I was actually going to wait a few more weeks before sending these two
chapters out. However, with the list going down in a coupld of days I
want to get them out beforehand.
I hope you enjoy. C&C would be appreciated but flames would be laughed
at and promptly thrown away.
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I make no
claims to her characters, I just wish to borrow them for a while.
Previous chapters are archived at
http://www.geocities.com/LightHawk19/THOTW.html
********************************************************************
Chapter 7
Icy Fury
"Hey Akane!" yelled Sayuri as Akane was leaving the school grounds.
"Hi guys. What's up?" said Akane as she waited for her friend to come
over.
"Yuka and I along with some other girls are going ice skating. We
wanted to know if you could join us. Wanna go?"
Akane was hesitant, remembering what happened the last time she went
ice skating. After a few moments of thought, and her friend's silent
pleading, she gave in. "Sure, I'll go. Let's hope there's no trouble
this time." The girls, who had walked over as well, all nodded at
that. Thus with their destination in mind, they headed off.
Ranma, seeing Akane walk off with her friends, was curious and jumped
over to the group. "Yo Akane! Where are you goin'?"
"To the ice rink," replied Akane with a smile. "Wanna come?"
Ranma sweated a little. He was not a good skater and he knew it. He
declined, rather politely at that, and with a wave he roof hopped over
to the restaurant district.
"He still doesn't know how to skate, does he, Akane?" giggled Sayuri
as they watched him bound away. Akane giggled too as she shook her head
no. They were almost at the skating rink when one of Yuka's friends
pointed out a young man calling and waving to Akane. Akane quickly
spotted Jay, she had to note the young man's shirt color, and waved
back.
"Who's your friend there, Akane? One of Ranma's rivals for your
affections?" Yuka asked.
Akane laughed and shook her head. "Oh no. It's nothing like that at
all. He just happens to be training at the dojo with my dad."
"Oh," Yuka said. "Well, why don't you call him over and see if he
wants to join us." The others gave an enthusiastic "Yeah" and managed
to convince her to invite him.
"Hey Akane. Is there something you need?" Jay asked after she walked
over to him, wondering if there was something wrong.
"No. The girls just wanted to know if you would like to go ice skating
with us. That is if you know how to skate."
Jay thought it over for a bit. He did not like the idea of being
surrounded by high school girls, but they were Akane's friends and he
did not want to be rude. Besides, it had been a while since he had been
ice skating. "Sure, I guess. I can skate forwards and stop without
falling. If you can count that skating, that is."
The girls immediately started small talk with Jay once he reached the
group. He was polite but he declined to talk to much about himself.
"I'm sorry, girls, there's just not much that I could tell about
myself," he told them. They were disappointed but understood none the
less.
Akane, however, felt there was a whole lot for Jay to tell. Over the
past few weeks she had begun to feel that Jay was hiding himself from
the world, just like Ranma had said. The only things he readily talked
about were martial arts and the events that happened recently.
It was strange. His twin form, Zack, was as open a person as you could
find. He talked about everything. Sometimes you could not get him to
shut up. Whenever she tried to talk to him about Jay, however, he
clammed up too. He was apologetic when he told her that yes things had
happened but they were in the past and they were doors best left
unopened.
The ice was being resurfaced when they reached the ice rink. Akane,
with two cups of hot tea in hand, walked over to Jay, who was watching
the machine go over the ice. "Thought you might want a cup of tea while
you waited." Jay gave his thanks and accepted the cup.
"Where are your friends?" he asked.
"Oh, they went to get a bowl of ramen before they started skating.
Warms you up, you know. I'm sorry if they made you uncomfortable. They
just get excited when a new martial artist comes to town."
Jay smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's no big deal."
Akane nodded and sipped her tea. Jay was perhaps the most tolerant
person she knew. She idly wondered if there was anything that upset
him.
Sayuri and the girls walked over to where the two were sitting. "I see
the machine is done, let's go." The group excitedly moved on to the ice
to begin skating.
Akane went off with her friends to chat while Jay skated slowly behind
them. That was just fine with him for the time being. He used the
opportunity to relax in the cold and relatively peaceful atmosphere. It
had been a while since he had gone ice skating but his balance came back
quickly and he was soon moving along at a good clip.
"He certainly seems happy, Akane," remarked Yuka as he passed them.
"It's a shame he doesn't like to talk. Is it just because he doesn't
know us or something?"
Akane shook her head. "No, he's always been like that. At least as
long as I have known him. But then that's only been about three weeks.
Come on girls let's have some fun."
