Chapter 1: Ranma's Decision
Ranma Saotome was doing what he normally did late in the evening after finishing homework, dodging rivals, and fiancées, eating, then training he was laid out on the roof gazing up at the night sky. His reason for being up there this night was to think. Three days ago he and Akane, were center stage in a wedding disaster that paled in comparison to anything from the Bridezilla television series. The wedding 'Attempt' so to speak was horrible, first there was the battle for the cask that held water from the spring of drowned man, but he had to divide his attention between that and keeping Shampoo, Kodachi, and Ukyou from killing Akane at the same time, the resulting chaos destroyed the wedding, the cask of cursed water was drunk by Happosai, and all the security deposits in the world couldn't save his tux or Akane's wedding dress. This gave Ranma a serious wake up call, the search for the cure to his curse was actually worse than the curse itself. Several times Akane was nearly killed trying to help him find a cure; the whole event scared him more than he let on. So much so he denied about what he said at Jusendo to her. But the search for the cure to his being worse than the cure itself help him decide to no longer actively search for a cure, if the cure fell into his lap literally, then he be okay with it.
The second thing was on his mind, was the image of Akane's lifeless body at Jusendo, the image caused him nightmares for the past few days. However it also brought clarification to him, and he knew regardless of whether he denied out loud to her, he knew he was in love with her. He could only guess the why, when, and where it happened, but he knew it was there, his insults to her were down to a minimum. He also he started noticing things that he didn't before, the smell of her hair after it was washed, her eyes when it was concentrating during her homework, when he dared look. Then there was her smile which he was fortunate to see a few times during his two years he and his father had been living there. He sighed briefly, looking up at the sky, he wanted to ask his mother for some guidance but she'd received a message two weeks ago from his grandfather's doctor telling her that he had fallen ill, and she went to Domino City to look after him. Of course this was during the time that Ranma and the other members of the Nermia Wrecking crew were in China fighting Saffron. His mom told him a day before the wedding that his grandfather had his soul stolen from by the man who invented the Duel Monsters card game, Maximillion Pegasus and for some reason his cousin Yugi Moto and his friends had entered a tournament to get it back, a week later two days before the wedding disaster Yugi had beaten Pegasus and Grandfather Moto's soul had been returned. This worried Ranma a bit, fighting extreme martial artist like Herb and Taro, but people who can take a person's soul away was to close to what he and Akane had gone through, for his taste.
Sitting up the pig-tailed martial artist heard distant ring of bike bell signaling Shampoo was out on one of her deliveries, but judging by the distance it was staying clear of the dojo. Both Shampoo and Ukyou were right now on his least wanted to see list. Grumbling darkly he slowly stands up then begins going into a few of his warm-up katas to release some of the built up tension before going back inside. He wanted out of this chaos that was dominating his life, he just knew it was going to either get him or Akane killed maybe both. He growled his katas moving with more force then he intended, going over the situation in his mind. His idiot father engaged to Ukyou through a dowry knowing full well he wasn't going to hold himself to engagement he then stole the dowry, namely the cart. As for Shampoo her laws bound her to him by marriage, something he thought was completely stupid, and shouldn't be relevant outside her village. He did a snap turn into an elbow block as he tried to find ways out of his situation; he could only think of three ways, commit seppuku, which would make, Kuno, Mousse, and Ryoga happy. Denounce the engagements and vanish, which would make him a ronin and while he didn't make it publicly known and regardless of the mallets to the skull, he wanted to marry Akane. So it came down to choice three he'd have to come clean and tell Akane how he felt, and hoped she felt the same. Ask for her hand if she did feel the same then the two of them would find a place to disappear to and maybe elope or something.
