Ranma 1/2, Fatal Fury fanfic "Wolf in Nerima" by Julian Soullard (e-mail: jnsoullard@hotmail.com) Warning: All characters from this fanfic are copyright from Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2) and Masami Obari (Fatal Fury), I never claim them to be my own personal creation, so don't sue me! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- AND NOW ON WITH... Chapter 2: Our "number 1" customer!! Saturday morning, 11:00 AM: "Ready for your first job, Terry?" his boss asked him as soon as his new employee entered the shop. Terry was wearing his usual clothes (sometimes you wonder if he has anything besides a red jacket, blue jeans, white T-shirt and that trademarked red cap of his!), his boss handed him the proper tools for the job and sent him on his way. Mister Mizuhara was a cheerful person but a real perfectionist at the same time. No wonder why a guy like him started a business such as this one. He took a look at the address his boss gave him. It was the Tendou dojo, the company's number one customer. Terry still didn't figured out how could someone have his roof and/or wall fixed up so many times. In a matter of time he arrived at the dojo. He was about to knock but suddenly hesitated. [I wonder if that panda bear is going to be the one that opens the door when I knock...] he thought [Well... can't let that bother me I guess. .. Although it was weird.] After making up his mind he decided to knock after all. He was quite relieved when he heard a woman's voice instead of a growl on the other side of the door saying that she would answer it. As the gates opened, Terry saw a charming girl in her early twenties that welcomed him. "Good morning, sir." she said very politely with an adorable smile "What may I do for you?" "[She... she has Lily's same voice...] Er... Good morning!" Terry answered trying to put that last thought away "I'm from Mizuhara's shop. I'm here to fix your roof." "Oh, that's right!" Kasumi declared "Please, come on in." Once inside, Terry took a look around. There were two men around forty years old sitting on the balcony while having a game of shogi. Both of them were wearing a gi, one was white the other was brown. Near them, in front of the T.V, was a teenage girl with short brown hair, she was drinking a soda while watching some program. [Well, well,] Nabiki thought as she noticed Terry by the door [what have we here? Since when repairmen became so good looking? This must be some sort of extra bonus for being a regular at Mizuhara's.] "Would you be needing a ladder to get to the roof?" Kasumi asked him. "No need for that, miss." he responded "I'll take care of everything from here." With a great leap, Terry landed on top of the roof smoothly. Genma and Soun interrupted their game as both of them saw him jump. "A martial artist." Soun stated. Genma nodded in agreement to his friend, as he also took a chance to set the playing board at his advantage while Soun wasn't watching. "Why am I not surprised?" Nabiki asked to no one in particular. Terry started to examine the hole. Judging from its size and from the broken pieces of wood that somehow still remained attached to the main beam, this was clearly cause by a heavy object. First he thought something might of crashed on top of the roof but by studying the hole closer it was clear that something was launched from the inside of the house and went through the roof ending up only God knows where. [That's strange.] Terry thought [What might have caused this?] He stopped asking himself questions, it really was none of his business, he was just getting paid to fix the roof and nothing more. The damage wasn't so big, it'll be like new with only a couple of hours, and so he began to work. About an hour or so, Terry had most of the job done. It was about that time when he herd two voices screaming at each other approaching the dojo. One was from a boy, the other voice however caught more Terry's attention. It was a girl's voice, it sounded very familiar... It sounded like Sulia's voice. Only he never heard Sulia yell before but he could still swear it was her voice. He stopped what he was doing at the moment and paid closer attention to the couple. He recognized the boy as the guy he ran into at Ucchan's yesterday. The girl on the other hand was a new face for him, she was around sixteen and had short blue hair, she didn't have much of a resemblance with Sulia beyond the voice. [Great! Just great!] he thought [Not only I see things during my sleep, but now I'm starting to hear things as well!] He resumed fixing the roof trying to ignore the voices, the last thing he needed now was something that reminded him of his two loves. Still, that wasn't easy with the girl screaming at the boy all the time. "I told you, it's not my fault!" replied the boy. "Yeah, right!" the girl stated "You're no better than Kuno, you PERVERT!!" "I never told Shampoo to jump into my arms!" he explained "It's not my fault if you're such a jealous tomboy!!" "I am *not* jealous!!!!" she declared "Especially of a jerk like *you*!!!" Terry was unable to put his mind aside from the raging couple, he noticed that everyone else in the house was acting very calm in spite of the argument between both teenagers. Either they were deaf, unconcerned or got used to that sort of thing. "And that's why you let her invite you for dinner????" Akane asked furious. "Hey, it's not my fault if *your* cooking is toxic!!!" Ranma explained "Why are you torturing the kitchen [Not to mention the rest of us!] by cooking in it?" "RANMA NO BAKA!!!!!!" Series of other kind of noises followed after that first blow, most of them involving heavy objects capable of doing serious damage to someone's skull. Terry could hear Ranma's cries of pain each time Akane managed hitting him with her dimensional mallet. [That Ranma guy sure has a lack of tact.] Terry thought. At that precise moment, once Terry decided to go on with his job, he was suddenly interrupted when something soft landed on top of his head. He took the object with his hand as he realized with great surprise that it was a bra. A bra just fell from the sky on top of *his* head! How did that happened??? "You there!" said an elderly voice "Give me back my silky treasure!" Terry turned his eyes towards the voice's origin. He saw an old man about two feet tall with a huge sack on his back, filled with women's underwear. "Your... silky... treasure????" Terry asked pointing at the bra a little confused. "That's right!" the man claimed "I recently saved that poor darling from being dried up to death...... Now give it back or I'll take it from you!!" "You actually stole this?" Terry asked "You are one *sick* little puppy!" If Terry would've known Happosai better (as a matter of fact, if he even knew who Happosai was!) he wouldn't have said that. But what's done is done, and Happosai had quite a short temper when someone stood between him and his merchandise of women's underwear. A fight was about to begin. "Don't say I didn't warned you!" Happosai stated as he immediately moved in front of Terry sending him into the sky as he spun his pipe. Terry was going airborne at the moment, the attack took him completely by surprise, he didn't usually started a fight because of a bra and therefore didn't expect the old man to get so upset about it. That was a mistake he wouldn't make again. Meanwhile, back on the ground, Happosai jumped down from the roof to retrieve his silky treasure that fell into the garden from Terry's hands once he was sent to fly. Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane and Ranma came out of the house to see what happened. "Master Happosai..." Kasumi began "What was all that noise?" "Just had to teach someone a lesson, that's all." he explained while rubbing his cheek against the bra he regained after that little intrusion. "You beat up the roof repairguy??" Akane asked "Why did you do that?" "That really wasn't nice." Kasumi stated. "Bah! Serves the punk right!" Happosai declared "Anyone that stand between me and my collection deserves to..." The old lecher didn't finished his phrase as he suddenly turned his sight above him. Terry was going to fall right on top of him, although he didn't look as if he was going to land on his head like most of his victims do. Instead of that he was charging his fist as it began to flow with blue energy. "BURN KNUCKLE!" Terry shouted as he drove his punch towards his opponent. Happosai managed to dodge the blow barely as he made a back flip to safety. Terry stood where the old lech was a moment ago with his fist buried on the ground, there was a big hole around him as a result of the attack. "So you know how to fight after all." Happosai pointed out. "I really don't like beating up old men," Terry brought out as he took a fighting stance "but if it's a fight you want, you just got one!" "Is that the repairman?" Akane asked Nabiki. "That's right." Nabiki answered "He really doesn't know what kind of trouble he has got himself into, does he?" The fight began, Happosai threw several *homemade* bombs towards Terry but he successfully avoided each one of them. Ranma watched the entire event from the balcony. If a new martial artist showed up in town he had to know who he was and how good he was. Terry began to approach the old man as he dodge the last bomb. Both of them started exchanging blows but either one of them could break through the other's defense. "Oh my! He really is good." Kasumi declared. Soun and Genma stopped playing shogi as the fight began, if someone was going to beat up the master, they wanted to see the whole thing (and occasionally finish up the little freak when he's too hurt to offer any resistance!). Nabiki was observing as well, a new martial artist in town could always bring new income if she new how to play her cards right, she could