Chapter 8

Ranma decided to go home early instead of staying at school. The sailor senshi were attracting a lot of attention while they were in their prone state, which had eventually included the local news, so there wasn't much in the way of class attendance once she had made her decision. While it was amusing to watch the sailor senshi being lectured by her teacher about the behavior expected of heroines, all while at the mercy of the news crew, she hadn't much cared for the looks that she had been receiving from many of them, as if it had been her fault for them being in their predicament.

Normally, she wouldn't have minded some attention, but she wasn't particularly keen on whatever kind she would end up getting for being a dragon half, much less for being targeted by the sailor senshi. While she was a little concerned that her teacher would have an issue with her leaving school early, despite being too caught up in her own situation to do her job when the lunch period ended, she'd rather take a risk and do something better with her time instead of trying to concentrate on her classes while the sailor senshi were nearby, who were probably waiting to confront her once they recovered. Not that she really needed much of an excuse to skip out on school, of course, but she figured that the effort would count for something.

While the sailor senshi would probably find out where she lived, if they hadn't already, confronting her at home was better than having a ki-sucking teacher around when they made said confrontation, since the aforementioned teacher could complicate matters if she ever decided to target her while being attacked by them. Of course, that was assuming that her teacher — who now appeared to be a sailor senshi herself — didn't join their ranks outright. In the end, she figured that they wouldn't do anything on a large scale so long as innocents were nearby, and she wouldn't worry about what they were capable of with subtlety until they gave it a try.

Upon entering through the front gate of the Tendo's property, she found Kasumi sweeping the walkway that led to the front door, who perked up when she saw her and said, "Welcome home, Ranma! Doctor Tofu called earlier. He said that Ryoga was showing signs of waking up."

"Really?" Ranma replied, who was glad to hear that. "I guess I'll go check on him, then."

Kasumi was about to say something, but hesitated. Ranma noticed and asked, "What's up?"

After fidgeting with her apron for a few seconds, Kasumi nervously said, "Well, before you go, I was hoping that you could do something for me..."

"Name it," Ranma replied without hesitation, with Kasumi's nervousness inspiring some concern for her.

Kasumi led her into the house, then up to the second floor. She didn't have long to wonder where they were going before she was brought into the other girl's room, at which point she began to wonder why. Figuring that she needed her to exterminate a critter that had taken up residence within her room, or the muscle to move something heavy, she began to look around, paying more attention to her surroundings than to the person who had enlisted her aid.

"So," Ranma said, just before she finished her cursory inspection of the room and focused her attention on its owner, "what's up?"

Kasumi worried her bottom lip. "Could you..."

"Yeah?" Ranma prompted, who began to wonder what could make her so reluctant to speak.

After a few false starts, by which time her cheeks had become quite flush, Kasumi faintly requested, "Could you... imprison me?"

Ranma stared at her blankly, not sure that she had heard or understood her correctly. "...What?"

Kasumi cupped her cheeks in embarrassment, but she had already said too much to try to recover from the position that she had put herself in. "Oh, you know... Like a dragon guarding a princess, who waits to be rescued by her knight in shining armor?"

Ranma took a nervous step backward, who was glad that the door was both behind her and open. She knew that Kasumi was a bit weird, but she was usually nice enough that it could be overlooked. This was something else, though, and it wasn't something that she wanted to get involved with. "Um... I'm not that kind of dragon?"

With her hands clasped to her chest, Kasumi begged, "Oh, please, won't you reconsider? Tying myself to the house just isn't the same — it isn't enough! I want to be confined to my room and have gallant men try to rescue me!"

Ranma took another step backward and began to sweat, not only because the request was ludicrous, but because it was rather imposing. After all, if she were to assume the role of the dragon, wouldn't that mean that she would be harassed by whoever intended to free Kasumi? And that wasn't even taking into consideration how her family, or even her own, would react. There had been a lot of things that she would have been willing to do for Kasumi, but something like this was just...

