By E-Type.
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, this story is based on one written by Deepquote, who's works can be found here http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=28473. The original version is just Slight Detour. Everything other than the idea of the Kasumi edition is written by me. ~This is a panda sign~ Onna-Ranma is Ranma in female form.
Chapter 1
Ranma Saotome hugged his wife closer to him, wondering if he would ever wake up from this dream, and hoping he wouldn’t. He had been married to Kasumi for a little over two years now, and were just starting to think about going back to the dojo. But neither really wanted to. They had been enjoying the peace and quiet so much that neither one of them could think about going back to the chaos that was Nerima. Be that as it may, they still were running out of the money they had allocated for the trip, although much slower than they had first thought. Living off the land saved one an awful lot of money. Nabiki never thought of it because she always went out to eat and stayed in hotels. That was one of the reasons that he loved Kasumi so much, she was cheerful and supportive no matter what the circumstances were.
Even out in the middle of the wilderness with nothing but a tent and a large sleeping bag, she still managed to make some incredibly good food. And Ranma could catch a whole lot of something for her to cook in a very short period of time. In fact, the only thing that Kasumi seemed to miss was everybody else. Although even she couldn’t help but feel grateful that they had managed to get away from everybody for a while, but she felt that it was time to turn back. Things had been going for some time. It was time to deal with reality again. However much the two of them hated to do it.
Ranma sighed and hugged her closer. She giggled and molded herself to him. "Starting to think about going back too, are we?" Kasumi asked.
Ranma blinked and looked down at her, a smile blossoming across his face. When she dropped her airhead image, it always managed to impress him how easily she could read his thoughts by his face. The couple strolled down the beach, enjoying the sea, the sand, and each other. They spotted a cave and decided to go check it. Not seeing any signs about it proclaiming it a danger the young couple approached the entrance.
The two looked at each other for a moment before Ranma swept Kasumi off her feet and dashed into the cave, his hands somehow managing to support her and caress her at the same time. Kasumi squealed and giggled as she wrapped her arms round his neck and held on. She always liked it when he did that. Being swept off her feet was just something that she could never get enough of. Especially by Ranma’s powerful arms.
After a few minutes the two of them were deep in the cave. It was starting to get a little dark in there, so Ranma pulled up and looked for a nice cubby or something to cuddle. Finding one, he sat down, cradling Kasumi in his lap. She adjusted herself slightly before leaning forward and getting a kiss. They were still enjoying their kiss when something... evil washed over the two of them.
They broke apart, Kasumi huddling into her husbands embrace. “What was that?” She whispered, afraid of startling or provoking whatever it had been.
Ranma shook his head, unsure of what to do, but fairly certain that it would be a Bad Idea to remain where they were. Rising swiftly he started heading for the exit. Not having gone five steps there was a sudden surge of darkness, enveloping the entire cave and causing them to tumble to the floor together, Ranma twisting around to take the impact.
Ranma looked around the cave, wondering what could possibly be causing this. He spotted it almost immediately. Happosai was clinging to one of the walls of the gave and blowing into an incense burner, sending the fumes all over the cave. Ranma scowled and concentrated his aura, having learned much in his time with Kasumi. He pointed his frozen fist at the old lecher and, with a sharp twist of his wrist and a murmured "Hiryu Shoten Ha," sent a miniature tornado hurtling toward him. It also happened to suck up all the incense that had been affecting him and his wife. Happi looked completely surprised by this and was caught flat footed.
An "Oh sh...." was all that was heard from him before he was picked up in the whirlwind and he started fighting it, making it grow larger than Ranma had anticipated, filling the cave with its howling noise. After a half a minute the twister got to the point where Ranma was having trouble keeping himself and his bride grounded. That was also about the same time he noticed the wall Happosai had been attached to was growing cracks in it, and sunlight was filtering through those cracks. Realizing he might be pulled through that hole if he didn't get out of there now, Ranma jumped to his feet and ran as fast as he could against the winds towards the exit, Kasumi holding onto him as if her life depended on it. Which it probably did, in this case. Being sucked through a jagged hole of rocks would be painful, and also would lead to the condition commonly known as death.
Ranma just managed to clear the mouth of the cave and dive to freedom from the winds before they picked up tremendously and Happosai was sent hurtling up into the air, small rocks and stones surrounding and pelting him. Ranma and Kasumi smiled at that. The couple stood watching the spectacle, wondering when the ancient pervert would stop trying to get out of the windstorm by force and let himself fall. He obviously wasn't helping his situation any by using his battle aura and mid air techniques to try and get out of the twister. It finally started abating when Ranma noticed another disturbance on the beach.
Not far from them a pretty young women was being accosted by a young man obviously being a hentai. Ranma could see another pretty woman quickly closing in on the man, except she was flying through the air wearing a tiger striped bikini. At that moment the young man finally noticed Kasumi, looking radiant in her bathing suit with her long brown hair and happy aura. He made a beeline toward her, intent on grabbing what he could and hitting on the rest when he stopped, curtesy of Ranma's fist to his face. Ranma retracted his arm and wrapped the other protectively around his woman, holding her close.
"What are you trying to do here?" Ranma asked, even though the answer was obvious.
Having felt how strong Ranma was, and how protective he was of the girl he had been going after, Ataru decided he would be better of trying to feel up somebody else. That wouldn't stop him from staring, though. "Ahh, nothing to concern yourself with. My names Ataru, by the way. You are..." He was trying to get away from them by making casual conversation, but this had the adverse affect of letting Lum, the girl in the bikini, close in unnoticed behind him.
"Name's Ranma Saotome." Ranma Saotome responded. He pulled his wife forward so she was standing slightly in front of him, his arm still around her slim waist. "This is my wife, Kasumi." Said woman inclined her head, not bother to bow at him, for his perverted intentions hadn't been lost on her.
Her ingrained niceness wouldn't let it end at that, however. "Pleased to meet you." By now the bikini clad girl was starting to spark a little with contained electrical energy, since she had been hearing the things the girls she had passed on the way had been saying, and she knew her Darling had been misbehaving again. Kasumi noticed her, and since it looked like she was trying to get the attention of the young man they were talking to, decided to point her out to him.
Kasumi pointed over Ataru's shoulder and said, "I think that young woman over there is trying to get your attention, Ataru-san."
Several things all seemed to happen at once. With a steadily increasing cry Happosai landed head first on Ranma's noggin, something small and round falling from the old man's clothing, which Ranma caught instinctively. Kasumi, having delivered her message to the young man in front of them, turned and backhanded Happosai off her husband's head. The Grandmaster of Anything Goes landed in a spray of sand, looking severely beaten up and mutilated from his ride in the Hiryu Shoten Ha. The bikini clad girl had finished her charge and fired a rather large lightning bolt at her Beloved. He turned just in time to see her unleash it and ducked as fast as he could. Ranma and Kasumi looked down at what Happi had dropped to recognize the Nanbam Mirror just in time to see a huge bolt of lighting streak out of nowhere and hit the time traveling device.
Ranma and Kasumi muttered an "Oh, my...." In unison before disappearing in a flash of light that left Lum and Ataru stunned in surprise.
Kasumi opened her eyes in her bed. That wasn't right. She hadn't slept in her bed since she had gotten married. They had bought a new, much larger, one and put it in on their wedding night. That had been a memorable night thanks to that bed. Kasumi couldn't say enough good things about the manufacturer's quality design and sturdiness. The other problem was Ranma didn't have his arms wrapped around her. The first time they had actually gone to sleep she had awakened to feel him cradling her closer. She had thought that it would take some time for her to get used to that sensation, but it happened almost immediately. Now she missed it so much she wasn't sure if she would be able to sleep at all. It was very fortunate that he slept like a log or she might have felt guilty for moving him around and off of her so much in the morning to go prepare breakfast. But, as it was, he only noticed the first few times when she extracted herself, then he somehow subconsciously programmed himself to ignore the fact that his wife was leaving early in the morning and stayed asleep from then on.
It worried her a little until one night she awoke at 2:30 to the fact that she had to use the little girls room something fierce. As soon as she moved to take his hand from her stomach his eyes snapped open and he tightened his grip around her shoulders. Even though Kasumi really had to go she smiled beatifically at him, pleased with his reaction to no end. She told him of her need and he apologized, untangling himself from her. She returned to him slumbering. She couldn't help herself, she just stood there for several minutes watching him sleep. He was so carefree and peaceful when at rest it amazed her. His intensity left him, leaving him looking like what would happen had he become a monk or something equally peaceful instead of the warrior that had been chosen for him.
Eventually the morning caught up with her and Kasumi had to return to bed, unable to keep her eyes open any longer despite how much she just wanted to sit there and gaze at him all night. She slid back under the covers and almost instantly Ranma started to slowly slide toward her, his arms snaking out to encircle her once again in his protective embrace.
Kasumi had prepared for this though. She had developed a technique that would allow her to go to sleep again in minutes instead of either waiting for him to finish creeping and she was comfortably enfolded again or trying to sleep through the wonderful sensations that happened when his hands slid ever so gently across her body. This technique required speed and precision, but she knew that she was up to it. She just had to practice it a few times to make sure that it would work the way she hoped.
Gathering her energy briefly Kasumi reached out for her husbands arms while at the same time sliding their bodies closer together. A second of blurred arm movements later and Kasumi was once again deeply entangled with Ranma. He sighed in contentment and tightened his grip. Kasumi sighed in contentment and tightened her grip. Sleep found her quickly after that.
But that was then. This was now and he wasn't here. The last thing she remembered happening was the two of them looking down at the Nanbam Mirror that her husband had mysteriously gotten ahold of when it was struck by lightning. The only trouble with that was they were very far away from home during that trip, so if they had been injured they still should have been over there. They had also not been home for the past two years, and her room hadn't been arranged like this for some time. So, if the Mirror had somehow activated without the use of a tear, what had happened to her husband Ranma?
She got up and bathed, noting things seemed to be in places that they hadn't been for a long time. She entered the guest room. It was pretty much bare, like it had been before Ranma had arrived. Heading down the stairs she checked the calendar that was on the counter in her kitchen and gasped. She was four years in the past! In fact, this was the day that the Saotome's were supposed to arrive. She tried to blink back her tears as she realized what had happened. Something that she had cherished more than life itself had been taken from her. It had taken her four years in order for her to find that happiness, and she wasn't about to give it up without a fight. If she had to do it all over again, then so be it. But she was going to get Ranma first, instead of trying to pass him onto her sister Akane. That poor girl. She really did wonder sometimes of Ranma's teasing had been much more truthful than anyone wanted to mention. She hadn't really progressed any since Ranma had met her, despite he himself moving on, growing to maturity, and finding somebody to love.
It had surprised everybody except Kasumi when he had said that he didn't want to be engaged to Akane anymore. That he had picked a different Tendo that he wanted to marry. Akane was stunned. She thought that she had something special that nobody else did. In fact she did, but it wasn't something that Ranma wanted to live with for the rest of his life. He needed trust, love, and motherly instincts to replace those that had malfunctioned due to his own mothers absence. What he had with Akane was very volatile, and could have worked out in the end, but Ranma realized that he was infatuated with Akane, for her spirit and her desire with martial arts. What had really made him stick to her side all those times was those few acts of kindness that she showed.
While Kasumi did the same thing it never seemed to have that sincerity to it because Kasumi was nice to everybody. But given time Ranma realized that she was a little different when she was around him. Sure, she was pleasant to everybody. But she was only actually really nice when she was around Ranma. Her eyes lit up and she actually laughed and giggled, something that she had never really done since her mother had died. Ranma was the first to notice this amazingly enough, and it even took him close to a year. Nobody else really thought Kasumi would ever try for him or that she was just waiting for Dr Tofu. While she had liked the good doctor when she was younger, he was silly, she really didn't think he would every fully get over his craziness in order to capture her attention long enough to marry him. Especially considering how much older he was compared to her.
That was something that Ranma excelled at. Capturing women's attention and holding it. Some of the more foolish, such as Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo and Kasumi herself had let this lead them to fall in love with him. Kasumi considered herself incredibly lucky that she had managed to get him. Everyday that went by she was more and more happy that she had fought for him. It had taken two years of knowing him, one and a half of those with Akane before he finally noticed her, then another half a year of them quietly courting each other before they married and left on their two year honeymoon. After everything that she had been through, both for and with Ranma, what would happen when he arrived later that day? She wasn't sure how she would react to seeing him again after having their past removed.
She sighed and started to cook breakfast. There were some things that never changed. She would just have to wait and see what happened. And pray that he would have joined her on this crazy adventure. She found it hard to believe that it was just her that was going to have to relive the past few years.
