Time Loops

Numbers in Nerima

Chapter 3

I own nothing, so don't bother suing. It would cost more for everyone in court costs than what you'd get out of me in the end.

Stretching as she woke up, Dieci looked around her room and smacked her lips a few times before grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her otherwise naked body and heading to the baths. Things had been quiet since the ice-skating match, well, mostly quiet she amended herself as she walked by a window and saw Nove, Tre and Sette sparring with Ranma.

Or more accurately, the three were trying to even tag Ranma cleanly while Deed and Cinque sparred with the panda. It was amusing to watch, she admitted. The panda wasn't too bad at fighting, heck, if he had some magic or other ability to bridge the gap, she honestly could see him being able to fight on even levels with a lot of mages on Mid-childa.

Though considering that Ranma had said that despite everything else, he wouldn't even be close to as good as he was without that panda training him, Dieci wondered if maybe Genma could be a trainer like Nanoha Takamachi was.

If Ranma had heard that he would have suddenly had a violent image of hundreds of mages stuck in the Neko-ken attacking everyone and everything around them.

But Dieci didn't know any of that and after adjusting her towel a bit, walked to the baths, only to stop as she heard a thunk and looked down, her eyes widening as her face turned red. "Bad Ryoga!" She snapped at the little pig, which had a trickle of blood running out of his nose. Putting a hand over the front of her towel where her crotch was, Dieci ran to the baths, hoping to get away from perverted pigs.

---

Sitting on the deck, Akane watched the martial arts display with a slight frown on her face. It was rather... Intimidating how fast everyone was moving, the destruction being wielded and the skill that was being displayed. Honestly she was surprised that other than a few gouges in the ground no other part of the yard was destroyed.

"Don't think about joining in, Akane." Nabiki said as she sat down next to her sister while sipping some coffee. As much as she didn't care for the antics of everyone in this world at times, she still cared for her family. When they weren't being stupid, of course. And seeing Akane have to spend the rest of the loop in the hospital because she got in over her head wasn't what she wanted to see.

Granted she and Ranma could heal her, but she never learned from quick fixes. Nabiki had just... Too much experience with Akane finding out about quick fixes to any problem. Plus she wasn't sure if any of the Numbers actually knew how to hold back. Ranma could take it easily, so could Genma. Akane? Not so much.

"I wasn't." Akane rolled her eyes at that. "I'm good, I'm not that good."

Nabiki stared at her sister stupidly, who started to squirm under the scrutiny. "What?"

"Who are you and what did you do to Akane?"

"I am me!" Akane sighed, exasperated. "But that's just crazy." She pointed as Sette got tossed into the koi pool while Tre and Cinque slammed into each other and fell down, slightly winded from that.

"Yeah, that is crazy..." Nabiki muttered and whistled loudly, getting everyone's attention. "Hey, Kasumi's going to have breakfast soon, so why don't you war machines go get washed up for it, okay?"

Nove twitched slightly and looked at Ranma, who was holding her by her foot. "Did she insult us?"

"Nah, it was mostly to me and Genma." Ranma chuckled at her as he put her down. "But, she is right, we should get ready for breakfast." Yawning lightly, he walked into the house, before pulling off his shirt and tossing it to Sette, who had been wearing just a white t-shirt for practice, and since it was soaked, it was now completely transparent. "Told you to wear darker clothing." Ranma chuckled as he slipped up to his bedroom, pausing along the way as he saw Ryoga at the top of the stairs, blood dripping from his nose. "And just what did you see?" He asked rhetorically before shrugging it off. He'd find out sooner or later.

(---)

After breakfast, Nove stretched as she sat in front of the television. There wasn't anything that she needed to do and she felt like being a bit lazy. Well, that and Wendi wasn't around to bother her, saying something about checking out something that had caught her eye the other day.

"Nove." Kasumi's voice was heard, causing the short redhead to turn to the brunette. "You got a package."

"Huh?" Nove blinked a few times. She wasn't expecting anything... "Where's it from?" She asked as she got up and went to the table to see a small brown box.

