Disclaimer: If you own any of the characters used in this fic and can
find me, feel free to sue. Otherwise, you'll have to settle for this
disclaimer that says I do not own any of the characters used in this
story and I make no profit for writing it.
Warning: Toothpaste sandwiches do _not_ taste good.
Warning: Altaverse (Keichi ain't here, and the senshi timeline is
all messed up.)
"words"
'thoughts'
A Time for Wild Horses chapter 8
by Jose Argao
"Hey, what's that you're working on?"
Belldandy hurriedly closed all the active programs on her
terminal and swiveled her chair around to face the unexpected visitor.
She quickly put on a bright smile as soon as she saw who it was.
"Hello, Urd! What brings you here at this time of the day?"
Urd frowned momentarily. It wasn't like Belldandy to avoid
answering questions like that. It just made her all the more curious
as to what was so interesting that her younger sister hadn't even
noticed when she entered the office.
"You didn't answer my question. What were you working on?"
Belldandy waved dismissively towards her terminal. She smiled
sweetly as she answered. "Oh, that? I was just looking over a few
records, nothing important. Did you want me to do something for you?"
Urd's frown deepened. She made a mental note to investigate
whatever records Belldandy was looking at later. For now, though, she
needed her sister's help.
"Actually, I do need you to do something for me. I have some
things to do in the mortal realm and I was wondering if you could cover
for me while I'm gone. I promise not to take long."
Belldandy paused as she considered Urd's request. Urd's job
consisted mainly of maintaining the Yggdrasil in working condition, but
the system basically ran itself anyway. This meant that Urd had a lot
of free time on her hands to do as she pleased. However, it also meant
that she had to be on call at all times just in case she was actually
needed for something. Belldandy nodded her head as she answered.
"I guess I could do it for a while, but you have to promise to
get back as soon as you possibly can. I'm in the middle of something
important right now."
Urd's face broke into a grin as she hugged Belldandy and kissed
her on the cheek. She quickly made her way out of the office, shouting
her goodbyes as she left.
"Thanks a lot, sis. Don't worry, I'll be back so fast you won't
even notice I was gone. Bye!"
Belldandy sighed as she configured her terminal to warn her if
Urd was needed. She reopened the programs she had been running before
her older sister had appeared, and groaned in frustration when she
discovered that Yggdrasil still hadn't found either Skuld or Ukyo.
The last records indicated that Skuld went to the cursed
training grounds of Jusenkyo, where the magical energy swirling about
made it difficult for Yggdrasil to continue tracking her. That was
more than a day ago, and Skuld still hadn't emerged. Belldandy looked
at the readings, and resumed waiting.
*****
"Wake up, Ranma."
Ranma immediately got up and jumped to his feet, arms in front
of him and ready to counter any blows headed his way. His eyes darted
left and right as he scanned the room for threats. They narrowed into
slits when he saw Akane. Ranma's brain went into high gear as it
attempted to analyze the situation.
Akane had awakened him from sleep, which meant he had slept
late again. His mind drifted back to the previous night, when Kasumi
had roused him from another one of those weird dreams he had been
having lately. Akane must have found out somehow! Why else would she
have taken the time to wake him up instead of going ahead to school?
His mind raced to come up with a suitable course of action, and
decided that outright denial was best suited for the situation.
"I didn't do nuthin', okay? I never touched her!"
Akane looked at Ranma in confusion as he held his hands
protectively in front of him. Was he trying to hide something from her?
Was he talking about Sailor V? Was she already too late?
"What are you talking about, Ranma?"
Ranma never even heard Akane's question. The only thought in
his sleep-deprived mind was that he had to explain why Kasumi was in
his room last night.
"It wasn't my fault! She hugged me first, I swear!"
Akane forced herself to reign in her anger. It appeared that
Ranma _had_ done something with one of the senshi yesterday. That would
explain why he had been so late coming home for the past few days. He
must have been secretly meeting with Sailor V. Her hands curled into
fists as she prepared to knock him into orbit. At the last moment,
however, the events of the past night came flooding back to her.
*****
"What an idiot! I can't believe he'd actually go after Sailor
V of all people. What a pervert!"
Nodoka Saotome watched disapprovingly as Akane reduced yet
another brick to dust and walked over to the corner of the dojo to get
a new load. Her son's fiancee had been acting like this since she saw
Ranma's picture on TV with the Sailor Senshi. Nodoka held onto the
katana she always carried with her, and slowly walked over to where
the youngest Tendo daughter was poised to strike at another helpless
brick.
"Akane, we need to talk."
Akane stopped midway into her strike and stared at Nodoka with
wide eyes. She hadn't even heard the woman enter the dojo. Was everyone
in this house a master at Anything-Goes except herself? She quickly hid
her surprise behind a half-hearted smile before replying.
"What do you want to talk about, Auntie Saotome?"
Nodoka quickly took Akane's hand and led her out of the dojo.
"Let's go someplace else first, dear. The walls have ears, you
know."
As the two made their way outside, one of the sliding doors to
the dojo finally gave in to the combined weight of Kasumi, Nabiki,
Soun, and Genma, who was in panda form. Genma quickly raised a wooden
sign with a few badly scrawled words on it.
"Darn that woman! She is wise to our ways!"
Soun brushed the dust off his gi as he stood up beside Genma.
He helped his two daughters up before speaking.
"She must get it from being the wife of a martial artist,
Saotome."
Nabiki tapped on her tape recorder and checked it for damage as
she spoke.
"Actually, I think it was Mr. Saotome's huge silhouette showing
through the door that tipped her off."
Kasumi hummed as she cleaned the dust off of the dojo's floor,
oblivious to the conversation going on around her.
*****
"Akane, please have a seat."
Akane's mind was whirling with questions as she sat down on
the side of her bed. What was Ranma's mother up to this time? She
waited impatiently as Nodoka slowly took a seat beside her and held
her hand. The older woman held her close and whispered softly in her
ear.
"Do you love my son?"
Akane's jaw dropped when she heard the question. Her first
instinct was to deny any interest in Ranma whatsoever. In fact, she
had already opened her mouth for a retort when she saw the serious
look on Nodoka's face. She stopped before uttering a single sound,
the words caught in her throat.
"Take your time and think it over, dear. I want an honest
answer from you."
Nodoka waited patiently while Akane gathered her thoughts.
She had been led to believe that Ranma and Akane were happily in love.
Everyone had assured her that the wedding was a mere formality, that
the kids couldn't wait to tie the knot.
Did everyone think she was a moron?
Those three girls that had come to visit her while her house
was still whole, they had all claimed to be Ranma's betrothed. Ranma's
reluctance to give Akane her medicine box. The brick Akane had thrown
at her son while he was entertaining his girlfriends. Now there was
this business with those young women from Juuban. There were apparently
quite a few other women in Ranma's life. He was obviously cheating on Akane.
'How manly of him!'
She had always known that her son was special, but to lure the
famed Sailor Senshi themselves into his thrall? The thought was almost
enough to bring tears of joy to her eyes. The reporter had been unsure
whether Ranma was seeing one of the blonde girls or the tall one with
the ponytail, but she knew the truth. He was obviously seeing all of
them at once and they were just working out the schedule. Her son was
turning out to be quite the ladies man!
She was distracted from her thoughts when she felt Akane
moving. She allowed the girl to break free of her grasp and sat back,
waiting for an answer. Akane took a deep breath, and hung her head in
shame as she spoke.
"I... I don't know."
