"Fiancé?" Kasumi asked, surprised.

"Yes, he's the son of my very good friend. His name is Saotome Ranma. If one of you girls were to marry him and carry on the legacy of this training hall, then our family legacy would be secure," Tendo explained to his daughters.

"Wait a minute!" Akane said, frowning, and already hating the idea. "You can't just decide like that! Count me out!"

"Maybe you should wait until you meet him," Nabiki said, smirking at her little sister. "You never know, he might be more handsome than you think. Right Father?"

Akane turned away with a slight huff, even as their father laughed.

"He'll be here very soon," he said, then stood. "Ranma and his father have been on a training mission. Recently they crossed into China."

"Ooh? China?" Nabiki asked, impressed.

Akane scowled. "So they trained in China. That doesn't automatically make them good!" she said, grumpy.

"Father, how old is Ranma?" Kasumi asked. A sensible question.

"Is he handsome?" Nabiki asked, hopefully.

"I hope he isn't younger than me," Kasumi said, genuinely not wanting to have to marry someone younger than herself.

"Well, what kind of guy is he?" Nabiki asked, wanting an answer from her father, who hadn't given one yet.

He laughed, and the daughters could all tell it was his nervous laugh, then he looked at them. "I don't know," he answered.

Now all of the daughters were frowning.

"You don't know?" Nabiki demanded, her cheeks puffed out in displeasure.

"I mean, I've never met him," their father answered.

There was just enough time for every one of the girls to think to themselves "I don't believe this," when the doorbell rang, and a voice could be heard yelling from just out front of the house.

"Leggo you old fool! Leggo I said! I told you, I don't want any part of this!"

"We must have visitors," Kasumi observed.

Nabiki jumped up. "It must be Ranma-kun!" she exclaimed, then ran towards the door.

"Saotome!" Tendo said, following Nabiki quickly. "We've been waiting!"

Kasumi stood and waited by the door. "I hope he's older than me," she said quietly.

Akane stood to welcome the visitors, even if she didn't like the whole fiancé deal, and had reached Kasumi's side just as Nabiki and their father came running back around the corner, a giant panda walking in behind them, with a screaming red-head over one shoulder.

"C'mon! Stop! You're scaring them! Stop!" the red-head yelled at the panda, pushing against it's head while trying to twist and see the Tendo family.

"Are these your friends Father?" Kasumi asked.

Tendo mutely shook his head, shocked and a little frightened.

"If they're not your friends, then what's a panda doing here?" Nabiki demanded.

Tendo just shook his head again, having no answer.

The panda halted and stood the red-head on their feet before Tendo, who blinked. The red-head looked to the side, uncomfortable.

"You wouldn't be Ranma?" Tendo asked.

"I'm Saotome Ranma. Sorry about this."

"I see! So you are Ranma!"

"He is cute!" Nabiki added happily.

"Oh, it's so good of you to come!" Tendo said, wrapping his arms around Ranma and pulling the red-head into a tight embrace. A few seconds later, Tendo released Ranma, a little confused.

Then Nabiki noticed it as well, and started poking Ranma's chest.

"Please, stop that," Ranma asked, clearly uncomfortable and very unhappy about the invasion of personal space.

"One-hundred percent female I tell you!" Nabiki said, turning to her father but not removing her hand from Ranma's breast.

"A girl?" Tendo asked, shocked, before he passed out.

~oOo~

"Poor Father, it must have been such a disappointment," Kasumi said, laying a damp cloth across Tendo's head, everybody sitting around.

"I'm the one who's disappointed," Nabiki said, pouting. "I was looking forward to finding out what kind of man he was, and then it turns out that he is a she," she continued, her tone accusing as she looked over at Ranma who was sitting between herself and Akane.

"Stop it Onee-chan! She's come a long way to visit us!" Akane said, frowning at Nabiki. She much preferred this arrangement. If Ranma was a girl, there wouldn't be any forced engagements!

"Father's waking up," Kasumi observed, drawing everyone's attention to Tendo.

Nabiki launched into accusations at once. "This is all your fault! You should have checked if he was a boy or girl first!"

"Saotome told me he had been blessed with a son!" Tendo defended from where he was laying on the floor.

"What part of this looks like a boy to you huh?" Nabiki demanded lowly, unashamedly groping Ranma's chest. "What part?"

"Please stop that!" Ranma asked, as politely as possible.

"She's right!" Akane added, getting Nabiki's attention, though the offending hand remained where it was. "So what if she's a girl Onee-chan? A guest is a guest!"

Nabiki at last removed the hand and looked to the ceiling, hands in her lap and a desire to sigh deeply in her chest.

Akane lay a friendly hand on Ranma's shoulder. "Want to see our dojo?" she offered.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, snapping her head around to look at Akane.

"I'm Akane," she said, introducing herself. "Want to be friends?"

Ranma smiled, nodded, and followed Akane out to the dojo.

~oOo~

"I'm glad you're a girl," Akane said, when they'd had their little spar.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused.

"It's just," Akane explained, "I couldn't stand losing to a boy."

Ranma stood there as Akane left, deeply uncomfortable.

Kasumi found her still there, and escorted the red-head to another part of the house.

"Please use this room Ranma-chan," Kasumi said.

"Thank you," Ranma answered, putting her large pack down.

"Why don't you go down now and take a bath," Kasumi offered, holding out bath things to the smaller girl.

"Uh... no thanks," Ranma said, perhaps a little defensively, but not wanting to be any kind of bother.

"You must!" Kasumi said, forcing the cleaning things into Ranma's hands. "You must be covered with sweat from all that exercise, right?"

Ranma had to concede the point, and headed for the bathroom.

A short while after, Kasumi asked Nabiki to tell Akane to take her bath.

~oOo~