Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū Tenka'ichi Budōkai
By: JaquiK
Chapter 3: Power Couple?!
"Ah, what a beautiful day for a tournament, Tendo."
"Right you are, Saotome."
Genma and Soun were currently out in the large crowd of spectators that were eagerly waiting for the tournament proper to start. Along with them was Soun's eldest daughter, Kasumi.
"Yes, a perfect day for my son to show to the world the true greatness of my martial arts style," Genma declared.
"Indeed, I look forward to seeing what my future heir can do, but I have a feeling it won't just be him impressing everyone today," Soun responded with a laugh.
"I just hope everyone has a good time and no one gets hurt," Kasumi said with a bit of worry in her voice.
"Who cares, really," said Nabiki, walking up to join them. "It's just a stupid tournament."
"Oh dear," Kasumi said while reaching up to straighten out the collar of her sister's gi. "I take it the preliminaries did not go well for you then?"
"Stupid kid and his stupid spiky hair," Nabiki grumbled out.
"Hmmm, perhaps you would have performed better if you put just a little more effort into your training," Kasumi casually observed.
Nabiki crossed her arms over her chest. "Well unfortunately, some of us have things to do. We can't all be like you and Akane. And for that matter, why did you even bother with all that if you weren't actually going to join yourself?"
"Oh, sparring with Akane was really fun, and such good exercise," Kasumi said with a smile that quickly dropped. "But I don't think I could risk hurting someone in a real fight. Especially for something as silly as prize money."
Nabiki gave a half hearted glare. "Kasumi, you're my sister and I love you, but do not blaspheme in front of me like that."
Genma gave a scoff. "Really, Tendo, I still cannot believe you would allow your daughters to play around at such a serious event."
"Well, personally I think it's a good way for them to get it out of their system before it's time for them to get married and start their wifely duties," Soun said, completely missing the full hearted glare now directed at him.
"Oh, I wouldn't take Akane lightly," Kasumi responded. "She did get training under every martial arts master in Nerima Town after all."
"Hah! They wouldn't hold a candle to the master my boy has been learning from!"
"You still haven't told us who this mysterious master is," Soun commented.
"Oh, now that will spoil the surprise. You'll just have to wait until Ranma makes it to the final eight."
"Yes, and I'm certain my baby girl will be there as well. Oh, how wonderful would it be for them to face off in the finals."
"Ah yes, it would be the perfect stage for the schools to be united, Tendo."
"Indeed it would, Saotome."
The men began laughing in merriment as Nabiki gave a groan. "I still can't believe there's two of them," she grumbled.
The preliminary rounds continued on as Ranma mowed down her competition. It seemed that the training under her sometimes wise, usually just annoying teacher had managed to pay off far beyond what she could have expected. She found herself even having to hold back a bit against the opponents she didn't feel the need to kick through a wall, and she still was able to take care of them while barely breaking a sweat.
In between each of her fights (and admittedly a little bit during), she kept an eye out to see how everyone else was doing. Goku and Kuririn were also showing the results of their training, dispatching their opponents with little effort. Where she kept her focus the most, though, was the stage on the far end where that one girl was fighting. As opposed to Ranma, who preferred to wait for the opponent to make the first move then go for the counterattack, that girl seemed to enjoy charging in right at the start, going full pelt to take down her competition before they even had the chance to react. Ranma had to admit the tactic was very effective in these preliminary matches with their one-minute time limits and smaller stage, but she had to wonder how it would work during the tournament proper.
As she waited for her next bout, which would be the first of the deciding matches in her block, she looked over once again. Goku looked to be just finishing up their last opponent, some older guy who probably considered himself a hotshot martial artist. She found herself hoping that she would get the chance to face off against her friend and fellow student to really see what they both could do. And as for the match on the far end of the-
'Is that a dinosaur?!'
Ranma blinked and then rubbed her eyes before looking again and confirming that, yes indeed, that blue haired girl was currently squaring up to some sort of dinosaur person. She had to wonder if the girl's bull rush strategy finally found its brick wall. While this one wasn't super big, she knew from far too much experience how tough and dangerous regular dinosaurs could be, so how dangerous was one that could do martial arts?