Tears started falling from the girl's eyes as she spoke, and
Nodoka quickly wiped them away. She held Akane tightly against her as
more and more tears started falling. A few minutes later, she pushed
Akane back to arm's length and used her handkerchief to wipe away the
tears that remained. She cupped Akane's face in her hands and spoke
softly, making eye contact with her son's fiancee as she did so.
"I love you very much Akane. You know that you are very
precious to me. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see
you and Ranma happily married. You have proven to me that you will
be a good wife to whomever you choose to wed."
Akane smiled and blushed at the compliments. She opened her
mouth to thank Nodoka, but was silenced when Nodoka continued speaking.
"However, in spite of that, I will not force my son into a
marriage that he does not want. I suggest you find out for sure where
your feelings lie and act on them. You are not the only woman in my
son's life, and I care for him too much to marry him off to someone
who does not love him."
Nodoka kissed Akane's forehead and stood up, slowly walking
towards the door leading out of Akane's room. She left a few parting
words before leaving Akane to her thoughts.
"Don't worry about your decision too much, dear. Just follow
your heart and everything will turn out fine."
*****
Akane grit her teeth as she forced her fists open. She had
come to an important conclusion after her talk with Mrs. Saotome.
She loved Ranma.
She wasn't about to tell the whole district about it, but she
had finally admitted to herself that she loved Ranma. Maybe he was an
idiot and a jerk, but she still loved him. Besides, if he wasn't always
doing perverted things with those girlfriends of his, she could be so
much nicer to him than any of them. All she had to do was get him to
see that.
"Breakfast is ready, Ranma. Won't you come down to eat? I'd
really like it if you did. Kasumi made your favo-"
Ranma cut Akane off before she could finish. "How was _I_
supposed to know that she was- huh?"
Akane used all of her willpower to resist the urge to throw
a punch at her fiance. Nodoka's words rang in her head.
'I will not force my son into a marriage that he does not
want.'
She forced herself to smile and took his hand in hers. She led
him downstairs, where the rest of the family was waiting.
"Never mind, Ranma. You can tell me all about it on the way
to school."
*****
"La la la! Busy! Busy! Busy!"
Konatsu finished polishing the tables for the fourteenth time
that night, and prepared to mop the floors for the seventeenth time.
His Mistress Ukyo had left a note with standing orders not to do
anything other than mop the floor, polish the tables, and clean the
countertop while she was gone. He wished that she wouldn't be gone much
longer. It's been two days of non-stop cleaning for him and he _really_
needed to go to the bathroom.
He was just about finished with the floor when he felt it.
Something was coming, something incredibly powerful. The air around
him felt charged with electricity as he looked around for the source
of the energy. He quickly jumped towards the ceiling, using his skills
as a kunoichi to grab onto it like a spider. His time at Nerima had
taught him to be ready for anything, and he prepared to attack or
flee as necessary. Suddenly, a bright light burst forth from the
kitchen, blinding him momentarily. He rubbed his eyes with both hands
to clear them, and fell onto the floor in a heap when he lost his
grip on the ceiling.
"Ouch!"
Konatsu groaned and rubbed the bump on his head as he slowly
got up. He looked suspiciously towards the kitchen, ready for anything
that might happen. Suddenly, an exquisite, mouth-watering stalk of
celery flew from the kitchen and fell onto the floor directly in front
of him. The enticing sight was enough to make him drool like a baby.
"Celery! It looks so delicious!"
He quickly bent down to pick it up, giggling girlishly as he
imagined gobbling up the small vegetable. Suddenly, he felt a sharp
pain on the back of his head. Then the world went dark.
*****
Ranma Saotome was confused. Not only was Akane being unusually
nice to him, no one was asking any questions at all about where he had
been yesterday. He was almost annoyed that his carefully crafted story
about being abducted by aliens would go to waste. He looked at the
people gathered around the table for signs that something was up.
Kasumi was eating quietly, as was his mother beside her. His
dad was inhaling the food around him and somehow chatting up Mr. Tendo
at the same time. Nabiki was eating at a leisurely pace, avoiding his
father's attempts at food theft with surprising ease. Akane was eating
slowly as well, stopping momentarily to smile at him when she noticed
that he was looking at her. He couldn't help but marvel at the sheer
cuteness that radiated from her in waves whenever she did that.
"You'd best be going, children. You'll be late for school."
Ranma was jolted from his thoughts by his mother's statement.
He looked at the clock and found that there was only an hour left
before classes started. He cursed himself for taking so much time to
stare at everybody. He had barely even finished his fourth bowl of
rice. Suddenly, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his own.
He looked at its owner and was surprised to see Akane looking back at
him, her face still adorned with her cute smile.
"Come on, Ranma. We don't want to be late for school!"
Ranma allowed Akane to drag him outside. There was something
going on that he wasn't aware of. As long as it was distracting
everyone from his recent trips to Juuban, however, he was all for it.
*****
Akane Tendo was in high spirits. So far, Ranma was reacting
quite favorably to her actions. It had been a stroke of genius on her
part to enlist Nabiki's aid in this. Who could have guessed that the
least romantic member of her family was actually an expert in affairs
of the heart?
She had been doubtful of her sister's advice at first. It just
didn't make any sense for her not to cook breakfast for Ranma. Wasn't
food the quickest way to a man's heart? However, looking back at the
way Ranma had blushed when she smiled at him, she was glad for having
followed it anyway. Best of all, Nabiki had agreed to let her pay in
monthly installments and with no interest.
She glanced at him, remembering to smile as she did so. He
quickly averted his eyes from where they had been staring at her and
hung his head in shame. If this had taken place last week, she would
have smashed his head in for staring at her. However, armed with the
knowledge that Ranma couldn't help himself from gazing at her beauty,
she actually found it flattering.
She giggled, causing Ranma to blush harder. It was time for
phase two.
Akane slowly moved her grip from Ranma's hand, sliding her
fingers until they were holding onto his arm. She rested her head
against his shoulder while they walked, her face breaking into a
grin when she felt him shudder at her touch.
"Do you think I'm cute, Ranma?"
She felt him stiffen suddenly, and she almost had to drag him
along just to keep moving. Nabiki had said this would happen, and she
wasn't really worried or anything.
"Um... why do you ask?"
Akane almost laughed out loud. Ranma was acting exactly as
Nabiki had predicted.
"Don't I deserve to know if my fiance thinks I'm cute?"
Ranma stiffened further in her grasp. She could hear him
breathing loudly as he scrambled for an answer. It was time for her
finishing move. Taking a small onion from her pocket, she crushed
it near her eyes. A few seconds later, Ranma's nose twitched as he
detected the new odor.
"Akane, do you smell anyth-"
Ranma never got to finish his question. Akane cut him off by
pushing him away and facing him with tears in her eyes.
"You think I'm ugly, don't you? You think I'm ugly and smelly
and that's why you're always so mean to me."
Ranma immediately tried to comfort her. Just as Nabiki had
said, he was caught completely off guard by the tears.
"No, that's not what I meant! I don't think you're ugly or
smelly at all. I think you're very cute!"
Akane stopped crying. She felt all warm inside. This must
have been how Ukyo felt the first time Ranma called her cute. Having
felt it herself, Akane realized that she could hardly blame the
okonomiyaki chef for chasing after Ranma. She dried her tears and
gave him another one of her smiles. She pressed herself against his
side as she asked her next question.
"Cuter than Sailor V?"
Ranma's mouth hung open as he realized what he had just said.
