Akane the Suicidal
Ranma wasn't going to admit it, but he was enjoying the blissful walk home. Akane hadn't even turned around since he had been following her, and when he tried to obstruct her path, she would just evade him.
As agitated as Ranma was at making a girl cry, even one that had a tendicy totry to remove herself from the genepool in rather spectacular manners, the thought finally settled into his skull...
"You know? She ain't even tried to off herself once this whole time!"
The more realization came with the thought, the bigger Ranma's grin became, "That means, if I keep Akane pissed off enough, she'll be too upset to make my life miserable..."
"ALRIGHT!!!" Akane turned around in shock, to see Ranma almost about to celebrate. It was then he noticed she was staring at him curiously. "Ah, alright!" Ranma attempted to make a save, "Let's cut out the crap! I don't know what managed to get a psycho-chick like you so upset, but... huh?"
Akane just closed her eyes, and turned back to walk home, leaving a dumbfounded Ranma behind.
______________________
The whole family, for lack of a better word, was shocked. Actually, a better word, or phrase, had come up.
...
No, no word could describe the emotion they were experiencing, as they watched Akane silently, almost listlessly eat her fingerfoods, while Ranma looked on with a hopeful expression.
"He... he cured her..." Nabiki whispered in newfound awe, "She... she hasn't once..."
"Could Ranma possibly be..." Kasumi clutched her cross, now ready to worship Ranma as the next Jesus. Their father had lost all motor skills for the past two hours, unable to process comprehension of his youngest not making any attempts at herself. His rationalization came to the conclusion that she was already dead, but conflicting visual observation belayed that. To effectively rectify the current logic loop, Soun had resorted to only basic support functions, while resources were directed towards accellerating his cranial capacity. Thankfully, he had an empty bladder.
Earlier, Ranma had felt elation at the reprieve, but watching Akane all day go through her usual after-school routine in a dull almost lifelessness that he wasn't accustomed to from her, slaughtered any enjoyment he could strain from his newfound peace. At that, he started to frown.
The change of expression didn't go unnoticed by the two older sisters, and with it, they also grew concerned.
"I'm going to go practice," Akane announced, before softly excusing herself from the table, and heading up to her room to change into her gi.
Ranma had become lost in thought, before realizing she was at the top of the stairs, "HEY! Wait up!" The pigtailed young man took off after his fiancee/charge, and arrived on her tail, just as she was entering her room, "Akane, wait up a-"
He hadn't been expecting the door to be slammed in his face so thoroughly.
______________________
Ryoga recoiled from the rather stiff branch that his head smacked into, unable to see his way through the dark forest. He had made an attempt to follow Ranma before he got too far, but from the looks of his current location, he failed, utterly.
"Ranma," the bandanna-clad boy seethed, "I shall have my revenge. You did this to my life, you made it a disaster."
Ryoga held up an object between his index and forefingers, "Like this..." he looked closely at it, and with the little light available to him, he figured out what it was, "Cap to an ammonia bottle..." He effortlessly squeezed it tight, causing it to snap. Oddly, it just didn't feel as satisfying to crush as, say, a walnut.
::SNAP::
"So will your neck." Ryoga finished. "Your time has come... Ran-"
A light suddenly began to show in the deep, dark, forest, as a voice rang out, "Hey, you, kid. Whattarya doing in the janitor's closet?"
"Huh?" Ryoga looked around, and smacked his head once again into the tree branch.... into the overhanging thick lead pipe, "ouch."
"Didn't you know school was out hours ago?" the Janitor stated, incredulously, before his eyes narrowed, "Or were you in here getting a little hanky panky with some innocent girl?"
"Can you tell me how to get to the Tendou Dojo?
______________________
Ranma rubbed his still sore nose, as he lay on his side on the dojo floor, while observing Akane beat the literal stuffing out of a training dummy.
The longer he watched, the more impressed he was becoming; Akane definitely had some skill, and even though she may not be his equal, she could give him a good run if she went all out... like she was on the training dummy.
Her furious lightning attacks finally caused her target to buckle, then with a fierce crescent kick to the side of the ribs, shatter. Akane stood with her back turned to the reminants of the dummy, breathing hard with her eyes closed. With a deep sigh, she went to brush imagined hair from her shoulder, but then realized how short it was. "I'm going to go take a bath, now."
