[Ranma][FanFic] A Little Earlier 3/14
Stephen Ratliff
Author: Stephen Ratliff (stephen...@crosswinds.net)
Series: Ranma 1/2
Part: NEW 3/14
What happened before:
Part 1: Akane meets Ranma at age 12. They spar. Akane
walks in on Ranma
Part 2: Ryoga first appears. Ranma shows off in Gym class.
Ranma is challenged to teach the class gymnastics. Ranma walks
in on Akane.
And now, part 3 Gymnastics.
Part 3: Gymnastics.
Akane stood bellow the uneven bars, spotting for her friend
Yuki. Today's task on the uneven bar, was to switch between the
bars. Nothing fancy, just switch back in forth between the bars.
Well, Akane had thought it was simple. Yuki missed again, and
Akane caught her, breaking her fall.
"You can do better, Yuki," Akane said, as Yuki climbed out
of her arms.
"Sorry, Akane," Yuki replied, returning to the side, so the
next girl could try.
"Problem, Akane?" Ranma said, coming over from his station
by the rings.
"Yuki can't seem to ever make the switch," Akane said.
"Yuki, try again," Ranma asked, motioning his classmate to
the bar. Once again, Yuki missed the bar. "I see what's wrong.
Yuki, you need to grab the moment you feel that bar. If you
wait, you'll just keep falling. Try again." This time Yuki was
successful.
"Good job, Yuki!" Akane said, as Yuki finished. Ranma had
already moved to the next problem.
Sensei Ogawa relaxed in her office. Every once in a while
she'd look out at her fourth period class. In the past week
Ogawa had gradually retreated as Ranma showed his talent at
teaching. She had expected the young boy to quit and declare
that he couldn't do anything with the class. After all, this
class had some of the worse students she'd ever seen. But when
Ranma had taken over, he was getting more out of them, somehow.
He still had lots to learn though.
Ranma said that he wanted to become the best martial artist
of his generation. Ogawa was fine with that, but she had other
objectives for the young boy. After all, what good is being the
best martial artist if you can't pass it along? She knew Ranma's
father from back when he was still dating Nokoda. How Gemna
Saotome had managed to teach Ranma up to this point was a mystery
to Ogawa. Gemna Saotome had to be the craziest teacher she knew.
Well, aside from Mr. Kuno.
As she had required of him, Ranma entered her office after
class. "Reporting as ordered, Sensei," Ranma said.
"How did you think class went today, Saotome?" Ogawa asked.
"Pretty good," Ranma said. "Yuki had some trouble on the
uneven bars, but Akane seems to have solved the problem.
Hitoshi, Takeshi, Naiki, and Norio were awful on the pommel
horse. Rintaro is simply amazing on the rings, I'm going to have
him start helping out at that station. Kodochi reports that Mayo
and Sakura show promise on the floor exercise."
"I've noticed that you don't tend to compliment your
students when they do well, Saotome," Ogawa said. "Why not?"
"Dad never does," Ranma shrugged. "I've never thought of
it."
"Try it," Ogawa said, turning back to the window. "You may
go."
Ranma was sparring with Akane in the Tendo Dojo. Akane had
lots of power, but very little finesse behind it. She tended to
follow the forms a little too closely. Ranma was trying teach
her a little more variety.
"Akane, if you try that combination one more time, I'm going
to put you on the floor," Ranma said.
"Oh? Let's see you try," Akane replied, launching the
combination.
Ranma slid down, launching a kick at her feet. Akane fell.
She rolled out of it, knocking the hand that Ranma had used to
balance himself for the kick out from under him. As a result,
Ranma fell on her. It was at this point that Nabiki made her
presence know, with a flash of her camera. The picture she took
would later make it appear that Ranma was just about to kiss
Akane. Akane's gi had opened up as a result of her roll, and
Ranma had chosen to practice in just shorts. They separated
quickly.
"I see martial arts isn't the only thing you two are
practicing," Nabiki said, as she leaned against the Dojo
entrance.
"We fell, Nabiki," Akane said. "I hope you get a boyfriend
soon. You need something to take up more of your time."
"A boyfriend is a waste of time," Nabiki said, turning to
leave.
"Great," Akane said in a dull tone.
"What was that about?" Ranma asked as they resumed their
sparring.
"Nabiki likes to embarrass me," Akane said, beginning a new
attack "She takes embarrassing pictures of me then says she'll
spread them around school."
"You shouldn't let her do that," Ranma said, dodging, and
returning the attack, before Akane got a hit in. "That was good.
You can get her to stop."
"Not really," Akane said, building on her success with a
flurry of attacks. "She's really sneaky. I liked it better when
she practiced the art a couple years ago. Then a sparring
session could settle it."
"Was she any good?" Ranma asked, turning the battle back in
his favor.
"We were about equal," Akane said. "It wasn't Nabiki's
favorite thing to do, but she wanted to impress Dad."
"Why doesn't she do it anymore?" Ranma said, suddenly on the
defensive again.
"Dad lost interest in teaching when Mom got sick," Akane
said, concentrating more on pressing her attack than what she was
saying. "I don't think Dad noticed when she stopped practicing.
Nabiki took over the money matters, so she still gets some
attention from Dad, not that he does much more than cry now."
"Well, if she publishes the picture, let's invite her for a
little sparring session," Ranma said. "Time to stop."
"Agreed," Akane said. "Who gets the bath first?"
"Your turn," Ranma said. "You're getting better."
"Thanks, but I don't think I'm pushing you yet," Akane said,
as they walked to the bath.
"Akane, I spent the last three years in intensive training,"
Ranma said. "You shouldn't be doing as well as you are against
me."
"I have a good teacher," Akane said, entering the changing
room.
Ranma was doing a kata when Akane's voice called out, "Your
turn, Ranma." It had only been five minutes. He quickly entered
the changing room and undressed. He opened the door to discover
Akane just getting into the furo. "Nabiki."
"I'm going to kill her," Akane said. "This is what, the
tenth time she's done something like this."
"Sorry," Ranma said, embarrassed.
"Go ahead and shower, Ranma," Akane said. "It's not like we
haven't seen everything thanks to Nabiki."
"We really should do something about her," Ranma said.
"What can we do?" Akane said, relaxing in the furo.
"Well, we can make impossible for her to pull this trick on
us again," Ranma said. "Whose place do you want to study for the
Math test?"
"Yours," Akane said.
--
Stephen Ratliff stephen...@crosswinds.net
http://www.crosswinds.net/~stephenratliff
"...three Captains who can not agree on the color of an orange."
- Captain Pellew, "Horatio Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil"