Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. All the other big companies and the creator of Ranma and Ash own these!
Chapter 5: Why me?
Kuno constantly challenged Ash throughout the week. Then, when he had
found
out about the engagement, he was totally outraged, forgot about Ash,
and
went for Ranma. Kuno, constantly having the daylights being beat out
of him
by Ranma, would go on a rant about how Ranma used sorcery to defeat
him.
After both Ranma and Ash defeated Kuno, all the boys gave up on Akane
because Ranma was engaged to her, and because he had defeated the best
and
most perverted fighter in school. Then one day Ranma received a true
rival.
Ash on the other hand found a 'somewhat' friend.
"So you happy now that Kuno is going after me and not you?" Ranma asked
Ash
with a defeated tone.
Ash just smiled at the comment and said, "So, you want to fight someone
at
your skill level?" He got into a fighting stance.
Ranma grinned and instantly got into a fighting stance. They began to
fight
in front of the school. When people saw this, the news of this spread
like
wildfire and people started to gather around.
Ranma and Ash dashed across the ground so quickly, only a blur could be
seen. Then both jumped up in the air and had a mid air combat. All of
a
sudden both boys' danger sense flashed and they both did a back flip.
The
tip of an umbrella came crashing down, a few inches from Ranma and
Ash's
face, and when the umbrella touch the ground, it made a huge crater.
Both
Ranma and Ash flip back again.
"At last I found you, Ranma Saotome!" the boy wielding the umbrella
said.
"Someone you know?" Akane asked.
"Uhhhhhh… Hmmmmmmm… Ummmmmmm… OH! I know! I know! It's,
it's,
it's…" Ranma said. He paused again, and a confused look on his face
crossed
his face. Ranma scratched his head.
"I only have one question for you, Ranma Satome. Why did you run out
on our
duel!" the boy yelled.
"OHHHH! Now I remember! It's Ryoga Habiki!" Ranma said.
"Who's Ryoga?" Akane asked.
"We went to the same boys' school when we were younger. Everyday, the
cafeteria was nothing more than another World War II. Each time the
lunch
ladies yelled out the last bread, they would toss it into the air, and
Ranma
would always get it. Ryoga usually would be right behind Ranma each
and
every time," Ash replied.
"Ranma answer my question!" Ryoga yelled.
"I waited for three days at the appointed place!" Ranma exclaimed.
"Three days?" Akane asked.
"And when I came on the forth day you had already run away!" Ryoga said
gritting his teeth.
"Uh… Ryoga? Can I ask you something?" without pausing Ranma asked,
"Why
did it take you four days to get there? It was the empty lot behind
your
house! Only 500 yards!"
"Why you! Do you think I was out for a casual stroll for four
days! I
suffer to meet up with you!" Ryoga yelled.
"Bad sense of direction." "Indeed," the crowd murmured.
"Breaking a man to man fight… And running off to China with your
father!"
Ryoga yelled as he threw his umbrella, "Cowardice!"
"So in another - word" Ranma dodged the umbrella, "You want to finish
the
fight?" Ranma caught Ryoga's umbrella and threw it right back at him.
"Finish our fight!" scoffed Ryoga, "This is revenge!"
"No matter what it takes, I will destroy your happiness!" Ryoga
bellowed,
as he held the umbrella high above his head.
"My happiness...?" Ranma said to himself, wearing stunned look on his
face.
"Hey, Ash! Am I happy?" Ranma asked. Ash shrugged. Ryoga threw a
letter
to challenge to Ranma and left.
One week later, "Ranma! The date of the showdown was yesterday!" Akane
said
looking at the piece of paper.
"Don't worry. With his sense of direction he could be anywhere in
Japan by
now," Ranma answered.
"Hey, Ranma! Why is Ryoga so mad at you anyway? I mean you did get to
the
bread by using him as a staircase and all, but why would he go as far
as
trying to destroy your happiness? ---- Well, whatever is left of it at
least..." Ash said as he entered the living room with Pikachu perched
on his
right shoulder.
"I don't know. Oh well, it's probably the bread because I did do that
throughout the year..." Ranma trailed off.
"Oh well..." Ash shrugged, and he left for the forest to train some
more.
One week later, Ranma was standing in front of Ryoga. A crowd had
formed
and among the anxious people were Akane and Ash.
"So you had the guts to show up!" Ryoga taunted.
