Hey everyone, a wicked badass virus got to my computer. So it will be a few days before the next chapter.
If any of you have any doubts about the main relationship in this story, I am not going to come out and tell you who it is. But honestly, who do you think it is? There is only one Ranma ½ couple I care about. So figure it out... even though at times it isn't going to look that way.
Oh well, thanks everyone for your kind reviews. You are all so sweet and if I don't forget my personalization's are at the bottom so if you reviewed check it out. Chapter 3
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The day started out as beauty envisioned in a moment.
The fluffy towering clouds scattered throughout the sky cast shadows upon the land and provided a cool brisk temperature.
Flowers matted together wildly throughout the landscape and displayed magnificent colors that rippled the colors of the rainbow.
What made everything infinitely better was the way the sun hit everything just right, magnifying the harmony of the earth to uncountable levels.
The gift of nature caused all who noticed to gasp in thanks.
However in the city of Nerima there are at least two teenagers who failed to see the beauty passed down from above.
"You sure you want that Akane?" Ranma woke up that morning filled with a dire sense of dread.
At first he assumed some apocalyptic guy with a bad accent was going to stroll up to the door and ask for Akane's hand in marriage... or something similar to that anyway.
Unfortunately he felt that there would be no major battles coming to his attention. No grand journey that he must make to save the world. There would be no "damsels in distress" that needed rescuing.
For Ranma Saotome there was something infinitely worse in store.
Akane asked him to train her.
At that very moment in time something in him wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
"Yes. I want to be taken seriously as a martial artist and I know you can help me." The girl in question stared determinedly into his eyes. He could tell she desperately wanted this.
Question was: Did he?
Ranma was far too lazy to willingly undertake a quest as rough as this one. He had just saved her from Saffron and as soon as he gets this golden opportunity to do nothing...
There had to be some way out of this predicament. Sure he wanted her to get better, but in a way that caused him little or preferably no grief.
It wasn't anything against Akane; he just didn't feel like doing anything right now. But he knew there would be no saying "no" to his fiancé without making her angry.
Thank the gods the Saotome School of Anything Goes is full of different ways to say no by saying yes.
Putting on his best smile Ranma began calculating the best way to escape the scenario unscathed. It didn't take long for an evil plot to form in his mind.
"Alright Akane, I'll train you. On one condition- You have to land a solid blow against me before one month's time. You do that and I'll know you are worthy of learning the true form of Anything Goes."
It only took a moment before she started jumping up and down with excitement. She giggled and flashed a brilliant smile at him before a loud "thank you" spilled over with her joy.
A slight guilty feeling filled through him. He already knew there would be no way for her to land a blow against him. However that didn't stop him from smiling back when she threw her arms around his neck and proceeded to hug fiercely.
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He still had trouble remembering that smile without blushing.
Two weeks have past since that day and true to his prediction, Akane has failed to hit him. Throughout all of her tantrums Ranma displayed his true martial arts ability and dodged or sidestepped every angry fist and every thrown object.
Akane's mood has done everything but stay normal since she realized she only had ten days left to land that blow. He simply couldn't tell what the girl was thinking unless she was mad.
"You better take me seriously this time Ranma!" The young heiress to the Tendo Training Hall shouted fiercely from across the dojo.
As if some unseen message crossed her mind the girl attacked without abandon. She was fast. However, not quite fast enough.
Ranma jumped over her outstretched fist and flipped behind her. She countered with a sweep that he easily stepped over.
Angered past concentration, Akane yelled "Why won't you just fight me?"
He looked at her as if she were stupid, "Because you are a girl."
He made it sound as if that sentence explained everything.
"Liar, you fought Shampoo on more than one occasion. Quit lying and attack me already!" Her anger seeped through her moves. She was much sloppier than when she had started.
He couldn't count how many times he had had this argument with her. Each time she challenged him in the dojo all he had to do was make her mad. Then she'd lose her temper and storm off.
