[Ranma/SM][FanFic] Natsumi, The Magical Girl Part 6

[Richard Beaubien]

The light from the morning sun slowly spilled through the window
blinds of the only window in the small room. There wasn't much in the
way of furniture or decorations to differentiate the room from a room
at the local hotel - a cheap particle-board desk crammed into one
corner, a withering plant occupying the corner diagonally opposite the
desk, with a bed and a non-matching night stand placed haphazardly in
the middle of it all. Whoever had designed the layout of this room
had *not* been an interior decorator. That much was for sure.
In fact, this was a guest room, but as far as the 'guest'
sleeping - or *trying* to sleep - on the bed was concerned, it may
well have been a hotel room.
The middle-aged woman draped across the bed groaned loudly.
Sunlight was everywhere... attempting to pry her eyes open, but she
wanted no part of it. Waking up meant coming to terms with what she
had done, and she didn't want to have to do that for another millennium
or two. Maybe five, if at all.
Still, her body seemed not to realize she didn't want it to
awaken. What she could see of the room through her hazy eyes wasn't
of much encouragement. "Ugh..."
"That must've been some party last night," another voice
remarked, and even in her state she could recognize the sarcasm there.
"I didn't know youma could get drunk. Or have hangovers."
"Oh, you'd better believe they can," Mine rasped. The expected
migraine headache rotated into its proper place as she made a
miserable attempt to sit up. Where were those memories of what had
happened the previous night?
...No, that was the headache, not a memory. Some of her memories
suddenly decided to fall back into place, separated by considerable
gaps which the migraine filled quite nicely. Uchida Mine wasn't sire
she *wanted* to remember exactly what she was currently forgetting,
either. What she did know, was what she wanted to do with her new
friend, the pounding migraine, which gained strength every moment she
remained conscious. There was only one thing she could think of to
counteract this wonderful hangover... "...coffee... I need some.
Coffee."
"But, are you sure that's wise, Mine-san?" the voice asked her.
"Coffee...," she repeated. Nothing else would do.
"Fine. I'll get you some coffee. But you're not going to like
it," Ukyou smirked, intentionally slamming the door behind her as she
left the room. Mine winced on hearing the sound; sheesh, was that
Kuonji Ukyou a demon... Inwardly, she smiled, which caused her another
twinge of pain.
And a minute later, Ukyou threw the door open again, letting the
door slam against the wall. <Let me rephrase that.> It hadn't taken
Ukyou long at all to return with some coffee. What, had she been
expecting this? "Did you HAVE to do that?" Mine growled, holding her
temples tightly.
"Gomen," Ukyou laughed in a tone that told Mine she really wasn't
sorry for having tortured her. "Here's some instant coffee, but
it's--"
"I don't care!" Mine muttered as she snatched the cup of dark
brown liquid away from Ukyou and poured every last drop into her
mouth, intending to swallow it in one gulp... only to spit it out an
instant later. Well, in that regard, it really *was* instant coffee.
"Ack... bleah... I think I'm going to be deathly ill. What the hell
was that stuff!?"
"Instant decaf," Ukyou told her, ignoring the glares of malice
Mine was sending her way. "I *tried* to warn you, didn't I?"
"I need real coffee. Soon."
"Oh, what the heck... I'm all out, but I'll get you some from the
7-11 down the road if you want."
"Yes, I want. *Real* coffee, remember. Lots of caffeine, and
nothing but caffeine." She emphasized the latter point. "In fact, if
you can get a major overdose of caffeine WITHOUT the coffee, bring it
here and we'll see how well that works."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll say it again: that must've been some party
last night."
[Editors' note: Please, whatever you do, don't ask or e-mail us
asking for details about the party, because none of our staff was
invited. Some of the crew is really ticked off about this, as we're
told it was one hell of a party. So now, all we can do is allow the
vague references to it, and hope someone else mentions more about the
party after a while.]
Ukyou slammed the door behind her on her way out, this time
unintentionally. The sound detonated inside her head with more force
than any attack any of the youma she knew could muster. Lacking the
concentration to dedicate to grace, Mine flopped backward onto the
bed, losing herself in her thoughts and her headache.
Odd, she thought; wasn't there something else to this hangover
business than just devastating headaches? Her last hangover had been
a long, long time ago, but she had a vague notion that there
definitely was something else about to hit her.
Ah, there it was. She felt the sudden need to run to the
bathroom, wherever *that* was...

[OP: "The Girl is Magic" (Natsumi Title Theme)/Inoue Kikuko]

(OP sequence: An unconcerned Kasumi stands in the main walkway of the
Tendo yard, sweeping. Soon, Ranma and Akane appear, fighting. Then
Ryouga, Shampoo and Ukyou join the fray. Genma appears, but Ranma
throws him into the pond. Soun sits off to one side, crying. Akane
slam-dunks Ranma into the pond, and the panda raises a sign that says,
"What kept you?" Ranma takes a swipe at him with the sign.
Finally, Nabiki and Mine appear in the background, seemingly trying to
come to a business decision by various means, including
rock-paper-scissors, as a large BFC building rises out of clouds of
dust behind them all.

Still unconcerned, Kasumi changes into Natsumi and uses her powers to
sweep the whole mess away at an incredible rate, leaving a white
screen for the title logo to fade into.)

Richard Beaubien
presents
Natsumi, the Magical Girl
Chapter 6: The Tournament, the Party, and the Hangover...
(embellished by Makoto)
---------------------------------

Mine preoccupied herself for several minutes by debating the
purpose of the existence of decaffeinated coffee. There was no
*logical* point in having the stuff around, was there? The whole
point of drinking something like coffee was to get one's maximum daily
requirement of caffeine in one dose, short of having caffeine sent
straight to the system via an IV drip.
The word 'drip' sent her on a short daydream that had quite a bit
to do with free association.
Instant Decaf, therefore, must have been an instrument of torture
devised by someone far more evil than she, to keep millions of
unsuspecting people from learning the true powers of a good cup of
coffee. Not to mention the benefits...
No other drink meant as much to Mine at the moment; no fruit
juice or milk could take the place of coffee, no matter how hard they
tried. There was, on the other hand, a separate drink she wouldn't
have minded having right about now...
A bottle of sake rested on the night stand. It was the same drink
that had led to her waking up mere minutes ago with the impression
that she'd managed to swallow an active jackhammer at some point
during
the night. She couldn't remember much, and the image did fit the pain
she was feeling in her head nicely.
So, why not have some more sake? she wondered. What better way
to numb the pain? Even coffee couldn't get rid of a migraine as fast
as alcohol. So what if she'd only wake up a little later with the
exact same problems? Surely, a little drink then would do wonders
with the headache as well.
Who was she to argue with logic like that?
She stumbled out of the bed and dragged herself all the way
around it to get to the night stand. Once she reached it, she realized
how much easier it would have been had she remained in the bed and
simply rolled the other way.
As she reached out to grasp the bottle, it was violently knocked
away from her, shattering against the wall. Mine's eyes went from the
clear liquid pooling on the floor to the thin spatula imbedded in the
wall above. She fell to her knees. "Why did you have to do that? It
was defenseless. It wouldn't have hurt any of us."
Ukyou shook her head. "You're more out of it than I thought.
Come on; we need you one hundred percent sober by this afternoon.
Remember? It's the day of the tournament."
<If I can't have sake, I might as well have--> "Coffee," her
mouth formed the word again.
Ukyou exhaled. "I bought you a large coffee - plain, no sugar -
and a six-pack of this canned stuff the clerk said was called 'Jolt.'
They supposedly import it for the college students, I think. It's
supposed to have *twice* the caffeine of any other soft drink on the
market."
Mine accepted the coffee and the cans of Jolt. An idea came to
her; she opened one of the cans and poured the soda into her coffee.
Twice the caffeine, huh? Well, how much caffeine would there be if
she added it to her coffee?
Not enough.
Ukyou winced at the sight of Mine taking another sip of her
newfound mixture. "You *are* going to be okay in time for the
tournament, aren't you?"
"I guess. Oww... Not bad, but still not strong enough. This
stuff... you want some, Ukyou?"
The other paled. "Uh... no thanks. Anyway, about that
tournament..."
Mine laughed, this time gulping down nearly a quarter of her
coffee concoction. "Lighten up, would you? You can handle all of the
stuff that's scheduled for this morning. I should be around by the
middle of the day to help. I just need to take a long nap, first."
"But what if something goes wrong?"
"Then just look in the youma handbook under 'Generic Traps and
Counter-attacks."
Ukyou frowned. "I've already read some of that section. It's a
few hundred pages long!"
"Yeah, well, there's a lot to be said for predictability." With
a loud thud, Mine collapsed onto the table and drifted away to a short
rest in Dreamland. Ukyou had to sigh; Mine must've gotten herself
very drunk the night before. Where in the world had she gone?
Unfortunately, those thoughts would have to be saved for another
time. There was an evil plot to be executed, and like it or not, she
would have to oversee it all by herself. Oh, it had sounded simple in
the beginning - when Mine had proposed it six days ago. But then Mine
had gone to her party, so now Ukyou was the one in charge of this
snare. <I guess it won't be too much of a difference, after all,> she
thought, optimistically. <She will be around later to back me up...>
Ukyou glanced at Mine's sleeping form. "Right?"
Nothing. Not that she'd expected an answer to begin with.
Just to be on the safe side, she tried to make sure that each and
every last drop of any kind of alcohol was absent from the place
before she left. Hopefully, Mine would be sober when she next made
her appearance.

******

Six days ago...
[cue obligatory, generic flashback FX (we ARE on a budget, after
all)]
"So, Tendo-san, we can count on your presence?"
"Naturally. It would be my pleasure to have our representatives
participate in this tournament - to show everyone the pride and joy of
our students."
"Thank you, Tendo-san. Believe me, you won't be disappointed."
The tears of joy - as if anyone could really tell! - flowing down
Soun's face glistened in the bright sunlight, each forming miniature
rainbows of their very own in some obscure corner of his mustache.
Yes, this was a day to be proud... for his school was going to once
again have a chance to show the entire whole of Japan just how special
his students were. And the fact that he'd been given this chance was
all thanks to one special student whom had only recently come into his
tutelage.
"Sensei? Sensei!" Yukie's voice shook Soun out of his thoughts.
Even memories of this day's morning could be precious. "Is something
wrong?"
"No, Yukie-kun. Nothing is wrong," Soun replied, tears
continuing to stream entirely on reflex down his cheeks. Yukie took
the chance to cast a quick glance Nabiki's way; the middle Tendo
sister simply shook her head and left the room, wondering how long it
would take Yukie, not to mention almost anyone, to become accustomed
to her father's habit of being a little too emotional.
Soun continued, unaware of the exchange. "In fact, this happens
to be a great day. We have been offered an invitation to participate
in one of the Tokyo regional martial-arts competitions. Oh, if only
you understood what a true honor it is to play a part in these
competitions..."
Yukie, for her part, was confused. Her sensei meant well, but
there were times when he unwittingly condescended to people or - and
this was far more likely - overreacted, to put it lightly. The man
seemed to have an endless supply of moisture to fuel his tears...
Nabiki had once said that if they could figure out how to harness his
crying, there was a whole array of business opportunities they could
take advantage of. Yukie was still trying to determine whether or not
that had been a joke; it was rather hard to tell with Nabiki,
sometimes.
"And you would be perfect for the competition! You would be in
the beginner's bracket, but I'm sure you'll do well." Soun paused.
"...You will take part, won't you?"
"Uh... Ano..." Yukie stalled, privately continuing to be amazed
that the man's waterfall of tears had no end in sight. What about
Ranma and Akane-chan? she wondered. Weren't they the stars of the
Tendo dojo? Had her sensei already asked them to participate, or had
they already agreed? Neither of the pair seemed like the type to turn
down a martial-arts competition, especially Ranma. No, he was far too
proud for that. So, chances were, he'd already agreed to go.
Was Soun expecting her to refuse? While she didn't consider
herself to be up to competition standards, Yukie was confident enough
that her abilities were up to par, even if she'd only been practicing
for a few weeks. And besides, her presence in the tournament might
serve as an opportunity to promote her show.
She smirked, though she wasn't completely aware of the
expression. Maybe she had been hanging around Nabiki-chan too long.
"Sure. I'll do it, sensei!"
That was when the tears flowed into overdrive. "Oh, thank you.
Thank you, Yukie-kun! You honor this dojo with your enthusiasm!" he
practically gushed, for all intents and purposes, before leaving the
room. "Saotome-kun! I have good news!"
A bewildered Yukie stood in the middle of a considerable puddle
of saltwater wondering what in the world had just happened. Most of
the time, her sensei certainly seemed rational enough. But there were
exceptions, like this, when happiness could mean a wet floor...
"Sorry about that," Nabiki apologized, following Kasumi into the
dojo. The elder sister carried a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and
three thin glasses. "That's just his way of communicating, you know.
If he isn't crying, then something's probably up." She smirked.
Yukie took the remark in stride. "Yeah, but... how can anyone
practice in all this water, Nabiki-oneechan?"
Nabiki shrugged. "We manage. Oh, and please drop the
'oneechan,' okay?"
Kasumi offered the young martial artist a glass of lemonade.
"Still, it's kinda weird..." Yukie commented, taking a sip of the
drink.
"But not as weird as having our very own 'magical girl' around,
huh?"
Yukie's eyebrows raised at the mention. She glanced at Kasumi,
who appeared as though she was taken aback by Nabiki's words. "Are
you all right, Kasumi-oneechan?"
"I'm fine, Yukie-chan," Kasumi hemmed. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, don't worry about it," grinned Nabiki. On her, the
expression gave her face a rather unnerving feel. "It isn't every day
we can get an adverse reaction out of Kasumi, here. Like it or not,
big sister, you're now officially a part of all the weirdness that
goes on around here!"
Kasumi blinked. "I wouldn't say I'm weird, Nabiki. And neither
is Natsumi."
"So running around in a weird costume isn't strange?"
A blush rose on Kasumi's cheeks. "Well... I didn't get to choose
what I wear. Perhaps Mother did; I do not know." A short, awkward
pause passed before she added, "Being what I am isn't as weird as the
other things that often happen in this area."
"Other things?" Yukie asked, unsure what Kasumi was referring
to.
"Let's just say a *lot* of weird things happen here, and more
often than not they relate somehow to the martial arts or to Ranma,"
Nabiki intervened before Kasumi could say anything. Despite her
induction into the ranks of the magical girls, Kasumi was still an
innocent to most of the goings-on concerning most of the inhabitants
of the Tendo residence.
"But..."
"And you know what that means, don't you?" Nabiki's grin had
de-evolved back into a smirk. "You're going to be part of a weird
martial-arts tournament!"
Yukie paled slightly. Just how weird could a martial-arts
tournament become? The only alternative form she was aware of were
the 'forms' used in sentai shows and some animated series, but those
didn't count, right?
Nabiki wasn't finished. "Hmm... wonder if it'll be full-contact
shintaisou, or another variant on the tea ceremony... Or maybe even
full-contact flower arranging!"
"Flower arranging!?" Yukie was thoroughly confused by this
point. How could flower arranging, of all things, be considered a
martial art - and who would be weird enough to practice such a
fighting style? If Nabiki was at all right, the tournament just might
be extremely weird, at that.
"Oh, and that's just the beginning! You could be facing off
against someone on a giant okonomiyaki grill, or--"
She never had the chance to finish, as Yukie ran out through the
doors in a panic. "Sensei! I'm having second thoughts about
participating in this tournament...!"
Noticing that Nabiki was laughing to herself at this, Kasumi
turned a stern look on her. "Why did you torture her like that,
Nabiki?" Nabiki had done that on a regular basis to Akane during
their childhood; it had served as the foundation for the person Nabiki
presently was.
"Oh, no reason." The smile with the hidden agenda was back.
Kasumi sighed inwardly; Nabiki was being evasive again. It was
difficult to get a clear answer out of the middle Tendo sister, and
although Kasumi was the last person in the world Nabiki would charge
for anything, Nabiki still behaved toward her like she did anyone and
everyone else. Okay, so maybe it was time to change the subject.
"So..." She paused, then began anew. "You honestly believe my Natsumi
uniform is... weird, Nabiki?"
Nabiki fidgeted. "Umm... well, kinda, I suppose. Actually, it
looks nice and all, but..."
"But what?"
"It... you know, it... looks kinda like all those costumes from
all those magical girl shows out there. Even the ones Yukie wore.
You remember..."
"And what is wrong with that?"
A faint smile took shape on Nabiki's face, bringing an
uncomfortable sweatdrop to Kasumi's face. Nabiki had a plan, and as
everyone knew, this wasn't always good news to the ones she happened
to involve in her plans. "You know, Kasumi... we could always try to
change your uniform. Maybe we can put together a better one!"
Kasumi withdrew a step. "But, the costume I wear now is magical;
it's given to me by... well, magical powers, I suppose. How could
anything *we* put together take its place?"
But Nabiki wasn't about to be deterred. "I've got some theories
on just that. And as for the costume, I have a few ideas you might
just like. We can have our own little Natsumi fashion show, just you,
me, and maybe Yukie-chan. What do you say?"
The nervous sweatdrop grew. "But, you never really answered my
question..." Wait - this *was* Nabiki she was talking to, correct?
Did she honestly believe Nabiki, of all people, would give her a
straight answer?
Nabiki dodged the question, as was to be expected. "Ah, don't
worry about it. You'd be surprised what a change in clothes can do
for our sales figures and toy line-up... after all, what use are toys
without accessories? Sold separately, of course."
Kasumi face-faulted. "Nabiki!" she admonished. Nabiki was only
thinking of her pocketbook, again; her rationality and sensibility
changed to that of a predatory animal whenever that happened. Even
if it meant catering to what the marketeers thought and not the people
who were actually buying what Nabiki had to sell.
Kasumi never had the chance to steer Nabiki back toward the issue
at hand, for a new rivulet of water made its way from the hall into
the dojo. They could hear the cries... yes, their father was crying
once again. "Sounds like he's really sad, this time," Nabiki exhaled.
"You want to take this one, should I, or should we both do it?" She
headed for the door, leaving Kasumi to stand, perplexed, as a new
puddle formed around her loafers.
"I happen to like my current uniform," she said, though no one
was currently present to hear her say it. She drifted toward the
door, and followed the flow of water upstream to its source.
Soun and Genma, as usual, were together. Kasumi wondered for a
second if they were upset because Yukie had second thoughts about
the tournament... but that couldn't be it.
"Yukie-kun," Soun's voice, when it came, was strangely reserved.
"Would you mind accompanying my daughters on an errand?" he murmured
in between sobs. "Nabiki - I want you to use this money; the three of
you can buy some ice cream, my treat. Okay?"
Nabiki's grab-the-money-and-run reflex took over. "Okay, Dad!"
She grabbed Yukie by the arm and proceeded to drag her toward the open
doorway where Kasumi stood. Best not to ask questions of their father
at times like this. If it was truly important, he would tell them on
his own time.
Until then, she could always interrogate... er, question someone
else who might know the answers. "Yukie... they weren't upset because
you thought about withdrawing from their tournament or anything, were
they?" Nabiki asked in a low voice as they left the grounds.
Yukie shook her head in a negative. She was more or less still
stunned that a human being could actually contain as much water as
Soun apparently did.
Nabiki had to admit that she was puzzled, if only for the moment.
Why would Dad cry this much, then? Something had to be up.
Sending the three of them out on an ice-cream run was nothing
more than a ruse to get them out of the house, she knew, but what Dad
had forgotten to take into account was that she and Kasumi were no
longer children. It would take more than a bowl of ice cream to
divert them from worrying about what might be going on.
She thought about remaining behind to eavesdrop, then thought
better of it. Where the two fathers were concerned, the plots
couldn't be *that* earth-shattering... could they? "Coming, Sis?"
she asked, this time in a normal voice.
Kasumi continued to lag behind. "Yes. In a minute."
Nabiki brought the sketchbook she'd taken the time to bring along
into view. "Well, hurry up. I've got some preliminary uniform
designs we can go over while we're waiting."
Kasumi's eyes widened; Nabiki wasn't really considering going
through with her 'fashion show' idea, was she? "I'm sure that between
the three of us, we can find you a cute outfit yet," Nabiki grinned.
"Right, Yukie?"
Yukie remained in shock, barely acknowledging Nabiki's question.
It was a puzzle, all right - how one human body could store so much
water to gush out in tides of tears. One word kept running through
her thoughts... <Weird. Really, really weird.>
Kasumi closed her eyes and sighed.

******

"So... why the sudden spurt of tears, Tendo-kun?" Genma
hazarded. As if Soun needed much encouragement to break into an
exaggerated show of crying...
"Quiet." Soun hesitated. "I must make certain that we are
alone." At this, Genma and Ranma glanced at each other and shrugged.
What had caused Soun to suddenly start crying? Knowing the man, that
could be practically *anything*.
But... Soun had insisted that Kasumi and Nabiki leave - taking
Yukie with them - and was now going out of his way to make sure no
one was eavesdropping on them. Could this actually be something
important?
Ranma was the first to fall victim to his curiosity. "So,
what's up?"
Lapsing into his customary show of seriousness, Soun dropped
into his customary place at the head of the family-room table.
"Well... I guess it's safe enough to talk, now. I have called you
here for a very important reason..."
"And that would be?" Ranma asked a minute later; he'd never
cared much for the Art of the Dramatic Pause.
"The reason... would be that!"
Soun gestured toward the far corner of the family room, where a
certain other "member" of the family had accidentally left behind one
of his possessions. Ranma stared at the corner for a second or two
before finally noticing what Soun was trying to make them see.
A pink bra.
Rather large drops of nervous sweat rolled down the backs of
Ranma and Genma's heads before joining the puddles already soaking the
floorboards.
"You called us in here for THAT!?" Ranma finally managed to
yell. "Don't tell me you're starting to become like the old pervert,
too!"
Soun's angry head grew to fill the room. "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE
ME OF THAT, RANMA-KUN!" he yelled, the force of his act sending the
others tumbling to the floor. He recomposed himself. "Obviously,
that... *thing* belongs to our Master."
"Not that I want to make light of your concerns, Tendo-kun, but
couldn't Kasumi have accidentally dropped that while bringing in the
wash?" Genma turned to glance at his son. "Or perhaps... Ranma
doesn't know how to properly put his clothes away?"
"WHAT!?" Ranma shouted through clenched teeth, giving serious
consideration to the idea of beating up his father yet again. "That's
NOT mine! I don't have anything like that! I'm a guy!"
Fortunately for the elder Saotome, Soun intervened, clearing his
throat. "What worries me is that the Master might choose to pursue
our new student."
"*Might*?" Ranma snorted. "Are we talking about the same old
pervert here?"
Soun chose to ignore him. "Yukie is a television star, Ranma-
kun. If the Master were to... attack her, who knows what the news
media will make of it? Our shame will be broadcast throughout the
entire world!"
Genma gave his old friend a dubious look. "Aren't you perhaps
going a little overboard there, Tendo-kun? Surely, the Master has
harassed other important young women in his lifetime. However, we
haven't heard of anyone making more than the usual complaints, have
we?"
"Well..."
"Still," Genma ran a few of the possibilities through his
imagination. "Maybe they would even consider making a 'movie of the
week' about all this. I'll bet Sean Cannery would be perfect to play
me."
Ranma and Soun took the opportunity to crash to the floor in
sheer disbelief.
"Saotome-kun! This is *serious*!" Soun insisted, while Ranma
chose to bring the table down on his father's head. "We need to
find some way to stop the Master from ruining our good reputation!
You two must help me!"
"If we're going to pound the old man, I'm in," said Ranma.
The lenses of Genma's spectacles took on a confident gleam. "I
know exactly how we can deal with the Master."
"Yeah?"
"Really, Saotome-kun?"
"An age-old tactic. Tried and true, used by many a great
warrior." Unlike Soun, Genma had a better idea of how to use a
dramatic pause. "We give the Master what he wants."
Frowning, Ranma reached for the table again.
"That's a wonderful plan, Saotome-kun! Why, if we can keep
him preoccupied, we may never have to worry about him coming near
Yukie again."
"You're nuts! You've tried to do that a zillion times before,
and it always fails in the end!" Ranma thought to remind them.
Unfortunately, he could tell that the two men had made up their mind;
the only thing Ranma could do now was let them try their 'new' plan
and watch it fail.
"Now," Soun murmured, thoughtfully, "all we have to do is
collect all the lingerie in the house."
Ranma rolled his eyes.
"That includes all of yours, Ranma," added Genma.
This, of course, was not a good thing to say to Ranma. "SHUT
UP, OYAJI!" And in the next second, Genma was sent flying into low
Earth orbit.

