This story is a work of fanfiction. As such, it owes a great debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko Takahashi, Matt Bozon, Erin Bell Bozon and the creative teams of Kity Films and WayForward.
( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)
Chapter 4
Runaway Friendship
The saturday morning proclaimed dawn with birds tweeting and muffled clattering from the direction of the yesterday hole in the fence. Akane stretched good, entertaining a thought if she should try seeing the team of ninja builders. She finally decided trying would be useless. That part of the fence was in the shadow of the house. Besides, they'd manage to finish while she'd be opening her window and she'd only see a finished fence. Of course it was their training, but why making it harder for them? Better let them finish without hurry.
Scratching P-chan behind his ear — he oinked with content — and stretching good one more time she jumped off her bed... To yelp as she suddenly stumbled into someone.
Shantae, who had been snoozing peacefully on her futon, tumbled away in a rolling dodge to jump up into a combat stance, her eyes wild. Her mane was cascading around her in a haphazard shroud covering her down to her ankles.
P-chan displayed amazing acrobatics as he rebounded off the wall to dive under the bed.
"I'm sorry!" Akane began apologizing right away.
"Oh!" the half-Genie relaxed as she realized where she was, then yawned. "Don't sweat it! I just had a weird dream, of a burning sky falling towards me... Sometimes, I have to sleep in places where you either wake up quick, or won't wake up at all." Sitting down on the edge of the bed she pulled a big comb out of nowhere and began combing her hair methodically."
"So you are... like Ranma?" Akane suggested with either relief of envy.
"Like Ranma?" the guest asked. Dressed in Akane's pyjamas, she looked amazingly homely, only her ears and hair distignuishing her from your average girl.
A resounding splash broke the morning silence, then barely audible Kasumi's voice berated: "Uncle Saotome, Ranma-kun, the carps haven't recovered yet from yesterdays ordeal!" and chorused "I'm very sorry, Kasumi-san!" of the father and son.
"He is training Ranma from early age to defend from attacks in his sleep," Akane explained. "That's why he often wakes Ranma by throwing him out of the window and into the pond."
"An excellent idea!" the purple haired girl approved as she kept combing.
Akane let out a noisy breath looking so frustrated that Shantae's comb froze: "What? Am I wrong...?"
"After... Since Mom is gone, Father is treating me like I'm made of glass," Akane complained. "But how could I progress without full-contact sparring...? I tried berating him, I tried shaming him, he even tried from time to time. But every single time he just couldn't find it in himself to hit me..."
"Ouch," Shantae sounded symphatetic. "That's... frustrating. But isn't there anyone else you could spar with?"
"I was growing stronger too fast," Akane admitted. "Until I outgrew everyone of my age around. Until Ranma came with his.. harem, I was the strongest martial artist. After that... It's just unfair!"
"Umm... What's wrong with Ranma?" Shantae asked cautiously.
"He is not taking me seriously!" Akane flared with habitual irritation. "You saw him fight, right?"
The other girl grunted in awed agreement.
"Well, I'm simply unable too hit him!" Akane complained. "I could just go swipe my arms through the air to the same effect. But even that is just minor annoyance, really. What really riles is his refusal to help me with my defense!
"In other words, he refuses to hit you," Shantae said.
"Well, it may not be his fault," Akane admitted in a bout of honesty. "If he hits me, first father would be... a bit angry at him. Second, I would be bedridden for a week. Third, if I'm down for a week, father's wrath would be terrible... Right. I sorta can understand him. But you won't believe how frustrating it is when they handle you carefully like a rotten egg!"
"Is there no one to go to?" Shantae was surprised. "What about these... Many masters Ranma was talking about? What about Xian Pu?"
"Ask other dojo?" Akane smiled lopsidedly. "Yeah, that would be wonderful stain on our school's reputation. I'm not just some pupil, I'm the heir!"
"Ah, it's like noble families, right? Clan honor and stuff?"
"Well... There are many things in common. But Shampoo... Or Ukyou... We may get along, but sparring? They'd be tempted to off me by `accident`."
"Off you?" Shantae was shocked.
"It's a long story," Akane demurred. "The three fiancees of Ranma and all that. I'll tell you later."
"What about using monsters?" Shantae continued. "If nothing else helps? I know, it's dangerous, but—"
"Hard to find them nowadays." Akane sighed. "Only far out of the city, in most secluded places. Best case it's a three hour long train ride followed by hiking through mountains. I tried, once, to answer a call for a monster hunter instead of Father. It ended in a total fiasco. Not only beasts there were so big only Ranma could kick them but also one... childhood friend of mine was... The entire trip was just fraying my nerves for naught. All training I got was jumping across that eight headed dragon while others were distracting him."