He was sick of it.
He regretted ever telling her he would train her if she hit him. All he wanted was to be lazy for a little while and everything turned around and bit him on the ass.
Ranma Saotome gave into the anger welling within his chest and decided if she wouldn't end these pointless fights then he would.
"You're good Akane! But you know, you apparently weren't meant to reach our level. You're too damn clumsy!" If she hadn't have failed to notice she would have seen his eyes turn color.
They wickedly began reflecting a darker green, rather then the intense blue he was known for.
Once again it only took a moment for the weight of what Ranma said to take hold on her. She didn't move for a while and her eyes were focused firmly on the floor.
Akane felt broken.
For an instant some dark hidden part of Ranma loved the pain he inflicted on her. The green in his eyes flashed brightly before vanishing completely.
Ranma shook his head quickly and the full weight of what he said registered. He felt disgusted with himself.
At once her eyes snapped into connection with his. "Why do you have to be such a jerk? If you weren't going to care about me you shouldn't have made the bargain." Her voice shook violently with barely restrained anger and sadness.
Before a tear could fall from her honey-colored eyes she was in the house and away from her fiancé.
Ranma watched Akane storm off with mixed expressions of guilt. He still couldn't believe he had said that to her. 'What the hell came over me?'
The pigtailed boy began thinking of different apologies to use on his fiancé. But he couldn't find himself meaning any of them.
Oddly, today didn't really feel right for him. It was as if most of his emotions were locked away and unreachable.
Ranma felt hollow on the inside.
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Akane's entire body felt dirty.
Even her soul felt emerged in fifth.
Jumping into the bath water she took a washcloth and scrubbed until her whole body burned. She had not even bothered with rinsing first.
Ranma's callous words hurt her so that she forcibly accepted them as truth. She felt ridiculous and stupid for ever hoping that he would help her.
The last two weeks she did nothing but train in her free time. She practiced different styles of martial arts, she tried ki control, and she studied different ways to surprise Ranma and hit him just that once.
But not for lack of trying Ranma always found himself two steps ahead of her.
Making matters worse, she had been experiencing horrible mood swings lately. At first she didn't notice, but eventually she started to feel her mind shift emotions. She could go from elated to depressed in minutes. Both her anger and her happiness were becoming impossible to control.
Sometimes she would rampage through her day and other times she would float from class to class on some invisible Cloud 9.
But her thoughts mainly revolved around her fiancé. He had grown so distant lately... the way he had looked at her. She felt like trash.
Repulsed and filled with new vigor, Akane began scrubbing harder on her skin. ===============
Fumbling down the stairs a little later than normal, Nabiki let a lazy yawn erupt from her tired body.
Even after all these years of school, mornings were never that kind to the middle Tendo daughter.
As soon as she rounded the corner Akane bumped into her rather hard.
A distracted "sorry" found its way to Nabiki's ears. She was just about to comment on her sister's actions when her expressionless voice filled the room.
"Ranma can find the school on his own today. I have to go." The door shut softly behind her and she was gone before any further argument could be presented.
Nabiki stared for a moment at Ranma, expecting him to recognize the situation and act. She was surprised to see that he didn't seem to care.
He just kept eating.
"Oh Ranma..." Nabiki drawled. If anyone could fix her baby sister, it was him.
"Yo, whatcha need Nabiki?" He was sitting at the breakfast table and she watched for a moment as food disappeared down his throat with little attention to chewing.
"Why didn't you go after your fiancé?" The question seemed innocent enough...
"What? The tomboy can take care of herself. I'm busy." Ranma wasn't too excited about his and Akane's next rendezvous. "The boys from the school don't mess with her anymore. She'll be fine." He seemed to be talking to himself more than Nabiki.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow as if saying 'if that's the way you want it.'
