Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. This story based on the anime, not the manga.

Chapter 9: Sun Gets In Your Eyes

Shampoo took a good, long look at her beloved, standing ten feet away from her. His grin was as wide as she'd ever seen. His stance practically screamed confidence and self-assuredness. Even the dust cloud he'd raised as he landed on the rooftop seemed to radiate cocky triumph. She felt her heart quicken and her lips curl into their own smile. "Ranma, look like you have good news," she said. "Is so, yes?"

"Yep." Grinning just a little wider, he said, "Guess what."

"Now that mother know truth is more complicated than just you engage to Akane, she let you off Tendo honor hook?" Shampoo said breathlessly. That was about the best possible news she could imagine.

"Uh, no," Ranma said, his smile diminishing to more normal levels. "Try again."

"Nabiki realize it was wrong to bring mother back into you life when it still kind of dangerous, say she will make up for it by work to keep her safe?" From what Cologne had told her eleven days ago, that seemed like exactly the kind of thing the middle Tendo would consider a reasonable next move. And if this guess too was wrong, it still ought to serve as an honest-to-goodness subtle hint to her beloved about what kind of person Nabiki really was.

"Not that either," Ranma said, his smile fading to little more than a glimmer.

"Hmmm," Shampoo mused. From the way he'd told her to guess he obviously believed she ought to be able to, but she was running out of good ideas. "How about—"

"Actually, why don't I just tell ya?" Shampoo was easily the most cheerful of his fiancées, the girl who'd endured the worst setbacks and obstacles yet kept her optimism intact, but that didn't always translate into her providing a similar boost to other people's spirits. 'Hmm… Mom knows the important stuff about Shampoo and Kasumi now, and she likes them both,' Ranma mused, distracted momentarily. Maybe his mother could arrange for the Amazon to learn a few lessons from the oldest Tendo daughter. Any girl who could refer to Akane as 'a very sweet girl, just a little high-spirited' definitely knew how to spin things for minimal unpleasant impact.

Then again, he supposed he wasn't the best person to complain, if someone else said what they honestly thought and if it wasn't the most tactful thing imaginable.

He pushed aside those thoughts, remembering the news he'd come here to give her. Grinning a reasonably cocky grin once more, he said, "Better yet, let me show you." He extended his right hand, fingers and thumb held together to form a level plane. As Shampoo watched, sudden understanding in her eyes, his hand remained still… but the air around it now shimmered with turbulent, muted power.

"Ranma, you learn Buzzing Fist!" the Amazon exclaimed, clapping her hands as she gave a couple of wholly gratuitous bounces. She wasn't sure whether to be pleased or disappointed that while Ranma's eyes widened and tracked the motion faithfully, his hold over the technique didn't waver at all. "Shampoo thought for sure it take you at least a little longer, more training together, since there so much other things distract you right now!"

"Heh. You ain't seen nothing yet," Ranma bragged, then turned his attention away from her before the Amazon herself could prove any more of a distraction. For this part he needed all the focus he could manage. The air around his hand stilled for the instant it took to curve his fingers together into a clenched fist. Then he reengaged the technique, this time pouring much more strength into it.

For a moment Shampoo was content to just watch the sight in silence… but her responsibility as his sensei quickly moved her to speech. "Ranma, is nice you can put so much power into it," she said dubiously. "But for this move, control is much more important than how much power you use." She paused again, trying to assemble just what she needed to say with her limited Japanese, to craft a reminder of what she'd told him three weeks ago about the one true advantage of the Buzzing Strike over the Buzzing Fist. The vibrations emanating from the air around Ranma's fist had almost reached the point where his own flesh would take damage from the move… and they were still building. Abandoning the attempt to find a tactful way to warn him off, the Amazon shouted, "Stop, that enough! You going too far, Airen!"

"Well, if you say so…" He met her gaze, wearing again the grin he'd had when he arrived. Then, in one smooth motion, he lifted his fist so that it was pointed directly at her, and whipped his fingers open into the form for a palm strike.

Several seconds later, the last of the gale passed her by. Shampoo stood frozen for a few moments more, then raised a trembling hand and cleared her windblown tresses away from in front of her eyes. Part of her couldn't believe the sight in front of her, couldn't imagine that Ranma was just standing there with that same devil-may-care grin and his hand utterly unmarked by the tempest he'd unleashed. The rest of her, though, whispered back that she'd really known better than to expect anything else.

"It ain't real powerful, obviously," Ranma said after the Amazon let a few more moments pass in stunned silence. "I wasn't going easy on you there; that really is as powerful as I can make the effect right now. Gotta spend most of my concentration on keeping the second layer of the technique intact."

"Ranma mean…" Shampoo gulped breathlessly, then said, "Mean you can do both part at once, on purpose? Mean…" After another bout of struggling for the words in his language, she continued, "To do technique, there is thin, weak layer of still air next to you skin, but that happen automatic. Is not something you have to focus on or decide to make happen, it come natural. But Ranma, you can control that at same time you do other part too? Make the protection part strong enough to not get shred by the bigger power of outside buzzing part?"

"Yep. And it definitely ain't easy," he replied. "I'm not even sure if something like this will ever be useful on its own. But like you said back when we first started on this, the whole Buzzing Fist is really most valuable for teaching principles that lead on to bigger and better things. Same thing with this little revision, I bet."

"Looks like it good for more than just that," Shampoo said, offering him a wan smile. When he blinked at the unexpected reaction, she continued, "Is also good to show me Ranma have truly master this move, pass me by even though we only have meet for train in it that one time. You were right, Airen… maybe it not matter so much if I do a good job with teach you or not. You will still learn anyway."

'Wasn't she supposed to be happy about this?' Ranma thought incredulously. Women — he'd never understand them. "I'm not so sure, actually," he said slowly. "I mean, yeah, obviously I would learn the moves. But saying that you didn't do a good job teaching me, or that it didn't help me to get where I am now… no, that ain't right at all."

"Hmm. Well, I glad to see it work so well for you." Shampoo's smile still contained more than a hint of pain, but there was enough honest happiness for his sake mixed in to keep it from being obvious. "Sorry, Ranma, but I need to take some time to think, about what is best way to train for next move. Since I not expect you master this one so fast, had not done too much of that yet." Technically this wasn't an outright lie, but it skirted pretty close to the edge. She had spent a fair amount of time thinking, or perhaps 'fantasizing' would be the better word, about one possible way to train her husband in the Wind Strike. But now, with what she'd seen and realized this afternoon… well, she was going to have to think long, hard, and seriously before trying to lead Ranma into something like that.

"Heh. You could always blindfold me and walk around me using the technique at its lowest power, while I had to try and figure out which touches were the wind and which were you," Ranma joked. Then he blinked, walked over, squatted down, and offered Shampoo a hand up. "Yo, Shampoo, you okay? It's been a long time since I saw someone facefault hard enough to dent the roof tiles."

Shampoo might have been dazed and confused, but reflex alone was more than enough for her to accept his hand and let him pull her up, in the process squeezing his hand just a little tighter than necessary and settling down slightly closer than his aid alone would have placed her. Neither of these acts provoked a visible reaction from Ranma. Switching to her native tongue, the Amazon muttered, "<It's official. I absolutely don't understand what's going on.>"

"How's that again?"

"Shampoo just confused, that all." She waved one hand up and down in the limited space between them. "Last time you nearly jump out of skin for not much more contact than we just had. Now you sit there like it no big deal?"

"Jeez, throw it in my face why don't ya," he grumbled. He hesitated, trying to decide whether to take this any further or change the subject. The silence stretched for several long moments… and then was broken as Ranma exhaled a loud, gusty sigh. "I won't say it's no big deal," he said quietly. "But I ain't as afraid any more." He offered her the ghost of a smile. "What was that you said to me last time, about the old ghoul? Something about her liking to use the pressure-cooker kind of training."

"Yes, that right."

"Well, the last time we met for this might've been your first time teaching anybody, but you got one piece of your granny's style down real good. I ain't saying it should have been so much of a strain on me," his voice had fallen to a near-whisper, "but it was. You pushed me hard, and… and it was almost too hard. But not quite. It was just hard enough to kick me outta my rut and get me started on something I should've already dealt with. It was — it is a lesson I gotta learn."

While much of this sounded pretty darn good to Shampoo, by no means had it cleared up all her confusion. "But… Ranma say that, say you finally realize you need to learn not be so shy?" She paused, waited for him to grimace and nod, then said as gently as she could, "Then why you not come back more training? I know you is good, Airen, but you not only master Buzzing Fist, you make big change to it. You have to have spent much time working on this on you own. Why you not let me help you with that and with other lesson too, one not have anything to do with Air style, one you say you need to learn?" It was her turn to lower the volume until her companion had to strain to hear her. "One Shampoo so want to teach you…"

"Shampoo…" The girl in question looked up, blinking to see Ranma's face twisted in as much confusion as she'd ever witnessed. Before she could say anything, he continued, "That don't make any sense at all! Okay, yeah, mastering the Buzzing Fist means we won't be doing any more of that particular exercise. But…" He lifted one hand aimlessly, then let it fall. "You're the one making up the training methods. You think I came back here today expecting you to mysteriously start going easier on me?"

"Um…"

"That'd be 'no'." He snorted. "Remember that joke I made earlier, about how you could train me for the Wind Strike? Well… I mean, it was a joke. But… at the same time… I could seriously see ya doing something like that." He clamped his lips shut against the temptation to add something about that not being a suggestion. He was going to face this trial like he'd faced all of the others in his life, head-on with full determination, not trying to weasel his way out of it!

Well, okay, some of the others in his life, Ranma amended.

"That really how you feel, Airen?" Shampoo asked tremulously, light glinting suspiciously at the corners of her eyes.

"Y-yeah," he managed. "I wasn't trying to get out of anything, by practicing and learning the move on my own. Or at least, not anything to do with you."

Shampoo blinked. A large part of her wanted to ignore the qualification and just grab him then and there in her best hug, but another part suggested that that wouldn't be too wise. "What that mean?" she wondered.

Ranma gave her a lopsided smile. "Do ya think things might've been just a little more stressful on me than usual, this past week? It's great to have Mom back in my life, but it makes just about everything more complicated. And I think you know it was pretty dang complicated already!"

"And training is good way to get rid of stress," the Amazon filled in, "and is easier to get quick little times to you self than to get few hours to sneak over and train with Shampoo. That is what you mean when say training on you own let you get out of something?"

"You got it." Ranma heaved a sigh, then smiled at her. "And just so you know, I ain't promising the same thing won't happen again. Today's session may be the only one between you showing me the Wind Strike and me showing it back to you. Prob'ly not, though," he mused. "Prob'ly won't be such a long gap between now and our next session, especially since Mom knows about you and is happy you're there for me."

"And can Ranma maybe say the same?" Shampoo purred, looking up at him through half-closed eyelids.

He wasn't quite sure how she managed that; since they were both sitting down, their heads should have been level. Scraping together his composure and his courage, he replied, "Y- yeah. I can. I am. And…" He sighed and looked away. What he was about to say was going to be hard enough without fighting distraction as well. "And… I'm sorry, for lying to you an' me both last time, when I said I wasn't afraid. That is how it should've been, and how it's darn well going to be," he declared, turning steadfastly back to look at her. She was wide-eyed now, staring at him with a mixture of emotions Ranma couldn't entirely identify. None of them seemed negative, at least.

He waited a while for her to speak, but she just sat there staring at him. "It might be kind of a rocky road getting there," he warned at last. "But I guess you saw that last time. I'm not gonna ask you to go easy on me," this said in a tone that suggested he might not turn away such treatment either, "but I will ask you to keep in mind one thing you said about your granny's favorite method. It's a great way to make good progress quickly, just as long as you don't push too hard too fast."

A wide, trembling smile broke across Shampoo's face like a sunrise. "Ranma mean…" She stopped, swallowed hard, then said, "Mean like maybe walk around you blindfolded, use Wind Strike and own touch against you, and the blindfold you is wearing is own shirt?"

Sweat broke out on Ranma's brow. "Uh… yeah. I think that would qualify."

Shampoo sighed. "Knew my first idea was little too much." By now her smile had steadied and even regained a bit of a sultry note. "Maybe Shampoo can save that plan, modify it for use when Ranma learn Wind Ward."

He gaped. "A- Are you serious?! Were ya actually thinking about using that exact method I said?"

"No, you not listen? In my," Shampoo only just stopped herself from saying 'fantasy', "plan, Ranma wear shirt over eyes, not chest."

He closed his eyes, as if wanting to save her the trouble of blindfolding him. "Shampoo, I think that would definitely qualify as too much, too fast."

"Ranma already say that. Remember, Airen, I not Akane — I will learn from mistakes. Will listen to you, and not dump more on you than you can take. Shampoo never want to do that again." She grinned at him. "But remember, that not a promise about when we train for technique after next."

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it," he returned. "But for now, and speaking as someone who's definitely not wimping out but who does have a reasonable idea of where he stands—" He broke off, blinking at the look on Shampoo's face. "Something wrong?"

"Is just… you not really sound like own self there, Ranma."

"Yeah, I know," he grumbled. "Don't sound at all like the guy who let things slide for over a year, never trying to learn any lessons other than stuff that tied to the Art, never even admitting I needed more than that, or thinking about what was really happening, or what was gonna happen farther down the road…" Realizing he was rambling, he cut himself short. "I can't afford that anymore, Shampoo. I prob'ly couldn't afford it even when I wasn't trying to know any better. Can't do anything about the past, though, except try and learn from it and not make those same mistakes again."

"That sound good to me," she said quietly. "I trying to do that too, you know."

"I know." He smiled at her. "And… and I'm grateful."

"Ranma…" she breathed. Shampoo hesitated just a moment longer, then made her decision. Slowly, deliberately, gently, she closed the distance between them and reached her arms around him in a warm embrace. She felt him stiffen and his heart begin to pound like a bass drum, but this time his response didn't bother her at all. It would be nice if he'd immediately hugged her back, but now she was certain that that — and more — would come in its time.

She leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. "Is this okay, Ranma?" she murmured. "Not push too hard, but not let you off easy either. You admit it now, you know these are lesson you need to learn." He began to relax against her, ever so slightly. "Shampoo think maybe what she do in the past made it harder for you. For that, I am very sorry." Much of the tension had left him now. "But if we both try to do better, is not too late." As if answering her unspoken question, his right hand came slowly and hesitantly up, to rest on her back with the gentlest of touches. Shampoo sighed, luxuriating in the contact and letting the embrace go as long as she dared. "Thank you, Airen," she said as she finally pulled back.

"Thank you, too," Ranma said, giving her shoulder a tentative squeeze before returning his hand to his side. He summoned up the fortitude to grin at her and say, "Lemme tell ya, Shampoo, I can sure say now that it's better to have you for a sensei than your granny."

Shampoo's laughter rang like golden bells. "Here and now, even she would probably let you off hook for say that. But I really glad to hear it, Ranma." After pausing for thought for a few moments, she continued, "You remember little while ago when you show me you had make new move from Buzzing Fist? Did you see that I was little bit sad as well as happy?"

"Yeah," he replied, wondering why she'd brought it back up. "Wasn't that cause you were thinking I'd worked so hard on my own because I wanted to get out of training with you?"

"No," she answered, surprising him. "Not at first, anyway. Thought of that little bit later. You know what hit me first?"

'Let's see, girls often think they're making sense when they're really not…' "You… thought you weren't being a good sensei because I only needed one session of instruction to be able to move past you?" he hazarded a guess.

Shampoo stuck her tongue out at him. "No. Well, not really. That was maybe part of it, that Ranma learn so quick, student not need teacher for solve any problems or even give hints to help him past roadblock." She met his gaze squarely, this time without any pain or disappointment. "But that was not what really hurt. I was wrong, but for that time, felt like only things I had to give you was just for being Amazon. Not for being Shampoo."

"… I'm not sure I understand," Ranma said, sparing only a little bit of concentration for the words. The rest of his mind was trying to do just that — to understand, to unravel the mystery of what a girl really meant when she was saying something so obviously important to her but unknown to him. "How could you possibly think that? I mean… you've given me lots of stuff. Usually you were able to because you're an Amazon, but that ain't the reason."

Shampoo drew her breath in sharply as she considered those words. "Maybe…" she said at last, "maybe Ranma understand better than I did. Need time to think about this, Airen."

"Heh. You and me both," he replied. "We've been here for way less than an hour, and I've already got enough stuff to think about over two or even three flights. Maybe we better stop now before we overflow our brains."

"Is very good idea." Shampoo blinked as one of her own struck her, the thought popping forth before her awareness exactly as if it had overflowed, fully-formed, out of some mental well. "And Shampoo have one too. We talk long enough, Ranma; can use rest of time to fly. Shampoo will use Wind Strike at low level to give you good winds to ride and bad winds to fight, get you used to technique that way. Is like I already do one time, only now I know move better and can make better challenge for you. Is not even very far from what Great-Grandmother do when she train me." It would be significantly less stressful on him than that method had been on her, but as Shampoo saw it the last thing Ranma needed was to be getting unnecessary stress from her. Plus, her control was hardly equal to Cologne's; she might end up seriously hurting her beloved if she tried to imitate the Matriarch's method too closely.

"Sounds good to me," Ranma said, firing off a grin nearly as cocky as the one he'd arrived with. He gestured to the flask of water resting against Shampoo's hip. "You wanna do the honors?"

Yuka stared contemplatively down into her milkshake. It almost felt like a shame to drink it, rather than take it home and put it in the freezer to be preserved for posterity. After all, she could easily buy another for actual consumption with her own money — but being treated to something for free by Nabiki Tendo was nearly unheard-of.

Looking up from the treat and across the table, she noted that Sayuri seemed to be trying to make the most of the occasion in a different way. The girl was wolfing down her sundae at a rate that reminded Yuka of the stories Akane told of Ranma's eating habits. 'Does she actually think Nabiki will buy her another if she looks like she enjoyed the first one enough?' Yuka wondered. 'Wow, if she can be that optimistic she must be all the way over the trauma from that stupid Ghost Cat.'

She turned her attention to the table's fourth and final occupant, her other best friend and a girl who'd seen more weirdness and extremes of fortune than the rest of them combined. Akane didn't seem unhappy, Yuka noted, but her friend wasn't nearly as cheerful as she usually was when it was just the three of them out for a fun time. The best word that came to mind was 'reserved'. It wasn't as bad as 'unhappy' or any of its ilk would have been, but Yuka still didn't think it was a particularly good state to be in when you were with friends.

"So how are things going with your training, Akane?" she asked. "You're awfully quiet. Is it because you're worrying what Mr. Saotome will say about you putting things off with him today?" She couldn't remember whether Akane was supposed to go straight home after school to train even on a Saturday, but considering what she'd heard of Mr. Saotome, it didn't seem unlikely.

"Huh?" Akane said, blinking. "What was that?" After her friend had repeated the question, she said, "No… not really. I mean, I wasn't worrying about that. My Saturday afternoon sessions are at the same time as all the others, and I'm sure we won't be here long enough to make me late for that. But the training is what I was thinking about." It had been a full week now since she and Genma had resumed working together, a week of greater hurt than Akane had known in her entire life. It would be nice if she could say that she'd seen the kind of improvement she deserved for all her suffering, but as far as she could tell the only things she'd gained were greater endurance and a higher pain threshold.

She wasn't about to work this hard just so Shampoo could kick her around more before winning the fight.

"You're brooding again, little sister," Nabiki chided. "How much more do you want me to do, here?"

"Huh?" Akane repeated, blinking once more.

"I'm already spending my Saturday afternoon by inviting you and your friends out for ice cream, and even paying for it. And that's still not enough to raise your spirits?" Nabiki shook her head sorrowfully, raised her eyes to the heavens, and gave the best impression she could manage of Genma's voice. "Oh, what an ungrateful sister I've raised!"

This at least succeeded in provoking a snort of laughter from Akane. "Yeah, right, Nabiki. Seriously, though, why did you invite us all here?" It was a nice enough café, but she didn't see what was special enough about it to justify coming this far out of their way for a visit. The ice cream had been tasty and the prices reasonable, but the only real difference between this place and the ones they more often frequented was its distance from their normal stomping grounds.

"What kind of a question is that?" Nabiki asked. "Can't I just want to spend some time with my little sister, and do something nice for her?"

Akane's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Okay, now I really mean it, Nabiki. Why did you want to come here?"

The middle Tendo traded her melodramatic mask for a smirk. "All kidding aside, it really is because I want to do something nice for you," she said smoothly. It wasn't even really a lie, at least if one considered 'keep Ranma tied to you by any means necessary' to be nice. "But I also need some help from you."

"Oh really," Akane replied. At least this time she'd gotten a free ice cream out of whatever the deal was. "Well, let's hear it."

"Have you noticed how Kuno has been more of a nuisance lately? How he's been more determined, more in your face, how he's taken up more of your time? It's only natural, after all — his pigtailed girl has been gone for two months now. As soon as she disappeared, it was bound to mean one of two things: either he'd take more and more attention away from you as he searched for her, or it would be 'out of sight, out of mind'. Either you'd get some relief, or things would get even worse when he chased you all the harder to make up for losing his other one true love." Nabiki shrugged. "Except we all know that with your luck, only one of those was ever really a possibility."

"You're saying that's why he's been coming on so much stronger lately?" Akane queried. She stopped, and thought back over what had happened at school during the last few weeks. Sure, she'd had to pound Kuno every few days, but… "But, Nabiki… he hasn't. I mean, I can't remember him being any more of a pest than usual."

"You are correct!" Nabiki stated, raising her spoon into the air with a flourish. From the corners of her eyes she watched Yuka and Sayuri trade glances. Good — they'd noticed the out-of-character theatrics, and were even becoming a little suspicious as a result. All the better then, for the next step. "Why do you suppose that is, Akane?"

Akane heaved a sigh. "Nabiki, if you're trying to make me wish I was back home training with Mr. Saotome, you're doing a good job." It gave her a bit of satisfaction to say that; since Nabiki didn't know the true nature of her training, she couldn't know the real impact of the statement. It felt good to say something Nabiki didn't really understand, for a change. "Maybe you could just tell me straight out what you're trying to get at?"

"Okay, fine." All traces of silly humor vanished from Nabiki's face, returning it to its typical expression, if such a word could be used for what was really an expressionless mask. She carefully thought back to the encounter with Cologne of two weeks past, letting just enough of the emotions it had spawned past her control to twist her pretty features with weariness, discomfort, and a touch of fear. "I've been running interference for you, Akane. Me and my network are the reason he hasn't been worse for you lately. And it's basically reached the point where we can't keep that up without active help from you." She sighed and looked away, using the moment as a chance to examine Yuka and Sayuri. She allowed herself a hint of cold satisfaction as she saw that their suspicion had shifted into understanding — or at least, they believed they understood. The two had swallowed her tale hook, line, and sinker. It was the same old story, Nabiki thought cynically. Show a little obvious false emotion, then show something that looks real and would explain the earlier façade, and nearly the whole world will fall all over themselves to believe. And if that technique hadn't worked, she had an entire mental arsenal of others at her disposal.

Even Happosai could be tricked or pacified, at least by someone who was sufficiently young, hot, and female as well as clever. If there was anyone in Nerima other than Cologne that she couldn't handle this way, Nabiki hadn't met them yet. Nor did she want to. It was going to be hard enough, skating around the damnable old hag and keeping enough distance between them while still getting what she wanted. But come hell or high water, Nabiki Tendo would do it. She wasn't about to let Ranma Saotome slip away, wasn't about to let the Amazons or anyone take something that belonged to her! So Cologne didn't want to learn of any more interference from her? That could be arranged.

"That's why you invited us all out here?" Sayuri asked. "To ask us for help in keeping Kuno off Akane's back? You can count on us, Nabiki, Akane!"

"Yeah!" Yuka chimed in. "Are we going to discuss strategy now? Is that why you wanted to come all the way out here, so that there wouldn't be anybody we know around to overhear?"

"Yes, that's right." Nabiki heaved a weary sigh. "If Kuno were to hear about this, it would destroy any chance of success. It's going to be complicated and hard enough as it is. Frankly, even with all of us working together it's not certain that everything will work out just right." There — her own backside was now covered. When her machinations resulted in Kuno becoming more interested rather than less, when he actually did what she said he'd already done and pushed aside the memory of a long-lost redhead to focus solely on Akane, when Tatewaki Kuno became troublesome enough that Akane needed Ranma to once again rescue her… it would just be one more of those Nerima things. Certainly nothing that anyone would lay at her feet. After all, she had done the best she could to help her sister.

"Do you really think you can do it, Nabiki?" Akane asked, a hopeful smile beginning to spread across her features. "It would be wonderful if I didn't have to put up with him any longer. And thanks for keeping him off my back as much as you have."

"You're welcome, sis," Nabiki murmured with not a shred of remorse. "As for a permanent solution… well, like I already said, all we can do is try. I think it's a good chance, but you've got to know as well as I do that there's no certainties in this town." Or at least, none that she felt like sharing with Akane at the moment. Nabiki felt certain that a few well-timed chances to play the hero would get Ranma thinking more favorably about her sister. 'After all, he won't get to prove how strong and macho he is by rescuing _Shampoo_ with any real frequency.' It certainly wouldn't solve all the recent problems in one fell swoop, but it would be a good start.

"Then let's get started!" Akane said eagerly. "Have you already got a plan, or are we going to think something up now?"

"I have a few ideas," her sister demurred. "But I thought we should talk them over and get everyone's opinions before deciding on anything final." Which would leave her yet another layer of deniability once things apparently spiraled out of control. It probably wasn't necessary, but insurance that didn't cost you anything was never a bad idea. "Okay, for starters—" Her mouth clamped closed with an audible click.

"For starters…?" Akane prompted. When her sister remained silent, she said, "Um, Nabiki…?"

"Akane…" This was Sayuri, not exactly whispering but certainly not speaking in a normal tone of voice. "Behind you."

"Huh?" It dawned on Akane that her sister wasn't actually looking at her any longer; Nabiki's gaze was fixed at something over her shoulder. She twisted around just in time to see two familiar figures disappear into a booth on the far side of the café. After her own moment of shocked silence, Akane got to her feet. "Excuse me," she growled, turning to pursue them.

Nabiki's hand shot out with speed that was truly impressive for a non-martial artist, and clamped down on her sister's arm with equally impressive force. "Hold it, Akane."

"Excuse me?!" Unlike her last use of the phrase, there wasn't even a hint of politeness in her tone now. "Do you really expect me to just sit here and not even wonder what the heck Ukyo's doing with Mrs. Saotome?"

"Of course not," Nabiki riposted, not relaxing her grip one bit. "I expect you to not screw up this opportunity." In the privacy of her own mind, the middle Tendo thought that it was about damn time they had another one of those coincidences that used to happen all the time, where random chance helped her little sister's chances with Ranma. She didn't know yet whether this meeting would be good news, bad, or indifferent; considering how many loose screws Ranma's mother had it could conceivably be all of the above. But it was certainly good news that she had the chance to get a secret ringside seat to whatever new development this was.

Aloud, she continued, "They didn't notice us, which is frankly better luck than I would have expected. We're not about to waste it. We're going to sneak over to the next booth and listen in on their whole conversation, not butt in and throw away the chance of getting inside information." When Akane still looked hesitant, the middle Tendo snapped, "For goodness' sake, think about it! Obviously Ukyo has already introduced herself to Mrs. Saotome, so you can't stop them from meeting to talk. But you can find out what Miss Kuonji has to say."

"Well, maybe," Akane said with supreme reluctance. "Fine, let's just go over there." She turned, only to be pulled up short by her sister's grip. "Nabiikiii!"

"Not until you promise you'll sit quietly and listen, not explode and blow our cover," Nabiki said forcefully, staring her sister in the eye. "I mean it, Akane. Give me your word of honor."

After taking a few deep breaths, Akane said, "All right. I promise."

'Interesting,' Nabiki mused as she let go and rose to her feet as well, followed quickly by Sayuri and Yuka. 'It looked like Akane actually thought it through and made a rational decision even when she didn't like it, rather than me having to trick her or push her into it by sheer force of will. That's a switch.' Nothing more was said as the foursome sneaked quietly over to their own booth and settled down for some serious eavesdropping.

"This is a nice place, Auntie," Ukyo said. "Thanks for inviting me here."

"You're welcome, dear. Kasumi introduced me to it last week." Nodoka smiled faintly. "She put special emphasis on how quiet and out-of-the-way it was, that you could be certain of a peaceful afternoon if you went here."

"Hmm," Ukyo murmured dubiously, remembering how true that hadn't proved to be for the late, lamented Chrysanthemum Garden. Quiet and out-of-the-way or not, it wouldn't surprise her if history repeated itself here. Hence, the chef's incongruous kimono-with-battle-spatula ensemble. She even had one razor-sharp mini-spatula hidden up a sleeve within easy reach, which could be used to slit the bottom sides of the kimono for improved mobility. Ukyo really hoped it wouldn't come to that, of course. She wasn't sure why Nodoka had invited her to this tête—tête, but she certainly wanted to make a continued good impression rather than a bad one. Hopefully if anything did blow up around them, Nodoka would forgive whatever lapse in propriety was needed since Ukyo damn well wasn't going to risk the woman getting hurt. "A nice, peaceful afternoon would be great."

The waiter arrived then with their tea. After each had taken a few sips and found it quite enjoyable, Ukyo spoke again. "Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about, Auntie? Or did you just want to visit for a while?"

"A little of both, really," Nodoka replied. "Last Saturday made a nice start, I thought, but it certainly didn't tell me everything about you, and how things are between you and my son."

'That must be why she invited just me this afternoon, instead of me and Ranchan.' Ukyo said a quick prayer that she wouldn't let anything slip that would somehow make things harder for Ranma. She wished she'd made more time the past week to talk to him about just what was safe to present to Nodoka, and what wasn't. A moment's thought along those lines provided a possible solution, a chance to pass the time in conversation that wouldn't be dangerous at all. "Would you like to hear some stories from when he and I were kids together?"

The Saotome matron blinked, then beamed. "Oh yes, please!" She'd missed so much of Ranma's life, almost his entire childhood, and Nodoka could think of no more pleasant a way to spend an afternoon than getting a little bit of that back.

"All right," Ukyo said with a smile. 'Let's see, should I start with how we first met, or jump straight into the business with the Gambling King?' The former would seem like a more logical place to start if she was just trying to share Ranma's early history with Nodoka, but the latter would give her an opening to segue into hinting to Nodoka about the kind of treatment her son all too often received at the hands of the Tendos. Ukyo didn't doubt that they were trying to put on a good face now that Ranma's mother was actually living with them, but she also didn't doubt that they slipped up in little ways from time to time. Give Nodoka a few subtle clues by way of warning, and she'd probably see the reality behind the mask a lot quicker than she otherwise would. And that would be good for everyone, or at least everyone who deserved a good outcome. Even Akane would ultimately be happier not to be in a relationship that wasn't good for anyone, though Ukyo supposed it might take a while for that to come about.

Still, she realized, there was no hurry. No need to jump straight into that story; she'd begin at the beginning. "It all started when—"

"Actually, dear, I'm sorry, but could we save these for next time?" Nodoka spoke the words with genuine distress. In the first delightful shock of realizing she could take back a bit of her son's past, she'd quite forgotten that she'd come here with an important purpose for his future. "I really do want to hear all about it, but I think we need to discuss some other important things today."

Ukyo blinked. "Like what?"

'So much for leading into it subtly and gently,' Nodoka realized ruefully. She'd spent a week thinking about how to go about this, had put a great deal of effort into coming up with the right way to gently ease into the subject, and now, thanks to three minutes of blindsided blundering, the jig was more or less up. Ukyo would know the innocent-sounding questions were much more significant than they appeared on the surface. Nodoka made a mental note to apologize to Genma, and to do better than this with Akane.

She took a sip of tea to buy herself time to think. Perhaps she could improvise questions that, while obviously significant, led in a different direction than would seem obvious to Ukyo? Nodoka continued to sip and think furiously. At last, she set down her empty cup and said, "Really I just wanted to talk to you about your and Ranma's future."

Ukyo smiled so widely that were it not for her martial artist's resilience, her cheeks might have cracked. Not 'your future and Ranma's', but 'your future with Ranma'! With great effort, she stopped herself from drifting off into a happy little daydream. That could wait for later this afternoon (except that there probably wasn't going to be anything 'little' about it). As she thought about how to respond, Ukyo remembered one fact that allowed her to calm down from the worst of the giddy exhilaration. "We haven't talked a whole lot about it, Auntie," she said. "You know things are kind of complicated in Ranchan's life at the moment."

"I know, dear. I'm just asking for your thoughts right now."

The chef almost didn't know where to start. However, there was one aspect of her dreams that had been fuzzy for a long time but had recently become a lot more solidly defined. "Well, for a while I wasn't sure whether it would be better for us to settle down in one place for me to run my restaurant, or hit the road and serve okonomiyaki out of a yattai. There were pros and cons to both, you know? Looking at it from my side, staying in one place would mean more money and a chance to make better connections, friends and regular customers. But going on the road would give us more variety out of life, a chance to always see something new, and for that matter spread the legend of Ukyo's okonomiyaki farther and faster."

"And what about Ranma?" Nodoka interjected.

"Both of those arguments apply to him too, right? More cash and more stability, or the wind in his hair and new sights every week. And of course there's stuff either way that applies particularly to him," Ukyo explained. "Like, what would be the impact on his growth in the Art from either choice? If we settle down in one place, it makes it easier for strong challengers to find him, but if we're always moving it makes it easier for him to find them." She shrugged. "That's really not a question I can answer, Auntie, and even if I could it wouldn't be my place to do it. You'd have to ask him."

The older woman smiled as brightly and warmly as she could. That had been a very good answer. All the same, her motherly instincts felt like her guest might have been holding back, a little. It almost felt like Ukyo had meant what she said about it being Ranma's question to answer, not hers, but that the chef thought she knew the answer anyway. "I understand, dear. All the same… speaking off the record… what do you think he'd say?"

"Well… off the record of course…" Ukyo smiled back. "I think he'd say the right thing to do was put down more permanent roots. He could still go on training trips when he needed to, but I think Ranma honey would want to have a home to come back to." She winked. "A home within easy jumping distance of his mother and father."

A pang of intense happiness and sorrow shot through Nodoka. That was a very lovely picture Ukyo had painted. But all the motherly love in the world couldn't change one thing — it was the Tendo pledge that carried the greatest weight of honor and that must be upheld. It was the Tendo home where Ranma was and would be making his, and the sooner Nodoka could arrange things satisfactorily with all the girls in her manly son's life, the better.

Still, it was nowhere near time to move the conversation to that point. "That does sound nice, Ukyo. What about other things?"

Ukyo blushed and looked down at her hands, twiddling her fingers together. "Well… do you mean, like, kids?" When Nodoka nodded and gave her an encouraging smile, she continued, "Obviously that's something I'd definitely want to talk to him about. But… for me personally… I wouldn't really want to wait very long."

Nodoka's smile held a definite 'that makes two of us' quality. "And having a stable, settled-down home would be better for that as well."

"Yeah, probably so." 'Not like I'd know that from personal experience, but it seems likely.'

"What about college?" Nodoka asked next. "Is there a school you have your eye on, or were you planning to attend at all?"

"That'd be 'no' to both questions," Ukyo said, hoping this wouldn't count against her. "Going to college wouldn't give me anything I need, at least not without taking away time from stuff that's more important. I've already got my restaurant up and running, and I've learned everything I need to keep it going and growing."

"Really?" Nodoka asked, impressed despite herself. "Even the business and management skills you would need to expand from one restaurant to a chain?"

Ukyo smiled and shook her head. In truth, she'd considered that option in the past, but had decided she didn't want to go down that road. "I've got no interest in expanding like that. My Art is all about making the perfect okonomiyaki, and how that ties into martial arts. Overseeing a bunch of restaurants… no, that's not part of the picture. I'm going to make Ucchan's the best place it can be, and that da-…, er, darn well means not watering down the name with a bunch of half-hearted franchise joints."

"Oh, really? You seem to have things well planned out," Nodoka observed.

"Well, I have spent plenty of time thinking about it," the chef replied. "And anyway, this is the way the Kuonjis have done business for generations. Sometimes on the road, sometimes in their own place, passing along the Art and the love of it to family, but never letting strangers drag along on our coat-tails. And when they try to horn in on us…" Ukyo's attention drifted away from Nodoka to memories of two so-called kings, one of the crepe variety, the other a playing-card wannabe. She chuckled darkly.

The bloodthirsty grin on her guest's face wasn't particularly disconcerting to Nodoka, but it did reinforce the conclusion she'd already reached. "So in effect you've already got the basics of your life and your future planned out," she summarized, "with some flexibility built in for Ranma to have a say in things."

"I'd say that sums it up pretty good," Ukyo said proudly. She was certain neither Akane nor Shampoo could offer anything remotely like as good or as well-planned.

"Ukyo dear…" Nodoka braced herself to push along to the heart of the matter. "Has it occurred to you that there's one element you've overlooked?"

Ukyo blinked. "No, Auntie. What's that?" Before Nodoka could answer, she said, "Is it exactly what Ranma honey would be doing during all this? I have thought about that, of course, but that's another one of those 'you'd have to ask him' things. He could work in the restaurant with me, at least some times; it wouldn't be hard for someone like Ranchan to turn that into its own kind of training. And like I already said, he can do other stuff outside too, go on training trips, seek out challenges, grow in his Art as I grow in mine. We'd each be helping the other, which," she narrowly stopped herself from saying 'is the best part of marriage'. Hearing that would probably just hurt the woman who hadn't had a chance at that for herself. "Which is what I want," she concluded.

"And there's certainly nothing wrong with the things you've told me," Nodoka reassured her. "At least, not with one tiny little change. One oversight that you would have to correct."

"Um, okay," Ukyo said. "What oversight?"

"Propriety," Nodoka answered. When her guest just blinked at her, she explained, "Think about it. In that picture you outlined, it would be you owning and operating the business that supports your family, leaving Ranma free to help or do his own thing as he wishes. And that simply isn't the right way of things between a husband and a wife! You know as well as I do that Ranma is a true man, but I don't think you've quite realized that things as you'd have them would make it look like he was dangling off your apron strings. A wife can certainly keep track of the household finances, but it simply isn't right that she should be the one ultimately responsible for generating them."

Ukyo gritted her teeth together, refusing to remind Nodoka that, according to Ranma, the woman herself had done exactly that. She certainly didn't want to send this discussion spiraling out of control, and an accusation like that might well do the trick. Besides, she realized after forcing herself to cool down, it wasn't necessarily true. Nodoka had made her investments to support herself while her menfolk were gone, and from what Ranma had told her it didn't sound like the Saotome matron was going to use her wealth to sustain Genma in the lap of luxury.

No, Ukyo thought, there was a better objection to make. "Aren't you selling Ranchan a little short there? All he would have to do is win a couple tournaments every few months, and he'd pull down enough cash to make my income look like chicken feed."

"Ukyo dear, it really is the principle of the matter that we're talking about here," Nodoka said earnestly. "It is acceptable for a single woman to earn her own livelihood, even own and operate her own business… but for a wife, it simply wouldn't be right. This is something you would have to sacrifice, if you were married to my son."

"Sacrifice how? You can't mean give it up. You're talking about giving it to Ranma, right? Saying it's his place, and I just work for him."

"Yes, that's right," Nodoka said, hoping she had read the girl correctly. If Ukyo should just shrug and say 'no problem', it would make it much harder to convince the girl of her ultimate message.

Ukyo stared back, neither flinching nor giving ground. "If Ranma's name is on the ownership papers but I'm the one doing all the cooking, making the decisions, actually running the business… what difference does it make? Okonomiyaki is my Art, not his, and telling him he has to learn enough to take over for real would be hurting him. Neither of us wants to do that, Auntie."

"No, we don't. And for your first question, the difference is what I said before. It's a matter of propriety," Nodoka replied, breathing a little easier now. "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that question? Why would it matter to you, if Ranma were the owner and ultimately responsible for everything, if he allowed you to make the actual day-to-day decisions?"

'Screw it, the kid gloves are coming off,' Ukyo thought grimly. Staring into Nodoka's eyes, she pronounced, "I already hurt him like that once. I'm damn well never doing it again."

"W- What?" Nodoka asked feebly, knocked further off-balance by that response than she had been when Copycat Ken kidnapped her. "Hurt him? How?"

"There was a time when I lost confidence in that part of myself," Ukyo explained. "Lost all faith in my okonomiyaki skills, and because of that I tried to make myself into nothing more than a traditional, demure, subservient little wife-to-be for Ranma. I thought it was all that I had left." She grimaced bitterly. "I was wrong. I actually hurt him, by trying to deny that huge part of who his oldest friend and fiancée was. I'm ashamed of that, and I'm certainly not going to do it again." Her blue-green eyes shone like St. Elmo's fire upon the deep.

"And you really think that doing what propriety demands would hurt him like that again?"

"I know it. Okonomiyaki is in the bedrock of my soul, not his. He'd never want to do anything that even looked like taking it away from me. Ranchan has always told me that he likes me just the way I am, and that that's how he wants me to stay." Ukyo shrugged off an odd twinge of discomfort. Had she more control and knowledge of chi, she might have identified it as a spike of mingled jealousy, bitterness, and hurt, originating from one booth over. But Ryoga Hibiki was the only teenager in Nerima who could have sensed that truth, and he was miles away at the time.

"I'm glad to hear that, Ukyo. Please understand, I haven't been saying any of these things to hurt you," Nodoka declared. "I'm trying to help you and my son both, to show you that there's a better way for you. A way that fits better in your life and his, that allows both of you to be who you really are, together, without damaging the honor of the pledge that was made before Ranma was even born."

"That would be the promise with the Tendos," Ukyo said, her eyes narrowing. "Where exactly are you going with this?"

Nodoka allowed herself a quiet, genteel sigh. In her imagination, things had gone much more smoothly than this. However, this was only a first attempt, at something for which there wasn't any real hurry. "I mean that both you and my son would be happier and better off if you were his mistress rather than his wife." Seeing every muscle tense in the young woman across from her, except for the one next to her eye that was ticking furiously, Nodoka elaborated, "You wouldn't lose anything of substance, Ukyo, please understand that! You would still have his name, and so would the children you give him. I'd gladly adopt you into the Saotome family register." In fact, she'd insist on it if need be, not that Nodoka thought insisting would be necessary. "Ranma and you would still share just as much of everything that matters to you."

"How can you say that?!" Ukyo exclaimed, only just managing not to shout the words. "Share? Yeah, that's right, but I'd also be sharing him with someone else! With whoever is supposedly good enough to come in as his official wife!"

Nodoka stared steadily back at her. Speaking with both sympathy and steel, she replied, "And is that really any different from being his wife and sharing him with his mistresses?"

"Mistresses?! Plural?!" Ukyo took a few deep, ragged breaths. "Mrs. Saotome, I don't think—" She cut herself off, remembering once again that it wasn't safe to speak too much for Ranma when he wasn't around, that she had to keep quiet about things they might not be able to afford his mother hearing.

"Please," Nodoka said quietly, but no less firmly, "you have to understand. My son is a true man, enough of one that it just wouldn't be right to tell him he has to limit himself to only one woman. Legally he can only marry one, and honorably that must be Akane. The pledge to her family carries the greatest weight of honor and must be the one upheld." Deciding that she wasn't above a little emotional blackmail, Nodoka added, "You told me last time how much you love my son, Ukyo. That you had passed my husband's tests, had proved you would go as far as you needed to be with Ranma. This may not be exactly what you planned on or hoped for, but loving someone means you're willing to do what's best for them."

"I know that," Ukyo said with difficulty, fighting down the negative emotions. "Don't ever think I don't."

"Very well. Taking everything into consideration, I don't think something like this is much to ask, is it?" Nodoka replied. Looking down, she murmured, "Not nearly so hard as saying goodbye to your son and husband for so very long…"

Ukyo privately felt that Nodoka was as big an idiot as Genma for not insisting they take her along on that trip, but without actually saying that it was awfully hard to argue the point. "I understand where you're coming from, Auntie," she said as steadily as she could. "But there's no way I can just swallow something like this. I need time to think things over." Time to talk to Ranma and try to figure out how to deal with this latest twist. "And I hope you'll forgive me if, the next time we talk, I try to convince you to see things my way."

"Of course. Shall we say goodbye for the afternoon, then?" Nodoka asked, doing her best to radiate concern and warmth so that Ukyo would know she wasn't angry, offended, or discouraged. She hadn't made as much progress as she had hoped for, but at least it was a start. "And I'll always be willing to listen to anything you have to say."

"Thank you." Ukyo stood up… and her resolve to get out without saying anything more failed her. Right here, right now, Nodoka needed to know at least a little something concrete. Looking the older woman in the eye, she said, "Because except for Kasumi, the Tendos are a bunch of hypocrites who wouldn't know honor if it bit them in the ass. Akane's broken the engagement to Ranma four times that I know of, and each time they just expected him to crawl back to her when she got over the worst of her snit." Realizing that she was on the verge of saying things that might have a negative impact on Ranma, not just the people who were taking unfair advantage of him, Ukyo clamped her lips shut, gave a clipped nod, and hurried out of the café.

Not until Nodoka had exited as well did Nabiki unclench her grip from her sister's arm, the warning grasp that she'd taken up again as soon as the woman mentioned Ukyo's and Ranma's mutual future. For a moment she wondered bitterly whether this had been worth it, whether the advantage she would gain from getting the inside scoop would really outweigh the increased difficulty that was sure to result from Akane hearing all of that as well. She took a few deep breaths and banished the doubt. She could handle Akane; she'd been doing it for years. 'After all, all it took was my hand on her arm to keep her from breaking her promise and charging over there anyway.'

Akane glanced down at her arm as Nabiki released her grip and pulled away. She frowned at the sight of the marks her sister's tightly-clenched fingers had left. There were even going to be a couple of bruises unless Akane missed her guess… and she hadn't even noticed until now. The last time she'd even been dimly aware of Nabiki clutching at her was when the girl had first done it. "Thanks a lot, Nabiki," she said bitterly. "You don't have a lot of confidence in me, do you?"

"Not at all," Nabiki countered. "I just thought it was better to be safe than sorry." She glanced as well down at the bruises on her sister's skin with honest surprise. She wouldn't have thought herself able to inflict actual physical harm on one of the martial artists of Nerima, even such a last-place specimen as her sister. Giving Akane a contrite look, she murmured, "Er, sorry."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry too," Akane said, even more bitterly than before. "I shouldn't be taking this out on you, not when Ukyo was the one who just got through cheerfully stabbing me in the back."

"And it wasn't just Ukyo," Sayuri added. She paused, then said, "Um… Akane?"

"What is it?"

"It's just… first that seppuku pledge, and now this… I mean, I don't want to be rude, but Ranma's mom looks like a total loon! And his dad's certainly not any better. Are you sure you want to marry into that family?"

"You shouldn't be so hard on Mr. Saotome," Akane protested. "He's been helping me a lot." Then she sighed. "But I really am disappointed in Mrs. Saotome," she said sadly. "Maybe Ranma was better off not growing up with her after all. He'd be an even bigger pervert than he already is…" Suddenly, the last question Sayuri had asked worked its way to the forefront of her attention, along with the fact that Nabiki was sitting there staring contemplatively at her. "WHAT?! M-marry that idiot? You've got to be kidding!"

"Or someone's got to be kidding, anyway," Nabiki murmured. "You sure looked like you wanted to give him something better there."

"But that's… that doesn't… I mean…" Akane shot to her feet as if her seat had suddenly grown red-hot. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go kick Ukyo's butt. Later, everybody!"

The remaining three girls watched as Akane raced out of the cafe. The silence was broken by Yuka. "Upperclassman, if we take care of teasing her at school, will you do it at home?"

Nabiki smirked back at the girl. "I suppose I could do that, if you can afford my fee." She held out one hand. "That will be fifteen yen."

"Ranchan? Can we talk?"

Ranma blinked, surprised at the question. "Sure we can, Ucchan." He glanced away from her to their fellow Astronomy Club members, streaming past them in the hallway and up the stairs to the roof. As soon as the two of them were up there, they'd have all the opportunity they needed to talk. Kaito certainly wouldn't mind; he would probably be ecstatic to have one club meeting go by without Ranma managing to somehow mess his telescope up further. "Why'd you even think you had to ask?"

"Because when I say 'talk', I really mean, 'skip today's club meeting so we can go somewhere we won't be overheard'," the chef explained. Dropping her voice and leaning conspiratorially closer, which prevented anyone else from overhearing but at the same time broadcast to them all that she and Ranma had a secret, Ukyo added, "I need to ask you some things about your mother."

"Okay, sure thing," he murmured back. Ranma put his hands in his pockets and began to walk casually backwards against the flow of students. It was more of a trickle than a flow, of course, since by now a majority of the club members were already on the rooftop, but Ukyo was still mildly impressed that he avoided hitting anyone. She was less impressed by the attempt at stealth, especially as he began whistling innocently and looking up as if staring off into the sky, and even less so when he suddenly turned and bolted out an open window with a cry of "Saotome Secret Attack! Run AWAY!!"

"Ranma you dummy, wait for me!" she exclaimed once she'd recovered from the shock, hurrying to the window and looking out. Ranma was just a fading red-and-black streak exiting the school grounds over the wall. Grumbling a few choice words under her breath, Ukyo made the descent as well, bouncing off a window ledge halfway down to slow and control her fall. "That jackass better not have bolted for real," she muttered as she raced after him.

"What took ya so long?" Ranma asked as she bounded over the wall. He was leaning against it and would have had an excellent view if she didn't wear the boys' uniform to school.

Ukyo rolled her eyes, walked back to him, and gave him a reproving punch in the shoulder. "I had to pull my jaw up off the floor. What was that stunt supposed to be, anyway?"

He shrugged. "An experiment, I guess."

"Experiment?"

"Yeah. I mean, if you an' I had just cut class together, you know what kind of rumors would be goin' around the school even before the day was over."

"Uh-huh." Ukyo nodded, her eyes going unfocused and sparkly as she contemplated just what those rumors would have been saying.

"I've been putting up with that stuff for a long time now, and it's getting kind of old. So," Ranma shrugged, "I'm trying to see what I can do about it."

She pulled herself back to the real world with some effort. "Uh, Ranchan, I hate to break it to you, but doing it that way made it even more obvious that we were skipping out together."

"You sure about that?" he said with a grin. "Cause if I were the one watching something like that, it'd look to me like I bolted and you chased after me. Not the same thing at all."

His oldest friend stared back at him with an uncertain expression. "You honestly think that will work?" The expression darkened, ever so slightly. "Seems like a lot of effort just to maybe trick Akane into thinking you didn't spend the time with me."

Ranma snorted. "Akane? Yeah, right, as if. I wasn't doing this for her, Ucchan; if I'm lucky she'll just think we were using the time to make out and that I didn't drag Shampoo into it too. Getting Akane to not jump to that kinda conclusion would take a half day's planning and probably a good hour's worth of preparations to boot. Not a spur-of-the-moment thing like I did. When I did that I was just thinking about the halfway-reasonable guys and girls at Furinkan."

"All five of them," Ukyo quipped. Well, it wasn't like the youngest Tendo was going to get any angrier at her due to her spending time with Ranma today. After what had happened on Saturday Akane might well be angrier now at Ranma for hanging out with her — which was why she would have preferred they both sneak away from Furinkan without being seen — but if he didn't think that mattered then she wasn't going to worry about it. Maybe it could even be a good thing; she'd already seen that Ranchan seemed to be putting up with less crud from Akane lately. "So you want to head on to my restaurant?"

"If that's what you want," he answered. "How long do you think this is gonna take?"

"I'm not sure. Why? You don't have anywhere else to be for an hour."

"Yeah, so I was thinking that if it didn't take that long, and if you wanted to of course, then we could have another practice match like that last one." He'd enjoyed it a lot and knew she had as well. It would be nice to have another good time like that with her, to enjoy again something reminiscent of the carefree days they'd spent together as kids. If he was going to catch grief from Akane for being with Ucchan this afternoon, he might as well go as far as he could in balancing said grief out.

Ukyo smiled widely. In that moment nothing else mattered, not worries about Ranma's mother, nor regrets that her strained friendship with Akane had finally and inevitably foundered. "That sounds great to me, Ranchan. Okay, never mind the restaurant. I think there's a vacant lot a few blocks away."

"Yep," Ranma confirmed, having rather more experience than she did with the random battlegrounds of Nerima. He took a few steps ahead of her, then turned around and began walking casually backwards again. When Ukyo gave him a quizzical look, he grinned at her, waved, and sped up. "Race ya there!" he cried.

'He can't possibly think he'll beat me like that?' she thought, doubting her eyes. Ranma was making an impressive pace, true — but it was only impressive because he was doing it while running backwards. At her top speed she would be able to blow past him like he was standing still… unless he was planning to pull some trick, of course… Ukyo mulled over that for a second, then jogged forward only fast and far enough to catch up to him. She then whipped off her bandoleer of minispatulas and looped it around her ankles like a makeshift set of manacles. This of course necessitated her stopping while she did it, but she was pleased to see Ranma stopped as well until she was moving again. She wasn't as pleased at the way he rolled his eyes and made a comment about only one of them needing a handicap to make this even, but she just smiled sweetly and hurried along as best she could without taking a stride longer than eight inches.

The pair of them undoubtedly made a funny sight as they rounded the final corner and came within sight of the lot. Ukyo's feet were nearly a blur from the quick, tiny steps; Ranma was still jogging backward and determinedly not looking over his shoulder, depending on his situational awareness and memory of Nerima to keep him on course. He was grinning at her, a taunting smile that reminded her better than words could that at their respective paces he'd been gaining a half-step on her every seventy feet.

Ukyo grinned back and shifted to full-length strides, pulling free of her carefully jury-rigged ankle-chain and blowing past him like he was standing still.

Were it not for the seconds he spent frozen in shock before whirling around and climbing to his own top speed, he might have beaten her anyway. But as it was Ukyo zipped across the finish line five steps ahead of her fiancé, gave him a good old-fashioned red-eye, then headed back into the road to retrieve her bandoleer and its ammunition. "There's probably some kind of lesson to be learned here," she confided to him as she returned to the lot.

"Yeah, maybe 'never trust a smiling girl'," Ranma shot back. He wasn't quite able to hide his grin, though. As someone who was finally realizing how much time he'd spent mired in the same old patterns, it felt good to see someone he cared about be resourceful and adaptive. Especially since the technique Ukyo had employed to win hadn't been tied to okonomiyaki.

'Hmm… Not sure I can argue with that,' Ukyo thought. That axiom certainly would have stood her in good stead during her encounter with Nodoka. The reminder didn't entirely remove her happy glow, but it did diminish it noticeably. "We can spar first, if you want," she said seriously. "But what I wanted to talk about is pretty important. Do you want to get that out of the way?"

"Yeah," he said, heading over to the side of the lot with an adjoining boundary wall, sitting down and leaning against that. As Ukyo joined him, he asked, "What did you want to talk about? You said you wanted to ask me something about Mom?"

"Actually it wasn't just to ask you something," she answered. "But I guess that's as good a way as any to start out. So, Ranchan, about your mom…" The chef hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Did you know she flat-out expects you to string along a bunch of mistresses as well as your wife?"

Ranma twitched, closed his eyes, and bit down a few choice words of his own. "Uh… well…" After a few long moments of silence he opened his eyes again to give Ukyo a sickly grin, which fell quickly off his face as his gaze met hers. Sighing, he said, "No, I didn't know. From some of the stuff she said, I suspected. I knew for sure that she wouldn't mind a bit. But actually expect it outta me? No, Ucchan, I didn't know that." He gave an unhappy laugh. "I hoped it wasn't true, but I guess it's time to let go of that."

"Oh, yeah," Ukyo said briefly, certainty weighing the monosyllables as heavily as millstones.

"So how'd you find this out?" he asked.

"You really don't know?" she replied, surprise evident in the words. "Um… did Akane not say anything to you about what happened on Saturday?"

"Huh?" What did that have to do with anything? "Just that her training session with Pop was pretty rough, which was why she got battered enough to slow her down for a couple of days."

'Uh-oh.' Time for some reevaluation. Ukyo wouldn't have bet a bent yen coin against Akane not telling Ranma anything of what had happened those two days ago. She had come to school today prepared for a wide range of possible responses, and had been seriously relieved to find Ranma no less hospitable to her than usual. Akane herself had merely kept quiet and stayed out of Ukyo's way, which was another relief. She hadn't even bad-mouthed Ukyo to her friends behind the chef's back, or at least she hadn't started doing so before they separated for their respective clubs.

Well, apparently her friends and the greater populace of Furinkan weren't the only ones she hadn't complained to. Ukyo chewed her lower lip nervously, then spit it out. "Training session my butt; Genma doesn't have anything to do with it. She overheard me say some things she didn't like, and tracked me down at my restaurant afterward and challenged me to a fight." At least Akane hadn't caught up with her before she'd been able to change out of that kimono. The taxi she'd taken might have been more expensive, but Ukyo was glad she'd returned home that way rather than settling for public transportation.

For a long, long moment Ranma stared at her, then he grimaced and shook his head. "I knew this stuff with Pop was gonna let the tomboy think it was okay to get in over her head."

"You shouldn't sell her quite that short, Ranchan," she protested.

"Really?" he said skeptically. "She actually gave you a challenge?"

"Well, no," the chef was forced to admit. "But I did have to use some actual effort to take her down. Not to mention that she didn't fold like an accordion at the first little bit of pain."

He shrugged. "Maybe she learned something from the fight then. If not directly from you, I hope Pop drove it home to her, since she had to have told him at least why she was banged up like that. Think I'll ask him, just to make sure." However the fight had gone down, it didn't seem to have discouraged Akane from training. At least, she hadn't skipped a session yet that he was aware of, though Ranma mainly only paid attention to them nowadays to know when it was safest to fly away for awhile.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he returned to more important matters. "You said Akane tracked you down after listening in on you. Who were you talking to? An' how does this tie in to Mom?"

Ukyo sighed. "Like I said, it was on Saturday. I had just got home after the half-day of class when your mom called, inviting me to go with her to a café for the afternoon. I said yes, got changed, and rode there with her in a cab. We talked for awhile, never realizing Akane was one freakin' booth over listening to everything and not being too happy about any of it."

"And just what was it that you guys talked about?" Ranma asked, hoping that he'd already heard the worst of it from Ukyo's opening question.

"Nothing you're gonna want to hear, Ranma honey," she warned him. She took a moment longer to gather her thoughts, then gave an abridged version of the talk.

"You were right," he said tiredly once she'd finished. "I didn't want to hear that."

"That makes two of us," she replied. "I've woken up sweating from nightmares that weren't as bad as hearing your mom tell me you're marrying Akane and taking as many mistresses as you can get away with."

"And Akane really sat in the background and listened to all of that? Without busting in and making her opinion known loud and clear?" he wondered. It wasn't the most important thing here, not by a long shot, but it would serve for a few minutes of distraction while he let the bigger issues sink in.

"Yeah, apparently," she said. "Seems crazy to me too, and I don't guess I like it much more than you do. I didn't tell your mom anything that wasn't true, but I wouldn't have said some of it if I'd known who was listening in."

"Was Akane really mad at you? I mean, I know she had to be pretty ticked, to challenge you to a fight and press you even a little bit. But with her, there's mad and then there's mad."

Ukyo stared wearily back at him. "She's not going to forgive me this time. Don't know if she'll pick another fight or not, but whatever limping, struggling friendship we had has finally laid down and died. It hurts," she sighed, "but to be honest, it doesn't bother me nearly as much as knowing how much trouble this stuff with your mom could be for you. You're way more important to me than Akane ever was or could be, Ranchan, and unless there's something you really need to get off your mind with her, I'd rather move on to talking about your mom again."

Ranma pondered that, feeling more than a little regret at the thought that things had truly died for real between those two of his fiancées. "Guess maybe I'd just like to know whether Akane's gonna get in my face and demand that I pick you or her," he said. It was an unpleasant thought at best. He was reasonably sure that he could stand up for himself now with her, and even that he could weather the storm of Akane's anger and resentment until she at least accepted that he didn't want to lose any of the friends he had, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that. Maybe it wouldn't; she seemed to be developing more self-control these days.

"I don't know," she said unhappily. "Can't really speak for her like that. But if she hasn't done it yet, maybe she won't. And I don't know if it means anything or not, but when she was in my face challenging me, she sure made it sound like she assumed it was all my responsibility, that your mom had found out about me."

"Weird." But maybe hopeful too. There didn't really seem anything more to be said on this subject, and so he fell silent, reluctantly turning his thoughts back to the bigger problems at hand.

Ukyo started to say something, then cut herself off as she saw the look of contemplation on Ranma's face. She remained quiet, letting him have the time he needed to think. When he was ready to open up again, she'd be there with the ideas she had come up with over the past two days.

"About Mom," he said at last. "The only thing that I'm seeing right now is to buy time. This ain't anything that's going to be fixed in a day." He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Not even the kind of crazy, turn-everything-upside-down days like we have around here."

"There haven't been all that many days that turned everything upside down anyway," she pointed out. "I mean, not for longer than just that day."

"Yeah. But the chaos could actually end up working in my favor. At least, it seems like it might be possible," he said hopefully. "As Mom sees more an' more unbelievable stuff, maybe it'll help her let go of the stuff she always thought was obviously the only way to look at things." He gave her a rueful sidelong glance. "Like that stuff about it not being right for you to own your own restaurant, but just hand it over to a guy with a smile an' a 'Yes, dear'. I'm sorry about that, by the way."

"Not like you got anything to apologize for, Ranchan," she said, nonetheless blushing and feeling very glad he'd said that. "Although now I'm wondering something. Should I be jealous that it took you less than ten minutes to come up with most of the best plan I've been able to put together with two days to think about it?"

"Huh?" It took him a couple of seconds to parse that last sentence. "You mean you already thought about that? About buying time and trying to gently lead Mom into not thinking it's only manly if there's a bunch of girls with the one guy?"

"Not sure you or your mom can afford 'gently'," she cautioned. "Life around here ain't all that gentle, you might have noticed. But yeah, that is what I was thinking." She hesitated, debating something, then said, "You got any ideas on how to do it? How to shake your mom out of her preconceptions, using stuff that's right here at hand? And maybe even solve another long-running problem at the same time? One that you were working on and got distracted from by all the latest insanity?"

"Sounds like you've got some idea about that yourself," Ranma noted, wondering why a tremor of dread had suddenly shot through him. For the life of him he couldn't see what would be setting off his danger sense like that.

"It wasn't that hard," Ukyo said modestly. "Heck, if a few minutes ago was any indication, you could probably come up with it yourself in another quarter hour." She grinned at him. "But this time I'd rather not let you steal my thunder, Ranchan."

"Yeah, so what was your idea?"

"Kill two birds with one stone," Ukyo said with a grim smile. An instant later she realized that the quotation wasn't as apt as it had seemed when she was only looking at things from one angle. "Uh, sorry, that actually doesn't fit as well as I thought. I was just thinking about Shampoo there, not you."

'Oh, crap.' Now he knew where this was going. If ever there was a time for a sudden rainstorm to happen by and get him out of trouble, it would be now. He looked desperately up. The blue of the heavens above was broken only by a single songbird, flying merrily overhead and whistling a cheerful tune. Silently Ranma promised that if he ever saw it again, it was lunch.

Back on terra firma, Ukyo was still speaking. "I mean, it seems like the best fit you could ask for. Maybe you could get rid of her all on your own, though I know how hard that would be even if your mom wasn't here taking up so much of your attention. But surely it would be better to get Mrs. Saotome involved in that too. I mean, unless you've been working behind the scenes without telling me and are just about ready to send Shampoo on her way for good," her tone made it clear that while this was a best-case scenario, she didn't think it likely, "your mom's going to have to find out about the Amazons. And once she does, she's certainly gonna let them know she's not about to have her son dragged off for a life like that. Better to tell her on your own and work together with her, or at least that's how it seems to me."

The chef paused, waiting to see if Ranma had anything to say in response. When he kept quiet, she continued, "It's not like there's any real danger of them playing too rough with her. I mean, we've all been around long enough to know that no matter how many times Shampoo says 'obstacles is for killing', those two by themselves don't really play that kind of hardball. Not here in Japan where they can't get away with it, at least. But for sure they won't just lie down and give up, they'll pull the usual stupid tricks that don't work but do give everybody more grief, they'll argue as long as they can to try and shove Nodoka around to their side. It'll buy you time while she's busy getting them to give up, and it even ought to shake some of that stupid certainty that you oughta grab every good-looking girl who's interested."

Ranma still didn't seem to have anything to say in response. Ukyo took a good look at him, noting with concern his closed eyes, slumped posture, and drawn, weary expression. "Ranma honey…?" she asked.

Without opening his eyes, he said, "Do you trust me?"

"W- What?"

"Do you trust me, Ucchan?" Now he did look up and meet her gaze.

"Yes," Ukyo said slowly, obviously wondering why he'd asked and concerned with the twist the conversation had taken. "You ought to know that, Ranma."

He gave her the ghost of a smile. "Yeah, I do. I was just reminding you, before telling you that I did talk to Shampoo about all this stuff."

"So she wouldn't listen," Ukyo guessed. "Doesn't that just make it a better idea to get your mom involved too?"

"Oh, she listened," he replied. "Just like she was listening in that day at Furinkan. You know, when you said all that to me in the first place."

The chef blanched and gulped. "Sh-she was there? She heard all that?"

Ranma opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again as Ukyo shot to her feet and darted away. Before he could spring up and chase after her, though, he saw her jump to the top of the adjacent house and stop there. She spent a few seconds looking scanning the area from that vantage point, then jumped down again and returned to her original spot seated close to him. "What was that for?" he asked.

"Just making sure nobody was eavesdropping this time," Ukyo said grimly. "For a second there I was wondering if I picked up some curse of my own, to always be overheard at the worst possible time." She well remembered how… eloquent she had been in explaining to Ranma just how critical it was to pull away from the Amazons for good. If Shampoo had really heard that, it was hard to believe that she could have simply let it slide, that she'd really let three weeks and more go by without attempting any sort of revenge. Maybe she'd just caught the tail end of the conversation and had bluffed Ranma about how much she'd really been witness to. "So… Shampoo heard all of that, huh?"

"Yeah, and she was pretty unhappy," Ranma confirmed. "Unhappy enough to spend an hour just talking with me about how things really were, what you'd gotten wrong and what none of us ever thought about."

"What I got wrong? I didn't get anything wrong!" Ukyo protested.

"Huh? Ukyo, where the heck did you get all this certainty anyway?" It had nagged Ranma off and on for a while now, every time he'd thought about the situation with Ukyo and her misunderstanding of Amazon affairs. "I mean, you only got most of this second-hand from me, and the kami know I make mistakes sometimes."

Ukyo's mouth gaped open and closed for a few moments as she tried to find an answer. "I just… it's just… it really is that obvious! What, you're saying that you wouldn't mind after all if it was your own daughter one day handing out the Kiss of Death?" she demanded, her mind flitting easily back to the conversation with those random girls that had hit her so hard. "You'd just laugh it off if it was your son getting treated like they treat Mousse? As long as Shampoo is an Amazon there's no way you can afford to even get near her, and it's plenty damn obvious she'd never give that up for you! She'd rather just sit back and expect you to fit your life to hers!"

"See, that right there is exactly what I'm talking about!" he shot back. "Ukyo, I ain't asking you to like her. Hell, I'm not even asking you not to fight with her. But you gotta see things as they really are. And apparently it doesn't mean anything to you, the fact that I already told you that when push came to shove Shampoo sided with me against Cologne? That without her help then, the old ghoul actually woulda succeeded in forcing me to marry her?"

Once again Ukyo gaped for several moments, trying and failing to reconcile that undeniable fact with something else that seemed utterly self-evident. At last, feeling as if something were crumbling despite her best efforts to hold onto it, she muttered, "Okay, maybe I was wrong about that one little thing. But—"

"But nothing!" Ranma exclaimed, hoping desperately that he could end it now before things got any worse. He couldn't give her the whole story, and without satisfying at least some of her concerns he couldn't just say "I don't want to kick Shampoo out of my life." With most other people he could have made something up — or, as Genma would put it, employed a Saotome Desperation Verbal Technique — but not Ucchan. She deserved at least a truth.

"What if I or Mom or anybody did push that hard, and Shampoo thought she had to give that up to still have a chance at me?" he asked her. "Whaddaya think the old ghoul would have to say about that?" This much was speculation on his part, though it didn't seem unlikely. Even if it was wrong, even if he were doing the Matriarch a total disservice, Ranma was still going to take the gamble. It might not be wise to draft Cologne for the role of scapegoat, but he could handle a few lumps on the head more easily than this entire situation spinning further out of control. "Think it might just make this whole tangled-up mess more complicated and dangerous?"

"Well, damn," Ukyo said bitterly. "So much for the easy answers."

"Oh, like we ever had any chance of those," Ranma retorted, doing his best to radiate only the dissatisfaction he felt with the ultimate state of affairs, and not his relief to have skirted another immediate potential disaster. "Right now Mom is the one to focus on."

"I guess you're right," Ukyo replied, regret staining her words like sake spilled over a kimono. "I don't have any more bright ideas for that, though."

"Yeah, me neither." He got to his feet and began stretching. "But right now, puttin' all of this off to the side and just having a nice, simple, relaxing fight seems like a really bright idea."

She heaved a long sigh, then nodded and stood as well. "Yeah, you're probably right. I know I could use something to remind me of better days." She dredged up a smile and said, "That doesn't mean I want this fight to end with my face in the dust and you sitting on my back, though."

He smiled back at her, the expression taking strength from hers. "Promise to throw in a couple of victory okonomiyaki back at your place an' it's a deal."

It was Ukyo's turn to smile brighter in response to his. If Ranchan wanted victory okonomiyaki, that was what he'd get… but if he actually wanted to eat them rather than watch her scarf them down, he was going to have to take that victory out of her pummeled, beaten hide. "You got it, Sugar."

Akane stared grimly down at her prone opponent. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled the savory scent of impending victory. Her fingers twitched and clenched, anticipating the moment when they would plunge piercingly down through flesh to bone. Swallowing an urge to give a war-cry, she struck the first shattering blow.

Nodoka watched in mild dismay as Akane shredded the precooked chicken. She bit back an urge to stop the girl, hoping that Akane would realize her mistake on her own.

"There! How's that, Auntie?" the youngest Tendo asked triumphantly once she'd finished, gesturing toward the pile of meat. Every bit of it had been torn to the consistency Nodoka had showed her.

"I'm afraid your approach needs some work, dear," Nodoka said regretfully.

"What? Why?"

The Saotome matron gestured toward the denuded chicken skeleton, indicating the numerous areas where small bones had been shattered and included into the pile of meat. "You're still going too fast and with too much force," she explained. "We couldn't even feed this to Mr. Panda, assuming he and Ranko hadn't moved away to stay with other family…"

Akane waited silently for the moments Nodoka spent in wistful thought. A few days ago she would have tried to distract the woman from her melancholia, not wanting Nodoka to spend any time regretting the disappearance of the redhead she'd been so fond of. Now, though, Akane just let it run its course. It brought her that much closer to the end of this stupid lesson without risking the conversation moving to areas it shouldn't. 'She's probably just upset that she can't push 'Ranko' into Ranma's bed too,' she thought, grateful that the anger and unhappiness of the idea were diluted by the massive irony involved.

"I'm sorry," she said once Nodoka had worked past her fugue and returned her attention to the present. "I guess I just got carried away with making sure the chicken was all broken down to the right size." She looked away from her teacher, down to the pile of meat. "I bet I can get the bones out, though!"

"No, Akane, don't waste your time," the Saotome matron said gently "Even if you could, you couldn't be sure you had gotten them all." She swept the chicken into a trash bag, then produced a selection of vegetables. "We'll work with these instead."

"Okay!" Akane said determinedly. "Wash them first, right?" When Nodoka smiled encouragingly and nodded, she proclaimed, "Don't worry. I won't mess this up!"

Nodoka held back a sigh as she watched her student give the vegetables a VERY thorough washing… so thorough that she used nearly a quarter of the bottle of dishwashing soap. She waited with ever-diminishing optimism, hoping against hope that this time Akane might realize her error on her own. Failing at that, perhaps the girl would at least pay enough attention to her surroundings to notice her teacher's expression, and stop and ask if there was anything wrong.

When Akane's ministrations separated the tenth leaf from the second head of cabbage, Nodoka decided the time for subtleties was past. "That's enough, Akane," she said with a sigh. "You're still trying much too hard." Forcing a smile, she said in a lighter tone, "But at least we could feed this to a pet…"

"What? Did I do something wrong again?" Akane asked, blinking innocently. "How can you try too hard to get food clean before cooking it?"

Nodoka picked up one of the detached leaves and flicked it. The move sent a lemony-fresh scent of cleaner billowing through the air, as well as illustrating how thoroughly the cabbage's natural fiber had been crushed. The leaf moved more like a piece of terrycloth than something that had grown out of the ground. "Why don't you watch me for a while?" she suggested.

"Okay," Akane agreed. When Nodoka turned away to gather more vegetables from the cupboard, she sneaked a glance at the clock. Halfway done. It would be nice to get the rest of the way through this lesson without having to wreck many more ingredients. 'Even if Mrs. Saotome is the one who paid for them, and even if I am doing this to keep her focused on safe things, it still feels bad.' Not nearly as bad as some directions this little get-together could go, though. Cooking wonderful meals for one's family was nowhere near the worst 'wifely duty' Nodoka could be trying to push on her. Akane wasn't about to let things go down that road. Better to keep the woman focused solely on the food, and if the best way to do that was by continuing to screw up royally, then so be it.

It was annoying that she'd accomplished this simply by following her instincts, but for now she could live with that.

Nodoka moved slowly and carefully as she washed the replacement ingredients, keeping up a running commentary describing what she was doing and why. She was encouraged, at least a little, to see that Akane was watching attentively and showing no signs of disappointment, distraction, or insult. On the other hand, that was how all their lessons had gone so far, and it didn't seem to mean much in terms of overall improvement on the part of her student.

'It's all well and good that she listens,' Nodoka reflected, 'but it almost seems as if she doesn't hear everything. I'm not sure how many times I've told her that she needs to slow down, use less effort and more thought, but it simply doesn't seem to be sticking. She keeps on trying too hard, putting too much of herself into everything…' A meal could only be made better by including more love, but when frustration, uncertainty, denial, and overconfidence were added to the mix it could only be a recipe for disaster.

As she moved from washing to chopping the vegetables, an idea struck her. Akane's overzealousness wasn't her only problem, but Nodoka suspected it was the worst. Perhaps her results would actually improve if she didn't try and focus every shred of her being into the task at hand? Perhaps a little distraction would actually work in her favor? It might well be possible, the woman mused, wondering how best to test it. Perhaps instead of simply verbalizing everything she was doing, she could engage Akane in unrelated conversation. Then, at the end of the lesson, she could ask her student to recap everything Nodoka had done while they were talking. If Akane could, then during their next session Nodoka could try distracting her while Akane did the cooking.

The Saotome matron looked up from her current task and gave Akane a smile. "There's really nothing special about what I'm doing now, dear, so instead of doing all the talking myself I'd like to hear more from you. How was your day today?"

"Huh?" Akane said, finding it difficult to focus on the actual question. She was more concerned with the fact that Nodoka was looking solely at her, rather than the hands that were blithely chopping a ginger root with Kasumi's sharpest knife. Even as she watched, the woman finished without incident, set the knife aside, and began tearing cabbage leaves. "Nothing special about what you're doing now…?" she echoed weakly.

Nodoka smiled and nodded, her gaze never wavering from Akane. A moment later, though, she realized that it wasn't quite true. "Well, this time ought to be special," she confided to the girl. "It's almost the only time you and I get to spend just with each other." And after what Ukyo had told her, and the other side of the story that she had received from Nabiki, that was more important than she'd first realized. "I hope it's not presumptuous of me to say so, but… but I've always missed having a daughter. And I would like it very much, if I could be there for you in any way you need me to."

Akane looked away, feeling an uncomfortable mixture of warmth and irritation. 'If she really wanted to help me out, she could do it as _Ranma's_ mother by telling Ukyo to back the heck off her son,' she thought. 'But I couldn't get that lucky. At least maybe there's a chance she won't be like that with Shampoo. She is a gaijin after all, and that's got to count with somebody as traditional as Mrs. Saotome.' Still and all, though, Akane wasn't about to be the one to tell Nodoka about the existence of the Amazon. Shampoo would inevitably learn the truth sooner or later, but Akane would just as soon keep her out of the mix as long as possible.

Aloud, she said, "I… well… thank you, Auntie. Um, you asked me a question earlier, didn't you?"

"Just how your day went, dear."

'Let's see… Between first and second period I talked to Yuka and Sayuri and heard about Ukyo chasing Ranma out of the building late yesterday, and I spent the whole day trying to keep the promise I made to myself three days ago about not blaming him for things that turn out to be her fault, and that took just about all the concentration I had…' Those were the thoughts that ran through Akane's head, but what she actually said was, "It was pretty quiet."

"I see. What about your training this afternoon? It doesn't look like Genma dearest put you through too much of a wringer this time," Nodoka said. "I'm glad today wasn't a repeat of Saturday, at least."

"Me too," Akane grumbled under her breath.

"What was that, Akane? I couldn't quite hear you."

"Um, nothing important. What I meant to say was that you shouldn't blame Uncle Saotome for that. Yeah, things got a little rough then, but that's the price you have to pay, to be a true martial artist." Akane looked down, her left hand closing tightly onto the counter before her, her right clenching into a fist. "And that's what I'm going to do," she promised. "Who I'm going to be."

"Well, if you're really sure…?"

From the way Nodoka had let the words trail off, it sounded very much to Akane like the woman expected, even needed an answer. She didn't have to think very hard about it. "I'm really, definitely, positively, absolutely sure," she declared.

Nodoka heaved the tiniest of sighs. "Then I should apologize to Genma dear, for rebuking him for going so hard on you?"

Akane blinked. "What? You gave him a hard time over it?" When Nodoka gave a shamefaced nod, she fought a minor feeling of dizziness. 'Then that means… even after his wife told him he needed to go easier on me, he didn't at all. Mr. Saotome kept pushing me just as hard as before, he wouldn't let me slack off even a little after losing to Ukyo like that. I'll have to thank him.' For a moment the plan of making a delicious dinner for him swam up from whatever self-defeating corner of her mind was responsible for such things, but Akane swiftly choked it down. She had learned at least some lessons from the times she'd spent in the kitchen with Nodoka. What would be a better way to thank him? Oh, yes. "Yes. You should apologize. I'm grateful to him for training me. And… no offense, Auntie, but he's the one who knows how to teach martial arts. You shouldn't interfere with him."

"All right, Akane. I won't," Nodoka promised. She let loose another, more noticeable sigh. "It's just that… I see you girls, who haven't had a mother for so long, or anyone who can even fill a part of that need, and I really want to be able to. As much as you need, as much as I can, and of course I just have to hope that the first of those two isn't bigger than the second… I'm sorry if I went a little too far in trying to protect you."

"That's… it's all right," Akane said slowly. 'Is that really how she feels? Is this… maybe this could be a good chance to deal with the problem head on, instead of trying to keep it from ever getting in my face?'

A few moments of frantic thought failed to resolve the matter. Maybe if she confronted Nodoka now over her biggest error in judgment, the woman might be willing to listen and consider how utterly wrong she was. Or she might just dig her heels in and refuse to even consider budging, in which case having all this out in the open could easily be worse than the current state of affairs. Akane just didn't have enough information to go on, in order to decide which outcome was more likely.

Since she couldn't make the decision based on pure reason, she decided to choose courage over caution.

"Thank you," Nodoka said, shaking her out of her thoughts. The older woman smiled at her, then turned her attention back to the various vegetables. "We've got all the ingredients prepared now, and it's time to—"

"Please, wait," Akane interjected. "Could… could we put that on hold for now?" When Nodoka blinked and gave her a questioning look, she took a deep breath and continued, "There's something I wanted to talk to you about. Something more important. Something that maybe you could help me with."

"Certainly, Akane," the Saotome matron answered. "Is it some problem? Do you need advice, or is there something else I can do?"

"Maybe." Akane fell silent while she thought of how best to continue. Just jump right in with the declaration that no, it wasn't right that Ranma ought to have his perverted way with every girl that came along? That felt like too much, too fast. Maybe she could lead into the matter through something more specific. "I talked to a couple of my friends at school today," she said at last, trying to feel her way forward without admitting too much at once. "On Saturday after school, they went to a café a long way away. And while they were there, they overheard a conversation that really surprised them."

'Oh dear.' Hoping this wasn't going where she thought it was, Nodoka asked, "What sort of conversation? And who was talking?"

Akane stared steadily back at her. "It sounds like it was you, Auntie. Talking to a girl called Ukyo Kuonji."

"I see." Nodoka's poker face was marred by the large beads of sweat springing up on her brow. "I did indeed ask her to meet me there, yes. We had tea and talked about various things, some big and some small."

The youngest Tendo upped the intensity of her stare. "From what Yuka heard, the last thing Ukyo said before she left was that my whole family was a bunch of honorless hypocrites. Was that one of the big things, maybe?"

Nodoka sighed, then replied, "Actually, no. Not as such." She waited a moment to see if Akane would respond with anything more than that stunned, wide-eyed gape. As an alarming flush began to spread up the girl's cheeks, Nodoka reconsidered the wisdom of letting Akane have the next word. "I will admit that it hit me rather hard at the moment, but the next day Nabiki noticed the signs of distress that I must not have been hiding as well as I thought. She and I talked, and although I didn't tell her many of the details, she heard enough to explain to me what Ukyo had been talking about." Nodoka reached out and placed a gentle hand on Akane's shoulder for a moment. "Ukyo was wrong to blame you as she did, Akane, but you must understand why she did it. She wants to be with Ranma, to be his wife, and that can't happen because of the promise to your family. Of course she would resent it, that there were times when you proclaimed your engagement to Ranma was over, and yet that didn't actually end the matter at all."

Despite Nodoka's best efforts, the shades of disapproval had darkened that last sentence. She might understand and excuse Akane's temper tantrums as the results of jealousy, immaturity, and lack of proper maternal guidance, but that didn't make such treatment of her wonderful son any more palatable. Still, there was time to gently correct what needed to be corrected, and in any case Nabiki said the last time Akane had pronounced the relationship over had been quite some time ago. According to the middle Tendo, in the months since then Akane hadn't gone to such lengths even when faced with the same level of provocation. Nodoka hoped it meant the girl had already been growing past such behavior, even without the aid of a mother-in-law-to-be.

Forcing herself to focus on that and let go of unfortunate past mistakes, she said in a lighter tone, "It's understandable, isn't it? If Miss Kuonji allows herself to think that it really was your decision to make, rather than your father's, then she can believe that she should have long ago gotten what she wants. She can tell herself that rightfully she ought to be Ranma's official fiancée. You shouldn't be angry with her, dear, but rather be gentle and gracious and forgiving."

"So what you're saying is, I should show that I'm better than Ukyo by not holding any of that against her. In fact, I should go to her and tell her it's all right, I'm not mad at her for anything she did."

"I'm not sure I would suggest that last part yet," Nodoka demurred. "Perhaps it would be better to let a little time pass before you try to mend any fences."

Akane gave a tight-lipped, crooked smile. "But I'm going to have to do it sooner or later, right? Because you already as good as promised her that she could have Ranma too, and even gave her a place just a half-step down from being his wife for real."

Nodoka sighed. So much for the faint hope that Akane's gossiping friends hadn't heard that portion of the conversation. "I am sorry you had to hear that now, and certainly sorry that you heard it second-hand like that," she said remorsefully. "That isn't how I wanted it, Akane."

"I'm a little more concerned with the bigger picture of what you wanted!" Akane snapped back, nearly losing her tenuous grasp of her temper. With great effort, she unclenched her hands from the grip that had been spreading cracks in the counter. "Mrs. Saotome… you said you were sorry that it all came out like that, that it wasn't how you wanted it to. I can understand that, I guess, because in a perfect world I wouldn't have to say what I'm about to say how I'm about to say it." In fact, in a perfect world she would have been able to communicate that last sentence a lot more clearly than she had. Akane grimaced and took a moment to try and settle her internal turmoil.

"Then perhaps you shouldn't," Nodoka suggested. She pushed aside regret at how things had gone and stared directly into Akane's eyes, bringing more force of personality to bear than she usually did. "Akane, it would be much better for you to take some time to think about this, not react immediately out of confusion and hurt. I'll give you all the time you need."

"I don't need any!" Akane shot back. "Taking more time to think about it wouldn't change how things are. And I'm not going to mince words or hold back." She took one more deep breath, then said what she'd wanted to for seventy-nine hours now. "The truth is, you're wrong. I don't know how you can believe all these things, but they're just not true. You talk about manliness, as if it's somehow a good thing for one guy to share his time out among a bunch of different girls, and that's not right at all! A good man is somebody you can depend on to be there for you, who'll be faithful to you! It's not being manly, to string along a bunch of girls. That's just being perverted!"

Nodoka sighed, and took a tighter grip on her temper. "And where, exactly, did you learn this?"

"W-what? Where did I learn it?" Akane gaped. "I should be asking you that! Mrs. Saotome, I don't know if you noticed, but these things you believe are not a normal attitude!"

"You mean it's not the normal way of things according to the oh-so-important modern-day Western world values," Nodoka snapped back, feeling her control begin to fray. "Those values are nothing that we need or ever ought to welcome in among us. The ways of the past were what made our people strong and our nation glorious, and if we ever lost our way it was because we moved away from those things, believed that we needed to change simply for change's sake! All throughout our history we recognized that there were great men who stood head and shoulders above the common throng, men who simply could not be tied down by the same standards that applied to ordinary people! The very things that give order and stability to those common people, would be nothing but chains and shackles to the truly great!"

She took a few deep breaths, feeling much better now that she had reminded herself of what sort of man her son was. "Those great people should never be expected to fit into a common mold, Akane. They are meant to stride on ahead of us, leading the way for us. That is the sort of man Ranma is and will be. You cannot demand that a man like that should focus all of himself on just you. He has greater responsibilities, to himself and his destiny and the world around him. That is why he deserves more than just one woman to love him and care for him and support him. And of course the more good women he has to bear his children, the better for him and for the world."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Akane said through gritted teeth. "I know Ranma never spent much time with you but maybe it's in his blood anyway, to think that's just the kind of thing he deserves. But it's wrong. If he was a real man, he'd have sent Ukyo and Shampoo packing a long time ago!"

"That is enough!" Nodoka nearly spat the words. "Akane, I am willing to make as many allowances as I must for your misunderstandings about men and manliness in general. You may take as long as you like to overcome those problems. But you will not speak badly of my son!"

Akane stared into the older woman's implacable gaze, and felt the fire die out of her. She wasn't about to surrender, but this conflict had gone far enough. Time to disengage and walk away… though not without a parting shot, she decided. "I understand, Auntie. You'll be glad to be there for me, help me, and listen to me — just as long as I don't say anything you don't want to hear."

Shampoo smiled as she caught sight of Ranma, bounding over the rooftops toward the Cat Café. He was actually a little early for today's session, she noted — always a good thing. Her ancestors knew she'd spent enough time eager for the next chance she'd get to be with him. To see him finally and unequivocally return those sentiments would be heaven.

By now he had closed enough of the distance for her to make out the broad, open smile on his face. Her own happiness level climbed just that much higher. That wasn't the look of someone forcing himself to face down a trial, to fight through unpleasantness just to come out on the other side with greater skill in the Art. She'd seen that look on Ranma's face enough in the past to know better now. Her Airen was genuinely glad to be here.

Shampoo's grin widened and became a bit naughtier. That meant she could afford to push a little harder. After all, he'd said himself that it was for his own good.

As Ranma reached the apex of the last leap that would set him on the Cat Café rooftop, he found himself seized by a sudden blast of wind. It grabbed him and spun him head-over-heels, destroying all his control in an instant. However, it wasn't quite enough to steal awareness of his position relative to everything else; he was still headed for the rooftop that he'd been aiming for, and it looked like he was in for a softer landing than usual.

Twenty feet below him, Shampoo braced herself and spread her arms wide in a welcoming hug, all the while maintaining the high-powered Wind Strike to prevent her beloved from regaining control at the last second. It was only fair, she mused — after all, she'd used Ranma to soften her landings many times. How could she pass up a chance to return the favor? Ten feet… seven… fi—

A serpentine coil of solid air sl