Nabiki counted out the money and frowned.
"After living expenses, we're about ten-thousand short," she said. "Again."
"Damn it," Ranma said. "An' Midori's gonna need some new clothes again."
Midori was watching TV across the room, occasionally glancing back at the whispering adults. She had been growing fast, not nearly as fast as Ranma's quick pregnancy, but still fast. She looked more like she was three years old than anything else.
"We aren't getting anywhere staying in motels like this," Nabiki said.
It was a rather standard catch twenty-two situation. They couldn't use their family names for fear they'd be tracked down. So, despite the fact that they hadn't renounced their families, they were considered ronin virtually everywhere. That made it difficult to earn money, especially for two teenagers with a young child.
They had eventually decided to start a new family name, at least until they felt they could safely return home. They even had a name picked out, a nice, simple common hard to distinguish name like "Tanaka". Doing this was possible, but...it took money. And getting money, again, was hard.
They had cut out a number of expenses. Somehow, they discovered that they didn't have to eat, and so "food" was limited to Ranma's sodas and food for Midori, because they weren't risking her health.
Nabiki, having discovered that money had the same effect on her that caffeine had on Ranma, originally kept a few yen notes and coins around for anytime she felt peckish. Unfortunately, she soon discovered that if she didn't use the money it didn't do anything for her. No, she was revitalized by the action of spending, receiving and otherwise handling money. Saving was okay, but outright hoarding seemed to invalidate the effect.
"We need to find new living quarters," Nabiki said, glancing around the motel room that was eating their so much of their funds.
"Worse comes to worse," Ranma said. "We can always ask for help."
"Last resort, Ranma," she said.
Midori watched from her bed as her mommy and daddy talked quietly among themselves. She understood, basically, that they were trying not to worry her. She still felt the tension though.
"Play in sand," Midori cried out, almost singing the words. "Mommy play in sand?"
"Maybe a walk would help clear things up," Nabiki agreed.
"I'm sorry, Megumi," a girl said apologetically. "We just can't afford that rent."
"Not even split three ways," her friend agreed.
"Listen guys," Megumi said, almost hysterically. "It's the ONLY place I can find. I can handle half the rent on my own! I can even handle the first two months on my own. That's plenty of time for you both to figure something out."
"Sorry," her friend said shrugging. "I'm not going to take the risk, I got a place already, I don't want to lose that and end up not being able to make it."
"Besides," the second girl said. "You can always just move in with your brother."
"He doesn't have that much space anymore," Megumi said sorrowly.
"Sorry," her friend said again.
"Excuse me," a new voice said. Megumi turned around to see a brown-haired teenager sitting on a bench watching the playground's sandbox.
"Yeah?" Megumi asked wearily, she was too frustrated to notice the blue tattoos on the girl's face.
"I couldn't help but overhear your predicament," Nabiki said. "I think we can help each other."
"Really?" Megumi said doubtfully, the girl couldn't be older than eighteen.
The girl nodded and looked toward the playground where some men were joking around with another teenager on the basketball court. Megumi shook her head irritably at that, some big bad jocks they were, making sport of a kid like that.
"Ranma!" she called out. One of the children from the sandbox stood up and walked over to her. Megumi glanced at her, still missing the marks, but noting the girl's dark violet hair.
"Huh?" the teenager said, turning to Nabiki. As he did one of the college jocks stole the ball from him with a laughing smirk.
"What happening, Mommy?" the girl asked. Megumi's eyes widened. The girl turned to her daughter for a moment before answering Ranma.
"Don't worry, Midori, everything is fine," she said soothingly. Then she turned back to Ranma. "Cut it early, okay? I think I found something."
"Oh! Got it," Ranma called back. Megumi was about to ask what Nabiki what she meant by cut it early when the teenager flew into action.
Ranma leaped from mid court, with no run, and caught the ball in mid arc from the jump lay-up the college jock had set it into. Then he brought it through the hoop as he landed.
The college jocks, and virtually everybody else stared in shock as Ranma walked to the free throw line holding the ball.
"Change," he said. Then he threw the ball and it swished through the net and bounced off the pole back to Ranma, who didn't have to move to recover it. "Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change." This went on for minute or two.
"You, you, you lied to us!" one of the jocks shouted as Ranma sunk the last goal in to reach the set score.
"Uhh, I just tricked you is all," Ranma said.
Really, he couldn't lie, it never worked. People always knew somehow when he tried to. He hadn't figured it out yet. Nabiki had mentioned something about a poker face, but Ranma didn't know what his bad poker face had to do with lying.
"Same thing," the jock snapped. Megumi shook her head clear as she and her friends vaguely followed Nabiki to the altercation.
"All I said was that I hadn't played basketball before," Ranma protested. Nabiki smirked a little, her coaching was really paying off of late. "I never said I wasn't an athlete or nothin'."
"I'm not paying a ronin street hustler," the jock snapped back. Ranma crossed his arms and frowned. He glanced back to Nabiki and Midori and then glared meaningfully at the jock.
"Hey, Kenji," Megumi said walking up. "Do you want it to get out that all four of you lost to a 'ronin street hustler?'" The looks on their faces clearly said no.
"Here's your money, kid," Kenji said finely giving the Ranma a small roll of cash. Then he walked away, looking sore.
"Thanks," Ranma said. "Now, uh, what're we doing?"
"Are you really going to talk to them, Megumi?" one of her friends asked quietly.
"Well I have to get that place somehow," Megumi said.
In Nerima, meanwhile, Akane was silently fuming as she went through a day in her senior year. Nabiki and Ranma had run off together with that brat and barely a goodbye. Nabiki had given her some lecture about growing up, not being ready, and trust, but Akane hadn't really paid attention. All she knew was that her sister and fiancee had betrayed her.
When she discovered "P-Chan", she was doubly incensed. She was mad enough that she actually seduced Ryouga in the illogical assumption that it would get back Ranma and make him jealous. Certainly he and Nabiki were having such fun together. Though she wouldn't admit that outloud.
Which brought her to her current predicament. The one that was going to slow down her college plans. And she'd be damnded if she accepted KODACHI'S help with this.
Ryouga had not worn protection.
"When I see that pig," she muttered to herself at lunch. She was sitting alone today, she liked to be alone when her temper was at its worse, she didn't want to hurt anybody.
She sighed and shook her head, some of the anger releasing. SHE had made the effort to seduce Ryouga, not the other way around. And then she had TOLD him what she had done. Spat in his face, stomped on his heart and laughed at him. She had no right to accuse him of anything, and that was the source of her frustration.
To make matters worse, he was spending a lot more time with Akari lately. And the last time she had seen him, he had been less than happy to see her. He had virtually flinched away like a beaten dog. At the time it had amused her, now...
"What am I going to tell Kasumi?" Akane wondered quietly. "What have I done? What am I going to do?"
Cologne sighed at the sound of a clattering tray and she looked out to where Shampoo was angrily clawing up a salaryman's leg. Said salary man was screaming like a little girl to the enjoyment of the patrons, especially the female ones. Cologne guessed what had happened fairly well.
The salaryman had probably grabbed some piece of anatomy he shouldn't have. Shampoo, forgetting herself, had probably decided to mangle said salaryman into something unrecognizeable. Once the actual decision to seriously hurt someone had been reached. Poof...instant Shampoo-neko.
"Mousse if you would please dislodge Shampoo from the customer," Cologne said dryly. The blind boy nodded and moved to grab Shampoo, and found himself grabbed instead, as the scream of pain testified.
Cologne hadn't yet figured out exactly how the son-in-law had called down a divine curse on her daughter to alter the Jusenkyo magic. She did know why, however, and after hearing about the whole story was, to put it mildly quite disappointed with her grand-daughter. The changes were still reversed with hot-water, but now there were two changes.