She made a dramatic show of looking at her wrist, as if a watch was adorned. "You know it's about time for Ryouga to show up. With Akane depressed, thanks to you, Ryouga may think it is the perfect time to 'cheer her up?' Who knows, he may get lucky!"
It took a moment for Ranma to move. Nabiki was about to get worried when Ranma slammed his chopsticks down on the table. "Whatever. If that is what I have to do to be left alone." Ranma took one final bite of Kasumi's breakfast and ran to the door.
Nothing but a trail of dust could be seen soon after.
Nabiki sat down to finish Ranma's breakfast. This new mood to settle down with the pig tailed boy piqued her full interest.
And Nabiki's interest was something nobody wanted.
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Akane didn't acknowledge Ranma's presence. He had tried everything to get her to talk to him. For some reason he was acting like the Ranma she used to know.
"Come on Akane please say something! I am sorry for what I said, I have no clue where all that came from." Ranma jumped down and walked directly beside the youngest Tendou daughter, hoping that proximity would get her attention.
It didn't.
He quickly became frustrated and hurt she showed no attention to his apology. Ranma lashed out towards the pain.
"Come on Akane! It's not my fault that you're clumsy and slow. Quit being so stupid already and talk to me! Just get over it." He made it sound so simple.
Akane continued her march of silence. For the first time in two weeks her dark golden eyes held no emotion and no recognition towards the pig tailed boy. She simply kept walking towards the school, no matter what he did.
Ranma finally assessed the situation the way he should have from the very beginning. He could now see that Akane wasn't angry at all.
A cold chill was emitting from her and perhaps part of him understood why.
She locked her self down.
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Akane and Ranma continued their quiet walk in uncomfortable silence when a familiar and quite unwelcome jingle shattered the retrospective mood.
"Ranma! Shampoo bring you good breakfast, you eat yes?" The eternally bubbly girl flashed a beautifully flirtatious smile towards her fiancé.
Shampoo stood directly in front of Ranma and made sure her back was directly blocking Akane's view of him.
"Thanks Shampoo! I didn't get breakfast this morning." While Ranma was eating the ramen, Shampoo watched him, overjoyed that Ranma showed preference towards her.
As soon as Ranma finished that meal he knew he had made a mistake.
Akane was gone. She had never even gotten angry.
Ranma sprinted ahead, forgetting quickly about the Amazon.
But her thoughts never left him.
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Anywho, this chapter just pissed me off to no end. The entire thing was rewritten, the plot changed on me.
Damn it all. This puppy sat open on my desktop for days and all I could do was stare at it... quite angry that I couldn't portray what I wanted.
So eventually I just deleted half of it and smiled and did it anyway.
I think I am losing the faith in my writing... I don't know what's wrong with me! Maybe I will get over it because I hear it is normal for an author to undervalue their work.
I just need to swallow whatever that feeling is and focus on my review crew and making them happy.
Oh my god! I loved Chronicles of Riddick. Vin Deasil is so wonderful in the role of Riddick. I desperately want them to make a second sequel. I went out and bought the anime and it is definitely worth your time. The game is coming soon... just need to quit spending money!
Plus there is really really good fanfiction out there for it. Nowadays, good stories are so impossibly hard to find! I have branched out into several other stories, trying to hunt down talented authors... Anywho, 'Convince Me' in the Pitch Black section is so amazingly wonderful. It's rated R.
You really need to read it. On with the thanks!
ZRO4825 – Thanks, I think! I hope you figure out what you think of it and give me a holler holler... word
Sieg1308 – Glad you enjoyed it!
Cynical Chaos - holds back a tear. Thanks, you totally kick ass for the long review. I don't know about publishing anything, but I do like writing. So as long as I can shut my self bruised ego up I think I can continue writing.
Father Malvado – aka preacher man – Yes, all night. Just for you! Although you are one of my newest consistent reviewers, your also one of my favs.
SakK – What are you doing reviewing? Get back to Stolen Romance this instant! Lol, thank you very much.