Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or anything associated with it. All rights to Ranma ½ belong to Rumiko Takahashi and the other proper entities.
Summary: Sometimes a small shift makes all the difference. This is the world of Ranma ½ if the engagement hadn't been forced on them straight away, and Ranma, Akane, and their assorted suitors and rivals had actually been reasonable. "Against Genma's wishes, Soun had decided to wait and see which one the boy seemed the most suited to before he engaged one of his daughters to him."
Rating: T, for language
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairings: Ranma/Akane
A Shift In the Wind
Chapter Three
"I'm home!" Akane called out as she and Ranma slipped off their sodden shoes in the entryway. Stripping off her damp socks as well, she called out "Is anyone here?"
"Father and Mr Saotome went to look for—oh, Ranma!" Kasumi had wandered into the hall from the kitchen as she spoke. "Our fathers just left to look for you about an hour ago."
"Oh." Ranma turned back to his shoes. "I can go find—"
"Don't be silly." Kasumi put her hand in the middle of his back, all but shoving him up the hallway. "You are going to go and have a nice, hot bath and then change your clothes." She told him in a no-nonsense tone. "Look at you! You're wet and filthy! You'll get sick if you go back outside!"
Ranma stared down at his slightly grubby toes in embarrassment. Akane, remembering that she was supposed to be his friend now, encouraged him. "Kasumi mothers me and Nabiki all the time." She stage-whispered. "Just go with it."
Bewildered, Ranma let himself be shepherded into the changing room. "Just put your clothes in the washing machine." Kasumi told him. "And any in your pack that need to be washed can go in there, too. I'll clean them tonight, after dinner. You can wear pyjamas to dinner, if you want. No one will mind."
Akane waved at him as Kasumi closed the changing room door in his face, laughing at his bewilderment. Kasumi then steered Akane into the kitchen, where she poured the younger Tendo a cup of tea. "I'm glad you found him, Akane." She said softly. "Did you go looking for him? You're awfully late home from school. Nabiki's been and gone back out to her friend's for dinner."
Akane wrapped her hands around the warm mug. "Not exactly." She shook her head, taking a sip. "I went to the market to get a snack after school and I kind of ran into him. I bought him something to eat and we talked for a little while." She pursed her lips. "He told me that he eats out of dumpsters." She looked up at her sister, horror in her eyes. "That that's how Mr. Saotome makes him find his food when they're training. I couldn't believe it."
Kasumi pursed her lips. "I wish I could say I was surprised." She sighed, surprising Akane. "I heard Mr. Saotome telling Father about some of the training they've been doing earlier today. It sounded… unpleasant."
Akane stared at the mug in her hands. "He has so many scars." She murmured. "I mean, I know I have a few from my training," she mentally winced, remembering her broken arm when she was twelve. "But nothing like his."
"I suspect he's led a very hard and isolated life." Kasumi sighed as she stirred something in a pot.
They were silent for a little while, Akane contemplating her sister's suspicions and the conversation she'd had with her new friend in the construction site. "I apologised, like I said I would." She told her sister. "We promised to try to be friends."
Kasumi rewarded her with a sunny smile. "I'm glad." She said simply. "Now, why don't you go and put your things upstairs and get ready for dinner. I'll tell Ranma that you need the bathroom, to avoid another embarrassing incident."
Blushing, Akane nodded and took her bag upstairs.
It wasn't until the next day that Akane finally got to see Ranma's male body in action as he sparred against his father. She stood on the engawa, just having cleaned up after coming back from her morning run, watching them trade blows back and forth. There was no trace of the sloppiness that she'd noted the day before; he moved fluidly, from block to counter to block again. She half wondered if she'd imagined it, until Genma pulled a dirty trick that sent Ranma flying into the koi pond. He jumped back out, a smaller, lighter, red-haired flurry of furious flying fists, but there was something… off, about the way he moved. It was only maybe another thirty seconds before his father had him flat on his back, announcing that he'd lost.
