The week passed quietly, for Nerima. Ryoga showed up later that evening and
Kasumi and Akane explained to him what was going on. He didn't believe it,
but agreed to go along with it until he saw proof that Ranma was lying.
Kuno was not at school Monday, but was waiting for them Tuesday. He goaded
Ranma, making fun of him and insulting his manhood. He tried to attack the
pigtailed boy, but before he could finish drawing his bokken from his
hakama, he was tackled by two large gentlemen and slapped in handcuffs.
They read him his rights and dragged him away, stopping only to gag him for
his own good as just listening to him, they added a number of other charges
to the attempted assault. Kodachi had not been seen, though there were
enough black rose petals floating around the Furinkan schoolyard that
people knew she was monitoring the situation.
True to their word, the Amazons avoided the dojo and all contact with the residents thereof. Ranma wasn't so stupid as to visit them, and when he wasn't at the Tendo home, spent most of his free time in the park, watching some of the local children play and reflecting on his life. Quite often, Akane would sit with him on a park bench, a wistful smile on her face as she watched the chidlren. When they weren't at the park, they were training. Ranma was taking Akane's training seriously, and had high hopes for his fiancee.
Nabiki spent the week going over medical texts, and researching the possible costs involved in a surgery of this type. Compared to other surgeries, it was reletively inexpensive, though still a rather large chunk of change. She briefly pondered getting into the medical profession, but decided to stick to high finance and information mongering. Besides, she wasn't very good with the whole helping others before taking care of yourself lifestyle doctors were supposed to follow.
Akane, much to the shock of everyone around her, was extremely solicitous towards Ranma. Not once did she insult, mallet, or otherwise show any of the angry tendecies that had earned her the hated nickname of 'tomboy'. Her attitude towards Ranma had down a nearly complete reversal. She took his insults with grace, now understanding their true origins. She even managed to cook a decent meal of shishimi and teriyaki beef with his guidance, not rising to his baits and insults towards her previous failures at cooking. She made surprisingly few errors during the preperation of the meal and was very careful to read and follow all the instructions in the recipe book, ignoring the urges inside her to replace some ingredients and to add others.
During their training sessions, Ranma had began to fight back, if still restraining the vast majority of his strength. He would tap her lightly, leaving slight bruises that faded in minutes. Still not enough to hurt Akane in anyway, it was far more than he had been willing to do in the past and she understood his reasons better than she had before. With none of the envy and jealousy that had marked her past thoughts, she admitted to herself that Ranma was a far superior martial artist and that if he were to trully hit her with even a quarter of his full strength, she would likely have serious injuries. There were few people that Ranma could safely release his full power on and most of them she did not wish to see anytime soon as they had often either endangered her life or attempted to steal her away from Ranma in one way or another. She was listening to him now, and he was responding by opening up to her in a way he had never done to anyone before, telling her his thoughts and feelings concerning the chaos in his life.
The only dark cloud in this peaceful week was his mothers outright refusal to have anything to do with Akane. At the meal she had cooked, Nodoka had turned her nose up and dragged Genma out to eat, but only after he had managed to eat a normal persons portion of the food. When Akane walked into a room that Nodoka was in, the Saotome matriarch would turn and leave, not even bother finishing what had brought her into the room in the first place. And if Nodoka walked into a room and noticed Akane, she would glare at the girl, before turning and leaving without word being exchanged. The only exceptions were if Ranma was in the room. With her son there, Nodoka would take over the conversation and make a point of ignoring Akane's attempts to speak to her son.
The weekend finally came and Ranma and Akane raced home from school, Ranma carrying Akane easily in his arms as he hopped from roof to roof, arriving at the Tendo home less than five minutes later. It was usually a 20 minute walk from the school, and Ranma could have travelled the distance within a minute, but Akane was not yet at the level needed to withstand the windforce such speeds generated. She was slowly improving, thanks to his instruction, but she had a long way to go. At the rate they were going, he thought she might be ready for the Amaguriken technique in another month or so. Once she had that, it would be a more rapid increase and much easier for her to learn the intricacies of kiblasts.
Even with the speed they had travelled they were far from the first to arrive. Ryoga had arrived sometime that morning, while they were at school. The Amazons had closed the Nekohanten for the day and had spend it quietly meditating in the dojo. Ukyo had skipped school that morning and had also come straight to the dojo upon awakening, followed as always by Konatsu. The pair were sitting near the koi pond, quietly discussing something. The parents and Kasumi were seated around the little table near the sliding doors, glasses of iced tea and small pastries piled before them. Neither of the Kuno's were there, and that was a fact noted and appreciated by many. Tatewaki was still in custody, undergoing a psychiatric review while only Sasuke knew where Kodachi was hiding herself.
