The best room for Ranma and the three Tendo daughters to talk in was the dojo itself. It was the one with the most room and had the best sound-proofing done to it so the noises of martial arts training and combat wouldn't disrupt the rest of the household. Of course it had been ages since any classes had been held so they couldn't say for certain what the integrity of the sound-proofing was anymore.
"I know your old man wanted us to talk, but I can't." Ranma started. "I need to make sure the Nue can get out of the city safely."
"Hey, those things got here on their own they can get home on their own." Akane insisted.
"Did they? Were you there?" Ranma asked. "How often do you see something like a bear just wandering into Tokyo from the mountains? And get in this deep without being spotted? I don't think the Nue came here voluntarily."
"Then who brought them?" Kasumi asked.
"I don't know. But my concern is getting them back to a human-free area." He stated.
"Then why did you tell them to leave on their own?" Akane asked.
"Honestly, that was to get the mother to calm down, and give them a chance to get somewhere they might have been hiding. Someone brought them here, but I don't think that someone still has any control over them. They were probably hiding, like stray cats, and you just provoked them when they were already on nerves."
"Hey! Stop making me sound like the bad guy here!" Akane yelled.
"It was a young hungry kitten that was trying to get food and you threw a rock at it. That kind of is a bad guy move there." Ranma criticized. "Though standing up to the mother wasn't. I'm not going to fault you on that."
"How was I supposed to know what it was? It was huge and unfamiliar and-"
"And it wasn't doing anything wrong." Ranma interjected. "Cats eat birds, that's nature. Even cryptid nature. Do you stop birds from eating worms just because you can't identify the bird?"
"Let's change the subject please." Nabiki requested. "We know what you do, but nothing else. What do you like, dislike, do when you're relaxing. That sort of thing."
"Why?"
"Well, odds are you're going to be here for a while, and our dad is not going to let you leave this room without picking one of us as a fiancee. Might as well at least try to find some compatibility." Nabiki asked.
Ranma frowned in annoyance. "Why bother? None of us want this. And whether or not your old man likes that honestly could not matter less to me."
"Ranma, that's not nice to say." Kasumi chided.
"Would you rather I lie and say it meant everything to me?" He asked. To which he got no answer, and he expected none to begin with.
"So what's the solution? Just say 'screw you' to them both and that's it?" Akane asked.
"Well the only alternative is being engaged and that is simply not an option." The pigtailed boy answered.
"Why are you so against it anyway?" Nabiki asked.
"Before I answer that, I want to hear you all explain why none of you haven't exactly jumped at being engaged." He replied.
Once again he got no answer and expected none. But it had the desired effect. The girls couldn't say it was wrong for him to protest the engagement when none of them were making an effort to encourage it.
"I rest my case." He stated. "You don't want it, I don't want it, the only ones who do want this to happen are the ones who don't have to actually do any of the work involved. And frankly, I'm not convinced they don't have some ulterior motive for this. Let's just say Pops isn't above trying to make money off of cryptids when he can."
"How do you make money off of cryptids?" Nabiki asked, very curious now.
"For one thing, he's got a living golden goose stashed away. Helps with expenses if nothing else, though how he can sell the eggs repeatedly without it being noticed is something I don't understand." Ranma answered.
"Wait, let me get this straight. A literal, living and breathing, goose that lays genuine golden eggs? And your family has one as a pet?" Nabiki asked, wearing she was on the verge of a joygasm there. She was certainly warming up to the idea of being his fiancee despite the curse and occasional cryptid that came with him.
"I don't think of them as a pet, namely my old man's captive. But yeah, we have one. Most of our money comes from my mom." He answered.
"Where is she by the way?" Kasumi asked.
"Taking care of the goose and a few of the orphaned cryptids we've found in our travels. Mom's not as big a fan of traveling as Pop and I are." He answered.
"Wait, then why don't you guys go live with her?" Akane asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Ranma asked. "He wants me here with you guys, and obviously Mom's in on it." He crossed his arms and leaning against the wall, showing he wasn't too happy with this.
"So then, the fact is despite how... forced this situation is, we can't ignore it for long." Nabiki analyzed. "Being upset about it is normal, but pissing and moaning isn't going to solve anything. We can either act like kids screaming no they don't want to go to bed, or be adults about it and at least try to make the best of a bad situation."
"And how do we do that?" Ranma asked.
"The best option I can think of is we go ahead and decide which one of us will be your fiancee, but we tell our fathers we have some stipulations of our own." The mercenary stated. "This way we can get them to avoid pressuring us into sealing the deal anytime soon, and if we need a way out in the future we can still get it."
