Herein lies the Disclaimer. I don't own any of the characters portrayed in this story, I just borrowed them for a little while. Their respective owners can have them back when I'm done. No money is going to be made off of this anyway. Also, the story this continuation is based on, Future Tense, was written by Metroanime, who can be found here. This is unauthorized, and has no connection with the original, I just had to write this out one night after reading the original. Apparently Jared (White Pheonix) is writing an official one in an upcoming chapter of Mirrors Multiplied. Or so I have been informed. However, that's all very old information and I highly doubt it's still in effect. That doesn't change the fact this is still unnoficial, however.
Garibaldi III, September 12, 1997
Ranma stepped out onto the porch, listening to the surf gently washing up a few meters away on a strip of beach. He sipped at the cup of juice in his hands and smiled at the familiar tart flavor. He was both hoping and dreading this, but he had to know. Had his patience and waiting finally gotten them to the point where they were willing to open up? He'd spent years selflessly helping, guiding, assisting, never far from the spotlight but only spent as little an amount of time IN that spotlight as he could.
He'd spent decades in the Arena, as slave, as soldier, as warrior, as entertainer. He was heartily sick of being center stage.
"What's up, Ranma?" Nabiki stepped out of the shadows, regarding him for a moment. "You look pensive."
"You've got the tour business going now, Nabiki. Kasumi and Doctor Tofu are working in that clinic in Tokyo. Ukyou's off selling okonomiyaki to tourists at the beach and is talking about a chain of stores. Akane's married Mousse and is now working for the Galaxy Police. Shampoo and her sister Amazons have a planet where they can expand and remain isolated at the same time. Pop and Mister Tendo have their fantasy retirement two islands over. Everyone has what they wanted."
"Except you," realized Nabiki. She'd been so busy that she'd only realized she hadn't seen him in a year when he'd shown up on her doorstep four hours ago.
"Except me," agreed Ranma. "I wanted to find peace and have my chance to do what Seyvu and so many of the others did. Settle down, start a family, put roots down, and be something other than the warrior." Ranma wondered if it had finally come, the chance to love and to be loved. Not simple sex, but the deep caring that marked the difference between bedmates and lifemates. Ranma had set this conversation up with each of the 'fiancees' - and was down to his last option now.
"You wanted to be a nurturer, Ranma. You succeeded." Nabiki gestured around her. "You think that I could have started a multi-trillion dollar business on my own? My dreams had been to become a millionaire. By keeping the hyperdrive and antigrav technology my little secret, I've made the equivalent of trillions of dollars. Eventually others will get working models back where they can be studied, but it was *MY* work that brought about the New Age on Earth with offworld exports/imports and tours. Just the astrogational data I got from Box allowed ME to 'find' habitable worlds and stake claims first."
Nabiki watched the man in front of her, noting that she still couldn't read him very well. She'd gotten a few letters back when she'd sent everyone her new address. She started giving out the details, though she suspected Ranma was at least as conversant. "Kasumi would have settled down to be a meek little housewife, maybe to Doctor Tofu, maybe not. She's able to use clairvoyant techniques to see what's wrong with someone, and telekinetically mend wounds or telepathically ask the tissues to knit together. She and Doctor Tofu are *revolutionizing* medicine with him just figuring out what she's doing.
"Akane always wanted to be the dashing heroine. She *is* now, a respected member of the Galaxy Police and someone feared by evil doers everywhere. Mousse has finally gotten over his Shampoo obsession and is now the supportive husband to Akane."
"Shampoo wanted a strong husband, but mainly wanted to be the Champion and a hero to her people. She *is* - the person who convinced you and me to find that world and let her people settle it. They don't have to worry about the Chinese government or much of anyone. They've gone from three Amazon villages to an Amazon Homeworld!
"Sash is the exception, she's working with Akane as a junior partner now. They're quite a team, too.
"Ukyou wanted revenge against you, and to be the best okonomiyaki chef in Japan. She's now performing her craft in front of dozens of life forms and selling okonomiyaki to creatures that were old before the Home Islands formed! She's got her restaurant going, and if she goes to a chain, she'll be selling Japanese food across the entire Arm.
