Disclaimer: Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
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CHAPTER 1: ALONG CAME A FIGHTER
Dr. Tofu smiled at Akane pleasantly as he readjusted the bandage around her head. She smiled reassuringly at him, as if trying to convince him that she was going to be all right. With her good left arm, she brought her hand up to feel the bandage that was around her head. Apparently, she had been hit in the temple so hard that the skin had cracked.
"You're lucky you didn't suffer any other brain injury," Dr. Tofu had told her more than once. "And your arm is going to be healing nicely after two months or so. The bone is just slightly splintered."
"Are you going to be all right?" Dr. Tofu asked his patient again. It had been three days since she'd been attacked in the middle of the night, and she was showing signs of trauma, not wanting to be left alone and other such behavior.
"Yes," Akane replied uncertainly. It was nine in the evening, and she'd just finished her dinner that was served by Kasumi. The hospital room was painted completely white, with no furnishing except the bed in the center of the room she was laying in and a closet at one side. The comfort room was outside in the hall. Akane jumped off the examination table, wanting to get home.
She made her way to the door, not once glancing at the person who was supposed to escort her.
"Geez, wait up," Ranma Saotome huffed, immediately standing up from the chair he'd been sitting in. Akane's behavior puzzled him. She had been completely ignoring him since that day she'd come back, beaten up and with a ghastly bruise at the temple. The young brown-haired man accompanying her had said that she got into a fight with one street punk.
Akane didn't even look over her shoulder as she hurried to the entrance of the clinic. With practiced ease, she slipped her feet out of the indoor slippers and into her own leather shoes. Inside, she was boiling. She blamed everything on Ranma. Part of her knew that it wasn't his fault at all, but she refused to acknowledge this.
She walked calmly on the cement pavement on her way back to the Tendou dojo, feeling only slightly at ease. That night, she and Ranma had gone to the bigger, newer convenience store that had opened near downtown. She'd been in unfamiliar territory, but now, she was walking along the road she'd been taking since childhood.
"What's your problem?" Ranma asked, annoyed, as he jumped up to walk on the rail. He put his hands behind his head and told the person walking on the pavement below him: "I waste my time bringing you back to the dojo, and this is how you act?"
There was no response. His fiancé continued walking with her head held up high. She was wearing a plain denim skirt and light blue sweater. Ranma frowned. She had never ignored him for such a long time, and he was starting to get frustrated. To make matters worse, that Soujiro Kaede guy, the one who'd helped Akane out, was challenging him to a duel.
"Hey," Ranma said again. He glared at the back of Akane's head, willing her to just look at him, at least. "I can't believe you lost to a common punk. What a weakling."
Akane closed her eyes to the sound of Ranma's voice. She'd almost been killed. Possibly raped. He'd taken off ahead to leave her in a downtown area she barely knew! And what was he doing now? If she didn't know any better, the bastard was actually taunting her.
Ranma saw her stiffen. Despite himself, he felt relieved that he could still get a reaction out of her.
"Weakling," he said, sticking out his tongue. "What did he look like? How'd he manage to get a hit on you? I mean, with your brute strength and all..."
Akane opened her eyes and stared off straight ahead. How'd he manage to get a hit? Maybe since all ten of them came at once, in all directions... Maybe, if she'd kicked away one but had left her back wide open for nine people to attack... Behind her, Ranma lost his patience.
"Idiot," he muttered. He continued putting his hands behind his head, and shifted his gaze to look at the water channel on the opposite side of the road. He couldn't wait to get his hands on that Soujiro Kaede guy. He had to get rid of the rising frustration he was feeling at the moment.
=====
"Welcome back," Kasumi Tendou said pleasantly as she slid open the entrance of the main house. She took in Ranma's glower and Akane's frown and was momentarily taken aback. Then, coming to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong, her face broke into a bright smile.
