And the reasons for his doing so were right next to him. Nabiki was his friend, and he knew that his bond with her would keep him from wanting to disappoint her. Of course, knowing her, he wouldn't be able to get one over on her, at least, not without a lot of effort on his part.
As for his wife, he wanted to be with her so much that school didn't seem quite as bad by comparison. Sure that meant that he'd have to attend classes, but the fact of the matter was that he would be with Akane for much of that time. It wouldn't make having to attend classes all that much better, but it would take a lot of the sting away. In fact, it even seemed to be fun to go like this, and he was sure that she liked the idea of walking along side him... even if she was starting to go faster. She was gritting her teeth, narrowing her eyes, and making white knuckled fists. Finally, she broke all pretense of even paying attention to him as she started to run straight at the school.
Pouring /out/ of that front gate was a bunch of bellowing, hollering, and idiotic looking boys, mostly in sports attire.
"What the heck is this?!" he blurted out as he saw his wife go charging right into their midst.
Nabiki came right over to her brother-in-law's side. "It's really quite simple, Ranma. You see, they're all trying to date my sister."
"'Date her'?"
"Yes. They think by beating her up, they can get her to go out with them."
"I see...."
"It's due to a declaration made by a classmate of mine, but what can you do about idiots like that?" she asked him in a slightly helpless tone.
"A lot," Ranma told her, and smirked nastily as he moved away from her.
"This should be interesting."
That wasn't quite what her sister was thinking as she shoved the heel of her palm into one boy's gut, and then used her schoolbag on the knee of another. Experience had taught her that they were just too stupid to give up, and any positive feeling that she'd got from the practice in group fighting had been worn away by the constant stupidity that she'd had to face. As it was, this was just another day where she had to kick one boy in the jaw as she stomped on another one's foot. Next she had to spin to deck a third boy, and faced off against a boxer who was coming her way.
However, the sight of a baseball player flying by, and the falling of sumo wrestler did seem to be odd when she hadn't hit them at all. Turning her head slightly, she felt a moment of joy as she saw her husband come to her side. But that quickly turned to annoyance when he stood back to back with her, ready to fight off the horde of morons. "I can handle this. It's my fight, you know."
"Yeah, I know," Ranma cheerfully agreed. "But it'd be wrong of me ta leave ya ta be bothered by a bunch of stupid jerks."
"Ranma...."
"Yell at me later. More butt kickin' now."
"Right!" she told him with a nod, and joined him in returning to the fight. Not that it was a hard thing to do, given that the boys around them did not take kindly to being called 'jerks'. They charged straight in, but as they were facing off with a pair of martial artists, things were rather... interesting.
Ranma blocked a punch from one boy, which sent the kid tumbling along side him. That allowed Akane, who had been kicking another boy, to backhand Ranma's attacker into unconsciousness. Her husband then grabbed a hockey player's wrist, and tossed the boy so that he crashed into one of the guys heading after Akane. Simple dodges and blocks kept the attackers at bay, and the couple had no trouble dealing out plenty of blows to knock down the horde of boys.
Of course, that couldn't last forever, but the end of it did not come in the form of a defeat for either side.
"I say to thee, hold knave!" called out an imperious voice. "Who would be foolish enough to interrupt truly honorable combat?!"
"Hello, upperclassman Kuno," Akane muttered in a tone of utter disgust.
A boy dressed in a hakama, and bearing a bokuto strode out towards the pair. "Welcome, my fair goddess. And I apologize for the interruption of your moment of combat."
"I don't mind it."
"I can understand why that would be, for would you not be the symbol of grace, understanding, and benevolence? Yet, I must admit that even that can not allow for an acceptance of this cretin's attempt to ruin your wondrous show of your prowess in the martial arts."
"'Xcuse me," Ranma piped up. "But all I saw was a bunch of morons tryin' ta beat her up for no good reason."
"'No good reason'?! I will have you know that they have been doing battle due to their understanding of their place in things! They have listened to the words of their better, myself, and followed the proper course for gaining her favor to date them!"
