Ranma awoke slowly that next morning, not because he was tired but because his head was so busy with his own inner monologue he could only allocate the bare minimum focus to actual movement. Of course the main thought of the day was about his upcoming date with Kasumi. The closest thing that Ranma had to dating experience was his one with Shampoo, which he had run out on, and the 'date' he had proposed with Nabiki when he realised she was messing with him.
Apparently Kasumi had about as much experience as him in that department and at first neither was really sure what to do. Ranma had to draw upon his minute knowledge of television and simply proposed they go out for dinner. It seemed to work in the programs; you would go out, talk, eat, then wander around before going back to the girl's house. It didn't sound too daunting, or at least that was what Ranma kept telling himself over and over just to calm his nerves.
Luckily she had thought it sounded good so they tentatively made plans for Saturday evening. The only downside was that Ranma was pretty much stuck with his own thoughts until then, and it was only Tuesday. He decided to try and get his mind on other things but recently there wasn't a thing on his mind that didn't cause him distress in one way or another. Whether it was Akane's strange behaviour, his mother's apparent betrayal of his trust, the way his father completely ignored him now, or the fact that even though he was back from vacation his other two fiancées had been strangely and ominously quiet.
That in particular was troubling him right now as he walked through the house. Ukyo he guessed might have the knowledge to see something was wrong but he figured that would only cause her to find out what, not wait in the background. Shampoo was a different story; she had none of the same reservations and by now he would expect a bike between the shoulder blades. He was almost tempted to go down to the Nekohanten to see what was up but was wary to do so in case that was their new plan all along; he could never be certain with Cologne.
Even so he did decide to go and visit Ukyo after school today and see what was up with her; in any case he had made that same promise yesterday before his world got flipped. That also made him uneasy; while he knew Kasumi was caring and understanding he didn't know what her stance on jealousy was. He would always give her the benefit of the doubt but had never had to know before and she was still Akane's sister. Anyway he was only going to see Ukyo as a friend to see what was up so he had nothing to worry about, or so his mind continued to reassure him.
Akane was also on his mind, it was tearing him up inside seeing her how she was and especially knowing it was his fault in a large way. If he didn't know her that well he might have just thought she was a quiet and reserved girl, but he did and it was just so out of character for her it shocked him every time he saw her. He had tried to talk to her but she had rushed straight home from school, into her room, and slammed the door. He had tried striking up conversation at dinner, hoping to rile her up just to snap her out of it but he couldn't get a response. Not even when he asked 'Who are you and what have you done with the real Akane?'
The two fathers kept shooting him disappointed looks which surprisingly hurt even though he wouldn't normally give their opinions the time of day. Even more aggravating was the seemingly smug look his mother had gained and the supposedly happy looks she would give him and Kasumi. He still almost couldn't believe what he had done. First she finally found out that he had been forced into an engagement without any say and promised to do something about it; only to put him into another engagement without his say.
For a while he had grappled with what possibly could have possessed her to think that was good logic. In his eyes she repeated the very mistake she sought out to correct. He also realised that he should never have gotten his hopes up, his mother was still the same person, blissfully ignorant of his feelings and only exuding a facade of care. His thoughts had only grown darker after that and he wasn't proud of a lot of the things that had passed through his mind after that. Sufficed to say that his father had received the same treatment externally as he was giving his mother internally.
The day progressed languidly after that and Ranma actually felt that he had never said so little over such a time period in his life. There was even a time when his father had left him in the care of a Buddhist monk sect who had taken a vow of silence; even then he had managed to get better conversation out of them than he did that day. It was in fact where he had learnt his near-mastery of reading body language, for all the help that did him with Akane.
It did him no good to know that she was upset, not that you had to be an expert in body language to figure that out, if he couldn't talk to her to try and help her. He knew he would probably only make it worse if his past was anything to go on but at least the knowledge that he had tried would put his conscience at a bit more ease. School was just as much a dead-end as home; she had an air of complete apathy around her, not even talking to her friends. In fact Yuka and Sayuri had come to him just to see what was wrong, when he explained they had walked off with worry prominent in their eyes.
Ukyo had been equally distant, not even approaching him at lunch. She had still given him the occasional look in lessons but they were fleeting and full of suspicion and betrayal more than her usual dreamy look. It only deepened his resolve to find out just what was wrong with her and straight after school he walked to her restaurant. He actually only walked in a few moments after she had so she was just starting to talk to Konatsu when he moved through the doorframe.
"Ranchan? What are you doing here?" He looked at her oddly, he had never been met like that before. Usually it would be all smiles and welcomes, not this kind of hostile greeting.
"What are you talking about Ucchan? I just wanna get some okonomiyaki and maybe talk a little." Her eyes darkened almost imperceptibly.
