A Ranma ½ Fanfic by PansutoTaro5925
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
DISCLAIMER: Ranma ½ is the property of Rumiko Takahashi
and Viz Video. I make no claim to these properties. This fic not
to be distributed for commercial gain.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Ranma was lost in thought in much the same way that Ryouga
was currently lost in a closet. That is, while much effort was
being made, nothing was being accomplished. "Man," Ranma
groused, "what kind of training can you do to get that fast? Her
hands blurred... like..."
He thought back to that striek into his ribs - all the strikes into
his ribs, all launched so fast that he would only get off a single
blow. "That's some kinda reflexes, too, pulling the arm back so
fast to strike again. She didn't just strike fast, after all, she
struck often, too. They aren't quite the same thing."
"Why are you talking to yourself, Ranma?" Akane said, having
watched this one-sided conversation from the doorway of the
dojo. "Still sore about losing to a girl?"
"I ain't sore, you tomboy!" Ranma growled. "I just won't stay
beat by her, is all."
Akane stuck her tongue out at Ranma. "I bet she beats you
again, Ranma. Serves you right!"
"Gee, does that thought make you happy?" Ranma snapped. He
wished Akane would leave him alone for a while. He was trying
to think; couldn't she stop pestering him. Akane just harumphed
and stomped off. "Feh, finally."
Ranma considered possibilities for a while, but still went
nowhere. "Maybe I need a walk to clear my head."
Kasumi's voice rang out then from the kitchen. "Ranma!
Genma! Akane! Breakfast is ready!" Lazily getting to his feet,
Ranma strolled over to the table to eat, and maybe think for a
bit.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
"Class, we have a new student joining us all the way from
China. Everyone please give a big 'Nihao' welcome to Mifa,"
the teacher said, waving to the green haired girl. Mifa wrote her
name on the board in large Chinese characters and turned
around.
"Nihao!" she said, laughing. "I no speak Japanese good," she
said, getting a wave of amused snickers from some members of
the class. She suppressed a frown strongly; all that was revealed
was a slight twitch in her eye, "but, I think I learn it quick, yes?
I speak no Japanese ever, before one month ago."
"Well, yes. You can take the empty seat over by the window.
Class, please open your books to page 73..." the teacher said,
droning on. Mifa tuned him out for a minute and carefully
scanned the class. Apart from Ranma and Akane, there seemed
to be no martial artists in the class. That was a little surprising
to her. The boys in the class were almost uniformly leering at
her, too. She sniffed and turned away. She could pound all of
them to jelly in a minute if she needed to.
Silly Mifa, she told herself, not everywhere is like the village,
surrounded by Musk and Pheonix and all manner of threats. The
people of Japan didn't have some universal need to learn the
martial arts from a young age. Maybe she could set up some
classes with Shampoo to teach the basics? Nah, that was what
the dojo Ranma's angry fiancee had was for. Better stick to
food.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
At lunch Mifa sat in a tree and watched Ranma quietly. "Nihao,
Mifa. Fresh hot lunch!" Shampoo called out, jumping over the
walls. Whereas the group of boys who had been pestering her
earlier gave up in the face of stone cold dismissal and the fact
that she was in a tree, the singsong tones of her cousin's voice
drew their attention like a magnet. "Aiyah! These perverts are
as bad as Mousse!" she yelled, as she smashed a path through
them to Mifa's tree.
"What the hell are those morons doing?" Ranma mumbled,
watching the horde.
"Damn, she's sweet!" Hiroshi said, looking at Shampoo.
"She's some sort of Chinese warrior woman with the manners
of a cavewoman," Ranma said, hoping to instill a bit of common
sense in his friends.
"She can drag me to her cave any day," Daisuke said reverently,
with Hiroshi nodding assent. "You say she'd marry us if we
beat her in a fight?"
"Yeah, that's their stupid law, all right," Ranma said.
Ranma's classmates looked at each other with determination in
their eyes. They bowed deeply before him. "Instruct us, o
sensei!"
"Knock it off!" Ranma yelled.
Shampoo, for her part, finally succeeded in dissuading the
crowd from annoying her, partly because she had piled up an
impressive mound of unconscious bodies and partially because
she had climbed up in the tree alongside her cousin. "They don't
give up easily, do they?" she asked.
"Nope! Give me some of that ramen," Mifa said, holding out
her hands. Taking her bowl of noodles in hand, she
appreciatively slurped up the noodles and broth.
"So," Shampoo asked slyly, "have you spent time with your
husband today?"
"No, not yet," Mifa said quietly, continuing to eat at an
unhurried pace.
Shampoo's eyes bugged. "What?"
