CHAPTER 4 (END)
So...a lot happened between that chapter and this one if I remember. Basically Akane and Ranma started on their journey but ran into a lot of natural obstacles on the way. They decided to keep going to find the training center in a resort on the Junsekyo Grounds even though it was hard. When this chapter came up, I think they were getting chased by animals. So, in a panic Ranma ended up throwing Akane to Jusenkyo when it was in sight while he decided to get there his own way.
Later in this chapter they run into their fellow trainees and then they all meet and discuss ground rules before the training begins. However, Akane worries Ranma is only truly in it for the magic water. Then I ended it there. :)
Akane Saotome blinks. She feels like she is waking from a dream. Her limbs peel away from sludge, which is gooey and cold, and piles of the mud slough off from her skin. Her hat is swimming in the shallow mud-puddle that she landed in. It's heavy. She wrings it dry. Brown water squirts between her fingers.
The last thing she remembered is the sight of mountain peaks miles underneath her. So, yes, he had thrown her. Ranma actually picked her up and threw her to Jusenkyo-just like that. He must've said a prayer before he flung her across the water because Akane was not body-splatter frying on a mountainside.
Akane wobbled to her feet. An ache throbbed in her knees, but as she walked it faded. Her pack had to be-yes, way over there, crumpled into the foliage.
Two figures pop out from the trees. The humans' sudden appearance make Akane flinch. "Ito-san!" One cries. "Look!"
Akane boggled at the sight of them plundering through her abandoned bag. She rushes to them. "Hey-excuse me!" They don't hear her yet. "Matte!"
The women immediately stop. They wear ankle length traveling pants and heavy-duty boots, and their white skin looks sticky as if they both were sweating all morning. Wide brim hats-one with a bow-shadow their faces that stare back at Akane like schoolgirls.
Akane quickly claims her bag. "It's mine." Then, remembering that they are strangers, she greets them politely. Akane is about to ask something, but then, out of nowhere, the two strangers spring to their feet.
"Are you hurt-?!"
"-did you fall-?!"
"-which arm is broken-?!"
"I'm fine!" Akane yelled. she swiped some more mud off of her cheeks. "Do any of you know the way to Junsekyo Springs?"
"The resort?" One of them corrects (to Akane's annoyance).
Before Akane could answer, the other woman speculates, "Your hubby...he left you here, too?"
"No, he-" Akane bites her tongue. What could she say? He threw her over a lake? "-he got a little lost." She feels like she must add, "He'd never leave me."
The womens' wide eyes blink back slowly. The woman with the bow on her hat laughs first, and then her tiny companion, with a full height of about four feet and nine inches, giggles.
"Ours are lost too, I think! Ito-san and I stopped and asked the locals for directions. They still have the map. Let's see who gets there first!" She winks at Akane.
Akane is relieved to know that they are also on the way to Jusenkyo, for she wouldn't have to trek the rest of the way there alone. When they point to the spring ground's sign in the near distance, a weight lifts from Akane's shoulders. The tiny one speaks again, introducing herself as Kyoko Ito. The woman next to Akane, almost Akane's height, tells Akane that she is Yume Watanabe.
While the women walk together towards the springs, they focus less on how weary they are. The wild Chinese forests give way to cleared, fenced paths with mile-markers and tourist signs with 360-degree binoculars. Akane sneaks glances at the womens' hiking boots, which step daintily along the dirt compared to her clomping gym shoes.
After Yume finds out that Akane is pregnant, she lowers her voice to her like a headmaster, "Aren't you a little young, Saotome-san?"
Akane doesn't answer. She's heard that question too many times to count.
"So?" Yume spoke, changing the subject.
Akane looked up, startled out of her thoughts.
"Tell us about him!" Kyoko pushed.
Kyoko brightened when Akane nodded at her patiently. Akane could see the sign to the springs about a kilometer away from them. "He's nineteen...he's a sensei. In martial arts."
The women "ooed". Akane assumed it was encouragement to go on, but there really wasn't much else to say. She only focused on looks-it's all they cared about. "His hair is long. He has an athletic body, his eyes are intense...and he has a nice smile." Akane wished he was here now, but she had no worry about him finding his way around China-and he'd always follow her, wherever she went.
Yume smiled dreamily, imagining Ranma. "Ah, kakkoii!"
After a while, her two new travel-mates complain about their own husbands and share hopes to win the enchanted Nannichuan to solve all of their problems.
As far as Akane knew, the Nannichuan only had one purpose: to make everything worse. The last thing she wanted to find out is that Ranma was still on another secret mission to heal his curse, but when she thought about the way that he looked into her eyes the night before, she refused to believe Ranma was lying to her.
Ranma's slippers plunged into the dirt of the lake's shore. He slung on his pack and began a light quick step past the landmarks of his youth to Junsekyo. He and Akane were not going to be late to check-in. Ranma bet Akane didn't even read the fine print: if they arrived past sunset, they were automatically disqualified from the challenge! The sky was already turning orange. He started jogging, but then he slowed to a trot. When he got back to Nerima, he would buy a sports bra.
"Hey-! Miss!" A dry, airy voice gasped.
Ranma hesitated to stop. Akane wasn't in too much danger alone in these parts, but she tired too easily being pregnant.
Two men a few years older than Ranma caught up to his female form after running a few yards. They were swamped with pounds of camping gear in each hand and both looked like they were completely out of shape for the wilderness. "Do you know where the Junsekyo Springs Resort is?!"
It was still hilarious to think of those three words together in one title, so Ranma giggles. "Put your maps down-you're almost there. Go straight ahead and eventually you'll run into a path with some tourist traps. You can't miss it." Ranma throws over his shoulder, "If you're starving, go west to the village. They always got free food."
"How far ahead?!" One of them called after Ranma.
"Oh, just a mile or two!" Ranma chirped from far ahead.
"Wait! Do you have water?! Miss!"
Ranma ran on to pretend like he hadn't heard him, but then he halted. He growled and turned back around. The sun was starting to set, but they probably seriously needed some water. He waved back at them. Just wait for me, Akane, Ranma thought.
Thunder rumbled above as Yume, Kyoko and Akane finally arrived at an empty meadow. The trio halted. Far before them was a large lake and an inn with beads of firelight.
As they got closer, they saw how magnificent it was. The structure looked like it didn't belong in the empty grass field that stretched for miles. Its steps were made of stone, and the gigantic roof, painted blue, had edges that smiled upward over pillars that held it in place over the porch head.
From each side, the long halls were layered over with triangular prisms of wood, and the ends of them, the balconies, were joined to the prisms with decorative, tinier rooftops. The bold glory-red color of the rectangular pillars of the inn and the rich blues of the rooves stood out in the cloudy evening, which showered everything in a foggy, grey haze. The women stepped carefully over the soaked bridge and set down their things. They peddled around the entrance to look for a light.
Yume exclaimed to no one, "Isn't it beautiful?" If they had arrived before sunset, she would have melted at the sight of the place.
Akane used the inn's doorknocker to make themselves known. A bright-eyed woman in a tour-guide uniform and a capped hat opened the door. Her breastpocket had her name stitched onto it. Two fat pigtails, topped with flowers, swung from her hair in a breeze of rain.
"Well, is this everyone?" She surveyed the women with her hands on her hips.
"There's three more men." Akane reported with a tilt on her lips. "Are you Plum?"
With the young confidence that Akane remembered from long ago, Plum, one of the Chinese keeper-heirs of the cursed springs, nodded. "Come in, ladies. There's a lot to sign." She took care of their bags and led them inside. Before the women could marvel too much at the inside of the main site of the new resort, Plum sat the women down at a dining table and served them all tea.
"What do you mean there's a lot to sign?" Yume inquired, eyeing the brick of papers shuffling past Plum's fingers.
"Nothing much, Miss Watanabe. Just a bunch of legal stuff for the training. Wills and such."
Akane sputtered on her cup. "Wills?!"
Kyoko's face brightened like fireworks at something coming over the hill. "Kaito?!" She ran out of the door and threw her arms open.
A skinny middle aged man with glasses caught Kyoko when she jumped on him. Akane and Yume ran outside and saw their companions trudging the rest of the way. Akane didn't expect to see her husband with an hourglass figure in front of strangers, but she still hugged him tight.
Note: Some parts were also lost here, so sorry for the confusion at the beginning of this part. I think I wrote something to imply that Ranma knew his curse might be strange to the normal trainees but didn't know how he could change back to a man without the others being confused.
His question followed Akane as she sat down next to Kyoko and Kaito. "I dunno. Just don't make it obvious."
"Okay." Ranma whispered back. His wife patted his thigh.
"Let's get started, shall we?" announced Plum.
Skin-boiling water splashed down on Ranma's head, and he screamed. The table gasped and covered their eyes at his naked body, and Akane simply rolled hers.
"Oh, yes-please don't sit there-the hot tubs are leaking lately." Plum said. She whispered to herself in realization, "ah...Niángníquán [he is cursed to change between genders*."
Akane threw Ranma a blanket before he could get any redder. Then, she made space for him to lay near her.
After Plum's explanation and warning, the rest learned quickly that unless they wanted to end up like Ranma, the Jusendo training grounds were off limits. "Now," Plum went on, "you all have one week to master the art of Mommy-Daddy Martial Arts...or die."
"Eh?!" The table shouted.
Plum cackled. "Okay, okay! You won't die. Maybe. But seriously. Seven days. If you do not master it within one week, your consequence is a lost chance for a year's supply of Nannichuan. I'm sure you have all heard about it's miraculous healing powers."
That's it? Akane thought. At least there's not much to loose. She palmed Ranma's head and rationalized that at any point they would both be able to decide to return home without the magic water. At least, she hoped Ranma would be willing to give it up if things got too dangerous. They still had a family dojo to run.
"If anyone wants to withdraw, be sure to do it by tomorrow. You can look at page 1001 for details."
"Sumimasen- -that wasn't in the brochure!" Yume and her husband wrinkled their brows at the outrageous cancellation fee.
"There was no room to add it there! The rate for that ad included a strict word count." Plum soured at the entire table's looks. "Listen. This is a dangerous art if not handled with care. Learn well and practice often during your time here if you wish to stay."
"How do we really win?" Ranma pressed, his burning head now buried in Akane's lap. "Now that I think about it, this all seems too good to be true."
"Like I said, master all forms of the art in a week." The couples heard a dark chuckle from Plum. "Well, that is way easier said than done. Depending on where you will be training-well, it can be anywhere out here-it could get deadly. Keep an eye out."
Just implies she understands in her own language.