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 was amazed that people took the style change for the last chapter so positively; I'm happy that you all thought I made it work. I was even more amazed, however, that so many people trusted I could make a viable chapter from the oneshot girl Kaori Daikoku. It warms my heart to know you think that highly of us, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter- it's rather hard to do Kaori justice with just a oneshot, I feel.

Chapter 14: One Shot

"I get that I've 'missed' more than a few chances with my other fiancées." Ranma-prime told the Eye. "But how about a change in pace? Show me a girl I only had one chance with."

The Eye promptly obliged, and Ranma-prime found himself staring at the Martial Arts Takeout Race. How long ago it felt; Shampoo hadn't come back from China, he'd never even heard of Mousse, Happosai or Cologne, he had no idea that Ukyo was his fiancée and out for revenge, it had been a peaceful time. Well, as much as that term could possibly be applied to him, anyway. Now he found himself watching from an outsider's perspective as Kaori Daikoku held Akane prisoner in the goofy-yet-lethal "Ramen Roundup Noodle Noose", while his past self watched from bushes, torn over whether or not to intervene. As the scene played out, Kaori repeated her promise to let Akane go if she'd simply surrender. In his own timeline, Akane had stubbornly held out just long enough for his past self to get kicked into the river and, with his curse for a disguise, interfere to Akane's benefit. In this timeline, however, Akane promptly dropped the box onto the street as her hands flew to her neck.

Ranma didn't really believe Akane would surrender; even though she had been begging for his assistance before hand. Most likely, she sought to apply her full strength to the choking noodles, aiming to retrieve the container once she'd torn them from her neck. Unfortunately for her, it was an opening that her opponent was quick to seize. At once, Kaori's noodle lasso unwound itself from Akane's neck, coiling in mid-air to strike again- only this time it seized Akane's takeout box from its position at her side, lifting it up off of the ground and then bringing it crashing down, smashing the box and ruining the food inside.

With a triumphant laugh, Kaori turned and ran, leaving Akane panting as she regained her breath. The heir to the Daikoku School made no further attack against her- with her food destroyed, Akane was legally disqualified, and with all of the other competitors having been eliminated, Kaori Daikoku had no rivals to challenge her. Ranma-prime scrolled a little further into the timeline, then immersed himself fully at the point where his other self had climbed into the Daikoku's car and they drove away- Ranma-prime didn't particularly want to see the hysterics and anger that would have taken place before that.

Ranma exhaled heavily from his place in the back seat. His departure from the Tendo Dojo had been anything but pleasant; he just thanked his lucky stars that Soun and Genma had chosen to start squabbling with each other, rather than venting all of their spleen on him. Given that Genma had made the original deal, but Soun was the one who had agreed to Mr. Daikoku's terms, they had plenty of ammo- in fact, the last he'd seen of them, Genma was rubbing Soun's declaration that he would gift-wrap Ranma if Akane lost in the Tendo patriarch's face. He didn't know whether Mr. Daikoku giving Soun the year's supply of ramen was generous, cruel, or brilliant, but his musings on the subject were cut off by his shock when he felt someone touch him on the hand. Instinctively he flinched, before looking across at Kaori Daikoku, his new -"and only"- fiancée.

He'd naturally seen her when he was spying on the race, but this was the first real look he'd taken at her since that brief moment when he and Soun had caught up to Akane to give her some "encouragement". She wasn't a bad looking girl; waist length brown hair worn loose and blue-steel eyes (kind of like his own- and where the hell had that thought come from?), toned body, definitely more skilled than Akane. He snapped back to reality when he realized she'd been speaking.

"Um, sorry, what was that?" He asked.

"I said, I'm sorry you had to see such an ugly scene." Kaori replied calmly. "I was really hoping to make a good impression on you, I even wore that kimono for you, and then I had to get into a fight with that other girl. Completely ruined the effect I was trying to make. Not that she would have cared, little brute that she was- it must have been simply terrible to put up with someone with such a violent temper, Ranma."

"Uh, yeah." Ranma answered absently. Then something caught his attention. "Wait a minute; you mean it was your idea to show up in a wedding kimono and have your father do all the talking for you?" He asked incredulously.