Ranma and Akane went up to change, dropping off their school stuff and chaning into more comfortable clothing. Not by coincidence this meant they both changed into gis. Once he had begun to actually train Akane, Ranma had taken to wearing a gi during all the offical sessions. He still took every opportunity he could to make everyday activities into training. As with the Amaguriken and kiblasts, he felt that Akane would shortly be roof hopping. She needed only to gain more confidence in her skills and to start relying on her instincts instead of her concious thoughts during a fight.
That had always been one of her problems. If she had too much time to think about what she was doing, she would start worrying about messing up and would end up doing something that made her look foolish. It was the opposite of her problems with cooking. With cooking she just grabbed whatever was at hand that sounded good and threw it together. With martial arts, she spent too much time thinking about what she was doing instead of just doing it.
Now, at least, Akane would have to spend more time on controlling her emotions instead of her body, allowing her natural grace and talent to do the work while her mind was focussed on ignoring the taunts and baiting that flowed from Ranma's mouth. She had taken her sister's advice to heart and could now see that most of Ranma's insults were a childish attempt to motivate her to improve herself. She had been too prone to anger to see what Ranma was trying to do, focussing more on the source of the statements than on what the statements were attempting to tell her.
Ranma had found the week rather boring. At times he wondered if the benefits of the surgery would outway the negatives. Especially since he wouldn't be allowed to spar or fight for the month after the surgery. By the time Friday had rolled around he found himself missing Kuno, but even Kuno bashing had been forbidden. He had seen Ryoga twice and no matter what he had said, the lost boy had ignored him, teasing him back in a way he had never done before. He would have bet money with Nabiki on her own terms that Ryoga would have attacked him or Shampoo would have glomped him. She might be his cousin, but it was a distant relation that made no difference in her pursuit of him, she simply was not able to use the Kiss of Death or Kiss of Marriage. She was more subtle now, instant of the ribcracking glomps, giving him hugs of unusual lengths and still slightly rubbing her solid soft frame against Ranma's. The ties of blood had actually strengthened her previous claim on him, since he already had Amazon blood in his veins and marrying Shampoo would have made those bonds stronger. It didn't seem to matter to her that Cologne had renounced all claims on him.
He just wanted to get the waiting over and find out what could be done to help him become what Akane needed him to be.
True to their word, the Amazons avoided the dojo and all contact with the residents thereof. Ranma wasn't so stupid as to visit them, and when he wasn't at the Tendo home, spent most of his free time in the park, watching some of the local children play and reflecting on his life. Quite often, Akane would sit with him on a park bench, a wistful smile on her face as she watched the chidlren. When they weren't at the park, they were training. Ranma was taking Akane's training seriously, and had high hopes for his fiancee.
Nabiki spent the week going over medical texts, and researching the possible costs involved in a surgery of this type. Compared to other surgeries, it was reletively inexpensive, though still a rather large chunk of change. She briefly pondered getting into the medical profession, but decided to stick to high finance and information mongering. Besides, she wasn't very good with the whole helping others before taking care of yourself lifestyle doctors were supposed to follow.
Akane, much to the shock of everyone around her, was extremely solicitous towards Ranma. Not once did she insult, mallet, or otherwise show any of the angry tendecies that had earned her the hated nickname of 'tomboy'. Her attitude towards Ranma had down a nearly complete reversal. She took his insults with grace, now understanding their true origins. She even managed to cook a decent meal of shishimi and teriyaki beef with his guidance, not rising to his baits and insults towards her previous failures at cooking. She made surprisingly few errors during the preperation of the meal and was very careful to read and follow all the instructions in the recipe book, ignoring the urges inside her to replace some ingredients and to add others.
During their training sessions, Ranma had began to fight back, if still restraining the vast majority of his strength. He would tap her lightly, leaving slight bruises that faded in minutes. Still not enough to hurt Akane in anyway, it was far more than he had been willing to do in the past and she understood his reasons better than she had before. With none of the envy and jealousy that had marked her past thoughts, she admitted to herself that Ranma was a far superior martial artist and that if he were to trully hit her with even a quarter of his full strength, she would likely have serious injuries. There were few people that Ranma could safely release his full power on and most of them she did not wish to see anytime soon as they had often either endangered her life or attempted to steal her away from Ranma in one way or another. She was listening to him now, and he was responding by opening up to her in a way he had never done to anyone before, telling her his thoughts and feelings concerning the chaos in his life.
