*Please* give me some MCs on this series....
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What has gone before: In a continuity with only two Tendou sisters, Ranma has
avoided an unwanted engagement by using his previous engagement with Ukyou,
who he had searched for after running across the Gambling King. His old enemy
Ryouga had appeared, and Ranma and Ukyou were challenged to a skating fight by
Mikado, whose partner Azusa wanted Ryouga's cursed form as her pet pig
Charlotte.
TENDOU 2/3
by Ken Arromdee
Chapter 5: No Dice
There was a hard rap on Ranma's window. He opened it and looked out, only
to find himself in the middle of a fight as Ryouga's fist hurtled towards him.
Ranma dodged the fist and pulled Ryouga inside. "Ryouga... what are you doing
here?"
"Don't talk to me like that! You're responsible for all this... all this
_misery_ I've suffered. I barely escaped with my life!" Ryouga pointed to his
clothes--he was wearing only his headband, and a towel tied around his waist--
and to his neck, on which was a cute metal band reading "Charlotte". Ryouga
shivered. "That horrible voice... that awful trinket collection... and I'm
marked for life! I can't remove this band. Now die, Ranma!"
Ryouga thrust his umbrella at Ranma, who moved out of the way. "Wait,
Ryouga! It's the panda who's partly to blame, right?"
"So?"
Ranma indicated the panda, who had just walked in. It quickly put up a
sign reading "I'm just a harmless animal."
Ryouga swiped the sign from the panda and knocked him out in one blow.
"Sure, Ranma. Now, you're next."
"Uh, let me get you your clothes first...." He pulled them out of the
closet and handed them to Ryouga. "You can dress in the bathroom. It's
around the corner a little bit."
Ryouga left. Hmm, around the corner. The stairs went up and down, and
made an angle with the floor, so that angle must be the corner Ranma meant.
Pretty soon, Ryouga was miles away.
The phone rang, and Ranma picked it up. "Hello... Ranma Saotome. What
do you want?"
"Ranma, it's Dr. Toufuu. I have the information you needed, about the
Gambling King. He's been travelling pretty much in a straight line and that
line missed both the Tendou Dojo and your friend's dorm a long time ago. He's
probably not going to be back for months unless something draws him back.
Here's where he's been staying..." Toufuu rattled off a list of places,
mostly expensive hotels, which Ranma jotted down.
"Well, thanks! Got to go... practice for the skating fight...."
Ranma dialed up Ukyou's dorm. "Hi, Ucchan? Uh... do you know how to
skate?"
"Oh... you want to teach me, Ranchan? That's sweet."
"Ah, er, not exactly. But we have to practice somewhere for the big
fight. Be there at 6?"
"Hai...."
Ranma splashed himself and went to the rink. Ucchan was there. "Hi,
Ranma! I'm so glad you're willing to show me!" Ranma smiled at her, stepped
onto the ice, and promptly fell down. Ukyou sighed in exasperation.
Far, far away, Ryouga (dressed in a towel and a neckband) asked a bystander
"Where is Ranma Saotome's bathroom?" Strange, thought Ryouga. Who in Ranma's
house looks like a giant playing card? Maybe Ryouga should be more specific.
"It's in the Tendou Dojo. That's somewhere in Japan."
"My Tendou Dojo? Let me show you."
Ukyou had learned some simple skating pretty fast. Ranma was covered with
bruises from all the times she had fallen down, really hoping she had learned
_something_.
Ukyou walked with Ranma to the dojo and prepared to go home. Ranma shouted
at her. "Wait, Ucchan! Something's strange here." There was a large truck
parked by the dojo and workers were bringing furniture in. They entered, and
the Gambling King was there. "I _said_ you lose."
Genma and Soun looked particularly mad at Ranma this day. Genma asked
his son (actually, his daughter, at the moment) "How could you! Gamble away
the Tendou Dojo.... I told you that Ukyou's a bad influence on you. You
should stay away from her and marry one of the Tendou daughters!"
"Sorry, old man. Both you and I have to agree before I can get a different
fiancee. And I'm not going to."
"How can you say that? Why, just right now, Nabiki and Kasumi are helping
to win back the house...."
"I never gambled away the house! It's not mine, anyway!"
"No, poor Tendou-kun did in hope of repairing the damage that you caused.
It's not his fault that he lost on a 50-50 chance!"
Inside the dojo, the Gambling King was setting up tables. Nabiki was
busy designing an ad. "Hmm... should 'Formerly the Tendou Dojo' be at the
top or the bottom?" She punched a few keys on a computer, and it printed out
an ad. The King crossed off Nabiki's room from a house floorplan, and left
to make copies.
Just as he was about to leave, Ryouga asked him "Wait... but where _is_
the bathroom?" He was still dressed in a towel.
"The dojo's mine. Not the bathroom."
Ranma was livid. "You led him here, Ryouga!"
"Ranma, what? Where's the bathroom? I have to change clothes."
Ranma stopped. Ryouga seemed serious. Not plotting at all. So Ranma told
him "Sure, go ahead and change. Kasumi, take him to the bathroom. By the
hand if need be." Kasumi led Ryouga away.
Ucchan said, hesitantly, "Ranma?"
"Hai..."
She was nearly in tears. "It's... it's all my fault! I don't know how to
make it up to you. If you can't live here, you can always come stay with
me...."
"Ucchan... it's okay... I'll do something to stop it."
"You have a plan?", asked Ukyou.
"Hai. Just wait a moment...."
Ranma disappeared, and reappeared in a cute schoolgirl uniform. She
waited for the Gambling King, who soon returned.
"Mr. King! I'm Saotome Ranma and my daddy really wants the dojo! My pet
pig Charlotte is the most precious pet I have and I'll even bet him as a stake
to get the dojo back! Pleeeeeease!" She held up a small black writhing pig
wearing a yellow and black bandanna and a cute collar bearing the word
"Charlotte". Ranma whispered to the pig "Now play along. Me and Ucchan don't
_have_ to fight for you later, you know. Oh, and I never said how _long_
you'd keep the clothes after you changed."
The King replied "You're so cute... okay, just this once."
The card game was a simple one. Each person had to pick a card from the
other's hand, and avoid getting the joker. If everything was fair, the two
players had equal chances of winning.
They played the game betting away bits and pieces, which caused Ryouga
to become more agitated in fear that the King would get half a pig and remove
his part with a hatchet. But pretty soon, the Gambling King had ownership of
the dojo, several rooms of the house, Ukyou's possessions, _and_ a small black
pig. "You lose."
Ukyou asked Ranma "What about your big idea?"
"Hey, it's not my fault I lost. He probably cheated!"
"Of course he cheated. He cheated when we were kids too!"
Nabiki interrupted. "Listen to me. You want to win the dojo back, right?
You have to learn how to play the game properly. You can see the expression
on your opponent's face when you're about to pick a card! That's how he can
insure that he doesn't get the joker."
Genma, listening nearby, agreed. "Listen to what she says, Ranma! She's a
smart girl and she would make a perfect wife for a Saotome to take over the
dojo!"
"I've had enough!" yelled Ukyou. "Here Ranma is trying to do his best to
help everyone and all you can think about is trying to break us up! Come on,
Ranma, let's go practice."
They practiced in a guest room. The next morning, Ryouga, once again
wearing a towel, smashed open the door. "Ranma, I'll kill..." A strange
sight greeted him: Ranma himself was also wearing only a towel. Ukyou had
Ranma's clothes, plus a stack of IOUs, piled beside her on the floor. Both
looked very tired and yawned regularly.
Ranma insisted "One more game, Ucchan...."
Ukyou handed Ranma a pad and pencil, to write out another IOU. Ukyou
was not quite sure what she was going to do with them, but there had to be
some way she could use Ranma's debt to get him closer to her. He was her
fiancee, but he'd only accepted the arrangement out of convenience, and she
wanted more than that.
Ukyou put her hands to Ranma's face. "You're too easy to read, Ranma.
Much more so than me." That was certainly so, and not just for card playing.
She still wasn't sure if she understood her own feelings....
After breakfast and naps, Ranma challenged the Gambling King again. "Oh,
pleeease! I want to gamble for the dojo! Can you do something for a girl in
trouble?"
"Of course. What's your stake?"
"Uh, er.... How about the Tendou house?"
Kasumi said "Oh, no. You can't." That ruled that out.
"Okay, not the Tendou house. How about a year of free martial arts
lessons?"
"A cute girl like you? Fight? No, I couldn't!" Ranma facefaulted.
Ranma tried again. "How about my pet panda?"
"What would I do with two pets?"
Ukyou interrupted. "Do you take IOUs?", she asked, clutching a stack of
Ranma's.
"Only if they're from you."
"Fine." answered Ukyou, and wrote out several of her own. "Let's play."
