The Journey is the Destination Chapter 15 By poetheather The fallout of the evenings activities are quite unexpected and both Kuno and Ukyo find themselves in uncomfortable situations.

Ranma was still annoyed the next day about everything. What had occurred last night just told her quite clearly why she needed to stop all of this insanity and why she needed to stop pulling her punches. She was a girl, they were all girls, and that freak had wanted to kill her in order to ‘save’ her male side. Shampoo was also probably willing to kill in order to win, seeing Akane as nothing more than an obstacle to her happiness. Ukyo, well she wasn’t sure of what Ukyo might do. Hurting Akane, sure, but killing… that seemed a bit extreme.

Akane hovered worriedly next to Ranma as they walked to school. The redhead was clearly upset about something and it worried her that Ranma hadn’t confided in her as to exactly what it was. She wanted to know what Ranma was thinking as she was concerned what it might be. Her biggest worry was that it had something to do with the plan, because in her eyes it was working for the most part, with a few hiccups here and there. Ranma just walked, with her head down, inwardly focused.

When they reached the gates to the school, there stood Kuno in all his foolish glory with two bouquets of roses and his bokken, the light breeze rippling the legs of his hakama. He posed heroically, so that his loves could see his best side as they approached and be in utter awe at his manliness. Akane sighed the sigh of long suffering at the sight while Ranma growled quietly in her throat. Suddenly, Akane felt worried for the health of the annoying upperclassman who was about to have his world broken if she knew Ranma.

“Ah… this glorious day when the radiant sun beams down upon my twin loves, the beautiful but strong Akane Tendo and the delicate yet ever so feisty pig-tailed girl. I, Tatewaki Kuno, known to all as the Blue Thunder of Furinken High and the rising star of the Kendo world, shall date with both of you, for the love the pours forth from me is as boundless and untamed as the seas and can encompass both of you in my white foamed waves. Come to me my loves; let us spend these magnificent sunlit hours together, hand in hand, roaming freely along love’s glorious course unhindered by mortal worries. Let us depart forthwith, the cupids await!” The boy posed dramatically, trying to show that his other side was equally as handsome.

Akane had stopped, somewhat stunned at the amazing thesaurus skills and idiocy that was Kuno, however Ranma had kept going, not even looking at the stick waving moron. Kuno reached out and grabbed his redheaded love’s shoulder to stop her departure. When Akane saw this, she winced. Given Ranma’s mood this was really not going to be pretty.

Ranma stopped, however her body was tense with incipient violence, still looking towards the school, ignoring the hand upon her shoulder. “Upperclassman Kuno, unhand me. Now!”

The Blue Thunder simply smiled the pure smile of the touched, saying. “My Goddess, you have come to me of your own accord. What a magnificent day this is as you have proven clearly that you love me unreservedly. My Love!!”

Before Kuno could glomp her, Ranma rolled inwards along the arm that held her shoulder, turning that momentum into a powerful scissors block at the elbow joint, with a forearm on either side of the joint. There was a wet snapping sound from the elbow, which caused several students stomachs to churn violently and Ranma continued the roll, until her back was against his torso. She leapt in the air, carrying the upperclassman and as they fell back towards the ground, she threw Kuno over her shoulder and into the pavement, holding onto the arm until the shoulder dislocated with a wet pop. Once done, the girl released him and continued on her way to the front of the school.

The shock of the brutal attack was so great that it was at least a thirty seconds before the pain that seared his body registered. The redhead entered the school at the moment the blood-curdling scream occurred, the closing door shutting off the sound as she left the area.

Akane shook her self out of her shock at what Ranma had just done and sped to the school, no one else in the courtyard moving yet. After throwing open the door, she got to Ranma as the girl was casually getting her shoes exchanged. Akane swiftly followed and apprehensively asked, “Ranma?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Was all the girl said in response to the unspoken query.

Sayuri and Yuka were hustling down the stairs and that enabled the three of them to drag Ranma into a bathroom swiftly. Since there was no one else in there, Yuka locked the door to give them some measure of privacy. Sayuri looked at the irritated redhead, put pieces together in her head and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Look, okay, I don’t want to talk about it.” argued Ranma, lowering her head in order to avoid looking at anyone. If she met Akane’s eyes she would cave.

Yuka reached out and rested her hand of Ranma’s shoulder comfortingly, saying, “Ranma, part of being a girl is sharing what you are feeling with your friends. We help each other through things both good and bad. Please trust us. We just might be able to help. What is going on?”

Ranma shook a little with the strain of holding in her emotions and then suddenly broke down crying, almost as much as Akane’s father did. The three other girl’s looked at each other confused and concerned over this display. Akane had an idea about what the source of this tension was and ventured a guess, “Is this about last night?”

Ranma nodded, the crying slowing only marginally. Yuka and Sayuri looked at Akane and Ranma a bit puzzled, as they had no idea what could have happened the night before. Akane decided to fill them in on what had happened, at least as far as she remembered everything. Yuka and Sayuri looked worriedly at Akane when she finished. The tomboy waved her hands and said, “I’m fine. I really am. She only used sleeping powder.”

“I… I know that… it’s just that I hate this. I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to be attacked, I don’t want you to be attacked. Killing Saffron was more than enough fighting for me for a lifetime. Even fighting Pantyhose was easier than that. I love you and nobody wants to leave us alone and that just irritates me. Last night was the last straw. I’m tired of this.” Ranma growled some at the end.

Akane grew even more worried as the girl talked. Kasumi had told her exactly what had happened after she had been drugged and how Ranma had hit Kodachi into the wall in a way that he had never hit girls before. Sure, she had hit girls a few times but not that powerfully before. “Ranma… what do you mean that was the last straw?”

Ranma was quiet a moment as she was clearly gathering her thoughts. After a few moments of silence, she took a deep breath, let it out slowly and said, “Remember how I never hit girls unless I absolutely have to?”

The girls all nodded. Everybody knew about that.

“That thinking was tied into the whole manly man thing and my pops whole girls are weak thing. Because of that, I know a lot of people have taken advantage of me and gone after you Akane. They counted on the fact that they could beat you and that I wouldn’t really want to fight them. Well, I’m done with that. I’m a girl now and they’re girls and if they threaten me and mine again they will have to deal with the consequences.” Flickers of her battle aura flared around Ranma, which showed just how upset the redhead really was.

Akane’s eyes widened and her hand went to her mouth as she took a step back from her clearly angry fiancé and said, “Oh my.”

Ranma just nodded, consciously pulling back her battle aura. “They raised the stakes Akane, not me. I don’t want to fight but if I have to I am not pulling my punches any more. If this is what they want then they deserve what they get.”

“So that thing with Kuno?” asked Sayuri, her voice wavering a little.

“I broke his arm to get the message through.” The other girls shivered at that pronouncement. This was a much colder Ranma than they were used to and it was clearly unsettling.

Akane looked at her fiancé and could still see tension within her, but she had calmed down quite a lot. After a quick hug she said, “Let’s go to class. I don’t want to have to hold buckets because of this.”

* * * * *

Ranma sat with her girlfriends for lunch like usual. Since very little had happened during class she had managed to calm down a great deal and had even fallen asleep for a little while. She was almost back to normal but nothing good lasts forever. While the four girls ate and talked about mostly everything, Ukyo, dressed in her boy’s uniform with that giant spatula on her back, came towards them a bit nervously.

The four girls stopped talking and turned to look at the chef as she neared. Because of the sheer violence of what had happened to Kuno earlier that day Ukyo had passed on her usual angry fiancé approach and was going to try something new. Because of this, Ukyo tugged at her collar and hesitantly asked, “Is it true that Kodachi attacked you both last night and that she got knocked into a wall?”

Akane was angry just hearing that. There was only one possible source for that information and she growled out, “Nabiki….”

Ranma sighed in resignation and answered, “Yes.”

“Are…are you okay Sugar?” Ukyo asked Ranma, worried about him.

“I’m not hurt but Akane was drugged.” stated Ranma.

Ukyo glanced briefly at the youngest Tendo and her rival, then she turned back to her love, smiled happily and said, “Well, as long as you’re not hurt.”

Ranma growled, her hands clenching, and her battle aura beginning to leak out again, showing her irritation. “Look Ucchan, I am tired of this. You say you are my friend and I appreciate that, but if you can’t be friends with all of my friends I don’t need you. Understand?”

It was very clear that Ranma was deadly serious on this point even without the battle aura. Ukyo also noticed that Ranma wasn’t looking at her like the confused boy she had known, no this was the look of someone who would fight to the end with no quarter given. This look only made the information Nabiki had sold her even more disturbing. This was not the same Ranma she was used to.

This Ranma was clearly a girl and a lot of people seemed to be backing that reality up, as if it were true. Ukyo wasn’t sure how she could have been so mistaken about things and had way too many memories of Ranma the guy but at the risk of losing Ranchan forever she figured that it might be best to simply go with things. And if Ranma was really a boy, doing this would keep her in his good graces. That might be good for her chances of becoming the winning fiancé. “Sorry Ranchan, it’s just that I thought you didn’t like her all that much.”

