“Jeez, do they really need to ratchet these things so tight?” Ranko muttered, holding up her cuffed hands.
“Yeah, really,” the woman sitting next to her agreed, glaring at her own cuffs with an annoyed face.
Ranko took a moment to size up her seat companion. She looked to be around the same age as her with long dark hair. “I guess I should introduce myself,” she held out her hand, “I’m Ranko. Saotome, Ranko.”
“Akane. Tendo, Akane,” she smiled as she accepted the offered hand.
“Nice to meet ya, Akane,” she chuckled awkwardly, “even if it could’ve been under better circumstances.”
“Yeah,” Akane muttered solemnly, “I still can’t believe this is happening. It doesn’t seem real. A few weeks ago, I was going to school, hanging out with my friends, you know, normal things. And now, here I am.”
“How’d someone like you end up getting sent to prison?” Ranko asked, genuinely curious.
Akane seemed to snap out of her melancholy as her face contorted into a wrathful expression. “It’s all Kuno’s fault! Him and all those other damn perverts!”
“Who’s Kuno?” Ranko asked, completely lost.
“He’s an upperclassman at my school,” she muttered darkly as she began to explain, “He’s an idiot, but a lot of people listen to him cause he’s from a rich family. He kept trying to ask me out from the first day we met and I kept turning the creep down. Eventually, he challenged me to a fight in front of the entire school, saying that if he won we’d go on a date.”
“Why’d he try to fight you?” Ranko was confused, “That doesn’t sound like something you’d normally do to get a date.”
“Cause he knew I couldn’t refuse a public challenge like that,” Akane verbally spat, “Everyone knew I was a Tendo and I’d been trained in martial arts by my dad since I was little. He knew I couldn’t say no to a fight if he challenged me publicly and figured he could beat me. Well, the joke was on him. I cleaned his clock!”
Ranko didn’t reply, looking at her quizzically for several seconds.
“What? What’s that look for?”
“Uh, nothing,” Ranko answered, “It’s just… well, if you’re that good in a fight, why’d you let that guard push you around earlier.”
Akane glared indignantly, “It’s not like I wanted him to! It’s just, all I could think when I saw this bus was that I was about to go to prison. I remembered seeing the look in my father’s eyes when I was sentenced, and the looks on Kasumi and Nabiki’s faces, and… well…” Akane paused as she started to stammer, furiously rubbing her eyes as new tears welled up.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Ranko stuttered awkwardly. She always felt horrible whenever a girl cried because of her, “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset. And I’m sorry for questioning your skills. I just… I didn’t know. Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Akane finished rubbing her eyes and managed a smile, “I guess I really did look pathetic out there.”
“Nah, you didn’t,” Ranko assured her, “That guy was being a jerk, trying to push you around when you were down,” she then grinned as she thought of an idea to help cheer her up, “Why don’t we spar sometime? My old man trained me since I was little too. Bet it will be a good fight.”
“Alright,” Akane answered, having regained her composure, “but I don’t know if the guards will let us do that.”
“Ah, don’t worry about them,” Ranko waved her concern off, “We’ll find a way. Anyway, you were saying this Kuno guy challenged you?”
“Yeah, he did and I beat him, but that wasn’t the end of it. The next day, he announced to everyone that whoever defeated me in combat would go on a date with me! Almost all the boys bought into it and from then on they’d all try and fight me at the start of every school day!”
“All of them?” Ranko was surprised, “They must’ve had a lot of free time if they could all wait around to challenge you at school.” She remembered the few times her pop had made her go to school whenever they stayed in one area for awhile. Most of them had hundreds of students. She couldn’t imagine everyone having time in the day to fight one person.
“They didn’t really challenge me,” Akane muttered, “They all just attacked me at once. It was more of a brawl than a match.”
“They ganged up on you?” Ranko was surprised, “Sounds like a bunch of cowards to me.”
