Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan
A Not so Simple Wish
Chapter 20
by Ebiris
Ranko curiously eyed her mysterious package. She was getting a strange feeling of
nameless dread every time she went near it, and it was making her uneasy. Why on Earth
had she received it anyway? It would have made a bit more sense if it had been addressed
to her, but it was supposed to be sent to some place called Ice Station Zebra, and she had
most definitely not sent anything that way. Even if she had, she would have paid full
postage for it.
"Hmmm..." she stroked her chin in contemplation as she tried to puzzle out this latest
conundrum in her life. Abruptly, the realisation hit her. "I know!" she exclaimed while
hitting her palm with a closed fist. "Ranko Xiawang must have sent it before I became
Ranko Xiawang!" It made sense, since Antarctica was so far away, it would surely take
more than a month to get there and back, right?
Cheerfully ignoring her misgivings now that she had figured out its origin, she easily
lifted the top off the box, ripping nails out and scattering them everywhere.
"Huh?"
A box full of men's underwear?
Correction, a box full of *moving* men's underwear.
"Yaah!" Ranko scooted away from the box, now recognising all the signs of demonic
possession. Sadly, despite her formidable martial arts skils, this was not something she
was really equipped to handle, even moreso when she was hungover. Grabbing her
phonebook, she started rifling through the pages to locate the nearest temple, all the
while keeping a wary eye on the box of cursed underwear, which so far was not making
any hostile moves...
Suddenly, a tiny wrinkled hand emerged from the depths of the sweaty undergarments,
prompting Ranko to blanch severely. It had *eaten* someone! This was serious!
Before she could formulate a decent plan for dealing with carnivorous demonic boxer
shorts, a familiar head followed the hand in emerging. "Air! Sweet fresh air!" the master
of Anything Goes declared before pausing and looking around. "Ranko-chan? You saved
me!" He crawled out of the box and leapt onto Ranko's bosom, giving her a heartfelt hug
(heartfelt for Happosai meaning no groping).
"Gramps?! Wow, kinda ironic that you got eaten by an underwear demon, huh?" the
redhead noted, making no effort to dislodge him, since it was a genuine hug and not a
'hentai-mega-glomp'.
"Demon? What are you talking about? It was Nabiki who stuffed me in there!" Happosai
told her.
Ranko looked surprised. She would never have thought Nabiki would have it in her to
actually go up against Happosai like that. Normally if there was any risk of danger to
herself, she'd come up with a plan and then dupe someone else into doing it for her. "How
did she manage that?"
"Well, it was a team effort. First, Akane poisoned me with some strange toxin not even I
have encountered before. Then, when I was at my weakest, begging for aid, I was packed
into that disgusting box." He disengaged himself from Ranko and swayed about, looking
dizzy. "How long was I in there anyway? It took everything I had to just survive; I
couldn't sense the passage of time."
"Well, Nabiki has seemed a lot more cheerful at school for the past three days, so I guess
that's how long you've been in there. She tried to post you to Antarctica..."
Happosai shuddered. "It must be the guiding hand of fate that returned me here! I don't
want to go back to the Tendou dump, how about we forget why you were mad at me and
I stay here again?"
Ranko shrugged. "I guess you've been punished enough, and maybe I was a little hard on
you..." In truth, she had actually started to miss the old letch. Her apartment was a little
lonely with just herself. "Just remember that next time you beat up Ranma not to bring
my name into it. It's just an extra complication I don't need."
"Deal." Happosai nodded eagerly before making his way to the cupboard under the sink
and retrieving a bunch of panties and bras to rub all over his face. "Why is it every time I
leave the house for a few days you always hide my collection?"
Ranko pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Because this tiny place is cluttered
enough without having to trip over stolen underwear all the time," she pointed out.
"I did say we could move into a bigger house to have enough room for my collection,
and maybe you could finally start building up your own...?" he trailed off, a hopeful note
in his voice.
