When Ranma Was Two II
The dojo, a.k.a the House of Pain:
Ranma was jumping around. More precisely, he was dodging. To be
even more specific, he was dodging Akane, which did nothing but
make her mad.
"Why won't you stand still so I can hit you? I thought you said
we were going to train!" Akane accentuated her point with what
would have been a palm-strike to the solar plexus.
Ranma laughed. "Why would I want to do that? Any fool c'n hit a
target that ain't movin'; what you gotta do is hit one that's
tryin' t'avoid it. Y'ain't gonna find yerself in a fight against
bricks too often!" Ranma pointed to a few cinder blocks Akane had
previously broken as he leapt over her head and avoided a punch
aimed for the collar-bone. "I work on my dodging, you work on being
able to hit a target that's trying not to get hit. See? Training."
Akane could see the logic of Ranma's explanation, which seemed
to both mollify her anger and strengthen her resolve.
"Just as long as you aren't playing some kind of trick on me or
anything." Perhaps a feint might lure him into a trap, allowing her
to hit Ranma. Now the question was how to do it?
"Why would I do that?" Ranma asked quizzically while not
getting hit by a crescent kick which was followed by a double-punch.
"You know-- try and get close to me by pretending to train me
and win my heart. Well, let me tell you right now that it won't
work." Almost in position. A few more jabs should put him right
where Akane wanted him.
Ranma laughed, again. "You still worried about that? We already
tol' ya, we already got Shampoo. No offence or nuthin' but I'm
goin' back to China first chance I get, no matter what my ol' man
says.
"Whoa!" Ranma said, almost taking a hit to the face. In fact,
if it were not for Ranma literally bending over backwards he would
have received a knuckle sandwich. He grinned. "I didn't see that
one comin', Akane. Pretty tricky. You woulda had me except you
didn't know I'm this flexible.
"I gotta go see my mom soon anyway, so why don't we call it
quits for now?"
Akane nodded assent. "Next time you won't be so lucky, Ranma!"
Ranma left for the bath. Akane stayed in the dojo for a little
while longer, with, if not a smile on her face then no longer a
scowl. Next time she'd definitely get him.
She sells sea shells by the seashore:
A young man walks out of the water, wearing a bandanna around
his head in a strip and a heavy duty backpack (on his back, of
course) with a bamboo paraso-- er, umbrella, strapped to the top of
aforementioned backpack. Strange that no one saw him go in the
water-- he must have swam a long way.
The first person to see the man step out of the sea onto the
beach was a little girl, desperately trying to hold back tears as
she held onto a particularly large sea-shell (possibly a
conch-shell) with both arms. The child was failing in her task of
keeping the tears at bay.
"Hello, dear," the man said to the child, his voice both
powerful and gentle at the same time. "Are you hurt?"
The little girl shook her head sullenly, although we should
note that the tears had stopped.
"Are you in trouble then?"
Again came the negative head shake.
"Then why are you crying? If you tell me, maybe I can help."
The girl cried fresh tears and dropped the shell; she ran
towards the man and buried her head in his stomach, crying and
crying. "I can't find my mommy or daddy!" she wailed.
The man knelt down and dried the tears from her face. Rather,
he tried to dry the tears but since he himself was soaking wet he
didn't do such a great job.
"Hush child, I'll help you find them," the man said with a
gentle smile.
The man stood up and held out his hand for the child to take.
With his other hand he picked up the shell the girl dropped earlier
and then they started walking along the beach. It was not long
before they found the girl's parents.
"My baby! My sweet little baby," the frantic mother chanted,
over and over again as she smothered her daughter in kisses and
tears.
"How can we thank you," asked the somewhat more staid father.
"Could you tell me how to get to Tokyo? I really need to get
there," the young saviour asked.
"Certainly," the father replied, and then proceeded to give the
young man simple and quite detailed instructions.
"Thank you, sir. I'll leave you to your family now; I must be
off." The younger man then went in the exact opposite direction the
older man told him to go.
Home is where the hair is:
"Hi mom, hey pops," Ranma greeted his parents as he entered the
home of his parents.