"Well then why bother getting into the deal in the first place if you want a way out?" Ranma asked.
"For one, like you I get the feeling those two have a reason for wanting this beyond mere family honor. If that was truly the only reason they wouldn't have waited until today to tell us about it." Nabiki theorized. "If we resist the idea they won't take it well, and we can't say for certain they won't resort to force or dirty tactics to control us. Sure, I believe with absolute certainty I can thwart them, but that's not the issue I'm concerned about."
Akane and Kasumi listened in, wondering what could get their ice queen sibling concerned.
"I don't believe they intend something bad for us. But I do believe they have an ulterior motive for trying to get us set up now. Problem is I have no idea what that motive is. And that means we can't prepare against it. Therefore, the best thing to do is go along with them and let them think they're getting what they want, so then we can get more information on their intentions. And once we do know what they're aiming for, we can decide what to do about it." Nabiki stated.
"Or we could go with my idea of telling them to take their promise and shove it up their-" Ranma started.
"Ranma, language!" Kasumi cut off.
"Well why not do that? None of you actually want to be with me." He pointed out.
"Actually Ranma, we were never asked if we wanted that." Kasumi countered. "All this time we've been talking like disinterest is a given. Like any alternative is simply not an option."
Ranma sighed. "Look, I'm going to be honest but blunt. I don't want to be involved in this. Not even slightly, not even just for show. I don't care, I don't see why I should have to care, nothing anyone says is going to make me care, so just do us all a favor and let me not care."
"Do you got a problem with us?" Akane asked. For reasons she couldn't fathom, being rejected by him was hurting her.
"We're all thinking the same thing, I'm just the one admitting it." Ranma told her. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go see about the Nue."
Refusing to even give them a chance to stop them, he left the dojo and then the estate entirely.
"What the hell is his problem?" Akane asked, bothered by his attitude.
"Akane, the situation is just as stressful to him as it is to us." Kasumi told her.
"He doesn't have to be a jerk about it though." The youngest sister there replied.
"Look on the bright side, he's not one of the boys hounding you each morning." Nabiki pointed out.
Akane shuddered. "Just what I need, one of those guys living here."
"You know, maybe if you told the boys you had a fiancee they'd stop." Nabiki asked. "You'd have to show some affection to Ranma though for it to really convince them though."
"Sorry, I'm just not ready for a relationship, even a fake one just to get rid of others." Akane admitted. 'Though that doesn't mean the idea is invalid.'
Nabiki nodded in understanding. "Alright, well, Dad's going to insist someone here accept the role, so I think I will for now."
"Really?" Akane and Kasumi asked, not expecting this.
"Yeah, of all of us I can at least convince Dad to delay any actual marriage, so that will give us all some time to actually learn about Ranma and him time to calm down and loosen up around us. Plus he seems to be a global traveler with some good money to his name, and that's certainly a plus to me."
"So you're willing to handle a jerk with a curse and strange animals hanging around him all so you could get a shot at those golden eggs he mentioned?" Akane asked, not sure why she didn't like this. She didn't want to be with Ranma, but her sister being with him for some reason wasn't anymore appealing.
"Do either of you want to handle him instead? Just say so." Nabiki offered, and got exactly what she anticipated. Nothing.
'He's too young for my liking. I'm sure I'd get bored of him soon enough.' Kasumi told herself.
'Maybe his bad attitude is just him not knowing how else to react, but it's a bad first impression. Well, technically second. But that boy is too confusing for me. I'm sure he wouldn't take advantage of me like Kuno would if he could, but I don't know what he would do if he had to be engaged to me. Not to mention if I have to be convincing that I want him right away he's bound to be more of a jerk just to keep distance from me. Nabiki's suggestion for me just wouldn't work.' Akane thought.
"Well then, I'll take the role for now. But until a ring's on my finger, it's not going to be permanent." Nabiki said, ending the discussion and getting up. "I'll go tell dad about my stipulations. Let me know when Ranma comes back."
Akane looked outside. "I wonder what he's doing."
Thanks to a lifetime of being taught to search for creatures that literally no one else could, Ranma knew that finding the Nue would be easy for him. The problem was it had apparently gotten a greater head start than he thought it had.
'Maybe I should have left with it from the very start.' He bemoaned, partially regretting that he chose to prioritize the meeting with the Tendos first. 'I thought the kitten would just return to its mother, which it did do, but how was I supposed to know the mother was here too? That's one heck of a Shroud to remain hidden here.'