"How?! By beatin' her up?!" the pigtailed boy choked out.
"By defeating her in combat, as is proper for one of her pride and strength! That was the term that I, the 'Blue Thunder' of Furinkan High, undefeated star of this school's kendo club, Tatewaki Kuno, placed as the correct way to be able to date her!"
"And they all listened to you. Which makes 'em morons."
"I will admit that it is foolish for them to think that they could actually defeat one such as Akane Tendo, but then they had no other choice about their attempts to go after such a paragon of beauty. And as is only proper, all who I meet understand that they should follow my guidance in all things."
"Not quite, Kuno," Nabiki drawled as she leaned a shoulder against the school's property wall.
"Well, we all know about your perverse nature, woman."
"I doubt that not falling in to line about how good it is supposed to be to attack my sister is all that 'perverse'."
Kuno sniffed, and raised his nose just a bit. "I will admit that even one such as yourself must follow the proper desire of a sister in not wanting any difficulty to come to one's sibling. But I know you, and you are as tricky as any mythical being who wishes to play games on unsuspecting humans."
"How absurd of you to say. And quite wrong, of course."
"How could I be wrong?" the wannabe samurai asked pompously.
"You're saying that he couldn't go in to fight along side my sister."
"Truer words have yet to be spoken."
"Pardon me, but I'm sure that there are religions who'd beg to differ," the middle Tendo sister mocked him.
"Bah. Do not confuse the matter, wench."
"'Wench'?! Can't you come up with something better? At least something that makes sense."
"I could come up with plenty of words for you, none of which would be complimentary."
"How nice for you. And it still doesn't say that I'm wrong."
"Certainly, you are wrong. That has to be the case as it stands!"
"That makes no sense, you know...."
"Almost as much as you insisting that my beloved Akane should have her time to show her grace and strength interrupted by some clueless cretin!" Kuno barked. "You have yet to tell me what could be so important as to mitigate the fact that he has interrupted what might even be called a rite of passage!"
"That's because I haven't told you that he's Akane's husband!"
"I'm sure that you think.... WHAT?!"
"I didn't say that out loud, did I?" Nabiki asked rhetorically.
Everyone standing there still answered her, nodding as one.
"I was afraid of that...."
"As you should be, for what you say is preposterous!" Kuno insisted.
"Actually, upperclassman," Akane said with a small smile of triumph. "This is my husband, Ranma Saotome."
"No! This can not be true!"
"It is. Deal with it," Ranma muttered at him.
"But... How can this be?!"
"Simple. I married her."
The kendoist blew out a violent breath. "This can not be possible! I will find the lie of this for myself! And I will punish you for this most outrageous claim!"
"Really?"
"Yes, and I will challenge you for this transgression!"
"Too bad. I ain't 'bout ta fight ya, since ya don't have anythin' ta challenge me 'bout. Doesn't mean that I ain't willin' ta hit ya."
"Oh, and why is that?"
"No one bothers my wife like that," Ranma growled, and sent a punch rocketing straight at the older boy's nose, which connected with a rather large 'thud' noise.
Kuno's eyes slowly crossed to look at the fist that had impacted into his face.
And then he toppled over like a statue that had been pushed by a naughty boy.
"Guess he wasn't as strong as he thought," Ranma observed.
Akane mock pouted. "And I wanted to bash him."
"We'll find someone ta bash later. Anyone wanna volunteer?"
The horde of boys around them, who had been so willing to attack Akane earlier, now backed up and looked fairly wary of making another attempt.
"Figured that'd be the case."
"Then all that's got to be done is to head in to class," Nabiki put in.
"So long as no one goes and blabs secrets again," her sister ground out.
"Sorry about that. It wasn't something that I'd intended to do."
"Lucky us."
"Can we go inside already?" Ranma asked.
"You want to go to class?"
"Nah. It looks like it's gonna rain soon enough, and I don't wanna get wet."
Both sisters nodded, and started leading him in towards the school building, while:
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