Love is What Frightens You the Most
Chapter 4:Full Moon, Empty Heart
by Terrence Marks
Notes:
1) Way the plotting is going, I may end up writing Ranma out
but keeping all the other characters....strange, eh?
2) Comments are DEMANDED. I work on praise.
3) Akane's cast. I can't think of anything to do with it,
really..should I have it taken off before the story?
4) If spam threads like "Cartoons I wanna screw" or "Could
Chibi-Usa beat up a tin can?" get better responses than this
fic, I am going to get seriously angry.
5) A butterfly kick is a strange, ceremonial kung-fu sort of
kick that traditional schools of karate wouldn't touch with a
ten-foot pole. Most people wouldn't use it in a fight, unless
they either wanted to show off or had major style and agility.
I believe that it's halfway between a cartwheel and a
spin-kick, but it's been a while.
6) Any suggestions?
Quick Recap:
1) No Nabiki, Akane going out with Kunou, Soun is wacky.
2) There's a timeline at the end of this..that ought to
include all significant events.
Detailed Recap:
See chapters 1-3.
* * *
Sleepin' now, now... sleepin' now, now, now..
It's still night out, sleepin'
Don't look at me looking back at you
Out the window backwards, out the window backwards
Sleep
See this child twice stolen from me
Out the window backwards, out the window backwards
Sleepin' now, now... sleepin' now, now, now
Sleep
Now fall to the bed, put your hand in your hair
Now fall to the tile, stick your finger in your eye
That's the only way you cry
Full moon past the window sideways hey now hey now
Sleepin' now, now (out the window backwards)
Sleepin' now, now (out the window backwards)
Sleepin' now, now (out the window backwards)
Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep....
--"Full Moon, Empty Heart" by Belly
* * *
Kodachi was looking for the third pantry. The other two were
out of flour. What she found was a music studio, currently
occupied by some strange man with an afro and sequinned suit.
He played a ukelele which was plugged into some odd box.
Kodachi recognized him as the man she met earlier and reminder
herself that this was her father and that she ought to get to
know him.
"Hello, Father. What is that?"
"No! In studio, you must call me Dancin' Freak. It stage
name for my music career. Disco make comeback, I ride
comeback like wave!"
"Hello, Dancin Freak. What is that?"
"It music. You canna hear it now becauz I didn't put in the
bass and drums. You come back then and it sound good, ok?"
Kodachi nodded and decided to come back when the bass and
drums were added. Or when her father wasn't delusional,
whichever came first.
* * *
It was evening. Kaori returned to the empty schoolyard. The
ground was littered with flyers:
"Akane Tendou of Furinkan High School vs Champion Kodachi
Kunou of St. Hebereke. This Saturday at 10:00 AM at the St.
Hebereke Gymnastics Dome."
Kaori didn't read the remainder of the flyer. This would be
her chance to win Ranma back from that Kunou girl.
* * *
Akane practiced a few flips and somersaults for her match.
She seen gymnastics on television, and it didn't seem very
difficult. With her martial arts background, she ought to be
able to at least hold her own. Akane flipped forwards and
silently congratulated herself on compensating for her left
arm. She wished that the cast was scheduled to come off before
the match.
Ranma silently entered the dojo.
* * *
"That hurts, you know!" Akane grabbed the large rubber ball
and threw it back at Ranma.
"How do you expect to compete in the match if you can't dodge
something easy?"
"Are you trying to say that I'm not good enough?"
"I'm trying to help you train."
"I don't need dodgeball. I need to practice rhythmic
gymnastics."
"What do you mean? I've heard that Kodachi Kunou is a master
of weapons like this."
Akane paled. "You--You mean they use weapons?"
Ranma nodded.
"I'll never win this. I'll fail and everyone will be
disappointed in me. I knew it would be this way." Akane
started to cry. "This is all your fault, Ranma."
"My fault? I'm trying to help you here."
"Help me? Help me?!"
Ranma nodded.
*WHAP*
Ranma pulled himself off of the floor and mumbled something
about what happens when you try to help people that just don't
want to be helped.
* * *
Soun moved three pieces. "I win."
"How can you do that, Tendou? Warp vortex?"
"No. I cheated."
Genma growled.
"Been cheating all game. I'm surprised that you didn't catch me."
"I don't know the rules well, Tendou. Could you explain them
to me?"
"Just watch, Saotome, and you'll figure it out in no time. It
all makes sense."
Genma set up the board for their fifth game today.
* * *
Tofuu tidied up his apartment and though about the events of
the day. Miss Yuuki's hip had been healing nicely. Mr.
