Nabiki came out of one of the extravagant bathrooms at the Satan mansion and plopped down on one of the plush couches in the den of the large dwelling. She still had several minutes before she had to finish getting ready for school, so she contemplated her current dilemmas. Three days of gathering information and I’m still no closer to finding a way to rid ourselves of those Amazons. I’ve studied them as much as I can, but I can’t find an honorable way out of this mess. It can’t be underhanded because they would return immediately to kill me. That’s a possibility I don’t want to think about, even though Ranma would protect me. He’s sweet and stupid like that.
She mulled over her information to date. Shampoo’s main weakness is Ranma, easily manipulated, but how to turn it against her? Mousse’s weakness is his obsession with Shampoo, easy to use as a distraction or misinformation. Cologne… A shudder went through the middle Tendo daughter. Every time I’ve encountered her she’s always had the upper hand. I’m forced to believe that she IS over three hundred years old. She always seems to be two steps ahead of anyone else. Nabiki thought for a second. Wait a minute, if she’s so smart, why hasn’t she bagged Ranma yet? What about Ranma makes it so hard for her to trap him? I trapped him easily enough with the marriage agreement, but she has the Amazon law. Granted they don’t apply in Japan, but Ranma pretty much obeys any honorable law. Of course I would have had him a long time ago if it wasn’t for Videl. The boy is obviously in love with her, but they have no ties past that. Will love be strong enough to overcome his honor? She shook her head. Great, now I’m starting to sound like a bad action thriller. Oh well, might as well finish getting ready for class. I can already hear Ranma training in the gym. I still need to talk to Videl about her ideas for getting rid of the red menace. I need to use this temporary truce while I have it.
She stood up, stretched, and went back to her room to finish getting ready for school.
Up in another room, Videl was rising to her alarm clock buzz. She turned it off and slowly got out of bed. She looked at her timepiece with a sad look on her face. This was the second time this week that Ranma had failed to wake her up. She saw that she didn’t have any time to spar, so she dressed for school.
After she had dressed, she walked slowly to the gym where she knew Ranma was pushing himself too far again. He had forgotten the outside world again. This was a side of Ranma she had seen before, but since they had returned from Nerima, it was like he was a man possessed. He worked out constantly, pushing himself past exhaustion again and again. She put two fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly.
Ranma, drenched in sweat and still pushing himself, stopped in mid-air and dropped to the floor. He turned and saw Videl standing in the doorway with a hurt look on her face. Oh man! I did it again! He jumped up and ran to her. “I’m SOOO sorry, Vichan! I promise I won’t let it happen again!”
Videl looked him in the eye. “You said that last time. What’s wrong, Ranma? What happened in Nerima that made you so obsessed?”
He flinched away and turned away from her. “Nothin’. I just think I should be training more. I’ve really let myself slide. I’ve got to stay in shape.”
The raven-haired girl shook his head at his obvious denial. “You’ve trained harder than anyone I’ve known from the day I’ve met you. There’s more and you know it! Ranma, talk to me. I can’t help if you don’t talk to me!”
His shoulders slumped a bit as he could almost hear the tears in Videl’s voice. “I c-can’t tell you.”
Videl’s tears began to well up in her eyes. “Don’t you trust me?”
Ranma’s expression paled. He turned around quickly. “It ain’t like that! I trust you! It’s just.” He turned back around. “It’s embarrassing.”
She walked up behind him and hugged him. “Please tell me what happened. I don’t ask for much. I just want to know what’s wrong with you.”
He sagged a bit. “When we went there, there was a guy.” He stopped and took a deep breath.
Videl looked at him with concern in her eyes. “Did he do something to your girl side? I’ll kill him!” She seethed suddenly.
“NO!!!” Ranma turned, broke the embrace, and put his hands up in a warding gesture. “He just…well…He was really strong. Vichan, he was hiding more power than I’ve ever dreamed existed. I…I didn’t know what to do!”
Videl’s face lit up in understanding. “You got scared, didn’t you?”
