"MARRIAGE!?! Do YOU want to know what I think about MARRIAGE!?! It is foolishness! I was married once, in my younger days when I didn't no any better. I am certainly not get married again just because someone older than me says I have to! A married person is a fool. And someone who WANTS..."
"Hey, Wu Fei, wouldn't that make you a fool then?" the ranter turned to face the speaker, a lounging boy, smirk across his face, dressed in something that belonged on a catholic priest.
"SILENCE DUO! I need no commentary from the likes of an air-headed OVER-dramatic blow hard like you!" This comment dragged several, "do you listen to yourself" stares towards the ranter. "Now..where was I?"
"Ohhhkaaaay," Sally crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow as she entered what was supposed to be a tactical planning session. "Who mentioned marriage."
"SILENCE WOMAN! I'm trying to expound my point here!"
"No one mentioned marriage," Heero informed her quietly, in his "let-me-do-my-mission-or-I'll-kill-you-several-times-very-painfully" voice. "Quatre was drawing a parrallel of our situation to greek mythos and upon saying the word amazon, he started talking." Wu Fei turned to, really open up on the other pilot, and paused, trying to figure out where Heero's gun was.
"You DO NOT know what I had to put up with," he snapped, gruffly, though not nearly so loudly as with the others. "Thank the GODS for inter-dimensional worm holes!" Everybody stared blankly at him for a moment, Duo turned toward Heero.
"Heero, you no longer hold the position of the least sane Gundam pilot," Duo regarded the barrel of the gun in his face, where DOES he keep that? "Just kidding buddy."
Nabiki smirked as she materialized just over the rise outside of her companions line of sight. Useful trick that, should make it a little easier to earn a few yen here and there.
"Hmm, interesting," Nabiki whirled to see an old man sweeping the tiles of the shrine. He hadn't been there a moment ago, she could have sworn it. "Are you perhaps the fiancee my daughter's postcard mentioned?"
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm just her sister," Nabiki answered, resisting the urge to ask where he'd come from.
"Hey where'd Nabiki go?" Akane asked as the Nerimites began to appear coming up the stairs.
"Over here sis," Nabiki smirked, the other three Nerimites looked at her confused. "Perhaps you three should do some more speed training, if a poor little untrained girl like me can beat you all the way up those stairs without you seeing me." She resisted the urge to look at the old man, but she could almost tell he was amused.
They all ignored the explosions taking place along the hillside, the old man noticed this with interest. Most people that visited here found Ayeka and Ryoko's fights unnerving to say the least.
"How'd she do that?" Ranma asked pointing at Nabiki and looking at the other two martial artists.
"Ah Nodoka, its good to see you after all these years," the old man declared with a serene cheerfulness. Akane and Ranma watched him move and were impressed.
He's good. Akane thought.
Wow, haven't seen chi control like that outside Cologne and Happosai.
"I am sorry that did return earlier," Nodoka said quietly. "Especially when Achika died." Yosho nodded grim-faced.
"I think I understand your reasons," he said softly, clapping her on the shoulders gently. "And this must be your son."
"Ranma Saotome...or whatever," Ranma shrugged. "So you're my mom's pop?"
"Ranma!" Akane was aghast. "At least try to be polite."
"What did I say?!?"
"Don't you have ANY social graces?"
"Oh like a tomboy like you would know anything about that," Ranma waved it off. Everybody watched as Akane's aura flared, and she reached up into the dimensional pocket that she kept her mallet.
crunch
"You'll have to excuse Ranma and my sister," Nabiki said dryly. "They have a unique form of interaction."
"I'm not so old as to not remember the passions of youth," Yosho said, amused.
"What? No...there's nothing like that!" Akane waved her hands in desperate denial.
"Hell no, I'd never do that before we're married."
"Right!" Akane and Ranma blinked. "errr...as if I'm actually going to marry YOU."
"Ahh, who'd want you anyway!" they hmphed and turned their backs on each other. The thought close call floating through their heads.