"I'm not gonna start stealin' other girls underwear!" she said hotly, before adding in a
quieter voice, "Bad enough I have my own to deal with..."
Happosai looked a little disappointed, but decided not to press the issue. "Oh well,
maybe once Ranma accepts me as his master he'll start liberating silky darlings with me.
I do need someone to pass on the higher secrets of Anything Goes onto..."
Ranko refused to rise to the bait, knowing full well that the 'higher secrets' were not
invincible martial arts techniques, just different ways of stealing underwear. "Speaking
of Ranma, he wants me to train him to improve his speed so he can defeat you."
"Pshaw!" Happosai snorted dismissively. "It'll take more than being faster for that young
pup to beat this old dog. You're already faster, stronger and more skilled than him and
you can't beat me."
Ranko gave him a half hearted glare. "If I weren't so hung over I'd kick your ass, old
man."
Happosai gave her a condescending look. "You might be hung over, but I've never been
as weak as this for years. Now you have to ask yourself, does your tiny little
disadvantage carry enough weight to cancel out my huge disadvantage? Part of martial
arts is about making these judgements before a fight."
"You lookin' for a beatin', Gramps?" Ranko balled a fist and waved it threateningly at
him.
"If you can beat me, I'll teach you a powerful chi attack!" the old man chortled as he
hopped onto the window ledge.
Ranko didn't need to hear anything else as she lifted a leg to rinse it under the sink tap,
before repeating the process with the other to cleanse them of vomit. Then she darted into
her room to change out of her Doraemon pajamas and emerge a moment later dressed in
her fighting clothes. "Let's take this outside," she smirked coolly. The adrenaline rush
brought on by the prospect of a new technique was already flushing her system and
removing the effects of last night's drinking binge.
***
School went by fairly quickly for Ranko that day. Mainly because she slept right through
it.
Abruptly, her head snapped up from her desk, startling several of the students around
her. Two seconds later, the chime announcing lunchtime sounded. For a moment she
looked pleased with herself, glad that her biological clock was on time, but her
expression quickly changed to frustration as she recalled that she hadn't packed a lunch
today. She hadn't even felt like going to school at all, but decided at the last minute to go
since she'd missed most of last week. Besides which, she didn't really want to spend the
day with Happosai after recieving such a savage beating from him that morning. It
seemed like being weakened only made the little pervert stop pulling his punches...
"Hey, Ranko." a nudge from the desk next to her alerted her to Ranma's presence. "You
alright? You've been sleeping all day," he said that with a slight note of envy in his voice.
"Did things go okay last night? Pop was actin' kinda funny this morning..."
Ranko focused her attention on him as she considered her response. "I can't really
remember much of last night. The old man got me so drunk I don't know what
happened." She considered mentioning being shot in order to play on his sympathies, but
considering she had only been shot as a result of a stupid mistake, she really didn't want
to advertise that fact...
Any response from Ranma was interrupted by Nabiki Tendou running into the room and
waving a newspaper. Her attention swiftly gravitated to the redhead by the window and
she approached. "Ranko-san! Is this article true?"
Article? In a newspaper? Ranko suddenly developed a horrible sinking feeling. Had she
done something newsworthy while drunk last night? A brief vision of herself charging
naked through Tokyo while shooting off Mouko Takabishas and Hiryu Shouten Has
every which way flashed before her eyes. With some effort, she shook it off. "I think I'd
remember doin' *that*," she whispered before looking up at Nabiki. "What article?"
"It says you crippled two guys, injured two others, and got shot. Last night."
Ranko sighed in relief. At least she remembered this. "Ah, the Yakuza. Yeah, they were
making trouble, so I took them down."
"You were shot?!" Ranma cried out in a panicky voice before examining her more
closely. "Where?"
"It only grazed me," Ranko mumbled while blushing severely. She rolled up her sleeve to
show the fading pink line from the bullet's passage over her skin. "Wouldn'ta hit me at all
if I hadn't been tryin' ta show off..."
