mabli@idirect.com A Different Brand Of Mousse part 5 A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Mark Ferrer Disclaimer: All rights are reserved to their respective owners. Only the original characters are mine. Don't sue me, please. (I only have pennies at the moment.) Note: I honestly can't tell if I've taken some liberties with some/all of the characters. Sorry, I couldn't help it. Thoughts are in <> Normal dialogue is in "quotes" Text (panda sign/reading from written material) is in [] Author's Intro: What's happened before: Due to some big screw ups, Genma and Soun agree to Mousse's 'request' to become a Saotome. Mousse still doesn't know that he'll become a Saotome if he wins. He also, out of the goodness of his heart (or the author's) decides to help out Nodoka to find her son and husband. Meanwhile, Ranma is inviting all his fiancees to the training trip in the hopes that he might be able to choose. Nodoka has chosen the wait and see attitude in seeing if Ranma and Genma should commit seppuku, or has she? ************************************************************************ Ukyo looked up from her cooking to gaze at the beautiful sunset before her. It silhouetted her fiancee and his dad as they went through their katas. She couldn't help but sigh at the sight of Ranma. She looked over to where Cologne and Shampoo sat, a small distance from the Saotomes. Cologne seemed to be once again analyzing Ranma's moves, hoping to find a way to help her son-in-law improve. When Ukyo looked to her rival, she noticed that Shampoo had on an expression of longing for Ranma. Without even having to look at her portable grill, she flipped the okonomiyaki with all the gracefulness of a swan. Her years of training could allow her to cook at least 4 at the same time blindfolded. She looked at the tents pitched up. Everyone had their own tent for themselves. It had turned out that Genma had arranged it so that there would be more people than tents. They had wanted Ranma and Akane to share a tent. Fortunately, Ukyo and the Amazons had brought extra tents to prevent that from happening. In fact, they now had three extra tents in total. The two Saotomes bowed to each other and started walking to their campsite, the two Amazons following close behind. Ukyo looked back at the okonomiyaki on her grill. It was perfect as usual. She set it aside on a serving plate. She was about to pour more batter on her grill when she saw thick smoke blow from behind her. It took less than a second for the smell to hit her. "NO! DON'T BURN!!" said a frantic Akane, who was blowing, fanning her burning food. She looked like very bad amateur rain-dancer in her panic. Rain would've helped because the food seemed to be making the fire larger and hotter. "How did I know somethin' like this was gonna happen?" asked a smug Ranma. He held up a bucket and upended it on the mini-inferno. Akane crossed her arms and said, "I didn't need your help you know. I had the situation in complete control." she asked herself. Ranma started imitating Akane's rain/fire dance while pretending to fan and blow a fire. Akane attacked him with a flurry of punches and kicks which were all dodged. Ranma smiled and said, "What's the point of cooking anyway? We've got Ukyo and Shampoo to do it. On top of that, me and pop can cook okay. Almost as bad as yours but we're still alive." "DIE RANMA!!" yelled Akane, throwing a barrage of punches and kicks again at her fiancee. Ranma dodged them all, smiling all the while. "Spatula Girl sleeping already?" asked Shampoo. Ranma tried to look over at Ukyo's grill but his world blacked out as Akane hit him with her trademark weapon. "Hmm, she appears to fainted from a very strong smoke bomb of some sort. She smells of the gas." Cologne said knowingly. She looked over to the batches of okonomiyaki Ukyo had put out. She took one and lifted it to her nose. Her eyes seemed to water then she threw the okonomiyaki away from her. "It seems we won't be having any okonomiyaki today." Akane knelt next to Ukyo and tried tapped her a couple times. Ukyo's eyes fluttered then opened slowly. "Oh Ukyo, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." Akane said worriedly. Ukyo may have been her rival for Ranma but they were still friends. Ukyo slowly sat up and said, "It's okay Akane. No harm done." She looked over to where her cooked okonomiyaki were. The sauce had started turning green. "What happened to my food?!" ************************************************************************ Nodoka walked quietly, carrying some groceries in her one arm and the Saotome katana in the other. She had not said a thing since Mousse had stopped telling her of Ranma's exploits. Meanwhile, Mousse was following behind her, also carrying some grocery bags, still mindful of his sore wrist. He is using the Mind's eye to check her expression. She seemed to be deep in thought. he thought glumly. "Mousse." she said quietly. "Y-yes?" he answered unsurely. "Who do you think my son likes the best?" she said quietly. Mousse wasn't sure where the conversation was headed but answered, "If anyone takes a good long look, it's obvious he likes Akane the best. He does things to and for her that he wouldn't do to anyone else." Nodoka stopped and asked, "To her and for her?" "Well, a couple times, Akane was kidnapped. Ranma fought very hard for her. I doubt that he would fight harder for any other person. On the downside, he teases her about many things. In return, she often beats him up. They