A date rumor caused a fight?!

Ryoga and Ranma?!

"Ranma! How dare you hurt Akane!" the former bellows.

Just outside the high school's front gate, you watch as Ryoga fires blow after blow at Ranma, who (currently male) smoothly dodges each one with leans and acrobatics with a clear look of disinterest on his face. "Ryoga! You're still here?"

"Of course I am! Where do you think I would've gone!" the Eternally Lost Boy growls, still striking and missing.

"I just figured you'd have wandered off and wound up in Beijing by now," the genderswapping martial artist replies with a mid-dodge shrug.

"Shut up and fight me!" Ryoga roars.

Ranma just keeps dodging with all the casual, lazy grace of someone who's bored. "And why are we fighting this time?"

"Because you hurt Akane!" Ryoga says as he lunges forward.

"And how'd I do that?" Ranma asks, sidestepping.

"By going on a date with Shampoo after school today!"

...What? You turn to two girls wearing Furinkan High School uniforms in the crowd of watching bystanders outside the school's entrance. One of them shrugs.

"Whole school's been saying it all day," she says.

"Yeah, I heard from Shinobu, who heard it from Kagome, who said she heard it from Shampoo," the other explains.

"And you know Kagome! She's a total gossip!" the first says, giggling.

Uhhh... So was the rumor true? Probably not, but Ryoga certainly fell for it.

"Oh? I'm dating Shampoo after school today?" Ranma asks, looking upward nonchalantly in thought as he leans out of the way of a kick from the Eternally Lost Boy.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Ryoga demands, pulling his umbrella off his back and swinging it down at his opponent.

"Funny," Ranma muses, jumping out of the way to avoid the pavement-cracking impact. "'Cause from where I'm standing, it looks more like I'm fighting you after school today."

Ryoga freezes, right in the middle of reaching up to pull one of his buzz-saw bandannas off. Realization seems to set in, realizing the time, location, people present, situation... Then, as it dawns on him, "Oh."

With a crash, a certain purple-haired Chinese Amazon jumps from over a nearby wall on her bike, letting it fall to the street as she lands on Ranma's back. Wrapping her arms and legs around him in a personal space-defying hug, the sex kitten squishes her large breasts into his back through her Cat Cafe uniform and Ranma's red Chinese gi.

"Groom! Time for date! You come with Shampoo, kay?" she chirps.

With the buxom Amazon still hanging on his back with him acting like she weighs nothing, Ranma sighs and runs his fingers through his slightly shaggy black hair. "Shampoo... Shampoo, really? Seriously? I expected better from you. Starting a rumor that I agreed to date you and hoping I'd think I just forgot and go along with it? That's just lame. Are you running out of ideas?"

Not just Shampoo, but Ryoga, the onlookers, and even your jaw drops! Wow, Ranma normally isn't this clever! What point in the Ranma 1/2 timeline is this? Is it far enough in or after the series that Ranma is just used to all this chaos by now?