"I don't know." Kasumi shook her head as she held up the box. "But there's a hole in the bottom."

Frowning, Nove picked up the box and shook it. "Nothing inside." She looked at the address label, she could only blink in confusion as it was addressed to her, but had no return address on it.. "Someone's idea of a joke?" She shrugged and tossed the box towards the open garbage can in the corner. "Well, it wasn't a funny one." She grumbled. At least she could have a laugh if the thing had a pie or something inside to make a mess of her face. "Eh, I think I'm going to go blading."

"Okay." Kasumi smiled at her. "Oh, if you see Sein, tell her that I was going to go shopping this afternoon. She wanted to go with me today."

"Sure." Nove nodded and called up her blades before taking off from the house. Unseen to her, two beady little black eyes were watching from the nearby bushes as Nove took off.

---

Tre looked at her opponent, he was skilled, he was crafty, he was...

"King me."

Totally dominating her at checkers.

"How'd you get so good at this game?" Tre asked as she kinged another one of Ranma's pieces. Heck, looking at the board, she only had three pieces left.

Shrugging, Ranma smirked at her. "Lots of time to practice."

"And what's the point of checkers anyway?" Tre asked as she moved another piece, only to grimace as that allowed Ranma to take the last three of her pieces. "...You win again."

"Look, Tre, it's all about perception, reading the field and predicting the best move that you can make with what you have." Ranma shook his head. "When dealing with a superior opponent, sometimes it's best to back up a bit and let them come to you." He moved the game a turn and moved a different piece on the board.

Tre blinked, heavily. "That..."

"Makes it a lot different, doesn't it?" Ranma smirked at her as he moved one of his pieces on the board. "It's interesting what you can learn from board games, actually. Checkers and especially chess can be likened to battle and managing resources. And sometimes, you don't need to have the best piece or pieces on the board to win," here he took another one of her pieces with a king, "but it certainly helps."

"It also helps not to leave a powerful piece in a strategically vulnerable point." Tre commented as she managed to take his kinged piece

"Exactly." Ranma nodded at her as the two continued to play the game. Surprisingly, Tre managed to actually get her final piece kinged before she finally lost the game. "See?"

"Yeah." She nodded and smiled softly, that had been a lot of fun. "So, why play these games with me anyway?" She asked, brushing her hair out of her face as the wind in the park picked up gently.

Ranma picked up a checker piece and rolled the checker from between his fingers back and forth on his right hand. "In the original timeline, of your world, you fought against Fate twice, both times having Sette to help you as you two were a pretty close match in power and close-combat skill. However, neither of you were anywhere near as experienced or skilled in magic as she was, and the two of you weren't that flexible with your thinking." He raised an eyebrow at her, smirking. "Power means a lot in a fight, that's true, but if you only have raw power and can't do much with it, what good does it do you when you go against someone who does know how to use their power skillfully? Hmm?"

"That someone would be you, huh?"

"Actually, I was talking about a perverted old frog that I met while hanging out with Anakin a few times." He shook his head and rubbed the top of his head. Yoda could sure hit hard when he wanted to.

Tre blinked and nodded, before leaning close. "So... I was wondering, that day you took us all shopping, what did Otto want to talk to you about?"

Ranma chuckled softly. "It seems that our dear Otto has a bit of a crush on Nabiki." Seeing the look on Tre's face, Ranma couldn't help but laugh softly. "Yeah, shocked me too. I'd do something about it but..."

"But?" Tre blinked, wondering why he wouldn't help Otto out. That didn't seem like him. Hell, now that she knew, she wanted to help out.

"Something major's going to happen soon. Just can't recall the exact details." Ranma shrugged at her. His loops were far more forgiving in terms of following them than most of the other loops, it was why he could get away without following the timeline as direct as some loopers did.

"You're putting it off because of that?" Tre asked as Ranma nodded to her.

