charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0)
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400
Importance: Normal
X-archive-position: 17236
X-listar-version: Listar v0.128a
Sender: ffml-bounce@fanfic.com
Errors-To: ffml-bounce@fanfic.com
X-original-sender: dje@progress.com
Precedence: bulk
X-list: ffml
[The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
[Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
[Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
Hello everyone,
It's been a while since I wrote anything, so I knocked this out
to find out if I can still do it. I'm pretty rusty, and this
hasn't been pre-read, so no doubt it's pretty ropey. And I even
forgot to turn off justification before outputting the story as
text. But...
Anyway, enjoy this bit of frothy waffiness.
Jijitsujanai
by David Eddy
Last modified: January 10, 2001
A fan fiction based on Takahashi Rumiko's Manga series,
Ranma 1/2.
The characters of Ranma 1/2 are the property of
Takahashi Rumiko and her licencees.
Morning. Bright, yellow light of morning. Calm
time. Time for reflection and preparation, readiness
for the day ahead.
Shining in through the window, the spare room was
lit cheerily by the sun's morning light. Wooden
furniture gleamed, deep highlights brought out in the
grain making an ordinary, functional piece a thing of
beauty.
Still in shadow, the room's two occupants slept on
uncaring. Sprawled on futons which were spread on the
tatami matting of the floor, they looked to be sleeping
the sleep of utter abandon. Saotome Genma and his son,
Saotome Ranma, lay blissfully in the arms of Morpheus,
oblivious to the sun shining into the room. The quiet
chirp of birds came in through the open window, one with
the perfumed spring air.
Ranma awoke with a start. His dream had been so
vivid... but now, all that remained of it was an odd
pressure behind his eyes and a lingering sense of
wrongness. So vivid, yet it was fading from his mind's
eye like beach sand flowing through spread fingers.
He looked around, taking in the room, then shook
his head like a horse shooing away a fly to clear an odd
double vision. He sat up and breathed deeply, filling
his lungs with the sweet air, washing a lingering bad
feeling from inside himself as he emptied his lungs.
Yet he still felt strange. He felt... good, he
decided, in an unfamiliar way. A lingering feeling
from his dream of being unable to move freely made him
twist about in a stretch and twitch his limbs like a
horse shaking off a fly before spontaneously stepping
over into a slow forward flip, a showoff move a gymnast
might do.
The vague sense of double vision persisted, though
it wasn't really a bother. It wasn't blurriness or
anything like that; it was just... a doubling. Like he
was seeing things twice.
Silently he padded out of the house and into the
yard between the house and the dojo. Picking a spot he
began to stretch, grateful that he had awoken before his
father for once. Then something familiar tingled his ki
sense, and he leapt to defend himself against his
father's attack.
"Breakfast!"
Ranma kicked his father into the koi pond again,
drowning the rocks around the pool with a wave of
displaced water. He smirked to himself but something
held his mouth closed against the taunt he would
normally utter.
New eyes. Sitting down at the table, he gawked at
the beauties around him. Kasumi, with her easy grace
and smiling nature. Nabiki, who filled out her school
uniform very nicely indeed and whose bobbed haircut
suited her face. And Akane, who sat down next to him
quietly and automatically reached to serve herself.
Akane. Ranma could not believe how nice she looked
to him. A part of him wondered why he had chosen this
morning to look at things anew, whereas another part of
his mind traced every line of her face, drinking in the
healthy glow she had, her almond eyes and silky hair
drawing his eyes even as memories of the times he had
caught her in the bath when they had first met surfaced
in his head. Memories of her smiling, too, floated
before his mind's eye.
"Ranma? What's wrong? Ranma?"
Ranma blinked to see Akane looking at him, doubt,
confusion, and worry visible on her face. He couldn't
resist smiling. "It's nothing, Akane," he said.
She frowned. "What is it?"
Akane was pretty even when she was angry, Ranma
told himself. Or was that 'especially'? He shook his
head, automatically placing one hand briefly on Akane's
forearm. "I was just thinking that you look very nice
this morning," he with an easy smile.
Her dumbfounded look confused him. Ranma felt his
expression settle into a frown. "What's wrong?" he
asked, genuinely confused. He looked around to see that
Nabiki was also staring at him, while Soun and his
father were both grinning fit to split their faces.
Nabiki laid a hand on his brow. "Are you feeling
all right, Ranma?"
He gently pushed her hand away. "I'm fine," he
said evenly. Then a thought occurred to him, and he
continued, "Something strange seems to have happened,
oneechan, but I'm afraid it'll cost you to find out
more." He allowed his lips to twist into a smirk at
Nabiki's dumbfounded expression even as he wondered at
the uncharacteristic forwardness of his own statement.
The two girls continued to stare at him, while
Genma-panda and Soun danced a jig in the background.
Kasumi broke the tableau by asking, "My, aren't you
hungry, Ranma-kun?"
Ranma's stomach growled in protest, and he broke
eye contact to scoop up some food to begin his
breakfast.
Lunchtime, outside in the shade of a tree with
Akane.
"Ranma, what's going on?"
Ranma looked up from his o-bento. "Eh? Whadda ya
mean, Akane?"
She was looking at him quizzically. "You've been
different today. It's not like you to actually pay
attention in class!"
He shrugged, his eyes hooded. "If you say so."
"Ranma! What's going on?! It's like you're a
different person!"
Akane's comment took Ranma by surprise. He looked
away, then turned back to Akane. His fiancee, he
reminded himself. "Well, I..."
"Hi there, Ranchan!"
Ranma looked away from Akane to see Ukyou bearing
down on them.
"Hiya, Ucchan!"
Ukyou plumped herself down next to Ranma and
unwrapped her lunch, which was cold okonomiyaki. "Would
you like one, Ranchan? I made extra for you, just like
a good fiancee."
"Eh? Ahh...." Ranma certainly wanted one, his
nose was twitching at the delicious aroma. But his eyes
were captivated by Ukyou, a true beauty in her own
right, though he reflected to himself that it was
probably Akane who was cuter than Ukyou, the chef more
womanly and mature-looking. His eyes lingered briefly
on her bust and flicked down to her hips before
returning to her face.
Ukyou blushed under the intensity of Ranma's gaze,
oddly direct.
"I'll just leave you two *love-birds* then,"
snarled Akane suddenly. Ranma tore his eyes away from
Ukyou to see Akane snatch up her o-bento and stalk off.
A warm, soft feeling on his arm was Ukyou glomping onto
him.
"That's better," said Ukyou, "now you can have a
nice lunch with your *cute* fiancee!"
Once again, Ranma looked at Ukyou, his childhood
friend. She blushed anew under his regard, but didn't
turn away as he measured her with his gaze. At length,
he turned away and sighed. "I'm sorry, Ucchan."
"What's wrong, Ranma?"
He turned to look in the direction Akane had gone.
"I can't do it, Ukyou," he said, looking back at her. A
cool wind rustled the spring growth of the trees.
Ukyou smiled winningly at Ranma, deliberately
missing his meaning. "Why can't you eat my lunch? I
like making lunch for you, Ranchan. I like to be
prepared. I never know when Akane's going to try and
torture you with one of her lunches."
"It's not like that." He nibbled absently at his
Kasumi-cooked lunch, ignoring Ukyou's offering and the
soft warmth where Ukyou held one arm against her chest.
He looked her in the eyes. "You're a good friend,
Ucchan. A number-one friend. We go back a long way,
and I'd do almost anything for you. But what we have
isn't love, Ucchan. Not for me, not now. I'm truly
sorry, because you're very attractive and a very nice
girl."
Ukyou stared at Ranma in disbelief, tears gathering
unshed in her eyes. He felt sorry for her, wavering,
but he stuck to his resolve. After a long moment she
turned and ran off, hiding her face from him.
Shaking his head, Ranma sighed again in regret for
what might have been. Finishing his lunch and the
forgotten okonomiyaki, he gathered himself and went in
search of Akane.
He found her inside, in their home room, talking
with her friends. Her back was to him, but the tall one
- Yuka? - nodded in his direction and he could see
Akane's back go tense.
"Akane?"
She ignored him, staring out the classroom window.
"Akane?"
Again there was no reply. Tentatively Ranma lifted
a hand to put it on her shoulder, but let it drop again,
feeling a little sad. Feeling very sad, actually. A
small anger began to rise in him at the way she was
treating him.
"Akane, we have to talk."
"There's nothing to talk about! You go enjoy
yourself with your *cute* fianc^�e Ucchan!" She swung
her hand around for a stinging slap, but Ranma caught
her wrist easily.
"That is *exactly* what we have to talk about. You
and me."
The other students in the classroom went quiet,
staring at Ranma in surprise.
"Let me go!"
Ranma dropped Akane's wrist. "Okay, Akane. You
let *me* know when you're..." Leaping ahead, his mind
saw the consequences of what he was about to say.
Frowning, he started again. "Never mind. We'll talk
later." He turned and left the room again. Utter
silence filled the classroom behind him. Then, just as
he was leaving, Yuka's voice sounded out,
unintentionally loud.
"Wow, Akane, you should've seen his face..."
