Ranma 1/2: Video Reminder

Chapter 4

By Xasonnex

Disclaimer: Look people, if these characters were mine I'd be telling my stories somewhere besides a free site. As it is, they are creations of Rumiko Takahashi and I am only borrowing them.


Dinner at the Tendo Dojo was unnaturally quiet. It wasn't because of lack of people, in fact there was even one more person than usual. It wasn't because the eldest Tendo and eldest Saotome were still hungover. It was quiet because Kasumi's announcement that dinner was ready had interrupted what would have been a startling revelation in the dojo.

Over in the corner sat the Tendo family entertainment center, which had just recently been in the dojo. Next to middle Tendo daughter Nabiki sat a videotape. And occupying the extra cushion around the dinner table was Ryoga Hibiki, who didn't know for sure how afraid to be of said tape.

Normally Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo would be bickering, but now Ranma was lost in thought and Akane wanted to know why. "What was all that about?" she thought. "When Ryoga saw that videotape you'd think he saw a ghost. But he wasn't even there when Ranma fought Kodachi. Why was he so afraid?" She glanced at her fiancée, Ranma. "And what was Ranma talking about? He's hiding something."

"Man," Ranma thought, "I'm glad Kasumi interrupted. If what I think is on the tape is on the tape, Akane probably would have killed Ryoga. I want her to know about him being 'P-chan', but I don't want him murdered. She's gonna want to know what all that was about, so how do I put it to her?"

Ryoga kept wisely quiet. "There's something going on between Ranma and Akane. What is it? And what made Ranma stop from showing that video?"

Nabiki was also devoting more attention to thought than food. "Ranma asked for that specific tape and didn't even ask how much I was going to charge. There must be something big on it. If I find out what it is then more money is sure to come my way."

Kasumi was unfazed by the introspective mood of the room and broke the silence. "So Ryoga, when did you get back in town?"

Ryoga turned to face her. "Oh, well I think it was sometime this morning, actually. I'm not entirely sure." He was glad to break the akward silence.

For the first time since the dinner interruption, Ranma looked Akane in the eye, but only for a moment. As soon as he noticed that she'd noticed his attention, he averted his eyes to his food. "Dang," he thought, "she deserves to know the truth, and it ain't like I haven't tried to tell her before. OK, maybe I haven't tried very HARD before, but I've given her plenty of clues. Ah well, when she does find out she's gonna want to know who else knew about him. Lets see, there's Pop and Mr. Tendo, Cologne, Mousse..."

"Damn it Ranma, don't keep secrets from me," Akane thought. "Not now that we know we love each other. What the heck made you so mad?" She tried her best not to look like something was bothering her .

Genma Saotome spoke up in between bites of food. "Ranma, I've decided munch munch that we are going gulp on a little training trip this weekend. You do chomp have school off for a munch couple days, right?"

Ranma splashed his father with some water from his dinner glass. "Don't talk with yer mouth full Pop, it's disgusting. But yea, sound good to me."

As an angry panda decided to pick a fight with his son, Mr. Tendo added, "Akane, why don't you go along and cook for them? You could make them your instant ramen!"

Before Akane could respond, Genma-panda held up a sign in front of Soun. "No no no no! Bad idea!" it read.

Before Akane could respond to that, Ranma bopped his father on the head. "Aw shaddup Pop! She's getting better you know. Oh, wait, you don't know, do you 'Mr. Panda'? Anyway..."

"That's right..." Akane finally got in before being interrupted by an elated Soun.

"That's it Ranma! Come to your fiancée's aid! You DO want her along, don't you?"

Akane turned to face Ranma. "Well Saotome," she thought, "how are you going to respond to that?"

Ranma DID want Akane to come along, but didn't want their parents to know that. "H-hey! I ain't sayin' that. She'd just be, uh, getting in our way. I'm just sayin' she isn't as bad as she used to be at cookin'. That's all!"

As Ryoga watched the drama unfold, he breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm off the hook," he thought. "Not that I'm all that happy. Akane will probably be spending the weekend with Ranma..."

