Power
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Intrasonic
> brackets denote Chinese speech
It was with a great deal of apprehension that
Ranma was undertaking his stretching routines. He was presently at his
newly designated practice location, one that was within short distance
to home, yet well hidden enough to avoid discovery by anyone else. The
fact that it was late at night would also help. The last thing he needed
was for Akane to get wind that he was training with-
"Nihao!"
-Shampoo. "Hi Shampoo," he greeted neutrally.
The Amazon quietly made her way into the clearing,
smiling and flexing her fingers. "Ranma ready fight?"
Ranma sucked in his breath. "Yeah, I'm ready.
But I'm fightin' as a girl!"
Shampoo narrowed her eyes. "Ranma say that
girl weak?"
Ranma took another breath. He'd trained hard
for this conversation, and he'd expected this accusation. "I'm saying that
my girl form is weaker than my guy form. So it's better practice
for me. That's all."
A good answer. Worth the hour it had taken
to put it together, judging by the satisfied nod on the Amazon's face.
"Shampoo not care which form Ranma in. She want get better."
"Right," Ranma agreed, glad that the crisis
point was past. Soaking himself with the water bottle he'd brought along,
he let the mild disorientation leave him as he was left with a smaller
body. "Alright, if I'm gonna help you get better, I gotta know where you're
at."
Shampoo looked bewildered as she approached
Ranma. "Where Shampoo at? Shampoo here."
Ranma groaned. "I mean, I gotta know how good
you are-URK!!!"
Shampoo withdrew her fist with a smirk. "Shampoo
understand."
Ranma rubbed her forehead where Shampoo had
hit her. Well, she couldn't very well accuse Shampoo of no arm-strength.
If Shampoo wanted to play that way... "Not bad. Did you see that, Akane?"
Shampoo's eyes shot open as she spun around.
"Where Violent-girl-AIEEE!!!"
Ranma mirrored Shampoo's smirk as the Amazon
tumbled head over heels several times before skipping to her feet. "Two
can play that game!"
Shampoo dusted herself off. "Shampoo think
hold back against weak girl-Ranma, but she not show mercy now."
"Hah! You think I'm weak!? I can take
you in any form!"
"Ranma just try!"
Even as Ranma lunged towards her, Shampoo
couldn't help but smile. Her Great-grandmother had been right. Prodding
Ranma's arrogance was a good way 'help' him put aside reservations about
hitting girls. He was far better than her, of course. But this would be
a fun fight.
It was over an hour later that the two combatants
finally stepped back from each other to catch their breath.
Shampoo resisted the urge to sink to her knees.
Her entire body was aching and her heart was threatening to burst right
out of her chest. If she hadn't already known it, she never would have
believed it. Ranma's endurance was absolutely inhuman. Even as a female.
"Ranma... okay," she granted.
Ranma smirked. The redhead was breathing heavily,
and had several bruises, but she looked to have plenty more fight in her.
"Heh. This is training, right? You won't get any better unless you push
yourself to the limit. If you don't think you can handle it..."
Shampoo glared evilly at him. "Shampoo never
give up! If Ranma not tired, maybe he not try hard enough!"
"That wasn't what I meant!"
"Then what Ranma mean? He hold back, Shampoo
know!"
"Well, whadaya expect? The only people I don't
hold back against are people like Ryouga or Happousai!"
That subdued Shampoo a little. She didn't
think she had any desire to experience the Chestnut Fist or the Hiryuu
Shoten Ha any time soon. But just the same...
"You think Shampoo afraid get hurt?"
"No. But I ain't gonna be the one who does
it."
Her brows furrowed again. Time to play the
wild card. "Ranma prefer Violent-girl hurt Shampoo instead?"
Ranma's jaw dropped. "What is that
supposed to mean?"
"Get hurt part of training, ne? Better get
little hurt when train. Then no get big hurt in real fight."
Ranma scowled, a sure indication of the inability
to directly refute the point. "Yeah, but even still..."
"Maybe Shampoo try learn Bakusai Tenketsu."
"You can't be serious! That's for pig-headed
idiots like Ryouga!"
"It for people who not have other person to
practice with!"
The two glared at each other for a few moments
in silence.
Shampoo finally cracked her knuckles. "Shampoo
rest long enough. Train more."
Ranma kept her eyes locked on Shampoo. She
finally shrugged. "Fine. You wanna train some more, I'm game for that."
