Ranma ½

Disclaimer: This episode of Ranma ½ is of my own creation. I do not own any portion of Ranma ½. "Ranma ½" and all related characters, names, etc. are ©1988-2004 Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan, Inc. Ranma ½ is a trademark of Viz Communications, Inc. All rights reserved

Mind Warp
Part 2:
Fear…What Fear?

Everyone in the Tendo living room goes deathly still at the strange events that have just occurred. Akane has just denounced her engagement to Ranma and has switched it over to Ryoga, whom she claims to love and is enthusiastically kissing at the moment. She backs off at the lip lock and looks at the young Saotome, who just interrupted her kiss with her beloved. "What do you mean Ranma?" the youngest Tendo asks, giving him a sour look. "I'm greeting my fiancée, what's wrong with that?"

The double cursed young man opens and closes his mouth several times, too shocked for words. Kasumi is the first to speak up. "What do you mean Akane?" she calmly asks, not letting her surprise show, "Ranma's your fiancée, you're engaged to him, not Ryoga."

Akane releases the directionally challenged man she is holding and stands up, a confused look now replacing her sour one. She looks at the younger of the two houseguests with a raised eyebrow. "Ranma? I'm engaged to him?" The Saotome youth cringes ever so slightly at the bitterness in her voice. Akane wraps her arms around Ryoga's middle, shaking her head. "You guys got it wrong, I barely even consider Ranma a friend, he's always insulting my looks, my fighting skills, my cooking and he's a total pervert. Ryoga on the other hand," she begins with a loving smile, "has always been the nicest and sweetest guy I've ever met. He's the one who I love and am going to marry." She snuggles closer into the young man for added affect.

Happosai shakes his head with a sigh. "This drama is too boring for an old man," he mutters while standing up. "I think it is time to go out and greet some young beauties!" With a scary chuckle, he leaps out of the house to go about his daily work, i.e., molesting young women and stealing their underwear for his ever-growing 'collection'.

Ryoga lightly returns the embrace with flaming cheeks, still amazed that the special shiatsu technique worked out so amazingly well. "Y-Yeah," he stutters out, "that's right." He meekly gazes at the ground. 'So this is what it feels like to be in heaven!'

Soun's head suddenly grows enormous as he enters his 'demon head' state, turning towards where Ranma was standing and shouts, "What is the meaning of this Ra…" but trails off as he notices that the Saotome boy is gone. The Tendo patriarch's head shrinks back to its normal size. "Where is he?"

Genma quickly looks around the room, his anger growing with each passing moment. "Ranma!" he shouts, "get in here boy! Explain yourself at once! The schools must be joined!"

Ryoga's body suddenly tenses as his danger sense comes to life in full alert. He looks around to see where it's coming from and as he looks behind him, the young man gets splashed with a bucketful of ice-cold water, compliments of a furious Ranma. Frantically, he tries to escape his beloved Akane's grasp, but he is unable to escape in time and transforms into the little black piglet P-chan.

Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi all gasp in shock at witnessing the young man turn into the youngest sister's pet. "P-P-P-chan?" The sudden revelation also comes to a shock to both the fathers in the household. Genma is surprised that he never noticed it before, plus the fact that his son knew the entire time and never told him; while Soun is more stunned than anything, suddenly remembering a little black piglet once leaping into the furo while he was in it and emerging as a young man some time ago. The Tendo elder was so caught off guard at what he witnessed that he completely forgot about it afterwards.

The piglet looks away from his beloved Akane, too shamed to look her in the face. 'No!' his mind screams in agony. 'Not now! I've finally had my love for Akane returned and she finds out I am a pig!' He turns his sights towards his rival, a fury unparalleled to anything he has ever felt before quickly rising inside of him as an angry squeal escapes him. 'Ranma! Once again you are the source of my pain and suffering! I will show you hell for this!' He is about to leap out of his beloved's arms when she suddenly pulls him in close in a cute embrace.

"Oh Ryoga you naughty boy!" Everyone around them face faults onto the floor. "I've slept with you and I've changed in front of you so many times!" she pulls P-chan up and gives him a kiss on his snout, getting a furious blush from the piglet. "I love my little naughty piggie!" Ryoga looks over at Ranma and gives him a smug snort, extremely relieved that Akane doesn't hate him or want to hit him…a lot.

