CHAPTER NINE
The next morning, Tomoe forced herself to wake up earlier than usual, for she had been planning a special surprise for Akane and her brother. She slowly, but carefully, threw back her blanket and slipped her feet into her slippers. She then tiptoed out of the room, moving as quietly as she could as not to wake up Ranma or her father.
Nearly fifteen minutes later, the young redhead headed downstairs for breakfast, already fully dressed in her uniform, only to suddenly stop when she felt something strange in the air. It was as if a disturbing aura had suddenly appeared from somewhere behind her.
She slowly turned her head, just barely able to see a dark blur racing through the shadows before she felt a pair of small hands openly feeling up her backside.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" she yelled in surprise as she turned around to find that Happosai had returned and now had his perverted hands on her person.
She swung her back bag in an arc, hoping to nail him right in the head, however, he seemed to sense her motives because he expertly dodged the attack and landed on the wooden floor of the small foyer. After which, he pulled out a long bronze pipe, calmly placing it in his mouth before turning to look Tomoe in the eyes.
"Don't worry, my dear." he said in a kind tone. "I promise you that there is nothing to panic about. I truly mean you no harm."
Although he said all this in the same kind tone and with a gentle smile on his withered face, Tomoe kept her defenses up, not trusting the old pervert's words for a single second.
And the old man seemed to realize this, for he immediately changed tactics to try and earn her trust.
"You know, my dear, I am not only your father's master. I am also your brother's master. I've taught him many things about martial arts, as well as how the world really works. I could teach you, too, if you'd like. I'm sure we could be a great team if we were to work together."
But, even with all his pretty words and relaxed body language, Tomoe could still see that same perverted spark in his overlarge eyes, telling her that he still had ulterior motives.
So, instead of letting the old man waste anymore of her precious time, she simply punched him in the head hard enough to knock him out for a while, and once he was unconscious on the floor, she flipped him off in a way that said clear as day that he could go to hell. And after doing this, she turned her back to him and left the room without a single word on the perverted old fool.
"Good morning, Tomoe-chan." Kasumi said as she stepped into the kitchen.
"Morning, Kasumi-chan." Tomoe answered with a bright smile, already used to the older teen getting up earlier than anyone else. "You went to the store last night, didn't you?"
"Yes. Why do you ask?" the brunette curiously.
"Do you mind if I use the kitchen for a little bit?"
"That's fine, Tomoe-chan. Feel free to use whatever you need." Kasumi answered kindly as she stirred a pot of fresh miso soup.
"Thanks, Kasumi-chan." Tomoe said with a small smile of her own, putting on a spare apron before stepping up to the stove, where she began the task by placing a pan on the burner and throwing in a pat of butter, which she quickly melted on middle heat.
While she was cooking, the redheaded teen watched Kasumi plate several pieces of picked radish and enough grilled mackerel and miso soup for the entire household. And after another few minutes had passed, the older girl finished cooking and placed a completed omelet on a cutting board, after which, she used a small knife to cut them into several pieces. She then separated the eggs onto different plates for each person in the house. All the while, Tomoe was putting the finishing touches in her own cooking before she placed equal amounts of food in both Ranma and Akane's lunch boxes, as well as her own.
Finally finished with her work, the younger teen helped Kasumi with picking up the platters of food walking them into the dining room, where most of the household members were already sitting at the table waiting for their breakfast.
The two girls completed their tasks just as Ranma walked into the room with a confused look on his face.
"Um…does someone wanna explain why Happosai is lying unconscious in the hallway?"
"He was bothering me." Tomoe said bluntly as she turned to her brother with a smug smirk on her face that said plain as day that she had no shame about what she had done."
And Ranma seemed to agree because he just shrugged it off and sat down at the table while Akane entered the room dressed in her own uniform, a look of worry and confusion decorating her face.
"Does anyone know why Happosai is lying unconscious in the hallway?"
Tomoe let out a heavy sigh before answering in a bored tone as she sat down at the table herself, "He was bothering me, okay? Let's just leave it at that. Now, let's eat."
"Tomoe-chan? What about…?" Kasumi started, only to be quickly cut off by Tomoe placing a single finger to her lips to silence the older girl's words.
Lucky for her, this action went completely unnoticed by Ranma, for he was focused on his food, which he was already woofing down with a starving relish.
