Akane Tendo woke up a new woman. Her body, while still in the
throes of puberty, had gained three centimeters in height, her bust
line had expanded into the grey area between B-cup and C-cup, and her
muscles had gained more endurance and strength. She would be turning
seventeen in a month. However, that wasn't what was important.
The important thing was that the mind, spirit and soul of Akane
Tendo were not in Akane Tendo's body. Because Akane Tendo had, in a
moment of depression, wished upon a strange-looking star she could be
someone else. That wish had been granted.
The person who's mind, spirit and soul was in Akane Tendo was a
bit surprised, to say the least. Mostly because she had been a he.
And while his body had been wracked with various minor medical
problems, he had no clue as to why he would be in someone else's body
without dying and there wasn't anything wrong with his body to warrant
sudden death.
His mind snapped onto a horrible conclusion. He had called that
bad Thai food poisonous, but he hadn't been expected to be proven
right. And now he had been reincarnated as a sixteen year old girl.
In Japan.
The new Akane Tendo blinked. She was certain in cases of
reincarnation, one wasn't supposed to recall one's former life. Or at
least, it didn't normally happen. Especially not so clearly. And
wasn't the soul supposed to-
The new Akane Tendo halted. Could the soul and spirit of this
body have wished for death so greatly that he had been transferred into
the body rather than being sent to the afterworld?
What a sad turn of events. She sighed. Well, since this body
was hers, she had to get to work learning about it. First off, a name.
She grabbed a notebook and looked through it for a constant name.
'Akane Tendo' was a frivolous girl. Instead of focusing on
school, she drew in her notebook, and while it was better than her
former self could do, it was pointless scribbles.
"If I had to be reincarnated, I wish it HADN'T been into an
airhead." Akane grumbled.
She also took note of a lot of pictures of a man in his late
twenties, early thirties wearing glasses, a black dougi, and a
ponytail. His hair was brown, as were his eyes. Tofu Ono was written
above his head with numberous hearts around it, as well as name
combinations like 'Tofu Tendo' and 'Akane Ono'.
Akane rolled her eyes. He looked like a nice guy, but she used
to be a guy. And like hell was she getting in bed with any guy simply
because her body's former soul wanted to. Since she was now a girl,
she'd have to score with some other ladies.
She paused. The calendar said it was the same year, even the
next day. In about a month and a half would have been her old self's
birthday. She shook her head. She'd double-checked the calendar year
to make sure she didn't wind up in the 1950s, where girl-girl
relationships still occurred, they were just hush-hush. Or so the
rumors went.
She found a family photo on her desk and looked at it. Three
girls and a middle age man were smiling in front of a cave. The man
had long black hair with a thick black mustache to compliment. He had
tanned skin. She recalled his name was 'Soun' and he was her new
biological father.
The other two girls looked older than her, but not by much.
First was a girl with long brown hair wearing pink shirt with yellow
letter and purple slacks. Her name was Kasumi. The next girl had a
short brown hair in a bowl cut, with a green blouse and a heavy white
skirt. Her name was Nabiki.
Akane cursed her luck. The girl with the bowl cut would have
looked better in some tight jeans. Too bad she was family.
Akane was thankful it was a Sunday and one where her former self
had no plans. It gave her time to meditate and take in many of the
memories that her body still retained.
When no more relevant information was coming to her, she stood
and began flowing gently through a kata the old Akane knew, something
that she found relaxing. Not surprising, given the old Akane's focus
on martial arts, but she absolutely stunk at her own style.
The old Akane did everything straight, hard and focused on power.
The new Akane knew that was worth horseshit in terms of combat.
Straight attacks were good and all, but the old Akane focused on the
Martial part and decided to forsake the Art half.
Gentle, flowing, and with patience. Finishing quickly was not
important. Going through a kata in thirty seconds was fine, but if one
made numerous errors, it was worthless.
Soun watched Akane go through a form with calm and patience that
Soun had NEVER seen the girl with. Soun decided to comment, "Akane, is
something wrong? You aren't your usual self." Soun left out how he
felt this change was definitely for the better.
"No, not really. I just noticed I've been making a lot of
mistakes in my katas, so I decided to slow it down so I could get them
down." Akane responded as she continued flowing through her kata.
Soun nearly burst into tears, but managed to reign himself in.
He'd seen how his daughters had reacted to losing their mother. Kasumi
had retreated to her own little world, Nabiki became their financial
pillar but lost many of her morals, and Akane had grown more and more
violent and angry. So much to the point that Soun had deliberately
stopped training her to keep her from hurting people in her temper
tantrums. He hadn't done anything to try and break them out of it
because he himself hadn't quite worked through the pain and grief and
didn't want to be too hypocritical.