"Break for breakfast, boy." Genma snarled. Akane half expected him to kick the boy-turned-girl as he passed, though thankfully he didn't. She glared at her friend's father as he passed her, though no one noticed. She'd heard them fighting the night before, after he'd returned from searching for his son, Genma trying to give Ranma a beating. Ranma wasn't the only one who had walked away from the encounter with bruises, though; Genma had a black eye and finger marks on his shoulders.
Ranma picked himself up from the grass, muttering under his breath. Akane, finished with the towel she was using to dry her hair, offered it to him wordlessly. "Thanks." Ranma wrapped it around his body. "One of these days, I'm going to get that old man good." He snarled as he passed her, headed for the bathroom.
He rejoined them at the breakfast table ten minutes later, male once more, dressed for the day in yet another red Chinese shirt and black pants. Akane watched in amazement as he defended his food from his father while he tried to eat. Kasumi and Nabiki were both staring at the bizarre spectacle as they ate their own breakfasts. In the end, Ranma only managed to eat about half of what was in front of him.
"Oh, Ranma." Kasumi said as she started to clear the dishes away. "I've made your lunch for school today. It's in the kitchen, with Nabiki and Akane's. Make sure you pick it up before you leave."
"What?" Ranma choked on the mouthful of tea he'd taken. "Since when am I going to school?" He demanded, glaring at his father.
"Since today, boy." Genma glared right back, daring his son to argue. "We're going to be staying here a while, so you might as well go. You were actually meant to start yesterday."
Ranma growled. "You always do this!" He snarled. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?" He demanded. "I've missed way more than a month of school at this point. How the hell d'you expect me to catch up?"
"Stop your bitching, boy." Genma stood, towering over his son. "You'll go to school with Akane and Nabiki, and that's final." Then, without a care in the world, he started to saunter off toward the yard.
Snarling, Ranma picked up the small jug of water from the table and flung it at his father, turning the older man into a panda when it shattered against the back of his head. The panda snarled at him before it stepped down onto the grass. "Sorry about the mess, Kasumi." Ranma grumbled as the eldest sister moved to clean up the broken glass.
"That's quite alright, Ranma." Kasumi murmured placidly. "But please try not to break something the next time you get upset."
"So, you'll be going to the same school as Akane and me." Nabiki put her cup on the tray to be taken to the kitchen for cleaning. "I would suggest not making your curse common knowledge. Otherwise you're gonna get hit with water in the locker room on a daily basis."
"Or worse." Akane shuddered. "Anyway, I have to leave soon if I'm gonna make it in time to beat up the boys today." She gave Ranma a sidelong glance. "Do you wanna walk with me?"
"Um, sure." He shrugged. "But I don't have a bag or nothing."
"I'm sure I can dig my old book bag out of the attic." Kasumi supplied thoughtfully. "I don't recall decorating it in any way, though I did use it for three years, so it's slightly used. And I'm sure we have a spare notebook or two around as well. You'll be picking up your textbooks from school, anyway."
"Great." Ranma grumbled. Akane got the distinct impression that he didn't like school.
They weren't even out the front gate of the Tendo compound before Ranma jumped up onto the wall and started to follow Akane. She paused and looked at him curiously. He stared back. "What?"
"What are you doing?" She asked, looking pointedly at his feet.
"Balance training." He shrugged. "We gonna get going, or what?"
Blinking, Akane nodded and headed toward the school in silence. It was a lovely morning—there was no trace of the previous day's rain. The sun shined brightly, warm despite the pleasant wind that stirred the skirt of Akane's uniform. It was about halfway there that Akane finally worked up the guts to bring up her earlier observation. "Hey, Ranma?"
"Yeah?" He sounded almost bored.
She glanced back at him; he had his arms folded behind his back as he walked along, not even bothering to watch his feet. It was kind of impressive; Akane could stand on a fence if she needed to, and could maybe even take a few steps, but she doubted she could walk at that pace. "I couldn't help but notice," she cleared her throat. "You fight really well."
He grinned. "Pop trained me to be the best."
She shuddered at what that training must have included, remembering all the scars she'd noticed the day before. "But you don't seem to fight as well when you're a girl."
