Spatulas and Bandannas by Shikoku
Chapter Eight: Comings and Goings
"Boy, you look tired, girl," Ukyo observed as Akane with Ranma finally arrived to walk to school with her and Ryoga.
Akane yawned. "I feel tired, too," She remarked, as the four began to walk to school. Ranma and Ryoga were up on the fence, seeing who could stay up longer and racing each other to school. "Niyaa! Can't catch me, Pigboy!" Ranma taunted Ryoga, ducking as Ryoga threw his backpack at him. "Shut up, Ranma!" Ryoga cried, as he threw a punch towards the pigtailed martial artist's head.
The two girls ignored the sparring boys and continued with their conversation. "Why are you so tired, anyway?" Ukyo asked Akane. "Ranma's snoring keep you up?" She grinned, mischievously.
Akane laughed, although she just ended up yawning again. "No, I was up late practicing."
Ukyo looked at her with interest. "Practicing? What were you practicing for?"
"Well, remember those girls we saved from that psycho woman yesterday."
Ukyo shuddered as she remembered that horrible laugh. "Yep, I remember. What about it?"
"It appears that they were the only girls on the whole Furinkan Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastic Team that were able to compete in the upcoming match this week. They asked if I could compete for them, and I accepted."
"I didn't know you could do Rhythmic Gymnastics, Akane," Ryoga remarked. He and Ranma had stopped their fighting, having grown interested in the girl's conversation.
"She can't," Ranma answered for Akane. "She's not only awkward and clumsy, but she destroyed all the practice equipment the Gymnastic team lent us."
Akane's school bag hit him in the face. "Who asked you?"
"Are you really having that much trouble learning the skills, Akane?" Ryoga asked, concerned.
Akane blushed. "Well, I could use some help, a little, that is.."
"Then you came to the right place, Akane," Ukyo said, cheerfully.
Akane brightened up, "Really, Ukyo? You could teach me? That'd be great!"
Ukyo shook her head. "No, I don't know anything about gymnastics, but I know somebody that does..."
"Really? Who?"
By this time, they had arrived at their school and were surrounded by all the other students. Ukyo just smiled and nodded towards Ryoga. "Ryoga is great at Rhythmic Gymnastics."
Ranma and Akane facefaulted. "Ryoga is gonna teach me Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics!" Akane cried out loud, once she regained her composure.
"Sure, he's great at it." Ukyo smiled, proudly.
A hand clamped down on Ryoga's shoulder. Ryoga turned and to his surprise saw that it belonged to Kuno. "A word of the wise, Hibiki, if you should teach the fair Akane Tendo the art of Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, prepare her well, for she faces my sister."
Akane, Ranma, Ryoga, and Ukyo all glanced at each other in shock. "Sister!"
"That psycho girl is Kuno's sister?" Ukyo gasped.
"Figures don't it?" Ranma added.
"I can see the family resemblance." Akane nodded.
Ryoga merely shivered.
Kuno was oblivious to all this. "Yes, twisted though she is, I love her still. I would be warned my fair Akane Tendo. In the gymnastics ring she plays not. You will be best advised to be prepared for anything. Good luck my love, for the thought of you in a leotard drives me to madness!" He laughed and left their presence.
Akane's turn to shiver. "Sister or no, he scares me more."
The others nodded in agreement.
"Ryoga! Nihao!" A voice called from above.
The small group looked up just as a bicycle landed on Ranma's head. The cheerful purple-haired girl who had been riding it jumped off, carrying a box of take out ramen.
"Sh- Sha- Shampoo! What are you doing here?" Ryoga asked, surprised. Behind him Ukyo scowled.
"Shampoo waitress at restaurant, Nekohanten," Shampoo replied, still smiling cutely at him. "Husband want try too too delicious ramen, yes?" She offered him a steaming bowl of delicious smelling ramen.
Ukyo shoved Ryoga aside and stalked up to the amazon. "No way, there's no way, he's gonna try your ramen, when he can have MY okonomiyaki!"
"Stay out of Shampoo's business, nosy girl! Ryoga my husband!"
"Oh, yeah, well, there's no way Ryoga's gonna marry you, so beat it, already!"
"Oh, yeah..!"
"Yeah!"
Ryoga stared back and forth between the girl's not sure what to do.
Akane sighed, wishing Ryoga would do something already.
Ranma groaned from under Shampoo's bicycle, and the school bell rang, marking the four late for class once again.
They are so beautiful... the boy sighed as he snapped
their picture. Both of them are on fire. They move with
such grace and beauty. A light that made other lights appear
dim in comparison...And neither of them would ever give a
guy like me the time of day.