Shampoo was already moving, her fists moving
in a random pattern that she had pieced together back when she had been
on Ranma's trail. But she was still tired from the past hour, she knew.
And her movements were slower as a result.
Ranma saw the movements long before they reached
her, twisting and jumping with wild abandon as every single attempt grazed
nothing but air. Another series of attacks resulted in the same.
Shampoo backed off angrily. "Ranma make fun
of Shampoo!"
"I ain't!" she protested. "I'm just practising
dodging!"
"Why you no fight back?"
"Cuz you're too tired right now. Besides,
it's all practice!"
Shampoo bit her tongue to stifle a retort.
Ranma considered this practice? "Then Shampoo make Ranma tired too!"
"Bring it on!" Ranma invited. "I ain't tired
at all!"
Yet another hour later, the two combatants
backed off again.
Shampoo was hyperventilating by now. "Sh-sham...
poo not... d-done... yet!"
Ranma was breathing heavily. "Well... I ain't...
done yet.. either!"
Gritting her teeth, Shampoo got to her feet
again. Her legs felt like ramen that had been boiled for an hour, barely
supporting her weight right now. But she forced herself to ignore the feeling.
She would not give Ranma the satisfaction of seeing her give up
now.
"Keep... training," she informed him.
"Keep... training," Ranma agreed.
Shampoo approached her cautiously this time,
knowing that she had no energy to spare for wasted moves. She wasn't sure
she had energy for useful moves, actually.
It was with some satisfaction that she noted
that Ranma was finally beginning to show signs of tiredness. It was about
time... she just had to keep the redhead off balance. Fight unexpectedly,
she admonished herself.
Even as she plotted her approach, Ranma did
a very surprising thing. She collapsed.
"Ranma?" Shampoo inquired, not letting her
guard down. She didn't doubt that Ranma was fully capable of trying such
a move to get her to lower her defenses. After several moments, she realized
that Ranma's breathing had slowed as well. A quiet snore came from the
motionless body.
Cautiously, Shampoo prodded the redhead's
shoulder with her toe. "Ranma sleep?"
No response.
Taking a deep breath, Shampoo summoned her
remaining strength and delivered a kick to Ranma's side. Ranma grunted
and rolled over, still completely out.
A smile came over Shampoo's face as the situation
came into focus. For whatever reason, Ranma had just fallen! She had won!
Against all odds, somehow, she had triumphed over her superior opponent!
Wouldn't her Great-grandmother be proud of her!
The earth-shattering revelation complete,
Shampoo then proceeded to unceremoniously collapse on the ground herself.
Shampoo didn't know how long she rested for,
but when she awoke, the moon was still overhead, informing her that it
was still nighttime. Her entire body ached, but in a fashion she was more
used to. The kind of aching that was meant as a reminder of how hard the
body had been worked recently.
Propping her body up on her elbows, she looked
around in the darkness. Her eyes quickly fell upon Ranma's female form,
presently engaged in doing one-armed pushups. Obviously Ranma had recovered
much faster than she had.
"Ranma awake?" she asked, getting to her feet.
Ranma flipped backwards, landing on her feet.
"You're finally awake."
"Shampoo win!"
Ranma made a sour face. "Ya got lucky! Real
lucky!"
A smile formed on Shampoo's face. This was
great! Time to rub some salt in the wounds. "Shampoo think Ranma just weak!"
"I ain't weak! You just got lucky!"
"Ranma prove."
"Alright, I'll prove it to you! I used a special
technique when I was fighting."
"Special technique?"
"Yeah. It lets you fight at full strength
longer. But you get tired a lot faster. I ain't gonna use it next time!"
As much as she hated to admit it, Ranma's
explanation made sense. No wonder the redhead had gone for so long without
even breaking a sweat. A good way to keep an opponent from knowing how
tired you were. Which left only one question. "How do technique?"
"It's not a real technique. With practice,
you learn how to draw upon your strength better, even when it's running
out. No real easy way to learn it."
Shampoo made a face. Oh well. Perhaps her
Great-grandmother was right. She would simply have to work at all-around
improvement.
Ranma wasn't finished yet, perhaps suffering
from more than a small amount of wounded pride. "But next time we fight,
I ain't gonna bother usin' it! So don't go thinkin' that you're ever
gonna beat me again!"
