Disclaimer: Yah, yah, see previous chapters.
Starling: You know, you should put more enthusiasm into your disclaimers.
Niana: I don't need a wolf to tell me how to write.
Starling: How about to hunt? You're hopeless.
Niana: I've only shot clay birds! Whaddya expect?!
Meh. Anyway, on to Chapter 3!
*******
"Okay, Hibiki is a pretty common name," Akane reasons as she and Ranma spar in the Tendo dojo. "But there's still all those similarities." Ranma dodges her punch and makes one of his own, holding back enough so that if it strikes it won't hurt Akane. She dodges out of the way, much to his pleasant surprise.
"Yeah, like those fangs and the bandannas that all of 'em wear," Ranma points out, weaving back to avoid a five-punch/kick combo that startles him. "But she don't get lost like Ryoga-baka."
"Will you please stop picking on him?!" Akane lashes out and manages to land a punch right on his chest. He tumbles backwards from the force, gasping, eyes wide. Since the blow had a degree of Angry Female Strike behind it, it's no wonder that it does an unusual amount of damage.
Ranma falls backwards and Akane rushes to catch him, her previous concerned surprise having grown to real worry. "Ranma! Are you okay?" A relieved smile when Ranma manages to grin through his harsh breathing.
"Serves me right for underestimating you," he admits and is helped to his feet by Akane. "Guess I need to keep my guard up, ne?"
"Told you I was better than you thought," Akane scolds him with far more gentleness that usual, and then blinks when her assistance brings Ranma so close his nose almost bumps Akane's forehead. They sort of freeze, staring into each other's eyes, inching a bit closer.
The moment is broken with the predictable arrival from-out-of-nowhere of Genma and Soun, the two men overjoyed at the sudden apparent affection of their children towards each other. Ranma bolts like a startled colt with Akane close on his heels, each fleeing to their own sanctuaries, leaving the two adults to wonder just what went wrong?
The two martial-artists later meet up briefly on the roof above Akane's room.
"So, do we tell her Ryoga might be her brother?" Ranma asks quietly.
Akane nods firmly. "I'd want to know if I was her."
"Okay, then. Tomorrow at school."
***
But they don't get the chance. Rei somehow manages to elude them throughout the entire day, no thanks to the appearance of Kuno and Kodachi, a surprise appearance of Shampoo (Ranma nurses a sore cheek for two hours after), and the expected raid from the lecherous Happosai.
To Akane's irritation they have to go to the Neko-Hanten to catch Rei while she's waitressing, with a mightily uncomfortable Ranma walking the fence above her.
They find Rei rushing to and fro in the middle of the afternoon crowds, carrying trays and bowls back and forth from kitchen to tables.
"Konnichwa! Welcome to the Neko--Oh, hi, Ranma, Akane!" Rei grins at them. "Grab seats if you can find them! Be with you in a minute!" Shampoo looks over at Ranma wistfully, but she, too, is too busy serving to give Ranma an Amazonian glomp. Rei walks up to them just as the two find an empty table-for-two. She takes out a little notebook from her apron and a little pencil from underneath her bandanna and smiles.
"What can I get for you? Cologne-sama has already told me you get fed for free."
"Akane?" Ranma looks over at her. She studies the menu a moment before asking for the pork-ramen and Ranma orders a beef-ramen.
"Okay, but it'll be a couple of minutes, so please be patient." Rei darts off to greet another customer, and Ranma has to duck as Mousse comes flying out of the kitchen a few moments later to attack him. Rei flashes in, kicks Mousse back into the kitchen and lands neatly, all without spilling a single drop of broth from any of the four bowls she's carrying. She scolds the near-sighted young man and orders him back to work, and meekly he obeys, and Rei apologizes to the group of businessmen that she had interrupted in order to intercept Mousse.
Eventually the two get their food and eat slowly, checking for unpleasant additives that might have been slipped in by Cologne or Shampoo. None are found and they finish just as the crowds vanish back outside, Rei coming over with a smile.
"I'm guessing you didn't come for the food or Shampoo's company, ne, Ranma, Akane?" she asks brightly.
"Iie," Akane shakes her head, "Actually, we came to talk to you."
"Thought so. Gomen, but you please make it quick? Someone's picking me up when my shift ends in fifteen minutes. At least, I hope he is," she adds, glancing towards the door.
"It's pretty quick," Ranma tells her. "We think we know who your brother is." Instant attention. "It's a guy named Ryoga Hibiki. You met him the other day, remember?"
"You mean the guy who broke the table with your head?" Sweatdrop for Ranma.
"Yeah, him."
"Are you sure?"
"Not really," Akane admits. "But Ryoga looks very much like the boy in your locket's picture. He's got the same bandanna and fangs, and there is some resemblance between you two."
"Well, if he is, he should have a locket like mine with his name on the back," Rei says firmly. "Where is he?"
"That's the problem," Ranma sighs. "Ryoga-baka's got a lousy sense of direction, so he's always gettin' lost."
"Doesn't he carry a map?" This just in time to stave off another of Akane's mallets to Ranma's head.