Walking home through the streets of Nerima, Ranma
was glad to see that Akane was at least walking with
him. She hadn't said a word to him all afternoon,
although her expression had been thoughtful rather than
angry earlier... after gym class, he remembered. He
wondered if she had run into Ucchan then.
He noticed that he was walking along the fence. He
frowned a little, mentally kicking himself. 'Not good,
Ranma,' he told himself. He jumped down and took
position next to Akane at a neutral distance.
Ranma waited the whole time of the walk back to the
dojo for Akane to say something, anything, but the only
thing said was with eyes. He watched her closely,
surreptitiously, and he was happy to see that she didn't
seem to be descending into anger.
Still, wanted to clear the air before having to
deal with the insanity that seemed to be a normal part
of life around the Tendou home. He decided to act as
they came to the beginning of the wall that marked the
edge of the Tendou property.
"Ahh... Akane."
She stopped, and he stopped, and the two faced each
other. "What?" she asked
"I want to talk to you about what happened at lunch
today."
Akane nodded. "So?"
Ranma looked around, then scooped up Akane and
bounced quickly up to the dojo's roof. Akane struggled
against his hold briefly but then they were on the roof
and he let her down. She looked a little displeased but
didn't say anything. Ranma settled himself, gathering
his thoughts.
"Well?" asked Akane at last.
"Akane, I'm sorry Ucchan interrupted lunch today.
I certainly didn't invite her."
"You certainly seemed happy enough to see her!"
He shrugged. "Sure I was, she's a friend. But
that's all she is, you know."
"Your eyes didn't say she was a friend! You... I
thought you were going to undress her right there!
Pervert!" She swung her hand for a slap just like she
had at lunchtime, and again Ranma caught her wrist
almost unconsciously.
"I'm sorry about that, Akane, I... that's not
somethin' I normally do." He cleared his throat in
embarrassment and continued. "After you left, I did
somethin' I never really wanted to do... but Ucchan's so
pig-headed that I had to spell it out." Almost
unconsciously he kept Akane's wrist immobilized against
her efforts to free herself, though he noticed that she
stopped struggling as he finished his sentence.
Akane was looking at Ranma with big eyes. "Spell
out what?"
"She was saying she was glad you left and now I
could spend time with her, so I told her I didn't love
her, not that way. She's a number-one friend, a
childhood friend, but...." Ranma swallowed as he
prepared to thrust himself forward into the unknown. He
noticed her about to speak and held up a hand to quell
her. Swallowing again, he ignored the fluttering that
had started up in his stomach and spoke again. He let
go her wrist and composed himself.
"I'm tired of people competin' for me and takin' me
for granted and I've decided that people are never going
to take the hint so I've gotta take things into my own
hands. I know it's impolite to be direct but I think
the time has come 'coz people ain't takin' hints. I
hope like hell I'm not making a real big fool of myself,
Akane, 'coz you've never said anything, really, and
you've said plenty of times you don't want anythin' to
do with me... but I figure that you wouldn't get jealous
if you didn't feel *something* for me. Akane... Man,
this is really hard to do." A deep breath. "I said
what I said to Ukyou because there's only one person I
would consider marrying... and that's you."
Utter silence.
Ranma cranked his head around to look again at
Akane. She was staring at him, unmoving except for her
breathing.
"Akane?"
Akane blinked and looked at Ranma oddly. "Me?"
Ranma nodded seriously. Looking Akane in the eyes,
he said, "Of course you. I... ever since Jusendo, when
I thought ya were dead, it hurt so much, and I've
realised that I can't live without you, Akane... Akane-
chan. I'm so sorry it took me so long to work up the
guts to tell you..."
Distant beeping came from the house.
"Tell me what, Ranma?" asked Akane with her eyes
wide, leaning towards him unconsciously.
"That I... that I..."
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEECLACK!!
Sunshine peeked around the edges of heavy drapes.
A glance at the clock showed a quarter to seven.
Continuing the motion of slapping the clock's alarm off,
the man swung his feet out of the bed and sat, shoulders
hunched over.
"Man, that was *intense*," he muttered.
Shaking his head to clear the last vestiges of the
dream from his head, he glanced to the sidetable at the
book resting there. Standing and turning to step into
the ensuite bathroom, he muttered, "I've been studying
waaay too much if I start *dreaming* in Japanese...."
The cover of the thick, paper-covered book said,
"Japanese Grammar and Communication Strategies".
Afterword: For those who don't get it, 'jijitsu ja nai'
means 'it's not reality'. In other words, this is my
first - and last - SI. ;-)
- dje
--
David Eddy - dje@progress.com
http://www.nabiki.com/deddy