I just wanted to take a minute to submit my rational behind Asuka's acceptance of Ranma's curse. Mainly, I wanted to do something different. Almost everyone would expect Asuka to react with ridicule, and that's probably accurate. However, there are factors here that I believe would mitigate that to some extent. First off, Asuka isn't the type of girl that hides her attraction to a guy. Look at how shamelessly she pursued Kaji. She is attracted to Ranma's guy form and she has also respects him as a fellow warrior, especially after the scene with Fuyutsuki. Thus she has a choice, alienate someone she respects and is attracted too by ridiculing him, or accept it as move on. I had her choose the more mature course. I also would like to apologize to anyone that was offended about Ranma's turn of phrase when he implied that soldiers were ass-kissers. That was more a case of Ranma putting his foot in his mouth and it was certainly not my personal view. I just didn't realize how harsh it sounded until I posted the chapter. The last chapter marked a transition for the story. It will become much more serious now, darker, but also more WAFFy as the romance factor kicks into gear. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "That's Ranma for you," Nabiki said to Kasumi while the fiancée brigade ranted to each other about Ranma collecting more girls. "I don't know why it is, but he seems to draw girls in like a homing beacon wherever he goes." Nodoka hid her grin behind her hand at the comment. She didn't know why there was a shrine to Bastet, the ancient Egyptian Goddess of fertility, in Japan, but when she found out about the Goddess's area of influence, she had to go in and pray for a blessing for her then unborn son. She wanted lots of grandchildren after all. Nodoka's look turned dark as she fixed her husband with a baleful glare. Of course, Genma had done everything in his power to counteract the blessing, starting with the Nekoken, then telling Ranma that women were a distraction from the Art and ensuring that any experience that Ranma did have with a woman was an unmitigated disaster. Nodoka sighed. Ranma so loved cats before her husband took him away on that foolish training journey. It indicated Ranma's affinity to the Goddess that blessed him. Nodoka turned her attention from her battered husband to the TV as Nabiki started the next episode of Ranma's adventure. (oO\O/Oo) "My goodness, this is delicious, Ranma," Kaji said as he finished eating. "You'll make someone a fine wife someday." Asuka, Misato, and Ritsuko all snickered. Rei sat impassively as always. Ranma was not amused, as was made clear when a chopstick went sailing across the table to smack Kaji across the forehead hard enough to leave a bruise. "Owwie!" Kaji exclaimed, rubbing the reddening line across his forehead. "Oh gee, sorry about that, Kaji," Ranma said sweetly. "It seems my chopstick got away from me." Asuka, Misato, and Ritsuko snickered louder and even Rei's lips quirked into a fleeting smile. "So when do I get to see this magical transformation of yours?" Kaji asked, trying to ignore the fact that he hadn't even seen Ranma move when she hit him with the eating utensil. Rei, who was sitting beside Ranma, reached over and dumped her tea on Ranma's head. "I guess now would be as good a time as any," the now-male Ranma deadpanned, shooting a look at Rei. Rei developed a hint of a smile but it was gone before anyone but Ranma saw it. Ranma sighed and turned back to Kaji and began to explain the curse. Several minutes and a few demonstrations later, courtesy of Asuka, who was sitting on Ranma's other side, and Rei, Kaji was looking at Ranma intrigued. "Wow," the older man grinned lecherously. "What I could do if I could do that." "Pervert," Misato growled as both she and Ritsuko looked a bit green at the prospect. "You'd probably get your ass kicked a lot," Ranma commented, causing Misato and Ritsuko to laughingly agree. (oO\O/Oo) Ranma stared at the ceiling. She was not a happy camper. It wasn't because she was currently female. Nor was it because she was banished into this weird world that appeared to be based on an apocalyptic anime. No, she was not happy because she wasn't going to make it to the end of the anime to have to worry about seeing an apocalypse. She was quite certain her life would be forfeit as soon as the two sleeping girls on either side of her awoke. As per Misato's plan, Ranma and Asuka would be sleeping in the same room. Misato would be joining them to chaperone, talk about leaving the fox to guard the henhouse, and just so she didn't get left out, Rei had also joined them. Thus the living room was the current location of