"So... You cannot become stronger because you don't have anyone to train with?" Shantae guessed.
Akane nodded in return with a depressed "Un."
"Hmmm... If you can find a long strip of cloth, to wrap my hair, I can spar with you as Ranma advised yesterday. I too, have no one to test my ways to fight with my arms and legs on."
"Really?‼" Akane beamed like a little sun.
"Well, this may not work," the half-Genie warned. "Bt we won't know until we try!"
After that Shantae had to comb her hair fast: Akane held still out of politeness, keeping herself from just dragging Shantae to search for a ribbon with sheer willpower. But she was still vibrating in impatience.
Finally Shantae finished and barely had time to put the comb away when she felt herself carried away as if by a hurricane.
There was an oink from under the bed, P-chan's curious snout poking out. The pigled then trotted to scout around, squeezing through door not closed properly.
Kasumi had to lean against a wall, she felt like she had been lifted and spun around by a tornado. And what was she doing next to a linen closet...? Gasping, the eldest sister hurried back to the kitchen while the breakfast haven't burned yet.
"Ranmawebrowurgi, all right?"
"Take anything you need!" the wet pigtailed martial artist shouted back, keeping his eyes firmly on his old man. Who decided, after what had happened yesterday, to up the training. "I don't have a female form now anyw— Gack!" And wrapped around the fist of his progenitor who displayed uncharacteristic swiftness.
Shantae barely finished wrapping a big turban of bed-sheet layered with hair when she was swept up and dragged again by hurricane Akane. Through a roofed passage to a separate big house... Which turned to be one big hall inside. The wooden floor was so clean it shone and the ceiling was lined with these wondrous tech-lanterns of theirs.
"Here!" Akane threw her a bundle of very coarse white fabric, more akin to felt, as she began stripping of her pyjamas in haste.
"What... Is this?" the half-Genie asked dazedly, unwrapping the bundle that turned out to be rough pants and a... jacket? To think of it, that was how Genma dressed.
"Well, you can't spar in everyday clothing, right?" Akane replied swiftly donning a similar outfit, but slightly yellowish-green and tying it with a red belt.
"Special clothing for training...?" Shantae was amazed. "You take it seriously!" She stripped of her pyjamas as well to don the unfamiliar garb. Which prickled something horrible!
"Wait..." Akane stopped her. "The belt!" She hurried to run somewhere.
"The belt?" Shantae asked holding the long strip of black fabric up. "What's wrong with it...?"
"It's Ranmas, black one!" Akane `explained` disappearing in the storage room hidden behind the side wall through an opening in the end of the hall. "Wait, I'll get you a white one."
"Umm, and yours is red?" Shantae stated, puzzled. What the belt color meant? She tried sensing magic in it. Zilch.
"Brown!" Akane corrected her although her belt was obviously and undeniably red. "It means I'm still far away from black...! She stopped clattering with supplies and leaned out from behind the wall. "Wait, you are using magic and transformations against monsters, right?"
"Yes!" Shantae agreed. "Also, my hair!" She scratched at the turban. Her head was beginning to feel hot under it.
"So we can say yoau are a black belt of Genie arts!" Akane concluded, returning. "While kempo is just a school unfamiliar to you."
"I'm a black belt...? What— Oooh! Got it, colors mean rank! Like the monster knights: red ones are strong, blue ones are very strong." She tied the belt and made several stretches testing if this clothing was restricting her movements. It was, but tolerably little, especially as a trade-off allowing to not be shy with throws and falls. Taking an another look around she asked, curiosity getting better of her: "What this hall is for, usually?"
"But for practicing the Art!" Akane replied, sounding offended. "Does the word `dojo` tell you anything?"
"Erm... Umm..." Shantae frowned. The word — no, a whole concept laden with meaning — felt like getting jammed in her head at her attempts to think it. "The wish, probably, fulfilled incompletely or the language is that different?"
Akane blinked. was she forgetting this language wasn't native for her new friend?
"It's what our family specializes in," she explained. "To teach the Art. Would Father... Never mind, that's temporary. Let us begin?"