feel opportunity in the air. Having a roof repairman owing her a favor could always come in handy, especially with all the property damage going on at the dojo. "CRACK SHOT!" Terry leaped towards Happosai making a spin as he tried to hit the little pervert with the side of his foot. Happosai succeed by taking a hold of his leg and tossed him to the other side, head first. Fortunately, Terry managed to put his arms in front of him; his hands hit the ground and he pushed himself off the floor making a back flip and landing safely on his feet. [This old man is good!] Terry thought as he took a defensive stance [If things keep on going like this I'll have to use the Sen Puu Ken!] The Tendous and Saotomes were still observing the match. Ranma was studying Terry closely, no one lasted that long against the old lech, this stranger sure knew his stuff, but if things kept on going like this the entire place would turn into a war zone. He had to help that guy in finishing Happosai off (not that Ranma took special affection towards Terry but he enjoyed seeing when the old man got trashed, and on top of that, he wanted to see how much damage this stranger's punches could do). He quickly went inside the kitchen for some cold water. Right after shape changing he (now a she) headed outside again and stood right behind Terry where he couldn't see her but where Happosai could. Both opponents were completely concentrated in the fight, that is until Ranma-chan unbuttoned her shirt revealing her breast in front of Happosai, making him lose his focus. Terry didn't understood why his opponent suddenly let his guard down but he didn't question his good fortune and took advantage of the situation. "BURN KNUCKLE!!" His punch hit Happosai right in the kisser and sent him towards the wall... through the wall to be more precise. The dojo just acquired another hole in its collection, just like other houses which clearly showed Happosai's trajectory. Terry calmly picked up his baseball cap that fell during combat and used it to dust off his pants. He then put it back on and turned towards the dojo's residents as he tried to explain himself. "Sorry about all the mess." he began "I'll pay for all the damages I caused." "Well now," Soun declared joyfully "it's nice to see a man take responsibility for his acts." Just as Soun began to pat him on the shoulder, Terry noticed a red hair girl dressed exactly like Ranma (who by the way wasn't there anymore) buttoning her shirt on. "So that's why he let his guard down..." Terry pointed out addressing to the girl "I guess I should thank you." "Don't mention it," Ranma-chan said "the old lech had it coming anyway. You sure have one meen punch there er..." "Terry." he told her "It's Terry Bogard." "Well mister Bogard..." Genma began. "Please, just call me Terry." he interrupted "No formalities needed." "Well then... Terry," Genma rephrased "you certainly seem to be an excelent martial artist. No one has been able to take on our master like that." "You mean I just punched your master through the wall???" Terry asked guiltily "I'm sorry, I didn't know he was this dojo's master, I thought he was some sort of burglar." "It's okay, really." Soun pointed out "We should even thank you for what you did." tears of joy started coming out of his eyes like waterfalls. "All the women in Nerima will be grateful to you for giving that pervert such a beating." Akane added. "Is he that bad?" Terry asked confused, the Tendous and Saotomes nodded repeatedly to make there point valid. "I see... Well anyway, I think I still have some work to do on your roof, so if you'll excuse me..." as he headed towards the roof. "Just one more thing." Ranma-chan brought out as she took a kettle filled with hot water that Kasumi generously handed to her "What kind of style do you use, are you in Martial Arts Roof Repairing or something like that?" "Hun?? Is that some kind of bad joke?" Terry asked a little offended, the title of Martial Arts Roof Repairman sure sounded ridiculous (Imagine being called Terry "Roof repairman" Bogard as a new nickname instead of "Hungry wolf" which was a name he got quite attached to!). "Er... no I didn't meant it that way," Ranma-chan explained once she noticed she goofed up "but so far I've seen Martial Arts Figure Skating, Martial Arts Tea Ceremony, Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastic, Martial Arts..." "Okay okay, I get the point." Terry interrupted "But no, I don't do any Martial Arts roof repairing." "So what do you do?" Ranma-chan asked as she began to pour the hot water on top of her head "Well it's an ancient art not very well known," Terry explained "it's called the Hakkyoku..." he suddenly dropped his voice as he saw in amazement how the girl in front of him changed into a boy after being splashed with water. "The Hakkyoku what?" Ranma asked with his male voice, he then noticed Terry's face dropped expression as