Chapter Three

With the talk with Cologne finished, after warning her Happosai would unfortunately return sometime in the near future, Akane asked to talk to Ranma in private. He agreed, though Shampoo felt a bit reluctant and had to be told to wait for him to come back to her.

Akane took Ranma to the only place that they'd have any form of privacy in, her room. Luckily Nabiki didn't really have cameras and microphones embedded in the walls to catch what her sister did in private; that was borderline criminal and the mercenary knew what she could and couldn't legally get away with.

Akane sat on her bed and Ranma took the chair at her desk. "You look a little uncomfortable." She started off.

"What do ya expect? You already know me and I don't know anything about you." He told her, not sounding at all harsh.

"Would you like to know about me Ranma?" She asked.

He thought it over for a second. "How much about me do you already know?"

"Please correct me if I'm wrong on anything." She began, and saw him nod before she continued. "You've been traveling around most of Japan and China for as long as you can remember. You have no memory of your mother and even though you don't realize it yet you do want to see her again if you ever get the chance."

"Wait, you know about my mom?" Ranma interjected.

Akane nodded. "Yes, and I think I know where she lives, though that part of my dream may have been wrong. I will help you meet her again and make a good impression, but now's not the right time. She'll be happier if we become more friendly with each other first."

"You sure about that?" Ranma asked.

Akane nodded. "Trust me on this Ranma. I also know you're deathly afraid of cats thanks to your father, but you're not really afraid of anything else. You hate being called a girl because your father told you they're all weak and helpless, which I hope you learn is not true. Your oldest friend is Ukyo Kuonji from Kyoto, but you always thought she was boy, but your father arranged for you to be engaged to her and robbed her family right after it. Right now she's trying to find you, either for revenge or to become your fiancee. You also had a friend named Ryoga Hibiki from your last school who's got a terrible sense of direction and is trying to find you to fight you. Is any of this wrong?"

Ranma thought it over. "So far no, though I didn't know about Ucchan's situation or Ryoga's actions until just now. How do you know about them?"

"If the gist of my vision is enough to go by, then they both will be showing up here in a matter of months. Not at the same time though. Remember that duel Ryoga challenged you to just before you left for China? The one you waited three days for and he never showed up?" Ranma nodded, surprised she knew that much. "He decided to follow you. All the way to China. How he could do that and still not meet up with you on time, I'll never know. But he reached Jusenkyo shortly after you did, and unless something's different, he's got a curse too."

"Really?"

Akane nodded. "Yes. In my dream, you were angry at your father and chased him down wanting to beat the crap out of him for bringing you to Jusenkyo in the first place. Without even realizing it, you knocked Ryoga into the springs and never learned until he found you here, wanting to kill you for it."

All of a sudden, she didn't want to tell him the rest of that story. How she adopted P-chan and never knew he was Ryoga, how Ranma tried to keep the pig and lost boy from her because he was jealous and offended by them both, and how Akane always sided against Ranma on the issue because she was ignorant of the truth and somewhat spiteful towards Ranma. She wanted to create a bond with Ranma, not tell him about the wedges that had been between them originally.

Ranma thought over his time in Jusendo. "I don't remember anything like that, but you're right about me being angry at Pop. What about Ucchan?"

"Her father approached your own in hopes of engaging you two. At first, your father was against it, because you were already promised to a Tendo, but when Ukyo's father offered the okonomiyaki cart as dowry, he decided to consider it. He then asked you if you liked Ukyo or okonomiyaki more, but he didn't specify in what way. After you said okonomiyaki, he decided to take the cart and run off. Ukyo chased after you two saying you were supposed to take her along but your father had other ideas. Personally I think your father already made up his mind on what he was going to do but wanted a way to get you blamed too."

"I... don't remember any of that." Ranma said before thinking it over. "Wait, I do remember riding a cart while saying goodbye to Ucchan, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Now it doesn't make any sense."

"That was your father stealing from her. She's angry and feels abandoned, and slighted as a woman since her fiancee 'ditched' her, at least in her eyes. She's been training to fight you, but when you two reunited she decided to resume the engagement because you called her cute and wanted to keep being friends." Akane told him, then sighed. "There were many times I was jealous of her in my dream."

"Why?" Ranma asked.

Akane sighed, not sure how to best explain this. "Why not? She's a better cook than I am, you had no problem calling her your friend, and you even called her your cute fiancee. In my dream, she was the one I was most afraid to lose you to. I didn't worry as much about Shampoo, but I still worried. I..." She then stopped, not sure sure what else to say. "I was afraid I was the least favorite of your fiancees."

