Yo! I'm back again!
Now into some plot development. I happen to hope that this chapter will answer a few questions left by the last chapter!
And maybe start up a few others. [Snickers]
~~~~~~*** FORWARD ***~~~~~~
"What about Ranma?" Akane was beginning to get that pouty face she was known for.
"What do you think of him?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do you think of him?" I repeated my question, with no clarification. The meaning is in the question.
"He's an annoying pervert."
"Oh?"
"Yea. Why? What are you getting at?"
I did my best to be cryptic. "How can you be so sure he's a pervert?"
"Because he does perverted things!"
"Like what?"
"Like... like getting in the bath with Shampoo! And grabbing women's breasts. And all sorts of perverted things!"
"And how sure can you be that they are perverted?"
This question took Akane for a loop. I'm sure she was confused as to what I meant. Looking rather annoyed, she looked into my eyes. "What do you mean 'Are they perverted'?"
"Just that. How can you be sure that they are perverted things?"
"They just are!"
I looked her back into her eyes. "Akane... touch me." Sticking out my chest, I made sure she knew what I meant.
She shook her head in confusion. "What?"
"Touch me! Come on!"
Slowly, unsuredly, she advanced to cover the distance between us. With one hand she reached out and touched me. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"I still don't get it."
"Did you get any pleasure out of it?"
"What?"
"Did you get any pleasure out of touching another girl's breast?" I smiled a cryptic smile.
"No... what are you getting at?" I could tell I was making her nervous.
"Good, because neither did I." Her face quickly changed from confusion to annoyance. "Okay! I'll get to the point!" She leaned back, ready to listen. "There's a difference between 'The Moment' and being perverted. A pervert will go out to do such things, purposely doing these things in order to satisfy a desire or to entertain some kind of fantasy. Case in point: Happosai. That is a pervert because it constantly goes out and finds pleasure in the act." I'm sure I blushed as much as she did at the mention of that creep's name. I still couldn't bring myself to admit that thing was a man. "But Ranma's different. It's true he often finds himself speechless around girls, but I think that may be because he doesn't want to say the wrong things. It seems to me that everything happens to him, happens TO him. He doesn't make, or even want most of the things that happen to him to happen. Such as when one of you walks in on the other, or when Shampoo glomps him." I put on an angry expression at the thought of Shampoo. "I can tell that Ranma never is quite comfortable around her, she never seems to let go."
"Speaking of Shampoo, I'm willing to bet that's just where he is. Probably sucking up for free food."
"I don't think so."
"What makes you so sure?"
"He said he was going to think, and we found the dishes had already been used. He wouldn't go out for food unless he was hungry."
She blinked once as her previously dominant thought flew away. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Akane, tell me something. When is it that he goes out to eat?"
She looked annoyed again. "All the time!"
"But what times?"
Finding that I was pressing the issue, she took a moment to think about it. "Um... I don't know? What do you mean?"
"I mean, what is going on here that keeps him from coming here?" I was beginning to feel exasperated, but was determined to let the girl see it herself.
"Um... I guess I'm usually mad at him when he leaves."
"And during those times, what would have happened if he had come back?"
"I don't know, I guess I probably would have gotten mad again?" Breakthrough!!
"And what about your fathers?"
"Oh that's easy. They would start hounding him about apologizing and about uniting the schools. Genma would end up being a panda again and daddy would either end up unconscious on the floor or would start crying."
"Yeah, I have noticed he does that a lot..."
"You have no idea..."
I closed my eyes as I thought of the next question to make my point clear. "Akane... Do you think, maybe, if he felt a little safer here, maybe if there was someone to support him, that he would be out so much?"
"I don't know, probably. He seems pretty fond of Ukyo." She was still being stubborn.
I put a hand to my nose, trying to rub the pressure away. "Okay, different point... Why does he annoy you so much?"
"Because he's a pervert." That was her standard answer.
"Are you sure about that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Could it have anything to do with the constant stream of insults you two exchange?"
She blinked as what I said registered. "I... guess."
"And then there's his superior attitude. He may actually BE superior, but he doesn't have to be so condescending about it."
"You mean in training? And what's condescending mean?"