"Will contestants number 1 and 18 please come up to the stage?"
Ranma got on the fighting platform, but still kept her gaze on the upcoming match at the far end. Even with her impending fight, there was no way she was going to be distracted from-
If you wanna see some action
Gotta be the center of attraction
Make sure that they got their eyes on you
Like the face that you see on every magazine
The strange sound of music and singing caused her to blink and look over to find the source. Said source ended up being a large group of girls that she was fairly certain weren't part of the tournament proper. One of them was holding up a boombox while another was belting out an admittedly catchy upbeat tune into a microphone with the others joining in on certain parts. They were looking at what was probably lyric sheets and stood in two lines creating a path leading up to the fighting stage.
Be the focus of attention
Be the name that every one must mention
Come out from the shadows, it's your time
Cos tonight is the night for everyone to see
Sauntering along that path was the other pretty boy in her bracket. At least this blond haired guy appeared capable of holding himself in a fight based on what she saw before. Although none of those fights included anything like this crap.
It's natural
You know that this is where you gotta be
It must be your destiny
Sensational
And you believe that
This is what you've waited for
And it's you that they all adore, so baby
The boy then leapt high into the air, performing several graceful flips before gently landing onto the platform right across from Ranma. He gave what he probably thought was a charming smile her way and went into a flamboyant pose as all the girls joined in singing together.
Now you feel like number one
Shining bright for everyone
Living out your fantasy, the
Brightest star for all to see
Now you feel like number one
Shining bright for everyone
Living out your fantasy, you're the
Brightest star there's ever been
Ranma blinked and looked over to the tournament official. "Hey, are we supposed to be doing entrances for the deciding fights?" Said official just shook his head rapidly.
"Ah, you see, my sweet angel," the boy announced in what apparently passed for a smooth voice, "even outside of the glorious area of the ice, I must deign to show my appreciation for a beauty such as yourself." As he talked, he was continuously pelted with crumpled up pieces of paper along with one microphone. "Before we start, though, I shall make sure to present you with your prize for reaching-" The boombox being hurled into the back of his head cut off his speech.
"Hey, dickweed!" the girl who was doing most of the signing yelled out. "Are we getting paid for your little stunt or what?"
"I told you, you'll get your money once I win the tournament!" said dickweed yelled back to the girl.
Ranma looked back to the far end of the room, only to see a completely empty fighting stage and no sign of the girl from earlier.
"Now, as I was saying," said the dickweed who seemed to regain his composure and was once again addressing her while trying to be suave, or at the very least diet imitation suave. "While this is as far as you go in this tournament, you, my darling beauty, will be presented with a prize far greater. That is, the honor of being the 999th girl to taste the lips of the great Mikado!"
Ranma casually turned to the tournament official. "So can I fight now?"
The official broke out of his stupor. "Oh, oh right. This is the match to determine the first of the two entrants from block one to the Tenka'ichi Budōkai. Um, you may begin."
"Good." Ranma said before sprinting at full speed and performing a jumping spin kick right to the face of Mikado the Dickweed, causing him to fly out of the ring and right through the hole in the wall created by the other jerk.
"And that would be an out of bounds. The winner, going to the Tenka'ichi Budōkai, is number 18!"
As soon as the announcement was made, Ranma jumped off the stage and started to make her way over to the other side of the arena, but was quickly stopped by the approach of an ecstatic Goku with an equally enthusiastic Kuririn riding on their shoulders. "Ranma! We did it! We all made it to the 'Number One Under the Heavens' tournament thing!"
The enthusiasm was definitely contagious and Ranma couldn't help but give a cocky smirk herself. "Yep, I told you we got this." The smile dropped as she went back to scanning the remaining fighters in the crowd, finally getting a glimpse of long bluish black hair off in the far corner.
"Oh yeah. By the way, this is Yamcha. He made it in, too."
Ranma gave a quick wave, never keeping her eyes off her target. "Nice to meet you. Listen, Goku, there's someone I need to talk to quick. I'll catch ya later."
"Yeah, I can't wait! This is gonna be…fun?" Goku said to the redhead's quickly retreating back. "Huh, weird. Okay Kuririn, let's go see my friends and tell them the great news!"
Ranma rushed over as quickly as the crowd would annoyingly allow her and finally made it to where the girl was. She found her leaning against the wall with her head down and an obvious look of disappointment on her face. 'Damn, I guess she really did find her brick wall after all,' she thought. 'And I was really hoping to get a match with her, too.' She slowly approached and gave the most sympathetic smile she could come up with. "Hey, there."
"Huh?" The girl looked up and brightened a bit at seeing who it was. "Oh, hi again! Wow, it's really been a day so far, hasn't it. The heck was up with that musical number anyway? I sort of missed what was happening."
"Eh, it was just some idiot trying to show off or something. Um, too bad things turned out the way they did."
"Oh. Oh yeah," the girl said with a resigned smile. "These things happen I guess."
"It really sucks though. I was really hoping we'd get a chance to clash. Hey, if it makes you feel any better, at least I was able to take care of that annoying so-called fiancé of yours."
"Well, you know what they say, there's alway next…wait, when did you do that?"
"Remember? It was that first guy I fought. Kicked him right through the wall and stuff. Glad I did too with the crap he was spewing 'bout you."
The girl let out a hearty laugh at that. "Well, I'm definitely grateful one of us got to do that to him, but no, Tatewaki is just a creep that goes to the same school as me. He's absolutely no fiancé of mine, no matter what flowery garbage he spouts."
"Oh. Guess I missed whoever that other jerk is then. Hey, maybe he got knocked out early and you don't have to worry 'bout him."
"Yeah right, with how my luck goes…Plus, with how the guy's dad is just constantly bragging on and on every day to my dad about how strong and amazing and 'perfect for uniting the schools' his son is, he probably did end up making it in also. Bet I'll be facing him right away in the first round."
"Oh wow, wish I could get my pops to say that many nice things to me. Or any nice things really. Don't worry, though. I'll see if I can eliminate that jerk right away in the first…wait, are you…" Ranma said with a sudden realization.
"Huh? Do you mean…" the other girl said with apparently the same realization.
"You made it into the tournament?!" they both said at the same time, before breaking out into laughter.
"Oh, that's great!," Ranma exclaimed. "When I saw you over here looking all sad and stuff I thought that dinosaur guy beat you."
"He actually called himself a kaiju. Smallest one I've ever seen. Yeah, no, he was a bit annoying, especially with that weird gum stuff he spit out, but I was still able to take him out. Honestly, with the way you were talking, I thought you actually got eliminated yourself."
"Ha, no way, especially with all the scrubs that ended up in my bracket. My pops would be all over my case if I couldn't take care of them. Probably'd go off non stop about me bringing shame to 108 generations of Saotomes or some crap like that. Wait, did you think I lost and that was why you looked so sad?"
The odd look on the girl's face quickly dropped and she shook her head. "No, no. It's because my sister, Nabiki, didn't make it through. I was kind of looking forward to the two of us advancing. Can you imagine, two sisters in the main tournament showing all those arrogant men exactly what a couple of girls could do? Oh! We can still do something like that now though. Wouldn't it be perfect if we end up on opposite ends of the brackets so it would be two girls making it all the way to the finals?"
"Yeah, that would be…oh," Ranma said as she suddenly remembered her plans to go through the main tournament in guy mode. 'Maybe if we treat it as one and a half girls she wouldn't mind? Or I could just use the other fights to test my guy side and have the fight with her as a girl?' "Yeah, um, listen. That's great and all…"
"I know, right?," the other girl said, excitement continuing to build in her voice. "I can just picture it now. 'Ladies and Gentlemen, for the first time in the one hundred year history of this prestigious tournament, we have two female competitors in the deciding match. So now, I proudly present to you, in the finals of the 21st Tenka'ichi Budōkai…' oh. Oh crap!" she exclaimed wide eyed before bursting into sudden laughter. "I just realized, I never asked your name."
