The second iinstallment, enjoy!
Jim.
Tsundare02
Thunder in the Mountains
By
Jim R. Bader
DISCLAIMER: Ranma 1/2 cast members were created by Rumiko Takahashi and remain the sole property of both her and those to whom she leased out the creative rights. This fanfic is not intended for the purpose of monetary gain and so is purely the work of the author using characters from Takahashi-dono¡¯s series. I am not getting any compensation or royalties for this, so please do not sue me¡
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"So, you both know all about the rules," said Nabiki, who had taken it upon herself to play the role of referee for the impending match between Ranma and her sister.
"Yeah, but what's with this get-up?" Ranma glanced down at himself, "I feel like I'm wearing a dress and not a proper martial arts gi."
"That is one of father's spare outfits, Ranma-kun," Kasumi replied, standing at the other side of the dojo in a matching get up that seemed size-fit for her slender, willowy frame, "It should do nicely, just as long as you be sure not to trip along its edges."
Ranma frowned, not liking to be reminded that the elder Tendo was at least a head taller than himself (though arguably slimmer than his own father, which would not be saying much). He shrugged his arms and adjusted himself mentally to the difference in reach, rating that he and Kasumi were approximately near enough in height and reach to make this an even exchange, even granted that he must have outweighed her half again as much in muscle mass.
He could tell that the girl was sizing him up as well, though what exactly was her appraisal he was very unclear about as she seemed to blush a bit around the cheeks when he gaze drifted to his waistline. She seemed unusually confident and poised for someone who did not know the strength of her sparring partner, but Ranma was far too experienced to assume that she was taking him for granted.
"You could still try fighting her as a girl, Ranma-kun," Akane called out from the sidelines, "That way you won't have the excuse of not wanting to fight one."
"Shut up," Ranma said with studied indifference. In point of fact he had thought about fighting Kasumi in his cursed form, but was dissuaded from it by his father who had argued reasonably (for once) that for this to be a proper test of the heirs of the Anything Goes school it had to be conducted in their proper form and bodies.
"Listen, Boy," his father had said in those scathing, mocking tones he used when attempting to brow-beat Ranma into compliance, "Don't take it for granted that, just because she's a girl, that this Kasumi will be a pushover. Take it from me, women are dangerous. They're sneaky and underhanded. They use feminine wiles and charms to throw you off your game, then come in and surprise you with a sneak maneuver that you knew full well that you should have seen was coming."
Kasumi did not look particularly sneaky or underhanded, though there was something about her that was making Ranma feel uneasy about having been talked into this match. The girl was much too calm and relaxed for his liking, and she kept smiling at him as though this were not a deadly serious challenge.
Had he appeared thus around Shampoo of the Joketsuzoku? If so then he could fully understand why the Amazon had recklessly charged at him and lowered her guard to allow him to make an easy strike. Ranma, too, had been schooled never to give himself away by showing his strength early into his sparring. That was a good way to get your head handed to you early on with a tough opponent.
"Ready!" the middle sister, Nabiki said while raising a hand to signify the beginning of the match. Then she brought it down in a quick chop, saying, "Hajime!"
Neither opponent moved, for both were already in a ready stance, even though to the untrained eye it might have seemed like they were having a staring contest to see who would blink first. For several long instants nothing happened, but Soun and Genma both tensed while Akane found herself balling her fists and gritting her teeth, fighting back the urge to yell something encouraging as she knew it would not do to break her sister's concentration.
Then Ranma moved, taking a step forward and easily shifting his balance from one leg to the other. Kasumi moved in counterpoint to him, copying his stance precisely without taking her eyes away from the center of his chest. There was no hesitation or defect in her form so far, and Ranma felt encouraged to think that she might actually be an opponent worthy of his notice.
And then he moved, deciding to break the impass by a rush as he sought to "tag" her out rather than to land a blow. If he could lay a hand on her it would be the same as a TKO without actually having to hurt her. His movements were a blur and to the naked eye he might have seemed a ghost as he disappeared from one side of the training mat and seemed to appear on the other.
Only to have Kasumi step gracefully to one side and with a motion of her hands intercept him, and all at once Ranma found himself unexpectedly airborne.
He righted himself almost immediately, flipping around in a display of iincredible agility and flexibility that caused Nabiki and Akane to stare at him with their mouths agape. But when his feet touched the floor he found himself suddenly pressed to the defensive as Kasumi lunged in and tried to effect a take-down maneuver that only he had wits enough to see coming.
He shifted his weight and dodged her skillful thrust as she continued on past him, following her own motion and catching her weight on the balls of her feet as she reversed herself and instinctively moved to counter his own counter-offensive.
And in an eyeblink he found his hands being deflected as she tried to get inside his guard, forcing him to twist his body out of the way, to shift his footing frantically as he sought to evade a very skillful effort on her part to touch him in his sensitive nerve clusters at the base of the shoulder and the ribs.
He twisted his body impossibly in order to put distance between them, but now his eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared at his opponent, who had come that close to winning the match by paralyzing him in a manner that he would have been unable to counter.
(DAMN!) he thought to himself, (She's good!) No wonder she had taken top honors and was undefeated in all of her recent matches. This girl knew Ki techniques for blocking and countering the flow of energy, and if Ranma had not similarly been trained in dealing with such efforts this match would already be as good as over.
"Oneechan," Akane murmured, astonished beyond words at discovering just how fluid and nimble this Ranma was. He moved so fast it was almost impossible to track his movements, and the way his body reacted to each attack, it was almost as though he could sense them before they happened.
Beside her Nabiki was looking with just as much appreciation, but privately thinking that she had woefully underrated this guy. This Ranma was not only handsome but masculinely proportioned, and quite flexible. He moved as though his whole body were a single coordinated unit, and next to him every boy in their school might as well have been old men whose feet were bound up in lead weights and straight jackets. What a guy could do with that body, it was more than just interesting, it was a crime that she had foisted him all unknowingly upon her older sister.
Kasumi decided that passively reacting to his attacks was not a proper means of gauging his true strength and so decided to shift her tactics from defensive-which was her specialty-to a more aggressive posture geared to pressing his defenses. In doing so she knew that she would forgo the protection of her largely passive body of techniques. For her the Martial Arts were a defensive system meant to protect people, not hurt them, and in nearly all of her matches she had won by simply allowing her opponent to wear themselves down with being overly aggressive.
But knowing that Ranma was strong enough to hold his own emboldened her, and so she moved in to the attack, surprising him as he clearly had not seen it coming and actually coming close to scoring at hit.
But at the very last second he vaulted straight up into the air, somersaulted over her head, and landed on his feet directly behind her. He tapped her on the shoulder with one finger-not a nerve attack but clearly to inform her that he could have scored against her more directly.
