Intro: Well, here it is, the first Part of the 2nd Day. This one's a little on the short side, but that's because I took a Freakishly Long Summary out of the whole thing, and generally revised what I'd written before. So the story should flow a little better now. There's still a hiccup where I took the Summary out, but I left it that way on purpose. REreaders will notice a small difference from the previous version.
Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I guess I have to have one of these in here, don't I? Ok, then, Ranma and all related characters, locations, situations, quotes, and props are not mine. The character Randy Donahue is, though, as are any other new characters I may or may not bring into the story later on. Feel free to use him in any stories you might write (As if anyone would bother), on the condition that you let me know about it so I can read your story. Cut and Paste is fun. (Check the first chapter's disclaimer.)
Warnings: Manga language (i.e. infrequent swearing)
------------ Finishing Moves ------------
------ Day 02, Part A: Troubled Days, or Chaos Changes ------
It was turning out to be another quiet morning in Nerima. This was mostly because everyone had already locked themselves inside for the day. That, and the morning hadn't really started yet. Ranma Saotome would have agreed with the previous statement whole-heartedly if he had been awake. As it was, he was quietly sleeping the morning away, like usual. And, like usual, Akane Tendo had been trying to no avail to wake him up for the past fifteen minutes. She would have woken him up the easy way, with a bucket of cold water, but her eldest sister Kasumi had made a passing comment a couple days ago about mopping up the guest room day after day. Coming from anyone else, that passing comment would have been a good chew-out, therefore, Akane had tried to appease her older sister's wrath by finding a different way of waking the sleeping boy up. Which was proving to be very difficult indeed.
"Wake UP, Ranma!!!" She yelled for the fifth time in as many minutes, "We're GOING to be late for SCHOOL!!" She grabbed the pig-tailed boy's shoulders and shook him violently, severely tempted to move her grip several inches higher and throttle him. Ranma's only response was to snore a little and mumble something that sounded vaguely like, " 'm up, 'm up. N' be quiet an' lemme g' back t' sleep."
"AAAAARRRGGH!!!" the short haired girl screamed, stomping her foot. She took a few deep, calming breaths, which didn't really do any good, and sighed, "Every morning! Every single morning!! That's it! I am NOT going to scream myself blue in the face JUST to wake this jerk up!" Apparently forgetting that she had already done so, she turned to leave the room, "Fine. Let the idiot be late, for all I care!"
She paused as a thought struck her, then turned back toward Ranma with an evil grin on her face, "Why didn't I think of that before??" Stalking up to the peacefully sleeping martial artist, she snatched his protruding pig-tail and began dragging him through the hallway. Upon reaching the stairs, she stopped and flipped the still snoring boy around, then began hauling him down the steps one at a time, making sure that his head hit each and every step.
Akane towed her erstwhile fiance past the rest of the family, who had gathered around the table and were giving her sleepy glares, and tossed him into the koi pond from the porch. Which had the predicted effect of making a big splash and producing a yell of, "What'd ya do THAT for??!" from Ranma. After he'd resurfaced soaking wet, ticked, and female.
The middle Tendo sister, Nabiki, sleepily lifted her head from her arms, which were crossed on the table, "You know, Akane, you could wait until a LITTLE bit later in the morning to start this. Especially on a Saturday." Akane froze.
Behind her, Ranma had taken her shirt off and was currently wringing it out, "Jeeze, Akane. It's bad 'nough on school days. Do ya gotta ruin my days off, too??" She put her semi-dry shirt back on over her tank top and tugged on the damp material a few times, "Che, forget it. I'm gonna go take a bath." She headed for her room to gather her bath things, "Again."
Having snagged her things, Ranma moved into the outer bathroom and removed her clothes, checked for the occupied sign, and stepped into the inner bathroom, which was a little steamy from the heated furo inside. After dousing herself with cold water and scrubbing the pond water out of her hair, the red-headed girl slid into the hot water and became a black-haired boy. "Ah, it's good ta be back ta bein' a guy again." He stretched languidly and let the hot water relax his muscles.
