A Tale of Ten Yen

A Ranma ½ FanFiction
by
Sinom Bre

WARNING! This fic contains a LEMON scene, although it isn't necessarily graphic nor is it gratuitous. In fact, it's largely antiseptic.

Disclaimers

Ranma ½ and its characters are the property of Takahashi Rumiko, Shonen Sunday, Shogagukan, and Kitty TV (Japan), and Viz Communications (USA). This work is for free entertainment purposes only - no compensation has been or will be received from it.

Many thanks to Vince Seifert for superior prereading. Cheers!

Feel free to me with your comments and suggestions.

This is the story of a coin... ten yen, to be precise, but then you knew that from the title. How can one coin change the course of events in the Ranmaverse? Proceed, then, Gentle Reader, with a modicum of caution.

My thanks to Vince Seifert for the digital photo at right. All graphics manipulation by yours truly.

*KNOCK, KNOCK!*

Nabiki threw her manga across the room in frustration and shouted, "WHO'S THERE?!" She winced at the setup.

Her bedroom door softly creaked open, and Ranma stuck his head into the room. "What's with you?"

"I've had a bad day, all right?!" She crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at him.

"Oh?" Ranma sauntered in, closed the door, and leaned against the wall, studying his fiancée's sister. "Not make any money today?"

Ranma could see the gleam in her eyes harden to flint. "I," she proclaimed, "make money every day."

He tilted his head, smiling slightly. "I overheard someone say you barely broke even on the fight."

Nabiki's eyes flashed, and she cooly said, "Oh, and who told you that?" No one talks about my business without my approval!

"Nobody. Overheard it in the hall. Too many people. Don't know who said it."

Nabiki slumped a little, and the two of them just watched each other. They weren't really staring, as such, but just looking the other over with an oddly tense casualness.

The tableau held for a couple of moments until Nabiki had had enough.

"Is there something I can do for you, Ranma, or are you just going to stand there and hold the house up?"

In response, Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out a ten yen coin. He tossed it to Nabiki, who caught it deftly. She held it up between her index and middle fingers.

"This won't buy you much."

Ranma shook his head. "It's not for that. Look at it again."

Nabiki examined the metal disc carefully and then looked up, confused.

"So what? It's just ten yen."

"That's the point." Ranma walked over and gently took it from her hand. The action surprised Nabiki a little, but she didn't let it show. Ranma returned to leaning against the wall, twirling the coin between his fingers in a studied exhibition of dexterity.

"Ranma, you're really starting to cheese me off. What is the point of this little exercise?"

Ranma smirked and held the coin up between his fingers as Nabiki had done. "How bad do ya want this?"

Nabiki blink-blinked. "Huh? I mean, what do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Do you want this ten yen?" He waved the coin back and forth.

She visually tracked the coin as it moved before narrowing her eyes. "Sure. Why not? A yen is a yen is a yen, after all."

Ranma tossed the coin into the air and caught it, his fist hiding it from view. "Can't just have it. Have to earn it."

"WHAT?! Well, then maybe I'll just tell Akane the truth about her little bedwarmer! How about THAT?!"

He winced. "You really did have a bad day, ne? How much?"

"Ten yen," she smirked.

Shrugging, Ranma reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a different ten-yen piece, tossing it to her.

Nabiki caught it not quite as deftly as the other. She looked at the coin in her hand and then at Ranma's closed fist.

"Why didn't you just give me that one?"

Now Ranma smirked. "Because... ya have ta earn this one."

She leaned back against the headboard of her bed. "Okay, you've finally succumbed to the madness around here - you're making absolutely no sense."

Ranma just stood there, sweatdropping behind the smirk. Nabiki's facial expression quickly moved from irritated to annoyed and finally to angry; the day's events had whittled away a great deal of her cool.

"WELL?!"

"Well what?"

"ARGH! What's so special about that ten yen?!"

"Like I said: you can have that one, but ya gotta earn this one."

"WHAT?! There's no difference! It's just another ten yen!"

Ranma straightened up and flashed the coin between his fingers, waving it again. "Really?" He opened her door and hastily slipped out of the room.

Nabiki stared at the open doorway for a moment, then she looked down at the second ten yen in her palm. She hefted it.

Was the other one heavier?

Five days earlier...

Ranma and Akane were quietly eating lunch in their classroom when Hiroshi walked up.

"Hey, Ranma, Akane."

"Hi, Hiroshi."

"Hey," Ranma added after finally swallowing three mouthfuls, polishing off his Kasumi-made bento.

"Um, Ranma? Can I talk to you for a minute... alone?" Hiroshi was fidgeting slightly. He knew — as did everyone — that getting Ranma involved in something carried a certain amount of risk.

Ranma glanced over at Akane, and she cocked her head and smiled cutely. "Hmmm, sounds like boy-talk to me. Ne, Ranma?"

Ranma's mouth parted slightly, and he stared at his fiancée. Oh, man, she can be so cute when she does stuff like that!

Akane blushed under Ranma's frank and open gaze. "Baka! Go talk to Hiroshi!"

Snapping out of his daze, Ranma got up from his chair and followed Hiroshi out of the room. He glanced back once before exiting to see Akane watching him with a strange smile, except her gaze was aimed at his-- ACK! She IS a pervert girl!  He started pushing Hiroshi out the door more quickly as he felt his butt begin to burn, although he found the sensation surprisingly pleasant.

"Hey!" Hiroshi said, flailing his arms at the speed he was being moved along.

"Oh... nevermind!"

~~~~~

Back in the classroom, Akane continued to stare through the door until a pair of giggling girls broke into her fantasy. She whipped around to see her two best friends in spasms.

"WHAT?"

"For shame, Akane-chan!" Yuka squirreled.

"Yeah, Akane," Sayuri chimed in. "We saw what you were looking at. Naughty little girl. Who's the pervert?"

Akane was solid red, her mouth working but emitting no sound. She hunched over her bento and tried to force her hands and chopsticks to work.

Yuka and Sayuri howled in laughter.

~~~~~

Hiroshi led a surprised Ranma to the roof behind the clock tower. He then checked all around to make sure they were alone, even going so far as to reopen the door to the stairwell and then close it completely.

He finally turned to see Ranma, arms crossed and gazing at him with half-lidded eyes.

"Hiroshi-kun, if you're gonna ask my girl-half out, I'm gonna punt you to Kobe."

Hiroshi waved his arms and shook his head. "No, no! Nothing like that! You think I wanna die?"

"Um... okay, then. So what's up?"

Quickly closing the distance between them, Hiroshi clasped his hands behind his back and closed one eye, peering at his friend through the other.

"Want to have a little fun with a mutual pain-in-the-ass we have?"

Ranma's arms fell out of their cross. "Eh?!"

Hiroshi produced a very thick book from somewhere and held up the spine for Ranma to read.

"The Psychology of Obsession... I'm not reading that!"

Shaking his head, Hiroshi said, "I already have, and it's given me some ideas." The book disappeared.

Ranma leaned back against the clock tower. "What's going on, Hi? Who put a hair up your ass?"

"Nabiki."

"URK!" Ranma came out of his warding posture with a serious look. "Man, don't go messin' with her!"

Grinning evilly, Hiroshi said, "So who's messing with her? Think of it as a little experiment."

"I don't know, Hi," Ranma dithered. "I know she's been suckin' you dry lately, but ANY-thing with Nabiki always backfires in MY face."

"Not to worry, Ranma-kun. This is simple and straightforward. There's no plots or complicated plans you have to remember."

"Well... I'm listenin', but no promises. What is it?"

Hiroshi leaned a little further forward and slyly said, "Show her something she can't have."

The evening meal was a strained affair, everyone trying to figure out why Nabiki was gazing intently and speculatively at Ranma and, perhaps more unsettling, why Ranma seemed unaffected by it.

Finishing his food in true Saotome fashion, he rose from the table. "Say, Akane, feel like sparrin' a little?"

Akane had been in mid-swallow, and she choked. Ranma rapped her on the back a couple of times.

"Are you okay?" Ranma asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

She coughed a couple of times and then looked up at her fiancé. "Are you feeling all right?"

He blinked at her. "What?"

"You're being nice."

Ranma shrugged nonchalantly.

"You'll really spar with me? Not just dodge?"

He considered that and remembered Hiroshi's words. "Take any opportunity to show that someone else can have it, but she can't."  Ranma then reached into his pocket, pulling out a certain ten yen. He held it out for Akane, and she hesitantly took it.

"If I don't, then ya get ta keep thaaat ten yen."

Confusion ran rampant across Akane's face. "Wha-what? What's that got to do with it?"

"It's important. If I don't really spar with ya, it's yours."

Soun burst into tears. All he could see was the two actually sort-of getting along. Genma just kept eating. Kasumi smiled at them both.

Soun's tears stopped and everyone turned when Nabiki's chopsticks snapped. She looked at her hand in surprise, but Ranma paid it no mind. "See ya in the dojo, Akane," he said and walked out of the dining room.

Akane scratched her head, looking down at the coin. "Ooo-kaaay. Whatever." She slipped the coin into her skirt pocket and proceeded to finish her meal, occasionally sneaking glances at Nabiki across from her.

~~~~~

Ranma was going through his warm-up kata when he heard the shoji doors open and close. He turned and saw Nabiki regarding him steadily. Nodding once, he picked up where he'd left off in his exercise.

"Somethin' I can do for ya, Nabiki?"

"What are you playing at, Ranma?" she asked coldly. "This is some kind of payback for my dates with Kasha-ou Kinnosuke, isn't it?"

He almost faltered in his routine, so he stopped. "Gee, I hadn't thought of him in ages."

"Okay, so what is your game?"

"Game? ... No game."

"Bull."

Ranma crossed his arms. "Fine, you tell me. What's the game?"

Nabiki didn't have an immediate answer, but after a moment, she said, "How is it that Akane can have it, but I can't?"

Sighing, Ranma said, "I already told ya! YOU have ta EARN it!"

Nabiki found herself in an unusual position: not holding all the cards. What is so damn special about that ten yen?! Just play along, girl. You'll figure it out.

"Fine, Saotome. What do I have to do?"

"Ah, yeah." Ranma walked over to her and produced a photograph. He held it out, and she took it, looking down her nose at the image of onna-Ranma wearing only her boxer-shorts and stretching her arms above her head. All in all, a very fetching and nosebleed-quality photo.

One of my best, Nabiki thought. Oh, ho! I see what he wants. "I'm not buying all these back or destroying the negatives. Nice try, Ranma-kun," she smirked.

Smirking back, he said, "Don't have to."

"Eh?!" Nabiki's cool persona was getting a thorough workout this day.

Ranma laughed. "No, that's not it at all. See the pose?"

Dumbly, Nabiki nodded.

"For that ten yen, I get ta take a photo of you like that, except in panties, not boxers." Kamisama, Hiroshi! I hope ya know what you're doin'!

Nabiki face-faulted. She eased back to her feet with the biggest smirk Ranma had ever seen. "Really, Ranma, if you want to get me naked, all you have to do is ask."

"URK!"

Nabiki stepped up to the cringing martial artist and ran her hands down his front. "I mean, a big, hunky guy like you? Why, I'd be the envy of every girl in school." She locked her hands behind his neck and gazed hotly into his bulging eyes. "Ne? ... Ranma-kun?"

Ranma finally found his voice, "GAAAH!!" and slipped out from under her arms. "THAT'S NOT IT!! YUCK!!!"

"I should be insulted," Nabiki sniffed, "but for ten yen, I'll forget the whole thing."

Running on automatic reflex, Ranma reached into his pocket for the money. Fortunately, he'd already given it to Akane, and he remembered that as his hand groped an empty pocket. He winced and straightened.

"Gah. Almost got away with that, Nabiki. Anyways, I told ya what ya had ta do for that ten yen. So?"

Nabiki stuck her face in his, looking in one eye and then the other. Ranma bigsweated.

"What's your GAME, Ranma? Tell me, or life WILL be hell."

Ranma pulled at his hair. "What do I have ta do ta get through to ya?!"

"You're SERIOUS?!"

Lowering his arms, he nodded slowly. "Un."

"You thought I'd go for THAT, Saotome?!"

Ranma scratched his head. "Uh... didn't ya just say all I had ta do was ask?"

Nabiki almost face-faulted again. "Fine, fine, fine, FINE! If you won't tell me what I want to know, I have other ways!" She spun on her heel and stalked out of the dojo, passing Akane along the way and almost knocking her down.

Ranma shrugged and went back to his kata, but he was hardly calm. "It won't take at first,"  Hiroshi had said, "but give it time..."

Akane walked up. "What's going on?"

"Who can tell with Nabiki? Ready?"

The next morning, Akane and Ranma made their usual way to school: Akane on the ground and Ranma taking the high road. However, Ranma kept stealing worried glances at his fiancée.

"Um, uh, how ya feelin', Akane?"

Akane stopped and clenched her fists, arms straight down. She whipped her head around, and Ranma winced at the sight of the shiner darkening almost half of her face.

"Will you STOP IT?! If you ask me that ONE MORE TIME, OOO, I'LL... I'm a martial artist, too, and I'm supposed to take my lumps! I'M NOT MADE OF GLASS!! I'M DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY TO HAVE THIS BLACK EYE!!!"

Ranma hung his head and shuffled on down the fence toward school.

Having expected an insult in response to her tirade, Ranma's meek demeanor caused her anger to abruptly sputter out. "Ranma, would you come down here, please?"

He swung his head her way, and she could see his eyes peering out from under his mop of hair. He stepped off the fence and landed lightly.

Akane walked up and regarded him seriously; she could see his horror at her bruise and at the fact that he'd done it. "Ranma, we were sparring. You didn't really hurt me, you know. Would it have bothered you so much if it'd just been a bruise on my leg?"

He didn't say anything, but hesitantly shook his head once.

"Tell me something else. How am I supposed to get better if you won't spar with me seriously?" She searched his clouded eyes.

"I... don't know," he finally said.

"How would you like it if nobody took you seriously as a fighter? Can you imagine the shame and humiliation?"

He kicked at the ground, reluctant to let any ground go, but Akane just waited, not backing off. Finally, painfully, he nodded quickly.

Akane sighed and said, "Do you want to shame me, make me feel humiliated?"

"...nooo..."

"That's what happens every time you just dodge," she said tiredly. "It shames and humiliates me, like I'm not worth the trouble."

She crossed her arms. "Do you think I'm not worth the trouble? Not worth your time or any real effort?"

Not waiting for an answer, Akane started to walk away, but she stopped and stepped back up to him. She grabbed his hand and turned it palm up, placing the ten yen he'd given her the night before into it.

"One other thing: you can't distract me from what's important with your little games. Think about that." And she walked off, leaving him to follow behind.