******

"So... this is going to be a perfectly NORMAL martial-arts
tournament, right?"
"Hm? Yes, that's the way we planned it. Why?" Or better yet,
why would anyone want to have an *abnormal* martial-arts tournament,
if such things existed? The tournament's organizer was becoming more
and more confused by the reactions the local businesses were giving
him. At least his contact - a woman by the name of Uchida
something-or-other - had treated the whole affair seriously. <You'd
think they would be happy to have the tournament held here again
after about a fifty-year absence.>
"Well, we'll be happy to offer whatever help we can, and perhaps
some prizes as well."
The organizer nodded. "Thank you. Your support is
appreciated."
"As long as you're absolutely *sure* it will be a *normal*
tournament."
"Absolutely." The organizer left the store, muttering under
his breath that he needed to find a less confusing line of work.

******

"So, you're saying that this is going to be a perfectly normal
tournament, huh?" Ukyou asked, taking a careful sip of her coffee.
Mine had insisted on taking her to one of the few trendy 'coffee
houses' in the Nerima district. She'd never been in one before,
telling herself that she didn't have the time, nor did she want
anyone alive to see her actually sitting in such a place. But times
changed - though the thought never did cross her mind - and she
couldn't afford to be the Ukyou that she had previously been.
Mine made an offhand one-handed sweeping gesture. "Right. A
regional tournament where people come to qualify for the finals. No
cooking, gymnastics, huge hair razors, plush purple dinosaurs...
nothing like that."
"I thought we wanted the 'special' martial artists. You know,
the type who can defy gravity and toss ki around as if it was
nothing. Like the characters on those Dragonball shows, if they were
real."
Mine took a sip of her coffee, unknowingly copying Ukyou's
earlier move. "We need what you'd call 'normal' martial artists,
too; who better to fill the ranks of faceless minions or expendable
grunts? Forces to provide support for the monster-of-the-week."
Ukyou grimaced at the reference. Until this point, she'd only
heard it being used in regard to sentai shows and some animated
series... until she had made the mistake of using the term while
discussing monsters with Mine. Now, the other seemed to enjoy using
the reference.
"Not to mention that a fair portion of those martial artists
often have the potential to go farther than what their sensei have
taught them. Too many people go through their careers in the Arts
never learning how to harness and use their ki because their sensei
either didn't know how, or believed it to be too dangerous."
"Okay, that sounds reasonable. But why aren't we directly
controlling the tournament? That way, we'll be better able to gauge
all the entries."
Mine sighed, covering it with a quick, bemused chuckle. "And
attract attention to ourselves as we did with the last few contests?
We need to be subtle, here. We'll let the tournament run by itself
and after that... we'll deal with the candidates later in private, at
our leisure."
"A simple plan," Ukyou agreed. "Maybe even one I wouldn't mind
handling, for once."
"You *will* be handling it," Mine's smile disappeared into her
coffee, causing her to miss the disapproving glare that Ukyou shot
her. "You can use the experience. All you have to do is show up,
hand out trophies, prizes and take names. How tough can it be?"
That was, Ukyou knew, the kind of question one asked shortly
before something *did* go wrong. "Well, you never know..."
"Don't worry! Everything will be fine!"
"Yes," Ukyou hid her scowl. "I'm sure it will be."

******

Yukie slowly picked apart her banana split - which was unusual
for her, since she usually tore into most anything remotely related
to ice-cream dishes with a passion. She did have other things on her
mind, however. "So, this martial-arts tournament isn't going to be
normal?"
Nabiki smirked, also poking idly at her parfait. "Nope; it's
never 'normal' here. Though, if luck's on your side, it could be a
martial-arts idol tournament."
"Really?" Yukie asked in bewilderment. How could someone fight
while dressed as an idol, in those stage costumes? Well... actually,
that depended on the costume. None of the costumes she'd been given
to wear during her career as a singer allowed for the type of moves
she used during training, now.
"I wouldn't doubt it. What do you think, Kasumi?"
Kasumi, for her part, was preoccupying herself with her
shortcake. "Stop teasing her, Nabiki-chan. Now, you said you think
my... uniform is weird?"
"Huh?" Yukie became even more puzzled. She never thought that
Kasumi's Natsumi costume looked 'weird' - what was it with everyone's
sudden dependance on the words 'weird' and 'normal,' anyway? To her,
the uniform was something she wouldn't have minded wearing on-stage.
"Simple. It just looks too much like something you'd see on
that 'Sailor Moon' series, for one. I really don't feel like having
to worry about the Bandai or Kodansha people coming after us for
copyright infringements, Kasumi."
"Mother seemed to think it was perfectly fine," Kasumi replied,
her voice showing a minute trace of annoyance. She assumed her mother
had been the one to design or pick out the costume, and the concern
over whether or not the clothes resembled some animated character's
costume and could lead to a lawsuit probably hadn't been on her
mother's mind at all.
Those were the only conclusions Kasumi could draw, given what
little she truly knew about what connection her mother had to her
transformation brooch. Her mother had requested it be given to her,
and Kasumi seemed to be able to see her mother during her dreams...
but how much of the big picture did she truly know?
Nabiki hesitated, trying to appear thoughtful. She'd wanted to
change the costume to something unique, which would look good on
Kasumi and be perfectly marketable without any legal hassles. That
was her reason for not liking the current Natsumi costume. It
certainly didn't have anything to do with her mother... did it?
"I don't know, oneechan - a change in clothes might be neat,"
Yukie chimed, if only to break the tension. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt
to see what Nabiki has in mind."
"Well... I really don't know, myself."
"C'mon, Sis. Aren't you the least bit curious?"
Kasumi sighed. How much chance did she have of winning this
battle? Oh, well. Despite Nabiki's insistence, she hadn't said
that Kasumi had no choice *but* to change her costume. "All right.
I'll do it. But nothing revealing or silly, please. And remember -
just because I've agreed to this doesn't mean I *have* to change my
costume."
"Fine, fine. Now, why don't we take a look at some of the
suggestions I've brought with me?" Nabiki pushed her parfait aside
and drew out a few pieces of notebook paper from her pocket for
Kasumi and Yukie to study. The first was a drawing of a rather
thin-looking two-piece that looked more like a stylized swimsuit than
anything else. It featured a tight pair of bikini shorts, along with
an equally tight vest-like top... and the whole of it done in lime
green. Rounding out the costume was a medium-width belt that ended
in a holster.
Both Kasumi and Yukie gaped at it. "Nabiki!" her older sister
scolded.
"And here I thought you wanted to avoid copyright problems,"
Yukie quipped. "That looks like something one of the Lovely Angels
would wear."
Nabiki's only response was to raise an eyebrow.

******

At that same moment, the man in charge of organizing the by-now
infamous martial-arts tournament took a seat near the fountain in
Hisakawa Park for a short rest. He'd been getting the same response
from practically everybody; all of them wanted to know if the blasted
tournament was going to be a *normal* exhibition. Did they even care
that the district was going to be receiving the honor of hosting this
prestigious event? The only two who seemed to treat the event with
respect was the owner of the Tendo School of Musabetsu Kakutou, and
his contact - Uchida. Everyone else seemed to think it was a
wonderfully huge joke, as far as he could tell. "What is it with
this place and their obsession with the word '*normal*?'"
The sound of something dropping out of the skies and into the
fountain behind him interrupted his rant, as did the sudden tidal
wave of fountain water washing over him. He turned, wanting to know
exactly *why* he was now soaking wet.
At first, the thing wedged in between the rim of the fountain
and the statue at the center refused to connect to anything in his
mind. Then, it came to him. It was a panda. A living, breathing
panda had fallen out of the skies, into a fountain full of water,
and drenched him.
The panda noticed him. It drew out a wooden sign and began to
write... [Help me, please?]
"Normal, eh?" he said to no one in particular, suddenly
starting to understand why so many people in Nerima were worried
about things being perfectly normal.

******

Mine was not happy.
She turned the lights on in her apartment's living room.
Why was it that meetings *always* ran longer than usual? Now, she'd
missed the newest episode of her favorite TV series, *again*. She
would have to ask Kyoko in Accounting for her tape of the episode.
Of course, Kyoko wouldn't be so nice about letting her borrow the
tape - but then, weren't they all evil, anyway? An complaint or
two wouldn't mean much to Mine in the long run, as long as she was
able to see what she'd missed.
Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw that there
were messages waiting for her on the answering machine. She hit the
Play button, heading to the refrigerator for a cappuccino.
<*beep*> "Hi. Have we got a great deal for you. Only--" Mine
quickly hit the Erase button. Damn telemarketers...
<*beep*> "Uchida? It's me, Masa, from the K1 Music Division! I
thought I'd give you a call to remind you of our tenth anniversary
party. We can't have it without you, you know! Now, I'm aware you
couldn't attend last year's parties, but we're going to make sure you
join us this year, Mine. We're holding it on Saturday at the Ginza
at six P.M. Hope to see you there!" <*click*>
Silence.
Mine set her drink on the counter before moving to replay the
message. <Masa...>

******

Soun's thoughts were racing. His school faced a potential
crisis; an important one if not crucial. Every last part of his mind
was concerned with inventing the perfect plan to deal with the crisis,
and make sure that his honor - er, the *school's* honor remained
intact and unblemished.
Except that he hadn't bothered to consider what *other people*
might think of his extraordinary plans.
"Are you crazy, Dad!? Absolutely not! I won't allow it!"
"Akane." Soun fixed her with the best stern expression he could
manage. "We must do this to distract and stop our Master." Yes...
Akane must see the merits of the plan. To get rid of the Master, all
they had to do was distract him with tons of lingerie, alcohol and
food, then lock him away until the end of time. Blowing him up
hadn't worked much...
Akane hated the plan. She glared intensely at him, a look which
Ranma recognized all too well. And she wasn't as angry as she could
be, either - no, she wouldn't allow herself to get too angry toward
her father. Most of the levels of Akane's anger beyond this point
were reserved exclusively for Ranma. "No, I won't have any part of
helping you collect underwear for that hentai!"
"But, Akane... think of what he could do to poor Yukie!"
Akane scoffed. "And what would she think of her sensei stealing
a lot of girls' underwear to give to some old freak?"
Point for Akane, Ranma thought to himself. With Soun so far
behind in the unofficial score, he was likely about to bring out the
big guns.
Or, worse yet, the big tears. "AKANE!!" he cried, using a
version of the traditional sad puppy-dog stare that might get a
four-year old almost anything he or she wanted.
It was a pity Soun wasn't four years old.
"You'll just have to come up with a better plan, Dad," Akane
brought out her mallet to emphasize her point. She wouldn't use it
on him, but hopefully the threat of being malleted would inspire
him to come up with a plan that *didn't* involve giving Happosai
whatever he desired.
"I told you, we can handle the old freak if he tries anything,"
Ranma stated with an edge of cockiness to his voice. Happosai hadn't
made his presence known in a while, which officially wasn't a good
sign, but Ranma couldn't wait to square off against him again.
Really, it was for the best if the world never had to worry about
the perverted martial-arts master again.
"B-but..." Soun could see that Akane wasn't going to change her
mind anytime soon. "Very well. I'll leave it to both of you.
Please insure that my trust has been well-placed," he finished as he
left the room.
A moment of silence passed.
"Well, he gave up easily..."
Akane banished her mallet to wherever it was she kept it.
"Yeah. He's probably just glad he's gotten us to work together for
the sake of the dojo. I don't like this, Ranma."
"It's better than letting them give the freak what he wants and
acting like cowards, right?" smirked Ranma. "Don't worry. We can
take care of the old man."
"It's not *him* I'm worried about."
Ranma blinked. What could be a bigger threat to them at the
moment than the old pervert? Then again... "We're doomed, aren't
we?" he muttered.
Downstairs, meanwhile, Soun sighed. "Forgive me, Akane, Ranma.
I cannot leave this issue in your hands alone, just yet." He turned
to face his partner-in-crime. "Saotome-kun, are you ready?"
Genma hmphed. "I am ALWAYS ready."
"Good." He carefully tied a cloth around his head to act as a
mask. "I sincerely hope this plan works."
"Tendo-kun, after we're finished, you'll wonder why we didn't
bother to try this earlier."
"We haven't?" Soun asked, momentarily puzzled. "Ah. Well,
then, let's get to work!"
As he left the house, Soun hoped that both his daughter and
Yukie would forgive him in the end. Genma, on the other hand, had
let his thoughts return to the issue of who would play him in a
movie-of-the-week based on this whole situation. Oh, it'd be a
wonderful movie, what with the espionage angle and everything...

