Part Three: A Victory And A Reintroduction

Ranma’s kenjutsu lessons were an integral part of her life; she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t gone home after school every day except Wednesdays and almost immediately started practicing, nor a Wednesday or a Sunday on which she hadn’t had lessons to look forward to to her fill up empty afternoons. Her class was her second family. She knew just about everyone who took lessons at the dojo, and even those who she only recognized in passing knew her by name and skill. It was difficult not to; a thirteen year old in the class with sixteen year olds stood out. Especially one with bright red hair. There was another younger child in that class as well, but fewer people paid attention to the fifteen-year-old Kuno Tatewaki, except to whisper that there was something very unusual going on.

However, when one’s family is that large, it causes problems. For example, when one’s mother strictly limits the size of one’s birthday part to twenty-five friends, that score and five must be chosen with utmost care.

“Let’s see,” Akane said, snatching the paper out of Ranma’s hand. She scanned over it quickly. “You don’t have to invite me or Kasumi or Nabiki, ‘cause it’s at our house…”

“Really? Your mom said yes?” At Akane’s nod, she grinned. “Cool. That means Aizumi can come… and Misoru… and Lanko… but… wait, that’s still too many!”

Akane, still reading the paper, creased brow incredulously. “You’re inviting Fujita? Why? And Sagara? And Kuno? Why? Hey, half this list is boys! If you just got rid of them, you’d be fine…”

Ranma grabbed back the paper. “Hey, they’re my friends!”

Akane sat down on the floor next to her friend and watched her mull over the list. “Your mom made you invite some boys, didn’t she…”

Ranma nodded silently. “The girls get to stay for a sleepover… so I’ve gotta invite boys too.”

“That doesn’t make any sense…”

“I know.” Ranma sighed.

***
Soon, and yet not soon enough, it was the day of the party. The twenty kids who had been able to make it filtered in slowly, each bearing a brightly wrapped gift and an identical-sounding greeting for Ranma. Her mother collected each of the presents and welcomed them in until the living rooms were filled with adolescents, some clustered around an old shougi board on the porch and others in the general vicinity of the television, half-watching a loud animated movie that Nodoka had rented.

Kuno’s brow furrowed as he examined the game board, trying to figure out his next move. He wasn’t very good at shougi, but he’d been the only other one interested in playing. His opponent, a younger girl with medium-short black hair, just smiled calmly at his confusion. Idiot.

Ranma squeezed her way into a spot by the pair and examined the board. “Don’t make him loose too badly, Lanko,” she advised the girl who was playing.

“Don’t worry,” she answered. “I only want to humiliate him, not crush his spirit entirely.”

Ranma shook her head at that. “You’re a mean one, Lanko…”

The other girl, a distant cousin of Akane’s, just smiled, then turned back to the game, since Kuno had finally made his move. After thinking for about two seconds, she casually moved another piece, then once again removed her attention from the game.

“Look, they’re setting up a volleyball game,” she commented.

“Really?” Ranma whirled around to look. Sure enough, two of the five other boys were setting up a net, carefully keeping it a decent distance from the koi pond. Slowly the group was growing with others interested in the game, and Ranma jumped up and ran over to them to secure her place on one of the teams.

The two boys whose idea the game had been just laughed at her eagerness for any sort of competition and assured her that they wouldn’t dream of trying to keep her out of it.

The group of those interested split themselves into two teams of five each and started to play. The game wasn’t very long, but about half an hour later Ranma’s team had won, eleven points to six.

Ranma grinned and wiped the sweat out of her eyes. Suddenly someone patted her on the back, none to gently but not hard enough to make her stumble. A soft object was dropped into her hands – a towel. She wiped her face and dried her hair with it as she craned her neck upward to see who it was. An unruly mess of bleach-blonde hair and a pair of sparkling black eyes gave it away, and Ranma grinned wider.

“I beatcha, Reiza.”

The older girl gave her a playful shove, pushing her back several feet, but Ranma kept her balance, even going so far as to free her hair from its ponytail as she did so, letting the long red locks loose. She rubbed the mass dry with the towel as she turned to face her classmate.

“Ask me if I’m surprised,” the blonde said dryly. “Like anyone would dare beat you on your birthday.”

Ranma stuck out her tongue in a deliberately childish display of indignance as she retied her hair back. “Are you saying that you let me win?”

Rei laughed. “No, just that I’m glad we lost.”

“Somehow I doubt you’re that humble.”

“You underestimate me, Ran-chan.”

Suddenly another voice interrupted. “Perhaps you would care for a sport of a more… challenging nature?”

Ranma just looked at Kuno in amusement, while Rei spared him only a narrow-eyed glare. She didn’t like the slightly-younger boy much. “I’ll talk to you later, okay Ranma?” she called over her shoulder as she turned to leave.

“Okay!” Ranma called back, then returned her attention to Kuno. “So, Lanko already beat you?”

“Yeah, I figured I’d put him out of his misery sooner rather than later,” the girl commented from her spot on the porch.

Kuno sideways glared at Lanko before speaking again. “Such is not my… specialty,” he admitted.

Ranma felt suddenly and inexplicably sorry for him. The only things he ever wins are the boy’s competitions… She shook off the feeling and grinned again. “So you’ve decided to challenge me? To a duel? On my birthday?”

He looked uncertain for a moment, then nodded, face becoming determined again.

“Why, Tatchi, what a thoughtful gift!” she only used the nickname when she was feeling particularly excited or high-spirited, knowing that it irritated him.

***
Ranma dug carelessly through the storage cabinet, not caring that she was destroying its careful organization. “I know there’s a spare here…” she mumbled, then made a sound of discovery. “Yep!” She tossed the second bokken over her shoulder and picked up her own as she turned to face her opponent.

The five members of the hosting family observed from the back wall of the dojo. Tendo Kenriko looked mildly critical of this, but resigned to the fact that this was their nature. Akane gave Ranma a thumbs-up for good luck; Nabiki watched appraisingly while Kasumi surreptitiously read a book. Soun, for lack of anyone else interested in the job, had been appointed the judge.

Everyone else who was interested in watching stood outside, clustered around the door and chattering excitedly amongst themselves. Lanko and Reiza sat at the forefront of that crowd, watching with interest tinted with mild disapproval. The audience quieted as Ranma and Kuno faced off; by the time they bowed politely to each other the silence was echoing.

“Begin.”

The fighters moved immediately, neither attacking, but rather taking a more defensible position. Ranma, however, changed her mind in the middle of the movement and attacked, somewhat more clumsily than she could have. Her thrust was easily avoided, and she leaped back.

She still had a confident smile on her face, however, as the fight proper began.

The wooden swords clashed together loudly, sounding out three times although it only seemed that two blows were exchanged; there was a pause, and it was repeated, this time only one attack being parried as Kuno chose to dodge the second blow instead. Ranma stumbled almost imperceptibly, but managed to whirl in time to parry the expected attack of opportunity.

It never came, though.

Ranma’s smile slowly faded to be replaced by a look of intense concentration as the fight continued, now in a more routine pattern. But she clearly never really recovered from her initial mistakes, and felt herself fall a little behind with each exchange of blows, although no one else could tell.

Kuno was in rare form that day. Thoughts of victory were in the back of his mind, barely noticed; he merely concentrated on the dance, on his opponent, on throwing her off with every trick he’d ever even seen used and somehow pulling it off against the odds. Despite the two participant’s knowledge of what was happening, however, everyone else was shocked when the expected third clash of the bokkens never happened and Ranma fell to the ground instead, her weapon clattering to the floor after her.

Eyes wide, she gently touched her shoulder where the strike that had sealed her loss had connected, wincing slightly with pain. She looked up slowly at Tatewaki, whose face was blank with shock. He hadn’t foreseen this; although he had thought to win, he’d never considered that she’d fall, pale faced, like that, suddenly weak after being so long invincible.

The official announcement of the winner was lost in the sudden explosion of conversation that erupted in the audience as they speculated and shared their astonishment, looking away from the floor for a moment. When they looked back, Ranma was on her feet, and the two once again bowed politely to each other.

So maybe only Akane saw that it was Tatewaki who pulled Ranma to her feet when the girl showed no sign of wanting to stand herself. Her lips curled thoughtfully at the sight.

***

The party continued on, largely unaffected by the unusual result of the match. Ranma seemed slightly subdued, but such things were relative and she was still the most energetic person there. Tatewaki didn’t change, although he seemed to be lost in thought if not specifically doing anything at the moment. All of the other boys, who had long ago given up teasing him for continually losing to a girl, cheered him for his victory. Even a few girls offered him congratulations, including Akane.

When, during the sleepover (which was in the dojo considering that there were fourteen girls, plus Ranma and Akane, there), Ranma was badgered on her loss, she simply shook her head, attributed it to overconfidence, and changed the subject. After a while, the topic was dropped, although Ranma noted that Akane was not among those who had pressed the matter. Her friend’s silence bothered her, but there was no chance for them to talk privately until several hours later, when Ranma saw her leave for the kitchen to get something to drink. She followed.

