Chapter 4 The first week
After Gemna got back from his job at Dr. Tofu's clinic, he went hunting his son. "Boy, you're getting weak. You need some practice," he said.
Ranma looked up at his dad, and said, "Sure thing Pop, I need something to beat on anyway. Lead the way, old man." He followed his father outside. He stood there in a loose stance waiting for his father to attack him. Finally, Gemna lunged at him. Ranma ducked away from the blow, and kicked him with his follow through. The force of the blow knocked Gemna almost into the koi pond. "Too weak, huh," Ranma taunted, "You're getting slow!"
"I'm just getting warmed up," Gemna growled. He rushed Ranma again. This time he almost got to Ranma, but Ranma jumped over him, hitting him several times as he passed over his father. Ranma spun around and landed facing his father's back, so he took that opportunity to sweep his feet out from under him, pounding him a few times as he went down. Ranma sprung back, waiting for his father to get up. Gemna got slowly to his feet, and charged Ranma. Ranma smirked at his father, as his dad swung a large fist at him. This time Ranma misjudged and when he dodged, he fell in the koi pond.
"Ah, man, this bites. I almost made it through a whole day without changing," she said. Ranma jumped out of the pond, leapt up and planted both of his feet in Gemna's face, knocking him down. Then she picked him up and tossed him into the pond. The panda climbed out of the pond just in time to meet Ranma's flying feet again, which knocked him back into the water.
"Dinner, Ranma, Mr. Saotome," Kasumi called out the door.
Ranma ran in the house and got some hot water to change back.
That evening after dinner, Akane and Ranma went up to study in her room. Ranma was working one of the math problems, and failing to get the right answer. Akane patiently walked him through it the first couple of times, but her temper was beginning to get the better of her. Finally, she lost her temper, and yelled, "Baka! Why are you so stupid!"
Ranma had been feeling frustrated about the whole situation. He was trying hard; it just wasn't making any sense. Plus, sitting this close to Akane, he could smell the perfume she was wearing, and it was making it hard for him to concentrate. Not that he was going to let her know that! He answered back, "What do you mean, tomboy? If you were a better teacher it would help, ya know?"
"I'm trying to help you, you jerk," she hollered back.
The argument would have gotten worse from there, but then Ranma took a deep breath, got a hold of his temper, and said, "I'm sorry Akane, I know you're trying hard. I shouldn't have said what I said. Maybe we ought to take a short break, and do something else."
Akane hesitated. 'He apologized to me!' she thought, 'but I guess I started it.' "That's probably a good idea, Ranma. I'm sorry I lost my temper at you, too. It's as much my fault as it was yours," she said, "Let's try looking at the science homework instead."
They spent the remainder of the evening studying, and when one of them would get frustrated, they would change to a different class. Finally, it was time for them to go to bed. Ranma thanked Akane for her help, and left for his bedroom.
The next morning, Ranma woke up feeling better than he had for a while. Since Nabiki had put her foot down, his Pop hadn't tried waking him up early and tossing him outside to spar. He was still a little surprised that she had managed to force Gemna to back off, but the contract that his father had signed seemed to have given her a lot of clout with him. He went downstairs to wash up. He checked, the occupied sign wasn't up, so he went in to the changing room. He took his clothes off, grabbed a towel and headed into the bathing room. As he opened the door, he saw Akane sitting in the tub. Fortunately for him, she had sunk down so he couldn't see anything, but she was obviously getting an eyeful. She blushed. He shut the door in front of him, and put his clothes back on. He quickly left the changing room and waited for Akane to leave. He checked again, the sign wasn't there. Akane came out, in her bathrobe, furious with him. She yelled, "You pervert!" and slapped him.
He gulped, pointed to where the sign should have been, and said, "I'm sorry Akane, there's no sign, see. It's not my fault. I didn't see anything, though, I promise."
Akane looked; sure enough the sign wasn't there. "Oh, damn, sorry, Ranma, I think someone's playing games with us. I know I put the sign up," she said, "I guess I shouldn't be mad at you, you're right it wasn't your fault. You better hurry up yourself, or you won't have time for breakfast."
