't satisfy her, whatever he did!

He sighed. "Hey, where are we?" he asked, because he didn't want to walk in silence.

For some reason, he was walking on a rail and Shampoo was walking on the path beside him. A quick glance told him that he was still in suburbia. The sun had now properly risen. When had he left Dr Tofu's house?"

Shampoo explained, "We run out in hurry. We go Ranma's place."

"So I can take my revenge?" Ryoga asked hopefully.

"No," she answered hastily, "so Shampoo marry Ranma."

"That doesn't make any sense," he uttered, bewildered. "I mean, didn't you want to kill him earlier?"

"Remember Ryoga beat Shampoo and Shampoo call Ryoga husband?"

He blushed and said, "Yeah."

"Ranma is man and beat Shampoo first," she continued. "So Shampoo marry Ranma."

"B-But he's engaged to Akane!"

"Then Shampoo kill Akane."

"Don't do that!" Ryoga said sharply, alarmed.

Shampoo was silent for a second and then turned and smiled at him. Not a very sweet smile but a shrewd one, the sort of smile a cat might give to a mouse it was playing with. "Ryoga like Akane?" she asked, with a sort of purr and a fluttering of eyelashes.

Ryoga stopped and stared. He could never figure Shampoo out. Or girls in general, for that matter.

"Why you no confess?" Shampoo asked. At first glance, one might have thought she asked out of genuine concern for Ryoga but on closer examination, the scorn never really left her face and she emitted a low, wordless murmur that almost sounded as if she was laughing at him.

Ryoga said quietly, "You know, sometimes I really envy you, Shampoo."

"Why?"

"You'd do anything to get your way," he said. "Wouldn't you?"

She turned her nose up at him. "What that mean?"

He chuckled. "Nothing much, I guess. You'd sacrifice yourself and others to get something. I could never do that. I'm just a tool to you, aren't I?"

"Is not!" Shampoo retorted fiercely. "Ryoga friend! Shampoo prove it! I take you Ranma's house!"

And with that, she harshly grabbed Ryoga's hand and dragged him straight along the road. She looked furious.

Having raised enough of a sweat to sustain her, Akane decided to finish her morning exercise and jog back home. This she did while taking in the sights around her. The roads were filling up and more people were up and about now that the sun had well and truly risen. Nerima's central was a very busy place at all hours of the day. As Akane drew further away from it in her homeward journey, she saw less workmen hurrying about frantically and more homeowners walking their dogs or going to the shops at a more leisurely pace. The only person in a hurry she saw now was Shampoo, who was running while holding Ryoga's hand.

Wait… RYOGA?

Shampoo and Ryoga did not look as if they were dating simply because Ryoga's face was meeting the pavement. But still… it was Ryoga! So Ranma had been right about Shampoo and Ryoga being connected, whether by marriage or otherwise. Akane did not care just then. She had given up hope of ever seeing him again. Her friend who had changed her life…

She stared until Shampoo turned the corner and the two of them vanished. Then it occurred to her that she ought to have said a greeting.

"Wait up!" she yelled, panting as she gave chase.

There was no way Shampoo could have outrun Akane while she dragged Ryoga's weight behind her. She stopped. "Yes?" she said, politely yet coldly.

Akane ignored her. She was much too concerned about Ryoga. She got to her knees, called his name and shook his shoulders fervently. He groaned weakly.

"Akane?" His eyes, screwed shut, began to flutter open.

He had abandoned her, but she had found him again. "It's been a while. How have you been?" she asked him smiling and with shining, watery eyes. "Why did you never call me?"

"I thought… you hated me," he gasped.

What was that look on Akane's face? What did those unshed tears mean?

"I don't hate you," Akane insisted. "I never hated you."

Ryoga's eyes became shiny themselves.

Idiots, thought Shampoo.

Ryoga mentally debated with himself whether he ought to nonchalantly put his arms around Akane and perhaps cry out her name, clichéd romantic style. Maybe Akane was the type who got carried away by the emotion. He went so far as to raise his arms an inch but then fell back, as if exhausted by the effort.

"Are you all right?" Akane frowned with worry. "Here, I'll help you up." She took hold of Ryoga's hand. He felt something like electricity pass through him briefly. Something within him broke free.

"Oh, Akane!" The tears burst out unashamedly, and Ryoga sat up and pulled Akane into his arms. How frighteningly bold of him.