Part 1: Talent Show
The early morning air's quiet was broken by a familiar sound to those who had lived in the neighborhood for long enough. The sound of well worn sneakers hitting the pavement. The quiet breaths of exertion. The familiar sight of the young woman running through the streets brought a smile to the faces of the long time residents. Akane Tendo had been doing this run in the morning since she was ten years old. Now seventeen, the habit had become a familiar and comforting start to the day. She noted, as she reached the gates to her house, that she would probably have to increase the intensity of her run soon, her current route and speed had become too easy.
In the backyard of the Tendo household, another was having his morning workout. The young man blocked a punch from his father before launching out a kick of his own. This had been his morning routine for as long as he remembered. A quick sparring session with his father before breakfast, followed by school. Ranma Saotome knew his father well, every trick Genma had ever pulled he knew and knew the counters to. Granted, Genma had taught Ranma near everything he knew and the counters to those. As such each session was an old familiar action, one more for simply keeping in shape then advancing their respective abilities. He threw out a quick combination of punches, a handful getting through his guard. Before the fight could resolve itself, Kasumi called out that it was breakfast time.
Instantly the fight stopped, because interfering with a meal was a line that the Saotomes would not cross. With a nod the two headed inside to the table. As Ranma was heading over, Akane walked in fresh from her morning run. "Good morning." She said to him, smiling.
"Hey." Ranma said, taking a moment to appreciate the sight of his fiancee fresh from exercise. She always wore a tight tank top and shorts for her morning run. He could see a lot of details about her curves and it clung closely to her toned stomach. With a smile he took a brief glance at her exposed toned legs.
Akane was enjoying the sight as well. He wore a sleeveless t-shirt, showing off his firm muscular arms. Her smile widened as she saw his gaze drift over her. He hadn't made any insulting comments on her looks for a while now.
"You, um… your hair's getting a little long." Ranma said.
"Hmm?" Akane raised a hand to brush the back of her hair. It had been some time since she got a haircut. Her dark hair now reached down to her shoulders. Not near as long as it was when they first met, but still longer than it had been. "Yeah. Maybe I should get it cut soon…" She gave him a sly smirk, "I think I remember somebody saying I look cute with short hair… maybe I should ask his opinion?
Ranma felt his face heat up, "Ah… well…"
"If you two are done flirting can we eat?" Nabiki said dryly.
The two glared at her but sat down, breakfast quickly put in front of the gathered family. "So the summer break's starting next week." Ranma said, "Anybody have any plans?"
Nodoka spoke up, "I don't think so, Son." She glanced over at Genma and Soun, "Do you two have any plans?"
Genma shrugged, "Maybe a training tr-" He stopped talking when he noticed his wife's glare. "Err.. nothing." Training trips had become forbidden by unspoken rule since Nodoka had returned to the Saotome's lives.
"I suppose this summer we'll all just be relaxing at home then." Nodoka said.
"That sounds fine to me." Akane said. "We'll find things to do."
"I bet you two will." Nabiki said, causing the engaged couple to glare at her again.
"Come on Ranma, we need to get ready for school." Akane stood up, ignoring her sister's smirk.
In a few short minutes the two got dressed, picked up their lunches, and headed out the door. Ranma noticed that today she had tied her hair into a ponytail, he had to admit it looked cute on her. He wondered if she would cut it and when. Granted, from Ranma's perspective near any hairstyle looked good on her. It made him feel a little warm inside to know she desired his opinion on her looks though.
In their eagerness to get away from Nabiki they were much earlier for school then usual. Did she have to make those innuendos? Ranma and Akane were both perfectly happy with the current state of their relationship. Which, at the moment, consisted of mainly spending time together and the occasional glance and smile. There hadn't been any dramatic confessions of love or anything like that, but neither of them felt it was needed.
Still, Akane gave him a smile and slightly held out her hand. Ranma looked down at it, before slowly grasping it. Her eyes shone, and Ranma knew he had done the right thing. The two walked to school side by side.
They reached the gates of Furinkan to a sight that was both familiar and incredibly annoying to Akane.
Namely a crowd of around two dozen boys, charging at her and screaming battle cries and declarations of love.
Ranma's jaw dropped. What were these idiots doing? Hadn't they given up on his fiancee already? Why were they trying again? Before he could inflict his righteous anger on the perverts Akane leapt ahead of him and into action.
"Oh my god get out of my way you perverts!" She shouted as she delivered an axe kick to the chin of the captain of the soccer team.
