Ranma 3/2
By: Jaqui K
Chapter 1: Here's Ranma...and Ranma...and Ranma?
It was a relatively quiet Sunday in the Nerima district of Tokyo, Japan. The early morning rain shower had ceased, leaving a few puddles remaining, and the remainder of the day looked to be nice and sunny. The regular crowd of locals, tourists, and other visitors were busy heading around town. Suddenly, this relatively normal day was interrupted by the approaching sounds of splashing and thudding.
Turning to see what was going on, the nearby group of people were shocked to find a young girl with pink hair racing down the street, chased closely by a giant panda of all things. The animal caught up and took a swipe at the girl, only for her to avoid the attack by leaping several meters into the air. She then threw aside her oversized travel pack and performed several twists to right herself before landing with a strong kick that managed to knock the panda away and onto its back.
"Not too bad for a girl, huh?" the pinkette taunted while flipping her braid over her back. "And it's just me, so you don't have that excuse this time."
A few of the more curious bystanders slowly approached the downed animal, but quickly backed away when it performed a kip up of all things to get back on its hind legs and actually adopted a martials arts stance that definitely seemed out of place for a panda bear.
The girl seemed not to be surprised by this action and merely huffed before adopting a stance of her own, which was much more fitting for a human, especially one wearing a red sleeveless chinese style shirt with black kung fu pants and cloth armbands. "Alright, then bring it on, old man."
The panda proceeded to do just that, rushing forward and going after the girl with a variety of martial arts punches and kicks. The girl for her part managed to block or avoid the strikes while angrily ranting the entire time.
"Honestly, I don't know why you'd think I would actually agree to this crap. I'm with them, this whole thing sucks! What the hell makes you think we'd let you go and pick a fiancée for us." She quickly sidestepped a punch and grabbed the overextended panda arm, then she twisted her body and flung the beast over her shoulder and into a stop sign pole. "That's not your call to make!"
The entire pole collapsed onto the ground, along with the panda, who seemed to be down for the count. The girl looked down at the animal for a moment, then scoffed and flicked her braid back over her shoulder. "I'm going to find the others and then we're heading back to China. I'm sure with the three of us we can figure something out." She calmly went over to retrieve her bag, unaware that the panda had managed to get up and was slowly sneaking up on her. At the last moment, she finally noticed the presence from behind and quickly spun around, just in time for the panda to whack her on the head with the stop sign, causing the girl to collapse to the ground unconscious.
There were several murmurs from the crowd as the panda picked up the girl and her bag, but any attempts to intervene were quickly quelled by the animal giving loud barks in their direction, no one really wanting to risk dealing with a kung fu panda.
Several minutes after the beast left with the girl, anyone that was still in the area was greeted with the new sight of two more teenagers dropping down from the rooftops. The newcomers were dressed very similar to the previous pink haired girl, although the colors were different. The one with her long black hair pulled back into a low ponytail was fittingly wearing a black shirt, while the short haired redhead was garbed in blue.
"Looks like we just missed them," the raven haired girl noted while picking up a pair of discarded shoes next to a now bent stop sign.
The redhead immediately went over to one of the people still loitering around and grabbed him by the shirt collar. "Hey, did ya see a girl with pink hair and a panda come by here?"
"Um, y-yeah," the nervous man stammered out, "They had this really crazy fight, and the panda knocked out the girl and carried her off."
"And ya didn't try to stop him?!" The grip on the guy's shirt tightened just a bit more.
"S-sorry," the man said while shrinking back as much as he could, "it was a giant bear that knows martial arts. What was I supposed to do?"
The red haired teen held on for a couple more seconds, then let the terrified man go with a scoff. "Dammit, this sucks! We were trying to get away from the panda's dumb scheme, and now-"
The redhead's rant was interrupted by a hand on the shoulder from the taller one of the duo, who gave a reassuring smile. "Hey, we'll just need to go with our original plan to get out of this. It'll be okay. After all, we don't lose, right?" The dark haired teen then paused for a few seconds in thought before looking down at the guy who had collapsed into a seated position on the ground. "Pardon me, do you happen to know where the Tendo Dojo is?"
"A fiancé?!" Akane Tendo could not believe what she was hearing.
Her father, Soun Tendo, gave an enthusiastic nod to his three daughters, apparently oblivious to his youngest one's outrage. "That's right. His name is Ranma Saotome and he is the son of an old friend of mine. If one of you were to marry him and take over the dojo, then our family legacy will be secure."
"Hold on," Akane called out while slamming a hand down on the table, "you can't just spring something like this on us out of nowhere!"
