Climbing Together Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Hey all, here is my last present of the year. It… isn’t Magic. The reason for this is that family came in on Tuesday. I could barely spend two hours a day on this since. So, with Magic impossible to complete despite a strong start (I have 12,000 words written) I decided to try and get something out I knew I could finish in time. This was it, since I could repurpose the lime within and had the battle at the end of the chapter written as well.

This has now been edited by Hiryo. Hope you all are having a good three first days of the year.

Chapter 5: Tough Skin/Open Mouth

Leaving behind the Hwan School, Ranma led the girls up on to the rooftops and then slowly out of the city. Once out of Niigata they pushed south and were entering the next southward town by the time night fell. Since not even Kurumi was all that hungry yet, and they had used up more than half the group’s available cash (although Mai still had her credit card) Ranma decided this was a good time to teach Natsume and Kurumi the next phase of living off the land, Saotome Style: How to Troll for Idiots.

As he explained what this meant, Natsume became somewhat apoplectic at the very idea of using her feminine wiles in such a manner, to say nothing of using Kurumi. After all, Kurumi was both underage and looked it. "This goes against your comment the other day about not attacking people! And besides that, you cannot seriously believe that an adult is going to flirt with Kurumi?! Or that we should allow it if so!"

"Actually, I think it's a better idea than using you.” That stunned Natsume, and Ranma watched as her eyes narrowed in fury before going on with a grin. “At least in terms of the type of scumbag. When someone tries ta take advantage of you or me, they're just being regular level scumbags. If someone’s gonna do the same thing to a little girl like Kurumi, they are being next level scumbags and we should feel even better about taking advantage of them in turn.”

Ranma became a little more serious then. “And don’t try ta use my words against me like that. I ain’t talking about killing these idiots, or even permanently crippling them. And none of the people we’re gonna fleece are good people. If they were, these guys wouldn’t be looking to take advantage of us like this, especially someone as young as Kurumi.”

While Kurumi began to pout a bit at continually being referred to as a young girl, Mai laughed. "He's got a point. Although Ranma, don’t think that every pervert is a man. I've been hit on by women as well occasionally, and one of them even tried to slip me something in my drink."

"Did it work? I’m always kind of leery about drinking stuff when I’m using my female form to do stuff like this. I mean if it's outright poison my body could probably take it,” Especially after Nerima and Akane’s cooking, Ranma added mentally, “but hallucinogenic stuff like date rape drugs are beyond me.”

As he had been speaking, Ranma had been going through their clothing, holding them up to a now grinning Kurumi. She certainly didn't seem to object to the idea of being used like this. How much of that had to do with the idea of beating up perverts who hit on her, or how much more food they could get from the money they would take from the idiots who did, Ranma didn't know, but which ever it was she was certainly happy to go along with his little scheme.

"No it didn't. My father and Jubei started putting me through an anti-poison regimen before I hit puberty…"

"Which hit Mai back with weight of a supertanker," Shampoo teased, holding up her hands in front of her own chest a ways ahead of said chest and making a bouncing motion with her hands.

Mai snickered at that, and hopped a bit in place, amused to note that Ranma had already turned his attention back to the clothing he was going to make Kurumi wear, rather than watch this little byplay. Shampoo has really trained him well. Or maybe his experiences in Nerima with that Akane bitch.

"Anyway, the point is, you shouldn't feel as if you're taking advantage of an innocent person when we’re doing this. If they were innocent, they'd back off once you made it clear that you weren't interested. Or simply wouldn’t flirt with you in the first place if you're acting all drunk and whatever," Ranma continued, addressing Natsume, who seemed to have been caught up in Mai and Shampoo’s back and forth.

Now she sighed looking over at her eager little sister before asking, "I know I am going to regret this… butwait, what other supplies do we need?"

"Two two-person tents, we didn’t find any good ones before the Hwan School attacked us. Another waterproof bag, several bags of yeast, flour and other things like that along fruits and vegetables," Mai listed off, holding up the paper she’d written on the day before. "Unless we get really lucky, we’ll have to make a grocery runs for more vegetables and fruit. Those are hard to find out in state parks, right?"

Ranma nodded. “We can probably find some wild burdock or garlic, but that’s about it.”

"Chocolates, snacks, and some women only things…" Shampoo added, nudging Ranma hard in the shoulder.

He winced, but didn't argue against that point, shaking his head slightly. Thanks to his female form, Ranma understood what the monthly monster was all too well, and Shampoo knew it. But, while he’d had to buy his own… necessities, he balked at the idea of buying such for others or to share. It seemed way too humiliating, even if he could turn into a girl to do it.

Natsume nodded understanding, while Kurumi grimaced, holding her stomach remembered pain, which for once did not have anything to do with the number of times she and Natsume had gone hungry. "That kind of thing… right. Ugh. I just started get those a few months back. Motrin is a woman's best friend."

About fifteen minutes later, Ranma, in his female form, and Kurumi were walking through some of the more disreputable areas of the city dressed up like schoolgirls trying to get home, while complaining loudly about how their cell phones GPS weren’t working. That bit had been suggested by Mai, but Ranma ran with it. And they were not dressed as high school girls. They were both dressed up like middle schoolers, the most foolishly naïve and self-absorbed yet still sexy high school girls Mai and Ranma could make the redhead and Kurumi look, complete with their hair done up in pigtails.

Up top, Natsume, Shampoo and Mai waited. More so, because Natsume simply didn't want to let Kurumi out of her sight than any of the trio felt they would be really necessary. Indeed, Shampoo and Mai actually broke out some popcorn, laughing as they watched Ranma ham it up in such a weird way.

Not even an hour after the twosome had started their trawling, twenty would-be perverts had found their comeuppance and the group was over a million yen richer. Mostly due to one particular incident.

"I cannot believe that one old guy was willing to offer me money! Just straight up, came up to me and offered more than a million yen to come with him," Ranma muttered, cupping her chest, while behind her Kurumi started to change into her normal outfit. "I mean come on, I know I look both good and naïve like this, and I've got these two things sticking out of my chest, but I was dressed like a middle schooler!"

"Oppai loli," Mai nodded sagely, both humor and remembered annoyance in her face. "It is a thing. Trust me, it is very much a thing."

"You would know," Shampoo snarked, rolling her eyes at the other girl.

"Your jealousy is showing," Mai caroled, tossing Ranma's male clothing to him. A blushing Natsume handed over a hot water bottle, trying hard not to notice how good his muscles looked, when shapely powerful female shoulders became powerfully built, wider male ones.

"Jealous of what, back pain? Stares of perverts? Oh wait, you like that kind of thing, large part of your whole style is based off of it," Shampoo retorted.

“Least that’s just taking advantage of my enemies being stupid. You would know all too well about that, right, that accent of yours comes and goes awfully easily.”

The two girls continued in that vein for a while, while Ranma changed, changed clothing, and divvied out the money to Kurumi for sweets and Natsume for cooking supplies. He would handle picking up any building material or camp stuff he thought they needed. "Come on, those two will be at it for a while. The two of them occasionally get into these snark contests with one another, don't ask me why."

The trio left, and returned, and Natsume and Shampoo were just winding down as they arrived back on the rooftop. They had been able to buy everything they needed, except the one woman tent and the other camping supplies. It turned out that camping stores were not open twenty-four seven like grocery stores occasionally were.

Regardless, Natsume and Kurumi were both very happy to hand over their heavier purchases to Ranma who made them disappear into his ki space before turning to the still happily taunting duo. "Come on you two, I want us pushing out of the city tonight. We'll find a hotel in a little town or something along the way."

"Huh? But don't we need to buy supplies?" Shampoo asked, blinking and looking at her lover in confusion turning away from where she had nearly gone chest-to-chest with Mai as the two of them exchanged taunts.

"Already got them," Kurumi chirped holding up a bag of sweets, another kind of sweet already in her mouth from a nearly empty bag in her other hand. This represented two bags of fourteen she had bought with her share of the money she and Ranma had, in a very weird, semi-dirty way, earned. Way less dirty than the way that asshole wanted Ranma to earn it, but hey, Ranma let him live so I figure it’s all fair.

"Wait, when did that happen?" Mai was confused, and both Shampoo and Mai blushed, as Ranma looked at them deadpan, before turning away as the two sisters giggled and followed him, not saying anything. "Seriously, when did that happen?"

Ignoring her, Ranma led the way out over the rooftops, and soon out of town. True to his word, a few hours later they found a hotel to stop in, where Natsume and Kurumi both instantly went for the showers. While they were not shying away from the idea of camping with their new senpai (a term Natsume still got annoyed by even as she used it) to take on this toughness training regimen, both of them could count the number of times they had access to showers on the fingers of both hands, with one or two left over the last five years.

Conversely, Mai, Shampoo and Ranma made for the TV. While at Musubime Osoroshi, they had discovered a shared passion for anime and there had been no TVs at master Nawa’s school. At the same time, Mai began to use the hotel's Wi-Fi to download movies and so forth onto her laptop for later viewing.

The two newest members of the group came out of their showers to find the other three in one room, sharing a sofa as they watched and critiqued a shounen anime, a large bag of rice crisps open on Shampoo’s lap. Which she was currently shielding as Ranma waved his arms wildly. "Seriously, that is not how you throw a punch!"

Mai nodded, making to throw her own rice crisp at the TV from Shampoo’s other side. "I don't know what's worse, their martial arts forms, or the plot."

"What plot? This feels like a twelve-year-old wrote it," Shampoo complained.

"Yeah, change the channel. Let's find something else."

"Wuxia?"

"Sure, why not. Just not a Chinese anime. As good as your country’s dramas can be Shampoo, none of your countrymen seem to have figured anime," Mai agreed.

"Shampoo not going to argue the point. It too, too true."

With a shrug, Natsume and Kurumi joined the others, and a quite nice night was had. The next morning started early, with the group leaving the hotel and heading out and away from the beaten path quickly after Ranma stopped off to buy another tent and some more camping supplies. The group headed up into the mountains that dominated the interior of Japan's islands, and the state parks there. Once they could no longer see any sign of human houses, the group began to spread out, barely keeping within sight of one another, as they looked for a place to set up camp as well as where to set up the toughness training.

Here, Ranma was somewhat out of luck. He didn't spot any spot that really called out to him as a great place to camp, although he did discover several large boulders. These he picked them up, one after another, holding them above his head. With some difficulty, it must be said. They were larger than he was tall, and just as wide but far heavier.

"Still, it makes for good training," he muttered, moving all on his way with the two of them, grunting under the weight. "Need to up my physical strength too. I still don't think it's as important as speed, particularly speed of limb as well as agility, but fighting Edmond showed me that strength is important still."

That and I need to work on that ki technique of mine. I made a lot of progress thanks to fighting lightning boy, but… huh, how about calling it Blue Burst? I like that name, I think I'll go with that for now. Yeah, the Blue… or blazing… eh, whatever, the armor technique is freaking awesome, but hard to sustain, not because it takes a lot of ki, but because there’s no way I can concentrate on it for a long period of time. And the Burst is an interesting technique all on its own. And I wanta work with Natsume and Kurumi on heat and cold based techniques too. And then there’s Mai and the spiritual side of things.

He frowned a bit as he thought of that. I wonder why my Pops never mentioned the spiritual side of ki? The soul and whatever? I… I still don’t know if I agree with that, but I can’t deny it exists after seeing what Mai can do with it. I wonder what the heck I can do with it if I figure it out… whatever that means. I mean, what the heck would my soul look like, or er, do if it interacted with my ki? What would I do with it? What is the soul anyway… Ugh. Metaphysical crap.

Grimacing under the weight of the stones, Ranma's thoughts continued to circle around this point as he pondered about what his soul was like, how he defined himself, and whether ki and soul were one and the same or not. His mind so occupied, he barely noticed his stony burden as he trudged deeper into the woods, losing sight of the others through the trees. But occasionally one or the other would start a shout chain to make certain they were all staying within hailing distance.

Ranma’s thoughts though remained centered on ki and the nature of it until he heard Shampoo shouting from one side of him. "Shampoo found a place!"

Shampoo had indeed found them a great campsite. It was a little cleared area within a few hundred yards from a stream, with several large trees surrounding it, and a few rocks sticking out of the ground around and between the roots of a tree, making what looked like two walls of a triangle. The stream was close enough that it could be used as a source for water and far enough away to use as a bathing area without needing to wear bathing suits all the time.

Ranma set down his heavy burden, and Natsume and Kurumi began to set up their new tents, talking excitedly to one another about them and their new sleeping bags. Ranma had bought two-person tents for Mai and the sisters. He had even tried to make them match the girl’s color scheme, with Kurumi getting a pink sleeping back, Natsume a dark blue, and Mai a red and white tent to go with her own sleeping bag.

For their part though, Ranma and Shampoo were planning something a little different when it came to where they would sleep.

