Disclaimer: I pity da fool who thinks I own Ranma ½!
Letting the Truth Out
Setup
Ranma was lying in bed. He was not asleep. A little over an hour ago, he had almost kissed Akane. Again. In fact, if their fathers hadn't returned home until tomorrow, like they were supposed to have, they would have kissed. It seemed like, whenever they were about to come to an understanding, or show affection, or anything, someone showed up. He thought back to shortly before the near kiss, when he'd saved her from being imapled when her chair broke. As he'd lain on his back with her in his arms, she had relaxed when she realized that she was in his arms, almost as if she enjoyed being there. And, then, of course, Shampoo showed up. Then, he remembered something from earlier in the day. He'd just come up with his latest, greatest, plan to reveal p-chan to Akane, and was wondering how to intentionally get Ryoga to show up while he was prepared. Suddenly, it all came together.
No more screw-ups. This time, it would work. Ryoga would be forced to give up his act as p-chan. No more keeping secrets from Akane, no more impotent raging as both her honor and his own were abused. And maybe, if it went just right, he'd have a chance to work on his relationship with Akane. Less mallets, skillets, fists, tables, chairs, books, weights, vases, paperweights, and so forth, would certainly be nice. With that in mind, he managed to get to sleep, in spite of the loudly snoring panda near him.
However, just because he managed to get to sleep at a decent time for once, didn't mean he didn't dream about pandas being hit repeatedly and painfully with rather large mallets. In his sleep, he smiled happily. Several feet away, a certain panda briefly winced, and shuddered in his sleep, for no appearant reason.
Due to nice, pleasant dreams, and a restful amount of sleep, Ranma maintained his disturbing streak of waking up early, and was, for a moment confused as to why he felt a shiver run up his spine. Then he realized that his recent habit of waking up early was creeping even himself out. Then, he noticed a certain furball still lying asleep nearby. He grinned evilly, and cracked his knuckles. Payback time.
Moments later, a large, black-and-white shape hit the koi pond, and sat up dripping. "Browr?" It then held up a sign: [What'd you do that for, boy?] Ranma smirked as he landed softly below the window. "C'mon pops, it's time for morning training!" [It's too early! I wanna go back to bed!] "No can do, pops, I wouldn't want to lose my edge, right?"
The panda growfed a couple times, before waking up enough to get a good sense of what was going on. Then it's eyes widened, as it held up a sign. [Oh no! Stay away, boy!] This, of course only elicited a menacing chuckle from Ranma. "What's the matter, old man? Scared you'll get beaten by me?" he asked. [I'm warning you! Stay away!] the next sign read. As Ranma advanced towards the panda, it backed out of the pond, and flipped the sign around so that the other side was now visible. [I know karate!] Ranma raised an eyebrow in response. "Yeah, pops? In case yer memory is slippin' due ta old age, I've been trainin' with ya for over 10 years, now, an' I'm a lot better at it than ya." The next sign came up. [Well, it was worth a shot.]
By this time, Ranma was barely out of reach of his cowering, panda-shaped father. Once again, the large animal held up a sign. [You're still too slow to beat me, boy!] it read, only to be swung at the seemingly unprepared martial artist.
However, said martial artist was not there when the sign impacted. Rather, he was on one foot, about a foot closer and to the left of the sign, and he executed a perfect, if relatively weak, side kick into his father's hip, sending him staggering. [You're getting weak! Maybe you should just stay a girl!] the next sign read. The panda quickly considered that bit of goading, when he saw Ranma stop a moment, assessing his father.
"Y'know, pops, I was simply gonna spar with you like usual, an' get some small measure of revenge by thrashing your furry behind all across the Tendo's yard, here, but ya've got me thinkin'." He paused, maliciously. "So, here I stand, considerin' what ta do with ya. On the one hand, you're my old man, and ya've taught be to be the best there is at the Art, an' I owe ya a lot for that. On tha other hand, I've rarely, if ever, recieved a word of encouragement from ya. In fact, you've engaged me ta dozens of girls, gotten me cursed, insulted me at every turn, an' tried to make me take responsibility for your stupid decisions. An' that's jus' for starters."
