Hey, nice to see you continuing the story!

From: "Arthur Hansen" To: Subject: [FFML] [Ranma] [alt] Birthright Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 23:00:11 -0600

Ranma Birthright - 3

Ranma spun and dipped, his movements bouncing him along. He blocked punches and kicks from his adversary, even as she followed his movements flawlessly. The students of Furinkan High barely noted their progress over their heads. It had become that commonplace.

Ranma couldn't help but smile. Akane was really pushing him today. His fianc,e

fiancee

returned the feral smile, even as she

snuck in a punch to his chest. In unison, they landed lightly even as they looked up to see a figure leaping at them with the sun at his back.

The figure shouted, "Ranma, prepare to die!"

Ranma and Akane's leg muscles spun them away from him in opposite directions. The boy's umbrella exploded a small crater into the concrete with stunning violence right where they had been.

"You!" Ranma exclaimed, pointing at the new boy.

The fanged boy cried out, "You haven't changed. You're still good at running away, Ranma!" His unruly hair was kept out of his eyes by a yellow and black bandana. His travel worn clothes and backpack bespoke of long use on a hard road.

"Do you know him, Ranma?" Akane asked curiously. She was eyeing the new boy speculatively. Strong, but not terribly fast. She wondered how good a fighter he really was.

Ranma looked up into the sky, then into his palm as he focused his mental faculties to remember the challenger. "Uh, yeah! Sure, he's... he's..."

"He must have been forgettable, huh Ranma?" Akane said snidely.

Ranma blushed in mortification at that comment. The stranger interrupted him, "Just tell me one thing, Ranma. Why did you run out on our fight?"

Akane sniffed in disdain. And he thought he could claim to be better than her?

"Wait! I remember! You're Ryoga Hibiki, from my old class! It's been a while!"

"How dare you? I asked you a question!" Ryoga shouted.

Ranma had a nonplussed expression on his face. "I waited for three days at the place you chose."

Akane nodded to herself, her respect for Ranma went back up a notch. So he hadn't run out on the fight.

Ryoga clenched his fist angrily. "And you had already left when I showed up on the fourth day!"

"Ryoga? It was right behind your house."

"I traveled nonstop for those days to get to our duel!"

A hubbub of voices from the crowd in the background could be heard.

"Bad sense of direction?"

"Really bad."

"You said it."

"For breaking a vow between men and running off to China with your father, you will suffer!" Ryoga cried out, swinging his umbrella to club his hated foe.

Ranma bounded over it easily, as if Ryoga were in slow motion. Even as his opponent landed, Ryoga swept back his umbrella to open it, when it was suddenly yanked from his hand. Ryoga spun around, surprised.

"What do you think you are doing?" he shouted out.

Akane calmly closed the umbrella. "You should be ashamed. Blaming Ranma for running away when you couldn't even make it to your fight. I wouldn't have waited more than three days."

Ryoga eyed the girl closer. She had the demeanor of a fighter. "Blame? This has all been his fault!"

"YOU didn't show up. You just admitted that." Akane's temper started to flair.

flare

"Hey! This is in between me and him..." Ranma tried to interject into their argument.

"What would a girl like you know about honor..." his tirade was broken off as she punched him in the jaw.

For sudden interruptions like this, you chould use a Hyphen, or somehting like:

"What would a girl like you know about honor-*"

"I would think very carefully about what you are about to say, Hibiki." Akane tossed the umbrella over her shoulder lightly. It clunked into the ground, cracking the concrete, much to the surprise of her schoolmates.

"And who are you, anyways?" Ryoga rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. That had stung.

Ranma's gazed bounced back and forth between the two, like in a tennis match.

"I am Akane Tendo, heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts." She cracked her knuckles in anger.

"Stay out of this, Tendo. This is a matter between men. You wouldn't understand."

Ranma suddenly cringed. That wasn't what he should have said.

That doesn't come out right.  Maybe more like:

Ranma cringed.  That was the _wrong_ thing to say to Akane.

Akane didn't say anything for a long moment. "I understand perfectly. For that comment alone, I challenge you."

"You? I don't care about you. All I want is my revenge on him," he shouted as he pointed at Ranma. "For what he has done, I will destroy his happiness."

"My happiness? Am I happy?" Ranma asked as he looked over at his fianc,e.

Yep, Fiancee again.

