Some spellchecking...
(Scene: Scott's apartment. Scott, Ranma and Akane are sitting
around with packed luggage nearby.)
Ranma: So what's this Thanksgiving stuff about?
Scott: It's an American custom. We set aside one day each year to be
grateful for what we have. Especially us religious types.
Akane: What are you grateful for, Scott?
Scott: I'm still alive, for starters. I have a decent family that got a
little larger this year, I've mostly been employed and on decent jobs,
and I made some new friends. You guys.
Ranma: So this means we have to listen to your Uncle Helmar praying at
great length again?
Scott: Nah, he's going to Montana this year. Probably my Gramma Fish
will lead the prayer. Oh, did I mention the custom of having a really
huge meal of favorite foods?
Ranma: All right! Now that I can be truly thankful for!
Akane: That means lots of cooking! I'll be glad to help!
Ranma: Umm...Akane...it's supposed to be a joyous occasion?
Akane: Relax! I just got back from Ranma Flambe! I should be able to
remember the recipes.
Ranma: If you say so. So, Scott, when your sister coming to pick us up?
Scott: Another hour or so.
Akane: So how about another chapter of Worse?
Scott: No can do. Still waiting for the fight choreography. How about
Twilight Existence instead?
Ranma: But I don't even get an onstage appearance in that one!
Akane: That's the one where the Jyuusenkyo springs alter minds as well
as bodies, right?
Scott: Yes. So Ranma's female form is in effect an entirely different
person who calls herself Ranko.
Ranma: Not that it seems to have made much difference yet. I'm still
engaged to Akane, I'm still fighting Kunou...
Akane: You're still a jerk...
Ranma: Hey! You weren't so thrilled with Ranko either.
Akane: At least she has an excuse.
Ranma: But me and Ranko did start communicating, which is probably a
good thing.
TWILIGHT EXISTENCE
by Scott K. Jamison
(Takahashi disclaimer)
Part Four
It is not true that I'm smarter than Ranma. We have the same
brain, after all. But I can see where people might think so. Ranma was
brought up to believe that the best solution to any problem was to smash
it physically. When that doesn't work, he's at a bit of a loss. I,
conversely, got saddled with the rather sexist instinct that women should
never be physically aggressive or violent. So my first impulse is
usually to talk my way out of bad situations, even when fighting would be
better. But talking looks smarter than fighting to most people, so there
you are.
The Tendou family was getting tired of explaining everything
twice to us, so we started keeping a diary. It became part of our
standard equipment, along with the umbrella Ranma carried to ward off at
least some changes, and the thermos of hot water. Well, at least he was
*supposed* to carry them. He wasn't when the next important incident
happened.
I woke up on the street, unable to move my legs.
"It's okay for a girl to carry a girl, right?" Akane asked.
"Sure, I guess. What happened?"
Akane ranted about Ranma's insensitivity for a while, but I got
her calmed down after a few minutes. I wished they could get along
better, after all, I had to live with Akane too.
It seemed Ranma had during his latest fight with Kunou discovered
that one of Nabiki's businesses was selling pictures. Pictures of Akane
and me. Selling them to Kunou. Ranma made the mistake of asking why
anyone would waste good money on pictures of Akane. She'd hurt him worse
than Kunou had ever done.
Then they'd gone to see Dr. Tofu. "Ranma seemed fine when we
left the clinic, then his legs stopped working. He said it was too
embarrassing for a boy to be carried by a girl, so I splashed him and
here we are."
"Hmm. I wonder if Dr. Tofu didn't play a little joke on Ranma.
Though why would he do that?" And why didn't Nabiki cut us in on the
profits?
Ranma said in the diary later that Dr. Tofu had told him Akane
was really a nice girl and Ranma would come to see that. If that's why
the doctor played his joke, I guess it backfired a bit.
A couple of days later, I was cuddling Anne (the doll Kunou gave
me) as I read Ranma's latest entry.
