Abandoning One's Manhood Part 3: You Want Me to Marry THAT Girl!? by Minako All of the Ranma 1/2 characters and related stuff belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Any original characters I may decide to stick in here are mine, steal them and I'll cry. Then I'll get over it and steal them back, after sending you flames until your email account is full. ^_^ *** = flashback ------- Ryouga paled. He hadn't realized... **** "You must be wondering why you haven't met your fiance yet. You see, at this time, I have no idea where my son is." **** Fiance... me... and... RANMA!? **** "Fiance... you mean Ryouga... and me... no...." The girl with the pigtail looked seriously distressed. Then she turned on the panda. "What the hell was this!? Some kinda joke!?" She yelled. The panda began to scribble on a sign. *I had no idea! Truly! I thought it was a girl!* **** Ryouga swallowed, and turned to look at Ranma, an equally pale Ranma looked back at him. In sync, they turned back to their parents. "You don't mean..." "You can't think..." Tanima smiled at the pair. "Well, yes. A promise is a promise, and with Ranma half girl, that promise can be kept." Genma nodded. "What the hell do you mean 'half girl'!? He's still half guy!" "I'm ALL guy!" Genma looked pointedly at Ranma. "You don't LOOK all guy." He stated. Ranma looked down at his female self. "Maybe not at the moment, but I think guy!" Tanima blinked and looked over at her. "How do you think guy?" Ranma looked surprised, then seemed to think about it. "The hell if I know!" "So you're a girl?" Ranma looked frustrated. "I didn't say that!" "You didn't?" "NO!!" "I don't care if he's a guy or a girl, I'm NOT marrying Saotome Ranma. EVER. Male or female." "Even for family honour?" Ryouga stiffened. "If he was a girl, I'd consider it, for the family honour. But where the hell's the honour in marrying another guy?" "You tell him Ryouga." Said Ranma, nodding in agreement. "You shut up before I kill you." "Calm down you two. I'm sure there's honour in it somewhere, and besides, he's only half guy." "I'm all guy!!" "But only half the time, besides, you two are such good friends to begin with..." "FRIENDS!? He's trying to KILL me!" "TRYING!!?? I'm going to SUCCEED!!" Ryouga stood up again. "You wanna fight now!? Then make your move!!" Ranma stood up and took a defensive stance. "Prepare yourself Ranma!!" "Look how cute they are..." Tanima said, smiling. "HEY!! We are NOT cute!!" They yelled in unision. They both turned and glared at each other. "So, it's decided then." Tanima clapped his hands together and smiled. "Yes, it's been decided, I'm NOT marrying another guy! Espcially not RANMA." "Same here!" "At least they agree..." Offered Genma "They'll give in sooner or later." said Tanima. "Now, sit down boys." Both Ranma and Ryouga reluctantly sat, and Tanima poured them each a cup of tea, dumping an extra cup over Ranma's head to change him back. "I'm not giving in." Ranma said softly. Tanima ignored him. "So, Genma, do you know of any way to make a Jusenkyou curse permanent?" Ranma choked on his tea. ------- "Alright Ranma, you can stay in this room. Your father will be next door to your room on the right, Ryouga's at the top of the stairs, and I'm across from you... or is it the other way around...?" Ranma grinned slightly. "Don't worry, I'll figure it out." Tanima smiled. "I'm glad one of us will..." He smiled again, then offered Ranma a towel. "The bathroom's downstairs somewhere I believe. You can go take a bath if you can find it." Ranma took the towel and nodded. "Thanks." Tanima smiled and left the room. Ranma dropped his bag on the floor beside himself, then sat down cross legged, putting the towel on the floor. He closed his eyes. He honestly couldn't think of anything worse that could've happened... no... the only thing that could've been worse was not getting to eat. He'd only agreed to go because he figured he'd get a good meal out of the deal, and if he was lucky, the girl wouldn't be interested. He didn't want to get married. 'Well guess what, your fiance's a guy who's trying to kill you, you're home free...' he sighed again and picked up the towel. Studying it for a moment, he stood up and began to hunt for the bath. ------- Ryouga sat down in the furo and leaned his head against the edge as he basked in the hot water. He liked the hot water a lot, especially since Jusnkyou. He made a face. Ranma. Why hadn't he killed him yet, and how the hell did they end up ENGAGED. Ryouga sighed. 'Maybe it would've been better if I'd never made it home...' he thought to himself. The door slid open, and he looked up, a surprised and naked red haired girl stood in the doorway. Ryouga fought off the incoming nosebleed. 'It's RANMA.' he told himself. She stepped in and picked up a bucket, filling it with hot water. Ryouga looked away as she did so, blushing. "Sorry. I wouldn't've come in here a girl if I'd known you were here." Ryouga nodded, and turned back around to glare when he heard the hot water splash as Ranma rinsed himself off. The other boy stepped into the furo. They sat in silence for a long time, just soaking in the hot water and ignoring one another's existance. "You know what?" Ranma said after a while. Ryouga glanced at him. "What?" He asked suspiciously. "This sucks." He answered simply. Despite his anger, and embarassment, despite the burning hatred he felt towards Ranma, Ryouga laughed. ------- The room was dark. There was a large desk and a chair in the middle of the room. Other than that it was bare. There were no lighting fixtures, no anything. A man sat in the chair, his face shrouded in darkness. There was a knock on the door in the wall behind him. "Come in." The man's voice was deep and emotionless. The door opened, and a young girl bowed when she entered. No more than eighteen, she was dressed in a black kimono covered with small white flowers. She slowly rose, keeping her eyes on the ground, Her long white hair falling back behind her shoulders where it belonged. She remained standing in the pool of light from the door. "You called sir?" her voice was quiet, and there was a hint of fear in it. "Yes." There was a long silence, but it didn't look like he would say much else. The girl swallowed. "What is it that you want sir?" she asked quietly "A cute red head." she blinked, confusion evident on her face. "What?" "You heard me." She swallowed again. "Why?" She asked softly. He turned to glare over his shoulder at her. "Don't ever question my orders." She gulped, and stifled her opinion of him wanting a person. "Yes Sir, sorry Sir." Silence again. "A man or a woman Sir?" "A woman this time." She nodded. "Is there anyone in particular Sir?" "Yes... there is. This one." He tossed a picture over his shoulder, and she caught it. It was a picture of a red-haired girl fighting with a boy. "Alright Sir, but she looks quite formidable, how..." "You know how." He interrupted. "Are you sure Sir?" He nodded. "Yes, but be sure she's not injured, at the moment I'm more worried about her companions." "Yes Sir." She turned to leave. "Kahi?" She turned, half out the doorway. "Yes Sir?" She asked. "When was the last time they were fed?" She thought about it. "About two weeks ago, Sir." "Good. Carry on." With that, Kahi left the room, closing the door. The darkness returned, but had the room not been empty one could've caught the glint of white teeth in the man's smile. ------- Finally, after many months, I have gone about finishing this. I decided that it was kinda pathetic that I'd been off for a month and STILL hadn't gone about finishing this ^_^ Yeah, well, at least it's done now, ne? And I know it's kinda confusing, but it'll all make sense by the end! C&C are welcome, daybreak_impression@yahoo.ca constructive criticism's ok, but flames make me cry.