Ranma Tales ½: Chapter 1 – Of School and Fighting

Part 1: Hentai Brigade

While Ranma waited for the answer another figure stepped out from behind some trees. A figure dressed in a traditional samurai style layered kimono and holding a bokken. This figure was the one to finally give him his answer. "We are here to win the right to date the fair Akane Tendo in honorable combat, peasant. Do not interfere."

Ranma responds with a sick look on his face "This is how you ask a girl out? If that's the case I defiantly don't want to know what this 'date' is supposed to consist of."

Getting somewhat angered by this retort by the newcomer the would be samurai replied "Know you that I am Tatewaki Kuno, Blue Thunder of Furikan High! I will not have you dishonor me with your slanderous words!"

Ranma hops down from the wall and walks forward as he comments "Let me get this straight. Your honor allows you to first attack a woman for the right to date her as if you were some sort of cave man? I can see pretty well why the lady would choose to turn you down for this 'honor'. Maybe I should show you how you ask a girl out in the real world? Oh wait, that probably wouldn't help you obviously have no idea how to treat a woman."

Having had quite enough of this heresy Kuno lifts his sword and proclaims "I have had enough knave defend yourself!" and rushes toward Ranma who just continues standing there perfectly relaxed.

Just before Kuno's swing starts Akane shouts "Watch out!" and suddenly in less than a blink of an eye a snap kick sends Kuno's bokken flying out of his hand and Ranma presses his open palm against Kuno's stomach. Kuno promptly proceeds to collapse to the ground and vomits profusely as he curls up into a ball holding his guts. The bokken lands point first in the ground a dozen feet away with a 'plush!' sound as the tip is buried in the ground.

Everyone just stares. Akane thinks to herself 'He took out Kuno with one hit! And he didn't hardly even move!'. Nabiki Tendo up in her 'office' (the classroom her homeroom is in) smiles and imagines what a new contender could do for her profit margins and thinks 'besides he's not bad looking either'.

Ranma walks over to Akane and bows to her saying "I apologize for the ill treatment of these boys. I hope you can forgive them... eventually." Ranma can't help but notice that she is fairly attractive and especially cute when she's blushing like she is right now.

Akane replies "T-That's all right. Thank you for your concern." The shock she's still in keeps her from falling into her classic pattern of verbal abuse to men that has been nearly set in stone after the Hentai Brigade started their attacks. She adds "How did you do that by the way?"

Ranma smiles and says "I've been a martial artist my whole life, I've barely ever even been in a formal school like this before. My last sensei knew a lot about things like Chi, pressure points, and other sensitive spots. Unfortunately Kuno didn't really stand a chance and he should have known better."

Akane thinks to herself 'He's awfully cute when he smiles' and replies "I'm a martial artist myself, though I've never meet anyone who could do that." then she remembers the mass of boys still standing between them and the school and frowns before saying "I don't think they got the point yet."

Ranma turns and says to the mass of boys, most of whom are quite pale from seeing their glorious leader embarrassed in front of the school like that, and says "I'd suggest you guys should stop bothering this nice lady and go back to class. Maybe just maybe you could find some other nice ladies who if you showed some respect to may still agree to go out with you even after all of this. Though some groveling, maybe some flowers, and politeness might help to."

At these words Nabiki started making phone calls and the majority of boys proceeded to think better of ending up like Kuno... Anyways maybe it was better to not get kicked around by Akane every morning to... There were other girls right?

A handful though still stood in the way and seeing this Ranma sighed and said to Akane "I think we'll just have to go through these guys, they didn't seem to get the picture." Akane just nods and the two walk forward as the seven boys try to stop them (and defeat Akane). To bad for them it just ended up being a complete embarrassment, Akane alone was more than they could handle with Ranma helping it took less than five seconds before it was all over. Ranma and Akane just continued on their way into the school.

Part 2: School and Secrets Best Left Unknown

It turned out that Ranma would be in Akane's class so she showed him where it was. She however was starting to get over her shock fall back into her traditional patterns of male abuse, though Ranma was being so nice Akane felt bad about it. She decided she would try to make up for it when lunch came around as they reached the classroom.

