Chapter 4: Train like a man!
"Akane! You should've tasted your own cooking before serving it to somebody!"
"Hey, it wasn't my fault! And you could've shown at least a bit of your respect to me!"
Ranma and Akane pouted. The turned their heads away from each other with a "humph!" and a sudden stomp.
Soun turned his head to Ranma, and then Akane, and Ranma again. "Ranma, Akane, you don't really have to be like this, don't you?"
The panda beside Soun nodded. "Ranma, Akane, without each other you are just pork bun without pork." He moved towards them and took their hands. A few seconds later, a red ribbon was seen tied on their wrists and hands clasped together. "My job here is done."
At once, Ranma punched the panda, making a hole on the roof in the process. "THIS IS STUPID AS HELL!" Ranma shouted up to the blue summer sky through the opening on the roof. There was no answer of course, only an abnormally bright shining star. A minute later, there was a huge splash in the garden fish pond. "I'm leaving," said Ranma with a sudden hand gesture.
Akane screamed to the pitch of her voice. She fell on top of Ranma, with an unpleasant bump.
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Ranma and Akane shouted in unison. They struggled to get up, but failed several times and ended up like their first fall.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS RED THING?!"
"JUST LET IT GO OF ME!"
Both Ranma and Akane tried to free their hands at the same time, and all the tugging and pulling at the piece of ribbon made the knot tighten even more. There was no way to undo the knot anymore, no going back. After realizing that it was pointless doing all those jerking, they finally gave up. Their wrists were already red at the moment.
"Ranma, you get up first," said Akane, sitting on the floor. "Then let's get to the kitchen to find a knife. We can't possibly do anything right at this rate."
Ranma got up carefully. He sure didn't want to experience a fall on Akane and a fine smack on him. "Let's get this thing done as soon as possible, Akane," said him, lifting his tied wrist to the air. Akane made it up and nodded.
Location: Kitchen
"AKANE! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IN HERE?!"
Ranma stared at the kitchen with his eyes wide. He could see forks and spoons sticking on the celling, shatters of broken dining wares everywhere, sticky yellow dough covering the floor, the stove looked as if it had just survived a volcano eruption, a crooked pan, and a cutting board that had turned into fragments of lumber. It was a more than a complete disaster.
Ranma was speechless of what the blue haired girl was capable of doing. He turned to Akane, as if demanding an explanation.
"W-Well, you see…" Akane fiddled her fingers, trying to find proper words that she could use. She was too, utterly lost of words. "Don't worry, I'll clean the mess up, and Kasumi would certainly help me out!" She had this hint of doubt in her tone for she was sure she would need a replacement for the kitchen.
"Okay… Never mind that." Ranma scanned the room, searching for a knife or something of that kind. "There it- well… There they are…" The knives were easy to spot. Like come on, who wouldn't spot a bunch of knives planted on a wall. The pigtailed boy had an urge of telling, or should he say "mocking" the blue haired girl about her unpredictable inner strength but he knew that first of all he must do something about the physical bond between them.
"How are those things supposed to stick on the wall?"
"Well, that's the exact same question I could have asked you. You should have realized that you're not in the place to ask that."
"Are you blaming me then?"
"What?! Are you kidding?! I mean- DO KNIVES FLY OUT OF THE CUPBOARD ACROSS THE KITCHEN TO STAB THE WALL?!"
"W-Well… Of course they don't! Still, um… Ugh, just ignore this nonsense and quickly put an end to this stupid red thing, Ranma!"
Ranma huffed. "Fine," he said reluctantly. Within a second he pulled one of the knives out of the wall swiftly. It wasn't difficult since he was a trained martial artist. "How uncute."
"I think I could make a use of this thing in your training, so make sure you'll only cut the knot."
"What kind of plans are you actually planning on?"
"You'll see."
Thirty seconds. It was the time Ranma needed to free his wrist from Akane's, and vice versa. He managed to leave minimum damage on the ribbon and thought he did a pretty good job. He assumed that only because Akane didn't complain.
"Ah! At last! Now follow me. We can't afford to lose more time."
Location: Training Hall
"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT MONSTER DOING HERE?! GET IT OUT, AKANE, GET IT OUT!"
"Calm down, Ranma… It's just… a kitten… I found her yesterday and she appears to be a stray. So, I decided to keep her. Besides, Shiro appears to be perfectly friendly and I think she might suit as your companion, and training pal."
"YOU TOOK THAT THING IN AND NAMED IT?! YOU'RE COMPLETELY INSANE!"
"Ranma! What's wrong with you?! Come on, train like a man!"
At once, Ranma splashed himself with a bucket of water that came out of nowhere. "OHOHOHO, I'M A GI-"
"YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO SPEND MORE TIME IN THIS FORM, RANMA!" Akane splashed him with hot water she brought along with her. Apparently, she had calculated the possibility of encountering this sort of thing. The hot water landed perfectly on Ranma, changing her back to him.
