Tsun-Akane stared across the training hall at the <i>boy</i> her other half was obsessed with. She couldn't see it. Handsome? Cute? Bah! Boys were just a distraction from the art. She didn't need to learn how to cook, clean, sew or any of that nonsense. She was a martial artist through and through! The only thing she wanted from Ranma was a sparring partner, and the sooner the other her realised that's all he was good for, the better!
"Ra, ra, Ranma! You're so hot! Show that other me they're not!"
"Will you cut that out!" Tsun-Akane yelled at her 'cute' counterpart. Dere-Akane stuck out her tongue, stopped that stupid dancing and chanting, and sat on her butt to watch from the sidelines. Good! Makes her stop being a stupid distraction from what she actually wanted to do.
Anyway! She returned her attention to Ranma, her sparring partner and <i>not her fiancee</i>. To look at him you'd think he was completely open. By now she knew better. The stance she was in, legs spread apart with her dominant foot forward, one hand arced to protect stomach and chest while the other was up closer to her head, that was a pretty typical martial arts defensive posture as it allowed flexibility in terms of offense and defense.
His stupid dumb face was completely open. It felt like you should be able to just pop out a fist and hit him right in the kisser. But that wouldn't work. He'd see it coming and move out of the way. No wasted energy. He was completely loose. His speed was breathtaking, and yet his strength was even greater than that.
Tsun-Akane had no illusions that she could beat him in a fight. But that was the point of sparring, wasn't it? To push yourself right up to your limit so you could get a little bit further.
"You know it's funny," Ranma said. "That scowl of yours is gonna do more damage to me than your fists ever will."
Stuff strategy. Tsun-Akane dove in with fists of fire and fury. First, work the body. As expected he stepped back, just out of range of her hit. She stepped forward and tried again, this time he stepped around the attack. Oh! Even though she knew she wouldn't hit, it was still maddening!
"Will you take me seriously already?" she demanded. Another miss. No sign of a counterattack.
"Tsk, same old uncute tomboy as ever," Ranma sighed. He wasn't even looking at her anymore! He was looking up at the ceiling! Ooh, why that cheeky -
"For your information, I am not the same girl!" she yelled. A high kick, and he limbos under it like he's at a party instead of a spar. "I am not seeking your approval because I think you're hot."
"Tacit admission that she thinks you're hot," Dere-Akane said, seemingly to herself while writing in a notebook that Tsun-Akane made an internal note to destroy later on.
"Not what I meant, you idiot! I mean I don't think he's hot, so I'm not seeking his approval and nor am I trying to impress him in some stupid attempt to lure him into bed! Unlike some girls I could mention."
Suddenly and without warning, Ranma's face popped up out of nowhere and completely filled her vision. It very nearly made the girl jump clear out of her skin. Admittedly, speaking from a purely objective sense, she could kind of see why some other girls might call him cute. Not here though! "Oh, so you're the uncute side of her," he said as if in sudden realisation.
She reached out and grabbed his lapels. "I can be cute if I want to be," she said, and tossed him over her shoulder. To absolutely nobody's surprise, Ranma twisted in mid-air, landed on his feet and somehow wound up sitting on Tsun-Akane's back. "I just don't want to be," she grunted. "Get off, I give already!"
"Yay! You taught her what her place really is!" Dere-Akane cheered, skipping across the training hall floor and tackling Ranma in an impressive flying glomp. What a waste of athletic potential. "Oh, you were so cool dodging her attacks like that! And the way you finished her off, using the momentum of her own throw to pin her to the ground - Oh, swoon!"
... Did she just say 'swoon'? Tsun-Akane wretched. Gag her with a spoon, it would be more kind.
Regardless. With the spar over, Tsun-Akane got up to her feet... Now, at this point Tsun-Akane knew all too well that Ranma would expect her to stomp off, or yell at him for not taking her seriously. That is what she would normally do, correct? Surely that reaction must come from Akane feeling frustrated that Ranma didn't take her seriously as a martial artist, but no. That's only part of the story.
Believe it or not, that reaction came about because of the conflicting feelings that she had towards him interacting with each other. Attraction and repulsion, both at once mixed with a heavy dose of simple pride. The attraction was saying 'pay attention to me. For some reason boys seem to find it attractive when I fight them, so shouldn't you as well?' while the repulsion was saying 'hey! I am a serious martial artist, you know!'
But now those feelings were split. There was no interaction. The two feelings weren't quite interacting in that same way, to bring up that same result. Instead, while Dere-Akane swooned over her man, Tsun-Akane had risen to her feet and began pacing the training hall.
"Hm... For that last throw, I should have trapped your leg first," she said, not really talking to Ranma, more visualising what had happened aloud. "Instead of flipping you right away, I should have planted my own leg in between yours to make it harder for you to move in mid-air."
"As if that would even slow down my darling Ranma!" Dere-Akane cooed.
"Nah, if you'd done that I'd have just gone for a leg grapevine," Ranma said, pulling himself out of Dere-Akane's grip. Being hugged like that out of nowhere reminded him a lot of Shampoo. Too much, really. "Tripped you up, then kept a little pressure on the back of your leg to keep you down."
Tsun-Akane whirled around and gave him the stinkeye. "Oh really? I wouldn't know. Because of the way we spar, I wind up so focused on attack that I can never improve my defense. I bet there's a ton of holes you could exploit if you really wanted to, but the first I'll know of it is if I get into a serious fight with someone who isn't holding back!"
Ranma turned around to walk away, but Tsun-Akane wasn't finished with him quite yet. "I wouldn't try to stand up anyway. I'd drag you down to the floor with me so you'd have a harder time dodging."
"Dodging what?" Ranma asked. "Your punches and kicks won't have nearly the force as they would when you're standing."
"They would if I rolled you over and mounted you," Tsun-Akane said, right into his face. She prodded him in the chest to punctuate her point. "It wouldn't be that difficult. I think you underestimate my ground game! I bet I can have you under me in two minutes flat!"
All of a sudden, the training hall fell quite silent. Dere-Akane looked between the two of them with a great deal of trembling nervousness, and for good reason: The two of them were remarkably close to one another right now. Closer, in fact, than Dere-Akane had been with him when she had been hugging him up close and personal just a minute before.
Tsun-Akane sensed this too. Eventually. And when she did, she sniffed indignantly, turned around and walked off with nothing more than a warning glare at her other half. Boys. Who needs them? Just... a distraction from the art. Especially the cute, handsome playboys.
- Ranma is extremely confused and starts to worry he's turning into Kuno. "I must have both!"
- Dere-Akane talks with Tsun-Akane about what just happened.
- Akane has a few personal revelations when she reunites.
- The next day, they're still separate.
- Something else
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