Ranma ½ Continuation

Disclaimer: Characters and anime/manga original story are all property of Rumiko Takahashi.

Author's Note: Please, don't misjudge my project by the first chapter until you read the following ones! EXTRA NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER

About the Chapter:This first chapter might seem pointless, but I need a way to set the mood and see the feedback I get for the idea of my project and the way I write before actually bothering myself to write it. Also, I want to give you an idea of how I write and what standards I follow, so maybe you'll start liking, or hating, my work. A few days after the failed wedding, Ranma is being chased by his crazy fiancées, which we all know is very likely considering how crazy they really are. So, he headed for the Tendo's roof to hide from them and starts thinking how his future would be if he were to actually pick one… or all of them! Lol, no, I'm just joking about that one. Please comment if you can so that I am encouraged to keep writing, but most importantly, enjoy!

Chapter 1:

A Future with a Freaky Psychotic Gymnast, a Crazy Revengeful Amazon, an Over-Obsessed Okonomiyaki Chef, and an Un-cute Clumsy Tomboy

Ranma Saotome could not believe how his stupid fiancées always kept fighting with one another to claim their rights over him. Lately, those stupid girls kept ambushing him just to make him finally choose his bride. Instead of fighting one another though, they always ended up hurting him. How was he supposed to pick his favorite if he was being attacked at that instant anyway? They wanted him to pick his bride while Akane was not even there at the moment... not that he would pick the tomboy or nothing… he just meant to be fair.

"Who am I kidding," Ranma said to himself as he sat down, slamming into the Tendo's roof with unnecessary force. "I can't live like this; they'll end up shredding me to pieces!" He grabbed the heavy metal chύi on top of his head and threw it to the koi pond below. It landed with a huge splash and Ranma could bet its weight had gotten it through the other side of the world. "What does Shampoo think when she waves that thing around like that? Nothing, I tell you, nothing! The crazy girl does not have anything in that tiny brain of hers." He did not understand how her brain was so small when her head was so big. Well, she was just a crazy Amazon after all…

He started disentangling the pink ribbon Kodachi had wrapped around him a while ago. "If I'm going to mention crazy people, Kodachi would more than win the competition. Well, not really, I doubt they'd accept a psychotic professional to compete… but then again, she would find her way into it, I guess…" he pondered out loud. Once he had successfully removed the ribbon, he noticed that his red Chinese top had been ragged and torn in several places. Great, why did everyone always pick on his clothes? He was not that rich and they ought to know that better than anyone! It was one of his favorite tops, to boot!

And the next step was obviously removing his childhood friend's spatulas from all other remaining spots that had not been wrapped with the ribbon. So much for childhood friends when they try to kill you… who attacks with spatulas anyway? Ukyo was definitely not this pushy and clingy back when they were kids! Well, she did pretend she was a guy the whole time, so that would have been just plain weird… and he did like okonomiyaki better than he liked the actual okonomiyaki chef, his supposed best friend 'Ucchan'… but… oh well, he had already gotten what he deserved for having done that, he reckoned… and even MORE! So why did they have to go chase him around all the time for?

And the funny thing was that this was their way to show their 'love'. He tried ignoring what would happen if they were to hate him… that just brought shivers down his spine. Yep – he started throwing the spatulas one by one to the koi pond – they HAD gone mad. Well, mad for him… he really could not blame them on that account… after all, he was great, the greatest martial artist, smart, charismatic, and super strong, not to mention extremely handsome… he could be the total lady-killer. Yeah, that was his magic alright, being so special. He partially did understand why they were so crazy for him after all.