She heard him stop walking and turned to face him. His face was clouded over with anger, and for a moment she worried that he was mad at her. It took a few moments for him to reply—he started to walk again as he spoke. She trotted along beside him, looking up in worry. "I'm not used to that body yet. My old man wont train me unless I start out as a guy, and he takes advantage of my cursed form without helpin' me learn to adjust for the change in my reach and center of gravity. I'm gettin' better, but I really don't like spendin' time in that body if I don't have to."
Akane nodded, thinking. "But it could be dangerous, couldn't it? If someone found out about your curse and tried to take advantage of it? You really should learn to fight properly in that body."
He jumped down at the edge of the fence. "Yeah, I should. And I'm gettin' there." He looked up. "Speakin' of fightin'…" He nodded at the gates of the school as they came into view. The swarm of boys was already visible.
"I got it." Her face set into a scowl. "Hold my bag, though." She passed it to him. He took it wordlessly, watching as she broke into a run. She let out a mighty war cry as she plunged into the throng, fists flying. He jumped up onto the school fence to get a better view of what was going on.
She'd told him about the morning attacks, but a part of him hadn't really understood what she'd meant. He'd thought that she'd meant they'd tried to take her on one at a time, in a fair fight. This… this was ridiculous. It looked like more than a dozen. At a rough guess, he'd say maybe somewhere between fifteen and twenty boys were waiting for Akane at the school gates, most older and bigger than herself. They mobbed her the moment she stepped foot on the school grounds, all yelling out various declarations of love. The longer it continued, the madder he got, but he refrained from interfering. Akane seemed to be holding her own against the crowd, and he didn't think she'd take it well if he tried to get involved.
"Ranma!" Nabiki called from the second floor. He jerked his head up to see her friends watching the bedlam below. "Hurry up and get to class! You'll be late!" Ranma gaped—shouldn't Nabiki be more concerned about her sister being mobbed by boys two to three times her size every morning?
A battle cry from one of the boys drew his attention back to the fray. He watched from his perch on the wall as Akane spun like a woman possessed, hair and skirt flying every which way, meting out punishment to every delusional pubescent boy who took a swing at her.
This… this wasn't honourable. This wasn't what martial artists were supposed to do. Though, he did note, very few of the attacking boys had much skill—but that made no difference. Men weren't supposed to attack a woman this way. If they'd challenged her fairly, one on one, that would have been one thing. But they were to overwhelm her through sheer brute force alone. He could feel the anger rise, choking him.
It took less than five minutes for Akane to disband the horde. The martial artist in him was assessing her skill level, mentally mapping the way her body moved and the apparent force of her blows, while the teenaged boy in him was admiring the way her skirt flew up and flashed her long legs as she kicked her attackers around. He supposed she had learned through bitter and embarrassing experience to wear those bike shorts under her uniform.
He spotted the final boy before she did. Furious and unable to stand by anymore, he leapt in front of her and caught the rose the boy had thrown, glaring blackly at him. Akane had spun, thinking that Ranma was another boy about to take a swing at her, only to pause mid kick as she watched Ranma crush the flower under his heel. "Is that Kuno?" He asked in a mutter, inclining his head toward the boy in the hakama, wielding a bokken.
Akane peered around him. "Yeah, that's him." She grumbled. "What the hell are you doing?" She hissed.
"Ho! You, there, wretch!" The taller boy cried before he could answer, narrowing his eyes at Ranma as he used his weapon to point at him. "Who are you, to interfere in this noble quest to win the right to date the lovely Akane Tendo? I demand your name!"
Ranma scowled. "I'm—"
"But," the boy continued as if Ranma hadn't begun speaking, "of course, it is the custom to give one's own name first! Very well! Listen carefully, boy, for I shall only say this once: I am the Captain of the Furinkan High School kendo club. I am a Junior in Class E. My peers call me the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High. I am Tatewaki Kuno, age seventeen."
Ranma was unimpressed. "I'm Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, and there ain't nothing 'noble' about this bullshit!"
"Stay out of it." Akane hissed, pulling on his arm. "This is my problem!"
"You expect me to just sit back and watch this shit?" Ranma hissed back just as violently. "What if one of those morons got a lucky shot in? Besides, after watching that brawl, I wanna hit something. Might as well be this bastard."
"Ranma!" Akane hit him on the shoulder, though she didn't hit him very hard, even by normal standards. "He'll hurt you."
"Fear not, Akane Tendo!" Kuno glared just as blackly at Ranma as he noted just how closely the two of them were standing. "I shall smite this cretin and we shall continue our glorious battle within mere moments."
"Hold these." Ranma shoved both his own and Akane's bag at her. Knowing she wasn't going to get him to back down, she huffed and stepped out of the way and settled for glowering at him. To Kuno, he added, "There ain't nothin' 'glorious' about trying to force yourself on a girl, you dishonourable sack of dog shit."
"You dare to question my honour?" Ranma had clearly pushed a button. "I, the great Tatewaki Kuno, undefeated champion of the high school kendo world?"
"Yes, yours," Ranma cracked his knuckles. "The son of a bitch who can't take 'no' for an answer and who'd force a girl to go out with him than accept that she don't like shit about you. I ain't even known her two whole days yet and I can see how much she hates your slimy little guts. Some man you are."
"You will shut your impertinent mouth, boy, or I shall shut it for you!" Kuno rushed forward, taking a swing.
Ranma didn't let Kuno bother with any more preliminaries, going straight on the offensive. He avoided two swings of the bokken before he seized an opening to slip inside Kuno's guard and ram a fist into his stomach. While the older boy was bent in half, winded, Ranma drove his elbow into the back of his head, sending him sprawling to the ground. He was still breathing, but would have a massive headache when he regained consciousness. Ranma stood over him, barely managing to reign in the desire to kick the stupid moron in the crotch.
Akane was gaping at him. "H-how did you do that?" She breathed. "I've never seen anyone get the better of Kuno like that. And I've beaten him every morning!"
Ranma raised his eyes to her, remembering where they were. He shrugged. "Pop was pretty strict with the speed training." He folded his arms behind his head, his anger seemingly gone. "So, we gonna get inside before the final bell, or what?"
They made it just in time to avoid having to hold buckets in the hall. Akane tried valiantly to pay attention to the math lesson, knowing she needed to bring her grade up by at least a few points, but it was no use. Her mind kept replaying the fight that morning. She still couldn't believe that Ranma had beaten Kuno like that, with just two blows. So brutal and efficient.
I was… it was one of the most impressive things she'd ever seen. And he'd looked good doing it, too, which surprised her on a whole other level. She was convinced, after the semester had begun six weeks ago and the daily brawl had become a thing, that she would never be able to look at a boy her own age like that. But more than once, she'd caught herself peeking at him out of the corner of her eye.
She kept sneaking glances at him as the class droned on. He wasn't even pretending to pay attention, doodling absently in the margins of his notebook in his seat to Akane's right. The rest of the morning passed in a similar fashion, though Akane's concentration did improve after P.E., and Ranma actually fell asleep briefly in Lit. Because it was Saturday, they left the school after third period. By the time Nabiki caught up with them at home, while Ranma was letting Akane take a few swings at him in the dojo, Akane had almost managed to put the entire ordeal out of her mind.
"Geez, Ranma." Nabiki drawled from the door, effectively ending their 'sparring'. "Did you have to give Kuno a concussion? Half the school is convinced you're Akane's secret boyfriend, or something."
"Wha?" Ranma blinked at her, as Akane started to stutter denials.
Nabiki shrugged. "No sweat, though. I set a few key people straight. There's gonna still be a few people who think you're an item, but most of the school knows that Ranma's just Daddy's friend's son who's staying with us for a while."
"Um, thanks?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah, yeah. It'll cost you next time, though." With a wave, Nabiki disappeared into the house.
Ranma and Akane looked at each other for a moment, before Akane shook her head, the memory of the fight that morning resurfacing. "You've got to show me how you did that to Kuno." She took a swing at him that he caught with one hand.
He shrugged, letting her go. "It's just speed. I'm faster than him. That's all."
"There's got to be more to it than that." Akane snapped off a kick. He ducked under it.
"Not really." He dodged a punch. "C'mon, you can go faster than that! I saw the way you moved this mornin'."
With a growl of frustration at his refusal to fight back, Akane spent the next ten minutes trying to hit him, until Kasumi called them inside for lunch.