"I'm ret-to-go!" the half-Genie agreed gladly, taking a combat stance. Akane took her own, much more precise and measured, formal even. Then she made the first move by crossing the distance with a series of curious steps, it looked like she was flowing from foot to foot. Shantae was so interested in her footwork she forgot to watch the opponent's hands and the punch that slammed into her solar plexus came completely out of the blue.
"Are you all right?" Akane asked her worriedly.
"Yes!" Shantae replied impatiently, forcing herself to uncurl. "Please do that again, I'm curious how you did it!"
Akane walked back to her initial position and repeated. This time Shantae saw her motion in its entirety and even tried deflecting. The habit to parry with her hair was slowing her down making her movements unsure, but that was the whole point of this exercise. She only managed do deflect one strike, two more hit her in her side and at the torso, sneaking through her protective arm waving. Even though Akane was moving noticeably slower than Xian Pu.
"It's like poetry of motion!" Shantae gushed as she forced herself to uncurl by sheer will power. "Now I understand why you call it Art!"
"Your turn now," Akane said shifting into a different stance.
Shantae performed a probing series of strikes with her hands and feet. Akane blocked them all, invincible like Lady Scorpion. Even your extremities rang in a similar manner from striking at her. Shantae pushed harder, speeding up. Akane wasn't counterattacking, she only defended by blocking or deflecting blows. An excited smile began blooming on the youngest Tendou's face. Shantae kept increasing speed. It was becoming clear that Akane was weaker than Xian Pu, but her moves! Her defense felt invulnerable, her arms and legs appearing right there to deflect or block. It's a mastery of predicting her opponent's moves, the half-Genie concluded. I'm an open book for her, my advantage in speed is useless.
She tried moving chaotically. It didn't help. She tried to concentrate on Akane's rhythms, to read the girl in turn. To Shantae's surprise, it worked. The poetry of motion turned out stiff, without a living spark, like chains of pieces learned by rote. So this is what happens when you have no one to train with? Feeling a fleeting sympathy, Shantae tried to fix the situation by finding chinks between the combinations. It wasn't easy: her opponent was still good at building the puzzle of defense from the pieces of moves. But it was doable: yet another kick reached its target sweeping the girl off her feet to send her tumbling head over heels. Oops...?
"I knew my defense was full of holes!" Akane declared with joy as she stood up rubbing at her side. "But now I finally feel where they are!"
They exchanged roles. Shantae was beginning to doubt if she had a defense at all. Dodging was barely working. As was blocking and deflecting blows. Without the usual bracers, her arms were ringing with bruises. Deciding she needed an edge badly she started using her backwards sliding dodge. Akane's features flashed with envy, then determination. The number of mutual hits equalized.
They switched to attacking and defending at the same time - in other words, to a full-contact brawl. Each was receiving her share of hits but they weren't paying them any attention. This was so interesting! Everything, every little detail!
Yet another pause came when Akane failed to defend from a frontal kick and only stopped rolling when she hit the wall. Jumping to ther feet, she was going to rush back into the melee but Shantae stopped her: "Wait, wait! Let's hold back some, or we won't last long!"
"Yes, of course!" Akane agreed. "We should be careful, or else we'll wear our before breakfast."
They went at it again. Their own decision was forgotten in about five minutes into the thrill of sparring. Caught in it, the girls were beating stuffing out of each other with great enthusiasm.
( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)
"Ranma-kun! Uncle! Breakfast!" Kasumi called.
Souun was already at the table, his newspaper set aside.
"Where's Akane?" Ranma asked rubbing at fresh lumps. Pops was in rare form today.
"So you go and bring her here, son!" the elder Saotome commanded as he sat at the table. "Are you her fiance, or chopped liver?"
Ranma wasn't even going to argue. Pops stopped pretending today that he was still in his prime. Namely, he stopped conserving his energy allowing Ranma to see the limit of his endurance. He couldn't last very long at his full power, but his fighting ability, while going all out, evoked only respect. Ranma was glad, mostly, even as he was hurting all over. Harder training promised new horizons of self-improvement.
He met Nabiki heading in other direction, as always friendly and cheerful before her morning coffee like a freshly unearthed zombie.
Ranma was going to jog upstairs when he recalled that Akane, maybe, already woke up today...? He went to check the dojo but stopped in his tracks half-way there at the sight of Akane and Shantae, both in gi while the latter also sported a big turban, half-limping, half-stumbling down the roofed passage. They stayed upright only thanks to leaning on each other. Both faces sported happy smiles and similar shiners around their right eyes.
