Cut Wood, Carry Water
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction by Bob Barnes
Last Modified 8/25/97
- = O = - - = O = -
Ranma 1/2 characters and situations are the property of
Rumiko Takahashi and licensees. They are used in this story
without permission.
Acknowledgements:
I'd like to thank Susan Doenime, Dave Eddy, and Chris Jones
for extensive help in pre-reading this and for giving so
many suggestions that invariably helped to make it better.
If this story is better than simply ok, a lot of the
credit goes to them. Thanks folks.
As is usual for me, much that is correct and accurate in
this story came from helpful suggestions from others.
Mistakes and inaccuracies are all mine.
I'd like to thank Bill Seney for helping me avoid an obvious
boner in canon continuity in this prologue.
- = O = - - = O = -
A seeker of enlightenment arrived at a Zen retreat and was
assigned a resident to be his guide, as is the usual
practice. The seeker asked the resident how long he had been
living there.
"I have lived in this place for ten years," the resident
replied.
The seeker then asked the resident what he did there at the
retreat.
The resident answered, "My task is to cut fire wood and carry
water from the well."
The seeker asked the resident if he had achieved
enlightenment.
"Oh yes," the resident replied. "I achieved enlightenment
five years ago."
Excited to be speaking to one who had actually found
enlightenment the seeker asked the resident what he had done
since achieving enlightenment.
The resident smiled and replied, "I cut wood, carry water."
- = O = - - = O = -
Prologue -- Conversation In a Forest Clearing
Akane Tendo knelt beside a small campfire, gazing
contemplatively into the flames. She was rather dirty; soot
streaked around the arms and hands, and the the sleeves
of her practice gi were scorched around the ends. "This plan
of yours may be insane enough to work, but I hate it now,
and I think I'm always going to hate it."
Ranma Saotome pulled his eyes down from their
comtemplation of the clouds overhead and stepped away from
the tree he had been leaning against. "But you can see that
something like this has to happen, don't you? Bombs! They
actually threw bombs at that ridiculous fiasco of a wedding!
You could have been killed! Kasumi or Nabiki or my _Mother_
could have been killed! I still can't believe those maniacs
would endanger innocent bystanders like that."
"I can see the necessity. I'll agree with it and do
whatever I can to help make it work. I just want you to
know. I hate it."
"I'm not very happy about it either. I just can't think
of anything else to do." He knelt down beside her and took
her hand in his. "There has to be a way to resolve all this
the way we want. It's like Sun Tzu says, 'If the way to
triumph can not be seen, then create conditions which allow
the way to become clear.' The essence of my plan is to
change our conditions."
Still gazing into the fire, Akane softly said, "I
understand that part. It's just that I'm going to miss you.
A lot!"
"I'm going to miss you, too, Akane-san. This has been
the longest time we've ever been able to spend alone
together. It's been wonderful, but it also is reminding me
just how nice it is to be with you, and how much I'll be
missing you while I'm away."
She looked up at him, smiled, and squeezed his hand.
"Besides, Ranma-kun, who will train with me while you are
away?"
"Please feel free to beat up my father, any time you
like," he said with a crooked grin.
"Jeez, Ranma-kun, you know we can't let him know how
much I've improved. What was that funny expression you used?
Oh yes, I'm our 'ace in the hole.' Sounds like something the
Gambler King would say."
"If it's games we're talking about, I prefer to think
of you as a queen disguised as a pawn. If you can do this
last technique, you really will be ready to surprise just
about anyone who might come along. You've worked so hard on
this. I know you can do it."
Akane sighed. "I'm not going to give up, if that's what
you mean. I'm close... I can feel it when I try." Akane
flushed a bit, and started breathing a little faster. Trying
and failing tended to make her angry.
Ranma tried to distract her from her anger by bringing
up the plan, again. "Anyway, we need to do something. I'm
sure of that. I think I need to get this started, soon. I'm
going to see Nabiki as soon as we get back."
Akane stiffened a bit at the mention of her sister.
What they were going to do involved risks. They could suffer
major setbacks if it went badly. By involving Nabiki,
though, they might be risking everything on her
trustworthiness. It irritated her that they didn't really
have a choice. They needed Nabiki's help.
Lost in thought, Ranma forged on, "There are so many
things we don't know. For years my father has manipulated me
by hiding things from me. He actually had me believing my
mother might kill me. He fooled me! Not the Baka, but _me_,
and he was able to do it because I was too ignorant to know
better. Are there more fiancees out there? Almost certainly
the answer is 'yes'."
"Why does that particularly bother you, Ranma-kun?"
asked Akane.
"I've been thinking about worst cases. You know how
Happousai can make both our fathers fold up in a second. I'm
certain we don't know the whole story about that. Anyway,
suppose there is an unknown fiancee out there whose father
has the same kind of hold over your father as Happousai
does, whatever that hold really is. She'd show up. Her
father would make demands. Our fathers would fold, and I'd
be gone. Just like that."