Cologne remembered what had happened when some abusive boyfriend had caught Shampoo's attention by smacking his girlfriend in front of the store. Cologne was about to do something herself to teach the young man a lesson, but Shampoo beat her to it. A cat-hybrid Shampoo that had caught the second slap and then proceeded to crush the hand while growling angrily at the man.
So, Shampoo had a curse that gave her power if she used it according to Ranma's code, protecting the weak, but took it away if she tried to hurt someone for petty reasons. It was a vast disappoint to Cologne that Shampoo had not yet realized this fact. She was on the verge of telling the girl herself, outright.
Cologne briefly wondered why she bothered staying in Japan. But that question was easily answered. There were several reasons.
First, Shampoo insisted they stay. She often took her days off seeking out Ranma and Nabiki's whereabouts. She swore every time that she had almost found them, but every time she sought them out it was a dead end.
Cologne especially remembered the close call with that girl and her private eye guardian. Suzuki-san had certainly LOOKED like Ranma's girl form, but that was all. Ranma did not speak so formally, nor did he use a Katana in that manner.
The second reason was that she liked it here. The kids were mostly of a good sort, and she made it her business to check up on them from time to time. Some were doing better than others with the changes that happened a year ago.
The last reason was that she didn't trust Happosai. The old man had always struck her as more than he seemed, or maybe less, and she made it her business to watch him.
Ukyou sighed wearily as she closed up her restaurant. They said that once you lost your youth, it never came back. She thought she had lost it more than ten years before. There were times that she contemplated ending it all, but she didn't. She wasn't certain why, except that doing so would hurt a lot of people.
Konatsu needed her, Ryouga would probably starve without her, surprisingly Cologne seemed to be giving her attention recently, as was Kasumi (though that was less of a surprise) and Ranma still cared for her.
At least she thought so from the fact he and Nabiki said goodbye before leaving, and she didn't want to put a burden on him that he caused her death even by suicide. Besides, suicide was a weak person's way out.
So Ukyou trained with Konatsu, sometimes Cologne, and ran her Okonomiyaki shop, and existed.
"Ahh, tis the wonderful smell of Kuonji-san's cooking," a new voice said. Ukyou frowned, thinking that a certain samurai was paying her a visit.
"Look Kuno, I'm not..." Ukyou blinked as she lifted her eyes and recognized Pantyhose Tarou. She'd served him once or twice in between his pestering Ranma and Happosai, but she hadn't seen him for a long time.
"You actually thought I was that idiot?" Tarou said rolling his eyes. "Really, so, Crossdresser #2, do you know where Crossdresser #1 is today?"
"Ranma left Nerima a year ago, jerk," Ukyou said.
"What?" Tarou demanded.
Happosai was having the time of his life. Most people still refused to actively learn from him, but that could always come later. As it was, he was free to persue his primary past time. Stealing girl's underwear.
"Whatta a haul," Happosai declared cheerfully. "What a haul! Hee hee. Not so fun without the games any longer, but some of the second-stringers around her can be fun."
Happosai's ear caught the sound of someone bemoaning his life.
"Why! WHY! Can't I make her see me?" a scrawny kid, yelled. "Ranma's gone and she still won't say anything to me."
Happosai pulled out his pipe and examined the boy. Dark circles under the eyes, gangly, stringy, featherweight. A rather small potential, but perhaps, an interesting challenge.
"Perhaps we can come to a deal, boy," Happosai said, surprising Gosunkugi almost to death.
"Well," Ranma said as they left the city offices. "That's that I guess. We're finally Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka..."
"Finally," Nabiki agreed. "Legally married, with a child." It was rather momentous actually.
They had spent the last year several times sleeping in the same bed, but just that, sleeping. Nothing else the rest of the Nerima crew might have been thinking. It just made it safer for Midori to be between the two adults, that's all.
