Ranma 1/2, Gargoyles
Ranma, the Time of Changes
By Brendan O'Donnell
Chapter Five
Akane looked at the window of her room. Ranma was hanging upside down from the roof knocking on the glass. *He knew... but he couldn’t betray Ryouga. Couldn’t talk to me even though he’s my fiance* She walked up to the window and jerked it open. "Ranma." Akane’s voice was as cold as a glacier.
*Oh boy, this was the other reason I didn’t want her to find out.* "Nabiki mentioned that she told you..."
"About Ryouga?" The look Akane directed at Ranma was calm quiet look that only exists to hide the strongest of rages.
"Look I wanted to tell you, I just..."
Akane narrowed her eyes in anger and tensed up like a tiger preparing to rip its chosen prey to shreds. Then she relaxed, closed her eyes and sat on her bed. Ranma stared at her wondering why she wasn’t attacking him when she said "You told me that if you betrayed Ryouga you’d be no better than your father."
Ranma blinked. He looked at Akane. She raised her head and looked him in the eye. Ranma sighed and sat next to her on her bed. "As long as I can remember my dad’s been constantly going on about honor, and duty, and what’s right, and everything! And if you dangle anything mildly appealing to him before his eyes it’s all just words to him!" Ranma looked at the fists he had clenched while speaking about his father. "I’ve watched him all my life. The kind of hypocrisy he’s practiced makes me feel ashamed to be his son. If he had been in a similar situation he’d have promised to keep Ryouga’s secret if Ryouga gave him food, then the instant he could get a few crackers from breaking his promise he would have! Ryouga’s curse was my fault, and I had to support him no matter how he abused that support."
"Even when he was sneaking into my room!"
"That first night I wasn’t blaming him, which is why I snuck in with a kettle. I was thinking that I could get him out and talk with him and maybe he’d listen." Ranma ground his teeth in annoyance. "Of course then there was the fight with Kodachi, and I realized he was deliberately turning himself into a pig..." Ranma closed his eyes, and forced himself to relax.
Akane looked at him. "You could have told me once you saw that it was affecting me."
"I couldn’t. I caused his curse, I had to help him keep it secret." Ranma sighed and glanced at Akane. She was still looking at him angrily, but her anger was much less intense. "It’s a question of honor, whether Ryouga was acting honorably or not was no excuse for betraying him."
Ranma and Akane looked at each other. They both felt extremely uncomfortable with this discussion, yet at the same time Ranma felt relief in sharing this long kept secret with Akane. Akane also felt a mixture of discomfort at hearing about Ranma’s past, and joy that Ranma was sharing something so personal with her. Neither one could think of something to say so they just looked at each other.
"Dinner’s ready!" called up Kasumi from downstairs. They both looked at the door.
"Uh, I guess, I mean if I’m late Pop’ll grab all of my food." Ranma said.
"...Yeah, we’d better go."
The two went down to dinner together.
In the Tendo dojo the next day David Xanatos was in his gi preparing for his first official lesson with Ranma. At Ranma’s request he was performing some of the kata of tae-kwon-do to warm up.
"Are you supposed to bend your elbow like that?" Ranma commented as he looked up from the copy of Shonen Jump he was looking through.
*It’s a distraction, don’t let it affect me, ignore him.* David thought to himself as he tried to filter out the latest of Ranma’s comments.
"Hmm, shouldn’t more of your weight be on your back foot?"
"Are you sure the Rhythm of those strikes is ta-ta-TA-ta, not ta-TA-ta-ta?"
"Boy you sure bend that elbow a lot."
"Shouldn’t you retract that kick a bit faster?"
*Don’t let him distract you, just do the kata right.*
"Do it slowly." Ranma said, watching as Xanatos traced his leg through a high crescent kick. "Hold it a moment." Ranma stepped forward, looking over the leg which Xanatos was now keeping still about five feet off the floor. He looked over the leg a few moments, then said "Forget it, keep going."
"OK, sparring time." Ranma said, walking to the side of the dojo. As Xanatos wiped a little more of the sweat from his forehead with his soaked sleeve, he shifted into a basic stance, ignoring his legs complaints. And his torso’s complaints. And his arms complaints.
Ranma returned with a pair of uncapped markers. "Try to hit me, here’s the weapons I’ll use" He bowed to his opponent.
