Subject: [FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma][Dark] Akunen
From: RaeMowse@aol.com
Date: 6/19/2000, 11:18 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

Ranma 1/2 and all characters within are owned by Rumiko Takahashi.

Akunen
Dark

Somewhere in Nerima...

"This looks promising.  An area noted for its chaotic lifestyle.  Let's add a 
little...darkness...to the mix."  Clouded eyes scanned around as the 
inhabitants of the ward passed by, unnoticing the being among them.

"No one suitable...how disappointing.  What's this?"

The eyes stopped on one particular boy wearing a red tang and black pants 
running atop of a fence.  A short-haired girl was running along with the boy, 
though her traveling route was more ground-based.  "Hmm...so much chaos 
surronding him...he draws problems like flies to honey..."  A sticky mouth 
smacked once.  "Interesting."

The boy stopped running suddenly and stared.  The eyes widened in surprise as 
the boy's gaze was locked onto the being's general area.  A low chuckle 
rumbled.  "So, you can sense me...you shall be perfect for my needs."  The 
being faded into the shadows.

* * * * *
"Ranma, what's wrong?"

He shook himself awake.  "Huh?"

"You zoned out for a moment.  Are you all right?" she asked.

"Oh, um, I'm fine.  Just...just thought I saw something, that's all."

"Well, come on.  We're going to be late!"

"All right, all right."  The two halfs of Musabetsu Kakutou Ryuu took off 
again, streaking towards Furinken High School.  Only one of them, however, 
couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched.

* * * * *
Lunchtime rolled around, and the students poured out into the schoolyard to 
converse and to consume.  Ranma and Akane joined the influx and set up their 
camp beneath a tree.  Ukyou soon joined up with the two.

"Hey, Ranchan, Akane.  How are you two doing?"

"Oh, fine, Ukyou."

"Hey, Ucchan.  Man, I'm hungry."

"Well," Akane began.  "I hope you like your lunch today.  I made it for you."

Ranma's hands were about to open the bento when Akane had said that.  He 
stopped cold, fear written all over his face.

The young Tendo noticed his expression.  "Oh, come on.  Just try it.  I spent 
hours on making it."

"Um...ah..."  He spared a glance to Ukyou.  She held her hands up and gave 
him a helpless expression; no salvation forthcoming from her.  His gaze 
lowered to Akane, who was eagerly awaiting him to take part in his meal.  
Sighing, he steeled himself for the inevitable, and popped open the bento.  
Taking his chopsticks out, he plucked up a morsel of something, and put it 
into his mouth.  Immediately, his taste buds were assaulted by an array of 
flavors, some of them quite foreign, in severe conflict with each other.  He 
forced himself to swallow the concoction, then gasped.  "W...Water..."

Ukyou rushed him a glass and he gulped it all down.  Ranma inhaled and 
exhaled deeply, savoring the oxygen.  "God...what was...that...?"  He had to 
wipe away some tears that came of their own free will.

Akane felt a little annoyed.  "What do you mean by that?  It's tonkatsu with 
curry."

"Tonkatsu?  Why does the pork taste like soap?"

"Well, Kasumi said to clean the meat before I cooked it.  Anyway, I thought 
it could use some more spices, so I added jalepeno and jabernero peppers with 
a sprinkle of cayenne pepper, but then it didn't look right, so I threw in 
nori and tempura flakes.  It still didn't look right, so I tossed in diced 
eggplant, clives, sour cream, cheese, fish liver paste-"

Ranma was beginning to turn green as she continued on about the tonkatsu and 
curry, "enhancements."  "That's...enough."

"Well, I hope I didn't go overboard.  Try some more."

"Er...no, thanks."

"Oh, come on.  It's not that bad."

"Oh, yeah, it is."

She blinked.  "What did you say?"

Ranma went on, not noticing the change in her posture.  "It's pretty bad.  
No, it's really bad.  I'm betting Ryouga couldn't stomach it if he was dying 
from hunger."

A vein popped out in Akane's forehead.  "Why...you..."

The pigtailed martial's artist's attention was finally caught, and he turned 
to face her.  The look in her eyes startled him.  "H-Hey!  Hold on there!"

* * * * *
"An opening.  You're mine now."  Behind him, a shadow darted out from its 
hiding place and dissapeared into the back of Ranma's head.

* * * * *
"Agh!"  Ranma doubled over in pain, holding his head.

Ukyou was dumbstruck.  "How did you do that, Akane?  I didn't even see your 
hand move..."

Akane faced her, confusion evident.  "What are you talking about?  I haven't 
even touched him."

The pigtailed martial artist groaned.  "My...head...feels like...it's 
gonna...explode..."