Kasumi finished her motion by turning around, standing on one leg, then slowly bringing the other leg down to the floor, to relax her posture and assume a passive stance, just like before. But now she saw smiling almost from ear-to-ear, not at all upset at the point scored so nimbly against her.
"Man, you are really something," Ranma said.
"Thank you," she replied, "May I say the same about you, Ranma-kun?"
"Ah, if you like," Ranma said, "So was that Aikido or Kenjuitsu? It looked like a mix of Tai Chi and Okinawan."
"It's my own unique style," Kasumi replied, "I created this form after studying with a number of Masters who have visited the area, some as friends of my father. But why don't you judge for yourself how effective I can be?"
"Huh?" Ranma blinked.
"You scored one point," she said, "But it takes three to win a match, and I still am eager to know the full capabilities of my new iinazuke."
And then she came at him more aggressively than before, and Ranma suddenly knew that he was in for the fight of his life as he hastily switched to defensive mode, drawing on his vast reserve of techniques to attempt to keep his point lead as his fiancé laughed with girlish delight and appeared to be enjoying thoroughly having him momentarily on the defensive.
Off to the side Nabiki arched her eyebrows and Akane scowled, then silently passed a five hundred yen note over to her older sister, who was all too happy to collect upon the bet.
The fathers were also exchanging glances, but neither one spoke what was clear in their minds, about another time and place so long ago when a pair of younger men had been in their place and courted their own fiancés, with predictably uneven results as their fathers had matched them up with women who were, in many ways, more than their equals.
The Nostalgia was enough to bring tears to ones eyes, as well as winces of sympathy as each man imagined himself in the place of the present-day youth named Saotome Ranma, who was only just discovering the hard lesson that they had learned about what it meant to underestimate a determined young woman.
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"Man, I am beat," Ranma murmured to himself as he stepped into the furo, pulling off his sweat-soaked Gi and feeling like he needed badly to give himself a scrub down, then a long, hot soak in the soothing waters that the Tendos had provided.
That Kasumi had been more of a challenge than he had been prepared to expect, and all the more surprising as she seemed outwardly like such a nice, normal girl, not at all the kind who could bend a men over like a pretzel and strike at protected nerve clusters that were bound to cause any man to feel like he was as limp as soba noodles.
He had won, but just barely, and by one point in a three to two match split. That was as close to a defeat as he had come in any recent match, and it made him wonder if the girl had been holding anything back from him, or if that were the true extent of her martial prowess.
If her father had been training her then old man Tendo must have been quite a monster of a fighter in his heyday. Just thinking about the ways in which he had come near to losing by centimeters made him think that running a gauntlet would be relaxing by contrast.
And the thing that daunted him the most was realizing that he had been bound and determined to win, actually feeling highly motivated at the end to use techniques that he had not practiced against anyone but the Old Man for close to a decade. It was not that her persistence had infuriated him, or that he actually meant to harm her as that was the furthest thing from his mind when he thought about Kasumi.
It was rather the thought of losing before HER that made him feel determined not to falter. It was as though it were crucially important for Ranma that he not allow himself to fail in the test before his new iinazuke. As if losing in her eyes was the very last thing that he could stomach.
And boy did he come close to losing the contents of his stomach when she caught him with that spinning back kick! Ranma had been wide open for just an instant, and she nailed him cold. Just thinking of how she had spun about and caught him flat footed that way made him wonder if his mind were on something else besides the fighting.
Oh yeah. Now that he remembered it more clearly, it had been just after he tried to grapple her and his hand had encountered something soft about her chest that he could feel beneath her cotton shirt. It had been round and full and made him feel all mushy inside just thinking about what it could be. It was roughly shaped like a grape fruit but had the consistency of fresh dough, and when he squeezed it.
Kasumi had made a very odd noise and that was when she nailed him.
He looked at his hand, thinking of how it felt to hold his fiancé like that, and wondered why the thought of it was causing something between his legs to swell to life, the member he tried never to think about when it came to women.
"Baka," he murmured to himself, then sought out the bench and began to scrub himself down, prior to dunking a bucket of cold water over his head, which did help him somewhat in getting that swelling under control between his thighs.
But then as he turned and was about to set foot in the furo he heard the door to the room slide open¡ and slowly turned his head with wide-eyed surprise and confusion.
Kasumi stood there wearing nothing but a towel that was wrapped around her body. She seemed just as surprised to see him, and stared at him with rounded eyes¡ only to turn her glance down slowly over the length of his chest, to linger once again at the space between his thighs, where the throbbing renewed itself with a vengeance.
"Oh my," she said, the words escaping from her though her expression seemed more fascinated than shocked as she saw his "third leg" swelling to life before her scrutiny. Just knowing it was her was enough to cause it to spring to life like a flag pole.
"G-G-GAK!" he cried as he shook off his astonishment, "Kasumi!"
"Ah-er well-" she faltered, then pointed at the doorway, "You didn't put up the sign that said that the furo was being occupied."
"That's not the point!" Ranma almost shouted, twisting around as he said, "And would you shut the-WHOOOPS!" he cried as his foot slipped on the edge of the furo and he started to tumble uncontrollably towards the water.
"Ranma-kun!" Kasumi cried, seeing him begin to fall, and she surged forward in an effort to help him, oblivious to the fact that her towel caught on the handle as she moved hastily to try and catch him.
She did not quite make it as he went "SPLASH" into the water, with Kasumi tripping and loosing her own footing as she tumbled right on top of him, landing with her body pressing down as Ranma reflexively reached up to try and catch her downward momentum.
"Oh, Kasumi," Akane called out from the hallway, "I told Ranma that it would be okay for him to go ahead and use the WHAT THE (EXPLITIVE DELETED)?!"
Ranma and Kasumi turned from staring at each other to looking at the enraged girl in the hallway, to whim the appearance of their current position was anything but "Innocent," especially given where Ranma's hands were placed as he held Kasumi over him with the rest of her body pressed down atop his.
The small of his spine was resting on the edge of the furo, leaving most of him outside of the bath water, and Kasumi's crotch was positioned with her thighs parted straddling him. His erect member was actually inserted between her parted thighs without actually being buried inside her, though from her angle Akane could hardly know that.
What they noticed about her as that the younger Tendo sibling was suddenly manifesting a terrifying battle aura, and then some instants later-further down the hallway, Nabiki glanced up from reading a mazagine to hear the words, "RANMA NO BAKA!" followed by a very loud explosive noise.
Off in the yard the fathers looked up from sharing their cups of Saki that had been drawn from a bottle being saved for "special occasions." They saw a naked Ranma go flying through a hole that had suddenly been created in the side of the bath house, then the two of them exchanged looks again and shared a laugh together.
"Ah, to be young again," said Genma.