"Not everyone moves as fast as you would," Mifa said. She ate
her noodles for a while more. Shampoo waited her out.She'd
elaborate in due time, if she could put her opinions in words at
all. It took a while, but Mifa finally put aside her bowl of
noodles and continued the thought. "I don't move that fast. I
don't think Ranma moves that fast, either, not in love." Mifa
looked at Shampoo, her face very serious and very calm. "He
should know me as a person before he thinks of me as a wife, I
think."
"So that's why you want him to spar with you?" Shampoo
asked, impressed.
"No," Mifa said, smiling, "I want him to spar with me because
he fights well."
"Oh."
"But it is a nice side benefit, don't you think?"
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Ranma wandered through Nerima aimlessly after class. He still
didn't have an idea for speed training that would let him match
that weird Chinese girl. Even though his father had always
lectured against the evils of eating it, he found himself stopping
in front of a McDonald's. "Feh, all I want is something to drink
anyways," Ranma said as he walked inside.
Patiently waiting in line, Ranma got fed up with reading the
various advertisements and signs up in the store and looked in
the rear of the store. A guy was trying to fish fries out of a deep
fryer and was jerking his hand back as the hot oil bubbled and
popped unexpectedly. Ranma smiled a bit at his frustrated
attempts at grabbing the fries with a short pair of tongs.
Suddenly, it hit him.
"Hey, can I help you?" the cashier asked, trying to get his
attention.
"No thanks, you already did," Ranma breathed, and took off
towards the supermarket. He had a sudden appetite for fried
food.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Ranma was walking home with a bag full of groceries when he
spied a turtle walking down the side of the street. Ignoring the
startled reactions of passerby, he picked it up and looked it in
the eye. "Excuse me, but are you Mifa?"
The turtle slowly nodded its head.
"Man, your curse bites. I'll bring you back to the Tendo place
and get you some hot water, OK?" Ranma put her under his
other arm like a football and jogged off to the Tendo residence.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
"Ranma!" Kasumi said, noticing the brown grocery bags. "You
went shopping for me?" She moved to get them, but he pulled
them out of her reach.
"Nope, I bought this for martial arts training," he answered.
"From the grocer's?" Kasumi asked, puzzled.
"Yeah. Hey, can you get some hot water for Mifa here? I think
she got splashed somewhere," Ranma asked, as he took out a
few bottles of vegetable oil.
"Ranma, were you out with that girl?" Kasumi asked sternly.
"No, I found a turtle wandering the streets," he shot back.
"Maybe I better just let you jump in the furo." Ranma walked
over to his room, grabbed a muscle tee and shorts, and put them
inside the bathroom. "Here, you can use these after you
change," Ranma said, setting the turtle on the edge of the furo.
"I've got some martial arts training to do now."
After Ranma left Mifa sat up out of the steaming water and
blinked. "I wonder what kind of method he's going to use?" she
muttered, then got out and got dressed. She walked out to go
check.
"What are you doing here? Go away!" Akane said, seeing the
foreign girl in her living room.
"Nihao," Mifa said dryly. "I glad seeing you also."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"I was splashed. Hot water here," Mifa said, pointing to the
furo. "You have problem?"
"He shouldn't have brought you here," Akane said, getting in
the Chinese girl's face. Damn, Akane thought, she's taller than I
am.
"He supposed to leave me on side of road?" Mifa said, glaring
back. Two could play at this staredown game...
"Oh, hello there!" Kasumi said, breaking the tension. She
looked a little charigned. "I'm sorry, I never apologized for
nearly boiling you the other day. I'm very sorry."
"Is no need for apology," Mifa said, scratching her head. "Ah
heh, I try boil pig in China, was boy. Happen to me too." And I
didn't apologize, Mifa thought. She made a mental note to if
she ever saw him again, which was unlikely given that the
indicent happened in China. Mifa quickly used her exchange
with Kasumi to break away from Akane and scoot over to the
dojo.
"Hey!" Akane said, following her.
Ranma was in the dojo with a bag of yen coins and a large pot
of water. Next to the far wall was a strange assortment of stuff:
chopped wood, bottles of cooking oil, and bags of frozen french
fries. He looked up from what he was doing and smiled. "Hi
Mifa, hi Akane!" He waved before looking back at the pot of
water.
"I thought you were just here to change back!" Akane yelled at
Mifa.
"I just want to see what he do here," Mifa said. Akane pushed
her out of the dojo. "What is problem?"
"You." Akane stated simply.
"Why am I problem?" Mifa said.
Akane glared at her. "You just are. You're trying to marry
Ranma just because he beat you in a fight, and you've followed
him all the way from China just to bother him about it."
