Ranma and Videl finished their morning rooftop jaunt. Ranma landed in front of the school’s gates with an easy grace. He turned to check on Videl.
“LOOK OUT BELOOOW!!!”
Ranma’s eyes widened when he saw that she wasn’t handling her first rooftop romp well. They’d been practicing hard these past few days, and this was her first jaunt across the rooftops. She picked up things amazingly fast. She had a learning curve that almost matched Ranma’s, but she still had a ways to go.
He jumped up and intercepted her before she could hit the pavement. He landed with her cradled in his arms. “You okay?”
Videl brushed a few stray hairs out of her face. “Yeah. I just got too tired to make that last jump. That’s all.”
“You should have told me you were having problems!”
She looked at him with a look of ‘don’t baby me!’ “I can take care of myself, y’know!”
“You’ll hurt yourself if your not careful! I’m only looking out for you!”
“Yeah, maybe I don’t need anyone to look out for me!”
“Hey, look there’s Videl and her new flame!” Flashbulbs started going off like mad.
Hibiki Ryoga had seen hell. We’ll at least that’s what he’d tell you if you had asked. He had been walking all over creation trying to find the one man he blamed for all of his problems: Saotome Ranma. He was going along fine in his path of vengeance, but he hit a slight snag, he didn’t have clue one as to Ranma’s whereabouts. He thought that Ranma was going to be at Furinkan High, but there wasn’t anyone there but that insanely strong boy. He could go a while without fighting him again…
Ryoga reared back and roared his battle cry. “DAMN YOU SAOTOME!!!”
“LOOK OUT BELOOOW!!!”
Ryoga looked up out of instinct, but there was nothing there. He looked around until he saw the source of the yell, a girl with long pigtails falling from a two-story building. He was about to do something about it when somebody else leapt up and caught her. He relaxed a little until he recognized who her savior was.
Anger started to pulse through him. Damn you, Saotome! First you ruin my life and now you’re torturing poor innocent girls. Look at how she’s arguing with him! On some subconscious level he noticed that her body language was saying she was quite comfortable where she was, but the logical side of Ryoga never comes out of his thick skull that often. Wait a minute. I better make sure it’s him this time. Don’t want to attack the wrong guy again.
He stalked toward Ranma when the world around him went white from all the flashbulbs. When Ryoga could see again, Ranma was gone, but there was a trail of reporters to follow…
Ranma and Videl’s eyes went wide as they realized that they weren’t alone, and Ranma was still holding Videl. Ranma started running to the gates of the school, away from the cameras that were already flashing all around him. He rushed through the gates only to have his danger sense go off. He dodged to the side.
“RANMA PREPARE TO DIE!!!” Shyapuna came down and landed in front of them. “I’ll show you who rules this school!”
Ranma looked at him with a ‘you MUST be kidding me’ look. “Okay. So what are you planning to do?”
Shyapuna rose to his full height. “I’m going to pound you right here and now.”
“You and what two armies?”
“Ha! I’ve been training with Mr. Satan! I’ve got to be better than you by now!”
Ranma cocked his head. “And how long have you been training?”
“For three days now!”
Ranma shook his head. “Y’know, I’ve never been that good at math, but I’d say that ten years is more than a few days.”
Shyapuna began to get furious. “I’ll show you! PREPARE TO DIE SAOTOME RANMA!!!”
In the bushes beside them an observer lurked. It IS him!
Ranma just stuck his foot up and Shyapuna ran into it and knocked himself out. “What do you know, I might be able to pass math.”
“Uh, Ranma.”
Ranma looked down at Videl in his arms. “Yeah.”
“You’re still holding me and the reporters are going nuts about it.”
He looked around and noted the reporters still flashing away. He was about to put Videl down, but his danger sense flared again.
“RANMA PREPARE TO DIE!!!”
Again? Ranma thought.
A stranger embedded the tip of his umbrella into the pavement. The concrete cracked and then exploded into a small crater from the strength of the impact. The dust cleared to reveal a fanged boy in a tan shirt and black pants wearing a black and yellow striped bandanna. “I’ve found you, Saotome Ranma. So I see you’re still good at running away.”