Ranma shook himself at the sound of her voice, as if he had just come out of a daze, "Huh?"
Akane didn't notice the high pitch his voice had taken in his reply, or his following dry-throated gulp, "I'm going to go wash off, then go get ready for bed."
He frowned once again, at the neutral tone of her voice, "Geez, you still upset about after school?" the girl in question's expression flashed to a brief flicker of irritation, before switching back to neutral. Ranma decided that her anger was better than nothing at all, "Well, leave it to a Psycho-macho chick like you to hold a grudge for this long."
Akane's face started to contort, before she looked down, and then closed her eyes, "You're right..."
Ranma stopped, "Say that again?"
Akane looked up at him, with moisture in her eyes, "I'm... I guess I better go take that bath."
Ranma blinked, then blinked again, then started to scream at the top of his lungs, while attempting to pull large clumps of hair from his head. "Ra-Ranma?"
"Just when I finally thought I had you figured out!" Ranma stated with a low chuckle, "Whaddya mean 'I'm right'?"
"I know it hasn't been easy to deal with a... with a 'Psycho-chick' like me," Akane's voice choked, "I understand my family pressured you into the job, and I'm sorry."
Ranma groaned in fustration, "Look, I'm sorry I called you that, alright? I didn't think you'd take it so personally!"
"It's not that," Akane replied, turning away, "It was just, that for a few moments, it sometimes seemed like you actually cared for..." Akane stopped herself before completing, "Nevermind."
She attempted to walk by Ranma, but found him shifting to the front of her, "'Actually cared for' what?" Akane grew tightlipped, and attempted to walk around him. "Oh no, you're not getting out of this! First you go and confuse the heck out of me and tell me I'm right about something even I know isn't."
"What?" Akane interjected, her eyes lighting up in surprise.
"Well," Ranma reached to the back of his head nervously, "You know, it's not true, well the Psycho-chick thing is, but... ah... I didn't need to go and upset you with it."
Akane expression lightened up a bit, "So, you're saying you didn't want to hurt my feelings?"
"I guess... yeah."
Akane gave him a slight smile in appreciation, "Thanks, Ranma."
"So, you're not gonna mope all over the place anymore?" Ranma asked with a bit more hope than before.
"Nope!" Akane replied with newfound cheerfullness, as he brought a jagged piece of metal pipe to the fore, and started to jab it to towards her heart.
"HEY!!!!" Ranma managed to snag Akane's arm, and jerk the pipe away, "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT?!?"
"The training dummy. Daddy had them custom made so they would be more durable."
Ranma stared for the longest time, before he broke down, laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Now THAT'S the Akane I'm used to!" Ranma chuckled, throwing the piece of pipe away, and ushering Akane out of the dojo.
The raven-haired girl stared at him with a startled expression, "You're weird, you know that?"
Before Ranma could retort, they found their exit blocked by three stern-expressioned Tendous.
"A moment of your time, Ranma," Soun stated in a tone that brooked no argument.
"Ah..." was all Ranma could respond.
"Daddy? Nabiki? Kasumi?"
"You had managed to get Akane to stop killing herself," Kasumi stated in a tone that was just shy of absolute zero, "And then you ruined it, why?"
"Whaddarya talk'n about?"
"You had Akane *cured* Saotome," Nabiki responded, "Our troubles were over, and then you destroyed our happiness! WE WERE HAPPY, DAMN YOU!"
"GIVE US BACK OUR NON-SUICIDAL AKANE!" Kasumi's shouting voice joined her sister's, as she desperately pounded her fists against any open part she could tag on Ranma.
"Hey! Cut it out!" Ranma easily guarded against the attacks, but nonetheless was finding them a bit irritating.
"WE WANT OUR MISERABLE, LESS-STRESSFUL AKANE BACK! GIVE HER BACK!" Nabiki joined in the physical attacks, albeit with one of the wooden staffs from the wall rack.
Akane backed away, as her whole family began beating on her hapless bodyguard, before blowing a stray tuft of hair hanging over her nose, "Is anyone around here normal?"
"QUIT IT! CUT THAT OUT!"