Now Akane was starting to calm herself and open to the true
aspects of a martial artist, rather than the way of the petty thug.
"Akane, I think you may be ready for more training... but I'll
need to test you." Soun declared, causing Akane to stop in surprise.
Akane nodded as Soun took up a ready stance across from her.
Akane shifted from her stance in her kata into a fighting stance that,
Soun curiously noted, was from a Korean Short Karate style. Akane had
focused entirely on Kempo to Soun's knowledge.
Soun charged and leapt at Akane with a flying leap that the old
Akane wouldn't have been able to dodge. The new Akane was an expert at
dodging and a better tactician. She tucked and rolled out of the way,
getting out of range of Soun's inevitable second attack, which was a
clothesline attack for the students who simply dodged. Most didn't see
it coming.
Soun turned and hastily blocked as Akane's fighting style flowed
from her old brute strength form to Shorin-Ryu style karate to Sumotori
to Korean Short Karate to... some style he didn't know. Soun was
caught off guard by the sudden double jumpkick and staggered back while
Akane spun quickly, landing on her butt and rolling to her feet before
the shock of landing could really set in.
"End." Soun said hastily as Akane prepared another attack.
Akane relaxed and began rubbing her sore butt. WWF wrestlers
made that technique look a lot easier, but then again, they didn't do
the somersault to return to their feet quickly.
"I'm impressed. You've finally overcome the weakness that had
been keeping you back. You'd failed to notice the 'Anything Goes' part
of our family style before now." Soun declared.
"Really?" Akane inquired. That meant the Anything Goes was
closer to her old personal style. How unfortunate she'd never known
about it before the transference.
Soun nodded, "I think you're finally ready for the advanced
training..."
Akane groaned as she eased herself off the bathseat. Advanced
training had been so exhuasting that she hadn't even had the time to
explore her new body sexually. Having been a hormonally driven male,
seeing what delights a female body could produce would have been a
priority (admittedly, lower than making sure she fit in), but Soun's
training had killed any chance of enjoying that.
Akane, despite being fairly fit for sixteen, was in agony. Her
memory couldn't find another moment when her muscles ached so much.
She sighed in relief as she eased herself into the tub, the heat easing
the sore spots perfectly.
Her older sister Nabiki entered. Akane found the ceiling
interesting while she tried _not_ to have sexual thoughts about her new
sister. Nabiki was well-lathered when she turned to Akane, who had
returned enjoying the healing power of the hot water she was in.
"Anything new happen today?" Nabiki inquired conversationally.
"Dad's finally training me up to master-level in our school."
Akane spoke up.
Nabiki arched an eyebrow. She knew her father could do foolish
things, but Akane learning the master level of the Anything Goes school
was not something he did lightly.
"Say, Nabiki, you were fairly good at martial arts, why did you
quit?" Akane inquired.
"Didn't have the time. I have a social life now." Nabiki
responded.
"If you say so. By the way, you can stop buyings bricks and
stuff now. I don't need that stuff anymore." Akane told Nabiki.
Had Nabiki been drinking something, she would have done a spit-
take.
"WHAT?!" Nabiki inquired.
"I. Don't. Need. That. Stuff. Anymore." Akane repeated
slowly.
"You? Akane, that's almost like saying you don't need to eat."
Nabiki stated.
"Look, I simply have no need for them. What good is it to gauge
my strength by breaking boards or bricks? A trained monkey can do
that. Hell, a monkey can do that without needing to be trained. I
don't need strength anymore. I need focus and discipline." Akane
responded.
Nabiki suddenly hugged Akane, tears in her eyes as she blathered
out, "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!"
"iiiiitteeeee!" Akane whimpered out as the hug caused most of the
sore muscles to scream "I HURT, DON'T MOVE ME, BUTTMUNCH!".
Nabiki didn't care, she was so happy that yet another drain on
the family resources was now gone. Even at secondhand prices, they
were gouging a good portion of money from Nabiki's purse. (1)
The next day, Akane woke up ahead of time and got dressed in
record time, her muscles having mostly recovered from the advanced
training. Kasumi was surprised when Akane helped her make the rice for
breakfast and didn't even make her usual mistake when she asked Akane
to wash the rice. Kasumi was especially thankful because it had cost
quite a bit to have the washing machine fixed after that mistake and
she hated to waste food.
Akane _had_ asked a number of questions before doing the assigned
task, but Kasumi was just grateful that Akane hadn't tried to force
herself through the process.
"It's nice of you to help out in the kitchen, Akane." Kasumi said
sincerely.
