Ranma sat in his room, nursing his wounds from the fight he d just ended with Ryoga. It had been another senseless attack upon him after the Eternal Lost Boy had shown up after having been gone for a week. As usual, it had ended when Ranma had tossed Ryoga into the koi pond. And then the beating from Akane, since she thought he d been picking on P-chan.
He sighed in frustration. It was getting old, the petty squabbles. It was all senseless, really. A damned bread feud that turned into a personal vendetta to end Ranma s life, or make it difficult, and to steal his fianc e away. And that s what irked Ranma the most. P-chan. He cursed that name almost daily. Seeing Akane cuddling the transformed Ryoga, who took advantage of the affection, was making Ranma irate.
Rubbing the ointment into his last abrasion, he packed up the first aid kit and put it away. It was almost out of bandages and other supplies. The worst part was the fact it was the third in the past month.
Walking downstairs, he did a quick scan of everybody. His father and Soun were playing shogi while enjoying some warm sake. Kasumi and Nabiki were lounging, drinking tea at the table. Akane was sitting on the engawa with P-chan cradled in her arms, feeding him tiny bits of food.
Kasumi poured Ranma a cup of tea as he sat down. Taking a sip, he sat there quietly, watching Akane and his rival. Quarter of an hour passed as he watched this.
Both Kasumi and Nabiki gave him worried looks when his teeth started grinding. It was soon loud enough for Genma and Soun to notice it, themselves. Pausing for a moment, they turned to see Ranma glaring at the pig that was taking full advantage of his curse. His blood starting to boil, Ranma began to feel like fighting again. This time, he was willing to be the one to start it for once.
"Y know, Akane, you treat that pig better than you do some people I know," Ranma finally said. He walked out to the garden, idly picking up several pebbles. Turning, he sat down on a rock surrounding the pond.
Akane glared at him. "Some of those people are just jerks," she growled.
He flicked one of the pebbles he had picked up, hitting P-chan in the nose, who bweed with indignation. "I guess you re right," he agreed. "Some people are just jerks."
Her ire rising exponentially, Akane yelled, "Quit picking on P-chan. Or I m going to teach you another lesson." Another pebble struck P-chan.
She set P-chan down, advancing on Ranma. Everybody watched as Ranma started dodging Akane s attacks. P-chan, enraged, raced off into the interior of the house.
Ranma wasn t wearing the usual cocky grin that graced his face when sparring with Akane. In fact, he was scowling. She didn t notice this, however, since she was desperately trying to hit Ranma, who was dodging all of her blows. Several minutes of this and Akane was panting. She d thrown everything into trying to hit Ranma, but he couldn t be hit.
"Ranma, prepare to DIE!" came Ryoga s battle cry. Ranma jumped out of the way of the descending martial artist. A small crater was left where Ryoga had impacted. Akane scrambled back to where everyone else was sitting, knowing better than to get in the middle of the two fighters. "The way you are treating Akane is unforgivable!"
"And how would you know about that, porky? You been spying on us the whole time? Or is there something else going on?" Ranma ducked and dodged every strike thrown at him effortlessly. That was enough to enrage Ryoga even further.
Beyond words at this point, Ryoga just attacked mindlessly. Besides, he didn t have an answer. And, if he did, it would be one he wouldn t utter with Akane around.
Ranma smirked mirthlessly, knowing Ryoga s dilemma. Luring his opponent to the wall, he waited for Ryoga to use the Bakusai Tenketsu. True to form, Ryoga tried using the explosion to strike Ranma, since he couldn t do it himself. Having anticipated this, Ranma wasn t there to receive the blast. Instead, he was behind Ryoga, having ducked under the arm that had struck out. Ryoga ended up taking the blast in the face.
Ranma tsked at Ryoga. "You really should control that temper of yours, Ryoga. I m sure that the Tendo s don t really care for you damaging their property the way you do. Bad manners, if you ask me."
With an inarticulate cry, Ryoga threw a roundhouse at Ranma.
Instead of dodging this one, Ranma grabbed the arm. Planting himself, he twisted the arm about mercilessly. He had decided that being a nice guy had only caused him more grief than was necessary. Every time he held back, he was being beaten up. It was good for endurance, but it got old after awhile. Especially considering everybody kept coming after him. It was now time to show them how skilled he truly was. With a sharp kick to Ryoga s abdomen, he dislocated the arm from the shoulder. There was a sickening pop as the arm came out of the socket. The onlookers winced at this.
