Chapter Nineteen
Kasumi had just finished doing the dishes when the phone rang, so luckily she could answer it unhindered. "Hello, Tendo resistance."
"Hi, it's me Haruna." The voice on the other end said.
"Oh hi Haruna. I'm afraid Ranma's in school at the moment."
"Yeah I figured. I just wanted to call now before I forgot. Tell my cousin that unfortunately his mother can't be reached. I'm not exactly sure what she's doing, but when I called I just got a message saying she was on a personal trip."
"Oh my, Ranma's going to be so disappointed." Kasumi said.
"Yeah, but he hasn't seen her in ten years. A week or two more isn't going to hurt him." Haruna commented. "Anyway, at least I made sure to leave a message telling her how to contact you guys so she should be able to do something when she gets back."
"Does she do this often?" Kasumi asked.
"I'm not sure, but I do know she gets bored sitting home all day. Maybe once in a while she gets wanderlust like her husband does." Haruna suggested. "Anyway, I gotta go. Give Ranma my regards." She then hung up.
Kasumi put away the phone and sighed. "Maybe Mr. Saotome can tell me what his wife planned to do while he was away." With that, she went to find Genma.
School ended and everyone began to vacate. Ranma, Akane, and Shampoo left as a group per the norm, and as another part of Neriman normality Kuno made himself known to them without invitation.
"What now Kuno?" Akane asked impatiently.
"My sister didn't return home last night. Any idea why?" The upperclassman asked.
"Are you accusing us of something?" Ranma asked, irritated.
"Are you guilty of something?" Kuno replied.
"No, we are not. We haven't seen your sister since that match yesterday and frankly we'd be happy not seeing her anytime soon." Akane stated.
Kuno looked unconvinced. "If I ever find out you did something to my sister Saotome, you'll wish you hadn't spared me instead." He threatened before walking off.
"The nerve of that guy." Ranma said, then looked to Akane. "Was this part of the vision?"
She shook her head. "No, Kodachi never went missing before. I don't know what happened to her."
"Shampoo not know where she is either." The Amazon said before asked. Technically she wasn't lying, she really didn't know where Kodachi currently was.
Akane ended up shrugging. "Oh well, she'll show up sooner or later. Nothing to worry about, unless she shows up with more bombs."
"How many times did she bother us in your vision?" Ranma asked.
Akane had to think that one over. "Right now I can recall only three big times. Other times it was simply her jumping in a skirmish that already existed. We've already dealt with one of those big ones, and the next one shouldn't happen too soon, and I think we can avoid it altogether this time."
"What happen?" Shampoo asked.
"Well, at the time Kodachi liked Ranma a bit to say the least. One day she got lucky and managed to hold him in place just long enough for a picture to be taken, a picture that made it look like the two of them were about to get hot and heavy." Akane explained, noting their bothered expressions. "Kodachi told Ranma she wanted to show everyone in town the photo as a way to reveal their love for each other."
Ranma scoffed. "Yeah right. That's just blackmail."
"That's exactly what it was. Kodachi pretty much had you wrapped around her finger and you had to eat dozens, maybe hundreds of photos to hide them from anyone, especially me since I would have overreacted at the time. To escape, you asked to see the negative, which meant she had to take you to her home. Let's just say that was quite an experience. But in the end you got rid of the negative and things returned to normal. After that Kodachi became pretty much a minor obstacle."
Ranma didn't know what to say and thus said nothing further on the subject. This time he had no real interaction with Kodachi other than what he had seen her try to do to Akane and Shampoo, and that itself made him not care much for the girl. Though he did try to ensure his main opinion wasn't based on simply Akane's dream.
"Airen, take Shampoo on date soon yes?" Shampoo asked, trying to change the subject.
A bit of jealousy flared in Akane. "Hey, maybe I want him for something."
"Akane no have Airen just to self, make time for Shampoo too."
"Girls, no fighting over me or I'm not going anywhere with either of you." Ranma insisted, surprising them a bit. "Now Akane, Shampoo did ask first so let's be fair and let her speak."
Akane silently sighed and nodded. 'A shared relationship sounds much easier than actually doing it.'
