Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, nor claim to.
Chapter Fifteen: Feelings:
"Don't try to live so wise; don't cry 'cause you're so right. Don't dry with fakes or fears, because you will hate yourself in the end." Akeboshi: Wind
Aki stared. "No, not now! I'm so close! No! Why did they have to come here?!" The tears in her eyes overtook any control, and began flowing steadily as she hopped to her feet. Her sobs began to grow audible, before she spun around, putting her back to her fiancé. And without an instant's hesitation, she did the only thing she could think of.
She ran.
Sauske turned back to see, and hear, a crying Aki rush away, running to the edge of the field, jumping over the fence, and disappearing down the street. He turned to Keira, who was also watching the girl run. The girl looked back to him, and shrugged. Together, they turned around to see what was behind them.
At first, Sauske didn't see anything unusual. It was just an empty field. Until he looked at the chain link fence. There, just on the other side, both intently looking towards them, were two people, a man and a woman, definitely Chinese, probably in their late thirties, early forties. The woman had long, dark purple hair, tied up in a traditional Chinese style, wearing a pair of jeans and a rainbow short-sleeved shirt, while the man had long black hair, glasses, and wore long, white robes. The two of them deftly jumped over the fence, and slowly began walking towards them.
Sauske sucked up the pain that was starting to bother him again, and drew his hands up. If Aki was afraid of them, he knew they could be dangerous. The two adults blinked at his action, but shrugged it off and approached anyway. When they were almost twenty feet away, Sauske shouted, "Who are you?!"
They blinked again, before noticing not only how agitated the boy was, but the girl was reaching for one of the knives attached to her arm. They glanced at each other, and the man spoke first. "Don't worry. We aren't going to attack. Who are you?" The question was definitely directed at Sauske.
Keira relaxed her shoulders, and Sauske let his arms down a little, but they were both still obviously ready to strike in a heartbeat. "Saotome. Saotome Sauske. And you are?"
Both the adults blinked. "You're Sauske?" the man asked, and the boy nodded. He turned to the woman. "Well, I guess that settles the dispute, doesn't it?" The woman nodded. He turned back to the boy, pushing the glasses up further onto his face. "Well, Sauske," he began gravely, before his tone turned light, "Welcome to the family! My name is Mousse, and this is Shampoo!"
Sauske stared back. "You . . . you mean, you're . . ."
"Yes, Aki is our daughter!"
"Wait a second!" Keira shouted, waving her arms. "What do you mean, 'Welcome to the family!'?"
Shampoo turned to her. "He win fight against Aki. Now, they are engaged to be married!" She smiled happily.
A faint breeze blew though, as Keira shuddered, her face obscured as his hung down, covered by the shadows of her hair. "Oh, Sauske?!" she muttered quietly.
A rock the size of a brick smashed into the side of his head, knocking the boy several feet away. Shampoo and Mousse leaned back, frozen in fear, and turned to the steaming girl. Shampoo suddenly recognized something, and looked closer at her.
"Sauske! How could you just get engaged like that?! And why did she call you a pervert, and try to kill you!"
Mousse looked at her. "Kill him? No, Aki would never do that."
Keira turned to him, obviously still angry. "Hello?! She attacked him with that huge sword over there! How is that not trying to kill him?!"
Mousse noticed the sword, and walked over to it, talking as he went. "No, she wouldn't. It's against Amazon law to kill the person whom you are engaged to. She was probably trying to beat him before we found out, so that she could declare it a delayed victory and escape the engagement altogether." He pulled the sword from the ground.
"Then why the sharp sword?!" Keira shouted.
Mousse shook his head. "Did you ever look at it?" Suddenly, the other three crowded around, Shampoo looking over her husband's shoulder, Keira on one side, Sauske the other, rubbing his head where a large bump was forming. "Look closely at the blade."
Keira peered in deeply, and gasped. The edge was gone. The sword tapered off, but the edge had been worn away. Or cut away, since the whole sword was now flat. It wasn't cut away very much, but it was enough to turn the blade from extremely sharp to quite dull. Sure, it would break bones, but if used properly, it wouldn't kill someone.
