Disclaimer: All characters and places are the property of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. Except for the original characters and places, that is.

Author's Notes: This newest chapter is probably going to be the last update in a few days. I'll be forced to attend plenty of stuff in the up-coming days with little time left to write. sigh Anyway, any honest criticism is welcome, because I really appreciate honest feedback about this fic, good or bad. So please review as much as possible!

It's Gonna Rain

A Ranma ½ Fan-fiction

Part III: Thunder

Finally stepping into the field, she saw a girl, cross-armed, in the center of the field. Noticing her presence, the girl looked up – and smiled.

"Tendou Akane, you're here," Shoken Koname greeted, the briefest of icy smiles on her face...

They faced each other, each ready in their respective battle-stance. Akane briefly scanned the girl in front of her, and her heart sank. She certainly didn't look easy to knock out. If even Shampoo and Ukyo had given her problems, than this girl would be twice the trouble. And that was bad for Akane – or rather, disastrous for Akane, because of the possibility that she might not win (no matter how stubbornly she tried to ignore that teeny train of thought).

The girl was tall, and slim, but powerfully built, along the lines of Ukyo, except she was even more muscular. A dark, tanned face was framed by longs strands of raven-black hair, her dark, cold eyes very observant, scrutinizing every single detail. Akane felt as if she and this girl were miles apart – she was cold, like carved ice, every inch perfectly sculptured, while Akane was hot, like a burning splinter, always acting through her emotions. She felt suddenly more aware of the other girl when she realized that fact. Why she felt that way, she never knew.

"I am ready. But first, I'd like a few questions answered." She saw the other girl start slightly, apparently caught off-guard, then watched closely as the countenance returned to its original cold and indifferent self.

"What are they?" Every word was carefully chosen and articulated perfectly. Akane felt a shiver go up her spine. What a perfectionist...

"Well, quite a lot!" She met the opponent's gaze firmly, without even a simple flinch. "What's your name, for one? And here's another: Why did you want to challenge me?"

The other didn't look affronted or taken aback. She merely smiled condescendingly and replied somewhat carefully, "Firstly, my name is Shoken Koname. And, prior to your second question – my motives. Which is actually a simple enough a question to answer, by the way. I want to fight you in order to achieve my goals."

Akane was startled at first, but then she felt an irresistible urge to roll her eyes. "You haven't told me what are your goals yet. Why do I stand in the way of your goals? Why do you have to fight me in order to achieve your goal?"

Shoken Koname didn't bat an eyelash. "That's simple enough. My goals, huh?" She tilted her head, as if in thought, before narrowing her eyes at Akane. "I want to defeat all the martial artists in Japan, especially the most powerful ones, and claim the title of "strongest" for my own."

"-And so, you must work harder! Your grades before you left your previous junior high were not as bad as they are now! Then, you were able to get just slightly lower than average marks, but nowhere as bad as the present! You are constantly sleeping in class, not paying the slightest attention to any of your teachers! All your teachers find you irresponsible, lazy, but with great potential. I hear you are very dedicated to your martial arts. Now if you could be just as dedicated to your martial arts as towards your studies, you will-"

Ranma rolled his eyes mentally and resisted the urge to yawn or show any signs of weaknesses. Why had he even come here to meet his stupid sensei in the first place? Now that was starting to show that he was probably going mad.

Well, that's to be expected, he reflected. After all, the stress piling on him because of the mysterious attacker probably gave him brain damage. He'd been thinking so much he hadn't even realized how tired he was. Until the time he entered the stupid staff room, and heard his sensei droning on and on about his slipping grades, how he must try to work harder, crap like that, making him feel immensely stupid and pleasantly sleepy.

Dammit... Now's not the time to be nodding off! He scolded himself mentally.

Perhaps the reason why he had come here was due to the fact that he felt guilty. Immensely guilty. After all, he'd never put in any effort into his studies at all since he'd entered Furinkan High. Attending this talk was his way of trying to show that he meant to pay attention, for once.

Whatever it was, he was seriously regretting his choice.

I think I'd much rather feel guilty than having to ever listen this kind of stupid stuff again...

Mousse couldn't believe what Cologne seemed to be telling him. He pulled off his glasses nervously, every action overly exaggerated.

"SHAMPOO! My rose, my beautiful swan in the lake! I will avenge you!"

He briskly pushed back his chair, causing the chair to topple backwards. "I will rescue you from the clutches of the evil attacker! Your hero is coming!"

So saying, he hugged the nearest pot. "SHAMPOO! I am here – your knight in shining armour! Come, embrace me!" Tears leaked out from his tightly-pinched closed eyes.

Cologne sighed and pinched her nose in distaste. Maybe she shouldn't have told him after all? After all, he was giving her more trouble on top of the mess made.

She hopped over to Mousse, still crying and exclaiming over the stupid pot, and rapped him – hard – with her walking stick and briskly took over.

"Mousse, Shampoo is well taken care of in Tofu-sensei's clinic. He is an excellent doctor, and she is in no danger. I myself will go and visit her. But if you really care about her, go and find the girl who challenged her! If you defeat her, Shampoo will definitely regard you as her hero. Oh-ho-ho-ho!" She laughed merrily at her rather ill joke.

Mousse, on the other hand, seemed to take the offer seriously. "Of course I will! SHAMPOO! Your knight in shining armour will come later! First I must avenge you!"

He ran out of the Cat Restaurant, still exclaiming over Shampoo. Cologne, alone in the closed restaurant, heaved a sigh of relief. At least Mousse was away, which gave her time to think. Shampoo had been defeated twice, her honour was now at stake. Whoever the girl was, she definitely had a high level of skill, and she had a strong feeling that only Son-in-Law (Ranma, of course) would be able to defeat the girl.

