The Perfect Warrior

by LadyScience

Sequel to Back from China. Ranma and Akane's relationship continues to grow but there are new questions to answer. What constitutes hot water? Where is Nodoka? How can Nabiki make more money? What is the Scroll of the Perfect Warrior and why is it so dangerous?

10. Chapter 10

The usual disclaimer - I don't own Ranma 1/2.

AN: I love the reviews with guesses about "The loan figure", especially when I get to read some of the reasoning behind your guesses. To keep it fun I will not be confirming or denying any guess :) But keep them coming! I have mostly had a scene with the loan figure every 2 or 3 chapters but eventually it will be every chapter as the main arc become dominant in my story. More clues are certainly coming, there will be another in chapter 11.

Chapter 10 – A new trainer

Kasumi caught Ranma as he was running towards the door trying to catch up with Akane who was waiting for him by the gate. "Ranma, I need a large bag of rice. Can you pick it up on your way home from school?"

"Yeah sure, no problem." He stuffed the money in his pocket, stepped into his shoes and bolted out the door.

"We are going to be late if you don't hurry up."

"I know, I know. Just run tomboy." He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the street.

They barely made it to the school grounds in time and still had to race to make it to their first class. Akane didn't get much sleep the night before, she had spent time awake thinking about the talk Ranma and she had had the previous night. They had agreed yet again that they didn't want to get married until after High School and while they hadn't really talked explicitly about sex, Ranma understood better what she meant when she said that she wasn't ready. She had hoped he would feel the same way but he wouldn't say one way or the other. I supposed no guy his age would admit he didn't want to have sex. His friends certainly wouldn't.

Yuka cornered Ranma after lunch when Akane parted ways with him to head to her class. "Have you gotten her a gift yet?"

"Um… no. I am going shopping tonight." He cringed at the thought and was a little afraid Yuka might insist on going with him.

"Good, remember it has to be really romantic. You are more than just her boyfriend."

"She just wants to spend the day together." He was really getting sick of being told he had to be romantic. "I know what I am getting her."

"What is it?"

"Why should I tell you before I give it to her?"

"So I can tell you if it is good enough." Yuka was pointing her finger right in his face. God help her, she was not going to let Ranma screw up her best friend's birthday this year.

"No," He wasn't giving in. Akane would definitely get mad if she thought everyone knew before her or worse, if she decided he had been told what to buy she would think he didn't know what to get her. He didn't really know but he didn't want either Yuka or Akane to know that. "She has liked other gifts I have gotten her, I will be fine."

"It had better be good." She stormed off to her class at the end of the hallway, leaving Ranma holding his head.

He made his way to class wondering what the hell he was going to do. He thought a book sounded boring. Perfume was okay but he like the way she smelled without it and just because he liked a scent didn't mean she would. Wouldn't scented bath oil imply he was thinking about her bathing? Nabiki would give them a hard time about that. Flowers were obvious and he knew he would pick up some of those and that she would like them.

"Mr. Saotome, what era saw the decline of the samurai?"

"Um…" Ranma was saved from answering as the fire alarm sounded. Thank you Akane.

As the class stood to file out of the room, Hiroshi caught up to his friend and clapped him on the shoulder. "Akane must be improving. It has been a few weeks since she set off the fire alarm."

"Yeah, she made cookies a while ago; if you soaked them in enough milk they were actually edible." They exited the building and waited patiently for the all clear to return. Ranma kept a look out for Akane, wondering what had happened this time.

Akane emerged from the building frowning, wishing she could hide from the rest of the students. She had followed the recipe exactly; it was like the kitchen appliances were trying to kill her. Of course Ranma is looking right at me. He knows I set it off again. As she walked over to Ranma and Hiroshi a group of first years clapped and cheered, "Thanks Akane! We were taking a math test." She growled at them until they shrank away from her.

Ranma grinned at her, "Hey be nice, your cooking is helping people." He put his arm around her and noticed a small piece of something yellow in her hair. "So what happened?"

"I don't know."

He noticed her start to tear up and pulled her tighter again his side. "Well what kind of fire was it?"

"A grease fire," her shoulders slumped further.

"I thought they didn't let you use the fryer anymore after the last fire?"

"But the recipe said I had to, so since I couldn't use the deep fryer I put the oil in a pan instead and put it on the stove. It was really messy but the recipe clearly said I had to fry them first before adding them to the rest of the ingredients." She hated crying but she was so frustrated and she knew everyone thought she had messed up because she liked to experiment and put things in that were not part of the recipe. She had really wanted to surprise Ranma with something edible.

"Um… what did you fry?"

"The eggs."

"WHAT?"

"YES. I PROMISE IT SAID I NEEDED TWO FRIED EGGS."

"NOT DEEP FRIED! DID YOU AT LEAST CRACK THEM FIRST?"

"WHY WOULD I DO THAT?"

Ranma closed his eyes, smiled softly and shook his head at her. "They exploded didn't they?"

"Yes," She took a deep breath to calm down. Their yelling had attracted attention and most of the other students were looking at her like she was crazy. "Why would the recipe say to fry them if you weren't supposed to? Everyone else was getting out pans and butter but I thought it was better to fry with oil."

He turned her to face him and brushed some stray hair away from her face, "You were supposed to heat a very small amount of butter or oil in a skillet and crack an egg into it. Not throw it in a bunch of hot oil with the shell still on." He pulled her against him and gave her a quick hug.

"If that was what it wanted then it should have said so." The students were being told they could return to class. She didn't want to be around anyone anymore.

Akane turned away from him and as she did he gently reached out and pulled a piece of egg out of her hair. He smiled down at it before dropping it on the ground and returning to his class with Hiroshi. Fortunately the rest of the school day passed without incident.

On their way home Ranma could tell she was still moping over her latest cooking disaster. He jumped down from the fence, "If it is bothering you so much, why don't you ask Kasumi to teach you how to fry an egg?"

Akane stopped and took a deep breath, "You're right. I can't let this get me down. I am going to be able to make a meal for you one of these days."

Ranma forced himself to smile, "Yeah, that's great."

"You don't look like you really think so."

"Trust me, I want you to get better at cooking. I'm just not sure I want to taste all your attempts."

"Fine, I'll just find someone who will want to."

He noticed another small chunk of egg and pulled it out of her hair. Holding it out to her, "Good luck finding someone as hard to kill as me."

They picked up the rice for Kasumi and headed home. After dumping his school things in the guest room he went to find their fathers. Hopefully they had some better ideas for today's training. Akane had already gone to convince Kasumi to help her; he would find her later to work on their training. I should be able to sneak out while she is in the bath to get her a gift.

He found the two men in their usual spot, arguing over who was cheating more. Ranma rolled his eyes, "You both cheat all the time. Come on, let's go to the dojo and see what you have come up with for today."

In the kitchen Akane was having trouble focusing on her task. She had heated the pan with a small pad of butter in it like Kasumi said but now it was smoking and her sister lifted it off the burner calmly and set it on a cool one while Akane was busy cleaning up the egg she had dropped on the floor.

"It will help you if you have all your ingredients setting beside the stove and easy to reach." She fanned away the smoke and opened the window and door. She had hoped her sister would notice the smoke and gave her time to fix it herself but once she dropped the egg and started fretting about that her attention was not on the stove at all. "Also let's reduce heat a little bit so you have more time before your butter burns," turning off the burner she waited until Akane was ready to start again.

Akane finished cleaning up the egg and washed her pan. Setting it on the stove again, her shoulders slumped as she stared at it. "I'm sorry Kasumi, I am not focusing well enough."

"What is on your mind today?"

"I hate this training Ranma is doing. He says he has to but I thought that the next time he needed to train himself that I would be involved. But I am not only not needed but locked out."

"Daddy says that Ranma gets too easily distracted by you and needs to learn better focus. I think that is very romantic." She smiled down at her sister and placed her hand on her shoulder, "You should take it as a compliment."

"Maybe but I don't like the idea of things they are doing to train him. They stole some of my underwear yesterday and that didn't work so that mean they will come up with more perverted things to do with the idea that it is training him." She was snarling as she finished the statement, "Who knows what they have in store for him today."

"Uncle Genma says that it is important for Ranma to be a great martial artist."

"He also thought dumping a small boy in a pit of hungry cats was a good idea and taking him to train at Jusenkyo." Akane rolled her eyes and inhaled deeply, letting it release slowly. She had to calm down.

Kasumi giggled, "I don't think there is anything too dangerous they could do in the dojo."

