They Are My Noble Masters Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Virtua Fighter Fan Fiction ❯ Nodoka 2/1 ❯ Chapter 11 - The Art of Going Home ( Chapter 11 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Nodoka 2/1
The Chroma Series
Act 1 Part 01

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DISC LAIMER
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events are also fiction. I own few of the assets for this story. I have nothing. Please don't sue me! This is just for fun, and practice.
 As always, MATURE {and immature} CONTENT WARNING!

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{Lots of} AUTHOR'S NOTES

-Thank you to all the lovers and the haters. Thank you to the readers, and crazy pet alligators. Thank you to Hiryo for planning and scheming, and thank you to shrimp rolls, which I am now steaming... I hope you all enjoy.

 -Special thanks to Janissa, for a reminder, which was inspiration for one of the scene expansions below.

 -To Queen of Kings, I agree, I was a bit flippant with that scene, trying to not get too detailed and stretch it out (and figured I had detailed too much sexy stuff in the chapter already to go into it too deeply). I had been having difficulty with that whole scene, it held me up for some time, ended up being one of the last ones I wrote. The idea was that they had been there for some time, had gotten used to it by then (some of them had been there for years, even the koala-girl had been there for months, if not close to a year or more), and watching Ranma and the others, turned them on enough that they could not resist. It certainly wasn't Ranma taking advantage, as he had no intention of doing anything with anyone who was unwilling. They made the first moves, I suppose maybe he wanted to show them sex isn't always a bad thing... Were this a normal book like thing, I might go back, but once we have published a chapter here, it is too late to change it, sure I can edit it, but that is not fair to those who have read it already, and one of my rules for this story is just that, no changes once it's 'published'. I tried fixing chapter one a few times and it just kept making it worse, and, the point is to show the improvement. When I read the early chapters now I find them so bad, I feel pain. I did warn that I will be handling some serious issues badly sometimes, and that was clearly one of them. I am sorry it offended, and I hope to do a better job in explaining the rational in future chapters as we go to a more detailed story. Thank you pointing it out, as well as reading and reviewing.

 -To King of Queens, Act 0 was the prelude (as you noted), and the buildup. Ranma and Ukyo as kids was just too cute for me to skip over and one thing led to another and what was to be a few chapters turned into ten long ones. Most of what you have mentioned is planned for the regular part of the story, starting now. There have been girls who did not go for him (including some mentioned in the previous review), we just have not shown them much, due to the nature of the storytelling we were using and with the time skips, it was not important to the plot, and we wanted to leave some things vague for later. Being in the village did not help the appearance, as he is the kind of guy most of 'them' want, culturally speaking. There are a few rivals building, and constant pains planned, and there are other major things happening in the background, but we will not talk about them until it is time for the characters to know. As for the lesbians, any that would be there, would be ones who are bi, but lean heavily to the gay side (after all, many women in the harem, and only half a guy). We have no lesbians planned for the harem at the moment, and some of the girls that join may not stay for good. As I have stated before, the final harem line-up is not set in stone, any of them could chose to stay or go, or some other thing could happen to them. Like Ranma, we will not be making permanent choices on that until much later, too many things could happen. Hopefully I will continue to improve and am able to show these things in a better way. Thank you both for taking the time to read and give us feedback.

 -Well, I have a confession, we had a table of ages and grades, it screwed us up, and we got rather confused with the timeline on that point, went back to make corrections based on what we had thought because of our chart error (should have stuck with my first thought), and then figured out it was all wrong after writing more than a hundred pages, according to word, into the new arc (we were already working on twelve when we finally worked it out)... So, to correct this egregious continuity error, we have pushed back their homecoming by about six months, give or take. Since Nabiki was a second year, and seventeen, it had to be near the end of the school year, and even more so in this story, since I made her birthday January first for this. Fubuki has just graduated and Nabiki is just starting her third year in high school, and Akane is a second year. Sorry about this, but to save another week or two of rewrites (already done that to this chapter more than twice), this is what we are going to go with. Have no fear, this chapter is still going to be Ranma's homecoming, it is just happening a bit later in the normal timeline than we was planning. On the other hand, it will get them out of school sooner, and lets us skip the intro to the characters we already know. So we will just say that due to events, they ended up having to stay in the village a bit longer than they had originally intended (See below). Again, sorry about that.

 -On to, Act 1, ...Heeeeeeeeere's Ranma!

"Speech"
'Thought' {And other emphasized items}
/Mandarin/
\Cantonese\
-English-
{Author's Notes & *Translations* Feel free to skip these}

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GLOSSARY (from the last chapter)

Ai-ai gasa - Love-love Umbrella; The Japanese equivalent of a heart with names in it.

Yatta (or yattaa) - hooray; whee; whoopee!; yes!; etc...
Yokatta - lit. 'was good', past form of 'ii', 'is good'. It can be used as an interjection, like 'I'm so glad' or 'good for you'.

Tsuki - In kendo, it means a strike to the throat. (Sounds almost like 'ski')

Dojin(Doujin) - A group who self-publishes books, comics, or other materials.
Doujinshi - A work published by said group.

Ikigai - something one lives for; purpose in life.

Ane - means elder sister (stepsister). Other forms of the word include Anego and Aneki (other honorifics are acceptable as well, though less common, can be more endearing). This is commonly used to show respect, especially in a gang style setting, though many others use it as well.
Ani - Same as above but with 'Brother' in place of 'Sister'.

Shui gui - A Chinese monster, lit. 'Water Ghost'. They drowned people, take over their bodies, and leave the spirit of the other person as their replacement.

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Prologue

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"I want to thank you again, I cannot believe you charmed that group of old biddies, into changing a law! Your oratory skills and knowledge of our laws are quite impressive. Thanks to that fool Mu Ssu, Shan Pu almost was exiled, if not for you getting them to change the law on contact with exiles, Shan Pu would have been lost to us. ...I am glad you are on our side." The old woman chuckled.

 "It was partially my fault, how could I let anything happen to Shan Pu because of that, or for any other reason for that matter? I am only sorry that I could not get them to change their mind on that other woman I saw in the records, what was the name? Fei Sha?"

 "You can't fool this old biddy, son. I know you knew that one."

 "Urk! ...Well, you and I both know that was a farce, which never should have happened. But, how did you know?"

 "I didn't, but I do now, thank you for confirming it..."

"Urk!" Ranma slapped his own forehead.

 "Don't worry, I just find it amusing, and I will keep working on it. I will contact you if there is any improvement. If you have contact again, let Fei Sha know that Tan Pan had been kicked off of the council and has now passed on, and the village is a better place for it."

 Ranma bowed deeply. "Thank you matriarch, I will. I look forward to hearing from you."

 "Are you sure I cannot talk you into marrying my Shan Pu? Combining our family lines would make for very strong children, and with the girl being in line to be my successor, you would be given full access to our three thousand years of history, and all of the skills and techniques that we have developed. Far more than what you have learned so far. Living here, will also help you protect your charge, between the guards and our village wards, the monsters will not likely get close."

 "I could have learned a lot more if I had not been kept so busy by so many members of your tribe, some of whom I am pretty sure were married...."

 Cologne cackled.

 "Do not get me wrong, I am honored, and I am also not willing to rule out the option, but I have no intention of getting married for some time, and I will not decide who I will marry until I am ready to worry about it. Shan Pu is more than welcome to come with us, and we will see what happens when I am ready to marry, and who knows, maybe Shan Pu will be the one, I can certainly think of worse ways to spend my life." Ranma put his arm around Shampoo's shoulder. "If nothing else, Shan Pu is welcome to join my family as one of my concubines..." Turning back to the girl in his arm, he said, "You will always be welcome with us."

 "Do you really think that you can take a member of the Tribe of Heroic Women as just a 'concubine'?"

 Ranma might have reacted to the implications of her words, if he had not known that she was just trying to push his buttons, and did not really mean it. He knew the old woman respected Ukyo and the others, they had played this game many times, each trying to get the upper hand, like a card game, played with words, customs, and laws. He knew better than to let her words have the desired effect. "Well, aren't we all members of the tribe now? However, Shan Pu, you are free to join us, if you desire." Ranma gave a warm smile to the young woman watching the exchange. "And, if that is what Shan Pu wants, I will not deny the girl. You have seen what I can do, there are few here, outside of you elders, who can even give me a good workout, never mind beat me. Besides, should not Shan Pu be allowed to choose what path to take in life?"

 "No talk about Shampoo, like no is here! Like you know what Shampoo want! Shampoo know what want! And Shampoo want Ranma, no matter what!"

 "You are not helping our bargaining position here, girl. Fine, I might allow that, but on one condition, you must wed Shan Pu by our laws, and take my great-granddaughter as your first wife! You can do whatever you like by your Japanese laws."

 Ranma got a sly look on his face that would have done Nabiki proud, and said, "Now, honored elder, you know better than I, that you have certain laws concerning such things. In order to be the head wife, one must be able to beat all of the other 'brides', and as good as Shampoo is, in more ways than one, the girl has never once been able to get the upper hand with Ucchan. Not even with help from those cute little girls and their 'Dance of the Great Fire Dragon' technique. That was technically three on one, and Ucchan still won, fairly easily, thanks to our Drunken Dance style. So, no offence intended elder, but you do not have a staff to stand on here."

 "Leave it to you to come up with a counter to that dreaded attack, said to have been handed down by the gods themselves, the music that attacks the central nervous system, effectively working similarly to hypnosis."

 Ranma and Ukyo laughed at that. "Well, I didn't create that style specifically to counter that, it was years ago. It was just fun." Ranma grinned proudly.

 "An impressive feat, nonetheless." Cologne was torn, she hated to lose an argument, but she was so proud of how well this male had learned not only the techniques she had shared with them, and even taught her a few things, but also learned their laws well enough to become a council member himself. She almost laughed aloud, there has not been a male on the council in more than two thousand years! Even back then, it took someone really special, and that was long before they had gotten more strict about it. Cologne let the annoyance fade from her features, let her mirth show through, and let her cackles come forth. "Well, you cannot blame this old woman for trying, I am just looking to help my loved ones. However, that was a very good job my boy, I concede, for now. Although, that just makes me want you as a future leader in our tribe even more. Just remember my boy, if you return to us, we will allow you to take on as many wives as you can satisfy, and by the looks of things, that would mean you could almost take on half of the unwed women in the tribe!"

"I think there were quite a few who were willing to leave their husbands for Ranchama too!"

 "I will be sure to keep that in mind... Though I hope we got those 'husbands' straightened out, and that will not be as much of a problem again. Women are not trophies to be won and placed on a shelf and forgotten about."

 Ukyo could not let that go by without comment. "Yeah, you gotta at least take us down and polish us every once in a while ...or better yet, several times a day..."

 Several of the woman present felt they were overdue for a 'good polishing'.

 Cologne cackled at the sarcastic girl's joke. "Yes, we can't have that, now can we? I would even push to get 'elder' status for you soon. You have almost mastered all you need to become one, with a bit more training you could become the youngest 'elder' in the history of the tribe, and one of only a hand full of males ...well, mostly male, anyway." The old woman sighed. "Oh well, either way, I will at least be training some of your children, I just hope I get to train yours and Shan Pu's children as well." The old woman let forth a disturbing cackle as she thought about all of the children she would be helping to train in the coming years. The future of the tribe was looking very good indeed, even if her great-granddaughter did not return to become her heir, she would have plenty of viable alternatives.

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For the few months or so Ranma and his family had not seen Ryoga. Zhei Kan had kept him 'occupied' at her house, and had only passed on messages when they had come asking about him, "Husband say, 'all things good' and no for you to worry. Husband stay here, make plenty strong babies, just like dashi, but all with Shaken!" The young warrior beamed with pride, as she rubbed her belly with a wide smile upon her face.

 Nodoka thought that he was being very manly. "It is nice to see the boy has finally become a man!" Nodoka gave her the address and his things, including the reinforced leash.

 They all wished him well, and asked her to tell him to be sure to write.

 "You take care of our brother, Zhei Kan. We are counting on you to make the guy happy. Ryoga might be a lot of trouble, but the guy means well."

 "Oh yes dashi! Thank you dashi!"

 The family left, sad to be leaving so many friends, and children, behind, but happy to be starting their long trek back home. It would be good to be in Japan again.

 Zhei Kan kept bowing until they were no longer in sight, yelling praise, best wishes, and gratitude their way the whole time. Once they were out of sight, she carried Ryoga's things into the house, and up to her room, where Ryoga was waiting for her on the bed.

 "Husband's friends send regards, wish you well, and give Shaken this!" She held up the reinforced 'child's' harness.

 "Are you going to untie me now? Wait, what? You mean they are leaving? NOooooooooo!" He had been tied to the bed ever since the last time he had passed out on her in the bath.

 "You no get untied until you stay awake for nice-nice time! Why you no is happy? You no want stay with bride?"

 "You could come with us too."

 "Is much much better here. More people watch for you. Help you no get lost. Here you only need train, and take care of house and raise all you children you give Shaken!"

 Ryoga pictured himself, as a househusband, taking care of a herd of children, who all got lost, as he did. "NOooooooooooooo!"

 "Husband can help Shaken take care all dashi childrens too! Be so much fun, we run 'day care' for all you and dashi childrens! Special childrens needs special caring." Shaken was glowing with joy as she glomped her 'husband'. Said 'husband's' 'no' continued on, until his 'wife' climbed on top of him again, muffling his screams, and continuing his 'training'...

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Nabiki was excited to see another 'letter' from Ranma. She quickly gathered Kasumi and Fubuki so they could listen to it together. They had been getting many interesting stories during Ranma's time in this 'village of warrior women', and they could not wait for another one.

 "Well girls, I hate to say it but, this will be the last letter I will be sending you." There was a long pause, and the girl's hearts dropped. "Because I am on my way home!

 "Yes, after almost twelve years, I am fina-"

 The girls could not hear anything else he said due to the loud screaming that they could all hear for some reason. It took them some time before they realized that they were the ones screaming, and even more time to figure out how to make it stop.

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N odoka, Ranma, Ukyo, Pai, and Shampoo, all disembarked the plane. Entering the terminal, Nodoka ran straight for the restroom. Moments later, both she and Kikyo came walking out.

 "So, you are saying, that we are now back in Japan, from central China?" She saw the others nod. "Amazing! I look forward to seeing the rest of your future world." Kikyo looked around in wonder. She could not believe all of the strange things she had seen since they had left the village. She had been glad to merge for the flight, she felt like she looked enough like a country bumpkin as is was, and that was after hours of getting used to the idea.

 The view from the window had been amazing, as if flying on the back of a youkai, without the wind, but even that would not have gotten them from central China to Tokyo in such a short time. She just stared at all of the sights as she followed her 'family' through the terminal, to the exit, her mouth agape the whole time.

 Since most of their things had been shipped from storage, and the rest of what they were carrying was in weapon space, they had no need of going to the baggage claim, and headed out to find a cab.

 When they left the building, Kikyo noticed that Ranma had whispered something to his mother, who nodded, but she was too flabbergasted to pay it much mind. The city was huge, and filled with buildings far taller than she could imagine, and none of what she had seen had prepared her for this 'cab'. It smelled foul, and the feeling of riding in it almost made her sick. But it was strangely fascinating the way it whipped them back and forth, speeding around the other metal carriages. Sitting next to Ranma helped comfort her and made being tossed around much more pleasant. Before long, they pulled up to a very nice, out of the way home.

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 Before the group had gotten to the house, the door opened. A beautiful woman with pale pink hair and a skimpy outfit came running out to greet them, and three of them got excited to see her.

 "Nodoka-chan, Ranma-chan, Ukyo-chan! How have you been? It is good to see you!"

 "Kyoshi-sensei! You haven't changed a bit!"

 "You are too kind. It seems you have traded that lost boy in for three beautiful young ladies, good choice. What happened? Did the guy get lost once too often?"

 "Actually, Ryoga accidentally got married while we were in China, and they are expecting! Kyoshi-sensei, I would like you to meet Shan Pu, Pai Chan, and Kikyo. We met them all in China, though Kikyo is Japanese. Ladies, this is my first teacher from outside of the family, our favorite doctor, teacher, and mistress of the art of ki manipulation."

 "It is always a pleasure to meet Ranma-chan's friends, especially when they are such beautiful young women." Kyoshi looked closely at each of them, and stopped at Kikyo. "There is something unusual about you, what happened?"

 "Just one thing?"

 Kikyo gave Pai a brief cold stare at her jibe, not that she could argue the point.

 "Well sensei, 'that' ...is a long story. Let me start by asking, have you heard of a place called Jusenkyo?"

 "You're kidding? That's real?"

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 "Well, that would explain the oddity in the ki pathways. Very strange. I don't suppose I could see it work?"

 Ranma stopped Kikyo with a hand on her shoulder. "Actually sensei, I would rather not make them go through that if we can help it, but I will show you mine."

 "You'll show me yours if I show you mine? Is that it?"

 "We've already seen yours, sensei, and it is always nice to see." Ranma's eye twinkled as he laughed and winked at his teacher. "This was one of the reasons I wanted to make you our first stop after getting home. I was hoping you might know a way to prevent them from changing back."

 Kyoshi got serious for a moment. "I understand. I can look into it, the only things I can think of off the top of my head come with some really bad drawbacks. It is magic, so there is only so much a pressure point can do. Other than strengthening and tuning your ki shields to block water, I don't have any ideas at the moment. I do have to admit, I am rather curious though, I have never seen anything like you describe before. So, do you split as well? I am not sure the world is ready for more than one of you."

 "More Ranmas in world, make world better place."

 Ranma asked them to follow him into the bathing area where he stripped down to his shorts. Kyoshi might not have been a huge fan of men in general, but she was still able to appreciate how beautifully sculpted was Ranma's body. She was still enjoying his form when he walked over to the washing station and filled a bucket with water. "Watch closely."

 "I couldn't look away if I wanted to ...and I don't."

 Ranma dumped the contents of the bucket over his head, triggering the curse. He shrank in places, he grew in places, and Kyoshi's eyes grew wide as her jaw dropped and her tongue hung out like a hungry wolf. She had a hard enough time resisting the boy when he had given her that massage before they left for China, and he had been only twelve, and male, at the time, this was almost too much for her to withstand.

 It took Kyoshi several moments to say anything intelligible. The shock of her favorite student instantly becoming an attractive member of her preferred gender, really caught her off guard. Especially with how closely Ranma's female form resembled Nodoka, one of the few women Kyoshi had set her sights on, yet who had never fallen for her charms. "Bwaaaaaa Aiyaiyai... Wow! ...and you call this a 'curse'?"

 "Not really for me. I am one of the lucky ones."

 "You can say that again. What a body!"

 "I am one of the lucky ones..."

 "It's more than luck," Ukyo looked over to Nodoka. "Ranchama inherited very good genetics!"

 "You can say that again..."

 "No, I think someone would hit me if we did that again. ...Shan Pu, you should show off yours too..."

 "Then Ukyo change too, no want be left out, do you?"

 "Mine is not as sexy as yours is, but okay, both of us together."

 The two young women each splashed the other with buckets of water, triggering each other's curse.

 "So, Ukyo-chan, I see you have a more practical reason for your new choice of skimpy attire, and here I just thought you liked to show off..."

 "Can't it be both?"

 Kyoshi laughed. "I don't see why not. This is amazing, I have heard of this but I never thought it was real. If I hadn't felt it with my own hands, I wouldn't have believed it..." Before she had even finished speaking, or anyone had noticed it, she was groping Ranma's chest. "We need to see how your ki systems compare in your cursed forms..."

 "The ki in my breasts?" Ranma used the skills he had learned to smile and wink suggestively.

"Well, a lot of ki is stored there. That is why so many high ranking female fighters are so well endowed, didn't you know? However, if you prefer, there are other places I could check... I also think I need to see if your massage skills suffer in this form too..."

 "It has been a while sensei, maybe Ranchama should show you how good it is in both forms. It would not be a true test otherwise." Ukyo grinned before jumping into the hot spring. Kyoshi frowned slightly, not being able to argue the logic, but was not deterred, so she pulled out one of the massage tables she kept in her bathing area.

 Nodoka excused herself to take her dear sweet time making tea and food, knowing they would not want her around for some time. Kyoshi was disappointed about that, but it did not last long as Ranma began his ministrations on his instructor while still in his female form, as the other young women looked on.

 With the excited performance of one of the actors, it did not take long before the audience had become turned on enough to begin playing with themselves and each other, even Kikyo got in on the fun. She was too turned on 'not' to do anything and she did not want to leave, but since Ranma had not been eager to do anything with her personally, she had to make do with what she could get, and the other girls were more than happy to include her in their bed chamber games. They even took turns with her while the others were in the hot spring. Ukyo made sure to pay special attention to Kikyo, trying to make up for Ranma's inattention. She felt it was one of her duties as 'head concubine', a position she took 'very' seriously.

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 The next morning, Nodoka found her son under a pile of nude women. When she found Kyoshi was in the pile, and her son was once again ...male, she almost fainted. 'Sooo manly!' She had not really been surprised when they did not come out for dinner, and they were still going strong when she had gone in for her own 'cold shower'. Kyoshi's bathing area really DID have everything, the amazing thing was that her 'shower' looked like a small waterfall! They did not even seem to notice her presence at the time. Her son had still been female then, and even as a girl, Nodoka felt he was being quite manly, in a cute and busty sort of way. Nodoka had felt a bit guilty when even she noticed that Kikyo was being somewhat ignored by her son, but at least the girl had made it into the pile by the end, so she felt there was hope yet.

 After using up the film she had loaded in her camera at the time, she went to kiss her son good morning, saw Ranma's 'morning state' and froze. Her mind locked up. She was trying to force herself to do what she had intended and resist the urge to 'reach out and touch someone'. An eternal moment went by as a war was waged between her feelings as a mother and her feelings as a woman long neglected. Eventually she ran from the room, going straight for one of the 'toys' Ukyo had 'charged' for her.

 The slamming door had awoken Ukyo, who wasted no time in helping the others wake up in a 'very' nice way, starting with Ranma. ...None of them noticed what Nodoka had been up to.

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 After everyone finished their 'morning exercises', and Ukyo had added a couple other checkmarks in one of her notebooks, Nodoka had gathered everyone for breakfast ...and an announcement.

 "There is one last thing I would like to do before we head home. It just so happens that this Sunday is the Kanamara matsuri, and I have always wanted to take you. Since we are not too far from Kawasaki, I figured we should participate by making a divine object, known as 'Kanamara-sama', and carry it on a palanquin in the parade. We can give you all a bit of local culture before you start school."
{*Kanamara Matsuri = Steel Phallus Festival*}

Kikyo looked confused. "I do not recall this festival, when did it start?"