“Yeah, they all knew they couldn’t beat me by themselves, so they made all sorts of alliances with each other and tried all sorts of tricks,” she clenched her firsts, “They didn’t care what I wanted or even when I pleaded with them to stop. They were just a bunch of horny boys who didn’t care about my feelings or what I wanted!”
Ranko seemed a little uneasy at the way she emphasized boys, like it was something hateful. Akane didn’t notice though as she continued.
“And Kuno was waiting at the doors every day to fight me again. He thought the other boys would wear me down enough that he could beat me. I always put the jerk in his place, but it was maddening having to go through that every day,” her face suddenly softened, “And then… well, we got a new transfer student one day. He was walking to school in the morning and end up caught in the middle of my fight with the other boys. He probably had no idea what was even going on. I didn’t even notice him. All I saw was the crowd charging towards me and I just waded into them, like always," Akane stared down at her cuffs, twiddling her fingers nervously, “Apparently, he was just standing there, staring at the whole thing in surprise. All I saw was another boy in the middle of the crowd and I… well… I hit him. It happened so fast and I didn’t even notice he was just standing there.”
“I guess it’s a shame he got caught up in that, but I don’t see what the big deal is,” Ranko was confused, “People get in fights all the time. Besides, you were fighting all those other guys too and it doesn’t sound like it was a big deal if they kept trying to attack you every day.”
“Unfortunately, he wasn’t just any new transfer. He happened to be the son of someone important in the municipal government. Kuno and the other boys always instigated the fights and no one thought much of it. But this boy’s parents decided press charges. And they were in the right. He was just standing there. I attacked him, not the other way around.”
“That’s rough,” Ranko replied solemnly, not knowing what else to say.
“It’s alright. The judge only gave me six months. Probably would've given me less if the boy’s father didn’t work for the city,” Akane leaned back in her seat and sighed, “I suppose I should try and look on the bright side. At least I won’t have to put up with any of those damn perverts for awhile. Most boys care about nothing but themselves and their sick fantasies. None of them can just try and be friendly, like we’re doing.”
Ranko chuckled nervously, “R-Right.”
“So, since I told you my story, mind telling me yours?” Akane asked.
“My story?”
“Yeah, why are you here?”
Ranko looked down uncertainly, mulling over her words. Akane waited, not wanting to look like she was being pushy.
“Well, before I tell you, there’s a few things you need to know about me,” Ranko started, “When I was six, my Pop took me on a long training trip that lasted for ten years.”
“Ten years?” Akane asked, clearly shocked, “You left home at six and didn’t come back that long?”
“Yeah, I remember it being rough at first, but then I got used to it. Always on the move, living off the land, never staying anywhere for too long. It just became normal to me.”
“I just can’t imagine leaving home for that long at such a young age. Couldn’t your father have just trained you there?”
“I guess, but he wanted me to see and experience many styles of martial arts. He made me observe, train with, and fight students of dojos, monasteries, and other training grounds all over. He said staying in one place too long and only fighting one style of opponent made you too predictable. By traveling and fighting with people from as many schools as we could, we’d learn far more than we ever could at home.”
“I… guess that makes sense,” Akane said, “Still, it must’ve been lonely. I can’t imagine you made many friends always traveling around.”
“Not many,” Ranko agreed, “There was this one boy I met years ago named Ukyo. He was a good friend. We always sparred together and ate okonomiyaki that his father would make afterwards. Course, Pop always kept us on the move and eventually we had to leave.”
“I’m sorry.” Akane tried to imagine having to leave her best friends, Yuka and Sayuri, and never see them again.
“Ah, it was a long time ago,” Ranko said, “I guess what I’m trying to say is I’ve been traveling for most of my life with no real home. Anyway, everything started to change as I got older. I started to realize that many of the things I thought were games when I was a kid were really pops trying to weasel his way out of paying money for something or stealing something he wanted. For years, he’d been teaching me about honor, claiming all martial artists needed it. Yet, here he was stealing from others.”
“That’s horrible,” Akane said, “But what do you mean by you thought it was a game?”