“You know this guy?” Videl turned her head up to Ranma.
Ryoga breathed deeply. “I feel as though I’ve been waiting for this moment for thousands of years!”
Ranma just had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Videl waved her hand in front of his face. “Yo, Ranma! Can you at least put me down?”
Ranma looked down at her in surprise. He didn’t realize that he was still holding her. “Uh, Sorry.” He gently put her on her feet.
Videl brushed out her oversized t-shirt. “So, do you know this guy, or what?”
The new boy glared at Ranma. “Still feigning ignorance?”
Ranma was looking off into space, deep in thought.
Videl put her hands on her hips. “Do you know him, or not?”
Ranma put his head down and groaned like the thinking was giving him a migraine.
The new boy got a shocked look on his face. “You mean you really don’t remember?”
Ranma shook his head. “Sorry.”
“Then answer me this! Why didn’t you come and fight me at the appointed time?!”
Ranma snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah! I remember! You and I were classmates in junior high! You were…uh…ah…”
The boy charged up into his face. “Hibiki Ryoga!!!”
Ranma leaned back. “Yeah! Something like that! Long time no see!” Ranma pat the boy on the back.
Ryoga swatted Ranma’s hand away. “Just answer my question! Tell me! Why didn’t you come to the fight?!”
Ranma thought for a second. “But I was there. I waited at the agreed place for three days!”
Ryoga clenched his fist. “Yes! For three days, but by the time I arrived there on the fourth day you had already turned tale and ran!”
Videl was getting confused. “Three days for a duel? Arriving on the fourth?”
Ranma looked down and shook his head. “Ryoga, let me ask you a question. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the place we agreed on was the vacant lot behind your house. Why the heck did I have to wait for three days for you to show?”
“Don’t patronize me! Do you think I was strolling around Japan for my health!”
“So, what were you doing?”
“I was looking everywhere for where they put that stupid lot! I had to search everywhere for it!”
Videl slapped her hand to her face and shook her head in it. “You were lost! You got lost trying to find your own back yard!” She started laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
“It’s not funny!” Ryoga swung his umbrella at Ranma. “You went and broke a man to man promise and then ran to China with your father!”
Ranma raised an eyebrow and leaned out of the path of the swing. “How did you know that I went to China?”
“I followed you.”
“No, really. How did you know?”
Ryoga’s aura flared around him. “RANMA!!!” He opened his umbrella and threw it at Ranma, the canopy spinning at the pigtailed martial artist like a saw blade. Ranma stepped aside and allowed the umbrella to pass. Videl dropped to the ground to avoid certain dismemberment. The umbrella came to zenith of an upward path then fell back toward the crowds of reporters. They dived away for dear life, losing several cameras in the process.
Ranma casually dodged the returning umbrella, and snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah! Now I remember what this was all about!” He ran past Ryoga. “Wait here! I’ll be right back!”
Ranma came back a few seconds later with an armload of plastic wrapped packages. He tossed one at Ryoga.
Ryoga looked at the package. “Curry bread? What are you doing now?”
“Howz about we forgive and forget? What do you say?”
“You mock me!”
“Geez you’re greedy.” Ranma shuffled through the packages. “Here! Chow mien bread. Cut bread. Mellon sandwich. Meat bread. Seaweed bread…” Ranma trailed off and named each of the breads as he tossed them to Ryoga. Videl and the reporters were all very confused. Ryoga just got even madder. “Happy now? I didn’t forget anything, did I?”
Ireeza walked up behind Videl. “Hey, Videl, what’s up? Who’s the rugged mountain man?”
Videl turned to look at her. “Hibiki Ryoga. Apparently one of Ranma’s old rivals.”
“Kinda cute, isn’t he?”
“You think he’s cute? Great! You can have him! I’ll keep Ranma.”
Ireeza narrowed her eyes. “It’s not that easy, girlfriend. I’ve still got my eye on him too.”
“What do you take me for Saotome Ranma?!” Ryoga’s yell brought their attention back to the front.
Videl walked over beside Ranma. “So what’s this all about?”
Ranma sighed. “Me and Ryoga went to an all boys jr. high. Every lunch break was a battlefield. We had to fight each other just for our daily bread! Ryoga’s just upset because I could always get the bread and he couldn’t.”
“It’s all about bread? He chased you all over creation for bread? It can’t be only about that? Can it?”
“I guess.”
Ryoga, who had been stuffing his face with bread this whole time, leaned over to Ranma. “For your information, this is about more than bread!”
Ranma raised an eyebrow. “Is it really?”
“Of course it is!” Ryoga stood (empty wrappers falling do the ground as he did) and grabbed his umbrella.
“So what is it now?”
“Don’t play DUMB!” Ryoga stabbed at Ranma with the umbrella.
Ranma jumped out of the way and back rolled away from the fanged boy. “Tell me what’s wrong!” He leapt up into the air.
Ryoga followed suit. “Because of you I’ve seen hell!”
“Just tell me what’s going on!”
Ranma landed. Ryoga landed with his back turned to Ranma. “Ranma, where the hell are you?” He charged forward. “You can’t run from me!” He kept going, rammed through a wall in the school and kept going out the back of the school and off to nowhere. A curious panda watched the strange boy leave.
Back at the school, Ranma and Videl were just standing amazed. Videl shook her head. “How can one guy be so dumb?”
Ranma shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know.” The reporters recovered from their stupors and started taking pictures again. Ranma grabbed Videl by the hand and hauled her to class. He turned his head toward her. “Did I handle that wrong?”
Videl shrugged. “You tried to make it up to him, and he got mad over it. I think he’s just being unreasonable. My dad’s like that a lot.”
“Okay, I just didn’t know if I had done something wrong.”
Videl smiled. “I’m not sure you could, Ranma.”
Ranma turned his head to her. “What?” CLANG! Ranma slid down the steel support pole he had just run into. “Owww…”
Videl giggled. “Come on, Ranma. We’re going to be late.” She helped him to his feet and off to class.
After class they walked out and looked around the schoolyard. Videl hollered over to Ranma. “Find him?”
Ranma scanned the yard with his hand shading his eyes. “Nope. No sign at all.”
Videl walked back to Ranma’s side. “For someone so determined, he sure gives up easily.”
“He didn’t give up. He just got lost.”
“How can someone get lost in the middle of a fight?”
“No idea, but we were both just saw it.”
“You think we’ll ever see him again?”
Ranma scratched his head. “Well, it took him five years to find me again the last time. I figure I’ll see him again when I’m twenty-one. By then, I’ll probably have forgotten him again.”
“Oh well. Let’s get back home and train some more!” Videl smiled at him.
Ranma chuckled. A girl after my own heart… Ranma slapped himself. Can’t think like that! I gotta find a cure first!
Videl eyed Ranma closely. “Are you okay?”
Ranma quickly composed himself. “Yeah, I’m great. Let’s go!” With that he started bounding away on the rooftops. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
Videl scowled in mock anger. “Oh, you!” She jumped up after him. She had to hit a few lower ledges to hit the same height that Ranma did, but she still managed to get level with him and follow him across town.
“So when was your father training Shyapuna?” Ranma yelled over his shoulder.
“Probably…after…school…at…the…down…town…dojo.” Videl panted back.
“So why does he think he can possibly beat me after only three days of training?”
“No…idea.”
“You okay back there?”
“Just…Fine.” Videl came to a stop on top of one of the shorter buildings. She bent over and rested her hands on her knees, breathing heavily.
Ranma stopped and went back to her. “You sure you’re not still tired from this morning?”
“Don’t baby me! I can do this!” She said between gasps of breath.
Ranma shook his head. “Come on. We’ll never make it back to your house at this rate.” He scooped her up in his arms again. “Let’s go.”
She hit him on the chest, not too hard though. “I said, ‘don’t baby me’!”
