Oh my...Ranma?
#4
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  OMG! and Ranma 1/2 characters don't belong to me, so please don't sue
me. I'm just a poor student trying to contribute to fanficdom.
Sining<shihlin@pacific.net.sg>
****************************************************************************

 "Give me back my clothes!" Ranma yelled, as he tried to hold up the
skimpy towel wrapped around him. He had been resting in the furo after
having practiced his katas for one hour,and somehow Urd had managed to
sneak in and steal his clothes which only left him with a small towel to
protect his modesty with. He had not gone out of the bathroom, hoping to
get Urd to return him his clothes. No such luck with that and he was
currently pounding on the bathroom door.
 "On one condition," Urd answered through the door, her voice muffled
slightly by it.
 "What!" That did it, those were his clothes. Towel or no towel, he was
going out there and getting his clothes back. " That's it," He said, as
he started to open the furo door.
 " Urd?" Belldandy's voice came to him through the slight opening in the
door, and just as quickly he slammed the door shut so hard that it
nearly came off it's hinges.
 " What are you doing with Ranma's clothes?"
 " I'm just holding them for him, don't worry." Urd said dismissively.
 " Okay..." The word was slightly drawn out and filled with suspicion.
 " So how bout it?" Urd's voice came to him again, as confident as ever.

 " No way!"
 " Belldandy!" Urd called out after her sister.
 " Yes?"
 " There's something you should se-"
 " Okay okay!!" Ranma hissed furiously, as quickly as he could. " I'll
do it!"
 " Never mind," Urd said, shooing her sister away. *Heh, that boy is so
easy to manipulate.*
 " First, give me my clothes." Urd frowned, she was the one who was
supposed to make the demands. But shrugging, she opened the door to hand
him the clothes.
 Suddenly, a hand shot out and grabbed the clothes before slamming the
door shut.
 " Now, all you need to do is take my sister out."
 " What!?" Ranma's voice could be heard very clearly now.
 " Preferably to some love movie," Urd went on as if she had never heard
Ranma's protests.
 The door slid open exposing Ranma wearing his usual chinese clothes. He
didn't look happy at all, although it was more from the thoughts of what
his other fiancees would do when they found out. He didn't expect them
to heed what he had said yesterday. He brushed at one corner of his
shirt with a free hand while glaring at Urd.
 " You must be joking." He said flatly. "Do you know what they would
do?" There was no need for him to mention who they were, Urd had already
met them yesterday. Was this woman crazy? How did she expect to get away
with it?
 " Leave it to me," Urd waved her hand lazily. " Besides you gave your
word, you're not going to back out on it are you?"
 Ranma stared at her for a long time, she was right. He wouldn't back
out on his word, he would not turn out like his Oyaji. He would not! He
would be damned before he did.
 " I ought to introduce you to Nabiki sometime." Ranma said, although he
didn't really mean going out. It was better than staying at home and
letting his fiancees find him. Although they did have an unpleasent
habit of finding him no matter where he went. *It's like they have some
sort of six sense or something.*
 " Who? Remember a romantic show!" Urd called after his fleeting figure,
as he rounded the corner of the temple disappearing from her line of
sight.
 " Women!" Ranma said in exasparation, perhaps a bit too loudly as soon
as he was sure Urd could not see him. *Where does she come up with these
ideas anyway!?*
 *Bap!* An invisible hand slapped him on the head.
 " I heard that!"
 *******
 Ranma stopped directly out of Belldandy's room, trying to will himself
to go in. *It's no big deal,* He thought and with that firmly in mind,
he took a deep breath and stepped in.
 " Belldandy, would you....." He lost it when she turned to look at him.
No matter what she did around the house, she always seemed to be clean
and tidy, not a hair out of place. Somehow that was one of the mysteries
around her, not that he minded at all. But what he wouldn't give to
know, he guessed it was one of those unexplainable mysteries, like where
Akane got her mallets from.
 " Yes?" She said, staring at him, apparently unaware of why he had
stopped in midsentence.
 " Uh..." He kept his head downcast, lest she saw the rising redness in
his cheeks. *Come on Saotome, be a man!* An inner voice cheered him on.
"W..w..would...yo...you.." He stammered, trying to keep a little of his
self esteem.
 " He's asking you on a date!" Urd's head peeked in through the door, as
she yelled in such a way, that Ranma was sure she was making fun of
him...again.
 "I'm not!!" Ranma replied without thinking(which was his standard
response to most things), slightly flustered. "Uh...that is, I am but
it's not what you think." Ranma explained sheepishly, rubbing the back
of his head every now and then.
 " I'd be delighted to go out with you Ranma," Belldandy replied,
smiling as if she meant it.
 " Good, now get going." Urd shooed the two of them out of the temple,
seeing them to the gate before running back inside the temple.
 Ranma stood there, blinked a few times before asking. "Your sister's a
weird one isn't she?"
 *Bap*
 " I heard that!"
 *******
 Ranma sat in the cinema seat, next to Belldandy. Truth be told, he was
not very comfortable. It had nothing to do with the fact that his seat
was small and uncomfortable, nor with the fact that he was running out
of money and the groceries at home were virtually non-existent. It had
nothing to do with the fact he needed to get a job to support himself,
and the idea of working at Ucchan's or the Nekohanten didn't seem all
that appealing to him. *Brr....I can just imagine what Akane's reaction
will be."
 It was more of the fact that he kept seeing mini-Kodachi's and
Shampoo's popping out of the woodwork. No matter what he tried, he
couldn't stop thinking of what would happen if they found him. He had
never finished a date before and he doubted he was going to start now.
He could just see it now, the carnage that would be cause if they found
him here seated at the movies. Sure Urd had blackmailed him into it, but
he doubted he could get them to see that particular point once they were
caught up in the bloodlust.
 "Ranma?" It was Belldandy. Funny, this was the first time she had
spoken without being asked since they had left the house.
 " Yeah?"
 " Don't you like going out with me? You don't seem to be enjoying
yourself. We could always go home if you want..."
 Ranma stared at her in bafflement. What made her think it had been her
fault? " Nah, it's nothing. I'm just worried that's all." *Especially
about Urd, who knows what trouble she could be brewing.* Ranma thought
as he remembered Urd's behavior from the day past, Friday.
 " You should relax more Ranma. Not everything will turn out bad."
Belldandy said, putting her hand on his reassuringly.
 " I guess I should." Ranma chuckled, "Might as well take the good with
the bad." It was a surprisingly apt phrase for him.
 So he tried to focus on enjoying the movie as much as he could, and
surprisingly he found it easier and easier to relax.
 Finally the movie was over. Ranma stood up, yawning as he stretched his
legs. *That was a long flick.*
 " How did you find it Ranma?" Belldandy asked.
 " Huh?" Ranma's brain took a minute to register the question. "It
was....nice." He replied lamely.
 " Only nice!!"Several voices chimed in unison behind him. He turned
back and his jaw promptly dropped as he saw five miniature Urd's merging
into one normal sized Urd.
 *Only nice!? This guy doesn't have a romantic bone in his body.* Urd
thought to herself. Looked like her little task was a bit more difficult
than she thought.
 "What are you doing here!" Ranma snapped when he finally regained
control of himself. * Did I see just see that?* He thought, rubbing his
eye's disbelievingly. *Must be some kind of power. Wish I had that,
would really have come in useful sometimes.* Ranma thought wistfully.
*Like whenever I need to escape Akane's cooking.*
 "Moi?" Urd said, fluttering her eyelashes innocently. Too innocently if
you asked Ranma. "Why can't I be here?"
 " Why you..." Ranma sputtered indignantly.
 " Urd, you were spying on us weren't you." Belldandy said, in a strict
but tired tone almost as if this was a point that she often argued with
her sister about.
 " N...yeah I was." Urd sighed, she could never lie very successfully in
front of her younger sister.
 " You shouldn't have, we have our privacy too. Promise me you won't spy
on us again."
 " But..." Urd was about to protest when she remembered the last time
Belldandy had gotten angry. It hadn't been a pretty sight. " Fine..."
She sighed in exactly the same tone Ranma had used earlier, knowing it
was better to agree.
 ****
 *Too bad Belldandy had to go off to buy groceries. Leaving me alone
with Urd......" His thoughts trailed off as he cast a suspicious glance
at the goddess walking next to him.
 " What are you looking at?"
 " Nothing." Ranma turned his head away, continuing to stare off into
the distance.
 " Oh I get it. You were looking at me weren't you? Nothing to be
ashamed of." Urd fairly purred, which elicited a slight shudder from
Ranma. *Heh, something to tease him about.*
 " No I was not!" Ranma turned around so that he was facing Urd,
protesting strongly.
 " Then what were you looking at, if not at me?" She said, smiling
cattily as she used her hands to gesture to herself.
 " Hah! Who'd want to look at you anyway!" Ranma snorted, turning his
head to ignore her. Although he supposed it wasn't true, he guessed most
guy would have found her attractive. *Especially that idiot Kuno.* But
having to spend half of one's time as a girl had somewhat dulled his
physical attraction towards girls.And speaking Kuno soured Ranma's
thoughts further as he remembered he would have to deal with Kuno again
on Monday latest.
 "What's that supposed to mean." Urd said with quite some heat in her
voice. Being a goddess, especially the goddess of love, she was rather
proud of her body.
 " What do you think it means, you-"
 ******
 Akane looked at the piece of paper again, which read.
  < Akane,
     please meet me at Colonel Chicken at 11 a.m.
     P.S I may be a bit late....
       ~Ranma.>
 It was now 1 p.m and he still had not shown. *Why that baka idiot!
What's taking him so long!* She thought back to the mysterious way the
note had just appeared on her dresser this morning. *Why is he late?* At
first she had thought that maybe he was going to apologize to her, or
somehow make up with her. But it had been two long hours, and still he
had not shown. Two long excruciating hours where she had waited and
waited for him to show. Every second had ticked past with agonizing
slowness as she waited anxiously for him.
 That was when she heard the pair of voices bickering. One of which was
awfully familiar. In fact it sounded like Ranma, could it be Ranma?
Determined to see if it was, she walked out of the fast food restaurant.

 *****
 " What did you call me!?!"
 " I called you a-"
 " Ranma?" A soft voice stopped him. A voice he knew very well.
 Ranma stopped in mid sentence, turning to see whom had called his name.
" Akane? What are you doing here?"
 " What do you mean what am I doing here!" Akane was practically
furious, had he forgotten about the note? For some reason, that thought
infuriated her even more. " You asked me to meet you here! Where have
you been?!!"
 " What- I didn't!"
 " He went out on a date with my sister." Urd smirked, whatever Ranma
got it served him right for calling her names.
 Akane exploded. "YOU WHAT!! YOU MEAN YOU MADE ME WAIT TWO HOURS FOR YOU
WHILE YOU WENT OUT ON A DATE WITH SOMEONE ELSE!!!!" Oooooh! She could
not believe the nerve of that jerk.
 " Wait!! Wait!! I was blackmailed into it by Urd!!" He said, pointing
and gesturing frantically at Urd. *Why that lousy Urd! I bet she said
that on purpose.*
 Akane cooled down a bit at hearing that, at least he hadn't made her
wait on purpose. " Is that so?"
 " Yeah, she wouldn't give me back my clothes unless I took her sister
out on a date."
 " And what were you doing without clothes?" Akane's voice had an icy
chill to it.
 " I was bathing when she snatched them! People don't bathe with clothes
on!"
 " Yep," Urd said, agreeing with Ranma which kind of surprised him. The
last he figured, she was still mad at him for calling her names. Of
course he quickly changed his mind when he heard what she had to say
next. " You should see those pectorals of his, and that firm washboard
abdomen. I even offered to scrub his back for him, but he refused."
 " Wait a minute, that didn't happen-Urk!" Ranma was cut off as his face
was buried under Akane's mallet.
 " You jerk! I can't believe I break up with you for less than a week
and you do this!" She cried, smashing Ranma a few more times before
picking up her mallet and walking away in a huff.
 * I guess that serves him right.* Urd thought, as she cheerfully
dragged the unconscious Ranma back to the temple with her.
 ****
 *BAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKA* Akane thought, as she
continued walking home. *Why should I care what the perveted jerk does!
Why do I even bother!*
 ****
 After a short while, Ranma recovered enough from his beating at Akane's
hands. At least enough to insist on walking home on his own, although
his actual words were " I'm not going to let myself be dragged like a
wimp so let me go!"
 When they reached the temple however, a surprise was in store for them.

 "Ranma?" A woman in her thirty's asked. She had short brown hair,  wore
a traditional kimono and carried a strangely shaped parcel.
 " Yeah. Who wants to know?"
 " Ranma it's me!" The woman ran to him, hugging him tightly before she
dropped a bombshell. "I'm your mom!"
 Ranma was too shocked to speak. From the shape of the parcel, Ranma
guessed it was a katana although he couldn't guess why his mom had to
carry a katana around. *Probably something to do with Oyaji,* he thought
and he was not far from the truth.
 He was as surprised to see her as she was happy to see him. In fact the
first thought he had was, *My mother?*
  *Of course, where did you think you came from?* The smarter side of
Ranma, the one that did most of the intellectual thinking for him,
retorted.
 * Wait...then how come Oyaji didn't take me to see her sooner?*
 *.....*
  *Oyaji probably did something to make her mad at him, so he's avoiding
her.*
 *That makes sense...*
 But let's skip to the present shall we?
 <Present>
 " Why Ranma, you've grown up so manly." Nodoka said, as she inspected
Ranma turning him round and round. She examined him with a critical eye,
like a seamstress does when taking measurements.
 " Except for that darn curse of mine." Ranma muttered to himself, not
expecting his mother to hear him.
 " What curse?"
 And Ranma proceeded to tell her of Jusenkyo, and how Oyaji and him had
been cursed. When he finished, she merely looked stern and disapproving.

 " So you mean Genma took you there even though he didn't know Chinese?"

 " Yep."
 " *Sigh* That sounds just like him. I'm afraid I'm going to have to
talk to him about this. You say he's cursed to become a panda?"
 *****
 " You seemed pretty worried there when he told you had been cursed."
Urd asked, most people tended to miss the little signs. But she was
sharp enough to have seen Nodoka slightly tense up when Ranma had told
her he was cursed to become a girl when splashed with cold water. And
since Ranma wasn't here at the moment she was free to talk to her about
him.
 Nodoka stared at the young woman before her, most people would not have
noticed her worry but this one had. In the background, she could hear
Ranma busy working in the kitchen to prepare tea. She had sent him there
as an excuse so she could talk to Urd privately. Trying to keep her
voice low enough so that Ranma would not hear, she said.
 " Genma promised that if Ranma did not grow up to be a manly man, they
would both commit seppekku."
 *Crash* The sound of breaking glass could be heard clearly in the
sudden silence that permeated the temple. Apparently he had still
overheard them.
 " Opps...heh heh, sorry dropped something." Ranma chuckled nervously
from the kitchen, and not too convincingly as he tried to make it seem
all was well.
 " What!!" Urd could not believe her ears, his father had actually
offered to do that even going so far as to vouch for his son? *The man
must be an idiot.*
 The sound of footsteps could be heard, making their way to the room
where Urd and Nodoka were.
 " How did you know he was here?" Urd asked, hoping to change the
subject and the uncomfortable silence that accompanied it.
 " Oh, I was told Ranma was living here with his fiancee by a Ms. Nabiki
Tendo." Nodoka smiled, placing her hand on top of Urd's. " I'm glad to
see Ranma had such a beautiful fiancee."
 It took a moment for the message's import to sink in, just at the exact
moment a muffled *Thump* could be heard as someone fell to the floor.
 Urd stared at the woman, not able to say anything for shock. Just as
she started to say something, Ranma burst into the room his face a
potrait of denial.
 "We're  not fiancees!" They both yelled at the same time.
 Nodoka clucked to herself, they reminded her so much of herself when
she was young. Young and headstrong. "No need to deny it so much Ranma."

 " No, really I'm not! And how wants to be engaged to such a girl
anyway!?"
 " What's that supposed to mean!"
 " She's the sister of my fiancee! That's all!!" Ranma continued on as
if he hadn't heard Urd. He was also ignoring the particularly nasty
looks she was throwing in his direction.
 "Well, I have to be going." Nodoka smiled as she placed a wad of bills
down onto the table.
 " Okaasan, what is this for?"
 " It's for you to support yourself."
 " But there's no need, I can get a job."
 " Of course not! Not while you're still studying."
 " Wait, what about yourself??" Ranma said, concerned. He didn't want
his mother to give him money only to have none for herself.
 " Don't worry, I came from a rich family." She smiled down at him. She
had never told Genma that, content to keep their lifes simple. Strange
that she should be telling it to Ranma now, but he was not his father.
She saw that, saw it in every movement of his. His moves a fluid dance
of steps, a sharp contrast to his father's larger bumbling gait. In fact
she saw more of herself in him than she did of Genma.
 " Then how come you married Oyaji? There must have been better guys
chasing after you." Ranma blurted out.  He could not imagine anyone
marrying Oyaji of their own choice. True Oyaji was a nice guy deep down,
but unfortunately he just had a way of bungling up things for the worse.

 Nodoka looked at him sadly from the arch of the doorway. "Sometimes
when you grow up Ranma, you'll learn love can't be forced. I didn't love
the other people, I loved your father." Saying that, she stepped out.
 ****
 That night, Ranma sat on the rooftop admiring the stars as was his
habit.
 "Ranma?" It was Belldandy. Jumping down, he went to check what she
wanted.
 "Yes, Belldandy."
 " I just wanted you to know I had a terrific time out today," She
smiled suddenly, " even if my sister made you take me out." Saying so,
she gave Ranma a quick peck on the cheek before going off into the
house.
 Leaving one very confused Ranma standing outside, holding his hand to
his now burning red cheek. He stood there, staring at the spot where
Belldandy had been for long moments before finally shaking his head
slowly and settling down on the roof again.

Author's Notes: Surprisingly, I have nothing to say. Except this chapter
seems a lot smaller than I thought it was. Oh yeah it probably sucks now
that i think about it. What can I say?
And also, thanks to my pre-readers.
             RiverStar <riverstar@funky.wow.aust.com>,
             talon@sgi.net <talon@sgi.net>,
  Smiling Kitty <NikoNeko@netcom.ca>,
             Emry <emry@nova1.net>,
  Farooqui, Nouman <nfarooqui@findsvp.com>,
             Daniel Friedrich <s0152586@fhtw-berlin.de>,
             Myrriden <sm39316@chs.mat-su.k12.ak.us>

Sining
'Legend becomes reality...
girl crosses time to meet boy...
and together, they begin a journey of mystery and adventure.'