How had it come to this? Sitting in a tree, ringing out “her” trousers and mumbling obscenities. This was not exactly what she’d expected on the first day at a new school, and frankly the whole thing was kinda humiliating in a way. There was no way that Kuno guy could’ve missed it. What sort of rumours would he spread around school, huh? Jerk like that wouldn’t miss the chance to get rid of a romantic rival. If you could call Ranma that. Akane was clearly not interested in either of them - but then again Ranma was left with the lingering feeling that out of the two of them, it was the sometimes a girl that stood the better chance of maintaining a healthy relationship with the tomboy.
Not that he wanted a healthy relationship with her or anything like that. No, sir. Violent, uncute and completely not Ranma’s style at all. Not that she was looking for a girlfriend or anything anyway, so -
“Hey now, Ranma, don’t you frown! Why not turn it upside down!”
Ranma blinked and slowly stared down at the ground. There were two girls staring up at him. Akane - holding a kettle and smiling as if at a private joke she’d just been let in on - and a girl that looked very familiar for a reason that was currently escaping her…
“Ah!” she gasped. “Wait, you can’t be - Surely it’s not - After all this time -
“Who are you again?”
“Oh, Ranma! You’re so silly!” the other girl said, striking a cute pose. “How could you forget a cutie like me? Even ten years shouldn’t be enough to make you forget li’l Mariko!”
“Li’l Mariko?” Ranma blinked, and suddenly the memories came rushing back in. The three of them, the pranks they’d play, the sparring matches, the games… “Oh yeah!” she said, hopping out of the tree. “Mariko! So great to see you again! How have you been?”
Mariko stared at her long and hard, and backed away a little bit with a bit lip. “Um… No hugs or anything. I’d rather stay dry, if it’s all the same.”
“Here, take this and change back,” Akane said. “You two catch up if you like, while I deal with Kuno. Honestly now, Ranma. I didn’t know you had such a cute ex-girlfriend.”
“She’s not my - And off she goes, not listening to a word I say. Wonderful.”
Mariko giggled a little bit. “You almost sound disappointed, like you wanted her to stay.”
“Oh no, don’t you start as well! We get enough of that from our old men. Did she, uh, mention that?”
“The arranged marriage?” Mariko said, rolling her eyes. “Yeah. I’m in a similar boat. To a complete and total J-E-R-K, too! Handsome, but kinda self centred. You know the type?”
“Been accused of being the type, honestly.”
“What, you? Self centred? Noooo, never!”
The two of them shared a laugh. God. Having her here was going to make this place a hell of a lot more bearable. The one and only girl he could ever stand being around. Didn’t wanna kill him, didn’t wanna do nothing but hang out, was always quick with a joke, always fun to hang around with. It was just a shame Ukyo couldn’t be here as well.
“So… You went to Jusenkyo, right?” Mariko said, pointing at the kettle. “Spring of Drowned Girl or something, huh?”
“Ugh. Yeah, that’s right. Don’t tell me you went there too?”
Mariko looked at the ground, and Ranma knew better than to press any further. It was something Ranma understood all too well. How could anyone casually bring up the curse? It was kind of shameful in a sense, but he did have to wonder what she became with a splash of cold water. Probably something terrible. Knowing her, she’d have preferred something cute and cuddly. Knowing her and the way she was reacting, it was probably something pretty terrible. Like a cat.
Unfortunately the catching up wasn’t about to go anywhere, because an intruder had arrived. Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder, landing on top of the kettle upside down. Wonderful job keeping him away, tomboy!
“Ack! You should have changed back by now!” Akane yelled. “What were you doing?”
“Catching up,” Ranma said with a weary sigh.
“Hello there,” Kuno said. “Tell me. Have you seen Ranma Saotome anywhere? That coward ran from an honourable duel! He is no man, I tell you! He is not a man!”
“Hey, Mariko? You keep up your martial arts training?” Ranma asked, letting the kettle slip out of her grip. Mariko nodded. “Kick his ass for me, then.”
“Can do, with a can-do attitude!” Mariko declared, cracking her knuckles and stretching just a little to the side. Ranma strode off towards the side, and gently redirected Akane, tapping the side of her nose and winking at the confused tomboy.
“But Ranma, you can’t just leave her to fight Kuno! He’s the second strongest in the school!”
“If Mariko’s been keeping up her martial arts training, and you’ve been beating him every time you’ve fought,” Ranma said. “Then he was third strongest. Now he’s fourth. Just watch.”
The fight didn’t even last long enough to be called a fight. Kuno turned around, Mariko cheerily waved at him, said “I’ma kick your ass,” and then after Kuno lifted his bokken into a defensive stance, she kicked him in the face hard enough to make him cartwheel backwards, land on his feet again and collapse into a crumpled heap.
Ranma reached over and gently pushed Akane’s mouth closed. “You’ll catch flies like that,” she said. “Come on, let’s the three of us skip the rest of today. I’m pretty sure the day’s a write-off anyway.”
“Sure thing!” Mariko replied, skipping in between the middle of the two of them and linking together arm in arm. “I can’t wait to catch up on what you’ve been up to!”
“Uh… Maybe I should go back to class? Wouldn’t want to be a third wheel,” Akane said.
“Nonsense! Not going to H-E-A-R of it!” Mariko said. “The three of us, we’re spending the rest of the day getting to know each other a bit better. Right?”
In the force of this cheerful face and forceful personality, Akane’s protests dried up like leaves in the desert. Even her stubbornness wouldn’t be able to match that, and besides which she probably didn’t feel like dealing with the questions anyone in class would have for her quite yet… “Fine,” she relented. “I’ll go with you.”
<hr>
For the longest time, Mariko had been miserable. No real friends outside the cheerleading squad, a fiance she didn’t get on with, no real romantic prospects beyond that, a stupid gender-shifting curse… She could hardly believe her luck! Encountering an old friend who was apparently in a similar sort of position to her. She dragged Ranma (whose girl form was soooo cute!) and Akane (who was way, way nicer than Mariko was expecting) into an ice cream parlour and slapped down enough money for the three of them to enjoy a nice, cold dessert.
“I dunno about this,” Ranma complained. “This seems kinda… girly, don’cha think?”
“Does what seem kinda girly?” Mariko asked, twirling her spoon around in her fingers like a baton.
“Eating ice -” Ranma started, but before she could finish Mariko had already dipped her spoon into Ranma’s ice cream and spooned it onto her mouth. Ranma’s eyes became sparkly, and moments later she was shovelling the cold food down so quickly Mariko worried she’d get a brain freeze out of it!
“Sooo, the two of you are engaged?” Mariko asked. “Care to talk about it?”
“It was our father’s idea,” Akane answered, indignant. “They used to be old training buddies, and figured it would be a good idea to unite the schools or something.”
“It’ll never work out,” Ranma said. “She’s a tomboyish brute -”
“And he’s an insensitive, sex-changing liar.”
“Right,” Mariko said, planting her elbows on the table and using her best puppy-dog expression. “I’ma need more details, even if I have to drag them out of you. So. Spill.”
And spill they did, with tremendous reluctance. She heard how they were both told by their fathers about the engagement on the very day they were to meet in the first place. She heard how Ranma tried to run, but the stupid old panda knocked her out from behind and carried her off. She heard how Akane and Nabiki complained to their father about being forced into a marriage like this. She heard how Ranma arrived as a girl because of the rain, and how Nabiki Tendo repeatedly groped Ranma’s chest. That part made her giggle a little, because it ran contrary to the image Nabiki had built up in school.
But anyway.
She heard how Akane had felt sorry for this poor girl and tried to make friends. She heard how Ranma was grateful for a friendly face, and how the two of them went to spar… And then she heard how it all fell apart when Ranma took a hot bath and Akane walked in on him. Then they argued, then they were engaged, and here they were now.
Throughout the whole thing a single thought kept coming back to Mariko time and time again: They are just too cute together. She made a silent resolution there and then. She was gonna help these two get together, come hell or high water! She owed it to her friend to see him happy, and that seemed like the perfect way to set things up!
<hr>
That night, Akane was doing some late-night training as an attempt to get some frustrations out of her system. It was a tactic she’d particularly been employing since Kuno made that stupid proclamation… But today, something felt different. Today, that same anger and frustration just wasn’t there.
Why not?
She stopped mid punch as Mariko’s smiling face entered her mind. Sure, she had been frustrated. Sure, she had. That ditzy cheerleader, though… Something about her, there was definitely something about her that drained away the anger and frustration. She was so damned happy, so charismatic and likable and - well - girly. In spite of herself Akane had really enjoyed the girl’s company.
And that kick she’d delivered to Kuno. So quick. So precise. So powerful! She had been looking for a sparring partner for a long time now, and somehow Ranma didn’t seem like the sort to take her seriously… So… Maybe if she tried someone else… Maybe she would finally be able to break through this ceiling that her current level had taken her to? Maybe she would be able to push herself up towards Ranma’s level? Maybe. It couldn’t hurt to ask.
- The next day, Mariko starts training Akane as a cheerleader martial artist.
- Let's check in on Mariko and her fiance.
- Mariko encounters her version of Ryoga.
- Back to the present for a bit.
- Something else
Very cute :)
ReplyDeletethough the props have gone missing, and it's almost too easily just friends :)