~~~~~

As Ranma entered the stone gates of Furinkan after Akane, watchful eyes peered down from a third-story window.

Jeez, what'd she do to him?  Nabiki wondered. He looks like a whipped puppy. The image of a ten-yen coin held between two masculine fingers danced in her mind. She shook it loose and returned to her current business dealings.

Nabiki joined Akane and Ranma for lunch, a rare enough occurrence these days to warrant strange looks from her sister and her sister's fiancé. It had also caught Hiroshi's attention, but he was content to watch from a distance.

"What?" Nabiki asked, nonplussed.

"Nothing, Oneechan. It's just... you're usually busy taking money."

Nabiki sat down in an empty desk and picked at the string tying her bento. "Not much happening today," she muttered.

"Oh, well... sit down, then." Akane smiled at her sister. Ranma had been unusually solicitous all morning, and Akane's mood had improved, in spite of fielding a thousand questions about her black eye.

They ate quietly for a while, but Akane and Nabiki soon found themselves chatting about this, that, and the other. It was very calm and peaceful for both of them, until Ranma finished his lunch and started amusing himself with a coin, flipping it over the tops of his fingers.

Nabiki grew a little tense and maintained her end of the conversation with Akane with obvious difficulty. Akane, wondering what was suddenly wrong, looked over at Ranma, but couldn't figure out what, if anything, was making Nabiki tense.

"What are you doing?" Akane asked.

"Huh? Oh... nothin'. Just passin' the time."

Akane watched the flash of the metal as it smoothly flowed back and forth over his hand.

"Where'd you learn that?"

"Saw some magic guy on TV. Looked like good trainin'." He batted the coin into the air and caught it between thumb and forefinger, holding it out. "Ya want it?"

"Is that one magic?"

"Naw. Just the same ol' ten yen."

"Hmph! You know how I feel about that!" She turned her head away.

Ranma sighed dejectedly. "Sure. Just wanted ya ta know you could have it, if ya wanted."

With half-lidded eyes, she looked over her shoulder and said frostily, "You're so weird, Ranma."

Slumping, he returned to flipping the coin at a slower pace.

Both were surprised when Nabiki shut her bento, got up, tossed her meal into the trash, and left.

"What's bitin' her?" Ranma asked.

Akane shook her head. "Like you said last night, who knows with her?"

Ranma was about to put the coin away, when he detected an island of stillness in the sea of casual motion surrounding him. He locked eyes with Hiroshi, and Hiroshi grinned and turned back to his meal.

Over the next few weeks, Ranma continued to exhibit the coin whenever he could do so and not look like a total idiot. Once or twice, he asked Ukyou to hold it for him; she, of course, was ecstatic to do anything he asked, within bounds of severely limited reason. And of course, Akane wouldn't speak to him for a couple of days afterward. Tiring of that scenario, he began employing Kasumi as a holder for the ten yen whenever Nabiki was around, and it usually went something like this:

"Say, Kasumi."

"Why, hello, Ranma-kun! What can I do for you?" She would always have a smile, and Ranma loved that about her.

"Could ya hold on ta somethin' for me?"

"Again?" she would ask, bewildered.

"Yeah, I just need ya ta hang on ta this coin for me."

"Again?" she might ask, looking even more bewildered.

"Sure. Just for a day, ya know?"

Shaking her head, she would take the proffered money and slip it into her apron pocket. "Is it a rare coin, Ranma?"

"Naw. Just a ten yen. And if ya do need ta spend it, that's okay, too."

"Anou... whatever you say, Ranma-kun."

"Thanks, Kasumi. You're the best!" And he would saunter out of the kitchen.

Kasumi would almost invariably stop whatever she was doing and take the coin out of her pocket, turning it over and over, trying to determine what made it so special to Ranma. Finally, she would shrug and slip it back into her pocket, putting it down to martial artists and their ways, although she'd thought she was already familiar with most of their quirks.

Wherever Nabiki happened to be, she would almost invariably mutter to herself, "That jerk. What does he think he's trying to prove? Jerk, jerk, jerk..."

It came to pass in about the fourth week of ten-yen torture that Nabiki decided she'd had enough. She started upping her extortion on Ranma, catching him in all sorts of compromising positions. To her rising frustration, however, he would either not care if she circulated her photos or if he paid, she would never see that damn ten yen coin among the payment.