Ranma snapped her eyes open. Why was the scenery walking away from her? Because she was being carried over the shoulder of somebody. She looked down and noticed the broad back of fur and realized that she was being carried by her father. She looked around and noticed that they were in Nerima, going toward the Tendo dojo. Ranma blinked at this.
If she didn't know better she would say this looks like a reenactment of when she first showed up. As a girl also she remembered. Something definitely wasn't right here. "Hey, where we going Oyaji?" Ranma called out to the panda.
A sign was shoved over the panda's other shoulder. ~To the Tendo dojo.~ The sign flipped over. ~I told you that already. Pay attention boy!~
Ranma blinked in surprise. How could this have happened? The last thing she remembered doing was being male and talking with some pervert who he had just saved Kasumi from. Wait a minute, what had happened to Kasumi?!? Where had her wife gone? Was she back in time as Ranma apparently was? Ranma remembered having the Nanbam Mirror in his hand after Kasumi had batted away the freak, and she guessed it was lightning that struck the thing, though she couldn't remember that all too clearly. She had been holding onto the thing at the time, after all.
She desperately hoped Kasumi had been sucked into whatever had happened. She really needed to hold the taller girl in her arms right about now. "Preferably as a guy," She thought.
There were some things that her father really got wrong. One of them was what the love of a woman did to her. While it may have made Genma weak, Ranma had improved greatly in the art since getting married. Things that she would have thought impossible not to long ago she could do with ease. Like throwing those Moko Takabishi's. That was an emotion based attack. She couldn't do it all the time, so she was fortunate that she had a depression based attack. But that also meant she would have to swing from one end of the spectrum to the other in order to attack somebody from a distance. That was not something that she liked doing. It really displeased her to have a weakness in her form. So right after marrying they had gone on a honeymoon and between romantic evenings and much time spent in bed (Kasumi had a lot of frustration to work out given what the situation was at home) she had also done a lot of meditating (until Kasumi glomped him. Nothing he had thought of could keep him calm when she rubbed against him. It was one weakness that he was perfectly happy to acknowledge.) and had finally managed to get her ki under enough control that she didn't have to use emotions in order to throw attacks. She was starting to become like Herb in that sense. The prince had been able to do just about any ki based attack, and even recognized the Hiryu Shoten Ha before Ranma could complete it.
Now Ranma had all those abilities. But sometimes she wondered if it was worth it. She hadn't had a challenge to her skills in the longest time. Not that that was something that she always looked forward to, but it felt good to be pressed hard and win. There had been challenges, but nothing really worthy of what she was capable of. She could only hope that things would stay that boring this time around. She didn't need to have some of the same things happen to her again. And she really didn't want random people to show up and challenge her if she was suddenly the master of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.
Currently she was the master. Or at least in the future. She had defeated Happosai, Soun and Genma for the title. She had even gotten her old man to teach her the complete forbidden techniques, which she had managed to modify somewhat so that she could do nonlethal versions of just about all the attacks, depending what level of skill her opponent was. She still didn't like telling people about them though. She would have to tell them who had invented them and for what reason. Some people just didn't like learning the skills to rob a house blind. Ranma most used the Umisen-ken ken. That way she could cloak herself into invisibility and walk around without being either accosted for her signature, picture, a bucket of water or a challenge. But that was now all in the future.
The only thing Ranma had to worry about at the moment was what she was going to do at the Tendo dojo when she saw her Kasumi again. She wasn't sure if she would be able to restrain herself . The memory of seeing her wife slip into unconsciousness had disturbed her deeply. Something that was not likely going to forget anytime soon. The only other thing that could be done about it was if Kasumi came back with her. That would make everything ideal. Ranma would have all her memories and so would she, they wouldn't have to reform their relationship. Heck, she wasn't even sure if she could do it. It had been a somewhat strange set of events that had led to them getting together, and even that had only been possible after everything else had happened to him that first year after he had showed up.
But that was again, all in the future. Right now all she wanted to do was get rid of the panda she was riding on and get to the dojo the fastest way she knew how, which was flying in this case. Of course, that would leave a very disturbed panda behind, but she didn't really care about that. There was only one question. Should she show up female or male? She had managed to get control of her curse over the years while studying with Cologne and had finally stumbled across an incredibly ancient scroll buried deep within the bowels of the village. She wasn't even sure if Cologne had known about the place before she had stumbled upon it. But she would never forget the day she started to read some of the scrolls and realized that they were for controlling and changing the magic that surrounded Jusenkyo.
That place was what all the old mage's drew their magic from, it being a rather large source of raw magic that it seeping into the springs was just a side effect. Since most of the magicians that went there usually ended up falling into a spring at some point, either through an accident or intentionally from rivals or to be able to take a certain form they developed ways of controlling the curse. Ranma could've, in fact, gotten rid of her curse entirely, but when it got right down to it, Ranma thought that it was a good life lesson that he should probably endure for a while longer. And it wasn't like she couldn't just do the spell later. So she had settled for being able to mentally control when the change would occur.
Genma had also found out about it, but hadn't really cared enough to actually put the effort into learning magic, since that was the only spell that Ranma was going to teach him. It not having anything to do with martial arts he really didn't care enough to go through with it. Especially since Nodoka still hadn't really forgiven him for some of the things that he had done to her son/daughter. Be that as it may, there were many things that she could do that would confuse and frighten just about any of the people she knew now. The only regret she had was that she had appeared too far in the future to prevent Ryoga from getting cursed.
While she could cure the curse she knew that Ryoga would still chase after him no matter what she did, simply because Ryoga was like that. He needed something to blame all his problems on. If Ranma hadn't been the one that was there a lot of those problems probably would have been dumped on somebody else instead of her. But that wasn't to be. She would just have to come up with some way of dealing with him in the few days she had before he showed up. She could only hope she could restrain herself. Some of the things that pig had done could get her blood boiling faster than anything.
Which would be very bad. She would probably end up killing the poor fool if things didn't work out right. Not really intentionally, but she was so much stronger than Ryoga was at this point that it was really pointless for him to even think about attacking her with anything less than the Saotome Secret Techniques or something equally powerful. Surprisingly, there weren't all that many things that could outdo the Sealed Techniques if one trained in them enough. Ranma herself had only scratched the surface of what they could do when she had fought Kumon. Be that as it may, Ranma could tell that she was still a good ten or more minutes away from the dojo and her hopefully still lifemate Kasumi. She didn't want to think about how much she would cry if Kasumi didn't recognize her. It was going to be a painful experience the more she thought about it.
Just past lunch Kasumi was in the kitchen cleaning up when she heard the call from her father. "Kasumi! Nabiki! Akane! I have an announcement!" He then wandered off to get the rest of his daughters together, Kasumi the only one that had apparently heard his summons.
Kasumi took a deep breath, wondering if she should even try and act surprised or if she should just try and be calm, like this was all old news to her. That would really get her sisters going. She giggled at the thought. Causing a little mayhem had been surprisingly amusing the few times she had tried it. Of course, she had made sure that the only people that were going to be effected were Genma or her father. She liked her sisters too much to cause them any trouble. Although she did have to admit that she had done it to Ranma a few times. But that had been private. She blushed slightly as the memories replayed in her mind. Yes, those had been very private.
Kasumi dried her hands on her apron and went out to sit at the table with her sisters, wondering and hoping that Ranma would be there for her. Soun sat and regarded his daughters, trying to hold in the tears until he could tell them the entire story. He so wanted this to get off to a good start he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to pull it off. Some things, like this promise, and his wife, and his daughters, and the dojo, and the master, and... well, you get the idea, really made him tear up.
"A good friend of mine is coming by. He has a son named Ranma Saotome. If he were to marry one of you girls and carry on the dojo then the legacy would be secured." Soun nodded to himself, as if trying to convince everybody that engaging his daughters to a man none of them had ever met was the perfect plan, and should be embraced by all whole heartedly.
Kasumi sneaked a glance over at her sisters and saw the same expressions that were there the first time. From Akane fear, distrust and a lot of anger. From Nabiki eagerness, hope and little yen signs dancing around her head. One got too close to Kasumi, who batted it away with her hand.
Kasumi smiled to herself and decided to be the first one to voice an opinion. "Oh my, I hope he's cute."
Everybody looked at her and blinked once, their eyes somehow making a squeegee sound, before the three daughters returned their attention to their father. "Well Daddy, you heard Oneechan. Is he cute?" Nabiki asked, a smile playing across her lips as she regarded her older sister out of the corner of her eye.
Soun laughed somewhat nervously while he stood and looked out over the backyard. "He's been on a training trip since he was very little, and just recently returned from China."
"Ooh, China." Nabiki cooed, a part of her mind wondering why her father had avoided the question. Kasumi could tell that she was hoping he would have some money that they could marry into. Kasumi smiled to herself. If you only knew little sister. He had more money than he knew what to do with, it was just all on his mothers side. Something that Nodoka hadn't been allowed to touch since she had married Genma. But that hadn't stopped her from trying. Or from getting her parents to write Ranma into the will, saying that he would get all the money at either the time he married or he took over the family style of martial arts and assumed head of the Saotome clan. Given that Nodoka had actually not put up very much of a fight signaled to everyone that she had some idea of the sort of man that she had married, and had no intention of letting him ruin the family fortune through something stupid that he would probably do. But Kasumi wasn't going to tell Nabiki that. She wasn't sure what she would do if Nabiki knew that Ranma belonged to one of the top 50 richest families in Japan.
Of course, the two of them hadn't really done anything with the money except spend it on fixing up the dojo, house, and going on a VERY long honeymoon. Which was, in fact, part training trip, part honeymoon, part vacation for both of them, and part living away from home for a while before Kasumi got pregnant and had to take up the household duties for the next 20 plus years nonstop. Ranma had managed to convince her that it would do her good to have some of her childhood back. Kasumi had to admit to herself that, except for that last stop that they had made, it had indeed been something that she would have never wanted to end. But they had been gone for two years by that point, and had deemed it long enough for them to return home and start building up the family business before they turned their attention to making an heir, the whole point of the arranged marriage and all.
Kasumi had a small pang of regret over that. As much as she had enjoyed the trip and everything that had happened during it, she still couldn't shake the thought that they should have started a family instead of running around the world. Kasumi still couldn't believe how many different places Ranma had encountered Ryoga. She hadn't really believe him when he had recounted some of the places that the lost boy could get lost in. But to actually see it happen was another story altogether.
Soun didn't get a chance to answer any more of his daughters question as a rather irate voice came from the entryway. "Oyaji, put me down or I'll make you do so."
Kasumi blinked in surprise even as she tried to squash a sudden surge of hope within her. That wasn't how this first meeting went, but she really didn't want to get her hopes up for any reason. For all she knew she might be in different a dimension, one in which Ranma had been raised differently, or perhaps one where he had already met one of them before. Kasumi herself had seen these a few times on her two year adventure with Ranma. They had stumbled on an amazing array of ways to cross dimensions, one which meant just following Ryoga around for a little while and then finding one's way back to civilization. It had really surprised her to realize that they were indeed still in Nerima, but a different one. She didn't want to think about that universe though. It hadn't been a pleasant one, even though neither one of them had any trouble with threats to their lives like in some of the worlds, it was just everybody looked at them strange and nobody would talk to them.
Snapping out of her memories Kasumi stood. "We have guests," She stated, making sure all of her family was aware of the situation. With people like Akane and Soun around, one couldn't always be sure that they grasped the obvious. As she had so dishearteningly observed on several occasions. Not that she would ever admit those thoughts to anyone but Ranma.
She strode towards the front when she heard a rather loud furry thud. Instead of a panda carrying a red haired girl over its shoulder, a panda came flying down the hallway to impact with the wall, unconscious. The red head strode in right after it, glaring at the furry mass.
"I told you to put me down Oyaji, but would you listen, oooh no, have to do this for my own good. And to make sure that I can't get away before I can meet my fiance." Onna-Ranma turned and saw the family standing there in shock. Kasumi's eyes locked with the redhead's and she twitched her head in the direction of the families. Kasumi shrugged her shoulders fractionally to signal it was up to Onna-Ranma how they wanted to approach this.
She smiled, something Kasumi had come to look forward to no matter what gender Ranma was. This smile was definitely her mischievous one. Kasumi braced herself for whatever her future husband might try. After having been subjected to chaos for so long the redhead had gotten remarkably good at causing it when she so desired. Like, apparently, right now.