clearly like each other, probably even love each other, but then pride always gets in the way." Mousse said, confident in his analysis. Nodoka continued walking and said, "What do you think about his other 'fiancees'? Are they truly in love with my son?" "His fiancee, Ukyo has quickly turned hate into love. She has resumed her position as Ranma's best friend from childhood. She's the envy of the others because of how close she can get to Ranma at times." Mousse said steadily. "You seem to have the talent for analysis. It must serve you well." Nodoka interrupted. Mousse put smiled briefly and said, "That didn't help me very well in fights with your son. He is an amazing fighter. It was Nodoka's turn to smile and she said, "Well, Genma was always teaching him about martial arts. He just didn't know when to stop. At least some good came of it." she paused and said, "What of the other girl?" Mousse sighed as her remembered his older self's story from the future. "The woman I love, Shampoo, has fallen completely in love with him. In the beginning, I was sure she was merely following a very old tradition, but I think after time, Ranma grew on her. I doubt that she would be happy with any other man." Mousse said glumly. "It seems your talent has a price." Nodoka said kindly. Mousse nodded slowly and said, "It seems it does." Nodoka stopped once again and said, "Here we are." The Chinese boy looked around at his surroundings and saw that he was on the very outskirts of Nerima, almost bordering in on another district he didn't know the name of. Mousse brought in the groceries to the Saotome house and looked around. It was slightly smaller than the Tendo dojo. As expected, there was a dojo near the main house. Everything looked well maintained. It had pictures of the family from the early years. The small family looked so close and happy in comparison to the present one. Nodoka set hers and Mousse's load onto the counter and asked, "Mousse, what's your plan to make my son choose a fiancee?" Mousse looked unsure and said, "Well, I challenged him to a fight at the end of the week. If I won, he would choose one. He values honour greatly, so it should work out." Nodoka looked slightly worried and said, "Didn't you say my son is a good fighter? How will you beat him if you said you couldn't beat him before?" "I've learned some very powerful techniques. I'm sure I'll win. I have to." he said steadily. "You won't do anything too bad, won't you?" Nodoka was clearly worried. "Of course not, I don't want all his fiancees after me after all. Well, I better go." Mousse said, walking towards the door. Nodoka walked him to it and said, "Thank you for helping me with the groceries. And for telling me the truth about my son." "Oh, it was nothing." Mousse said. "I'm sure they would have told you eventually." "I should have known though." Nodoka mused. Mousse smiled and said, "Don't worry, they've fooled a lot of people like that. Goodbye Mrs. Saotome." He walked out the door thinking, "Goodbye Mousse. Good luck." Nodoka said. she thought. ************************************************************************ The campers sat around the campfire, eating raman. The Amazons had cooked so much that Genma and Ranma didn't really have to steal from each other but they still fought for any share of food there was. Ukyo still looked upset about her okonomiyaki being ruined but her spirits rose slightly when she tried the ramen. Akane was glaring daggers at Ranma, who was ignoring her stare to concentrate on his father. The Amazons talked quietly among themselves in Chinese. Genma was anxiously trying to start up some small talk in between his attempted steals. He was cycling through things they could possibly talk about but the only thing he could come up with was that the moon looked very bright that night. "So, ghoul, when are ya gonna teach me somethin' new? All we did today was work on the same old Amaguriken." Ranma said, trying to think of ways to beat Mousse. Cologne looked at Shampoo's fiancee and said, "The Amaguriken is one of the Chinese Amazon's most effective moves because it is so flexible. You can use it with many other techniques to keep your opponent off guard. So far, you know two variances on the Amaguriken: literally picking chestnuts off a roasting fire and the Xia Fang Xiao shitatsu attack. Didn't you ever think of combining other moves with it son-in-law?" Ranma nodded his head and said, "Hey ghoul. Remember the last fight? Mousse had some kinda barrier that prevented me from even touching him. I need some way to get past that or any new technique will be pointless." Cologne looked at the campfire and said, "Wherever Mousse learned that move is a mystery to me. We can only hope he is feeling confident and will try and fight you without it. If he keeps that barrier in place, you will lose." All parties reflexively sighed together. No one there liked seeing Ranma lose. "Great-grandmother. In last fight, Mousse throw stars at Ranma. Ranma get out of way but Shampoo still have to save airen with bonbori. It look like stars fly to Ranma with mind of own." Shampoo said more to the group instead of to Cologne. Cologne sighed and said, "When I was very young, there was once a woman. She trained in a very different art from everyone else in the village. She called the art 'Invisible Fist.' It got that name because she can attack her opponents with her mind alone. I believe telekinesis is the word for it. In one instance, one of the males insulted