"I have to agree, Father," The eldest daughter, Kasumi, agreed. "We've never even met this Ranma."
Soun gave a chuckle. "Oh, that won't be a problem soon. It seems that they are returning from a long training trip to China and are stopping by here." He gestured to the postcard on the table they were seated around that managed to completely upend any plans the four may have had for the day.
"Oh wow, China!" the middle daughter, Nabiki, cooed. "So is he cute?"
"Eh, going to China's not that impressive," Akane grumbled out.
"Hmmm, how old is he?" Kasumi wondered. "I hope he's not too immature."
Soun merely chuckled to himself for a few moments, then suddenly stopped. "I have no idea," he plainly responded.
"No idea?" Nabiki narrowed her eyes as she leaned forward on the table.
"I've never met the boy."
Akane was more than livid now. "Wait, you haven't even met-"
Her building rant was cut off by the noises of a loud argument coming from the entranceway. Well, a one-sided argument at least as it sounded like a person with a high pitched voice was yelling at someone who was only responding with an occasional grunt.
"Oh my, it sounds like we have guests," Kasumi noted.
Nabiki happily jumped up and rushed to the entrance. "Alright, time to see how cute he really is!"
Soun followed close behind. "Oh Saotome, my old friend, how I missed you!"
Akane grumbled some more, but still got up as well and slowly went after them, along with Kasumi. However, the two only made it to the hallway when they were greeted with their other sister and their father racing back towards them, looking scared.
"Hey, what's going on?" Akane asked as Nabiki huddled up next to her and Soun turned to stand in front of them, blocking the hallway. Loud footsteps drew her attention towards what was coming around the corner and heading towards them: a very large panda carrying a squirming person over its shoulder, which served to answer her question while simultaneously raising several more.
"Knock it off, you're scaring them!" the person on the panda's shoulder yelled out while still squirming in its grasp. "You know you're not getting away with this, right? When they find me they are going to knock your head off!"
"Father, is this your friend?" Kasumi asked.
Soun merely responded with a rapid shake of his head.
"Oh yeah, cause a huge panda coming to visit is such a normal thing!" Nabiki called out.
Soun shook his head again.
"What is going on?" Akane wondered.
More shaking of his head.
The panda seemed to be either unknowing or uncaring about the reactions going on around it as it merely stepped forward and set down its involuntary passenger right in front of the girls' father.
Soun just looked down at the pink haired person who was nervously looking right back up at him when a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, you wouldn't happen to be…"
Their guest held a wide eyed smile as they looked around the room, then turned away and gave a sigh while they fiddled with their braid and responded, "Ranma Saotome. I'm sorry about this."
"Ranma! Oh, you're finally here!" Soun exclaimed as he quickly wrapped Ranma in a hug before the pinkette could protest.
Nabiki also now looked excited. "Oh, he really is a cutie. A bit short, maybe, but that hair is definitely a statement. I hope that's not too weird for my fiancé, Daddy."
Soun just laughed and squeezed tighter. "No, of course not. I'm just so happy to meet him. I've been waiting for this day for so long, ever since Genma first told me he had a…huh?!" He suddenly froze, then released his hug and pulled Ranma back to arms length, a now shocked look on his face.
The three sisters were confused by their father's sudden change in demeanor. Nabiki then narrowed her eyes as she took a closer look at their pink haired guest. She stepped forward and confirmed her new suspicions by poking Ranma right in the chest.
"Um, could you please stop that." Ranma softly complained.
Nabiki ignored the comment and turned to her father with half lidded eyes. "Yeah, this is a girl."
Before Soun was able to pass out completely from the shock, another loud commotion from the entrance drew everyone's attention. Two new figures skidded around the corner and paused for just a moment to assess the situation.
"Hey, you jerk!" the one with red hair yelled out, charging forward with a kick at the panda, who actually managed to block the strike.
The one with long black hair also charged in, but stopped at the last moment and pointed past the Tendos with an overly shocked expression that was clearly put on. "Look! A duck is riding a unicycle!"
While none of the Tendo sisters were fooled by such a cheap and obvious distraction, both their father and the panda quickly turned around to see the strange phenomenon. The strange ponytailed intruder took advantage of the distraction and kicked the panda right into the wall, causing the entire hallway to tremble as it slid down to the ground, completely knocked out.
Akane narrowed her eyes at this. "Hey, I know it's a wild animal and all, but should you really be doing that to an endangered species?"
The black haired fighter gave a small scoff, flicking a long ponytail off one shoulder. "Don't worry, he's tough enough to handle that. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's too stupid to get seriously hurt. Besides, I was just protecting my little sister."