Looking at the large tree trunk that Ranma had just deposited Mai blinked, then turned to look at where Natsume was laying out several other large tree branches. With a snort, she shook her head. "Is there a reason why you seemingly cleaning up the forest?"

"Martial Arts Construction for the win. If we have the material, why would we want to live in a tent?" Ranma asked, smirking a little.

Mai pouted, crossing her arms under her chest as Kurumi also looked a little at askance. "What the heck, you're going to put up a log cabin for yourselves? What was all the fuss about us buying tents then?"

Beside her sister, Natsume shook her head, blushing faintly as she looked at between Shampoo and Ranma, guessing the reason before Shampoo even said it aloud. "Because making soundproof rooms take up lot of wood and Shampoo want some romance time."

Kurumi stared at her in incomprehension for a few seconds before freezing in place, her mouth gaping open and her eyes going wide. Meanwhile, a lightly blushing Mai very purposefully turned away from Ranma and Shampoo, looking at her tent then around at the campsite before pointing a way to a tree on the other side of it. “I'll just set myself up over there shall I? I don't need to hear the two of you going at it and I think Shampoo’s going to turn out to be a bit of screamer."

Both Ranma and Shampoo flushed redder than Mai or even Natsume’s current color at that. Ranma still wasn’t used to talking about this kind of thing and hearing a comment like that from their friend went right through his defenses. Shampoo was more at home talking about this kind of thing but had to blush at the idea that she would be that loud.

Seeing this, Mai counted it as a win for her, sending a smirk at the other girl before turning to move her tent.

Despite their words on that score, Ranma and Shampoo first put up what amounted to a small smokehouse, a place to hang and cure meat going forward. Since they planned to spend a few months here, it would be a necessity.

This had been a decision the group had made on the way out of Niigata. None of them knew how long it would be before Genma and Soun showed up again. So just setting a trap for them wasn’t really a good idea. Both Ranma and Shampoo were adamant they wanted to go through the toughness training. So why not prepare as if they would be able to work on that, and then just prepare for the Moronic Duo as an aside? It wasn’t as if even combined would be any real threat to the group of younger martial artists.

In an effort to conserve wood, Ranma placed the smokehouse in the triangle-shaped rock and root-backed area, putting a few small bits of wood between a few of the rocks to make it as airtight as possible bar a small room. Then he put down a floor, roof and a third wall with a door before creating a small stove.

After that was done though, Ranma began to calculate how much wood they had remaining and slowly shook his head, staring at the deadwood and the rocks in consternation. "I don't think we have enough wood on hand Shampoo to make us an actual cabin. Not if we want to put up two of the training areas anyway. Remember we need to make pulleys and winches too, darn it."

Shampoo scowled at that, glaring at Ranma, but Ranma backed away quickly, holding up his hands. "Don't look at me, we both decided that we shouldn’t knock trees down for the woods, even with Kurumi here that would be a bad idea."

"Wait, what about me?" Kurumi asked. With their tents set up, she and her sister had been digging out a small fire pit, aligning it with small rocks. Mai, much to her own displeasure, was digging out a small pit elsewhere to use as a toilette.

"Well, we figured that with your heat-based ki techniques, you could probably dry out the wood faster than would normally go, making it better to work with than green wood," Ranma explained.

"Shampoo still think that knocking down trees is perfectly acceptable," Shampoo argued. She didn't really want to agree with Mai, but she also really did want some more romance from Ranma once they pushed through the initial toughness training phase. The date they had gone on back on Sado Island had only wet her appetite for more.

"And I still say that is a bad idea."

"I didn’t think you were the kind to care for trees Ranma? Are you an environmentalist now?" Mai joked.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Heck no, but I also don't want to be labeled enemy number one of park rangers throughout Japan for knocking down trees in a national park when we don't need to. We had to leave our last campsite behind without taking down the construction we put up. Here I think I'd rather like to do that, you know, leave nothing behind and all that?"

Snickering, Mai shook her head. "I don't know, I think the idea of park rangers trying to figure out what the heck you are doing with that whole set up of pulleys and levers hanging rocks and everything could be hilarious."

Staring over at where Mai had paused her work, Natsume smirked a little. "Mai, can I ask, how often have you been out camping?"

"Not often, I like civilization a little too much for that kind of thing. I've been to several training grounds obviously but I always returned to a nearby hotel instead of staying there every night. Why?"

"In that case, I would suggest you move that pit a little bit a ways from the camp, it's too close as it is. In addition, I further suggest that instead of trying to put up a cabin for the two of you, you make another small hunt like the one you already did. In this case, an outhouse," Natsume declared primly.

"That gets my vote." Ranma nodded. "We did a similar thing before."

Shampoo grumbled, but understood necessity, and moments later, Ranma had sliced enough boards to start putting together walls, floor and ceiling pieces. Eventually he had built an outhouse, complete with a wooden toilet, situated several dozen yards away from the rest of the camp, over a pit that Mai had dug. If they stayed here long enough, they would have to move the outhouse occasionally and cover the pit over, but it would still be far more civilized than simply squatting over said pit.

And warmer too, since Ranma had made a few places within to hang heated rocks from to warm the interior. The individual would still have to carry those stones out there, but that would be easy enough for all five of the martial artists using the camp.

With that done, with Shampoo's help, Ranma began to set up not one, but two toughness training zones: this meant two rope pulley systems situated around one tree, and the swinging giant rocks. As he was finishing putting down the walkway there, Shampoo finished explaining the training to Natsume and Kurumi.

Kurumi bowed out instantly, holding her arms up in an X in front of her face. "No way! I thought it was some kind of gradual thing, being pressed between two boulders and slowly adding more weight over time, not swinging a boulder into you like that! That sounds humiliating and painful!"

Her older sister was also a little pale as she stared up at where the boulder, which had to weigh at least as much as the entire group put together and then some, was set into a net of ropes. This was then tied to a series of other ropes and pulleys. "M, my sister does have a point. This looks all too much like some kind of torture device. Or a siege weapon of some kind. Does it actually work?"

"Yes! All warriors in Shampoo’s tribe go through this training. Shampoo admit that a lot of cackling goes on with that, from the Elders, but it does work. Ranma and I were even showing some progress the last time he tried to put ourselves through this."

"And we realized what we were doing wrong, switching off every other day. That's why we’re setting up two areas," Ranma added. "And remember our meeting with Honda. We both definitely need to toughen ourselves up."

Mai grumbled but stayed silent, knowing the same was true for her. She could take a normal person's punch any day. Heck, she could even take a hundred or so of Ranma's punches at full speed...provided she could twitch and throw off the point of impact with each successive hit, anyway. But normal wasn't what she was shooting for and Ranma, if you took away his various speed techniques to enhance the impact of his blows, wasn't the strongest out there. Mai had fought Terry and Andy both in serious spars and knew both of them were physically stronger than Ranma, although perhaps not by much in Andy's case. And I’d say Ranma’s way more versatile than either.

Seeing the agreement, no matter how unwilling on Mai's face, Natsume stiffened and nodded. "In that case, I will volunteer to go through this as well with Mai."

"Is good," Shampoo answered, grunting with effort as she helped hall the boulder up into position, her accent coming through more strongly than normal these days. "Shampoo not look forward to it either, but Ranma's massages be too-too good afterwards."

Both girls on the ground looked a little thoughtful at that, while Ranma scoffed from his own position nearby, where he was finishing tying up the first boulder into position. "You say that like we all be in any condition to move themselves for the first week or two. And Kurumi, if you want something to do, ya can be in charge of enlarging our larder. How good are you at setting up traps and stuff?"

It turned out as early as that evening that Kurumi was actually quite good at that when she brought in five hares she had snared. The two sisters had after all been on the road for all their lives and knew almost as much about living off the land as Ranma did in the wilds anyway. They hadn't put as much thought into comfort as Ranma had, but Ranma could admit that most of his thinking on that score was because his father had always emphasized it.

By the time everything was set up, it was too late in the evening for them to start the toughness training that day, and so the group sat around, discussing what each of them knew about ki, how to build reserves, and how to manipulate it. Here, the training manual that Kurumi and Natsume had been using was a big help. By the end of that evening, all of the others understood how to go about slowly creating a heat or cold through their own life energies, although they were nowhere near where they could actually put that learning into practice. Meanwhile, Shampoo and Mai began the other girls’ instruction on ki space. Once the sisters learned that, they might be able to go on to learn a slightly more advanced version, like Mai's boob window.

The next morning, after a decent breakfast, Natsume and Mai helped to strap Shampoo and Ranma into their perspective harnesses, before beginning the training.

Watching as he swung away, Natsume winced as Ranma smashed headfirst into the opposing boulder, grunting in pain. Then bounced again and again into it until the movement slowed, before she worked the pulleys and pulled both rock and boy back into position. "…Are you sure you want to do this? It looks immensely painful."

"No pain no gain," Ranma answered with a somewhat glum nod. And once more, Natsume released the pulleys to both training zones. Ranma had been able to set up the various ropes and so forth so, that one person could operate both of the toughness training zones for him and Shampoo. After realizing that only one of them really was needed for this, the trio of currently not tied up girls played Jan Ken Pon to see who would be stuck with the duty. Natsume unfortunately lost.

To the other side of the tree, Shampoo was not taking the return to this training as stoically as Ranma was. Instead, she was in Chinese, so volubly it was a near shout. Thankfully, none of the others could understand what she was saying bar Mai. She looked up from where she was standing across from Kurumi, shaking her head. “If that continues, I might want to take notes. Who knew Shampoo was so inventive with curses?”

“Take notes later, spar now,” Kurumi pouted, flicking her ribbon back and forth in front of her.

Mai watched this for a few seconds, smirking a bit. "Ranma was right, I think you will be a natural at using the Hotojutsu techniques we learned from the Musubime Osoroshi School. For now, let's keep it to no ki attacks, and only the weapons were currently holding, okay?"

"Okay!" the younger girl answered, and then darted forward, her ribbon twirling ahead of her like a drill.

Mai rolled to one side of the attack, using her speed and quickness to gain a little bit of distance, before darting in.

As she had anticipated this Kurumi was able to turn and bring her ribbon to bear again, trying to grab at Mai's arms as she thrust them forward, the ribbon almost moving as if was a living thing. But Mai was just a little too quick to pull her limbs back to let Kurumi wrap them up in her ribbon.

The two of them leaped around the woodland, bouncing back and forth, but here, Mai’s greater experience began to tell. Kurumi was fast, but she didn’t think too far ahead, and Mai was able to lead her through a few bushes, where Kurumi’s movements slowed noticeably.

An instant later, Mai was within her own striking range. Natsume's other hand came up, deflecting the first strike from Mai's fan only to gawk as that same strike *flip*ped her through the air with a mere touch on her forearm.

She went with it, twirling her ribbon around herself as a shield to deflect several more strikes, then trying once more to wrap Mai's arms and legs, almost succeeding in grabbing one of Mai's legs, forcing her into the air. There, Mai again launched her ribbon forward like a speeding snake. Which was in fact the name of the move. "Swift Snake Bite!"

The end of the ribbon had curled in on itself, creating an almost knuckle-like construct made out of ribbon, and it darted in and out so quickly that Mai could barely keep up. But she was able to dodge just enough so that the hits didn't really matter much, and then, she whirled in midair, her fan lancing down and into the ribbon. Kurumi automatically tried to pull it out of her grip, but Kurumi was nowhere near as strong as Mai, and even her grip strength was enough to keep the fan in her hand. Instead, it was Kurumi who lost her ribbon, yanked out of her hand.

Mai landed, whirling her arm to one side, making the ribbon that she had just ensnared do much the same. Then she tossed it up to land on the platform above where Natsume was moving, switching from one toughness training zone to another while also keeping an eye on the spar below.

"Now, let's see how good you are without your ribbon," Mai mused, darting forward, her twin fans opening for the first time the battle.

After that, the spar quickly turned into a rout. Kurumi tried, she tried very hard, but eventually, Mai kicked her foot out from under her, and smacked her in the forehead with the flat of her still open fan, sending her crashing to the ground. "Ow! Why the heck? Why do your fans hit like they're made of steel?"

"Ki reinforcement, another technique you should learn. Natsume seemed to use it to a certain degree on her rug beater, but I know it’s harder to use with something like a ribbon or a rope… Believe me I know,” Mai grumbled a bit, remembering how much trouble she had shifting ki into her manriki. “Anyway, couple that with wrapping your ribbon around your wrist, and I think you won't be in danger of losing your weapon in the future like you did this time," Mai explained, putting her weapons away, and leaning down to help Kurumi to her feet.

At that point, Kurumi attempted to grapple with her, but Mai was both a good deal stronger than Kurumi, had seen it coming and was better than her to boot. She easily broke the girl’s grip, twisted her around, got her into a headlock, and then shoulder threw her into the ground, before getting behind the stunned Kurumi, grabbing her arms pulling them back. "Nice try, but not a good plan against someone whose school emphasizes dirty tricks."