Ranma wasn't going to admit it, but he was enjoying the blissful walk home. Akane hadn't even turned around since he had been following her, and when he tried to obstruct her path, she would just evade him.
As agitated as Ranma was at making a girl cry, even one that had a tendicy totry to remove herself from the genepool in rather spectacular manners, the thought finally settled into his skull...
"You know? She ain't even tried to off herself once this whole time!"
The more realization came with the thought, the bigger Ranma's grin became, "That means, if I keep Akane pissed off enough, she'll be too upset to make my life miserable..."
"ALRIGHT!!!" Akane turned around in shock, to see Ranma almost about to celebrate. It was then he noticed she was staring at him curiously. "Ah, alright!" Ranma attempted to make a save, "Let's cut out the crap! I don't know what managed to get a psycho-chick like you so upset, but... huh?"
Akane just closed her eyes, and turned back to walk home, leaving a dumbfounded Ranma behind.
______________________
The whole family, for lack of a better word, was shocked. Actually, a better word, or phrase, had come up.
...
No, no word could describe the emotion they were experiencing, as they watched Akane silently, almost listlessly eat her fingerfoods, while Ranma looked on with a hopeful expression.
"He... he cured her..." Nabiki whispered in newfound awe, "She... she hasn't once..."
"Could Ranma possibly be..." Kasumi clutched her cross, now ready to worship Ranma as the next Jesus. Their father had lost all motor skills for the past two hours, unable to process comprehension of his youngest not making any attempts at herself. His rationalization came to the conclusion that she was already dead, but conflicting visual observation belayed that. To effectively rectify the current logic loop, Soun had resorted to only basic support functions, while resources were directed towards accellerating his cranial capacity. Thankfully, he had an empty bladder.
Earlier, Ranma had felt elation at the reprieve, but watching Akane all day go through her usual after-school routine in a dull almost lifelessness that he wasn't accustomed to from her, slaughtered any enjoyment he could strain from his newfound peace. At that, he started to frown.
The change of expression didn't go unnoticed by the two older sisters, and with it, they also grew concerned.
"I'm going to go practice," Akane announced, before softly excusing herself from the table, and heading up to her room to change into her gi.
Ranma had become lost in thought, before realizing she was at the top of the stairs, "HEY! Wait up!" The pigtailed young man took off after his fiancee/charge, and arrived on her tail, just as she was entering her room, "Akane, wait up a-"
He hadn't been expecting the door to be slammed in his face so thoroughly.
______________________
Ryoga recoiled from the rather stiff branch that his head smacked into, unable to see his way through the dark forest. He had made an attempt to follow Ranma before he got too far, but from the looks of his current location, he failed, utterly.
"Ranma," the bandanna-clad boy seethed, "I shall have my revenge. You did this to my life, you made it a disaster."
Ryoga held up an object between his index and forefingers, "Like this..." he looked closely at it, and with the little light available to him, he figured out what it was, "Cap to an ammonia bottle..." He effortlessly squeezed it tight, causing it to snap. Oddly, it just didn't feel as satisfying to crush as, say, a walnut.
::SNAP::
"So will your neck." Ryoga finished. "Your time has come... Ran-"
A light suddenly began to show in the deep, dark, forest, as a voice rang out, "Hey, you, kid. Whattarya doing in the janitor's closet?"
"Huh?" Ryoga looked around, and smacked his head once again into the tree branch.... into the overhanging thick lead pipe, "ouch."
"Didn't you know school was out hours ago?" the Janitor stated, incredulously, before his eyes narrowed, "Or were you in here getting a little hanky panky with some innocent girl?"
"Can you tell me how to get to the Tendou Dojo?
______________________
Ranma rubbed his still sore nose, as he lay on his side on the dojo floor, while observing Akane beat the literal stuffing out of a training dummy.
The longer he watched, the more impressed he was becoming; Akane definitely had some skill, and even though she may not be his equal, she could give him a good run if she went all out... like she was on the training dummy.
Her furious lightning attacks finally caused her target to buckle, then with a fierce crescent kick to the side of the ribs, shatter. Akane stood with her back turned to the reminants of the dummy, breathing hard with her eyes closed. With a deep sigh, she went to brush imagined hair from her shoulder, but then realized how short it was. "I'm going to go take a bath, now."
Ranma shook himself at the sound of her voice, as if he had just come out of a daze, "Huh?"
Akane didn't notice the high pitch his voice had taken in his reply, or his following dry-throated gulp, "I'm going to go wash off, then go get ready for bed."
He frowned once again, at the neutral tone of her voice, "Geez, you still upset about after school?" the girl in question's expression flashed to a brief flicker of irritation, before switching back to neutral. Ranma decided that her anger was better than nothing at all, "Well, leave it to a Psycho-macho chick like you to hold a grudge for this long."
Akane's face started to contort, before she looked down, and then closed her eyes, "You're right..."
Ranma stopped, "Say that again?"
Akane looked up at him, with moisture in her eyes, "I'm... I guess I better go take that bath."
Ranma blinked, then blinked again, then started to scream at the top of his lungs, while attempting to pull large clumps of hair from his head. "Ra-Ranma?"
"Just when I finally thought I had you figured out!" Ranma stated with a low chuckle, "Whaddya mean 'I'm right'?"
"I know it hasn't been easy to deal with a... with a 'Psycho-chick' like me," Akane's voice choked, "I understand my family pressured you into the job, and I'm sorry."
Ranma groaned in fustration, "Look, I'm sorry I called you that, alright? I didn't think you'd take it so personally!"
"It's not that," Akane replied, turning away, "It was just, that for a few moments, it sometimes seemed like you actually cared for..." Akane stopped herself before completing, "Nevermind."
She attempted to walk by Ranma, but found him shifting to the front of her, "'Actually cared for' what?" Akane grew tightlipped, and attempted to walk around him. "Oh no, you're not getting out of this! First you go and confuse the heck out of me and tell me I'm right about something even I know isn't."
"What?" Akane interjected, her eyes lighting up in surprise.
"Well," Ranma reached to the back of his head nervously, "You know, it's not true, well the Psycho-chick thing is, but... ah... I didn't need to go and upset you with it."
Akane expression lightened up a bit, "So, you're saying you didn't want to hurt my feelings?"
"I guess... yeah."
Akane gave him a slight smile in appreciation, "Thanks, Ranma."
"So, you're not gonna mope all over the place anymore?" Ranma asked with a bit more hope than before.
"Nope!" Akane replied with newfound cheerfullness, as he brought a jagged piece of metal pipe to the fore, and started to jab it to towards her heart.
"HEY!!!!" Ranma managed to snag Akane's arm, and jerk the pipe away, "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT?!?"
"The training dummy. Daddy had them custom made so they would be more durable."
Ranma stared for the longest time, before he broke down, laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Now THAT'S the Akane I'm used to!" Ranma chuckled, throwing the piece of pipe away, and ushering Akane out of the dojo.
The raven-haired girl stared at him with a startled expression, "You're weird, you know that?"
Before Ranma could retort, they found their exit blocked by three stern-expressioned Tendous.
"A moment of your time, Ranma," Soun stated in a tone that brooked no argument.
"Ah..." was all Ranma could respond.
"Daddy? Nabiki? Kasumi?"
"You had managed to get Akane to stop killing herself," Kasumi stated in a tone that was just shy of absolute zero, "And then you ruined it, why?"
"Whaddarya talk'n about?"
"You had Akane *cured* Saotome," Nabiki responded, "Our troubles were over, and then you destroyed our happiness! WE WERE HAPPY, DAMN YOU!"
"GIVE US BACK OUR NON-SUICIDAL AKANE!" Kasumi's shouting voice joined her sister's, as she desperately pounded her fists against any open part she could tag on Ranma.
"Hey! Cut it out!" Ranma easily guarded against the attacks, but nonetheless was finding them a bit irritating.
"WE WANT OUR MISERABLE, LESS-STRESSFUL AKANE BACK! GIVE HER BACK!" Nabiki joined in the physical attacks, albeit with one of the wooden staffs from the wall rack.
Akane backed away, as her whole family began beating on her hapless bodyguard, before blowing a stray tuft of hair hanging over her nose, "Is anyone around here normal?"
"QUIT IT! CUT THAT OUT!"