"I do mean in training. And condescending is like... well, it's like this. Ranma dances around you when you're trying your best. He basically says that you aren't any good, but he doesn't help you get any better, or even take you seriously. He never does anything but watch, as if you might as well be hitting air." I was getting a bit too involved in my stating of an example, I had my fists up and my knuckles were beginning to whiten.
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience." The smile on her face didn't go unnoticed as I visibly relaxed. I was a bit embarrassed for having gotten so caught up in it. "But you're right. I know he's right, that he's better than me, and that I could improve. But the fact that he's so direct about it just makes me want to stick my foot in his face and kick that smile off his face." The look she was giving the water said that she was also distracted a bit by this.
I figured it was now-or-never, I had to get to the point. "Akane." I got her attention back to me, and off of the water. "I spoke to Ranma earlier, and we came up with something for you two." She rose one eyebrow, showing she was listening. "Here's the thing, and this may be hard for you. But I want you to give it a try."
"What's that?"
"I need you to keep your anger in check." Her look was saying that she was starting to get angry already. "Yes, Akane, you do have an anger problem. You seem to jump to conclusions where Ranma is concerned, and then you never give him a chance to explain. And when you do, you only hear what makes it sound worse. It's gotten so bad that he's now practically afraid to talk to you!"
She crossed her arms. "Oh, the GREAT Ranma, afraid? Ha!"
I'm sure I was beginning to get a bit too forceful, but she was starting to get annoying. "YES, Akane, afraid. I mean, look at it from his point of view. If you don't listen, then he can never tell you the truth. And because of your conclusions, you're always angry at him. And because of your anger, you always interrupt him, or bat him away. No matter what he's done, he always gets a raw deal because he can never explain."
She was listening with a bit of a different expression now, although I was having trouble deciphering it.
"Here's the deal: If you can hold back your anger until he's finished his story, or explanation if that sounds better, then you may get to hear a bit of a different story than you expect. And the deal that we struck was that as long as you give him the chance to explain, that there WILL be an explanation." I smiled. "Although, I'm sure sometimes a story may not sound believable, so there's another term to it."
"What's that?" She was still thinking about the first part, but managed to show curiosity on the rest.
"This is where I come in, really. If a story doesn't sound believable, then I want to hear the story. If I find that there is no need to worry, then we'll just have to dismiss the whole thing." She began to frown, and I decided to bring up the last point I had made earlier that morning. "But! If I don't find it satisfactory, there will be a punishment in store for him."
Her curiosity was touched for a moment. "What kind of punishment?"
I made an attempt at an evil smile. "The punishment that I spelled out directly was that both you and I would give him the beating of his life. You doing as you will, and I doing so because he broke our agreement." My smile grew darker as I injected a bit of insanity into the grin. "I also have punishments for him that may not even seem human, truly. Let's just say that torture chambers of old Europe both host some of my methods, and even pale in comparison to others." I smiled sweetly, with my best 'I'm so innocent.' smile. "To quote myself. Torture, both mental and physical, is something that I'm rather well read on."
Akane smiled. "That, I don't mind agreeing to."
"Do we have a deal?"
She suddenly looked a bit unsure. "Uh, you're going to have to help me. It's gonna be hard to remember for a while..." She began to rub the back of her neck as she fidgeted nervously.
"Don't worry about it! I'll be right there as much as I can, and I'm sure it will get easier with time!" I smiled, then without warning, I dunked my head underwater, doing my best to rub my hair in the rather-warm water until I was sure it had gotten all the way into my hair. Coming up I let go of the breath I had taken before dunking. "But for now, let's get finished here."
~~
"Are you sure about this boy?" Ranma nodded, he was sure.
Happosai nodded himself as he dropped his bag of silky darlings. Things had just gotten interesting.
~~
Merlin looked into the crystal ball with mild interest. "Is that why you chose her? Because she can speak well?"
"You know me Merlin, I always have my reasons!"
Merlin smiled. "Wasn't that exactly your wish? To grant wishes to make the world a better place?"
"Yes! I grant those wishes that are most beneficial, and to those who would best help all those they then affect. That's always been my M-O, you know that!"
Merlin continued his teasing. "In other words, you play match-maker through other people?"
Hanumiki smiled and laughed whole-heartedly. "Well! That's the romanticized version, yes!" They both got a short laugh out of this.
Merlin turned to his friend and looked him directly in the eye. "Well, I can give her the message, but there's no promises. In fact, if she does show up there, you may never know, and I would probably never know either."
Hanumiki took on a confused expression. "But why not?"
Merlin smiled. "That, my friend, is simply the way it is."
~~
Nabiki counted through the cash she had made recently. Not only did it make up for what she had lost, but it even went a lot farther.
If only they hadn't lost sight of those two after they ran off...
~~
Kasumi was presently wondering where Ranma could have gone off to. It wasn't like him to simply leave. He did leave a note, but he usually gave some kind of notice beforehand. Or at least it was because of a fight between him and Akane.
But she could see no evidence of a fight, perhaps that was why Akane seemed frustrated.
Passingly, she wondered what was taking her sister so long in the bath.
~~
ACHOOIE!!
Akane sniffed as she recovered from her sneeze. "You aren't catching a cold are you?"
"No, I don't think so. That just happens from time to time. We usually just say that someone is talking about us." She smiled nervously. "That's something our mother taught us... a long time ago." Akane suddenly stopped buttoning the front of her shirt and held her hands just below her neck. The distanced look that she had, said that she was thinking about her mother.
I didn't know what to think, or what I could say. "Is there something you want to talk about? I'm a good listener." I managed to get my pigtails in place and put the clip in back that held that hair in place.
Akane sighed. "Maybe later. We have to start packing now." I could tell she didn't want to talk about it just yet, so I didn't press the issue.
But I did file that away for later, perhaps I could bring it up the next time we were alone?
~~
The door to the Tendo home opened and a familiar face entered. Kasumi noticed the entrant and smiled. "Well hello, Ranma!"
"Hey Kasumi. Is Akane here?"
Kasumi nodded. "But I think she's in the bath. You can go check." The dishes done, Kasumi decided it was time to rest. Taking a glass of tea with her, she sat down on the couch they had in the living room. As she sat she reveled in the taste, it always calmed her.
And she felt she might be needing that moment of peace. Ranma was back and Akane was... well, Akane.
Ranma looked a bit like Ryoga in a way. He was there while at the same time somewhere else. His eyes traced the ground and his feet moved, but his thoughts were so far away that he nearly forgot to stop at the door to the bathroom.
Knocking, he called out. "Akane? You in there?"
"Ranma?" The voice of Akane wafted through the door from inside, it sounded a bit muffled, but Ranma attributed that to the door being between them.
Without warning Ranma found himself on his butt as Lila suddenly opened the door. Lila looked down at him on the floor and smiled.
~~
"Oh come on! We're both decent!" I mused over how easily he over-reacted to the small surprises. And then there was the fact that he became speechless when caught unprepared.
His jaw moved and his hands twitched but no words came out.
Frowning, I offered him a hand. "Okay, Ranma. We get the idea. So what did you want Akane for?"
He looked at Akane behind me, and then backs to me. I nodded, acknowledging that I had spoken with her. Still looking a bit worried, or thoughtful, whichever it was, he brought up a question. "Can we talk, you know, not in the bathroom?"
A bit unprepared, but understanding his concerns, I looked at Akane. "Well, yeah. That sounds like an idea we could work with." I went back to a corner of the room and picked up my dirty clothes.
Akane finished brushing her teeth and put her brush away. Looking at her, one wouldn't be able to tell what she was thinking. She had a frown on her face, but she wasn't showing any anger.
It was a rare moment, but she actually wasn't thinking about Ranma, even though he was right there in front of her.
Ranma moved to the side and let her walk out, paying little attention to him. "Akane? Where you going?"
Akane stopped in the middle of the hallway, only then realizing she had no idea where she was going.
Walking out I suggested a place I thought we could talk fairly well. "How about the dojo?" Akane stopped looking cluelessly around and turned to look at me. "Sound good?" Akane shrugged and started walking out back.
I sighed and stopped Ranma from following right away. "Ranma, try not to say anything too stupid right away. I probably won't be able to hold her back if she takes it the wrong way."
Taking my dirty clothes and putting them in a convenient place, I followed Ranma out to the dojo, where Akane waited for us still looking slightly lost.
Ranma started. "Okay, here's the deal..." Ranma took a deep breath, closing both eyes and obviously thinking hard in order to keep things calm, he continued once he knew Akane was listening. "Akane, would you mind if we started training together?"
"Huh?" Akane seemed to come back to the now. Keeping silent, I waited to see what he had in mind.
He had a 'deer-in-headlights' look and was staring at the floor. "Look, here's the idea I came up with... And please don't get angry at me, 'cause that's not why I'm here." He looked up to check Akane's reaction so far and found that he hadn't said anything wrong yet. Getting a little braver, he came up with his reasoning. "Here's the thing." He started poking his two index fingers together. "I was thinking about it... and I came up with something... The truth is, if something happened to you, I'm not sure what I'd do. And I seem to attract a lot of nasty or angry, even powerful people who might want to use you to get to me. Or there might even be an accident that you could be involved in." The beads of sweat on his forehead said he was having trouble getting to the point. "And, well, I would want to protect you, but I can't be there all the time..." Akane started to frown, but I gave her the elbow as a quick reminder to wait. I'm sure Ranma saw the movement, and my guess is that he took it as a signal to get to the point. "Well, I guess what I'm saying is that, maybe if I train you, or we train together or something, that it'd be like you can carry a little bit of me with you. If I can help you get stronger, in a way, that'd be like I'm helping to protect you even when I can't be there myself." He looked her in the eye, and didn't find a bit of anger, I know because I didn't see any either. She had a bit of that same 'deer-in-headlights' look Ranma had. "Before you accept or decline I hafta say that I won't be a very good teacher, I don't have any experience." Frowning, he added, "And besides, think of who MY teacher was!"
Ranma laughed loudly at his last revelation for a moment, and Akane just looked speechless. After a little while, Ranma calmed down. "Look, Akane, I don't want to fight anymore. I get enough of that already, and you and me fighting just makes it unpleasant around here..." He looked sheepishly at Akane. "So what do you say? I'll try to get along if you do...?"
As Ranma stuck his hand out in a gesture that said that he wanted to close the deal, Akane started looking like she was fighting something inside. With tears in her eyes, she looked angrily at Ranma and began shouting. "DARNIT RANMA!!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HATE YOU WHEN YOU'RE so darn... nice to me?!" Her voice wavered a bit at the end as she fought off a sob.
Ranma was taken for a loop, his surprised expression was matched only by Akane's sudden outburst. Running as fast as she could, she ran out of the dojo and back to the house.
Ranma looked at the door with a speechless, shocked expression. "Uh, did I say something wrong?"
I was looking at the door, a similar expression plastered on my own face. Then, after going over it, I got a good idea of what happened, and why. "No, I think you did everything right. And that's just the problem."
"Huh? So why did she freak out if I did everything right?" He was shouting at no one in particular, even if he was facing me.
I remained calm, taking on a face of matter-of-fact wisdom. "Well, probably because of morons numbers..." I waited a bit, listening to some of the rustling outside, then put one finger in the air as a wall fell in.
Ranma looked angrily at Suon and just barely managed to put up a defense before he was blown to the floor. "...one..."
Out of the wall behind him came 'Mister Giant Panda', who was carrying a sign that said *What did you do boy!?* "...and two."
Mr. Tendo was pouring tears from his eyes as he helped Genma stomp Ranma into the ground. "YOU MADE MY BABY GIRL CRY!! APOLOGIZE TO AKANE!!!"
Genma-panda agreed by putting up a sign that read *Apologize this instant!!!*
Feeling rather annoyed at the outburst, I walked calmly up behind them and cleared my throat. "Excuse me... Mr. Tendo? Mr. Saotome?"
They stopped their stomping just long enough to look back to me. "Yes?"
"Pardon me for being critical but... how is he supposed to apologize if you're stomping him into the ground?" I kept my eyes on them and watched as they turned to the form on the ground that was directly beneath their feet.
Suon picked Ranma up off the ground and looked at him.
He didn't seem to notice, but I saw his arm hanging limply as blood ran out of the corner of his mouth. Deciding to rush things along, Suon threw Ranma through the air AND Akane's window.
~~
Akane couldn't stay mad at Ranma when he was like that. Especially when she wasn't mad to start with.
But Ranma did the one thing she feared the most from the pig-tailed boy. He was NICE to her!
Akane couldn't stay there, she was so confused!!
Crying in frustration, she ran to her room. Once there she started saying her favorite mantra. "Ranma you jerk. Ranma you jerk."
But for once, she didn't think him a jerk. In fact, she wanted nothing more than to go back and say yes. To go back and tell him to train her, and that she didn't want to fight anymore either.
But she couldn't. Every time they started being nice together, any time they weren't fighting, their fathers were pushing them apart by trying to push them together.
So, she sat there, at the side of her bed, confused, crying into her pillow.
'Oh Kami! If it weren't for this marriage business, and the schools, then there wouldn't be anything to stop me!'
Sadly, she looked at her desk behind her. Seeing a picture of her and Ranma, she thought of something else. 'But why do I want to? It's not like I like him...' Turning back toward her bed, she continued her thinking. 'So what is it? Why do I feel so terrible?'
Before she could come up with any answers she heard a loud crash. Turning around she saw the window had been crashed through.
Following the damage trail, she readied to defend herself, even with tears in her eyes.
At first sight of Ranma, her first though was that she should be angry, he was in HER room after all!
But at looking a little closer, she saw something she never expected to see...
~~
I looked at the broken window. I had to admit, he had good aim. "Before I go... Mr. Saotome, how did you know to come back here?"
He held up another sign that explained everything. *I sensed an angry aura.* He looked pretty proud of himself.
"Oh, I get it." Turning around, looked back at the house. "Now stay here while I go see what they're doing."
~~
Akane was looking at the motionless, bloody form that resembled Ranma. His arm was out of joint and he was bleeding from all over. "Ranma! Are you okay!?" Relieved to find that he was still breathing, she asked another question, this time to no one in particular. "Who did this!?!?"
A voice from the window answered her question as Lila crawled in, careful not to scratch herself on the glass. "Fathers numbers one and two." Not noticing the sudden angry aura appearing around Akane, she gasped when she saw Ranma in the state he was in. "Oh my god!"
Akane was about to go find those ##*@# fathers of theirs and give them a piece of her mind when Lila stopped her. "That won't help him, let's get him to Dr. Tofu."
Letting her anger disappear for an instant, Akane nodded.
Being careful not to twist his arm any worse than it was, Akane picked Ranma off the ground as Lila opened the door.
As Akane ran out of the room and down the hall, Lila walked over to the window to look in the yard at the two 'fathers'.
Scowling, she watched them exchange high-fives.
~~
Bishibon watched the events in the crystal ball with interest. 'Well, things just got interesting! Hanumiki may want to see this.'
~~~~~~*** The End (of this chapter) ***~~~~~~
Ah... what a nice ending, ne?
And now that this has come out, I must do this.
[Opens canister of confetti] WOO HOO!! [Pops confetti bombs] CHAPTER TEN!!! Cool! It's a landmark!
Alex: Congratulations! Maybe now you can work on Traveler X for a while? Hmm?
Alex Ultra: Urk... Uh.... maybe?
Alex: I think it's about time you did...
Alex Ultra: Yeah! Um, about that, I'm kinda lost on that next one!
Lila: [Walks in and looks at screen] Hey, you finished yet?
Alex Ultra: Yeah! Lookit!
Alex: [Looks a bit 'displeased'] [Pulls out water cannon and shoots Alex Ultra]
Lila: Aaah! [Jumps away in shock]
Alex Ultra: Miew?
Alex: Hehe... that'll teach him! Hey, why're you so high-strung?
Lila: [Panting] Huff, huff. No.. gasp... reason!
Alex: [Smirks] Someone has a secret! What is it? You can tell me!
Lila: [Grins] I'll tell you if you tell me!
Alex Ultra: [Watches them walk away] MEOW MIYAOW!! MIEW MEOW!! [Translation: HEY! WHAT ABOUT ME!? GET BACK HERE!!]
Bringer of Hope and Creator of Worlds
Alex and Alex Ultra
LATER