"You're back," Soujiro said, appearing beside the oldest Tendou sister. He directed his gaze to the glowering Saotome heir. Apparently, from what Nabiki had told him, Ranma was the strongest fighter in the dojo, despite the fact that Akane was the daughter of the dojo master. And tonight, he was finally going to head home. Ranma had accepted his fighting challenge. "Saotome, let's get on with our fight."
Ranma stepped forward with his fist in front of his face, glaring at the young man before him and hating what he saw. "Alright! At the dojo!"
Soujiro grinned confidently at his new opponent. Without a word, the two set off in the direction of the dojo. He'd been prepared for this. He was dressed in the same clothes he'd had on since he arrived the very first day. The package wrapped in manila paper was still strapped to his back with the use of a leather sling.
He was looking forward to getting the fight over with and returning to his dojo in Hiroshima. If not, then his father made himself very clear that he was to stay until he could find a way to defeat the fighter rumored to have fought against the legendary Amazon leader named Cologne.
He followed Ranma Saotome to the dojo. His opponent was clearly very tense and was bursting with some raw emotion. Soujiro shook his head. Behind him, he heard Akane's footsteps as she followed the two to the dojo. She was a nice girl, a spoiled brat in some ways, but nice nonetheless.
When they had entered the dojo, Ranma took a fighting stance at the right end of the space, and watched Soujiro walk over calmly to the other end of the room. Ranma shifted his gaze to look at Akane, who was kneeling beside the entryway with interest clearly written on her face in anticipation of the fight. Ranma grimaced.
"Go back inside," he called to her across the dojo. "You might get hurt."
Akane didn't even look at him. She turned her gaze to Soujiro and felt a dull pang of apprehension. Despite her anger towards Ranma at the moment, she felt some concern towards whether or not he would be hurt in the fight. Akane caught herself thinking this and shook her head. Ranma had left her to be beaten up, remember?
Ranma watched her deliberately ignore him and turn her gaze to Soujiro. His expression hardened. The stupid idiot! Did she think that looking at his opponent would make him jealous?
His thoughts were interrupted as he watched Soujiro prepare for the battle. Soujiro had been closing his eyes, seemingly in meditation. When he opened his eyes, he took out the wrapped package that was strapped behind his back. He'd have no need of his weapon to fight the Saotome kid. He took off his tacky gray overcoat. Underneath was a polo white shirt of normal sleeve length. He was actually wearing blue slack and leather shoes, as if he were in school uniform.
No sooner had he done this that he charged in. He crossed the entire length of the dojo in a speed Akane wouldn't have thought possible, even for Ranma. He'd been so fast. Ranma barely had time to bring up his arms to defend himself. He reeled from the blow, and slid back several feet.
"Heh," Soujiro said, smiling cockily.
He looked at the opponent before him, who was standing with his shoulders slumped and gaze on the ground. Then there was a mild chuckle in response. Soujiro felt his smile slip off his face before he could stop it, as if the strings holding it in place had suddenly been cut.
Ranma was chuckling. Then he glanced up, a slightly manic look in his eyes. From where she sat, Akane felt her heart give a violent thud. And from his standing position, Soujiro moved his leg to step back...
"Chestnuts roasting over an open fire!" Ranma shouted as his fists shot out with amazing speed. He forced Soujiro back to his original side of the room, where the brown-haired young man fell back beside the manila- paper wrapped package, heaving.
He brought a hand up to wipe at the side of his mouth, and was surprised to see blood. He heaved himself to his feet.
"Now, I'll fight you seriously," Soujiro declared as he stooped down and reached for the package he had brought along.
"It won't make a difference," Ranma practically scoffed, standing before the young man. He braced himself for another attack. This was good, fighting. This was what he had been raised to do: to fight. Not to look after some weak little spoiled brat.
Soujiro said nothing, but unwrapped the package to reveal a long rod with a chain attached to one end and a scythe at the end of the chain... He'd brought some cross between a scythe and a flail. The scythe was an arched blade around a foot and a half long, clearly well sharpened. The chain that connected it to the rod was retractable.
