Nabiki, Ranma's New Fiancée!

Ranma wa Nabiki no Iinazuke? (乱馬はなびきの許婚?) is the 22nd episode in the fifth season of Ranma ½, Martial Mayhem, and is the 110th episode overall.

Relation to the Previous Episode
None.

Just Another Day
With one of her having been stolen by Happosai, Akane chases down the old pervert throughout the Tendo Dojo, determined to get it back. Eventually the pair pass Kasumi who's carrying tray of several pieces left over from breakfast. As Happosai speeds past, Akane grabs the bottle of from Kasumi before chucking it in Happosai's direction. Unfortunately Happosai avoids the bottle, leaving it to hurtle towards the door just as Nabiki starts walking through.

Unsurprisingly the bottle hits Nabiki's shoulder, leaving a large stain of sauce on the new blouse she's wearing. Without another second's thought Akane rushes over profusely apologises for her actions; whilst Kasumi comments on how a soy sauce stain won't ever come out, especially on a white blouse. Nabiki, however, calmly tells Akane to forget about it, as she shouldn't have taken it without permission in the first place. She then continues handing the blouse to it's real owner, Akane, before walking off into the house, much to Akane's frustration.

Later that day Akane heads up to her sister's room, where Nabiki offers Akane anything in her wardrobe as way of an apology for ruining her blouse. Akane happily accepts the offer, but soon notices that almost all the clothes in Nabiki's wardrobe are actually hers!

After Akane spends the rest of the day going through Nabiki's clothes to find which one's are hers, Nabiki informs her that she was only borrowing the clothes. Just then Ranma walks in to return a rag which Nabiki let him borrow to clean the training hall, but notes that it fell apart in the process. Although Nabiki tells Ranma not to worry and just throw it away, Akane recognises as the sports towel she embroidered. Infuriated with her hard work being squandered, Akane punches Ranma out of frustration.

During dinner that same evening, Nabiki apologises to the badly-bruised Ranma for her violent sister's actions. Akane, however, reminds Nabiki how she took her clothes without permission. Ignoring this Nabiki comments to Ranma how difficult it must be for him to be engaged to someone like Akane, a fact which Ranma silently nods in agreement to.

With Akane demanding to know who's side Ranma's on, Ranma calmly informs her that none of this matters as she still has the clothes she looks best in. This leads Akane to try and figure out which outfit Ranma's talking about, but soon learns the answer when Ranma reveals he was talking about her training gi. Infuriated once again, Akane flips the table over Ranma (leaving everyone else to quickly grab up all the food) before Soun finally intervenes and instructs the pair to stop fighting.

Once dinner is finished, Akane heads outside to vent her frustration on some cement blocks. Ranma, meanwhile, is taken aside by Kasumi who asks him to comfort Akane as he's the best person to do it. Kasumi adds that although Akane is violent, strong-willed, stubborn as well as scatterbrained, clumsy and not cute, she's still a girl. Just then Soun and Nabiki appear, who mention that, as her fiancé, he (Ranma) should be nice to her. Ranma, however, turns to Nabiki and asks her why she doesn't apologise as she started all this; leading Nabiki to explain that she only angered Akane whilst he's the one who hurt her.

Seeing no other alternative, Ranma gives in and goes to find Akane.

A little while later, Ranma finds Akane on the dojo balcony, but struggles to get her to even look at him, let alone listen to him apologise. Luckily Akane quickly tires of avoiding Ranma and asks him what he wants. At that moment Nabiki appears as well to tell Akane that they insulted her, but didn't deliberately gang up on her and that the insults just happened to occur simultaneously. Infuriated more than ever, Akane tells the pair to leave her alone before punching the balcony, causing it to disintegrate.

Akane quickly forward rolls mid-air so that she may land of a tree branch feet-first. Unfortunately the branch breaks under her momentum, causing Akane to land firmly on her tailbone when she hits the ground. Milliseconds later Akane recalls that Nabiki doesn't know what to do and turns around to try and save her, only to see that Ranma has already done so. During the ensuing awkward moment, Ranma reminds Nabiki that he had to save her instead of Akane as she's weak and "ordinary", unlike her younger sister. Ranma then walks over to Akane in order to make sure she understands, but Akane slaps Ranma in anger before declaring to Ranma that she's had enough before telling Ranma to go and be Nabiki's fiancé instead!

Not a moment later, Nabiki takes up her sister's offer, but does give her the opportunity to take it back as she plans to have Ranma for "keeps". But after a second's reconsideration, Akane lets Nabiki have her wish and even hands over Ranma with a little bow.

Having gone back inside Akane informs Kasumi and her father about the situation, leading them to make sure Akane understands what's going on as it doesn't matter to the Tendo school who Ranma marries. Kasumi then adds that Nabiki's dream is to sell the school and live a life of luxury, moments before Soun instructs Akane to make up with Ranma.

Akane then heads to her room where she thinks about how Nabiki can't be serious about Ranma, so decides that she can ignore the two of them and nothing will happen.

After thinking about how all this began with a fight with Nabiki and how Ranma has nothing to do with it, Akane heads over to Nabiki's room in the hope of making up with her. When she gets there, however, Akane overhears Ranma trying to convince Nabiki to make up with her. Nabiki, however, asks Ranma if he can't see how she feels about him before proceeding confess her love for him; much to Ranma and Akane's shock.

The Honeymoon Period
Early the next morning Akane wakes up and heads outside where she finds Ranma doing some early-morning training of his own. Seeing Akane sneaking about, Ranma asks her if she wants anything. This leads Akane to reply that she doesn't before moving on to question Ranma about he feels about being engaged to Nabiki, to which Ranma responds that he doesn't care who he fiancé is as he's too busy training. Hearing this Akane begins wondering if Ranma really doesn't care for Nabiki. At that moment Nabiki herself appears with a towel to cleanup all the sweat of Ranma's face.

A few moments later Nabiki notices her sister watching, but before she can talk with her Akane runs off and swiftly heads off for school.

Quotes

 * (Akane) "The sports towel I worked so hard to embroider!"
 * (Akane) "It's mine! Look at the bunny!"
 * (Ranma) "Bunny? I though it was a jellyfish."
 * (Ranma) "Won't this be solved if you apologised?"
 * (Nabiki) "You don't get it, do you? I only made Akane angry. You're the one who hurt her."

Trivia

 * This episode reveals what Nabiki plans are for the Tendo Dojo, should she inherit it. Namely, sell it on so that she can live in luxury.