This was going to take a lot of explaining to fix. He laughed nervously
and scratched the back of his head, trying to buy time. He was almost
relieved when he heard a familiar voice calling out to him.
"So, the villainous Ranma Saotome returns to Nerima. You would
dare to seduce my fair Akane Tendo with your sly words so soon after
cheating on her with no less than five other women? Tatewaki Kuno,
the blue thunder of Furinkan high, shall not allow this!"
Akane moved to pull Ranma away from his bokken-wielding
opponent, but Ranma held her back with his arm. He cracked his knuckles
and stared directly at Kuno's eyes as he spoke.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Kuno, but I'm taking
you down."
Ranma quickly ran towards his opponent and jumped high into the
air, positioning himself so that the sun would be in Kuno's eyes should
the kendoist look up at him. If he played this fight right, he might be
able to buy enough time to come up with a good answer for Akane.
*****
"No way! Ranma be giving this school great honor in athletic
events. I nevah gonna let him go. He be studyin' at Furinkan all his
life! Besides, he still be having that silly pigtail of his."
Principal Kuno angrily slammed his fists on the table in front
of him and glared at the woman who had dared to take Ranma away to
another school with her. She had just entered his office without so
much as an appointment and demanded that he go along with her silly
little student exchange program. On top of all that, she badly needed
a haircut.
"I'm afraid I do not understand the logic behind your words.
As principal of this school, shouldn't it be your goal to help all of
your students to graduate?"
Urd was starting to get really annoyed with Principal Kuno. He
was a royal pain in the ass. Not only did he try to cut her hair with
a huge pair of scissors when she first entered, he also tried to give
her an explosive watermelon as a gift. Of course, being a goddess, the
attacks were useless against her. Nonetheless, she was irritated that
he would even try. She couldn't understand what had possessed her to
arrange for his daughter to fall in love with Ranma. While the girl was
beautiful in her own way and her body was arguably one of the most well
formed among Ranma's suitors, she was almost as crazy as her dad.
"I am de big kahuna in dis school, and I be doin' whatevah I
please for whatevah reason I want. Ranma will not be goin' out of this
school, and there's nothing you can do to change my mind."
Urd sat quietly as Principal Kuno ranted in front of her. She
contemplated turning him into a giant pineapple, but decided that the
punishment she would incur as a result of such an action wasn't worth
it. She had lots to do in the mortal realm, and she couldn't afford to
lose her traveling privileges now. She decided on a subtler approach
to get her way. She called upon her godly powers to aid her, and her
eyes started to glow with power as she spoke to Principal Kuno once
more.
"Ranma has been a thorn in your side since you first got here.
Without him, you would have established order around here already. You
even might have convinced the students to get those haircuts by now.
You _want_ Ranma to transfer to another school."
Principal Kuno stopped smiling and looked at Urd with wide eyes
as his face went slack and all of his attention went to her. Her words
made sense. Ranma was the only thing standing between him and total
control of Furinkan. Besides, she had the most beautiful eyes he had
ever seen. They seemed to shine with all the colors of the rainbow. He
continued gazing at her for a few seconds before answering.
"Want... Ranma... to transfer..."
Urd grinned. This was going to be easy.
*****
"She's late again."
Minako impatiently tapped her foot on the floor as she waited
for Usagi to arrive at school. They had agreed to discuss their plans
for Ranma before homeroom started, but Usagi was nowhere in sight.
There were only twenty more minutes to go before homeroom.
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get here soon. Usagi's just not
a morning person."
Makoto crossed her arms in front of her chest and pouted. A
passing boy fell in love with her when he saw how cute the action made
her look, but quickly fell out of love when he realized that she was
almost two feet taller than him. Such differences could never be
resolved, he reasoned to himself, and he went on with the rest of his
life never giving her a second thought.
"I say we start without her. We can come up with a plan to
rescue Ranma from his fiancees and just tell Usagi about it when she
gets here."
Makoto leaned on the wall behind her, waiting for her
companions to reply. Minako was quick to answer.
"That's a great idea. What do you think, Ami-chan?"
Ami placed her hands on her desk, her eyes looking back and
forth between Makoto and Minako.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, Ranma didn't exactly
ask for our help."
Minako sighed and took Ami's right hand between both of hers.
She locked eyes with the blue-haired girl and spoke slowly, making sure
that Ami listened closely to every word she said.
"If you saw a child crossing the street and a bus was about to
run him over, what would you do?"
Ami immediately knew what Minako was building up to. She opened
her mouth to reply but was cut off by Makoto, who had taken hold of her
left hand much like Minako had done to her right.
"You'd rescue the kid, right? It's the same way with Ranma. We
can't wait for him to ask for our help because he might not be able to
see that he's about to get run over."
Before Ami could answer, she was interrupted yet again by
Minako.
"Exactly, we have to help Ranma even though he doesn't realize
that he needs help yet. If we wait till he's run over, it'll be too
late."
Ami sighed in defeat. It was useless to argue with Minako and
Makoto when they already had their hearts set on something.
*****
Akane was starting to get worried. Ranma was taking an
unusually long time to fight Kuno. They had been going at it for almost
four minutes now, a new record. What was wrong with Ranma? He was
avoiding the older boy's attacks with ease but he wasn't attacking at
all. What was going on?
She crept closer to the two combatants, tightening her grip
on her bag. All she needed was one clear shot at Kuno.
"Strike, strike, strike!"
Kuno growled in anger as Ranma evaded his attacks effortlessly.
To make matters worse, Ranma wasn't even attacking. Ranma was mocking
him. He stepped to the right, hoping that the action would confuse his
opponent enough for him to land an attack. As he prepared to strike at
Ranma anew, he saw a movement from the corner of his eye. He turned
around immediately, his bokken slashing at the space behind him.
"Strike!"
Akane raised her arms to block Kuno's attack in a feeble move
to defend herself. The speed of Kuno's attack took her completely by
surprise. She shut her eyes and waited for the blow to connect.
It never did.
When Akane opened her eyes again, Ranma was already in front
of her. His right arm was blocking Kuno's bokken. Ranma grabbed Kuno's
arm with his left hand and threw him against a concrete wall, knocking
the kendoist unconscious. He slowly brought his right arm down,
cradling it with his left. He turned around to face Akane and shouted.
"Why did you do that? What were you thinking? Were you even
thinking at all?"
Akane shook herself out of her daze and glared at Ranma. Where
did he get off saying such things? After all, she was trying to help
him! Did he think she was too weak to defend herself? She was a martial
artist too!
"What are you talking about? I was trying to help you!"
Ranma gave her a look of anger as he replied.
"If you really want to help me, stay the heck out of my fights!
Do you even realize how close you came to losing an arm today?"
Akane looked at the arm Ranma was still cradling. It had a
large bruise and looked really painful. Ranma had wrecked boulders with
that arm and remained unscathed. She looked at her own arms and tried
to imagine what would have happened if Kuno's attack had managed to
hit them. She looked back at the memories of her previous fights with
Kuno, where she had blocked a lot of his strikes with ease. He must
have been holding back when he fought her. She quickly picked up her
bag from the street and ran towards the school, tears falling from her
eyes.
"Akane...."
Ranma moved to follow her, but the sharp pain in his right arm
stopped him. Kuno had used a lot of force on that last blow, and it had
come too fast for him to block it properly. It hurt like hell. He would
have to talk to Akane later. Right now, he had to get his arm bandaged
at Doctor Tofu's to stop the swelling.