Oh yes, his pride was wounded, Shampoo noted
with some satisfaction. It made every ache and pain worth it. And what
had he said? Next time? "Ranma still think Shampoo weak girl?"
Ranma swallowed. "Uh... well... you're still
a girl and all..."
"We meet tomorrow?"
Ranma nodded. "Get some sleep. Cuz tomorrow
I'm gonna be serious!"
"Then Shampoo train at home during day."
The two locked gazes briefly. Ranma finally
shrugged. "Okay, do that. Ask the Ol' Ghoul if she knows any tricks that
might come in handy too. It might be a couple of weeks at this rate before
we're good enough to take on Akane."
"Then practice for couple weeks."
Ranma nodded. "Right. I gotta get back to
the dojo. Don't tell anybody 'bout this place, got it? I'm tryin' to keep
it a secret from Akane. She doesn't know that I'm practising like this."
"Shampoo not tell. except Great-grandmother.
It be surprise."
"Right. See ya' tomorrow." The redhead ran
off.
Shampoo waved goodbye before sprinting away
through the forest herself. The route was somewhat circular, to ensure
that if anyone saw her running at this time of night, they would be hard
pressed to track her back to the forest. She couldn't wait to tell her
Great-grandmother about it all!
It was noon the next day when Ranma finally
awoke. His entire body was still aching, but he shrugged it off with a
ease born of long experience. Nevertheless, the hot bath brought welcome
relief of the pain.
Ranma let himself sink down into the water,
relishing the soothing feeling. The training was rough, but he knew it
was making him better. Perhaps it was fortunate that Shampoo wasn't slowing
him down as much as he'd feared. She wasn't nearly as good as he was, but
with a few modifications, he was able to bring himself down to her level,
which meant both of them got a good workout. At the very least, he had
to give her credit for sticking it out so long. She was clearly determined
to improve herself. Crazy amazon pride...
A knock on the door jolted him from his thoughts.
"Ranma?"
Akane. "Uh, yeah?"
"Are you going to be down soon? Kasumi's going
to have lunch ready in five minutes."
Lunch sounded good. Considering that he'd
missed breakfast. "Yeah, I'll be right out. Aren't you supposed to be in
school?"
"It's Saturday."
"Oh."
"What time did you get home last night? You
must be really tired."
"I dunno. Real late."
"Oh. I was starting to wor-wonder, that's
all," Akane answered, sounding a little hasty. "Uh... well, don't be late
for lunch."
Ranma heard her rapidly walking away. She
sounded... agitated for some reason. Although he couldn't begin to imagine
why...
His stomach growled, providing a more concrete
notion to contemplate. Getting out of the water, he dried himself off quickly.
Lunchtime it was. Right now, even Akane's cooking seemed welcome.
"So what do you think?"
Ranma chewed a few times experimentally. Honestly,
if he hadn't lost that stupid fight against her, and been forced
to eat her cooking...
"Well?" Akane repeated after a few moments.
Ranma finally swallowed. Surprisingly enough,
it was pretty good. He could still taste what had to be at least ten times
the required amount of salt. And he wasn't sure how vinegar had gotten
into the rice. And this wasn't the first time it had happened... "Not...
too bad, I guess."
Akane's face lit up like a cherub. "Really?
You really mean that?"
"Well... yeah..."
"Really, Akane," Nabiki chided with a smirk.
"Hasn't speaking his mind always been Ranma's strong point? I think
you can trust him."
Ranma wasn't sure whether to take that as
a vote of support or an insult. Knowing Nabiki, probably both at the same
time. "Uh... what she said, I guess."
"Great! Help yourself!"
Ranma's stomach was still growling. He shrugged
inwardly. He was starving, and it seemed that this was one meal that wouldn't
actually put him out of commission. His training would be much more effective
if it had some nourishment to work with.
"Pile it on," he invited.
It was about half an hour later that Akane
was reclining on the her bed, still relishing the euphoric feeling of hearing
her fiancé compliment her cooking. It had been the source of countless
arguments. So many rejections and insults over just that... but today had
made it all worth it! Just hearing Ranma ask for more. And she knew
he hadn't been lying, because she'd even watched his face for any discolouration.
And he'd swallowed every bite!
Her giddy smile returned in full as her mind
rapidly cycled through meal possibilities for supper. Why, the cookbook
was full of ideas for her to try. Her cooking had obviously improved. By
the end of the week, Ranma would be begging her to cook
things for him!