After two more weeks of increased activity on the part of the middle Tendou, Ranma was also becoming weary of the experiment; having Nabiki continually on one's case was enough to try anyone's endurance. Ranma just knew that if he didn't draw this matter to a close, he'd end up paying through the nose for it somehow, and since the 'experiment' had been someone else's brainchild, he went to see the source.

~~~~~

"WHAT?!?!?!"

Hiroshi laughed. "Look, old man, you're the one who wants to give her a fair shot, and that's my solution."

"You really ARE a pervert!"

"What can I say? Can you think of a better way to test her resolve?"

Ranma shuddered. "Trust YOU to come up with somethin' like THIS!"

"Got a better idea? I'm game."

Ranma shuddered again.

"Man, I don't see what your problem is, Ranma. If I had a curse like that, I'd take advantage of it more ways than just cadging occasional free eats. Kamisama! Every day, you can live out the fantasies half the male population of the world have, and here you are, balking at a simple test of your future sister-in-law's will. Go home. You're bothering me."

"I think I will. I KNOW I can come up with somethin' better than THAT!" Ranma headed for the door.

Hiroshi was sadly shaking his head over his friend's hangups, when he remembered a certain personality quirk Ranma had in spades.

"Well, do what you want, but I think you're just chicken."

Jerking to a halt in front of the door, Ranma ground out, "What - did - you - say?"

"I don't think you can handle it, that's what!" Hiroshi gulped and silently said a few prayers.

Ranma slowly turned around, his eyes burning. Sweating, Hiroshi decided to cast his fate to the winds and turned up the heat; he didn't think he'd get another chance at something like this.

"I'll even put it in terms you can't possibly deny: Saotome Ranma, I challenge you to pull this off and make Nabiki think you're enjoying it! You are, of course, free to ignore this challenge at any time," he appended nervously.

Ranma clenched his eyes shut and shook, at war with himself over the need to accept any challenge and the desire to run like hell from it. After a moment, he managed to calm down slightly. He cracked one eye open and said, "And what do I get if I win?"

Hiroshi bigsweated. "Uh... what do you mean?"

"If I do this and win, what do I get? What are you puttin' up for the challenge?"

"Uh..."

This'll cook his goose, Ranma thought. "If I win," he smirked, "you have ta take Nabiki out on a date, wherever she wants ta go, and you're buyin'."

"URK!" Hiroshi bent his arms, first and fourth fingers extended. "With Ms. Money?! Why would I want to do THAT?!"

Ranma shrugged. "Whatever. No date, no challenge."

Hiroshi stood there for a long time, thinking. Ranma, deciding the matter was closed, turned and headed for the door. "See ya round, Hi."

"WAIT! Errr, okay, I'll do it!"

Ranma face-faulted, then leapt to his feet. "WHAT?!"

"Sure. I mean, it'd be worth it, if you'll hold up your end, um, so to speak."

"WHAT?! NO! You can't be SERIOUS!!"

Hiroshi sighed. "Whatever, Ranma. If you don't want to do it, then don't. I was ready to do my part, so I don't wanna hear any more about the oh-so-grand Saotome honor."

"Fiiine," Ranma eventually hissed. "I hope you're happy, Hi."

"Hey, man, I'm not the one who's going to be feeling good over this. I'll just be getting fleeced, ne?"

"Grrr!"

"By the way, Ranma-kun, I could come along as witness--"

*BONK!*

Hiroshi was laid out on the floor, little spirals for eyes.

"Freak of Nature," Ranma huffed as he jogged for home. Oh, maaannn! What have I gotten myself into now?! "C'mon, Saotome, you're a MAN and don't back down for nothin'! ...Oh, maaannn! What am I gonna do?!"

In a loose tank-top and short-shorts, Nabiki sat at her computer, trying to keep her mind on her financial books. She'd already gotten rid of her custom screensaver that showed various coined denominations of yen floating by.

*KNOCK, KNOCK!*

She knew the owner of that particular sound. "What do you want, Ranma?"

Onna-Ranma slipped into the room and quietly shut the door, leaning back against it, her hands behind her back, and doing her best impression of a smoky gaze. She was wearing a sheer halter-top and a pair of boxers. What wasn't obvious was that she was also wearing panties, Damn things,  for a certain reason that would shortly be obvious.

"Hey, Nabiki-chan," she squeaked. The cold metal of the ten yen was generating all sorts of strange sensations.

Oh, brother,  Nabiki thought. What now?  She merely arched an eyebrow at her visitor.

Ranma licked her lips and said, "I, uh, thought I'd give you a second chance at that ten yen."

Despite her best efforts, Nabiki's blood pressure went up and her heartbeat accelerated. Finally!

Outwardly calm, she said, "Fine. How?"

"Heh," Ranma bigsweated, "I've, uh, hidden it somewhere in-- ERRR, on my *COUGH, COUGH* body. You, ah, can have it if ya can find iiit." Her voice cracked and squealed on the last word, but it went unnoticed because Nabiki had completely lost her cool and face-faulted.

"You've got to be kidding," she moaned from the floor.

"Errr, no, not really."

Nabiki climbed to her feet and regarded Ranma incredulously. "What IS your game with that ten yen, Ranma?"

"No game, Nabiki, uh, chan. It's just as simple as pie, ya know? Heh, the panty picture or 'hide-and-seek', a-heh."

Crossing her arms, Nabiki said, "Do you have any idea how many dirty hands that coin has passed through?"

Ranma beamed. "No prob. I washed it first."

Nabiki almost hit the floor again, but she barely managed to stay upright. She then began to bite her lip. Ranma had been torturing her with that ten yen for what seemed like forever. She wanted to end this little drama so she could get back to what passed for normal around the Tendou Dojo.

"You think I won't do it, don't you?"

Ranma shrugged, doing interesting things to her unbound breasts. "Really don't know. Maybe ya don't have the guts. Just thought I'd give ya a choice."

However, Nabiki was not the daughter of a martial arts family for nothing. "Hmph! Prepare yourself."

"EEP!" Ranma spread herself against the wall, her arms out and elbows bent at ninety-degrees, but she did keep her legs together.

Nabiki stepped up and ran her hands through Ranma's hair. Easy enough, and it didn't do much for either, other than relaxing Ranma a little. Squeezing each tied-off bunch of Ranma's pigtail and convinced it wasn't there, she felt around the neck, shoulders, and arms. Ranma squirmed a little, but it wasn't that bad, or so she thought. Nabiki turned her attention to Ranma's front and was about to feel around Ranma's breasts, when she noticed that Ranma's nipples had hardened, so she stopped; it wasn't difficult at all to see through the material of the halter-top.

"Oh, for the love of..."

Steeling herself, she felt around the bottom of the breasts, ran her hands up the sides, over the swell at the top, through the cleavage, back around the sides nearer the front, and finally over the peaks.

"Ah! Ah!"

"Can it!"

"G-g-gomen."

Snorting, Nabiki ran her hands down Ranma's sides, up her back, and she started to run back down Ranma's front again, but she jerked her hands away. Shuddering, she felt along Ranma's stomach, back and forth, not quite making it to the bottom of her torso.

"Mmblgrrrm," Ranma moaned. She blinked as she felt a wet warmth start to collect in her panties. Oh, no!

Sighing, Nabiki could already see most of Ranma's legs; no ten yen. She stared at Ranma's boxers.

"You didn't. TELL me you didn't."

"Heeeee," Ranma squealed, which was supposed to have been 'heh'.

Nabiki shuddered, then knelt, grasped Ranma's boxers, and yanked them down.

"AAH!" Ranma yelled, surprise getting the better of her discretion.

"Shhh! You want the whole house up here?!"

"N-N-No. But not so rough!"

"Grrr... Oh, Kamisama, you're wearing panties," Nabiki looked down, "AND boxers?!"

"Well, didn't want it fallin' out!"

Nabiki put her face in her hands. "Tell me you didn't."

"Uh, um, I did?"

"How far in?" she mumbled.

"Uh, uh, not far... I think. How far is far?"

Shaking her head, Nabiki looked straight at Ranma's panties and finally took note of the musky scent and the apparent moisture. She stared up at Ranma with disgust.

"This is turning you on, isn't it?"

Ranma multiple sweatdropped. "Anou... er, um, well... you are a girl, heh."

"Glad you noticed," she said icily, "but do you know how this makes ME feel?"

Blinking, Ranma said, "Not really."

Nabiki clonked herself on the head. "Of course you don't. You're just a dumb jock."

"HEY!"

"Shhhh!"

"Okay, okay."

Nabiki teetered on the edge of indecision. She REALLY wanted that ten yen, but THIS! Gad!