"Hey, I don't need saving!" Ranma complained. "I had this…" She trailed off and Soun approached once again.
"Little sister?" He echoed, looking between the three with a new hope building in his eyes. "Wait, does that mean…"
"Yeah, we're all siblings. You could even call us triplets I guess." the short haired redhead casually replied.
"You guess?" Akane asked, although she supposed the redhead was just referring to the fact that the three were certainly not identical. In addition to the wildly different hair and eye colors, there was also a noticeable height difference with the black haired, blueish gray eyed one being the tallest at about the same height as or maybe slightly taller than Akane herself, and the pink haired girl with the admittedly striking red eyes was the shortest, with the red haired, blue eyed one in the middle.
"Yeah, it's a little complicated," The redhead continued, stepping forward with hands in pockets next to the pink haired girl. "Name's Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this whole mess."
The black haired triplet briefly sent a glare over to the redhead, then sighed and also stepped forward, looking down at the ground and sheepishly rubbing the back of their head. "Yes, I am also Ranma Saotome, and I am also very sorry about this."
"Wait, you're all named Ranma?" Nabiki asked, pointing out the obvious.
"Yep," the red haired Ranma replied with a smirk. "Let's just say our father is kind of an idiot."
"Well, Genma was always rather...simple with such things," Soun reluctantly admitted with a laugh. A big smile then grew on his face. "So, does that mean that one of you is…" The smile as well as the hope in his eyes slowly began to fade as he continued to look between the two non pink haired triplets.
Nabiki, starting to get a little tired of this whole thing, simply stepped forward and performed the same confirmation as before with the dark haired Ranma as well as the redhead.
"Please don't do that."
"Hey, hands off!"
She once again ignored the complaints and turned back to her father with another half lidded stare. "Yeah, they're both also girls."
Kuroma sighed and lightly tugged on their ponytail. Dammit, this was supposed to be a simple plan, just grab their little sister and get out of there before their idiot dad could do anything stupid. But then the Tendo father had to go and pass out, and it would have been sort of rude of them to just leave and let his daughters take care of this dumb mess. Not to mention the kind of trouble their stupid pop would cause if he were left here alone. That was basically the excuse they decided on for why everyone was now seated in what was apparently the Tendo's family room. Well, everyone except for the panda that was passed out in the backyard and the Tendo father who was lying down next to Kuroma still apparently in shock and being attended to by the nice and matronly seeming Tendo daughter that introduced herself as Kasumi.
"Oh dear, is your pet going to be alright?" Kasumi wondered.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Kuroma reassured her. "Sorry about your hallway though. I hope I didn't damage anything too bad."
"Hey, it's fine, Ranma," the girl with the long blue hair named Akane answered. "You and Ranma were just trying to protect Ranma…wow, this name thing must be really confusing for you all."
"Yeah, I get that. It's why we all came up with our own names for each other. You can call me Kuroma. That one over there…" They gestured towards their red haired sibling who was lazily leaning on the large table most of them were seated around.
"Yo, I go by Akama," the redhead casually said with a wave. "And we refer to her as Pin-"
"Sakura!" Their pink haired sister loudly interrupted with a scowl, breaking out of her quiet mood just long enough to get indignant. "My name is Sakura, and don't you forget it!"
"Okay, that's great and all," the girl with the very sharp looking bob cut who called herself Nabiki sardonically stated, "but that still doesn't take away the fact that I was promised a fiancé! I'm blaming you for this, Dad. You should have checked before getting my hopes up!"
"Genma said that he had a son!" The Tendo father wailed from the ground.
"Oh really, and which son is that?" Nabiki shot back. "The one with the huge bazongas, the one with the tig ol bitties, or this one with the massive rack?"
Kuroma noted the irony of the girl using Akama to prove her point. Although you're still blowing your chance at a fiancé if you keep pissing off my brother like that.
Akama grumbled and batted the grabby girl's hand away. "I told ya, hands off!" he yelled while shooting a glare at the middle Tendo sister. "What makes you think you can just-"
"Whatever, this place is a bit too crowded for my liking right now," Nabiki interrupted as she casually stood up and walked off. "Have fun dealing with the Weird Sisters," she called out to the other two Tendo girls as she left the room.
Akama just blinked in surprise for a few seconds at the casual dismissal, before he remembered to get angry again. "Hey! I'm not done with you. Get back here!" He yelled out as he got up and chased after her.
