Subject: [FFML] [Xover][Ranma][Key: The Metal Idol] Key to the Heart: Chapter One
From: "Thermopyle" <Thermopyle@tds.net>
Date: 6/13/2002, 4:34 PM
To: "FFML" <ffml@anifics.com>


Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.  Key: The Metal Idol written and
created by Hiroaki Sato, and owned by Viz Video.

Key to the Heart: Chapter One
by Thermopyle (thermopyle@tds.net)
http://thermopyle.anifics.com/index.html

#####

Ranma raced along the fence-tops, slipper-clad feet balancing easily
upon the thin wooden surface as he used his formidable skills to keep
his burden from becoming upset.  The fact that this was the last
delivery for the night was a mixed blessing.  He would no longer have to
put up with the glomps Shampoo gave him whenever he returned to the
Nekohanten, which while less forceful and somewhat hesitant due to his
being in his girl form, were still extremely annoying, especially when
Mousse would try to attack in retaliation for 'trying to steal his
love'.  On the other hand, going home to the Tendous was likely to be
fairly painful, since Akane would be quick to punish him for spending
the whole day 'flirting' with Shampoo, and that he was doing it while
female made the situation even more perverted.  Still, it was better
than the alternative.

Cologne had pretty much blackmailed him into serving as a delivery girl
over the last few days since three people were needed to run the
Nekohanten at full steam; one person to cook, a second person to wait on
the restaurant customers, and a third person to make deliveries.  As the
old ghoul had said, a large portion of their business was in deliveries
and since she had to go and deal with some kinda Amazon matter they
needed to have an extra person to help out.  Otherwise, they would have
to close for the period of time that she would be gone, due to the much-
decreased cost effectiveness the restaurant would suffer with only two
workers.  When Ranma had said he didn't really care if they shut down,
she told him that if he didn't want to play delivery-girl that would be
perfectly fine as well, since it would give Shampoo some free time to
spend with her husband.  He'd quickly agreed, knowing that one beating
by Akane after a day of being hugged by Shampoo would be better than
being malleted numerous times during the day as Akane actually SAW the
hugs.  At least Cologne had insisted that he make the deliveries while
in his girl form, since their customers were used to a pretty girl
arriving at their doorstep with bowls full of ramen and a heaving chest
from trying to catch her breath, which gave him an excuse to use it to
keep Shampoo from being too pushy throughout the day.

Still, he was expecting an attack from Akane and possibly Ryouga, if
he'd shown back up yet, as soon as he got home, which is why he wasn't
going as fast as he normally did on this last house-call.  He'd still
arrive where he was going before the 'thirty minutes or it's free'
deadline had rolled by so he didn't really care if the ramen had cooled
slightly by the time he got there.  Various pedestrians, not that there
were many out now that it was later in the evening, still shook their
heads in disbelief as he hurtled past them on the fence-tops.

After several minutes he arrived at the apartment building he was
looking for and entered behind somebody else, then ran up the two
flights of stairs to the floor the customers were staying on, which was
as high as the cheap sub-complex went.  Room 3-2 was just to the right
when got to the top, and he found that it was slightly ajar when he
knocked sharply on the wooden door.  When nobody answered, he pushed his
way inside, still careful not to spill the boxed ramen, and called out,
"Nekohanten delivery!  Your ramen is here!"

The doorway opened into a hallway that lead to a series of doorways on
either side and when he stepped forward and looked through the first
doorway, which was on the right, he stopped in surprise.  Inside were
two men and a girl, all three staring at him.  One of the men was very
large, not only with a massive build due to lots of time lifting
weights, but also extremely tall, around two feet taller than Ranma's
current four feet and nine inches.  He had shoulder-length blonde hair,
obviously dyed, and had a red baseball cap put on backwards. The other
man, who was a bit thin and only of average height, had a pair of dark
gold-colored sunglasses perched on the end of his nose.  The girl,
however, who was short and only somewhat taller than his own height,
with uncombed grey hair and large, light-purple eyes, looked somewhat
familiar, causing him to step forward and study her curiously, to which
the girl responded with a blank, vaguely unnerving stare.

The thin man, who had noticed the writing on the package Ranma carried,
gestured impatiently down the hallway.  "The money is on the counter.
Leave the food and go," he said.

"Oh... Um, yes," Ranma replied, dismissing the girl from his mind.  He
went to the kitchen, which was the next room down, stuffed the money
into the bag used for deliveries, and set the ramen on the counter.  He
noticed with distaste that the counter had pictures of naked women
cluttered about.  He'd become far too accustomed to having his own
picture taken and stared at by idiots like Kuno and he had trouble
believing how any real woman would be willing to go along with it.  But
they were, apparently.

