Here's chapter 3 folks. Again, C&C would be appreciated.
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. I make no claim or
money in the writing of this story.
This fanfic is archived at
http://www.geocities.com/LightHawk19/THOTW.html
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Two Halves of the Whole
Chapter 3
"Stupid Mousse. He doesn't have to have a conniption every time he
sees Shampoo crawling all over me. Ryoga ain't any better. Even though
he has given up on Akane he still thinks he can fight me over every
perceived insult towards her. Geez, you would think they would know
better by now." Ranma was slogging back home after sending both
MuuMuu-chan and P-chan on a one way trip to the Nekohanten via AirRanma.
It had begun raining by the time Ranma made it home. It didn't matter
too much at the time since he was a she anyway. She didn't bother with
a simple "I'm home" when she went inside and just headed straight for
the bathroom. Ranma wanted to spend as little time as possible as a
girl that day.
After a while, Ranma, now a he, climbed out of the furo and headed
towards his room for some clothes. He had already noted Akane's arrival
when she announced her return but was wondering about the new voice
emanating from the living room. It had sounded vaguely familiar but he
couldn't place it. Either way, he would find out when he went
downstairs.
A few minutes earlier....
Downstairs, Akane was busy sizing up Jay. A few minutes ago, her
father announced to her that he was going to be teaching a new student
starting the next week. He had also said that Jay would be sharing her
afternoon class several times a week. According to Soun, who had been
given a brief demonstration by Jay earlier that day, Jay was around
Akane's level and it would be a good opportunity for the two of them to
train together from time to time.
Jay didn't seem to mind either way with the decision but Akane was more
reluctant to accept it. After a quick talk between Akane and her
father, the two came to an agreement that if Akane and Jay didn't get
along very well, they wouldn't train together afterwards.
A moment later, Nabiki trotted in muttering under her breath. She took
one look at everyone at the table before saying, "If anyone says one
line of any kind of poetry I'm calling in all debts plus interest
effective now and in blood." She glared at her family and Ranma who was
just coming down the stairs as if to dare them to try her. No one did.
"I take it you had some business with Kuno today, Nabiki." said Kasumi
as she walked to the table with some plates in her hand. "Dinner will
be ready shortly so why don't you freshen up."
It wasn't until she headed upstairs that she noticed Jay sitting at the
table. She wondered what he was about as she headed up to her room to
change. She determined that she would find out soon enough. Ranma also
noticed Jay as he was walking downstairs. It took him a moment before
he placed the face to a name though.
"Yo Jay, what are you doin' here? I thought you were goin' to some
dojo in Tokyo." Ranma didn't think about the fact that they were in
Tokyo.
Jay looked at Ranma for a moment before he replied. "Hey Ranma. Um,
this is the dojo in Tokyo that I was going to visit. I didn't know you
lived here until I met your father this afternoon."
"Oh," was all Ranma said, as he sat down in his usual spot next to
Akane. Nabiki came down shortly thereafter and Kasumi had finished
preparing dinner so it wasn't long before everyone started eating.
Ranma and Genma ate with their usual gusto while the rest of the Tendo
household ate in a more civilized fashion. Jay ate heartily and very
quietly while watching the antics of the Saotomes. He had to
occasionally guard his plate from Genma's wandering chopsticks.
"Are they always like this?" he leaned over to ask Nabiki, who was
sitting next to Jay.
"Just ignore them, it's like this at every meal. By the way, that's
100 yen for the information." Jay looked at her like she grew a second
head but reached into his pocket for a coin anyway.
"I take it you are Nabiki Tendo. I guess you are the one your father
wanted me to talk to. Do you mind if we wait until after dinner
though? I want to finish my food before it gets eaten by one of them."
"Yes, I do go by Nabiki from time to time. Shall we meet at my office
to discuss what you need? Ok then." Nabiki didn't bother to wait for
Jay's reply before she resumed eating.
Nabiki's office turned out to be her room when Jay walked up the stairs
with her after dinner. Nabiki walked over to her desk and pulled out a
laptop computer from one of the drawers at her desk. Jay remained
standing by the doorway and waited for the computer to boot up and for
Nabiki to open up a program or something.
"Ok now, how may I help you? First of all, I need to know your full
name so I can put it in on my little database." Nabiki said to Jay
after a few minutes.
"Well, my name is Jay Akira Scott and I was told to come to you about
the payment of my training under your father." Nabiki's eyebrows went
up at the last part of the statement. She had Jay pegged as a martial
artist but she wasn't expecting this.
"So, you want to train under daddy at the dojo. Will you be needing a
place to stay?" Nabiki asked as she started tallying up figures for
payment.
"No, I have a place not far from here, near the high school." Jay
replied simply. Nabiki noted Jay's reply and came up with her answer
within a few minutes.
"Let's say 30,000 yen per month plus expenses." Jay's eyes widened a
little at the cost but it was within the price range he set so he didn't
complain. He did haggle the price though and managed to reduce the cost
to 25,000 yen a month plus expenses and one favor. Little did he
realize that favors owed to Nabiki were usually worth more than 5,000
yen.