The okonomiyaki chef's eyes went wide.  "Ranchan!"  She fell to the boy's 
side.  "Are you all right?  Say something, would you?"

Akane took to his other side in concern.  "Come on, Ranma," she mumbled to 
herself.  "Please be all right."

A gasp later, Ranma straightened up, blinking in confusion.  "Man, what 
happened?"

"Ranma..."  Akane smiled softly.

"Ranchan, you're all right!"  Ukyou threw her arms around his neck.

"Gak!  Let go, wouldja?!"

Ukyou blushed as she let go.  "How embarrassing," she murmured, bopping him 
once.

Ranma rubbed the sore spot on his cheek.  "It's all right."  He looked up.  
"Man, lunch is almost over."  Picking up his bento box, he devoured the lunch 
in short order.  "Delicious.  We better hurry up and get back to class."  The 
Saotome heir hopped up to his feet and sprinted inside, leaving behind a 
befuddled Ukyou and Akane.

The chef found her tongue first.  "What did you do to him, brainwash him?"

Akane shook her head out of disbelief.  "I thought he hated it..."

* * * * *
School came to a close, releasing its teenagers to their homes.  Ranma and 
Akane headed home as well, one on the fence, one on the sidewalk.

"Ranma," Akane began, looking up.  "Today at lunch..."

"Hm?"

"...did you really...did you really mean it was delicious?  The lunch..."

"Well, it's nothing like Kasumi's, that's for sure.  But you did go through 
all that work to make it for me..."

"Oh, I see..."  Her heart sank a little lower.

The sound of a bell broke the silence that began to form.  It was all the 
warning the boy had before he was flattened by a bicycle supporting one 
Shampoo.  "Nihao, Airen!" she cried, scooping his maimed form.  "Take Shampoo 
on date, yes?"

Akane snorted in disgust at the scene.  "I don't believe this..."

Ranma shook his head slightly.  "Um, sure, why not?"

She froze.  Solidly.  Her ears couldn't believe what they had just heard.  
Ranma agreeing to go on a date with Shampoo?  No way!

"Airen mean that?"  Truth be told, Shampoo was bit caught off guard herself.

"Yeah.  I mean, it's not gonna hurt anything, you know."

The violet tressed girl squealed excitedly.  "Shampoo so happy!"  She hugged 
Ranma so tight, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.  She then hopped onto 
her bike and rushed off, presumably to the Nekohanten.

Ranma shook his head again, then took a moment to retrieve air to his lungs.  
He turned to face Akane; however, the Tendo girls was gone.  Scratching his 
head, he wondered aloud, "Now, where did she go?"

* * * * *
The front door was ripped open and slammed shut a split second later.  Kasumi 
peeked around the corner to see a bluish blurb tear its way up the stairs.  
"Oh, my.  I wonder what has imoutosan upset?"

Soun and Genma came around from the shogi room.  "Kasumi," the former began.  
"What was that noise we heard a moment ago?"

She looked at her father.  "That was just Akane.  I think she's upset about 
something."

Genma broke in.  "Did you see Ranma as well?"

"No, I only saw imoutosan."

At that moment, a familiar voice came forth.  "I'm home," Ranma said, 
slipping off his shoes at the steps.

Immediately, Soun and Genma were upon him like a starving pack of wolves on a 
steak.  "What did you do to your fiancee, Ranma?!"

"You ungrateful boy!  How can you dishonor our family name?!"

"Apologize to my daughter immediately!"  The demon head of Soun's loomed over 
the pigtailed boy menacingly.

Ranma stifled a laugh.  "Pretty good."

The Tendo patriarch deflated in confusion.  "Wha-?"

"Don't worry about Akane.  I got her well in hand."

"Oh..." the fathers said simultaneously.

"That's my boy," Genma said, slapping his son on the back.  "You bring honor 
to the Saotome name."

"Yeah, yeah, I know.  Now, excuse me, I have a date to get ready for."  Ranma 
walked up the stairs to his room.

Genma pulled Soun in close.  "Did you hear that?  Ranma's taking Akane out on 
a date!" he whispered excitedly.

"I did.  I did!  Oh, our families will be joined soon!" Soun whispered back.

"Let's start making plans for the wedding tonight while they're out!"

"Let's!"

* * * * *
Ranma knocked on Akane's room door.  "Akane, open up."

No answer.

"I know you're in there, so open up the door, okay?"

Still no answer.

He sighed.  "I'm coming in."  He pushed the door open and walked in.  His 
eyes lighted on the room's only occupant in the darkened room.  Akane was 
laying on her stomach, her face buried in her pillow.  She was still wearing 
the blue-green school uniform she came home in.  

