Ranma ½ Episode 29
The Christmas Spirit Hits Nerima
"Are you ready yet, Akane? Jeez, we're gonna miss Christmas if ya don't hurry up!"
"Shut up, Ranma! I have more stuff to pack than you anyway!"
Akane stomped down the stairs carrying her suitcase while Ranma scoffed. It was Christmas Eve, which meant that the Tendo family, along with a bunch of others, would be going up to the mountains. They were going to rent a few cabins for everyone to stay in and spend some quality time together.
Monaeka and Lina were, of course, going with the Tendos and the Saotomes. They thought that their mothers would disapprove, but on the contrary, both women seemed to be happy that their daughters were spending Christmas with their friends. Monaeka and Lina were waiting downstairs by the cab as Akane rushed out of the doorway, Ranma following her.
"Took ya long enough," Ranma growled. Akane replied by swinging her suitcase and smacking him into the freshly fallen snow. Ranma let out a small cry of pain as Lina took one look at him and laughed. Nabiki, Kasumi, Genma, and Soun were already squished in the first cab. Monaeka and Lina were going to pay for another one for just the four of them.
Akane placed the bags in the cab and climbed in, letting out a large sigh. Monaeka and Lina sat on both sides of her as Ranma took his seat in the front.
"We'll meet you at the cabins, okay, Akane?" Kasumi waved at her younger sister and shut the doors. The wind drifted in through the door and Monaeka shot Ranma a look.
"Close it, Ranma! It's freezing!"
He obeyed her, but not without grumbling about girls. The cab driver began his way down the street and the girls decided to pass the time by playing various games. Ranma pouted and didn't join, but none of them said anything to him.
"Who else is going to be there besides us?" Akane questioned.
Monaeka shrugged. "Well, I talked to Ukyo, Sasuke, Ryoga, Happosai, and Hinako. They're all coming, invited or not." The teens turned their heads towards an angry Happosai, who was crying and trying to race after the car holding his suitcase, which was more than likely filled with brassieres and panties.
Lina stared, a bit confused. "Uh...I talked to Mousse, Shampoo, Cologne, Kuno, and Kodachi. They said they were coming."
"Akari and Gosunkugi too."
Lina groaned. "The paper bag and stalker kid?" The girls all sweat dropped after counting how many people would be coming. Akane was silently seething when she thought of all of Ranma's fiancés smothering him, but shook the feeling off. Ryoga would be there, and he was one of her best friends. He always knew how to cheer her up.
When they got to the cabins, everyone was already there, dressed up in winter clothing. Mousse was trying to plead Shampoo to believe something about Magical Leopluradons, but she just blew him off and punched him in the face.
"Hey, guys, what're you all doin' here?" Ranma scratched his head as Lina and Akane gaped at him. Like this: >:O.
"Ranma, weren't you listening to us in the car?!" Akane yelled, obviously peeved that her fiancé was ignoring her yet again.
"I wasn't ignoring you!" Ranma cried defensively, "I was just closing my eyes and thinkin', thass all!"
The two bickered and Soun scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, there are two cabins, which means we will have to split up by genders. Girls, go into the left, and boys to the right. Except, excuse me madam," he gestured to Cologne, "you'll have to sleep in the men's cabin."
"Why does she have to?" Happosai complained. "Why can't we have...AKANE OR LINA!?"
"Simply because Cologne won't be courted by any of us," Soun replied. He soon realized his mistake as Cologne's battle aura flared. She ran over, whacking him with her stick and muttering about disrespect. Soun bowed and sobbed as Genma watched, eating a piece of cake.
"Heh, if that's the case, we'll need one more cabin just for Lina! Since she's kind of already a—"
"RANMA! Shut the hell up! Don't even go there! We both know YOU can be a couple by yourself!"
All of the girls ran to their room as Kodachi took out her ribbon, twirling it while standing on the bed. "Oh, this is truly a dream come true! All alone, with Ranma-darling, cuddling and feeding him bon-bons as we speak of our mutual love and let the fire warm our icy hearts! WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She laughed and Ukyo stood up, hissing.
"Shut up, Kodachi! It's not even like that! And get off that bed, I already claimed it!"
"Why you claim bed for? Is stupid!"
"Shampoo, you idiot. It's the bed that's facing the boy's cabin! Look, through this window, you can see the bed where Ranma's sleeping!"
All the fiancés ran over and peered out the tiny window, where they could see Ranma unpacking his things. Monaeka stared in disgust as Akari sat there quietly, not saying a word.
Lina couldn't help but feel jealous as the girls fought over the bed, but kept her bed that was second closest to the window. Besides, wasn't stalking illegal?
As the girls unpacked and fixed their beds, there was a knock on the door. Without anymore warning, the door suddenly caved in and two familiar figures stood there. "Nihao!" chirped Ritsuko. "How are you girls? We rented a cabin up here too!"
Tora grinned at her daughter. "Maybe we can lend you and Ryoga a room." Monaeka only let her eyebrow twitch as she shot her mother a menacing look. "Want to come see ours?"
Lina, Monaeka, and Akane all nodded. They walked outside along the path to a cabin that was nearby theirs. Once entered the cabin, all of their jaws dropped.
It was AMAZING! The mothers were able to rent their own deluxe cabin, which included an indoor hot springs! Akane was so jealous that she had to take a dip in it, while Monaeka turned to Lina. "Um, where did they get the money for this?"
"Who knows, Monaeka." They both sweat dropped as the mothers played ping-pong sitting down, laughing and having a good time.
"Can we stay here?" Akane asked as the mothers retired to a waterbed and watching TV. Tora burst out laughing.
"No! Of course not. You have your cabin, we have ours! Besides, moms need time away from their kids too!"
"We barely see you guys," Lina retorted. "Besides, we don't even live with you. We live with the Tendos, and whenever you guys come to visit, it's always a part of your plot to marry us off!"
Ritsuko shook a finger violently at her daughter. "Don't speak to me that way, Lina Yamamoto! Another argument like that and no more TV for a week!"
Lina and Monaeka glanced at each other, slowly backing out of the cabin. "Is it just me, or have our moms gone...a little more insane?" Monaeka gulped. She and Lina turned and ran back to their cabin as Akane followed after them. Tora glanced at Ritsuko with a grin.
"Now we finally got them to leave! They won't be coming back."
Once everyone was all settled in, Soun gathered everyone to the men's cabin. He smiled and was holding a hat. "All right everyone! As you know, this year we'll be doing something a little different. In this hat there are everyone's names. All you have to do is draw one and become that person's Secret Santa! We'll be going to downtown Nerima afterwards to pick up the gifts."
"Sounds like fun!" Hinako gushed in her child form, a lollipop in her mouth. "I love presents!"
Soun smiled and was getting ready to put the pieces of paper in the hat to shake it up. Shampoo turned to Ukyo arrogantly with a smirk on her face.
"Shampoo have good Amazonian eyes. I spot paper with Ranma on it and get him best present for sure."
Ukyo couldn't help but laugh at her. While Shampoo was bragging and talking, she was shutting her eyes and turning away from Soun. Akane's dad was already shaking the hat with the names and finished, holding it out. Shampoo realized what had happened and let out a scream. "Aiyaa! Is no fair!"
Akane felt a twitch in her temple. "No, it's not fair YOU were trying to CHEAT!"
"Calm down, girls," Kasumi stepped in-between the teenagers. "There's no need to fight."
Soun went around the room with the hat and made everyone choose. Unfortunately for Mousse, he picked his name three times in a row and had to draw four times just to get a name. This caused Ranma to laugh and tease him, which resulted in a few good bruises.
"Does everyone have a name?" Soun questioned. Everyone nodded and his jolly state suddenly became seriously. "Now listen to me, everyone. I don't want anyone to feel left out because they didn't get a gift, so NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE will get a gift for anything besides the name they have chosen. Christmas is about fairness and equality in a sense, isn't it?"
Everyone sighed and promised they wouldn't get anyone else gifts. Ranma pulled Ryoga to a corner and stared at his paper. "Yo, who did you get, Mr. P?"
"Ranma, I won't tolerate any teasing!"
"Hey, don't be a spoilsport. I'm just askin' in case ya wanna trade."
Ryoga shook his head defiantly. "No, I have the person that I wanted. So leave me alone."
Ranma shrugged. "Suit yourself." He walked towards the door as everyone got ready to go back to Nerima for shopping.
"You're coming shopping with us, right Akane?"
"Um...actually, I think I'll just go by myself. I need some time to think, is that all right?"
The two best friends shrugged. "Okay. See you back at the cabin then!" They let as Akane began her way up the road. Ryoga spotted her and walked over, raising his hand high above his head and laughing nervously.