With that, they started doing some high quality skating on the open
rink. Ice skating was in fact one of the few things that Akane was
truly graceful at. Though few knew it, it was one of the things that
her mother taught her when she was little and she kept it up over the
years. Today she did aerial spins and several other movements as her
friends tried to copy her. None of her movements were very fancy but it
didn't matter to her and her friends, they just had fun.
A short while later, a tired Akane found Jay leaning against the wall
watching her and the girls. "Not bad, Akane. I was impressed with your
stuff out there. Never could get myself to try it," he said after she
skated over. "Your friends weren't too bad, either."
"Thanks," they all said, startling Jay, who did not hear them skate
over behind him. Now they were looking at him try peel his face off the
ice. "Hey, we thought you were a martial artist, couldn't you have like
heard us coming or something," said one of the girls.
"Hey, I can't detect everything, you know. Do you expect me to be like
Jackie Chan?" replied a smiling Jay. "No, really, I just wasn't paying
attention. If I wanted to I could have but it's a lot of work to keep
my senses sharp all the time."
They all nodded in understanding but still giggled at the red mark on
his face all the same. They were about to skate off when the sound of
"Oh Pierre!" stopped them in their tracks. Suddenly, Jay felt his hair
fall to its natural position. His dragon clip, which kept his hair in a
ponytail, was gone.
The events that happened next were something Akane would never forget
for as long as she lived. First Jay looked down at his feet to check if
his clip had merely fallen, to no avail. Next he looked over to a cute
teenage girl with long brown hair holding his clip. Akane could swear
she saw his eyes darken to an almost black color. A second look showed
that they were their normal green.
"A...Akane, would you kindly get that back for me," he said, obviously
trying to maintain his composure. "That hair clip means a lot to me, so
could you please get that for me before I have to hurt that girl."
Akane looked at him with wide eyes. She did not think the clip was
work getting violent over but she quickly skated over to Azusa to try
and get the clip back. "Excuse me, Azusa. But that clip you have
belongs to my friend over there so would you give it back, please."
"NO!" she screamed back. "It's Azusa's little Pierre and you can't
have it." No sooner had she said that than it was plucked from her
grasp by a handsome young man.
"Is this yours miss? Oh, Akane, how nice to see you again." Mikado
said, giving her one of his best smiles.
"Actually, Mikado, it belongs to my friend over there," she said
disgustedly to him as she pointed over to Jay. "Now if you would kindly
give that back to me, I can return it to him."
Mikado would have none of that, however. He simply tossed it back to
Azusa, who was about to pound him flat with Charlemagne, aka a large
mallet. "How about we forget him and just worry about us." This was
said as he was about to give Akane one of his patented kisses.
Right when Akane was about to send him through the roof, Mikado was
grabbed by the neck and held up face to face with a furious Jay, who was
considerably taller. Mikado was held several inches over the ice and
was beginning to turn blue, due to the choke hold. "Listen mister.
That dragon clip belongs to me and I greatly resent you taking it from
that girl only to give it back after Akane said who it belongs to. Now,
you will either get it back for me or you will be in serious pain after
I am done with you." Jay's eyes were really dark as he was saying
this. Nothing Mikado could do would get Jay to release his grip until
he remembered the only pressure point he knew.
Mikado hit the "Jealous boyfriend release grip no matter how strong"
pressure point. It had never ceased to amaze him how many times he had
to use that on men. All he did was bestow a great honor on the women he
kissed. The pressure point worked this time as it had all the others
and Mikado was able to break free. But that did not mean he was home
free, not by a long shot. He merely made Jay more angry as he was being
chased around the rink.
Mikado had few tricks to use. The Dance of Death required time for him
to start the spin and he did not have the time he needed to do so. All
he could do was use all of the speed and agility he had to keep from
getting hit by one of Jay's punches and hope to wear Jay down.
Akane watched nervously as Jay tried to take Mikado apart. While all
of his punches missed, they never missed by much and when he hit the
guard rail, it shattered from the blow. Akane skated over to a
quivering Azusa who was muttering "Miki" every once in a while and tried
to get the dragon clip back.
"Azusa, you need to give it back or your partner is gonna be really
hurt."
"NO! It's Azusa's little Pierre! So you have to stop that crazy man
yourself." Azusa was clutching the clip for dear life as she watched
the battle rage.
Mikado had managed to get far enough away from Jay that he could use
some hit and run tactics to slow him down. While Jay was the better
martial artist, Mikado was by far a better skater. He used his skating
abilities to his advantage. Jay was continuously hit on the blind side
and was never able to recover fast enough to counter attack before
Mikado skated out of reach. It did not matter though, Jay hardly felt
the blows hit and his enemy was showing signs of fatigue.