"Ranma, you jerk!"
Akane ran blindly towards the school, ignoring her tears. The
day had started so perfectly, how had it come to this? Why did Ranma
have to be so mean to her? She was just trying to help. Why did all
this have to happen anyway? Things were just fine up until yesterday,
when she found out that her latest rivals for Ranma's love were none
other than the very symbols of love themselves.
She caught sight of Furinkan High's gates, where a mob of boys
wielding various weapons was gathered. They must have seen the news
yesterday and assumed that she was free again now that Ranma was dating
Sailor V. She broke into a smile as she increased her speed. At least
some things never changed.
*****
"There you go. That should stop the swelling. Don't worry too
much about it. The arm should be fine by tomorrow."
Doctor Tofu smiled at Ranma as he finished bandaging the
injured arm. It looked a lot worse than it actually was. It would heal
quickly by itself, and he just had to relieve the pain.
"Thanks a lot, Doc! It feels good as new!"
Ranma quickly left the clinic and made his way towards Furinkan
High. He managed to get there rather quickly by hopping from rooftop to
rooftop in a beeline for the school. He was a little put off by the
bodies littering the front gate, but decided not to bother stopping
when he saw that the people were not dead, but unconscious. He leapt at
the window of his classroom and made it just as Ms. Hinako was entering
the room.
He looked at Akane's seat, and was relieved to see that she
was there and that she had stopped crying. She looked at him and smiled
faintly, then turned away. He would have to talk to her again at lunch.
Ms. Hinako opened her record book to begin roll call, but a
loud voice coming from the speaker system interrupted her.
"Paging student Ranma Saotome, please report to the principal's
office immediately."
The students began to whisper amongst themselves as Ranma stood
up and made his way out of the room. Ms. Hinako glared at them, and
they all fell silent.
*****
"That's all? I see. I want you to stay there for a while and
find out more, Shampoo. Try keeping near the school. They have mostly
been sighted near the school grounds."
Cologne put down the phone slowly, her mind deep in thought.
Things could get out of hand if she didn't act quickly. If Shampoo was
to fail in her mission, drastic measures would have to be taken. Age
old secrets would have to be revealed. She held her staff tightly as
she hopped back to the restaurant.
'You must succeed, Shampoo. You simply must.'
*****
Ranma knocked on the door to the principal's office carefully,
ready to jump out of the way at the slightest sign of a trap. He was
surprised when Principal Kuno himself opened it and led him in.
"Aloha, Ranma! You gonna be one very happy student once you
hear what we have to say! Please have a seat."
Ranma noticed that another person was already seated in front
of the desk. It was a woman. She seemed very familiar, and he looked
closely at her as he sat down on the chair opposite hers. She smiled at
him, and he blushed at having been caught staring. He was about to
stammer an apology when Principal Kuno's voice cut him off.
"I would like you to meet Ms. Urd! She be a representative of
the Ministry of Education and she be solvin' all of my... er... all of
_your_ problems!"
Ranma looked at the woman sitting across from him again. She
had beautiful silver hair set off by her dark skin. He wondered what
country she was from. She certainly didn't look Japanese to him.
However beautiful she was, though, he doubted that she could solve any
of his problems at all. If she was another crackpot teacher like Ms.
Hinako, she would more likely than not add to them. She smiled brightly
at him and offered her hand to shake. He raised his own and she shook
it with surprising vigor. She was definitely stronger than she looked.
She let go of his hand and reached into her bag, bringing out a small
pad of paper and writing on it as she spoke to him.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Ranma. I've had my eye on
you for a while now and I think I have the perfect solution for all of
your problems."
She finished writing on the paper and handed it to him. He saw
that it was littered with various lines of numbers. He looked up at her
and she resumed talking.
"That paper contains all of my contact numbers. My email
address is at the bottom. Please don't hesitate to call me if you ever
need anything. In fact, call me even if you don't! I'll never be too
busy to talk to you."
Ranma frowned as he tucked the paper into his wallet and turned
to Principal Kuno, talking as he did so.
"Hey, not so fast! I don't even know what you have planned yet.
If this is another one of your stupid hide-and-seek games, I don't want
any part of it!"
Principal Kuno gasped in shock at Ranma's words. He quickly
recovered with a smile and started talking again.
"You have it all wrong, keiki. You see, I wen thinkin' about
things lately, and I noticed dat Furinkan just isn't right for you. I
spent many sleepless nights thinkin' of a propa' way to solve yo'
problem when Ms. Urd here came to me with da perfect solution!"
Ranma turned towards Ms. Urd, who was still seated on her
chair.
"And what solution would that be?"
Urd smiled at him, her face taking on a cute look that he found
oddly frightening.
"It's simple, really. We have determined that most if not all
of the problems you are currently facing stem from the fact that
Furinkan High is simply not compatible with you. We feel that you
bring out the worst in Furinkan High's students because of this
incompatibility, though we do not hold you responsible for it. To
remedy the situation, we will transfer you to a different school in
another district."
Hiroshi and Daisuke immediately stopped eavesdropping on them
and announced what they heard to the students gathered behind them. The
news spread like wildfire, quickly becoming the most important piece
of gossip for the day. Unaware of what happened, Ranma continued to sit
in front of the principal's desk with Ms. Urd. He turned to Principal
Kuno incredulously.
"You're not serious about this, are you?"
Principal Kuno laughed out loud.
"I be very serious, keiki. You just do everything Ms. Urd tells
you and you be fine."
He turned to Urd and handed her a shiny red apple.
"Please take dis as a symbol of our thanks for all da help you
be givin' us. We at Furinkan be very grateful to you, Ms. Urd."
Ranma opened his mouth to warn her about the principal's thing
for explosive fruits, but Ms. Urd was already biting into the apple.
He closed his eyes, expecting a huge explosion to come anytime soon.
"What are you doing, Ranma? Is there something in your eye?"
Ranma slowly opened his eyes and was astounded to see that Urd
was still in one piece, happily eating the rest of the apple. He
turned to Principal Kuno, who wore an unreadable expression on his
face. What was going on here? He was disrupted from his thoughts
when he felt Ms. Urd tugging on his arm.
"We'd better get going, Ranma. I want you to take me to your
house so I can speak with your parents about this."
Ranma allowed himself to be dragged out of the office, his
respect for the silver-haired woman holding his arm growing.
*****
Principal Kuno watched Ranma and the representative from the
Ministry of Education leave his office. What had gone wrong? He
had prepared that apple himself. Why didn't it explode?
He decided to just let it go. Ranma was gone, and that was all
that mattered. In a few days, Furinkan High would become the school
he had always dreamed about. He looked on his desk for a sheet of
paper. There was no time to lose. He had to make plans! He tore off
a piece of paper from a pad on his desk and opened his drawer to
look for a pen. The moment he opened it, a shiny red apple bounced
out onto his lap. He was just able to see the fuse stuck to the
apple as it burned itself out.
'Uh-oh'
*****
Author's notes:
I would like to thank Chester, Vex, Thermopyle, Shravan Sunder,
Drednax, and Helmut Steeg for all of the help they gave me on this
chapter.
I had a lot more planned for this chapter, but the Akane scenes
turned out to be too long and took over most of the chapter. I know I
promised a lot more of Urd, but I just couldn't fit her in. Gomen. Rest
assured that her scenes were not removed from the story, just bumped
into the next chapter.