***
“I’d thought that you would be on my case more than anyone else.”

“Huh?” Akane turned in surprise, causing her to spill red punch all over the kitchen counter and the floor. Seeing that it was just Ranma, she rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Oh, it’s just you.” Pulling a wad of paper towels off the roll, she threw some of them at the intruder. “Now you get to help me clean this up, thanks a bunch.”

Ranma obligingly began to mop up the floor. “Well…”

“Well what?”

“You’re not going to ask me anything?”

“Why should I?” Swiping the towel across the counter one last time for good measure, she dumped the soggy paper in the trash, followed closely by Ranma. “Ranma, I know you have your reasons for letting him win. I’ll dig them out of you when there’s a chance you might actually give them.”

“Let him win? What?”

“I know…”

“I didn’t let him win!” Ranma exclaimed. “That’s the problem! I don’t know how he did it; yeah I was overconfident, but I still should’ve won!”

Akane started to leave. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, there’re people wondering where you’ve run off to. Let’s get back to the party, okay?” she smiled, but it wasn’t reflected in her eyes.

Ranma didn’t look happy with the conclusion to the conversation, but followed anyway.

“Besides, I *told* you that inviting boys would ruin the party.”

***

They didn’t get a chance to talk alone until the next Monday at school, and by then there were other, more timely, things to talk about.

When Ranma stepped into her first class that morning, she kept talking for a few minutes to the friends she was walking in with before she noticed that the rest of room was looking at her. For a moment she was angry, thinking that they were critical at her for losing, then confused when several of the girls she knew better made furtive gestures. She followed their motions until finally her eyes fell upon her desk.

Akane gave Ranma the opportunity to retrieve the single red rose and the pale pink envelope off her desk before grabbing the redheaded girl by the back of her collar and dragging her forcefully out of the classroom.

***

They found refuge in some large storage room which a janitor or a teacher had carelessly left unlocked.

“Hey!” Ranma protested, rubbing her neck where her collar had been pulled tight around it. “What’d’ya do *that* for?”

“So that you could read that *without* half the population of the school knowing what it said,” Akane explained, blocking the door closed behind them. “Now start reading!”

Confusedly, Ranma gently placed the rose on a counter and ripped open the envelope.

“To Saotome Ranma,” she read aloud. “Please come to second field of Daikuon Middle this evening at five thirty-six pm.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Signed, Kuno… Tatewaki.” He voice trailed off at the end and she looked up at Akane, confused. “A… challenge?” It didn’t make any sense.

Akane slapped on hand over her eyes, exasperated with the obtuseness of her friend. “Do people usually give out roses with challenges, Ranma? Or send them in pink envelopes?” Akane looked at the letter and shook her head again. “Or write them in green ink?”

“What does the green ink have to do with anything?” Ranma asked cluelessly.

Akane covered her eyes again. “You idiot. Well, if you don’t know, I’m sure not gonna to tell you.”

“Akane…”

“Well, are you going to go or not?”

“Akane…” she trailed off briefly, but this time Akane didn’t interrupt. “We’re gonna be late for class!” She grabbed her friend by the wrist and dragged the bewildered girl back to the classroom. A very puzzled janitor fell over as the two girls burst out of the storage room that he had been attempting, unsuccessfully, to unlock.

***
Before they left in opposite directions for home that afternoon, Akane pulled Ranma off to one side. “Are you going?” she asked in a furious whisper, having been unable to ask the question privately all day.

Ranma just looked at her strangely. “Of course I am! Now let me go, I hardly want to show up in a school uniform!”

Confused, Akane relinquished her hold on Ranma’s arm. “You… do know what this is, right?”

The red-haired girl just looked at her strangely. “Well, not exactly, but I think it was a challenge…” seeing the disbelieving look on Akane’s face, she finished with a question, “…right?”

It could be, Akane considered for a moment. You can never know what Kuno’s thinking… and he’s never issued a formal challenge before, at least not to Ranma… this could be his way… but somehow she couldn’t quite convince herself. “I don’t know,” was all she said, in the end.

“Well, then, let me go!” Ranma said, not really serious in her insistence, though. “I’ll tell you tomorrow, don’t worry about it, okay?” Waving, she left, calling goodbyes to other friends as well as she did so.

Akane just watched her go.

***
Ranma, changed into a pair of comfortable loose black pants and a red T-shirt, waited beneath a tree in the correct field, bokken carried loosely at her side. She had woven her hair back into a long braid rather than it’s usual ponytail. She fiddled with the end of it as she waited, and glanced at her watch. Five thirty-nine.

“He’s late!” she complained aloud. And he set the time and everything… suddenly sensing motion, she squinted in the direction of the school, where the setting sun nearly overwhelmed he view of anything else . Is that him?

He was nearly unrecognizable in a strange outfit, leading Ranma at first to doubt his identity, but when he spoke it was clearly the person whose letter had caused her to be there. He was dressed in a loose black hakama and gray-blue gi – Ranma vaguely recalled something similar being the dress for his high school’s Kendo Club, and immediately made the assumption that this was indeed a challenge.

“It is now five thirty-six pm,” he announced loudly, but his voice shook slightly. “The time when the sunset is at it’s most… beautiful.”

That wasn’t expected. What’s this? Poetry? Or maybe just commentary… who knows… she didn’t let her guard down, however. She raised her bokken, preparing a defense.

“You won’t be needing that,” he said as he finally reached her, standing about seven feet away.

She lowered her weapon a little, suspicious. “What do you mean?” She could see now that he was holding something behind his back. “What’s that you’ve got there, then?”

He blushed, surprising her into relaxing her defense even more. “This…”

Ranma yelped as he threw whatever it was directly towards her. She made a grab to catch it, reflexively squeezing her eyes shut as she did so and turning her face away in case she failed, but luckily she didn’t. She caught something soft, which crinkled in her hand like paper. Warily, she slowly opened her eyes to see what it was.

Somehow, the lavish bouquet of twelve deep red roses wasn’t a complete surprise, but it did startle her into speechlessness. A few petals, shaken loose by their violent flight, drifted to the ground during the pause.

During the moment of silence, Tatewaki spoke again. “Saotome Ranma… would you do me the honor of a date?”

Ranma blinked, then suddenly grew angry. “Why, you…” with a wordless shout, she tossed the roses back in his face, turned, and ran with every intention of not stopping until she reached home.

However, she skidded to stop as she passed a group of bushes. A group of bushes that had just sneezed. What the… Then she saw that it hadn’t been the bushes to sneeze, but rather a girl with long black-blue hair crouched behind them.

The spy looked up, seeing that she had been caught. “Erm…”

“Akane? What are you…” suddenly realization swept over Ranma’s face. “You… you knew about this didn’t you!” It wasn’t quite anger that replaced the upset look on her face, but it looked close enough to fury for Akane to flinch.

“Well…” she started to explain, standing, “I found out at home that Nabiki had been the one to deliver the rose and the note to our school, and she knew what was in it. You’re just lucky that she told them that it said for you to meet him at the high school… or else you’d have half the population of Furinkin High here!”

“They… all knew?” Ranma looked genuinely surprised.

“Everyone except you knew! Well, the ones at our school didn’t know that it was Kuno, or where it was. You should thank me for not being as free as my sister with information… she told her classmates that it was at the high school because that’s what she actually believed that it was, not because she was trying to protect you or anything.”

“No one said anything…”

“Of course they didn’t. They all thought that you knew!”

Ranma just looked blank now. “I guess I did know…” she said, more to herself than out loud. “But…”

“You didn’t answer me…”

Ranma whirled. Tatewaki had followed them, carrying the bedraggled roses somewhat forlornly. Apparently he hadn’t been able to catch them; a few pieces of grass mingled with the bright red, and now bruised, petals. She couldn’t decide whether to be angry with him or sorry for him; he looked rather pathetic, standing there like that. Her face, independently of her thought, settled on concern.

She accepted the bouquet from his outstretched hands numbly. “I…” she glanced at Akane, whose eyes were wide, for support, but received none. “I guess I will…”

Akane reminded herself to blink. Tatewaki’s face lit up in relief and he said some more words, which didn’t process in Ranma’s brain. The next thing she was aware of was his figure retreating, again towards the sunset.

Akane took note of the time and place that he gave for their date, since clearly Ranma wasn’t coherent enough to remember them. When he had left, she tapped her catatonic friend on the shoulder.

Ranma blinked and turned a blank face towards her friend before slumping to the ground, her legs suddenly boneless. The roses shed more petals, scattering them all over the grass and her clothing.

Akane made another mental note to explain a few things to Ranma as soon as she was coherent enough to listen.

***

~Mordain

Sadly, this interlude seems to be a failure, and I've put it on hold for a while. But feedback is still welcome; I will finish it, just not right now.

Wanna know why I wrote this little side-fic? Read my comments page for the reasoning behind the Interlude...

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