I think this has real potential, which is presumably why the option was taken by someone else. Either way I'll be posting this tomorrow afternoon probably.
Against the backdrop of the Furinkan area, one might be forgiven for believing it was an unusual neighborhood. It was quite odd, but all truth told most people that lived there didn’t really see the weirdness unless, of course, they happened to know one of the martial artists that tended to attract that weirdness like a flame to a moth. Yes, that old saying was deliberately reversed. Consider why that might be for a moment before continuing.
“Yuka! Sayuri! There you are!” called one of those martial artists, chasing down her friends with a cheery wave and a bright smile. “Goodness, it’s been so long since we’ve been able to just hang out like this.”
“It’s funny,” Sayuri said. “We were just saying that ourselves. We barely seem to see you outside of school these days.”
“If it’s not one thing it’s another,” Yuka nodded. “Training for some stupid martial arts contest, running off with that fiance of yours, dealing with his friends… It’s like you vanish the second you’re off the school grounds!”
“Yes, well… Sorry about that,” Akane replied, nervously scratching the back of her head. “I’d bring you along, but it wouldn’t be right putting two normal girls in the line of fire like that.”
A thoughtful look passed over Sayuri’s face, while Yuka and Akane just laughed it off and started walking down the street. After a moment, Sayuri slipped off after them, a frown on her face beginning to deepen as certain thoughts began to arrange themselves in her mind. She thought about how the three of them had grown up together, how their only point of divergence regarding interests and hobbies was Akane’s martial arts practice - And let’s be fair, even if they did practise she could still beat them both with both hands tied behind her back. Not that they’d likely stay behind her back very long.
Then Ranma Saotome entered the scene. Nice enough boy. Handsome. Even more athletic than Akane. Practically introduced to the school as Akane’s fiance, which sent the rumour mills a-flying no matter how much the two of them tried to put out the fire. That’s the trouble with a rumour mill. Try to pour water on it, all you’re doing is making the mill turn a little more efficiently. Of course, Yuka and Sayuri knew better than most: The two of them argued quite a lot. It created a weird sort of tension between which left Akane’s friends torn between wanting to see them get over themselves, or just break it off entirely. This feeling wasn’t helped when they started hanging out, like, a whole hell of a lot. Nor were the rumours abated in the slightest when people picked up on Ranma’s curse. It made hanging out with Akane a bit difficult.
And that was before things got really complicated when everyone else showed up. Akane started a friendship with Ukyo, a girl that was also in a technical sense a romantic rival. Another weird girl that had apparently pretended to be a boy for half her life - and was damn good at it - only to revert to being feminine when she fell for Ranma in a big, big way. Not weird enough? How about the giant spatula she carries with her everywhere she goes? What’s normal about that?
The list went on in Sayuri’s head. Weirdness after weirdness driving a wedge in their friendship. It wasn’t like they’d fallen out or anything, more like… Akane was falling into an entirely different world than the safe one that they lived in. Even though she was right there next to them, at any given moment -
“Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!”
- A screaming, cat-laden girl-form Ranma Saotome ran down the street, arms flailing, wide eyed while wearing what appeared to be miko robes and a sombrero. All three girls stopped with the same, rather obvious thought passing through each of their heads.
“Pigtailed girl!” yelled Tatewaki Kuno, who was sporting a handlebar moustache he did not have yesterday, and appeared to be wearing some sort of cat-print tuxedo. “Wait for me, my one true love! I -”
Akane stuck out her foot and tripped him up, and then the idiot’s sister trod on his back, laughing like a maniac - then again, a simile seems inappropriate when it is quite literally the case - and apparently in hot pursuit of Ranma Saotome. Good god, had she wrapped that ribbon in barbed wire?!
“Sorry, girls,” Akane said, with a short bow. “I have to take this. Ranma! You better have a good explanation for this!”
Off she went to join the pursuit. Off into another weird and wonderful adventure, leaving her two ordinary friends behind. Yuka chuckled and peered down the street until she lost track of them, but Sayuri didn’t find anything much funny about the situation.
“Oh, my fierce tigress! No need for jealousy, I can love you both!” Kuno mumbled from his place, which happened to involve having his face embedded in cement. Okay. Maybe there was one thing funny about it all, but just one thing.
“What’s got you down?” Yuka asked. “Come on, she’ll catch up later and tell us all about it. Let’s stop off and get something to eat while we wait.”
“Will she get back to us?” Sayuri asked, as they walked off, turned a corner and entered a certain building. “You know how these things seem to escalate. One minute it’s whatever the hell that was, the next she’s been kidnapped by a Martian and we don’t even see her at school for the next two weeks, leaving us to worry that this time maybe she won’t be coming back.”
They sat at a table, and only when the waitress walked past did Sayuri notice where they’d come. There she was. Shampoo. Another weird girl that came crashing into the area and consumed yet more of Akane’s time and energy. Not that they were friends, oh no, anything but. Those two did not get on even a tiny little bit. Hard to blame either of them, really…
“It’s like we’re background characters in a gag manga,” Sayuri sighed. “All these other female characters stand out, are interesting, get to do interesting things and they’re taking our best friend away from us without even meaning to because… She’s one of them, and not one of us.”
“I didn’t think about it like that,” Yuka sighed. “Ugh. You know, I wish we could stand out like other female characters! Then maybe we could spend more time with her, you know?”
Of course, what neither girl could have guessed was that the waitress serving them had accidentally decided to wear a ring that granted the wishes of anyone except the person wearing the ring. And it had heard that particular wish, even if it had only been half serious. Even now, the ring was working to grant it.
- Shampoo is personally compelled to make these two girls “stand out” using her own talents and whatever she has at hand.
- Yuka and Sayuri start taking on traits from one or more of the other female cast members to make them stand out.
- Obligatory Jusenkyo curse option.
- Seriously, what the hell is going on with Ranma right now?
- Another wish is made in the presence of the ring.
- Something else
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