Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Big Help ❯ Jusenyo Girl's Night Out ( Chapter 19 )

A Big Help

A Ranma one half/Sailor Moon crossover fanfic

By Michael A. Ivins

 

Mykon and Jora are my original creation so nobody use them without permission. The rest of these characters are the property of their creators, publishers anime production companies, etc. I write this for fun and make no profit off it.

 

Chapter 19

Jusenkyo Girls' Night Out

 

Ryoga checked herself out on the mirror while waiting for Ranma to come by. From the clothes she had brought home from the shopping expedition with the “Saotome girls” (Ranma and Nodoka) Ryoga had chosen pale blue knee length skirt with flowers embroidered on it. Up top she was wearing a sleeveless button up blouse in yellow cut so it accentuated her bust without showing a lot of skin. She wore a silver chain around her neck with a pendant that bore the symbol of a dragon. She also had a silver bracelet and clip on earrings.

 

The doorbell rang and she went to answer it. She hoped she looked “girly” enough to satisfy her friend. She opened the door and looked at Ranma and thought, “Maybe I'm not girly enough.”

 

Ranma was wearing flat heeled shoes in yellow. She had on a miniskirt of pastel green that went well with her hair color. She wore a tube top in the same color as the skirt. The tube top was little more than a stretchy band of fabric that covered her breasts and encircled her upper torso, leaving skin exposed above and below. Making the outfit a little more modest, she was wearing an unbuttoned vest in yellow that matched her shoes.

 

Ryoga looked at the gorgeous redhead and knew that if she had beheld this vision before getting her curse she would have fainted from a nosebleed. “You're wearing that to a strip club? That's not much more than the dancers will be wearing.”

 

“What?” Ranma pouted cutely. “I thought it was pretty. Mykon recommended it.”

 

The former Lost Girl quirked an eyebrow. “You're taking clothing advice from Miss `if you've got it flaunt it?' You should have asked Jora. She's not much more modest, but at least she has some taste.”

 

Ranma's tone was a little hurt. “So are you saying that I don't look good?”

 

Ryoga sighed. “Oh, you look good. With the changes when you grew, you'd look good dressed in a sack. If anything you look a little too good, but in a `sleazy' sort of way.”

 

“What do you mean, sleazy?”

 

Ryoga explained, “That outfit almost screams, `come get me guys, I'm ready for you'.”

 

Ranma frowned. “You're imagining things. Come on; let's go eat. I'm hungry.”

 

The black haired girl stepped out of the door and locked it behind her. Her parents were currently lost again. That had been happening a lot lately. She was starting to get the idea that her parents weren't dealing too well with a gender changing son and were deliberately leaving to get lost even more than usual. It was like they were uncomfortable being around her.

 

As they walked to the restaurant, Ryoga observed the reactions of the people passing by on the street. When Ranma had been dressed in her unisex outfits before she had grown taller, nobody really got the full impact of her looks. Now that Ranma was in a revealing outfit and had a flattering hairstyle her beauty was showing full force.

 

Men were staring and some were getting nosebleeds. More than one collided with a lamppost or street sign because they weren't paying attention to where they walked. Women glared in envy or anger for having their boyfriends distracted.

 

Ranma had accepted being a pretty girl enough to scam free food from servers, but still felt very insecure about her looks in female form. She accepted compliments on her looks but in her heart she felt like everyone was just being nice to make her feel better about being a girl. It might be a good idea to talk to Nodoka about it. Maybe Ranma would listen more when it came from her mother.

 

Ryoga had tried to be jealous or angry with Ranma. It turned out to be impossible. Ranma was just too damn nice. He/she was a nice and loyal friend. She seemed incapable of hating anyone.

 

The black haired girl suddenly realized they had stopped walking and looked at Ranma. She realized she had been spaced out and Ranma had been trying to talk to her. Ranma repeated her question. They continued on making small talk.

 

After a pleasant dinner at an Italian restaurant they went to the theater. As Ranma had specified the movie they had gone to had `lots of action and explosions.” There were a lot of martial arts in the movie and that made it almost like a comedy for the two to watch.