Ranma stood back and smiled. He had to admit, Akane could handle these morons. It was always a pleasure watching her fight. He pulled out a box of pocky as he watched her demolish the group with a level of brutality that would make a lesser man cry. (Several did). A guy on the baseball team swung a bat at her. This was a mistake. She tore it out of his hands, knocked him out with it, sending him flying farther than the rest. With a battle cry she then broke the bat over some poor fool's head. She continued the fight, expression fierce and each movement filled with power. He would never tell anyone this, but half the reason he used to tease Akane so much was that she was really hot when she got mad. He watched gleefully as the last pervert was knocked into the happy land of unconsciousness.
Finally, the ringleader of this sad squad emerged from the shadows. Akane's personal stalker and wannabe kendo master Tatewaki Kuno. "Ah, fair Akane Tendo, your beauty is like that if a proud lioness. Swift, powerful, sure, and- oooph!" He was interrupted by Ranma landing on top of his head.
"Morning Upperclassman." Ranma said, finishing off his pocky.
"Upperclassman Kuno what are you doing?" Akane snapped, pulling him out from under Ranma and holding him up by the collar.
"Ah my beloved Akane Tendo. How sweet your whisperings are." Kuno said.
Akane glanced at Ranma, "I think you hit him in the head too much.
Ranma shrugged, "He was like this way before I showed up."
She shook her head and glanced back to the man being held up by her. "Kuno! What were you thinking? I know you're the one who herded these perverts."
"Ah, it is true." Kuno said, pulling out a rose and sniffing it dramatically, "Tis I who bravely gathered your myriad weak and foolish suitors, to revive the noble ritual of courting you."
"I don't need to be courted Kuno. I'm engaged." Akane said. Also, she would never consider dating any idiot who thought that attacking her in the morning counted as courtship. But she had tried telling that to these walking hormones before, it never stuck.
"Ah my love, you do not need to have that lie forced upon you any longer." Kuno said, his expression enlightened, "I know very well that the dishonorable and false engagement to the base Saotome has been annulled!"
"What!?" Ranma pulled Kuno out of Akane's grip, pulling him up by the collar to his face. "The hell are you talking about?"
"Hah! You tried to hide it Saotome, and you managed to fool even me for some time! But I know!" Kuno said with a smug grin, "It came to me, yesterday. I was meditating in the presence of my loves," He had been ogling the photos of Akane and the "Pigtailed Girl" he had plastered all over his room. "When it occurred to me that the alleged engagement you claim to hold over Akane was destroyed months ago, by my own hand!"
"Yeah Kuno said you guys broke up!" One of the boys shouted.
Akane felt her eye twitch, "You mean how you and your sister showed up and crashed my wedding? That really made you think we broke up?"
"You're an even bigger idiot than I thought." Ranma shook his head and let Kuno go.
"Oh, and Upperclassman?" Akane said sweetly.
"Yes my love?" Kuno said, grasping her hands.
"Even if I was single," She drew back her fist, "There's no way in hell I'd date you!" At those words she threw out an uppercut to the jaw, knocking the Blue Thunder out cold. Akane cast a glare around at all the boys around her, before pointedly walking over and grabbing Ranma's hand. "Come on Ranma, we don't want to be late." The two then went inside the building, Akane half dragging her fiance.
By lunch time the irritation of the morning had been forgotten. Akane was cheerfully engaging in girl talk with her friends, leaving Ranma to fend for himself for lunch today. As he opened the lunchbox Kasumi had packed, he was left to think about the events of this morning.
Watching Akane had been fun, but now that it was over his mind went into an analytic mode. He thought about how Akane had fought. He mentally went over the details of the battle, taking note of how she had moved and when. She was definitely much faster and stronger than she had been the last time the horde of boys had attacked. Several blows she had launched had been so fast that the average person would only see a blur. A single strike sent them flying, and even her reflexes had improved greatly. By Ranma's estimation she was as fast and strong as he had been around a year before he had met her the first time. Which was no mean feat. He felt a smile of pride come at just how strong his fiancee was. But then his smile faded as he thought about how she had put that strength and speed to use. Her form had not really improved at all. He saw that her offense and defense were still filled with holes, several of them he recognized from the very first day he had met her.
Akane had been able to get by against those boys because of her extreme physical ability, but against an opponent who could match her speed and strength she would not last long at all. Except that did not make sense. How could anybody improve their base abilities so much while barely improving their skill? Had Akane simply hit her skill limit? He had seen it before, people whose natural ability finally hit a wall, and they simply stopped improving greatly from then on. Except if that was the case he would have expected Akane to not have gotten so much faster.
He groaned, this entire mess made no sense. The only way he could see it working is if Akane had spent the past year and a half doing exclusively strength, speed, and endurance training without having any focus on skill. Which made no sense for a martial artist. He decided that tonight he'd simply join Akane in her own practice session to see just what the deal was.