"I was merely commenting on how emotional the young get," Yosho smiled slightly. "I never meant to imply anything specific."
"Uh...oh," Ranma and Akane said, blushing.
I like this guy, Nabiki thought to herself. I'll bet he could give daddy-demon a run for his money.
"Hey Grandpa," a young man's voice called out. They turned to see someone just about Ranma and Akane's age appear at the top of the stairs. He was slim and wiry with dark hair. "Sasami says lunch is almost ready and Washu keeps complaining about dimensional anomalies. Oh hello..."
Nabiki saw a few similarities between him and Ranma, mostly body type and the martial artist walk, but Ranma was marginally bulkiet. Perhaps that came from his father, the picture that Nabiki had finally gotten a look at certainly showed a very muscular individual.
"Let me guess," Akane said. "You're Tenchi right?"
"How'd you guess?" he asked seriously. On cue the fighting girls suddenly appeared nearby. One of them had spiky silver hair, she just materialized out of nowhere, the other had long purple hair and sort of stalked out of the woods dressed in a ripped gown that HAD been very ornate and elegant.
"Miss RYOKO," Ayeka shouted in a scandalized voice. "How DARE you, this is a very expensive piece of clothing!"
"You should have thought of that before you tried to take me princess!"
"Oh, you met Ryoko and Ayeka," Tenchi said simply.
"TENNCHIII!!!" suddenly both girls were glomped onto the boy. Then they glared at each other and the fight erupted again around the boy.
"Wow, this is creepy," Ranma said.
"I wonder if its genetic," Akane growled. Nabiki watched them closely for several moments, tapping her chin, before smirking and laughing low and evilly.
Xellos stopped and looked around nervously.
"Anything wrong, Xellos?" Amelia asked, keeping as much of her concern out of her voice. She was still mad at him.
"I just felt like somebody walked over my grave," he said.
Tenchi managed to find his way out of the battle
"So how many fiancees do you got?" Ranma asked, casually, as if it was a common question for him.
"Actually I don't have any fian..." Tenchi paused and blinked. The fighting girls even stopped at the question.
"Excuse me, I don't believe I heard you properly," the purple haired girl said. "Did you say fiancees?"
"Plural?" Ryoko blinked. Nabiki checked her watch.
"Two hours."
"What does she mean by that?" Tenchi asked.
"To tell you the truth we don't really understand Nabiki," Akane said. "We just sort of watch for her out of the corners of our eyes." Nabiki smirked.
"Okay, you were about to explain this multiple fiancee thing," Ryoko interjected.
"Ranma's step father had an interesting idea on how to make money," Nodoka explained.
"And everything else," Akane noted grimmly.
"Yeah, we're going to have a talk about that pretty soon," Ranma cracked his knuckles.
"Uh...right.." Tenchi said. "Sounds like you'll fit in around here. What were your names again?"
"This is Ranma Saotome, and his fiancee, Akane Tendo."
"ITS NOT OUR CHOICE!!!" they both shouted at once.
"Wait, we already established that," Akane said.
"Oops," Ranma said, and everybody else sweatdropped.
"Hello?" The girl answering the phone had long brown hair tied in odango like hoops.
"Yohko?" The cold voice at the other end of the phone surprised her.
"Iako?! Why are you calling here?" Yohko sweatdropped. What if she wants to challenge me again?
"I just wanted to tell you that apparently there is another soul-weapon and another branch of Manos," her cousin said calmly. "At least they used to be Manos, I think the name has changed since then."
"Oh that's good, makes it easier on the rest of us then," Yohko could almost feel the irritation from the other end. Iako still believed in only one true demon-hunter apparently.
"Actually, apparently this branch has a history of insanity and comingling with demon races," Iako said. "And I don't mean the ally races either."
"Okay, that's not good," Yohko agreed. "So why are you calling me about it?"
"Because I just dragged the story out of the old fart," Iako growled. "It seems their weapon was recently stolen by a group of girls in gymnast suits. So when she mentioned it I suspected another 'greatest nemesis of the Mano clan.'"
"Oh wonderful."