Onna-Ranma reached out with her left hand and grabbed the panda, lifting it into the air and holding it behind her at arms length as she approached them. Kasumi held up the tea kettle, wondering when Ranma was going to show the family their curses.
The rest of the Tendo family gasped as they watched a petite red headed girl lift several hundred pounds of panda into the air with one hand. Akane seemed to look on enviously. Ranma stood before the frozen family, righted the panda and set it down against the wall where it slumped into a somewhat sitting position.
Onna-Ranma held out her hand and Kasumi gave her the kettle. Turning, the smaller girl doused the panda with boiling water. This caused it to turn into a slightly overweight bald man with a white hanky on his head. It also caused him to awaken with a start, screeching, "Yeeeouch, that's hot!"
The man landed from his leap of surprise and glared at Onna-Ranma. "What do you think you're doing, boy?" The Tendo family just stood there and stared at the spectacle. Genma became aware of this as his son turned daughter was just smiling at him as if nothing was wrong. He suddenly felt the various stares he was getting from many different sources behind him and turned to find out who they were.
His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the entire Tendo family staring at him. His vision latched onto Soun and he broke into a wide grin just as the man seemed to be coming out of his stupor. "Tendo!" He shouted as he rushed the taller man. Tendo blinked in surprise before he was being pounded on the back by his friend.
Soun, amazingly enough, was the first to recover, though he sported a thoroughly bewildered look on his face. "Saotome! When did you get here? What happened to that panda? What's going on?"
Onna-Ranma smiled at them as she stepped toward Kasumi. Kasumi smiled mischievously, something nobody had seen before on her face, giving her sisters pause. "Ranma-kun, that wasn't very nice thing to do to your Father." She chastised her.
Onna-Ranma blinked, then her smile reasserted itself. "True, but usually somebody has to do something good in order to be treated nicely." Finally she stood before Kasumi and enfolded the taller girl in a hug. The two other sisters weren't sure what to make of this. They had noticed that Ranma was female from the start this time, thanks to the rather abrupt movements she had been making, causing certain parts of her anatomy to bounce and show her current female gender much clearer than the first time the families had met.
Kasumi just shook her head at him, returning the hug eagerly. She was certain now that Ranma had made the trip with her, and hopefully the two of them together could now make things easier on themselves, or, if that wasn't possible, at least make things more interesting for everybody around them instead of Ranma. "Maybe we could get Nabiki to help. I'm sure she'll suspect something is up the moment I start kissing him. Oh well, can't be helped. I'm not going to stop just for her." Kasumi thought.
Onna-Ranma loosened her grip on Kasumi, and she knew what the smaller girl wanted to do. Taking a half step back she spread her arms just enough to let the red head suddenly grow six inches, loose her curves, and turn into a black haired young man. Their arms tightened around each other again even as everybody else's eyes widened in amazement. Even after seeing the panda change into a man they were unprepared for a girl to change into a guy.
The hugging couple turn at the sound of several thuds. Akane, Nabiki, and Soun had all fainted while Genma was staring wide eyed at his son. Then he suddenly started grinning. "How did you do that without hot water, boy?" Genma demanded to know. Then he seemed to notice what the two of them were doing and his demeanor suddenly changed. "Decided to go with the oldest huh? So when should we hold the wedding? This weekend sounds good." He fully expected his son to object. He would do all he could to convince him that this needed to be done, but he knew that there would be some objections no matter what happened.
His again male offspring shrugged. "Sounds soon enough to me." He turned to look in the brown haired girl's eyes, mere inches from his own. "How about you?"
Kasumi smiled brilliantly at them. "I hope I can wait that long," She admitted truthfully. She wasn't sure if she was going to be able to get to sleep very easily with him in the next room. Their honeymoon had been most rudely interrupted, even after two years.
This last comment was enough to drive Genma to the edge of credulity. He turned saucer sized eyes on his son. "T-t-this weekend?" Seeing Ranma nod happily was more than his mind could process and he fainted, falling straight back to land on Akane's chest.
Ranma's fist thrust into the air. "Yes! I got all of 'em!" He shouted gleefully. Turning back to Kasumi he enveloped her in another hug, but this time, when their faces drew close he captured her lips in a deep kiss that left them both breathless by the time they were finished. For the moment, anyway.
They smothered one other with greedy hugs and feather light kisses, murmuring in the others ear. "I'm so glad you got sent back with me. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to try and win you again. There were such strange events that led to us getting together that I'm not sure if I could get them to go again."
Kasumi somehow managed to nod while being smothered. "I don't know if I would have been able to capture your attention with the way my sisters go. I feel guilty because I really hoped you would show up female again so Akane wouldn't like you from the start. I was so sure I'd lose you if she got to you first."
Ranma simply smiled at her, wondering how long he would have gone before he had tried to get them married if she hadn't gone back with him. Finally Kasumi sighed and murmured, her voice muffled by her position against her love, "We really should put them on a futon, especially with Genma's head where it is."
Ranma chuckled, bouncing Kasumi's head, which rested against his chest, pleasantly. "I don't know, maybe we should just let them be and see what conclusions they manage to jump to."
Kasumi then did something very un-Kasumi like. She bopped Ranma on the head. "Ranma!" She exclaimed, scandalized. The look of suppressed mirth in her eyes ruined the effect, though. Ranma saw through it and smiled his best smile at her. "You shouldn't think such things about family!" She continued, trying to ignore her husbands infectious smile. And not doing a very good job. Her sentence started to trail off as she snuggled closer to his firm body and somehow his smile got wider. Kasumi's own trademark smile shown forth, but instead of her usual blissfully happy one an almost lecherous smile blossomed. If anybody had been awake at that point they would have fainted again.
Ranma instantly recognized that look and quirked his own to match her smile. Kasumi molded herself tightly to Ranma's body as the two of them started to head toward the stairs, their lips locked. Ranma was somehow able to carry the girl while letting his hands have free reign up and down her back. They were interrupted by a groan coming from the floor. The couple paused in their activities, Kasumi's feet once again touching the floor, with a long suffering sigh to see who was returning to the land of the living.
Nabiki, being the one with the quickest mind, had managed to get over her shock of seeing Kasumi with a sex changing girl (her perception at the time) and decided that she would be better served if she were awake to question the events happening around her. She lifted her head and surveyed the bodies heaped on the floor.
To her right lay Akane, also having fainted, and so was Genma, the panda from earlier. Except his face had landed right in her sisters cleavage. Nabiki's eyes widened in horror. That man was going to be in a world of hurt if she awoke with him like that. Not knowing anything about Genma she decided to save him the pain and move him. She sat up and saw Soun also passed out to the other side of herself. Then she looked behind her and gasped.
There stood Kasumi, almost lewdly wrapped around an incredibly cute guy that the red headed girl had transformed into. Kasumi's hands were roving very suggestively over his body, while his own were gently massaging some of her feminine bits. THAT was unexpected behavior, and after seeing the two of them transform, one a different species and the other gender, Nabiki wasn't sure what to make of everything but was fairly certain that it wasn't good. Having so decided she started to try and figure out ways to find out information and make the guy's stay here as hard as possible. She didn't know if Kasumi was doing that willingly or not. Having all this going through her head caused her to forget about moving Genma off of Akane.
The boy had just opened his mouth to say something, presumably to Nabiki, when Akane awoke. She opened her eyes, wondering if it was a dream when she noticed a weight pressing against something that really shouldn't be pressed against under most circumstances. Akane looked downward and saw a bald, hanky covered head residing between her breasts. If there was one thing that Akane really couldn't stand it was perverts. Never mind the fact that he was unconscious at the time. He was on a place of her body that she didn't want anybody touching except a certain doctor.
Akane leapt to her feet, throwing the man off of her. He landed with a thud, having been awoke twice in a very short period of time in unpleasant ways. He looked around to get his bearings and noticed a rather large mallet descending toward his head. The sight was such a novelty that he completely forgot about dodging the thing. Akane huffed in expressed female furry, leaving her mallet embedded in Genma's head, both objects through the floor. Nabiki scowled slightly at this as she watched her sister stomp out of the room and head back to the dojo, but thought it understandable. Genma's was not a face that would be forgiven for having fainted in ones bosom. That cute boy Kasumi was draped over might be able to, but that was it.
Nabiki's mind hiccuped on that thought. Kasumi was draped over a boy? She looked again and, sure enough, she was clinging to an incredibly cute guy who was apparently enjoying himself very much in her older sisters embrace. Her scowl remained on her face as she thought about this. Something was not right, and if there was one thing Nabiki couldn't stand it was being in the dark. She was determined to get to the bottom of this. It gave her pause, though, to see the look of pure joy that was on Kasumi's face. Normally there was a happy smile there, but everybody knew it was put there by force of habit. She wasn't always that happy, ever since mother had died. She didn't really like being the mother figure at age of 12 but had gotten into the role rather quickly and thoroughly.
It always made Nabiki depressed thinking about what their oldest sister had had to do while also going to school while the younger siblings played and hung out with friends. There was never fairness in the world. 'Correction,' Nabiki thought. 'It apparently comes to those who wait. But when did she meet him? She hasn't been out of the house except for shopping for as long as I can remember.'
Just then she noticed the boy, Ranma she thought her...his...uh, well, apparently the girl was really a boy given how he was enthusiastically returning Kasumi's loving minstrations. But he was trying to get her attention while she had been thinking to herself and recalling Oneechan's previous life of activity, or lack thereof. She quirked her eyebrow at him, wondering what his reaction to the subtle reply would be. His hand quickly twitched through several positions, telling her the time and the place that he wanted to meet and talk with her.
Nabiki's eyes widened in shock at that. That was a private code that she had developed to use with her sisters and later with her lackeys when she wanted to talk with them in private and not have anybody else know that she was going to go discuss things in private. Given how quickly he had rattled the message off he obviously was more than just passingly familiar with it. But how could that be? There couldn't have been a way for him to know it, it had been sworn by all the sisters that the only people who they would teach it to would be those who had to know it. There was no way that Kasumi could have taught him, Nabiki didn't even recall the eldest even remembering what the symbols were a week after they had been completed. But that left Akane or one of her lackeys. That couldn't be either though. Akane hated boys in general, only a select few being privileged to get more than a down the nose look from her. Nabiki herself had so much good stuff on her subordinates that she couldn't see any of them doing it, especially with one who was in a relationship with her older sister and who was not afraid of using the system. That left he had learned it while watching them, and she really didn't think that that would be possible given how quick and easy the system was to use without other people watching being able to pick it up on their own.
All these thoughts floated through her mind in the time it took for her to crook her finger to the acknowledged position. Then she got her thoughts under control and decided to try and find something out immediately. "Kasumi? Uh, when did you meet Ranma? That is Ranma right? The red headed girl that changed into a boy your holding so possessively?"
"Oh, almost five years now," was the answer. Nabiki blinked in wonder about that. How could she have known him for five years without anybody knowing anything about it? That just didn't make any sense. "Yes, that red head is Ranma, he picked up a curse while he was traveling through China, among other things." At the last Kasumi gave him a meaningful look, which Ranma looked somewhat sheepish about.
"Hey, I only had my father to look at at the time. I've changed since then. And I got you.." He said, finishing his sentence with a peck on her lips.
Kasumi giggled. "Yes, I did manage to catch you, didn't I? I wish the weekend was over already. I don't want to wait." Ranma nodded in agreement before turning back to his soon to be wife's younger sister.
"Don't worry, I'll explain later. There is much for us to discuss. Hopefully you won't hate me again." With that the two of them broke apart, Ranma to extract his father from the floor and get Soun on a futon, Kasumi to go have a chat with Akane about her temper, and that she should at least get to know a person before she starts swinging her mallets around. One must make sure they are deserving before one acts. Nabiki helped Ranma somewhat, getting a pillow for her fathers head, although Ranma seemed to know where everything was already, which also didn't make any sense with what she knew of the situation. And that comment he had made really threw her. Hate him again? When had she met him before? She couldn't remember a thing that had happened that would cause this type of response from him, or anybody that remotely resembled him.
She would just have to wait until the meeting and pump him for all the information that she could. With that decided, Nabiki went back to surveying the damage to the floor and wondering when her little sister was finally going to get over her temper enough to actually develop a relationship. Or when Nabiki herself was going to go to college and hopefully loose her mercenary image so she could get into a relationship. With Kasumi married to Ranma for the continuation of the dojo, hopefully he would be able to make enough money that she could put most of her mercenary ways behind her and just concentrate on the ones that she actually thought were fun. Like bugging Kuno. The dimwit was amusing to be around sometimes. But still, she needed somebody who would be able to think for themselves, not require her to do it all for them. That was what useless men and people like her little sister wanted. Oh well, one couldn't really say that until she saw who Akane would try and see once she finally got over Kuno's obsession. Hopefully soon, before she turned her back on boys altogether.