Ranma looked around the entrance, trying to refamiliarise
himself with the house. His mother stood there, hair not quite
perfect and a slightly tired but satisfied smile on her face. Genma
was behind her, hair glistening, shiny, and still damp. He had this
dreamy, drowsy kind of goofy grin on his face. There was only one
thing they could have been doing.
"You were washing dad's hair, weren't you, mom?" Ranma accused.
Nodoka bowed her head, she was caught. "You don't understand,
Ranma. The hair, it's just so soft, so luxuriant, so sensual...
I... I... I just can't get enough of it!"
Genma looked sternly at his son. "Boy," Genma said, coming to
the defence of his wife, "your mother and I are both adults. What
we do in private is no concern of yours! Besides, her hands, her
fingers, so skilful... The caress of her touch as your mother runs
her fingers through my hair, the gentle tingle as she massages my
scalp, and then, then when I can't take anymore she rinses,
nevermind the conditioner, oh, the conditioner! Ranma, if you
knew you wouldn't begrudge us this."
Genma's face returned to the dreamy look he had on before.
Ranma screamed and ran out the front door, not stopping until he
made it back to the Tendo household.
A little stroll in the countryside:
A man walked down a street in a very rustic village. You might
remember this man if you were at a particular beach a couple of
days ago, watching him emerge fully clothed from the water. He
wore the same clothes as he did back on the beach, although they
were now dry.
The man politely accosted a passer-by at an intersection,
asking the resident of the village if, "Um, excuse me, sir. Sorry
to bother you but I was hoping you might be able to direct me to
Furinkan high school?"
The passer-by, your run-of-the-mill average farmer stereotype
you often see in a rural, stereotypical village such as this one,
was quite impressed with how nice and polite the young man was.
"Er, I'm not exactly sure where it is, if you have a map or
something maybe I can help...."
"Thank you, sir. I forgot I had one. This won't take but a
moment." The young man began to rummage through his backpack,
uttering apologies as he did so. "Here we go!" he exclaimed, giving
the map to the agricultural expert.
"Er, son? This here's a map of Tokyo."
"Yes? I'm afraid I do not see the problem, sir."
"We're in Shin-Getsu village, son. Tokyo's that way!" The man
pointed towards his right.
"Thank you for your help, sir! You've been most kind!" The
young man waved cheerfully as he took the wrong road, two hundred
and seventy degrees off from the direction the obvious stereotype
pointed.
"Well, I've never seen a nicer, kind, more polite young man,"
said the stereotype.
The stereotype's fatter, jollier and equally stereotypical
friend caught up to him, making his way down the street. "You
forgot to add dumber."
"Shoot. I knew I forgot something. Pity about that. Just can't
follow directions or something, I guess."
The two farmer stereotypes nodded in unison and turned around,
just in time to leap out of the way of a passing boar which liked
to rampage through town once in a while after spending too much
time in the bar. It never ran up a tab, and was always careful not
to damage anything in the bar, even wiping its hooves on a mat in
front of the bar, so the bartender did not mind. One of his nicer
customers, if you wanted his opinion. Good tipper as well.
The Tendo yard, a.k.a. Over Golden Pond:
Mornings were on their way to becoming much more entertaining
at the Tendos. Ranma had a rather interesting morning routine
before breakfast, which the Tendos (except for Kasumi, who would
invariably be preparing said breakfast) would watch. Every day,
Ranma would try to beat himself up in the Tendo yard. Much better
than television. Today was no exception.
Ranma wore a red shirt without sleeves. Ranma also wore no
shirt. Shirts against skins it would be today (he always made sure
there was some way to keep track of the sides), excepting that it
was one on one so it was closer to shirt versus skin.
Ranma stood on opposite ends of the koi pond, balanced on the
stones. He bowed to himself, both of him at the exact same time,
then flew towards his opponent with a savagely eager grin.
The morning's battle was different somehow-- more intense than
usual. None of the usual comments, no grandstanding or slowing down
for anyone watching to see. A flurry of blows, arms and fists and
hands and elbows, nothing else could be seen, even by the trained
eyes of Soun and Akane, were exchanged as Ranma passed himself over
the pond. He landed on the other side and turned around to see
himself mimicking the same action.
Shirted Ranma wiped away a small trickle of blood coming from
his left cheek. Skinny Ranma didn't bother with the small cut on
his left arm. He grinned at himself again before beginning again.
