Rinne

[LawOhki]

Standing with his arms crossed, Ranma regarded his opponent warily but kept it from showing on his face by plastering a confident smirk there instead. Kaede was in a relaxed stance across from him, a small smile on her face. He had plowed through his opponents with no trouble and Kaede had done the same. Ranma was no closer to figuring out the mind trick she was using because her other opponents had all been low level martial artists. He had watched her play with them a short time but it wasn’t to the same extent as Ryoga.

It didn’t matter what kind of technique she was using because he was going to win this. He was faster and infinitely smarter than anyone else she had faced. And with his special training he had an ace up his sleeve that only Happosai or Cologne could counter.

“This is the final match!” The announcer exclaimed excitedly. “Shirokawa Kaede is facing Saotome Ranma.”

Ranma ignored the moderate amount of applause that came from their names. Breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth in deep controlled breaths, he focused on what he had dubbed heavy ki. Happosai had unwittingly brought it to his attention after applying the ultimate weakness moxibustion. A pressure point that cut off the part of his aura giving him his physical strength. He had always unconsciously used it in conjunction with his ki and if it hadn’t been for losing it that may never have changed.

He didn’t need to hear the referee tell them the added rule not to damage the platform or to begin, his attention never leaving Kaede. Getting caught in her mental manipulation would only complicate his victory.

“It’s really too bad I had such an easy run.” Ranma remarked casually. “You had a much harder time of it than me.”

“If you consider them to be difficult opponents than your standards are very low.” She answered his comment calmly.

“Just so you know, I am going to win.” He boasted with complete confidence. “I promise you that.”

“You shouldn’t throw around promises so frivolously.” She responded with more seriousness.

“I don’t.” He stepped forward into a stance, waiting for her to make the first move. Ranma felt something from her as she assumed an aggressive stance. It was like the heavy ki he was developing but something about it felt different.

The first time he blinked he was suddenly facing five Kaede’s arranged in a half circle around him. Stiffening in surprise, they all rushed him at once. ‘That’s what beat Ryoga.’ He smirked and waited for them to attack. Using his speed, he intercepted every punch and kick in a blur of movement too fast for the spectators to see. Finally he found the right Kaede who was about to hit him square in the chest with a side kick. Attempting to catch her foot with both hands, his arms buckled, and he felt the full force of the blow.

Ranma couldn’t recall anyone hitting him as hard in his life. She was small, slim, and wasn’t moving that fast yet he was nearly thrown over the edge before he landed. Laying in a daze and hoping he didn’t have broken ribs, he slowly got to his feet. ‘Defense is not going to work.’ He concluded.

Kaede had lost her clones and was no thrusting both hands towards him palm first. A spout of water exploded upwards from the platform in front of her towards him. Ranma’s eyes widened in alarm and he sidestepped the stream that bypassed him to crash harmlessly into the courtyard. Launching himself towards Kaede, he was just able to reach her as she retracted her hands.

His kick passed through her throwing him off balance. As the fake Kaede vanished, he could feel the real one behind him. Spinning in time to set his feet, he caught her knife hand strike by grabbing her wrist. Unlike her kick, he had no trouble stopping her but felt a discharge of heavy ki from her hand.

‘That’s how she hits so hard.’ He realized, gripping her wrist with far more force to keep her from moving. Unfortunately that meant her control of it was well beyond his. “My turn.” He smirked at her grimace and spun in place to throw her with enough force to send her over the edge.

Kaede hadn’t been thrown very high so after briefly flailing her arms and legs, she was able to reach down to grab the platform. Without even digging into the material with her fingers or feet she stopped after barely a meter.

‘More heavy ki.’ He guessed while moving towards her before she could recover.

zx

Genma crossed his arms and glared forward sternly as the fight between his son and the blonde haired girl rapidly escalated. Ranma was moving as though he was fighting at least six opponents, his limbs a blur as they rapidly hit invisible Kaedes surrounding him. The blonde was sometimes in the fray other times she remained outside catching her breath. Even with Ranma’s impressive stamina he would be worn down from this soon.

“What are you thinking, Saotome?” Soun asked him, equally as interested in the fight.

Watching as Ranma and Kaede traded blows again, he noticed that his child was being exceptionally careful with how he blocked her. Genma remembered the first blow and how it had thrown Ranma like a ragdoll. ‘The boy is actually afraid to be hit by her.’

“He can’t win.” He finally answered. Ranma was breathing heavily while Kaede looked barely winded. The unknown girl was clearly a master of some kind of mental technique to overwhelm her opponent and Ranma had no counter to such a thing.

zx

Trying not to show how tired he was getting, Ranma kept his eyes firmly locked on Kaede. She had stopped with the copies for now but he was beginning to see through that. Not by much but it was enough to narrow down which one was real. His mind was rapidly rolling through possibilities on how best to knock her out of the ring or to incapacitate her. If it came down to holds he had the strength advantage but even the lightest tap of her hand had to be avoided as far as he knew.

“I apologize for not taking your promise more seriously.” Kaede called to him from across the platform.

“That was your first mistake.” He decided to switch tactics, trying to exude a cool aura with the soul of ice technique. His response made her cute face scrunch up in anger. “No that’s not right, your first was entering. Second was thinking you were hot stuff when you beat Ryoga. Your worst was thinking your illusion trick was going to keep fooling me.”

“Your worst mistake is to think all I can do are illusions.” She growled, raising both hands up in front of her chest to make a complicated hand sign. Directly in front of her a small circular pool of water formed, a ring around the edge bubbling upwards. Ranma tried to close the distance between them but was too late, a water dragon shooting upwards from the pool to coil around Kaede before rushing towards him.

He barely heard the gasps from the crowd, too busy diving to the side to let the dragon pass him by. Reaching out to confirm that the liquid was real, his eyes widened at the confirmation that this was no illusion. A bubbling roar heralded the dragon turning around to make another pass. After another sidestep, he was going to try and attack Kaede but the dragon’s head curled and hovered between them. Ranma nearly missed the water still floating next to him moving to hit him from the side.

Leaping straight up, he realized his mistake immediately when the water dragon rocketed towards him. With no way to twist out of the way, he felt like he was hit by a freight train when the dragon’s jaws closed around him. Crying out in pain as it squeezed, he was dimly aware of a sudden shift of momentum, and that it was now going to drive him down into the ring.

Ranma came back to his senses enough to notice that the groan exiting his mouth was the wrong pitch and his clothing was soaked. She didn’t immediately try to move, looking upwards at the soft fluffy clouds floating by overhead, the sky turning orange as the sun started to set.

“He’s a girl now--.” The referee commented, not knowing about her curse.

“I apologize for the ring.” She heard Kaede say. “I know that disqualifies me.”

“Like hell it does.” Ranma spat and started to pull herself out of the indentation she had been laying in. “We’re not done yet.” She told the referee, a thinly veiled threat hidden in her tone. The little old man nodded and quickly vacated the area.

“That was foolish.” Kaede said sadly. “You could have won.”

“I’m not going to win like that.” She sneered, her pride was more injured than her body at being pitied.

Trudging forward slowly, Kaede met her on the side of the impact point. The blonde hit her several times but each blow didn’t carry the same weight from earlier so she could shrug them off. Ranma’s face twisted into a scowl, Kaede had to be pulling her punches now. Through with any pretense of chivalry, she weaved around one of Kaede’s strikes and planted a kick underneath her jaw.

Kaede was knocked upwards, her limp body twisting in mid air so that she would land face first on the stone outside the ring. Without thinking Ranma jumped to intercept, catching Kaede’s unconscious body, and landing safely. ‘Why do I always have to be so manly that I have to save the girl?’ She sighed, hearing a loud round of applause from the audience she had forgotten.

“Saotome Ranma is disqualified! Shirokawa Kaede is the winner!” The announcer screamed excitedly.

“What?!” She screeched, turning a look promising unending pain and death at the man.

“Ring out.” The referee explained helpfully from a spot far away. Ranma looked down to see that she had landed outside of the platform before Kaede, the blonde now stirring in her arms.

“Thank you for saving me-- Saotome-sama.” Kaede delicately left her arms and bowed deeply to her.

‘Wait-- she wasn’t out of it?’ Ranma’s shoulders slumped. “You’re welcome.” She answered Kaede’s show of gratitude before falling flat on her back. “I lost.” She said in a daze.


