Anti-Shadow Ranma

Chapter 2: Kasumi Can Get Angry?

The Saotomes and the Tendo's, minus Kasumi, were sitting around the table when Kasumi came back down stairs, dressed once again in her housedress. Her father motioned for her to take her place at the table before he spoke, "Now that everyone has calmed down, Ranma must decide on whom he'll marry."

"I think Akane will be the best choice," Nabiki said.

"Hey!" Akane replied

"Well you claim to hate boys, and Ranma's a girl most of the time," Nabiki said smugly.

"No, I…" Akane began heatedly.

"I'll be his fiancée," Kasumi declared.

This announcement of Kasumi's caught the entire Tendo family off guard. The all stared at her like she had gone mad.

"What did you do to my sister you pervert!" Akane yelled before grabbing the table and trying to hit Ranma over the head with it.

The table hit Ranma squarely and broke. To Ranma's eyes it looked the world fuzzed out slightly, like she was viewing the world through a TV with bad reception. An instant later it cleared up and she saw the Tendos were looking at her in shock. "What?" Ranma asked.

"Umm, shouldn't you be unconscious?" Nabiki asked curiously.

"Nah, my old man hits harder than that," Ranma replied while scratching the back of her head.

"I'd better check you out, just in case," Kasumi said worriedly. She then moved to Ranma's back to check her head.

Ranma tried to flinch away just as Kasumi touched her hair. Her hair which looked, and even felt soft at first glance was actually metal. The strands of hair, due to Ranma's rapid movement cut Kasumi's fingers slightly.

"Oh my," she said softly enough that only two people heard her, Ranma and herself, while she looked at the slightly bleeding paper cut sized cuts left on her hand. As she looked at Ranma suspiciously in a new light she quickly put her hand in one of her pockets. Upon seeing Ranma react to what she said in a soft voice, she said in the same soft voice, "Later."

Ranma gave a slight nod, and replied to what Kasumi had said about accepting the arrangement, "I guess if Kasumi wants it we can give it a try, but first thing if it doesn't work out it's off. Second, we will wait a year to allow the first thing to be taken into account. The third thing is, Kasumi you do realize that if we get married I'll be your 'wife' half the time, right?"

There were various reactions to Ranma's answer. Kasumi just nodded that she understood, Nabiki was trying to figure out why Kasumi was giving up on Dr. Tofu, Akane's temper was going volcanic, Soun was crying about his little girl getting married, and Genma was wondering why his son didn't choose the only girl that practices martial arts in the family.

Why him and not Tofu? Tofu is obviously in love with her, and encourages her love of medicine, so why? Although I wonder why I never saw her buying medical books at the bookstore when we go, instead she was always near the… Nabiki's thought derailed as she realized that Kasumi has never really read any of the books that Dr. Tofu gave her that didn't relate to first aid. Instead she always read books relating to machines, electronics, and programming. Perhaps it's not so odd, Ranma seems like a dumb jock, but might have an interest in machines as well.

Akane on the other hand was thinking under her boiling temper, he probably did something perverted with her while they were alone, and she thinks it's best to marry him to cover it up! I'll get him, and expose his perversions for all to see!

As Mount Akane was preparing to blow, Kasumi was considering how Ranma's hair had cut her. The cuts felt like the one time she had cut herself on a fine wire, but she had touched hair not wire. The only explanation she could think of was improbable, that Ranma herself was like the rusted hulk she had brought along. As she mused Ranma shifted forms from a redheaded 'girl' to a slightly taller boy with black hair in the same style as the girl.

Mount Akane blew her top, and with a battle cry of, 'pervert' she grabbed a piece of the table and tried to hit the pigtailed boy.

Unfortunately she forgot that she held only one half of the table, and so, missed completely.

"What was that for?" Ranma asked angrily.

"You did something perverted to Kasumi as a boy that made her accept the engagement, didn't you?" Akane snarled.

"What are you talking about; this is the first opportunity in four hours I had to be male!" Ranma shot back.

"Liar," Akane snarled lunging at him with the table half.

"How would you know?" Ranma asked.

"Because all boys are perverts!" She responded.

"That's enough Akane! Ranma has done nothing wrong. She was a perfect gentleman the whole time we were together, and the only part of me she touched was my wrist. Now drop the table," Kasumi scolded.

"You bastard you brainwashed my sister!" Akane screamed before she began her attack once again.

