Hello all!

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Author's foreword:

This story is an explanation for Ryouga's actions in "The Money Pit" 
chapters. It also shows a glimpse of my thoughts/interpretations on 
some of the relationships: Ranma/Genma and Ryouga/Akari. Also, this is 
where I first started saying:

"There Can Be Only One."

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Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
"The High Cost of Loving - Side Story"
"The Training Trip"
by Suds-kun (Shaun Schillinger)

Version 1: 2/3/97
Version 2: 11/26/98
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Today, my love, you walked with me.
And held my hand so carefully.

Today, my love, you stayed with me.
And talked of love so quietly.

Today, my love, you found with me.
Your nemesis and enemy.

Today, my love, I hurt you so.
My love for you, I could not show.

Today, my love, was snatched from me.
I watched through eyes so tearfully. 

Today, my love, is gone from me.
A broken heart inside of me.

"Today, My Love" by Suds-kun (Shaun Schillinger)

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Ranma 1/2 characters are created by and copyright Rumiko Takahashi.
Published by Shogakukan Inc. and VIZ Comm.
Story copyright Shaun Schillinger.
Intended for the sole non-profit use of fans.
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Ranma grumbled to himself. He had been traveling for two days and his 
patience was starting to wear thin. "Hey, Pop! When are we going to get 
to that training ground?"

Genma shifted his backpack and grunted. "Patience, boy. The training 
ground of cursed hot springs is just ahead."

"Nani?" Ranma shouted as he stopped walking. He stared in shock at his 
father, who was still walking up the path.  Slowly, the shock turned to 
anger. "Have you lost your mind?" Ranma raged as he charged his father.

Genma easily dodged the announced attack and kicked Ranma in the 
stomach.  As Ranma gasped for breath, Genma then followed up with a 
fist to the jaw and then a leg sweep.  "Boy," Genma grabbed Ranma by 
the shirt and tossed him at a nearby tree, "never let you opponent use 
your anger against you. Have you forgotten the master's lesson with the 
'Hiryu Shouten Ha'?"

With a groan, Ranma slowly picked himself up. Glaring at his father the 
entire time. "Why are we going to another cursed spring?"

"Think, boy! I used your anger against you. You still need to control 
your anger."

Understanding uneasily made its way through Ranma's mind. "You mean 
that the springs aren't cursed?"

Genma rolled his eyes. "This is a training trip, of course I lied! Your 
biggest weakness is your anger."

Ranma picked up his backpack and followed his father. "You only knocked 
the wind out of me, I would have taken you in another minute."

Genma sighed. "Boy, what if Herb or someone more powerful used your 
anger against you? You must learn to control your anger or you will 
lose the battle before it begins."

Ranma again followed his father. "What kind of training ground are we 
going to?"

"It's part of a series of natural hot springs. After a couple days of 
training, we can visit the hot springs to relax."

"And these spring aren't cursed?"

"Boy!"

===

"This way, Ryouga-sama!"

Ryouga rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that. heh, heh."

Akari smiled. The date with Ryouga-sama was going very well. Her idea 
of using a thin leather strap to keep Ryouga-sama from getting lost was 
working perfectly. She felt another tug on her wrist and smiled again. 
One end of the strap was tied to her wrist and the other was tied to 
Ryouga-sama's wrist. 

"This way, Ryouga-sama!" Akari gave a quick snap of the strap.

"Sorry about that." Ryouga replied as he followed the life line back to 
Akari.

"We're almost there, Ryouga-sama. It'll be late when we arrive, so 
we'll be able to use the hot springs tomorrow."


Akari hummed to herself. It felt good that Ryouga-sama smiled each time 
he looked at her. It had taken her a month to plan out the date, locate 
the hot springs and finding a solution for Ryouga-sama's habit of 
wandering off. Also, the room they would be sharing was affordable.  
Even Ryouga-sama didn't seem distracted. Her smile dimmed as she 
remembered the times that Ryouga-sama acted as if he was torn between 
her and something or someone else. Her smile brightened as she looked 
at her date. He's acting calm and seems to be enjoying himself.

They arrived at the springs and checked in. She laughed to herself at 
the reaction of the young lady who was checking them in.

"Konbanwa! May I help you?"

"Konbanwa! I'm Akari Unryuu and I have a reservation."

"Yes, you and Hibiki-san will be staying together."

When Akari signed the guest register, she noticed the young lady 
staring at the piece of leather attached to her wrist.

"Follow me." The lady instructed as she stepped from behind the front 
desk.

"This way, Ryouga-sama." Akari gave a quick tug on the strap, turning 
Ryouga in the right direction.

The young lady smiled wryly. "Has he been a 'good' boy?"

"Oh, yes. He doesn't run away anymore."

The young lady face faulted, then quickly recovered. "Here is your 
room. Uhmm, we ask that your, uhm, nighttime activities do not disturb 
the other guests."

Akari looked at the young lady with a little confusion, then smiled. 
She gave another quick tug. " Ryouga-sama, promise the nice lady that 
you won't scream or yell tonight."

Ryouga smiled nervously and bowed to the young lady. "Hai, I promise."