--------

I need something goofy for the 2nd place prize.

[ijp92]

So Kaede is a Naruto ninja it looks like.

I just can't tell if she was trying to throw the match or not at the end.

[frice2000]

Nah. She's not a ninja...

And really how much more could have been said to make it clearer at the end that yes she was trying to throw the match.

[Dumbledork]

This will hurt Ranma's pride: He probably won't leave Kaede alone until she tells him more about her techniques.

[Mr L]

I was surprised from this sentence 'Ranma couldn’t recall anyone hitting him as hard in his life'. If he had to grasp her hands to feel the heavy ki, her blows can't be stronger than a visible Shi Shi Hokodan or Herb's attacks. And heavy ki isn't a new thing in Ranma 1/2, it's used often in the series. Ranma and Ryoga are familiar with it.

Even though Kaede was just inspired from Naruto ninjas, I realized that they would be very dangerous to the high-level Ranma martial artists, especially with what they can pull off with their handsigns while in many Naruto crossovers Ranma is the one with the advantage.

[LawOhki]

I was surprised from this sentence 'Ranma couldn’t recall anyone hitting him as hard in his life'. If he had to grasp her hands to feel the heavy ki, her blows can't be stronger than a visible Shi Shi Hokodan or Herb's attacks. And heavy ki isn't a new thing in Ranma 1/2, it's used often in the series. Ranma and Ryoga are familiar with it.

Ranma mentioning the weakness moxibustion was supposed to indicate when this story was happening. (shortly after that) Ranma's terminology isn't referring to ki that's heavy, it's ki that he's purposely using in conjunction with a physical energy. So it has weight to it naturally rather than dependent on the emotion being put into it.

Releasing 'chakra' like that drastically increases the concussive force of the blow. So Ranma didn't just get punched in the chest, it felt like a bomb had gone off next to his chest.

[LawOhki]

Akane propped her head up with one hand and looked out the window with a sigh. It had been raining all morning and didn’t look like it would be letting up anytime soon. Shifting her eyes to glance at Ranma’s usual spot she once again found his chair empty. ‘That idiot.’ She snorted and went back to paying attention to the English lecture.

Yuka was first to her desk when the class ended. “No Ranma today, Akane?”

“No.” She answered, waiting to make sure all the busy bodies in the class were close enough to hear her. “He’s still pouting that he lost.” Akane explained further.

Ranma had already missed yesterday and the tale of how he had lost to an unknown girl had made it’s way around the school. Kuno had heard and was now planning parties along with being an intolerable ass. She had pounded him into the ground yesterday and he had been quiet since. But she knew that it was only a matter of time before he popped up again to declare his undying love.

“I know, we’re making cookies today, those will cheer him up.” She suggested to her friends who suddenly looked queasy.

“Ranma will love that.” Sayuri laughed nervously.

“Oh-- he will.” Akane couldn’t stop a slightly manic smile from spreading over face. A chance to rub a failure in Ranma’s face as well as show how good her cooking was becoming at the same time? How could she miss this glorious opportunity?

zx

Ryoga struggled for every step, his muscles burning, and his mind degraded from two days without sleep. With a pained snort, his front legs gave out, and his tiny body fell to the ground. To think that he, Hibiki Ryoga, would meet his end at the underdeveloped jaws of a young fox. Should he meet Ranma in the afterlife he would never live his demise down. Perhaps his ancestors wouldn’t judge him too harshly for such a lowly death.

Any moment now, the fiend would tear into his body, and he hoped that it would be a quick end.

“That was fun!” An androgynous young child's voice exclaimed excitedly, bopping him on the shoulder. “Now you chase me!”

Ryoga heard the rapid patter of paws on grass now moving away from him. Popping one eye open, he watched the fox bound away before coming back after Ryoga failed to follow. Yipping at him, the fox darted forward before running away again.

‘A talking fox?’ Ryoga struggled to sit up, two days of near constant running had drained him of all his stamina. ‘A real kitsune?’

“What? You tired? Okay, let’s rest.” Finding a nice sunny spot the fox laid down and seemed to fall asleep instantly.