"Yeah, whenever something major happens, things explode around here. Let things settle down first then I'll take care of it." He chuckled softly, before blinking as Tre frowned at him before getting onto the table, leaning forward and kissing him on the lips softly.

"I'll hold you to that." Tre smirked as she pulled back and got off the table.

Ranma chuckled as he got up from the table. "You do that." He couldn't shake off a nagging feeling that something was supposed to happen, but why couldn't he remember it. "Hmm..." Idly he raised his hand up and caught a staff that was aimed at at his neck. Turning his head, Ranma's eyes lit up. "AH! NOW I remember! How ya doing, Cologne?"

Looking at the stick, Tre followed it from the tip in Ranma's hand to the gnarled end where there was... "A shriveled up prune?" She couldn't help herself, the person on the end of it was only a foot, maybe two feet, tall, had long white hair, wearing small green robes that still looked large on her somehow, her skin somehow made her look even older, almost as if she was some sort of goblin or something that shouldn't exist.

Ranma chuckled softly. "I honestly thought she was a ghoul the first time I saw her."

Cologne narrowed her eyes at the two, however, she was surprised, a lot. First of all, she really couldn't feel anything from either of them at first glance. However, she knew better than to just use her senses to scan the surface. Getting closer however, revealed a lot to her and nothing at all. The female had pretty impressive magical reserves, higher than she had seen in a long time, but the male... Dear ancestors! It was like a god, a real god, had decided to grace this world with his presence. There was Ki, magic and lots of other energies that she didn't recognize that flowed through his body. "You're quite good."

"Better than you think." Ranma chuckled and let go of the staff. "So what brings a mighty Amazon warrior to Japan to attack someone like myself out of the blue?"

Narrowing her eyes, Cologne smirked at him. "Oh, just wondering how the outside world was doing since the last time I was running around, helping my granddaughter with a small problem and wondering just why an outsider male who I never saw would know me by name."

"I see..." Ranma said softly to her.

"That small problem wouldn't happen to be trying to kill my younger sisters, would it?" Tre asked, narrowing her eyes at Cologne and tensed up.

"I'm sorry to say that it is Amazon Law and she..." Cologne jumped back as Tre punched at her, shattering the ground where she was. "My, my, such a temper."

Ranma sighed at the exchange, why did he know this was going to happen?

Snarling at the overly calm Amazon, Tre rushed forward with her speed and struck out at Cologne, who somehow avoided it. "How?"

"So fast." Cologne commented casually as she jumped away. "But so predictable and..." Her eyes widened as she found herself suspended in midair, not moving at all. Thankfully her opponent wasn't moving either.

"Okay, you two. You wanna fight, fine, but not in the park. Normal people need to use this place." Ranma shook his head. Force hold was so much fun to stop disputes when needed. "But, Cologne, before you and Tre decide to reduce a construction zone to rubble, you might want to listen to me."

Looking at the cold fury in his eyes, Cologne could only nod slightly. It wasn't often she was scared, but between the cold fury in his eyes and the sheer promise of pain in the woman's eyes... Cologne honestly didn't like her chances. Especially if the man let the tall female go. "Very well."

---

A few hours later a mollified Cologne could only watch as Ranma and Tre walked out of the park side by side. Sighing, she jumped to the trees, she had a lot to think about.

---

"I still say you should have let me hurt her." Tre grumbled as Ranma shook his head at her.

"She's not the one that's the problem. She may be a bit stubborn, but she's willing to listen if you give her a reason. Shampoo is the one that will be a problem for Nove."

Tre narrowed her eyes. "I'm allowed to hurt her?"

"If she keeps trying to kill Nove, I won't stop you. Just don't kill her. She won't learn otherwise."

"Fine." Tre nodded, she could live with that. Besides, she really wanted to hurt someone for trying to hurt her sisters.

---

While Ranma and Tre were at the park, the other girls were out doing things of their own, however some of them were either looking for trouble or just something to keep from being bored.

"Hey, Dieci, wanna do something silly and fun?" Cinque asked her taller sister.

"Sure, why not?" Dieci nodded at her as the two left the Tendo house.

