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| - Meeting Later Chapter 11 This two-part arc is rated “Hotspring”, for adult situations and exploitative nudity. Seriously, you will find out things about Mikado and Kodachi you didn’t want to know. Gori, the old head chef of the Koibito no Tansai Ski Lodge, shook his head. “I’m very sorry about that. The black haired girl said she wanted to make breakfast for her fiancée. I just turned my back on your breakfast for a second.” Ranma nodded, not angry. “Hey, it sounds like she can be very clever in her tricks and such. In a way it’s good training to keep us on our toes.” He didn’t want to be rude to the kindly old man, but Ranma wanted to get back to Akane before anything happened. The bus back with the other guests had been very tense all round, he had had to calm Akane and Kodachi twice on the ride before it came to blows, and if they were left alone now back… Shaking his head again at the hurried young man before him, Gori grinned, relieved that it wasn’t a true complaint. “Well you’re a lively bunch for a group so small.” “Yeah, things can really get out of control with Sakura and that Kuno guy,” Ranma said as he grabbed a few extra pork buns into the snack tray he was preparing. Gori’s hand came up, a finger to the lips motioning him to be quiet, both hearing Sakura calling to the old woman in the hall outside. Moving to the kitchen door, Ranma listened closely, wondering what she was up to. “I’m so sorry that my guests and I have been causing such trouble,” she gushed, trying to bond with the older manager. “In truth, though they are my friends, I will completely support you in kicking them out if they get any more rowdy, if you take my meaning?” The old woman’s low harsh voice spoke quietly but clearly, “Your patronage is appreciated, Ms Shishimi. If they disrupt your enjoyment, they can be dealt with.” “That’s all I wanted to hear,” Sakura replied happily, before a new voice came down the hall. The young receptionist was rushing towards them. “Grandmother, we have a problem in reception.” Ranma could imagine the glee on Sakura’s face as he tossed his snack tray on the stove with an ‘I’ll be back’ to Gori as he dove out the back and rushed to the entrance and reception hoping to beat the women there. Barging in, his stomach dropped as he saw Akane and Kodachi tussling on the ground in a hair pulling catfight. Mikado was nearby, getting up, touching his eye which had apparently been hit and was already red. Darting forward, the dark haired boy grabbed a one-use camera from a convenient rack near the reception bench, tearing open the bag it came in with its film, tossing it to the blonde Mikado as he grabbed up the fighting girls. One hand snaked around Kodachi’s flank to pull her against him, his other hand sliding on Akane as she resisted, but he still managed to pull her against him. “Say cheese before we get kicked out!” he demanded sweetly. The two girls reacted like Japanese schoolgirls, automatically stopping their struggles to pose and smile, Kodachi even putting forward her hand with fingers up like a ‘V’, as Mikado raised the camera to his good eye and taking the a photo. Blinking from the flash and red-faced, Akane just managed to grab Ranma’s hand from her behind and bring it to her hip as three women entered the room. “Hey Sakura, come have a photo?” Frowning at the disheveled girls posing with her fiancé, Sakura was never one to pass a camera lens. Akane and Kodachi stepped back with forced smiles as Sakura all but jumped on the dark haired young man to pose for the camera held by Mikado. “Truce?” Akane asked through clenched teeth, “at least till the last day?” “Agreed,” Kodachi hissed back behind her smile.
* Ranma frowned at his companions in the men’s change room, keeping away from, the cold water the other guys were washing off with. “Ah, a hard day of exercise followed by a full meal with my beloved and now a therapeutic hot bath. Life would only be finer with better company than the two of you,” Kuno proclaimed as he wrapped a towel around his waist and made for the curtained doorway to the hotspring. “I myself would rather be in with the girls next door than with you, brother,” Mikado returned with a grin, putting his towel over his shoulder as he strode after the eldest of them. Washing off with hot water, Ranma wrapped the towel around his waist and strode out after the pair, taking in the hot spring. After a short wood deck, a natural steaming pool stretched out before them. Ending part way out over the water, a weather shelter then opened to the air, the views of the mountain visible over low bamboo fencing around the outside. The left hand wall was twice as high, both young men ahead of him looking at it as they entered the water, blocking his vision to the women’s side of the spring. Unfortunately that wall didn’t go the length of the spring at the deeper far end, where Kuno was already moving towards, sloshing through the hot water. Stepping into the naturally heated water, Ranma was unable to relax into it. “Oi, Kuno, where are you going, pervert?” Red faced, the taller, older boy turned on him. “Paint your betters not with the tainted intentions in your mind, I merely move to guard the way from you and my Sister’s deviant partner from spying upon the beautiful form of Ms Shishimi, or the divine form of my beloved, as they frolic, undressed, in the hot water, splashing each other playfully, bouncing and giggling girlishly, light chaste kisses hiding the passions confusing their innocent minds…” “Focus brother,” Mikado grinned, “and wipe your chin of drool.” “Any reason you’re moving to ‘guard’ with him? Maybe you should guard each other together over there away from temptation,” Ranma suggested. “Hey, I’m not some immature peeping tom hiding behind some excuse like a child, I am walking around to their side to be with my fiancée.” “I wouldn’t go claiming to be a man before you hit puberty,” Ranma stated, waving vaguely to Mikado’s body, annoyed at the gall of the blonde guy. Mikado looked down, before turning red, in anger and embarrassment. “I shave you idiot!” “Hohohohoho, Why don’t you boys come join us before you go comparing hair styles?” Mikado grinned at hearing his equally crass fiancée, and turned again to make for the passage to the women’s side, Kuno torn for a moment at his sister making the offer. He finally turned to go as well, a boulder crashed into the water in front of them, splashing them both back away from the passage to the other side. “NO! If I see any of you perverts come around that corner, I will drown you!” Akane called out. Chuckling, Ranma called out, “And I’ll help her.”
* “It is good to know your brutish strength is good for something, Akane-chan,” Sakura said, red faced and tightly holding her towel to her body as she entered the water. Ignoring her, an equally red faced Akane held her own towel in front of her, eyeing the opening at the far end of the pool. Satisfied the perverts knew their place, she glared down at Kodachi lounging in the water with her towel around her hair. “How could you tell that to them?” Amused at the prudish attitude of the girls, Kodachi closed her eyes and relaxed, speaking her mind. “It is not as if Mikado-chan has not taken in my beauty far more than a distorted view through these waters. As for my Brother, I certainly hope he does not think of me in any such way. And it is only fair that poor Ranma’s fantasies of me are accurate, no?” “He is my fiancée, Kodachi,” Sakura stated equally angry as Akane. “He is the only man to see my treasures, and yearns for no others over them.” “Oh and how did such a thing happen, Sakura-chan?” Kodachi purred back, looking for gossip on how far her former rival and her obviously reluctant man had gone. Akane held her tongue, suddenly interested as well. “Well if you must know, I had been attacked by a stalker and was in the hospital, when some filthy slug photographer tried to get some candid shots of me for some lowly tabloid. My destined hero, Ranma appeared and saved me,” she stated with a sigh, her hands brushing over the skin of her shoulders. “As was right he stayed with me while I recovered, and, well not to kiss and tell, but some things happened during a sponge bath.” Pursing her lips at the memory of kisses, she shivered with a delighted sigh in the hot water. “He was the only man to ever see my naked form, and the only one I want ever to do so.” Almost trembling with rage, Akane’s eyes tried to make the blonde bimbo burst into flames. Fortunately for her Kodachi was equally focused on her former rival, “Surely you forget those shots of you in those men’s magazines? You’ve been seen by more men than a Vikky's himitsu model.” Snapped back into the moment, Sakura glared back at the dark haired girl who had made the Victoria secret model comparison. “Those photos were fake. I have never ever posed such. My family’s lawyers are still suing those responsible and will be interested in any slander you perpetuate. No man has seen me, other than my future husband.” Red faced but amused by Kodachi’s accusation, Akane shook it off, her head tilting to look at Sakura, “But I thought that bandana wearing boy, who wore black at the tournament, saw you in the bath too?” “Ryoga Hibiki never saw me naked,” Sakura denied outright, red faced. “He tried but failed to peek on me.” “And what of your doctor?” Kodachi asked, “Surely he has seen what he added to you?” “Doctor Feikuyamas’s involvement was only to cover up the scar from when I was attacked by a stalker. Again, my family’s lawyers will not sit idly by against slander claiming otherwise.” The giggling of the disbelieving girls gave Sakura the chance to turn the focus off herself, her eyes looking to Akane. “Perhaps with such a mannish form, you could talk to Dr Feikuyamas to become more feminine, Akane-chan,” Sakura spat, stretching her form out sensually to make the point of who she thought was more feminine, before lowering herself back into the water. Kodachi laughed, annoying the dark haired girl, before glancing at the blonde with her hair pinned up. “While less gifted than some, Akane-chan has been growing some my dear Sakura.” Akane glanced at Kodachi nervously, trying to think of a good line before Kodachi dropped the other shoe. “While Akane is a late bloomer, you Sakura sprouted up over night as it were. Some might say with surgical speed.” Sakura turned white, face ugly with rage, “I will not warn you again about slander, Kodachi. I am one hundred percent natural.” Kodachi leaned up, getting her feet under herself, “Even your hair?” Frowning at the change of focus, Sakura put a hand to her hair, “My hair? Of course, you may even ask my darling fiancée how natural my hair is.” Angry again at Ranma for knowing such, Akane almost missed Kodachi give her a look, as the dark haired girl moved to put Sakura between them. Sakura just picked up that she was between them when Kodachi lunged weakly for her arms, crying to Akane. “Let down her hair!” Akane’s brow furrowed, wondering what Kodachi expected to gain from such, but as Sakura ripped her hands back from Kodachi and turned, expecting to fend Akane off from her hair, Kodachi sprung her trap. Shooting into Sakura’s back, Kodachi gripped her wrists from behind, this time trying to hold her as she pulled the blonde girl up above the water, her towel falling away, “Akane, quickly look for implant scars!” Despite the embarrassment of violating Sakura’s personal space, Akane took the opportunity Kodachi opened, she took advantage, and darted close, eyes scouring around the young woman’s chest, looking for scarring. She saw what might have been a thin white line scar, before Kodachi pushed Sakura forward, and Akane got the undesired sensation of touch as well as sight. Tripping backwards into the hot water to get away, Akane could hear Sakura screeching, even under the surface of the water, enraged words at both her and Kodachi. As she came back up, Akane glared at the laughing Kodachi, who was pointing at her. “I was just helping you get another girlfriend, Akane-chan.”