For some reason that she didn't truly understand, Akane felt
incredibly proud when Kasumi said that, "It's no problem. It's the
least I can do, what with you making all our meals. Once I start
getting the hang of cooking in Home Ec, would you mind if I started
helping out more?"
"Not at all." Kasumi said, this time, managing to refrain from
cringing openly.
"Great. I'll get out the bento boxes." Akane responded, beaming
with a pride that she couldn't really understand.
Akane couldn't believe a whole week had passed so well. She was
still trying to get it through to the daily Horde that she wasn't
interested. At Nabiki's request, she continued to fight through the
Horde at top speed, but she'd told Nabiki to find another source of
income because Akane wasn't going to tolerate that forever.
Nabiki noticed, however, that while Akane was still disabling the
horde, it was with stopping force, not pounding force. She was
sincerely pulling her attacks and still managing to beat the Horde and
Tatewaki.
Kasumi and Akane's Home Ec teacher were both pleasantly surprised
as Akane began learning how to cook actual food rather than things that
had to be thrown away, pot or pan included. (2) Of course, they didn't
come out looking right, but they didn't taste bad, nor were they
secretly poisonous. (3)
Akane returned home Saturday afternoon to see Soun reading a
postcard.
"Who's that from, dad?" Akane inquired, before taking note of
both Nabiki and Kasumi's presense.
"Akane, please sit down with your sisters." Soun answered.
Akane quirked an eyebrow, but sat down anyway, next to Nabiki.
"I just got a postcard from an old friend of mine, who's been on
a ten year training journey with his son. Recently, they've crossed
into China and now they're coming back." Soun declared.
"That's nice, so they're going to be houseguests for a while?"
Akane guessed, grabbing a cracker and nibbling on it.
"Sort of. You see, it's been the dream of Genma and I to have
our families unite. So, if everything turns out all right, his son
will be engaged to one of your girls." Soun responded.
"So... what's he like, this boy?" Nabiki inquired.
"I don't know." Soun replied.
"You don't know?" Akane asked, staring at the back of her
father's head with an intensity that if she had Superman's heat vision,
she would have blown Soun's head off, destroyed a satelite and bisected
a passing comet.
"I've never met him." Soun declared.
Soun was a bit put off as a partially eaten cracker bounced off
his head, but the fact that it was thrown by Nabiki was more
surprising.
"What kind of idiot engages his daughters to a boy without
knowing what he's like?! He could be a food thief, obnoxious, rude or
something!" Nabiki growled.
"My cracker...." Akane moaned, looking at the ruined snack with
heavy remorse in her voice.
Kasumi headed to the kitchen to get the hand brush and dust pan.
It was just then that the front door opened.
"That must be him!" Soun exclaimed, hurrying to the door.
"Come on, we should at least meet him." Akane told Nabiki,
hopping to her feet.
Nabiki grumbled angrily, but stood up anyways. Then, Kasumi and
Soun raced back into the living room, followed by a large panda and a
redhaired person on the panda's left shoulder.
"Knock it off, pops, you're scarin' 'em spitless!" the redhead
said, kicking the panda while she pounded on it's head and back.
[What kind of name is 'Pops' for a panda?] Akane wondered, having
dismissed the panda as a trained pet.
Then, as the panda set the redhead down in front of Soun, Akane
took note of the large bulge in the redhead's shirt.
"You'd wouldn't be..." Soun began.
"Ranma Saotome, sorry about this." the redhead declared.
"Oh well. Looks like uniting the school is a bust." Akane
sighed, before snickering at the pun.
That caught Soun's attention before he could hug Ranma.
"What?" Soun inquired.
Akane sighed and walked up behind Ranma. Ranma yelped in
surprise as Akane cupped the redhead's breasts and hefted them, "Last
time I checked, girls can't have children with other girls unless it's
by adoption."
Soun took note of Ranma's breasts as Akane stepped away, though
Ranma noticed that Akane's hands seemed to linger.
"Wh-where is your father?" Soun asked.
"He's right behind me." Ranma answered.
Soun glanced at the panda, then realized Ranma must've been
speaking figuratively, "Coming later, eh? Well, I guess we'll... just
have to discuss this when he arrives."
Ranma looked ready to say something, when Akane interjected, "We
can at least be friends. My name is Akane. Wanna take a look around?"
"I guess it couldn't hurt." Ranma replied.
Akane took Ranma's hand and smiled, "Come on, I'll show you the
dojo."
Akane turned away before she saw Ranma's blush and led the
redheaded girl to the dojo.