“When I was little and asked him about it, he’d say something like we were racing the shop keepers or that it was training and I should see how many dumplings I could take from the counter without anyone seeing.”
“He made you steal things for him?” Akane was appalled. What kind of father would make their child do that?
“Yeah,” Ranko muttered, “I wasn’t happy when I found out. He kept doing it too, even when I refused to take part. Sometimes, he’d even plant stuff on me and make the shop keepers think I’d stolen it. He called it training.”
Akane just shook her head in disbelief and disgust, “How could he do that?”
“Don’t know,” Ranko answered morosely, “Whenever I asked, he just tried to justify himself, saying we were broke and had no choice. I asked if we could just take on some work, just enough so we could pay for food, but he kept insisting we had no time for that. He kept wanting to travel and take me to new training grounds and thought that’d get in the way. After awhile, I just gave up trying to convince him otherwise.”
If Akane felt sad for Ranko before, now she felt really disheartened listening to her story. How could a father treat his daughter like that? Her father would never do something so disgraceful!
“Everything finally came to ahead when we got to Jusenkyo,” Ranko continued.
“Jusenkyo?”
“It’s a training ground in China. Pops had read about it in a brochure and thought it’d be a great place to train,” Ranko started to sound angry as she talked, her cuffed hands clenched into fists in her lap, “We went there and climbed onto the bamboo poles to spar, but that’s when...” Ranko stopped as she realized what she was about to say. Did she really want to tell her what happened Jusenkyo? How she used to be a boy named Ranma? Akane would probably think she was a freak if she found out about her curse. Besides, she didn’t seem to think too highly of boys either. “Actually, I’d rather not talk about what exactly happened. It’s… kinda personal.”
“Oh, well, that’s fine,” Akane assured her, “We just met after all and if you’re not comfortable telling me, I understand.” All kinds of thoughts started going through Akane’s head. Ranko had been more than willing to tell her that her father stole, so whatever happened at Jusenkyo must’ve been serious. Still, she had no right to pry if she didn’t want to talk about it.
“Anyway, after Jusenkyo, everything just fell apart between Pops and me,” Ranko continued, “I just couldn’t take it anymore. Later that night while he was sleeping, I just got up and left,” As she said that her anger just seemed leave her. She sounded like she was confessing to something awful, “After Jusenkyo, I just… I couldn’t stay with him anymore. I couldn’t.”
Akane gently placed her hand on hers in a comforting gesture, “You have nothing to feel sorry for. He took advantage of you for years and it sounds like whatever happened in Jusenkyo hurt you deeply.”
“Yeah, but he’s my father,” Ranko muttered, “and I just left.”
Akane didn’t know what to say to that. On the one hand, he sounded like a terrible man, but Ranko was right, he was her father. Whatever happened between them must’ve been very serious. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about it.
“I wondered around aimlessly, traveling around China some more before coming back to Japan. I earned money mainly through street fighting. Many cities have underground tournaments and such you can enter, if you know where to look. There are no rules and lots of shady people there, but it’s an easy way to get money. Anyway, I did that for several months, until one day I was passing by a store with some TVs in the window. The news was on and as I was walking by I heard the name Saotome. Curious, I stopped and listened for awhile.”
“Was it something to do with your father?”
“Yeah,” Ranko paused a moment, seeming to grow even more miserable, “and my mother.”
“Your mother?” Akane asked. She then realized Ranko had not once mentioned her mother during her entire story. Before she could stop herself, she asked the question that popped into her head. “Your mother stayed home when your dad took you on your training trip?”
Ranko nodded.
“But, you were gone for ten years!”
“That’s right.”
Akane vowed right there that if she ever met Ranko’s father, she’d beat the crap out of him. This man was completely despicable! Not only to his daughter, but his wife too!
“I barely remembered my mother,” Ranko continued, “It’d been so long ago, but when I heard her name and saw her picture, it clicked. I remembered her face clearly then and I knew for certain it was her.”