She suddenly felt dizzy, and her round pupils transformed into vertical slits as she entered an altered state of mind. She grinned maniacally and told Kasumi, "Oh, is that all you want? Then I will make sure that you never step out of this room again!"

Kasumi was equal parts surprised and delighted. "Really!?"

Whether Ranma knew the nature of Kasumi's answer to be desire or fear, she replied with, "Absolutely! From now on, the only one who will be able to come and go from this room shall be me!"

Unconsciously, due to her being irrational yet certain about her claim, she tapped into the power of the Ginzuishou to make her words true. She didn't know it yet, but there was now a field around the room that would repel everyone but her away from it, effectively sealing Kasumi inside while keeping others out.

While Kasumi had nearly swooned from her declaration, and had to lean over the back of a desk chair so she wouldn't collapse, she left the room to demonstrate the seriousness of her words. After she closed the door behind herself, but before she could get something to bar it, she stumbled a bit as both her eyes and mind returned to normal. She shook her head to clear it, then looked around, confused.

"What the...?" She voiced, trying to remember when she had left Kasumi's room, even though that was what she last remembered wanting to do. After scratching her head briefly in thought, she shrugged her shoulders and decided to vacate the area, since she hoped to avoid meeting Kasumi again any time soon.

Besides, she had a place to be, and it was an even more welcoming thought than it had been prior to what she had just experienced in her current location, due to the fact that she lived in said location along with the individual that was responsible for the aforementioned experience.

After she had a quick snack, she left for doctor Tofu's clinic. On the way out, she reflected on the observation that no one else seemed to be in the house, which made her wonder where they could have gone at that time of the day. Since she was usually at school right then, she couldn't be sure, but assumed that they had gone shopping. It wasn't important, though, so she put it out of her mind and went on her way.

When Ryoga awoke, he found himself looking at a ceiling that looked like a lot of other ceilings, but certainly not the kind attached to places that he was more familiar with or desired to be at. After sitting up and looking around, he realized that he had been resting on a cot within a small room, one that he assumed was primarily used for storage since there were plenty of stacked boxes and shelves with various items on them. He also noticed his backpack beside the cot that he occupied, which told him that he didn't have a tent to return to once he left his current location.

He began to wonder why he was there. The last thing that he remembered was his fight with Ranma, but he couldn't remember how it had ended. In fact, he was having trouble recalling much in the way of details in general, and that made him worry that he may have been the one who had lost. After all, if he had won, would he have woken up in a place like this, without a clue as to how the fight had ended or how he had gotten where he was?

However, after struggling to remember something more illuminating for a bit longer, he recalled something that upset him immediately. "What!?" He roared aloud. "He ran away!? That coward!"

A strange girl suddenly popped up from one side of the bed and shouted, "I did not run away!"

With a yelp of surprise, Ryoga reflexively pushed himself in the opposite direction of the unknown girl, which made him topple over the side of the cot in a rather undignified fashion. It was only after he had recovered and peered over the cot, to see who had startled him, that her words made him realize why the girl gave him the feeling that she was familiar to him in some way.

"Ranma?" He asked, with some confusion.

With a huff, and her arms akimbo, Ranma retorted with, "Who else would I be?"

"Why are you wearing stuff like that, then?" Ryoga questioned as he eyed the moving tail behind her, wondering how she was able to make it do that so realistically.

It was Ranma's turn to be confused. "What do you mean? Don't you remember?" When Ryoga shook his head, she smiled inwardly, figuring that she could take advantage of this. "Well, it's not important. If you're having trouble remembering things, wouldn't you rather know who won our duel?"

"I guess so..." Ryoga replied, who didn't have a good feeling about the results when Ranma grinned.

"I did, of course," Ranma stated proudly. "Was there any doubt?"

Ryoga lowered his head and allowed his shoulders to slump. "Damn... I was so sure I'd win this time..."