Xanatos bowed back. As he came out of the bow he saw Ranma being to move toward him and dropped back into a defensive stance. He moved his arm to block a blow to the chest, and felt something on his cheek. He spun round, kicking at Ranma first low then high with his right leg. Ranma landed on his leg as he completed the high kick and wrote something on his other cheek. Bringing his leg back Xanatos lashed out with an elbow thrust which extended into a backfist. Both missed Ranma, who dropped to the side as the leg moved. Then Xanatos was thrown back four feet by a light punch to the lower chest by Ranma.
"I thought you were only going to use those markers," Xanatos said as he shifted into a defensive stance and tried to get his breath back.
"Don’t assume. Anyway let’s continue." Ranma stepped forward, and jumped lashing out with a circular kick that missed Xanatos by an inch as he stepped back. The retreat continued as Ranma landed, and advanced, throwing punches and kicks at his student which Xanatos could barely dodge or block. Then a hit to the head knocked him back the last foot to the wall.
"Owww," Xanatos commented as he pulled himself to his feet.
"That’s what happens if you let yourself get into a pattern like that."
Looking at Ranma Xanatos replied, "Yeah, one of my Sensei told me to try to counter linear techniques with circular ones and vice versa."
Ranma shook his head. "That’s not without merit, but you shouldn’t limit yourself. If your opponent knows how you’ll react to a given move, he’s beaten you already. Look, when I just attacked you I was moving at a steady pace, and timing my attacks with constant rhythm. If you had broken the pattern you might have been able to get in a hit while I was adjusting."
Xanatos pulled himself to his feet with great difficulty. He had thought that he had reached his limit a few minutes ago, Ranma’s quick attack had introduced him to new and untapped resources of strength that he hadn’t known before. Now he was begging them to hold out as he looked at Ranma.
"That’s enough for today." Ranma said.
Xanatos refused to let himself collapse, he merely slumped forward, supporting his upper body with his hands on his knees. "Th-thank you."
"Hey, if I didn’t think you had potential I wouldn’t be pushing you like this." Ranma responded with a grin. *Don’t laugh* he thought to himself as he looked at the writing on Xanatos’s face, ‘Ranma Saotome was here’ was written on his left cheek, ‘you should take these markers more seriously’ was on his left, and Ranma had counted down across his forehead, from one to fifteen. "Oh yeah, one last thing for today." Ranma said.
*Why did I chose to do this?* Xanatos thought to himself. "Yeah?"
Ranma picked up the bag holding Xanatos’s change of clothes. "Jog over to Dr. Tofu’s clinic. I’d like you to be in shape to continue the lessons tomorrow." Ranma tossed him the bag and bowed to him. Xanatos returned the bow and began to walk out of the dojo. "Oh and I do mean jog, have your car pick you up there." Ranma called to him.
"Yes Sensei." Xanatos called back.
"Going a little hard on him Ranma?" Nabiki said as she watched David Xanatos staggering down the street.
"He’s the one who asked to learn," Ranma responded. "And challenge is fundamental to the art."
Akane heard a knock at her door. The volume and rhythm were Ranma’s. "Hey Akane," Her fiancee called from behind the door.
"What is it Ranma?" Akane responded, putting her pen down and rising from her desk.
"Well, can I come in?"
"Come in."
Ranma entered the room. "So Akane, I just wanted to know what you decided about Ryouga... I mean..."
"Ranma, I can understand why you didn’t tell me, but I want you to give me your word of honor now that you will never keep any secret like that from me again." Akane said looking him in the eye.
Ranma looked back at her fierce expression. "I give you my word that I will never keep anything like Ryouga’s secret from you again." Ranma replied.
"Ranma," Akane started coldly. Then she smiled.
Ranma felt a surge of fear shoot down his spine.
"Don’t tell Ryouga that I know, ok?"
Ranma put aside as much of the sudden fear of his fiancée as he could and said, "Uh, right I won’t."
Ranma sat at the table in the main room looking at an open math textbook and a mostley blank piece of paper. A pen was in his right hand and he was theoretically doing his homework
*I hate math.* Thought Ranma as he drew a crude little picture of Ryouga with a black eye and missing teeth while he tried to figure out just what the question was asking. *I especially hate the homework. And the tests. And having to stay awake in class...*
From the garden came the cry, "Nihao Ranma!" The purple hared girl who had spoken entered the room, carrying a takeout container.