* Three young men sat still on the other side of the spring, listening to the girls, but none of them were willing to raise their hips above the water to get up and go to offer help…
* Looking from the moonlit snow falling outside the window, Akane refocused on the male in the futon across from her. A tiny candle flickered light over the side of his face, as he lay on stomach, looking at the broom and mop, each leaning on the wall on either side of the door. He didn’t look at her, and she didn’t know what he was feeling, her own feelings rolling, recalling what she knew of him and what Sakura had claimed in the hot spring. It had taken nearly two hours of talking in the darkened resort room just to work up to asking him about it. “So exactly what happened between you and Sakura? Something about a sponge bath?” “That’s a weird story really. She was the first girl to really take an interest in me, I was pretty clueless, and she was really manipulative, I barely understand how it happened even now.” Akane smirked at the idea of him no longer being clueless now, but she let him continue. “I was at the hospital, ah, when Mom found out about the Neko-ken, she wanted me to see a therapist, useless as that was. So I was going pretty regularly to see some big shot doctor who wanted to study me,” he began, embarrassed but surprising himself that he could admit that kind of stuff to Akane. “I got lost and I was walking through a ward, and I heard a scream. I went to help, and in a private room I see this guy trying to pull a blanket off this girl. I knocked him down, and he ran off.” Scratching his nose, the dark haired young man kept his gaze on the door, but not seeing anything in the present, “The cops showed up, asking questions, so did Mom, and Sakura and her lawyers asked us back to the room, where she was all weak in bed, saying thank you.” “It was embarrassing, but Mom was all proud of me, and then Sakura asked if I could stay and guard her till she was better, offering to pay me, so I did. A couple other guys with cameras showed up, and couple days later there is a story in a magazine about me being her boyfriend. Mom was happy, saying to treat her right and not be too rough till she recovered, even…” A sudden cough narrowed Akane’s eyes, his face turning away, “Well anyway, I…” “What did Aunty do?” Akane asked before he could change the subject. Groaning, Ranma looked over to the girl, embarrassed. “Ah, well, Mom had a pretty big thing about me being a man among men, and with my curse... she had got me a box of condoms…” Flushing red, Akane huffed, her eyes narrowed on her friend. “You and Sakura…” “Ack, Kami no,” he stated suddenly, rolling up on his side to look at her, “Nearly, but no.” “Nearly?” Wincing at her cold tone, Ranma locked his eyes on her. “She tried to kiss me a few times, but, she kept going on about how weak she was, and I didn’t know any better. Then she was going on about the nurses talking to the papers about her, and she didn’t trust them, and could I, give her a sponge bath.” Nodding to encourage him, Akane frowned but was curious at his uncomfortableness with the subject. “Well, I could hardly say no, and physically she isn’t ugly. We started to kiss some, I guess it was going okay,” he stated, before giving a sudden shiver, rolling onto his back to look up at the ceiling. “And that’s when I jumped through the window.” Sitting up, Akane stared at him in disbelief. “You jumped out of the window? Why?” His hands gestured as he searched for the right words, “It was a cat, and it snuck up on us.” At first Akane sniggered, then began to giggle, but before she reached laughing, he tried to defend it. “Hey, it was one of them hypnoanelgesic ones, those retarded hairless looking ones. The hospital has them for recovering patients. They’re freaky and it snuck up on me!” Laughing outright now, Akane rolled from side to side on her futon. Finally controlling herself, she looked to the now sulking boy. “Hypoallergenic cat, Ranma, and its only funny because that is what ruined Sakura’s plans,” she said over her laughs to placate him. “What did Sakura do?” Mollified by her words, but still far from happy, he rolled back to lay face up again. “She wasn’t happy. But it was the next day when I got splashed with water, and I must have said something wrong cause she thought I was my own girlfriend, and suddenly she jumped out of the bed and nearly kicked my ass. She had been faking being weak to play me. It got worse when during the fight, I kind of held her down on the bed, and one of those photographers got a picture. Next week there was a magazine claiming she liked girls, so she was even angrier. She showed up again wanting to find my girl side again to beat her up.” “And by then you were over her?” “Not that it was hard to get over, especially once I knew how much of a psycho she is.” Nodding sympathetically, Akane smiled, watching him still. Rolling onto his side, he looked at her. “What about you? You’ve said Mikado was after ya, and Kuno obviously, but surely all the guys at your school aren’t that bad?” “They are,” Akane said, a little defensively, “Every one of them.” Getting a grin on his face, Ranma kept his eyes on hers. “There has to be someone you felt something for?” Grimacing, Akane turned onto her back, looking up at the ceiling rather than face his blue eyes. “I, okay, I had a huge crush on Dr Tofu for a long time. I was so clueless, I even grew my hair out like Kasumi’s trying to compete with her.” “What happened?” His question, or rather the tone of it, drew a glance from her, but she looked back at the ceiling, seeing the past. “Well I got roped into fighting Kodachi in Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts, and after I blew the first fight with the disqualification, Dr Tofu offered to help train me. I thought it meant something, and we trained together for a week after school, but as we trained, he would hesitantly ask questions about Kasumi. I knew he had feelings for her, but I thought it was my big chance.” Her hands came up to her blushing face, muffling her voice. “When I won the second match with Kodachi, and in the excitement of victory, I tried to steal a kiss. Right then he saw straight past me to Kasumi and I kissed his cheek.” Throwing her hands down at her sides, somewhat angrily, she still didn’t look at Ranma. “After that I knew I’d never be a woman in his eyes.” “Shampoo would say you gave up too easy,” Ranma teased. Akane’s eyes flashing to his, but he looked away, uncomfortably. She knew he meant it as teasing, and not to hurt her. Ranma Saotome never really needed an excuse to tease her, though that time she could sense it was to cover his feelings. “There was another guy since then,” she said quietly, eyes on his as he glanced at her then looked away. Despite the churn of old feelings for her first and only official boyfriend, she wanted to see him react. “He was a great martial artist, pretty cute, fearless, a little rough like you.” She smiled slightly as he squirmed and finally met her gaze, watching her. “I thought he liked me, we went out on a few dates, even kissed once.” His blanket shivered as he trembled a little, his hand raking through his hair, covering his face for a moment, and she lay on her back again, breaking eye contact completely. “Turned out he didn’t even want what you wanted from Sakura in that hospital. He was a pervert, but he was just using me for something else. Grandfather showed me that.” “So what did you do to him?” The far more relaxed state of his voice made her smile, insides fluttering. “I hit him where it hurt him most.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ranma’s legs fold up defensively under the blanket. “Not that idiot. He was Chinese, and he had some stupid custom, kind of like Shampoo’s idiotic tribal rules. I used his against him, he will suffer for a long time.” She rolled to look at Ranma again over that single candle flame. “You don’t expect I would be satisfied with just a one off blow do you?” He grinned at her, “Actually I kinda imagined you had ‘em in a jar on your beside table.” “Gross,” she stated flatly. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t want any of him that close to my bed.” He frowned, but kept his eyes on her face. “Before you found out he was using you, would you have wanted him like that?” Blushing, Akane resisted the urge to turn away, knowing she could trust him, but still having difficulty finding the words. “I don’t really know, I mean, I kind of thought about it idly, he was pretty cute, and I thought he was into me, emotionally I mean.” “I mean if you like a guy, of course you want him thinking of you. And in some ways he was a gentleman, not staring at my chest like Kuno and others do, and not that greasy way Mikado looks at any girl with a heartbeat.” Glancing down, she bit her lip, frowning before looking back up at Ranma, “I guess it did hurt that he didn’t want me, but I guess he just didn’t feel that way about me, like you and Sakura.” “He was an idiot then,” Ranma stated quickly, with a trace of anger, “I mean if I felt for Sakura back then, half of what I get when I…” Blushing badly, Ranma broke off, looking up at the ceiling. “What Ranma?” Akane whispered urgently, knowing he was going to try and change the subject, and suddenly she knew when he was referring to. “The massages?” He nodded, not seeing her shiver as her skin tingled with past memory of his hands. “I mean, I keep it professional,” he defended, still blushing badly, “but I just wish I felt like that for any of my fiancées.” Like a splash of cold water, Akane refocused, reminded of the simple fact of their respective impossible situations… a panicked part of her mind crying pervert at him, and worse at herself, as her hormones settled. “I guess they’re lucky I have more control than them,” she said lightly, smirking as her body arched up sensually to roll onto her back, looking up at the ceiling once more. “After all if I had as little self control as them, you’d never be satisfied with another woman again.” Even as he searched for words to tease back about himself, his imagination distractingly rampant, a clatter drew both to look at the door, where the broomstick had fallen over. “You were right,” Ranma stated, not getting up, but rolling onto his stomach to look at the door. The two strings came up from under it, one stretching to the handle of the still standing mop, the other to the now fallen broom. A primitive alarm system, the strings were tied at the other ends to the respective doors of the rooms the pair were allocated by the management. “Sakura was faster to me than Kuno to you.”
