Interminable
Chapter 3
Artifice
Akane sighed as she toweled off her body. She smeared her hand over the mirror, leaving a relatively clear spot in the steam-clouded surface. Shaking her head to dislodge the excess water, she ran a comb through her hair. Then she wrapped the ivory towel around herself, and headed upstairs to change clothes.
As she passed through the living room on her way to the stairs, she paused and looked at Ryoga, sitting quietly on the floor by the low table, sipping green tea out of a porcelain cup.
"It's all yours, Ryoga-kun."
Ryoga looked up, but Akane had already turned and was heading toward the stairs. He could see her towel-clad back, and her blue-black hair gleaming wetly under the lamps. She's been so quiet these last few hours, he thought. That argument with Ranma must have hit her really hard. I wonder why he started in with her like that. He's an idiot, but even he doesn't rip into her that badly unless she's gotten him angry or flustered.
Shrugging, though there was no one there to see it, Ryoga headed towards the bathroom, anticipating a long soak. He turned the sign on the door to occupied, then stepped inside the changing room.
Upstairs, Akane placed her towel carefully on the bed, then put on her underclothes and looked through her drawers for some clothing. It was late springtime, and the weather was unseasonably warm. She chose a yellow skirt that came down to her knees, and a powdery blue sleeveless top. Sitting on the pink bedspread, she leaned forward to place white socks on her small feet.
I don't understand why Ranma was being such a jerk before. Sure, Ryoga is his biggest rival, but he's also a friend, and Ranma has more honor than to kick someone out to spend his birthday alone. I guess he must just have been angry at me, and used Ryoga as an easy outlet. Why does he hate me so? It's not like I'm one of those mindless fools following him around to get married. I don't want this anymore than he does. But how on earth can I find a way out of it?
As she sat thinking, a stripe of amber sunlight shifted and illuminated the right side of her face. Half in light, half in shadow, she seemed otherworldly as she contemplated her unenviable position- well, perhaps not completely unenviable. Certainly there was no lack of people vying to become engaged to Ranma. Only those people didn't have to deal with the teasing, the tormenting, the endless insults, the defensive behavior, the thoughtless actions....the list could continue on indefinitely.
A voice rang through the halls from the area just outside the kitchen. "Dinner's ready, everyone!" Kasumi's sweet voice enticed the household to gather around the table. Akane exited her room, and followed Nabiki down the stairs. The fathers were already there, drinking tea and waiting to be served. Ryoga stepped into the room, and the scent of his freshly washed hair wafted over to her.
He smells really good, Akane noticed. She looked at him, and he smiled shyly at her. She found herself overcome by an inexplicable feeling of guilt. There was no good reason for this feeling to come over her, but she couldn't shake the sentiment that she was betraying someone.
But whom?
She shrugged it off as Ryoga sat down beside her. On her other side a breeze flapped her skirt hem slightly, and she turned to find Ranma sitting next to her. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and when he was sure Kasumi and the parents were not looking, he stuck his tongue out at her, then returned his eyes to his plate.
Ryoga, however, had caught the one-sided exchange, and watched Akane's face slowly turn several shades of red. However, she said nothing, and her face returned to its normal hue a few minutes later.
Dinner commenced without incident, and when it was finished, Akane helped Kasumi clear the dishes while the rest of the household went back to their own activities. Ranma and Ryoga remained in the main room, and when Akane returned, she found Ranma reading a comic book, lying on his stomach next to the wall, and Ryoga was sitting by the table. He had his large pack out, and pulled out a long black object, which he placed carefully on the table. He replaced his bag on the floor, then wiped off the top of the object with his hand, as if to clear dust from it.
Upon closer inspection, Akane noticed that it was an electronic keyboard. "Would you mind terribly if I played some music?" Ryoga asked her. She looked over at him, slightly startled, and was surprised by the intimidated look in his liquid brown eyes. "Of course not. I would love to hear you play," she replied quietly.