He shrugged, judging it none of his business, and moved to leave.  He
heard talking as he was about to go by the door to the room those people
were in, and he slowed down, hoping to find out why the girl looked
familiar.

"Key...is leaving," said a quiet, mechanical sounding voice.  The
girl's, he supposed.  Then there were footsteps, two sets by the sound,
and a light slapping noise.  Another voice spoke and Ranma recognized it
as belonging to the thin man.

"You think you can do that, having already come this far?" he asked.

"Key...cannot?" said the girl.

That was enough for Ranma, and he stepped forward into the doorway to
reveal himself.  He noticed that the thin man had a grip on the girl's
wrist, and she was trying, although not very hard, to pull away.  She
wasn't actually struggling, her other hand hung limply, holding a red
duffle bag by her side, and she wasn't trying to kick or hit the thin
man at all; she just kept pulling determinedly on her captive arm.

"Hey, what's goin' on here?"

The thin man turned to look at him and scowled when he saw that Ranma
was still there.  The girl kept pulling on her arm, not turning from her
task.

"It's none of your business," said the man.  "The girl is trying to
renege on a small business agreement.  Now, get out."

Looking at the girl again, Ranma shook his head.  "No way.  Let her go,
before I make you."  He stepped into the room and took up an offensive
stance, not one he normally used but something to indicate his readiness
to fight.

The thin man smirked slightly, then gestured with his free arm through
another doorway, which he and the girl were standing near.  The big man,
who had been absent, stepped back into the room, having to duck slightly
to fit.  "As I said, this is none of your business," the thin man
repeated.  "However," he looked Ranma over, his eyes showing
appreciation at the sight of an ample chest and proportionately long
legs, which the short and tight Chinese dress accentuated nicely, "if
you're so interested, why don't you stay?"

The big man stepped towards Ranma, cracking his knuckles in an
impressive manner, causing his whole upper body to flex in different
areas.  The man's face took on a slightly menacing expression, and he
obviously expected Ranma to retreat through the still open hallway at
his back.

Ranma looked at him doubtfully, which caused the man to hesitate.  "You
don't even practice martial arts, do ya?" he asked.  The man had just
been walking casually towards him, not keeping a wary eye on his
opponent at all or even attempting to hold his body in readiness for a
fight.  If Ranma had been a normal girl that probably wouldn't have been
a problem, but the fighting stance he was in would have caused even a
halfway intelligent fighter to be a little cautious, which the big man
certainly wasn't.

Looking confused, the big man looked over at the thin man, who was
obviously his boss.

"Don't be an idiot," the thin man sneered.  "You're twice her size, she
can't give you any trouble.  Just grab her and drag her into the
photography room."

When the big man stepped towards him with renewed determination, arms
outstretched, Ranma just shook his head in disbelief.  "You asked for
it, moron," he said.

This time the big man didn't hesitate; he lunged forward, trying to grab
Ranma.  He was too slow.  Ranma used his own hands to knock the other's
arms wide, then kicked the man in the chest with carefully considered
force.  To Ranma it was a light blow, but to the other man it was like
being smashed in the torso with a heavy battering ram.  He was thrown
backwards almost ten feet to the wall, which caved in under his heavy,
fast moving weight.  He didn't get back up.

Ranma turned away from the unconscious weight lifter and towards the
other two occupants of the room.  The girl was still trying to free
herself, but the thin man was gaping at Ranma in astonishment.
"How... how did you do that?!" he sputtered, backing away from Ranma
frantically and pulling the girl, who was still struggling to get free,
in between them.

Ranma frowned as he saw the girl being yanked around, noticing that her
arm was beginning to bruise where the man was squeezing it roughly.
"Let her go," he repeated, scowling, and took a step towards the pair.
The man, obviously a coward, reacted to the threat as expected; he let
go.  What Ranma wasn't expecting, however, was that the girl would
happen to try and pull away at that exact moment.  Unbalanced by the
unexpected lack of resistance, she fell backwards and dropped her bag,
spilling the contents across the floor.  Ranma glared at the man, who
recoiled and pressed himself into the corner to which he had retreated.

"Uh, right.  Okay I let her go, now get out of here, alright?" the man
said nervously.

Ranma ignored the jerk and moved towards the girl, reaching out to offer
her help in getting up.  When she accepted Ranma noticed with surprise
that her hands were very small, even more so than his girl form's, and
very soft, quite unlike his hands or those of his various fianc�es, who
all had rough calluses from practicing martial arts.  These hands didn't
look like they were ever used to 'punish' some boy in any way, which was
fairly uncommon.  What a strange girl.