"No way that's from last night. It's almost completely faded." said Sayuri, who had
shown up along with a bunch of other students around Ranko's desk after hearing Nabiki
describe the article.
"Whoo! Show us some more skin!" yelled one foolish boy, who had already forgotten the
part of the article which said the cute redhead in front of him had crippled two men.
"I'm a martial artist. We heal fast," Ranko said, focusing entirely on Sayuri even as she
absently applied a pain hold to the wrist of the unfortunate boy who had last spoken,
letting go after only a few seconds, but still enough to bring tears to his eyes.
"You crippled two people last night! What kind of martial artist does that?" Akane yelled
incredulously from across the classroom, having remained in her seat even as everyone
else had crowded around Ranko.
"They were Yakuza, Akane. They had guns and were just about to use them," Ranko
replied calmly. "In that kind of situation it's best to take them down hard and fast, not
worry about being gentle."
"Wow! It says here one guy had his hand blown off!" Hiroshi exclaimed over Nabiki's
shoulder.
"It wasn't blown off!" Ranko said in an exasparated tone. "His gun exploded and
bloodied him up a bit, but his hand was still attached last I saw. It should have exploded
straight away, but only did after the gun fired once..." she indicated her grazed arm and
gave a self disparaging snort.
"Why would the gun explode?" asked a slightly subdued Nabiki.
"Because I threw a chopstick into the barrel. I saw it in a movie once, but it didn't work
like in the movie..." Ranko explained shamefacedly.
"I'll say!" Ranma said condescendingly. "There's a million better ways to disarm a guy
than tryin' some fancy pants trick like that."
"I know... it was a dumb thing to do, I just got too cocky." Ranko replied quietly.
"No way you could throw a chopstick to accurately go down a gun barrel!" Yuka
exclaimed doubtfully.
Ranko cocked an eyebrow at her and picked up her pencil. "See that mechanical pencil
sharpener on the teachers' desk?" Yuka nodded, and Ranko proceeded to flick her pencil
so it landed firmly wedged inside the device.
Most of the students made suitably impressed noises, though both Ranma and Akane
were heard to remark in stereo "I could do that."
Challenged to prove it by their dubious classmates, Ranma just shrugged and repeated
Ranko's feat, splitting her pencil down the middle as his own became stuck in the pencil
sharpener, which earned him an approving grin from the redhead in the seat next to his.
Then Akane haughtily rose from her seat and made her way to stand between Ranko and
Ranma to get a clear shot at the teacher's desk. "Now watch this!" she said, before
emitting a wordless battle-cry and hurling her pencil with all her might, which flew
nearly two feet above the pencil sharpener and embedded itself halfway into the
blackboard.
Akane blushed and mumbled something unintelligible as she slunk back to her seat
amidst the laughter of her classmates.
Seeing this, Ranko felt a pang of sympathy for the girl who had never been her fiancee in
this life. Standing up, she made her way over to Akane's desk and coughed to get the
brooding girl's attention.
"What do *you* want?" Akane asked acidly, only doing a passable job of covering her
depression with anger.
Ranko fidgeted slightly. Akane was only fun to tease because she reacted in such an over
the top manner, but the Akane in this world seemed to be becoming more and more
depressed and withdrawn with each passing day. It sucked the fun right out of the
exercise to see Akane was really hurting rather than just blowing off steam. "Ah... it's not
that hard, really. I could probably teach you how to do it over lunch...?"
"Why would you help me?" Akane queried. Her tone had softened, but there was definite
mistrust in her voice.
Right, no one ever does somethin' for nuthin', Ranko thought, remembering all the times
she had been screwed over by a 'free' gift from someone with an agenda. "Well..." she
drew the word out while twirling her toes on the ground and adopting a cute expression.
"It just so happens that I forgot to make my lunch this morning, and everyone knows
what a great bento your big sister packs..."
"So you just want to steal my lunch, is that it?"
Ranko fought to keep her tone light and friendly. "Look, I was just thinking that maybe I
could do something nice for you. We don't have to hate each other, Akane," there was a
faint note of pleading in her voice as she finished.
Akane frowned as she seemed to be considering Ranko's words. "You're not just
pretending to be nice so you can make fun of me?"
Ranko paused. Akane seemed so vulnerable it was almost painful to watch. What had
happened to her fiery, uncute tomboy who didn't take any crap? She wanted Akane back
to her old self, so she could tease her without feeling guilty, but she wasn't planning on
making fun of Akane in the immediate future. "No, I'm not," she said simply, giving a
mental promise not to taunt Akane at all... at least for the rest of the day.
Akane looked thoughtful for a moment before taking out her lunchbox and pushing it
halfway across the desk towards Ranko. "Then I guess you can show me how to do your
stupid throwing trick. Not that I really care."
Ranko's face lit up in a brilliant smile as she started to explain what Akane had been
doing wrong with her throw, and guiding Akane through the motions of how to do it
properly. Akane, for her part, seemed rather unenthusiastic at first, though Ranko's
cheerfulness seemed to be infectious, and pretty soon Akane was smiling genuinely as
she and Ranko tossed various small objects around the classroom with uncanny
accuracy.
Ranma blinked in confusion at the scene the pair presented. "I thought those two hated
each other?" he asked.
"I thought that too," Nabiki said as she studied them. Akane had been building up a lot
of anger towards Ranko in recent weeks, yet there was no sign of it here. Either Akane
was a better actress than Nabiki had given her credit for, or there was something deeper
going on. Also, there was something... off... in the way Ranko was behaving with Akane
right now. Nabiki couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but it was nagging at the
back of her mind.
Ranma looked up at Nabiki, who had apparently spaced out, and sighed. "I'll never
understand girls."
***
A Not so Simple Wish
Chapter 20
by Ebiris
Ranko curiously eyed her mysterious package. She was getting a strange feeling of
nameless dread every time she went near it, and it was making her uneasy. Why on Earth
had she received it anyway? It would have made a bit more sense if it had been addressed
to her, but it was supposed to be sent to some place called Ice Station Zebra, and she had
most definitely not sent anything that way. Even if she had, she would have paid full
postage for it.
"Hmmm..." she stroked her chin in contemplation as she tried to puzzle out this latest
conundrum in her life. Abruptly, the realisation hit her. "I know!" she exclaimed while
hitting her palm with a closed fist. "Ranko Xiawang must have sent it before I became
Ranko Xiawang!" It made sense, since Antarctica was so far away, it would surely take
more than a month to get there and back, right?
Cheerfully ignoring her misgivings now that she had figured out its origin, she easily
lifted the top off the box, ripping nails out and scattering them everywhere.
"Huh?"
A box full of men's underwear?
Correction, a box full of *moving* men's underwear.
"Yaah!" Ranko scooted away from the box, now recognising all the signs of demonic
possession. Sadly, despite her formidable martial arts skils, this was not something she
was really equipped to handle, even moreso when she was hungover. Grabbing her
phonebook, she started rifling through the pages to locate the nearest temple, all the
while keeping a wary eye on the box of cursed underwear, which so far was not making
any hostile moves...
Suddenly, a tiny wrinkled hand emerged from the depths of the sweaty undergarments,
prompting Ranko to blanch severely. It had *eaten* someone! This was serious!
Before she could formulate a decent plan for dealing with carnivorous demonic boxer
shorts, a familiar head followed the hand in emerging. "Air! Sweet fresh air!" the master
of Anything Goes declared before pausing and looking around. "Ranko-chan? You saved
me!" He crawled out of the box and leapt onto Ranko's bosom, giving her a heartfelt hug
(heartfelt for Happosai meaning no groping).