Kurumi tried to throw Mai off her, but Mai kept her hold on the girl’s arms, pulling them further back, and eventually Kurumi had to concede. That had been a real spar, an official one, and Kurumi hadn’t wanted to give it as easily as she had against Ranma when he chased after Kurumi during one of her food runs. But she had to concede that the other girl had beaten her soundly.

"Like Ranma said after his spar with Natsume, I think you need to work on your basic strength and speed. You and Natsume seem to have developed the bad habit of relying on your ki attacks," Mai observed.

"You say that is if you didn't say this match wouldn't use them at all. If I had…," Kurumi began, only for Mai to interrupt her.

"Well, let's try that been. Natsume, can you kick down Kurumi's ribbon?"

Moments later, the two of them were once more facing one another, and this time, it was anything goes.

Kurumi started the match late, shouting out "Fire Whip!"

Mai allowed the strike to land on her forearm, hissing a bit at the heat of it, before dodging the follow-on series of strikes. Okay, those hurt even with only being a ribbon. Seems as if Kurumi is just as good with heat as Natsume is with cold.

When Mai tried to once more get the ribbon wrapped around her fan however, she found that the ribbon was almost too hot to the touch. That heat translated into her own weapon so quickly that Mai had to drop it, her hand a little seared despite the fact that the ribbon didn't seem to be on fire.

But as she dropped her fan, Mai's foot came up. Just like in her battle against Jae Hoon, just because a fan had left her hand, didn’t mean Mai couldn’t keep using it. The same thing happened here, as she kicked the end of the fan, launching it towards Mai like a short spear.

Kurumi dodged, but that disrupted her attack long enough for Mai to pull out her own rope weapon, her manriki, from her boob space. The next moment, smoke from a few smoke bombs courtesy of Mai’s boob window obscured Kurumi's vision, and then Mai was attacking her from behind, the dual weights flying forward one after another.

Kurumi tried to defend yourself, her ribbon swirling around her in a defensive form. This battered the initial strikes aside but a second later, the ropes were tangled around one another. A second later, Kurumi yelped as she found herself flung into the air by the other girl’s strength.

There, several more fans slammed into her one after another with punishing force, hurling her into a tree. Dazed, she slid down the tree’s trunk. She tried to get up, but Mai landed on top of her, her knee slamming into the younger girl’s chest, slamming her back into the tree, and pinning her in place.

"You're not the only one with tricks Kurumi," Mai said gently, despite the beating she just given the younger girl. "I get you were a little angry… and about a lot more than losing the last match, hmmm? But, please accept some honest criticism, okay? All of us could use some advice from time to time."

Kurumi grumbled a bit, looking down at her feet for a second, upset at losing and at losing her cool. While Kurumi wasn't certain she wanted to continue the martial artist life like her sister did if the two of them ever found an actual home, she did still have her pride as a martial artist at the moment. Ranma beating her so easily when they first met, she could take. He was her senpai in Anything Goes after all.

But despite having seen her fight the group from the Hwan School, Kurumi had kind of dismissed Mai as a proper martial artist given how she routinely dressed. To be so easily manhandled by the older girl was a wake-up call. And… okay, I might have wanted to get a bit of my anger out about what Ranma told us about our Dad… and let it get to me. Mai’s right, I guess.

She glumly nodded, and allowed Mai to haul her to her feet, apologizing for her attitude. Mai took it in stride, even telling her, “Don’t worry about it. That kind of thing, you don’t want to keep it inside all that much. Now, let’s see if you can learn how to use a ribbon with your feet.”

Kurumi giggled at how silly that sounded, but nodded and the two of them spent the rest of the day going through various training exercises.

The next day, Kurumi and Natsume exchanged places, and the older of the two fought Mai. This was a more even contest in both phases, since Natsume was physically stronger and a little bit faster, and, more importantly, perhaps, had seen Mai spar with her sister the day before. She still lost, but both of them had a lot of fun, and excitedly talked about the ideas of mixing the hot and cold-based techniques of the twin sisters with the sheer variety of weapons that Mai routinely used.

The fact she could set her fans on real fire was amazing to Kurumi, while Mai was similarly interested in making them so cold they froze steel weapons to the point they couldn’t be held, were interesting. As was the idea of creating a tornado by using hot and cold fans to create a wind attack, like Natsume had done in her spar with Ranma. Natsume, in contrast, was very interested in building up her physical abilities to the next level as Mai so obviously had, and her ki space.

At night, the somewhat miserable couple joined the discussions around the fire, where Mai and Natsume would give them rudimentary massages on the one hand, and extremely good massages on the other, switching from Shampoo to Ranma and back again. Meanwhile, Natsume continued to ask Ranma questions about the training he had gone through as well as everything he could tell her about Soun and the Tendos. But like before, when he had given them just a brief overview, that conversation was not pleasant for either sister.

“Wait, this, this Akane took your opponent’s side over yours? A fellow Anything Goes student?” Natsume growled.

“Eh, it was a bit worse than that, but yeah,” Ranma said morosely while Shampoo growled like a furry demon next to her. “Ryoga’s… well there are a few things going on there I can’t, on my honor, mention. Let’s just say I gave my word about something I shouldn’t have, to a guy I shouldn’t have. And seeing him take advantage of it, and Akane not listening, was a major irritant.”

“Every time you mention my youngest half-sister’s name I dislike her more. The only thing I think I have liked about Akane at all is how she deals with those reprobates at your former high school,” Natsume grumbled, before gesturing Ranma to continue. “And if either this Tatewaki or Kodachi come near me or my sister I am going to severely mangle them.”

Seeing Ranma growing uncomfortable talking about Nerima, Mai interrupted, asking Natsume about their memories of their father, glancing over at Ranma. Unfortunately, most of those memories were based around how strong he was, but when the older of the two siblings was pressed, it came out that Kurume had a few of their own memories despite being so much younger than Natsume. Unfortunately, most of those memories were about being carried along by someone through the trees and that the person had flowing hair.

Ranma was very certain Genma had never had flowing hair. Soun did, but Ranma still didn’t think it could have been him, if at this point only for the timing of it. Could my old man have had flowing hair at some point? No… a disguise then? No, he never went into that kind of thing beyond his whole panda shtick. Is it my Pops or is it Soun? Or could it be that Hap-guy that Master Nawa and the lightning user mentioned? But if the original master’s still around, where the hell has he been? FUCK, but this is hurting my head.

Regardless of anything else however, Kurumi and Natsume remained martial artists of the Anything Goes School, and younger practitioners meaning they were Ranma's responsibility. Right up until I can figure out which of the older assholes were so irresponsible as ta leave two girls behind… and then dump ‘em back on the individual who should've been looking after them from the start. I like both girls well enough, but Kurumi has already stated she doesn’t like traveling for traveling’s sake, while Natsume ain’t about to leave her little sister. And… well… traveling with Shampoo just the two of us was sort of a second point of this training journey.

An errant thought about Mai going with them crossed Ranma’s mind for a second, but it was too quick and too small for him to concentrate on. Besides, Mai has Andy, so even if she wanted to travel with Shampoo and Ranma, she’d be dragging him along, and it’d turn into a couple’s thing, right. Having a fifth wheel along wouldn’t be fun for anyone.

Deciding they had gone around this topic long enough and not realizing she was the subject of Ranma’s current thoughts, Mai asked, "By the way Natsume, have you ever thought about using distraction techniques during a fight? You’ve certainly got the body for it and speaking as someone who does use those kind of tactics, I bet you could do it really well."

Natsume shook her head, almost scoffing. "What good would that be against real martial artists? Surely they would be able to control their baser urges?"

Mai and Shampoo exchanged a glance, and Mai giggled, before hopping to her feet and leaning just a tiny bit over the fire, directing her cleavage like it was a carefully aimed weapon toward where Ranma was sitting, slowly raising one of the meat sticks to his mouth, noticing the grimace on his face at even that minute movement. Three days into the training, and both he and Shampoo still look like they have been pounded flat. Ugh, I am so not looking forward to my time in the straps. But for now… "Would you like some more meat~ Ranma?"

Glancing up from where he had been looking down at his food, Ranma was about to tell Mai he was fine. But as he did, Ranma found his eyes drawn to her cleavage. That valley was deep, its slopes of magnificent, unblemished pink skin, its depths marked out by shadow, the slopes showing a tiny rivulet of sweat slowly rappelling down their sides.

Ranma’s gaze stayed there for several seconds as if that valley had a gravity pulling Ranma’s attention there, but eventually, he was able to redirect his eyes upwards again. "Er… I'm good thanks," he said, his voice dull and aching even as a blush began to suffused his face.

Mai winked at him, then turned back to Natsume and Shampoo, who had smirked at the interaction, rolling her eyes. “Shampoo think that like aiming at low hanging fruit right now. Ranma too too tired from toughness training. Mai attempt that in a spar, see how far she gets.”

While a part of her Amazon heritage was annoyed at Shampoo about letting Mai flirt like what with Ranma, Shampoo well remembered how Ranma had reacted back in Sado. His anger at her overreaction still stuck with Shampoo. Besides, Mai is head over heels with Andy. So Shampoo had long since let down her guard around the taller, bustier girl in a way she probably never would around Natsume.

"Probably, but Ranma’s got you and his own form. Other guys aren’t nearly as lucky and unlucky at the same time.” Mai laughed, pushing down a strange little thrill going through her at the look of appreciation Ranma had shown her just a moment ago and throwing Shampoo a compliment at that same time. But a part of her mind betrayed her, concentrating more on the strange thrill she had just felt rather than her friend. Shaking that off, she looked back over at Natsume. “What do you think would happen in a fight if you could gain those few seconds there?"

"Be that as it may, I'm not certain I have the right attitude for that kind of thing. I don't think of myself as being very body conscious, but I'm also not outgoing as you are Mai. Or even you Shampoo," Natsume answered delicately, trying hard not to give offense.

She needn't have bothered though. "I agree, and for my own part, there is a distinct difference between showing off, and showing what I want to keep for Andy’s eyes only.” Mai giggled wickedly, her eyes going far away for a moment as she mumbled about Andy under her breath for a second before coming back to the here and now. “Look at what I'm wearing Natsume, and compare it to what you might find on a beach somewhere, is there really all that much more flesh being shown?"

Mai stood there, while Ranma kept his eyes locked on his food, deciding not to get involved in this conversation at all after being used as an example a moment ago. Natsume looked at her thoughtfully, as did Shampoo, and Natsume finally allowed that Mai's outfit really didn't show as much as it seemed to give in her body type. It was the equivalent of a very risqué bathing suit, and it wasn't anything Natsume could see yourself wearing, but it wasn't as bad as it first appeared.

“So long as you are standing still anyway,” Kurumi interjected. “Once you start moving, it’s like you can hardly not notice your hips or rear.” She then seemed to get a little depressed, her hands coming up to cup her chest as she grumbled. “Or these. Muu… if I eat more can I grow as big as you at least, Nee-chan? I know Mai’s out of my league but…”

Natsume blushed a bit at that, not comfortable with the topic, or Kurumi speaking about it so bluntly. Although she wasn’t as uncomfortable as Ranma was about all of this, as he once more almost choked on his food.

Giggling, Mai twirled, going through a highly mobile kata. Shampoo, Natsume and even the now watching Ranma could tell instantly that Kurumi was right, while Mai was moving the idea that her outfit was only as risqué as a particularly sheer bathing suit disappeared. With every punch or kick, it looked like she was going to fall out of her outfit.

But she never did, and Ranma’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Huh, come to think of it, I never asked her or noticed before, but how does that outfit stay on? Could she be using ki to make it stick to her, like I can use the leaping gecko technique? Sneaky Mai, very sneaky.

Once it finished, Mai stopped moving, for a split second, her body going entirely still, before restarting the same kata. And suddenly, it was almost as if the previous moment of hyper- sexualized movements had occurred. Her movements were more smooth, more streamlined, her chest didn't bounce as much. Her kick didn't bring attention to the amount of thigh on display as much, because of how fast she pulled it back. Even when she twirled into a high kick that was the case.

"Mai can turn sexy arts on and off like a switch. That’s a level of body control that is actually really impressive" Shampoo said in Putonghua to herself, watching the other girl admiringly for a moment, before shaking her head, then looking over at her boyfriend, added slyly, "Shampoo noticed that weeks back. She start to learn that from Mai to pay for strength training but is nowhere near to mastering it. Even if she did buy an outfit similar to Mai's."

Ranma choked on his food for a moment, and doubled over, gasping. This caused Kurumi to smack his back hard, helping him to dislodge whatever he had been choking on, while Shampoo looked a little smug. She and Mai exchanged a grin, as Shampoo watched with glee the redness coming back into Ranma's face at the idea of her wearing something like Mai did, his eyes staring out into the distance, a small trail of blood coming from his nose.

"Regardless, I would not be comfortable wearing such clothing Mai, I'm sorry," Natsume said shaking her head not responding to this byplay.

