Kasumi's Big Hip Blues 
	or 
	Desperate Women to Desperate Things
	
	Jenny 'Android18' Chan

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	Nabiki looked up from her homework when she heard the front 
door slam, followed by the sound of someone running inside the 
house.
	~Who could that be?~ She wondered. The sound of fighting,
screaming and water splashing in the back yard told Nabiki that 
Ranma and Akane where there, fighting as usual. Father and 
Saotome-san (in panda form) were sitting by her, playing a game 
of go. 
	~Oh yeah, Kasumi!~ Nabiki thought. The slamming of the
front door had caused Nabiki to instantly disqualify the oldest 
Tendo sister as the person who had just come home.
	Right at that moment, Kasumi ran by the open door to the
living room, her hands over her eyes as she rushed to her room.
	Nabiki blinked, and looked over to her father and Genma,
who were staring at the place where Kasumi had appeared briefly.
	"What's wrong with Kasumi?" Soun asked.
	<I thought she had just gone to see her future-mother-in-
law?> Asked Genma with a wooden sign.
	"She did." Nabiki frowned. Dr. Tofu has asked Kasumi to
marry him a couple of weeks ago. Kasumi had wanted to marry the 
doctor for the longest time, and was just waiting for him to ask. 
It had been a very proud and happy time when Kasumi had shown 
the ecstatic Tendo family the diamond around her finger.
	<Maybe the meeting didn't go well?> 
	"How could it not go well?" Nabiki asked, "Kasumi's every
mother-in-law's dream come true."
	"Nabiki, go check on your sister," Soun said.
	"Right."

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	Nabiki knocked on Kasumi's closed bedroom door. "Hey, Kasumi,
are you alright?"
	The middle daughter heard a sob as a reply. Feeling
uncharacteristically worried, Nabiki opened the door, and walked
into the room, closing the door behind her.
	Kasumi was sitting on the floor, beside her bed, crying 
into her quilt. Nabiki quickly walked to Kasumi and sat down
beside her, a hand on her shoulder.
	"Sis, what's wrong?"
	"Oh Nabiki! *Sob!*" Cried Kasumi as she turned and grabbed
onto her middle sister, crying into Nabiki's shoulder. "I...
Tofu... Mother Ono... Oh! *Sob!*"
	"Kasumi, tell me what's wrong."
	Crying and sobbing, Kasumi managed to tell Nabiki what had
gone wrong. When she was done, Nabiki stared at her sister's
tear stained face, a look of disbelief on her own.
	"Your HIPS weren't BIG enough?!" Nabiki cried.
	Kasumi nodded. "Mother Ono had another daughter-in-law in
her mind, the woman with the largest hips on all Japan! She
compared our sizes and... and... my hips aren't as good as her's
are, for child birth!!" 
	Kasumi went into another crying fit. "Nabiki, what am I
going to do?!"
	Nabiki bit down her natural reply for cash before she gave
advice but for this one time, she decided to let the money slide.
	"Well, you could marry Tofu anyway."
	Kasumi gave a gasp. "Oh no! I can't do that!"
	"Why not? Doesn't he love you?"
	"Of course Tofu loves me! But... but I don't want him to
choose between me and his mother."
	Nabiki tapped her lip. "Well, you could always PROVE to
Mother Ono that your hips are fit for child birth..." She said
idly, more to herself than to Kasumi, because Nabiki KNEW what
Kasumi thought about pre-marriage sex.
	"What did you say?" Kasumi asked, shock on her face.
	"Huh? Oh, nothing, you wouldn't go for it," Nabiki replied
hastily.
	The middle Tendo was very surprised when the shock on 
Kasumi's face turned into disgust, then to desperation, then to 
consideration.
	"Sis, you're not gonna..."
	"Thank you.... Nabiki," Kasumi said softly, standing up.
Nabiki stood up as well and looked Kasumi in the eyes.
	"Kasumi, you're not gonna..."
	"Thank you Nabiki... you've just found a solution to my
problem that I probably never would have come up on my own."
	Nabiki suddenly didn't like the look in Kasumi's eyes. It
looked more like something that would be in Shampoo or Kodachi's
eyes.
	"Kasumi, don't tell me you're considering what I THINK
you're considering!"
	Kasumi didn't answer.

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