Before starting here are a few notes that will help make sense of the
story. Ranma is in Nabiki's body, Nabiki is in Ryoga's and Ryoga is in
Ranma's. Ukyo is back in her own body, but is having trouble anyway.
Any and all comments are no only welcome, but desperately needed.
Earlier chapters of this story can be found at
http://members.xoom.com/Yoshiro_san/cwires.
Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi owns Ranma � and all related characters.
If anyone didn't know that you probably shouldn't be reading this story.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 11:
"Shampoo, we're in trouble," Ukyo gasped breathlessly. From her
condition it was apparent that she'd sprinted straight from Ucchan's to
the Nekohanten.
"Ukyo, calm down. What trouble?" Shampoo would have liked to
discount the okonomiyaki chef's panic, but past experience had taught
her that it was safest to assume the worst.
"This!" Opening her hand, Ukyo dumped what appeared to be a pile
of small black pebbles on the table in front of her.
"That not..."
"It's what's left of the statue. Happosai tried to steal it and
then blew it up when Mousse grabbed it."
"This not good. Maybe can fix though," Shampoo said dubiously.
Ukyo eyed the small pile of gravel. "Fix how?"
"Super glue. Great-grandmother come back tonight. Shampoo want to
fix before she here."
"I'll help. If this doesn't work though, I hope that Cologne has
some better ideas."
=================
Akane looked around the classroom in puzzlement. It wasn't like
Ukyo to miss school, especially since she'd seemed fine yesterday.
There was definitely something odd going on. Ranma had spent a lot of
time visiting with Ukyo and Shampoo yesterday. Ryoga spent some time
at the Ucchan as well. The four of them were up to something. That was
nothing new though. The only difference was that they were working
together.
"Miss Tendo!" An eraser bouncing off her forehead jerked Akane
back to reality. "Would you care to answer the question I just asked?"
"Um, I'm afraid that I wasn't really paying attention," Akane said
apologetically.
"Perhaps you'd like to spend some time in the hall then."
As Akane stood, she reflected that this really wasn't fair. Ryoga
and Nabiki weren't paying attention either. Still, since Ryoga was in
Ranma's body, his being awake was an improvement, and Nabiki had already
taken the class once.
=================
"Come on, boy. If you keep slacking on your training, you'll go
soft."
"How? This isn't my body." Ranma looked up at her father in
disgust. He sometimes had some good ideas when it came to martial arts,
but this didn't look like it was going to be one of them.
"Don't be a fool, Ranma. Being a martial artist is as much a
matter of mind, as body. Besides, I don't think Nabiki would appreciate
it if you gained any more weight."
"I suppose you'd know about that," Ranma grumbled.
"We aren't going to be doing anything strenuous. Just some basic
stretches and drills." It had taken a while for Genma to see the
advantages of Ranma's situation, but Genma had eventually realized it's
potential. Unfortunately, Soun had refused to let him engage Nabiki to
anyone, regardless of whose mind was occupying her body. This was the
best alternative he could come up with. Going over the basics in a
female body would probably help Ranma anyway.
"All right. It's not like I have anything better to do." Ranma
shot a suspicious glance in her father's direction. "You'd better not
try anything funny though."
=================
Akane stormed down the streets angrily. Ranma hadn't been there
when she'd gotten home from school and when she'd checked at Ucchan's it
had been closed. Arriving at her destination, she wrenched the door of
the Nekohanten open, ignoring the fact that it was locked.
"Akane, what are you doing here?" Ukyo moved inconspicuously to
block Akane's path to the door to the kitchen she'd just emerged from.
"I'm looking for Ranma. I know he's got to be here somewhere."
"What are you talking about?"
"Where else would he be? Now get out of my way." Reaching Ukyo,
Akane tried to push her way into the kitchen. Being at least
momentarily unsuccessful, Akane changed tactics and pivoted allowing
Ukyo to stumble forward.
Entering the room, Akane found no sign of Ranma. The only person
present was Shampoo who was busy with something on one of the counters.
"Tha- That's the statue." At least it was the statue; Akane amended.
It currently looked like a half finished jigsaw puzzle. At least part
of the reason for its condition was apparent, since Shampoo was holding
a pair of tweezers and a tube of glue.
"What violent girl doing here?" the amazon challenged.
"That's not important. I want to know about that." Akane gestured
in the direction of Shampoo's partially completed project.
"I think we should tell her, Shampoo. She already knows, really,"
Ukyo said, coming up behind Akane.
=================
Ranma was grinning widely as she walked into the Tendos' yard. It
had been so long since her father had had anything worthwhile to teach
her that she'd almost forgotten what it felt like. Genma's constant
correction to her balance and stance had been irritating, but they'd
also brought back just about every good memory she had of him. The
practice might be useful as well. She could still remember the problems
she'd had trying to fight Mousse under the influence of the full body
cat tongue.
"I'm back," Ranma announced as she strolled through the door.
"Where's everyone?"
Nodoka looked over her child's unkempt condition through
disapproving eyes. She couldn't bring herself to say anything about it
though. It was nice to see her so happy. "Ryoga's up in your room,
Nabiki hasn't gotten back yet and Akane left again."
Ranma frowned uneasily. "Nabiki's in Ryoga's body. If she wasn't
with Akane, she could be anywhere by now. I suppose I'd better get
changed out of this gi and go looking for her."
=================
"Shampoo finished." Shampoo triumphantly held up the results of
labor, pushing any doubts she might have had to the back of her mind.
Ukyo and Akane looked up from the table, where Ukyo had been
explaining yesterday's events to Akane. "That's great. Now all we have
to do is test it."
"What you mean?"
"Akane shrugged off the curious gazes of the other girls. "We do
have to find out if it still works. I mean, it doesn't exactly look the
same." Akane's statement was accurate, although possibly slightly
overgenerous. It would have been more to the point to say that the
statue looked like it had been shattered into dozens of fragments and
then glued back together.
"She's right sugar. We do need to know." The young chef moved
nervously away. "It'll have to be the two of you, since I doubt either
of you could learn okonomiyaki style martial arts well enough in three
days to beat Mousse."
Shampoo nodded and extended the hand holding the statue. <Amazon
Secret Technique: Ghostly Spirit Switch.>
"Well that was exciting. At least there were a couple of sparks
when Ranma tried to use it."
"Wonderful. The way things are going, Ryoga's going to be my
brother-in-law."
Ukyo winced almost imperceptibly. "Thanks. With everything else
going on, I'd almost managed to forget about that. Say, I thought you
didn't believe there was anything going on."
"I didn't, but Ranma and Ryoga are always talking and doing things
together." Akane hesitated and then decided to continue. "Plus, I
found some pictures in Nabiki's room."
=================
In his small room, in the Nekohanten's attic, Mousse contemplated
the girls' actions with considerable amusement. Although he couldn't
make out much of their conversation, the little he'd heard it sounded as
if Saotome was in a lot of trouble. He'd expected that any damage
Happosai had caused would've been reversed by now, but apparently it had
been. Mousse made no effort to conceal the broad grin that spread over
his face. With Ranma out of the picture there was no way he could lose.
Suddenly a disturbing thought occurred to him. He'd issued his
challenge expecting that Kuonji was back in her own body. If he was
wrong, his victory would be far more difficult than he'd expected. As
Mousse's mind raced, considering new alternatives, one hand reflexively
patted a hidden pocket on his robe, ensuring that the object it
contained was still safe within.
=================
It still felt a bit strange to be wearing Nabiki's clothes, but it
wasn't as if Nabiki could use them. Searching through Nabiki's closet,
Ranma marveled at the selection there. Unfortunately there wasn't much
that was even remotely masculine, but since she was supposed to be
dressing like Nabiki, that didn't matter. Ranma hesitated over her
choices for amoment and then grabbed a pair of jeans along with a pastel
coloredsweater that she thought belonged to Akane. The jeans were tight
enough not to leave much to the imagination, but they were better than
the alterantives.
A sudden knock on the door caught Ranma's attention. "Just wait a
second." After hurriedly pulling on the clothes she'd picked out, Ranma
yanked open the door. "Ryoga, what do you want now?"
"I had a couple of ideas that might help Ukyo out, and I wanted to
talk them over with you."
"Well that's good," Ranma said neutrally. Ryoga was a superb
martial artist, but planning had never been his strong point. "I was
going to go get Nabiki, but she can probably wait." Closing the door
behind her, Ranma walked over to the bed and sat down on it.
"Something's happened to her?"
"Nah. Akane just left her at school. She's a lot smarter than
you, so she'll probably stay put until someone comes."
"Hey! I could do that."
"Yeah, sure. That's why you followed me all the way to China.
Face it, Ryoga, your sense of direction wouldn't have caused you nearly
as much trouble if you weren't so stubborn."
"You mean it wouldn't have caused me as much trouble if it wasn't
for you. I still haven't forgotten about those directions to my house
you gave me."
"There was nothing wrong with those directions," Ranma protested.
"I even drew you a map. I just didn't understand how hopeless you were
yet."
"Hey, take that back."
"Why? It's true and you'd never attack anyone who couldn't fight
back, anyway." Ranma punctuated her words by sticking out her tongue at
Ryoga.
"Don't be too sure. Now that I think about it, this is the perfect
time to get my revenge."
"What're you talking about?"
=================
"Akane, Nabiki isn't home from school yet." The warm and caring
tone of Kasumi's voice was lost on her listener. She used it all the
time after all.
"She isn't?" Akane quickly realized the reason for Nabiki's
absence. "Sorry, I forgot that she'd need help getting home." In her
defense, Akane thought that she did have a lot in her mind.
"Ranma's going to go down to get her, but he hasn't left yet.
Maybe the two of you could go together," Kasumi suggested.
"I suppose so." Akane shrugged and headed up the stairs.
"Stop that! Let go of me." Akane quickly whirled towards Nabiki's
room, realizing that the voice came from there. The muffled shriek that
followed added speed to her response.
Slamming the door open, Akane saw Ryoga bending over Ranma on the
floor, holding both her arms in one hand. Stepping forward, Akane
neatly punted Ryoga out the window and into the yard.
"Thanks, Akane. Who knew that Nabiki's body would be so ticklish?"
"Ticklish?"
"Yeah. What did you think was happening? I bet you forgot about
the switch." Ranma chuckled. "I guess it would have looked pretty
bad."
"Yes, that's it!" Akane hastily agreed. "Anyway, Kasumi suggested
that I go with you to get Nabiki. Is that all right?"
"I guess so. You were the one who left her behind. I can finish
talking to Ryoga when we get back."
=================
"So what was this great plan to help Ukyo?" Ranma looked over at
the boy sprawled out beside her on the futon in her room.
"Mousse is a blind idiot, right?" Ryoga said, gesturing lazily.
"True. He's not a bad fighter though."
"That doesn't matter. I'm a lot better, and if I dress like Ukyo,
he'll never notice the difference."
"He might not notice, you mean." Ranma frowned thoughtfully as she
considered the plan. "It might work if we can't think of anything else
and Ukyo will go along with it."
"Why wouldn't she?"
"I dunno. Akane never likes it when I try to keep her from getting
hurt."
Ryoga frowned uneasily. He felt that he should try to defend
Akane, but he wasn't sure how. It did remind him of something else
though. "Do you know why Akane kicked me out of the window?"
"I wouldn't worry about it. She does stuff like that to me all the
time."
"But you're a jerk and deserve it!" Ryoga reconsidered his words.
"Maybe not all the time, but you do a lot of things that make her
upset."
Ranma coughed slightly in amazement at Ryoga's concession and then
developed a smirk. "Things like groping her sister on the floor?"
"Yes," Ryoga agreed. Hey! I wasn't groping you."
"Well watch where you put your hands next time."
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Ranma and Ryoga's eyes shot
towards the open doorway and the figure standing in it.
"Of course not, Nabiki," Ranma replied hastily.
"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"
"Actually, I was trying to find the washroom," Nabiki muttered. "I
do need to talk to Ryoga though, so I'll just borrow him for a while."
"I guess that's all right," Ryoga said uncertainly, as he rose to
his feet.
=================
"What's this about?" Ryoga asked while Nabiki closed the door to
his room.
"I'm just doing you a favor, Ryoga."
"A favor?" Ryoga surreptitiously glanced around the room. He
didn't see anything out of place, but the conversation still wasn't
making sense.
"Yes. Kiyomi asked me out on a date tonight and I accepted."
"You're going on a date with another girl?" Ryoga might have had a
sense of direction, but that didn't stop him from feeling lost.
"I'm not a girl at the moment. I'm only doing it for you anyway."
Nabiki smiled slightly at Ryoga's expression of disbelief. "You want
her to think that you're a nice guy, don't you?"
"I guess so..."
"Then you won't mind paying for everything."
Ryoga gulped audibly. Suddenly things were making a lot more
sense. "But... I mean Akane..."
"You're right, there probably are a few things that I should tell
her."
Inwardly, Ryoga conceded defeat. "I don't have all that much
money."
"Don't worry. I'll manage."
