By Paks

URL: http://www.geocities.com/rwinton2003

Chapter 3b: Challenge – Martial Arts Chindogu?

Release Date: 9/01/05

Disclaimer

1) The characters and story of Ranma 1/2, Tenchi, Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon belong to their respective creators, and are used here without permission or license.

2) No claims to the above copyright are made by the author of this work.

3) This work is for non-commercial use ONLY, and is produced for the enjoyment of fans only.

4) This work is the expression of the author and the depiction of the Ranma 1/2, Tenchi, or Sailor Moon characters herein are in no way represented to be a part of Ranma 1/2, Tenchi, Dragon Ball Z or Sailor Moon as depicted by the original author and copyright holder(s).

Authors note: This story is set to be a mega-crossover, you have been warned

*****

As the bell rang for lunch Ranma immediately grabbed his bento and bounced out of the window avoiding the mad dash of the rest of the students leaving the classroom by more conventional means, namely the door. Akane glared at the window that her fiancé jumped out of with an anger that was always present when he was involved. Kenjiro just watched the pigtailed martial artist and Akane’s reaction with a smirk before calmly walking through the door after the main rush of students.

Landing on the concrete below the classroom window Ranma began scanning for a good hiding place so that he could eat Kasumi’s excellent bento in peace. Unfortunately he was Ranma and this was Nerima and the sound of a bicycle bell sounded before he could find a place, with said bicycle landing on his head.

“Airen, Shampoo bring too too good Ramen!” Exclaimed the bubbly Amazon.

Ranma groaned and slipped out from underneath Shampoo’s bicycle, lamenting the fact that Kasumi’s bento now lay strewn across the ground. As he stood with his stomach growling he eyed the ramen bowl that Shampoo held just under his nose warily. Sniffing the contents gingerly he took the bowl, after all a martial artist needed to eat. He began praying that it wasn’t drugged as Shampoo’s food often was. Deftly splitting the chopsticks he decided to take his chances.

“Ran-chan don’t eat that hussies drugged food – I’ll whip you up an okinamiyaki in a jiffy!” cried out Ukyo as she just exited the building and saw him about to eat Shampoo’s offering.

Akane who exited the building slightly behind Ukyo, glanced at the usual lunchtime scene and extracted her mallet from wherever she usually kept it. Caressing the mallet she looked over at Ranma who was about to start eating Shampoos lunch. Narrowing her eyes she then noticed Kasumi’s bento spilled all over the ground at Ranma’s feet.

“Baka what are you doing wasting my sisters lunch to eat that Chinese Bimbo’s food” yelled Akane as she stalked up to him, keeping her mallet visible.

“Akane, it spilled and a guys gotta eat.” Ranma replied while dipping his chopsticks into his Ramen.

Meanwhile Ukyo had set up her grill and was cooking him a Ranma Special. Pouring the batter onto the grill she looked up at Ranma and saw him about to start eating Shampoo’s ramen. Wondering how she might distract him from eating the drugged food she threw a throwing spatula at his chopsticks splintering them.

“Watcha do that for, I’ll have an okinamiyaki too Uchan” Ranma smiled at her charmingly.

“You wouldn’t want to spoil your appetite would you Ran-chan” Ukyo returned with a smug look on her face. Shampoo glared daggers at her and promptly handed Ranma another pair of chopsticks.

“Spatula Girl too too slow cooking pancakes, Airen, eat up too too delicious Ramen while hungry” The amazon did not want to lose subtle competition to her rival.

Akane’s battle aura was slowly moving to the visible spectrum, its heat was beginning to melt the concrete beneath her feet. Her rage rose with each successive comment from Ranma, Ukyo and Shampoo. Hefting her mallet she prepared to launch the idiot into LEO.

“Ranma your Okinamiyaki is ready! Eat it while it‘s hot!” cheerfully called Ukyo, flipping the Japanese pizza to the boy. Her eye-brow twitched at the “pancake” comment. The rapidly approaching food had the effect of moving Ranma’s attention from away the Ramen as she had planned.