* Simultaneously, two doors opened into the darkened hallway, three figures blinking rather foolishly at each other in the middle of the night. Kodachi looked at her brother in the opposing doorway, eyeing the candy filled heart and bunch of beautiful red roses he held in his hands. She frowned at the ugly blue silk robe he wore, boken hanging through its belt, her nose crinkling as his cologne suddenly hit her nostrils like a blow. “Good evening brother, I take it you are off to visit your commoner tart?” Tatewaki Kuno eyed his conniving sister and her ill chosen fancy. Both were dressed in black jumpsuits, her hair bound up while his blonde strands lay hidden under a winter cap, his hands filled with a length of rope, a camera, a nappy, and a bunch of Kodachi’s prized, and no doubt poisoned, black roses. “Indeed sister, and I will brook no interference from the likes of the two of you.” With an idle wave of her hand, Kodachi shook her head. “Our aims do not conflict, dear brother. We merely seek to remind Sakura’s fiancé not to disturb his betters.” Perking up, Kuno nodded his head to the pair. “Then I wish you luck in your pursuits.” Kodachi rolled her eyes at her fiancé, letting Kuno step from his doorway and lead the way down the hall. Knowing that the pair was walking behind him, the future of the Kuno family didn’t let it interfere with his stride as he moved down the hall, imagining his entrance, and expected positive reception. Reaching the end of the hall, he eyed the door number to Akane’s domicile of the resort. He felt the eyes of his sister and Mikado at the previous door, to the vile cheater Saotome, but the pair appeared to be waiting for him to act first. With a sharp breath, he pulled open her door and stepped within. From the dim light in the hall, Kuno made out the bedding around the sleeping form of his love, imagining the dreams of him she was having, and slightly disappointed her unpredictable and mysterious red haired companion was not with her. Sliding the door behind him, he posed himself best for her to wake up to, then tried a different pose, and a third. Finally deciding to kneel at her side, he hesitated, juggling the flowers and sweets he brought as gifts to the bed chamber of his love, to take off his robe, knowing she would appreciate him not having to get up again to take it off once this most special time began. Taking a knee at her side, he realized he had no free hand with which to waken her, and again fumbled with his two presents. Finally ready, he reached out. “Beloved. Awaken from your dreams to… argh!” His hands found his love far too soft. Yanking back the blanket, he exposed a fake body of pillows. Even before Tatewaki could jump to a conclusion, a feminine voice screamed in embarrassed horror from the next room. In a flash, Kuno and his boken were off to save his love.
* Minutes before Kuno even left his room, Sakura Shishimi was tingling with anticipation as she slipped into the room her fiancé was occupying at the resort, wishing she could hum to herself as she worked rather than keep silent. Her future husband could snore while sleeping, quite loudly, she recalled from when he had slept in the chair beside her bed at the hospital. And that time she ‘let’ him stay in her locked closet to hide from his enemies while he was weakened by that evil gnome, Happosai. This time he slept silently, like a log. Turning up the heating, she set about her plan. Recalling that American bimbo who boosted her career, Sakura began to she set up a video camera on a tripod, set the night vision filter, and aiming it with the view window at the green image of her man sleeping bundled up in blankets. Of course that silly American tramp had blown her inheritance and respectability, for fame and a short career by indulging in the image of being a stupid spoiled whore. A talented star, such as herself, would rise on the fame when this ‘stolen’ recording is sold, catapulting her career into the movies, while avoiding the ‘slut’ label when her partner makes an honest woman out of her through their foretold marriage next year. She had a vague image of herself on the cover of major magazines, shaking her head as the image of holding the piglet form of Ryoga Hibiki in place of the little Chihuahua appeared. ‘What to call it,’ she mulled to herself as she prepared the last camera, this one for hand held use. ‘Certainly not “One night in Sakura”. “Breaking the wild horse?” Amusing, but nothing to sell it on the star of the show.’ A grin lit her face, as she pulled off her yukata, exposing her pristine, glistening skin in the dark room. Raising the handycam, she whispered to the microphone on it. “Welcome to ’Sakura in bloom’, take one. Action.” Reaching down, she pulled back the blanket, frowning as Ranma’s ‘head’ rolled away from his ‘body’. Finding her partner was a pile of pillows was just starting to churn up several emotions when the door slid open and two figures began to enter.
* Rushing with the woman’s cry, Kuno burst into the darkened room, weapon at the ready, taking a moment to spot two feminine silhouettes fighting in the dark. He was about to reach for the light switch when the shorter and curvier of the two figures ducked low, falling backwards in a classic judo roll. The other girl, shrieking as only his twister sister could, hit the window with a crash, vanishing outside, freezing wind blowing in the opening. With amusement for his Sister’s failed attack on his beloved, Kuno rushed to hug the victor.
* Awkwardly rolling herself off the uneven pillow body under the blankets, Sakura scanned the dark for the other, knowing Kodachi’s ‘him-bo’ man had gone down when she cracked him in the head with the thrown handycam. A flicker of movement from the doorway caught a male shadow rushing her, and unbalanced as she was, she tried to roll back again, only her attacker blocked with a wooden object, crashing into her, both falling in a pile.
* Shaking his head to clear the stars, Mikado spun on his back, turning the momentum to slide up to his feet. His eyes automatically locked on the fighting pair in the chilling room, springing forward, tensing the rope to try to grapple and bind the figure on his fiancée.
* #click# Six sets of eyes blinked as light flooded the room, sparkling off snowflakes swirling in the broken window. Akane blushed, looking at Sakura, not wearing anything but Kuno, who was wearing little more, just his blue boxes with lightning bolts, and Mikado. Mikado at least, at the top of the pile, was still fully dressed. Rather than continue to watch the show, her eyes turned to the two others at the door with her. Ignoring that two cameras had been set up in his abandoned room, Ranma was surprised, not so much at the scene, he had seen weirder and expected there was a reasonable reason for it. It was more the weird image of his unwanted fiancée’s legs wrapped around Mikado so naturally with Kuno sandwiched between them. Mikado frowned, seeing a surprised Ranma, the very target off this fiasco of a raid, looking from the doorway, and realized quickly that it was his mostly naked future brother in law under him. Blushing badly, homophobia spiking, panic hindering his efforts to get off, still holding a rope around Kuno’s chest and ignoring the feminine ankles locked around his flanks. Sakura was too surprised by the stunned, heavy, young man laying on her, his red face inches from hers, his eyes lower than her face to between them in the brief gap at where his hands had fallen on her bare chest. Worse, her fiancé stood at the door, unresponsive. Her face fell, as his blue eyes did not alight with rage or even lust, turning from her predicament uncaring, eyeing the pajama clad legs of that shameless tramp beside him. Blushing as Ranma glanced at her legs, Akane turned her focus to the little old lady manager Ranma always called ‘Mama-san’, to see how she reacted to the destruction and debauchery. With a heavy sigh, her face still emotionless, the old woman turned off the light and shut the door. She turned to the pair of guests with her, considering them both for a moment, and for a heartbeat Akane was sure she was going to speak. Finally she just sighed again unhappily, and shuffled off down the hall, leaving them alone. The pair had the decency not to burst with laughter till they reached their commandeered room, and even then Mama-san didn’t hear them over Sakura’s shrieking cries of the others to get the hell out of his room.