"Then go the other route. Be the elegant lady, accidentally putting just a teensy too much cleavage on display, a little too much leg. Don't go the hyper- sexualized route like me," Mai said, moving back to sit between Kurumi and Shampoo again.

"…How would that work?" Natsume asked slowly, thinking it through, and both Shampoo and Mai grinned at her.

Seeing that Ranma groaned, the sound causing all four of the girls including Kurumi to giggle. And I can’t even move without help! I’m freaking trapped!!!

However, while all of the young martial artists were quickly learning from one another in various ways, Natsume and Kurumi had quite a bit to learn about living with (for two-thirds of the time anyway) a young man. The first ‘Moment of EEEK’, a phrase later coined by Mai, happened on the morning of the fourth day of their campsite.

Kurumi hopped out of the tent she shared with her sister, saying over her shoulder, "Come on sis! Let's go get a bath. I'm anxious to see if Ranma's idea of heating up enough stones and tossing them into the river let us have a warm one for a change."

"I honestly don't think it will,” Natsume said, coming out more slowly after her sister, shaking her head slightly and wringing out her shoulder. "Although the idea of a warm bath is a nice one. After sparring with Mai in the evening I…"

Natsume trailed off as she stared wide-eyed at an equally wide-eyed Ranma who was standing by the fire pit talking quietly to Shampoo. The two girls’ loud exclamations and jumping out of the tent had drawn his eye, much to Natsume's chagrin and now they stared at one another, while Kurumi also paused, blushing hotly.

Because she was practically naked, wearing only bear print panties on. This was what she had been sleeping in the since they had made their camp, it getting so hot out it was nearly impossible to sleep with anything on, let alone in their new sleeping bags.

Natsume also was dressed in her underthings, a pair of panties a broad and a silk negligée that Mai had forced on her. It was a very simple one, covering her from her neck down to just below her thigh, but it still hugged her upper chest tightly, leaving very little to the imagination. The difference between the white of it, her slightly tanned skin and Natsume’s dark brown hair was extremely sensual.

From where she had been filleting some fish for some sushi, Shampoo glared angrily at both girls, torn between being amused by their mortification and annoyance that another girl had just flashed her boyfriend/husband. But remembering once again Ranma’s reaction to her jumping to conclusions, she tried to make light of it, but there was still a bite to her tone as she asked, "Natsume and Kurumi not trying to steal Shampoo's Airen, riiiiight?"

Both girls blanched at that but it broke them out of their joint stupor. Kurumi shrieked, diving back into her sister, propelling them both back into their tents with a loud shout of, "We’re sorry!"

That seems to break the spell on Ranma, who slowly shook his head from side to side. "You know, back in Nerima, I was almost getting used to moments like that causing me to get beaten up like I was the pervert in the situation. Have I mentioned that I'm happy that you came around, Shampoo, and convinced me to finally take the plunge and leave?"

"Road much better with good company," Shampoo said with a smile and a nod, inwardly scowling at Ranma's words. That had been a simple accident, no fault of Ranma's, but if he said he'd run into similar moments, something Shampoo believed, on that score and on the fact that he was blamed for it by Akane or someone else, that angered her a lot.Remember that Xian Pu, Ranma won’t see you’re over reacting any better than he saw Akane’s or his father’s.

Still, she changed the subject knowing that Ranma’s time in Nerima was not a happy subject for him. "Shampoo wondering if maybe the girls need to find boyfriends Amazon way."

"What, giving someone the Kiss of Death, chasing them, and then getting beaten again only to realize she’s a he?" Ranma taunted, to which Shampoo responded very maturely by sticking out her tongue at him.

Another Moment of EEEK occurred two days later, when Natsume opened the door to the outhouse, and found Ranma standing up from where he had been using it, pulling up his pants as he did so. Ranma froze staring up at her, his eyes widening like a deer caught in the headlights.

Natsume also stared at him in shock. But after a second, some hind part of her brain became aware of the show on display, and Natsume’s eyes trailed down his body to an area more often than not covered by pants and boxers. She stared, her face flushing, until Ranma started to move again. A shout of shock bursting from him. “Gaaaa!!”

This instigated a shriek from her, and a shout of, "I'm sorry!" As she leaped backwards out of the outhouse closing the door behind her with a furious blush on her expression.

The rest of the day, she couldn't look at Ranma without blushing. And when Kurumi at last asked her what was wrong, the first thing out of Natsume's mouth was, "Cobra, giant cobra" before she descended into mumbling and blushing once more.

Surprisingly, Mai didn’t have any such moments. She was used to being careful around boys thanks to growing up around Andy and even occasionally his older brother. And of course there was Jubei. As she laughingly said, “Trust me, a few years of having my uncle trying to peek on me in the baths or steal my underthings was more than enough to be aware of the need to preserve my modesty every way I could.”

Of course, there were Moments of EEEK between the girls as well. Occasionally they ran into one another coming and going from the stream. Ranma had set up a small dugout tributary, with a sluice gate that could be open and closed to allow for hot baths. It was hard to see if someone was in the bath until you were right on top of it for the first few weeks, until Ranma put up a sign notifying everyone it was occupied.

For Kurumi, she was young enough to not care one way or another about these meetings. For Natsume, these were embarrassing moments, certainly, but nowhere near as embarrassing with Ranma, and eventually she stopped being so body conscious around Shampoo and Mai. They were after all, all girls. But for Shampoo, who had recently realized that she was at least mildly bisexual, these moments were both treat and torture in one. Natsume was an extremely good-looking girl, while Mai was a statuesque beauty, although Shampoo had gotten used to being around her while they were in Musubime Osoroshi.

And of course, there was the fact that two of the five people in the camp were in a relationship. Now that Ranma could spend most of his time (as much as he possibly could) in his male body, Shampoo was extremely insistent on getting some romance-time out of him and Ranma was more than willing to go along with it. Indeed, once he could move more easily after the first week, Ranma initiated some of their romantic moments, taking over massaging Shampoo, fetching her food, and so forth, until she was acclimated enough to start stepping out with him.

This all delighted Shampoo, although he wasn’t as willing to do so in front of the other girls as Shampoo was. This was as much a cultural thing as it was a personal preference. And, while Mai would have actually liked to see such moments, Natsume and Kurumi were both thankful the two kept their PDA to a minimum.

Of course, getting any real privacy in the camp, even in their tents wasn’t easy. After all, tents were not meant to keep in sound. Most of the time the two of them just walked off into the woods for half an hour or so to make out. But occasionally over the course of the two months they spent in the campsite, Ranma and Shampoo would plan somewhat more serious date-type outings.

The first such moment happened several weeks into their stay in the woods and had Shampoo asking the girls to let her cook for just the two of them first.

“Shampoo… GRAHHH!!!!” she growled, stomping in place before looking back to the now giggling trio of girls. “I want to cook something special for my Airen. He and I are going to go out on a little date for lunch, so you all will have to fend for yourselves.”

“Oh no, how will we cope?” Natsume drawled, rolling her eyes. “It isn’t as if Mai and I haven’t been cooking for most of the time we’ve been out here.”

“Have you found any romantic places around here? I confess I haven’t had much energy to look around. I should have before starting my toughness training,” Mai grumbled. She had begun her own training a few days previously, and while she had started at a higher level of toughness, the training had really taken it out of her. She could still move, but every part of her body hurt, and finding a comfortable position to sleep was practically still impossible. “I suppose I should have gone exploring around here with Kurumi instead of sparring.” While she wasn’t as at home in the woods as the others, she did enjoy hiking around.

“I helped with that!” Kurumi said proudly, waving her hand in the air. “There’s a nifty little rocky outcropping upstream, and a reaaaaallly nice meadow a mile or so to our south, with really pretty lavender and white flowers.”

“Mmm. Ranma and Shampoo heading for meadow first, for picnic. After that we’ll see,” Shampoo added happily, before hugging Kurumi in thanks for her help.

Shampoo wanted to treat the date much like a date in a city where they would have to meet up in public instead, and Ranma acquiesced easily. The two of them split off at lunchtime, while Kurumi was still helping her sister to sit down at the fire, where Mai had just finished making lunch. While Kurumi was drooling, even now she still ate like a ravenous beast, both Mai and Natsume had to smile at the sight of Ranma wearing what looked like a formal black suit with black pants. It was totally out of place in the woods, but then again, so was Shampoo wearing a sundress, white with purple highlights that matched her hair.

“Airen look so handsome!” Shampoo laughed, hugging Ranma tightly across the shoulders. “Shampoo is too too happy you put in the effort for this.”

“Ehh, you decided to cook, so I figure the least I could do is dress up. And you look amazing too. It’s really different to see you in a dress. Good different though,” Ranma said, trying hard not to look at Shampoo’s cleavage, which honestly wasn’t all that much on display, or her legs, which kind of were, since the sundress ended mid-thigh. And while Shampoo didn’t have the full curves Mai did, her thighs were incredibly toned and amazing looking.

Seeing this, Shampoo smiled and posed for a moment fluffing out her dress and grinning, feeling a purely girlish thrill going through her. Then she held up the small bag holding the food. “Shall we go?”

Wordlessly Ranma held out his arm, and Shampoo took his hand, her smile now accompanied by a blush as their fingers twined together. With that, Shampoo and Ranma left the camp, still holding hands.

Behind them, Mai and Natsume looked at one another, then back to where the couple had just disappeared through the woods. Mai stood up slowly, both because she was trying to be stealthy and because she was still in pain from the toughness training. Once she was on her feet, she began to back away from the fire pit, muttering, "I'm just going to…"

"Oh no, you don't!" Natsume growled, shaking her head. "While I would prefer they abstain from flirting in front of us, the lovers deserve some privacy."

"You can't tell me you're not curious!" Mai exclaimed, shaking her head. "And I'm not talking about what Ranma's hiding those trousers of his, I know you know the answer to that one." Lucky girl, I haven’t seen what Andy’s packing yet, let alone anything but… well, stuff on the internet to tell me what to expect.

Natsume gulped, a blush suffused in her features as it always did when reminded of that moment now a week gone. "I, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Hmmmm?” Mai stared at Natsume who flushed under her gaze, then snorted. “Well, I'm honest about my interests. I've only gone on a few dates and while those were good because it was with Andy, most was were the typical go to the movies and dinner type dates. I need me some romance! And if I can’t get some on my own right now, at least I can get some secondhand from my friends." With that, Mai stood up, and began to move silently after the two lovers, putting all her training in moving silently to work.

Natsume hesitated, a thought going through her mind that if Mai were a guy right now, she would call him a pervert, and be very much against following, to the point of violence perhaps. But her own woman side rejected that idea utterly. So long as the two of them left when things got steamy anyway. And I do have to go along to make sure that she does leave at that point, don't I?

With that in mind, Natsume looked back towards Kurumi, who had not looked up from her food since it had been placed in front of her. Besides her normal attitude towards food, Kurumi had also been put through her paces by Shampoo earlier that day as Ranma observed Natsume and Mai’s toughness training. That meant her sister wouldn't miss her, although she might eat all the prepared food. And I am certainly used to missing meals. This looks far more interesting. With a hiss of, "Wait for me!" Natsume raced after the other girl.

Shampoo had made the two lovers a picnic of hot and sour soup and rabbit dim sum. Ranma provided a blanket from his ki space, and a small bag of hard candies he had kept hidden from Kurumi somehow. The two of them sat next to one another, talking as they ate before Ranma looked up at the sky, frowning as it started to get overcast. “Looks like it might rain later.”

Shampoo looked up as well, and although not as at home with the weather in Japan as she was with the weather back in the Bayankala Mountains, she could tell more than Ranma. “Ehh, not until much later. It moving too too slowly to worry us.”

“Good to hear.” Ranma fell silent, then drew Shampoo into his side as he looked up at the sky, blushing a bit at what he was going to say, but determined to say it regardless. “You know, I always kind of liked the rain when I was younger. Hearing it sluice through the leaves was always fun. And if my old man and I were camping out somewhere, then the rain would signal a day off sometimes. Not often, not for me anyway but I still liked it.”

“Why did you say it wouldn’t always mean a day off for you?” Shampoo asked quizzically even as she leaned more into Ranma’s side, her hand slowly making circles on his thigh.

“If he was feeling lazy, sometimes Pops’d set it up so that when the rain hit I’d be doing strength or speed exercises, Pops could sit in the entrance of our tent and order me about from there rather than spar.” Waved that off, his hand going up and down Shampoo’s back causing her to forget her anger at Genma for now. “But that’s not important. What is, is that my opinion of rain reaaaally changed when I got my curse. Then it was the most hateful thin in existence. That wasn’t exactly helped by how much damn rain there was in the weeks it took us to get out of the mountains. But then that one major storm, it led the two of us to that cave.”

