Love's Truth
Chapter 3

By Exar
exarkun@olypen.com

_______________________


Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Viz, not me. This story is in no
way a claim to these characters. I make no money from this.

_______________________


Ranma walked into the clinic with a nervous expression on his face. He
wasn't looking forward to this.

As he walked through the door to the office, Dr. Tofu looked up.

"Why, hello, Ranma, it's nice to see you. Any new injuries?"

"No, Doc." <Not yet, anyway...>

"Then what brings you here?", Tofu said, walking around the desk towards
Ranma, a friendly smile on his face.

"Doc, I gotta talk to ya about Kasumi."

"Kasumi...?"

Dr. Tofu's glasses fogged as soon as the name was mentioned.

Ranma sighed. This wasn't gonna be easy. But he owed it to the Doc to be up
front about it.

"Doc... Kasumi an' me, we're engaged now. Akane an' me broke it off. I'm...
sorry."

Tofu danced across the room and grabbed his skeleton off of it's display
stand.

"Betty, did you hear? Kasumi's engaged to Ranma now! Isn't.... that......
nice?"

Dr. Tofu turned slowly to face Ranma, building rage showing in his eyes.

"You're ENGAGED to my Kasumi? Akane was right! You are a womanizer! There's
no way I'm going to let you take Kasumi from me!"

Ranma stared in shock as Tofu threw himself at the younger man, coming back
to himself just in time to dodge the skeleton the enraged physician was
trying to hit him with.

"Doc! What're you doin'? Knock it off!", Ranma shouted as he backpeddled.

"Betty! He's trying to take Kasumi from me! Help me stop him!", Tofu yelled
incoherently as he swung the skeleton in deadly arcs, barely missing Ranma
each time.

Ranma almost screamed in frustration. He'd hoped that Tofu would be
rational, but it had obviously been a wasted hope.

Tofu grabbed his skelton's skull and twisted gently, pulling it free from
the neck.

"Betty's Head-Bash!", yelled the doctor as he lept over a table. As he
reached the height of his arc, he began throwing skulls at Ranma, seemingly
pulling them from inside Betty's empty head.

Ranma dodged and blocked the rain of bones frantically, while trying to get
under the doctor to counter-attack. When Tofu had almost landed, Ranma
snap-kicked his feet out from under him, causing the doctor to land on his
rear.

Tofu grunted in pain, but immediately regained his feet. He briskly
reattached Betty's head, then removed her leg just as quickly. He charged
Ranma, changing to a running jump at the last second, when he slapped
Betty's leg onto his own and shouted, "Skeleton-Fu Secret Technique!
Extension Kick!" Ranma cried out in pain as the foot of the skeletal leg
slammed into his chest, the toes slicing through his shirt and digging into
his chest.

"That's it, doc! No more mister nice guy!", shouted an enraged Ranma as he
shattered Betty's leg with a quick twist. Ranma moved at his full speed and
destroyed the rest of Dr. Tofu's dangerous skeleton.

"How could you do that to my poor Betty? I'm going to teach you a lesson,
Ranma!", Tofu screamed as he leapt at Ranma. Lightning-quick, he threw a
punch at Ranma's face. Instinctively, Ranma blocked with his forearm. Too
late, he saw Tofu's hand twist and felt his expert fingers tapping lightly
down his arm. Ranma's left arm was suddenly stuck in the blocking position
and wouldn't move an inch.

Ranma cursed and flipped backwards over a table, trying to head for the
door. Inside like this, Tofu would be able to corner him and use more of
those pressure points on him.

The doctor ran up and shoved the table hard, hitting Ranma on the way down
and making him land akwardly.

"Dammit!", Ranma yelled, as he twisted his ankle. <That's gonna slow me
down.>

He looked up to see Tofu running around the end of the table and knew that
escape was no longer an option.

"If that's the way you want it, doc. Katchuu Tenchin Amaguriken!! One-Armed
Version!!"

Ranma proceeded to throw several hundred punches at Tofu, who blocked some,
dodged others, and simply stood and took the rest. As Ranma finished the
technique, he noticed an incredible pain in his hand. Tofu had managed to
hit a pain point while blocking! Ranma shook his hand to lessen the agony,
but to no avail. Fortunately, the doctor had felt the
punches he took, and was slow recovering.

Taking advantage of a woozy enemy, Ranma jumped up, bounced off a table, and
executed a Flying Dragon kick that would have made Bruce Lee proud. Tofu
caught it in the chest and went flying out through his clinic's front
window.

Ranma regained his feet and quickly followed, hoping to press his advantage.

He found the doctor in the yard, already halfway to his feet.

"Do ya give up yet, Doc? I don't wanna hurt you.", Ranma said as he warily
advanced on his enemy.

