[Ranma] "No Need for Ranma!" (1/?)

By Henry J. Cobb

$Id: no_need_for_ranma1.txt,v 1.4 1997/01/19 16:00:43 hcobb Exp $



The Ranma 1/2 characters and situations are the creation of Rumiko

Takahashi.  No infringement of her copyrights is intended.



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

Prologue.



---------- Eleven years ago.



This is a fun game Pop has come up with, but she seems to be falling

behind.  "Nyaaiii!, you can't catch us!"



"Come back here, you jackass!"



She falls, grabs her knee and cries.



Suddenly this isn't a game anymore.



"Utchan!"  I hop off the cart and run to her and hold her.



After a while Pop comes back with the cart and tries to pull me away

from her.



"No!"  I scream.



"OK Ranma, you win.  I'll try to raise you both."  He lifts us together

and places us both on the cart.



---------- Six years ago.



She sits and looks out into the night and silently cries.



It's not the scratches that make her cry.  It's the pain of her loss.



I hurt too, but I need to be strong for her now.  She's all that I have

left.



"Ukyou."  I place a hand on her shoulder and she turns to me.



"Papa-sama."  She wipes the tears from her eyes.  "Without Ran-chan, my

life as a girl is over.  But, I can live for him, to do the things he

needs to have done.  I'll be your son, just promise me one thing."



"Yes, uh?"  I don't know what to say.



"Let's never have fish again."



---------- Four weeks ago.



Dear diary,



I had most unusual customers today.  It was a young master and

his father.  They seemed to have known exactly what it was they were

wanting.



"So, this is it, the Nanniichuan?"  The young master with the auburn

ponytail asked.



"Yes, is very tragic story of boy who fall in spring..."



"Yes, I've heard it.  What kind of boy does it turn you into?"



"This generic template type spring being.  It turn whoever get dunked

into male human like they would be born as if they born woman or animal

was.  To the young master, his father or myself no effect there would be

being."



"Perfect, this will do."  The young master looked down into the spring.



"Are you sure that you want to do this?"  His father asked.



"Yes Pop, as sure as anything.  This is the only way to keep my promises

and yours."



"Surely the young master will not be changed by this spring.  Unless,

the young master already has a curse?"



"No, this is my first."  With that he grabbed a double handful of the

water and splashed his face.  And he was changed.



I carefully studied him then.  This was the first case I had heard of,

where the Nanniichuan caused a change in someone who already was a boy.

It wasn't much of a change, he stood maybe an inch taller and his face

and figure shifted a little bit, but there shouldn't have been any.



Carefully the young master unbuttoned his shirt.



"Why young master wear cloth so tightly around his chest?"



"I had some bruised ribs.  They're all better know."  He turned away

from us to adjust his clothes.  "Yes, it's all here.  Come'on Pop, we've

got a appointment in Nerima."



---------- Now.



Friday morning, Akane finished off the last of the main wave of

attackers, then spun around, but there was nobody on the fence behind

her, just Tatewaki, with his usual challenge.



Saturday morning during her jog, Akane stopped to glance behind her, but

again nobody was watching her.  She shook off her unease in the usual

way, by switching to her gi for martial arts practice.



Then Nabiki came to bring Akane to their father.



"I have wonderful news."  Soun Tendo announced.  "My old friend Genma

Saotome is bringing his son Ranma here today.  They've been training in

China.  If one of you girls were to marry him and carry on the Dojo, the

School of Indiscriminate Grappling would be secure."



"So how old is this Genma guy you want us to marry?"  Nabiki asked.  She

must have gotten wind of this, as she was wearing her best Kimono.



"Genma is already married, his son Ranma is about sixteen."



"What sort of person is this Ranma, Father?"  Kasumi asked.  She was in

her usual housedress.  Either she hadn't known what was in the cards,

or she didn't care.



"I have no idea.  I've never met him.  But Genma writes that he is the

most promising student in the art that he's ever had."



"All he does is martial arts?"  Nabiki asked.



"That's all that Genma has mentioned in his letters..."



"That's just like you daddy!"  Akane interrupted.  In her training gi,

she was the least prepared to meet company.  "Engaging us off to some

stranger you've never met."



"Who knows Akane, he might be cute."  Nabiki nudged her.



"Well I don't care, I hate boys!"  Akane crossed her arms.



"Ding Dong!"  The doorbell rang.



"That must be them!"  Soun raced to the door, followed closely by

Nabiki.



Kasumi stood and looked down at Akane, until she also stood and waited.



Soun returned, talking to an old man, while Nabiki chatted with a

teenager.



"Daughters."  Soun gestured for them to sit on one side of the dinning

room table.  "This is my old friend Genma Saotome,"  He indicated the

old man with glasses in a gi, with a cloth tied over his head.  "And his

son Ranma."  He pointed at the teenager, who stood a little taller than

Akane.  He was definitely cute with steely gray eyes and his hair back

in a auburn ponytail.  He wore a red outfit in a traditional Chinese

style.



"And these are my three daughters, Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane."



"Come Genma, we have so much to catch up on."  Soun took the old man to

his study.



"I'd best go fix lunch."  Kasumi left for the kitchen.



"Ranma, did you see the Great Wall while you were in China?"  Nabiki

asked.



"No, we didn't go to that part of China."  Ranma replied then turned to

Akane.  "Akane, do you study martial arts?"



"Yes."  Didn't this boy see that she didn't like boys?



"I've got some homework to do."  Nabiki walked up the stairs to her

room, leaving the two alone.



"I hear you have a Dojo here.  Could I see it please?"  Ranma asked

Akane.



"Oh, all right, this way please."  Akane walked over to the other

building.  "See, a Dojo.  I'm sure you've seen plenty like it."



"Would you like to have a practice match, for fun?"



That was more like it.  "OK."  Akane turned to him.  "But, I warn you.

No man has ever beaten me!"



"Don't worry, I'll be gentle."



That was it!  Akane raced towards Ranma and threw a quick combination of

punches at him, which he easily dodged.



He then started a series of attacks on her.  Each punch or kick missed

by only a hairsbreadth as she was forced back.



She had no time to arrange a counterattack in the face of this flurry of

blows.  In a few seconds she felt the wall at her back, and his fist

came at great speed towards her face.



"Yiiii!"  She cringed and shut her eyes.  Then she felt something on her

lips.  Her eyes flew open in shock, he was kissing her!



"What!"  She forced him back with both hands on his shoulders.



"I'm sorry, but you were standing there so beautiful.  I just couldn't

resist."



"Apology accepted."



"I have a favor to ask.  I intend to teach the School of Indiscriminate

Grappling in the future.  You show great promise.  Would you like to be

my first student?"



"OK."  It would be good to have a teacher other than her father.  "Just

don't try that stunt again."  He was going to be staying around for a

bit, until one of her sisters gave in and agreed to be engaged to him.

With any luck, it would be Kasumi, leaving Doctor Tofu free.



Akane offered him the bath first, as a guest, but he insisted that she

go first.



Before dinner, Akane had changed into her green casual dress, while

Nabiki was in shorts and halter top.  Ranma had changed into a green

Chinese outfit.



Afterwards, Soun asked.  "So Ranma, have you met my daughters?"



"Yes, I have."



"And have you made a decision?"



"Yes, it can only be the fair Akane."



"Why you!"  Akane swung her hand to slap him.



Ranma grabbed the offered hand and held it in a paralyzing hold as he

kissed the back of it, then turned it over and placed a single rose in

its palm before releasing it back to her.  "Lesson one, only make an

attack you intend to complete."



Sunday morning, Akane awoke to a wonderful smell.  She went down to the

kitchen in her grey watch nightshirt.  "What is that Kasumi?  It smells

great!"  Then she stopped.  Kasumi wasn't the one cooking.



"Okonomiyaki, here have one."  Ranma offered her a plate, but this

okonomiyaki wasn't round as usual.  It was heart shaped, with "I love

you Akane!" written on top.



Akane looked back into the dinning room, everybody else was there and

already had okonomiyaki, the ordinary round kind.  She couldn't show

them this.



Ranma offered her a chair and pulled one up for himself.  "Did you sleep

well?"



"Yes."



"Do you think it would be good to start on your training after our

morning jog?  You do jog, don't you?"



"OK, I guess.  This is very good."



"It's an old family recipe."



"Daddy never mentioned Genma with okonomiyaki."



"...from my mother's side."



During their jog, Ranma kept up with her, by running on the fence.



"Why do you do that?" Akane asked him.



"It's an agility training trick.  Would you like to learn it?"  Ranma

offered his hand down to her.



"Not today, thanks."  Akane increased her pace, but Ranma easily kept up

with her.



Akane waited for Ranma to begin their first training session.



"OK."  He said.  "Attack me, give it everything you've got."



For several minutes Akane threw kicks and punches at him, which he

casually dodged.



"I think I see the problem now."  Ranma threw a sudden punch which Akane

dodged, then fell over.



Ranma caught her before she could hit the floor.  "It's your stance,

it's all wrong.  Here, stand in your usual defensive pose.  Now lean a

little forwards on your feet.  Then back."



"Let's move this foot over to here."  He grabbed it and adjusted it a

few centimeters.  "Now your hips, over at this angle."  He pulled her

around with his hands.



"Do you have to touch me like that?"



"Sorry, like I said, I'm new at teaching.  But, aren't you serious about

the art?  Are you going to just let go, now that you've got a man?"



"Baka!  Of course I'm serious about Kenpo.  It's just that I hate boys."



"How ironic."



"What?"



"Never mind."



The session continued for several hours.



Later, as Akane soaked the aches out in the bath, she admitted to

herself that Ranma was a much better teacher than her father, even if he

was a boy.



These new tricks he's shown me, they're going to be helpful tomorrow

morning at the pre-school fight.



	Henry J. Cobb	hcobb@slip.net          http://www.io.com/~hcobb



P.S.



Scarlet Spring isn't dead, I'm taking a week off to visit the end of it

and insure that the arc works.  Chapter seven (of eleven) should be out

next weekend.