"Don't ask me," she replied. She spun back on the angry boy. "You haven't responded to my challenge!"

"Don't ask me!"  Akane replied, turning back to the angry Ryoga.

"After I destroy Ranma, I'll be happy to fight you."

"Really? You don't look good enough to beat him, much less me," Akane said haughtily.

"Much less? You have a pretty high opinion of yourself." Ryoga cracked his knuckles.

"Less talk, more fighting." Akane pointed towards the field where Ranma had fought Kuno so recently. Putting her own words into action, she walked off into the crowd.

Ryoga took a moment to snag his umbrella. "Heh. She's got spunk. And a high opinion of herself."

Take out the last part.  It makes him sound like a broken record.

Ranma's face had an ugly expression flicker across it. "Come on, Ryoga. You want to fight me so bad, let's get to it." Ranma's leap cleared the crowd in a single bound.

Ryoga headed in what he thought was the right direction. Of course, with his sense of direction, he ran off in the wrong direction. In fact, he went in almost the direct opposite of where he was supposed to go.

"Jeez, there he goes again."

Akane gave her fianc, an incredulous look. "He can't be that bad, can he?"

"No, he's worse. He can't even find his way out of the bathroom sometimes." Ranma spun on her. "What did you think you were doing? That was my fight!"

"I wasn't interfering with the fight, Ranma. I was pounding it through his thick skull that he forfeited the fight. I can't stand people that can't admit that they lost."

Ranma threw her a dirty look. She didn't have to rub it in.

-

"So why does he hate you so much, Ranma?" Akane asked on the way home. She was dashing along the fence top on the opposite side of the small road.

"Dunno. Maybe it had something to do with school." Ranma creased his forehead in concentration, bouncing over a gate on his fence. "We both went to an all boys school. It was a real zoo at lunch. They always saved a loaf of bread to throw out. I always got it. Naturally."

"So you fought over food at your school?" Akane asked, flummoxed.

"Yeah. Everyday. He always cried bitter tears of anger and I always won, of course. Let's see, there was the chow mien bread, the seafood bread, curry bread, the meat bread... "

"Gee, Ranma, you don't think you may have overdone it, do you?"

"What? It was fair game!"

You may want to cut out this part, as we've all heard it before, and Akane's reaction wasn't anything noteworthy.

-

Ranma tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. Behind him, on the edge of the grass, Akane sat calmly reading an ancient scroll, unconsciously tensing muscles as she tried to visualize how to actually do the move it explained.

Voices murmured in the background, rising in volume. "There he is!"

"He's only a week late this time!"

Isn't it a little early for the rest of the students to know his "problem" that well?

Ryoga growled at the hecklers. He turned back to Ranma even as he hefted his umbrella while dropping his pack. "Ranma, I hoped you are prepared to die today!"

"You made it finally! Here! Take this!" he cried out in reply, tossing a small roundish package at the lost boy.

A snap of his wrist and it landed neatly in his hand. "What? Bread?"

"Fine, be that way!" Ranma retorted, flinging more loaves of bread that Ryoga caught. "Jeeze, talk about greedy."

"Is this some sort of joke?" Ryoga looked confused and irritated.

"Isn't this about those bread fights?"

"You think this is merely about bread? Ranma Saotome, for what you have done to me, I will destroy you!" Ryoga glanced at the bread quickly. "Besides, these are all past the sell dates!"

"You kept me waiting for a week, you know."

Ryoga flung the bread away and charged at the slightly smaller rival. "Enough! I attack!" he yelled out even as he flung himself forward, stabbing at his hated foe.

Almost casually, Ranma ducked and weaved, hopping backwards when he had to. "Hey! What's this all about then?" They both bounced into the air casually, taking the fight to a new level.

"Thanks to you, I have seen hell!" the fanged boy yelled out in anger, overextending even as Ranma twisted over the sloppy attack.

"Huh?" Ranma asked intelligently as they both landed over a dozen feet apart.

"Mere words can not convey my suffering!" Ryoga opened his umbrella and spun it at Ranma like a top.

Ranma sidestepped it casually, keeping one eye on it and one eye on Ryoga. He felt more than saw Ryoga charge at him while lashing out with another piece of cloth. His bandana? Ranma twitched his hand out of the way and blocked Ryoga openhanded grab. "So tell me..." Ranma quipped even as he used his other hand to redirect Ryoga's kick over his head, " ...how many bandanas are you wearing?"