Shampoo laughed quietly at the memory, leaning up to kiss Ranma’s neck before giving him a teasing smirk. “Hmm… Shampoo now wonder how much seeing Ranma naked have to do with Ranma’s decision to leave Nerima…”

“Not a lot, really. I mean, you’re gorgeous, but I’d gotten used to my own female form by then, so it wasn’t enough to really sway me, you know?” Ranma answered, causing Shampoo to smile happily at the compliment. “But more importantly, meeting you like that, getting to know you as I did in that cave, it really helped me a lot. It made me more comfortable in my female form, and it helped us becomes friends, despite the whole kiss of death thing. That, knowing I had made a friend, one who took the Art seriously, and like that, with all the baggage between us, really helped me deal with the stuff in Nerima. I… I might have been more willing to put up with Akane and her crap if she was the first friend I’d made in more than five years.”

He smiled then, leaning down and giving Shampoo a kiss before pulling back when she tried to deepen it. “And that’s without us getting into a relationship like we have. So I guess ya can say that meeting you like that made me like the rain again, even with all the baggage it brings with it.”

“Shampoo thank Artemis for letting her meet Ranma too,” Shampoo whispered, leaning up and kissing Ranma. And when she made to deepen it this time, Ranma didn’t stop her. Instead, he responded ardently, pulling Shampoo tighter against him, his tongue gently tapping against her lips, before sliding into her mouth as she flung one leg over Ranma’s waist. Grinding against him, Shampoo mewled as her skirt bunched up, letting Ranma’s hands more access to her bare thighs.

The two watchers had seen all this from the foliage by the edge of the flower meadow, and while it was hard to hear from that distance, both young women managed it. Mai had practically squealed at the romantic moments, while Natsume had simply watched avidly, never having seen anything like this in real life. She’d gone to a few romance movies, but this was far better.

But when things began getting heated, Natsume decided enough was enough. As Ranma's shirt came off, she poked Mai in the side, the two of them hidden up a tree on the same large tree branch. Mai smacked her hand away, somehow being careful to not make noise despite her eyes still glued to the events ahead of them.

Natsume poked her again, and then grabbed Mai's hand when she tried to smack her finger away a second time. Mai turned and glared at Natsume, but Natsume hissed, blushing hotly now as Shampoos moans began to reach them, "It’s time to go. We've had our fun, we can’t watch anymore."

Sighing, Mai nodded, and the two of them crawled back through the bushes, until they were well away from the stream. When they could straighten up once more, Mai muttered, "Well, that was certainly interesting, and gave me a lot of ideas for when I finally break through Andy's shell."

Natsume shook her head. "I don't have a prospect beau out there for me, but I have to admit, that was… fascinating." The two of them looked at one another then as one let out a tension-relieving giggle before they both said goodnight and headed to their own tents.

But although Natsume was able to fall asleep quite quickly on dreams of romance with someone who just so happened to have an extremely good body and be a martial artist despite her body still being in pain, Mai had trouble going to sleep that night. And it had nothing to do with being battered from the toughness training. Rather, for the first time since falling in love with Andy, she had some trouble keeping his face in her mind.

Back with the two lovers things had continued to escalate in a very satisfactory manner.

Lime Start:

Shampoo’s dress had been pushed offer her shoulders, revealing her bra-clad chest, while Ranma’s shirt had been tossed somewhere else. The two of them were kissing deeply now, their tongues wriggling like snakes as Shampoo humped in Ranma’s lap, his erection rising between them against her panties.

Ranma had been slowly dominating the kiss, but as Shampoo felt Ranma’s penis rising underneath her, she slid her hand down between them, pushing into his silk pants, causing Ranma to freeze. There, she found his penis, hard and hot and she broke off the kiss for a moment, blushing and staring down between them, her hand slowly shifting up and down his length as she explored, biting her lip in delight.

Shampoo had never touched something quite like this before. It was, despite her fellow Amazons’ words, not at all like holding a sword hilt or the shaft of a staff or spear. Nor was it like holding an over-large finger, like Toi Lette described. Instead, it was some odd mixture of touching skin and touching something else. Ranma’s shaft had hardened entirely now, and yet it was a little springy to the touch, the sides of his shaft giving slightly. The skin over his shaft wasn’t quite as smooth as she had thought it might be, nor his hair as fine as the hair on his head, being far courser to her fingers. It was also slick, the liquid she knew as pre-cum having dripped a bit from the small slit at the middle of the head, which was thick and bulbous, but not quite like the mushroom that she had been expecting.

Indeed, the only thing that really matched what Shampoo felt before when they had some of their more intense make out sessions was that Ranma was more than large enough to fill her hand and then some. If she wanted to work his entire shaft and tip, she would need both hands. Well, at least the blooded warriors were right about that, martial arts training normally does lend itself to a certain signs of… male virility… Shampoo giggled, amused and aroused. Quite a lot, really.

By this point, Ranma had broken out of his momentary stasis. One hand was on her rear under her bunched up sundress squeezing rhythmically, shifting from one cheek to another through her panties. The hand them slowly moved up to the small of her back making little circles there, which caused Shampoo’s breathing to start to be a little erratic. Huh, okay, did not expect the small of her back to be that sensitive. Weird I hadn’t noticed before.

Making a note of that, Ranma moved his other hand up, squeezing her breast over the top of her red silk bra. That drew some more whimpers, and Ranma breathed in deeply, then decided to follow Shampoo’s lead a bit even as she kissed him again. Fair’s fair after all.

Ranma moved that hand back down, then using his thumb began to push Shampoo’s bra up until it was piled up around her neck, his hand going over her breast slowly, his fingers twitching as they ran over her nipple. When the bra was pushed off entirely, Ranma pulled back slightly from the kiss, nibbling at Shampoo’s jaw and neck as he stared down between them.

Shampoo’s breasts heaved, but not at all like the custard or panna cotta, some boys at Furinkan had talked about comparing their girlfriend’s breasts to. Nor did they move at all like Mai’s, pendulous but still firm, being even firmer and far tighter than Mai’s. But they were still big enough that Ranma had trouble cupping one breast in his hand, and there was a significant weight to the breast in his palm. Moreover, her nipples were a light purple color, large, the areolae almost as thick around as a fifty-yen piece, with an already hardened nipple the top.

That nipple drew Ranma’s attention like a lodestone, and he pushed Shampoo back very slightly so he could lean down between them, trailing his lips down her body with kisses, licks, and then, when he reached that nipple, a light suckle. Shampoo’s whimpers told him she liked that, and Ranma moved his other hand from her back to her chest. This let Ranma play with her breasts with both hands, an almost childish delight filling him as he hefted them, squeezed them and played with her nipples with his fingers tongue and mouth.

Shampoo moaned, and her own ministrations of Ranma slowly fell by the wayside as the sensations Ranma was bringing out of her breasts began to overcome her ability to concentrate. Instead, she simply slumped against him, whimpering and moaning, as she shook her head this way and that, her hair bouncing with the movement.

But it wasn’t quite enough. She wanted something more. “Ranma,” she whimpered, “more!” In response, Ranma began to bite and nip at her nipple, crossing Shampoo of minor shock, her eyes flying wide at that new sensation. But a few minutes later, her body had become used to it, and she needed some new sensation. Ranma was building her up to a massive peak, but she wasn’t quite there yet.

With that in mind, Shampoo grabbed one of his hands from her breasts, and began to push it down her body. As she went, her other hand slid into his hands once more, and began to work up and down his shaft, palming at it for now, then squeezing at the top, then pulling it back down and repeating the motion.

Ranma’s hand had stopped its movement at the moment Shampoo had let go, uncertainty flooding through him even as his fingers began to lightly dance and move over her stomach, causing shivers to go up and down her body, adding to the sensation but not nearly as much as she wanted. But after a moment, his hand began to move once more, moving down her body and over the front of Shampoo’s panties.

With Shampoo palming at his shaft, Ranma continued his own ministrations. His fingers began to work up and down, feeling the moisture of Shampoo’s arousal soaking through Shampoo’s panties. Soon she was so wet that he could actually feel her flower beneath the sheer, thin material.

It was somewhat small, perhaps two fingers wide, and only about as big as his middle finger, but to Ranma’s surprise, he couldn’t feel anything that could have been hair above that. Instead, all he felt underneath her panty was smooth skin, becoming wetter and wetter under his fingers. Huh, when did she shave down there? Setting aside that minor mystery, Ranma started to move his fingers in different directions, lightly going up and down, side to side, and then flicking the petals he could feel to either side, rubbing them or gently circling them.

Again, Shampoo began to feel her pleasure mounting, but Ranma was just going to slow. Sl, slow’s nice, but I want something more, something a little faster. She put this into words, then leaned down and began to bite at Ranma’s neck, trying hard to leave a hickey there trying hard to mark her territory. “Mark me, too, give me a hickey.”

The last word came out in Chinese, but it was accompanied by a particularly hard bite at Ranma’s collarbone, followed by a particularly hard suck. This got her attention across. Ranma instantly began to put a little more pressure on his sucking and biting on her breasts before moving up to her neck. There he bit harder in order leave a bite mark, before going back down, trailing little hickeys down her body until his mouth hovering over the nipple he had not yet turned his lips towards.

That nipple was soon being given the same treatment as its fellow had gotten, and Shampoo’s humping against Ranma’s waist began to become even more frantic. But this time, Shampoo was able to keep her own attention on what her hands were doing and her second hand soon joined the first. One worked his penis’s head as if it was pommel of a sword, just moving this way and that on top of it, creating a slight friction. Shampoo’s other hand moved up and down his shaft, now gripping it hard. This caused Ranma to let out a grunt of real pain until Shampoo adjusted her grip just a bit, keeping the tight sensation but no longer being in danger of actually hurting her partner.

Both of them were still very new to this kind of thing, most of their experience being with one another, although Shampoo had a lot of self-knowledge, while Ranma had next to none. He could feel something building, something boiling within his balls, building to eruption. Shampoo recognized her peak coming, and growled out, “More!” wanting a bit more sensation to throw her over the edge.

At that order, Ranma, greatly daring, shifted his two fingers underneath her panty. There he instantly found them sliding inside of Shampoo’s folds so wet was Shampoo. Her pussy almost opened up for him, and a second later, his two fingers were deeply inside her.

That did it for Shampoo. She pulled slightly away from Ranma’s neck as she released a cry of ecstasy as juices squirted out from her so hard that some of it actually came through her panties coating Ranma’s hand and his pants. In her ecstasy, the hand gripping Ranma’s shaft had clenched a little tighter, going back almost into the painful range, but not quite, joined by Shampoo’s other hand also clenching slightly at the top of Ranma’s shaft. That last bit of attention was enough to finish Ranma off to, and he came, his cum shooting out with even more force than Shampoo’s juices.

Having fallen back against Ranma’s shoulder, Shampoo’s eyes widened slightly even through her own euphoria as she felt Ranma’s shaft firing off in her hands. She could literally feel the shaft moving within her grip, up and down like some kind of piston, shooting out the thick viscous liquid within, coating the hand previously placed on top of his shaft to the point that it squirted between her fingers and actually covered the back of her hand too.

Looking down between them, Shampoo pulled back from where she had been leaning against Ranma. Slowly removing her hands from within Ranma’s pants, Shampoo stared at the thick white goo covering her hand, then down to where Ranma’s pants and her own bunched up sundress had been utterly drenched by her own release and even more of the thick goo. Good grief, none of the stories ever mentioned how sticky and wet everything became, or is just me? I never heard of someone else squirting like I just did either.

Although there is one thing that many of the other talked about… With that thought, Shampoo raised the hand covered in Ranma’s gunk to her face. She stared at the liquid covering it, now dripping down between their bodies joining the rest of the various liquids dripping down the chair, sniffing at it.

Watching her, Ranma opened his mouth, although what he was about to say when unsaid, as she Shampoo delicately stuck out her neck. The sight of that pink appendage caused Ranma to freeze. Watching Shampoo’s tongue lick some of the cum off of her hand had Ranma’s standing at attention again. This was easy enough, as he hadn’t gone completely soft yet.

But the look of disgust that then crossed Shampoo’s face and the loud cursing in Chinese she let loose caused Ranma’s arousal to fade away quickly. “Shampoo, you okay?”

Shampoo tried to stand up, making a disgusted expression on her face, only to collapse back onto Ranma’s lap. “That was disgusting! UGH! The texture is like a kind of thick porridge, but it tastes disgusting, so salty and almost oily, ugh!” she grunted, wringing out her hand, causing several plops to sound as she sent the gunk on it down to the balcony’s floor.

Shaking his head, Ranma lifted Shampoo off his lap, laying her out on the blanket. He ruefully noted how messed up his pants were at the moment as Shampoo went on. “Shampoo need to clean her hand off, and maybe drink something to drive off taste.”

“Sorry about that, you know I never done anything like this before. Heck I didn’t even know you were going to do that. Do you think there’s any way to make, er, I’ve heard it called cum, taste better or something? Or should we just give that whole idea a big old ‘X’?”