Over the years that he'd been living at the Tendo home, Ranma had slowly become used to his cursed form, even getting to the point where he didn't even notice the transformation anymore. Somewhere along the line it had stopped being a curse and become something less, more of an annoyance than anything else. Although it was still a royal pain in the ass when he got splashed in the middle of a fight, even that wasn't much a of a problem anymore. The whole center of gravity thing had never been a problem, even from day one. It seems the same magic that changed his masculine form to a feminine one changed his point of view to that as if he had been born a woman, which was a little disconcerting in itself. Okay, it scared him stiff. It hadn't been the change of shape that had scared him so much, it was the fact that he had felt so natural in it. He had been fearful of losing sight of his masculinity. After so long, he still hadn't changed in the way that he truly feared and had eventually become more or less indifferent to the physical change. It was still a pain in the ass, though.
A shuffling sound alerted him to the presense of someone in the outer bathroom and his eyes snapped open as Akane opened the door between the two areas. Then they popped ALL the way open when he noticed exactly what she was wearing. A towel, and... nothing else. He stayed frozen as she sauntered across the space between the door and the furo and primly seated herself on the stool. Finally managing to tear his gaze away from all of the exposed skin, he looked at her face and saw that she was blushing furiously and avoiding his gaze.
"......"
"......"
" ...Backrub?" Akane finally asked tentatively, still blushing furiously. Having reverted to staring at all of that exposed skin, Ranma wasn't in any condition to do more than make a slight nodding motion. After nodding he continued gazing apreciatively at her towel-clad body and Akane continued blushing at his scrutiny.
"......"
"......"
Eventually Akane made the first move, "Baka. Turn around."
Eager to reply, Ranma's mouth leaped ahead of his catatonic brain and said the first thing that came to mind, "Why?"
That seemed to snap the tension that had been running between them and Akane blushed even further (if that was possible) as she bopped him lightly on the head, "Baka. Just do it." The sound of lapping water penetrated the silence as Ranma shifted in the furo to give Akane access to his back from the stool. Leaning forward, the short-haired girl began to massage his back, kneading his shoulders firmly.
With the distraction out of sight for the time being, Ranma's brain raced as it tried to come up with a logical reason why Akane would be acting this way. Once again eager to be of service, his mouth leaped ahead of his brain, "So, uh, what brought this on?"
He winced as Akane's fingers dug into his shoulders a little harder than was comfortable, but eventually she formulated a reply, "Well... I... woke you up early this morning... and... well... that rose last night was so sweet... and, well..." she trailed off.
"Oh."
Deciding that it was on a roll, Ranma's mouth took advantage of the fact that his brain was busy, and waved off her badly worded apology, " 'S okay. I'm used to it." His brain finally noticed what his mouth was up to and beaned it over the head with a mallet.
Akane said nothing, but continued to claw his shoulders painfully and with extra force.
"Arrrgh. Uh, what I meant to say, uh, that is, um, well, I, eh, Than-" He stopped short as his nervously darting eyes spotted the door to the inner bathroom slide shut, followed by the sound of running feet and an excited shout of, "Quick, Genma! Call the priest! We'll have the wedding as soon as they come out!"
"Dammit!!" Ranma was out of the furo and through the door like a shot, leaving Akane behind with her hands still in position to massage his back, blinking in perplexity until it sank in exactly what was going on.
As she rushed through the door and pulled on a blouse, she heard voices down the hall, "Dammit, Pops!! Gimme that phone!!"
"No way, Boy, this is for your own good."
"I said hand it over!!"
"Oh, happy day!! The schools will finally be joined!!"
"Ara? What seems to beee...... Araaaa...."
"What's going o- ... Nice show, Saotome, but aren't you a little cold?"
"What are you talking about, Nabi- Eep!!"