Please send C&C to ukyo_rulz@edsamail.com.ph
Visit my homepage (www.geocities.com/ex_fuk) for new chapters.
find me, feel free to sue. Otherwise, you'll have to settle for this
disclaimer that says I do not own any of the characters used in this
story and I make no profit for writing it.
Warning: Toothpaste sandwiches do _not_ taste good.
Warning: Altaverse (Keichi ain't here, and the senshi timeline is
all messed up.)
"words"
'thoughts'
A Time for Wild Horses chapter 8
by Jose Argao
"Hey, what's that you're working on?"
Belldandy hurriedly closed all the active programs on her
terminal and swiveled her chair around to face the unexpected visitor.
She quickly put on a bright smile as soon as she saw who it was.
"Hello, Urd! What brings you here at this time of the day?"
Urd frowned momentarily. It wasn't like Belldandy to avoid
answering questions like that. It just made her all the more curious
as to what was so interesting that her younger sister hadn't even
noticed when she entered the office.
"You didn't answer my question. What were you working on?"
Belldandy waved dismissively towards her terminal. She smiled
sweetly as she answered. "Oh, that? I was just looking over a few
records, nothing important. Did you want me to do something for you?"
Urd's frown deepened. She made a mental note to investigate
whatever records Belldandy was looking at later. For now, though, she
needed her sister's help.
"Actually, I do need you to do something for me. I have some
things to do in the mortal realm and I was wondering if you could cover
for me while I'm gone. I promise not to take long."
Belldandy paused as she considered Urd's request. Urd's job
consisted mainly of maintaining the Yggdrasil in working condition, but
the system basically ran itself anyway. This meant that Urd had a lot
of free time on her hands to do as she pleased. However, it also meant
that she had to be on call at all times just in case she was actually
needed for something. Belldandy nodded her head as she answered.
"I guess I could do it for a while, but you have to promise to
get back as soon as you possibly can. I'm in the middle of something
important right now."
Urd's face broke into a grin as she hugged Belldandy and kissed
her on the cheek. She quickly made her way out of the office, shouting
her goodbyes as she left.
"Thanks a lot, sis. Don't worry, I'll be back so fast you won't
even notice I was gone. Bye!"
Belldandy sighed as she configured her terminal to warn her if
Urd was needed. She reopened the programs she had been running before
her older sister had appeared, and groaned in frustration when she
discovered that Yggdrasil still hadn't found either Skuld or Ukyo.
The last records indicated that Skuld went to the cursed
training grounds of Jusenkyo, where the magical energy swirling about
made it difficult for Yggdrasil to continue tracking her. That was
more than a day ago, and Skuld still hadn't emerged. Belldandy looked
at the readings, and resumed waiting.
*****
"Wake up, Ranma."
Ranma immediately got up and jumped to his feet, arms in front
of him and ready to counter any blows headed his way. His eyes darted
left and right as he scanned the room for threats. They narrowed into
slits when he saw Akane. Ranma's brain went into high gear as it
attempted to analyze the situation.
Akane had awakened him from sleep, which meant he had slept
late again. His mind drifted back to the previous night, when Kasumi
had roused him from another one of those weird dreams he had been
having lately. Akane must have found out somehow! Why else would she
have taken the time to wake him up instead of going ahead to school?
His mind raced to come up with a suitable course of action, and
decided that outright denial was best suited for the situation.
"I didn't do nuthin', okay? I never touched her!"
Akane looked at Ranma in confusion as he held his hands
protectively in front of him. Was he trying to hide something from her?
Was he talking about Sailor V? Was she already too late?
"What are you talking about, Ranma?"
Ranma never even heard Akane's question. The only thought in
his sleep-deprived mind was that he had to explain why Kasumi was in
his room last night.
"It wasn't my fault! She hugged me first, I swear!"
Akane forced herself to reign in her anger. It appeared that
Ranma _had_ done something with one of the senshi yesterday. That would
explain why he had been so late coming home for the past few days. He
must have been secretly meeting with Sailor V. Her hands curled into
fists as she prepared to knock him into orbit. At the last moment,
however, the events of the past night came flooding back to her.
*****
"What an idiot! I can't believe he'd actually go after Sailor
V of all people. What a pervert!"
Nodoka Saotome watched disapprovingly as Akane reduced yet
another brick to dust and walked over to the corner of the dojo to get
a new load. Her son's fiancee had been acting like this since she saw
Ranma's picture on TV with the Sailor Senshi. Nodoka held onto the
katana she always carried with her, and slowly walked over to where
the youngest Tendo daughter was poised to strike at another helpless
brick.
"Akane, we need to talk."
Akane stopped midway into her strike and stared at Nodoka with
wide eyes. She hadn't even heard the woman enter the dojo. Was everyone
in this house a master at Anything-Goes except herself? She quickly hid
her surprise behind a half-hearted smile before replying.
"What do you want to talk about, Auntie Saotome?"
Nodoka quickly took Akane's hand and led her out of the dojo.
"Let's go someplace else first, dear. The walls have ears, you
know."
As the two made their way outside, one of the sliding doors to
the dojo finally gave in to the combined weight of Kasumi, Nabiki,
Soun, and Genma, who was in panda form. Genma quickly raised a wooden
sign with a few badly scrawled words on it.
"Darn that woman! She is wise to our ways!"
Soun brushed the dust off his gi as he stood up beside Genma.
He helped his two daughters up before speaking.
"She must get it from being the wife of a martial artist,
Saotome."
Nabiki tapped on her tape recorder and checked it for damage as
she spoke.
"Actually, I think it was Mr. Saotome's huge silhouette showing
through the door that tipped her off."
Kasumi hummed as she cleaned the dust off of the dojo's floor,
oblivious to the conversation going on around her.
*****
"Akane, please have a seat."
Akane's mind was whirling with questions as she sat down on
the side of her bed. What was Ranma's mother up to this time? She
waited impatiently as Nodoka slowly took a seat beside her and held
her hand. The older woman held her close and whispered softly in her
ear.
"Do you love my son?"
Akane's jaw dropped when she heard the question. Her first
instinct was to deny any interest in Ranma whatsoever. In fact, she
had already opened her mouth for a retort when she saw the serious
look on Nodoka's face. She stopped before uttering a single sound,
the words caught in her throat.
"Take your time and think it over, dear. I want an honest
answer from you."
Nodoka waited patiently while Akane gathered her thoughts.
She had been led to believe that Ranma and Akane were happily in love.
Everyone had assured her that the wedding was a mere formality, that
the kids couldn't wait to tie the knot.
Did everyone think she was a moron?
Those three girls that had come to visit her while her house
was still whole, they had all claimed to be Ranma's betrothed. Ranma's
reluctance to give Akane her medicine box. The brick Akane had thrown
at her son while he was entertaining his girlfriends. Now there was
this business with those young women from Juuban. There were apparently
quite a few other women in Ranma's life. He was obviously cheating on Akane.
'How manly of him!'
She had always known that her son was special, but to lure the
famed Sailor Senshi themselves into his thrall? The thought was almost
enough to bring tears of joy to her eyes. The reporter had been unsure
whether Ranma was seeing one of the blonde girls or the tall one with
the ponytail, but she knew the truth. He was obviously seeing all of
them at once and they were just working out the schedule. Her son was
turning out to be quite the ladies man!
She was distracted from her thoughts when she felt Akane
moving. She allowed the girl to break free of her grasp and sat back,
waiting for an answer. Akane took a deep breath, and hung her head in
shame as she spoke.
"I... I don't know."
