Ten Months In Tokyo An Original work by Josh Heistman 2001 Script G Productions Chapter One: The Grand Prize from Hell! Disclaimer: I, Josh Heistman, do not own Ranma 1/2, its characters or locations. The abovementioned entities are the intellectual and creative property of Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Communications, Inc. (and not me). I do not claim ownership of the abovementioned entities, nor will I be profiting from the use of them. Please, please don't sue me! Thanks. A drop of sweat rolled down the face of Tatewaki Kuno. Ranma Saotome, that cretin, had proven to be a more formidable foe than previously expected. To think that he, Tatewaki Kuno… he, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School… he, the captain of it's kendo club, could be losing to a vagabond like Saotome? It could not be tolerated! "Ranma Saotome!" Kuno shouted, "Prepare thyself! Defeat awaits you at the end of my sword!" "Bring it on, ya fool!" was the retort from Ranma. He had beaten Kuno a thousand times, and would do it another thousand if he needed to. There wasn't a person in Japan, man or woman, that could beat Ranma Saotome in a fight, and Principal Kuno knew it. So why didn't he have the common sense to know that Ranma would win his 'Super Special Grand Prize'? Ranma moved back into his fighting stance. "Enough stalling, Kuno. Let's finish this!" Kuno raised his bokken in front of his face and closed his eyes. "You shall address me." he began, before taking one last deep breath. His eyes snapped back open. "…as Upperclassman!" It's amazing how much damage one can do in thirty seconds, and Kuno was amazed to have experienced Ranma's power first-hand (for the ten millionth time, perhaps, but if you're as full as yourself as Kuno, every beating you receive comes as a shock to you). Kuno charged at Ranma, prepared to smite him with one final swipe. Then, with a mighty, barbaric yawp, Kuno let loose the swing to end all swings. But it was two seconds too late. Ranma had already leapt over Kuno, landing two kicks to his chest and one to his face, then one to the back of his head. Kuno wobbled, half from pain and half from astonishment. Then, Ranma, twisting in mid-air, delivered a swift kick to Kuno's back, sending his hapless foe flying into the Phys. Ed equipment building. The crowd cheered wildly, not so much for Ranma's victory, but because that arrogant jerk Kuno had been beaten right in front of them. There was no way he could deny his loss (though he'd probably give it that old college try). The few loyal members of the Kendo Club dragged their stricken captain off to the school infirmary, leaving Ranma to revel in his victory. Under any other circumstances, Principal Kuno would have been furious at Ranma's victory. But, the exact opposite was true. He was ecstatic! The sunglassed principal stood up from his chair, laughing aloud. "Congratulations, Ranma Saotome!" he shouted over the confused din of the crowd. "You have proved yourself to be the strongest of all me keiki. Now I can present you with the Supah Special Grand Prize!" The principal's reaction didn't sit right with any of the students, but it was particularly unsettling for Akane Tendo. After all, whether she liked it or not, Ranma was her fiancé. And while the principal was normally pretty hopeless, he could be downright maniacal sometimes. "As all you keiki know, Furinkan High School takes in three exchange students every year." Continued the principal, who now had a wide, cake- eating grin on his face. "And Ranma, me keiki, as champion fighter and best representative of this school, you'll be da one who be housing them." The crowd gasped as the principal walked, laughing, back to the school. Nabiki and Akane grabbed Ranma by the arms, leading him hurriedly back to the Tendo dojo. A confused Daisuke shot a look to them as they walked by. "Where are you going?" he asked, "School's not over!" ________________________________________________________________________ "What's the big deal?" asked Ranma, wrestling himself free from the sisters. They both gave him looks of disbelief. "Are you serious?" Nabiki asked, mouth agape. "You can't be. don't you remember last year's exchange students?" Ranma nodded. "Those German guys? Yeah, I remember them." He smiled. "What a great bunch of guys!" Akane gave him a look that could break glass. "Ranma. they were deported!" "Well, okay, that's true." Ranma conceded, "But what's that got to do with this year's exchange students?" "Judging by the principal's reaction, I'd say they're even