Are you familiar with Sampling Bias? It's one of the many forms of recognised cognitive biases that can often influence a person's opinions, in particular a sub-category of Selection Bias. How does it work? Simple. Whenever studying data it is vital that the sample is as random as possible. If the sample is not gathered at random then it can create the wrong impression.
Case in point: We as readers are left with the impression that life in Furinkan is a cavalcade of weird freaky bullshit. Well, no. Not really. Weird and freaky bullshit doesn't crop up every single day. It's more like we are only viewing this crazy cast of characters when something interesting is going on. If it's a rainy day and all they have going on is a dry game of Clue, it's not exactly something worth watching now is it?
As such, things progressed as per normal over the next few weeks in Furinkan, and also in Tomobiki. The Fujinamis didn't stick around, especially after Ryuunosuke's father caught him helping out 'the competition' and dragged her off. They’d be back though some day, because making people around him miserable is Mr. Fujinami’s sole joy in life.
Pray he never meets the Principal of Furinkan High. Or Happosai, for that matter. A more chilling combination could hardly be found upon this Earth.
"You sure you want to float around like that? Some poor guy might get a peek at your underwear."
"Ranma!"
One thing had changed, of course. Well, technically three things. Akane Tendo could fly, and Akane Tendo could toss around electricity like she was playing catch with lightning. Finally, Akane Tendo had a pair of horns on her head.
The third thing mostly meant she wore hats a lot more often. The other two largely served to make Ranma's life slightly more miserable for comedic effect.
"Akane, there's a letter for you!" Kasumi called out as the two of them returned home from a generally uneventful school day. "It had gold frills, but Nabiki beat you home and already sold them off."
Akane turned her nose up to Ranma, who smelled faintly of ozone but otherwise seemed fine, then floated on in through the front gate. She snatched the envelope up in her hands, stuck out her tongue, then drifted on up to her bedroom window rather than going through the house.
"Oh, you went with the bear print today..." Ranma muttered.
"Thunder-punch of justice!"
You would think that calling out your attack name in advance would mean it would be easy to avoid, but when Akane got upset she zipped through the air like a fly on meth. This time Ranma got the special combined joy of fast travel to the horizon while also being pumped with enough juice to start a car.
Despite that, there was a teeny tiny (though it had been growing steadily ever since the entire wedding… thing) part of his brain - the part that had acknowledged he was kind of into Akane - that recalled the glimpse of her underwear and went 'worth it!'
“So who sent me a letter with gold frills?” Akane asked. She flopped onto her bed. Not actually landing on it, just sort of hovering about an inch over the sheets. Then she tore it open and read the contents aloud.
"Hi, cuz!" Oh. A letter from Lum! "One of Darling's friends has invited a bunch of us over to his family's private island, apparently Earth still has private islands, and I thought you might want to come too! Bring your fiance and a swimsuit, we're sure to have a blast! Love, your cousin."
“Who the heck is she hanging around with if her friends have private islands?” Ranma asked, his hair a little more puffed out than before. Akane jumped, and very nearly hit the ceiling before she stopped herself. When did he...?! "Must be easy for some people, huh...?"
"Knock before you come in!" Akane yelled. "Honestly, what if I'd been getting dressed?"
"I was thinking I'd pluck out my eyes to save my brain," Ranma said.
"That's assuming you have a brain to start with! I have half a mind not to invite you to this private island, now."
"Feh! Who wants to go to something like - an all you can eat contest?! And if you eat the whole meal you have it for nothing?!"
Oh. Oh, now this wasn't even fair. Ranma had splashed herself with a glass of water sitting on her nightstand, turning her into a girl. Her cuter form. Her eyelashes were about two to three inches away from her face, and she was leaning on the side of Akane's bed with her hands balled beneath her chin. It was the dreaded Saotome technique, the 'girl form puppy dog eyes'! It usually only served to get Ranma free food from a horny food vendor. Akane had scoffed, Akane had rolled her eyes, Akane had thought less of them for falling for something so obvious.
But dammit, she was falling for it too. Girl form Ranma was supernaturally adorable. Unfairly cute. How Ranma could be so dumb when it came to women but so good at using her cute female looks was a mystery Akane didn’t know if it was worth solving. Especially when she was feeling the overwhelming urge to deliver headpats.
"Can I come Akane?" Ranma asked. She batted her eyelashes. Not fair! "Pleeeeease!"
Akane was about to tell him to stuff it where the sun didn't shine - but then she looked again at the contents of the envelope. In particular the pamphlet that was included. Hold on a second. This all you can eat deal. Wasn't that -
"Oh, alright. If you insist," Akane said.
"Hah! I knew you'd crack!" Ranma said. "Everyone cracks in the end!"
"Yes, yes. You beat me again," Akane nodded. It was hard, really. Keeping this smirk off her face. "Now, get out of here so I can get out of this school uniform already! Some of us do keep to the standards that society expects of us, you know."