"Oh! Ranma!" Akane greeted him cheerfully. "You see? Your yesterday idea of us sparring with each—"
"Don't mention it!" Paling rapidly, the pigtailed martial artist haven't even noticed as he fell to his knees, his forehead meeting the wooden floor. "I beg you, don't tell anyone it was my idea! The old man Tendou, he—"
"Ah!" Akane got it instantly. "No, no, you are mistaken! It was my idea, yeah! Right, Shantae?"
"What is this about?" the other girl asked, puzzled.
"Well, the idea for us to spar," Akane explained. "It was my idea, remember that! Because if it was Ranma who suggested it, and Father saw me... slightly bruised, then Father would be very angry at Ranma!"
"Ummm, all right," Shantae agreed. "But are you sure we shouldn't just take healing potion? A gulp for each would be enough and I still have enough."
"Mmm, I don't remember it in detail, but the teachings say it somewhere that pain helps retention of what you learned or something like that. Let's take it after the breakfast, all right?"
"I'll go tell them you two are... limping on your way." Ranma retreated.
Inside he met Ryouga who have just walked out the closet to the left and was standing there glaring at P-chan who was peeking cautiously from behind the corner to the left ahead.
"Hey, why so gloomy, P— Aw, bugger. Can't poke at that now."
Ryouga smirked in return. Then he addressed P-chan: "Well, pork? Let's go have breakfast?" He then headed forward down the corridor.
"Leaving already?" Ranma couldn't help quipping. "There is only the exit in that direction. Chowder is there." He turned right to the corridor passing by the kitchen and the living room.
Ryouga grumbled but followed him. P-chan trotted after them, sniffing at the air.
"The girls will be here shortly," Ranma declared in an airy tone as he sat down beside his father. "Well, it could take them a while to limp here," he began preparing the ground.
Souun frowned suspiciously.
"Who would've thought," Ranma was continuing in an exaggeratedly-clueless naïve voice, "that these two would find sparring partners in each other! They were so eager to train they snuck into the dojo before the breakfast!" He added approval in his voice. "I knew Akane liked training, but I had no idea, how much! They must have started whaling at each other even before me'n Pops did!"
Souun began catching on. Dense storm clouds obscured the ceiling.
"Well, both their defenses suck," Ranma kept pushing on. "But I never saw someone so black and blue and happy at the same time!"
The clouds darkened. A rumble of thunder rolled.
"Here they are, by the way," Ranma announced as two girls entered, leaning on each other.
Souun was going to frown but Akane interrupted him: "Morning!" she greeted everyone happily. Her shiner was surely impressive.
"Good morning!" Shantae greeted no less cheerfully. Her shiner was smaller, but Ranma noticed her favoring one side in a way that told of her ribs being at least bruised.
Unable, as always, to stay angry in the face of Akane's enthusiasm, Souun deflated, mumbling something about how was the sparring.
Akane began replying in detail but was interrupted by Shantae: "Er, um, why are you all sitting on the floor and why is your table so low?"
They had to explain it to her while the girls were limping towards the table to collapse at it. Shantae complained her head was hot and pulled at the end of her turban making it un wind and her hair spill pooling around her on the floor like a big puddle.
Kasumi was putting food on the table quickly. Finally, everyone was ready to eat. They broke their chopsticks. Aaand... Their guest frose in mild stupefaction, staring at what they were eating with.
"Big Sis Kasumi," Akane asked in apologetic voice. "Could you please get a fork for Shantae-chan?"
"Oh, no, please no, don't use these, how you call them, honorifics," the half-genie begged. "I have double hearing because of them... I may have lerned the language but speaking it feels so... Strange and alien at times."
Ranma pointed out that French is strange and alien too. From that point on the conversation somehow steered towards physics and other sciencies. Shantae pointed it was her uncle's forte while she wasn't that kind of Genie and knew no miracles except smashing things. Nabiki reminded her about her wish-fulfilling powers.
"Right!" Shantae snapped her fingers in the air. "I'm now— Owww..." She curled to one side. "Wish fulfillment is so new to me I sometimes forget I can do that!"
Ranma hastily provoked the girls into drinking the potion right now by arguing that broken ribs were Serious Business. The girls knocked back — no other word fit, with such a Jumbo concentration of ginger. They healed in about thirty seconds.
Souun, who missed the yesterdays demonstration by being out of it, was amazed. They weren't going to tell him Akane had been saved in this way from being almost ended by Happousai.