Ranma, sadly - or not, depending on your point of view - was growing hotter and hotter because a woman was kneeling before her and staring at her, her... place! Every few seconds, her legs would tremble. Gah! Women! Can't make up their minds about nothin'!  The fact that she fell into that category at the moment escaped her notice.

"We-well?" Ranma finally asked.

"Um..."

"Fine." Ranma reached down to pull up her boxers, but Nabiki stopped her.

"Damn you, Saotome!"

"..."

"Fine, great." With a determination and steel nerves born of many a business deal, Nabiki hooked her fingers into Ranma's panties and yanked them down to her ankles, bringing the boxers along for the ride.

"AAAAHHH!!" The sensation of soaked panties peeling and pulling away from tender bits had Ranma slapping the wall with the flat of her hand.

"RANMA! WHAT are you DOING?! BE QUIET!!" Nabiki hissed fiercely.

"EEK!! So-sorry... again."

"You're going to get us both killed! Now be quiet and let me work."

"Sorry, sorry, sorry--"

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up, already."

Nabiki brought her hand forward and then stopped. "Uh, spread, *HACK* your legs."

Ranma tried to oblige, but couldn't. "Um... my, oh man, panties are--"

"Well, step out of them!"

"Oh." And she did, subsequently spreading her legs to about one-and-one-half shoulder widths.

Nabiki shook herself and brought her hand forward, only to stop when she was finally forced to make recognition of onna-Ranma's natural hair color. Nabiki felt an odd warmth begin in the depths of her belly.

"Gag."

"We-well, don't, the-then."

"Shut up."

Gritting her teeth, Nabiki reached forward and then slowly slid two fingers in and then up.

"WOOOOOAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"SHUT-UP!! ... Ah! I felt it!"

"So-so-so did I... and ya just, ah!, pushed it, AH-AH!, farther innnnnnoooohhhmygoooodddd!"

"Oh, super. This just keeps getting better and better."

Knowing full well what the result would be, Nabiki scissored her fingers open and pushed a little further in.

Ranma was biting her palm and silently screaming into it.

Nabiki felt the coin slide along the inside of one finger.

"Almost got... it..."

And, of course, that's when all hell broke loose: Ranma's body started convulsing; Nabiki lost her tenuous grip on the ten yen and, incidentally, shoved it further in; Ranma proceeded to screech without benefit of a muffler; and last, but definitely not least, Nabiki's door slapped open to reveal Akane, P-chan comfortably nestled against her bosom.

"WHAT THE HELL... is..."

Nabiki's hand came out with a squelchy pop, and she presented that deer-in-headlights look to her little sister. Ranma jerked and screeched once more as Nabiki's hand departed, and she then promptly passed out, dying the little death, and falling face-first against Nabiki's thighs, tilting to the side, and somehow managing to present her damp derrière for Akane's inspection.

Akane gawked for two seconds and then wilted to the floor, a little whisp of steam rising from the back of her head. P-chan went down with her, two jets of blood arcing from his snout.

Nabiki smacked herself on the forehead and only then realized what she had a handful of.

"Oh, GROSS!" Her hand came away, trailing fluid in a string.

"Is everything all ri--" Kasumi stood in the doorway, staring and trying to make sense of what she was seeing: Nabiki wiping a mess off of her hands and face; Ranma with her butt in the air and... leaking; Akane face-down on the floor and unmoving; and P-chan squirting blood from his snout. Without blinking, Kasumi turned around and staggered down the stairs.

"Fa-Father," she called. "I th-think we have a small p-problem."

Tendou Soun presided at the gathering around the dining-room table. Kasumi was quietly pouring tea, and if it happened not to be up to its usual standards, no one felt obliged to comment upon it.

Ranma was still in girl-form, having failed to retrieve a certain piece of currency from its present location. Fortunately, the metal had long since warmed to body temperature, and Ranma was thankfully unaware of it by means other than movement caused by the occasional jostling of her body.

"Now, Son," Soun began, feeling a little odd as he always did when addressing Ranma's cursed form, "please tell us why you've chosen Nabiki over Akane in the joining of the schools."

"ACK!" Ranma presented warding signs. "I DIDN'T!!"

Akane was seething, but Nabiki spoke first. "Daddy, it wasn't what it looked like." She then paused, realizing that was usually Ranma's line. "Um... um..."

"Nabiki, dear, Ranma has taken your virtue. It seems that--"

Ranma shot to her feet. "HEY! SHE had HER hand up MY... uh... Well, I didn't take nobody's virtue!" She slumped back into her place, stewing and embarrassed at the same time.

Soun blinked. "Is this true, Nabiki?"

"Yes, Daddy," she said quietly.

Soun was trying very hard not to dissolve into tears before he got to the bottom of this matter, but cracks were starting to appear in the veneer.

"I... I... *SNIFFLE* I don't understand! What could be so important *SOB!* that you had to put the joining of the schools in jeopardy? For what?! Answer me, Ranma-kun!"

Genma performed his stoic act. "Tell him, boy! Don't shame yourself!"

"For whaaat?!" Soun wailed.

"Anou... ... ... ten yen?" Ranma squeaked.

Everyone but Ranma and Nabiki face-faulted. Soun was shortly in full-blown wail #1002: 'My daughter's a prostitute! Or is Ranma a prostitute?! I'm so confused! And for very little money!!'

Akane was shouting at Ranma. "What IS it with you and TEN YEN?!"

Ranma sweat-dropped and twiddled her thumbs. "Heh."

"Actually, I'd like to know that, too," Nabiki drawled.

Ranma whipped her head around, but everyone, including Kasumi, was waiting for her explanation. Seeing no way out, she hung her head.

"It was just, er, a joke."

"A JOKE?!" Nabiki and Akane screeched.

"You tried to seduce my SISTER... JUST FOR A JOKE?!?!" Akane shouted.

"NO, DUMMY! THAT WASN'T MY IDEA!!"

Akane and Ranma glared at each other.

"Well... whose idea was it?" Kasumi innocently asked.

Deflating, Ranma slumped back into her seat. "I can't tell ya."

"Son," Genma intoned, "honor demands that you tell--"

"Fat lot you know about it, Oyaji!" Ranma spat. "So just SHUT UP about your stupid honor!!"

"BOY!! I'm your FATHER! DON'T--"

Genma's tirade was cut off before it really began by a soft voice. "Why, Ranma? I thought... I... We..." Akane trailed off as she began to cry.

"Akane! I... I... Aw, don't cry! It just got outta hand. I... I'm sorry."

She looked at him sadly through her tears. "That's just not enough anymore, Ranma."

"Akane!" Ranma pleaded. "Please, I--"

"No. You've ruined it, Ranma. If she'll have you, you can be engaged to Nabiki." She wiped away the moisture on her face. "I don't know you. I don't have a fiancé." Her face set in stone, she walked out of the room.

"Akane..." Stunned, Ranma held out her hand to the retreating figure.

"I'm so ashamed!" Genma wailed, tearing at the bandanna covering his head in lieu of hair. "My son is a degenerate! My CHILD is a REDHEADED SLUT!!"

Ranma whirled on her father. "WHAT?!?! STUPID OLD MAN! WHY, I OUGHTA--"

A different shoji into the room slid open, and a voice said, "Did someone call Ranko what I thought I heard?" Saotome Nodoka peered into the room, seeing onna-Ranma first. "Ranko! Did you do something naughty?! How many times have I told you to be more lady... like..." She blinked. "GENMA!"

Not quite fast enough, Genma's bucket of water was only beginning to empty onto his head when his wife spotted him. Transfixed by her stare, Genma's eyes were wide and his mouth open, all of his teeth showing. This posture remained as he became a panda. With staring eyes and no change of expression, he rolled onto his back and clutched his trademark beachball. One paw held up a sign.

"Hello, Someone Else's Wife."  Flip. "I'm just a cute panda."

Nodoka crumpled to the ground.

In a flash, Genma was on his bear feet, his pack on his back and waving a different sign. "C'mon, boy! Training trip!"

"Stuff it, Oyaji," Ranma said tiredly. "I ain't goin' nowhere." She slumped down and watched as Soun and Kasumi tended to her mother.

Genma whacked her on the head with another sign. "WHAT ABOUT THE PROMISE?!"

"If you wanna run, go ahead. I'm stayin'."

Genma proceeded to repeatedly beat his son (now daughter) over the head, hoping to induce unconsciousness. Ranma was having none of it. Several nasty kicks and punches later, an unconscious panda lay in the Tendou backyard.

Ranma padded in and settled next to her mother, almost looking forward to an end to it all.

Akane...