‘A nap does sound good..’ Ryoga’s piglet body finally gave out and he crashed snout first into the grass.

zx

Kasumi’s hands froze at the dejected sigh of her sister’s betrothed. Relaxing, she tried to start up her knitting again when a pitiful groan interrupted her concentration. Finally giving Ranma her attention, she watched him slink across the floor until he was fully stretched out face down before sighing again.

“Would you stop that?” Genma reprimanded and threw several shogi pieces to bounce harmlessly off Ranma’s head.

“I lost!” Ranma bemoaned dramatically into the floor. “My trip to China.” He whined. “My cure.”

“Don’t be down, son. You’ll find another.” Soun added as he moved a piece.

“Not having a cure doesn’t stop you from going to school, does it?” Kasumi asked, struggling to get back into the rhythm of knitting. ‘Knit one purl two, knit one purl two, knit one purl two.’ She repeated in her head to drown out the boy.

“It’s raining.” Ranma groused.

“You could always borrow a spare uniform from Akane.” Kasumi suggested, causing Ranma to blanch. Happy that her joke had the intended effect, Kasumi excused herself to go check on lunch, deciding to put an unpleasantly spicy pepper on Ranma’s portion.

The doorbell pleasantly chiming was one more distraction to add to her plate. Making sure nothing would burn, she answered the front door. Kasumi recognized Kaede from the tournament immediately, the blonde girl was standing underneath a red Japanese umbrella to keep the rain away. She was wearing a modest light green dress with embroidered pink cherry blossoms around the bottom, ending beneath her knees.

“Good morning.” Kaede greeted with a polite bow. “I’m Shirokawa Kaede, I was told that Saotome Ranma lives here.”

She politely smiled and bowed back to the girl. “Good morning, I’m Tendo Kasumi. Ranma is inside right now, would you like to see him?”

“Please.” Kaede bowed her head again. “I have something to share with him.”

“Please come in.” She backed away from the door allowing Kaede to come in and remove her green flats, and place her red umbrella next to the door.

[Dumbledork]

Hmm... At first I thought Kaede might be the kitsune, but it looks like the kitsune is playing with Ryoga at the moment: I'm a bit lost. Hope you'll reveal the mystery soon.

[LawOhki]

Hmm... At first I thought Kaede might be the kitsune, but it looks like the kitsune is playing with Ryoga at the moment: I'm a bit lost. Hope you'll reveal the mystery soon.

Who says she isn't a kitsune? And the "mystery" is only going to be explained as Ranma find out.

[Konsaki]

She's an angelic vampire alien from the future's past!

[LawOhki]

The doorbell pleasantly chiming was one more distraction to add to her plate. Making sure nothing would burn, she answered the front door. Kasumi recognized Kaede from the tournament immediately, the blonde girl was standing underneath a red Japanese umbrella to keep the rain away. She was wearing a modest light green dress with embroidered pink cherry blossoms around the bottom, ending beneath her knees. A high quality leather purse was slung over her left shoulder. Her long hair was unbound with her bangs held to the side by an ornate gold clip with a large white pearl embedded in the metal.

“Good morning.” Kaede greeted with a polite bow. “I’m Shirokawa Kaede, I was told that Saotome Ranma lives here.”

She politely smiled and bowed back to the girl. “Good morning, I’m Tendo Kasumi. Ranma is inside right now, would you like to see him?”

“Please.” Kaede bowed her head again. “I have something to share with him.”

“Please come in.” She backed away from the door allowing Kaede to come in and remove her green flats, and place her red umbrella next to the door.

Leading the girl inside, she considered asking why Kaede wasn’t in school as well but decided not to pry. Most of her house guests friends appeared to be rowdy delinquents unconcerned with normal activities like school. Although Kaede did carry herself as a polite and well groomed young woman. “Ranma-kun, your friend from the tournament is here to see you.” She announced, smiling vapidly.

Ranma looked up from where he lay on the floor and gave Kaede a disinterested look before settings his head back down. “Hey.” He mumbled into the floor.

“You were very impressive, young lady.” Soun greeted.

“Not often that the boy gets put in his place.” Genma added.

“Thank you for your praise.” Kaede bowed deeply to both men. “But I was defeated, Ranma-dono lost because of a technicality.”

“Nonsense, he knew the rules.” Soun slammed a shogi piece down in a new position. “Take pride in your accomplishment.”

“Would you like anything to drink?” Kasumi offered, wanting to be a polite hostess. “Oh-- we were just about to have lunch and I don’t think I have enough for another.”

“She can have Ranma’s.” Genma sacrificed his son’s share. “To the victor goes the spoils.”

“Give up your own food, you fat idiot!” Ranma bounced up from the floor to kick his father out into the rain who rapidly turned into a giant panda.

“That’s perfect.” Kasumi beamed. “We still have some left over bamboo.” She celebrated the small victory of being able to serve everyone. “And what would you like to drink?”

“Water is fine, but if you are making tea then I wouldn’t mind a cup.” The blond answered.

“Tea then.” She gestured towards the table. “Please make yourself comfortable.”

zx

Ranma kept himself alert so he wouldn’t be taken by surprise by his father’s inevitable retaliation. His curiosity was on overdrive as he tried to figure out why the girl had tracked him down. She had been nearly impossible to find at the festival but was now calmly kneeling next to the table. She also hadn’t responded in the slightest to Genma changing forms. Now that he thought about it, she hadn’t reacted at all to his own curse.

Kaede noticed his intense look and looked away shyly for a moment and patted her right ear. “Ranma-dono--.” She looked back at him with a pleasant smile adorning her face. “I didn’t feel right in accepting the prize. I should have been disqualified for destroying the ring and for falling off the platform. So I--.”

Ranma interrupted her. “So you’re giving me the ticket to China?!” He asked excitedly, sliding across the floor to be right in her face. Any qualms he may have had about accepting a prize he didn’t technically win flew right out the window.

The blonde recoiled and shifted her kneeling position. “Sorry but no.” She shook her head and shifted again. “The ones sponsoring the trip wouldn’t accept that. But they did offer me an alternative. Since the match was so close, they were willing to accept that we both-- technically won.”

“And?” Ranma’s enthusiasm was dashed but he did still want to know what they offered.

“And they offered two tickets for a trip to Kyoto to visit their Inari shrine.” She answered.

“A trip to another Inari shrine?” His face fell completely. Ranma had been to that place a long time ago but he had mostly forgot about it because he was seven.

“Not just a Inari shrine, it’s the Inari shrine.” She amended.

“Thanks but no thanks.” He sat back in a huff. “I’m sure you got a boyfriend, go take him. I needed that trip to China.”

Kaede gained a faint blush to her cheeks and she looked down demurely. “I don’t have a boyfriend, but I thought I could try to teach you some of my techniques. I did say I would give you some tips.”

Ranma froze completely up in indecision. A trip to another boring shrine that he really didn’t care about. But he would be able to learn more martial arts techniques. Just learning how to control his heavy ki like she could to augment his strength would be worth it. But maybe he could learn her illusion abilities or how to create that cool water dragon.

“What are your intentions towards my son-in-law.” Soun suddenly demanded and Ranma could see the beginnings of his demon head technique.

“I don’t have any intentions towards him.” Kaede answered after a moments hesitation.

“I think it sounds pretty good.” He ignored Soun to try and get the conversation back on track. “When’s the trip?”

“Really?” Kaede’s mood brightened considerably. “Wonderful! Oh-- uh the trip is set for this Friday, Saturday, and then returning on Sunday.

“Kay, so you want to get started? How’d you make those copies of yourself?” He asked without enough force to be demanding.

“Here’s lunch.” Kasumi interrupted him this time, sweetly announcing as she brought in a tray with food.

Kaede seemed to ignore his question to focus on Kasumi and the food. Ranma grudgingly decided that food was the most important consideration at the moment. As he ate his strangely spicy lunch, he noticed that his father had yet to change back into a human and was just sitting on the porch watching Kaede intently while munching on a stalk of bamboo.

He was about to try asking again after shoving everything in his mouth as quickly as possible but a cell phone started to ring from Kaede’s purse. “Excuse me.” The blonde girl hit a few places on the touchscreen phone before listening to someone on the other end for only a second before hitting more buttons, and returning the phone to her purse. “I’m very sorry but I need to leave. I have-- work I need to return to for an emergency.”