he witness the sex change "Oh that's right... I forgot you're new in town... sorry about that." "You... you... you..." Terry began "YOU JUST CHANGED FROM GIRL TO GUY!!!!!" "Well... yeah." Ranma responded while scratching the back of his head "It's a long story." Terry turned his back still with a horrified expression on his face. A girl just turned into a guy in front of his own eyes... He just witness one of the strangest thing he had seen in his life. When he was in his *drunk period* he had hallucinations from time to time, he even saw Lily and/or Sulia pop out of his imagination oftenly... but nothing matched THIS. "I... think... I'll... go... back... to... the... roof... now..." he softly said as his left eye started twitching nervously as a side effect from the shock. He slowly walked towards the roof completely freaked out. "I think he took it quite well." Nabiki declared sarastically. "Poor guy." Akane stated, then she turned towards Ranma "Nice going, Baka!" "Hey, I'm sorry okay!" he protested "And besides, if he's going to be fixing the roof constantly he might as well know the whole thing." Terry was back on top of the roof at this moment, he was fully concentrated in his job. If he wanted to ignore Akane and Kasumi's voices due to the similarity with his two girlfriends' voices, he sure got his wish granted. The only thing that was going on his mind at the moment was fixing the roof, he did the best he could to explain himself that unusual event he went through at the yard. [Okay, so there's a girl that changes into a boy when she gets wet...] He thought [No big deal... I can handle that... I guess...] "Hey Terry." said a voice behind him. Terry turned his attention towards the voice, Ranma (in male form) stood behind him with his hands in his pockets. He was surprised by the fact that he didn't hear him approaching. He lifted his baseball cap above his eyes to see him better. "It's you..." Terry began "You're that Ranma guy... or is it girl?" "It's guy!" Ranma replied hotly "I can assure you that!" "Well call me crazy," Terry declared "but a moment ago you didn't look so manly." "Yeah, well I wanted to explain you all about that." He said. Ranma told everything to Terry about Jusenkyou, how cold water turn him into a girl and his father into a panda and how hot water turned them back to normal. Terry really didn't bought the whole thing at first but after some thought he decided that there was no other "logical" explanation. "So..." Terry began "Why are you telling me all of this?" "Hey I don't want you to get the wrong idea about this, okay!" Ranma claimed as his egomaniac macho defense system kicked in "If you're going to be fixing the roof constantly I thought it would be better if you knew all about this before you started thinking that I'm some kind of pervert or something! Besides, Akane and Kasumi forced me to tell you before you freaked out." "Well it's a little late for that now," Terry stated "but don't worry, I think that with some time I'll get used to all of this. It's strange! I'll say that's for sure. But I'll manage." he turned around as he started fixing the roof again, Ranma didn't leave however. "Er... There's one more thing." Ranma told him "You er...were quite good against the old lech. You never did tell me in which school you trained." "Well," Terry said as he hammered the roof "my basic moves comes from the Hakkyokuseiken school of martial arts, but most of my training is a result of all my travels around all of the world. I constantly travel from one place to another trying to raise my own skill level." "Is that why you're in Nerima now?" Ranma asked him "[If he's here to make my life more complicated like most of the other *visitors* I might as well find out now!] You're searching for a fight or something?" "Not at all." Terry replied calmly "I just needed some cash when I got here. A guy has to eat too you know. That's why I took this job. When I save up enough money I'll be on my way again." "So you're not looking for revenge against someone or for a lost bride or something similar?" he asked again just to make sure. "What?" Terry questioned as he suddenly stopped hammering the roof "You sure make a lot of strange questions, kid." "Hey I just wanna make sure, okay!" he replied "You'd be surprise how often that sort of things happened in here." "Well don't worry." Terry told him "I'm not looking for any trouble. All my revenge vendettas are over." a pause followed "By the way, you're a martial artist aren't you?" "How do you know?" "By the way you got up here without me noticing." Terry explained "You're quite good." "Er... thanks." Ranma said, no one usually told him he was good, that's something his ego took care of pointing out all the time. "You're not so bad yourself." Terry resumed working on the roof, after that little fight with Happosai and this short interview with Ranma, his job was delayed and he wanted to finish before lunch time. He heard Ranma leave behind him. "By the way, Ranma." he pointed out "If you're in for a friendly spare one of these days, I'm always available. I'd really like to see if you're as good as I think you are." "Hey, no problem." Ranma claimed "You might be in for a little surprise too." "Don't get too cocky, kid." Terry told him jokingly "I'm no pushover." Ranma jumped of the roof after that remark from Terry. But what either of them didn't noticed, even with their highly trained senses, was Nabiki who heard the whole thing from her bedroom window. [Well that was informative.] She thought [Not as informative as I would've liked it to be, but it'll do for now. Mister Bogard might become quite profitable.] As time went on, Terry finally finished his job. The roof was as good as new. He gave his work one last check, it really felt good finishing a job well done. The only thing left to do now was informing his boss that the roof was fixed so he could send the bill, and after that it would be eating time!!! Terry jumped off the roof. "Mister Tendou," He said out loud "your roof is fixed." "Done already?" he exclaimed "That was quite fast." "By the way," Terry asked "can I use your phone? I have to tell my boss I'm done." "Why certainly." Soun declared "The phone is right next to the stairs." Once at the phone: "Hello? Boss?" he said "I just finished fixing the roof............... ...... Yeah well it wasn't so damaged after all, do you want me to put Mr. Tendou on the line?........................Nabiki Tendou?? [Why would he need to talk to her?]..........................Well sure, okay, I can put her through. Hold on a sec. (off the phone) Er... Excuse me, is there a Nabiki Tendou in the house?" "That would be me." stated the girl with brown short hair that stepped out of the living room. Terry handed her the phone and then left to gather all his tools. "Hello?" //Miss Tendou? This is Mister Mizuhara. Did every thing turned out all right.// "Yes, everything is fine! (at that precise moment, Nabiki clearly saw Terry's rear as he bent to pick up his tools) A fine piece of work too, I'm really satisfied with the structure." //Will you be paying as usual?// "Of course, here is the credit card number... But by the way, I think I should tell you about a little incident with our wall..." Terry's stomach started growling, protesting by the fact that it was lunch time and so far he had nothing to eat. He considered going to Ucchan's as he walked down the streets of Nerima, but he found a restaurant in his way called the Nekohanten which caught his attention. It was closer than Ucchan's at the moment, but what caught Terry's attention the most was that he remembered this place to be one of his boss' most important customers next to the Tendou dojo. Besides, it's been some time too since he tasted ramen and his stomach insisted that he ate there. [Looks like a good place to eat.] he thought [I wonder if the people here are as weird as the ones back at the Tendou dojo... Might as well find out now.] The place was rather crowded, it was after all lunch time, Terry had to wait standing a while until a table became free for him to occupy, a lot of people were in the same situation he was. This seamed to be a very popular place, Terry noticed that most of the restaurant's customers were guys around sixteen. This was probably due to the cute waitress that joyfully hop around the place taking everyone's orders. When he finally got a seat, the waitress approached him. She was, like most of the male customers, around sixteen, she had long purple hair and was wearing chinese clothes. "Welcome to Nekohanten!" she joyfully declared with a chinese accent "I take your order, yes?" "I'd like a bowl of your deluxe ramen please." Terry told her once he looked at the menu [This is unbelievable. It's either only okonomiyaki or ramen, these places don't vary a lot.] With so many people, Terry's order didn't came quickly. To distract himself from his hunger he began to scour the place with his eyes. This seamed like any ordinary restaurant during rush hour. In addition to the waitress, there was a boy around the same age with long black hair and wearing incredibly thick glasses near the stove, he seamed very busy. Next to him was a VERY old lady about two feet tall who moved hoping around on a staff three times her hight. She reminded Terry of the guy he fought earlier. Cologne suddenly stared at Terry, he on the other hand didn't noticed her, he had his eyes set on something else. [Humm... That man has a strong ki,] she thought [looks like another martial artist came to town, I wonder what his business is in Nerima...] "Great grandmother..." Shampoo asked "Is something wrong?" "Not at all child." she responded "I was just observing the young man over there." pointing at Terry. "Haiya! Gai-jin is very good looking yes?" Shampoo declared. "And a very good martial artist as well." Cologne pointed out "Things might become very interesting while he stays at Nerima [Very interesting indeed.]." "How can great grandmother tell he strong?" she asked surprised. "At my age you can notice things like that easily." Cologne explained "He's very powerful for being so young, I look forward to see his skills in battle any time soon." Once lunch was over and his stomach was satisfied, Terry resumed walking towards Mizuhara's shop. It's been an interesting day so far... a strange day to be more specific, but interesting no less. Terry's principal goal was finding strong opponents, martial arts were his life, he knew better than staying out of shape. Krauser taught him that. Nerima seemed to be a place with lots of martial artists, very skillful fighters indeed. He clearly noticed that the waitress at the Nekohanten was a martial artist as well as the guy with the glasses. The old lady was definitively more to what the eye could tell. This place was going to be interesting to prove his skills. A few moments later, he arrived at Mizuhara's. As he entered the shop, he could see his boss busy at the phone while taking notes, it looked like it was another customer. Minutes later, Mr. Mizuhara hang up. "Good timing, Terry." He said "I just got another job for you." as he gave him the specifications about the problem written in a sheet of paper. Terry took the piece of paper that his boss handed to him. It was another roof problem, quite similar to the last one he had. The odd thing was, that the roof that needed fixing was at the Tendou dojo again. Terry stared at his boss in confusion. "There has to be some sort of mistake." he pointed out "I just fixed their roof this morning, are you sure you're not confusing customers, boss?" "I'm positive." Mister Mizuhara declared "I was just talking on the phone with miss Tendou, they just had another one of their accidents." "I can't believe this !" said Terry as he picked up his tools once again and headed towards the dojo "I just came back from there." "And by the way, Terry," Mr. Mizuhara added "while you're there you can fix the hole you made on their wall too." "Oh... right." Terry noticed a little embarrassed "I wanted to tell you about that." "Don't worry too much about it," his boss told him "believe it or not, that kind of things happen a lot in this part of town. I think that's one of reasons I'm still in business... Although the damage cause to the dojo's wall *will* come out of your salary." "I understand." Terry replied "How often does these kind of things happen?" "Almost every day." he answered "You'll get used to it very soon." Terry made his way out the door heading to the well known dojo. The conversation he had with his boss repeated itself several times in his mind. He really didn't mind the hard labor, but if he was going to have so much work he might never have enough time to train properly. But then again, if every day was going to be like this one, "c'est à dire" ending up in a fight like the one with Happosai, well in that case he was going to have plenty of training. After walking a few minutes, he arrived at the dojo and knocked. "I'll get it." Kasumi said as she opened the door "Why hello mister Bogard." "Please, just call me Terry." he told her "I hear you had another accident with your roof..." "I'm afraid so." she stated "Sorry for being such a bother twice during the same day." "No need to worry, miss Tendou." he replied "That's why I'm getting paid for." As both walked inside, Terry noticed Ranma sitting on the balcony as he put bandages all over his face. Akane was sitting a few feet away from him with an angry look on her face. She was obviously trying to ignore Ranma as she held a little black pig between her arms. [That's odd,] Terry thought [now where have I seen that bandanna before?] "So, what happened to you?" he asked addressing Ranma "Did you get mugged?" "Some violent tomboy did this?" Ranma explained. At that precise moment a chair flew by, hitting Ranma right in the face. Akane stood at the other side of the room with her arm extended after silencing Ranma. Terry stared at her in amazement. That was one short tempered girl. "Shut up, you jerk!!" She yelled at Ranma. "You did this to him?" Terry asked her "What for?" "Don't get her started." Ranma recommended him as he crawled down the chair "Or she'll punch you through the roof too..." "So you were the one who caused that?" Terry asked again as he pointed to the hole in the roof. "And the one you fixed this morning too." Nabiki added "Akane has a certain liking for sending people through the roof, her hobby is getting quite expensive for the family." "NABIKI!!!" Akane protested, she didn't wanted to be put in shame in front of a visitor. "Is that true Akane?" Terry asked again "You actually punched Ranma through the roof?" "Well... yes..." she admitted blushing in shame. "Wow!!! I