With a cry of pain, Ryoga fell to one knee. He wasn t down for the count, though. With a testament of his endurance, he tried hitting Ranma with his other arm. But this one was caught, too. A quick jab at a nerve cluster caused that arm to fall limply at his side.
Everyone watched in stunned silence at the uncharacteristic violence that Ranma had shown. Always before, he d kept his opponents somewhat healthy. But, now, he had actually caused serious harm to another.
Ranma stood above Ryoga like an avenging angel. "I m sick of it, Ryoga. Either you tell her, or you re going to the hospital in a body cast."
It became obvious to all except Akane what Ranma was alluding to. Genma and Soun traded a knowing look, but decided to let it play out without interruption. It was between the teenagers.
Akane, however, seeing Ranma picking on Ryoga , was having none of this. "Leave him alone, Ranma. You ve hurt him bad enough." She advanced on the two.
Then a voice of steel rang out, stopping Akane in her tracks. "Sit down, Akane," Soun said.
Akane turned at this, unaccustomed to the authority that her father was displaying. "But Ranma " She never got anything else out.
"I said sit, daughter. Ryoga attacked Ranma with the intent of bodily harm against him. As a martial artist, he must take his punishment." She almost started to say something, but the look her father gave her made Akane think twice about it. Unsteadily, she took a seat by her sisters.
Ryoga was on his knees, tears streaming down his face. Slowly, he stood up. He looked around for an escape, but found none. Ranma would be able to catch him in his weakened state, he knew. With one last act of desperation, he kicked at Ranma.
There was a sickening, wet snap as Ranma broke his leg. He fell to the ground. Ranma helped him to his knees, allowing him to rest on his uninjured leg.
"It s only going to get worse, Ryoga. There ain t no running away now."
This time, Ryoga nodded in defeat. Turning to the house and everyone sitting inside, he drew a ragged breath. He couldn t meet Akane s concerned look. "I I m sorry for the disharmony I have brought to this household." He paused, gathering the courage to continue. It didn t take long, however, with Ranma hovering menacingly beside him. "For some time now, I have betrayed your trust, Akane. I am P-chan. I was cursed at Jusenkyo to become the pig you adopted when I was chasing after Ranma."
Needless to say, Akane was speechless. With a sob, she ran upstairs to her room. Ranma nodded in satisfaction at the confession, though he wasn t happy with how he d had to get Ryoga to do it. He d known for some time that waiting for it to happen of its own accord was hopeless. And that night s events had been enough to spark the confrontation.
Kasumi stood up to go to the telephone to phone Dr. Tofu, but Ranma waved her down. "I ll make the call, Kasumi." Over his shoulder, he said, "I ll be in the dojo."
After Ranma left, the others sat in uncomfortable silence for awhile. The shogi game was forgotten entirely. Finally, Kasumi thought it was time to go see how her youngest sister was holding up. Standing, she went upstairs to Akane s room. Knocking gently, she didn t wait for an answer as she entered.
Akane was weeping into her pillow uncontrollably. A wide range of emotions raged through her. Grief, betrayal, and anger to name a few. How could she have been so blind to the facts, she kept asking herself. She d cuddled P-chan to her breast many times. And caused Ranma endless amounts of pain for the fights between him and Ryoga. In either form.
She was angry at both of them for having kept the secret from her for so long. She didn t know why Ranma had done it if it had bothered him so much, but she figured that he could have at least told her quite a bit sooner. As her eldest sister walked in, she tried composing herself somewhat, but was still a mess as she looked up.
Kasumi just sat down beside Akane, pulling the younger woman into a comforting embrace. They sat that way for a few minutes as Akane got herself under control. After the sniffles and hiccups stopped, Akane finally looked up into Kasumi s eyes.
"You all knew about this, didn t you," she accused.
Sighing softly, Kasumi nodded.
"Why didn t anyone tell me before? I actually slept with him in my bed. He s seen me undressed."
"It wasn t our place to tell you about it. Either Ranma or Ryoga were the ones that had to tell you," Kasumi explained. "Just because I, or anyone else, knew about it, didn t mean that we could dishonor Ranma s promise. You know of Bushido, since you re a martial artist."
It made sense to her, but Akane still didn t like the idea. She snorted. "I bet that the entire time Ranma was laughing about it, too. Look at Akane! She s sleeping with a guy that turns into a pig. That s just what he d do," she said bitterly.
"That s not true," Kasumi admonished, "and you know it, little sister. You were always accusing Ranma of picking on either Ryoga or P-chan. He never gave either any peace except when they had a common goal. And, even then, Ranma would give Ryoga a hard time."