Nikitev had paid his bills. Kasumi had come in about some
book, presented him some very blatant opportunities for him to
ask her out. It looked like Doctor Chappatsu wouldn't be
getting that divorce after all. His water bill was notably
smaller than he had expected. All in all, it was a
good....Kasumi. He panicked. He thought about it and
realized that he had probably said the exact wrong thing. For
a man in his position, there were only two choices, and one of
them involved getting as drunk as humanly possible for as long
as possible. He decided to do the other thing and picked up
the phone.
* * *
"Father, dinner is on the stove. It will be ready in five
minutes. I've got to visit Doctor Tofuu, so can you look
after it?"
"Doctor Tofuu? There's not something wrong, is there?"
"What? Oh. No, this is a personal call, not a
professional one."
Soun nodded. "Have fun."
Kasumi put on her coat. Her father didn't know the half of it.
* * *
Akane awoke the next morning to find no breakfast. She
knocked at Kasumi's door, but there was no answer.
"If you want something done", she thought, "you gotta do it
yourself." Then she realized that this was being rather
unfair to the other 364 days of the year that Kasumi cooked.
She was probably also being a bit unfair with Ranma. He
seemed like he wanted to be friendly.
She grabbed a skillet and two eggs, and she started to
scramble them. Ranma walked down the stairs.
Akane smiled. "Would you like some eggs, Ranma?"
"This isn't some trick to poison me, is it?"
"I'm trying to be nice to you. Don't ruin it."
"Sorry, but I'd rather eat my own left foot than the stuff
that you're cooking."
Akane was angry. "And why is that?"
"Because your cooking stinks."
"How do you know? You've never tried it."
"Well, firstly, you turned on the wrong burner, secondly, you
should be using milk, not vegetable oil, thirdly, you need to take
the eggs out of the shells before you cook them, and fourthly, I
don't like eggs."
"I've seen Kasumi do this all the time and it tastes fine when
she does. Why should this be any different?"
Ranma shrugged. "Well, I'll try and scrounge something else
around here." He opened the refrigerator to find that it was
empty, except for a few condiments.
* * *
Akane poked a fork into her eggs. The fork bounced off.
Ranma handed her a roll. "Try this", he said.
"What is it?"
"Old family recipe. It's a bit tricky, but it's good. Try it."
Akane bit into it. "Interesting taste. What's it made out of?"
"Soy sauce and water."
"Soy sauce and water?!"
Ranma nodded. "That's all that you had."
Akane dissected the roll. It seemed to be solid and breadlike.
"How can you make something like this out of soy sauce and
water?"
"I said it was a tricky recipe."
"Are you coming to the tournament today?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Pop wants me to and I've got nothing else to do."
"Just promise me that you won't interfere with this one."
"I didn't want to interfere with the last one!"
"Just promise."
* * *
Kodachi looked the ring over before the match, and made sure
that all of her equipment was present and in proper shape. She
was using her best set of clubs for this. She didn't usually
consider her opponents worth it, but this was personal.
Seeing that everything was in order, Kodachi went to the
visitors' dressing room. It had been such a while since she
had properly demoralized anyone. Everything was in order.
* * *
Akane opened the door to the visitors' dressing room at the St.
Hebereke Gymnastics Dome. On the table was a basket of foreign
fruits and moderately expensive chocolates. She picked up the
basket and took a grape and..."Ranma, do you smell something in
here."
Ranma walked into the room. "Yeah. I think it's paint."
Akane looked at the walls. They were spotlessly white. She
rubbed her finger against one of them. The paint was still wet.
"I wonder...." Akane ate the grape, but the overpowering
smell of paint made the experience....unpleasant. She put
the basket down.
* * *
"In the red leotard is Furinkan High School's challenger,
Akane Tendou!"
"And in the green leotard is the district champion, from St.
Hebereke's School for Girls, Kodachi Kunou!"
"The first girl to leave the ring or be fully knocked down
loses. No body strikes are permitted. Understood?"
Kodachi and Akane both nodded.
A piece of paper fell from the rafters. The referee read it
aloud. "The winner of this contest shall have sole claim upon
Ranma Saotome." She lowered the microphone. "What is this?"
"I think it's one of my father's ideas to try and get me and
Ranma together."
"Do you agree to it?", said the referee.
Kodachi laughed. "To the victor shall go the spoils."
"I don't want the sole claim on Ranma!"
"Don't worry, dear. You won't have to worry about that."
"Fine!"
The referee spoke into the microphone. "The contestents have
agreed! Let the match begin!"
* Ding *
Kodachi lashed out at Akane with a ribbon. Akane ducked and
threw a ball at Kodachi. It missed. Akane ran to pick up the
ball as it rolled away. She leapt towards it as it neared the
edge of the ring, but was caught in mid-air.