Shampoo cleared her throat. "Shampoo want try something never could do back home. Something fun and new. Shampoo hear that place for icekskating open soon for winter, that sound fun."
"Iceskating?" Akane repeated, a tinge of horror in her voice. 'Are we seriously going to come close to repeating everything I dreamed about?'
"Is something wrong?" Shampoo asked.
"Umm..." Akane paused to think it over. 'Okay, there's no P-chan this time, so maybe that will keep Azusa away, and by extension Mikado.' Feeling better she smiled. "Actually, I was just worried over nothing. So go ahead, but do you know how to skate?"
Both Ranma and Shampoo shook their heads, neither having done the activity before.
"Then would it be okay for me to go along and offer help and instructions? I at least have experience with it, and it's one of the things I'm never called clumsy for. And Ranma, before you decide anything, a girl who can't skate looks just as embarrassing as a boy who can't so don't go using your girl form as a cover for it."
"That depends on if we do go." Ranma stated.
"Please Airen?" Shampoo asked in a cute way.
"Well, I guess if that's what you want." He said, finding it hard to resist her at the moment. "After all, you usually try to do a lot for me so I should try some stuff for you once in a while."
Shampoo smiled and leaned against him in a friendly way. "Thank you Airen."
That weekend, Ranma found himself at Nerima's ice rink, struggling to stand standing on skates. Fortunately Shampoo was struggling as well, requiring both to stay at the edge of the rink. Akane on the other hand was skating like a pro partly to instruct and partly to show off a bit.
"It's actually not that hard." Akane told them while skating past then, then looped around to make another pass. "You can get the hang of it."
"Shampoo train for fight, not for show. This not natural right away." Shampoo complained. Years of being taught to be a martial artist did give her a good sense of balance, but applying that to standing on thin blades of metal while atop ice was another thing entirely. She couldn't even dress the way she wanted to, having to forsake her silk clothes for thicker ones.
Ranma was having the same problem for the same reason. "This will take us a bit."
"You can walk on fences but not here?" Akane asked, skating by them again.
"Fences aren't slippery." Ranma stated.
"Just keep practicing." Akane said with another pass before heading to the other side of the rink.
Akane's skating around wasn't intentionally a way to taunt the two inexperienced skater. Her real reason for it was to keep an eye out for the next threat she remembered coming their way.
'Azusa and Mikado, they might be here. There's no P-chan to start a fight over so hopefully that can be avoided, but Azusa might try something else, and that dirty-minded Mikado would just as easily try to kiss Shampoo as he would Ranma. No way I'm allowing that guy to kiss my Ranma before I do, again!'
So far she had yet to see the Golden Pair, but she wasn't about to drop the search yet.
Ranma and Shampoo meanwhile were still making an effort to stand on their skates without support, though Shampoo seemed just as satisfied with being close to Ranma for support. Even though her non-cursed side felt no pet-like compulsion to be anything to Ranma, she had grown fond of him in their time together since China. Like Akane, she looked forward to the day she got a ring on her finger.
Akane saw this and felt a pang of jealousy, but to her relief there was no flare of rage and territoriality along with it. 'I once said I'd rather share Ranma then not have him in my life at all. At the time that was mostly words, meant to convince myself more than anything. But I think now it's really sunk in. I think now sharing him really isn't something I mind anymore. Though I'm not so sure I'm ready to consider doing anything in the bed that involves another girl. No, definitely not ready to consider that ye-'
She was yanked out of her thoughts by a literal yank behind her, and a following choking sensation. As if her scarf was suddenly constricting around her neck. She reached for it to loosen it, but that wasn't the only problem. A pull was felt behind her and Akane fell on her butt on the ice, with the scarf coming off her neck.
"Nice, Charlene now mine." A cutesy girl voice said, the kind that was clearly too young for the person saying it.
'Right on schedule.' Akane rued while rubbing her sore neck. She turned and saw a girl with wavy brown hair and wearing a pink skaters outfit complete with frills. It looked like the girl was trying to pretend she was ten years younger than she actually was. But the real bad part was she was cuddling Akane's scarf in her embrace like it was her baby or something.