At this point Ranma was heartily sick of getting attacked for no reason, and decided to strike back. After dodging backwards, he jumped on the table and delivered an open palm strike to Akane directly below the sternum. The strike knocked the breath from her, and made it hard for her to breathe, much less attack for a few minutes.

Nabiki was looking at Ranma in anger for hitting her sister; although privately she was thinking that such an action might have been justified. She decided to decide if and/or how to punish him later, much of that decision would be based off of how he treats Kasumi.

Kasumi looked like she wanted to say something, but held her tongue. Her sister had decided to attack someone without provocation, and paid the penalty.

Soun on the other hand revved up his demon head, and caused his head to expand to three times its previous size. He then screamed, "How dare you do that to my Akane!"

It should be mentioned that, due to a side effect of his curse, Ranma's emotions run a tad higher in his male form. This is because the programming in his android form is still adjusting. the standard programming is for a unemotional combat machine, and has been slowly adjusting to allow his emotions out in that form, therefore until that process is complete, the emotions that Ranma would normally feel get suppressed until something triggers that particular emotion within his male form, amplifying the emotional response. Genma, whom normally is quite dense on emotional subjects, had noticed this phenomenon before and quickly tried to calm his friend. Genma had also found out, quite accidentally, that both of Ranma's forms were getting stronger, the part of that growth that disturbed him was that the growth was faster than the amount of effort that his son had put in would indicate. That fact, coupled with the fact that robots shouldn't get stronger had him worried for his friend.

Too late…

"SHUT UP! If you daughter couldn't handle a hit than she shouldn't have attacked! What type of father are you to allow your daughter to attack others for no reason other than her delusions? You know I'm a martial artist, and yet you expect me not to defend myself? Answer me dammit!" Ranma screamed in the expanded face of the normally spineless man, an angry battle aura beginning to surge around him, the aura was starting to form a vague humanoid shape above him instead of merely wrapping itself around Ranma.

Soun bristled at the insult, and although slightly intimidated by the display, tried to continue his rant, "And you think that…"

Before Soun could continue and make matters worse Genma sucker punched him knocking him out. With the removal of the source of his anger Ranma's battle aura slacked off, just in time for Akane to clobber him from behind with the table fragment she had before.

"Akane!" Kasumi gasped

"He had it coming," she responded.

"And why is that little sis?" Nabiki asked.

"He's a pervert and he hit me," the angry girl responded.

"You hit her first without warning while she was practically defenseless, tried to hit him again, and just now hit him when his back was turned, so why are you complaining about one hit? Also what proof do you have that he's a Pervert?" Nabiki asked in cool distain, part of her was concerned about how she attacked Ranma, he barely spoke to Akane, but she attacked anyway. What might have happened if she hit a normal person with that type of strength? Could/should she, keep Akane out of jail if she managed to kill someone for talking to her?

Kasumi, who with the aid of Genma was moving Ranma to the guest room to take care of him, glared at her youngest sister, and spoke something that shook Akane to the core of her pride, "I'm disappointed in you sis, not just because you attacked him like a coward, but you did it again, just because he successfully defended himself, you had to attack from behind like a coward for the second time." With those words she left the room with Genma to show him where to put Ranma. Her thought oddly mirroring Nabiki's

Akane for her part was in shock, the word 'coward' being directed at her was a new thing, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out how what she did was cowardly. She merely defended her sister from a pervert. What her sister said about him didn't matter, she knew he did something to her, why else would she give up a man like Tofu? She would watch and wait to break that boy's evil spell… she stopped and went over the last part, and silently admitted that she might have been listening to too many of Kuno's speeches, but dark magic must be the explanation anyway.

Over three and a half hours later Ranma awoke in his cursed form, she noticed that it was nighttime, and since he rarely had to sleep the full night anymore, tried to get out of her futon. A damp washcloth plopped onto her neck from her forehead, and Ranma quickly noticed that Kasumi was resting nearby. From her position and the cloth, Ranma guessed that she was watching over him to make sure he was alright. Unfortunately for her plan to get out of bed Kasumi's head was on her shoulder, and any attempt at motion would probably wake her. Unknown to Ranma, Kasumi was watching over her, for at the time his safety. Kasumi was afraid that Akane would come back to finish him off. Nabiki, who was also getting afraid of the same thing, took over the watch when Kasumi made dinner. As the android realized she couldn't move without waking her new fiancée she went into a diagnostic mode, for a full diagnostic.

The next day Ranma awoke to find Kasumi gone, and the diagnostics complete. She was and at the same time wasn't surprised at what she saw. The fact that she was still at one hundred percent physically wasn't a surprise considering her body repairs itself when she changes, no what surprised her was that the persona was listed as recalibrating, but inactive with no timer present, and the Ortaga mode, whatever that is, listed as needing about one month to completely repair.

Shaking her head she turned to a he. As he went downstairs he noticed that it was still fairly early and there was somebody moving in the kitchen. Moving to the kitchen Ranma was unsurprised to see Kasumi preparing her ingredients in preparation for the morning meal.

"Morning Kasumi, what happened last night? I woke up in the middle of the night with your head on my shoulder, and in my cursed form, which means more than three hours had passed," Ranma asked.

Kasumi sighed before responding, "Akane hit you from behind with her piece of the table. Now since we are alone, why was my hand cut by your hair?"

Ranma stomped down his anger about being attacked before answering his fiancée's question. "You might or might not have noticed this morning, but my cursed form is similar to the android we started working on yesterday. That is one of the reasons why I want her repaired, so I can find out more about my body. There are others, but that should be good enough for now."

The gears in Kasumi's head quickly turn producing an idea to help with the repair job. "Say Ranma, when we start to work on the other android's limbs, would you mind if I use yours for comparison?" Kasumi asked eyes shining.

Ranma sweat dropped at the cute face his fiancée was putting on as he responded, "umm as long as you don't take me apart, I'm not sure I can heal if a limb was put together wrong."

Kasumi nodded, in slightly disappointed, but understanding way.

"Now, is there anything I can do to help you?" Ranma asked, desperate to change the subject.

"Why yes, there is a spare table in the basement, could you clear away the broken one and bring it up?" Kasumi responded gently.

"'Kay," Ranma responded and turned to leave.

Just as he was about to leave, Akane came in the kitchen screaming, "Pervert!" and swung a table leg at the boy's head.

Ranma, who at this time was heartily sick of getting attacked by the nut job, kicked her in the same spot he struck her yesterday, and for insurance as the violent girl was trying to recover kicked her jaw, sending her headfirst into a wall, and knocking her out.

"Sorry about your sister, but I'm getting tired of getting attacked by her," Ranma said as he left the room, stopping only to take the table leg from Akane's limp hand.

Ten minutes later Ranma had replaced the table and reduced the broken one to splinters, so as to deprive Akane of a supply of easily usable weapons. Finding a rag, Ranma started cleaning off the table of the dust and grime that had accumulated on it during the time it was in the basement.

A short time later, Nabiki stumbled downstairs looking like a zombie. She sat at her place at the table, and Kasumi brought in a cup of strong coffee. "Thanks Kas," Nabiki mumbled as she started drinking. As her mind jumpstarted from the caffeine she realized something was wrong, she was sitting at a table that was broken just yesterday. "Huh?" she said intelligibly.

"Kasumi asked me to bring up an old table to replace the broken one," Ranma answered the implied question.

"Oh, I forgot all about this table. Now, have you seen Akane?" she responded.

"She's currently, umm… resting in her room. She needs help, or she's gonna get seriously hurt. I'm getting sick of her unprovoked attacks," the pigtailed boy responded with slight venom.

"You knocked her out didn't you?" Nabiki asked in a tired voice. She wanted to be angry, she really did, but considering what happened last night, and presumably this morning, Ranma has a right to be angry with Akane.

"Sorry, but yes, she attacked me with a table leg. I have no idea what set her off this time either. I have no idea what set her off last night as well," Ranma responded.

Nabiki groaned and put her head on the table. "That's it, the morning fights have to stop. I don't know how I'll do it but it needs to be done."

"Fights?" Ranma asked.

"An upperclassman named Tatewaki Kuno made an announcement that to date Akane they needed to beat her." Nabiki answered in a frustrated voice. "I think that challenge is the reason why she's treating you that way. She has to fight through a mob of boys every morning."

"I know I'm gonna hate myself for suggesting this, but could you use the fact that she was already beaten, and refused to date the winner to stop the fights?" Ranma asked.

Nabiki blinked and replied, "That's assuming that someone that she doesn't want to date beats her."

"Me knocking her out doesn't count?" Ranma asked.

Nabiki stared at Ranma and started giggling. As soon as she calmed down so she could respond she did, "yes, I think I can spin that to take care of most of the morning hoard, but why would you want to help her?"

"I'm hoping that without that stress, she'll calm down and stop attacking me," Ranma answered.

"Not likely, but it can't hurt," Nabiki commented.

