Another Rainy Day in Nerima
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any related characters in any way, shape or form.
Author's Notes: I've had a few comments asking if I dislike Kasumi, and let me reassure you that this is not the case. As I mentioned in the last chapter, had Ranma been engaged to Kasumi from the start, it's more than likely he would have been married to her, perhaps as early as the 5th season. However, if the engagement is transferred to her in mid-canon, where Ranma has at least three other jealous, possessive girls after his heart, and rivals to boot, the two would not have really connected unless some outside force intervened and pushed them together. They're just such different people. Not to mention the fact that, canonically, Kasumi is far less concerned with Ranma than fanon makes her out to be- in fact, there's actually evidence that Kasumi dislikes Ranma, in her own mild way.
To those who bring up crossovers, no, I don't really do crossovers unless I'm very familiar with the source material for both. I prefer to try and make my works stand based on one source alone.
Kaji, I've read the manga (via a few early volumes in my possession and the manga scanlation), and I'll tell you that I'll stick with the anime. I prefer the anime. I can't stand Akane in either incarnation, and I feel that she's "better" in the manga solely because the other girls are so gut-wrenchingly disgusting. And I'm sick and tired of those who claim that Ranma is stupider in the anime- he's not, he just doesn't get to show off those sneaky bastard moments as much as he gets to in the manga.
Mrbignerd, if you'd like to borrow one of my 'bases' then please feel free to do so! I'm not claiming a patent on them or anything, and the more Ranma/Non-Akane girl writers out there, the better, that's what I feel. I'm glad you like this work and I'm honored that you think you can take pointers from it.
Chapter 6: Legal Bonds
Ranma looked up from the mirror and shook his head, trying to sort through all of the things he had seen so far.
"Well, I knew nothing good could have ever come from that old freak or his sick little toys. Hell, magic in general's been nothing but trouble for me from the start."
There was a sudden high-pitched humming sound, and Ranma started with shock. To his astonishment, the mirror's surface had changed from its usual display of calm, gray mists to a roiling, seething mass of black vapors and crackling energy, like looking into the heart of a newborn electrical storm.
"Word of advice, my friend- it's not a good idea to badmouth a magic item. They tend to be touchy." Abe commented casually from where he was polishing the shaft of a scythe, the blade of which glowed a faint duck-egg blue.
"What? You mean this thing's alive?" Ranma commented in disbelief.
"Not as such, not like you or me, but artifacts tend to have some semblance of self. I'd apologize to it, if I were you."
Ranma blinked in disbelief, but entertained the notion- so far, this item hadn't done anything bad to him at all. The thought warred with his pride, before he finally managed to make a decision.
"Okay, I'm sorry, but it was nothing personal- I've never met a magic item yet, except you, that could have possibly had a positive effect on my life." He said, still feeling a tad foolish at talking to a mirror.
The humming died down and the sparks stopped flashing in its depths, though the mists remained black and ominous... and began to swirl in a familiar pattern.
"I think it feels you just challenged it to prove you wrong." Abe said, now dusting off a book the size of a small table and about as thick as Kuno.
"I doubt that's possible." Ranma commented, but started into the mists anyway.
The mists writhed and seethed until they reformed themselves into a timeline recognized all too well, as it was the exact same timeline he had just been viewing before. Apparently to emphasize its point, he found the mirror showing what had happened in his own past- specifically, that after Shampoo had abducted him from the dojo, Ukyo had paused behind to, for some inexplicable reason, give a motivational 'pep talk' to Akane. It was that which caused Akane to follow, and led to her intervention in the resultant fight, which was how he had avoided being married to one of the two girls. After showing him this, the mirror rewound and started again, only here Ukyo kept running straight through the dojo, evidently not noticing Akane due to a combination of the dust and Ukyo's own haste.
The result of Ukyo's interception of Shampoo was explosive to say the least and the pair immediately launched into each other, intent on disabling their opponent long enough to get the marriage license signed while Ranma slowly returned to his senses before he found his head squarely planted in a person's chest as Shampoo stuck her tongue out at the fallen Ukyo, "Too too bad Spatula-girl!"
She turned away for a moment to make sure that Ranma was alright when a blur tackled the pigtailed teen, resulting in Ukyo and Ranma on the ground with Ranma's face this time firmly positioned in Ukyo's chest as the girl glared at Shampoo, "Over my dead body!"
Shampoo growled, "Shampoo can arrange that..."
As Ranma-prime watched, the overheated bandaid went into overdrive and the resulting mega-dose, in fact he was tempted to call it an over-dose, pretty much resulted in Ranma's mind being overwhelmed by the drug and sent into a pseudo-romantic daze as he managed to call out, "Girls, please stop. Come on, there's no need to fight."
The two ignored him and as Ranma watched helplessly, his eyes fell onto the licenses that the two had dropped when the fight started and his drugged mind realized that they were fighting over which one of them would have their license signed by him. Any sort of sensible thought was long gone as Ranma walked over to the licenses and picked them up and in his battered mental state, went to find a pen.