Kodachi's ribbon was wrapped around Akane. Kodachi tossed
Akane into the air and pulled the ribbon, causing Akane to
spin. Akane landed on the ground, wobbling dizzily. Kodachi
grabbed four clubs. She threw one at Akane, and grabbed it as
it bounced off of her. Akane picked up a hoop and threw it
towards Kodachi. Kodachi caught it with a ribbon and sent it
back towards Akane. Akane ducked.
"This is almost too easy", Kodachi laughed.
She spun mid-air and let loose five clubs.
They missed.
This confused the audience, the referee and Akane.
Kodachi simply figured that she was toying with Akane,
although she didn't remember *trying* to. While everyone else
noticed that the clubs failed to hit Akane, Kodachi was the
only one to notice that the clubs failed to hit the ground.
A voice boomed out from the top of the dome. "Kodachi Kunou!
Today, you shall know defeat!"
The audience looked up. Kodachi didn't. She leapt backwards
with a butterfly kick, knocking the microphone out of the
hands of the person behind her. This drew the crowd's
attention away from the speakers which had previously
mystified them.
"Who are you!"
"I am Ranma Saotome's One True Fiancee! That is all that you
need to know! I shall not permit you to interfere with our
plans!"
"You're the one that's interfering. We're trying to have a
gymnastics tournament here. Get out of the ring so I can
humiliate her."
* * *
Genma smiled. "You hear that, Ranma! They're fighting over
you."
"Why should I care. I've never seen either of those girls
before."
"That's the famous Saotome charm at work."
* * *
Akane watched. She wasn't exactly sure which side she was
on. She was Kodachi's opponent, so she couldn't help her. The
new girl looked like she could be Ranma in disguise, and Ranma
had promised he wouldn't interfere, and if he had lied to her,
then she wouldn't want to help him.
* * *
Kodachi tucked her ribbon into her belt. If it was
two-against-one, then she would have to bring out her big
weapons. She looked to her second. "Chain."
Her second handed her a ten-foot-long chain.
Kaori threw a pair of chopsticks at Kodachi.
Kodachi leapt upwards, out of the way. "TORNADO LEAP!" The
chain snaked and charmed its way about Kaori, knocking her
down.
Kaori looked grabbed a firehose from the St. Hebereke weapons
cart and turned it at Kodachi, sending her out of the ring.
Kodachi latched onto the nearest ringpost with her chain, and
pulled herself back into a flying kick at Kaori.
Kaori ducked. Kodachi landed on the other side, outside of
the ring.
"You BITCH!" Kodachi was white with fury. She climbed back
into the ring, grabbing a club. Not a gymnastics club, but a
more utilitarian model, leaning towards the
stick-with-nails-in-it variety. What it missed in balance, it
made up for in force. Kaori's firehose had run out of
pressure. She discarded it and grabbed Kodachi's chain.
Akane had had enough of this. She ran between them. "Stop
it! This has gone far enough."
Kaori growled. "No! It's not over until I say it's over.
Get out of my way, girl, or I'll force you out of my way!"
"No! I'm not going to let you..."
Kaori swung the chain at Akane's head. Akane blocked. The
blow chipped the plaster of her cast.
"That hurts!"
Kaori grinned evilly. "Now, am I going to have to go through
you to get at her?"
Kodachi looked over the situation. Checkmate in two.
Kaori swung her chain in an overhead strike.
Kodachi swept, and Akane felt her legs give way under her.
Kodachi leaned in to strike Kaori with her club. Kaori fell,
unconscious.
* * *
Akane waited in her dressing room. The judges would announce
their decision on the match in a few minutes. With her were
Genma and her father, playing a game of shogi and eating the
basket of treats. Kasumi was sitting by the doorway. Ranma
sat on the floor, grumbling about ruining one of his better
shirts on the walls. The door opened. A teenager with bobbed
hair walked in.
"Hello."
Akane turned to face her. "What was the decision?"
"The judges have declared the match invalid."
"What?"
"Well, given such factors as the extra person, the firehose,
the bodily attacks...and that you were wearing a
non-regulation leotard, we didn't feel that we had much choice."
* * *
Tatewaki opened the door of the recently built studio. His
father was inside, playing some distant-sounding tune. Kunou
had dyed his hair red, for some reason.
"Hello, Father."
"Ah! Do not call me dat, boy. While I in da studio, I da
Chemical Asylum."
"What is this?"
"It my stage name. I gona be big techno artist. Techno all
popular now, I ride it like wave, no?"
Tatewaki nodded and decided to come back when his father
wasn't delusional.
* * *
Kodachi sat in the library of her home. She was fairly pleased
with the match. She had beat the girl she set out to beat, and
she had the match, which may have been a loss, stricken from
the record, on account, well, everything.
"Tatewaki?"
"Yes?"
"Have you seen oneechan lately?"
"She isn't your sister."
"Maybe if you were more accepting, she'd be that much nicer."
"She is not of the House Kunou. That is beyond my control."