"Who is this guy? Why won't he go down?" said a slightly winded
Mikado to himself. "Maybe I should have given it back after all." The
fight raged on.
Akane was beginning to despair of thinking of a way to calm down her
friend. Calling his name did not work, her shouts fell on deaf ears.
She would not even think of getting in the middle of that fight because
she knew Jay was almost beyond reason. Suddenly, she noticed a familiar
person who might be able to help.
"Zack, over here!" she called over to Jay's brother who was looking
around the rink.
"Akane! There you are!" Zack yelled as he ran over. "Ranma said you
were here. Do you know...." He trailed off when he saw his brother try
to take a young man apart.
"Can you calm him down Zack? I don't know how," pleaded Akane. "I've
never seen him like this."
"Akane! Tell me exactly what happened! I need to know." It took a
few minutes for Akane to tell him what happened but Zack nodded
knowingly when she was finished. "That will do it, sure enough. That
hair clip means a lot to Jay and he doesn't want anything to happen to
it. It's the same way with my phoenix clip. Let me talk to the girl."
The both went over to Azusa with Zack talking to her this time. Zack
had no more luck than Akane did.
"She's a real kleptomaniac, Zack. There aren't many things that will
get her to let something go." Zack did not bother to reply. Instead,
he walked over to the game room. "Where are you going?"
A few moments later Akane heard a loud smashing sound and saw Zack
calmly walking back over to where she and Azusa were standing. "Now
little girl. I know you like your little Pierre but how about a trade.
I'll give you Michael if you give me Pierre." Zack pulled out a small
stuffed cow from behind his back.
Azusa's eyes lit up. "Oh it's so cute! Please give me Azusa's little
Michael."
"Oh no. You have to give me Pierre first and then you can have
Michael. Is it a deal?"
Azusa looked at the cow and at the clip for a few moments. In the end
she had to choose the cow because it could be squeezed better than the
clip could.
"How did you think to do that?" an incredulous Akane asked.
"I guess I'm used to dealing with children," he said with a smile.
"But what was that smashing noise I heard before you came out?"
"Oh that. I had to get the cow from one of those games where you have
to pick it up with a claw. I didn't want to spend the money or the time
it would have to taken to get it. But let's worry about that later, we
need to get my brother calmed down before he really hurts someone."
The fight was not going well for Mikado at all. He was tired and
slowing down while Jay was still going at full speed. Several punches
had already grazed him but nothing serious, yet. Suddenly he was pushed
hard into the wall though Jay was still in front of him.
Zack had rushed into the fight and pushed Mikado as hard as he could
into the wall, knocking him unconscious. Jay, still in his berserker,
nearly took off his brother's head but the punch was deftly blocked and
countered. It took a blink of an eye but Zack put his brother on his
butt and managed to knock him back to his senses.
"<Oh my God. What just happened, Zack,>" said Jay, holding his head.
"<I remember that girl taking my clip but not much after that. Do you
think it's comin' back to me?>"
"<It's ok, bro. I don't think it's comin' back. You're ok now.
Besides, I have your clip back. You don't need to worry about it
anymore. Come on, let's go.>"
"Are you all right, Jay," asked a worried Akane. "I've never seen
anyone that mad before."
"I'm fine. It's just that this clip has a lot of sentimental value to
me. Someone very dear to me who I will never see again gave it to me
and I don't want to lose it. I'm just concerned that I lost my temper
like I did, that's never happened to me before." One of Yuka's friends,
all of whom had watched the fight from the safety of the dining area,
brought over a cup of tea to help calm him down.
"I guess we should leave now. I don't think the rink is going to be
used for a while. At least until it gets cleaned up," said Zack as he
gathered everyone to leave the arena.
The walk back to the neighborhood was a quiet one. No one really had
anything to say. Especially Jay, who was horribly upset with himself.
One by one the girls reached their homes and with a word of good bye
they left the group. Soon after it was only Jay, Zack, and Akane
walking near Furinkan High.
"Are any of you guys hungry?" asked Jay suddenly, much to the surprise
of his companions. "What? I just asked if any of you wanted to get
something to eat."
"You were moping about all the way here, what's with the sudden
change?" said his brother, all the while looking at him like he had
grown a second head.
"Well, I figured the guy had it coming and I really couldn't help it at
the time. I am just going to take pains to not let it happen towards
people I care about. Besides, I'm starved." It seemed that Jay was
back to his normal spirits.
Akane and Zack both shook their heads. Akane was waiting for dinner
that night and Zack had eaten before he went off to find Akane, which
reminded Zack of something. "Oh yeah, I needed to ask Akane a quick
question about this week's class. That's why I went to go find her.
