Chapter 12

Outside the café, people were picking themselves up and dusting themselves off after having been bowled over by the blue haired Amazon. "Aiya, Shampoo is too late to stop Mousse."

Ranma, hoping that Shampoo wouldn't attack her in front of so many witnesses, asked, "Shampoo, could ya take this idiot home and tell him ya ain't pregnant" Ranma asked, then looked around the room and continued, "Actually, could ya tell everyone that ya ain't?"

"Ranma," Shampoo gasped and placed the back of her hand on her forehead dramatically while her eyes filled with tears, "Why is you denying proof of you and Shampoo's love?" Her desired effect was achieved when a round of excited whispers broke out among the students.

Ranma nearly fell over, but recovered and yelled, "What? I ain't never done that with you!" Turning to the whispering students her protestation continued, "I never touched her!"

Falling to her knees, Shampoo let the crocodile tears fall, "Why is you pretending you no can remember the many many time we #$%^& and *&^$# !?" A handkerchief appeared in her hand and she dabbed at her eyes, "It was all too too romantic, in the candlelight, Ranma promise that if Shampoo give up too too sexy body, then he love her forever!"

The female students were all sending Ranma death glares again, an angry aura radiated off of them. This was the sort of situation in which Ranma was at her worst, "I uh…er…" Sweat ran down the side of her face as she glanced from Shampoo to the gaggle of angry girls. Crying girls and angry girls were not her forte, but both together? Ranma froze.

Ryoga narrowed his eyes, he'd had enough of Shampoo's little game. Akane tried to keep a hold on him, but he struggled free and dashed toward the back of the café. One benefit of being tiny was that he could easily weave through people's legs. Finding a pot of hot water had been easy, clothes were another matter entirely.

Shampoo latched onto Ranma, her arms winding around the other girl. "Is good solution, no?" Shampoo whispered, "You come to China with Shampoo, Shampoo and Ranma raise baby and make many many more. No one need know that you do nasty things with boy, yes? Is very embarrassing." Continuing, she added, "Shampoo even make Pig-Boy forget with shiatsu. Is too too perfect, yes?"

Ranma honestly wasn't certain if she was tempted or disgusted by the offer. Running away from inconvenient situations was a bad habit of hers. Ranma liked the well-travelled path, her father had trained her to take the easy way out since childhood. However, the thought of accepting made her stomach twist unpleasantly. Being saddled with Shampoo would be bad enough, but erasing Ryoga's memories would be a terrible betrayal. Plus, she had to admit, she rather liked having him around.

Sensing that Ranma was not convinced, Shampoo decided to go for the kill. "Or maybe I just tell whole school what pervert you are. Look there. Is Akane, no? I think she like to know." She tilted her head to indicate the spot where the youngest Tendo was standing, then opened her lips as though she was going to yell.

Ranma promptly slapped her hand over Shampoo's mouth. "Wait, wait… I-" She was spared from having to do or say anything, much to her relief, by Ryoga's voice coming from behind her.

"Let her go, Shampoo, and drop the act." When Ranma turned, she was startled to see Ryoga had stolen her clothes from the changing room. Red didn't suit him at all.

Shampoo didn't budge, but she did peel Ranma's hand from her mouth. "Is you going to make me, Pig-Boy?" she asked in a challenging tone. She was fairly certain that Ryoga wouldn't attack her while she was holding Ranma, and she was right. What Shampoo hadn't counted on was Ranma forcefully pushing her off. Now that Ranma had an ally, she didn't feel as threatened by the mob of angry girls. It helped that Shampoo had stopped crying.

As soon as Ranma was free, Ryoga grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her behind him. "Hey!" she snapped, "I don't need you protecting me!" She tried to wriggle free, but his grip was firm.

"Yeah, because you were doing so great on your own." He replied sarcastically as he looked back at her. The brief distraction was all Shampoo needed. She whipped her chui out from who-knows-where and charged at Ryoga. Ranma yanked him to the side and the chui smashed into the stage floor, sending splinters into the air.

"Now who needs protecting?" she asked, her face looking smug and satisfied as the pair jumped out of the way of another attack. Man, if this keeps up I'm gonna get another bill for damages, this time from Nabiki. Ranma leapt toward the window, now that it was already broken there was no reason not to jump through. Customers ducked out of the way as she dragged the lost boy out of the café and onto the street, where he promptly tucked her behind him again. "Hey!" she snapped indignantly.

"Ranma," he groaned, "you aren't supposed to be fighting and you know it. I know you can handle yourself. Male or female you are a great martial artist, but this isn't about you right now. So if I let you go, will you behave, please?"