The only dark cloud in this peaceful week was his mothers outright refusal to have anything to do with Akane. At the meal she had cooked, Nodoka had turned her nose up and dragged Genma out to eat, but only after he had managed to eat a normal persons portion of the food. When Akane walked into a room that Nodoka was in, the Saotome matriarch would turn and leave, not even bother finishing what had brought her into the room in the first place. And if Nodoka walked into a room and noticed Akane, she would glare at the girl, before turning and leaving without word being exchanged. The only exceptions were if Ranma was in the room. With her son there, Nodoka would take over the conversation and make a point of ignoring Akane's attempts to speak to her son.
The weekend finally came and Ranma and Akane raced home from school, Ranma carrying Akane easily in his arms as he hopped from roof to roof, arriving at the Tendo home less than five minutes later. It was usually a 20 minute walk from the school, and Ranma could have travelled the distance within a minute, but Akane was not yet at the level needed to withstand the windforce such speeds generated. She was slowly improving, thanks to his instruction, but she had a long way to go. At the rate they were going, he thought she might be ready for the Amaguriken technique in another month or so. Once she had that, it would be a more rapid increase and much easier for her to learn the intricacies of kiblasts.
Even with the speed they had travelled they were far from the first to arrive. Ryoga had arrived sometime that morning, while they were at school. The Amazons had closed the Nekohanten for the day and had spend it quietly meditating in the dojo. Ukyo had skipped school that morning and had also come straight to the dojo upon awakening, followed as always by Konatsu. The pair were sitting near the koi pond, quietly discussing something. The parents and Kasumi were seated around the little table near the sliding doors, glasses of iced tea and small pastries piled before them. Neither of the Kuno's were there, and that was a fact noted and appreciated by many. Tatewaki was still in custody, undergoing a psychiatric review while only Sasuke knew where Kodachi was hiding herself.
Ranma and Akane went up to change, dropping off their school stuff and chaning into more comfortable clothing. Not by coincidence this meant they both changed into gis. Once he had begun to actually train Akane, Ranma had taken to wearing a gi during all the offical sessions. He still took every opportunity he could to make everyday activities into training. As with the Amaguriken and kiblasts, he felt that Akane would shortly be roof hopping. She needed only to gain more confidence in her skills and to start relying on her instincts instead of her concious thoughts during a fight.
That had always been one of her problems. If she had too much time to think about what she was doing, she would start worrying about messing up and would end up doing something that made her look foolish. It was the opposite of her problems with cooking. With cooking she just grabbed whatever was at hand that sounded good and threw it together. With martial arts, she spent too much time thinking about what she was doing instead of just doing it.
Now, at least, Akane would have to spend more time on controlling her emotions instead of her body, allowing her natural grace and talent to do the work while her mind was focussed on ignoring the taunts and baiting that flowed from Ranma's mouth. She had taken her sister's advice to heart and could now see that most of Ranma's insults were a childish attempt to motivate her to improve herself. She had been too prone to anger to see what Ranma was trying to do, focussing more on the source of the statements than on what the statements were attempting to tell her.
Ranma had found the week rather boring. At times he wondered if the benefits of the surgery would outway the negatives. Especially since he wouldn't be allowed to spar or fight for the month after the surgery. By the time Friday had rolled around he found himself missing Kuno, but even Kuno bashing had been forbidden. He had seen Ryoga twice and no matter what he had said, the lost boy had ignored him, teasing him back in a way he had never done before. He would have bet money with Nabiki on her own terms that Ryoga would have attacked him or Shampoo would have glomped him. She might be his cousin, but it was a distant relation that made no difference in her pursuit of him, she simply was not able to use the Kiss of Death or Kiss of Marriage. She was more subtle now, instant of the ribcracking glomps, giving him hugs of unusual lengths and still slightly rubbing her solid soft frame against Ranma's. The ties of blood had actually strengthened her previous claim on him, since he already had Amazon blood in his veins and marrying Shampoo would have made those bonds stronger. It didn't seem to matter to her that Cologne had renounced all claims on him.
He just wanted to get the waiting over and find out what could be done to help him become what Akane needed him to be.