Back downstairs, a battle of epic proportions was forming. At least it
would be a battle of epic proportions if it had occurred at any other
location besides the Nerima district of Tokyo. As it was, Ranma and
Akane had a minor disagreement. Apparently Ranma had opened his mouth
and Akane had taken offense at what he hadn't said yet. At least that's
how it felt to Ranma, Akane was just being uncute. To Akane, Ranma was
a jerk and she had to point that out a couple of times.
Jay went downstairs to investigate, despite the fact that Nabiki told
him not to worry about it. As soon as the couple were in view Akane had
had enough and booted Ranma headlong into the rain only to be stopped by
the wall that surrounded the Tendo estate. After seeing this, Jay
decided that staying out of this fight would be good for his health. So
instead of trying to break up the fight and/or calm down one of the
contenders Jay quietly walked in and took a seat by Kasumi, who didn't
seem fazed by what just happened.
Akane just turned her head away from Ranma after he impacted with the
wall and turned her attention towards the newcomer. She was about to
start a conversation with him when Ranma-chan walked in and sat down on
the breezeway to dry off her clothes. Her arrival caught Jay's
attention as she sat down. He looked to be about to ask who she was
before his eyes widened, as if he realized something.
"R...R...R...Ranma? Is that you?" Jay stuttered out as he watched the
young redhead wring out her shirt.
Jay now had a better view of Ranma as she turned around to answer him.
"Of course it's me, who else would I be?" Ranma answered tersely.
Watching Jay have to nearly stifle a nosebleed caused her to realize
that he was a she right then. "Oh, sorry. I forgot I was a girl. Um,
you ever hear about a place called Jusenkyo?"
"Jusenkyo?" Jay asked as if to clarify. After Ranma nodded her head
he continued. "I have heard about Jusenkyo and its curses but I've
never been there. Neither have I met a cursed person before. It's kind
of a shock to see one in person for the first time."
"You'll get used to it if you live here long enough. There are enough
cursed people around here to make sure of it." Akane said with a sigh.
"Live here long enough and nothing will surprise you again."
[I wouldn't be too sure.] Jay muttered under his breath but neither
Ranma nor Akane heard him or would have understood him if they did.
After glancing at his watch, Jay decided that it was time to head back
to his apartment. "Well, it's been interesting meeting you guys and
having dinner but I need to get back to my place. Do you happen to have
an umbrella I can borrow, it's raining pretty hard now."
Akane smiled at him and nodded, "It was good meeting you too, Jay, I
think we have an umbrella in the stand by the door that you can use.
Just bring it back next time you visit." Jay gave a quick wave before
walking out towards the front door. Spotting a red umbrella he reaches
to pick it up and nearly pulls his arm out of its socket. After a few
tugs he determines that either he'd gotten very weak over the past few
hours or the umbrella was extremely heavy. He bet on the latter and
called to Akane.
"Umm, Akane. This umbrella is too heavy to carry, do you have any
others that I could use?" Akane and Ranma walked over to Jay who was
still trying to pick up the umbrella.
Ranma was the one to speak first, "I think that umbrella belongs to
someone else. He must have left it here by mistake. I'll go see if
Kasumi knows of another one you can use."
"Uh, thanks Ranma." After Ranma left he turned to Akane. "I'm sorry
to trouble you like this but I don't like getting wet if I can avoid
it. You know what I mean?" Akane nodded. A moment later Kasumi walked
over carrying an umbrella.
"Here you go Jay. I hope this will do for you." She said sweetly as
she handed it to him. Jay took it gratefully and bowed deeply to
Kasumi.
"Thank you miss. I will return this to you tomorrow if I can, if not,
then I will the next day." Kasumi bowed back, just as deeply, and gave
him a smile as she replied.
"That is fine. You have a safe trip home."
After an exchange of farewells, Jay headed off in rain to his
apartment. "So Ranma, you know this Jay?" said Akane after they closed
the door.
"I ran into him in the mountains while on my training trip. He's a
good swordsman but he's not quite as good unarmed. It's a good idea
that he will be sharing some classes with you, you two would be able to
help each other out a lot. There is something strange about him though,
I don't know what it is, but he's hiding something."
The rest of the evening was uneventful. Genma and Soun played shogi,
Kasumi cleaned the kitchen, Nabiki worked with her abacus, and Ranma and
Akane managed to have a civil conversation about school. When it was
time for bed, everyone went to sleep knowing the uneventfulness would
end by the next day.
Author's notes and ramblings:
Normal speech (In this case, Japanese) will be in normal quotes " ".
Thoughts will be in single quotes ' '.
Words spoken in English are in brackets [ ].
Chinese will be spoken later with curly braces { }.
Not too much to say about this one. It's more of a carryover from
the previous chapter than anything else.
Lot's of thanks to my prereaders. Without you, I would still be in the
dark about my writing skills.
--
Tomorrow sees undone, what happens not today. Indecision brings delays,
days lost lamenting lost days -Ryoga Hibiki
Email me at LightHawk@nc.rr.com
or
visit my web site at http://www.geocities.com/LightHawk19/Index.html