Akane empathized with Ranko. She barely remembered her mother too. She died when she was still little. In fact, she’d died ten years ago, around the same time Ranko was separated from hers, “Why were you parents on the news?” Her face took on a serious expression as she tentatively voiced her first assumption, “Did your father try to… you know… hurt her?”
“According to the news, it was the other way around,” Ranko explained, “Apparently, she attacked him outside their home and injured him with a katana.”
“A katana?” Akane asked in surprise, not quite expecting that.
“Yeah,” Ranko confirmed, sounding even more depressed, “Some of the neighbors saw what happened and called the police. They arrested her for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The news report was about how she’d just been sentenced to two years in prison.”
Akane didn’t know what to say. She just couldn’t put into words to how awful Ranko’s whole situation was. Not only was she going to prison, but her mother was in prison too! What a horrible coincidence.
“I didn’t know what to do at first? I was completely confused. Eventually, I decided to find pops first and demand an explanation for why mom had attacked him. I visited him in the hospital. At first, he was angry with me for leaving him, not that I can really blame him for that. But, when I told him why I came, he got very quiet. It was almost like he was scared of something. When I told him I wanted to see my mother, he started shouting at me not to go. He actually tried to jump outta his hospital bed and stop me from leaving the hospital.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, but he tripped over his IV and fell short. Some of the docs nearby rushed over and tried to help him back into bed. He struggled and I had to help hold him down while they strap him in to keep him from doing it again.”
Akane was at a loss for words. The whole situation sounded so surreal.
“For whatever reason, he really didn’t want me to see her,” Ranko smirked, “Not that he can stop me now.”
“You mean your mother’s in the same prison we’re going to?” Akane asked in amazement.
“Yeah, Ranko confirmed, “in fact, that’s the entire reason I’m here.”
“The reason you’re here?”
“I got myself arrested so I could go see her,” Ranko explained.
“You what?” Akane stared in disbelief, “T-That’s… why? Couldn’t you just visit her?”
Ranko’s face darkened slightly, “I tried, right after I saw pops. They won’t let her have visitors.”
“Really? Why?”
“Don’t know. They didn’t give a reason when I called to ask about visiting her. They just told me she wasn’t permitted visitors and hung up,” Ranko paused again, “I thought about just breaking in and busting her out. All I could think about was her trapped in there. What if she was being mistreated or something. I almost went through with it.”
Akane was a little skeptical of Ranko’s idea to break in. I mean, yeah, martial artists who were properly trained could be strong enough to do many things, but to break in and out of a prison with armed guards with guns? She wasn’t sure about that. Still, despite her doubts she had to ask, “Why didn’t you?”
“It was something pops said, right before I left the hospital. They’d already strapped him into his bed and I told him that I was going to see mom, even if it meant breaking her out to do it. He told me that if I did that, it would only ruin her life. He said that she’d become a fugitive and would have to either leave the country or live on the run. He said mom loved her life at home and asked if I was willing to ruin any chance of her having it back again. I think he was trying to scare me into not going to see her, but he had a point. Mom will walk free in only two years, but if I broke her out she’d always be on the run. Was that really the best thing to do? I mean, I know how to live in the wilderness away from everyone, so we could probably hide out. But would mom be happy?”
“I guess that's a good point,” Akane commented. She wondered what she'd do if her father or one of her sisters were put in prison instead of her.
“Yeah, but still, I couldn’t just wait two years either and I was still worried about her. So, if I couldn’t wait, and I couldn’t visit her, I decided I’d just get myself sent to prison with her. It wasn’t like I was doing anything important. I had no job, no friends, and no other family besides my parents. So, the very next day, I shoplifted from some stores in town, let the police catch me, and now I’m here,” she held up her cuffed hands again, as if to emphasize the point.
Akane was silent for several seconds before she suddenly started laughing at the absurdity of the situation. It was a friendly laugh though and Ranko only smiled.
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(Posted Fri, 24 May 2013 09:48)
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