four futons containing three sleeping women and one wide-awake, sometimes-female, pig-tailed martial artist who was currently pursuing a fatalistic train of thought. A camera flash suddenly illuminated the room. Correction, the room now contained two sleeping women, one fatalistic, some-times female, wide-awake martial artist, and a 'chaperone' wearing a wicked grin and holding a camera. And just what was the reason for said martial artist's morbid opinion of her life expectancy and the 'chaperone's' wicked grin? That would have everything to do with the fact that the two sleeping girls were currently tightly snuggled up to the martial artist in question. Worse yet, one of the girls currently had a handful of a well-developed fleshy formation on the martial artist's chest with a leg thrown over between Ranma's own for good measure. The other girl's hand was resting on Ranma's lower belly, dangerously close to somewhere that would have been...improper, and she too had a leg thrown over both Ranma's and the other girl's. Suddenly, Misato appeared in Ranma's view as the redhead stared at the ceiling while contemplating her doom. Misato's grin had become downright evil now. She presented a kettle for Ranma's inspection. Ranma's eyes widened as she immediately grasped the older woman's intent. Her eyes began to plead as she mouthed silent denials. This only made Misato's eyes sparkle with mirth and her grin to grow larger as she began to carefully tip the kettle, dribbling just enough hot water to trigger the change, and then courteously toweling off the water. The girls shifted and mumbled a little in their sleep as Ranma's greater male mass displaced them slightly. The hand on his chest squeezed his now hard pectoral muscle a couple of times before relaxing again. The other hand that was resting dangerously close to somewhere unmentionable was no longer merely close; the matter was firmly in hand, as it were. This hand also gave a few experimental squeezes, causing Ranma to stifle a gasp and turn beet-red. Ranma's eyes tracked his betrayer as she walked around the room and set the kettle down, once again picking up her camera. Several flashes later, the traitorous woman settled down with a cup of tea to await the festivities bound to happen when the girls awoke. Not content to allow things to happen at their own pace and thus allowing Ranma a few more precious moments of life to live, Misato grinned as she set the alarm clock to go off in another five minutes. (oO\O/Oo) Asuka awoke to the sound of her alarm clock. She was feeling very warm and comfortable and really didn't want to get up, but the alarm was insistent. Slowly, her brain was banishing the fog of sleep from her mind as it brought her systems online. Her internal diagnostics told her she was comfortably warm and had a wonderful night's sleep, a rare thing for her since she was almost always plagued with nightmares that would leave her feeling drained in the morning. Internal systems checked, her awareness expanded to her outer condition. This revealed she was snuggled up to her nice warm pillow. Her leg was thrown over it and a few exploratory squeezes revealed her hand was firmly grasping its thick handle. The pillow was inflating and deflating slightly in a relaxing, even repetition...wait a minute! Firstly, her mind told her, pillows don't inflate and deflate. Secondly, they don't typically have handles either. Thirdly, she couldn't ever remember a pillow being quite this warm and firm. Asuka's blue eyes snapped open and she froze. (oO\O/Oo) Meanwhile, Rei was running similar diagnostics as she too was pulled from her sleep by the wretched alarm. Her start up sequence was much faster than Asuka's, as was her grasp of her position. Add to this her lack of indoctrination to popular social dogma, meant rather than panicking, she simply lay there enjoying the warm feeling of being cuddled up to her Ranma. Thus, her crimson eyes were open and a content smile graced her lips when Asuka's blue eyes popped open wide and met Rei's as a deep blush colored her cheeks. Rei winked at the redhead reassuringly and her content smile grew a little bigger as her crimson eyes flicked upward suggestively, conveying to Asuka to follow her lead. (oO\O/Oo) Sweat began to form on Ranma's brow as he recognized by their breathing and investigative groping that the alarm had done its job in waking the girls up. Any minute now, he'd be a dead man. He felt the redhead pressed to his left side stiffen in alarm. The blue-haired girl, in contrast, remained relaxed. He watched as two pairs of eyes, one set crimson and one set azure, slowly looked up to meet his own stormy-ocean blue ones. He