Tears started falling from the girl's eyes as she spoke, and
Nodoka quickly wiped them away. She held Akane tightly against her as
more and more tears started falling. A few minutes later, she pushed
Akane back to arm's length and used her handkerchief to wipe away the
tears that remained. She cupped Akane's face in her hands and spoke
softly, making eye contact with her son's fiancee as she did so.
"I love you very much Akane. You know that you are very
precious to me. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see
you and Ranma happily married. You have proven to me that you will
be a good wife to whomever you choose to wed."
Akane smiled and blushed at the compliments. She opened her
mouth to thank Nodoka, but was silenced when Nodoka continued speaking.
"However, in spite of that, I will not force my son into a
marriage that he does not want. I suggest you find out for sure where
your feelings lie and act on them. You are not the only woman in my
son's life, and I care for him too much to marry him off to someone
who does not love him."
Nodoka kissed Akane's forehead and stood up, slowly walking
towards the door leading out of Akane's room. She left a few parting
words before leaving Akane to her thoughts.
"Don't worry about your decision too much, dear. Just follow
your heart and everything will turn out fine."
*****
Akane grit her teeth as she forced her fists open. She had
come to an important conclusion after her talk with Mrs. Saotome.
She loved Ranma.
She wasn't about to tell the whole district about it, but she
had finally admitted to herself that she loved Ranma. Maybe he was an
idiot and a jerk, but she still loved him. Besides, if he wasn't always
doing perverted things with those girlfriends of his, she could be so
much nicer to him than any of them. All she had to do was get him to
see that.
"Breakfast is ready, Ranma. Won't you come down to eat? I'd
really like it if you did. Kasumi made your favo-"
Ranma cut Akane off before she could finish. "How was _I_
supposed to know that she was- huh?"
Akane used all of her willpower to resist the urge to throw
a punch at her fiance. Nodoka's words rang in her head.
'I will not force my son into a marriage that he does not
want.'
She forced herself to smile and took his hand in hers. She led
him downstairs, where the rest of the family was waiting.
"Never mind, Ranma. You can tell me all about it on the way
to school."
*****
"La la la! Busy! Busy! Busy!"
Konatsu finished polishing the tables for the fourteenth time
that night, and prepared to mop the floors for the seventeenth time.
His Mistress Ukyo had left a note with standing orders not to do
anything other than mop the floor, polish the tables, and clean the
countertop while she was gone. He wished that she wouldn't be gone much
longer. It's been two days of non-stop cleaning for him and he _really_
needed to go to the bathroom.
He was just about finished with the floor when he felt it.
Something was coming, something incredibly powerful. The air around
him felt charged with electricity as he looked around for the source
of the energy. He quickly jumped towards the ceiling, using his skills
as a kunoichi to grab onto it like a spider. His time at Nerima had
taught him to be ready for anything, and he prepared to attack or
flee as necessary. Suddenly, a bright light burst forth from the
kitchen, blinding him momentarily. He rubbed his eyes with both hands
to clear them, and fell onto the floor in a heap when he lost his
grip on the ceiling.
"Ouch!"
Konatsu groaned and rubbed the bump on his head as he slowly
got up. He looked suspiciously towards the kitchen, ready for anything
that might happen. Suddenly, an exquisite, mouth-watering stalk of
celery flew from the kitchen and fell onto the floor directly in front
of him. The enticing sight was enough to make him drool like a baby.
"Celery! It looks so delicious!"
He quickly bent down to pick it up, giggling girlishly as he
imagined gobbling up the small vegetable. Suddenly, he felt a sharp
pain on the back of his head. Then the world went dark.
*****
Ranma Saotome was confused. Not only was Akane being unusually
nice to him, no one was asking any questions at all about where he had
been yesterday. He was almost annoyed that his carefully crafted story
about being abducted by aliens would go to waste. He looked at the
people gathered around the table for signs that something was up.
Kasumi was eating quietly, as was his mother beside her. His
dad was inhaling the food around him and somehow chatting up Mr. Tendo
at the same time. Nabiki was eating at a leisurely pace, avoiding his
father's attempts at food theft with surprising ease. Akane was eating
slowly as well, stopping momentarily to smile at him when she noticed
that he was looking at her. He couldn't help but marvel at the sheer
cuteness that radiated from her in waves whenever she did that.
"You'd best be going, children. You'll be late for school."
Ranma was jolted from his thoughts by his mother's statement.
He looked at the clock and found that there was only an hour left
before classes started. He cursed himself for taking so much time to
stare at everybody. He had barely even finished his fourth bowl of
rice. Suddenly, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his own.
He looked at its owner and was surprised to see Akane looking back at
him, her face still adorned with her cute smile.
"Come on, Ranma. We don't want to be late for school!"
Ranma allowed Akane to drag him outside. There was something
going on that he wasn't aware of. As long as it was distracting
everyone from his recent trips to Juuban, however, he was all for it.
*****
Akane Tendo was in high spirits. So far, Ranma was reacting
quite favorably to her actions. It had been a stroke of genius on her
part to enlist Nabiki's aid in this. Who could have guessed that the
least romantic member of her family was actually an expert in affairs
of the heart?
She had been doubtful of her sister's advice at first. It just
didn't make any sense for her not to cook breakfast for Ranma. Wasn't
food the quickest way to a man's heart? However, looking back at the
way Ranma had blushed when she smiled at him, she was glad for having
followed it anyway. Best of all, Nabiki had agreed to let her pay in
monthly installments and with no interest.
She glanced at him, remembering to smile as she did so. He
quickly averted his eyes from where they had been staring at her and
hung his head in shame. If this had taken place last week, she would
have smashed his head in for staring at her. However, armed with the
knowledge that Ranma couldn't help himself from gazing at her beauty,
she actually found it flattering.
She giggled, causing Ranma to blush harder. It was time for
phase two.
Akane slowly moved her grip from Ranma's hand, sliding her
fingers until they were holding onto his arm. She rested her head
against his shoulder while they walked, her face breaking into a
grin when she felt him shudder at her touch.
"Do you think I'm cute, Ranma?"
She felt him stiffen suddenly, and she almost had to drag him
along just to keep moving. Nabiki had said this would happen, and she
wasn't really worried or anything.
"Um... why do you ask?"
Akane almost laughed out loud. Ranma was acting exactly as
Nabiki had predicted.
"Don't I deserve to know if my fiance thinks I'm cute?"
Ranma stiffened further in her grasp. She could hear him
breathing loudly as he scrambled for an answer. It was time for her
finishing move. Taking a small onion from her pocket, she crushed
it near her eyes. A few seconds later, Ranma's nose twitched as he
detected the new odor.
"Akane, do you smell anyth-"
Ranma never got to finish his question. Akane cut him off by
pushing him away and facing him with tears in her eyes.
"You think I'm ugly, don't you? You think I'm ugly and smelly
and that's why you're always so mean to me."
Ranma immediately tried to comfort her. Just as Nabiki had
said, he was caught completely off guard by the tears.
"No, that's not what I meant! I don't think you're ugly or
smelly at all. I think you're very cute!"
Akane stopped crying. She felt all warm inside. This must
have been how Ukyo felt the first time Ranma called her cute. Having
felt it herself, Akane realized that she could hardly blame the
okonomiyaki chef for chasing after Ranma. She dried her tears and
gave him another one of her smiles. She pressed herself against his
side as she asked her next question.
"Cuter than Sailor V?"
Ranma's mouth hung open as he realized what he had just said.