"Hiya!" Ranma shouted as he jumped in. Akane felt a cold bead of sweat run down her back. It wasn't like Ranma to jump in while his opponent was distracted.
Soujiro whirled around and swung the flail, and was properly shocked to see Ranma jump on the chain and use it to run towards him. Recovering quickly, he pushed the button on the rod to retract the chain, making the links disappear back into the rod, and Ranma lost his footing.
Ranma jumped into the air, back flipped, and landed back onto the ground. He didn't bother hiding his cocky grin. Fighting Soujiro was not much different from fighting Mousse. They both loved to use scythes as weapons. Everything was about dodging. So, defeating them would be the same old story.
"Chestnuts roasting over an open fire!" He shouted as Soujiro swung the scythe in his direction over and over again. His punches landed one after the other on the shiny iron metal in complete succession, without missing a beat.
Finally, Soujiro stepped back with the rod held in one hand...and to his horror, it crumbled away into different-sized pieces. When had he...? This was the very flail his father had given him on his first birthday! Soujiro felt the anger build up inside himself. This was his most prized possession, only to be destroyed in a matter of a few seconds!
"Haaa!" Soujiro shouted, coming in with a very stupid frontal attack. Ranma gave a grim smile, and drew his fist back behind his head... and upper-cutted his opponent. Soujiro felt the severe blow to his ribcage, and knew that he'd broken some of his ribs in this fight, and that he'd lost.
Soujiro skidded across the wooden floor and slammed into the dojo wall. He fell forward on his knees, coughing up blood. Looking up with a blurred vision, he saw Ranma breathing heavily, but with still enough stamina to continue fighting. From the far end of the dojo, Akane stood up tentatively to rush over to Soujiro.
"That's it?" Ranma asked coldly, the dull feeling of frustration still heavy in his chest. "I didn't even break a sweat."
Soujiro couldn't look the victor in the eye. Though it was true that it meant proper fighting etiquette for him to admit defeat, he didn't open his mouth. Faintly, he realized that Akane had come over and had draped her left arm over his shoulders, and the other arm was supporting his chest.
"Are you alright?" she asked him urgently. She could tell that he was having very difficult time breathing. Ranma came forward, and he brushed off her arm from Soujiro's heaving shoulders.
"I'll bring him to Dr. Tofu."
=====
"What do you mean you have nowhere to go?" Akane Tendou asked him. They were all seated at the Tendou dining room. Ranma and his father sat at one end, the Tendou's at the other, and Soujiro Kaede sat at the third side of the table, his back facing the pond outside.
"If I lost to the best fighter here, then my father won't accept me back into his household until I win in a rematch."
He sat rigidly, cross-legged, with his hands clasped before him on the table. His face burned with the humiliation of losing, and knowing that there was no way he could readily challenge the young Saotome to a rematch. The bandages around his ribs were proof enough that he wasn't well enough to spar.
"How dreadful," Kasumi said faintly, in the same cheerful manner a person would say: "What an amusing story." She rearranged the platters of Japanese snacks around the table.
"Well, you can stay with us," Mr. Saotome suddenly piped up. He was in human form, wearing his usual gi and bandanna around his head. "It would be good training for my son to have you around to beat him and all."
"Hey, Pops!" Ranma said angrily. "Don't decide that by yourself!"
"Hm, you might be right, Genma," Mr. Tendou suddenly said, thinking of how the young family addition would make Ranma jealous enough to marry his daughter. "Alright, it's settled. He's staying with us here in the dojo."
"Dad," Nabiki piped up. She was watching TV on her stomach, sucking on an icicle pop. "We don't have enough rooms."
"I can sleep anywhere," Soujiro said dismally, knowing that the alternative to was to sleep in some place off the street.
"Alright," Mr. Tendou said. "You can sleep here in the dining room. Kasumi, please roll out a futon for Mr. Kaede here."
"Yes father," Kasumi said happily.
"Well, boy," Mr.Tendou announced to the new family addition, valiantly ignoring Ranma's glare. "Welcome to the family."
=====
TBC... ( Reviews!