Skinny Ranma launched himself not at the shirted one, but
backwards, to the wall. Touching down on the wall, skinny Ranma did
the totally unexpected. Instead of pushing off on the wall and
leaping towards the shirted Ranma in an attempt to get past his
defences in that moment he would be disoriented by the lack of
attack over the pond, he ran on the wall. Not on top of the wall,
but on the side of it, parallel to the ground.
Impossible, but there it was. Running along the wall with a
maddening grin on his face, skinny Ranma blazed a path around his
confused opponent and landed behind him, on the same rock. The
day's match was over shortly.
On the path to higher learning:
Nabiki was exultant, almost dancing as she made her way towards
Furinkan.
"I can't believe you did that! I didn't think it was possible?
How can something like that be possible? How did you manage it?"
Nabiki twirled around, unable to keep the laughter in. Someone who
could do that-- well, one has to wonder what other amazing physical
abilities he had, yes? Something this astonishing, this impossible
though, she had to find out, and had, in fact, pestered everyone
about what Ranma did on the wall since the morning's match.
"You seemed more intense this morning," Akane agreed.
Ranma shuddered. "Something I saw yesterday, when I went to see
mom an' dad. I don' wanna talk about what it was-- jus' needed to
blow off some steam." He looked down at the two girls, one hand
carrying his bookbag over his shoulder and the other in his pocket
as he walked along the chain-link fence. "Actually, it was a spur
of the moment thing. I were gonna push off the wall for a flying
kick, but I noticed that it was kinda rough in parts."
"So?" asked Akane.
"So I basically just did this." Ranma was now almost perfectly
perpendicular with the fence, his head beside the Tendo siblings'
for a small moment, before he flipped and started walking on the
street with them.
"We know that, but how did you manage to do that?" was what
Nabiki wanted to know.
"I know," Akane said proudly.
Nabiki looked at her sister. "So? Tell me! Tell me!"
"It's his ankles. When you just did that, Ranma, I noticed
you're ankles."
Ranma just grinned and nodded. Nabiki was somewhat confused
still. "Ankles?" she asked.
Akane nodded. "Ankles. He's bending at the ankles so that he
sticks straight out, while his feet are able to find a better grasp
in between the bricks."
Ranma supplied the rest for Akane and her sister. "Yeah, an' by
goin' real fast, we don't fall down. That's why I didn't stay up on
the fence right now, we couldn't without moving. Wouldn't work with
most shoes, either. Barefoot'd be better."
Akane sighed and shouted out, "I hate boys!" before running
ahead, through the gates of Furinkan and through the horde o' horny
high school students with about equal ease. She was improving, you
could tell by the quicker time she took to do so.
Nabiki had already entered the building. Ranma, while entering
happened to pass by Tatewaki, who was making yet another
vainglorious attempt to win the heart of his beloved by beating her
into submission, and pulled the older student aside for a moment.
"I know what you're doing, even if you don't," Ranma said,
arrogant and quiet.
"I do not know what you mean, Saotome."
"Don't you think you insult her by not going full out? What
does it say about how much you respect her if you throw the match?"
"What?" cried an indignant Tatewaki, outraged by what Ranma had
to say.
"Just makin' an observation. Could be wrong, maybe you really
are takin' 'er serious, but I dunno." Ranma shrugged and walked
into the building, not looking back to see what was happening.
Feeding frenzy in the cafeteria:
"Ranma," Akane said almost calmly, one eye twitching slightly.
"Mm,?" was Ranma's only reply, mainly due to his mouth being
stuffed full of some edible substance from the cafeteria.
"What did you say to Kuno this morning?" she said with a
strange calm-- the same type of calm one sees in the air before a
storm, in fact.
Ranma made a heroic effort to swallow the food in his mouth,
and after a couple of tries, succeeded. "Not much. Just told him he
shouldn't hold back against you if he was serious."
Akane blew up-- not literally, of course, with icky bits of
bladder and lung all over the place, that would be kind of
disgusting, don't you think? She did display her temper, and a
marvelously powerful temper it was.