"You're right," She picked up the pan again and turned the heat back on. "What setting should I use?"

"Get your next egg first and set it in a little bowl beside the stove." Kasumi was careful not to give Akane too many directions at once, as she tended to missed steps.

Akane got her egg and a small bowl from the cabinet. Setting it down carefully, she looked to her sister and waited. Kasumi instructed her to add butter to the pan and turn the heat to medium. So far so good. After the butter melted she was told to crack the egg on the side of the pan and put the insides in the pan. She cracked it a little too forcefully and some ended up outside the pan and a couple large chunks of shell landed in the pan with the rest of the egg. She watched as her sister calmly reached into the pan and using her nails carefully and quickly picked out the two pieces of shell.

"Now make sure the yolk breaks so that it will cook evenly." She placed the spatula in Akane's hand and guided it to the pan like she might a small child, tapping the yolk gently with the edge. "Now you need to be patient and wait for it to cook." She saw Akane started to reach over and turn up the heat but she stopped her by placing her hand back over her sister's and pulling it gently away. "You will burn it if the heat is too high. You don't want it to cook fast. Cooking is easier when you take it slow and steady like that kata Ranma and you did in the yard the other day."

Akane remembered that day; she had sparred with Ranma outside for a change of pace. She had relentlessly tried to knock him into the pond which meant he had found back harder because he really didn't want to land in it. "Okay, how do I tell when it is done?"

Kasumi explained why the clear albumin in the egg turned white when it was heated reminding Akane that her sister had done well in school and probably could have gone to college if she had wanted to. When she told her to flip the egg over Akane had some trouble getting the spatula under the egg and it folded when she flipped it. Kasumi had to try to fix it but it stay partially folded.

"The appearance will not change the taste. Don't worry about the little fold." Kasumi smile at her little sister, so pleased that she had more patience this year than she did last year. "Go ahead and slide it onto a plate."

Akane slide the egg out of the pan, it sailed past the plate and onto the counter. "Oh no"

"My counters are very clean, scoop it up and no one will know."

Akane stared wide-eyed at her sister, "Have you ever had to scoop something off the counter?"

"Of course silly, I get in a hurry too."

Akane grinned broadly at the comment and lifted the egg carefully with the spatula successfully getting it on the plate. "I hope they are almost done, I want to show Ranma that this one didn't end up in my hair."

"Oh my," Kasumi bit back her laughter until Akane was out of the room then she leaned heavily against the counted as she shook and held her sides until tears were leaking out the corners of her eyes. Only my little sister could get egg in her hair.

Nabiki walked into the kitchen to see her older sister wiping tears away from her eyes. At first she thought she had been crying but soon saw the glint in her eyes and a delighted smile on her face. Although her sister could annoyingly find something to smile about in any situation, even if she was alone in the desert with no water she could be pleased about the sunny day, this smile looked like she was enjoying herself immensely. "What's up with you?"

"I just helped Akane fry an egg and she said something about not ending up with egg in her hair. It was a funny picture to imagine. She tries so hard."

Nabiki grinned at Kasumi, "I had a good day because of her too." She had made a tidy profit at school today. "I need to recalculate odds tonight on when she will set off the fire alarm again at school."

Kasumi wanted to be irritated with her sister but she was too full of mirth and in this case Nabiki's bet taking didn't really hurt anyone. She opened her mouth to say something but ended up shaking with laughter again instead.

Nabiki was ready to be told that taking bets on her sister's unfortunate cooking was wrong but was shocked when Kasumi laughed hard with her hand over her mouth. The sound was infectious and soon both girls were holding on the counter to stay standing.

"The other students..." Nabiki was gasping for air, "…were all cheering." A fit of giggles took her over again. She managed to explain what she had overheard between Ranma and Akane about frying the eggs for the recipe. "She honestly thought she had to deep fry it… with the shell still on."

"Now it makes sense why she wanted me to teach her how to make one."

"Did she manage it?" Nabiki raised her eyebrows in question.

"It wasn't pretty but it will be edible." Kasumi handed her sister a tissue and they both wiped their eyes and stood there for a moment shaking their heads in amazement.

00000

As Akane approached the dojo she could hear the voices of Uncle Genma and her father. She was appalled when she heard Uncle Genma say something about imaging her naked writhing beneath him. How the hell could he talk about her like that? How could her own father approve of that as some sort of training? The next thing she heard stopped her in her tracks.