"Look, I'm not here to fight okay? Here, take this," Ranma said as he
tossed a package toward Ryoga.
"What's this? Some kind of joke!" Ryoga yelled as he looked at a
package that held a chow mien bred.
"Fine! Here, you greedy jerk!" Ranma said as he tossed a whole pile of
bread towards Ryoga, "Happy now? I didn't forget anything, did I?"
"What're you trying to pull!" Ryoga hollered.
"This is a bread-feud, isn't it?" Ranma asked with a confused look on
his
face.
"You think a bread-eating contest will avenge my honor!" roared
Ryoga,
"Besides, all of these are past the 'sell by' date!"
"Well... you kept me waiting for a week..." Ranma said scratching his
head
"Enough chattering! I attack!" Ryoga yelled as he lunged forward with
his
umbrella.
"But, what's this about?" Ranma asked as he dodged all of Ryoga's
moves.
"Because of you, I've seen hell!" Ryoga roared as he threw the umbrella
towards Ranma. Ranma dodged. The umbrella flew strait, hit some
people's
back and landed.
"Huh?" Ranma asked, as he dodged some more blows.
"Do you think mere words could convey the profundity of my
suffering?"
Ryoga asked as he ripped off one of the many bandanas from his head.
He
quickly slapped it down and it wrapped around Ranma wrist, "Heh! Got
you!
Now you can't run away!"
"Tell me something..." Ranma said as he countered a kick from Ryoga,
"How
many bandanas do you wear?"
"Don't take me lightly Ranma!" Ryoga shouted.
"Man this is heavy!" said a boy as he tried to pick up Ryoga's
umbrella.
Akane, hearing the boy, ran over to see how heavy it was. When she
tried to
pick it up it weighed about a ton!
'Ryoga holds it with only one hand!' she thought desperately, and was
about
to shout a warning to Ranma, when Ash silenced her.
"Don't worry. If I can pick this up with one hand then Ranma could do
it no
sweat," said Ash, picking up the umbrella to prove his point, "Ranma is
almost two times as strong as Ryoga."
Akane stared at Ash's display of strength with a shocked expression.
Her
eyes widened even more as she realized Ash's words. Ash chucked
lightly and
dropped the umbrella. Ranma kicked Ryoga up into the air and Ryoga
landing
near his umbrella. When Ryoga saw how close his umbrella was, he
lunged and
grabbed it by the handle. With a spring forward, Ryoga ran towards
Ranma.
Ranma did the same and executed a jump kick. The two attacks clashed
and
Ranma landed a kick on Ryoga's face. Ryoga, on the other hand, made
only a
large slash mark on Ranma's shirt, and missed is original target by
several
inches.
"Oh, Man! This is my favorite shirt!" Ranma whined.
"This is war, Ranma! Don't act like a girl!" Ryoga yelled as he jumped
into
the air with Ranma on his tail.
"Who're you calling a girl!" Ranma shouted as he preformed a jump
kick
towards Ryoga. Unfortunately, he missed and hit the water fountain.
Cold
water gushed in every direction. Ryoga quickly opened his umbrella,
and
deflected the water. Ranma was not so lucky and she was engulfed in a
stream of freezing cold water. Soon a red-haired figure of a girl
appeared
and Ryoga stood there dumbfounded.
"What's your problem!" Ranma-chan yelled as she jumped up. Ryoga
standing around like an idiot didn't dodge Ranma-chan's jump kick.
"Ranma?" Ryoga asked still standing still.
"Who do I looked like, you moron!"
"Ranma! Your torso!" Akane said as she ran towards the two.
Ranma-chan looked down at her chest, and her eyes widened with
realization
and shock. Then she clutched her chest and asked, "Why don't you
laugh?
Huh? Huh? I'm cursed to have this body, but I don't try to kill
people!"
Ryoga looked down, his hair covering his eyes. "Ha ha ha HA HAHAHAHA!
You
call that a curse? Whining about your misery… with such an
adorable
body! HA! Such a jest!" Ryoga angrily threw a dozen bandannas at
Ranma
and Akane.
Akane quickly turned and broke into a run, "I'll go get you some hot
water!"
Ranma turned to her, "NO you IDIOT!" As Akane reached the halfway
point
to her destination she tripped on a root and fell with a painful yelp.
"Akane!" Ranma yelled.
Ash jumped into the scene and got into fighting stance. He turned
hastily
to Ranma and said in a stern voice that left no room for argument, "Get
her
out of here, Ranma! I'll take care of Ryoga."
Ranma nodded as he ran and picked up Akane, "Alright."
"Where are you running to?" Ryoga roared as he tried to give
chase,
but he was stopped by Ash. "Move out of the way or I'm going to have
to
hurt you," Ryoga growled at Ash.
"No. Ranma is my cousin and I cannot permit this to happen to him.
Besides, you were endangering other people in your fight," Ash said
with a
stern glare.
"Humph! So you're Ash!" Ryoga said as he charged forward.
Ash dodged all of Ryoga's attacks and said, "Ahh… you remember me, eh?
Well
it doesn't matter… why were you attacking Ranma?"
Ryoga looked up from his strikes and said, "Because I've been through
hell
because of him."
"Which is?" Ash asked as he continued to dodge Ryoga's attacks.
"No mere words ca-" Ryoga began, but he was promptly cut off by Ash.
"Blah, blah, blah. Will you get on with it?" Ash yelled impatiently as
he
continued to dodge all of Ryoga's best attacks.
Ryoga didn't respond this time and he threw out some more bandannas at
Ash.
'Well, that was pointless… Might as well finish it up….' Ash thought
with a
sigh and he started to charge up.
Ash yelled, "Hiryy ten ha!"
A hot beam of pure Ki burst from Ash's outstretched arm, and Ryoga's
bandannas were quickly engulfed and rendered to ashes. Streaming Ki
blast
hit Ryoga with heavy force, and he was knocked out and burned. Ash
quickly
withdrew his arm and the Ki blast subsided. Ash walked over the check
the
unconscious Ryoga was all right.
After making sure Ryoga was still alive, Ash roof hopped toward Dr
Tofu's
clinic. He had a feeling that Ranma had taken Akane to Dr Tofu's
because he
was an excellent doctor. Ash quickened his pace hoping he could catch
Ranma
before he left, and he arrived just as Akane and Ranma were leaving.
"Hey Ash! So, how did it go?" Ranma asked.
"Good, I guess. I knocked him out, but I couldn't find out why he was
after
you," Ash replied.
"That's okay. Don't worry about it… Hey, is he still there? Maybe we
can
make him tell us," Ranma suggested.
"Maybe… but not sure if he will still be there," Ash shrugged, "Well we
won't know until we check it out." Both boys ran back to school. They
jogged to the scene of the battle, but when they arrived they found no
one
there.
"Hmmm… I guess I didn't use a strong enough Ki blast," Ash stated
plainly.
"Let's go home. Knowing Ryoga's sense of direction he won't be able to
find
us for a while. Besides, it look like it's going to rain," Ranma said.
Ash
looked at the sky and nodded in agreement. He didn't want to stick
around
when the storm comes by.
That night, Ryoga popped out of nowhere and tried to get Ranma awake.
"Hey,
Ranma! Get up! Ranma! Get up!" Ryoga constantly urged as he
nudged
Ranma. Outside it was pouring heavily and Ash awoke grumpily to the
constant annoying sounds.
"What the heck are you doing here?" Ash asked scratching his head
sleepily.
Ryoga snapped his head and looked up.
"I'm here to finish up our fight!" Ryoga shouted.
Genma woke up and with a wooden sign that said 'Quiet!', he smacked all
three guys outside to the pouring rain.
"Alright! What's going on!" Ranma-chan sputtered, then looked at
Ryoga,
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to finish our fight!" Ryoga repeated.
"Why are you always so mad at me?" asked Ranma-chan, then he paused,
"How
about this, if I defeat you then you tell me why you're so pissed off
at me,
alright?"
"… And if I win than you'll admit that I'm the better man and that you
are
just a lowly coward that ran away from our man to man fight!" Ryoga
said.
"Fine."
"All right folks, since we have all this in agreement, let's take it
into
the dojo. I'm going to be the ref, all right?" Ash asked. Both Ranma
and
Ryoga nodded their consent. "Alright, let's go. Ranma, I'll get you
some
hot water." Ranma nodded in thanks.
A few minutes later male Ranma was standing across the dojo from Ryoga,
and
Ash was right in between them. "All right," said Ash with his arm out,
"There is no rules and the first to forfeit or gets knocked unconscious
losses. Got it?"
"Got it!" Both boys yelled as they both got into a fighting stance.
"Good! Hajime!" Ash yelled as he withdrew his arm.