"You've studied Kempo, right?" Akane inquired as she adjusted her
dougi top. Ranma's blush deepened as she noticed Akane didn't like
wearing a bra underneath her top, which allowed the dougi-clad girl's
breasts to fill out the fabric more. Of course, Akane had changed in
front of Ranma, so that had added to the blush.
"A little" Ranma told her.
"Any other styles?" Akane asked.
"I think a bit of Wu Shu, but I don't remember a lot of the
names. It was pretty much just training in those styles. Pops always
told me to focus on the training, so I never spent much time memorizing
the names until I was about ten or so." Ranma responded.
"Would you mind sparring with me? I may not be up to the level
of someone who's been training for ten years solid like you, but I want
to see how good we are." Akane begged.
"Okay." Ranma answered.
Ranma was a little surprised when Akane took up a karate stance,
rather than one typical of kempo. The two were similar, but Ranma
could see the subtle differences. Akane pushed off and seemed to glide
across the dojo floor before delivering a strong punch.
"You know karate too?" Ranma inquired as she dodged by bending a
bit.
"Some." Akane answered, backing away and reassessing Ranma.
Ranma's dodging skills were impressive. No solid hit was going
to get the blue-eyed busty girl, so it was time to switch to her more
nimble attacks. Ranma was taken aback when Akane launched forward with
a flathand thrust, then retracted her ring and pinky finger to chase
after Ranma's form with her index and middle as Ranma bent away to
dodge.
Ranma realized she would get tagged if she didn't take action.
She continued to bend backwards, snapping her hands above her head to
touch the dojo floor as her legs seized Akane's arm and sent the Tendo
girl flying across the dojo.
Akane, however, controlled her spin and landed before she could
reach the dojo wall. Ranma returned to her feet and reassessed the
Tendo girl. She wasn't as bad as Ranma had originally thought her to
be. Most Dojo students were very bad, usually so set in their ways
that the instant their opponent switched tactics, they lost instantly.
"Not too shabby." Ranma commented.
"I'm impressed. I guess I need a little work to catch up with
you. You've got a lot of agility and speed, probably mostly an aerial
style, right?" Akane inquired.
"Yeah. You know your stuff around martial arts." Ranma
complimented her.
"I gotta. I'm the current heir to the Tendo school. Wouldn't do
if the heir to a school of martial arts sucked, ne?" Akane asked
rheotorically before returning to her feet and smiling, "If you
wouldn't mind, I'd like to see how you train. To keep up with you, I
suspect I'll need quite a bit."
"I wouldn't mind at all." Ranma answered, smiling as well.
A while later, Ranma found herself very impressed with Akane.
She had real potential. She had a lot of natural strength, but she
could focus it properly and could very well become a worthy sparring
partner in a month or so, once she got used to the acrobatics needed
for what Ranma considered normal training.
Not only that, but she got Ranma's little jokes. A few were
groaners, but in all, Ranma was finding herself liking Akane. And that
brought a bout of depression. She knew Akane would freak out once she
knew about the curse.
"Akane, Ranma, I've drawn a bath so you can get cleaned up before
dinner and here, I've brought you some clean towels to use." Kasumi
said, presenting the towels to Akane.
Akane took the towels and passed one to Ranma, "I can see why
you're so good. I'd be a lot better if I took to that sort of
training. Kasumi, why don't you show Ranma the guest room? I'll bathe
first. I need it more."
Ranma blushed as Akane loosened her top and fanned herself as she
left the room.
Akane sighed as she put on a casual blue shirt and pants. Just
as she was exiting her room, she heard her father call, "Akane, we've
got an important matter to discuss in the living room."
Akane nodded to herself. Genma had probably shown up, meaning
the whole matter would be cleared up. Hopefully Ranma could stay.
Akane really wanted to work with the redhead towards attaining a higher
level of martial mastery. It didn't hurt that the girl was very cute,
had a nice bust and a cute tush.
Akane was beginning to wish she'd waited for Ranma before taking
her bath, but she figured it would do better to start such a
relationship in friendship first.
Then they could play 'explorer woman' together.
Akane was greeted with the sight of a husky bald man wearing a
kerchief on his head and wearing a slightly tattered white dougi next
to an unfamilar black-haired boy who was wearing the same outfit as
Ranma. The boy even had the same pigtail.
Soun motioned her daughter to sit next to Nabiki and Kasumi. She
did so, wondering when Ranma was going to show up. It would be
interesting to find out if the boy and Ranma were related.
"Go on, my friend." Soun mentioned.
"Yes, you see, close to a year ago, my son and I swam to China as
part of an endurance test..." Genma began.
