All Mixed Up

Chapter Ten

Gohan ducked to the side as Akane’s foot passed through where his head had been. “Still too slow!” He commented as he dropped down and swept Akane’s legs out from under her. The raven-haired girl hit the ground with an ‘oof’ followed by a loud cracking noise as the dojo floor started to splinter some. “Whoops… maybe we better take this outside,” he commented. “I don’t think you’re dojo can take much more of that.”

Akane growled and batted away the hand he offered to her as she struggled to her feet. “Are you saying I’m fat?”

Gohan’s eyebrow shot up. ‘I thought we’d made up… why is she acting like that?’ “No. I’m saying that the extremely heavy gi you’re wearing is too much for the material that the dojo’s floor is made of.” As Akane continued struggling to her feet, Gohan let out a sigh. “Why won’t you let me help you up?”

“Because if you always help me up, I won’t learn how to stand on my own.”

Gohan stopped and thought that over. “Good point.”

As they made their way out of the dojo, Akane grumbled a little. “It doesn’t really seem fair, though. You’re not wearing anything heavy, so you’re going to be way faster than me.”

“Only at first. After a while, your muscles will build up and you’ll be able to start matching me in speed. Then, when you take off the extra weight, you’ll be way faster. If you can get good enough to fight someone while handicapped, when you ditch the handicap, you should be able to overmatch them.”

Akane nodded at the logic in that. “All right, sensei.”

Gohan chuckled. “I’m still not used to being called that.”

The raven-haired girl chuckled back. “Too bad Ryouga isn’t more reliable, or you could get it in stereo.”

The boy started to laugh, but something caught his eye. The top of a tanuki statue could be seen bobbing along on its way over the top of the wall. “Well, speak of the devil… Ryouga!”

The tanuki stopped and turned around, trying to locate the source of the voice. “Who’s there?”

Gohan leapt on top of the wall easily, though Akane simply plastered herself against it when she tried to follow. Rubbing her nose, she accepted his hand up. “Hi, Ryouga. You know, I’m rather angry at you,” Akane commented, her arms folded over her chest.

Ryouga blushed and stared down at his feet. “I’m sorry. I… have a problem with getting lost easy.” Ryouga looked up and saw the disbelieving looks on their faces. “It’s true! I get lost really, really, really easy.” The couple on the wall started getting annoyed looks on their face. “Hey! I haven’t been home in years because of it! And I’m sure it’s Ranma’s fault somehow!”

Gohan shook his head. “I don’t see how a person could make you lose your directional sense, but why didn’t you tell us about this problem before?”

The lost boy scratched the back of his head. “It’s so…you know…”

“Embarassing?” Gohan helped him out.

“Uh, yeah.” He chuckled nervously. “I’m really sorry.”

The Saiya-Jin sighed. “Okay, I guess it’s all right if you have a curse like that.” Ryouga jumped slightly when Gohan mentioned the c-word.

“I would have come back sooner, but I ran into Ranma. That coward wouldn’t stay still long enough for me to get my revenge!”

Akane looked confused. “Weren’t you faster than him when you dropped the tanuki statue?”

“Faster than he used to be.” The lost boy shook his head. “He got even faster somehow. He just ran around like a coward and wouldn’t fight me like a man! He used some cheap move on me and got away.”

Gohan sat and thought for a second. ‘How did Ranma get so much faster without Kame-Sennin training? Maybe Ryouga just dropped off the tanuki somewhere and just picked it back up recently. I can already see how much he’s still straining under that load.’

CLANG!!!

The Saiya-Jin blink-blinked as a huge chunk of midnight-black steel dropped off of Ryouga’s body and made a crater in the concrete. The lost boy sighed and made the piece disappear in his clothing somehow. “Darn thing keeps slipping…” He muttered.

“Where did that come from?” Akane asked as she stared wide-eyed.

“Well, I figured since the Tanuki wasn’t heavy enough to defeat Ranma, then I should get more weight. I found this piece in a run-down junkyard with some old ships in it.” Ryouga adjusted his clothes a little and swore about a pigtailed martial artist.

Gohan let out a chuckle as he considered that. ‘He might be ready for some training in moves like the Kamehameha. Then again, I’m not sure about his aim. He does have a tendency for collateral damage. No, I better hold off on that. Stick to the basics.’ 