Exiting the bathroom, Akane threw a mortified Ranma his pants and malleted Genma, who had just finished dialing. She then hung up the phone which was now dangling off of the hook, and turned on her father with a level of anger normally reserved for Ranma, "Daaaad!! How could you?! It's only been two days since the last time you tried this crap! TWO. DAYS.!!"
Having pulled his pants on, Ranma added his two ce- yen, "Now listen here, Tendo-san. Ain't nothin' gonna keep me from marryin' that tomboy, but- " All heads turned to stare at him. "......Uh...... That... didn't come out right." Silence.
It took the combined efforts of both Ranma and Akane to keep a happily sobbing Soun away from the telephone at this point.
After the hubbub had died down, which took almost an hour, Ranma finally got the chance to finish his bath and eat breakfast. Having not said a word to anyone since that time, the pigtailed boy silently finished his breakfast and, without a word, left the premises, scowling angrily.
Akane looked after him as he left, anger mixing with worry in an internal conflict. Ranma you baka. Why won't you tell me what's the matter? You've been edgy and tense ever since our fight with Saffron.
Ranma sat beneath his favorite bridge, gazing out over the peacefully gurgling waters of the river. At the moment, he needed to think. And under this bridge was one of his OTHER places to do so. He sighed as he remembered what had happened on that trip to China, and the subequent Battle with Saffron, the ruler of the Pheonix People. And then after THAT, there was the attempted wedding...
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
See the Side-story: 'Summary of the Saffron Arc' for the details. Readers who have read this before should be pleased to note that the 'Freakishly Long Summary' has been moved into a side-story of sorts, (Although it really isn't side-story to anything in particular.) and that the two chapters have been combined into one.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ranma still remembered how beautiful Akane had looked in her wedding dress. A shiver ran down his spine just -thinking- about it. His mind tended to veer away from his fight with Saffron, however. After telling the story once to everyone who hadn't gone on the trip with them, he had clammed up and refused to talk about it to anyone. This was mostly because of guilt, but partly because he wondered at his power. During that fight he had not only killed, but he had killed an immortal Pheonix. Granted, Saffron had been reborn, just like he said he would, but the fact remained. He had killed. He was powerful enough to kill a Pheonix. What did that make HIM?? His mind veered away from the subject once more.
Akane. They had gotten along even better ever since the failed wedding. They were probably even at the beginning of the boyfriend-girlfriend stage, although Ranma wasn't entirely sure on that. The other fiances were still chasing him. Apparently they took the fact that they had actually succeded at stopping the wedding as a sign to continue chasing him. Unfortunately for them, Ranma had already made up his mind, but he just couldn't bring himself to break their hearts just yet.
His musings were interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind him.
"GYAH!!!" Startled, he jumped high into the air, forgetting that he was underneath a bridge. CLONG! ... thump " 'Te 'te 'te" He rubbed his throbbing head as he got up from the ground.
Akane rushed over to him, "Ohmygod! Ranma, are you okay?! I didn't mean to startle you like that!"
Half grimacing, half grinning, he replied, " 's okay. I'm used to it."
Her demeanor instantly changed. "Used to WHAT??" she asked frostily.
Panic! was his first thought, then he noticed that short-haired girl had yet to make a move to mallet him. She just stood there, icily waiting for an explanation. A small part of his mind continued to gibber in fear, but he squashed it into a corner and concentrated on finding the right words to say, "Uh... That is to say, well... I'm used to the constant damage I get in the fights that happen every month..."
Akane's frosty demeanor began to melt rapidly in the heat of her anger and Ranma scrambled to continue before she decided to give him a free trip back to the dojo, "Uh, it's not just you, Akane. Everyone else manages to find ways to hurt me, too. I don't think they do it on -purpose-, so I can't hold it against them, but I get so TIRED of it all sometimes!" His voice grew louder as his anger with the situation seeped through.