"They're fighting over me to sign one of these licenses, but I know that they'll keep fighting. So since they both want this, I'll sign them both." Only Ranma-prime heard this little monologue and he groaned, no way was this going to end well as Ranma found a pen and after a few moments to read everything, signed both the marriage licenses.
This deed done, the bandaid finally burnt out and fell off without anyone noticing, and Ranma slowly came back to his senses. He blinked, saw the pen in his hand and then saw the two marriage licenses laid out neatly in front of him. Ranma-prime winced as his counterpart simply gave off a choked scream of horror that stopped the two fighting girls in an instant as they abandoned their combat to rush to Ranma.
"Ranchan, what's wrong?" Ukyo asked, trying to elicit some response from the Saotome youth, currently hunched over and clutching something tightly in both hands.
"Airen, what matter? Who hurt you?" Shampoo quickly followed, her gaze burning into Ukyo, who returned fire once she realised what the Chinese Amazon was just insinuating. They were both ready to start brawling again, right there and then, when another ghastly shriek suddenly erupted from Ranma. Before either of them could do anything, they felt tremendously powerful, if clumsily aimed, blows pound into their flesh, knocking them aside like leaves before a gale as Ranma hurtled forth into the night, vanishing into the darkness before his cry had faded into the still air.
By the time the girls had managed to regain their footing, both physically and mentally, Ranma was long gone. Ukyo snarled as she whirled to face her Chinese counterpart. "Now look at what you've done!" She snapped.
"What! What I did? If anyone drive off Ranma, it you, Ukyo!" Shampoo snapped back.
With her teeth gritted so hard that they felt ready to crack, Ukyo swung at Shampoo's head with her spatula, only for it to be deflected by a promptly readied chui. Once more they resumed their battling, this time seeking to vent their fury at having apparently lost a golden opportunity to finally take Ranma away from Akane rather than merely seeking to fight for dominance. No quarter was asked, and none was given, a brutal and relentless fight... until a sudden gust of wind caught two pieces of paper and somehow managed to plaster both girls in the face. Both girls finally managed to free themselves... whereupon twin screams of horror split the air.
"How'd he manage to sign your marriage license!" Both shrieked at each other, before realizing what they had said.
There was silence as the two girls regarded the other's marriage license and the temptation before them. Oh, it would be so easy to shred the little piece of paper and victory would be assured! But the problem was that there was no time to shred one license and grab the other before it too was shredded. Thus the two girls regarded each other at an impasse, neither willing to give even as they pushed forwards.
But one thing made any thoughts of violence pause as it came to them, why didn't Ranma destroy the licenses himself? It would have been child's play for him to do so. So why didn't he?
Ukyo was the first to speak, "This is getting us nowhere." Shampoo nodded.
"So what we do? Airen sign both license so we get one over Tendos, but now what? Try to find Airen?"
Ukyo shook her head, "Hell if I know what to do. Ranma's gone and he can be pretty good at hiding when he needs to. If he doesn't want to be found, we ain't gonna find him. So I guess we're stuck."
Shampoo knew that there was one option, but didn't want to suggest, not if she knew how that person was going to react…
"We could go see Great-grandmother for advice." She suggested meekly.
Ukyo grimaced slightly, while she had no ill-will towards the old woman, she was more likely to want to help Shampoo than her, but she couldn't help but shiver at the meek way Shampoo had suggested it, like she knew something bad was about to happen. Still...
"What the hell, let's go sugar, maybe Cologne will know something."
"...And that's what happen, great-grandmother." Shampoo finished finally. She and Ukyo had been questioned extensively when they had come in (after, first, taking the precaution of knocking Mousse out cold), and she had just finished describing in full detail what had happened that day, including elements she and Ukyo had personally pieced together (privately, of course) after hearing from Happosai about the Lady-Killer Bandaid. As she finished, she sat back and waited for Cologne's response. At first, Cologne's expression remained inscrutable, which made Shampoo increasingly nervous- a nervousness that kind of 'leaked' to afflict Ukyo as well, who took it that if Cologne's own great-granddaughter was afraid of Cologne's reaction, she probably should be as well. Shampoo's nervousness only cranked itself up to eleven when Cologne pulled out a tobacco pouch decorated with Chinese characters.
That, Shampoo knew, was a special kind of semi-magical herb that only the authority figures of the Joketsuzoku were allowed to use. Fundamentally, it was a narcotic- it calmed the smoker down and kept them from doing anything rash. Ukyo, of course, knew nothing of this, but Shampoo's own nervousness, coupled with the fact she knew pipe smoke should not blue-green in hue, meant she was edgy. Things only got worse when, after a couple of draughts, Cologne finally started speaking... or would the more accurate phrase be "ranting"?
"I don't believe this, I just don't believe this. I put years, years of hard work into that girl and all of that effort into catching the heart of that boy and then she goes and does this!" What followed was a string of Mandarin that sounded especially vicious, as if Cologne wasn't able to find the words in Japanese to make them known as Shampoo shivered slightly, able to understand every last syllable as Cologne started pacing around the table, puffing away furiously.