"Gramps?! Wow, kinda ironic that you got eaten by an underwear demon, huh?" the
redhead noted, making no effort to dislodge him, since it was a genuine hug and not a
'hentai-mega-glomp'.
"Demon? What are you talking about? It was Nabiki who stuffed me in there!" Happosai
told her.
Ranko looked surprised. She would never have thought Nabiki would have it in her to
actually go up against Happosai like that. Normally if there was any risk of danger to
herself, she'd come up with a plan and then dupe someone else into doing it for her. "How
did she manage that?"
"Well, it was a team effort. First, Akane poisoned me with some strange toxin not even I
have encountered before. Then, when I was at my weakest, begging for aid, I was packed
into that disgusting box." He disengaged himself from Ranko and swayed about, looking
dizzy. "How long was I in there anyway? It took everything I had to just survive; I
couldn't sense the passage of time."
"Well, Nabiki has seemed a lot more cheerful at school for the past three days, so I guess
that's how long you've been in there. She tried to post you to Antarctica..."
Happosai shuddered. "It must be the guiding hand of fate that returned me here! I don't
want to go back to the Tendou dump, how about we forget why you were mad at me and
I stay here again?"
Ranko shrugged. "I guess you've been punished enough, and maybe I was a little hard on
you..." In truth, she had actually started to miss the old letch. Her apartment was a little
lonely with just herself. "Just remember that next time you beat up Ranma not to bring
my name into it. It's just an extra complication I don't need."
"Deal." Happosai nodded eagerly before making his way to the cupboard under the sink
and retrieving a bunch of panties and bras to rub all over his face. "Why is it every time I
leave the house for a few days you always hide my collection?"
Ranko pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Because this tiny place is cluttered
enough without having to trip over stolen underwear all the time," she pointed out.
"I did say we could move into a bigger house to have enough room for my collection,
and maybe you could finally start building up your own...?" he trailed off, a hopeful note
in his voice.
"I'm not gonna start stealin' other girls underwear!" she said hotly, before adding in a
quieter voice, "Bad enough I have my own to deal with..."
Happosai looked a little disappointed, but decided not to press the issue. "Oh well,
maybe once Ranma accepts me as his master he'll start liberating silky darlings with me.
I do need someone to pass on the higher secrets of Anything Goes onto..."
Ranko refused to rise to the bait, knowing full well that the 'higher secrets' were not
invincible martial arts techniques, just different ways of stealing underwear. "Speaking
of Ranma, he wants me to train him to improve his speed so he can defeat you."
"Pshaw!" Happosai snorted dismissively. "It'll take more than being faster for that young
pup to beat this old dog. You're already faster, stronger and more skilled than him and
you can't beat me."
Ranko gave him a half hearted glare. "If I weren't so hung over I'd kick your ass, old
man."
Happosai gave her a condescending look. "You might be hung over, but I've never been
as weak as this for years. Now you have to ask yourself, does your tiny little
disadvantage carry enough weight to cancel out my huge disadvantage? Part of martial
arts is about making these judgements before a fight."
"You lookin' for a beatin', Gramps?" Ranko balled a fist and waved it threateningly at
him.
"If you can beat me, I'll teach you a powerful chi attack!" the old man chortled as he
hopped onto the window ledge.
Ranko didn't need to hear anything else as she lifted a leg to rinse it under the sink tap,
before repeating the process with the other to cleanse them of vomit. Then she darted into
her room to change out of her Doraemon pajamas and emerge a moment later dressed in
her fighting clothes. "Let's take this outside," she smirked coolly. The adrenaline rush
brought on by the prospect of a new technique was already flushing her system and
removing the effects of last night's drinking binge.
***
School went by fairly quickly for Ranko that day. Mainly because she slept right through
it.