"B-but the schoolbag, she sliced it in half, didn't she?" Keira asked, her rage subsiding, before running to where she thought she saw it land. Everyone turned to follow her with their eyes, as she picked up the school bag Sauske had thrown at Aki. She looked at it, barely believing what had just happened. It was a little dusty, and one of the buckles was dented, but was undamaged otherwise.
Shampoo walked over in that direction, but took up the dropped scabbard, and returned to Sauske and Mousse. Her husband handed her the sword, which she slid back in. She paused, thinking over the situation. "Meuze, you go to meet Ranma and Akane, and tell them what has happened. I will go back and talk to Aki, and finish straightening this out. Understand?" Mousse nodded, and began walking back to the road they had arrived on, jumping the fence, and walking towards the Tendo Dojo.
Shampoo smiled to Sauske, before lifting up the scabbard, and resting it on her shoulder. "I guess you be visiting restaurant soon. More often than your father." She smiled more, then continued on towards the fence. Suddenly, she stopped, turning towards Keira. "Oh, you do me favor, and tell Spatula girl the hussy says hello." She said with a knowing smile, before continuing to the fence and hopping over.
After a moment, she was gone.
Keira stared at her for a while, before shaking her head. "Whatever." She walked over to Sauske, shoving the bag into his hands. "Okay, you have some explaining to do, Sauske-kun."
- - -
The pair walked down along the street, as the sky above them began darkening due to an approaching storm. "All right, Sauske-kun, time to explain all this. What is going on here? Why was that girl trying to pretend to kill you?"
"Well, um, it's kind of . . ." Sauske began, before being cut off.
Keira leaned in towards him, glaring menacingly. "And what was that about being engaged, hmm?"
"Well, uh, the thing is . . ." Sauske said, before stepping back out of the girl's range of attack, and taking a deep breath, "it's the way the Amazon laws work."
Keira just watched him.
"You see, when an Amazon woman gets beaten by anyone who isn't an Amazon, they have one of two things to do. If it's a girl, the Amazon has to kill her. And if it's a boy, . . . um, she has to marry him." Sauske was visibly sweating, and pale in the face.
Keira was still glowering at him. "So, if you knew that, why did you fight the girl in the first place?!"
"Well, the thing is," Sauske took another step away from the girl, "I sort of forgot about the laws until after I fought her."
Keira was about to shout, when something clicked in her head. "So, it's not like you're in love or anything, right?"
Sauske blinked, surprised he was still out of danger, and so he nodded slowly. "Not really, we only met two days ago."
On the outside, Keira was still stern and upset. Inside, she was celebrating. "WHOO HOO!" she screamed in her head. "Nothing's really changed! That crazy girl may be engaged to Sauske-kun, but they aren't in love! Now all I got to do is split them up, and everything is all set!"
"Oh, Keira, thank you so much for helping me get away from that Chinese girl I was engaged to." Sauske said quietly, leaning in towards her face.
Keira smiled, her face slightly pink as they leaned closer together. "Oh, Sauske-kun, it was no trouble. Anytime you need my help . . ."
Sauske leaned closer as the girl let her eyes glide shut. "Keira, I have to confess something. I think I love you."
Keira smiled. "I love you too." She could feel his breath passing gently over her lips, and so they slid . . .
POW! "Keira! Are you okay?!" Sauske shouted as he helped Keira back onto her feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, rubbing her nose, and glaring up at the telephone pole she just walked into. Standing up, she shook off Sauske, still pretending to be very angry, while trying to massage away the pain in her face. She paused a moment, letting her body tip forward as if in deep thought.
Keira leaned back a bit, letting her glower fade. "Well, I guess I can let this slide. But you need to be more careful, Sauske-kun. I've never known you to be on the offensive for a long time."
"My sister and Aki-san both talked me into it."
The girl blinked at her friend. "Aki-san? Who's that?"
"The Chinese girl. The one I'm engaged to."
"Oh." Keira replied coolly. She turned her voice inward, thinking over the turn of events. "So, the girl's name is Aki. Well, we'll just see how things play out."
Sauske, feeling safe again, noticed something odd. "Hey, Keira, what is that?" he asked, pointing to the bracer on her arm, with the seven kunai sticking out.
"What, this?" she asked, pointing at it too. Sauske nodded. "Oh, It's just a armguard I made so I could hold my kunai in a fight. I even set it up to drop them all out at once with a single string. I was just trying it out."