Later on...

Most people wouldn't think twice about two girls walking down the street, even if one of them had an eye-patch and a trench coat on and the other one was wearing brown pants and a white shirt that clung to her body, showing that she had a fairly curvy figure.

More than one man and boy on the street walked into a pole as they stopped to stare at the duo, or more specifically, Dieci, who was holding onto something in her hand. It wasn't a major eye-catcher, considering the way that people were openly ogling her rear or chest as she walked by. Not that she noticed, since she was more concerned with what was going to happen soon.

Looking at Cinque, Dieci wondered just what her shorter sister was planning. "So..." She had a bottle of coke in her hand as she and Cinque walked into a small construction area.

Cinque held up a pipe and smiled at her. "Come on, aren't you curious?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Dieci put the bottle down. "I thought it only worked on metal?"

Shrugging, the short, one-eyed girl could only silently open the bottle and tape the pipe to the top. "Well, we never know until we try, right?"

"Will this even work?" Dieci asked as she pulled out a roll of mentos from her pocket.

"I saw it on TV, so I'm curious." Cinque admitted as she was handed one of the mentos and handed it back to Dieci, who lifted it up and dropped it down the pipe.

As the mentos hit the soda and reacted violently, Cinque snapped her fingers, before her eye widened as not only did the coke shoot straight up but the bottle exploded violently, causing the two of them to get soaked in soda.

Calmly shaking her arms as the soda dripped off of her body, Dieci sighed softly. "Well, that was a fun experiment."

Wiping the soda off of her face, Cinque nodded. "Not doing that again." Oh well, that was kind of fun none-the-less.

She amended her thought a moment later as she and Dieci were suddenly soaked by the soda that had gone up and decided to finally obey the law of gravity and come crashing down on top of them.

---

Yawning slightly as she looked over the various folders, Uno sighed. Who knew that getting this in order was so boring? Well, it wasn't boring until after she had everything in order. Now she had very little to do at that moment. There was that boy with the wooden stick that was dragged in earlier with various burns and bruises. She stopped listening to him when he went off about a goddess with pink hair. The only person she knew with pink hair was Sette. Well, there was that one knight of Hayate's that had pink hair, but Uno never interacted with Signum, so she barely knew anything about her.

"Why don't you call it a day?" Tofu asked her as he walked into the room.

"You sure?" Uno asked, both wanting to get out of there and not wanting to leave without making sure everything was done due to a weird sense of professionalism she had.

Tofu smiled softly and nodded. "Go on." He liked the purple haired woman, very calm, professional and generally had a good attitude when she was here.

"Thank you." Uno said as she quickly finished up, clocked out and left, sighing in relief as the day was still fairly early, she could actually enjoy it.

"Un-nee?" She blinked and turned around, smiling as she saw Sein walk up to her. "What are you doing out?"

"The good doctor gave me the rest of the day off." Uno said softly as she looked at the shorter girl wearing green pants and light blue shirt. "What about you?"

Sein shrugged as she and Uno walked down the street. "Was kind of bored, Wendi went off somewhere, Cinque took Dieci out to do something and Nove went rollerblading. Sette and Otto like that motorcycle and Deed's playing with her new friend."

Uno would have asked about Tre, but figured that the other cyborg was either in a fight somewhere, training or hanging out with Ranma. Probably all three. Tre might have liked him in the bedroom, but she seemed to prefer those kind of activities happening in private. Hell, Ranma had to make sure Tre got good and relaxed before she could even join in on the fun with those two.

She smirked to herself. Honestly, Uno had never pegged Tre as the type to get nervous about having sex when others were watching, but it was kind of amusing and cute to see the normally stoic and serious member of her family get flustered and embarrassed. It was even more cute and amusing when Tre was naked and trying to cover herself up with just her arms.

"What are you thinking of, Un-nee?" Sein asked, getting a look from her taller and older sister, who shook her head.

"Nothing much, really." As cute and amusing as she found Tre to be at times, it was better to not tease the other woman when she wasn't around. Plus there were just some things that you didn't talk about in the company of other people.