~~~~~

Ranma fidgeted, feeling a little off in her lower abdomen.

"Ranko?"

She jumped and looked down to see her mother gazing up at her. "Uh, hi." She smiled weakly.

"Ranko-chan, was... was I dreaming or did Genma turn into... Panda-chan?"

"Uh... uh..." Ranma squinched her eyes shut. "Yeah." *SIGH* "He did."

"How... how is that possible?" Nodoka sat up and knelt next to Ranma.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ranma could see Soun, Kasumi, and Nabiki peeking around the edge of the shoji. "Well, ya see, Mo-- uh, Obasama, there's these cursed springs in China. During the train'--"

"Ranko-chan, watch your speech. Young ladies don't speak roughly," Nodoka admonished.

"Um..." Oh, man!  "Right. Sure. Like I was say-ing, Pops, errr, Saotome-no-ojiisan and Ranma were train-ing, and they fell into a cursed spring. Saotome-no-ojiisan turns into a panda when splashed with cold water."

"Oh, my! And did you say Ranma fell into it?" Nodoka put her hand up to her mouth. "He's a panda, too?!"

Ranma was really starting to sweat. "Uh, no. He, ah, fell into a different spring."

Her mother breathed out in relief. "My goodness, that was quite a fright! I'm glad to hear he's all right."

"Uh..."

"He is all right?" Nodoka surreptitiously looked around for her katana, but it didn't seem to be present.

"Uh... well. He doesn't, ah, turn into a panda, that's for sure, heh." Ranma scratched the back of her head, and Nodoka finally took a good look at the girl.

"Ranko! You're not wearing a bra! Why, you can almost see EVERY-thing!!"

Ranma whipped her arms around and in front of her chest. "Uh..."

"And did I hear Genma calling you a... RANKO! YOU DIDN'T!!"

Ranma blinked. "Didn't what?"

"Did a man take your virtue?!"

"ACK!!"

"Oh, my! Well, people have gotten married for worse reasons, I suppose. What's his name, dear?"

Waving her hands in front of her mother's face, she screeched, "NO, NO, NO!! It weren't no man! It was Nabiki!! GACK!!!" She realized what she'd said just as Nodoka fell back over in a faint.

Ranma bent over and lightly slapped her cheeks. "Mom?! Mom?!" She grabbed a convenient glass of water and splashed her on the face.

"Ah!" Nodoka blinked awake.

"Don't SCARE me like that!" Ranma said, patting her jiggling chest, which happened to be right over her mother's face.

"Ranko, please! Don't flaunt your... assets so!"

Shrinking in on herself, Ranma backed away.

"Now," Nodoka said, taking a deep breath and letting it out, "am I to understand that you and... Nabiki are... um, that way?"

Ranma blink-blinked. "Um, what way?"

"Anou, two girls instead of a boy and a girl."

Putting a finger in her mouth, Ranma worked that one over, but she did finally get it. "GAH!! No way!! With NABIKI?!?!"

They both heard a soft snort come from around the door, but they ignored it.

"Well, then, what's going on?"

"Gah! I was just tryin' to let her have that DAMN ten yen!" Ranma wrung her hands.

"What ten yen?"

"The one that's still in my..." She was pointing at her crotch when Nodoka fainted again.

This is really gettin' old.  "Kasumi, can you come here a sec, please?"

Appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Kasumi said, "Yes, Ranma... chan?"

Ranma winced. "Have ya got any kitchen tongs?"

"Why, yes, I do. What do... you... ... ... Oh, my!"

"Got it in one."

Akane wouldn't have left her room, but the call of nature really couldn't be ignored any longer. She shuffled out, down the stairs, and to the bathroom. She slid the door open, and her eyes bulged out and her mouth gaped.

"AWWW, MAAANNN! AKANEEEEE!! Don't LOOOOK!!!"

Akane quietly shut the door and leaned against it, still showing dinner-plate eyes. She gave passing thought to a scream, but the range of possible subjects to scream about tied her tongue. She stumbled away, desperately trying to erase the image of Ranma with two metal handles sticking out of her... place.

Nabiki's door swung open without a knock, a delicate, female hand reached in, and a coin flew across the room. Nabiki caught it, and then wished she hadn't; the coin dropped to the desk with a moist clink.

"There's your damn ten yen."

"You didn't wash this."

"Nope."

The door clicked shut.

Ranma was trying to sneak out of the house, when:

"Ranko-chan."

"Eep!"

Nodoka took her by the hand and led her back into the tearoom. She sat her down and knelt down beside her.

"About Ranma..."

A statue sat next to the Saotome matriarch, bits of stone flaking off to litter the floor.

"You mentioned that he fell into a different spring. What would that be, dear?" At some point Nodoka had retrieved her katana, and she was now clutching it to her.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah--"

"What's wrong?" She glanced down. "Oh! I see you haven't found a bra, yet. Well, we can fix that later. Please answer my question. If Ranma fell into a spring, what does he turn into?"

"O-- O-- O--" a rigid Ranma sputtered.

"O?! What do you mean, 'O'?"

Ranma shivered. "On-- On-- On-na."

"Onna... I see," she said, her voice growing abruptly stern. "And where might this 'girl' be found?"

"Ah!! Ah!! Ah!! A--"

"RANMA!! PREPARE TO DIE!!!"

The closed shoji to the backyard crashed in to reveal Ryouga brandishing his umbrella.

"THERE YOU ARE!! HOW DARE YOU JILT AKANE AND DO... AND DO... THAT WITH NABIKI?!?!"

Ranma went into overload and fell over backwards, eyes spiraling and hands in their warding poses. Her move caused Ryouga to miss and break the table in half.

Nodoka was upset at the intrusion. "YOUNG MAN!! What is the meaning of this?! And WHERE do you see RANMA?!"

"ARE YOU AS BLIND AS MOUSSE, LADY?! HE'S RIGHT THERE!!"

Nodoka followed the line of the umbrella as it pointed down at Ranko, and she noticed that one of Ranko's breasts had fallen out of the halter-top.

"WHAT?!"

"Uh... Just who are you, anyways?" Ryouga had a feeling that he'd goofed, but he couldn't quite pin it down.

"I'm... I'm... Ranma's... mother..."

"URK!!" He'd done it now! Very aware of the seppuku pact hinging on Ranma's manliness and VERY aware of who'd accidentally divulged whose weakness, Ryouga spun in place and crashed out of the house. Time to REALLY get lost!  He tried several times to do just that, and he finally succeeded on the eleventh bash through the wall surrounding the Tendou compound.

Nodoka was in shock. Ranko?! Is RANMA?!?!  The Saotome honor blade slipped from her grasp, and the scabbarded sword clattered on the floor. The noise, after the brief period of silence, jolted Ranma out of her daze and she snapped to her feet.

"RYOUGA!" She saw the destroyed shoji, but Ryouga was conspicuously absent. "Where did he--"

"Ra-- Ranma?"

"GAAAH!!!" Ranma pulled one leg up, both arms pointing away with hands angled up and palms flat, and gaped.

Nodoka tentatively reached out a hand. "Is... is it you... Ranma?"

Coming slowly out of her pose, Ranma stared at her mother for a moment and then hung her head and closed her eyes. "Hai," she whispered. What she wasn't expecting was to be crushed in an emphatic hug.

"Oh, my child! My CHILD!!" Nodoka was crying and squeezing the life out of the petite redhead. She eventually let go and sat back down, pulling a handkerchief out of her kimono sleeve and drying her eyes.

The kerchief disappeared, and Nodoka grabbed Ranma's hands, pulling her down to the table.

"Oh, Ranma! I... I... ... You're a girl," she said flatly.

Ranma scratched the back of her head. "Uh... yeah."

Nodoka's attention was suddenly on the free breast hanging out of the halter-top. "Ranma! Cover yourself up! That's not very lady-like!!"

"ACK!" Ranma hastily slipped the errant piece of anatomy back inside the top and looked up to see that her mother had put her hand over her mouth and her eyes had gone wide.

"What am I saying?!"

"Uh..."

"Ranma-chan, I have to know. Are you a girl or a boy?"

"I'm a guy," she sighed wearily.

"Why have you been hiding from your own mother?" Nodoka was starting to tear again.

"When ya first came to visit, Pops told me about the, uh, promise about me bein' a man and all, and he made me hide." She wrung her hands in shame. "I didn't want ta, but..."

"I'm guessing he made me out to be some monster, ne?"

Ranma looked out from under her brows. "Kinda... yeah."

Nodoka shook her head and stared down at the ring on her left hand. "Oh, Genma. That sounds just like something you would do." She sat there, not blinking or looking up.

"Um, Mom?"

"Yes, dear?" She managed to smile for her child.

"About the promise?" Ranma's fingers clenched.

"Your... curse is a problem. However, you did try to seduce your fiancée's sister, even while a girl, so I suppose I can overlook it." She rubbed her forehead. "I have a daughter now instead of a son, even if she acts manly. We'll have to work on that. No daughter of mine will go around--"

"Mom?"

"What?"

"All I need is some hot water, and then I'm a guy again."

Nodoka blinked. "What?!"

"Yeah, it only lasts until I can find some hot water. 'Course, there's a lotta cold water out there, so-- URK!!"

Another crushing embrace, but it was more quickly released. Nodoka's eyes shone. "Oh, show me, dear!"

"Uh, yeah, okay-- Ack!" Ranma waved her arms in surprise.

Kasumi had appeared out of nowhere, again, and was pouring a kettle of hot water onto Ranma's head. Nodoka watched in stupefied amazement as Ranma enlarged, lost a couple of prominent parts (gaining one other, she supposed), and shifted from red hair to black. And then, she just stared at his chest.

Ranma looked down to see what she was staring at and saw that he was still wearing the halter-top.

"GAH!!"

*RIIIP!*

Nodoka beamed and gathered her son into her arms. "Oh, Ranma. It's so good to have you back!"

~~~~~

It should be mentioned that Panda-chan had disappeared, presumably keeping some hitherto unknown appointment with a lady panda... maybe... or not.

~~~~~

Taking a break so he could towel off and get into some decent clothing, Ranma found himself in front of, and gazing longingly at, Akane's bedroom door. He raised his hand and hesitantly knocked.

"GO AWAY, RANMA!"

"Akane, lemme explain!"

"I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU!"

"A-Akane! I... I WANT... I want..." Ranma's head thumped against the door. I'm sorry... I lo-lo-lo... I lo-love you.

The door jerked open, and Ranma almost fell into the room.

"WHAT can you WANT?! Can't you get it from NABIKI, NOW?!?!"

"It wasn't like that! Honest!!"

"HONEST?!?! If I hadn't walked in, were you going to tell me about it?!"

Ranma opened his mouth and then shut it with a click. Akane saw it as an admission of guilt.

"I don't want to have to say this again, so listen this time. You've ruined it. You took something away from me, something that can't be returned."

"I... I don't understand. What did I--"

"Ranma, you are so stupid! Nabiki got what belonged to me. ME! Now go away. I don't know you."

She shut the door in his face and locked it.

Ranma wiped at his eyes and shuffled away, defeated and lost.

~~~~~

"Now, Son, what are we going to do about this mess with Nabiki and Akane, your fiancée?"

Ranma grimly said nothing.

"Oh, dear. I suppose I will have to talk to Soun about Nabiki's, ah, sexual preference."

*THUMP!*

Nabiki had face-faulted from the position in which she'd been listening, and her head and shoulders were visible through the open shoji.

Nodoka beamed at Ranma. "I think she likes you."

Ranma turned green, and Nabiki moaned from the floor.

"Well, at any rate, she can still be your mistress whenever you're a girl."

Ranma hacked, and Nabiki jumped up and ran off, her hand over her mouth.

"Mom, really, Nabiki ain't like that."

"No? Then I'm confused. Weren't you two, ah..."

"Uh, no, heh. Ya see, she was, er, helpin' me out with, ah, a problem." Ranma was as scarlet as his girl-form's hair.

"Oh. The ten yen?"

"Heh, uh... yeah." Perhaps a little redder yet.

"How in the world do you get it stuck in there?"

He was beginning to feel a little queasy. "Long story, Mom. Let's not hash it out, right now."

"Well, all right, dear." She paused, then decided to file it away for future investigation. "How are you and Akane getting along? Should we be planning a wedding soon?" she asked brightly.

Ranma went pale and then slumped.

"Ranma?" his mother asked in concern.

"Akane... she didn't like what she saw with me an' Nabiki. I think she might've ended the engagement... for good." Ranma couldn't slump any lower than he already was.

"Just over a stuck ten yen?"

"Gack! No, no! She, uh, er... well? Anou..."

"Exactly what did she say, Ranma?"

"I just don't understand it. She kept sayin' that I ruined it, that Nabiki got somethin' that belonged ta her. And then--"

"Oh, dear!" Nodoka exclaimed.

Ranma brought his face in front of hers. "What?! What?!"

Nodoka sighed and gazed out at the koi pond sadly. "Genma really didn't teach you much other than the Art, did he?"

"Um, there's more?"

"Yes, dear, a great deal more. I just hope for your and Akane's sakes that you're not too late in learning it."

"If... if..."

Nodoka merely watched him.

"If Akane don't wa-want me, then I do-don't know what I'll do."

"I might have an idea about how to fix this, but I think we'll both find it more than a little uncomfortable. First, however, I have to know something, Ranma."

"Sure."

"Do you love Akane?"

"WHAT?! I DON'T... well... ... ... ... ... ... I guess... I do."

"Yes or no. No 'I guess'," Nodoka said firmly.

Beet red, Ranma said, "... Yes."

Nodding, she took his hand and led him to the front door. "There are too many ears here. Let's take a walk."

~~~~~

Frustrated that Nodoka had taken Ranma out of the perimeter of the household, Nabiki went to her room. She cursed the luck: Nodoka was obviously sharper than Nabiki had expected.

As she walked in, she spied the infamous ten yen sitting on her desk where it had fallen out of her hand. She casually tried to pick it up, but it had dried and stuck fast to the wood veneer on her desktop. She finally managed to lever it off, but the little flakes of dried fluid disgusted her and she dropped it back where it was, determined to wash it off later. After all, she'd worked hard for that money. Throwing herself on her bed, she picked up the manga she'd been reading and resumed from where she'd left off.

It might've been an hour or an hour-and-a-half later when her reading was interrupted by the third instance in that one day of Ranma opening her door. However, in this case, there was a tenseness and urgency about him that hadn't been present the previous times.

They locked eyes for an instant, and then Ranma snapped his gaze over to her desk and to the ten yen still sitting there.

Damn!

They both sprang into action, but Ranma's years of martial arts training gave him the advantage. He had snatched the coin by a wide margin, leaving a fuming Nabiki to slap her palm where it had lain.

"That's MINE!" she yelled.

He shook his head once. "Nabiki, gomen ne, but I just figured out that it really belongs ta someone else. Do whatever ya want ta me, but I'm takin' the yen." And with that, he darted out of the room and out of the way of the objects being thrown at him.

Running out of handy projectiles, Nabiki started to stalk out of the room but was stopped by Nodoka.

"Obasama?!"

Nodoka took her not-so-gently by the arm. "Let's have a little talk, Nabiki-chan, about your, ah, interest in the, er, fairer sex."

"URK!!" But struggle and protest as she might, she couldn't break the grip of the Saotome matriarch.