Kuroma rolled their eyes at their brother's antics, but any mirth was immediately dulled by Sakura giving another sigh and dipping her head low. They really hated seeing their sister like this and wondered what they could do to cheer her up. Interestingly, it seemed that the Akane girl sitting next to Sakura had the same thought as she looked sympathetically towards the pink haired girl, then turned towards Kuroma with a pleading expression, as if asking for advice on what to do. They wracked their brain, trying to come up with the perfect idea when their eye caught the martial arts gi the girl was wearing. Giving a smile, they pointed to Sakura while nodding their head in the direction of the other side of the Tendo house where they remembered seeing a separate building for a dojo. To help emphasize the point, they also made a few silent martial arts poses with their hands.
Akane stared for a few moments before finally getting the hint. Turning back towards Sakura, she put a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder while giving a warm smile. "Hey, do you want to check out our dojo?"
Sakura looked over at the blue haired girl, first with confusion, then with a small smile building on her face. "Sure."
"That's great!" Akane's smile grew even wider. "I'd love to be friends with you, if that's alright."
Sakura's own smile also grew as she gave an enthusiastic nod. The two got up and walked off together, Sakura flashing Kuroma a hopeful look before leaving the room.
"That was a very nice thing you did for your sister," Kasumi warmly noted once the two of them were alone, well aside from the man still lying on the floor, but he didn't really count.
Kuroma felt the growing pride in their chest swell even more at the compliment. "Yeah, I try to do what I can for her. Our dad sure isn't going to."
"I see." Kasumi looked lost in thought for a bit before speaking up again. "What about your mother?"
"My mother? I don't know." Kuroma's smile turned wistful as they looked at the ground. "I never knew her. For as long as I could remember it was just me and Pops…and my siblings too of course."
"And you took it upon yourself to take care of them," Kasumi concluded with an apparent nod of approval. "That was very brave of you."
"If you say so," Kuroma said with a shrug. They then narrowed their eyes and looked around, Kasumi's words reminded them that there was someone missing. "So where's your mother at? I'd love to meet her." While Kasumi's expression remained unchanged, Kuroma couldn't help but notice the slight flinch she gave. If this was from before, they probably would have missed it or even just ignored it entirely, but now that they had siblings they needed to watch out for, they've learned to be much better at picking up on such things. "Oh…sorry. I didn't mean to…"
"No, it's alright. I was the one that brought it up first." Kasumi gave a friendly smile that Kuroma could tell was genuine, but they could also notice the tiniest hints of strain underneath. "Our mother passed away several years ago. Even since then, I have been taking care and supporting my sisters. I do what I can for them, although I'm sure it's still nothing compared to what you've done for your sisters all those years while traveling around the world."
"Um, well…" Sure Kuroma knew they were doing a great job helping out their little siblings, especially against the stupid panda and that sore loser girl who's probably still mad at Akama, but they definitely didn't want to exaggerate or anything. Plus this girl seemed really nice and they didn't want to make her feel bad. "We've really only been on the road together for a few weeks now, with this whole China training trip and everything that happened during it, so I'm sure it's not a big deal. Uh, besides, I'm sure you're still doing awesome with your sisters anyway."
"Oh, it's really not that impressive," Kasumi responded. "I'm mostly doing my part around the house. Cleaning their rooms, washing and mending their clothes, cooking meals and making their bentos. Oh my, I just realized." She quickly got to her feet. "With this many extra guests for dinner, I may not have enough ingredients."
"Hey it's fine," Kuroma said, standing up as well. "Don't worry, we can take care of ourselves."
Kasumi gave another warm smile. "But you are our guests, so I insist. It's not a worry at all. I was planning on grocery shopping soon, so I may as well get that done today."
"Oh, in that case we'd be happy to stay for dinner." Kuroma gave a big laugh as they rubbed the back of their neck. Yeah, with a house this huge, I bet they can afford an actual ton of food. Not sure how exactly stupid Pops managed to make friends with a rich dude, but I'm not gonna complain, especially for Sakura's sake. They gave a quick glance to the open doors to the backyard, figuring the panda would be out for at least a few more hours. "Do you want some help with your shopping?"
"Thank you for the offer, but you are still our guest and I don't wish to burden you," Kasumi said in that same super polite tone of hers.
"Hey, it's no burden at all," Kuroma said, flashing a big grin. "Besides, you'll probably need help carrying all that food. My siblings can have pretty big appetites."
"Hmmm, I suppose that is true," Kasumi admitted before flashing a smile of her own. "Very well, I accept your generous offer. Shall we be off then?"