[Ryouga showed up today. Wanted revenge. Got lost again.]
As you can well imagine, I felt Ranma had been a little too
terse. So I wrote [Ryouga who? Why does he want revenge? And what do
you mean, "lost again"?] Then I filled in some details of my own day.
I put Anne back on my shelf (Ranma won't touch her. He says the
doll gives him the willies.), picked up a pair of trousers, and went to
start a hot bath. Pity I can never finish one.
When I was next able to read the diary, I got Ranma's reply.
[Ryouga Hibiki. He was my buddy in junior high. I used to walk
him home all the time, because he gets lost real easy. We sparred a lot
cause I used to get the last bread at lunch. He thinks I ran out on a
duel with him and has only now caught up to finish it. Like I said, he
gets lost a lot. If he shows up, tell him to stay in one spot and turn
back into me real quick.]
Well, that was a little bit more helpful. I'd have to ask Akane
if she knew what Ryouga looked like.
As I mentioned previously, I'd begun practicing gymnastics to
stay in shape. Mr. Tendou had rigged some equipment for the purpose;
Akane apparently had never been into the more acrobatic aspects of the
martial arts. I worked out for a while, then tried a reasonably
difficult routine on the uneven bars.
When I dismounted, I realized Father was in the dojo. I hadn't
heard him come in.
"Not bad." he said in a flat voice, his face neutral. It was the
closest thing I'd had to approval from him yet. "You should hold your
left leg just a little straighter on the reverse swing." I tried the
routine again. He was right. This time I smiled and he almost did.
Then Nabiki came in and started taking pictures of me in my
sweaty leotard.
"Nabiki, are you going to sell these pictures to Kunou?"
"And anyone else who has the cash, yep."
"Do you make a profit at it?"
"A modest one. Why do you ask?"
"Don't models normally get paid?"
"Oh. Point. Consider this as partial payment for your room and
board. You know how much your father eats?"
"I'll have you know I can pull my own weight!" snarled Father.
"Good, because I don't think anyone else can." sniped Nabiki.
Father had taken a part-time odd-jobs position with Dr. Tofu, but
it didn't pay much, and he couldn't work when it rained. He really
didn't like being reminded that we were essentially freeloaders. He
started growling in the back of his throat.
I could see this could be bad, so I stepped in. "I'm glad to
help where I can. But no embarrassing pictures, okay?"
Nabiki smiled what I've come to recognize as her "money" smile.
"No embarrassing pictures. Gotcha." She left, but the mood was spoiled,
so Father and I finished our workouts in silence.
A few days later, I was woken particularly rudely in midair being
pushed up by a cold geyser. A bit ahead I saw a red circle, an
umbrella? I used the force of the water to launch over it.
When I landed, I saw it was an umbrella, a bamboo one at that.
It was being held by a boy about my age, very muscular-looking, wearing
worn travel clothing and with a yellow-and-black bandana holding back his
hair. He looked very angry, then shocked.
"Well?!" I asked.
"W-w-wait a sec..." he stuttered. "Why are you...that
is...where..."
"Who are you? Ryouga? What's going on?"
"R-R-Ranma?"
"Do I look like Ranma, mister?"
Akane ran up. "Ranko! Your--your--your torso!"
I looked down and saw to my dismay that there was a huge tear in
my shirt right across my breasts. No wonder the boy looked so shocked.
"Oh my."
"You didn't notice a draft?" asked Akane.
I crossed my arms to cover myself.
"Ranma! You...you..." the boy started to say.
"I'm not Ranma. I'm Ranko, his sister, and--"
"Ha! To think you would resort to such trickery to avoid me,
Ranma! I don't know how you made yourself look like a girl, but that's
the same tear I put in your shirt, and the same cut on your cheek." (So
that's what stings, I thought.) "It won't fool me! No mercy, Ranma!"