Take your time, Ranma,  Nodoka thought. I'll manage the house spy.

~~~~~

Yet another door in the Tendou household opened and closed without a preparatory knock. Akane rolled over in her bed to see a blushing onna-Ranma leaning against the wall with her head slightly down. Akane rolled back over, and her pillows muffled her speech.

"Whoever you are, go away. I don't know you."

Ranma winced down to her core, but she hardened her resolve to at least see this thing through and hope that Akane might understand.

"It, ah... Um, I thought ya oughta know that Nabiki, er, never got that ten yen that's stuck in my... that's stuck. I wanted you ta know that it's still there... if someone else might want it. Ya know, just so ya know. It, ah, ain't been claimed."

Ranma's heart began to sink as she got no sign from her fiancée. She was about to quietly leave the room when she heard muted crying from the bed.

"A-Akane?" Ranma wasn't quite ready to approach her; she didn't know if she'd be allowed to.

During the next minute or so, the noises from Akane's bed slowly diminished, and she could be seen wiping her face.

"How do you do it?" Akane's voice was soft, but it thundered in Ranma's ears.

"Anou..."

"Baka! You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Ah, no. Gomen."

Akane rolled over and looked at her with puffy eyes. "What am I going to do with you?"

Ranma scuffed her feet on the floor. "Um, take me back?"

Akane sighed long and loud, and the sound made Ranma profoundly nervous.

"If you're sure that's what you want..." Ranma nodded in the pause, "then there's only one way, one thing for you to do."

"Um... what?"

"Tell me how you feel about me."

"URK!" Ranma presented warding signs.

Akane flopped back over on her bed. "Fine," she said brokenly, "then go away. I don't want anything to do with you."

Ranma hung her head in defeat. She'd admitted it to her mother, but admitting it to Akane meant setting all kinds of other problems in motion: Ukyou, Shampoo... Kodachi. *SHUDDER!* But she also knew that none of it really mattered without the one who meant everything to her, even if she could only barely admit it to herself. Now the time had come to lay her cards on the table.

Shyly, she approached Akane's bed. Reaching the side, she gently sat down on the edge, and Akane tensed.

"A-Akane? I, I... I lo... lo-lo-lo... I lo--"

"That's pretty sad, Saotome-san. Go away. I don't want strange men in my room."

"Aw, Akane! That's not fair!"

A blue aura sprang up around the youngest Tendou. "FAIR?!"

*POW!!!*

Ranma slid down the wall, upside down.

"NOT... FAIR?! Fair? F... air..."

Her face fell back into the set of stone she'd had earlier in the tearoom. "I'm not going to say this ever again: Go. A. Way. I never want to see you again."

Akane stood up and steadily walked to the door, intending to leave and forever ignore Saotome Ranma's presence.

Do or die, Saotome!  "NO!!"

Akane jumped as Ranma suddenly appeared in front of her, the redhead blazing with her own aura, the swirl of colors gradually settling into the hue Akane knew was confidence.

"No! I won't let it end like this! Akane," she grasped her hands, "I... You're..." DAMN IT!!  "I... lo-lo-lo... I--"

Akane tried to jerk her hands out of Ranma's, but the redhead increased her grip almost painfully.

"Iloveyou!"

Some of the tension went out of Akane's arms, but the battle was far from over.

"Say it again," she said stonily.

"Um, I lo-love yo-yo--"

"Again, without stuttering."

"I lo-lo--"

"No. Again."

"I love y-y--"

"No."

GRRR! She ENJOYS torturin' me! I'll fix her!  "I - LOVE - YOU!!!"

She smiled faintly. "Well, I didn't think you had it in you. Now, do you mean it?"

"WHAT?!"

"Don't 'WHAT' me! Answer the question!"

"OF COURSE!"

"'Of course' what?"

"OF COURSE I LOVE YOU!! HAPPY?!?!-- ACK!!!"

Akane had hold of her pigtail and was putting considerable pressure on her scalp. "If you EVER do anything like that again, I'll tell Shampoo and Ukyou AND Kodachi how much you like sticking things up inside! GOT IT?!"

Ranma nodded vigorously. "Yeahyeahyeahyeah!!!"

"Okay, then... I lo-lo-lo—"

"Jeez, Akane, and I thought I was bad."

"I LOVE YOU, TOO!" Akane breathed heavily, and then grabbed Ranma's arm in a rough hold that pinched.

"OW! HEY! What're ya doin'?!"

Akane tossed her through the air and onto the bed. "There's still that damn ten yen, Ranma, and I mean to have it!"

"URK!!!"

And she did.

~~~~~

"Nabiki-chan, I have decided to allow you to be Ranma's mistress, since he can adopt a girl's body. This way, it'll keep everything in the family and stop any nasty rumors from spreading."

Nabiki choked for a second, then said, "Saotome-no-obasama, you rea--"

"And oh! If you could even tolerate him as a male for a few times, the, the... Oh, the grandchildren!" Nodoka's eyes unfocused for a moment, but not long enough for Nabiki to effect her escape. Just as she was about to rise, Nodoka focused on her again.

"I'm sorry, Dear. I wandered off for a moment. I want you to know that I'm really glad I'll be able to call you daughter."

"Obasama, I really don't--"

"And then if you decide you'd rather be a wife, we can find you a nice husband. I actually think you'd like that better."

"Oba--"

"What was that young man's name that came through the wall?"

"Uh... Ryouga, probably, but Obasa--"

"My, he's a handsome thing, isn't he?"

"Uh--"

"I'm sure he'd be man enough to peep on you occasionally. He certainly didn't mind looking at Ranma's, er, assets."

"..."

"You are both so good-looking, your children are sure to be beautiful!" Nodoka suddenly beamed and clapped her hands. "I know! I'll call his parents and arrange an omiai for you. Wouldn't that be lovely?"

Nabiki half-heartedly raised a hand in protest, but Nodoka simply talked right along, discussing the relative merits of Shinto versus Western weddings, what colors matched well for the decorations, and on and on. Nabiki had a bleak expression on her face at the thought of being P-chan's new bed-partner, although Nodoka assured her that her apparent shock at her sudden good fortune was perfectly normal, and everything would be fine and they would live happily ever after.

What finally drove the middle Tendou to tears was the hoard of potential Yen floating out of her hands - the opportunity of a lifetime in the cries of passion beginning to echo from upstairs, and she was missing it! She put her face in her hands and sobbed.

"Oh! Gomen nasai, Nabiki-chan. Did you have your heart set on being Ranma-chan's concubine?"

*SOB!*

Epilogue - Seven Weeks Later

"What's with that, Akane-chan?" Ukyou flipped a Deluxe Special okonomiyaki off of her portable grill and into Ranma's mouth. She poured batter for her own lunch, eyeing Akane's unusual choice in jewelry.

"Hmmm? This?" Akane fingered a coin hanging from her neck, mounted in undecorated silver and hanging by an inexpensive silver chain. A soft and secretive smile crept onto her mouth.

"Yeah. Ten yen? You act like it's special or somethin'."

Akane smiled broadly in response to Ranma's burning cheeks.

"It is special... in a way. Ne, Ranma?"

Ranma spewed rice all over the student in front of him, who happened to be Hiroshi. "Uh, sorry, Hi."

A dirt-poor Hiroshi glared at Ranma and then sighed, brushing the masticated grains off the back of his uniform. "No problem... Ranma."

Ukyou stared at Akane and Ranma, and then shook her head. "You're both weird." It was only later that Ukyou would realize she'd lumped the two together in her mind, earning herself a self-inflicted smack to the forehead.

Still rubbing the medallion between her thumb and forefinger, Akane took great satisfaction in Ranma's embarrassment and that he had a silly grin on his face in spite of it.

Akane looked Ukyou straight in the eye and said, "It's special because it belongs to me... ... ... both sides."

END A TALE OF TEN YEN