She really wanted to argue, but he was looking at her with that dammed sincerity again. "Fine." she groused. Once he let go of her wrist she crossed her arms and stepped back, looking grumpy. She knew she wasn't supposed to be fighting, heck, she didn't really want to because she knew because she'd be putting herself and others at risk, but having him fight her battles was still a blow to her pride.

Akane watched as Shampoo yelled something about a "Perverted Pig" and then attacked Ryoga, the whole time her 'Something seems off' senses were tingling widly. Earlier Ryoga had defended Ranma, but Akane had assumed it was because fighting brought out that weird aura. This time however Ranma hadn't been in any sort of danger that she could see, Shampoo was just hugging her. As far as she could tell, if Ryoga hadn't challenged Shampoo, there would not have been a fight at all. She recalled the moment that she had spotted Ryoga, he'd just stepped onto the stage. A strange expression had clouded his face briefly as he took in the sight of Shampoo with her hands all over Ranma. Is he jealous? Maybe this time he wasn't defending Ranma at all. Could he have challenged Shampoo just to separate them? She wasn't paying much attention to the fight at this point, it was obvious that Ryoga would win, it had only gone on this long because he was holding back, probably so that he wouldn't hurt Shampoo. Then she remembered the gossip from school, someone had heard that Ryoga had gotten a girl pregnant. Maybe he really is the father of Shampoo's baby and she is denying him while trying to trap Ranma?

-Crack-

Akane winced, Scratch that theory. There was no way that Ryoga thought Shampoo was pregnant given the way he'd just launched her into the side of a building. He was far too sweet to do something like that. Then what the Hell is going on? She fumed inside her own head. Nothing made any sense.

The girls from school huddled around Shampoo to make sure she was ok. The mood surrounding them was furious, while a few helped Shampoo up, the rest seemed to be forming an angry mob hell-bent on the destruction of one Ryoga Hibiki. "I think we should go." Ranma said as she grabbed Ryoga's collar and started to drag him down the street.

They didn't make it very far however, a cry of "Ryoga Hibiki, you will face my wrath!" stopped them in their tracks. "Do not fear ladies," he called to the angry mob, "for I, Tatewaki Kuno, will make this fiend pay for his crimes against women!" He refocused on Ryoga, "I know not what your quarrel is with the blue haired girl, nor do I care. Engaging in amorous congress with the Pigtailed-Girl, to fulfill your depraved carnal desires however is unforgivable!"

He was met with two blank stares, Ranma and Ryoga replied simultaneously, in genuine confusion, "What?" He may as well have been speaking Gibberish, and for all they knew, he was.

Akane however had run the sentence through her Kuno-to-human translator, backward and forward. No, that's just silly. Her mind was busy connecting dots, but she was unwilling to decipher the picture that they had formed. It's just Kuno talking nonsense like he always does.

"Do not attempt to deny it, for my dear sweet Pigtailed-Goddess confessed to me herself that you had your foul way with her! I can only conclude that she wished for me to rescue her from your licentious grasp!"

Ryoga sent a glare Ranma's way. What the Hell was she thinking?

No… Akane refused to believe her ears or her eyes. There has to be another explanation, there has to be.

Kuno, it seemed, had not yet finished his little speech, he had one final thing to add, to Ranma this time. "Word of this seducer's indiscretion had reached my ears. Fear not my beloved, once I liberate you from this cretin, I will take full responsibility for your condition! You need never fear this Lothario again!"

The girls that had previously been an angry mob had completely lost their fire, they now stood in various states of confusion and disbelief. The boys that weren't confused were either stunned or depressed. If what Kuno was saying was true then they'd actually had a shot and they'd blown it. Spectators that were not students were just enjoying the show, who would have thought a maid café would have such a wide variety of entertainment, they'd had singing, dancing, fighting and drama. If nothing else worked out, at least the café had had an amazingly successful grand opening.

Ranma watched the emotions playing out on the faces that filled the crowd. Far too many of them for Ranma's liking seemed to have deciphered Kuno's meaning. As she continued to glance from one spectator to the next, she eyes landed on Akane, who was staring right back at her. Akane's eyes were wide with disbelief, her expression changed to one of pleading when she noticed that she's caught Ranma eye. Pleading for Ranma to explain that that was all a big misunderstanding. The boy-turned-girl made no protest, no denial, Ranma's pained expression was her only reply. Akane's eyes widened in shock, shifted into understanding, and settled on disgust. The sense of complete and utter rejection made Ranma feel like a lead weight had been dropped on her chest. A buzzing filed her ears, growing louder and louder with every passing second and she realized that it was in fact the students gossiping in whispers. Humiliation made her cheeks burn and her breathing became erratic. She was only vaguely aware that Ryoga had kicked Kuno hard enough to send him flying into the next ward and was now standing in front of her. His lips were moving, but all she could hear over the sound of the buzz was her own heartbeat. She tried desperately to slip into the soul of ice, she needed an escape from this pain and embarrassment. As the cold detachment settled over her, the buzzing receded and her senses returned.

