Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong

Ranma 1/2:


     'Hi. Bringing Ranma from China. Saotome.' the postcard read in an almost
illegible penmenship. Soun read the postcard several times in disbelief,
wanting to make sure he had understood what it meant. Finally, when he
understood the meaning of those words, tears of happiness began flowing from
his eyes.
  "Oh, how I've waited for this day" he wept in joy. He quickly called out
for his daughters "Kasumi. Nakiki. Akane"
  He found Kasumi cooking in the kitchen "Yes, father?"
  Nabiki was reading manga in her room "Hm?"
  Akane was nowhere to be found. Soun called out for her "Akane. Where is
that girl?"
  Akane couldn't heard her father calling her from within the house for she
was busy with her morning jog. She had arrived shortly after her father had
given up looking for her.
  "I'm home" she said as passed through the front gate, heading straight
toward the dojo. Inside, she quickly removed her jogging clothes and put on
her dogi. She walked back out into the backyard where she placed several
cinder blocks ontop of two smaller block. She was deep in concentration as
she prepared herself to smash those blocks into pieces.
  "Hyahh!" she yelled out as her fist crashed into the blocks, smashing it
into little pieces. She wiped the sweat from her brow with the sleave of her
dogi "That was nice"
  "There you go again" Nabiki commented "No wonder all the boys think you're
so weird"
  "Why should I care" Akane said, a bit of anger in her voice "Not everybody
thinks the world revolves around boys, Nabiki"
  "No? Then I guess this wouldn't interest you" Nabiki said, her arms behind
her head as she casually headed back into the house.
  Akane looked at Nibiki curiously. What did she mean by that?
  
  It was gently raining outside as the three Tendo sisters and their father
were gathered and sitting together in the dining area. Several hours had
past, and it was getting late into the afternoon.
  "Fiancee?" Akane said in shock. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
  "Yes, the son of a very good friend of mine" He said "The son's name is
Ranma Saotome. If one of you three girls where to marry him and carry on this
training center, then the Tendo family legacy would be secure"
  "Wait a minute" Akane snapped "Don't we have some say in who we marry?"
  "Akane's right, father. We've never even met Ranma" Kasumi commented in
a soft voice. She didn't seem all to worried about what was going on.
  "That can be easily fixed" Soun said, smiling.

  Ranma looked up at the rain, totally drenched. He would had used a
umbrella to shield himself from the downpour, but he thought using them were
for girls. Boy, was he wrong. He would rather be looked at as a girl than
spend the rest of this journey to their destination in the rain. He knew he
was bound to catch a cold sooner or later.
  "Hold up a second, pop. I'm gonna go buy myself an umbrella" Ranma said as
he headed toward the nearest convient store. 
  "It's just a little bit further" his father said, an middle-aged man
wearing a pair of glasses and a white bandanna.
  "I don't care, pop" Ranma snapped. He headed into the store, and could
feel the stares of all the females in the store looking at him. He was
soaking wet, so his clothes clung to his body, outline his muscularity.
  "Do you sell umbrellas?" Ranma asked a saleslady.
  The saleslady looked like she was around his age, and she was probably
working at this store for some extra cash. The girl had always dreaded
coming to work, yet today, meeting someone like this boy standing before her
seemed to make it worthwhile.
  "I-I'm s-sorry" she said nervously "But w-we don't sell them" Her knees
felt weak. Her heart was racing.
  "Okay, thanks anyway" Ranma said with a warm smile before leaving.
  Once Ranma was gone, the girl let out her breath. She had been holding her
breath the entire time he was in there.
  "C'mon, pop. Let's go" Ranma said with a sigh as he headed out back out
into the downpour.
  Together, Rnama and Genma headed toward the Tendo home.

  "Ranma and his father have been on a voyage of training" Soun said. He was
explaining to his daughter how Ranma went with his father on a training trip
at the young age of four to further their knowledge of martial arts
"Recently, it seems, they crossed into China"
  "Wow, China" Nabiki said.
  "Big deal" Akane said unamused. So what if they went to China. It meant
nothing about whom this Ranma was and what he was like.
  "Is he cute?" Nabiki asked.
  "How old is he?" Kasumi said "I hope he's older than me"
  "What kind of guy is this Ranma?" Nabiki and Kasumi asked in unison.
  Soun laughed for a second before replying "I have no idea"
  "No idea?" Nabiki was looking at her father suspiciously. How on Earth
would he arrange a marriage with him if he had never met the boy? He had no
idea what Ranma was like.
  "I've never met him" the father said seriously, which caused the three
young girls to stare at him in disbelief.
  At that moment, there was a knock at the front door.
  "We have visitors" Kasumi said as she got up to answer the door. Nabiki
was way a head of her and was already halfway toward the front door.
  "Ooh, that must be Ranma" Nabiki said gleefully.
  "Saotome, my friend" Soun said as he followed closely behind his second
eldest daughter "We've been waiting"
  Nabiki was the first to reach the door. She opened it and was treated to
quite an eyeful. Standing before her was a handsome young boy around her
age, smiling warmly. Standing next to him was his father, Genma.
  "Konnichiwa" Ranma said.
  "Saotome-kun," Soun said as he stepped in front of Nabiki to put an arm
around Genma's shoulder "it's been quite a while"
  "Yes, quite" Genma commented. He and Soun hadn't seen each other in what
seemed like centuries. The last time they saw each other before they departed
and went their seperate ways, they both studied under the same master,
Happousei.
  "And this must be Ranma" Soun said, looking at the handsome young boy.
  Ranma smiled as he bowed toward the the middle-aged man.
  "Come in" Soun said.
  Nabiki and Soun both headed off toward the back of the house and Rnama and
Genma followed. They all entered the dining area and were seated. Genma sat
next to his friend at the head of the table while Ranma sat between Akane
and Nabiki.
  "Make yourselves at home. Let me introduce you to my three daughters" Soun
began, guesturing toward his youngest daughter "This is Akane"
  "Hello, Akane" Ranma said, his gaze intent. Although she made it clear
that she wasn't interested in boys, his smile seemed to melt Akane's heart.
She quickly turned away from him, blushing horribly. She couldn't believe
how how rapidly her heart was beating. She never felt this way before in her
life. She liked this feeling.
  "Say, my pop told me you study martial arts" Ranma said "I saw a dojo on
the way in here. How about we do a little sparring?"
  "Uh..okay" Akane said. She hadn't had a good sparring partner in the
longest time. She wanted to know just how great a martial artist Ranma was.
Her father had told her that he had been studying martial arts since he was
practically a baby. That meant he must be good.
  Ranma quickly got to his feet, taking hold of Akane's hand. Akane was a
little reluctant about taking his hand, but she really saw no harm in it.
Boy, was she wrong. When their hands touched, every nerve in her body went
haywire. But through willpower, she managed to keep them under control.
  