Ranma crawled to the furthest corner of the room, terrified and desperate mode on. His mind projected an exaggerated and modified memory of a bunch of laser-eyed and gigantic starving cats chasing, scratching, biting, and slowly bringing painful death to him, with echoes of cats' collar bells ringing as the "music" background. People might see this as an extreme case of irrational and unnecessary fear, but to Ranma, this was the result of his past trauma, thanks to Genma Saotome and his lack of rationality.
Akane sat on the plank floor and gently stroked the neck of the white-furred kitten, which seemed to be enjoying it. The little cat later bumped her head onto Akane's lap to show affection. "See, Ranma? Shiro is an adorable thing and there's no reason you should be afraid of her," said Akane, smiling to both Ranma and the kitten. She picked the kitten up and brought her closer to Ranma.
"AKANE, BE SERIOUS! YOU PROMISED YOU'D INVOLVE NO PRANKS!"
"But this isn't one."
"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!"
"Ranma! Take a good look at Shiro!" Akane lifted Shiro towards Ranma's face.
Ranma covered his face with his palms, cowering. "NOPE! I'M NOT TAKING EVEN THE SLIGHTEST GLANCE! STOP THIS, AKANE!" He let out some sort of restrained sob.
Akane began to feel impatient. She felt sorry for Ranma, but she really wanted him to overcome his greatest phobia and truly see that cats had a loving and peaceful nature. "Ranma! You and cats are quite the same, so why should you be afraid of them?!"
"I AM TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM CATS, AKANE! GET THAT THING AWAY!"
"Not really. Under certain circumstances you kind of turn into a cat, mentally. Don't you remember?"
"WELL, I DON'T WANT THAT!"
"Okay, I understand." Akane walked away with Shiro in her palms. "Let's start from the very basic."
The sobbing gradually stopped. Ranma carefully turned his head away from the corner and towards Akane. "What now…?" asked him. He sounded like a five-year-old who had been crying for an hour. He sounded really terrible.
"First." Akane walked towards Ranma, slow but sure, triggering his panic.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Akane knelt down right in front of Ranma. She showed her open palms to him. "Ranma, there's no need of being so dramatic."
Ranma relaxed a little as he let out a fake relieved laugh. He couldn't fully trust anyone there if he knew that there was a presence of cat somewhere in the room. He scanned the whole room to find not a single sign of the so-called-Shiro.
"Meow!"
A high-pitched and small mew was heard. Although it was very weak, Ranma knew it was somewhere very near to him. He froze and his legs seemed to be cramped. "Akane… Help…" hissed him. He turned his head to the right and look down.
There she is. A little white figure.
"Meow!" Shiro put her paws on Ranma's hand with her head tilted to the left. Anyone who saw this would probably gave an "aww, that's cute" reaction. But this certainly wouldn't apply to Ranma.
Location: Garden Terrace
"Checkmate, panda-pal!" Soun laughed and pointed his finger at the panda sitting across him. "You ain't fooling me this time!"
"Let's do a rematch. I'm sure it was a fluke."
"What fluke?! I'm n- Eh? Was that Ranma screaming?" Soun looked around only to find a fish doing a quick leap above the pond. Next, the only sound his ears caught was a tingling of the garden bell. "Ey, Saotome-kun, don't you think you should check on your son? I thought I heard him screa-"
"Checkmate!" Genma in his panda form calmly sip his tea. "I hear nothing."
"What?! How come?!" Soun freaked out and examines the shogi board and all the pieces. "That was my piece, how come are you now having it!"
"I'm the master of the shogi game, how dare you question me! Now as you promised, bow down!"
"Yes! You're the greatest shogi master I've ever encountered!" And by that, Soun knelt and bowed down to the panda who was feeling very high at that moment. So much of a manly game.
Location: Training Hall
"Well, I didn't see that coming…" said Akane under her breath. Her left hand stroked Shiro who was crying. The kitten appeared to have encountered a shocking experience. "Poor Shiro… Now calm down."
Akane looked to her right. Her right hand was stroking Ranma's black hair. He seemed to have completely calmed down. "You sure are hopeless, aren't you?" There was no reply, only some sort of purring from the sleeping Ranma.
"Shiro, there's nothing to be afraid of right now," said Akane to Shiro on her other side. She pushed the kitten towards Ranma. The little thing seemed to have gotten over whatever happened a few moments ago.
Shiro didn't hiss or hide from Ranma, instead, she placed her paw on Ranma's head and let her nose touch with his. Ranma didn't seem to mind that, well, as long as he stayed mentally cat, he wouldn't.
Akane smiled and smiled, an adoring smile. "Hey, aren't the two of you cute? If only you could get along like this…" She stared at them and shook her head, her smile fading away.
"Pull yourself together, Ranma."
Author's note: Greetings, fellow readers! Wuaaaa I'm really sorry for this very, very late chapter publish. It's been awfully long since the last time I wrote and I really miss it. And finals week is just about to start! But fear not, for I will certainly and absolutely snatch some time whilst studying to write. Hey! I don't wanna stare at my 1.8 inch textbook (I actually record that lol) all day long! Okay, apart from that, hope you enjoyed the chapter and good luck for you guys who are having rough time at school ^_^
Another note: Hey there! I'm gonna start the characters' arc really soon, so stay notified!
Hint: I'll start with Azusa Shiratori!
