Make Me Feel Chapter Four: Alone
Disclaimer: I wish I owned the characters in Ranma ½, but unfortunately for me, they belong the great Rumiko Takahashi :sobs:.
AN: Yo! Kuno_Baby here! In response to the reviews I have been getting, I shall be updating a little faster… I have a few chapters almost ready, and I didn’t want to let them go so fast, so that I would be able to consistently update for longer and give myself time for the next chapter after what I have ready… But due to overwhelming responses, I am posting this one three days early. Thank you for reading!
Chapter Four Begins
As the streets flew along behind me, I thought of the few days I had been living in the Tendo home. A stranger experience I have never had.
I adjusted my arm as I went over things again and again. How had she made me angry?
I have felt a few stirrings of emotion already this morning. Did my first curse break? Or is it just that it has a limit? I’m sure a normal person would be furious at getting hit over the head repeatedly with a mallet unprovoked.
Or was it provoked? I’m not good at telling what others are feeling either. Perhaps I should be more polite.
I tried in vain to free my arm again. No good; I was still being pulled along the streets of Nerima at high speeds. This is getting ridiculous.
I felt it again, a faint feeling, but a feeling nonetheless. That’s strange… I would think I would be furious at her by now.
We arrived at the school fairly quickly, and I tried to speak to her again. “Um, Akane, please let…”
“I’m gonna be LATE!”
“But I’m a…”
She stopped to think for the first time this morning, before noticing what I had been trying to tell her. She opened my shirt, an unusual reaction, and said, “When did this..?”
“I’ve been trying to tell you.”
She turned around to face a large mob of boys. “Stop looking, perverts!”
“But Akane… We must give you up. We accept your engagement to Ranma.” Every single one of them was crying. “We shall no longer challenge you.” Many of them broke out in loud crying.
“Well, that is lucky.” I said, attempting to joke.
“Button your blouse. Now, what was that?”
“ENOUGH!” A loud voice said from behind them. “Many… brrrrrr… of you may have heard of this f-f-falsehood that R-R-Ranma has defeated m-me. I d-do not accept d-defeat!” He was quite noticeably shivering, testimony to the power of my Ki. His entire body was wrapped in heavy winter clothing.
“Kuno was the greatest fighter at Furinkan!” One boy said, followed by another with, “Yeah and the greatest pervert…”
“W-Wait a sec? Was? P-Pervert?” Kuno said with a shiver.
“If he beat Kuno so easily, we have no chance. Goodbye, Akane!”
“Ha,” said Akane, whispering to me, “For perversion, Kuno pales in comparison to you.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“I, Tatekwak-k-ki K-Kuno,” Said Kuno, beginning to take off his heavy coat, “Sh-Shall n-n-never give up!”
He took off a total of three heavy winter coats, ten sweaters, and three shirts before revealing his normal uniform. I suppose that he had been numb the whole time yesterday… My attacks do last for a while. Under all that covering, his skin was still tinted blue from the cold attack I had used.
“You will just lose again,” I said, forgetting I was still in my cursed form.
“Ah! My pigtailed goddess, how I have pined to see you again!” He ran up to me and, with a speed inhumanly fast, and much faster than in the fight, he grabbed my hands.
“Wait. Don’t you like Akane?”
“Of course.”
“She is right there.”
“…”
“Kuno,” Akane began, “If you really like her, then I won’t stand in your way.”
“Oh Akane!”
“You can let go now, Kuno.” I manage to say.
Kuno appears to be lost in his own little world for a few moments, before coming to a decision. “I must have you both!” He declared, as Akane punched him in the face.
As Kuno fell to the ground again, another boy from the crowd said, “Well, give our congratulations to Ranma.”
“I will, uh, when I see him!” Akane quickly replied.
“Why don’t you want them to know of my curse,” I asked her as soon as we were out of earshot, “I don’t care.”
“They will think I am engaged to a pervert! And I am. I just don’t want people to know until I can get rid of you.”
“That hurts me right here,” I said in a sarcastic tone, while pointing to my chest. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. People will think you are keeping it a secret for other reasons.”
The only notable class that day was gym. In it, I showed off my skill with a midair Kata, a specialty of the Anything Goes Style.
“Amazing!”
“Did you study gymnastics in
“No. It was martial arts.”
Two boys sat next to me. “Be honest,” one began, “How far have you gotten with Akane?”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t play dumb. You’re her fiancé, right?”
“I bet you’ve…” as he said this, he leaned on my shoulder.
Not liking the way this was going, I grabbed his arm and tossed him forward over my shoulder. “Enough.”
I went back to watching Akane play softball. I still gave some attention to the fools, however. The one I threw began to get back up with a groan.
“Ow. That was wicked mean, Ranma.”
“So?”
Just then, I saw the softball hurtling towards me, courtesy of Akane. I charged my hand with a little Ki and swatted at the ball. It seemed to pause in midair, and suddenly flew off into the sky, way out of vision.
Everyone stopped playing and stared. I gave an innocent look and returned to my thoughts.
As we walked home at the end of the day, Akane was still staring at me in wonder. “What did you do to the softball?”
“It’s an easy trick. I could teach you when you get good enough.”
I then stopped. There was something I never expected. It was a sight I decided must either be a hallucination or something far too important to miss.