******

Yuu let his gaze wander about the stadium. "So this is where
the tournament is going to be held, huh? Nice facility, I guess."
He wondered why the tournament had never returned to this particular
district within the last fifty years. The stadium was certainly
adequate enough... "I like the traditional look. We've been using
too many cookie-cutter-type modern buildings lately."
"Yes," the tournament's organizer agreed. Nothing like a
*normal* martial-arts tournament in an unassuming stadium to provide
a change of pace from all this talk of weirdness in the district.
"It'd be nice if the locals appreciated it more, though. They
seem to have the weirdest opinions concerning the Arts and those who
practice them," Yuu groused, wondering if the confusion had anything
to do with all those Jackie Chan films. Since when did a martial
artist use mustard as a lethal weapon?
The organizer simply grunted his agreement, reminded of his
little run-in with a surprisingly intelligent panda earlier in the
day. There was no way the animal could've been an illusion, a man
in a costume or someone playing a joke with a mechanical panda. He'd
passed by the same fountain later in the afternoon to see that they
were still repairing the damage caused by the panda.
"This will be something for everyone to remember for the rest
of their lives."
What, exactly, would people remember? the organizer wondered.
After seeing a panda communicate with him, he also had to wonder what
would cause the entire district to be so concerned with normality.
Whatever it was had to be even more strange than a large panda who
communicated by using wooden signs...
But even a panda wasn't much to get worked up about, and as the
two men walked through the stadium's main exit they both had assured
themselves that nothing could go wrong with this particular martial-
arts tournament.
A few moments after their departure, a crash of thunder preceded
the appearance of another pair of people. The first, a young man
with blue eyes who wore his brown hair short, looked to be around the
age of sixteen. His companion, a girl who was perhaps a good foot
shorter than him, shared the same color eyes. She also wore the same
simple training gi as the boy, providing a strange contrast to her
medium-length green hair. A hazy yellow aura shimmering about them
both did its best to ease that contrast.
"It's been a long time, oniichan. Do you think we'll be ready?"
"I'm sure we will be. You can count on it."

******

Kasumi stared, distracted, at the night sky. For a brief moment
she toyed with the fantasy that the steam rising from her hot
chocolate could rise to join the stars, until the breeze dissipated
the small wisp of smoke. She cautiously blew on her drink to help it
cool, then tested it by taking a quick sip.
"Are you okay, Sis?" Nabiki asked, noticing her older sister
set her cup on the deck and sigh.
"Oh... yes," Kasumi dismissed the question, continuing to gaze
at the infinite arrangement of stars. "It's the stars. Don't you
think they look beautiful?"
Nabiki blinked. Kasumi had dodged a question; it wasn't like
her to be evasive. She rested a hand on her sister's shoulder and
repeated her question.
"I am fine, Nabiki," Kasumi replied. "Why don't you have a seat
and watch the stars with me? They seem particularly beautiful
tonight."
Nabiki noted the faint wavering of the wind chimes while she did
as Kasumi asked. Instead of focusing on the stars, however, she
studied Kasumi's face. Behind what appeared to be contentment was
something Nabiki couldn't quite discern - something that was
bothering her sister...
"You haven't really answered my question," she persisted.
Kasumi's smile grew for a second or two in response, but then
returned to the reserved smile that she had been wearing.
For a moment, anyway. "Ah!" Kasumi exclaimed. "There, look!
A shooting star! Want to make a wish on it, Nabiki?" She turned her
attention back to the shooting star. "I wish, I wish..."
Shaking her head, Nabiki glanced from star to star to find what
her sister had seen. She found the trace of a line of white light,
the tail of a meteor falling into the atmosphere. Past it - or
rather, everywhere around it - the stars continued to twinkle,
unaffected and unconcerned. Events like this served to remind one
that there was an enormous universe outside of their world, Nabiki
liked to believe.
It was a shame such things often ended faster than she could
appreciate them.
Kasumi stood. "I think I'll turn in, Nabiki. You can finish
the rest of the hot chocolate if you like."
Huh? Nabiki boggled. "You're not getting away that easily,
Sis."
"Good night," Kasumi laughed, leaving Nabiki alone on the deck.

******

It was not possible for the light of the stars to make its way
through the windows of Mine's small apartment.
This was or was not the result of some sinister manipulation,
depending on who you happened to be. Indirectly, one couldn't see
the stars through her windows because there were some fairly large and
rather brightly-lit billboards doing their best to convince everyone
the stars had simply given up and moved on to another location.
There were a few things such as having large billboards shining
almost directly through one's windows that drove rent prices down;
others included having large, fuel-driven vehicles barrel or fly
inches from your apartment at two fifty-five in the morning...
neighbors who enjoyed tormenting you with their choices of music at
somewhere around the same time, or discovering that one's apartment
just happened to be haunted or built on some sort of ancient burial
ground.
Mine hadn't worried about any of those possibilities; no cars or
planes could come too close because of the giant billboards. She'd
sold the neighbors their stockpile of music in the first place, and
if there *had* been some kind of spirits roaming the area, she would
have tried to find a way to induct them into the BFC effort.
For once, however, her mind wasn't concerned with the BFC.
One of the billboards she could see from her windows had caught
her attention, removing the multi-million dollar campaign ads
plastered on all the other billboards from her thoughts. Obviously,
whoever had commissioned the ad hadn't paid too much for it, as it
was basically simple... record-company ads could afford to be simple.
The ad was concerned with trumpeting the career of what it believed
to be the latest hot idol, some young woman who would probably only
be famous for around six months.
As she stared at the sign, the lights mounted atop the billboard
failed, leaving it dark in the presence of the larger, more expensive
campaigns and companies. <Party-crashers, the lot of them,> Mine
had thought to label them. She didn't want their light, but there
really wasn't much she could do about it.
Except zap the other boards' lights with some dark power, though
that would run the risk of setting up a sign: "Youma Lives Here!"
The light remained even after she closed the blinds tightly,
forcing its way into her home, in her opinion. It would never leave
her alone, always trying to make her accept it. Someday, perhaps,
the light of the BFC would outshine them all and she'd never have to
worry about any of it again.
She turned her attention to another light - the light of the
small LED in the power button of her answering machine. "Masa..."
she breathed, repeating the name once more to herself. Was there any
place in this world where she could truly escape the light?

******

[We now jump ahead in time five days. Those with time-
displacement disorders, shield your eyes now.]

It was a fairly busy afternoon in the shopping district, and the
heat of the sun was beating down in full upon the shoppers. Yukie
did her best to put the heat out of her mind, choosing to focus
instead on the stock offered in the booth of one of the local produce
vendors. The fresh oranges were a temptation, she had to admit...
She reached into her pockets looking for enough spare change to
buy one of the fruits, but her mood was soon ruined by the fact that
she hadn't bothered to bring any spare change with her in the first
place. "Aww... I'm broke!"
"Need some money?" asked a familiar voice from behind her.
"Nabiki-oneechan?" she exclaimed as she turned around, coming
close to knocking over the display of oranges in the process.
"You'll lend me some money?"
"Sure; I'll even give you a good interest rate, too," came the
cheerful reply as Nabiki offered her enough money for two of the
oranges. "Oh, and don't forget, you've borrowed enough money to buy
me an orange, too," Nabiki added, triggering a slightly nervous
twitch in Yukie's eyes.
"But..."
"Well, if you don't want an orange..." Nabiki reached for an
orange, bringing it closer to Yukie's face. "I mean, there's always
later, right? You can... *wait* for something just as delicious and
satisfying, hmm?"
Yukie's resolve crumbled. "Okay, okay. Fine! I'll pay for the
oranges."
A minute later, once Yukie was well into finishing her own
orange, Nabiki became serious again. "I hope you're enjoying that,
because we've got some work to do today."
Yukie frowned, but hid it behind her orange. Was this Nabiki's
way of talking people into doing work for her? "What kind of work?"
"Oh, just collecting on an old debt."

******

"Ah, Miss Tendo. It's a pleasure to see you again," the young
man in the business suit said in a polite manner, offering a bow to
the two younger women. "How may I help you this afternoon?"
"I've come to collect on that favor you owe me, so if you don't
mind, we'd like to borrow some of your costumes. Particularly the
'magical girl' ones."
The man studied Nabiki for a few seconds, then gestured to a
rack of costumes in the nearest corner. "Of course; what you're
looking for is right over there."
Yukie had to admit to a slight bit of puzzlement as she watched
Nabiki make her way to the rack and pull nearly all of the costumes
from it. How had this man come to owe Nabiki a favor? It had to be
a big favor, if it involved Nabiki borrowing a large array of
costumes from a fairly reputable studio... and without asking any
questions. She'd learned from working on a low-budget sentai show
that costumes were indeed one of the most important details in
production; what would happen if someone needed those costumes and
they weren't there?
Nabiki saw her expression and made a guess as to what she was
thinking. "I recently provided this studio with some fight footage
for one of its productions," she said in an aside to Yukie, answering
her unspoken questions somewhat. "They were quite impressed and said
that they owed me a favor, in addition to paying a decent amount of
money for the footage."
"Well, we always welcome top-quality footage," the young man
interrupted, having overheard the end of Nabiki's comment. He rested
another tall stack of costumes on a table close to Nabiki's side. "I
mean, those building-to-building leaps looked almost real. The price
we paid was a bargain, considering how much we usually pay for those
kinds of stunts."
Nabiki laughed. "Well, what can I say, really? I have good
people working for me." The thought brought another nervous twitch
to Yukie's face. If what Nabiki had said about the fighters in
Nerima not being normal, then she'd have almost limitless access to
stunt-work normally only found in animation, not to mention fight
scenes that would make Jackie Chan look like a wimp. Of course,
another question that probably needed to be asked was the question
of what show or movie would bother to use the footage...
"And here's a rack of costumes used mostly when we need idols,
but I don't think you'll need much from this rack." Yukie would have
none of that, though; she browsed through the clothes in delight, and
soon there was another large pile of costumes on the floor next to
Nabiki's existing piles.
"Er..." Yukie blushed. "I hope you don't mind, Nabiki
-oneechan."
Nabiki merely sighed, instructing the man to get a box for the
entire array of costumes. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to have more of
a selection to choose from."
"I don't mind," the man said, "especially if it leads to more of
that excellent fight footage."
Hearing that, Nabiki chuckled. "We'll see, we'll see...," she
quipped as Yukie dropped two more costumes onto the pile. It seemed
Yukie was beginning to get into the spirit of the situation.

******

There are many laws in the universe, and most tended to be helpful to
people most of the time. The Law of gravity was one of those helpful
laws, making sure that the majority of earths occupant stayed on the
ground most the time (though sometimes the fall back to the ground was
quite painful). But there were a couple of less helpful laws in the
universe, ones that were quite nasty to the people that where effected
by them. Tendo Soun was falling victim to one of those laws right now.

It was Murphy's law, and it was having quite a fun time with him and
Saotome . For over the past 4 nights the 2 heads of their respective
families's had been on a mission, a mission to appease the demon of the
household. A mission to prevent the demon known as Happosai from
wrecking yet more havoc on the good name Tendo.

Of course the mere mention of Happosai's name really piqued that
Murphy's interest didn't it, for when Soun and Genma hatched their
perfect plan to head off Happosai they ran into a roadblock. Many
roadblocks that is, all being very female, carrying rather large brooms,
and generally being very angry at the sight of two middle aged men
stealing their underwear. Soun sighed, yes that Murphy enjoyed them all
right, making sure that the first panty raid they did with out the help of
the master would go wrong.

