Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2, nor claim to.
Chapter 5: New Kid in the Dojo:
"Hello my friend, we meet again. It's been a while, where should we begin . . .feels like forever." Creed: My Sacrifice
Ranma sighed as he walked in the door, Akane leaning on him, her arm reached around his side. Their children, all walking in front of them, had instantly spread throughout the entire house. The man led his wife along to the living room, and they sat down. There, they both waited for a moment. Ranma turned to Akane again, as her head drooped a bit. "You okay?"
Akane perked up, shaking her head a bit to chase away the sleepiness. "Yeah, I'm fine Ranma." She paused for a moment, before letting go of his side, and stood up. "I'm going to make some tea."
Ranma hopped up quickly, and gently pulled her back to her seat. "No, I'll get it. Take a sec', and relax, 'kay, Akane?" Reluctantly, Akane nodded, sitting back down. After a moment, though, she heard the sound of someone running in the halls. She glanced up at the clock. It was that time again.
"Ranma, I'm going to put Amy, Joseph, and Auska to bed. Be back in a minute." Akane said, standing up slowly.
Ranma nodded, before he realized something. He bolted back out of the kitchen, and ducked in front of her. "Changed my mind, Akchan." He said quickly, stretching his arms across the doorway to stop her from walking. Akane looked up, annoyed that he kept doing this. "I'll put 'em to bed, you make the tea. I gotta' talk to Auska, Sakura, and Sauske anyway."
Akane would have disagreed, but she was too tired to, so she just nodded, and walked back to the kitchen, as Ranma turned and walked down the hall. Snatching a kettle from the wall, and filling it with water, she placed it on the stove to heat. Next, she reached up into one of the cupboards and took down a box.
Opening the lid, the fresh aroma whisked past her, and began to fill the room, slowly permeating the cool air. She leaned against the counter, bringing the box up to her nose, and taking a long, deep sniff. The smell was intoxicating, and she sighed happily as she placed the box down. And then, she heard Ranma shouting.
"Yes, you have to go to bed now! . . . Listen, I don't care . . . she's not here right now! . . . Why?! Because I told ya to! . . . Will you just cut it out already! . . . No, you can't just . . . ENOUGH! Just go . . . fine, take your bath, then go to bed! . . . And I'm going to check to see you're in bed in fifteen minutes!"
Akane sighed, as she heard the last shouts die down. How does Nabiki deal with Joseph and keep a straight face? The woman mused over that thought for a moment, unable to think of an answer. But it did give her one thing to figure out. Shouldn't she and Ranma try just as hard to make things work as Nabiki and her husband?
- - -
Auska yawned a bit, before blinking, and shaking her head to clear away the drowsiness. She didn't know why her father wanted to talk to all of them. Slowly, Sauske walked in, followed by her father, who was carrying a small bag, and they both sat down. The three children sat together facing their father.
After a moment, Ranma looked up, a serious feeling emanating from his eyes. "First off, Sauske, Sakura, some of my old friends are coming tonight, and they are bringing their daughter. You are not ta' get in a fight with her, no matter what. Understand?" The boy and girl nodded.
"Good." Ranma said loudly to himself, before pausing again. He wished he could explain why Sakura and Sauske couldn't fight Shampoo's daughter, but there just wasn't enough time. It was getting late, so this would have to do. Besides, he had already told them most of the stories of with himself and Shampoo. They could figure it out.
"Is that it?" Sakura asked tentatively in the long pause.
"No, actually." Ranma replied, thinking over how he should say this. "The other thing is . . . well, I'll just tell ya straight out. We're running out of waterproof soap, and the package hasn't arrived yet." Sauske nodded, Auska blinked, and Sakura gasped. "Sakura, Sauske, go get whatever you have left from your room, and bring it down here."
Not understanding why, the two older children nodded, stood up, and left the room.
- - -
"That's all?" Ranma asked, picking up the small bag he brought with him, as he looked at the soap piles Sakura and Sauske had created. The two children nodded. "Are you sure?" They nodded again. Ranma turned to Sakura. "Are you really sure?" the girl nodded again, and Ranma was forced to accept the truth.
He opened the bag, pouring out what was left of his waterproof soap. All together, the three had two chips about the size of a five yen coin and about as thick, and one big chunk about the same thickness, while still in a bar shape. Ranma's shoulders dropped, before he turned to Auska. "All right, Auska, here you go." He said, pushing the meager stack towards her. "It's not much, but it should last you a little while."
"Eh?" Auska stared at her father as the small pile slid over. "What do you mean, Daddy?"
"It's yours."
"Whoa, wait just one second!" Sakura shouted. "Are you saying we don't get any?!"