She shoved Ranma out of the room, slammed the door shut, then immediately collapsed against it. "Cute!" she quietly whimpered. Little realising that Ranma was having much the same reaction on the other side of the door.
<hr>
There are certain things in life that are always true. Water is wet. The sun will rise in the morning. A Mendo will always get what they want. These are universal truths that cannot be denied, for they are definitions of truth. Shutaro Mendo did not believe this. He <i>knew</i> it was true. The one and only thing that could deny a Mendo their will was another Mendo standing in their way.
Which is why he knew that the heart of the beautiful alien princess Lum would soon belong to him! This infatuation with Ataru Moroboshi was only that. An infatuation. In time, she would come to her senses and agree to marry him instead. This private island trip was the perfect opportunity to show her how much superior he was in every way to that wretch!
"Hey! Is this the boat for, uh, Mendo's private island?"
"Yes, indeed it -"
Then Mendo stopped in his tracks as he beheld the size of the crowd gathered at the ramp to his transport. Lum was there. And so was Moroboshi. As for the rest, there were... four cute girls. Shinobu who he recognized from his class, Miss Sakura, a petite pigtailed beauty wearing a t-shirt that had BOY written on it for some reason and another unknown girl who looked somewhat like someone had taken the best qualities of Lum, the best qualities of Shinobu and then blended them together into a cute little package. Loving the tiger print bikini motif!
"Ah, ladies. Allow me to introduce myself," Mendo said, taking hold of the second unknown girl's hand and kissing the back of it. Oh dear. It seemed as though he had made the pigtailed girl jealous. He grabbed hold of hers and made to do the same thing. "I apologise, I would surely remember meeting girls as pretty as yoooooooou!"
"I'm Ranma, this is Akane," the pigtailed girl said. Strong. She was strong. Clearly didn't know her own strength, the poor thing. Crushing Mendo's hand like this! "She's Lum's cousin. Nice to meetcha!"
“You have another cousin?” Shinobu said, “I mean, she looks mostly normal!”
For some reason Akane elbowed Ranma in the gut. "Be polite to our host," she said. "I am sorry Mister Mendo. Ranma is a little overprotective of me. We had a rather intense misadventure recently."
"Say no more!" Mendo said. "Please ladies, board first."
"Oh, good thinking!" Ataru said. "That way we can get a good look at them walking up the ramp!"
This got him rightfully pounded on from no less than five different directions at once. Humph! That fool. It wasn't that he was wrong or anything, but to say such a thing aloud... so distasteful!
"May the spirits of fortune bless this voyage," Sakura said. She clasped her hands together in prayer for a moment, then stepped up the ramp. "I have a funny feeling we'll need all the help we can get."
<hr>
“Why did that creep call this a modest raft? It’s bigger than our house!” Ranma said, leaning over the railing of the large yacht.”
"The truly rich have a different sense of scale," Akane said. Ah... she was starting to feel a little bit guilty now. She should tell him. She really ought to warn him about this all-you-can-eat place. They might make the offer for a free meal if you eat it all, but they're notorious cheaters. There's no way Ranma could finish...
"It'll be nice to get some alone time for a little while. Just the two of us."
Huh? Wh-what did he just say? At a time like this! Well, he wasn't wrong. They were heading out to an exclusive island. None of their immediate family was there, and none of the other men and women who kept their lives as absurd harem romcoms knew where they were.
<i>”Just the two of us.” Ranma said, male and shirtless as the waves crashed around them yet not changing him into female and shirtless. He took Akane’s into his arms and-</i>
"Banzaaaaaai!" Ataru Moroboshi yelled, jumping onto the boat in a remarkable display of athleticism for someone that was not a martial artist. "Mendo! You tried taking off without me! With all these cute girls - and Lum, and Ranma's complicated - on this boat?! I will never forgive you!"
“There you are Darling.” Lum flew in and latched onto him. “And here I was afraid you were hitting on the staff.”
“That’s a great ide-” Getting zapped by two (half) Oni girls is quite a unique experience. Largely because nobody in their right mind would want to go through it again.
“Honestly Lum your boyfriend is more trouble than he’s worth.” Akane grumbled, “Ranma let’s go down to our ro-” She looked where her fiance had been standing. She was gone. “Ranma?”
“She’s over there talking to that ice cream man.” Lum pointed to where some stands with snacks and meals had been set up. Where sure enough Ranma was battering her eyelashes at the guy at the stand. Getting a massive pile of ice cream on a far too small cone.
Akane sighed. “Just the two of us, he said. Just the two of us and his mega-sundae.”
- Mendo immediately begins to hit on Akane at every single opportunity. And even some occasions that a normal person wouldn't consider an opportunity.
- Lum has a plan to seduce Ataru. With her cousin's help it can't possibly fail!
- Shinobu tries to get to know Lum's cousin and her, uh... sex changing fiance... Why can't the new people she meets be normal?
- On to the all you can eat restaurant!
- Something else
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