Kasumi yawned and streched awake, trying to place where the light tapping noise was coming from. She glanced around for a minute or two before realizing that it was coming from her door. More than a little curious, she stood up and made herself presentable before walking to the door and looking through the peephole.
"Tarre?" Kasumi said in surprise before she opened the door.
"Oh! Oneesama," Tarre said. She was holding a small box protectively. "I was worried that I had missed you."
"I was still asleep," Kasumi said.
"It's Tuesday, Oneesama," Tarre said. "Ten o'clock in the morning."
"I had late classes last night," Kasumi explained.
"But why are you here now?" Tarre shuffled for a moment.
"Oneesama," she said. "I have a problem." So saying she produced a framed picture from the box.
"I recognize that picture," Kasumi said, sighing. "Did Nabiki give you a copy."
"No, Oneesama," Tarre said. "Ranma-san did."
"Oh my," Kasumi said.
"When do you want to start training in the sword forms," Akane asked.
"After you get better," Ranma said simply.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Akane asked.
"Oh, come on," Ranma said. "Right now I can still beat you with swords." By which he meant "how can you teach me if you can't humiliate me" but this time Ranma wasn't neglecting speaking words on accident. Nope, this time Ranma would rather receive pain via random heavy objects than admit that Akane was going to be spending any time humiliating him. Well, almost willing, Ranma was running ahead as he spoke.
"RANMA!!!!!!" Akane growled as she gave chase.
The pig-tailed boy was turning back to stick his tongue out at her in mid air when he suddenly stopped and flipped back to the ground landing at nearly the same time as another young man settled into the ground holding a bamboo umbrella.
Ranma backflipped away as the ground around the second young man vaporized into a crater.
"Hello, Ranma," the young man said. "Still good at running away I see."
"Do you know him Ranma?" Akane asked. Ranma shook his head silently, obviously appearing to think hard.
"You can't get out of this that easy," the boy growled.
"Sorry," Ranma said shrugging.
"What?" Ryouga asked. "You mean you really don't remember?"
"You're familiar but," Ranma said, shrugging.
"Answer me this one question," Ryouga said. "Why didn't you meet me at the appointed spot for our man to man fight?!"
"Ah ha!!" Ranma shouted.
"You DO know him then," Akane said, crossing her arms.
"Ryouga Hibiki!" Ranma shouted. "I haven't seen since junior high three years ago!"
"Answer the question!" Ryouga shouted.
"Uh, Ryouga," Ranma said. "I waited for you for three days."
"Three days?" Akane said.
"But when I'd arrived on the fourth day you'd already left for China with your father!" Ryouga shouted.
"The fourth day?" Akane asked.
"Hey I lasted as long as I could!" Ranma protested. "Day three, thud, pass out, next thing I know I'm in the middle of the Sea of Japan. I still think Pop put something in my food."
"He started swimming while you were still asleep?!" Akane shouted. "You could have drowned!"
"Ranma can't drown," Ryouga said.
"What?" Akane asked. "You can't drown?" She only knew one other person that fit could also claim it was impossible for them to drown.
"Yeah," Ranma said, shrugging as if it wasn't important. "I don't know why."
"Anyway!" Ryouga shouted. "Enough of these excuses! Thanks to you Ranma Saotome! I've seen hell! Now I'm here to destroy your happiness!"
"My happiness?" Ranma said. He turned to Akane. "Am I happy?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Enough talking time to fight!" Ryouga shouted. Ryouga tossed his umbrella forward and it soared past Ranma and Akane, who both casually dodged it as if it weren't even a consideration. The crowd behind them, however, about the gates of the high school produced many assorted cries of alarm including one particularly familiar shriek as the umbrella passed over the wall on it's return path.
There was a loud crack and the umbrella wobbled back to Ryouga with part of it's circle splintered.
"What in the world?" Ryouga asked as he gripped his umbrella and tried to put the bamboo back in one piece.
"Oh, look," someone said looking past the wall into the sidewalk next to the street. "Isn't that Akane's younger sister?" Akane and Ranma froze for half a moment before rushing to the gate and looking over to see Tarre sprawled across the ground with a small box held protectively in her hands.
"Tarre!" Akane shouted, panicked. She rushed to her sister's side to ascertain that the girl was still alive but hesitated to check her further.
"I got her," Ranma said insistantly, gently probing her skull around the cut on her head and breathing a sigh of relief to find that her skull was not cracked. "She should be fine. Let's get her to that doc to be sure."
"Where is that jerk!" Akane demanded, looking around for Ryouga.
"Probably got lost again," Ranma said.
"When I get my hands on him!" Akane growled.
"Can you get her feet?" Ranma asked quickly.
"You need my help to carry her?" Akane asked, surprised. She knew Tarre was heavier than the slim girl looked, but she couldn't be that heavy. Kasumi carried her fine.
"I want to carry flat, y' know?" Ranma said. "Ain't you supposed to do that?"
"Tarre's the first aid expert, not me!" Akane said.
"Well she's unconscious," Ranma said. "So get her feet."
"When I get my hands on that jerk!" Akane growled. "Endangering innocent bystanders that way!"
"RANMA!!!" Ryouga shouted angrily. "How dare you run away again! I won't fall for such a cheap trick next time." He was blissfully unaware of the results of his carelessness.
"She's going to be fine," Dr. Tofu said. "Just a small bump on the head. What happened anyway."
"SOME people don't know how to keep innocent bystanders out of their affairs," Akane said, glaring at Ranma.
"Hey! It was Ryouga," Ranma said. "I wasn't even fighting."
"He was after you," Akane retorted.
"Akane," Dr. Tofu said. "Do you control Kuno's actions?"
"No," Akane said. "Of course not!"
"Then how can you expect Ranma to control his enemies' actions?" Dr. Tofu asked. Akane opened her mouth and then acquired a perplexed look before deflating and considering the question.
"Fine," Akane said. "But I have first rights to this jerk!" Ranma twitched.
"In that case," Ranma said. "We begin your training when we get home."
"Huh?" Akane said. "Why?"
"Because you're going to need it," Ranma said. Tarre's voice speaking a harsh, guttural string of scared gibberish drifted back from the other room.
"She must be waking up," Dr. Tofu said, going back into the examination room. Akane and Ranma followed her, entering the room in time to see Tarre sit up straight upright.
"What? Where?" Tarre asked as she looked around.
"Onechan, Dr Tofu, what happened?"
"Oh, thank the kami," Akane said in relief. "One of Ranma's enemies accidentally hit you, but I'm going to teach him to mess with you."
"You have concussion. Same rules as last time," Dr. Tofu said. "Take it easy today, let someone else do the chores for you."
"I understand," Tarre said.
"Last time?" Ranma repeated to himself quietly.
"Don't worry," Akane said. "I'll fix dinner tonight!"
Tarre was still dark grey, but it was a dark grey that apparently still seemed very much wanted to be white, or at the very least medium gray.
"Really, Saotome," Soun said. "You should come with us to go out to eat."
"But your daughter is going to cook for us, and Ranma wants to get started on her training today," Genma said. Then he leaned in whispering. "Besides this is the perfect chance to get some romance in between the two children."
"No, Saotome," Soun said. "You don't understand, my daughter..."
"Oh, dad," Akane said. "I thought you had to go to a city council meeting. This is great! You'll be able to have dinner after all. Nabiki already left for a study group, and Tarre said she was feeling like she couldn't eat so..."
"Oh, yes!" Soun declared. "The council meeting! I must leave!" And with that he was gone, leaving the Saotomes to their fate.
"Ranma-san," Tarre said quietly. "About Oneechan's cooking." She looked about cautiously.
"What about it?" Ranma asked.
"It is quite," Tarre searched for words.
"Undescribeable without the selection of swear words available in the goblin language."
"That means its bad right?" Ranma asked.
"Very bad," Tarre said.
"I guess that's my punishment for letting Ryouga endanger innocents then," Ranma said. He studiously ignored the fact that the picture he'd had framed for her was now back on the wall.
"Ranma-san," she said. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't worry," Ranma said haphazardly. "I once went two months living on nothing but water, horseradish and goulash. I can eat anything."
"You should have gone out with us, Saotome," Kasumi said to the seemingly insensate Ranma and Genma. She didn't make it clear wheteer she was talking to a specific Saotome or not.
"The path of a true martial artist is frought with peril," Soun said sagely.
"He ate the whole thing," Tarre said in an awed tone.
"Honestly," Akane said, growling. "All that over a little piece of chicken. Maybe I should have cooked it longer."
"Where's his father?" Nabiki asked.
"He said something about crawling off someplace to die," Akane said irritably. "Really, he's supposed to be training me."
"Ranma," Nabiki said as she walked in. "You've got some mail. From somebody named..." the envelope vanished from her hand.
"Ryouga," Akane growled angrily, tearing open the envelope and reading the letter.
"Akane," Nabiki said. "That's Ranma's."
"Ranma!" Akane demanded. "This is a challenge for yesterday!!! I missed him!!!"
"No you haven't," Ranma said haphazardly. "It'll be at least two weeks before gets here, plenty of time to do some training."
"Why are you giving me that evil look?" Akane asked, her anger deflating for a moment.
"The 'leftover' bento," Ranma said.
"Oh come on," Akane said. "It wasn't THAT bad."
"Well, what I have in mind won't be THAT bad," Ranma said, smiling.
"Ranma-san," Tarre said. "Why does this Ryouga person want to kill you?"
"I don't know," Ranma said shrugging. "All I can think of is the bread thing."
"Bread thing?" Tarre asked.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "From our old school." Ranma explained the bread fued to the assorted girls, receiving a collection of assorted looks.
"Sounds like the straws the broke the camel's back," Akane said dryly.
"Still, I don't think this is about bread," Ranma said. "He actually sounds serious this time."
"This time?" Tarre repeated.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "He even signed the challenge letter."
"Prepare to die, Your Friend, Ryouga Hibiki," Nabiki read aloud dryly. "PS. If you see my parents or sister say 'hello' for me."
"See?" Ranma said. "He's being formal and junk."
"Well," Akane said. "Whatever it is, I have first crack at him."
"If you want," Ranma said. "Now, that training." He smiled evily.
"What's first?" Akane asked.
"Falls," Ranma said.
"Saotome, what is that sound?" Soun asked.
"Ranma is teaching Akane how to fall," Genma said.
"Oh," Soun said. "I see."
They both went back to their shogi game, listening to the sound of a Akane demanding that Ranma let her stand all the way up before pushing her down.
Part 7 | Anime@Fan.Fic