By now, a large sweat drop had appeared on the panda's head, and it was backing away slowly, it's paws in front of it in a warding-off gesture. Ranma's smirk got larger than normal, and, after pausing to crack his knuckles, he finished, "Ya know, pops, I really think I'm gonna enjoy this." With that, he sprang at the hapless panda, visions of various panda contortions dancing in his head. Well, let it never be said that Ranma doesn't turn his dreams into reality.
Some time later, Kasumi stepped out of the house, to inform the Saotomes that breakfast was ready. Surveying the craters in the yard, the shattered boulder by the koi pond, and the numerous damaged parts of the outer wall, she quickly took action in her most Kasumi-like manner. "Oh, my. I suppose I'd better call the contractor," she decided. Then, noticing the twisted lump of flesh that vaguely resembled a panda, she hastily added, "and doctor Tofu. Oh, and perhaps an ambulence." This decided, she returned inside to use the phone, ignoring the tortured whimpers the panda emitted when she mentioned the lovestruck doctor. Having realized what Kasumi had assuredly come outside to do, Ranma got up from his meditation atop one of the undamaged rocks by the koi pond. "Well, pops, I'm goin' in for breakfast. See ya later. Maybe I'll even visit ya in the hospital. I'm sure you'd do tha same for me." Then he left to get his morning meal.
A couple hours later, while daydreaming in some class or another (a quick glance at the board revealed it to be history), he decided that he should put his latest plan into action as soon as possible. After all, he had long ago been taught that, 'to he that hesitates, all is lost'. Sure, it got him in a lot of trouble, through his tendency to say things he ought not to, but it had also saved him (and others) on more than a couple of occasions. Glancing over at Akane, he noticed her studiously taking notes, her brow furrowed, a slight frown of concentration on her face (or was she still mad about the damage to the yard that morning?), her tongue unconsciously poking out slightly from between her lips. 'Man, she can be cute, sometimes.', he thought. 'Too bad I'll never be able to tell her without putting my health and her life at risk.' He sighed audibly. "I'm sorry, Mr. Saotome, am I boring you? Perhaps holding buckets out in the hall would be more interesting? Why don't you find out." The teacher said, somehow hearing the solitary sigh over his own lecture.
Ranma shrugged, picked up 2 buckets from the corner, and went out to the hall, grateful for the chance to do something other than just sit. As he stood in the hall, waiting for the class to end, he remembered that he had decided to put his plan into action. That meant finding Akane during lunch. Well, at least lunch was next, he remembered. His course of action decided, he waited.
Finally, the bell rang, signalling the end of the class, and the beginning of lunch. Before anyone had a chance to do anything other than close their books, he had returned the buckets, having not spilled a single drop of water, and was collecting his school supplies from his desk. Moments later, he was beside Akane's desk. "C'mon, Akane, it's a nice day out. Let's eat outside." he said. She gave him an odd look, but nodded. As soon as he got an affirmative response, he had her in his arms, both their bags over his shoulder, and he lept out the window. This merited a momentary odd glance from Ukyo, but she figured it involved a new challenge of some sort. 'Of course,' she thought, 'I haven't seen Ran-chan much in the last few days. Maybe I'll stop by today. After all, he might be able to use some help with this challenge...' Her plan of action settled in her mind, she went to set up her lunchtime okonomyaki stand.