“Idiot! Did you hear what I said.” screamed an uncute fiancée who had grown sick of being ignored, with that she malletted the poor boy into LEO. Spinning around in a huff she went and joined the growing throngs surrounding Kenjiro – maybe the new boy wouldn’t be quite as perverted as Ranma or the rest of Farinkans freaks.

Watching both of their dishes falling to the ground, Ukyo’s with a splat and Shampoo’s with the sound of shattering pottery, both rivals attacked each other in a battle of spectacular Neriman proportions. Kenjiro watched Ranma fly off with one eye and Akane with the other.

“Perhaps it will be easier to separate the two than I thought” he thought to himself as his attention wandered over to the battle between the two girls where Ranma had previously been.

***********

After school in Rei's room the scouts sat around for one of their usual study sessions. What was unusual about this gathering, however, was that each girl was not behaving in their usual manner. Three girls were behaving very differently.

Minako was reading Sailor V manga and laughing loudly as she came across funny scenes. She had brought over a huge assortment of Sailor V chocolates and drinks, which she was munching on almost as steadily as Usagi. This behavior was most unusual for her as she usually spent this time studying so that she could hang out at crown later, without assignments hanging over her head.

Rei was muttering darkly about Yuuichirou leaving and how now she has to do all the chores, not forgetting to glare at Minako who was obviously trying to emulate Usagi. Glancing outside she groaned at the puddles accumulating all over the shrine grounds, rain had just made many more chores for her to do. Finally glancing towards Usagi, she was almost shocked out of her dark thoughts when she noticed that the girl appeared to be studying. Rei’s shocked gasp drew the resident bookworm’s attention from her own books.

Looking up from her own studies Ami glanced at Rei who in turn pointed to Usagi. Ami smiled widely as she saw that Usagi appeared to be deeply absorbed in her studies and was scribbling furiously in her work book. Glancing around the room she noticed that Minako was filling Usagi’s usual role.

"It doesn't look like you are getting anywhere with your studies." Ami prompted, thinking that perhaps Minako needed some help before she got started.

"I'm sorry, Ami. The Minako of love and justice actually hates studying and is a bad girl. She sometimes cheats." Minako said in a depressed tone of voice, "Maybe I'll quit being a Sailor Senshi for a while."

The other girls were shocked. Even Usagi, who admired Minako the most out of all the Senshi, looked startled by that comment as she had thought Minako to be the most dedicated to the role. However the shock soon turned to concern, but before any of them could question or comment on Minako’s words the girl spoke again.

"I'm sorry I don't feel like studying today." Then Minako stood up and left.

Artemis stood and readied himself to follow her, but the girls stopped him.

"Everyone has times when they want to be alone." Rei said quietly, her own problems seeming small and insignificant in her concern for her friend.

**********

Having noticed all of the suspicious glances he had been getting from Nabiki lately Ranma still could not stop himself from sneaking off to train. His martial art was his life and no amount of vengeful behavior from the older girl would convince him to let up on his training. He wondered if today was a day that he would face one of those demons, or that woman who kept getting lucky and defeating him.

Thinking back to the last fight that he had in Juuban he considered that energy blast that he had thrown, the one he had named the ‘Moonlight Energy Retribution’. He wondered if he could come up with an attack that had a similar amount of power behind it, but not the pink. Jumping down from the roof of the train at Juuban station Ranma headed for the park.

As he strolled along the street deep in thought he glanced up just in time to see a streak of blond disappearing around the corner. Hoping that it was one of the girls that he had met yesterday so that he could ask some questions, he hurried to catch up. He almost caught up with her when she ducked into an arcade. Glancing at the sign above the door he saw that it was the ‘Crown Arcade’. Completely forgetting that the girls from yesterday knew nothing about his guy form he stepped through the door, just in time to have a stream of water pour off the roof changing his gender.

With the switch in gender Ranma automatically adjusted his pants and squeezed as much water out of her shirt as she could while remaining modest. Grumbling to herself a little she finally stepped over the threshold of the arcade. Rows of arcade games greeted her, a café to the side held a number of people eating hamburgers and sundaes. A little drool escaped her as her gaze wandered over the Crowns eating patrons. Finally remembering why she was there she scanned the room for the blond girl.

Finding the girl in question on a car racing game, Ranma was surprised to notice the slight aura of depression surrounding the girl. The depression was nowhere near Ryoga’s level, but it still hadn’t been there when they had previously met. Approaching the girl she stood behind her and watched her continuously lose for a while. Not liking to see an upset girl, Ranma decided to try and cheer her up.

Ranma moved beside the blond girl and asked, "What’s up? You look kinda depressed." She glanced at the screen as the girl crashed again.

Startled to be disturbed Minako looked up at the red headed girl who had interrupted her gaming time. Ranma looked back at Minako, wiggling the tip of her tail and grinned nervously. Forcing her nervousness back, she cursed the fiancés for instilling such a reaction into her every time she talked to girls. Minako noticed the twitching tail and put remembered the nervous red head from the day before at Rei’s temple.

Seeing that the red head was seeking to cheer her up and knowing very little about her, apart from the fact that Usagi trusted and apparently had a link with her, she considered taking up the red heads offer. Deciding that it might be nice to confide in someone who wasn’t a senshi she sought Ranma’s advice on her conflicted thoughts. She stood up and gestured for Ranma to follow her outside.

Minako and Ranma walked down the street together. Minako began the conversation by asking, "Ranma, do you have a boy friend?"

Startled at this unexpected line of questioning, Ranma managed to choke out "no".

Minako continued "but isn't there someone you like? Is it someone with a special talent?"

Realising that she was a girl at the moment and it might look a bit suspicious if she didn’t play along, Ranma said "sure I like lotsa people, but I don’t wanna boyfriend, do you?"

Minako looked up at the sky and asked "don't you get lonely without a boyfriend? Don’t you think a boyfriend can bring you some happiness?"

Settling in to the necessity of discussing such an uncomfortable topic, Ranma quietly murmured "sometimes, all I want is someone who trusts me and doesn’t treat me as a trophy” with that said a wistful sparkle entered the red heads eye.

Minako said, "huh?”.

Shaking out of her daze, Ranma said with more feeling than she had ever displayed in Nerima "I don't know what normal happiness is. But I have a roof over my head and good food most of the time.”

Ranma was trying to figure out why she was opening up to a complete stranger like this. It was something she wouldn’t usually do, at least she was a girl talking about this stuff probably wasn’t manly she thought to herself. Meanwhile, Minako really thought hard about Ranma’s words and came to the conclusion that wanting a boyfriend for happiness is kind of shallow, but she still thinks that a boyfriend will help her with her loneliness.

Minako spoke aloud her resulting thought "but still, I would like to meet nice boy to be my boyfriend.”

Seeing the girl slump her shoulders once more, Ranma was getting desperate to cheer her up. After all she had challenged herself to do this, and Ranma Saotome never loses. While wracking her brains, her usual foot in mouth syndrome kicked in and she said something so entirely out of character that she began to sweat and mentally berate herself.

“Well, I have a brother…”

Cursing up a storm in her mind for her foot in mouth problem, she couldn’t help but smile at Minako’s immediate cheerfulness. Allowing the now cheerful girl to drag her into a nearby ice-cream store she prayed that Nabiki wouldn’t get wind of this. Minako just kept trying to pump Ranma for information on her brother, and hoped that she could convince her to introduce them.

Haruka was walking past the ice-cream shop occupied by the two teenagers when she noticed the blond talking to the red head. She watched them discreetly for a while and wondered how they knew each other. Continuing on her way, she decided to consult Michiru on how to handle this one, knowing that she was not the most diplomatic of people.

***********

Proud of himself for cheering up the girl, Ranma entered the Tendo home whistling cheerfully. He intended to give himself a short workout before dinner, as he had missed out on the training he intended to get done in Juuban. It sure was fun to get out, and the distraction helped him take his mind off his problems in Nerima – he still had a lump where Akane had nailed him earlier today.

Walking through the dining room he notices the new kid talking to Akane, but catching the interested eyes of the panda and Soun he chose to ignore this new development. Akane was her own person, and while he considered her to be a friend, he didn’t consider her to be a prospective wife. Continuing on his way he smirked at the panicked looks on the two patriarchs faces. They were trying to make him jealous again, using Kenjiro in much the same manner as they used Ryoga, well it wasn’t going to work on him anymore.

Spinning through his katas in his usual fashion, Ranma noticed the moment Kenjiro and Akane entered the dojo. Since his change he had been able to distinguish people by their auras much more quickly and accurately than had previously been the case. Akane watched Ranma’s skill in the art enviously this simple aerial kata was even beyond her skill level, despite belonging to the school which she studied.

Not liking where her feelings were headed, and the fact that her fiancé appeared to be ignoring her she took Kenjiro’s hand in an effort to make Ranma jealous. Not that she would admit to stooping to such childish levels to get her fiancé to notice her. She hated the damn pervert.

Unknown to Akane, Ranma had noticed the gesture and wasn’t jealous, in fact he was a little hurt that Akane would stoop to tricks that only seemed worthy of their fathers. Kenjiro had also noticed the girl boldly taking his hand and wondering whether he should change his plans to attempt to woo the girl. That would certainly help him to achieve his revenge.

Just then Kasumi poked her head through the dojo door and announced that dinner was ready if they would all like to come to the table.

********

After everyone had finished eating and Kasumi was about to rise and start clearing away the dishes, Kenjiro asked that everyone stay seated as he had an announcement to make. Settling back down Kasumi sat patiently with her usual vacant expression upon her face. Soun looked at the new comer with interest, perhaps the announcement would help Akane and Ranma finally confess their love so they could get married.

“I wish to challenge this dojo for its sign” calmly announced the young man.

This statement, of course, caused havoc. Soun and Genma began berating Ranma about how he needed to save the dojo. Akane annoyed that this boy had pretended to be her friend just so that he could get her family’s dojo sign, fumed and started muttering under her breath. Ranma tried to get them be quiet so that they could have the fight and settle the issue. The only two who were quiet throughout all this were Kasumi and Nabiki, Kasumi because she had firmly settled that oblivious air about herself, and Nabiki because she was trying to figure out a way to get around this an remain in the black. In the end it was one question that restored a semblance of order.

“Why?” Asked Nabiki, whose curiosity simply wanted to know what this challenge was for. In her mind this was probably another person after Ranma, although him wanting the dojo sign did not really fit with this theory.

“That man,” Kenjiro pointed to Soun, “stole an important piece of equipment and some personal effects from my school 20 years ago.”

“What was this equipment, and what were these personal effects?” Nabiki questioned him further surprised that it was her father stealing this time, rather than Genma.

“It was a chindogu panty rack dryer with all of my mothers panties on it” Kenjiro’s mouth curled up in disgust. Standing up and bowing to Kasumi, he thanked her for the excellent meal. After he left everyone noticed he had left behind his challenge letter.
Nabiki was quick to grab the letter before anyone else could think of doing so. Scanning the note her eyes widened at the terms. Everyone else just looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to tell them what was going on.

“The Hayasaki School of Chindogu Martial Arts challenged the Tendo dojo for it’s sign…” Nabiki read, looking up she stated in a professional manner “The challenge is for next week.”

**********

Authors Note:

It seems that I need 1 more part before I finish this chapter, but when all three are done I will combine them into one. I split them up so that I could get them out in some semblance of good time. Part 3 should be out before the end of the month I hope :).

Thanks for the people who are reviewing this story, don’t worry I will get to the point of the chapter soon. Please keep reviewing constructive criticism and ideas are always welcome – and I try to incorporate it as much as possible.