The Shroud was a cryptid's best defense, and the main reason humans couldn't find them on a regular basis. What made cryptids different than other organisms was that they possessed a unique kind of biological energy called Arcana, similar to how humans had ki. Some cryptids were able to use it like how humans could use ki if trained, but for the most part they used it just to remain hidden. This ability was known as the Shroud, like a haze that blinded normal people to them. Nothing like invisibility, not in most cases as some cryptids could in fact become invisible, but more of a mere way to make people not pay attention to them.
But Ranma was a bit different than other people, in more way than one. One such difference was that while normal people were completely blind to arcana, thus why it helped blind them to cryptids, it was very obvious to him. It hadn't always been, but over the years he had learned how to hone his senses to perceive arcana, similar to how Genma could perceive the ki of martial artists. That was something else Ranma knew how to do, but sensing arcana was what he needed at the moment.
And of course he was trying to sense the arcana of the Nue, certain they couldn't have gotten too far in a heavily populated area by now. But the weird thing was... he couldn't.
"Where did they go?" He asked, pausing for a moment atop a roof in case he had missed it. That had to be the case, somehow he missed it. "If Fu was here he could track the scent. But I'm on my own. And I know I can find a Nue mother and cub on my own."
He closed his eyes and tried to sense any form of arcana in the area. And again he could sense none, not even that of other possible cryptids that could be in the area. That could only mean one thing.
"Someone did bring the Nue into this town. And now that someone has reacquired them." Ranma said to himself. "That means I'm looking for the wrong thing."
Since his natural senses were going to be of no use to him now, Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out something else that would hopefully do the trick. A collapsible pair of goggles that looked like some kind of attempt at futuristic sunglasses. Putting them on he tapped a small red circled on the left side, making the shades turn purple. Now he could look for something other than arcana.
The energy of cryptids rarely leaves a trail, often decaying too quickly to be picked up by something that would hunt a cryptid by detecting arcana. Similar to how a scent trail weakens over time, only faster. However, this was not true of the shroud. That extra defense of the organisms did result in an energy trail, and now Ranma could see it.
'Aha, I see where you went.' He told himself, locating a wandering path that suddenly stopped then took a sharp turn in another direction. 'Now the only thing to do is see who wanted the Nue and why.' He wasted no time in following the trail.
'Wow, they took the Nue all the way out here?' Ranma asked, finally reaching his destination when the sun was going down. It was already late when he had arrived at the Tendos so he didn't go far, he just wasn't expecting someplace as cliche as an empty warehouse district.
'The mother and cub should be around here. I can sense the arcana now inside one of these buildings. It's just hard to tell which-wait, someone's out here.' He thought as he surveyed the area atop a roof, then crouched down when he saw someone. It looked like a normal albeit somewhat grim-looking person that arrived in a car, then got out and did the oddest thing. He touched it and suddenly his skin and clothes became green and metallic, just like the car itself.
'What the heck was that? Is that guy some kind of new cryptid that can impersonate a human?' Ranma thought as the metal man turned a corner, thus couldn't be seen anymore. 'I better get a closer look at this.'
By closer look he went get into position then jump down and catch the enemy quickly and off guard like a predator, and that's exactly what he did. The young boy jumped from one roof to the next until he was behind the metal man, who was looking into a window. Then Ranma took out his personal weapon which was a clawed staff he carried with him everywhere, and hit a button that made the claw part shoot out attached by a tether so he could attack from a distance.
The metal man by this point had turned around, apparently satisfied with whatever he had seen, and returned to normal flesh. At that point the claw had grabbed the front of his shirt, grabbing tightly.
"What the heck?" He said. Shortly after Ranma whipped the tether so it would wrap around the metal man, holding him captive for a bit while Ranma himself jumped down to face him.
"Let's see what you are." Ranma said before his eyes glowed jade. A moment later that stopped and he looked confused. "You're... you're human?"
"What did you think I was? A chimpanzee?" The caught guy asked.
"Humans don't become metal. So what are you?" Ranma asked. "For that matter, you're not Japanese. You look American yet speak with a local accent. Who are you?"
The strange teen, who looked maybe a year older than Ranma but it was hard to say for certain, frowned but didn't seem concerned about getting free. He did grab the tether, but did nothing else. "That's none of your business." His hand then arm started turning a dark grey, absorbing the material of the tether which was a type of metal making it like a thick wire rather than a rubber cable.
Then he did something really unexpected. His metal hand morphed, the fingers fusing together and even sharpening, like he was turning his own limb into a sword. With the sword hand he swiped at the tether, severing it and freeing himself.
