One resounding, cheek–smarting, glove slap later.
“What is going on?” Kasumi demanded.
“Well, as near as I can tell,” an anonymous girl remarked. “Kuno Sempai and the new guy are fighting over who gets to date you.”
“That’s not exactly…” Nabiki began to cut in.
“Oh, how romantic,” another girl chimed in, setting the others off in agreement.
“But…” Nabiki protested under the hubbub of speculation. She muttered to herself as she drifted away from the clutch. Then she had an inspiration and sought out her father to put a stop to his students dueling.
“Mwahahaha!” Soun laughed after she explained things, and he began to organise the event. Well, so much for that idea.
“So this guy’s just got air and metal faeries?” Ranma asked as he limbered up. Fast and resilient, he planned against. No time to manifest any other defense if he gets close, and he’ll shrug off most offense. Best match like to like. “I should stick to just using Makoto and Minako myself then?”
“Don’t be an idiot! His craft really is strong,” Akane warned. “Look, you might have more faeries than most, but that just means he’s able to specialise. You, know, focus on learning a few things instead of everything…”
“I know how that’s supposed ta work,” Ranma smirked. “So he really knows his bladework, eh?”
“Oh, yes,” Akane agreed, ruefully. “He’s really condescending when he practices against me, but he can handle a blade alright. He’s maybe fast and precise enough to become a senshi ferous or aeris. Well I usually manage to hold my own matches, but I don’t think he’ll hold back any against you. So don’t…”
“Good!”
“I don’t think you get it,” Akane snapped. “If you hold yourself back, you’ll get hurt. Bad. He’s really got a thing for Kasumi and … well.”
“We can handle it. Uhm… So, anyway, what does Kasumi think of him?”
“Oh, well, she doesn’t… That is, I don’t think she even realises. She can be kind of clueless about things like that… Then again you can never tell with her.” Her gaze turned intense and suspicious. “Why?”
“Oh, no reason. So,… it woun’t upset her any if I really kick his arse then?”
“Idiot!” Akane snapped. “Fine, don’t listen to a word I say…”
“Minako, Makoto, you two ready?” Ranma whispered. He received ascent from the two named faeries, and grumbling from the others. “Ah, come on, ya know we can’t gang up on the jerk. Yet. Never reveal every thing ya got too early, ‘kay.”
Across the hall, he felt Tatewaki’s metal craft at work as the buffoon’s faerie strengthened the steel in his blade. Okay, so he wasn’t all boast.
“Meh! Not bad. What do you think, Minako? Can we cut it?” He received a sharp spark of disapproval from his metal faerie. He smirked and echoed the sentiment, “yeah. Of course we can.”
“Alright!” Soun announced. “Fighting for the right to date my daughters!”
Boos and hisses erupted, mostly from the boys.
“In the north–west corner, the reining champion, calling himself the Iron Lantern…”
“Steel Lightning!”
“… whatever. Needing no further introduction, Kuno Tatewaki.”
Chirps chirped, mostly from the crickets.
“And in the south–east corner introducing the new contender, Saotome Ranma! Heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Faerie Craft.”
Cheers erupted, mostly from the girls.
“The looser shall leave the training hall, never to return. The winner shall be free to date with my daughters.”
‘Wait,’ Nabiki thought, snapping out of her funk. ‘What, what, what did Daddy just say?’
“And now let the duel begin. Contenders step up and bow. Remember, I want a good clean fight until one of you yields or is unable to continue.”
“Foresooth, it shall be over shortly. Surely this wretched cur cannot withstand the might of my faerie craft! The Blade of Justice shall prevail as my …”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ranma interrupted. “Are you going to bore me into submission, or are we gonna do this?”
It was over in a flash of steel. Tatewaki was every bit as deadly with the blade as he claimed. His twin faeries flashed around him, and he struck with a flurry that paid no attention to incidental property damage caused by the sheer explosion his blows.
Watching from the sidelines, Akane had kept up with the fluid battle, though only barely. Even with her Fuu enhancing her speed to follow the action, Tatewaki’s lunging strike had been a blur to her vision. It was enough for her to realise, clearly and with some anger, just how much he’d always been holding back against her.
It was also soon clear just who was better at blade craft, and that was not Ranma. The new boy was pressed on the defensive; a dazzle of sparks were struck as he parried each of the furious strikes, but he was pushed back never the less, and unable to strike a response.
But if he could not match Tatewaki’s bladework, what he did have going for him was some fancy footwork. Between that and his air crafting he was not pressed up to a stop against the wall, he skipped up it instead. His feet danced against the wood ahead Tatewaki’s sword as it carved deep slashes in the wood.
Then Ranma fell on him.
“Is that all he had?” Ranma gurgled after the sawdust settled and light bled in from the new window carved out of the wall behind him when Tatewaki’s assault had litterally driven him up the wall. “Not much, was it?”
“Not much?” Akane demanded incredulously as she hurried over with a basin of water. “He nearly took your head clean off.”
“What?” a baffled Ranma claimed, touching the wetness welling at his throat. “But his blade never came that close… ah? He cut that by air crafting alone? Cool!”
“Cool?” Akane sniffed. “Idiot. Just hold still and let me seal it up!”
“It’s fine,” Ranma waved her off. “It’s only a scratch.”
He buckled over with tears as Akane poked the ‘scratch’ with an ice cold finger, dismissing his Minako with an imerious flick of faerie craft. “Typical metal crafter! A strong enough faerie to hold back deadly pain, not enough sense to know when to let her quit. At least she knows to listen to a healer!”
“My Ami can handle this!” Ranma protested as a stream of faerie filled water flowed up Akane’s arm and around his bloody neck. “Anyway, shouldn’t you be tending to the looser?”
“Him?” Akane cast a derisive glance at the vanquished cutter. “Pft! He’s fine.”
“I fight on,” the swordsman declared with a weakly upraised arm, before it fell back into an unconcious heap.
“See. You only knocked him out. With your fist!” She sniffed at that.
“Hey, it’s not called Anything Goes Faerie Crafting fer nuthing,” he reminded her, as the water tightened and Akane’s Umi flowed coldly into his wound, drawing the cut together.
“Yeah, well,” she accused with a sharp whisper in his ear, “I thought you were only going to use air and metal crafting. No earth crafting. Couldn’t stick with it, huh?”
“Nah. He just paid too much attention to his metal sense and ignored my fist, didya not see?” Ranma hissed back. “Hey, I thought you were paying attention. Your air crafting couldn’t keep up either, huh? If ya want to be a real crafter ya gotta learn ta follow things like—gahhh…”
“Oh, my!” Nabiki commented as she stepped up to Akane’s side. Her sister stood fumming with a fist clenched around air, while Ranma struggled with the tightening band of water around his throat. “Now, that’s going too far!”
“Yes, he really had that coming,” Kasumi agreed. “He struck a nerve.”
“Gahh,” Ranma protested. “Gahh.”
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:12)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.