Author's notes: Hey, Ranma 1/2 fans! I'm back with another chapter!
I noticed (ashamedly) that, in chapter one, I made some rather horrible mistakes with story events. This is what caused me to decide to watch the entire show over again, just so that I don't get anything wrong... but, if I do ever manage to make mistakes like that in the future, please let me know, so that I can fix them.
Lastly, the deal that I mentioned in the summary didn't manage to fit into this chapter, so it'll definitely be in chapter three.
Chapter Two: Graduation Day – Part Two
Although Miss Amaya had allowed her students to leave their classroom for a while – and most of them, including Ranma, had done so – Akane had decided to stay right where she was, in order to work on her list. Miss Amaya had also left the classroom, so, currently, she was one of only five people still in there.
She stared down angrily at the blank piece of paper in front of her, the black pen clenched tightly in her hand; there were simply no words to describe how utterly pissed off at Miss Amaya she was for this. She didn't want to have to list the things that she liked most about Ranma! Her relationship with him was as rocky as one could possibly get and this list would only throw a spanner in the works and complicate matters.
He's a jerk! she thought, clenching the pen tighter. She could feel the plastic slowly cracking in her hand. An insensitive jerk who's always making fun of me, calling me names, insulting my cooking and telling me that he wants nothing to do with me! Argh! Damn you, Miss Amaya! Damn you to hell!
She'd known from the very beginning that this assignment would be difficult, since Ranma's negative qualities always seemed to outweigh his positives. Honestly, she had no idea where to start. God, she was so utterly tempted to write all the things that she hated about him instead, since that would be so much easier, but she knew that she just couldn't do that. She'd been told to list his best qualities, not his worst, and Akane Tendo was not one to back down from any sort of challenge... not even one as stupid as this, which was certainly saying something, considering all the stupid challenges that she'd encountered in the past.
She told herself to focus, to clear her mind of all negative thoughts and to be true to her heart. This proved fruitless, however. No matter how much she stared at the paper, she simply couldn't think of anything to write and this only served to aggravate her more. She watched as the minutes slowly ticked by on the clock on the wall... and as the four other students around her finished their lists one at a time and left the classroom. Eventually, she was the only one left in there.
She raised her free hand and ran it aggressively through her short dark blue hair, grinding her elbow into the desk as she did so; why did this have to be so hard? She was sure that, if she'd been given anyone other than Ranma to write a list about, she'd have gotten it done by now... leaving her plenty of time to wander around the school in a carefree manner and say goodbye to all her friends and classmates. Closing her eyes and trying to calm her frazzled nerves, she cast her mind back in an attempt to think of something good to write.
Suddenly, she remembered all the times that she'd been kidnapped. God, how many times had it happened? She wasn't sure. She'd been kidnapped by Mousse, Sentaro, Pantyhose Taro, Kirin, Prince Toma... Was there anyone else? She couldn't really remember, but something that she did remember was that, every time it had happened – excluding both incidents with Sentaro – Ranma had always been the one to come rushing to her aid. This brought a slight smile to her face, as it showed that, deep down, he truly did care about her. She brought pen to paper and wrote something.
'He cares about me'
Looking over what she'd just written, she was instantly reminded of the fact that, no matter what challenge Ranma was faced with, he would always face it head on. Hell, even on the rare occasion that he lost a fight, he'd keep coming back again until he won. She'd always found this a rather admirable quality in him. True, she felt that the reasoning behind it was pure stubbornness, but she'd be much less impressed with him if he just gave up after a defeat. The smile left her face as she remembered the time when Happosai had drained him of his fighting ability. That had, in turn, drained him of his will to fight and she'd felt unbelievable pity for him, seeing him simply give up like he had. She'd felt like crying that day. Fortunately, that was merely a one-off occasion and she seriously doubted that she'd ever see it again. Allowing herself half a smile, she wrote something else.
'He never gives up'
A part of her also wanted to mention how she liked the fact that he was so strong, so fast, so agile, so acrobatic... and, basically, an all-round fantastic martial artist, but she refrained from doing so. Scowling slightly, she figured that, if she did that, it would be practically like throwing in the towel and actually admitting that he was a better martial artist than her. She wouldn't do that if her life depended on it! She did have her pride after all, like he had his ego... and she'd much rather cut her own hand off than let his ego win out over her pride.
Shaking her head to clear it of negative thoughts, she went back to thinking of a few more things that she could list. She glanced out the window for some inspiration and saw nothing but a blue sky covered by clouds and trees. The sheer exasperation she felt at both having to do this bloody assignment and being stuck for inspiration made her sigh in aggravation. God, she wished that she could just write this goddamn list and get out of here. Hell, she wished that Miss Amaya had never even suggested this assignment in the first place!