"You did WHAT?" Akane shouted as she stood up. Her words
silenced everyone in the cafeteria. When Akane's mood was like
that, someone was in for some pain. All heads turned to Akane,
wanting to see who the dumb schmuck was.
"Hey, I just told him to fight for real, that's all. It's a
bad habit to get into, holding back in all your fights, cuz ya
never know when yer gonna have a fight when ya can't do that,"
Ranma answered, his voice a war between boredom and confusion.
"Holding back! Holding back! I'll show you holding back!" Akane
cried and lunged for Ranma.
Ranma shifted minutely and grabbed Akane with one hand as she
leapt over the table to get him and used her momentum to keep her
airborne and moving, until she hit a wall. "Honestly, Akane, if you
wanted to do some training right now you should've just said so,"
Ranma called after her disparagingly.
The students in the cafeteria looked on in awe. They had heard
Ranma was good, but he just bested Akane without any apparent
effort.
"I told you he was good," Nabiki said to a class-mate, all the
while smiling like a Cheshire cat.
Tatewaki Kuno did not like what he saw, and he stood up in
protest. Actually, he did somewhat more than merely stand, he also
spoke... well, shouted at any rate. "Saotome, how dare you treat
the beauteous Akane Tendo so!" and so saying, charged Ranma, bokken
in hand.
Now, some of you might wonder at mister Kuno's words,
considering this is exactly what he, and many other members of the
male student body at Furinkan had been trying to do for some time
now. You might also like to take into account what happened earlier
on in the morning, when mister Kuno almost won against Akane,
getting in several good hits.
You might, and I might, but the students of Furinkan, alas, did
not for the most part wonder. Mister Kuno also did not stop to
think about what would happen if he charged a person who could
easily throw Akane, when he himself had extreme difficulties doing
so. Perhaps he should have, for a moment later there was another
shape beside Akane, slumped against the wall.
"What's a nice girl like you doing on a wall like this?"
Tatewaki asked before he found the state of bliss known as
unconsciousness.
Akane merely shook her head disguisedly and dusted herself off.
Nobody looked in her direction as she did so because a) they were
too busy watching Ranma, who easily took out the two best martial
artists of the school, b) they wanted to help Akane preserve some
dignity, and c) nobody dared-- although mainly a) and c).
No more teachers, no more books:
Another day over at Furinkan, the end of classes was marked by
the usual flooding of the streets by anxious and frenetic high
school students. The initial rush passed, let us sit back and watch
three students, one male and not in uniform, and two female ones in
uniform who were most likely sisters by looking at them.
"What were you doing in the cafeteria?" the younger sister,
whom you will probably have guessed to be Akane, demanded of the
boy, Ranma.
"What do you mean?" Ranma replied, somewhat disinterested.
Nabiki watched the exchange with a little bit more interest, but
was definitely staying out of it. Ranma was a big boy, he could
handle himself.
"I mean tossing me into the wall like that! And what the heck
was that stuff about fighting seriously? You don't!"
"Whaddaya think I should do then? Just sit there and take it?
Not bloody likely! You gotta earn it by getting through my
defences, Akane.
"'sides," Ranma began after pausing a bit to answer Akane's
second question, "I always fight seriously. Jus' a dif'rence
b'tween fightin' serious an' fightin' all out. 'round here, I can
fight serious an' not fight all out. Kuno's gotta fight all out to
fight you serious though. Ain't you glad he's takin' you more
serious? Shoot, I would be."
Before Akane could respond, before, in fact, she could even
formulate a respond, a voice thundered out from the sky: "Ranma
Saotome! Today you shall pay for your transgressions against me!"
The voice resolved itself into a figure descending or falling
from the sky, directly on top of Ranma's position. Of course, by
the time the figure landed, Ranma was no longer there. A
medium-sized crater was though, created by the owner of the voice,
said owner standing in the middle of the crater, unharmed.
"Do I know you?" Ranma asked, mildly curious.
"What? Can this be? How could it be true that you do not know
me? You, who ran out on our fight!" the incredulous man answered.
Now would be a good time to describe the young man I suppose,
wouldn't it? He would be about Ranma's age, and around Ranma's
height. In fact, he looked quite a lot like Ranma, really, with a
few minor differences. This young man lacked the long tail Ranma's
hair had, as well as being more muscular. When he shouted one could
see a need for dental work, because he had enlarged canines... or
if not an orthodontist then a cross and a couple of wooden stakes.
There was something about him though, in his posture or his
mein which hinted at a kindness and a nobility beyond that of the
common man. The man had an air of determination to him; a sense of
purpose which would brook no compromise nor any delays.
The man wore a bandanna around his head and a large somewhat
battered backpack, conveniently located on his back. You might
remember him, he was the one coming out of the water and asking for
directions earlier. He was also the one going the wrong way those
times.
"I. Never. Ran. Away. From. A. Fight. You must be mistaken. Who
are you?"
"I am the wrath of heaven, which cannot be staid. I am justice,
which shall triumph. I am Ryoga Hibiki, and I am the one who will
punish you for your wrongs!" the young man, Ryoga, ended with a
flourish.
"Don't remember ya. Sorry."
"You? Don't? Remember?" Ryoga sounded and looked as lost as he
almost always was.
"No, could you give me a hint?"
Ranma and Ryoga sat cross-legged on the ground, facing each
other. Nabiki and Akane just sort of stared at them, wondering what
was going on. The rest of the crowd of students, which was hoping
to see a fight, drifted off disappointedly.
"Middle school, we were in middle school together," Ryoga
started off.
"Not ringin' any bells. Say, I'm hungry, you wanna get sumthin'
ta eat? We c'n talk 'bout it over food or whatever."
Ryoga nodded and stood up. "That would be acceptable. Don't
think I'm going to let you off the hook or anything though. It is
my duty to punish wrong-doers."
Ranma answered with an incredulous look and stood up, dusting
his pants off. "Swell. Why don't we go to my mom an' dad's place.
She's probably expectin' me anyway, an' I bet she's got sumthin'
cooked up right now. My mouth's waterin' already, man," and indeed
his mouth was watering.
Again, Ryoga nodded. "Very well, lead the way. We can discuss
this on the way there."
"Middle school, eh? Those were good old days, weren't they?
Remember that one teacher? You know, the one with the thing?"
"The glass eye?"
"Nah! Not the eye! The thing! The thing!"
"The really bad toupee?"
Ranma peered suspiciously at Ryoga. "You sure you don' got me
confused with someone else at a different school? You gotta know
who I'm talkin' about! The thing!"
"The glasses? The purse, the nose, the cow, the fishbowl, the
hat made out of aluminium foil, the one arm, the sixth finger?"
Ryoga catalogued a list of derangements and deformities.
"No! Not those! The one with the tweed jacket!"
"Oh yes. Mister Yoshiyuki! Our history teacher. Nice man. What
about him?"
"Man, that was a really bad tweed jacket. What a freak."
Ryoga blinked oddly at Ranma and opened his mouth to make a
reply, then thought better of it and closed his mouth. Ryoga opened
it again, but still could not come up with a reply, so again he
closed it, doing a credible impression of a fish out of water. All
he needed were scales and to be flopping around on the ground. A
course of action was finally settled upon. Ryoga exploded...
figuratively speaking, of course. Rather messy, otherwise, don't
you know. "Ranma! You ran out on our duel!" he screamed and lunged
towards Ranma.
"Oh, here we are, Ryoga," Ranma said, not noticing Ryoga's
action because he was busy opening the door. "Hi mom, hi dad!"
Ranma shouted inside the house. He looked back, "C'mon in, Ryoga."
Genma walked into the front hall, his precious locks falling
majestically around his face and shoulders, ennobling his features.
"What's up, pops?" Ranma deadpanned.
"Your old man has a job now, boy!" Genma said enthusiastically.
Ranma merely quirked an eyebrow as his father continued. Ryoga
looked on, fascinated by the whole exchange.
"I was walking downtown, looking for work, when someone spotted
me. You're looking at the new spokesmodel for Vidal Sassoon!" Genma
announced proudly, producing a hair care bottle with the Vidal
Sassoon logo from nowhere and virtually shoving it in Ranma's face.
Ranma peaked around the corner and walked up to the trio with a
kettle. "He's been going on like that ever since he found out.
Mom's ecstatic as well."