"Seriously, where the heck did you go?" Akama grumbled to himself as he headed up to the second floor of the house after spending what felt like ages searching the ground floor for that insulting jerk. And how the heck did the panda even manage to sucker a guy with a house this big? Guess I still have a few things to learn from the old man. He shook off that thought and went back to the focus of his current ire while checking what turned out to be a decent sized, but mostly empty room. Where does that girl get off on questioning my manhood or my boobs? I happen to like my tits, thank you very much, and they sure don't make me less of a man. Heck, being the man I am even with a huge rack just shows how awesome I am at it.
His search came to a very abrupt end as the insulting jerk inquisition opened one of the doors in the hallway and stuck her head out while casually gnawing on a popsicle. "Oh, it's you. The heck do you want?"
Akama was taken aback for just a moment, then narrowed his eyes. "What I want is an apology from you. My boobs are not squeak toys, dammit!"
The jerk that he sorta recalled was named Nabiki just stood there and looked him up and down for a few seconds. He was definitely prepared though. Whatever challenge was coming, he was more than ready for it. Finally, she made her action by…holding one hand out, palm up? "500 yen," was all she said.
"I…wait, that's it?" He was almost a little disappointed, but if that's all it took to completely humble this girl, he wouldn't complain. He made sure to suppress a smirk as he fished out some coins from his pocket. Honestly, it would take so much more than this, if at all, for him to get on his knees and grovel for forgiveness like the dumb panda would always do. "Alright, here you go," he said, handing over the change.
He watched while she counted the coins in her hand, very patiently waiting for the begging to start. However, instead she gave a very singsongy, "Thanks! A pleasure doing business with you," before popping back in her room and closing the door.
It took a couple of moments for Akama to process what just happened, but once he did he was quick to pound on the door. Sure, he could have easily just broken through the thing, but then Sakura and maybe Kuroma would also get in trouble for it.
Soon enough, the door opened again with the jerk girl giving a half lidded glare. "What now?"
"Whaddya mean what now?" Akama shot back. "What about the apology?"
The girl tilted her head slightly while managing to perfectly fake looking confused. "Apology? I never said I'd do that."
"I paid you 500 yen!" Akama pointed out, absolutely fuming at this point and doing his best to be intimidating while still having to look up at the jerk.
Somehow, the girl wasn't cowering in fear and in fact looked somewhat bored. "Yeah, and I already thanked you for your generosity. If for some reason that's still not enough, I suppose I can also consider it as services rendered for falsely getting my hopes up. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am quite busy at the moment."
Nabiki rolled her eyes as she closed the door and went back to her magazine, reading as she lazily laid on her bed. Honestly, what's with that redhead? She should be thanking me for confirming how great her tits are. So gullible too, and still really cute. Ugh, it sucks that she had to be a girl; it's so dumb that it'd totally tank my reputation, but that's this stupid world, for now at least, and reputation is key in the business world.
"Hey! I'm not done with you yet!" Nabiki looked up as the sounds of the redhead yelling could be heard from outside her open window. She smirked a little as she put up a hand to her mouth to call out, "What's that? I can't hear you from down there."
She went back to her magazine, expecting the dummy to continue her rant for a bit more before giving up. Instead, what she got was a loud thump right from her window. Looking up again, she found an irate redhead crouching on her windowsill leaning in. "I said that I'm not done with you yet."
Nabiki quickly got off her bed while still maintaining a cool control of the situation. "Alright, alright, no need to wreck my window or my room over this. I somehow doubt you could afford the repair bill. How'd you get up here anyway?"
Her intruder just looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Simple, I jumped."
"From the ground?"
"Yeah, of course," the redhead shrugged, then went into the room proper. "Now, about that apology…"
Nabiki held up a hopefully placating hand as she kept her composure. "For the record, I'm still blaming my dad for this. I mean really, getting me so excited about a cute boy coming over as a potential fiancé, who's even had the chance to go to China! Then you three show up. Don't get me wrong, you're still cute and all, but you can see why'd I be so upset about all that, right?"
"Hey! I know I don't live up to your stupid expectations," the redhead shot back, "but it's not like I wanted a fiancée in the first place!"
"Well there you go then," Nabiki responded with a quick laugh. "It all worked out and you got a pretty girl to touch your honestly amazing boobs. Twice even! So what's there to be mad about?"
For some reason, the redhead wasn't swayed by her flawless logic. "Oh, you wanna know what I got to be mad about? How about let's start with this stupid plan my dumb Pops dropped on us right when we get back to Tokyo. Then, when Kuroma and me of course tell him where to shove it, he goes and abducts our little sister, as if she'd actually go along with this stupid thing either. So, instead of spending my day scamming a bunch of food vendors out of free treats, I have to go and rescue her. And then, almost the moment I get here, there's this rude chick that goes right up and grabs me, and not even in a pleasant way. Seriously, if that was your attempt at being friendly, you really need to work on your technique."