Horribly wrong.

But they had persevered, for they had succeeded in acquiring their
'Sacrifice' for Happosai as Genma called it. For inside this small
rented shed was the work of 4 nights, a room full of panties. Happosai's
dream home really, and with it they could at least delay the demon if not
beat it out right.

Soun just shook his head in revulsion at the sight of the panties.
"The Path of the true Martial Artist is often paved with good intentions.."

"Ohayoo Tendo-kun!!" a freshly arrived bag introduced itself to Soun,
causing him to react in understandable panic. "Hmm, are you a little
jumpy today Tendo-kun?"

Soun reacted rather angrily at the bag's question, knocking it to the
side to reveal the face of his partner in crime Genma. "Yes I am a bit
jumpy...If we got caught in here we'd be...We'd be..."

"Don't worry, I snuck in so nobody saw me and if they find this hiding
place out when we aren't here they'll trace it back to Happosai not to
us," Genma tried to soothe the tired nerves of his friend, noting that
Nabiki was starting to brush off on him a bit.

"But, why do we need more?"

The reply came from Genma as he started to dump out the panties from
his latest raid. "Well we don't know how much we need to sacrifice to make
our master happy. It's better to be safe. Especially when..." a tense hush
overtook Genma as he began to look at his latest wares. A small look
of worry began to fall over him, as he slowly inspected one particular
pair of panties. "It's as I thought, It isn't silk."

A gentle breeze passed over the 2 men, followed by a rather painful
face fault by Soun which he was nicely able to recover from in time to
tower over his friend. "And why exactly should we care if it's not
Silk!!" Soun yelled bombarding Genma.

Yet Genma remained unphased, as he slowly pushed up his glasses before
replaying. "Because Happosai may be a gourmet, so he might not like
the fast food Nylon instead of the succulent gourmet taste of Silk."

Soun went into another, more prolonged and painful face fault at
Genma's reply. It sounded like his old friend was actually enjoying this,
which lead to all sorts of unpleasant questions popping into Soun's mind.
Which of course he didn't get to answer as Genma quickly disappeared. "Don't
worry, I'll come back with more Silk stuff for our master!!" Genma's
voice boomed, leading Soun to wonder where exactly Genma learned a trick
like that.

Slowly Soun picked himself up from his face fault and sat in a
meditative position. He began to wonder if he was truly doing the right
thing for Akane, Yukie and the dojo. He began to wonder what would happen
to them if they were ever caught by the police. He also began to wonder
just how much fun that Murphy bastard was having at his expense.

****

The time was 5:30 PM and most of Japan was heading home to supper.
Only the hearty salary men remained at work, still dedicating their time to
the advancement of the job. Mine herself was putting in some overtime,
though she wasn't doing it for the advancement of the job. Nope, she was
grinding the midnight oil for a completely different reason.

"Mine-chan!!!" came a voice from the distance, one which cause a
slight frown to appear on her face. Only one person had the gall to call her
Mina-chan, and she knew full well what the person wanted. "Masa..."
she replied turning around to see her co-worker from the past walking
towards her office. She sighed wishing she hadn't sent Ukyou home
earlier. At least then she would have someone help her build up an excuse,
maybe an important company project. But no, the only person in the office right
now was Mine which kinda of put a hole in her company project excuse.

"Mine-chan, your chauffeur for the night has arrived," the young man
bowed, flashing a big friendly smile towards Mine. For her part Mine just
sighed as she looked at Masa, who still basically looked the same after all
these years. The slightly unkempt look was still there as part of his dress
shirt was hanging out from his pants. She also noted that he still didn't
wear a tie, though she noted that his face was clean shaven for a change. His
brown hair was also cut short and wasn't hanging in front of his blue eye's
like she used to remember. Still Masa was still the image of an
incompetent and unreliable executive, an image which Masa destroyed time
and time again by proving himself the best finder of music talent in the
industry. That talent and a great work effort rapidly earned Masa his own
dress code, and the respect of his coworkers. Even Mine's respect...

A small frown crossed Mine's face as she finished her train of
thought. That was in the past, and she had the future to look forward too.
"Gomen Masa-san, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline your offer. Lot's of
important work to do you see..."

"What, in this empty office? I mean if it was important work you would
of at least kept one executive around..." Mine sweat dropped at that,
adding a mental note to herself not to let Ukyou go home early again. "I mean
you used to keep me around late night when you did the overtime thing.."

"Well, this is only something I can do..."

"Well then you can put it off till tomorrow then," Masa smirked as
replied. "You do know that it's my personal theory that Japan could
benefit from an increase in membership to the procrastinators union."

Yet a small sigh came from Mine, before she coldly started to replay.
"I'm sorry, but I must do this work tonight." With that out of the way,
hopefully Masa would leave her alone Mine thought. But Masa didn't
leave, he just lost a lot of the cheer on his face as he slowly looked deep
into Mine's eye's. "You do know that a 10th anniversary only comes around
once?"

"Masa..."

"And it's been so long since we've seen each other, I mean everyone
from K1 thought you'd like to come along. But I guess I was wrong"
Masa finished taking once last pained look into Mine's eyes. For her part
she was trying to avoid the gaze, fearful for what Masa would see.

"Ja ne!! Maybe we'll see each other at the 20th anniversary.."

A small tear fell down Mine's cheek, as she slowly got up to grab
Masa's hand. It was after all only one night, so it wouldn't hurt to have
fun. "Wait Masa.." Mine muttered as she finally got a hold of Masa's hand.

"So you'll come?"

"Hai..." the understated replay from Mine more than returned Masa
cheerfully demeanor. He quickly placed his arm around Mine's shoulder
and began to grin from ear to ear. "So this was a joke, trying to put one
over old Masa, eh?"

"Well..."

"Well you must be punished for trying to put one over Masa," the young
man grin got even bigger as he looked at Mine's reaction to the statement,
"and I know what the punishment is Mi-chan."

"Oh Kami...Not that!!" Mine cursed as her face turned red.

"But it's such a cute name Mi-chan!!!"

"Yeah, well how do you like Ma-chan," Mine shot back with her own grin
starting to grow. But Masa didn't lose his grin, he just sat back and
rocked on his feet as pushed the button for the Elevator. "Ma-chan
doesn't fit me...I think Sa-chan is cuter Mi-chan!" The replay came, causing
Mine to break out into full laughter as the two entered the elevator. And
the laughter began to fully wash away any doubts Mina had about going to
the dinner, for she at least she was spending time with an old friend.

****

An odd silence fell over the dojo as Ranma and Akane watched Yukie
practice for the tournament to be held tomorrow. The two slowly began
to wonder just why Soun wasn't here to help train Yukie, and all of their
thoughts led to mostly unpleasant situations involving their fathers.

"Well, did I do okay?" Yukie asked as she finished a rather basic Kata
with out too much trouble. At least she didn't trip and fall down
doing the Kata like she did earlier in the month. It was a sign of
improvement, and Yukie could use any sign of an improvement. Especially
if she got involved into a fight to the death with tennis rackets (as
Nabiki seemed to think would happen.

"Oh, you did okay," Ranma replied only half interested. He was angry
that Soun and Genma passed this work off to him, but then again this did
lead to Ranma getting some experience teaching students. Something both
Akane and he would need more of before they would take over the dojo. That
is if the two of them would ever stop fighting...

"Okay, well I'm going to get cleaned up," the two stand in teachers
watched as Yukie ran off, a worried look crossing their face. It was
Akane that decided to head of the upcoming silence first. "So, do you know
where dad and Genma are?"

"Have no idea..."

"And this doesn't bug you?" Akane said letting her anger slowly get
the better of her. Ranma just looked at her with a slight miffed look,
like he didn't really care what there parents were doing. Which was probably
implementing that less then tasteful plan Akane had shoot down 5 days
ago.

"I know how you feel, but I don't think they'd do that," Ranma finally
replied in a slightly nervous tone. 'At least I don't think they
would' he added to himself.

"But when it comes to Happosai!!!" the danger level in Akane's voice
went up a notch, though for a change not against Ranma. Inwardly Ranma
began to feel sorry for his dad and Soun, for if they ran into her like this.
Well let's just say they better not have done that half baked plan.

At that point Nabiki chose to interrupt Akane and Ranma's
conversation. "Ohayoo Akane-chan, Ranma-kun!!!" she cheerfully said as
she walked into the room.

"Hello Oneechan!!" Akane replied, taking her mind off the impending
problem of Happosai and her father. "How can we help you?"

"Well you can help me by leaving the dojo the tonight. Here," the
young capitalist held out her hand to reveal a rather decent sized pile of
bills. "It's what I owe you for the Pog incident. Go out and eat dinner and
watch a movie okay!!"

Ranma and Akane blinked as Nabiki handed over the money wondering if
Nabiki lost her sanity. They knew full well that the 'Pog Incident'
(which is what Nabiki called it) resulted in no money for Nabiki and a hulk
of melted rubber consumes for Ranma and Akane. But just right now Nabiki
had handed over a decent amount of Yen, called it profit and told them to
go out to eat. It wasn't even an offer, it was more of a demand Ranma
thought as he started to count the bills...

"Well that was weird," Akane finally added breaking out of the shock
of the incident, "So what do we do?"

"Well, I think we should go out and eat. It's not often we get a free
meal."

"But, why did Nabiki give us money?" was the only question Akane could
ask out loud among the glut of unspoken questions. 'Does this have
something to do with Happosai' Akane asked to herself before laughing it off.
Happosai never touched Kasumi and Nabiki for some strange reason and
Nabiki wasn't told about the fear of Happosai going after Yukie.
Unless...

"Look, let's not analyze this. We've got money for free food and a
movie so let's enjoy it..."

"Hai...It would be nice to go out. Though.."

Ranma leapt up as he suddenly got on to Akane's train of thought.
"Yeah, it's getting strange here, too strange," Ranma muttered as they left
the dojo. The tension of Happosai was getting to them and that's why Akane
was one edge, Ranma thought. Their fathers rarely did anything strange though,
unless it involved Ranma and Akane getting closer togther..

As if on cue, a small bolt of lightning flashed in the otherwise calm
sky as Akane had the same thought as Ranma. And the both of them both
shared a look of dread as to what tomorrow held for them.

*****

If the Tokyo Ginza had one claim to fame in the annals of Tokyo's
restaurant and bar history it was the fact that it offered a very good
price on Sake. In fact it's Sake price was the cheapest in Tokyo,
maybe even in Japan. This was of course done for a reason as drunken patrons
rarely complained about the prices for the food, which was more
expensive than the average restaurant in Tokyo.

But the cheap and free flowing Sake made for wild parties, and these
parties where the cornerstone of Tokyo Ginza's reputation. Many a
company lost a day's worth a work due to the infamous Tokyo sake, where the
employees would let loose at least for one night during the year.

And it was because of this reputation that the 10th anniversary of the
K1 music division decide to book a booth at Tokyo Ginza. A booth and lot's
of Sake....

"And so in order to meet the deadline for the press conference they
pulled a cute looking girl off the street and lead her to the press
conference," an already slight sloshed young lady recounted, "And imagine
the shock of the record company when they found out I couldn't sing." The
young lady went red in the face after finishing that statement, reaching
over to down yet another glass of rice wine.

"Well, we couldn't let you go Mami, I mean you are one of the better
CD cover artists out there," a sober voice came from the doorway
heralding a new arrival to the party.

"Masa-san!!! When did you get here!!" Mami hiccuped in replay to the
newcomer before downing yet another glass. "And besides I'm not only
the best cover artists I'm also a damn good promoter too. I can't believe I
actually sold 100,000 copies of my own record. And I couldn't sing
either."

"Doesn't matter much with idols really, the industry can make them
like McDonalds makes hamburgers." another member of the party chipped in
as he also reached for more sake. "And the thing is they don't have to be
good either. I know I hate McDonalds food yet I still manage to eat there."

Masa just let out a hearty laugh at the final comment, "Well I happen
to like cute idols and believe that they can make great music." Masa
paused as he gauged the reaction of his audience, finding them more interested
in the Sake than in him. Thus he decided to bring in the big guns, "Oh
well, let's not talk about Business at a time like this. It's time for a fun
and I brought a surprise."