her and she killed him by crushing his skull in. She was probably one of the most dangerous Amazons who ever lived. She lived in a hut near Jusenkyo and wasn't seen very much. If she had had offspring, many elders guessed that they would inherit her power..." Cologne paused to take a sip of her tea. "In a couple years, no one had heard of her so some villagers went to her house. All they found when they got there were bones on a bed." Cologne smiled and said, "That story made the number of visitors who every year become very low." Ranma looked at his father and said, "Hey pop. Doesn't this sound kinda familiar?" All eyes turned to Genma. His countenance turned grim. "Before we went to Jusenkyo, we were warned by some people not to go anywhere near there or to Joketsuzoku. People told many stories to persuade us from going but that one you just told nearly made us change our minds. The way they ended the story sent shivers up my spine. They said that whoever has the power of telekinesis must control it very carefully. They said that she died by having a nightmare. She unconsciously used her powers and accidentally killed herself." The entire group (except Cologne) looked slightly concerned as to where the conversation was headed. "Great-grandmother. Mousse be okay?" Shampoo asked worriedly. Cologne looked at Shampoo and said, "Mousse doesn't dream when he's asleep. At least that's what I think anyway." "How can you be so sure?" asked a curious Akane. Cologne looked at the girl and then said to the group, "The entire time Mouse was growing up, he never talked about any dreams or nightmares. I'm pretty sure he just didn't forget them because he has a pretty good memory. Many in the village think his failure to dream could be why he acts the way he does." "Hey old ghoul, what does dreaming have to do with anything?" Ranma asked. "Foolish boy! Have you forgotten what I taught you?" shouted Genma. "The dream allows the mind to ready itself for the new day. If you don't dream, you carry on the previous day's burdens in your mind." Genma preached. "Oh my son! How can you forget such an important part of your training?!" the man shouted to the sky. Ranma silenced his father with a swift kick to the head. "So, ghoul, is there anything you can still teach me tonight? There's enough moonlight." "Patience future son-in-law, patience." she said teasingly. ************************************************************************ Mousse slowly walked away from the Saotome residence and towards Nerima. His first thought was to go back to the Nekohanten but he decided it wasn't such a good idea. He turned a corner and started walking toward the bright lights of the district next to Nerima. he thought. He looked at his wrist which he injured in his attempt to fly. He took in a deep breath and sighed. It was loud enough to attract the attention of a very drunken looking old man. "Hey bud. Don't be mopin' like that. Here, drink this, it'll make ya feel better." the guy said, unsteadily offering a bottle to Mousse. "No thanks. I don't drink." Mousse said calmly. "Ya don't drink?! C'mon, everybody drinks." the man said, leaning on Mousse slightly. "I know, ya don't like this brand. There's a bar right there, let's find ya somethin' ta drink." Mousse was about to protest but decided to humour the man. ************************************************************************ Ranma stood eyes closed in the middle of an open field. All eyes were on him as he channeled his ki to his hands. His eyes opened and he shouted, "KATCHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN REVISED, LIGHTNING STORM!!!" His hands blurred as he practiced the move. At first, it was just the normal amaguriken but soon, small balls of ki were coming from his hands as he punched. He grinned and upped the speed even faster. Soon, it looked like ki was being launched in a steady stream instead of just small bursts. The technique made it look like Ranma was standing right in front of a strobe light. After a good five minutes, he slumped to the ground, panting heavily. He was still grinning because he had mastered the move in just the first try. "Very good son-in-law. I knew you would be able to master this move in a short time but I didn't think you'd do it in 15 minutes." said Cologne, who was pogoing to the martial artist. "Ranchan, that was great!" said Ukyo, helping Ranma up on his feet. "Airen, beat Mousse for sure." Shampoo said, trying to put herself between the two. Meanwhile, Genma and Akane walked slowly towards Ranma and the others, studying the damage caused by Ranma's new attack as they went. On the other side of the field, it looked as if someone had launched multiple bombs at the defenseless trees. "Ranma my boy, you do me proud tonight." Genma said proudly to his son, patting his son on the back. "Th-that was a-amazing Ranma." Akane said weakly, still stunned by the destruction caused by the technique. "Ah, it was nothin'." Ranma said, right before falling asleep in Shampoo and Ukyo's arms. Cologne smiled and said, "I guess that's enough for tonight." ************************************************************************ Mousse stood in the doorway of the bar, taking in the sight of it all. The smoke was heavy and the few people there were dozing off from drunkenness. The old man stood beside him, struggling to stand up. "C'mon, I know th' bartenda. Let's get ya some a th' good stuff." said the old man, drunkenly walking to the bar, leaving Mousse by the entrance.