Then she lashed out a finger at Ukyo, "And you! You had to compound the problem didn't you? If only the boy wasn't so attached to your friendship, you could've been dealt with easily, you'd vanish and no-one would be any wiser for it- but you had to be his friend and you had to be willing to fight back!" Cologne switched to Mandarin again, and Ukyo knew she didn't want to know what the meanings of the words she was hearing, were as Shampoo stayed silent.
After making two laps of the table, Cologne hopped off and stood on the impromptu platform, her clenched hand causing her staff to quiver slightly, as if the old woman was considering committing serious physical harm. Finally, Cologne let loose a deep sigh and sat down, relaxing slightly and looking much older than she was before finally asking, "Is that everything that happened Shampoo?"
Shampoo nodded her head frantically, "Is all that happened Great-grandmother, nothing more."
Another deep inhalation of smoke, which curled wreathlike about Cologne's head as she exhaled. She shook her head softly before speaking, her voice unusually tired and elderly in timbre.
"You two girls have really done it now. This complicates matters in ways I never wanted you to have to deal with."
Hard ingrained instinct took over and, despite the fear she had just been feeling, Ukyo promptly and automatically rounded on Shampoo. "This is all your fault!" She shrieked at her Chinese rival.
"My fault! How it my fault?! Ukyo try to take advantage of bandaid too!"
"Oh yeah, well who's the one who busted into the wall and ran off with Ranma, huh?! Face it, you started this when you tried to frighten Ranma into going on a date with you using that kitten, so if anyone's to blame for all of this, it's you!"
The two probably would have fallen to brawling right there and then if Cologne hadn't deployed her staff like a boomerang, battering both girls on the head. When they looked towards her, Cologne fixed both of them with a glare that was, perhaps, more frightening than her previous expression as she explained.
"I will admit that your deeds have had some positive effects- the two of you, in theory, now possess a far stronger and totally legal tie to Ranma than you previously had, and you have also rendered it impossible for Ranma to marry any of the Tendos. In practice, however, things are not that simple. You cannot both take your licenses to the officials in charge of such things -the Japanese bureaucracy has its problems, but it's not that incompetent- and trying to do so would simply result in a legal tangle that would inhibit either of you from marrying Ranma. Far more serious, however, is the fact you have altered your relationship with Ranma."
Ukyo blinked as she flicked a thumb towards Shampoo, "Okay, I get that its just me and Shampoo now, but what do you mean by 'altered'?"
Shampoo grimaced, "We get Airen together and lose Airen together is what Great-grandmother mean."
Ukyo looked like Shampoo had just told her that the sky was purple, and given her photographs to prove it. "What the hell do you mean by that?" She demanded incredulously.
"My great-granddaughter has unveiled the very root of the problem here. A pity she failed to think of such things before all of this occurred."
Cologne's voice was iced steel, and Shampoo flinched back as though expecting a physical blow to follow the verbal one. No such strike was forthcoming, but neither was any semblance of remorse or guilt. Before Ukyo could even think of asking Cologne to explain herself, she continued speaking, her voice the same cold, cruel tone as before.
"Ranma Saotome is, in his way, quite a patient and forgiving soul. However, there are things that few, if any, can merely wave off, and your actions today are amongst such deeds. The two of you treated him like a mere prize, a mindless, unthinking trophy whose opinions are of no consequence whatsoever. You took advantage of him, in a situation where he had absolutely no semblance of control, and dealt a potentially fatal wound to his feelings of friendship towards the pair of you, never mind any romantic desires he might have felt! Do you understand what I am saying here?"
Shampoo's head was bowed by the time Cologne had finished and Ukyo's head had also slumped as the magnitude of their act hit home. Both knew that this was something that had to be fixed, and fixed correctly as Ukyo managed to whisper, "So now what do we do? If Ran-chan doesn't want to be found by us, we ain't gonna find him. Frankly, I'm not sure I'd want to even go and look for him, not after this."
Shampoo nodded slightly, staying silent.
"Good. If you can realize just how badly the two of you have messed up this already troublesome situation, then there's hope that you can fix things." Cologne stated bluntly.
Pausing only to throw a now half-hearted glare at Ukyo, who returned it as automatically and as inefficiently as she had received it, Shampoo finally broke the silence "So... what we do, great-grandmother?" She asked.
"Firstly, you two must realize that the only way either of you is going to be able to come out of this disaster is by calling a truce. Success depends on you accepting that." Cologne stated firmly, the ice thawing from her voice, though it remained as steely as ever.
Ukyo sighed, "Fine, I guess I can live with that. But how are we going to fix this with Ran-chan? It ain't like we can just walk up to him and say 'Hey Ran-chan, sorry about turning you into a first place prize, but Shampoo and I have made a truce and we'd really like you to forgive us, so would you do that? Pretty please?' Yeah right."
Despite the seriousness of the situation, a smile flickered on Shampoo's face.
"First, allow me to emphasize why your cooperation is so vital to this endeavor. Neither of you can afford to return to your previous habit of warring with each other over 'access' to Ranma, and particularly your tendency to make him a casualty of the battle. You have already alienated Ranma with your deeds, and a continuation of such behavior will simply push him irretrievably away. Not to mention the fact that someone else may very well revive Akane Tendo's former tactic, albeit an unintentional one, of sneaking in while you two are fixated on each other to steal away Ranma from under your noses." Cologne stated.
