Ranma was hiding in the shadows of the dojo rafters and watching proceedings below. His mothers crazy plan was destined to failure. It was going to fail catastrophically and Ranma would be the one who would suffer the consequences. He had no real hope that by being there he would be able to change anything but he still needed to watch.
His fianceés, would be Amazon wife and crazy gymnast who just thought she had a claim on him were assembling below. The atmosphere of mutual hostility between them was so strong that Ranma could actually physically feel it, but so far no acts of violence had been committed and no grave insults had been hurled. So far his mother's plan seemed to be working, but Ranma doubted that it would last.
His mother had been concerned with the amount of collateral damage the girls caused while fighting over him. After Ukyou, Shampoo and Kodachi had destroyed her home in a wild chase Ranma really could not fault her for considering it a problem. He could fault her for the solution she had come up with.
Getting them all together for a girls night to get them to get along and settle their differences was a bad idea. They had all readily agreed to it to curry favor with their prospective mother in law, but Ranma doubted that anything but massive property damage would come of it.
So far the girls were just silently standing around with their overnight bags at their feet trying to keep their distance from and an eye on each other at the same time. The whole thing reminded Ranma eerily of a gathering of cats. He had seen those creatures act very much the same way when a number of them were meeting without immediately starting a fight.
Ranma watched in mounting apprehension as Nabiki entered the dojo to join the other girls.
"What greedy girl doing here?" Shampoo asked the newcomer. "You want Ranma too?"
"No I am not here as a suitor for Ranma," Nabiki told them to everyone's including Ranma's great relief. "I am here as a chaperon to see to it that you all behave and obey the rules that you all agreed to."
"What rules?" Ukyou wanted to know. "All I agreed to do was to come here for an overnight girls get-together and not to start any fights."
"Exactly," Nabiki agreed. "That's your first rule right there: No fighting. That includes hitting somebody who had it coming. Poisoning someone is not considered fair game Kodachi. And you were not allowed to bring combat-spatulas even if they are multi-purpose tools and the same goes for bonbori, mallets or gymnastic equipment. And yes Akane a friendly spar between friends counts as fighting, so do honorable challenges between warriors or anything else that involves beating the crap out of each other for whatever reason."
Several of the girls sighed in disappointment. Kodachi snapped her fingers angrily and Shampoo stomped her foot in frustration. Ukyou shuffled around nervously and Akane looked moderately embarrassed. Only Ranma seemed to be cheered up by Nabiki's proclamation.
"If you have accidentally brought anything that maybe should not be here you can give it to me for safekeeping until tomorrow morning," Nabiki allowed.
Reluctantly the girls stepped forward and handed over several different sized mallets, a wooden sword that must have been packed by accident in the hurry, a large baker's peel and several spatulas that Ukyou swore she had brought in case she wanted to bake something, a pair of bonbori and a sword that Shampoo maintained was a ceremonial cultural artefact symbolic of her heritage and not an actual weapon as such. After some prompting Kodachi also discarded a small pile of miscellaneous gymnastic equipment that she had somehow stored on her person out of pure habit.
Ranma was impressed it almost looked like the girls had been serious about not coming to start a fight if they have only brought so few weapons. Not even Kodachi had actually brought anything that looked like it was likely to explode.
"So if what do we do now if we are not allowed to have a fight," Ukyou finally asked. "I feel stupid just standing around doing nothing."
"Feel stupid to Shampoo too," the Amazon agreed in what might either have been an insult or bad grammar.
"We could talk?" Akane half-asked half suggested.
"About what?" Kodachi wanted to know haughtily. "It does not appear that we have anything in common other than an interest in Ranma Saotome and martial-arts. Both are not topics that lend themselves to civil conversation in this group."
"Aunty Nodoka is sure that you four have many things in common with each other and that if you spend some time together without fighting or chasing Ranma you will discover them," Nabiki explained. "That is why you are here. To get to know each other better, have fun together and perhaps even become friends."
Ranma was glad that Nabiki had not spoken of the rest of his mother's plan. While the girls might actually end up getting to know each other better before starting a fight, Ranma really doubted that they might end up becoming such good friends that they would not mind sharing Ranma.
"So what do we do?" Akane asked down in the dojo.
"We could all play a game to break the ice," Nabiki suggested.
"I did happen to bring a box of cards I found yesterday in the attic," Ukyou announced. "I think is one of those customizable card games that everyone is talking about also I can't help think there is something funny with it."
"Shampoo brought board game she bought at funny new store down the street," the Chinese girl declared. "Box says is for two to eight players and making everyone get involved very much. Was Good buy! It great shame that Shampoo no can find shop again since buying it."
"I have of course anticipated all eventualities," Kodachi let them know. "I brought a brand new GameStation X-Treme with a copy of 'Virtual Virgin Smackdown Tournament Alpha'. It should allow us to fight without actually breaking the rules."
Ranma found that it was just like Kodachi to have thought of a loophole in advance. He watched as all the other girls expectantly turned to Akane to see what she had brought.
"Couldn't we just play a game of spin the bottle or truth or dare," she suggested embarrassedly. "I mean if we are supposed to get to know each other better, that might be a good idea."
"Lame!" Kodachi coughed. Causing Ukyou to snicker.
"If you don't know what else to we could always play a game of normal cards like big girls," Nabiki suggested fanning herself with a deck of playing cards she had produced from nowhere.
While he watched the girls beginning to discuss what game to chose Ranma found himself hoping that they would actually start a fight over it. None of the possible options sounded like something good could come of it. In fact he had a real bad feeling about all of the games suggested.
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(Posted Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:12)
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