“Well, let’s see how far your strength training has come. Drop your weight and hit me full force.” Gohan tapped his chin, giving Ryouga a target.

Ryouga shrugged off his pack and the statue. Gohan’s eyes widened a bit as the lost boy proceeded to pull metal plates out from under his clothing. By the time Ryouga was finished there was a sizable pile of heavy metal next to him.

Gohan shook his head to clear it and then nodded to Ryouga. The bandanna-clad boy cocked his arm and threw a heavy punch straight into the Saiya-jin’s chin. Akane blinked in surprise when Gohan wasn’t even moved. Her brows furrowed in confusion at the rather upset look that came to the spiky-haired boy’s face.

“Ryouga, I said full strength. If you don’t do what I tell you when we’re training, then I will not teach you any more. Now, HIT ME.”

Ryouga gulped a little and prayed to Kami that he wasn’t about to kill his sensei. His ears picked up something that almost sounded like snickering, but he could tell it wasn’t coming from Akane or Gohan, so he put it out of his mind. With a battle cry that startled animals for miles, Ryouga threw his strongest punch into Gohan’s chin. Ryouga’s eyes widened as his sensei went flying back a few feet before landing on his butt.

Gohan laughed loudly as he got to his feet and rubbed his chin. “That was really good, Ryouga. You’ve gotten a lot stronger than I expected.”

Ryouga blinked. “H-how did you…”

Gohan just chuckled and adopted a ‘wise master’ look. “That is why I am the sensei, grasshopper.”

Ryouga groaned. “Not again… look, like I told that blind old man, I am not a bug!”

Gohan and Akane blinked at him for a moment and then decided that perhaps that was something better left untouched.

Akane stepped up next. “Can I try?”

Gohan smiled. “Sure thing, Akane.”

As Akane started to take off the weighted gi, Gohan blushed and Ryouga nearly suffered a nosebleed. They both felt relief mixed with just a bit of disappointment when it turned out that she was wearing a normal gi underneath. When Gohan signaled his readiness, Akane threw a vicious haymaker. She felt a bit of pride when Gohan’s head was rocked to the side, but she was disappointed when she didn’t get anywhere near the result that Ryouga had.

“Not bad, Akane, but you still need a lot more work.”

Akane’s temper kicked into overdrive and before Gohan could react, Mallet-sama was being introduced to his head. Gohan’s shock at being attacked was overcome by his surprise when Mallet-sama didn’t break. As Akane stormed into the house, Gohan looked down and noticed that he was now embedded two feet into the ground. ‘Hmmm, she may be picking up how to boost her strength with ki faster than I thought.’

A short distance away, a figure lurked in the shadows of the branches of a tree. The watcher had only arrived in time to see Akane punch Gohan, the young man say something, and the subsequent malleting. But that was enough, as far as the watcher was concerned. “I told you you’d answer to me if you hurt Gohan again.” With a whisper of sound, the watcher leapt from the tree and faded into the distance.

In order to keep him from wandering off, Gohan offered to lead Ryouga to school the next day. The spiky-haired boy was expecting a fairly routine school day, but he was in for a surprise. ‘Who’s that attractive new girl?’

The female in question noticed him and waved happily. “Yoo-hoo! Gohan!”

It took him a moment, but Gohan finally realized that the girl was Ukyou. Akane recognized her as well, which brought about a reoccurrence of her bad mood.

“Hey, Ukyou!” Gohan waved at her. “You’re back already? Did you find Ranma?”

Ukyou smiled cutely and nodded. “Sure did. Found out some interesting things too.”

“Really? Like what?”

Akane interrupted Ukyou by grabbing Gohan’s arm and growling that they were going to be late. As the youngest Tendo stormed past, the two women shared a charged glare. None of the other students noticed, however. They were too busy staring in amusement at the sight of Ryouga being dragged by Gohan, who was in turn being dragged by Akane. Ukyou, though, was not amused.

As the day went on, Gohan noticed Ukyou apparently following him, but she never approached since Akane was always nearby as well. Unaware of her amorous intentions, he thought that maybe she was following Ryouga around. ‘Since she found Ranma, maybe she wants to chat with him about ways of getting revenge. Or she might be looking to getting help.’ Glancing back and forth between the two an idea occurred to him. ‘You know, they’d make a cute couple… maybe I should try and set them up on a date. Kami knows she deserves a good one.’