Akane had a small stake of notes on her desk when she got to her seat and she started to read them while Rama Introduced himself, so she missed most of his introduction. The teacher offered him the open seat next to Akane, so Ranma walked over and sat down in his new seat. Akane on the other hand was fuming, she just couldn't believe what all the girls she thought of as her friends had asked about! Ranma though was oblivious to this other than noting that Akane had gotten into a bad mood and he wondered why.

When lunch came around Ranma asked Akane if she'd like to eat lunch with him. To which Akane explodes saying "Why would I want to eat lunch with a pervert like you?" before she can stop herself.

Ranma just blinks and goes "Well first I kinda object to the whole pervert thing. I know I've personally never done anything perverted to you or with you. Second I thought you might want to eat lunch with me because your the only person I know right now." He looked rather depressed and Akane realized what she'd done.

Before he could turn to leave she grabs his hand and says "Ranma wait... I'm sorry. I over reacted. Let's go eat lunch together outside." and proceeds to pull him along behind her till she gets to her favorite tree outside.

They talk quietly about all sorts of things, though initially mostly about martial arts. Eventually they touch on the topic of Ranma's parents and he tells Akane about his father's death 3 years ago while they were training.

Akane is a bit shocked and tells Ranma "I know how you must feel I lost my mother when I was fairly young... What about your mother? Are you living with her now?"

Ranma replies wistfully "I don't know anything about my mother. My father took me away to train when I was five or six years old and I haven't seen her since then."

Akane blinks and asks "Where do you live then?"

Ranma smiles slightly in a sort of ironic smile "Well since I left my sensei's side I'm just living in a hotel room. My father's dying words were about a old friend of his who lived in Nerima, so eventually when I felt I was ready I came here."

Akane was shocked... again. Which is probably good, since that means she isn't nearly as likely to say things before she thinks about them. She does however still say things she might not want to say later such as "Why don't you come home to my family dojo with me then? We have a guest room you could stay in until you find your father's old friend. I just can't let you live in a hotel room like that."

Ranma was shocked, but he manages to reply "I couldn't possibly impose on you like that! I'll manage ok in a hotel room, I'm sure."

Akane shakes her head and says "At least come home with me and take a look. Besides I'd love to spar with you in the dojo and maybe learn some new moves."

Ranma gives in and agrees to walk home with her. Though he firmly believes he will just walk her home and then go back to his hotel room after a short visit. Both are interrupted by the bell that marks the end of lunch. They get up and go back to class.

Akane notices that Ranma is actually pretty good at most of the classes he has. In fact he's better in the English class than the teacher is, actually correcting her occasionally. His Japanese literature was also nearly flawless. His grasp of history was pretty good. Heck he even had most of the math down pretty well. This was amazing in her mind since he'd said he'd never really been to a formal school before. Soon enough (or not for some people) the bell sounded for the end of the day and the students started to rush off to their various clubs and activities.

Ranma followed Akane toward her home and she made a point of asking "You did really well in class today, I thought you said you'd never been to school before?"

Ranma smiled slightly and said "Well my father may have hated anything even remotely related to 'education' beyond martial arts, but my sensei was something of a stickler for learning at least a little bit of everything... Though compared to him I might as well give up..."

Akane looked slightly confused and asked "What do you mean?"

Ranma continued "Well he knows more than 4 dozen languages just as well as a native would... He has to come really darn close to a masters degree in just about every theoretical or applied science I've ever heard of... Let alone history... Modern or ancient..."

All Akane can say is "Wow."

Ranma smirks slightly and says "Yeah tell me about it... Here I was bitching that he wanted me to learn Chinese and English for languages, up to algebra in math, history for china, japan, and the U.S., and a few other seemingly random subjects as well as martial arts. Heck often more than one subject at a time... It's a bit different to do math while learning a kata or some other move. After I say him reading a scientific journal once and how he commented on the 'lack of sufficient evidence to support the claims being made' on something I couldn't even understand, I finally realized what he meant. After all Anything Goes Martial Artists should be able to handle... Well anything."

Akane frowns slightly and says "Did you just say Anything Goes Martial Arts?"

Ranma nods and replies "Yeah that's the art as my father taught me and sensei convinced me that I shouldn't abandon one style encompass everything for another and instead add to the existing knowledge of the school. In fact I think he said it as 'There is more than one path you can walk through life and as in life there is more than one path you can walk in martial arts. Learn to form your own style from the teachings of your school and others like yours. There is no right way here. Though there are certain truths.' Or something like that."

