Chapter 2: Shopping

 

Tatewaki groaned as he followed his sister and his cousin around the mall. All they did was talk about clothes and how cute everything was. Why did he let his father rope him into going along to “protect your sister’s honor”. Yeah right, he thought, only an idiot would do something like that. Rei had studied the Art along with their cousins and was one of the best marital artists in the area. And she wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps as the most powerful woman in Japan. Then he noticed a beautiful young girl walking into the mall. She was beautiful, with waist length red hair and big blue eyes. Her state of attire was another thing, she wore a Chinese shirt, which had faded to a dull white, and a pair of Chinese pants which were a dull gray. And the clothes were rather large on her.

 

“Hey Tachi,” He turned around to his sister. Rei laughed, “Go over and talk to her.”

 

“But…. I’m supposed to..”

 

Rei silenced his protests. “Don’t worry about us. Besides you need to get over your shyness. It’s not like you have anything to lose.” She pushed her brother towards the girl who was looking at a map.

 

Tatewaki sighed and cautiously approached the girl. The girl didn’t move a muscle but she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Can I help you?”

He shrugged. “Uh.. I wanted…. to ….know ifyouneedanyhelp.”

 

She laughed. “Actually I do. I’m looking for a place that sells Chinese clothes like these, just cleaner.” Her voice sounded like an angel’s song.

 

Tatewaki fumbled briefly. “Uh, well,… there’s a place on the second floor called Jusenkyo Imports, it has stuff like that…”

 

“Great! Just show me the way.” She grabbed him and dragged him to the escalator. He looked behind him and saw his sister laughing with Ryoka. He lifted his eyes to the heavens and wondered, why me.

 

“Uh, what’s your name?” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m Tatewaki.”

 

The girl seemed startled but recovered. “I knew a Tatewaki before, not you, but he was a real loon. Oh, I’m …Ranma. I just got back in town.”

 

Tatewaki smiled at her. “So where are you from? I’ve never seen you around here before.”

 

With a calm voice, Ranma answered him. “I’ve been in Hell for the…what is the date anyway.”

 

“Its September 3 in the year 2015, why?”

 

Ranko got off the escalator and then stood still. “2015?”

 

Tatewaki pulled her off to the side towards a large store. “Yeah, what’s wrong.”

 

She felt tears in her eyes but she brushed them away. “Oh, nothing. I just lost twenty years of my life.” She made an attempt to change the subject. “Oh, there’s the store. Thank you for your help.” Ranma ran off into the store.

 

Tatewaki was about to go after her but he remembered his sister. He sighed and went back downstairs.

 

Ranma went into the restroom nearby and changed back. Then he went shopping. He got a bunch of his favorite Chinese clothes but he was surprised to see packs of Jusenkyo instant products on the shelf. He grabbed a few Nannichuan. He also noticed the waterproof soap and bought all of it.

 

When he brought his stuff to the cashier, she looked at his purchases and asked, “Jusenkyo curse?”

 

Ranma nodded. “Yeah.”

 

She handed him a form. “If you sign up for the Jusenkyo Springs club, you get free waterproof soap and your choice of the instant products for 10000 yen a year.”

 

Ranma shook his head. “Don’t have an address yet, I’ll come back when I figure out where I’m going to be staying at.” The girl nodded sympathetically and rung up his purchases. Ranma left the store wearing one of his new outfits.

 

He went into a small restaurant and ordered some ramen. As he waited for his meal, he thought about what he was going to do now. Damnit, twenty years in that place. Okay, I haven’t aged much, maybe a year. When I find that slimesucking demon, he will wish that he never crossed my path. I don’t want to interfere with their lives, they probably think I am dead or something. So what to do now… Then he heard screams of outrage. Ranma saw a familiar figure coming his way. Oh great, Happosai.. Then he noticed Happosai’s aura. Wait a minute, he’s a demon!?

 

Happosai saw Ranma and yelled, “You’ll never take me alive!” He launched  three bombs at Ranma.

 

Ranma reflected them back at Happosai. “What do you mean? I’m not after … hold on. What do you think I am? A Guardian?”

 

Happosai sneered. “Aren’t you?”