"Hello, Akane! I was wondering if—"
"Oh, Ryoga!" Akane stepped back from her window shopping while blushing. "You...you can't just sneak up on me like that! No, I can't let you walk with me, I'm sorry!" She ran the other way and Ryoga stood there, hand still in midair. He was frozen until he heard a soft voice behind him.
"Ryoga? Is that you?" Akari stepped up and took his arm. "I'll walk with you, if you don't mind."
"A-A-Akari! Of course not! C-come on, let's go!" He laughed and the two of them went down the street together. Meanwhile, everyone was looking down at their pieces of paper.
Ranma: "Ha, I got Lina!"
Lina: "Dammit, how the hell do you buy a gift for a chick with no personality?"
Akari: "Do you think Happosai likes panties with piglets on them?"
Happosai: "Yes! I got darling Nabiki!"
Nabiki: "Pfft. Spending over one yen on Sasuke? I don't think so."
Sasuke: "Dear, sweet Kasumi. What gift shall I present her?"
Kasumi: "Tatewaki likes swords, doesn't he? Oh, my."
Kuno: "I shall win over Akane's heart by getting her father the perfect gift! He will love me!"
Soun: "Getting my dearest panda friend a present isn't so bad."
Genma: "Oh, why am I always stuck with the old bat?"
Cologne: "That Gosunkugi child should be pleased with the ancient Chinese magic I'll hand over."
Gosunkugi: "Um, Kodachi sort of scares me....hehheh..."
Kodachi: "Why did I get the silly little duck instead of Ranma-darling?"
Mousse: "Shampoo! Finally, I will get you your gift!"
Shampoo: "Why I get present for stupid teacher?"
Hinako: "Crazy tomboys. This is just my lucky day..."
Akane: "Ryoga...I need the perfect gift for him."
Ryoga: "Monaeka...I will show you my love for you..."
Monaeka: "Ukyo could use some new aprons or something..."
Ukyo: "Ha! Stupid Shampoo...Ranma's all mine..."
Break time! ~Raaan-maaa!~ *cue song*
"It's time to d-d-d-duel!" Lina shouted happily. Everyone froze and stared while Lina blushed in embarrassment, "I mean, shall we go shopping?"
Everyone nodded in agreement and they all headed off to the stores to look for a gift. After Lina finished, since she had shopped with Monaeka, they headed out to go back to their cabins.
Suddenly, Lina froze as there was the soft tinkling sound of a bell. A really skinny black guy dressed as Santa was standing on the corner asking for money for some random orphanage.
Before Monaeka could restrain her, Lina ran over and started dumping out her wallet. "Liiiinnnaaaa!" Monaeka yelled, dragging her away, "Why? Why you have to be so over-giving??? How much did you put in anyways?"
"Um..... a dollar?" "Yeah... no, seriously." "Um, ten dollars?" "I know you better then that!" "50?" "50 DOLLARS????" "Okay okay... a hundred, but don't freak out-" "YOU GAVE A HUNDRED DOLLARS???? WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET-" Monaeka sputtered, and fainted halfway through.
"Uh, Monaeka?" Lina asked, "Did you die?" Monaeka was silent, then blinked. "Whoa, that's so morbid!" Monaeka said sitting up, "Can we go now?" Before Lina could reply, there was a yell as a beefy guy in a moose costume kicked the Santa and jacked the money. Lina's eyes blazed, "No one steals my charity money!"
So, she took off after the beefcake of a racist moose. Monaeka ran after her. When Monaeka caught up, as they ran alongside each other, they formulated a plan. Nodding in agreement, Lina sprinted ahead, grabbed the moose's shoulders, and used them to vault over his head, landing gracefully a few feet ahead.
The moose guy froze, then laughed. "Hey little girl, whatcha gonna do? Slap me?"Lina smirked at his arrogance, and Monaeka grinned. "Hey!" She yelled, making the moose turn, "We aren't just a couple of wannabe fighters. We're the real deal."
The moose guy seemed unfazed by the two. "Why don't you girlies go back home?" He snickered, immediately being cut of by a quick kick in the back from Lina. He growled and dropped the money aside, getting into martial arts stance.
Lina made the first move and rushed toward him. He wasn't expecting when she suddenly slid on the ground, between his legs, and definitely wasn't ready for the punch in the balls. As he screamed in pain, Monaeka delivered a flying kick to his head.