It was her father's voice, "Look at this picture Ranma, look at her naked body."

WHY DID THEY HAVE A PICTURE OF HER NAKED? Sure Ranma had accidentally seen her naked a couple of times before but to ask him to look at her on purpose for training was uncalled for. It was then she heard Ranma's voice.

"I am not going to look at that. Stop trying to show me."

She grabbed the door handle and flung it open breaking the lock. She saw her father hide something, probably the picture, behind his back and the two Saotome men stared at her in fear. Her battle aura was running hot all over her skin, she felt like she could almost literally explode. Turning to their fathers she bellowed, "GET OUT!"

Her father took off running and Genma dropped to his hands and knees to begin begging forgiveness. She handed the plate she had in her hand, amazingly still intact, to Ranma and approached Genma. "This is over. Using naked pictures of me is the last straw, Ranma will have to find another way to train but it will not be kept secret from me."

Ranma knew he should stop her and rescue Pop but it was very entertaining to watch her in action. He glanced down at the plate in his hands and saw a half-way decent fried egg on it. He picked it up and tried a small bite, discovering it tasted fine he decided that it would be a fine snack while he enjoyed the show.

"We didn't use naked pictures of you. We …"

"Don't lie to me, I heard you telling him to look at the picture."

"…but…"

"I SAID ENOUGH!" She picked him up and sent him flying through the roof. Rounding on Ranma, she saw the now empty plate and he was licking his fingers. "I'm still deciding if I should be mad at you too."

He smiled at her and walked across the room towards her, stopping when he was just out of arms reach. "The egg turned out good."

"Flattering me will not help." She was lying and he would likely know it. She could already feel her battle aura receding.

"I should probably also tell you that they didn't have a naked picture of you." He saw her eyes narrow as she tried to figure out if he was lying to her or not. "It was one of those magazines with naked pictures of women in them. Apparently they decided while I was at school that it would be the best way to train me today. I didn't look."

Her mouth dropped open, "They were training you with perverted pictures? Did it work to break your Soul of Ice?"

"Not really, I mean yes it did at first but only because it made me mad." He had eventually just kept his gazed focused elsewhere and mostly ignored the two men.

"So you still need to find a way to train?"

"I'll find a way to train without them. They are no help."

Akane took the plate from him and gently set it outside, closed the door and grinned to herself evilly while her back was to Ranma. "Maybe I can help you. Close your eyes and pull on your Soul of Ice."

What is she up to? He complied with her request, mostly because he was afraid not to after what she had done to his father.

She walked around him, reached out to touch his arm and felt it was cold. Even the air around him was cold, which meant he really was using the technique. She started by softening her touch and dragging her fingers up his arm. She saw him take in a slow controlled breath but his skin remained cool. Next she moved her hands across his back and down his other arm, feeling his still cold skin. "So? Easy to ignore?"

He opened one eye and looked down at her, "Mostly, I can imagine that it is something like the doctor or someone checking me for injuries. You know something not uncomfortable or embarrassing."

"Okay then, close your eyes again." She shifted around to the front of him and placed both of her hands on his chest and slid them up to his neck and continued moving up until her hands were behind his ears. His skin warmed at little as she felt him relax into her touch. "Couldn't ignore that as well as before." she pointed out with a cocky grin on her face.

He concentrated on his technique and felt himself cool down again. The movement of her hands reminded him of some of the moments they shared right before they kissed goodnight. Once he had his emotions under control he looked down at her again, "Bring it on."

She did the same thing again but he held on to his control and smirked at her. Hmmm… Thinks he has this all figured out does he? She didn't comment when he kept his eyes open for now. She pressed up against his cool skin and nuzzles into his chest. She felt his arms tighten and press into his sides like he was forcing them to stay in place. Grinning she brought her hands down to play with a closure on his shirt. "I love it when your arms wrap around me and you hug me tight against you." She heard him growl and felt his skin beneath her warm.

He had to fight hard for control, the memories that her words forced to the front of his mind had him wanting to give up on the training and hold her against him. He loved the way she felt in his arms. Pushing the thoughts out of his mind again he tried to recapture his soul of ice. He almost had it reined in when she spoke again.

