This Fanfic takes place after book 38 of the Ranma ½ manga series.

The characters of Ranma and company belong to Rumiko Takahashi.

Copyright 1989 Colleen Corah Hitchcock

Spirit Art International, Inc.

Ascension

Ranma lay underneath a bridge. His mind was awash with thoughts of the previous weeks.

It almost happened. Akane and I almost got married. I also nearly lost her forever. She almost died. God, when I held her after the Jusenkyo waters washed over her and she wasn’t responding, I felt my entire world come crashing down. Huh, does this mean I love her, well I wasn’t exempt to the idea of us being married.

Ranma was pulled from his thoughts when a lone figure appeared underneath the bridge.

"Hello, Ukyo," Ranma greeted coldly. "What do you want?"

"I think we need to talk," Ukyo said nervously.

"Yeah I suppose we do," Ranma said, not facing Ukyo. She stepped around Ranma so she could face Ranma.

"I’m sorry for what I did but, I was only trying to help," she stated.

"Help!" Ranma yelled, leaning in towards Ukyo. "You call blowin’ me up, helping!"

Ukyo took a step back but still kept some composure.

"That was your own fault," Ukyo pointed out.

Ranma turned his back to Ukyo.

"Didn’t it occur to you that I didn’t need your help?"

"But-,"

"No buts Ukyo! You messed up. First you help wreck my mom’s house and then you help destroy my wedding, all for your damn selfish needs."

Ukyo turned away from Ranma, his words hurt her, but they hurt more because he was right.

Ranma sighed and turned watch some passing ships.

"I ain’t ready to forgive you Ukyo, so you’d better just leave, okay?"

"All right Ranma," Ukyo turned and walked away.

Ranma didn’t even turn as he continued to watch the waterfront.

Akane was in the Tendo Dojo. She was doing some kata exercises. It was a good way to gather one’s thoughts.

I can’t believe we almost got married. I wanted it to happen so badly. I know that idiot loves me. But he’s to damn stubborn to admit it. Oh well, I guess it’s for the best. We probably shouldn’t even consider marriage until after high school.

Akane finished her exercises and moved into the main house. She found the rest of her family sitting around the dining room. Soun and Genma were playing shoji and neither seemed like they were paying any real attention to the game. Kasumi was wiping down the table; she didn’t look very cheerful either. Nabiki was watching television and she didn’t appear to be very downcast.

Akane threw an angry glare at her sister. After all, it was Nabiki who invited all those psychos to her wedding.

She walked past them and climbed the stairs to her room. Akane removed her training gi and put on a halter and shorts. She lay back on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

I wish the wedding hadn’t of been ruined the way it had. Me and Ranma could have figured it all out on our own, Akane thought.

It was approaching nightfall and Ryoga had yet to find a place to set up camp. He had been walking most of the day and he was beginning to tire. He saw a good place and crossed the street to the other sided and entered a vacant lot. He set his pack down and turned to see two guys approaching him.

"Hey man this is our lot," the taller one said.

"And you better get your ass out of here, before I gotta hurt ya," the shorter guy said as he pulled out a knife.

"You can’t hurt me," Ryoga told them smugly.

"Is that so, well how `bout this!" the smaller one shouted as he lunged at Ryoga with his knife.

Ryoga grasped the extended arm and stepped around the attacker, bringing the arm with him. As Ryoga twisted the arm he heard the cracking of the youth’s shoulder. Ryoga dropped the arm and the guy fell to the ground.

Ryoga turned to face the other attacker. He struck at Ryoga with a series of punches. Ryoga dodged the pitiful attacks and grabbed the attacker’s head and brought it down to meet his knee. The move the broke his nose and rendered him unconscious.

Ryoga looked at the two punks and sighed.

"Guess I can’t stay here tonight," Ryoga told the unmoving bodies as he left.

Akari stepped off the bus and began walking down the street.

Oh, I wish Katsunishiki wasn’t sick. I hate walking outside at night. Oh well, I’ll do anything for Ryoga. I haven’t seen him in so long. I bet he’s over at Akane and Ranma’s place. I’ll surprise him and we can go on a date. We’ll go to a nice restaur……

Akari turned and walked down an alleyway.

Ryoga had been walking for almost an hour when he heard it. A high pitched scream that sounded vaguely familiar. It took him about a second to recognize it. "Akari, she’s in trouble," Ryoga dashed off in the direction of the scream.