By now people were gathering to watch the fight. Lina whispered something to Monaeka, and she nodded. Lina skipped over to the bucket of money and smiled at the audience.
"Please, if could kindly donate to the Tokyo Theater martial Arts Dojo for this demonstration, we'd greatly appreciate it," She said loudly, going around the crowd, thanking people when the added some money in.
"Hey! Wait-" The beefy moose guy said until he got another spin kick in the face. Monaeka gave a charismatic smile to play along with the charade and did flashy moves, like jumping over his head and flipping him over.
Soon, the moose guy was out like a light and Lina and Monaeka bowed as the street crowd clapped loudly. After, Lina returned the charity bucket to the Santa. "T-thank you!" he sobbed, "This will make those little orphans so happy!"
"Sweet," Lina said as they walked away, "I can just feel the Christmas spirit running through me!" Monaeka laughed, and pointed, "I think we traumatized that thief good." Lina looked and saw the moose guy taking to a police officer, begging to be arrested for all his thieving crimes."Ha!" Lina laughed and they snuck away and headed back to the cabins.
~~~
"I now declare it- snowball fight time!" Lina said happily. Ranma's ears twitched. "I'll be Team Captain!" He yelled. Lina jabbed him, "No way! My idea, so I pick Team Captains!"
"That's stu-pid!" Ranma growled, "I'm the best fighter here!" Suddenly, him and Lina were doused with cold water. "Hey!" Li yelled, "being a man sucks! Where's some boiling water?!" Ranma sighed, ringing out her hair, "Don't be such a girl, Liiii..."
"Shut up Ranma! I bet you grope yourself when no one's looking!" "Hey-" Ranma was interrupted by Monaeka. "Will you both be quiet? You can both be Team Captains! And I changed you so that since you're gonna transform anyways, might as well do it now," Monaeka said impatiently, "Geez."
"I get first pick!" Li shouted, "Okay, who wants to be on my Team?" Ranma's mouth dropped, "Hey! You can't do that!" Li ignored him and looked at the hands raised, "Okay, Monaeka and Akane."
The fiancées were undecided between Li or Ranma and Li didn't want to deal with Nabiki's scam artist ways. "Okay, Ranma, now you pick two people," Li said. "Ryoga and Ukyo," he said, after a quick deciding, even though Li's team had the best martial artists. "Okay, then I pick Kuno and Kodachi," Li said with a grin.
"Fine. Shampoo and Mousse," Ranma said. "Okay, Hinako and Gosunkugi," Li said quickly, "That leaves you with Sasuke, Akari and Nabiki," Li said, grabbing his coat and boots to get ready. Nabiki tapped Ranma on the shoulder. "Um, Ranma, I'm afraid if you want my help its 3000 yen."
Ranma twitched, "What?! Why should I pay you???" Nabiki smirked, "You'll need all the players you cab if you want to defeat Li and Monaeka. Right?" Ranma sighed and gave her the money.
After everyone was dressed for snow, they went outside and stood a few feet across from each other. Ranma and Li had a stare-down for a couple seconds, and then Li smirked and yelled, "Ready... set..... GO!"
Both teams immediately gathered up some snow and started firing. Monaeka and Li were on fire, dodging, throwing, and hitting the crap off the others. Li basically targeted Ranma the whole time, dealing a few humiliating blows to the face.
Eventually Ranma landed a hit on Li’s butt, which earned him a few more face hits. Monaeka and Ryoga were playfully going at it, while the fiancées were treating it like some death match for Ranma.
The elders sat inside watching all this sipping hot cocoa. "Aw just look at them Tora," Ritsuko said, "It reminds me of when I was a little girl!" She gushed.
Tora smiled, eyes wandering from Monaeka to Ryoga, then back again, her mouth curved into a smile, "Yes, it does, doesn't it?"
Meanwhile, Shampoo had thrown a big snowball at Monaeka's head. Ryoga saw it heading for her, and dived in front of her, getting hit right in the gut. "Ryoga!" Monaeka gasped, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," He said, wiping off the cold snow and grinning, "I was gonna switch over to your team now anyways." Monaeka smiled, but then a look of confusion came onto her face. "Why?"
"Well, if I'm on your team, then Akane won't notice if I transform, right?" he said. Monaeka nodded and smiled at him, "That's really smart of you Ryoga! Hey, how bought we gang up on Shampoo?"
