Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Shinji Saotome ❯ Chapter 10 – Of Mothers, Blind Fools and Other Disasters ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10 - Of Mothers, Blind Fools and Other Disasters

Shinji looked ahead to see a very angry looking Nabiki giving her a suspicious glare that told her all she needed to know. She swallowed hard. How did she find out?

"I…I can explain."

All conversation had stopped now, making this odd conversation everybody's focus.

If possible, Nabiki's voice was even colder now.

"You better have a very good explanation. I do not like being lied to."

"What the hell are you talking about Nabiki? Shinji's never lied about anything!"

Nabiki shifted her attention to Ranma.

"Shut up Saotome. This is between me and him."

Before Ranma could say anything else Shinji held up a hand to silence her. When Shinji spoke her voice was oddly calm.

"Stop it Ranma. We both know this had to come out sooner or later."

The redhead slumped down a little but nodded. With someone like Nabiki in the house this was bound to happen.

Needless to say everyone else was _very_ confused.

"What's going on?"

"What sneaky…Nabiki talking about?"

"What are these whackos talking about now?!"

"What did Shinji do?"

"SILENCE!" Bellowed Nabiki with steel in her voice

That shut everybody up.

The local Ice queen gathered her composure. This wasn't at all how she wanted this to happen. She had wanted to talk with Shinji in civilized tones, not start a riot in Nerima.

"If you want to know what's going on, I suggest you come inside and take a seat. I'm sure the story Shinji has to tell us will take some time."

Slowly everyone filed into the house, but when Ukyo tried to enter Nabiki stopped her.

"And who might you be?"

Ukyo glared at Nabiki.

"I'm Ranma's fiancée, and if you think you can stop me from following him...her, whatever, you're solely mistaken."

Nabiki looked over to Shinji, who was still standing outside, for confirmation. She may have hated the fact that the boy, who was currently a girl, had kept something very important from her, but she felt it was still his decision if a total stranger should know about what he had to tell.

To her surprise Shinji simply shrugged her shoulders, a ghost of a smile gracing her features. It was obvious Nabiki's little gesture of kindness was not lost on the blue haired girl.

"She may as well come in Nabiki. Seeing as she's Ranma's fiancée, I have the feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of her in the future."

**********************

Several minutes later everyone was gathered in the cramped living room of the Tendo house, along with Genma, Soun and Kasumi. Of course, Genma was still wrapped in bandages from his beating at Ukyo's hands. Said girl only restrained her herself from beating him up because it was a lot more satisfying to wait until his broken bones had healed again. All other occupants, save for Shinji, were waiting patiently.

Shinji herself was pacing up and down the length of the room.

"How am I going to start this?"

Nabiki shrugged.

"Why don't you just tell us what's so bad that you had to create a false identity for yourself?"

Shinji sighed.

"That's exactly it. The name Shinji Ikari is indeed my real one…just not in this world."

Needless to say that got an explosive reaction.

"What are you talking about boy!"

"Oh my god! Another loony!"

"Hah, I knew it. He was far too nice to be real!"

"Aiya. Shinji say he not from this world?"

"That's a little unbelievable Saotome."

"What do you mean? Not from this world? Are you feeling all right!?"

"WILL ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP?!"

Everybody froze to look at an angry Ranma.

"I suggest you stay silent and LISTEN!", then turning to Shinji "Shinji, I think it would be best you start from the beginning."

The blue haired girl nodded her thanks to Ranma for silencing the crowd and started pacing again.

"I suppose this whole mess started when my father asked me to come to Tokyo 3…….."

When Shinji finished her story nearly an hour later nobody made a sound, mainly because Ranma looked ready to kill the first person to make an undue comment.

Unsurprisingly Ukyo, being the only one in the room not aware of Ranma's abilities, was the first to voice her opinion.

"That's one hell of a lot of bullshit you just told us sugar. I mean, come on: `I was forced to save the world from alien invaders by piloting a giant robot and got swallowed up by an angel only to awake somewhere totally different'. That's not exactly realistic, you know?"

The next moment Ranma was in her face.

"Oh? But boys turning into girls with the application of cold water is?"

Ukyo gave Ranma a frosty look.