"Come down from cloud nine yet?"
Akane started as she recognized Nabiki's voice.
"Oh, hi, Nabiki."
"It looks like you're really improving in
the kitchen, little sister."
"Well, practice makes perfect."
"I don't doubt it. Keep this up, and Ranma
is going to run out of insults for you."
"He doesn't insult me anymore, anyway."
Nabiki nodded in agreement. "He doesn't, does
he? I wonder why?"
Akane heard rather than saw the smirk on Nabiki's
face. "You're the expert on judging people, Nabiki, aren't you?"
"That sounds harsh. I prefer to think that
I'm just good at understanding what they're not saying."
"So what isn't Ranma saying?"
"For starters, the meal certainly wasn't perfect.
It was obviously an improvement, but you're still not Kasumi, if you follow
what I'm saying."
"Nobody could ever cook like Kasumi."
"So what's for supper?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'm trying to decide."
"Want some advice?"
"About cooking?"
Nabiki shrugged. "There's a big difference
between knowing about something and actually doing it, little sister. It
would be a good idea for you to remember that."
"So what else isn't Ranma saying?"
Nabiki feigned ignorance. "About what?"
Akane turned a little red. "About... you know..."
"You'll have to be more descriptive than that,
I'm afraid..."
Akane scowled as her face reddened further.
"About what Ranma thinks of me!"
Nabiki smiled. "Oh, that. Well... that's
hard to say. Men can a little hard to read sometimes. But I'd say Ranma's
curious, if you catch my meaning. Still thinking of trying the shoe on?"
The colour of Akane's face deepened even more.
"I wasn't talking about that! I just want to know..." she trailed
off, not trusting herself to finish the statement.
"If he loves you?" Nabiki finished matter-of-factly.
"Well... kinda.... yeah..."
"There's no reason to be ashamed of wanting
to know that."
"R-really? You don't think so?"
Nabiki waved aside the issue. "Of course not.
Shoes aside... it's only natural to wonder if you and him are on
the same wavelength."
"So... what do you think?"
Nabiki's eyebrows narrowed. "Well... I'll
make you a deal. You tell me the honest truth about how you feel about
him... and I'll tell you how to make good on it."
Akane recoiled somewhat. "W-what is that
supposed to mean?"
"There's no sense in me giving you all this
advice without knowing where you stand on it all."
"Well... I... Ranma... he's been really nice
lately..."
"But how do you feel about him?"
"I don't know!"
"If you don't know, then how can I help you?"
"I... like him, I guess..." She
looked hopefully at Nabiki.
Her sister shrugged. "Is that all? Well, in
that case, just keep working on the cooking. Good luck."
"Nabiki!"
Nabiki slid closer to Akane, her eyes fixing
Akane in her spot. "Little sister... I'm dead serious. If you only like
Ranma, then what point is there in me giving you romantic advice? I don't
think you quite appreciate what kind of advice I can give. I may not have
boyfriend or fiancee myself, but you'd better believe that I know about
relationships. I've been hired to both make and break them, and I'm quite
good at it. Like I said, there's a difference between knowing and doing
something. I think you'll be hard pressed to find anyone around who knows
about relationships better than I do."
Akane looked away. "Why are you being so helpful
all of a sudden?"
A smirk. "What? You expect that I'm going
to charge you for this help? Give me some credit, little sister. I draw
a line between family and business. I'll help you do whatever you want
with him. I can help you not fight each other. Or I can get you two naked
under the sheets. Or anything in-between. I've arranged it all before,
trust me."
Nabiki turned Akane's face back to looking
at her own. "So what do you think? Are you sure that you only like
Ranma?"
Akane lowered her head. "Well... I... guess...
I'm curious."
"Go on."
She swallowed. "I... guess... I'd like to
know if it... could all work out."
Nabiki patted her sister on the back. "Very
good. That wasn't so hard to admit, was it? You like Ranma, and you're
curious about whether anything more serious could come of it, right?"
Akane swallowed again. "Y-yes..."
"Okay. No problem. So we've got you, then
we've got Ranma. On your side, we've got someone who's open to the idea
of romance, correct?"
A nod.
"And on the other hand, we've got Ranma."
"What about Ranma?"