"Lively and so full of the spark of youth," agreed Soun, who clicked tiny cups with his old friend as they toasted the union of the families, which by all appearances appeared to be off to a great start, so much like the days of their youth that they both felt positively nostalgic.
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The next day found Ranma sulking, having fully healed back all of the bumps and bruises that he had received as he glared down at Akane, who was walking along the rail on the path that they were taking.
"I said I was sorry, Ranma," she complained to his sulking expression, "But what was I supposed to think seeing the two of you that way?"
"You have to admit," Nabiki volunteered, "Little sister does raise a point. But in the future, Ranma-kun, do be a dear and turn the sign around that tells people when the furo is occupied."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Ranma growled, "I fully intend to."
"I'm really very sorry for my behavior," said Kasumi, who followed behind them at a few paces behind, looking contrite and remorseful, "It was all my fault for intruding on your privacy, Ranma-kun.:"
"Hey, I'm not blaming you, Kasumi," Ranma replied, "You didn't try and launch me into low earth orbit over a misunderstanding, something that coulda happened to anyone."
Akane glowered, "Well, what was I supposed to think? It looked back there like you were attacking my sister."
"Well, let's just be glad that everything worked out for the better and leave it at that, People," Nabiki said, feeling like a peacemaker at the negotiating summit of a Middle East Peace Conference, "No harm done, shake hands, bygones be bygones and all of that. By the way, Kasumi¡ how good a look did you get anyway?"
"Hey!" Ranma protested.
"Ah well " Kasumi blushed all over.
"Probably wasn't that much to see," Akane scornfully derided, "I feel sorry for you, Oneechan, being stuck with a Baka like this for your boyfriend."
"Ah actually " Kasumi stopped herself, wanting to say that she had seen nothing that she was regretting to discover about her iinazuke as it certainly put to rest questions about his maturity, at least in a physical context.
Ranma snarled, "What is it to you, you Uncute Tomboy you?"
Akane bristled, "What did you just call me?"
"If you hate guys so much then why do you even bother to walk with me to school?" Ranma asked, "I could get there on my own without you having to suffer about it."
"Actually," Nabiki spoke up, feeling the urge to intervene before matters escalated beyond the point of no return, "That does raise the interesting question, can you find your way to Furinkan High School without someone to guide you, Ranma-kun?"
It was Ranma's turn to sulk, "Ah, not really. But I'd get there, eventually."
"I could have shown you the way myself," Nabiki pointed out.
"Oh right," he snorted, "After you tried to charge me a thousand yen for directions."
"A girl has to make a living," Nabiki countered, "And what's the harm in that?"
Ranma decided to ignore the previous resentments between him and the younger Tendo sister and turned to Akane, "Is she always this mercenary?"
"Nabiki?" Akane's mood lightened by a bit, "Believe it or not she's actually in her altruistic mode. The Nabiki I know would sell tickets to her own funeral. In fact if I didn't know any better I'd swear that somebody was paying her to breathe, and go to school. And a lot of other things that she seems to know how to turn into a profit."
"And what's wrong with wanting to earn a living by whatever means you can find?" Nabiki asked.
"Ever hear of the Golden Rule?" Ranma asked.
"Sure I have," Nabiki replied, "Whoever has the gold makes the rules. What's so special about that?"
"Nabiki is very thrifty, Ranma-kun," Kasumi pointed out, "She helps keep the family out of financial distress."
"Oh, because your dad doesn't have a lot of students in the dojo?" Ranma asked.
"That and the fact that a thousand yen with him is just Saki money," Nabiki sniffed, "And the more he has the faster he figures out ways to blow it, like on lottery tickets and pachinko."
"Father isn't very good with balancing a check book," Kasumi said with some regret.
"Hah!" Akane snorted, "That's like saying he can't even play a game of cards without winding up hocking off the Dojo for collateral for his bets."
"That is kind of annoying," Nabiki mused, "Daddy and card games, or any kind of game for that matter, are a pretty bad combination."
"Okay," Ranma said, "So mind if I ask another question? I mean, I can understand Akane and Nabiki going to school, but what about you, Kasumi? I thought you graduated last year?"
"I did," Kasumi replied, "But the force of habit makes me keep coming to this place on account of Akane-chan needing someone to clear up her messes."
"Clean up her messes?" Ranma repeated.
"Yeah," Nabiki replied, "Oneechan's training to one day become a doctor, and she's had a lot of practice doing paramedic stuff."
"Paramedic stuff?" Ranma asked in growing confusion.
"It's all that stupid Baka Kuno's fault," Akane snapped, "Him and that idiot bet of his that the student body agreed to."
"Huh?" Ranma said, "Who's Kuno?"
"You'll find out if you stick around long enough to see with your own eyes," Nabiki replied, "But the thing to keep in mind is that Onnechan's knowing how to fix people up comes in really handy sometimes, not to mention protects the family from having lots of paramedics bills and lawsuits."
"You've lost me completely," Ranma admitted.
"And what's the big idea with you walking along the wall like that?" Akane snapped, her temper becoming more and more brittle by the second, "You think you're too god for us to walk like normal people?"
"No," Ranma replied, "It's all about training."
"Training, huh?" Nabiki smiled, "Working on your sense of balance and stuff?"
"Hey, life is about training," Ranma answered, "Doing stuff the easy way that's expected, that's taking it the easy way. But Pop got me started early on practicing walking like this so that I'd always know to be on guard and never let my guard down."
"Practice," Kasumi said, "How very interesting. I will have to remember that."
"Yeah, right," Akane snorted, "You're so full of it, Saotome. I'll bet you fed a line like that when you talked Kasumi into giving you a back rub."
"For the last time it ain't like that!" Ranma complained, only to catch something out of the back of his field of vision, and he turned back in surprise and said, "Kasumi?"
"What you said makes a good deal of sense, Ranma-kun," Kasumi smiled from directly behind him, walking on the wall behind him, "Life is about training, and I should always remember that. That explains a good deal about how you can be such a versatile fighter."
"Great, now you've got my sister doing it," Akane growled, "Boys!"
"You must really hate guys, don'tcha?" Ranma asked, finding it disconcerting to have the pretty girl to whom he was engaged now only a few paces behind him.
"That's right," Akane snarled, "I hate BOYS" and all at once she started to take off at a dead run.
"Huh?" Ranma gasped, and started to move forward, only to feel a gentle hand on his shoulder as Kasumi said, "Not quite yet, Ranma-kun. This is also about practice, only it's Akane's turn to take her morning lessons."
"Lessons?" Ranma turned to look at Kasumi, only to see the gentle look she gave him, which caused his brain to nearly short-circuit as he was suddenly struck by how cute she looked in the light of the early morning.