 "Early in the Edo period, close to four hundred years ago, a youkai had fallen in love with a beautiful young woman who did not return its feelings. The jilted youkai was filled with rage, and possessed the woman's vagina on the night before the woman was to be married.

 "On their wedding night, they started to consummate their marriage when the youkai used its sharp teeth to remove the member of the poor husband ...who died.

 "When the woman remarried, the jealous youkai did the same thing a second time, removing the member from, and killing a second handsome young man. Such a waste. The villagers were all upset, and they contracted a local blacksmith to make the legendary steel phallus! The sacred blacksmith pretended to be the woman's husband and inserted the divine object. When the youkai bit down, it broke all of its teeth and left the woman for good. The blacksmith and the woman were married soon after, and lived a fruitful life. The divine object was enshrined nearby, in a temple to honor Kanayama Hiko no kami and Kanayama Hime no kami, the fraternal twin deities of metalworking, childbirth and lower abdomen health.

 "The Kanayama shrine had become renowned among sex-workers for protection from sexually transmitted diseases, you remember, we covered those in your lessons. Nowadays the shrine is also known for helping with fertility and the festival is used to raise a lot of money to help fight various sexually transmitted diseases. There are lots of colorful people, and many fun things to play with!"

 "So we will be making a giant steel penis, to carry around on a platform?"

 "Well, it does not have to be made of steel, usually only the main one in the shrine is steel..."

 "If it can be made to look like Ranchama's, then I am all for it!"

 "I do not see any other models around here..."

 "Um, don't I get a say in this?"

 "Of course son, do you object?"

 "Well, not really, but you shouldn't take it for granted. I wouldn't do that to you."

 "Ranchama? Do you really feel like we take you for granted?"

 "Ucchan, stop looking at my chest, my eyes are up here!"

"But Ranchama, your chest, it's so manly..."

 All of the other women nodded vehemently.

 "Do you know how much I suffer under your gaze? I am a person, not a piece of meat!"

"Ranchama?"

Ranma laughed before winking at Ukyo. "I'm just messing with you."

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T heir sculpture had just been delivered, and set up, and they moved it to where they needed it to be, where they admired their work. They had started with a mold they had made of the real thing, requiring a lot of work and a few pressure points, and 'other' activities from the girls to keep Ranma hard long enough to let it dry. Then they made a replica, and Ukyo used that as a model to sculpt this 'divine object'. It was large enough to use the scrotum as a chair, so she had made sure it was soft enough to be comfortable for whoever was to ride on it like a princess. It was taller than any of them, and required her to lay it down to work on it, but she spent every waking moment, lovingly crafting and painting each detail as the others helped with various pieces. She also made sure to save the replica for other uses later.

 "Is this what we made?"

 "Yup, isn't it beautiful?"

 "You sure this what supposed to bring?"

 "It does seem a bit strange, even if it is lovely. Ukyo, you really know your penis."

 "No, I really know Ranchama's 'divine object'. I couldn't care less about anyone else's. As far as I am concerned, there are no others."

 "Shampoo too, but glad real one no is this big. Barely handle as is."

 "No doubt, we aren't even comparing to a real horse anymore!"

 "Shampoo think Ranma hung like real horse, but this too too much."

 "Yes girls, this is one you ride on in a different way. The question is, which of you will ride on the float?"

 "Considering who's member it is, I think Ranchama should ride, while we carry it."

 Kyoshi thought she would liven up the debate, as she got a devious grin on her youthful looking features. "Remember girls, there will be news reporters from all over the globe for this event, so photos and videos of you with this 'divine object' will be seen worldwide if you ride on it!"

 A heated argument over which of the girls would get to be seen on the float with Ranma's giant member instantly broke out.

 Before weapons could be drawn, Ranma stepped into the fray. "Ladies, please, I think I have a solution." The girls calmed down a bit, if Ranma was going to pick someone, then they were not going to argue. "How about ofukuro-chan, Kyoshi-sensei, and I carry the platform, and all of you girls can ride on it. I would carry it alone, but the balance could be an issue if you move around too much. I do not want to risk you girls taking a spill because I failed to keep my balance." Ranma winked at them, with a twinkle in his eye.

 The girls all seemed pleasantly surprised, so Ranma considered the matter settled. "Well then, now that we have that out of the way, we have a few hours before the parade starts, so why don't we go, have some food, play some games, and just have some fun?"

 "Well, there is one thing you MUST eat while at the Kanamara festival." Nodoka handed phallic shaped candies on sticks to all of the girls, and yonic shaped ones for Ranma and Kyoshi. "I did not want us to be left out, so I bought these while you were having your 'discussion'. They sell out early. You must get them quickly, before the lines form."

 Most of the girls looked excited, but Kikyo was confused, and Ukyo noticed. "What is wrong Kikyo-san?"

 "I am just trying to figure out why you have mushrooms and flowers on sticks. What am I supposed to do with this? Are they safe to eat?"

 Ukyo giggled. "Oh yes, quite safe. These are not real mushrooms, they are candy, made to look like a man's ...'mushroom'. They do not compare to Ranchama, but what are you going to do?" Whispering, Ukyo said, "Like that 'toy' I gave you a while back. Learning to eat them well, can make you more attractive to men." Ukyo spoke in a louder voice. "I will teach you the right way to eat one of these. Ranchama, please save yours until I am done. Now, watch me closely and do exactly what I do." Kikyo nodded, as a crowd began to form.

 "After all, if you cannot do this simple thing, you do not deserve to get a man." All of the girls were watching her closely, as well as a large number of people in the crowd, as she began giving instructions and demonstrating after each one on her own treat. "First you lightly grasp the stick with your left hand, and begin with a light kiss on the tip. Only a novice would put it in their mouth right away. Next, lick the tip with your tongue, and slide down, making sure to get under the cap on the way, softly, gently. Then lick it back up, very slowly, until you are back to the top. Lick around the tip, circling it with the tip of your tongue. Next, you take it, slowly, into your mouth, making sure your teeth do not touch. Insert it deep inside your mouth, being gentle. Make sure not to let it reach the back of your throat. Have your tongue rub it, by moving your head back and forth. Do not use your hands, swing your head, and if you can, try to lick the bottom while the base is still outside of your mouth. Slowly take the whole length, deep inside. That's the way, give it everything you've got."

 The crowd had grown quite large, all of them staring intently at the girls and their candies. It had slowly dawned on the inexperienced young woman exactly what she was doing. Kikyo fought back her embarrassment as she tried really hard to show off for Ranma, hoping to make some 'headway' with the young man, and get him to treat her as a woman, and not a relative. It took everything the young priestess had to ignore how many people were watching, and how closely they were staring at her.

 Ukyo saw how many of the women, and a few of the men, were copying her technique, and wanted to see how far she could take it. She kept up her licking and head bobbing, and began to rub her breast under the skimpy cloth that almost passed for her dress. She was surprised by how many of the others copied her.

 Standing a little ways away, Ranma saw that the crowd was hanging on Ukyo's every word, and that most of them were copying everything she did. This gave Ranma, what was for him, an unusually evil thought. He decided to put Ukyo's last present to him to use. Ranma reached into his pocket space, and pulled out a small remote control. He had a hard time not laughing as he slowly turned up the controller, and saw Ukyo's hand slowly go between her legs as they began to quiver, and most of the crowd followed suit.

 Ukyo spared a glance at Ranma, saw he was holding her remote, and smiled. Ukyo has been mildly disappointed at how rarely Ranma had used her gift, she went through the trouble to wear her end of it everywhere, yet Ranma hardly ever held up his end of the deal. When she gave it to him, she had hoped that he would just randomly play with it whenever they were in range, the fact that he could use it when they were out in public like this just make it all the more exciting to her. However, this was the first time he had done that. He had only ever used it in private before, and Ukyo had been planning to ask him about it soon. She had been about ready to start wearing two, so she had one she could turn on when she felt like it as well. That would not have worked out with her swim suit, as it required use of one of her openings to stay on, but then, she did not really need a suit to go swimming anyway thanks to her curse. She had really hoped he would have played with it on the plane, but at least she caught him in the lavatory for a bit of 'happy' time. It was just too bad it was a short flight, so the other girls did not get a chance to earn their wings.

 However, none of that mattered to her at that moment, Ranma was using it on her now, and in front of so many people, she could not have been happier. The girl was so happy in fact, that she had forgotten all about the fact that she was giving a 'lesson', and really started going to town on both herself and her candy. While she did not expose herself any more than her outfit normally did, most of those who were following her 'instructions', were not dressed in a way to allow that. Many of the girls had dropped their panties, and many of the men had reached into their pants, most of whom had long since forgotten that they were in public. Some of the crowd, who had not arrived in time to get some of the popular candies, were even practicing on each other.

 Ukyo, fresh out of candy, turned toward Ranma on her wobbly legs. "Okay Ranchama, I owe you one for that, but first, it is your turn to show them how to eat your candy now..." Turning to Kikyo she said, "You really should watch this closely. It will blow your mind."

 "My turn, is it? Okay then. Men, pay attention, you are about to learn something very important to your futures." He and Kyoshi began their demonstration.

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Thanks to so many people napping, or looking for clean underwear, the lines at the stands were very short, so they were able to look at, play with, and buy, whatever they wanted. Kyoshi then saw one particular stand, turned to the girls, and said, "Go wait over there, there is one more thing you MUST try while you are here. I will be right back."

 Moments later, she returned with a small tray. She handed each of the younger women a small piece of dried fish. "Eat this first, then drink this." Then she poured each of them a small dish of a cloudy white liquid from a bottle. They all looked on curiously, Ranma most of all.

 "Just the girls?"

 "You can have some if you would like, you might not want to eat the fish first though. I know 'I' prefer not to."

 They all did as instructed however, the reactions were kind of mixed.

 "Oooo, Shampoo like. Salty, sweet, thick, make Shampoo tummy warm."

 Pai was slowly sipping hers, swishing it in her mouth, trying to identify the flavor. "That was ...familiar."

 "I have never tasted sweet-sake like that before, it was truly different." Kikyo did not drink often, but it was common enough at celebrations, and she had been a part of many after saving a family or village, at least when she was not able to get out of it in some way. However, this was unlike any sweet-sake she had ever had before.

 "Wait, sake, aren't we too young here?"

 "Well, it's a special occasion, I am sure your mother wouldn't mind."

 "Ranchama's tastes better."

 "My what?"

 "Your ...'milk'."

 "Huh?"

 "The flavor of the dried fish, when mixed with this special sweet-sake, is supposed to mimic the taste of semen."

 "That's what it is!"

 "You is right, no as good without fish first." While the others had been talking, Shampoo had poured herself several more bowls.

 "You might want to go easy on that, it is pretty strong..."

 Shampoo pouted. "Aw, is too too good." Then it dawned on her what they had been talking about a moment before. "Ranma let Shampoo have you special drink then instead, yes? Shampoo want more taste!" Shampoo was trying, and failing, to untie the string on Ranma's pants. The frustrated look on her face just made her look even more adorable.

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 By the end of the parade, Ukyo and Shampoo were practically 'pole dancing' with their 'divine object', while Pai and Kikyo were kissing each other as they danced together on the platform. Considering they were told that a fundoshi and open happi were the traditional clothing for the event, and all except Kikyo were wearing nothing else, it was a very sexy display. It was just too bad for her, that Ranma could not see it.
{*Happi = a traditional Japanese straight-sleeved coat.*}

 Kyoshi was rather drunk, and having a blast with all of the attention and excitement, but despite this, she was still able to carry the front end without incident. Drinking and cheering all the way, she held a bottle of sake in one hand, while supporting the palanquin with the other.

 Nodoka could not have been more proud to be carrying the rear of this palanquin. Not only was it was the 'manliest', and most realistic, float in the procession, but she helped to make it, in more ways than one. She considered this parade to be a metaphor for her life, following Ranma, watching him as he walked the path of life, ever trying to help him keep balanced. She was a lucky woman indeed, to be blessed with such a handsome and talented son ...though not as lucky as 'so many' other women who get to appreciate her work.

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N abiki had just caught up to Kasumi and Fubuki, who were waiting for her at the gates to the school. Fubuki had just graduated, but they came by to walk her home occasionally after their shopping. "Yo! Did you hear about the parade at the Kanamara festival? People have been talking about it all day. They are saying there was a sexy show on the biggest float! Not only were there four girls on the float instead of just the normal one person, but to make it stranger, it was carried by only three people! Most of the girls were also saying it was the nicest 'divine object' they had ever seen. It was all over the news last night. One of those girls was wearing a really skimpy miko outfit, and another even won the daikon carving contest, I hear it was a monster! Funny thing about that was, the girl claimed it was actual size! I'd have to see that to believe it, ne?"

 The girls smiled as they thought about it before Kasumi interrupted the imagination spots that Nabiki was still too young to watch. "Well, we did have a lot of planning to do, with all of our projects and Ranma-kun coming home soon, we only have so much time..."

 The three girls all got excited and squeeed like the fan-girls they were.

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C hapter 11
The Art of Going Home

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It was a warm spring afternoon when a large cab pulled to a stop in front of the Saotome-Tendo compound. The six 'young' people who climbed out of the mini-van cab, stared at the size of the place. It had changed quite a bit from the last time they had seen it, not that Ranma really remembered it well.

 "Kaa-chan, are you sure this is the right place?"

 "Not anymore..."

 "The name plate says 'Saotome-Tendo Estate', would you like me to go find out, Ranchama?"

 Nodoka's eyes widened at that. "Well, they did say they had built a dojo, I guess this is it."

 "Okay then, let go meet the rest of our family!"
 
 They paid the driver and walked toward the house to ring the bell. The door was opened from within by a monster of a man, with long black hair, pointy teeth and nails, and a maid's uniform with the sleeves torn off. The man just stood there, expectantly.

 Kikyo pulled out her bow with a yell of, "Youkai!" only to have Ranma place a hand on her shoulder, calming her down.

 Nodoka was surprised. "Genma? Genma Saotome?"

 "That lazy goshujin is finishing a class. Mini Maid Guy, go fetch the goshujin."

 A cute, smaller maid, popped out from behind the larger man. "Hai, Kogarashi-sama!" Several of the newcomers wondered if the smaller one came out of the larger one... Wherever the smaller person had come from, the 'Mini Maid Guy' vanished in a puff of smoke.

 Several slightly uncomfortable moments went by, as Kikyo kept eying her bow, as the other girls stayed prepared for battle in case they were needed. Before the cute, young maid had returned, a crash and several loud bangs were heard, as three young ladies came running into the room with a yell of, "RANMA-KUN/-SAMA!!!" Ignoring the other people present, the three young women jumped on Ranma, embracing him tightly.

 Ranma held up under the assault, and managed to return the hugs. Nodoka swooned with a, "My son is SO manly!" and Ukyo just smiled. Some of the other girls were less than enthused, with Kikyo silently wondering exactly how many women were already after the man she had, once again, given her heart. Over the past two years or so, she had learned that Ranma was not only every bit as kind as Inuyasha and then some, but the many lifetimes he must have lived, had improved him dramatically. He was far more open, honest, and devoted to his family and friends ...and at least as handsome ...not that she would admit to that playing a factor.

 She had grown grateful for Kagome's jealousy, it had helped to prepare her for this time in her unnatural life, when she could honestly admit to herself that she was finally 'over' Inuyasha. She knew that she loved Ranma for himself, and not because he reminded her of his past life. Let Inuyasha and Kagome be together, she found a much better version of him in Ranma.

 Even though she knew that she was already working under a serious handicap, but with all of these girls, she was getting the idea that she was going to have to work really hard, just to come in last place. If only Ranma could see her as a 'woman'. It was a problem she had always suffered under, being a miko, but this time it was different, being a miko had nothing to do with it, and she was starting to take it personally. Kikyo had always considered herself somewhat attractive, and though she knew that she was not the most sociable person around, she did not think her personality was 'too' bad, but she had begun to doubt her own self-image. This trend of rejection had been eating away at her confidence and had left her bereft of courage. Rejected by her first love, in several ways, and then to be rejected by his reincarnation almost completely out of hand ...it was almost too much for her to bear.

 Having nothing else to link her to this life, she had decided to give this everything she had, one last time. If she failed again, she would give up forever and resign herself to never know the life of a normal woman. She steeled herself for what was about to come and considered her options as Ranma continued to flirt with almost everyone but her.

 "It's nice to finally meet you three! You are even more beautiful in person than your photos suggested." Ranma's smile shined as he looked at the girls he had technically just met, but felt he knew very well. Nabiki swooned, something she would never admit to anyone. Fubuki was fighting a fainting spell, yet wanting to be caught and held in Ranma's free arm, as Kasumi was after she had fainted.

 "It is nice to finally meet you too, stud, very nice indeed." Nabiki's hands began to roam, before she turned her head. "You too Auntie Nodoka-san, Ukyo-chan, Pai-san, Shampoo-san, and you must be Kikyo-san. I have heard so much about all of you, though I have to admit, I didn't expect the skimpy miko uniform." This gave her a brief pause, and a note filed away to look into later, when she did not have more important things to worry about! "It is good to finally meet you all. In case you do not know, I am Nabiki Tendo, this is our friend and adorable maid, Fubuki, and the napping one over here is my older sister Kasumi. Our little sister is still practicing outside, and the fathers are teaching classes, but the moment Konatsu-chan said we had company, we came running to see you! Oh, how we've waited for this day! Welcome home, Ranma-kun!" Nabiki passionately kissed Ranma's lips, not wanting to let another moment slip by. ...and it was worth every bit of the wait. Even still, she intended to collect the accrued interest for making them wait for so long.

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 The dojo's classes were ended early that day, and a family meeting was called. Ranma and the women all gathered in the study, Kasumi still holding on to Ranma. Two slender men soon followed, one far more slender than the other. They all gathered around the room, and after some catching up, Nodoka took control of the meeting.

 "Well, husband, I never expected you to accomplish this much. I must say I am impressed. Is there anything else you need to tell us?"

 Genma got noticeably nervous. "No! That is it, why would there be anything else?"

 "Well, considering the way your hairline was going before we left, I would not have expected it to have stopped falling out, never mind growing back."

 "And what about you, wife? You hardly look a day older than the day you left."

 "Are you complaining?"

 "Are you?"

 "No, I guess I am not."

 "The real question is 'How well did you do training the boy?'."

 "Yes, I suppose that it is." A fire ignited in Nodoka's eyes, as a smile crept across her face.

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 The group gathered in an open section of the backyard. "So then husband, how did you want to do this test, our best students sparring, my two best giving a demonstration, or would you just like my son to beat you senseless directly?"

 The force of his wife's words gave Genma pause. Normally he would have jumped in himself, but the confidence in her voice made him want to see the boy in action first. "We will treat this as a challenge match!" Genma turned toward Fubuki and the Tendo girls. "These young martial artists have challenged our dojo! Who among you will defend our honor?"

 Being the youngest, Akane was always looking for ways to prove herself, so she jumped up immediately. "I will! Who am I fighting?"

 Ranma turned to his 'team'. "Well, Kafu-san indicated all of us, the girl asked so, would one of you like it, or should I?"

 "Well Ranchama, I always love seeing you in action, but will gladly fight for you anytime."

 Pai placed her hand on Ukyo's shoulder. "Let me do it, if you please. I have been needing to stretch out since that cab ride."

 "Okay then, Pai-Pai it is! Remember, this is just for fun, so enjoy yourself." Ranma kissed Pai on the cheek, "For luck."

 Pai was happy to be doing something, all of this sitting around was starting to get to her, she was a woman of action after all, and the kiss sent her mood soaring even higher. "Here I go!"

 "Shampoo fight next, get 'kiss for luck' too!"

 Nabiki perked up, how about us, can we get a 'kiss for luck' too? 'I' will even fight for that." She smiled at Ranma with a wink. Kasumi and Fubuki both blushed. Even Nabiki blushed when Ranma went around and kissed all of the girls who asked for it.

 Akane scowled a bit at the way her sisters and these other girls were acting toward this boy, but tried to focus on her match. Her opponent was a Chinese girl, about her age, in a skimpy blue qipao, with her long black hair tied into twin buns, with long braids coming out of the center of each bun. Akane bowed. "Akane Tendo, of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and I accept ...your challenge."

 Pai smiled back to the dark-haired girl, in the light yellow gi. "Pai Chan, of, um, the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. It's nice to meet you." Pai felt weird saying that, but in a good way. This was the first time she had said it, since officially joining their school and it felt good. She felt as if she belonged somewhere, and it filled her with a type of pride she had never known before she had met her new family.

 Ukyo stepped in between them and raised her arm. "This is a one round match. It will end when one of you yields, is unable to continue, or is knocked outside of the ring. The schools are 'anything goes', so let's see what you can do." Ukyo lowered her arm as she jumped back and yelled "FIGHT!"

 Akane started off slowly, with a series of straight punches.

 Pai easily avoided the blows, and when Akane got within range, she did a backward cartwheel kick, catching Akane under the jaw.

 Akane staggered back, rubbing her jaw, smiling. "Not bad." Seeing her opponent had some skill, Akane charged back in, changing her moves up, and putting in a bit more effort. They traded blows, with Pai dancing around Akane, and Akane soaking up the attacks she could not block. With each exchange they tried harder, and elevated the action, with increasingly longer combinations, and more powerful techniques.

 Akane had expected the petite girl to be a pushover, and was surprised to learn otherwise. If they had been competing for points, the other girl would have already won this match, but Akane could shrug off the hits she had received so far with relative ease. "Let's see how you handle this then." Akane wanted to try a move she 'borrowed' from the last boy who challenged their dojo, a boy with pink hair. She charged her fists, not all that unlike how she protected her hands from damage when breaking bricks. Unlike when she broke bricks, she released a bit of that ki with each punch.

 Pai had hopped back to avoid the attack, and the blow had not come close, but the force of it did. She barely had time to roll with the glancing blow before another was heading her way. She had to really work to dodge the ranged attacks and still attack herself, she was still working on her own 'ranged attack', and had not yet fully mastered it. She had mastered using ki rather quickly since, as Ranma had explained to her, she had been doing it instinctively. It was just a matter of figuring out what she was doing, how she was doing it, and doing it at will. She could now jump four stories high, but projecting her ki in a 'blast' was proving more difficult than her friends made it look. She had barely mastered the Rock-Paper-Scissors game, and hers paled compared to her friends. She had tried firing off her ki constructs before, but they always fizzled out when they left her hand, so she opted for another option.

 Jumping into the air when your opponent could shoot at you was usually not the best plan, even with her mid-air control, it was dangerous. However, Pai was hoping that since she had not done so before, it would surprise the other girl, and let her get away with it once.

 Akane was taken off-guard, not used to people jumping several meters over her head. It took her a precious moment before she turned around to see the other girl charging at her, too late to dodge, all she could do was block.

 "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Pai's arms blurred as she charged in, blows raining down upon Akane's guard, knocking her back.

 Soun cried out for his daughter again, but most were too intent on the action to pay him any attention.

 Pai charged in, hoping to kick the stumbling girl out of the 'ring' area. She hopped into the air, coming down with both feet aimed for Akane's guarded area.

 Akane was already staggered, and the double kick knocked her back, but she instinctively sent her ki into her feet, and held her ground.

 Pai was surprised at this turn of events, and not in a good way. She tried to charge in, but Akane started throwing more ranged punches her way, and she had to jump back out of range. Pai could see Akane building up a bigger charge of ki, preparing ...something. She felt the ki forming on her own hands, and figured she did not have many other options. 'Might as well give it a shot. Maybe I can at least lessen the impact...' She pushed forward with everything she had and, without thinking, yelled out, "Tin Tong Niu!", surprising even herself.
{*Tin Tong Niu = Cantonese for 'Bird of Paradise', lit. 'Paradise Bird'. It can also refer to the flower of the same name.*}

 At the same time, Akane pushed everything she had into this larger version of the move she recently learned, and yelled, "Kujira Punch!"
{*Kujira = Whale*}

 The force from Akane's punch met with the large pink 'bird' that had flown out of Pai's hands, resulting in a large explosion of energy which knocked both fighters back, both of them landing on their posteriors. Unfortunately for Akane, for her that meant she was outside of the ring, having been standing on the edge moments before, resulting in the end of the match, and her loss.

 It took a moment for Pai to regain her footing, but she ran over to offer Akane a hand as soon as she could. "Nice fight, you are very good."

 Akane reluctantly took the other girl's hand, and stood up. "No need to patronize me. I lost."

 "So what? You fought well, and it was only a fluke that I was able to pull that off at the last minute. You probably would have won otherwise, I don't think I could have withstood that last attack of yours, impressive stuff."

 That made Akane feel a bit better. She did not like being beaten, never mind by one of the girls fawning all over that 'boy', but at least this girl was polite about it. The manners, that Kasumi tried so hard to instill, kicked in a bit, and she could not help but to say, "Thank you. You were pretty impressive back there too. What was that last thing? I have never seen anything like that before."

 "The Bird of Paradise?" Akane just stared at her. "...Well, I have never actually DONE anything like that before." Pai looked a bit embarrassed. "Ranma has been trying to teach me for a while, but it never worked before. I am sure Ranma would teach you t-"

 "Oh, well, never mind then." Akane walked over to be comforted by her father.

 Ranma ran over to Pai, taking her in a hug, checking for and healing any damage. "Pai-Pai, Congratulations! Well done! When did you master your ki blast?"

 "I haven't, it just happened." She laughed.

 "Well, I am still proud of you! You have done our school proud!" After kissing Pai, Ranma walked over to Akane, checking for any damage she might have taken as well. He put his hand on her arm. "Well done. That was an exciting battle to watch."

 "Take your hands off of me, you pervert!"

 "Hey, I am not doing anything perverted! You had a light fracture and a chipped bone! That ...could have been a problem. I was healing that, and was going to work on your other injuries..."

 "I never asked you to! We have our own doctor, for your information!"

 "Fine then, I was just trying to help. Sorry about that." Ranma got up and walked back over to where the rest of the young women were waiting on him.

 "Well, husband, what do you think?"

 "That doesn't tell us anything about the boy's training! The only skill I saw, was treating injuries! Oh, my only son, such a sissy to worry about minor things, like broken bones!"

 "Considering Ranma-kun is Pai's teacher, I think that it does, but then if you disagree, I repeat, how would 'you' like to settle this?"

 "There is nothing to settle, women are a distraction from the art!"

 Ranma did not like the direction this was going. "I am going to have to disagree with you on that one, old man."

 "You spend all of your time, with these girls, you let them fight for you, it is pathetic, boy! I knew being around your mother would make you soft!"

"You are a fool! The last thing a woman is going to do is make me 'soft'! ...literally. 'Distraction from the art'? Women ARE the art!" He turned to the girls and said, "...and each one, beautiful and unique, like art", with a wink, before turning back to his father. "The art was designed to protect the helpless, and for the weak to be able to protect themselves. We were all 'weak', before we trained! What good is the art, if you have no one to protect?"

 "You must protect your manly ideals!"

 "And what 'manly ideals' would those be, if not to protect those who are unable to protect themselves? If women are so 'weak' as you claim, then the art was designed 'especially' for them, to protect them. If women are so 'weak', why did you bother training so many of them? I did not see too many men in your class."

 Genma flinched at the comment, before mumbling under his breath, "Well, I am teaching a 'fluffy' version of the art..."

 "True strength can only be found with a combination of a strong body, mind, and honor. If you cannot see that, then I know plenty of women you could learn from. Well, you two have been without women for more than a decade, and so far, I am not impressed, these girls you trained could easily take you on, from what I can see..."

 'What do you mean, 'without women'? I have been surround by them, I can't get away from them!' "Prove yourself then, you will fight with my best student! Kasumi, fight Ranma!"

 Kasumi looked upset. She did not like the way Genma was insulting her gender, and she certainly did not want to fight with Ranma, even if she did secretly want to show off, but not if it would prove a point for Genma. There was no way to win in this position, if she won the fight, it would do her gender proud, but it would hurt Ranma's position that women were worth more than a 'distraction', and if she lost, she would prove him right by being weaker... There was just no 'good' way through this. Kasumi slowly got to her feet, mumbling about how 'fighting was NOT what she wanted to do with Ranma...'

 "So, to prove to me that 'women are nothing more than a distraction from the art', you are going to have me fight a woman? What kind of logic is that? What kind of a man are you? Fight for your own ideals!" Ranma belatedly realized that he should have used his inner aura reading skills sooner, but it was too late for that now. "Your students can show off for me another time. If you want to prove to me that ofukuro-chan and the other girls are a distraction to my development in the art, then you had best do so yourself! Put your fists where your mouth is, before I put mine there!" Ranma was actually starting to get upset, the way his 'father' kept insulting women was something he could not stand, after all, his mother's second rule was to treat all women well, most of them were very special.

 "You asked for it boy, I won't be holding back!" Genma was annoyed, more by the fact that he would not get a chance to see the boy in action before having to fight him for himself, than any disagreement, he was used to people not agreeing with him after all. Genma looked his son over, watching his moves for any sign that would indicate a style, but he could not read anything in the boy's stance, and it worried him. Then the boy said something that worried him even more, he was sure it was simply bravado, but Genma tended to be cautious when it came to his wellbeing.

 "That's okay, I will probably have to hold back enough for the both of us." Ranma turned to his mother for a moment. "I have to ask, what did you see in this guy, kaa-chan?"

 "I was not given a choice, my son. My parents arranged this marriage." She gave Genma a hard look. "It seems that I need to consider if I am going to keep it. Now do you understand why I am so insistent that you choose your own bride? There is no excuse for you to enter into a loveless marriage, like I have had, when so many beautiful young ladies are interested in you." Nodoka had been making a list of traits, and filing them into two lists going in her head, one for good and one for bad, and she couldn't help but compare them to Ranma and find them lacking. She would have to add them up and decide what to do once she had gathered all of the evidence, talked to the witnesses, and had time to meditate on what she wanted to do about her life.

 "I do." Words several of the girls present had always hoped to hear Ranma say, just not in this context. Nabiki was glad to have her tape recorder on hand to catch it for later use.

 Genma did not like where this was going, and somewhere, deep inside, he knew that he needed to either prove his point or change his tune to survive this encounter without losing everything he had built. He knew he did not have much of a leg to stand on. They could easily carry on his school without him. The girls had developed more of the style than him at this point anyway, and if Nodoka divorced him, he would even lose the Saotome name. Genma kicked himself for not calling it the 'Genma School of Kaji-ken' rather than the 'Saotome School'. If only his given surname was not so horrifying... In addition, there was still that other thing... If he wanted to maintain some semblance of control, he needed to eke out a win here.

 The two men faced off. Ranma started to bow, when he sensed the attack coming, a knee to the face. Instinctively, Ranma bent backwards, in a reverse bow, letting his hands touch the ground and kicking up, hitting his father in the chest as he flipped over.

 "Weak, you hit like a girl! I barely felt that!"

 "Watch your mouth old man! Women are not weak! I was just trying to gauge how much you could take, but you are starting to make me not care." The two men leapt into the air, where they seemed to hang, exchanging blows before separating, landing, and repeating.

 Genma had tried several of his favorite tactics, from the hundred yen coin trick, to throwing dirt in the boy's face, and to Genma's surprise, none of them even phased the lad.

 "I know our style is 'anything goes', but is this what you call being 'manly'? Cheep tricks and playing dirty? Have you no honor? Have you no shame? You might not look it, but the one who is soft around here is you old man! Mostly in the head."

 "Shut-up boy! You don't know anything! That is the talk of the weak! A true martial artist will do whatever it takes to win, winning is all that matters! To protect your ideals, you must win!"

 "No, that is what an honorless thug does, what a cornered animal does, not what a man with honor does." Ranma emptied himself of all of his outrage, finding his calm center, and began to flow around the other man's attacks like water. "The superior man is modest in speech, but exceeds in actions."

 "Here we go again, weak, pure and simple. Spouting this feminine nonsense, and dancing around like a girl ...you make me sick! Why don't you attack, boy?"

 "The superior man is all-embracing and not partial, the inferior man is partial and not all-embracing. When you believe that others cannot be your equal, you are only harming yourself. When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves."

 Genma was getting frustrated at not having been able to land a blow since the boy started dancing around. Ranma's unwillingness to attack anymore was only making it worse, he had not wanted to hit someone so badly since 'he who shall not be named' was buried. "What's the matter, boy? Too scared to hit your old man? You need to take this seriously boy, this is about your future!"

 Ukyo got the other girls to help her move everyone back to a safe range. "Let's go girls, I don't how big this is going to be!"

 "To study and not think is a waste, to think and not study is dangerous. Only by reviewing what you have learned and learning anew, will you have what is required to be a teacher. Unless you can show me otherwise, but so far, the only thing I see that I can learn from you, is what NOT to do." Ranma had reached the center of his spiral, and performed the final uppercut. "Hiryuu ...Shouten ...HA!" Luckily for Genma, the heat from his frustration was not as hot as it could have been, so the tornado that swept him up, was not an overly large one, but it had been enough to send him flying, and really impress all of the people who had not seen it before. Ranma looked a bit sheepish, and said, "Well, the guy DID ask for it..."

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Everyone had gotten cleaned up from the exhibition, and it was time to start dinner. Fubuki had been of a mixed mind about it, not wanting to be away from Ranma on his first day back, but wanting to make him the nicest welcoming home meal she could. She had asked Konatsu to pick up a few things from the store for her, so she could make something really extravagant. Konatsu had also agreed to clean up after dinner for her, despite always eating with Kogarashi, so she would be able to spend more time helping Ranma get settled and to spend with her friends. The 'Mini Maid Guy' would have gladly cooked for them as well, and would have done a great job, but she wanted to prepare dinner herself, being her first official act as HIS maid.

 So imagine her surprise when Ranma and all of the other girls except Akane followed her into the kitchen soon after she had begun to work. "Ranma-sama! Everyone, what are you doing here?"

 "We wanted to help, or at least keep you company while we watch, that is if you do not want our help and are okay with us being here. We do not want to disturb you."

 The knife Fubuki was using, slipped out of her hand, landing, sharp-end-down, sticking straight up in the cutting board. "Ah! No, um, that would be fine, there is not really enough room for all of us to work though. We would need to expand this kitchen for all of us to work together in here, and it is part of my job." Her voice grew quiet and meek as she began to blush. "...and 'I' wanted to cook for 'you'."

 Ranma smiled at his new maid while Ukyo swooned. "You didn't tell us Fubuki-chan was adorable as well as clumsy! MOE! Now all you need are a pair of glasses, cat ears, and a tail!" There was a lot of giggling from the girls who were picturing that in their heads, while Ukyo started planning.

 Fubuki was in too good of a mood to get mad, and did not want to do so in front of Ranma anyway, so ignored the 'clumsy maid' comment. She had no idea what to say to the rest of the suggestion, so she just blushed harder, trying to ignore it as best she could.

 "Now Ucchan, play nice. In a way we are guests here, even if this is our home now."

 "You know me, Ranchama, I always 'play nice'." Ukyo got a wicked grin on her face.

 Shampoo pouted. "Be adorable cat-girl Shampoo job, no need more..."

 "Shan Pu, did you just ask to be Ranchama's cat-girl maid? I didn't know you wanted to serve us like that, should we have you fitted for a uniform?"

 "Is no what Shampoo mean! But at least Shampoo is only 'pink' cat-girl. Have too too nice soft fur!" She began to run against Ranma, and then got an idea. "Unless Ranma want Shampoo be maid..." She looked up, into his eyes, looking as cute as she could, which was quite. She had picked up enough from Ranma to use her ki to amplify her 'cuteness', if nothing else.

 This caused some pleasant images to flash through Ranma's mind for a moment. "Well, now, I can't say that I would not like to see that..."

 "Well, you heard it, Shampoo. We will have to have some fittings! But for now, what we need to figure out is where we are all going to sleep."

 Nabiki was impressed with the shows of manipulation skills, but the topic brought something to mind that she had been dying to ask, "I have an idea on that, but it brings us to a point, darling Ranma-kun. You told us about these curses, and I hate to ask, but I find it difficult to believe in things like magic, so if you do not mind terribly, could we see a demonstration, please?"

 "Sure, I owe you that-"

 "No, Ranma-kun, you do not! Is that not right, Nabiki-chan?"

 "No, it's fine Kasumi-nee-chan. You girls are going to see it at some point anyway. We can't really control it, and we all seem to have become water magnets. We usually can't go a day without changing. I do wish to ask that you do not spread it around, I would prefer to keep it on a 'need to know' basis." Most of the girls decided that the fathers did not yet 'need to know'. Ranma's father acted badly enough with the whole 'act like a girl' routine, and this would just add fuel to the fire. Their father, they thought, was just awful at keeping secrets, little did they realize, one day they would learn otherwise.

 Kasumi was too busy swooning to care. 'Ranma-kun called me 'nee-chan', in person!'

 "Fubuki-chan, you might want to set the knife down first." Waiting for a response, Ranma continued. "Watch closely, we can answer questions in a moment." Ranma, Ukyo, and Shampoo stood side by side, and each upended a glass of water over their heads, triggering their changes. "You can feel, if you want, we do not mind."

 All of the other girls took turns examining the cursed trio, including Pai and Kikyo. Kasumi and Fubuki were a bit more family friendly with their examinations, but when Pai started to get frisky, and Kikyo could not resist joining in. Nabiki was unable to join in for long though, soon after copping a quick feel, to be sure that they were indeed real, her brain began to do gymnastics trying to reconcile what she knew to be true, and what she had just seen with her own eyes, felt with her own hands. It was as if something inside her brain snapped, she was sure she heard a 'pop'. Her eyes had gone wide, her mouth agape, and her hands were feeling around on automatic.

 Ukyo was disappointed because she was not as exciting to fondle in this form, and generally being ignored during the groping session, not that she really enjoyed it that much in this form anyway. The sensations from things like that were rather deadened in this form, and were just not as much fun, she could barely even feel them touching her shell at all. Even she had to admit, she would much rather touch Shampoo's furry form over her cold-blooded body any day. Had Nabiki been herself, this might have been the change that interested her the most, at least until she saw Shampoo's lion form, however, such was not the case.

 Nabiki had not moved in several moments, even after Shampoo and Ranma's chests, that she had been groping, had moved away. Her hands and eye were still twitching, and she was starting to gain a bluish tint to her face from not breathing. The others were starting to take notice of this, and began to worry.

 "Nabiki-chan! Nabiki-chan! Oi!" Not getting any reaction at all, Ranma was debating on lightly slapping the girl to get her to breathe, when Fubuki splashed her with a large glass of cold water. This accomplished a couple of things, besides making a puddle on the kitchen floor. The first was to make Nabiki take a dramatic gasp of air. The other thing, was to soak the beautiful girl in the loose cotton dress, which caused it to hug her figure tightly, and the white material to become a bit translucent. The fact that she was not wearing a bra underneath said dress became apparent to all, the coldness of the water did not help matters, unless you count helping a couple of things stand out more.

 "Nabiki-chan! Are you okay? Can we get you anything? Someone bring a chair!" Immediately several girls jumped to grab a chair for Nabiki at Ranma's direction.

 "Get me? A dose of reality maybe..."

 "Okay, news flash... 'We really can see through your dress' ...very nice, by the way."

 "You know, were it anyone else, that might bother me, but you can look all you want ...I won't even charge you." Nabiki said with a wink, her normal humor starting to return, she was adaptive, if nothing else. "Fair is fair." Nabiki shook her head to clear the last of the cobwebs that had formed in her daze and looked the cursed trio over again. "I just cannot believe it, this is incredible... Why don't you follow me to the bath, where we can clean up. Besides, I think we need to examine your natural form now too, just to make sure this isn't your real form, or something, right girls? We need a good, long, 'hard' ...look."

 Everyone hastily agreed.

 "Purely in the interest of science ...yeah, that's it."

-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Konatsu had been summoned to deliver a message, and was on the way to do so. The Mini Maid Guy found Nodoka and the fathers in the study, and spoke up. "The girls have informed me that dinner will be a skosh late this evening, things were taking a bit 'longer' than expected."

 Nodoka inferred things from the way the cute ninja maid had spoken, that gave her visions of her manly son draped in adorable maids, wearing nothing but an apron and accessories. She did find it odd that Ranma had not shown any interest in bedding this maid. Was there something she was missing? Beautiful, graceful, elegant, and talented, Nodoka could find no flaw in the demure young maid. The flirty maid certainly seemed to show an interest. It was not right to ignore such a thing! She decided to have a talk with her son the next time they had a moment alone. In the meantime, she went back to enjoying her visions of Ranma with lots of girlfriends, and children, as the cherub Ranmas flew around her head. Luckily for her, the fathers were too intent on their game to notice the bit of drool on her chin.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Dinner was drawing to a close, and Genma was nursing a wound on his hand. His son being home, he had hoped to begin his 'food training' again. However, the first move he had made toward Ranma's plate earned him a fork in the back of the hand from Fubuki. She had hoped to have broken him of that habit, but was certainly NOT about to let him ruin the special meal she had prepared for Ranma on his homecoming! She was going to make sure this was a nice meal even if that meant she had to remove Genma from the room, and restrain him. Luckily, it never came to that, he had gotten the message after the first 'warning' and 'look of death'. Fubuki had remained by Ranma's side, guarding his plate, and serving him in any way she could.

 It had been an enjoyable meal, with everyone sharing tales of their lives and generally catching up. They were working on their desserts when Ranma got a distant look on his face, and seemed to not be looking at anyone in particular. Fubuki started to worry that her dessert had caused some sort of offence, or brought up a bad memory. "Is something wrong, Ranma-sama? Is the dessert not to your liking?"

 "No need to worry Fubuki-chan, Ranchama is just examining auras."

 "What? No one here is giving off a battle aura..." Akane was bothered, she did not like this boy. She had not liked him for some time. She could not be bought off like her sisters! He was clearly a pervert, the way he forced those girls to act like that around him! Although, the way he stood up for women to Genma was nice, she was sure that he was just doing it so that he could do something perverted later. In addition, now he was doing something else strange. What a weirdo!

 "No, not that kind of aura, though they are connected." Pai stood up as she explained what Ranma had taught her so long ago, pulling out a chart with graphs as she explained. "People have different auras, there is what we call the 'battle aura', which is purely based on emotion, and how the user is feeling at the time. Then you have the inner, or true aura, most people never master this level of aura reading. Learning to see a battle aura is simple, as easy as learning the basics of ki use, something most martial artists do instinctually.

"Even people who are not fighting give off a mild 'battle aura' but it is harder to see, you need to train to see them, if you are not one of the people gifted naturally. The better you get at it, the more of the aura you can see, and you can see it more clearly. To see them as Ranma does, one must separate your consciousness from your physical senses and 'see' with your aura. Ranma is in a halfway state, controlling both the body and spirit, to get the clearest picture of our auras, without losing control of the body.

 "None of us have fully mastered it yet, so I can only explain it as it was told to me. It uses a form of meditation that usually takes many years to master. Some people spend a lifetime and never get beyond a basic, blurred, single color aura view, when in fact, most people have many colors, or shades of colors swirling about. To the untrained eye, they blend together into a solid color." Pai got a look of frustration for a moment, having only seen single colors herself so far.

 "Ranchama, would you mind doing readings?"

 Ranma had first looked at his father's, and was not really thrilled with what he saw. While there was a good mix of both good and bad color traits, the dominant colors made him glad that his mother had raised him. The main colors were dark yellowish-oranges, showing that he was deceitful, boastful, and judgmental, with areas of dark purples that showed him to be arrogant, pompous, and immature. There was a negativeness to this man, a dullness that Ranma was having trouble placing exactly.

 Ranma had then turned his attention toward Soun. The man's aura was dominated by dark shades of grays, silvers, and yellows, which showed that he was a traditionalist, emotionally sensitive, boastful, and cowardly. The same ‘broken spirit’ that affected his father’s, also dulled this man's whole aura. 'I wonder what caused that... If that is what doing without women will do to you, then you can count me out!'

 He had just begun to look at Akane's mostly dull red aura, with flecks of yellowish greens, when Pai had finished her speech. Akane's aura showed that she was angry, judgmental, jealous, with some idealism mixed in. She had a very strong will though, making her very determined, yet there was a kindness there too, trying to fight for dominance over the maelstrom of rage, fueled by the darker emotions. He was just thinking, 'I have never seen such a dull red aura, before. Akane has got to be the angriest woman I have ever met. I hope the kind side wins the war.', when Ukyo had asked her question. "Not at all, would anyone like to know?" His words were a little fast to those listening to him, but to him, everyone, including himself, sounded slow.

 Nabiki scoffed inwardly a bit. "Oh, why not." With a wink and a smile she said, "Please read my fortune, oh great swami!"

 "Well, reading fortunes is a different skill, we can do that another time if you like though."

 "That's okay."

 "You read fortunes too, Ranma-sama? Is there anything you can't do?"

 "Plenty, ice-skating, for example, never learned."

 "Well, we might have to fix that, but back to my aura, what does it tell you about me?"

 "Your aura is a mixture of many shades of green. It tells me that you are sensual, charming, ambitious, strong-willed, business-minded, goal-oriented, organized, efficient, a bit impatient, somewhat of a perfectionist, and demanding ...of both yourself and of others." 'Though some of those greens are dull, showing emotional conflict, but I guess that is to be expected, given the situation...' "It is like a bright green piece of marble, or it would if the colors on marble could move on their own..."

 Nabiki felt a warmth growing her in chest. 'Well, most of that could have been taken from our letters, but it is nice that Ranma-kun thinks of me in that way.' "That is very kind of you to say." Other than 'impatient', those all seemed like compliments to her. She did not want to believe such a claim without proof, but she was unable to find anything else to say on the matter at the time.

 Kasumi thought that his reading on her sister had been pretty accurate, and didn't really care how he figured it out, it was fun. "That is impressive, Ranma-kun. What about Fukibuki's aura, what does it look like?"

 "For Fubuki-chan, I see a swirling mix of blues, whites, browns, and grays. These colors indicate that you are friendly, practical, strong, warm, stable, sincere, honest, humble, and reliable. You like things to be clean and tidy, and doing things in a precise way. You are harmonious, trusting, faithful, loyal, intelligent, modest, and you have a strong sense of innocence about you. You like taking care of others, and will do almost anything to keep your loved ones safe and secure."

 "Oh my, that's our Fukibuki!"

 "Wow!"

 "Why does Fubuki-chan had so many colors and mine is only green?"

 "Well, I wouldn't say 'only' green, there are many greens in there, it is quite beautiful. Each trait and emotion is represented by various colors and the way they blend together and mix, will paint a portrait of our personality, ever changing, as is life. Like a fingerprint, or a snowflake, no two are exactly alike. Even identical twins usually have some differences that grow as they get older and grow apart." Ranma's eyes twinkled as he winked at Nabiki. "Besides, you look good in green."

 Nabiki was unable to prevent a blush from forming on her face, and smiled. "Okay, okay, onee-chan's turn. Look inside, what do you see? Lay nee-chan bare, for all to see..."

 "Nabiki!"

 Ranma turned his attention toward the eldest Tendo daughter and was not prepared for what he saw. It was the most beautiful aura he had ever seen in his life. It was a mixture of the most brilliant shades of turquoise, white, silver, gold, blue, pink, purple, orange, yellow, green, and gray all swirling together in a hypnotizing way. This woman was wise, classy, compassionate, patient, forgiving, peaceful, serene, joyful, inspiring, pure, innocent, gentle, kind, graceful, harmonious, trusting, loyal, friendly, loving, tender, warm, hopeful, optimistic, modest, and reliable! He could not believe his eyes, this woman had the aura of a goddess. Everywhere he looked, bright, beautiful colors stared back at him, he was in awe.

 After a stunned moment, he pulled his painting supplies out of pocket space and put his all into a portrait of Kasumi and her beautifully blinding aura, glowing with an intense battle aura of his own. He moved at speeds that impressed even those who were used to his quick movements. In a matter of seconds, Ranma had completed his latest masterpiece, and his eyes regained their usual focus as he began to clean up his painting supplies.

 Everyone was amazed at how beautiful his portrait was, and the speed at which he painted it went well beyond belief. The colors seemed to swirl on the canvas, and the interaction of the colors flowed into each other as Kasumi's aura twisted around her. Ranma swore that his humble painting skills could not do Kasumi or her aura justice, but the rest of them were awed, as their eyes were drawn in and trapped by the painting that seemed to move on its own. The colors appeared to ebb and flow on the canvas, as if the painted aura was a living thing.

 Almost everyone was entranced by the painting, even Genma was impressed, though he would not admit it. Instead, he just mumbled about it being a 'girlie hobby'.

 "Excuse me? Ranchama's father, or so I have been told, if you had studied history, you would know that most of the great masters also studied at least one other fine art in addition to their chosen martial art. Not only is Ranchama one of the best martial artists I have ever seen, but also knows many fine arts. Calligraphy, dance, painting, cooking, Ranchama has mastered them and many others. One day Ranchama will be a legend! How can one not be awed in the presence of such speed, grace, and skill?"

 "You are just a child, what do you know?"

 Ranma looked up from cleaning a brush. "Ucchan knows a great deal, such as that a true master practices a variety of arts to keep the mind sharp and fluid."

 Nabiki was brought out of her stupor by the 'legend' comment, it reminded her of something she had heard when she was very young. Ranma, legend, something... There was something there, but she just couldn't quite place it.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Soon after dinner, Nabiki, Kasumi and Fubuki, grabbed Ranma, Ukyo, Pai, Shampoo, and Kikyo, and pulled them aside, for a private talk.

 "I do not know about auntie Nodoka, but our fathers are oblivious. Kogarashi-san knows, because 'All is laid bare before, Maid Guy Eye'!" The three girls laughed at Nabiki's impression, the rest just looked a bit confused. "Sorry, you will get it if you stay here for long." Nabiki switched gears. "There is something we wanted to show you, that 'we' would like 'you' to keep on a 'need to know' basis. Please be quiet, and follow me." Nabiki led them through one of the secret passage entrances, from one of the currently empty rooms.

 Kasumi and Fubuki followed close behind Ranma, each grabbing on to one of his arms from behind. The other girls were mildly disappointed by not having room to also rub against Ranma in the 'scary' tunnels, but, other than Kikyo, none of them could really blame them for wanting to make up for lost time.

 Nabiki came to an abrupt halt, causing a pile-up ending with Ranma running into her back, something she rather enjoyed the feeling of. Keeping her voice down to a low whisper, Nabiki said, "There are holes like these all over the house. They used to be used for ninja to spy for and protect the lord of the manor. We can also use them to see who is where, and when the room is clear before exiting a passage."

 Nabiki showed them each of the entryways, and where all of the holes were, turning around to face them each time she stopped abruptly, hoping for an 'accidental kiss'. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach, but succeeded after a few attempts. So, when she stopped to show them the door to their 'clubhouse', she turned sideways, to 'accidentally' grope Ranma, and could not believe what she felt, even bigger than it seemed in the pictures! Nabiki showed them where the controls were for the door, and led them down into their secret room.

 "And here we come to the Tendo Clubhouse, our home away from home, at home." Everyone started to look around, especially at the paintings of Ranma and Ukyo that were hung up all around the room. Soon Nabiki noticed someone had gotten close to their bookshelf and realized that their 'scrapbook' was still there. Not wanting anyone else to find their book, Nabiki thought quickly. "But, this is not what we are here to show you, you can come down here anytime. You were wondering about sleeping arrangements, and I think I have an idea that could work until we come up with a better solution. We will just need to be careful, and come up with what we will tell the family about where you are staying. Also, there are still more people for you to meet. So, if you will follow me." She made a mental note to come back and hide the book when she could get away from the group for a moment. She mentally kicked herself for not thinking to hide it sooner, but she had not wanted to deprive her 'sisters' from 'using' it before the real thing was here.

 Nabiki led them back into the passages, and to a door that was far better hidden than the rest. This time Kasumi and Fubuki were walking in front of Ranma, holding his hands, preventing Nabiki from pulling her 'trick' again, and pulling one of their own. The other girls were happier as well, being able to rub Ranma's butt, and Ukyo pushed Kikyo forward. Ranma was not sure who it was that pinched him, so he stretched out his aura and shook his butt to see if they do it again while he was paying attention. He should not have been surprised when all four of them did their best to take advantage of his invitation.

 A disappointed Nabiki turned to face the others in the dark corridor. "Now we come to the recent additions." Nabiki opened the door, and light leaked into their darkened room. The newer looking hallway was not only well lit, but much wider as well. Nabiki led them into the new tunnels, showing them her lab, and other rooms. Despite the wider halls, Kasumi and Fubuki kept hold of Ranma's hands, leading him around as they went.

 After looking through a storage room, dining area, and a kitchen, Nabiki led them into a smaller bedroom, with two desks and a set of bunk-beds. What really made this room stand out was the fact that it had two occupants.

 "Nabiki-sama! What are you doing here, ...with so many people. How could you bring all of these strangers down here?"

 "Well, I figured that since this is their house it would be okay, and I need a favor. First I would like you to meet Ranma Saotome, the scion of the Saotome family, and your sponsor. Ranma-kun, these are the ninja who replaced the ones who threatened me."

 The kunoichi looked the newcomers up and down, her mouth hung open, not that the others could easily tell with her mask on. "Ranma-sama?!?! Oh, and this must be Ukyo-chan! Oh my, you two have really grown up well, haven't you?"

 "Hisho-san, is that you? You have grown up nicely as well." Ranma added with a wink.

 "That is so nice of you to say! So who are your cute friends?"
 
 "Well, of course you remember Ucchan, and we also have Pai Chan, Shan Pu, and Kikyo." Ranma turned to the girls and said, "This is Hisho, one of the kunoichi we trained with when we were kids, right after Ucchan joined with us." Turning back to Hisho, Ranma asked, "And who is your friend?"

 "Oh, you remember my ototo, Hijo-chan, don't you?"

 'Um, no, not really... wasn't the boy always hiding behind something, or something?' Ranma smiled. "Sure, how have you been Hijo-kun?"

 "Aniki, it's good to see you again! I couldn't believe when anego told me we got this job ...appointment ...post ...duty ...assignment! We are so glad to be here, and hope we can be of help ...aid ...use-" Hisho lightly smacked her little brother on the back of the head. "...service to you! ...Thank you anego."

 "I am sorry about what happened before we got here, but I am glad we got this opportunity to serve you, Ranma-sama. Your humble retainers are here for you, if you ever have need of us." Quickly moving in closely she added, "Even if you need a yotogi... or 'anything' else, do not hesitate to summon us." The kunoichi winked at her 'master' before returning to where she had been, just as quickly.
{*Yotogi = Nighttime attendant.*}

 "That was not your fault Hisho-san, you have nothing to apologize for."

 She bowed toward Nabiki. "Thank you Nabiki-sama, but they are members of our clan, and we all owe you a debt because of it."

 "Well, we do need something, which was one of the reasons we are here. It seems as if Ranma-kun's bedroom is a bit small for their current needs, so I was hoping they could use one of the rooms down here until we can make other arrangements."

 "YES! Of course! You are welcome here as long as you would like. You are the young lord of the manor, Ranma-sama. You can do whatever you like, wherever you like. If you will follow me, I will show you a room that might suit you." Hisho led them to the largest room they had been in so far, it was even mostly empty, except for a few targets and training dummies. "We mostly use this room for practice, and a bit of storage. You are welcome to use it for as long as you need."

 "Now we just need to figure out what to tell our fathers about where you are sleeping..." Nabiki trailed off as she watched her new housemates.

 Ranma and his traveling companions began pulling their bedrolls out of their 'pockets'. "Don't worry Nabiki-chan, we can just tell them we are 'camping out', until we build another house in that empty area on the lot."

 "You can do that?"

 "Oh sure, wouldn't take us more than a week, if we don't have to do much, other than light training."

 "Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you then, they said they had a meeting tomorrow with Kaede-chan, the headmaster of our school. My guess is they are going to interview you guys and give you the placement tests."

 "Well, maybe we will have to hire someone then..."

 "We will help you if you would like, Ranma-sama. Our predecessors built these tunnels and rooms, it is part of our training. Just give us your plans and we will help make it happen." Turning to her brother, she added, "Hijo-chan, contact the clan, tell them that we need more hands." Ranma and company started setting up their bedrolls together in one of the corners of the room, causing Hisho to raise an eyebrow. She turned to Ukyo and asked, "So, you guys still sleep in the same bed, do you?"

 "Of course! What did you think?"

 "Well, one never can tell, didn't know if that whole 'concupine' thing would stick..." Hisho grinned.

 "Yup, now I am the Head 'Concupine'! The real question is, 'Why do you ask?' Were you wanting to have 'sleep overs' with us again, like in the old days?"

 "Well, not 'exactly' like the old days..." The two young women giggled together.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Before long, the room was set up, the explanation of 'hidden weapons' was given, and Nabiki had gotten them to follow her for the rest of the tour of the tunnels, with one more follower in tow.

 After showing them the hidden exit to the yard, Nabiki stopped as they came to the next section of rooms and tunnels. "...and now we come to our house, or rather the section that is under our house. The really impressive part of this was that they connected our house to it, and we didn't notice it happening. We never had secret passages before anyway. This is how you can sneak in when you do not want anyone else to know you are there." Nabiki winked at Ranma. "This passage comes out in our hallway, under the stairs, near the kitchen." Nabiki moved on, showing them several more entrances from around the house and dojo before coming to another hidden doorway. Opening this door revealed a solid wooden wall, with handholds carved into it. "This leads up to our attic, and the way into the other rooms upstairs."

 They all climbed the three story 'ladder' and entered the attic. Nabiki pointed out four tiles that could be opened and would lead into the four rooms on the second floor. The first tile was unmarked, the second had a red 'X' on it, and the other two were marked by a pink heart. "This one goes to our guest room, no one is staying there at the moment. You would be best to avoid this one, it belongs to our imouto, who would not treat a prowler, in the bedroom at night, or anywhere else, well. These other two, on the other hand, lead to our rooms," Nabiki indicated herself and Kasumi. "...and we would be happy to see you anytime."

 "That would deprive the rest of us, maybe you should sneak into our room instead." Ukyo stuck her tongue out at Nabiki. "You are always welcome to join us anytime, but wouldn't you rather go out on a date first?"

 Kasumi was nodding, Fubuki just shrugged, and Nabiki shook her head. "Nope, while that would be nice, it's not on my list of needs right now. Dating is just a game we play to get to know one another, and I already know everything I need to know for what I want right now..."

 "Nabiki-chan!"

 "Oh don't give me that, I know perfectly well that both of you want the same thing, just like all of us here!" Giggles were heard from their audience. "What about you Fubuki-chan? Do you need to go out on dates with Ranma-kun before you know whether or not you want to be together?"

 Being caught flatfooted, Fubuki just shook her head. She was Ranma's maid, and he did not have to do anything for her. It was her duty and pleasure to take care of all of his needs. This thought made her blush even more brightly.

 "That is pretty direct, even for you, Nabiki-chan."

 "I know, but I don't care right now. Do you have any idea how long I have waited for this day?"

 Kikyo empathized with the longhaired girl, but at the same time, had little sympathy. 'Not as long as I have, bitch. Whine to someone else...' Kikyo immediately felt bad about her line of thought, but could not help the feelings that inspired them. She promised herself she would make it up to the girl, for her own piece of mind, if naught else.

 "Four years, two months, and six days. Although I doubt you were having such thoughts at the time."

 Nabiki stuck her tongue out at her older sister. "Well then, that settles it, Kasumi-nee-chan will get the first date, and the two of us can wait ...or, can't wait, or won't wait-" Hisho lightly smacked the young woman on the back of the head. "...thank you anego."

-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

Later that evening, Kikyo pulled Ukyo aside hoping to get a private talk.

 "What's up Kikyo-san? Did you need something?"

 "Quite a few 'somethings', but I think you already know, and I don't know who else I can talk to about it."

 "Ah, this is about Ranchama then?"

 "Of course. I am feeling a bit desperate, the competition keeps growing, and I do not want to completely miss my chance again! I have already 'blown it' enough times, and I cannot count on getting another opportunity. How many lives do I need to live before I can find happiness as a woman?"

 Ukyo had taken the older girl into her arms. "Well, there is no need to panic, you do not need to be in a hurry. These things seem to work out better if you let them take time to build, have faith."

 "Well, how long did you know Shampoo before you started sleeping together?"

 "Um, well, there are exceptions to every rule... There aren't many people who could resist Shan Pu... But, my point is, that you do not have to worry. No matter how many girls there are, if you earn your spot, there will always be room for you, and you will remain there. Ranchama has a huge ...'heart', and there is always room for more. Think about it this way, if things had not worked out like this, you would have never gotten here to meet us, and we would have never gotten to know you. We all agree, that was a pretty special moment, the last thing any of us want is for you to regret that. You are welcome to stay with us for as long as you want, and I believe we would all be happiest if you chose to stay with us forever."

 "Then does that mean you will help me?"

 "With anything I can, but I thought I made myself clear on that already. It is my job, as head concubine, to make sure only the best, and most deserving get in to our little club, and that includes making sure that the best, and most deserving do, in fact, get in. So, tonight's lesson is The Art of Seduction! Let's go to Ranchama's old room, I doubt anyone would look for us there..."

-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-
Later that night, Nabiki had decided to follow through with her plan, and snuck her way into the tunnels. As she passed Ranma's room, she peeped in, and surprised herself by blushing at what she saw going on inside. Closing the door, Nabiki doubled her pace, almost running to Fubuki's room.

 Fubuki was in her nightgown, strangely, it looked strikingly similar to her maid's uniform, though in a thinner material, with fewer layers, and it was designed to look like it had an apron built in. She was doing some last minute cleaning before she went to bed when Nabiki hurriedly entered her room.

 "Fubuki-chan, it is time to attend to 'your master'." Nabiki grabbed Fubuki by the arm and pulled her into the passageways. "Come on, we are late."

 "What? Ranma-sama needs me? Why did no one call me?"

 "I thought a good maid knows to anticipate all of the master's needs... Oh well, I came and got you didn't I? But you have it backwards, it is you who needs Ranma-kun..."

 "What do you mean?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you? Just come on, you will see in a moment..."

 The two of them slipped into their makeshift bedroom, and Fubuki gaped at what they saw, including what Hisho had meant by 'yotogi' earlier in the evening, it certainly was not as a 'guard'...

 After a moment of gawking, Nabiki walked over to the group with Fubuki still in tow. "May we join you?"

 "Of course, you two are welcome to play with us whenever you are ready..."

 "I have been ready for this for years..."

 Ranma was still busy with Hisho, but Ukyo and the others pulled them into the free-for-all, stripping them in the process. Everyone was playing with everyone else, as Ranma took turns, pleasuring as many women at a time as he was able to manage. No one parted with their virginity that night, nor was anyone left unsatisfied either. Hisho did not have one to give, being a kunoichi, she had trained long and hard in the bedroom arts. Fubuki and Nabiki had both climaxed so hard when they got their turn to be pleasured by Ranma's hands that they both passed out with a broad smile upon their faces. Ukyo had used her body substitution technique to switch places with Kikyo at one point so she had gotten fondled for a while when Ranma was too busy to pay attention. All things said and done, they were all satisfied with the progress they had made and slept very soundly under the large blankets that covered the bedrolls. Some of them having the best night's sleep they had ever had in their lives.

-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

The next morning, Ranma was taking a bath, and strangely for him, he was alone. He wondered where everyone was, bathing alone was boring, and he was about to get out. He had been bathing with other people his whole life, and could count the number of times he had bathed alone on his fingers, with many remaining. There had always been at least his mother, and soon after Ukyo. Now he was used to bath time to be lively and a full family affair. If he were to be honest with himself, he would admit that he just did not like being alone in general. He could not figure out how it ended up this way. Normally when he announced that he was taking his bath, the family would jump at the chance to join him, but this time they all seemed to find other places they needed to be at the time. It kind of reminded him of the last time Ukyo had tried to surprise him for this birthday, but he had just had a birthday, less than two months before, and none of the family was due to have one now for months, so that was not it. There was a meek presence getting closer, but few in his house were like that, so he assumed that it was Konatsu, and decided it was time to find something else to do.

 As Ranma was getting out of the large tub, Kikyo walked in, nude, and acting uncharacteristically shy about it. She was nervous, and when she saw Ranma's 'Full Monty', almost dropped the towel she had been holding. She had been pushed into this, though not at all against her will, so she was determined to see it through. 'Now, what was it Ukyo told me to say? Oh yes!' "Could a big, strong man, help this poor, helpless girl with back washing? It is just so hard to get clean with just the cold water..."

 Ranma was so happy to see one of the girls to keep him company, he completely ignored the obvious setup. "Kikyo! It's good to see you! Sure, I will help you, I didn't even know you were home. I thought almost everyone left." Kikyo sat on the stool, as Ranma ran over to help her wash. "Why didn't you come in sooner?" His hands automatically going to work, without waiting for his brain to order it.

 'Because Ukyo-san told me to wait...' "Well, I cannot get into the hot water, and I feel as if I am just in the way anyway..."

 Ranma felt guilty, and a few other things. Once again, he wished that Kikyo did not still remain bound to his mother. He felt bad about not being able to respond to the girl's feelings, or even accept her advances, but having been 'born' of his mother, it instinctively felt wrong to him somehow. But spurning a woman's advances without a good reason felt wrong as well, it went against his mother's rules, and everything he had been raised to believe. "Kikyo, I, you are NOT 'in the way'. You are a member of this family..."

 Kikyo turned around and gently ran her hand across Ranma's face. "Oh, I know Ranma-dono, but especially at 'bath time', not being able to get in the water, makes it not too fun to watch. I do not care to sit on the sidelines, on the cold tile, when everyone else is in the nice warm water."

 "Oh, I guess not. I am sorry." Ranma took the former priestess into his arms. "I swear we will find a way to do something about that. You will not have to do without hot baths forever!"

 Kikyo hugged Ranma back, moving onto his lap. "The lack of baths is not my biggest problem."

 Ranma was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable at the way the girl was nuzzling up to him, but endured, for her sake. "I know, and I am sorry." His arms tightened around her. "I wish I had a better answer for you, but it is difficult for me too. I feel terrible about it, I do..."

 Kikyo leaned back a bit, not getting off of his lap, but no longer rubbing against him. "I am the one who is sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it. You are not at fault here..."

 "Nor are you and yet we are both suffering because of it." Ranma hung his head.

 "Please, put it out of your mind. Can we just forget about that and go back to what we were doing? Pretend I am someone else...?"

 Ranma pulled her in tighter again. "I can't think of you as someone else, you are too unique and special, but if you want to role-play, I am good with games..." Ranma almost panicked. 'WHAT AM I SAYING?!?! Sometimes mother's training really gets me to stick my foot in my mouth!'

 "I do not think that is exactly what I had in mind, but maybe..." 'No, there is no way I could not take that beyond what would be comfortable for Ranma-dono...' "Never mind, just let me stay like this for a few more moments..." Kikyo just held on tightly, just enjoying the feeling of being held, being pressed against his strong chest, and the feelings of love and comfort radiating out of the young man.

 Neither of them knew how long they sat there for, but Kikyo enjoyed every moment of it, the feeling of it etched into her mind forever. Once she felt as though she had made Ranma uncomfortable enough, she moved back to the stool that she had been sitting on, and Ranma started washing her back again. However, not before she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, and say, "Thank you Ranma-dono, I know that was hard on you, but it meant a lot to me."

 As Ranma began to wash her back with the cold water, he was almost grateful for the change, allowing him to not have to concentrate on keeping something from embarrassing him. He was letting his hands work on their own as they chatted, going through the motions of one who had a lifetime of practice, hitting pressure points that made sure the washing was a pleasurable experience for the target of his treatments. Ranma rarely ever paid much attention to what his hands did anymore. His hands knew what they were doing better than his conscious mind did, leaving him free to enjoy the sensations or conversation. Like with his massaging, his ki sense would seek out pockets of tension and his hands would rub, and by the time he had changed back and gotten to drying and brushing her hair, Kikyo was orgasmic. Not that Ranma was exactly aware of this fact. To him, it was not anything unusual for women to react that way, so he barely noticed it anymore.

 Kikyo could not believe what she had been through, it felt better than anything she had done with anyone before, even Ukyo and the other girls! Ranma truly had a master's touch. She wanted to jump on him and do some of the things she had seen the other girls doing, but she knew it would likely hurt her chances and managed to mostly hold back. Not enough to stop her from leaning in and kissing him again, but she did her best. "Ooooooh Ranma-dono! That was wonderful, thank you so very much."

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Ukyo kept her presence hidden, as she watched all of this, glad to see they were making some progress, even if it was slow. If nothing else, she had photographs to commemorate the event. Just as she thought this, Kikyo seemed to lose her balance and fall on top of Ranma, 'accidentally' getting a good handful. Ukyo continued her photography as she thought to herself. 'Nice one Kikyo-san! Keep at it, you are almost there!'

 One thing about keeping herself hidden well enough to hide from Ranma, she could not let the slightest bit of her aura escape, and that meant that she could not 'keep a lookout' for anyone approaching.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Ranma was surprised by the sudden fall, he felt someone coming, but was too busy making sure to take the brunt of the fall, and keeping Kikyo from getting hurt to worry much about it. If one of them had gotten hurt, someone coming might have been a good thing.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Akane was not in the best of moods, she had caught another pervert trying to peep on her in the bath! Normally Maid Guy or his assistant would take care of them, but for some reason they were not around that she could tell, and had to take care of the problem herself. She had ripped the sink out of the wall and had thrown it through the window. She had taken out the pervert, but also the window and a big chunk of wall along with them.

 While she had gotten some satisfaction in pulverizing the fool, it meant that she had to find another place to take her bath. She did not like the idea of bathing in the same place as Genma, and now his son, but she had few choices other than the public baths, and she did not have time for that today. It was almost time to leave for school.

 Just as Akane had entered the changing area, she heard a crash! She tossed her uniform to the side, and quickly threw open the door to the furo, and just stared intently at the scene before her eyes.

 There, was a naked Kikyo, laying on top of an equally naked Ranma, fondling and rubbing against him. After having her hair brushed, she was fighting the urge to try something more. She had Ranma pinned in such a way that he was unable to gain much leverage, and had just been about to try kissing his chest, when the door had burst open, interrupting her attempt.

 "Just WHAT do you think you are doing to that poor girl?!?!? How dare you push a girl down, You ...PERVERT!" Akane found a large mallet somewhere, and proceeded to swing toward Ranma's prone head.

 Before Ranma could roll them out of the way, several people appeared from hiding, all trying to converge on the mallet before it could make contact. Nodoka was surprised that Shampoo had been hiding beside her, almost as surprised as Shampoo herself. Unfortunately for them, this caused them to get tangled up with each other, and tripped, knocking the bucket of cold water flying. Shampoo could not believe that she had not been splashed with the water in the process.

 Though, not near as surprised as Ukyo, who DID get hit with the water while diving from her perch near the ceiling, to get in front of Ranma. She barely had time to notice the change before she was hit in the back with a distinct 'cracking' sound, right before she was embedded into the floor.

 Nabiki could not believe her eyes as the mallet caved in the shell on the back of the turtle-girl. It had to have been one of the most horrifying things she had ever seen in her life. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion, as she climbed in the window, and ran, pulling her younger sister out of the room before she could do any more damage.

 "UCCHAN! TALK TO ME!"

 "Ranchama... Are ...you two ...okay?"

"We're all fine, just try to relax. I will take care of everything." Ranma turned his head toward his mother and Shampoo and barked as his hands began to glow. "Go help Nabiki-chan, and make sure no one else comes in here! I have work to do. Kikyo-san, will you help me?"

 "Of course! You do not even have to ask!" The two teens set about using their healing techniques, trying to save their mutual friend as yelling was heard coming from the hallway.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 "AKANE! What were you thinking?!?!?"

 "...Pervert ...Smash?"

 "Oh? And who exactly was being a pervert? Who did you intend to 'smash'? For that matter, who did you smash?"

 "Ranma, of course! All boys are perverts!"

 "My son? A pervert? Not at all, Ranma-kun was every bit the gentleman."

 "How is getting pushed over, and preventing the other person from getting hurt 'perverted'?"

 "Exactly, Ranma pushed Kikyo down, and was trying to do perverted things!"

 "You crazy you is, that backwards! We no go through this, if Ranma do things to girl on own!"

 "That's right, we saw the whole thing."

 "What were you all doing there anyway? I thought the room was empty other than them..."

 "We were 'watching'. We set the whole thing up! So, now, who was the pervert?"

 "Um ...you?"

 "Now you are catching on!"

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Ukyo awoke some time after Akane and Nabiki had left for school, Akane leaving earlier, so she could get a shower at school. Ukyo felt a comforting warmth surrounding her, and decided to open her eyes to find she was in her favorite place in the world, Ranma's lap. She looked around to see they were still in the furo, near the crater in the floor. She expected to hurt when she moved, but was pleased to find that she did not. Kikyo was just to her other side, and they were all still naked, ...Wait, she did not remember being naked before. "Ranchama? Did I miss something fun?"

 "UCCHAN! Yokkatta! You are awake! And no, it was not fun, not at all. You had me worried there. How are you feeling?"

 "I feel wonderful!" She lifted her head to kiss Ranma to prove it, when she realized that she was still a turtle. "Oh, I thought you would have changed me back."

 "We considered it, but were not sure we should, we wanted to make sure your shell was as healed as we could, and let you wake up first."

 "How bad was it?" The first show of concern for herself flashed across her face for a moment.

 "Very. Your shell was partially shattered, and your spine was broken ...again! And, I am sorry to say, your shell is scarred. Lines from all of the pieces we fused back together, still show, we could not get rid of them entirely. Maybe with more treatments, after your body has had time to rest. You will need to be careful, especially with your back and shell for the next few days. I do not want to see you doing anything too strenuous until we can make sure you are back to one hundred percent."

 In a meek tone, Ukyo replied. "Hai, Ranma-sama. Thank you for saving me again."

 Trying to lighten the mood, Ranma tried to joke. "Well, I can't have my 'head concubine' paralyzed from the waist down." Ranma tried to smile and wink, but it did not come off well. "I am sorry Ucchan, I can't do this." Ukyo saw the look on Ranma's face, and the tone in his voice, and got worried. "I was about to roll out of the way, we would have been fine. Besides, there are always other options, like knocking the weapon away or something. I want you to promise me, that you will never put yourself in harm's way like that ever again. I couldn't take losing you, what would I ever do without you?"

 "I am sorry Ranma-sama, I failed you. I was distracted, and by the time the attack happened, I was unprepared, between that and the curse, I was just too shocked to think. I am sorry. But if I die, you can just let Shampoo or Nabiki take over my role. No matter what I do, history will not remember me, I am unimportant-"

 "Your role, your 'ROLE'?!? That is garbage, and you know it! No one can be my precious Ucchan but you! You do not 'serve in a role', you ARE the role. This isn't about 'roles' or 'jobs', this is about my oldest and dearest friend's safety! I thought you knew that I do not care about 'roles' or 'positions', maybe you do not know me as well as you think you do, if that is what you think. I only care about people, not titles, and you are the most important person in the world to me! Promise me, you will not do something like that again ...please. I don't ever want anything to happen to you!"

 "I am sorry, but you will have to forgive me Ranma-sama, that is the one thing I cannot promise you. I would gladly die if it meant keeping you, or one of your loved ones safe. The only thing that will stop me from doing it again, is you not being able to bring me back again. You're the greatest, you're fantastic, so whenever you're in danger, I'll be there. Even if you could not heal me, I would have done it again, and again, until my body no longer moves."

 "But, your body almost DID stop moving! Ucchan you ARE one of my loved ones, my most important one!" Ranma turned to the other woman in the room, before saying in a hushed voice, "Sorry Kikyo." He turned back to Ukyo, and resumed his pervious tone. "You cannot die, and keep yourself safe at the same time!" Ranma tried to calm himself, and those around him. "I am sorry too, we all make mistakes, but as long as we *live* to learn from them, then all is well. At least promise me that you will never do that again without at least using your ki to protect yourself! Think before you leap, for me?"

 Ukyo, looked a bit sheepish. "Well, to hide myself well enough, I couldn't use ki for anything else, or you would have seen me!" Ukyo stuck her tongue out at her lover. "But, if at all possible I will, that I can promise you, my lover. It isn't like I 'want' to get hurt..."

 "I guess I will have to accept that, but maybe next time you will think twice before trying to hide from me again, if that is the case..." Ranma could not hide the disappointment in his tone.

Ukyo stuck her tongue out at Ranma again with a wink and a smile. "I gotta train somehow... It's not like we play the peeping game any more, or anything."

 Kikyo had sat back, watching this scene play out, trying not to intrude, embarrassed to be caught in the midst of this 'lover's spat'. She was starting to understand part of the reasoning behind why the young woman tried so hard to push other women onto her lover. Wanting him to have comfort and 'replacements' if anything were to happen to her, and it seemed as though the young woman 'planned' for something to happen to her, or at the very least, expected it to. Kikyo could definitely relate to that feeling. She felt bad for trying to intrude as much as she had on a love like that, and just wanted to be invisible. Watching this exchange between the two had brought her to tears, from an equal mix of guilt and the emotional exchange between the lovers.

 Seeing the crying priestess, the pair stopped arguing, and turned to their friend. "Kikyo-san, I am sorry for making you sit through our dirty laundry, but thank you for your help. Without you, I am not sure Ucchan would even be walking yet, never mind mostly healed. Please cheer up, this is a happy occasion."

 "I am happy, too happy in fact. You two are such a beautiful couple, I am sorry I intruded. I had no right! I will never bother you again!" Kikyo turned to try to run away, but found she was going in the wrong direction. There was a hand on her shoulder, and it was drawing her back. The turtle-girl's strength was such that she was unable to get away. Ukyo pulled her backwards, until Kikyo was right at the edge of the tub, and Ukyo was standing just inside of it.

 Human once again, Ukyo threw her arms around the older girl's neck, and gave her, the deepest, most passionate kiss she had ever had in her life. Not only did Ukyo want to thank the girl, and make her feel welcome and loved, but she was also hoping the girl on girl action might turn Ranma on enough to want to do something with them ...and she was partially right.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 While Ukyo was not successful in getting Ranma and Kikyo together ...yet, she had gotten them closer. She was finally able to coax him into at least taking herself from behind, while she used a two-header on Kikyo. This gave Kikyo the partial illusion of Ranma having sex with her, allowing her to at least pretend.

 Though Kikyo was not satisfied to leave things like this, it did feel like she was making love to both Ukyo and the man she loved. In fact, thanks to seeing how much they care for each other, and for her, helped Kikyo discover something she had not been aware of before that moment. "Ranma-dono, Ukyo-dono, daisuki!" She threw her arms around them both, in a big hug.
{*Daisuki = loveable; very likeable; like very much.*}

They returned her embrace, before they kissed her on the cheek and said, "We love you too. Please don't leave our family."

-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

Kasumi had graduated, and did not have to work that day, and Ranma was not yet enrolled in the school, so Nabiki insisted that they have a lunch date. Kasumi wanted a chance to cook for Ranma, so suggested a picnic lunch in the park. Due to the morning's events, they had almost canceled. They both felt bad about leaving her, but Ukyo had practically pushed them out the door, making them promise to have fun, and not to worry about her, she was fine. If she needed any help, there were plenty of people around who were happy to give it. Ukyo even threatened to have all of the girls cut him off, if Ranma did not show Kasumi a good time on their date. Ranma was not particularly worried about the threat, knowing that he could out last them any day, but that did not mean he had any intentions of disappointing Kasumi.

 It was a beautiful spring afternoon, they were dressed for a nice day out, and they looked quite the picturesque couple. Kasumi's sundress showed off her shoulders and thin waist, and Ranma was even wearing a shirt with his usual Chinese pants and 'winsome' coat. Ranma had been in awe when he saw her, the girl's happy aura had lit up the 'room', and Ranma could not help but to be affected by it. Even her concern for Ukyo could not put a damper on her good mood. She was finally out on a date with Ranma, and she was having a hard time not being excited. Kasumi thought it was a bit warm to be wearing a coat, but Ranma DID look dashing in it, so she just hoped he would not be too put out by the heat.

 They had a pleasant chat during the slow walk to a nearby park, just enjoying the weather, each other's company, and the feeling of the hand they were holding. They were in no rush to get anywhere and had several hours before their meeting, just taking their time, getting to know all they could about their companion. Simply being around the other person felt good to the two young people, and they were mostly in their private world. Kasumi was bolstered by Ranma's strength and force of will, and Ranma relaxed and was at peace being within Kasumi's comforting aura. Ranma occasionally felt they were being followed, and though he hadn't felt any aggression, after that morning, he was extra cautious, feeling out the area, on the lookout for any sign of an attack.

 As alert as he was trying to be, he was having trouble focusing on anything other than the joy that was Kasumi Tendo, and by the time the two had gotten to the park, their moods were soaring as they chatted away. Lost in their own world, they were blissfully unaware that anyone passing them had been affected by their mood, and everyone else that were just staring enviously at the happy couple.

 Kasumi had never been to this park, but she had walked passed it before, and knew there was a river within. She led Ranma toward the river and pointed to a shade tree. "That looks like a nice spot. Is it acceptable to you, Ranma-kun?"

 Ranma gazed deeply into her eyes, while still holding her hand. "Anywhere you are smiling would be the best spot in the world. Hell itself, would turn into a beautiful garden if you agreed to visit."

 Kasumi blushed, before looking into Ranma's eyes, and smiling. Several of the men around them got jealous of the look she was giving him, but were unable to show it due to the look their girlfriends were giving them for staring in the first place...

 Kasumi pulled out the box-lunch she had packed, and realized she had not brought a blanket for them to sit on. "Oh my... Oh dear... It seems I am terribly forgetful... To leave the blanket at home, where is my head?"

 "No need to worry." Ranma reached into his coat, and pulled a spare blanket out, to lay upon the ground. "There you are Kasumi-nee-chan."

 Kasumi was impressed. "How did you fit that big blanket into your coat?"

 "Ancient Chinese secret..."

 "What, Calgon?"

 "No, hidden weapons, where has Cal gone?"

 "If there is one thing your onee-chan knows, it is laundry. I can hide some things on my person, like my weapon, but where could you hide this?"

 "Big pockets." Ranma smiled. "I can show you how it works, if you would like."

 "I think that I would like that very much, but why don't we eat first. I made it myself, I hope you like it." Kasumi beamed with pride, even though she was a bit nervous. In spite of her earlier statement, she was quite confident in her cooking as well, though she would never say it aloud. She had gotten advice from Ukyo about Ranma's tastes, but there were just so many things that could go wrong. Perhaps he would not like a particular style or ingredient, or maybe she overcooked the rice, or used too much soy sauce, or maybe he would not like her pickling recipe...

 Ranma nodded. "If you made it, I am sure it will be wonderful. I can't wait to try some."

 Kasumi began unpacking the lunch-box she had prepared. "I hope you are hungry." She favored Ranma with a bright smile and he blushed at the sight of it.

 Ranma was impressed with the size of the lunch-box, it had many layers, and contained enough food to feed a small family. This was good, because Ranma could eat enough to feed a large family. Kasumi was glad that Ukyo had warned her of this ahead of time. Kasumi had to feign embarrassment for only bringing one set of chopsticks, so that she could feed him without protest. She did not like to lie, but she felt the benefits were well worth the stain on her karma.

 Ranma did not really mind, and considering the blanket before, he assumed she was just nervous, which was true. Ranma was glad that he sometimes took rule forty-two a bit further and sometimes brought a blanket as well as a towel. Besides, one just never knew when one might need to sleep somewhere in an emergency. He might not get cold or hot too often any more, but he knew plenty of people who did.

 Kasumi took turns, feeding Ranma, and then herself, reveling in the idea of an indirect kiss. Kasumi knew that she could probably get a real kiss, if she pressed the issue, but wanted to enjoy things in a more natural, albeit hurried, progression. She had little intention of experiencing this again with anyone else, and wanted to make the most of their first date. Besides, a maiden's first kiss with a boy should be special, not something she should just take on a whim. She wanted it to be exciting, and romantic!

 Unfortunately, they had each only gotten a few bites before the squees became louder, and Ranma began to notice hostile intent from nearby. Not wanting to take any chances with Kasumi's safety, Ranma said, "Hold on."

 Before Kasumi could respond, "To what?", Ranma had repacked the lunch, tucked it and then the blanket back into his coat, which flipped Kasumi into the air. Kasumi had just begun to panic, when Ranma caught her and took off, bounding from tree to tree. He was quite shocked to see that almost half of the people in the park, many with cameras, were chasing after them, like the rabid mob they were becoming. Being chased was nothing new to Ranma, but having large mobs that could keep up well enough to keep him in sight was rather ...unusual. It was not until they had gotten out of the park and Ranma had started jumping over buildings that they finally lost the mob of followers.

 "Sorry about this, I don't know where those people came from, or what they wanted, but I wasn't about to let you get hurt if I could help it."

 Kasumi had not yet let her grip go, and was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that they are on top of a very tall building. "Ah, oh my, yes, thank you Ranma-kun. How? How... up here, so high..." Kasumi shook her head. "I mean uncle Genma taught us to jump pretty high, but this, ...we have to be on at least the thirtieth floor!"

 "Thirty-fourth, but that's not really what is important right now, unless you don't like heights, in which case, I will get us down immediately. I am sorry about our picnic being ruined, I don't know what was up with that mob, they sure were a tenacious bunch..."

 "No, heights do not particularly bother me as such, it is just, that ...wow." The usually eloquent young woman was at a loss for words, her brain having sent all nonessential personal on vacation the moment Ranma started leaping more than a few stories at a time. "You ...really are ...incredible."

 "Aw, it's nuthin', Kasumi-nee-chan. If you can already jump onto small buildings, then I guarantee, with a bit of work, and my help, you could do the same thing easily. Every night after dinner, I do ki treatments on myself and the rest of us. It helps us expand our ki reserves and keeps the pathways clear. You ladies are welcome to join us. You will notice a big difference after the first treatment. I would welcome you in our morning practice sessions as well, maybe you could teach me some of your style as well. I am sure we have a lot we can teach each other."

 "I would be happy to show you our style, as would Fukibuki and Nabiki-chan, but what does this treatment entail?"

 "Well, the girls usually have me do it during a massage, like after our workout, but I only need to be in close contact, so our ki can interact, like the way I am holding you now. It would not require such intimate contact, if you are not comfortable with me giving you a massage."

 "You are doing it now?" Kasumi looked surprised.

 "Oh, no, not now, no. I learned my lesson, I will not do this without consent, and the first treatment needs to be done in a controlled environment. It must be done very slowly, and very carefully ...especially the first time. You could hurt yourself, if you push it too hard after the treatment as well, until you get used to the new you."

 "Is it really that dangerous?"

 "As long as we are both careful, there is absolutely nothing to worry about." Ranma smiled with a twinkle, and Kasumi melted into his arms. "Well, why don't we finish our meal up here where no one can bother us, then we can go have some fun?"

 Kasumi managed to nod, but not much else.

 Ranma held onto Kasumi with one hand, and used the other to pull out the blanket. He used the iron cloth technique to cause the blanket to go stiff. With a light toss, the blanket landed flat, with a clank, before returning to its normal state. Ranma then pulled out the lunch-box and sat down next to it, with Kasumi in his lap. "Now it is my turn to feed you." Ranma grinned as Kasumi melted again.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 By the time they had finished eating, Kasumi had mostly recovered her wits, but was enjoying her seat too much to move from the younger boy's lap. This was the first time in her life that a boy had fed her, never mind held her, and she found that she rather liked it. Kasumi loved taking care of others, but she had learned that once in a while, it was nice to let others take care of her too, and she could not think of a more perfect example of that.

 "I can't remember when I enjoyed a meal this much, in a long time. Thank you Kasumi-nee-chan. Last night was close, but I didn't get to feed anyone then..." Ranma grinned at the young woman in his arms. "This always makes a meal better."

 "No, thank you, Ranma-kun. I have never felt this nice and comfortable before, this is the happiest moment in my life."

 "Not for long." Ranma leaned down and kissed Kasumi, tenderly. "I hope to give you many, much happier moments in the future."

 The feeling of that kiss sent shivers down the older girl's spine, she had never felt anything like that before. Kissing Nabiki and Fubuki had been nice, and a lot of fun, but it was nothing like that! "You have already started... Wow." She reached up, and placed both of her hands on the sides of Ranma's face, holding him still, before leaning in even closer to kiss him again.

 Kasumi did not know how long she sat there, snuggling against Ranma's chest, occasionally necking, but eventually she figured they should move on. There would be plenty of time for snuggling later. Ranma probably wanted to do more on their date, not that she would have minded staying like that forever. Little did she realize, that Ranma felt exactly the same way. "So, how do we get down from here?"

 "Getting down is the easy part, are you ready to move on then?"

 "I suppose, I am sure you would rather do something more fun."

 "This is fun, I could not think of a better way to pass the time." Ranma smiled reassuringly. "As long as you are by my side, we can do anything you would like. How about a new outfit? We could go shopping."

 "Oh, Ranma-kun, you do not have to buy anything for me!" Kasumi looked horrified at the thought.

 "Well, we don't have to buy anything if you don't want to, we can just look. You can try on a few outfits, just enjoy it."

 "That does sound fun..."

 Ranma winked at the young woman in his arms. "It's settled then, give me just a moment." Ranma adjusted his arms so that he could hold Kasumi with his left, as he packed up the food containers and blanket with his right hand. He stood up, holding Kasumi with both arms again. "Hold on tightly, and trust me." Ranma emitted a calming aura as he leaped from the roof, heading straight for the empty sidewalk below. "You will let me know which way to your favorite clothing store, won't you?"

 The terrified girl could only nod. They were plummeting straight down, seemingly to their deaths, yet Ranma was completely calm. She did trust the boy, but this situation was just too surreal to her. Luckily for her, the position in which she was being held kept her skirt from going over her head and revealing her panties to the world, because her clutching Ranma would not have allowed her to keep it down herself.

 They had fallen passed the halfway point and were rapidly approaching the hard ground, where Kasumi was still expecting to splatter upon. She was somewhat glad to think that if she were going to die, at least it was with Ranma, in the boy's arms, and she had finally gotten her first kiss from a handsome boy. It was just like her to look on the bright side. Right before her life began to flash before her eyes, she had one last thought, one she unwittingly whispered aloud. "I wish I could have made love to Ranma-kun before I died."

 She was just about to start praying for her family's happiness, when she felt their descent slowing down. Ranma whispered a reply, and despite the wind rushing passed her ears, she could hear him clearly. "Have no fear, my dear. You are not dying on my watch." He nibbled on her ear for a moment before continuing. "As for your 'wish', we can fulfill that anytime you are ready. There is no need to rush." Within moments they had touched down lightly, only to begin a rapid ascent in the direction she had indicated with her nod. Kasumi could not believe what she had just lived through, she had seen her life pass before her eyes, and greeted her ancestors, before they touched down safely.

 It was a testament to her trust in the boy that she had not had a heart attack on the way down. Though she almost wished she had, once her thoughts filtered out that Ranma had either responded to her 'unspoken wish', or she had hallucinated it, either way, she did not want to think about it. Either Ranma could read her inner thoughts, he really could 'lay her bare' like Nabiki had said, or she was going crazy. Both of these thoughts rather scared her, each for different reasons. The more time she spent with Ranma, the more perfect he seemed. To her, Prince Charming was an uncultured buffoon when put up against Ranma, even the Ranma of her most romantic dreams was a boring child when she compared him to the real thing.

 All of that meant that she had finally found the person with whom she wanted to 'become an adult', and the thought of moving to the next level terrified her. Yet, the more time she spent with him, the more sure she was that as scary as it was, if she was with Ranma, he would make everything wonderful.

 Within a few bounds, they had arrived in the shopping district and Kasumi nodded toward the clothing store. Even though Ranma had stopped jumping, and was walking normally, Kasumi had not chosen to get down and walk on her own. People were staring, and for the first time in her life, Kasumi was happy to let them. The normally modest and proper young woman, was out on a date with the most amazing boy she had ever met, and she was happy to let the world know.

 Even when Ranma walked into one of the fancier clothing stores in the strip, and everyone stared at them, she felt happy, instead of her usual embarrassment. Ranma finally set her down, to her disappointment, as one of the employees came over to see if were worth waiting on.

 The attendant almost fainted when she saw who had been carried into her store. "KASUMI-SAMA! AAAH! Er, I mean, 'how may I help you lovely young people'?"

 Ranma refrained from laughing at the woman's antics, and placed his hand on Kasumi's shoulder. "Kasumi-sama here, needs to be fitted for a few things that accentuate the natural beauty that is already there. Make some things that help Kasumi-sama stand above a crowd of super-models, as we know should be the case anyway. I will expect you to take extra special care of Kasumi-sama here. I would like at least two custom outfits, and one full outfit, with matching accessories, that can be worn home."

 "Oh, yes sir, Customer-sama! We will do our best, to get Kasumi-sama the very nicest we have!"

 "Do *better* than that." Ranma was stern, and Kasumi was stunned. The girl led Kasumi into the back room to be measured while Ranma browsed. Ranma had wandered around, picking out a few more things for Kasumi, some things for his girl side, and the other girls, who's measurements he had mostly memorized, including Nabiki and Fubuki, who he had gotten a good 'feel' for on the previous night.

 By the time Kasumi had returned, Ranma had acquired a fairly good-sized stack of items, which he almost dropped when he saw Kasumi, in her new outfit. She was in a tight, sleeveless red dress, with a collar that held up the front. Lace covered the 'heart shaped' cleavage opening, giving a tease of what lay beneath. The dress was tight to the knees, where it flared out, and hung just above the ground. She wore a pair of dark blue 'fingerless sleeves', which covered from just below her elbows, down to loop over her middle fingers. She was wearing a nice pair of dangling earrings, her hair had been done up into a bun, with a cloth band wrapped around it. They had even given her a light bit of make-up. She was the most stunning thing Ranma had ever seen, even without his aura sight.

 Everyone who had not already stopped their shopping to openly gape at Ranma, were now doing so at Kasumi. Ranma had been stunned speechless for a moment, a position he did not find himself in very often, but soon recovered. "Very nicely done, Kasumi-sama looks even more amazing than I remember ...from about twenty minutes ago. You did so well, I will also be taking these." Ranma handed the girl his pile of items.

 She could barely hold onto the items and had to get help to ring it all up. Ranma leaned in close and whispered, "You really do look amazing, Kasumi-nee-chan!"

 Kasumi blushed at the compliment. "Aw, I am nobody special, they are just good at their work."

 "Well, yes, yes they are, but I would say you could easily be the most beautiful woman in the world! You are definitely the most special person I know, and I know a lot of special people."

 "You flatter me, but I thought you said we were just going to be browsing, trying things on..."

 "I changed my mind." Ranma winked. "Actually, I said we don't have to buy anything, and we don't 'have' to, but I want to. Besides, I thought it would be nice to get gifts for all of us." Ranma saw that they were almost done ringing up his purchases, and walked over to the counter, with Kasumi close behind.

 "Now sir, will this be cash, or shall we be billing the honored sir?"

 "Cash, of course, what kind of bum do you take me for? However, I need you to add one more item." Ranma handed the girl a small pair of earrings. "But they do not need to go in the bag."

 "But, sir, Kasumi-sama is wearing earrings already. Are they not to your liking?"

 "Oh, no, they are beautiful. These are for you. Thank you."

 "Oh, no sir, we are not allowed to accept tips, and even if we were, this would be far too much, I am just doing my job."

 "Nonsense, this is not a tip, I would not insult you in that way. These are merely a gift, for a cute onee-san."

 "What? An old woman like myself? Cute? You must be joking..."

 Ranma smiled and winked at the woman. "Not at all, I would not joke about such a thing, besides, you couldn't be more than your early twenties at most."

 "I wish. But, no, I couldn't take this."

 "I insist, I will not take 'no' for an answer." Ranma began tucking his new belongings into his coat, as he paid his bill. "And when will our other items be ready?"

 "A few days at most. We can call you, or deliver them if you would like." The woman was so shocked that the young man was stuffing all of the items he had purchased into his coat, and that they could not tell that he had done so, she didn't even notice that she had rung up the earrings and placed them in her pocket, until they had left the shop. She was just trying not to think about what would have happened if the lad had a mind to shoplift! Coming out of her daze, she double-checked that she had the address to deliver the outfits she would be making over the next couple of days, everything had to be perfect! This had been her best sale in months. ...It might even be worth hiring more help to cover for her while she worked on this one! It would definitely be worth it if she could get their repeat business!

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Ranma and Kasumi were walking away from the shop and Kasumi had looped her arm around Ranma's and leaned in closely. So amazed was she at the way the afternoon had been turning out, that she had stopped even noticing the attention she had been getting entirely. Though there was one thing that bothered her a bit. "Ranma-kun, I do not want to seem ungrateful, but was it not a bit rude to flirt with that woman in front of me, while we are on a date?"

 "Was I? That was not my intention, I was just being polite. Having done so much to help us make this one the best days I have ever had, I wanted to help to make this be one of the best days for that woman as well." Ranma's eyes twinkled as he winked at Kasumi. "Don't you worry though, that woman has nothing on your beauty. Inside and out, you are the most beautiful women I have ever met. My only interest in that woman is how attractive you now look. To take someone so naturally beautiful, and to be able to find a way to make you look better, now that takes talent!"

 Kasumi blushed at the compliment, not believing it for a second. "How can you say that with sexy girls like Shampoo and Pai following you around?"

 "Pai-Pai is very pretty, and Shan Pu is one of the sexiest girls alive, both in an exotic way, but you have a classical beauty that few could ever hope to match. You have a heart as big as the moon and as warm as a hot spring! You have an inner glow, that few can see, but none can ignore. You are Kasumi-nee-sama, and the one I chose to spend the day with! A choice I would make again, many times over."

 Kasumi gushed at the words, though she could not take them to heart, they were very nice to hear anyway. "That's nice, untrue, but very nice of you to say."

 "I could never lie about something like that, especially to someone like you. It would like lying to a goddess, an unwise move for anyone to be sure."

 "You are such a flatterer, Ranma-kun." Kasumi rested her head on her date's shoulder. She felt as if they were walking on a cloud, like she could just float away with the breeze, and she never wanted that feeling to end.

 "Well, you answered my prayers by joining me for this date, so at least for today, you are my goddess." Ranma had noticed the slowly growing crowd of onlookers, but assumed that they were stunned by the beauty of his date, and for the most part, he would be correct. "So, I believe that we have time for one more activity, what would you like to do, my goddess?"

 Kasumi had stopped 'blushing' some time ago, it was now more of a full-blown 'glow'. "What would you like to do Ranma-kun? I see a karaoke place, an arcade, and a bookstore, or we could go to another restaurant if you would prefer."

 "I am not confident in my singing voice, and your lunch will more than hold me over until dinner, so that leaves the arcade or the bookstore, your turn."

 Kasumi loved books, but she was on a date, and wanted to have as much fun as she could. She got a mischievous grin on her face. "Let's go play some games!"

 They got even more stares walking inside the arcade, partially due to the fact that Kasumi was not really dressed for such a place, not that she cared in the least, and the fact that they were the most beautiful couple in the place. They ignored the looks of shock and occasional outrage as they looked around for a game to play. After a few competitive games, Kasumi came to the conclusion that maybe that was not the best plan, and chose a game where they worked as a team instead. A far better choice of activities on a date anyway.

 They played several 'team' games, then moved over to games where they could win prizes, such as the crane game and pachinko, they even took pictures in the photo booth. They had both won many prizes, and were having a lot of fun. Ranma had packed up their latest prize, when Kasumi leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, blushing furiously as she did. It was embarrassing, but she wanted to show everyone there that she was on a date with the closest thing to 'the perfect guy' any woman could hope to find, and many of those people were not thrilled about the public display of affection.

 Ranma felt a presence, similar to what he had felt earlier in the park, well up all of a sudden. A large number of people were giving him a dark look, their eyes almost glowing the dimly lit room. Ranma stepped forward. "May I help you fellows?"

 Kasumi stepped behind Ranma, holding onto his back. She was no coward by any means, but some of the members of this mob looked positively evil. It chilled the young woman to the bone. She was also not entirely sure how well she could move in this outfit.

 "To make Kasumi-sama wear such clothes, and do such things.... It is Blasphemy! BLASPHEMY I say!"

 "Hey, isn't that the guy from that Hong Kong movie a while back? What was it called, the Jade Dragon or something?"

 "Yeah, that's Ranma Saotome! I have all of their chibi-dolls, Kasumi-chibi and Ranma-chibi are dating, and have been for years, so I just DARE you to say anything against it!"

 "Our Kasumi-sama should remain pure as the driven snow!"

 With that, the two groups started to clash. Ranma picked Kasumi up in a princess carry, and used all of his stealth to sneak them out of the building. A swooning Kasumi leaned into Ranma's chest while letting her hands wander. Despite traveling at what had to be at least forty kilometers per hour, and bouncing over buildings, she felt as though there was not a safer place on the planet.

-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

After class that day, Kasumi did not go to walk her sisters home, however, Fubuki did, and Kaede joined them. Fubuki was proud of herself for refraining from giving Akane dirty look when they saw each other. She had seen the damage the girl had done that morning, had heard what had happened, and she was not a happy housemaid.

 For most students, walking home with their headmaster would not be the best of experiences, however, these were not your normal students, Kaede was not your normal headmaster, and at least one of the girls was happy about the reason for the visit. Soon after, Ranma would be one of the few male students at their school, and Nabiki was looking forward to that quite a bit.

 Akane did her best to ignore their conversation, deciding that she would go visit her friends on the way home, and avoid the likely silliness or worse that was sure to happen whenever their headmaster came to visit. The woman was almost as perverted as a 'boy'! As soon as they got close to her friends' neighborhood, she made her excuses, said her good byes, and split off from the main group. It had nothing at all to do with her almost killing 'Ranma's pet turtle', no, not at all. Fubuki had gotten word to them at school, that Ukyo was fine, so no problem.

 The other young women were a bit surprised by this, but were too happy about the news, and future students, to worry much about it. They promised to pass on her message, and waved as she ran off, quickly returning to their talk about manga, anime, and Ranma and company. Nabiki was not thrilled with her little sister either, but wanted to get a chance to talk to Ukyo and Ranma before she said anything else on the topic. It was probably for the best if Akane stayed at her friends for the night...

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Genma was thinking, something he did often, but rarely made any headway. To Genma, meditation was a way to get others to not pay attention to what he was doing, and contemplation was a waste of time. Action was all that mattered, yet action had failed him. Now was the time for devious action! Or so his instincts told him. Nevertheless, his years of living around these others have shown him that his instincts were not always the wisest choice of action, even if they did occasionally payout in the end, as his School of the Household Fist had proven. All he had wanted at the time, was an easy way to teach the maid-girl how to defend herself, with the least effort on his part as possible. What he ended up with far exceeded his wildest dreams, his clients read like a list of the top 'who's who' of Japan. Anyone who was anyone had their servants trained in his school, and he had been making powerful contacts, but that would be gone if he lost the school.

 He knew he had made a few mistakes in his life, although identifying them individually was beyond his abilities most of the time. However, this was not about him, this was about the boy! Ranma was the one at fault here, not him, he was the one trying to hold his family together! The problem was the boy was too good, Genma had never expected him to be so powerful, to be able to manhandle him so easily, it was disheartening. It was one thing to be abused by an inhuman fiend such as his old master or the Maid Guy, but his own son, who was raised by his mother, surrounded by girls, ...it was not sitting well with him. If Genma did not figure out a way to come out on top, all of his ideals would come crashing down around him. It threatened his whole worldview, and that scared the man, not to mention he was concerned about his prospects for the future, which did not look too good if he could not manage to assert his rightful place. He was the dominant male, in a patriarchal society, and by all rights, he should be the one in charge! He just could not for the life of him, figure out why it all seemed to be slipping away... Where did he go wrong?

 He decided to ignore the noises of people arriving to continue his train of thought.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Ranma and Kasumi had not yet returned by the time Kaede had arrived with the two younger women, after introductions, and a brief explanation as to Akane's absence, Nodoka and Kaede started getting to know each other over tea. Nabiki and Fubuki went off with the other girls to talk about Ukyo and their days in school with Kaede and Mikan.

 Before long, Ukyo had told the girls it was time to start their meeting, and some of the others started to figure out why as they walked toward the den.

 Kaede and Nodoka were deep in conversation, both looking rather lascivious and excited when the others arrived. A dull 'thud' was heard from above as they entered the room, and the two women stopped talking, and Kaede looked up, wondering what she had heard.

 "Ranchama and Kasumi are home. Although, normally the landings are more gentle, I wonder what could have-" Ukyo ran out of the room only to stop in the hall as Ranma entered, still carrying Kasumi, who had her arms wrapped around Ranma's neck, with her head snuggled into his shoulder. Ukyo, and everyone who followed her, stood, mouths agape, staring at Kasumi in her position and her new outfit. "Ranchama! Is everything all right? You landed a bit hard..."

 "Oh sure, everything is fine, we were just going a bit fast. We had a bit of a run in with some people who seemed to know us from various places, and well, you know, 'rule number twelve'..."

 "Do everything with style?"

 "That's the one. 'Always leave a good impression'."

 Ukyo leaned in to rub up against Ranma as well. "You always do that anyway. However, you are late, the headmaster is here, waiting on you."

 "Well, I was trying to hurry, but we had to ditch some very persistent, um, fans? I guess. But, more importantly, how are you feeling, Ucchan?" Ranma gave a concerned look at his longtime friend and companion.

 "I am fine, I told you not to worry!" Ukyo gave Ranma a fetching smile. "Besides, don't we have a rule about 'not keeping a lady in waiting'?"

 "Nope, not that I am aware of..."

 "Well, you ARE worth waiting for..."

 Kasumi spoke up for the first time since their arrival. "You can say that again..."

 "Well, you ARE worth waiting for ...Let's just hope the headmaster thinks so as well." Ukyo winked at Ranma before leading them back toward the den. When she turned around, her hair moved with the motion, exposing a web-like scar, covering most of Ukyo's back, thanks to her backless outfit.

 Nabiki recovered enough from seeing her elder sister's dress and situation, to throw in her two yen's worth. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, I am sure Kaede-chan will love you-." Only to be shocked at seeing the scars for the first time, as were several others.

 Kasumi looked horrified. "Ukyo-chan, your back!"

 "No, I never left. You are back." Ukyo grinned. "It gives me character, don't you think?"

 "Ukyo-chan, I am so sorry!"

 "If there is anything we can do to make it up to you, plea-"

 Ukyo interrupted, not wanting to hear any more of that. "No, there is nothing you can do, because this is not your fault."

 "But, it was our imouto who hit you!"

 "True, but as Ranchama pointed out, it was my fault."

 Several of the young women turned, shocked, to stare at Ranma. "How, how could you say such a thing?"

 Ukyo did not give him time to respond. "Because it was true! As my master, it is Ranchama's duty to point out the flaws in my technique. Do not blame Ranchama, do not blame Akane, this was MY FAULT! We hope it will fade with more healing and more time, and maybe one day you will barely be able to see, but for now, I want to hear no more on this." 'I WILL be having a talk with that girl later though...'

 'But, your beautiful skin!!!!' Kasumi would have been close to tears had it not been for Ranma's calming presence. All she could get out was, "Okay Ukyo-chan, if you insist-"

 "I do, now on to more entertaining items, you address your headmaster with '-chan'?"

 "Yep, and you might too, just wait until you meet Kaede-chan, the woman is something else!"

 "Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

 "A bit of both to be honest, but mostly good, if you ask me, and you did."

 Still carrying Kasumi, Ranma followed the other girls into the den to find his mother and another young woman waiting for them. His mother's reaction was to be expected, what he did not expect, was that it would be mild compared to the other woman's reaction.

 Kaede started to tremble and shake, before jumping up, and running over to check them out from every angle with stars in her eyes. Ranma was surprised at the speed of the excited woman. "Kasumi-chan! You have achieved the 'princess carry', a classic that almost every woman dreams about having. Were you able to be saved from crisis by your true love?"

 Kasumi looked up into Ranma's eyes. "Several times, in fact, but that was nothing compared to the kissing..." Kasumi got lost in those blue eyes, completely unaware of what she had just admitted.

 Kaede swooned at the thought of being carried in strong arms and kissed with tender lips, by a handsome man and wrapped her own arms around herself. "But, Kasumi-chan, when did you get so stylish? You must have been very excited to dress so elegantly..."

 Kasumi blushed again, at the comments. "Well, this is not what I left the house in. Ranma bought it for me, ...on our date." Almost whispering the last part, she trailed off. All of her bravado from earlier, gone in the face of her former principal. With her shyness returned, she tried to hide her blushing face in Ranma's, mostly bare, chest. His shirt having been unbuttoned by wandering hands some time before they arrived. She then realized what she was doing and blushed harder, which made her want to hide even more.

 "Which reminds me, I got gifts for all of you while we were out." Kaede nearly fainted when Ranma started pulling boxes out of his coat, far bigger, and many more than should, by all rights, be able to fit in there. Her eyes got wide as saucers watching the girls opening their gifts and seeing the outfits and other items the boy had given them. Her jaw dropped when he turned to her and said, "I did not know your size, or style, so I could not pick an outfit for you."

 "Uh... That's okay, you didn't have to get anything for me..."

 "I've got to admit, I did not expect our new headmaster to be such a young and cute woman, so I am not sure if this will suit your tastes, but..." 'Though, I admit, I DID expect a bit more eloquence.' Ranma handed a small box to the young woman. "...you are welcome to open it if you wish, I hope you like it."

 Kaede hesitated, looking at the small box in the charming boy's hand. He was even more handsome than the paintings and photos she had seen suggested, and rather dashing the way he was still holding the eldest Tendo girl, with his long coat blowing in the breeze...?

 Had she been able to pull her eyes away from his own and turn her head to the side, she would have seen Ukyo, vigorously waving a large, ki enhanced, paper fan to create the effect. From where she pulled this fan, considering the lack of material in the skimpy cloth that passed for her current outfit, is best left unmentioned.

 Kaede was not a woman who was stuck on tradition and customs, she spent very little time thinking about it were the truth told, and she was not sure what the proper etiquette was in this case of gift giving and receiving. She knew enough to have brought a gift when she came to visit, the usual bottle of sake the fathers enjoyed so much, but she had not expected to be receiving one. She wanted to make a good first impression, especially in light of the way the young man was making her feel as if she had been as young as she usually acted, and the butterflies were doing acrobatics in her stomach, yet she was not sure what to do. They were students after all, and obviously, Kasumi and the others cared for him a great deal. Kaede looked every bit the deer caught in headlights, with her eyes transfixed on Ranma's, completely caught up in the way they seemed to twinkle.

 None of this was lost on Nabiki, who's well trained observation skills allowed her to read her principal like a book. She would have leaned in and whispered to her that Ranma was not all that hung up on formalities, even if he seemed to know them all, except that she was rather enjoying watching the older woman squirm. She felt it was her karma catching up to her, and opted to lean into and whisper to Ukyo instead. "At least Kaede-chan isn't drooling, ne?"

 "That's our Ranchama... Not just any teacher, but the headmaster! Let me ask you something Nabiki-chan. How attractive is your school nurse? Every high school needs a sexy nurse!"

 Nabiki eyed the 'head concubine', first for being addressed with '-chan' aloud by anyone other than her elder sister and the headmaster, which was something she was still having trouble getting used to, and then at the question itself. She responded cautiously. "What, exactly, did you have in mind?"

 "Well, we could check off another item on the 'to-do' list that Miomo-sama and I put together for Ranchama."

 Nabiki almost facefaulted. "What, you made a list for Ranma-kun, involving other women ...that you are helping to fulfill? ...and auntie Nodoka helped?"

 "Who's idea do you think it was?" Ukyo winked at the stunned, slightly older girl. "Besides, I am helping you girls, am I not? Just so you know, they do not ALL involve other women." Ukyo stuck her tongue out as she winked again. "You want to see it?"

 Nabiki nodded eagerly as the other girl pulled a book out from ...somewhere.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Nodoka was proud of how quickly her, as of now, 'former' students had finished their entrance exams. She had taught some of them much longer than others, but she liked to think she had made a positive impact on them all. Seeing the confidence on their faces as they walked out of the room that they had used for the tests, made her feel as though she was floating with the pride of both a parent and a teacher rolled into one. Most Japanese people played a game of who can out modest the other, and this typically included deprecating not only themselves, but also their families. Nodoka told herself that this was because they did not have children like hers, after all who could not be proud of such a manly son, and beautiful 'daughters'? Had she not drifted off to another world of her own making, she would have also been surprised by how little time Kaede took to grade their exams.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Kasumi and Fubuki had been disappointed that they were not allowed to remain with and attend to Ranma while he was taking his tests, and had decided to make some food for him while they waited, oh and they supposed the others as well, to serve when he, er they finished the long tests.

 Ranma had been the first to exit the room, and the two girls were waiting for him, food in hand. By the time Ukyo had left the room soon after, she saw Ranma being fed by the two older girls, and she was impressed. "Those two work fast!" So, she decided to help them. Not wanting to be outdone with their own idea, they instead insisted Ukyo sit in Ranma's lap while they took turns feeding her as well. She tried to refuse, until Ranma put his arms around her waist and pulled her into his lap.

 Ranma lips passed close to her ear as he pulled her in close. "Just enjoy it for once. Besides, I told you to rest." This sent shivers down the girl's almost bare spine, and she melted into his lap, suggestively eating whatever was brought near her mouth.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 Not long after the last, soon to be, student left the room, Kaede came out, graded tests in hand, proving that despite appearances, she really did have some skills as an instructor. She started to hand out the results and paused for a moment when she saw the scene that was playing out before her. While the 'costumes' and decor did not match, it was like a scene out of a fantasy novel. Ranma was sitting in a large chair, with Ukyo on his lap, while two of the eldest were feeding him, and the other girls were fawning over him. It was like a harem ending in one of the games she liked to play. Her brain froze and she began to drool at the memories the sight had triggered.

 Nabiki soon entered the room with a look of shock on her face that rivaled that of Kaede's, without the drool, she had cleaned that up already. She slowly walked over, returned the book to Ukyo, and plopped down onto the other side of Ranma's lap.

 Ukyo grinned as she made the book vanish, and adjusted herself to give Nabiki room to sit. Seeing the look on the other girl's face, Ukyo used the same trick Ranma had done to her moments before. She leaned in closely and whispered, "Good reading?" into Nabiki's ear before nibbling on her earlobe.

 The shivers down her spine were almost enough to break Nabiki out of her trance, but it was not until Ukyo was fondling her and had her in a lip-lock that she was truly aware of what she was doing and where her hands were. ...She felt somewhat over-dressed for the scene, but did not want to leave to change, someone else might try to take her 'seat' ...like Kaede.

 This 'show' went on for a while, with even Kikyo taking turns feeding Ranma and making out with the other girls in hopes of turning him on. Some of them never even noticed their headmaster watching until she fainted from over stimulation. Watching a scene from one of her games, play out live before her eyes, was too much for her to take. She did later wonder why she woke up naked, before flashes of the event played themselves back to her in her mind. She might have been embarrassed to remember stripping and playing with herself, while watching her students feeding each other, but she certainly enjoyed it.

 -!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-

 After a mostly lovely dinner filled with wonderful foods, Kaede felt recovered enough to go over their test results with them and began to hand out their scores.

 Not caring one whit, the fathers were the first to leave the room once they had eaten their desserts. Grabbing their 'gift sake', they retired to the study. Akane had called and left a message with Konatsu, saying that she would be spending the night with her friends, so was not present during the meal.

 Shampoo surprised everyone with how well she had done on the exams, the only required categories she was not confident in were some of the higher sciences and Japanese, and even then she had done well with the Kanji, but writing them and using them in Japanese were two totally different things. She had actually done better on the Japanese test than many of them thought, as her comprehension and understanding of the written language were better than her mastery of the spoken language. She had also knew that her mode of speech was considered 'cute' in Japan, and played it up for all it was worth.

 "Shampoo no is stupid! Great-grandmother make sure Shampoo know many thing."

 "Except to speak Japanese it seems." Nabiki was a bit jealous of the curvy Chinese girl, and her snark showed it a bit to those who knew her well.

 "What we speaking then? How many language you know?"

 "Three, I know Japanese, English, and French." Nabiki felt like she could at least show the other girl up when it came to brains.

 Shampoo laughed. "Even in village we hear story of Japanese students' typical mastery of English. Shampoo hope you French better than that..."

 "Well, I have been reading books in English ever since I was a child, and I get more opportunities to practice than most, thanks to Kasumi-nee-chan. I ace every test, have been known to correct the teacher in the honors classes, and I have had a lot of practice with my French lately, so I am quite confident there as well. Also, unlike most schools, we are an elite school, who also houses many important foreign students, so our English teachers actually speak the language. So it looks like I have you beat." Nabiki had a hint of pride in her voice.

 Shampoo, on the other hand, looked triumphant. "Would be, if Shampoo no know four language, and some words in others. Shampoo know Mandarin, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Japanese ...mostly. Need, to deal with many nearby village, but Shampoo no think need Japanese, even if great-grandmother teach anyway. But, then airen come to village, Shampoo find reason learn."

 Nabiki did not know what to think, not only had she been bested, but she had not misread anyone so badly in a long time, she felt like she was losing her edge. She was not sure if her senses were dulling, this girl was especially hard to read, or if she was just completely disrupted by this sudden change in lifestyle and the presence of the young man she had been not-so secretly lusting after for years. There was one thing of which she was sure, something needed to be done, but first she needed to do something else, something rather out of character for the headstrong young woman. "Shampoo, I am sorry. I had you pegged wrong." Nabiki leaned in a whispered, blushing a bit. "And I have a confession, I guess I was a bit jealous of your looks."

 Shampoo whispered back. "Shampoo have confession too. Shampoo can speak better than you might think. I have been practicing close to two years, after all." Leaning in even closer, she added, "...I think you attractive as well." Shampoo winked at the young woman with the long, chestnut-brown hair. She had used the masculine form of 'I' and 'you' that Ranma tended to favor, but otherwise, she had fairly accurate grammar.

 Nabiki's eyes went round for the briefest of moments before they narrowed and the two girls shared a giggle. "You sly minx."

 "Shampoo no is minx, is sphinx..." She said with a wink.

 While the two of them had been talking, Kaede had been handing back the rest of the test scores. Pai had done better than she had expected, considering how little time she had spent in school, and Japanese being her third language. Apparently, all of the time Nodoka had spent tutoring her had not been as much of a waste of time as she had previously thought. She had scored slightly above average for her age bracket. 'Maybe this school thing won't be so bad, at least I will get to spend more time with Ranma!'

 Ranma and Ukyo looked confused and both looked over first their own papers, and then each other's. "Kaede-sensei, what does this mean?"

 "What it means, Ranma-kun, is that you two have gotten some of the highest marks in the history of our school. As much as I REALLY hate to do it, I am going to have to make you third year students. Here I was hoping to have you around for at least two years." Kaede looked depressed. "To be honest, I feel that you both could probably pass a college entrance exam, if you were to choose to take it."

 The room became silent, as everyone stared at Kaede. Then almost all of them said in unison, "WHAT?!?" while Nodoka just beamed with pride.

 Pai and Shampoo were the loudest. "I only wanted to go to be with Ranma! Please, you have to keep us all together!"

 "Yes, Shampoo no want go if no be with Ranma!" She 'humphed' cutely, with her arms crossed under her large breasts, as she pouted.

 Ranma could never stand to see one of his girlfriends unhappy, and now he had two of them. He turned to Kaede, with stars in his eyes, and a gleam in his smile. "Kaede-sensei, isn't there 'anything' we can do, so that we can all be together?"

 "Yes, Shampoo do ANYTHING, be with Ranma!"

 "Me too!" The two girls had gotten on their knees, hands pressed together in proper begging fashion, with large, sad eyes, looking on the verge of tears.

 Kaede was unable to move, she was caught up in the triple attack, and could not survive the onslaught. Within moments, she was squeeing, and had all three of them wrapped up in a large bear-hug, rubbing her face on theirs. "OOooooo, yyyyooooouuu, aaaaaaare sooooooooo cuuuuute!!! I just have to hug you all." She was quickly began rubbing all over them, from all angles, even pinching in a few places. "Promise me, that you will stay in touch after you graduate, and keep helping the school, like your family here, and we will get you two tutors, and put you all in Nabiki's class. Do we have a deal?"

 The teens withstood the assault, and resisted the urge to pinch or fondle back, they did not want to risk ruining the deal. They were not exactly sure what to think of this turn of events, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Ranma spoke up first, taking the slightly older woman's hand in both of his, he looked deep into her eyes. "I suppose that we do. Thank you sensei. It means a lot for us to stay together, we are rarely ever apart. If there is ever anything we can do to help you, please, let us know." Looking over at his mother, he smiled and said, "However, we already have the best tutor we could ask for, right here." He looked back into their headmaster's eyes as Nodoka blushed at the praise.

 Kaede's eyes were locked, and her hand was warm, a warmth that was spreading throughout her body. It was like basking in the afterglow, though not stemming from the same place. She thought she managed to get out a "Thank you." or something similar, but she could not be sure. Her legs were starting to feel less steady, but Shampoo and Pai jumped in to help support her as she began to melt into Ranma's hands.

 Ukyo leaned in closely and whispered into Ranma's ear. Ranma deadpanned. "Really? Do you think so?"

 "Well, you DO want to thank our new headmaster properly, do you not?"

 "What do you think, kaa-chan?"

 "My son is SOooo manly!"

 Ukyo leered at the pair. "You expected something else, Ranchama?"

 "No, not really. Some things are just too predictable. Well, if you think it's for the best. I was going to ask you to get a chair, but let's go to the sofa. It's safer."

Pai and Shampoo smirked as they carried Kaede to sit on the couch. They looked at each other for a moment, nodded, and said, "Us too!"

 Nabiki quickly got in the fast growing line forming near her stunned headmaster. "I hope you don't plan to leave me out."

 Fast footsteps were heard coming down the hall as Fubuki and Kasumi hurried into the room, still drying their hands. They locked the door as they entered, before getting in line behind Nabiki. "Would it be a bother if we were next?"

 "We would love some of your special 'dessert', Ranma-sama."

 Ranma gave a warm smile to the girls before taking Kaede's hand in his. Looking deeply into her eyes, he sat next to her, never breaking eye contact. "My 'cultural experts' tell me that this is the proper way to thank you for the favor you have bestowed upon us. Do you wish me to continue?"

 Kaede had no idea what the boy was saying, nor even if he was speaking Japanese. She was fairly certain that she had been asked a question though, so she nodded, unable to find words with which to respond, nor did she know to what she was responding. She figured whatever it was, if they wanted her to do it, then she would likely enjoy it.

 Seeing the consent, Ranma wrapped his other arm around her waist, and began to feel around her spine.

 Feeling the arm go around her, Kaede responded instinctively, her brain having shut off some time ago. Not that her brain was ever much of a deterrent from doing something silly that would embarrass most people. Of course, Kaede was not 'most people', and embarrassment was not something she was capable of often. She leaned against Ranma, throwing her arms around him, and began to nibble on his neck. This caught Ranma off guard, and caused him a moment's distraction, giving Kaede enough time to throw her leg over Ranma. Straddling his lap, she leaned in, pressing her body into his. It was not until she had worked her way up to nibbling on his earlobe, that Ranma had found what he had been looking for.

 The moment Ranma hit the spot, Kaede began thrashing about, rubbing against him, and grinding her pelvis into his lap. Her moans were quickly ramping up and would have become screams, if not for Ukyo thinking quickly, and directing the woman's mouth onto Ranma's. Kaede forgot all about screaming at that point, and opted for deeply kissing the mouth in front of her, she did not really care who's it was. She had taken a hold of Ranma hand, directing them towards her breasts, hoping they would fondle her. She was not disappointed.

 The other girls in line had begun to make out with each other, waiting their turn. They were disappointed that Kaede had Ranma trapped, meaning they would have to wait until she was through, before they got their turn, so the five girls passed the time as best they could.

 Kikyo had just sat back, looking on, longing to be in the middle, but not wanting to make Ranma uncomfortable.

 Nodoka mumbled to herself about having a manly son, watching closely, not paying attention to what her hands were doing.

 Ukyo saw all of this, and figured she could at least try to help one of them. She grabbed a hold of Kikyo, and began kissing her as she dragged her over to the line, where she could at least make out with the other girls, and have some fun. She could not stand to see Kikyo that depressed, and vowed to do something about it ...soon. Then, using her stealth, she snuck one of her 'toys' into Nodoka's hand.

Nodoka had no idea that the 'toy' even was there, never mind 'how' it got there, and she was even less aware of what she began to do with it soon after. The only thing she was sure of at that moment in time, was that her son, was one of the most manly of men, no other could compare. Even one of her 'ideal' men, Lupin the third, was falling short in the comparisons going on in her head. Her pride was only topped by the desire that had been building for more than sixteen years of not being touched by a man, or anyone else, and the conflicted feelings that those things created within her.

 She was no longer licking and sucking on the phallic plaything in her hands and had been rubbing across other erogenous zones, also failing to notice the buzzing noise it began to make as Ukyo adjusted a remote control, not unlike the one she had given Ranma not that long ago. After thinking about it for a moment, Ukyo reached into Ranma's pocket, pulled out a similar one, and did the same thing to it, before returning the other remote to Ranma's pocket.

 As she was doing this, Ukyo saw that Kaede had already removed most of her own clothing while still sitting on Ranma's lap, their lips not parting once. She had just completed removing her bra, and was wearing nothing but her thigh high stockings and yellow panties, that strangely had ties on the sides, like a swimsuit.

 Ukyo saw that Kaede was having trouble with the ties on her 'panties', and snuck in quickly to undo each tie, before doing the same thing to the one on Ranma's pants, and slipping them off, along with his boxers, revealing that he was, in fact, enjoying himself very much. Kaede seemed noticed this as well, and quickly removed the last barrier between them, tossing her 'panty' aside. She felt several hands on her from behind, as she renewed her pelvic grinding in earnest.

 Ukyo saw that things were progressing well, and returned her attention to Nodoka on the other side of the room, whose hands were frantically working on automatic. The conflicted look on her face could not hide the lust in her eyes as she watched the scene unfold before her. Ukyo turned up the control again, before pulling out her camera, filling in for Nodoka, who would normally document their 'adventures' and growth as people. Ukyo made sure to take a lot of Nodoka as well, since she so rarely got to be in the shots, before returning her attention to Ranma and the others. Ukyo wanted nothing more than to be involved in the 'gymnastics', but considering her 'orders' to not do anything strenuous, and her job as head concubine, she figured helping the others to enjoy themselves was where she belonged. Her 'fun' had to come secondary. Ranma's progress was the most important thing, she wanted to make sure that he never blew a chance like this. Even though technically, they were not students yet, they soon would be, and how often does a young man have the opportunity to make love to a sexy teacher, let alone the principal? She really wanted this to go well.

 Kaede was now straddling Shampoo on the coffee table, as they made out and played with each other's breasts. Pai and Kikyo were on either side, kissing and playing with whatever they could reach. Kasumi and Fubuki were each on one side of Ranma, kissing on his neck, while his arms were around them, and he continued to thrust into his soon-to-be principal.

 Nabiki saw that Ukyo was taking pictures, and relaxed. She felt better about joining in now, and climbed up to sit on her club's sponsor's ass, facing Ranma. She leaned into rub on Ranma as she wrapped her arms around Fubuki and Kasumi, fondling their butts. She leaned into Ranma, kissing him before saying, "It feels like you are doing me too."

 Ranma smiled. "It kind of looks like it too."

 "Oh my, that does look like fun, ne?"

 Fubuki could only nod as she continued to kiss him, and fondle both him, and now Nabiki.

 Kasumi whispered into Ranma's ear. "Fukibuki told me about your 'special massage', and I do believe I WILL take you up on your earlier offer. Would you do that to us now? I do so want to try-"

 Ranma turned and cut off Kasumi with a long kiss, and said, "Anything for you, o--nee--chan." Ranma was already rubbing Kasumi and Fubuki's backs, so he started with them. Before long, they were writhing on the ground together, no longer aware of anything aside from their own pleasure. Ranma's hands went around Nabiki, as he returned to kissing her, before she cut him off.

 "Oh no you don't. I have waited long enough. I do not want to pass out from pleasure, until I feel the real thing this time!"

 Kaede spoke up, between moans and gasps. "This is- just- like a- game- I just played! You- could al-ternate- between- the three- of us, and go- in-between- the two of us! I- have seen- that in- games too... So, must be- fun..." Kaede could not believe her luck, so many of her fantasies were coming to life. She was now glad she allowed them all to skip a grade, she almost wished they HAD taken the exams for a university instead. The sooner this one graduated, the sooner she could do this again! The future looked bright indeed! When Ranma began to do as she had suggested, she came again just from the idea of someone willing to do the things she saw in her games with her... one more of her fantasies just came true again, and it felt REALLY good. She could not wait to help this boy celebrate graduation in just under a year. Never in her life would she be so happy, to lose a student.

 Nabiki was surprised, she had read that the first time hurt, at least for a few moments, but she had not felt any discomfort at all. In fact, it felt better than any of the 'practice' she had experienced with the others, or anything else she had known. She almost fainted right then, but fought off the urge with great effort, wanting to enjoy this as long as possible. She also felt that it was strange that, despite Ranma switching girls, the way he was still pounding into her, made it feel like he still was in her. A phantom phallus, if you will.

 Ranma began to speed up, switching between the three women in front of him with each thrust. "Chinko Tenshin Amaguriken!" While Ranma was using this technique, none of the three young women could even tell they were missing out on two-thirds of the action, but Ranma was showing a bit of wear after a few moments, and had to stop. "Three people- too much- hard to aim..." Ranma slowed down again, still rotating between the three, but breathing hard for a bit.
{*Chinko = (n) (1) (col) (vulg) (chn) penis; (2) (ktb) practice*}

A moment later, his face lit up. "I've got it!"

 A chorus of "You sure do!" and a few "...and now I am getting it too"s chimed off.

 Ranma began to glow, his aura lighting up the room. While this was going on, Ranma stayed with Kaede, but all three of them thought they were getting all of his attention.

 Ukyo was impressed. Once again Ranma demonstrated why he was the best, using his solidified ki to thrust into all three girls at once. If that did not prove her lover deserved a harem, she did not know what would. Not to mention, she could not wait for him to use it on her alone. This made her wonder if he could make that sandwich more fun, by adding three more, and whispered the question into his ear.

 Ranma thought about it for a moment, as he concentrated. His aura began to glow even brighter, as three more ki chinko began to form. Small at first, they slowly grew, until they were filling the three ladies in front of him. To be careful not to hurt anyone, he was using sensory ki, which had a side effect. Having sex like this, was making him feel at least five time more sensitive, and he was not sure how much longer he would be able to last. He was going to have to work on that...

 This latest development caused the last person who remembered that Nodoka was in the room to let it slip from her mind. As for Nodoka herself, Ranma's newest show of skill had impressed her so much, that she had climaxed again, and hard. Not only did this bring her back to awareness, to what she was watching, and what she was doing WHILE watching, but it also alerted the rest of the room to the fact. This awareness caused Ranma to falter for a moment, but being used to being watched, he did not let it affect him for long. "Hey, thanks kaa-chan, you might have bought me a few more minutes. ...Kaa-chan?!?!? Didn't you sneak off to take pictures, like usual?"

 Nodoka was embarrassed. Not only was she naked, masturbating to her son having sex, and seen doing it, but he knew that she had been taking pictures of him doing so for years... She grabbed her clothing, and ran straight for the furo, forgetting to even close the door, never mind locking it. Luckily for her, Akane was not home, and the fathers were three sheets to the wind on free sake, far too intent on cheating each other playing Go, to care what was going on in the rest of the house.

 Ukyo was torn between making sure Nodoka was going to be okay, and taking care of Ranma, but after only a moment's hesitation, she closed and locked the door, she knew where her loyalties lay. It did not stop her from feeling guilty about it though. Not being able to do anything about that, she decided to work on the other problem at hand. She went back over to where Ranma was, but instead of talking to him, she whispered to Pai and Kikyo to get closer to him.

 Ukyo moved behind Ranma, and used a few tricks of her own, to help Ranma 'perform', and pay less attention to what he was doing, starting with licking the back of his neck, and earlobe. Her distraction techniques, combined with the concentration needed to maintain his ki projections as well as his rhythm, allowed her to move his hands from an oblivious Nabiki, to a grateful Pai and Kikyo, keeping them from being left out of the fun. Before she considered her job well done, she used one last pressure point 'attack', to make sure that Ranma would be 'functional' for some time to come, even if he came.

 Seeing that Kasumi and Fubuki had worn themselves out, and were now napping in each other's arms, she covered them with a blanket. She watched the scene a bit longer, making sure there was nothing else that needed doing at the moment, she let out a sigh before mumbling to herself. "The head-concubine's work is never done." Not being able to take it any longer, she leaned in, and whispered into Shampoo's ear. "Here is your chance, I am leaving you in charge. You are 'head concubine', until I return."

 Shampoo was conflicted, she used to want this, but she did not want to move if anything was needed, but she supposed she could always tell someone else to do it, if necessary... It was not like Ukyo would be gone for long.

 Ukyo stretched out her senses, located Nodoka, and used the secret passage, so as to keep the door locked. So intent on this was she, that she, and everyone else, failed to notice Kikyo vanish from the where she had been receiving Ranma's unknowing touch. As Ukyo got closer, Nodoka's ki worried her. The older woman was trying to hide her presence, but Ukyo knew her too well. When she entered the furo, she saw Nodoka, soaking in the tub, with her knees hugged up to her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks. Removing her dress, Ukyo climbed in, and sat next to the older woman, taking her into her arms. "Do you want to talk about it, miomo-sama?"

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 "Now, about your uniforms..." Ukyo and Kikyo had returned before Kaede had finally recovered from their little 'adventure', Nodoka was still absent. Kaede was trying to force herself to attend to the last bit of 'official business' before she was 'distracted' again. She had trailed off, waiting to make sure she had their attention, but before she could continue, Ranma spoke up.

 "Sorry sensei, we have a small confession to make to you, I hope you do not think any less of us, but there is little we can do to prevent it. There is a reason, some of us would have a problem wearing the uniforms. While on our training trip to China, we picked up these curses... When we are splashed with cold water, we change, and splashing us with hot water changes us back. I know it is hard to believe, but if you would follow me to the furo, I will demonstrate. You have to see it to believe it. Besides, we all need a bath after that." Ranma led the way to the now empty furo, and stood by the rinsing area, where he filled a bucket. "Please, if you would sensei, grab a hold of whatever you wish, and you will witness me change genders."

 Kaede's jaw dropped. "You what?!? You are saying that if you pour that water over your head, you will become a, what, a hermaphrodite?"

 "No, just a girl."

 "A very sexy girl, with huge-"

 "Yes, yes, thank you. So, whenever you are ready, just say the word."

 "It's true, Kaede-chan. I have seen it with my own eyes, felt it with my own hands ...and other things. Here, put one hand here, and with your other hand, grab this..." Nabiki held Kaede's hands in place, making sure to get plenty of contact herself. "Are you getting a good feel?" Nabiki leered at her instructor, who could only nod. "Go ahead, Ranma-kun."

 Ranma dumped the bucket over himself, trying not to splash anyone else as he did so. As the curse activated, Kaede and Nabiki both felt their left hand fill up, as their right grasped nothing but air. Their right hands felt around for whatever was in reach as their left hands squeezed and groped. Ranma reacted appropriately to the groping.

 "SugOOOOOIiiiii!!!" Stars twinkled in Kaede's eyes and the rest of her sparkled, as she began to babble about various games and fantasies she had toyed with. Both of the young women examined Ranma's cursed body in great detail ...inside and out.

 The 'exam' made Ranma remember some stories Ukyo and Nodoka had shared about trips to see the gynecologist. Although, Ranma doubted there was as much groping involved in those visits, not that he could be sure of that. He did not really mind, it was certainly an interesting feeling, so like, and yet, so unlike anything he ever felt as a man. Some of the others had joined in, playing with whatever they could reach, and it did not take long before Ranma felt weak in the knees, something he both enjoyed and lamented, vowing to overcome it at some point. Pleasurable as it was, it was a weakness, and he did not want anyone to be able to use it against him. Before he could fall, Ukyo was behind him, supportive, helping to lower him to the floor, so they could have their way with him once again. This time, however, it was Ranma who was on the receiving end. It was thorough training indeed.

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 Some time, and many changes later, they had finished actually getting clean while in the furo, with the three cursed students back in their original forms and everyone fully dressed. They filed back into the study, before Ranma faced Kaede once again.

 "So, as you can see, we all have good reasons why your usual uniform would probably not work. I use my sarashi for support in my girl form, but I cannot adjust it if I have a shirt on. I have tried wearing it in place before the change, but it never sits right. I have to readjust it anyway, and it is really uncomfortable as a male. Not to mention looking stupid and being too loose or tight as the case may be. I would have to take my shirt off every time I was splashed with water. Which happens a lot more often than one would expect...

 "You would think it would not be too difficult to 'not' be splashed with water, but you would be wrong. There is something about these curses that seems to attract water to us at the most inopportune times. Have you ever had a cloud start pouring rain down over just you and your group? We have, all of us. It is as though the gods themselves are toying with us..." Ranma looked down for a moment and chuckled before looking back up into Kaede's star-struck eyes.

 "It is not that I am complaining mind you, we have a lot of fun, I was just explaining our dilemma. Shampoo and Ucchan both have other issues with their curses that make normal clothing a problem. Look at it this way, it is better for them to be wearing skimpy clothing all of the time, then to have one of them end up completely nude, and the other topless, due to the curse shredding their clothing. Some modesty is better than none after all." Ranma ended with a wink and a grin.

 "Don't you all get cold, dressed like that all of the time?"

 "We had special training to be able to handle extreme temperatures. It's no big deal. I wear my coat in the jungle in July, and stay shirtless in a snowstorm, I can barely tell the difference anymore."

 Those who had not had Nujie Zu training were all impressed, even those who thought it was more 'boast' than fact. "Well, then you are in luck, we have not had many male upper class students yet, so we have not yet designed a uniform for you, so unless you wanted to take butler training, you can wear whatever you like. One guy runs around in a kendo uniform, and yet, is not in the kendo club..." Kaede sighed, before wiping the drool from her lip and continuing. "The girls all have established uniforms for both the upper and lower classes..."

 "Well, if you do not mind us wearing our own clothing in the meantime, I am sure that we could make alterations that might allow for the change, without destroying their clothing, if you do not mind them wearing modified uniforms that is. Ucchan is very good at it, and made most of our stuff, like my coat."

 "Oh, no, I don't mind at all, I think it will be great! Mikan-chan might not be happy, but I am sure, with the right persuasion, we can make your case." Fear flashed across Kaede's face for a brief instant, and then her usual cheer returned.

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Ukyo had just finished checking in on everyone, making sure all was well, and that Ranma was sleeping under a small pile of girls, before sneaking into Ranma's old bedroom, where she found Nabiki finishing a story.

 "...and when they opened the grave, there was nothing inside, except for one red rose." Nabiki saw the last member of their group arrive, and looked up. "...Ah, Ukyo-chan, you are here. Perfect timing, we can start."

 "Thank you Nabiki-chan." Ukyo knew perfectly well by the other girl's body language, that the '-chan' honorific bothered Nabiki from most people, even her, despite having been using it in letters for years, but since she had not said anything about it, Ukyo continued to 'press the button' ...for training. Ukyo thought it was cute when she squirmed, and for some reason she could not fathom, she found it incredibly entertaining to watch. It was not like she disliked Nabiki in any way, in fact they were a lot alike. She was sharp, quick witted, and strong, a real 'go getter'. Ukyo could not think of one thing she did not like about the girl, so she had no idea why she enjoyed tormenting her so, perhaps it was something she did in a past life... Ukyo could not figure it out, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

 Ukyo looked around the room, seeing most of their gang, spoke up. "Thank you for coming-"

 "We did that earlier!"

 "...and we will again ...soon. For now, I have gathered you all here to help one of us. With one exception, all of us gathered in this room have 'been with' Ranchama ...at least once (and some of us many times)." She stuck her tongue out at Nabiki.

 Nabiki sat, mumbling to herself. "Just give me time, just give me time. I will outdo you all!"

 Ukyo smiled inwardly, thinking about how Ranma would benefit from that button pushing. "Tonight we gather to help that one exception among us this evening."

 "But what about Nee-chan and Fubuki-chan? They have not stayed awake long enough to get a chance yet either."

 "True, but they are not working under a handicap. If they DO end up needing help, then you can rest assured, that I ...that WE will do everything in our power to help them as well. We are a family, and we stand by each other, no matter what! When one of us is suffering, we all are suffering! For some time, one of our family has been suffering under an unfair rejection that none of us wants.

 "I believe you are all familiar with the history, the curse, and the connection between Kikyo-san and miomo-sama. Due to them partially sharing a body now, and worse, completely sharing a body not long ago, Ranchama is still hung-up about doing anything, and they are both hurting because of it. When it first happened, miomo-sama said to always remember that they were always seeing and hearing what the other did, and that stuck. Ranchama has not been able to give Kikyo-san a fair chance because of this block. I happen to know it is not intentional, we have discussed it before, and this is just as hard on Ranchama as it is on Kikyo. So, we are here to fix it! Are you with me?"

 All of them cheered. Ukyo smiled as she pulled out a pen and a tablet. "Good, now who has ideas that might help? There are no bad suggestions, even one that does not work, might make us think of something that will. Throw out any ideas you have, and I will make a list..."

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Omake 11a
{Like many, these omake are slight variations of actual canon events}

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Ukyo was giving her 'candy eating demonstration' when Kyoshi and the other girls, including Nabiki, Kasumi, and Fubuki who were present for reasons even they did not understand, started singing ...in harmony. Even Ranma found himself in cursed form, and was dragged into the song. Some were even more confused by this, due to the fact that they did not understand English, which was what they were clearly singing.

Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop *POP*

Call my baby 'Lollipop'
Show you why
His kiss is sweeter than cherry pie
And when he does his shaky rockin' dance
Man I haven't got a chance
I lick that...

Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop *POP*

Sweeter than candy on a stick
Huckleberry, cherry, or lime
If you caught a glimpse, he'd be your pick
But Lollipop is mine... (So, you'd best get in line)?
for...
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop *POP*

Crazy way he thrills-a me
Tell you why
Just like a lightning from the sky
He loves to kiss me
'Till I can't see straight
GEE, my Lollipop is great!
I'll lick that...

Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli
Lollipop *POP*

After the song had ended, and Ukyo had crunched down on her candy, causing most of the men present to flinch or worse, Ranma changed back, complaining. "Aw, come on, it makes no sense at all for me to be singing that song! Why did-" Ranma was unable to continue as many of the nearby women jumped on him, led by Fubuki and the Tendo girls, who were happy to get to meet Ranma ahead of schedule, giving his mouth better things to do than to complain about his singing contract.

 Nodoka smiled at her son. "Well, we did not want that to happen in the middle of our song and interrupt it, now did we?"

Ukyo was one of the last on the pile saying, "At least they didn't make you sing it in canon ...or as a guy."

 Nodoka thought about it for a moment. "Wait a moment, you are right, this is an omake, so it isn't real anyway..." Nodoka's eyes lit up as she suddenly dove into the pile herself. "Let momma show you girls how to 'lick a lollipop'."

{Slightly edited version of 'Lollipop' by the Chordettes}
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Omake 11b

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The night after the festival, Ukyo pulled out a large notebook, titled 'Ucchan Note'. It was partially filled, with many entries, most of them with a checked box next to them. Turning a ways into the book, Ukyo located the latest entry, the 'Mile High Club' with its checked box next to it. Under that, she drew another box, wrote 'Masturbated in Public (with candy!)' next to it, and checked the box. The girl's proud expression turned to mild annoyance, as her finger tapped one of the few unchecked entries, 'Public Sex'.

 "One of these days, Ranchama ...POW! Right in the bushes! And then, bang, zoom, to the moon!"

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Omake 11c

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Ran ma and company had just arrived home, and they were waiting for their fathers to arrive for the family meeting. They were chatting with the new arrivals, getting to know each other.

 "I am Kikyo, I used to be a priestess, back in the Muromachi period..."

 "What? How old are you?!?"

 "Almost twenty."

 "How can that be?"

 "Well, I do not really feel like I aged much while I was dead, and certainly not while I was in that clay body."

 "What?"

 "It is a very long story..."

 "Okay then, is Kikyo your given name? What is your surname?"

 "My given name, I never had a surname before. If I were to claim one though, it would be Saotome. It seems like the only proper thing to do. They accepted me into their family, and I have no one else. I do not know if my younger sister had a family, but I certainly never did."

 Akane spoke up, looking a bit confused. "What I want to know is 'why do you sound like me'?"

 Kasumi looked at her younger sister. "Oh, I don't know, I think that Kikyo-san sounds more like me."

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En d Omake

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A uthor's Notes

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- Soon, many of our heroes will be starting school, some for the first time. As you should know by now, our school has both the upper class and the servant classes. All of them have the option to join either class, since their tuition is paid either way. All classes are mixed in the mornings, and they split in the afternoon, with the servant class taking special classes tailored to being either a maid or a butler (and possibly other servants). Ever since we decided to used the academy, we have been trying to decide if Ukyo would choose to be in the upper class to spend more time with Ranma, or make the sacrifice in order to better learn to serve Ranma and take the servant classes, spending half of each day in those special classes? So, my question to you readers is, 'Of the four soon-to-be students, Ranma, Ukyo, Pai, and Shampoo, do you think any of them would choose, or be talked into taking the servant classes, or do you want to see them all in the upper classes? Either leave your votes in the comments, or private message me. If you would like to provide your rational for your vote, the better we like your 'reasoning argument', the more your vote may count. The voting will be open for a week or two from the time we post this chapter.

-Kanamara Matsuri or the Steel Phallus Festival - Every bit of that was true to the best of my research. This is a real event that takes place in the early spring, and those were some of the real activities they have at this festival. Even the part about the genitalia shaped candies selling out early, the legend behind it, all true (well it is the real legend, to the truth of those events, I will make no claim). The idea for the candy eating demonstration was from Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!, though I took it in a different direction than they did, I just could not see Ukyo doing what they did, in this situation, with Kikyo learning, and Ranma watching that. However, you can find that scene on youtube if you haven't seen it, funny, but in a cruel sort of way.

 -Hiko-no-kami and Hime-no-kami: Kami means god/goddess. No is a possessive particle. Hito means male, and hime means 'young lady', so this means 'boy god' and 'girl god' respectively, I believe they are twins.

 -Skosh/Sukoshi - One of the many words we borrowed from Japanese. The 'u' is mostly silent in the original Japanese word, and we dropped the 'i' as well when we borrowed it, partially because 'i' can be understated at the end of some words when said informally, similarly to the 'u'. The word itself means 'a small amount', and can be used in reference to quantity, distance, or time. They do not have a lot of words like, a couple, a few, a bunch, and so on, they have 'sukoshi', few, and 'ikutsumo', many.

 -Yotogi - (1) attending someone through the night (guard, nurse); (2) act of a woman sleeping with a man (at his bidding); (3) keeping overnight vigil over body before burial. It is made up of the characters for 'night' and 'attendant'.

 -Daisuki - loveable; very likeable; like very much - This word is formed with the characters for 'big' + 'liking a lot/love', so it means really likeing someone/thing a lot, can also be used to indicate a 'favorite'.

 -Gifts in Japan-
 -Like other Asian cultures, there are many customs and taboos relating to gift giving and receiving. It is considered impolite to go to someone's house without a gift. In Japanese, this is called tebura (Empty Handed). This sort of gift is typically given in a paper bag, preferably from the shop in which it was bought. You then take the gift out of the bag and place it on top, before handing it to your host with both hands. In an informal setting, the gift giver might say something to the effect of 'tsumaranai mono desu ga' or 'this is but a trifle', but in a formal or business setting, this would be considered rude, as you are implying the gift is worthless. Instead you would something like, 'honno o shirushi de gozaimasu ga' or 'this is but a token...', implying that while the gift has value, it cannot do justice when compared to your respect for the receiver of the gift. In either case, these gifts tend to be flashy, and expensive, wiki shows an example of a 10,000 yen ($100US) melon, 'carefully cultivated and selected for its lack of imperfections', that are intended for these types of gifts.
 -Unlike in China, the gift giver in Japan 'may' ask the receiver to open the gift there, but the receiver will not ask the giver. If not prompted to open it, they will wait.
 -Depending on the situation, the receiver may refuse the gift, as accepting it can create a sense of obligation.
 -As a guest, if your host offers you something, it is the polite thing to first decline by saying something like, 'okizukai naku' or 'don't go through the trouble', at least once or twice. The host is then expected to offer a second time (or more), at which point is it perfectly polite to accept (some sites say it is the custom to refuse once, other say at least twice).
-Like in China, it is considered rude to give gifts like knifes, scissors, clocks, and so on, as they symbolize a severing of the relationship, or the person running out of time. Anything with the numbers four or nine are also bad, four (shi) sounds like death, and nine (ku) sounds like torture. White flowers are reminiscent of a funeral, and should also not be given.
-There are many gift giving occasions, such as seibo, the winter gift giving season, similar to x-mas, but the presents tend to be food and drink, and are given from company to employee, or from one family to another. Or Chuugen, the summer equivalent. There are many other gift giving times as well, such as Valentines Day, where the girls give the boys obligation chocolates (giri-choko), and White Day, a month later, when the boys return the favor, and give chocolates (or other presents) to the girls who gave some to them (if they like/respect them enough to bother). Valentines Day chocolates can be given as a romantic gesture, or to any male the woman has a connection to (son, brother, father, really good friends, etc.). Many boys take it personally, or get rather depressed when they do not get any chocolate on Valentines Day, or if they only get some from their mothers or other family.

-Numbers - The numbers four, seven, and nine, all have 2 ways to say them when counting. Four (shi/yon), Seven (shichi/nana), and Nine (ku/kyuu). There are others too, but these are the ones you will encounter the most often. They are the Shino-Japanese numbers and are used when counting things, actions, and events.

 -Entrance Exams or 'juken' - Not all High Schools require entrance exams, but many do, especially the higher ranked ones. About 12-13% of middle school also have entrance exams, but in 2002, the number of them that do began to rise. These exams not only determine if the student is accepted but also placement in class, and ranking. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, sometimes the highest scoring first year student is asked to give a speech during the entrance ceremony. By third year, most students are preparing for college entrance exams. They take mock exams, and many go to a 'cram school' to help prepare themselves. The higher ranked the school is, the higher the entrance requirements are, and the better the students needs to do on their exams. The school you graduate from will also play a large part in what school you can go to next, almost as much as your grades and test scores.

 -Other random school information, starting with basics - The school year begins in April, and ends in March. Education is compulsory from first grade through middle school. Middle and High Schools are both broken up into three years, and elementary is broken into two sets of three years. The number in the class number represents the year, and the letter is the class. The letter itself, is different by school, some have a reason and order to them, and others are relatively random, in most schools it is merely an identifier, and not a rank (unlike Baka and Test, for example). In many cases, the 'letter' is kana, and not an English letter, but the translators sometimes change that, I have seen class 1-He, for example, but using 'roman' lettering seems to be on the rise. The classes are typically divided up by the students' curriculum, and sometimes rank, so students who take the same general classes, get lumped together. So, depending on the number of students taking which classes, and other issues, class rosters may change between years. Who is in which class is typically posted on a bulletin board before the year starts (like test ranking). With the exception of certain classes, such as gym, home economics, or other specialized classes, the students stay in the same room, and the teachers switch rooms between classes. Seating is typically assigned, usually alphabetically, Kanji coming before other Kana (Female given names 'can' be spelled with Hiragana, foreign name are typically spelled with Katakana, and most other names are spelled with Kanji), with transfer students stuffed in wherever there is room.
 Club activities are typically not required, but are heavily encouraged in most schools, but this is up to each school, the better schools are more likely to encourage extracurricular activities. Elementary and Middle schools begin around 8:30am, each class lasts between 40-45 min. in elementary school, and 50 min. in middle school, there is a 5-10 min break between most classes, and go home around three in the afternoon. The lower elementary classes (first three years) go home after lunch, but the upper elementary classes take five classes per day, and up to six in middle school on some days of the week. Elementary school students have clubs once a week. In middle school, extracurricular activities take on a bigger role, some clubs meet several times a week, or even every day, and on some days the students do not leave until five in the evening. Each school has their own rules covering what is required for the clubs there.
In the old days, students attended school Monday through Saturday, in more recent times, Saturday classes were not held on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. As of April 2002, there are no more classes on Saturdays. The Saturday classes were typically a shorter day.
 There are three terms, or trimesters, April - July, September - December, and January - March. They receive a report card at the end of each terms, and are given a grade of 1-5 (5 being the best), and exams are usually a percentage. Correct answers are marked with a circle, and incorrect answers are marked with an 'x' or a '+'.
More than 90% of parents send their children to a 'juku, or Cram School, and more than 65% send them for four or more days a week. 98% of middle school graduates go on to high school or specialty school. There are more than 700 universities, and almost 45% of high school graduates move on to either a university or junior college. Choosing a school (at all levels) is a very difficult process for most students and their parents. One must take an entrance exam for any university, and most high schools you want to apply to, and there are hundreds, if not thousands of options. The Kanto region, for example, has around 600 high schools (only about 50 are public). Even public (koritsu) high schools have a tuition cost, though they tend to be about one-tenth the cost of a private school, as they are publicly funded. Most private schools are usually middle and high schools combined. Private high schools (shiritsu), tend to have their entrance exams about two weeks before public schools, though not all on the same day, and the exams are typically offered with two options of days from which to choose. Public schools, on the other hand, tend to all have their entrance exams on the same day, so you can only choose one, where a private school, you can have an alternative or two, if the second alternate is a public school.
What Nabiki said is mostly true, especially in the public schools, many of the native Japanese English teachers do not know much more than what is in their books, and only teach enough to help their students pass their entrance exams, as they are not given much more to work with. Partially due to embarrassment, conversational English is not practiced much, and even though it is on signs and such everywhere, it is more decorative than anything.

 -Many of you have shown an interest in this type of information, so if anyone has any specific questions I will do my best to answer what I can or point you in the right direction. Anything having to do with the language or culture is fine, related to the story or not, if I do not know it, I will try to find out and include it in a future update. Thanks again for your interest in my story ...and learning.

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*CHARACTERS USED*

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{ Here I will list all of the important, non-Ranma characters, used in the chapter and where they are from.}

Kogarashi the "Maid Guy" - the title character from Kamen no Maid Guy
Fubuki - The soon-to-be 'Maid Guy Tamer' from Kamen no Maid Guy
Kaede Tenjoji - The headmaster of Hakureiryo Academy from Ladies vs. Butlers.
Mikan is her 'assistant' and the Head Instructor.
Pai Chan - Taken from Virtua Fighter.

Hisho Fukumi - A member of the Fuma clan, just a bit older than Ranma. Her name means; "Hisho - (1) secret or hidden place; (2) (euph. for) woman's genitalia; (3) the underworld; the other world". Fukumi - implication; hidden meaning; latitude; atmosphere; tone; sentiment; inclusion. It uses the characters for 'hold in mouth; cherish; contain' and the number 'three'."
Hijo - Hisho's younger brother. His name means 'hidden' 'help/assist/aid'. He is a year or so younger than Ranma. {They are both original characters}