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
Next
Previous
Back to the Nest