She looked back down at her paper, with her two measly points written on it, and decided that she seriously needed to get cracking on this thing. Otherwise, she was likely to get no time at all to relax, mingle and say her goodbyes. Scowling in determination, she straightened in her seat and stared at the paper, willing herself to think up a few more points to write down.
It was then that she recalled how nice he could be sometimes... when he wasn't calling her an uncute tomboy with thighs that were too thick and a body that was built like a stick. A surge of anger welled up inside her at the memory, but she forced herself to push it back down; now was not the time for that. She had to focus! Shaking her head again, she thought about the few rare occasions where he'd been genuinely nice to her, even going a whole day without insulting her sometimes. She smiled in fondness, wishing in her heart that the two of them could have more days like that, like that one Christmas night when he'd put his arm around her as they'd watched the shooting stars... or the day that he'd painted her a huge banner of apology after he'd caused her to fracture her leg. Suddenly feeling very happy, she was about to write something else on the paper, but paused. She didn't want to sound too praising, so how could she phrase it? Once she thought of something, she continued.
'He's sweet when he wants to be'
She tapped the pen against her chin, wondering what else she could possibly add to the list. It was at that moment that she noticed that she'd completely cracked the plastic of Miss Amaya's pen. Her heart skipped a beat in panic.
Oh, crap... she thought, I hope I don't get in trouble for that... She sighed in exasperation again. Here's hoping the hippy lets me off easy.
Staring at her list again, her mind drifted off to think about her life before Ranma had come along and turned it upside down. It was certainly true that her life hadn't been normal – after all, she'd had to fight off a horde of perverted boys every morning before school – but it sure as hell had been a lot more normal than it was now. She was now living in a messed-up world of Jusenkyo curses, pushy suitors, even pushier fiancées, unorthodox weaponry and the most imaginative forms of martial arts that she'd ever encountered.
She blinked, suddenly realising something; without Ranma, she would never have experienced such a crazy life. Now, she'd complained about it many a time, but, honestly, her life would be a lot more boring without him. He was, after all, not only a top-level martial artist, but also a boy who could turn into a girl at the slightest splash of cold water. She frowned for a moment as she thought about it; would she have preferred the boring life? It had been much more simplistic, that was for sure... but, then again, Ranma's very presence had managed to introduce her to so many things in the world that she'd never thought were possible. She smiled again, knowing full well that she'd much prefer the crazy messed-up life over the boring life. There hadn't yet been a day since Ranma had come along where she'd been bored. She gently gripped the pen and wrote something else.
'His fast-paced life and gender-changing make my life exciting'
She read over what she'd just written and lightly chuckled to herself; she just hoped that Miss Amaya didn't read this list, since the woman was fairly new to the school and, therefore, knew nothing about Ranma's curse. She was sure that the hippy would probably think that Ranma was a transsexual or something and freak out about it. She paused a moment to think over what she'd just thought and laughed.
Well, I guess Ranma is a transsexual, really, isn't he? Kinda. She then suddenly got lost in the thought of his two forms, his handsome male form and his beautiful female form, and actually considered listing the fact that she found him extremely attractive. Quickly snapping back to reality, she shook her head violently. Oh, no no no! There's no way in hell that I'm telling him how good-looking he is. No way! She paused. That one can be kept a secret.
Willing herself to focus her concentration back on the list, she shook off the thought and concentrated. Lightly chewing on the end of the pen, she glanced towards the door, which was wide open with students walking past it in both directions. After only a few moments of doing this, she began to notice various boys that had, over the years, either simply drooled over her or had attempted to win her heart. She scowled as she watched several familiar faces stroll by, laughing and joking together, yet, thankfully, not noticing her.
She stared up at the ceiling, continuing to chew on the pen, as she realised something; sure, Ranma was a pervert – despite all protests that he made against the claim – but he wasn't much of one, compared to all the other boys in the world. She took the pen out of her mouth and smiled; yeah, that was one of the things that she liked most about him... the fact that he always attempted to be chivalrous. Yes, he'd fallen on top of her, hugged her, kissed her whilst under the influence of Cat Fu and grabbed her every now and then – and she really had to fight down her anger at his uncouth actions by this point – but it was very tame compared to all the other stuff that she'd had to put up with over the years. She brought the pen to the paper, but paused, contemplating exactly what to write. She still believed him to be perverted – because the various signs always pointed to that and she was very used to perverted boys – so he wasn't completely clean-minded, like she believed Ryoga was. As soon as she'd figured something out, she continued.