Unless they were privy to details. Sein wasn't.

"Hey, Un-nee..." Sein trailed off as they continued to walk. "You know the two old guys that live at that house?"

"Soun and Genma?" Uno asked with a raised eyebrow, getting a nod from the shorter girl. "What about them?"

"They were asking me what combat cyborgs were."

Uno blinked and frowned softly. "Wonder why..."

"No clue." Sein shrugged. "But, I have to say... I like this world." When Uno didn't do anything but look at her with a slightly confused expression, Sein smiled at her. "It's a weird place, but it's a lot of fun here." Not to mention that it was just so quiet here, when there wasn't sparring going on.

"It is." Uno nodded and smiled softly. "So what are you going to do when it gets weirder?"

"Enjoy the fun and hope I don't get too caught up in it." The shorter girl stopped suddenly as the two heard a roaring engine. The two turned to see Otto drive up, Sette clinging to her back as the two enjoyed the feel of the wind and the speed of the motorcycle.

Uno shook her head as the two slowed down and stopped in front of them. "My, my. It seems that our dear baby sister Sette has been corrupted by a short biker punk. What should we do?"

"Girls like the bad boys." Otto said in a faux-deep voice as she lowered her sunglasses.

"Even if they're girls." Sette nodded and hugged Otto from behind, pressing her large breasts against Otto's back tightly, snuggling the shorter girl.

The situation was serious for another second before Sein couldn't help it and started giggling, causing Uno to smile while Sette and Otto both started to practically roar in laughter as Sette let go of her shorter sister.

"So," Uno said between chuckles, "are you two going around making people confuse you two for people dating?"

"Nah." Otto shook her head. "The bike's just a lot of fun. What about you two?"

"Got off early and bumped into Sein." Uno shrugged at the question. "Got the whole day to do nothing."

"Want to go see a movie?" Sette asked, getting blinks from her sisters. "I heard that it was a good thing to do when there was nothing else to do."

"Have any of us ever... Gone to a movie?" Sein asked, scratching her head.

The other three shook their heads as they realized that. None of them had ever gone to a movie before.

A moment later Otto found that her bike had a hidden function as two passenger side carts, one on each side, seemed to come out of hidden compartments as metal seemed to unfold and spread apart, allowing Uno and Sein to get inside easily.

Sein looked over the side and blinked. "Huh, no wheels..." It worried her a little bit, until it was obvious that it was actually hovering off the ground.

As the four drove down the road, Uno and Sein both could see the appeal of the bike. It was loud, fast and a lot of fun.

---

Meanwhile...

Genma looked at Soun as the two played Shogi, he was partially watching Soun in case his friend decided to cheat, but his mind wasn't completely on the game. "What do you think about what that girl said?"

"About cyborgs?" Soun shook his head. "She's a bit delusional, I think, but I can't explain how she can walk through walls like that."

"But... What is a cyborg, exactly?" Genma frowned, he had been more-or-less cut off from humanity for the past ten years, so he had missed a lot.

"Ah..." Soun frowned, he knew this... His eyes lit up. "Ah, there's that new Gaijin film that just got released over here, called "The Terminator". Apparently cyborgs are robots with human flesh over their bodies."

"Like Astro Boy?" Genma blinked as Soun nodded. "So they aren't exactly real people then..."

Shrugging, Soun nodded and mentally smirked as he rearranged a piece while his friend stared out into space. "It seems that way, but looking at them, you can't tell, so maybe they are cyborgs." Which was weird, he didn't think that the technology for such existed yet.

Frowning, Genma got up from the table and walked off, surprising Soun. "Saotome?"

"I need to have a... Talk with my son." Soun could hear the utter seriousness in his tone-of-voice as he spoke up. "If what that girl said was true then..."

"Indeed, Saotome, but wouldn't it be better to wait until he comes back. He seems to care about those girls." Soun didn't mind the thought of leaving and looking for his friend's son, but Nerima was a big place after all, he could be anywhere. "Besides, no one can resist Kasumi's cooking." He laughed, getting Genma to relax and nod.

