A Midsummer Night's Beauty, Part I
by rkOujirou

Author's note: This story is a continuation on the Ranma 1/2 anime, including the OVA's and movies. Therefore, keep in mind that anything exclusive to the manga hasn't happened in this story.

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is not my idea, it was created by a very talented manga artist named Rumiko Takahashi. The only characters I'll claim are my own original characters that I've added into this story. Just so you know.

Chapter 2

"This is great! I can't believe it! Shampoo finally dumped Ranma!"

"Shampoo tell you that no it, stupid Mousse."

While Mousse was parading around the Cat Café as happy as he'd ever been, Cologne was none too pleased with her great-granddaughter.

"Shampoo, explain to me why exactly you told the son-in-law that you just wanted to be friends."

"Is so Shampoo can be friend with Ranma," Shampoo replied casually.

The Amazon elder rubber her forehead as she tried to remain calm. "Child, think about what we're here for. I came here with you to enforce Ranma's obligation to marry you. What you're doing is endangering all that we've accomplished up to now."

"We no better now than when we come here, Great-Grandmother. We come to Japan long time ago and Ranma still no accept Shampoo as wife. Try to force Ranma no work and it make Ranma mad!"

Mousse put some distance between himself and Cologne when he sensed that she was becoming irate.

"How dare you speak to your elders that way?! We will make Ranma accept his obligations whether he likes it or not!"

Shampoo turned and looked down at her great-grandmother with an icy glare in her eyes. "Great-Grandmother, this no is remote village in China. This big city in Japan. Think like that no work here. Shampoo think long time about this. If Shampoo want to win Ranma, then have to do it this way. If you no agree then is fine, but Shampoo no let you or anyone else get in way."

Cologne was still plenty angry, but what she felt most was complete surprise about how her great-granddaughter was acting. She'd never seen Shampoo so determined that she wouldn't even back down from her. That look in teenager's eyes was enough to make even her feel a little intimidated.

"And what if Ranma decides to marry Akane since you and he are just friends? Then what?"

"Then is Shampoo fault. Shampoo deal with it."

Cologne mulled over Shampoo's words for a moment, taking a long drag from her pipe and blowing the smoke across the kitchen. "Fine, do as you wish. He's your future husband."

Shampoo let out a sigh of relief as she walked away from the kitchen area and toward the door. "Thank you, Great-Grandmother."

Mousse adjusted his glasses as he watched Shampoo leave. "Well...so she's not giving up on Ranma. But still, they'll only be friends for a while! There's a chance for me to move in now!"

"I wouldn't even try it, Mousse. If you get in her way, she won't have any mercy on you either. Now get back to work. We're opening up soon."

Cologne looked away from the food she was cooking and watched her great-granddaughter diligently sweeping the area outside the restaurant. "Shampoo, you've grown up so much. I suppose this was inevitable."

Around noon at the Tendo Dojo, Ranma was doing some balancing exercises around the koi pond when his stomach started to growl. He decided to take a break to get some lunch, but when he went inside he noticed that Kasumi was nowhere to be found.

"Yo, Akane, where's Kasumi?" Ranma asked, poking his head into the living room.

Akane looked away from the television when she heard him calling her. "Oh, she went to a play with Dr. Tofu. She was worrying about what we would do for lunch, but I convinced her to go anyway. They don't get to go out often, you know?"

"Yeah, no kiddin'. So, what are we supposed to do about lunch?"

Akane reached into her pocket and tossed 600 yen at Ranma. "We're on our own. That's your share of lunch money. Hey, why don't we go eat at Ukyo's place? I'm kind of in the mood for okonomiyaki."

"Sounds good to me. She should be happy that I'm actually payin' for once," Ranma joked.

"Yeah, it's not often that you actually have money on you. Come on, let's go. I'm getting hungry."

As they were about to leave, Ranma and Akane heard a voice at the door.

"Delivery!"

Ranma seemed confused as he looked over at Akane. "Uhh...Akane, did you order takeout or somethin'?"

"No...you mean it wasn't you?"

"No way I'd forget somethin' like that."

When Akane opened the door, she was less than thrilled to see Shampoo there with a delivery case in her hand.

"Nihao, Ranma!" Shampoo said gleefully.

"Uhh...yo..."

Akane folded her arms and shot Ranma a nasty glare. "So, you called Shampoo over here to bring you lunch, huh?"

"He no call for delivery," Shampoo interrupted. "Shampoo think maybe Ranma hungry, so bring leftovers while take lunch break."