Ranma rushed in, cleaned up as quick as he could, keeping one eye on the door. Then he went to join everyone for breakfast. Nabiki sat down across from him, eyeing him. There was a slight smirk on her face when she noticed the red mark on Ranma's face and the remainder of the blush on Akane's face.
Akane and Ranma headed off to school together. As they walked, Ranma said, "I think that Nabiki's moving the sign, Akane. There was a definite reaction when she saw our faces. I'm a little surprised that she didn't say anything."
Akane sighed, and then said, "Yeah, I saw it too. I guess she thinks it's funny." They neared the gates to the high school. They could see a group of guys in wait for Akane, but it was smaller than yesterday. Akane started her mantra, "I hate boys, I hate boys!" when suddenly Ranma grabbed her arm.
"This is my fight this time, Akane. I challenged them to behave better toward you, so I get to take them on. Now, if you want Kuno, he's yours, ok?" he said to her in a low voice. She relaxed for a moment, and then nodded. Ranma walked into the courtyard, and said, "I thought we had this worked out yesterday. Nobody dates Akane unless they ask her. Fighting her won't get you a date. Which part of that don't you understand?"
One of them said, "We're not fighting to date Akane, now we're fighting because you are!" and several of them rushed Ranma. Ranma jumped over them, touching pressure points on the necks of two of them as he went by, knocking them out of the fight. He spun, jumped up and bounced off the head of another, taking him out. Finally he kicked the last one in the chest, knocking him into a tree. Ranma charged into the main mass of bodies. He ducked a hockey stick, knocking it out of his opponent's hands. He grabbed him, and threw him into four other boys, knocking them down. . After that, it turned into a free-for-all. Ranma did take some damage, but overall, the boys would have been better off to fight in smaller groups. They got in each other's way and fell over each other, in some cases taking themselves completely out of the fight. Ranma just bounded around, jumping over them, taking two or three of them out at a time. Soon, the courtyard was littered with the groaning bodies of twenty or thirty boys. Ranma just looked around in disgust, and said, "Next time I won't be so gentle. Consider this your last chance."
Kuno walked out from where he had been observing. He said, "I, Tatewaki Kuno, upperclassman, Rising Star of Furinkan High, also known as the Blue Thunder, forbid your date with the Fair Akane Tendo. You do not have my permission to date her."
Ranma just stared at him in utter disbelief. "Hey, Blue Blunder, I don't need your permission to date her. You aren't her father; you have no say in the matter. The only person who does, is standing behind me about ready to kill you, so if I were you I'd start running," he said.
Kuno just stood there, as Akane walked up, eyes blazing in anger. She said, "Kuno, you are an idiot. If I want to date Ranma, that's my business, not yours. Now I believe you have an appointment." With every word she spoke, her voice got louder and louder. On the final word, she launched him toward Dr. Tofu's clinic, using an uppercut from her Mallet of Doom. She then turned, dusted off her hands, and joined Ranma as he entered the school.
Today was a better day as far as Ranma was concerned. He still didn't understand everything the senseis said in class, but he had picked up enough from Akane that he could follow some of it. In one class, the sensei was actually going over some material that he had even read about, so he was able to participate in the discussion.
That afternoon, the girls and Ranma were in the dojo practicing. Kasumi was slowly working through some simple forms. Nabiki was mostly just watching, though she had run through some leg lifts, and similar exercises. Ranma was working out with Akane. He had started her simply enough, working on her punches and follow-throughs, but now he was actively sparring with her. He was dodging her blows, not even attempting to hit her, and she was beginning to get frustrated and angry with him.
She finally stood there, panting. "Ranma, do you know how irritating this is? Why don't you take me seriously and fight me for real?" she said angrily, "I'm a good martial artist after all, I took care of myself at the High School against all of those boys, even Kuno."
"Akane, if Kuno wanted to beat you, he could. He's been holding back on you. Watch me tomorrow against him and see for yourself," Ranma said, "You're form is a little sloppy and you get angry entirely too easily. Once you get angry, then you lose all control. You want me to take you seriously, then attack me again."