"Indeed, Tendo." Genma smirked and walked back to the table and sat down, picking up the game again. If those girls really were just machines with human flesh over them, he needed to have a serious talk to his son.

Plus he had to wonder why he was at such a disadvantage. He should have had at least ten more pieces on the board.

(---)

"So this is a movie theatre, huh?" Sein asked as Otto finished locking up her bike so that no one would steal it. The building wasn't that large, well, not compared to some of them, being only two stories and the outside was made out of brick, but it still seemed rather nice.

"Seems that way." Uno said as she looked at the building while Sette was looking at the various posters that were on the outside of the building, at then up at the over-hang saying what movies were showing that day. "Anything good, Sette?" She asked as she got closer.

The pink haired cyborg turned back to Uno and shrugged. "We got two choices right now. Either Footloose or Terminator."

The four, now that Otto had caught up to them, looked back and forth, before shrugging. "Terminator." Really, who would want to watch a movie about dancing anyway?

"Four for Terminator, please?" Otto, being the closest to the ticket booth, walked up first and requested the tickets, the response she got wasn't one she expected.

"A fellow playah!" The man, well, teenager, she supposed, smiled brightly at her. He looked fairly normal, a bit taller than her, then again, nearly everyone was taller than she was, with blond hair on his head and wearing a uniform of some type, though Otto assumed that it was needed for working at this place.

"E..Excuse me?" Otto wasn't confused like this too often, it felt... Rather weird to her.

"I see you, hanging out with three lovely ladies like a true playah." The teen smiled at her. "The purple-haired and the pink-haired women, very fine. The smaller one's cute too." He winked at Otto and handed her four tickets.

"I think you got it..."

He winked and held a thumbs up to her. "Of course I got it! Don't worry, my fellow playah! This one's on the house, enjoy the movie."

"Ah..." Otto blinked, several times before wandering back to her sisters, who had started to walk into the building. Was she really that boyish?

"You okay?" Sette asked Otto as the smaller girl looked incredibly confused at that moment.

"...I don't know, but for some reason, I think I should be both offended and pleased."

Sette could only blink a few times in confusion as the group gathered snacks, which was another thing they didn't really have any real idea about. In the end Otto had a huge tub of popcorn while Sette had several drinks of different types and Sein and Uno both had various boxed candy while they made their way to the back where the movie was going to be showing. "Huh, only two rooms." Well, it made the choice easier as the four made their way into the room that was showing Terminator and found four seats next to each other that were open.

The four were just hoping that the movie was going to be good.

As the movie went on, Uno had to admit, it was pretty good. Though, privately, she disagreed with the explanation of what a cyborg was that the movie gave. The love making scene was rather short and not all that interesting to her, but then again, she had a real lover, so she didn't have to imagine what it was like.

Sette was trying to figure out if she could take a shotgun blast like the Terminator had without any shields to absorb the impact and took a sip of her drink. She quickly decided that she rather liked carbonated sugar water. The taffy was really good too.

Otto, as she watched the movie, was twitching. If the movie was any indication, it was no wonder that Midchilan society didn't like the thought of cyborgs running around. After all, she and her sisters hadn't acted too differently in the past from the Terminator on the movie was doing.

Sein, on the other hand, was rather upset. The explanations were totally off on what a cyborg was, anyone with a keen enough eye could tell when they used some sort of dummy and the real actor. None of that really bothered her. It was the way that the movie treated cyborgs, like soul-less, emotion-less killing machines. She had a soul! She had emotions! Why the heck could they get away with such lies like this?! She was going to... "Woah!" Her eyes widened, okay, the exploding semi truck was rather awesome.

The next scene had Otto and Sein practically clinging to each other, their eyes wide, as the Terminator's true form walked out of the fire, the outer flesh completely burned away. Sette had stopped eating snacks and was wondering why she wanted her "dad' there to cling to, still, she couldn't help but keep watching. As for Uno?