Akari had been hurled up against a wall by three boys. Another guy had slapped her across the face as the other guys held her against the wall.

"Were goin` to have some fun with you," the fourth guy said as he undid his pants.

"No!" Akari yelled.

The guys holding her roughly spread her legs apart. Akari cried out from the pain.

Ryoga rounded a corner when he heard a cry of pain. He turned left down an alleyway. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw them. He grabbed his umbrella off his pack and hurled it like a javelin at the guy standing in front of Akari.

The umbrella struck him in the side and the sound of ribs cracking was heard and he was sent sprawling to the ground.

Ryoga charged at the remaining attackers. He grabbed the closest guy’s head and rammed it up against the wall. The second guy threw a punch at Ryoga. He sidestepped the attack and delivered a fearsome punch to his solar plexus. As the boy keeled over Ryoga elbowed the boy on the base of his neck. The third guy retreated, realizing it would be foolish to attack the enraged Ryoga.

Ryoga surveyed his damage to each boy. He noticed something odd about the boy he hit with his umbrella. The boy’s pants were undone. That was when Ryoga remembered how they had been holding Akari.

Ryoga picked the boy up and lifted him off the ground by his throat.

"Gonna rape her, eh boy?" Ryoga snarled at the boy.

The boy looked into Ryoga’s eyes and saw neither hate nor anger, he saw pure killing rage.

"Weren’t you!?" Ryoga yelled in his face.

The boy began to cry.

"Don’t kill me," he pleaded.

"I’m not going to kill you. But if I ever find out that you have ever come near her again, I am going to hunt you down and make sure you aren’t able to touch another person in your life!" Ryoga tossed the boy to the ground and walked over to Akari.

Ryoga walked towards Akari and knelt down in front of her.

"Are you okay?" Ryoga asked.

"Oh Ryoga, they were going to…," Akari trailed off as she collapsed in Ryoga’s arms crying.

Ryoga lifted her off the ground and cradled her in his arms. Ryoga knew she needed some medical aid. He decided it would be best if he took her to Dr. Tofu’s clinic. Ryoga carried her in his arms as began his search for Dr. Tofu’s clinic.

Ryoga had only been walking for 10 minutes when he found himself outside the Tendo household. Akari had fallen asleep in his arms.

"If I keep looking for Dr. Tofu’s it will take days," Ryoga said to himself.

Ryoga entered the gates and walked up to the front door.

"Is anyone home?" Ryoga called into the home.

"Ryoga, how have you been?" Kasumi asked as she appeared at the doorway.

"Akari needs help Kasumi," Ryoga said as he entered the house.

"Oh my, what happened?" Kasumi asked, concerned.

"She was attacke…, never mind, I’ll explain later," Ryoga told her as he followed Kasumi to an empty room. Kasumi disappeared and came back in holding a spare futon.

"Thanks Kasumi,"

Ryoga laid Akari on the futon. She was still sleeping peacefully. Ryoga sat himself down on a pillow and continued to look at Akari’s sleeping body.

Ranma and Akane entered the room and sat silently down on the other side of Akari. Ranma looked down at Akari and then faced Ryoga.

"What happened?"

Ryoga sighed and closed his eyes.

"I was looking for a place to set up camp when I heard a scream. I recognized it and I raced to where the scream came from. Right before I got there I heard a cry. When I turned down the alley I saw four little pricks attacking Akari. Three of them were holding her up against the wall while the fourth one was…. was undoing his pants. I-I snapped, I threw my umbrella the guy who had been undoing his pants. I think it broke some of his ribs when it connected. I beat up two others but the third ran away. That was when Akari collapsed in my arms crying," Ryoga’s voice cracked on the last few words.

Ranma tried to keep his face impassive through the whole thing and almost succeeded. His face changed to a look of anger but it quickly changed when Ranma looked at Ryoga.

Ranma leaned forward and placed a hand on Ryoga’s shoulder.

"You did good Ryoga. You saved her," Ranma said seriously.

"Yeah," Ryoga’s voice sounded very tired.

Ranma faked a yawn.

"Well, I’d best be going to bed. Ryoga, we can talk some more tomorrow," Ranma told, as he got up and left.

"If there’s anything I can do to help Ryoga, just let know, ‘kay?" Akane asked.

"Thank you Akane," Ryoga nodded.