Akane doesn't quite understand it all, but getting the gist of it she nodded. Still watching Ranma they passed by an old woman watering the doorstep in front of her house, only to splash Ranma with water while she was at it. Akane could only stare at Ranma who didn't quite look the same anymore. In fact if Akane hadn't seen it with her own eyes she wouldn't have believed it. Where the cute guy she was getting to know had stood was now (a somewhat wet) red headed girl wearing his clothes... And she had bigger breasts than Akane even! Though not all that much bigger...

Ranma cursed somewhat & said "I hate it when that happens, you'd think it would be so easy to avoid being drenched in water like that..." looking up she sees Akane staring at her and adds "Uh I can explain..."

Having had one to many shocks today Akane simply proceeds to faint.

Part 3: One of Many Truths

Luckily for Akane Ranma caught her before she hit the ground, because that would have hurt when she final came to. Ranma ends up carrying Akane to a nearby park and placing her gently down on a bench. She then sits next to Akane knowing very well that this wasn't probably the best time to have to reveal her secret, but it really couldn't be helped. Besides she was starting to find Akane cute and interesting. She hoped Akane could really be a friend... It had been so long since she'd had friends her own age anyways...

Akane stirred on the bench and slowly sat up a few minutes later. She also promptly blinked repeatedly as she stared at the girl who she could swear had been Ranma.

Ranma said "I'm glad your awake you scared me when you feinted like that. I do really need to explain though..."

Akane raised an eyebrow and said "Why ever would you need to do that? It's obvious. Of course people can change genders when splashed by water. Why would that be a problem?"

Unfortunately the sarcasm seems to have somewhat missed Ranma and she says "Well that's good, I do kinda hate having to tell that story... It's just wwwaaayy to embarrassing. "

Akane just stares darkly.

Ranma sweat drops and says "Ah... I get it... ok I'll tell you the story. See my pop (for some reason she could never call him father during this story) found this guide in Chinese to famous training spots for martial artists. One of these was a place called Jusenkyo. He decided when I was about ten years old that we should travel there to train at this famous spot. Little did we know then that the place was cursed and no one in their right mind would ever go there let alone train there... Ok well pop would have anyways, though I always did think he was dumber than a brick and not packing all his marbles."

Akane nods somewhat and Ranma continues "When we arrived we found a guide that led us down to the springs themselves. Well popped jumped onto these polls sticking out of the water and told me to follow him up, which I stupidly did. Well the guide started yelling at us that it was dangerous and to get down. Pop was to stupid too listen though and we fought on the pools until I accidentally knocked him in one of the springs. What came out was a big pissed off Panda, who promptly knocked me into another spring. When I came up I realized something was wrong. I didn't quite realize what at that point, but I knew something was different. Of course I was ten so it didn't really hit me then. Even pop didn't realize right away and the guide couldn't remember which spring it was. I'd thought I'd gotten off luckily after I realized pop was now a Panda..."

Akane gasped as Ranma nodded and went on "Soon I realized it wasn't just my hair changing color, or that I got slightly shorter than I had been... Of course I only really realized that when I went to use the bathroom... Luckily the guide explained that warm water changes us back into our original forms. While pop didn't really care that he was a Panda all that much he was absolutely livid at his boy now also being his little girl. To make a long story somewhat shorter this lead to pop hunting down every shred of a rumor about a cure for about three years until his luck ran out. Since pop died and sensei took me in, I've come to accept that I turn into a woman when I get wet like that. Well not entirely, I still feel like a guy... It's just my body that's different. While I'd rather not change into a woman, I won't go crazy trying to 'fix' it like pop did. I'd rather look like a woman than die like pop did on a fool's quest."

Akane thought about it for awhile and said "I guess I can understand that... Sort of... But... But..." She can't quite seem to get her mind wrapped around something, then she blurts out "But you've seen a naked woman now and your only sixteen! That makes you such a pervert!" She did however manage to leave off the '& I was starting to like you bit'.

Ranma sighs and glances around at all the people in the park now staring at them and says "Yes... Yes... I'm a pervert because I need to bath sometime and with the curses trigger that kinda implies I will see that. Let alone, dare I say it, I may need to use a bathroom while I'm in this form. Oh and of course I enjoy the whole monthly visitor when I'm like this to..."