Before long, the rest of the household was eating their own food, and nearly fifteen minutes later, Akane chanced a look at the clock, only to let out a panicked shriek when she realized that they only had thirty minutes to get to school on time or risk getting detention from their crazy principal.
After letting Tomoe, Ranma, and Nabiki know this bit of information, all four teens ran through the house to gather up what they would need for school that day before running out of the house in a mad rush.
And, finally, they were all racing out the front door, into the streets, and towards Furinkan High School.
***TIME SKIP***
The Tendo girls and the Saotome siblings made it to the front gates of the school with a few moments to spare before the first bell.
In fact, the moment they made it through the gates, Nabiki disappeared into the crowd, while Akane, Ranma, and Tomoe headed towards the main door, only to freeze in place when they all heard the loud sounds of several people's footsteps racing in their direction.
"Wh…What the hell is that?" Tomoe said, feeling the ground shake beneath her.
"Not this again." Ranma muttered bitterly as he and Akane both jumped out of the way, leaving the poor girl to fend for herself from whoever or whatever was coming towards her.
Just as she was starting to panic, the source of the thunderous noise was revealed to be a group of what appeared to be every male athlete in the school charged towards her with obviosu intent in fighting against her.
"What the hell?" she thought as she threw her book bag at her brother, who was now standing away from the group with a protective arm around Akane, while the short-haired girl looked on with an apologetic look in her dark brown eyes.
And this was the last thing she saw before the confused redhead found herself surrounded while ducking and dodging attacks from all directions as she tried to fight back against the crowd of boys without hurting them too severely.
"Let us dance through life hand in hand." said a tall young man wearing the deep violet suit usually worn by the male members of the Ballroom Dance Club, who ran at her with a strange mixture of martial arts and rhythmic dance moves. However, Tomoe easily countered with a simple sidestep, followed by a judo throw that flung him over her shoulder.
"You shot me through the heart with Cupid's arrow of love." said a senior boy she recognized as the captain of the Archery team.
The athlete then swung at her with his thick wooden bow, which she ducked under the heavy blow before tossing a hand punch of her own into his gut. After which, she took advantage of his stunned state to grab him by the front of his archery uniform and threw him into a group of boys from the baseball team.
But, after what felt like hours, every guy in the mob was lying in several heaps around her feet, while Tomoe stood in the center, panting heavily as she tried to catch her breath.
"You okay, Tomo-chan?" Akane said, stepping forward and placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, Akane-chan." Tomoe answered in an exhausted pant. "Is this what you were talking about? You really had to fight these ideas every day before school?"
Akane nodded her head sympathetically as Ranma ran forward and shooked both the girls and himself by throwing his arms around Tomoe in a tight embrace.
"Ranma?" Akane gasped.
"Onii-chan?" Tomoe said at the same time.
Realizing what he was doing, Ranma let go of his sister, only to look down at her with a proud smirk.
"Okay, I have to say this or I might explode. That…was…the greatest fight I have ever seen! WAy to go, little sister!"
"Thanks, onii-chan…I think." Tomoe muttered with an awkward smile.
"Can we just go to class now?"
"Sure, Tomo." Ranma said with a wide grin as he placed a gentle hand around his sister's shoulders, leading her through the crowd of staring students and into the interior of Furinkan High School.
***TIME SKIP***
After spending the first half of the school day in classes, the bell for lunch break finally rang, giving Tomoe the opening she had been waiting for to give Akane and Ranma the lunches she had made that morning.
The excited redhead caught up with her brother just as he was about to leave the classroom with his two best friends, Hiroshi and Daisuke.
"Wait, onii-chan!"
"Hey, what's up, Tomo?" Ranma said as he turned around to look her in the eye. "We were just about to head to the cafeteria to get in line before they run out of bread."
"You don't need to do that, onii-chan." Tomoe said with a slight smirk. "I have something else you can eat."
And with her proud smile still on her face, the young teen held out the lunch box she had made him, causing Ranma to look at her with pleasent surprise.
"What's this for?" he said with a laugh.
"Nothing too special. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you guys taking me in at the dojo. Even after I showed up completely unannounced." Tomoe said with the same wide grin as she placed the lunch into her brother's hands.
"I hope you like it. Now, I have to go. I made one for Akane as well and I really wanna give it to her. Bye!"
With that, the young teen ran away with a bright smile and cheerful wink in her brother's direction before jogging over to the other end of the room, where Akane was standing with Yuk and Sayuri.