"Of course! What, did you think it was my idea?" Kaori's father asked from the front seat. When Ranma looked down at his feet and murmured in embarrassment, the big-eared dwarfish man laughed heartily. "Bless me, no, Ranma my boy- I've never been that formal except when making business deals. And I'm certainly not foolish enough to think I could ever order my daughter to humiliate herself in such a fashion- not that I would. She's the heir to the Daikoku school, after all, and that fire in her spirit is the mark of a true champion. With you as her husband, the two of you will go far." He continued proudly.

"Uh thanks. Say, where are we heading anyway?" Mister Daikoku smiled as the car turned a corner.

"We're heading to the family home, in Kyoto."

Ranma blinked, before he glanced out the back window to see that yes, they had just left Nerima. While Ranma felt a pang of sorrow over leaving a place that had quickly become something of a home to him, he also felt a great deal of relief and the realization that he never had to worry about Genma making his life a mess. After all, how the heck was he going to get to Kyoto?

"Oh and Ranma?" Ranma blinked out of his thoughts and turned to Mister Daikoku, "Since you're engaged to my daughter, feel free to call me Dad, or if you want to be a bit more formal, call me Hiashi."

Ranma blinked, before he smiled slightly and bowed in his seat, "Thanks, Hiashi." No sense calling him dad just yet, he was only engaged after all.

After a few hours of driving, during which time Ranma took the opportunity to get some sleep, the car finally reached Kyoto and Kaori woke Ranma up from his slumber, the teen blinking with a small yawn as the car came to a halt and he got out and took a look at the house in front of him. It was clearly expensive, the size and the fact it had three floors told him that much; and the architecture was fairly modern, a mixture of Japanese and Western styles.

The inside was another clear indicator that the Daikoku's, while not rich, were fairly well off. The hardwood flooring, if he was correct in looking at it, was dark-brown stained Burma teak, and it made for a sharp contrast to the warm colors he could see in the living room and dining room, soft hues of orange in a paint style he didn't recognize, but could say was artistic. As Ranma wandered around the house, familiarizing himself with the layout, he found himself becoming more and more comfortable and a thought entered his head 'Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.'

"Ranma?" He turned to see Kaori poke her head around a corner, "Ah, there you are. Dad says that dinner's ready." He smiled as he followed after the girl.

Dinner passed quickly, the food was good and the conversation was interesting as Ranma learnt about the Daikoku family art and how it worked to enhance their business before Hiashi nodded to Kaori, who got up and left the table as he turned to Ranma.

"I'll show you to the living bathroom; while you're getting cleaned up, Kaori will prepare a spare room for you."

"…Closest bathroom?" Ranma asked in some disbelief; even the Tendo Dojo, large as it was, had only the one.

Hiashi Daikoku nodded before replying. "Yes, we have two bathrooms- one for us, and now for you, the other is on the ground level so people can wash off after using the training hall."

Curiosity piqued, but figuring he'd get to see it soon enough, Ranma followed his new father-in-law to the bathroom, while Kaori set off down another hallway. Taking a moment to marvel at the decor of the bathroom, Ranma set about the normal rituals. He pulled off his clothes and set the tub to filling with hot water. Once it was full, he sat down and began to fill a bath pail with cold water, in order to wash the worst of the dirt off of himself before he actually got into the tub. Once it was full, though, Ranma couldn't help but allow his mind to wander as he fully digested the events of the day.

"Well, this is a fine mess." He mused to himself. "Who'd've thought the old man would make a second engagement like that? He's such a fanatic about the whole Tendo arrangement that I wouldn't have ever thought he'd pull such a stupid stunt. ...So, am I really no longer engaged to Akane? It's kind of hard to take in- the old men were so insistent that we were gonna get married. But, well, pop did get the 'dowry' -if you can call it that- and Mr. Tendo did agree to step down if Akane lost that race... so, I guess Kaori is my fiancee now. Gah, what am I worrying over this for? None of it's my fault- I didn't make the promise- to either parent, it wasn't my responsibility to train Akane to be a martial artist, I wasn't the one who should have thought about the possibility Kaori might be a martial artist herself, and it's certainly not my fault that she was better than Akane! So what am I worrying about?" He asked aloud.

"Ranma? Who are you talking to?"