There was no denying that fact, and Akane knew it. "But why did he keep the secret in the first place if it bothered him so much?"
"I don t really know, Akane. You d have to ask Ranma about that one yourself. I just happened to find out. I was considering telling you, myself, but then I thought of how Ranma reacted to Ryoga. And there was the time he snuck into your room when you first adopted P-chan. It all came together. That s when I decided to remain quiet in honor of Ranma s secret. It was his place to tell you."
"Oh," was Akane s only response to this. There was nothing to say about the Kasumi s self imposed silence. They sat quietly for several minutes. Finally, Akane asked, "Where s Ranma now? I think I want an explanation from him."
Before giving Akane an answer, Kasumi demanded, "Promise me that you ll listen to him before you judge him. There has to be a good reason why he didn t tell you in the first place. You know how honorable Ranma can be. And this is one of the things that I m sure would have tested it to its limit. Always remember, Akane. With Ranma, actions speak louder than words." Kasumi held onto her sister s hand tightly. Akane nodded after a moment of thought. "He said he was going to the dojo."
Akane stood up, walking to the door. Turning back to Kasumi, she said, "Thanks, Kasumi." She was grateful for the talk and the comfort that her eldest sister had offered. Kasumi smiled sweetly in reply, hiding her own inner turbulence.
Ranma was sitting in the middle of the dojo, facing away from the entrance. His back was stiff as he meditated. Or tried to, at least. He gave no indication that he heard Akane s entrance, even though he was aware of it.
Stopping several paces away from Ranma, Akane sank down to her knees. Looking at her hands that rested in her lap, Akane said, "I think you owe me a bit of an explanation. Why did you keep the secret of P-chan and Ryoga away from me all this time?"
Ranma nodded, turning around to look at Akane. "Yeah, I guess I do," he agreed. "Well, first off, I guess you can say that him gettin cursed is partially my fault. Y see, he followed me to China. I was chasin Pop around after we got cursed, ourselves. Apparently, Ryoga was there, too, but I didn t know about it.
"Needless to say, I ended up knocking him into the spring that cursed him. Even though I didn t know I did it, I still feel responsible for what happened. When I finally found out, I promised I d keep his curse a secret. It was the least I could do. But, right after, you found him in your room and adopted him as your pet. I was gonna make him confess then, but there was no way for me to do that without breaking my promise." He gave a derisive snort. "Guess I m not so honorable anymore. I mean, I was the one who made him tell everybody. He should have done it on his own, but I just got mad seein him there with you." Ranma looked away from Akane. "I ll be heading to Mom s now, I guess. Not much reason for me to stay here anymore. I betrayed your trust. And I dishonored myself by making Ryoga confess."
Akane was still looking at her hands quietly. The reasons why Ranma kept the secret kept racing through her head. Ultimately, he d finally grown disgusted with the situation and himself. And she couldn t really fault him for it.
As he stepped away, she finally said, "Wait, Ranma."
Stopping, Ranma looked back at Akane. He was only a few steps from exiting the dojo, but was curious as to what she had to say. He wouldn t admit it to anyone, but he was hanging off of every word she had to say at the moment.
"I think you did the right thing, actually. You tried keeping my honor intact, but I brought it upon myself to keep P-chan no, Ryoga as my pet and blaming you for a lot of the fights. If I d known what was really going on, I probably wouldn t have been so mean to you.
"I realize now that you weren t the one that started the fights. And you had every right to do what you did to Ryoga. He abused your honor, as well as mine, by keeping the secret the way he did. If there s any fault to be handed out, it s all to Ryoga. If he had told me that he was P-chan, you wouldn t have been forced to cause the confession."
Ranma studied Akane s back as he stood there. He was greatly relieved that she wasn t blaming everything on him.
Standing and turning to Ranma, Akane said, "There s no need for you to go, really. I m sorry for yelling at you earlier. You showed great patience with Ryoga and me concerning this ordeal. If you will excuse me, I think I d like to go to bed now." That said, she walked past Ranma to go to her room.
Releasing the breath he hadn t known he had been holding, Ranma watched Akane walk away, head bowed. He d taken a huge gamble with everything, but had come out on top. He would have time to patch things up with Ryoga, if there was a chance of that ever happening, considering his rival was going to be laid up for a few weeks.
When Akane was finally out of sight, the weight of the evening s events finally caught up with him. He was tired. More tired than if he d fought ten Ryoga s. Drained, he followed Akane s path upstairs. As he passed her room, he paused, hearing her preparing for bed.
