From: Emily Siazon emily9@bellatlantic.net
"WASURERARENAI"(Unforgettable)
An alternative reality fic by Emily Siazon.
All characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi.
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Chapter 8
*********
A horde of boys stood impatiently near the gate, their eyes
trained towards the road before them, waiting for their prey to
appear.
They had been doing this for weeks, and so far, all they'd
received were broken bones and bruised egos. Most had started to
seriously doubt that trying to beat Akane up would win them her love,
but they were smart enough not to say so out loud, lest they feel
Kuno's wrath.
The sounds of quickly approaching footsteps reaches their ears.
It indicated that the two students running towards the mob were aware
that they were going to be late.
The boys quickly got into defensive stances, some wincing at the
thought of acquiring more bruises from a certain frustrated red and
black clad martial artist.
"Go on, Akane. I'll take care of these guys so at least one of
us won't be late," Ranma yelled, handing over his backpack to her.
"No way!"
"What?!"
He never got an answer as Akane ran straight towards the group
of boys and smacked them all on the head with Ranma's bag as she
ran by.
The book bag, filled with many heavy books, managed to knock
the boys unconscious while Ranma watched from the street in
disbelief.
"C'mon, Ranma."
"Uh, r-right."
* * *
"They never had a chance," one of the girls watching from a
nearby window stated as she watched the pair make their way into
the building at a more leisurely pace.
"Why don't they just give up? The idiots. It's obvious she's
not interested so why won't they take the hint?"
"Speaking of people who can't take a hint..." Nabiki raised
an eyebrow, looking straight at the group of girls.
Everyone's faces turned red, making them look like a patch of
tomatoes as they vainly tried to cover their Ranma Saotome Fan
Club membership buttons.
"Well, anyway," another girl covered in bandages cut in,
trying to switch to a less embarrassing topic. "I didn't realize
Akane was that good. We could use more members for the Rhythmic
Gymnastics Club."
"Is that psycho from St. Bacchus attacking again?"
"Yeah. She calls it fighting in all fairness. Thanks to her, we
don't have any members left for the match on Friday!"
Nabiki looked back at the group of semi-unconscious boys on the
front lawn with a thoughtful expression on her face as she answered,
"Perhaps Akane _could_ help."
"Let's ask her during lunch."
* * *
"You did what?!" Ranma demanded as he stared at Akane like
she had just grown another head.
"I told them I'd be happy to join."
"Are you crazy?! If what they told you was true, then that girl
they're so afraid of will be after you!"
"But..."
"I bet you don't even know what Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics
is, do you?"
Akane bit her lip. "No."
Ranma gave an exasperated sigh as he leapt off the fence and
started to walk next to her. "Neither do I. So, how do you expect to
train?"
Akane never got the chance to answer since someone chose that
moment to speak. "Perhaps I can help."
The two teenagers looked up and found Ryoga standing a block
away facing the opposite direction.
Wiping the sweatdrops off their heads, Ranma and Akane walked
towards the eternally lost boy to tap him on the shoulder.
"Do you really think you can help, Ryoga?" Akane asked, her
voice filled with hope.
Ranma, standing behind her, mimicked what she said. His tone
and expression indicated that he wasn't too happy at seeing his
rival.
Ryoga, meanwhile, was too busy blushing to hear him. "Y-yeah.
I know quite a bit about it."
"Great!" Akane exclaimed as she grabbed his hand and led him
towards the dojo. Ryoga, busy drowning in bliss, never noticed
Ranma's angry glare behind them.
* * *
"Arghh!" Akane yelled in annoyance as she got tangled by the
ribbons for the hundredth time in the hour. "This is so hard."
Ryoga just smiled while he unwound the strand of silk from her
waist, his patient smile strained as he prepared to show her how the
ribbon worked. Again.
* * *
"So, how's the training going?" Kasumi inquired the next day when
she passed by to hang the laundry dry.
"She's improved a lot," Ryoga answered proudly before being
beaned on the head by a stray club.
"Oops!"
* * *
"All right!" Ryoga exclaimed enthusiastically on the third day as
Akane snagged a couple of the airborne projectiles effortlessly.
"You're practically a pro at this."
Akane smiled smugly, her posture tense while she waited for
another assault. The bored Ranma threw another set of clubs, not
paying a whole lot of attention to what he was doing. Because of
this, he wasn't able to react quickly enough when Akane's ribbon
wrapped around his hand and yanked him straight toward Ryoga.
