Adrian Wong <7ahw@qlink.queensu.ca>
I'm not subbed to the list, please email C&C to <7ahw@qlink.queensu.ca>.
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T h e H e a r t ' s B a t t l e g r o u n d
A Ranma 1/2 and Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover by Adrian Wong
Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi while Evangelion belongs to Gainax
Productions.
" " Japanese dialogue
< > thoughts
[ ] Chinese dialogue
/ / Illusory sounds, memories
***Kevin "Lord Talon" Wible*** and ***Andrew Huang*** are the honorable
pre-readers for this fic!
All previous parts of this series can be found at
http://www.tass.org/fanfic/
Under the titles
ranma.evangelion.the-hearts-battleground.(part number)
My other fanfics, like Poison, Darkness and Light, Village Tale(Prelude
only) can be found on the same page.
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Part 5
An infinite sea of red, stretching, stretching towards
infinity . . .
A boy, tall, pale and lifelessly flawless, a blinding white
ghost contrasting against a world of crimson . . .
Echoes, vague yet haunting, of memories familiar yet alien, of
past and present intertwined . . .
/If it is a girl, then we'll name her Akane./
/An excellent choice, Kimiko./
/If it is a boy, then we'll name him . . . dear, aren't you
putting a bit too much mousse on your hair?/
/Mousse . . . heh, now that's a name that a son will thank his
father for./
/Soun! It is just like you to joke about such things!/
/Ahahaha . . ./
/Mousse, our boy will be named Mousse! Haha . . ./
/Even AKANE would have been a better name for a boy than Mousse!/
Shapes shifted within the red haze, forming the face of an
adorable infant girl, beaming at him with undisguised innocence.
/Dad . . .da, Aka . . ne/
/Aka . . ne . . . luv . . ./
<. . . who really is . . .>
/. . . Dad . . . da . . ./
". . . a part . . . of me . . ."
And his eyes slowly opened, taking in the familiar, white
ceiling of his hospital room. Feeling a hand over his, he turned his
head around and saw Akane's worried expression as she looked down at
him.
"Mousse, what is it? You're . . . mumbling in your sleep."
Mousse stared at her for a moment as his breathing calmed, and
replied. "Nothing."
Akane didn't seem convinced, but she didn't pursue the issue
either. Instead, she simply asked: "how are you feeling?"
Mousse smiled. "Much better than the last time since you've
came."
Akane smiled. Before she could stop herself, she leaned down
against Mousse's broad, newly healed chest. "I'm glad," she whispered
with a light blush on her face. Mousse pats her short hair for a while
with a rather curious look on a face. After a while, a content smile
spread on his face as he decides that he liked the feeling.
<. . . a part of me . . .>
And they stayed like that, enjoying the modest but strangely
intimate contact with each other's body. If only the moment could go on
forever . . .
"Whoa . . . hope I didn't catch ya two love birds at a bad
time?"
Then again, of course it couldn't.
Shooting up from Mousse like a sprint board, Akane turned
aground to glare at the slender, long-haired boy leaning on the doorway.
Idly twirling a piece of his long hair around his finger, he smiled at
Akane with a jocular yet taunting expression.
"Heh, that was pretty impressive. Ya actually acted FEMININE in
the past minute." He then turned to Mousse, who was looking back at him
blankly. "You're the first child, right? Hey, that's a neat shade of
dye you've got on ya hair."
"Blue is the natural color of my hair," The albino boy replied
in a neutral tone of voice, neither offended or amused, "my name is
Mousse."
Ranma, who was trying to have a light conversation, didn't know
what to make of Mousse's response. Akane, however, was majorly ticked
off. "You're just trying to be annoying. Stay the hell away from us,
PERVERT!"
"Hey! I was trying to socialize with you people there, tomboy!
If it weren't for Hinako-san delivering all my stuff to her place right
this minute, I won't even be trying to get along with the likes of you
right now!"
Akane's expression was angry. "You think that just because
you've single-handedly defeated an angel in one shot, that you're better
than us, that you can just make fun of us like this, don't you?"
Ranma was taken back as he protested. "Hey, I never did make
fun of you cause . . ."
"YES YOU DID!" Akane roared at Ranma, as Mousse looked on at her
outburst with a startled expression. "And you know what? Right now,
you MIGHT be better than me, or maybe even better than Mousse. But
someday, someone WILL pilot better than you, be it the two of us or
somebody else, and I'd LOVE to be there to see you get cast aside like
yesterday's newspaper!"
"Shut. Up."
The subtle but dramatic anger in Ranma's voice startled Akane,
but it wasn't enough to make her back down. Looking away from her, the
anger on Ranma's face seemed to drain away into the atmosphere, as his
expression gradually became neutral. Turning to face her again, his
expression had changed into a seemingly flawless mask of boyish
confidence. He was even smirking cockily.