Ranma looked just as surprised as he did confused. "Did I actually play favorites in your dream?"

"I'm not sure." Akane answered. "At times you might have, but I don't think you were doing it on purpose. Your father did kind of teach you that women weren't on the same level as men so you probably couldn't help some of your behavior towards us."

"Did I ever hurt you?" He asked.

Akane avoided eye contact. "Sometimes, yes you did. But I'm not completely innocent either. We both were rude and crude to each other at times, sometimes fighting so badly I'm amazed our engagement didn't fall apart completely."

"But then, why would ya want it now?" Ranma asked.

Akane looked at him, unshed tears in her eyes, then got on the floor before him on her knees. "Because I... I loved you Ranma. I still do, I love you." She held up her hand before he could say anything. "I know you don't know me yet and can't love me right now, but I'll do anything to make that possible for you. Anything. We fought a lot and didn't always get along in my vision, but I loved you and you loved me, and we almost did get married. It ended before I could see if we did, and when I woke up and thought I'd never see you again, I felt dead inside. I need you in my life Ranma."

Now tears were pouring down her face, though not quite to a Soun degree. Ranma never liked seeing a woman cry and knelt down to wipe her tears away. Akane had never before been so tempted to kiss him as she was right now, but she had to resist.

"Please don't cry." He told her. "Look, I didn't come here wanting to gain a fiancee, but if you really mean what you say, I admit I'm curious to see for myself what might happen. Besides, I doubt Pop intends to leave anyway."

Akane nodded. "Free lodging and food, all he has to do is play shogi with Dad? Yeah, he'll reeeeeally turn that down." They both chuckled a bit at the sarcastic tone.

"You think you can handle the old ghoul trying to push two others on me at the same time?" He asked, making the conversation serious again.

Akane took a deep breath. "It's going to be tough, but if we can get along this time rather than compete over you, I'll try it. I'd rather be forced to share you than not have you in my life at all Ranma."

"Wow, I don't know what I did in your vision to make you love me this much, but I hope I don't blow it this time." He replied.

Akane chuckled and wiped her own eyes.

Neither one of them knew that they had an eavesdropper on the other side of the door.

While the two teens were talking to each other, Cologne was straightening things out with Soun.

"I don't care that you came here from China. You could have come from the moon for all I care. Ranma is already promised to one of my daughters and nothing will change that." The Tendo patriarch expressed firmly, almost a bit too firmly for Kasumi and Nabiki's likings.

Cologne was undaunted. "Tendo, do you really think we would have come all the way from China with the Saotomes without learning why they were returning to Japan?" She paused to let that sink in. "We already knew Genma was bringing Ranma here to meet your daughters. If we wanted to stop it we would have. In fact, the only reason we didn't show up with them is because that fat fool tried to ditch us. Again."

"So if you didn't want to interfere, why show up in the first place?" Nabiki asked.

"I thought I already made that clear. Ranma is destined to have three wives. I just wanted to see if any of the women here might be one of them."

"Three wives is impossible. Maybe he could get a polygamous marriage somewhere else, but here in Japan it wouldn't be recognized as legal." Nabiki stated.

"Again, you're assuming I came here acting blindly. I already have a plan for that which should prove beneficial to all involved. However, I will not reveal what it is until all brides are found and ready to be with their groom."

Nabiki didn't like the sound of that. 'I should definitely keep an eye on her.'

"Excuse me, but even if you and your granddaughter can accept sharing Ranma with others, what if our sister doesn't?" Kasumi asked. "Also, I don't think we can approve of engaging our sister to a man who cannot be faithful."

"It's only unfaithful if it's not permitted." Cologne replied. "Besides, my instincts tell me your sister may not be against the idea."

"With all due respect, we know her better than you." Nabiki told the Amazon elder.

"I imagine so, but that doesn't mean you can anticipate her every reaction, can you?"

"We-"

"Can you?" Cologne pressed.

Neither of the girls answered, not sure how best to. As they thought it over, a small lavender fox walked into the room and sat down beside Cologne.

Kasumi smiled at seeing the animal. "My, what a cute fox. I've never seen one in that color before."

Cologne looked down at it. "So how did it go?"

The fox suddenly morphed into a fox-featured and fully clothed Shampoo seated like an animal for a moment before repositioning herself. "It go well. Airen and Dream-Girl get along fine. She want be with him."

"What?" Nabiki asked. "You can't be serious. Our sister would never agree to something like this."