Nabiki looked over at Ranma as he positioned his father next to Soun, wondering who was going to wake up first, and wondering just how Akane was going to react to Ranma being married to her oldest sister almost as soon as he showed up. Especially since Ranma had no intention of telling her the truth. Kasumi might if things got to the point where she would have to know, but these things were best left in the past if they could be. Neither of them wanted to detail the past four years and the actions that everyone would take during them. Especially Genma. Those things would only equal bad news if he found out that his son knew about that future and what would happen to all of them during that time. Even Nabiki wasn't completely safe, but that would be a risk the couple would have to take, cause they weren't going to be able to do this with all of the Tendo's and one Saotome watching them, they were far to familiar with each other even to have been corresponding by mail. Be that as it may, it really had no relation to what they were doing at the moment. Waiting for everybody to wake up. Ranma could only hope that there wouldn't be any tables involved with this introduction, unlike the first one.
Ranma watched everybody gathered around the table. He looked into their eyes, wondering what they were thinking and wondering if they were going to be thinking the same things they did the first time he had shown up. Nothing to it but just ask, he guessed.
"I imagine all of you have some questions that you want answered. Well, to start with my name is Ranma Saotome, and this is my father Genma Saotome. We have been traveling through China recently til we came across the training ground at Jusenkyo. This is where my father made one of his many mistakes. Although, I must admit, I wasn't really listening to the guide either, so I'm at least partially at fault for getting myself cursed. As to the nature of the curse, Jusenkyo is called the valley of Accursed Springs for good reason. There are over 100 cursed springs there, each one has its own tragic story of what drowned there a long time ago. Oyaji fell in the Spring of drowned Panda, so now whenever he gets splashed with cold water he transforms into a panda. Hot water reverses the curses. I also have a curse, but I learned to control mine during some of my many adventures. Those occurred at a later time. From Jusenkyo we traveled back to Japan where we came here. I've known Kasumi for some time now, and have fallen in love with her. She has returned my affections and we hope to get married this weekend."
Ranma had been watching all of their reactions while he told them most of the truth, and it seemed that Akane was starting to believe him, while everybody else didn't. Except Kasumi, of course. She almost always believed in what happened to him. She was, after all, present and played a role in much of it. Nabiki didn't have to believe it, for she was going to be getting the full story from them later on in her room, the only safe place in the entire house. From herself, anyway.
Soun and Genma couldn't believe that they would be so lucky as to get the agreement taken care of the moment that the two of them arrived. It was a dream come true, and now they would only have to get them to start teaching classes so they could live off them instead of Nabiki like Soun had been doing. Ranma had a surprise in store for them, one he was going to give too Nabiki, along with a few tips on the stock market once he gained her confidence. When he had shown up the first time, after a couple months he had started to talk to Nabiki about finances once he had found out he was rich and discovered some very interesting things that had all happened while he was in Nerima and shortly afterword that he was going to take advantage of for the Tendo's. And to keep his parents off his back. Genma, at least, would want him to start teaching as soon as he got married, something that he knew he couldn't do for a very long time to come.
He just had to figure out a way in which he could get the inheritance without letting either of his parents know. It would be one thing to have lots of money that people would try and get out of him, it was something else when those people started using his family and friends to extort him. That was when he would show them why a god feared him.
Be that as it may, he had to consult with Kasumi about how they were going to handle Nabiki. While she could probably figure out what was going on eventually, it would take her a while, during which time she would probably make sure his life was as hard as possible. Once she found out what was going on he thought she would apologize and try and make it up, but he would rather not have to deal with that at all.
Once everything was concluded Ranma sent a couple of signals to Nabiki and Kasumi, asking the two of them to meet him at different places. Kasumi responded, unnoticed by everyone else. Nabiki did the same, although her reaction was visible if you knew what to look for Kasumi, though, was going to be meeting him on the roof for a little strategy meeting, among a few other things he wanted to....discuss with his soon to be wife.
Nabiki sat in her room, wondering what the eldest daughters fiance wanted to talk to her about. She had almost been taken by their story it seemed so plausible. Obviously the two of them were quick thinkers, something that she had always thought Kasumi capable of, but she never had the chance to prove it. But the fact that they wanted to talk to her alone signaled that something was up, not to mention the fact that the couple were constantly glancing back and forth at each other during their tale as if reading the others thoughts. The way they had managed to orchestrate that story she was almost willing to believe in telepathy.
Nabiki realized she would have to ask Ranma about that during her coming meeting. She had learned that day that magic and curses were real, so maybe telepathy was too. She never would have thought either possible if she hadn't seen them with her own eyes. Actually, she still didn't entirely believe them. She had been looking for the smoke and mirrors every time Genma had transformed. Ranma had only done so once, to again show everybody what he looked like while female. Nabiki had her breath taken away, the guy made a gorgeous girl!
The short brown haired girl glanced at her clock again, hoping that the final 30 minutes until she was supposed to let Ranma in through her window were up. Alas, she still had another 15 to go. Deciding to try and curb any other thoughts on the matter until she had some more information, Nabiki started reading a manga.
Kasumi regarded her almost-soon-to-be-but-not-quite husband. "Are you sure about that Ranma? I know she didn't like you very much when you first arrived."
Ranma nodded, as he was convinced that he would need to tell Nabiki about his fortune, just to be sure that he didn't get on her bad side for holding out on something as important as that. Everybody knew how much money meant to Nabiki.
"I'm sure Kasumi-chan. I've seen what she has done on occasion, and I don't want to get in her bad graces. On the other hand, I know that I'm going to be putting a rather large drain on her resources pretty soon," Next meal the two thought as one. (Great minds think alike, ne?) "Besides, she won't want all that much once she realizes what she has in her stock portfolio now."
The by now far eldest Tendo sister nodded in agreement. "Yes, I suppose that would probably be best, even if it will only get her deeper into trouble."
Ranma winced a bit at that. He knew Kasumi had been trying to get each of her sisters to start growing up, or in Nabiki's case, become a little warmer and less greedy before they were alone in the world. Even if it was their own fault, when your alone, nobody is there to say that your thinking is wrong and needs to be corrected, to give support when needed. Ryoga was a prime example of this. Far too prime.
Ranma checked his internal clock and realized they still had 15 minutes before they had to speak with Nabiki. The pig-tailed martial artist was determined to use those minutes to their fullest. Kasumi seemed to realize what he was thinking and eagerly leaned into the passionate kiss. After almost their entire time was up the two finally separated and just hugged while they got their breath under control.
"I sure am going to miss you when you leave for school tomorrow. I was so happy when you graduated, and now I have to wait another two and a half years." Kasumi pouted, making Ranma marvel at her ability to be incredibly cute when she was trying to pout. It was just something about her he guessed.
Ranma responded. "I know, love. I'm going to be heading home for lunch. Or would you rather come to school? It would be a good time to get some air and exercise."
Kasumi blink-blinked in surprise. "I hadn't even thought of that. I think I'll go to school. We haven't been in places that have good fences in a while."
Ranma grinned at her, knowing she missed walking on top of fences too. It was something he had gotten her addicted to after the first few times he had carried her across the fences and rooftops of Nerima. It had also started her wearing clothes other than house dresses. For most of her martial art adventures she would usually don something similar to his own clothing, noting that they were fairly close in height when he was male. Kasumi hadn't really intended to pick up some of the skills she did, but hanging around with her husband like she had caused her to learn things that she didn't think she would have otherwise.
The Amiguriken had been learned, fence walking was now her main form of travel, as was roof hopping. Her actual fighting style wasn't really all that much, but when it counted, it could be used rather effectively. Kasumi was just too passive for her own good on some occasions. Ranma had been working steadily on that, but very subtly. He liked Kasumi the way she was, and didn't want her to change too much. Ranma loved to watch Kasumi practice her art, while Kasumi loved to watch Ranma. While her husband had been able to perform just about any style known to man with perfection, Kasumi had only mastered the passive arts, inventing kata to suit her needs of cooking, cleaning, and exercising her mind while maintaining her body. Since she had married her training had increased some, to the point where she was getting much better with every passing week.
One thing that really surprised the both of them, however, was when she tried to learn the soul of ice. She had picked up the technique just as fast as Ranma had, able to make ice cubes out of a glass of water and make dew at will. That had really been the breaking point. Once she had learned to control her aura like that, she had improved with leaps and bounds, hence her current ease with roof hopping and using one's energy to increase speed, strength, and stamina. While she didn't really have any ki attacks, she could do a Hiryu Shoten Ha, and they were working on forming an energy blast like the Moko Takabishi with the soul of ice. Ranma was sure that it could be done, he just had to find a way to harness the energy that he and his wife could produce for something other than freezing things and making tornados. Kasumi smiled when she realized that they would have a few years to figure it out, and that she would have something to do while waiting for Ranma to get home after she had finished her chores. There was always a new move to be worked on or invented, something that she enjoyed doing just as much as Ranma, even if she didn't even perform most of them. Kasumi was just a creative person once she had an outlet for her imagination.
Ranma didn't think he would ever stop being impressed with his wife. The things she came up with would amaze him even to this day. However, now they had to go talk to Nabiki, something that Ranma prayed he could get right the first time for once in his life. Most of his dealings with Nabiki had left him wanting for something.
Nabiki sat in her room, arms crossed under her breasts, foot tapping impatiently for the lovebirds to show up. She didn't want to tell anyone, but she was dying to know how Ranma had learned what the hand signals were if he had only corresponded with Kasumi by letter. She was also dying to know what they had to tell her that they didn't want anybody else to hear. In fact, Ranma was so well informed he knew that pretty much the only safe place to talk was in her room, where all the mic's fed to. Only one more minute before she had to open her window. Nabiki's foot started tapping faster. She knew prime information when it showed up.
Finally, her clock ticked over the last minute. Instantly she slid the window pane aside. Not a second later Ranma alighted on her sill, a slightly peeved expression on his face. He looked back over his shoulder. "That wasn't very nice, Kasumi-chan."
Nabiki stood there in open mouthed shock. KASUMI did something not nice?!
Her voice floated up from outside. "You just don't know her like I do. Besides, I would never allow something to happen to you." Ranma's peeved expression quickly changed to something that Nabiki wasn't sure she could identify, not ever having really seen it before. She guessed that it was probably love. She could only ever remember that expression on her mother's face, and that was a little fuzzy it had been so long ago.
Nabiki realized something then. Ranma wasn't carrying Kasumi, so how was she supposed to get in there? The middle Tendo daughter thought it was to be a meeting for the three of them, but maybe Ranma had gotten the signals wrong or something. Ranma moved out of the window and stood next to Nabiki. A moment later Kasumi alighted on her sill, her skirt billowing about her as if she had just floated there. Nabiki's jaw unhinged and banged painfully against the floor while her eyes tripled in size.
Ratcheting her jaw shut Nabiki stuttered out, "K-K-Kasumi? D-d-did you just jump t-t-two stories into my window?"
Ranma reached out for his fiance. She smiled at him and took his hand, using it to help her keep her steady so her clothing would stay proper while she climbed out of the window. She probably could have by herself, but that was just one of the reasons she loved him. Being pampered was something that she could enjoy for a change.
"Yes I did. That's part of what we need to explain to you tonight. Remember, just keep an open mind and you will be much farther ahead than before Ranma showed up." Kasumi said in her most reassuring voice.
Nabiki took a long look at Kasumi, but she looked like the real Kasumi. Which meant that Ranma must be controlling her somehow. Before she could continue that line of thinking Kasumi sat her younger sister down in her desk chair before joining Ranma on the bed. She put her arm through his, leaning up against him, both her smaller hands holding one of his in her lap. The three sat staring at each other for a minute before Ranma realized that he would just have to tell her what was really going on and hope that she would give them time to prove themselves. She was waiting for them, instead of demanding information. The cautious Nabiki wasn't something he was used to, but this was their first meeting in this time.
Ranma decided to go for broke. "Nabiki, the Kasumi you know is gone. This is one from the future. I'm from the future also, the both of us having been brought back here by means that we aren't entirely sure about. We're not that far into the future, only a few years. But the thing is, I don't know if I even want to go back, even if I have to go through high school again. The future is a rather unpleasant place for the two of us. Only thing I can claim that I really liked about then is Kasumi herself."