Ranma’s face went hard and he scowled at his girlfriend. “I never get scared! I’m not scared of nothin’!”
“Not scared of anything, and yes, you are! Cats for one!” Videl latched back onto his waist. “Ranma, it’s okay to be scared if he had that much power. It frightening to think about if he could c…uh…upset you so much.”
The pigtailed martial artist finally gave in and put his arms around her. “I’m am sorry Videl. I never wanted to hurt you, but I’m supposed to be the best! Pops trained me to be the best of my generation. Now I find out that there’s a guy out there with more power in his pinky than in my entire body. What am I supposed to do? I’ve got to train until I can take him!”
Videl held him close. “Ranma, there will always be someone out there better than you. You taught me that!”
He looked up at her and loosened the embrace enough to look her in the eye. “What do you mean?”
She smiled up at him. “Ranma, before you came to town I didn’t think anyone could hold a candle to me. I thought I was the best fighter in the world next to my daddy. You came in and ruined all that. You made me realize that there are people out there that are more skilled, faster, and even stronger.”
Ranma smiled nervously. “I’m sorry.”
She gave him a small peck on the lips. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world though.”
They held each other tightly as another figure looked on. Nabiki frowned at the display. How am I supposed to break them up with Kodak moments like this? She stepped forward and cleared her throat, causing the couple to break apart. “You two better hit the showers if we’re going to get to school on time.”
Videl gave her a confused look. “I haven’t worked out. Why do I need a shower?” Nabiki pointed down at her shirt. Videl looked down and saw that she was drenched in Ranma’s sweat. “Okay, maybe I do need a shower. We need to hurry, Ranma!” She grabbed his hand and towed him out of the gym.
“Separate bathrooms!” Nabiki shouted after them.
“Man, she’s starting to sound like dad.” Videl commented aside as she dropped Ranma by his usual bathroom.
After everyone was showered, dressed, and fed; the trio headed to school. Ranma took to the fences when the girls told him they wanted to talk. Nabiki turned to Videl. “So have you had any ideas about our Amazon problem?”
The raven-haired girl shook her head. “None. What have we got on the intelligence side?”
Nabiki relayed all her observations of the Amazon trio. “…So I think I could handle it without Cologne in the equation, but I can’t seem to get rid of the old gal. She’s a cunning old woman.”
“Three hundred years, blah, blah, blah.” Videl nodded. “I know the whole spiel, and I know we’d be hard pressed to take her in combat. Ranchan was the only one to do it, and he could only do it under the Neko-Ken.”
“I wouldn’t advise a violent approach. She’d just be back with more Amazons and probably kill both of us. You know how they like to deal with ‘obstacles’.”
The other girl nodded her head in agreement. “What if Shampoo has an ‘accident’?”
Nabiki shook her head. “Cologne would see through it, and I don’t think you have the stomach for that. Besides that, Ranma wouldn’t forgive either of us.”
“Good point.” Videl thought for a second. “Maybe we could get Mousse trained up to defeat Shampoo?”
“And/or disable Shampoo.” Nabiki thought along the same lines.
“The question is how.” The younger girl put her hand on her chin and pondered some more.
“Quack!”
They both turned to see a duck with coke bottle glasses standing in front of them. “What is that?” Nabiki wondered aloud.
Ranma turned when he heard the sound and saw the waterfowl. “Looks like a blind duck.” Said animal turned and flew at his face. He waited for the last possible instant and batted the duck away. The bird went flying and struck the side of one of the nearest buildings, passing out upon impact.
“You know, it’s not as good as pig, but duck does make a pretty good meal.” Videl commented idly.
The pigtailed martial artist nodded in agreement. “It’s not bad. It’s been a while since I’ve had Peking duck. I bet the old ghoul would know how to fix it.” The duck quickly came to, only to be caught by Ranma. “Don’t worry, we won’t eat you. Looks like somebody’s pet if they bothered to put those stupid glasses on it.” The waterfowl started quacking angrily and snapping at Ranma’s nose.
