Story: Hinako Tendo

"Hi, Hi, hi everyone everyone everyone everyone!"

A fist fell upon little Hinako's head, as Nodoka smiled out a serene yet dishonest smile to the crowd, but still Hinako cheerily waved and repeated her greeting. Her chipper, far too excited and enthusiastic greeting to the crowd.

And, oh what a crowd it was. It seemed as though half of Furinkan had found interest in this unusual contest. Which surely had nothing to do with Kasumi spending some time in both forms passing out advertisements for the event.

"What my esteemed colleague means," Nodoka said, forcing her smile and starting to grind her fist into Hinako's head. In much the same manner that Hinako had ground on her nerves every time they'd met. "Is that today is an exciting day for one and all. Today, we host a martial arts contest unlike any you've ever -"

"Hooray! It's a martial arts dating extravaganza!" Hinako interrupted, leaping clear into the air and landing on Nodoka's shoulders.

"Y-yes," Nodoka said, turning to gesture to the building behind her. "Our contest will be held in a soundproof are- Hinako, where did we find the funds to build a soundproof arena?"

"We'll be commentating on proceedings from out here, so it's super duper important that nobody inside can hear us, or they might get some tactical advice! Which would be super unfair!"

"No, really. That's pretty expensive, how did we have the money for this?"

"Yay! This is gonna be super exciting!"

Off by the entrance, Ranma nodded along. "Our moms make a great double act," he whispered to Nabiki. "You can tell they put a lot of effort into this routine."

 "Hinako! Stop ignoring me and answer my question!"

"Hahaha! That's just like you, 'Doka! You wanna tell everyone the rules of the game!"

"No, I want to know how we afforded this!"

"Sure," Nabiki said. "Rehearsal for this routine. Whatever you say, Ranma-baby."

"Fine! Then I'll explain the rules of the game," Nodoka huffed. "Rule 1 -"

“Have fun on your date!” Hinako interrupted her, “But be careful, our chaperones will be trying to make you not have fun. Like always, except with more ninjas.”

"There are three rounds that you must all pass," Nodoka said. "The first is the cafe. Then the arcade. And finally, a nice walk on the beach."

"The beach was helpfully donated by our beloved Principal! Yay, that was so thoughtful of him!"

"Watch out for pineapples..." someone whispered. Many students nodded along in agreement.

"Second! No interfering in each other's dates! That is grounds for major points loss!"

Which, again, was interpreted by Ranma, Akane and Nabiki as 'do not get caught interfering with each other's dates'.

" At the end of the date, all participants will be scored on three metrics: How good a time your date had, how good a time you had, and how well you fought off the ninja chaperones trying their hardest to ruin your good time!"

"So all of you have fun now, and enjoy the show."

The audience broke out into cheers and applause, at which point Nodoka's face went pale and she made a point of immediately ducking with her hands covering her head. Ranma didn't get why his mother would do that, right up until he turned to ask Nabiki what that was about and noticed the glazed over look in her eyes and the coin flicking back and forth across her fingers.

Mother and daughters all held up their coins, and promptly drained them of the battle aura.

“Now remember, you all signed waivers to view the show.” Nodoka said from under the desk. "I knew that would happen, can't have three of them around without them giving in to that draining urge..."

"Hmph! I'm more photogenic like this anyway," adult form Hinako said, flicking back her hair. She turned to the students and put her hand on her hip, every bit the overwhelming presence her other form was absolutely not. "On the count of three we begin. I suggest you prepare yourselves, for this will be a truly gruelling challenge."

Right. The students were all ready. Though a couple of the girls had to gently nudge their dates to keep them from leering. A couple of boys had to do the same. I mean, not because they were into Hinako more like... She's really hot, you know, so they were trying to figure out a way to be that hot as well without also having to occasionally look like they were a quarter of their actual age most of the time.

"One. Two. Three."

Almost all of the students immediately turned around and rushed right on inside, caught up in the moment and determined to win. Most of them did that. Except for four groups. By sheer and blinding coincidence those four are the ones who just so happened to be named characters.

"Well, well. Not in a hurry to rush inside?" Akane sniffed. "I would have pegged you as the sort to want to hurry and get this over with."

Normally yes. The difference was this time that, well... Ranma didn't actually have any experience in dating anyone. And, ahem, Nabiki was really cute and busty in this form, and also really super affectionate. This was making it a little bit difficult for him to progress, shall we say.

However, Ranma Saotome was nothing if not a proud idiot. As such:

"Yeah, well you're not in a rush either," Ranma said. "What's the matter, annoyed you're dating some random guy that I definitely don't recognise instead of me? Should've got to me before your sister did if you wanted a chance!"

For some reason Akane's date pulled out a really big spatula (gosh that seemed familiar for some reason) and brandished it menacingly.

"Come along now Azusa, you'll find many more cute things inside," Kasumi said, gently guiding Azusa away from the sign she'd found outside the arena. "Including me."

Yeah, that was getting roundly ignored by the four of them. What wasn't was the last group of the four.

"Come, my beloved! Together we shall show them all what it means to date the Blue Thunder of Furinkan!"