Her face softened in response, "Oh, Ranma. I get tired of it too, sometimes." She paused, then snapped her fingers, "Oh, yeah. Before I forget again..." She started to blush, "Um... Did you really mean what you said back at the house?"
------ Flashback ------
Having pulled his pants on, Ranma added his two ce- yen, "Now listen here, Tendo-san. Ain't nothin' gonna keep me from marryin' that tomboy, but- " All heads turned to stare at him. "......Uh...... That... didn't come out right." Silence.
------ End Flashback ------
He returned the blush and began stammering, "I- uh... well, I... um..." He finally trailed off, unable to get the words out.
Akane waited for a reply, still blushing. After waiting for over five minutes her patience began to rapidly deteriate. Just whe she was about to make a sniping remark, a small noise stopped her.
"Yeah."
She stopped, unsure of what she had just heard, "What did you say??"
He fidgeted, blushing furiously, "I said 'yeah'."
Her eyes swam with unshed tears and she smiled happily, "Oh, Ranma!" In a fit of happiness, she threw herself into his arms and hugged him tightly. He froze, as he always did on those rare occasions when she hugged him. Then he slowly raised his arms and hugged her back.
"Ranma Saotome, keep your dirty hands off of MY Shampoo!!" Ranma jerked them both out of the way of Mousse's chains and leapt out from under the bridge, Akane cradled in his arms, "Hey! Watch where you're aimin' those things! You almost hit Akane!"
"Today is my day for vengeance, Saotome! You shall not escape!"
"Oh, great! It's Kuno! How'd HE get here?"
"Where on earth am I NOW?!?!"
"Oh, look! It's Ryouga! Hello, Ryouga-kun!"
"Aiyah! Shampoo save Airen from Violent Tomboy!"
"Ran-chan! Have one of my Super Special Deluxe Okonomiyaki!"
"Oooooooh-hohohohohohohohohohohohohoho!"
"Where'd THEY come from?!?!" Akane asked, wide-eyed.
"I have NO idea." Internally, Ranma stewed. It was just beginning ALL over again, and he was just plain SICK and TIRED of it! He watched as the squabbling crowd grew closer, indescision wracking his face. Finally, he settled on angry determination, "GRAAAH!!!" Clutching Akane tighter, he leapt onto the bridge and headed for the rooftops. The crowd followed.
Ten minutes into the chase, Ranma finally spotted the perfect spot to make a stand. A large vacant lot near the canal. Leaping from the rooftops, he touched down in the center of the lot, determined to end this once and for all. The small crowd jumped down around him, and he set Akane down, preparing for the fight. He didn't get the chance.
"You're early." The sound drew everyone's attention to a purple-clad youth laying against some concrete pipes, a black baseball cap covering his face. He flipped the front of his cap up and looked around, taking in the crowd and their fighting stances. He then stood and brushed off his pants, "Hey, back off. Let's not wear him down before I get a chance to fight him."
------ End Part A ------
Author's Notes: Okay, now all the REreaders know what that 'small difference' was. It makes for a short chapter, but it should be a little more enjoyable. And rest assured, I AM working on the Third (used to be forth) Chapter of Finishing Moves. Albeit VERY slowly...
Thanks for the reviews, people! More reviews mean faster updates, (hint, hint) but I WILL take my time and try to produce quality work (At least I HOPE it's quality). Which reminds me, if you review this, tell me whether you read the last two manga or not. It isn't really a poll, but I'm curious as to how many people have actually read the manga and how many have only read fanfiction.
Please Read 'n Review! Constructive criticism will be helpful, Flames will be forwarded to Osama bin Laden. For those of you with questions, my e-mail is
--- Current list of Finishing Moves ---
Ranma: Katsu Tenshin Amaguri-ken - Ki is channeled to Ranma's arms and upper body to greatly increase his punching speed.