"Hi Shampoo," Ranma replied. He glanced past her searching for Cologne or Mousse, both were missing. He looked at the container she was carrying. *Hmm, I don’t think anyone ordered anything from the Nekohanten so she must just be coming to bring me dinner on a whim. Or she’s got some sort of magic food, but if it was she’d be pushing for me to eat it already.*
"Ranma, Shampoo bring deluxe ramen for whole dojo! Even for Pervert-Girl if Pervert-Girl wants."
"HEY!" screamed Akane as she stormed down the stairs. "What do you think your doing here!?"
"Shampoo not need reason to visit husband," Shampoo replied as she put the Ramen container on the table then jumped onto Ranma wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Uh, could you... not do that? I mean," Ranma stammered as he tried to maintain as much separation from Shampoo as he could considering how she was trying to mold her body against his. Then something very heavy hit his head hard knocking him away from her.
"Go ahead and make out all you want!" she said angrily, turning her back on Ranma.
"It’s not like that! Why do you always assume the worst!" Ranma shouted as he jumped back to his feet.
"HAH! Like I should trust you after you hid Ryouga’s little secret!?" Akane responded, turning to look Ranma in the eye.
"I knew you’d never understand about the honor of two warriors." Ranma grumbled.
"Ranma not waste time with bad tempered untrusting girl, you take Shampoo on date! Yes?" Shampoo said, latching onto Ranma’s arm.
"Oh, so it’s honorable to help someone sleep with your fiancee just because your both guy’s!?"
"That’s not it at all!" Ranma responded, almost knocking Shampoo across the room as he gestured.
"Ranma!" called Shampoo.
"Well how is it then!!" Akane stepped toward Ranma, shifting her grip on the hammer she had just pulled out of nowhere.
"I caused his problem, so I had to help him deal with it!"
"And how did letting him be P-chan help!?"
"You’re the one who couldn’t see the truth until it got shoved down your throat!!"
"WHY YOU!!"
Shampoo was an amazon warrior, and extremely devoted to Ranma. The fact that she let go of his arm and stepped back just before Akane knocked him out of the house says a lot about the appearance Akane’s aura.
"Uncute Tomboy." Ranma muttered to himself as he looked around. Extrapolating from the force of Akane’s hit and the angle of ascent, he deduced that he’d be landing close to Ryouga’s old house. "Well, no chance of seeing Ryouga then."
A second from impact with the ground, Ranma twisted his body around and, with long practiced skill, focused his chi through his legs to let him land lightly on his feet despite falling at near terminal velocity. He looked to his right and saw the canal. *Incredible, I missed it.*
"Ranma?" said a mature female voice from behind him. He turned, and saw Ryouga’s mother standing next to the entrance of her house.
"Uh, hi Auntie Hibiki." Ranma called nervously.
"Is Ryouga with you by any chance?" Mrs. Hibiki asked.
"Sorry. He said he was coming here but he refused to let me lead him."
"So like his father, ‘I don’t get lost, I don’t need directions.’" she smiled as she shook her head. "Well, I just got back from the store and I shouldn’t need to go out again for a week or two so he should get here while I’m home."
"You haven’t seen him in a while, have you?" Ranma asked quietly.
"Not since a day before that big match you and he were having. Would you like to come in for some tea? I would like to hear something about my son, in case it takes him longer to get here."
Ranma thought of the few times when Mrs. Hibiki had been home when he had brought Ryouga home from school. It was one of the rare occasions he and Ryouga had been friendly and peaceful toward one another. They had both treasured her company, Ryouga because he saw her so seldom, Ranma because he hadn’t seen his own mother in so long. "...OK." *I’d better give Akane some time to calm down, anyway.*
*Why can’t I get away from here?!* Ryouga thought as he saw the entrance to the Tendo home. *Akane... she doesn’t love me. Ranma’s turned my world to ashes, and I can’t punish him for it because Akane asked me not to. I have to get away and hope that the solitude can purge the sorrow from me.*
He turned to walk away when a passing motorist splashed water from a puddle onto him. *Maybe it’s fate,* P-chan thought.
"So my son was cursed by the magic spring?" Mrs. Hibiki said quietly.
"*Yeah, I mean I couldn’t think of anything but making my dad pay for inflicting my own curse on me. And while I was chasing dad Ryouga happened to step in the wrong place and I knocked him in and didn’t even notice it. Ryouga’s wanted to kill me ever since. It got even worse since he fell for my fiancee."
"You have a fiancee?"
