Admiring Ranma while the red-head got used to her new body, Akane was happy to enjoy the view until Ranma was finished and in a better mood for talking.
Then Ryouga blundered until the scene, wrecking everything. “Ha! So it’s true, the great Ranma Saotome, reduced to a mere woman!”
One leg raised vertical and behind her head, Ranma paused to glance at Ryouga, the lost boy standing outside the dojo entrance. “What’s the matter, don’t wanna kill me today?”
Ryouga simply smirked and crossed his arms. “I heard it all, about how you’re a woman now. Why would I be interested in fighting a girl? You can’t even lay claim to dear sweet Akane-san anymore, can you?”
One leg still raised, Ranma bent over backwards into a casual handstand. Once in her new position, she started doing some slow push-ups as her ponytail of red hair brushed the floor. “Guess you’re right about Akane at least. If you want her, I won’t stop you unless she asks me nicely.”
Sitting off to the side, the tomboy in question realized that she couldn’t see Ryouga and apparently he hadn’t seen her either.
The casual reply threw Ryouga off a bit, but not enough to disturb his moment of triumph of feeling superior to Ranma. “That’s right, you should be thankful I don’t consider you a worthy rival anymore, that fighting weak defenceless girls is beneath me.”
Ranma tucked her legs in, rolled across the floor and popped to her feet. “That’s nice. I haven’t considered you a worthy rival in a long time, so nice to know the feeling is mutual now. Honestly, you’ve just been a big disappointment lately.”
That shook Ryouga’s superior attitude for a moment, causing his voice to crack a bit. “A disappointment? Hah, I’m your greatest rival. You’re just sore that I won’t fight a defenseless girl.”
Ranma merely quirked an eyebrow. “Really? Cause I was locked in girl form last night when you and Kodachi both tried to kill me, and I recall kicking your ass pretty easily then. Kodachi at least destroyed some of my clothes, you did jack squat to me other than be a bother.”
All pretense of cool gone, Ryouga rushed at Ranma with a chain punch, wildly swinging with rapid punches to counter the typical dodging. “Shut up!”
Ranma was already gone before he could actually close into punching range, leaving Ryouga to punch a lingering breeze.
“So sad. I guess you really started to go downhill after learning the breaking point.”
Turning around, he found Ranma crouching on one of the rafters, although it was more accurate to say Ranma was hanging upside down from it. As Ryouga approached, Ranma did a backflip styled rafter swing, followed by another until she flipped through the dojo entrance. “You started relying on your strength and toughness then. Who do you think you are, the Incredible Hulk? More like the Gullible Sulk. Or the Lumbering Bulk!”
Chasing after her and only catching air, Ryouga stopped at the entrance to find Ranma casually standing at an angle on one of the tree trunks in the yard. “Damnit Ranma! Stop that and fight me like a man!”
Ranma popped a hand to her mouth and tittered girlishly. “Aww, is poor widdle Wyoga unable to hurt poor widdle defenceless me?”
Properly enraged, Ryouga roared and went after Ranma. When the agile red-head lept to another tree, the lost boy grabbed one of the stone lanterns and flung it at her. Ranma absorbed the impact of the lantern with one foot, falling with the lantern to make sure nothing got damaged.
As Ranma landed crouching atop the lantern, Ryouga was taking advantage of her tendency to reduce property damage by already being in position to launch a proper attack on her.
Ranma did something Akane couldn’t see, her body blurring slightly, causing an echoing thunderclap and Ryouga to jerk to the side suddenly. All too quickly she realized Ryouga was unaware of Ranma’s additional speed training in female form, although this was the first time she’d seen Ranma use that speed in an actual fight.
Her only clue was that Ryouga started to stumble, increasingly so, as if he were drunk.
Apparently satisfied with her work, Ranma hopped over from the stone lantern to the dojo walkway before heading into the house, having avoided stepping on the ground even once. “Oh no, whatever will poor helpless me do? Oh no, that horrible Ryouga will get me.”
Rushing to catch up to Ranma, Akane had to begrudgingly allow that Ryouga deserved this round of teasing for those defenseless girl remarks. Ranma’s flat tone served to highlight the relative lack of danger as Ryouga drunkenly stumbled about the yard, trying to stand upright and failing miserably.
