Chapter 3
Ranma felt a very odd sensation, he felt as if he were completely losing control of his body, and considering he had trained for the last ten years of his life to attain perfect control of his body, this was no small matter. But it didn't stop with just his body, his mind seemed to be frozen too, no not frozen, it was in actuality so relaxed that it felt frozen. This just felt so right somehow. Exactly how long they stood like that, neither of them could quite tell, but to both of them, it didn't feel like long enough when they suddenly heard a number of voices shouting at about the same time.
"You will pay for the insult you have placed upon the Beauteous and formerly pure Akane, Saotome!" Roared a voice that belonged, unmistakably to the idiot Kuno.
"Ranma!! Prepare to die!!" There was no mistaking that voice either, Ryoga. There were others as well, too many others. Ukyo, Shampoo, and Kodachi.
Ranma hurriedly pulled out of the kiss and turned to face the two martial artists now coming at him, fury etched in their faces. The fight was fast and furious, normally neither of those two were much of a match for him, but with the combination of there being two of them and the fact that his head was still spinning slightly from the kiss, he was not at his usual peak ability. The fight took all of his concentration.
Akane, who having quickly gotten over the shock of both what she had just done and the abrupt end of it, struck her fight pose. This was very necessary, considering that she was now facing three seriously jealous and dangerous rivals.
Kodachi spun her black ribbon around and around, whipping Akane in the face and giving her a long cut down one cheek. Akane bit her lip to keep from crying out, but she soon did anyway as Shampoo's furious attack hit her. Akane managed not to fall, but it was a very close thing. She was intensely dizzy, which was most likely the reason that she was unable to dodge fast enough the large spatula that swung towards her head.
Ranma heard the sound of metal hitting flesh, and then he heard the sound of a body hitting the ground.
"Akane!" He yelled, tossing both his opponents into the air and out of sight with one very powerful uppercut. He moved so quickly to the spot where Akane lay, motionless, so fast that not one of the girls had seen him coming. Ranma carefully turned Akane over; she had been facedown in the dirt and looked her over to see what was wrong. A small groan escaped her lips, bleeding from where she had bit them. "Oh Akane," he whispered, "this is all my fault." Ranma glared up at the three girls, their battle auras still showing. "You have exactly thirty seconds to get out of my sight, or I will remove you myself." There was a cold edge in his voice that none of the girls had ever heard there before; unconsciously, they all shivered at once.
They left quickly; not wanting to deal with the anger that was so apparent in Ranma's voice. Ranma looked down at Akane again and then glanced up, looking about wildly for Kasumi. Where could she be? She had been right there? Kasumi had run into the house as soon as the fights had started, but she had seen her sister fall and had called Dr. Tofu. As soon as she was off the phone, Kasumi rushed outside. She knelt down beside Ranma, saying,
"I've just telephoned Dr. Tofu. He said he would be here in just a few minutes." Ranma looked up at her and nodded. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, his voice was caught in his throat. He sat for several more minutes, holding Akane's hand, as he dared not move her in case of serious head injury, finally he was able to speak,
"You might want to leave before Dr. Tofu gets here." Ranma said in an uncharacteristically tremulous voice. Kasumi nodded, she understood having noticed several times before the, rather unusual way Dr. Tofu acted when she was around. Then she stood up and went back into the house.
Dr. Tofu soon arrived; he pressed several pressure points, and then a number of others. He frowned, but it wasn't a deep frown, he turned to Ranma and asked,
"What happened?" Ranma took a deep breath and answered,
"There was a fight," there was a nasty pause, "she lost." Dr. Tofu nodded, his assumption confirmed and assured Ranma,
"There is no permanent damage, but she does have a nasty cut on her cheek, it almost looks as if whatever cut her had poison on it."
"That is a distinct possibility." Muttered Ranma, very quietly, but Dr. Tofu caught it anyway.
"Ah, well anyway, I'll just clean that up now." He wiped some funny-smelling liquid on Akane's cut and continued, "She will have a lump on the back of her head and a fairly large headache when she wakes up, but lucky no concussion." Ranma breathed a sigh of relief and said,
"Thank you doctor. Would it be alright if I took her upstairs?"
"That would be fine." Dr. Tofu paused, then asked, "Is Kasumi still at home?" Ranma gave a weak smile.
"Yeah," he replied, "she's inside, probably has tea ready, I'd go on in if I were you." Dr. Tofu thanked him and headed inside at a fast pace.
Ranma scoped Akane up, and brought her upstairs. He laid her down carefully on her bed and then stood up, a look of conflict on his face. He stared at Akane's somewhat bruised and bloody face. He gently laid a finger on her lips and traced their shape, then he moved his finger over to the already quickly healing cut on her cheek and traced that too. Ranma breathed a huge shuddering sigh and turned away, knowing that his earlier decision had been the right one.
"Good-bye Akane. I can't stay here; all I ever manage to bring you is pain, in one way or another. I will not risk the chance of you getting injured because of me again."
Ranma leapt out the window, landing, perfectly balanced on the ground. He picked up his pack, which he had dropped at some point between the kiss and the fight and put it back on. He sent one last longing look back to the window he had just leaped out of, turned and walked off.
*I am planning on another chapter, but seeing as how I have been getting way too much homework lately, I can't say when it will be.
