Alternatives - Chapter 5 ************************************************************************** After Nabiki had left the Nekohanten, Cologne had gone to her room. There she listened to the tape. Mousse stayed downstairs and ran the restaurant. After a little bit, Cologne came back downstairs. "Mousse, when Shampoo returns, I have something to tell both of you," Cologne told Mousse, "Put up the closed sign. I don't want us to be disturbed." "Yes, honored elder," he replied. After overhearing what Nabiki had said to Cologne, Mousse was afraid to hear what Cologne had to say. A little later, Shampoo returned. The last customer soon left. Cologne had Shampoo and Mousse sit at a table with her. "I have some very good news for you Shampoo. I think son-in-law has found a way to fulfill all of his obligations." Cologne started. "What you mean, great-grandmother?" Shampoo asked. "I mean that you may soon have your husband, child." "Ai Yah!!" Shampoo squealed in happiness. "NO!, Shampoo I'm the man for you! I've loved you since we were babies!" Mousse begged. "Hmph, You say you love me, but you never beat me. I only love man who can defeat me." Shampoo said dismissing him. "You said once, that if I could defeat Ranma, you'd go out with me. Will you hold to that promise?" Mousse asked her. Before Shampoo could reply, Cologne interjected herself, "There will be no fighting with Ranma or Akane this week. In fact, stay away from both families. Ranma needs time to come to the right decision." "Honored one, I must prove myself to Shampoo!" Mousse objected. "You have tried since you were two years old. You failed. Are you defying me?" Cologne asked coldly. "Not now, no, honored elder." Mousse said in submission. He thought. I will disobey you. I will find and defeat Ranma before he can take Shampoo away from me. This time I will not fail. ************************************************************************** Several days passed peacefully at Nodoka Saotome's. Ranma and Akane have sparred each night in the Saotome dojo. Ranma had been working with Akane on her defense. He hadn't told either Akane or Nodoka of his decision. He had enjoyed the time alone with them too much. Ranma and Akane ran along the fence towards Furinkan High School. The canal could be seen on one side of the fence. A residential area lay on the other side of the fence. Telephone poles were set next to the fence. "You've doing great, Akane!" Ranma said from behind her, "I think you're ready for the next level of balance training." "What's that, Ranma?" Akane asked. Ranma began to smile in anticipation, "You know how Pop and I spar on the run?" "Yes..." Akane started to answer as her feet were knocked out from under her. Akane fell off of the fence. Before she could hit the ground, Ranma grabbed her in his arms. He jumped back onto the fence as he said, "Gotcha!" He set Akane back on the fence. "What do you mean? Gotcha?" Akane started getting angry. "You didn't even let me know what you were going to do!" "That's why I caught you. I knew you weren't ready for an attack. I..." Ranma never finished as he was knocked into the canal. He had been hit in the temple by a pewter egg. Akane searched for who had hit Ranma. She soon spotted Mousse on the roof of a house across the street from her. He was in his normal attire. His glasses were placed on top of his head. "Mousse, what did you do that for?" she yelled at him. "Ranma, it's no use trying to hide from me! I know that's you in that skirt. I am not going to let you marry Shampoo and take her away from me forever. Defend yourself!" Mousse screamed desperately. Mousse jumped from the house and landed 3 meters from Akane. He then let fly his chains. "Mousse, it's me, Akane! You knocked Ranma into the canal." Akane barely dodged the chains coming her way. She noticed with fright that Mousse had added barbed hooks to the chains. She jumped down from the fence and ran to a nearby telephone pole. I'll try to keep something between Mousse and myself. What's gotten into him, I wonder? She thought to herself. "Very funny, Saotome, since when does Akane run on the fence? Hiding won't help you." Mousse ignored Akane's shout. Thinking he had Ranma within his range, Mousse jumped into the air and quickly threw a dozen explosives eggs in a circle around Akane. "You can't dodge all of these!" He said as he landed and jumped again. "RANMA, HELP!" Akane screamed as the eggs exploded around her. Disoriented by the blasts, Akane lost sight of Mousse. At the sound of the explosions, the passers-by all ran for safety. The few cars on the street were abandoned by their drivers. Several calls were made to the Nerima constabulary. Mousse landed softly behind Akane. "Finally, I have you!" Mousse said as he swung at her with the Painiyao Chuan attack. THUD.... Akane fell at Mousse's feet, unconscious. "AKANE!!!" Ranma arrived just as Mousse struck Akane down. She froze. Her heart skipped a beat. As she watched Akane's body crumple, her battle aura