Part Two: Growing Older And Maybe A Bit Wiser

If only he had stayed that way. Nice. Quiet.

Unfortunately, outside the watchful gaze of his teacher, where he forced himself to be polite, Kuno Tatewaki – it had quickly gone from “Tatewaki” to “Kuno” as soon as the class was over – was something of a chauvinistic jerk, even taking into account the fact that he was a twelve-year-old boy.

Also unfortunately, he didn’t change much when he was a thirteen year old boy.

Or a fourteen year old, although they did manage to become friends of a sort. Friends/rivals, because he would never forget their initial meeting and his loss, but friends nevertheless.

He never did manage to beat her, though, in those two and a half years. And it irritated him, but probably helped him, too, from Ranma’s viewpoint. He was quite arrogant enough even as the second best student in his age group. 

Of course, Ranma wasn’t egotistical at all. Not a bit. Proud, perhaps, but never arrogant, at least she never considered herself such. She was just the best.

And she probably was, too. At twelve, she managed to wrangle permission for martial-arts lessons as well as kenjutsu and kendo. These, though, she took with her mother’s friend’s husband, Tendo-san. Well, inside the classroom it was Tendo-sensei, but that was just to be polite.

There weren’t very many students at the Tendo dojo. So few, in fact, that there were only three other people in Ranma’s class, and one of them was Tendo-san’s youngest daughter, Akane. The other two were girls that Ranma didn’t know very well, by the names of Sazumi and Junko.

Ranma guessed that she was in the beginner’s class, since she was, after all, totally unfamiliar with unarmed combat, and the other two girls weren’t very good. Akane, who was as nuts over martial arts as Ranma was over kenjutsu, had probably just begged her way into the class so that she could practice with her friend. She had been very excited when Ranma had decided to take lessons, something that Akane had been trying to convince her to do for years.

The other two girls were left behind quite quickly, unfortunately, but they accepted it well enough and practiced with each other, letting Ranma and Akane spar most of the time. Ranma proved to be very talented in martial arts, and it was certainly easier for her than kenjutsu, but she never quite managed to become comfortable with the lack of a weapon. She had grown quite a bit in those most recent years, but so had others, and as a result the majority of her opponents were quite a bit taller than her. A bokken, she always felt, evened out the odds for her somewhat.

Akane was always better than her in martial arts, and that was mildly irritating but understandable. They became good friends, and mild rivals, although that was natural considering the two girls’ absolute belief in their ability at their own Art. They got along well enough, though. Akane had a temper, but so did Ranma. They both spent long hours in Akane’s room, talking and laughing, and mocking the adolescent boys who were just starting to notice them, try as they might to deny it.

Time went by too quickly; it wouldn’t be very long before they would look back and wonder what had happened to those years. But for now, life was good…

***

~Mordain

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