"You won't make light of this..." Ryoga blustered, flustered that Ranma had so easily dodged his bandana snatch and follow up attacks.

"Ranma! Quit playing with him!" Akane cried out angrily.

Ryoga's eyes twitched in anger, a scowl growing on his face. His umbrella spun to a halt, narrowly missing some male students. "Playing with me?"

Ranma's eyes narrowed, even as his fianc,e's

I'll give you three guesses.

words stung

him. "Fine."

"Probably not. Better wake him up," Ranma commented. "Still

need to find out why he hates my guts."

"Ooh! Let me!" cried out a girl. Akane thought her name was Sayuri, but she couldn't be sure. She came running back a minute later with a bucket full of water. Akane might have Ranma, but this guy wasn't bad. Well, except for his getting lost.

Without any fanfare, she dumped the water over him, eliciting an unexpected response.

"SQWEEE!" the little piglet cried out, even as it looked around.

The shocked expression of the people surrounding him told him that they knew. They knew!

"Ryoga?" Ranma cried out in shock. "You went to Jusenkyo? I mean, you followed me all the way there?"

Akane's eyes narrowed appreciatively. "That could be why he hates you so much."

"But it's not my fault!"

Ryoga growled and launched himself at Ranma. The same girl who had interrupted their previous fight unexpectedly brought him up short, her hand snapping out and snagging his bandana.

"Is that why you hate him?" she asked forcibly, shaking him by his bandana.

The little piglet managed to nod yes even as he struggled to break free.

"You do know that Ranma has a curse too, right?"

He stopped struggling, looking at the girl who held him. He shook his head in negation.

"He turns into a girl when splashed with cold water. So he knows what it's like. Even if he's whiny about it. Keeps blaming his girl side for losing our fights," Akane said smugly.

"I ain't done that in weeks! I agree with you that I need to train my cursed form up to speed!" Ranma protested. Akane had nagged him incessantly until he'd agreed to do so.

"So what are you going to do if it rains during one of your fights, Ranma? Lose and whine because your girl curse made you lose? Even if it's to a girl?"

"Come on. We'll get you changed back." Akane hefted his backpack with one hand, slipping it over her shoulder.

"Let me carry him!" Sayuri asked, taking the cursed martial artist when he was proffered. "You're so cute!" she cried out as she hugged him.

You know what?  This could very well mean Ryoga gets stuck on Sayuri instead.  Now if (original)Akane had problems with Ryoga's affections, how do you think a normal girl like Sayuri will (not)hold up?

"We're home!" Ranma and Akane greeted as they walked in the door.

"Oh, hello!" Nanami called out from the kitchen.

"I'm going to change, Ranma," Akane called out as she zipped up the stairs.

"Sure." He shrugged as he thought for a second. He walked into the kitchen. "Say, Nanami, do you know if there are any vitamins around?" He needed something beyond training for an edge.

The older woman smiled as she looked up from her cooking. "There should be. Let me take a look." She opened a cupboard up above her head. "Hmm. That's odd. There should be several here. Nabiki must have taken them up to her room. She takes a lot of vitamins, you know."

Something seemed wrong with this scene as I was first reading it... Now I know why.  So I guess the others didn't know just how bad Nabiki was going, eh?

Soun walked by his daughter's side, looking at her carefully. He sighed. It must be the price of a modern world. "Don't worry. I'm sure he will be fine about this."

Kasumi sniffled loudly. "Father!"

"We'll call him tomorrow. I'm sure his family will be amenable to reason." Soun cleared his throat. "He is a responsible boy, right?" Obviously not that responsible, he grumbled to himself.

Kasumi nodded her head frantically.

You know, I missed this part at first.  Talk about your hidden foreshadowing...

"Mr. Tendo! Thank God you're home!" Nanami said, bustling out of the house. "Something terrible has happened!"

"Nanami? Get a hold of yourself! What is going on here?" Soun called out.

"Ranma was taken to the hospital. He had a seizure of some sort. Mr. Saotome and Akane went with him."

"Ranma?"

-


Nabiki pulled a drag off of her cigarette. She and her friends were hanging around the local mall, trying to figure out something to do.