"You've been responsible for the raising of the standard of living for billions on Earth just by what's happened to the Tendo and Saotome clans and the ripples from THAT. You've not only allowed each of us to embrace our dreams, we've exceeded them!
"Isn't that enough, Ranma-kun?"
Ranma looked sadly at Nabiki for a moment, then shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. He felt as if something had died inside him, a pain more cutting than most of those he'd gone through in his Arena days.
He'd quietly vanish in the morning. Nabiki didn't get it. Maybe she never would. Even now she insisted on putting it mainly in monetary terms. She had her business, she had her money and knowledge and control. The engineer and the business woman wrapped up in one. There had been some closeness, once, but that had faded as her business took up more and more of her time.
He'd come here to Garibaldi III and Nabiki's newly built villa in what had been his last hope. He'd gone through his options, and come up empty. Each of the potential fiancees had been given an opportunity. They'd all chosen. Not one had chosen him.
Kasumi was helping people, the Healer. Akane was helping people, the Protector. Shampoo was helping her people, the heroic Amazon. Ukyou had her Art and her business. Nabiki was the Merchant Princess, whose empire was measured in territory and wealth.
And Ranma noted that he was where he had been for several years, still sadly looking out into the night. Occasionally still fighting menaces from space or the future or both.
Still searching, still hoping. Still praying.
Still alone.
Nabiki awoke slowly from her sleep. She stared at the digits announcing the time floating in the air above her. They told her what time it was, told that she needed to get out of bed, but she couldn't seem to make herself do so. It seemed strange to her that after doing the same thing every morning for the past 100 plus years she was only now having troubles getting up in the morning. After several minutes she finally was able to pull herself from beneath the covers, her small fists wiping her eyes of any sleepiness still there.
She would have to do something about this soon. Maybe she could call her sister and give herself a check up, see if anything was wrong with her before she started changing the morning routine that had served her throughout her career. Was still serving her in fact. She hadn't retired yet, wasn't sure she ever would. Nabiki was happy with her work, she was doing something that she liked, and couldn't thing of anything that she missed. Shrugging off her clothes she let the machines take the 1 minute needed to completely clean her, then sunk herself into the old style furo she still had in her private bath. No matter what they came up with, having a hot soak was still one of the most soothing things she ever experienced.
While in that relaxed state her mind returned to her thought of missing nothing now that she had her business where she wanted it. Indeed, just about everybody that she knew when she was teenager so long ago had everything that they wanted. Still did, though Ukyo had died, not taking advantage of all the medical advances that had been made. For the most part, Nabiki, Shampoo, Akane, everybody still looked similar to they did when they were much younger. They had matured, they had acquired a somewhat weathered look to them, that of experience and age, but they still resembled youths. Only the eyes betrayed them, but then again, the eyes were a hard thing to change.
Nabiki, though, had a nagging feeling that she was forgetting something. She tried and tried, used every memory trick she knew to drag up the errant thought, but couldn't come up with whatever was nagging her. It was driving her mad, she hadn't had something like this happen to her in years. Many, many years, now that she thought about it. Unable to do anything further Nabiki rose from her bath in a huff, the soak for once not calming her nerves and getting her ready for another day of hard work. It was something she usually enjoyed, but there were times when she questioned it all.
Much later in the day, as Nabiki was preparing to leave and head off for some dinner with her sisters Akane and Kasumi for their annual get together, an image of a man with a pigtail seen out of the corner of her eye captured her attention so totally she almost ran into a few people heading down the walkway. The nagging that was in the back of her mind came back to hit her full force, but this time, she knew what it was, and the memories came back unhindered. And unwanted. Pain was never something she wanted to be around very long, yet there seemed to be nothing she could do to keep her memories from resurfacing.
