And thinking about that gave the teenaged martial artist something to chuckle about.
"Something funny, boy?" his father asked.
"Nah," Ranma answered with a shake of his head. "I was just thinkin' 'bout somethin'. Ya know, ya remember it, and it makes ya laugh, but it ain't important?"
"Ah... I understand."
The pigtailed boy gave him a nod in return, and turned his mental attention to what had brought on his amusement. Thinking about being able to follow directions had reminded him about someone that he'd known in that all boys' school. It was kind of strange, but there had been this one boy who had been unable to go down a straight hall without taking odd detours. Once, the boy had even ran down one corridor after declaring that he would get to class on time.... and wound up running through the wall at the end of the hall.
Of course, the boy had been a rather good martial artist, and had given him some competition at lunch. He'd been the only one to come close to getting one of the breads, but then Ranma didn't lose. In fact, he would have kept on winning until he had left that school if he'd been given the chance.
But Ukyo had found out, and if there had been anyone who he'd listen to, it was her. She'd discovered what was going on when she came to join him for lunch, and when she learned that he was taking the packets, she'd given him a whack to the back of the head and a talking to. Since she was willing to, and had been, cooking him a good meal each day for lunch, he didn't need to be doing what he'd been doing. So, she'd insisted that he stop, and apologized to the boy for his behavior, even going so far as to give him some okonomiyaki. He'd taken her disappointment to heart, and swore to her that he wouldn't take the breads away from the strong, but slow, guy again.
Yet, he went again to get those breads, and managed to snatch it before that guy could get it. Straight away, the other boy had started fuming, and had accused him of betraying trusts. At that moment, the lug was ready to attack him... until Ranma had revealed that he'd gotten the bread for him. Tossing the bread to the guy, he had walked off, knowing that he had a perfectly good okonomiyaki lunch waiting for him.
From then on, that boy had a grudging respect for Ranma as someone who was willing to put himself out to make up for a wrong. That didn't mean that they were friends, but they managed to not strangle each other. On the other hand, the guy seemed to hold Ukyo in the highest regard, and held her up as the 'kindest and most honorable boy' that he'd ever known. She'd gotten all the preferential treatment that someone who was looked up to got, and he got... acceptance. Not that he wanted any more, but at least he could consider the guy to be a pretty good person, even if he was a bit thick and couldn't find his way out of an outhouse.
He did have to wonder what had ever happened to that guy. They hadn't seen each other ever since he'd left that school, and he didn't have a clue as to what the other boy was doing. 'What was his name anyway? Ryohei? Ryoma? Ryota?'
Shrugging to himself, Ranma mentally pushed aside the memories as not being all that important. It wasn't like he'd ever have a reason to see the guy again.
Up on a mountainside, Ryoga Hibiki sneezed and growled under his breath at this sign of things possibly turning worse. Even after walking for so long, his luck still refused to turn. It seemed like it had been forever since he'd started his climb around this peak, and now he couldn't find a single way down. All that he'd found were trees and wildlife. There hadn't been a sign of civilization anywhere, and he was starting to wonder if he'd ever find other people.
"The first thing that I do when I get into a town is find something to eat," he snarled to himself. "It might not be as good as Ukyo-san's cooking, but then I wouldn't be fortunate as to find him that easily."
Then he continued on in the same direction that he'd been heading in, just out of sight of the sign that said 'Hiking Trail' next to the wide and graded dirt path he was walking parallel to, while:
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(Posted Sat, 15 Apr 2006 04:01)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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