A few minutes later, Ranma and Akane had settled under a tree to each their lunches, still blushing from their close proximity a short time before. Neither of them spoke, however; Ranma was busy devouring his lunch with inhuman speed, and Akane was too busy puzzling over his behaviour. 'He's been unusually nice for the last couple days, aside from that bucket of water. What's he up to? Maybe he's really just trying to be nice. I'd like that. But, he's never done it before; why now?' Finally, she decided to ask. "Ranma?" she queried. "mmmph?" he replied vaguely, trying to communicate around the large quantity of food currently in his mouth. She waited until he had swallowed before continuing. "Are you okay? You've been, well, nice, most of the week." "Gee, Akane, I'm sorry for being nice. And hey, you said that like I'm a jerk all the time!" he replied, starting to get mad. Realizing she said the wrong thing, and that he hadn't even earned it, she replied, "Sorry, Ranma, I didn't mean it like that. You can be a jerk sometimes, but you're usually not that bad. But you've been unusually nice recently." Meanwhile, Ranma was in a mild state of shock. 'Akane just... apologized... to me? Is the world ending or something?', he wondered. Observing that it seemed to be continuing as ever, he shrugged. 'Well, I could get used to her being nice like this.', he decided. 'Well, I guess it's time to follow my plan.' "Umm, Akane?" he asked quietly
This aroused her curiousity even further. He had a very serious look about him, as if what he were about to say was very important. Wondering what he had to say, she replied, "Yes, Ranma?" "There's, uh, something I need to talk to you about." He continued, blushing, and also fidgeting. Akane, on the other hand, was stunned. She was almost positive he was going to tell her he loved her. Or... he was going to tell her he didn't want anything to do with her. But she couldn't bear to think about that. So, she asked expectantly, "What is it, Ranma?" In reply, he shook his head. "Not now. There's too many people around. How about later this evening, like after dinner?" She was a bit puzzled for a moment, and then realized just who might overhear. Well, she'd been waiting over a year, she supposed a few hours more wouldn't hurt. "o-okay." she answered, eliciting a sigh of relief from him. Shortly, their lunches finished, they returned to class.
The rest of the day seemed to pass in a blur for both Ranma and Akane. And, at the same time, it seemed to crawl along as if the evening would never arrive. When they got home, Ranma began to make preparations for the execution of his plan, and Akane tried to practice in the dojo, but couldn't keep her concentration, and so went to her room and wrote in her diary. Finally, dinner came, and they both tried to act normal. Of course, sitting next to each other at the table, they were jumping whenever they brushed against each other, and blushing furiously, but Soun and Genma were busy plotting to get them married, and, for once, Nabiki was caught up enough in her own scheming that she didn't seem to notice. Neither of them had much of an appetite, though (well, proportional to normal. Ranma still ate like it was to be his last meal.), and, shortly, announced that they were finished. Knowing their fathers, Akane announced that she was going for a walk, and waited for Soun to insist that Ranma join her. It took slightly longer than she expected, but insist he did. Ranma, for his part, quietly agreed to go, and within moments, they were standing outside the gates of the house.
Akane finally couldn't stand it any more. "So, Ranma, what did you want to talk about?" He waved his hands, trying to shush her. "Not here!" he hissed. She was about to question him further, but, instead, he swept her up into his arms, and bounded off across the rooftops. Moments later, Ukyo stepped out of the nearby shadows. Her eyes narrowed, she said to herself, "How dare Akane try to steal MY Ranchan! I'll teach her!", when out stepped Nabiki. "I'll make a deal with you. Rather than trying to follow Ranma-kun, I can tell you where to find them, but only because I want to be there, too. Oh, and it'll cost you 2000 yen." Ukyo nodded, and bent forward so the other girl could piggyback on her. Shortly, she was roof-hopping in a different direction.
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Author's Notes:
Ha,a cliffhanger!Finally, another chapter done. This one took a while, 'cause I was busy, wasn't entirely sure what all would happen, and I wasn't sure how to write what I was sure would happen. So, the title of this one is "setup", as in the setup of a joke. In case you haven't figured out that something will go horribly wrong, you'll understand soon enough. If you're wondering how this works towards Ranma's goal of exposing P-Chan, then, well, you aren't familiar enough with the series. Hopefully, Chapter 6 will be up today or tomorrow. Until then!
