OKONOMIYAKI SUMMER WARS

a story written by

DELICIOUS GEARS

DAY ONE: The Eve of War

The waves roared as they clashed against the high walls of the Mendou villa, spraying water and white foam upwards. As the waves raged, a cool wind blew, shaking the trees and ferns that sat along the edge of the balcony that extended out into the water. As the red sun sank towards the horizon, it glowed a warm orange, colouring the sky around it with the same shade.

Shutarou Mendou gazed down at the green-haired beauty that stood before him, wrapped in a yellow shawl of the finest silk that he had given her. He made sure that the shawl's silk was fine enough that it did nothing to hide the young woman's captivating curves.

"Lum-san…"

Somewhere in the distance, there was an insistent crunching sound. It might have been some poor soul trudging through the sands of the beach below. Or maybe someone walking among the gravelled front yard. Shutarou didn't really know. Or even care.

"I have something to tell you." His gaze became more intense, utterly focused on Lum.

"What is it, Shutarou?" Lum met his gaze, her blue eyes deep and unbounding, full of promise.

"I invited you here to spend the summer with me, did I not?"

"Of course, Shutarou!" Lum smiled brightly.

And when I did," Shutarou said, "I only gave you that invitation. Just one. Nobody else. Am I remembering this correctly?"

"Yeah?" Lum's smile faded, but her eyes were still wide and expectant.

"Well, if you and I agree that is the case," Shutarou said, his eye twitching, "then what is he doing here?" He lifted a hand to point at a spot just behind Lum.

So Lum turned around, and saw Mr. Fujinami standing right behind her, wearing his usual long johns. In fact, the man was practically so close behind her that when she turned around, they were practically nose to nose. He was staring down at her with the kind of look that could curdle milk, which is to say, his usual expression when out and about.

There was nothing but silence for a long moment, save for the crunching sound growing louder.

Then Lum shrieked in fright, and leapt into the air. As she rose, she launched forth a torrent of lightning at Mr. Fujinami, sending Shutarou skittering backward to safety. It was the kind of dose that would probably leave even her Darling Ataru unconscious for several minutes.

Mr. Fujinami was still standing after the lightning stopped, his face and clothes charred and blackened from Lum's divine retribution. "How dare you," he said, emitting plumes of smoke from his mouth, "how dare you victimise a defenceless old man…"

"A defenceless old man?!" Shutarou said, aghast. "You invade my family property, you invade my guest's personal space, and now you dare to play the victim?!"

"How dare you accuse me of invading your property!" Mr. Fujinami's face twisted into a rictus of rage. "I was invited here, just as everyone else was!"

"I didn't even invite you!" Shutarou said. "I didn't even consider inviting you! The only person I gave a formal invitation to was Lum-san!"

Lum turned away as Shutarou and Mr. Fujinami started to argue with each other. She noticed Ataru standing beside her now, in swimshorts and a hoodie, crunching on a stick of celery. "It's such a shame Shutarou's really upset now. I thought he would be really be happy being out here for the summer."

"Maybe he's just upset that he can't get you alone?" Ataru replied, mouth full of celery.

Shutarou twitched at Ataru's words. His fingers clenched and unclenched, craving to grasp the hilt of his katana. Tragically, he had left it at home. His father had told him that commoners didn't brandish weapons in public anymore, and he needed to not resort to violence at any given opportunity.

While Shutarou sank into despair on the balcony and Ataru finished his celery, Lum turned and walked back into the villa. The main living room was buzzing with activity: Shinobu sat on a couch, chatting with Ran and Sakura. Nagisa was in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables for yakisoba tonight. And Ryuunosuke was sitting in a papasan chair by a window that gave her a good view of the sunset, staring out in quiet contemplation.

Lum peered over the top of Ryuunosuke's chair, watching the stern look on the young woman's face. "Are you okay, Ryuunosuke? You look like you're down in the dumps this evening." She looked briefly at the others, all doing their own thing. Shinobu giggled at a story Ran was telling her. Nagisa was done julienning the carrots. Sakura just seemed to be content by herself. "Why aren't you doing something with the others?"

"Don't feel like it," Ryuunosuke replied. "I would probably just get in the way."

Lum's brows furrowed, and she leaned on the chair with crossed arms, hanging over the back. "Nobody here thinks that of you. I'm pretty sure you know that, too." She tilted her head slightly. "Is it because of your dad being here? Because I had no idea he was tagging along."

As if on cue, Mr. Fujinami strode on in the living room, heading right towards Lum and Ryuunosuke. "I was invited, of course! Didn't you get that through your thick, pointy alien skull?"

Ryuunosuke rolled her eyes, as Lum scowled at Mr. Fujinami. "Yeah, invited. Just like me, Nagisa, Shinobu, Moroboshi, Ran, Sakura-sensei…"

"Which reminds me boy," Mr. Fujinami said, "Why are you and Nagisa lollygagging around here? Don't you know that there's work to be done! We're supposed to be preparing the Hamachaya for its grand opening tomorrow!"

Shutarou burst into the living room suddenly, his eyes wild. "No! No, no, no!" He pointed a shaky finger at Mr. Fujinami. "I am *not* letting you try and run your scummy little business anywhere on my property! No way, no how!"

Mr. Fujinami looked back at Shutarou with deep disdain. "You should hold your tongue, boy." He pointed back at Shutarou, wagging his finger at him. "The Fujinami name is tied to that of the Hamachaya, and the Hamachaya is tied to that of the sea." He raised his finger towards the view of the horizon, of the sea beyond. "You see the sea out there, boy? It does not care for your weak decorum, or reliance on manners. It breaks down all equally amongst the waves!"

"Is that so, Fujinami-san? The very villa you are inside right now seems to be holding up rather well against the waves." Ryouko Mendou stepped into the living room, wearing a light blue summer dress. She was flanked by her usual kuroko servants, wearing their traditional black dress. As everyone turned to look at her, she started to smile.

Mr. Fujinami wasn't smiling. His face was still as rigid as stone. "What are you babbling about, woman?"

"Well, it's very simple, Fujinami-san." Ryouko made her way over to a vacant papasan chair, sitting herself down. "As far as I can tell, you've come here because Lum-san brought your daughter and her fiancee along, hasn't she? And didn't you just mention reopening your precious Hamachaya on our beach for the summer?"

Ataru blinked, and looked at Shutarou. "Your beach? I thought this was a public beach."

Shutarou just nodded. "Well, it is, officially. But just about every property on it is owned by the Mendou clan, including the changing huts and the beachside stalls."

Ataru stared at Shutarou in horror, his eyes bugging out like a landed fish. "E-eeh?" The leaves of the last remaining bit of celery dropped from his lips to land on the floor.

"Just about the only things in a five-mile radius that we don't own is the sand and the sea itself." Shutarou sighed deely, and looked off into the distant horizon. "And believe me, my father tried his best."

Meanwhile, Mr. Fujinami was glaring daggers at Ryouko. "Must you continue this idiotic charade, acting like my son is a woman?"

Ryouko just smirked back at him. "Of course. How silly of me." Then Ryouko sat back, crossing her legs at the knee. "Now, I did say before I brought you here that if we were going to help assist you in running your Hamachaya, we were going to run a background check on you and your family. We have had to do a lot of digging into public records and such, not to mention questioning your daughter, too."

The way that Ryouko stressed the word "daughter" made Mr. Fujinami twitch. "What did my stupid son tell you? Are you going to trust the word of a foolish boy over his own father?!"

Ryouko's smile grew wider. "Well, I also talked to your daughter's friends. And I had my servants secretly record you on video last summer, and followed you around during school…"

"Get to the point, woman!" Mr. Fujinami suddenly shouted. "I'm not going to stay here and be lectured at by some child who obviously hasn't been disciplined enough! Especially on how to run my own business!"

Ryouko's smile faded, and her gaze fixed on Mr. Fujinami with laser-sharp focus. "Your Hamachaya will be on our beach, Fujinami-san. But you won't be the one running it. According to all evidence, you're the biggest liability of your own business, big enough to threaten our partnership all by yourself."

Ryouko motioned towards Ryuunosuke with a hand. "As a result, your daughter will be running the Hamachaya in your place, with the help of her fiancee and her friends. You can stay here in the villa, and enjoy our hospitality. But if you're caught doing anything to interfere with your daughter's business here, our family will promptly eject you from the beach with extreme prejudice."

Then Ryouko smiled sweetly at Mr. Fujinami. "Just think of it like this: Your daughter is inheriting your beloved Hamachaya, just like you've always dreamed of. It's just that it's a whole lot sooner than you imagined it to be."

Mr. Fujinami didn't reply. He didn't do much of anything other than to stand there gaping at Ryouko, in a perfect imitation of a landed fish. It was a rare moment for the man, to be so completely lost like this.

Ryuunosuke stared over at Ryouko from her chair, completely taken by surprise. She completely ignored her father, leaving him standing there in shock.

Ryouko turned to look at Ryuunosuke, a bright smile on her face. "Ryuunosuke-kun, the Hamachaya will be ready by tomorrow morning. We placed it on a nice little spot where the majority of people will pass by, so I hope you can make it as proud as your father has dreamed it would be."

Ryuunosuke just nodded at Ryoko, completely silent. Around her, Lum was bouncing excitedly, happy for her friend to have something going right in her life for once.