Little did Ryoga know, he was not off the hook. As she finished her dinner, Nabiki eyed the tape sitting next to her. "As soon as dinner is over, little tape, I will learn your secrets," she thought. "There's money to be made from you, I can smell it."


Dinner concluded without further incident. As Kasumi cleaned up, Ranma had grabbed Ryoga and headed towards the dojo. The fathers decided to take in a game of Go, Nabiki retired to her room, and Akane went to her own.

Ranma and Ryoga stood facing each other in the middle of the dojo. Ranma was much calmer than before, though he was still a bit agitated. Ryoga was confused and wanted answers, but was afraid to ask the questions.

Ranma decided to lay it out for the ever lost boy. "Listen up man, 'cause I'm only sayin' this to ya today. Things are different between Akane an' me now. What's different ain't your business."

Ryoga fumed. "Not my business? What the Hell have you done to her, animal?"

"Shut up! I wasn't finished yet. 'Sides, anything I've done to her is nothing compared to what she's going to do to you."

"What do you mean?"

Ranma made sure he was drawn to his full height. "Last night I told her I loved her. I didn't even know it till yesterday, but I do. And I ain't keepin' your dirty little secret anymore. She deserves to know."

Ryoga cracked his knuckles. "Well it's too bad you realize that you love her, because I will win her heart. But before I do that, I'm going to shut that fool mouth of yours for good!"

Ranma slid back into a defensive stance. "Oh yea? You think she'll love you? Go ahead, man. Go up to her room right now and tell her about 'P-chan' yourself! I'm sure that'd go over real well."

"Shut up and die!" And thus a fight began.


Akane could hear the sounds of a battle beginning in the dojo. "Damn it Ranma," she thought. "You just said you were going to talk to him, not pick a fight!"

flashback

At dinner, Ranma had just finished his food. He stood and walked to the hall, waiting for someone. Akane thought it might be a good time to approach him, so she finished her meal quickly. After thanking Kasumi she walked past Ranma, whispering "Talk, now." He followed her down the hall, just out of hearing range of everyone else.

"OK, Ranma," Akane whispered as she stopped at a corner. "Spill it. What the heck were you talking about before about Ryoga?"

Ranma placed his hand behind his head and tried to grin. "Well, see, it's kind of between the two of us but relates to you. Look, ask me again later tonight and I'll tell you everything. I promise."

Akane narrowed her eyes. "Why later?"

"I just need to talk to Ryoga first. Please, just give me a few minutes alone with him and then we'll talk."

"OK."

end flashback

"Darn it Ranma, how are we going to talk if you wear yourself out?" She headed to the door of her room to leave. "I'd better put a stop to this before we loose the dojo." As she left she couldn't help but overhear a muffled laugh from Nabiki's room. "I wonder what that's about?" Curiosity got the better of her and she broke off of her current course to knock on her sister's door.

After knocking there was a slight pause before Nabiki replied. "Yes?"

Akane cracked open the door and stuck her head in. "Hey, I was just wondering what was so funny."

Nabiki hadn't seen anything on the tape yet worthwhile, so she decided to share. "Just watching this tape Ranma.. borrowed."

The tape. The tape that had scared Ryoga. "Say, what are you doing with that anyway? You didn't go to the match."

"My dear sister, how often do Ranma's fights get such an audience? It's standard procedure for a school to record athletic events anyway, so I got a copy of the tape in case anyone else wanted copies. I think I sold about 15, but I never actually watched it myself."

"So what was so funny?"

"C'mon in and I'll show you." Nabiki watched as her sister entered the room and sat on the edge of her bed. "Hang on, I'll have to rewind it a little." She picked up the remote to her little T.V./VCR combo and pressed a button. "Now, it's not really all that funny, it's how I interpret it that is."

"OK," Akane replied. The suspense was killing her. What could possibly be on this tape that would cause such a stir? Would she get to see it?

"Here it is," Nabiki said as she pressed another button on the remote.