Oh, and, as always, leave a review. Please?
Letting the Truth Out
Setup
Ranma was lying in bed. He was not asleep. A little over an hour ago, he had almost kissed Akane. Again. In fact, if their fathers hadn't returned home until tomorrow, like they were supposed to have, they would have kissed. It seemed like, whenever they were about to come to an understanding, or show affection, or anything, someone showed up. He thought back to shortly before the near kiss, when he'd saved her from being imapled when her chair broke. As he'd lain on his back with her in his arms, she had relaxed when she realized that she was in his arms, almost as if she enjoyed being there. And, then, of course, Shampoo showed up. Then, he remembered something from earlier in the day. He'd just come up with his latest, greatest, plan to reveal p-chan to Akane, and was wondering how to intentionally get Ryoga to show up while he was prepared. Suddenly, it all came together.
No more screw-ups. This time, it would work. Ryoga would be forced to give up his act as p-chan. No more keeping secrets from Akane, no more impotent raging as both her honor and his own were abused. And maybe, if it went just right, he'd have a chance to work on his relationship with Akane. Less mallets, skillets, fists, tables, chairs, books, weights, vases, paperweights, and so forth, would certainly be nice. With that in mind, he managed to get to sleep, in spite of the loudly snoring panda near him.
However, just because he managed to get to sleep at a decent time for once, didn't mean he didn't dream about pandas being hit repeatedly and painfully with rather large mallets. In his sleep, he smiled happily. Several feet away, a certain panda briefly winced, and shuddered in his sleep, for no appearant reason.
Due to nice, pleasant dreams, and a restful amount of sleep, Ranma maintained his disturbing streak of waking up early, and was, for a moment confused as to why he felt a shiver run up his spine. Then he realized that his recent habit of waking up early was creeping even himself out. Then, he noticed a certain furball still lying asleep nearby. He grinned evilly, and cracked his knuckles. Payback time.
Moments later, a large, black-and-white shape hit the koi pond, and sat up dripping. "Browr?" It then held up a sign: [What'd you do that for, boy?] Ranma smirked as he landed softly below the window. "C'mon pops, it's time for morning training!" [It's too early! I wanna go back to bed!] "No can do, pops, I wouldn't want to lose my edge, right?"
The panda growfed a couple times, before waking up enough to get a good sense of what was going on. Then it's eyes widened, as it held up a sign. [Oh no! Stay away, boy!] This, of course only elicited a menacing chuckle from Ranma. "What's the matter, old man? Scared you'll get beaten by me?" he asked. [I'm warning you! Stay away!] the next sign read. As Ranma advanced towards the panda, it backed out of the pond, and flipped the sign around so that the other side was now visible. [I know karate!] Ranma raised an eyebrow in response. "Yeah, pops? In case yer memory is slippin' due ta old age, I've been trainin' with ya for over 10 years, now, an' I'm a lot better at it than ya." The next sign came up. [Well, it was worth a shot.]
By this time, Ranma was barely out of reach of his cowering, panda-shaped father. Once again, the large animal held up a sign. [You're still too slow to beat me, boy!] it read, only to be swung at the seemingly unprepared martial artist.
However, said martial artist was not there when the sign impacted. Rather, he was on one foot, about a foot closer and to the left of the sign, and he executed a perfect, if relatively weak, side kick into his father's hip, sending him staggering. [You're getting weak! Maybe you should just stay a girl!] the next sign read. The panda quickly considered that bit of goading, when he saw Ranma stop a moment, assessing his father.
"Y'know, pops, I was simply gonna spar with you like usual, an' get some small measure of revenge by thrashing your furry behind all across the Tendo's yard, here, but ya've got me thinkin'." He paused, maliciously. "So, here I stand, considerin' what ta do with ya. On the one hand, you're my old man, and ya've taught be to be the best there is at the Art, an' I owe ya a lot for that. On tha other hand, I've rarely, if ever, recieved a word of encouragement from ya. In fact, you've engaged me ta dozens of girls, gotten me cursed, insulted me at every turn, an' tried to make me take responsibility for your stupid decisions. An' that's jus' for starters."
By now, a large sweat drop had appeared on the panda's head, and it was backing away slowly, it's paws in front of it in a warding-off gesture. Ranma's smirk got larger than normal, and, after pausing to crack his knuckles, he finished, "Ya know, pops, I really think I'm gonna enjoy this." With that, he sprang at the hapless panda, visions of various panda contortions dancing in his head. Well, let it never be said that Ranma doesn't turn his dreams into reality.
Some time later, Kasumi stepped out of the house, to inform the Saotomes that breakfast was ready. Surveying the craters in the yard, the shattered boulder by the koi pond, and the numerous damaged parts of the outer wall, she quickly took action in her most Kasumi-like manner. "Oh, my. I suppose I'd better call the contractor," she decided. Then, noticing the twisted lump of flesh that vaguely resembled a panda, she hastily added, "and doctor Tofu. Oh, and perhaps an ambulence." This decided, she returned inside to use the phone, ignoring the tortured whimpers the panda emitted when she mentioned the lovestruck doctor. Having realized what Kasumi had assuredly come outside to do, Ranma got up from his meditation atop one of the undamaged rocks by the koi pond. "Well, pops, I'm goin' in for breakfast. See ya later. Maybe I'll even visit ya in the hospital. I'm sure you'd do tha same for me." Then he left to get his morning meal.
A couple hours later, while daydreaming in some class or another (a quick glance at the board revealed it to be history), he decided that he should put his latest plan into action as soon as possible. After all, he had long ago been taught that, 'to he that hesitates, all is lost'. Sure, it got him in a lot of trouble, through his tendency to say things he ought not to, but it had also saved him (and others) on more than a couple of occasions. Glancing over at Akane, he noticed her studiously taking notes, her brow furrowed, a slight frown of concentration on her face (or was she still mad about the damage to the yard that morning?), her tongue unconsciously poking out slightly from between her lips. 'Man, she can be cute, sometimes.', he thought. 'Too bad I'll never be able to tell her without putting my health and her life at risk.' He sighed audibly. "I'm sorry, Mr. Saotome, am I boring you? Perhaps holding buckets out in the hall would be more interesting? Why don't you find out." The teacher said, somehow hearing the solitary sigh over his own lecture.
Ranma shrugged, picked up 2 buckets from the corner, and went out to the hall, grateful for the chance to do something other than just sit. As he stood in the hall, waiting for the class to end, he remembered that he had decided to put his plan into action. That meant finding Akane during lunch. Well, at least lunch was next, he remembered. His course of action decided, he waited.
Finally, the bell rang, signalling the end of the class, and the beginning of lunch. Before anyone had a chance to do anything other than close their books, he had returned the buckets, having not spilled a single drop of water, and was collecting his school supplies from his desk. Moments later, he was beside Akane's desk. "C'mon, Akane, it's a nice day out. Let's eat outside." he said. She gave him an odd look, but nodded. As soon as he got an affirmative response, he had her in his arms, both their bags over his shoulder, and he lept out the window. This merited a momentary odd glance from Ukyo, but she figured it involved a new challenge of some sort. 'Of course,' she thought, 'I haven't seen Ran-chan much in the last few days. Maybe I'll stop by today. After all, he might be able to use some help with this challenge...' Her plan of action settled in her mind, she went to set up her lunchtime okonomyaki stand.