worse than last year's." Nabiki chimed in. "I hear they're Americans, and you know how they are." Ranma started to walk away. "I can't believe you two. I, for one, will be happy to see some new faces around. The same people trying to kill me everyday gets old." "And whose fault is that, Ranma?" Akane asked, exasperated. "If you weren't always thinking about yourself, you wouldn't get into those messes!" Nabiki sighed. "Can't you children fight later? We need to get home, or we'll be late for the exchange students to show up." "All right." Akane agreed, then turned to face Ranma. "Come on, we're close to home. Let's race!" "You're just going to lose again, but all right." Ranma said, nodding. The two of them sprinted off, leaving Nabiki far behind. As she watched the two shove each other to try to pull ahead, Nabiki shook her head. "Young love." ________________________________________________________________________ When dinnertime arrived, the exchange students still hadn't arrived. So, dinner at the Tendo residence was business as usual. Kasumi had slaved over the stove to make a delicious meal, which Ranma, Genma and Soun chowed down as quickly as possible. The Tendo daughters, on the other hand, ate their dinners calmly, stopping every so often to roll their eyes at the men. Suddenly, Genma and Soun both reached for the last fish cake at the same time. "Oh, no you don't, Saotome." Scolded Soun, "You got the last pickle last night. This fish cake is mine!" "I won that pickle fair and square, Tendo." Rebuked Genma, "You'll have to fight me for this fish cake, as well!" Genma extended his hand to Soun. "You're on!" Soun replied, grasping Genma's hand. And the two started the sixth Martial Arts Thumb Wrestling match held at dinner in the last week. While the two grown men fought like children, Ranma reached underneath their arms and speared the rogue fish cake. He quickly swallowed it before either of the titans of thumb wrestling noticed. Meanwhile, Soun had Genma pinned. "Looks like I win, Saotome." Soun boasted with a chuckle. "Better luck next time." Reaching victoriously over toward the plate, Soun was stunned to see the fish cake was gone. Soun's vision shifted quickly to Ranma, who was picking fish out of his teeth. Upon realizing what had happened, the two men broke out into tears. "How could you, son?" Genma sobbed. "Yep." muttered Nabiki between bites. "Same old, same old." ________________________________________________________________________ That night, noises outside the dojo woke Akane from a dreamless sleep. She remained still for a moment to make sure that she wasn't mistaken. Sure enough, they came: faint whispers in the street. She crept out of bed, grabbing her mallet on the way out. Three shadowy figures stood outside the dojo, whispering amongst themselves. As they spoke, they didn't notice Akane creep to the doorway. From there, she could hear what they were saying. "You think this is the place, Alex?" asked one of the figures. "It's gotta be. See this character?" Alex asked, pointing at the character for 'dojo' on the sign. "We've been to every other place in town with this character on the sign." "Oh, yeah." the first figure said with a chuckle. "We've been to, like, twenty or thirty places tonight. I'd hate to wake these people up so late." "Well, we're not going to..." said the third figure. "We're going to sneak in quietly, and…" That was all Akane needed to hear to know they were burglars. She leapt out the door, swinging the mallet wildly, and administering to the boys the beating of their lives. They didn't know what hit them. Soun ran out the door to find out what the commotion was all about. He saw Akane standing atop a pile of battered boys. She was hitting them every so often with the mallet to make sure they weren't getting up. Soun went ghost white. "Akane! What is the meaning of this? These are just boys!" "Wrong daddy, these are thieves! I heard them talking!" Akane said forcefully. "We're not thieves! We're the exchange students!" called out Alex from the bottom of the pile. "The... what?" stammered Akane, in utter disbelief. ___________________________________________________________________________ After everyone had calmed down, the whole of the families Tendo and Saotome, as well as the Americans, had sat down to a quick meal whipped up by Kasumi. Akane was, at the moment, kneeled in front of the boy with the hat, applying bandages to the wounds she'd inflicted. "So, boys…" Soun began, "Why don't we all get to know each other, hmm?" Alex took a sip of tea, before