Akane recognized the part of the match they were watching immediately. Kodachi had just swung a bell at Ranma, who had blocked with P-chan. After Ranma fought off a brief attack from P-chan, she twirled her ribbon and picked up the announcer's table. Kodachi countered by twirling her ribbon around her brother and launching him to meet the table in midair. Akane glanced over as she heard her sister chuckle.

Nabiki looked at her sister. "What?"

"You tell me."

"OK, here," Nabiki said as she rewound the tapes a little. As she pressed 'play' she also put the video in slow-motion. "There's Kuno, flying through the air about to hit a table, and he's just looking at it. Kind of staring at it. It looks like he's just accepting his fate, as if saying, 'if the gods deem this to be, than this destiny I shall fulfill.'

Akane had to chuckle at that. As she saw Kuno hit the table head first in slo-mo she could defiantly hear those words coming out of his silent mouth. Then she had an idea. She reached out her hand towards the remote control held by Nabiki. "Gimmie."

Nabiki handed over the remote. "Here."

Akane rewound the tape a little and put it back in slo-mo. She waited to see Kodachi turn to Kuno before clearing her throat. "'Aye, my dear sister,'" she began in her best Kuno impression, "'fight well. What's this? You wish for me to become involved in this matter? Of course! You know of my feelings for my beloved pigtailed girl and wish for me to appeal to her sense of pity! I fly free, for there is no way that she will continue her attack with me as her targ ooof !" Akane stopped as in the video Kuno met table.

Nabiki laughed out loud. "Ha ha, that's pretty good sis!"

Suddenly a sound of destruction rang out from the direction of the dojo, distracting the Tendo sisters, the video playing in slow-motion now forgotten.

"Ranma and Ryoga," Akane stated out loud to no one in particular. She then turned to Nabiki. "I'd better go stop them while we still have a place to live."

Before Akane could reach the door, Nabiki interrupted. "Speaking of Ranma, what's going on between the two of you?"

Akane froze in her tracks. "What do you mean?"

"Please. I happen to be an excellent observer, unlike Father. I saw the two of you looking at each other this morning. 'I'm getting an A' my butt. Something happened recently between you two, and another something happened to you between breakfast and dinner. Or don't you think I didn't notice the silence between you at dinner?"

Akane tried to brush it off. "Nabiki, I really don't have time for..."

"I will find out," Nabiki stated matter-of-factly. "It's up to you. If I have to work to find out the answer, I'll sell it to pay for my troubles. If you tell me now, I'll keep it a secret. For a few weeks, at least."

Akane turned back and sat down again. "Promise?"

Nabiki nodded. "Promise."

Akane took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to tell the story. "Do you remember that time after Ranma's first fight with Mikado that you, and well, everyone else, interrupted the two of us in the dojo?"

"Hm? Oh, that's right. You were about to kiss."

"Well, he was about to kiss me because I dared him. Then we both got too embarrassed to try."

After a short pause, Nabiki prodded. "Continue."

"Well Ranma's dad videotaped the whole thing. Ranma forgot about it until he watched the tape. And then..." Akane couldn't quite continue.

Nabiki made her continue. "And then...?"

"And then... Well a dare is a challenge, and you know how Ranma is with challenges..."

Realization clicked in Nabiki's mind. "He kissed you?" Even Nabiki was wide-eyed at the possibility.

"I gave him permission before he did, so don't think he was taking advantage of me. Yes, we kissed."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that last sentence. "'We kissed'? As in...?"

"... Yes. I kissed back." Akane turned to face the TV, unable to look Nabiki in the eye.

Nabiki was so shocked that she didn't even try to think of a way to make money off of this. "When did this happen?"

"Last night."

When Nabiki started grinning ear-to-ear she didn't know, but she was now. "And how was it? C'mon, spill"

"It was good."

"Just 'good'?"

"OK, it was gr..." Akane trailed off, eyes still on the TV.

"Great?" When Akane didn't respond, Nabiki prodded. "What?"

Akane fumbled for the remote. "I thought I saw..." she began, eyes glued to the screen.

"Crud," Nabiki thought, "did Akane just find what I was looking for?" Nabiki also turned her attention to the television.

