[FFML] [Ranma/OMG]A New Life 4

Nabiki counted out the money and frowned.
"After living expenses, we're about ten-thousand
short," she said. "Again."
"Damn it," Ranma said.
"We aren't getting anywhere staying in motels like
this," Nabiki said.
It was a rather standard catch twenty-two
situation. They couldn't use their family names for
fear they'd be tracked down. So, despite the fact
that they hadn't renounced their families, they were
considered ronin virtually everywhere. That made it
difficult to earn money, especially for two teenagers
with a baby.
They had eventually decided to start a new family
name, at least until they felt they could safely
return home. They even had a name picked out, a nice,
simple common hard to distinguish name like "Tanaka".
Doing this was possible, but...it took money. And
getting money, again, was hard.
They had cut out a number of expenses. Somehow,
they discovered that they didn't have to eat, and so
"food" was limited to Ranma's sodas and baby food for
Midori, because they weren't risking her health.
Nabiki, having discovered that money had the same
effect on her that caffeine had on Ranma, originally
kept a few yen notes and coins around for anytime she
felt peckish. Unfortunately, she soon discovered that
if she didn't use the money it didn't do anything for
her. No, she was revitalized by the action of
spending, receiving and otherwise handling money.
Saving was okay, but outright hoarding seemed to
invalidate the effect.
"We need to find new living quarters," Nabiki said,
glancing around the motel room that was eating their
so much of their funds.
"Worse comes to worse," Ranma said. "We can always
ask for help."
"Last resort, Ranma," she said.
Midori watched from her bed as her mommy and daddy
talked quietly among themselves. She didn't
understand it in words, but she knew they were trying
not to upset her. She still felt the tension though.
Midori began to cry. Nabiki and Ranma whipped
there heads around to her and relaxed after a moment
when they saw her pointing to the baby-carrier.
"Maybe a walk would help clear things up," Nabiki
agreed.

*****

"I'm sorry, Megumi," a girl said apologetically.
"We just can't afford that rent."
"Not even split three ways," her friend agreed.
"Listen guys," Megumi said, almost hysterically.
"It's the ONLY place I can find. I can handle half
the rent on my own! I can even handle the first two
months on my own. That's plenty of time for you both
to figure something out."
"Sorry," her friend said shrugging. "I'm not going
to take the risk, I got a place already, I don't want
to lose that and end up not being able to make it."
"Besides," the second girl said. "You can always
just move in with your brother."
"He doesn't have that much space anymore," Megumi
said sorrowly.
"Sorry," her friend said again.
"Excuse me," a new voice said. Megumi turned
around to see a brown-haired teenager wearing a baby
carrier with a small child, maybe a year old, in it
against her back.
"Yeah?" Megumi asked wearily, she was too
frustrated to notice the blue tattoos on the girl's
face.
"I couldn't help but overhear your predicament,"
Nabiki said. "I think we can help each other."
"Really?" Megumi said doubtfully, the girl couldn't
be older than eighteen.
The girl nodded and looked toward the playground
where so men were joking around with another teenager
on the basketball court. Megumi shook her head
irritably at that, some big bad jocks they were,
making sport of a kid like that.
"Ranma!" she called out.
"Huh?" the teenager said, turning to Nabiki. As he
did one of the college jocks stole the ball from him
with a laughing smirk.
"Cut it early, okay?" she called back. "I think I
found something."
"Oh! Got it," Ranma called back. Megumi was about
to ask what Nabiki what she meant by cut it early when
the teenager flew into action.
Ranma leaped from mid court, with no run, and
caught the ball in mid arc from the jump lay-up the
college jock had set it into. Then he brought it
through the hoop as he landed.
The college jocks, and virtually everybody else
stared in shock as Ranma walked to the free throw line
holding the ball.
"Change," he said. Then he threw the ball and it
swished through the net and bounced off the pole back
to Ranma, who didn't have to move to recover it.
"Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change.
Change. Change." This went on for minute or two
until Ranma had sunk the ball in twenty times.
"You, you, you lied to us!" one of the jocks
shouted.
"Uhh, I just tricked you is all," Ranma said.
Really, he couldn't lie, it never worked. People
always knew somehow when he tried to. He hadn't
figured it out yet. Nabiki had mentioned something
about a poker face, but Ranma didn't know what his bad
poker face had to do with lying.
"Same thing," the jock snapped. Megumi shook her
head clear as she and her friends vaguely followed
Nabiki to the altercation.
"All I said was that I hadn't played basketball
before," Ranma protested. Nabiki smirked a little,
her coaching was really paying off of late. "I never
said I wasn't an athlete or nothin'."
"I'm not paying a ronin street hustler," the jock
snapped back. Ranma crossed his arms and frowned.
"Hey, Kenji," Megumi said walking up. "Do you want
it to get out that all four of you lost to a 'ronin
street hustler?'" The looks on their faces clearly
said no.
"Here's your money, kid," Kenji said finely giving
the Ranma a small roll of cash. Then he walked away,
looking sore.
"Thanks," Ranma said. "Now, uh, what're we doing?"