"Really? What'd ya bring?" Ranma asked, very intrigued by the aroma coming from the delivery case.

Shampoo opened the case and showed him a wooden container that contained half a dozen steaming buns. "Is too too delicious pork buns!"

"Oh man, pork buns...they look so good..."

"So, what did you put in them this time? Love potion? Paralysis powder? Both?" Akane asked in a sour tone.

Ranma couldn't help but recall the last couple times that Shampoo brought food over. "Come to think of it, it does kinda sound like somethin' you'd do."

Ranma cringed as he was struck over the head with Shampoo's delivery case. "Oww! Whadya do that for?!"

"Shampoo tell you she no do that anymore. Just want to eat lunch with Ranma like friends."

Just the word "friends" coming from Shampoo's mouth was enough to set Akane off. "F-friends?! All you've ever wanted to do was marry Ranma! Why would you want to be friends with him?! Just what are you up to?!"

Ranma remembered his talk with Shampoo the previous night. It seemed like she may really have been following through on her decision to not pressure him into marriage. Despite Akane's protests, there was probably no danger in eating lunch with her, he figured.

"Well, why not just give her a chance, Akane? Besides, it'd be wrong for those pork buns to go to waste."

"Ranma, I can't believe you! You actually trust her?!"

Shampoo could see she wasn't getting through to Akane. In an attempt to prove her innocence, she took one of the buns out of the container and took a bite out of it. "Now if something wrong with food, Shampoo affected too," she said.

Akane wasn't always sure of what Shampoo was thinking, but she was fairly sure that she wouldn't dare harm herself. Of course, this also took away any argument that she had against Ranma eating Shampoo's food, which didn't make Akane happy in the least.

"There, Akane, you convinced now? Why don't you eat with us? That okay with you, Shampoo?" Ranma asked.

"Shampoo no mind," she replied. She would've preferred to eat with Ranma alone, but anything he suggested was fine with her.

"No thanks, you two have fun eating with each other," Akane snarled.

Shampoo smiled inwardly as Akane stormed out of the house. If this was a battle, she'd just won the first round.

"Akane always such angry girl..."

Ranma sighed as he thought about the earful he was going to get from Akane later. "Well, whatever, let's just eat before the food gets cold. I'm starvin'."

Shampoo happily nodded and they went out into the back yard and started eating their lunch together, as friends for once. It was early yet, but Ranma was starting to enjoy this "friendship" thing with Shampoo. To be able to sit down and eat and not worry about her hanging all over him was a comfortable feeling. Akane's feelings on the matter were a problem, but he could deal with that later.

After they ate, Shampoo said goodbye and went back to work. Ranma, not having anything in particular to do, decided to take a little stroll around town and try to find something interesting to kill time. Of course, in his case, things usually found him instead.

Akane, meanwhile, walked down to Ucchan's Okonomiyaki for her lunch. She was still plenty upset that Ranma had accepted Shampoo's food. Despite the fact that they were supposedly only eating lunch together as friends, she still didn't like the situation. Shampoo had a known history of scheming to get close to Ranma. She made a mental note to interrogate him about everything later.

When she made it to Ukyo's restaurant she went inside and took her usual seat at the counter. She noticed that the place wasn't quite as busy as it'd been the last couple times she was there.

"Hey there, Akane. What'll ya have?" Ukyo said after taking a customer's order to a table.

"Umm...I'll have the seafood today."

"Alrighty, comin' right up."

Ukyo started pouring the batter onto her grilling surface, but she couldn't help but notice that a certain someone wasn't there. "Say, Akane, why isn't Ranma-honey with you?"

"Ranma is eating pork buns with Shampoo at our house right now."

Ukyo nearly flipped out when she heard of this. "Akane, are you crazy?! Why didn't you stop him?! He's probably being put under some kind of spell as we speak!"

Akane let out a sigh as she recalled what happened earlier. "Shampoo ate one of the buns herself, and she even offered to let me eat with them. She's a little floozy sometimes, but she's not dumb enough to put a spell on herself."

Ukyo was having difficulty accepting this turn of events. Shampoo doing something with no catch involved just seemed wrong. But if Ranma was in no apparent danger, then she really couldn't argue with he and Shampoo eating together.

"So, you don't think she's up to anything?"

"I really don't know. She said something about wanting to eat with Ranma as friends. It might be a trick, or maybe she gave up on marrying him and wants to marry Mousse."

Ukyo was delighted at the thought. "Ooh, that would be nice! One less person competing for my Ranma-honey."