Akane rewound the tape until a point where there was a water kettle in midair. Shortly after starting the tape back up she pressed slo-mo. "It can't be," she said in a voice just above a whisper. "It's got to be some sort of lighting trick..." She watched frame-by-frame while the video Kodachi sliced the kettle in half, spilling it's contents over Ranma and by association, P-chan. In the cloud of steam, two figures were visible. Akane paused the tape the frame before the water from her firehose hit the two dark outlines.

Nabiki squinted her eyes. "Is that... another person?"

Akane's eyes were vacant. "Yes. I thought it might be Ranma in another light, but the poses are different..."

"Where did he come from?"

Realization slowly dawned on Akane. "P-chan has a Jusenkyou curse..."

Nabiki turned to her. "But who...?"

Then realization hit them both like a ton of bricks. It all came together for Akane: The teasing. The bandanna. The snide remarks. Ranma acting jealous. The bandanna. That Ryoga was there for almost every near-cure for Ranma's curse. All the times Ranma was about to tell her something about P-chan until she made him mad. All the times P-chan bit Ranma for no apparent reason. The bandanna. That stinking bandanna.

There was going to be Hell to pay, and not to Nabiki.


Outside in the Tendo yard there is a hole visible in the dojo wall and small craters scattered about the yard and fence. The reason for these damages is the two young men fighting in the once pristine yard. Somehow Ryoga had gotten behind Ranma and had him in some kind of choke hold-like headlock while fuming. Ranma for his part was just trying to breathe while trying to figure out an escape. The fact that Ryoga was trying to carry on some type of conversation didn't help.

"Take it back, Saotome! You're lying! there's no way Akane would let you do that to her!"

Somehow Ranma was able to gasp out, "Not only did she let me k-k-kiss her, but she kissed back..."

"Take it back or I'll squeeze harder!"

"Ca-can't take back... the truth...pig-boy..." Ranma was going through his options in his head. "OK, he's gettin' mad instead of depressed, so no drawing him into hitting himself with a shi-shi hokodan. There's a bucket of water just a few meters away, maybe I can stumble over there and get enough water on him to..."

"RYOGA YOU PIG!" came a cry from the house. The voice was unmistakably Akane's, and it was quite clear that she was beyond mad.

"Akane," Ryoga muttered as both he and Ranma lost concentration momentarily. They could hear very distinctive stomping from inside the house, and it was getting closer.

"Aw, crap," Ranma thought. "Did she figure it out alr..."

Akane threw the door to the outside open very forcefully. Laying her eyes on the fiancée-choking Ryoga, "YOU DECEITFUL, PEEPING, DISHONEST..."

In shock at the anger directed at him, Ryoga let go of Ranma. "There's only one thing that would make her this mad at me," he thought.

"...PERVERTED, PIG OF A MAN..." Akane was stomping towards them.

Ranma was lightheaded with the sudden rush of blood back to his head as he looked at Ryoga. What he saw was a frozen and beyond petrified martial artist.

"Help..." Ryoga meekly said aloud to no one in particular.

"...LYING, DIRTY..."

Ranma shook his head before darting for the bucket nearby. In only a few split-seconds, he grabbed the pail and splashed Ryoga. He picked him up and prepared to drop-kick the piglet. "You're gonna thank me for this; don't know why I'm doin' this for you."

Ryoga felt himself being punted and respond the only way he knew how. "BWKEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

"...COWARD! Hey! Get back here!"

"Kkwweeeeeeee..." was her only response, as the tiny pig vanished from sight.


Nabiki saw the small flying figure from her bedroom window. "Well what do you know? Pigs CAN fly."


Akane looked back down to stare daggers at her fiancée. "RANMA..."

"Hey," Ranma replied getting into a defensive stance. "I was just..." Just then he felt lightheaded again and collapsed to one knee. "Whoa," he groggily mumbled.

Akane's anger turned to concern. "Ranma? What happened?"

Ranma felt stronger again. "Well, I was tellin' him that I was gonna tell you tonight about..."