Ryoga looked at Ranma, and then looked back at Ranma. "Twins?"
"What'd I do today, anyway," the Ranma without the kettle
asked.
"Trying to learn Mandarin. How was school?"
"Same old, same old. Tossed a couple of people into the wall
during lunch after they attacked me. Ryoga," Ranma gestured to the
young man beside him, "came by. Something about a duel. We're going
to find out over some food."
"Oh, well then," Ranma said, upending the kettle on himself.
"Jusenkyo," Ryoga pronounced sagely. "I understand now." He
nodded to himself as Ranma blinked and scooped up the damp clothes
on the floor.
"You been there? Got hit with a pool or sumthin', didja?"
Whatcha turn inta?"
Just as Ryoga opened his mouth to make some reply, Nodoka came
out, bearing a tray of food. "Ranma, who's your guest?"
"Mom? This' Ryoga. We went to school together for a bit, I
think," Ranma said, making introductions.
"Oh? Really? How nice. Looking up an old friend, Ryoga?"
Nodoka asked sweetly.
"Er, not exactly ma'am," Ryoga said, accepting a plate of
food. "Actually, I came to exact justice upon Ranma. Delicious
udon, by the way."
"What did he do?"
"He ran out on a challenge I gave him after our bread feud."
"Bread feud? Oh yeah! Now I remember," Ranma exclaimed happily.
"What was it, son?" Nodoka asked.
Ryoga sipped some tea while Ranma told the story. Such a
polite young man.
"Well it was junior high boys school, right? Lunch time was a
battle, especially for the last bread. I got it, Ryoga didn't.
Let's see, there was the curry bread, sweet-bean bread, chow mein
bread, croquette bread, melon bread, cutlet sandwich, meat bread,
seaweed bread, ham on rye sandwich, a toasted kaiser, a bagel with
cream cheese, sweet and sour pork bun, satay beef bun, oh! and
there was an absolutely delightful croissant one day which had just
the perfect texture, nice and flaky and... anyway, it was a good
croissant."
"That sounds like a lot of bread," Nodoka interjected.
"You'd need a whole lotta dough to make all that bread."
"Hey," Ranma shrugged, "it was every man for himself."
"Finally," Ryoga continued Ranma's narrative, "finally I had
enough, and challenged Ranma to a duel. He never showed up."
"I waited at the site you chose for three days!" Ranma
protested.
"And on the fourth day I got there!" Ryoga retorted.
"Wasn't the lot where we were supposed to meet behind your
house?" Ranma asked.
Nodoka merely watched and sipped her tea. Genma was brushing
his hair, oblivious to everything else. One hundred strokes, don't
you know (hey, that hair is his bread and butter now! he's got to
take care of it).
"Do you think I was out having fun?" Ryoga thundered. "I saw
hell trying to get to that damnable lot, and when you weren't
there.... When you weren't there," he hissed, "I tracked you down.
I followed you to China, to Jusenkyo, you know."
"Did you get cursed there?" Nodoka asked suddenly.
"I was walking along when suddenly I took a wrong turn and fell
off of a cliff and into a pool."
"So what do you turn into?" asked Nodoka. "If you do not mind
me asking," she amended.
"This is what I turn into."
"Oh, so then do you mind if I...," Nodoka trailed off
meaningfully and pointed at the tea kettle.
"No, go right ahead, ma'am."
Nodoka took the kettle and poured it over Ryoga's head. No
physical change was evident, although one could clearly see a
difference. He lost some of his noble carriage. The gentle aura of
placidity and calmness was gone, replaced by one of anger and rage.
His face had contorted into a paroxysm of rage.
"I'll kill you Ranm--" Ryoga's tirade was cut short by a
splash of cold water from a nonplussed Ranma.
"So you got--?" Ranma started.
Ryoga nodded. "Spring of drowned virtuous man, yes." He
continued to sip his tea. "Quite sorry about that. Awfully rude of
me. Still, the sentiment is there. I really do have to teach you a
lesson, Ranma. You can't just walk out on a fight, you know."
Ranma sighed. "Well, you want to do it now, out back?"
"No, that wouldn't be right. We just ate, after all. Would
after we digest the wonderful food (thank you Mrs. Saotome, truly
you are a great cook) be okay?"
