The Taming of the Horse

a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction by Vince Seifert (seifertv@csus.edu)

TotH webpage: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/seifertv/toth/

Ranma 1/2 characters and situations are copyright 1987, 1998
by Takahashi Rumiko.  Publishing rights (Japan) by Shogakukan
Inc.  Publishing rights (North America) by Viz Inc.  This work
is not intended to infringe those rights.

TotH was first posted to the FFML on 1998 Dec 21-26.  Since then,
I've been assimilating the C&C I received (thanks, everyone!) and
preparing revisions and additions.  This is one of the additions.
Another should be out in a couple of weeks: a large chapter that
goes between Chapters 6 and 7 and covers the St. Hebereke
situation in more detail.  I apologize for the jumping around,
but that's the way I write....

I would like to thank Bridget Wilde for the suggestion (I hope
this is what she had in mind) and Darniil Entroth for prereading.
I beg the forbearance of the people who wrote to me that TotH
didn't need an epilogue.

     ~~~~~ Epilogue ~~~~~

     Akane surveyed the newly-scrubbed dojo floor with
satisfaction and dropped her rag in her bucket.  "Done.  What's
next?"

     "You tell me," Ranma's voice replied from the storage
closet.  "You're the one with the list."

     Akane looked around frantically.  "The list!  Where's the
list?!  I must have left it--"

     Ranma's hand emerged from the closet, waving a familiar-
looking sheet of paper.  "Ya left it in here."  The rest of Ranma
came out of the closet, smirking, and padded across the floor to
Akane.  "Whatcha all in a flutter for, anyway?"

     Akane took the list.  "I'm excited about tomorrow.  I'm even
more nervous than I was before the wedding.  Either one."

     "If I was the sensitive type, I think I'd be hurt," Ranma
said, examining the ceiling.  "I kinda feel the same way, though.
Has Kasumi--"

     "Seven calls, so far."

     Ranma grimaced.  "We can't make a decent living offa seven
students.  Maybe if we'd put up more posters...."

     Akane shook her head.  "We put up lots.  The half-off
introductory offer in Nabiki's plan should have got us more than
seven, though.  She figured summer break was the best time to
start, with all the students out of school and all the parents
trying to get them out of their hair, especially since we'll
probably have to stop when WE go back to school...."

     Ranma spoke her secret fear:  "Maybe nobody wants to learn
the Art from us."

     Akane gulped.  "I can't believe that.  I won't believe that.
We'll just have to wait until tomorrow, and see how many show up,
and do our best."  She dropped her eyes from Ranma's grim look
and consulted the list.  "Oh!  Would you go get my old gis and
belts?  We might need them.  They're in the big chest in the
bedroom, at the bottom...."

     "Gotcha."  Ranma left rapidly.

     Akane smiled at his display of nervous energy and looked at
the list again.  Suddenly she remembered what else was in the
chest.  "No!  Ranma!  Wait!" she cried, dashing out of the dojo.
     
     Akane skidded to a stop in their bedroom.  Her heart sank.
Ranma was just straightening up with the book and the riding crop
in his hands and a puzzled look on his face.  "What were these
doin' in there?" he said without looking at her.  He waggled the
crop experimentally and glanced curiously at Akane.  His eyebrow
rose when he saw her blush.  "You're kidding.  Don't tell me ya
got a kinky streak I don't know about," he said, grinning.
     
     Akane's blush deepened.  "No!  You have it all wrong!"  She
made a desperate lunge for the embarrassing items.
     
     "I wish I had a hundred yen for every time I said that to
you," Ranma chuckled, evading her.
     
     "Give me those!  They're-- they're private!"
     
     Ranma clucked his tongue and shook his head.  "Not so fast."
He held up the book.  "This was one of our wedding presents, so
it's mine, too.  This--" he waggled the crop again-- "Nabiki gave
ya, and there wasn't nothin' private about it then.  Try again."
     