The young sex-changing martial artist feels his world fall down around him. 'W-what's going on?' his mind weakly asks. 'Why is this happening to me?' Both his old man and Mr. Tendo both finally decide to not stand by idly anymore, realizing that this is not just a simple argument and something much more serious. They quickly go and face Ranma, neither looking too happy at the moment.

"What is the meaning of this Ranma?" Soun shouts, getting into his demon head mode again, smoke emerging from his nose while his tongue waves around like a snake. "What have you done to my little girl?"

The young Saotome is about to speak up when his father buts in. "You are supposed to marry Akane boy! The schools must be uni…" he is cut off by a sharp punch to his gut by his own flesh and blood, knocking the older man to his knees and the wind out of him. Everyone's eyes quickly dart over to Ranma, who is looking both frustrated and apologetic.

"Sorry pops, but I gotta say somethin and nobody's listenin ta me." He rubs the bridge of his nose for a moment. "I don't know what any of you are thinkin, but I didn't do nothin to her, nothin!" He pauses for a moment, staring at the little pig in his fiancée's arms. "Ryoga did something ta her, I know it!" The young man feels the anger build up inside of him as a fierce battle aura surrounds him. "That's it pig-boy! I'm tired of being nice ta ya and always goin easy on you! Time for some payback!" He charges full steam at the directionally challenged young man, fully intent on causing some serious harm for somehow taking his Akane away from him. He is just within arm's length when a large yellow mallet suddenly smashes down onto the top of his head, hitting him with such force that the floor below him cracks and nearly caves in.

Akane pulls the mallet off of Ranma's head and puts it behind her, the item vanishing to wherever she gets it from. "You should know better than to mess with my Ryoga," she huffs, cuddling the pig in her arms. "I don't even know why I bother with you anymore, you, you stupid, worthless, sex-changing…freak!" She spits out the last word with every fiber of loathing inside of her.

"Akane!" Kasumi shouts, a shocked expression adorning her innocent face, "how could you say such terrible things about Ranma?" She kneels over to see if the young man is all right.

"Yeah," Nabiki adds in, folding her arms with a stern frown, "this is totally unlike you sis. I know you and Ranma have your usual spats all the time, but this is way over the top."

Everybody backs off as Ranma suddenly stands up and dusts himself off, an unreadable expression on his face. "Did ya really mean all of that Akane? Are we…through?"

The youngest Tendo daughter snorts derisively. "We never had anything to begin with. I don't know what any of you thought, but I…do…not…love…you Ranma," she finishes, stressing the last few words, though despite how confident she sounds, the young woman feels an odd lurch deep in her heart after she is finished talking. 'What was that?' she thinks to herself. With a slight shrug, she turns around and heads upstairs with an elated P-chan in her arms.

Kasumi watches her youngest sister walk out on her fiancée with a hand over her heart. "Oh dear," she mutters, an unusual expression spreading across her normal cheerful face, sadness. "What will Ranma do now?"

Soun and Genma stand completely still for several moments, too shocked to think of anything. Suddenly, they look over at the two remaining available sisters, another of their masterful plans coming to fruition. In the blink of an eye, both Kasumi and Nabiki are pushed in front of Ranma. "Okay now boy," the species-changing martial artist begins, "since your engagement to Akane was a failure, you must now decide between Kasumi and Nabiki. Remember, the schools must be joined."

"Yes son," Soun adds, "choose which of my remaining daughters you wish to marry." Both fathers smile proudly at their 'great' back-up plan. "I believe introductions aren't necessary this time."

Nabiki is about to voice her displeasure loudly at possibly being given away again like some sort of simple material possession when Ranma quietly replies, "None of them."

Genma and Soun look between Ranma and each other a few times blankly before bursting out laughing. "Don't be foolish!" the young man's father chuckles. "Just be a man and choose one so we can put this whole mess behind us." His smile fades as his son turns his head and closes his eyes. "What are you doing boy?"

The Tendo patriarch goes back into demon head mode, snarling at the young man before him. "Why are you refusing? Are you saying there's something wrong with my daughters?"

"No!" the pig-tailed martial artist quickly denies. "Well…" he slowly adds, "if I got engaged to Nabiki…I'd be kinda afraid of what she'd wanna do with me ta make as much money as she could, like who she'd…rent me out too." A large shudder overcomes over him at the thought of being Kodachi Kuno's legal plaything for a day…or longer. "Kasumi," he pauses for a brief moment, gazing at the oldest, and most innocent of the Tendo sisters, "she deserves better than me…way better," he adds while looking down at his hands. "I don't wanna push any of my problems on them like I did with Akane."