"-hurting Shampoo!" Was the first thing she heard as something collided painfully with her back. Heat bubbled up within her, contained just as she had hoped it would be by her icy exterior. It swirled and clashed with her own cold chi to create a raging chi storm within her. Ryoga caught her when she stumbled from the pain. She felt like her entire being was going to be ripped apart from the inside. That's when she heard it, a teakettle whistling from a table where the maid café servers were set up to provide drinks and snacks to the onlookers. She spun away from Ryoga to face Mousse, threw her arm forward and created an opening for the pressure to escape from. She had been expecting a chi blast, like the Lion's Roar, instead an aura, greatly resembling a bear's paw lashed out and punched the bespectacled boy, who was thrown high into the air until he became a spec and vanished.

A hand landed on her shoulder, "Ranma…" Ryoga started from behind her. She leapt away however, breathing heavily. She'd lost her control over the Soul of Ice and the embarrassment and sting of rejection had hit her full force again, she just couldn't cope right now. It was just too much, so she ran.

After running several blocks away from the café by rooftop, Ranma slowed her pace and dropped onto the sidewalk. She couldn't stay with the Tendos anymore, she knew that much. Her engagement to Akane was over and she suspected that very soon even Soun would agree on that. Staying with Ukyo was clearly out. Staying with the Amazons would be akin to proposing to Shampoo at this point. If her mother discovered her secret, Ranma shuddered, no, she couldn't go to her mother. She sighed an began to wish that she'd dragged Ryoga along, his house would have been a reasonable option. She had no desire to go looking for him right now though, she had to get to the Tendos' and pack before Akane got home. She picked up the pace again, deciding that she'd figure out where to go after she collected her belongings, luckily she didn't own much.

In order to evade detection as she entered the house, she went in through the window. She smiled briefly as she thought back on the many times that she'd yelled at her suitors for doing the very same. It was quickly replaced with a frown though, those days were over. She grabbed her pack and quickly unloaded the contents of her drawers into the bag.

She pulled the enchanted map out, "Oh, are we going some- mmpph!" and shoved it in her pack. She'd explain later, if she felt like it. The last thing she removed from her drawers was the book that the midwife had given her. There were only a few pages left, she'd read most of it now. The Old Bat did say to come see her when I was done… Why not?

Back on the street, Ranma looked both ways. Now which way was it again? She turned right and was three blocks away when she realized that she should have gone left and doubled back.

The same receptionist that had been there the day of her first appointment was back again. The girl quickly slipped into the back room to fetch the midwife.

"Ah, finished the book already have you?" The Old Crone asked in place of a greeting.

Shuffling her feet, Ranma replied, "Er… Almost. I should be done by tomorrow, I think."

Xiao Tao raised one bushy eyebrow, wondering why the martial artist had returned if she hadn't yet finished the book. "If you are not ready for the training, then what can I do for you?"

Ranma blushed, she had no problem accepting people's hospitality, but didn't care much for asking favours from near-strangers. "I was hoping I could stay here." She looked up and rushed the next bit, "I'd train of course, but I will help out any way I can too."

A smile spread across the wizened old face of the midwife, it's the perfect situation, and I didn't even have to meddle this time. "You may, but you'd best be prepared to be put to work." She paused, then added, "If the boy plans to stay, he'd better be willing to work as well."

"Boy?" Ranma asked.

Xiao Tao tipped her head toward the entrance. Sure enough, when Ranma opened the door she spotted Ryoga crouched on a roof across the street. He jumped down when he realized that he'd been spotted. "What are you doing here?" She asked him as she strolled out to meet him.

A faint blush darkened his cheeks, "I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

She nodded at that, "How did you find me?"

"I uh," He paused with his hand placed awkwardly behind his head, "followed you." He admitted.

Ranma snorted, Of course. "Well come inside then, it'll be better than creeping around our here on people's rooftops. The Old Bat said you could stick around, if you help out."

Ryoga shrugged and followed her inside, he had nowhere else to be, and for once, nowhere else he'd rather be.

Author's Note: Sorry that this one is short, it just seemed like the best place to end the chapter.