The Kind of Girl Ranma Wants
(A Ranma 1/2 fanfic)
By Ammadeau
Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org
http://www.angelfire.com/anime/amma
Chapter 1: Oh, My Arien!
Shampoo sat in her room, pondering. This was not
something that she was accustomed to. She had been taught and
had always succeeded with simply reacting immediately to any
situation. Thinking in combat wasted precious time and left you
open to your enemy. When great-grandmother ask her to do
something, she do. When new challenger challenge her, she fight.
When stupid Mousse bothered her, she knock him silly.
It had always worked fine in the past, but recently she had
come to one conclusion: it wasn't working with Ranma. When she
saw him, she went with her instincts and threw herself at him.
That never resulted in the reaction that she hoped for. She wanted
him to hug back, not run away like she was some monster. Even
when she thought through her tactics, they always failed.
Shampoo studied her profile in the mirror. Wasn't she
pretty enough? Skilled enough? A good enough cook? She
thought that she had all of the other fiancees beat in these
categories, the things that mattered most to men, or at least to most
men. But then again, Ranma wasn't like most men. That was why
she wanted him in the first place.
Shampoo started thinking about what Ranma wanted in a
woman. She quickly saw that all the qualities of his current
fiancees had to be negative ones to him since he showed no interest
in marrying any of them. If he were attracted to one of them, he
would have shown it in some way or another. Ranma always ran
from her. Ukyo he was a bit closer to, though he ran from her too
when she pressed her claim. He and Akane were always fighting...
what kind of girl does Ranma want?
"What kind girl Ranma want?" Shampoo said to herself
very slowly as her eyes grew wider and wider.
Shampoo preferred to make her presence known as loudly
as possible, usually by knocking down a wall or two. That didn't
mean she hadn't picked up the lessons on stealth her great-
grandmother had taught her. She was using those lessons now as
she spied on the Tendo home, waiting for her arien to come home.
From her perch in a tree, she could see right into the Tendo
living room quite clearly. Mr. Tendo was playing shogi with the
fat panda while Kasumi was moving about the house, cleaning.
Shampoo frowned a bit, seeing this. As the woman of the house, it
should have been Kasumi who was taking it easy, or perhaps
training, while the men did the work as was their duty. Shampoo
shook her head sadly at the backwards customs of the Japanese.
Then came the moment she had been waiting for. Ranma
came home with Akane. Both were shouting too fast for Shampoo
to make out clearly, but she frowned again to see Ranma was in
girl-form. Part of her still hadn't forgiven the loss to the red-haired
girl, or the deception that followed, but that wasn't as important to
her as Akane's feelings about it.
"Hmm, Shampoo think violent girl like girl-arien better
than boy-arien," she muttered to herself.
Then Shampoo saw something that made her blink in
surprise. Ranma and Akane were arguing loudly over something
about water buckets, when Kasumi appeared next to them, holding
a tea kettle. She said something and immediately Ranma broke off
the argument and accepted the tea kettle from her with a small bow
of thanks, returning it after he was done becoming a man again. It
was only after Kasumi had left did the argument start up again.
"This need further study," Shampoo whispered to herself.
And so at random times, but times that she figured Ranma
would be home, Shampoo went and spied on the Tendo house the
entire week. At the end, she had reached one conclusion: Kasumi
was the only person Ranma automatically respected. She knew
that he also respected her great-grandmother, for instance, but that
was only given grudgingly. To Kasumi, he gave it freely. To a
person with as much pride as Ranma had, this was significant.
This puzzled Shampoo. She had found out that technically
Ranma was engaged to all of the Tendo daughters until he married
someone, so if he wanted Kasumi, why didn't he marry Kasumi?
After some hours of thought the only conclusion Shampoo
could come up with that made the most sense was that Ranma
wanted Kasumi, but Kasumi did not want Ranma. But this was
hard for her to accept. For what woman wouldn't want Ranma?
To Shampoo, he was the ideal male. To Shampoo... but perhaps
not to Kasumi? The quickest solution was to go directly to the
source.