     Akane gaped at him for a moment, then tried the lunge again.
Ranma went over her head in an incredible half-twist layout flip
that barely cleared the ceiling.  She rebounded off the wall and
turned.  "How-- How did you do that indoors?!"
     
     Ranma smirked.  "You can do that too.  You just don't know
you can."  He held the book and the crop behind his back.  "So,
what's the story?"
     
     Akane exerted control and calmed.  She straightened and
smiled seductively at her husband.  "What's it worth to you?" she
said softly, walking up to him and putting her arms around him.
She closed her eyes as he kissed her, but her fingers were
sliding down his arms to his hands--
     
     Ranma's hands were empty.  She felt him smile through the
kiss, and her eyes flew open.  "You--!"  She looked up and saw
the book and the crop balanced atop his head, too late.  Ranma
stepped back, still smiling, and tossed his head before she could
snatch them.  The book and the crop fell neatly into his hands
again.
     
     "We can do this some more if you like...."
     
     Akane sagged.  "All right.  You win.  Here, give me the
book, and I'll show you."  She glared at him when he gave her a
skeptical look instead.  "I promise, dammit!  Give me the book!"
     
     "All right, all right, don't get excited!"  He handed her
the book and waited.
     
     Akane opened "The Taming of the Horse: An Equestrian's
Guide" and flipped through it.  She stopped, ran her finger down
the page, nodded, and handed it to Ranma.  "Read there."  *And
don't hate me afterwards....*
     
     "Hmm.  'Some horses are so wild and skittish that they are
nearly impossible to tame, but such animals often make the very
finest steeds.  In these cases, the trainer is well-advised to
adopt a policy of inscrutability; if the horse does not realize
it is being tamed, it may become tame before it knows to
resist.'"  Ranma kept reading for a while without speaking, then
looked up.  "I don't get it."
     
     Akane's face was hidden by her hair, but her ears were very
red.  "Ran... ma.  'Wild Horse'."
     
     Ranma's brow furrowed for a moment, and then he gave her an
incredulous look.  "Taming....  You think you tamed me, do you?"
He closed the book and gently put it down on the dresser, but
kept the crop.  "You think I'm tame?  Come see how tame I am."
     
     The edge in Ranma's voice made Akane look up.  His
expression was neutral, even a little amused, but he was standing
in the relaxed, casual stance he used to lull opponents into
underestimating him.  The crop dangled at his side, twitching a
little.  *Uh oh.  He's really mad.  Don't mess this up--*  "No,"
she said firmly.  "You're not tame.  You're wild, and I like you
that way."
     
     "Then what?"  Ranma's voice was unrelenting.
     
     "You were so damn skittish!"  Akane burst out.  "I... I
wanted you to be mine!  I wanted to be yours!  But at that fiasco
of a wedding, you ran away!  You wouldn't tell me you loved me!
You wouldn't give me a chance to tell you I loved you!  So
afterwards--"  Akane stopped and controlled herself.
"Afterwards, I just had to do something.  I talked to Kasumi, but
she didn't know what I should do either.  Then I found the book,
and it gave me this idea, that if I could just... could just... I
don't know!  I couldn't chase after you, because the other girls
were doing that, and it wasn't working for them.  So I hoped that
if I just quit pushing you away, you'd... you'd....  And you
did."
     
     Ranma's eyes widened.  The corners of his mouth twitched.
"Huh.  So you're saying the book was part of the Path that got us
here, and I sure can't complain about that.  All right.  But you
missed something.  You're in there too."
     
     "I am?  Where?"
     
     Ranma picked the book up again and handed it to her.  "Find
the part you showed me."  Akane looked at him blankly.  "Humor
me."  Akane shrugged, paged through the book, and stopped.  Ranma
pointed lower on the page.  "Read there."
     
     "'On the other hand, some horses are so amenable to
domestication that they very nearly tame themselves....'"  Akane
looked up into Ranma's teasing smile.  "I-- you-- oooh!"
     
     Ranma dodged the book.  "Hey!  That's a compliment!  I
thought you wanted to be domestic!"
     
     Akane stopped chasing him around the room after three futile
laps.  "Tell you what: I'll admit to being tamed if you will."
     
     "Well... maybe just a little, tiny bit."
     
     "Fine.  I'm 'just a little, tiny bit' tamed too.  And don't
you dare EVER tell ANYONE about this!"
     
     "Hey, you're the one who's yelling with the window open."
     
     Akane grimaced.  "Oops."
     
     Ranma held up the crop.  "So how about this?"
     
     Akane blushed again.  "Nabiki got me that.  She still
doesn't know about the book, but she must have seen it and then
got me the crop as a joke."
     
     Ranma swished the crop through the air.  "So how come you
never hit me with it?  You've hit me with everything else...."
     
     Akane blushed some more.  "Like you said.  That's kinky."
She eyed him.  "Do you want me to?  Is that it?"
     
     It was Ranma's turn to blush.  "Uh... not exactly."
     
     "'Not exactly'?  What is that supposed to mean?  What is it
with you and hitting, anyway?"
     
     "Uh...."
     
     "Out with it.  You made me confess my darkest secrets, now
it's your turn."
     
     "It ain't a secret!" Ranma exploded.  "I just dunno how to
say it!"
     
     "Ah.  Well, we know how to deal with that."  She knelt and
patted the floor beside her, then waited until Ranma was seated.
"Try."
     
     "Well....  The Art's about hitting, and I'm about the Art,
right?  I dunno much else, but I sure know hitting.  But... I
didn't know until I met you that hitting could be about... about
love."
     
     The silence stretched.
     
     "Ranma... why do you love me?  I mean, I know you do, you
tell me so maybe once a month, twice if I'm lucky, but I've never
known why, and I've always wondered, because Kodachi's pretty and
tall and rich and Ukyo's pretty and nice and a good cook and
Shampoo's so perfect I could just scream sometimes but-- all
right, I'll shut up now."
     
     Ranma put his hand back down after she'd stopped.  He smiled
a little.  "I dunno.  I don't wanna think about it too much,
because some things ya just shouldn't think about, not if you
like them.  But maybe... maybe part of it's 'cause you hit me."
     
     The silence stretched again.
     
     "Eeew."
     
     Ranma waved his hands hastily.  "Don't get me wrong.  I like
kissin' better-- and, uh, all the other stuff, too-- but for that
whole first year, you didn't kiss me, and you did hit me, and,
uh, I liked it better when you hit me than when they kissed me...
'cause it meant you cared enough to get mad at me."
     
     Akane stared at Ranma.  "That long?"
     
     "Uh, kinda."
     
     "And in all that time, you never even told me you LIKED me,
so I could kiss you without feeling like an idiot, you just
insulted me, so I'd hit you?"
     
     "Hey, we came close a couple of times--"
     
     "I'm really, really mad right now."  Akane got up, went over
to the door, closed it, and turned to look down at Ranma.  "I'm
mad enough to hit you really, really hard."  She came back,
unbuttoning.  "But I'm not going to hit you, because you say you
like 'the other stuff' better."  *And so do I.*
     
     "Uh, wait, lemme get the futon unrolled first-- oh, my."
     
     "You can put that crop down now... unless you're planning to
use it."
     
     Clatter!
     
     ~~~~~
     
     "How many?" Ranma muttered to Akane.
     
     "Twenty-three, so far.  Isn't it wonderful?"
     
     Ranma looked around at the scene of barely controlled chaos.
A crowd of gi-clad people milled around in the dojo.  Nodoka
waved and smiled from where she sat between Soun and Genma in the
corner.  Ranma nodded back, remembering their conversation the
previous night:

          "Momma, you're gonna be at the dojo tomorrow, right?"

          Nodoka smiled.  "Of course, Ranma.  I wouldn't miss it
     for anything."

          "Well, I was wonderin' if you'd do me a big favor...."

          "Certainly, dear.  What is it?"
     