"Wooooah!" Nabiki gasped, which made her somehow squeeze into Ranma's chest even tighter. Guh! You could suffocate a baby elephant with those things! "Kuno got a date? Unpossible! Imbelievable!"

"For once we have to agree, big sister," Akane said. "I wonder who she is?"

"How do I get roped into these things?" Hikaru Gosunkugi in a wig and dress asked. "I mean... Teehee, let's show these losers how to have a good time."

"She's kinda out of his league if you ask me," Ranma said. "She can definitely do better." To which, the three girls (one of whom Ranma did not yet know was a girl but hey what can you do) nodded in agreement.

In any event the four of them ventured inside, eager to begin this contest. Against this many students they knew it would be a difficult task. Hard enough to compete against each other, but with that many enemies at once they'd have to be very careful in how they handle themselves. Regular martial arts contests were one on one, but in a free for all like this attacks could come from any direction and in any form.

Or... Just as an alternative to that... Every single couple that didn't have a named character in it had already lost without them having to do a single solitary thing.

"Trap 1: The gentlemen must offer the ladies their seat," Nabiki whispered to Ranma, who rolled his eyes and then used his feet to tap the back of a chair's leg, causing it to spin out right behind where Nabiki was standing and he pushed her in while walking on past her. This took Nabiki a moment to process, and when she did, she was wetter for him than she'd been to date. "Grnk! So... cool..."

As for the other couples: The kunoichi stared at Kasumi and Azusa in confusion, as they hadn't expected a couple to not include a gentleman. For Kuno and Gosunkugi?

"It is not right for a lady to seat herself!" Kuno announced, picking Gosunkugi up over his head and throwing him across the cafe to land in a seat. Which collapsed under the strain of having a person tossed across a cafe onto it. "There! Now we shall sit and dine!"

This... technically counted so far as the kunoichi were concerned. As for Akane and Ukyo...

"My seat. Now!" Akane demanded.

"Yes ma'am!" Ukyo reflexively said, rushing forward and pulling the seat out, letting Akane sit cross legged on it with her nose upturned, and then she pushed her in to the table and felt all funny in her tummy since she hadn't quite figured out that she had a bit of a subby streak. Ukyo made to take her seat -

"No, you shall be my footstool."

"I- " Ukyo began... but Akane was bouncing a coin across the back of her hand while staring impatiently at Ukyo. Who got down on her hands and knees next to Akane, then felt her feet land on the small of her back and... for some reason that she had not yet figured out Ukyo began to vibrate intensely.

"Now that we have a touch more privacy, and can see the lay of the land, we can discuss our battle strategy," Akane said. She absently lifted a foot from Ukyo's back and used it to kick a chair directly into a kunoichi attempting to sneak under the table. "It seems we only have three enemies to deal with. One is a buffoon and a waif. Another - "

"Please Azusa, the fork should not be embraced so tightly."

"Is unlikely to present a challenge. The last... Is Ranma and my <i>dear sister</i>. We must take care, little Ukyo, that we are defended against them, for they are ruthless and quite without mercy or compassion."

"Yes mist- I mean, you're right Akane. We can't let our guard down around those two. Especially Saotome, he strikes me as a real cheating scoundrel."

"Scoundrel," Akane said, lifting her left leg and carefully circling her toe around the middle of Ukyo's ba-a-a-ack... "I like that word. It pleases me."

"Uuuuuh...." Ukyo groaned.

"Now, if only we could ascertain what those <i>scoundrels</i> are planning..."

<hr>

"You know, it's kind of unfair that we know every single trap the kunoichi have laid out for us," Ranma whispered to Nabiki over a doubled soda.

"Oh? You think we shouldn't use it to our advantage to win?" Nabiki asked.

"Nah, I didn't say that," Ranma said. He then picked up a tray and bashed it over his shoulder, sending a kunoichi flying out the front door. "What I mean is, it's not unfair enough."

That statement brought a great big smile out of Nabiki that was almost charming, but was actually mostly scary. "I'm gonna reward you later on, big boy! You sure do know how to impress a girl. Gimme some sugar."

To which Ranma, inexperienced as he was with dates, picked up the sugar bowl and plopped it down in front of Nabiki. Oh yes. Shounen obliviousness. How it has worked tirelessly through the decades to protect the virginity of harem protagonists. How it drove the sexually frustrated women after these harem protagonists to distraction.

Or, in Nabiki’s case, “Tendogoyensatsu!” Several ninjas would be getting extra hazard pay. Which wasn't exactly a new thing to the Furinkan area, becoming an in vogue part of worker's contracts in the area from roughly three months after Kasumi learned to speak.

1. Hinako continues grating on Nodoka's very last nerve while announcing on what's going on.
2. Ranma and Nabiki plan to deal with Akane and Ukyo first.
3. Akane figures out Ukyo is a girl who knows Ranma. Decides to exploit this ruthlessly.
4. Kasumi and Azusa stay out of everyone's way and have a good time while chaos plays out around them.
5. (tired sigh) What's going on with Kuno and Gosunkugi?
6. Something else