It was one of those lectures meant to inspire fear in the heart of youth...
...By threatening to tell the little hoodlum’s parents! And that was a very real threat.
Yes, it was a tactic her aunt Anna knew how to use QUITE well.
“Honestly, Kassiopeia Feeple,” Ichikoo Rivalsan-Ichinohei told her niece as she shook the ‘finger of admonishment’, (a classic Kobojutsu technique) at the half-Salusian currently in human form. “I swear, when your parents find out, they’ll be so mortified.”
The half-Salusian girl remained unmoving with her head bowed as she saw on her bed.
“Yes, they will be mortified,” Ichikoo said, seeing Kassy agree with her. “Honestly Kassy, you’ve pulled some major pranks before, but this is quite a whopper. And so mean-spirited too! It’s so unlike you!”
Kassy’s head dropped even more at that.
“Yes, you should feel ashamed!” Ichikoo said. “This took the cake, Kassy. Your parents sent you here so you could calm down and be a good girl, not get worse!”
The young woman’s body shook slightly and tilted to the side...
...Until it hit the bed in a curled position.
And after Ichikoo looked cautiously at the girl, she heard... Snoring!? Ichikoo’s eye twitched for a bit. “Oh... Kay...”
Kassy’ exhaustion had gotten the better of her after an entire afternoon training with Ranma. Even if she should’ve been scared of what auntie Ichikoo could do or tell her parents, she couldn’t fight off sleep any longer.
Ichikoo frowned. Now she KNEW something was going on. Hmm? Could it be that perhaps that something around there was being a worse influence on Kassy? Maybe that Ranma kid...
(------)
Outside Ranma sneezed as he was talking to Bento. While he did the same training Kassy did, for him it was now basic calisthenics. He was currently training his katas.
“God bless,” Bento said, sitting on the back porch while he was polishing his family katana with a clean cloth.
“Thanks,” Ranma answered as he launched into a series of kicks. He had a bad feeling about this. Whenever he sneezed either someone was planning to marry him...
...Or was planning to kill him...
...Or worse yet, both!
While the pigtailed martial artist went through the kata, Bento watched Ranma with an appreciative eye. “Chinese Kempo mixed with Korean Tae Kwon Do? Hmm... Good combination to get air-time. I should’ve thought of that.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just s little something I picked up on my travels,” Ranma said with as much modesty as he could muster. To Bento, it was obvious Ranma was an arrogant ass,
Rolling his eyes, Bento muttered, “Wow. And I thought uncle Lendo could be bad.”
The pigtailed martial artist continued his fast-paced kata, all the time wondering what other kinds of training he could put Kassy through to have her ready. Two weeks was a very short period of time. That and how to stop her from getting suspicious about the batteries kept running out. “Maybe if we went to a busier district of Tokyo and played dodge in the highway...” He mumbled to himself. That would be a little dangerous, especially wearing skates, but they did have little time to prepare.
Bento noticed the concentration in the pigtailed fighter’s eyes, and wondered what that mumblings were about. His curiosity getting the better of him, he asked, “What are you thinking about?”
Ranma continued on without noticing the question. “Probably better if she didn’t have to deal with serious injury. Maybe skating uphill a couple dozen miles for endurance and then going down at high speeds without brakes for control...” The problem with that idea was that there weren’t roads that high around here.
After a moment, Bento waved a hand and called out, “Hey?”
That finally caught Ranma’s attention and he stopped in the middle of a move. “Huh?” He was standing on one hand doing the splits for a very powerful kick with his right arm folded in a blocking motion. “What’s up?”
“You thinking of ways to train Kassy?” Bento asked Ranma as he turned his head to try and look to Ranma’s eye-level. I was kind of an obvious guess. He had apparently trained the girl earlier today.
Ranma nodded. “Yeah. She has this rematch in two weeks and needs to improve.”
Bento’s eyes shone with purpose at those words. “Rematch? Was Feeple-san challenged to a match of Ninjitsu?”
“Martial Arts Street Hockey.” Ranma replied and scratched the back of his head, still in the inverted splits position.
Bento blinked his eyes once...
Twice...
Thrice...
“Martial Arts Street Hockey!?” The ninja-in-training shouted.
“Uh... Yeah.” Ranma answered and flipped over to get a standing position. “Something wrong with it?”
Bento stood seriously. “Kassy must prevail! The history of Martial Arts Street Hockey is a treacherous one indeed... One that some of the greatest ninjas have had to face. The Great Red Ninja. The Golden Ninja! The Lotus Dragon! The Tutti-Frutti Ninja. And the greatest of them all, Daishi!”
Ranma sweat-dropped heavily. That sounded almost as stupid as something Genma would say. “... Right...”
The sound of feet storming down the stairs could be heard from outside the house. Bento turned his head to the source. “What the heck’s going on?”
Ranma turned very slowly with a sense of impending doom filling him. He did sneeze not even five minutes ago.
The paper door to the back porch slid open slowly, a menacing figure standing there. The older Japanese woman Ichikoo, her eyes glowing with a pale blue light.
Ranma stared at the woman and shuddered. Why was it that always EVERYONE blamed him!?
Ichikoo looked directly at Ranma, ignoring her student who was bowing and scraping on the floor. “Ranma Saotome? May I please have a few words with you?" She said so icily, Ranma had to wonder if she knew the ‘Soul of Ice’ technique.
“I am so screwed,” Ranma thought to himself and nodded. Better to get things over with.
Ichikoo nodded and looked over at Bento. “You! Jog around the property until I tell you to stop.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Bento shrieked as he ran off like a bullet.
