Akane the Suicidal
"You want to what?" Akane asked, holding tightly onto Ranma's hand, as they both bounded from rooftop to rooftop. She was barely keeping up, regardless of being lead by the hand by her bodyguard-slash-fiance`.
"If Dr. Tofu's master really knows about the counter-point to the Couragious Heart pressure point, We'll both be out of this perpetual nightmare, and we can get on with our lives!" Ranma replied, more concentrating on the directions Dr. Tofu had given him. "Says we need to take a right, here..."
"What? I don't understand!" Akane shouted out, just as Ranma turned, jerking her with him. The gap between the roof they were standing on and the one he intended to jump to was a fair gap, forcing him to put a great deal into the leap.
Without missing a step, Akane followed him into the air, keeping their hands joined. Ranma realized that he miscalculated for Akane's weight, and instinctively pulled her around, attempting to throw her to the roof, while he would rebound off the ground. Akane refused to let go of his hand, and imitated Ranma's move, adding her own momentum, like a human bolo.
With out a skipped beat, they landed, and continued their harried pace.
"You wouldn't," Ranma groused, answering Akane's prior statement.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Akane asked with a sharp tone, just before Ranma jerked her out of the way of a jagged pipe sticking out of someone's rooftop, bent at a sharp angle about chest height.
Akane blushed, and couldn't bring herself to look at Ranma's hooded gaze.
"Anyways," Ranma continued, after noticing Akane wasn't going to observe the disapproval written all over his face, "It would be best for all those involved if we got you cured."
"I FORBID IT!"
"WHOA!" Ranma shouted, as he quickly grabbed Akane around the waist, and pulled them both back into a backwards somersault away from the heavy falling raccoon statue. Both Akane and Ranma landed, kneeling, hand still clenched together, as they stared at the newly formed hole in the roof, and then towards the old martial arts master that stood on the other side.
"Hello, Mrs. Yamoto! Hey Bes!" Akane chirped down to the hole, earning a weak smile and a slight wave from the shocked and nervous resident, and a cheerful bark in greeting from her pet.
"What do you think you're doing? You old letch!" Ranma demanded, bringing him and Akane to standing, while glaring defiantly at the elderly martial artist.
"Ranma," Happosai almost growled, "I will only say this once. I will not allow you to take away my best and most promising student!"
"What are you talking about?" Ranma's expression became puzzled, and turned to look at Akane. She could only shrug in response.
"Don't be so naive!" Happosai scoffed, "Don't you get it? You undo that point, Akane will lose her edge!"
"I think the radiation eradicated your brain, you old freak! How's fixing *your* mistake gonna hinder Akane?"
"Because, you little puke, what held back her full potential was her inhibition! She was too *afraid* to push herself to her limits as a martial artist!" Happosai explained, pointing his finger at his hopeful successor.
"That's ridiculous!" Ranma screeched out, incredulous at the old man's reasoning.
"I quite agree," Mrs. Yamoto interjected, "Um, would you like to come in for some tea, and talk this out rationally?"
"Enough talk!" Happosai announced, taking a stance, "Ranma, I demand you unhand my student, or be prepare to suffer my wrath!"
Ranma place Akane behind him, still holding her hand, as he took a defensive stance, "Bring it on, you old coot!"
"NO! HE'S TOO POWERFUL, RANMA! YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM!" Akane shouted in dismay. Unfortunately, she could see the look of determination over Ranma's shoulder, on his face. She knew full well that whatever challenge he was given, he would meet.
"Heh," the grand master of the Anything Goes School of Martial arts chuckled, "Foolish whelp, don't think yourself a match for me!"
"Quit talking, and more fighting," Ranma demanded, not willing to leave Akane undefended. Ranma felt suddenly as if millions of tiny needles were lightly poking into his skin, making him itch all over. The sensation became overwhelmed by Ranma's own dismay, as he watched Happosai seemingly become several times his own size.
"Wha-what a powerful battle aura!" Ranma exclaimed, "I... I can't move!"
"Know that I intend to make this short, me and Akane have a lot of lost training time to make up for," Happosai announced, hunched over as he unleashed his mightly aura. "Now, you'll pay for yoru disobedience to your master!" He crossed his arms across himself, preparing to unleash his attack.
"You're... no master... of mine... you old letch!" Ranma proclaimed, still able to garner enough defiance, despite his restrainment. If Happosai heard him, he gave no sign.
"Akane step out of the way," After his announcement, Happosai thrust his hands forward, causing two large spectral versions of his appendages to race towards the pigtailed boy.
Ranma stared, wide-eyed, unable to bring himself to evade. Fortunately...
"AKANE!" Happosai wailed, as he watched his prize student dive off the roof, with her fiance wrapped in her arms, "How could you?" The miniscule master leapt after them in pursuit.
Mrs Yamoto sighed, as she looked up to her roof, and then down to the broken shingles that had fallen through the hole, when they were plowed up by Happosai's attack.
Akane landed, with Ranma in her arms, and set him down on his feet. With a nod, Ranma pointed forward, "Straight ahead, and then right again." With speed borne of finding his goal possibly within reach, and the threat of an antagonist behind him, Ranma and Akane made haste, leaping over the stone wall of the compound, and then onto the rooftop of the home beyond it. Both Akane and Ranma looked down, to find Kasumi sitting on one of the stones surrounding the carp pond, waving to them with a happily dazed expression.
Akane sighed at the sight, "Kasumi's abusing her valuum, just like last time..."
"Huh?" Ranma replied, confused, before his confusion was shaken by the sensation of danger, "LOOK OUT!"
Deftly, Ranma twisted himself in the air, and pushed Akane down to the ground by her shoulders, just before a small blur passed between them.
"RANMA!" Happosai bellowed, "HOW DARE YOU TURN MY OWN DEAR AKANE-CHAN AGAINST ME!"
"How dare you try to keep her like this, you freak!" Ranma retorted. Akane rebounded off the dojo rooftop that Ranma forced down onto, and rejoined the pigtailed martial artist in the air. She was within his vicinity, just as he made his next proclimation.
"I ain't about to let Akane get hurt because of your stupidity! She's my fiancee, and if she ever succeeded, NOTHING WILL STOP ME FROM PERSONALLY PUTTING YOU IN A COFFIN!"
After his announcement, Ranma heard Akane's gasp, and turned to find her losing her balance in the air, "Aw, cripes!"
Just as Ranma was altering his trajectory to rebound off the top of the stone wall surrounding the Tendou compound, and intercept Akane before she managed to unintentionally make good on her tendicies, Happosai blindsided him, sending him face-first into the Tendou back yard.
The pigtailed boy bounced twice on his stomach, before coming to rest. "Ouch..."
"Ooooh my," Kasumi replied, "The stars look so pretty..."
Happosai landed by Ranma, and watched him weakly pick himself off the ground, "This is what you get for getting in between a master and his student!" The elderly and enraged martial artist stated in a solumn voice, "As I send you to your ancestors, remember your folly!"
"NO! WAIT!"
Happosai looked up, and jumped back, just as Akane landed between Ranma and her master, "Akane-chan, what is the meaning of this? Would you dare disrespect your master?"
Akane bowed low, almost ready to kow-tow, "Forgive my impertenance, master, but... maybe Ranma just doesn't understand!" Akane sensed Ranma picking himself up to his feet, but dared not take her eyes off of Happosai.
"Ignorance is no excuse!" the withering martial artist proclaimed, "Now stand aside!"
"But would you really want to condemn him, just because he was trying... trying to protect me?" Akane said the last part, almost meekly.
At the change in tone, Happosai stopped his advancement, allowing Ranma time to shake the cobwebs from his head; if he didn't know better, he would have thought he was knocked out of the air by a passing low-flying Concorde.
"Hmm, so you do care about the little puke," Happosai mused, before sighing, "Well, maybe you have a point..."
With that, Happosai seemed to vanish into the air. Once the martial artist disappeared, Ranma had almost recovered his wits, "Where'd he go?"
Akane turned to her body guard, sighing herself, "I don't know, I actually didn't expect him to give up so easily."
Ranma stared at Akane, before frowning, "You were honestly going to try to take him on, weren't you?"
Akane dropped into a sullen frown, "Well, I couldn't just let him hurt you, you know?" The stern glare Ranma gave Akane told her what he thought she was attempting to do.
"I was only going to try to protect you until he saw reason!" Akane almost shouted, "Besides, I doubt he would hurt me!"
Ranma kept his gaze for a few moments more, before dropping it, and closing his eyes, "Maybe, but I had things under control."
Akane turned her eyes away, "I see, so you didn't want my help?"
"Heck, Akane, it ain't that," Ranma retorted in a more subdued tone. Ranma groaned at his impotence at explaining himself, unheeding of the stubby index finger being extended to the base of his skull... just to the left....