"Yeah."
"Well, that's not fair!"
Ranma sighed. This could take a while. "Sakura, lets not forget who needs the soap the most." He nodded towards Auska.
Auska turned to her sister. "Its fine, daddy. Here, we can share all of this, Sakura. I just opened a new bar I found in the closet anyway. That should be enough for both of us, right?"
Sakura turned, about to shout for joy, as she saw her sister's face. But, she stopped. She saw the red color of her hair, and she could only remember that one thing: Auska's cursed form. And then it all forced its way into her mind.
Auska reached up with the pile of soap, handing it to her sister. Slowly, Sakura smiled, not ecstatically, but of more subdued understanding. Slowly, she reached her hands out, closing her sister's hands back over the soap. "Forget it." She said quietly. "You keep it. You need it more anyway." The redhead stared for a moment, before smiling, nodding, and pulling the soap back. Its value had just gone up tenfold; this wasn't hers anymore. This was a gift from her family, and that made it worth all the much more.
"Ranma! Tea's done!" Akane shouted from elsewhere in the house.
Ranma sighed, nodding and smiling, and turning to his children again. "Well, that's all. So, Auska, I'll go start a bath for ya, and you two can do what you want 'til it's time for bed, okay?" They nodded, and Ranma stood up, walking out of the room.
- - -
Ranma slowly sat down next to his wife, picking up his cup of tea from the table, the steam floating into the air, and spreading around the table before dissipating completely. The aroma was invigorating, giving back the energy he had spent through the day, and granting him the strength to continue on.
Akane leaned over again, resting on his shoulder, half out of exhaustion, half out of a feeling of security. Ranma's hand snaked over her back, before coming to rest on her shoulder. Slowly, the strength the tea had granted them began to fade, and Ranma's head tilted over, resting on Akane's. There they sat, slowly encroaching towards sleep. They needed a spark to bring them back to life. And that could only be brought through one person; and that person was . . .
"HELLO, RANMA!" a familiar woman's voice shouted, and the couple immediately sprang to life. After they landed back on the ground, Ranma and Akane rushed to the panels where the shouts had come from, and swung them open. "Hello, Akane!" the woman continued after a moment, standing right behind the door.
"Shampoo!" Ranma shouted, grinning widely, along with Akane, as they stepped aside, letting her in. Ranma looked back out, before sliding back out of the way again, as two more people entered. "Mousse! It's nice to see ya both again!"
"Us as well, Ranma." Mousse said, a bit more controlled, but still smiling nonetheless.
"Well, sit down, already; have some tea!" Akane replied louder than she expected, as she dragged everyone over to the table.
- - -
"Did you hear something?" Sakura asked, rolling the sword over her hand, before catching it again.
Sauske paused a moment, before shaking his head. "Nope."
"Okay." Sakura replied, before handing a second wooden sword to her brother. "Then, it's time to spar!"
- - -
"Nice to meet you too, Aki." Akane repeated happily, and the teenage girl nodded.
Shampoo, glancing around, turned back to Ranma and Akane, sitting on the other side of the table. "Where everyone else?"
"Well," Akane continued, reviewing everyone's place in the house, "Joseph and Amy are asleep, Auska is reading in her room before she goes to sleep, and Sauske and Sakura are in the dojo training."
Aki suddenly perked up, recognizing those words, and translating them in her head. She glanced over at her mother, who looked to Ranma and Akane. They glanced at each other, then turned back and shrugged. Shampoo turned to her daughter. "If you want, go, Aki."
The girl nodded, stood up, and began walking out towards the dojo. Akane turned and shouted out to her as she turned the corner. "Go left at the front door, and when you get to the end of the hall, . . ."
" . . . go through big double-doors." Shampoo recalled to herself in her head, as Akane shouted the same thing. She smiled a bit; even after all these years, she still remembered everything about this place. And the biggest feeling she had was a feeling of belonging, now that they were residents of their teenage world.
- - -
CHCK! Sauske slipped back after the two swords collided, his arms holding firm. Sakura held there for a moment, before pushing against her brother through her sword with all the strength she could pull together. Sauske's feet slid further back, before he pulled away, letting his sister's sword whisk by.
The door slid open quietly, and the sibling's fight was too focused to see anything that was not directly affecting them, so they ignored the sound completely as a strange girl entered the room. She calmly entered, walking along the back wall, until she left the shadows of the doorway, and into the light. From there, she leaned upon the wall, watching as the battle unfolded for a moment.