"Apparently she did." Cologne rebutted.

Nabiki rose from her seat. "This I got to see for myself." Nobody stopped her from leaving the room.

Soun reestablished his firm look at Cologne. "Regardless of anything else, I do not care about anything you may have in mind that will interfere in the joining of the Anything Goes schools."

"We will not interfere. In fact, we encourage your daughter to be with the young Saotome." Cologne said, catching Soun off guard. "If you would cooperate with us, I think you might be pleasantly pleased with the future results."

"And if I don't?" Soun challenged.

Cologne took a deep breath and Shampoo frowned. "Then be prepared to handle a rebellious side in your daughter. For I suspect she will go along with our arrangement despite your insistence she not."

Nabiki walked back into the room, looking like she saw something that she still could not comprehend. Behind her walked in Ranma and Akane, but the two were holding hands.

Akane looked at her father. "Dad, Ranma and I talked it over, and we've decided to try and make the engagement work between us." The Tendo patriarch and the Saotome patriarch almost burst into a mini-celebration right there. "However, we will get married when we decide, not you, and I will not force Shampoo to not be involved with Ranma."

"What?" Genma shouted. "Don't you know what I've tried to get rid of them as they followed me from China?"

"We weren't following, we were traveling companions." Cologne corrected. "Ranma and Shampoo needed to learn about their curses and frankly both were grateful for company their own age. That fat mule there was the one trying to get away from us, not Ranma."

Akane slowly nodded. "I imagine with no Kiss of Death Ranma had to reason to escape you did he?"

Cologne nodded. "True. Besides, Shampoo's curse kind of made it hard to separate the two anyway."

"How so?" Akane asked then looked to Ranma. "Is it because you felt guilty over her getting it?"

"Somewhat, but that's not all." Ranma admitted.

"Shampoo got pet fox curse." The lavender-haired girl stated. "Water from Spring of Drowned Pet Fox, so Shampoo become fox that want master. Airen master. Shampoo his pet."

Akane looked at Cologne. "That one of those behavior-affecting springs?"

The elder Amazon nodded. "Yes. Her cursed form compells her to act domesticated and bond with a suitable... tamer for lack of a better word. And as you can see she attached herself to Son-in-law. She's not a slave or a mindless animal, but her cursed form feels a need to make Son-in-law happy."

"And how does she feel when she's in her normal form and mind?" Nabiki asked.

"Would we have left China if she didn't like being with him even then?" Cologne asked.

Nabiki was silent, but Kasumi nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. Ranma must be quite a man to make two girls like him so much so quickly."

"Kuno-baby is going to hate this guy so much then." Nabiki commented.

Akane groaned. "Don't remind me. Although maybe we can do something about him."

Ranma looked at her. "Someone bothering you?"

"Very much so. I can beat him back but he's so damn persistent I'm almost convinced I'd have to break his legs and jaw to get him to stop at least for a while. Maybe if we work together we can stop him once and for all without killing him." Akane explained.

"Want Shampoo help?" The Chinese girl asked.

"May not be the worst idea, though you might need to become a student first."

Ranma was confused. "Is this guy bothering you at school?"

"Where did you think I knew him? A store?" Akane asked back.

"I've got to go back to school?" Ranma asked, not fond of the idea.

"It'll give us more time to get to know each other better." Akane told him with a warm smile.

Kasumi smiled at Soun. "Look at that Father, they're getting along well."

Soun was noting that, and like Nabiki suspected there was something there he didn't understand. And like his middle child he wasn't taking Cologne's claims of prophecy and divine intervention seriously. "Even so, we only have enough room to accommodate my friend and his son. Our house cannot support four live-in guests."

"No worries. We won't be staying here. We came here on a work visa, so we intend to set up a shop in town while Son-in-law gets his affairs set. We won't intrude, but we're not leaving either." Cologne told him.

While still not his first choice, Soun knew he couldn't argue it. "I suppose that will suffice. And I suppose I can be polite enough to refer you to a decent hotel in town."

"No need, we can handle camping out." Cologne replied without batting an eye.

Shampoo was less pleased. "But Shampoo-"

"Trust me child, it will be fine." The older Amazon told her pupil, who signed and relented.

The rest of the night went a bit smoother for the residents of the Tendo estate after the Amazons left. Kasumi and Nabiki mostly left Ranma and Akane alone, mostly to avoid seeing even more surprises. Not to mention neither one of them could make sense of Akane's behavior.