[SWAM to China?] Akane stared at the two. Sure, the boy looked
pretty fit, and she guessed the portly man's fat allowed him extra
buoncy, but swimming the sea between Japan and China was a bit
excessive. The boy looked rather irritated and kept glaring at Genma.
"We sought many esoteric martial art techniques and training
grounds to prove ourselves. Then, we researched and found the
legendary cursed training ground of Jusenkyo." Genma continued.
"Cursed training ground?" Nabiki inquired dubiously.
Akane would have agreed, but it was no more ridiculous than
waking up in another person's body. She was going to give the tale a
bit more credence.
"I have to admit I was mostly to blame for choosing it, but I was
of the same attitude as you, girl. 'What idiot believes in curses and
magic in this modern day and age?' I asked myself." Genma responded,
before adding, "The honest truth is that few people do, save for the
ones who see it up close."
"In other words, baka-oyaji here got us both cursed. Hot water
changes us back while cold water activates the curse." the boy
declared.
"Yes, but listen to yourself, boy, you're even beginning to sound
like-" Genma turned to the boy, seizing him by the shirt before
flinging him toward the koi pond, "A GIRL!"
The boy landed squarely in the pond, but leapt out and splashed
his father. Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi STARED at the again-female Ranma
and again-panda Genma.
"SUCK ON IT, POPS! You did this to us!" Ranma-chan roared,
landing six punches on Genma before the Panda could retaliate with a
paw swipe.
"I.... see......." Kasumi murmurred.
"Gahgah......." Nabiki managed to declare.
"Oooooh...." Akane joined in, realizing the sort of predicament
that would have resulted had she and Ranma shared a bath.
Soun explained the finer details of the story while Ranma and
Genma pounded the hell out of each other. The daughter-panda smackdown
was finally interupted when Soun stepped between them and poured hot
water on Genma, changing him back into a man. Genma winced, "Hot
water, not boiling, Tendo."
Laughing heartily, Soun patted Ranma-chan on the shoulder, "Well
now, this isn't so bad."
"Huh?" Ranma-chan asked.
Soun guided Ranma back into the living room and pointed to his
daughters, "This is Kasumi, she's 19. Nabiki, she's 17. And Akane,
who's 16. Pick any one you want, she'll be your new fiancee."
"Akane, you both like martial arts and you don't like boys, so
Ranma's perfect." Nabiki said, patting Akane on the arm.
"Uh, why not give us some time? I'm sure Ranma wouldn't mind
delaying the engagement for a while." Kasumi interupted.
"Hmm, not a bad idea." Soun noted.
Genma spoke up, "No, the sooner, the better!"
"Come, come now, Genma. We shouldn't push the children." Soun
answered.
"Besides, Nabiki and Akane are still in high school. We should
at least wait until they've graduated." Kasumi said.
Genma didn't look too pleased, but accepted it while he pouted.
Kasumi noted that Genma looked a bit constipated. High fiber foods for
him.
"Besides, I need to find a cure for this! Not get a fiancee."
Ranma-chan growled.
"But Jusenkyo's been there for thousands of years. And the
spring you fell into was from at least 1000 years, right?" Akane spoke
up, looking through the Jusenkyo Curse Handbook that Genma had given
Soun, who had, in turn, shown to his daughters.
Ranma-chan stopped, mid-step in the direction of the front door.
"Then wouldn't the magic be incredibly potent? Hazarding a
guess, you'd probably need to find something just as powerful to even
scratch that level of magic." Akane reasoned.
"Akane?" Nabiki inquired, wondering how her sister knew about
magic.
"What? I read about it in the book. If Jusenkyo's magic covers
all those springs and it's stayed around for more than 1000 years at
the very _LEAST_, then it's not something that's just going to fade
away on Tuesday. In fact, if no one's tried to purify Jusenkyo, then
it's likely for a reason. Something to do with Karma." Akane explained
before adding, "And you can't ditch karma that easily."
"You're saying I _DESERVED_ this?" Ranma-chan inquired.
"No, I'm not, but you might need it." Akane responded.
Ranma-chan didn't know why, but she was very confused. She liked
Akane, but it almost sounded like Akane was insulting her, but not
enough for Ranma-chan to get upset. Akane stood up, walked over and
touched Ranma-chan on the shoulder.
"We're still friends, right? You shouldn't try and deal with a
problem like this head on and alone. That's why you're both in this
predicament to begin with. I'm sure that if we stop and look, we're
bound to find some solutions." Akane responded.
Ranma-chan tried to argue with that line of logic, "All right,
but if we don't find nothin', I'm going back to China to find that
cure."
Akane smiled, "And you won't go alone. Boy or girl, it doesn't
matter. We're friends."