Ryouga: Bakusai Tenketsu - Ki is channeled into the tip of Ryouga's index finger, then jammed into the breaking point of a solid object to cause an explosion.
Hello?
Anyone out there??
Anybody??
sigh
Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I guess I have to have one of these in here, don't I? Ok, then, Ranma and all related characters, locations, situations, quotes, and props are not mine. The character Randy Donahue is, though, as are any other new characters I may or may not bring into the story later on. Feel free to use him in any stories you might write (As if anyone would bother), on the condition that you let me know about it so I can read your story. Cut and Paste is fun. (Check the first chapter's disclaimer.)
Warnings: Manga language (i.e. infrequent swearing)
------------ Finishing Moves ------------
------ Day 02, Part A: Troubled Days, or Chaos Changes ------
It was turning out to be another quiet morning in Nerima. This was mostly because everyone had already locked themselves inside for the day. That, and the morning hadn't really started yet. Ranma Saotome would have agreed with the previous statement whole-heartedly if he had been awake. As it was, he was quietly sleeping the morning away, like usual. And, like usual, Akane Tendo had been trying to no avail to wake him up for the past fifteen minutes. She would have woken him up the easy way, with a bucket of cold water, but her eldest sister Kasumi had made a passing comment a couple days ago about mopping up the guest room day after day. Coming from anyone else, that passing comment would have been a good chew-out, therefore, Akane had tried to appease her older sister's wrath by finding a different way of waking the sleeping boy up. Which was proving to be very difficult indeed.
"Wake UP, Ranma!!!" She yelled for the fifth time in as many minutes, "We're GOING to be late for SCHOOL!!" She grabbed the pig-tailed boy's shoulders and shook him violently, severely tempted to move her grip several inches higher and throttle him. Ranma's only response was to snore a little and mumble something that sounded vaguely like, " 'm up, 'm up. N' be quiet an' lemme g' back t' sleep."
"AAAAARRRGGH!!!" the short haired girl screamed, stomping her foot. She took a few deep, calming breaths, which didn't really do any good, and sighed, "Every morning! Every single morning!! That's it! I am NOT going to scream myself blue in the face JUST to wake this jerk up!" Apparently forgetting that she had already done so, she turned to leave the room, "Fine. Let the idiot be late, for all I care!"
She paused as a thought struck her, then turned back toward Ranma with an evil grin on her face, "Why didn't I think of that before??" Stalking up to the peacefully sleeping martial artist, she snatched his protruding pig-tail and began dragging him through the hallway. Upon reaching the stairs, she stopped and flipped the still snoring boy around, then began hauling him down the steps one at a time, making sure that his head hit each and every step.
Akane towed her erstwhile fiance past the rest of the family, who had gathered around the table and were giving her sleepy glares, and tossed him into the koi pond from the porch. Which had the predicted effect of making a big splash and producing a yell of, "What'd ya do THAT for??!" from Ranma. After he'd resurfaced soaking wet, ticked, and female.
The middle Tendo sister, Nabiki, sleepily lifted her head from her arms, which were crossed on the table, "You know, Akane, you could wait until a LITTLE bit later in the morning to start this. Especially on a Saturday." Akane froze.
Behind her, Ranma had taken her shirt off and was currently wringing it out, "Jeeze, Akane. It's bad 'nough on school days. Do ya gotta ruin my days off, too??" She put her semi-dry shirt back on over her tank top and tugged on the damp material a few times, "Che, forget it. I'm gonna go take a bath." She headed for her room to gather her bath things, "Again."
Having snagged her things, Ranma moved into the outer bathroom and removed her clothes, checked for the occupied sign, and stepped into the inner bathroom, which was a little steamy from the heated furo inside. After dousing herself with cold water and scrubbing the pond water out of her hair, the red-headed girl slid into the hot water and became a black-haired boy. "Ah, it's good ta be back ta bein' a guy again." He stretched languidly and let the hot water relax his muscles.