She got to the door, and locked it shut behind her. First things first – she had to find Shampoo. She fervently hoped that Son-in-Law would be able to defeat the girl...

"You WHAT?!"

In her whole life, Akane had asked herself many times the reason for fighting. She could find no answer. Sure, self-defense, honour at stake... but other girls could lead normal lives without fighting, while Akane couldn't. Akane found pleasure in getting into fights, though she never showed it – fighting, she felt, was the only way for her to de-stress, especially after Ranma's, in her eyes, cruel insults.

Finally, she had just stopped asking the question by answering to herself reasonably – fighting was in her blood, and she could never stop it. At that time, she felt it was reason enough, reason for her to go on as she did. Now, she wasn't so sure her beliefs would match out against this girl.

"I want the title of strongest," Shoken repeated, in a tone which suggested that she was rather annoyed at having to repeat what she had already said – or was it something else?

Akane couldn't even begin to comprehend. This girl, she felt, was a total mystery to her – someone she could never relate to.

"But why? Isn't having a high level of skill enough? Why bother to try defeat everyone else?"

Shoken narrowed her eyes, her limit snapping into pieces. Fighting to keep her control, she replied icily, "It does not concern you. I have a reason for doing so, but why should I even reveal it to you, you whom I have never met before? Come now, fight me!"

She got into full battle-mode, allowing her mind to relax and focus on the battle ahead, calm countenance betraying naught. She fully expected Akane to do the same, but instead, much to her surprise, Akane got out of her battle stance, and was looking at her inquiringly.

"How can I battle someone whom I don't even know very well to begin with and not know what the person is really after?" Akane asked. "You seem troubled with the fact about me asking you want to defeat everyone else..."

Akane was genuinely curious. But she certainly didn't expect the other girl's violent reaction.

"SHUT UP!" That effectively caused her to close her mouth, much startled. The calm and cool exterior, it seemed, had melted. Apparently, she had struck a nerve. "Don't go asking about what you don't know about others – that's proper courtesy. I will make the first move, if you don't want the pleasure!"

Akane glared at Shoken. What on earth was wrong with this girl? First she demanded a fight, and then refused to reveal her motives, choosing to flare up instead. She got back into her battle stance, arms at the ready.

"Well, I won't lose to anyone – not to you, especially. So be warned, I'm coming!"

Echoing a battle cry, Akane lunged towards Shoken, fists at the ready. She didn't notice the crowd of milling students around.

Ranma escaped the staff room with a heady relief after having to endure an hour's worth of his sensei's, in his opinion, worthless and useless talk. He was pretty much sure he had earache now – his ears were still throbbing.

Thinking of getting a drink to revitalize him before heading home for a nap, he turned towards the stairway leading him to the food store. With luck, it was still open.

He met Hiroshi, one of his friends in school, at the base of the stairway, heading in the direction leading to the school's training field. He seemed very excited and rather in a hurry, and nearly smashed headlong into Ranma.

"OY! Watch where you're going, guy. Whazza'matter?"

Hiroshi only seemed to notice him then. "Oh, Ranma! Well, I heard-" At this point, a faint blush filled his cheeks. "I heard that Akane is fighting with some strange girl in the training field! I can't wait to see Akane kick her ass!"

Daisuke had appeared out of nowhere. "Yeah! Ranma, wanna join us?"

Ranma, on the other hand, suddenly felt his brain jam. It couldn't be... could it? That the girl... the girl! She's the one Akane has to watch out for – probably the one that attacked Ut'chan! I gotta hurry!

He knew his instincts had been right. Without waiting for his friends, he set off at a sprint for the training field.

Akane didn't know what happened next. All she knew was that a heavy something had just slammed into her just as she was charging for Shoken Koname. She saw lights in front of her eyes, but thankfully, didn't pass out, as she slammed to the ground. The left side of her pinafore ripped, but she didn't care.

Gingerly, she got up from the ground to meet Shoken's level stare. "And they say you're powerful? If that strike was able to keep you down, then I don't see why others would even praise you as they did."

Akane bristled. This was ten times worse than Ranma's insults. Damn the girl!

"Well, I don't care how powerful you are! I'm going to defeat you! Get ready!"

She charged, and found her blow meeting thin air as Shoken easily side-stepped the blow. Whirling around to face Shoken, she executed a series of roundhouse-kicks, which the other evaded neatly without a single hit landing. Getting frustrated, she flipped under, ready to slam Shoken by the legs before she became aware, when she instead found herself raised into the air by her hair.

Stunned, she found herself meeting those dark eyes.

"You're interesting. But you're just as weak as the others here in Nerima. I don't see how so many people here think so highly of your elementary skills."

Akane hated that insult, but she ignored her inner violent reaction as a horrible suspicion came to her mind as everything that had happened today – or rather, Ranma's behaviour resurfaced.

"You're-!"

Shoken silenced her with a deathly grip on her throat. "You irritated me most of all. I won't kill you, but I will make you suffer."

Akane glared, trying to pry herself from the grip, but failing miserably. Before she could even try to pry herself away or attack Shoken, she felt pressure on her armrests.

Her eyes became blurry as she fell backwards. She didn't even feel herself hitting someone and being caught.

Author's Notes: Well, I didn't want to end just there and leave it as a cliffhanger for a few days, but 'tis inevitable. And now, it is time for me to rejoin the rest of me ol' group to prepare for an Arts' Fest next Wednesday. Woe is me. And by the way, I really still hate writing battle scenes.

Tyrean: Wow! Thanks for spending time to scrutinize and correct my mistakes! As of now, I've corrected my mistake, but haven't got enough time to go through the entire fic. Not that I'm begging you to, but I'll make amends once the school term is over. Really a big THANK-YOU for all your compliments!