He stopped with a smile, the third choice held the greatest appeal to him for some reason, of course this also meant he'd have to come clean and tell Akane that he loved her, and then hope she won't either bash him in the head for being a perverted jerk, laugh in his face, or sic Ryoga on him. Somehow deep down he felt this choice would be harder than fighting Saffron all over again. Taking a deep breath, he looked over at Akane's window noting the light was on. After the wedding she was getting a little withdrawn seldom coming out her room except to eat, and watch the latest Duel Monster rankings, which put his cousin Yugi surprisingly at the top of the list, with Seto Kaiba in second, and Joey Wheeler coming in a close third. Apparently the Duelist Kingdom tournament was a pretty big event. Akane also stopped pounding him with her mallet, though the pig-tailed martial artist gave her little reason to do so. She even made a bowl of curry that he thoroughly enjoyed, the only thing in a thousand dishes she's cooked that looked, tasted, and smelled normal. He shook his head coming out of his thoughts leaping over to the window, knocking on it lightly.
Akane was deep into her math equations when she heard the tapping, she knew only one person who could do that. She got and walked over to the window looking at Ranma almost blankly. "What do you want?" she asked hollowly. Since the wedding 'Attempt' she just accepted Ranma's words on the boat back to Japan as the truth, he didn't care about her since the wedding 'Attempt', and she felt a dull pain in her heart and could only do a few things before she would breakdown into tears. "Well, Ranma!" she snapped.
Ranma sighed; talking to her when she was in this mood could very well get him, his first scenario of appearance of good ole Mallet-sama. "Um, well just wanted to know how you were doing that's all. Been cooped up in here so much been wondering if you were still alive," he quipped.
Akane growled, "Why do you care you got your wish we didn't get married, I thought you be out celebrating with Ukyou or Shampoo."
Ranma winced a bit. "Guess I deserved that. Akane, look I'm sorry didn't mean to sound like a jerk, especially after what happened," he sighs, "About what happened, I know you can handle yourself, heck ya handled those jerks at school months before I showed up. It's just that Shampoo and Ukyou got a five year edge over ya, a lot more experience and training. Well, the reason I said all that because I wanted them to think they've won. I know I ain't brainy but when it comes to a fight I can read people, pretty good."
Akane looked up at him for a moment before turning away from him growling in frustration, "But they did win, they ruined the wedding, Happosai drunk the Jusenkyo water, and now were back to the same stuff we were in before Jusendo!" she screamed tears threatening to fall.
Ranma was surprised at her reaction, "Did ya want to get married?" he asked softly. He watched her while she give no outward response, he saw her hands move he couldn't tell whether she was reaching for trusty Mallet-sama, holding herself, or just fidgeting with her hands in worry. He took a step forward, putting his hand on her shoulder, "Akane, there something ya got to know. I've been thinking about it since we left China," he paused watching her she didn't move out from under his touch like she use to.
Akane blushed at his touch as for the question he asked, though she never admitted to it she loved Ranma. Yet she was afraid to lose him to the others, "What is it, Ranma?" she felt him urge her to turn around she felt reluctant to turn around, afraid that when she turned he tell her that he was in love with one of the other girls.
Looking down at her as she turned her face was extremely pale, and as he suspected she was fidgeting with her hands. She was scared that much he could feel and see, even without his martial arts. The pause he was giving more her fear started to grow. What is she afraid of, me saying I love her or that I love someone else? He couldn't judge but bet it was for the latter, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Iloveyou," he stated in a rush. "I have for a long time, and when I thought ya died at Jusendo I felt something just fall to pieces inside."
Akane blinked for a moment slowly comprehending what he just said. Tears began to fall the immense fear she felt building inside her fall away, the strain she felt from her chest loosened and grew. She wiped her tears away for a moment and looked up at him realizing his posture, knowing he waiting for her to do something. With a light smile on her face she did.
Ranma frowned cracking open one eye, he saw Akane standing there a pink hue on her cheeks, both her hands had dropped to her sides. But it was her eyes that drew him, they showed in them that he only seen in once before that he knew of. Before he could react Akane gently put both her arms around his neck and drew him down to closer to her until their noses were lightly touching. "I love you," he whispered to her again finding it a little easier to tell her second time than it was the first.
Akane smiled softly, "Love you too, Ranma." Reaching up parting her lips slightly, Ranma copied her closing his eyes. A moment later they shared their first real kiss, when they finally parted both gasping for breath.