The small crowd hushed as Masa lead another person into the booth, the
two of them slowly sitting down as the hush to learn looks of shock. Mami
finally had the courage to speak to them, "Mine-san??"

"Hai," Mine responded with in a hush wondering how her former
coworkers would react to her presence. Another silence griped the partiers for
awhile, which left Masa no choice but to interrupt it. "Yup, I was able
to break Mi-chan away from her schedule so she could get drunk with us."

"Wai!! Mine-san is here," Mami responded quickly hugging her old
co-worker, " Or should I call you Mi-chan..." the young girl grinned
at the comment knowing full well that she could call her former boss
almost anything right now because of the sake.

"Mou...I really don't like that name, I don't know why Masa-san
started to use it."

"Maybe because it suits you Mi-chan," Masa added in-between his Sake
drinking, "It's such a cute name and your so Kawaii in your business
suit." A small bit of smoke rose from Mine's head after that comment
followed by rather sly grin from Mine as she slowly started to talk,
"Mi-chan may be cute, but Ma-chan is even cuter!!!"

"Ma-chan!! Oh, that does fit you now doesn't it Ma-chan!!!" Mami
giggled as she started to pour another glass of Sake. "Here Mi-chan, drink
up!!!"

"But I think Sa-chan is cuter," Masa added in an indigent tone, taking
the offered Sake from Mami before Mina could take it. "Don't you agree?"

"Nahh, I like Ma-chan much better," Mine added as Mami started to
giggle. "And just for taking my Sake I'll keep calling you that Ma-chan!!"

"Ah, what can I do," Masa replied in a good nature laugh as he
started to pour Mina another glass of Sake, "Except get you all drunk and hope
you forget Ma-chan!!!"

"Ma-chan!!!" The group yelled as a whole, causing everyone to break
into laughter. Even Mine who was starting to drink with the rest of the
group. And for the first time in her life since K1 was bought out 5 years ago
Mine was actually having fun.

****

The Tendo dojo was empty except for 3 people, which was exactly how
Nabiki wanted it. She had given a decent pile of money to Ranma and Akane to
leave the dojo and she was lucky that she didn't have to do the same
for her father and Genma. But then any money spent on today was an
investment that would be paid back in full once Natsumi's new costume took the
market. After all with another costume Nabiki could make another
action figure line, more posters, more idol card, and so on.

"Okay, it looks like the coast is clear Yuki, Kasumi-neechan!" Nabiki
said as she entered the training area of the Tendo home. In side the room
where Yuki and Kasumi, the latter of which was looking at the choice in
uniforms which she was going to wear later in the night. "I'm not sure about
this Nabiki, none of these seem practical."

"When have magical girl uniforms ever been practical?" Nabiki asked
not really expecting an answer from the girls. "Besides it's not like you
have to wear this uniform all of the time. Just a couple of fashion shots
and a poster session and you can go back to the old one."

"Really?"

"Really," the replay from Nabiki came in a small sigh. She didn't know
why Kasumi was attached to the old costume, there wasn't really a
sentimental value to it. At least that's what Nabiki thought, going into
a bit of a brood as she looked at Kasumi. It wasn't like she was trying to
force the change on Kasumi now was she.

It was Yukie who decided to chip into the conversation as Nabiki
continued to think, "Besides I think a fashion show would be cool
Kasumi-neechan, and I especially want to see how you'd look in some of
those idol dress's." The statement was finished with a small laugh and a
growing smile on Yukie that managed to melt away Kasumi resistance to the
idea. "Hai," she managed to say as she went behind the screen which was
her temporary change room. Behind it where a pile of costumes labeled by
numbers ranging from 1-18. Kasumi's brow furrowed a bit, Nabiki wasn't
really planning on making her wear all of these.

"Which number are you starting with first Kasumi?"

"Number 3," Kasumi mumbled in replay to Nabiki's question. Number 3
didn't look too bad Kasumi thought, at least from here.

"Number 3?" a curious Yukie asked looking at Nabiki's widening grin,
"What's number 3?"

"You'll see, You'll see," Nabiki giggled in replay as Kasumi slowly
came out from behind the screen in Costume #3. The costume looked a lot like
a wedding dress except that instead of a long flowing dress the bottom
was replaced with a small pleated skirt. The colour was all white with
pink ribbons on the long white gloves and in the middle of the top. Thin
white fabric flowed from a tiara in the hair and reached down to the floor
almost. Toping it off was a pair of medium length diamond earrings and
a hint of make up on the cheeks which accented the frown on Kasumi's
face. It wasn't long after Kasumi came out that the assembled crowd decided
to break up into laughter.

"Minna!!" Kasumi chided as she went behind the screen. Slowly the
giggles died down as Nabiki offered up yet another suggestion. "Try Number
10!!"

A few minutes later and yet another round of giggles sent Kasumi back
behind the changing screen. Number 10 had looked liked a pink nurses
uniform with a cap placed in the hair. A long flowing scarf was
wrapped around the neck finishing off an ensemble which Yukie thought would
look incredibly cute on a 11 year old girl. Of course Kasumi's wasn't an
11 year old girl...

"Try outfit number 6," Nabiki commented as she checked off yet another
uniform on her list. "No wait, scratch that. The Muyo look is out this
year so let's try number 18."

"Nabiki-neechan, do you think this one will work?" Yukie managed to
ask between her laughs.

"Maybe, because after all this was one of the one's you picked out,"
Nabiki replied as Kasumi slowly emerged from behind the changing room
screen for a third time. This time the uniform was bit more simple
with the skirt being a straight skirt with no ruffles in it. The top was
also a bit simple as it was skin tight yellow fabric that turned into a bow
on at the top of the arms. A pink bow was around the neck and straps held
up the body of the dress with a pair of yellow gloves finishing off the
lemon colored ensemble. Yukie took a good look at the dress and started to
sweatdrop before speaking. "Well, It looked Kawaii on me..."

"That's it, I'm out of here," Kasumi muttered as she started to leave
the room in a decidedly un-Kasumi like way. Both Yukie and Nabiki looked on
in a semi-state of shock as Kasumi left the room.

"Oneechan"

****

It was half way through the party, and enough Sake had been consumed
to make the average elephant sloshed, or maybe 2 elephants. Mine herself
had consumed a fair amount of alcohol and was her face seemed to be in a
permeant shade of red, much like the only other 2 people that were
still semi conscious at this point in the part. A small giggles game from
Mami as Mine started to pour yet another class of Sake, perhaps pushing the
amount of Sake consumed to make 3 elephants drunk. OR was it 4....

"So I was saying, we were turning out Idols like hamburgers for a few
years there," Mami hiccuped as she took another gulp of Sake, "But
then you found this one talent and blam were up to the top."

Masa just grinned as started to drink some water, giving up on the
sake long ago. He knew when to draw the line, especially after some of those
wild college parties lead to some rather incriminating pictures of
him. "But if it wasn't for Mi-chan we would still be an idol company
really. She had the vision to turn us into something else and because of that
we were able to succeeded beyond all of our wildest dreams."

"Yeah, and she kept me around Ma-chan, even after my idol career. She
really liked us idols. Treated us a humans not as factory assembled
toy's for distribution."

"Well, you did have some talent that I just couldn't do with out,"
Mine replied as she downed yet another Sake bottle, "You managed to sell
a lot of your CD's even when we knew they weren't top quality. That's
talent."

"Well if it wasn't for Ma-chan and you, the company would be broke by
now. But instead you got that big company the BF-what ever to buy us out
and, and.." Mami tried to finish but the alcohol finally put her to sleep
leaving a sighing Masa and Mine remaining awake. And with the amount
of alcohol Mine was drinking she wasn't going to remain awake for long.

"Waiter!!!"

"Yes sir,"

"Would you please call a cab to take the rest of the party home," Masa
paused to hand over a decent amount of bill's and a sheet of paper to the
waiter, "This should help cover it."

"And what about the lady that's still drinking Sir?"

"I'll take care of her." The waiter bowed as he walked away leaving
Masa to sit next to Mine. Slowly placing his hand on her back, Masa leaned
down to whisper in the ear of Mine. "Time to go to Mi-chan!"

"Ma....-ch..an"

A broad friendly smile passed over Masa lips as he helped Mine up.
"How many time's have I told you that Sa-chan is cuter than Ma-chan."

"Ma-chan," Mine continued as if ignoring Masa's request, "I wish I
never made that deal with the BFC. I wish I stayed with K1 for the past 5
years."

A slight look of shock passed over Masa's face as he slowly lead Mine
out the door. The deal with the BFC was kept the company afloat and
enabled the company to become one of the better music companies in Japan. Not
just Idol singers though, but a whole host of music. And Masa thought Mine
was happy with the deal, happy that the company was doing well and
producing the kind of music they all wanted to produce 10 years ago. But then
again it could always be the Sake talking Masa reasoned as he opened the car
door for Mine.

Yet Masa still thought something was wrong as he slowly entered his
car, gently shutting the door behind him. Mine wasn't one to lie when she
was drunk so if she really had a problem with the BFC. "So where too
Mi-chan?"

"Ukyou's...I mean Ucchan's," Mine replied as sleep overtook her,
wondering why she wanted to go to Ukyou's place instead of her own home.

"What, you want okonomiyaki this late at night?" Masa joked only to see
that the target of his joke was fast asleep. "Ah...Okay, Ucchan's it
is."A quick turn of the wrist and the car came to life, it's engine slight
purring to the night sky. As he slowly turned onto the road, he
smiled and whispered silently to himself, "Mi-chan".

****

The stadium was dark except for the bit of moonlight that seeped
through the windows to illuminate part of the floor. The preparations for the
tournament were complete and the stadium was ready to go for
tomorrow's big event. So were the two spirts, who were sparring in the middle
of one of the tournament mats. The young man with the short brown
hair and the training Gi unleashed a rapid flurry of punches which were
blocked by the young girl with Green hair.

"Nyaaa, can't you do better than that Kakeru-niichan!!!" the young
green hair girl mocked as she launched a round house kick at the Kakeru. The
kick was blocked but the young girl quickly followed up with a foot
sweep which Kakeru jumped over.

"I'll do better when you start to do better Yume-chan" the young boy
laughed only to be interrupted by a jumping Yume who grabbed his Gi and
proceeded to Judo throw him into the ground. "Ha!! Showed you Niichan!!!"
Yume taunted only to see her brother turn around mid throw and spring
back up from the ground into a jump kick. A stunned Yume only had time to
place up her hands for a partial block as the kick furthered her decent to the
floor.

"Owww, Niichan!!"

"Hey, it's called sparring Yume-chan!!"

"Well you don't have to do it so hard Niichan!!" Yume yelled as she
slowly got up, dusting herself off. Her brother just flashed her a quick V
sign before taking up another fighting stance, "Well we do need the
training."

"Do you think will be read Kakeru-niichan?"

"Oh will be ready," Kakeru smiled as he slowly approached Yume, "That
we can count on!!!"

****

The wisps of moon light slightly caressed Kasumi's face as she looked
down at her normal dress. A slight tear formed in her eye, a tear for what
she did earlier and tear for their mother.

"Oneechan?" Nabiki asked as she peered into from the entrance way of
Kasumi's room. "Are you okay?"

Kasumi sighed as she looked at the figure of her sister, wondering why
she stormed off like that earlier. It wasn't like her costume was too
important her, except for the fact that is was from her mother.

"Oneechan?" Nabiki asked again, breaking her from that train of thought.

"What is it Nabiki?"

"Are you all right Kasumi?" the short haired business woman asked
looking concerned for her older sister. Kasumi seemed to be distant over
the last little while, especially when it came to talking about her
costume. It was as if Kasumi didn't want to get rid of it, but she didn't
know why. "It's because the costume came from Mother, right?"

"Nabiki!!!"

"Well is that the reason?" Kasumi just looked deep into the eye's of
her sister after she asked that question, and she slowly started to cry a
bit as she began to reply. "Yes, it's just that the mother gave this to
me and I don't want to lose another part of her." And with that Kasumi
was in full tears on her bed, turning her eye's away from Nabiki in an
awkward motion.

Nabiki herself felt awkward, wondering how best to comfort her sister.
She didn't really know that her sister felt that her old costume was
from her mother and if she did she wouldn't of forced a new one her.
"Oneechan," Nabiki started in a soothing voice, "I know how much mom
means to you. She means a lot to me."

Nabiki paused as she felt her eye's start to water. Holding the tears
back she once again meet Kasumi's eye's and slowly started to talk again,
"And I would never try and take anything away from you that reminded you of
mom." With that Nabiki placed a sketch on the desk and started to
slowly leave the room, this time the tears flowing freely from her eye's.
"That's the costume I was going to suggest for you. It has some armor
to protect you and I know mom wouldn't want you to get hurt, or me for
that matter. I just put together the fashion show to help you relieve some
stress." With that Nabiki left the room completely, leaving the still
crying Kasumi to look at the drawing for the outfit."Nabiki-chan...
Mother" Kasumi sighed as she looked over the design, grasping her
broach. Slowly she put her hand to the sky and shouted out "Love power
*TRANSFORM*"

Outside of Kasumi's room, Nabiki slowly started to walk down the
stairs slowly getting her tears under control. Yukie was at the bottom
looking up at her with a look of concern. "How is Kasumi-neechan Nabiki?"

"She's fine," Nabiki replied with a voice of concern only to see
Yukie's eye's go wide with excitement. "Nabiki-neechan, behind you!!" Yukie
exclaimed causing Nabiki to turn around quickly.

Behind her was Kasumi in her Natsumi from but upon quick look one
could see that her costume was different than her usually Natsumi form. Her
Boots where a mid length lace up boots in a lime green colour. Her skirt was
pleated 3 layer variety with each layer having a different colour
between lemon and lime. Her body suit was now a pure lemon colour, with a
chest armor plate that went to up to the shoulder and was lime green. In
the middle of the plate was lemon yellow bow in the center laid the broach
which had a the Kanjii for love inscribed in it. To top it off was a
short pair of lemon yellow gloves and a ribbon that held Kasumi's hair in a
loose pony tail. Nabiki looked on in awe, that costume did fit her but
how did she change into it. Natsumi offered no answers as she smiled down
at Nabiki, her eye's still slightly watery from before.

"Mother approved Nabiki-chan!!" Kasumi cried as she went down to hug
her sister, who returned the embrace as best she could. "But, but," Nabiki
tried to form her question in between the shock.

"I don't know, it just happened when I transformed. I guess that means
mother does approve" Yukie looked on as the two sisters hugged, glad
that they made up. It was nice to have family that cared about you, and she
was slowly starting to feel like she was part of this family.

"But we still have one more thing to do!!" Nabiki exclaimed as she
broke free from Natsumi's hug.

"More of the fashion show?"

"Why yes Natsumi!! But since we found your costume Yukie will be the
model now!!" Nabiki exclaimed flashing a big smile Yukie's way.

"Oh no, your not getting me into that Wedding dress outfit!!" Yukie
pouted before joining the other two girls in laughter.

****

It was late at night, and Ukyou was sitting in her kitchen table
looking over the details of tomorrow's plan. It certainly wasn't too
difficult, just pop in hand out an award and takes one names for future members
of the BFC. But if there was one thing Ukyou believed it was that things
could always go wrong no matter how sound the plan was. It was one of
the few things she took over from her past life...

A loud knock on the door broke Ukyou away from her thoughts though it
created a bunch of new ones. Like who would actually be knocking on
her door this later at night for instance. Though this didn't bother Ukyou
much these day's since she was more than capable of taking care of
herself. Even more so than when she was...

"Who is it?"

"Usubei Couriers...I've been instructed by Mine-san to deliver her
here!" The voice responded in a half joking voice. Now why would someone be
delivering her boss, Ukyou thought as she slowly opened the door
readying to attack the visitor at the first possible moment.

"Moshi Moshi!!" The young man responded as he lead in Mine into the
premises's, " I hope you don't mind but she asked me to drop her off
here."

"No I don't" Ukyou responded, trying to hid any intention that she
planned to attack the young man, "What happened?"

The young man just smiled as he handed Mine over to Ukyou, "Mine had a
little too much to drink at a party so she asked me to bring her home.
You'll be alright won't you?"

"I'll be fine!!" Ukyou than bowed to the young man, " I thank you for
taking the time to bring her here."

"No problem, Mata ne Mi-chan!!!" Ukyou shut the door closed silently
as the young man finished his good bye's. Well, this was another thing
that could go wrong Ukyou grumbled to herself as she carried Mine to her
guest room. "Ma-chan..." Mine muttered as she Ukyou placed her down in the
bed. Ukyou silently closed the door, before she started to shake her head.

"It must of been some party that's for sure."

******

*Present day*

The stadium was packed for the Tokyo regional martial arts competition,
though the crowd wasn't exactly pumped for the event. The lack of
excitement could be do to the fact that exceptional martial arts fights
happened daily in Nermia, or from the tension of yet more
property damages resulting from the usual rough housing. What ever the
case the crowd was quiet, dead quiet.

Not that Ukyou cared, all she had to do was stick around for the Black
Belt bracket, the cream of the crop of not only Nerima martial arts
but the surrounding distracts as well. Unfortunately to get the good part
she had to stick around for about 6 hours of white belt action which was
like watching 60 minutes of Van Damme to get 10 minutes of Bruce Lee. No,
this would not be fun, Ukyou thought cursing the fact that Mine had just
conveniently came down with hang over before this event. But Ukyou had
to be diplomatic for the sake of the company and that meant making small
talk with the organizer. "Ohayoo Yuu-san," Ukyou bowed maintaining a decent
level of politeness.

"Ohayoo," the man respond with a look of slight displeasure on his
face, "Excuse me but wasn't Uchida-san supposed to be here?"

"She is delayed at the moment, but she will be here later for the
presentation of the medals for the black belt competition."

"Ah, well it doesn't matter anyway, We're just glad we have some
local corporate support" Yuu chuckled as he started to talk with the men that
where with him. Ukyou let loose a barely audible sigh, if they just
wanted the corporate money then why did she have to be here. They could just
take a list of names a contact the winners later. They didn't have to go
and ruin....

"Nani?" Ukyou asked out loud as she felt a strange presence in the
room.

"Pardon me?" one of the suits next to Yuu asked looking at Ukyou with
a worried brow.

"Nothing, I have some business to take care of. If you would excuse me
gentleman," a polite bow soon followed as Yuu waved Ukyou off. Slowly
walking away the presence once again returned to Ukyou. 'It's a weird.
I feel as if there is some danger near by, could it be that magical
girl' Ukyou thought to herself as she walked into the recreation lounge.
Their plans were air tight and the BFC name wasn't even announced publically
with the event. They where just sponsoring the black belt round, so how
would that magical girl find out about the plan. Well Ukyou was soon to the
answers to her questions as she located the source of the presence,
and it was coming from the basement. Quickly closing the doors behind her,
Ukyou smiled a devious smile while thinking about how interesting things
would soon get.

As the door shut one of the front doors quickly opened. For walking
through that door was the entire Tendo dojo party, missing Genma and
Soun. And it was for that reason Akane and Ranma had worried looks on
their faces. For they were expecting anything from there fathers, be
it a fight to the death with Happosai or the nth pathetic attempt to get the
two of them to marry. Yup, the young fiancee's had a look of pure dread on
their faces as they walked in to the stadium. "I'll go register Yukie,
You help her warm up," Akane said as she started to walk over to the
table.

Ranma quickly turned around to look at the other members of the Tendo
family who came with Yukie today. Both Nabiki and Kasumi looked like
they were enjoying themselves though Yukie had a slight nervous look on
her face. But then Ranma chalked that up to first tournament jitters, even
though none of the fighters really scared him. Even the one's that
owned their own Dojo. Still Yukie was a white belt and this tournament was a
good first step even for a casual student in the art. "Yukie, come with me
and I'll help you loosen up for your fight, ne?"

"Hai," the less than enthusiastic replay came from Yukie who was
wondering on just how she was going to deal with rumored martial arts Jazz
dance team Nabiki was betting on being here.

"Then go over to the training area and wait a while," Ranma said as he
looked at Nabiki and Kasumi. "So, why are you two here?"

"I'm here to cheer Yukie on of course," Kasumi replied cheerfully to
the question, an answer that more than satisfied Ranma's curiosity as to
why Kasumi was here.

"I'm here to make some money on side betting of course," Nabiki
grinned as she answered Ranma's question, an answer that more than satisfied
Ranma's curiosity as to why Nabiki was here. She was here to make money.

"Ranma!!" Akane yelled, "We've got to go help Yukie loosen up!!!"
Ranma flinched, one plus of all the mayhem with Genma and Soun meant that
Akane and Ranma where getting along better than the usually did. Though that
was mostly because they where worried about their fathers than
insulting each other. Still Ranma did want to go an entire week with out
getting malleted so he decided to do the diplomatic thing, for once. "I'll be
right over. Have fun you two."

The Tendo sisters looked on as Ranma waved good bye to them and then
they slowly made their way to there seats. "So do you think Yukie will do
good in the tournament Nabiki?"

"Well she does have help from Ranma-kun so it shouldn't be too
difficult," Nabiki quickly turned the gears in her head to come at a reasonable
odd's for the tournament fight, and quickly inspected Yukie as she started to
do her practice Kata's. "I give 100-1 odd's of winning her first fight."

"Nabiki-chan!!!" Kasumi shook her head at her sister, she needed to
have more faith in Yukie. Though she did hope the young girl wouldn't get
hurt, but then that's what Ranma and Akane where there for.

For their part Ranma and Akane where watching Yukie stretch but their
minds where on different things. Mainly their fathers. "Ranma, what
about.." Akane tried to ask Ranma before he put his hands over her
mouth.

"Just don't ask," a nervous grin appeared on his face as he talked to
Akane, "Don't tempt fate today, or else will be sorry." Ranma slowly
took his hand away from Akane's mouth and watched as she had a look of
understanding on her face. Nothing would go wrong if they didn't say
anything could go wrong.

"And now for the first round of our competition which will be white
belt Females"

"Wish me luck Ranma-san, Akane-san!!!" Yukie exclaimed with a bit of
fear in her voice. She didn't want to run into the Jazz dancers in round
one, or the rumored combat mime. She just wanted a nice normal opponent.

For their part Ranma and Akane just looked at each other, feeling of
unspoken dread slowly taking over their bodies.

*****

Of course the cause of their dread was far across town in the middle
of Tokyo's suburbs (though Ranma and Akane didn't know that.). Genma and Soun
were slowly hatching phase 2 of their evil plan to appease their demon master.
"I don't know Saotome-san, but I don't think this will work."

"Relax Tendo-kun," the elder Saotome said as he adjusted his
handkerchief, "this will be the final blow to Happosai. With this will be
able to bring him down forever."

"But don't we have enough underwear already, so why do we need to go
for yet another set of bras!!!" Soun screamed as they tried their best to
sneak up on a lone bra in the midday's light. The fact they where on
the ground and the bra was on the 4th floor still didn't seem to sway
Genma's mood.

"It's not just any bra, it's a complete Silk mix and it's a name
brand," Genma replied, "One of those Kline Calvin brands. With this will bring
down Happosai!!"

"But we already have enough!!!" Soun whispered in a very angry voice,
wondering why he was hunting for women's underwear in the daytime and
why Genma knew so much about the subject. Perhaps the master was starting
to rub off a bit on Genma.

"Heh, this is easy pickings for someone as skilled as me!!" The boast
was soon followed by a jump up to the tree followed by a leap to the
branch. "Come on Tendo-kun!! It's easy pic...AHHH!!" With a loud thud Genma
fell in to the balcony where the tempting prize was hung. And for the first
time in weeks Soun did the sensible thing, he slowly backed into the
bushes and hid.

"Tendo-kun?" Genma asked as he looked around the balcony and into the
apartment, seeing for the first time the occupants of the domicile. And
for such a small apartment their seemed to be many residents, almost 20
women with rather large brooms on their shoulders. Genma took a quick cough
before speaking up to the gathered crowd, "Ohayoo Minna-san!!!"

