Author's note: I'm so glad that my fic is being enjoyed by so many. I just want you guys to know that I read every single review you leave, and it really has kind of kept me going (albeit slowly these days) and motivated me to continue working on this fic. I think I'm also going to stop giving number estimates on these chapters, because I feel like I'm really fencing myself in. So just know that there may be more than 2 chapters left.

**Update 07/15/2019**: There's no easy way to let all of you guys know, and especially the nice guests who stumble on this fic. I do plan on coming back to it in the future, and I do know how I want it to end, but I simply haven't felt inspired to draw up the last few chapters. I'm sorry it's not the answer you're looking for, but I also don't want to drop this fic forever. Again, thank you for all the kind words.

Akane stretched, rubbing her eyes and doing her best to stick one leg into her skirt, but with little success. She'd had the best sleep of her life the night before, but she was still unbelievably groggy. Glancing back at the bed, she wondered if maybe she just liked having someone beside her. It made sense. When she was little, she used to climb into bed with Kasumi all the time during thunderstorms.

The bedcovers were crumpled, the bed empty, because Ukyo had probably gotten up long before to go seek out breakfast downstairs. She hadn't felt the girl leave, but she'd also been terribly exhausted after their journey the previous day.

Akane smirked to herself when she finally managed to wiggle into her skirt and zip it up. Everyone was probably awake by now. She didn't normally sleep this late, but since she didn't have to worry about school at the moment...or early morning wake-up calls per the brutal training sessions of the Saotome family...she hadn't really seen the harm of just relaxing for once. Granted, in a dangerous realm of spirits and demons...but who cared about Oni when there was such a wonderfully comfortable bed to sleep in?

"Akane?" Ukyo knocked on the door.

"Come in..." Akana stepped towards the door and shrugged on her shirt, a light yellow to go over her navy blue skirt. An outfit she'd packed for the journey, in case she had to dress formally. Who knew what sort of people you'd meet in the spirit realm, after all?

"Hey, sugar, they're getting ready for the first test downstairs..." Ukyo pushed the door open and gave Akane a lazy half-smirk.

"Ukyo, do you think I should really compete in this?" Akane asked nervously, straightening out her skirt.

"What do you mean?" Ukyo pulled back and frowned, standing in the doorway.

"Well...I mean...my cooking...I try. I really do try. Believe me. And Ranma's always a jerk when she tells me it's awful, but she's right, you know?" Akane bit her bottom lip.

"You're not the only one cooking today, hon. Why are you so worried?" Ukyo stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, folding her hands behind her back as she did so. She had a strange expression on her face. For a moment, Akane wished she was a mind-reader.

"Well..." Akane put her hands to her side and clenched her fists as she took a deep breath. "My cooking...it's awful, Ukyo. I can admit that now, with so much on the line. It's...it's terrible. Inedible, even, on my best days. And I always start with the best intentions; I try really hard, too! But somehow, every time...no matter how many things I put into a dish to fix my tiny mistakes, it only seems to make them worse. There's so much riding on making sure Ranma is a terrible cook today, I just..." She looked up at Ukyo, tears of frustration forming in her eyes. "I don't want my dish to turn out to be so bad, that...in comparison...everyone else looks like a five star chef."

"So what you're saying is..." Ukyo stepped a little bit closer to Akane, unclasping her hands and stretching her arms above her head. "...You don't want Ranma to win by default? And therefore, technically lose, because that gets her a little closer to having to marry Ryoga?" She asked, a slight twitch of a smile on her face.

"...Well...yeah..." Akane looked at her, a hopeless expression plastered on her face until she noticed the hint of amusement on Ukyo's.

"You're not taking this very seriously," she frowned, hurt.

"No, it's not that, Akane-chan," Ukyo waved her hands, as if she was trying to bat away Akane's poor mood in the process.

"Then why are you smiling?" The blue-haired girl demanded, almost on the verge of getting mad. It just tended to be her go-to emotion when she felt like she was being made fun of.

"Look, I wasn't born knowing how to make amazing okinomiyaki! Heck, sugar, you've heard the story. I trained...years. Years! I fought against the ocean itself, with nothing but a griddle and a spatula! I shed my gender for years in order to focus on my training. I gave up a lot to learn how to cook. And you know what? It didn't make a difference anyway, because I'm still not marrying Ranma. Y'know, at the end of the day, we're in the same boat." She stepped even closer to Akane, putting a hand on the other girl's shoulder, and this time Akane felt like the smile Ukyo gave her wasn't one of amusement or ridicule, but friendship. And she smiled back.

"When did you get so smart?" Akane asked.

"...I'm not Ranma-honey, Akane. Just because I know how to cook and kick butt doesn't mean I don't use my brain," Ukyo laughed.

Akane shook her head. "I guess I need to talk to you more often. You've got a pretty level head on your shoulders."

Ukyo pulled her into a hug and smiled over Akane's shoulder. "You do too, sugar. You just have to have more faith in yourself. And maybe...when you do make a mistake at the stove...don't try to cover it up with crab flakes, soy sauce, and ice cream sprinkles?"

Akane pulled away from Ukyo and sighed. "I only did that once. I thought the sprinkles were salt..."

"Okay, then maybe just try not to think at all. You might make something pretty tasty," Ukyo touched the end of Akane's nose and stuck out her tongue playfully. They laughed, and left the room together, hand-in-hand. Neither of them thought much of it. They were friends now, after all. Maybe even best friends, considering what they were going through together.

Ukyo, Akane, Ranma, and Shampoo stood in a line in front of a long table laden with all manners of strange vegetables and animals none of them had ever seen before. The lobby of the inn reserved specifically for large gatherings and strenuous competitions had been prepared for them, thanks to a few words from Cologne the previous night.

"Why do I gotta wear this too?" Ranma plucked at an overly-frilly apron tied around her waist, to match what the other girls wore. It wasn't like she actually cared if she got stains on her clothes. This just made her feel more girly, which was absolute last thing she wanted to be at that moment.

"In order to truly understand the zen of the kitchen, a woman must be completely at home in her surroundings. The budding rose can not truly flourish in a field of salt, and the tender butterfly can not nurture an iron garden..." Kuno nonsensically explained from across the lobby. He, Nabiki, and Kasumi were seated at a small judge's table, with piles of score cards at the ready.

"Kuno-baby insisted," Nabiki shrugged, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

"It's very becoming on all four of you," Kasumi politely added, smiling.

"Well, I think it stinks!" Ranma complained, tugging at the apron and trying to shift it down a little.

"...How are we supposed to cook with this stuff?" Ukyo picked up a strange-looking fish with three heads and one crab claw, sniffing at it and frowning slightly as she set it back down on the table. She may have prided herself in the kitchen for all of her hard-earned skill and technique, but this...this was an altogether new kind of challenge.

"It even edible?" Shampoo poked at a bubbling bowl of blue goop, and jumped back when an eyeball formed on the top of the mass and winked at her before sliding back down into the mass and disappearing.

The rest of the members of their party sat on benches that lined the walls. Genma and Soun had even managed to make shirts for the occasion, somehow, with 'Team Not Ranma' scrawled in black ink and poorly-drawn images of Ranma's with her tongue stuck out on the back. Mousse fiddled with his prayer beads, beaming in Shampoo's direction...which really was Kuno's direction, but he couldn't seem to tell. Cologne and Happosai sat on opposite sides of the group, both in deep thought. Ryoga was pitifully nursing a headache with an ice pack, and casting confused looks every so often in Ukyo's direction, because he still had no idea what had happened the night before when she kissed him and he passed out in the hallway. He was nervous around girls sometimes, but not that nervous. And certainly not with Ukyo. Luckily, the voice inside his head remained silent on the subject.

Taking a deep breath, Ryoga whispered a silent prayer to whoever would listen. Could listen to a guy with a demon inside him. He glanced over at Ranma and frowned, watching her begin to prepare her food at a small table as the judges signaled for each girl to pick her ingredients and begin.

"Ranma, please...for the love of all that is holy...Lose. This. Competition!" He thought to himself, desperately. Willing her to somehow read his mind. The funny thing was, though, as he watched her separate several peculiar pink vegetables into a pot, was...she actually looked kinda cute in an apron. He set his cold compress down and shook his head. Now was not the time to start getting weird thoughts about Ranma. Because he loved Akane. Akane was the one who looked cute in her apron...not...Ranma.

Crab claws flew one direction, bits of pancake and cabbage flew another, several eyeballs flew behind her, and Akane feverishly worked as best she could to save Ranma from herself, and hopefully save this dish...from...well...Akane. She bit her lip and gave a loud groan, drawing Ukyo's attention from across the room as the okinomiyaki chef calmly set her grill on a table-top to adjust the temperature just so.

"I can do this. I can do this. I CAN DO THIS!" Akane shouted, slicing through a squid...thing...looking for all the world like she was facing her greatest enemy. And she pretty much was.

"Hey, Akane!" Ranma called out, waving a strange-looking bird in the air, half-plucked.

"WHAT?! I mean...what?" Akane turned on her former fiancee, trying to wipe the look of extreme frustration off of her face, and failing. Her hand itched to pull out a large hammer to illustrate her bad mood, but she managed to restrain herself. She couldn't do stuff like that to Ranma anymore. Cooking always brought out the worst in Akane.

"...G...good luck..." Ranma blanched, setting her bird back down and blushing as she busied herself plucking the feathers.

Akane's face smoothed out, and she looked down at her cutting board, sheepishly. "...Thanks Ranma..." With that, she took a deep breath, and continued to work. This time, though, she found it was a little easier to calm herself. Glancing towards Shampoo, she noticed the Amazon was using a little bit of extra flair with her chopsticks and wok...in fact, quite a lot. Enough to be a fire hazard, actually...

Wiping a bit of sweat from her brow, she looked back towards Ukyo, and found the other chef had gathered up a small spatula and bowl, but wasn't really focusing so much on her preparation anymore. She was looking directly into Akane's eyes and smiling.

"You can do this," she mouthed the words. And somehow...Akane knew she was right.

Meanwhile, Ranma desperately struggled to force herself to 'accidentally' spill half a bottle of pepper into her dish...and it was one of the greatest challenges she'd ever faced, realizing she really was going to have to force herself to lose something. For her own good.