Ukyo got a cold look from Akane, but didn't mind it as she was in a good mood for the time being. She finished making Akane's food and the two of them talked about less pressing matters for a while.

As evening set in, Ranma was running home as fast as he could, all too aware of how late he was for dinner. "Man, I can't believe how stupid I am! I never should've gone near Kuno's house! First that moron attacks me, then I fall into half a dozen of Sasuke's stupid traps, and then I almost get paralyzed by Kodachi's damned roses..."

When he finally got back to the Tendo household, he found Nabiki and Akane sitting at the table watching their regular drama on television.

"Well, hello there, Ranma. We had sukiyaki for dinner tonight," Nabiki said with a smirk.

"Great, I love sukiyaki! Is mine in the kitchen?"

Akane shrugged as she looked over at him. "Unfortunately, we ate it all."

Ranma dropped to his knees as he was overcome with depression. "Are you kiddin' me? That's...just cruel. What am I supposed to eat?"

"That's your problem. It's not our fault that you stayed out past dinner time," Akane said coldly.

Ranma, too depressed to argue, hung his head and walked back out the door. "Man, that's not cool at all. I'm starvin'...huh?"

When Ranma stuck his hands in his pockets, he felt the 600 yen that he was given for lunch earlier. "Ohh yeah, I didn't have to use it since Shampoo brought me lunch. Guess I'll go get that okonomiyaki I was gonna get earlier."

Ukyo was cleaning tables when she heard the door to her restaurant open.

"Hiya, Ucchan. Got anything good to eat?" Ranma asked.

Ukyo was delighted to hear his voice. "Ranma-honey! They forget to leave you dinner again?"

"You guessed it. Sometimes I think they enjoy doin' it to me."

"Well, it's alright with me. At least it means we get to spend a little quality time together, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Ranma watched as Ukyo walked behind the counter and fired up her grilling surface. "Can ya make me a meat combo?"

"Comin' right up! You gonna give me another IOU?"

Ranma felt proud as he pulled the 600 yen out of his pocket. "Believe it or not, I actually got money today."

"My goodness, what's the world coming to? Ran-chan having money. That's just ridiculous," Ukyo joked.

"Hey, cut it out..."

Ranma started digging into his okonomiyaki as soon as it was finished. As she watched Ranma eat, Ukyo remembered her conversation with Akane earlier in the day. Apparently there really was nothing wrong with Shampoo's food, seeing as how Ranma looked to be alive and well. Still, she was curious as to what was going on between the two of them.

"Say, Ran-chan, I was talking to Akane earlier. She said you and Shampoo were eating lunch together today."

"Yeah, she brought over some leftover pork buns."

"Ranma, you should know by now that Shampoo schemes a lot. Didn't you think there might be something up with that food of hers?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't think she's pullin' funny stuff like that anymore."

Ukyo recognized this as one of the bits of information that Akane had given her earlier. "I heard something about Shampoo wanting to be your friend. Does that mean she gave up on marrying you?

Ranma didn't seem to mind the interrogation as he continued to eat. "Nope, that ain't it. She thought she was puttin' too much stress on me with all that marriage stuff or somethin', so she said we're just gonna be friends for now."

Ukyo was shocked. Who would've thought that Shampoo actually cared about the well-being of people? "Well, that's strange, but I guess it's good if she won't be pulling any tricks to get you to marry her anymore."

"Tell me about it. I can actually relax when she's around now."

Ukyo narrowed her eyes when Ranma uttered those words. He'd be able to relax when Shampoo was around? That meant that he didn't mind being around her anymore. Wouldn't that help Shampoo's chances with him? But it was such a risky move. It was hard to imagine Shampoo doing something like this. Still though, Ukyo had been friends with Ranma for a long time, and she knew Ranma was always more relaxed around her. But she was always busy with her restaurant, whereas Shampoo had Cologne and Mousse to cover for her. Shampoo would clearly have more time to spend with her Ran-chan. The more she thought about this development, the more it bothered her.

There was a clang as Ranma put his 600 yen on the counter. "Go ahead and keep the change, you can take it off my tab."

"Alrighty, Ranma-honey. Thanks for the business," Ukyo smiled.

"See ya later, Ucchan."

Ukyo stared at the door for a moment after he left, biting down on her fingernail as she pondered what course of action to take. "I might have to make a move and get a little closer to him myself..."

The sky had a purple hue to it as Ranma walked home, the sun having begun to set while he was at Ucchan's. As he was passing a house, he almost walked into a bike coming out from the front gate.

"Ranma!" Shampoo said, surprised to see him.

"Hey, Shampoo. Out doin' deliveries this late?"

"That right. But what Ranma do here?"

"Oh, the Tendo's didn't leave me any dinner. I had to go eat at Ucchan's."

"That not very nice..."

"Yeah, it happens a lot. Not like I can complain though. I mean they are letting me and Pop stay there for free."

"Guess Ranma right," Shampoo replied. She detested the idea of the Tendo family treating Ranma like that, but she knew she had little place to get involved in the Saotome and Tendo families' affairs.

"Anyway, c'mon, I'll walk ya home."

Shampoo couldn't believe her ears. Ranma was actually offering to walk her home?. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, she happily agreed.

"Y'know, I've been wonderin' for a while, don't you miss your family back in China?" Ranma asked as Shampoo pushed her bike alongside him.

Shampoo put her hand on her chin as she thought about it. "No really. Family no is very close. Shampoo have Great-Grandmother here too, so is okay."

"But what about your parents?"

"Shampoo's mother very busy. She have high rank among Amazon woman. Mother travel between all tribes and help keep peace."

"Wow, that's really somethin'. What about your dad?"

"Mmm...Shampoo only see father couple of times. He no is part of Amazon tribe. Last time Shampoo see father was when he visit after Shampoo meet Ranma. He come with Shampoo and Great-Grandmother to Jusenkyo when Shampoo fall into cursed spring. Get very upset that daughter turn into cat. Mother tell Shampoo that father defeat her in fight one day, so she marry him. He get mother pregnant with Shampoo, but then say he want to go explore world. Leaders of tribe no mind since he already leave strong child with mother. Father very nice man though, and he very strong too."

"Oh yeah? What kind of martial art does he practice?"

"Father learn many different style, even ninjutsu from Japan," Shampoo replied.

"Woah, so you're the daughter of a high ranking Amazon official and a ninja. That's pretty cool," Ranma said, seemingly impressed.

"Shampoo train very hard to meet expectation of parents and other Amazon woman."

"Well, you're a really good fighter. I bet they're proud of ya."

Shampoo smiled at him and nodded, a little embarrassed. This was like a dream to her. She wasn't only walking with Ranma, but being complimented by him. It was exactly what she'd been wanting ever since she came to Japan.

When they reached the Cat Café, Shampoo was a little sad that she and Ranma had to part for the night. But she had a feeling that this wouldn't be the last time she'd get to walk with him.

"Well, guess I'll get goin'. Thanks for keepin' me company. It was kinda nice to just talk like normal, y'know?" Ranma said.

"Shampoo happy that Ranma enjoy company," she replied with a smile.

Shampoo leaned her bike against the gate outside the restaurant, walked over to Ranma and wrapped her arms around him. Ranma was surprised and tensed up a bit, that being his normal reflex to her hug, but he didn't get the cautious feeling he often got when she did this. He let her hug him for a few seconds before she released him.

"Ranma have nice night!" Shampoo said, grabbing her bike and hurrying inside.

"Y-yeah, see ya."

As they were talking to each other, Ranma and Shampoo had been unaware of the old woman perched atop the restaurant watching them.

"Amazing. Simply amazing. All of my plans to get the boy to marry Shampoo fail, and yet she's closer to him than ever before after choosing to handle the situation on her own."

Cologne looked down at her wrinkled palm as she thought about Shampoo's earlier words to her, that her way of thinking wouldn't work here. There may have been some truth to it after all. And it may not just be an issue of location, but perhaps her ways of handling things were just outdated in general. But even if that were the case, it didn't really change anything. It only convinced her all the more of something that she'd known for a while now, that being that Shampoo was very special. She could very well be the one to lead the Amazon nation into a new age.

Cologne suddenly whisked her head around as she heard something unusual. She happened to catch sight of the silhouette of a woman looking at her from a tree a short distance away. Aware that she'd been spotted, the woman fled the scene with impressive speed. The old woman continued to sit atop the restaurant as she pondered the identity of the visitor and what their purpose was.

Now a safe distance from the Cat Café, the woman stopped in a clearing next to a small pond.

"So, how do they look?" a man asked.

"Like normal teenagers. I didn't catch either of them displaying their fighting skills, so I can't make any judgments about them yet," she replied.

"That's fine, Meilin. We'll see what they're capable of very soon."

"I guess you're right. Should be fun either way. Right, Li?"

The man named Li looked toward the sky as the gentle wind sifted through his hair. "Those two were able to defeat our prey. I don't think we'll be disappointed."

End of Chapter 2