Yup.

Gohan let out a small groan. Stay out of this, Dende. He ignored the answering snicker and began working on his plan. At lunch, he brought Akane in on it. The raven-haired girl was only too happy to help get rid of a potential rival. Together they came up with a foolproof scheme.

After school, Gohan invited Ukyou over to the dojo to join them in training. The chef was only too happy to come along. Shortly after they got to the dojo, Gohan’s stomach rumbled loud enough for all to hear. Ukyou chuckled and started to break out her portable grill, but Akane interrupted her.

“Hey, what about that French restaurant on Main Street? I’ve been wanting to try it out. Do you know which one I mean, Ukyou?” When the chef nodded slowly, Akane clapped her hands excitedly. “We could all go together!”

Gohan nodded vigorously. “That sounds good to me. What about you two?” Ukyou started to offer her own services, but Ryouga’s nod cut her off. “Great!  I’ve got some things to take care of first. Ukyou, could you take Ryouga there?”

Ukyou blinked. “Why can’t he get there on his own?”

Ryouga blushed and stared at his feet, but Gohan saved him from embarrassment. “He doesn’t know where it is. Akane could show him, but I need her help with something.” Gohan was a horrible liar, but luckily he had practiced this scene and it was going just like in rehearsal.

With a resigned sigh Ukyou finally gave in. “All right, I’ll see you guys there. Come on, Ryouga.”

As the two turned to leave, Gohan darted towards Ryouga. “Oh, here’s some money. In case it takes longer than I expect, you guys go ahead and order.” Gohan winked at the lost boy. Ryouga, never really being known for his skills of observation, completely missed it.

As the two walked out the gates, Gohan moved to stand next to Akane. “Whew! It worked! That was some brilliant acting there, Akane.”

The youngest Tendo blushed at the complement. “Thank you, Gohan. Now what are we going to do?”

Gohan scratched the back of his head for a moment before his stomach growled again. “Uhm, maybe we should eat and then do some sparring.”

Akane nodded happily. She might get angry about it sometimes, but having a sparring partner was a pleasant experience.

They ate quickly and headed to the dojo for their training. They had been practicing for about half an hour when Gohan decided to start a conversation about something other than martial arts. “You know, in a way, I envy him,” he commented with small smile.

Akane quirked an eyebrow at him as she tried to find a hole in his defense. “What do you mean?”

Gohan demonstrated that the Saotomes weren’t the only ones with a ‘foot-in-mouth’ disorder. “Well, I’ll never have to the chance to date a cute girl.” He meant to follow up by saying, “Since I’m already engaged to the cutest one around.” Unfortunately he wasn’t nearly quick enough for Akane’s lightning-fast reflexes.

Surprisingly, Akane’s reaction wasn’t anger, but fear. ‘Kami-sama, he’s right… I’ll never date. My whole life’s been decided for me, without any consideration for my feelings. Gohan’s cute and nice and all, but I don’t really know him. What if he expects me to be a perfect little housewife, all meek and Kasumi-like? For all I know, his family could have insanity in it, just like the Kunos!’ Yes folks, Akane is in full delusional mode now. ‘What was my father thinking!’ Startling Gohan, Akane suddenly blurted out, “What were they thinking!?”

Gohan blinked at her in confusion. “What?”

“It’s insane! My life can’t be over like this! This is all our father’s fault! Our father’s are such idiots! Yours had to have been more of an idiot to listen to any scheme that my dad dreamed up!” Akane punched at Gohan as the panic built.

The blow landed, but didn’t physically injure the Saiya-Jin in the slightest. Emotionally, it was a deadly strike. “Take that back.”

Still gripped by fear and panic, Akane shook her head wildly as she attacked again despite her injured fist. “No! They both have to be idiots to have come up with something like this!” 

“TAKE THAT BACK!” Gohan punched the wall in a display of Saiya-jin anger. The poor wood disintegrated into dust as the walls shook violently. “MY FATHER WAS A GREAT MAN!!!”

Startled and scared out of her wits, Akane backed away. She suddenly remembered where Gohan’s father was. “G-Gohan…” She reached a hand forward.

Gohan’s features went cold. “If the engagement bothers you that badly, then fine! It’s gone.” Turning on his heel, he stormed out of the dojo.