Kaede took one last sip of tea before standing and bowing deeply to Kasumi. “I thank you for your hospitality Kasumi-sama and I will not forget it.”

“It was my pleasure.” Kasumi replied and started to get up.

“Please, no need to get up, I can see myself out.” The blonde looked back over to him. “Ranma-dono, I’m sorry I won’t be able to offer any tips until Friday. But I’ll see you here at three.”

“I’ll be ready.” He crossed his arms, considering ways he might be able to train in the meantime.

[Dumbledork]

Ranma is probably very glad that Akane and Nabiki weren't there. I expect a lot of trouble once everyone learns about the planned trip.

[LawOhki]

Later that day

“What do you mean you’re going a trip?! With THAT girl?!”

“It’s pretty self explanatory.” Ranma answered Akane’s angry screech by digging at his ear with a pinky. He had been meditating, attempting to trace how his heavy ki moved through his body. If it had weight then that meant it had to exist somewhere in someway. Camped out in the dojo because it had been quiet, he was surprised that Akane had taken so long to track him down to berate him.

“So why don’t you ever want to go training with me? Hmm?” She planted both hands on her hips and glared down at him.

“Well--.” He drawled. “When do you ever ask to train with me?”

Akane froze up briefly in realization that she did never ask him for training. “That’s not the point. You’re running off with a total stranger.”

“Do you want to train with me or not?” He offered his fiance.

“With you?” Her anger fizzled.

“No with Kasumi.” Stretching out his arms as he rose to his feet, Ranma watched Akane’s mouth open and close like a fish out of water.

“I-- I guess-- yes.” Akane finally answered. “But don’t think you’re going to distract me. Are you going to try-- four timing me with that girl? Or do you just want to learn all her secrets so she can’t beat you again?”

“She didn’t beat me.” He corrected, irked that technically he had lost. “I stopped her from a bad fall and they didn’t overlook that stupid out of bounds rule. That’s it.”

“Oh please Ranma, she had you fighting things that weren’t there just like Ryoga and then she could have thrown you halfway across Nerima by that water dragon she just summoned!.” Akane paused to take a deep breath.

“Wait-- were you worried about me?” He asked teasingly before she could start speaking again.

“No!” Akane vehemently denied and crossed her arms. “Don’t be stupid.”

“And people think I’m a bad liar.” Ranma chuckled to himself and avoided a punch by Akane. “You’re overreaching.” He pointed out.

“Don’t change the subject!” She fumed. “Why aren’t you ever concerned about these things?” Akane asked, her anger slowly draining away into concern.

“You’re worried about me?” He asked in confusion over the sudden change in her demeanor.

“Of course I am, idiot!” This time Akane was able to punch him on the side of the head.

“You hit your head today or something?” Waving off her concern he didn’t know what her problem was. Leaping up and over Akane’s angry kick, he landed and ducked under a follow up punch. “You really should change out of that uniform if you want to spar.” He taunted before realizing that Akane had stopped.

“You’re such an ass.” She stated and spun on her heel to charge out of the dojo.

zx

The next morning

“Ranchan you jackass!” Ukyo yelled as she smashed him over the head with her giant spatula. Flattened into the courtyard of Furinkan high school, he caught sight of several other students chuckling at his plight.

“What did I do?” He whined, picking himself off the ground to face whatever verbal tirade she was about to launch into.

“What did you do?” Ukyo snapped sarcastically. “Getting yourself engaged!”

“What?! Who told you that?” He demanded.

“Nabiki told me-- for a hefty price, that you had gotten another fiancee like that bimbo Shampoo!” The chef hefted her spatula, preparing to hit him with it again.

“She’s not my fiancee!” He protested, waving his hands in front of his body in warding.

“Oh yea? Then why are going on a trip with her?” She asked impatiently while tapping her left foot.

“Because she has a lot of things to teach me. She can do all these cool illusions and actually hit me with a dragon made out of water!” He finished excitedly, imagining just what he might be able to do with those techniques.

“So you think she’s amazing?” Ukyo asked with a strange edge to her voice.

“I wouldn’t say that-- but what she said she’d teach me is really cool.”