 

A couple guys, thinking they might hook up with two pretty girls, asked what was so funny. Ranma and Ryoga explained why the move the hero had just made on the screen would never work and went on to explain what kind of move would do what the hero was trying to accomplish. While the guys had been attracted by the girls they found it fascinating how they picked apart the movie's action scenes.

 

Although the men were unsure of how to take it that such pretty girls seemed so knowledgeable about martial arts, the two girls talked about it with an excitement and animation that was quite charming. Not really caring all that much the subject of the conversation but wanting keep the girls talking, they invited the girls to have coffee with them after the movie.

 

Neither of the girls understood the real reason why the guys were talking to them. They would likely be angry if they did. They went to a coffee shop and continued to talk for a while. The guys knew just enough about martial arts to keep the conversation going.

 

One of the men mentioned something he had seen in another movie that he had found particularly ridiculous. It had been about one of the characters making use of his ki to fire an energy blast.

 

Ranma frowned on hearing that and commented, "What's so silly about that?"

 

The man laughed and said, "Everyone knows that ki stuff is pure fantasy. Nobody can really do that."

 

Ranma-Chan and Ryoga-Chan exchanged a look. Ranma let out a little snort of amusement and held out a hand, palm up. In the air over her hand a pinprick of light appeared then expanded until it was a softly glowing white orb about the size of a baseball.

 

With a smirk, the pretty redhead asked, "Are you sure nobody can produce real ki?"

 

Both men stared at the small ball of light with eyes wide and jaws agape. Then one of the men looked at his wrist and said, "Will you look at the time. You know, I forgot I had to meet a friend later. I'm going to have to get going if I don't want to be late."

 

The other man nodded and said, "I'm sorry ladies. My friend reminded me that I also have to meet with some people I know from work. I hadn't realized how late it was getting."

 

Both men stood up and left hastily. They did stop at the cashier briefly, but were out the door moments later.

 

With a puzzled expression Ranma shook her head and asked, “What got into them?”

 

Ryoga looked just as confused. “I don't know.

 

A sudden thought just occurred to the redhead. “You don't suppose they were trying to turn this little gabfest into a date?”

 

The black haired girl looked shocked. “A date? Us? With guys?” Her tone was strongly evident of disgust at the concept. “But if that's what they wanted then why did they leave so suddenly?”

 

After considering what happened, Ranma giggled, “I think I scared them off when I made that ki ball.”

 

“That little thing?” Ryoga asked. “There wasn't enough energy in that to hurt a bug.”

 

The redhead reasonably pointed out. “Those guys didn't know that. I think that little demonstration changed how they looked at us.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Ranma giggled again. “They were looking at us as a couple of pretty girls who know a bit about martial arts. They probably just thought we were talking big to sound more knowledgeable. When I made that ki ball how they saw us changed from two martial arts otaku into two of the `super powered martial artists' that Nerima is famous for.”

 

“Oh?” The black haired girl thought about it. She saw the absurdity and laughed as well. “When you put it that way then maybe it was even fun. They did pay for the coffee, didn't they?”

 

Ranma laughed. “Of course they did. They wouldn't want to get two `super powered martial artists' pissed off.”

 

Being practical, Ryoga pointed out, “As much fun as that was, maybe we should get going.”

 

Ranma agreed and downed the last of her coffee before standing up. They headed out.

 

From the coffee shop it took them about 15 minutes to get to the nightclub. Even with the Cosmic Senshi fighting monsters the numbers of people out on the streets at night was not back to previous levels. After all the Cosmic Senshi were fighting the monsters, but had not yet stopped the attacks.

 

Beside the door to the club a doorman sat on a stool at what looked like a podium. As the two girls approached two men also came up behind them. The doorman looked the two girls up and down and liked what he saw. He asked them, “Could I see your ID please?”

 

Uh, oh! This was a complication Ranma hadn't foreseen when making plans. She had never tried getting into a place where liquor was served before. “ID?”

 

“Yes, Miss. Anyone who appears to be below a certain age must present identification to enter this establishment.”

 

Ranma scolded herself, “Why didn't I ever get an ID for my cursed form?” Come to that, the only ID she had was a Furinkan High school ID card and that was for his male form.

 

Ranma and Ryoga were just about to turn and leave when one of the men behind them said, “Nobu, are you giving these ladies trouble.”

