Chapter 16
"Okay Akane, let's try again." Ranma said holding his wife's hands as she began to lift her legs again in the water. Wobbling in her husband's hands, she eventually managed to gain her balance in the hot water of the pool. "Good, now kick and try to stay afloat."
Akane followed Ranma's instruction and began kicking and moving forward in the water. "I did it, Ranma!" She screamed excited "I'm actually swimming!"
"That's great Akane!" Ranma said smiling "Soon you might be able to try it without the floaters."
As she looked at the multiple arm bands and the giant rubber ring keeping her afloat, Akane immediately began to lose focus and started flapping furiously. "Woah, Woah, Help me, Ranma! I'm sinking!" She screamed spluttering in the water in an unruly frenzy.
"It's ok, you can't sink." Ranma said wrapping his arms around his wife's shoulders. "I've gotcha."
Eventually, Akane began to calm down and relax in Ranma's arms. "Oh Ranma, I'm never gonna be able to get this." She said defeatedly. "Even Kaori can swim brilliantly now and it won't be long until Hideo and Chihiro will be able to. Why can't I?"
"Don't worry, Akane." Ranma said reassuringly. "You'll get the hang of it. Besides it wasn't easy for Kaori either...WAS IT, KAORI?"
And with that, both of them turned to face the bush where Kaori was hiding, holding her phone. "Um..Hi Mom, Hi Daddy." She said sheepishly, stepping out from behind the bush and putting her phone behind her. "How's the swimming lessons coming, Mom?"
"What are you doing here?" Ranma said "And why are you filming this on your phone?"
"Uhm..." Kaori mumbled
"Kaori, answer your father." Akane ordered.
"Well..." Kaori began to explain. "Aunt Nabiki said that if I put this online, it would go viral."
"Oh really?" Ranma said, knowing full well his sister in law's intentions "And what do you think would happen if I sent her that video from Christmas?"
Kaori flushed as red as her hair at the reminder of the extremely embarrassing incident at Christmas. The one when she was caught dancing to an old Britney Spears video. And Ranma had filmed her with his new camcorder.
"You wouldn't." She said nervously
"Try me, young lady." Ranma answered cold as steel.
Realising the seriousness of her father's threat, Kaori finally submitted. "Okay, fine." She groaned opening her phone and deleting the video before storming off to go and find something else to do.
"I thought you deleted that video, Ranma." Akane said
"I did." Ranma smirked "But there's no need to tell her that."
Akane chuckled before her smile turned into a nervous one. "Can we try again, Ranma?" she said mentally preparing herself. "I think I can get it this time."
"Oh look" Akari said tipping down her sunglasses. "It looks like they're gonna try again."
Ryoga watched as Ranma took Akane's hand and held on as she tried to lift herself again. "She's gonna fail again." he sighed
"Ryoga!" Akari said in shock. "You can't say that, she's trying her best!"
"I know, it's not her fault!" Ryoga said waving his hands in front of himself in defence. "She just has a lousy teacher."
Suddenly, a rogue fist made contact with Ryoga's face at lightning speed. "Who you calling lousy?" Ranma said standing over Ryoga with a steely glare in his eyes. "I'd like to see you do any better!"
Ryoga swept Ranma's leg away and stiffly stuck his elbow into his stomach. "Anyone could teach swimming better than you could, Ranma!" he retorted.
The standoff between the two fighters was tense as was the air around it. Fists were clenched and feet were planted into the ground like roots. But before anyone could come to blows however, the standoff was stopped by Akari standing between them.
"Okay you two, that's enough!" Akari said scowling at the two of them. "You're both acting like children."
"Well he started it!" Ranma said pointing the accusing finger at Ryoga.
"Don't start with that!" Akari shouted before her husband could retort. "Ryoga didn't mean what he said so leave it be! Oh, by the way Ranma, your wife is drowning over there."
"What?" Ranma said looking over his shoulder and spotting Akane spluttering in the water and waiving her hands frantically. "Oh Crap!" He then jumped back into the hot water pool and swam over to Akane. Lifting her back above the water, he moved the both of them to the shallow end of the pool so that Akane could stand up. "You OK, Akane?"
Ranma's question was answered with Akane's fist between his eyes. "Does it look like I'm alright?" she screamed "I could have died, you jerk!"
"Oh good," Ranma sighed "You're fine."