Choices and Consequences

Chapter 11

Sparring with Pantyhose

I want me some tough love...

Disclaimer: I am not Rumiko Takahashi, nor do I own Ranma 1/2.

One Day Later Sunday February 26, 1994

"Argh!" Ranma could be heard cursing loudly as he went through his katas as normal, although Nabiki could have sworn that she had never seen him put quite so much effort into them.

Nabiki smirked as she watched the news while the two fathers continued their normal efforts to cheat one another in Shogi. She then mentally snorted as she thought to herself, 'For all the effort he put into not caring about her training with Ryoga, Ranma is sure acting jealous now that she isn't around to see or hear it. I'll bet that seeing this would have made Akane's day, based on how she was acting before she left'

However, as the news was rather boring and not really even worth watching, being mainly devoted to a story about a woman giving birth to quintuplets, Nabiki decided to entertain herself a little by messing with Ranma's head a bit. Walking over to him with a smirk on her face, she asked him, "So Ranma, I suspect my dear sister is having a great time with a boy she likes; think you will have similar luck with your training with Ukyo?"

He growled at her, then bit out, "It's not a date! And Akane doesn't like Pigboy like that at all; not one bit!"

Nabiki's smirk widened into an evil grin as she said, with a purr that sounded a bit like a cat's, "Oh… you thought I meant Akane, I was referring to my dear sister Kasumi, she went over to see that Doctor Tofu again. Of course, I can easily understand why you thought it was Akane; you must be so jealous you have a case of Akane on the brain, don't you?"

As she went back to watching the news, which had changed to something on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nabiki couldn't help but take pleasure in how, while Ranma was vehemently denying everything as usual, his face was certainly quite red and he was stuttering the whole time. 'Ah, that's my...good deed for the day.'

As she stretched herself out, still mentally laughing at how Ranma was ranting about not being jealous, she wondered just how long it would take Ranma to realize that she was no longer really paying any attention at all...

Akane groaned audibly as she repeated the same basic kata that she had been doing all afternoon yesterday yet again. While he heard her swear under her breath, Ryoga allowed himself a feral grin at her and thought. 'She doesn't realize it yet, but her speed and fluidity with this kata has certainly grown rapidly since yesterday. Now then, to give her something to practice it on...' He then looked around quickly while continuing his own kata without conscious thought. 'Hmm...' He spied a particular hill and grinned. 'There!'

"OK, Akane, Stop!"

In less than a second, she canceled the movement she had started and, without a single wasted motion, returned to a basic combat stance, causing Ryoga to be mildly impressed. 'Very nice Akane. Now if only you could forgive me as quickly as you learn...' He cut off that thought after reminding himself that it was her choice to forgive him or not, as he had a lot to make up for.

Ryoga then motioned her to follow him until they were right next to the hill he had noticed earlier; it was rather tall, some seventy-five feet to the top, very steep, and had a number of ridges close to ground level ranging from about knee-level to eye-level. He then used a stick to draw a line in the dirt about ten feet from the base of the hill, while Akane watched, leaning against a tree and breathing heavily as she did so.

Akane was rather confused as she watched him climb up the hill after telling her to stand in front of the line, and she wondered to herself, 'What is Ryoga thinking of now?' She soon noticed though that he was gathering some boulders at the top of the hill. Unsure of what Ryoga had in mind and not knowing what to do, Akane simply stayed in a defensive combat position while she awaited his instructions.

After a few minutes, and with a rather large collection of boulders up there, Ryoga finally hopped down with a lightness that belied his incredible strength and spoke calmly, having gotten over most of his nervousness yesterday,

"Akane, now we are going to do a practical application of what you have recently learned; I will be using the breaking point to make these boulders explode, which will cause some of the fragments to fly down at you, and at the same time I will be rolling the rest of the rock shards down the hill. The ridges at the base will cause the fragments to shoot out at you at fair speeds as well. What you have to do is prevent as many of the shards as possible from crossing the line behind you while only using moves and sequences from the kata we were working on. We will continue with the training until we break for lunch."

Akane could only blink at him a moment in shock; at the speeds those rock shards would be whizzing towards her, especially the ones which had exploded; this could be very painful for her. However, Ryoga seemed to see her hesitation and quickly explained, putting his hand on her shoulder as he did so,

"Yes, I know that the rock shards could be quite painful for you, but it's basically a much less painful version of what I went through with the 'breaking point'; at this range, the rocks shouldn't be shooting at you too quickly, and it will certainly help toughen you up for future battles. Remember when I was executing the 'breaking point' in my battle with Ranma? Even though I was at the center of the blast every time, the shrapnel barely hurt me, while he was frequently injured by it."