Akane furrowed her brow. "Him being P-chan?"

"Yea. He didn't take it well, and during the fight I let it slip that we'd kissed."

"WHAT?"

"I thought it'd distract him, y'know like usual, only this time it just made him tougher. Somehow he got me in that headlock (which I was about to get out of) and it kind of cut off the blood to my head."

Akane moved behind Ranma and started feeling around his neck. "He got you pretty good."

Goosebumps were raised on Ranma as he felt contact with Akane. "Yea. Look, I just want to... urk!"

Akane had repeated Ryoga's movements and had him in the same hold. She wasn't using nearly enough force to do any harm... yet. "Listen up," she started. "Right now, I'm really, really mad. I have a lot of anger I want to let out, and you got rid of the person I WANT to let it out on, so I'm giving you five minutes to do one of two things. Either calm me down completely while telling me the truth, or calm me down enough while telling the truth that I don't hut you much.

Ranma sweatdropped. "Well, it all started when I was chasin' Pop through Jusenkyo..."


Just a few blocks away at the Nekohatten, the staff had set up for some outside vending. Shampoo was in charge of a portable ramen cooker, while Cologne sat at a table.

"Great-grandma right, outside is good for business," Shampoo said offhandedly.

"Yes," Cologne began, "This is the first break in customers we've had in hours. It is nice to get out of the shop every now and then. Hello..." Cologne held her hand up to her forehead to help see. What she saw was a tiny black dot approaching fast. In seconds, the little black dot splashed right into Shampoo's ramen pot. Shampoo was able to avoid the splash, well, the first splash. A second splash resulted from a full grown figure emerging from the pot.

"Yeeeeahhhhhooowwww! Hot! Hot! Hot!" Ryoga flailed his arms and legs to cool off while also trying to cover his privates.

"Aiyah! Is airen's pig friend!" Shampoo covered her eyes.

In one deft move Cologne threw Ryoga inside the (miracusly) empty resteraunt. "Mousse! Get some clothes on that boy! And get him some burn salve!"

There were sounds of hurried movement from inside. Moments later, Ryoga emerged in plain pants and a T-shirt, looking red in the face, and not all of it from the burn.

"So, care to tell us why you just ruined Shampoo's ramen?"

"No."

"That wasn't a choice."

Ryoga mumbled something that Cologne couldn't make out.

"What was that?"

"Akane found out about me being her pet pig." Shame was evident in his voice.

"Oh dear. Goodness, I was wondering if she knew or not. Shampoo," she turned to her great-granddaughter. "It might be a good idea to not go anywhere near Akane Tendo, even to get to Ranma, for a while."

Shampoo took one look at the burned martial artist. "No need tell Shampoo twice."

END Chapter 4.


Authors Notes: Well! I apologize most profoundly for the almost 5 year (to the day) delay between chapters. As I've said before, this story was supposed to be a one-shot, then I decided that it worked better as a two parter. Then all of those wonderful, wonderful reviews came in and I decided "Hey, why not just make my own alternate universe stemming from this one story?" Well, during the beginning of work on chapter 4, I suffered severe writer's block. I knew what I wanted to happen, but didn't know how to go about doing it. While that discouraged me, I also decided that I didn't want to have to introduce later manga characters while having to deal with the dynamics of my new universe, and I didn't want to just say "insert Konatsu's manga introduction" and call it a day. Then all kinds of things happened, including me loosing what I'd written on disk. Anyway, here I am again! I am leaving my continuing story to my "Overtime" series, but I do have one more story arc I want to tell in this universe, so please bear with me. Also, I apologize if these later chapters don't "feel" the same as 1-3, but I can't seem to get back in the same frame of mind as when I wrote those.

BTW: Notice the anime element of this chapter? In the manga, Kuno defends himself against the announce table, while the anime version of those events had me (literally) rolling on the floor in laughter. Eh, I was 16.

PS: I tried to upload this chapter on April 30th AND May 1st, so sorry for the 2 day delay from the deadline I gave in "Overtime"'s notes.