gulped and waited for the unspeakable violence to begin. Therefore, he was quite surprised when he felt the blushing redhead relax with a little sigh as she smiled at him and gave him a little squeeze before removing her hand almost reluctantly from its place on his body. His brain completely blew a circuit when they both craned upwards and gave him a little kiss on their respective cheeks before Asuka spoke. "Good morning, Handsome," she said softly, settling back in for another momentary snuggle before she sat up. Rei just gave him a shy smile and little squeeze before she too sat up. "Morning, Girls," Misato chirped with a teasing grin. "Did you sleep well?" "That was the best night's sleep I can ever remember," Asuka smiled, blushing a little darker if that was possible. "I too feel more rested than is customary," Rei commented. "How about you, Ran...ma..." Misato trailed off as she looked at the boy who had taken advantage of his freedom when the girls let go of him. He was currently curled into a tight fetal ball in the corner of the room with his arms held protectively around his head. "Hey, what's with you?" The girls looked around and saw Ranma quivering in the corner looking like a terrified young child about to be beaten by a drunk, abusive stepfather. Now ordinarily, aside from cats, Ranma wasn't afraid of anything, as he would normally be quick to point out, especially not physical abuse. However, there were several factors here that were working against his mental state. Among these was the fact that he was in this world-not-his-own facing a rather grim demise. There was also Akane's conditioning, which was normally suppressed, where any contact with a girl would lead to immediate and brutal consequences. And then, there was his confusion at how comfortable he was being snuggled. But the biggest factor that led to his current reaction was guilt. Ranma felt an enormous amount of guilt that he had been enjoying the feelings of the two young girls snuggled tightly against him and the feelings of their hands on his body. Because he liked having the girls snuggled up to him, in his mind, that equated to him having taken advantage of them and therefore he lost the moral high ground he would normally have clung to when he wound up in a compromising situation with a girl. Add to that the girls were only fourteen while he was, in reality, seventeen, made him feel like a true pervert. Of course, it wasn't lost on him that a less than three year age difference was nothing in terms of adult relationships and there was the fact that his father and Mr. Tendo were going to make him marry Mr. Tendo if he wasn't able to get his curse unlocked that time with Herb. That thought made him shudder. However, the first thought didn't really help him much, and the second made him feel even dirtier. So Ranma sat in the corner fully believing that he deserved to be beaten to death, or at least into a coma, in a brutal manner and fully expected for the beating to commence as soon as the girls found suitable weapons. They had each given him the Kiss of Death after all. It was completely lost on him that the kisses might have meant something else entirely. "Ranma?" Rei asked softly as she reached out to touch him. The boy flinched away with a whimper. Nothing the girls or Misato did could coax the boy out of his defensive ball. He just begged them to kill him and get it over with. After an hour of coaxing, Misato realized that there was something horribly wrong here, so she called in support in the form of Dr. Ritsuko Akagi. (oO\O/Oo) An hour and a half after Ritsuko had arrived and managed to coax Ranma into his room, she stepped out and slid the door shut with exaggerated care. The blonde doctor then walked down the hallway, past the three expectant-looking women gathered at the table, and out onto the patio. Misato's eyes bugged when she saw her normally cool and unflappable friend begin to destroy her patio furniture in a fit of rage-fueled violence while issuing a string of multi-lingual profanity that would have made a gangsta-rapper blush. Once there was nothing left on the patio bigger then a fist to destroy, Ritsuko straightened her clothes and combed her hair back into place with her fingers. Taking a few breaths, she turned calmly and reentered the condo, seating herself at the table. "Um...Ritsuko? What the hell was that about?" Misato asked carefully. "Sorry," Ritsuko said, not really sounding sorry at all. "I had to vent before I did something...rash." "I see," Misato said, not seeing. "And how is Ranma?" "Ranma is fine for now," Ritsuko answered calmly. "I gave him a sedative to calm him down." "So what happened?" Misato