"Good luck, Ryuunosuke-kun!" Shinobu called out. "We'll be behind you all the way!"

Ryuunosuke turned her face away as everyone else started cheering in celebration. She didn't want anyone there to see her smiling. She also didn't want anyone to notice the tears gathering in her eyes.

Out on the beach, the Mendou company was busy setting up the line of stalls on the beachhead, for the various beach shops the next morning. Large canopies of various colours all stood tall on foundations of stone and wood, waiting for tables and chairs to be placed inside.

Several men were busy setting up tables and chairs in one stall with a white canopy when two young women slowly wheeled up a small wooden yatai cart beside them. Despite its small size though, it was respectably outfitted: a gas-fired grill plate, complete with extra propane tanks; massive jars of okonomiyaki batter and sauce, and plastic boxes full of shredded cabbage, finely chopped green onion and shaved bonito; bottles of mayo and shakers full of aonori and tubes of hot mustard and a large cooler full of thinly sliced belly pork and raw shrimp. Enough to make okonomiyaki for a full week or more, depending on demand.

The brunette stepped away from the push bar, leaving her black-haired companion to stay beside the yatai. She turned to look at the men assembling the stall with the white canopy, and called out to them in a strong Kansai dialect, "Hey, this where the beachside shops gonna be?"

A member of Shutarou's kuromegane servants quickly made his way over to the two women. "Much apologies, ma'am. We're still in the middle of setting things up. What's your name?"

"Kuonji Ukyou," the brunette answered. She pointed over at the other girl by the yatai. "This here's Konatsu." She turned back to the worker with an easy smile. "Don't worry about permits or anything, we're fully registered by the city council."

The guard pulled out a notepad and started scribbling. "Does your friend have a second name there?"

"Kunoichi Konatsu." Konatsu said shyly.

The guard stared at Konatsu for a moment, before he scribbled in the pad again. "Kunoichi… Konatsu." Then he shoved his notepad back into his pocket. "Well, that's all we need. You can park your yatai in the red stall next to this one. Then we'll see you tomorrow."

Ukyou nodded, and got back behind the push bar, wheeling the yatai inside the neighbouring red stall. The two girls managed to negotiate the rows of empty tables and chairs, pushing the stall into the back.

"There we go," Ukyou said, locking the yatai's wheels in place. "Now we're ready for tomorrow."

Konatsu ducked under the push bar, and stepped back from the yatai slightly. "I've never been to the beach before." She turned around to look out of one of the canopy windows, towards the tide of the ocean. The moon had risen over the waves, leaving a shimmering white reflection. "It's so beautiful…"

Ukyou grinned as she pulled out the propane tanks. "Yeah, well, you'd better get a good look at all that, honey." She grunted as she slotted a tank into place inside the yatai. "Tomorrow's gonna be so busy that you won't have time to stop and enjoy the scenery. That's why I got Ran-chan and Akane-chan coming, too!"

Konatsu turned to give Ukyou a smile. "I'll do my best, Ukyou-sama! I'll make sure this week will be our best ever!"

Ukyou grinned widely. "That's the spirit, Natsu-chan!"

In a beach-house miles away, however, the inhabitants were much less enthusiastic about the next day. Ranma Saotome stared out at the horizon, a glum look on her face. "This sucks. When I heard 'bout spending a weekend at the beach, I didn't know we were gonna be workin'."

Akane sighed deeply as she unpacked her luggage. "Didn't you say you owed Ukyou after the whole thing between you and that incident with Happosai and that expanding foam? Where it all got into Ukyou-san's batter mix and ruined it?"

Ranma shuddered deeply. "Didn't think I felt clean for months after that."

Akane straightened out one of her swimsuits. "Well, you need to learn to be more responsible, especially with other people's property!" She placed the swimsuit in the wardrobe. "You better get ready for tomorrow. You know Ukyou expects a lot out of her waitresses."

"Yeah," Ranma said ruefully. "That's what I'm afraid of…"

As the night went on, everyone went to sleep for tomorrow, little knowing of what was about to happen. For the Mendou servants had allowed Ukyou and Konatsu to take the stall next to the one where Ryuunosuke and Nagisa were assigned.

With one single, careless stroke of the pen, the beginnings of the Okonomiyaki Summer Wars were set into motion.

to be continued

Notes: Brace yourselves everyone, it's time for a crossover!

This is something I've written over the summer, and have only just now decided to bring out. I have to say, I think that Ryuunosuke and Ukyou do make for pretty interesting rivals, don't they? That was most of the thinking I had while I was writing this, and it helped fuel my will to keep writing, right up until the end.

I'll post more on this soon, but for now this one chapter will kick things off. It's only going to get more interesting from here on out.