You go on and get something to eat, I'll catch you back at the
apartment."
Jay sent a quick wave as he went off to find something to eat. After
arguing with himself over what he wanted he decided a bowl of good ramen
would be just what he needed to get back into good spirits. Besides, he
had never been to the Nekohanten which was famous in the district.
"Ah, welcome to Nekohanten. How Shampoo help you today?" said the
blue haired waitress as Jay walked in. She sat him at one of the booths
that lined the side wall and gave him a menu.
"{You Chinese, yes?}" asked Jay in simple Chinese.
"{You can speak Chinese? Not many people here can speak any.}"
Shampoo was ecstatic, she hardly ever got to speak her native tongue
anymore. Her great grandmother always made her speak in Japanese for
practice.
"{I speak some. I no very good but grandmother made me talk when I
train. I like to p..practice when can. I have wanton soup.}" The last
was said after he handed back the menu to Shampoo.
Over the course of their brief conversation Shampoo never noticed the
dialect that Jay spoke with, albeit with a heavy accent. She was just
glad she could speak her language for a bit. Cologne, on the other
hand, did notice and her eyes narrowed at the young man sitting at the
booth.
"One wanton soup for customer, great grandmother," said Shampoo as she
brought over his order. Cologne, who had heard the order, was already
preparing his meal.
"Did you notice anything strange about that young man, Shampoo."
She thought about that for a second but came to no conclusion. "No
great grandmother, he just speak Chinese. That all." Cologne let it go
at that.
"Here's his order, child. Go take it to him."
"{Thank you, miss.}" Jay said right before he began eating his soup
like there was no tomorrow.
"You welcome," replied Shampoo in Japanese as she went about taking
care of the other customers.
Jay finished quickly. After he payed his bill and left, Cologne left
the kitchen to Mousse and hopped out after him on her stick. She
reached him a block later. "{How is it you speak our language, sonny
boy?}
"What? {I learn it.}" replied a confused and startled Jay.
"{This dialect you are speaking is not one that is taught in the
outside world.}"
"{My grandmother teach.}" said Jay slowly after he figured out what she
said. "{I no very good. Is wrong?}"
"{Listen, sonny boy. The Chinese you speak is only spoken in the
Jusenkyo valley in China. More specifically it is spoken by the
Amazons. No one else in China speaks it.}"
"{All I know is grandmother is of Jusen tribe, near Jusenkyo.}"
Cologne's eyes widened at that.
"{What is your family's name? Tell me now!}" she ordered.
"Ummm {All I know is grandmother name Shang Mao.}"
"{Is she related to a Shang Li?}" Jay nodded his head and said that
that was the name of his great grandmother, or so he thought. Cologne
features turned to stone after that and switched back to Japanese. "You
are no longer welcome at the Nekohanten. If you come there again, you
will die. Your great grandmother is responsible for the death of one of
my daughters and I swore a blood feud on your family that day. I will
let you live for now but do not let me see you at the Nekohanten
again." Thus she bounded off back to her restaurant.
Jay walked back home very confused and was determined to find out what
was going on. When Cologne got back she gave both Shampoo and Mousse an
order that he was no longer welcome there and if he caused any trouble
they were to fight him.
"<Hey bro. Enjoy your meal?>" asked Zack when Jay returned and then
noticed his expression. "<Anything the matter?>"
Jay told him what happened after he ate at the Nekohanten and his
encounter with the old woman. He promptly went to the phone to call his
grandmother in Colorado to find out what was going on.
Meanwhile, at the Tendo Dojo, Akane had just finished telling her story
about what happened at the ice rink. Ranma did not seem too upset
though. "It's no big deal, Akane. The jerk had it comin'. I would'a
done the same thing."
"You don't understand, Ranma. I can understand you getting mad about
something like that but this is Jay. I have never seen him get upset
about anything. It was like he was a whole different person."
"Now now, Akane." said her father, trying to prevent a possible
argument. "Ranma is right. Jay had a right to get upset over something
like that but you are also correct. It isn't like Jay to do something
like that. Let's just let bygones be bygones and let this pass, shall
we?"
The discussion was actually closed with the call of "dinner's ready"
from Kasumi and everyone rushed to get their share of Kasumi's oden.
Author's notes:
I hope you liked it. Ryoga returns in the next chapter and has a
small disagreement with Jay. Also, an old friend returns.
--
Tomorrow sees undone what happens not today. Indecision brings delays.
Days lost lamenting lost days. -Ryoga Hibiki
Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake! -Unknown
Computer programmers don't byte...they nybble a bit. - Unknown
Email me at LightHawk@nc.rr.com
IM me at LiteHawk99
or
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