"We don't got the money to go see a flick, Lita. Just give it up," one of the girls said with an angry scowl on her face.

"What do you say, Nabiki? You good for a loan?"

"Not with you. You still owe me... two hundred and fifty yen from last week. I'm not loaning you nothing until you pay it back." Nabiki gave the girl a hard look, a look that told her in no uncertain terms that was the way it was.

"Damn, no reason to bite my head off..."

"Nabiki! You are coming home. Now!" Akane barked out loudly. Her face was flushed with anger, her fists shaking. She stood just down the sidewalk from them. Her mere expression had cleared her a small clearing in the throngs of people.

"Buzz off, Akane. I don't want to."

"I didn't ask." Akane turned her head to one of Nabiki's friends trying sidle sideways around her. "Don't even think it."

"What's poor Daddy dearest upset about this time?" Nabiki sneered down her nose at her younger sister.

"You've gone too far this time. I can't believe that you're into drugs."

Nabiki's breath caught in her throat. "That's a pretty serious accusation, sis." Her friends rustled around her in nervous movement.

"It put Ranma in the hospital. He thought he was taking vitamins."

"Ah, did poor widdle Wanma get sick? You can't make me come home." Inside she was shaken. This could be very bad indeed.

"Yes, Nabiki, I can. And I will." Akane's voice spoke of the chill wind that drifted from the artic regions.

"Did your poor little lover boy fail to come home so you could go fuck in the dojo?" Nabiki put a brave face forward as she stood. "Go home. Daddy's little precious girl. Daddy's little bitch." Nabiki palmed her switchblade.

Akane dipped her head to the side, her hand unerringly grabbing fist that tried to strike her from behind. A simple toss threw the hapless girl thirty feet, sending her tumbling. "I warned you." It was hard to see whom she was talking to.

The crowd around them parted back even farther. Normally, six on one odds, they'd be betting on the street rats. But the single girl seemed more than capable of taking on them. Including all of them in the crowd. Mall security was pushing their way to them, trying to get through the press of the crowd.

"Go to hell, bitch," Nabiki said through clenched teeth. As if that were a signal, the rest of her friends charged at her sister.

Akane became a blur of motion. Two punches robbed the closest two girls of their breath, causing them to collapse and lose their latest meals before they could even swing a single punch. She barely swayed, left then right to dodge the last two girls. A simultaneous palm strike to a sternum and a kick to another girl's jaw saw the last of Nabiki's girls drop.

Nabiki licked her lips as she snapped out her blade. She had little illusions about the outcome of this fight. But she couldn't not fight. She'd be happy if she even marked the girl in front of her. She wicked out her blade, so fast that it almost whistled, a snarl on her lips.

She may as well have been trying to hit a shadow. She felt a flurry of strikes numb her arm from the shoulder on down. The knife clattered to the ground. Nabiki didn't even see the punch that knocked her out.

"Does anyone else have a problem with me taking my sister home?" Akane asked coldly, scanning the crowd for dissenters.

Even the security guards took an involuntary step backwards. With that pronouncement said, she picked up Nabiki's prone body and vaulted to the closest two story building. Almost instantly she was out of sight.

-

In the earlier chapters, you seemed to have Nabiki getting involved with some possibly nasty guys.  Perhaps they should not take kindly to Akane's "interference" with their associates, especially if Nabiki's gang embellishes on their story a bit.

Even Ranma couldn't miss the tears that were threatening to pour from her eyes. Akane suddenly latched onto Ranma in a death tight hug, her sobs muffled by his chest. Ranma could do nothing except pat her on the back.

-

I was thinking about their situation, and come up with an idea, but it seems that the later developments may make it moot.

"So why are we doing this again?" Ranma asked the next day, her mop of red hair slipped under a green Chinese communist hat, which went along perfectly with the green outfit she wore.

"Because our fathers thought that we needed to do something other than practice. You were the one that decided that going out for ice cream sounded good." Akane was miffed at Ranma pulling the cutesy act to get more free eats on the way home. Had she no shame?

"Ah, you're just upset that I can be cuter than you when I want to be!" Although Ranma did have to admit that Akane did look pretty cute in that sundress. Ranma took a quick vicious bite of her dumpling to distract herself. Akane was the foe, to be defeated at any cost.

This was a part of the idea.  It may still work, though.  Keep looking...