Ranma reacted with all of his usual aplomb to a girl speaking from behind him while he was naked and had previously believed himself to be alone. In other words, he screamed like a girl and shot into the corner, clutching the bath pail as an impromptu cover... something that he barely had a moment to realize, and regret, before the cold water splashed all over his front, activating his Jusenkyo curse and leaving him a naked girl, staring at an equally naked and now obviously dumbstruck Kaori Daikoku.

They stared at each other in silence, the seconds ticking by like eternities. In the depths of his/her head, Ranma was currently cursing up a blue streak. S/he had dreaded this moment more than any other, had desperately wanted to avoid revealing his curse to the Daikokus at all, but certainly in a better way than this! This was just like with the Tendos- and look how they had reacted!

While Ranma waited, Kaori was flabbergasted. Her new fiancé, a rather tasty boy (from what she had managed to see of him without any clothes on) had just turned into a girl. Possibly a very dishy girl, but Kaori wouldn't know anything about that- despite what those crude boys at the local school insinuated, her bread wasn't buttered that side. How on earth was this possible? As her eyes went down her transformed fiancé's body, she couldn't help but stop for a moment as one particular feature of his new body came into light... Were his breasts bigger than her own were? That wasn't fair! It should be noted here that, while a pretty girl and a skilled martial artist, Kaori Daikoku's build wasn't exactly what most people would call "generous", which was a bit of a sensitive spot with her. Shaking the distractions away, she refocused on the important problem.

"What's going on, Ranma?" She said, calmly but firmly. There was no response from the boy-turned-girl in the pail. "Ranma..." Kaori said, her tone making it perfectly clear that she wanted answers, and now.

Ranma sighed. "It's... a long story. Can we get your father? I really don't want to do this more than once."

"Sure. But can you put your clothes on first?" Kaori asked.

A couple of minutes later, Ranma-chan and Kaori were sitting in front of one very bemused Hiashi Daikoku, who was still staring in bewilderment at his 'son-in-law' turned "daughter-in-law". Ranma had revealed that her transformation was a magical curse, and Kaori was the first to speak up in the wake of that revelation.

"So, where did you get this curse anyway?" She asked. Inwardly, she flinched at that question. 'Smooth move, girl; could you possibly say anything stupider?'

'It's not my fault; he could have mentioned this earlier!' She defended herself.

'Oh, and how was he supposed to bring up something like this, huh?' Her subconscious snidely replied. Before she could continue to argue with herself, Ranma spoke up.

"I got it when my stupid old man dragged me to this place called Jusenkyo." The boy-turned-girl began. At this, Mr. Daikoku suddenly looked thoughtful.

"Jusenkyo? As in, the valley of cursed springs in the Byankala mountains? Cold water activates the curse, hot water deactivates it, and you turn into whatever drowned in the spring you fell into?"

Both girls were staring at him, visibly gobsmacked. Ranma was the first to regain her voice. "H-how... how did you know that?" She blurted.

"I have a rival in China, we like to talk about things when we meet." Hiashi replied, brushing off Ranma's confusion.

"So... is there a cure?" Kaori blurted, then promptly flushed with embarrassment. 'Smooth move; way to make your fiancé feel like a freak!'

Unbeknownst to Kaori, her words didn't have quite the negative effect on Ranma's psyche that she feared, given that Ranma himself greatly hated his curse and wanted to be rid of it more than anything. If s/he had been able to hear Kaori's guilt over her statement, though, s/he would have been very touched.

"Simple enough; all you have to do is to go back to Jusenkyo and take a swim in the spring of the creature you really are- in Ranma's case, the Spring of Drowned Man, right?"

Ranma-chan nodded her head in agreement.

"Well, then. This was a bit of a surprise, but I can see why you didn't want to talk about it. Go and finish your bath, Ranma; we'll talk about this in the morning." Hiashi declared.

Ranma woke up the next morning to be being gently shaken and hearing Kaori's voice as he blearily opened his eyes to see the girl sitting on his bed, "Ranma, dad wants to speak to you."

Ranma blinked, "Kaori? Didn't expect you to be up this early." And it was early, even for Ranma as Kaori smiled.

"My school is pretty close by, so I have to wake up really early to train before I get ready for breakfast and school. I'll be waiting outside to the take you to dad okay?" Ranma nodded as Kaori left, allowing Ranma to get up and get dressed to see what this was all about.