Akane woke up early and slowly walked out into the hall. 'I need to make sure that yesterday wasn't a dream too. As long as Ranma's there in his room, I'll be happy.'

As quietly as she could, she opened the door to his room. There on a futon slept a pigtailed young man wearing a tank top and boxes, sprawled out comfortably and sleeping peacefully.

Akane felt a rush of gratitude and warmth flow over her. 'He's really here. We really can make this work.' Then she noticed something out of place: a small fox curled up on the futon with him. 'Shampoo must have snuck in. I better warn her so no one else sees her here.'

Akane then carefully picked up the lavender vixen, making sure not to wake anyone even her, then carried her down to the furo. 'Strange, just the other day I all but hated her, and now I'm actually cooperating with her. Am I out of my mind or something?' She stopped to think about it for a second, but kept walking. 'Maybe it's because so much is different here and I'd rather not add to that. Yeah, for the time being until I get a grip on this situation I should just go along with it, then make an effort if it gets too much out of hand.'

She then reached the furo. 'Besides, there is something I want to ask her.'

Akane filled up the furo with a small amount of water, then rustled the fox awake. The animal was disoriented, but once she saw where she was Shampoo almost bolted.

"Relax, I just wanted to ask you something." Akane told her.

Shampoo suddenly shifted to her fox-girl form, clothed for the record. "No need water for that. Myouhi-sama's blessing give Shampoo control."

Akane groaned. "Damn, I forgot that part. I'm too used to the whole hot-cold part of the curse. Anyway, I wanted to ask what do you have planned for Ranma?"

The Chinese girl lightly tilted her head. "I want be with Airen, be wife."

"Why though?"

Akane had never really understand Shampoo's persistence in her dreams. Sure, following village tradition and law was one thing, but most of the time it looks like Shampoo really was happy to be engaged to Ranma, even on the same day it happened. Akane always figured that any girl would have at least some resistance to immediately being with a man she didn't know, and yet the very next morning, both in the dream and right now, Shampoo was seen sleeping next to Ranma and looking more than content.

Apparently this Shampoo was no different. "Shampoo too too fond of Airen. He unlike other stupid boys home. He fun. He kind."

"He's not like Mousse, is he?" Akane added.

Shampoo's ears perked up. "You smart Dream Girl. Yes, Airen not like Mousse. Airen not obsessive or weak fighter. And he much sexier."

Akane blushed but lightly smiled. "I'm not going to argue that part. But still, do you really want to marry him?"

"Do you?" Shampoo asked back but with no challenge in her voice.

Akane was too surprised by the question to answer right away. "Y... yes, I do. But I feel like I've known him for over a year already and I don't want to lose him. What about you?"

"Shampoo must. Drink from Myouhi-sama's pitcher. Must wed Airen or be damned."

"Is that it?" Akane asked.

Shampoo looked down, as if remembering something unpleasant. "You know Razor yes?"

Akane was immediately confused. "That a Chinese person? I never heard anyone by that name before."

"Not even in dream?"

Akane shook her head. "Nope."

Shampoo was surprised, but added more. "Shampoo have... more than one stupid boy obsessed. Mousse actually friendliest of all them, old friend who suddenly get horny for Shampoo. Other boys and Razor not like Airen and try fight him. Razor try take me to hideout and have way with me. Airen come to me and save me. Shampoo cannot thank Airen enough for that."

Akane was speechless. 'It sounds like she has her own version of the Hentai Horde back in her home. My dream never said anything about that. And Mousse, someone I once thought of as her personal Kuno, is actually the nicest boy in that group? No wonder she was so desperate to get Ranma to be with her.'

"Grandmother talk to Prophet, and Shampoo granted leave with Airen from village for time." Shampoo continued. "Grandmother go along to keep watch over fat mule and help fulfill prophecy."

"What prophecy?" Akane asked.

"Airen can either save Amazons or destroy them. If he take three brides, he save. If he take one, he destroy. One bride come from tribe. One see glimpse of future. One be delivered to Airen. All three help airen become great champion and be mothers to great heroes of Amazons. If not, Amazon doom for certain."

"Doesn't make complete sense to me, but I suppose if magic is real prophecy shouldn't be disregarded as fake so easily." Akane mentioned.

"Shampoo want Airen happy. Will you help?" Shampoo asked.

"We want the same thing, so yes, I guess this time I will. But let's discuss this later. You should head out before any of my family know you're here."

Shampoo nodded and quietly sneaked outside.

Leaving the furo room, but keeping water there for after her jog, Akane went back to her room to change. "This is going to take some getting used to."