Akane jumped as if she had been slapped. "Th-that
possibility never entered my mind, before this. Do you
think this could really happen?"
Ranma squeezed her hand reassuringly. "I don't think
it's very likely, but it's not impossible. The point is: we
don't know, do we?"
Akane began to worry and, as always when troubled, began
to get more angry. Especially angry about something that
might hurt Ranma. Nothing was ever going to harm him, if she
had anything to say about it. She growled quietly deep in
her throat as a new conviction and feeling of commitment
settled over her. As crazy as it might seem on the surface,
this plan _was_ the best way to resolve things, and they
_needed_ to resolve them.
Ranma saw only the troubling possibilities in his mind
and didn't notice Akane's increasing agitation. "Then there
are the hostile strangers. You know, as time goes on the
challenges get harder and harder. Saffron was the worst yet,
and who knows what's going to come up, next? That was so
close I still have bad dreams. I was almost stuck
permenantly as a girl and _you_ damned near died. Will we
even live through the next crazy challenge, whoever or
whatever it's going to be?"
Akane's eyes narrowed and her teeth clenched at the
mention of Saffron. She felt as if a small ball of fire had
ignited in her belly when she heard the unspoken doubt in
Ranma's voice. Always confident Ranma had doubts? Her man
needed reassurance! She looked up into his eyes. She blazed
with a shocking intensity. "Yes! Yes, we will!" she snarled.
Ranma stepped back, surprised by her fierceness.
"We. Will. Never. Fail. As long as we have each other.
I'm ready! I'm going to try again!" Akane turned back to the
fire and drew a very long breath. Staring wide eyed into the
coals at the base of the flames she slowly raised her hands
above her head. She paused a moment and then explosively
barked out three words: "Katchu! Tenshin! Amaguriken!" While
the sound of the words still echoed among the trees her
hands began to flash down into the flames of the campfire
and back up above her head then back into the flames moving
far too rapidly to see clearly. This went on for perhaps
three seconds. She suddenly stopped with her arms extended
above her head, again.
A broad grin grew on Ranma's lips as Akane's head fell
back so she could see the dozen hot chestnuts clenched in
her fists. "Ha!" she shouted triumphantly as she tossed the
chestnuts back into the fire and leaped to her feet. "Ha!"
she shouted again as she thrust her clenched fists toward
the sky. Savoring the moment, her thoughts ran like fire
through her mind, 'Too slow. Strong, but too slow, they
said. Well, I'm not slow, anymore. Not anymore!' "HA!"
"Perfect, Akane-san! You did it perfectly."
She spun and pounced on him, knocking him down onto his
back. Kneeling over his chest she bent down until her eyes
were only a few inches from his. Her soft, slightly hoarse
voice sounded, he noted nervously, like the rumbling purr of
a contented jungle cat. "We will _never_ fail as long as we
believe in each other, Ranma-kun. Believe it! I do."
Ranma stared at her flushed, sweaty, soot stained face
and into her wide open, glistening eyes. "I swear, Akane
Tendo, you are the most beautiful woman on Earth."
With a smug grin and a throaty chuckle she leaned even
closer to him. "Naturally," she purred as she pressed her
lips to his.
* * *
Several miles away, in another part of the same forest,
a powerfully built young man carrying a very large backpack
with an umbrella strapped to the top struggled to plow
through a dense thicket of thorn bushes. "How could he let
this happen? I can't believe Mister Tendo let Ranma and
Akane go on a training trip by themselves! Ranma must have
tricked him, somehow. 'It will give them a chance to get
over the wedding disaster' is nonsense! Akane should be
celebrating! We saved her from Saotome! Ranma is alone in
the woods with Akane! I have to save Akane from him!"
Grunting in pain he plucked some more thorns out.
"Ranma Saotome, what are you doing to Akane! If you touch
her, I'll kill you, you bastard!" He stopped and looked
around in bafflement. "Where in the world am I, now? This is
all your fault, Ranma! You're going to pay for this!"
His shouts echoed through the trees, but didn't reach
the pair by the fire. Truth to tell, they probably wouldn't
have heard him even if he stood at the edge of their
clearing. "I'm going to punish you, Ranma Saotome! Err...
just as soon as I find you, anyway." Grunting in pain the
distraught young man charged back into the thorn bushes in a
new direction. "I'm going to punish you, Ranma, and then
Akane will be mine!"
- = O = - - = O = -
Responses, comments and criticism are eagerly solicited.
Please contact me at rbarnes@moscow.com. My other stories
(all two of them) along with rough drafts (sometimes very
rough) of further parts of this story can be found at the
following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8341/
(Thank you, Dave.)
enjoy,
Bob Barnes
rbarnes@moscow.com
Moscow, Idaho
When opportunity comes, the trick is to CATCH the red hat.