"I'm the greatest Eva pilot alive, the sole defender of the
world! I ain't gonna lose to anyone, and that's the way it is. Feel
free to be jealous of me, tomboy, it won't change a thing! Ha!"
With a contemptuous toss of his hair, he was gone, leaving Akane
annoyed and angry at the same time.
* * * * *
Running down the hall, Ranma has a somewhat wild look in his
eyes as he fled from unpleasant memories conjured up by the tomboy's
cruel words.
/ . . . I'd LOVE to be there to see you get cast aside like
yesterday's newspaper!/
Damn her.
Of course he can't be cast aside ever again. How could he be?
He had trained so hard to be a good Eva pilot just to make sure that
THIS time, he would STAY as the one in the spotlight.
For those who were outclassed . . . were indeed . . . cast aside
like yesterday's newspaper.
A sample of one of those distant, old days that kept on coming
back to haunt him as nightmares was as follows:
"So how about it huh, Aono-san? My boy Ranma here has already
demonstrated his great potential to become a martial artist. Surely, he
could have been worthy of your daughter . . ."
"But our dojo is poor, Genma-san. We can't afford the dowry
that you have requested for this boy. Besides, agile as he is, he
seemed to lack strength . . . I think he's more of a dancer than a
fighter."
"Ah, so you are looking for strength, eh? Ryoga, my boy, show
Uncle Aono what you can do! Now THERE is a dojo heir like you've never
seen: my boy is so strong that he is already capable of smashing through
solid bricks!"
"Kyaa!!!"
Smash!!!!
"Hmmm . . . this one look promising. I will see what I can do
to get the dowry that you've requested, Genma-san."
"Ahaha . . . Aono-san, you won't be disappointed."
"Oyaji . . ." the five year old Ranma tugged on the sleeve of
Genma's gi. The man looked down on him in annoyance.
"What? I'm doing business . . . I mean, a sacred union here."
"I'm hungry . . ." Ranma asked, not daring to look at his
father's stern face.
"No food for you till you can lift that rock lantern up with one
arm. If it weren't for your brother Ryoga, our bloodline would have
been shamed! Ryoga, my boy, you did well today. I'll buy you
okonomiyaki for dinner tonight."
"Thanks, Oyaji!" The five year old Ryoga, Ranma's non-identical
twin, beamed in a fanged smile, then stuck out a tongue at Ranma.
"Nyah! Ranma's a wimp! Ranma's not worthy to be a Saotome!"
"SHUTUP!!!" Ranma struck out at him . . .
. . . and his fist was stopped by Tofu, in a hallway at NERV,
where luckily no one else was watching. Now momentarily free from his
past, the boy's body relaxed as it collapsed against the startled
looking man.
"Ranma! What's wrong?"
"Not . . .Nothing, Otousan." Ranma replied as he stood up and
away from Tofu. Gathering himself, he put on a smiling face.
"So, how did it go with Hinako-san?"
Tofu sighed. "That woman was still as unreasonable as she was
all those years ago. Heh, but what do I care? I still have my little
No-chan drooling over me."
"That's cool, Otousan." Ranma replied somewhat absently as his
eyes sought to look at anywhere other than Tofu's questioning eyes.
Tofu sighed.
"Out with it, Ranma, what's the matter? Is it about Akane?
Really, she doesn't seem like a bad kid, I'm sure you two can get along
fine living together. Besides," Tofu smirked, "you're already 16: it's
about time you learn to get along with girls."
Ranma looked away as he replied in an edgy voice. "I DO know
how to get along with girls, Otousan."
"Well, it's just that ever since you've been sold . . . I mean,
accepted into NERV as a child, you seldom got to socialize with kids
your own age, much less young girls. I mean, I'm kind of a
father-figure to you-"
"You ARE my Otousan." Ranma stared at Tofu with a rather
intense and determined look as the man sweated at his seriousness.
After coughing a bit, Tofu then continued:
"Right. . . and I'm responsible to have you grow up to be a
healthy teenage boy in every way."
"Otousan!" Ranma replied agitatedly. After looking around to
make sure that no one else was there in the hallway, he turned back to
Tofu.
"Otousan . . . am I . . . am I not good enough?"
Tofu was startled. "What?!"
"Am I falling behind your expectations? Am I not good enough to
be your son?" Ranma asked as he got increasing frantic.
"Of course not, you silly kid!" Tofu chided the teenager as he
hugged him. "I'm proud of you, Ranma. Whatever gave you that idea?"
"It . . ." Ranma's voice became shaky as he tried to press down
a sob, "It's just that you said I am not normal . . ."
Tofu quickly began gathering the right lines to try and cheer
the overtly emotional boy up as he held the boy's shoulders so they were
face to face. "I . . . that's not what I meant, Ranma. You made a much
better son than any father in the world can hope for! You can pilot a
Eva like no other can, and you are so brave . . ."
"But . . . What if someone else pilot better than I? What if
. . . what if I lost to an angel?!"
Tofu was alarmed. Ranma's ego was his strength, literally, as
it was what fueled his Eva 02 to perform the Moko Takabisha chi blast.
If his ego was damaged, his Eva's ability to concentrate chi will
decrease accordingly.
"Shhh . . . as long as you keep up your training, NOBODY can be
better than you!"
"But what if . . .?"
Tofu sighed. "Even if you're not the best, I'll still treat you
as my son. But still . . . as I'd like you to keep on trying your best
no matter what. The safety of the world is depending on your
performance."
"Otousan . . . thanks." Ranma said as he put up a light smile.
"I'll keep on doing my best!" With that, he ran off down the corridor
looking for Hinako.
"That's the spirit, Ranma." Tofu sighed in relief. Ranma
wasn't really a bad kid to have as an "adopted son", but his emotional
insecurity, the thing that the boy had hidden from the rest of the world
save for his "Otousan", was still tough to sooth even after all these
years.
* * * * *
On the back of Hinako's car, Ranma and Akane were both extremely
tense. Ranma was coldly staring out at the Geo-front through the window
as Akane sulked, shooting him a glare every once in a while. Seeing
this in her rear-mirror, Hinako sighed.
* * * * *
Ranma looked on at the scene in front of him in awe.
"This . . . this is . . ."
"What does it look like, baka?" Akane asked with a peeved look.
Hinako immediately cut in before Ranma could retort.
"It's my apartment, Ranma-kun." She said as cheerfully as she
was capable of under the circumstance. "Nice place, eh?"
In front of them was a dumping ground for beer-cans and potato
chip sacks. There were Pepsi stains all over the carpet and the sofas,
and to top it all off, there were at least thirty dirty dishes piling up
on the side of the dinning table. Ranma could almost feel the fleas
crawling up her legs as she stared at the remarkable display of
untidiness in front of him.
"Now, since we are ALL to be housemates . . ." Hinako said with
a rather forced smile on her face, "why don't we divide up the chores
with a game of Jaken?"
This time, Ranma somehow managed to lose so badly that he ended
up having to do everything that Akane had to . . . which was just about
everything.
* * * * *
"Err . . . this . . . is all there is for dinner?" Ranma asked,
staring at the cup of instant noodles in front of him.
"What, got a problem with it?" Akane asked, somewhat crossly, as
she sipped on the noodles.
"Like it, Ranma-kun?" Hinako asked tentatively. "Akane boiled
the water herself . . ."
"Yo, Third Child, why don't you make yourself useful and cook up
something else to add to our meal? Or are you unable to do even that?"
Ranma asked with as much arrogance in his voice as he was capable of,
hoping to embarrass Akane. Before Akane could take up Ranma's
challenge, Hinako quickly (and wisely) cut in once again.
"Now, Ranma! You shouldn't be so mean towards Akane . . . "
"What about her being mean to me?!" Ranma snapped. "It is the
10's, dammit! I don't need to take this kinda &(*% from girls!"
"Ha! Since it is the 10's, then why don't YOU go cook us
something, Mr. Feminist?" Akane countered. To her surprise, Ranma
smirked at hearing that.
"You're on."
* * * * *
Half an hour later, around the dinning table . . .
Hinako couldn't help but sob as she ate the dinner prepared by
Ranma.
"It's . . . incredible! How did you manage to make this third
rate bacon taste so GOOD?!"
Ranma smirked confidently as he explained the way of cooking
bacon to Hinako: "Oh that's easy. I made it almost every week, since
it is one of Otousan's favorite dish. Ya just have to fry it with
butter, together with some yellow corns that will make it less stuffy.
No salt is needed in this case, since this bland of bacon is already
salty enough as it is." He then leaned towards Hinako eagerly. "If ya
marry Otousan, then ya can enjoy food like this every night after a
tiring day of work. C'mon, give Otousan a chance!"
Hinako flushed as Akane, who was struggling hard not to touch
the delicious bacon and corn prepared by Ranma, spoke up with a bored
look on her face.
"Why don't YOU marry Tofu-san yourself if you're so hot for him,
Second Child? I'm sure that you'd make a great housewife, Ranma-CHAN."
Ranma sent a HEATED glare towards the Third Child. Before he
could hurl an insult back at her, however, he noticed a duck popping up
on the table beside him, and was staring at him curiously.
"Eh . . . is that a life duck I'm seeing on the table?"
"That's Mu-Mu Chan, a type of new, genetically engineered,
hot-spring duck with extra-hi intelligence." Hinako said, glad that
Ranma was distracted from his anger. "Mu-Mu Chan, say 'Hi' to your new
roommate."
The duck raised a wing at him as if waving as Ranma blinked.
Then suddenly, a rather mischievous expression spread across his face as
he turned to Akane's plate of food.
"Say, Akane, you still haven't touched your food yet, have ya?"
"I'm not hungry," she sulked.
"Well, then . . ." Ranma snatched the plate away from Akane and
placed it in front of Mu-Mu chan, "better not waste good food."
Akane's jaw dropped as she watched the duck effectively cleaned
up her dinner with much vigor. Ranma smiled at Akane with mock
innocence as the latter flared with a bight aura. Hinako, getting tried
of always having to stop them from killing each other, simply refilled
her plate and moved over to the sofa to eat in peace while watching TV.
* * * * *
The next day at Tokyo 3, Shampoo and Kurumi were both already in
their classroom, wondering why was Akane so unusually late that
particular day that they had to arrive at school without her.
Just then, the sound of what seemed like a boy and a girl
quarreling could be heard from outside the hallway:
"Man! How could you eat so much so early in the morning? Truly
you're a gluttonous girl!"
"Jerk! If it weren't for you giving away my dinner last night,
I wouldn't have been so hungry this morning!"
"But you're the one who said that that you weren't hungry? Or
are you just pretending that you don't need my food to uphold your
wounded pride?"
Shampoo's eyes widened. "That voice . . . it no be . . ."
"RANMA NO BAKA!!!!!"
With that, the infamous Second Child was launched into the room
like a rocket. Somersaulting in midair, he regained his balance and
landed lightly in the middle of the classroom while pulling down an
eyelid at the fuming Akane standing by the door.
"Go rot in your own jealousy, uncute tomboy!"
Noticing everybody's curious glances upon them, Ranma quickly
composed himself and got up to the front of the classroom.
"Hi there, everybody! I'm Ranma Saotome, also known as the
Second Child due to the fact the I'm the second Eva pilot ever. Nice
meeting all of ya!"
Immediately, the entire class (minus Akane, Shampoo, and Kurumi)
gathered around him as they did with Akane. However, rather unlike
Akane, Ranma takes great pride in being a Eva pilot, thus is a LOT more
talkative when it comes to people who are interested in knowing more
about his "glory".
"Heh! The world ain't gonna end! Not if I, Ranma Saotome, have
something to say about it!" Ranma struck a rather dramatic pose as the
entire class clapped as if watching a show.
"He's SOOO cute!!!!" Some of the girls in the class giggled
among themselves.
During all this, Shampoo slid over to Akane.
"We seem stuck with jerk boy. Oh well, Shampoo think if we just
no retort to Ranma's boasting, he leave us well alone."
"Easy for YOU to say," Akane sighed, "I'm the one who is stuck
LIVING with him, for Christ sake."
"Whoa . . . now THAT's tough." Kurumi whispered sympathetically.
"You can't even avoid hearing his ranting 24 hrs a day."
Ranma's eyes narrowed slightly as he noticed how Akane, Shampoo
and Kurumi are whispering together while shooting glances at him.
"Now, now, everybody," a beautiful looking boy(?) with long
white hair tied in a high ponytail spoke up, "let's not overwhelm
Ranma-kun here. Besides, class is about to start!"
The class, to Ranma's surprise, obeyed, if somewhat unwillingly.
"Man! The Class Pres. surely knows how to spoil the fun . . ."
The boy smiled at him politely.
Skipping over a few rolls of desk, much to his classmates' awe,
Ranma landed in front of the boy with a smile as he extended a hand.
"Hey there. I don't believe I've met ya yet."
Herb was a bit startled at his agility: it had certainly
exceeded anything that non-musk people were capable of. But what
startled him even more was the fact that another BOY had take the
initiative in befriending him despite his foreign accent and exotic,
almost girlish appearance. He quickly got a hold of himself and took
Ranma's hand.
"Herb. Nice to meet you. You've very agile. You've been
training for quite a couple of years, I presume?"
"Oh, heh! You can tell, huh?" Ranma rubbed the back of his
head as he laughed. "It's really nothing, just speed training, midair
combat, and a little Chi . . ."
Herb looked surprised. "You know how to use your Chi? Me too!
Back in China where I came from, my court master had been training me in
this chi-based maneuver . . ."
Shampoo frowned as she studied the two of them. "Ranma friendly
towards Herb?"
"Probably because he is the Class Pres.. He's trying to gather
some allies in this new school, I guess." Kurumi observed.
"Humph!" Akane snorted. "Choosing his friends like that, just
what I would have expected on that jerk!"
Soon, the teacher came in, and conveniently assigned Ranma a
seat beside Herb's. Ranma was surprised that someone aside from himself
is so interested in the art. He found himself genuinely draw to the
techniques that Herb had mentioned. And best of all, Herb wasn't even a
Eva Pilot. This meant that even though they may have a lot in common,
they would never become rivals. By the end of the day, Ranma had
completely forgotten about the issue of whether Herb was truly a leader
at school or not: he simply hanged around together with him due to the
similarities that they share.
As Akane, Kurumi and Shampoo walked home together that evening,
they found themselves taking the same route as Ranma and Herb.
"Just what are YOU doing here?!" Akane and Ranma demanded of
each other in perfect union as their respective friend(s) blinked.
"I'm going home, you baka! What do you think?" Akane snapped.
"Well, so am I!" Ranma snapped back.
Herb, confused by all this, slid over to Shampoo. "Eh . . .
isn't he supposed to be a Eva Pilot as well?"
"That true."
"But why are they fighting?"
Shampoo switched to Chinese and whispered. [One of them is too
damned egotistic for his own good, while the other is just way too
easily angered.]
[Oh.]
Ranma stamped on his feet in frustration, he then turned to
Herb.
"God! I can't stand her! All she had ever done since I've
arrived was to abuse me with her shrewd ways! Herb, I don't want to go
home and be stuck with the tomboy yet. What say we go and have some fun
elsewhere?"
Herb took out a sheet of paper and looked up his schedule for
the day.
"Well . . . I still have three hours left before I need to make
it back home to cook . . . alright. But can we go to the shopping
district first? I need to get something for my kid cousins."
Kurumi scratched her chin as she said the following in a stage
whisper: "Hmmm, three hours . . . two boys . . . fun, I wonder what that
equation add up to?"
Shampoo smirked slyly and wrote the letters 'Y', 'A','O',and 'I'
in thin air. Akane facefaulted as Ranma and Herb both turned beet red
and immediately went into fits of denial.
"NO! What were ya PERVERT girls thinking?!"
"Shampoo! This is no joking matter!"
"Aiya . . . is just that Ranma seem hate girls . . ."
Herb looked at Ranma oddly as the latter blew up in
embarrassment.
"No! Don't listen to those ditties-"
Kurumi cut him off. "Tell you what, Ranma. If you TRULY are a
. . . hot-blooded teenage boy, then shouldn't you be trying to get along
with us instead of fighting us?"
Ranma fumed helplessly at hearing that.
"Besides," Shampoo added, "you now Akane's teammate, so must
learn get along. Otherwise, how you two fight fallen angels?"
Ranma turned up his nose instinctively at the mentioning of his
career.
"Hmmph! I MYSELF is more than enough to take out any angel who
dares to attack us. That tomboy will only serve to get in the way."
Akane bristled as she glared at the boy. "That's MY line,
pervert! Even WITHOUT training, I've managed to single-handedly defeat
the third angel on my first mission!"
"Well, I can channel chi through my Eva to form an energy beam
that can penetrate AT Fields, can YA do that?"
"Maybe not, but I can make Unit 01 grow mallets out of thin air
to crush AT Fields, can YOU do that?"
"Humph! A weapon user, how absolutely inferior . . ."
"You're only saying that cause you don't know how to use one,
weakling!"
"Muscle-girl!"
"Pervert!"
"Tomboy!"
"This boring," Shampoo yawned, "those two been trading same
insults since moment they met."
"One's think they're married already or something." Kurumi said.
Herb hesitantly spoke up: "Umm . . . Ranma-kun, we aren't going
to stay here all day, are we? I've still got some shopping to do . . ."
Unfortunately, Ranma didn't even hear him. "Ya think you're so
tough? Then how about making a bet, huh? Whoever gets to kill off the
next angel is the superior pilot, and the loser will have to admit
defeat in front of the entire class!"
Akane growled. "You're ON!"
Ranma smirked, then turned to Herb: "Herb! Ya be our witness,
and see to it that this loser here will carry out her part of the
bargain when **I** win!"
"Why . . . YOUUU!!!!!" Akane abruptly leapt skyward and came
down at Ranma with a flying-kick. Ranma narrowed his eyes as he got
into a defensive stance. Before the two could came into physical
contact, however, the loud ring of the emergency sirens shocked them
into colliding clumsily with each other.
**ANGEL ATTACK!! ANGEL ATTACK!! RETREAT TO SHELTER NOW!!**
The automatic recording was activated from a near by building and the
people on the streets immediately fled into the nearer building with an
underground shelter. Getting off of each other immediately, the two
glared at each other for a while, then ran off together to face the
upcoming match.
"Ha! I couldn't wait to see ya humiliated in front of the
entire class after I've taken out the angel, third child!" Ranma
laughed as he leapt over a building.
"I'll shove your own words down you own mouth! Just you wait,
second child!" Akane said as she followed suit a second later. Shampoo,
Herb and Kurumi stared after them for a while, then turned back to each
other and spoke up simultaneously:
"The earth is doomed."
* * * * *
"What did you say?!"
Several hundred meters below ground level, Akane, still in her
school uniform, looked incredulous as Nodoka explained the situation to
her in the control center.
"This angel is capable of splitting up into two when under
threat: the UN air force had discovered that the hard way about 2 hours
ago. They had managed to hit the twin targets with an N2 bombs that had
managed to destroy one of them, but not the other. At this very minute,
it is already rebuilding itself with remarkable speed. Within 6 days,
it will surely return again."
At this point, Hinako spoke up as well: "After analyzing it's
battle with the UN troop, it appeared that the seventh Angel has one and
only one weakness: a concentrated, two-point attack to the core during
it's attempted separation. That's the only way."
Ranma, who was standing in a relaxed pose with his arms behind
his head, looked smug. "That's easily, I'll just get my Unit 02 to give
the bastard a double-handed strike to the core while it is still down-"
"NO!" Nodoka cut him off firmly, "your two hands will NOT be
able to perform exactly the same forward moment in the same time. An
attack by two Evas with completely synchronized timing must be used.
Ranma looked disappointed at hearing that. "Damn! And here I
thought that I don't have to get dragged down by the tomboy-"
Akane's elbow to his face cut him off immediately. "Shut. Up."
Hinako cleared her throat loudly, as Akane looked defiant. The
chief tactician then announced her plan to the pair. "Either case,
we've only got six days left. Akane, Ranma, you two must begin your
combined synchro-trainning starting from tonight."
The two children protested in union: "But I don't want to train
with-"
"This is an order!"
". . . him/her . . ."
Seeing no way to escape their fate, the two sulked quietly as
they glared at each other.
* * * * *
The next day, after school, at the underground gym under
Hinako's apartment:
"So, that what Akane skip school today for?"
"Wow, a special training session designed to get Ranma and Akane
to have matched synchro-rates and identical movements . . ."
"Ranma-kun, you're very good, but . . . you really should slow
down a bit to let Akane-san catch up with you."
In the middle of the cleared up exercise area, Ranma and Akane,
both in white gi, were trying to execute the same set of kempo katas at
the same time under Hinako's supervision as Shampoo, Kurumi, and Herb
looked on. "Halt!" Hinako called out, and the two martial-artists/
pilots stopped their katas and relaxed. Walking up to Ranma, she
chided: "Ranma-kun, you HAVE to slow down to match Akane's movement!"
"But Hinako! I've been trained to move as fluidly as I am now
since a kid!" Ranma whined as he stared sideways at Akane, "I can't
purposely make my kata as awkward and wooden as her's!"
"Why YOU . . ." glowing with red chi, Akane turned to Hinako and
barked, "Hinako! I have a suggestion . . ."
Placing a stack of six bricks over two supporters, Akane focused
herself and crushed all of them with a single chop while Ranma sweated.
Smiling evilly back at Ranma, she said:
"Now, let's see if you can smash a pile of bricks at the same
speed and strength that I have."
"But. . . but. . . strength is unimportant in Eva-combat . . ."
"Not exactly, Ranma," Hinako said, "the strength of a pilot
reflects itself in his Eva. The 7th angel is a humanoid combat type,
thus, strength will come in handy during the battle."
/Boy! Don't even THINK about having dinner ever again if you
can't even smash that tiny piece of rock in half! See how easily Ryoga
had crushed his over there?!/
Crunching his fists together, Ranma growled as he walked up to
his own pile of bricks.
"KYAA!!!!"
* * * * *
A while later . . .
"Oh, wow . . . one out of six. Pretty impressive,
Mr.-I-am-the-best-of-them-all." Akane flexed her arms as Shampoo and
Kurumi giggled. Hinako, meanwhile, was tending to Ranma's injured hand.
He had his head lowered, with his bangs obscuring his eyes.
"Really, Ranma-kun. I think you need to go through more weight
training if you are to pilot the Eva to the best of its abilities."
Hinako signed as she finished applying the stinging medicine over the
swollen area. A shiver passed through Ranma's body as he heard that.
Noticing Ranma's reaction, Herb crouched down so he was face to face
with the quiet boy and spoke up soothingly.
"Ranma-kun . . . it's alright. If you can develop all this
amazing speed and flexibility, then a simple thing like smashing through
bricks can't possibly be any harder."
Akane meanwhile, spoke up off-handedly as she wiped off her
sweat on a towel:
"I don't know. How old is he? 16? That's pretty late to start
strength training if you ask me. He still might get stronger, but will
never be as good as someone who had been going through strength training
since a child."
At hearing that, Ranma abruptly got up and ran out of gym.
Akane was startled at hearing a sob as he fled by. Shampoo, Kurumi and
Hinako were all shocked, while Herb was staring after Ranma with a
pained look on his face.
"Akane-san . . . go after him."
"What . . . what for?" Akane put on a mask of disdain. "That
baka brought that upon himself, always putting down other people like
that. Stupid pervert cry-baby . . ."
Without turning around, Herb said: "Akane-san . . . when a girl
cries, she did it to let out her pain to gain other people's sympathy.
When a boy cries, he did it because he was unable to hold back his pain
despite the danger of getting ridicules." After a short pause, he
continued. "I've known Ranma for only a little more than a day. We
talked about things we have in common . . ."
"Umm . . . Herb has things in common with Ranma?" Shampoo asked
hesitantly.
Herb ignored her as he went on, "martial arts, video games . . .
but during all this time, his topics has not ONCE diverged from EVA
combat techniques." He turned back to stare at the girls (and woman) in
their eyes. "Piloting a Eva is his only goal in life. By saying that
he can't begin weight training at his age after Hinako-san had stated
that strength is essential in piloting a Eva, you've basically condemned
him."
With that, he left the gym as well. Hinako quickly followed
him:
"Wait! I'm going too: it is my responsibility as his guardian!"
Shampoo and Kurumi stared at Akane for a while, then they too
went after Ranma to see how he was doing.
Akane stood still, her conscience battling against her hatred.
Finally, with a determined look in her eyes, she too headed out to look
for Ranma.
"Baka . . ." she muttered without much heat in her worried
voice.
* * * * *
She found him sitting on the edge of a rather tall building, his
crossed legs dangling off the edge. After getting up there, she
tentatively tried to approach him from behind.
"Umm . . . Ranma, I . . . eh . . . I want to tell you that we've
still got to train for the upcoming fight."
"Get the First Child to go with ya: don't want someone who can't
even smash bricks drag ya down, ya know." Ranma replied without looking
around. Akane rolled her eyes at that.
"Oh, for Christ sake, stop sulking-"
"WHY NOT?!" Ranma roared as he whirled around and glared at
Akane with his slightly swollen eyes. "I have speed, I have agility,
and now I've even got CHI BLASTS! But ya people STILL think that I'm
not good enough, that I'm $$%&%*&^* WEAK!"
Akane's own anger was ignited by Ranma's tone of voice: "So
what?! If only you'd just train-"
"I DON'T WANNA, OKAY?!?!" he yelled, "cracking granites, lifting
boulders, chopping down trees with bare hands . . . I CAN'T TAKE THAT
ANYMORE! I'm not meant to be strong . . . I'm meant to be skilled . . .
I'm BETTER THAN RYOGA!" his eyes turned teary as he lowered his head,
"why can't anybody see that . . .?"
Akane, stunned and confused at the same time, asked: "What . . .
are you talking about? And who's this Ryoga?"
"He's my . . ." he stole a look at her curious face, then looked
away again, "he's nobody."
"Like HELL I'm going to buy that!" Akane stepped forward and
gripped the front of Ranma's gi in her hand. "Whatever the *&(%#&$ is
bothering you, just spill it and get it over with! What is it that made
you so damned insecure and egotistic and moody that you've to make my
life such a pain?! Whatever it is, just tell me and get this over
with!"
Ranma yelled back at her: "And what is it that made YA so damned
violent and angry all of the time, huh?! If it isn't for my superior
speed and skill, I would have been killed by ya temper already! C'mon,
YOU tell me!"
"I'M THE ONE ASKING QUESTIONS HERE-"
"HYPROCRITE! YOU'RE JUST AS AFRAID AS I AM!"
At this, Akane raised her hand and gave him a resounding slap
across the face . . .which threw the boy off the edge of the building.
Fury turning into fright, she immediately dashed out after him into
midair . . . and fell together with him.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
Years of speed training and mid-air combat kicked into Ranma's
system, as he quickly grabbed Akane, twist his body around, and began
jumping back and forth between the opposing walls of two very high
buildings to cancel up the downward momentum. Finally, within three
stories from the ground, he somersaulted in mid-air and the two of them
landed heavily but safely on the ground.
Catching his breath, Ranma didn't realize how tightly Akane had
held onto him until a moment later. Before he could push her away,
however, a wet feeling on his right shoulder had stopped him from
completing the act. A sob could be heard from his right ear:
"We've both got unpleasant pasts . . . things that we don't want
to talk about . . ." lifting her head out of his shoulder, Akane stared
into his puffy eyes with her own teary ones. "I hate piloting Eva
almost as much as you seemed to love doing so. I'm strong while you're
fast . . . so what? We've still got to work together: the angel will
come in less than five days. I don't want to die . . ." she broke down
and cried on his gi, "it's . . . scary."
Ranma was silent as he listened to her sobbing. After a while,
he gently pushed back Akane's shoulders so that they were looking each
other face to face.