The training room was at the back of the house and was far larger than the dojo, and it became clear as Ranma goggled at what appeared to be some manner of obstacle, no scratch that, it was an assault course, a giant military-looking place that covered most of the room and stretched upwards towards the ceiling as Hiashi smiled at Ranma.

"Like what you see son? Come, have a seat and I'll explain why I wanted you to see this." He patted a bench as Kaori appeared in a tank top and shorts with her hair tied back and started running towards the start of the course as Hiashi spoke.

"Now, as you well know, Kaori and before she took over the family art, myself, practice a martial art is designed to allow a take-away delivery person to not only deliver food on time, even earlier than on time for that matter, but also to protect the food against rivals, as you likely saw in the race at some point. This room is built to provide the perfect environment to perfect the skills needed to master Take-Out Martial Arts."

Hiashi nodded at Kaori, who was easily evading marbles on strings, boxing gloves on hydraulic rams and swing padded arms and moving poles, her eyes constantly on the move, "You need to be fully aware of the environment and concentrating full time, and I'm not talking about sensing a rival delivery person. Cars, pedestrians, spilled materials such as water, oil and the like, all of these must be detected and avoided long before you reach them while looking for the fastest and easiest route to the delivery location."

Ranma nodded, it made sense to him as Hiashi continued, "Then there is fighting off rivals, who's goal will not be to defeat you, but rather to make you fail the delivery, the more time you take in the delivery is more time the customer has to wait, and it impacts on our reputation as a business, which loses money because of it."

Kaori was now moving along the top of the course, expertly balancing on wires and cables as she made her way to the finish, the box in her hand perfectly balanced as Hiashi nodded at her while handing Ranma a tennis ball, "And to make the next bit clearer, throw that tennis ball at Kaori, as hard and as fast as you can throw it at the take-out box."

Ranma shrugged and cocked his arm back before letting the ball loose, the orb now a fuzzy green comet that streaked towards the box, and without even glancing in their direction, Kaori twisted the box and spun, kicking the ball back to strike in between the two, the tennis ball firmly planted in the metal bench as Hiashi nodded, "And finally, protecting the delivery with such skill that it becomes second-nature and instinct as the delivery person maneuvers through the chaotic and constantly changing urban environment."

Ranma could only nod, eyes still fixed on the tennis ball as a wire barrier suddenly sprang up in front of Kaori and she simply began moving to bypass it as Hiashi turned to face Ranma fully. "And here is the deal. I know that it is an insult for a martial artist to give up their core style and I will not ask you to abandon the Anything Goes, but I have a deal for you regarding your curse." Now Ranma's attention was fully on him as Hiashi motioned to the course.

"If you can master the Daikoku-style Take-Away Martial Art and show that you have mastered it in a delivery, I will pay for a ticket to China so that you may be cured." He noted the look on Ranma's face. "So, do we have a deal?"

Ranma shook the offered hand and stood up to take a good look at the course. He took in the rails that allowed the course to change, likely beneath the user's feet, the hydraulics to create shaky ground, the sheer overall height of the course and the potential for anything to come out and mess up a practice run.

It was a course that epitomized using your head as quickly as possible while moving as quickly as possible with a fragile load. To any other, it seemed near impossible as Kaori finished the course and with a hiss, the layout began to change to a more open configuration, one that was likely easier but would present a challenge to a first timer.

Hiashi spoke up, "See how you do just trying to get through the course, so you have a baseline of performance to work with. I warn you though, it's quite challenging the first time around."

Ranma smiled, if there was one thing Ranma Saotome enjoyed, it was a challenge.

"Bring it on."

Ranma-Prime pulled back from the immersion viewing and leaned back with a noise of mild surprise; he hadn't really expected the Daikokus to be that serious about their art but when you thought about it, it made perfect sense.

"A martial art designed to make take-out deliveries faster, which means that you get repeat business from the customers and they tell their friends, and that means more profit. Damn, now that's a way to make money, better than how pops did it."

Truth be told, Genma didn't actually steal things that often, but he was always up for a quick buck at some point, and Ranma was always the fall guy who had to clean up more often than not.

"Looks like they're going to get along just fine. Hmm, tempting to just leave it at this but I think I'll skip forward a bit, see what sort of problems these two will have to deal with like when I was checking those sections with Ukyo." He smirked to himself, "Gotta love highlight reels."