"Alright, first off, let's make one thing perfectly clear." Nabiki stepped forward and shot an accusatory finger right up between the redhead's eyes. She held that pose for several seconds, then lowered her hand as she asked, "What was that third thing you said?"
"Huh?" The redhead paused, then thought for a bit. "Oh, the scamming vendors thing? Yeah, it's stupid easy. All I gotta do is bat my eyes and barely lower my collar and those guys practically trip over themselves to give me stuff." She scoffed and crossed her arms. "Complete embarrassments to manhood if you ask me."
Nabiki nodded in agreement while simultaneously giving a dismissive wave. "Yes, yes, men are all but putty in our hands, couldn't agree more. Now…" She took a quick back to her windowsill. "You said you did training in China. I'm guessing you're pretty good at martial arts then."
The redhead looked taken aback for a moment, then gave a big grin. "Oh, definitely. One of the best. Top 3 for sure."
"Perfect," Nabiki responded with a quick clap of her hands. "In that case, I think I have just the thing to turn your day around. It's Akemi, right?"
"My name's Akama." the now confirmed named redhead growled out.
Nabiki gave a casual nod. "Got it. You can refer to me as Boss Nabiki. Now, how would you like to do some sports hustling? Nothing serious of course, just showing a bunch of idiot jocks what a couple of cute girls can really do."
Akama gave another scowl. "Okay, first off, I'm actually a guy."
"Hey, whatever." Nabiki gave another lighthearted laugh. "Pull this off and I'll call you a shapeshifting kitsune for all I care. Hold on, are you a kitsune? If we're going to be partners, you're legally obligated to inform me about such things."
"Nope, just a dude," Akama replied. "I almost wish me and my siblings were kitsune though. That would make things so much easier, especially with weird chicks from China that can't handle losing a fight."
"Look, I wasn't asking for your life story. Just tell me, are you in or out."
Akame thought about it for a bit, then gave a nod while crossing his arms. "Yeah, why not. It'll at least be something better to do. Alright, Nabiki, I'm in."
"Boss Nabiki, but we'll work on that. Okay then, Red, time to show me just what you got."
"Hey, I heard you went on a training trip in China. So do you practice kempo?"
"Yeah, a little," Was Sakura's casual answer to Akane's question as the two of them walked down the little stone path to the dojo. It was pretty much the truth. After all, there was only so much practice one could do in about 3 weeks, not even counting for an angry girl chasing after one's brother. Of course, she also had a bit of an extra advantage by also having Ranma's memories and experiences, although she couldn't honestly call them her own since she didn't actually exist back then.
Akane led her into the dojo proper and she took a moment to take in how nice, if somewhat plain, the place looked. Decent size with wood floor and walls with the classic "Iroha" sign to promote fundamentals hanging one of them. Above the sign was a wooden shelf with a simple shrine on top of it. She nodded with satisfaction at the place, then turned back to her new friend, who was flashing her a friendly smile that was mixed with anticipation.
"Hey, um…oh." Akane's expression shifted as a thought must have just occurred to her. "You said that you go by Sakura when you're with your sisters, but do you prefer to still go by Ranma when it's just you?"
"They're-" She quickly cut herself off. Yes, the two weren't actually her 'sisters', but it would probably be better for them to explain that. More important was the second part, even if that was the hardest to explain. Sure, Kuroma kept insisting that the three of them were all equally 'Ranma', but that was easy for them to say since they were clearly the original. It was so obvious to her, especially during those rare times when they joined back together.
"Please call me Sakura," was the simple answer she gave, since it was simply who she was.
Akane's friendly smile returned. "Awright, Sakura. How about we have a little match."
"Really? Just the two of us?" Sakura paused in contemplation. This would be the first one on one match she'd have since…this would be her first one on one match.
"Sure," Akane said with a nod. "Don't worry, this will just be a friendly spar. I'm not going to hurt you."
Sakura gave a look towards the door, waiting for Kuroma to burst in to put a stop to this. When that didn't actually happen, she responded with a light, "If you say so," and stepped up to the middle of the dojo, standing casually with her arms behind her back.
Akane blinked at that, but shrugged and went over to stand off opposite the pink haired girl. She took a strong wide stance, then blinked again. "Um, are you ready?" Sakura just gave a smile while otherwise not moving, curious to see how the other girl would react. Akane seemed to hesitate for just a moment before resolving herself again. "Okay, here I come!"