"They'd better not try it!" Ukyo snarled, momentarily forgetting herself.
"That right! We work too hard to lose to sneaky cheat!" Shampoo echoed.
Cologne promptly boomeranged her cane off both of their heads. Once they finished whining about the pain to themselves, she resumed speaking as though nothing had happened.
Ranma-prime shook his head as he watched, "So far, what you're showing me ain't exactly filling me with confidence." The mirror made a harsh chime, and Ranma had the distinct feeling that it had somehow told him to keep watching. With a shrug, he did just that.
"Beyond that, this truce will aid you in your attempt to regain Ranma's trust and affection. The core paradox of your situation is thusly; Ranma will be even more reluctant than before to engage in romantic situations with either of you. Yet, at the same time, the best way for the two of you to mend your ties with him is to prove that it is possible for him to spend time in your presence without suffering pain. However, he is so used to you approaching him for that purpose that any attempt by either of you to approach him alone is doomed to failure- he will instantly suspect your goal and turn from you. The best option here is to use the truce as camouflage and approach him not only simultaneously, but as a team. From his previous experiences with you, Ranma finds the concept of the two of you working together, particularly in regards romance, unbelievable. The two of you can thusly arrange to spend time with him, yet use the truce to disguise it as merely friendship. Of course, this means that the two of you will have to accept the idea of not only going on subtle dates, but the fact you three will have to be together on such dates..." Cologne trailed off, seemingly casual bar for the barely perceptible tightening of her fingers on her staff.
Both girls grimaced at this but nodded, try as they might neither of them could think of a better plan and it was also clear that it was either this way or simply throw in the towel and they weren't about to do that.
Shampoo glanced at Ukyo, and then held out her hand. The chef blinked for a moment, and then understood what Shampoo wanted. She cracked a wane smile and shook the offered palm, "What the hell, better than nothing at least." She turned to Cologne, "So, you got any ground rules for us or are we going to have to make this up as we go along?"
Cologne grimaced, "Considering how well that turned out, some ground rules are going to have to be put into effect."
A gnarled finger went up, "First; there can be no more physical combat between the two of you. While the occasional verbal spar will undoubtedly happen, you cannot go at each other with fist and weapons. The only exception is sparring sessions here; if you're going to share him, you might as well get used to each other's styles intimately and perhaps learn from the other apart from when I feel that I should train you."
On reflection, using the words "share him" were probably a mistake, as both girls took that the wrong way entirely and promptly exploded.
"Share him! Are you crazy? There's no way I'm letting my Ranchan take a mistress and just turn a blind eye to it!" Ukyo protested.
"That right! Shampoo is only woman Airen need! Certainly not let him take Ukyo as co-wife!"
'Co-wife?' Ukyo wondered for a second what Shampoo had meant by that, but forgot it quickly enough as her skull once again was reacquainted with Cologne's staff.
The elder Amazon glowered at both girls as they held their tender heads. "I didn't mean it like that, so get things straight! Right now, you are both equal, and both losing! You can resume jockeying for first place as Ranma's wife after you've caught up in the race!"
Cologne sighed as the two girls rubbed their heads, "As it stands, you might as well be running a relay race, helping each other to reach the same goal. Never forget that, because as of now that is the most appropriate way to sum up how different your situation has become. Regardless, you also interrupted me when I was setting out your ground rules."
Two gnarled fingers went up, "The second rule is this; Stay away from the Tendo Dojo. Right now, that is the only place where Ranma would likely feel that he has any sort of breathing space to himself, no matter how limited it is and the two of you will have to respect that. In fact, I would go as far as to forgo any interaction with any of the Tendos unless you absolutely have to."
A third finger went up, "Third rule; Listen to him, for too long Ranma has been jerked around like a dog on a short leash that has had its barks ignored. It's time that he made his decisions heard and respected. While I don't want you to do everything he says, you should at least know when to respect that Ranma wants to be left to his own devices."
A fourth finger joined the set, "And finally, be patient; This is not something that can be rushed, the two of you will have to do this at the pace Ranma sets. While you can try to influence that pace, don't blatantly try to rush things otherwise you could lose everything. Is that understood?"
Seeing no disagreement from the two girls, Cologne nodded, "Good. Now considering the circumstances, I would say that the both of you should refrain from any attempt to find Ranma today. Tomorrow will see if you two can work together to fix this mess."
It was barely after breakfast the next day that both of the girls met at the gate into the Tendo home, each having left their own home as soon as was feasible in order to try and apologize to Ranma. They paused outside of the gate, eying each other warily.
"So, what we standing around for? Why we not go in?" Shampoo asked.
"We gotta think about we're going to do first." Ukyo replied. "We can't just waltz in through the wall- I mean, through the door," she hastily amended herself at Shampoo's insulted glare. "That's a good way to make him run for it, never mind getting a chance to talk to him."
"Are you two looking for Ranma?" Came a third voice. Both girls looked away from each other to find that Nabiki had swung open the gate and was now leaning against it's side, her usual smug grin firmly in place.