"You still haven't shown me that curse of yours and I'm not going to believe it until I see it with my own eyes."

Ranma had already started towards the kitchen when Ryouga stopped her in mid-stride.

"Wait Ranma. We all know transforming now will hurt you like hell. I might as well demonstrate it to her."

Ukyo goggled at Ryouga.

"Are you trying to tell me you have a curse too?"

The fanged boy nodded

"Yeah. Now that I think about it, it's kind of strange it hasn't been activated once during the time we were together."

Then he quickly dumped the contents of the glass of water that was standing before him on his head and before Ukyo's unbelieving eyes, broad shoulders and a handsome face started shrinking, until only a pile of clothing was left on the floor.

While Ukyo was coping with what she had just seen Ranma quickly snatched up Ryouga's clothing to reveal a small black piglet underneath.

"Ukyo, meet Ryouga the porkboy."

*CRK*

"Ouch!! Goddammit Ryouga. I was only joking around!"

The sight of Ranma jumping all over the room with the little black pig firmly attached to her left foot made a lot of people laugh, which helped a lot in lightening up the atmosphere.

"Oh my! Ranma, it's not nice to call Ryouga names when all he did was help you out."

That stopped Ranma's dance short. Kasumi wasn't quite frowning at him, but she wasn't smiling. In Ranma's book Kasumi without a smile equalled very bad thing, so she quickly plucked Ryouga from her foot and carried him into the next room along with his clothes.

"Sorry man. Come on, we'll change you back."

Once Ranma had vanished Kasumi smiled again. She didn't know if he did it on purpose or by pure luck, but he sure had a knack for brightening people up. His methods were a little….unusual though.

With Ranma gone for the moment, the room exploded with talking.

Genma puffed his chest out and smirked.

"See Tendo, that's why I adopted the boy. I knew he had a lot of hidden potential. I must admit even I wouldn't have thought he was saving the world!"

Naturally Genma forgot the fact that Ranma had `convinced' him to take Shinji along for the ride, so Soun had every reason to be very proud of his old friend.

"Indeed Saotome. To think a noble warrior like your adopted son is staying at our home and then he is even too humble to tell us of his glorious past!"

Everyone else sweat dropped when both men started dancing happily.

Akane was the first to voice everyone's thoughts.

"How can these two idiots believe such a story without any questions asked?"

"Because it's true."

Everyone, save for the still catatonic Ukyo and the two dancing fathers(read: idiots), crashed to the floor when hearing those words from the most skeptical person in the room: Nabiki.

Well…actually that's not true, Kasumi only blinked a few times, but what else did you expect from her?

Once she was standing again, Shinji looked Nabiki over with a confused look.

"You actually believe me??!"

Nabiki gave everyone an exasperated look.

"You don't have to look so surprised. Everybody with a little brain can see it's true. Under normal circumstances such a story sounds far too unbelievable to think of as a cover, so nobody would use it. Shinji has also given us far too many details for this story to be fake. Only a person who has been there or a raving lunatic can tell a story on such a detailed level."

Shinji peered at Nabiki closely.

"And how do you know I'm not a raving lunatic, or just a very good liar?"

For a moment a hurt look flashed over Nabiki's features, before her mask was once again in place.

"Contrary to what you may believe right now I didn't ask for your story because I thought you a threat to my family, but because I wanted to know the real story. I know you're neither a raving lunatic nor a good liar, but it seems I didn't see until now that you're a selfish idiot, who doesn't feel the need to appreciate if somebody cares for him. If you'll excuse me now, I have some business to attend to."

As Nabiki stormed up the stairs, Shinji stood there gaping. Being called a selfish idiot by Nabiki hurt a lot, but not knowing why hurt a lot more. It was a legitimate question to ask how she had figured out her story, wasn't it?

Not that it mattered now. What mattered was that Nabiki was angry with her, and even though she had only a general inkling as to what she wanted to say with her last words, she knew that she had to make it up to her …now.

Decision made the youngest Saotome took a resolute step towards the stairs.

"The rest will have to wait for a moment…I have to clear this up first."

Just then Ranma and a fully clothed Ryuoga came back into the room and Shinji waved in Ranma's direction.

"If you have any questions, just ask Ranma. She knows most of what I could have told you."

Then the blue-haired girl vanished up the stairs

Once Shinji was gone, Ranma asked the most obvious thing.

"What the hell just happened?"

Kasumi, being the very helpful girl she was, gave Ranma her answer.

"It seems Nabiki and Shinji had a little problem with each other and now Nabiki is a little upset"

Oddly enough Kasumi smiled while saying that and Ranma once again wondered what Kasumi knew that she didn't.

`One of these days I'll now what's going on around me…someday'

….poor Ranma, It would take quite a while until then.

*******************

Shinji stood before Nabiki's door; her right fist rose to knock, but she hesitated.

Something like this didn't come easy to her and not knowing for what she would apologize would make this a lot harder. In a corner of her mind she wondered why she thought this was hard. Hadn't she apologized to Asuka all day long in her old world?

The answer to her own question came quickly and like a hard blow: those weren't apologies but simply means to appease other people. It seemed Nabiki was right. If making a false apology to someone so you could live a better life wasn't selfish, what was?

But Shinji had changed, and this was going to be a real apology.

She knocked on the door.

"Go away." Nabiki's voice sounded broken through the door

"We need to talk this out Nabiki."

No sound came from the other side of the door.

Shinji swallowed, her throat strangely dry. She was going to do this. With a shaking hand she twisted the handle and opened the door.

As Shinji stepped through the door the author wondered how cliché the next scene would be…

**************

Downstairs

"What do you mean he wants to go back if he can?"

"Shinji promised he'd try to get to know us! He can't go."

"Hey now, it's Shinji's decision not mine. If you want to talk about it, get Shinji."

Kaori watched with amusement as Ranma tried to fight off Pepper and Spice. Shortly after Shinji had left, the two girls had started bombarding Ranma with questions and somehow the redhead let it slip that Shinji intended to go back to his world. Needless to say that didn't sit well with the twins.

Not that it sat well with Kaori either, but unlike the twins, who were overanxious to know more about Shinji's possible way of escape, she knew talking to Shinji was the only way to clear this up.

It wasn't like she could force him to stay here, considering what responsibility rested on his shoulders, but she would be damned if she just let it go and left him.

Next to Kaori, Ukyo, who was still a little out of it with all that had happened, watched as the twins chased Ranma all over the room. She still had trouble believing her fiancée had been turned into a girl and in her opinion just beating Ranma up and leaving would have been the best idea. Just because she had dressed like a boy for ten years, being another girl's fiancée didn't exactly appeal to her. The fact that her fiancé's adopted brother, who was also a girl at the moment, was from another world only served to up the unreality factor several times.

Ukyo was roused from her contemplative state when somebody waved a hand in front of her eyes. She looked up to be greeted by a nervous Ryouga.

"Hey Ukyo, are you all right?"

"Yeah…it's just…is it always this crazy around here?"

Ryouga looked around the room for show and shook his head.

"Naw, it's never been that bad since I first set foot into Nerima. Frankly, that little admission of Shinji's threw me for a loop as well. Not a lot we can do about it though…save for upping his training of course; can't have anybody but the best save the world, right?"

"You sound like it's a sure bet Shinji will be able to save his world."

"Of course it is!" Ukyo whirled around to find Ranma standing behind her. "He's managed the first eleven angels all by himself and now he has our martial arts knowledge to fall back on. There's no way he can lose."

"Aiya, Airen is too confident in little brother. Shinji had help from other pilots as well!"

Open mouth, insert foot.

"So? They're only girls!"

Ranma still hadn't managed to get rid of that little problem completely.

The next moment Ranma was surrounded from all sides, various implements of pain being waved in her general direction.

"Are you saying we're weak?!"

Ryouga slowly crept away from the scene. Every female in the room, save for Kasumi and Kaori seemed very intent to show Ranma the error of her statement and Ryouga did not want to be in their way.

Fortunately for Ranma's continued health, someone knocked on the door that moment.

"I'll get it"

The next moment a red blur dashed towards the door and the girls found themselves facing empty space.

Ranma opened the front door to come face to face with a middle-aged woman whose coppery red hair was done up in a bunch.