Later that morning, Ranma was following Kaori to the school she attended, and which he likewise would be attending- come to think of it, just what were the odds that both sets of 'fathers in law' would manage to arrange for him to attend the same school as their daughter in under a day? He quickly dismissed it; there was something more important that he had to ask Kaori, who was currently running along the fence on the other side of the road and easily keep pace with him (though she might have stated that he was keeping pace with her).

"Hey, Kaori? Just so I know, what sort of nutjobs do you have to deal with?" Ranma called.

The heir to the Daikoku school blinked in equal parts surprise and confusion. "What do you mean, Ranma?"

"Well, at Furinkan, when I started, about half the guys in school would attack Akane each morning, and then there was that moron Kuno." Ranma replied, shrugging in mid-step.

"...Why on earth would they attack her? And who's Kuno?" Kaori asked in confusion.

"Eh, something about her having to date the guy who managed to beat her. Kuno started the idea, and while the rest gave up, he wouldn't- he even started chasing my girl side, while still trying to get Akane to date him." Ranma replied.

Kaori screeched to a halt to throw an incredulous look at Ranma, who returned it levelly. Finally, she broke the silence. "...That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of! No, there's no one that crazy at my school- all you'll have to deal with are the normal problems. You know, quizzes, tests, that sort of junk."

Ranma wondered for a brief moment if maybe he should share with her just how erratic his schooling had been, due to the constraints of constantly roaming the country in search of new martial arts to learn. Then he decided against it and settled for simply following her as she took off in the right direction again.

The mirror then showed a scene a few days later, with the pair sitting at the kitchen table going over something that Ranma swore would be the bane of his existence; math homework.

"Gah! This is doing my head in; what sick bastard thought up Algebra in the first place?"

From her seat where she could help out Ranma with his problems, Kaori shrugged as she glanced at Ranma's work and pointed out corrections.

"No idea, I hate Algebra myself. But you have to have good groundings in basic math and some financial equations if you want to get anywhere in the business world, and trigonometry, working out angles and all that, is pretty helpful for a martial artist who has to move around a lot like Takeout martial artists, the best have to be able to work out complicated trig problems in their head as it relates to finding the fastest way to the customer."

Ranma nodded with a sour look as he made the corrections, "Still doesn't mean I like it though."

Kaori smiled, "No-one does Ranma, no-one does."

Later still…

Ranma looked at the thing Kaori was holding as though it was a dead rat. "No. Uh ah, no way, no how- you are not sticking me in that thing."

Kaori sighed in exasperation; while Ranma was a fairly quiet and easygoing guy most of the time, he could really be annoying when he get stubborn. "It's just an apron. My father wears one himself when he has to cook. And *don't* let the next thing out of your mouth be something like 'guys don't cook' or anything like that- my father cooks, there are plenty of men who cook, hell, your own father probably cooked when you were training with him." She snapped.

"...Usually when he couldn't steal pre-cooked food." Ranma muttered to himself. He still made no move to take the apron from Kaori, though. "And why do I have to learn to cook anyway? I thought our job was just getting the food to the delivery place on time."

Again, Kaori sighed. "We just have to. So stop arguing and put the apron on." At that moment, an idea popped into her head and she gave a wicked grin; if there was one thing she'd learned about Ranma, it was that his ego was quite easy to set off. "Unless, of course, you're saying that this is beyond you."

"...What?" Ranma replied in a dull tone.

"You know, it's alright if you can't cook; everyone has to start out somewhere. I'm sure we can teach you how to boil water in, oh, a week?" Kaori said airily, ignoring Ranma's reaction and fighting the urge to laugh. As much as she had grown to like Ranma since she'd actually gotten to know him, teasing him could be just as much fun as sparring- so long as he didn't get sulky, anyway. That just left him angry, and her feeling guilty.

Ranma fumed, but ultimately couldn't deny the urge to rise up to her challenge. Grimly reaching out, he took the apron and tied it around his waist with all the solemnity of a samurai donning his battle armor. Truth be told, he wasn't bad at cooking, and he actually kind of liked doing so... up until he'd gotten his curse. Since then, he'd refused to cook unless forced to do so.