"I thought you no want Ranma?" Mifa said. "You say
engagement over yesterday."
Akane ground her teeth and shut her eyes, trying - mostly
unsuccessfully - to suppress a rising anger. "I was angry at the
time."
"So you do want Ranma?" Mifa asked, smiling. This was fun.
"No!" Akane snapped.
"Why problem, then?" Mifa asked, smirking wider.
"Just because!"
Mifa smirked and turned away. "I go now, he not started yet.
We distract him lots." She waved and jumped up onto the wall
and out of the yard.
"What a bitch," Akane mumbled, and turned around. "What are
you doing anyways, Ranma?"
"Just some training. She beat me bad yesterday, her speed is
incredible. I've never seen anything like it before," Ranma said,
staring at the pot of water.
"She's that fast?" Akane said, surprised.
"Yeah," Ranma answered, "but I'm not going to sit on my ass
and mope about it. I'm going to become even faster and kick
her ass." Ranma smiled as he stared into the water. He pulled
over a thermos he had handy. "Using cold water sucks, but it
can't be helped."
"You want to beat her up?" Akane said, surprised again. Her
surprise changed to anger for a second - he enver fought her
seriously - then to a nasty smile. "Do you need help?"
"No, just time. Why?" Ranma asked, obliviously.
"Oh, nothing," Akane said, rubbing the back of her head. "I'll
leave you alone, then. What are you doing, though?"
Wordlessly Ranma took a heaping handful of yen coins and
dumped them in the bottom, then his hand shot forwards,
blurring, as he grabbed every coin before it hit the bottom of the
pot. "Wow, that's fast. She's that much faster?" Akane
breathed. Ranma had changed from all the water splashing all
over, which he wiped up with a towel before pouring a bit of
hot water from the thermos over her head.
Ranma nodded once. "Much faster." Akane got up and left,
leaving Ranma to practice.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
"Hello, Shampoo," Mifa said upon entering the soon-to-be-
restaurant. It had been a wreck the day before, but now was in
decent shape inside. Shampoo had spent the day cleaning the
place up. A black and white TV was playing on a table, which
Shampoo was staring through without really watching it.
"Huh?" Shampoo said, snapping out of her trancelike state.
"Have a fun day?"
"School is boring," Mifa said, "but a good opportunity to speak
Japanese. I hate sounding like an idiot."
"Drop in on your husband?" Shampoo purred, teasing her
cousin.
"As a matter of fact, yes," Mifa said, turning a chair around
backwards and sitting down. She leaned her elbow on the
backrest and smiled. "He's already come up with his own
variant on the chestnut fist training."
Shampoo's eyes widened. "So fast?"
Mifa nodded enthusiatically. "Very! So, how went your search
for a husband, Shampoo?"
Shampoo sniffed. "I have no idea what you are talking about."
Mifa smiled. "Cologne sent you, and not someone else. Sent
you someplace far away from Mousse - for now."
Shampoo shuddered. "He'll find me. He always does."
"Still, you have a little freedom from his interference, for now."
"That's true. Want to spar a bit?"
"Of course!"
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Ranma took his seat at the Tendo dinner table slowly, his shirt
soaked with sweat and the sleeves rolled up. Bandages covered
his arms. "Ranma, are you OK?" Akane asked.
"He was sticking his hands in boiling water," Nabiki said,
chewing on a piece of chicken. "I took photos for proof your
fiancee finally went off the deep end."
"Boiling water? What are you trying to accomplish, boy?"
Genma asked, grabbing Ranma's arm.
"Ow! Stop that, old man, you got any idea how much that
hurts?" Ranma cried, yanking his arm back. An evil smile
crossed his face. "Just for that-"
Ranma's arms blurred impossibly, and Genma's food just
seemed to vanish. Ranma picked up his now overflowing bowl
and began shoveling it in as fast as possible, keeping the bowl
easily ahead of his father's attempts to get his food back as he
nimbly moved it out of the path of the chopsticks. Ranma put
down the almost empty bowl and burped. Not a soul had
moved, shocked at the impressive display.
Genma broke down in tears. "My own son! Stealing the food
from his starving father!"
"You? Starving?" Ranma asked incredulously.
Akane smiled. "Ranma! So you've learned how to match her
speed already?"
Ranma looked at her seriously, then down at his arms. "No."
"No?" Akane said, her eyes widening. "You still aren't fast
enough?"
"If I were as fast as her, I would be able to get the coins
without burning my hands. I'm not that fast yet. And when I'm
finished," Ranma said, growling, "I'll be even faster."
oo o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Have I found a 'scene break' which FFnet won't strip and force me to
manually reinsert on every chapter upload? I believe I have!