Akane gave him a quick smile and got up to leave. She exited the room and slid the door closed behind her. She found Ranma standing at the end of the hallway. She found Ranma standing at the end of the hallway.

"I can’t believe this happened, poor Akari," Akane muttered.

"Yeah I know. It’s gonna be hard on Ryoga. I’m surprised he didn’t he didn’t kill any of them," Ranma said.

"Tch, he probably did. You know how emotional he is. Imagine how pissed he would be to see his girlfriend about to be raped. "It must have happened near here."

"Yeah well, we can talk to Akari tomorrow. I guess we should just go to bed Akane,"

"Alright,"

Ranma followed Akane up the stairs and turned to go to his room.

"Good night Ranma,"

"Good night Akane," Ranma replied.

They both entered their rooms and soon fell asleep.

For Ryoga, sleep would not come.

He lay on the floor with a pillow under his head. His mind continued to go over the events of the evening. All he could do was relive every second as he stared at Akari’s sleeping body.

Ryoga noticed something odd about Akari. He shuffled closer to her and saw that she was trembling. He moved even closer and he could hear her begin to mumble.

"N…no…….do….stop!"

Ryoga’s blood chilled upon hearing this.

Even in her dreams she can’t escape it, Ryoga thought. Never again Akari, I will never allow this to happen again.

Ryoga moved as close as he dared and put his arm around Akari. His touch seemed to calm her as she stopped trembling.

Ryoga fought the urge to blush and lay down beside her, his arm still around her. He listened to Akari’s breathing until he soon drifted off to sleep.

Ranma awoke from his sleep, sweat dripping down his face.

"That’s odd usually nothing more than pop yellin` in my ear or Akane splashing me will get me up this early," Ranma said to himself. As he got dressed, he concluded that he had been a little more on guard because of what happened to Akari.

He silently left the room, so as to not wake up his father and get a smack on the head with one of his signs. He went downstairs and stopped outside the room Ryoga and Akari were in.

Wonder how Ryoga slept, Ranma wondered as he slid the door open.

Ranma peeked his head into the room. He nearly burst out laughing when he saw the two sleeping.

Akari had rolled over in her sleep and she was now pressed tightly up against Ryoga’s chest.

Ranma crept into the room as quietly as possible and knelt beside Ryoga. He reached out and gently shook his shoulder.

Ryoga slowly opened his eyes and nearly yelled in surprise because he was face to face with Ranma.

"Mornin`," Ranma greeted with a huge smile.

"Huh?" Ryoga didn’t understand what Ranma was grinning about.

"Shh!" Ranma gestured to Akari’s sleeping form.

Ryoga looked down at the person that clung to him. His face turned a deep crimson as he looked away from Akari. Ryoga quickly regained himself and gently slid away from Akari before rising.

Ranma motioned for Ryoga to follow him and led him to the Dojo.

Once they were inside Ranma pointed to Ryoga’s nose.

"No blood Ryoga. Are we gaining a little more confidence?"

Ryoga shook his head spoke.

"No Ranma, I have vowed to protect Akari from now on. Meaning that I have given up on trying to win Akane’s love," Ryoga grasped Ranma’s shoulders and looked straight in his eyes. "Take care of her Ranma. You two belong together."

Ranma, never expecting to hear something like this from Ryoga, could only stand with his mouth open and stare dumbly at him.

"I know you two hate being forced into doing anything. But seriously Ranma, build your relationship from here. I don’t know how much more proof everyone needs of your love for her. I mean you’ve killed for her before. All I’m saying is, just don’t try to deny the feelings you feel for her. It will only make things more difficult when you two finally decide to get married."

Ranma and Ryoga stood in silence until Ranma finally spoke.

"How long have long have you been practicing that speech?"

"Since after China actually," Ryoga admitted.

Ranma began laughing and Ryoga joined him.

"How about we have a little match?" Ranma asked once he stopped laughing.

"All right but, lets keep it low key. I don’t think Mr. Tendo would appreciate us destroying the Dojo," Ryoga laughed.

They did a few stretches to get the kinks out of them and then immediately jumped into their tuned down match. To the casual observer their match would not seem very safe, in fact it looked like the two were trying to kill each other.

But Ranma and Ryoga had fought so many times they each knew that what they were doing would not hurt the other one if a blow was connected.

"So what are you going to do about what happened to Akari?" Ranma asked as he leapt over Ryoga’s kick.