looking up at his hosts. "Well, my name is Alex Edwardson…" he began, with a respectful bow of his head. "The others are Donald Fournier…" The middle-heighted boy smiled, but the smile disappeared when he realized how much his face hurt. "Hullo…" he said, as cheerfully as one who couldn't smile could. Alex continued, "…and on the end there is Michael Drift." The boy in the hat swallowed a bit of food. "Yo." Soun grinned. "I am pleased to meet you all. My name is Soun Tendo, and I am the master of this dojo." He said, brimming with pride. "And these are my three lovely daughters: Kasumi…" "Pleased to meet you!" Kasumi smiled, in her usual sugar-sweet style. "…Nabiki…" Nabiki nodded, looking them over. "Hello…" "…And Akane." Mike winced as Akane applied yet another bandage to his face. "Oh, we've met Akane…" he joked, with a sly grin. Akane blushed a little, but continued bandaging. "And these are our other guests…" Soun concluded, "…Genma and Ranma Saotome." "Nice to meet you." The father and son team said in unison, through full mouths. "Thank you very much for allowing us to stay here in your home." Don said cheerfully and respectfully. Ranma could only roll his eyes. "Not like we had a choice…" he muttered, catching a rough nudge in the side from his father and a chilly glare from Akane. "Quiet, boy…" Genma whispered, "These are the Tendos' guests… you will treat them with respect." After a little more chitchat and full stomachs all around, Kasumi rose with a smile. "You all must be tired. Your room is ready, if you would just follow me." The three boys rose, saying their thank yous and good nights, and followed Kasumi off to the storage room-come-guest room. Soun looked at Ranma with a stern nod. "Ranma, since you are the one who won those boys, I want you to show them around tomorrow morning. Show them the sites, maybe get something to eat, just so that they get a feel for Nerima. They'll be spending a long time here, so its better they get accustomed early on." Ranma stood, stretching. "All right, no problem." He yawned. "I'm sure they'll have a great time." ___________________________________________________________________________ "So, now that you've seen Nerima, what do you guys plan on doing?" Ranma asked the Americans. They had spent the whole morning following Ranma around, doing exactly as Soun had asked Ranma to do. They all seemed very pleased. "Did I see an antique weapon store somewhere down the road, Ranma?" Alex asked, a slight twinkle in his eyes. Mike and Don could already hear the money in his pockets being spent. Ranma just laughed. "You sure did. Old man Nakushita has all sorts of great dynasty era Chinese stuff, if you're interested in that junk." Ranma replied, trying his best to be informative. He turned around to face Alex. "It's a little… expensive… though…" Ranma's sentence was cut short, as Alex was already long gone. The three remaining boys laughed aloud. "What about you, Don?" "Well… I'm going to call my mom, and then I'll probably find a manga shop somewhere. I need to increase my collection, and what better place than straight from the source, you know?" "Yeah Don, I know. I suppose the closet full of anime and manga back in the states is getting lonely?" Mike grinned. Don just gave him a look of mock disdain before heading off toward the nearest phone. "Well, Mike, that leaves you…" Ranma said, nodding. "You have any plans?" Mike shook his head. "Nah… I'm just a little hungry, is all. Know any good places to eat around here?" Ranma grinned. "Of course I do. The question is, how do you like your okonomiyaki?" ___________________________________________________________________________ Ukyo Kuonji boredly poked a lump of batter with a spatula. Business was awfully slow for a Saturday. Usually the lunch crowd would be filling the place by now, but business had been like this for some time now. "Oh well…" she sighed, "…maybe I should just close the place early today and try to salvage the rest of the day…" Suddenly, the bell over the doorway rang. A familiar figure stepped through. "Hiya, Ukyo!" Ranma called with a smile. Ukyo smiled back. Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad day after all. "Hi, Ranma-honey! The usual?" she asked, her perkiness showing despite the lack of steady business. In her mind, any day when Ranma came was a good day. Ranma shook his head. "Actually, Ukyo, I think I'll take two of the usual today." At this point, Mike had stepped shyly in, taking a look around. Ukyo was too focused on Ranma to even notice. Ukyo laughed a little at Ranma. "Two of the usual? You must be pretty hungry today, Ranma-honey…" She looked up from the first okonomiyaki to see the second boy in her shop. "Welcome to Ucchan's." she said, cheerily. Mike looked over at the girl addressing him, and his heart skipped a beat. Standing behind the counter was, quite possibly, the cutest girl he had ever seen. Trying to keep his cool, he merely nodded to her, while browsing the menu. The menu, which was in Japanese, and he still wasn't great at reading Japanese. Ranma smiled. "Ukyo, this is…" he began, but the introduction was cut short. Mike had made his way to the counter with such blinding speed that Ranma hadn't even noticed. The hairs on the back of Ranma's neck began to stand on end. Mike was a martial artist? Mike extended a hand to Ukyo over the counter. "My name is Michael Drift." He said with a smile. Ukyo took his hand, gently. "And you are?" "Ukyo Kuonji…" she replied warily, as they shook hands. She cast a glance over at Ranma, who was still smiling. "I'm an exchange student from the United States. I'm staying with Ranma and the Tendos for the next ten months or so…" Mike explained. "That's great!" Ukyo replied, always happy to make new friends. And a friend of Ranma would always be a friend of hers. "So, you'll be in our class, then?" Mike's heart skipped a beat as he whirled to face Ranma. "What does she mean 'our class'?" he asked, a certain subtle tone of what could only be panic in his voice. Ranma nodded in reply. "Ukyo goes to school with me… with us." He said, matter-of-factly. "In fact, she's in our homeroom." Mike could feel the nervous sweat already. He turned to face Ukyo again, who was smiling back at him. Yep, he thought, she's real all right… "All right boys, okonomiyaki's up!" Ukyo said, laying two plates of the still-steaming food on the counter in front of her. Ranma leapt onto his stool, tearing almost ravenously into the poor, defenseless thing. Mike, although he was hungry, gave it a once over before taking his first bite. Ukyo leaned over near Mike. "So, what do you think? Good, huh?" Mike almost jumped with surprise. He didn't expect her to get so close. Looking up at her, he noticed her face was only a few inches away from his. Half from wanting to finish the bite, and half from sheer nervousness, he swallowed the bit. "Y-yeah!" he exclaimed. "It really is." "Are you kidding, Ukyo?" Ranma laughed. "Your okonomiyaki is always good! You shouldn't even have to ask." Ukyo began to blush profusely. "Oh, you guys are too nice." She mustered, before turning to arrange some of her stock. Mike chewed delicately at the okonomiyaki, wanting to make a good impression on her, though, by the looks of it, she was used to Ranma just pigging out on the stuff. Smiling at his new friend's terrible, humorous habit, he popped another piece of the okonomiyaki into his mouth. It was damn good. ___________________________________________________________________________ On the walk home after their meal, Ranma couldn't help but notice the wide grin on Mike's face. Moving ahead of him, Ranma turned around and placed a hand on Mike's shoulder. The shocked American could only blink. "What's up, Ranma?" Ranma gave Mike a hard stare. "Mike, I know what you're thinking… and there's something I need to tell you…" Mike pushed Ranma's arm deftly off to the side. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Ranma shook his head. "You know damn well what I'm talking about, Mike… I saw the way you were looking at her. You've really fallen for her, haven't you?" Mike grinned a little, giving a slight shrug and a nervous chuckle. "Okay, so maybe you do know what I'm thinking. But what's the big deal?" he asked, a defensive tone rising in his voice. "You don't mean to tell me… that you like her, too, do you Ranma?" Ranma's face reddened. "No, no! Of course not! She's just my friend… and besides, do you know what Akane's dad'd do to me if I ever fell for another girl?" Ranma shuddered at the mere thought of the things Soun was capable of. Mike raised an eyebrow at Ranma's noticeable shaking. "Then, what, does she have a boyfriend or something?" Mike was quite perplexed. She was awfully familiar with Ranma to have been worried about a jealous boyfriend. Ranma shook his head. "No, not-" But by then, he was pushed off to the side by Mike, who was striding down the sidewalk, back toward the dojo. As he walked away, Mike looked over his shoulder, calling back. "Then what's to know?" Ranma sighed. Somehow, he thought, things aren't going to be any easier around here.