The blue haired girl charged in and gave a simple straight punch apparently wanting to test things out first. Sakura responded in kind by quickly sidestepping the attack and waiting to see what her new friend would do next. Akane looked to be surprised by this, but still to her credit quickly recovered and followed up with a kick that Sakura jumped over. She dodged a couple more kicks while in midair and used Akane's leg as a springboard to get back to the ground, where she immediately needed to dodge another punch right afterwards.
Wow, this is great! Sakura's first real martial arts duel, and she was having so much fun. Her opponent's strikes were so powerful and so fast. She was still a lot faster, but that was just to be expected. As she continued to dance around her new friend's attacks, smiling all the while, memories started to flood into her mind. Not her memories, but Ranma's. Of him having similar spars with his friend Ucchan when they were both six, and how much fun Ranma had back then. Oh, I hope she can make okonomiyaki just as good. Wait, no, maybe something like yakisoba or a nice spicy curry. Yeah, something different, cause this is my friend, not Ranma's. And Ranma's never had a rich girl for a friend, so take that!
As fun as it was, unfortunately it looked like the spar was wrapping up as Akane was definitely letting her frustration show. Sakura hopped over with her back to the dojo wall, excited to see how this would end. "Alright, this time it's for real!" Akane shouted out, and she stomped forward, throwing a hard, solid right punch that the pigtailed martial artist still managed to leap right over. As her opponent's fist went straight through the dojo wall, Sakura took a moment while still in the air to contemplate how she wanted to finish this. Ranma would have ended things happily sitting on a downed and flailing Ucchan. This wasn't Ucchan though, and besides, she wanted to do things her own way. Therefore, she chose to land right behind the taller girl, reaching up and tapping one finger to the back of her head.
As Akane looked over to her in shock, the overwhelming euphoria of such a great fight became too much for Sakura and she began to giggle then shifted into full on joyous laughter, which the other girl joined in after a bit.
After the laughter died down, Akane gave a long sigh. "Wow, you're pretty good. I can tell you really went on a trip to improve your martial arts," she said with a noticeable dejection in her voice.
"Yeah, I'm definitely one of the best, but don't feel too bad. You did really good, too," Sakura noted while pointing out the hole in the dojo wall.
Her new friend did at least smile at that, although it wasn't as bright as the initial one that admittedly got her heart all aflutter, even if she could never realistically act on those feelings. "Thanks, but it's still frustrating," Akane stated as she started to leave. "I'm just glad that you're a girl."
"Huh? Why's that?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, it's just-" Akane stopped at the door and looked back towards Sakura "-I couldn't stand losing to a boy." She then turned and left the dojo.
Sakura didn't say anything in reply at first, instead looking around the empty dojo, ending on the fresh hole in the wall before turning her gaze to the ground and speaking in a soft low voice.
"Yeah, I guess I'm also glad that I'm not a boy."
"So, Little Sister, how did your day go?" Kuroma asked in a sing-song voice as they sat on a small stool in the very lovely Tendo furo room while busily shampooing the hair of Sakura, who was seated on her own stool in front of them.
"Kuroma, I can wash my own hair!" Sakura protested, although she didn't even try to bat their hands away.
"Hey, if you think about it, you kinda are doing that," Kuroma said with a grin.
"No dodging the question," Akama said as he casually swept aside a bit of red hair off his forehead while leaning back in the warm furo water. "I heard that you went to spar with the blue haired chick, and when we found you just hanging out on that porch, you looked a little flushed there."
Sakura shivered as Kuroma poured a pail of cold water over her head to wash out the shampoo. "Sh-shut up! We just had a really nice fight. Akane's pretty good. Maybe even half as good as we are. Hey, what about you? The heck were you doing with that one girl that kept poking us?"
"Eh, can you really blame her for that?" Akama said while gesturing towards his breasts for emphasis. "She's actually kinda cool when she's on your side. We went down to this one park where a bunch of guys were playing basketball, and those dumbasses somehow got the idea that this meter and a half wonder couldn't stack up to them. Let's just say the two of us ended up with a nice stack of cash out of the whole thing."
"Ah, that's perfect," Kuroma noted as they rebraided Sakura's hair. "Now we can pay Kasumi for all those groceries she bought."
Akama frowned as he sat up in the furo. "Do we have ta? Nabiki actually kept most of the money since she said the whole thing was her idea and all."
"Look, Kasumi is making dinner for all of us, and from what I've seen it's gonna be amazing, so we don't get to complain," Kuroma pointed out. "Besides, we should at least pay her back for all the food the old man will pig out on."
"Right, him," Sakura muttered out. "What do we do? I bet he's explaining everything to Akane's dad right now."