There was a Hikaru Gosunkugi in every class. The shy quiet
boy that often goes unnoticed. A sickly, skinny boy, that
was always picked last in team sports. The boy that nobody
could ever remember his name. The boy that practiced voodoo
on his enemies and practiced the black magic...Well, maybe
everything sounds familiar except for that last part. But
even though Gosunkugi walked around with two little voodoo
dolls, a hammer and stake, and often wore candles on his
head, he was mostly harmless. Mostly because none of his
spells ever worked.
In fact you could almost say he was pathetic really. He had managed to fall in love not once but twice with two girls that he could never have. So he took their pictures when they weren't looking.
He caught a picture of Akane her long black hair falling in her face as she balanced easily on the balance beam. Her figure shown in its full glory for once now that she had donned a red leotard, instead of her typical baggy sweaters and jumpers.
He snapped another picture, this time featuring a breathtaking Ukyo just as she completed a backwards handspring. Her brown hair was flying around her head, having been pulled back in a high ponytail, like Akane she was dressed in a leotard, but hers was a royal blue.
He took picture after picture. Half of them with Akane in them, the others showing Ukyo. But many of his pictures featured both girls in them at the same time. Gosunkugi may not be able to torture his enemies with his voodoo, yet, but his photo taking had a certain magic of their own. In fact his pictures were even better than Nabiki's. Only few knew it.
"Hey, whatcha doing?" A voice broke in on the boy's thoughts. A hated voice. Gosunkugi looked up to see Ranma Saotome hanging above him from a higher window. Below them were Ryoga Hibiki and several other boys from his class. All of them were dressed in the boy's gym uniform, but none of them were paying attention to the baseball game they were supposed to be playing in.
"No- nothing.." Gosunkugi stuttered.
"Ah, he's probably taking pictures of Akane again," One of the other boy's remarked, Daisuke, in fact.
"Or Ukyo, I heard he has a crush on her now." Hiroshi added.
"Who doesn't?" Daisuke asked. Ryoga flinched at that one, but no one noticed.
"Ah, what are you taking pictures of Akane for?" Ranma asked. "She'd probably, end up breaking the camera." A gymnastics club hit him on the head.
"Ranma no baka!" Akane huffed, before shutting the windows. After Ranma recovered from the hit, the boys went back to their game, completely forgetting about Gosunkugi once again.
Upset, Gosunkugi left to his favorite spot on campus. His pounding tree. "Curse you, Ranma Saotome, curse you Saotome, Saotome curse you!" He cried as he nailed one of his voodoo dolls to the tree. Although it never worked, Gosunkugi at least felt a little bit better after doing this. But he was still mad. No problem. He had another doll. "Curse you Ryoga Hibiki, curse you, Hibiki, Hibiki curse you!" Sure, Ryoga was no where near as bad as Ranma was sometimes, but he still had a special place in Ukyo's heart that Gosunkugi could never hope of filling. That was reason enough for Gosunkugi to hate him, too.
Finally satisfied, the boy slid down till he was leaning against his tree. It just wasn't enough. He still wanted Ranma and Ryoga to pay. He hated them, hated them because the world revolved around them. Hated them because they were so much better than he was, stronger, faster, more powerful, more popular, more handsome... And girl's like Akane and Ukyo only go for guys like them.
"Curse you Ranma Saotome. Curse you, Ryoga Hibiki. Curse you all."
But how?
"Like this?" Akane asked as she tried to execute one of the moves Ryoga had shown her with the hoop. They had already spent a good part of the afternoon, working on her training. It had just been her and Ryoga with Ranma watching from the sidelines. Ukyo would have liked to have watched too, but she had to look after the restaurant. All of the work had been paying off. Akane managed to make it through the hoop without breaking it this time, but she did it without any grace. There was no way she'd be able to stand a good chance of winning at this rate, but Ryoga wasn't worried. They still had plenty of time to practice, and Akane was a fast learner.
And Ryoga was a good teacher. Even Ranma reluctantly agreed to that one.
So they had a peaceful training session, and Akane slowly but surely improved.
At the St. Herebreke High gym, one member of the school's Rhythmic Gymnastics' team looked at her fellow member. "Hey, where's the boss, tonight?"
"Shouldn't she be jumping the Furinkan school's newest member?" the girl replied.
The first girl nodded. "That's where she was supposed to be, but she called to tell us that she had other plans.
The second girl shrugged. "Oh, well, you know the boss. It's usually better not to ask."
The first girl nodded sagely. And they both went back to their practice.
"SASUKE!" Kuno called for the twenty-second time that night, but still no little ninjia arrived. Kuno grumbled to himself about how hard it was to find good help these days...
"Uh, excuse me, Upperclassman Kuno?" A hesitant voice called out.