Ranma shook his head, and sighed. Standing up he said over his shoulder, "I'm heading up to take my bath."

Nabiki watched as Ranma walked off, and started considering how to make money off of him. His crude strategy for ending the morning fights might work for most of the boys, but the instigator is another story. Then there is the matter of additional household expenses. She decided that at school, she would test the waters on how well the pictures of the new redhead would sell.

During Nabiki's musings, Kasumi was thinking that it was a good thing someone was trying to stop the fighting, because things could get unpleasant if things continue as they are. This is due to the fact that having a sister who hates her fiancée, and if the engagement falls through husband and wife, would disrupt the harmony of the house.

Just then a scream of rage sounded through the house, and Akane ran down stairs. She grabbed a statue that was in the yard, and was about to run back upstairs when Kasumi came out of the kitchen, and upon seeing Akane holding the statue asked, "What are you doing with that, Akane?"

"I'm going to drown the pervert in the bathtub for seeing me naked," she ground out in response.

"And how did that happen little sis?" Nabiki asked.

"I was going to take a bath, and walked in while the pervert was getting out," the dark blue haired girl said venomously.

"Drop it Akane. I'm starting to get tired of your unprovoked attacks on my fiancée. You just admitted that you walked in on him, and yet you're blaming him. It was your own fault," Kasumi scolded.

"Like I would believe someone who was magiced into accepting the pervert. Once the perverts gone you will be able to go back to Tofu," Akane yelled while trying to get by Kasumi with the statue.

The sound of flesh meeting flesh rang through the room, followed by the sound of a cement statue falling to the ground. Akane and Nabiki looked at Kasumi in shock; the former did so with a hand to her cheek. Kasumi hadn't lost her temper for nearly ten years, almost ever since their mother died, and yet, here she was nearly steaming at the ears at her littlest sister.

"Now see here little sister, I never wanted Dr. Tofu, if you had attacked Ranma all this time because of such a stupid reason, forget it, I wanted this engagement. This last bit of violence is completely unnecessary considering it's your fault," Kasumi said with more than a trace of venom while shaking her stinging hand.

The not so finely tuned mind had to process the information before it was acceptable to it. What her mind interpreted Kasumi's declaration as was, "See here little sister, I wanted Dr. Tofu, attack Ranma for such a reason. This last bit was necessary."

"That pervert!" Akane screamed and tried to get past her sister once again, but a second slap stopped her.

"Akane, stop," Kasumi said.

The blue-black haired girl paused; unfortunately Ranma chose to come down the stairs at that time in her female form. With a cry of rage, Akane backhanded her sister aside, and attacked with a haymaker aimed at Ranma's head. Ranma ducked the attack, and countered with a beginner judo throw sending her into the wall, and rushing to take care of his fiancée. Soun, who had been woken up by Akane's scream was right behind Ranma. He wanted to cry out at Ranma for hurting his little girl, but he had just seen his child misuse her talents on her own sister, so she could attack a person without provocation, again. He decided to have a talk with Akane after school. He then turned to Akane, and said, "We need to talk, meet me after school in the dojo. Speaking of school you three better get going or you'll be late."

"School?" Ranma asked, while checking on the eldest Tendo sister. Seeing that she was just dazed he helped her up. She quickly regained her equilibrium and went off mumbling that she needed to grab something, also interspersed in the mumbling was what sounded suspiciously like her cursing her youngest.

"Yes, I will not have my daughter married to an uneducated rube. Nabiki, please show Ranma the way," Soun said as Kasumi returned with an old school satchel for Ranma in one hand, and taking aspirin with the other.

Nabiki was heading out the door when Ranma grabbed the satchel, and responded, "alright, see you later Kasumi," and quickly followed Nabiki out the door.

Meanwhile Akane shakily got to her feet, grabbed her own satchel, and staggered out the door mumbling about cheating perverts.

---End Chapter---

AN: Anyone that wants to make omakes for my stories simply send them to me, and I'll stick them in the chapters.

AN2: people might say that this is Akane bashing, and in a sense their right, but I tend to not like the character. I do have a justification as to why she keeps attacking Ranma though, remember she has a crush on Dr. Tofu, and the idea that her sister would throw that chance away, for any reason, doesn't sit well with her world view which she has proven in cannon she can't see beyond (P-Chan being Ryoga is the most pertinent example. I mean c'mon same bandana, never in the same place as each other, the pig getting lost, Ranma calling each by the others name, and the mark of the battle god being on both forms are all pretty good indications).