"Oh, you poor baby," he heard Ranma say, in a rather uncharacteristic voice.

When he raised his head to express his anger, thinking that he had been mocked, what he saw brought him up short. Ranma had crawled across the cot, and her hands were cupping the sides of his head before he had a chance to see them coming. He tried to pull away from her, and he was so surprised that he couldn't muster enough strength to do it that he barely registered the odd shape of her pupils before she closed her eyes and kissed him on top of his head.

"There," she said afterward, before releasing his head and sitting back on the cot. "Did that make you feel better?" When Ryoga didn't respond, and appeared to be doing a good impression of a statue, she giggled behind a hand and said, "How cute!"

Then, she experienced a wave of dizziness. When it passed, she looked down at the cot in confusion, wondering when she had climbed on to it. Upon noticing Ryoga, and how still he was, she began to worry that something wasn't right. It had been one thing when she had zoned out once, but this was the second time in less than an hour and it was obvious that she had missed something this time. Was she coming down with something?

She was reluctant to find out if she had truly missed out on something, and — in particular — just what she had done during that time, but she eventually ventured toward getting an answer with a hesitant, "Ryoga?"

"Ranma..." Ryoga growled, before he stood up and regarded her with a furious expression on his face. "I'll make you pay for playing with my emotions!"

"Wha...?" Was all that Ranma could get out before she had to defend herself from Ryoga's initial attack.

In the lobby, those waiting to be examined by doctor Tofu turned their attention to the tumult occurring on the other side of the storage room door, which was fairly loud and could be felt strongly through the floor. It was more than enough to draw doctor Tofu's attention, who left the examination room — and his current patient — to investigate what was going on. Before he made it halfway across the lobby, the conflict ceased, the door to the storage room opened, and a slightly-disheveled Ranma began to march out.

"I'd give him a few more days, still," she muttered in passing, who appeared to be rather intent on leaving the premises instead of sticking around to give an explanation.

Between what that probably meant, her sudden leavetaking, and the audience who had witnessed it all, it was with some resignation that he sighed and thought to himself, "I see..."

Ranma wasn't in a particularly good mood as she thought about her situation while on her way home. Spending a lot of time as a girl through no desire or initiative of her own was pretty old by now, so that didn't really bother her so much. The same could be said for being dragged into matters not her own, or said matters being made her problem. Having someone wanting to take a piece out of her hide, or wanting her head, was just one of those things in life that was expected to come and go. However, doing something that she didn't remember doing, and having no idea of the cause, was another matter.

It was one thing to make one's own bed and lie in it, but it was quite another when one's actions were beyond one's control and recollection, especially if it was chronic and unexpected. While she certainly wasn't new to the experience, what with her neko-ken training and all, it was usually a one and done deal: she would enter an altered state of mind, do stuff, then come out of it and hope that the damage — whatever it may be — was manageable. This time, it had already happened twice in a short amount of time, and she knew neither the why of it or how to avoid it.

That it was happening now, considering the recent turn that her life had taken, it was hard to believe that this development was a coincidence. Whether it was a result of putting on — and becoming one with — the skin suit, or something else, she didn't know. All that she knew for sure was that she didn't like it, and that a certain someone was going to get what was coming to them if the problem persisted.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt the base of her tail being groped and heard a familiar voice exclaim, "Hotcha! I really got myself a piece of tail, this time!"

Before Happosai could get away, he found himself lifted by the meager hair on his head and brought before a familiar face, although one with eyes that had red irises and vertical slits for pupils. He didn't get a chance to do more than briefly wonder whether he was looking at Ranma or not before the girl spoke.

"You look like a ball," she stated, just before she forcibly squeezed him into an even rounder shape and began to dribble him around on the street. "Like a basketball! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!"

Happosai endured the agonizing experience of being dribbled around like a basketball for several seconds, by someone with far more strength than he had ever encountered before. By then, he was able to change the angle at which he bounced off of the ground, which was enough to evade the hand on the way up. While he continued to rise into the air, he went through the painful process of putting his limbs and neck back into their natural positions.

With tears in his eyes, he pulled out as many of his baseball-sized fireworks as he could, filling both of his hands with them, and prepared to lob them as he shouted, "That really hurt! You're not a pretty lady! You're a monster!" After he sent his fireworks toward their target, which exploded on or near said target, he ran away as soon as he landed on the ground, in order to find a place nearby where he could have a good cry.

When Ranma came back to her senses, she found herself standing in a sizeable crater, with her clothes scorched and fairly damaged. Aside from the ringing in her ears, she was otherwise unharmed. It was little in the way of consolation, though, since — on top of one of the few outfits that had been adjusted for her current body being ruined — she had just experienced yet another episode of not knowing what she had been doing for who knows how long.

"Not again," she grumbled with a sigh, which was accompanied by a small plume of fire.

Just as she was about to continue on her way home, she heard Soun's voice bellow from a distance. "Raaaaaaanmaaaaaaa! What have you done to my precious daughter!?"

Since she was facing the general direction of the house, she was able to notice Soun's demon head as it grew large enough to be seen over the buildings some distance down the street, where it began to loom over the neighborhood like a bad omen. Well, as far as she was concerned, that's exactly what he was. It figured that her episode with Kasumi had caused something like this.

As she turned away from the angry father, unsure of whether or not he could see her from his location or not, she thought, "Maybe now's not such a good time to return home..."

Now that she was facing the other direction, however, she was surprised to discover Herb standing just outside of the crater, staring at her in a way that she never would have expected from him, which — in turn — didn't make her feel optimistic about the kind of business he might have with her. Then, at that precise moment, a traveling orchestra just happened to be passing by, and they were playing a certain part of Romeo and Juliet's Fantasy Overture as he gazed at her with love-struck eyes.

She was hardly in the mood to deal with this, so she took out her frustration on the orchestra and the annoyingly coincidental music that they happened to be playing. It wasn't long before they were running away, screaming in terror, as their instruments were either set ablaze or melted by dragon flame. It also seemed to bring Herb out of his stupor, who seemed to be puzzled as he regarded her for who she actually was for the first time since seeing her a moment ago.

"...Ranma?" He ventured questioningly.

On the other side of Tokyo bay, in Nekomi, Chiba prefecture, Skuld and Urd were watching television at home while Belldandy and Keiichi were at work. It wasn't often that they were interested in the same show, but this particular show focused on mecha, their pilots and mechanics, artificial intelligence, the scientists behind the AI's development, and the drama and romance that tied them all together. It was so enthralling that it was little wonder why they both ignored the phone when it began to ring.

When it felt like the phone had been ringing for a long time, but had only rung thrice by then, Urd got tired of hearing it and finally said, "Could you get that?"

"It's your turn," Skuld absently replied, without looking away from the television.

Urd wasn't about to miss out on what was happening in the show, either. "During the next commercial break."

"We just had one," Skuld pointed out.

Neither wanted to miss a part of the show for anything, so they were quite happy when the ringing finally ceased. Unfortunately, a large bolt of energy struck the ground outside soon after, which blew them — among other things — toward the inner wall, and caused a fair amount of structural damage to the side of the house where the room was located. Much to their dismay, it had also totaled the television.

Seeing no point in caring about their show at that point, considering who it was that they must have upset, they picked themselves up and went to investigate the message. Since the engawa was in shambles, they read the message from just inside of the living room, which wasn't hard to do since said message was rather large. Despite its size, though, the message was simple: "answer the phone."

Said phone began to ring once more.

Urd sighed. "I'll get it."

Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture: There's a part of this song, about three-fourths of the way in, that you may have heard before in a movie or cartoon. Regarding the video that I found on Youtube, the part in question begins at 14:20.