Sakura twisted to her right side, parrying a thrust from her brother, the wood grinding as they crossed over each other. Sensing an opening, and her right leg movable, she lifted it free from the ground, pulling her knee to her chest. An instant later, she flicked her foot back out, colliding with Sauske's open side; the boy fell away, stumbling back a few steps to a stop. Then, he stood up, before nodding, and backing up several more steps. Sakura nodded too, letting her sword drop, and walking back to her starting spot.
"What a slow boy." Aki said loudly in her native language.
The fight paused, the Saotomes were able to discern a new voice, and looked over to its origin. There stood a young Chinese girl, leaning against the wall. Sakura, while slightly surprised that someone she never saw before had just wandered into her home, put that off as someone her parents knew. "What did you say?" she asked politely.
The girl paused a moment, sighing to herself, as she figured out the Japanese. "I said, . . . 'What a slow . . . boy,' " she returned, staring back intently, pausing twice mid-sentence as she translated the next phrase in her head before saying it out loud. Her eyes were cool, confident, and unyielding.
"Well, maybe he is now, but Sauske's pretty quick most times." Sakura replied, shrugging her shoulders. "He's just helping me with my sword work; you should see him . . ."
"Phh!" the girl spat, turning her head in disgrace. "Brick-Boy is . . . just a slow fighter . . . and you know it. Don't . . . lie to me!"
Sakura glared back at the girl, gripping her sword tightly in one hand. "What?! Sauske's the best fighter in town! And he's even better than I am!"
"What?!" the Chinese girl asked, genuinely surprised. "He is . . . better than you?!" Sakura nodded, defending her brother's honor, even at the expense of her own. For now. "That is . . . surprising." Sakura nodded again, more firmly, glad she understood. "I never thought . . . you were so . . . bad, Stick-Girl."
Sakura clenched her teeth, suppressing the urge to scream, as she stared back at the girl. "Are you saying you're better than us?! Do you think you're invincible or something?!"
"Invincible?" the girl replied stranding up straight, and taking slow, deliberate steps forward. "No, but I . . . could beat you both . . . easily."
Sauske stepped up next to his sister, who was fuming. He was staring questioningly at the girl. "Who are you?"
"Me?" the girl replied, before smiling. "I am Aki . . . daughter of the Master of Hidden Weapons, Mousse . . . and the great warrior Shampoo, . . . two of the greatest fighters . . . of our village, . . . and I am also . . . far better than you!"
Sauske stopped, examining the girl. Her clothes were thin and light, with a rainbow colored shirt, the sleeves cut away. Her pants were a dark black, completely opposite of the burst of color she wore just above that. On both arms, there was a blue bandanna tied between her elbow and shoulder, and a black one tied on the top of her head and back of her neck, separating her hair into two sections. Her hair was shining in the light, flowing along her back in an even dark blue, with two small black streaks right behind her ears. Her body was muscular, showing her strength, without being oversized and weighing her down too much.
Her eyes were a light green, with deep black spots in the center. They seemed more like tall ovals then the perfect spheres of his sister, but the difference from this distance was unnoticeable. Her focus was potent, keeping Sauske from maintaining an even emotion, and her presence at this moment seemed to give off an aura of power and strength.
"You!" Aki shouted, pointing at Sauske. "I challenge you . . . fight me now!"
There was a pause, before Sakura nudged her brother, whispering to him. "What are you waiting for, Sauske? Didn't you hear her challenge?"
"Dad said we shouldn't be fighting her, remember?" Sauske replied.
"Well, yeah, but we didn't start it, now did we? Besides, she's challenging us, insulting our honor, and the dojo's honor. And it's like father always told us: 'Martial artists' are nothin' without their honor.' "
"Didn't he cheat at some card game to save the dojo once, though?"
"That's different; it was a card game. Besides, remember when he said we shouldn't fight that dojo destroyer who came to town. Well, I mopped the floor with him, and saved the dojo, too."
"Weren't you grounded for two days after that?"
"That," Sakura replied, starting to become annoyed again, "was because I forgot to do my homework and broke the front door. Not because I fought him; he said I did a good job."
"I guess." Sauske replied after a moment.
Aki, waiting patiently, raised her hands up around her face, in a simple fighting stance. "Are you . . . going to fight yet . . . Brick-Boy?"
"Sauske?" Sakura asked again. "Why are you still hesitating?"
"I'm just worried about . . ."
"Listen. I'm trying to tell you nothing will happen, okay. She's the one who challenged us, and insulted us. Father will understand. Okay?"
Sauske paused again, trying to remember if he forgot something. Well, it couldn't be that important, if he forgot it. "Well, okay, I'll fight." He said slowly, choosing to allow himself to follow the flow of the world.
"So, . . .are you ready to fight?" Aki asked, her muscles tense, waiting for that trigger.