Knocking softly on her door, he waited for her to say it was okay for him to enter. Opening the door a little, he saw her in her pajamas. She looked at him curiously, wondering what he had to say.
He looked at her for a time until she started to get impatient with him. Smiling, he said, "Good night, Akane. Sweet dreams."
This brought a shy smile to Akane. Added was a blush as she suddenly found everything but Ranma interesting to look at. "You, too, Ranma. Good night."
So saying, Ranma closed the door and went to his room. He undressed and lay upon his futon, looking at the ceiling. A smile played upon his lips before he finally allowed sleep to claim him.
Ranma felt a poke in the back of his neck. He tried reaching up to scratch it, but found that his arm couldn t be moved. Opening his eyes, he searched around for any signs of anyone else. No one was in his vision.
A rustling off to his right made him look over in that direction. What loomed into his sight made him cringe, crying out in horror. But even that was a futile effort, for his voice came out in a pathetic, mouse-like squeak. His skin crawled.
He found himself in the situation where even the hardiest of men would feel the cold grip of terror clutching at them. Just the sight nearly made him go into convulsions, even with his paralyzed state. Lesser men would have simply died of heart failure. But Ranma was of tougher mettle. Closing his eyes, he tried ridding the sight from his mind. To no avail, he found. Opening his eyes once more, he looked to his left, where his father should be. There was nobody there, telling him that his father had left him alone that morning. It was a curious thing, but he didn t have time to dwell upon it.
Should he survive this ordeal, he knew there would be nightmares for years to come. If he didn t end his own life shortly after he regained his mobility. His stomach tried rebelling, but he fought that urge down.
Cologne was standing above him with a lecherous grin. And there was nothing he could do to prevent her from doing anything. Looking back at her, he found that he could see inside her robe. With morbid fascination, his eyes tracked the scrawny leg up to Shuddering uncontrollably, even with his paralysis, he pried his eyes away. Unconsciousness pulled at him, but he fought it down. He didn t know why down the pull of the blissful dark, for he had no desire to be aware of what would happen to him at her hands. But he kept his wits about him just the same.
"Would you prefer to talk comfortably and under your own power? Or would you prefer to remain paralyzed while I discuss matters with you?" Cologne watched Ranma carefully as he struggled to answer. Reading his resigned and accepting attitude, she understood and acted in his favor. With another poke, she released Ranma s upper torso from its paralysis.
Sitting up, he tried speaking, but found that he was still unable to do so. With a frantic gestures, he indicated that he wanted his powers of speech back, too. Humoring him, Cologne hit another point on him and waited until his muscles began working again.
"Whatcha want now, Old Ghoul?" His tone was harsh, if quiet.
"Just to talk is all, really. I ve heard you have gained a bit of backbone finally."
Ranma s brows furrowed into a scowl. There was only one thing she could be meaning, but he hadn t figured she would have heard about it so soon. "So, what s it to ya? And how d you find out?"
"Oh, not much, really. I was just wondering how far it s come. I knew about the boy s problem for quite some time, myself. As to how I found out, that s for me to know." She slid down her staff to land lightly onto the floor, taking a seat against the wall.
Ranma s legs were still paralyzed, so he decided not to take any actions. Yet, at least. "Somethin wrong with me gettin him to reveal his curse to Akane? If there is, too bad."
Cologne s smile widened. "No, none at all. I ve been content to watch you two for the past several months as your vying for Akane s attentions escalated. Actually, I was surprised that you were able to keep the secret this long. It shows a bit of character on your part. But that s neither here nor there." She paused while Ranma absorbed what she was talking about.
His mental processes were working overtime. He could almost feel the steam coming out of his ears. Finally, he asked, "What s this got to do with you, then? It really doesn t concern you whether or not I revealed Ryoga s curse or not."
Letting out a soft chuckle, the Amazon matriarch said, "Oh, but it does. You ve finally gotten rid of your worst rival in one fell swoop. Now your position with Akane is more solid. I believe she understands why you did what you did and gave her forgiveness. It s a turning point, I believe."
This puzzled Ranma to no end. He scratched his head in bafflement. "What s that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, come now," Cologne admonished. "You just made it easier for yourself. With Ryoga s curse revealed, she s more trusting of you. It was ever thus that she blamed you for the fights and picking on her pet. Now that she knows the truth, she sees that you re more trustworthy than before. It s a big change for your relationship, I would say."