"How may I help you Ma'am?"

The woman smiled and shifted her grip on the long wrapped bundle that she was carrying.

"I'm Nodoka Saotome. Nabiki Tendo has told me I could meet my son and husband here?"

Ranma could only stare.

********************

Nabiki did not move from her prone position on her bed when Shinji entered.

All she wanted to do was cry her heart out, but not in front of their houseguest.

The self-proclaimed Ice queen of Furinkan was loath to admit it, but Shinji's reaction to her request to know what was going on hurt a lot more than it should have. For once all she had wanted was to know the full story behind Shinji, not because she thought him a threat to her family, but simply out of curiosity.

Yet, Shinji looked so surprised when she told him that she believed his story, it was clear that he thought her a suspicious and cold hearted bitch, even though he knew she was doing most of the things she did to keep the family afloat.

So what could the currently female boy want from her now that everything had been said and done?

For a few seconds all was silent after the door had been closed and then Nabiki heard how Shinji moved over to her position with soft footfalls.

When she felt the weight of another person settle on the side of her bed a moment later and a hand softly brushing her shoulder she flinched.

`How dare he touch me after what has happened!'

When Shinji felt Nabiki flinch under her touch, she swallowed. Getting this close to the older girl was a very bold move, but one that Shinji felt was necessary to get her point across.

"Nabiki? I don't know what I did down there that upset you so much, but please believe me if I say I didn't mean to. I…that is…ah..." What else could she say?

Suddenly Nabiki turned around and sat upright to glare Shinji right in the eye.

"What are you trying to do? Apologize without even knowing why? Do you know how that makes me feel, huh? Lower than dirt! First you as good as tell me I'm a suspicious little bitch and then you wonder what made me feel bad?!"

Shinji's eyes widened. Surely she would have remembered making such an insult, directly or indirectly.

"What are you talking about Nabiki?"

The older girl looked at her incredulously.

"Oh I don't know! Maybe the moment I told you I believe your story, only to have you looking at me like it isn't possible for me to do such a thing! The others I could understand, but you! You know me a lot better than other people and still think all I am capable of is mistrust!"

Shinji's eyebrow twitched slightly before she got it under control.

`What is it with misunderstandings in this world?'

"Nabiki, listen, you're totally wrong here. I mean, I know you're the most level headed person in this household, and I thought if anybody told you such a story you would surely question its possibility. That has nothing to do with being suspicious. It would have been a normal reaction, that's why I couldn't understand that you believed me! ...Why did you anyway?"

By now Nabikihad stopped glaring and her lips had turned upwards slightly. It wasn't quite a smile, but it was near ebough.

"I believed you because you're not `anybody' Shinji. I may not have known much of you past, but I know enough about you to know that you're not a very good liar. That's why I thought something was fishy in the first place."

"So…you're not angry at me anymore?"

Nabiki scooted a little closer to Shinji.

"Of course, it's not your fault I misunderstood in the first place", she said while leaning forward "Let me make it up to you."

At Nabiki's close proximity Shinji froze, unable to move

Inch for inch, their lips neared and when only a small margin was left, Nabiki hesitated when reason made its appearance.

`I can't do this, he's three years younger than me, and he has three quasi fiancées and he is currently a girl'

Fortunately libido came shortly afterwards and gave reason a good kick.

`So? Who cares?'

With that Nabiki leaned forward to close the space between their lips…

"POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

…and flinched back out of surprise when Shinji crashed to the ground after being scared out of her wits by Ranma's outburst.

Nabiki cursed her bad luck.

`Sooooo close….I swear the gods must hate me!'

By now Shinji was standing again, a full body flush adorning her body.

"I...I think we better check on Ranma, this didn't sound so good."

"Yeah, I wonder what's wrong now."

***********************

Saying Ranma wasn't in the best of moods right now would have earned the understatement-of-the-year-award.

Currently the redhead was standing over the unconscious form of her father, whom she had punched moments ago to unwind some of her frustration.

Everyone else was giving the redhead a wide berth, save for the woman whom everyone now knew to be Ranma's mother.

Said woman stepped closer to the fuming redhead.