 

Ranma was about to deny it when he realized that he was a Guardian, sort of. After all, part of a Guardian’s duty is to hunt and destroy demons. And the katana and Tools didn’t make things any better. He narrowed his eyes. “You knew I was alive?”

 

“Of course, my student. I am a demon of the first class. I know everything.” Happosai laughed. “Too bad for you, but I have to kill you.”

 

“Wait!” Both of them turned around and three teenagers were running towards them. Ranma recognized Tatewaki but not the other two. The taller girl was cute, with black-blue hair tied back in a ponytail. Her companion had short brown hair and she reminded him of Nabiki. Especially that calculating look in her eye.

 

“Grandpa, why are you attacking an innocent boy?” The tall girl asked.

 

“He is the most dangerous being in this plane.” Happosai said. “Rei, get Tatewaki and Ryoka out of here. This might get messy.” The teens left in a rush. Happosai sighed. “The heirs of the next generation of martial artists. Now back to business.”

 

Ranma got in a battle stance. “I don’t want to fight you, but if you insist.” He smiled deviously and attacked.

 

Cologne recognized three of the children running out of the mall. “Rei! What is going on?”

 

Rei paused briefly. “Happosai is taking on some boy. I’m going to get Mom and Dad.” She took off with her brother and cousin behind her.

 

Cologne sighed. If Happosai was attacking Ranma, it meant that Ranma was dangerous. She went into the mall and into a disaster zone. There were holes all around, she sensed the remains of chi blasts and noticed the impacts that the battle created. She ducked just before a blast narrowly missed her. She looked up and nearly fell off her staff. And it wasn’t about the fact that Ranma barely aged a year.

 

Ranma was floating in midair, surrounded by a blue-green battle aura. Happosai’s battle aura was green-red, and dangerously entering the black zone. Cologne knew if his aura entered the black zone, then the demon inside would be released, and a first-class demon was nothing to laugh at.

 

Ranma sighed in exasperation. Happosai wasn’t as hard as the demons in the Abyss but he had a human’s intelligence behind all that power. If the fight was prolonged any longer, he might have to resort to the Secret Techniques or invoke the Sword. But he didn’t want to use all of his powers yet.

 

Cologne turned around and saw Ryoga and the others running towards the mall. She hopped over to them and waited patiently.

 

Ryoga was ready to do battle obviously, armed with a umbrella. His wife, Akane, had a mallet ready. Kuno had his bokken ready. Her granddaughter, Shampoo, was also prepared for battle. Mousse, who had his glasses on for once, was also prepared. She saw Ukyo and her husband, Tsubasa, bringing up the rear.

 

“Where’s the old pervert?” Ryoga asked Cologne. Then everybody winced when they saw part of the roof cave in.

 

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll wait for them to tire out.” Cologne hesitated. “His opponent is somebody you all know, so don’t be surprised when you see him.”

 

Akane hefted her mallet in exasperation. “Well, who is it? Saffron? Tarou?”

 

Cologne was about to reply when Happosai went flying out of the mall. A figure flew after him yelling, “Come back here, you stupid demon!!”

 

Kuno frowned. “I could have sworn that that was the sorcerer Saotome..”

 

“That was Ranchan!” Ukyou cried. “But I thought that he was dead!”

 

Akane just ran after the flying Ranma who was yelling, “Come back here you pervert!”

 

“Hey, wait up.” Ryoga ran after his wife, followed by Cologne and the others.

 

Ranma flew after Happosai and swore under his breath. Why is he running? Let’s just get this over and send that stupid demon back to the Abyss and I can get on with my life. I can’t let him go free because the demon will try to kill me again. I can’t believe that that thing thinks I’m a Guardian. Yeah, the only Guardian who uses black magic. Ha.

 

Happosai looked behind him and saw a very angry Ranma. He looked around and saw Furinken High. He smiled, if he went into the girls’ locker room, then he should lose Ranma. He gleefully ran into the school.

 

Ranma stopped suddenly. Furinkan High was the last place that he wanted to go. He sensed Happosai disappear into the girls’ locker room and sighed. He just had to make things difficult. He ran over to the water fountain and drenched herself. Then she put on the ring. Ranma took a deep breath, then traversed into forbidden territory.