"Why? You haven't come here in over a month." Ranma was just confused, maybe he had been ignoring her but it hadn't been that long had it? When he thought about it a little more however he realised that she was about right. It really had been a while since he had actually expressed any interest in seeing her except when she offered him food first. Even so, the hostility he was receiving from Ukyo seemed unreasonable, it was almost like what she had first been like two years ago.
"Ukyo what's wrong?" She just turned away from him and walked behind the grill.
"Listen Ranma I don't have time to talk, I need to work right now." Desperation entered Ranma's eyes, Ukyo wasn't letting him in and there was nothing he could do about it.
"But Ucchan-"
"No Ranma, either order some okonomiyaki or leave." Her words were blunt, leaving no room for argument or compromise. Ranma sat down at the grill and put down some money, the first time he had ever done so in Ukyo's restaurant. Defiance filled his very being.
"Fine then, I'm not leaving here until I find out what's up with you." Her look only matched his defiance as she whipped up his favourite seafood Okonomiyaki in a flash. "What's wrong Ucchan?" His voice became softer, putting in the genuine concern he had for the girl as his much stronger, stubborn mask slipped for the moment. The change caught the chef by surprise and it was only after reminding herself of the deal she made with Shampoo about not revealing anything that she managed to stop herself from blurting it all out.
"Nothing's wrong. Why? Is there anything I should know that I would feel wronged about?" She put some venom into the words that she usually reserved for the other fiancées, not for her Ranchan himself. Ranma began to worry and connected the dots; he hung his head limply, still not having actually touched the steaming Japanese pizza before him.
"So you found out about the engagement." His voice became quiet, almost guilty which only spurred Ukyo on.
"Yeah, me and Shampoo found out." Ranma inwardly groaned. 'Shampoo knows as well? How did word get around so quickly?' briefly he wondered if it was Akane's doing but he couldn't jump to any conclusions like that. "How could you do that Ranma? I thought you didn't even want the engagement with Akane. How could you move it to her sister?" He raised his head slowly, trying to make eye contact with the girl but she wasn't making it easy for him.
"I didn't. My mother moved it." That bit of news briefly surprised Ukyo but remembering how Ranma had hugged Kasumi brought her right back into it.
"Well you don't seem to mind all that much." Ranma's brow furrowed in confusion at the statement and Ukyo realised she might have said too much. If she was around Ranma too long then she was going to say more than she wanted to and ruin everything. One look from Ranma's slate blue eyes nearly made her defences crumble but she steeled herself and stood a little taller.
"Ranma I think you should leave."
"But Ucch-" Ukyo was now finding hard not to look into the pigtailed boy's eyes.
"No Ranma, go." She put his okonomiyaki into a bag and turned to the next customer, silencing any more protests he had. He walked away, feeling even worse for coming, and walked home slowly, with plenty to think about now. He once again thought about going over to Shampoo's to see if she could shed any light on this but the reaction from Ukyo was enough to make him reconsider. Having left, it was only Konatsu and a few of the customers who witnessed the single crystal-like tear roll down the young chef's cheek.
The week passed in much the same way; Ranma would try to act normally to encourage the same from others but everybody kept this new personality they had developed. Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo continued to avoid and ignore him, his mother was still proud of what she had done and the fathers became even more reclusive in their games of Shogi. In fact it was only him, Kasumi and Nabiki who had seemed to walk out of this the least changed.
It wasn't all that strange that Ranma naturally found himself spending more and more time around the older girls, even Nabiki. In fact it was on Thursday afternoon he was walking across the landing towards said girl's room. He knocked and entered while she sat on that same swivel chair, expectant as ever. It was highly reminiscent of the conversation they had a week ago about their vacation. He didn't have his guard up in the same way as even the short time he had spent around the older girl was enough to tell him that she would at least hear out what he had to say.
"Hey Nabiki." She looked at him curiously, he was being awfully familiar and she wondered if she was losing her touch. He seemed much calmer around her than he used to be but she also noticed he was slightly distracted which was probably helping.
"What do you need Ranma?" It wasn't cold; in fact anybody that knew what Nabiki was normally like would have probably described it as quite pleasant. Ranma just cut straight to the point.
"I assume you already know I'm going on a date with Kasumi." It wasn't a question, Ranma knew that Nabiki did in fact know; not much went on in this household that she didn't. Her eyebrow rose at the forwardness of the statement however, there was none of the normal jittery shyness that usually gave her so much fun when dealing with Ranma, he seemed positively bold.
"So you're here for money." Ranma smiled slyly, something Nabiki wasn't usually on the receiving end of.