Ranma smiles pulling her as close as they could get, "Say how about tomorrow we vanish somewhere and maybe elope or something."
Akane blushed, "But where could we vanish to?"
Ranma thought a moment, "I'll talk to mom about it, but I think maybe we can stay with my granddad and my cousin, he's got his owns card game shop."
She blinks, "Why with your grandfather?"
"He lives two cities away in Domino City, I don't know if it's far enough away to get us out the chaos but it's better than here," the pig-tailed martial artist replied. "But we'll only go if you want to."
Akane thought about it, leaving Nermia meant she'd be away from her sisters, her father, and her friends. But it also meant to be away from Kuno, Ukyou, Shampoo, and Happosai. Sure it had its down points, but the upside was she and Ranma would be together and away from the chaos with the added bonus was that they'll probably be married next time they came back, "Okay, so how do you want to do this?"
Ranma smiles, "Well, first we better talk to my mom, then we set a time to leave and make sure Nabiki doesn't find out."
Akane nodded and match his smile leaning closer, "Well with that settled and now that we caught our breath," she then reached up and started kissing him again.
Author's Note: I'm totally rewriting my Mark of the Millennium story to one it's no longer a self-insert; however a new character has been added based off of my old Yahoo group character. And further more Hiryu and Ranma will have very different decks from the original story two decks that will literally shock the hell out of Yugi and company. Those that don't know the monster's listed below will get acquainted with them soon.
Hiryu Satoshi's Deck:
2x Vorse Raider atk: 1900 def: 1200
2x BRRON, Mad King of Dark World atk: 1800 def: 400 Effect
Breaker the Magical Warrior atk: 1600 def: 1000 Effect
Dark Necrofear atk: 2200 def: 2800 Effect
2x Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World atk: 2300 def: 1400 Effect
2x Gren, Tactician of Dark World atk: 300 def: 500 Effect
2x Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World atk: 300 def: 500 Effect
Magician of Faith atk: 300 def: 400 Effect
Marshmellon atk: 300 def: 500 Effect
Night Assailant atk: 200 def: 500 Effect
Raviel, Lord of Phantasms atk: 4000 def: 4000 Effect
Sangan atk: 1000 def: 600 Effect
2x Scarr, Scout of Dark World atk: 500 def: 500 Effect
2x Sillva, Warlord of Dark World atk: 2300 def: 1400 Effect
Spirit Reaper atk: 300 def: 200 Effect
Spell Cards:
2x Dark World Dealings
Graceful Charity
Heavy Storm
Lightning Vortex
Mage Power
United We Stand
Mystical Space Typhoon
Premature Burial
Shield Crush
Smashing Ground
Twister
Wave Motion Cannon
Yami
Trap Cards:
Call of the Haunted
Magic Cylinder
Mirror Force
The Forces of Darkness
Wall of Revealing Light
Widespread Ruin
Ranma's Deck:
Great Shogun Shien atk: 2500 def: 2400 Effect
3x The Six Samurai – Irou atk: 1700 def: 1200 Effect
3x The Six Samurai – Kamon atk: 1500 def: 1000 Effect
3x The Six Samurai – Nisashi atk: 1400 def: 700 Effect
3x The Six Samurai – Yaichi atk: 1300 def: 800 Effect
3x The Six Samurai – Yariza atk: 1000 def: 500 Effect
3x The Six Samurai – Zanji atk: 1800 def: 1300 Effect
Spell Cards:
Card Destruction
Excavation of Mage Stones
Final Countdown
Graceful Charity
Heavy Storm
Mage Power
Mystical Space Typhoon
Premature Burial
Shield Crush
Smashing Ground
Sogen
Spell Absorption
United We Stand
Trap Cards:
Blast Held by a Tribute
Call of the Haunted
Embodiment of Apophis
Kunai with Chain
Magic Cylinder
Magical Arm Shield
Metal Reflect Slime
Mirror Force
Ring of Destruction
Sakuretsu Armor
Ultimate Offering