"Unless you want a knuckle sandwich you're going to give me my scarf back." Akane threatened while getting back on her feet with difficulty due to the skates. 'I cannot believe this girl. She actually have the nerve to try and steal my scarf while I was wearing it? Does Azusa seriously not understand the concept of 'Hands to yourself'?'
Azusa looked scared but held the scarf tighter. "No, Charlene mine."
'Charlene? Strangely close to Charlotte.' Akane noted, but was in no mood for irony. "Listen bitch, that scarf was made by hand by my mother, who's been dead for ten years. Don't think for one second I won't give you a bloody nose to get it back from a thief like you." She cracked her knuckles for extra emphasis.
"Challenge you for Charlene." Azusa predictably said.
'Not this time.' Akane thought firmly. "No. That scarf is my property. Property you rudely tried to rip off my body while I was wearing it. Either you give it back, or I'm taking it back right now. No stupid challenge, period."
If there was one thing Azusa didn't understand other than 'No stealing', it was 'Return to rightful owner'. As far as the semi-ditzy girl was concerned, once she laid a hand on something and named it she became the rightful owner and that was that. "You so mean."
"Is that supposed to stop me?" Akane said before cocking back a fist to show she was serious. Azusa shrieked in fear and tried to skate away, and sadly she was better than Akane at that.
Onlookers saw the pair, some thinking Akane was trying to beat up a frightened girl and some who saw Azusa practically strangle the youngest Tendo earlier. Only three of the witnesses here decided to act on it, and two of them were Ranma and Shampoo.
Or at least they tried to. They didn't suddenly become better skaters after all. Shampoo accidentally fell forward and skidded across the ice on her belly, and Ranma lost control and skated backwards, crashing against the wall.
The third active onlooker came to Shampoo. "You poor girl." A man's voice said to her gently while he helped her sit up. Shampoo saw a reasonably attractive Japanese boy, nowhere near as attractive as Ranma was but not without his charm, wearing an aqua green suit of all things right here on the ice rink. "A beautiful girl like yourself shouldn't be hurting yourself on the ice like this."
"Umm... thanks?" Shampoo said while trying to get back on her feet, with his help. She didn't ask for it but she wasn't going to refuse it when she could barely stand on her own.
Akane saw this and briefly lost interest in regaining her scarf. "Shampoo! Get away from that man!" She warned. "That's Mikado Sanzenin!" Shampoo looked at her blankly and Akane realized something. 'Oh crap, I forgot to tell the others about him. I thought we could avoid him and what he did to Ranma.'
"Ah, I see another lovely girl knows of me." Mikado said, flattered, but noticed the uninformed look on the Chinese girl. "Allow me to properly introduce myself to an exotic maiden such as yourself." He leaned down and planted his lips right on her own.
For a split second Shampoo, Akane, and Ranma had the same reaction. Their eyes widened and their hair stiffened.
'I can't believe it. I mean, yeah I didn't want him to kiss Ranma, but that didn't mean I wanted her to take his place.' Akane bemoaned, this bothering her quite a bit more than she thought it was supposed to.
'Oh no way, that's my girl.' Ranma thought, feeling a bit enraged. Call him selfish if you must, but just because two girls, soon to be three, wanted to share him, didn't mean he wanted to share them.
Shampoo had no words to express her thoughts, just sheer red-hot rage. Once the split second shock was gone the rage took over. "AIYAH!" She shrieked once her lips were free and planted her fist right in Mikado's triumphant face, sending him flying into LEO. Then she carefully marched off as best she could on skates, her face hidden to everyone.
"Shampoo?" Ranma said, moving along the wall to get close to her. When she got to the same place he was she looked at him, and he saw a heartbroken look in her eyes and on her face. She looked like someone important to her had just died. She held onto his chest and started to sob into his chest just as mournfully as she looked.
Akane felt her heart ache for the girl. 'If it had been me, being kissed by a boy other than Ranma, I'd probably want to cry too.' Her own anger flaring, she looked to Azusa who wasn't paying attention at the moment and yanked her scarf out of the pink-clad girl's arms. "You want a fight? Fine Azusa Shiratori, you and your partner Mikado against me and Ranma. If we win, you both have to swear to leave us and our friends alone forever, including what we own. If you win, I'll give you this scarf."