"Sort of, I don't want to take your money, or even ask for it. I'm not a freeloader like my father." Nabiki already knew this, while Ranma occasionally took advantage of a situation he would never purposefully mooch off of others if he didn't deem it necessary. In fact with many of the things Ranma had at his disposal, Nabiki probably would be worse than he was. "I want to ask if there's anything I can do to earn some money." She was happily surprised at the responsibility the boy was taking.
"What about working at the Nekohanten or Ucchan's? Isn't that what you usually do for money?" Ranma averted his gaze for a moment and the older girl could see there was something wrong with what she had said.
"I just can't do that right now."
Nabiki made a mental note to check up on Shampoo and Ukyo to see what was going on with them. "Very well, you know I could always do with better pictures of your girl form."
Ranma blushed furiously. "Why? Kuno left, just who are you selling them to?"
Nabiki's smirk grew. "Oh Ranma, if only you knew the male students of Furinkan like I do. Trust me, you don't really want to know the answer to that question."
Ranma still looked irritated. "Well don't you have anything less... perverted?"
Nabiki thought a moment. "I could also do with better pictures of you as a guy." That quickly brought Ranma to a halt, he had known about the pictures Nabiki took of him as a girl but he had no idea she was doing the same for him as a guy.
"What?" Nabiki's smile grew to Cheshire proportions.
"Oh yeah, they sell great with the girls. I'm surprised you never noticed." Her face took on a strictly business-like feel so Ranma wouldn't take her words the wrong way. "Ranma don't let your ego swell too much but you're a very attractive young man. Why do you think your girl side is so cute?" That gave Ranma a moment to pause, two years living with the curse and the thought hadn't crossed him once. Nabiki was at least pleased that the boy hadn't developed some stupid grin at the thought of being attractive to girls; it was still Ranma after all.
"If you really have a problem with the whole picture thing then I suppose there are a few other uses I could have for you." Ranma warily let her finish, knowing that he probably wouldn't like them if she had led with the pictures. "I have the occasional need for a courier and I know firsthand just how fast you are, also nothing is going to stop you from delivering the packages." Ranma examined her curiously, her posture hadn't changed and her eyes gave nothing away but he could tell there had to be more to it than that.
"Why would you need a courier?" Nabiki also evaluated him for a moment.
"Not that you need to know but sometimes e-mail isn't secure enough and I can't trust the post office to be fast enough." Ranma kept looking at her suspiciously and as if reading his thoughts she smirked and raised her eyebrow again. "What? I'm not in high school anymore, I had to up my game a bit." Under that same critical look she sighed and leaned forward. "It's all strictly legit I assure you, now do we have a deal?"
Ranma didn't react for a few moments, wondering just what he was getting into. However he needed the money and he saw no alternative right now, the idea of just getting a normal job didn't even register with him. He relented and nodded; Nabiki put out her hand and Ranma firmly shook it.
"Nice doing business with you Ranma." She turned back around in her chair and returned to the notebook she was always attached to. "I'll give you a call if I need you." Ranma left the room with the same feeling he always did, that he had somehow signed his soul away. He shrugged the feeling off as his mind just over-exaggerating things but he was left uneasy all the same.
The days came and went; Ranma now found that his free time that wasn't taken up by at least an hour of training was spent delivering messages and packages. All Nabiki did was give him a location and a picture of the person he was delivering to and he would be off. He didn't actually mind all that much, he set himself small challenges to increase his speed and he found that the faster he delivered the more he got paid. Soon enough he easily had enough for dinner and soon he was just making excess because the job was easy and rather fun.
The only time he had trouble was when a group of thugs blocked his path. He wasn't sure if it was because of what he was delivering or if it was coincidence. Not wanting to lose any money he dealt with all three of the large men in seconds, moving too fast for all but one of them to even see. Soon they were disabled and he moved right along without glancing back, he was going to have to ask Nabiki about all of that later.
Soon, but for some reason not soon enough for Ranma, Saturday came. Despite his nervousness and anxiety he was excited, it was something new for him and he was ready to embrace it. He nervously laughed at the small joke he made before continuing with the cooking. For all the world it would appear to be an average Saturday with Ranma cooking and Kasumi preparing for the day with the rest of the family only now starting to stir.
However Ranma noticed that he wasn't the only one with nerves this morning. Kasumi seemed utterly distracted, not doing her normal impeccable job. After breakfast he went around the house with Kasumi, helping her with her work like they had agreed, it was the only way they would have time for their date later on. Ranma didn't mind all that much, he found that taking the strain off of Kasumi made him feel better and the work wasn't all that strenuous.
It wasn't enough to keep his mind from straying like his martial arts but it had a definite calming effect. The focus did him wonders and having to concentrate on one task was relaxing. The day passed quickly and before Ranma even knew it he was standing in his room, looking at his clothes, wondering what he was going to wear.