* “I thought Sakura wanted you to be the only man to see her naked?” Akane asked as she watched Ranma start on breakfast. “What were the cameras in there about?” After losing at rock-paper-scissors over who would play taste tester, Ranma quickly chewed the first bites so he could answer, most of his attention on his body waiting for any effects, should Kodachi have meddled in the kitchen again. “No idea, but I ain’t the only one to have seen her in the buff.” As his face frowned, Akane thought it might be something in the food. “What is it? A drug?” “Huh? No, sorry, fine so far. I just still feel guilty, cause some of those photos she is suing those magazines for showing, are her. She sent them to me, but that jerk, Jiro, or one of his friends, stole them from home and sold ‘em.” Akane paled at the idea of such happening to her, then realized she’d never send anyone pictures of her like that, she wouldn’t have pictures like that taken. Shaking off that train of thought, she focused on the dark haired boy, who pointed to the food on the table, his left hand giving a ‘thumbs up’ as he shoveled down food faster. “You don’t sound too jealous of other men seeing your fiancée?” she asked, sipping a little miso to start. He glanced around the empty dining hall of the resort, making sure Sakura wasn’t behind him. “Sakura ain’t my or Mom’s first pick, so I’m pretty sure that some other guy can be jealous over her. If Ukyo and Shampoo up and quit and I got ta marry her, well I guess it’s kind of too late to get upset. I mean now that Kuno and golden boy have seen her in the flesh, it’is just two more on the list of guys I know who have." “In the hot spring, Sakura was saying you were the only one,” she said, filling her bowl. “I’m pretty sure Happosai has spied on her, and Pops’ has. Mom was pissed at her and Pop because he apparently watched her sun baking topless in our backyard last summer. And I know Ryoga got lost and walked in on her bathing.” “You were there?” “Nah, but he’s pretty hopeless with girls, he gets a red face if a girl bends over. When I asked him what happened he got a nose bleed and passed out, so he at least saw her topless.” He chuckled at the memory as he took some more rice and pickle. “Yeah, right.” He glanced up at the flat disbelief in her voice, “Huh?” “Like a perverted guy is gonna pass out because he saw some fake boob.” “You don’t know Ryoga.” “I know Sakura. They don’t even look that real, the skin all-tight, they have almost no bounce. They don’t look real,” she stated again, suppressing that they certainly looked bigger than hers. He grinned at her, “Yeah, I heard you getting a good look in the hot spring.” His eyebrows waggled in a decent imitation of Happi being lewd. Unfortunately for Ranma, Akane had been waiting all night for that subject to be broached. Not even breaking from eating, her chopsticks flashed, using the Martial arts dining move of ‘Parley du Foie Gras’, feeding most of the wasabi paste into his mouth. Letting him cough and drink down the entire water jug, she didn’t reply to his words. Just as he calmed down, she cut him off from escalating things higher. “You really expect me to believe a pervert who slept in the same bed as your own mother and another of your fiancées, passes out at a memory of fake boob?” He shrugged. “He ain’t that perverted, just lonely. Trust me, if you ever see him in the street, strip naked for him and prove me wrong.” Though a shocking demand, it was more the shiver of him saying the word naked about her that stalled her mind. To Ranma, her jaw dropped as expected at his crassness. This time his chopsticks flicking out, a pickle bouncing off her lips as she began to catch up. Unfortunately not caught up enough, as her hand automatically used the chopsticks to hook up the Karashi, like she had the wasabi. Had she been more on the ball, she’d have known better than to try the same move twice. Ranma opened his mouth to make a wide target for the Japanese chili paste, even as his hand caught hers, stopping her chopsticks. Leaning back, his weight dragged her forward, her eyes catching the glee in his as his free hand grabbed the top of her head, pushing her face down into the miso soup. By the time she was upright and had wiped miso from her eyes, Ranma was across the room by the door, cheering for himself. He swallowed nervously at the anger in her eyes, briefly wondering if he had crossed the line. “Ranma you jerk!” she cried suddenly, charging at him, his lead letting him bolt first.
* Still humming in self-amusement, Ranma finished putting on his snow boots and rushed out the door, expecting Akane would be after him as soon as she cleaned up. He was kind of excited for a bit of revenge inspired sparring in the snow, but then she could also be inventive when getting revenge after the fact, and part of him liked the tense anticipation of waiting for it to happen. His grin dropped as he spotted two new snowboards being loaded onto the bus. The fact that they weren’t black or gold said they were not of the obsessive pair, which meant, he realized with a wince, that it was Sakura and Kuno planning to follow Akane’s alternative choice of activity. Behind him, Akane stormed out of the door after him, almost colliding with his back, taking a moment before realizing who it was. A moment in which he spoke. “Kuno and Sakura have snowboards on the bus.” Her simmering anger refocused, and she shrugged her shoulders. “That isn’t that surprising. Not a lot we can do about it.” Nodding, he flicked his head at the bus and fell into stride beside her as they moved, both ignoring the door bursting open behind them as two sets of steps rushed after in pursuit. Ranma was rather resigned as Sakura grabbed his arm, coming up on the other side of him from Akane, though he smirked as he caught his companion flicking her hand free from Kuno doing the same on her right. “Ranma darling, I have simply the best news, my snowboard finally arrived.” “Overnight delivery must have cost a bit Sakura,” Akane quipped back. “Costly perhaps for some, however the coffers of the Kuno family can afford such trifles,” Tatewaki stated grandly. “Especially for something that brings us together.” Akane frowned at the young man, wondering what exactly he meant by that, his smile and overconfidence giving away that there was more to this. And if Sakura was helping, it might even be an actual plan rather than an idea a five year old would come up with. Sakura lead the way, climbing onto the bus, pulling her fiancée behind her. Kuno graciously held out his hand to take Akane’s and help her step up, only to have her reach past to Ranma’s free hand he held out from within the bus. With a grin at the dark haired young man, Akane pulled herself up, only for her face to fall as she saw Sakura taking the opportunity behind Ranma, still holding his hand, to lock a black set of handcuffs around his wrist to hers. At the same time, her head whipped around to see an identical pair locking to her own wrist. “Now there’s no chance of us getting separated on the slopes again,” Sakura said gleefully. “We can’t snowboard like this,” Akane stated, trying to pull it off, only for Kuno to be pulled at her. “I don’t see why not, we don’t need stock poles to ski with snowboards,” Sakura said simply, trying to take her seat, an unbalanced Ranma bumping her as she sat, trying to pull him down beside her. Faking a stumble away from her, he managed to go further and dropped to the seat of the row behind, their linked arms between the seat headrests. Ignoring the closing of the doors as the bus prepared to depart, Akane pulled Kuno behind her by the cuffs, ignoring him grunt uncomfortably, pushing the older boy into the seats opposite the aisle from Sakura where she sat behind him similarly. A second glance at the handcuffs, showed them to be gold, with soft fur, as black as night, sheathed the restraints so as not to cause chaffing. Gazing at the gold plated links glittering between them, horror flared in Akane, glancing quickly between Sakura and Kuno. “Where did you get these?” Kuno coughed gently, “I believe my Sister got them for her unworthy boyfriend…” Ignoring the rest of his words, Akane looked again at the fluffy handcuffs, imagination going to places with Mikado and Kodachi that… ‘Kinky,’ Nabiki’s voice said in her mind. “Ewww! Pervert!” Standing, she yanked her hand away from Kuno once again, his arm dragged on, his hand coming past hers. #Goosh# “Pervert!” A dazed Kuno blinked stupidly, as his right eye’s vision filled with her first before being forcibly closed. His left eye followed the same, its view filled with his own fist, limp but given momentum enough by the handcuff to Akane’s to hit him hard. “Really Akane,” Sakura purred in amusement at the embarrassed young woman. “Playing hard to get is one thing, but isn’t that too far?” “You may like his hands on you like that, but I don’t,” Akane snapped back. “Get this thing off me.” “We ran them under boiling water after we borrowed them Akane-chan, don’t be so prudish. They may be crass, but the black mink fur is very nice. Kodachi does have some taste. Tacky though how she stole the colors of the Shishimi corporate chain.” She gestured idly to the black with gold trim jacket she wore, open enough to expose a healthy amount of cleavage trying to escape a black halter top. As always her medallion nested safely in the gulf. “Where are the keys?” Grinning at the insistent girl, the blonde young woman made no move to get her key. “I’m afraid Tate-chan was carrying it. You could try his front pockets, I’m sure he won’t mind you exploring.” Grinding her teeth, Akane glanced to the distracted blue eyes of the other victim of this, who leaned forward, finally breaking his silence. With a gentle hand, he took hold of Kuno’s wrist, obviously checking his pulse. “Just checking if he is okay.” As he spoke directly to Sakura in the seat in front of his, Akane felt his fingers trace onto her skin, her eyes looking at him reach the handcuffs on her wrist, fingers deftly twisting, a glint of gold near the lock. With a click Akane’s wrist was free, and quick as a flash, the black furred cuff slapped around Sakura’s arm, extended while Ranma apparently checked Kuno’s pulse. Sakura had only begun to frown when Ranma stood, also free from his bindings, and reached to grab his fiancées free arm, pulling it near the window, and two sets of soft clicks left her bound, arms spread out. “There, how do you like being trapped?” Ranma asked, exasperated at yet another mess with Sakura. Her heaving chest, hungry eyes, and coy nervous smile was not what he wanted for a reply. “Ranma, be a dear and ask the driver to pull over,” Akane said quickly, shoving him forward so that he nearly tripped over Sakura’s arm across the aisle, using his hands to spring over it. Looking back, Akane waved him forward, and so he moved the few steps, seeing the driver was already pulling over, still within sight of the resort. Akane pushed Kuno back, letting him slide forward from the seat to the floor, Sakura sucking in a breath as his weight pulled on her, arms extending across the bus. Her mouth open, Akane stuck a tissue from her pocket in it, grabbing the goggles on her head and turning them around, dropping the elastic over her mouth and tightening it in an impromptu gag. “Kuno can let you out when he wakes up,” she said to the struggling blonde, before letting her voice turn softer. “Then again with how familiar you two are, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you rummaging around looking for it on him. Try his front pockets?”