“If you wanted to learn cool skills, why didn’t you just ask me?” She suddenly turned cheery. “I could show you how to use the yakisoba rope, or how to throw mini-spatulas, maybe even how to prepare flour bombs.”

“No thanks Ucchan, I’m looking for skills I might actually use.” Ranma turned to finally head into the school to avoid being late and never saw the giant spatula come down on his head for a second time.

“Ranma, I can put up with you stringing along Akane and Shampoo, but until you get rid of this new girl, don’t talk to me.” She snarled at his downed form before delicately setting a round object directly in front of his face, a small fuse slowly burning down. “And don’t call my things useless.”

“Crap.” He whimpered just as the bomb exploded.

[Spica75]

*LOL*

[LawOhki]

Two days later

Ranma gave his father a curious look as their spar after school had ended with neither of them being thrown into the koi pond. Sure he was immeasurably better than his father now, but the sneaky old man was still able to pull out a trick everyday to send him into the cool water. He could guess what was throwing Genma off.

“Seriously old man, are you that upset that I’m leaving for a couple days?” He taunted.

“Show some respect for your long suffering father, boy.” He crossed his arms in an effort to appear as a respectable sensei. “And you should know by now that it’s too good to be true when someone offers you techniques for free.”

“Yea I should try to steal em first.” Rolling his eyes, he didn’t know what his father found so distasteful about Kaede. She wasn’t out to kill him for some petty slight. She was polite and friendly towards him. Was an excellent martial artist like himself who seemed to have no interest in becoming another unwanted love interest. Just what was everyone getting so upset about?

“Do you have anymore words of wisdom before I get cleaned up?” He asked sarcastically.

Genma closed his eyes and snorted. “How dumb can you be not to see that she wants something from you?” Snorting again, the elder Saotome headed for the home. “Do whatever you want. Experience can only be earned from bad choices.”

“Then why are you so useless?” He called to his father, smirking at his verbal, and physical victory. Although without Genma putting up more of a fight there wasn’t any real fun in it.

Realizing the time, he rushed through a bath by simply getting himself clean, and avoiding the tub. On the way out with just a pair of pants on and a towel draped over his shoulder, he was nearly bowled over by a glomp by Shampoo.

“Nihao airen.” She greeted enthusiastically, nuzzling her head against his cheek.

“Shampoo? What are you doing here?” He tried to disengage from the affectionate girl.

“Here you go on training trip, wife want to wish good luck.” Shampoo explained, finally allowing him some personal space.

“Wait--.” He looked at his unwanted fiancee skeptically. “You’re not mad?”

“What be mad about?” She asked in confusion.

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” He quickly laughed nervously to himself. “Lemme guess, Nabiki sold you the information.”

Shampoo’s face darkened. “Sneaky girl charge much, must think Shampoo like simple Japanese girl. But no need get angry that Airen learn get stronger.”

“Oh-- okay.” He nodded after deciphering her broken Japanese, not wanting to ruin this moment of good luck.

“But Shampoo warn Airen not let eyes wander.” She warned gravely, pulling a sword from somewhere, and pointing it towards his crotch. “Else Airen suffer wife’s wrath.”

“Sure, sure.” He sweated while trying to disregard her threat. Having done that once when first meeting her, he didn’t need Shampoo to be out for him once again. The hard point of a cane being jabbed into his lower back made him shriek in surprise and leap into Shampoo’s arms.

“Jumpy Son-in-law?” Cologne asked with amusement.

“Damn it, Old Ghoul! Don’t do that!” He left Shampoo’s arms to glare at the shriveled old woman.

“When you’re better at sensing your surroundings, you’ll be able to stop me.” The elderly woman teased. “We’re just here to wish you luck. When you return you’ll have to show me what you learned from this girl.”

‘Fat chance of that.’ He thought to himself. “Why not? You helped me out with Happosai--- and haven’t asked for much in return.”

“I also wanted to mention that I have need of a waitress for the dinner shift if you’re interested.” Cologne motioned for Shampoo to follow her as she hopped out of the changing area. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“Have fun.” Shampoo glomped onto him one more time. “But not too too much fun.” She warned before skipping off after Cologne.