Ranma grimaced. "I have too many fiancee’s. Basically it started when pop and I got back to Japan. We were going to the house of a friend of his and a few blocks away he said that I was engaged to one of this friends daughters..."
"...And then Ukyo tossed me a Okonomiyaki with a heart on it and said she’d stop being mad at me for what my dad did. Since then she’s been doing her best to get me to break up with Akane and marry her." Ranma sighed and thought of his life a moment.
"My your life is complicated Ranma." Mrs. Hibiki commented. She refilled the cups of tea. "But which fiancee is my son interested in?"
"Akane. It happened the night I discovered about his Pig curse. That... Well... Ryouga..."
Mrs. Hibiki said, "Used his curse to get her to adopt him as her pet?"
Ranma blinked a moment. "How did you guess that?"
"I know my son. Not as well as if I could see him more often, but I know him. He has the same directional curse that I and his father have. Our inability to find our way condemns us to being alone for long periods of time. This loneliness makes us cherish any moments of love and affection we can find." She sighed. "It’s even worse with Ryouga. A few months before he met you the girl he had been seeing broke up with him because he got them lost on a date. I expect that the spring would have only intensified his feelings of loneliness. If this girl you love showed him affection he would have latched onto it with a death grip."
"Yeah... HEY I DIDN’T SAY NOTHING ABOUT LOVE!!"
"I assumed that you wouldn’t be mad at Ryouga for pursuing her unless you were in love with her yourself."
"Uh, it’s a... question of honor, yeah that’s it. I am not in love with that uncute sexless tomboy. Her cooking could flatten Godzilla."
"So you don’t see anything appealing about her?" Mrs. Hibiki took a sip from her cup of tea.
"Well, she is pretty nice to most folks beside me, and sometimes when she’s feeling happy she has this smile that just..." Ranma trailed off, thinking back to the too few moments when he had seen her smile. *Maybe I should get her something as a partial apology about P-chan...*
"I see." Mrs. Hibiki smiled slightly. "Well, so my son is pursuing this fiancee who you claim not to love. Has he said anything to her?"
"Actually yes. About a week ago he told her how he felt. She told him no. Still wants to be friends with him though. Anyway he didn’t tell her about P-chan, that’s what she called his pig form. But yesterday I was talking to him about our mutual past and Akane’s sister Nabiki had the room bugged." Ranma took a sip of his tea. "Now Akane knows. I have no idea how she’ll react regarding Ryouga since he left for here just before she found out."
"Oh dear, you will keep her from doing anything too awful to Ryouga, wouldn’t you?"
"I give you my word of honor." Ranma responded quietly. Mrs. Hibiki looked into his eyes and smiled.
"Thank you Ranma." Mrs. Hibiki said. After a moments though she added, "You have more to tell me, I assume."
"A lots happened to me. I haven’t told you about my mom yet, have I?"
There was a small black pig sitting in the entrance to the Tendo dojo. *What am I doing?* Ryouga thought as he looked at the entrance to the house. *Akane doesn’t want me. Why am I reminding myself how wonderful it would be if she did. It’s just making it harder later.* He looked down. *She doesn’t want to be anything more to me than a friend. And now I’m here, and if anything goes wrong she wouldn’t even want that.*
The door opened and Kasumi stepped out, carrying her shopping basket. "Oh hello P-chan." She said holding the door open. "Won’t you come in?"
Ryouga looked at the open door, and with a running leap entered the house.
Akane was sitting at her desk fuming while Nabiki was on her bed doing leg lifts.
"Akane, P-chan’s here." Called Kasumi from downstairs.
Akane clenched a fist, every knuckle in her hand popping.
"Oh, just going to pound him?" Nabiki asked.
Akane looked at her sister in annoyance. "It’ll be a very thorough pounding."
"Well if you’re going to settle for that." Nabiki said as she shifted to a siting position.
"Have you got a better idea?" Akane asked.
Nabiki stood. "I have a really fitting idea. Just play along and pretend P-chan’s not Ryouga at first."
Ryouga was walking slowly through the main room when a pair of hands grabbed him by the side. *Oh Akane...* The hands turned him face to face with their owner. Nabiki.
"Here he is." Nabiki said showing the pig to Akane. P-chan squirmed toward her.
Akane crossed her arms and said with a smile, "Oh P-chan. He was lost for a week this time Nabiki. Why is he always running off?"
