Second  Chances

				By Lord Archive



The first chapter is sad and dark. The following chapters are not. 

This story begins over six months after Manga volume 38.

Legal Babble: Characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, 
etc..., and are used without permission. I'm only borrowing them. I'll 
return them. I can't afford the overdue charge Nabiki insists on.



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			    Chapter 3 - First Night
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Akane sat in the bath, and she was extremely happy. She had Ranma back. 
To her, he died four weeks ago, but to everyone else he just arrived at 
the Tendo home. By some cosmic twist of fate a goddess gave Akane a 
wish, and she inadvertently wished for a second chance with Ranma. A 
wish which sent her two years back in time to the day she first met 
Ranma. She promised herself she wouldn't make the same mistakes this 
time around.

Akane smiled to herself, replaying the events of the day. She hadn't 
hit, insulted, or done anything which could be considered negative 
towards Ranma. Everything was going perfectly so far. She would be his 
friend, make him feel comfortable, make him feel at home, and hopefully 
he would fall in love with her. Simple plan, she just had to make sure 
why Ukyou didn't capture his heart using similar tactics.

----------------------------

Onna-Ranma was lost in thought. The day was really confusing for her. 
She didn't know what to make of it all. Just over two weeks ago she got 
cursed to turn into a girl with cold water, and today she got engage. 
 Ranma sighed. 

Ranma absentmindedly walked into the changing room. She quickly took off 
her clothes, and then opened the door to the bathing room.

Ranma's eyes nearly popped out of her head as she saw Akane stepping out 
of the bath. Ranma was frozen in shock.

Akane looked at Ranma. She didn't think he would accidentally walk in on 
her this time.   Akane looked down.  She spotted the wash bucket. She grinned as she quickly 
picked it up. She then scooped up some bath water into it and splashed 
the red-head.

The splash of warm water woke up Ranma as he changed into a guy. 
"Whaddya do that for?"

"You've seen what I got, so it's only fair I see what you got," Akane 
said dryly.

"Oh, yeah." Ranma laughed nervously, blushing. "Sorry `bout walkin' in 
on ya."

"It's all right. You just weren't thinking about what you were doing 
as you've got too much on your mind. Considering the curse and all." 
Akane started to blush.

"Right," Ranma said. He then turned away and tried to cover his 
bleeding nose.

Seeing this, Akane grinned as she walked past Ranma and into the 
changing room. "One thing, Ranma, if you ever walk in on me again, I 
will pound you into the floor."

"Like you could do that?" Ranma laughed nervously.

Akane forcefully pushed Ranma into the bathing room. "You'd be 
surprised." She shut the door as he slid into the wall, painfully.

"Ouch," Ranma uttered. He shook his head as he sat down and started to 
clean himself.  
He then thought of what he just saw. 

----------------------------

It was after three in the morning and Akane couldn't sleep. She was so 
excited and happy, since everything was working out great so far. 

Akane found and read the journal entry for when Ukyou first showed up 
and a few following entries. Ranma did like Ukyou, but mentioned he 
had trouble seeing her as someone besides his best 'male,' childhood 
friend and he felt Akane's claim of being his fiancee was superior in 
terms of honor. Knowing Ranma, Akane thought this was his way of 
saying he liked her the best. Akane wondered what Ranma meant in one 
of those entries about her not being able to know of Ryoga's curse, 
like she didn't know of Ryoga's lack of direction curse.

Akane decided to get something to drink, and went downstairs to the 
kitchen. She was surprised to see Ranma there, sitting at the kitchen 
table. Apparently he was writing in his journal, and she really wanted 
to know what he wrote this time around.

"Hi, Ranma. Couldn't sleep either. Huh?" Akane greeted.

"You could say that," Ranma answered.

"Is that a journal?"

"Um, yeah."

"I keep one too." Akane went to the cabinet for a glass. "I bet your 
journal is different from mine though. I write down things about how 
things happen at school, who likes who, who hates who, and other 
personal kind of stuff. Where yours deals with places you've seen, 
martial arts techniques you've picked up, and all sorts of odd little 
adventures. Right?"

"Pretty much, but I do write some personal things in it though." Ranma 
folded his arms over his journal.

Akane open the refrigerator and poured herself some juice. "I write down 
some of my martial arts achievements in mine, so I guess they aren't so 
different."

"Guess not."

Akane sat down across from him. "Ranma, why don't we talk?"

"I thought that's what we're doin'"

"No, I mean talk about ourselves, so we can get to know each other."

"Why should we?"

"We're engaged." 

"For how long? Ya don't know Pop like I do. He's a freeloader. How long 
do ya think it'll be before your old man throws us out?"

Akane smirked. "About two years, if we decide to break the engagement 
after we turn eighteen, assuming they let us do that. Daddy holds onto 
honor dearly. Nothing short of you becoming completely honorless will 
cause him to throw you out. And my father has been friends with yours 
for a long time, so he probably knows all about that."

"You're sure about that?"

"Positive. Face it, unless you decide to start killing people left and 
right, your have a home, here, for two years."

"A home?"

"Yeah, a home." Akane sighed. "Never stayed at a place long enough to 
call a home, did you?"

"Well, there were times we stayed at one place for a couple months at a 
stretch. About a year ago, I lived in a neighboring ward for over six 
months. It was the longest I've stayed at a place that I can remember."

"Hardly a way to have a childhood."

"It wasn't so bad. After all, I am one of the best martial artist in 
the country. How many sixteen year olds can say that?"

"You'd be surprised. Until today, I was the best martial artist in my 
school district. Which is an amazing feet considering one of my 
opponents is Kuno, a first dan of kendo."

"Oh, and how do you defeat him?"

"You mean besides being a dan in kempo and have some training other 
schools. He relies too much on form and rarely improvises. If he makes 
one move, nine out of ten times, he will follow it with the same move 
he followed it with last time. If you know his practice routines for 
kendo, you know exactly how he'll fight you."

"Predictability is a pretty big weakness."

"Certainly is. That's what's makes our schools of martial arts so 
dangerous, it attempts to teach improvisation. A skill which I still 
need to develop better, along with speed, as you pointed out today."

"Yeah, speed will defeat strength."

"Unless you're all speed and not enough power to actually hurt your 
opponent."

Ranma took her statement as a personal attack. "I'm strong enough."

"In your normal form, I believe so. But what about your girl form? How 
strong are you in that form?"

"Stronger than an average guy, I'd say."

"If you say so." Akane sighed.  "What's it like being cursed?"

"It sucks," Ranma said firmly.

"Care to elaborate?"

"I turn into a girl with cold water, what more do ya want to know?"

"Well, how does it feel when you change?"

"I hardly feel the actual change unless I think about it, then it's like 
your entire body falls asleep like your foot would. It doesn't even last 
a second."

"Why don't you at least like your curse?"

"Why should I?"

"Well, you turn into a girl. It's like having your own secret identity. 
You can hide from someone who doesn't know about it in plain sight. You 
can experience things only girls are suppose to. And besides, it could 
be worse. You could have fallen into a pool where your curse form 
would've been worse, like say: duck, dog, panda, some hideous monster, 
cat, or some other less desirable forms."

Ranma shuddered slightly at Akane's last example. "Well, I can be 
thankful my curse form isn't really bad. But, I'm a guy. Do ya have any 
idea what it's like to be brought up a 'man amongst men' and then poof 
your manhood's gone?"

"No. Why don't you tell me?"

"Well, when I came out of the pool, I was deathly afraid I could never 
change back into a guy. I had breasts and no... um... well ya know." 
Ranma blushed. "It sorta meant my life was over. All my training was 
done for nathin'"

"Just because your a girl doesn't mean you can't do martial arts."

"Sure it does. I'd have ta give it up as eventually as I'd be forced to 
be a housewife."

"I doubt you could really be forced into that, and in case you haven't 
noticed: I'm a girl, I know martial arts, and our fathers expect me to 
be your housewife."

"Well, ya don't know martial arts very well."

Akane glared at Ranma. "Just because you're faster doesn't mean I'm not 
skilled. I know I haven't hit my full potential yet, but I'll get there 
eventually."

"Sure, sometime after you're a hundred maybe."

Akane was ready to punch him until she remember what he wrote in his 
journal entry about pushing her away. "Ranma, I don't want to fight 
with you over my skills. It already hurts me that you're better than 
me. We should try to get along with each other. For at least the next 
two years, we are engaged and this is your home."

"Why are you so accepting of being engaged?"

"As I said, boy problems."

"I'd think being engaged is a bigger problem than having a bunch of boys 
chase after ya."

"In some ways it is, and other ways it isn't. There is no one I'm 
interested in at school, but they chase after me anyway. With you there 
I can at least stop some of them from chasing me. Also you are quite 
attractive, and well... I'm attracted to you." Akane finished with a 
blush.

"You hardly know me."

"I barely know most of the guys at my school, and I doubt they know 
anything about me. Attraction starts at the physical level, more 
develops as you learn about the person."

"Oh."

"Are you attracted to me?" Akane asked nervously, blushing

"Why would I be attracted to you?"

"It's just a question. You don't have to be so defensive. Can't you open 
up a little?"

"Why should I?"

Akane sighed. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to. But please 
don't push me away. I can tell you need a friend right now. If you ever 
want to talk, I'll be there."

Ranma remained silent for a long moment. "What chances do ya think we'll 
end up married?"

"I don't know. If we do marry, I'd like it to happen because we love 
each other and not for family honor. But who knows, maybe when it comes 
to the time when we can break the engagement, we decide to walk down the 
aisle. We have a long time before then, so anything could happen."

"I guess you're right. You're sure your old man won't throw us out?"

"Yes." Akane nodded. "We should try to get some sleep. We have school 
tomorrow."

"School?" Ranma asked, surprised. It was the last thing he wanted to 
think about.

"Yeah, you know, the place with books and learning."

"Glad I don't have to go."

"Sure you will. You'll be here for a while. Also, you may have learned 
all about martial arts, but you'll probably need to learn how to 
socialize with people."

"How does school help with that?"

"Because you are forced into an area with others the same age as you, 
who are learning and maturing with you. By socializing with them, it'll 
help you later when you deal with people, like students you'll have when 
you start teaching martial arts."

"Never thought about that."

"There are a lot of things you never thought of because you've lived on 
the road. Just like I wouldn't think of certain things you would as I 
haven't lived life the way you have. Well, goodnight." Akane got up and 
started to walk out of the kitchen.

"More like good morning. See ya in a couple hours," Ranma smirked. He 
went back to writing in his journal after she left.

	Today Pop took me to his old friends house. That baka actually 
wants me to marry one of his old friend's daughters. 

	When forced, I chose Akane. She seems nice, friendly, cute, and has 
a great (nude) body. She has a barely controlled anger I saw pop up a 
couple times when I made a couple bad comments and when I accidentally 
seen her naked. Akane insists we should get to know each other and is 
trying to convince me this is my home for at least two years.

	That'd be nice, a home. To know I can come back to this place 
whenever I want. That I'll have food at meal times. That I never have to 
leave here. I doubt it though. Pop and me have never stayed anywhere for 
long.

	I don't want to get to know Akane. I might end up actually liking 
her, and then me and Pop will be forced to leave. I don't want to get 
hurt by leaving a friend again.

	I should try to get back to China and find a cure. But as Akane 
just said to me, 'anything could happen,' so I'll give it some time. Pop 
might actually care enough about family honor to stick this out. If we 
stay here long enough, I might actually decide to marry and settle down 
with her. Not likely, but there is a chance. I'll write down what I 
think of the Tendos later.

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Author's notes:

Thanks to the numerous pre-readers and those who sent C&C on this 
series.

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/fuji/9061/second