Ranma was taken aback. “Hey! I’m not babyin’ you. I’m just getting us back faster.” He stopped any further argument by launching himself up and away from the rooftop.
Videl buried her face in his shoulder, a smile hidden from view. Ranma…
A couple of days later, Ranma and Videl were once more trying to get to school. Videl was continually getting better at Ranma’s art, but still had a ways to go. The reporters had become a regular mob at the front gates. They were all waiting for a chance to get a picture of Ranma and Videl, and maybe a word or two.
Today Ranma decided they should take the back way in. They arrived at the back wall. Videl watched him vault to the top of the wall. “You sure this is a good idea?”
Ranma looked back down at her. “Sure! Why not? You don’t wanna be mobbed by those reporters everyday, do you?”
“Not really.”
“Then come on up.”
She looked up at the top of the twenty-foot wall. Well, here goes nothing. She crouched down and then exploded upwards.
When she looked like she wasn’t going to make it, Ranma reached down and took her hand and swung her up to the top of the wall. “See. Not so bad.”
“How can you always jump like that?”
“Practice.”
Videl rolled her eyes. She gazed over the yard and spied something. “Ranma, isn’t that Ryoga?” She pointed him out.
Ranma looked where she was pointing. “I’ll be. He’s ahead of schedule.”
Ryoga was standing in front of the school with his arms crossed, waiting impatiently. By the leaves and trash that had gathered around his feet, it was obvious that he had been waiting there for a while.
Ranma groaned. “The idiot probably found the school late last night and stayed here waiting there the whole time.”
“Well, what are you going to do?”
Ranma shrugged. “See if I can figure out why he so mad, I guess.” Ranma jumped down and walked up behind Ryoga and slapped him on the back. “Yo, Ryoga! How’ya been?”
“You dare mock me! Take this!” Click.
Ranma looked down at his wrist where Ryoga had just attached a handcuff. He lifted up his wrist and looked at Ryoga with a questioning look on his face. “What ‘this’?”
“It’s something to make sure you don’t run away again, you coward!”
“I never ran away in the first place!”
“Stop lying, Ranma!!!”
“He’s right, you idiot!” Videl shouted from the side.
Ryoga turned in her direction. “Who are you?”
“I’m Videl Satan, daughter of the great Mr. Satan.”
“Not THE Mr. Satan.”
“The one and only.”
Ranma looked between them with a confused look on his face. “What are you getting so worked up about?”
Ryoga looked at Ranma like he was an alien. “Don’t you know who she is?”
“Yeah, that’s my friend Videl.”
“DON’T YOU REALIZE WHO SHE IS?”
Ranma stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it. “I heard you the first time! Geez, don’t have to yell. I’m only three feet from you. Now take these damn things off so we can talk.”
“The time for talk is over. PREPARE TO DIE SAOTOME!!!”
The cameras found them as Ryoga took his umbrella and stabbed at Ranma who swung around to avoid it. “Come on! At least tell me why you’re ticked!”
“Because of you I’ve seen HELL!” Ryoga tried another swipe.
Ranma ducked under it. “You’ve already told me that! Why did I do?”
“You know what you did!” Ryoga slashed at Ranma.
Ranma rolled back and kicked the umbrella out of Ryoga’s hand. “Will you put that umbrella down and tell me what’s going on!”
The umbrella flew out of Ryoga’s hand, opened, and twirled down to the ground, where it closed again. Videl walked over and tried to pick it up. “Man! This thing weighs a ton! Wait a sec, Ryoga was using this with one hand!” She turned back to the fight. “Ranma! Don’t let him near you!”
“Kinda hard with these handcuffs!!!” Ranma shouted back as he dodged another punch from Ryoga. “Okay! Enough’s Enough!” Ranma dropped to his back and pulled Ryoga on top of him, propping the fanged boy on the bottom of his feet. He pushed out with all his strength, sending Ryoga flying. The line between the handcuffs came taught and pulled Ranma along. Ranma planted both of his feet in Ryoga’s face and planted him into the ground. “You done yet?” He asked the boy beneath his feet.