"Well, I'd better hurry up if I'm going to get to class on time," Nabiki said, unable to fully hide the smirk as she had caught the look between the two "love birds:" and felt a surge of pride in her older sister for taking so much initiative with her fiancé.
Meanwhile Akane was charging across the block and headed right for a large building that looked something like a school, and at this Ranma noticed some unusual activity in the yard. To his surprise he saw the youngest Tendo sibling plow right into a mass of curiously dressed boys, knocking them left and right as they attempted to pounce on her, a variety of expensive looking school equipment being shattered and broken as she tore into their midst with wild abandon.
Ranma heard Kasumi sigh, "So much youthful enthusiasm. I do hope Akane-chan takes it easy with those boys."
"Takes it easy?" Ranma asked as they approached at a more leisurely pace, arriving just in time to see the yard littered with bodies, all male and sprawled out in a number of uncomfortable positions.
Akane was in high spirits all right, lashing out against yet more athletically dressed male students who seemed not to mind at all as she systematically demolished them, using a variety of techniques that Ranma privately admitted looked impressive, if excessively brutal. The girl obviously had been well trained in melee combat against multiple opponents, but she wasted too much motion and used far too much naked force to subdue her foes as they came at her en mass and were laid low by the human tornado that was Akane.
"Try not to be too harsh with her, Ranma-kun," Kasumi urged, "Akane is really a very nice girl. But there are times when," she sighed, "I almost feel as though she were my little brother."
Ranma did not voice comment to that until they were off the wall and on the ground approaching by the gate, at which point he got a closer look to the human debris that had been left in the wake of Akane's rampage.
And then what he said was, "Why did these guys attack her? They're not Martial Artists, they didn't stand a prayer."
"I know," Kasumi sighed again, "This happens every day."
"EVERY DAY?" Ranma had not mean to raise his voice, but his shock was as complete as the mindless devastation that he beheld which made a mockery of the Art that he so intensely practiced.
Kasumi sighed again, "And it's not even her fault that these boys challenge her every day. It's all because of one boy who has inspired these other boys to misbehave just to get Akane's attention."
"Who-?" Ranma was starting to say when he noted motion from across the yard as someone in a hakata took a step into view, tossing a flower at Akane, who caught it with a look of disgust in her otherwise tired expression.
"Though she be but little she is fierce," the tall boy spoke in what sounded like a fancy attempt at haiku to Ranma's jaded ears, "A Tigress stalking in the night, her prey strewn out before her "
"Oh brother," Ranma snorted, taking an instant dislike to this boy, who seemed so full of himself that it created knots within his stomach.
Perhaps he spoke louder than intended, for suddenly the boy turned and glared at him from across the space of a dozen paces.
"You there!" the boy cried, "I do not recognize you, and you bear no school uniform. Who are you who stands to familiarly at the side of the beauteous rose, Tendo Kasumi?"
"Who, me?" Ranma said in surprise, but even more surprised by the hostility that he read in the boy's expression.
For the boy was holding a bokken that he pointed like a dagger, and by his stance he seemed familiar in its usage.
But to his further surprise Kasumi stepped forward and said, "Kuno-chan, isn't this carrying matters far enough? Bad enough that you made a foolish declaration to the boys all around us urging them to attack my sister "
"Foolish declaration, my lovely bud of warrior femininity?" Kuno somehow managed to cross the distance and was suddenly at Kasumi's side, holding one of her hands as though he meant to kiss it, "How much the fool am I then for beholding such a willowy vision that ripens on the vine "
"Oh my," Kasumi said, clearly uncertain of how to respond in this situation.
"Hey!" Ranma cried, his sense of dislike turning to outrage at seeing this guy putting moves on his iinazuke.
"Oh?" Kuno's tone became chilly, "And who are you, prey tell?"
"Hey, Kuno!" Akane cried, waving the rose in her hand, "Over here! You're fighting me next!"
"Who am I?" Ranma deliberately inserted himself into the space between this boy and Kasumi, "I'm "
"But wait," the boy took a step backward as though to remind himself of something he had forgotten, "Is it not the custom to first introduce one's own self? I am the mighty Kuno Tatewaki, the fierce Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School. Strong men tremble at my mere approach. The Heavens themselves shake with terror when I draw my blade to smite those who foolishly dare oppose me."
"Hah?" Ranma blinked, wondering if this guy were on some sort of drugs.
"Ranma-chan," Kasumi was looking at his backside, understanding implicitly that this boy was trying, in his own crude way, to protect her from the unwanted advances of Tatewaki.
"Ranma-chan?" the boy was suddenly taken aback, "Chan? CHAN? Who are you, Churl, that you should earn such an endearment from the fair Kasumi?"
"I'm trying to tell you, Guy," Ranma said through clenched teeth, "I'm "
All at once the boy went flying sideways, and Akane stood there with her foot outstretched, snarling, "And that's what you get for ignoring me, you big goofball you!"
Ranma watched the boy go tumbling off to the side, almost literally resembling a bowling pin in the way he went end over end before landing sprawling on the grass some twenty meters away.
Kasumi sighed, "He never learns. Oh well, time for me to go to work," she said, her tone becoming once more light and cheerful."
Ranma turned and saw the willowy girl bend down and examine the nearest of the fallen boys, quickly checking him over with efficiency and a sensitive touch before moving on and tending to another.
"Come on, Ranma," Akane said, "We've got first period classes together, and you don't want to be late on the first day."
"But, what about " he pointed to her latest victim.
"Kuno?" Akane sniffed, "He's okay. He's kind of indestructible. No matter how many times you pound him he just gets back up and acts twice annoying in a few more minutes."
"What's his deal?" Ranma asked as he followed the shorter girl towards the building, turning a last backward glance Kasumi's way and wondering if he should help her, only to look on in dismay as he saw the boy named Kuno staring to push himself up off of the yard. "No way!"
"Like I told you," Akane said, "And if you think he's over the top you should meet his sister. What a nut bar."
As they walked into the building Ranma heard the rumbling sound of thunder in the background and thought to himself, (Well, I dodged that one by a hair.) He did wonder about what would happen when that Kuno guy fully recovered his wits, and what sort of an explanation Kasumi would give to account for Ranma's relationship with her.
What he did know, however, was that he did not want that guy coming onto Kasumi like that, and if he saw this Kuno again he would punch his lights out and feel no remorse, a feeling he usually reserved only for his father.
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Kuno did rouse himself from his momentary daze, thinking to himself, (What wizardry is this? I was sorely felled by that foul knave who dared to come between me and the fair Kasumi).
He looked around but there was no sign of the churl to be seen anywhere, just Kasumi herself attending to those students who had not yet recovered on their own. And now it was beginning to rain, and Akane too was vanished.