Giving one last glance at Ryouga, Ranma went inside, had Kasumi pour her a cup of tea, and sat on the veranda to watch the lost boy try to grapple the ground and fail. By then Ryouga resembled a drunk trying to grab the ground to keep from falling off of the Earth.
Following behind far enough to watch Ryouga, Akane waited until Ranma was seated to ask her questions. “What did you do to him?”
The red-head smirked slightly from behind her tea cup. “Oh, what any poor helpless girl would do. I slapped him.”
Akane stared at Ryouga for a moment; swollen cheeks, no sense of balance, mumbling as if he can’t hear anything and apparently only half conscious from a probably concussion. Some slap. She’d thought maybe Ranma had force fed Ryouga one of Kodachi’s poisons.
She had other concerns than Ryouga at the moment. “Did you really mean it about the engagement being over?”
Ranma’s surprised look told her the red-head thought it was obvious. “No next generation, no getting married. That’s kinda the point of the engagement. Not like this is the first time.”
Frowning at the thought of it, Akane resisted the urge to ask if there was a cure since that question had been answered already. All that did was remind her the lack of cure was actually her fault this time, making this worse than the time Herb had locked Ranma in female form. That time it had been her fault Ranma was locked, but at least there was still a cure. Like Ranma, she had to get beyond that and think about what to do now.
Her father’s joke that time about marrying Ranma had better have been a joke. The family hadn’t really talked about what to do if Ranma came back without the cure, avoiding the subject mostly. Still, the families were close enough that it shouldn’t really mean kicking Ranma out.
Despite wanting to improve their relationship, Akane couldn’t think of anything to say.
Ranma sat her tea down and hopped off of the porch, bounding through the yard to stand on the retaining wall. After peering off into the distance, Ranma hopped back into the yard near Ryouga. “Heh, looks like a little storm is coming. I think I’ll play in the rain and have a bit of fun today.”
Frustrated with herself for not finding the words she wanted to say, Akane ended up shouting at Ranma. “Are you taking this seriously? What are you going to do? You can’t just up and leave after all of this time!”
Ranma hopped up and sat on the stone lantern in its new position. “Of course I’m taking this seriously, it’s my life. Shit happens, doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy what I can.” Lifting her head up, the cool breeze coming off of the storm lifted her long ponytail up to dance in the wind. “I used to love the rain ya know. Why shouldn’t I enjoy it some now?” Grinning, Ranma turned to Ryouga. “Ain’t that right bacon-breath?”
Having recovered his hearing but not his balance, Ryouga was listening while nearly face down in the grass trying not to puke. He could hear the rain coming, big drops on the rooftops drowning out the noise of the city. The smell of it on the cool breeze overpowering the stale city air. He had only seconds until he was a little piglet if it was that close.
The other thing he’d heard was Akane, just now realizing she was there. Looking up at Akane, Ryouga brought himself up to all fours, preparing to either run under shelter or at least out of her sight in time.
The combination of no sense of direction with no sense of balance conspired against him however, his traitorous body running directly for her instead. Stumbling forward, he tried and failed to turn away to another direction, completely unable to stop his drunken charge in the wrong direction.
As the rain found the yard, Ryouga’s damp clothes fluttered to the ground in front of Akane as P-chan landed right in her lap.
As she had been staring directly at Ryouga in shock as he charged at her, afraid he would crush her with his monstrous strength, Akane now found herself staring at a familiar piglet in shock. Ranma laughing in the rain filtered into the background of her mind, her attention now entirely on the former boy currently in her lap. “P-chan?”
Looking up, she couldn’t see or hear Ranma anymore, suspecting the red-head was out in the rain somewhere.
While what had happened was fairly obvious, at the same time her mind seemed unwilling to accept that conclusion. Ryouga couldn’t have just turned into P-chan.
Akane picked up Ranma’s discarded cup of tea. There was one way to find out.
Sure enough, P-chan was an instant pervert, just add hot water. Considering that she now had a naked and dazed Ryouga in her lap, perhaps she hadn’t quite thought this through. Well, that actually was a problem she could solve with hitting and screaming, a refreshing change of pace from recent events.
“You pervert! I can’t believe you!”
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(Posted Mon, 29 Jul 2013 10:36)
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