The next scene showed Ranma and Kaori out- and given that neither was wearing formal clothes, or carrying a thermal box, or sparring, Ranma-Prime guessed it was a date. It seemed to be going fairly well; especially seeing as how nobody had popped up to interfere. Then, as if summoned by Ranma-prime's casual thoughts, Ryoga promptly wandered into the scene...

"Ranma! How dare you cheat on Akane with some strange girl!" Bellowed the scruffy looking boy, earning a mixture of curiosity and anger from Kaori and a dull groan from the boy at her side. Not taking her eye off of the umbrella-waving vagrant, she quickly spoke to Ranma in a quiet tone, aiming to avoid letting this obvious lunatic hear her and promptly go berserk.

"You know this weirdo, Ranma?"

"His name's Ryoga, and he's a major pain in the ass. Give me a minute; I'll take care of him and we'll pick up where we left off, all right? I want to go see that new movie in the theatres."

"Why do you get to fight him? I'm no damsel in distress." Kaori griped, forgetting about her previous decisions in her annoyance.

"Did I say anything like that?" Ranma asked, putting on a theatrical "hurt" air. "You took care of the last challenger- Ryoga's my rival, so I get dibs on him!"

"I am not your rival! I am your executioner, Ranma!" Ryoga screamed in fury, charging at both of them indiscriminately. Both teens promptly sprang apart, Ryoga naturally giving chase to the male half of the duo. To Ryoga's great annoyance, Ranma didn't bother to strike back, instead leading him around the square and effortlessly dodging each of Ryoga's blows.

"Damn it, stay still!" Ryoga roared in fury as his umbrella missed Ranma's head yet again "...When did you get so fast anyway?" He complained.

"I haven't. You've gotten slower." Ranma replied instantly.

His reward was an incoherent bellow of fury before Ryoga hurled himself forward in a powerful tackle, only for Ranma to neatly step aside and leave Ryoga to realize he was throwing himself as a fountain. Now, while Ryoga wasn't Ranma's superior, he was as close to Ranma's equal as any of the martial artists Ranma had fought so far was, and so it was possible he could have stopped himself short. He never got a chance to find out, however, as Ranma's roundhouse kick promptly landed squarely on the back of his head and, once again, Ryoga found himself getting up close and personal with cold water. He floundered angrily in the basin for a few moments, then felt himself being lifted out by his bandanna. He squealed in indignation and outrage; how dare Ranma use his curse to win a fight! That was just cheap, even for him!

"Listen, pigboy; Akane and I aren't engaged anymore, haven't been for a couple of weeks now, so get off my back! I'd tell you not to bother coming back here, but seeing as you can't find your own ass with both hands and a road map, I'll save my breath. Now buzz off!" Ranma punctuated this last part by hurling "P-chan" skyward with all of his strength, the angry piglet's squeal splitting the air as he vanished into the horizon. Melodramatically dusting his hands off, Ranma turned back to Kaori with a grin. "Now, where we were?" He asked.

"We were going to spend some nice, quiet time at the library." Kaori replied instantly.

"What! Come on, what about that movie?" Ranma asked.

"Hey, you got to fight that guy on your own, I get to choose where we date." Kaori teasingly replied.

As the two began walking off, Ranma-Prime could easily see that while they were arguing, it was far more playful than any fight he had ever had with Akane and felt a little jealous before returned his attention to the flitting of time and then came to focus on what was obviously an important moment, and Ranma saw why.

Ukyo finally found him, apparently through some manner of 'food martial artist' grapevine, and had appeared as Hiashi was meeting with an important client and started spouting off her grievances, while Ranma tried to explain the situation, Kaori settled for trying to keep the two calm.

Finally, it came down to a challenge, a Martial Arts Takeout challenge actually as the client saw this as an opportunity to see the famous Daikoku family business in action, a Martial Arts Takeout race going from the Daikoku house to the client's house on the other side of the city.

The mirror zoomed in at the mid-point of the race, during rush hour, the most dangerous and complicated part of the day for a delivery.

"Give it up Ranma, you're going down!" Ranma winced at the anger in his old friend's voice as she took the lead. It was still a point of contention for him mentally, how the heck was Ranma supposed to know that Ukyo was actually a girl?