"You wrecked my Claw." Ranma grimaced, his eyes lightly glowing orange again. "That was not smart."
The other boy pulled the rest of the tether off and dropped it, then touched the car and reabsorbed some metal until he was fully metallic. "Neither was trying to fight me." He morphed both metal hands into what looked like hammers.
As a martial artist and someone who dealt with cryptids all the time, Ranma hardly ever was afraid of a fight. So while he had no idea how he was going to defeat a guy like this, he was going to find out the hard way. He lunged at the metal man, fists and staff weapon ready, and was blocked by the hammers of his opponent. It hurt, but no bones were broken.
The metal man made a swing at Ranma, who ducked under and tried to shove him from a lower angle, thus disrupting his balance and hopefully toppling him. It unfortunately didn't work. The metal man then hit Ranma in the back, making him collapse to the ground but not black out.
"Whatever you and those guys are doing, leave me out of it." The metal man warned.
"Heh, my brother fights better than you." Ranma taunted. Fisk was Ranma's favorite sparring partner because unlike Genma the cryptid was harder to hit but just as able to use the environment to his advantage. Fisk at first had been reluctant to participate, but it was impossible to spend years with a Saotome without learning a thing or two about fighting. And Ranma couldn't spend time with anything or anyone without getting inspiration on how to be a better martial artist.
Getting on all fours since he was already down, Ranma did a sweep kick at the metal man's legs. This time he did succeed in unbalancing his opponent who fell down with a loud clang against the pavement. Ranma took the chance to reacquire the severed portion of his weapon so he wouldn't forget it later, then stood above the metal man stepping on him and pressing the end of his staff against the neck.
"I've fought against creatures you only see in movies. Granted you're a new one, but you never stood a chance." Ranma claimed.
"Neither did you." A new voice said, then suddenly Ranma was struck by some kind of pink energy beam like a laser from behind, making him jerk for a moment then fall to his knees.
The metal man tried to get up but he was hit by the same laser. And then both boys were surrounded by red energy that made them hover in the air, completely unable to fight back effectively.
"This is a nice surprise. Welcome back, Kevin." A man's voice said in English.
"Something wrong Akane?" Kasumi asked, seeing her youngest sister slumped on the walkway connecting the house to the dojo just staring at the koi pond.
"Nothing really, just wondering how we're going to handle living with a boy like Ranma." She muttered.
"Nabiki already talked to Father about it. Things will be fine." Kasumi reassured.
"How can we know that? We don't know anything about that boy." Akane insisted.
"That doesn't mean he's a bad person Akane." Kasumi told her. "You can never know everything about a person within the first hour you meet them. Remember when you first met your own friends? Did you know everything about them right away? No, but that didn't stop you from getting along with them did it?"
Akane shook her head. "But this is different. It's a boy living with us."
"And why does that bother you?" Kasumi gently asked.
"It's a complete stranger moving in with us and he's bringing in more than we were told would come. Are you not bothered by this?"
"Of course I am." Kasumi admitted. "But I'm going to make the best of this and not tell them to go away just because this disrupts things. Akane, I understand your concerns, but I think you're just being a bit paranoid."
"Well I did get attacked by a creature we all thought didn't exist. I think I'm allowed to be a bit paranoid." The tomboy claimed.
"Alright. Just try to make Ranma feel welcome, and I'm sure he'll be respectful, even if a bit distant. I get the feeling he's not used to being around people his own age that much. He's probably just as uncomfortable about all this as you are." The housekeeper said, then walked away.
Akane leaned back, enjoying the sounds of the early evening. 'Maybe she's right. If Ranma's been traveling the world dealing with strange monsters all the time and calling them family, he likely has few if any human friends.'
At that moment Fu the lion-dog came up to her, spooking her a bit. It whined a bit and looked like it just wanted to be petted. Cautious, Akane complied and the lion-dog relaxed, and so Akane did the same. 'Heh, maybe I am just being paranoid. There's no reason I can't try to get along with him. Besides, he's not going to marry me. There's no need to push him aside.'
Dragoon walked up to her too from the other side, and Akane tried to pet the little reptile too. It leaned towards her hand and encouraged her to scratch it gently instead, which she did.
"Do you want anything Akane?" Kasumi called out, putting away the remnants of dinner for Ranma and doublechecking to make sure her own family was satisfied.
"Maybe some lemonade?" The young girl requested.