"So what if we is?" Shampoo asked.
"Oh, please. We both know you two are here to see Ranma. Well, he's not here- but would you like me to tell you where he is?" Nabiki purred.
"Where is Ranchan?" Ukyo asked warily.
Nabiki's grin took on a distinctly unpleasant cast. "That'll be ten thousand yen." She said, palm out to accept the cash.
Nabiki's grin took on a more wooden cast as she realized the reaction her words had on the two girls. A cold emptiness was the sole expression on either girls face, and they stared at her silently, looking more like inanimate puppets than living beings. What felt like minutes ticked by before, suddenly, they moved- beginning to approach her with menacing purpose and perfect synchronicity, despite the fact she hadn't heard them say so much as a whisper. Needless to say, it didn't take any time at all for her nerve to break.
"All right! All right! Cut the death march crap, I'll tell you! Shampoo folded her arms while Ukyo simply placed her hands casually in her pockets, neither letting up their respective glares as Nabiki suppressed a shudder and started talking, "Ranma came home babbling some nonsense but I managed to get the gist that he signed some girl's marriage license and daddy and Mr. Saotome pretty much started partying, thinking that Ranma had signed Akane's license."
She sighed while rubbing the bridge of her nose, "The only problem is that once Ranma started talking more sense, those two found out that he hadn't signed Akane's license, they didn't need to hear anymore before they went ballistic and they tossed him out of the house with barely enough time to pack." Nabiki spotted the faintest glimmer of...well it was some sort of emotion at least as she finished, "You'll find him at the vacant lot, practically the only place he could actually go anyway...."
Nabiki turned her head at the dust whipped up from Ukyo and Shampoo's rapid departure, before sniffing slightly, "Wonder what has them so worked up about Ranma this time?" Deciding she didn't need to know, Nabiki went back inside.
Even by their quite impressive standards, the two girls covered the distance between the Tendo estate and the vacant lot that was the unofficial camping ground and duel arena for any wandering martial artist in the Nerima district in record time. There, as Nabiki had said, they found Ranma, sitting and looking quite lost to the world in front of his tent. The two girls pulled to a stop just before the gate in, unsure of what to say or do now that they had finally found Ranma again.
Unfortunately, any decision the two would have made was taken out of their hands as Ranma called out, "You two coming in or not?" Considering that the streets were empty of people, it was quite obvious who he was talking to.
Wordlessly, Shampoo and Ukyo stepped into the vacant lot as Ranma closed his eyes and leaned back slightly, "So, you here to make me marry the both of you, or are you going to just split me in half and share the spoils?"
"No, nothing like that!" Ukyo denied quickly- she had been expecting a reaction like this, but there's a difference between anticipation and actual reception.
"She right- we not here to talk about that, we here to say we sorry." Shampoo added.
Ranma snorted, "And how the hell does saying sorry change anything? So what, you say sorry and then we're back to where we started, except now I'm out of a place to live thanks to how Pops and the tomboy reacted, which I'm sure you found out about. Thanks a lot by the way."
He sighed harshly, "So now what? I'm guessing the Old Ghoul was happy that Shampoo got a legal way to marry me now without having to worry about Akane."
Silence reigned for several seconds before Shampoo finally broke it. "Shampoo... not take license to officials. It not really binding yet." She replied softly.
"Me neither." Ukyo said, her tone an almost perfect match for Shampoo's.
Ranma blinked in disbelief as he stared at the two girls, trying to work out what they had planned, "You didn't take them in? Hell, you two were all over each other to get me to sign them before!"
Both girls looked down at the ground at that, their body language screaming "sheepishness" and "guilt" for all to read. "Yeah, about that... truth is, we both got kinda... caught up in things. We never stopped to think about what you wanted, what you would think, or even why you were acting the way you were." Ukyo said.
"We did wrong thing, terrible thing, and we truly sorry about it." Shampoo interjected.
Ranma glared at them, "No, really? I hadn't noticed." He grimaced and sighed again, "Fine. I guess I can accept your apology but I ain't ready to forgive you two, not yet anyway." He turned and looked away for a minute or so, the girls likewise doing the same. Finally, he spoke again. "I am glad you didn't take those marriage licenses in, so... thanks, for what its worth."
The two girls smiled slightly and hopefully as Ranma looked away but then their faces fell at what he said next, "I want some time to get my act together, so you two think you could let me have some space to myself? I'll talk to you tomorrow and maybe you can help me sort this mess out." It was a good thing Ranma wasn't looking at them as a flicker of pure hurt and disappointment passed across the faces of the two girls.
From his tone, it was clear that he wasn't really expecting them to actually listen to him and leave but then to his surprise, Shampoo and Ukyo nodded and turned away- reluctantly, yes, and hesitantly too, but they did indeed leap for the rooftops and bound away. In their wake, a slightly stunned Ranma Saotome sat there and wondered what the hell just happened.