Ranma shook his head at the pathetic display and looked at Ichikoo waiting for his doom. Not that he was afraid of the woman, of course not, but he knew he was about to be blamed form something.
“Ranma,” Ichikoo spoke softly, yet threateningly; a hint of danger in her icy voice. “I need to know one thing right now. What has been up between you and my niece Kassiopeia?”
Ranma blinked his eyes a couple of times, not really understanding the question. “Been up?”
“You know,” Ichikoo said. “What have you and Kassy been doing together since she’s been living here?”
Ranma laughed nervously. There was no way he was telling this woman he’d seen Kassy in the buff more than once. “Just hanging around. I’m training her right now.”
“Training?” Ichikoo asked. “Training her in what? Pranks?” The woman asked accusingly.
“Huh?” Ranma asked intelligently. “We’re training in martial arts. What else?” He asked as if there was nothing else in the world.
“Just martial arts?” Ichikoo asked disbelievingly, eyeing whom she deemed to be a deviant.
“Uh... Yeah.” Ranma chuckled nervously, his entire demeanor screaming ‘guilty’.
Placing her hands on her hips, Ichikoo said, “Forgive me if I don’t believe you. But I get the feeling you’ve done more with Kassy than just train for martial arts.”
“... We also ate?” Ranma offered in a small voice.
Narrowing her eyes as she stared hard at the boy, Ichikoo frowned. “Ate what?”
“Noodles!” Ranma said a little hastily. What was the problem with this woman!?
Ichikoo nodded. “Noodles? So you went on a date?” She asked, staring Ranma down.
Ranma shook his head frantically. “It wasn’t a date! She was buying her uniform!”
Ichikoo just stared. “...And did you go with her to buy her uniform?”
Ranma nodded. “She needed someone to show her around.”
“Show her around?” Ichikoo said, totally taking those words out of pretext.
“She’s new to Nerima.” Ranma said and scratched the back of his head. “It was a good thing they had bigger sizes. The first one was too small.”
“And how would you know it was too small?” Ichikoo said, leaning forward a little.
“It was too tight on her.” Ranma replied with obliviousness to the impending doom.
“So you saw her in the dressing room?” Ichikoo asked, eyes flashing with a dangerous light.
Ranma’s eyes widened at the implication. “I didn’t see nothing!”
“Then how would you know it was too tight if you saw nothing?” Ichikoo countered hotly.
“I did see the uniform on her, but I didn’t see nothing!” Ranma replied even if it made no sense.
“So you saw the uniform and then NOTHING on her!?” Ichikoo growled.
“That’s not what I said!” Ranma yelled in frustration. “She wanted the saleslady to see her!”
Ichikoo blinked her eyes. “OH! So she stepped OUT of the dressing room?” The woman asked, calming down.
Ranma nodded and decided not to open his mouth to chew his feet.
Ichikoo relaxed, but then asked, “Why didn’t you say that from the get go?”
The pigtailed boy sighed. “I tried.”
Ichikoo blushed. “Sorry. I still have a little bit of a temper,” She apologized. “Been with me since youth.”
Ranma just stepped away from the woman. He had just started his Akane-free vacation and didn’t need another tomboy bashing his skull in.
Ichikoo chuckled at Ranma’s reaction. “It’s okay. I won’t bash you over the head with a mallet,” She said, seemingly knowing that was what he was thinking.
“You sure?” Ranma asked hesitantly.
“Positive,” Ichikoo said.
The pigtailed martial artist relaxed visibly. “Okay.”
Ichikoo smirked as she added, “Just make sure you don’t try to seduce my niece is all.” She said. “Or you will pay,” She said teasingly.
Ranma nodded and froze. Crap. He hadn’t attempted anything himself but... How about all those times Kassy somehow managed to get him in all those compromising situations? He really wanted more out of his friendship with Kassy as well.
“Good that you know,” Ichikoo said, seeing the stunned look on Ranma’s face.
Ranma didn’t say anything. He felt like crying right now.
Ichikoo smiled and nodded her head as she saw the look on his face. He got the message.
Genma’s son then smirked and decided to take this as he did with everything else. A challenge.
What the hell? What was one more enemy to the long list?
Ichikoo frowned, noticing the grin. “And I’ll be checking up on Kassy EVERY WEEK just to make sure.” She knew Asrial didn’t want her meddling in Kassy’s time here, but she couldn’t allow this... PERVERT to manhandle the poor, naïve impressionable teen.
“That’s cool,” Ranma said. More of a challenge. Normally he wouldn’t go after Kassy under any circumstances. What Ichikoo didn’t know was that with her threat, she gave the stubborn martial artist the little push he needed.
Ichikoo nodded. "Good.”
Then, totally changing the course of the conversation, the pigtailed teen said, “Say. Kassy said something about you using raw chi.” Ranma really wanted to know how to work with that.
Ichikoo nodded her head. “Yes. I learned back when... Well, when I was probably your age.”
“Could you show me?” Ranma asked like a little kid about to see a new toy.
Ichikoo smirked. This gave her an idea. “Tell you what. How about this weekend, you bring Kassy over to the Rivalsan Ninja Inc Building in downtown Tokyo. I can give you both some formal training then.”
“You mean it?” Ranma asked with a bright smile.
Nodding her head, Ichikoo said, “I mean it.” And that way she could get to know Ranma more and keep a watchful eye on him and Kassy.
The pigtailed smirked cockily. “You’re on. I’ll have these techniques of yours down in a week.”
“Ichikoo smiled. "We shall see, oh pigtailed student.”
Ranma nodded and made a mental note to increase the setting of the Grav-Device to be ready. He was already running it right now at 5 G’s.
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(Posted Tue, 23 Nov 2004 02:51)
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