Chapter 4: Not Meeting the Tendos
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
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It was time.
They were in Nerima, blocks away from the Tendo residence. They were in uncursed forms. Rain would start later. His father would then make the big announcement. Ranma started it early.
"So are we there yet?" Ranma asked.
The old man glanced back at him. "Almost. It's in this neighborhood."
"What do they teach?"
"Anything-Goes Style, same as us. Different branch of our school. You're here to meet your fiancee."
"Fiancee? I have a fiancee?"
"It's a matter of honor. A promise made before you were born. You should understand these things."
Ranma assumed a put-upon air. "And you're telling me this NOW?"
"You didn't need the distraction."
"Don't I even get a choice? What if I don't like her?"
"Don't talk nonsense. You know enough about honor by now."
"Well, I got no time for fiancees," Ranma said, stopping in his tracks. "I'm going back to China." He turned around and began walking away.
"Foolish boy! This is more important!" Father turned on son, reached out a hand to draw him back. Ranma ran ahead, dodging. The chase began.
Dodge, weave, strike, grab, throw. Random insults, nothing too barbed, complain about his sense of timing. Look for the moment - there. Stun. Press. KO.
Ranma made good his escape, leaping to the rooftops and moving as the crow flies. He would have a day, minimum. More, easily, with effort at evasion. He would visit a pachinko parlor for money - his father had always kept their money, Ranma never had any of his own on his person. Sleep in the Ginza tonight. Tomorrow... tomorrow he would take control.
His roof-hopping drew stares from the street. It was a sight they would have to get used to.
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The next morning he took his position between Furinkan and the Kuno estate. Kodachi would be a safe distance away when her brother ran into Ranma on the way to school.
"Tatewaki Kuno!" Ranma called as his target came within twenty paces. "I got business with you. It's about Akane Tendo."
"And who is this ill-mannered creature that dares intrude?" Kuno couldn't help but grandstand, even without an audience. "You have the advantage of me, knowing my name. I would have yours."
"Saotome Ranma, of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. You may have heard of the school. The Tendos are another branch."
"Truly? Then you claim kinship to Akane?"
Ranma grinned. "Future husband. Uniting the branches. Honor debt between our families. You know how it goes."
Instantly Kuno's bokken was out. "You would claim Akane Tendo's hand? The heavens doth weep that she may be denied happiness, forced to marry one unworthy of her as she pines for her true love! Nay, I cannot allow it! Prepare to surrender your claim! For today you face the rising new star of the high-school kendo world! The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High! Tatewaki Kuno!" And with that he charged.
Ranma proceeded to show Kuno who was the better martial artist. Not that Kuno would learn. But he did get a kick out of making the kendoist late for school when he himself had nothing better to do all day.
After a few minutes of completely controlling his opponent, they had worked their way to a canal. Ranma removed his shirt, leaving his chest bare to leave no doubt as to what was about to happen. He dodged one swing, positioned himself, then stepped back as Kuno followed up with a downward cut into the water. He could not miss the change as Ranma was splashed.
"You wouldn't hurt a girl, would you?" Ranma-chan winked.
Kuno stared in shock, then hardened his expression. "What sorcery is this?"
"A curse, actually. Picked it up in China recently. Comes in handy sometimes."
"Against lesser foes, perhaps. Tatewaki Kuno is not to fall for such meager tricks!" And the battle resumed.
After several more minutes Ranma decided enough was enough. He had what he wanted. He slammed Kuno into a concrete retaining wall along a hillside, leaving a Kuno-shaped impression. He got up into Kuno's face just before the other boy could lose consciousness. "You're a thousand years too young to challenge me. I got some other stuff to do for a while. I'll be back in two weeks to start going to school with Akane. I'll expect those guys who bother her every morning to lay off. She's spoken for now."
"You will call me sempai..." Kuno said weakly before collapsing face first on the sidewalk.
Ranma was already casually heading down the street. At Furinkan, Nabiki would let word slip that Akane might have a suitor with a prior claim. The Hentai Horde would realize the stakes in their battles had been raised. They would have to defeat Akane and get their date done before her fiancee showed up. Word of Kuno's defeat would spread, their battle not having gone entirely unobserved, with some confusion about who his opponent had been.
Ranma would give the situation a few weeks to stir. He would be out of town, taking care of other threats.
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Ryoga made his way across the field. As usual, he had no idea where he was. He had thought it was the road to Tokyo, but the signs started saying Nagasaki some distance back. Wherever he was, he had found long ago it was best to always keep moving. He would get where he was going... eventually.
Unless where he was going came to him. Which he found was the case now, as he looked up and saw a very familiar-looking figure standing in the road.
"Ranma..." He couldn't believe it. After three years, he had finally caught up with him! "RANMA!"
"Yo, Ryoga. Looking for me?"
"Ranma Saotome, today you will pay for all that you've done! Because of you I've seen HELL!"
"Nope. Uh-uh. I didn't do nothin' this time. You got lost on your own."
"I got lost looking for YOU!"
"You coulda got lost looking for the bathroom. You didn't need me to see Hell."