First was the psychotic gymnast, Kodachi the black… petunia or something... Hah, he could not help remembering the incident that happened the day when she had first fallen for him (Yes, first fallen, she re-fell in love with him all over again at some point) on that very same rooftop. (And yes, he was well aware that that sounded plain weird, so he did a mental note on not repeating it in front of others, or even to himself, ever again). He could not really remember exactly how it had happened though, only that she had used some paralysis potion to stick him to the rooftop and kiss him. He shivered in disgust just picturing that. Akane had saved him that day… but left him out on the roof the whole night nonetheless. Stupid Akane, why did she always overreact like that? It was Kodachi's fault, not his. That mad Kuno girl, it was also her fault he was freezing to death now; his long sleeved shirt had not so fashionably turned sleeveless.

What was that? Oh great, Kodachi had resorted to blade ribbons now! He was bleeding all over, specially his arms, but was so prickling angry that he had not even felt the pain. He put his hands on his face and gave a shriek of frustration. (He knew he looked like The Scream there) Then he looked at his left hand and discovered his left cheek was ALSO bleeding. Soon he figured out that a slash about an inch long on his face was responsible for the bleeding. What was the matter with that girl, did he want to marry him alive or dead? That girl had the weirdest image of what a husband should be treated like.

When had she become his fiancée anyway? If he were to marry that girl, boy he would in trouble. She would surely feed him to her pet crocodile, her dear Mr. Turtle, and call it a 'proof of the affection of her love for him'. Of course, the only way he could ever end up marrying Kodachi was if she put some love potion in his food or something. Plus, because of that stupid Jusenkyo curse, she would chase him around to kill him, at least half of the time, not that it would make much of a difference anyway… and that was only if she did not find out about both being the same person, mind you. Well, of course she would not find out about it, because she was too dim-witted to notice that her 'beloved Ranma' – Ranma mimicked Kodachi's tone at this point – and 'my beloved pigtailed girl!'- he mimicked her brother now –were in fact the SAME PERSON. As for the lunatic of her brother, Ranma decided not to bother considering him for now… After all, craziness did run in the family.

It would be kind of like the same situation he first had with Shampoo. Just like Mr. Tendo had said; 'When he is a boy, she just wants him… When he is a girl, she wants him dead'. She certainly was crazy enough to follow him and 'track him to the ends of the world' just to get her revenge. When would she understand that he lied about him being a girl just because he preferred getting killed by her rather than actually having to marry her? Obviously, she would never get it. Unlike Kodachi, she was kind of cute; but not THAT cute for him to actually even consider giving her what she wants. That meant he would never – repeat never – marry the crazy Amazon.

If he were to actually marry her, his head would surely end up in display like a hog's head in front of the entire Amazon tribe in China. They would make a relic out of it and entitle it 'Wo da Airen' or something cheesy like that. At least something good would come out of that, though; he would be a step closer to Jusenkyo and the Spring of Drowned Man to cure his curse. He thought about it for a while though, and decided not to think further about the possibility of going back to Jusenkyo. After all, memories of the last time he had visited China were not that warm and fuzzy to remember. Besides, being cursed for the rest of his life definitely had to be better than marrying the crazy Amazon.

Like that time when he had almost ended up marrying her after she had used some weird Chinese red thread of faith. He could not remember what had happened at the instances he had the thread tied around his pinky, but from the looks of things once the thread was cut for good, he was about to say 'I do'. (Or kick the bucket just as well) Again… Akane had saved him from a close-call… a very close one. He never really did thank her for that… Well, of course he did not, after she had slapped him right across the face even when he was no longer under the thread's spell! How was he supposed to know what was going on? And then she walked on and laughed at him…! But Ranma could not help noticing there was something fishy about that. 'She had laughed? Oh wow, she had laughed… I guess I kind of never noticed… but maybe she was actually happy that I had not really married Shampoo…? She had laughed very… cut–…'

"AHHH! What am I thinking?" Ranma shrieked once again. "Cu-, cu-, curtly, yes, that's what I meant! She had laughed at me curtly!" – not that he knew what the word meant anyway – he almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself. Convincing… yes… it had all been make believe since he had fallen on that Jusenkyo spring… well, in fact, it was ever since he was born. He sighed as the memories of that one time when he had pretended having been already married to Akane in order to get Ukyo out of the Tendo's house flowed in his mind. She had originally settled in because of a – little – mischief he had done back when they were kids. Who waits for a super ultra secret okonomiyaki sauce to ferment for a decade anyway?