“I – I’m sorry.” The words echoed hollowly in the empty dojo.

Gohan walked down the street a ways and seemed to deflate. “Aw man. What have I done?” He ran his hands over his spiky hair. “I’ve messed things up good this time. Not only have I lost my family honor, but I’ve also lost Akane for good. But, &@#$ it! She shouldn’t have said that about father…”

About that time a very angry okonomiyaki chef came storming up the lane, her clothing askew and her hair a mess. Gohan immediately assumed the worse. ‘Oh no! Ryogua tried to rape Ukyou! How could I have been so wrong about him!’ He quickly rushed to her side. “I’m so sorry, Ukyou! It must have been terrible! I’m so sorry!”

The chef tried to smooth out her clothes. “I’ll say. I got all messed up beating the living daylights out of that pig.”

Gohan did a double take. “Ryouga didn’t do that?”

“No, my clothes got beat up while he got beat down. What did you think, he raped me?” She gave him a ‘you must be kidding, but thanks for the concern’ look.

“What happened?”

“First, that boy does not know how to do anything but fidget and laugh like an idiot around a girl. Then he started going on and on about how Ranma supposedly made his life hell. Well, I could only take so much of that, so I started telling him to shut up, he got mad, I got mad, and then the restaurant received some minor collateral damage.”

Wavy motions in the air signaled the beginning a flashback. Ryouga is glaring across the table at Ukyou, who is glaring back with equal ferocity. The lost boy snarled as he once again berated his rival. “Listen, because of Ranma, I’ve seen hell!”

Ukyou snarled back. “Oh, come off it! Ranchan is a great guy! It’s not his fault you couldn’t find yer way to the fight in less than four days, jackass!”

Ryouga rose to his feet in anger as patrons began staring at the two teenagers. “He’s always running away from our fights!”

The chef one-upped Ryouga by not only rising to her feet, but also pulling out her battle spatula. “It’s more like you probably got lost after trying to pick on Ranchan, you jackass!”

Ryouga growled angrily, “You’ll probably say it’s my fault he shoved me into that pool at Jusenkyo!” Normally he would never have mentioned his curse, but his fury was shoving most of his rational thoughts into the blender.

Ukyou blinked in surprise at that comment, but she was way too mad to let herself be distracted. “Yeah, right. So what do you turn into? An even bigger jackass?”

“A pig! That arrogant, self-serving jerk turned me into a pig!”

“Well, what a surprise! A jackass-pig! Maybe I should call the zoo, pig-boy!”

Ryouga drew his umbrella as patrons began looking for good places to hide. “Don’t call me that!”

“I’m gonna make a pork okonomiyaki outta ya!” The chef brought her battle spatula as patrons and staff dove for cover. Ryouga blocked it easily, but he was caught off guard as she sent the table flying into him. The impact had no effect, but the glasses of water that were sitting on it were devastating. A moment later, an angry pig was pushing its way out of Ryouga’s clothing.

Ukyou couldn’t stop herself from laughing, which didn’t sit well with the porcine martial artist. As the wavy lines signal the end of the flashback, we see the little black pig attacking the practitioner of the culinary martial arts repeatedly.

Gohan scratched the back of his head. “Heh, heh, sorry. I’ve just had a bad day, and assumed the worse.”

“Why didn’t you show up anyway?”

He chuckled nervously. “Eheh… uhm, I thought that you two would make a good couple, so I tried to set you two up on a date.”

Ukyou put her hands on her hips. “And why would you try to set me up on a date, you jackass?”

Gohan took an involuntary step backwards under her glare. He waved his hands in a warding gesture as he scrambled to explain. “It seemed like such a shame that someone as cute as you never went on dates... I mean, after everything you went through, you deserve it...”

Ukyou smiled evilly. “I’m glad you feel that way.” She commented as she assumed a less threatening stance. “So how are you and Akane getting along?”

“We kinda had a bad fight, now I’m afraid that I’ve just lost my family honor.” His shoulders fell. “I broke up with her.”

Ukyou’s grin went from ‘evil’ to ‘heart of darkness’. “What if I told you that there was no engagement in the first place?”

Gohan’s head shot up. “What?!”

The chef came up and stared him in the eye. “The engagement between Son and Tendo never existed.”

“What are you talking about?” He had a look of genuine confusion on his face.

