Akane stood on the edge of the soccer field, watching as Ranma and Kuno squared off. Ranma looked confident and relaxed as he assumed a loose stance. Kuno looked serious as he gripped his bokken. There was a hush over the crowd as Kuno started one of his long winded speeches.
"I see that you had the courage to face me on the field of battle Saotome," he started, "For that I commend you. But, you shall soon fall to my might and the beauteous Akane Tendo shall be mine!" Kuno charged forward before Ranma could say anything more. "I strike!" he shouted before he followed suit. Ranma dodged for several strikes before he went on the offensive.
Ranma leaped into the air to dodge, sticking his fingers out, aiming for Kuno's forehead. Just as he had done the first time Kuno and Ranma fought. Kuno's strike hit Ranma at the crux of his neck and shoulder. The two stared at each other as they made contact, then snapped away.
"That blow didn't hurt at all," scoffed Kuno. "How can you expect to defeat me with such a flimsy attack?" Akane could see Kuno's forehead begin to pinken where Ranma had struck
"You call that a hit? Are you using a bokken or a wet noodle?" Ranma taunted, before charging forward. Kuno was prepared for this, because he started to position his bokken up to his shoulder. Before he could take a step forward Ranma was just there in his face. Then Kuno was flying backward several feet.
Somehow Kuno managed to stay on his feet. Without moving from his spot he shot the bokken forward, sending a gust of compressed air towards Ranma. Ranma dodged, then turned to watch the damage done by the attack. They netting on the goal at the end of the field was ripped to shreds and the metal was crushed and warped. Akane noticed that there was a tear in his shirt, but couldn't tell if there was a wound.
Ranma turned back to Kuno, looking serious. He charged forward, causing Kuno to dodge wildly. Ranma swiped wildly at something that fluttered out of Kuno's shirt. If Akane remembered correctly it was a picture of her practicing in the dojo. But hadn't that fight been a few days later, after Kuno confessed his love to Ranma?
"Eyes up front Baka!" Akane shouted as she saw Kuno take advantage of Ranma's distraction. Kuno charged forward and swung. Ranma dropped to the ground and kicked up in a smooth motion. Yet another move Akane had seen him use against Kuno.
Kuno fell backwards, still clutching his weapon above his head. Ranma stood and gently prodded Kuno with his foot. Kuno grunted, but that was it. The students came swarming onto the field. When Akane got her first glimpse of Kuno she wasn't surprised to see the multiple foot shaped bruises adorning his neck and face. There was also footprints decorating Kuno's torso over the clothes.
"Ranma won," several people murmured, "What happened?"
"A kick in each vital place on his body," Akane murmured, as though in aw. She was a little, but when you saw it done once it wasn't as impressive the second time. Akane started laughing when she read the bruise on Kuno's forehead.
The last time Ranma had poked Kuno like that Nabiki told her that the bruise was shaped like the word "baka." This time the bruise looked like the words "super baka." She turned to Ranma, who was perched on top of a nearby fence. Akane made her way over to him and smiled.
"Did Kuno get you?" she asked pointing at the tear in his shirt.
"As if," Ranma scoffed, hopping off the fence. Akane poked the tear gently, smiling anew when he didn't even flinch.
"Ready to go home?" she asked, starting off before he could answer her. Vaguely she heard him mutter something, which she decided to ignore. Then she changed her mind and decided to interpret his mutterings as a compliment. Today had been a good day at school.
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Ranma followed Akane home, watching her carefully. Something was off about Akane, but he couldn't place it. She wasn't curious about what had distracted him from the fight, she didn't congratulate him or yell at him for showing off. All she had done was act like getting into a fight was an everyday occurance.
When he had first met her, she had freaked out whenever something like this happened. It wasn't until some time after Ucchan arrived that she had begun accepting his battles as the norm.
"Hey Akane," he started carefully. "What are your plans for the afternoon?"
Akane raised her eyebrows in surprise at the question. "Well... I was going to finish my homework then practice a little in the dojo. I think Nabiki is going to want to talk with me about this afternoon too... Why?"
"No reason," he shrugged, "Maybe I'll join you for sparring in the dojo..."
Akane froze mid step. Staring at him as though he had grown a third head. All the scrutiny was beginning to make him a little nervous.
"What?" he snapped at her. She shook her head an turned around.
"Nothing," he heard her mutter clearly, then she added probably to herslef, "... just ... you are...what you... my fiancee..." Ranma was still trying to put together what she had said when they reached the Tendo residence.
"We're home," Akane called into the house as she removed her shoes. Ranma removed his shoes and followed her into the kitchen. Idly Akane chatted with Kasumi as she foraged through the refrigerator. She emerged with a bottle of orange juice, before heading to the cupboard where Ranma knew the glasses were kept.
"Want some Ranma?" she asked, shaking the bottle slightly. Ranma nodded, watching carefully as she poured the drinks. You could never be too careful when Akane got near the kitchen.
She smiled at him as she put the orange juice away, and took a bag of crackers off the shelf. Akane squeezed past him in the doorway, juice in one hand crackers in the other as she made her way to her bedroom for homework. Ranma had the sudden urge to call her back, but he couldn't think of a reason. All he knew was that he needed to be around her.
There had been a nagging voice in the back of his head ever since he saw her for the first time again. Every time he tried to listen to it, it became all jumbled and he was unable to understand the message. He suspected that it had something to do with why he was here, and not in the future/present... Ranma still wasn't sure what to refer to the next two years as.
For a while Ranma tried to distract himself by practicing in the dojo. The urge just became more insistent. Eventually Ranma decided that he should listen to the urge. Slowly he made his way to Akane's door. He stood outside of it, unsure of what to do. He had never realized how sinister the friendly duck name plate on Akane's door could look.
Taking a deep breath Ranma raised his hand to knock. The door suddenly opened, reveal a very amused looking Nabiki. She glanced side long at Ranma as she passed, never saying anything. Ranma knew that this was probably a bad thing.
His suspicions were confirmed when he peaked into the room. Akane was staring at the desk where her homework lay, looking very crumpled.
"You can come in Ranma," she said, never looking up from the desk.
"Something buggin' you?" Ranma asked as he sauntered in.
"Just Nabiki being Nabiki," she said tiredly. "Hey, have you seen P-chan around?"
"Bacon-breath?" Ranma asked before her question fully processed in his mind. "Haven't seen him for a couple of weeks."
"So, you know P-chan?" Akane asked innocently. Too innocently... 'Wait a second... Ryouga hasn't shown up yet! There shouldn't be a P-chan!'
"How do you know P-chan?" Ranma asked suspiciously, watching her closely for reaction.
"The same way you know do. He's supposed to arrive in about a week."
"Th-then why'd you ask me if I knew him?" Ranma asked warily.
"Becuase you've been acting different from the way I remember," she answered honestly. "In case you haven't caught up, I'm telling you that I've already gone through this before. Also, that I think you have too."
"Why... wha... I mean come on...huh?" Ranma finally got out, completely surprised at where the conversation had gone. 'It kind of makes sense,' he thought to himself as he tried to gather his wits.
"Oh, come on!" Akane spat, "Weird stuff happens all the time to us and you just accept it as normal, but this is too strange to believe?"
"Yeah, but not like this," Ranma tried to defend himself.
"So, you are from the future," Akane sighed in what sounded like relief. "Now what?"
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked carefully.
"Well, what do we do now that we know what's going to happen?"
"Huh?"
Akane took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She looked like she was struggling with something. "Ranma, did you really like the way things were...er... are going to be...huh?"
"Not really," Ranma answered.
"Then let's change it. There might not be anything we can do with Kuno, but we can definitely keep Kodachi out of our lives," Akane said excitedly, her eyes sparkling. Then they dimmed a little, "Unless, you want her..."
"No!" Ranma shouted. All the times he'd been poisoned and electrocuted flashing through his mind, and that was just when she came a courtin'. When Kodachi saw his girl side she was vicious. Not having to worry about Kodachi showing up would be great. "Are you kidding? She's psycho! That's like asking if you want Kuno!"
"Ew," Akane grimaced.
"Good. We'll see what we can do about Kuno too, maybe we can trick him into not being in love with us," Ranma muttered.
"He isn't in love with us," Akane snorted. "Just me. He hasn't gotten to meet his 'Tree-borne Kettle Girl' yet."
"Thank god," Ranma sighed, "All he wants to do his kill me, not kiss me."
"Lucky," Akane sighed. Ranma laughed at her expression. Akane glared at him before sticking her tongue out at him.
"So, what do we do about Kodachi?" Ranma asked in all seriousness. He really didn't feel like dealing with her again. Ever.
"Easy. You don't try to pick her up after she tries to kill me," Akane stated, glaring at him.
"Hey, she was falling out of the sky. I wasn't trying to get a date!" Ranma tried to defend himself.
"Which is why I caught her crawling all over you on the roof," Akane snorted turning away.
"That was the paralysis gas she used!" Ranma practically shouted.
"And I suppose it's paralysis gas when Shampoo is crawling all over you too!" Akane snapped.
'She's jealous!' Ranma thought. He started to cackle. "You're jealous of stuff that hasn't even happened yet!" he accused her.
"Obviously it happened or I wouldn't remember it!" Akane yelled. Vaguely Ranma noticed that she hadn't denied being jealous. 'That's a first,' he reminded himself.
"Well it ain't going to happen this time!" Ranma yelled. In slow motion he saw Akane's eyes widen and a blush begin to form on her cheeks. He felt a familiar tingle running up and down his spine. Anytime they were about to have a moment he felt this way. 'C-cute...' his mind scrambled.
"D-do you really mean that Ranma?" Akane asked quietly, leaning in slightly.
"Y-yeah," Ranma mumbled, scratching at the back of his head. There was a tangible feeling of relaxing in the room as Akane let out a breath that he hadn't been aware she was holding.
"Good," Akane said, giving him a dazzling smile. "So lets figure out what to do with Kodachi."
"Wait," Ranma said. 'Now I can do something about Ryouga without breaking my promise.' "First, could you do me a favor?" Ranma asked worriedly. "Could you give P-Chan a bath when he shows up?"
"Huh? Why?" Akane asked.
"Well... he tried to bite my nipple off, the first time I tried to bathe him." Ranma lied blatantly and badly, but Akane was usually really trusting about things like that.
"Hmph," Akane snorted, "You probably deserved it for picking on him. Okay, I'll save your precious nipples. Now, what do we do about Kodachi?"
They spent the rest of the evening planning ways to avoid having both the Kuno children fall in love with Ranma. Basically Ranma wouldn't fight Kuno as a girl or save Kodachi as a boy. They tried to think of ways to get rid of Kuno, but decided that all the options were more work then just punting him every morning.
All in all it was a productive day, although it wasn't until much later that Ranma remembered that they hadn't done their homework yet. 'Oh well. It won't be the first time that's happened,' he shrugged.