=================
Akane knew she needed help. Even if Shampoo was right and Cologne
could reverse the body switches, she still didn't know what to do about
Ranma and Ryoga. Her own efforts to win Ranma over had seemed to go
totally unnoticed. Akane mentally ran through the list of people she
could turn to for help. Most of them were either too closely involved
or unlikely to provide useful assistance. Finally, she decided to go
looking for Nabiki. Her sibling had become a lot harder to find
lately, but Nabiki was still her best choice.
Akane carefully searched the upper floor of the house, before
descending the stairs to continue her quest. It didn't take long before
she located Nabiki. When she entered the kitchen she was in for a
surprise though.
"Nabiki, you look...different." Instead of Ryoga's usual worn
clothes, Nabiki was wearing a white shirt and back dress pants that
looked vaguely familiar to Akane. Ryoga's omnipresent bandanna was
absent as well.
"I'm glad you it."
Meanwhile, Akane was rapidly regaining her composure. Nabiki had
always taken a great deal of concern with her appearance, and there was
no reason that should have changed with her gender. "Did you get your
hair cut?"
"Kasumi did it for me. Along with the manicure." Nabiki held up
his hand, displaying the neatly trimmed finger nails.
"Nabiki, guys usually don't have manicures." Despite everything,
Akane still considered Ryoga her friend, and she didn't want Nabiki
causing trouble for him.
"I know that, but I'm not really a guy. Besides, I want to look my
best for my date tonight." The look of surprise that shot over Akane's
face was almost comical, Nabiki thought.
"Date!" Akane squeaked. "With a boy or a girl?" It was starting
to look like Nabiki wasn't the best choice for advice.
"A girl." Akane's expression really was funny, Nabiki decided.
He'd have to tell her the truth though, or at least something close to
it. There was no need to do it right away though.
"I just thought of something. I have to go now." Akane had
started backing up as she spoke, and when she finished she whirled and
rushed through the kitchen doors.
=================
Inside Ucchan's Okonomiyaki the second planning session was off to
a slow start. "What's bothering Ryoga, Ranchan?" Shampoo hadn't
arrived from the Nekohanten yet, and Ryoga was barely listening to the
others at all.
"He's just worried because Nabiki's going on a date with Kiyomi."
Ranma waved a hand dismissively. "It's not a real problem."
"It's not a problem for you. Do you have any idea how much Nabiki
is spending?"
"Nabiki's spending money on this? I thought she liked guys."
"She's spending my money. She's going to wipe me out in one date."
Ukyo resisted the urge to wince in sympathy. As far as she was
concerned Ryoga deserved a bit of stress. She considered asking why
Ryoga was paying, but Nabiki's skill in manipulation was answer enough.
"That's rough. Do you have any ideas about how I should train?"
"Yeah. We'll start once Shampoo gets here. You'll spar against
her and Ryoga at the same time. They'll try to disarm you and you'll
try to stop them."
"That's it? I was hoping for something a bit more impressive."
"Hmm? Oh sure, reliance on a single weapon is your biggest
weakness. Mousse is sure to try to exploit it." His comment finished;
Ryoga returned to staring at the wall.
"Ryoga' right. Remember what happened when we fought?"
"I suppose so
=================
Nabiki stood waiting by the gate with a large degree of
trepidation. He'd had quite a bit of experience dating, but it wasn't
much help in this situation.
"I'm glad to see you Ryoga."
"I said I'd be here." Examining Kiyomi, Nabiki knew a moment of
relief. She hadn't brought her spear along and had dressed in a sweater
and navy skirt. Smiling, Nabiki produced a half dozen long stemmed
roses and handed them to Kiyomi. "I know a nice outdoor cafe around
here that we can go to."
"I hate to bring this up, Ryoga, but do you remember how to get
there?"
"Um, no," Nabiki confessed after a moment of thought. He'd eaten
at the cafe a dozen time with Kuno and knew it was nearby, but couldn't
visualize the route to it.
"That's all right, Ryoga. A quiet walk in the park will be fine.
You don't have to spend so much money trying to impress me."
"I suppose I'm just a bit nervous."
"That's all right. The roses are nice." Kiyomi reached out and
took hold of Nabiki's hand. "Let's go."
As the two left, a figure dressed in baggy, ill-fitting clothing
and wearing a cap marked with a red star emerged from the Tendos' yard.
Looking around to make sure no one was watching; Akane set out after her
former sister.
End Chapter 11.