Akane looked up from where she was sitting against a tree as a cute redhead walked out of the school doors, then stood and walked over to join her. As the two headed for the gate, she chuckled. “Good thing teachers can assign only so much detention for one day, or you’d be there till midnight,” she teased.
Ranma laughed. “Nah, yer overstatin’, it’d only be till nine, ten tops. Haven’t they figured out yet that class is where I need to catch up on my sleep?”
Akane’s chuckles turned into laughter as well, and she reached out to take Ranma’s hand. Then, turning sober, she asked, “So how do we handle this?”
“Well,” Ranma said, “between naps I did some thinkin’ and we ought to just get it all out in the open. So what say we hit Ucchan’s, then the Cat Café, and then maybe have a little talk at dinner tonight?”
Akane paled, her grip on Ranma’s hand tightening. “Tonight? Right now?” she squeaked, and Ranma shrugged.
“Ya did say you were tired of hidin’ what ya are, didn’t you?” she asked.
“Well, yes, but …”
“But yer scared of how people will take it,” Ranma finished, and Akane tensed.
“I am not!” she shouted, and Ranma laughed. Akane whirled to face her. “And how about you?” she demanded.
Ranma’s laughter cut off. “I …. well …” She reached up and tugged on her pigtail. “I’m … a little nervous. It isn’t gonna be fun.”
“No, it isn’t,” Akane agreed with a sigh, slumping. “But I suppose you’re right, we might as well get it over with instead of spending however long worrying about it. So, Ukyo first?”
“Might as well,” Ranma agreed with a shrug.
The two started walking towards Ucchan’s, when suddenly Akane perked up, grinning. “And I know a way to make people wonder a little before we tell them — a change of hair style!”
“What?!”
“Sure, we undo the braid, brush it out, and put it up in a pony-tail!” Akane enthused.
“No.”
“But, Ranma …”
“No. I may be going girl, but I am not going all girly,” Ranma said firmly.
Akane fell silent for a time as they walked along, then said, “Ranma, you don’t need to go all girly, but you did say you’d go girl. Are you going to fight every little change that makes you look more feminine?”
“Akane, I … listen, we’ll undo the pigtail, brush it out, but we’ll tie it back at the neck instead of a pony-tail, kind of like you had your hair when we first met. Actually, I wore my hair like that before the Dragon Whisker, so it’s nothin’ new.”
Akane lit up with the brilliant smile Ranma loved, and Ranma shook her head with an answering smile of her own.
Ukyo looked up at the sound of customers coming through the front door and froze, even as the restaurant’s apparent waitress’s greeting stuttered to a halt. Ranma and Akane, here? After yesterday, she’d thought … and they were holding hands, with Ranma in girl form no less! Pasting on a smile, the young okonomiyaki chef called out, “Hey Ranma, Akane, grab a seat, I’ll be with you in a minute.” The couple — and they were a couple — waved agreement and followed Konatsu to a table a little away from the few customers taking an early supper or late lunch. Head whirling with shock and speculation, Ukyo turned back to the orders she was already working on while starting on Ranma’s and Akane’s usual.
“So,” Ukyo said a few minutes later, sliding Ranma’s and Akane’s dishes in front of them and sitting down at the table, giving Ranma a smile while pointedly ignoring Akane. “What brings you here, Ranma? I’m happy to see you, but after yesterday I’m a little surprised. And what’s up with the hair?”
“Yeah, about that …” Ranma paused to take a few bites, then sighed. “Ukyo, I’m not gonna pretend I like what ya did, tossing explosive okonomiyaki around, but ya helped do us a favor. Still, why? I thought we were friends.”
Ukyo opened her mouth to give the standard line about Ranma being hers and how she was the cute fiancée, and stopped and sat back, looking over at Akane, and finally shrugged. “Ranma,” she said softly, “you know how I feel about you.”
Fidgeting a bit uncomfortably, Ranma looked down at the table and nodded. “Yeah, I do,” she mumbled. “But Ukyo … yer my best friend, but …”
“Yeah, I know … the ‘I hope we can be friends’ speech. You’re even the right sex for it,” Ukyo said with a forced chuckle, then shrugged, with a nod at Akane. “Still, you don’t really need to trot it out, it’s been obvious for awhile who’s won the fiancée war.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Akane burst out. “If you’ve given up, why’d you attack the wedding?”
Ukyo stared at her for a long moment, eyes narrowed, then said, “Tell me, Akane, when you dream of Ranma, is it of the black-haired hunk or the redheaded cutie?”
Akane froze, chin dropping. After a few moments, she whispered, “You know? How long?”
Ukyo gave a feral grin. “I didn’t, it was a guess, but it looks like I guessed right. And you didn’t tell Ranma, did you, before you agreed to stand at the altar with him?”
“No, she didn’t, she told me after,” Ranma said, and Ukyo’s eyes shot to his face.
“She did? But then why are you still with her, and looking like that — oh, Ranma, what are you doing?”
“What ya think, I think — I’m, what was that saying, switching sides?”
“Close enough,” Ukyo said with a pained chuckle. “I never had a chance, did I?”
An uncomfortable silence fell, her question unanswered, then finally Ranma hesitantly said, “Uh, Ukyo … how’s this gonna affect things with yer family, with you?”
“Don’t worry about me, Ranma, I’ll be fine,” Ukyo said firmly, then at Ranma’s doubtful look waved at the restaurant. “All this? It’s mine, all of it, Father can’t touch it. And with Konatsu’s help it’s doing well, I’m actually thinking of looking for a bigger location.”
Just then new customers walked through the door, and Ukyo stood up with carefully hidden relief. “Hey, you guys enjoy the meal, I gotta get back to work.” Starting toward the kitchen, the cute chef paused for a long moment, then turned back around. “And guys? Good luck. And whatever happens, you two are always welcome here.” Not waiting for a reply, she turned back and hurried for the kitchen.
A few minutes later, the couple got up, waved their goodbyes, and headed for the door. Ukyo waved back, then turned back to her cooking, wiping at her eyes when she found herself having difficulty seeing what she was doing.
A moment later, she jerked as a gentle hand landed on her shoulder, and she whirled to find Konatsu beside her. “Ukyo-sama, are you all right?” the kunoichi asked in a low voice.
Ukyo took a deep breath, then nodded, pasting on a smile. “Sure, Sugar, no problem. So what have you got for me?”
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:30)
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.