"He fell for the bait, Get him!!!" one of the ladies yelled as the ran
out onto the balcony slowly introducing their end of their brooms into
Genma's head. From the ground Soun grimaced as he heard Genma crying
for help, tears pouring from his eye's. "The path of true martial artist
is filled with danger Saotome, you travel it well."

****

Kakeru frowned, "Why do the tournaments have to start with the white
belts first? They should start with the black belts first."

"Well if they did that then the crowd would go home early." Kakeru
frown deepened as he looked at Yume, knowing full well that she was right.
"Yeah, I know...But I don't have to like it."

Yume sighed as she paced around the Dojo, slowly giving into her
brothers impatience. "I wanna do something!!! Let's get some snacks!!" The face
of her brother met the ground at that statement, followed by a quick
recovery in which he towered over his sister.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" came a voice that wasn't Kakeru's, which
perplexed Yume. Quickly turning around she saw a young women with Long
brown hair dressed in a red business suit. Yume also noted that she
had a rather angry expression on her face, one that obviously didn't mean
well.

"And why do you want to know?" came the answer to the question for a
slightly more composed Kakeru.

"Well I just want to make sure that tournament is completed without any
mishaps," Ukyou's eye's narrowed a bit as she looked at the 2 young
people, "You aren't planning to do anything now are you?"

"Maybe we are, and maybe we aren't. What are you going to do about
it?"

Ukyou grinned at that statement, "Why I'm going to stop you!!!"

*****

The PA system blared to life, ready to announce the next match. "Next
Round 1 match is the Satski Dojo vs the Tendo Dojo." A small rumble
went through the crowd at the announcement of the Tendo dojo, whose name was
synonymous with chaos and entertainment even in the white belt level.
A small cheer went through the crowd, the first so far in the
tournament (except for the polite cheers from family members) as Yukie entered
the ring.

For her part Yukie was nervous for even though her opponent looked
normal she still had the vague feeling that something weird was going to
happen. er opponent also looked worried, though for a different reason all
together. The name Tendo was known in some parts of Japan, and it's
reputation scared all but the strongest of Dojo's.

"Go for it Yukie-chan!!!" Kasumi yelled as the referee finished giving
the initial instructions to the two competitors. The two bowed and slowly
made their way to their coroner's of the mat. A small gulp was taken by
both of them before the signal to go was given.

Yukie charge forth with a simple straight kick that her opponent
managed to dodge. A quick counter with a straight punch soon followed along
with a quick snap kick that Yukie managed to avoid. A small pause of relief
soon feel over her as she noticed that nothing weird was happening at least
so far. But the breather was short lived as Yukie rushed in with a quick
punch, followed by a rather sloppy looking roundhouse kick.

Which was quickly dodged by her opponent, who also took a chance for a
breather. She noted that none of the weird stuff the Tendo dojo was
famous for had been used in the match. No mallets, fireballs, or any other
weird things. It was just a plain normal match, and that wasn't supposed to
happen with a Tendo trained student.

Two loud Kya's filled the air as the combatants ran into each other,
grabbing onto each others gi's. Ranma and Akane both showed looks of
worry, though not for Yukie. They knew that nobody really got hurt at
these tournaments and that Yukie should be all right. There were more
worried about what any other spectator may cause in mayhem.

Quickly leaning forward Yukie tried a modified Judo throw on her foe,
still worrying about whether or not she was going to break into the two step
in the middle of the fight.

Countering the move, her opponent quickly lifted Yukie up in a counter
throw. A move she especially worked on for this tournament, a move
which would be useless if any mallets came out.

Ranma and Akane gasped as Yukie's shoulders were slowly thrown towards
the mat. Now was as good as time as any for the usual interruption to come,
and the two prepared every excuse in the book to explain them.

The crowd went into a hush, what would happen next in the match. Would
the Tendo student flip out and use a Ki attack like most Tendo students
could. But the anticipation of everyone was meet with the soft thud of
Yukie's shoulders hitting the mat.

"Ippon!! Time up, Winner Satski dojo!!" The referee screamed as almost
half of the crowd went into a partial face fault. They had just
witnessed a first in Nerima, a perfectly normal martial art's fight.

"Ite!!!" Yukie cried as she was helped up by her smiling opponent. She
returned the smile, and bowed to the victor adding a cute "Thanks for
a good fight" for good measure.

Turning to leave the mat she could see the Tendo family run up to her.
Kasumi looked like she had a mixture of worry and relief on her face.
"Don't worry I'm okay!!" Yukie sighed as she still felt a bit stiff
from her fall, though Kasumi did look less worried.

"You did good for what you've learned," Akane added with a look of
relief on her face, one which Ranma shared. "Of course it would of went
better if we spent a little more work on throws." Yukie just giggled as
slightly stuck her tongue in replay, a move which even got Ranma to laugh
a bit.

"We'll I don't know about you but I don't wanna stick around here all
day. Let's say we go out to eat, ne?" Kasumi asked, not really wanting to
stick around for the rest of the event. A feeling which Ranma agreed
with surprisingly, "Yeah, let's go get something to eat Okay!!"

"Why Ranma-kun," Nabiki teased, "I thought you'd like to stay and
watch some more martial arts."

"Well I would if it was a the black belt part, but even then it's
nothing I haven't seen before."

"Well I guess it does get boring if it's just normal martial arts and
not something like martial arts cooking," Nabiki added, drawing yet
another curious look from Yukie.

"Ranma-san, you really took part in a martial arts cooking contest?"

"Which one," Ranma laughed beginning to break out in story, "I've
taken part in many." The 4 girls just sighed, not wanting to hear another
inflated story of Ranma's amazing exploits.

*****

Ukyou slowly gazed into the eye's of the two people who stood in front
of her. Just from meeting them she could see that they weren't magical
girls or anything like that, they seemed more like spirts. But they still
wanted to interrupt the contest, and the BFC wouldn't allow that.

"Heh, She still wants to fight Yume-chan," Kakeru laughed as he looked
at his opponent. "She doesn't look too tough so I'll let you have a go at
her."

"Thanks Oniichan!!" the younger girl exclaimed as she took up a
fighting stance across from Ukyou. "I hope you know we've been haunting this
location for over a 100 years, disrupting any martial arts tournament.
If any one can beat us than we will finally be able to rest in peace. And
I really doubt you will be able to do that."

"Why don't you try me," Ukyou grinned, reading to let loose on the two
foolish spirts that would dare to involve themselves in BFC business.

Though Yume just smirked in replay and started to run towards Ukyou.
Taking a Quick blocking stance Ukyou was rather surprised when Yume did
a quick headstand and placed her legs around Ukyou's neck.
"Hurricarana!!" Yume yelled as she tried to pull Ukyou forward but couldn't.

"Ah, your supposed to help me do the move ya know?" Yume yelled at
Ukyou, who had a slightly red face. Her brother had red face too, and a
sweat drop. All of which lead him to tower over his sister.

"Don't you know wrestling is fake!!!"

"But, I always wanted to do that move," Yume cried as she jumped out
the head stand leaving a still stunned Ukyou. "It's just so cool when the
girls on TV do it."

"Sigh, You should really stop watching TV you know," Kakeru sighed as
he looked at Ukyou. "Gomen Nasi, but I'll be fighting you now." Kakeru
entered a similar fighting stance which his sister had, but Ukyou
noted that he was not moving in. Slowly moving his hands to his side, he
quickly pushed them forward and yelled out "Hadoken"

The alarm of a watch went off in the background and a bird took off in
flight as both Ukyou and Yume looked on in shock. Kakeru looked
forward and laughed at his hands as he was unable to send forth any Ki in a
fireball form. "Rats, I thought I learned the Hadoken last time!!!"

"Oniichan!!! What did I say about playing fighting games!!!"

Kakeru just looked at Yume with a smile. "But I got it down!! Wait a
minute" Kakeru exclaimed as he produced a control pad and handed it to
Yume. "If you do a fireball motion while I point my hands out it
should work."

"I don't know what a fireball motion is!!" Yume cried in mid
sweatdrop, throwing the control pad down. "You and that stupid
game..Ack!!!" Yume screamed as she dodged a quick flaming spatula.

"Are you done playing yet?" Ukyou grinned as she produced 2 more
flaming spatula's. "Because I'm ready to fight!!"

Suddenly the demeanor on Kakeru and Yume went serious, their forms both
glowing yellow. "So, you have some power!! A mix of spiritual power
with the Ki of a Human. You should be a fun fight," Kakeru added in a
rather emotionless voice.

Ukyou just grinned and prepared to throw the spatulas when she was
stopped by one voice. "What are you doing Ukyou-san?"

"Uchida-san!!" Ukyou cried, "When did you get here!?"

"Just a little while ago. So what's the deal with these two?" Mine
turned to face Kakeru and Yume, both of whom had a rather serious look on
their faces.

"Uchida-san, we are haunting this tournament and Ukyou-san tried to
stop us. We found her a worthy opponent so we are going to fight her."

Mine laughed at the replay, "Well it doesn't matter anymore, the
tournament is over."

"What!!" Kakeru and Yume yelled, "But it's only been...3 hours since
we've faced down Ukyou!!!" Kakeru cried, noting that time flies when your
having fun.

"Yup, and this was a short tournament. We'll be leaving now so you can
do whatever you like," Mine laughed as she pulled Ukyou along with her,
noting that she really needed to teach Ukyou the method for youma
exits.

As for Kakeru and Yume, well they just sat in the middle of the floor
with stunned looks on their faces. "Yume-chan, I think we should go haunt
some place else,"

"Okay!!!" Yume-chan exclaimed, instantly producing 4 ready to go
suitcases. "Let's go to some place that has a real good retail
district okay!!! And a good Manga shop!!!Wai!!"

Kakeru sighed, they really were going to be here for eternity. Oh
well, they could always look for one of those famous martial artists they
heard about in the tournament. And that would mean they wouldn't have to move
far from Nerima, or his favorite arcade. "Come on Yume, were going
Apartment hunting!!"

"Wai!!!"

*****

"And so I ended up using flour to distract him and while I did that I
hit over 100 times!!" Ranma exclaimed as he sat next to Yukie who was
listening in interest. Either Ranma was a good story teller or Nabiki
didn't have to go far for her footage.

"And did I tell you about the time I had to use a cake pan to fight
off 10 guards." Yukie continued to smile, they were good stories and Ranma
was nice even though he had a bit of an ego. But Yukie didn't feel like
more martial arts today and she just wanted to tear into her banana split
and.

"And in the news today," The music in the background changed to a news
report which seemed to interrupt Ranma's story. "Police found a
collection of a Women's underwear in a local mini-storage facility. Details are
sketchy but police are looking into numerous suspects."

Both Yukie and Nabiki looked on as both Ranma and Akane went pale.
"Nahh, It couldn't be," the two laughed as they started to eat there fries
again only to be interrupted by yet another noise which sounded like a horde
of women chasing after someone. "Please don't let it be who I think it
is, don't let it be him!!!" Akane and Ranma prayed to the Kami's, only to
have their prayer smashed as the figure ran past the window.

"Hello Son, Akane-kun, Minna!!!" Genma yelled as he ran past the
window, the pursuing women not far behind. Both Akane and Ranma went into a
face fault on the table as Yukie looked on curiously.

"Oh My," Kasumi finally added breaking the silence, "But it's nice to
see Genma finally getting some exercise!"

This only worsened Akane and Ranma's face faults....

****

"So we pulled it off Mine-san?"

Mine smiled as she looked at the names on the list, the names of the
future of the BFC. "Yes, and in one weeks time will be meeting them
again to give them their cheque. And after that..."

"Heh, I get the idea," Ukyou laughed as she went into her room, "Can I
get you anything by the way?"

"Yeah," Mine paused, "Some more Sake would be nice!"

Ukyou took the chance to face fault as she entered the room, closing
the door behind her. Mine took one more look at the list before going to
the fridge for one of her jolts. Stopping by the door, she let out one
more sigh before looking at the sun light.

"Ma-chan...."

******* End of Part 6

[ED: "Friends" (Nabiki Tendo Version)/Takayama Minami]

Ja ne!!

Richard Beaubien
----------------
Suzuki Arimi, Mizuno Ami, Aya-san forever!!!! WAI!!!

Fanfic homepage http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~beaubird/