Remembering the big battle after he had learned the 'breaking point', Akane had to admit that Ryoga had a point, although she still wasn't sure if she wanted to do training of that intensity, and nodded hesitantly as he then continued, "After this, you will have a much greater tolerance for impacts, not nearly as great as mine, but between that, and the defensive practice, it will really help in any combat you may have."

Ryoga suspected she was about to 'kindly inform' him she had no interest in training of this type, as he knew that this was far rougher than any training he had ever done with her before and he figured she was scared. However, he had sworn that he would make this training for her the best he could, and this would definitely help her a lot if she had to deal with some of the crazies in Nerima, so he quickly said something that he KNEW would make her change her mind in a hurry, talking in an understanding tone of voice,

"Well, I can sorta understand why you wouldn't want to do something this rough, so if you don't want to do this you don't have to..."

Akane was about to say that she could handle it, although she was still nervous, but he had already continued nonchalantly, "I mean, you aren't trying to match Shampoo or Ukyo, its not important for you to be able to take the same level of damage they can if you don't think you can equal them as martial artists."

Her pride stung, Akane then roared at him furiously, no longer even remotely nervous with her anger so great, "BRING IT ON! I can do anything they can, so just go ahead and start the blasted training, RYOGA!"

Ryoga jumped back up the hill while grinning inwardly as Akane, as usual when it came to the matter of her pride as a martial artist, agreed to do it without thinking. He was admittedly troubled at the thought of having to hurt her like this, but he knew that, after the first half-hour or so, the pain wouldn't be so bad at all, as her body would have gotten used to it and she would have learned how to avoid the worst of the blast. Besides, the benefits were VERY helpful indeed...

As she requested, Ryoga started shattering the boulders, sending the rocks tumbling at her it fairly high speeds. While at first, Akane's blocks showed too much strength and too little of the speed and grace she had been demonstrating in her katas, causing her to take more hits and feel more pain from those hits, but as time went on, her blocks became more sure, graceful and swift and it became rare for her to take any hits to anywhere but her arms or legs. Pretty soon, Akane was grinning as she mentally congratulated herself, 'Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this!'

Unbeknownst to Akane however, While he was using the breaking point to send a never-ending wave of shrapnel down at Akane, Ryoga was also practicing with his 'breaking point' to test if it was possible to delay the explosion at all, not out of wanting to avoid the blast, but for a possible tactical advantage, as the opponent might not realize that there would be an explosion until they walked into it.

Over the hours until lunch, to his pleasure, Ryoga discovered that it was indeed possible to delay the blast, but he was having severe difficulties controlling just how long it would be delayed until the blast. Sometimes it would barely be delayed a split second; other times it could take from 5 to 10 seconds.

Taking a moment from his 'research', Ryoga discovered that Akane had improved as well; even though the rocks seemed to come in greater bursts as time went on, by the time lunch rolled around, not a single pebble had passed her guard for nigh half on hour. He then looked up, checking the time, and noticed just how high the sun had gone in the sky.

Hopping back down, Ryoga then grinned and yelled out, "OK, Let's quit for now and have something to eat!"

As Akane made lunch (Ryoga had made dinner last night and they were dividing up any camp-work evenly), the two of them talked awkwardly. Ryoga could tell that Akane was still angry at him, although she was trying to hide it, so he kept the conversation to safe topics such as the training they had been doing and changes she had been making to the recipes she used on account of his advice.

However, glancing at what she was making for a moment, Ryoga noticed that, for whatever reason, Akane seemed a bit calmer than normal as she cooked, although he could tell that she was still nervous. Shrugging, he turned back to Akane and started to give her a few pointers on her straight punches, which he had noticed were a bit crooked...

As they quickly ate lunch, three large beef bowls each on account of their hunger, Ryoga noticed that, while it wasn't half as bad as he remembered her food being before her sudden dramatic improvement earlier that week, it was certainly worse than the miso soup she had brought to him at his house two days before it had all fallen apart, and made him have to choke it down a little,

Nonetheless, as he had promised, more or less, he ate every bite before saying softly, "Uh, Akane, you might want to be more careful with the cooking time the next time you make this, it was burnt rather badly and the flavor was cooked out of it a bit."

Akane looked at him out of the corner of her eye before nodding, thinking to herself, 'Hmm, at least he is still keeping his promise, although I bet it has gotten easier since it improved, especially because I doubt he had much in the way of good food because of his many training trips. That would make it much easier to choke down. Still, though, it's good of him.'

She then noticed him getting up again, and he said enthusiastically, battle-aura rising as he did so, "OK Akane, let's spar and see how far you have come!"

As Akane moved her rather beaten body to spar with him Ryoga noticed a small, pleased smile on her face before it faded into the sneers and snarls of pitched combat between the two power fighters. 'Hmm, I wonder if she actually enjoys training of this difficulty?'

"OK Ranchan, you can no longer escape my wrath, it's time to fight!"