“I have it from a reliable source that the intended husband of a Tendo was a Saotome.” She crossed her arms. “Your father never trained with Tendo Soun, but Saotome Genma did.”

“Saotome? That would mean that one of the Tendo daughters was supposed to marry…”

“Saotome Ranma.” She finished for him.

Gohan crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “So what kind of proof do you have?”

Ukyou cocked an eyebrow at him. “Have I ever lied to you?”

Gohan flinched some. “No, you haven’t. And normally your word would be good enough, but I think this time I’ll need proof.”

Ukyou shrugged and smiled at him. “That’s actually kinda sweet. Well, I do have proof. It’s in the Tendo home, the last I heard. Shall we go?”

Back at the house, Gohan walked in cautiously. He saw Soun and Mr. Panda playing shogi together on the porch. Kasumi was just walking into the room with some tea when she noticed Gohan. “Oh my, Gohan are you all right? You seemed a bit upset earlier.”

Gohan blushed fiercely. “Sorry about that, Kasumi… I kinda lost my temper at something.” Turning to Ukyou he pointed over his shoulder at nowhere in particular. “So, where’s this proof?”

Ukyou’s eyes bore into the back of the panda as her evil grin returned. “I’ll need something first.” Tearing her eyes away from the animal just before it looked around at her, she turned to Kasumi. The panda grew an enormous sweatdrop at the site of the chef and her battle spatula. “Kasumi, could you get me some hot water… I need it to show Gohan a neat trick, but it has to be boiling hot!”

Kasumi smiled, nodded, and disappeared into the kitchen. Ukyou let her gaze settle on the panda for a moment and her grin shifted to ‘heart of darkness’ mode for a split second. Moments later Kasumi returned with a kettle of near boiling water. “I was just preparing tea. I hope it’s hot enough,” she said pleasantly.

Ukyou took it and her grin went so far into the evil spectrum that minor demons would have fled if there were any around to see it. “You want proof, Gohan? Ask the guy who made the deal!” With that she made eye contact with the panda. Mr. Panda realized the danger he was in a moment too late as the chef threw the water with perfect accuracy.

Kasumi’s blinking was the loudest noise in the room as the panda’s form shifted and warped into that of a bald, fat man in a white gi. The silence was shattered as the man screamed from the painfully hot water. “It doesn’t need to be that hot!” He cried out indignantly.

Ukyou’s smirk returned to the less scary ‘malicious’ mode. “I know that, jackass… I just wanted to pay you back for some of those ten years of pain you caused me.” Turning to Gohan, she pointed at the bald man. “Gohan, meet Saotome Genma. He’s the one that trained with Mr. Tendo, not your father.”

The yard door slamming open announced Akane’s arrival. She stared in stunned amazement at the older man sitting near her father. She had come running when she heard a man scream and had arrived just in time to hear Ukyou’s speech. “What’s going on?”

Ukyou glared at the youngest Tendo. “What’s going on is that you and Gohan aren’t engaged, officially or unofficially.”

Akane slowly turned to her father, tears forming in her eyes as her hands shook at her sides. “D-daddy? Is that true?”

Soun cringed from the betrayed look in his daughter’s eyes. “I-I-I…” He looked over at Genma and sent a silent request for forgiveness. “I don’t know. This IS my old friend Genma, who I made the pact with. But I thought Gohan was his son! And I had no idea that this panda was him! Th-the letter! Yes, the letter that came with the panda said that it was from Genma! Yes, that’s it.”

If Nabiki had been there, she would have picked up on the lie and roasted her father for it. However, Nabiki wasn’t there. Akane and Gohan were too upset to notice the blatant fibbing. Kasumi picked up on it, but she saw no reason to contradict her father. Ukyou noticed, but didn’t care. Genma also noticed, but he was in quite a bit of pain right then, which was higher on his priority list.

Akane, not normally able to put things together too swiftly, jumped to the right conclusion for once. “You mean… you and this… PANDA… engaged me to that… that… WOMANIZING PERVERT?!”

“Hey! Who are you calling a pervert?” Ukyou yelled, but was ignored by everyone present as Akane began to perform acts of such extreme and horribly violence on Genma that the PG-13 censor won’t permit the author to describe it.