He depressed some buttons on the top of the keyboard, to set the tone of the instrument- he told her that it could imitate the sounds of various instruments, then began to key out a haunting melody. When she inquired as to the name, he told her it was a German song named "Fur Elise." This he followed with the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's ninth symphony. Akane found herself humming along with the tune. Ranma looked up from his comic with an annoyed expression on his face, but said nothing. A moment later he returned to his reading.
"Can you play another genre?" Akane asked him. "I like Western Classical music, but I also like rock and other types of modern music. I don't know how much experience you have, though." Ryoga smiled at her. "It's no problem at all. I've played the keyboard for years, I can play anything you like."
With this, he began to play, and Akane noticed a sort of background instrument to his song- it sounded almost like he was playing a fiddle. She jumped slightly, startled, when Ryoga began to sing.
"Across the fieldsI fight for my meals.
I get my back into my living...
I don't need to fight
To PROVE I'm right.
I don't need to be forgiven"
He sang in perfect, unaccented English. The melody flowed over Akane, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the song and the moment, which was rudely interrupted by Ranma during the final, frenzied refrain.
"What is this crap?" He yelled, standing right over Ryoga's head. Turning to Akane and pointing an accusing finger at her, he stated, "It sounds like that awful American junk you listen to."
"It's not American," Ryoga told him. "It's British," Akane added. Ranma crossed his arms over his red Chinese shirt, looking disgruntled. "Well, whatever it is, it sucks. Besides, American and British are the same thing anyway. Who the hell sings that song?"
"The Who."
"Who?"
"Yes, The Who."
"No, I mean, who sings it?"
"For goodness sake, you idiot, the band that sings the song is called THE WHO!" Akane thundered at him. "How stupid can you be? And another thing, American and British stuff are not the same, their countries are on different continents!"
"So what?" Ranma glared at her. "It's the same thing. All Westerners are the same. They're stupid and useless, and they have no honor."
"That's a very uneducated and bigoted thing to say, Ranma," Ryoga interjected. "I have studied at numerous Western Universities, as well as some large Eastern ones, and I have to tell you, there are a lot of cultured and intelligent people around there."
"You went to University?" Akane asked Ryoga, turning her head so her blue hair shone brighter. "I thought you didn't go to school at all."
"Well," Ryoga looked at her sheepishly. "From being lost so much, I found myself in many countries, and some of the ones I stayed in for a while, well, I worked and audited classes at universities. I learned music from the Russian Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, where I also studied Dostoyevsky. I learned the history of martial arts at a major University in Beijing. I studied art and law at Oxford University in London. But I performed most of my studies in the United States. I was recruited by a psychology professor at an Ivy League college to participate in a study, and I was paid for it. It was a case study, so I worked for months with the professor and one of his grad students. While I was there, I attended all sorts of classes."
"How were you able to stay there without getting lost?" Akane interrupted.
"Oh, well, you see the whole place is on a mountainside, and surrounded by these gorges, so if I turned in the wrong direction, I'd end up on the edge of a gorge. I didn't want to fall in, so I'd turn around, and eventually get to where I was going. Also, they had this huge clocktower on the top of the hill, which everyone could see no matter where they were, so I could orient myself by that."
"That's so cool," Akane was very impressed. Her blue eyebrows lifted, and she nodded her head, then picked lint off of her skirt. "How many languages do you speak?" she asked him. "Um, let's see, Japanese, English, Mandarin, Spanish, French, some German, a little Russian, and Cambodian. I studied the languages everywhere I went, and I made sure that I picked up books, too, so I could keep in practice when I was on the road. There's not an awful lot else to do when you're lost and training by yourself."
"Well, smart-guy," Ranma said, smirking at Ryoga. "What are you going to do with all your knowledge, especially since you can't even graduate high school?"
"Actually, I'm going to take an equivalency test to get my diploma, and then take the college entrance exams. It shouldn't be a problem, because the stuff I've encountered at the western universities is a lot harder than even the stuff on the entrance exams, so I shouldn't have much of a problem. I want to get into Edo University, and study, then eventually teach the history of martial arts, and its introduction to the Western world and ultimate effects on mainstream and popular culture."