"Only half-right, Ucchan! There is no way you can win, so there's no 'wrath' for me!"

"Well, we'll just see about that!"

Ukyo grinned as she started attacking her beloved 'Ranchan' with the same gusto she normally only showed when fighting Shampoo or Kodachi, figuring that anything less would be a joke to him. He attempted to simply avoid her strikes with his sheer speed and skills, but she had a lot of experience and training of her own and, since he wasn't counterattacking, focused her efforts on driving him into corners or into traps.

To Ukyo's pleasure, while at first Ranma was able to avoid all of her strikes easily, as time went on, her attacks started getting closer and closer as she compensated for his speed better and better; eventually she started getting some hits in, although not many as, even though she was doing her best, there was still a major gap between her speed and Ranma's.

As the fight went on, she started to get a little annoyed as, while this was probably the best training money could buy for speed and control while attacking, she also wanted more practice on the defensive end as none of the fiancées were really speed fighters, preferring to focus more on usage of their weaponry. Besides, there were only a couple in Nerima who could even begin to match her fiancé for speed, so trying to defend against him would be a terrific workout.

Finally tiring of his not fighting back, Ukyo said, annoyed, "OK Ranchan, could you do me a favor please? Fight back some! I need more defense training and you are definitely one of the best fighters around, so go ahead and try and hit back a little so I can practice!"

As she said all of this, she was simultaneously using the human female's ultimate weapon against the males of their species: the dreaded 'puppy-dog pout', which even the manliest of men were unable to handle with without extreme difficulty. Ukyo mentally smirked as she could tell that it was working when Ranma started scratching his head before replying hesitantly, "Aw Ucchan, you know I don't like hitting girls."

At his words, she glared at him so furiously that he backed up a step with his arms help in a placating manner in front of him before she replied angrily, "Ranma Saotome! You were always serious when we fought as children, and I will have you know I enjoyed that immensely, as I am sure you did! That hasn't changed a bit for me, so if you are my friend, you will fight me back just like you would if I were a boy, GOT IT!? After all, you treat me like I am one in all other aspects of life, so why not in this one!?"

He then quietly replied to her, shuffling his feet a little, "I do know and think you are a girl all the time, that's part of the problem."

Ukyo felt rather confused and unsure how she should feel about what he had just said, so she decided to save thinking about that for later and focus on what was going on now. She could tell that he was really hesitant to fight her because it went against everything his father had taught him and decided that it was time to pull out her trump card, saying flatly, but with a steely glint in her brown eyes, "Fight back when we train or fight together, or I will ask Akane to start helping me when I make you my okonomiyaki..."

Ranma looked like she had just told him that he had only ten minutes to live, beseeching her with his gaze. Nonetheless, although she hated seeing that look on him, Ukyo kept her face expressionless as he made the choice that she knew he had to, waiting for the wheels in his head to turn; it was either eat Akane's cooking more often or go against everything his father had ever taught him about hitting girls... Needless to say, the choice was easy in the end, and Ranma looked down, clearly unhappy, and growled out, "Fine."

As they resumed their sparring, Ranma now fighting back to some extent, Ukyo felt relief wash over her, she quietly reflected to herself, 'It's a good thing he didn't know I was bluffing; I could never be angry enough at Ranchan to force him to eat that toxic sludge. No one deserves that, not even scum like Genma and Happosai...well, alright, maybe those two…'

As the fight continued on, Ukyo smirked to some extent; while Ranma was still clearly holding back a lot, she knew that it was mainly because she was so far below him; the threat she had made was so truly terrifying to anyone who had ever come into contact with the...cooking... of Akane that no-one would risk it being carried out.

After another hour, they finished with the sparring, Ukyo panting heavily, exhausted and covered in sweat from the workout she had received; however, now it was time to work on the 'soul of ice', so she forced herself to speak,

"OK, Ranchan, I need your help with the first part of the 'flying dragon ascending strike' training: the 'soul of ice'. How do you get your aura to get that cold and keep it going that long? I mean, I can make my aura a little bit cold, but it's barely below chilly, and it doesn't stay cold for very long."

Ranma then got a gleam in his eyes that Ukyo recognized from when they had been planning on how to deal with Akane's truly pitiful attempts to make Ranma jealous; this gleam promised much mischief and probable embarrassment for her in the very near, making Ukyo's blood temperature chill as she thought to herself, 'Uh-oh!'

Ranma grinned at her evilly and spoke, malicious laughter almost audible in every syllable, "Ucchan, Ucchan, Ucchan; in order to make it cold enough as well as maintain it, you have to be able to do the spiral while being completely embarrassed, until you can bring your aura to the point of cold resolve regardless of how you are feeling. I'll admit that it's rather hard, but don't worry, I have...certain ideas...that are sure to...help you."