"Oh yeah, I kinda forgot to get yours, too," Ranma said with a sheepish expression.
"Heh, whoops. Well we can make up for that now," the blue haired girl said with a big smile. "Hi, my name is Akane. Would you like to be friends?"
The red haired martial artist gave a big smile of her own. "Hi, I'm Ranma, and I would love to be friends." She could hardly believe her fortune. Throughout most of her life, she had one or maybe two people she could consider friends. Now she was finding herself with so many. Goku, Kuririn, Lunch, possibly the other Lunch to some extent, and now this super cool Akane girl. And plus, as her friend, she would probably understand the whole 'wanting to do some of the matches as a guy' thing. "Oh hey, Akane, I should…um, is something wrong?" Ranma asked in confusion at the sudden wide eyed stare she was now receiving from Akane.
"Wait, your name is Ranma? And that whole…" Akane looked down in thought for a moment before continuing a bit hesitantly. "You…you wouldn't happen to have a dad named Genma, would you?"
Ranma froze briefly, but then gave a reluctant nod. "Yeah…I do."
"Kind of a bulky guy, always wearing the same dirty old gi and bandana?"
Ranma just nodded her head again.
"Constantly talking about the Saotome family name even though family names are very outdated at this point."
Ranma started to nod again, but instead tilted her head in confusion. "Um…yeah?"
"Ugh, I know. My dad is the exact same way. He keeps saying 'it's tradition' and stuff. Nabiki is alway on his case about it and telling him 'it's 750. You need to get with the times.' And now of course we're getting that name nonsense in stereo with…oh." Akane paused in her mini rant slightly red faced as she seemed to suddenly remember her original question. "So that guy really is your dad then."
Ranma gave a long, tired sigh. "Okay, what scam did Pops try to pull and what can I do to fix it?" She braced herself for the anger and demands yelled out from the girl who was for a very brief moment her friend. Instead she was surprised as Akane simply burst out into laughter again.
"Oh…oh wow…this is perfect!" she managed to get out between fits of giggles, doubled over with tears starting to stream down her eyes.
"Um, what exactly did he do?"
Akane managed to gain control of herself again and looked back up at Ranma with a huge grin on her face. "He got us engaged!"
"He…he what?!" Ranma asked in shock. While she was used to the many outrageous and ridiculous scams her father tried to pull, getting engaged against her will, not to mention without her knowledge, was definitely a new one for her.
"Yeah, can you believe it," Akane continued with mirth in her voice. "It turns out you were the absolute jerk fiancé the whole time. Unless…wait, you don't happen to have a brother with the same name or anything, do you?"
Ranma quickly shook her head. "No, it's just me."
"Oh good," Akane said with relief. "Ha, I can't wait to see the look on my dad's face when he finds out who his great male heir that would take over my dojo really is. Heck, we should go and actually get married just to show him."
The redhead could practically feel the steam shoot from her ears. "R-really?"
"Nah, not really. We only just met after all. Plus, I'm 16 and definitely not ready for that. Dad's reaction alone would almost make it worth it though. Oh, you have no idea how happy I am that you're not a boy."
Before Ranma could find a response to that, an announcement came over the speaker system. "Attention! The Tenka'ichi Budōkai will start shortly. Will the eight finalists please go to the main martial arts hall right away!"
"Oh, that's our cue," Akane said before grabbing Ranma's hand. "Let's go show all those arrogant guys just what a couple of girls are capable of!"
As Ranma let herself be pulled along, she tried to figure out what she was going to do. 'Darn, she's being so nice and friendly and pretty to me. I really don't want to have to lie to her about my guy side. Stupid Pops and his stupid engagement. Guess I should not reveal my other form to her until we take care of that. Yeah, that should work. It still feels like a girl day for me anyway, so how hard could that be?' She gave a small nod of determination not to mess things up with her new friend and sort of reluctant fiancée as they headed to the main hall…where Goku and Kuririn would be.
'Ah…crapbaskets.'