Nabiki stood in shock, staring at the empty bed that had held Ranma Saotome not more than an hour earlier. She hadn't expected him to leave like that! She knew that he must have been hurting a little, must have felt it in his heart when she had said that everybody he knew had found something in their life that they loved doing more than anything else. Something that they loved so much they had left Ranma behind to pursue. Nabiki could admit to herself that she had been attracted to the guy, he had helped her set up her entire business after all, had wanted to get to know him better. Around her work schedule, anyway. But she hadn't thought that he would run away from everybody, especially since had hadn't been by in an entire year. She had thought for sure that they would have some more catching up to do.
She rushed over to her security section, hoping to see from the video surveillance in the area where he had gone, and how she might find him again. Sure enough, he had risen from bed, quietly packed all his things and left the room without a backwards glance. It sure was handy having cameras that could see through walls, as it made things seem much less intrusive. She followed him out of the building, out toward where his ship was. Nabiki zoomed in, looking at his posture, looking at his face, wondering what was going on in his head. Right before he passed around his ship to take off, he turned and looked directly at the camera with such a look of pain and disappointment that Nabiki spewed her tea all over her desk.
Her mind was awhirl the more she looked at his expression. How could he have an expression like that after all that he had done for those that he cared about? Surely he felt pride and accomplishment with that. How could he have such pain from their conversation last night? She couldn't get how the man could remain so alone when there were so many people happy to see him. Nabiki never could figure it out, and, in fact, still had that tape in her room. Every once in a while she would pull it out and watch the entire night, wondering where she had gone wrong. Wondering what he had been hoping to find that he obviously hadn't. Nabiki had never managed to figure it out. Her sisters had watched the tape eventually also, and neither of them had provided any hints on the matter. It would remain a mystery for well over a hundred years.
Nabiki shook her head, trying to get the memories out, trying to get them back under control. She hadn't watched that tape in a loooong time. There wasn't any need, since she obviously wasn't growing any wiser and it still didn't make any sense to her. She would have to ask her sisters tonight, maybe they had thought of something. If they even remembered it at all.
Nabiki froze once again. A most sickening fact had just occurred to her, and she was disgusted with herself for not noticing this before. Ranma had never once been by since that night. Nor had he visited with any of his old friends since that night so long ago that she knew of. She was fairly certain she would have heard something about it if he was spending very much time with any of the other girls. The company owner had to support herself against a wall to keep herself from falling from the shock.
Nabiki hadn't even noticed Ranma was gone. In a hundred years, she hadn't noticed he had never visited her, never called her, never even sent her a postcard saying that he was still alive. While that by itself wasn't really all that surprising, what really blew her mind was the fact she hadn't even thought about that until just a minute ago. That man was probably the most important person in her entire life! How could she have just forgotten him for the last hundred years?
It didn't make any sense, especially coupled with the fact she had spent so much time analyzing that video of when he had left. Nabiki wasn't sure where she could go with this, but there was another thought nagging at the back of her mind. Except this one seemed like she might have just stumbled across the answer to the question posed so long ago by his expression. She just had to put a little time into it and she'd have her solution.
Later, though. Nabiki continued on her way to see her sisters, as she knew that Ranma could wait another few hours. Her sister wouldn't, they usually demanded that everyone around them were punctual. She walked into the restaurant and saw her two sisters, still looking much like they did when they had first gotten their big break thanks to the pigtailed one, happily chatting with each other at a table for three.
Nabiki wondered if Tofu, Kasumi's husband knew very much about what his wife did while he wasn't around given their mental link. She suspected her elder sister of cutting him off at times like this, when it was just going to be girl talk. No need to give the male mind too many ideas of how their wives worked, or you couldn't mess with their heads anymore. Not that Nabiki had ever been married. The only one of all the girls to remain single in that hundred years Nabiki never regretted her decision, having much more time to spend on her company.
She slipped into the seat across from Kasumi and Akane, forming a triangle around the round table. The three of them smiled at each other for a moment before they started in on the small talk, waiting until the main course before the serious conversation got underway.
"Nabiki, is something bothering you?" Kasumi asked sweetly, her gentle disposition and ever present smile still...present.
"Ah, nothing really, Kasumi. I just think I might have the solution to a problem that's been bugging me for a while, but I can't seem to get it to surface." Nabiki forgot who she was talking too for a moment.
"Maybe I could do something to get it to come to the surface. What would you think of that little sister?"
Akane cut in before Nabiki could respond to Kasumi's offer. "Whoa, Nabiki hasn't gotten something figured out? Must be awfully big." She filled out her Galaxy Police uniform as if it had been made for her. The past hundred plus years had been wonderful for her career, seeing her rise in the ranks at a rapid rate to her current exalted status.
Nabiki turned her gaze on the youngest of them for a moment, wondering how her marriage with Mouse was holding up. She hadn't heard about their relationship in a long time, not sure if that was because everything was still fine between them or they had split up and didn't want to talk about it. "Yeah, it might be big, it might not. It has to do with Ranma."
As soon as she said it she realized that she wasn't the only one that had forgotten about the one that had gotten them started on where they were now. Kasumi's hand rose to her cheek before she let loose her trade make, a startled expression on her face. "Oh, my. I haven't thought about him in....in....heavens, I can't remember." The eldest Tendo was looking acutely embarrassed.
Akane wasn't doing much better. "Yeah, me either, sis. I can't even remember the last time I saw him it was so long ago. What happened to him? He was so great for those five years where he was helping us, then he just plain disappears. I hope nothing's happened to him."
All three sisters nodded at that one. Even if they had ignored him for most of their lives they still wished the best for the pigtailed man with the sad eyes. Nabiki found her food suddenly interesting. "I think I was the last person to see him, he came by my place a while after he had visited all of you. I actually have a recording of him right before he left. I showed it to you guys, but I don't know if you remember."
Their faces were thoughtful for several moments before they lit up in recollection. Kasumi spoke up.
"Oh yes. That was where he had such a heartbroken expression on his face right before he left. I still can't think of what you did to him to make him feel so much pain." There were firsts for everything. The Saotome foot in mouth strikes Kasumi.
Akane stared aghast at her eldest sister, wondering what in the world had caused Kasumi to say something like that. She remembered his expression. It had tugged at her heart in ways that she didn't want to think about at the time. Still, that did raise an interesting question. What had Nabiki done that made him like that? Was that why he had never bothered to even leave a note for the past hundred years?
"KASUMI! What..." Akane was interrupted by an outraged Nabiki.
"I DON'T KNOW! I didn't say anything to him that could possibly have caused that kind of reaction! Why haven't either of you thought about him in the past hundred years, huh? I'm not the only one to blame here."
The three of them settled down, not wanting to get into a shouting match the only time they saw each other together all year. Nabiki started angrily eating her food, taking out her feelings on the innocent dish until it was obliterated. The other two followed her example, though the fact that Nabiki was outdoing Akane was duly noted by all as a sure sign of stress.
Nabiki sat and glared around at the room, wondering how she could be surrounded by people, sitting with her friends and family and feel alone. Her thoughts drifted back to Ranma, wondering about that expression when she suddenly had an epiphany.
He was lonely. Ranma was alone in the world, that was why he had given her such an expression of pain. There literally was no one left for Ranma, they had all found something they liked more than him. Nabiki must have been his last stop at finding somebody he could share his life with, and all she had done was show him that everybody he knew was perfectly happy pursuing their dreams without him. So that was what he had done, disappeared to probably where ever it was he had come from, letting his former friends pursue that which they desired on their own. It shamed Nabiki greatly to think that it took her a hundred years to realize this. It took all three Tendo's a hundred years to even think of him again. That just proved how right he was when he left.
When Nabiki almost started crying her two sisters became concerned. Surely this must mean the end of the universe is near if Nabiki was crying for no apparent reason. Kasumi started projecting, trying to get her little sister under control before what she was doing became public knowledge. Being the president and owner was nice, but it had problems when she was out in public like this.
Nabiki looked at the other two women, wondering if they ever would have realized what she herself had. Given both of them were happily married, she doubted it. They would simply have forgotten him until they died, taking his memory with them.
Kasumi backed off in shock, her mind reeling at what Nabiki had been thinking so loudly. Ranma was gone because of them? That was too bad, he was a rather nice man.