Ranma-chan found herself blushing deeply. She didn't know very
many nice people and most of them hadn't known about her curse.
"Okay..." Ranma-chan mumbled.
Ranma arched an eyebrow, "High school? Why do I gotta go?"
"It'll do you good, boy." Genma answered simply.
Ranma huffed.
"Oh, come on, Saotome. It'll do you good to have a few more
things to do in a day besides train. Besides, until this whole
engagement is either finalized or refused, you're going to do something
productive to help out this household. Your father is looking for a
job." Nabiki declared.
Ranma sighed, "I suppose it couldn't hurt to see how dismal my
scores are."
"You're in luck, Furinkan isn't too high on the chart, but it
isn't at the bottom, either. Getting in shouldn't be too difficult if
you've paid attention to class in the last two years." Akane joined in,
teasing Ranma.
Ranma grumbled at the knock to his ego, but he'd already
committed himself to going to school. He grabbed the pack and followed
Akane out the door.
"Where's Nabiki?" Ranma inquired.
"She's already gone ahead. She has things to do before we get
there. Extracurricular or something." Akane explained hazily.
Ranma shrugged and they began walking.
About a block away, Akane spoke up, "So, Ranma. Your father and
mine both have advanced training levels. How far along do you think
you are?"
"Well, he said he's got a few techniques he's sealed away... too
dangerous to be used, 'cept in an extreme emergency. 'sides that, I
figure I'm pretty much just keepin' the old lardbucket in shape more
than learnin' anythin'." Ranma responded.
"Hmm, well, I just started on the advanced levels. I know I'm
probably not going to get up to your level any time soon..." Akane
began.
"Hey, now. You're a lot better than what I woulda figured coming
from a dojo'n'all." Ranma answered.
"You really think?" Akane inquired.
"Yeah, you got real potential. I can tell you've been stuck in
mostly power-based Earth or Fire style, but other than that, you could
be a good sparrin' partner in about a month'r so." Ranma complimented
her.
"Thanks, Ranma. That means a lot to me." Akane told him, smiling
a bit.
Ranma felt a faint blush rise to his cheeks, "T'weren't nuthin'."
Akane began chuckling at how silly Ranma sounded using
"t'weren't". The mental image of Ranma in overalls with a stalk of
wheat in his mouth spitting tobacco into a can, saying things like
"Howdy", "Y'all come back now, y'hear?" and "I'll fix ya up a MESS of
vittles!" hopped to her forebrain and refused to leave for a few
seconds.
"So, what did you do in China besides Jusenkyo?" Akane inquired.
"Uh... well.... a lot of things. Most of it had to do with
fighting." Ranma responded.
"Hmmm, you'll have to tell me about it sometime. Hey, Ranma?"
Akane asked, using a more serious tone.
"What?" Ranma replied.
"When we get to school, there's going to be a lot of boys there.
They've got it into their heads that if they can beat me that I'll date
them." Akane began.
"But you don't?" Ranma inquired.
"No, but I haven't lost even once, so it's a moot point. I just
felt I should warn you about that if you decide to help out." Akane
told him.
Ranma nodded. They continued on in silence, but both found
themselves liking the other's presence.
Ranma arched an eyebrow at the scene and asked, "Every day?"
Akane nodded as she snorted. Holding back was actually the
difficult part, but even that was growing easier by the day as her
focus increased. She doubted she would be able to break a sweat even
if the horde were to double in number.
Tatewaki was already on the ground, unconscious. He had been
trying to make an impressive entrance every day for the last week, but
the new Akane wouldn't give him even that. She always located him
during the battle and dealt with him discreetly. The last thing she
needed was to be five minutes closer to being late.
"Must get annoying." Ranma commented.
"It does. The worst thing is that if I keep fighting inferior
opponents, my skills are going to start slipping." Akane responded as
she and Ranma entered the school building.
"It might. But at least you keep sharp when it comes to danger
sense." Ranma noted.
"Barely. I doubt these guys would actually work up the nerve to
deal any real damage. They probably think my defense is so weak that
they shouldn't 'break' me. Please. I've taken worse lumps on
playground equipment than anything those dorks would ever deal to me."
Akane huffed.
"I think you're right. I've seen younger sumos and they were a
lot faster and more forceful in their attacks. The ones you fought
seemed to be doing their 'teach the younger students' level." Ranma
agreed.
Akane nodded.
"See you later, Ranma." Akane told him as he headed to the
administration office and she went to class.
Akane had not expected Ranma to be in her class. Then again,
given that he'd spent most of ten years on the road, the fact that he
was in high school at all could have been surprising to those who
thought less of people that travelled all their lives.
