Ranma Saotome looked around and saw the various rides and attractions of the carnival. The carnival came to the Nerima Ward of Tokyo only once a year, so it was a big deal to each one in Nerima.

     So the parents had insisted that Ranma attend the carnival and that he should take Akane Tendo with him. He complained only for appearance's sake. After all, he had no intention of getting married at just a young age. But he had to admit that when they left the Tendo Dojo together, Akane was beautiful... with her yellow sun dress and sandals. There was a pretty red rose in her hair to complete the picture.

     Once there, Ranma and Akane went on the rides together and played the various carnival games. One game in peculiar caught Ranma's attention. The game, if you could call it that, was to catch as many little fishes as you could using little fishing nets.

     Of course, all carnival games were fixed. This game was no exception. The fix in this case was that the fishing nets would dissolve upon contact with the water. Thus, it was impossible to catch any fish since you didn't have a net. Ranma realized this from the start, but Akane was too stubborn...

     If at first Akane could get any fishes because the fishing nets were dissolving, then she wasn't going fast enough. So Akane tried harder and faster. And again, and again, and again...

     After her tenth attempt, Ranma sighed and said, "Use your hands and just think of it like the 'Chestnut Over a Roasting Fire' training."

     Akane just nodded, set aside the useless fishing net, and attempted to grab the fish bare-handed. For her first through fifth attempts, she only totaled three fishes. The game operator's smirk only angered Akane.

     Ranma sighed and said, "Like this, Akane-chan."

     Ranma slowly proceeded to catch twenty fishes before the Operator could voice a single syllable in protest since he hadn't paid for the attempt like Akane had been. He put the fishes back even faster and motioned Akane to try again.

     After a number of attempts, Akane finally was able to get all fifty fishes. Ranma smiled at Akane, and run his hand through her long hair affectionally.

     As the two began to walk away, the Operator said, "Now just a minute here... Not so fast... You just can't go taking all my fishes with you."

     "But we won them," Ranma simply stated.

     "Not all of them," the Operator reply. "Tell you what, you can have all the fishes, if... if... if you can get all the other fishes..."

     "Fine," Ranma answered.

     The Operator smiled as he dumped one hundred ninety nine piranhas into the tank. Each piranha looked like it was starved and could eat an entire cow in seconds.

     Akane was worried and she motioned for Ranma to just leave...

     Ranma just smiled and said, "No problemo"

     Before the Operator or Akane could blink, all one hundred ninety nine piranhas were out of the tank and laying in front of Ranma.

     Before Akane could say anything, they all heard, "Captain to the Bridge. Captain Saotome please report to the Bridge."

     Ranma sighed as he saw the Operator and Akane's confused face. He looked up slightly up, above Akane's head, and said, "Computer, save and exit program."

     The carnival, the booth, the fishes, the Operator, and Akane dissolved into sparkling points of light that faded out. Ranma noted that Akane's big spatula on her back was the last thing to disappear.

     Computer stated, "Program Carnival Saotome Zero One Three is saved and indexed."

     "Saotome to Bridge. I'm on my way," Captain Ranma Saotome of the United Federation of Planets Starship Excalibur responded.

Last Updated: Sun Apr 29 14:34:43 CDT 2001
History File