"Well, after this one shot I really wanted to do..." Ryoga said with a smirk, gathering up a big snow ball and throwing it in Ranma's face. "Hey!" Ranma screamed, "You dirty traitor! I'll-" She stopped as Li nailed her in the face."Stop acting like a whiny little girl Ranma!" Li retorted.
"OoOOoOoOoh... Ranma just got PWNED!" Monaeka said and ran off with Ryoga to get Shampoo.
After the snowball fight, Monaeka pulled Ryoga aside and slipped him a gift. She blushed and ran off, as Ryoga opened it. In it was a photo album with all the pictures of them since they had met. The first one was recent, with just the two of them, signed 'Monaeka' with a heart at the end.
Lina also managed to sneak Ranma away. She handed him the wrapped present, and Ranma unwrapped it eagerly. He pulled out the Chinese style shirt. It was flaming red, with gold dragons embroidered on the long sleeves.
"I know it's not much and that the other girls wanted to give you something to but I really wanted to give you something this Christmas and since I didn't draw your name I was really desperate so I found that and-" Her face was red now and the words came out so fast he couldn't understand.
His eyes softened and he smiled. "Thanks Lina.... it's great, I'll even wear it tomorrow." Lina blinked. "Really?" A smile broke out over her face, "That's great Ranma! Thanks! I'm so glad you liked it!" She turned to go, but was surprised when Ranma gently grabbed her hand and hugged her.
"HEY!" Soun's voice could be heard in the next room, "I know that only one of you got Ranma, so why are there all these gifts?"
There was a chorus of objecting voices as Soun gathered up the gifts that the other fiancées were going to try to give to Ranma and started to put them away. Lina pulled away, blushing bright red still. "I-I'd better go now..." She whispered, walking quickly away.
~~~
The next morning everyone was up early, and got together to present gifts. Lina was first and she gave her gift to Akari. "A pig scarf? Thank you Lina," She said happily. Akari gave her gift to Happosai, which turned out to be panties with piglets on them. And so, the gift giving proceeded.
Happosai gave Nabiki a lacy red thong (much to her dismay), Nabiki told Sasuke that he could take her out to an expensive dinner later on, and Sasuke gave Kasumi and apron.
Kasumi gave Kuno a new wooden sword Akane helped pick out, Kuno gave Soun a purple tiger, Soun gave Genma super strength hair formula, Genma gave Cologne mousse, and Cologne gave Gosunkugi a book on Ancient Amazon Culture and Magic.
Gosunkugi gave Kodachi a new ribbon set, Kodachi gave Mousse cologne, Mousse gave Shampoo shampoo, Shampoo got the teacher a new fifty yen piece, Hinako gave Akane a new mallet for whacking Ranma with, Akane got Ryoga a new pack for all his traveling, Monaeka gave Ukyo a shiny new giant spatula, and Ukyo gave Ranma a okonomiyaki saying her love for him, and a sweet card.
Ryoga took Monaeka aside and gave her the present. She opened it eagerly. It was shock tarts, sour patch, and a love poem written by Ryoga. Monaeka read it, overcome with emotion.
"D-do you like it Monaeka?" He asked hopefully. She suddenly embraced him tightly, closing her eyes and feeling his warmth, "No Ryoga. I love it." Meanwhile Ranma had also given Lina her present. As she unwrapped it, his face was turning pink. When all the paper was removed, there was a small velvet case.
"Oh Ranma, you want me to marry you? How sweet!" She joked, and opened it. Her eyes widened as she looked at it, and took it out.
The silver chain sparkled in the dim light, as well as the silver heart the dangled at the end. "It's beautiful Ranma, I love it!" She said, "Could you put it on for me?" His face reddened as he nodded quickly. After he attached it, Lina turned around and smiled at him.
"Merry Christmas Ranma," She said, and suddenly bent forward, and gave him a quick smack on the lips, then turned and skipped away. After he recovered he went after her, stopping in the doorframe as all his fiancées stared at him with an evil grin.
From the other side of the room, Lina, Monaeka and Ryoga watched. Monaeka and Ryoga sighed and shook there heads as the fiancées advanced.
"W-what's go'in on here???" Ranma asked, realizing they had surrounded him. "Watch out Ranma! You're underneath the mistletoe!" Lina yelled. As the fiancées pounced, Ranma's screams echoed across the room. Monaeka and Lina laughed.
"Merry Christmas, Monaeka," Lina laughed. Monaeka smiled, stifling her laughter. "Merry Christmas."