There was certainly no other reason for it. He/she couldn't possibly be interested in that with her/him. Could he/she?
"Now we can get some real jobs and make some real money," Nabiki said.
"Okay," Ranma said. "Let's go help move the stuff into the house." Nabiki nodded, and glanced down at the little girl between them.
"Are we done now?" Midori asked wearily, yawning.
"We're done now," Nabiki assured her.
"Yay!" Midori cheered. "Can I ride on your shoulders, Daddy?"
"Sure kid," Ranma said, reaching down to pick her up and place her on his shoulders.
After that Midori spent the time humming a random wordless tune that changed from moment to moment and watched the world go by from the shoulders of her father.
Her parents were talking about "explaining the growth spurts" to that Megumi person, and they were using lots of words she didn't know. Well, Nabiki was, Ranma was being vague and using as few words as possible. In any case, Midori paid close attention to the conversation, she really loved learning new words.
"I thought she said this came fully furnished," Urd said peevishly.
"And she has roommates, why does she need us to help move things around."
"Urd," Belldandy chided. "We should be happy to help Megumi settle into a new home."
"Remember the last new apartment she got?" Skuld asked nervously. She still had nightmares about ghosts from that.
"Really, it can't be as bad as that," Belldandy said.
"Let's hope not," Keiichi sighed. "Well here we are." Megumi appeared on the small sidewalk in front of the house and waved vigoursly. The need for help was obvious, the house, in good condition itself, seemed to be a disaser zone, with lots of trash being removed.
"Hey guys!" she called out. "Over here, isn't it great?"
"Oh, how charming!" Belldandy said, though Keiichi thought he detected a strained tone in even HER cheerful manner.
"Yeah, great Megumi," Keiichi said dryly. Skuld was crying her eyes out and Urd was trying to scheme a way to get out of this.
"Go inside and get something to drink," Megumi said. "And then we can get to work."
"All right," Keiichi said, following Megumi's advice and heading inside with his own housemates. "I wonder where her roommates are?"
"I'm sure they're around," Belldandy said. The sound of working in the back of the house drifted to their ears. "See."
"This is a big house," Skuld noted, much less despairing when she saw the, comparatively, cleaner inside.
"So where are the drinks?" Urd asked wearily as she entered the house and started looking for the kitchen. Keiichi shrugged and turned to a door and opened it. He saw nothing interesting, just more debris and "storage."
Fully furnished, Keiichi muttered to himself with narrowed eyes. Right.
He opened another door and found himself faced with a brown-haired teenager cleaning the room while a small child followed her around "helping." The girl turned around to look at who entered the room and Keiichi saw the goddess marks.
"Who that, Mommy?" the little girl, also with goddess marks, asked. The girl seemed about to answer but Keiichi beat her too it.
"Excuse me," Keiichi said, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him, leaving a confused Nabiki.
"Is something wrong Keiichi?" Belldandy asked as she caught up to him. "You seem pale."
"There's a goddess and her daughter in the room behind me," Keiichi said.
"Oh my," Belldandy said.
He felt the door opening behind him and jumped away from it. Nabiki came out quickly, face curious and a little anger.
"Excuse me do you have a pro...?" Nabiki's anger was derailed as she saw the marks on Belldandy's face. "...blem?"
"Oh, hello," Belldandy said.
"Uhh, excuse me," Nabiki said. "Where'd you get those marks on your head?"
"Oh I see you met Nabiki and Midori," Megumi said coming in.
"Belldandy, Belldandy!" Skuld came running, shouting. "There's a god in the...back...room...there's another one...err...two."
"Gods," Nabiki and Megumi said dizzily at once.
"Yeah," Urd said, joining the scene. "What did you think these little things on your face were?"
"Hey Megumi," Ranma said. "Who was the little kid that came back here and then went running." He looked around at the various faces, confused. "Did I miss something?"