ignited. She saw blood begin to pool under Akane's head. "Mousse, I swear that you will never attack anyone ever again." Ranma said as she ran at him and attacked with a flying kick. "Huh? Ranma? I just beat you, Ranma!" A confused Mousse said. Mousse was surprised but was able to duck Ranma's first attack. Ranma sailed through the air where Mousse had been. She landed and turned to face Mousse. "You beat Akane, the woman I love, you blind idiot!" Ranma wanted to hurt Mousse. She wanted to hurt him badly. She couldn't use her ranged attacks without hitting Akane. "Good! You took the woman I love away from me! Prepare yourself for defeat," Mousse decided that it was a good time lower his glasses over his eyes. Ranma charged in and attempted to overwhelm Mousse with her greater speed. Mousse jumped to the top of the telephone pole. Ranma ran on and rebounded off the fence. >From his position on the pole, Mousse threw knife after knife at Ranma. Ranma dodged them and gathered his chi. She then yelled, “Mouko Takabisha!” . A chi blast tore through the air and destroyed the top of the telephone pole. Mousse had seen Ranma’s preparation and had jumped away at the last second. He landed on the roof of the house he had first attacked from. "You think that your speed can defeat me, Ranma? Let's see how much your speed does you when you're blind." Mousse . He dropped enough smoke bombs to obscure the area they were fighting in. He jumped from the roof to where he had last seen Ranma. He hoped to skewer Ranma with his Inchua Chuan attack. Ranma had immediately rolled to her left when the smoke bombs had gone off. She knew that Mousse would try to attack from above. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the sounds around her. She heard someone land a meter or so to her right. Deciding to get out of the smoke, she jumped up and away from the noise to get her bearings. Spotting the fence, she jumped back onto the it. She then stopped moving. Mousse was also trying to locate Ranma. He had been unable to hear Ranma's movements as his own covered them. He knew what would bring Ranma to him. "Ranma, guess who I just found? Could it be ... Akane?" You know she could get hurt lying around in the middle of a fight like this." Mousse baited Ranma. He pulled a stick out of his sleeve and broke it. "OOPS! I think I just broke something. It's a good thing she's not awake." Ranma was in a rage. She jumped down from the fence and began walking to where she heard Mousse from. She said, "Let's end this Mousse. You have more honor than to threaten innocent people like this." "I'm ready Ranma." Mousse struck out with his chains. Ranma didn't see them coming. When Mousse pulled back, he found that he had caught Ranma in his chains. "As you said earlier, Ranma, Gotcha. The difference is that I will finish you." Mousse kept the chains taut as he cautiously moved forward. Ranma was in agony. The chains were wrapped around her torso and arms. The hooks had found flesh to pierce. She bled from many different places. I have to escape this, finish Mousse and get help for Akane, she thought. As she saw Mousse's figure begin looming towards her in the smoke, Ranma made her move. She jumped forward towards Mousse. This loosened the chains. She ripped them off. Blood and flesh were pulled from her as the chains flew away. Ranma surprised Mousse. She closed with him and kicked his left knee breaking it. Mousse fell down in pain. Taking advantage of this, Ranma jumped onto his chest and used the Chestnut Fist technique to batter him unconsciousness. She wasn’t worried about hurting him. She wanted him out. Once she was sure that Mousse was not getting up again, Ranma began searching for Akane. As the smoke cleared, she found her body. She gently sat beside Akane and checked her head. It was bleeding from where she had been hit. She didn't seem to be bleeding from her ears, eyes or nose, so Ranma was slightly reassured. She took off what was left of her shirt and wrapped it around Akane's head. Hearing police sirens, she decided to wait for them to come and help them. She had Akane's head in her lap and held her hand. She was feeling weak and a little cold. After a few moments, she slumped over next to Akane. When the police arrived, they found a disturbing sight. There was one body laying in the middle of the street. There were bloody chains hanging from his arms. Looking more closely, they could see that his jaw and cheekbones had been broken in multiple places. There were two girls lying a short distance away. One was a girl who had suffered a serious head injury. The other had taken her top off to help the other. It looked to them as if she had been the one in the chains. They immediately called ambulances. Luckily for Ranma and Akane, there were plenty of witnesses who attested to the fact that Mousse had attacked them for no reason. ************************************************************************* Pain. That was the first thing Ranma felt when she woke up. As