Still, he had to focus. This was rush hour and unless he wanted to become some bizarre road painting from all the cars, he had to concentrate. His eyes flicked for a good route and he spotted an alleyway and took it, expertly going over the various debris, garbage, and even a homeless person or two before he leapt up to an air-conditioning unit to bound over a wall and land on the other side, expertly crossing the road before his danger sense suddenly flare and he whirled to avoid a powerful blast of gunpowder and...tempura?

"A booby trap..." Ranma continued running, ignoring the slight sting from the gunpowder, Ukyo was playing hardball, which was fine since he could do that as well.

Soon, his old friend came into view and he immediately got to work, focused on getting in at least one good hit to slow Ukyo down and the technique came to him as he got into range, the client's home now in sight as Ranma struck.

Ranma-Prime winced at seeing his counterpart expertly lasso and then tie-up Ukyo, though he thankfully place her out of danger from passing traffic before going on to win the challenge.

Ukyo left after that, likely to beat down Genma for his deception now that she was ready to listen to reason from Ranma, and after the client happily signed the deal with the Daikokus, they went home to celebrate, but not before Hiashi took Ranma to the side.

"You did exceptionally well in that battle, Ranma; I'm very proud of you." He said, beaming a wide grin.

Ranma flushed, unused to being praised for his skills, and tried to brush it off. The head of the Daikoku family ignored him and continued.

"I know it couldn't have been easy to fight an old friend of yours, but you still performed exceptionally well. I'm proud to call you my son and heir. And speaking of which... I think it's time that you and Kaori took a vacation to get to know each other better- sort of a pre-wedding honeymoon. I hear that China is very lovely at this time of year."

Ranma's eyes opened wide as Hiashi, his smile somehow widening, held up two airplane tickets.

"... Can you explain something to me?" Ranma-prime asked Abe as he pulled out of the Eye. "Why is it just about every timeline I've seen where I haven't gotten together with Akane is one where I've gotten cured of my curse?"

"Because every other girl you've hooked up with is either used to living on the road, rich enough to pay for airfare, or lives in China. Akane is none of those things, and your father and hers have no intention of letting you go off to China on your own." Abe replied smoothly.

Ranma-prime gave him a long, hard look, then shook his head and turned back to the Eye. This timeline looked fairly set; time to find another...

Well, all things must end, and so too this chapter. Below are the remaining oneshots to vote for- quite a few tied votes, so I'll really need readers to vote from now on, okay? Just to let folks know, I decided to remove the "Shampoo figured out Ranma wasn't really a girl instead of leaving for China" oneshot because, as of now, I can't think of a way to handle it without making it just a rip off of the "Ranma kissed Shampoo back" oneshot. And, if people are curious, the "Nabiki, Ranma's New Fiancée" oneshot isn't a Ranma/Nabiki- I've been thinking of trying my hand at another Ranma/OC fanfiction for that one. Also, the "Love Sakura-Mochi" oneshot will be a Ranma/Natsume oneshot and, despite appearances, the "Curse of Maomolin" oneshot will not be a Ranma/Shampoo fanfiction- though I admit I'm not sure which girl to pair him with for that one just yet.

What If…

Ranma told Shampoo he loved her during the Reversal Jewel?

Votes: 17


Ukyo managed to actually get her "talk" with Ranma during the Great Girly-Girl Gambit episode?

Votes: 15

When Ranma beat Ling-ling & Lung-lung, they replaced Shampoo as his Amazon bride?

Votes: 10

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?

Votes: 10

Ranma blurted out to Akane that when he said "I love you", he thought she was Nabiki?

Votes: 10

When Ranma ate Akane's love-predicting sakura-mochi, an X appeared on his face?

Votes: 9


Shampoo resisted the urge to go back and fight with Ukyo during the hotsprings race, so she and Ranma won the trip to Jusenkyo?

Votes: 9


Ranma and Shampoo failed to kiss before Maomolin rang the bell for the 108th time?

Votes: 9

Ukyo had been the one to jump into the tornado for the chart?

Votes: 8

Ryoga decided to try and hook Ranma & Shampoo up when Shampoo first came to Nerima?

Votes: 8

Ranma finds out how much Ukyo is hurt after "Swimming with Psychos"?

Votes: 7

Ranma thought to ask Shampoo to have their date after he beat the Dojo Destroyer?

Votes: 7