"For starters I’m going to get a description of the guy that ran away from Akari," Ryoga responded as he intercepted Ranma’s punch and kicked him in the gut.

"Give it to the police?" Ranma asked while getting to his feet.

"No," Ryoga shook his head. "I want to personally find him. But I need a favor though."

"What?"

"Will you help me find him," Ryoga asked.

Ranma didn’t even stop to think about it.

"Sure," Ranma smiled. "I’ll do anything to help you get that bastard."

"Thanks," Ryoga smiled back. "And lets keep this from Akari and Akane, I don’t think they would approve of what were doing."

They continued their sparring in silence. When they finished they went into the house and found Kasumi waiting for them.

"Good morning," Kasumi greeted. "You two can go and have a bath now and when you get out I’ll have breakfast waiting."

They thanked her and walked upstairs to the bath.

Akari awakened suddenly. She could hear footsteps approaching the door. She looked frantically around the room for Ryoga but he wasn’t there.

She let out a sigh of relief when Akane slid the door open.

"How are you doing?" Akane asked.

"Ok, I guess."

Akane smiled and sat down.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Akane asked.

"S-Sure."

Akari explained about the events of the night to Akane. She fought back tears that were welling up inside her. As she got to the point where Ryoga rescued her she began to shake.

"It’s okay Akari. They weren’t able to do anything, Ryoga stopped them, they didn’t escape," Akane reassured her friend. "You’re going to be okay."

"You think so?" Akari squeaked out before breaking down and crying into Akane’s shoulder.

Akane held Akari close as the girl cried and was surprised to find that she was crying as well.

Akari’s sobs soon subsided and she looked up at Akane.

"Thank you, it’s really helpful to have a friend at a time like this," Akari smiled as she wiped the tears from her face.

"Your welcome, how about we get out of here and get some breakfast?" Akane asked.

"Sounds good," Akari replied as she got to her feet.

Breakfast was eaten in relative silence, except for a minor scuffle between Genma and Ranma over food, which ended quickly as Nodoka asked them if fighting over food was very manly.

Akari finished her breakfast and thanked Kasumi and Soun.

"Why it’s no trouble at all," Soun smiled. "Especially after what you went through last night, we will be happy to have you stay here with us."

"Thank you," Akari bowed.

Even though Akari knew the house was perfectly safe she found it was hard to leave Ryoga’s side for even a few seconds during the morning.

While she watched Akane do some practicing, she felt a familiar rumble in the ground. Suddenly the wall exploded and in the rubble stood Katsunishiki.

Akari rushed over to his side and grabbed what she could of him in a fierce hug, while Soun began to cry over his broken wall.

"Katsunishiki! Oh, I’m so glad you’re here," Akari cried as she climbed onto the monstrous pig’s back.

"Good thing Katsunishiki is here," Ranma observed.

"Yeah," Ryoga agreed. "He will help get her mind off of what happened."

"But, we still need to get that description of that guy from her," Ranma pointed out.

"Might as well get it from her now. It would be better if we had more time to try and find him," Ryoga walked around the house to find Akari.

"I got a better idea," Ranma said to himself as he walked into the house.

Ranma walked down the hall and found Happosai’s room. Ranma slid the door open and fount the perverted old master ironing his newest additions to his collection.

"Hey freak, I got a proposition for you," Ranma said. Happosai turned and looked at his student.

"And what might it be?" Happosai asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I need you to look for someone on your next panty raid."

"Uh huh, and what’s in this proposition for me?"

Ranma closed his eyes and bit off the reply he disserved. How about I don’t kill you for drinking my last chance to be a man.

"I’ll give you some more photos of me in lingerie," Ranma said with his eyes still closed.

Happosai leapt from where he was sitting and grasped onto Ranma’s chest.

"Oh Ranma! You are so kind to me!" Happosai cried into Ranma’s chest.

"Auggh! Get off me you freak!" Ranma yelled as he punched the old pervert off of him.

"So what does this person look like?" Happosai asked as he added some tobacco too his pipe.

"I don’t know what he looks like yet," Ranma told him. "But, I’ll get you the description before you go out on your next raid, so don’t leave until I do, okay?"

"You got it. Just as long as I get those photos," Happosai said with an evil grin.

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma said under his breath. "Ryoga owes me big for this."

"Okay freak, you’re looking for a guy about my height when I’m a girl only older. He should be wearing some kind of Japanese wrestling t-shirt. He’s got bleached hair. If you find him, you get your photos," Ranma explained.