Over the years that he'd been living at the Tendo home, Ranma had slowly become used to his cursed form, even getting to the point where he didn't even notice the transformation anymore. Somewhere along the line it had stopped being a curse and become something less, more of an annoyance than anything else. Although it was still a royal pain in the ass when he got splashed in the middle of a fight, even that wasn't much a of a problem anymore. The whole center of gravity thing had never been a problem, even from day one. It seems the same magic that changed his masculine form to a feminine one changed his point of view to that as if he had been born a woman, which was a little disconcerting in itself. Okay, it scared him stiff. It hadn't been the change of shape that had scared him so much, it was the fact that he had felt so natural in it. He had been fearful of losing sight of his masculinity. After so long, he still hadn't changed in the way that he truly feared and had eventually become more or less indifferent to the physical change. It was still a pain in the ass, though.
A shuffling sound alerted him to the presense of someone in the outer bathroom and his eyes snapped open as Akane opened the door between the two areas. Then they popped ALL the way open when he noticed exactly what she was wearing. A towel, and... nothing else. He stayed frozen as she sauntered across the space between the door and the furo and primly seated herself on the stool. Finally managing to tear his gaze away from all of the exposed skin, he looked at her face and saw that she was blushing furiously and avoiding his gaze.
"......"
"......"
" ...Backrub?" Akane finally asked tentatively, still blushing furiously. Having reverted to staring at all of that exposed skin, Ranma wasn't in any condition to do more than make a slight nodding motion. After nodding he continued gazing apreciatively at her towel-clad body and Akane continued blushing at his scrutiny.
"......"
"......"
Eventually Akane made the first move, "Baka. Turn around."
Eager to reply, Ranma's mouth leaped ahead of his catatonic brain and said the first thing that came to mind, "Why?"
That seemed to snap the tension that had been running between them and Akane blushed even further (if that was possible) as she bopped him lightly on the head, "Baka. Just do it." The sound of lapping water penetrated the silence as Ranma shifted in the furo to give Akane access to his back from the stool. Leaning forward, the short-haired girl began to massage his back, kneading his shoulders firmly.
With the distraction out of sight for the time being, Ranma's brain raced as it tried to come up with a logical reason why Akane would be acting this way. Once again eager to be of service, his mouth leaped ahead of his brain, "So, uh, what brought this on?"
He winced as Akane's fingers dug into his shoulders a little harder than was comfortable, but eventually she formulated a reply, "Well... I... woke you up early this morning... and... well... that rose last night was so sweet... and, well..." she trailed off.
"Oh."
Deciding that it was on a roll, Ranma's mouth took advantage of the fact that his brain was busy, and waved off her badly worded apology, " 'S okay. I'm used to it." His brain finally noticed what his mouth was up to and beaned it over the head with a mallet.
Akane said nothing, but continued to claw his shoulders painfully and with extra force.
"Arrrgh. Uh, what I meant to say, uh, that is, um, well, I, eh, Than-" He stopped short as his nervously darting eyes spotted the door to the inner bathroom slide shut, followed by the sound of running feet and an excited shout of, "Quick, Genma! Call the priest! We'll have the wedding as soon as they come out!"
"Dammit!!" Ranma was out of the furo and through the door like a shot, leaving Akane behind with her hands still in position to massage his back, blinking in perplexity until it sank in exactly what was going on.
As she rushed through the door and pulled on a blouse, she heard voices down the hall, "Dammit, Pops!! Gimme that phone!!"
"No way, Boy, this is for your own good."
"I said hand it over!!"
"Oh, happy day!! The schools will finally be joined!!"
"Ara? What seems to beee...... Araaaa...."
"What's going o- ... Nice show, Saotome, but aren't you a little cold?"
"What are you talking about, Nabi- Eep!!"