He pulled several bandanas from under the one he was wearing. He
whirled them until the sounded like propellors, then threw them. Somehow
this boy had learned the legendary trick of making cloth act like metal,
so his bandanas were in effect throwing blades. Their flight plan was
pretty erratic though, and some veered into the path of the boys who'd
just caught up to us.
"I'll get some hot water!" yelled Akane as she turned.
"No! It's dangerous!" I called. "Don't move!" But she ran
anyways.
"I'll make it!" Then she tripped over a tree root. Akane's
clumsiness actually saved her far worse injury, since several cloth
blades whirred through the space she'd just occupied, slicing only her
skirt.
I ran to help her up, and the boy took advantage of my
distraction to throw his umbrella at me.
"It's over!" he yelled, pulling out more bandanas. "Even if you
dodge my umbrella, my bandanas will strike you from every direction!" and
he threw more cloth knives.
Instinctively, I kicked the umbrella away from me, right into
several of the knives. Then I picked up Akane and leapt away as fast as
I could.
The boy ran after us. "Running away, coward?!"
I didn't waste breath replying.
We finally touched down on a roof, where Akane and I gasped for
breath in a tight embrace. Then we realized what we were doing. Akane
edged away from me. We were both blushing.
We stared at each other for a moment then both said "You--what?!"
"You didn't have to go running like that..." I said.
"You couldn't beat him as a *girl* could you? I had to--"
"Why would I want to beat him? Is this that Ryouga guy?"
"Yes! And he's got the strength of a monster!"
Suddenly, the bicycle shelter we were on collapsed (I found out
later Ryouga used his belt to cut the supports.) Akane grabbed me and
jumped as Ryouga leapt up. His belt narrowly missed us. We landed, but
Akane cried in pain. When she'd tripped over that root, she must've hurt
her ankle.
"Akane, we've got to get out of here!"
"Ignore me, will you?!" roared Ryouga, whipping his belt out
again.
"Give it a rest!" I retorted, as I leapt away with Akane again.
Ryouga released the belt, and I realized we couldn't dodge in
time. But Akane didn't. She twisted around in an attempt to shield me,
and the cloth buzzsaw sheared off half her hair. An inch closer, and
she'd have lost a shoulder blade.
The other students finally caught up just in time to see this.
One of them, Sayuri I think, asked, "A-Akane?"
I tried to get Akane's attention, but she just stared into space
as though in shock. I hadn't realized it before, but Akane did care
about her appearance after all. And her beautiful long hair had been
shredded.
"Caught in public--with a haircut like that! She's lucky she
didn't just die!" said Yuka, another of the girls.
"Are you all right, Ranko? And how'd your shirt get ripped?"
Sayuri again.
The boys all crowded closer. Daisuke asked "And where'd Ranma
go?"
"Wait a minute! Who cares?!" I dissembled. "What matters
is...Akane."
Ryouga (I'd forgotten all about him) sneered. "Feh! She didn't
get an injury, did she?"
"No, but she sure got a bad cut, you bully!"
"Yeah!" said someone in the crowd. "Some he-man, picking on a
couple of girls!"
"But I...Ranma...that is..."
"Hey, when Ranma finds out what you did to his fiancee and his
sister, you're going to be in a world of hurt."
Akane just stood there looking stunned. Ryouga's face softened.
"If it will make you fell any better, Miss," he said, "hit me!
Lay it on me!"
She did.
I helped Akane limp off.
When we were out of sight, I said, "I'm sorry, Akane. Ranma
would have been able to protect you."
"If it wasn't for Ranma, I wouldn't need protecting!" She
slammed her fist into a telephone pole as punctuation. Then she winced
as her weight fell on her bad ankle again.
"We should go see Dr. Tofu."
As we walked, I thought of Ryouga. A most peculiar boy.
To be Continued...
Next time: Akane gets a new do! And Ryouga's horrible secret!
SKJAM!
"We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing"