It was official, she was hooked. Now, Akane knew this wasn't the kind of thing she usually liked to read, and that it was a little unlike her to sit outside her house reading with two boys. Normally she might have given their arm a bit of a twist if they'd prodded her shoulders or her back the way they had, but hey, it was cool, it wasn't like they were doing it for very long or touching anywhere really inappropriate. It was more like, you know, playful nudges to check and see if she liked what she was reading.
"So? What do you think?" Hiroshi asked, nudging her with his elbow.
"Hehehe..." She couldn't help it. "This is good!" Akane turned the page, more and more eager to see where this was going with each she'd turned. "It's really funny. I mean, it's kind of silly and immature. There should be way less fanservice, but it's so funny I barely even notice."
The two boys nodded and smiled at each other. Akane didn't really think anything of it, they were probably pleased they were able to share something they liked with someone else. These two boys weren't all that bad. Akane felt relaxed around them. It was sort of like her feelings towards this series she was reading: They were so goofy and charming that the little hints of perversion didn't bother her much at all.
That said, there was one thing that actually was bothering her.
"Honestly, this girl!" Akane suddenly exclaimed. "It's so obvious she likes him. Why does she keep on pretending that she doesn't when it's so obvious?"
On hearing this the two boys shared a look that went over Akane's head in both a literal and figurative sense. Had she said something weird?
"I guess some girls are like that," Daisuke mused. "They just can't admit how they feel about the guy they like."
"Yep," Hiroshi said around a stretch and a yawn. He'd given the impression that he'd woken up really early, which was kind of a nice gesture trying to make sure he could talk with her in the morning. "That's the tsundere type for you."
"Tsun...dere?" Akane asked. "What does that mean?"
Again, the two boys exchanged a really weird look. Akane turned to look at both of them feeling completely confused and left out of the conversation. What? What had she said? Why did she feel like she'd just said something really funny?
"Excuse us a second," Daisuke suddenly said, standing up and grabbing hold of Hiroshi. "We need to, uh, discuss something. Keep reading, won't be long."
"Uh... Okay?" Akane blinked in confusion. How strange. "Have fun, I guess?"
Well, that was... Odd. Never mind that, though. She shrugged it off. Best if she finished off this chapter, and then get back to jogging. She couldn't sit out here all day reading, she still had to get dressed, bathe, have breakfast and then walk to school with Ranma while carefully ignoring him.
"Hehehe..." Akane chuckled. "She just accidentally knocks that tough guy out by slapping him with her boobs. That's so immature!"
And it was something Akane would have found incredibly embarrassing before. Now though? Now her thinking process was changing, just a little at a time.
<hr>
Daisuke kept hold of his tired friend until they were around the next corner. His mind was rushing quite quickly, unlike Hiroshi's which was probably a touch too tired to properly keep up. They needed to talk this through, because they had heard something completely amazing.
"She doesn't know what a tsundere is," Hiroshi mumbled. "Oh, wow, she really doesn't know, does she?"
"Nope," Daisuke concurred, peering back around the corner. She was laughing again. Smiling. The cuteness was enough to stop a man's heart if he was careless. "It looks like Akane's more oblivious than I thought. No wonder everyone but her can see it."
Which left them thinking: Did this change their plans? No. Not especially. Daisuke looked back again. Akane was stifling mad, mad laughter. At <i>Blushing = Heroic</i>. What might it be that was getting her laughing so hard? Was it the scene where our reluctant hero, while trying to avoid getting into a fight, decided to hide, wound up getting trapped upside down in a locker, couldn't even see anything but panicked the entire time about getting caught? Or was it the moment where the romantic lead, who had a better understanding of the situation, happened to find him unconscious in the locker and had to hide him from the other girls?
"Man, I don't feel comfortable going through this anymore," Hiroshi admitted. "I mean, sure. Akane's super cute. Look at those legs... Those hips... The boobs aren't half as bad as Ranma says, and that face could launch at least a dozen or so ships." He stopped to think. "When she's smiling." He stopped again. "But if she was in a bad enough mood she'd probably board the ships to punch whoever got her upset. Anyway, I don't really feel all that great about stealing our friend's fiancee like this..."
"Stealing his fiancee?" Daisuke asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Is that what you think we're doing?" Ugh! Good thing this came up now before he ruined everything! "Idiot, you've been reading way too much of that netorare crap. You know how that stuff rots your brain."
"Yeah..." Hiroshi sighed. "But every time, my common sense winds up sitting in the corner jealously watching while netorare has its way with me."
"Thank you for that mental image," Daisuke said. Gah! That was going to leave a really bad taste in his mouth for the next couple days at least.
Right. Time to set some preconceptions right before heading back out there, in case Hiroshi does something to properly foul this whole thing up. "Listen, think about it this way. How many girls does Ranma have after him?"
"Uh... four?" Hiroshi answered. Okay, good. Daisuke would have also accepted three, since Akane wasn't really actively pursuing Ranma. "Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi."
"Right!" Honestly, it hurt sometimes being the smart one out of the background characters. By which he meant supporting cast. By which he meant non-martial artists. "And how do you rate them all?"
"Oh, they're all tens," Hiroshi nodded. "Akane's super cute, Shampoo's hot as hell, Ukyo's got this weird charm and Kodachi is wildly flexible."
"Great. Now, which of those girls is Ranma interested in, even if he won't admit it?"
"Hahahaha! Oh, that total dork! Right into his lap!" laughed the answer to that question. Daisuke moved onto the next point to make sure his friend was following along.
"So? What do you think will happen if Akane goes pervert? Is she more likely to direct that towards us, or towards..."
Gears turning. That's it, put the pieces together. Or yawn, that was good too. Scratch your head, then... Pound your hand into your fist. "Ah! Daisuke! You're brilliant!" Hiroshi exclaimed. Daisuke knew that already, and he bowed. "You really are a good friend, working so hard to get Ranma laid!"
So that's what the pavement tasted like. Good to know for future reference. "No, you idiot!" Daisuke hissed. "And keep that voice down! Ahem! Sure enough, if we play this right Akane's gonna wind up riding the wild stallion before you can bat an eye." A grin invaded his face. "And maybe we can have a little fun with her before pointing her at Ranma. Think about it. If we can make her willing to accept a relationship like that...
"Then we can probably seduce the other babes in Ranma's life just as easily." Hiroshi suggested. "Huh! I guess that makes sense. A little bit of free love with us in the middle. Use Akane as the stress test to make sure it works and go from there!"
Finally! By Jove, Hiroshi finally had it. Daisuke patted his exhausted friend on the shoulder and sighed wearily. Intelligence and foresight in their social group made him feel like the man with one eye in the land of the blind.
"Come on," Daisuke said. "Let's get back to Akane and keep working her over. I think we're about to make a major breakthrough in turning her into a raging pervert. All she needs is a bit of a nudge."
- Their conversation was overheard.
- The boys return to Akane and continue perverting her.
- Later, Ranma notices Akane behaving weirdly.
- Something else
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