"Hah!" With a loud crack, Akane crushed the stack of bricks. She smiled as she looked over the broken pile. It was a nice, relaxing way to start her practice session. Picking up the broom she swept up the rubble with the ease of someone who had done this countless times.
"Evening." A voice called out.
Akane looked up from her clean up to see Ranma standing in the doorway. He was dressed up in his gi. "Hey." She waved to him before finishing up her sweep, dumping the bits of brick into a trash can tucked away in the mostly unused changing room.
"Can I join you?" Ranma asked.
"Sure." Akane said, a bit surprised. Ranma's training schedule was different than hers, so they rarely practiced together despite a shared love of martial arts. "Any reason you want to?"
Ranma shrugged, "Just felt like it." He glanced at the broom in his hand and grinned, "You know, I'm pretty sure breaking bricks is a bit beyond you. Maybe you should try some boulders?"
Akane laughed, "Oh come on Ranma. I'm not nearly good enough for that. I'm not like Ryoga… I tried something like that before. Broke my hand remember?"
"You've gotten a lot tougher since then, I bet." Ranma said sincerely.
Akane blushed at the complement, "Ah, um, I'm not that great…" She smiled a little though, "Anyways, I just do it because it's fun and a relaxing way to start the session. Kind of a warm up, you know?"
"I guess I can get that." A smirk formed, "It fits that your warm up is so violent."
Akane lightly slapped him on the back of the head. "Dummy." She said warmly.
Ranma laughed, before taking a few deep breaths. Closing his eyes, he began moving through one of the Saotome School Forms. It was an old familiar one he used for his own warm up, but to Akane it was still an impressive feat of agility and skill that felt simply beyond her.
It was an old and familiar feeling, the jealousy never did go away. She watched him for a moment, appreciating the strength he displayed with every movement. More than once Akane had wished that she had been able to train at the same intensity. The cost might have been high, but Akane would have gladly taken a lack of a regular childhood in return for Ranma's abilities. She sighed as she started performing some punches and kicks against an imagined opponent. She had never told Ranma this, but before he had shown up she had only practiced three or four days a week instead of the every day she did now.
She had always loved Martial Arts, but there had always had been some concern that felt more pressing. Hanging out with friends, helping out at school, even things like shopping and heading to the arcade. Ranma had lit a fire in her, driving her to improve as much as possible. Even if, to her frustration, it seemed that no matter how hard she trained everybody around her improved at an even faster rate. She shook her head at the bitter thoughts before launching a three punch combination. It didn't do any good to blame others for simply being better than her. She'd just have to train harder!
She didn't notice that Ranma was now watching her attack. He noticed her movements and saw the flaws. With a grin, he snuck up to her side, watching her face twist in determination. With a quiet chuckle he threw out a slow, to him, kick.
To Akane's credit she felt the attack and instinctively shifted to a guard However. Ranma knew right away that her guard was flawed and was able to bypass it and strike her in the side. It wasn't a hard hit, but Akane was stunned by the attack nonetheless. She stumbled back in shock. "Ranma you…?" It wasn't the first time they sparred, but Ranma usually either didn't attack at all or went for grappling moves to pin her down when they did.
"What?" Ranma said with a grin.
Akane's jaw clenched in determination. She didn't know why Ranma decided to test her, but she wouldn't let him down! She threw out a quick series of punches, trying to get a hit in. Ranma deflected each strike with ease. She threw out a kick and he twisted just barely out of the way. He went on the offense, bypassing her own blows and landing countless light strikes on her shoulders. She knew he was holding back on her. Of course he was, if he wasn't she'd be battered and beaten already. She threw out a few more attacks, but Ranma decided to end the little match. Deflecting the strikes he bypassed her guard completely, slipping behind her and pinning her arms and body against the dojo wall. Akane winced as she realized he had easily lead her exactly where he wanted her to be. "I yield." She said quietly. "You held back so much…"
Ranma let her go and shrugged, "Yeah. I made sure not to go any faster than you did."
This made Akane scowl, "You… you what? You were moving only as fast as me!? But… but I couldn't do anything.. and you…" Akane slumped over, "I'm… I'm just no good at all am I?"
"Hey, if being worse then me meant you're no good there'd be no good martial artists anywhere." He gave her his usual confident grin.
Akane stood back up, "Again." She slipped into her fighting stance.
Ranma nodded, and they continued. Each fight ended the same, with Akane pinned down. But she didn't stop, not yet. She felt his light touches run through her defense, and she realized where the holes where. Gaps she had never worried about before becoming glaring flaws that needed correction now. She began making attempts to fix them, block the strikes Ranma threw. It slowed her down, she had to really think about even basic attack and defense again. It would take much more than a single sparring session to fix her bad habits, she realized, but hopefully this was the first step of many. Finally Ranma stepped back and signaled that it was over.
