Ranma ½: Game of Pretend
*Disclaimer: * Ranma ½ and all related titles sole and exclusive ©Takahashi Rumiko; Shounen Sunday and Shogakukan Entertainment; Kitty TV; Viz Communications LLC.
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Part VI—Storm Clouds
Ranma ½: Game of Pretend
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Ranma did not need to watch his feet as he placed one foot in front of another on the fence-rail with the ease borne of long practise. But Ranma did look at his feet, though it was to avoid the icy glances his companion occasionally threw his way.
Akane was walking home with stiff, clipped steps. She was angry, as was her wont, and as usual, her rage centered on one unfortunate being: Ranma.
How could one person get me so mad? she asked herself, as her eyes travelled to Ranma. At least he had the decency to not meet her gaze directly, and look properly ashamed of himself. But already, her anger was dying down; what she thought was a white-hot rage was instead naught but a smouldering ember, and by now, nothing more than glowing. In fact, Akane wasn't sure if she was really so mad in the first place. Sure, Ranma had made them late for school--again!-- and had earned their double-punishment from the teacher; sure, he welcomed all his fiancees but her; sure, he was better than her in Anything-Goes Martial Arts--in fact, he was better than her in everything, save school--and sure, he insulted her almost non-stop; but that wasn't anything to get really mad over.
Akane clutched her school satchel tightly. But for all that, for all his ignorance and insulting and his meanness, there were moments of genuine warmth and friendship between the two. It was at times like this that Akane wished he were more friendly toward her, more often. It would make for a nice change.
Ranma himself was not thinking of much at the moment, save his fast-falling marks in school. Not that he really cared about a thing as trivial as education, for when he became headmaster of the Anything-Goes dojo, he would need nothing but his own amazing skill and prowess in the Art. But Ranma did not like to feel inferior to anyone at anything-- and in school, he was inferior to many people, but especially Akane. He found himself thinking that good marks would impress Akane….
Ranma glanced up as a rumpled piece of paper flew in his face. He stopped in his journey home to rip the paper off his face, but the large words emblazoned on the flimsy flier caught his attention.
'FRIENDSHIP DAY IS COMING UP,' it announced cheerfully. The paper went on to advertise a store in which gifts and cards could be bought. But Ranma had no need for the rest of it. The first five words made him freeze.
Friendship day…Ranma thought with a sinking heart. How could he have forgotten? Though he and Akane were officially affianced, surely Tendo Soun and Saotome Genma, not to mention most of Furinkan High School, and most everyone else who knew of Ranma and Akane, would be expecting a splendid gift from him to her? What'm I supposed to buy her? he asked himself, racking his brain for answers. And I don't got any money, to boot…I don't even know what she likes! Glancing at the flier again, Ranma noticed that Friendship Day itself was the day after next.
'Ranma?' Akane paused near the cross-walk to turn and beckon Ranma. 'Is everything all right?'
Ranma looked up sharply, jerked out of his hopeless thoughts by Akane's voice, and said, a bit bemusedly, 'Yeah, sure…fine.' He threw the stupid announcement away, watching for a moment as it fluttered to the ground. His feet quickened their pace and soon he was once more by Akane's side, though elevated.
'Ooh, Ranma, look,' Akane said, sounding a lot happier. Apparently, she had forgiven Ranma his faults- for the day, at least- and was now pointing in the direction of a small novelty shop that had just recently opened.
'Yeah?' Ranma said in a bored voice.
'Let's just look in there, please Ranma?' Akane said, though it was for show: Her hand already rested on the doorknob, and she was halfway in before Ranma, giving in, joined her.
The shop was filled with little trinkets of this-and-that--Candles in the shape of fish here, sandalwood carvings there. Even Ranma poked about in mild interest.
Akane, meanwhile, had found a small glass display case, in which were arrayed exquisite crystal bottles of various sizes. One of the smallest bottles was unstoppered, and affixed to it was a small sticker that said TESTER. Akane picked it up gently, afraid to shatter the fragile thing, and sprayed a bit of the perfume inside the jar on her arm. She lifted her forearm to her nose and inhaled a delicate, sweet scent, lighter and more airy than sandalwood. Mmm, it was good.
She walked over to Ranma and shoved her arm directly underneath his nose. 'How does it smell, Ranma?' she demanded, unnecessarily, for the scent was already wafting its way into Ranma's olfactory system. He drew back at first, afraid at what he might smell, but the pervasive scent calmed him, and he leaned forward, the better to take a deeper sniff with.
