Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Music ❯ Chapter 02: Big trouble in the Cat Café ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: All the Ranma characters are the © property of Rumiko Takahashi. Melody Harmony is the © property of me. The custom made Honda bike is the © property of Honda. The custom made Gibson guitar is the © property of Gibson Guitars. "Outta My Way" is the © is the Misfits ® of Jem © DIC.

Chapter 02: Big trouble in the Cat Café

After a brief bike ride around Nerima, Ranma and Melody arrived at the Cat Café. "Is this the place Cousin?" Melody asked incredulously as she turned off the engine of her bike.

"Yup this is the one," Ranma assured her, getting off the bike and taking off their helmets. "I come here whenever it’s Akane’s turn to cook."

"So I take it she’s not a very good cook," Melody assumed, believing it after the way Akane had treated her favorite cousin.

"If you had ever tasted her cooking, you’d understand," Ranma confirmed to his newly found and soon to be favorite cousin.

"Hey, after reading her aura, I have to believe you," she replied with a slight laugh. "So let’s eat, I’m starving." And with that, both Ranma and Melody entered the restaurant.

When the two cousins stepped inside the Cat Café, Ranma took a quick look around to see if it was safe go any further. "Okay, it looks like the coast is clear." Ranma hoped and he and Melody quickly grabbed the table that was closest to them.

"Okay Ranma, what with the look out?" Melody was curious about why her cousin was anxious...

"Well remember what I told about how I knew the owners of this place?" Ranma reminded her about when they had left the Tendo house and she gave a quick nod. "You see, they are two female amazons that came from a tribe in China and they have this insane law about outsiders defeating their locals." He told her about how he and his father came to the Amazon village and how he got mixed up with this Kiss of Death/Marriage.

"Ranma, do you know anyone who is normal?" Melody asked as she wrapped her arms around her cousin’s shoulders seconds before they heard the battle cry of a blind amazon.

"Ranma get your hands off my Shampoo!" Mousse yelled, lunging at them from across the room while throwing things at Ranma to drive him away from Melody.

"Ranma, want to introduce your friend here?" Melody asked, dodging the stuff being thrown at her.

"Melody, meet Mousse." Ranma introduced, getting behind Mousse and putting him in a headlock causing his glasses to tip from where they rested on his head in front of his eyes. "Mousse, meet my cousin Melody." Ranma said as he released Mousse.

"Wow, you’re cute," Mousse said as he stared deep into Melody’s eyes, making Melody blush.

"Thanks, so are you." Melody returned his compliment with a cute smile, causing Mousse to blush bright red and get a goofy grin on his face.

"I’m sorry for my actions," Mousse apologized while scratching the back of his head, "I hope I didn’t hurt you or anything."

"Hey, it’s okay," Melody forgave Mousse, "we’re both fine, but thanks for asking."

"Okay," Mousse gave out a slight chuckle. "How about I make it up to you and Ranma by giving you a free meal, my treat," he offered.

"That would be great, thanks." And with that, Melody sealed the deal by giving Mousse a small kiss on the cheek.

Mousse went into SD overload and started speaking incoherently. "I’ll…ge-go…get…yow-your…food…re-right& #8230;nu-now." He stuttered and started walking in a funny way towards the kitchen.

"Okay, what had just happened?" Ranma couldn’t believe what he saw.

"Don’t worry about, Cuz," Melody reassured her confused cousin. "I understand that you are still upset at him for interrupting, but he didn’t mean to."

"Didn’t mean to?" Ranma repeated, not understanding why his cousin was being nice to Mousse. "That guy’s been on my case ever since Shampoo gave me that stupid kiss of marriage!"

"Well have you tried explaining it to him?" Melody suggested, trying to understand her cousin’s plight.

"I’ve been trying for the past two years," Ranma explained, "but he never listens, all he wants is to defeat me and win Shampoo."

"And why is that?" Melody raised her left eyebrow.

"Because he’s in love with her," Ranma answered plainly.

"Or so he thinks." Melody seemed to have her own theory about Mousse.

"What do you mean?" Ranma questioned his cousin. "He always keeps saying how I stole his Shampoo and declaring his love for her."

"While he was apologizing for attacking us I checked his aura and it was a sad lonely grey color." The human/witch cousin of Ranma’s vindicated her conjecture.

"So you’re saying that he may not be in love with Shampoo?" The gender changing martial artist questioned as he let this sink in.

"That is correct," Melody confirmed. "But his problem is that he doesn’t know it."

"Okay, now I have another question," Ranma notified his American cousin. "What was the deal of kissing him?" He just had to know about that.

"Well he felt bad for his actions and I was letting him know that there are no hard feelings." Melody answered. "Plus I think he’s really cute." She blushed a light pink on her cheeks.

"Oh no," Ranma exasperated and was getting a feeling that he was not going to like what he was about to hear. "Don’t tell me that you like Mousse!"

"Okay I confess," Melody was now playing along with this. "I love cute and lonely guys!" She told one of her secrets and gave out a playful laugh.

Ranma just gave a small chuckle. He would find it funny, if he weren’t so worried that he might have one of his most hated rivals for a cousin-in-law.

But their laugh/chuckle was cut short when they heard a loud and angry cry of a female Amazon followed by a sword that was thrown at them and stuck in their table. The two cousins looked in the direction of where the sword had come from and saw a female purple haired Chinese Amazon named Shampoo.

"Airen! How dare you cheat on Shampoo with this girl!" Shampoo accused Ranma while giving Melody a look of a thousands deaths.

"Now Shampoo let me explain," Ranma said as he dodged Shampoos bombari.

"No, explain is obstacle, obstacle is for killing!" Shampoo screamed. Her scream drew the attention of both Cologne and Mousse.

"Another, fiancée son in-law?" Cologne asked as she watched Ranma and Melody dodge Shampoo’s bombari.

"No, actually his cousin," Mousse answered for him.

"Was I talking to you part timer?" Cologne snarled out of the side of her mouth.

"This is my cousin Melody Harmony," Ranma answered as he threw a chair at Shampoo’s legs.

"What you mean ‘cousin’?" The young female Amazon questioned her supposed husband.

"He means that we are related," the lady biker/rocker informed Shampoo. "I guess they don’t teach genealogy where you come from," she playfully teased the purple haired Chinese girl.

"What leather wearing girl talking about?" Shampoo was annoyed at the joke that Melody made about her and her tribe’s culture.

"Uh Melody, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make Shampoo mad," Ranma warned his cousin.

"Relax Cuz," Melody reassured Ranma. "I’ve dealt with people like her lots of times and I can handle this one."

"Now wait one second there, child." Cologne was referring to Melody as she hopped between her and Shampoo. "We are Chinese amazons, there is not any one like us."

"What about the female warriors of the Shirkon tribe in Nevada, USA?" Melody asked as she pulled an amulet out of her pocket and showed it to the ancient Amazon.

"The Shirkon tribe, that disgrace to the Amazon nation?" Cologne sneered with disgrace.

"Your personal feelings aside. You have no claim to my cousin as is stated in the state of alliance that regulates the interaction between the tribes, any blood relative of a female warrior of any tribe is exempted from the marriage laws," Melody replied as she removed her jacket.

Mousse nearly had a nosebleed when he saw Melody wearing her skintight white tank top and noticed that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Ranma didn’t like the way Mousse was looking at his cousin. [And people say I’m a pervert.] To think of all those times Mousse was giving him crap about stealing his ‘Shampoo’ and now he was showing this sudden interest in Melody.

"Just what are you saying, Child?" Cologne questioned Melody’s motives.

"It means if you force my cousin Ranma to marry Little Miss Xena wannabe here," Melody jerked her thumb, referring to Shampoo, which annoyed the female teen Amazon, "there will be a blood feud between the two tribes."

Cologne did not like the sound of that. Sure she considered her tribe as the strongest in China, but she was not too sure about this American girl’s tribe. "What is your true purpose of coming to Nerima?"

"Oh I thought I do some sightseeing, visit family here, bring my cousin back to America so that we can train him." Melody emphasized the last part.

"You no can’t do that!" Shampoo tried to debate the American outsider’s motivations. "Ranma is Shampoo’s husband!" she reminded her. "He defeated Shampoo in battle!"

"Ah yes," Melody remembered the Kissing Law. "Ranma told me about that, but from what I heard, it was not really an official challenge now was it?" She said adding her own opinion.

Ranma watched as his cousin goaded the Amazon. When she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear he saw a light pulsing within her hair. He then watched as her body language changed as though she was someone else.

"As much as I would enjoy this fight, it would probably be better if we took this else where. Agreed?" Melody asked and turned to Ranma. "Yo Ranma!" she called out to him. "Would you mind handing me my guitar?"

"Okay Melody," Ranma responded and handed her guitar to her. At first he was confused but he soon remembered when Melody started singing that nursery rhyme from when she was fought Genma. He had a pretty good idea what’s going to happen.

"Now it is not time for music! Now it is time to fight!" Shampoo was getting impatient.

"Trust me baby cakes," Ranma’s American cousin indicated to annoying Amazon as she grabbed hold on the hilt of her guitar, "anytime is a right time for music." The next thing, she pressed a secret button that made the strings and the stem retract and pulled out a sword that was hidden inside while the bottom half became a shield. "Now let’s take this outside," she said as she spun the sword one handed.

"No, fight now!" Shampoo yelled as she charged her.

" Fine by me," Melody said as she opened her mouth and started to sing.   Outta my way, keep outta my way
Outta my way, I ain't playin' around
Outta my way, keep outta my way
Outta my way, I've got to cover ground.  

"Stop singing and fight," Shampoo cried as she tried to bring her bombari down on Melody’s head, only to have it blocked by her shield.

Melody did a leg swipe knocking Shampoo off her feet. "I thought you Amazon chicks were suppose to be light on your feet." She taunted the female Chinese Warrior, causing to her get angrier.

"Shampoo refuse to loose Ranma to female outsider!" Shampoo growled and went back to fighting Melody.

[At least this one can actually fight.] Melody thought to herself while blocking Shampoo’s attacks and kept on singing.

The two girl fighters matched every hit, block and throw that they gave each other. Of course Melody’s attacks managed to actually hurt Shampoo, causing the female Amazon to loose focus.   I've got what it takes
and I'm on the attack
Goin' after the prize
and nothin's going to hold me back, hoo!

Ranma, Cologne, Mousse and everyone else were already out of the restaurant watching the fight between Shampoo and Melody. They were amazed and shocked to see Melody easily deflecting all of Shampoo’s attacks as they talked among themselves.

"Would you look at that," said one patron.

"Who is that girl fighting Shampoo?" asked another.

"She said that she’s Ranma’s cousin," answered a third.

"I didn’t know Ranma even had a cousin," added a fourth.

"Just look how she managed to block Shampoo’s movies," a fifth stepped in.

"I just hope that Shampoo doesn’t give her the Kiss of Death," another one commented.

"Yeah, she’s too cute to be killed," a seventh patron said while admiring Melody’s fighting abilities.

"I wonder if she has a boyfriend?" a last one asked.

Ranma liked and didn’t like the comments that everyone made about Melody, especially the ones that the male patrons made. He didn’t mind if they thought that his cousin was cute, what bothered him is that some of them were thinking perverted thoughts about her. [Any of those creeps that try to go near her will be singing soprano for a year.] He declared and continued to watch the fight.

"Shampoo, what is wrong with you!" Cologne demanded angrily at her great-granddaughter and best student. "You are the best fighter in our tribe and yet you are letting this girl make a fool of you!" She didn’t like the way this fight was going. "You should’ve been done with her minutes ago!" The Amazon Matriarch was now getting impatient by all this as she watched Shampoo getting beaten by Melody. "If you don’t want to disgrace our ancestors, YOU’D BETTER WIN!"

Mousse should have been concerned about Shampoo actually loosing to Melody, but instead he was too busy admiring Ranma’s cousin’s fighting styles. Her moves were fluid and graceful while Shampoo’s moves can put Akane to shame. Plus what impressed him the most was that her sword was hidden, which told him that she might study Hidden Weapons. And to top it all off, she was practically the first girl that was nice to him even thought he tried to kill Ranma. She had forgiven him for that by giving him that kiss on the cheek. "Shampoo won’t even let me go near her," Mousse told himself as he touched his cheek where Melody had planted the kiss. "But this girl, Melody, Ranma’s cousin, just simply kissed me." Then he returned watching the fight with Melody still singing.   Outta my way, keep outta my way
Outta my way, you're gonna pay
Outta my way, keep outta my way
Outta my way, don't you get in my way

As Ranma watched his cousin fight he started noticing a change in her. [Melody’s battle aura is incredible.] He commented quietly to himself. [It looks as though it’s a flame made with music notes.] He glanced over at Shampoo’s battle aura. [Shampoo’s is strong but it’s not as bright as Melody’s.] Then he saw something that he had never seen before. [Wait a minute, why are their auras acting like that?] Ranma noticed that Melody and Shampoo’s auras were starting to swirl around a bit. [It looks as thought they are turning into something.] And Ranma was right, as both fighters’ auras were about to take shapes.

Once both auras finished forming, they had taken the shapes of a wolf and a cat. Ranma could understand that Shampoo might have gotten her cat aura from her curse, but how did Melody get a wolf aura?

Just then, Melody’s aura split forming a bear and a deer that joined her wolf facing off against Shampoo’s cat. By the looks of things, Shampoo’s cat looked very much afraid of the three animals formed from Melody’s aura.

[This is impossible!] Cologne couldn’t believe what she was seeing. [How can that girl be stronger than Shampoo?] The Amazon Elder doesn’t like where this fight is going. [It’s as though she is strong as Son-in-law.]

Shampoo was trying her best to land a hit on Melody but Melody kept on blocking her best moves. [What is the matter?] The purple haired Amazon asked herself. [Should have won by now.]

"Time to fall, Amazon," Melody declared, just before she launched a jumping spin kick that nailed Shampoo in the side of the head.

The now fallen female warrior was sent flying into an outer wall of a nearby building and was embedded in it. "Aiya, Shampoo sees pretty stars and birdies," she said in her delusional state as she fell out of the imprint of herself in the wall and passed out.   Outta my way, keep outta my way
Outta my way, you're gonna pay
Outta my way, keep out of my way!

As soon as Melody finished singing, she landed safely on the ground with a twist while inserting her sword back into the shield and transforming it back into her guitar. "Huh, so much for the Amazon’s best fighter," Melody remarked as she strapped her guitar on her back and walked with a stride to her defeated opponent.

Well it looks like Melody has made an impression at the Cat Café. But what do you think will happen now? Will Shampoo give her the Kiss of Death or is Melody going to make the kitty girl sing? Does Mousse have a new love interest? Would Ranma like the idea of having one of his rivals as an in-law? Find out next time in our up coming chapter of "Music."