Nabiki and Akane stared at Kasumi. The eldest's hand again touched her cheek. "Oh, my. Did I say that out loud?" Her cheeks turned a light pink in embarrassment. Akane just stared. Nabiki, being of a quick tongue, took exception to that.
"What do you mean, 'too bad, he was nice'? Is that how easy it is now? Is that how you view those that were essential to your current success? They're gone, oh well, time to go home." Nabiki managed to get herself under control before she roasted her sister even more.
No one was sure what to say in the ensuing awkward silence. Akane finally broke it.
"Well, I have been really busy with work and everything..."
Nabiki cut in. "Yeah, you've been too busy having fun with your husband and working to even think about the man that gave you all that. Just leave him by the wayside..."
This time Nabiki was cut off. "NABIKI! That is enough!" Kasumi said forcefully.
Nabiki glowered for a moment before responding. "Sorry. Guess I got a little out of line there."
"A little?" Akane said in disbelief.
Nabiki held her peace, not going either farther or apologizing. Another silence descended, lasting for a much longer time than the first one.
(NEW STUFF)
Nabiki sat in her relaxation chair, the electric shaped gel substance massaging her tense back muscles. Akane had just called from work at her GP office and said they could find no trace of Ranma, and they had been searching for the past two months. It was almost guaranteed the GP could find SOMETHING on a person in a month or so.
With nothing to rely on except her feminine intuition Nabiki was doing something she almost never did. Jump to conclusions.
Nabiki could recall that most of the time she had been right whenever she had a hunch concerning the pigtailed man. Now she would put that to the test. He hadn't turned up through conventional means so she had to guess where to look next.
An hour of meditation later hadn't gotten her any inspiration and Nabiki huffed in annoyance. She spun back around to face her desk, hoping that something would catch her eye.
She waved her hand over the furniture's glossy black top and a keypad appeared hovering just above the surface. After typing in a quick code a rather large screen appeared vertically in the middle of the desk's surface along with the rest of the keyboard beside the keypad. A couple of key presses later and she was looking at the latest notes and memos from her company that needed her personal attention.
One seemed to grab her attention right away. It described an experiment with a dimensional gate. They were going to do the first trial run later that day, not to attempt to put anything through it, just observe what, or who, they could see on the other side.
Nabiki was getting a feeling that she needed to be there when it happened. She quickly dealt with most everything else on her to do list with plenty of time left to get over to the lab.
Nabiki sported a smile as she drove to the testing ground. She just knew something good would come of this, and now that she really thought about it she realized how much she missed the pigtailed man. She couldn't wait until she ran into him again.
After a brief flashback of what had happened the last time she had ever seen him Nabiki hoped that Ranma would be happy to see her. It could be very possible he would turn and walk away, and history repeat itself like Nabiki had seen happen before in her rather long lifetime.
After having that revelation as to why he had left, Nabiki thought that it would be entirely possible for her to keep that from happening again, but given how long it had been she wasn't at all sure if Ranma would still be single. Sure, he was very unique, but there were as many girls as there were boys in the galaxy and Nabiki didn't believe for a second that the two of them would be a one true love type of deal. Love, yes, affection, yes, but true love was only in romance novels.
Nabiki started laughing to herself at that. What was Ranma? He was a fantasy novel come to life, an amazing collection of unbelievable stories and amusing circumstances with a rich and deep history. Who's to say he didn't carry some romance in there too? With this merry thought bolstering her spirits Nabiki started driving just a little faster.
A minute later the middle Tendo daughter caught sight of the test facility, approaching fast. She slowed and entered the parking area, storing her car and whipping out her little runabout. She zipped down the corridors towards the main chamber.
A minute later the woman stood before in impressively large and solid looking titanium reinforced door. It stood a good three stories tall and was easily 15 feet wide, so whatever was in there they obviously had large pieces to move about. Nabiki hadn't thought that the device would be near this size, but assumed they had done it to make it easier to work on and would shrink it later.