A few minutes later, Ranma and Akane had settled under a tree to each their lunches, still blushing from their close proximity a short time before. Neither of them spoke, however; Ranma was busy devouring his lunch with inhuman speed, and Akane was too busy puzzling over his behaviour. 'He's been unusually nice for the last couple days, aside from that bucket of water. What's he up to? Maybe he's really just trying to be nice. I'd like that. But, he's never done it before; why now?' Finally, she decided to ask. "Ranma?" she queried. "mmmph?" he replied vaguely, trying to communicate around the large quantity of food currently in his mouth. She waited until he had swallowed before continuing. "Are you okay? You've been, well, nice, most of the week." "Gee, Akane, I'm sorry for being nice. And hey, you said that like I'm a jerk all the time!" he replied, starting to get mad. Realizing she said the wrong thing, and that he hadn't even earned it, she replied, "Sorry, Ranma, I didn't mean it like that. You can be a jerk sometimes, but you're usually not that bad. But you've been unusually nice recently." Meanwhile, Ranma was in a mild state of shock. 'Akane just... apologized... to me? Is the world ending or something?', he wondered. Observing that it seemed to be continuing as ever, he shrugged. 'Well, I could get used to her being nice like this.', he decided. 'Well, I guess it's time to follow my plan.' "Umm, Akane?" he asked quietly
This aroused her curiousity even further. He had a very serious look about him, as if what he were about to say was very important. Wondering what he had to say, she replied, "Yes, Ranma?" "There's, uh, something I need to talk to you about." He continued, blushing, and also fidgeting. Akane, on the other hand, was stunned. She was almost positive he was going to tell her he loved her. Or... he was going to tell her he didn't want anything to do with her. But she couldn't bear to think about that. So, she asked expectantly, "What is it, Ranma?" In reply, he shook his head. "Not now. There's too many people around. How about later this evening, like after dinner?" She was a bit puzzled for a moment, and then realized just who might overhear. Well, she'd been waiting over a year, she supposed a few hours more wouldn't hurt. "o-okay." she answered, eliciting a sigh of relief from him. Shortly, their lunches finished, they returned to class.
The rest of the day seemed to pass in a blur for both Ranma and Akane. And, at the same time, it seemed to crawl along as if the evening would never arrive. When they got home, Ranma began to make preparations for the execution of his plan, and Akane tried to practice in the dojo, but couldn't keep her concentration, and so went to her room and wrote in her diary. Finally, dinner came, and they both tried to act normal. Of course, sitting next to each other at the table, they were jumping whenever they brushed against each other, and blushing furiously, but Soun and Genma were busy plotting to get them married, and, for once, Nabiki was caught up enough in her own scheming that she didn't seem to notice. Neither of them had much of an appetite, though (well, proportional to normal. Ranma still ate like it was to be his last meal.), and, shortly, announced that they were finished. Knowing their fathers, Akane announced that she was going for a walk, and waited for Soun to insist that Ranma join her. It took slightly longer than she expected, but insist he did. Ranma, for his part, quietly agreed to go, and within moments, they were standing outside the gates of the house.
Akane finally couldn't stand it any more. "So, Ranma, what did you want to talk about?" He waved his hands, trying to shush her. "Not here!" he hissed. She was about to question him further, but, instead, he swept her up into his arms, and bounded off across the rooftops. Moments later, Ukyo stepped out of the nearby shadows. Her eyes narrowed, she said to herself, "How dare Akane try to steal MY Ranchan! I'll teach her!", when out stepped Nabiki. "I'll make a deal with you. Rather than trying to follow Ranma-kun, I can tell you where to find them, but only because I want to be there, too. Oh, and it'll cost you 2000 yen." Ukyo nodded, and bent forward so the other girl could piggyback on her. Shortly, she was roof-hopping in a different direction.
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Author's Notes:
Ha,a cliffhanger!Finally, another chapter done. This one took a while, 'cause I was busy, wasn't entirely sure what all would happen, and I wasn't sure how to write what I was sure would happen. So, the title of this one is "setup", as in the setup of a joke. In case you haven't figured out that something will go horribly wrong, you'll understand soon enough. If you're wondering how this works towards Ranma's goal of exposing P-Chan, then, well, you aren't familiar enough with the series. Hopefully, Chapter 6 will be up today or tomorrow. Until then!
Oh, and, as always, leave a review. Please?