prompted, beginning to get irritated that she was having to pry the answers from the blonde who had just laid waste to her patio. "It seems that before being summoned to Tokyo-3 by his father, Ranma was forced to live in the same house with a psychotic bitch," Ritsuko said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "It seems that the girl would accuse him of being a pervert and beat him with a variety of blunt, sometimes makeshift, weapons for so much as speaking to a girl. At the time, he was also being pursued by several other violent psychopaths that would throw themselves at him. This always resulted in him being beaten severely by one or more of them." "Daaamn," Misato said in dismay. Suddenly, a lot of the reactions Ranma had to even a hint of flirting made a lot more sense. "Essentially, Ranma has been conditioned that any affectionate contact with girls will result in large amounts of pain immediately thereafter," Ritsuko explained. "So he's going to do this every time a girl expresses an interest in him?" Misato asked incredulously. "Well, the reaction this morning was rather extreme because of the added component of guilt he felt," Ritsuko explained. "Unlike the other times, where he didn't welcome the contact nor was even attracted to the girls for the most part, he believes he took advantage of Rei and Asuka because he's attracted to them and enjoyed being cuddled with them. Because of this, he feels that he deserves to be 'beaten to death for his crimes'. He even thinks the girls both gave him something called the Kiss of Death, which is apparently some sort of declaration of intent to hunt you to the ends of the Earth to kill you in some primitive Chinese Amazon culture he was exposed to." "You're kidding?" Misato asked weakly. "I wish I was," Ritsuko said tiredly. The blonde doctor looked over at the girls and goggled. Asuka was staring wide-eyed in shock, which was understandable. It was Rei that truly stunned Ritsuko. The girl she had come to think of as being as cold and emotionless as a machine sat there with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Rei? Why are you crying?" Ritsuko asked, curious. "Because it saddens me that Ranma believes I wish to kill him," Rei answered. "It angers me that he was tormented so. And it frustrates me that I wish to help him, but my presence will only make him feel worse." Asuka looked over at the other girl. After a moment, the redhead pulled the other girl into a hug and Rei's floodgates opened. She began to sob into the redhead's shoulder, which took Ritsuko completely aback. "So what can we do?" Misato asked. Ritsuko looked at the two girls appraisingly, then down at the photos Misato had taken of the three of them this morning. "Am I to understand that the two of you are interested in something more than friendship with Ranma?" Ritsuko asked. "I-I...g-guess so," Asuka stammered, blushing deeply. Rei didn't answer. She just nodded her head as she cried on Asuka's shoulder. "Hmmm," Ritsuko remarked. "Typically, conditioning can be broken by showing the conditioned person positive responses to the events they have been conditioned against. In this case, this can be achieved by demonstrating to Ranma that it's okay to accept the affection of girls without being beaten and that the proper response is to return that affection." "S-so w-we can h-help him by showing him affection?" Rei hiccoughed hopefully, pulling herself together and disengaging from Asuka. "It won't be easy," Ritsuko cautioned. "It won't happen overnight, but yes, I think you can help him. He likes both of you so inside he wants you to show him affection. He just needs to learn that accepting it won't make him a pervert or get him beaten. I can tell you one thing, if I ever see those psychotic little bitches that did this to him, I swear I'll put a bullet in their abusive little heads." "Geez, Ritsuko," Misato said in surprise, glancing at her destroyed patio. "You seem awfully emotional about this. It's not like you." "I guess Ranma sort of grew on me," Ritsuko blushed. "He's a good kid. He's got his father's drive, but he actually cares about people. Lord knows why with the shit he's been through. That appeals to me. He also reminded me that I am human after all." "He is a little charmer," Misato agreed. "So will you girls be trying to help Ranma with this problem?" Ritsuko asked. "Yes," Rei said softly, nodding before looking at Asuka. Asuka blushed and looked down before hesitantly nodding. (oO\O/Oo) Asuka wondered just what the hell she was thinking. Sure, Ranma was cute in guy form and all and she thought he was really strong. Look at the way he dealt with the