"Don't help. He'll mean to go left and go right even if he's got a compass."
"So that's why you asked me about my sense of direction, ne?"
"Right." Akane and Ranma nod. It is at this point that Shampoo decides Rei, whether or not already taken, is getting too close to her groom and decides to reclaim her territory, subjecting the unfortunate pig-tailed boy to a famous Amazonian glomp. Things pretty much degenerate from there and it's pretty much reduced to an Akane-vs.-Shampoo fight by the time Rei can clock out. She's vainly trying to calm everyone down and starting to lose her temper--noted by the tiny flames starting to grow in her hair--when a very calm, collected voice says from the doorway;
"I see you're still as much trouble as always, cross-dresser." Ranma instantly shoves Akane behind him and assumes a defensive stance against the young man dressed in jeans and a tank-top, his hair short except for two tendrils by his ears.
Ranma face-faults, however, when a suddenly-changed Rei (uniform to jeans and a T-shirt) bounces towards the boy, singing out a joyful, "Taro!"
The unfortunate young man is treated to a fox-girl glomp and submits, actually smiling somewhat happily. It is the first such expression the recovered Ranma and the others have seen on his face since Happosai had agreed to change Taro's name. Because the old man had been the one to wash Taro when he was a baby (in one of the strangest Jusenkyo springs, no less) he got to name the newborn. Predictably, he included one of his fetishes, thereby giving the baby the name of Pansuto (Pantyhose) Taro.
However, his name is still Pantyhose Taro thanks to Happosai changing his mind over the middle of the Pacific Ocean while Taro had been transporting the lecher to China.
"Hang on!" Ranma demands, waving his hands a little for emphasis. "Rei, how do you know this jerk?!"
"I could say the same about you, cross-dresser," Taro retorts coldly over Rei's head.
Ranma is furious. "It ain't cross-dressin' when it's a curse, you panty-pedophile!" Now Taro gets mad, and Rei shuts them both up with two small fireballs point-blank to their faces.
"Don't even start, you two. You'd likely break something and I don't want to add carpenter to my job description."
"Taro is Rei's boyfriend?" Shampoo asks, as both boys seem to deflate. "Shampoo no think he'd want girlfriend."
"Well, we didn't start out on the best terms, either," Rei admits, turning slightly pink. Akane isn't sure what her friend is blushing about, since she's still carelessly draped over Taro. "Grab a seat?"
The others sit and Rei tugs Taro to a chair, standing behind him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, resting her chin on his head and smiling. "See, I was on a business trip for my folks in China a few months ago, and doing some exploring while I was at it. But I got lost and hurt my ankle when I tripped over a hole. And, of course, it started raining." Taro tugs her gently to the chair beside him, and she sits. "So I'm wandering around, lost, cold, cranky, and wondering what the hell I did to deserve this. Then I hear what sounds like a mountain getting destroyed and my curiosity gets the best of me."
"I was practicing my aim," Taro adds, taking up the story. "When I heard a rustling in the bushes I threw a pebble in that direction. I heard a yelp and went to investigate. What do I find but a little fox with a pack beside her and clothes on top of it, knocked out by my pebble."
"Pebble?" growls Rei under her breath. "I'd hardly call something the size of my hand a pebble. If it had been anything else it would have been dead."
"And I would have had dinner," Taro responds. Rei sticks her tongue out and smiles.
"I woke up after the rain had stopped in somebody's bed in a fixed-up shrine house, head throbbing like crazy and too hot to keep the blanket on. I picked up a fever on top of everything else, you see. Not a good day for me. I used the sheet for a toga, since I couldn't find my clothes, and I tried sneaking out like an idiot."
Taro snorted. "You didn't get very far."
"I snuck up on you, didn't I?" Rei retorted. "He was sitting on the porch, and I whacked him over the head with my mallet and tried running. Didn't work; ankle was still sprained and the fever downed me again."
"So when I came to about five minutes later I picked your unconscious body up and put it back."
"Yup. And then there was--" An image of Taro's head imbedded in the floor with a rock on top. "And--" A statue this time, Rei running off wearing her clothes this time. "And--" Taro knocked out, tied up, and Rei running off.
"Finally I tied her up and told her to stay put until her ankle healed and her fever was gone, or I'd dunk her in a spring."
"I told him he could damn well try, but I'd toast him if he so much as laid another hand on me." Rei grinned. "All the heat I'd worked up, on top of my fever, made it kinda hard to keep my fires in and I wanted to toast something."
"I untied her and handed her some soup," Taro added. "She gave me this odd look before drinking it. What was that for, anyway?"
"I think I started hallucinating at that point."
"And then you passed out. Again."
"What do you expect, when I'd overexerted myself so much, eh?"
Ranma, Akane, and Shampoo all have sweatdrops by their heads while the two get into a cheerful argument. None of the three ever expected to see Taro this relaxed.
Finally Rei checks her watch and looks startled. "That late already? I promised Mom we'd check in before we went out."
"We haven't left yet."
"True." Rei and Taro get to their feet and turn to their table companions. "I'll see you tomorrow at school, Ranma, Akane!"