That last part shocks Akane a bit more than anything else & she blurts out "But you could just change into a guy and that wouldn't happen! We have to live with it!"

Ranma looks ill and says "Oh sure I could... If I wanted to need a hospital next time I accidentally changed forms.. Not to mention I feel uncomfortable even when I'm a guy and it's that time."

Akane just blinks and goes "Huh?"

Ranma sighs and replies "If I intentionally or unintentionally avoid being a girl those days I feel ill until I change forms. Then I have the worlds worst abdominal and not so abdominal pains until it's run it's course. Avoidance isn't really an option. I have no intention of ever ever trying to avoid that condition again."

Akane still can't quite seem to decide if he's a pervert or not under he definition, but eventually she seems to decide and say "I'm sorry Ranma... It's just... I was always raised it was improper for a man to see a woman naked except in certain circumstances... And I'm really not sure how this fits with that. I mean this sort of thing is part of what I barely remember from my mother before she passed away and so in a way this concept of what's right or not is dear to me... If that makes any sense..."

Ranma nods and says "It's ok Akane. I'm sorry this brings up some painful memories. I'd really like to be your friend though... I've never had many friends... And I don't have any here... I know this curse may be hard for you, but could you make an exception for me?"

Akane slowly smiles and says "Ranma I don't think I really have to make an exception... Though I think I may have to try awfully hard to unlearn some concepts I've taken for granted. I hope maybe you can help with that. If your willing that is."

Ranma smiles and nods.

Akane grins and says "Friends?"

Ranma grins back and says "Friends, wohoo!" and proceeds to hug Akane.

Akane nearly reacts to the hug like she would have any other day, heck even like she would have a few hours ago... But in the end she stops herself and tentatively proceeds to hug Ranma back getting a bit caught up in Ranma's excitement. She's still not sure she'd be comfortable doing this with Ranma if he were a guy right now... The dislike of boys in general is still to strong... But maybe in time Ranma could really help her get over that...

Ranma eventually though sighs and says "You do have to do me a favor though, I'd rather not have to try to explain this to everyone at school..."

Akane blinks ands says "I guess I can see why, but do you really think it will work?"

Ranma sighs again and says "I hope it can, I don't want to ever feel like a freak when I happen to change again. I don't want to have to leave school again, even if for different reasons. I want to live as normal a life as I can."

Akane nods and looking up realizes it's gotten somewhat late and glancing back at Ranma she says "I can't believe we've been here so long, we should really get back to my house. Since it's late though I'm inviting you over for dinner. No complaints either about how you can't impose!"

Ranma smiles slightly and says "Well then my dear friend I won't complain, let's see what your house is like!"

They both giggle slightly and head off towards Akane's house. Thankfully for Ranma no one who walked by them in the park understood what those two loony girls where talking about.

Part 4: Tendo dojo

Akane walks in her front door at home and says "I"m home." (well at least the Japanese phrase translated as that) and another voice calls out "Welcome home (Or more precisely the Japanese phrase translated as that). Soon a slightly older young woman walks into the entryway and goes "Oh my Akane you didn't mention we had a guest. Who is your friend?"

Akane smiles and says "Kasumi this is Ranma, she's going to spar with me in the dojo and I invited her for dinner to. I hope you don't mind to much." Ranma bows when he is introduced and Kasumi returns his bow.

Kasumi just smiles and says "Of course it's not a problem Akane we can always make room for a friend. Now I need to go start dinner and father is out because of some sudden council business so he won't be back for a bit right now. So have fun and I'll let you two know when dinner is ready."

Akane replies "Thanks Kasumi." then she turns to Ranma and says "I need to go change so we can spar. Make yourself at home till I'm done changing ok?"

Ranma blinks briefly then nods and says "Sure Akane, oh and by the way I think your sister is awfully nice."

Akane frowns slightly, then smiles and nods saying "I'll be right back!" before running up stairs. As she leaves she thinks to herself 'Why would I get jealous because he said Kasumi is nice?'.

Ranma meanwhile sits down at the table in the living room and relaxes while she waits. Soon Akane comes back down in her standard martial arts gi and walks over to Ranma. Ranma stands up and motions for Akane to lead the way. Akane leads Ranma out to the dojo.

