Ranma was well and truly sick of being chased by ... two, three, four, all these stupid suitors! Happosai was getting worse as well. Really, it was becoming ridiculous. Something simply had to be done. He just wanted to live with Akane in peace, preferably after she'd learned how to cook properly.

This begged the question of what course of action they could possibly take, of course. He had to escape from far too many interested and very determined females, and a couple of just as determined males who wanted to get to him for (mostly) different reasons. On top of that, he had to get Akane away as well, so none of them could get to her either.

Maybe they could elope to some other country, marry, find a cooking academy for Akane, a job for Ranma, and live away from the mess that was Nerima for a few years, only to return a few years later after everybody had (hopefully) calmed down. Of course there were a few people who it was impossible to avoid, simply because they didn't know where they were and weren't themselves, and could just as easily appear anywhere around the world at any given time – Ryoga and Pantyhose Taro for example.

Still, Ranma thought to himself as he walked along the fence to his very last day of school under that crazy headmaster – the man really needed to get checked into a home for the demented – the young man had to admit to himself that just taking Akane and eloping sounded like a really good idea. Provided he could pull it off without a) getting pummelled for it by Akane, or b) having all of Nerima find out about it before they had already left the country.

The last day of school was mostly cleaning up the desks, chairs, scraping off old gum, washing the walls and floor, organising the sports storage, and for some classes a bit of celebration was in order. Ranma just kept his mouth shut and got on with his assigned tasks, taking the time to think. The idea of eloping with Akane was slowly evolving into a plan. He had a passport, and he knew that Akane had one somewhere as well. He had some money put away from working in Ukyo's shop, the old hag's shop, lending the dopey doc a hand now and then, rewards from returning items stolen by Happosai, and a few prize cheques from normal martial arts competitions – he had been very careful to keep his nest egg between himself and his bank manager, as well as having it locked so that he could only make deposits unless he provided three passwords and his ID. He really didn't want anybody making off with his money. It was hard enough, thank you, dealing with turning into a woman. At least affording plane tickets shouldn't be too hard.

He'd have to somehow get a bag packed for Akane without arousing suspicion from anybody, as well as his own bag... Ah-ha! A special training excursion. He certainly had been forced on plenty of those by his father over the years. He just had to make it convincing, and somehow wiggle it so that nobody would ask questions... an age limit might do it, yes. A remote and isolated dojo that never accepted anybody over twenty, claiming that anybody who attempted to learn their techniques after they reached that age would never reach the level of flexibility required by the masters. That should work.

This would be even better, he would be able to announce loudly that he would go to this fictitious dojo, somewhere in Nepal perhaps, offer to take Akane with him since she was the only other person in the family who both could go and might be interested, she'd pack her own bag, he'd pack his, they'd go to the airport and he'd buy tickets to ... Paris, or maybe Rome, and anybody who thought to follow him to his made up dojo would buy their tickets for Nepal. Perfect.

"Prepare yourself son! We are going to Siberia on a training mission!" yelled Genma when Ranma and Akane came within shouting distance of the dojo.

Ranma determined not to smirk. Perfect.

"Actually Pops, I found out about a dojo in Nepal that I'd really like to check out," Ranma yelled back.

Old Tendo appeared beside Genma at the door of the Tendo dojo. "What's this? Soatome's going to someone else's dojo? What an outrage!"

"I just want to learn everything I can, and this dojo in Nepal looked interesting. They claim that if you do not begin training there before the age of twenty, you will not be flexible enough to perform the techniques that they teach," Ranma said quickly.

"How long will this training last?" Akane asked sternly.

"Don't really know, but I think they take girls as well as guys. Want to come with?" Ranma offered, hope shining clearly in his eyes. He didn't fight girls, but he could respect that Akane was really quite good, despite not training as often as she could.

Akane melted slightly and smiled up at him. "Sure, I'll go pack."

"Pack everything! No telling what you might need when we get there," he called after her as she headed into the dojo. It was that easy, Akane was running up the stairs to pack clothes for she had no idea how long, her dad might even squeeze out the money for her airfare, leaving more for them when they got to wherever they were going.

When Ranma and Akane reached the nearest airport, nearly everybody they knew was in line to buy a plane ticket, and judging by the brochures and handbooks most of them were carrying with their luggage, it looked like they were all planning for Nepal. Akane sighed in resignation, and Ranma forced a similar one from himself, though he wanted to smirk at his trick. He held Akane back until he was certain that everybody had bought their Nepal tickets, checking that everybody was through before them.

With a scowl Ranma realised there were a few extra faces among his usual stalkers. His father and Happosai, both searching through the pamphlets that featured fighting monks, certainly had no reason to follow him this time. The Amazons he could understand, Ukyo and her shop assistant, Ryoga of course, the gymnastics and poisons chick and her idiot brother... well, at least they'd all be in Nepal for a while, searching for the dojo he had made up.

Ranma didn't move towards the ticket counter until boarding was called for all flights to Nepal and the collection of stalkers had begun shifting through the gate. When the last one of them was through, and the couple had reached the ticket dispenser, Ranma turned to Akane and asked quietly, just in case they were overheard "Where would you like to elope to? Rome, Paris?"

The way Akane's beautiful eyes grew wide with shock, and then shimmered with delight was even better than the satisfaction he had enjoyed seeing everybody willingly pack themselves off to Nepal.

"Oh Ranma! Paris," she answered, flinging her arms around his neck.

"Two tickets to Paris please," Ranma said to the woman behind the desk, who was smiling at them.

"The flight leaves in one hour, and many happy returns," the woman said, handing over the passes.

"Thank you," they both answered at the same time.