“Looks like the myopic quacker doesn’t like you, Ranma.” Nabiki commented with an amused look on her face.
The duck managed to shake its way free of Ranma’s grip and flew toward his head. The martial artist ducked (no pun intended) to avoid the bird. The animal turned and in mid-air and lifted its wings. Suddenly, several knives went flying. Ranma nimbly avoided the darts and leapt toward the animal.
“You could hurt someone like that!” He slapped the duck down into the pavement, knocking it out cold again. “Man, even the animals are armed and dangerous.”
“Life is definitely interesting with you around, Ranchan.” Videl smiled at him. He returned a sheepish smile.
Nabiki was about to puke. “Come on, let’s get to school.”
Videl looked down at her watch. “We’re going to be late! We need to hurry!” She leapt to the nearest lamppost and then to a close roof.
“Hey! What am I supposed to do?!” Nabiki yelled after her.
Ranma rolled his eyes. “Come on.” He scooped her up in his arms and leapt after his girlfriend. Videl briefly turned and scowled, Nabiki just gave her a haughty smirk and placed her arms around Ranma’s neck.
They all took off on their delayed trip to school, leaving an unconscious duck on the ground. After a few minutes the duck came around and started swearing in its own special way. Nearby pedestrians could have sworn that the duck had quacked, ‘die Ranma’, but of course a duck can’t talk.
During the lunch hour, Ranma took stock of his current situation and reflected on how much it differed from his life before meeting Videl. He had lived the last ten years of his life with friends that were few and far between. One of those old friends was currently trying to kill him (but he was only kidding, right?), and the other one had turned out to be a girl and his fiancé. Luckily he had dealt with that problem with help from Videl.
He looked around and saw all the people sitting around him. All of them were friends of a sort. Videl was leaning on his right shoulder as she chewed on his lunch. She had come to mean a lot to him. He loved her even if he still had trouble admitting it. Not to be outdone, Nabiki leaned on his left shoulder. He’d heard that she was a scheming underhanded dealer, but she had been nothing but nice to him. She even helped get rid of his would-be killers (yeah, right). Said killer was trying to peal him for information about his ‘sister’. Ranma rolled his eyes at Shayapuna. Then there was Ireeza, the blonde that was making lustful glances at him from the ground in front of him.
They were all seated around him under the largest shade tree on the Orange Star High School lawn. They were all being ‘friends’ to him. Ranma felt a little overwhelmed at being so popular, but he could get used to it. There was only one ‘friend’ that was missing from the picture. Of course, he was happy about that fact.
“Nihao!” Came a high-pitched feminine voice from behind him.
Well, I guess the gang’s all here. Ranma thought ruefully as he felt Videl and Nabiki mold themselves to his sides to prevent the lavender haired Amazon from putting her arms around him.
Shampoo bounced over and in front of him, blocking Ireeza’s view of the pigtailed martial artist. She presented a basket and pulled the lid off, revealing several small buns inside. “Shampoo bring too too delicious buns for Airen.” She smiled sweetly as Nabiki glared at her, and Videl started to growl.
“Hey! Pork buns!” Ranma exclaimed.
“Wait a minute!” Videl realized what Ranma had just said. “Did you say PORK buns?”
Shampoo pulled the basket away. “Buns for Airen, not Airen stealer!”
“Gimme those buns, you Chinese hussy!” Videl made a grab for them. Shampoo bounced back away.
The group broke up quickly as they knew a fight was coming. Ranma shook his head and desperately tried to stop the imminent confrontation. “Wait. Stop. Don’t.” He said all the words in an even tone. Okay, so maybe he had learned that he couldn’t do anything to stop them from fighting.
The pair dance around in a strangely beautiful waltz of martial arts. Videl made wild grabs for the food she desired while Shampoo fought with everything she had to keep the shorter haired girl at bay. Ranma just put his face in his hands and shook his head.
The battle went to the rooftops as the combatants leapt to put distance between each other. Videl leapt forward, and with two quick bounds, she was ahead. She turned just as Shampoo caught up with her. “Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!” With a flutter of blindingly fast speed, Videl successfully used the Amazon technique against Shampoo.
The Amazon was completely unprepared for the daughter of Satan’s attack. She lost her precious cargo before she even had a chance to use it.
Videl swiftly downed one of the two buns in the basket. She stopped, turned purple, and spat out the remaining portion. “What was THAT?! That wasn’t pork!”
The lavender haired Amazon’s face twisted into a villainous smirk. She brought her hand up and snapped her fingers. “Plan might work. Stupid girl jump off building!”
Without conscious thought, Videl’s body turned and jumped off the building. She managed to gain control of her body after leaping and managed a good landing. A furious look crossed her face as she bounded back up to face her opponent. “What the hell did you do to me?!”
“Hmm.” Shampoo cocked her head to the side. “Must tell not catch self next time…” She smiled and then remembered what her great-grandmother had done to the deliveryman that had tested the mushroom buns earlier that morning. She snapped her fingers. “Fall asleep.” Immediately Videl went limp and collapsed on the roof of the building they were standing on. Shampoo smiled evilly and picked up the smaller girl. “Now you no catch self. No worry, Shampoo take good care of Airen.” She stepped to the edge of the four-story building and dropped Videl over the edge.
She smugly watched as the sleeping girl plummeted to her death. But just as she was passing the top of the second story, a red blur swooped across and snagged Videl out of midair. The blur went forward until it came to the wall of another building, shot straight up, and spun back toward Shampoo.
Ranma landed on the roof beside the Amazon with a still sleeping Videl draped over his shoulder. His glare would have vaporized a glacier with the smoldering anger it emitted. He looked at Videl and then back at Shampoo. “What did you put in those buns?” He demanded as his gaze became murderous.
The Amazon took a tentative step backwards. “Shampoo no put nothing in!”
“Like hell, you didn’t!!! You poisoned Videl!” He gave the girl on his shoulder a slight shake to prove his point. “This is the last draw Shampoo.” He started to glow from the wrath that poured out of him.
“She no dead! She just sleep!” Shampoo snapped her fingers. “Wake up!”
Videl’s head snapped up and she realized she was staring at Ranma’s hindquarters. Not that I mind the view, but how did I get in this position? She lifted her head and looked back and saw Shampoo trembling and felt Ranma’s anger radiating off of his body. “You can let me down now.” She whispered into his ear.
The pigtailed martial artist let his girlfriend down, but his eyes never left Shampoo. “This is going too far Shampoo. The Xi Fang Go technique was bad, but now you’re drugging Videl!”
The lavender haired teenager put her hands on her hips and scowled. “If obstacle girl no remember, she no have to die!”
Videl stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the statement. Her mind turned the statement over in her mind a few times until an answer came to her. While Ranma was still berating Shampoo, she grabbed the last bun. She turned just as it looked like Ranma was about to lay hands on Shampoo, and not for healing. She stepped in quickly and jammed the last bun down Shampoo’s throat.
“Now for some payback.” Videl snapped her fingers. “Forget you ever met Ranma or I.”
Shampoo stood ramrod straight. “Who you?” She questioned the strange couple in front of her.
Videl snapped her fingers again. “Go home.”
The Amazon turned and leapt toward the Nekohanton.
Ranma blinked his eyes. “How did you do that?”
The raven-haired girl got a big smile on her face. “Those were mind control mushrooms baked into those buns. Just snap your fingers and the person who ate them is your slave. I just thought if she forgot about us, she wouldn’t have to marry you, or kill me. I think it will work out well.” We’ll be rid of her, and then that would only leave Nabiki…
“Well enough until morning.”
They both turned to see Cologne standing on her staff. Ranma took up a defensive stance. “What d’you mean?”
The elder Amazon smiled at the pigtailed boy. “The mushrooms only work for a short time. By morning Shampoo will be back.” She turned her gaze toward Videl. “Nice try though.”