 

Apparently the doorman recognized the man because he said, “No Mr. Ishida, no trouble. I was just asking the girls for ID. It seems they don't have any.”

 

The man sighed, “With the monster attacks scaring people away, we don't have enough customers that we can really afford to turn people away. I'm sure the young ladies just forgot to bring their IDs with them.”

 

The doorman looked at the man for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and opening the door. As the door opened the music came blasting out. As they got inside Mr. Ishida waved at the cashier who took the cover charge payments and the group went inside.

 

He leaned close to Ranma and spoke loudly to be heard over the music. “I am the owner of this club. I'm not sure why lovely young women like yourself and your friend would be interested in a club like mine, but I'm never one to judge what others do for entertainment.

 

The club owner told the girls, “Don't worry about the cover charge. I took care of it. I'd tell you to pay for your drinks, but I think two girls with your looks won't have to worry about that. If you will excuse me, my associate and I have business to attend to.

 

The room was large with a full service bar along one wall and the back wall of the room taken up by the stage. A runway extended from the stage out into the room and on the stage, in the middle was a pole that went from floor to ceiling. Barstools were lined up along the stage and runway and a shelf ran around this that was just wide enough to set drinks and ashtrays on.

 

Throughout the room there were small round tables with barstools around each. It appeared that only half of the tables had customers seated at them. Ranma reflected that the owner had been right in saying fear of monster attacks was hurting his business. On a Saturday night the place should have been packed.

 

On the runway there was a woman dressed only in a G-string gyrating her hips to the rhythm of the music. On the back of the stage another woman stood waiting. The second woman was dressed in what appeared to be an odd assortment of colored bits of sheer fabric.

 

Mr. Ishida disappeared through a door that was between the end of the bar and the stage. That probably led to back rooms. That would be where the office for the club was along with the private rooms that Ranma had heard of. There was also probably such mundane stuff as storage rooms.

 

There were waitresses moving around the room taking orders from the few patrons that were there. The costume for the waitresses seemed to be bright pink panties, and a sort of sheer pink minidress. Through the semi-transparency of the top it could be seen that the panties were the only other garment the waitresses wore. Their breasts were easily visible.

 

As she looked over the crowd of people in the room Ranma felt a little relieved to see that she and Ryoga were not the only women in the room. She spotted a vacant table in the corner and tapped her companion on the shoulder. When she had Ryoga's attention, she pointed at the table and put an inquisitive expression on her face.

 

The black haired girl nodded and they started in that direction. Before they got halfway there, Ranma could feel a hand under her skirt caress her butt through the panties she wore. She whirled and was ready to slap the owner of the offending hand but momentarily froze when she realized the person groping her was a woman.

 

The woman was pretty but looked to be in her late 20's or early 30's. She was elegantly dressed and was sitting with another pretty woman. Her companion was younger, looking like she was in her early 20's. The older of the two women looked at Ranma with a twinkle in her eyes and a smile. She made a gesture as if inviting the two teen girls to join her and her companion.

 

Ranma felt a moment of panic. This wasn't in the plan. Not bothering to try and shout over the blare of the music Ranma shook her head and pointed to Ryoga then hooked a thumb to point to the corner.

 

The woman glanced at Ryoga, then back to Ranma. She smiled more broadly and nodded her head.

 

Ranma smiled in response and she continued to lead the way to the table in the corner. When they finally got settled Ryoga leaned in to be heard over the music and asked, “What was that about back there?”

 

Ranma glanced toward the table where the two women were sitting then explained, “That woman was inviting us to join her and her friend. I tried to tell her that I wanted to be alone with you.”

 

“Oh, great," the black haired girl rolled her eyes. "Now she's going to think we're lesbian lovers.”

 

Ranma chuckled, “Since it was a woman giving the invitation, I think they already had the impression. Do you really care what they think?”

 

Thinking about it, Ryoga answered, “I guess not.” she didn't sound completely sure of herself.

 

They turned their eyes to the stage. The tune that had been playing stopped and another one started. The woman on the runway picked up the bits from her costume she had stripped out of while the one on the stage gripped the pole and started making motions as if making love to the pole.

 

It was only a short while a later that one of the waitresses came up bearing a tray heavily loaded with drinks. She set the edge of her tray on the edge of the table and unloaded two drinks onto Ranma & Ryoga's table. Ranma picked up hers and, shouting to be heard, said, “We didn't order these.”

 

The waitress leaned forward and explained, “This is compliments of the lady at Table 22.”

 

She felt sure she knew who had sent this. She looked toward the table where the woman had groped her butt and sure enough the woman was looking at her. She was holding a drink up in a kind of salute. She glanced over to Ryoga and back to Ranma then smiled again and nodded her head. After that she turned back to her companion.

 

Ryoga asked, “What did she want this time?”

 

Ranma shook her head, saying, “I'm not sure. I think she might have been saying that we make a cute couple or maybe that I'm lucky to have such a cute girl as my date.”

 

Ignoring the compliment, the former Lost Girl grumbled, “I'm not your date. She's getting the wrong idea.”

 

Ranma shrugged before asking, “Does it really matter what they think? Even if we are just two friends out for the evening it is sort of like a date, not that we're planning on doing anything when we're done.”

 

Ryoga half growled, “You better not be planning on doing anything. I'll pound you into the ground if you try any of that kind of stuff with me.”

 

Ranma rolled her eyes. “Would you just relax and enjoy the show?”

 

To take her mind off how grumpy Ryoga was being, Ranma picked up her drink and looked at it. It appeared to be a concoction of pink froth and chunks of fruit in a wide glass with ice and a tiny umbrella. There was a skinny straw sticking out of it. She took a tentative sip from the straw.

 

Curious in spite of herself, Ryoga asked, “What's in it?”

 

Enthusiastically Ranma answered, “I don't know what's in it, but it's delicious. You've got to try it.”

 

Now curious, the black haired girl tried the drink. “Oh, that is good.”

 

The two girls finished off the drinks quickly and had just started to eat the chunks of fruit when another waitress came by. This time she delivered two tall glasses that contained some kind of milky yellow liquid. The waitress said the “Gentleman at table 7 sends his compliments.”

 

Ranma looked and saw a skinny middle-aged man with a moustache. He nodded at her and turned back to his companions. “Just so long as he doesn't expect anything back from this.”

 

While sipping from their drinks Ranma and Ryoga turned to watch the show. The quality of the performances varied. Some of the dancers appeared bored while others poured a great deal of energy and skill into their dances. One woman made her movements so erotic that nearly all of the audience was panting by the end of her performance.

 

As hours passed, more drinks were delivered to the table in the corner. The girls were not used to drinking and didn't notice themselves getting drunk. Ranma thought it was odd that things seemed to be very funny to her. She was laughing and giggling at nearly everything.

 

For only the third time that evening the music stopped and a voice came over the loudspeaker announcing, “The girls are going to take a break, the show will start again in a few minutes.” The girl on the runway was picking up the bits of her costume.

 

Ranma couldn't have said later why she did it. She cupped her breasts in her hands and bounced them up and down. With a giggle she said loudly, “Mine are bigger than hers.”

 

The dancer paused and looked over to the corner at the girl who had spoken. She thought, “She's right.” She shrugged and headed to the break room to sit down.

 

Ryoga giggled as well and also said loudly, “So are mine but you don't hear me bragging about it all over the place.”

 

The redhead thought that was one of the funniest things she had ever heard. “Yes I do.” She was giggling and vigorously waving her hands in front of her.

 

The brunette looked puzzled. “You do what?”

 

Ranma responded, “I hear you bragging about how big your boobs are.”

Ryoga paused a moment then started laughing again. “I did, didn't I?” She kept laughing and started slapping the table.

 

A large, muscular man in a black suit approached the table. From years of experience he judged that the two girls had obviously had too much to drink and needed to leave. They were so pretty, he decided to go with a light touch with them.

 

The two laughing girls didn't notice the large man. He tried clearing his throat and still they failed to notice him. Finally he placed his hand on the table and they did take notice of that.

 

“Hi!” Ranma said cheerfully. “What can we do for you?”

 

“Damn, she's pretty!” Thought the bouncer. Politely he said, “It appears you may have had a bit too much to drink, Miss. It might be a good idea if you went home. I can even call a cab for you.”

 

“Leave?” The redhead protested, “But we're having fun.”

 

In a reasonable tone the bouncer answered, “I'm sure you are, Miss. But it's getting late now. Aren't you tired?”

 

“Tired, no. I'm not tired.” She gave the lie to her own words by yawning hugely. “OK, maybe I am a little tired. Hey Ryo…ko I think we should go home now.”

 

“Huh?” The brunette was surprised by the suggestion. “Why should we leave? I don't get to have fun all that often.”

 

Ranma told her, “I'm tired and the nice man thinks we may have had too much to drink.”

 

Ryoga started to stand up to tell the man she didn't have too much to drink but nearly fell on her face and had to grab the table. “I think my balance is a little off.”

 

She turned to the bouncer and said, “Hello, Mr. Nice man. I think you may be right about us having too much to drink.”

 

Ranma was a bit steadier on her feet but Ryoga took the offered hand to keep her moving toward the door. They paused as the bouncer asked, “Do either of you need to use the rest room before you leave?”

 

Ranma thought and said, “No, we went a little while ago.”

 

He asked, “Do you need me to call a cab for you?”

 

“We don't live far and I think the walk will help to clear our heads.”

 

He nodded and continued to escort them. He commented, `Once you get outside and away from all the cigarette smoke your heads should clear a bit.”

 

One of the girls said “Umhmm.” But he wasn't sure which one.

 

When they finally got outside Ryoga started taking deep, cleansing breaths. Ranma was also trying to get all of the smoke out of her lungs.

 

The bouncer said to Ranma, “You know Miss, if you are really interested in comparing your breasts to the dancer's you could come here on a Thursday night. We have amateur night when women from the audience can get up on stage and dance. I think you might do well.”

 

Ranma considered that before saying, `Thursday isn't really a good night for us. I don't think we can make it then. Thanks for telling us about it. It's really nice that you think we are pretty enough to compete.”

 

The two girls went off down the street leaning on each other for support. The doorman commented to the bouncer, “Nice girls.”

 

“Yeah, the black haired one reminds me of my daughter. Prettier than my daughter, though.”

 

The doorman challenged that. “Your daughter is pretty enough. What's with the redhead? `Pretty enough to compete?' Doesn't she realize what a knockout she is?”

 

The bouncer commented, “Maybe she doesn't. I was watching this talk show…”

 

The doorman scoffed. “You and your talk shows.”

 

“You should watch some," Insisted the bouncer. "You can learn things. Anyway there was this one show about women who were plain or ugly when they were little girls then became beautiful when they hit puberty. Some of them grew up to be conceited in a `I'm beautiful and you're not' way. However, there are some who grow up being very insecure about their looks. It's like you tell the girl she's beautiful and she thinks you are just being nice to make her feel better.”

 

The doorman considered this. “So you're saying that maybe red, there doesn't believe she's beautiful.”

 

The bouncer said, “I'm sure she knows she's pretty. She wouldn't have dressed in that outfit if she didn't. I just don't think she believes she's drop dead gorgeous.”

 

The doorman nodded. “That's interesting, but you really should get inside and back to work.”

 

The bouncer gave a grunt of assent and headed inside, passing by two men who were leaving. One of the men looked around and spotted the two girls a couple blocks over. The two then headed in that direction but at a casual pace. After they had gotten to the next street they looked to see if the doorman at the club was watching. When they satisfied themselves they weren't being watched the men hurried to catch up to Ranma and Ryoga.

 

As the men caught up they called out. The two girls let go of each other and separated, going into a relaxed ready stance. The two men didn't recognize the stance for what it was. Both girls were swaying a little bit.

 

One of the guys said, “Hey girls, would you like some more fun?”

 

Ranma sighed. “It's late and we're tired. We want to go home.” She was trying hard to not sound like she was whining. At this point she felt like whining.

 

The man told her, “Why don't you come with us to my place. You can rest there. We can play some games that I'm sure you'd like.” He grabbed Ranma's shoulder and tried to pull her in for a kiss.

 

That was a big mistake. As long as the guys were just talking, both girls were perfectly happy doing nothing more forceful than argue. The two would-be lovers learned the lesson that regular people shouldn't mess with martial artists, not even drunk ones.

 

A knee to the groin, a vigorous push and a roundhouse kick to the head and both guys were out cold. Ryoga cracked her knuckles. “Damn, that wasn't even a decent workout.”

 

Ranma marveled, “And I didn't think I'd ever use those lessons on `drunk-fu'.”

 

Ryoga chuckled. “I guess you never know.”

 

The redhead said, “I do think that helped to clear my head a little.” She looked at the men on the ground. “What are we going to do with them?”

Ryoga frowned. “They're not badly hurt. Just leave them. If we try to turn them into the police we'll just have to fill out a lot of papers and stuff and we'd likely get in trouble for being drunk at our age.”

 

Suddenly they were bathed in the light of a spotlight from a police car and they heard the siren give out a little “Boop” of sound. Ryoga muttered under her breath, “Too late.”

 

As the car rolled up Ranma realized that she recognized the officer at the wheel. “Officer Takashi, hello.”

 

The policeman was the same one who patrolled the neighborhood of the Tendo dojo. This was a man who Ranma had assisted in catching muggers on several occasions. Ranma had also saved the man's life once.

 

“Saotome?" The policeman clearly recognized the redheaded girl. "What are you doing out at this time of night and in your girl form? What is that you're wearing?”

 

Ranma blushed slightly. “Uh, do you want the short version or the long one?”

 

The policeman asked, “Is that Hibiki with you?

 

Ryoga waved, “Uh, hi. Yes, it's me.”

 

The policeman shook his head. “Let's have the short version.”

 

The redhead explained, “Since I'm stuck being a girl half the time I'm trying to get in touch with my femininity. My friend and I went out for a variation of a girls' night out. We had dinner, went to see a movie then spent some time at the strip club down the street from here. When we were walking home these two jerks decided to get amorous and we had to `discourage' them.”

 

The policeman turned his flashlight on the unconscious duo. “How badly are they hurt?”

 

“They're just knocked out. In fact they should be waking up in a few minutes. They might be singing in a higher register for a while.”

 

The officer winced as he heard that. “Did you have to?”

 

Ranma looked a little indignant, and sounded quite girlish, “The creep grabbed me and tried to kiss me. I did the same thing I teach my girls' self defense classes to do, namely `knee to the groin and boot to the head'. Of course the next part of that is supposed to be `run like hell' but I wasn't going to do that.”

 

Now with a fuller understanding of the situation the policeman asked for verification, “He was trying to force his attentions on you?”

 

Ranma just nodded.

 

“You too, Hibiki?”

 

Respectfully, “Yes, sir. Uh, he was groping my ass too.”

 

The policeman took on a thoughtful look. “Saotome, does your mother know what you were doing tonight?”

 

Cautiously Ranma said, “She knows we were going out tonight. She even helped shop for clothes so Ryoga would have an outfit to wear.”

 

The policeman looked at the clothes both girls were wearing. Hibiki at least was a little modest. Officer Takashi asked, “Did she know you were going to be wearing that outfit?”

 

Meekly, Ranma replied, “No.”

 

“Did she know where you were going to go?”

 

Now adopting a somewhat mournful expression, Ranma answered, “No.”

 

The policeman nodded. “I thought not. Since I know you are an honorable person and will do what you say you will when you give your word, you will have to make a promise to me. You will give your word that you will tell your mother exactly what you were doing tonight, where you went and what clothing you wore to do it.”

 

Looking contrite Ranma studied the cracks in the sidewalk before answering, “Yes sir. I promise I will tell her just like you said.”

 

The cop nodded. “As for you being drunk and underage, I could take you in for that, but I do owe you a favor, so I'm going to let you walk on that one. Do you want to file a formal complaint against those guys?”

 

Ranma glanced at the unconscious men. “Not really. I mean it's not like they were a real problem or anything.”

 

He looked over to the unconscious men for a moment before asking, “They're going to have bad headaches when they wake up, aren't they?”

 

The redhead nodded. “Yeah, really bad.”

 

“Very well,” said the cop. “You will do as you promised and tell your mom. Other than that, you're free to go.”

 

The two girls bowed to the policeman, nearly falling over in the process. On a rooftop the Cosmic Senshi stood watching. They had finished their monster fight for the night and thought they should check up on the `girls.'

 

Mykon `pathed, “I told you they'd be alright.”

 

Jora watched them as they leaned on each other and said, “They're pretty drunk. I'm going to drop off some of the herbal hangover remedy with Kasumi so she can give it to them in the morning.” The two superheroes took off, flying.

 

As they walked, Ranma commented to Ryoga, “I'll tell my mom like officer Takashi said, but this is really going to mess with her mind trying to think about how to react.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

The redhead chuckled. “Going to the strip club and getting drunk are `manly.' That used to be about all Mom cared about me being. Now she wants me to act `ladylike' when I'm in girl form and what we did tonight isn't that. I'm curious to know how she will react.”

 

It was not long after that the two friends arrived at the Tendo dojo. They were singing a song they had heard at the club. They couldn't remember all of the words so they were singing it badly, which was a shame because both girls had excellent singing voices. What they lacked in quality they made up for in volume.

 

They made quite a spectacle of themselves, two pretty girls striding unsteadily down the sidewalk, angelic voices stumbling over the lyrics of a rock song, singing at the top of their lungs. Fortunately for many Nabiki had long since sold soundproofing to the majority of the neighbors of the Tendos.

 

Kasumi had waited up for the wayward pair to return and Akane had worried a bit about her friend Ranma and her boyfriend Ryoga. When they stumbled through the gates Akane confronted them and demanded, “Do you know what time it is?”

 

Unabashed, Ranma answered cheerfully, “No, but I bet you're going to tell us.”

 

“It's after one in the morning.” Akane paused to look at Ranma who was swaying slightly. “You're drunk.”

 

Ranma got a silly smile on her face. “Yep! Guys kept buying us drinks. It was the strangest thing. Even some women bought us drinks. We never had to pay for even one of them.” She giggled.

 

Kasumi shook her head. “We're not going to get anything intelligent out of them until they've slept. Let's get these two to bed.”

 

Sometime later Ranma awoke feeling horrible. Her head throbbed and her stomach felt like it wanted to empty itself. She also had a horrible taste in her mouth.

 

Where was she? She looked blearily around and realized she was in her room. She looked down at herself and realized that she was in her pajamas. Hmm, Kasumi must have dressed her in those before putting her to bed. After wiggling around a bit she realized that she still had on her tube top and the panties from last night. At least she hadn't been completely stripped down. She'd just had her shoes, skirt and vest taken off along with her jewelry.

 

Ranma became aware of a presence next to her. Then there was a stirring and a groan from the extra futon that had been set up next to hers. Oh, yeah. She'd been wondering what had become of Ryoga.

 

“Uh, Ranma?" came the question from the other futon. "Are you awake?”

 

“Yes, Ryoga.”

 

“How are you feeling?”

 

The redhead considered how to respond to that. “Like crap.”

 

There was relief in Ryoga's voice. “Oh, good, I was afraid it was only me.”

 

“You're a real pal, Ryoga.”

 

“Don't mention it.”

 

There was silence for a few minutes then, “Am I wearing some of your pajamas?”

 

Ranma looked over to check, “Yes.”

 

“Oh. I guess Kasumi must have dressed me in this after I… fell asleep.”

 

The redhead responded, “I think the right words for that are `passed out'.”

 

“Yeah, whatever." Ryoga clearly didn't want to devote too much thought to anything right now. She asked, "Do you still have that spare set of my guy clothes?

 

“It should still be on the shelf on the changing room for the bathroom.”

 

The black haired girl said, “Then how about we go get bathed and back into guy form. The way my stomach feels I don't even want to think about food right now.”

 

At that moment Ranma felt a small furry head bumping her in the side. She absently petted her cat and said, “Sorry, Mia. I'm not feeling very good right now.”

 

Both girls moved with exaggerated care as they left Ranma's room and went toward the stairs. As they got to the bottom of the stairs Kasumi spotted them and called their names.

 

Both girls winced and Ranma complained, “Could you not yell so loud?”

 

Kasumi seemed amused as she said, “I wasn't shouting. I have something for you.” The sound of a spoon rattling around a glass of liquid could be heard.

 

Ranma took the glass that was handed her and asked, “What's this?”

 

The eldest Tendo daughter explained, “Your friend Jora came by last night and dropped off an herbal hangover remedy. She said she and Mykon saw you last night and thought you might be needing it.”

 

The girl took the glass and raised it to her lips to take a sip. She promptly sprayed it out of her mouth. “Aghh! That is GROSS! How is that going to cure anything?”

 

Her expression becoming stern, Kasumi told her, “Jora said that it would work almost instantly. Now drink it up.”

 

Ranma looked warily at the glass as if expecting the contents to jump out and assault her. “Do I have to?”

 

Kasumi shook her head. “No, you don't have to. You could continue to feel miserable for several hours during which nobody would want to be around you. If you drank that you would start feeling better right away. On Jora's recommendation I even mixed it with fruit juice so it would taste better.”

 

Ranma felt genuinely shocked. “You mean it could taste worse?”

 

The oldest Tendo girl's expression remained stern but there was amusement evident in her tone. “From what I was told, it could taste a lot worse.”

 

The two girls exchanged a look then shrugged. Ranma tried to drink down the liquid so quickly that it bypassed her tongue. She was not completely successful.

 

Ryoga was in similar difficulty. “Bleah! Yuck! Let's get to the bathroom. I need to get some water to rinse that taste out of my mouth. They handed their empty glasses back to Kasumi.

 

After they got to the bath and shucked their clothing Ranma had to admit that she was feeling a little better. She just felt bad but not like she was going to puke her guts out. She still had the headache but it wasn't throbbing anymore.

 

Ranma changed back to a boy. Ryoga quickly changed as well. Neither could be sure why but they always felt uncomfortable when opposite sexes and in the bath. Both male or both female didn't bother them, but one male and one female and they both started to get flustered especially if they were naked.

 

After they had washed off and moved to the furo to soak in the hot water, they found that the remedy was working as the headache faded and the nausea eased off. As they were getting dressed, Ryoga said, “That hangover remedy tastes like a sewer smells, but it seems to work. I'm just not sure if the fun last night was worth the hangover and the cure.”

 

As they stepped out of the door of the bath Ranma looked around to see if anyone was around. “Maybe next time we could go as guys. At least guys wouldn't be buying drinks for us that way.”

 

“Uh… Ranma, were you considering going back for that Amateur night competition?”

 

Ranma responded, “What? No, of course not! Besides that's on a school night. We couldn't. Anyway I don't think I'd have the nerve to try something like that sober.”

 

“What's this `amateur night' you're talking about?” The voice was Nabiki's.

 

Not sure how he had missed the middle Tendo sister, Ranma said, “Just something we heard about. We haven't decided if we're interested in doing it.”

 

The brown haired girl walked off with a smirk on her face.

 

Ryoga groaned. “If she finds out about it, we are dead, our lives are over.”

 

“Hey, it's not like we actually did anything," the pigtailed boy countered. "We were just thinking about it.”

 

Ryoga worried, “You don't understand. We were bragging about how big our boobs are when everyone in the club could hear. If Nabiki finds out about that it is definite blackmail material.”

 

“You worry too much. Nabiki's getting out of the blackmail business. She's got much more profitable stuff to do now. The worst that she'd do now is tease us about it if she found out.

 

Author's Note: Wow! It's been a long time since I posted an update to this story. I've gotten so busy on other projects I sort of let this one go.

 

I know this chapter doesn't really move the story along but it was a scene I wanted to write. I was having fun imagining Ranma in her tube top and miniskirt. If it helps you could think of this chapter as a side story even if I do still leave it in like a regular chapter. If anyone wants to do fan art based on this story I'd love to see a picture of Ranma and Ryoga dressed to go night clubbing. Another piece of fan art I'd like to see would be a drawing that reproduced either of the T-shirts described in a previous chapter. I'd do them myself, but I have no talent for drawing.

 

For the future one of my stories I'd like to get into communication with someone or some people who are knowledgeable about military tactics. I have plans to write a scene that includes a space battle, and would like some hints and tips to make it seem plausible. I'm most interested in naval battles and aerial dogfight type fighting. Any help I can get with this will be greatly appreciated.