Sauske took a deep breath, before slowly breathing out. "Yes, I accept your challenge."
There was a sudden burst, as the room exploded in a blue aura. Sakura and Sauske blinked in surprise, as the blue form filled every corner of the room in a split second. Sauske looked back, to see a form hurtling towards him. He tightened his body, knowing it far too well that there was no way his body could move fast enough now to escape. And in that instant of thought, Sauske felt the action occur.
Aki rammed her right fist into his stomach.
BB-DDMMM! BDMM! BDSSHHHHhhhhhh! The noises of Sauske bouncing along the floor, and sliding to a slow stop echoed through the dojo. His arms were flailed on the ground, as his body rested, face down, on the floor. There, he stopped. And stayed stopped.
- - -
Akane would never have believed it if she hadn't been there when it was happening. But it was true.
They were all laughing together.
Twenty-two years ago, they would never have even sat down at the same table together calmly, and yet here they were, laughing together like they were the best of friends. The truth can be so convincing.
All of a sudden, though, Ranma perked up, glancing around the room. Everyone stopped, watching him for a moment. "Ranma, what is it?" Akane asked calmly.
Ranma glanced around for a few more seconds, before settling back down, sighing. Then he looked up, smiling. "Aw, Akane, I must just be hearin' things. Don't worry about it." And with that, the mood returned to where it was before.
- - -
Sakura watched, as her brother lay motionless on the ground. She wanted to run to him, shout out, do something, but she felt paralyzed. So, she stared, as her brother lay on the ground.
Aki, the fight finished, let her battle-aura slowly drain back inside her, and the blue haze slowly drew into the center of the room. Eventually, it vanished completely, and the girl stood up, letting her arms hang at her side. "He wasn't that good." She said slowly, turning and preparing to walk back to her previous spot on the wall.
Sakura kept watching her brother. He ought to have gotten up, or something. He had gone through much tougher fights, and not even broken a sweat. But, if Sauske was down already, . . . how powerful was this Chinese girl?
Sauske, still laying on the ground, twitched his hand a bit. "Sauske! You're all right!" Aki spun back, staring in shock, as the boy leaned up into a sitting position. Slowly, he stood up.
"Wow, that was a real hit. I have to admit, Aki-san, you have a strong right punch." Sauske said, rubbing his stomach, trying to dull the pain. After a moment, though, he looked up, a small smile on his face. "But if you still want to fight me, don't expect to get another hit like that again."
Next Chapter: The fight between Aki and Sakura is concluded, with some unexpected results.
Saotome Akane:
Age: 38
Occupation: Martial arts teacher at the Tendo School of Indiscriminate Grappling
Abilities:
Speed: 2
Strength: 3
Stamina: 3
Ki: 2
Aura: 2
Special Techniques: 0
Akane has grown considerably since twenty-two years ago, both physically and mentally. Her appearance has changed little, however; she still has her short, raven-black hair, and they same, slightly stocky build that she had back when Ranma first met her. She appears to have aged much less than Ranma, although many of the wrinkles on him are scars, which she doesn't have very many of.
As for her martial arts abilities, she had been training with her husband most of the time since their marriage, the only breaks being when one of them was in critical condition at a hospital, or recovering at home. She's lost most of her clumsiness, although not all of it, while also learning some of Ranma's favorite tricks, like fence-walking. However, she hasn't reached the skill required to learn any of the special techniques Ranma either knows or created, although she is closing the gap to them.
Mentally, she as learned a great deal of emotional control, allowing her to curb much of her anger for a while, in order to prevent jumping to conclusions and pelting someone away. That's not to say she's perfect, because she still often has rage-attacks, usually causing Ranma to be launched to some other part of town; she just has more control over them.
Just like Ranma, she loves her children more than anything, and would be willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to protect them. She hasn't had many opportunities to do so, however, because Ranma usually leaves her the responsibility of taking care of them if something should happen to him. However, childbirth was not always kind to her, considering Sakura had almost died when she was born, and Akane almost passed away when her son Sauske was born, due to an unknown infection she contracted.
Akane also has few people she trusts her children when she is away. She does trust her family, Ukyo, and Ranma, although that is not always true. The main reason is that she wants her children to grow up avoiding the pains and problems she went through, and the best way for her to so that is to be there with everyone else.
Overall, however, Akane has done what many of the original people in Ranma's life have done: matured. She found the one she loved, settled down, and had a family. And now that she's here, all of the problems from before, whether they were Ryoga and P-chan, Shampoo and Mousse, Kuno and Kodachi, are now simple memories to remind her of her youth, and the problems from all those years ago have lost their impact.