=====
CHAPTER 1: ALONG CAME A FIGHTER
Dr. Tofu smiled at Akane pleasantly as he readjusted the bandage around her head. She smiled reassuringly at him, as if trying to convince him that she was going to be all right. With her good left arm, she brought her hand up to feel the bandage that was around her head. Apparently, she had been hit in the temple so hard that the skin had cracked.
"You're lucky you didn't suffer any other brain injury," Dr. Tofu had told her more than once. "And your arm is going to be healing nicely after two months or so. The bone is just slightly splintered."
"Are you going to be all right?" Dr. Tofu asked his patient again. It had been three days since she'd been attacked in the middle of the night, and she was showing signs of trauma, not wanting to be left alone and other such behavior.
"Yes," Akane replied uncertainly. It was nine in the evening, and she'd just finished her dinner that was served by Kasumi. The hospital room was painted completely white, with no furnishing except the bed in the center of the room she was laying in and a closet at one side. The comfort room was outside in the hall. Akane jumped off the examination table, wanting to get home.
She made her way to the door, not once glancing at the person who was supposed to escort her.
"Geez, wait up," Ranma Saotome huffed, immediately standing up from the chair he'd been sitting in. Akane's behavior puzzled him. She had been completely ignoring him since that day she'd come back, beaten up and with a ghastly bruise at the temple. The young brown-haired man accompanying her had said that she got into a fight with one street punk.
Akane didn't even look over her shoulder as she hurried to the entrance of the clinic. With practiced ease, she slipped her feet out of the indoor slippers and into her own leather shoes. Inside, she was boiling. She blamed everything on Ranma. Part of her knew that it wasn't his fault at all, but she refused to acknowledge this.
She walked calmly on the cement pavement on her way back to the Tendou dojo, feeling only slightly at ease. That night, she and Ranma had gone to the bigger, newer convenience store that had opened near downtown. She'd been in unfamiliar territory, but now, she was walking along the road she'd been taking since childhood.
"What's your problem?" Ranma asked, annoyed, as he jumped up to walk on the rail. He put his hands behind his head and told the person walking on the pavement below him: "I waste my time bringing you back to the dojo, and this is how you act?"
There was no response. His fiancé continued walking with her head held up high. She was wearing a plain denim skirt and light blue sweater. Ranma frowned. She had never ignored him for such a long time, and he was starting to get frustrated. To make matters worse, that Soujiro Kaede guy, the one who'd helped Akane out, was challenging him to a duel.
"Hey," Ranma said again. He glared at the back of Akane's head, willing her to just look at him, at least. "I can't believe you lost to a common punk. What a weakling."
Akane closed her eyes to the sound of Ranma's voice. She'd almost been killed. Possibly raped. He'd taken off ahead to leave her in a downtown area she barely knew! And what was he doing now? If she didn't know any better, the bastard was actually taunting her.
Ranma saw her stiffen. Despite himself, he felt relieved that he could still get a reaction out of her.
"Weakling," he said, sticking out his tongue. "What did he look like? How'd he manage to get a hit on you? I mean, with your brute strength and all..."
Akane opened her eyes and stared off straight ahead. How'd he manage to get a hit? Maybe since all ten of them came at once, in all directions... Maybe, if she'd kicked away one but had left her back wide open for nine people to attack... Behind her, Ranma lost his patience.
"Idiot," he muttered. He continued putting his hands behind his head, and shifted his gaze to look at the water channel on the opposite side of the road. He couldn't wait to get his hands on that Soujiro Kaede guy. He had to get rid of the rising frustration he was feeling at the moment.
=====
"Welcome back," Kasumi Tendou said pleasantly as she slid open the entrance of the main house. She took in Ranma's glower and Akane's frown and was momentarily taken aback. Then, coming to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong, her face broke into a bright smile.