"Have fun!" Akane tells her friend as they leave. When she looks back, Ranma has already disappeared, leaving a very disappointed Shampoo to return to work since Akane really doesn't interest her.
***
It's another typical school-day the day after the run-in with Taro at the Cat Café, and Akane is just settling down to lunch at an empty desk when several of her friends go rushing past. Curious, she catches up and stops them.
"Hey, guys, what's going on?" One of the girls waves the others on before grinning at Akane and pulling her after.
"The new girl's telling fortunes with cards! And she's really good!" Akane starts to protest that she doesn't believe in fortune-telling, but she's dragged along anyway.
Outside under a tree sits Rei, surrounded by girls of all grades and even a couple of boys, a worn set of Tarot cards spread on the grass before her. Only six are arranged and face up, the rest in a stack by the girl's knee. The star-pattern of the cards seemed to be on purpose, though Akane can't see why.
"Okay!" Rei says brightly to the upperclassman girl in front of her. "Here's the answer: instead of just running off when you see your one in a compromising situation, confront him and find out the truth. Don't just jump to conclusions, and have faith. That's what my deck tells me. Understand?"
"Mh. Thank you!" The girl rises to her feet and walks off with several other girls who appear to have already heard their fortunes.
"Hey, Rei, tell Akane's fortune!" her friend suggests, pushing Akane forward and in front of Rei. The red-head smiles up at the suddenly-embarrassed girl and shuffles her cards by picking up part of the deck and sliding random cards back onto the rest in her other hand.
"Akane, would you like me to?" Rei asks cheerfully. "It's a popular thing today. Mind you, I can only tell stuff in the near future, so five years from now is completely out."
"Come on, Akane!" her friends urge, shooing her forward. Akane nods slightly and kneels in front of Rei, who offers her the deck.
"Cut the cards, then!" she tells Akane brightly, smiling. Akane shuffles and cuts the deck, then hands it back to Rei. "Now, I need you to keep a specific thing in your mind while I lay out the cards. Doesn't matter what it is, I've gotten good enough at this where I can answer just about anything."
"So finding out who Akane marries is out, huh?" one of the boys ask. When Rei nods, they all 'aww' in disappointment. Akane blushes furious scarlet in time to attract Ranma from his lunch.
What's she so embarrassed about? he wonders, wandering over. Rei closes her eyes and slides the top six cards off, arranging them in the five-pointed star with one in the middle pattern from before.
Will Ranma ever stop treating me like I'm an annoyance? Akane wonders in the direction of the cards as they are laid out. Rei flips them over and blinks. Everything is red or gold; the Coins, Cups, the Chariot, and the rare Dragon, uncommon in all but a few decks. The Dragon lights up the center of the star.
"That would be an emphatic 'yes', Akane. I don't think my deck's ever been this…loud before. See, this is your card, here," pointing to the image of the dragon curled around the moon. "And these are all emotion cards," pointing to the six, five, and three of cups. "These here are all positive cards," pointing to the Chariot and the Coin cards. Rei scoops her cards up and shuffles them back into the deck. "Hope that's a good thing."
Akane gives one of her rare, radiant smiles that is a reason so many guys chased after her before her engagement. "It's a very good thing."
"You lucky dog," one of Ranma's friends mutters at him. "Akane's so cute, and you got her for a fiancée. Not to mention you've got so many other babes chasin' after you."
"Lucky?!" Ranma turns his head to stare at the guy in disbelief. "I get beat up every day by at least one of 'em, I get drugged at least once a week just so one of 'em gets to go out with me, which I hate, and they're always plottin' somethin'! Akane's the only one that ain't tried to do any of it except beat me up! And even she does it 'cause she always thinks I'm bein' a pervert and hits me before I c'n explain myself! Where am I lucky?!"
"So how about I read your fortune, Ranma?" Rei asks him sweetly. Ranma turns bright red as he realizes he'd been shouting by the last bit, and Akane is looking at him in angry tears. She turns to run off but Rei places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Well?" she says pointedly, turning back to face him. "How about it?"
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Ranma asks in resignation. "Might as well find out if Pops got me engaged to anybody else while he was draggin' me around the world." The two kneel down again, and Rei hands him the cards.
"Cut the deck." Everyone is silent, watching, as Ranma cuts the deck randomly five times before handing it back. This time, Rei takes off a single card, sets it down in front of her, and puts the deck aside. "This isn't a question-answer fortune, Ranma. This is going to tell you which card represents you, and why, if any reason, all of the crap keeps happening to you. You ready?"
Ranma nods, a little nervous, and Rei reaches down and turns the card over. Everyone's eyes widen at the sight of the utter randomness of the cloud of color illustrated on the card. Only one word is on the card; no suit, no number, nothing else but the image and the word. 'Chaos.'
***********
Another cliffie! *Gets whacked by Starling*
Starling: you really have a death wish, doncha?
Niana: If it was the end of this big chunk, I'd say yes, but since it ain't, no! Thbbt! Please read and review, you wonderful people, you!
Starling: Anybody object if I bite her?