She'd never been so humiliated before in her life! Akane stuck her chair up against the back of the door in her room, stuck her sheathed katana in between the handle and her wardrobe so nobody could push it down, took the weights offered by Ranma and stuck them at the base of the door. There. Now nobody was getting in and she could try to think things -
"Ranma, how did you get in here?!"
The last person she wanted to see tilted his head to the side and jabbed a thumb towards the wide open window. Right. Stupid of her. Since when did he ever enter her room by the door when a window would do just as well.
"Get out," she insisted, pushing him back towards the window. "Leave me alone!"
"Hey, hey now!" he interrupted, grabbing her hands and pulling them off his chest. "Us curse victims have to stick together, right?"
Really? "You're... not here to make fun of me?" she asked. Under the circumstances she still didn't want to have to deal with him, but... He had been cursed since before Akane knew him. She could hardly go to anyone else about it. Shampoo would definitely make fun of her and Taro was probably halfway back to China by now, which so far as she knew left Mousse and Genma. When those two tie for the best alternative source of advice on a matter, your hands are pretty well tied. She hated it, but Ranma was the only person she could reasonably turn to that could help her transition into having to live with this curse.
"After all, you gotta help me adjust to having two of you around sometimes!" Ranma said, patting her on the shoulder. "One of you is enough of a handful as is, I don't know how I'll handle -"
And out the window he goes.
Akane puffed out her cheeks in irritation and sat on her bed just a little bit annoyed. What had she been expecting? The sad part was that he was still probably the best option to help her get used to it, which meant she was pretty much better off on her own. She could manage fine. If an idiot like Genma could get used to becoming a panda, she could get used to becoming two people!
There was a glass of water on her desk. It sat there taunting her. It was funny. If she drank it, nothing would happen. If she tipped it over her head... If she went out in the rain... Went to try and learn how to swim... Bam, two of her with freaky personalities.
"Okay, you two," she said, picking up the glass. "You had better not do anything strange. Alright?"
The glass tips... And where there was one Akane, there was now two. One of them wearing her bright yellow sundress, the other wearing the same clothes Akane had been prior to being splashed.
"Oh, Ranma!" Dere-Akane gasped, dashing towards the window. "I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?"
She made to climb out of the window to jump after the boy, only to be dragged back inside the room by Tsun-Akane. "Forget about that idiot for two seconds," she said, with a huff. "Honestly! It's pathetic watching you moon over some boy, never mind him."
"Ranma is not just 'some boy'," Dere-Akane cutely sniffed. "He's so handsome and brave and strong! What girl wouldn't moon over him given half the chance. Sigh!"
Tsun-Akane raised her hand and pointed at herself. "We're getting sidetracked from the main point, in case you didn't notice," she said. "Our uncursed self wanted us to try and help her get used to this whole stupid curse thing that is <i>totally Ranma's fault</i>, so let's try focusing on that. Got it?"
Dere-Akane cutely puffed up her cheeks, in much the same way Akane had earlier on. "Okay!" she relented. "If - If it makes things easier for my darling future husband then there is no obstacle I shall not climb. Even co-operating with a cold-hearted - Ow! Meanie!"
"Focus," Tsun-Akane insisted. "Alright. So! I was thinking, this was the perfect chance for us to really work on our martial arts skills. Think about it! We can spar with each other rather than sparring with that jerk and getting nowhere fast. What do you say?"
"Well, first of all," Dere-Akane twiddled her thumbs. "Ranma is not a jerk, he's a very strong martial artist and it's a privilege to be allowed the chance to spar with him. Secondly, I don't want to be a martial artist. I want to learn how to be a good housewife."
Now, had Dere-Akane pulled a bottle of rancid, week-old milk out of somewhere and tipped it all over Tsun-Akane's head, the look of disgust and taken offense on Tsun-Akane's face would still not be half as much as what it was here.
"You want to give up being a martial artist? For <b>him</b>?!" she yelled, and her counterpart nodded happily. "Unbelievable! You're that stupid part of me that keeps on trying to get us to learn how to cook, aren't you? Wasting our time when we could be training!"
"Well... I suppose that makes you the part of me that wants to waste time training rather than learning how to cook," Dere-Akane countered. "Wait, I bet you're the reason my cooking is always so bad!"
On that day a mortal rivalry was born. The two girls stared at each other in sudden understanding of what the other truly represented: The other half of Akane Tendo, the part trying to pull her away from what the other truly desired.
For Tsun-Akane, her counterpart represented the irrational part that was attracted to a complete waste of space who was only good for his martial arts skill. The part that wanted a boring, dreary life of of a happy housewife, was content to cook and to clean and all that nonsense. The girl in front of her was responsible for Akane wasting time on things other than her training just so she could impress a boy who simply was not worth the time. The only thing she wanted from Ranma was acknowledgment that she was strong.
For Dere-Akane, her counterpart represented the irrational part that was so stuck on her pride she didn't see what a good catch Ranma was. Sure, he was a little rough around the edges but he was everything Akane really wanted in a man. Aside from being physically attractive, he was strong, really sweet when he let his guard down, brave, kind... Oh, the list went on! What she should be working on was proving to him that she was a worthwhile bride. The only thing that she wanted from Ranma was acknowledgment that she was cute.
"Well then," Tsun-Akane scowled. "Maybe this curse is not such a bad thing after all?"
"Oh my!" Dere-Akane gasped. "That might be the first thing we've fully agreed on so far."
<hr>
Ranma stared up at the window he'd been chucked out of and sighed. You try to help people relax a bit with a joke, and then you get chucked out of a window. What an uncute, ungrateful girl. He sat up and drummed his fingers on the grass. What now? If he jumped up there to apologise, she'd just slam the window in his face, or punt him back down. Which meant his only real choice was to wait. And Ranma hated waiting! Wasn't there at least some kind of wacky hijinks he could initiate to get to talk to her? He kind of enjoyed wacky hijinks. So long as he was the one perpetrating them. It wasn't so much fun when he was the victim, but that's why you have to be the one to strike first!
"Ranma!"
Case in point, he didn't especially enjoy getting bowled over on a lawn by an overly enthusiastic, super cute girl who had just delivered a textbook flying glomp - And her face was inches away from his.
Give him just three guesses and disqualify the first two. "Dere-Akane?" he ventured. She nodded. "Uh... Would you mind getting off of me?" she shakes her head and adjusts her weight such that her legs are straddling his waist. In a word: Gulp!
"Ranma," she whispered. "Am I... cute?" Gulp again! It was so weird. As far as physical appearance went she was exactly the same as Akane, but the Akane he knew wasn't half as cute as this. It took him a moment to realise she was waiting for him to take a move. Ranma felt funny staring at her. Into her eyes especially. His body wanted to tilt up, just a little, and brush his lips up against her cute, appealing -
A hand roughly grabbed hold of his pigtail and yanked him off along the ground.
"Stop fooling around, buster!" Tsun-Akane demanded. Ranma looked up. She was wearing a gi and stomping off in the direction of the training hall, with a vice-like grip on his pigtail. "You're coming with me! No time to fool around playing kissyface when there's training to be done!"
Ah. So it turned out that the very worst punishment that hell could offer was to first let you glimpse heaven, just before sending you down into the fiery pits to burn for eternity.
Although the funny thing was? While Ranma would never admit it there was a part of him deep down that was genuinely arguing over which of these two versions of his unwanted fiancee he found hotter. The super cute one that was all over him, or the abrasive, short-tempered one that didn't seem to want much to do with him. In the end Ranma was a peculiar young man whose pride was keeping him from going for what he wanted. And right now he was really badly torn.
On the one hand, Dere-Akane's lips had looked so kissable... But the way Tsun-Akane was stomping her legs was also making him feel funny! In the end Akane might wind up competing with herself for his attention.
- Dere-Akane watches the training and cheers Ranma on!
- Tsun-Akane makes a genuine effort to improve her skill while Ranma treats her as per usual.
- The two Akanes are forced to reunite.
- Cue another character sticking their nose into the new status quo.
- Something else
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