"No time to argue, son! Come with me!" Genma said, dragging Ranma up the stairs at a trot. "Nanami, I'm going to need that kettle!"

"You too, Akane! You need to get ready and help Kasumi get dressed!" Soun said from right behind, pushing her up the stairs at just a little less than a trot.

Akane found herself shoved into her oldest sister's room. "Kasumi?"

"Oh, Akane! You need to get ready. Did father explain to you what's going on?"

Ranma nearly jumped through the roof when he heard Akane yell out, "WHAT! NEVER!"

"Jeez, what's her problem?" Ranma asked his father as he patted his hair dry.

"I think that you had better ask her about that, boy."

"Why do I have to wear this get up?" he groused, tugging fitfully at the ornate kimono and hakima.

"Ranma, I want you to be especially polite. Takchi has brought his parents over to formalize the engagement to Kasumi. I would be very disappointed if you disrupted this solemn event." Light glinted off of Genma's glasses, reminding him for just a second that his lazy old man could still give him a thorough beating if he did truly upset him.

"Uh, sure." Now why did he think Ranma would disrupt the event?

Soon everyone had gathered at the dinner table. Genma and Soun were at one end, an older couple at the other. Ranma and Takchi were sitting one side, waiting for Akane and Kasumi, who had gone into the kitchen. Everyone present, excluding Nanami, was dressed in formal kimonos. There seemed to be a high level of tension in the room.

Kasumi and Akane entered the room, carrying trays with tea fixings. They knelt across from their respective mates. Ranma noted that Akane seemed to be watching what Kasumi was doing, mimicking her as closely as possible. There seemed to be an almost ritualistic feel to the events. Ranma wasn't terribly sure of the significance, but he thought he had a good idea. As he took the cup of tea from his fianc,e,

You know what comes here... ^_^

he

noted that she looked like she had cried recently.

Nice touch.

Soun cleared his throat. "I am pleased to meet you and your lovely wife today, Mr. Riaku. Even though this is an unexpected event, it is not an unhappy one. With the change of plans, I am willing to offer Kasumi and her husband a place to stay until they finish college, as our house is much closer and is an easier commute. These and gifts for your son's education are from my family to your family."

Mr. Riaku nodded. "These are generous, indeed, for my humble son. We are both agreed that the wedding will occur in six weeks time?"

"Yes. That will give us two weeks after Akane and Ranma's wedding to prepare."

Ranma's heart seemed to thud to the bottom of his stomach. What? His eyes met Akane's, seeing her pained expression and a small curt shake of her head when he started to open his mouth. Why was she willing to go along with this?

"I look forward to this occasion."

-

"What the heck is going on?" Ranma cried out, after the guests had departed. He folded nearly in half as Akane unexpectedly punched him in the stomach.

"There isn't a choice, Ranma. Kasumi has to be married soon. And if I don't want to lose my inheritance, I have to be married before her."

"Eh? Whatcha talking about?"

"What she is saying, is due to how inheritance taxes work, she has to be married before I am or she might not inherit the dojo. This is all my fault," Kasumi said, blowing her nose as emphasis. She had started crying almost the moment that the Riaku's had left.

"How can it be your fault?" Ranma asked, quite confuse now.

"Well, unless I want to be a single mother, I have to be married soon." Kasumi laid her hands on her stomach, looking like she was going to start crying any time.

Now THIS was unexpected.

Soun rubbed the bridge of his nose. "This has forced us to move faster than expected, that's all. Ranma and Akane have been engaged for a while and this only formally engages Kasumi. I only wish that we weren't having this problem with Nabiki right now."

"Oh," Ranma replied eloquently. Maybe this wasn't just his old man messing with his life, like normal.

"Father? Ranma and I have to practice for a match this upcoming Saturday. So if we could be excused."

Soun nodded, letting them run off. He sighed. "Well, Saotome, it looks like things are really moving along now."

"That you're right about, Tendo."

-

Okay, now to my idea.  Now, we've seen how Ranma and Akane have been brought a little closer by their ongoing rivalry.  Bt what if it gets to be a bit too much?  If their desire to "beat" each other begins to extend into more than just Martial Arts, and begins to stop them from getting any closer, or causes them to do dumb or bad things regarding each other, trying to get the upper hand?

All in all, I really like the chapter, even if the Kodachi bit was kinda short.  Good work.


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