"Why did you need that? You never said anything about having trouble with them before?"
Keira stared at him blankly as they approached Ono Tofu's clinic. "Try taking a shopping bag, fill it full of steak knives, then jam your hand into it. That's what my old belt pouch was like."
"Ow." Sauske mouthed, before nodding in understanding as they entered the door.
- - -
"We're home!" Auska chimed as she led her cousins into the house. Sliding off their shoes, the three entered the house. Auska was the only one to get around the corner. "Hi Mommy!" she said, noticing her walking out of the kitchen.
"Well, hello, you two." A male voice down the other hall said, approaching slowly. Joseph and Amy turned on a dime.
"Dad!" Amy shouted, running up to him. She jumped up and glomped around his shoulder, and Brandon grabbed his daughter into a hug just as tightly, spinning around a few times, before lowering her back to the ground.
"Hi Dad." Joseph said cheerfully, smiling up at him from the doorway.
Brandon took his little girl by the hand walking up to his son. "Hey, how have the two of you been since we've been gone?"
"Great!" Amy said happily, smiling up at him. "We got to go to Ucchan's for dinner! And then Sauske got a girlfriend, even though he won't tell anyone about her!"
Brandon smiled. "I heard about that! Have you gotten to meet her yet?"
Amy shook her head, when another voice rose up from behind them. "Hey, aren't you two forgetting someone?"
Nabiki leaned gently against the doorframe, smiling serenely at her children, as Auska rushed passed to greet her uncle. "Mom!" Amy shouted, rushing up to her. Nabiki knelt down, grabbing her daughter in a hug twice as tight as the one Brandon had given her.
"Hey, how have you been?!" the mother whispered in her ear, smiling at her family.
Joseph sighed, nodded, waved to Nabiki, then set off down the hall. "Well, I have homework to do."
Nabiki and Brandon were both about to stop them, but they couldn't get away from the two girls hugging each of them tightly. After a moment, they let him go.
Nabiki sighed, watching her son disappear around the corner, before being drawn back to where she was. "All right, now you have to tell us all about what happened when we left." She said to Amy with a big smile.
Amy beamed back, saying "Okay!" before leading her mother into the living room.
- - -
"Wow, Sauske, what hit you?" Ono asked as he finished bandaging up his cheek. As he slid back, Sauske rubbed the gauze patch lightly, feeling the ends of the tape attaching it to his face.
The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I got in a fight with a girl who wanted to break our engagement."
CRASH! Ono slid in his chair into the wall as a dish crashed outside the room. Keira's voice could be heard after a moment. "Kasumi-sama! What's wrong?! Are you okay?!" There was a pause. "Something wrong?! Was it an important dish or something? . . . Hello? . . . Kasumi-sama?"
"Di-d-did you just say engagement?" Ono muttered lightly, turning back to his nephew. The boy nodded. "Oh, o-okay. N-n-now, who are you engaged to, S-Sauske?"
"Um, the girl's name is Aki, and she's a Chinese Amazon. I think she's the daughter of someone named Shampoo and . . .uh, what was his name?"
"M-Mousse?" Ono asked tentatively.
"Yeah, that's it. Hey, do you know them?"
Ono nodded slowly. "A little." He paused a moment, before clearing his throat, cleaning his glasses, and rubbing his face. "How did everyone else take it?"
"Everyone else?"
"Yes, your parents, Sakura, Auska, Keira, all you friends. How did they react?"
Sauske sighed. "My parents are acting like this is sort of a chore, Sakura is kind of quiet about it, Auska has been shouting at home about how I have a girlfriend with Amy and sometimes Joseph, Keira seems all right now that I explained it to her, and my friends don't know."
"A-ah ha." The doctor replied, slowly rolling the chair over to the boy. "Well, you seem to be all better. Try not to get into any more trouble, okay?" Sauske nodded, bowed, thanked the doctor, and left to get Keira and walk her home.
Dr. Tofu watched them leave out the front door. He sighed, thinking everything over. "Well, if nothing else," Ono thought to himself, his nephew walking away and down the street, "he's at least better off than his father. One fiancée, an easy curse to deal with, and his parents always around to watch out for him. I guess it could be worse."