He also saw that the dark bruise which had discolored her forearm just
minutes before was now completely gone.  Maybe she really was a martial
artist?

Easily pulling the girl to her feet, he suddenly found himself looking
up slightly into a pair of pale purple orbs.  Surprised at the complete
lack of expression on her face, as well as the odd, unblinking stare, he
just looked at her silently until she pulled away, freeing her hand.

"Thank you," she said quietly.  Without waiting for a response, she bent
over and began picking her things up and placing them back into her
handbag.

Ranma watched her in confusion, noticing that she wasn't paying the
slightest bit of attention to the man now, who was sitting silently in
the corner and watching the both of them with an odd look in his eyes,
one Ranma didn't like.  Shrugging it off, he bent down and began to
help, grabbing a dress and some socks from where they had fallen, as
well as a picture.  Looking around, he noticed that there was nothing
left that looked like the girl's, and that she was staring at him again,
this time with the open bag in one hand, the other outstretched towards
him.

He began handing her one item at a time, waiting until she'd placed it
into the bag neatly before giving her the next.  When she was putting
the dress away he looked at the picture in his hand, which was the last
thing of hers that he had.  What it showed was a complete surprise.

"You know Akane?" he asked.  The picture showed a younger version of
this girl, as well as one of Akane.  They were both wearing the same
school outfit, blue dresses with long sleeves that went all the way down
to their ankles, and the girl was looking straight at the camera as
Akane hugged her from the side with a big grin on her face.  Akane
looked kinda cute, actually, not at all like her usual self, even though
the picture was a year or two old.  The building behind them in the
picture confirmed that guess, with the words 'Mamioda Junior High'
written on the side.

Tearing his eyes away from the picture, he saw that the girl was still
looking at him, her hand held out and awaiting the picture.  He handed
it to her, then repeated, "You know Akane?"

This time she nodded slightly.  "Akane is Key's friend," she said.
The picture put away, the girl closed her bag and then looked at him
again, arms held in front and hands wrapped around the handle to her
oversized purse.

After a moment of wondering why the girl apparently referred to herself
by name and what she was looking at him for, he said, "Okay," gave one
last glare to the man still huddled in the corner, and turned around to
leave.  He heard the girl follow.

When he walked out of the building he looked over at the girl again, to
find her staring back at him calmly.  "Um... what?"

"Do you know where Akane is?"

"Yeah."  Remembering the clothes packed into her bag, he asked, "Why,
are you here visiting her?"

"Key would like to see Akane again," she said quietly.

Was that a yes?  He guessed so.  "Okay, follow me."  He jumped up onto
the nearby fence and started back towards the Nekohanten, being sure to
keep his pace at a normal walk so she could keep up.  Key followed
without comment, staying right beside him.

After a few minutes of throwing glances at her, expecting her to say
something about his travel methods, he relaxed a little and enjoyed the
silence.  It was different, walking along side this girl.  Normally it
would be Akane on the ground, and even when she was quiet he had always
been able to sense anger or annoyance from her.  For some reason his
fiancee always seemed to think he was showing off when he fence-walked,
rather than just accepting it as balance practice as he'd told her it
was.  This girl, though, seemed to not care where he was walking despite
the occasional odd looks from other pedestrians, which weren't always
directed just at him.

After a minute or two of walking they arrived at an intersection, and
rather than jumping down from the fence and walking across the street
normally, he leapt over the road and onto a fence on the opposite side.
Looking back to see Key's reaction, he continued as normal.  All she did
was look both ways to make sure there weren't any cars coming, and then
sped up slightly to catch up.  When she did catch up he was almost
halfway to the next intersection and she just slowed down and kept
walking at his pace without any complaint.  What an odd girl.

He was glad that he'd come across her, though.  Key was the perfect
distraction for when he got home.  Akane would probably be so happy to
see her friend that she'd completely forget about pounding him for
whatever unspeakable sins she was sure he had been committing in her
absence during the day.  Now if he was really lucky he could get out of
having a fight with Shampoo or Mousse before leaving work.

This continued for almost a half hour before they got close to the
Nekohanten.  Coming to a halt, he looked down at her.  "Stay here,
okay?"

She stopped beside him.  "Key understands," she said.

With that, he dashed forward, letting himself stretch his legs out,
short though they currently were, for this last stretch.  He was barely
able to get his blood to start pumping a bit faster by the time he
arrived at the restaurant, jumping down to the doors and killing his
momentum easily upon landing.  He stepped inside to find that there were
still a few people eating, although most of the chairs were put up and
Mousse was attempting to mop the floor but kept bashing it into a wall,
instead.  Shampoo wasn't in sight, she was probably cleaning the kitchen
up or something, which was a small bit of luck.

Taking the opportunity for granted, he glided soundlessly across the
floor to where Mousse was, pulling the deliver money out of his pocket
as he did so.  "Yo, Mousse!  Catch!"  He tossed the small bag at the
blind boy who, remarkably enough, caught it.

Mousse started to open his mouth, an angry look on his face, but Ranma
just grinned back at him and waved.  "Later!" he said, and slipped back
out the door, in a hurry to evade Shampoo.  As soon as he was outside he
took off, taking to the fence-tops once again.  A minute later he
glanced behind him to make sure Shampoo wasn't following, then fell off
the fence and hit his face on the concrete sidewalk.

"Owww..." He rubbed his nose and wiped the dirt off his forehead.  That
had hurt, he'd been completely surprised.  He hopped to his feet then
looked over at the Key, who had stopped a couple of feet from him.  He
studied her carefully for a minute, noting that her breath was calm and
even despite the speed the two of them had been running.  So was his, of
course, but that was normal.  This girl's speed and healing ability were
definitely not.

Giving her one last look, he jumped back onto the fence and took of
towards the Tendous, pushing himself to go as fast as he could without
growing tired.  He kept an eye on her as he ran, and saw that she kept
up just as he had expected she would.  Shampoo was his only fiancee who
was able to keep up with his speed, and even then she had trouble.
Mousse and Ryouga, plus his father and the two old people could do it as
well, but for her to do it without any apparent difficulty was really
amazing.  He wondered how good a fighter she was.

A few minutes later he arrived at home and dropped down to the sidewalk
easily, letting himself and Key in through the front door soon
afterwards.  "I'm home!" he called out, making a beeline for the
kitchen.

Sure enough, there was a kettle of water on the stove with the eye set
to LOW, just hot enough to trigger the change.  He dumped the contents
on his head and felt himself grow taller, his muscles grow and his body
suddenly feel more powerful, and a few other things he didn't really
like to think about change in certain ways.  It wasn't until he heard a
slight gasp that he realized his error.  He was so used to people
knowing about his curse that he'd forgotten that Key wouldn't have heard
about it.  Still, he was glad he'd gotten some kind of reaction out of
her, that creepy expressionless thing she had going was kinda scary.

When he turned to look at her though, he didn't see what he was
expecting.  She wasn't backing up, horrified, or staring with
fascination, or even pinching herself.  Instead, he found himself
captured by the most soulful brown eyes he'd ever seen.  Key's hair,
previously a light gray, was now a rich brown with dark red highlights.
Her eyes, too, were brown, almost black with the way they seemed to suck
light in.  Her face, though, looked entirely different.  Before, it had
been stiff and pale, completely expressionless as her wide-open eyes
stared forward without any sign of what she felt or was thinking.  Now
her eyes were filled with tears, her mouth turned into a small smile,
her face filled with warmth and happiness.  It was a warmth he knew.

"Key-chan?" he whispered.

"Ranma-chan!" she replied, throwing herself forward and wrapping her
arms around him, holding tight.

Completely stunned, he accepted the hug without the slightest
hesitation, his hands slipping past her waist and pulling her to him.
She was smaller now, the top of her head coming up to his nose, and the
difference in height made things awkward, but he didn't really notice.
It was Key-chan.  He hadn't seen her in years.

She pulled back slightly and he let her go grudgingly, missing the
closeness he'd had with his best friend when they were younger.  She
looked up at him, still smiling.  "Ranma-chan, I've-"

"Pervert!"

Ranma's head whipped around in surprise, not at all expecting that voice
to intrude so suddenly, and he saw the approaching mallet.  He pushed
Key away quickly, and then it hit him in the face, and he was thrown
across the kitchen and into the wall.  The last thing he saw before
everything faded away was Akane's angry face and red, flaring aura.

To be continued.

Notes:  As I think I said in the previous email, I'm going to have to rewrite
this.  I pretty much forced it out when I wasn't sure how I was going to write
the story, and it suffered somewhat because of that.  I definitely need to
tone down Akane's implied/stated behavior, as it isn't going to fit with this
at all.  The reunion between Ranma and Key has to be reworked because it has
rather obvious romantic tones, which really don't belong, either.  I haven't
looked at this in months and months, so odds are good that there is something
else that will need to be redone as well, aside from the generally bad writing
which I could see even on a quick look-through.  Run-on sentances and
too-lengthy paragraphs, things stated unclearly or in ways that simply don't
sound right, etc.  Just bad writing.  ^_^;

Anyway, comments are definitely appreciated, especially thoughts/questions on
the actual content.  :)


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