Almost right away Dragoon darted away from her and took to the air, flying into the house. Akane called out to the drakon but it didn't come back. Even weirder, moments later it flew back out, holding a glass containing a yellow liquid and put it next to her.
"Whoa, you brought it to me?" She asked, surprised and taking it tentatively. She sniffed it to make sure it really was lemonade, and was convinced it was. Then she tasted it, confirming the nature of the liquid. "Thanks. Didn't think that Ranma had trained you so well."
Meanwhile, Ranma woke up on a cold metal table, strapped down so the only thing that could move would be his eyes and mouth. But his eyes stung immediately thanks to a bright light hanging directly over him, so he closed them again.
'Where am I? What's going on?' He asked.
"Let me out of here!" The metal man shouted.
"Calm down Kevin. You're right where you belong." One of the unidentified voices from earlier said in response, this time in Japanese instead of English.
'They don't seem to be paying attention to me. But I better keep my eyes closed just in case.' Ranma thought, trying to listen in.
"How do you know me?" The guy called Kevin asked.
"You've forgotten me? I'm Servantis, your old mentor and benefactor before those inferior parents of yours decided to deport you. They covered their tracks well enough that I had no way to find you and pretty much gave up. Now you just appear to me all by yourself and here of all places. Surely even you must realize this is a sign."
'Is the Nue still around?' Ranma asked, remembering why he originally came here in the first place and trying to sense any close arcana. 'Yes, both mother and cub are here, most likely caged up and being subdued to keep them in line. Are these guys cryptid poachers?'
"I see our other guest is awake, but badly pretending not to be." The guy called Servantis said, making Ranma stop all activity. "He seems like any other normal human. Makes me wonder Kevin how you could have wasted so much potential that you nearly got beaten by him before we heard your little scuffle outside."
"What makes you think I was fighting him at full strength in the first place?" The one called Kevin asked. "Maybe I didn't want to hurt the guy too much."
"Then you truly are wasting your potential. The Kevin I knew would never waste time thinking about if he was hurting someone else." Servantis chewed out.
"Yeah well I've grown up since then. And the name's Ken now Jarhead."
"Regardless, now that I have you achieving my main goal for being in this country will be so much easier and sweeter. I might not even need those strange creatures anymore. Though using their DNA does hold potential."
Ranma frowned. 'I don't care who you are, you do not treat cryptids like lab mice.' He opened his eyes but looked away from the light, seeing he was inside a warehouse and by a wall where the two Nue in a cage, looking like they had given up trying to escape, not unlike zoo animals. Ranma's eyes glowed jade as he looked at them.
Suddenly the cryptid cub got up and walked to the door. But rather than do what a normal animal would do, it moved with a human intelligence this time, squeezing its paws thru the bars and reaching for the lock, using the same bars for balance to better reach. Carefully tampering with the lock, which was difficult with feline paws, it soon succeeded in unlocking it, and the door swung open.
Ranma smirked and the two Nue growled, the mother following the cub outside the cage.
"What the heck?" Servantis asked once he saw this.
The mother charged at him, and a few inhuman associates of Servantis tried to defend him, including a hot pink female being that flew and shot lasers out of her green eyes. Ranma left the mother to fight them off, focusing on directing the cub to break the straps binding him down.
At the same time the boy called Kevin or Ken, Ranma wasn't particularly interested in that part, absorbed the metal of the table he was on and now was strong enough to break his own bindings. But rather than fight, he decided this situation was too much for him and ran off, unnoticed in the commotion.
Now freed as well, Ranma stood by the Nue cub, after grabbing his broken weapon by the wall. "We need to get you guys home. Stay here with your mother, I'll get some help." He then went outside and pulled out a phone, dialing a number. "I need a pick-up and I need it now. I got a captured mother Nue and cub, brought here by possible poachers I chased off." He paused for a moment so the person on the other end could respond. "Thanks, I'll be here." He then hung up.
"What took you so long?" Akane asked when Ranma finally showed up at the house, long after sunset and after dinner.
"Had to call in a transport crew so the Nue would be taken home safely." He answered. "Did you think I'd just ditch them after finding them?"
"A transport crew?" Akane repeated.
"I'll explain later, right now I just want to relax for the night." He said.
"Before you get too comfortable, I should mention that Nabiki decided she'll fit the role of fiancee for the time being." Akane said, feeling it was better to get it out now rather than later.
Ranma frowned. "Then she and I are going to have some words over this." His tone showed this wasn't going to be a friendly talk.
'Good luck with that.' Akane thought, seeing him walk towards the stairs and presumably the middle sister's room.