- - -
"Mousse!" Ranma said cheerfully, sliding open the front door. It still had an odd feeling to it, but times had changed, after all. "How are ya?!"
"I'm well, thank you. And you?" the man said, pushing his glasses up, smiling politely.
Ranma smirked. "Heh, you know me. But, things have been worse, so I guess I can't complain." As Mousse slipped off his shoes, Ranma spoke up again. "So, how are things at Jusenkyo?"
Mousse sighed. "Not much better. A couple of springs have come back. Kind of ironic. The drowned girl was first, followed by the drowned boy. There are at least twelve back now, but they're not much more than half a meter deep."
"Huh. Figures." Ranma replied, shaking his head.
Mousse nodded knowingly, and Ranma led him into the living room. Akane looked up from the table. "Oh, hello, Mousse."
"Hello Akane." He replied, bowing to her as she stood up. The woman bowed back quickly, before the three of them sat down at the table.
Ranma was the first to speak. "Well, where's Shampoo? She said she was comin' too, didn't she?"
"There's been a change of plans, Ranma." Mousse replied, before receiving questioning looks from both the Saotomes. "While we were walking here, we found Aki and Sauske fighting. Sauske won, and so therefor, the Amazon laws apply. Whether you like it or not, Sauske and Aki are engaged."
Ranma sighed audibly, and Akane was clearly disappointed. Mousse rolled his eyes behind his thick glasses. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, Shampoo and I have already agreed to not pressure them into a marriage unless Aki chooses to pursue the law right now. They are engaged, but we won't force it upon them until they are ready."
"Yeah, like that'll take long." Ranma muttered, not thinking.
Mousse shot him a death glare. "When Aki lost, and saw us watching, she ran from the field in tears. Even you are smart enough to figure out what she thinks of the idea."
Akane blinked, and Ranma twitched under the glare. "Oh, sorry. Didn't know."
Mousse sighed, standing up. "Well, now that that is take care of, I better return to my home. I still have work to do." He bowed to them. "I do believe everything is settled."
Akane nodded. As Mousse walked out the hall, she shouted one final thing. "Well, Mousse, we won't either. Until they're ready for it, we'll let them figure out themselves without being pressured into marrying."
Mouse turned back, smirking. "I figured as much." Then, he left.
- - -
"Well, I'll see you later, Keira." Sauske said carefully as they stopped in front of the restaurant.
The girl spun around immediately. "What? You're . . . leaving? Why? Didn't you want to come by today?"
"Yeah, but there's something I have to take care of first. I'll come by tomorrow."
Keira pouted, before sighing. "Oh, all right. I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow."
Sauske smiled, waving back to her as he began walking down the street. "All right, see you then."
- - -
"Hello, mother." The older boy replied, still staring at the stairs up to the large apartment above the restaurant-to-be. Shampoo nodded to the boy, opening her mouth to ask something. "Aki is up in her room. Is something wrong?"
Shampoo debated the answer to that as she walked to the stairs. "When she's ready to tell you about it, she can do it herself."
The girl, short as Auska, raced over to follow her mother up the stairs, her white robes flowing over her body. Shampoo turned back, shaking her head. "No, Pai, I want you to wait here. I would rather talk to her alone first. All right?" The girl looked at her glumly, but upon taking in everything she saw, nodded and walked back to the table she was painting.
Shampoo, reaching the top of the stairs, walked along the halls, finding the room they had designated for Aki and Pai to share until the restaurant was finished, since some of the other rooms were being used to store the building materials that weren't in immediate need. But they seemed to like sharing the room, or at least Pai did, and they might end up staying that way.
Knocking gently on the door, a small squeal of surprise was hear, followed by someone shuffling around the room and a reply of "Go away, Pai!"
"This isn't Pai, and I'm not leaving." Shampoo stated firmly. "Please let me in, Aki."
There was a loud sigh from inside, but as followed by a "Fine," so Shampoo slid the door open and entered. The only thing out of place from the normal room was the large lump on the bed. That lump being, of course, Aki, facing away from her door, a pillow clutched over her face, curled into a small ball. Shampoo moved slowly, sitting down on the edge of her bed, near her head.