Videl swore under her breath.
“Hey! Can’t you stop Shampoo! She almost killed Videl!” Ranma yelled.
Cologne gave him a ‘you must be kidding’ look. “That’s what an Amazon is supposed to do when she gives the kiss of death. You didn’t think it was a temporary thing, did you? She has to fulfill her obligations or she can never return to the tribe.”
“What would happen if she did?” Videl asked out of curiosity.
“She would die.”
Both the teenagers gulped. Videl looked a little shaken. “I don’t want that to happen to her.”
Colonge’s eyes narrowed on the younger girl. “Then why won’t you let Shampoo have Son-In-Law? You have no real claim on him. Shampoo does, and it’s a matter of honor and life.”
“Hey! If I go with Shampoo, then Nabiki’s family honor is gone.” Ranma piped up.
The elder glared at him. “Isn’t Shampoo’s life more important than another’s honor?”
“Doesn’t many more people matter than an individual?” Videl pointedly asked. “With Shampoo it’s just her. With Nabiki it’s her whole family.”
The old ghoul turned on her. “Then let Ranma go! Can’t you see you’re destroying families’ honor and lives?”
Videl backed down from Cologne’s glare. She racked her brain for a good excuse. All of the sudden a loaded bet wasn’t good enough.
Ranma grabbed Videl’s arm to support her and glared back at Cologne. “You’re forgetting something, old ghoul.”
The elder’s eyes narrowed at the impudent boy. “Go on.”
“I love her. I don’t love Nabiki, and I don’t love Shampoo. I ain’t gonna marry anyone but someone I love.”
Videl leaned into him, so proud and full of love for the taller boy. It’s ‘I’m not going to marry…but I’m not going to correct him since he managed to say he loved me without stuttering.
Cologne met his gaze. “Then your family honor is gone as well. Would you doom two families, and a woman’s life for your love?”
Ranma, being the stubborn unthinking man that he is, answered, “Yes.” He heard a sniffle and looked down at Videl. “Wha?” He started.
She looked up at him with a sad look on her face. “Ranma, let’s go home. We need to talk.”
He nodded his head. Cologne nodded hers a well and left with a few bounds toward the Nekohanton. Ranma and Videl nodded and started to leap home. They hit something on their way and look down to see a bucket and two wet ducks. They shrugged and kept going.
Mousse looked over at the other duck, who until a few moments ago was an ant. Damn you, Saotome! You ruined another of my plans!
Later, when the couple was back at the Satan Estate, Videl led Ranma back to her room. She dropped on her bed heavily and took a deep breath.
Ranma looked down at her with a concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong Videl?”
She was on the verge of tears when she responded. “I can’t do it anymore, Ranma.”
“Can’t do what?”
“I can’t kill someone because I love you.” The hint of a tear came to her eye.
Ranma quickly dried it. “Don’t cry! Come on! We’ll find a way around the Amazon law! Please don’t cry!”
She cleared another tear from her eye. “But what about Nabiki’s family honor?”
Ranma snorted. “Pops engaged me to several people. I think we can find a way to veto THAT.”
Videl looked up and gave him a sad stare. “What about your family honor? I’m sorry Ranma, but I can’t take that away from you. I love you too much to make you an outcast. I have no real claim on you, you’d have to choose someone you’re officially engaged to, or you loose honor.”
Ranma landed heavily beside her. “Then I guess there’s only one thing to do.”
Videl nodded sadly and gazed at her hands. She would miss Ranma with all her heart. She knew that something would die in her when he left. She felt his weight come off the bed and her eyes clouded with tears.
All the sudden, a dark blob was in her blurred vision. Ranma grasped her hands and pulled them forward. He freed a hand to clear her eyes. She saw the pigtailed boy kneeling on the floor in front of her.
Ranma reached up and pushed some hair away from her face and tried to dry her tears. “Satan Videl, will you marry me?”