"You don't know the true depths of what you've done! Because of you, now I have this... this..."
"Curse? Turns you into a pig? I didn't knock you into that pool, not this time."
Ryoga was never one for rational argument. "Fight me, you coward! Meet me right here this time tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow? You'd better not move a step, then. Tell you what, we have our fight right here and now. Better get it over with."
"Gladly! PREPARE TO DIE!"
Ranma had to admit Ryoga was a better workout than Kuno. Almost as tough as his father. Almost wasn't good enough when you were fighting Ranma Saotome.
Ranma let Ryoga have ten minutes. Ten minutes of futility, ten minutes of getting nowhere, ten minutes of refusing to admit defeat.
Refusing to admit defeat doesn't mean you aren't defeated. Ranma ended the fight by leading Ryoga to a river. He calmed down considerably after becoming a pig.
"Now then," Ranma-chan said, holdiing the pig by the scruff of his neck. "If you want to cure this curse, you need water from the Spring of Drowned Man. You could just jump in the next time you're there, but I doubt you'd find the right spring even once you got there. I'm planning on having some water shipped in, though. I'll save some for you. You'll find me at the Tendo School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts in Nerima in a few weeks. And watch out for the girl called Akane - she can be a mean one."
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Ukyo Kuonji could not believe her eyes. After all this time, all her preparation, HE came to her. He actually REMEMBERED her.
They gazed at each other for long seconds. Ukyo's eyes full of hate, Ranma's trying to look friendly. Finally she couldn't stand it. "You got a lot of nerve showing up here!" She gave him an okonomiyaki in the face.
He casually peeled it off. "I DIDN'T KNOW! Okay? I didn't know about the engagement until a month ago. Heck, until then I didn't even know you were a girl! I always remembered you as a guy. A friend."
This brought Ukyo up short. "You... didn't know I was a GIRL? How do you miss something like that?"
Ranma shrugged. "So I wasn't the most observant kid. So sue me. I was happy go go through life one day at a time. I didn't know a lot of stuff going on around me. Pop never told me anything. Like how he was selling my hand in marriage like it was going out of style."
"Selling your hand in marriage? How many times?"
"I got my choice of about six or eight women for my fiancee. Including you."
This time she hefted her baker's peel and started swinging. She chased him out of her shop and into the street. "SIX OR EIGHT? You guys are enemies of all women! Ruining lives left and right!"
"Ruined?" Dodge, weave, jump. This was becoming a drag. Ranma knew it was going to be the same formula everywhere: challenger shows up with a load of anger and hatred, and couldn't be reasoned with until they had burned some of it off.
"Yes! I was ruined when you ran off! There was no way I was going to get a husband without a dowry! I couldn't even be a girl any more! I've had to live as a boy all this time!"
More dodging. Constant retreat. He could easily get her into a Huryu Shoten Ha this way, but he didn't want to knock her completely out.
Tsubasa Kurenai's head appeared from a trash can along the street. "Ukyo, my darling! Is this true? You have a -"
Ranma absently kicked the can out of the city. "Butt out! I got no time for you!"
Ukyo didn't pause. "Expect no mercy! When you abandoned me you made it impossible for me to embrace my own femininity!"
"Woah! Don't you think you're overreacting?" Ranma felt the flow lock in. The original history lines would lead right where he needed to go.
"Since that dark day I've sworn that I will never love another man!"
The final dodge. "What a waste. A cute girl like you."
That stopped her cold. Had he just said that? "Cyuh...?"
"Whod've thought little Ucchan would grow up so cute?"
"Cute..."
"Too bad no guy will ever -"
She batted him away. "You're lying! I'm NOT cute!"
"It's not a lie. You are cute." Now he had to improvise; he had no Akane to demonstrate Ukyo had a chance. "You're my cute fiancee. The one I'd rather have."
"The one you'd rather have? You don't mean that."
"Come with me. I'll show you. None of the others is a cute as you are."
Ukyo didn't look convinced. "Dammit. Alright, I'll look. But somebody has to pay for what's happened to me."
"Hey, if you want somebody to beat up, take it out on my Pop. He's the one that got us into this mess."
"Oh, I will. As soon as I find him, he's dead."
"Matter of fact..." Ranma said, "here he comes now."
A panda was coming up the street. Ranma dashed back inside Ukyo's shop and retrieved some hot water. Ukyo was staring down the panda when Ranma hit it from behind.
As was normal for someone seeing the curse of Jusenkyo in action for the first time, Ukyo's eyes popped. Genma didn't recognize her, giving her valuable time to recover. "YOU!" She renewed her attack, this time focusing on the proper target.
Ranma chucked, then joined in the fun. Setting things up was too easy these days.
- AN: In case it hasn't been clear, yes, he is Sailor Pluto. His girl form is the standard Setsuna Meioh appearance, taller than the normal Ranma-chan. I'm not sure it would be taller than Kuno. My assumption is that the Pluto transofrmation pen would be with the other Senshis', in Luna's keeping; which will be a problem...
Next: Meeting the Tendos