Having never really been interested in any of the dimensional experiments before the scientists were happily pleased to have their boss watching their greatest triumph. She was quickly garbed in protective gear, 'just in case the impossible happens', and lead deeper into the massive building than looked possible from the outside.
Having passed through the fourth and final security check point Nabiki and a few of her top scientists gathered at an observation window, through which the richest woman in history saw what some of her money had created.
"It looks like a boat propeller," Nabiki observed, shooting a questioning glance at her senior man, a white haired gentleman named Bob.
His name made things very convenient for Nabiki, since three of her top scientists in different fields were all named Bob. She wasn't sure if they all knew about each other, but it made remembering their names beyond easy. She just had to figure out why really good researches seemed to come from America and be named Bob.
"Yes it does," he replied easily, being the smooth talking Bob. "That shape is almost perfect in its job of opening a pathway through time and space once you apply a full spectrum of Sally's, antimatter and a good helping of sub-atomic ether glue."
Nabiki double blinked. "Sally? I've never heard of Sally before."
Bob almost blushed. "Ah, an acquaintance of mine's former girlfriend. She had this amazing ability to suck in everything around her and somehow destroy it or steal it, so we named our miniature black holes after her."
"Ah, sorry I asked."
Bob cleared his throat and gestured out at the prop. "We'll be starting momentarily, I would suggest you make sure you don't have any metal touching your skin or you might feel some very strange sensations."
Nabiki removed her watch and slid it into her pocket, glad that she hadn't put on anything more elaborate on or she might have had to put it down somewhere and not gotten it back.
"We're not entire sure where we're going to be looking when we first open the portal, but we should be able to see where we ended up and change our settings until we figure out how to navigate it precisely," Bob informed his boss.
Nabiki nodded in acceptance of that, wondering just how this was going to look when it started working. And wondering where that feeling had gone when she first drove over here. Now Nabiki remembered why she never really went to the test stations; it made her far too nervous waiting to see if all the money she had spent on the people and recourses was going to pan out. She much rather preferred watching what they did at the refinement labs, since nothing ever broke over there and tripled the cost of research.
Bob held a hand to his ear and actually grinned in scientific glee. "We're starting! Isn't it exciting, Nabiki-san!"
Nabiki noted how he hadn't even said that in the form of a question, that a bunch of colorful things were now floating and collecting around the slowly moving propeller, and decided that the main event had finally arrived.
The prop started spinning faster rapidly, becoming a multi colored blur after a brief minute.
Bob was muttered to himself about reaching critical and that this was the time when everything was on a knife edge of reliability. Nonplussed with his words Nabiki made a mental note to remind all the scientists that safety was still something they had to be concerned with, especially if the boss was going to be present.
Suddenly Nabiki's breath was taken away as reality seemed to be sucked in a bit toward the spinning boat drive, then just as quickly given back as a pinhole of bright white light appeared in the middle of the colorful chaos that made up a warp gate.
It quickly grew, taking up 90% of the props blurred shape and showing a slightly distorted view of another universe. Nabiki knew it had to be another universe because she could see Ranma sitting on a couch with a blue-haired woman in his lap kissing each other with a passion.
Something about the woman Ranma was holding set her hair on end, and she didn't think it was because he was doing to the blue-head what Nabiki wanted him to do to her. But that might be a small part of it.
Everybody in the room seemed to be frozen in shock at the sight. Nabiki wasn't sure if it was from the sight that greeted them upon opening the first portal, or opening the first portal and actually seeing something.
Unable to contain her emotions, a single exclamation escaped Nabiki's suddenly dry lips.
"Ranma!"
The private kiss turned public was slowly broken. Ranma and his unknown friend turned toward the intruders and seemed mildly surprised.
"I'm impressed Nabiki, I had thought it might take you another hundred years before you developed a working dimensional gate," Ranma said. His eyes narrowed a bit as he looked more closely at his former fiance. "Never mind, it has been over a hundred years in your universe."
"It's good to see you too, Ranma," Nabiki said, her mind and heart all aflutter at finally speaking to this man again.
Ranma gave her a wan smile. "Likewise, Nabiki. I do hope you missed me a bit after all that time." He paused for a second. "I missed you. It's good to see your face again."