When Gohan finally managed to pull Akane off of the barely recognizable form of Saotome Genma, Ukyou smirked. “Well, I think that beating might have been worth… oh, a month of the pain I suffered. That just leaves you with one hundred and nineteen more to go, Genma.”

Gohan sat on the floor. It was more of a collapse than a real sit, but he stayed upright so it didn’t really qualify as a collapse. Everything that he had thought was true was just vaporized faster than an asteroid before Vegeta’s anger. Only one word really summed it up. “Crap.” He looked over at Akane.

Her anger spent, Akane looked less like a dire angel of vengeance and more like a little girl who was hurting badly. Gohan felt his chest tighten as he looked at her. He was still hurt by her words earlier, but he knew that she hadn’t really meant them. “Akane…” He gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “Akane… do you… still want to be engaged?”

Akane shook beneath his hand as she was wracked by sobs. As she slowly got control of herself, she shook her head. “I don’t know, Gohan…” She looked up into his face to see his reaction. Gohan looked so crestfallen at her answer that she felt her chest seize a little. “B-but… I think I’d like… t-to try dating.”

A small smile crept across his face as Gohan thought back to his comment to her earlier. His response was cut off as Ukyou blurted out, “But that’s what I was wanting!”

Gohan spun around so fast that there was a small clap from breaking the sound barrier. “What?”

Ukyou blushed a bit as she looked down at her feet. “I… when I found out that you weren’t really engaged… I kinda wanted to date you myself, Gohan.”

Gohan’s jaw hit the ground as he glanced back and forth between Ukyou and Akane. After a couple of moments of mad scrambling his mind hit upon a solution. Tried and true throughout time, it was one of the oldest of solutions. Faint and hope it’s all taken care of when you wake up or that it was just a dream. And if you die in your sleep, at least you won’t feel it.

A while later, Gohan awoke to darkness. As he started to sit up, he sensed that he was not alone.

“Are you feeling any better, Gohan?”

The Saiya-Jin recognized Kasumi’s voice. “That depends. Was it a nightmare?”

He heard her sigh softly. “I’m afraid not.” He blinked as she turned on the light and he found himself lying down in the guest room.

“Crap.”

“Language.”

“Sorry. So, what do I do?”

“That depends. What do you want to do?”

“Make everyone happy.”

“I don’t think that’s possible this time, Gohan. At least not by yourself.”

Gohan sighed. “I don’t know what I want to do. Akane can be real nice, and I do like her, but… I don’t know if she realizes how much she can hurt with words. Her patience is almost as bad as Vegeta’s, she’s got a violent temper, and I don’t like it when she keeps taking everything out on me. As for Ukyou, she’s really cute, she seems to be a sweet girl and she’s had a hard life. However, I can’t help but blame her a little for coming along and wrecking everything, even if all she did was show us that there had been a big misunderstanding.” Gohan sat up as he continued. “I guess I’d better get my stuff together and find somewhere else to live. Since I’m not engaged to any of you, I really don’t have a right to be here.”

Kasumi smiled softly at him. ”Gohan, that’s not true. Remember, you are paying rent.”

Gohan looked at her and blinked. After a moment he chuckled. “Okay, you got me there, but still…”

Kasumi placed a gentle hand on his and he felt a strange sensation run through him. “Gohan, we all sat down and talked and we have a solution, if you’re willing to try it. Keep living here, paying your rent, and teaching Akane. Be her friend like I think you really want to be. Then if anything comes of it, it’ll be between you two and not two drunken men in a bar.”

“But what about Ukyou? That pretty much shuts her out in the cold.”

“Well, you see… she just moved here herself. She was planning on opening up a restaurant of her own and living in it, but there’s a problem with the school labor laws. She wouldn’t be able to work enough hours to make a profit or even keep the store out of debt if she also tried to go to school full time. So instead she’ll be selling food at your school during lunch and paying rent to live here. She’s already expressed an interest in training under you as well as Akane, so you’ll be able to spend equal time with both of them. Everyone comes out ahead, as long as you’re willing to give it a try. And besides, maybe after a while one or both of the girls will find themselves perfectly happy to just be your friend.”

Gohan sat and thought it over for a while. Finally he spoke. “Father and mother always told me that friends were the most important thing in the world. If that’s not worth the effort, then what is? I’ll do it!”

Kasumi smiled sunnily at him. “Well then, we should tell the others.”