Ryoga stood back up. “Not even close!” He took a swing at Ranma with a haymaker punch.
Ranma jumped over Ryoga, landed, turned, and put Ryoga in a chicken wing lock and kicked his feet out from under him. Ryoga landed on his free arm. “Listen, I tried to be reasonable. Now don’t make me have to start getting tough on you.”
Ryoga growled from under Ranma. “You WILL take me SERIOUSLY!” He grunted as he lifted himself and the pigtailed martial artist off the ground with one hand. He pushed off sending them both flying off the grounds.
“They’re leaving the yard! Let’s go!” One of the reporters shouted. They all started piling out the front gates.
Videl just took a running leap over the wall where the two martial artists had gone before. She landed and surveyed the scene around her. She found the two fighting around a park.
Ranma dodged a kick. “Come on Ryoga! What’s your problem?!”
Ryoga threw another punch. “You whine just like a girl!”
Ranma’s eyes narrowed. “You take that back.” He said evenly.
“Just like a little girl!”
WHAM! Ranma landed firm punch to Ryoga’s face, causing the boy to stagger back a step. “You take that BACK!!!” With the last word he pulled the cord between the two handcuffs apart.
“What?” Ryoga looked up bewildered.
“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!” Ranma launched into a flurry of punches and kicks. Ryoga retreated from the onslaught. There wasn’t an opening anywhere. He looked over his shoulder and saw the water fountain. He stepped the other way to avoid it. Ranma landed right in the middle of it with a punch strong enough to shatter the basin. Ryoga lost sight of Ranma in the deluge that followed. An angry redhead jumped out of the water. “YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!” She started another assault.
“Who are you?” Ryoga asked.
“SHUT UP AND FIGHT! Or did you turn chicken or somethin’?”
Ryoga stopped moving. “R-Ranma?”
Ranma-Chan stopped in mid-punch. “Yeah.” She slumped her shoulders when she realized that she had transformed. “Go ahead and laugh. See if I care. I’m just trying to get by, and you try to kill me for something I probably didn’t even do!”
Ryoga glared at Ranma-Chan. “Why would I laugh at a beautiful body like that?”
“Pervert.”
“Not like that, you idiot! Because of you, I’ve seen hell!”
Ranma-Chan rolled her eyes. “You’ve already said that! Tell me what’s the matter!”
Ryoga peeled off some bandannas. “I’ll tell you what the problem is…You were BORN!” He started hurling the bandannas at Ranma-Chan. Ranma-Chan dodged them and watched as they cut up the pavement like razorblades.
“What’s going on?” Videl reached the scene.
“LOOK OUT!” Ranma-Chan tackled Videl out of the way as several more bandanna’s flew over them. Ranma-Chan picked her up and jumped up into a tree. “You okay?”
“Yeah. What was he throwing?”
“Bandannas.”
“How can bandannas cut up the pavement like that?”
“Beats me.”
Ryoga walked up to the base of the tree. “Ignore me will you!” He pulled off his belt and flicked it. It became like a sword in his hand. He swiped once at the tree and it started to fall.
Ranma-Chan scooped up Videl again and dropped to the ground, away from the falling tree. Videl jumped out of the redhead’s arms when they reached the ground. “I told you NOT to baby me!”
“Hey! I’m just trying to save your life!”
“STOP IGNORING ME!!!” Ryoga swung at Ranma-Chan from behind.
“BUTT OUT!” Ranma-Chan kicked backwards and kicked the belt out of the lost boy’s hand. It went soaring through the air. Ranma-Chan turned her attention back to Videl. “I was only trying to keep you safe! What’s wrong with that?!”
“I’m the second most powerful martial artist in the world! I don’t need to treated like some fragile little flower!” She turned around dramatically to walk away from Ranma-Chan in a huff. But, right in mid-turn, the belt came down and sliced off one of her pigtails.
Ranma-Chan and Ryoga just watched in shock as the lock of hair settled to the ground.
Videl reached up and felt the loose hair. She had a dazed look on her face.
I’m dead! I’m soo dead! Ranma-Chan thought. Just when we were getting along so good…
Ryoga tried to get out the words, ‘I’m sorry’, but he just couldn’t quite make it.
Time seemed to stand still.
“Oh well.” Videl shrugged and started to walk away.
Ranma and Ryoga facefaulted.
Ranma-Chan got back to her feet. “Wait for me, Videl! I’m sorry!”
Ryoga got mad again. “We’re not done yet!”
Ranma-Chan turned and punted him at the water fountain. She waited for a couple moments for him to come back. When she finally decided he wasn’t coming back, she said, “Yes, it is.” She hurried to catch up to Videl. “Videl, I’m sorry!”
Videl turned to her. “It’s okay, really. It was Ryoga’s fault. I was going to change my hairstyle anyway. Let’s swing by the salon, and I’ll get my hair fixed.”
“You’re really not mad at me?”
“No, not at all.”
“Whew.” Ranma-Chan wiped the sweat from her forehead.
A few hours and a haircut later…
Videl walked out from the Salon where a male again Ranma was reading through some obscure magazine. Videl’s new hair was cut extremely short. It had a wild look about it that made her exotically beautiful. “What do you think?”
Ranma eyes went wide. “Not bad at all.”
Videl ran her hand through her hair. “You don’t think it makes me look too much like a tomboy, do you?”
“That’s okay. I kinda like tomboys. I mean…uh…I didn’t just say that out loud did I?” He scratched the back of his head.
Videl was virtually glowing. “Come on. Let’s get home.” She took a near paralyzed Ranma by the hand and walked him back home.
They stopped by a water fountain. Videl started the fountain and shoved Ranma’s head into the water.
Ranma-Chan sputtered a bit. “What’dya do that for?”
“We’re home, and I wanted you to wake up.”
Ranma-Chan blushed a bit. “Sorry.”
Videl laughed. “That’s okay.” They got to the front and the butler opened it for them. Videl was about to walk in when she sniffed the air.
Ranma-Chan looked at her. “What?”
“I smell…” She sniffed some more.
“You smell what?”
“Pig!” She looked around excitedly. She spotted a little black piglet in the bushes. “There!!!” She charged at it with a wild fury.
Ranma-Chan’s jaw dropped to the ground.
“The young miss has a thing for bacon.” The butler said guessing at the pigtailed girl’s reaction.
Ranma-Chan watched as Videl charged after the pig with a fanatical look on her face. “Glad I’m not that pig.”
“You and me both. Would you like a bath now, miss?”
Ranma-Chan nodded. “That would be great.”
Some time later, Ranma relaxed back in the bath. His mind started wondering back to Videl and her haircut. How it framed her face so well. How it made her that much more cute…
“COME BACK HERE!!!”
Ranma sat up as the door to the bath flew open. The piglet charged in and jumped into the bath with Ranma. “Hey!” Ryoga’s head popped out of the bath. “Wha’? Where the hell did you come from?”
Ryoga turned to Ranma with a frantic look on his face. “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!”
“How is this my fault?”
“I followed you and your father to China. I came to this place with a bunch of springs with bamboo poles sticking out of them. The redhead was chasing this panda around. The panda knocked me off balance and the redhead kicked me into the springs!”
“Hey! It’s not my fault! It was that girl and…panda…oops.”
“THERE!!! YOU SEE!!! It’s all your fault! Now I’m about to be eaten, again!!!”
Ranma had a puzzled look on his face. “Again?”
“HERE PIGGY, PIGGY, PIGGY!!!”
Ryoga’s eyes went wide as he jumped out the window.
Ranma’s eyes were frozen open in surprise. Well at least I know why he’s mad. Oh well, It was time to get out of the bath anyways. Ranma stood back up, just as Videl burst into the bathroom.
“Where’s that pig?!” She stopped when she saw Ranma’s state of dress. “Oh…uh…um…I’ll…uh…justbegoingnow.” She bolted back out of the room.
Ranma was left to try and figure out what the hell had just happened.