'It's good,' Ranma said uninterestedly, but the undertone of appreciation in his voice belied his manner. 'What is it?' Akane shrugged, but the shopkeeper, who had come to hover around them in the manner shopkeepers do, supplied the answer.
'Jasmine,' he said, pronouncing the foreign word carefully and slowly, though with an unmistakably Japanese accent. 'It comes from a country far to the west. Does the pretty lady want the perfume?' He smiled.
Akane picked up the bottle, but balked when she saw the price. T- two thousand, five hundred yen, she read to herself. The price was insane! She did not have two thousand yen to spare and spend willy-nilly! She shook her head regretfully, though her fingers lingered on the fine crystal bottle. 'Ranma, let's go,' she called, waiting by the door.
Ranma was inspecting the perfume Akane had left. It smelled so nice, and Akane had wanted it so… still, two thousand yen was two thousand yen, but Ranma could get that money….
It looked as though Ranma had found a gift for Friendship Day. But he hadn't yet found the funds.
**
Shampoo never struck people as being too bright because of her horrendous Japanese. But she was very devious when it came to Ranma, and was carefully analysing which way to get him away from that violent girl.
She always calls him "dummy" and " idiot," Shampoo mused as she rode her bicycle. Ranma always insults he backr, but he does seem to like it too…Maybe, if I called Ranma an idiot and dummy then he will leave the violent girl and come to me. It struck Shampoo as unspeakably strange that the way to get a man was to insult him, but eh, whatever works, right? Now all she needed was to intercept Ranma—and preferably Akane—on their way home from school.
Shampoo frowned. She had noticed that for the past three days, Ranma and Akane seemed to have been close…too close, suspiciously close. Mousse had told her that they were married, but that couldn't be true…could it? All Nerima would have known if Akane and Ranma had gotten married—it was just the nature of things. And of course, the marriage would have been attempted maybe, but definitely not carried out. Things never went correctly in Nerima.
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Ukyou walked over to the local corner store to replenish groceries for her restaurant. She sighed as she paid for her purchases and looked out the window. The clouds were growing heavy and were ominously dark, boding a heavy rainstorm. The thought of rain made her think of Ranma—he'd turn into a girl if he was caught in the storm. Ukyou smiled slightly to think of what Ranma would do in order to get out of the rain.
'Miss? You're done,' the clerk told her, cutting into her thoughts.
'Oh,' she said softly, jerking back into reality. She reached into a purse and pulled out some bills, taking her bags and walking slowly outside back to the Utchan. As she went inside, she heard the clanking of a bicycle and saw—who else?—Shampoo, riding furiously.
Doesn't she have anything better to do than chase after my Ranma honey? Ukyou thought annoyedly to herself. I have to go to school, run a restaurant, and get Ranma away from Akane, and all Shampoo does is ride that bloody cycle all the time. She shook her head and finished putting away the groceries in the cooler.
Ukyou put her hands on her hips, spatula in hand, as she surveyed her sparkling-clean restaurant. 'Well, I know it's really busy,' she said to no one at all, 'but I'll have to take this evening off.' Ukyou shed her work clothes and locked up, walking in no direction at all.
**
Meanwhile, P-Chan had somehow found his way outside the Tendo dojo. The pig found some hot water and turned himself back into Ryouga. The newly-transformed boy threw on some clothes and quickly walked outside.
I must find Saotome Ranma! he said to himself. I must make Akane-san mine! That unworthy Saotome Ranma has no claim on her. He did not pause to think that no one "had a claim" on Akane.
'Oh crap,' he said aloud, as he looked up and saw the heavy storm clouds. He wasn't going to be transformed again, so soon after becoming a boy again! He just barely dodged the first fat, wet raindrop, and he saw it splatter on the ground. Knowing that more were to come, Ryouga unfurled his umbrella and proceeded, thus protected.
**
Ranma also saw the rainclouds, and knew what they meant for him. As the first drop of rain landed on Akane's nose, he suddenly pulled the both of them under a storefront awning.
'Ranma--!' Akane half-protested. But Ranma's strong hand had clasped her wrist firmly, and she couldn't get out of his grip. Indeed, a scant split-second after Ranma's quick reflexes had sheltered them, the rain began to start for real.
**
'Ai-ya!' Shampoo exclaimed, as she too ran for cover when the rain started falling. 'Always rain in Nerima,' she complained, from the inside of a store. Stupid weather. Stupid Nerima. Now she couldn't even try and get Ranma. If he was still a he, that was. But she couldn't try to kill her if he was a she, either….Shampoo shook her head in frustration. Life was really too complicated.
**
'Perfect,' Ukyou muttered to herself as she tried to protect herself from the rain by crossing her arms above her head. She knew it was going to rain, but she was so pre-occupied she hadn't even thought of bringing an umbrella.
All of a sudden, however, the rain stopped falling on her head. Ukyou stopped walking, surprised: She could see rain in front of her, and to her sides, but she wasn't getting wet anymore….She glanced up and saw a very familiar yellow- and- black umbrella protecting her and—
'Ryouga?' Ukyou said, taken completely away.
The boy looked down at her. 'I was passing this way,' he explained, 'and I saw you, so I figured I'd help you go home—or where ever it is that you're going,' he added quickly.
'Oh—thanks,' Ukyou replied softly. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, Ryouga moving closer to her so that both of them were protected by the rain.
It really was a rather small umbrella, so Ryouga had to be very close to Ukyou indeed, if the both of them were to be kept dry.
Ukyou tried to steady her slightly-faster-than-normal heartbeat and her lighter breathing. She knew she shouldn't be feeling like this—she was supposed to be marrying Ranma. But it wasn't so bad to be sharing the umbrella with Ryouga; in fact, not bad at all.
Ryouga, for his part, felt a peculiar warmth soar through his body when his hip accidentally brushed Ukyou's as he tried to keep the umbrella over both of them. He knew he was supposed to make Akane his, and that Akane was meant for him. But it wasn't so bad to be sharing the umbrella with Ukyou.
It wasn't bad at all.
**
'Ranma,' Akane said softly, as the rain continued to fall. He still held her hand, and Akane felt her wrist warm where his hand was. He turned to her, arching a brow, and Akane glanced down at their hands.
Quickly, as if dropping a hot potato, Ranma opened his hand and both his and Akane's arms fell back to their sides. 'As if anyone would wanna hold a tomboy's hand,' he muttered under his breath.
Akane, not missing the comment, said, 'Well I noticed you were holding my hand really tightly. Maybe Ranma is scared of the big rain?' she asked in a mock-baby voice.
'Shut up,' Ranma said. 'It's not as if I really wanted ta, s'just there's no reason fer ya to get wet too.' Akane smiled slightly, surprised. It really sounded as if he cared…a tiny bit.
Suddenly though, before Akane had a chance to say anything else, the sun broke through and the rain stopped.
'C'mon,' Ranma said over his shoulder, as he left the awning. 'If Pops is waiting fer me, then he'll be expecting ya also.'
'R-Right,' Akane said, following a moment later.
However, they weren't even half-way home when the two were accosted by Shampoo.
'Airen, you dummy!' Shampoo said. Ranma looked surprised, annoyed, and a bit scared; Akane was seething. 'Nihao, idiot!'
Before Ranma could respond, Akane had pushed past Ranma and was staring at Shampoo fiercely. 'Listen up, Shampoo,' Akane said angrily, 'only I can call Ranma a dummy and an idiot.'
'Hmph,' Shampoo snorted, disbelieving.
'Let's go, Ranma,' Akane said, and she dragged Ranma behind her.
I…I can't believe I just did that, Akane thought, even through her anger. I was mad at Shampoo because she called Ranma an idiot. And I almost said that Ranma was my idiot only.
Ranma too was a bit perplexed, but had had enough experience with Akane and her volatile moods and actions to say anything much.
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A/N: Thanks for all your reviews, but come on people, I know you can do better than that!
Anyway, if anyone doesn't know about Friendship Day…I dunno if they have it in Japan, but it's a big deal in India and in a lot of other parts of the world. Well, Friendship Day is pretty much what its name implies: You buy cards or small bracelets and tie the bracelets around the wrists of all your friends. Of course, I took some artisitic liberties with Friendship Day in this fic, though we'd hope that between Ranma and Akane, it'll be more than just FRIENDship Day ^_~ Sorry if I annoyed you with all those scene changes in the last half of the chapter. It just seemed like the only way to write that part, rather than as just one long scene. Besides that, I don't have any particular comments on this chapter…It's okay, I think, not one of my worst but not one of my best. Yes, I know I left Ryouga and Ukyou hanging, but that's one reason you must read the next chapter.For reference (cause I get confused myself) this chapter was the fourth day in Ranma and Akane's week, and the events of friendship day will be on the sixth. Actually, I wrote the whole Friendship Day thing as a one-shot for a contest at the forum I frequent; however, I split it into two and filled in the middle, because I don't want things to happen too quickly, you know? Ooooh, have I got plans for Ranma and Akane…hehehehe.
Thanks for reading, all.
Take care,
Ajal.