Abruptly, her head snapped up from her desk, startling several of the students around
her. Two seconds later, the chime announcing lunchtime sounded. For a moment she
looked pleased with herself, glad that her biological clock was on time, but her
expression quickly changed to frustration as she recalled that she hadn't packed a lunch
today. She hadn't even felt like going to school at all, but decided at the last minute to go
since she'd missed most of last week. Besides which, she didn't really want to spend the
day with Happosai after recieving such a savage beating from him that morning. It
seemed like being weakened only made the little pervert stop pulling his punches...
"Hey, Ranko." a nudge from the desk next to her alerted her to Ranma's presence. "You
alright? You've been sleeping all day," he said that with a slight note of envy in his voice.
"Did things go okay last night? Pop was actin' kinda funny this morning..."
Ranko focused her attention on him as she considered her response. "I can't really
remember much of last night. The old man got me so drunk I don't know what
happened." She considered mentioning being shot in order to play on his sympathies, but
considering she had only been shot as a result of a stupid mistake, she really didn't want
to advertise that fact...
Any response from Ranma was interrupted by Nabiki Tendou running into the room and
waving a newspaper. Her attention swiftly gravitated to the redhead by the window and
she approached. "Ranko-san! Is this article true?"
Article? In a newspaper? Ranko suddenly developed a horrible sinking feeling. Had she
done something newsworthy while drunk last night? A brief vision of herself charging
naked through Tokyo while shooting off Mouko Takabishas and Hiryu Shouten Has
every which way flashed before her eyes. With some effort, she shook it off. "I think I'd
remember doin' *that*," she whispered before looking up at Nabiki. "What article?"
"It says you crippled two guys, injured two others, and got shot. Last night."
Ranko sighed in relief. At least she remembered this. "Ah, the Yakuza. Yeah, they were
making trouble, so I took them down."
"You were shot?!" Ranma cried out in a panicky voice before examining her more
closely. "Where?"
"It only grazed me," Ranko mumbled while blushing severely. She rolled up her sleeve to
show the fading pink line from the bullet's passage over her skin. "Wouldn'ta hit me at all
if I hadn't been tryin' ta show off..."
"No way that's from last night. It's almost completely faded." said Sayuri, who had
shown up along with a bunch of other students around Ranko's desk after hearing Nabiki
describe the article.
"Whoo! Show us some more skin!" yelled one foolish boy, who had already forgotten the
part of the article which said the cute redhead in front of him had crippled two men.
"I'm a martial artist. We heal fast," Ranko said, focusing entirely on Sayuri even as she
absently applied a pain hold to the wrist of the unfortunate boy who had last spoken,
letting go after only a few seconds, but still enough to bring tears to his eyes.
"You crippled two people last night! What kind of martial artist does that?" Akane yelled
incredulously from across the classroom, having remained in her seat even as everyone
else had crowded around Ranko.
"They were Yakuza, Akane. They had guns and were just about to use them," Ranko
replied calmly. "In that kind of situation it's best to take them down hard and fast, not
worry about being gentle."
"Wow! It says here one guy had his hand blown off!" Hiroshi exclaimed over Nabiki's
shoulder.
"It wasn't blown off!" Ranko said in an exasparated tone. "His gun exploded and
bloodied him up a bit, but his hand was still attached last I saw. It should have exploded
straight away, but only did after the gun fired once..." she indicated her grazed arm and
gave a self disparaging snort.
"Why would the gun explode?" asked a slightly subdued Nabiki.
"Because I threw a chopstick into the barrel. I saw it in a movie once, but it didn't work
like in the movie..." Ranko explained shamefacedly.
"I'll say!" Ranma said condescendingly. "There's a million better ways to disarm a guy
than tryin' some fancy pants trick like that."
"I know... it was a dumb thing to do, I just got too cocky." Ranko replied quietly.
"No way you could throw a chopstick to accurately go down a gun barrel!" Yuka
exclaimed doubtfully.
Ranko cocked an eyebrow at her and picked up her pencil. "See that mechanical pencil
sharpener on the teachers' desk?" Yuka nodded, and Ranko proceeded to flick her pencil
so it landed firmly wedged inside the device.
Most of the students made suitably impressed noises, though both Ranma and Akane
were heard to remark in stereo "I could do that."
Challenged to prove it by their dubious classmates, Ranma just shrugged and repeated
Ranko's feat, splitting her pencil down the middle as his own became stuck in the pencil
sharpener, which earned him an approving grin from the redhead in the seat next to his.
Then Akane haughtily rose from her seat and made her way to stand between Ranko and
Ranma to get a clear shot at the teacher's desk. "Now watch this!" she said, before
emitting a wordless battle-cry and hurling her pencil with all her might, which flew
nearly two feet above the pencil sharpener and embedded itself halfway into the
blackboard.
Akane blushed and mumbled something unintelligible as she slunk back to her seat
amidst the laughter of her classmates.
Seeing this, Ranko felt a pang of sympathy for the girl who had never been her fiancee in
this life. Standing up, she made her way over to Akane's desk and coughed to get the
brooding girl's attention.
"What do *you* want?" Akane asked acidly, only doing a passable job of covering her
depression with anger.
Ranko fidgeted slightly. Akane was only fun to tease because she reacted in such an over
the top manner, but the Akane in this world seemed to be becoming more and more
depressed and withdrawn with each passing day. It sucked the fun right out of the
exercise to see Akane was really hurting rather than just blowing off steam. "Ah... it's not
that hard, really. I could probably teach you how to do it over lunch...?"
"Why would you help me?" Akane queried. Her tone had softened, but there was definite
mistrust in her voice.
Right, no one ever does somethin' for nuthin', Ranko thought, remembering all the times
she had been screwed over by a 'free' gift from someone with an agenda. "Well..." she
drew the word out while twirling her toes on the ground and adopting a cute expression.
"It just so happens that I forgot to make my lunch this morning, and everyone knows
what a great bento your big sister packs..."
"So you just want to steal my lunch, is that it?"
Ranko fought to keep her tone light and friendly. "Look, I was just thinking that maybe I
could do something nice for you. We don't have to hate each other, Akane," there was a
faint note of pleading in her voice as she finished.
Akane frowned as she seemed to be considering Ranko's words. "You're not just
pretending to be nice so you can make fun of me?"
Ranko paused. Akane seemed so vulnerable it was almost painful to watch. What had
happened to her fiery, uncute tomboy who didn't take any crap? She wanted Akane back
to her old self, so she could tease her without feeling guilty, but she wasn't planning on
making fun of Akane in the immediate future. "No, I'm not," she said simply, giving a
mental promise not to taunt Akane at all... at least for the rest of the day.
Akane looked thoughtful for a moment before taking out her lunchbox and pushing it
halfway across the desk towards Ranko. "Then I guess you can show me how to do your
stupid throwing trick. Not that I really care."
Ranko's face lit up in a brilliant smile as she started to explain what Akane had been
doing wrong with her throw, and guiding Akane through the motions of how to do it
properly. Akane, for her part, seemed rather unenthusiastic at first, though Ranko's
cheerfulness seemed to be infectious, and pretty soon Akane was smiling genuinely as
she and Ranko tossed various small objects around the classroom with uncanny
accuracy.
Ranma blinked in confusion at the scene the pair presented. "I thought those two hated
each other?" he asked.
"I thought that too," Nabiki said as she studied them. Akane had been building up a lot
of anger towards Ranko in recent weeks, yet there was no sign of it here. Either Akane
was a better actress than Nabiki had given her credit for, or there was something deeper
going on. Also, there was something... off... in the way Ranko was behaving with Akane
right now. Nabiki couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but it was nagging at the
back of her mind.
Ranma looked up at Nabiki, who had apparently spaced out, and sighed. "I'll never
understand girls."
***
