"Not Today"
a Ranma 1/2 spam/shortfic
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"C'mon, Ranma, we're going to be late!"
"Aw, jeez, Akane, we've still got ten minutes to get to class,
it's not *that* late."
"Maybe you don't care Ranma, but Kuno said yesterday he was
going to do something. He's not that bright, but he keeps
his word."
The two reached the school gates soon enough, Ranma finally
picking up the pace to run past his fiance. With a "kiyaa!"
he jumped toward Tatewaki Kuno intending to disarm the
kendoist.
Ranma missed and crashed into a nearby tree, mostly because
Kuno wasn't carrying a bokken.
"Not today, Saotome, 'tis neither the time nor the place.
Let us take a days' respite to contemplate the past and why
we are here." Then with all the school's students not wise
enough to get to class on time, Kuno began to speak, though
not in his usual oratorial manner:
"In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly,
Scarce heard amidst the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields."
Akane stood by and listened instead of showing her usual anger
at Kuno's speeches. Ranma, now recovered, stood up to ask her
what was happenning, but Akane shushed him.
"Take up our quarrel with the foe,
To you from falling hands we throw
The Torch - be yours to hold it high;
If ye break faith with us who die.
We shall not sleep though poppies grow
In Flanders' fields."
No one said a word, though Ranma, ignorant as always about
many things, still didn't get what just happened. Kuno simply
turned and walked away toward the school doors.
Akane looked at the school clock. Two minutes until the bell;
they'd make it on time. All the studenst walked the rest of
the way to class in silence.
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End.
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Final note:
For those who've never heard of it, the poem "In Flanders'
Fields" was written in 1917 by Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae
just a few months before his death in combat.
"Body bags and dropping bombs,
The Pentagon knows how to turn us on;
Wave those flags high in the air
As long as it takes place over there."
- L7, "Wargasm" (1992)