Ranma asks Akane again (the first time having been on the way over) "You sure you want to do this? Especially when I'm in my female form? Not to mention what Kasumi is going to think when I show up some other time as a guy?"

Akane frowns and says "Yes I'm sure I want to spar with you. I'd also kinda prefer you were a girl since I really don't want to lose to a guy... Well a guy guy... um well you know what I mean!" getting angry near the end.

Ranma shrugs and says "Ok, but I want to lay down a few ground rules first. I don't intend to use any of my non-standard martial arts techniques, just old fashioned punches, kicks, and such. Second I won't start out by going all out, if you want that you need to work up to forcing me to do it. I don't mean to say I'll go easy on you, I just don't want to end up hurting you by accident. Ok?"

Akane frowns some more and replies "What's that supposed to mean? I'm a martial artist to ya know! I can take a punch just as well as anyone! In fact better than almost anyone!" as she gets mad.

Ranma shrugs again. "Ok. I'm ready whenever you are."

Akane still frowning continues to warm up as Ranma just stands there not doing anything. Which really starts to annoy Akane. So she decides to take advantage of Ranma since she doesn't seem to be taking this seriously... Which is why she comes out of a stretch and goes into a lunging punch at Ranma. Ranma simply sidesteps just out of reach, moving no further than needed. Akane continued throwing a series of punches at Ranma as Ranma avoids each one by a small margin. This just pisses Akane off of course and soon she yells "Damn it! Stand and fight me!"

Ranma blinks still dodging punches and says "I am, what else do you call this?"

Akane yells "Your not attacking me back! That's not fighting me!" as she throws a fairly wild punch which Ranma doesn't even try to avoid since it wasn't aimed anywhere near him and blocks the follow up kick to his gut.

Ranma asks "Do I really need to attack you yet? I didn't know there was a law saying when I needed to attack in a fight. Right now I'm just learning how you move and how you fight. That's easily just as important if not more so than the attacks to come."

Akane growls "Just come at me already!" as she goes into another flurry of punches which Ranma avoids or blocks. Completely losing focus and instead giving into her anger. Letting it fight for her.

Ranma shrugs and says "Ok, fine we'll do it your way." before she blocks a punch from Akane only to strike while her arm is fully extended and land a jab to Akane's shoulder before Akane can do anything. Akane reels a bit from the sharp pain. Ranma however doesn't let up and continues slowly landing precision blows that at every opening she gets against Akane's guard.

Akane is in shock (again, though not so complete as the other times). Realizing for the first time that she isn't even close to the same league as Ranma. She blocks a few blows here and there, but the majority find their targets. She can't seem to evade at all, far to slow to even try compared to the speed of the attacks used against her. Akane slowly starts to think to herself 'I've been training since I was a little girl, but I can't keep up! All I've ever had was martial arts and this just proves I'm not even good at that! What do I have if I don't have that!' as she starts to panic Ranma moves in to finish her off. Akane starts to block a punch to the front when she feels a blow going for her back and while wandering how Ranma got behind her with one part of her mind while the rest desperately tried to block the attack from behind. Then in a flash of pain everything goes dark.

Author's notes:

Yes by now you've probably realized Akane is somewhat out of character at times. I blame it on a combination of shock and a difference in how she's being treated. Really though I do believe that is pretty close to how she would react from everything I've seen or read if the situation had been altered that way. As I stated in the prologue this will really show off the elusive 'butterfly effect'.

You've probably also noticed I break up the chapters and give each section it's own title. I do that for a reason, much like most plays I split up each chapter into scenes giving each scene it's own title so if you wanted to you could find a particular part again if you wanted to reread it. I also do that for myself when I need to take a look at something I wrote before, each section title will give clues as to what happens in it... Though normally completely random associations much like prophecy you kinda have to know what is coming to realize what is actually in a certain chapter.

I'm also going to mention that I'm planning to avoid using Japanese anywhere in this even though it does fit well with the series. The first reason for it is that I don't want readers to have to go look up words or phrases if they run into something I understand, but they don't. The second reason is that I am horrible at remembering how to spell words in Japanese, so rather than accidentally getting words wrong from time to time I'm avoiding having to write those words. Unfortunately my spell checker just doesn't understand Romanji (SP?).