He paused to breath for a moment while Nabiki seemed to be going through several stages of shock, unsure of what to do about the weird things Kasumi's boyfriend was saying. Kasumi herself just beamed happiness at Ranma, almost causing him to stutter to a halt from the effect she had on him. "The reason I'm telling you like this, Nabiki, is that I don't want to get on your bad side. The first time I showed up here, something happened between us that caused you to put up a barrier between us. You did just about everything in your power to make my stay here unpleasant, and you were very successful. The other reason is because no matter how hard I tried, you would always keep your mask in place, never letting your other side out, even cutting out your sisters toward the end. I don't want to loose you as a friend, and Kasumi doesn't want to loose you as a sister. So, basically what I'm asking here is for you to hold your judgment on us. I know that things are going to be getting very strange from here on in, especially when my past starts to catch up with me. But you don't have to worry about that unless you want to. All I'm saying here is that I want to be honest with you, because you have a good head on your shoulders. I would like to be able to claim you as a friend instead of another enemy."
Kasumi was rather impressed with his speech, but she wasn't sure if it was doing good or bad. Usually the truth was best, but when things started to get too weird people would stop seeing reality and ignore everything. She could only hope that her little sister had an open mind about these things, unlike the other members of the household.
Nabiki's cool gaze regarded the two of them for several long moments. Finally, she spoke. "So, you're from the future, you change sexes, your father turns into a panda, and you somehow managed to get Kasumi tangled up in all this?"
Kasumi shook her head. "Oh my, no. I was a perfectly willing participant. I wouldn't dream of leaving him out all by himself. Who knows what trouble he could get himself into." She gazed lovingly at her betrothed.
Ranma chuckled in mild embarrassment. "Yeah, I know Kasumi-chan. *Sigh* You would have to bail me out of something pretty quick, wouldn't you. I have the worst luck in the world." He thought on that a minute before adding. "No, actually I don't. My friends and family don't die around me, I don't let those kinds of things happen. I don't have the WORST luck. Just close."
Kasumi glomped Ranma briefly, happy with his answer. Besides, she felt like it. Who said Kasumi was always the perfectly serene daughter? Ranma's mind had derailed when he had felt his fiance rub herself against his side while mortally wounding him with cuteness rays. It was something he was perfectly willing to acknowledge as a severe weakness, but he somehow remembered that he still had to deal with Nabiki before she started to jump to too many conclusion, as that also seemed to be the story of his life.
Fortunately for Ranma, Kasumi thought the same thing at the same time and reserved herself to simply hanging onto his arm while caressing his hand held possessively in her lap.
Nabiki spoke again. "So, are you two done making out in my room?" She had always possessed a sharp tongue.
Kasumi dimpled at her younger sister. "No. I want to be ravished, right here, right now." For added affect the brown haired girl leaned back, pulling Ranma with her till he was almost lying atop her. The couple glanced over to Nabiki.
Her eyes were taking up 90 percent of her face while her mouth made a good impression of a fish out of water. Kasumi's musical laughter tinkled through the room, shortly joined by Ranma's own. The two sat up and resumed their previous positions, making it obvious they had just been pulling Nabiki's leg. Kasumi had become much more playful since they had gotten together, in just about every sense of the word.
Nabiki just couldn't believe that her older sister would ever do something like that in her lifetime. Joking was almost unheard of, and pulling something sexual like that was harder to believe than Ranma coming from the future. Although that would explain how Kasumi had changed, especially if the girl were in love. That would probably get her to loosen up, especially with someone who looked as fun to be around as Ranma.
With a shimmer Kasumi was suddenly holding a much smaller and softer Ranma. "Hey Nabiki," The boy turned girl said. "What's so amazing, huh? It's just us girls here. Kasumi was just pretending that she might do something like that if she was actually engaged to her one true love and was going to get married to him that very weekend."
The couple managed to hold their laughter in just long enough for Nabiki to really start looking at them like they had sprouted several things that they really shouldn't have. Of course, in Ranma's case, that was exactly what happened. Nabiki just hadn't had the time yet to get used to the transformation, something that seemed to happen very quickly for some reason.
When it didn't look like they were planning on joking more, Nabiki pulled herself together and tried to get some facts that she could confirm their story with. "So, do you have any way of proving that you're from the future?" Once again proof that great minds think alike Ranma already had everything he needed in his head. He just hoped that nothing would have changed since he went back in time. If he went to an alternate universe instead of just back in time some of the companies might not even exist. That would be a surefire way of getting Nabiki to make his stay as unpleasant as possible. Ranma took the plunge. He didn't have any other way.
"Yeah, I got some major stocks that you should invest in, I got some results from various sporting events around the world., most of them having something to do with fighting though. I don't think you did all that much with sports and betting beside's Akane's morning fights. Umm, geez, I really should have paid more attention when we had gone over all the dojo's finances Nabiki. I'm having trouble remembering what some of the pertinent numbers are."
Kasumi looked on in concern. He had been doing so good, too! Only thing to do now was to give him a back rub to help him remember. It didn't have anything to do with the fact Kasumi liked running her hands all over him and kneading his rock hard muscles, no relation whatsoever. Of course, he was female at the moment, but she could still feel his muscles beneath the skin. Still, she liked him better when he was bigger than her. It just felt right to her, even though she didn't mind when Ranma was female, in fact, welcomed it sometimes, she still usually preferred him male. A few subtle nudged later and Ranma got the hint, shifting his body mass around in that unique way Jusenkyo does to its victims to once again regain the title of man of the house.
Nabiki was taken aback by this a bit, keeping her from commenting on how long Ranma had been thinking on the mater of what he needed to remember in order to help her the most. When Kasumi started giving the young man a back rub he visibly relaxed. Nabiki thought for sure she could hear the gears in his mind start whirring even faster. Perhaps if she showed him some examples it might jump start his memory...
Nabiki gathered a few things from a drawer in her desk before locking it again and joining Kasumi on the bed, sitting on Ranma's other side. "Here, see if this helps. This column here is where they were last week, this one is where they are now..." Nabiki ran down the list of numbers on the page until she had mentioned everything that was on it. Hoping it would have done some good besides make her realize how much body heat Ranma produced she laid the paper down in his lap and awaited a response.
He seemed to be lost for several more moments before he smack his fist into his palm. "Ah! Now I remember." He whipped a pen out of nowhere and started scribbling on the newspaper. It took several minutes but he eventually found everything that he was looking for. He turned the marked up sheet over to Nabiki to see what her reaction would be. Kasumi just smiled, sure that everything would work out now. Desperately hoping was more like it, but Kasumi always was an optimist. She stopped her massage and leaned forward, her hands sliding down his front to trace little patterns while she pressed her breasts against his back, knowing what kind of effect that had on him and thinking how naughty she was being.
Nabiki studied it for several long moments, enough time for Kasumi to start feeling guilty at what she was doing to poor Ranma's concentration and scoot over to lean against her fiance's side. His arm snaked around her waist and pulled her fully against him. The couple sighed in contentment, smiling blissfully for a few precious moments before they were interrupted by Nabiki's laughter.
They looked over and saw her almost fall out of her chair. She descended down into giggles and started looking over Ranma's markings. A few moments later Nabiki started howling again and did fall out of her chair. Ranma and Kasumi blinked in unison at the loud thump the mercenary girl made.
Kasumi leaned forward and looked down at her little sister. "What's so funny, imotochan?"
"Did you see some of the stuff he's written down here? HAHAHAHAhehehahahe, ooh, hehe. And here I was actually thinking about believing you! The future must be a strange place if these are the ones succeeding."
Kasumi snagged the paper from the spasming Nabiki before looking it over. "Oh, I remember this one." She was tapping one Ranma had already marked.
Nabiki managed to calm down enough to look at which one Kasumi was pointing at. It was some American internet company that she had heard people wondering how good it was going to do once it went for sale on the market. It had just started the day before, and nobody was really sure what it would manage to do in the long run. Nabiki herself hadn't really given it much thought, as internet companies didn't hold much security in her book. But, according to both Ranma and Kasumi, it was going to be thriving the next four years. Even if it died after that, she could have herself a decent fortune on that one stock alone. And there were a dozen marked down on the paper, with some of the remembered points that the stocks stopped at listed next to them. Her eyes bugged when she noted how high a few of them went.
"You're sure these figures are accurate?" Nabiki inquired.
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I didn't write any down that I wasn't sure about. There are a bunch more that I couldn't remember the figures of, but I know they go up."
Nabiki was looking at them cooly, trying her hardest to contain her excitement. "So, do you remember anything that happens soon? So I don't have to take all this on blind faith?"
Kasumi looked mildly insulted. "Don't you trust me, Nabiki-chan?"
"Nonono! I do, I'm just not sure about cutey here." The last was said with a wave in Ranma's direction.
Kasumi tightened her grip on Ranma. "He's MY cutey, so stay away."
Nabiki recoiled in shock. She had never seen her sister react like that to anything before! She opened her mouth to blurt forth a hastily thought up retort when Ranma turned and tightened his grip on the tall brown-haired beauty that was his and his alone. "You have nothing to worry about love, I don't think I could ever trust Nabiki near enough for that to happen after what I went through the first time."
Kasumi seemed to relax a little, but shot one last look that was too quick for Nabiki to read before the eldest Tendo daughter turned and kissed Ranma hungrily. Ranma returned it greedily. After about a minute Nabiki started getting embarrassed, as neither one of them seemed to care that they were making out in somebody else's room, right in front of its occupant, no less! Another few minutes and they had somehow managed to deepen the kiss while Nabiki had turned several shades redder. Not sure what exactly to do in a situation like this she cleared her throat loudly.
When that failed to get a reaction from them she cleared it louder, almost shouting it. Still no response. And they were getting worse. Nabiki turned away from them, afraid they would start shedding clothes any second. Spying her camera on her desk she snatched it up and pointed it at the pair, hoping that the sound of the shutter would get them to react. She lifted the device to her eyes and watched them for several seconds before she rested her finger on the button, feelings of longing and jealousy rising in her that she hadn't even thought were there before hand. She squashed those thoughts before quickly pressing the shutter button.
With a startlingly loud click a moment of Ranma and Kasumi's love was captured on film. A Fuji moment indeed. Ever so slowly the couple broke their kiss, staring into each others eyes for the longest time before they regarded Nabiki again, obviously not surprised or started by her presence, telling the middle daughter that they had been doing that on purpose. The two smiled at her and spoke in unison.
"I want a copy of that."
Ranma and Kasumi looked at each other again and Nabiki could FEEL their love and affection for each other radiating from them in waves. It was the single most amazing thing Nabiki had ever witnessed in her life, something that sparked a feeling in her, sparked a feeling of wanting. Wanting that, wanting what those two people on her bed shared between them. Love, pure and simple. She knew it was out there. Her older sister had found it, she knew it had to exist, all Nabiki had to do was find the right person and she would be set. If Nabiki had sat down with Kasumi and heard everything that had happened to the two of them to get them to this point she wouldn't have been so sure about finding it, but one always has to be hopeful, or it'll never happen.
"Wow...." Nabiki whispered it so quietly and with such reverence she had been sure that nobody else would be able to hear it. Nevertheless, both Kasumi and Ranma returned their attention to her.
"So," Ranma inquired, "Have we got a deal? Will you trust me, accept what I am and what is going on if I give you those accounts and let you build yourself a fortune?"
Nabiki smirked, not nearly as evilly as she used to, but she couldn't pass up something this easy. "I already have all the information in my hand, what are you going to do about it if I don't agree?"
There was a flicker of movement, Nabiki felt a breeze, and suddenly Kasumi was holding the paper Ranma had marked up, not looking as if she had left her fiances side. "Never mess with the Saotome's. We fight to win, and we never lose." Kasumi stated.
Nabiki sat in open mouthed shock. She was so stunned her eyes had popped out of her head and were rolling around in her lap, still somehow staring at her older sister, unable to comprehend what had just happened. "K-k-k-ka-kasu... uh... K-ka..." That had been the absolute LAST thing she ever would have expected, or even imagined, that could happen. KASUMI was fast enough to disappear from view, like her father used to do when he still practiced the Art?!?
The middle Tendo couldn't deal with it and fainted dead away, fortunately slumping straight back in her chair while her eyeballs returned to her head so her eye lids could flutter closed in the appropriate fashion. Kasumi started giggling almost evilly, her eyes twinkling with mischief.
Ranma saw this and couldn't resist glomping his girlfriend, which she returned. "Honey, that was almost evil of you."
"True, but now we get to go to bed so we can rest up and deal with everything that happens tomorrow." Kasumi gently ran her hand across his face, as if she was trying to memorize his features by touch alone.
