Hello, I'm back! You wouldn't believe how busy I have been! Trust me, school is MUCH better that any kind of job you get... Unfortunately school is over for me… Oh well, tonight I felt like continuing this story, so you get to read a new chapter. ^_^
It's kind of a draft version, so if that bothers you, please wait a couple of days, I promise I'll do my best to fix it! Thanks!
Oh, another thing. There are a few answers to reviews at the end and if you don't find your name there, well, it's because I mostly just answered questions. So if you got any, I'll make sure to answer. Thanks for reading me!
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"Of Loose Gi's and Lost Focuses"
Chapter 11
It was easy to make Akane do almost anything when she got angry enough, Ranma thought later that night, lying on his futon and trying to sleep. For once he did not fall asleep the instant he got his head on the pillow, he started thinking about his fiancé and her training.
'She surely is strong enough, for a girl. Hell, she is stronger that lots of men I know… The way she handles tables and rocks and all sorts of stuff when she is mad at me… Woah! I bet she doesn't even know how she does that. Her ki is quite strong, she just needs control. And balance. Now if I could just get her mad enough to…'
He smiled mischievously, a plan forming in his mind. Soon he fell soundly asleep, despite the loud snoring of his panda-father. (Now, just to be perfectly clear: it is Ranma we are talking about – when did Ranma have a good plan which he really had thought through etc.? Do you really think this one will be any different? ^_~)
The next morning Ranma woke up late as usual and of course he and Akane had to run all the way to school again.
"You uncute tomboy," Ranma yelled from in front of her, still walking on the pavement since they hadn't reached the part of the street with the fences. "Why didn't you wake me up in time? Now we have to…"
He was interrupted by an indignant scream.
"WHAT? I did wake you up, but you just wouldn't get up. It's all your fault that we're almost late again," Akane yelled, fuming already.
'Yes!' Ranma thought, triumphantly. 'Just a little more angry…'
"Yeah, but you're so slow, you eat too slowly, you dress up too slowly, you walk…" He was interrupted again.
"I do not!" she yelled, running after him, read to strike him. Ranma started to run a bit faster, still on the ground. He eyed the narrow wall that was in front of him, separating the street from a garden. It was a brick wall, about 25 cm long (NB: a little less than a foot ^_^), and it would serve his purpose perfectly.
"Ranma, you jerk, wait!" Akane kept screaming, running after him.
"Nah," he teased again. "I don't want to be late because of a slowpoke like you. And besides, you couldn't catch me if I had my feet tied together and a weight attached to them!" He was laughing, just to anger her more. And of course she fell for it completely.
He jumped on the brick wall, which was just half a meter (NB: less than two feet) high at the beginning, but he knew it would get increasingly higher. He hoped she'd follow him in her blind anger, and she did. He ran on checking on her every now and then, to make sure she was following him and she wasn't going to hurt herself by falling from the brick wall. He taunted and teased her to keep her angry and make her forget where she was actually running. Wow, he thought, it was working!
Akane was furious. How could he tease her like that? How could he after… His words just got her madder and madder, all she wanted to do was smack him right into next week and damn it, she was going to get him!
The wall was now about a meter and a half high and it was almost finished. Ranma ran on, jumped off it and stopped for a second to see what Akane would do.
He was surprised how elegantly she jumped off without even noticing the height, but he didn't have time to think about it, she was closing on him and he knew he had to run away as fast as he could.
"Ranma!" Akane yelled again. " Wait up and face me like a man!"
"Oh, yeah?" he said, fighting to maintain his temper at her taunt in order to continue with his plan. "A real man doesn't fight girls, especially if they're slow and clumsy like a certain tomboy…" He laughed mockingly again, fuelling her anger and getting ready to jump on a trash container near a solid, two metre (NB: uhmm... about 7 feet) high fence. If she did as he hoped, he'd see if she really was a natural… or just a lucky beginner.
"Ranmaaaa!" She yelled again, running even faster. He waited patiently on the container until she was about to smack him with her giant mallet. Just before she swung the mallet, he jumped on the fence, making a face and sticking his tongue out. Akane fumed and jumped directly on the container, swinging her mallet again.