"If I may ask, why are you attacking my husband? The contract I made with him and my son is none of your business. Now, if you would please show me my son, so I can convince myself of his manliness?"

Ranma growled. She couldn't believe the woman before her was actually her mother. The stoicism and pure single-mindedness she executed clashed horribly with the few memories she had of a caring mother and made her very angry. All this time she had wanted to meet her mother and now that the moment was here she wished she would have never seen her mother again.

"All right. You want to see Ranma, please follow me."

Nodoka hurried after Ranma into the kitchen, where the girl opened the faucet over the sink.

"I'll give you the short story: Genma and Ranma were in China and fell into a pair of cursed springs. This body is the curse…", She quickly stuck her hand under the running warm water and gritted her teeth against the incredible pain ."…and...this…is your son. Not what you expected, huh?"

`So that's why she…HE hugged me at the door…'

After thinking that, Nodoka decided to do the sensible thing and fainted.

***********************

Nabiki and Shinji came down the stairs to find Ranma, in male form, coming in from the kitchen carrying a middle aged woman with red hair.

"Oh no! I totally forgot about Mrs. Saotome!"

Shinji looked back and forth between Nabiki and the new woman.

"Come again?!"

Nabiki sighed and shook her head.

"Yeah, you heard right. I found Ranma's mom and invited her over today. And from the looks of things I would say Ranma has just demonstrated the curse to her."

After lying down Nodoka on the couch, Ranma looked at Nabiki, a half thankful, half sad look in his eyes.

"Thanks for bringing her over Nabs. At least now I know I haven't missed out on anything these last ten years."

Nabiki gave Ranma a cool look.

"Really Saotome, I think you don't appreciate this enough. When I told your mother I knew where you are she couldn't wait to see you and you look like you don't want to see her."

Ranma's look was a lot colder when he answered.

"Well duh, You wouldn't be overjoyed to see your mother either if the first thing she does is trying to decide if she should kill you or not because of a stupid contract made 10 years ago! Even Shinji's father isn't that bad of a parent!"

***********************

In his office Gendo Ikari suddenly swelled with pride for no reason at all.

***********************

Nabiki and Shinji looked around the room.

"Is he serious?"

Their question was answered when Soun came out of nowhere and hugged them tightly.

"Oh the tragedy! To be allowed to train Ranma, Genma made a pact with his wife to make Ranma a man among men or commit seppuku with his son if he failed! But Ranma is half girl! BWAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"

As Soun showered them with tears while altering between wail #571(Ranma and Genma will die) and wail #572(Without Genma I won't be able to play shogi again)

As usual Soun's wailing was ignored by everyone. That didn't save Nabiki and Shinji from getting drenched though, nor did it make Ranma less annoyed.

"Will you stop wailing already? It's not like anybody is going to die today!"

Soun's wailing only grew louder.

Extracting herself from Soun's death grip Shinji looked Ranma in the eyes.

"Please tell me you're not planning on going through with this if she says so."

"Of course I will go through with it; it's a matter of honour after all."

*SLAP*

Everyone stared after Shinji had slapped Ranma.

"Are you out of your mind? I've told you time and again that honour is very important, but that you shouldn't be forced to do things because of it which are clearly wrong, and you still won't listen?!"

Ranma looked down on Shinji with a resigned expression.

"It isn't wrong. I have signed the contract as well with my handprint. Besides, what else would I have when I lose my honour?"

"Airen would have live. I no understand all Japanese customs, but I know dying because of contract made when six year old is not honourable. Airen should listen to Shinji and ignore dumb contract."

"Shampoo is right Ranma! There's no reason at all why you should feel bound by that contract. Heck, I'm not Nabiki, but even I know that contract can't be legal!"

Ranma cocked his head to the side. _Why_ was he bound by the contract? Shampoo's and Akane's arguments were sound, so why would he go through with it?

"….I…You're right, going through with this would be dumb."

A groan from the couch alerted everyone to the fact that Nodoka was once again conscious.

"What happened?"

As Nodoka sat up Ranma strode in front of her.

"Hello mother."

Nodoka looked at Ranma for a moment and suddenly the teen found himself on the receiving end of a bear hug.

"Oh my manly son! How I missed you all these years!"

Not knowing how to react Ranma simply stood there mumbling.

"Yeah, I missed you too…mom."

Just as suddenly as she hugged him Nodoka let go.

"Ranma, my son, I had a strange dream where you told me you are cursed to turn into a girl? Do you have any idea how I could think something like that up?"

"That wasn't a dream mom."

"It...wasn't?"

Ranma shook his head

The next moment Nodoka had unwrapped the long bundle she had brought with her and was holding a katana in her hands.

"In that chase I want to see you and your father in the dojo as soon as possible. Clearly Genma didn't make you a man among men if you are a girl half the time!"

Behind Nodoka Shinji only resisted the urge to face fault because the situation was so serious.

`That loony is Ranma's mother?'

Nonetheless she thought it best to intervene here. Ranma's mother may have been a loony and he wasn't going to abide to the contract, but that was no reason for them not to try and make this family union not into a total disaster.

"I believe you're acting a little premature, Mrs. Saotome."

Mother turned around to see who spoke.

"And why is that my dear?"

Shinji noted that Nodoka's voice was pretty cheerful for someone who was currently talking about her son's execution.

"I mean that turning into a girl isn't exactly the best way to measure manliness. In fact, I would say you're seeing this from a wrong point of view. Just think about it, your young and virile son, training hard with his father to become the best only to suffer such a cruel fate, all for the sake of training. Lesser men would have gone mad what with being a girl half of the time, yet your son forged ahead more determined then ever. Heck, shortly after getting cursed he saved me from certain death by allowing me to travel along with them and afterwards he drew the fancy of a whole village of Amazons onto himself so that some even followed him over here. And what did he do here? He drew the fancy of Kodachi Kuno as well, one of the most beautiful and rich girls in Nerima! If that isn't manly, then I don't know what is."

As Nodoka contemplated Shinji's little speech, Nabiki poked Shinji in the side and whispered.

"You know Shinji-kun, you maybe a lousy at lying outright but you know your way with half truths. It's really a good thing she doesn't know Kodachi is a crazy lunatic, or that being fancied by Amazons means fighting for your life half the time…"

Right then Nodoka came out of her contemplation and whirled around again, not giving a second glance in Shinji's direction.

"The young lady has a point. Very well, I'm more than satisfied with you for the moment son."

Ranma released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. This was a lot more than he had hoped for. Maybe there was still a chance for him to have a real mother…even if she acted like a loony half the time.

Not that this was the most important thing at the moment. The pain radiating from the hand he had stuck under the warm water hadn't diminished at all and he was sick of it.

"Thanks mom. Now if you'll excuse I need go into the kitchen for a moment."

Several people looked bewildered as Ranma vanished through the kitchen door, only to hear the water running moments later followed by a sigh of relief.

"What was that all about?" Asked a confused Nodoka.

"That's what I would like to know as well" Said Ryouga and Ukyo at the same time.

"That would be our great-grandmother's fault.", said Spice to get everyone's attention and started giving a brief summary of the `full body cat's tongue' incident with her sister.

"….and so I would imagine submerging his hand in warm water without cooling it afterwards would hurt a lot, right Shinji?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

"Oh my poor baby!"

*Whoosh*

"MOM! Cut it out, will ya?"

Everyone sweat dropped after Nodoka had vanished through the kitchen door in a red blur.

"Sham...I did not know you could move so fast in a kimono!"

"Neither did I sugar", said Ukyo while standing up "I'll better get going now…had enough craziness for one day."

As the girl marched out the door, Shampoo's eyes widened.

"Aiya, I forgot we should be at Cat Café long time ago! Shampoo and cousins need to get going too. Bye!"

Pepper and Spice were equally shocked, but instead of hurrying after Shampoo at once they made a beeline for Shinji.

Needless to say Shinji got a bit nervous when the two girls drew near.

"Uhm…guys…what are you doing? Shouldn't you hurry after Shampoo?"

Pepper smiled from ear to ear, now only a few feet from Shinji.

"Why, kissing you goodbye of course!"

The next moment Pepper was busy trying to fuse their lips together while Shinji tried hard not to faint. Once Pepper released her, Spice quickly took her place. Another drawn out kiss later the twins gave Shinji a determined glare, which was of course totally lost on the cursed boy..

"And don't you think you're off the hook yet mister. We will talk about you going back sometime soon!"

After both sisters had gotten what they wanted, they waved and were out there door.

Shinji was standing perfectly still and Nabiki waved a hand in front of her face.

"Wow…!" was all the reaction she got before the blue-haired girl fell flat on her back, totally out of it.

Kaori, who had planned to do the same as Pepper and Spice before going, could only shake her head.

"Easy to please, isn't he? Tell Shinji bye for me, will you? I need to get going as well."

Once Kaori was gone, Nabiki tried picking Shinji up.

"Could you please help me here Ryouga? I want to get him into bed."

The lost boy shrugged and picked the younger girl up without any problem at all and followed Nabiki upstairs, where he dumped Shinji on her futon. Turning back to Nabiki he blushed a little.
"Uhm…say...would it be possible for me to sleep here?"

The middle Tendo daughter shrugged.

"Sure, it's not like you have any other place to stay."

"Thanks. I'll just go down and get my things."

As Ryuoga vanished downstairs, Nabiki stared at Shinji's prone form.

`How come the first guy I lo…like has 3 friggin fiancées who want him just as much as me? I hope you're worth the trouble Shinji-kun.'

"MY SON IS SOO MANLY!!!!"

Nabiki just knew this was going to be a long day…..

*************************

As she trudged homewards together with Pepper and Spice, Shampoo noted that the day had sucked big time. First they had learned of Shinji's origins, only to hear from him that he would go back if he could. Then the crazy loon that called herself Ranma's mother came by and threatened to make him commit suicide if he didn't meet her expectations in the future, which of course lowered Ranma's mood enough that trying to spent some quality time with him had been impossible. And last but not least she was still facing the punishment from her great-grandmother for being late.

`<<This day can't get any worse>>'

It seems Shampoo has never heard of Murphy's Law.

<<Shampoo, my love! I have finally found you!>>

Following that exclamation someone attached himself to Shampoo's body. The lavender-haired girl reacted promptly by punching the offending person in the face.

"Stupid Mousse! Sham…I am not your love. Leave...me alone, had very bad day."

After quickly recovering from being used as a punching bag, which indicated that the newcomer was used to such punishment, the boy, who was called Mousse, stood in Shampoo's way.

"But Shampoo, I'm only here to save you from the undeserving cur who has become your husband! To think out of all the warriors you had to be the one unfortunate enough to end up with this Saotome."

Spice rolled her eyes at the blind idiot before her. Without his glasses, which Shampoo had sent flying with her punch, Mousse was blind like a bat.

"I'm not Shampoo, Mousse. You do realize that you will be punished for being here right? Why don't you go back to China so we won't have to tell great-grandmother you were here?"

The blind boy chuckled and pulled a second pair of glasses out of his voluminous sleeves.

After brushing his long black hair back to put them on he smiled.

"Sorry Spice, I didn't see you there. Unfortunately I can't accept your offer. I cannot let someone who is not worthy of my Shampoo become her husband."

Both Pepper and Spice rolled their eyes. Mousse could have had almost any girl in the village because he was the best male martial arts of his age, but his unhealthy attraction to Shampoo made going after him very unattractive to all the girls. Why he couldn't see that Shampoo would sooner die an old maid than be his wife, nobody really knew.

"Mousse, don't you think it's Shampoo's decision who is worthy of her and who is not?"

"No!"

*POOM*

"What did I doooooooooooooooo…"

As Spice and Pepper watched the small speck that was Mousse disappearing in the distance they couldn't help but whistle.

"Wow that has to be a new record."

Shampoo couldn't share her cousins' enthusiasm for this new record. Her fist was hurting like heck from punching Mousse into LEO. After all the beatings he had taken his head was _very_ hard.

`<<At least one thing is for sure, now the day really can't get any worse.>>'

Surprisingly, she was right.

************************

"Captain, we got out the last of the equipment that was salvageable."

Captain Hiro Utatane smiled at his second in command, a tall American with brown hair named Johnson.

"Finally. We're already several hours behind schedule thanks to that damn landslide. Johnson, get everything ready so we can get this baby to port safely."