He pushed himself upright and scowled. It could not be that he, the might Tatewaki, could have fallen in battle against a foe who did not even throw a punch his way. There must have been some trickery involved, some dark art that he had not anticipated. Surely such a man could not be human? For lowly mortals were as beneath Kuno's notice as they were likely to fall before his warrior's prowess.
He got up and walked over to where Kasumi was kneeling and said, "Fair Maiden, do not trouble yourself over this rabble. You will catch a chill if you remain in this weather for much longer."
"I'm quite all right, Tatewaki-kun," Kasumi replied, "I rather like the rain, and I still have patients who need attention."
"The generosity of your soul is only matched by your stunning beauty," Kuno said, then he lifted his head and called out, "Sasuke?"
At once the faithful retainer to the Kuno family rushed to the side of his Lord and Master, and with stunning forsight that could only belong to a practitioner of the Ninja arts he presented a bamboo umbrella and said, "Please accept this as a humble token of our respect, Mistress."
"Oh, thank you very much, Sasuke-san," Kasumi said as she accepted the umbrella, oblivious to the way the little man's eyes went misty and he all but swooned at the praise, for this gentle, darling healer had deigned to address him as a man, nay, as a human being! He was so ecstatic!
"Find out the name of that Varlet who dared attempt to accost my person," Tatewaki ordered his man-servant, "He actually accosted me with some strange art the like of which I have never before witnessed."
"Oh, that was Ranma," Kasumi replied absently, having to use both hands to set the bones in one of her patience as Sasuke obligingly held the umbrella over her head, "He and his father are staying wiith us at our house-"
"WHAT?" Tatewake reacted, "Staying with you? Under the same roof?"
"Oh my," it belatedly occurred to Kasumi that she probably ought not fill in too many details, so she spoke with more deliberation this time and said, "His father is an old friend of my father. They are, visiting with us, and his father has just enrolled him here at Furinkan."
"Visitors you say?" Tatewaki said with greater calm, "So they are not likely to remain for very long in your company, I sincerely do hope?"
"Ah " it was completely against Kasumi's nature to lie, so instead she turned to Sasuke and said, "Do you still have that portable medical kit that you carry, Sasuke-san? It would be most helpful for me to close this wound so that this poor fellow does not bleed to death."
"Right here, Mistress," Sasuke instantly pulled something out of his gi that looked like a first aid kit, complete with red cross symbolism.
"Honestly, Akane can be so thoughtless some times," Kasumi murmured aloud, pulling out a needle and thread while deadening the nerves of a leg as she threaded the needle and prepared to close up the gash, "She really ought to use better control when she maims people."
"Ranma you say," Tatewaki mused, "A Wild Stallion indeed if ever a word fitted him I would imagine."
"I suppose that could be true if you spelled his name a certain way," Kasumi remarked, unable to help a blush as she thought about her view of her iinazuke in the furo, "Hung like one at the very least."
"What was that?" Tatewake sounded non-plussed.
"I meant that this poor fellow's shoulder is hanging at a totally wrong angle," Kasumi hastily self-corrected, surprising herself as it was the first actual lie that she could ever remember telling someone, and it made her feel enormously guilty.
"Oh?" Tatewake turned away, "Well, this Ranma had better not get any ideas that are above his station. He had best mind his manners and not seek to take advantage of your generosity in allowing him the awesome honor of residing in your company."
"Ah, well," Kasumi felt proded by her guilty conscious, "He, might be staying for a bit longer than you think."
"Oh?" Tatewake asked, "And why is that?"
"Well, for one thing," Kasumi paused, debating if she should say this or not, then deciding that soon everyone would hear the news anyway, so she sighed and said, "Our fathers engaged us to be married just early yesterday."
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"You've got to be kidding me," Ranma said to Akane as the two of them stood in the hallway holding buckets of water just outside of their home classroom, "That creep puts you through this gauntlet every morning because he says it's the only way for anybody around here to date you?"
"Yeah, but for now I seem to be managing to get by," Akane shrugged, "None of those boys is good enough to give me a real workout, and even though I am kind of rough with them it's not as if I'm trying to actually hurt them. I just wish they'd leave me alone so I can get to class without getting late."
"No wonder you hate guys," Ranma said, "If I had a nut like that making wild declarations like that I think I'd be as pissed off as you were."
Akane sighed, "Not every boy around here is such a baka, but I get so fed up with them taking my opinions for granted, as if I couldn't choose who I want to be with and they have to decide it for me."
"Guess it falls under the heading of training," Ranma said, eyeing the shorter girl beside him, "And you are pretty good. But your technique is a little sloppy."
"What was that?" Akane bristled.
"You've got a lot of raw strength and you move pretty good for a girl," Ranma replied, "But you waste a lot of motion and you leave a lot of openings. If any of those clowns knew the first thing about street fighting you might have a problem taking them down."
Akane frowned but actually considered what he was saying, "Kasumi says much the same thing some times. But, I can't help it. I just get so mad sometimes."
"That's the problem," Ranma said, "Rage can distract you, and letting your emotions take over is a sure path to defeat in the Martial Arts. Consider the way your sister stays calm and level headed all of the time. I actually had to work at it to score points with her, and that was in a friendly fight. If she knew more techniques from actually living on the street, I think she'd be a really scary person."
Akane considered this then said, "I guess maybe you're right. I do let my temper get the better of me. I just, don't know how to handle myself the way Kasumi does."
"Have you tried meditation?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah, like I can sit still long enough to relax like that," Akane snorted, "I tried that once with Kasumi's Zen master and all I got was a lump on my head from the number of times he whacked me with a stick."
"It ain't easy, but you gotta learn it in order to get calm in a fight," Ranma paused then said, "I ain't no expert about some things, but I knew this guy who said that some people have trouble focusing because their brains work all of the time and they get distracted by stuff. I think he called it, Attention disorder, or something like that. I wasn't really paying all that much attention."
"You mean like ADD?" Akane asked, again thinking about it before saying, "I don't know. I'm kind of leery about talking to a psychiatrist. I'm not real fond of Doctors except for one I know, a family healer who Kasumi likes to borrow stuff from. But still "
"Hey, I'm not saying you got it or nothing," Ranma said, "And it ain't really a bad thing. Pop says some guys have the ability to notice things that most other folks tend to ignore. Calls it a survival skill, like when you're in a jungle and you got some wild animal that's about to pounce on you, and the little hint that you get in the back of your mind is the only thing that keeps you from winding up as its dinner."
"Really?" Akane asked, "You're not just making that up."
"Why would I make up stuff that I don't understand?" Ranma asked reasonably, "Point Man syndrome, I think that's what Pop calls it. The Point Man is the lead hunter who shows the rest of the pack where it's safe to move. He's gotta be the one who has trouble concentrating on one thing because his mind jerks around from subject to subject."