"Oh, don't worry, Little Sister, I already have the perfect plan to take care of this," Kuroma said, giving a reassuring pat to the girl's head.
Akama rolled his eyes. "Hey, as good of a plan I'm sure you have, why don't we just team up and knock him around 'til he comes to his senses. Take it from the embodiment of your masculinity, that would be way easier."
"Okay, first off, we're never getting through that panda's thick skull, no matter how much we beat it in," Kuroma pointed out. "And second, I keep telling you that's not what you are!"
"And I keep telling you it makes perfect sense!" Akama countered. "It's the whole Yin and Yang duality stuff. I'm our manly half wrapped up in a kickass, fire haired form. Pinkie there is the girly half our stupid Pops tried to beat out of us. That explains why she's so tiny."
"I'm not sure that's true," Sakura muttered before glaring at her brother. "And you're barely taller than me anyway!"
"Still a difference though," Akama shot back before turning back to Kuroma. "And you're the leftover half that's…we'll I'm sure it's something cause you're the tallest one."
"That's three halves, you dummy," Kuroma pointed out.
"Yeah well, math is bullshit anyway," Akama said, then gave a laugh and pointed at his sibling. "Ha! If we do go with your dumb idea, then you just called yourself a dummy, you dummy!"
Kuroma scowled and went over to bop Akama on the top of the head. "Yeah, and it looks like I need to knock some sense into myself."
"Bring it on!" Akama said while starting to throw punches at Kuroma. "You can't hope to beat your own masculinity."
"Hey, stop it you two!" Sakura stood up as Kuroma started to throw punches right back at their brother. "We got bigger things to-woah!" As she went over to stop the fight, her foot hit a particularly slippery part of the floor and she fell forward, knocking into Kuroma and sending them both into the furo right on top of Akama. "Oops," was all she was able to get out before a bright flash engulfed the room.
Akane entered the changing room feeling a bit better after a long workout. Not that she was actually feeling bad about the spar with Sakura. The pink haired girl was really nice and also extremely pretty. Still, her amazing skills showed just how far Akane still had to go. Oh well, if Sakura did decide to stick around, then she'd have a great kempo partner to help her out.
She took the ribbon out of her hair and was about to undress for her bath when a bright light from the furo caught her attention. Curious, she very carefully crept up to the door, where she heard a muffled voice coming from the other side.
"Huh, well I guess that simplifies things a bit."
Wait, who is that? It sort of sounds like Sakura's eldest sister, but she seems a bit off.
"Still me in control, huh? Figures. Too bad we still can't figure out how to get you two to take charge, I'd love to see Akama having to explain this whole thing."
Control? Take charge? What's she talking about?
"Oh well, can't be helped. We're gonna have to explain this anyway, so might as well go out as I am."
Oh crap, I can't have her think that I was spying on-
Before Akane could fully move away, the door to the furo slid open giving her a full close up view of a bare chest. A bare chest that was also completely flat. Looking up, she found a face that, while somewhat familiar, was definitely a boy's face.
"Um, hi?" the boy, currently clad in only a towel around his waist, squeaked out.
Akane very slowly and very carefully slid the furo door close, then walked out of the changing room, sliding that door closed behind her. Once that was done, she took a nice, deep breath, and screamed as loud as she could.
Her screams continued as she raced down the hallway, into the family room, and out the sliding door to the garden where she quickly grabbed the heavy stone lantern and hoisted it up. "Alright, it's not a problem. I'll just take this and smash it right over his head!"
"Akane, what are you doing?" Nabiki deadpanned as Akane slowly walked the lantern over to the porch and set it down.
"There's a pervert in the bathroom!" Akane angrily yelled out.
Nabiki frowned and crossed her arms. "Is your morning school routine getting homework now? I really don't need something like that."
"Oh dear, I thought Kuroma and her sisters were supposed to be in there." Kasumi noted with worry.
"Um, excuse me," came a voice down the hallway.
Akane and her sisters looked over to find the boy from before looking nervous, with his long black hair pulled back into a low ponytail and clad in a very similar outfit to the one Kuroma was wearing.
"Who the heck are you?" Nabiki asked.
"And what happened to Sakura and her sisters?!" Akane was quick to add.
"Oh, um, you see…" the boy muttered out. "It's kinda complicated, but they sorta are me, and I basically am them. Well, I'm pretty much Kuroma right now, but Akama and Sakura are also up here somewhere." He pointed at his head as if that really answered anything for Akane, then started to rub the back of his neck as he looked down at the floor.
"Um, I'm Ranma Saotome. I'm really, really sorry about this."