Ranma-Prime watched all of this happen then shrugged his shoulders casually. "I still don't see how this is winning your argument." He told the Eye. A brief thought along the lines of what the others would say if they saw him talking to a mirror entered his head, and then was driven away by a microphone-feedback style screech. When his hearing returned, he watched as the mirror began to practically zigzag around the timeline, focusing on random spots in an evident attempt to prove its point. The first scene it focused on showed an arcade, where Ukyo and Shampoo duked it out on some fighting game while Ranma remained on the sidelines as the chosen virtual avatars of the two girls pulled out all the stops to bring down the other but it was a close battle to anyone watching.
Ranma was feeling really confused- but then, it had been an unusual week even by his standards. Firstly, Ukyo and Shampoo had been practically tiptoeing around him ever since their apology- not that he particularly minded that, as it was proof that they did understand, however faintly, just what they had cost him. Secondly was the fact that they had actually come to him earlier and asked him if he'd like to go to the arcade with them- both of them, together, and they hadn't been fighting! Ranma had been surprised that they could actually ask him at the same time without falling out or demanding that he choose one of them that he'd been dumbstruck, which had apparently made them think he was rejecting them… which had prompted them to beg. They had actually gotten down on their knees and begged him! He'd never seen such a thing in his life!
Naturally, he had accepted- it wasn't as though he had anything better to do, and he did enjoy his rare visits to the arcade. Of course, the fact that the machines were only designed for two people at once was a problem- he'd anticipated a riot as they fought over who got first dibs. Instead, albeit with some snarky comments on both sides, they had agreed on a 'winner rotation' system, where two would pair up, and the third person would replace whoever lost, and finally flipped a coin to determine who got to play with Ranma first. Shampoo had won, much to Ukyo's dislike, and she and Ranma had gotten started on a fighting game. To Ranma's shock, and somewhat humiliation, she had beaten him with ease, and now it was Ukyo's turn to fight her.
"You lose. Player 1 wins!" Boomed the machine, prompting Shampoo to spin around and pull off a victory sign, accompanied by a cry of glee.
Beside her, Ukyo's expression bordered between gobsmacked and ready to cry. "I lost... how could I lose!? I mean, her beating Ranchan makes sense, but how'd she beat me?!"
"Hey! Whatcha mean my loss makes sense!" Ranma protested.
"Because you grew up on the back streets of Japan- you never even heard of videogames before you moved here." Ukyo answered immediately.
"I wasn't that bad off." Ranma pointed out.
Ukyo ignored him as she continued, seemingly lost in her own world. "But poor as you are, Shampoo's a Chinese hillbilly- she should barely know what electricity is!"
"What! Why you..." Shampoo snarled, literally pushing up her sleeves, as she got ready to take Ukyo to task for her insult. If she thought she was just going to get away with a slander like that... As Ranma prepared himself to intervene, fate conspired to arrange for some outside intervention, perhaps to spare the poor arcade owner. A gang of typical Japanese 'punks' decided that it was time for them to introduce themselves to the two cute new girls. So what if they were already with a guy- a little wimp like him wouldn't be any trouble, right?
In retrospect, coming to an arcade outside of Nerima, where no one had ever heard of the so-called "Wrecking Crew", probably wasn't as good an idea for avoiding conflict as the trio had hoped. While the self-confident "toughs" went down easily enough, the owner objected to the mess that resulted and promptly booted the trio out of his establishment.
"Well... that's a waste of a fine day's fun." Ranma sighed. He liked videogames, and it was rare that he actually got the chance to enjoy them.
Shampoo looked somewhat sheepish and scuffed her toe idly at the ground. "Well... Shampoo has game systems and games at home. We could play there."
"Ya do? Why didn't ya say so earlier- could have saved us the money!" Ukyo complained, her accent thickening momentarily (as it tended to do when she was upset).
"Because neither of you would come within ten miles of Shampoo's bedroom if Shampoo just suggested it." Shampoo responded sarcastically.
This time, it was Ranma's turn to speak up before the girls could start fighting. "Well, the arcade's a bust, so why don't we grab some snacks and head back to the Nekohanten? Make somethin' of a party out of it?"
The girls thought that idea over for a few seconds, then agreed that sounded like a fine way to kill the rest of the day.
The scene faded and the timeline began to move forward again as Ranma-prime coughed slightly from the scene he had witnessed, "Okay, but that was one scene, and that doesn't count for much." The mirror simply beeped and Ranma-Prime focused again on another scene, this one placed at least two weeks after the trio's outing to the arcades and now it showed a busy movie theater and two girls waiting for a certain someone.
"Looks like we're early."
Shampoo snorted at the disappointed tone in Ukyo's voice. "Of course we early. Spatula-girl wanted good seats, or did Spatula-girl forget that when she nearly forget wallet?"
Ukyo glared at Shampoo and it looked as if it was going to be another verbal war when Ranma appeared.
"Hey Ucchan, Shampoo."
Immediately, as though a switch had been thrown, the two girls went from argumentative to beaming as Shampoo gently hugged Ranma alongside Ukyo.
"Glad you could make it, Ranchan."
Lately, it was clear that while the marriage contracts still hung in their minds, the two girls seemed rather unconcerned about it, at least when they were with him and they usually had enough of a fun time that they seemingly forgot all about them.
"So what movie are we seeing, anyway?" He asked. Ukyo pointed to one of the posters of movies that were playing and Ranma saw that it was a romance film, whereupon he frowned slightly, "Oh, I thought maybe we could go see that new action film over there." He pointed to another poster as he said that.
There was a slight impasse as the two girls and one teen boy stood there gazing at each other before, with a shrug, Ukyo pulled out her wallet, "Okay, sure." Ranma didn't know exactly how that happened; usually they were like two mountains when it came to their decisions, practically impossible to move, but he followed Ukyo and Shampoo to the ticket office anyway to go see his movie.
Thirty minutes later and well into the movie, the two girls were enjoying their decision to let Ranma pick the movie as they leaned against him, the pigtailed teen satisfied that they were simply going to do nothing more as he allowed himself to relax.
He was so relaxed and enjoying the movie that he barely noticed that he was holding their hands…
Ranma-prime whistled slightly, "Okay, two for two. Maybe you got a point, but I got a good feeling you ain't done yet are you?" The mirror chimed and began moving again, this time to three weeks later, and Ranma focused on the scene in front of him, which appeared to be the finishing stages of an intense sparring session between the two girls and his counterpart.
All three teens, Ranma and the girls, had collapsed in their respective sections of the field, each exhausted from the pace they had been fighting out with their latest sparring session. While both girls were still quite a distance below Ranma's league, they were climbing at a steady pace- and the fact that they were now perfectly willing to tag-team him in sparring certainly wasn't hurting them. After she had finally caught her breath, having taken a rather painful knee to the solar plexus as her final strike in the battle, Ukyo spoke up and broke the silence.
"So, tell me, when do you think we can start learning the Hiryu Shoten Ha?"
Ranma looked at her in surprise. "Wha? Why're you asking? I don't think I can teach it to you…"
"Why not? We both know how the training goes -I was there when the old woman taught it to you, remember- and it's simple enough. Just not the sort of training that really works when you do it on your own." Ukyo pointed out.
"Spatula girl has a point." Shampoo said- in one of the stranger developments (not that this whole mess wasn't strange to Ranma), the insults that the two girls had previously used to insult each other had begun to metamorphose into friendly nicknames. It was just a matter of figuring out which context it was being used in at any given situation. "Only problem is, how we do embarrassment for Soul of Ice training? Have to do that before we go for Body of Ice training, after all."
"It can't be that hard, can it?" Ukyo protested.
"Hmm... maybe." Shampoo admitted. Then her grin took on a menacing cast. "Shampoo think she know perfect way to train Ukyo... now, do they make magic girl costumes in spatula girl's size...?"
Ukyo paled as the implications of that sank in, and the only reason Ranma failed to burst out laughing at that mental image was the fact his brain had momentarily seized up trying to process it. "Uh-uh! No way, no how! You ain't stickin' me in no poofy, pretty-baby, princessy, shamefully girly outfit!" She cried.
"...But where to find perfect shoes to match...?" Shampoo continued, evidently ignoring her. "Restaurant is no good... maybe Furinkan is best place to do training...?"
That did it and Ukyo promptly exploded, lunging like a wild animal at the laughing Shampoo, who promptly began dodging her as the furious Osaskan girl chased her around the field, Ranma finally losing it and laughing out loud at their antics, whereupon the mirror filled back with mists.
This time the scene shifted to show the trio getting ready in their respective bedrooms for some sort of fancy night out, well it had to be fancy if Ranma was putting on a casual suit instead of his usual silks, but what really caught Ranma-Prime's eye was that his counterpart seemed to be living in his own apartment, "Huh, wonder when I got an apartment? Probably should take a look later to see how that happened."
The scene flickered slightly to show Ranma meeting with Shampoo and Ukyo at what he saw to be a relatively expensive restaurant, the kind that gave your table away if you didn't make your reservation. He focused in on the scene as they were led to their table.
"Glad you could make it Ranchan, we would have been here earlier if this one hadn't forgotten what today was." Ukyo sent a glare at Shampoo, who pouted slightly.
"Everyone forget sometime. Beside, not Shampoo's fault that Spatula-girl couldn't find right dress."
Ranma shook his head slightly; despite all the time that they had been spending together, the two girls were still prone to sniping at each other occasionally, though it now seemed to be as much friendship as hostility. Still, the change was quite a pleasant one from the bad old days when they would fall out with each other over just about anything, and he was usually the one to get the beating for it, so he was quite happy to live with this.
Ranma looked around at the fancy architecture and the well-dressed people and felt a little awkward being here, but Shampoo and Ukyo had apparently saved up a fair amount of money for this and they had said that this was a special occasion, but for what?
"So...what's the special occasion? Last I checked it wasn't any of our birthdays or anything like that." Ukyo and Shampoo smiled slightly at Ranma's curiosity and they shared a glance before Shampoo nodded.
"Simple really Ranchan, today is an exact week since the day you got your apartment and we're having a little celebration to honor that."