He did not know if he was more lenient to Ukyo than Kodachi and Shampoo simply because she had been his childhood friend, but he always felt he could handle her overly obsession over him more easily. If Ukyo was really obsessed over something though, then it was definitely with her job as an okonomiyaki chef. Not that it bothered Ranma that much however, he really liked being engorged with free Japanese pizzas at any time he felt hungry… plus the fact that being an okonomiyaki chef kept her away from plotting crazy schemes to get him to marry her like the others did. He shrugged in pain as he remembered how she had cooked him and spiced him up on her portable stove when she had tried to quit cooking okonomiyaki for the sake of being a 'better' woman for him to love.

"Man, if they really want to know who I think about when it comes to love, then they should definitely see Ak..." He stopped talking abruptly and sighed. He could not just pick one of his fiancées. The others would surely want to chase after her and kill her – not that he wanted to pick Akane or nothing – he was just seeing the best alternative for his future; yeah, securing the inheritance of the Saotome school of Anything-Goes-Martial-Arts was his main duty in life after all… or at least that was the goal that his old man had implanted in his brain. But his duty was to stay alive too if he was going to inherit the rights over the Saotome-Tendo School of Anything-Goes-Martial-Arts. And staying alive meant he could not reject any of his fiancées. Marrying them all was obviously not a possibility either.

"I might as well just marry the first fiancée that pops out in front of me… Hopefully it'll be Ak…"

"Ranma?" an anxious voice called interrupting his train of thoughts. He looked around to check on the voice's owner. He had been so deep in thought that he did not feel someone else's presence approaching him.

"Akane?" he asked nervously, momentarily turning into a rock statue. She had gone up to the roof by the ladder and was holding a first aid kit. Oh darn it, had she heard him?

"I saw Shampoo's chύi and Ukyo's spatulas in the koi pond so I thought you were close by…" she said as she balanced herself to walk steadily.

No matter how much Ranma hated to admit it to himself, Ryoga had done a pretty good job training Akane when those two girls had come claiming they were Mr. Tendo's illegitimate daughters and tried to take over the dojo. Her manner had turned more graceful and steadier even since then. Well, perhaps it was not the teacher but rather the student that was responsible for the improvement, seeing as lately she had been turning into a better martial artist. Ranma smiled at her reassuringly. "Yep, they were chasing me… again."

"But that's like the fifth time this week!" she shrieked in horror. Ranma was glad that Akane had not heard his previous comment concerning his fiancées and sighed in relief.

"Sixth," he corrected her. "This time it counts double." He pointed at his bleeding arms to explain, smiling to reassure that he was fine, but she ran towards him agitatedly nonetheless.

"Oh Ranma!" she exclaimed as she sat down beside him and opened the first aid kit with no delay. "Does it hurt too much?"

"Nah, don't worry. They aren't too deep. It's nothing you can't treat, right?" he said in a slight heroic tone that Akane totally missed.

"You sure you don't want to go see Dr. Tofu?"

"I'm fine, I tell you. I'm sure these will heal in no time."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right… They really aren't that deep, and you've been through worse without Dr. Tofu's aid, eh Ranma?" she said sounding relieved after having examined the cuts herself.

"That's the ticket… I have some cuts across my chest too though…" He grunted slightly in pain as he started unbuckling the buttons of the remains of his shirt to take it off.

"Wait Ranma, I'll help you with that," Akane said as she dropped the cotton wads she had just taken from the kit to help him take off his shirt. On the way, her hair brushed his cheeks tenderly and Ranma could not help inhaling her fragrance. "Okay, there you go," she commented once she was done and had put the Chinese top aside.

"It's good I wasn't a girl at the time or otherwise this would have hurt double," he chuckled when he noticed the not-so-appealing sight of his chest's wounds under his white singlet.