Akane was not one of those people. Ranma was introduced and sent
to the seat to the left and behind Akane. After that, school
progressed fairly well.
Until lunch time, when Akane found out that either Nabiki had
blabbed something (something that occurred with the frequency of a
lightning bolt hitting someone who was peeing through an electric fence
onto an electric generator) or Nabiki had sold the information on
Ranma, which included the thing about fiancees.
One way or another, Tatewaki charged into their room the instant
lunch started and roared, "RANMA SAOTOME! I SHALL NEVER ACCEPT YOUR
ENGAGEMENT TO AKANE TENDO!"
"TATEWAKI KUNOU!" Akane roared back almost instantly, having
expected this sooner or later.
Tatewaki, not used to be roared at, halted.
Akane cleared her throat and began clarifying, "First of all,
this is neither the time nor the place. Secondly, Ranma has an open-
ended engagement to me, Nabiki or Kasumi and he has not chosen any of
us. Thirdly, he did not arrange this, my father and his did, and that
was back when they were still in training. And lastly, it doesn't
matter if you accept the engagement, because YOU ARE NOT OF THE TENDO
CLAN AND NEVER WILL BE UNLESS YOU MARRY KASUMI!"
Tatewaki staggered backwards, staring at his tigress with wide-
eyes.
Akane continued, "You are loud, boorish, petty, vengeful, and so
chauvinistic that you have not once taken me seriously, in either a
potentially romantic, martial or platonic manner. You would likely
start chasing any other girl that fit your fancy than stay true to any
one woman, and even if I _DID_ consider you a potential romantic
interest, your non-kendo habits and the fact that you basically tossed
any possible affection to the rabid horde that pursues me every morning
would no doubt drive me to reject you and everything tied to you."
"I-i---......" Tatewaki's mind was seeking a hint of hope.
Akane folded her arms across her chest. She knew Tatewaki _was_
a generally nice guy, once someone got past the extravagances. Her
memories indicated that he was capable of fulfilling his 'noble
samurai' image on occassion. Not that she would be willing to date him
in a million years, but he could be made to improve himself. Keeping
that in mind, she told him seriously, "Should you ever reform your
behavior, I may reconsider my statements, but until then, you are
completely unacceptable to me."
Tatewaki took a while, but he finally returned to his present
state of mind. The rest of the class would take much longer.
"I understand, Akane Tendo. I shall leave and strive to make
myself a better man. Than I shall return to you." Tatewaki answered,
exiting the classroom and heading out on a spiritual journey.
"I hope I didn't totally devastate the poor guy. He's okay, but
he's got too many bad habits." Akane muttered.
"So, you think you might like him if he did change?" Ranma
inquired.
"No. He made too much of a bad impression for too long. But
hopefully, Tatewaki will take those words to heart and change himself.
Then, he'll be suitable for any other girl that he may fixate on."
Akane replied.
Ranma arched an eyebrow.
"Besides, it was getting a tad too ridiculo-" Akane began.
Then, the mob of girls, no longer in shock from Akane telling
Tatewaki off, swarmed Akane, demanding details about if she and Ranma
had gone a date yet, what Akane thought of him and if Akane would mind
if Ranma took some of them out on a date.
Ranma noted that Akane had apparently taken swimming at one point
as she thrust a hand with one digit up. Her arm sank, then thrust her
hand up again, with an extra digit extended. Her arm sank once more.
Ranma sighed. Time to save his potential fiancee from 'drowning' in
the sea of girls.
Akane stretched as she headed to the bath. A nice workout
between her father's advanced training and Ranma's training had caused
some of her muscles to jump straight to aching and sore. She needed a
nice soak in the tub, dinner, then bed.
She entered, washed herself well and had just stepped into the
tub when she finally noticed Ranma sitting in the tub with her. She
hadn't noticed that he was already in the tub when she'd entered.
"Hi... guess you didn't notice the sign." Ranma began.
Akane blushed a bit, "Sorry. I should have looked. I was too
busy focusing on getting clean."
Ranma was doing his best to cover himself while looking away.
"Okay, come on, Ranma. It's not like you haven't seen a naked
girl before." Akane chided him.
"You seen a naked guy before?" Ranma inquired.
Akane didn't want to have to explain that the original Akane had
never looked at anyone's groin on purpose, but that new Akane knew all
about the male genitalia. So, she lied.
"Yuka's got quite the collection of Yaoi Doujinshi." Akane
responded.
"What's 'Yaoi' mean?" Ranma asked, his eyes wide with innocent
curiosity.
"If you don't know, you probably don't want to. I've seen enough
that I'm pretty much desensitized to it." Akane told him, not about to
shock the poor boy a day after he first arrived.
"Oh." Ranma answered, then slowly brought his arms up from his
hard member to rest on the rim of the bath in a manner similar to
Akane.
Akane spoke up, "Hey, Ranma? Can I ask a question?"
Ranma nodded.
"Did you make any friends on your training trip?" Akane inquired.
"Yeah, why d'ya wanna know?" Ranma shot back, in a curious tone.
"Well, since you're going to be staying here for a while, I
figured you could take this opportunity to send letters out to your
friends." Akane replied.
"I don't remember too many friends... wait! I can write my
buddy, Ucchan. He lived down in Kyoto. Then there was Haruka, she was
a buddy of mine..." Ranma said, papping a hand into his other.
"'Ucchan'? How'd you meet him?" Akane asked.
"Well, we were kinda poor, so pops made me steal from his cart.
His dad didn't seem to mind much. I think he thought it was good
training for Ucchan. Anyway, Ucchan's the only friend I can remember
that I used to play with outside of school or training and I knew him
the longest. We spent close to a year down there, which was longer
than most of the other places we stayed." Ranma answered.
"You sure he still lives down there?" Akane inquired.
Ranma faltered.
"We can have Nabiki check on it. She can get info on a lot of
things. And she can probably find Haruka for you as well." Akane
announced.
"Really? Thanks, Akane." Ranma said.
Akane smiled in return. And Ranma blushed again.
Ranma caressed her silky hips. Akane looked at him with
apprehension as Ranma positioned his member at her entrance. Easing
himself into her, Ranma felt himself release instantly.
Ranma burst awake.
He wasn't completely stupid when it came to things relating to
sex, but he'd never had a wet dream that was so intense. His rigid
member was still releasing his fluid into the fabric of his boxers.
Ranma blushed. He'd barely known Akane for more than a day and
he already had one of the most intense orgasms he'd ever experienced
just thinking about making love to her.
He knew what sex was about. Back in Junior High, he'd hung out
at a buddy's house and he'd seen Urutsukidoji back to back with Angel
of Darkness and Demon Beast Invasion. Despite the trauma and
declaration that he'd never watch anime again (at least until he saw
how tame Sailor Moon and Tenchi Muyou! were), Ranma had wondered what
it would have been like to be on the receiving end of those horrible
slimy tentacles.
Which was why when he'd acquired his curse, he'd spent as many
days fully awake as he could with a club in his hand, just in case evil
demons possessed his father or the Jusenkyou Guide.
Regardless, he knew about sex. It may have not been the worst
possible introduction to the world of sexuality (though it was
certainly in the top ten), but he knew.
To keep himself from growing tentacles or anything weird like
that and going to hump Akane's brains out, Ranma found a glass of cold
water and went to sleep as a girl.
Ranma-chan felt hands on her silky hips. Looking down, she saw
Akane as the dark-haired girl slid her body up against Ranma-chan's
until they were face to face.
"Why the hell is THIS happening?!" Ranma-chan demanded.
"Because you stupidly thought Cool Devices was about giant mecha
and La Blue Girl was a story about Shogunate Era romance." Akane
replied.
"Oh yeah." Ranma-chan noted to herself.
"And shame on you for even watching Akiko." Akane said.
"I know, but how was I supposed to know the sound effects would
be horrible, the script atrocious and the plot was wrought with lame
hentai cliches." Ranma-chan inquired.
=======================================================================
(1) And WHY hadn't anyone else ever noticed this? Naughty fanfic
writers.
(2) All Japanese hate wasting food. Having to waste cooking supplies
too? Really bad.
(3) Rule of Standard Anime Bad Cooks #1: If it looks and smells good,
it's painfully disgusting.
Rule of Standard Anime Bad Cooks #2: If it looks bad, but smells
good, it causes stomach cramps that could take down a berserk rhino
hopped up on cocaine.
Rule of Standard Anime Bad Cooks #3: If it looks and smells bad,
it's only really nasty to taste and leaves an unnatural oily taste in
your mouth for two weeks.
Chapter 1, Complete
An Akane who's not insensitive or hammer-friendly? Ranma's seen
Urutsukidoji? Tatewaki leaving on a spiritual quest? What more
weirdness can hop into their lives?
And if that much has changed, what else has?
Stay tuned!
Next chapter:
Ryoga Hibiki and Shampoo appear!
Kodachi Kunou's new fear!
Mikado Sanzenin's new move!
Burning vengence!
The one worse than Happosai!
(
geocities.com/tokyo/island) (
geocities.com/tokyo)