Nabiki glanced at his female companion, wondering what she might have to say about all this. Certainly if a strange woman in a vortex showed up and had this conversation she'd be a bit weirded out, even as experienced as she was.
His words went straight to her heart, to a place that she hadn't even known existed before. A spot that screamed at her to dive through the portal and wrap herself around him, never to let go.
Barely restraining herself Nabiki couldn't decide to speak truthfully or tell him what she wanted to say.
His blue haired companion leaned down and whispered something in his ear and Ranma slumped a little.
"It didn't look like she had to me, either," Ranma said, "but I had hoped."
Hoping to get past this moment as quickly as possible Nabiki asked a question that had been plaguing her for months now. "Just where did you go, Ranma?"
The martial artist seemed to cheer up a bit and promptly ignored her question. He stood and put his arm around the beautiful woman he had been kissing. "Nabiki, I'd like you to meet my wife, Ifurita. Ifurita, this is Nabiki, one of the women I got to know from my original universe."
Ifurita smiled and nodded her head at the brunette. "Pleased to meet you."
Nabiki was still stuck in the past. Stuck in that moment he had said 'wife.'
"W-wife? You're married, Ranma?"
Ranma beamed at her. "Yup, have been for 23 years now. Only time we've ever spent apart is when I went to Ukyo's funeral. That took me a month and I really could have used her support then. Otherwise we've been hopping from dimension to dimension, sightseeing and doing this and that to help other people along."
"You're really married," Nabiki repeated in disbelief. "I don't believe it."
Ranma's grin faded. "You've finally realized what I meant that night, haven't you. I see I was correct in leaving and having just a little more patience in finding myself a wife. I couldn't ask for a more perfect woman than Ifurita-chan here."
Nabiki wasn't sure if he was doing it intentionally or not, but his words struck at her, as real happiness was finally visible on his face. It was such a striking change than when she had last seen him, and that could have been her that made him like that, made him happy.
"Don't force it Nabiki. You're just getting to that point in life where you want to share yourself with another, when just 'me' isn't enough. If you look I'm sure you'll find yourself a wonderful husband like the other girls did, and then maybe I can come back for a bit and introduce everyone to my love."
Nabiki wasn't sure how to take this. Was he rejecting her like she had done to him over a hundred years ago? It didn't feel like it, but her heart was telling her one thing and her mind another. What should she do after this point? And just where would she find a man that could make her feel like Ranma does?
As if sensing her thoughts Ifurita spoke up. "Good husbands are out there Nabiki. I had to wait 20,000 years for mine so don't give up. And no matter what, his name is not Bob."
Remembering the files she had been looking over, and a fourth Bob scientist that had caught her wandering female eyes, Nabiki scrapped any notion of ever dating a Bob, from within her company or not.
A strange sound was heard, almost like a balloon being deflated in a childish way. Ranma and Ifurita looked off to the side for a moment before returning their attention to Nabiki.
"We have to go, but it was nice seeing you again Nabiki. My wife and I will be making the rounds soon, and I recommend you keep looking at this gateway. You might be surprised at who turns up in its sights," Ranma told her.
Just then Nabiki noticed that the scientists were running around yelling things she didn't understand and the edges of the portal she had been looking through looked like they were about to collapse.
Just as she had suspected the portal closed and the prop came to rest a short time later, one of the large machines beside it smoking in an unpleasant fashion.
Taking the long lost Ranma's advice to heart Nabiki began thinking of just how she could organize a manhunt for herself without getting all kinds of unwanted attention, from the media and con artists. There would certainly be those seeking her simply for her money, and there would be those obsessed with her because of her success. But somewhere out there had to be the man for her, there just had to be. And if she followed Ranma's advice he might not even be in the same universe as herself.
Yet.
She could hardly wait to meet him, the future Mr. Tendo, personal secretary to (finally) MRS. Tendo. Or maybe she'd upgrade him to personal masseuse. Getting regularly serviced sounded heavenly. Especially at home.
END (FOR NOW)
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