Sub-commander. That took some serious guts. But cowering in terror because a girl snuggled you? That wasn't very strong at all and it was a serious turn-off for Asuka. She hated weak men that couldn't deal with women...like her father. Yet, she had agreed to this plan. She had in effect agreed to be Ranma's girlfriend. Not only that, she had agreed to share him with Ayanami. And what about Ranma's girl form, her near identical twin? Could she truly have a relationship with what in effect would be another girl, maybe even two girls counting Ayanami? Ayanami herself was pretty weird too. The girl came off as cold as ice most times. The only time Asuka had seen any warmth come from her it had been related to Ranma. Thinking about how the little ice maiden had broken down when the Doctor told them what was wrong with Ranma, it was clear that she was completely in love with the boy. Yet she was willing to share him when Asuka had been disappointed that they were dating. In retrospect, Ranma probably had no idea they had been dating. Still, did Asuka have any right to involve herself with Ayanami's boyfriend, even if Ayanami had offered? Asuka sighed. For all that she tried to argue herself out of it, there was something about Ranma that drew her in, made her want him, made her feel complete. He intrigued her and fired her imagination. And she couldn't forget how comfortable she was snuggled up to him. She blushed as she thought of what else she was touching as well. That memory was firing more than her imagination. Oh yes, it would be fun breaking Ranma's conditioning, showering him with affection. After all, she had to, for his own good. He was her friend after all and what kind of friend would she be if she let him down in this? Nope, Asuka decided, she, Asuka Langley Sohryu, was going to snuggle that conditioning right out of Ranma's head. Asuka's face lit up with a slightly perverted grin. "Perhaps we should go see if Ranma is prepared for today's training," Rei asked. Asuka looked up and saw Rei was also wearing a slightly lecherous grin. "Good idea," Asuka nodded. "We do only have six days. Time's awastin'." (oO\O/Oo) Toji and Kensuke were on their way to Misato's apartment to check on Ranma. They hadn't seen him since they had gotten off the carrier and that had been over a week ago. They had become concerned for their friend after the battle a few days ago when they still hadn't seen him. So they were going to pay him a visit to make sure he was still in one piece. As they entered the building, they ran into the Class Rep. "Hey Class Rep, what are you doing here?" Toji asked. "I'm here to drop off Asuka and Ranma's class work," Hikari said. "What are you guys doing here?" "We haven't seen Ranma since the trip to the carrier," Toji answered. "We were gonna drop by and make sure the Red Demon didn't feast on his liver or something." "Toji! Asuka isn't that bad," Hikari protested in exasperation. "I never said it was Asuka I was talking about," Toji smirked. "You figured that out all by yourself." Hikari developed an eye-twitch as the three boarded the elevator. It was still twitching when the pushed the door chime for Misato's apartment. "Cooooming," an odd sounding voice said over the intercom. After a minute the door opened, causing Toji and Kensuke to recoil in shock. Hikari blinked. In the door way stood two nearly identical pigtailed redheads. They were both wearing a pair of black spandex shorts, a leotard, one blue the other red, and a loose half top, blue and red respectively. "Helloooo," the pair eerily sang in sync with each other. "GAH!" Toji cried, tears pouring down his cheeks. "It's worse than I thought! She's begun to assimilate him! He's turning into her minion!" "W-what's going on?" Hikari asked. "It was Misato's idea," the pair explained in exact sync, creeping the other three out. "We have to do everything together; eat together, train together, sleep together." "GAH!" Hikari said, recoiling herself. "T-that's not proper!" "Why not?" Misato asked, walking up. "Ranma sleeps in girl form and it's just sleeping. It's all part of the training." "Oh, well, why didn't you say so?" Hikari asked. Everyone entered the condo. Entering the family room, the trio of non-residents saw a strange sight. Rei was seated at the table with Pen Pen standing in front of her on top of the book she had evidently been trying to read. They were locked in a staring match. "Do I even wanna know?" Kensuke asked with a huge sweat-drop. "They've been at that since breakfast," the redheads said in unison. "Who's winning?" Toji asked out of morbid fascination. At that point Pen Pen squawked indignantly and stalked off down the hallway. The