Exiting the bathroom, Akane threw a mortified Ranma his pants and malleted Genma, who had just finished dialing. She then hung up the phone which was now dangling off of the hook, and turned on her father with a level of anger normally reserved for Ranma, "Daaaad!! How could you?! It's only been two days since the last time you tried this crap! TWO. DAYS.!!"
Having pulled his pants on, Ranma added his two ce- yen, "Now listen here, Tendo-san. Ain't nothin' gonna keep me from marryin' that tomboy, but- " All heads turned to stare at him. "......Uh...... That... didn't come out right." Silence.
It took the combined efforts of both Ranma and Akane to keep a happily sobbing Soun away from the telephone at this point.
After the hubbub had died down, which took almost an hour, Ranma finally got the chance to finish his bath and eat breakfast. Having not said a word to anyone since that time, the pigtailed boy silently finished his breakfast and, without a word, left the premises, scowling angrily.
Akane looked after him as he left, anger mixing with worry in an internal conflict. Ranma you baka. Why won't you tell me what's the matter? You've been edgy and tense ever since our fight with Saffron.
Ranma sat beneath his favorite bridge, gazing out over the peacefully gurgling waters of the river. At the moment, he needed to think. And under this bridge was one of his OTHER places to do so. He sighed as he remembered what had happened on that trip to China, and the subequent Battle with Saffron, the ruler of the Pheonix People. And then after THAT, there was the attempted wedding...
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
See the Side-story: 'Summary of the Saffron Arc' for the details. Readers who have read this before should be pleased to note that the 'Freakishly Long Summary' has been moved into a side-story of sorts, (Although it really isn't side-story to anything in particular.) and that the two chapters have been combined into one.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ranma still remembered how beautiful Akane had looked in her wedding dress. A shiver ran down his spine just -thinking- about it. His mind tended to veer away from his fight with Saffron, however. After telling the story once to everyone who hadn't gone on the trip with them, he had clammed up and refused to talk about it to anyone. This was mostly because of guilt, but partly because he wondered at his power. During that fight he had not only killed, but he had killed an immortal Pheonix. Granted, Saffron had been reborn, just like he said he would, but the fact remained. He had killed. He was powerful enough to kill a Pheonix. What did that make HIM?? His mind veered away from the subject once more.
Akane. They had gotten along even better ever since the failed wedding. They were probably even at the beginning of the boyfriend-girlfriend stage, although Ranma wasn't entirely sure on that. The other fiances were still chasing him. Apparently they took the fact that they had actually succeded at stopping the wedding as a sign to continue chasing him. Unfortunately for them, Ranma had already made up his mind, but he just couldn't bring himself to break their hearts just yet.
His musings were interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind him.
"GYAH!!!" Startled, he jumped high into the air, forgetting that he was underneath a bridge. CLONG! ... thump " 'Te 'te 'te" He rubbed his throbbing head as he got up from the ground.
Akane rushed over to him, "Ohmygod! Ranma, are you okay?! I didn't mean to startle you like that!"
Half grimacing, half grinning, he replied, " 's okay. I'm used to it."
Her demeanor instantly changed. "Used to WHAT??" she asked frostily.
Panic! was his first thought, then he noticed that short-haired girl had yet to make a move to mallet him. She just stood there, icily waiting for an explanation. A small part of his mind continued to gibber in fear, but he squashed it into a corner and concentrated on finding the right words to say, "Uh... That is to say, well... I'm used to the constant damage I get in the fights that happen every month..."
Akane's frosty demeanor began to melt rapidly in the heat of her anger and Ranma scrambled to continue before she decided to give him a free trip back to the dojo, "Uh, it's not just you, Akane. Everyone else manages to find ways to hurt me, too. I don't think they do it on -purpose-, so I can't hold it against them, but I get so TIRED of it all sometimes!" His voice grew louder as his anger with the situation seeped through.
Her face softened in response, "Oh, Ranma. I get tired of it too, sometimes." She paused, then snapped her fingers, "Oh, yeah. Before I forget again..." She started to blush, "Um... Did you really mean what you said back at the house?"