Kuno turned to see this scrawny boy dressed in Furinkan's school uniform, but with two candles tied to his head came out of the bushes. The boy looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks or slept in months. His skin was pale, and he had two dark bags under his eyes.
"What dost thou want?" Kuno stated with much authority. "What are you doing on Kuno property? Speak, now vermin!"
The boy trembled a bit under Kuno's presence, but this was not surprising as Gosunkugi often acted like this to almost anyone. But let's not tell Kuno this, shall we? It might hurt his self esteem.
"I uh, I want to make Ranma Saotome and Ryoga Hibiki pay..." Gosunkugi stuttered. He knew that he couldn't do it by himself, and who better to ask than Kuno? Well..who better to ask that would do it for free?
"Ah, so you too, see the evil that lies in the evil sorcerer's heart's that dare traps my loves in their evil clutches?"
Pika pika Gosunkugi blinked. He felt that just nodding would be the safest answer to that one...
"And you enlist, the great Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High to do it then?" Thunder shook and lightning striked. "By what means dost thou want me to do it?"
Gosunkugi looked confused for a second before translating Kuno's statement to merely : "What's the plan?" He did have a plan, right? ...Oh, yeah, "Surely, they must have some kind of weakness?" He asked.
Kuno glared at him. "Are you saying, that I, noble as I am, would dare to strike at an enemy's weakness behind his back?"
"Oh, sorry," Hmmm, maybe Kuno wasn't as bad as I thought... He turned to leave...
but Kuno caught him by the back of his shirt. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"What is their weaknesses?"
"But I thought..."
"It is dishonorable to strike at an enemies weakness behind his back, but it's perfectly honorable to strike at an enemy's weakness up front. Tell me their weaknesses!"
"Well, I don't really know them yet..."
With that Gosunkugi was booted out of Castle Kuno. "Don't come back till you have their weaknesses!" Kuno called after his new 'partner' in evil sorcerer' hunting. He turned back to his practice in thought. He had a feeling that Gosunkugi couldn't handle this alone...
"SASUKE! Where are you?" He cried. This time Sasuke finally appeared, after a five minute wait.
The little ninja kneeled in front of his master. "Yes, Master Kuno?"
"I want you to..." Kuno stopped talking and peered at his servant closer. "Is that lipstick I see?" Sure, enough Sasuke had a nice shade of blood red lipstick on his lips.
"What lipstick, master?" He asked, innocently.
"The one on your lips."
"There's no lipstick on my lips, master." Still innocent.
Kuno pulled out a mirror and shoved it into his servant's face. "Wanna bet?"
Sasuke stared at himself in surprise. "Ah, so there is, Silly me."
"Why do you have lipstick on your lips, Sasuke?"
"Mistress Kodachi tests it on me."
Kuno looked surprised. "She does?"
The ninja nodded. "She refuses to wear lipstick that doesn't look good on me."
Kuno shrugged. Now why had he called Sasuke... Oh, yeah, "Sasuke, I want you to follow the evil sorcerers, Saotome and Hibiki, and find out what their weaknesses are."
"Yes, Master Kuno," And Sasuke left to do his master's bidding.
And Kuno laughed once more.
The next week went quite quickly for our favorite Nerimians...
Ryoga diligently helped Akane with her training, and only got lost once!
Ukyo was kept busy by taking over both her shift and Ryoga's at her restaurant, but she still found time to keep Shampoo away from her best friend...
Akane kept on practicing and got better and better..
Ranma kept on watching Akane, and grudgingly admitted that she now had a chance of winning... Of course he never said this outloud...
Kuno waited patiently for Gosunkugi and/or Sasuke to find his hated enemy's weaknesses..
Nabiki sold more pictures of Akane, Ranma, and Ukyo while he waited..
Shampoo was busy waitressing, trying to win Ryoga's love, and trying to kill Girl-type Ranma and Ukyo...
Kasumi baked a lovely cake and shared it with Dr. Tofu...
Dr. Tofu took Betty on another dancing trip around Nerima...
Sasuke ended up getting lost with Ryoga...
Gosunkugi secretly took a hundred pictures of Ranma hoping he'd discover his weakness, but Ranma posed for each one...
Kodachi never did get around to attacking Akane, much to the surprise of the St. Herebreke team...
Soun and Genma played a hundred games of Shogi...
And Akane accidentally injured herself on the night before the Gymnastics meet. She had tripped on a left out gymnastics ball and twisted her ankle.
Now where are they going to find another female who is a martial artist and looks good in a leotard...
Next time: Who will be Akane's replacement?
And will Sasuke or Gosunkugi or both find out Ranma and
Ryoga's weakness?
find out in Spatulas and Bandannas Chapter Nine
All Characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi!