(This is another 'Ranma talks with Akane' scene; as Major branchkilled with his lack of attention to the storyline, I felt it appropriate to use the sixth option to do another of these.)
Akane Tendo brushed a bit of dust off of her jumper, and sighed. The Horde had come back in Ranma’s absence; thanks to her improved skills, the difficulty of the Horde had been reduced from a challenge to not even that. Even Kunou was out of her league; today, he thrust his bokken out for a quick hit, found it wrenched from his grasp, then used against him as she whacked him on the head. She briefly pondered shoving it where the sun doesn’t shine, but instead broke it and left for class.
She didn’t want to admit it, but she really missed Ranma. This wasn’t like before; there was no ransom note, no clues, no sign that anything had ever happened. It almost felt like he’d simply faded from existence.
The other fiancees, needless to say, were on the verge of war. Each blamed the other for the disappearance; Shampoo blamed Kodachi, Kodachi blamed Shampoo, Ukyou blamed them both... strange. Looking over all of them, she could see that none of them had done it.
She almost wished one of them had. Then, she could pound the person into giving him back. Now... the only people she could pound were the Horde. She walked up the stairs and to the classroom, where an empty seat was waiting.
She hated that empty space. Ranma was life - and a nothingness where life should be felt so wrong. She wanted his smile back, his shining eyes, his insults, the way he moved...
She wanted him back.
Sighing, pushing away the daydreams, she opened her notebook - then blinked. Written down where she was to compose her notes was a simple message:
Go to the fountain at 5 PM. Tell no one save Kasumi - and tell her not to tell anyone.
She blinked. The handwriting was unfamiliar. The person who wrote it, however, clearly had some knowledge of the dynamics within her family - Kasumi was, simply, the only one who wouldn’t use a secret to her own advantage. And that meant...
She turned her notebook to the next page, a small flutter in her heartbeat. This had to do with Ranma, she was sure of it. ***
Once upon a time, two girls sat by a fountain, eating hamburgers and talking about life. One was watching her childhood crush crumble away as reality hit hard. The other, still an outsider of sorts, tried to help, made comments... and inevitably put her foot in her mouth. Still, it was a time to remember, when the transition from child to adult made itself painfully felt.
Akane blinked as she remembered that day, as the dying leaves made their way to earth around her, as she realized that fall had come too soon. So much had happened since that time - too much to fit into a lifetime, let alone a year. Shampoo and Ukyou hadn’t even arrived yet; they were still two people trying to get to know one another without being forced into marriage. He hadn’t fought gods and demons for her yet.
If it meant having him back, she’d want him fighting gods and demons for her.
A blonde girl was making her way on rollerblades, dancing lightly as the wheels touched the surface. Akane glanced at her and snorted; what a tramp, leaving her assets open with the short-shorts and halter top. No real girl would...
The blonde stopped at the fountain, and sat on its edge. “Heya, Akane.”
Akane stopped. Those blue eyes she’d know anywhere. “R... Ranma?”
Ranma smiled. “Like the disguise?”
A hundred questions came to Akane’s mind - where’d she been, why was she a girl and dressed up like that, what had happened...
For some reason, none of them mattered. She grabbed Ranma in a hug, the tension of a month of nothing coming out in a torrent. “Ranma...”
That gentle touch reached around her; even though he was a girl at the moment, he welcomed her embrace. “Sorry, Akane... Sorry I was gone so long.”
That statement snapped her out of her moment; she looked up at Ranma, at the silly wig and makeup she wore. “Where were you? What happened?”
Ranma sighed. “Akane... there’s a lot of problems that have happened since... well, since last month. It’ll take some time to explain them all. Okay?”
Akane nodded. “Okay...”
Ranma gripped her hand. “First of all, Akane, I want you to know that, regardless of all that's happened, I l... love you.”
She blinked. What in the past month had given him that courage? “I... I love you too, Ranma. Now what happened?”
Ranma sighed. “I... I’m a mutant, Akane.”
She looked at him sideways. Mutant? Like those superheroes that occasionally make the news? It would make sense of Ranma’s abilities... but isn’t that just martial arts? “Okay... are you sure?”
Ranma nodded slowly. “I was kidnapped by some people here in Japan to be used as... breeding stock. They planned on taking my girl form and...” The look on her face indicated that she didn’t feel like finishing.
Akane sat there, stunned. “They... they raped you?”
Ranma shook her head. “No... but they might have if I’d stayed there longer. Fortunately, the X-Men came and rescued us. We’ve been spending the last few weeks in America, studying how to use our powers.”
There was something about the way Ranma said those words that caused Akane to realize something. “You... you’re not coming back, are you?”
Ranma shook her head. “It’s no longer safe for me in Japan. One minute, I was drifting off to sleep, the next I woke up in a security cell. There’s nothing to stop them from doing it again.” She let out a long sigh. “Akane... I came back, this one time, to ask you one question. The Professor - he’s the guy that leads the X-Men - said that he could arrange for you to take up schooling near where I’m going to be learning.”
Akane’s eyes widened. “You’re saying...I should leave?”
Ranma caressed Akane’s cheek with her hand. “No. I’m saying that... if you want to follow me, that you can. Don’t tell anyone where I’m headed or why I’ve gone; just act normally. But... if you get an offer in the mail to become a student at a school in America... you know why. The decision is yours.” Her lips moved to Akane’s cheek. “And just think: no other fiancees...”
Akane smiled. No fiancees sounded like a good thing...
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(Posted Sat, 23 Nov 2002 10:55)
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