Ranma returned the gesture, since he was trying to memorize her features. They were going to be separated for the greater part of the day for the next three or so years, since he had to graduate high school again. Neither one of them resented that fact too much, since Ranma hadn't gotten everything he could have out of his first education. Still, they grumbled and complained that they weren't spending enough time together.
The two put Nabiki in bed, not wanting her to be too stiff when she woke up the next morning and headed out for some private time on the roof before they went to sleep, alone, and lonely.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll go to school, you don't need to tell me," Ranma said to his father, who still had his mouth open to inform his son as he walked by that he had been enrolled at Furinkan.
Nabiki appeared from around the corner already dressed and ready to go, having things to do before classes started. Ranma walked up to her and smiled, hoping that he had managed to get partway through the layer of ice and hostility that surrounded her heart. "So, want to go to school now? I might be able to help with what your doing in the mornings."
Nabiki stared at him for several long moments, a disbelieving look on her face. "How do you know what I do in the mornings..." she trailed off as memories of the previous night surfaced. "Oh."
Ranma grinned at her. "I already ate, so we can leave your sister out of this and hopefully avoid a few things that happened the first time I was here."
Nabiki reluctantly nodded, not sure if she was making a mistake or not, but realizing that she would never know unless she gave him a chance. Risks had to be taken in business, and he was starting to make her believe him. Didn't have anything to do with his gorgeous body, cute butt, or handsome face. Nope, nothing at all.
The two walked to the door, but stopped when Kasumi approached them with a bento. Ranma accepted it for Nabiki and, while his hands were full, Kasumi used the opportunity to reach behind him and squeeze his rear. Nabiki goggled at the sight, and she quickly looked around to make sure nobody else was watching.
Kasumi smiled. "Don't worry Nabiki, I already checked." She left her hand on her boyfriend until he managed to get an arm free, which he wrapped around her waist and pulled her up against him.
"Honey, we're not married yet. But, to give you an idea of what's in store for you once we are, here is my goodbye until lunch." Ranma tossed the bento at Nabiki, who just managed to catch it, dropped his bag and grabbed her in a huge hug, which quickly led to one of the most intense kisses Nabiki had ever witnessed anywhere in her life, including the one they had shared the previous night. They dragged it on so long Nabiki was starting to get really embarrassed watching the two when they finally broke off, resting their foreheads together and staring into their beloved's eyes.
In perfect unison the two said, "I love you," Before slowly breaking apart, hands trailing down arms, fingertips lingering, still touching as long as possible until they finally separated completely and turned away, leaving each other to deal with reality. Nabiki, even as cold as she had tried to become after losing her mother, was still female, still had ideals of romance and fantasies in her mind, and her insides turned to mush after seeing something so touching. She had again felt the love those two shared coming off of them in waves, and Nabiki herself wasn't even a martial artist in tune with such things.
Ranma walked past her out the door, and it took the middle Tendo daughter a moment before she was able to collect herself and follow him, not questioning the fact that he knew the way to get to the school when he had never been there before. It hadn't occurred to her until he had waved at Dr. Tofu, the surprised man giving a slightly hesitant wave in return.
"It's a good thing Dr. Tofu is so close on the way to school, or things would have been a lot harder." Ranma said to himself.
Nabiki knew that there was no way he could have known all of that by himself, since this was the first time that she had seen him. It also seemed highly unlikely that Kasumi would have been sending him letters that stated what route she took to school and that the doctor was that close by. Though she might mention the doctor, Ranma wouldn't have known what he looked like. Nabiki was finding it harder and harder to believe that what Ranma and Kasumi told her last night was false. Things kept adding up that seemed to point to the fact he was from the future. Given the way Kasumi had been acting that morning, that was also a sure sign that she wasn't normal, either. The brown haired girl pondered this as they made their way toward Furinkan, wondering what she would do with the information.
She didn't know it, but Ranma was wondering the same thing. He didn't think she was going to sell it, since nobody would believe her, but he was sure she could do something with it besides the stocks he had told her about. Ranma was confident that he could help her in her morning rounds, especially with the morning fight. He had to tell her some things before she went off with her partners in business, so Ranma started talking about his plans for the morning.
Nabiki stood in her second floor window, a smirk riding her face that wouldn't quit. After hearing all of Ranma's plans she had to admit that it would probably cause an uproar, but she couldn't wait to see it. She just hoped Akane would forgive him someday. Losing in front of the whole school wasn't something that she would enjoy, but then again, Akane never did seem to appreciate what she had until she lost it. Maybe this was the sort of thing needed to get her to admit that she wasn't that great of a martial artist and she was mainly doing it to keep in shape. Nabiki herself could tell that Kuno held back whenever he fought her, since she had seen him when he had gone all out, but apparently nobody else in the school had.
Now was the time to make sure that Akane was shaken out of her dream world, however cruel that might be. Since Ranma had made it very clear that he wasn't going to be doing anything to protect her when all the weirdos started showing up, she was going to have to do it herself. Ranma had made it abundantly clear that he was going to be at Kasumi's side and nowhere else.
Ranma's voice spoke from beside her. "I should have a little time before the rain starts up since I didn't go with Akane and have to stop at Tofu's clinic to get some hot water."
Nabiki looked at him blankly for a moment before recalling that the cute man before her could turn into a cute woman with water. If he wanted to, anyway. Nabiki looked a little disturbed as her sisters fiance rubbed his hands together gleefully, a mad glint in his eye.
He turned to her and said, "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do something like this. It's been a dream of mine ever since I first showed up here all those years ago." Ranma turned back to the gathering crowd of boys below them. "Hehe, I can't wait."
Nabiki simply nodded, not sure how she could respond to something like that. Dealing with somebodies past like it was the present and future sure was a strange thing to do. Nabiki managed somehow, just like she always did.
A dust cloud appeared on the horizon, obviously Akane getting herself psyched up for her confrontation with her morning dance partners. With a cry of, "I hate boys!" The youngest Tendo stormed onto the school grounds, her arms and legs whirling around her to drive off the many males seeking to pummel her in the name of misguided love.
Nabiki looked at Ranma again and started to wonder about him. The guy was so excited he was vibrating, and putting off a lot of heat. Finally Akane laid the smack down on her last regular opponent just in time for her to grab a rose from the air. She looked in the direction it had come and groaned in annoyance when Tatewaki Kuno stepped from behind his tree of choice, poem poised on his lips.
"Truly such a boorish lot..."
He was interrupted by a voice from the second story window. "Hey, we're not all done trying to beat her yet, you know."
There was a collective blink as the entire school stared up at the pigtailed youth standing confidently on the sill of the window that Nabiki usually stood in. Everybody found it strange that she was missing and the young man had taken her place. Before anybody could respond to that he dropped down to the ground, causing a gasp to travel through the gathered crowd when he made a soft landing on the concrete below, perfectly fine.
He stood and slowly walked toward Akane. She had fallen back into her stance, but seemed frozen there as she watched her sister's fiance slowly approach. She should have known that he was a two timing bastard! Trying to get her on a date by defeating her while Kasumi was at home waiting for his return. Well, she would show him a thing or two about doing that to a woman, let alone someone as sweet as her eldest sister.
Ranma smirked at Kuno and Akane, glad that he had this chance again. He so hated that pompous idiot, and this might be just the thing to get Akane motivated enough to turn her into a real martial artist. "I challenge Akane Tendo for the right to claim her. And Kuno," Ranma added, leveling a finger at the deluded kendoist, who was frozen mid-swager. " You're next, so don't think about interfering in this fight." Several eyebrows shot up at his wording towards the youngest Tendo girl, but the boys had all been fighting for the right to claim her in whatever way they could, so nobody commented.
It was amazing how quickly everyone seemed to forget the sight of Ranma falling unharmed from the second story window, something that they had never seen, or even believed possible before. They all immediately assumed that Akane was going to pound the new guy flat. Kuno stood aside stunned, for he had decreed that any who desired a date would have to defeat her in combat. Since he had already let most of the male student body have their go, he knew that it was the newcomers right to have his chance before Kuno himself stepped forward and claimed all the glory for defeating his fierce tigress and allowing her to revel in his love for her. It was the way he did things, and he was never one to back down from a tradition, no matter how short it had been standing.
As soon as Ranma got within ten feet of Akane she launched herself forward, not even giving him a chance to get prepared or brace himself, despite the fact that Ranma had given her a formal challenge, no matter how weirdly situated the events may be. She rushed quickly, planning on flowing Ranma off his feet with a punch to his face. She could see the start of Ranma preparing to drop down below her fist, so she lowered her aim to hit him where she anticipated him to be.
She was shocked when her fist met nothing and she almost lost her balance, toppling onto the man she was fighting. Ranma had bent over backwards into an impossible looking pose, back straight and level with the ground, keeping himself a mere inch below Akane's fist. The girl looked shocked for a moment before recovering and dropping into a leg sweep as quickly as she could, hoping to catch him in his overconfidence.
Ranma planted his hands and lifted his feet into the air, easily avoiding her foot as it flashed by. He pushed himself into the air over her head, bewildering the girl as she had lost sight of him for the briefest moments while she was spinning for another sweep to take her opponents arms out. Ranma righted himself in the air and kicked her in the back of the head, nothing too strong, but enough to send her crashing forward onto her front. Her face was saved by getting her hands and arms scratched up, something Akane was very annoyed about. How dare he strike her like that, especially after disappearing into thin air.
Akane noticed Ranma approaching behind her and planted her own hands, planning on trying to flip up onto her feet and catch him in the chin as she did so. When she deemed his shadow close enough she moved, but her foot was easily evaded. She took a step back and assumed her stance again, wondering how hard his attacks would be to defend against, given his excellent counters to hers.
"I need to finish this quickly if I'll have enough time to get Kuno before the late bell." With that statement Ranma suddenly flashed forward, seeming as if he had just appeared before the startled girl. Before anybody could react he was giving her a hug, causing everyone watching to facefault rather painfully. Akane was red in the face for the briefest of moments before Ranma's Shiatsu took effect and the long haired girl slumped in his arms, out for a few minutes.
Ranma didn't have to hug her to get at the points, but he didn't want everybody seeing what he was doing, so he had done that to cover up the movements of his hands. From the looks of the peoples faces he had succeeded, though he wasn't entirely sure that it had the desired effect. He was going for just a quick and decisive victory, something that wouldn't be too painful, but would show very clearly that Akane had a lot of work to do before she could claim to be a true martial artist again. The hug might not have been in his best interests, as it was leading to a lot of whispering among the students that had seen the maneuver. Ranma just knew he was going to have to get some of his inheritance to Nabiki in order for her to keep anything bad from spreading.
The pig tailed martial artist picked up his fallen opponent and sped over to the side of the school yard, depositing the sleeping girl in front of Nabiki, whose serious expression cowed all before her from getting to close to "sleeping beauty". Ranma turned and regarded Kuno, who was starting to look rather livid at having witnessed somebody else hugging his obsession. Ranma wasn't worried, but he did want to get to class in time so he could tell Kasumi that he had taken care of everything and still fulfilled his scholastic responsibilities, something that would get him a reward. He hoped it was some cookies. He loved her cookies (well, he loved everything that she made, he was a Saotome and she a world class cook), and she sure liked making them for him whenever he did something that she was pleased with. The more interesting rewards would have to wait until they were married again.
Kuno stood ramrod straight, righteous fury etched on his face. "How dare you handle Akane in such a manner, you commoner! I shall not allow such a travesty to continue! What is thy name, foul cur?"
Ranma answered. "I'm Ran..." He was cut off by further ranting from Kuno.
"But wait! Is it not common..." Ranma was suddenly standing inches from Tatewaki's face, startling him, a scowl present on his features as he glared at the taller boy.
"It's rude to interrupt somebody, you know."
"I have no need to listen to your...OOOF!"
Ranma removed his fist from Kuno's stomach. "Wanna let me finish now?" The barest hint of a nod from the still hunched over man was his response. "Good. Now, as I was saying, I'm Ranma Saotome. I'm the heir to the Anything Goes Martial Arts school, and staying at the Tendo dojo for now. Now, I challenge you for your irresponsibility and complete lack of respect towards women."
At those words Kuno was finally able to straighten, even managed a rather put upon expression. "What speak is this? Irresponsibility and disrespectfulness of the fairer sex? I have done no such thing!"
"So what's with these pointless morning fights that are degrading Akane's skill? What's with holding back in your fights with her, despite the fact that you said only those who can beat her are to date with her? Are you simply trying to degrade her skills to such a point that your own are good enough to defeat her without harming her too much, being that she's a woman?"
"I do no such thing!" Tatewaki moved into his stance, his eyes glinting dangerously at what was being said of him.
"You deny it, yet the evidence is scattered all around you." Everyone's gaze swept the school yard, seeing many of the boys still laying on the ground, in various stages of pain. "You claim to fight her, yet you hold back whenever you do so. How is she ever to become better, or how are you ever to defeat her using such tactics, unless you were doing exactly what I said earlier and making her set herself up for a fall?" Ranma's logic was obviously starting to effect Kuno's flowered view of the world around him, so he did the only thing he could do to get things back to where he wanted them. He fit everything he knew that was really going on into his flowered view, then ran with it.
"Ha! I see now, it all becomes clear." Ranma looked slightly surprised at this. "You are here to try and strike me down, to remove my gloried self from the position as the schools best fighter, as the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!" Kuno struck a heroic pose and a bolt of lighting flashed behind him, thunder rolling in a moment later. He jabbed his bokken at Ranma. "Not only that, but you plan to defile the fair maiden Akane, to warp her mind to your twisted ways. You were the one that planned on forcing yourself on her, ignoring her cries for help as you..."
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Ranma shouted in Kuno's face. The principal's son's hair was sticking straight out behind his head, a few strands toinged out. "I don't want to hear any more of you twisting the truth into lies that will suit your own purposes. You need to be brought down, instead of bringing everybody else down to your level. Prepare yourself, Kuno, you've met your match today."
Nabiki was over in her corner smiling, despite the fact that her sister lay unconscious at her feet. She had made so much money this day that she didn't even think she would charge Ranma for looking over her little sister, since that was something that she would have done anyway. She did hear several of those around her talking about how quickly Ranma had pegged Kuno's attitude, and wondering if he had some sort of special ability that let him see people's personalities. Nabiki shook her head, since she knew the truth, and it was stranger than what those around her were dreaming up in flights of fantasy.
Ranma set himself and launched a few basic punches at Kuno's face and chest, making sure that everything was as he remembered. Kuno easily deflected the blows, despite the fact the younger Saotome was moving far faster than Akane ever had. Nabiki's eyes widened slightly. Tatewaki had been training since she had last seen him go all out.
Ranma leapt back, covering an impossible amount of distance for how little his legs had moved. An infuriating smirk was on his lips, one he knew that Kuno hated, since everything was going just the way that Ranma had hoped. He leapt forward again, kicking high and low rapidly, just slow enough for Kuno to still block them, wanting to have a little fun before the rain came. Even if he didn't change, he didn't want to get wet.
Nabiki looked down at Akane when she heard the girl make a few noises.
"Wha, what's going on?" Akane asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up.
"Not much, Akane," Nabiki said, savoring the moment for all it was worth. Sure, it was mean, but Nabiki had never gotten over what had happened to herself when she was younger. "Just that you were easily defeated by a boy today."
Akane bolted to her feat, livid. "That's not possible! I'm the best martial artist in Nerima, there's no way that Kuno could have beaten me!"
Nabiki managed to suppress her chuckle. "See Kuno fighting over there? Who do you see winning?"
Akane looked and stared for several seconds as Kuno used all his prowess in his attempt to vanquish the foul dog Saotome from Furinkan's grounds. She could barely see what was happening between the two of them they moved so fast. Ranma's legs were blurred, Kuno's bokken doing the same. Where they met and were deflected a loud crack was heard, but it was obvious that Kuno was on the loosing end, since he couldn't manage to get out of his defensive position and it didn't even look like the new guy was trying.
Kuno finally jumped back, away from Ranma's quick feet. "So, you think to match skills with the awesome might of Tatewaki Kuno, age 17, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High? I shall show you the folly of your ways, cur!"
Ranma smiled. This was going to be fun.
"Strike, strike, strikeStrikeStrikeStrikeStrikeStrike!" Kuno's words blended together as his weapon disappeared from sight, only the tip visible when it stopped that fraction of a second at the end of a thrust. Akane's eyes bugged, since she had never seen that move before, and knew that she would have been taken down if he had tried it on her. There would have been no way for her to be able to block all those attacks like Ranma was doing.
Somehow, despite the fact that Kuno was striking Ranma with a wooden sword and Ranma was blocking with leather braces on his wrists, sparks flew each time they struck. The sight was impressive, as the two combatants were showered in bright yellow motes of light, shattering and spreading as they bounced off of the ground and the fighters.
Nabiki herself was rather impressed. She had no idea that Ranma was this good, despite what she should have figured if Kasumi was as good as she had demonstrated last night in her room. The Mercenary girl glanced up at the sky and noticed the quickly approaching gray clouds, promising rain. She wondered how much longer Ranma would keep this up, or if he just get soaked and not worry about it. He did seem to be rather enjoying himself.
Ranma also noticed the sky, as his internal humidity gauge was going crazy. He only had a few minutes more. The next strike from Kuno, who was obviously getting a little tired from how long he had been maintaining his attack, Ranma grabbed the tip of the bokken in his left hand, let it swish past him and pivoted so he was facing the blade at 90 degrees, then brought his right arm up and shattered the hard wood close to the grip.
This threw Kuno off completely and he stumbled forward, the missing weight and the force form the break throwing off his delicate balance during the move. Ranma, waiting until Kuno had completely opened himself and lowered his arms to help regain control of his momentum, suddenly sidestepped towards the "older" boy, drawing his right arm across his chest. Once in range the pigtailed martial artist unwound, slamming his elbow into Kuno with enough force to send him hurtling backwards 15 feet to land with no air in his lungs and no real idea of what had happened to him.
Most of the move hadn't been visible to the audience, but Nabiki and Akane had seen it, and they were both impressed. While unbelievably fast, he also had considerable power. Ranma waited another few moments for Kuno to start breathing again and raise his head, making sure he had everyone's attention.
"All right now listen up. As per the rules that Kuno physically enforced, I now own Akane," Ranma stated, purposefully not looking anywhere near the Tendo's. Nabiki stepped away from Akane as the younger girl's aura burst into existence around her, the angry red glow all anyone needed to see to find out what she thought about that declaration.
"So, now that she's mine, I am going to train her. I will be her sensei until such time as I think she's ready to fight on her own." At this point he did turn to face Akane, his ice blue eyes boring into her brown ones, daring her to take him on again and make him eat his words.
Nabiki had let her cold mask fall back into place, as actually seeing Akane's response to what had happened to her wasn't actually as funny as she thought it would be. Maybe later, but right now she had to make sure her little sister didn't kill anyone.
"Hey Akane, calm down before you melt the pavement," Nabiki said quietly, hoping that nothing bad would happen to her for talking when her temperamental little sister was so mad.
"Why didn't you do anything about this, Nabiki? I'm sure you must have known something since he walked to school with you." Though her voice sounded calm, Nabiki could hear the rage boiling inside her. Not good.
"Maou? What makes you think I had anything to do..."
"Don't give me that, SISTER, I know you had something to do with it. You always do." The distrust was starting to show.
Nabiki scowled at that, her own anger rising despite how dangerous Akane was at that moment. "I do what I have to for our meals and house Akane, since you're too inept to do anything to help. Don't get so all high and mighty with me after what you did to me."
Akane actually seemed to be a little sorrowful after that. "Look, how many times do I have to say I'm sorry about that? Geez."
Nabiki's rage was going full blast now. "Yeah, and that's all you'll ever be able to do Akane, say you're sorry. You don't have to live with it like I do." The girl had descended into a growl by the end of her sentence, but it had the opposite effect of what she had wanted.
Sensing a physical challenge from someone she knew wouldn't be able to beat her Akane took the opportunity to gloat. "I'm not the one that got herself into that situation in the first place, so don't try and shove all the blame onto me. Even if you had kept training this entire time I still would be better than you, and you know it."
Ranma stood stunned, not having known about this in his time line. He wasn't sure if this was an almost identical alternate universe he had gone to or actually back in time, but nothing of this had ever gotten out into the open when he had been at the Tendo dojo the first time. He might have to do something to break it up, and they were going to have to sit down with Kasumi and figure out if anything could be done about whatever problem Nabiki had.
Before things could get out of hand between the sisters Ranma drew attention to himself once more. "Akane, as your sensei, I expect you to control your emotions. Your anger especially. You must be calm and in control at all times to be a martial artist."
His words had the desired effect and Nabiki bottled herself up again, her face turning to stone. Akane simply redirected. "Who said I'm going to listen to you? You're a STUDENT of Anything Goes just like me, I don't have to listen to you!"
Ranma cocked his head to the side in consideration, then after a moment leaned forward a bit and disappeared.
Akane shrieked when a fist suddenly appeared a centimeter away from her nose. Her head was buffeted by the incredibly strong breeze that was generated by the punch, messing up her long hair. She stumbled backwards a step and raised her arms to a defensive position, not wanting to believe that she had completely missed Ranma's entire attack.
"Just because I'm not certified to teach doesn't mean I'm not good enough. I simply haven't taken the test yet, because I don't want to be tied down to the dojo," Ranma stated quietly to the two girls. He knew Nabiki would want to know this too, so he had spoken loud enough for them both to be able to hear him.
"Yeah, well, I still say you're not going to be my master! Just 'cause you beat up Kuno doesn't prove anything." Akane sounded like she was trying anything she could think of so she wouldn't have to learn from some boy the same age as her.
Ranma shook his head. "While that may be true, you didn't deny it when I made that declaration. You also didn't deny Kuno when he declared you must have the morning fights. I'm sure you could have had them stopped if you talked to the school enough, or if you simply hurt a few of them bad enough." Ranma had started pacing around in front of them while he talked, something that Nabiki found amusing, but was obviously pissing Akane off. Now he stopped and looked at her. "But you didn't. You went along with it since you didn't think that anybody would be able to defeat you, you didn't think you had anything to worry about, and you thought defeating a crowd of unskilled opponents would be fun."
Ranma's arm snapped out once more, stopping an inch from Akane's face even before she started to raise her arm to block. "You've become slow and predictable Akane, if you had any speed to begin with after your Dad stopped training with you."
"Will you stop doing that! All you're showing is that you can move really fast! There's more to martial arts than pure speed you know," Akane shouted at him, trying to get back into a dominant position.
Kuno had managed to recover by this time and started to stumble over to where he viewed that cursed fool Ranma attempting to steal his Akane away from him. "Nave, what are thou doing? Unhand the beauteous Akane Tendo from your vile grasp. Only I am worthy of her charms, of her spirit!" Though obviously still having trouble breathing the kendoist managed to walk regally over to where Ranma and the Tendo sister's were talking.
All three of them turned to look at the beaten boy for a moment before dismissing him and returning to their discussion. "That's very true Akane, which is why I'm also a lot stronger than you. If you want to be considered a serious martial artist you must take the art seriously, not train in it as a hobby like you do now."
Akane bit back a retort, as she could see Nabiki was waiting for her to deny that. The girl seemed to have it out for her today, but Akane wasn't sure why. While their argument right before Ranma had interrupted them was giving her a hint, it still didn't answer a lot of her questions. It had been a long time since Nabiki had remembered that incident, making her wonder what had happened to stir up the bad blood between them. Akane smirked a little as Nabiki looked disappointed that her little sister wasn't rising to the bait.
A bokken appeared between the three of them before any more words could be said. "Do not ignore me, accursed Saotome and sister's Tendo, for I am not one to be trifled with."
Ranma turned toward him and glared rusty daggers. "Butt out Kuno, we're having a private discussion here. You lost, so this doesn't concern you."
Akane, for once, agreed with the pigtailed martial artist. "You heard him Kuno, now leave us alone."
Nabiki and Ranma both glanced upwards at the much darker clouds with a bit of apprehension. Neither wanted soaked clothes, but it looked like that's what they would get unless they sped things along.
"Look, school's about to start," Ranma said, thinking of an excuse to get inside the building. "Unless you plan to admit that martial arts is only your hobby, I expect you to report to me every morning from now on for some serious training." Before the girl could respond he whirled around and walked towards the entrance.
Kuno stood tall, hoping no one would notice the wince of pain as he made his body move in ways it didn't want to just yet. "I see Saotome now runs from me in abject fear, as befitting one as low born as him. Now, Akane, I shall date with thee, for I have just defeated that fiend Saotome!" Kuno attempted a glomp, but his injured status slowed him down enough that Akane saw it coming in time to boot him into LEO (low earth orbit).
Akane turned around to enter the school also when she was suddenly grasped from behind. "Do not worry my dearest Akane, you're gentle love taps are cherished by one such as myself."