"Yes sir." A look upwards, "I'm sure the men will do their best to get rid of that thing as soon as possible."

As Johnson hurried away, Hiro couldn't help but look up as well. The whole freaking landing deck of the aircraft carrier he was commanding had been transformed into a huge cargo hold to store a huge purple monstrosity that was called EVA 01. The robot, or whatever it was, was currently lying on deck and even though most of it was covered with a huge tarp to keep spying eyes away he could look directly into the monstrosity's dead eyes from his vantage point.

No matter how often he did it, it always gave him the creeps. Whatever it was, Hiro knew it was very bad news.

The fact that lifting the giant free had caused a landslide and a seismic tremor only drove that fact home.

Had it been his choice Hiro wouldn't have taken something like it onto his ship, but since it was the only ship at the disposal of the Japanese military that was up for the task, he hadn't had much choice when the General had `asked' for his ship.

Hiro frowned when thinking of the General. The pompous asshole had been bothering him during the whole mission, telling him to go faster, but never moving a finger himself.

Oh no mister, Yuan Yamato was far too important to actually work for his money.

Hiro was sure the idiot was currently sitting in his chair, ordering around the bridge crew even though there was nothing to order right now.

At that moment Hiro Utatane wished with all of his being, that _somebody_ would spit Yamato into the soup. A little disaster would do that man some good.

*******************

A few hours earlier

Shortly after EVA 01 was freed from its temporary prison, a seismic tremor had been registered. What no one knew was that this tremor was currently travelling towards a secluded mountainside with pin-point accuracy.

Somewhere in that mountainside, a sealed cave was hidden.

It hadn't been disturbed for ten years and seemed in perfect condition…and yet, when the tremor hit the huge stone shoved in front of the entrance, it crumbled into powder.

Within, something ancient and evil rose from its long slumber to greet the daylight. Once again it would sow terror in those whose paths it would cross and a few other persons who would never even know of its existence

"Here I come, my silky darlings! After all these years!"

**************************

In Nerima Ranma and Shinji suddenly felt the need to check if all of their underwear was still there, as weird as that sounded.

Several other Nerimian women suddenly felt the need to leave town for the next ..say…10 years or so.

*************************

Ikari Gendo didn't know why, but he had a feeling if he would see his son again, Shinji wouldn't appreciate jokes about wrinkled old perverts.

`A pity too…old man Fuyutsuki is always good for a chuckle or two….'

Standing next to Ikari, Fuyutsuki couldn't help but feel that someone was laughing at his expense…..

The End

*************************

Author's notes:

Well, that's it; several weeks later than planned and shorter than it was planned, but at least its here, right? Not much else to say. You liked it? Review! You didn't like it? Review!

As usual I want to thank my prereaders kuracao, NuStrike and RanShin for their help in making this readable.

And now on with the Omake, once again provided by kuracao. I personally think it would explain a lot

Be afraid… Last warning!

OMAKE

****************************

"……….. He drew the fancy of Kodachi Kuno as well, one of the most beautiful and rich girls in Nerima! If that isn't manly than I don't know what is."

Nodoka blinked. "Kodachi-chan?"

Everyone looked strangely at Ranma's mother after her response.

With a frustrated sigh, Shinji asked.

"You know Kodachi Kuno?"

Nodoka responded cheerfully.

"Yes of course, she is my niece! Such a nice girl, she knows all that is needed to be a good wife. I trained her personally! And Tatewaki-kun, a noble samurai following the way of the family, I hope that my son will take some lessons from him!"

After a long silence, Ranma asked the dreaded question.

"Mom, Kuno is my … cousin?"

Nodoka turned toward her son/daughter.

"My maiden name was Nodoka Kuno. I took your father's name because he was so manly after his training with the Master."

The last answer floored everyone in the room except Genma and Soun.

Akane kept thinking about Kuno and Ranma being cousin. Nabiki winced internally for not double checking Nodoka's records. Kasumi revised her potential love for Ranma: she was not ready to have a Kuno as mother-in-law. Shinji could only stare stupidly at Nodoka. At last, Ranma thought seriously about making something not manly to end this madness before another revelation could be made…