Nabiki, naturally, got curious about the prices. Shantae told them it was 35 jewels per flask, time and a half more if bought on tap. The knowledge of language proved was not helping any to figure what `jewel` was so they tried using the deductive method. They learned that the town was paying the half-Genie 125 per month, of which 45 went to housing rent leaving her with net funds of 80. Nabiki had her suspicion as soon as he heard the magityde of these numbers.
Akane grew horrified that a potion costs almost half her friend's monthly salary while she already drank almost half of it. Shantae told her airily to not worry about such trivialities since money runs out too fast anyways making it necessary to take side jobs. She sometimes burned through as much as three hundred in one month.
They went calculating. Tried comparing the price of gold - which both Nabiki and Shantae turned out to be knowing precisely. But they got stumped by weight units: their guest's world not only had everything non-metric but various units were also organized into a system more convoluted than French writing rules. They tried comparing prices of common things next. It turned out that Shantae's world was really backwards, from "what is mains power" to "well, kerosene, to fill lamps". They had to settle on the fresh fish and involve Kasumi as the family's acquisition expert.
After a long and complicated process Nabiki declared that one `jewel` was about 1700 yen. So the price of a potion flask was — ta-daaam — a bit less than sixty thousand.
Akane choked almost strangling P-chan by accident.
While slapping her on the back Shantae commented off-handedly that that was nothing, a jar of silky crème cost all three hundred but was really worth it because it allowed her to whip faster, her hair feeling nigh weightless. Too bad it ran out in a week.
Nabiki voiced calmly: about five hundred thousand yen or five thousand US dollars.
Now it was everyone's turn to choke leaving Shantae very puzzled: it was normal, what's the matter?
After the breakfast the two fans of training were going to repeat the experience. Ranma stopped them reasoning that full contact sparring is good and all but they'd run out of healing potion in one day.
Genma added that until one reached the black belt, such duels should be done with an instructor, with stopping after each series and reviewing what went wrong. While what they did was inefficient buhurt. Then he nudged his friend with his elbow.
Gathering himself together, Souun agreed wholeheartedly. He then proclaimed he was ready to bestow on them the honor of being their referee. Not forgetting also to mention father's duty.
Soon the entire family was gathered in the dojo. They dragged Ryouga with them as well. Shantae in a freshly remade turban versus Akane. They took turns attacking while Souun was correcting them. It soon became clear that he was an excellent teacher when he stopped wallowing in self-pithy and got to business. He was also marking Shantae down simply because he couldn't understand her style. Genma had to get involved: the half-Genie's pure hand-t-hand style turned out to be a barbaric mix of everything and a kitchen sink, as expected from a girl with no formal education who invented it all by herself face to face with real enemy. The back-sliding technique she mastered from a scroll she bought in the shop was practically the key element of her defense. They decided to rectify that first. Working together, Souun and Genma sicced Akane to negate this advantage using rapid dashes and rolls. The girls spent three fun-filled hours after which both pupils were soaked in sweat while Shantae improved her defense considerably. But not in the way the fathers intended: she now could slide back twice farther and sharper than before, Akane's rapid pounces weren't reaching her anymore. Akane, on her part, was growing accustomed to avoiding non-textbook strikes.
Finally Souun declared that the dojo will be still there the next day while Akane wasn't used to training so many hours a day. The girls trudged to wash up before lunch but fell asleep in the basin missing the lunch altogether. Shaken awake by Kasumi they crawled upstairs to Akan'e room to emerge for diner in pyjamas, fighting valiantly against their eyes' tendency to close without prompting.
During the diner Xian Pu came, proud like an eagle on a stick. She was moving smoothly, regally. Stiff muscles? Naw, never heard of these. Shantae warned her with all honesty she wasn't ready for the rematch after the exhausting sparring with Akane. Xian Pu tried to feed Ranma some tiny treat just on general principle. He withstood the temptation valiantly and she strode away filled with naïve confidence in her new rival not being as tough as she first thought.
The TV was a huge success. Shantae got glued to it. Akane wasn't bad at that either. Ranma tried sitting with them for a while, but... Girls. How could they watch this boring stuff! Yeech. He dragged Ryouga away to train - just a little, carefully, not to have to repair the dojo tomorrow.
Midnight came. Akane and Shantae took root in front of the TV and weren't going anywhere. The half-Genie was combing her hair without realizing she was doing it.
Souun let out a sigh but ultimately left them alone, only demanding they turned volume down.
They passed out closer to the morning, only because most of the sane channels turned into gray static.