She reached her hand down, touching her daughter gently on the shoulder. She winced at that, scooting several inches away without turning to face her mother. "Is everything all right, Aki?"
"Fine!" she replied immediately, not turning from her pillow. "Just fine!"
"You don't seem that way."
"Well, I am. Perfectly fine. Nothing wrong. Please leave me alone."
Shampoo slid over to her. "Are you still upset about Sauske?"
"I am not upset at all. I'm very happy with him. He's a strong guy. Whatever you want. Nothing to worry about."
"Aki, tell me the truth." Shampoo slid closer. "I'm not angry about anything. Please . . . just tell me the truth."
The girl nodded slightly, and began to unroll herself, turning face down onto the bed, before turning her face up to see her. Her face was flushed red, the remnants of old tears still visible, her eyes watery, her eyes obviously saddened and afraid. Her mouth was still clamped down, trying to keep herself from breaking out into tears again. "Why does it have to be him?!" She said suddenly.
Shampoo, taken aback at that question, sighed, and placed her hand gently on her shoulder again, massaging it gently to try and calm her. "You know our laws. You even promised no matter what, you'd follow him. The rest is just chance. If it's a problem, I'm sorry. But life isn't always fair."
Aki glanced away. "But why him?! I can't stand him! Even some of those idiot boys back at the village were better than him! They respected me!"
"I'm sure he respects you, Aki." Shampoo said quietly. "The cultures are different . . ."
"He doesn't respect me!" Aki shouted, interrupting her mother. "If he did, he wouldn't have just let me hurt him so badly, and then return to throw his power in my face. He let me taste victory, then took it all away just for the fun of it."
"I don't think that is the kind of thing he would do. After all, you don't know him well."
"You don't know him either!"
"True," Shampoo replied calmly, "but I knew his father. And I know he would not let his own son turn out like you think he did."
Aki turned back to her mother, scowling. "It's easy for you to say that. You were arranged to be married to somebody good. Somebody you loved. I just got stuck with someone"
Shampoo smiled that all knowing smile, the one where there's been a secret hanging in the air far too long, and it just resurfaced. "Do you know why I was so happy to be engaged to Ranma?" Aki glanced up at her questioningly. "You might be surprised."
"All right. Why?" Aki asked cautiously.
"Truthfully, . . . to get away from your father." Aki's eyes widened. "He would always follow me around, professing he loved me to random objects along the street, thinking it was me. I couldn't stand it. So when I had to hunt down the girl-Ranma, it was an escape from him, at least for a little while. Then, when I got engaged, he wasn't a temporary escape from Meuze, but a permanent one. I was so happy."
Aki blinked. "What changed?"
"Nothing." Shampoo said slowly, smiling off at some unknown corner of the room. "Akane and Ranma fell in love, I was all alone again, and when your father tried to get me to go on a date with him, I was too depressed to think of any way to get out. The rest is history." She replied with a small smirk.
"So, what's the point?"
"Well, Aki, you can never know who you'll love. Give Sauske a chance. He might surprise you."
The girl scoffed at that, turning away again. "I doubt it."
"Why?" her mother asked slowly, prompting the girl to turn back to her. "I hated your father for a long time, and we're both happy now, with you, your brothers, and your sister all together with us. Akane and Ranma are happy, and they hated each other when they met. They were arranged to be married against their wills too. Don't rush to judge him." Shampoo said, slowly rising, walking towards the door, noting her daughter was looking much calmer. "You might regret it later."
Aki paused, thinking things over. Shampoo stepped out, closing the door, and . . . "Mother!" Aki said suddenly. Shampoo slid the door open again, looking in and seeing her head watching intently in her direction. "Can you tell me something?"
"What is it?" the woman asked calmly, smiling.
Aki clenched her lips for a moment, before speaking. "How did you break the engagement between yourself and Ranma?"
Shampoo smiled. "Now, that you will have to figure out for yourself."
- - -
Sauske took a deep breath. This is where he first met that Chinese couple. Maybe Aki had the lynx as a pet . . . oh, what did that matter? There were more important things to go over now. He knocked soundly on the door, and a young girl opened it. She looked up at the boy, but said nothing.
"Um, hi. I'm . . . Saotome Sauske. Is Aki here? I need to talk to her." The words tumbled out without thought, but at least it was coherent.
