Part 5: Yokata
Akane stared at the dust pile in shock. She had beaten him. Ranma was, at least, avenged.
The thought brought tears to her eyes. She refused to believe it. He couldn't be dead!
Akane forced herself to her feet. The stinging pain at her side was forgotten; it could not match the pain in her heart.
Akane scrambled down the cliff, reaching for any possible hand and footholds. It was a clumsy decent, with more sliding than actually climbing, but before long she was at the bottom.
A wide stream lay before her. The current was swift, the water swollen from the autumn rains. A few feet before her, lying on the muddy bank, was a torn piece of red cloth.
With trembling hands she reached towards it and picked it up. She clutched it to her chest and her vision suddenly blurred with unshed tears. "RANMA!" she screamed as her tears, unbidden, leaked from her eyes.
Ranma awoke to find himself wet, in his female form, and sporting a killer headache. He was lying on the bank of the stream, his outer red shirt torn to pieces. Only his black undershirt and pants were intact. He tried to remember what happened. The last thing he recalled was being blasted off the side of the cliff by Keimen's ki blast. He sat up and cringed at the pain shooting from his left arm.
"Right, I tumbled off and fell into the stream...must have been carried me all the way out here."
Ranma stood up and took in his surroundings. He grinned. At least he knew exactly where he was.
"Hmm… there should be a hot spring right over there. Heh, then I can go back and take out that Kaimen."
Minutes later and thoroughly male, Ranma walked back towards the cliff. His steady pace was interrupted by a painfully familiar sound.
Akane. She had screamed his name and she was… crying?
Ranma ran, his heart thudding loudly in his chest. He stopped dead in his tracks once she entered his vision. Akane was talking to herself, clutching a piece of his torn shirt to her chest.
"Why do you always have to play the hero?" he heard her cry. "Now… now I'll never get the chance to say I'm sorry. T-to apologize for always losing my temper, for not listening…" Her voice broke and she took a deep breath, her body shaking. She punched the ground in frustration. "Dammit Ranma, I never got to say I love you."
Ranma was stunned into place. Did he really just hear her say that? She started to cry again and the sound snapped his mind back to reality.
"Akane, don't cry. I'm right here."
Akane whirled around. Her eyes were as big as saucers as she took in the sight of him. He was covered from head to tow in scrapes and bruises and his left arm hung limply at his side, but he was there; alive and standing right in front of her.
She ran to him and without thinking her arms circled around him, hugging him tightly. Tears of relief spilled from her eyes. "Yokata," she whispered.
Ranma let out a huge breath of relief. When he had heard her scream like that he had assumed the worst. As he held her safely in his arms everything in the world seemed perfect, until his injured arm began to protest the tight grip it was under. Reluctantly, he pulled away from her embrace.
Recalling herself, Akane stepped back, her face blushing. "You, uh, didn't hear what I was saying back there, did you?" she asked nervously.
Ranma's face flushed in remembrance. "Uhhh, well… yeah." He admitted, unsure of how to respond.
Akane looked away, feeling horribly embarrassed. A multitude of negative reactions from Ranma filled her head and terrified her.
Ranma gently put his hand on her face and forced her to look up at him. "Did you mean it?" he asked. His face was uncharacteristically serious and his eyes never wavered. He was neither mocking nor rejecting her.
Akane gulped. Then gulped again. She gave a quick nod, unable to vocalize it to his face. "D-did you mean it at Jusenkyo?" she managed to ask back, her voice suddenly small.
Ranma's face faulted. He felt like a deer trapped in the headlights. Her soft brown eyes looked at him pleadingly. He took a deep breath. "I-I did, Akane. I really did."
They stood there, caught in a moment that changed their entire world.
Suddenly, Ranma's eyes bulged wide as he took in her ripped, bloodstained clothes for the first time.
"A-Akane! You're hurt!"
Instinctively, he forced her to sit down. With his good arm he pulled at her clothing to examine the wound.
"Ranma!" Her face turned crimson. Her emotions warred between feeling touched at his concern and wanting to slap him halfway across Nerima for his forwardness. She refrained from hitting him (barely) and settled for pulling his hand away and yanking her torn clothing back into place.
"I'm fine! It just looks worse than what it is, really!" Ranma gave her a hard look, knowing how stubborn she would deny it even if she was badly injured. He was just like her in that regard.
"Stop trying to be such a macho chick!"
"As if you have the right to say anything! I can tell your arm is hurt far worse than my little scrape."
Ranma frowned. He had wrenched it badly during the fall, and he could tell from past experience that it was dislocated. It was nothing a trip to Tofu's couldn't cure, but the pain was acutely felt.
"Well, I'm not the one bleeding!" he retorted, at a loss for anything better to say.
They sat there for a moment silently fuming until, suddenly, Akane laughed.
"What's so funny?" He demanded, trying not to be caught up in her golden laughter.
"We are, baka." The insult carried no sting, only gentleness.
She stood up and offered Ranma a hand. He accepted it and studied her carefully. From her posture she didn't seem too badly hurt.
"You better be telling me the truth. If Kaimen's done anything I swear I'll rip him apart, twice."
Akane smiled. "Actually, I took care of him already." She answered proudly.
Ranma's mouth hung open in shock. "You managed to defeat that energy demon?" he asked, his disbelief apparent.
"You're not the only one who knows martial arts, you know!"
"Yeah, but we both know you're not nearly strong or fast enough to take him down. How'd you do it?"
Akane felt stung at his words, but she knew the truth in them. She forcibly bit down the urge to yell at him. "Well, at first I tried fighting him head on," she confessed and pointed to her injury as evidence. "In the end I was lucky and tricked him with an exorcist scroll."
Ranma seemed only more upset and grabbed her arm. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"What was I supposed to do?! I thought you were dead. I didn't care what happened to me as long as I took him down with me."
She turned her face away from him, embarrassed by her own outburst.
Instead of being upset, Ranma simply sighed. He let go of her arm and rubbed the back of his head with his good hand. "I guess I can't blame you there. I was the same way when -- when things turned ugly at Jusenkyo."
Akane turned to face him. Gone was the cocky youth. Before her stood an awkward but handsome boy turned man.
Ranma stared at his iinazuke. Her hair and clothing were in disarray from the fight, but she still looked beautiful to him. She was no longer a girl-child who rashly lost her temper at the drop of a hat, but a young woman whose temper reflected her compassion and honor.
They were growing up.
She smiled at him, one of her rare, genuine smiles that could ever only be described as cute. She reached out and took her hand in his good one. "C'mon, Ranma. Let's go home."
End of Story Arc 2
A/N:
Wondering why Kaimen didn't detect Ranma's scent anymore? When Ranma transformed to his girl body, his scent changed. Kaimen's overconfidence led him to believe the lack of Ranma's scent meant he was destroyed.
Preview for next Story Arc: Considering the past events and close calls, Ranma begins to take Akane's training seriously. Ukyo gets jealous of the extra time Ranma is spending with Akane, and steps up the efforts to win Ranma for himself! Life for Ranma grows more complicated as the fathers resume their plots to marry him to Akane. At the same time, Ukyo has gone to Nodoka demanding marriage to Ranma as the only way to amend honor over her swindled dowry! Will Ranma & Akane's new found love survive?
I hope you liked this second story arc. I always wanted the tables to be turned and have Akane save the day. It's kind of like a switch on vol. 38, with Akane facing the (apparent) death of Ranma.
Thanks to all the people who have reviewed. It was your input that has helped me improve, revise, and inspire me to continue.
That being said, please keep on REVIEWing! Both negative and positive comments greatly appreciated!