This was going to take a lot of explaining to fix. He laughed nervously
and scratched the back of his head, trying to buy time. He was almost
relieved when he heard a familiar voice calling out to him.
"So, the villainous Ranma Saotome returns to Nerima. You would
dare to seduce my fair Akane Tendo with your sly words so soon after
cheating on her with no less than five other women? Tatewaki Kuno,
the blue thunder of Furinkan high, shall not allow this!"
Akane moved to pull Ranma away from his bokken-wielding
opponent, but Ranma held her back with his arm. He cracked his knuckles
and stared directly at Kuno's eyes as he spoke.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Kuno, but I'm taking
you down."
Ranma quickly ran towards his opponent and jumped high into the
air, positioning himself so that the sun would be in Kuno's eyes should
the kendoist look up at him. If he played this fight right, he might be
able to buy enough time to come up with a good answer for Akane.
*****
"No way! Ranma be giving this school great honor in athletic
events. I nevah gonna let him go. He be studyin' at Furinkan all his
life! Besides, he still be having that silly pigtail of his."
Principal Kuno angrily slammed his fists on the table in front
of him and glared at the woman who had dared to take Ranma away to
another school with her. She had just entered his office without so
much as an appointment and demanded that he go along with her silly
little student exchange program. On top of all that, she badly needed
a haircut.
"I'm afraid I do not understand the logic behind your words.
As principal of this school, shouldn't it be your goal to help all of
your students to graduate?"
Urd was starting to get really annoyed with Principal Kuno. He
was a royal pain in the ass. Not only did he try to cut her hair with
a huge pair of scissors when she first entered, he also tried to give
her an explosive watermelon as a gift. Of course, being a goddess, the
attacks were useless against her. Nonetheless, she was irritated that
he would even try. She couldn't understand what had possessed her to
arrange for his daughter to fall in love with Ranma. While the girl was
beautiful in her own way and her body was arguably one of the most well
formed among Ranma's suitors, she was almost as crazy as her dad.
"I am de big kahuna in dis school, and I be doin' whatevah I
please for whatevah reason I want. Ranma will not be goin' out of this
school, and there's nothing you can do to change my mind."
Urd sat quietly as Principal Kuno ranted in front of her. She
contemplated turning him into a giant pineapple, but decided that the
punishment she would incur as a result of such an action wasn't worth
it. She had lots to do in the mortal realm, and she couldn't afford to
lose her traveling privileges now. She decided on a subtler approach
to get her way. She called upon her godly powers to aid her, and her
eyes started to glow with power as she spoke to Principal Kuno once
more.
"Ranma has been a thorn in your side since you first got here.
Without him, you would have established order around here already. You
even might have convinced the students to get those haircuts by now.
You _want_ Ranma to transfer to another school."
Principal Kuno stopped smiling and looked at Urd with wide eyes
as his face went slack and all of his attention went to her. Her words
made sense. Ranma was the only thing standing between him and total
control of Furinkan. Besides, she had the most beautiful eyes he had
ever seen. They seemed to shine with all the colors of the rainbow. He
continued gazing at her for a few seconds before answering.
"Want... Ranma... to transfer..."
Urd grinned. This was going to be easy.
*****
"She's late again."
Minako impatiently tapped her foot on the floor as she waited
for Usagi to arrive at school. They had agreed to discuss their plans
for Ranma before homeroom started, but Usagi was nowhere in sight.
There were only twenty more minutes to go before homeroom.
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get here soon. Usagi's just not
a morning person."
Makoto crossed her arms in front of her chest and pouted. A
passing boy fell in love with her when he saw how cute the action made
her look, but quickly fell out of love when he realized that she was
almost two feet taller than him. Such differences could never be
resolved, he reasoned to himself, and he went on with the rest of his
life never giving her a second thought.
"I say we start without her. We can come up with a plan to
rescue Ranma from his fiancees and just tell Usagi about it when she
gets here."
Makoto leaned on the wall behind her, waiting for her
companions to reply. Minako was quick to answer.
"That's a great idea. What do you think, Ami-chan?"
Ami placed her hands on her desk, her eyes looking back and
forth between Makoto and Minako.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, Ranma didn't exactly
ask for our help."
Minako sighed and took Ami's right hand between both of hers.
She locked eyes with the blue-haired girl and spoke slowly, making sure
that Ami listened closely to every word she said.
"If you saw a child crossing the street and a bus was about to
run him over, what would you do?"
Ami immediately knew what Minako was building up to. She opened
her mouth to reply but was cut off by Makoto, who had taken hold of her
left hand much like Minako had done to her right.
"You'd rescue the kid, right? It's the same way with Ranma. We
can't wait for him to ask for our help because he might not be able to
see that he's about to get run over."
Before Ami could answer, she was interrupted yet again by
Minako.
"Exactly, we have to help Ranma even though he doesn't realize
that he needs help yet. If we wait till he's run over, it'll be too
late."
Ami sighed in defeat. It was useless to argue with Minako and
Makoto when they already had their hearts set on something.
*****
Akane was starting to get worried. Ranma was taking an
unusually long time to fight Kuno. They had been going at it for almost
four minutes now, a new record. What was wrong with Ranma? He was
avoiding the older boy's attacks with ease but he wasn't attacking at
all. What was going on?
She crept closer to the two combatants, tightening her grip
on her bag. All she needed was one clear shot at Kuno.
"Strike, strike, strike!"
Kuno growled in anger as Ranma evaded his attacks effortlessly.
To make matters worse, Ranma wasn't even attacking. Ranma was mocking
him. He stepped to the right, hoping that the action would confuse his
opponent enough for him to land an attack. As he prepared to strike at
Ranma anew, he saw a movement from the corner of his eye. He turned
around immediately, his bokken slashing at the space behind him.
"Strike!"
Akane raised her arms to block Kuno's attack in a feeble move
to defend herself. The speed of Kuno's attack took her completely by
surprise. She shut her eyes and waited for the blow to connect.
It never did.
When Akane opened her eyes again, Ranma was already in front
of her. His right arm was blocking Kuno's bokken. Ranma grabbed Kuno's
arm with his left hand and threw him against a concrete wall, knocking
the kendoist unconscious. He slowly brought his right arm down,
cradling it with his left. He turned around to face Akane and shouted.
"Why did you do that? What were you thinking? Were you even
thinking at all?"
Akane shook herself out of her daze and glared at Ranma. Where
did he get off saying such things? After all, she was trying to help
him! Did he think she was too weak to defend herself? She was a martial
artist too!
"What are you talking about? I was trying to help you!"
Ranma gave her a look of anger as he replied.
"If you really want to help me, stay the heck out of my fights!
Do you even realize how close you came to losing an arm today?"
Akane looked at the arm Ranma was still cradling. It had a
large bruise and looked really painful. Ranma had wrecked boulders with
that arm and remained unscathed. She looked at her own arms and tried
to imagine what would have happened if Kuno's attack had managed to
hit them. She looked back at the memories of her previous fights with
Kuno, where she had blocked a lot of his strikes with ease. He must
have been holding back when he fought her. She quickly picked up her
bag from the street and ran towards the school, tears falling from her
eyes.
"Akane...."
Ranma moved to follow her, but the sharp pain in his right arm
stopped him. Kuno had used a lot of force on that last blow, and it had
come too fast for him to block it properly. It hurt like hell. He would
have to talk to Akane later. Right now, he had to get his arm bandaged
at Doctor Tofu's to stop the swelling.
"Ranma, you jerk!"
Akane ran blindly towards the school, ignoring her tears. The
day had started so perfectly, how had it come to this? Why did Ranma
have to be so mean to her? She was just trying to help. Why did all
this have to happen anyway? Things were just fine up until yesterday,
when she found out that her latest rivals for Ranma's love were none
other than the very symbols of love themselves.
She caught sight of Furinkan High's gates, where a mob of boys
wielding various weapons was gathered. They must have seen the news
yesterday and assumed that she was free again now that Ranma was dating
Sailor V. She broke into a smile as she increased her speed. At least
some things never changed.
*****
"There you go. That should stop the swelling. Don't worry too
much about it. The arm should be fine by tomorrow."
Doctor Tofu smiled at Ranma as he finished bandaging the
injured arm. It looked a lot worse than it actually was. It would heal
quickly by itself, and he just had to relieve the pain.
"Thanks a lot, Doc! It feels good as new!"
Ranma quickly left the clinic and made his way towards Furinkan
High. He managed to get there rather quickly by hopping from rooftop to
rooftop in a beeline for the school. He was a little put off by the
bodies littering the front gate, but decided not to bother stopping
when he saw that the people were not dead, but unconscious. He leapt at
the window of his classroom and made it just as Ms. Hinako was entering
the room.
He looked at Akane's seat, and was relieved to see that she
was there and that she had stopped crying. She looked at him and smiled
faintly, then turned away. He would have to talk to her again at lunch.
Ms. Hinako opened her record book to begin roll call, but a
loud voice coming from the speaker system interrupted her.
"Paging student Ranma Saotome, please report to the principal's
office immediately."
The students began to whisper amongst themselves as Ranma stood
up and made his way out of the room. Ms. Hinako glared at them, and
they all fell silent.
*****
"That's all? I see. I want you to stay there for a while and
find out more, Shampoo. Try keeping near the school. They have mostly
been sighted near the school grounds."
Cologne put down the phone slowly, her mind deep in thought.
Things could get out of hand if she didn't act quickly. If Shampoo was
to fail in her mission, drastic measures would have to be taken. Age
old secrets would have to be revealed. She held her staff tightly as
she hopped back to the restaurant.
'You must succeed, Shampoo. You simply must.'
*****
Ranma knocked on the door to the principal's office carefully,
ready to jump out of the way at the slightest sign of a trap. He was
surprised when Principal Kuno himself opened it and led him in.
"Aloha, Ranma! You gonna be one very happy student once you
hear what we have to say! Please have a seat."
Ranma noticed that another person was already seated in front
of the desk. It was a woman. She seemed very familiar, and he looked
closely at her as he sat down on the chair opposite hers. She smiled at
him, and he blushed at having been caught staring. He was about to
stammer an apology when Principal Kuno's voice cut him off.
"I would like you to meet Ms. Urd! She be a representative of
the Ministry of Education and she be solvin' all of my... er... all of
_your_ problems!"
Ranma looked at the woman sitting across from him again. She
had beautiful silver hair set off by her dark skin. He wondered what
country she was from. She certainly didn't look Japanese to him.
However beautiful she was, though, he doubted that she could solve any
of his problems at all. If she was another crackpot teacher like Ms.
Hinako, she would more likely than not add to them. She smiled brightly
at him and offered her hand to shake. He raised his own and she shook
it with surprising vigor. She was definitely stronger than she looked.
She let go of his hand and reached into her bag, bringing out a small
pad of paper and writing on it as she spoke to him.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Ranma. I've had my eye on
you for a while now and I think I have the perfect solution for all of
your problems."
She finished writing on the paper and handed it to him. He saw
that it was littered with various lines of numbers. He looked up at her
and she resumed talking.
"That paper contains all of my contact numbers. My email
address is at the bottom. Please don't hesitate to call me if you ever
need anything. In fact, call me even if you don't! I'll never be too
busy to talk to you."
Ranma frowned as he tucked the paper into his wallet and turned
to Principal Kuno, talking as he did so.
"Hey, not so fast! I don't even know what you have planned yet.
If this is another one of your stupid hide-and-seek games, I don't want
any part of it!"
Principal Kuno gasped in shock at Ranma's words. He quickly
recovered with a smile and started talking again.
"You have it all wrong, keiki. You see, I wen thinkin' about
things lately, and I noticed dat Furinkan just isn't right for you. I
spent many sleepless nights thinkin' of a propa' way to solve yo'
problem when Ms. Urd here came to me with da perfect solution!"
Ranma turned towards Ms. Urd, who was still seated on her
chair.
"And what solution would that be?"
Urd smiled at him, her face taking on a cute look that he found
oddly frightening.
"It's simple, really. We have determined that most if not all
of the problems you are currently facing stem from the fact that
Furinkan High is simply not compatible with you. We feel that you
bring out the worst in Furinkan High's students because of this
incompatibility, though we do not hold you responsible for it. To
remedy the situation, we will transfer you to a different school in
another district."
Hiroshi and Daisuke immediately stopped eavesdropping on them
and announced what they heard to the students gathered behind them. The
news spread like wildfire, quickly becoming the most important piece
of gossip for the day. Unaware of what happened, Ranma continued to sit
in front of the principal's desk with Ms. Urd. He turned to Principal
Kuno incredulously.
"You're not serious about this, are you?"
Principal Kuno laughed out loud.
"I be very serious, keiki. You just do everything Ms. Urd tells
you and you be fine."
He turned to Urd and handed her a shiny red apple.
"Please take dis as a symbol of our thanks for all da help you
be givin' us. We at Furinkan be very grateful to you, Ms. Urd."
Ranma opened his mouth to warn her about the principal's thing
for explosive fruits, but Ms. Urd was already biting into the apple.
He closed his eyes, expecting a huge explosion to come anytime soon.
"What are you doing, Ranma? Is there something in your eye?"
Ranma slowly opened his eyes and was astounded to see that Urd
was still in one piece, happily eating the rest of the apple. He
turned to Principal Kuno, who wore an unreadable expression on his
face. What was going on here? He was disrupted from his thoughts
when he felt Ms. Urd tugging on his arm.
"We'd better get going, Ranma. I want you to take me to your
house so I can speak with your parents about this."
Ranma allowed himself to be dragged out of the office, his
respect for the silver-haired woman holding his arm growing.
*****
Principal Kuno watched Ranma and the representative from the
Ministry of Education leave his office. What had gone wrong? He
had prepared that apple himself. Why didn't it explode?
He decided to just let it go. Ranma was gone, and that was all
that mattered. In a few days, Furinkan High would become the school
he had always dreamed about. He looked on his desk for a sheet of
paper. There was no time to lose. He had to make plans! He tore off
a piece of paper from a pad on his desk and opened his drawer to
look for a pen. The moment he opened it, a shiny red apple bounced
out onto his lap. He was just able to see the fuse stuck to the
apple as it burned itself out.
'Uh-oh'
*****
Author's notes:
I would like to thank Chester, Vex, Thermopyle, Shravan Sunder,
Drednax, and Helmut Steeg for all of the help they gave me on this
chapter.
I had a lot more planned for this chapter, but the Akane scenes
turned out to be too long and took over most of the chapter. I know I
promised a lot more of Urd, but I just couldn't fit her in. Gomen. Rest
assured that her scenes were not removed from the story, just bumped
into the next chapter.
Please send C&C to ukyo_rulz@edsamail.com.ph
Visit my homepage (www.geocities.com/ex_fuk) for new chapters.