As he continued smiling brightly at her, Ukyo couldn't help but get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She remembered that part of Ranma's own training as well, when his father had been showing embarrassing pictures of him as a boy to her and Akane, much to her amusement at the time.

However, given how he disliked fighting girls and truly loathed Akane's cooking, she thought he might be a little vindictive toward her for her little attempt at blackmail. Then she thought to herself, hoping that she was right, 'How bad can it be? What's the worst he could do? He wouldn't be that evil, would he?'

He whispered his idea in her ear and she immediately realized what was causing that feeling of dread. It was so evil, so diabolical, that she went beet-red with embarrassment at just the idea of it. 'It's not 'that evil'! Its far worse than 'that evil'!'

She could almost hear Karma howling with laughter as she listened to Ranma explain his plan...

As he watched her, for once with his glasses properly placed, Mousse marveled anew at her combination of sheer beauty and determination, her body slick with sweat and red-faced with effort as she panted heavily. Shampoo had clearly spent the past day slamming herself again and again against that boulder, suffering incredible pain, simply in the effort to get stronger and learn a new technique.

Meanwhile, Mousse thought to himself angrily, 'That beast Saotome doesn't understand her at all! He has only made her have to marry him while leading her on and away from the one she would have grown to love eventually, ME! As long as HE exists though, there is no way for Shampoo to ever return my love!'

For the 1327th time, Mousse privately vowed to kill that filthy RANMA the next time he got a chance to do so, just like the last 1,327 times he had started ranting on this topic. He was furious at how, in order to save Saotome's wretched hide, Shampoo was being forced to train harder than ever by the matriarch.

Squashing down the little voice that told him that Shampoo wouldn't train this hard or long unless it was for someone she truly loved and felt worthy of her love, Mousse decided that he would go on a short trip to Okinawa, as he had heard that the merchants there sold a particular item that he could use to make Shampoo...show him the love for him that he knew that she had for him hidden deep down. 'And then I can deal with Ranma as he deserves!'

As Akane walked home, she felt something rare, thanks to the boy walking beside her: beaten, sore and exhausted to the point that she suspected that even Kuno would be able to take her out with the greatest of ease.

Still, she actually felt great about how it had gone, smirking mentally as she reviewed the results of her training. In their first sparring session, unharmed and undamaged, she hadn't been able to land a single blow on him even though she could tell he was holding back a LOT; Ryoga had blocked or avoided all of her attacks with great ease and slipped inside her defenses like they weren't even there.

Akane then chuckled and thought to herself with glee, 'Bet he was really surprised the second time around though!'

She smiled at both the thought and the memories associated with it, causing a nearby man to crash into a telephone pole from inattention to where he was walking. While Ryoga had still crushed her easily, she had managed to tag him lightly numerous times and had even got one clean hit off that sent him crashing into a nearby tree, although she could tell that it hadn't really hurt him.

Eventually, she had passed the point where Ryoga was to turn off, starting to think happily of how Ranma would react to the new and improved Akane Tendo. She then giggled and said aloud, barely able to keep herself from skipping as she did so, "Won't he be impressed? Maybe he will start taking me seriously too! Heck, it really was a lot of fun, maybe I will ask Ryoga to train with me again sometime if he promises to train me like that!"

She was then started when she heard Ryoga's voice replying, "I wouldn't mind that, actually."

Akane realized to her embarrassment that Ryoga hadn't turned off when he was supposed to. Glaring at him and blushing in embarrassment at being overheard, she was about to tell him off for following her when she saw him look past him and blanch, a bad sign considering that there were few things that she could imagine that would make Ryoga react like that.

Whirling around, Akane then saw, through an ominous mist, the hulking shape of the cursed form of Pantyhose Taro breaking a hole in the roof of her house. With Ryoga right beside her, Akane then ran toward the Tendo residence as quickly as possible to see what the hell was going on, hoping that, whatever had happened, she wasn't too late...

Author's note: Hmm, I am starting to get rather sad at the lack of reviews. Still, I must soldier on. Please review.

I always felt that one thing that caused Akane's general anger issues was the fact that, every single fiancée (not counting Kodachi) had her outclassed in beauty, martial arts skill, and cooking; causing massive inferiority issues. As such, having someone treat her seriously and with respect would be something that she would like very much, as such; even though the training with Ryoga would certainly be painful, I suspect she would enjoy how seriously he is treating her.

Mousse in this story knows deep down that Shampoo has real feelings for Ranma and probably none for her, but he is attempting to live in a dream world rather than confront the facts, and thus uses Ranma as a scapegoat for any/all of his failings. Ryoga would probably act the same way, but he is starting to leave his dream world as, with the P-chan situation revealed to Akane, he realizes that, for once, he can't blame Ranma for this in any way. He, Ryoga Hibiki, screwed up royally and he, Ryoga Hibiki, must be punished for HIS crimes.