"You're back," Soujiro said, appearing beside the oldest Tendou sister. He directed his gaze to the glowering Saotome heir. Apparently, from what Nabiki had told him, Ranma was the strongest fighter in the dojo, despite the fact that Akane was the daughter of the dojo master. And tonight, he was finally going to head home. Ranma had accepted his fighting challenge. "Saotome, let's get on with our fight."
Ranma stepped forward with his fist in front of his face, glaring at the young man before him and hating what he saw. "Alright! At the dojo!"
Soujiro grinned confidently at his new opponent. Without a word, the two set off in the direction of the dojo. He'd been prepared for this. He was dressed in the same clothes he'd had on since he arrived the very first day. The package wrapped in manila paper was still strapped to his back with the use of a leather sling.
He was looking forward to getting the fight over with and returning to his dojo in Hiroshima. If not, then his father made himself very clear that he was to stay until he could find a way to defeat the fighter rumored to have fought against the legendary Amazon leader named Cologne.
He followed Ranma Saotome to the dojo. His opponent was clearly very tense and was bursting with some raw emotion. Soujiro shook his head. Behind him, he heard Akane's footsteps as she followed the two to the dojo. She was a nice girl, a spoiled brat in some ways, but nice nonetheless.
When they had entered the dojo, Ranma took a fighting stance at the right end of the space, and watched Soujiro walk over calmly to the other end of the room. Ranma shifted his gaze to look at Akane, who was kneeling beside the entryway with interest clearly written on her face in anticipation of the fight. Ranma grimaced.
"Go back inside," he called to her across the dojo. "You might get hurt."
Akane didn't even look at him. She turned her gaze to Soujiro and felt a dull pang of apprehension. Despite her anger towards Ranma at the moment, she felt some concern towards whether or not he would be hurt in the fight. Akane caught herself thinking this and shook her head. Ranma had left her to be beaten up, remember?
Ranma watched her deliberately ignore him and turn her gaze to Soujiro. His expression hardened. The stupid idiot! Did she think that looking at his opponent would make him jealous?
His thoughts were interrupted as he watched Soujiro prepare for the battle. Soujiro had been closing his eyes, seemingly in meditation. When he opened his eyes, he took out the wrapped package that was strapped behind his back. He'd have no need of his weapon to fight the Saotome kid. He took off his tacky gray overcoat. Underneath was a polo white shirt of normal sleeve length. He was actually wearing blue slack and leather shoes, as if he were in school uniform.
No sooner had he done this that he charged in. He crossed the entire length of the dojo in a speed Akane wouldn't have thought possible, even for Ranma. He'd been so fast. Ranma barely had time to bring up his arms to defend himself. He reeled from the blow, and slid back several feet.
"Heh," Soujiro said, smiling cockily.
He looked at the opponent before him, who was standing with his shoulders slumped and gaze on the ground. Then there was a mild chuckle in response. Soujiro felt his smile slip off his face before he could stop it, as if the strings holding it in place had suddenly been cut.
Ranma was chuckling. Then he glanced up, a slightly manic look in his eyes. From where she sat, Akane felt her heart give a violent thud. And from his standing position, Soujiro moved his leg to step back...
"Chestnuts roasting over an open fire!" Ranma shouted as his fists shot out with amazing speed. He forced Soujiro back to his original side of the room, where the brown-haired young man fell back beside the manila- paper wrapped package, heaving.
He brought a hand up to wipe at the side of his mouth, and was surprised to see blood. He heaved himself to his feet.
"Now, I'll fight you seriously," Soujiro declared as he stooped down and reached for the package he had brought along.
"It won't make a difference," Ranma practically scoffed, standing before the young man. He braced himself for another attack. This was good, fighting. This was what he had been raised to do: to fight. Not to look after some weak little spoiled brat.
Soujiro said nothing, but unwrapped the package to reveal a long rod with a chain attached to one end and a scythe at the end of the chain... He'd brought some cross between a scythe and a flail. The scythe was an arched blade around a foot and a half long, clearly well sharpened. The chain that connected it to the rod was retractable.