"And speaking of changing the subject," Akane said, "I think you should try and avoid Tatewake in the future. He's not the toughest guy in the world, but he can be pretty dangerous wiith that bokken."
"Aw, he's a weapons user," Ranms said dismissively, "I ain't afraid of that."
"You think someone who uses a weapon is to be dismissed that easily, Ranma?" Akane asked.
"Naw, it ain't using a weapon that's the problem," Ranma replied, "But if you rely on a weapon then your hand to hand skills won't be worth spit. Weapons gotta be an optional extra for a real Martial Artist. If it's all you got in your arsenal," he shrugged, "Take a way the weapon and the guy is toast."
"Hmmm you make a good point," Akane said, "You know, I may have misjudged you. You can be a pretty cool guy,when you're not acting like a total jerk."
"And you ain't so bad, for a violent Tomboy, that is," Ranma smirked.
Akane just glared at him but by now understood that he was teasing her and did not seriously mean to be offensive, "So tell me about how you and your father train. I watched you in the yard this morning, and the both of you are pretty good."
"Been at it for as long as I can remember," Ranma shrugged, "And hey, if you were on the road as long as we were you'd probably pick up stuff that would make you twice as good a Martial Artist."
Akane sighed, "Like that's ever going to happen. My Dad, he hardly ever goes anywhere with us. Since Mom died, I guess we're the only ones that he can relate to. Which makes it really strange that they want you to marry Kasumi."
"How do you think I feel about it?" Ranma asked, "Don't get me wrong, your sister's a great girl. She's pretty, kind, thoughtful, a good cook, knows a lot of cool stuff and she makes me feel, well, almost like I have a mother."
"That pretty much describes Kasumi," Akane sighed, "Perfection incarnate, the ultimate role model that some of us are never going to live up to."
"What, are you jealous?" Ranma asked.
"Of Kasumi?" Akane was surprised by the question, but thought for a moment then said, "Um, I guess maybe I am. I mean, I love her, but, she makes me feel like-"
"An uncute Tomboy?" Ranma smirked.
She glared, then held the pail of water up menacingly, "How would you like to get in touch with your feminine side?"
"Ah-no, wait, I take it back!" he hastily backed away, only to see her smirk, and realized that she had gotten him good that time around.
"Just keep in mind I know your weakness, Ranma," Akane went back to holding the pail at a non-threatening level, "And I still say you're a jerk and a pervert."
"Would you give it a rest already?" Ranma sighed, "Kasumi and me explained it to you already "
"I may have her version and yours to go by," Akane replied, "But keep in mind that you two aren't actually married yet, and it's better to wait until after the honeymoon before you grope her."
Ranma was about to say something curt at this when his danger sense flared to life and he moved, his body reacting almost before his brain could catch up to the reason.
Water splashed upon the floor, and then he looked up to see a thoroughly enraged Tatewaki standing there holding up an empty bucket.
"NEVER, FIEND!" he cried, "I will never allow a low-born curr like youto lay claim to the hand of the fair Kasumi!"
"Uh oh," Akane winced, "Somebody spilled the beans, and I bet I know who."
"Hey, watch it, you Baka!" Ranma snapped back, "And for your information it's all the work of our fathers! Kasumi and me didn't come up with this on our own! Do you think I'd get engaged to an older girl that I just met if I had any choice about it?."
Kasumi, who was further back along the hall, paused at the top of the stairs and looked on with widened eyes, hearing that declaration.
"You think me a fool, you Demon in human form?" Tatewaki snarled as he pulled out his bokken, "Have at you!" and he came lunging forward with his weapon raised.
But Akane thought fast and threw her pail at Tatewaki's legs, tripping him up and causing him to stumble as his feet encountered the slick spot, and all at once he went skidding across the room, to strike an open window at the other side of the hallway.
And all at once he went plunging out to fall three stories, making a loud cry of dismay before landing with an audible splash that kicked up a jet of water from where he landed.
"Oh my," Kasumi remarked as she walked up with a mildly dismayed expression, "How careless of somebody. I thought the windows on this floor were supposed to be kept shut for safety reasons."
"Is he gonna be all right?" Ranma asked.
"Don't worry about that baka," Akane said dismissively, "The pool is just beneath that window. And besides, it would take a lot more than that to remove him from my life, believe me."
"I'm so sorry, Ranma-kun," Kasumi said, "I didn't mean to tell him about our engagement."
"You mean you told him, Oneeechan?" Akane was surprised, "I thought for sure it was Nabiki."
"Anyway," Kasumi turned around, "I suppose I should let you younger people get back to your classroom. After all, you don't want an older woman like me hanging around like I was still a student."
"Huh?" Ranma asked, hearing a very strange note in the voice of his iinazuke, "Ah, sure. No problem."
"After all, as you say, we never sought this engagement," Kasumi was not looking at him, "It was all at the behest of our fathers."
Ranma blinked, "Hey, wait a minute. I didn't mean it like that!"
"You will excuse me," Kasumi said, and she headed back for the stairway, her voice sounding a bit rougher than before as if laden with understated emotion.
"Kasumi!" Ranma called out to her, "Wait up!"
He was about to pursue his iinazuke when-all of a sudden-the doors and window-partitions to their classroom flew open and a dozen of their classmates swarmed out, one pair asking point-blank, "You mean it's true, New Guy? You're engaged to Akane's Goddess sister?"
"Oh man, I can't believe it!" another boy said, "That is the coolest thing ever! You know how many guys would give their right nut to be in your shoes?"
"I, what?" Ranma blinked.
"You go for older women, right?" one of the girls said, coming up and elbowing Akane, "So has he hit on you as well?"
"No!" Akane said, "I don't even like him!"
"Thanks a lot," Ranma said, detaching himself from the mob of fellow students as he headed for the window, "Now excuse me, I've gotta go find Kasumi."
"What?" Akane said, "Hey, you Baka! Don't you remember what's-?"
In his haste to escape the mob Ranma had momentarily forgotten, but quickly realized what he was falling towards and said, "OH CRAP!"
And then the splash obscured him as the students rushed to look out the window in search of the new kid.
Meanwhile Tatewaki was just fishing himself out of the pool when he heard that splash and glanced around, pausing until he saw the figure that came floating to the surface. To his amazement he saw a shock of red hair done up in a pigtail, and then the sputtering girl who paddled her way to the edge, and he blinked his eyes in disbelief, momentarily too bewitched by the sight of her to do or say anything as she climbed out of the pool, dripping wet and mad as a hatter.
"Just great," she said in complaint, then glared up at the sky and said, "You're determined to get me one way or the other, ain't you?"
"Fair maiden."
"Hun?" Ranma said, turning around and spying the half-soaked Tatewaki. She frowned and growled, "What do you want?"