Ranma blinked in surprise and felt somewhat touched. The two girls had helped him find, purchase and furnish a new apartment after it became clear that he couldn't return to the Tendo Dojo, but he had no idea that they were planning this and it showed on his face as Shampoo and Ukyo giggled and both said, "Surprise!"
That was when the waiter came to get their order to find two giggling girls and a young man whose face was seemingly set in an expression of pleased shock.
Ranma-Prime shook his head; he had to admit, the trio had looked genuinely happy. As he was about to verbalize his conceding of that point, however, the mirror began to surge ahead again. As it did, he became aware that this timeline basically split off into three separate lines; two where he married one of the girls, with the other remaining a friend of both thanks to the bonding they had undergone, and this third one, which the mirror was emphatically following, where Ranma ended up with both of the girls. Apparently, the Joketsuzoku did allow, in certain cases, for polygamous marriages, but the mirror glossed over the details as it raced to its final piece of evidence. When it reached that point, Ranma-Prime had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping- what it was showing him was a scene he hadn't actually seen prior to now. The actual wedding ceremony.
Though it remained somewhat aloof, rather than fully immersing him (perhaps it simply wanted to emphasize its point), it did show him plenty of details nonetheless. What looked like the entire population of Joketsuzoku turned out to attend the wedding. Genma and Nodoka sitting in the front row, evidently quite happy about the now-eighteen years old Ranma's wedding. He watched himself, Shampoo and Ukyo speak ceremonial litanies in Chinese and in Japanese, vows to love and protect each other, to stay faithful and loyal, vows that were punctuated by each extending an arm in turn for Cologne to ceremonially gash with an ornate dagger, so that their blood fell into a goblet full of... something. One each person had contributed, the goblet was passed around, each taking a full draught from the mixture of blood and who-knew-what before the remainder was dashed into a fire that had been burning behind Cologne. They then exchanged something that the mirror refused to show him, after which a great cheer went up from amongst the attendants- that, evidently, was the final part of the ceremony.
The mirror went blank as the triad slunk away from the party, evidently aiming to consummate their nuptials, and Ranma-Prime nearly leapt out of his seat when he heard Abe suddenly speak up from behind him.
"Well, it certainly looks like they feel it's a happy ending."
Ranma-Prime gave him a half-hearted glare, and then nodded his head. "I gotta agree. It was right."
The mirror made a happy-sounding jingle of that, before resuming its usual gently swirling white mists.
I want to apologize for the long delay in getting this up, but it was unavoidable. There are still future chapters to do for this story before it's time to see how 'Ranma-prime' starts redirecting his life in response to what he's seen, so keep on voting! The top three, thus far, are the two Ranma/Kodachi ideas (Ranma lost the MARG contest at #1, Kodachi came back at #2) and "Nabiki went on her "date" with Ranma". Here's a list of oneshots left to be tapped, just to remind you what's left to vote for. I'd also like to thank Vassago-Toxicity, who has graciously agreed to beta the "Akane didn't give Ranma a piggyback" oneshot, and has even declared their willingness to beta the resultant series if people want us to extend it. Before anyone comments on the number of Ranma/Shampoo possibilities in the list below, let me assure you that this was not intentional on my part- it's simply a fact that Shampoo is the "other fiancée" who gets used the most, so she thus has the most opportunities for Ranma's heart.
Akane's hose pushed Ranma out of the ring in his battle with Kodachi
Kodachi sneaks back to the Tendo house that first night and finds the still-paralyzed Ranma abandoned on the roof
Nabiki never found out about Ranma's revenge plan and went on the date he asked her on instead of sending Akane
Ukyo managed to actually get her "talk" with Ranma during the Great Girly-Girl Gambit episode
When Tofu knocked out Ranma's legs, Akane hadn't given Ranma a piggyback
Kaori won the Takeout Race
Ranma and Shampoo failed to kiss before Maomolin rang the bell for the 108th time
Ranma kissed Shampoo back when she gave him the "Kiss of Marriage"
Shampoo resisted the urge to go back and fight with Ukyo during the hotsprings race, so she and Ranma won the trip to Jusenkyo
Ranma finds out how much Ukyo is hurt after "Swimming with Psychos"
Ranma blurted out to Akane that when he said "I love you", he thought she was Nabiki
During the Ten-Year Sauce mess, Ukyo actually threw away the sauce like she said she was going to do
Ranma told Shampoo he loved her during the Reversal Jewel
When Ranma beat Ling-ling & Lung-lung, they replaced Shampoo as his Amazon bride
Shampoo figured out Ranma was lying about really being a girl instead of going back to China
Shampoo snapped her fingers before the cat sneezed when using the Kirahashi Mushroom
Ryoga decided to try and hook Ranma & Shampoo up when Shampoo first came to Nerima
When Ranma ate Akane's love-predicting sakura-mochi, an X appeared on his face
What if Ukyo had been the one to jump into the tornado for the chart?
Ranma thought to ask Shampoo to have their date after he beat the Dojo Destroyer
Shampoo thought to get Ranma to sign her marriage license in secret during the Red Thread of Fate affair, so they were still legally married after Akane cut the thread at the last second
What if Akane hadn't gone to Yumogi Valley?