Nabiki chuckled to herself at the shade of purple Akane had turned when she realized who had grabbed her in a hug. The younger Tendo reached down and yanked on Kuno's arms, trying to get herself out of his grasp so she could pound him. She boggled a moment as he resisted all her attempts to free herself. This had never happened before, what was going on?
Nabiki decided to finally step in and removed Kuno's money clip from his pants. She made sure she stood where Tatewaki could see her and removed a large sum of money contained within. "This is for your appointment at the hospital I'm going to have to drag you to."
Kuno looked puzzled. "I have no recollection of needing my personage examined."
"You will soon."
A loud crack was heard as soon as the words had left Nabiki's mouth. Kuno looked puzzled for a few moments more before his eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped flat onto his back, making an impressive sounding thud upon impact. Akane looked at him in shock, wondering what had happened to her tormentor.
Unable to see anything wrong with him from the front Akane reached down and turned him over, gasping in surprise at what she saw there. Imbedded in the back of Kuno's skull was a small spatula, the blade much thicker than normal, which allowed it to impact, instead of slice. Akane picked it up and examined it more closely, wondering where it had come from. Kuno had been facing the school, there was no way Ranma could have thrown that and have it hit the back of the kendoist's head. Both Tendo sisters looked up at the school building anyway to see Ranma leaning out of his window. He waved down at them, smiling happily.
"Hey Akane! You better get up here, the late bell's about to ring!"
Akane gasped and dashed off, still holding the surprisingly heavy little spatula in her hand.
Nabiki kneeled down next to the unconscious boy and shook her head, amazed that Ranma could be that accurate with a spatula and curve it around behind Kuno like that. She had to admit, he was very good at fighting, though Kasumi's all encompassing love for the boy amazed her, even though the older girl obviously knew all he could do was fight. Nabiki thought for sure that Kasumi would be looking for other talents in a man besides the ability to throw a punch. How little the middle daughter knew of Ranma, even though she was the most knowledgable person, besides Kasumi, of Ranma. And that included Genma, as Ranma had progressed rapidly after he had left his father behind in the art, so much of the older man's tactics and methods to get at his son wouldn't work anymore.
With a sigh Kasumi's little sister grabbed Kuno by the back of his shirt and dragged him over the rough pavement towards the nurse's office, grateful that she had a legitimate excuse to stay out of class when the Shooting Star... er, Blue Thunder was injured. It sure beat sitting in class listening to things she already knew.
She glanced back at the unconscious face. "You've been putting on some weight, Kuno. I think I'm going to have to charge you extra."
Kuno somehow looked indignant, though Nabiki was sure he was still out of it. She shook it off and continued tugging him along.
Ranma smiled as the lunch bell rang. He was soooo hungry. Now, to find his food bearing girlfriend...
But first, he had to retrieve something. He walked over to where a large group of girls were surrounding somebody. "Hey Akane!" He called to the center of the cluster.
"What?" He heard from somewhere in the mass of females.
"Can I have my spatula back? It's rather important to me."
"Maybe I should just keep it, that'll teach you to try and control me."
"I wouldn't recommend that, Akane."
"Why, what are you going to do about it? Cry like a little GIRL?"
Ranma gritted his teeth. He assumed Akane was going through PMS or something, since she usually wasn't this bad. Well, he had never tried this before, but he hadn't thought she would be this bad. What had Kasumi managed to whether between her two younger sisters, especially that incident they mentioned in front of the school? Ranma found himself admiring the oldest Tendo daughter the more he found out about her. To hold herself together so well after dealing with sisters like Akane and Nabiki was amazing, not to mention how she managed to sorta keep her cry baby father under control.
"No, Akane, I'm going to take it back. This shall be your first test. See how long you can keep it from me." The crowd parted before Ranma, as if they sensed the seriousness of the situation and didn't want to get caught in the middle. A wise precaution, too bad many didn't have the sense of those students.
Akane was revealed, still seated at her desk, bento held in her hand along with the spatula. She looked at him and showed no signs of fear, showed no sign of getting in over her head and Ranma marveled. Did that girl have such a selective memory that she would block out what had happened not hours before now that she was surrounded by her friends.
Ranma shook his head before he snapped his arm out.
Akane jerked her hands to the side, thinking that she had succeeded and avoided his first attack. A moment later and she blinked in shock, as her hands were now completely empty, of spatula and bento. She looked over at Ranma to see him holding the bento under his nose and inhaling deeply. He seemed rather distracted as his eyes got little hearts in them.
"I miss my beloved already," He sighed to himself, making the girls still standing around wonder who this person was. They all knew that Kasumi was the one that made Akane's lunch, but they didn't think that Kasumi herself was who Ranma was referring too. They just thought the smell reminded him of his girlfriend. After all, Kasumi had already graduated and Ranma's a freshman like Akane.
Akane decided to take this opportunity to retrieve what had been taken from her. She stood as quietly as she could, happy when Ranma didn't seem to notice her as she got into position to spring. Right when she leapt at him he turned to the side and took a step forward. His foot hit Akane's ankle and tilted her forward since her feet had been off the ground. She shot past Ranma, her arms having given up their first mission and trying to fulfill a secondary objective to find the girl some balance. They didn't help, though, and Akane crashed face first into the hard floor, the loud thud causing all those still in the class room to turn and see what had made the noise.
Akane lay there for several moments, a blush burning across her cheeks the likes of which she couldn't remember since she had tried to climb that one tree and gotten snagged on branch, hanging helpless by her skirt, which was being pulled up to her head. She just had to wear her Hello Kitty panties that day, too. That had happened only two years ago, and Nabiki still kept photos of that event strategically placed around the house in case of emergency.
The thud also seemed to get Ranma out of his love induced trance. "Since you utterly failed your first challenge, here's your second. You won't get to eat until you can get your bento from me," He stated, eyes flicking outside the window briefly to check for his own food.
Akane slowly stood, doing her best to ignore all those around her laughing, while Yuka and Sayura asked if she was all right, and leapt for her tormentor again. Ranma danced out of the way, making it obvious that she was moving too slowly, but refraining from degrading her with his tongue, using peer pressure and the desire to overcome challenges as the motivation to get Akane to improve.
"C'mon Akane, my food should be getting here pretty soon, hurry it up." Though said cheerfully as if talking with a good friend, Ranma's words didn't seem to affect Akane.
Another easily dodged lunge positioned Ranma next to a window. He reached down and slid it open, waving the bento around in front of him. The spatula he had put into storage while no one was looking. A brief glance over his shoulder to make sure that there were no pools and he jumped backwards. Akane boggled a bit at this until she remembered what he had done that morning. Realizing she would be lucky to survive a fall like that Akane turned and sprinted for the door, wanting her lunch and hoping that he wouldn't get too far away before she got to the front yard.
Akane dashed out in front of the school, her head whipping back and forth as she searched for the food ransomer. At first glance he seemed to have disappeared, but despite how little she knew of him she was confident that he hadn't run away, and was just waiting for her to find him. The long haired girl spun and ran towards the trees, thinking he might have hidden himself up in the branches to make her feel like an idiot for searching the entire school when all she had to do was look up.
Sure enough she spotted Ranma almost immediately, but what she saw him doing made her freeze in her tracks. The pigtailed martial artist was sitting on a rather large branch that was only about ten feet off the ground, and he was holding her bento out with his right hand, as if mocking her, saying that he didn't have to move it since she couldn't jump that high anyway. What really got Akane going was that he was right, she had never tried to jump that high before. Onto a six foot fence, yes, but she wasn't at all sure if she could do another four feet. Straight up that looked a lot farther than it sounded.
Seated, apparently happily, in Ranma's lap was Kasumi. Ranma's other arm was wrapped around her waist, his hand on her upper thigh helping her to stay in place. She wasn't wearing her usual house dress either. Now she was wearing what was obviously some of Ranma's clothes, for the black pants looked a tad short on her, and the red shirt, identical to what Ranma wore that day, was a little tight around her chest like it had been when Ranma was female, but for the most part the garment fit the older girl much better, for she was far taller than Ranma when he became one of the fairer sex.
This all filtered through the back of Akane's mind, since she was mainly focused on what they were doing up there. Ranma was obviously not paying any attention to the bento he was supposed to be keeping from her, for he was too busy staring at Kasumi's face and eyes while she fed him from a bento she carried in her lap. Her right arm was looped around his neck, letting the girl hold herself close to her love, while her left kept a steady stream of rice and other goodness from her freshly made Ranma sized lunch heading towards his mouth. He seemed to be ignoring her attempts to feed him and just staring at her, but every time the chopsticks came close to his lips he would open wide and gulp down her offering.
Despite how many times they had done this Kasumi was starting to blush under his close scrutiny. The way he stared at her was so intense, and the way his hand was slowly massaging her leg was making her a little excited. Whenever it became too much for her she would just lean in against him, resting her head on his shoulder while he rested his head atop hers, as she was too close for him to be able to look at her. This allowed the older girl time to get her blush under control before she straightened up again so the cycle could repeat.
This time, however, Ranma turned his head and inhaled deeply when his nose was pressed against his beloved's silky brown hair. He inhaled again before leaning down and whispering in Kasumi's ear. It made her blush even more, and it made Akane wonder what he had said to her to get that kind of reaction from her calm and never embarrassed older sister. Probably something really perverted, but Akane had trouble really believing that since Kasumi was still sitting in his lap and feeding the boy.
Akane looked around her for a moment, wondering if something would present itself so she could get her lunch.
"I shall scout around until Akane Tendo's daily sustenance has been found once more! A tragedy that the foul Saotome would stoop to such levels as lunch theft. Ah, but 'tis to be expected from such a low born cur as him."
Akane had a distinctly evil glint in her eyes as she stalked over to where she had heard Kuno's voice. Ranma and Kasumi were still completely occupied with each other and missed everything.
Kuno turned in his gallant search to behold Akane's fierce countenance. "Such beauty, such grace. Surely one such as yourself is destined to be with my perfect self," Kuno declared, the logic in his statement obvious to himself.
Akane managed to suppress her reflex action to clobber the moron. "Look, I think I need some help over here, so just follow me, okay?"
It had taken everything Akane had to say that civilly, but she was rather proud of her acting at that moment. Kuno's entire being seemed to be suddenly infused with energy and Akane didn't even have time to react before she found herself surrounded by the Blue Thunder's arms. Steam shot out of the girl's ears in rage, but Kuno managed to ignore it.
"Surely this is a front for a much more personal request, for one such as Akane would never be able to beg for my services in such a public place as the school grounds! Oh, and for what she might beg me for!" Kuno lost it after that and went into a fantasy that involved no clothes and lots of dairy products.
Akane was having a tough time in his arms, since he had forgotten he was holding somebody when he went into the fantasy about the girl he was holding. Said girl was having serious trouble breathing, and found it hard to believe the older boy could be so strong. After Akane had turned blue a stone flew out from a bush and hit Kuno on the side of the head.
"You're choking her, Master Kuno." A voice whispered loudly from the bush. Sasuke shook his head at his master's mistake. That had been pretty high on the little ninja's "dumb things to do list".
Kuno jerked and somehow managed to toss Akane several feet in front of him. She landed on her feet but looked like she might throw up at any moment. The kendoist became concerned upon seeing that.
"Are you well, fair maiden?" He inquired.
"I will be if you just follow me, Kuno." She coughed a few times before collecting herself.
Not giving him a chance to respond Akane spun on her heel and stalked back into the wooded area. Kuno followed eagerly, almost running in his haste to catch up with his obsession. Akane stopped and the young man stood beside her, glancing around in an attempt to figure out what she had needed assistance with. He looked at Akane, hoping for a clue.
Akane pointed upwards. Kuno looked. He blinked in mild shock when he saw Ranma holding a bento with a girl in his lap. Akane used the distraction to punt Kuno into the air, right for Ranma's arm. Like she had hoped Ranma's hand moved automatically and punched Kuno out of the air, since there would have been a chance he would have disturbed Kasumi he was so close. To do this he dropped the bento, which Akane dived for as soon as she saw Ranma's fingers open.
Unfortunately Ranma had brought his fist up and smashed Kuno downwards toward the ground, sending him hurtling to catch up with the lunch that had been dropped. Kuno landed heavily on his butt, taking several moments to shake his head and realign his tiny brain in the right direction, untwisting the kink in his spinal cord. When he glanced to his right he was startled to see a pair of arms sticking out from beneath his backside, clutching a delicious smelling bento.
He smiled and proclaimed, "A gift from the God's for he