"Only to gaze in awe of you incomparable beauty," Tatewaki began, "The vision of you is like a rare flower that blooms in-AWP!" he gasped as he felt the heel of her shoe come down upon his face, driving him backwards as Ranma used him like a spring board.
She was up and over the fence as she vaulted and did a somersault before righting herself and landing on the far side, moving like a shot before anyone else could get a better look at her.
Back up on the third floor Akane heard her classmates saying, "Who was that?"
"She totally nailed Kuno."
"But what happened to that cute guy, Ranma?"
"Don't know, maybe he managed to avoid landing in the pool or getting hurt."
"Are you sure? He might have hurt his leg from landing at this height."
"Yeah, which means maybe he's hurt and we should go to him, just in case."
"And find out if it's true about him and Kasumi," another student said, and then they all startd heading for the exit, while their homeroom teacher called out in a futile effort to make them pay attention.
But Akane-who knew what had happened and had no intention of sharing with her classmates-just murmured to herself, "Go find her, you Baka, and make sure you tell her how you feel, or so help me you're gonna wish it was only Kuno that you have to face "
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Kasumi did not know why she was feeling so upset as she set out on the path for home. She only knew that Ranma's words had stung her in some way, and she could not quite put her finger on what it was suffice to say that he had described her as an "older woman."
That certainly was true, she was three years older than him. And would remain so for the rest of their lives, not that it would mean as much when they did grow older. In a sense she was more of an older sister than a potential wife in his eyes, and for that she could hardly blame him.
It was simply that...
She was tired of waiting for the future to happen, for some man to come along and notice her, and to romance her like the heroine in one of those romantic novels that she sometimes read for entertainment. She was tired of getting invitations to wedding held by former classmates whom she had not seen in over a year. She was tired of caring for a family that would likely fall apart if she were not there, and who took her devotion to them so much for granted that it might never have occurred to anyone-least of all her father-that maybe she might want something for herself this one time.
And that was so much unlike her that she actually felt bad about wanting this. For resenting this, and for feeling as though life had been unfair and had dealt to her a hand full of jokers.
But Ranma was not just like a little brother to her now. She might have thought that way but for the unexpected element of the engagement. For a day now she had been rolling it around in her head and coming to terms with the realization that she was engaged to be his future wife, and that some day in the future the honor of their families would demand that she would call him husband.
And she was starting to like the man that he had grown up to be. Oh sure he was coarse and crude and undisciplined, but there was something in his dark blue eyes that reached out to her on a fundamental level.
Was she too old for him? Did he feel trapped by the engagement? Did he actually like her? These were among the thoughts that were tormenting her now, and making her feel bad about herself, questioning things that even she had taken for granted for so long that it seemed as if these new emotions were the real ones hidden deep inside her that she had never confronted until that very moment.
And despite it all, no matter how much she valued her family and those few friends whom she maintained contact with after High School, the truth was, deep down, she was very lonely. It would not have occurred to her until that moment to realize this, but she really did not have many prospects outside of her dream of going to Medical school and becoming a doctor.
Like her good friend, Doctor Tofu Ono, who ran a small clinic and had been a great help to their family over the years. Yet Tofu was more like a goofy uncle than a mentor, and he never seemed to be very serious when she came dropping by. She supposed that it was just his way of trying to cheer her up as she could remember him being a much more sober man when she was younger.
And what precisely did Kasumi want in a man anyway? Someone mature and reasonable, that much was obvious. She had enough on her hands looking after younger people who were not very sensible about the way they treated their own bodies-
"Kasumi!"
The voice was higher in pitch than the male Ranma, but Kasumi recognized it anyway and turned around in time to see her iinauke in her cursed form running at her, waving a hand and trying to get her attention.
"Ranma-kun?" she asked, though she belatedly realized that "chan" might be more appropriate at the moment.
The fleet footed redhead came up over a grassy hill on the park grounds that Kasumi was passing by as she said, "I wanted to tell you something! Wait up, I-WHOOPS!"
Unexpectedly her foot hit a wet patch and skidded out from under her, and suddenly Ranma-chan was on an uncontrolled decline, sliding on her back right into Kasumi and knocking her legs out from under her so that the taller girl went tumbling on top of her and almost smothered the cute redhead when her chest impacted with her face, forcing her head down hard into the pavement.
For a moment the both of them were stunned, Ranma-chan from a mild concussion, Kasumi from having the wind knocked out of her sails, though she had the presence of mind to catch herself with the palms of her hands so as to keep her face from striking the concrete.
But then Kasumi heard a muffled voice and glanced down, saw where her chest was placed and said, "Oh my!"
With some effort she got up off of her fiancé, and Ranma-chan was able to breathe once again, having almost been smothered by the pillow-soft cushion that lurked beneath Kasumi's light silk blouse.
But then Ranma-chan gasped, even as Kasumi spoke, and together they said, "I'm sorry."
They blinked their eyes, then Ranma-chan said, "Ah, I meant about what happened back there, when that clown attacked me. I didn't mean nothing by it. I mean, I'm not saying I got anything against you."
"But I am your fiancé, Ranma," Kasumi said, "And I know you didn't ask for this-"
"Ah, not the point," Ranma rubbed the back of her head where the lump was forming, "Just saying, you're a really nice girl. And you're special and a good fighter and you took care of those guys with their injuries. I mean, there ain't nothing wrong with you far as I can see."
"But I'm older than you," Kasumi pointed out.
"Just by a couple of years," Ranma-chan replied, "That ain't nothing to get worked up about."
"Oh?" Kasumi looked at him hopefully, "Then you don't mind?"
"About the engagement? Ah, heh, that's a toughie," Ranma-chan grinned weakly, "I mean, our Dads seem pretty set on it, but we've only just met again after a long time, and, well, maybe there's stuff about me you won't really like when you get to know me."
"I could learn," Kasumi offered, "That wouldn't be so bad, would it?"
"Hah?" Ranma-chan blinked, "You mean, you don't mind if we ?"
She touched Ranma-chan's face with the palm of her hand, "Nothing is certain in this world, and the future isn't written in stone, and anything could happen between now and, the time when our fathers might want us to get married. There's time to find out if it could work between us."
"Oh " Ranma-chan blinked.
Kasumi studied the features of her cursed fiancé for a moment then said, "I just noticed something. The rest of you changes, but you still have the same eyes."
"Ah, really?" Ranma-chan asked, wondering why she did not feel more freaked about the look that the older girl was giving to her. If anything the feeling of the palm to her face felt, rather nice.
"Ranma-kun," she decided to use the more brotherly pronoun, "The fact that you came here to reassure me means a lot to me. And I'm sorry if I may have misunderstood you back there. I know that your intent was not to hurt my feelings. It's just,"
"Uh, yeah?" Ranma-chan all but whispered.