"You want to what?" Akane asked, holding tightly onto Ranma's hand, as they both bounded from rooftop to rooftop. She was barely keeping up, regardless of being lead by the hand by her bodyguard-slash-fiance`.
"If Dr. Tofu's master really knows about the counter-point to the Couragious Heart pressure point, We'll both be out of this perpetual nightmare, and we can get on with our lives!" Ranma replied, more concentrating on the directions Dr. Tofu had given him. "Says we need to take a right, here..."
"What? I don't understand!" Akane shouted out, just as Ranma turned, jerking her with him. The gap between the roof they were standing on and the one he intended to jump to was a fair gap, forcing him to put a great deal into the leap.
Without missing a step, Akane followed him into the air, keeping their hands joined. Ranma realized that he miscalculated for Akane's weight, and instinctively pulled her around, attempting to throw her to the roof, while he would rebound off the ground. Akane refused to let go of his hand, and imitated Ranma's move, adding her own momentum, like a human bolo.
With out a skipped beat, they landed, and continued their harried pace.
"You wouldn't," Ranma groused, answering Akane's prior statement.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Akane asked with a sharp tone, just before Ranma jerked her out of the way of a jagged pipe sticking out of someone's rooftop, bent at a sharp angle about chest height.
Akane blushed, and couldn't bring herself to look at Ranma's hooded gaze.
"Anyways," Ranma continued, after noticing Akane wasn't going to observe the disapproval written all over his face, "It would be best for all those involved if we got you cured."
"I FORBID IT!"
"WHOA!" Ranma shouted, as he quickly grabbed Akane around the waist, and pulled them both back into a backwards somersault away from the heavy falling raccoon statue. Both Akane and Ranma landed, kneeling, hand still clenched together, as they stared at the newly formed hole in the roof, and then towards the old martial arts master that stood on the other side.
"Hello, Mrs. Yamoto! Hey Bes!" Akane chirped down to the hole, earning a weak smile and a slight wave from the shocked and nervous resident, and a cheerful bark in greeting from her pet.
"What do you think you're doing? You old letch!" Ranma demanded, bringing him and Akane to standing, while glaring defiantly at the elderly martial artist.
"Ranma," Happosai almost growled, "I will only say this once. I will not allow you to take away my best and most promising student!"
"What are you talking about?" Ranma's expression became puzzled, and turned to look at Akane. She could only shrug in response.
"Don't be so naive!" Happosai scoffed, "Don't you get it? You undo that point, Akane will lose her edge!"
"I think the radiation eradicated your brain, you old freak! How's fixing *your* mistake gonna hinder Akane?"
"Because, you little puke, what held back her full potential was her inhibition! She was too *afraid* to push herself to her limits as a martial artist!" Happosai explained, pointing his finger at his hopeful successor.
"That's ridiculous!" Ranma screeched out, incredulous at the old man's reasoning.
"I quite agree," Mrs. Yamoto interjected, "Um, would you like to come in for some tea, and talk this out rationally?"
"Enough talk!" Happosai announced, taking a stance, "Ranma, I demand you unhand my student, or be prepare to suffer my wrath!"
Ranma place Akane behind him, still holding her hand, as he took a defensive stance, "Bring it on, you old coot!"
"NO! HE'S TOO POWERFUL, RANMA! YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM!" Akane shouted in dismay. Unfortunately, she could see the look of determination over Ranma's shoulder, on his face. She knew full well that whatever challenge he was given, he would meet.
"Heh," the grand master of the Anything Goes School of Martial arts chuckled, "Foolish whelp, don't think yourself a match for me!"
"Quit talking, and more fighting," Ranma demanded, not willing to leave Akane undefended. Ranma felt suddenly as if millions of tiny needles were lightly poking into his skin, making him itch all over. The sensation became overwhelmed by Ranma's own dismay, as he watched Happosai seemingly become several times his own size.
"Wha-what a powerful battle aura!" Ranma exclaimed, "I... I can't move!"
"Know that I intend to make this short, me and Akane have a lot of lost training time to make up for," Happosai announced, hunched over as he unleashed his mightly aura. "Now, you'll pay for yoru disobedience to your master!" He crossed his arms across himself, preparing to unleash his attack.
"You're... no master... of mine... you old letch!" Ranma proclaimed, still able to garner enough defiance, despite his restrainment. If Happosai heard him, he gave no sign.
"Akane step out of the way," After his announcement, Happosai thrust his hands forward, causing two large spectral versions of his appendages to race towards the pigtailed boy.
Ranma stared, wide-eyed, unable to bring himself to evade. Fortunately...
"AKANE!" Happosai wailed, as he watched his prize student dive off the roof, with her fiance wrapped in her arms, "How could you?" The miniscule master leapt after them in pursuit.
Mrs Yamoto sighed, as she looked up to her roof, and then down to the broken shingles that had fallen through the hole, when they were plowed up by Happosai's attack.
Akane landed, with Ranma in her arms, and set him down on his feet. With a nod, Ranma pointed forward, "Straight ahead, and then right again." With speed borne of finding his goal possibly within reach, and the threat of an antagonist behind him, Ranma and Akane made haste, leaping over the stone wall of the compound, and then onto the rooftop of the home beyond it. Both Akane and Ranma looked down, to find Kasumi sitting on one of the stones surrounding the carp pond, waving to them with a happily dazed expression.
Akane sighed at the sight, "Kasumi's abusing her valuum, just like last time..."
"Huh?" Ranma replied, confused, before his confusion was shaken by the sensation of danger, "LOOK OUT!"
Deftly, Ranma twisted himself in the air, and pushed Akane down to the ground by her shoulders, just before a small blur passed between them.
"RANMA!" Happosai bellowed, "HOW DARE YOU TURN MY OWN DEAR AKANE-CHAN AGAINST ME!"
"How dare you try to keep her like this, you freak!" Ranma retorted. Akane rebounded off the dojo rooftop that Ranma forced down onto, and rejoined the pigtailed martial artist in the air. She was within his vicinity, just as he made his next proclimation.
"I ain't about to let Akane get hurt because of your stupidity! She's my fiancee, and if she ever succeeded, NOTHING WILL STOP ME FROM PERSONALLY PUTTING YOU IN A COFFIN!"
After his announcement, Ranma heard Akane's gasp, and turned to find her losing her balance in the air, "Aw, cripes!"
Just as Ranma was altering his trajectory to rebound off the top of the stone wall surrounding the Tendou compound, and intercept Akane before she managed to unintentionally make good on her tendicies, Happosai blindsided him, sending him face-first into the Tendou back yard.
The pigtailed boy bounced twice on his stomach, before coming to rest. "Ouch..."
"Ooooh my," Kasumi replied, "The stars look so pretty..."
Happosai landed by Ranma, and watched him weakly pick himself off the ground, "This is what you get for getting in between a master and his student!" The elderly and enraged martial artist stated in a solumn voice, "As I send you to your ancestors, remember your folly!"
"NO! WAIT!"
Happosai looked up, and jumped back, just as Akane landed between Ranma and her master, "Akane-chan, what is the meaning of this? Would you dare disrespect your master?"
Akane bowed low, almost ready to kow-tow, "Forgive my impertenance, master, but... maybe Ranma just doesn't understand!" Akane sensed Ranma picking himself up to his feet, but dared not take her eyes off of Happosai.
"Ignorance is no excuse!" the withering martial artist proclaimed, "Now stand aside!"
"But would you really want to condemn him, just because he was trying... trying to protect me?" Akane said the last part, almost meekly.
At the change in tone, Happosai stopped his advancement, allowing Ranma time to shake the cobwebs from his head; if he didn't know better, he would have thought he was knocked out of the air by a passing low-flying Concorde.
"Hmm, so you do care about the little puke," Happosai mused, before sighing, "Well, maybe you have a point..."
With that, Happosai seemed to vanish into the air. Once the martial artist disappeared, Ranma had almost recovered his wits, "Where'd he go?"
Akane turned to her body guard, sighing herself, "I don't know, I actually didn't expect him to give up so easily."
Ranma stared at Akane, before frowning, "You were honestly going to try to take him on, weren't you?"
Akane dropped into a sullen frown, "Well, I couldn't just let him hurt you, you know?" The stern glare Ranma gave Akane told her what he thought she was attempting to do.
"I was only going to try to protect you until he saw reason!" Akane almost shouted, "Besides, I doubt he would hurt me!"
Ranma kept his gaze for a few moments more, before dropping it, and closing his eyes, "Maybe, but I had things under control."
Akane turned her eyes away, "I see, so you didn't want my help?"
"Heck, Akane, it ain't that," Ranma retorted in a more subdued tone. Ranma groaned at his impotence at explaining himself, unheeding of the stubby index finger being extended to the base of his skull... just to the left....