And it was this smile and wink that had both Hiroshi and Daisuke sighing dreamily with hearts in their eyes.
"She's just so cute!"
"That wink was so adorable!"
After another several seconds of mooning over the redhead, Ranma had finally had enough and harshly snapped his fingers in front of their faces to bring them out of dreamland.
"All right, guys. That's enough ogling my sister."
Hearing his words successfully brought the two teens out of their own heads, however, they immediately turned to Ranma with twin looks of angry contempt.
"You're one to talk, Saotome!"
"That's right! You get to eat the homemade food of a cute girl!"
Ranma took a few seconds to calm himself down, afraid of what he would do to his friends in anger if he didn't, before turning back to the two boys with a pointed stare.
"Since you both are too stupid to realize this on your own, I'll say it nice and slow. This lunch you're so jealous of was made by my little sister. So, you have no reason to be so upset since I have absolutely no interest in my sister in that way. Sick perverts."
With one final glare at his friends, Ranma turned on his heels and headed over to his sister and Akane, where he threw a gentle arm around his fiancee's shoulders before leading her and Tomoe out of the room to find a place to eat in private.
***TIME SKIP***
After walking through the school halls for several minutes, the teenage trio finally decided to make their way to the school roof to eat in the open air of a nice spring day.
As they climbed the stairs that led to the roof, Tomoe stayed a few steps behind Akane and her brother after happily realizing that they could be as affectionate with each other as they wanted, noe that they were free from the prying eyes of their classmates.
In fact, she was already smiling to herself as she watched Ranma pull Akane closer to his body, while Akane snuggled into his embrace with a joyful sigh.
And once they were on the roof, bathing in the glow of the warm sunlight anf gentle breeze, Akane and the Saotome siblings settled down in the center of the roof, with Tomoe sitting in traditional style while Akane and Ranma seated themselves closer to each other than they usually would. Finally, they were all settled and comfy and they each brought out the handmade lunches Tomoe had prepared that morning.
Of course Ranma opened his own lunch the fastest, which knowing his love of food, was no real surprise to either Akane or Tomoe. And when he saw the food within, his mouth began to water as the smell hit his nostrils.
Packed within the lunch was a series of simple rolled omelets seasoned with seaweed, a few pieces of fried chicken, and fried rice with peas and carrots. Taking a deep gulp, he used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of chicken and placed it in his mouth. As he chewed and let the simple seasonings flow across his tongue, Ranma paused after a few seconds when he realized something about the flavor.
"Ranma, are you okay?" Akane asked in a worried tone, noticing that her fiancee now had several tears flowing down his cheeks.
"Huh?" he said with a start. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Ranma quickly wiped away his tears while Tomoe looked at him with worry in her deep blue eyes.
"Is…Is it really that bad?" she questioned in fear. "I followed the recipe exactly. At least…I thought I did."
"No, it's not…it's not that, Tomo." Ranma said as he placed a hand on her arm to try and reassure his little sister's feelings. "It's just…Well, it tastes just like Mom's cooking. And it was a little surprising is all. I guess my emotions just got away from me."
Hearing this, Tomoe smiled gently at her brother, who returned it with a small smile of his own.
They stayed like this for several seconds when they each gave a start when Akane let out a stunned, "Oh my God!"
"Akane-chan? Is everything okay?" Tomoe asked in concern as she turned to Akane, who was now eating her lunch at a speed to rival even Ranma's.
"I'm fine!" the short-haired girl answered after swallowing. "I just can't believe how good this is!"
As she continued eating, Ranma and Tomoe chuckled to themselves before they each turned to their own lunches to finish eating before the bell.
***TIME SKIP***
As soon as the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period, the teen trio headed back to their classroom to get their bags before heading off to change for gym class.
Once they were outside the girl's locker room, the two girls waved goodbye to Ranma, who gave them a quick wave of his own, saying he'll meet them in class.
"And, Tomo…" Ranma said with a serious look. "…be careful."
Unfortunately, instead of helping, this strange warning only succeeded in making Tomoe feel both curiosity and a touch of fear, thanks to the odd look in her brother's eyes.
Still wondering about what her brother could possibly be talking about, Tomoe and Akane entered the locker room to change before they were late.
And, while the girls of Class 1-F were changing into their gym clothes, Tomoe tried to figure out the meaning behind Ranma's warning, but after nearly five whole minutes of thought, she still had no clues or ideas.
Finally, as Tomoe and the other girls finished changing and had locked their uniforms and school bags in their lcokers, the girls left the room in small clusters of two or three. However, just as Tomoe was about to follow Akane, Yuka, and Sayuri outside for class, the redhead thought she heard something from somewhere outside the locker room window, but she just shook it off when she remembered that they were on the seond floor, so there was no way that someone could possibly be outside that window.
Letting loose a dismissive shrug, the teen quickly headed back out the door to make it to class before the late bell.
***TIME SKIP***
After they had made it to the school gym, the boys were immediately told to head to the field to play soccer while the girls were led outside for gymnastics exercises.
While waiting for her turn on the bar, Tomoe sat down on the grass, a spot chosen by her so that she could watch the boys playing soccer. She stared in interest as they were separated into teams, taking note of the fact that they spent several minutes arguing over who would have Ranma on their team. Bu, finally, they seemed to have come to a decision because the two teams headed to their spots on the field. The boys then began a spirited game against each other. And after several minutes, she saw that her brother now had the ball and was now running down the field with great skill and speed, only to, once again, get too excited and kick the ball with all his strength, causing the rest of the boys to scatter out of the way as the ball shot through the air like a bullet. Even the goalie jumped out of the way, desperate to save his own skin. And this caused the ball to hit the net by the other boys on his team, who were patting him on the back and congratulating him for making such a strong attack.
Smiling at her brother's obvious happiness at scoring a goal for his friends, as well as being able to be a normal teen, instead of traveling across the globe with their father, training in all forms of martial arts, Tomoe felt her own lips turn up in a smile of her own. In fact, she was only brought out of her own thoughts by the girls' gym coach, Azuma-sensei, loudly blowing her whistle and calling out her name, letting her know that it was finally her turn. Standing up, the redhead made her way towards the startling point, which was a simple mini trampoline she was supposed to use to propel her up to reach the goal.
At the coach's signal, Tomoe ran forward as fast as she could and, at just the right moment, pounced on the trampoline, which shot her into the air before she reached up and grabbed the bar. She then used her current momentum to swing her entire body around the bar a few times before letting go and landing on her feet in a perfect ten-point landing. And after landing on the ground, she quickly turned around, only to see that every boy and girl in class was now staring at her in both shock and awe.
"Um…did I do something wrong just now?"
But, as soon as she asked this, the entire class gave her a collective shake of their heads. Unfortunately, this is not the answer she had been hoping for.
"Guys? Is everything okay?" she questioned, feeling confused and a teeny bit annoyed.
After another few moments of awkward silence, Tomoe had finally had enough, causing her to let out a loud groan as she face-palmed in frustration.
"WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE ANSWER ME?!" she cried out after another several seconds.
And, finally, the silence was broken by nearly every girl in class letting out a simultaneous shriek of thrilled excitement before they all rushed forward, eventually surrounding her in a large crowd.
"That was amazing!"
"I didn't know anyone could do something like that!"
"You should totally join the rhythmic gymnastics team!"
"No way! You should join the basketball team!"
"You just have to choose the cheerleading club!"
While Tomoe was trying to fend off the attention and questions of the girls, almost all the boys in class were busy having their own discussion about her amazing performance.
Lucky for them, Ranma had been temporarily distracted by Akane, who was talking to him about Tomoe's performance as well, only she wanted to know if she could possibly learn how to do something so incredible herself.
"Can you guys believe what we just saw?" Hiroshi began, causing the other boys in Class 1-F to turn to him with a series of matching grins and impressed nods.
"Tomoe-chan is quite a woman."
"Strong and beautiful."
"The full package."
"Now, I know we all agree that Tomoe-chan is the ideal woman." Hiroshi continued, receiving more approving nods from his male classmates.
"However, I believe we all have a common goal, as well as a common enemy standing between us and Tomoe's heart. And that enemy is…Ranma Saotome."
Hearing this, the boys in class all turned collectively to Ranma himself, who was now trying to save his sister from the mob of girls.
Eventually, the martial artist was able to make it to the center of the crowd by revealing that Happosai was breaking into the girls' locker room. And after all the other girls had run off in a rage, he immediately grabbed his sister by the wrist and dragged her back towards the school.
And as he did this, the boys in class looked at each other and made a silent pact that it was every man for himself when it comes to gaining the attention of their new classmate, even if they had to sabotage each other to do it.