He pushed the door close behind him.  "Akane."

"Go away."

"Come on..."

"Leave me alone."

He shook his head slightly.  "Don't tell me you're jealous that I'm taking 
Shampoo out tonight."

"I'm not jealous."

A smirked creased the corner of his mouth.  "Then you won't mind me taking 
her out, then."

"Go on.  Do whatever you like.  Take your precious Shampoo out.  Just leave 
me alone."

"Well, okay.  If you say so...I wonder if I'm a good kisser?"

Akane's ears perked up.  "Wha?"

He put a fingertip to his chin in deep thought.  "I hope I'm good enough; I'd 
sure hate to disappoint Shampoo tonight..."

A few tears spilted from her tightly squeezed eyes.

"Perhaps..."  He smiled a wicked smile.  "Perhaps I should test my manly 
kissing skills on Ukyou and Kodachi, just to be sure, of course."

Akane's eyes snapped open in shock.  "Pervert!"  She threw herself off the 
bed and lunged at her fiance, one fist cocked back to smash into his face.

Ranma smirked a little as her fist raced towards his nose.  With hardly a 
thought, he caught the haymaker in the palm of his hand, which caught Akane 
completely off guard.  He whirled around her, pinning that arm behind her 
back.  She cried out in surprise, then she tried to whack him in the temple 
with an elbow.  The youth deflected that one, then shot his hand out to grab 
her free wrist and pull it back behind her as well.  He snaked a foot out and 
rattled it between her knees while pushing forward, giving him the desired 
effect of dropping her to the floor in a kneeling position.  Then he braced 
his own knees against her back before leaning forward.

"You know," he whispered into her ear.  "For someone that isn't jealous, you 
sure act that way."

Akane tried to snort in disdain, but with her arms being pulled up at a 
painful angle, she could manage little more than a whimper.

"Sorry."  He knelt down behind the Tendo girl, relaxing the tension.  She 
absently sighed in relief.  "Now that I have your attention, I'm going to 
tell you why I'm taking Shampoo out.  Listen good, because I'm only going to 
say it once.  Ready?"

"Yes," she said, defeated.  "But could we-?"

"Hey, Akane," Nabiki said, barging into the room.  "Kasumi's-"  She stopped 
dead in her tracks at the sight before her.  Akane turned around wildly with 
a "deer-caught-in-headlights" look.  Ranma did a double take and came up with 
a matching expression as well.

"Uh...d-d-don't move; I'll be right back..."  The short haired brunette 
quickly scampered to her room in search for her camera.

Ranma blinked.  "Um...maybe somewhere private first?"

Akane nodded.  "Complete agreement."

* * * * *
"You're taking Shampoo out in order to dump her?"  Akane gave him an 
incredulous look.

Ranma shook his head.  "Not dumping her."  He gave her a crooked smile.  "I'm 
going to get her to dump me."

"Uh huh...and just how are you going to do that?"

"It's a secret."

She blinked.  "What?"

"Don't worry.  I do have a plan, but I can't tell you about it."

"And why not?"

"Do you trust me?"

She blinked again.  "What?"

He looked at her, his eyes locking with hers.  "Do you trust me?"

"Um...yeah.  Yes, I trust you."

He nodded.  "Let's leave it at then, okay?"

"But..."  She peered into his eyes bound with seriousness.  "All right..." 
she relented.

Ranma smiled.  "I knew you would understand.  Now, excuse me; I need to get 
ready."

"O...okay."

"Hey, don't look so sad.  We'll go for ice cream tomorrow, okay?"

"Huh?" she asked, looking up.

"My treat."

"You're not going to try to scam any ice cream with your cute girl act, are 
you?"

It was Ranma's turn to blink.  "Um...no.  Why would I do that for?"

"Oh...nothing, really.  Um...I guess I should say g...g..."

He gave a her a lopsided smile.  "Don't worry about it, okay.  I have things 
well in hand."

She returned with a small, timid smile.  "All...all right."

* * * * *
Ranma retrieved his bathstuff and his best wardrobe, which consisted of a 
dark green, long sleeved tang and a pair of new pants.  He left out and went 
towards the stairwell.  Pausing by Akane's door, he read the name engraved on 
the wooden duck plaque and gave it a smirk.  "Sucker..."


To be continued?


If this story gets a good reception, I'll consider writing more to it.  
Warning, later chapters will get grittier than this, and my best friend has 
already balked at some of the chapter outlines I have planned in my head for 
this.

Now for story updates.

Kasumi 1/2 Chapter 5 is being written right now; I may post a teaser for it 
later on.  I'm doing planning for A Twisted Fate Chapter 4.  The Ranma 1/2 
Show finale, I haven't started on yet.



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