------ Flashback ------
Having pulled his pants on, Ranma added his two ce- yen, "Now listen here, Tendo-san. Ain't nothin' gonna keep me from marryin' that tomboy, but- " All heads turned to stare at him. "......Uh...... That... didn't come out right." Silence.
------ End Flashback ------
He returned the blush and began stammering, "I- uh... well, I... um..." He finally trailed off, unable to get the words out.
Akane waited for a reply, still blushing. After waiting for over five minutes her patience began to rapidly deteriate. Just whe she was about to make a sniping remark, a small noise stopped her.
"Yeah."
She stopped, unsure of what she had just heard, "What did you say??"
He fidgeted, blushing furiously, "I said 'yeah'."
Her eyes swam with unshed tears and she smiled happily, "Oh, Ranma!" In a fit of happiness, she threw herself into his arms and hugged him tightly. He froze, as he always did on those rare occasions when she hugged him. Then he slowly raised his arms and hugged her back.
"Ranma Saotome, keep your dirty hands off of MY Shampoo!!" Ranma jerked them both out of the way of Mousse's chains and leapt out from under the bridge, Akane cradled in his arms, "Hey! Watch where you're aimin' those things! You almost hit Akane!"
"Today is my day for vengeance, Saotome! You shall not escape!"
"Oh, great! It's Kuno! How'd HE get here?"
"Where on earth am I NOW?!?!"
"Oh, look! It's Ryouga! Hello, Ryouga-kun!"
"Aiyah! Shampoo save Airen from Violent Tomboy!"
"Ran-chan! Have one of my Super Special Deluxe Okonomiyaki!"
"Oooooooh-hohohohohohohohohohohohohoho!"
"Where'd THEY come from?!?!" Akane asked, wide-eyed.
"I have NO idea." Internally, Ranma stewed. It was just beginning ALL over again, and he was just plain SICK and TIRED of it! He watched as the squabbling crowd grew closer, indescision wracking his face. Finally, he settled on angry determination, "GRAAAH!!!" Clutching Akane tighter, he leapt onto the bridge and headed for the rooftops. The crowd followed.
Ten minutes into the chase, Ranma finally spotted the perfect spot to make a stand. A large vacant lot near the canal. Leaping from the rooftops, he touched down in the center of the lot, determined to end this once and for all. The small crowd jumped down around him, and he set Akane down, preparing for the fight. He didn't get the chance.
"You're early." The sound drew everyone's attention to a purple-clad youth laying against some concrete pipes, a black baseball cap covering his face. He flipped the front of his cap up and looked around, taking in the crowd and their fighting stances. He then stood and brushed off his pants, "Hey, back off. Let's not wear him down before I get a chance to fight him."
------ End Part A ------
Author's Notes: Okay, now all the REreaders know what that 'small difference' was. It makes for a short chapter, but it should be a little more enjoyable. And rest assured, I AM working on the Third (used to be forth) Chapter of Finishing Moves. Albeit VERY slowly...
Thanks for the reviews, people! More reviews mean faster updates, (hint, hint) but I WILL take my time and try to produce quality work (At least I HOPE it's quality). Which reminds me, if you review this, tell me whether you read the last two manga or not. It isn't really a poll, but I'm curious as to how many people have actually read the manga and how many have only read fanfiction.
Please Read 'n Review! Constructive criticism will be helpful, Flames will be forwarded to Osama bin Laden. For those of you with questions, my e-mail is
--- Current list of Finishing Moves ---
Ranma: Katsu Tenshin Amaguri-ken - Ki is channeled to Ranma's arms and upper body to greatly increase his punching speed.
Ryouga: Bakusai Tenketsu - Ki is channeled into the tip of Ryouga's index finger, then jammed into the breaking point of a solid object to cause an explosion.
Hello?
Anyone out there??
Anybody??
sigh