Shampoo understood what Ranma was saying when he said that, perhaps, she admitted with a snicker, better than Ranma. Honestly, I live in a small village way the heck out in China’s hinterlands, no cell phones, no internet access, little mail even, and none on time. But I still seem to know more about this kind of thing than Ranma. Although… her snicker turned into a warm, almost salacious smile. He surely learns fast.

Not bothering to try to do away with her accent, Shampoo answered, “Shampoo think so. Something about diet and fruits?”

“That makes sense, considering we haven’t had many fruits lately.”

Noting absently that Ranma made no move to follow up on her bit of experimentation, Shampoo smiled, and philosophically reflected that beyond that last moment of disgust, the date had progressed pretty much as well as she had hoped. I wanted to push things along, and we did that for sure! Indeed, Shampoo could still feel a kind of phantom sensation down below, where Ranma’s fingers had entered her. That was the first time someone else had done anything like that to Shampoo, despite the number of times she’d practiced kissing with her Amazon sisters but wow, was that intense!

Lime End

Eventually though, Ranma noticed a bit of lightning in the distance, as the storm he’d seen coming at the start of the date finally began to arrive. “Come on, let’s head back to the camp. Despite our little trip down memory lane earlier, I don’t want to go to bed wet again.”

Shampoo looked at Ranma, then burst out into wild giggles. It took Ranma a few moments to understand why, and when he did, he blushed hotly, looking away from the mess they’d made. “Darn it, you know what I meant!” Shampoo was giggling so much, it fell to Ranma to retrieve her clothing, but even so, they were able to get back and into their tent right before the rain began. The two of them fell asleep wrapped around one another, delighted in how this next stage of their relationship had gone as rain began to patter on the canvas above.

OOOOOOO

Summer zoomed by as the five of them got used to sharing the campsite with one another and sparred or were put through the toughness training, which was a complete success for all four of the youngsters who put themselves through it.

On top of that, by the end of the first month, Natsume and Kurumi had both begun to be able to manipulate ki to the point where they were on the cusp of creating their own weapon space and ki reinforcement. That was obviously a far cry from using both those techniques as liberally as their companions did, but it was a great leap forward for the two of them. Similarly, Ranma, by far the best of the others when it came to ki manipulation, had begun to be able to use Kurumi's heat ki, for which he had a very obvious goal.

When it came to spiritual ki, however, Ranma hadn’t gotten anywhere even after two months. Apparently for those kind of techniques, beyond a very basic level, it came down to personal aptitude. Spiritual type ki was also best learned from the get go. The more you concentrated on the purely physical, the yin, so to speak, the more your yang, the spiritual side, suffered. Ranma could use Battle Aura and might eventually be at the point where he could maybe do a few more tricks that relied on the spiritual side of things, like healing someone else or fighting off gases. But ki replicas of weapons, or the more advanced versions of Mai’s fire-based techniques was probably beyond him. Shampoo, on the other hand, along with Kurumi, might well be able to duplicate some of Mai’s techniques, which stopped Ranma’s jokes about Mai possibly having a kitsune somewhere in her heritage.

Not that Ranma had much of an issue with that. Ranma had others plans for his personal style going forward. And his ki-enhanced armor, which he had used in the battle against Dong Hwan, the one he’d used to block Hwan’s lightning, was one such way. He made more than a bit of progress in that, although it still took too long for him to call upon.

In turn, Kurumi took to the Hotojutsu techniques just as well as the trio who had learned them previously knew she would. Natsume too got a lot out of training with Mai and Shampoo in particular. Her clothing did not change overmuch, despite Mai's continued comments on that score, but her overall strength speed and technique advanced tremendously. The same happened with Mai, before she and Natsume took their turns learning the toughness training technique.

As summer started to end, so too did the groups hopes that Genma and Soun would be showing up, which, obviously, was the second reason they had headed out into the woods. Mai also began to make noises of heading home, and the toughness training was no longer bothering any of the quartet who went through it as much as previously. So the group were thinking of moving on when it became Mai and Shampoo’s turn to do a grocery run. The girls had gone through a lot of their supplies, most particularly pain medicine and both needed some new clothing, having had more than one bit of clothing shredded. They were also entirely out of spices, and, as usual had gone through their vegetables and fruits for the week.

"I wonder if we should look around for something special for tonight? Ranma was making noises about me and Natsume being done with the toughness. Or, at least at this level and… I'm not certain I want to push it any further," Mai admitted, as they reached the road and began to casually jog alongside it. Both girls were wearing jogging pants and loose t-shirts at present, such was the state of their clothing after one particular match a week passed when things got out of hand badly.

So that old saw about girls monthlies slowly matching if they live together has been proven several times over,Mai thought with a rueful shake of her head. Shampoo and I should have anticipated that after the month at Musubime Osoroshi but what I didn’t anticipate was Ranma’s cycle coming around. Or his female form’s emotions going so fucking crazy. Physically it didn’t bother her nearly as much as mine or Kurumi’s but god damn is she crazy!

"Celebrating moving on is a good idea. We could also pick up a few DVDs to watch tonight,” Shampoo agreed, mentioning obliquely the way they’d been using Mai’s laptop since they had been camping out. It and the solar battery converter for it had been expensive as heck, but worth it. “And from what you could figure out before we moved away from the Wi-Fi isn't the street fight circuit supposed to resume here in Japan and own another month or so?”

"Here, the Philippines and in China yeah." Mai nodded.

She'd done some research into the Street FIGHT tournament and King of Fighters, contacted her uncle and a few other martial artists she knew like Terry. Terry had been a wealth of information, having participated in several Street FIGHT matches over the past few years. But when it came to King of Fighters he hadn't known much, or, Mai felt, hadn't been willing to share what he knew with her. Whether or not that was his protective big brother/friend act, or something specific, she didn't know, and couldn't tell via email. Still, Jubei had been helpful.

The information she had discovered matched pretty much what Edmond Honda had told Ranma and Shampoo. The Street FIGHT tournament was a new tournament, only loosely affiliated between one nation and another, with signs that it was connected to organized crime at least in terms of organizing, dealing with the crowds and keeping it hidden from the authorities. There didn't seem to be any bet fixing going on at least, although many crime syndicates had their own local fighters.

The King of Fighters tournament was both older and more reputable in a way, almost like cage fighting or MMA in that it was a recognized sporting event. The tournament was split in two, local one-on-one matches set up by equally local organizers, and then an international team competition every few years. Judging by the website - it actually did have its own website, amazingly enough - the multinational portion of the tournament was scheduled for next year at around when springtime began in Japan. It was up to the participants to put together their own teams, but those team members needed to have a total of twelve one-on-one wins between them.

Mai had determined that she wanted to take part in that. The Street FIGHT tournament she wasn't so certain about, given its obvious connection to organized crime. But she felt if she went around with Andy, or someone else she could trust to watch her back, like her current companions, that too was a distinct possibility.

More than that, Mai understood why Shampoo was asking. "Are you thinking about heading back to China?"

"Not so much home, but China, yes. Ranma and Shampoo still thinking about traveling the world and didn't have any time to look around in Hong Kong. Shampoo think going down the coastline then out to the islands sounds like a lot of fun!" Shampoo announced enthusiastically.

"Maybe you'll get lucky and find someone on the Street FIGHT Tournament willing to wager a yacht then," Mai said with a laugh, pushing the other girl playfully. "If you have to travel, travel in style."

"Shampoo think traveling by foot and rooftop as his own style but agrees in principle. Still, where would Ranma and I find an idiot willing to wager a hold yacht on a street fight?"

OOOOOOO

As he boarded a plane beside his friend Ryu set to take them back to Ryu’s home in Japan, Ken Masters, heir to the Masters fortune, sneezed so violently he smacked his head into his friend's shoulder.

"Eww, gross dude! Don't sneeze on me!" Ryu grumbled, turning in pushing Ken away with a hand to the chest.

OOOOOOO

"You'd be surprised. All too often, rich equals idiot, it's like once think that all that money, their common sense goes away," Mai said with a laugh, before falling silent as they continued on their way, walking the streets like normal people now.

"Mai want to travel with us?" Shampoo asked, discerning where Mai's thoughts had gone. "Make it a couple's trip?"

"That sounds amazing, but I don't know if it's going to happen. I know Andy likes to travel, but he and I have never gone on training trips together, you know? He prefers to go with his brother, and hasn’t indicated he’d want to come with us. And I don't know what my uncle will say about it, I mean I've been away for more than a half a year now, who knows what's been going on at home?"

Unlike the others, Mai had occasionally gone with Ranma on his shopping trips to call home, getting in touch with her uncle and Andy. With Andy, she had flirted with him over the phone several times but gotten as little response as she always did, although her discussions with Andy on martial arts matters had gone much better, although he had bluntly refused the idea of traveling with her.

That hurt, and Mai had gotten into an argument with him, accusing Andy of not taking her seriously as a martial artist. That had been a very loud, shouty kind of argument, but they had eventually pulled back from the argument and Mai had gone back to flirting, which, again, Andy hadn’t responded to.

Shaking her head, Mai set that thought aside. "Well, regardless, moving on is definitely in the cards. Which means the girls will have to figure out what they want to do."

While Natsume seemed interested in the idea of traveling more, Kurumi had made it very clear that while she enjoyed camping out like they, she really wanted a permanent roof over her head. She was all for taking up Mai's offer of setting her up in Mai's home, regardless of Mai's warnings about her uncle. Despite still wondering secretly, which moron had fathered the twosome, Ranma had told Shampoo he felt his obligation as a senior student had been fulfilled by buying them clothing and other material resources along with the training he had been offering. So what would happen to the sisters would be up to them once them once they reached the Shiranui dojo.

The conversation subsided for a moment as the two of them reached the entrance to the grocery store, ducking inside out of the wind quickly. The two of them then split off, with Mai going to grab the food they needed, while Shampoo headed for the pharmacy section. There, she bought a few painkillers, too hot compresses, some further simple medical supplies and Motrin along with some feminine products.

I know Ranma can turn into a girl half the time, and I know he buys his own, but there is no way in hell I am going to become the kind of girlfriend who makes her boyfriend buy this kind of thing for her. That is an example of humiliation for humiliation's sake. The only way he would get that far into the doghouse with me is if he kept on treating me in a sparring match as he does when he holds me in his arms.

A giggle escaped her lips as she thought that, remembering how their last few dates had gone. While they hadn’t yet gone past the over-the-panties/pants stage, their tops routinely came off now, and the number of times Ranma had gotten Shampoo off or vice versa had risen into the double digits. They had even started to gently explore Ranma’s female side, Maybe soon we’ll go all the way with Ranma’s male form! MM… Shampoo love Airen, both martial artist side and boyfriend side.

Finished with her shopping, Shampoo began to make her way to the front of the store, only to pause as she heard a voice that she recognized almost instantly. Aiyaah, those two idiots have finally shown up!

"I think we've got enough traveling equipment, Saotome. Let's question that floor manager one more time, I want to make sure that we have the direction right, there's no point in trying to canvas a state park for my boy and that foreign whore who’s led him astray if we don't have to."

"Too true Tendo, too true. And when we meet up with them, no matter what kind of training they been putting themselves through, if they really have been rather than living a life of debauchery, I'm positive our own training will come true against them!" Genma declared, one fist thrust upward, before he quickly subsided. “I think we should also think about getting some food though.”

Shampoo turned away as the two men passed by, ducking behind a display rack for a moment, then moving over to the other side of the aisle, leaning out slightly to watch them go. From where she was she stood, Shampoo could hear the mutter of conversation as they seemingly argued whether or not they should take some food with them or question the local floor manager first. Questioning the local floor manager won out, and Shampoo watched as they asked him a few questions about Ranma.

A second later, Shampoo nearly gasped aloud as two extremely soft objects pressed into her back, and Mai's voice hissed into her ear, the other girl’s breath, playing across the sensitive flesh. "What are we… Well crap, they found as last? Took the pair a while longer than I expected, honestly, from your description of how quickly the two of them were able to find your trail before."

Shampoo didn’t answer more than a little whimper, a blush suddenly stop using her features. She well understood what those two soft objects were, and the feel of them pressing into her back like this? Well, it was quite distracting for some reason. Perhaps because of Ranma and Shampoo's recent explorations with his female form, Shampoo was very suddenly aware that her friend was a highly attractive woman.

"Shampoo?"

Hearing her name from Mai brought Shampoo out of her momentary brain freeze, and she nodded her head, whispering, "They were questioning the floor manager a moment ago, Shampoo think that they also mentioned something about having spent time getting back into shape. They might be a little better than we thought."

"You're still having trouble remembering to use 'I',” Mai teased, before teasingly pulling away very slowly from Shampoo, then taking her arm and leaning her way. "Come on, they're heading to the back of the grocery store. I've got the stuff I was looking for, and I can tell you do too, so let's get going. We can put off buying more clothing for some other time."

Still slightly flustered from her moment of realization a moment ago, Shampoo nodded, and the two of them paid for their purchases and left the store. A moment later they on the rooftops racing away.