"Ryoga-kun, you could come to school with us!" Akane exclaimed. "While you study for your exams, I am sure you could stay with us and attend our classes. Right, Ranma?"
"Hmph." Akane frowned.
"Why would he want to go to school with an ugly, fat, stupid tomboy like you?" Ranma asked. "BAKA!!" Akane shouted, and chased him around the living room. "You're so worthless. You can't cook, I hate the way you look, you're hips are huge, you probably would have weak children. No man would want you, or even want to go to school with you." Akane caught him, and grabbed him in a choke hold.
Just then, the fathers walked in, and leaped for joy, thinking that Akane was trying to hug Ranma. "Oh happy day, we will have heirs. The schools will be joined. Break out the sake!" They danced a happy little jig, Genma doing an admirable job considering he was in panda form. Signs flashed above his whirling head. "Way to go, boy," one stated.
"NO!" Akane shouted at them. She punched Ranma, and then ran up to her room. "I hate him! I'll never marry him!" she screamed down the stairs.
"You will if you want the dojo," her father called up.
Akane reappeared in the doorway, then made her way to the top of the stairs. "Fine," she spat through clenched teeth, looking down at her father a few feet below her. "Have it your way."
Soun smiled, happy that she was agreeing so easily.
"If that's the way you want it, then I renounce my claim on the dojo. I am no longer a student of the Tendo Dojo of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. The marriage and the schools are no longer my responsibility. If you still try to force me, I will renounce the Tendo name completely and move out. Understood?"
Shell-shocked, Soun stared at his daughter, then began weeping, soaking the floor below him and his own long black hair, which got in his way as he hung his head. "My terrible little girl! What have I done to deserve this! I have given you so much! A home, the dojo, someone to call husband." He blubbered on.
Genma cut in. "That's just foolish. Where would you go? You are a girl, and weak. There is no way you could make it on your own if you left. Who would take care of you? Who could you stay with?" He leaned back, smiling smugly. There was no way out if it, now. She had to marry Ranma and join the schools, or she would be homeless.
"Akane can stay with me."
All eyes turned to Ryoga, who stood defiantly in the center of the room. "I have lived on my own for a long time. I can help Akane if she chooses to leave. And if she doesn't want to live on the road, she can help me find my house in the next district. Then we can stay there."
Ranma simply stared at Akane, completely aghast. The look of anguish on his face was unmistakable. Have...have I pushed her too far? He continued to stare at her unyielding face, rooted to the spot. She really doesn't want to marry me. She'll give up her whole life just to get away from me. He swallowed thickly. It felt like he had a pinecone stuck in his throat.
Meanwhile, Akane stood at the top of the stairs, shocked to silence. She looked down at the boys, the parents, and her two sisters, who had wandered in before her pronouncement. There's no going back.
A/N
Ok, I know I'm making Ryoga out to be a too-good to be true Renaissance man. But this is just the surface. He's going to have much better one on one interplay with Akane, and his shy and slightly demented nature will be more evident. The P-Chan thing is something I haven't dealt with yet, but suggestions in that department are always welcome. Ranma, of course, isn't going to be as bad as he's made out to be right now, either, and we will see his motivations as the story progresses. Remember, this is mostly from Akane's viewpoint, so we're not seeing much more than she does.
ShadowbakaSama- Your ideas are good, but I'm not sure if I'm going to have Kuno be a suitor or one of the other characters. Ranma's still not entirely out of the picture yet, just out of her good graces. I'm not against them ending up together, I just want to prove that she can be her own person without having to rely on Ranma to make her grow up and "see the light." I may introduce some new girl characters for Ranma to increase drama, because frankly, his fiancées annoy the hell out of me.
Cherry Blossom9, Fizzleup, and Don't Eat Yellow Snow- thanks for the reviews and support. You guys are great. I promise I'll update more often.