Akari closed the door as the young lady stared at the two of them. She 
turned to Ryouga and sweetly smiled. "It's time to get ready for bed, 
Ryouga-sama."

Ryouga stared at Akari with a look of disbelief. His eyes slowly rolled 
back in his head, which continued the path backwards. A stream of blood 
from his nose arced through the air as Ryouga landed flat on his back.

"Ryouga-sama!" Akari quickly rolled Ryouga onto his side to let the 
blood drain from his nose. Ryouga-sama always seemed to end up like 
this. She smiled as she made sure that the bleeding had stopped. 
Looking around, she found the futons and set two of them up. 

"You could at least help me, Ryouga-sama." Akari said as she rolled 
Ryouga over to one of the futons. With a sigh, she tucked a blanket 
around him and then set up a futon for herself. After untying the strap 
from her wrist, Akari quickly changed into a yukata. One of two that 
she had made special for this date. She looked at the piece of leather 
that ran from under his blanket and ended at her feet. It was strong, 
but compared to Ryouga-sama's strength, it was quite fragile. Even so, 
it was strong enough to prevent him from getting lost. Kneeling beside 
him, she picked up and held the strap to her chest. "If only there was 
a red ribbon that connected our hearts as strongly as this leather 
strap kept us together."

After a kiss to Ryouga-sama's forehead, Akari climbed into her futon. 
Sleep quickly came to her as well as dreams of Ryouga-sama.

===

Genma bowed to the attendant and then headed to the locker area.  The 
training trip had gone well. Ranma was starting to control his anger. 
Not only while he was fighting, but even in normal conversation 
afterwards. Yes, this was turning into a successful training trip. 
Genma looked at his son and smiled in pride. Ranma was becoming into a 
fine martial artist. It wouldn't be very long before he would be as 
good as master Happosai.

After storing his clothes, Genma led his son to the natural hot 
springs. "As you can see, Ranma, this was a great location for 
training. These springs are just what we need to relax before returning 
from our training trip."

Ranma picked up a wooden bucket and dipped it into the spring. "I'm 
surprised that such a nice hot spring would be so remote. It's even set 
up for handicapped people. I noticed signs in Braille for the blind." 

He dumped the bucket over his head and then filled it again.

Genma did likewise with a bucket of his own. "I found a brochure in 
some clothes that I found in the street near the Tendou dojo. It 
described this and the other springs in the area. It sounded like a 
good location for a training trip and a place to take a short holiday." 
While talking, Genma scrubbed himself with soap.

"Hey, pop. Could you get my back?"

Genma turned to his son and began lathering his back. It had been a 
while since the two of them had gone to an onsen by themselves. Since 
moving in with the Tendous, there was never a need for just the two of 
them to spend time together. Ranma has spent most of his time with 
Akane. The only time he spent with himself, was when they were 
training.

"My turn now." Genma turned his back to his son and sat patiently as 
Ranma started scrubbing. "Have you thought about what you are going to 
do when we return to Nerima?"

Ranma paused his scrubbing and then continued. "I wasn't the only one 
kicked out, pop. What are YOU going to do? Akane was the one who kicked 
me out, so we can't return to the Tendous. I was thinking we could camp 
out until we could find someplace to stay. There, I'm done."

The two stood and rinsed themselves with the water from their buckets. 
They then made their way to the hot spring itself.

"This feels good. I'm glad we could come here after training for three 
days. Thankfully these spring aren't as hot as the springs where we 
trained."

Genma nodded to his son. "You asked what _I_ was going to do. I would 
like to return to the Tendous. Don't you miss you fiancee?"

"What? That macho tomboy? She's been angry with me for the past month 
for no apparent reason. Why should I miss that sexless�"

Genma pounded Ranma on the head. "She's your fiancee! You need to learn 
to speak more kindly of her!" Genma turned away from his floating son. 
It seems that this trip was a failure after all. How was he and Tendou-
kun going to get their children to admit their true feelings? Their 
plan to make the two of them miss each other wasn't working out very 
well in Ranma's case. Maybe Akane was starting to miss Ranma. If she 
relented, that might change Ranma's mind.

"Wake up, boy!" Genma grabbed his son and slapped him in the face.

"What'd you do that for?" Ranma started to fight with his father, but 
stopped at the sound of someone approaching.

"Right this way, Hibiki-san. Remember to follow this rail back to the 
front desk."

Genma and Ranma looked on in shock. There was Ryouga, following the 
trail reserved for the blind customers. Ranma climbed out of the spring 
and headed toward Ryouga.

"Oi! Ryouga! How did you find your way here? I know this is a remote 
spring, but you didn't just wander here?"

Ryouga hmmped. "Hello, Ranma. No, I didn't wander here. Akari and I 
have been here for two days. I should be asking what are _you_ doing 
here?"

Ranma smiled. "Pop and I have been training at some nearby hot springs. 
Don't go there, man. Those springs are boiling hot. Pop sure gets some 
strange ideas for places to train at."

Ryouga glared at Ranma. "Do you remember the last training trip where 
you and your father 'ran' into me?"