It took all of Akane's will to not collapse onto her knees and return the bow he gave her. Her entire body felt stiff. Her limbs might as well be stone for how heavy they felt. Still, she couldn't remember feeling as happy as she did that moment. She somehow found the strength to run towards Ranma and give him the biggest hug she had ever given.
Ranma immediately stiffened at her touch. He looked around in a brief panic, before seeing that nobody else was in the dojo. He then tentatively raised his own arms up, and returned her embrace. She was sweaty and tired looking, but her smile as she looked up at him was somehow refreshing. "Thank you." She said, and started to lean closer to him. Ranma's eyes bugged out as he realized she was planning to kiss him. They were about to have their first real kiss!
"I, uh…." He tried to think of what to say, and so of course the reason he had started this sparring session came out of his mouth. "I thought you'd be better." He said, and in that single instant ruined the fragile mood.
A faint frown briefly formed. He supposed she didn't get too upset, she was still hugging him but a kiss wasn't in his future anymore. "What do you mean?"
"Err… ah… well.. you know. You're faster, and stronger, than you used to be. But your, ah, forms… attack and defense. They haven't improved much at all." Ranma said quickly, "I noticed it this morning. You're moving like I did two years ago, but you're fighting like I did nearly five years ago.
"I fight like a twelve year old!?"
"A twelve year old me!" Ranma said. "That's like, still really good! Just, you, know, not as good as you could be…" He hoped she accepted it.
Akane sighed, leaning against her chest, still hugging him. He felt her tension fade. "Sorry. My teacher isn't nearly as demanding as yours."
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. Well, maybe I can talk to Mr. Tendo. See if I can't convince him to step up your training."
Her eyes sparkled, "Really?"
"Sure thing." Ranma said, grinning.
"Oh thank you!" Akane cheered, leaning up and giving him a quick peck on the cheek. It wasn't a full blown First Kiss, but it was still something he'd remember. She finally released him, stepping back and lighting up the room. "I think I'm going to go take as bath now. I probably reek."
Ranma smirked, "Good idea. I'm going to be smelling like Tomboy for a week."
Akane stuck her tongue out at him before practically dancing out of the dojo.
Ranma found Soun reading the newspaper, chatting with Genma about some local news story or some other. His father was only half paying attention, being more engrossed in a book of Shogi puzzles. "Hey Mr. Tendo."
Soun glanced from behind his paper. "Evening Ranma. Is there something you need?"
"Yeah, I was sparring with Akane when-"
Soun's reaction was instant "What!? Did you hurt her!? Ranma! What did you do? She's delicate!"
"W-what? Mr. Tendo! I practiced with her, I didn't beat on her!" Ranma shouted in his defense, "Besides; Akane, delicate, really?"
Soun calmed down, a little. "Well I suppose as long as you were gentle with her… helping your fiancee with her work out is a fine thing to do young man."
"Her work out?" Ranma said, "Uh, Mr. Tendo, this isn't about her runs or something like that. I want to talk about Akane's training."
Genma, sensing an opportunity perked up, "Ah yes. Glad to see your taking an interest in the future of the School boy." He could picture it now, Ranma and Akane training tirelessly together. Soon, hormones would kick in, and then before anybody could blink wedding bells would be ringing!
Soun looked between the two Saotomes. "What do you mean by training?"
Ranma frowned, "Uh, Akane's training in the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts."
Soun looked at Ranma like he had said something confusing. "Akane doesn't have any training in the Anything Goes school."
There was a sudden and sharp silence.
"What?" Genma dropped his puzzle book, "What do you mean she doesn't have any training Tendo?"
"Why would I train Akane in Anything Goes?" Soun asked.
Genma and Ranma looked at each other, a brief unspoken communication flashed between father and son."Uh, Tendo… surely you must have at least one student?"
Soun's expression became distant, "Ah.. Saotome. I haven't had any students since my dear wife died. I just couldn't find the will to teach anymore. By the time I had recovered I had learned about Ranma here." He chuckled at a nostalgic memory, "I remember that Akane would always sneak into the dojo and watch my classes."
"But she… she's… the horde of boys… Kuno… you spar with her sometimes Mr. Tendo!"
Soun shrugged, "She likes to play in the dojo for some reason. Sometimes I humor her and exercise with her. Nothing serious, of course. You'll be careful when you work out with her won't you Ranma?"
"W-wait a minute Tendo!" Genma said, "Are you telling me that Akane has no formal training in the Martial Arts?"
"Why would she?" Soun asked.
It wasn't often that Genma Saotome was struck speechless.