The Fire Sutra  - A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic  By Ashoka Roque
Book 3 of "Ashoro's Ranma Sutras"

Warnings and disclaimers: see Chapter One

C & C appreciated   ashoro@excite.com

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Chapter Four: Narrow Escapes

All was chaos on the ballfield. While the Furinkan team and fans celebrated, the mob of angry American girls, bent on revenge for an interrupted play, barreled through the crowd, looking for the two men who had spoiled their fun.

Xian Pu ran towards her food cart, and quickly grabbed a bucket of half-melted ice from inside.  With a deft motion, she upended it over the heads of the two astonished boys, carefully avoiding splashing any of the water on herself.

"Damn, Xian Pu - that's cold!" said Ranma, her face turned somewhat bluish from the icy water.

"Kweee!" squeeled P-cahn, in agreement.

"You shut up, Ranma.  I help you not get killed. Pick up pig and follow Xian Pu."

As the group started to move towards the Furinkan girls' locker room, the mob of outraged American's rounded the corner.

"Yo, chief!" yelled Xian Pu, no longer speaking her broken Japanese, "You lookin' for dose two bums what interfered wit'  your ball game?"

"Yeah, we are," replied Rosie, coming to a stop. She looked Xian Pu up and down with a combination of suspicion and appreciation.

"They went that-a-way!" said Xian Pu, pointing towards the Furinkan gymnasium.

"You ain't lyin' to me, are you?" accused Rosie, jabbing her pudgy finger in Xian Pu's face, "People that lie to me get terrible diseases!"

"No way, sista. I saw dem myself."

Rosie and the other girls ran screaming in the direction of the gymnasium.  Ranma simply stared at Xian Pu with an astonished look on her face. P-chan's little piggy mouth hung open in amazement.

"Xian Pu, what was that?"

"Oh, no is big deal!" replied Xian Pu, giggling. "Me love American romance movie - especially work of Quentin Tarantino! Me see all his movie hundred times - learn good English!"

Xian Pu hustled the pair into the girls' locker room, which was entirely deserted, most of the Tsunamis caught up in the celebratory mood that had moved off of the school campus.

"You be safe here for a while. Xian Pu need to get back to Cat Cafe - big celebration is big money!  I take rain check on date." Xian Pu turned in the doorway to look back at the pair. "Both you owe Xian Pu big time, again."

Yeah, right, thought Ranma. Like she doesn't get me into trouble way more often than she helps me out of it.

Realizing that the girls would eventually return, Ranma grabbed a clean uniform and a towel. Going into the shower, he turned the water to warm and thrust P-chan underneath the wet spray, avoiding splashing himself. A naked Ryouga was soon sitting on the floor.

"Here," said Ranma, throwing him a towel, "Now that I know how much you hate being P-chan, I can't stand to see you like that. Put this uniform on - that should keep you from being recognized."

Ryouga smiled as he stood up.  "Are you sure you want me to get dressed so quickly?"

"Don't tempt me!" replied Ranam, a sly smile sneaking across her face. "I am exerting a tremendous amount of self-control right now. It would be so easy just to step under the water with you - but I don't think we want to get caught like that in the girl's locker room."

"True," said Ryouga, putting on the uniform pants and jersey.  They had obviously been made for a pretty big girl, because they hung baglike over Ryouga's frame.

Damn - he looks so kawaii in that outfit! thought Ranma. "Uh, thanks for saving me from that ball, Ryouga-kun. I didn't even see it coming."

"Why thank me?" asked Ryouga, looking genuinely puzzled. "Shouldn't I look after you?"

"Well, you seem to have been pretty angry at me almost all afternoon," retorted Ranma, her voice becoming defensive.

"Well," replied Ryouga, voice rising, "I guess I'm not sure if I like how you are behaving sometimes.  But Hibiki Ryouga doesn't turn his back on someone special, even when angry!"

Ranma thought carefully she replied. "Ryouga-kun, you know I have a life here. I have buddies and classmates - people I interact with all the time. If you are having trouble dealing with that, how are we going to deal with things if I am forced to marry Akane?"

Almost as if on cue, Akane entered the girls' locker room, having managed to escape just long enough to get her things before going home to Kasumi's celebratory dinner.  At the sound of familiar voices echoing from the shower, she froze, listening intently.

"Saotome Ranma." She heard Ryouga's voice, distinctly. "No matter what happens, I can not allow you to marry Tendo Akane!"

"Ryouga-kun..." Akane heard Ranma's girl voice start to argue.

"NO! I will not allow the one I love to be taken from me in this way!"

Akane quickly backed out of the locker room.  She could get her things tomorrow.  

As she ran home, her thoughts evolved in a semi-panic. She had always realized that Ryouga had a crush on her; he often acted so stupid when she was around, and they had a couple of disastrous dates. Akane did like Ryouga- he was such a nice boy - but it was not at all a romantic feeling. Well, with the wedding drawing nearer, it was obvious that the two had begun fighting over her in earnest. That whole getting-along-better-act did seem pretty phony, Akane concluded. They were just trying to hide from the family - from me! - how much they have grown to hate each other. But she didn't want to marry either one of them. And she knew that neither boy had any true friends other than each other, when they managed to get along. They could be real pals if they would quit this stupid fighting. I need to talk with Ranma tonight. I have to stop this wedding before it destroys everyone I care about!

In her worked-up state, Akane almost bowled over Ukyo, who was waiting for her outside the Tendo dojo.

"What's wrong, Akane?"

Before she realized it, Akane had spilled everything to her friend. She poured out her frustrations with her father, her concern about Ranma's feelings for her, and her worries about Ryouga's reaction in the girls' locker room.

"This stupid wedding," finshed Akane, eyes furious, "We're all going to end up hating each other before it's through!"

"Do you mean to say," asked Ukyo, "That you really don't want to marry Ranma?"

"I never really did.  I like him. But not at all in that way." Akane tilted her head to look at her friend curiously. "I thought you wanted to marry him, yourself."

"Well..." said Ukyo, pausing for a moment as she considered her reply. "I think I did as a child.  But I've changed so much since then, while Ranma seems to have hardly changed at all. I had to go after him as a matter of principle, but my heart really hasn't been in it."

"It's so funny," said Akane, as she took Ukyo's arm to walk her into the house. "I do want to be with somebody, but Ranma just isn't that special person."

"Uhh, do you have a special person, Akane-chan?"

Akane turned to look at her friend, faces centimeters apart. Ukyo was still just a bit sweaty from the ballgame, and she had a tiny smudge of dirt on the tip of her nose. "I'm beginning to give that a lot of thought, Ukyo-chan."

Both girls blushed, but neither looked away from the other.

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The Fire Sutra concludes in Chapter Five: Midnight Conference

C & C appreciated   Ashoro@excite.com