"Honestly Ranma, I don't know how you put up with this every day." She proceeded on dabbing disinfectant on one of the wounds on his arm.

"What? You think it's my fault they're all wild maniacs?" he commented a little too rashly. He regretted immediately, though, when he noticed Akane's furious expression.

Akane was about to retort, but suddenly her expression turned from fury to hurt. "I'm sorry Ranma. I guess it's actually my fault," she said sadly, covering his wound with a cotton swab.

"Wha-, what?" Ranma asked baffled. Angry Akane he could take, but aching one, not so much. When had this become her fault?

"Well… If I hadn't agreed to… you know… that, then they wouldn't be acting so clingy with you right now…" she whispered as she started disinfecting a new wound.

"Shut up! How could you be so stupid? You know that has got NOTHING to do with them acting like that! They have always chased after me, even before that! Besides, it didn't even happen!"

"But…"

"I told you no! Don't go butting in and blaming yourself for other people's problems!"

She did not answer and continued treating his injuries in silence. Again, Ranma had been too rash and tactless with his response to Akane's feelings. He knew he could have been slightly nicer to Akane's self-blame to herself, yet he had opted for his usual rude way of making his point clear. How could she possibly blame herself so stupidly anyway? She was not playing the heroine, and he was well aware of that, but nonetheless it was stupid of her to even consider being responsible for this huge mess.

He felt his heart beat faster each time she drew nearer him to cover one of his wounds. He could not believe that that same girl that did that to him was blaming herself for the whole mess that was his father's fault… or at some point his own, but that was not the case. The case was that the only way to end this problem for good was to do as their parents told them to and confront the circumstances. He did not know if he was ready for it, though… ready for that.

She did not know how to cook for one thing, and he knew he could end up dying from her cooking. Okay, it was not that bad anymore… she had become a little better after following her mother's step-by-step cooking notebook. Yeah, right… She was clumsy and a total klutz, but those were traits that involved home tasks mostly, so it was not really a major issue for him. She was not exactly the toughest female martial artist currently living in Nerima, but he knew that the stronger ones would leave and let her regain her title eventually. Plus, Nabiki was right; she had stopped caring about training ever since Ranma had come into the big picture, and he could not help feeling his ego burst up a bit at that thought. Well, she was still just as good as when Ryoga had trained her, and Ranma was sure that that should have set her quite a boost comparing her to Ukyo and Shampoo.

She certainly was a total tomboy, but it was not as if he was anyone to judge her… considering his very own problem, that is. He knew she was the only one who saw through him when he happened to transform into a 'she', and treated him like the actual man he was… treat or beat him up. Nevertheless, tomboy or not a tomboy, she could be so… cute… when she wanted to be. No matter how much he denied it to himself, he knew that by simply by smiling, laughing, or worrying about him, it was enough to set his heart to super speed heartbeat rate.

"Okay, that's the last one," she said as she placed a band-aid on his left cheek. He felt the area burn and it was not exactly because of the disinfectant she had placed on the wound.

"Could you put me another band-aid there? This one feels sort of loose," he asked nonchalantly, though he knew deep inside that he had asked for a new one because the burn had not been too unpleasant.

"Sorry, that was the last one… Unless you want to use one of Happosai's, but that wouldn't be a good idea, now will it?" she giggled pointing at a little blue box of bandages in the first aid kit.

They both laughed at the memory, but ended up blushing when they remembered how things had concluded that day. "Ehm, ah thanks for patching me up Akane… again…" Ranma said in an attempt to cover the awkward silence.

"It's okay Ranma. You better get yourself a new shirt before you catch a cold…" she added.

"Hmm… yeah," Ranma sighed, but remained sitting.

As Akane was standing up, she accidentally slipped with Ranma's shirt. She was about to slam into the roof when Ranma outstretched his arm behind her shoulders and gave her a complete ninety degree turn to her previous right side, positioning her safely on his lap. "Clumsy as ever, you where the one who put that shirt there, you know?" Ranma grunted dispassionately.