'Woops!' Ranma thought, 'so she is a natural, she just had never tried before!' But he had to stop wondering about her abilities, since she was too close to him for his safety. He ran a few steps on the fence and then stopped again.
"You'll never get me, slowpoke. You're too clumsy to get someone like me!"
Akane saw red and jumped on the fence to follow him. Just like when she lifted tables and rocks, she didn't think about what she was doing, she was completely focused on her fiancé and on how to smack him on the head with her mallet. So she ran on the fence after him, shouting insults and admonitions, while he kept fuelling her anger to keep her busy and away from realizing what she was doing.
The night before, while thinking about his plan, he had remembered that his father had often made him do things this way: teasing him into moves that he never knew he could do, and then, afterwards, making him practise them until he mastered them consciously too. That was about what he intended to do with Akane. The only problem was he hadn't decided yet whether to tell her about his training her or not. He had chosen to see what happened first and decide on the spot.
That exact moment, though, wasn't the best one to make such a decision, as Ranma sort of realized when Akane almost smacked him in the canal because of his lack of attention. They had been running on that fence for quite a while now and everything had gone well. Of course that was the time when something had to go wrong. It's Ranma and Akane we're talking about, right?
"Hey, Ranma, wait up!" a voice was heard.
Ranma identified it as Ukyo's and silently cursed under his breath. He couldn't stop, Akane was too angry and too close. What could he do?
"Akane!" Ukyo yelled, surprised. "I didn't know you could run on fences! When did you learn that?"
Akane noticed the girl only when she called her name.
"What are you talking about? I can't run on fences! I'm not a sex-changing monkey!" she yelled back, still running after her fiancé. Then she slowed up a little. And a little more. She started to walk. Finally she came to a stop. Her eyes blank. Her hair ruffled and her cheeks red from the workout. She started swaying dangerously. She was about to fall in the canal. Or, worse, on the pavement. From a two metre (almost 7 feet) high fence. She was scared. And who was to blame?
"Ranmaaaa!" she yelled, already on her way from the fence, falling towards the hard street.
Just before she hit the ground two strong hands caught her and she found herself in a tight, protective embrace. Her cheek pressed to his chest, she could hear his heart beating wildly and strangely enough it registered in her brain through all the fear and anger she was feeling.
Ranma's heart was indeed beating hard, and it wasn't for the run. He had seen her slowly come to a stop, her eyes full of confusion at first, as she realized where exactly she was, and the fear building in them. Or maybe it was lack of confidence rather than fear. Either way, he knew it wasn't good. And he knew what was about to happen. He turned as quickly as he could and jumped off the fence, running towards her hoping to be fast enough. Luckily he was.
Ukyo watched everything in awe, speechless. She saw Akane stop, start falling, and from the corner of her eye she noticed Ranma running towards her and finally catching her. It all took less than five seconds. But it was much more than that since he had caught her. Why was he still holding her like that? Why was she motionless? Wasn't she supposed to yell at him, hit him? Wasn't he suppose to jump back immediately? She felt a familiar pang of jealousy.
"Is everything ok?" she asked innocently, approaching them and positively destroying the moment of confusion between them.
Ranma hastily put Akane on the ground and stepped away. Akane blushed and humpfed, looking the other side. Ukyo congratulated herself.
"Uhmmm… yeah, I guess," Ranma remembered to answer Ukyo's question. "We were just…"
"What?!" Akane snapped at that, remembering her anger. "You jerk! I could have killed myself! Why did you make me get on that fence?"
'Yes!' Ukyo thought, deciding to forget about the long moment Ranma had held Akane in his arms. 'That's the real Akane, the violent, uncute tomboy Ranma hates!' She secretly smiled, knowing the two were too busy with their argument to notice her. She headed for school. It was rather late.
Ranma was at a loss for words. He wasn't about to tell her his plan of training her. Not now. Not yet. He just looked away, silently. This only made Akane angrier, of course.