* Waving to the bus as it started on down the mountain, the pair turned to start back towards the resort. Ranma rolled the small golden key in his hand, and looked about to toss it into the distance, only to frown and put it in his pocket. “Where did you even get that?” Akane asked, glad he didn’t dispose of it in case they tried it again. She idly rubbed her wrist like it was dirty. “Picked her pocket. It had to be in her jacket pocket, she refuses to use pockets near any curves cause she hates how they look when photographed. Not that that tiny thing would show.” “You can pick pockets?” He winced at the disbelieving tone in the voice, glad she at least wasn’t calling him a thief. “Hey, it’s a great skill in a fight. Disarm a guy before he can use a weapon. And no one expects to have their own weapons thrown at them.” “And she didn’t notice?” “Well it wouldn’t be a skill if I just blundered around her pockets,” he said sarcastically. He eyed her slyly, a grin on his lips. “Close your eyes and tell me which pocket I stick my hand in?” Her eyes closed trustingly, realizing then that should he just claim he did it, there would be no proof he did. Then her bra fell forward, loose. Pulling her hands over her chest, she glared at him, “You pervert!” she accused. Keeping out of her reach, he stuck out his tongue. “Yeah, but you didn’t feel me do it, did ya?” Reaching around her back and through her jacket, she did her best to re-hook the clasp. Satisfied, but knowing that she would have to open her jacket and do it properly once in private, she started walking again. “You’re pretty familiar with bras.” “Hey,” he defended, even though the accusation was pretty weak for her, “I may prefer sports bras, but with my curse I’m entirely too familiar with bra clasps.” At the mention of his curse, an awkward pause came up. “Just be glad I’m not a pervert,” he began to break the silence. “Pop made one set of techniques that had to be sealed. The one guy I used it on, I took all but his underwear in the same time it took to undo your bra.” She glanced at him, face pink. “You stripped a guy? Yeah, that doesn’t sound perverted at all.” “Hey, that’s not what happened! Not like that!”
* “Did you get them?” Akane’s question made Ranma look up, as he held out the two sets of ice skates, just down the stairs around the south side of the resort. “Yeah, what took so long? Did you check where this pond is.” Nodding, she checking the size of the shoes before smiling up at him, watching his eyes as his face turned pink. “Well I had to fix my bra properly, then I asked the girl at the counter about the foot track down the mountain to the snowfields. She showed me on the map, and I saw the path down to the pond too. It looks like a nice easy path down.” “Did you ask if it was frozen solid?” With a glance at him like he was a child, she shook her head. “Of course not. When Sakura gets that bus turned around, she’ll ask where we went. Hopefully she’ll try and meet us at the bottom of the trail while we enjoy skating. As for the pond, if the ice isn’t safe, it will have a sign up. Apparently the cook goes and checks it every day.” “Gori? Good cook. He’s been pretty amused by the six of us.” Shrugging her shoulders, Akane frowned at the idea of being laughed at as they kept walking, “That old manager doesn’t seem as impressed. I get the feeling that all of us would be booted except for you and Sakura, if Sakura wasn’t involved in that pile up last night.” Both were too busy looking away to cover blushes from embarrassing thoughts, to see the other doing the same. Akane still managed to grab Ranma’s arm to get him moving, coming around to the storage room below the resort where the ice skates and other items were kept. Ranma eyed the long snowmobile in the same white and pink trim as the building, wondering briefly what it would be like to drive it, while Akane’s eyes caught on something on the wall. “Here, put these on,” she said taking down the old-fashioned snowshoes from the wall. “They go on your feet.” Frowning at the odd wood circles with mesh straps, he sat on the edge of the ski mobile and began to put them on. “What are they?” “Snow shoes. It spreads your weight so that you don’t sink in. Makes it a lot easier for hiking.” “Cool.” Finished putting on the shoes, he stood awkwardly, looking to her at the doorway. “Hey, why aren’t you wearing these?” She took in his wide, awkward stance, grinning. “We’re only going a kilometer Ranma, I wouldn’t be caught dead in those things. You look like an idiot.” “Hey!”
* Trudging down the snowy path together, Akane was still smiling, taking in the view. She glanced back at him as he began walking erratically, taking odd steps in the snow. He had put the snowshoes back, so it wasn’t anything to do with them. “What are you doing?” “Do you think there is a technique that would let you stand on snow? Or even water?” Blinking as he just asked a question rather than answer her, she considered his steps, before finally getting it. “I’ve seen stranger things. Are you just trying to walk on rocks and sticks at the surface of the snow?” “Yeah, not working yet. Back when the old ghoul, Shampoo’s great grandmother, turned up, she made me fight her by locking my curse and offering a cure if I married Shampoo,” he said, suppressing a shiver. “We had a big fight at the beach. She stood on the water, and Pop reckoned lots of masters could stand on sticks and trash on the water without sinking. Turns out she was standing on a shark.” “A shark?” Akane gasped. “Yeah, big one too. I suppose it is just as weird that she got a shark to help her as her standing on water?” With a shrug, he went back to trying to work out how to concentrate his weight to balance on a tiny stick, thinking back on how the snowshoes tried to spread it out to keep from sinking. “What happened with your curse?” Glancing at Akane, he refocused on his walking training, clearly uncomfortable. “That time, she used this pressure point to stop me from being able to handle hot water, so I couldn’t become male again.” Akane looked at him concerned, but let him keep talking. “She let me have the cure when I attacked her with the neko-ken, that impressed her. Heh, I was busy dodging the shark in the surf, when she hit me with a jet of water, threw me back on the beach. When I went back in, I dragged Shampoo into the surf with me to make her change into her ca-ca-ca… cursed form, and used it to bring out the neko-ken.” The sick grin on his face made Akane reach out and take his hand. He stopped to look at her. For a moment, they stood in uncomfortable silence, before Akane gave his hand a squeeze. “It must be scary to have the curse locked like that?” Frowning, he turned to start walking again, looking ahead, pulling her by the hand he didn’t release. “Yeah, it ain’t nice. Mom cried the first time. I hate hurting her.” Squeezing his hand again, Akane didn’t interrupt, part of her mind flicking through memories of her own lost mother, wondering how she might have reacted in Nodoka’s place. Childhood memories couldn’t have really answered that, and the way Aunty was on men and women… She felt keenly aware of the black underwear she wore, her least lacy option after her friend’s mother had helped repack for this trip. At least she had pajamas. Sharing a room with Ranma in something transparent would have not happened last night. Shaking off improper thoughts, Akane shook her head. “She’s proud of you. And she loves you.” He nodded, uncomfortable. For a moment she thought he was going to start walking again, but instead he looked at her. “She cares about you a lot too. Way more than any of my fiancées.” Ranma had expected her to smile at the comment, instead she focused out, thinking about something. Taking a step, he tugged on her hand, her body automatically following behind him. Akane’s stomach was sinking, things about Aunty Nodoka’s actions clicking together in her mind. Her words about Ranma, her own bridal training with the domestic duties she had been teaching her, the more feminine wardrobe, her issues with her and Ranma’s engagements… “Ranma, do you ever get the feeling, Aunty might want us together?” Ranma’s blue eyes flashed, his mind echoing with his mother’s words… ‘Well, if Akane doesn't go through with her engagement, you can always try and get her to be your mistress.’ He was almost positive it had been a joke, but he knew her well enough that telling it to Akane was a bad idea. Like telling his mother he got free snacks if he went down to the food court at the markets in his girl form without a bra… again. “Nah,” he said, internally wincing as she looked at him, seeing she wasn’t letting it go. “I mean, my loss. But you know mom and honor. Even if she hates my fiancées…” Akane nodded as he trailed off, keeping her face from showing the part of her that was disappointed that it wasn’t, and the part of her that trilled that he knew it was his loss. As they kept walking, neither noticed they still held each other’s hands.
* Leaving him sill lacing his ice skates, Akane stood up, sliding out on the smooth natural surface. It was a small pond, a trickling feed down from melting snow up the mountain, and maybe overflow from the hot springs the resort was built on. It wasn’t more than a hundred feet across the longest part of its ovoid shape. A grove of leafless trees surrounded it, cutting off the view, though doing nothing to protect them from the sun above when it peeked out from behind thick snow clouds. She eyed the rope and sign at the far side of the pond. “You sure this ice is thick enough? I don’t want to go girl today.” Rolling her eyes, Akane turned gracefully on her skates, bending forward while moving backwards, as she extended a leg behind her to point to the sign at the far end of the ice. She grinned, as his eyes didn’t leave her. “See the sign and the rope at that end? As long as we stay up this end of the pond, it should be more than thick enough. Even for your big head.” “Why you!” Akane ducked a snowball, turning her body down to dodge a second from her male companion, who was still sitting safely at the edge of the natural pool. With a cocky grin just like he used when she couldn’t hit him, she moved to more flashy moves, divots, leg downs and spins to dodge his flurry of snowballs. Powder dashed off her but she managed to avoid any direct strikes, going up in a flashy three sixty twisting jump, legs and arms pulled in. Ranma’s hands froze, stopping his scoop and throwing action as Akane got too near the rope. “Akane!” Looking to Ranma, Akane only felt something catch her foot, her spin stopping as her momentum tilted her sideways, and with a crack she hit the ice, cold water surrounding her. Face pale, Ranma watched her crack through the ice. Taking a step out, he almost fell as the skate slid from under him. Eyes again on the hole where Akane went through, one of her arms, weakly flailing, as if something was keeping her down. With a rip, he tore the laces whole from the skates, leaving them behind as he sprung out onto the ice, sliding and pushing on all fours till he crashed with a splash into the icy water after her. Breaking the surface, Ranma’s strong feminine arms pushed Akane up and onto the ice, the red heads feet on the shallow bottom letting the boy turned girl hold the young woman from sliding back down. For her part, Akane coughed up dirty, icy water onto the frozen surface. Grabbing the coughing girl into his arms, the red head leapt up, knowing the freezing cold water now weighing down her heavy sodden clothes, would drop their body temperature fast. Unsteady on the ice, she shuffled forward, away from the break and to the edge of the pond. Almost limp but for her coughing, Akane was awkwardly heavy, forcing Ranma to twist her over and around. Careful not to impinge her breathing, the red head lifted her over her shoulder as she sprang forward, ignoring the snowy track to leap from rocks and trees, straight for the hot springs at the resort. A minute of her fastest hustle, and growing concerned of the gasping breaths and lack of reaction from Akane, Ranma charged on as fast as he could. “Hold on Tomboy!” With a final leap over the bamboo fence, the pair crashed into the steaming water. His form wavering as hot and cold water against his body clashed over the curse, Ranma fumbled with her clothes, yanking the jacket off her, desperate to get her warm. As he tried to undo her pants, her arms automatically blocked his hands, eyes blank as she moaned unintelligibly. Grabbing her arms, he held her still. “Akane, ya gotta get out of these wet clothes.” “No,” she moaned, fear on her face, eyes unfocused. “Don’t you touch me.” “Tomboy, it’s me, Ranma!”
* Akane tumbled through abject confusion, hot and cold, up and down, her mind trying to get a grip on her surroundings. She didn’t know where she was or why, but her mind chilled as her clothes were pulled from her, the image of Kuno looming before her, his hands darting past hers, tearing at her jacket. “Tomboy, it’s me, Ranma!” Her vision shifted, suddenly in a memory from a movie the day before. Laying on a mat in a generic school gym, she was a judo girl, undressing from her gi at the caressing of her red-haired partner. Cheesy porno music chimed around them, the heat overwhelming, she looked to the third figure, a moment ago her attacker. Now a black haired kendo student, his bright blue eyes on her, were caressing her flesh as her companions delicate hands pulled her clothes away. Pushing up, she wasn’t even sure which Ranma she latched onto.
* For a moment, Ranma was unsure what was in his mouth. Akane’s arms were iron around his neck, her lips hot on his. With a cough, the kiss broke, Akane slumping in his arms, passed out. For a moment, he didn’t react, trying to mentally catch up, but as she coughed again, Ranma shook himself out of it. Blushing, he focused on her state of health and not her state of dress, leaving on the last item she wore. Never releasing her shoulders, he stripped himself of his clothes now sodden with hot water. Pulling her back against his chest, he lay a hand on her stomach, timing her breath, and pushing gently with her diaphragm. “Deep breaths Akane. Breath in the heat.” He didn’t know if she heard him, but kept going regardless, ignoring the tingling of his lips.
* In the sitting room of the Tendo family home, Nodoka steadied herself, calming her nerves as she prepared for a battle. She regretted that she hadn’t brought her secret weapon, but perhaps that was wisest in the end. This would never work if it came to blows. Finally, Soun led his aged master into the room. “Grandmaster Happosai, I see you are well.” Sneering, the tiny and wizened old man looked his student’s wife over like a piece of meat. “And you’re looking hot still too, No-chan. Since that failure of a student of mine has been hanging around here, I assume you got yourself a man on the side to give you a good work out every night?” Despite his words, and the fact that she could feel his eyes undressing her, she didn’t react to him. She probably would have blushed had she been Akane’s age, especially with the insinuation in front of Soun. “Please Master Happosai, have a seat and a cup of tea.” “Soun, take Genma out to the dojo and practice. I wouldn’t want him to watch his wife offer me favors to help with her scheming.” Soun, fearful of his glaring old martial arts master, scurried off, not that Nodoka saw. Her eyes locked on the tiny man. “So you know what I want for Akane and my son, what will it take to keep you from interfering?” “Why would I want to interfere?” he asked. Snatching up his cup of tea roughly, he didn’t drink, instead held it, waiting for her to mull on an answer, before he continued. “I mean, we are only talking about you and those two idiots trying to play with the future of my school of martial arts. Why should I even care?” Sipping her tea to give her time to consider the best approach, Nodoka nodded. “The very reason I asked to have tea with you, Master Happosai, is to find out how you feel and make sure you are amenable to this matter of honor. Don’t you think uniting the schools and ensuring a talented heir for your school a worthy goal?” The wrinkled old man gave a short sharp mocking laugh. “A talented heir? Assuming your pansy son isn’t gay, and that his curse doesn’t make him father only more girls, what kind of heir would it be? Like him? An untalented, arrogant, whelp? Or little miss Daddy’s girl? Crying because she can’t beat a boy with a stick, or say no to her even more pathetic father.” “Both are talented and honorable,” Nodoka snapped, not willing to have them insulted further. “My son is good enough to challenge your own skills, and despite the personal hardship of not being allowed to pursue his manly urges, he believes it is best to suppress them in favor of not dishonoring those promised to him in the mess that his father created.” “Gay,” Happi said slowly. “Furthermore,” Nodoka continued, ignoring his petty insult, “Akane spoke so highly of you I assumed you had more respect for her and her potential happiness.” Sneering, the bald old man held her gaze as he seized on a word. “Her potential? Oh she has potential, very imaginative mind in that tight body there. Going to be a lot of fun once she gets over her fears. I would have left her to that Kuno boy if she wasn’t. But why waste that potential on a useless timid husband like your boy.” “Even if she loves him?” Happi stopped at her fast return, covering with a sip of tea. “Like I need to remind you how love is fleeting.” “Love never releases us completely, I would have thought you experienced enough to know that.” Putting down his cup, he brushed his fingers over his white whiskers. “If she truly loves him, nothing I do will drive them apart.” “Don’t make this a challenge against her heart, Happosai,” Nodoka said, putting down her own cup. “I’m asking you, please just sit back and see if they want this. Can you do that?” Slowly, he nodded, “I could be persuaded.” “What will it take?” Nodoka asked, steeling herself for some shocking request. “Their first born be named…?” “No.” “I get to join in the wedding night…?” “No.” “You and the fiancées play strip twister…?” “No.” “Genma, a video camera, and another hard spanking…?” “No!” “I get to be the minister for his wedding, regardless of which girl it is?” Nodoka frowned, trying to control herself, focusing back on the cunning old man. She’d have to talk to her husband about how the venerable pervert learned such an embarrassing secret, of how Genma cured her Amazon induced amnesia about himself and her son not long after they returned from their training trip. Putting that aside, she refocused on the little man’s final request. “Are you even a priest?” With a smirk, the wrinkled old pervert rummaged through his dirty gi, tiny fingers emerging with a small stack of cards. “Ah, well the Catholic Church excommunicated me for revealing some naughty ‘habits’… And I was ordained by the Church of Scientology, but I couldn’t pay dues from a cave. Ah here we go, Shinto priest, Mormon minister, and a Moonie celebrant... If we go with the last two, I can marry him to all the girls in one ceremony?” Disregarding his words, of either the American group rumored to be polygamists and the Unification Church group that ran mass weddings years before, Nodoka considered the overall idea. If Akane was to be the bride, Happi liked her so much he wouldn’t ruin the day completely, and with the right preparation, they should be able to reign in the old pervert. If it was another of the girls… “I think that can be arranged, if that is your price for letting them reach a wedding?” The old man sneered. “If Akane-chan is happy with that, I look forward to her special day. Just too bad she’ll have a husband without the guts to hold her.”
* Back in the hot spring atop Mitsupurezentou Mountain, Ranma Saotome was doing his best to ignore the hormones in his blood pounding into his brain as he held Akane in his arms. She had stopped coughing a while before, a sign of recovery he hoped, though she had yet to wake up. Not that he planned to wake her up, not without more of a lead before she could drown him for waking up near naked with him in the hot spring. A touch of cool on his ear made him glance up, a white flake appearing out of the gray sky, followed by another, then more and more. Soft flakes of snow descended, some vanishing into the steam of the hot spring, replaced by more and more out of the cool winter air. Squirming, his companion twisted in his hold, yawning as she awoke, only to cough lightly. With a sigh, she settled back against him, looking at the snow falling on the rocks and bamboo walls. “Beautiful.” “Yeah.” Ranma wasn’t sure what else he could say, wincing slightly as she glanced back at him, surprising him with a smile. Ranma being there to share the moment made Akane happy. Her eyes dipped from his worried face to his strong bare shoulders just above the waterline. A naughty part of her mind wondered what he was wearing under the water. A panicked part of her mind wondered what she was wearing. Even expecting to be hit, Ranma didn’t try to dodge it, but was pleasantly surprised at the lack of pain, her hand simply slapping over his eyes as she spun off his lap. “How did we get here?” “Nothing perverted, I swear,” he said quickly not moving to try and see or pull her hand away. “How's your lungs? You fell through the ice and got a lungful of cold water.” Suddenly focused on it, she felt a dull ache from her lungs, her mind suddenly recalling the moment as she skated, dodging snowballs, then the sudden cold and panic. She looked down, slightly ashamed at having to be rescued. With a blush she looked up. “And you’re naked because?” “We were both waterlogged, I just kicked my pants off. I was trying to hold you above the water while you recovered when I did.” Her free hand confirmed she at least wore underwear under the water, her eyes caught sight of her bra on a nearby rock, half hanging in the water. She briefly considered reaching for it, but since it matched the lacy briefs she wore, the top half of the cups were transparent and useless to her. Another of Aunty’s helpful repacked items, her underwear was far more racy than her preference, but at least Aunty had stopped with the thongs. Sinking down into the hot water, she covered her chest with her free arm, before pulling her hand from his face. She smiled slightly, amused that he kept his eyes closed. Leaning up, she kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
* “Thank you.” Said softly, and away from him, Tatewaki Kuno still heard the words from his beloved. Having awakened locked to the beautiful blonde host on the bus, the pair had been back up and down the mountain in search of his pure Akane and Sakura’s ill chosen fiancé for hours. Finally he left Sakura down the mountain and returned, suffering the jibes of his sister and Mikado over his bruising eyes and bad mood, as they returned from the ski fields planning to go ice skating on a nearby pond. Tired and irritable, he made to take advantage of a relaxing soak in the hot spring. Walking into the hot spring area and finding the woman he was going to marry naked with the demonic letch Saotome, was not as relaxing as he hoped. “Stand away from him Akane Tendo!” The barked order from Kuno drove the pair apart, Akane ducking low in the water as Ranma stood up, moving to stand in front of her from the towel wearing kendo champion. “This ain’t what you think,” Ranma started, only for Kuno, his eyes ringed with dark from Akane’s previous injury of him, to glare down at him from the higher ground just out of the spring. “I know not what dark and vile magic you use to tempt her, but I will break you and free her and reclaim her.” Realizing that arguing was not going to get Kuno to leave or Akane back to her room to get dressed, Ranma shook his head. “Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!” Scooping water up, his hands blurred as he shot ball after ball of hot water at Kuno, hitting him up the chest with the first three before the fourth splashed over his face as he fell back. The moment his vision was obscured, Ranma lunged for Akane, leaping straight up out of the water with her.
* Landing on the rocks outside the pools, meters below the windows of the south wing, Ranma almost immediately panicked. Not because of the state of either of their dress, but away from the hot water of the spring, the freezing cold made him immediately focus on Akane’s welfare. “Grab the powdered snow.” Akane turned away from Ranma, ignoring his command, red faced at her state and worse his, when cold pressed down her back. “What are you doing?” She demanded, trying to glare at him without looking over her shoulder as he dusted over her back with a handful of snow. “It’s only cold for a second, but the powdered snow is dry. It’ll take the water off your skin before it starts to freeze.” Recalling Ranma’s experience at survival on the road, she dropped her embarrassment to obey, grabbing a handful of snow and rubbing it over her arm to test it. That trust didn’t reach her mouth. “You could have just jumped to the women’s side, idiot.” “Yeah, and you could have gone for it under the water, oh yeah, you’re the girl who nearly drowned in a waist deep pond,” he snapped back, drying himself. “I panicked you jerk!” she said, turning to threaten him with a fist. Part nervous of Kuno hearing them argue, and part distracted by her, he wrenched his blue eyes from her and looked up at the building above, spotting a window open ajar ahead. He stepped around her quickly without looking, heading for it. “Let’s see if there’s robes or towels in that room.” Hands covering herself in embarrassment again, Akane began to follow, her eyes looking down his back and lower. Flushing red again, she sprang forward overtaking quickly. “Maybe I should go first Akane,” he said, following, tempted to jump ahead but knowing there was no safe side to view her from. “I’m at least wearing something, idiot!” she said back quickly, trying to shake the image of what vista she was escaping staring at, from her mind. “Ah, yeah, not in those panties.” Stopping suddenly, she let him pass, bending to look around her side as her hand pulled the rear of her underwear around, seeing right through the material, much like the transparent cups of her abandoned bra. She winced as Ranma’s voice carried back to her. “Ah, this may be a bad time, but what are those marks?” Recalling the two embarrassing marks on her left cheek, twin swirls of yellow and black, she blushed recalling the embarrassing story behind them. For an instant she was going to say birthmarks, but this was a friend who would probably understand better than most. “Ah, long story. Neko-ken long.” “Okay,” Ranma said slowly, taking it as a promise to tell him later. Still he knew they would play on his mind till he did get the whole story. Reaching the point below the cracked open window, he glanced at Akane, seeing her shiver. “I’ll toss down a robe or something, then you get around to the main entrance.” Leaping up, he awkwardly grabbed onto the window and pulled it open. Darting inside, he found the room occupied. Kodachi Kuno stood holding a yukata out. “Awesome,” Ranma stated, yanking the robe from her hands and tossing it out the window. Turning back to thank her and explain, his eyes bugged out as he saw a lot more of the Black Rose.
* Kodachi’s mind was just trying to come to terms with what had happened. She had returned with her fiancé from the slopes and was changing out her clothes, planning for a little private time in the hot spring with Mikado, when cold air from the window made her turn. Not the first male intruder she had ever encountered, his nudity stalled her a moment too long and with an “Awesome,” he ripped away her only covering from her hands. Now the blue eyed young man seemed even more surprised by this than she was, his hand slapping over his eyes as he jumped back from her. “Ack, Sorry, this ain’t what it looks like. I am so…” His backing up bumped into the cupboard, a black rose in a simple vase, a romantic trifle from Mikado, tipping over, cold water running down his back. “…sorry. Ack, cold!” Kodachi just continued to stare, speechless with her ponytail sticking up in fright, her ears ringing with his voice as it changed octave mid sentence from male to female. The handsome young stud before her shifting like a special effect from a movie, into an attractive red haired woman. Ranma shivered at the cold stream down her back, risking a peak to see if Kodachi had covered up, the girl still bare, as she looked stunned at the redhead. That was when the door opened. Mikado Sanzenin rather hopped to catch his love half dressed. Catching her naked, with a second naked woman in the room, was rather more than he hoped for. The buxom red head with bright blue eyes was rather an impressive sight by herself, certainly a rival to his fiancée’s beauty. “Ack!” The red head said again, reaching up to yank down the entire curtain from around the window, to wrap it around her body, and jump back out the window into the cold. For several long seconds, Kodachi and Mikado just watched the open window, before Mikado spoke. “An early Christmas present to share?” he asked hopefully. Shaken from her shock, the dark haired beauty reached into the closet, pulling out another robe. “An intruder, dear. A most unusual one.” Wrapping it around herself, she moved to walk out the door. “I’m going to go soak for a while. We can skate later, dear. I need to think.”
* The knocking at her door made Akane smile, as she rushed to open it. Just finished drying off and changing after their cold escape from death, embarrassment, and Kuno, she felt surprisingly invigorated. Ranma stood in the doorway, male once more, dressed once more, holding a set of white and pink curtains. “Hey, you okay?” She nodded with a grin, but her voice failed as she suppressed another potential cough from her lungs, feeling a low dull ache from the icy water she had inhaled. “I’ll live,” she said finally. Obviously still concerned, he didn’t refute her. “I got our clothes back from the spring, they’re with the staff to get dried out.” “What’s with the curtains?” Akane asked, giving a smile that there was no need for her to go back to the hot spring immediately. His hand touched the shortened hair at the back of his head, clearly uncomfortable. “Yeah, can you give these back to Kodachi, and thank her for the robe and apologize for me?” “What do you mean? Why can’t you do it?” “Er, that robe I threw you, that was from Kodachi. Ah, she ain’t gonna be happy since I barged in, in the buff, and stole it not realizing she was putting it on.” “So you saw her naked?” The flat voice from Akane was something he would more expect from one of his fiancées, at least if they were in a calm mood. He knew he was in danger. “Hey, I covered my eyes immediately. I was just trying to get you something to cover up and get out of the cold.” Frowning still, Akane had a brief flash of memory, recalling the morning after they first met. Ranma had made a perverted joke, ‘You're really cute in just a towel,’ he had said. Unfortunately, even in jest she hadn’t been able to let him get away with it. Her light slap hadn’t even made him flinch and cost her that very towel. He had covered his eyes then too. Her mind then flittered through when she stood up to fight Shampoo during the first massage, of when he stormed in on her changing at that dress shop at Ginza, while he recovered from being slammed in the wall by Karumi, and other times… Her eyes narrowed on him. “You haven’t been covering your eyes when I’m undressed anymore.” Confused at how she came to that accusation, Ranma bristled. How was he was meant to not look at her in most of the weird situations that she ended up half naked around him. “Ain’t like I been ogling you. You just can’t keep you’re clothes on,” he defended. “Excuse me? Pervert!” Sticking out his tongue, he backed up out of reach into the hall as she tried to close to punching range. “Good think you don’t realize how cute you look without a towel,” he teased, reminding her of that joke from the Saotome home’s bathroom, “Your head would be too big to fit down the hall.” “Pervert!” she cried, charging forward but ducking the curtains he threw at her. Ranma turned to flee, only to come nose to point with a boken. “Defiler! Enemy of women!” Kuno’s declaration stopped Akane short of beating her black haired friend, but she still ran around Ranma, knocking the wooden blade out of the way. “Upperclassman Kuno, Ranma is neither of those things. Leave us alone, I would have drowned earlier if Ranma hadn’t saved me.” Stalled by the declaration, Kuno looked between his love and his enemy. Ranma, uncomfortable at having Akane tell what happened, an accident that Akane would not have been at risk of if not for him throwing snowballs, he put his hand on her shoulder. “If Kuno wants another beating, I’m happy to give it to him.” Refocusing on this challenge, Kuno ignored Akane to focus his black eyes on Ranma. “A fight we shall have, and this time your trickery will not let you steal victory. With your defeat, Akane-chan, my fierce tigress, shall return to her familiar home in Nerima, free of your influence!” “No way!” Akane snapped, not that either boy listened. “If you win, Akane goes back to her home. But when I smack you down, it’s over. You will never pursue Akane Tendo ever again. You won’t even talk to her, ever again.” Akane froze, part scared for Ranma battling this monster again, part elated at the very idea of Kuno leaving her alone, and part angry that she wasn’t the one fighting for her future like this. Another slight cough reminded her she was in no condition to fight Kuno. “Never,” Kuno whispered, his face pale. “That’s right, never.” Kuno shook his head, trying to express himself more properly. “No, I would never agree to such terms.” The other two teens suddenly caught up, Akane feeling disappointment, Ranma however had a more direct reaction. “Bwark buk buk buk,” he began, his arms hooking up like chicken wings he flapped, continuing to make chicken noises. Kuno raised the boken he had in salute. “Very well Saotome.”