Nodoka merely blushed and accepted the thanks and the
compliment with good grace.
"So whaddaya wanna do 'til then?" Ranma asked.
"We could take a walk downtown and do some volunteer work at a
hospital or something."
Ranma stared at Ryoga evenly.
"Or," Ryoga said, noting the expression Ranma was giving him,
"maybe we could just chat or something. Catch up on old times."
Ranma broke out into a grin. "Sure, why not. So, how'd you like
China?"
Let's go outside and beat on each other:
The yard of the Saotome home was nice, an aesthetically
pleasing combination of plants and large, jutting sharp rocks and
uneven surfaces. Perfect for martial arts training, although a lack
of a pond was a somewhat glaring oversight (Genma had thought of
getting a children's wading pool, however).
Ranma, only one since the curse was currently inactive, and
Ryoga (who was not currently trying to throttle Ranma because his
curse was activated) stood in what would roughly be called the
middle and bowed to each other. Nodoka looked on. "Try not to
damage the garden, dear. I just planted some tulips."
"I'll try, mom, but y'never know what might happen in a
fight," Ranma said happily over his shoulder.
Ryoga looked at Nodoka, who was sitting down drinking some
tea. "I shall endeavour to do the same, Mrs. Saotome," he said
sombrely.
The two combatants bowed deeply at one another. "Begin!"
shouted Ryoga, who rushed in to charge Ranma immediately after.
Ranma shifted to his left, letting his right foot stay in the
same spot, tripping Ryoga who ended up sucking grass. Ranma lifted
a foot high in the air for a crescent kick which would have hit the
small of Ryoga's back if Ryoga had not quickly rolled into Ranma,
tangling him up and flipping him down to the ground. Ranma laughed
for joy.
"The wrath of heaven is slow but sure, Ranma," Ryoga hissed
before trying to headbutt him. "You shall pay for your
transgressions."
Ranma flipped backwards, thereby dodging the headbutt and
kicking Ryoga in the skull in the process. "You got a hard head,
you know that? Good thing though, cuz otherwise you'da been down
fer the count from that one!" Ranma grinned at his almost
compliment.
"Feh. That was nothing. Try this!" Ryoga lunged and connected
with a fist into Ranma's solar plexus.
Ranma was thrown back into the surrounding wall. Ryoga smiled,
until he saw Ranma get up and dust himself off. Ranma absently
rubbed where Ryoga had punched him. "That... hurt." Ranma broke
into a grin. "That's great! You gotta be damn strong to be able
make us feel that!"
"Ranma!" Nodoka called out. "Watch your language!"
"Sorry mom-- forgot," Ranma said, not taking his eyes off his
opponent.
Ryoga blinked. Ranma was face to face with Ryoga when he
opened his eyes, Ranma's wild grin all that he could see.
"It's been fun, but I got stuff to do now," Ranma apologised.
"Take you back to your home though, we remember where it is now."
Ranma then punched Ryoga repeatedly in one spot with enough
speed to snatch chestnuts roasting on an open fire and not get
burned. Ryoga did the sensible thing and fell unconscious.
Ranma picked Ryoga up and threw him over the shoulder. "We're
going to drop him off now, mom! Prolly jus' go back to the Tendos
after, I guess."
"Be careful, dear. Make sure your friend is okay before you
leave him, and tell him he is welcome back at any time."
Ranma nodded and left. Nodoka sat there for a moment, making
sure that Ranma was well and truly gone. Satisfied that Ranma would
not be back for some time, she ran and found Genma.
Late at night, in bed:
"No more, Nodoka. I'm only human, I can only take so much!"
Genma said, exhausted.
Nodoka pouted. "Just one more time, dearest! Let me wash your
hair one more time!"
Genma sighed. "But if you wash it too much, it'll get frizzy!"
Author type stuff:
Well, I said that I was going to put in the Neko-ken and
Kodachi in part 2 (and possibly Shampoo), and I really meant to,
but they just didn't really fit. I think they would have been short
shrift and I wanted to give a bit more time to them. Next part
then, so sorry! Comments, anyone? Criticism, anyone? (
geocities.com/tokyo/flats) (
geocities.com/tokyo)