  Ranma and Akane entered the dojo. Akane noticed that her heart was beating
quite rapidly. She assumed it was from the anticipation of a good sparring
match, but she was too sure if it was. It could be something else. Or
someone else...
  Akane walked onto the mat, readying herself for a good sparring match. She
felt a bit excited yet nervous. Without really needing to fight, she could
already tell Ranma was an excellent martiala artist. As to how good, she
wasn't too sure.
  She snapped did a few perfect formed kicks as Ranma watched with some
amusement. For soem reason, the thought of Ranma watching her was making her
a very nervous. She never felt this nervous showing off her kick, not even
during her belt advancement test where she had to perform in front of an
entire class.
  "Are you ready?" she said, trying to steady her heartbeat. She noticed
that her hands were a bit sweaty from the anticipation. It was anticipation,
right?
  Ranma walked stepped onto the mat "Are you sure you wanna spar against
me?"
  "Of course" Akane said "Besides, you're the one who asked me first"
  "Okay, give me your best shot"
  Akane immediately took the aggressive approach, throwing a volley of
punches and kicks, all of them easily dodged, none of them coming anywhere
near to hitting Ranma. She stoped a moment to catch ner breath. Why am I
missing her, she thought. Is she reading my moves? Okay, this time for
real.
  She lunged forward, throwing all her weight behind her final punch. Before
she could reacted quickly enough, Ranma easily redirected her attack with a
knife hand, causing her to lose her footing due to her forward momentum. As
she struggled to stay afoot, Ranma quickly jumped in front of her, just as
she fell down right on top of him.
  "You okay?" he said, a small smile on his lips.
  Akane quickly got to her feet, a terriffic hue of red forming around her
cheeks. When she had fallen ontop of Ranma, she had felt his body heat enter
into her body, and his warm breath against her skin as he spoke. She turned
around, hoping Ranma didn't notice.
  Ranma stood behind her as he placed a hand on her shoulder "Are you all
right?"
  "Y-yeah. I'm okay" she managed to lie. She was definitely not okay. Every
cell in her body felt like they were on fire. She had never felt something
like this before. This feeling. She had no idea whether to fear it or to
embrace it.
  "Good, I got worried there for a second" he said softly "You're pretty
good. I guess you won that match"
  She turned around "What do you mean I won? I couldn't even touch you" She
was very a very humble person, and she knew when she had lost. There was no
way she could had won the match, not unless Ranma let her win, and she knew
that.
  Ranma leaned forward, his face coming within inches of her, his lips
within inches of her "But you did managed to touch me" He smiled before he
turned around and headed back toward the house.
  Akane stood there silently, not knowing what to say. She felt a bit
relieved that he was leaving, since it would definitely calm her down. But
it also made her sad that he was leaving.
  Ranma wasn't even halfway to the door when his father and Akane's family
entered. Genma and Soun both looked at Ranma and Akane rather fondly. Nabiki
seemed like she could care less, and Kasumi seemed thoroughly content.
  Soun turned to Genma "It's been decided. Your son will marry Akane"
  "Huh?" Ranma said. He had no real idea what Soun was talking about, but it
was definitely something that he should have a say in "What are you talking
about?"
  Akane walked up to her father, all too aware of Ranma now standing beside
her "What is the meaning of this? What do you mean he and I will marry?"
  "Dontcha see?" Soun said "You and Ranma seem right for each other. You
both like martial arts. And you two will be great to carry on the
Anything-Goes school of marial arts"
  Ranma said nothing as he walkd past everyone and out into the backyard.
All he did was shrug his shoulder before sarcasitcally saying "Whatever you
say"
  Akane just stared as he left. Although it wasn't right with what her
father and Ranma's father were up to, she kind of wished Ranma wouldn't say
no so quickly. She wouldn't have minded if he gave it a bit of thought
before he said no.
  Genma followed after his son "Where do you think you're going?"