"I'll try to slow down my kata to match yours . . . in return
for us smashing through two bricks instead of 6. Deal?"
Akane stared at him for a moment as she wiped off her tears.
She then replied in a soft voice. "Deal."
Ranma smiled with a glint of amusement in his tired eyes.
"You're okay when you're not angry."
Akane smiled back in return. "And you're not that bad yourself
when you're not busy boasting."
The two of them simply stared at each other with slightly
bashful smiles on their faces, totally oblivious of all that went on
around them . . .
" I haven't seen anything this touching since the Shin KOR
series . . ." Kurumi wiped at her eye with a handkerchief.
"Finally! I won't have to worry about those two killing each
other while under my guidance!" Hinako said excitedly.
"Ranma-kun, I'm happy that you two are okay now . . ." Herb
smiled.
Shampoo simply stared at them and blinked.
"WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING HERE?!" Ranma and Akane yelled back
at them in union.
"Well, we're worried about Ranma-kun, and eh . . ." Hinako
smirked, "but it seemed that you've helped out each other well. I
supposed we can start training again after dinner tonight?"
The two looked at each other in an unspoken agreement, then back
at Hinako. "Hai!"
* * * * *
Five days later:
CRASH!!!
In complete union, Unit 01 and 02 had struck the core of the
angel with Akane's strength and Ranma's speed, and it exploded in a
cross-pillar of fire.
Back at the control booth, Hinako leapt up with glee as she
shouted, "YES! I KNEW those two can do it!"
"I'm truly impressed," Nodoka said as she smiled, "that those
two arch-enemies can actually accomplish something together."
Tofu chuckled. "Well, my boy can only resist a pretty girl for
so long . . ."
"Oh my. Teenagers grow up fast, don't they Tofu-san?" Kasumi
smiled at him.
"Ehahahaha . . . sure they do, don't they? No-chan?"
SLAP!!!
"I'm HINAKO! And WHERE do you think you are putting your hands,
pervert! And Kasumi, you're only three years older than the children!"
"My . . ."
Amidst all these, Commander Soun Tendo simply listened quietly
to the conversations regarding his own daughter without showing any sign
of interest.
* * * * *
As the two walked on the city streets, still dazed by their easy
success when working together, Ranma spoke up with a smirk on his face:
"You're really strong: I'd give ya that."
Akane smiled back. "And you're fast: without you distracting it
in the first place, We'd never get our opening."
Ranma laughed. "Am I hearing things? Are you praising ME?"
Akane looked slightly peeved. "Don't let it go over your head
now."
"Alright already! I'm not THAT egotistic . . ." Ranma threw
his hands up in the air, ". . . by the way, it's still early. I don't
want to go back to the apartment so soon. Ya . . . ya wanna go to the
mall downtown?"
Akane laughed. "Am I hearing things? Are you asking ME out?"
Ranma backed away with a blush on his face. "Hey, don't get any
ideas. It's just a social call, ya know. Besides, Otousan has been
bugging me about meeting girls . . ."
Akane sighed. "Oh, alright! You and your Otousan and your
masculine pride . . . hey, mind to tell me why did you call him your
father? He seemed awfully young . . ."
Ranma had a wistful smile on his face. "He helps me a lot . . .
since I was 9 while I was . . . in training."
"You were THAT young when they started training you?" Akane
gasped as Ranma looked a hint uncomfortable.
"Younger . . . let not talk about it. C'mon, I'll race ya to
the train station!"
With that, the boy took off into the night, followed by the
girl.
"WAIT! You had a head start!"
* * * * *
[Herb, I'm kind of worried. I mean, with Akane and Ranma
suddenly being this close . . .]
[Shampoo, I know you don't like Ranma much, but you should still
support their choice.]
[But . . .]
[What?]
[. . . what about Mousse?]
[. . . ]
* * * * *
A few hours later, in a huge, dimly lit laboratory deep under
the Central Dogma, Commander Tendo was standing in front of a large
glass pillar of LCL while typing into small a hand-held computer. As he
did so, he couldn't help but took a second look at the long-haired,
naked youth suspended within once in a while.
After finished typing in the last of the recorded data, he spoke
up gently: "It's done, Mousse. You can relax now."
The boy within the pillar opened up his red eyes and stared into
a pair of older looking, black ones.
"Commander . . ." his voice came through the sound system.
"Yes . . . ?"
"If I can't abandon she who is a part of me . . . then how could
you?" The boy asked in a calmly curious tone of voice.
Commander Tendo stared back into his red eyes for a moment.
After a while, he turned away, and said. "Go get dressed, Mousse.
We'll go eat together."
". . . Hai."
End Part 5
Adrian Wong <7ahw@qlink.queensu.ca> April 2,1998.
(
geocities.com/timessquare/realm) (
geocities.com/timessquare)