The girl looked at him, thought for a moment, then pointed index first finger upwards.
Sauske blinked. "Is she . . . up in her room or something?" he said slowly, trying to decipher the girl's pointing.
The girl shook her head, then swung her arm up, still pointing, hopping a few times.
"Is she on the roof?" The girl nodded vigorously, smiling. "Oh, okay. Thank you." Sauske said with a smile. The girl smiled back cheerfully, and he walked away as she let the door close. "She seems nice." Sauske thought to himself. "Reminds me of Auska."
Walking into the alley, he grabbed onto the fire escape, and began hopping up the building nimbly, landing on the railings only for a moment, before leaping up to the next one. Two from the roof, he jumped with extra might, flying up the last two stories in a single jump, landing gently on the roof. Slowly, he stood up, looking around. There, at one edge, facing the street, sat Aki. Her head turned at the sound of him landing on the roof, and their eyes met. As soon as they were both looking at each other, Aki huffed and turned away from the boy.
Sauske sighed, and walked over to her other side, stepping over the edge of the roof, onto a thin strip of stone, before sitting down next to the girl. She immediately huffed the other direction, looking away again. The dark clouds continuing to spread overhead only further expanded on the mood of the area. Sauske sighed, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, an inspiration hit him.
"Um, . . . I'm sorry."
Aki paused, a moment, before slowly, agonizingly slowly for Sauske, turned to look straight at him. Her face was calm and stern, her blue hair wisping around her head in the faint breeze. "What for?" she asked with a painfully serious tone.
Sauske sighed. "For . . . whatever it was I did to make you so mad. I don't know why you're so upset about it, but I'm sorry."
"Why?!" she replied indignantly. "Why would I not . . . be upset?! . . . You don't fight me . . . like a real person . . . you pointlessly dodge every attack . . . and hold every bit of strength back . . . until the moment you decide to win . . . and then you do! . . . How would that . . . not upset me?!"
Sauske sighed again, thinking this over. "Well, because I don't want to hurt you."
"Are you calling me . . . weak?!"
"No!" Sauske replied, leaning away in fear. "Not at all! . . . The thing is, well, I don't like to fight. I only really hit someone when I have to. That way, nobody gets hurt."
Aki glared at him. "Martial arts are . . . meant to fight! . . . You should not . . . hold them back because . . . someone might get hurt."
"That's my point!" Sauske shouted back. "What right do I have to hurt anyone?! I'm supposed to protect the weak and all that, so why should I be allowed to hurt someone just because I can and they want to fight me? If I can beat them, doesn't that make them weaker than me?"
The response was a brightly glowing red battle aura from the girl as she glared daggers at the boy.
He waved his hands around to try and calm her down. "No! I didn't mean that! I just don't think I should hurt someone else just because I want to. There aren't many good reasons to really beat someone up anyway. Well, only really one, actually."
Aki, since Sauske was muttering at this point, was ignoring most of what he said, and simply shook her head. "Forget about it."
"What? The engagement?"
"No." she muttered quietly. "Forget about . . . you being an idiot."
"Oh." He said, musing over her statement. "So I guess you're for the engagement."
Her response to that was worse than being called "weak." "WHAT?!" she screamed, causing several passerbys on the street to glance up towards them. "Why would I want . . . to marry you?!"
"Wait, so you're against the engagement?"
"YES!" Aki shouted loudly, leaning in angrily at him.
Sauske leaned back, trying to stay at a non-threatening distance, before sighing in relief. "Oh, that's good. So, I guess we don't have to worry about any of that stuff, huh?"
"No, we do not." Aki replied firmly.
"Good. So, I guess we better start off fresh." Sauske replied, before taking a deep breath. "Hello, I'm Saotome Sauske."
The girl glared at him. "Are you stupid?"
"No, I just thought . . ."
"How can you . . . 'start over'?"
"Well, just forget everything . . ."
"Does that brain of yours . . . even work half of the time?"
"Okay!" Sauske said finally, sighing. "Sorry, I just figured it would be better to be friends than to go around killing each other!"
"I never wanted to kill you!" Aki said.
Sauske sighed. "Forget it."
Now it was Aki's turn to be silent. "I am sorry." she replied after a moment. "I am just not . . . in a good mood right now."
Sauske nodded. "Yeah, it's been a tough week for me too."
There was a long, silent pause.
"Well, what . . . do we do now?"
"I don't know."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, sure. What is it?"
"Are you really . . . against the engagement?"
"Well, yeah, I guess so. Why? Do you think . . ."
"No! . . . I was just . . . curious."
"Oh, okay. What about you?"
"I do not want to be engaged . . . but I must follow Amazon law . . . no matter what the cost."
"Oh."
Another long pause.
"I guess I better get going." Sauske continued.
"Where are you going?"
"Home, probably."
"All right then . . . Goodbye."
"Um, hey, do you . . . oh, never mind."
"What?"
"It's not important. Forget it."
"What is it?"
"Forget about it. It's nothing."
"Just say it already . . . Sauske!"
"Well, okay . . . I was, um, wondering, you know, if you wanted to be friends?"
"Friends?"
"Well, since we are engaged, I figured we're going to be seeing each other often anyway. It'll be better if we're not trying to kill each other every time we meet."
"I was . . . not trying to kill you!"
"Sorry, sorry. It would be better if we weren't trying to beat each other up at every turn."
A long pause.
"Yes, that might be good."
"It'd be nice to really know who you are, too."
"What does that mean?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. It's just, well, you aren't like a lot of people I know, Aki. I don't know anyone from China except for you and your parents. I'd like to know you better."
"Yes . . . that would be nice."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, okay."
BOOM! A crack of thunder burst over the scene. They glanced up at the clouds. "Rain." They chorused together. "Well, I got an umbrella." Sauske continued on his own.
"Huh?" Aki asked.
Sauske, reaching into his schoolbag, pulled out an umbrella, extending the handle and flicking it over his head. "An umbrella."
"I know what . . . an umbrella is." She replied dryly, before involuntarily scooting under it as the water came down. There was a pause, as Aki turned and noticed how close she was to him, and then glared up at him. "Do not get . . . any ideas."
"Uh, right, no problem." He muttered, staring back at her. "Do you want this?" he said, pointing to the umbrella.
"Why? You . . . do not want it?"
"Well, I'll be fine without it. You can just hang onto it for a while." The girl thought for a second, then nodded, taking the umbrella from him. "Well, I better get going." The boy hopped back over the wall, pulling his backpack off his shoulders. Suddenly, he stopped, and turned back to her, smiling.
"What is it?" she asked calmly.
"You." He replied, smirking. She stared at him for a moment. "You called me 'Sauske' a little while ago, for the first time."
"Of course I did." She replied dryly. "You are my 'future husband' . . . and a respectable fighter . . . Why should I not . . . address you by your name?"
"Oh, nothing." He replied, smiling more as he walked to the fire escape, the rain starting to pour down. He lifted his school bag up to cover his head. "It was just . . . nice."
Aki watched him as he began jumping down the fire escape. Standing up, she raced to the edge, holding the umbrella over herself to keep her body dry. Watching him, he trounced down onto the ground. He was already starting to get very wet, but was still in his human form.
She watched him as he reached the sidewalk. Hopping up onto the ledge again, Aki watched as he walked to the side, right next to the road.
By now, his pants were soaked through and through, his right sleeve was suck to his skin by the water, and he still hadn't changed. On impulse, she folded the umbrella, and threw it at him.
Sauske stopped by the edge of the road, when suddenly an umbrella smashed into the back of his skull. Tumbling forward, he fell onto his hands, before reaching around and grabbing the umbrella from the air. Opening it, he flipped it over himself, and pushed up off the ground in one fluid motion.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Where did that umbrella come from?"
"Who threw it?"
"Whoa, that's a big cat!"
Brushing off the people asking if he needed help, he turned his attention to the roof. There was the object of his search.
On the edge, where Aki had been sitting a moment before, covered loosely in her clothes, with two bandannas, each one tied around one of the forelegs, was the lynx, glaring down at him. He wiped some of the water from his matte of black hair, waved to the cat, and walked home.
Next Chapter: Revealed: the cause of the curses, as Jusenkyo's true powers become apparent.
Well, there's the end of one more chapter. Aki and Sauske are finally engaged for real, another curse is exposed, and I finished another day. Whoo!