Ranma scoffed. "Yeah, like she s gonna change over me tellin her Ryoga s curse. If anything, she s not gonna trust me at all."
"On the contrary. Knowing the young Tendo, I believe she ll see that you re quite trustworthy. What you ve done in the face of adversity, you have shown that her honor is more important to you than your promise to the boy. It was quite some time that you held the promise, but she ll see it as one of your dilemmas that you had to take care of. She s a tough one to get along with, but she s not stupid. I ve never considered her thus."
Looking sidelong at Cologne, Ranma said, "You ve never really played up Akane like this before, either. You ve always tried gettin her to go after Ryoga. What s with the sudden change?
Silence reigned between them for several moments. Cologne studied Ranma as he waited for her answer. "It is a change in the scheme of things. You ve finally decided, even if you haven t admitted it to yourself. I ve known your affinity for the girl for quite some time. The way you act while in the Nekoken is testimony to that. While you re thinking of yourself as a cat, your true feelings come out."
Ranma gaped. "You can t be serious."
"Oh, but I am. But I was content to sit back and watch. If you noticed, I never took any actions towards you after the Full Body Cat s Tongue. Yes, I know your true feelings, and I wanted to see how long it took you. Besides, I was wanting to enjoy the luxuries of this land instead of the simple life of my village. It was getting stuffy there."
"If you knew, then why didn t you stop Shampoo?" If Ranma s understanding was correct, he felt that Cologne had given up on him marrying Shampoo quite some time ago. However, she hadn t taken the girl back to their village mainly because she d wanted to relax in the luxury of Japan for a time.
"Oh, I had hopes of her catching you. But I also knew that it would more than likely be futile. I also wanted her to understand that not all fights can be won."
This rocked Ranma s world. Leaning back, he rested on his hands, peering at Cologne through narrowed eyes. "So, what s with this visit? You re finally throwin in the towel?"
"You re smarter than you look," Cologne said, laughing.
"Thanks I think," Ranma replied. A thought struck him. "So, if you really weren t planning on taking me back to China, why d you teach me all those techniques?"
"You are a joy to teach. Your fearlessness, willingness to learn, and unending desire to better yourself. It s a teacher s greatest thrill. Also, I couldn t leave you to the mercies of Happi."
They both laughed at the last. On a more somber tone, Ranma said, "I guess that s it then, huh? Just gonna up and go home now?" Even to himself, he sounded as if he didn t want it to happen.
Cologne looked away from him for a moment. Turning back, she said, "Not for a time, I think. There s still some things I want to oversee while I m here. Besides, I have to finish taping my soaps."
Ranma groaned in mock horror. Grinning, he said, "Well, it looks like it s a truce between us now, right?" Cologne nodded. "You got any other cool moves you re willin to teach me?"
"Perhaps. Now that I m pulling Shampoo out of the race, there s no real reason I should. However, I don t see why not. You are such a treasure to teach, you know."
A call from downstairs drew their attention. "Well," Ranma said, "looks like it s time for me to get some breakfast. Mind givin me back my legs?" With a few pokes, Ranma found that he could finally move. He dressed quickly and walked out. Pausing at the door, he turned back to Cologne, who was perched on his windowsill, ready to leap. "Thanks, Honored Elder," he said respectfully.
Cologne read all of the connotations. It surprised her that he d called back to her respectfully. Nodding to the youth, she leapt away to her restaurant. Ranma found his feet taking him to his morning meal.
I started to write a story like this one, but then deleted it, not knowing where it was going, really. But, then, juas after having only slept a few hours and being irritated, I thought of the idea again. Getting up, I sat down at my comp and started pounding it out. So, here it is.
Yes, I'm a bit extreme with how Ranma treats Ryoga. But, then, I'm a violent person, myself. I have a short temper, which is held in check with quite a bit of teeth grinding. If I had been Ranma in this predicament, I probably wouldn't have allowed Ryoga to get away with as much as he had. And I think Ranma is more skilled than he ever lets on. Consider the fact that he took on Saffron full out only after he thought he'd lost Akane. Up until then, he'd fought him like he does everyone else. But that's my opinion.
As far as Ryoga's skill, he's got a lot of endurance and picks up on martial arts rather well. But he doesn't have the drive and extensive training that Ranma received. Ryoga may have been training for a long time, but he travels more than training. Ranma trains as often as he can. Look at the fact that he runs on the fence when he can. A testament to his dedication to the Art.
Well, enough of my rambling. Hope you enjoyed the story.