The bandanna clad martial artist could only stare wide-eyed
before his adversary crashed into him. The two lumps formerly known as
Ranma and Ryoga groaned in unison while they tried their best to stand
up.
"...Of course, I don't think a bit more practice would hurt,"
Ryoga continued meekly before he passed out.
* * *
"I wonder where Ryoga is," Akane thought aloud while looking out
the window.
"Aww. Don't worry about that jerk. I'm sure he's just lost like
usual," Ranma grumbled from a corner of the room as he halfheartedly
went through a kata.
"But he hasn't been around for two days. It's the day before the
match so I really need his help."
The two teenagers heard a noise coming from the entrance to the
dojo and were surprised when no one appeared.
"What..." Akane started to say before she was interrupted by a
squeal. "P-chan!"
Hearing her call, her pet piglet ran into the room. An annoyed
figure in a leotard muttered curses that would make a sailor blush as
she got dragged in along with it.
It was then that Akane noticed what had dragged the girl inside.
In her hand was a leash. On the other end of it was P-chan bweeing
angrily.
"W-who are you?"
The girl started to twirl her ribbon as she announced, "I'm
Kodachi, The Black Rose. I am the rising young star of the rhythmic
gymnastic world and I shall be your opponent for the match next week."
Akane was surprised to find out that while she was listening to
the introductory speech, the pony-tailed girl had somehow managed to
wrap her right hand with the chain.
"Now, let's fight for real," Kodachi screeched, recklessly
charging at her opponent.
Since the leotard-clad girl made no secret of her intentions,
Akane quickly moved her hand in order to protect her face from the
brunt of the attack.
Unfortunately for P-chan, the movement caused the chain to jerk
around wildly. He only had time to let out a terrified bwee before he
smacked into Kodachi's head, effectively knocking her unconscious.
* * *
Ranma woke up bright and early the next day. A quick glance
at the clock informed him that it was already 7:30. He quickly
turned around and found his father's futon rolled up beside him,
obviously unused.
Genma hadn't woken him up for their early morning sparring
session either. Usually, by this hour, he would have gotten an
earful from his old man about what a lazy and ungrateful son he
was.
Ranma, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, shrugged and
went back to sleep.
* * *
When he woke up, he was pleasantly surprised to smell Katsudon
being cooked for lunch.
Wait a minute. Lunch? Ranma
wondered as he groggily headed downstairs.
He wasn't a bit surprised to find his father and Mr. Tendo
passed out in front of their shogi board. He wondered what obscure
holiday they decided to celebrate this time.
When he sat down on the table, his eyes sparkled as he eagerly
grabbed his chopsticks. His stomach grumbled impatiently while he
watched Kasumi enter the dining room, bowls in hand.
Before she set down the food, however, she whipped out a piece
of paper from her apron and handed it to Ranma.
He looked longingly at the bowl for a minute before he accepted
the letter.
He quickly unfolded it and started to read, knowing that Kasumi
wouldn't give him his lunch until he was done.
_____________________________________________________________________
Ranma,
Meet me today under the bridge at twelve sharp.
_____________________________________________________________________
The rest of the letter was just a big black blur.
Seeing his questioning glance, Kasumi apologized. "Sorry, Ranma.
I accidentally spilled a cup of water on myself this morning."
He let out a long suffering sigh before he took a final look at
the Katsudon. Unfortunately, it didn't look any less delicious than
it did earlier. The rice was firm enough to hold up the broth and the
eggs and onions were sliced evenly. The meat looked so tender that he
felt like it was a crime to leave it now.
But the note said twelve, which meant he only had five minutes
to reach his destination. He wondered who had challenged him this
time. Well, whoever it was, they'll certainly be in for a fight.
They'll learn the hard way that separating Ranma Saotome from his
lunch just wasn't a bright idea.
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AUTHORS NOTES: I think you can already guess that I was hungry when I
wrote this ^_^
The chapters just keep getting longer and longer. The chapter 8 I had
planned is going to take up 3 chapters including this one.
I'd like to thank Scott, my prereader for helping me fix those
annoying mistakes I tend to make.
Now that this chapter is done, I can finally finish reading the Shin
KOR novels ^_^
******
I don't get it. All I said was that the geese from Fly Away Home would
make tasty lunch specials and suddenly everyone thinks I'm sadistic.
(
geocities.com/timessquare/realm) (
geocities.com/timessquare)