"Hmmm… and it is so exciting when your hands squeeze my hips and you act all possessive." She continued to describe the ways she liked to be touched by him. Each time waiting until she felt his skin start to cool before attacking him again with her words.

He growled at her, cursed at her and even tried to push her away from him but she was relentless. "I need a break."

"Fine, five minutes," She walked over and set their timer then walked to the little shrine and sat in front of it. The shrine was to her mother; she really hoped her spirit wasn't watching or worse listening right now.

Ranma sat cross-legged and meditated trying to focus his thoughts how he needed to in order to keep his soul of ice intact. The secret was to pretend he was someone else, someone who didn't care about the insults, embarrassments or odd things happening around him. When he did that he felt like he was watching it happen to a stranger and not him. He wasn't sure why he couldn't do that this time, he tried over and over again but he had yet to find that detachment he could always count on. The buzzer rang, groaning he stood and waited for what Akane had in store next.

Akane stood, mentally apologized to her mother for what she was about to do and stood facing away from Ranma. She knew he already had his pulled upon his Soul of Ice and was ready, stretching her arms high in the air she leaned first to the right, and then shifted to the left. "It is a little warm out today." Her skirt reached her knees; the skirt that distracted him the other day was much shorter. She calmly, still not looking at him, rolled the waist band of her skirt until it only reached half-way down her thighs.

Ranma frowned as she played with the waist band of her skirt, wondering what she was doing. It took him a moment to realize he could see more of her legs now. She was shortening the damn thing. His favorite skirt of hers was short enough that he could watched her powerful leg muscles move and as an added bonus he even occasionally got a quick peek at her panties. She would call him perverted if she knew and she would probably be right but whenever she kicked him or spun around too fast he couldn't help but notice them. She was across the room from him and he was losing it already, this was bad.

Akane smiled to herself as she heard a soft groan come from Ranma. Remembering what he had said a few days earlier about the ways she could help, she devised a couple new ways to tease him. He had mentioned her muscles; she knew he liked to watch her practice she just never quite understood why until then. She began a simple slow kata routine that would strain her arm and leg muscles. Half-way through the routine she glanced towards him and found him standing in the middle of the room with his hands over his eyes. Laughing she walked over and pulled his hands away, "Cheater."

"You're killing me."

"Well then Mr. Greatest Martial Artist of His Generation, you better find a way to counter it or your father will be right. You will have another weakness."

"Hmmph… like I would let myself have a weakness." He crossed his arms over his chest and refused to look at her.

"Meow…" She poked him in the shoulder and continued to mimic cat sounds at him.

"Fine… one… you can shut up now."

She checked the temperature of his skin and smiled when it was still cool. He really is good at ignoring the embarrassing things now. She took a deep breath and circled to face him, tugging on his pigtail she pulled him down until they were nose to nose. Keeping her touch feather light she kissed his cheeks, brow, nose and finally lips. Then letting go of his pigtail she moved around to his side, since he was wearing his sleeveless red shirt he often favored in warm weather, she placed small kisses on each of his arms.

Her actions had ranged from sexy to powerful to sweet and he was not able to counter any of them. He sat back on the ground breathing heavily and groaned into his hands. I am going to get her back for this later. His Soul of Ice was completely lost as thoughts of everything he would like to do to her later ran through his mind. LATER! He felt like he was getting close to figuring something out. Akane walked up behind him and started to put her arms around his neck. He stopped her, pulling her arms away and encouraged her to sit in front of him. "I need a minute. Don't touch me right now."

Detachment was how he dealt with anger and embarrassment but he had to find something else for his attraction to Akane. I can't ignore it, that isn't working. Why can't I detach? He thought for a while before it started to click. He didn't want to detach. He couldn't act like an outsider watching a stranger because Akane was his and no one, not even a stranger version of himself could do those things with her. He wanted to feel her touch, he wanted to think about her; the problem was that he didn't want to avoid the thoughts. He needed to be able to push the thoughts aside for a short time… until later.

Akane was quietly watching his face; emotions were playing across it like a slideshow. She saw a calm confidence settle in and knew he was figuring something out. It was the same look he got every time he figured out how to counter a new move from an opponent. Smiling, she patiently waited for him to be ready. He would want her to repeat nearly everything she did to test himself. She still had one trick up her sleeve to push him further; she wondered what would happen when she used it.

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Thank you for continuing to read my story. R&R as you like.