"Hiya!" Ranma shouted as he jumped in. Akane felt a cold bead of sweat run down her back. It wasn't like Ranma to jump in while his opponent was distracted.
Soujiro whirled around and swung the flail, and was properly shocked to see Ranma jump on the chain and use it to run towards him. Recovering quickly, he pushed the button on the rod to retract the chain, making the links disappear back into the rod, and Ranma lost his footing.
Ranma jumped into the air, back flipped, and landed back onto the ground. He didn't bother hiding his cocky grin. Fighting Soujiro was not much different from fighting Mousse. They both loved to use scythes as weapons. Everything was about dodging. So, defeating them would be the same old story.
"Chestnuts roasting over an open fire!" He shouted as Soujiro swung the scythe in his direction over and over again. His punches landed one after the other on the shiny iron metal in complete succession, without missing a beat.
Finally, Soujiro stepped back with the rod held in one hand...and to his horror, it crumbled away into different-sized pieces. When had he...? This was the very flail his father had given him on his first birthday! Soujiro felt the anger build up inside himself. This was his most prized possession, only to be destroyed in a matter of a few seconds!
"Haaa!" Soujiro shouted, coming in with a very stupid frontal attack. Ranma gave a grim smile, and drew his fist back behind his head... and upper-cutted his opponent. Soujiro felt the severe blow to his ribcage, and knew that he'd broken some of his ribs in this fight, and that he'd lost.
Soujiro skidded across the wooden floor and slammed into the dojo wall. He fell forward on his knees, coughing up blood. Looking up with a blurred vision, he saw Ranma breathing heavily, but with still enough stamina to continue fighting. From the far end of the dojo, Akane stood up tentatively to rush over to Soujiro.
"That's it?" Ranma asked coldly, the dull feeling of frustration still heavy in his chest. "I didn't even break a sweat."
Soujiro couldn't look the victor in the eye. Though it was true that it meant proper fighting etiquette for him to admit defeat, he didn't open his mouth. Faintly, he realized that Akane had come over and had draped her left arm over his shoulders, and the other arm was supporting his chest.
"Are you alright?" she asked him urgently. She could tell that he was having very difficult time breathing. Ranma came forward, and he brushed off her arm from Soujiro's heaving shoulders.
"I'll bring him to Dr. Tofu."
=====
"What do you mean you have nowhere to go?" Akane Tendou asked him. They were all seated at the Tendou dining room. Ranma and his father sat at one end, the Tendou's at the other, and Soujiro Kaede sat at the third side of the table, his back facing the pond outside.
"If I lost to the best fighter here, then my father won't accept me back into his household until I win in a rematch."
He sat rigidly, cross-legged, with his hands clasped before him on the table. His face burned with the humiliation of losing, and knowing that there was no way he could readily challenge the young Saotome to a rematch. The bandages around his ribs were proof enough that he wasn't well enough to spar.
"How dreadful," Kasumi said faintly, in the same cheerful manner a person would say: "What an amusing story." She rearranged the platters of Japanese snacks around the table.
"Well, you can stay with us," Mr. Saotome suddenly piped up. He was in human form, wearing his usual gi and bandanna around his head. "It would be good training for my son to have you around to beat him and all."
"Hey, Pops!" Ranma said angrily. "Don't decide that by yourself!"
"Hm, you might be right, Genma," Mr. Tendou suddenly said, thinking of how the young family addition would make Ranma jealous enough to marry his daughter. "Alright, it's settled. He's staying with us here in the dojo."
"Dad," Nabiki piped up. She was watching TV on her stomach, sucking on an icicle pop. "We don't have enough rooms."
"I can sleep anywhere," Soujiro said dismally, knowing that the alternative to was to sleep in some place off the street.
"Alright," Mr. Tendou said. "You can sleep here in the dining room. Kasumi, please roll out a futon for Mr. Kaede here."
"Yes father," Kasumi said happily.
"Well, boy," Mr.Tendou announced to the new family addition, valiantly ignoring Ranma's glare. "Welcome to the family."
=====
TBC... ( Reviews!