He awoke with a groan, moving from a kneeling to standing position with a bit of effort. Ranma shook his head, trying to clear out the haze that fogged down his brain. `Great,' he thought, `now what?' Much to his surprise Linzu and the others were still there.

”It's about time you got up,” huffed Rasser, “We've been waiting almost two hours!”

”Huh, I was expecting a dream or something…I guess I got lucky this time.” Said Ranma to himself, still a bit confused about everything that had been going on. “Which one of you do I have to fight next?”

”Nobody's fighting anybody right now. It's lunchtime!” beamed Rasser, whipping out a steaming bowl of rice while Linzu and then Lepeat following suit.

”You can go and get some lunch too, if you what, Saotome-kun.” Offered Linzu. “We can wait.”

”…we can wait.”

”Uh…yeah…right.” Blinked Ranma as he jumped from the ring and started out the tent's entrance.

”Ah ah ah!” remarked Rasser as she jumped in front of Ranma. “You're leaving for now so you need to give us that 1000 yen you owe us so far. We can't have you stiffing us on this one.”

Ranma complied begrudgingly before heading outside onto the carnival grounds and began looking around for a food stand. After wandering about for a few minutes he came upon a medium sized stand with the words “Neko Hanten: Carnival District” written on the sign beside it.

”Hiyah!” shouted an enthusiastic Shampoo. “Ranma has come to sample some of Shampoo's cooking, yes?” as always, she was excited to see her beloved Ranma, the only man ever to have defeated her, and therefore, her husband to be.

”Well hi, Shampoo. What're you doing here at the carnival?” asked Ranma as he took a seat at one of the stools in front of the counter.

”Shampoo has feeling this morning that darling going to carnival, so Shampoo come to!” she said with a wide grin. “What can Shampoo get for Ranma?”