Nabiki looked at the pig she was holding then said, "He’s probably just got a lot of energy. I guess all you can do about that is wait and hope he quiets down. Maybe he’d stick around if there were some kids to play with him." Out of P-chan’s sight Nabiki winked at her sister.
*Should I? Yeah I think so.* "Nabiki! Ranma and I agreed to wait till we’ve graduated before starting a family." P-chan stared at her in shock.
"Oh, and what about all that noise from your room last night?"
*Your pushing it sis.* "I don’t see that as your business." Akane responded coldly. P-chan quivered in anger as tears streamed down his face.
*Hmm, a twist of the knife.* "Hey Akane, I just thought of something. I understand that pets become less aggressive when their, you know, fixed." P-chan’s eyes opened real wide as he froze in shock.
"Are you sure Nabiki? I mean isn’t loosing something like that kind of traumatic?"
"Hey they get over it real quick. Matter of fact fixed animals tend to live longer."
Akane looked at P-chan who was now frantically shaking his head while trying to squirm out of Nabiki’s grasp. Akane reached out and took him from her sister. "Ok Nabiki it sounds like a great idea!" P-chan froze, then started his version of Soun’s hydraulic crying technique. *Hmm, this is fun. Still I guess I’d better let the jerk out of his misery.* "Well, at least it’s a good idea if Ryouga here tries to sneak into my room again."
P-chan froze. * She knows? RANMA!! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T TELL HER!!*
"Aw, are we through already?" Nabiki asked. "Couldn’t you have decided that fixing animals was easy and gone into the kitchen to demonstrate?"
Akane looked at Nabiki a moment then commented, "Maybe," *I wish I had thought of that,* "Of course I still owe Ryouga a pounding for all those times he snuck into my bed." She looked over the pig.
Ryouga closed his eyes. *I want to be somewhere else, ANYWHERE ELSE AS LONG AS IT’S FAR AWAY!*
Akane saw an aura of greenish light suddenly appear around P-chan. Startled she released him. He hung in the air a moment then vanished.
Sunrise was a mere hour away. Demona was standing on the roof of a condemned building looking up through the clouds at Castle Wyvern. *My daughter...* She sighed and turned away, walking to the edge preparing to glide away. Then she stiffened and turned to her right. *What the, where could a surge of magic that strong have come from?!* Running along the roof she leaped off and glided in the direction of the power she had felt.
In a few moments she was perched outside a coffee shop. *Hmm, I think this is where I felt it coming from.* Suddenly a pillar of energy shot smashed a hole in the small building’s roof. *This should be interesting, I just hope that display doesn’t draw Goliath and the others.* she thought as she leaped onto the roof and slipped into the newly created hole.
Demona landed in the attic, and leaning over she looked into the coffee shop itself. Sitting on the floor beneath her was a young boy with a tablecloth wrapped around him. His hair was black and he had a yellow and black bandanna tied to his head. Demona heard him muttering in what she recognized as Japanese, a language she had learned a little of two hundred and fifty years ago. Unfortunately that was also the last time she had used the language.
">Excuse me,<" a waiter said, tentatively approaching the young man.
"Ano, >Pardon, I speak English not well.<"
">Uh, we just wanted to know why your here, why you just did that.<" the waiter gestured toward the destroyed ceiling.
"Gomen, >I’m sorry, I not mean did that.<" He slumped slightly. ">I not sure why here, was in Tokyo, then was here.<"
">Uh, right. Is there any chance you’ll blast something else?<"
">Blast? No, no blast.<" The waiter let out a sigh of relief. Then he turned to look at the door.
">Excuse us.< said one of the two Police officer as they walked up to the boy and the waiter. ">We were called because there was a disturbance. Your the cause?<" he asked Ryouga.
"Gomen, > I sorry. Accident.< Ranma..."
">Uh huh, well I hope you wouldn’t mind coming with us too much. We’ll just need to ask you a few questions, find you something to wear beside that tablecloth, that sort of thing.<
The boy looked at them. ">ok.<"
">Good, just come this way kid. What’s your name by the way?<"
"Hibiki Ryouga"
*Hibiki Ryouga,* Demona considered the name a moment. Standing and slipping to a back window she slipped out and climbed to the roof. *I think Dominique Destine will have to schedule in a meeting with Mr. Ryouga tomorrow.*
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In episode six, Ryouga meets a few new people, Time passes, and New York becomes a vacation possibility.