She glanced down, then looked up again, and her brown eyes were full of unexpected emotion.
"I want to think about a future where I have the chance to be me," Kasumi informed her, "Where I can make my own choices, set my own destiny, live my own life and, be with someone that I genuinely care for."
"Ah, got anybody in mind?" Ranma-chan asked nervously, wondering why she was paying so much attention to the shape of the other girl's features, taking notice of the perfect symmetry of her eyes, how her nose was just the right size and shape, and how full her lips appeared when she was smiling.
She was smiling now as she said, "I might have a few ideas about that. But we won't really know if we don't take the time to find out."
"But, the curse," Ranma-chan murmured faintly, almost mesmerized by the look that she was giving her at that moment.
Her hand moved from Ranma-chan's cheek to her neckline, causing the latter to shudder just a little.
"It's only a curse if you prefer to think of it as one," Kasumi reasoned, "If anything it might teach you something valuable about what it feels like to be a girl. Too many of those boys who used to try to date me back in High School never could understand a woman's feelings, and never tried to."
"Oh?" Ranma-chan tensed a little, "You dated a lot then?"
"No, not even once," Kasumi sighed, composing herself in a more proper sitting manner, "I just was not interested. They were too, immature, and they had nothing to offer that I wanted in a relationship."
"Wow," Ranma-chan said, then coughed, "I mean¡ that's pretty hard to believe, you being such a cute girl and all "
Kasumi blushed, "You really mean that? You think that I'm, cute?"
"You kidding me?" this time Ranma-chan chuckled, "You're gorgeous! And you have a nice body. Ah, not that I meant to look, but when you surprised me in the furo "
"Oh," Kasumi blushed more profusely this time and glanced down and away as if to cover for her feelings in the matter, "Well, I do work out,"
"I mean," without consciously meaning to, Ranma-chan moved her hands as if feeling a pair of invisible grape fruit, then decided on cupping her own chest while saying, "You got nice, ah, well, they're almost as big as mine are. And don't they get in the way sometimes? I mean, the first time I tried working out in this body I kept having to adjust myself to the changes in my posture and balance."
"Oh," Kasumi blinked, then she covered her mouth and chuckled softly, "Yes, I can just see how that could be a problem."
Ranma-chan glared, "It wasn't that funny."
"I've had years to learn how to cope with the balance problem," Kasumi said, "And I often wear an athletic bra when I spar in professional matches. But for some reason father seems leery about my wearing any sort of underwear. He has an absolute phobia about perverted men stealing women's lingerie and insists that I try and get by without more silken undergarments than is strictly needed."
"Heh?" Ranma-chan made a face, "Stealing underwear? That's disgusting!"
"I quite agree, Kasumi replied, "I noticed that you tend to wear boxer shorts underneath your pants."
"Hey, that's personal!" Ranma-chan protested.
"We might have to buy you clothing that would be more appropriate for a woman," Kasumi said with a thoughtful expression, "A bra for one thing since having large breasts tends to mean that they might sag over time, and it really does help to contain them when they move around on you during a match."
"Don't get no ideas about turning me into some dresser doll for you to play with," Ranma-chan warned direly, then glanced down and cupped herself again and said, "But you may have a point about these things. It's like when I start to do a turn, then try and stop, and they just keep on going, and bouncing up and down."
Kasumi smiled in delight, thinking what a joy it was to have someone with whom she could discuss such things. Nabiki was never that much interested in feminine things, Akane even less so. But now she had a man who understood a woman's perspective from the inside out, and it delighted her to no end to think of what interesting conversations they might enjoy in the days to follow.
But that was when they heard an angry Kuno cry out, "Where is he, the Churl? Where is that foul knave who thinks to attach himself to the side of the fair flower of womanhood, Tendo Kasumi!"
"Not him again," Ranma-chan growled as she and Kasumi got to their feet to face the clueless boy waving a wooden sword like a refugee from a Kurusawa movie.
"Kuno," Kasumi chided, "You really must stop this. I am flattered by your attention, but,"
All at once Kuno's eyes went to Ranma-chan and his entire manner and demeanor altered, "And who is this radiant flower? So like a rose herself beneath the shade of the fair Kasumi?"
"Hah?" Ranma-blinked, fighting the temptation to look around to see if there were anyone else present.
To Kasumi's dismay Kuno walked right past her and took Ranma-chan by the hands, saying, "Noble beauty, I, the mighty Kuno Tatewaki am smitten near blind by the awesome sight of you. So dazzling a vision is more than moral eyes can behold and-"
And Ranma-chan's fist collided with his face, squarely nailing him on the jaw and stunning him for a moment.
Right as the edge of Kasumi's hand came down at the base of his neck.
Kuno collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut, but he retained his blissful smile as if too slow in the wits department to fully realize that he was unconscious.
"Gah! What is it with this guy?" Ranma-chan shook her hand as if she felt dirty from the contact.
"He really need to find a better hobby," Kasumi said with pity as she turned around, "So, shall we go, Ranma-kun?"
"Go where?" her iinazuke asked.
"To some place where you can get changed back to your self, of course," Kasumi, "And we can examine that lump on the back of your head to make sure it isn't serious."
"Hey, it's all right," Ranma replied as they fell in step together, "I've taken a lot worse during Pop's training matches. But tell me something, were the guys at your High School as bad as him?" she hooked a thumb in the direction of the snoozing Kuno.
"Believe it or not," Kasumi replied, "Some were considerably worse."
"You've got to be joking," Ranma sniffed
"The Principal kept trying to give us all hair cuts," Kasumi replied, "And he was Tatewaki's father."
"Oh, guess that explains a lot," Ranma winced, "So what is the deal with that guy? Why is he after you, and what's his business with Akane?"
"I guess the simple answer to that is that he appears to be interested in both of us," Kasumi answered.
"What?" Ranma-chan reacted, "You've gotta be kidding."
"The problem in the family started when their mother passes away some years ago," Kasumi said, "So I suppose that I could relate to why he and Kodachi turned out the way they did,"
"Kodachi?" Ranma-chan asked.
"His younger sister," Kasumi explained, "She goes to a different High School, but she sometimes visits. I think she and Akane are friends, after a manner of speaking."
"Oh," Ranma could dimly remember hearing Akane mention something about a sister, but the term she used had sounded more like, "Nut bar."
"Anyway," Kasumi brightened up, "We're almost at the clinic, and now I'll be able to introduce you to a very good friend of mine. He's been our family therapist since as far back as I can remember, and I'm sure you'll like him. His name is Tofu Ono."
"Tofu Ono?" Ranma repeated, wondering why so many names here in Nerima sounded like breakfast confections. But she shrugged, reasoning that anyone who was friends with Kasumi couldn't be all that bad as a person...
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Continued.