*****

In Nerima, meanwhile, Akane was silently fuming as
she went through a day in her senior year. Nabiki and
Ranma had run off together with that brat and barely a
goodbye. Nabiki had given her some lecture about
growing up, not being ready, and trust, but Akane
hadn't really paid attention. All she knew was that
her sister and fiancee had betrayed her.
When she discovered "P-Chan", she was doubly
incensed. She was mad enough that she actually
seduced Ryouga in the illogical assumption that it
would get back Ranma and make him jealous. Certainly
he and Nabiki were having such fun together. Though
she wouldn't admit that outloud.
Which brought her to her current predicament. The
one that was going to slow down her college plans.
And she'd be damnded if she accepted KODACHI'S help
with this.
Ryouga had not warn protection.
"When I see that pig," she muttered to herself at
lunch. She was sitting alone today, she liked to be
alone when her temper was at its worse, she didn't
want to hurt anybody.
She sighed and shook her head, some of the anger
releasing. SHE had made the effort to seduce Ryouga,
not the other way around. And then she had TOLD him
what she had done. Spat in his face, stomped on his
heart and laughed at him. She had no right to accuse
him of anything, and that was the source of her
frustration.
To make matters worse, he was spending a lot more
time with Akari lately. And the last time she had
seen him, he had been less than happy to see her. He
had virtually flinched away like a beaten dog. At the
time it had amused her, now...
"What am I going to tell Kasumi?" Akane wondered
quietly. "What have I done? What am I going to do?"

*****

Cologne sighed at the sound of a clattering tray
and she looked out to where Shampoo was angrily
clawing up a salaryman's leg. Said salary man was
screaming like a little girl to the enjoyment of the
patrons, especially the female ones. Cologne guessed
what had happened fairly well.
The salaryman had probably grabbed some piece of
anatomy he shouldn't have. Shampoo, forgetting
herself, had probably decided to mangle said salaryman
into something unrecognizeable. Once the actual
decision to seriously hurt someone had been reached.
Poof...instant Shampoo-neko.
"Mousse if you would please dislodge Shampoo from
the customer," Cologne said dryly. The blind boy
nodded and moved to grab Shampoo, and found himself
grabbed instead, as the scream of pain testified.
Cologne hadn't yet figured out exactly how the
son-in-law had called down a divine curse on her
daughter to alter the Jusenkyo magic. She did know
why, however, and after hearing about the whole story
was, to put it mildly quite disappointed with her
grand-daughter. The changes were still reversed with
hot-water, but now there were two changes.
Cologne remembered what had happened when some
abusive boyfriend had caught Shampoo's attention by
smacking his girlfriend in front of the store.
Cologne was about to do something herself to teach the
young man a lesson, but Shampoo beat her to it. A
cat-hybrid Shampoo that had caught the second slap and
then proceeded to crush the hand while growling
angrily at the man.
So, Shampoo had a curse that gave her power if she
used it according to Ranma's code, protecting the
weak, but took it away if she tried to hurt someone
for petty reasons. It was a vast disappoint to
Cologne that Shampoo had not yet realized this fact.
She was on the verge of telling the girl herself,
outright.
Cologne briefly wondered why she bothered staying
in Japan. But that question was easily answered.
There were several reasons.
First, Shampoo insisted they stay. She often took
her days off seeking out Ranma and Nabiki's
whereabouts. She swore every time that she had almost
found them, but every time she sought them out it was
a dead end.
Cologne especially remembered the close call with
that girl and her private eye guardian. Suzuki-san
had certainly LOOKED like Ranma, but that was all.
Ranma did not speak so formally, nor did he use a
Katana in that manner.
The second reason was that she liked it here. The
kids were mostly of a good sort, and she made it her
business to check up on them from time to time. Some
were doing better than others with the changes that
happened a year ago.
The last reason was that she didn't trust Happosai.
The old man had always struck her as more than he
seemed, or maybe less, and she made it her business to
watch him.

*****

Ukyou sighed wearily as she closed up her
restaurant. They said that once you lost your youth,
it never came back. She thought she had lost it more
than ten years before. There were times that she
contemplated ending it all, but she didn't. She
wasn't certain why, except that doing so would hurt a
lot of people.
Konatsu needed her, Ryouga would probably starve
without her, surprisingly Cologne seemed to be giving
her attention recently, as was Kasumi (though that was
less of a surprise) and Ranma still cared for her.
At least she thought so from the fact he and Nabiki
said goodbye before leaving, and she didn't want to
put a burden on him that he caused her death even by
suicide. Besides, suicide was a weak person's way
out.
So Ukyou trained with Konatsu, sometimes Cologne,
and ran her Okonomiyaki shop, and existed.
"Ahh, tis the wonderful smell of Kuonji-san's
cooking," a new voice said. Ukyou frowned, thinking
that a certain samurai was paying her a visit.
"Look Kuno, I'm not..." Ukyou blinked as she lifted
her eyes and recognized Pantyhose Tarou. She'd served
him once or twice in between his pestering Ranma and
Happosai, but she hadn't seen him for a long time.
"You actually thought I was that idiot?" Tarou said
rolling his eyes. "Really, so, Crossdresser #2, do
you know where Crossdresser #1 is today?"
"Ranma left Nerima a year ago, jerk," Ukyou said.
"What?" Tarou demanded.

*****

Happosai was having the time of his life. Most
people still refused to actively learn from him, but
that could always come later. As it was, he was free
to persue his primary past time. Stealing girl's
underwear.
"Whatta a haul," Happosai declared cheerfully.
"What a haul! Hee hee. Not so fun without the games
any longer, but some of the second-stringers around
her can be fun."
Happosai's ear caught the sound of someone
bemoaning his life.
"Why! WHY! Can't I make her see me?" a scrawny
kid, yelled. "Ranma's gone and she still won't say
anything to me."
Happosai pulled out his pipe and examined the boy.
Dark circles under the eyes, gangly, stringy,
featherweight. A rather small potential, but perhaps,
an interesting challenge.
"Perhaps we can come to a deal, boy," Happosai
said, surprising Gosunkugi almost to death.

*****

"Well," Ranma said as they left the city offices.
"That's that I guess. We're finally Mr. and Mrs.
Tanaka..."
"Finally," Nabiki agreed. "Legally married, with a
child." It was rather momentous actually.
They had spent the last year several times sleeping
in the same bed, but just that, sleeping. Nothing
else the rest of the Nerima crew might have been
thinking. It just made it safer for Midori to be
between the two adults, that's all.
There was certainly no other reason for it. He/she
couldn't possibly be interested in that with her/him.
Could she?
"Now we can get some real jobs and make some real
money," Nabiki said.
"Okay," Ranma said. "Let's go help move the stuff
into the house." Nabiki nodded, and glanced over her
shoulder to make sure Midori was okay. The little
girl yawned and then giggled musically as a butterfly
flew past.

*****

"I thought she said this came fully furnished," Urd
said peevishly. "And she has roommates, why does she
need us to help move things around."
"Urd," Belldandy chided. "We should be happy to
help Megumi settle into a new apartment."
"Remember the last new apartment she got?" Skuld
asked nervously. She still had nightmares about
ghosts from that.
"Really, it can't be as bad as that," Belldandy
said.
"Let's hope not," Keiichi sighed. "Well here we
are." Megumi appeared on the small sidewalk in front
of the house and waved vigoursly. The need for help
was obvious, the house, in good condition itself,
seemed to be a disaser zone, with lots of trash being
removed.
"Hey guys!" she called out. "Over here, isn't it
great?"
"Oh, how charming!" Belldandy said, though Keiichi
thought he detected a strained tone in even HER
cheerful manner.
"Yeah, great Megumi," Keiichi said dryly. Skuld
was crying her eyes out and Urd was trying to scheme a
way to get out of this.
"Go inside and get something to drink," Megumi
said. "And then we can get to work."
"All right," Keiichi said, following Megumi's
advice and heading inside with his own housemates. "I
wonder where her roommates are?"
"I'm sure they're around," Belldandy said. The
sound of working in the back of the house drifted to
their ears. "See."
"This is a big house," Skuld noted, much less
despairing when she saw the, comparatively, cleaner
inside.
"So where are the drinks?" Urd asked wearily as she
entered the house and started looking for the kitchen.
Keiichi shrugged and turned to a door and opened it.
He saw nothing interesting, just more debris and
"storage."
~Fully furnished,~ Keiichi muttered to himself with
narrowed eyes. ~Right.~
He opened another door and suddenly found himself
presented with a brown-haired teenaged girl
breast-feeding an infant. She whirled to face him
with an angry face, an angry goddess's face he
realized with a sinking feeling.
"Do you mind?" she asked icily of the surprised
young man.
"Sorry," Keiichi stammered and immediately shut the
door.
"Is something wrong, Keiichi," Belldandy asked.
"You look so pale?"
"Uhh, Bell," Keiichi asked nervously, making sure
Skuld was elsewhere first. "What would a goddess do
if you accidentally walked in on her, umm,
breast-feeding?"
"It would depend on the goddess," Belldandy said.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because there's a goddess breast-feeding in the
room behind me," Keiichi said.
"Oh my," Belldandy said.
He felt the door opening behind him and jumped away
from it. Nabiki came out quickly, face carefully
schooled to a frighteningly neutral expression, and
holding Midori carefully.
"Have you ever heard of the concept of kno...?"
Nabiki's anger was derailed as she saw the marks on
Belldandy's face. "...cking?"
"Oh, hello," Belldandy said. "Keiichi meant no
harm really, please do not be harsh with him."
"Uhh, excuse me," Nabiki said. "Where'd you get
those marks on your head?"
"Oh I forgot to warn you," Megumi said coming in.
"Knock before you open any doors."
"Belldandy, Belldandy!" Skuld came running,
shouting. "There's a god in
the...back...room...there's another one...err...two."
"Gods," Nabiki and Megumi said dizzily at once.
"Yeah," Urd said, joining the scene. "What did you
think these little things on your face were?"
"Hey Megumi," Ranma said. "Who was the little kid
that came back here and then went running." He looked
around at the various faces, confused. "Did I miss something?"

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

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