"Well, you can't have a relationship with
only one person. It takes at least two. Let's think about what we're dealing
with. Ranma is the same age as you, also a martial artist, goes to the
same school, and lives under the same roof as you. Those are all good things.
"On the bad side, you two have a history of
arguing, fighting and insulting each other. A rather long one, too. That's
not so good."
"We haven't done any of that lately!"
"That's a good thing. Keep doing that,
and you're halfway there."
Akane looked doubtful. "You... really think
it's that easy?"
Nabiki gave a knowing smile. "Akane... think
about it. We're talking about Ranma. He's got three other love interests,
and two of them are fairly sane, good-looking martial artists who are perfectly
willing to admit they love him and drape themselves over him. And then
he's got you, who he's always been fighting and arguing with. Yet
after all this time, he still hasn't gone for either of the other
two. Why not?"
"I... don't know."
"I think you might want to consider that he's
also curious. About you."
Akane's heart sped up a few beats. "You...
think so?"
"Why not? You're wondering whether or not
the relationship could work. I think he's also wondering about that too.
Maybe more than he'd ever admit. On one hand, he's got Ukyou or Shampoo.
On the other hand, he's got you. He hasn't made a choice, but he will.
Our strategy is simply going to be to make it very easy for him to choose
you."
"How... will we do that?"
Nabiki smiled. "Not too hard, little sister.
You've already got his interest. Now all you have to do is take advantage
of that. For starters, your cooking. Don't try anything harder yet. If
I wanted to get back into martial arts, I would start out at the bottom
right? If you want to improve your cooking, you've got to take it slow.
You can't build the castle until you've laid the foundation. And with every
meal that Ranma eats - even if it's not a ten course dinner - he'll be
reminded that you can cook, and are getting better all the time.
He's the type that appreciates determination, you'll find."
Akane nodded. "So I shouldn't do anything
complicated yet."
"Right. Next, I think you and him should go
out on a date."
"WHAT!?!"
Nabiki smiled. "Well, you don't have to call
it that. Perhaps we'll arrange for the two of you to go somewhere public
where you can both enjoy an event, and make a little small-talk on the
side."
"Such as?"
Two tickets were thrust in her face. "The
latest Jackie-Chan movie, presently sold out. And Ranma was too lazy to
wait in line, so he's going to have to wait months and months until it
comes out on video tape..."
"How did you get these?"
"I have my ways. But they're for tomorrow
night. Think Ranma would be interested?"
"He'd kill for one of those."
"Well, he doesn't have to kill anyone. All
he has to do is take you up on your offer to go see the movie with you.
You can each pay your own way for food on this one, and with this type
of movie, you don't have to worry about any mushy stuff."
Akane swallowed. It did seem like a
good idea. It wasn't a date of course. Just... two people going to watch
a movie at the same time. Perfectly innocent.
Nabiki voiced Akane's thoughts. "Perfectly
innocent for both for both of you, right? Yet it's a perfect chance for
you two to get a little more comfortable with each other."
A slow nod. "And... we can even leave separately
so that daddy and Mr. Saotome don't know..."
"You've got the idea. By incredible coincidence,
the Ucchan's and the Nekohaten will still be open. So you don't need to
worry about Ukyou or Shampoo coming around to interfere. Kunou and Kodachi
shouldn't be a problem, since both have a habit of going to bed early on
Sundays. Mousse would only wish you the best if he sees Ranma with anyone
aside from Shampoo."
"That... makes sense."
"Of course it does. I know a few things about
this type of business, you know."
"You're positive this is all for free?"
Nabiki smiled. "For my little sister, no charge.
I'll even throw in the tickets for this one. You can tell Ranma that you
won a bet against me. Just make the most of it, and I think you'll see
Ranma paying a little more attention to you, and a lot less towards anybody
else. Sound good?"
Akane nodded again, aware that she was blushing.
Nabiki stood up, heading towards the door.
"I thought it would. I suggest you ask Ranma after supper today. It'll
give him something to think about while he's training tonight. And the
more he thinks about you..." she let the thought trail off, quietly closing
the door behind her.
Akane resumed lying back on her bed, exactly
as she had been a few minutes ago. But her thoughts were far from the same.
A date with Ranma? No, not a date. Just... an opportunity to test the waters.
To see if there was any possibility...
She shivered slightly, but a soft smile was
on her face. Was there really a chance for something to happen?
Nabiki had sounded certain. When Nabiki was certain about something, she
was almost always right. And the explanation had made sense. And even if
things weren't perfect, what did she have to loose? She would have gotten
a free movie for the night, and she would know for certain about Ranma.
She really hoped things worked out.
Nabiki let out a satisfied smile as she headed
into her own room. So far, so good.
She didn't pretend to understand everything
that had happened lately. But she knew a few things that Akane didn't.
Such as the fact that Ranma's recent good behaviour was largely an act.
And that he knew Akane was lying about something. That alone was a problem,
since Akane's present behaviour and interest towards him seemed to be genuine.
The situation was a powder keg, just waiting for a spark to set it off.
But that didn't mean things were hopeless.
With some good advice and a little manipulation, she didn't think it was
that far-fetched to believe that some genuine understanding could come
of the recent cease-fire. With the surprising amount of patience they had
been giving each other lately, the atmosphere was as good as it was going
to get. The trick would be to bring about that 'genuine understanding'
before Ranma tried to directly confront Akane about whatever it was that
she was hiding.
Or rather, the real trick was to get
Akane to do that.
Yes, she had her work cut out for her.
"That make sense?"
Akane took the paper full of mathematical
scribbling, noting the decided absence of doodling on it. Ranma's face
seemed surprisingly serious, compared to other instances she could remember.
It was possible that this was the first time he'd ever taken homework
seriously since arriving in Nerima. And it was with her...
Realizing that Ranma was beginning to give
her a curious look, she quickly looked away, towards the paper. After a
moment... "No, you can't do that."
"Do what?"
"When you're differentiating exponential equations,
you have to remember that you can't work directly with them when both the
base and the exponent are variables. You have to break it down into something
else first."
Ranma made a face. "Okay... so..." His forehead
screwed up in thought. "Use that logarithmic stuff to take it apart?"
Akane nodded. "Right."
"Okay. Lemme at it again."
He took the paper from her, immediately resuming
his work. Akane looked at him with no small amount of amazement. Ranma...
was actually working on his homework. Would wonders never cease?
But perhaps the most surprising thing was
the results. His knowledge was... spotty, she could tell. It was probably
an exact parallel to the amount of class time he'd slept through, really.
But even the past hour had shown amazing improvement. She had yet to explain
anything twice, and he was actually extrapolating from it at a rate that
would impress even Nabiki.
Another way of looking at it would be to admit
that her justification for calling him an 'idiot' had one less leg to stand
on. It was perhaps fortunate that she hadn't had to call him that lately.
So why was he suddenly so willing to learn like this?
A thought crossed her mind, from her discussion
with Nabiki. Was it possible... that Ranma really was curious? She could
name any number of times that various friends had gone out of their way
to tutor members of the opposite sex. Or to be tutored by them. Was it
possible that Ranma was using such a ploy himself?
She played with the thought for a few moments.
She supposed it was possible... his sudden attentiveness could be explained
that way. Maybe he was trying to get on her good side more? Or maybe-
"-Akane?"
She blinked back to reality. "Um, yes?"
"You okay?" Ranma asked, giving her a strange
look.
She'd gotten distracted. With a mild blush,
Akane realized that she'd probably been staring right at him the whole
time. "Y-yes."
"Does this look okay?"
Akane took the sheet from him, quickly scanning
the calculations that Ranma had made during her zoning-out. "That's...
right."
"Really? Great!"
She rolled her eyes at him. "You must have
already learned it up in your sleep."
Ranma quickly donned one of his trademark
arrogant smirks. "Well... guess I can do this stuff in my sleep!"
"Next question," Akane decided, deliberately
pointing towards the longest question on the textbook page.
The smirk quickly disappeared. "That's gonna
take me years!"
"Too much to handle?" Akane challenged. Inwardly,
she knew he'd squirm his way out of it. In about five seconds, he was going
to announce that he had to go to the bathroom. It was inevitable, really.
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Ranma agreed, taking up
a clean sheet of a paper.
"Just hurry up," she admonished. She blinked
as Ranma's words finally registered. "What?"
"I'm working as fast as I can," he muttered.
Akane nodded. "I mean, yes. Good. I mean-"
She shut her mouth tightly before any more gibberish leaked out. It was
fortunate that Ranma seemed not to have noticed.
She regarded his mask of concentration briefly.
It didn't seem quite... right. Ranma should have tried to avoid the issue.
He should have done just about anything except agree.