have to admit I'm impressed!!" Terry declared "Maybe I should see you fight one of these days too!" "YOU WHAT????" asked the three teenagers at the same time. "Hey!" Terry explained "Anyone that can punch a guy through the roof like that must have some serious potential." "Er... Thanks [I think...]" Akane said too him, not very sure if he made her a compliment or one of Ranma's rude remarks. "You've got to be joking!!" Ranma complained "This girl is a klutz!! She can't even kick!! She as coordinated as a ..." That's as far as Ranma went when he suddenly received another one of the dojo's furniture right in the face; courtesy of Akane's bad temper but mostly due to his big mouth. Terry decided to mind his own business, this seamed to be one of those fight where everyone could well do without him interfering. So, he decided to head for the roof and started working. If the hole was made by Akane, Terry certainly started to recognize her style. It was practically the same problem he had with the other hole earlier this morning. (Right now I don't want to bore you about the details of Terry's *exciting* repair job, so let's move on a few hours later when the roof is almost fixed.) A few hours later, Genma and Soun were having their usual game of shogi, Kasumi was in the kitchen making dinner, Akane was in the dojo making "puree" out of bricks, P-chan was lost somewhere in the house; in the living room, Ranma was watching T.V. while Nabiki was in her room keeping record of who owed her money and/or favor(s). The only noise that could be heard was Terry's hammering on the roof. This was one of those rare moments of tranquillity the Tendou household had... And as most of you readers might of guessed, such peace and quiet can't last long in the Ranmaverse. "Ranma!!" shouted a Shampoo that appeared out of nowhere and instinctively threw herself to Ranma's arms "You come and eat at Nekohanten tonight!" [Uh oh.] Ranma thought [I forgot about that. Akane's not going to be happy about this.] "Get your hand off my Ranchan you hussy!!" shouted Ukyou as she suddenly appeared out of nowhere the same way Shampoo did "Ranchan is having dinner with me!" Ranma started to worry. He, better than anyone, knew that three of his fiancees and him on the same place always brought trouble and pain (to him that is!). There could be only a few other things that could make this more complicated. And of course, those things happened. "Hohohohohohohohohoho!!! Oh Ranma-sama!!" said Kodachi as she jumped over the Tedou's wall while holding in her hands a bag of homemade cookies that were certainly poisoned "I made a sweet delicacy for you!" "Just what do you think you're DOING Ranma!!!!" shouted Akane as she steeped out of the dojo noticing Shampoo all over him. "RAANNNNMMMMAAAAAA!!!!!" screamed Ryouga as he came out of the bathroom still soaked with hot water but somehow with his clothes on "How dare you insult Akane again!! You're going to pay!!!!" Ranma was now seriously worried, he couldn't handle all of them at once. And so he decided to do the most logical thing at hand: run. Run as fast as he could. If he was lucky enough and everybody followed him, Ryouga would probably get lost; Ukyou, Shampoo and Kodachi would certainly face each other and therefore giving him a chance to flee, and Akane... well he could always worry about her later. Ranma released himself out of Shampoo's grip and started running towards the yard. As predicted, everyone followed him. He then jumped on top of the roof to make a clean getaway. Once again, everybody did the same thing. The only thing Ranma forgot was that Terry was on top of the roof at the moment. He was actually asking himself what was all that racket about. Ranma avoided Terry by jumping over him. "Terry!! Get out of the way!!! FAST!!!" Ranma shouted as he continued to jump from rooftop to rooftop. "Hun???" he asked confused. Terry turned his sight in front, the only thing he managed to see before being trampled, was a group of teenagers chasing after Ranma. The only thing he felt after identifying the source of the danger was several foot septs all over his body. Everyone kept on running not careing about their squashed victim. "Sorry, sugar!" said Ukyou as she kept on running. "Sorry, Terry!" said Ryouga as he kept on running. "Do not be a nuisance in my pursuit, peasant!" said Kodachi as she kept on running. "Haiya! Shampoo sorry!" said Shampoo as she kept on running. "Sorry, Terry!" said Akane as she kept on running. The blond pony tailed gai-jin remained flat on his back still after that brief apology from the teenage cast. You could see several footprints all over him. He slowly incorporated himself as he held his aching head in pain. "I... don't know why..." he began "But something tells me that I'll have to get use to this sort of thing..." End of chapter 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- See you in chapter 3...