blue haired girl calmly resumed reading her book. "Rei just won the fifth straight rematch," the redheads chirped. "He'll be back though." "Could you guys like stop that?" Toji asked. "It's really creepy." The redheads looked at each other and shrugged in sync before giggling and creeping everyone out. (oO\O/Oo) Toji, Kensuke, Rei, Misato, and Hikari sat around the table. Everyone but Hikari was watching the redheads practice to The Ride of the Valkyries, Ranma's personal modification to the plan. Hikari had gotten drawn into a staring contest with the penguin who figured he would get in some confidence training with an easier target before his rematch with Rei. While it was hard to tell which redhead was which at a first or even second glance, it readily became apparent when they began the exercise. Ranma, in the blue leotard, had the routine down pat, moving through it like a kata she had been practicing for years. Asuka, in the red leotard, was having problems keeping time as the glowing circles on the mat below them lit up. "ARRRGH!" Asuka finally screamed in frustration and threw her headphones against the wall. "This is impossible." "It's not impossible, Asuka-chan," Ranma said gently. She stepped up behind the other redhead and began massaging the tension out of her neck and shoulders. Asuka melted under Ranma's ministrations. "You just need to relax and don't get so frustrated." "Mmmm," Asuka moaned as Ranma worked the knots out of her neck muscles. "Easy for you to say, Little Miss I-get-every-thing-perfect-on-the-first-try." "Heh," Ranma smirked, but admitted, "not always. Sometimes it takes me a while, but the thing is; I never give up. If you give up and say it's impossible then it will be. Now come on. Let's try it again. When we get it right I'll take you and Rei out for some ice cream. How's that sound?" "Variable-chan, you really know how to motivate a girl, dontcha?" Asuka smirked, using her pet name for Ranma. "Heh, I wonder why? Go figure," Ranma snorted. (oO\O/Oo) Two hours later, Asuka was going through the routine without missing a beat when Ranma called a break. "Heh, well I think we're gonna be ready," Ranma grinned proudly. "How about the Evas, Misato? Are they gonna be ready by the time D-day gets here?" "Not a problem," Misato chirped. "The Evas have been ready for two days now." Ranma froze, her grin fading as her left eye began to twitch. Slowly, with great care, she walked up to Misato and placed her hands on the woman's shoulders. "So you're telling me that the Evas have been operational for two whole days now?" Ranma asked. "That's what I said," Misato nodded, Ranma's behavior confusing her. "THEN WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T WE GONE OUT THERE AND KILLED THE GODDAM ANGEL WHILE IT'S NOT MOVING AND VULNERABLE?" Ranma screamed, a cross shaped vein appearing on her temple as the force of her shout blew Misato's hair straight back from her head. Misato blinked. Everyone else at the table blinked. It was so ridiculously obvious. Hikari got it. Kensuke could see it. Toji figured even his sister could have seen something that obvious. Even Pen Pen was looking at Misato incredulously. "WHHHAAA!" Misato wailed. "It was all Kaji's plan! Yell at him not meeee!" "I suggest you get on the phone to NERV and tell them to get Unit's 01 and 02 ready to go out," Ranma growled. "Asuka and I are going out and dealing with this thing before it finishes regenerating itself and gets back up to full power." (oO\O/Oo) "Rei? May I have a word with you?" Ritsuko asked the blue-haired girl as Ranma and Asuka got suited up to take the Evas out. "Yes, Ma'am," Rei said dispassionately. Ritsuko led them to her office. "Please sit," Ritsuko directed as she sat behind her desk. She waited for Rei to sit and began. "So how are things with Ranma?" "Ranma has shown satisfactory progress under our deprogramming efforts," Rei reported. "I am hopeful that he will soon no longer fear intimacy." "Excellent," Ritsuko nodded. "However, there is one word of caution I need to impress on you. It would perhaps be best if the Commander was kept unaware of your developing relationship with his son. If he finds out just how much you care for Ranma, he may take steps to break you two apart." "I see," Rei said tonelessly. "Why would the Commander do such a thing?" "Because he's an unhappy man, Rei," Ritsuko sighed. "And he resents it when people around him find happiness, particularly Ranma and yourself. He sees it as a threat to his control over you." "I see," Rei said, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "Then he must not find out about the status of the relationship between Ranma and myself." "Exactly," Ritsuko nodded. "Very well, thank you for your assistance, Dr. Akagi," Rei said. (oO\O/Oo) "If these are the kind of goddamn geniuses that are supposed to save the planet, we're doomed," Ranma griped over the comm as she and Asuka walked through the city, naginata in hand to destroy the angel. The techs in the control center developed a huge sweat-drop. "No kidding," Asuka said. "I guess it's up to us to do the fighting and the thinking." "I suppose this is what happens when you put a bunch of engineers and scientists in charge of a battle," Ranma grumbled. Fuyutsuki's eye began to twitch as Misato slapped her hand over her face in exasperation. Kaji stood beside Misato twiddling his thumbs and whistling innocently as if he had nothing to do with the plan the children were currently deriding. "Yup, you wave goodbye to elegant simplicity and get something stupidly complex with more features than you'll ever need to use," Asuka agreed as they arrived at the inert angel's location. They each moved to one side of the angel and lined their progressive naginata up on the twin cores. "On one," Ranma announced. "Three, two, one..." They plunged their naginata into the cores in perfect sync and the angel exploded in a massive blast. Two Eva's, one crimson with orange trim and one midnight-blue with bright green trim came striding out of the smoke and dust side by side, naginata resting on their shoulders. "And that, people, is how it should be done," Asuka declared. "Simple and elegant." "Morons," Ranma said again, as Unit 01 shook its head as if in disgust. (oO\O/Oo) "Did you guys have to dress alike again?" Toji whined as the six teens walked down the street. Ranma still owed Asuka some ice cream for getting the exercise right, so they were headed to the ice cream shop to celebrate the successful destruction of the angel. The redheads turned their head in unison to Toji wearing identical smirks. "Of course," they said in weird stereo. "It's fun!" Giggling, they turned back and walked on with a thoroughly creeped-out Toji, Hikari, and Kensuke trailing along behind them. After a few steps however, Ranma stiffened when both Rei and Asuka each grabbed one of her hands. Looking at the encouraging smiles each girl was giving her, she forced herself to relax and put a strained smile on her own face. "So Rei, are you gonna try the technique I taught ya today?" Ranma asked the blue-haired girl. "I do not know," Rei said, looking down shyly as a cute blush stained her cheeks pink. "What technique?" Asuka asked, curious. "The Anything Goes Uber-Cute Ice Cream Scamming Attack," Ranma said officiously, causing Asuka to giggle. "Do tell," Asuka grinned. "It's a most fearsome technique," Ranma said in a reverent tone. "Its true horror is shrouded in mystery. Known only to a select few, it is feared by all food merchants who suddenly find their profit margin slashed after such an attack being made on them. You appear to be someone who could utilize this attack with as devastating an effect as myself. Would you like to learn this awesomely powerful technique, Student?" By now Asuka was giggling uncontrollably at the silly, officious tone Ranma was using as if she were about to pass on the secret to life, the universe, and everything. "Oh please, oh learned one, do not allow me to languish in ignorance. Bestow upon me your great wisdom," Asuka gasped back through her giggles. Ranma snorted in laughter at Asuka's unwitting, but nevertheless, near perfect Kuno impression. She then proceeded to demonstrate the technique for the other redhead, who now had tears rolling down her cheeks from laughing so hard. "So, let me get this straight," Asuka chortled. "The secret of this great all powerful technique is to flirt shamelessly with the counter attendant in hopes that he'll give you extra treats?" "Harrumph," Ranma harrumphed imperiously. "Obviously you don't understand the finer points of this technique." "I would say that Pilot Sohryu has a firm grasp of the theory behind the technique," Rei commented. "Etu, Brute?" Ranma asked shooting Rei a look of mock-betrayal. "Might I presume to improve upon the technique, Sensei Variable-chan?" Asuka snickered. "I'm all ears," Ranma said. "I suggest we use the technique in tandem," Asuka suggested with a large grin. "Using the fearsome twin factor, the effects should be magnified exponentially." "Ooo, very dangerous," Ranma cooed. "Do you suppose it might be too much for the poor counter attendant?" "Never know 'til we try, Variable-chan," Asuka smirked. "Then by all means, let's," Ranma smirked back with a matching smirk. "We'll try it in the name of the advancement of the art!" The redheads began to cackle maniacally, while the trailing trio developed huge sweat-drops and began to wonder if all Eva pilots were insane. Needless to say, it was not a good day to be in the ice cream business. The following day, the beleaguered owner of the shop began advertising for a gay counter boy in an effort to combat this dreaded threat to his profit margin. (oO\O/Oo) Ranma lay on his futon, stiff as a board. Misato was working late to take care of the paperwork from the battle and wasn't planning on coming home that night. Thus, the girls had insisted on him being in male form. On his right shoulder lay a head of blue hair, on his left a head of red hair. Both girls were snuggled tightly against him and Ranma was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Currently he was having an inner debate with himself. Though they had gone to sleep on their separate futons, Ranma had woken up sandwiched between the two girls every morning. While the aftermath was always stressful for him, he had to admit that he felt really nice until his conditioning kicked in, telling him to freak out. It had been the third morning before he began to believe they weren't planning on smashing his head open and painting abstract art on the walls with his brains. Still, while he had made progress, he was nevertheless on the verge of panicking when he awoke to the girls cuddling him. Tonight they had decided to up the ante by going to sleep snuggling him. Ranma had to admit it was nice. He could smell the wonderful scent of their shampoo, and their soft, warm curves pressed against him made him feel incredibly tender towards them. But in the back of his mind, he still expected an uncute, man-hating, violent lunatic, wielding a mallet, to come bursting in to kill him for daring to feel pleasure in receiving female affection. It would be a long time before he would relax enough to drift off to sleep. (oO\O/Oo) "AN UNCUTE, MAN-HATING, VIOLENT, LUNATIC, AM I?" Akane shrieked, actually frothing at the mouth. "JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU PERVERTED FREAK! HOW DARE YOU SAY I'M VIOLENT!" It actually took both Shampoo and Ukyo to hold Akane back from smashing the TV long enough for Cologne to render her unconscious via a pressure point. "WHAAAAA," Soun wept. "My baby girl has been pushed over the edge and is now a raving lunatic!" "There, there, Tendo," Genma attempted to comfort his friend before Soun triggered his curse, which wouldn't be comfortable with casts on his limbs. "The foolish, dishonorable boy doesn't know what he's talking about." "Oh, no, Uncle Saotome," Kasumi protested pleasantly. "Akane is a violent maniac. I told Ranma that on the first day he was here." Nodoka was torn. On the one hand, she was filled with a desire to whip out her victory fans and do her happy dance because her son was sleeping with two girls. On the other hand, she wanted to visit extreme amounts of violence on her husband for forcing Ranma into such an abusive relationship with a girl who was obviously undeserving of her manly son. Why couldn't any of the girls present be more like those on the TV, willing to share her son since he was obviously far too manly for just one woman. One thing that she found particularly disturbing was Ranma's evident acceptance of his female form. He seemed to genuinely have fun as a girl with the other girls. That didn't seem very manly; especially the way he was spending a lot of time going around in female form and dressing like a girl. She would have to think on this. "We're losing him, Sugar," Ukyo said to Shampoo somberly. Shampoo just nodded glumly. "You brainiacs don't get it do you?" Nabiki snapped in exasperation. "He was never yours to lose. You two and my little sister drove him away before he could ever develop any feelings for any of you beyond annoyance. Have you not been watching? Look at him. Aside from that little blip that you guys caused with him fearing intimacy, I've never seen him as happy as he is there. Kami-sama, he's happier in a world where he's fighting for his life than he was here." "Hey, you had a hand in making his life miserable too, Sugar," Ukyo challenged. "Yes, I did," Nabiki agreed. "And I'm now seeing things a little differently. I won't begrudge him what happiness he can get in that world. He deserves it." In truth, Nabiki was seeing a side to Ranma that she never suspected to exist. He was using his head, proving he wasn't just the stupid jock everyone thought he was. Granted, he wasn't brilliant by any stretch, but the fact that he was thinking and planning instead of just reacting shocked Nabiki to no end.
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