She was rather glad that she hadn't tried something like what the Terminator was doing. Having her flesh burned off and then her body exploded wasn't something that she wanted to experience, ever.

When the movie was over, most people left chatting, commenting and discussing what they had seen. The four cyborgs were rather subdued, though Sein really wanted to either cry or make something explode, or both.

Uno was just glad that they hadn't brought Wendi or Nove, the building would be rubble if they had.

"Should we just go home?" Otto asked, getting nods from her sisters.

---

Later that day, Ranma, the Tendos, and the cyborgs found themselves eating at the table. "So, what did everyone do today?" Ranma asked casually as he ate.

"It was weird." Nove muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. "For some reason, when I was out skating, I felt like something was stalking me, but all I saw was a small cat."

Ranma shook his head, well, at least Nove hadn't said she had gotten attacked, so he really wasn't going to bother with it.

"Went to a movie today." Sette looked at Ranma and pouted. "Are all cyborgs on this world like what the Terminator is?"

Nabiki suddenly started laughing hard while Ranma groaned. The pout was rather cute on a normal girl, on someone Sette's size, it looked rather adorable for some reason. It probably had something to do with how innocent she really was, despite being someone who was literally only made for fighting.

"Well..." Ranma was about to say something when someone was heard clearing their throat, turning, he raised an eyebrow at Genma. "What?"

"Son, I need to talk with you."

"Fine." Ranma rolled his eyes and got up with a sigh.

Watching them leave to the dojo, Nabiki frowned lightly, what was going through Genma's head right now?

Unnoticed by anyone, mostly because she phased through the floor and into the ground, Sein discretely followed the pair. Maybe she was nosy, maybe she should just leave them to themselves...

But she was curious, and Genma just rubbed her the wrong way for some reason.

In the dojo, Ranma raised an eyebrow as he looked at Soun standing against the far wall. "So, talk." He turned to Genma as the latter closed the door behind him. Ranma had dealt with Genma for so long that he could just imagine what he was going to say next.

"So, what are they?" Ranma blinked as he heard that, he hadn't expected that exactly. "Those girls, the short one with blue hair said that they were cyborgs." Honestly, Genma looked more confused and curious than anything else. It was... Weird.

"Yeah, they're cyborgs, what about it?" Ranma asked as he frowned lightly.

Unseen to them, Sein popped her head out from the floor, curiously watching the events unfold.

"So... What are cyborgs?" Never let it be said Genma knew much about science or much of anything outside of martial arts.

Rolling his eyes, Ranma shook his head. "A cyborg is a person who has mechanical enhancements on their body from when they were really young. Sometimes it's done when they're older, but it's generally safer to do it when they're just babies."

"So they're like a car then?" Genma asked, trying to make sure that he understood it. "Just things that you can use as you want?"

From her position in the floor, Sein winced and wilted, was that all she and her sisters really were? Just things that no one really cared for and threw away when their use was over?

"Idiot!" Ranma yelled at Genma as he slammed his oaf of a father into the ground. "They were born just like any other person! It's not their fault that someone decided that they would be good test subjects to turn into cyborgs! They're people just like you or me. They have abilities that we don't because of it, but that's all!" There were other things, but Ranma didn't feel like explaining them. "They can live and die like anyone else and even have children, you idiot! If they were just machines, they couldn't do that. They're people!" Sein, watching this, couldn't help but stare wide-eyed. Soun as well, but for slightly different reasons.

Grimacing from the floor, Genma nodded. "Got it, people that have weird powers, got it."

Ranma snorted and let go of Genma, he really didn't care anymore. "Whatever." He took a step to the door when Genma told him to wait. Turning, he raised an eyebrow as Genma stood up. "What? Going to tell me something about how I shouldn't be doing anything with them?"

"Actually, I don't really care." Ranma blinked, staring stupidly at him. "You're young, I did a lot of the same thing when I was your age." Mentally, Ranma laughed at that, if only Genma knew. "Just promise me that you won't let your martial arts slack or your promise to marry a Tendo."