Which gave credibility to the second possibility.
He was trying to score points with her through the Homework Tutor strategy.
But that didn't seem quite right. All the stories her friends had told
her about involved a half-hearted attempt at the work, alongside a whole-hearted
attempt at being over-friendly to the tutor. Whereas Ranma seemed unaware
she even existed at this moment in time. Strange.
Then again, Ranma wasn't exactly an average
person to begin with. He'd spent most of his life training in martial arts.
Obsessing in the martial arts, really. With that kind of a mindset, maybe
he thought the best way to impress her would be to do likewise to his homework.
She smiled. She wouldn't discourage that,
since it made homework much easier to do. But it was a good sign nonetheless.
Perhaps Nabiki's idea had some merit to it after all-
"-Akane?"
She recovered faster this time, thankful that
she hadn't been staring at him this time. "Yes?"
"How's that?"
Akane blinked. "You're done already?"
Looking the sheet over for several moments
revealed a distinct lack of errors. And a very short solution to
boot. And to top it off, a correct answer. She looked at him. "What's this?"
"I used that rule. The Hospital rule."
"You mean 'l'Hospital's Rule'?"
"Yeah, that one. But it works, doesn't it?"
Akane blinked. "But... that's cheating!"
"Why? I'd be at the problem all day if I didn't
use it."
"Uh... well... I guess it's okay. I... didn't
expect you to do it that way." Heck, she'd never thought of doing it that
way before.
"Well, you explained it before. You gotta
use everything technique you know! Just like Anything-Goes fighting."
Akane smiled inwardly. Trust Ranma to apply
martial arts towards math homework. "Anything-Goes Mathematics?"
Ranma didn't seem to have a problem with the
notion. "Sure. Why not? You mean, you did the question the long way?"
Well, she had. Time for a quick topic
change. "By the way, I meant to ask you something, Ranma."
"What?"
"Are you busy tomorrow evening?"
"Uh... I... don't think so. How come?"
Akane rummaged through her drawer, producing
two pieces of paper that she held up to his face.
Ranma read the writing, allowing a moment
of silence before letting his jaw hit the floor. "H-hey! Those're for the
latest Jackie Chan movie! How'd you get those?"
Akane smiled. "I actually won a bet against
Nabiki for once. Anyway, most of my friends don't really like that kind
of movie. You feel like using the other ticket?"
Ranma head nodded so fast it was almost a
blur. Then he caught himself. "Waaaait a minute... what's the catch?"
"No catch. But this is the first time
I can remember really winning a bet against my sister, so I didn't want
the tickets to go to waste, right?"
"Oh. Well, I mean... sure... this some kinda..."
He looked just a little suspicious. "Did our dads set this up or somethin'?"
Akane made an honestly disgusted face. "No
way! And if you want this a ticket, you can't say anything to them
about it!"
That seemed to relax Ranma. He nodded
firmly. "Uh, right. Not a word to 'em."
Akane nodded. So far so good. Ranma seemed
open to the idea, but not overwhelmingly happy. Perhaps Nabiki was right
when she suggested that Ranma felt the same way as her. Not actually in
love, just curious...
"Meet me at the theatre at 7:00," she told
him. "If we leave separately, we don't have to put up with our fathers."
"Gotcha. 7:00."
Only twenty-two hours away, Akane noted, glancing
at the clock on her wall.
Ranma followed her glance to the clock. His
eyes shot open. "Aw, geez! I lost track of the time! I gotta get training!"
Akane nodded reluctantly. Really, Ranma's
father was such a slave-driver where training was concerned. "Well, okay.
7:00 tomorrow, right?"
"Right. See ya there."
Akane allowed herself a small smile as Ranma
bolted out the door. He'd forgotten to pack up his homework, he was in
such a rush. And there was precious little that could ever make
him concerned about punctuality. He must have really lost track
of the time.
She giggled quietly as she lay back on her
bed. Maybe it had been her that had distracted him. Maybe.
A knock on the door got her attention. Before
she could say anything, a folded piece of paper was pushed under the doorway,
followed by silence.
Akane slid off her bed, retrieving the piece
of paper and opening it.
'Good job, little sister. Have fun tomorrow
night.'
Akane laughed quietly as she tossed the message
in the garbage. Trust her sister to listen in on the conversation. But
she would let it pass this time. Nabiki was on her side this time.