Akane + Shampoo 2 to 1 Ring - Best Frenemies

Unending BE - episode 1288182

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Ukyo’s relationship pre-merger to Akane and Shampoo could not be more different between them. With Akane, by and large, they were friends. They hung out together a fair amount and would be willing to jump in to help. By and large the two had this strange truce involved the engagement situation, where anything Ukyo did to pursue Ranma was not held against her in times when she wasn’t actively doing so. By contrast, Shampoo and Ukyo loathed each other. Any alliances were strictly on timers that counted down towards the inevitable backstab.

This is due to the contrasts between the three girls personalities. Akane is generally a forgiving sort and will generally try and make friends first until it’s been shown not to work. Ukyo’s not quite forgiving, but she’s not spiteful. Shampoo is more guarded, it’s not in her nature to try and be nice to rivals to her goals. Thus we see that Ukyo responded to Akane’s overtures to friendship in kind. She then responded to Shampoo’s overtures of “Stay the hell away from my man or I’ll cut you” with “Not if I cut you first, bitch.”

But now reality has been shifted, and where there were three girls there’s now two. Now, the nature of the Ring meant that Akane’s personality was the primary driver, with Shampoo’s influence been secondary. So what happens when you combine Akane’s general friendliness with Shampoo’s scheming? What happens if you throw in the fact that, frankly, all three girls are violent maniacs of various flavours? Mix in Akane’s occasionally extreme competitiveness and you have…

“So you say no to my date.” Akane said, marching into the restaurant, “And you immediately go chow down with Ukyo here.”

The handful of other people in the restaurant began whispering to each other. One of them started taking bets. Ranma’s pigtails shot up, eyes looking over Akane. “Huh?” He recognized that she looked upset, but couldn’t place it. “What are you talking about? I never said no to any dumb dates.”

It was at this point that Ukyo spoke up, “Well hey there Sugar, maybe you need to be more clear. I’m always straightforward with Ranchan.” She leaned over the counter, smirking. “Got to do more then play some kind of coy game.”

“Like try and sneak his bedroom while living with us for with a month?” Akane asked.

“While you pretended to marry him?” Ukyo replied back.

“Wait, what?” Shampoo asked, looking up at the view of Ukyo’s comeback.

“Oh yeah. Long story. Long stupid story.” Akane said, “Basically Ranma ruined something of Ukyo’s and she lived at my place for a while and she kept trying to come on to him until Nabiki thought up the idea for us to pretend to be married.”

“Seriously? How come I never heard of this!?” Shampoo asked.

“Don’t ask me. We do live our own lives. Or... used to.” Akane huffed, grabbing the controller. “Great, now thanks to you ‘I’ am spoiling for a fight.”

“More like beat-down.” Shampoo smirked, “Since ‘I’ got my skill she should last, oh, about a second.”

"You're exaggerating."

"Yes of course. I forgot to factor in your bad temper. Half a second." Shampoo gripped the controller in her hands, “Yup the bickering is starting, Ranma’s having the good sense to back away…” She grinned, “Finally, some catharsis!”

“Oh yeah what about that time in the hot spring races?” Ukyo said, pulling up her unusual weapon.

“What about that tunnel you dragged us through with Ryoga?” Akane said, “So how about you stop acting like some kind of pure innocent maiden?”

It seemed that was the figurative bell to start the round. Ukyo leapt over her counter, her weapon swinging through the air. It hit Akane’s arm with a cloud clang, thanks to a quick block. Someone whispered "round 1, fight.”

Akane’s fist blurred, and yet Ukyo managed to block all but one. This one sent her flying up into the air and hitting her own ceiling. This, however, was used as a rebound to jump back down at her.

“What the hell is this.” Shampoo said, watching blankly as the fight went on from their perspective within their shared soul.

“Uh, Me and Ukyo fighting?” Akane said. “I don’t think we ever did that before but hey, you’re here now and-”

“Why is she as good as me!?” Shampoo shouted, mentally flipping through the memories of Her new life.

“You should know that, ‘I’ apparently get into a lot of scrapes with her. Oh wow, I think we almost fight as much as Ranma and Ryoga.” Akane said, “Funny, I guess you pick fights a lot more than me.”

“More like your influence on me is making Me pick fights!” Shampoo snapped, “There’s a reason I didn’t do that! Picking fights just drives your rivals to get better. Because you two keep competing you both improve faster, so the idiot Me now has a rival almost as good! Seriously, it's not worth increasing my own pace of development to make a risk to any future plans better.”

"I don't know. Having a sparring partner about my level sounds kind of fun."

Ah, Shampoo now understood what an aneurysm felt like. Right. She had forgotten that most of her peers in the area were more… in it for fun. Even Ranma liked a good fight more than an easy victory. Shampoo’s philosophy had always been simply Win. The more decisive the victory the better. Hence: Destroy all obstacles.

“Hey, girls? I know I’m great and all but…” They both looked back up at the real world, Ranma had stood between them.

Ranma watched as, again, the two girls started fighting. It was getting pretty tiresome (though deep down there was a part of him that was finding it kind of hot that two cute girls were fighting over him like this all the time). It wasn’t like they were doing anything super important like the manly battles between Men that he got up to with, like, Ryoga. Plus, Mr. Tendo kept getting mad when Ukyo inevitably sent him the bill for any property damage. The fight was escalating, and Ranma knew this would end with something breaking soon. Plus, he had never said no to any date, he’d just asked what she had for him!

“Hey, girls?” He said, jumping between them. Akane had pulled out her chui and that generally meant that holes would start appearing in walls soon."I know I’m great and all but even I'm not worth fighting over.” He said, giving them a winning smile. They both stopped and stared at him for a moment. There we go, things would calm down now and they could talk this out and- why does his head hurt all of a sudden?

"Can he please go one day without saying something totally idiotic?" Shampoo asked.

“I haven’t seen it happen yet in all the time I’ve known him.” Akane said. “Usually he barely goes a couple hours before resetting the clock.”

Shampoo groaned, "He's lucky he's cute. And strong. And charming when he's in the right mood..."

Both girls sigh in a mix of exacerbation and affection. When you really and truly love someone, you don't just love the good points. You love it all. To both of their great annoyances.

“Well the fight just ended, I think, Ukyo and Me are both too annoyed at Ranma now, again.” Akane said. “And before the restaurant got damaged.”

Ukyo holstered her weapon, “Good grief Ranchan, is there some martial arts technique that requires you to put your foot down your throat?”

"Don't give him ideas." Akane said, tucking away her own heavy maces.

“Ow, you violent maniacs!” From the floor Ranma grumbled. Both girls simultaneously trod on his hands. Several of the spectators glared at Ranma for prematurely ending a good fight.

“Anyways, Ranchan just came in here asking for a snack. Sadly.” Ukyo got behind the counter. "My cooking is always good, unlike that muck you like to feed him.”

“My Ramen is great!”

“I wasn’t talking about the Chinese sugar.”

Akane could only cook three things. Curry, Dim Sum, and Ramen. Everything else was, well, a disaster. Cologne had spent years teaching Akane the last two, and she had recently picked up the first. And Ranma didn’t even eat much Dim Sum she made ever since the “Puppet Mushroom” incident. What was so wrong with that anyway? It was their first night alone in the dojo together, and she wanted a hug. He wound up acting like she wanted something more and armed himself to the teeth with weapons after it wore off!

“All I ever see you cook is Okonomiyaki. Speaking of that, give me one. Ranma’s paying.” Akane sat down at the counter.

“Sure thing hon.” Ukyo began throwing batter onto her griddle. “The usual.”

“Yeah.” Akane said, sitting down and smiling. “So how’ve you been?” She asked like she had just shown up to say hi.

“Pretty good.” Ukyo said, piling on ingredients.

“And just like that you’re chatting like old friends.” Ranma grumbled.

And the entire thing has come full circle. Akane’s natural temperament meant that once the fight was over there were no hard feelings and she could be perfectly friendly with Ukyo. And Ukyo responded with, while not letting go of grudges at first, eventually getting worn down by her friendliness.

“Honestly Shampoo, I don’t get you sometimes.” Ranma said.

“...he calls Me Shampoo.” Akane said, realizing that this was the first time Ranma had spoken her new self’s name. “He… calls Me… your name.”

Shampoo jumped up out of her seat. “He calls Me my name! In your face Akane Tendo! We’ll be hearing ‘I love you, Shampoo’!”

“Why does he call Me by your name!”

“Remember? He met Me as ‘Shampoo’ first! Before he knew ‘I’ was a Tendo!” Shampoo continued to cackle, very unlady like. Not as bad as Kodachi at least. “This almost makes the headaches worth it!”

“Damn it!” Akane shouted, “Ranma! Call Me by my name! Not hers!” She shouted at her fiance, but alas he could not hear the mutterings of half her soul.

Go back - Go to the parent episode.

Tritan

Wed Jan 24 04:39:41 2018

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3 comments Last updated: Wed Jan 24 21:28:01 2018