OOOOOOO

As he trudged through the woods, Genma tried hard not to keep his scowl from his face. It had now been nearly four months since his foolish son had run away from his obligations. Once more, he and Soun were close, close to finding Ranma, and finally convincing him, or dragging him kicking and screaming, back to fulfill his obligations of giving Genma the easy life he deserved.

Genma wanted to begrudge the time it had taken, but most of the past two months had actually been spent training up Soun. Ranma and his companions, the Chinese Amazon who had led him astray and this other local girl they seemed to have shacked up with left an impression on people they met, and it was easy for Genma to track them, so long as he had a starting point. But Soun had been next to useless both times, they'd caught up with the brat previously, and having faced Ranma the last time, Genma knew that he'd added some new tricks to his style. Hotojutsu was a dangerously adaptive style to those who could figure it out.

Thankfully, Soun knew it, and after Genma had… recovered from whatever the hell the veterinarian had injected him with, the two of them had headed back home where, despite several interruptions such as a foolish dojo destroyer and Akane almost daily trying to butt in. Genma had trained Soun almost back to the point where he had been when they had been traveling with the dread master.

Soon I won't have to trudge through the woods ever again. Ranma will fulfill his obligations to take over the dojo, and the school, and Soun and I can go back to resting on our laurels, our easy life and our legacy assured. And if that foreign harlot refuses to let my son go, now we are strong enough to face both them and the other girl as well! They might be extremely talented, but they are still just students and we are masters!

To one side of Genma, Soun paused, holding up a hand and motioning for silence as he pointed ahead of them. Genma looked where he was pointing, but didn't see anything, until a glint of a thin string appeared as a cloud moved away, letting the light through just a little bit more as Soun spoke. "They are using traps again. Wherever did your son come up with his dishonorable ways of dealing with things?"

"It has to be that foreign girls influence Soun, I've told you before. The boy is after all a teenager, and you know how they get," Genma grumbled, looking around more warily now. "We’ll have to go slow."

Soun scowled, but nodded, and the two of them went forward very carefully, small daggers appearing in their hands, one made of ki, the other from Genma’s weapons space. Genma was a past master of that technique, though had never deigned to use it in front of his successor. Genma because he enjoyed keeping a few tricks and from his boy, the easier to control him.

As for Soun, all his daughters had an affinity with emotion-based ki techniques and could create simple constructs: Kasumi a frying pan, Akane a mace, and, for some reason, Nabiki a tennis racket of all things. Soun had never needed to tell them how to make them, nor, honestly had he any inclination. Although he was more diplomatic about it, Soun was just as misogynist as Genma, and truly didn’t think women martial artists would ever be as good as men would.

The duo were able to disable several traps in front of them, carefully moving forward, but seeing no movement in the woods. Eventually, they came into a clearing, where, to Genma's surprise, two small buildings had been put up. There was also a fire pit, which had seen extensive use. But there were no tents or any sign of current habitation within sight.

Taking in the same view, Soun whispered, "Do you think they moved on?"

Genma growled, then shook his head, and pulled out a small water bottle. "Only one way to find out. I'll sniff them out." He dumped the water over his head, and then stood there in his panda form, sniffing the air.

A mere second later, a sign whipped out of nowhere on which the words, "Look Out!" were written in bold letters. Just as two large boulders were released from where it been held back in the foliage, swinging out of the trees above them towards the two martial arts masters.

OOOOOOO

Mai had been somewhat amused that neither of the Anything Goes Masters had decided to take to the trees, deciding that there would be even more traps up there. There weren't. Instead, Mai, as the best of the group at stealth, had been following their progress for a little while ever since they had entered the park.

The two of them had gotten all of the way through the outer traps to the camp quite easily, something that Mai hadn't really anticipated judging by the skill the two of them had shown in the previous fight. Genma had struck her then as something of a bull in the China shop personality, whereas Soun had only left the impression of fragility and a lack of skill.

Now she watched as Shampoo and Ranma let the stone boulder that set up as one final trap go, watching the rocks careen towards the two martial artists on the ground. The panda leaped sideways, while Soun barely had time to gape at it, before dodging to one side. It was obvious to the onlookers he wouldn’t get out of the way in time.

But then as he moved, Soun shouted, “HAH!” and the most well-formed Battle Aura any of the onlookers, bar Ranma had ever seen formed around him, shifting to take the image of a samurai from the Edo period.

A spear appeared in his hand, and he swung it, smacking the boulder aside just enough for him to dodge. Even as he began to wring out his hands from the reverberations of the impact, his aura disappeared.

And Ranma and the others attacked. "Get them!" Ranma shouted, and Mai joined in quickly. But she was nowhere near as quick as the two sisters were to confront their father. Hmm best to play spoiler then, joining in wherever I can, she reflected as Shampoo moved to join Ranma in facing his sperm donor.

"Are you Soun Tendo?" Natsume asked, tossing several small clothing pins at the man. Each of them struck with punishing force, or would have, if Soun hadn't twirled his spear in place, blocking and deflecting them. Unlike his Battle Aura, the spear had remained, and was more than solid enough to do the job.

He then tried to slice Kurumi's ribbon, only for the girl to pull it back, trying to rapid around the end of Soun spear in the next second. But Soun pulled it back to quickly and charged forward toward the two girls. "I am! Know that you face a Master of Anything Goes. We are here to return Genma's son to his rightful place beside my little girl! Stand aside."

"Well, then I don't think we have any reason to fight, not on that score anyway," Natsume grunted, blocking his spear thrust with her carpet beater, with some difficulty, while becoming a bit confused about the mention of her father’s ‘little girl’. Indeed, hearing that angered her greatly, reminding her that Soun had other daughters. Regardless, the man was quite a bit stronger than she had thought, and fast to boot. Not up to her own speed or Kurumi's, but his strength was greater. So Soun really had just let himself go to seed, rather than was simply week in the first place. That's good to know at least.

"What?" Soun began, before Kurumi's rope, a gift from Ranma to replace her rope with something stronger, got through his defenses, wrapping up his leg.

When he next tried to step forward, he found himself instead pulled off of his feet, and then hurled up into the air.

While Soun wasn’t a master of the Aerial style, that didn't mean he couldn't right himself in midair, which he did just in time to block more clothespins from Natsume and a hurled fan from Mai, followed by a metal weight on the end of the manriki, which crashed into his spear.

The ki-created weapon shattered disappearing into motes of light. Mai's next strike from the weighted end of her weapon crashed into his chest sending him flying. But to the surprise of Mai and the two girls, he landed next to his companion seemingly without much injury, while Genma had been fighting Shampoo and Ranma.

Ranma and Shampoo now charged forward again, with Mai on their heels coming in from another angle, as did Natsume and Kurumi. The two of them raced towards Soun once more, who looked a little panicky for a moment, taking up a stance and muttering, "Blast it, creating aura weapons is too ki intensive! I knew I should've been studying more about ki space!” before the girls were on him.

He blocked Natsume's thrust with her carpet beater, and then hissed as the cold hit his hands, before she ducked out of the way as a now on fire rope, which smacked into his defenses. He was able to batter it aside, but was decidedly on the back foot for a moment. “Ho! These girls are good Genma I…”

“I’m busy here, Tendo!”Genma’s sign shouted. Somewhat rattled by the site of the large boulder coming towards them, Genma had taken several hard hits already.

Using a second sign, he blocked Shampoo’s mace. Her blow rattled against his sign, but thanks to his ki reinforcing the sign it didn't break, and he moved with the blow, leaping up into the air and kicking out with one of his short panda feet. She blocked the strike, then Ranma launched a kick to his backside, which Genma was forced to block again with his sign.

"Fighting two on one," *flip*, "boy, I taught you," *flip*, "better than that!" Genma's signs shouted to the world, as he blocked parried, ducked dodged and danced around Ranma in midair, the two of them showing the mastery of the aerial style that was their families trademark.

A second later, Ranma was able to get in a strike on Genma's forearm, which allowed him to get a bit more air, and a punch into the side of the head sent Genma back to the ground. "This ain't a spar Pop, it’s an ambush! And why wouldn't I fight off my stalker dad with my girlfriend!"

The panda endeavored to look affronted and somehow managed it even as he dodged a blow from Shampoo, who let loose a little squeal at Ranma's words, her mace crashing into the ground with so much force she created a small crater, but missing entirely. “Ayaaah, this too too romantic!!!”

She was then kicked away by Genma as he used another sign to block Ranma's next series of punches. That the sign said, "Just because you run," *flip*, "from your obligations," *flip*, "and I am endeavoring to," *flip*, "correct you and put you," *flip*, "back on the road of honor," *flip*, "doesn't make me," *flip*," a stalker!"

Which annoyed Ranma greatly. "How the hell are you writing on that sighing while also fighting me!" he shouted.

"Idiot boy!" another sign said, which Genma then tossed, smashing Shampoo off of her feet at the same time Soun landed next to him, rolling it instantly being attacked by two girls who Genma hadn't seen before as the girl dressed up like some kind of fantasy version of a kunoichi neck that hurt his heels. "You know nothing,"another sign, sense towards Ranma's head, blocked up words, as Ranma ducked underneath it, launching a kick, which was blocked by another sign. "Of Anything Goes sign combat!"

"That would almost be impressive if I knew you hadn't come up with it since turning into a panda!" Ranma retorted, blocking another sign with one foot, and using it as a springboard up into a kick, which caught Genma on the chin, hurling the panda sideways into a tree. There, Shampoo attacked once more, this time with one of her rope. She was able to tie up one of his arms, and then run back around the tree he had been on, tying it in place almost while Ranma pressed Genma hard.

The next second, he was forced to dodge a blow from Shampoo’s mace, and found both of his legs tied up by another rope weapon. Even as he fell though, Genma blocked Shampoo’s mace once more, only to find himself open for a punch to the eye, which blinded him momentarily in that eye.

Elsewhere, Soun had flipped two of the signs his friend had let drop up into his hand, and was using them to block Natsume, carpet beater against sign, grimacing a little. "You, you are using an advanced ki technique from Anything Goes! Truly, your mastery is good, although you seem to be a little too predictable in your movements."

"I learned from the best," Natsume retorted, fighting down the rush of pleasure at Soun’s shock and approval. Or, she hoped it was approval anyway. While she wanted to keep being angry at the man for the duration of the fight, they would need to reconcile afterward.

"And you, you are using an advanced style of ribbon warfare, a mix of Anything Goes, Hotojutsu and Martial Arts Gymnastics," Soun went on, battering Kurumi's questing rope aside, before needing to roll, ducking forward under a kick from Mai.

Mai landed, then tossed several more of her fans towards Soun like daggers, while Kurumi simply giggled a bit, trying and very much failing to not sound pleased by Soun's words. Then Mai was darting in towards the fight with Genma, just as Shampoo was smashed to the ground by one of Genma's panda-sized fists. Her manriki’s iron weight crashed out, slamming into that same fist, deadening it, and bringing his attention to her, just as Ranma brought his own rope dart into play, the end of it whipping around Genma’s defense and slamming into the side of the older man’s head with punishing force.

He stumbled, and Shampoo flipped a mace upwards into Mai's hand, the Shiranui heiress bringing it down on top of her head with a very satisfying clunk. It wasn't enough to put him out, but he was reeling, and that allowed Ranma to use his rope dart to tie Genma entirely to the tree behind him for a moment.

Watching as Soun was able to wrap Kurumi's rope around one of his signs, Natsume darted in, protecting her sister as she stumbled forward, releasing her rope lest she gets launched into the air as she had numerous times when sparring with Mai or the others. Dealing with her sister had caused Soun to open himself up to a strike from her carpet beater, which crashed in, sending him stumbling. It didn't do nearly as much damage as it should have though, and it felt almost like Natsume had hit Ranma when he was practicing his Aura Armor technique.

But it did allow Natsume to follow up on her rope, grabbing it from around the sign in Soun’s hand, and tugging it loose while also launching a pair of kicks into his face, which he blocked with difficulty with his other hand.

The two sisters then retreated a few steps, before looking at one another and nodding slightly. “Tendo Style: Tornado!” Kurumi whirled around as Natsume did the same behind her, and as Kurumi finished created a spiral with her heated rope weapon, the chilled carpet beater punched into the center, sending a small tornado of air towards Soun.

The tornado struck the surprised Soun, picking him up and hurling him backward against another tree, which shattered under the impact. The two of them followed up, finding him standing in the debris with Museum, injured finally but still game. "Another high-end Anything Goes technique! Where did learn that one? Ranma certainly couldn't have taught you it," Soun said almost conversationally as he hefted two bits of shattered wood as if they were clubs.

That, Natsume could not let slide. "We learned it from the manual you left us, Father!"

"W, what! What are you talking about?" Soun stammered, stumbling, his defenses flagging even as the girls charged in, not even noticing two fans from Mai smacking into his back and side. Luckily, she hadn't set them on fire, but they did send him staggering.