'He's one of the least perverted guys I know'
She smiled at what she'd written and nodded; perfect. It described how she felt about that little issue perfectly. Allowing her thoughts to linger on the fact that he did seem to come into bodily contact with her far too often for her tastes, she recalled that, unlike her other suitors – mainly Tatewaki – Ranma never openly chased after her or glomped her on a regular basis. He always seemed to keep a reasonable distance away from her – whilst in public, at least – and she'd always found said reasonable distance comforting. Whenever this happened, she would seriously question whether or not he really was the pervert that she'd taken him to be. Shaking her head in amusement, she hovered the pen above the paper, but paused again. She thought about it for a moment, then wrote something else.
'He often respects my personal space'
Satisfied, she put down the pen and stretched, cracking a few loose disks in her spine back into place as she did so. Well, she was pretty certain that she'd written a decent amount of points for her list. She glanced back down at it and counted six, which was a fairly well-rounded number. She was about to stand up and walk out of the classroom when she suddenly halted, thinking back over the event that had taken place every school morning before Ranma had entered her life. Thanks to Tatewaki Kuno, she'd been constantly attacked by a horde of disgusting perverts who'd wanted nothing more than to win the chance to take her on a date. None of them had ever cared about how she'd felt. In all honesty, even if one of them had defeated her, there'd have been no way in hell that she'd have gone on a date with him. She'd never been part of Tatewaki's little scheme and had never wanted to be. The only boy who cared about her feelings enough not to pursue her so blindly was Ranma. Hell, even Ryoga had pursued her once... or, at least, that had been what it had looked like. The next day, his personality had changed back to normal, which had really confused her. She smiled warmly, recalling how Ranma had been the one to get all those perverted boys to stop pursuing her, simply by defeating Tatewaki. She'd never said so – and still wasn't intending to – but she'd always been eternally grateful to him for that. She picked up the pen and wrote one last thing.
'He treats me like a person, not a prize to be won'
She picked up the list and her rolled-up diploma before standing up. There... all done. She stepped to the side and pushed her chair back under the desk. God, Ranma better appreciate this list. It took me too freaking long to write. Humming a song called 'Little Date' that she'd heard on a music channel the previous night, she strolled out of the classroom.
The moment that Ranma had come down from the roof, his other fiancée that attended Furinkan High – Ukyo Kuonji – had ambushed him with a glomp to the arm, a smile and a "Ranma-honey!" since – because she'd been in Miss Hinako's class again that year – she'd not seen him for most of the day. At the moment, they were having a fairly pleasant conversation.
"It's gonna be weird leaving Furinkan High, isn't it?" Ukyo asked in a nostalgic tone.
"Yeah," Ranma replied, folding his arms behind his head. "You gonna be continuing the family business?"
Ukyo chuckled. "Of course, sugar! The Kuonjis live and breathe okonomiyaki, so expect more of it after we've graduated."
Ranma felt his stomach grumble at the mere thought and certainly couldn't keep the happy smile off his face. "Awesome!"
"What about you? What do you plan on doing?"
Ranma stared up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Eh, I dunno. I'll try and find some work somewhere that fits in with my martial arts training."
Ukyo waved her hand around. "Yeah? Well, good luck with that."
"Thanks." Ranma paused before looking back at Ukyo. "Say, Ucchan? Did Miss Hinako give you an assignment to do today?"
"Hmm?" Ukyo blinked at him in confusion. "No, why?"
Ranma groaned. "'Cause Miss Amaya gave us an assignment."
Ukyo's eyes widened in surprise. "On the last day of school? What was it, Ranchan?"
"I had to write a list of all the things I like most about Akane." He paused and watched Ukyo lean forward slightly, her eyes widening further. He scoffed and glanced in the opposite direction. "You wouldn't believe how difficult that was. Stupid tomboy doesn't have many good qualities to her." He suddenly saw something familiar out of the corner of his eye. "Huh?" He turned to look at it and saw Akane nearby, scowling with such ferocity that it looked like her face was about to crack. His heart stopped and his stomach dropped into oblivion. "Oh, crap." He jumped back and put on his innocent face. "Uh, hey, Akane! How's it going?"
Akane brooded silently for a moment, gripping the handle of her book bag so tightly it looked like it was going to snap in half. She then turned her head to the side.
"Hmph!" she said. "As if I care what you think of me, you jerk! Just go back to flirting with Ukyo, since you seem to like her so much!"
His anger taking hold of him, he was about to say something insulting in return when he was radically interrupted.
"Hey, Akane!" a female voice called out.
Akane immediately seemed to drop her anger as she turned to look at her two best friends, Sayuri and Yuka. "Oh, hey, guys."
Sayuri continued talking while holding up a camera. "It's about time we found you. Mind if I take a few pictures?"
Ranma instantly felt Ukyo latch onto his arm again, much to his chagrin. "Sure!" she replied for Akane. "Take one of me and Ranma-honey, will you?"
Akane scowled at him again and he tried the innocent face a second time, hoping that it would calm her obvious jealousy. It didn't, though, as usual.
"Aww," Yuka said, smirking lightly, "and we were so hoping to get a picture of Ranma with Akane..."
Much to his annoyance, Ranma felt himself blushing slightly. He pulled a face and looked away. "Yeah, whatever," he replied. "We can get that over with next."
Akane turned to him, looking unconvinced. "You sure you'd want your picture taken with such an uncute tomboy? When you've got your cute fiancée on your arm?"
Ranma felt his blood boil at this remark. "Hey! Just 'cause you're uncute, don't mean I don't want my picture taken with you!" Akane looked mildly surprised at this declaration, yet still somewhat annoyed. "Hey, look, it's the last day of school and we're in the building, holding our diplomas! It's my last chance at getting a picture like that, so, if I refuse now, I can never get it back!"
Akane's annoyance seemed to disappear completely now. She stared at him. "Ranma..."
Ranma's guard lowered at the sight of her face, so his pride kicked in to compensate. He looked away. "It don't mean I like ya or nothin'. It's just... our dads'd probably prefer it if we were in at least one photo together."
Akane paused for a moment before smiling and giggling. "Okay, Ranma... whatever you say."
After Ranma had had his photographs taken with first Ukyo, then Akane, then both on either side of him, he and Akane went back to their classroom to get the final part of their assignment over with, which was to hand each other their lists while Miss Amaya watched. By now, most of the students in the building had gone home – including Ukyo, who'd stated that she had a business to run now that school was out and that she'd see Ranma later – so, when they entered the classroom, they were one of three pairs of students in there.
"Hey, thanks again, man!" one of the boys said to his partner as the two of them walked out of the room together.
"Right back at'cha, dude!" the other boy replied.
"Ah!" Miss Amaya said with glee, clapping her hands together and standing up. "Why, if it isn't Mr. Saotome and Miss Tendo! I was beginning to think you two had ditched me and gone home!"
Ranma scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Aheh..." he said, "nope, we're still here, teach."
"Well, go ahead! Hand your lists to one another, so I can see your reactions!" She beamed as she linked her hands behind her back in a strange schoolgirl pose. "After all, haven't I always said that peace and love make the world go round? Be a morale-booster and send each other off with a bang!"
Trying to force down the queasy feeling in his stomach from her words, Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out his folded list. He watched as Akane reached into her book bag and pulled out her own folded list. He hesitated, unsure of himself, before holding his out to her.
"Uh... here you go, Akane."
She took it from him slowly, completely avoiding his eyes. "Thanks, Ranma..." She held out her own. "And here's yours..."
He took it from her. "Thanks."
Silence fell over the two of them as he stared at her list, gulping down the nervousness that he was suddenly feeling. What on Earth could she have written about him? Did he really want to know? And did he really need to get so worked up over it? What did he care what she thought about him? After a few tense moments, he unfolded the list and read it.
The further he read down the list, the more surprised and the less nervous he felt. Not only had she been really nice and thoughtful towards him with this list, but the points listed on it were shockingly similar to the ones that he'd written for her. As he read over them again, just to be sure that he wasn't seeing things, he felt his heart burning with a rather uncomfortable, yet strangely pleasant, emotion. He glanced up at Akane and saw that she was looking at him with the same emotions that he was currently feeling reflected in her eyes; she was shocked... she was flattered... and she'd completely dropped her guard.
She blushed before smiling at him. "Wow. Thanks, Ranma."
Affection flooded around his body and he couldn't help but smile back at her. "No problem. Thanks to you too, Akane."
"Aww!" the one remaining female in the classroom cooed, causing Ranma's blood to freeze in sheer horror and panic. He noticed a similar expression to the one that he was most likely wearing on Akane's face. "Isn't that cute?"
"Yeah!" her male partner said, laughing, as the two of them walked out the door. "Two regular lovebirds, they are!"
"Hey!" Akane shouted in protest after they'd gone. "It's not like that!"
Miss Amaya giggled childishly. "Oh, wow, that was so incredibly sweet!" she said, causing Ranma to gawk in horror at her. "I've given out this assignment tons of times in various schools over the years, but I've never seen anything quite so adorable!"
Akane's face turned bright red at this remark. "Miss Amaya!"
"Well, that was fun, but it's about time you crazy kids went home." Miss Amaya practically skipped out the door. "Enjoy the rest of your lives, children!"
There were a few moments of silence before Akane sighed and put a hand to her head. "Honestly..."
Ranma chuckled, eager to lift the tension that was now in the room. "Ah, well," he said. "How about we go home then, Akane?"
Akane smiled at him as she dropped her hand back down to her book bag. "Sure. Let's go."
Returning their pens to the pen pot – Ranma getting a good laugh out of the fact that Akane had cracked the plastic on hers – they walked out the classroom door, side-by-side, and headed home.