* The two combatants stood ready, a short distance apart in the large empty parking area out the front of Koibito no Tansai resort. White mounds of snow and leafless trees ringed the area, previously cleared driving and walking paths were now dusted with a light powder of fresh flakes, still trickling down from the cloud filled sky. Watching from near the doorway with a scarf around her neck, Akane’s hands opened and closed slowly, wishing she had something more she could do. Kuno appraised the young man before him. Raising the wooden blade in his hand, an identical practice blade in his other hand. “You have invited your doom, Saotome. For I have researched and studied your trickery at our last confrontation. Your poor judgment shows itself as you stand in a battlefield that all but assures my victory.” “Hey Kuno,” Ranma interrupted looking bored. “I’m sorry but if you are going to give a speech with two black eyes, I just ain’t gonna take you seriously. A little bit more snow on your clothes and you’ll look like a panda!” “Ranma!” Akane cried out, “Don’t underestimate him!” Giving her a wink, Ranma looked back to his opponent, who saluted with his chosen weapon, but without waiting for Ranma to bow in return, he began whipping his blade around, cutting the air, gusts of wind raking up snow. “Northern Wind Style, Rikugun no fubuki!” His feet landed on the ground with a crack, the churned up snow drawn in on his blade, the weapon whipping through the air, launching at Ranma. Had Kuno not called his move ‘Army in the Blizzard’, Ranma might have been surprised as cutting winds carved through the blinding snow. Leaping by trained instinct, they weren’t too hard to evade, the gaps growing wider as Kuno, equally blinded to Ranma’s location, widened the cone of his assault. Going low and trying to blend in, Ranma crawled into the snow, letting Kuno’s move conceal him, preparing to counter attack. As the wind faded above him, he stayed still and silent, waiting for the moment to strike. “Coward, wherefore…” Kuno’s voice gave away his location as Ranma burst from the snow, launching snowballs to keep the older boy defensive. Kuno knocked the balls away, but the last was loose snow, dusting past his weapon at his eyes. Projecting his ki to the right, Ranma broke left, using a tip from Akane about such a fake in the past. Blinded, Kuno swung on instinct at the presence of his enemy, cutting cleanly but hitting nothing. ‘Too easy,’ Ranma thought, sliding in the opening and opening up. “Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!” Faster than the eye could trace, his fists lashed out, hitting several times before he leapt back disbelieving. The ‘Blue Thunder’ stood calmly, unhurt, his second wooden blade held in the middle of its length before him, where his wrist had flicked the ends fast enough to block the punches from Ranma’s now stinging hands. “I warned you Saotome, I studied you after my last battle. You will find no heat in the air here, and you can never break down my iron defenses.” A little less confident, Ranma briefly assessed options, recalling cracking the tower of that mother kidnapper Kirin, of the Seven Lucky Gods, to get to the hot water spring under it. Hot water punches could probably hit him past the wooden blades, but Ranma couldn’t bet he could crack the mountain to the spring here. Leading Kuno to the hot spring seemed unlikely too, Kuno wanted this open area to fight for good reason. Time to think of options was running out, as he dodged another cutting wind, Kuno crying “Aoi Raikou Dan!” as a bolt of lightning instantly snaked at Ranma. The dark haired boy rolled through the air, his pants smoking from the singeing of a near miss. Again trying to blind Kuno with a flurry of snowballs, Ranma’s hopes of a repeat at getting under the swordsman’s guard were dashed as he dodged back and left, then right, adapting to Ranma faster than he expected. “Dou Ryu Sen!” Dodging back, Ranma weathered rocks and dust among the chilling wind Kuno launched at him, frowning briefly at the use of a name of the move from a manga, wondering where the swordsman went to for new technique ideas. The wooden blade had stabbed the rocking ground, gouging it not unlike the breaking point of the Amazons, but Kuno combined it with a cutting wind to make a dangerous shrapnel that pierced his shirt in a few places. Catching his ground, Ranma chose to act rather than continue to react, it was time to get dirty. “Are you gonna make me sweat soon, Kuno? I mean I get a better work out banging Akane.” Kuno froze, glaring death at the dark haired young man. By the entrance, Akane bit her lip, swearing to beat the pervert up after he won the fight. Seeing the anger and hate starting to roll off the older boy, Ranma jogged in place, like this was more exercise than a fight to him. “Hey Akane still hasn’t told me about those two marks on her ass…” “SILENCE!” Kuno shouted, whipping his wooden blades, sending cutting winds and lightning bolts at the vile demon before him, “You’re lies will not reach my ears!” Ranma landed, moving around to the right, starting the spiral as Kuno burned with rage. “Hey, I wonder if she just never told you of em, or if I accidentally made ‘em myself?” he stated, leaping to the left to maintain the spiral but let him thrust his hips while spanking imaginary booty. Kuno’s leading weapon burst into red flames, the wood starting to char at rage filled ki lashed out, unwittingly playing right into Ranma’s plan. Tightening the spiral, Ranma rushed the last, dashing in low, with a corkscrew uppercut. “HIRYU SHOTEN HA!” “TAMING THE DRAGON!” Kuno’s eyes flashed as he shouted his response, his second weapon slicing at Ranma’s legs, cracking with ice as it froze the air around it. Forced to jump up, Ranma found himself diving into the heart of his own blast, leaping up into it. Below him, a gleeful Kuno stood firm to the ground, his twin blades, one raging heat and the other freezing cold, swirled in counterpoint, feeding the dragon his opponent had created. Spinning in the cutting winds of the attack, blinded by drawn in snow, Ranma tried to body surf towards the heart, refusing to quit. Again experience was his weapon, recalling his battle with the Prince of the Musk Dynasty, a fellow Jusenkyo curse victim, who was the descendant of Dragons, and a master of Ki. He too had anticipated Ranma using the Hiryu Shoten Ha, and walked away from it unharmed. Fortunately, much like Herb, Kuno was putting out a lot of power into the atmosphere with his attacks, and the weather itself was on his side. The rising dragon entered the snow cloud above, drawing its mass in even as Ranma drew all the ki and battle aura together. The ball forming in the funnel that was the dragon’s mouth slowed its ascent, growing larger and larger. The moment the hurricane abated he was coming down with a massive strike of the ‘Dragon’s Descending Crashing Wave’. Kuno smiled victorious at the power he wielded with his weapons. Where Saotome’s attack shot skywards, by using the hot and cold blades he continued to feed the dragon that was tearing his opponent apart. It wouldn’t be coming down till he was sure Saotome was destroyed. Still drawing in power to the massive bomb of energy he now rode, Ranma strained to contain it. He only needed the hurricane to falter and he had this won. With rising panic, he realized the twister had been going on too long and too strong. If the storm didn’t fail now he was going to lose control and lose the fight.
* Akane’s eyes were wide with terror, seeing Kuno defeat Ranma’s ultimate move with cool efficiency. As the twister sucked the clouds into its mass and continued to grow, her thoughts were only for the man trapped inside it. This was the second fight she had held back from using Martial Arts Cheer Leading to help, but she had other moves she could use to help. Picking up a fist sized rock, she faced onto Kuno, drawing a finger over her brow as she lined him up. Her hands broke off part of the stone to round it for this technique, an obscure trick Happosai had shown her, a martial art based off the British sport of Cricket. Starting a run up, she arced her throwing arm up with a straight elbow over the apex, whipping the ball ahead, flicking with her wrist and fingers as hard as she could to give it spin. Simply tossing a ball or rock at Kuno failed, his magically enhanced technique blocking thrown weapons, however with the right aim, the ball, in this case a rounded rock, hit the ground just were his blades would reach it, a swordsman desire to preserve his blade leaving a small hole in his defenses. The spin would ricochet off the ground, changing the angle of the balls trajectory, in this case straight into what cricketer’s jokingly referred to as a man’s ‘middle stump’. Kuno’s blades faltered, their owner distracted, his eyes watering. The energy charring one wooden blade flickering out, the weapon turning to soot, its partner frozen brittle shattered against the ground at his feet. His eyes watering in an all too familiar pain, Kuno fell to his knees, looking up at the shadow in the sky as the rage of his storm faltered. For Ranma, it was too late. A mighty explosion cracked like thunder, echoing around the mountains, followed by snow heavy bursting down on the battlefield. Through the descending white, Akane felt more than spotted Ranma falling, her legs pounding, as fast as she could over rough and slippery terrain. With a final leap, she caught her dark haired friend, just before he slammed like a limp rag doll into the ground. Holding back tears of concern, Akane checked his bruised form over, ignoring the approach of the limping Kuno. The wannabe samurai looked contemptuously at the young man she held. “Victory.” To be continued… Happi sends a shout out to the ‘Australian Fast Bowler’ for the stolen technique. This Australian hero, who can be found on Skithouse, used a fast bowl to knock him away from stealing undies from a Hills Hoist. “Off you go, back to the pavilion.” To Kat Tendou, the entire scene of Akane and Ranma in the hall and the Kuno challenge was the AGMA writer challenge to your review. Next time leave a way to send it to you :P Oh, and lets finish this story before talking of sequels. To SwellRabbit, I’ve written into ML12, scene 1, for your review. If I’ve done my job right, you’ll find the engagement situation familiar.
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