"You don't remember us at all, do you?" Kurumi almost whimpered even as she attacked, tears of pain and years of anger coming to the fore to nearly blind her as her earlier happiness at his compliments disappeared. "After our mother died, you trained us, taught us how to live off the land, left us with the training manual and a promise!"

"I, I don't…" Soun began, before Natsume was in his arm’s reach, smacking one arm to the side, while Mai bound the other from behind.

The next second, Natsume was thrusting a piece of paper into his face shouting, "You left us this along with the training manual! A promise, a promise that if we could find you, our father, you would name us your daughters, name me the heir to Anything Goes Tendo style, to the Tendo dojo!"

Soun froze, staring at the message thrust into his face, his eyes wide as his brain seemed to shut down.

Seeing this, and realizing he had no chance against all five of the young martial artists arrayed against them, Genma, who had just pulled himself free from the tree and batted aside another attack from Ranma, took a chance. He pulled out a thermos, and tossed the hot water over himself, grateful that the metal of the thermos was able to retain the heat of the water within even when inside his ki space, at least to the point where it was hot enough to trigger his change. It had been nearly scalding when he put it in there though.

Now he shouted out, "Well Ranma, that's excellent then. You have two more choices as to who can become your bride. Or have you not told these two of the honor agreement between our families?"

"Dammit pops!" Ranma hadn't intended to use his new ki techniques on his old man, they weren't perfected yet, and if he missed or if his old man was somehow able to take the ki blast, Ranma would be running on fumes for the rest of the fight. But that line pushed Ranma's anger over the edge even as Natsume and Kurumi turned to him shrieking, "What!?" in unison.

"Blue Burst Style: Blue Star Strike!" Ranma shouted, pouring all of his energy into his fist, and then letting it out in a burst right before his physical fist would've impacted with Genma's side.

The blow struck with all the force of a freight train narrowed down to a single, fist-sized area, hurling Genma backward through the air. He smashed through the outhouse, and then continued on to plow through another tree and then a third, where is momentum finally faded out. There, he rolled to a stop, utterly unconscious, his last stunned thoughts were how his son had learned such a technique.

Turning back to his friends, Ranma hastily backed away as he saw Natsume advancing on him, leaving the statue of Soun frozen behind him even while her sister started to poke him gently with a stick, grinning at his currently stone form. "What the hell is he talking about, Ranma?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all. Yeah, there was an agreement between my Old Man in him, but Pops also sold my hand off at least twice to other people. Maybe more. The honor agreement between our families doesn't matter," Ranma hastily explained.

"If it was the first honor agreement, it is the only one that is valid," Natsume argued back, although she had calmed down bit from his words. The slight blush to her features, however, wasn't any better in Shampoo’s opinion, and her eyes narrowed as she stared at the girl, trying to fight down her Amazonian instincts for the first time in several weeks.

"You know it doesn't work like that. If Genma understood honor he would never have had the other two agreements I know about. Who knows how many others are out there? Besides, would you want to marry into a family with a family head like that?"

“A family head can be removed with sufficient cause, and you certainly have that,” Natsume argued back. “Further, I would have liked to know of this obligation from the moment you and I met Ranma! And the fact that you and Shampoo… I don't know what to think about that."

Natsume looked apologetically over at Shampoo, actually bowing from the waist towards the girl. "I understand from your perspective that the two of you are actually married, and I understand you have an honor obligation to Ranma, as well as how the two of you have come to care for one another. But this is all coming at me a little too suddenly."

"Yet Natsume not act as if she totally against the idea," Shampoo drawled, her accent back once more her annoyance.

Natsume blushed a little, then shook her head quickly. "It's not that at all!"

"Really?" Shampoo asked, leaning into the girl's personal space, whereupon Natsume pushed her face away, flushed and looking uncertain, while Ranma sighed but allowed Shampoo her moment of possessiveness.

Thankfully for both the piece of the group, and Natsume's mind at the moment, Kurumi joined in the conversation at that point, leaving the still frozen Soun behind her. "She's kind of right you know, Ranma. Hiding that from us wasn't a good idea. I think we've spent enough time over the past two months getting to know you that we know it wasn't malicious, but it does seem a little wrong. Even cowardly," she added, poking him hard in the stomach.

Sighing, Ranma admitted that, bowing from the waist towards the two girls. In a way, he had deceived them after all, not telling them the full reasons behind his leaving Nerima or his relationship with Akane and the other Tendos.

This he did so now. Ranma explained how things had gone sour for him in its entirety in Nerima, how he had been forced into an engagement with Akane, and how everything had basically gone wrong for their relationship, if it could be called that, from the get-go.

A lot of that didn't paint Ranma and a very good like either, something Natsume was quick to point out, although Kurumi seemed ready to forgive Ranma the first time she heard that he hadn't actually been able to choose between the three girls. When he explained how Akane, who had walked in on him in the bath, had then decided to slam his head with a table of all things, Natsume also came around a bit.

It took more than an hour of talking, during which Soun did not stir from his stone statue impression, nor did Genma wake up from the beating Ranma had given him. But by the end of it, Natsume was willing to forgive Ranma for not telling her or her sister about the honor agreement between their families. That wasn't the same thing as forgetting about it though, and she looked over at Shampoo almost calculatingly for a second, before shaking her head and looking at Ranma, her eyes narrowing. "Well, I can't lie and say that doesn't help to explain a few of the holes in your story about what was going on in Nerima. And, if she was your fiancé, still wasn't willing to take your word over this Ryoga character and continued to call you a pervert, and everything else rather than trying to open up, I can see why you didn't want to talk about the engagement. But there's something else isn't there?"

Ranma winced a bit and looked over at Mai and Shampoo. Both of them had been silent, letting Ranma explain in his own fashion. Neither of them knew everything that he had gone through in Nerima in the first place, and Mai had come to believe that Ranma should tell the girls about the honor agreement at the very least a month back after they really got to know the two of them.

Now Shampoo nodded however very firmly, telling Ranma that they needed to share their own concerns about the two girls’ parentage.

"… Honestly, there was another reason why we didn't want to share the whole engagement thing with a pair of you. I… I wasn't certain that Soun was your dad. I realize you had that written note, but I couldn't recognize his handwriting, and honestly from everything I had seen of the guy, I thought my old man might've been the one to, well I know he visited brothels and stuff while we were on the road so…"

"You thought we might be siblings!" Kurumi almost squealed, hopping up and down in the light. She had already begun to see Ranma as a real senpai, but to realize he might really be her Onii-chan? That would be so cool!

Natsume too looked astonished, cocking her head to one side thoughtfully. "But you're not certain, are you? None of the areas you mentioned that you can remember from traveling with Genma were anywhere near where Kurumi and I have been, although admittedly…. none of us can remember that far back well enough,” Natsume trailed off, looking uncertain before shaking her head, her black hair flying around her head for a moment. “But it is for certain that we never met. So timing and opportunity are both against you there."

"Yeah, there's also the fact that you mentioned finally remembering that the guy who left you that training manual had long flowing hair." Ranma grinned suddenly, jerking a thumb towards his old man. "I can't remember a time my old man had hair on his head at all, which sort of killed that idea for me. I still don't think that Soun could have done it either though," he went on more seriously, shrugging his shoulders. "Like you said, the timing doesn't seem to work."

Natsume frowned a bit at that, looking over at the frozen statue of her father. "Well, there's only one way to figure this out one way or another."

"And if he is your father, will Natsume try to follow honor agreement?" Shampoo asked sharply, her accent almost harsh.

Looking back at Ranma, Natsume flushed a little, then looked at Shampoo resolutely. "If Soun acknowledges myself and my sister as his own, we will go from there. I will say, that whatever else, I'm not going to break up a happy couple. There is such a thing as a mistress after all. Something my father will probably know about all too well."

Ranma grimaced at that, and not just at the idea that Natsume might try to pursue a relationship with him. He liked her well enough, but he was already in a relationship with Shampoo, and over the past few months, Kurumi had made no bones about the fact that she very much would prefer to have a real roof over her head and settle down somewhere. Outside of spars she talked endlessly about wanting to make friends, wanting to go to school normally and so forth.

Natsume didn't so much, she was much more about taking her position as heiress to the Tendo School, training and teaching martial arts. Especially the heiress position, something she felt she had earned far more than, in her words, “A sheltered, arrogant, lazy brat of a girl who seems to have had no thought beyond smashing bricks as to how to get better in terms of her own training!”

But just as he had thought months ago when they started the toughness training, Ranma knew she would never leave her sister behind. And no way am I going back to Nerima or even staying in one place for very long. Heck, if not for the toughness training, Shampoo and I might have already left Japan entirely.

Shampoo too also looked extremely annoyed, practically vibrating in place, only Mai's hands on her shoulders holding her still. But she too had become friends with Natsume over the past few weeks, especially after Natsume and Mai had begun their own toughness training. So, with able help from Mai, she simply stayed silent as Natsume and Kurumi moved over to their father(?), and splashed him with cold water from the stream.

He came out of his frozen state, gasping, "Wait, what, where did… Daughters!? Promise!? I…"

"Are you going to look at us and tell us you don't know who we are? That you don't recognize your own handwriting? How about this manual then, which you left with us?" Natsume nearly snarled, pulling out the training manual that she and Kurumi had been following for so long.

Soun gaped at it, his eyes wide. "That, that is indeed a training manual, one of the ones I used to create the basis for the Tendo school in particular. But I, I've never cheated on my wife! I I don't know either of you!"

"So you do recognize this! And you do recognize your handwriting?" Natsume growled, while Kurumi side sadly shaking her head. "If you have another explanation, beyond the fact he might have memory loss from a concussion of some kind, we'd be happy to hear it."

At that, Soun’s self-control failed him. He had never done well with his daughters being angry with him, and apparently that spread to other young girls too, claiming to be his daughters or no. He stared at them, his eyes watering, and then out came the waterworks, the water flooding out so hard Kurumi lost her footing and Natsume had to stumble back, her leggings becoming drenched. "I don't know!” he wailed, “I don't know, I've had several concussions over the years, no martial artist doesn't! But I, I would never have cheated on my darling Kimiko!"

His whaling continued for a while, until Mai came over and smacked him in the next, knocking him out with a growl. "Well, that was decidedly unhelpful."

Natsume breathed in deeply, while Kurumi sniffled a bit, until Ranma came over and very gingerly put in arm around her shoulders. Whereupon she nuzzled into his side, but contained her tears. "True. On the one hand, he proved very much the kind of martial artist who could create the techniques in this book. While he didn’t use them, he appeared practically immune to them and recognized all our techniques."

"In fact, he was quite impressive, for someone who probably is only got it into shape in the last few months," Ranma admitted. "Those battle aura techniques of his are pretty good. I had only seen him use a fear-based one before. Give him another few months to build up his ki so he can use them longer, it would’ve been even more impressive.”

"So on the one hand, we acknowledge that he is the only one who could teach us what we know and leave us this training manual. But on the other he still doesn't remember us." Natsume looked over at Ranma, that look of speculation appearing her eyes again, causing Shampoo to stiffen a little, before subsiding remembering the girls’ earlier words. "We appear to be at an impasse."

"There is a way to get around this you now," Mai said hesitantly. "As much as it might seem to be a little dishonorable, there is a medical technology these days that can determine the paternity of a person. It's expensive, but I think to solve this mystery it might be worth it. Unless you think you can maybe jog his memory somehow by taking him to places you two grew up in?"

There was also a massive social stigma. Not knowing who someone’s real parentage could be was a big issue in Japanese society. And in the martial artist world, where techniques, training and schools of the Art passed down familial lines, it was worse. So even questioning one’s parentage was a very bad thing. Even people like Ranma, Natsume and Kurumi, who had lived most of their lives off the grid, knew about it.

"No, that wouldn't work. Neither of us can remember where we were when father left us," Kurumi said shaking her head, remembering how happy she had been when her father had acknowledged her and her sisters skill during the battle. "The medical idea sounds like a good one I guess if we, if we have to… but how would we afford it?"

"I think my school would be willing to pay at least half of it, maybe," Mai announced, then winced. “So long as we could pay in cash and it was clear it wasn’t for me anyway. Sorry, girls.”

"And we could maybe earn the other half in the Street FIGHT circuit for a bit or trolling for idiots as we travel. We were still going to leave this place in the next few days after all," Ranma opined.

Natsume looked at him again, then nodded slowly. "Do you think you can bind our two elders here and drag them along with us without them getting away?"

Ranma grinned. “Not both of them. Just yours. My old man doesn’t serve any real purpose for this, now does he?”

The other girls all giggled at that, and not thirty minutes later, Soun, trussed head to toe like a giant worm made out of rope, was being carried over Ranma’s shoulder as Shampoo lead the five of them away from the now ravaged, but cleaned campsite.

End Chapter

About half of what I had hoped this chapter would cover, but well, see my Author’s Forward... Anyway, Happy New Year’s folks!