Genma leans in closer to his son, an unreadable look on his face. "You know you must choose one of them son. Your honor lies on your decision."

"Honor," Ranma mutters, looking out the window, where several birds fly by. "Why does everything about me come back ta honor? I couldn't tell anybody 'bout Ryoga's curse cause of my honor as a warrior. I'm engaged ta three girls…and who knows how many more," he adds with an angry look at his pops, who sulks back slightly, "and I can't break it off with any of them cause of my honor as a man and their honor too. If I didn't know any better, I'd say my 'honor' is being used against me. Ya know, I don't think honor is all that great anymore."

"Do not say such a thing," Soun calmly replies

Kasumi clasps her hands together in front of her. "Yes Ranma, honor is a very important thing. It is neither unimportant nor a weapon. True, it can burden you at times, but your honor is what sustains you during harsh times when you feel all is lost. Please never speak badly of honor Ranma, for it is a great thing. I pride myself in the honor I have both for and with my family."

All those gathered in the living room blink owlishly at the oldest Tendo daughter's surprising insight. Nabiki scratches her cheek, wondering where it came from. "Ooookay, that was…unexpected."

Ranma nods once. "I see what you're talking about Kasumi, and I'm sorry about what I just said but," forcing a smile on his face, the young man turns his head back up to everybody in the room, "I think it's time ta move on. It's been…something else living here for the last year or so, but I think…no I feel that I don't belong here anymore. I'm sorry everyone, but I have ta get goin now. Later." With a respectful bow, he turns around and walks outside, sliding the door shut as he exits, leaving the three Tendos and other Saotome in his wake, the entire household suddenly seeming darker despite how bright and sunny it is outside.

As soon as he slides the door shut, Ranma rushes over to the side of his now former home and leaps onto the second floor, entering his and his pop's room through the window. Fighting back his sorrow, he quickly packs all of his belongings into his traveling pack and leaps back out the window, never turning back.

On top of the Tendo roof, Cologne scratches her chin while sitting atop her trusty old wooden staff, her mind working through everything she has just heard. "It looks like that directionally challenged boy actually did it…but something is troubling me." She looks down towards Akane's room. "Young miss Tendo's actions were much different than I would have thought. She treated son-in-law with nothing but utter contempt and the Hibiki boy pure love, even after finding out about his Jusenkyo curse." She rubs her wrinkled forehead in frustration. "I am positive that foolish child messed up somewhere while he was performing the memory-swap technique…but where he fell out of place and what he has done to her is still a mystery. I must read through my old scrolls and find the answer." With that she uses her staff as a pogo and bounces from rooftop to rooftop back to the Nekohaten.

A couple hours later, Ranma is quietly shuffling down the street, unsure of what to do now. "Man," he mutters out loud, "I shoulda thought of where I could stay before I left." His mind wanders on his two other lovely fiancées. 'If I stayed with Shampoo,' he thinks, 'that old ghoul'd probably wanna cart me off to China or somethin…though that means I could go to Jusenkyo and get rid of this stupid curse,' he adds with a light smile. 'But there is Moose,' the self-preserving part of his mind chides in. 'I don't wanna have to deal with that guy all the way to China. I mean, he's no big problem or anything, he's just really annoying, kinda like Kuno,' he adds with a slight smile.

He starts to gather some thoughts on his old friend and other fiancée Ucchan and how she could probably keep him over for a few days while he tries to set things right when a jingle of a bicycle ring reaches his ears just before it suddenly crashes into the back of his head, knocking the young man to the ground. He quickly hops to his feet, finding, as he suspected, a beautiful young Chinese Amazonian with long purple hair standing in front him. "Nihao!" she greets with her usual cheerful smile. "Shampoo have special treat for you!" she holds out a plate with some delicious looking and smelling food. "Shampoo work too too hard on food so Ranma be happy."

The martial artist warily takes the plate, raising a speculative eyebrow. The last time he ate some of the Amazon's cooking, he wound up hugging anybody who sneezed for several hours afterwards. "Um…what is this exactly?"

The smile quickly fades from Shampoo's face. "You…no want eat Shampoo cooking? You no like Shampoo?" Her lower lip begins to tremble as tears slowly form in the corners of her eyes.

Ranma, with his extreme lack of experience with women, does the only thing he can do…panic. Waving his arms around frantically, the young Saotome quickly says, "No Shampoo! I don't not like you or anything!"

"Then you no trust me?" She asks, placing one hand on her hip with a cute pout.

"No," he hesitantly replies, "I trust you…sorta."

With a smile, Shampoo lifts the food up to her 'husband' while smiling innocently. "Then you eat Shampoo cooking, yes?"

Without a second thought, Ranma takes the plate and, in one large gulp, downs the entire meal, not bothering to swallow, but noting that it does taste really good. As soon as it goes down, however, the purple-haired young woman covers Ranma's mouth with her hand. "Shmmumm! (Shampoo!)" he muffles out.

The Amazon shushes him, placing a finger over her lips. "Ranma no say anything yet," She quickly tells him. Suddenly a sign appears behind her from out of nowhere with something written down in perfect Japanese. She points to the sign and orders, "Now say what sign say!" as she lets go of his mouth.

The Saotome youth rubs his jaw for a moment before looking at the sign and saying, "I'm not afraid of c-cats? Shampoo, what are…" he suddenly trails off as an odd, but not unpleasant warm feeling courses all throughout his body. He looks down at himself, but sees nothing out of the ordinary. "What'd ya do to me?" Ranma's eyes widen as the beautiful Chinese girl picks up a bucket of cold water and raises it above her head. "Sh-Shampoo?" As she turns over the bucket, the martial artist closes his eyes and cringes, waiting for the worst to come. He hears the splash of water, yet he feels no paralyzing fear like he usually does.

For a few tense seconds, nothing happens. Then he feels something rubbing against his leg with a light purring sound. Curious, Ranma loosens up and opens his eyes, completely shocked to see the Amazonian in her cursed cat form leaning against his leg and looking up at him curiously. The young man blinks a couple of times, wondering if he might just get some sort of delayed reaction or something. When nothing comes, he kneels down to get a better look at the cat. "Did…did you do this to me Shampoo? Did you get rid of my fear of cats?" He is amazed that he feels absolutely no fear whatsoever, he can even manage to say 'cat' without being afraid.

The little purple and white cat answers with a slight nod and an enthusiastic, "Nyow!"

Ecstatic, Ranma grabs Shampoo and tosses her high into the air, shouting, "Yes! I'm cured!" After he dances around in joy, he suddenly realizes what he did to the cat who cured him. "Oh crap!" With grace and agility only befitting the young Saotome, he leaps on top of a nearby building and then straight up into the air, catching a slightly shaken Shampoo with ease. As he lands, he sits down on a nearby bench, putting the cursed cat down next to him and pets her gently with a fond look. "Ya know," he begins, "I never realized how cute cats can be."

Shampoo looks away, a light blush managing to show through the white fur on her cheeks. "Oh I'm so happy!' her mind squeals in delight. 'I'm on his very good side and I finally have a good chance with him!' She turns around and leaps onto his lap, rubbing against his stomach while purring loudly.

The young Saotome chuckles lightly at her antics. "This is the best I've felt in a long time." At the cat's quizzical look, he continues on, "well as of today, it looks like I'm not engaged ta Akane anymore."

Shampoo's head snaps up in surprise. "Mrew?" (Which translates to 'What?' in human speech.)

Ranma sighs deeply and pets the cat gently with a distracted look. The cursed Amazon purrs contently and curls up into a ball, keeping her ears up to listen to what her 'husband' has to say. "I don't know what happened exactly, but I guess I kinda pushed Akane too far this time or somethin. After she got up today, she got all cute and cuddly with Ryoga in front of everyone…and then she says that me an her aren't engaged anymore." He scratches his head with his free hand, a troubled expression on his face. "Then she started sayin that we were never even engaged to begin with, and that she don't even really see me as a friend. I couldn't take no more it so I left the Tendo's place, but I don't know what to do right now and I'm getting really confused." His gaze shifts down to the happy cat on his lap. "Ya got any good ideas?"

Shampoo sits up and nods a few times. She leaps off of him and rushes around the corner, grabbing her Chinese dress with her teeth as she goes. The young Amazon woman returns a few minutes later back in her true, human form. "Better," she says with a smile. Shampoo walks straight to Ranma, wearing a genuine smile. "Shampoo solve problem." The martial artist leans forward expectantly. "Since violent pervert girl no want Ranma no more, Ranma now free to date Shampoo!"

The young Saotome face faults onto the ground, his thumb, pinkie and index finger sticking out on both hands. He is quick to his feet again, though he is now feeling a bit uneasy at both the look and soft purring sounds the Chinese girl is giving him. "Um…Sh-Shampoo," he hesitantly begins, "I-I'm not too sure bout that r-right now…I mean…after today and all…"

"But Shampoo help cure too too bad fear," she pouts. "All Shampoo want is one date. Is so wrong?"

Ranma rubs the back of his head with a nervous smile. 'She does make a good point and I guess I do owe her now that I'm cured of my fear of cats,' he thinks to himself. After a few moments of internal deliberation, her decides, 'Ya know, maybe I should. I mean, its just one little date. How could that hurt?' He does a formal bow before responding, "I guess maybe one date couldn't hurt…Xian Pu," in perfect Chinese.

To say that the young Amazon is surprised is an extreme understatement. "You…you speak Chinese…and you can say my name correctly?" He nods with his patented cocky smirk. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"You never asked," he answers with a shrug. "Sides," he adds, reverting back to Japanese, "I like speaking this language more."

Shampoo shakes her head. "Of course, you Japanese." She suddenly remembers what Ranma said earlier. "Wait! You say you go on date with Shampoo?" She clasps her hands together with a giddly expression on her face.

The Saotome youth blushes deeply while scratching the back of his head again. "Uh…Yeah I di…" he is caught off by a very strong Amazon glomp.

"Oh I so happy!" she squeals. Not wanting to waste anymore time, the Amazon girl releases Ranma from her glomp and takes his hand, dragging him off towards the direction she originally came from. "Must hurry, have many many plan to do now."

Ranma tries to free his hand from the Chinese girl's, but finds her grip surprisingly strong. "Uh…Shampoo?" he hesitantly begins. "What's the rush?"

She pauses for a moment and turns around. "You said you'd go on a date with me," she responds in Chinese, "and I want to take an all-day date, and no complaining!" she adds as Ranma starts to open his mouth to protest. "I have been planning this for a long time, and I want it to be just perfect. Oh, and can you keep on calling me Xian Pu, I hate it when everybody calls me Shampoo!"

The sex-changing martial artist sighs again, shaking his head in defeat. "Okay, okay. I'll agree to the all-day date thingy, but I'll only call you Xian Pu when nobody else is around…Xian Pu." He can't help but smile at the mirthful look on the cute Amazon's face. 'I never realized how nice of a person she can be.'

Shampoo covers her mouth as she is overcome with a bout of giggles. After she regains her composure, she holds out her hand. "Here, come now. We go on date and have fun!"

Smiling to himself, Ranma takes her hand and the two young people walk off to begin their date.

Just as they turn their backs to a large concrete wall behind them, Cologne appears on top of it, watching the two with a fond smile. "That was very smart granddaughter," she muses out loud. "Both you and son-in-law are full of more surprises than I had expected. Finding that cure for his fear was a very nice touch, and it will help son-in-law to trust her more." She pauses for a moment to frown slightly. "I forgot I left my scroll with that Ryoga boy and I must get it back. There is no telling how much damage he might have inflicted upon Miss Tendo's mind and I must act fast to find out the problem and fix it, lest I risk her to suffer any permanent brain damage." The sound of laughter ringing in her ears causes her to stop in her thoughts and gaze at its source. It appears as though both Shampoo and Ranma have been splashed with cold water, judging by the girl with shocking red hair wearing son-in-law's clothes standing next to a small white cat with little decorations in her hair just like Shampoo's. The fiery redhead laughs while the little cat dances around her, meowing happily. The elder Amazon smiles wistfully at them, remembering days gone by. "Ah, young love."

To be continued…

Author's notes: As I've said in my previous updates with my other fics, I've been getting back onto my old groove, albeit it's taking a bit of time. Please be patient and I'll get another chapter up eventually.

On Ranma news…it looks like things have begun to shift around with who is number one in Ranma's eyes…for the moment. He still has a couple more girls that are still interested in him. Their interactions with him will be quite interesting, I promise. Oh, I'll bring some more light into the 'memory swap' technique Ryoga used on Akane soon, and some of the side effects if not done correctly. Heh heh… -- lighthawkdemon

Questions or comments? E-mail me at: lighthawkdemon(at)Y!