"I… Thanks…" she was out of breath, having being caught like that. How was Ranma so fast?

"At least you didn't get hurt," he said with apparent indifference. No matter how many cuts and slashes she helped him with, he was always the one who ended up saving her.

"Ehm… I… Thanks for saying that too… you know, about it not being my fault…"she said in a whisper barely audible to Ranma himself.

Ranma took a moment to actually process what he was being thanked for. They stayed like that for a while, and he was finally able to figure out what Akane had meant by that comment. He inhaled in her sweet aroma, not sure if he could ever get enough of it. His azure eyes started tracing every bit of her dark coffee ones, and they seemed to get closer each second. There was no way such a moment could be ruined…

"Akane…" he said dizzily as he was about to tighten his grip around her, still not breaking the eye contact between them.

"Why, I turn my back for a second, and my beloved is so desperate he is already thinking I'm another person?"

"No fair Ranma-honey, if you're feeling lonely you should be honest about it!"

"Airen have lot of explaining to give!"

Okay, so maybe something could ruin the moment…

"Oh, ho, ho! They've finally come true with their feelings! Oh, happy day, happy day! Don't worry my kids, as soon as we fix all of your suitors issues, we will plan another wedding immediately!"

"Young love is beautiful, isn't it Tendo?"

"Oh Ranma, I'm so proud of you! You're all grown up and you've become so manly, even manlier than before!"

"I still think they're both too young for marriage…"

"Kasumi, that's so outdated. There's no age for love, remember? Just scoot a little bit to the right and let me take another picture."

"Just let them be, okay? Don't you see they're in love?"

"Shut up duck boy! Ranma how dare you do that to Akane's purity and innocence!"

"Have no fear my love, Kuno is here."

"Akane, how could you? But to forgive you, just let me have a good cry in your bosom!"

Actually ANYTHING could have ruined the moment… even them themselves… At least it was a relief that this time no 'Nannichuan, Spring of Drowned Man' water was wasted… somehow.

End of Chapter 1

Reviewing: Please, if you're going to press that cute Review button, don't forget to rate my story from 1-6, 1 being the lowest and 6 the highest mark. I like this standard of grading, so please use it.

Coming Up, Chapter 2:

The Saotome-Tendo or the Tendo-Saotome School of Anything-Goes-Martial Arts?

Soun and Genma are happily discussing the possibilities and outcomes of joining the schools together once they finally get to 'get rid of all other fiancées and suitors' of their kids. Nabiki, who of course does not buy the farce of the adults who actually think they can get rid of any of them, is in some need of entertainment. So, she steps into their conversation and cynically makes them fight over whether calling the dojo after the Tendos or Saotomes once the schools are supposedly and finally joined. Meanwhile, Akane has got a total different aspect of the issue in mind. This chapter might still carry that pointlessness aura, but be sure it will fade away by the third chapter. Well, by pointlessness I mean that there's not much action or story development, but the actual reason is that I am trying to delve into characters' minds (see how I did that with Ranma in this chapter?). You could say that in this second chapter I will delve into Akane's mind.

Author's Note: I'm aware I'm reposting this chapter, but I had forgotten the disclaimer and posting the preview of the following chapter. I also wanted to let you guys know to check out my other Oneshot if you liked this project so far. I will write similar Oneshots too. I'm sorry if my stories are not going to be too frequent for now, but I am going camping to take care of my ex-school's camping team and we won't have any internet access there so I won't be able to post the stories I write. Nevertheless, I will write as much as I can (strangely, they do allow laptops… I guess it's because I'm a caretaker and not one of the students that they accepted) so by the time I come back I promise I will have a bunch of chapters. These kids are a lot of trouble so wish me luck .. Thanks for the alerts and reviews so far, they have really inspired me to continue writing this even if they were not many. And by the way, see if you can guess which character said each of the sentences I wrote at the end… I kind of made them obvious though hehe.