Akane started punching at him again. This time, instead of dodging the blows he just blocked them, using the momentum of her punches to move her around the floor. He still wasn't hitting her though; he kept staring at her eyes, waiting for the moment that he knew would come. Her eyes started getting angry, and he knew she was about to lose control again. She charged him again, not paying any attention to defense, thinking only about hitting him. She swung and missed; he hit her with an open palm in the middle of her stomach, knocking her into the wall. As she slid down the wall in disbelief, he ran over. "Akane, that blow should never have gotten through. Do ya see what I mean about losing control? If you want me to take you seriously, you can't lose your temper like that," Ranma said. Akane just glared at him.
"Go away, leave me alone!" she screamed at him. Ranma looked at her, and then shook his head.
"Fine, I finally did what you wanted and hit you for real, and this is the thanks I get? Forget it," he replied with some heat. He turned and started walking out of the dojo. Before he got to the door, he heard a voice calling from behind him.
"Ranma, wait" Akane cried.
He turned, and looked at her coldly. "Why should I?" he asked.
"Because you were right, and I was wrong," she said, "I asked you to teach me to be better, and when you tried to tell me what I was doing wrong, I didn't want to listen. Can we start over, please?"
"I'll think about it. Don't misunderstand me; there is nothing wrong in getting angry about something. Your problem is that you let your anger control you. I used to be like that too, but I learned quickly that I couldn't lose control if I wanted to win. I had to learn that the hard way, so I was trying to be gentler with you," he said.
Nabiki had been listening intently. "How did you learn to stay in control, then?" she asked, "It's obvious that you have a temper, too."
"Like I said, the hard way. We didn't come straight here from Jusenkyo. We stopped over for about a month in a village in China, where we were told there was an expert in the curses. Women mostly populated the village; in fact, they called themselves Amazons. They have several traditions about dealing with strangers. One of them is that if an outsider woman challenges them and beats them in a fight, then to regain their honor, they must kill the outsider. Since they treated their men like dirt, I stayed as a girl the entire time I was there. I discovered then that I wasn't the best martial artist. One of the elders, named Cologne, would have beaten me handily. She was the expert on curses so I spent a lot of time with her. She trained me in at least thinking a bit before I opened my mouth, as well. Every time I would mouth off to her, she would hit me on the head with that stupid cane of hers. Even I could learn from that. Fortunately for me, I spent most of the first three weeks dealing with her, before she let me run free in the village, or I probably would be dead now. I kept getting insulted by the women of the village, trying to get me to lose my temper and challenge them. If I had given in and fought, I would have been in a bad situation. Finally, we were able to sneak away and come here," Ranma said, "That's how I learned to be polite, and to try to control my mouth. Akane, I get just as angry as you do, but if I had given in to that anger in the Amazon village, I wouldn't be talking to ya now. You may never be in a situation as bad as that, but you still need to learn control. Promise me that you'll listen to what I am saying and think about it before ya get angry," he said.
"Do you promise to fight me for real, if I listen to you?" Akane pleaded.
"I'll try, but I don't want to hurt you. Akane, I could really hurt ya if I'm not careful. You saw what happened when I hit ya this time. That wasn't anywhere near as hard as I can hit, ya know. You're gonna end up with a lot of bruises," Ranma replied.
"I can live with that," Akane said as she smiled happily.
The next morning, Ranma waited for Kuno to attack him. He deliberately let several opportunities to finish the fight go by. He wanted Akane to see Kuno's level of skill. He barely missed getting hit by Kuno's bokken on several occasions. Akane gasped when Kuno chopped down several of the trees in the schoolyard, using only his bokken. If Kuno had fought her like this, she wouldn't have survived against him. Ranma was right. Finally, Ranma got fed up, and knocked Kuno out. Akane ran over to him, and said, "I see what you mean about Kuno, if he wanted to fight me for real, I wouldn't have lasted long against him."
The rest of the week went peacefully, or as peacefully as Ranma ever got. He learned to carry a thermos of hot water in his backpack. Ranma and Akane would race to school to see which one got the privilege of beating on Kuno. Surprisingly, the hordes of boys stopped bothering Akane and they had gotten the message about Ranma. Ranma and the girls would spend a portion of the afternoon practicing in the dojo. Akane was beginning to show signs of improvement; apparently she had gotten the message. Surprisingly, Kasumi seemed to be doing well. Nabiki wouldn't take it seriously, so she didn't get any better at all. Akane and Ranma would study the school lessons and do the homework for that day. They were still hot headed, and argued, but at least he was learning.