The front door to Ucchan’s opened, and the proprietor turned around to give a friendly greeting to the customer that grew a little more friendly and a little more cheerful when she saw who it was. For the longest time, Ukyo had been mired in misery without even knowing it. Pretending to be something she wasn’t, even if she was damn good at it. Pretending that she hated someone she loved more than anyone else. Psychological trauma accidentally induced by her best friend and the love of her life, Ranma Saotome.
Inexplicably, it was not Ranma that had entered the restaurant just now and caused her heart to leap forward leaps and bounds. Had it been him then her reaction would have certainly been more intense, but instead it was a different person entirely. It was her beloved’s fia- <b><i>future wife</i></b> and Ukyo’s best girlfriend (because she couldn’t really think of Ranma as anything but a manly man among men even in spite of the curse), Akane Tendo.
“No Ranma today, sugar?” Ukyo asked, not sounding as disappointed as she might have at one point in the past.
Akane shook her head. “He’s following me around like a cute little puppy. Knowing him, he thinks I can’t see him out there in the glasses, pretending to be reading a book.” Akane giggled, and it was contagious enough that Ukyo joined in. “Don’t look! Trust me, he’s out there keeping an eye on us. As if a good wife could ever be fooled by their husband.”
“So… He thinks something is up? That’s going to make it harder to visit Mother for our training.” And they needed training. The pair of them needed to train. To be better wives. To satisfy their future husband. The thoughts passed through her mind automatically, unbidden and virtually unnoticed. Yes, of course they still needed training. Akane was developing as a chef but still needed to develop certain other skills. Ukyo was fine with those skills, but now she understood that keeping a happy marriage between herself and Ranma would be impossible until she was given full training to accept Akane - and possibly other girls - also sharing Ranma.
“Yes, I agree,” Akane said. “It is too soon to bring him into everything. It is too much of a risk that he might follow as you did. If he attends too soon then it could so easily ruin everything.”
“… Ruin everything,” Ukyo mumbled, shaking her head. No. That couldn’t happen. Ranma needed to be persuaded, and the best opportunity for him to be persuaded was for them to complete their training. Learn what they needed to know. Then they could work together to persuade him. It was all in his own best interest. If he was dragged in too quickly, too deeply, he might panic and leave them all back in that way it was before. Miserable. All of them. Miserable with the way things were, with no resolution in sight. The very thought of returning to that state of existence made Ukyo dizzy. This was a Thing That Could Not Happen. “So what do we do?”
“No need to panic,” Akane said with her warmest and most reassuring smile. “A good wife is always prepared.”
<hr>
Weird. This whole thing was just completely weird. Akane just walks off, talks with Ucchan. The two of them both bright, cheery, smiling like nothing was wrong, but something clearly was. Sure, he’d known for a while now that the two of them hung out quite a bit without him being around. They had things in common which didn’t involve him at all, so why not? Hell! It made his life a bit easier if his two best friends/unwanted fiancees were getting on. Right?
But not like this. Neither of them quite felt like, well, <i>them</i>. It was like someone else putting on a show for his benefit. Making them act all girly and feminine and <i>sexy</i>. Now, Ranma was not particularly in the mood for a relationship at the moment. Wouldn’t be too difficult for a hunk like him to grab a little attention, especially since he could apparently do it without even trying. Trick was he didn’t really <i>want</i> the distraction right now, and dammit, he wanted his friends back! Was that so wrong? Sure, other guys might look at him a little funny but… Ranma was kinda weirdly prudish like that. He’d give up the sexier behaviour in favour of their previously tomboyish attitudes in a heartbeat. And not because he had a burgeoning tomboy fetish, which he would refute and deny unto his dying day and, if he found the means, even beyond that.
The only thing he was regretting was that he couldn’t read lips. Which didn’t much matter anyway, since both girls were turned away from the window and he couldn’t make anything out even if he could. Though he could see Akane spin around in place and sharply march right out of the restaurant and skip off down the street with arms clasped behind her back. In the meantime, Ukyo was happily doing what made her happiest. Making okonomiyaki. Ranma frowned and held the book right in front of his face to keep Akane from noticing his face and thought for a moment about the situation. He could go inside to ask Ukyo what they were talking about just now, but that would give away that he was out here watching. Same for Akane. Instead, Ranma leaped up to the rooftops and watched as Akane gaily skipped all the way home, blissfully unaware of his presence.
As Akane went in through the gate, Ranma hopped over the wall, ditched the glasses, changed shirts and was resting in the living room before Akane even knew anything. Nobody else was home just now, meaning nobody had seen him and nobody would contradict any claim that he’d been here the entire time. The perfect crime.
“Go anywhere interesting, tomboy?” Ranma asked. Nonchalant as you like, as though just trying to push open a bit of conversation. Let’s see if she tried to lie about it, because the lie would be quite telling. It might also give him a lead of some sort…
“Actually, I stopped by to talk with Ukyo,” Akane said. Sticking with the truth? “I thought we were supposed to meet up tonight, but I got the dates mixed up.”
“And you call <i>me</i> a dummy,” Ranma said, earning himself a playful swat on the back of the head that completely lacked the usual passion he’d expect from her. As though she’d done it to match his expectations. “Don’t tell me you plan on cooking tonight?” he taunted, though honestly her cooking had improved a bit recently. A traitorous part of him hoped that yes, she would because seeing her in an apron wasn’t such a terrible sight and the food she’d been making recently had been completely amazing. But then again it went against the tomboy image he was hoping to pull her back into…
“I was thinking of doing some intense training tonight,” Akane said. “If you don’t have anything to do, would you be able to help me out?”
“Sure, whatever,” Ranma replied. Alright. That was good. Training was the perfect opportunity to spend some unsuspicious time with Akane where she wouldn’t be all flirty and sexy and girly. He could maybe push her buttons a little, try to draw out the tomboy lurking deep inside that he knew and lo- Didn’t love! Didn’t love! Preferred. The word was preferred. Not love. Nope. Not love. And at the same time, he could keep a close eye on her to see if he could find out what the hell was going on with her recently.
While she slipped upstairs to to get dressed, Ranma leaned back against the dojo wall. Right. So he couldn’t mock her cooking skills anymore since she was improving there. He could probably get away with her swimming and clumsiness and complete lack of other household skills. Her violent attitude wouldn’t really work until he was able to draw it out of her, but the one and only thing that was pretty much guaranteed to work was making fun of her sex appeal.
“Alright, Ranma, let’s get this started.”
Her unexpectedly effective sex appeal. Ranma tried not to stare. Really. He did. The psychological effect did it more than anything else. He’d been expecting to see Akane in her gi, a loose-fitting set of clothes that put a minimum amount of emphasis on her figure. Clothes that made her transform from a girl into a machine that could be attacked by everyone on a crowded street and effectively dismantle most of them by herself. The sight of her in a one-size-too-small leotard was just a little bit outside his expectations.
“Um,” Ranma said, words completely failing him. “Wh-What’s with the, uh, you know?”
“What, this?” Akane replied, twirling in place to show off the tight, <i>tight</i>-fitting leotard and, more crucially, the parts where there should have been leotard but, as said before, it was a size too small. “Well, I felt as though I should probably work on my coordination a little and branch out my style. So I’m going to be training in gymnastic martial arts for a bit to see how that pans out. Why? Is there a problem?”
Ranma very slowly shook his head and swallowed. He couldn’t make up his mind whether to stay and keep an eye on Akane as she limbered up and stretched out her remarkably tight body or to flee from the perfect chance to work out what was wrong with her. Ultimately, pride won out. This was a contest, right? She was trying to seduce him. He was trying to make her snap out of - of whatever the hell this was - and bring back his tomboyish buddy that got pissed off when he did something stupid or selfish. Well then. Let the game begin!
<hr>
“… And Ranma will see it as a challenge, therefore keeping his attention entirely on her for the course of the evening while we train.”
“If he still refuses?”
“Then she will gently push upon his pride until he elects to remain.”
Nodoka looked down at the hypnotised chef with a sage nod. Yes, that seemed like quite the thorough plan. Akane’s training must be proving more effective than originally believed. Before long she would be free to move up to the next level and administer training to others…
“It is necessary for us to make arrangements to keep my son distracted,” Nodoka firmly said.
“We agree,” Ukyo said, raising Nodoka’s eyebrow in interest with her wording. We, indeed? “Akane has considered that as well. We shall require assistance from a third party. Akane believed that if we were able to recruit and enlighten a third individual, they could keep our husband’s attention during our invaluable training period.”
“Of course,” Nodoka said, genuinely caught off guard by how prepared Akane was becoming. To think, the girl had been so clumsy and hotheaded before. Now she was growing more certain that this was the right choice for head wife. Using herself to keep Ranma’s attention while using Ukyo to deliver the details of the plan, rather brilliant. It was not difficult for Nodoka to see. She must have thought about this at some length before advancing the plan, even carefully watching Ranma’s own behaviour in the process. “Do you have any thoughts on this third party?”
Before Ukyo could reply, the answer came to her out of nowhere with the sound of someone falling over just outside the window. Oh dear. Planting that sleeping agent as a precaution was proving to be quite the wise investment already. If this was going to happen every time she tried to hold a training session, she should probably consider greater security just in case.
“We were going to defer to your wisdom,” Ukyo said. “But when I noticed this person following me, it seemed to offer a possible solution of its own.”
- Shampoo
- Kodachi
- Azusa
- Mariko
- Another female character
- A male character
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