Ranma winced at the memory and tried to change the subject. "So. You're 
here with Akari? Have the two of you enjoyed yourselves?"

"Yes, we have." Ryouga smiled. "The past two days have been wonderful. 
Akari planned this trip and has arranged everything. She's on the 
women's side and we'll meet each other at the front desk in about an 
hour."

"That's great Ryou..."

*SPLASH*

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

"SWEETO!"

Genma stared at Ranma and the little black pig at his feet. A thought 
crossed his mind, and then another. In a matter of moments a plan began 
to form. As he stroked his chin in thought, Genma leaned back to watch 
the show.

"What's the big idea? You old letch!"

"Oh Ranma! I just want you to humor an old man and wear THIS for me!" 

Happosai whipped out a bra and jumped toward onna-Ranma.

"I ain't going to wear a bra, pervert!" A punch sent the ancient 
martial artist flying backward.

Meanwhile, Ryouga had scurried over to the spring and turned human.

"We need to talk, Ryouga-kun." Genma said as he stared at Ryouga with 
gleam in his eye.

"I'm going to have to teach you a lesson Ranma." With that, Happosai 
jumped at onna-Ranma. onna-Ranma ducked, but found her face in the old 
man's bra. With a laugh, Happosai tossed onna-Ranma over the wall of 
the spring.

Everyone turned at the sound of women screaming.

"Pretty ladies!" The ancient hentai jumped to the edge of the wall and 
then to the other side.

"That scream sounded like Akari!" Ryouga also jumped to the edge of the 
spring and over the wall.

===

With a sigh, Akari leaned back in the hot spring. The past two days had 
been perfect. Ryouga-sama had not gotten lost. He didn't even get a 
nosebleed today. Tomorrow they would be returning home. Hopefully 
Ryouga-sama would want to stay with her. "If only he loved me as much 
as I love him."

Akari turned instinctively in the direction of the noise that was 
getting louder. Before she could react, she felt a body land on her and 
knock the air out of her lungs. As she gasped for breath, the person on 
top of her seemed to grow in size. She felt lips on hers, which made it 
difficult for her to get air back into her lungs. It was then that she 
noticed that the body laying on her was a man. Her mind began to race 
as she felt two strong arms embrace her. She could hear screaming and 
struggled to escape the hug. Was this Ryouga-sama? Why would he do such 
a thing?

With a grunt Akari sat up and noticed the unconscious Ranma laying on 
her.

"Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Akari turned toward the shout. It was Ryouga-sama and was he screaming. 
She felt a tightness in her chest as she looked at his face. It was a 
mixture of pain and betrayal. Before she could say anything, a group of 
women attacked him.

"Ryouga-sama! Come back!"

"What happened?" Ranma said as he woke up.

"Rannnnmmaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!" Shouted Ryouga as the angry women carried 
him off.

Akari turned to Ranma.

*SLAP*

"Bring him back! Bring my Ryouga-sama back to me!" Tears flowed down 
her face as she screamed the plea at Ranma over and over.

Embarrassed, Ranma jumped out of the spring. Quickly, he looked around 
and then froze. An even larger group of women came charging at him.

"What a haul! What a haul!"

The women grabbed Ranma and started beating him as they chased the 
short pervert.

Akari climbed out of the spring, took a few steps and then collapsed, 
sobbing. "Ryouga-sama, please come back."

===

Genma grumbled to himself. The training trip had ended in disaster. His 
son had gone after Ryouga-kun's girlfriend. There was no way that 
Tendou-kun was going to find out about this. Their plan to get Akane 
and Ranma together needed to be changed and drastically. First, no one 
can find out about the incident at the hot spring.

"Hey, pop." Ranma shifted uneasily on his tree branch. "You're not 
going to tell anyone about what happened yesterday, are you?"

Genma looked at his son and smiled. "Who don't you want me to tell? 
Akane?"

"No! Don't tell her! She'd kill me!"

"I won't tell her if you promise to marry her."

Ranma hesitated. "You wouldn't dare. If Tendou-san found out, he'd kill 
us both."

Genma nodded in agreement.

"Pop, let's just tell everyone that it was Happosai's idea to go to the 
hot spring so he could chase those women. O.K.?"

"Yes, let's place the blame for this on the master." Genma changed his 
position on the branch. "It's time to go to sleep, boy. You've got 
school tomorrow."

Genma closed his eyes and started planning. There had to be a way to 
get those two married.

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What do you think? 

The next part of THCOL has been shot full of holes (ed. Note: This was 
due to a conversation with Hitomi Ichinohei). Not that this is bad, 

mind you. It's just that I've got some rewriting ahead of me. *sigh*

"The Visit" has been changed to chapter four and will be VERY different 
from previous versions. Especially the recent r.a.a.c. posting (ed. 
Note: I posted my original version of "The Visit" to r.a.a.c. back in 
January 1997). Chapter three will deal with Ranma's reaction to P-
chan's bedroom adventure.

A hint: "There can be only one."

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suds-kun (Shaun Schillinger)
suds1964@tir.com
 http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/8222/
"THIS time, we didn't forget the graaavy!" Cat & Mouse to Dog