she slowly opened her eyes, she saw her mother sitting in a chair next to her on her left. Her mother was asleep. She had a novel in her lap, Ranma assumed she had fallen asleep while reading. She continued to look around the room. She noticed an IV stand on her right side. It was feeding blood and fluids into her. There was a curtain wrapped around her bed preventing her from seeing anything else. She looked at herself. She was wrapped in bandages from her waist to her neck. Her arms were bandaged to her wrists. Mousse has gotten better, she thought to herself. "Hi, Mom," she managed to whisper. Nodoka didn't stir. Ranma reached out with her left arm. "Ouch!!!" She tapped her mother until Nodoka woke up. "Hi, Mom," she whispered again. "Ranma, I'm so glad you're awake!" Nodoka reached forward to hug Ranma lightly. "Mom, how is Akane?" Ranma asked with worry in her voice. "She's fine, dear." Nodoka answered, "in fact, Akane is in the bed next to yours. She woke up a little while ago. She asked how you were." "Why am I still a girl?" Ranma asked. "They didn't know of your curse when you arrived at the hospital. They had bandaged you by the time anyone who knew of your curse could get here. I talked to your doctor and she said that it would be safer for you to stay this way for now. You lost a lot of blood and need to build your strength back up." "Oh," Ranma was unsure what to make of that. "Is Akane awake now?" Ranma asked Nodoka. "Ranma, is that you?" she heard Akane's voice. Nodoka chuckled, "Does that answer you, Ranma?" Nodoka opened the curtain between the two beds. Ranma looked to her left and saw Akane. Her head was wrapped up in a bandage. It looked like a turban. She saw Nabiki sitting with Akane. Akane smiled at Ranma when she saw her looking at her. "I was so worried, Ranma. They told me that Mousse had been able to get his chains on you. He had hooks on them." "Yeah, I know," Ranma managed a weak smile. "I'm glad that you're awake." "Oh, all Mousse did to me was to knock me out with that silly training potty of his. The bill of the swan must have hit me on the back of the head. It kind of split my scalp open." Akane said. "How come your father isn't in here? I would think that he would be in here crying all over you." "That happened three hours ago, Ranma." Nabiki interrupted, "I finally got Kasumi to take him home. He was upsetting the rest of the patients. Oh, the police came by and told us that Mousse was under arrest." "Good. I wonder what set him off?" Ranma said. After a few moments, she continued, "Mom? Akane? You know that decision I need to make?" "Yes, Ranma?" Nodoka and Akane answered. "I've come to a decision. I didn't tell you earlier because I was enjoying being with you too much. I'm not going to let this happen again. Mom, I want to go to the Spring and make a me for each of my fiancees." Ranma stopped and looked at Akane, "Akane, I love you. I want to be your husband. I don't want you hurt again, will you forgive me this?" "Yes, Ranma, I will." Akane said, "Really, what is there to forgive, I'm going to get the man I love. The rest are going to get imitations." Ranma smiled, "Yeah, that's right." "How do you want to tell your paramours, Ranma?" Nabiki asked. "Uh, just tell them, I suppose," he said, "I certainly am not going to charge them for it." "Why not have a party at your mother's and announce it?" Nabiki asked. "That's a wonderful idea. I'll get to know all of them that way." Nodoka took charge, "Nabiki, will you see to it that they all are invited to my house this Saturday evening?" "Yes, Aunt Nodoka, I'll be happy to. Will 6:00 p.m. be a good time?" "Yes, dear." ************************************************************************** Akane and Ranma were both released the next morning. Their conditioning and training had helped them heal. When Nodoka got them to her house, they found Cologne waiting for them. Cologne asked to speak to Nodoka. Nodoka looked at Ranma and Akane and sent them to Akane's room. "Mrs. Saotome, I wish to apologize for Mousse's actions. He acted against my strict orders," Cologne let some of her anger show, "He will never disobey an elder again." "Why are you apologizing to me? Shouldn't you be apologizing to Akane and Ranma?" Nodoka asked. "I am apologizing to you because as the elder of this family, I can speak to you as an equal. I specifically told Shampoo and Mousse to stay away from son-in-law and Akane. I know what decision son-in-law is struggling with. I know that leaving son-in-law alone right now will give Shampoo her best chance at getting son-in-law as husband. Mousse believes that he is in love with Shampoo. He thought that he knew what son-in-law would do and decided to stop him," Cologne then smiled, "Mousse will be punished under tribal law when he is allowed back. I promise you, he won't enjoy it." "I don't know what to say. I accept your apology. Would you like some tea?" Nodoka asked. "No thank you, I need to get back to the Nekohanten, we're short-handed right now." Cologne finished, "Goodbye, Mrs. Saotome." After being told of the apology, Ranma and Akane decided not to press charges. They both knew Cologne's justice would be much worse than anything the Japanese Court system would come up with. Upon his release, Mousse was sent back to the amazon village. ************************************************************************** In the next few days, Ranma and Akane finished healing. Akane was very pleased to find P-Chan wandering by one afternoon. She decided that he had come looking for her. She made sure that he didn't get lost again. Neither Ranma nor Akane were looking forward to meeting with Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi. They talked with Nodoka and came up with a plan for the evening. ************************************************************************** At last! Nodoka thought to herself. I will get a chance to meet all of the women who want my son, without a battle. Ranma is so manly. They had decided to have the party in the dojo. More people could fit comfortably in there. Genma had arrived with Soun, Kasumi and Nabiki that morning. Kasumi had agreed to help Nodoka set everything up and needed to be there early. Ukyo had arrived at 5:30 p.m. She had dressed in a black satin dress, It had a V-front and swoop back showing her figure off nicely. It hugged her hips, but was flared at the bottom to allow her to easily walk. She had matching black flats on her feet. She was wearing a long strand of pearls. It was looped so that it looked as if she had two strings on, one short and one long. She was even wearing earrings. They were little silver spatulas with a pearl set into the middle of each blade. Her hair had been styled so that it flowed around her face. She had spent the better part of three days in preparation for this. It had been hard, but she had left her battle spatula at her restaurant. She kept thinking that she felt naked without it. Cologne and Shampoo arrived promptly at 6:00 p.m. Cologne was in her usual garb. Shampoo arrived wearing a red silk skirt and top. The top had emblazoned on it a wild black stallion rearing over a defeated Chinese dragon. The dragon's multicolored body wrapped around the top and was continued onto the skirt. Where the dragon's tail ended, there was a stylized pool. She was wearing matching red shoes. Shampoo had not changed her hair style. She was wearing earrings. They looked like miniature bon-boris. She had a silver necklace on with a ruby held in a setting in the center. She also was wearing matching bracelets. Kodachi arrived last and the most dramatically. She arrived in a storm of black rose petals. Surprisingly her brother Kuno was with her. Kodachi was wearing an outfit that looked as if it had been made from her gymnastics outfit. It looked like it was made out of velvet, or black rose petals. It was long-sleeved and the neck line achieved a modest V. The material hugged her body until it was just past her hips. It then flared into a full skirt. If you looked at it closely, one would see a black on black pattern on the main body of the dress. It showed black roses and stems. This pattern extended to the arms but didn't carry past her thighs. She was wearing golden hoop earrings. On her neck was a diamond studded gold necklace. Lastly, she was wearing matching black pumps. Kuno had arrived wearing a full tuxedo with a red rose in the boutonniere. Nodoka, Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane all were wearing kimonos. Genma and Soun both were wearing formal robes. Ranma was wearing his usual outfit. P-Chan was in Akane's lap. All of the guests had arrived. Ranma was shocked that no fights had broken out. It was almost as if everyone knew what was going to be said. How could they know? He dismissed that thought. After dinner, Nodoka thanked everyone for coming. She then told everyone that Ranma had made some decisions regarding all of his relationships. She then smiled an looked at Ranma. He looked at all of his fiancees. Akane was smiling at him. Ukyo was also smiling. So was Shampoo and Kodachi. He became very nervous. "Um. I came to my mother last week and asked her for some help. I wanted to find a way to honorably end the problem we all have. You four want to be my wife and there is only one of me. Three of you have family or personal honor at stake. Also, I like all of you and don't want to hurt you." He stopped. Soun looked confused and ready to get angry. Kasumi nodded at him encouragingly. Nabiki smiled her knowing smile. Genma looked to see if there was any rice left. Nodoka was sitting and looking at him proudly. Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi were watching him closely. Kuno had his usual look of superiority on his face. Cologne, being Cologne, was unreadable. "Most of you know I am cursed. I was cursed at a place called Jusenkyo. Cold water turns me into a girl and hot water back to myself. Kuno, Kodachi, the pig-tailed girl is me. I don't know how you've never figured it out." Ranma stopped and demonstrated for them. He then continued on, "Mother had written the Jusenkyo Guide asking how the curses could be taken off. Basically, he said that there are two ways, live with it or take a swim in the pool of Drowned Twins. If I was cursed as a say, pig, cat or duck, I would have to live with the curse for the length of that animal's normal lifetime. A pig can live 26 years." Ranma looked hard at P-Chan, P-Chan big-sweated, "A cat can live to around 20 years old . A duck can live between 12 and 18 years old. However, in the case of a curse changing you into another person, ridding yourself of the curse is a little more difficult. In my case, I would have to marry a man and bear a child by him. Only then, would I have the choice to lose the curse. If I jump into the pool of Drowned Twins, curses are split from you. I would become a male and female Ranma Saotome. Furthermore, according to the guide, I could jump in repeatedly and create multiple copies of myself." Ranma again paused. He looked at his audience. The only ones who looked as if they didn't understand what was going on were Genma and Soun. "What I am saying is this. I am going to China to remove my curse. I will then jump into the pool enough times to make a copy of myself for each of you. Ukyo your honor will be restored. Shampoo, you will have your husband. Akane will have me. Kodachi, I make no promises. You must prove yourself to me without resorting to poisons or powders. I also ask all of you to be the friend of my girl side," Ranma finished. All four girls were looking at him with happiness. Kuno was looking at him, also. Kuno turned and bowed to Nodoka, "Mrs. Saotome, Mr. Saotome, I crave the honor of being allowed to date your daughter when she comes back. I have worshipped her since I first met her. I wish a chance to prove my love for her." Nodoka smiled and looked at Ranma. He looked as if he had just eaten a lemon. "Kuno, when we come back from China, why don't you ask again," she tried to let him down nicely. Cologne asked, "Well, son-in-law, when are you planning on going to China? Do you need any help getting there?" Ranma hadn't thought this far, "I want to go there as soon as possible. Yes, I do need help getting there. I don't want to go there the way Pop and I did. We swam. The Sea of Japan is a big stretch of water." Cologne continued, "I assume you want all your fiancees along. What about the rest us?" Kuno interjected "I will personally fly all who want to go in my personal plane." "Thanks, Kuno, but we’ve seen your navigational skills. Remember that little boat trip we took?" Nabiki said. "..." Kuno stared at Nabiki with anger. Within minutes, the entire assemblage had invited themselves along to China. It was decided to let Cologne make the travel arrangements and Kuno would fund them. The departure date for China would be in two weeks. This would allow everyone to get what they needed for an overseas trip. ************************************************************************** A little later after most had left, Nabiki found Ranma alone. "Ranma, have you considered what names you want your other selves to have?" Nabiki asked. "Uh, Ranma?" he answered. "Are you sure that you want to have five Ranma Saotomes running around? One of them a girl?", she asked again. "I hadn't thought about that. I like the name Ranma. I've had it a long time." he said. "Well, you are going to have to decide what names you want to have," she then continued, "I have a gift for you, Ranma." "What?" Ranma said brightly. She pulled seven passports from within her outfit. "These are your new passports, Ranma. I saw how happy Akane is. I also know that you will never hurt her. Finally, I wanted to see if I could pull this off. There are five passports here for a male Saotome born on your birth date. Only one has the name Ranma within it. There are two passports for female Saotomes with your birth date. I didn't know how many of you, you might want to make. I decided you might want one Ranma completely free of everyone. I also thought that the girl you might need a sister. Sisters are VERY good things to have." "You thought I might want to make two girl me's?" Ranma asked dumbfounded. "Why not? There's nothing wrong with being a girl, you know that," she answered, "Never mind, just decide what names you want to use and let me know. I'll get the passports and your other records taken care of. I'll tell you this, this was a fun challenge." She grinned at him. "Thanks, Nabiki! I never expected this!" He said. ************************************************************************** Hi everyone, Chapter 5 didn't take me too long to write. I hope you liked it. I know there are trouble spots. This is the first time I've written a fight scene. Tell me what's wrong and right. I want to thank my pre-readers for their quick responses. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You Looking forward to hearing from you, Mike Allen