Azusa blinked at the young Tendo and was a bit miffed that 'Charlene' was no longer in her possession, but she enjoyed the prospect of the challenge presented. She didn't even question how this stranger knew about her and Mikado, since the two did have a great reputation in their field. "Fine, challenge and terms accepted. We fight in Martial Arts Ice Skating at Kolkholz High School tomorrow."
"No, one week from now to give us time to refine our skills and your teammate time to heal. That girl he just stole a kiss from packs a very mean punch."
"Very well, one week from now. Don't be late." Azusa warned before skating away.
That night Shampoo was in the Tendo house at Akane's request. One look at her sullen face ended all arguments against it before it even started. They were really concerned when Shampoo made no effort to turn into her foxgirl form, and moreso when she actually handed her dinner to Genma. The bald man didn't eat it right away, somehow the lack of defiance made it slightly less appealing to him. But only slightly, because he did start eating it once she left the dining room.
Without being excused, Ranma left to go after her. He hated seeing this girl, who was for all intents and purposes his best friend, tied only with Akane but ahead only due to more time around her, look so heartbroken. On their way back home Akane told them the part of her dream she had failed to mention sooner, how Azusa tried to take Ryoga as a pet and how Mikado force-kissed female-Ranma instead, making the pigtailed martial artist out for blood in the vision. But she assured them they had won that time with a little effort and Akane knew what moves they were capable of. She was certain that with practice she and Ranma could beat the so-called Golden Pair without much trouble.
It didn't do anything for Shampoo's spirits.
Shampoo went up to Ranma's room and sat down in her little pet bed, but she was still in human form, making her look rather awkward. Ranma said nothing about it, just sat down while she curled up into herself and shed more tears.
"Airen?" She said softly.
"I'm here Shampoo. It's okay. Damn, I wish I knew what I could do to make you feel better."
"Defeat boy. Defeat boy for Shampoo in fight." Shampoo requested, referencing the challenge Akane had gotten him and herself involved in to get some payback on Shampoo's behalf.
Ranma nodded. "I already intend to."
Shampoo did not look consoled. "No Airen, it more important than that. By Amazon law, if outsider male successful in forcing lips on Shampoo, it... mean no can marry you. No until you or Shampoo defeat him in battle. You no win, we no get married. Ever."
Ranma was stunned. 'I didn't think it might have been that personal for her. That wasn't just a man kissing her without consent, that creep in one swift move took away her dream, and only I can give it back to her.'
"Airen will win right?" Shampoo asked, holding his hand. "Airen will defeat horrible man?"
'This isn't just a request to win a match, she needs me to win for her to be mine again.' Ranma noted. "I will win Shampoo, but it's no problem. After all, didn't both a goddess and an oracle say you have to marry me? Doesn't that sort of trump any law against it?"
"Shampoo not know, only Great-Grandmother know and...Shampoo afraid to ask. Please Airen, please fight and win, so no matter what, we be together forever. Blessing or no blessing."
"We will win Shampoo." Akane said from the doorway, surprising both teens. "We didn't let that snake Mikado get away with his kiss last time and we're certainly not going to let him get away with it this time."
For the first time in hours, Shampoo smiled. "Thanks Akane, thanks Airen." Feeling better she closed her eyes and shifted to her foxgirl form then her fox form and jumped onto Ranma's lap before curling up and getting comfortable.
Ranma started petting her while Akane came to sit down beside him. They both could see she had fallen asleep in his lap. "This afternoon must have exhausted her emotionally." Akane suggested. "And it was supposed to be a good one for her." Ranma nodded. "I'm sorry for not saying anything sooner. I thought we could avoid it like we avoided Kodachi."
"No need to apologize over and over again Akane. But I guess some things can be avoided and some can't."
"You worried about losing?"
Ranma shook his head. "No, I'm worried about being able to skate in time."
"With my help you'll have it down in no time." Akane told him, leaning against his side to comfort him too.
When it came time to go to bed, Shampoo stayed in fox form all night, cuddled up against Ranma who held her closely, comforting the girl who wanted to be more than just his friend and pet.