Shampoo knew that every day, while Ranma was at school,
Kasumi went shopping for the meals of the day. They had even
exchanged pleasantries a few times when great-grandmother had
sent Shampoo on similar errands. Shampoo was a bit puzzled how
the eldest sister could be so nice to her after all the things that she
had one, or had tried to do, to the woman's sister Akane.
With a great show of casualness, Shampoo greeted Kasumi
as the older girl had just begun her shopping for the day. Shampoo
immediately realized that not only was this an opportunity to find
out how Kasumi felt about Ranma, but also those qualities in the
older girl that prompted his instant respect.
"Hello, Kasumi," Shampoo said to the taller girl after
'happening' to run into her, bowing slightly.
"Good afternoon, Shampoo," Kasumi replied with a
pleasant smile, returning the bow.
"Out shopping for food?" Shampoo asked.
If Kasumi thought it odd for the Amazon to inquire about
her, she made no sign of it. "Oh, yes. I have to get some
ingredients for dinner, and tomorrow's breakfast and lunch. Not to
mention for the bentos of Akane, Nabiki, and Ranma."
Shampoo noticed immediately that Kasumi had said
Ranma's name the same way she said her sisters. Shampoo would
never do that. To her, even her arien's name was special. "Great-
grandmother want me do some shopping also, but Shampoo no
know stores here well. Is okay Shampoo shop with you?"
Shampoo only noticed a slightly widening of the eyes that
showed Kasumi's surprise. Her voice was the same as before,
pleasant and mellow. It strangely reminded Shampoo of a lullaby
her mother used to sing to her when she was little.
"That would be fine. What do you need to get? I can go to
some stores first so you can get back to the Nekohanten sooner."
"No, no," Shampoo replied nervously. "Great-grandmother
say it okay if Shampoo take time shopping. Restaurant slow
today."
When Kasumi nodded, Shampoo could detect no sign that
the older girl had noticed her nervousness. She also had to wonder
with what she had said last if she was trying to get rid of Shampoo
as soon as possible. Either Kasumi was as nice as she appeared, or
she was even better than great-grandmother at hiding her true
thoughts and feelings.
So together they shopped, Shampoo buying things nearly at
random for appearance's sake, Kasumi offering helpful suggestions
along the way. She was sure that if worst came to worst she could
blame them on Mousse. And as they shopped, they talked. At
first, mostly about food, but the more they talked, the more their
topics began to drift until they finally reached what Shampoo had
planned this whole thing in the first place for: Ranma.
"Is not true that all Tendo daughters are fiancees of Ranma,
including you?" Shampoo asked.
"Well, I suppose that's so," Kasumi admitted after a minute.
"But neither Nabiki or myself consider ourselves engaged to him."
"Why not want to be engaged to Ranma?" Shampoo
inquired, her puzzlement clear on her face.
"I don't know about Nabiki, but for me Ranma is much too
young."
"Too young? He only 2, 3 years younger than you. In
Amazon village, people marry with many more years between
them."
Kasumi frowned slightly. "I don't mean his age so much as
the way his acts. Ranma can be quite nice, but he really is
immature. I don't think I could have a serious relationship with
someone like that. Besides, Ranma is much more like a little
brother to me than anything else. To be interested in him that
way... well, it just seems odd to me."
Shampoo nodded absently, lost in thought. Somewhere
behind her eyes an understanding was slowly being reached, and a
plan was beginning to form.
"Shampoo?" Kasumi asked, turning around to see that her
companion had stopped walking.
"Shampoo has all she needs for today," she said quickly,
holding up her bag for emphasis. "Thank you, Kasumi."
"Your welcome, Shampoo," Kasumi replied, watching the
trail of dust settle as the Amazon sped away. After another
moment, she turned around and went back to her shopping.
"Hello, great-grandmother!" Shampoo enthused with a big
smile on her face as she walked into the kitchen where Cologne
was working, setting her bag on the table. "I home!"
"Welcome back, Shampoo," Cologne said with a grin as
she started going through the contents of the grocery bag. She
hadn't expected Shampoo to do some shopping on her free time,
but was pleased none the less. "Excellent choices here, great-
granddaughter. Why don't you go and relive Mousse out there in
the restaurant. That fool has already messed up enough orders for
today."
"Okay!" Shampoo shouted, leaving a confused Cologne
behind. Whatever had happened to her great-granddaughter, it had
to be really good to make her excited about going back to work.
Shampoo eagerly went about waitressing, keeping her
hands busy as her mind began to work away at her current
problem. She approached it like another martial art. It would take
some tools, some study, and some training, but in the end she was
sure it would be worth it.
Shampoo arranged with her great-grandmother to be free of
work whenever Kasumi was out shopping, joining the oldest
Tendo sister for her expeditions, this time with an actual shopping
list for the Nekohanten. Shampoo asked few questions this time,
mainly observing the ways and actions of her companion as they
moved along from shop to shop. Any questions that she did ask
now were normally focused on Kasumi herself. It was somewhat
difficult to get answers though as the Tendo sister seemed reluctant
to talk about herself.
The remainder of her free time was either spent in her
intense new training regimen or observing Ranma from afar. The
more information she possessed, the better to plan her attack.
At the beginning of the next week, Shampoo finally felt
that she was ready for the first test.
Akane looked up at Ranma walking along at his usual place
on the fence. He seemed distracted today, though, glancing all
around as if searching for something. Now that she thought about
it, he'd been acting oddly the entire week.
"What you looking for, Ranma?" she asked him.
"Nothing," he replied immediately, not giving up in his
search.
Akane was so occupied with trying to figure out what was
wrong with her fiance that she didn't notice the other girl until she
smacked right into her.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Akane apologized as she helped the
other girl to her feet.
Ranma sprang down from the fence, ready to chide Akane
for her clumsy ways, when he got a better look at the new girl. His
mouth hung open in surprise.
Ranma wasn't the only one. Akane could only stare in
shock.
"Shampoo!" they both shouted simultaneously.
The fact that it was Shampoo Akane had run into wasn't the
reason for their shock, it was the way she looked. Instead of one of
her usual outfits, Shampoo wore a very conservative house dress
with a floral print. And instead of her hair being free-flowing or
tied up in two buns, it was brought into a loosely-braided ponytail
that flowed down her shoulder. But the biggest change was the
look on her face. It wasn't the wild joy of seeing her arien or the
anger normally directed at her rival. Instead, she smiled pleasantly
at the both of them.
"Good morning Akane, Ranma," she spoke, bowing slightly
to each.
Figuring that this had to be some sort of odd trick by the
Amazon, Akane dropped into a combat stance. "Okay, what do
you want, Shampoo?"
Shampoo still had the same pleasant smile as she turned to
look at Akane, but her eyes seemed puzzled. Then realization
dawned and she bowed deeply to the other girl. "Shampoo very
sorry run into Akane. Not watching where going. Will be more
careful in future."
Akane backed away from the Amazon with a little fear.
Not only was Shampoo acting nice to her and calling her by her
name instead of something like 'violent girl' or 'pervert girl,' but she
had actually apologized to her. Akane didn't know how to deal
with a Shampoo that was acting so... nice.
Apparently, neither did Ranma. He seemed even more
stunned than she was.
"Um, Shampoo," Ranma told her nervously. "Where have
you been all week?"
Inside, Shampoo was struggling to resist throwing her arms
around her arien right then and there. He had actually noticed she
was gone! But resist she did. This was war and she had to keep
following her current plan of attack.
"Shampoo has been very busy this week, so could not see
her ar... friend, Ranma," she told them, flinching slightly at her
slip. If her plan was to work, she had to forget that word for the
time being. "Shampoo is going in same direction. Is okay I go
with?"
It took Ranma a few moments to understand what Shampoo
was asking, but eventually he replied, "Yeah, sure, I guess I don't
see a problem with it."
Akane frowned, wondering what Shampoo was up to, but
said nothing. She was going to keep a close eye on Amazon,
however.