"Well? What is it now? Are you going to answer me or not?" she yelled, her aura appearing around her.
"I…" Ranma started, but to his extreme relief he was saved by the school bell which chose that exact moment to ring.
"Waahhhh! We're late again! And it's all your fault!" Akane yelled, running toward the gate, which was still quite far.
"It's not my fault. You're the one who stopped running, tomboy!" Ranma shot back.
Of course they were very late. And of course they had to hold buckets for a looong time.
They ignored each other for a while. At least they tried to. Every now and then, Ranma would sneak a peek at her and she would look at him from the corner of her eye. They did their best not to make the other see it, but sometimes their eyes met and they both averted their gazes immediately.
"Humpf."
"Feh."
"Jerk," she murmured.
"Tomboy," he mumbled.
And they pointedly looked away from each other for a while again.
Ranma wasn't actually angry at her or anything, he just had to keep up the appearances. In fact he was rather pleased with himself and with her, though he wouldn't have put it in these words. She had a lot of potential. She could be really good. If only he could make her go by the instincts rather than by her conscious thoughts. She had assumed so many bad habits on the way and that way why she was so clumsy, so graceless, so slow. It would be a problem to continue training her without telling her. She wouldn't fall for the same trick over and over again. Or would she?
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Thanks thanks thanks! If you got to the end you really are a very understanding reader… Hehe, I feel so tired and this chapter is probably full of mistakes and misspelled words and everything… Heck, I don't even know what it looks like, actually. I merely finished writing it. Forgive me, but I'm posting it now, as it is. I know I should get pre-readers and go through my writing again myself, but I just hate doing it immediately after I've finished it. And besides, since I'm not really updating that often (yeah, yeah, I hear you… often is not a word I should use in the same sentence with update…), since I don't update that often, I was saying, I thought you'd like to read on even if it's in draft version. I promise I'll go through it as soon as I can and fix the major mistakes I spot. Not that it will help much, I'm afraid… Oh, well, thanks again for you patience and let me know what you think or don't agree with or waht to know or wonder about or anything at all!
Ok, now some answers to reviews (you can skip this part if you want, it might not make much sense if your name isn't there…).
Here we go:
Holy-Psychic-Vulpix – Thank you so much! I corrected that immediately. I also found a couple of other mistakes later, and I'm going to fix them as soon as I can. Thanks again, and if you see anything else, please let me know!
Mary (and all those who accuse me of teasing etc.) – Well, I guess they will, eventually. What's the rush? I mean, they are young and they are Ranma and Akane. I really think they are cute together and since their hormones must be raging, some … uhmmm… spicy scenes are bound to appear. At least in my point of view. Hope that is some kind of an answer. Of course I don't want to give away the plot… ^_ ^
dogbertcarroll – Anchovies? As in food? You got me curious with that statement. ~_^ Thanks, anyway!
Minako-chan – Hey, good idea there! I might use it… Don't know yet, you know these chapters kind of write themselves, I just have a loose plot to fit them in. Thanks again!
Daouid – That question is something I might never want to answer. Let's just say that I come from one of the minor European countries. ^_^
The Master of Flying Cats – Gee, I don't know if I should thank you or what, but you know, I love cats and they usually love me, so … beware. They might not return home!
Allied – Sorry if the chapters seem so short, but that's kind of my perfect length for now. I guess they'll stay like this for now. Oh, and I do not accept any responsibility for the side effects of my fanfiction on readers who read them at one in the morning drunk as an Irish sailor!
Neko Yosei – Noooo! Not Kuno! I promise I'm not finished. Far from it actually! So no Kuno please!
Thor – Hehe, thanks for the translation. And I didn't mind being blackmailed that way too much… I'd love to have you as a pre-reader but as I said I usually post the chaps the moment I finish them. Uhmmm… If you feel like it you could send me your comments when you read them, or I could mail you the new chapters directly as I write and post them… I guess I sound a bit confused… Sorry…. ~_~
That's about it. Thanks again to everybody! Love you all!!!
