Cookbooks
(A Ranma 1/2 Continuation)
By Ammadeau
Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org
http://www.angelfire.com/anime/amma
Ranma was in a panic. No new rivals had come to town to
swear eternal vengeance. No new fianc�es, forcing their claim due
to something his father had done to feed himself. The problem was
much, much worse. Akane's birthday was in a week and he had
absolutely no idea what to get her.
Now there was a time when such a thing wouldn't have
worried him. But that had been before Mt. Phoenix, before their
ruined wedding, and before she had given him his birthday present.
She had gotten him a new gi to replace his old one which
had gotten ruined, and sewed his name in kanji on the back. The
stitching was hardly professional, but when Ranma saw the
bandages on Akane's fingers, he knew how hard she had worked to
do it. He also remembered her smile when he thanked her for it.
"Ah, Kasumi. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Ranma-kun. What do you want?"
"Well, um . . . that is . . ."
"You're wondering what to get Akane for her birthday?"
"Yes," he said, wondering how she had guessed.
Kasumi put down the laundry basket and thought for a
moment. "Well, since you're always complaining about her
cooking, why not get her a cookbook?"
"I don't think that's such a good idea, Kasumi," Ranma told
her. "I don't want to encourage her to cook more than she does
already."
*You'd think with all the practice she gets,* Ranma
thought, *she'd get at least a little better.*
"Now we both know that she is going to cook anyway, so
why not get her a cookbook that might help her get better?"
Ranma thought about it, but couldn't find anything wrong
with the idea. One of the things that he both liked and hated about
Akane was the once she put her mind to it, she rarely gave up on
anything. And while her cooking was slowly improving, at the
current rate he might not survive to see her make a decent meal.
Ranma wandered around aimlessly in a place he'd never
been before, a book store, feeling a bit like Ryoga at the moment.
"Can I help you?" a young clerk called out to him, after
seeing the pig-tailed boy pass the same shelves three or four times
already.
"Huh?" Ranma blinked in surprise in being interrupted in
his search.
"Are you looking for anything in particular or just
browsing?"
During his seemingly impossible journey to find a cook
book, Ranma had started to wonder if this store had any books are
martial arts and if they did, would any of them help improve his
skills. Then he thought about trying to find a book on curses or
Jusenkyo. For some reason he kept ending up in the fiction
sections though, especially the shelves crammed with various
manga.
"Yeah, do you know where the cookbooks are?"
The clerk nodded absently, figuring the boy was out to get a
gift for his mother or something. "Just go down two isles, take a
left... Look, just follow me, I'll bring you right to them."
"Thank you."
"From here to here are the cookbooks. This section is for
cooking in general, this for low-fat and low-calorie, and this is for
foreign cuisine."
Ranma just stared at the shelves. "I can't believe there's so
many books that show you how to cook," he said mostly to
himself.
"Yes, well, perhaps if you tell me what kind of cookbook in
particular that you're looking for, I could suggest one for you?"
"How about a book that teaches someone to cook stuff so it
just don't end up as poison every time?"
The clerk frowned slightly. Definitely not for the mother at
least. The boy clearly wasn't malnourished. Perhaps it was for
himself, only he just didn't want to admit it? It would explain why
he was acting so embarrassed.
"Okay," the clerk said, taking a book from the shelf and
presenting to Ranma. "How about this one?"
Ranma read the title, 'Cooking for Dummies.' He had a
pretty clear idea how Akane would react to getting that for her
birthday. Eating her normal cooking would be easier for him to
stomach.
"Don't you have a book with a different title?" Ranma
asked a bit nervously, visions of bokken and mallet-wielding mini-
Akanes still dancing in his head.
The clerk took the book back to the shelf. He didn't see
what was so wrong with the title, probably a self-esteem issue.
"All right," the clerk said, getting another book. "How
about this instead? It's a relatively new title. I've heard that this
one has been getting some good reviews. It's also part of a series,
so in case whoever you're buying this for likes it, they can always
continue on to the other volumes. It is somewhat more expensive
than the other one though, due to only being out in hard cover,
which is why I didn't suggest it first."
Ranma was comforted by the heaviness of the book. The
problem with some of Akane's cookbooks in the past is they didn't
survive being in the kitchen with her. This one seemed to be made
to last. The title was also more reassuring, 'Learning to Cook Step
by Step.' He didn't see how Akane could be offended by that,
sounded like learning a martial arts kata. The picture of sukiyaki
on the cover nearly made Ranma's stomach growl. If this book to
teach Akane to make sukiyaki half as good as Kasumi's, then this
would all be worth it.
Ranma opened up the book and started to flip though it.
The whole first chapter seemed to be about prepare somebody into
the proper mindset or something, the rest of the book being a series
of recipes, each, as the title suggested, laid out step by step. Even
the very obvious (i.e. the things Akane tended to miss or overlook)
were described in detail.
"I'll take it!" Ranma said, feeling a weight being lifted from
his shoulders as he handed the book back to the clerk.
Ranma left the store in somewhat high spirits, brown paper
bag clutched protectively under one arm. It had cost almost every
yen he had, but it'd be worth it if it could teach Akane how to cook.
He was only a little worried about her giving the book a chance and
actually following its directions closely. What had him more
worried was the idea of the rest of his fianc�es finding out that he
was buying a gift for Akane.
Kodachi was out of the picture, at least he hoped so. She
said that she had given up on him and hadn't tried anything at the
failed wedding, but perhaps that was because she hadn't had the
chance. She had arrived in a wedding dress after all. Still, he
hadn't seen her since and was taking this as a good sign.
Ukyo had apologized profusely for her actions during the
wedding, citing both temporary insanity and the influence of
Shampoo as reasons for her actions. Ranma wasn't entirely sure of
that, her aim hadn't been affected by her 'insanity.' Then again, she
was one of his oldest and best friends and seemed honestly
repentant for her actions. When Akane had forgiven her, it was
easy for him to do the same.
And Shampoo... well, was Shampoo. She didn't see how
she had done anything wrong. According to her view, she had
simply stopped her 'husband' from marrying another woman.
Cologne had apologized for her and swore that it wouldn't happen
again, but everyone was less accepting this time. Akane, who had
never liked Shampoo in the first place, refused to forgive her.
Ranma had tried to do the same, but then Shampoo turned on the
waterworks and his resolve crumbled. He knew that she was only
faking, but he just couldn't say no to a girl crying.
So if Kodachi found out, probably nothing would happen.
Ukyo he figured he could appease with the promise of getting
something for her birthday. It would only be fair anyway, she had
hosted his birthday party at Ucchan's for free as her present. If
Shampoo found out... okay, that could be bad. He'd have to make
sure she didn't somehow.
He was currently unaware of a set of eyes watching him
intently from the shadows.
Mousse sat in the shadows and fumed. He'd been fuming
ever since the failed wedding. He had missed his chance! If the
wedding had actually gone through, Saotome would have been out
of the way without a fight and the path to Shampoo's heart would
have been clear. He was sure that Ranma had caused all of that
commotion somehow, just so he could keep stringing Mousse's
darling Shampoo along, as well as those other women, just to feed
his already massive ego.
And now Mousse had seen his nemesis, the source of all of
his pain and suffering, stepping out of a store, clutching something.
No doubt this was yet another plan of his to seduce Shampoo.
Well, there was no way Mousse was going to allow that.
"Saotome, you fiend!" he shouted as he leapt from the
shadows. "I'll make you suffer ten-fold for what you've done!"
One passerby turned to her husband and asked, "Why is that
boy attacking that lamp-post?"
The husband shrugged. "Kids these days, who can
understand them?"