          "Well, Pops and Tendo-san are gonna be there too, and I
     just know they'll do somethin' ta mess us up.  They've
     messed us up about everythin' else, why would they stop now?
     Anyways, you're the only one I can trust to keep them under
     control."
          
          Nodoka touched her wrapped katana.  "I would be glad
     to.  I am honored by your confidence, Ranma."

     *Well, that's one less thing to worry about,* Ranma thought.
He looked outside, to where a few parents sat on the veranda and
chatted.

     "It's time," Akane said in a low voice.

     Ranma nodded.  "Let's do it."  He walked out in front of the
crowd.  "Students!  Welcome to the school of Musabetsu Kakuto at
the Tendo Dojo!"  The students hastily sorted themselves out to
stand in well-spaced rows.  They bowed.  Ranma and Akane bowed
back.  Ranma examined them carefully: a dozen children, seven
youths of high-school age, a couple a little older than Ranma and
Akane, and an older man with weary eyes.

     "I am Saotome Ranma," Ranma began.  "This is Saotome Akane.
Together we represent the combined Saotome-ryu and Tendo-ryu of
the Musabetsu Kakuto."  He ignored the sobbing coming from the
corner.

     "Sensei," the students chorused.

     Akane took over.  "Many people think the Art is about
hurting people, and even killing them.  That's true, sometimes,
but it's a lot more than that.  The Art is about taking control
of your life.  It confers health and fitness, strength,
coordination, self-discipline, confidence, and even grace.  I
hope you're all here for one of those reasons, because if you're
here to learn to hurt people, we will know, and we will
regretfully refuse to teach you."

     "Some of you know us," Ranma said.  He glanced at a boy he'd
seen at Furinkan.  "Our abilities come from our mastery of the
Art.  You've seen us in the streets--"

     "--and on the roofs," the older man muttered.

     Ranma laughed, putting his hand behind his head.  "On the
roofs," he admitted.  "Anyway, that's what we offer.  I'm not
gonna give you much philosophy until you're ready, but remember
this: don't think too much.  We'll try to train your body to do a
lot of the thinkin' for you."  He paused, and grinned.  "If you
have trouble thinkin' too much, see Akane.  She used to have that
problem, too."  Akane blushed a little, but smiled.
     
     "Don't you ever have that problem, Sensei?" a bold student
called.
     
     Ranma raised an eyebrow.  "Me?  Hell, ask anyone.  I've
never had any trouble not thinkin'."  Everyone laughed at that.
"All right.  Split up by skill, and we'll start warmup katas.  If
any of you--" his eyes flicked over the six girls and women among
the students-- "would rather be taught by a woman, tell us."  He
grinned suddenly.  "And before I forget, if you see a woman about
yea high, with her hair in a pigtail like mine, she's an
instructor here, too.  She's just as good as I am, in fact."  He
clapped his hands, and the chaos resumed, but with a purpose this
time.
     
     Crash!
     
     The activity stopped.  Everyone stared at the dusty figure
that had appeared in the sudden hole in the wall.  "Excuse me,
does anyone know where the Unryu farm is?" it asked.  It noticed
Ranma.  "You!"
     
     Ranma flung his arms wide.  "RYOGA!!" he bellowed joyfully.
     
     ~~~~~
     
     "What do you suppose that's for?" one of the young students
whispered to another, nudging him and pointing at a shelf on one
wall of the dojo.
     
     His buddy shrugged.  "Dunno.  Maybe it's for if ya do
something really dumb.  I don't wanna find out.  Come on, it's
our turn with Akane-sensei!"
     
     On the shelf, on a stand of the type usually used to hold a
katana horizontally, the riding crop rested proudly, beginning a
new tradition at the Tendo Dojo.
     
     ~~~~~  end of Epilogue  ~~~~~


Vince Seifert    Network Analyst     seifertv@csus.edu
http://webpages.csus.edu/~seifertv/  updated 1998Jun04
CSUS hired me to build their network, not to speak for the university.