"Give up on Kasumi? Never!", responded Dr. Tofu as he stood up straight and
pressed a spot on his own chest. Immediately his breathing was easier. He
then rushed Ranma, trying to bowl him over. Ranma lept over the doc's
oncoming form, spinning in the air to launch a volley of kicks into his
back. Tofu stumbled forward, unable to stop, and rammed headfirst
into the wall.

"That's it, Ranma! Now you DIE!", Tofu screamed in fury, spinning around and
closing with Ranma faster than before. He dodged Ranma's punch, then began
pummeling the boy's torso from inside his defense. He got in several good
hits before Ranma chopped down onto his collarbone. With a hiss of pain,
Tofu back away.

Tofu was hurting, badly. His clavicle had broken with that last attack, and
the pain-deadening point he'd pressed couldn't filter it all out. When it
wore off, he'd probably go into shock. He needed to finish this.

Ranma decided to go on the offensive. He jumped at Tofu, leading with kicks,
and finishing with a roundhouse punch with his pain-filled hand.

Tofu reeled from Ranma's attacks, but managed to counterattack savagely,
punching Ranma in vulnerable spots, despite seeming to flinch with every
movement of his arms. Ranma lept back and paused a moment to catch his
breath.

Tofu was in agony. One of Ranma's kicks had aggravated his broken shoulder.
He hated to use it on a kid, but he only had one attack left.

"Ki Bone Barrage!!"

Dark blue bolts of energy flew from Tofu's hands at the stunned Ranma. They
resolved into glowing bones, of all sizes and descriptions. He dodged a shin
bone, an ankle, two skulls and a pelvis before a thigh bone struck him full
in the chest. It knocked him backwards harder than one of Ryoga's punches.

Picking himself up off the ground, Ranma wondered aloud, "How the hell did
he do that?"

Tofu was exhausted. He hadn't fought like this in ages. He couldn't take the
pace. Ranma was going to win.

Ranma warily examined his opponent. He seemed to be on the edge of falling
over. <I sure hope he ain't fakin',> Ranma thought.

Only one way to find out, he mused.

Ranma gave a mighty battle cry and leapt into the air. As Tofu watched, he
flew towards him, landing a kick squarely on Tofu's face, knocking him into
and partially through the wall behind him and thoughly knocking him out..

Before he passed out as well, Ranma wondered briefly if he should call a
doctor for the doctor.

_____________________


Ranma awoke in an empty hospital room. He sat up and turned to swing his
feet off the bed, and then noticed the brace on his foot.

"Huh. Musta hurt it worse than I thought," he said quietly. He gingerly
stood up, testing his weight and finding walking possible, if painful.

He limped to the bathroom and was taking care of business when he heard
someone enter the room.

"He's gone!", said a familiar voice.

"What?", replied another.

"The bed's empty!"

Ranma chuckled softly as he finished what he was doing and opened the door
to the cubicle.

"I haven't gone far."

Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi stood in his room, each with a different expression
of her face.

Akane looked angry, but that was nothing new.

Nabiki looked calculating, but very tired.

Kasumi looked calm, but just a tiny bit concerned.

"Ranma! You're finally awake! Now I can pound you for hurting Dr. Tofu!",
Akane said as she pulled her hammer out of the aether.

"Hey! He attacked me!"

"A likely story! Why would he do that, you jerk?"

"Because I told him about being engaged to Kasumi, that's why! He went
crazier than usual!"

"Oh," Akane said in a very small voice.

"Why would Dr. Tofu attack you because we are engaged?", asked Kasumi, with
a puzzled look on he face.

"Because, dear sister, he's head over heels in love with you," drawled
Nabiki.

"Oh, my. He is?"

The other three people in the room all turned their heads to look at Kasumi.

"You mean you didn't know?"

"No. How could I?"

Ranma shook his head and said, "He goes crazy any time you come around, or
if you're even mentioned."

"Oh. I thought he always acted that way."

"I guess you've just never seen him act normally. I don't know if he's
actually insane, or just incredibly shy," offered Nabiki.

"Oh, my."

_____________________

Shampoo dragged Ryoga, kicking and muttering sweet nothings, into the back
room of the Cat Cafe. She threw him into the corner and grabbed the scroll
she'd used the previous day.

"Shampoo, I'm sorry. Please let me make it up to you. I- I'll buy you
flowers and candy. Anything you want. Just forgive me," he wailed.

"Stop you stupid talking. Shampoo trying to find fix for Cassanova Point."

Ryoga couldn't find a way to sauvely reply to that, so he shut up. Sauvely.

After studying the scroll for a minute, Shampoo exclaimed, "Aiyah! Cassanova
Point no have antipoint! It only have time limit. Pig boy stay annoying for
whole week!"

Inwardly, Ryoga howled.

Outwardly, he said, "Shampoo, I don't mean to be annoying. I just want to
have a real relationship with you. As attractive and popular as you are, I
have to persue and woo you."

"Shampoo wish she read whole scroll first. Shampoo stomach upset."

_____________________


Ranma was released a few hours later, but warned to take it easy on his foot
until the ankle healed some. They inquired as to Tofu's condition, and were
told that he would be out in a few days, but wouldn't be back
to full health for a month or so.

As they walked out into a cool spring day, Ranma said, "I hope he doesn't
start attacking me as soon as he's better, but I doubt I'll be that lucky."

"Based on your track record, I'd say it's not likely, Ranma," observed
Nabiki.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I dunno, he's older than my other rivals, so he
might see reason a little easier."

"Sure, Ranma. Whatever you say."

_____________________


The next day, Ranma stayed home from school. The doctor had told him to
avoid fights, and he _knew_ he couldn't do that at Furinkan.

Finding nothing of interest on TV, and having no interest in watch his
father and Mr. Tendo cheat at shogi, he sought out Kasumi.

She wasn't in the kitchen, wasn't doing laundry, and wasn't cleaning the
garden. So where was she?

In her room?

Ranma walked up the stairs and to Kasumi's room. As he raised his hand to
knock, he realized that he'd never been in her room before, and only seen
inside once. And since he'd been worried about Akane cooking, he
didn't much remember what he saw.

He knocked gently on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Ranma, Kasumi."

She opened the door with a smile on her face and said, "Come in, Ranma."

He walked in and looked around. It was a nice room, very clean, with a
comfortable-looking bed and a small edside table against one wall and a desk
against the other. On the desk was... a computer?

"Kasumi? Why do you have a computer in your room?", Ranma asked, gesturing
at the desk.

Kasumi walked over to it and moved the mouse, dispelling the flying toasters
that had been covering the screen.

"It's for my job. I need it to do my typing, but I also use it to organize
and trade recipies, plan meals, and do some shopping."

"I didn't know you had a job.", said Ranma, a little embarassed that he
hadn't.

"I know, Ranma, I don't tell anyone about it. Only you, Nabiki and I know
that I do."

"Oh. Why didn't you tell the rest of us?"

"Because the one time I suggested getting a job, father absolutely refused
to allow it. But we needed the money so badly, I went and got one anyway."

"Wow. I never knew. Now I feel really bad for freeloading all this time."

"Don't, Ranma. I know how much money Nabiki generates off of you, and that
you could stop her easily. You've helped tremendouly."

"Oh. So what is your job?", Ranma asked.

Kasumi gestured at the computer and the pile of books next to it.

"I read medical books and summarize them into things called 'Cliff's
Notes'."

"So that's why you're always going down to Dr. Tofu's to borrow books!"

"Yes."

"Oh. Akane thought it was because you liked him. And I think he hoped it
was."

Kasumi blushed a little, and said, "I like him because he's silly, but I
don't like him the way he seems to want me to. If he had ever shown how he
felt, or asked me out, well... it's not going to happen now, is it?"

"It can if you want it. We can break our engagement right now, and I'll
leave today."

"Don't be silly. Your ankle is still hurt, so you couldn't leave if I'd let
you. Besides, I don't want to date Dr. Tofu. Do you know how old he is?"

"No."

"Well neither do I, but he's been running his clinic since I was in junior
high. He's at least ten or twelve years older than me."

"Ya know, I never thought of that."

Ranma found his way to a chair and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting
with Kasumi about everything under the sun.

_____________________

End
Love's Truth
Chapter 3
(For Now)

_____________________

Author's Notes:
This chapter is shorter than the two previous ones, mainly because I
couldn't think of anything else to put in it. I didn't want to start the
plotline for next chapter just yet, but I didn't want to drag this one on
with unrelated scenes and filler. So it ends here, and chapter 4 will be
back up to the standard length, if not longer.

On Dr. Tofu's age: I don't know how much it's addressed in the manga, but in
the anime, it is suggested that Dr. Tofu is in somewhere in his 30s. He is
shown running his clinic when Akane is somewhere in the range of 10 years
old.  Kasumi would have been 13 or so. that's 6 years before the show,
assuming he was 18 when he graduated high school, add 8 years to get a
doctorate, and he would be at least 32 years old. Also, in one episode of
the anime, he says, "I haven't seen one of those in over a hundred years!"
(referring to the moxibution on Ranma's back). This suggests that he is like
Colonge and Happosai, and is very old, but using a martial arts technique to
stay young. This is doubtful, tho, and the line probably lost something in
the translation. Regardless, Dr. Tofu at 32+, and Kasumi at 19-20? You make
the call.

_____________________


By Exar
exarkun@olypen.com
Exar's Fanfics & More!
http://www.angelfire.com/anime3/exarkun/

Exar's Fanfics & More!
http://come.to/exar


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