Ranma snorted and turned around, even as Sein slipped back under the floor. "Whatever." As he walked out of the dojo, Ranma had been surprised how easy that had been. Then again, there wasn't a Tendo chosen this time to be his fiance, at least not now. "Like I said..." He stopped at the door and turned to look at the two. "I'll choose in eighteen months from the day I got here." Really, it was kind of cruel, but unless the loops ended this time, highly unlikely, they'd just reset when he was going to have to make a decision.

Watching Ranma leave, Soun frowned and looked at Genma. "Just what are you thinking, Saotome? Letting him sleep with those two..." He trailed off, not really sure how to describe the girls, Ranma had gone off when Genma had just asked if the girls were just machines, he hated to really get the receiving end of that anger.

"Don't worry, Tendo." Genma smirked at him. "My boy might be a bit rebellious now, but he's a teenager. I raised him to follow the code of honor, he'll come around soon enough and choose one of your daughters. After all, those other two aren't suitable to marry, he'd lose a lot of face if he tried that."

"But what if he doesn't see it that way and keeps them around?"

Genma shrugged off Soun's worry. "At best, they'd be his mistresses... Nothing more than glorified servants with some extra benefits." Chuckling, Genma couldn't believe his luck, this would work out better for him in the long run anyway. "If anything, it'll just mean that he's a better lover for your daughters when he does settle down."

"Good point, Saotome, good point."

(---)

Outside, Ranma twitched and frowned, before sighing. Idiots would be idiots. As he walked back to the dining area, he blinked as Sein met him half-way into the hallway. "Sein?" She looked rather confused, worried and... Hopeful?

"Do you mean what you said in there? About us being our own people?"

"Spying, huh?" Ranma chuckled softly before sighing and nodding. "Yeah, I did. You aren't just things to use and throw away if something goes wrong. You're people."

"But..."

Ranma shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder. "Before I told you girls to start pranking everyone on Midchilda, I was Jail Scagiletti. As kind as he was to all of you, he did treat you like things instead of real people. To me, you're a girl who just had some bad luck when she was little and came out of it pretty well."

Sein blinked, before smiling and hugging him tightly. "Thank you."

Ranma blinked, before smiling softly and hugging her back gently. "No problem." He ran a hand through her hair as he patted her back with his other hand. "Come on, let's go get some food before your sisters eat it all up."

Sein giggled and let go. "Sure."

Looking up as Ranma came back in, Nabiki raised an eyebrow at Sein. "Where'd you go?"

"Uh... The bathroom?" Sein sweat-dropped as Nabiki rolled her eyes at her.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Wendi looked at Ranma nervously. "Um..." When all attention got focused to her, she cleared her throat. "I was out today and... Let's just say one thing led to another and..." She started chuckling nervously. "It's a funny story really, but in the end, I got challenged to martial arts surfing at the beach in three days."

Ranma raised an eyebrow at her, looked at the calendar, before shrugging. "Alright, you girls know what this means?"

"Beach trip?" Nabiki asked with a smirk.

"Yep, beach trip." Ranma chuckled as the whole house started to get excited at the thought.

"YAY!"

As Uno got up from the table, Nove looked at Wendi. "So, how did it happen?"

"Well..." Wendi grinned and rubbed the back of her head. "It's kinda funny, I was hearing how these guys were so good at surfing and it got my attention, they said that there was a surfing competition in three days, so I asked if anyone could join. They said fine, but it's martial arts surfing."

Shaking her head and smirking, the shorter redhead couldn't help but chuckle, that was kind of funny.

Ranma looked at Uno and shook his head after hearing what she said. "Listen, he'll let you go, just tell him you're going with your sisters to the beach, okay? I know Tofu, he'll be fine for a week." Hell, most loops the man had no help at all, so it wasn't a big deal that he lost help for a week.

Outside, a small creature watched what was going on before nodding and bounding away. Her great-grandmother would want to know of this.