“You better start moving a little faster, Ranma. I’m gonna leave you behind.” Akane had certainly not seen it yet.
A panda sweeping the sidewalk in front of a store is enough to make even me pause and consider, especially since I knew the panda on a first name basis.
“Father, got yourself a job?” He waved in response. And here I thought he always had a sign to write on.
“Ranma, Akane, hello.” Dr. Tofu came through the front door of the clinic with a smile. “This is my new janitor, Mr. Saotome. Do you know him?”
“He is my father.”
“Wow, what a coincidence. Not much resemblance, either. Would you like to stay for some tea?”
“Sure. We don’t have any other places we need to go.” My mind burned as I saw her reaction to his presence. Akane obviously liked him. How much I had yet to see. But why did this make me angry at him?
The phone rang, and my father picked it up after being prompted by Dr. Tofu. He stood there, holding it, until Akane snatched it from him. “If you couldn’t answer why did you pick it up?”
“Hello? Oh… Yes I see… Okay, goodbye.” She looked up from the phone. “I’m going home.”
“Something the matter?” Something wasn’t right here.
“No, nothing like that.” She seemed worried and nervous.
“So why hurry? I thought you would want to stick around with Dr…” My childish response was thankfully cut off.
She slapped a hand over my mouth. “Shut up. There’s… a girl he likes.”
She calmed down and took her hand off my mouth, and looked at the floor. “That was her on the phone. She’s going to be here in a minute or two.”
“Good morning,” crackled an old voice from the door. A gnarled old woman walked into the clinic.
“Wow, Tofu has some taste.” Sarcasm was a well used tactic of Anything Goes but this was one of the first times I had used it for real.
“That’s not her!”
Dr. Tofu chose this moment to stick his head through the doorway and say, “What are you two doing?”
“Nothing!” Akane snapped, before realizing who it was who had asked. “…”
An awkward silence ensued. At least I think it should have been awkward. For all I know it was a moment of silent prayer…
POP! My father, moron that he is, popped a paper bag behind my head, then held up a sign that said, <I’m Ranma’s Pop! (get it?)>
“That was so necessary.” I was not in the mood for jokes. Never was.
Dr. Tofu went in the kitchen for a second, and returned with some tea. “So, how have things been?”
Before I could answer, the door opened and Kasumi walked in. “Good afternoon, doctor!”
Faster than I could react too, Dr. Tofu suddenly grabbed my head and twisted it to the side. I heard a great cracking sound and I couldn’t move my head. I pushed tofu back with and open palm strike to the chest.
“What did you do that for?”
He didn’t even notice me. “H-Hello Kasumi.”
Kasumi looked around. “Hmm. What was that cracking noise?”
I didn’t think sticking around in this place would be safe, so I quickly went out of the clinic, followed closely by Akane, who had come to the same conclusion.
A group of old people were gathered around the gate. “Kasumi is in there,” Akane warned, “Better not go in.”
“An exam today could mean your life,” one of them remarked.
We went to the Tendo house as fast as we could. Akane went right to the dojo, but I took a while to try and fix my neck, to no avail.
I went to the dojo to talk to Akane. We still had to work things out between us.
I arrived just in time to see her smash many cement blocks into pieces. She certainly had enough strength to be a master. Too bad Anything Goes is based mostly on agility. I was still annoyed at Tofu… where did this come from?
I watched as she stood and leaned on the wall, her eyes downcast. I saw a tear drop from her face to the floor.
“What’s wrong?” I said, rushing over and looking at her upside down. Not much choice there, due to my neck.
“Get AWAY FROM ME!” She pushed my head down to the ground, very hard.
“What? Its not like I’m going to do anything to you.”
“Like I believe you. You aren’t any different from the rest of them.”
“There is no one like me.” I moved my neck around. Apparently I was cured.
“Hey, are you better?”
“I guess…”
“In that case, could you start training me? You did promise.”
“Sure. We will begin with a sparring session to check your skill level.”
She attacked me with an uncoordinated set of punches and kicks. This would take a lot of work. I just dodged, as she wasn’t good enough at blocking to do anything if I were to attack.
“Hey! Fight me for real!”
“You’re not good enough.”
“You… Argh!” She began to attack with renewed vigor.
“Is being angry the only way you can fight to your full potential?” I was interested in this mostly because anger was a resource that I had only recently begun to tap.
“That’s my business!”
“Whatever.”
We continued in this way for a few more minutes, before I held up my hand for us to stop. “Okay. I will start you on basic defense. You have much to learn.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean just what I said. You have much to learn. In a real fight with me or even Kuno you would be dead in seconds.”
Akane appeared struck by my serious tone and cold voice. She backed slowly out of the dojo and up to the house.
I felt another stirring of emotion. This one was unfamiliar to me even when I was a child. I wanted to talk with her more. I needed to talk to her more.
I jumped up to her window, and tapped on it twice. She opened it up and, upon seeing me, her face grew red with anger.
“Get away from my ROOM, you PERVERT!” she slapped me with more speed and strength than she had displayed during our little match. With my arms occupied hanging from the roof, I couldn’t block, so I was sent flying.
I made my way beck to the guest room, where my father was sewing up a torn gi. “Isn’t your neck better yet?” he said?
“It was.” was all I could say. I was angry once again. It’s been a surprising week.