The Gambling King nodded. "Let's start!" Ranma objected, but to no
avail, and Ukyou and the Gambling King started to play the game.
They played for hours. Ukyou was much better matched with the Gambling
King than Ranma was; after all, she _had_ been able to beat Ranma in practice
games all through the night. Several times, she was even in the lead, but
never by enough to matter. Slowly, the stack of IOUs on the Gambling King's
side began to grow and grow.
Ranma just watched. And finally, "Stop right there! I have one more thing
I want to bet. It's the yatai! It sealed my engagement to Ucchan. I don't
know what Dad ever did with it, but it's mine, and I can bet it, even if you
have to sit on him a bit to find out where to dig it up. And don't worry,
Ucchan, I'm not going to lose."
It was obvious to the King that Ranma, who couldn't fake her face all that
well, was sincere. The King had no idea how he could use a yatai if he won
it, but winning something that mattered to his opponent, whatever and however,
was the most important aspect to him.
The Gambling King shuffled the cards and dealt them to Ranma and himself.
Ranma ran off. The Gambling King reached for the cards, but Ukyou grabbed
his hand first. "Don't cheat."
Ranma returned, male and with a mask over his face. "You can't read my
face this way, King. Now we can begin.
After the first few hands, Ranma noticed a few scratches on the back of the
joker. Quite willing to cheat on his own, he avoided that card and shortly
took the lead. At least, until the King finally started using martial arts
moves and began to throw jokers into Ranma's hand.
Ranma wished he knew a move like that, but he didn't. The best he could
do was try to deflect the cards. This didn't work too well, until Ukyou
helped with her spatulas. She could throw several at a time, and managed to
knock the King's cards out of the air as fast as he could throw them. The
Gambling King gave up that particular form of cheating.
They were down to two cards, and Ranma realized that this was it. The
King put up everything he had won, including the dojo, and Ranma put up the
yatai. The King put both cards face down on the hand. "Pick one. If you
get the king, you win your dojo and everything else. If you get the joker,
you lose."
Ukyou interfered. "He's going to cheat, Ranma. Both of those cards are
jokers." The Gambling King ferverently denied it.
"This is honest?", asked Ranma.
"Of course." replied the King.
"There's only one joker among those two cards?", asked Ranma.
"Of course."
Ranma pointed at the two cards. "Ucchan, make sure he doesn't touch
those." As Ukyou kept watch, Ranma picked up a card and said "I'm taking this
one." He promptly crumpled it into a ball and swallowed it. "We'll look at
the card I didn't take and see what it is."
Ranma turned over the card that he didn't pick. It was a joker. "I guess
that settles it. I left the joker behind, so I must have won with the king."
The Gambling King, outmaneuvered, admitted defeat. "You won with the
King." He handed Ranma the original contract for the dojo, Ranma's print
voided out by the King's signature. He followed with the house deed, Ukyou's
contract, and a stack of Ukyou's IOUs. "I'm sorry. The pig ran away."
Ranma replied "That's quite okay. Charlotte can take care of himself."
Ukyou hugged Ranma. "You did it!" In no more than five seconds, Genma
had grabbed Ranma and Soun had grabbed Ukyou, pulling the two teenagers apart.
Ranma objected "Hey, we are engaged!" but his father wouldn't accept
that. "She's not someone you want to be engaged with, just because you helped
each other out once!"
Ranma replied "Well, I owe her a lot!" He pointed to Ukyou's IOUs.
Ukyou continued "And I owe him a lot too!" indicating Ranma's stack.
The next day at school, the entire school was abuzz with the gossip of
how Ranma and her fiancee had worked together to defeat an old enemy. Most
of the gossip had been spread by Nabiki, but some by Ranma, who couldn't
resist bragging in an unfeminine fashion.
Sayuri told Ranma "It's too bad your pet pig ran away. I would have loved
to see him."
"Well, I'm sure you'll get the chance someday. He just gets lost a lot."
Ryouga was indeed lost. He managed to stay in human form until a water
sprinkler, timed to go off every afternoon, suddenly soaked him. And then,
a girl, tremendously tall from his vantagepoint, reached down to pick him up.
"Oh, Charlotte, Charlotte. Where did you go, Charlotte?"
As Ranma and Nabiki walked home, Nabiki asked her "Just one question about
this whole King incident, Ranma..."
"Hai? Go ahead."
"You _are_ aware that the legal age to sign contracts is a lot higher than
6, aren't you?"
(To be continued.)