Story: Fudge Bunnies: A Cheerleader's History

A diversion from here, using option three. I noticed it and decided it was too fun to ignore. Enjoy!



If anyone had asked the two of them, both Ranma and Mariko would have declared that they were nothing like the other. Nope. No how. No way. Nothing like each other. Precise opposites in all details. Except that wasn't strictly speaking as true as they might have believed. Both were highly athletic, highly skilled martial artists that were extremely confident in their abilities to the point of arrogance. Both of them loved showing off their skill, both lived for their art, and neither of them could stand the idea of being upstaged by anyone. Both also had a wicked sense of humour, taking delight in minor torments of those around them. What is more, both of them made rather cute girls.

Ah, but they certainly had their share of differences as well! Mariko was very open with her heart. If she loved a boy, she'd scream it from the rooftops! On the other hand, Ranma had an easier time slaying dragons than saying the words "I love you". One of them was affectionate, the other feared showing affection in the belief that it was a weakness. A vulnerability that could be exploited, in his opinion. Thus, one actively sought relationships with the opposite sex, the other would gladly avoid them if they didn't. Keep. Getting. Thrust. On. Him.

The two had rarely interacted and it had always been tinged with strong dislike for one another. It had all begun simply because Mariko had been using her rather loose interpretation of what cheerleading entailed to interfere with a volleyball game between her school and Furinkan. This had led to a confrontation between herself and Akane Tendo, which was by itself enough to make Ranma rather dislike her. But then! Then Mariko's heart alit at the sight of one Tatewaki Kuno! To her dismay the Furinkan kendoist was already smitten with Ranma's cursed form, to the point of wilful ignorance of the curse. Mariko did the only thing she could do in that situation: She challenged Ranma to a contest, that Ranma accepted and won. Not because of Kuno, but instead because of Akane. It had been a brutal match, far more equal than either participant would have liked. From this meeting animosity had naturally arisen.

Yet now something was about to change thanks to an odd encounter and a rather odd piece of chewing gum. It was the gum of friendship. As it was chewed, it would release a special chemical into the surrounding saliva, transforming it into something rather potent. While the gum was in the mouth, that saliva would have rather interesting side effects on the history of anyone that came into direct contact with it. Their history would rewrite, details of their past would alter and before anyone knew what had happened the two of them were the best of buddies. With the gum that Ranma had been chewing falling directly into Mariko's smirking mouth, the effect had been immediate, but why not examine the course this history took before seeing how the two of them reacted to it?

<hr>
Little Mariko was playing in the back garden while her parents were having an important discussion regarding her future. She didn't much care for the tone of voice they were taking. It sounded scary to her young ears.

"We're spoiling her," mommy said. "Don't you see how great she could be with that much talent?"

"I will not have my daughter raised to be some... martial artist thug!" daddy argued back.

"And nor will I allow that much talent to be squandered! Listen, she doesn't have to be a thug! I have an idea..."

The voices quieted down, and she resumed playing in the back garden. It was such a lovely day, and - hey! A butterfly! She spent the next hour chasing it around and around the garden, giggling freely all the while. This was so much fun that she never wanted it to end, but end it must like all good things.

"Mariko dear," mommy called. "We have something we want to discuss with you..."

She skipped inside and beamed up at her serious faced parents. They said a lot of things that she didn't quite understand, and put a piece of paper and a pen in her young hands. She couldn't read yet, but she loved to doodle! Daddy pointed at a space near the bottom, and Mariko did just that. This seemed to make them both happy. But it would be the last time Mariko would see her father for over a decade.

<hr>
Mariko was standing opposite her mother with a smile on her face. Inside she wasn't smiling. Right now she was engaged in a simple enough excercise that focused on leg strength and emphasised high kicks. Mom held up a glove at steadily increasing heights, raising it a little bit higher after each kick. She would continue doing so until Mariko failed, even once, to hit the target. At which point, mom would raise a block of wood to the highest point Mariko could kick, and she had to break it. Simple, but effective. She'd been doing it every day for the last two years, ever since they left home and started training on the road.

Well, not exactly on the road per se. They still lived in tolerable conditions, owing to the large sums of money daddy would send them whenever they needed it. Even so, mom was very strict about certain points. Even playing with dolls was some form of training in the art. She had even enrolled in a few lessons at various dojos, but hated almost all of them. They were all so stiff and boring and sweaty! Mariko never stayed long in any of them, always moving elsewhere, always trying some new style... Until a few months ago, when suddenly mom had an epi- epif- epipha - a really, really good idea!

The next day, Mariko enrolled in the cheerleading club at school and everything clicked together. Such style, such grace, such poise and elegance! She had come home smiling that day to mom's great delight, and after that her gi had been thrown out never to be worn again. She had a different training uniform now, and it had the benefit of not even looking like a training uniform. She could wear it everywhere she wanted without people thinking she was some tough tomboy. At least that was how mom put it. She could be as girly as she wanted - a whole heaping lot - while wearing clothes like this! It matched up so perfeclty, it was amazing that nobody had considered it sooner. The routines were like kata, and served much the same kind of purpose. To be a truly effective cheerleader she needed to be fit, healthy, flexible and strong. It was a match made in heaven, combining the two things she loved doing more than anything else into the same wonderful time. She wasn't smiling on the inside, but that wasn't because she was miserable. On the inside, Mariko Konjo was laughing her fool head off.

<hr>
A few nights later, Mariko was skipping off home with a few things mom had asked her to pick up from the shops. It had been such a fun day of training today! They had started working on ways to turn pom pons into fight enders, which may not have gone quite as well as it might have but still! Every day seemed to unearth new delights, every day brought forth a new form of joy in her training! Why, earlier today she'd even been offered up as team captain! Not that it meant all that much at her age, but the offer had still been made!

"Well well, would you look at that?" a mean sounding adult said, stepping out of the shadows with two toughs standing next to him. "Isn't it a bit late out for a kid like you?"

He leaned over and Mariko wished he would bend just a little bit further. She'd just barely missed kicking that high earlier in the day, and her hands were full with shopping. She didn't like this, and really didn't like that the guy over on the left picked his teeth with a switchblade.

"Tell you what kid. why don't you just leave that shopping here, huh? I mean, it looks awful heavy for someone your age to be carrying all by herself, right?"

They laughed, but that didn't last particularly long. Something bounced off the top of the thug leader's head, bouncing off towards one of the others. Never mind what it was. This was all the chance she needed. With a lightning fast strike, Mariko lashed out catching the ugly brute under the chin and sending him to the ground in a crumpled heap. By the time she turned her attention to the other goons, they were already scrambling away, some with a few bruises on their face and another with a cut on his arm from the way he was holding it. Instead of the thugs, there were two other kids her age, one with a spatula slung over the shoulder, while the other was standing tall and proud. They turned towards her when it was clear they weren't coming back.

"You okay?" the pigtailed boy asked. She nodded, grateful for the assistance... Though she could have probably taken them herself, if not for the shopping. "I'm Ranma, this is Ukyo. That was an awesome kick!"

"Hmph, ignore him. He just loves a good fight!" the spatula wielder's eyes rolled. "What's your name?"

And that was how Mariko met two of the best friends she'd ever have.

<hr>
"And here it is, honoured customer," the guide said. "The legendary valley of sorrow! Jusenkyo!"

"Wow..." Mariko breathed. "It's beautiful!"

"It is indeed," mother nodded in agreement. "But let us not forget why we are here! This is supposed to be a particularly harsh training ground!"

"... You is martial artists?" the guide blinked in confusion. "You not look like martial... Ah, wait!"

It was much too late for such matters, for now both of them were leaping high into the air, each landing on a pole with just one foot while the other leg's knee was raised. The effect the two gave could not be more different - while Mariko's mother held her arms in defensive positions, Mariko was perched with hand on hip while twirling a baton in the other. The contrast had to be seen to be believed. It was like looking at a swan trying to stare down a tiger.

"Why don't we put your skills to the test?" Mariko's mother sneered. "I won't go easy on you!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" Mariko cheered, tossing and catching her baton and, as a matter of afterthought, changed the foot she was using to stand on the pole with expert flourish. "But on this pole I'll stay stay stay!"

"Please miss," the guide called from the ground as the two leaped into the air. "Is very bad if you fall in spring!" he sighed as they started to fight in mid-air. "Is second time this week. Must warn future customers first, then bring to valley..."

Mrs Konjo was the first to fall out of the pair after an otherwise perfectly placed kick not only failed to find its mark, but was used as a launching point for Mariko to launch herself into the air and strike her mother in the back of the head with her baton. Down she went, crashing into a spring, and Mariko couldn't help but deliver a taunt upon landing on a nearby pole.

"I'm too fast, you're too slow! You can't catch cute Mariko!"

Only then did the surface of the water break. A large annoyed and very wet gorilla flew through the air towards a pole opposite her, adopting the same defensive pose as her mother preferred. Regardless of martial arts skill, that was the kind of thing that threw one a little bit off balance, so it couldn't be any wonder that the very second after that the gorilla effortlessly piereced her lowered guard and flung her down towards another spring entirely. As she sank into the depths, Mariko felt oddly different... Almost as if...

"Customer fall in spring of drowned boy!" the guide yelled. "Huh. Is strange. Other customer fall in spring of drowned girl earlier in week. Odd coincidence."

<hr>
"F-f-fiance?!" Mariko gasped. "But - but - but I can't meet him like this! I still need to find a cure!"

"Oh, don't worry so much!" mom replied, waving the issue aside as though it didn't matter when it so clearly fucking <i>did</i>! It wasn't that Mariko didn't want a husband, given that she was a hopeless romantic. But in this condition... In this condition! With this curse, what man could possibly want her?

There was no other way around it. She needed a cure! She had to have a cure, then she could meet up with her prince and they would live such a long and happy life together.

"While we're here, we'll have you enrolled in a high school long term. It's a place called Furinkan High School. I'm sure you'll fit in quite well there. You always do..."

<hr>
"Class, we have another new student today," the teacher droned. Mariko was only pretending to pay attention. She'd gotten into another argument with her handsome lunk of a fiance. Even without this curse, she couldn't possibly imagine him as her prince charming! No way! Not with an attitude like that! If nothing else, she was rather pleased to have been voted as the head cheerleader already. It didn't take any of them long to recognise her natural talent. She'd have them all whipped into shape in no time! "It would seem that he was also in China until recently, much like our previous new student. Please introduce yourself."

"Hello. My name is Ranma Saotome." Mariko blinked and focused her attention on the newcomer, her breath caught in her throat. It couldn't be! She studied the face, studied the hair. Yes! Yes it was him! How long had it been since they had last talked? Oh, it would be so good to have someone to talk to, a familiar face that might be sympathetic. Unlike those other cheerleaders, who lavished praise upon her for being so lucky to land such a hot fiance... He might understand her plight, might be able to offer some advice.

"The fact that you were in China recently does not change the fact that you and Miss Tendo were late. Stand in the hall."

Mariko watched them go outside, to stand and wait while holding buckets. She knew from observation that Akane would probably barely notice she was carrying them, making the punishment's overall effect rather less potent than it might have been on anyone else. As for Ranma, if he'd kept up his much vaunted training then he would be much the same... still, odd that they were both late to school that morning. She tried not to fidget in her seat out of her anxious desire to talk to a friend she had not seen for so very long! Impossibly long!

"Never, Ranma Saotome!" yelled the all too familiar voice of one of the more annoying guys in school. "I shall never accept your engagement to Akane!"

It was so frustrating. He was a cutey, but a two timer at heart. Oh, Mariko would've gladly dated him if not for his complete inability to choose between herself - the epitome of girlishness as far as this school was concerned - and Akane Tendo, the tomboy that grew her hair long to try and hide the fact that she was a tomboy. After a few weeks of that behaviour it didn't take long for a potential crush to sour on her a whole lot. Then there was his sister to consider! That girl sent chills down Mariko's spine, but at least she had quite without meaning to given up a few interesting ideas that might well work in cheerleading martial arts...

The rest of the class surged towards the inner windows like a tidal wave, yet Mariko remained seated while digesting this information. Had this occured a few weeks previous, she might have used it to try and convince Kuno to give her a try and forget about the tomboy. But no. Not anymore. She had seen beneath the cute exterior into the not so cute interior. Given the choice she'd rather marry her fiance than that jerk! Urgh!

But still. Knowing Kuno as she now did it wasn't hard to imagine him tearing into Ranma for stealing the affections of one of his one true loves. He was a particularly skilled martial artist in his own right... Particularly when fighting boys. That got her moving out of her seat. That got her running down the corridor, catching sight of Akane with a kettle in hand dashing towards the exit. She caught up with the tomboy easily enough, who gave her a bit of a puzzled look but didn't stop running until they were outside.

"What do you want?" Akane asked, not meaning to be rude but coming off that way anyway. Such a hopeless tomboy! Mariko doubted even she could ever make the girl as girly as she seemed to think she was.

"I want to talk to one of my oldest friends," Mariko replied, chipper as ever.

"... You know Ranma?"

"Met him about ten years ago, if you must know! Ranma, Ukyo and Mariko. The three of us were inseperable! At least until my mother dragged me off to a new city... But I've not seen him in ages, and I want to catch up with him!"

Suddenly aware of a lack of presence beside her, Mariko turned around to see Akane looking at her with a quirked eyebrow. "... Ranma may not be the way you remember him. There are certain things he should probably tell you." she brightened up a little, as though thinking of something mischeivous. "Was he always such a brat?"

"You have nooo idea!" Mariko giggled. "Let me tell you about this one time, he tricked Uchan's dad in the most delightful way..."

That was how Mariko was reunited with one friend, and began to make another.

1. Continue with the new past.
2. Back in the present, Mariko hands Ranma his gum back... her saliva on the gum causes Ranma's history to change.
3. Ranma gives Mariko a stick of unchewed gum in exchange for a thermos she has with her. Now both of their saliva has the power to alter history.
4. The two head off to Akane's party without incident... and then the bunnies are handed out.
5. Someone else interrupts the two.
6. Something else