"I’ll search high and low," Happosai saluted and leapt off into the darkness.

Ranma walked back into the house and into the bathroom.

"I still don’t see why I had to take those pictures of you," Ryoga said as he wiped the last of the blood from his nose.

"Oh quit complaining, at least we have a better chance of finding this guy, Happosai can look instead of us hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Besides, I was the one doing the posing," Ranma said with a smirk.

"Yeah well, were just lucky Akane or Akari didn’t see us. I would have died of embarrassment," Ryoga shuddered.

"Don’t worry, they went over to doctor Tofu’s a while ago," Ranma reassured him. "C’mon, let’s go spar for awhile."

Ryoga gave his face a final wash and followed Ranma to the Dojo.

"I wonder why Ryoga wanted a description of that guy that ran off." Akari said as they walked back from Dr. Tofu’s clinic. The question had been sitting in the front of her mind almost all day.

"Probably going to give it to the police," Akane suggested.

"I hope that’s what he’ll do, the only other explanation is he’s going to try and find the gut himself and exact his revenge."

"Don’t worry, Ryoga knows that it would take him weeks to find this guy if he were to go off on his own. Besides," Akane smiled, "he wants to stay with you." But then again, if he did get the description so he can track the guy down himself, then Ranma will help him.

"Yeah I guess your right," Akari smiled.

"Of course I’m right," Akane said smugly. "He is in love with you Akari; I can see it in his eyes."

Akari looked at Akane and smiled.

"Yeah, I see the same look in your eyes whenever you look at Ranma when you think no ones looking," Akari said.

Akane looked away and soon found a very interesting piece of road to stare at.

"It’s okay Akane, you can tell me anything, I wont even sell the information to Nabiki, promise," Akari said an attempt to lighten the moment.

Akane laughed. "Okay, you made your point."

"So, how are things going between you and Ranma?" Akari asked.

"Pretty good, we haven’t fought or anything since the incident."

Akari knew what Akane meant by the incident.

"Do you have anything planned for the rest of the school year?" Akari asked, changing the subject.

"Well, ever since Ranma got here there has never been a single week that goes by without something strange happen to him. So I’m pretty sure I’ll have something to do," Akane said.

They walked the rest of the way in silence and as soon as they reached the house they quickly entered. It was a little after ten o’clock and it was getting pretty dark out.

Ranma heard Happosai’s cheers of conquest and rushed to the door to meet him.

"Did you find him freak?" Ranma asked.

"Find who?" Happosai said, scratching his head.

"The guy I asked you to find!" Ranma snarled.

"Calm down, I remember, I think he was walking down Yukosaka Street with a couple other guys. He turned down some alleyway and went into one of the side doors. He might still be there," Happosai shrugged. "Now where are my photos?"

"Here," Ranma handed them to him and rushed into the house to find Ryoga. Happosai didn’t notice as he was dancing for joy all the way into his room.

"So you’re sure he found him?" Ryoga asked as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, following Ranma.

"We won’t know unless we find him," Ranma said. "Now pick up the pace, we want to find this guy today don’t we?"

Ryoga replied with an angry look that Ranma just ignored.

"There’s the alleyway," Ranma pointed. They approached cautiously and entered the alley.

"Damn it’s empty," Ryoga muttered. They continued down the alley, checking doors to see if there open.

Ranma found a door that wasn’t closed properly. He pushed it open and glanced inside.

"Hey! Ryoga!" Ranma whispered sharply to Ryoga. He walked into the building and found a narrow hall that led to a stairway.

They began to climb the stairs quickly, but stopped when they heard voices. Ryoga recognized one of the voices. It was the guy that escaped him that night.

Ranma heard Ryoga’s breathing stop and saw the lost boy tense up.

Ryoga charged up the stairs and ran into the room where the voices were coming from.

"Damnit Ryoga!" Ranma raced up the stairs and ran into the room. Ryoga was holding up a guy in the air by his neck as he began to strangle the life out of him.

There were two other people in the room and Ranma could see that Ryoga wasn’t acknowledging their presence. One of them pulled out a knife and was about to charge Ryoga when a fist slammed into his side was struck with another blow to the head.

Ranma turned to face the other guy, and saw the guy had his hands in the air.

Ryoga continued to hold the boy in the air until he passed out from lack of oxygen and he dropped to the ground.

"I think these guys are making drugs or something Ryoga," Ranma told him.

Ryoga turned and saw Ranma holding a knife to someone’s throat. Ranma was pointing to a table which contained about twenty bags of a powdery substance.

Ryoga picked up the guy Ranma was holding at bay. "Tell me where you got the drugs."

"I ain’t tellin’ you asshole," the guy spat in Ryoga’s face.

Ryoga grabbed the guy’s leg and twisted it painfully.

"Talk!" Ryoga ordered.

"You don’t have the balls to shoot me," the guy said mockingly. Ryoga moved his hand to the kneecap and put his other hand on the heel of his foot. Ryoga pushed in opposite directions and the guy’s knee snapped. He howled in pain as his leg was now pointing in an unnatural direction.

"Shit Ryoga!" Ranma yelled. The guy began to cry.

"Tell me where you got these drugs," Ryoga said again. He didn’t answer so Ryoga placed his hand on his other knee and began to put a little pressure on it.

"Okay, okay! I’ll tell you," he said. He let out a breath as Ryoga released his hold on the boy.

"Our supplier is a guy named Seiji Inafune. He runs a restaurant downtown, Ow!" the guy yelled as Ryoga began to set the knee back in place.

"I-I don’t know the name of it, but I’m pretty sure his last name is in the title. He runs this side of Tokyo’s black market."

"What does he look like?" Ranma asked.

"About 60 years old. Thinning hair, he runs his drug operations from his restaurant."

"Well, then what are you doing here?"

"Mixing the drugs, and preparing them for distribution in the market," the guy answered.

"Is that so," Ranma said as he walked towards the guy he had beaten up. He fished through his pocket and extracted a lighter. Ranma approached the table and bent down in front of the bags of drugs. He lit the first bag on fire and watched the fire quickly spread. He turned to Ryoga.

"Time to leave," Ranma said as he exited the room.

Ryoga flipped the knife at the guy he had strangled to subconscious.

"See you guys around," Ryoga dashed out of the room and followed Ranma.

"I didn’t think the drug problem had gotten this bad," Ryoga said, sitting under a tree. Ranma was above him on a branch. "But it sure felt good to see the fear in that little bastards eyes."

"It shouldn’t be like this Ryoga. People shouldn’t be thrown their lives away for crap like that," Ranma said.

"It’s been more of a western problem," Ryoga said. "But it seems the market has expanded again," he snorted in disgust.

"We got to stop this."

"Do you propose we pay Mr. Inafune a visit?" Ryoga asked with an evil grin.

"And I got a perfect idea for how we’ll do it too," Ranma replied with a grin of his own.

"You what?!" Akane shrieked. Ranma cleared his throat before answering.

"I asked if you would like to go on a date with me. Ryoga and Akari are coming also," Ranma said, trying to keep himself from blushing.

"Why are we going?" Akane asked.

"It’s to help Akari get over what happened," Ranma smiled.

Akane smiled too, but for a different reason.

"Where are we going?" Akane asked, breaking the silence.

Ranma smiled at her again.

"A little restaurant I know downtown."

"Nice idea about asking the girls on a date," Ryoga said. "But aren’t you worried somebody will find out?"

"If somebody does ask about it, I’ll just say that were going on the date for Akari to get her mind off of what happened," Ranma explained.

"That should work," Ryoga agreed.

They finished adjusting their tuxes and observed themselves in the mirror.

"You know Ryoga, some guys just aren’t meant to wear tuxes," Ranma joked.

"I hear ya," Ryoga laughed.

"Come on you two! Were going to be late!" Akane yelled.

Ranma and Ryoga exited the room and began their descent down the stairs when they stopped. Their eyes almost popped out of their heads.

"What’s wrong?" Akari asked. Akari and Akane were wearing identical dresses except for colour, each dress was a little low cut at the chest and the dresses seemed to elevate each girls more feminine features.

Akane giggled at the sight of Ranma so obviously perplexed at her.

"Uh, nothing," Ranma said as he attempted to regain control of himself. "Let’s get going or we’ll be late."

Ranma grabbed Ryoga by the collar and dragged him down the stairs. Ryoga had gone into a faze from staring at Akari.

"Oh son! I knew you couldn’t hide your feelings for Akane!" Soun cried. Ranma jumped back in surprise as Soun leapt in front of him.

Genma appeared behind Ranma and clapped him on the back.

"That’s my boy! You’ll make sure you and Akane have a good time, right?" Genma nudged Ranma in the ribs.

Ryoga could see where this conversation was turning and decided to intervene.

"Don’t worry," Ryoga said, putting a hand on Ranma’s shoulder. "They will have an excellent time. But I’m afraid we will lose our reservations if we do not leave now," Ryoga led Ranma away from the ecstatic Soun and beaming Genma.

"Have fun!" Kasumi called.

"We will!" Ryoga yelled back.

"Nice save Ryoga," Ranma said.

"Yeah well, were lucky we got out when we did. Who knows what would’ve happened if Shampoo or Ukyo showed up?" Ryoga said, not really asking a question.

"Pure hell," Ranma replied.

They arrived at the restaurant and were taken to their seats.

"Why are we so close to the door?" Akane asked.

"It was the only seats we could reserve," Ranma lied. They had a good vantage point over the restaurant and could see whoever entered.

"So, where’d you girls get those dresses?" Ryoga asked, changing the subject.

"Well," Akari began, "after you boys asked us out, Akane suggested we go do some shopping. These dresses looked the best so we got them."

"You look beautiful," Ryoga complimented.

Ranma was looking at the menu when Ryoga kicked him from underneath the table. Ranma glanced up from his menu and saw that Ryoga was staring at him.

Ranma nearly slapped himself for forgetting. The date was supposed to go well and that meant complimenting your date.

"Uh, yeah, Akane," Ranma began slowly. Akane turned to face him. "You look beautiful in that dress," Ryoga kicked him again. "Not that you don’t look beautiful all the time," Ranma finished quickly. He spared a glance at Akane and could see her mind was trying to determine if what he said had been a joke or he meant it.

"Thank you Ranma," Akane smiled. "You look very handsome in your tux>"

Akari stifled a giggle at the sight of Ranma and Akane blushing.

The waitress arrived and she took their orders and left. The conversation soon turned to domestic matters.

"Akari?" Akane asked. "Don’t you worry about leaving your farm unattended for so long?"

"Well, ever since I met Ryoga, I have found that he will wander off or just get completely lost and I will go looking for him. Since finding Ryoga proves to be quite a hard task, I will arrange for some hired help to look after the farm until my return," Akari explained.

The food arrived and the conversation pretty much stopped.

"Ah! That was delicious," Ranma said after the empty plates had been removed.

"I wish I could cook something like that," Akane said.

Ranma opened his mouth to make a comment but he was cut off by a vicious kick from Ryoga, under the table.

Ranma scowled at Ryoga and decided that this place might not be a good place to fight so he just took a last pull on his drink.

As he leaned back he picked up a conversation at the entrance.

"-ight this way Mr. Inafune. Your guest is upstairs," the greeter at the door said.

"Lead the way," came the grumbled reply.

Ranma spun around and stared at the man that just walked in. He tried to take to memorize the man’s features. Elderly, between 55 and 60. Ranma wasn’t very impressed until he noticed the man’s eyes. They burned with intelligence. He may not appear very physically strong, but he obviously had a powerful mind.

"What’s wrong Ranma?" Akane asked. Ranma turned back around and made a slight gesture with his head to Ryoga.

"Nothing Akane. Just thought I heard someone call me," Ranma replied.

They called for the bill and Ranma and Ryoga split the cost.

"Where are we going now?" Akari asked.

"It’s only nine. We’ll go for a stroll through the park," Ranma answered.

"How did this happen Raizo?" Seiji asked.

"We were packaging the drugs as you instructed us to, when two guys busted in. I tried to get one of them with my knife but I got knocked unconscious. Then one of them snapped Kozo’s knee because he wouldn’t give them any information. Then they torched the drugs and left. The only good thing is they didn’t get the gun I had in my coat," Raizo told him.

"You had a gun?" Seiji asked.

"Yes Mr. Inafune, but they never got-"

"Why the hell did you take a gun?!" Seiji bellowed, coming out of his chair.

"I thought we might need it," Raizo said quietly.

"Do you still have it?" Seiji asked, fuming.

"Yes."

"Then get rid of it!" Seiji ordered.

"Where?" Raizo asked.

"I don’t care, just make sure it is gone by tomorrow and remember to wear gloves and wipe the gun down first."

Yes sir," Raizo bowed politely and dashed out of the room.

A door opened behind Seiji and someone walked into the room.

"Should I follow him?" he asked.

"Yes, and take Minoru as well."