"Yes, but you needn't constantly remind her."
* * *
Kasumi carried dinner from the kitchen to the dining room.
Her family was already there. She set the plates down.
"Akane, who is our guest?"
"I'm not a guest."
Soun started to cry.
"Father, what is it?"
The guest grinned evilly. "Go on, Soun. Tell them."
"Kasumi, Akane. I'm sorry for keeping this from you for so
long, but I have another daughter." At this point, Soun lost
speech capabilities.
Kasumi looked the guest over. "Then you must be.."
She nodded.
"You're the mother."
"Didn't think the old man had it in him."
"Way to go, Tendou!"
Kasumi frowned. "That's not polite, Ranma. The proper thing
is for Father and...our guest...to be married as soon as
possible."
"It could be a double wedding, right, Ranma!"
"Quiet, pops."
The guest sighed. "No. I'm the daughter."
"Oh my! That changes things."
"I'm glad you understand."
"Father and your mother will have to be married, then."
"It could still be a double wedding!"
"Quiet, pops."
The guest sighed again. "No. They already got married."
"I'm shocked. I can't believe that Father would marry someone
and not tell us."
"No. He told you."
"I think that I'd remember something like that."
"It happened before you were born."
"Then...you're looking remarkably young. I would have thought
that you were closer to Akane's age."
"I am closer to Akane's age."
"Then...If you were born then, and father was married to...you
don't mean that...?!"
The guest nodded.
"Father! How could you do something like that!"
Soun continued crying.
"How could you marry her mother if you were already married to
our mother? That's bigamy!"
The guest sighed again. "No. I am your sister."
"No. Half-sister."
"No. You misunderstand."
"Good. I didn't think that it would be as bad as that."
"I am your sister. Same father, same mother."
Akane asked, "Then...why haven't we seen you before."
* * *
Twelve years ago, Soun Tendou and his wife watched as their
middle daughter calculated a row of numbers.
"Father", Nabiki said, "Even if we cut down expenses, we still
can't afford to support four people on these resources."
"Well, Nabiki, there's just one thing to do. Akane! Kasumi!"
Akane and Kasumi entered the room. "Yes, Father?"
"It turns out, due to recent adversities, that we can only
support four people. The best way to decide this is by
usefulness."
Kasumi was wearing an apron. "I can clean and cook."
Akane was wearing a gi. "I can take over the dojo."
Nabiki put down her calculator. "I can help pay the
bills....why are you all looking at me like that?"
"Yes, Nabiki, you can help pay the bills."
* * *
"Oh! Now I remember that!"
"So, why was the Kunou family buying children, anyhow?"
"I never did figure that out, Ranma. I've decided to come back
and live here. I trust my room is how I left it?"
* * *
Timeline:
Day 0:
Ranma, Genma arrive
(Sunday)
Day 1:
Kaori arrives, Ranma goes to school
Ch1
Kunou meets pigtailed girl
Golden Pair challenge Akane and Tatewaki
Principal Kunou arrives
ch2
(Monday)
Day 2:
Ranma teaches Akane to skate
Kodachi visits the telescope shop
ch2
(Tuesday)
Day 3:
The skating match
ch2
Akane wakes up and dumps Kunou
ch3
(Wednesday)
Day 4:
Kodachi rearranges the tournament
Ranma sees Kodachi for the first time
Akane and Tatewaki are out of school
ch3
(Thursday)
Day 5:
Akane and Tatewaki return to school
Akane gets challenge to Gymnastics match
ch3
Akane trains
Kaori finds flyer
Kasumi visits Tofuu's house.
ch4
(Friday)
Day 6:
The gymnastics match
Nabiki arrives.
Ch4
(Saturday)
Character Profile: Tatewaki Kunou
Age: 17
Due to the fact that his father isn't the principal, I can't
call him Principal Kunou, so I have to call him Kunou. So I
have to call Tatewaki Kunou "Tatewaki". He doesn't mind
much. Anyhow, I suppose that you know him as well as I do.
Big ego. Big sword. Poetry. But this guy has a tendency to
be a lot more...normal around his sister. Why? Well, I
suggest that you rent the "Les Miserables of the Kuno Estate"
videotape (aka "Suddenly Sasuke") to see why. Unless you'd
rather see page after page of "How canst thou attack thou own
brother."-style comments. They speak calmly to each other.
I'm trying to use this guy as a real character, not just comic
relief, and give him better comments than "Pig-tailed girl!
<kicked into orbit>" or "I would date them both!".
Character Profile: Ranma Saotome
Age: 16
I've heard someone complain that he's acting like a real jerk
in this. That isn't intentional. If you can think of any
place where I can cut down on this, let me know. Anyhow, he's
a martial artist, changes genders, etc. That hasn't really
fit into the story quite yet, but it will...I think.