“She is my friend Ucchan and I want my friends to be nice to each other. She is the first real and true friend I had since you and that makes her important to me. Ryoga only sort of counts because… well… he’s a boy.” Ranma sighed. She really didn’t want to fight Ukyo and she just wanted things to be right with them. This whole fiancé thing with her only got in the way and kept them from really being friends. She had to find some way out of that entanglement. Not having any easy answer, she looked up at the chef nervously and sort of shyly, embarrassed that she really hadn’t done this earlier. “Ukyo… I am sorry for what Pops did to you back then. If I had known what was going on, I would have done something to stop it. You are my friend, the first real friend I ever had, and you will always be my friend and I would never have left you if it had been my choice. Take it out on the stupid panda’s hide. He’s the one that deserves it.”

Ukyo listened to that and sighed. She hated it when Ranchan made sense, mostly because it happened so rarely that it would throw her. This was no exception. She was stuck and there really was only one way to answer that. “I’ll do that. I’ll make Genma pay for what he has done.”

Ranma smiled at her and relaxed more. Maybe she wouldn’t loose Ukyo after all. “Great.”

Once that issue was settled, Ukyo undid her portable grill and got things set up for cooking. This was a much safer area of discussion. “So anyone want some okonomiyaki?”

Ranma just smiled at her, happy that things were working out. Akane was nervous as Ukyo was one of the other fiancés and the girl was smart and a strong fighter. Not in Ranma’s class to be sure but she was pretty close. There was a distinct possibility that this could turn into a disaster, especially if the girl figured out what Ranma and she were actually doing. Akane struggled to figure out how to turn this development to her advantage rather than the liability that it could be. She had to think like Nabiki. “Ukyo, what is the vow your father made you take?”

Ukyo frowned as she began making some lunch for both her and Ranchan, pouring the batter onto the griddle. She disliked thinking about that whole situation, as she felt hopelessly trapped by it unless she married Ranma. “I had to vow that I had to come back with the Saotome name or have killed them. Until then I have to be a boy and am listed on the Clan Rolls as a boy.”

Sayuri frowned at that, having only heard the most basic story about Ukyo’s past. “Your father actually made you make that honor vow?”

Ukyo nodded. “Yep.”

Yuka frowned. Was the answer really that easy and obvious? “Well if all you need is the name, then get Ranma’s mother to adopt you into the clan? Then you and Ranma would be sisters and you wouldn’t have to worry about the vow. You two would be close forever and there goes the tension.”

As Ukyo blinked in surprise at that statement, Ranma smiled again, her heart buoyed by that idea. “And you can still beat on my father everyday as ‘practice’ and not have any problem with it. In fact, it would be encouraged.”

“I don’t know…” If she did that, she would have to give up on Ranma forever. If she were his sister they could never be married and all of her dreams of them together, raising a family and working at the restaurant would vanish. She was the cute fiancé, the one who could cook without poisoning anyone. Would she just be satisfied with just being his sister? “Let me think about this.”

Ranma moved around the grill and hugged Ukyo. “I would love to have you as my sister, Ucchan. We could be there for each other and take care of each other, forever.”

Ukyo smiled some. Ranma did treat her more like a sibling than a romantic interest, so would she actually be losing anything in the long run? Was that fact itself proof enough that they would never be a couple? “Let me think about it, okay. Here, you can have this one that’s slightly burnt. That’s what you get for distracting me when I am cooking.”

The others laughed as Ranma took the sad pancake anyway and bit into it with a frown on her face. She whined, “But Ucchan… it’s all crunchy.”

Ukyo and Akane rolled their eyes at that and both girls noticed that they had the same reaction to the baka, which made them giggle, pause to stare at their one time rival in surprise and then giggle again.

Ranma ate the okonomiyaki quite happily, as it looked like there just might be a way for Ukyo to be taken care of without needing to marry her. She prayed to Kami-sama that this plan of Yuka’s worked, as the only fiancé problem she would have left would be Shampoo and that was certainly a large enough problem all on its own. What the hell was she going to do with the Amazon?

She was sure that Cologne had probably figured out her ruse, if not already figured out the means to counter it. That dried up old ghoul was way too smart and that made Ranma nervous, as she was well aware that she did not have the smartest plan ever going on right now. It wa all too easy for things to fall apart on her. She knew what her strengths were and coming up with cunning plans was not one of them.

While everyone laughed and had a good time over lunch, Ranma was busy sitting there trying to figure out how to deal with the biggest threat to her happiness and make it out alive.