Well, on with the reviews:
The Liz: Okay, the reasons the new Kuno is an idiot. 1) Has there ever been a Kuno who wasn't at least partially an idiot? 2) The main reason is that he was originally going to be somewhat similar to Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin, who is kind of a clumsy idiot when outside of a fightWhen I started writing this story, a couple of the main characters were going to be like characters from other shows. But as I started getting further and further along, I gave up on the idea. The only one left is Naruto, and since he doesn't know any ninjutsu or stuff like that, and his personality is pretty generic to begin with when he's not a ninja, it isn't much of a copy.
As to exactly why he walked into a door, again, he's like Kenshin, except dumber at times. In battle, he's skilled and quick. In regular life, he's a clumsy doofus. And as for the blond hair, that's been changed.
lee ryan: Yay! Another person likes my story! Thank you for reviewing!
G: I saved the longest for last. Let me just say this first. I know exactly where I'm going with this story. I may not have every detail planned out, names may not be set in stone, and little things here and there might be changed when I think of something new (which has happened on many occasions already). But I do know where this story is going, for a good number of chapters into the future, and after that, I have a lot of semi-specific ideas. Hell, if I didn't know where the story is going, would I be able to write what's going to happen in the next chapter?
As for getting to the point faster, I happen to like the speed the story's going at. Too many stories have gone too fast for my tastes. I can't begin to name how many stories I've seen where a conversation labeled as "long" during the course of the story consists of just seven lines. It drives me crazy sometimes. So, I think drawing events out a little bit is a good contrast to a lot of stuff out there. Plus, it leaves me room to fit in more characterization, and have more time to finish detailing out the plot.
Second, you know more than two curses. You know Auska's, Aki's, Ranma's, Ryoga's, Mousse's, Shampoo's, Pantyhose Toru's, . . . And, if you look carefully, you might be able to figure out more.
Lastly, I want to apologize if this response (cough-rant-cough) seems harsh or offensive. I'm glad you brought up the fact that the story might be going slow, and you want to see more curses (Another one is coming up soon! I promise!). So, thanks again for being honest. And please keep reading!
Oh, and as for the Amazons all being nuts, I think we can all agree that most everyone in the Ranma ½ world is at least partially insane.
Tofu Kasumi:
Age: 51
Occupation: Nurse at Tofu Clinic
Strength: 1
Stamina: 1
Speed: 1
Ki: 1
Aura: 0
Special Techniques: 0
(Note: Kasumi does not actively practice any martial arts.)
Kasumi's life, like Ono's, has been pretty straightforward. She met someone, fell in love, got married, had a son, and watched him grow up and go on to college. Although, that's only the biggest moments in life. The little ones have made up quite an adventure from the point of view of the average reader, as in one who does not know of the adventures of the rest of the characters. Even if she's only on the sidelines.
Being one of the oldest of the young generation during Ranma's childhood, she now starts to show her age. Most of the traditional signs of aging have become apparent, if not overbearing, on her features, from gray hair to wrinkles around the eyes and everything in-between. Nobody sees her as old, however, and, on more than a few occasions, people have complimented her on her retained beauty. Some things never change.
After the marriage, Kasumi began attending classes to earn a nursing degree, assisted by her husband, before becoming pregnant with her first and only son Shinji. He was born healthy, and all three have been happy with the new experiences their life was bringing them into together. After a time, Kasumi returned to her classes, received her nursing degree, and became a fully licensed part of her husband's clinic.
By this time, most people had returned to visit the doctor, unconcerned with her presence nearby. She was found to be nearly as capable as the doctor was in almost every respect, which hastened the return of the last few stragglers to return. The clinic's business boomed, and life was good.
And unlike the chain of events that follows most of the Nerima residents when things seem to get too good, Kasumi, Ono, and Shinji have been quite separated from serious problems rising up to bring them down. Karma, proper planning, pure luck; whatever the reason, things haven't really shown any trouble for them. Beneficial in one sense, boring in another, and simple in a third.
Kasumi has only ever had one regret through out her life since then, which was to have a daughter as well. But, most would agree, life is never perfect. It could be argued, as well, though, that imperfection is better than unhappiness. And that is what Kasumi's life has been.