Story: Carry the Ten

 

It was Akane's long term intention to build upon her family's legacy wherever she could. Her father didn't tend to take in many students when she was growing up - but the minute that Akane was old enough to take over, she had done so. It wasn't easy. Japan was pretty sexist in a lot of ways. A woman owning a business? Never mind that, a martial arts dojo? That first year had been hell.

Though there was one thing you could say about her. Akane Tendo was stubborn. You throw a wall in her way, she'll climb it. Or beat her way through it if she couldn't climb it. Or she'd collapse from trying. So she had. Beaten her head against the wall, proved herself time and time again, and now look at her. Heading up an after school class of no less than twenty students. Eager to learn. Looking up to her as a person to learn from.

If there was a better way to put Ranma's stupidity out of her mind, she couldn't think of it.

"Alright class, today we're going to discuss the best ways to deal with an attacker," Akane began. "Now, there are various different kinds of attackers. Some want to steal, others are randomly violent, and others can be called stalkers."

"Akane Tendo!" a booming voice echoed in the training hall. "I would bare my soul to you, here and now!"

"Ah, perfect timing," Akane said, walking over to Tatewaki Kuno. One of the students at Furinkan, the head of the kendo club and their rising star. A little cocky, but a decent sort. "Thank you for volunteering, Mister Kuno."

She grabbed him by the lapel and tossed him onto his back in a neat, fluid movement.

"The first thing to remember is to keep your distance as much as possible," Akane said. "You need to assess the threat as much as you can. By throwing them away, you get more precious seconds to understand the danger you are in - but if you can retreat, don't hesitate to do so. Never be the aggressor if you can help it."

The boy picked himself up admirably. As expected of a kendoist as skilled as he was. He looked to Akane, dusted himself off and proclaimed "My love is heightened by your wisdom and your strength! It flows from you like a river!"

He dove forward as if to embrace him, and so Akane delivered a snap kick to his solar plexus, causing him to crumple to the ground like a rag doll.

"Once you understand the nature of the threat, use only as much force as you must to put them down," Akane said. "Your instincts might be to go for the head, but attacking the centre of mass is often the better tactic. Knock the air out of the attacker, and they'll be a little less eager to -"

"Such spirit!" Tatewaki sighed, pushing himself up while taking deep sucking breaths. "I... fight on!"

It went on like that for the rest of the class. Honestly, she was rather grateful to him for showing up. Volunteering like this... Her sister must have put him up to it in exchange for some tutoring. It was the sort of sneaky thing she liked to do, because she always did have trouble showing her real emotions. It was true, really: Nabiki was the tsundere of the family.

I hope nobody reading this had an irony detector (offshoot to the sarcasm detector) as most models do still have a tendency to explode.

At the end of the day Tatewaki had rather helpfully showed all the myriad ways that a would be stalker might decide to attack a helpless and pretty young thing that seemed unassuming and hot, rather than being the badass martial artist that once knocked out a multiheaded dragon with her bare fucking fists. Though that was back when her family had some really absurd challengers arriving out of the blue, not to mention a certain foreign idiot that turned into her lifelong rival...

"Alright everyone, that's everything I had to show you today," Akane said. "Thank you for your assistance today, Mister Kuno. It was quite appreciated, if unexpe-"

The boy was pretty battered and blue by this point, though one could hardly blame Akane. She had held back quite a bit, but over the course of the class he had provided so many inventive ways to help her demonstrate that - well, it was a little inevitable he'd wind up getting hurt. Still, she didn't expect him to lunge forward with open arms.

"I love you!" he said, gripping onto her arms. "Please, Akane Tendo, date with me!"

Akane looked around. They were alone. It was just the two of them. There was nobody else here that she could show a demonstration to. He had, from somewhere, produced a bouquet of flowers and was holding it up to her.  So... Akane was stubborn. Yes. she was plenty stubborn. She had one major blindspot, though. She, how to put it, didn't quite have a good gauge of another person's motivations until it was made extremely obvious.

If this were a cartoon this is where you'd see a close up of her head. A hamster running in a wheel would stop running, get out, walk upright towards a microphone and yell into it "He is actually confessing to you, moron!" before getting back in the wheel and resuming running.

“Oh.” Akane said. She pushed his hands away, and the bouquet as well. "Sorry, you're a little too young for my tastes."

"Let age be no barrier to our passions!" Tatewaki said, pushing the bouquet back to her. It had somehow grown larger. "No obstacle can stand in the way of our true love!"

“Mr. Kuno. I don’t love you.” Akane said. “I’m not interested in dating anybody right now.” Akane tended to have weird luck in relationships, and after the stress of her last partner she needed a break. "You should really be looking into dating someone your own age, anyway."

"Nonsense! I can tell from your strikes, you feel something deep within! Do not be afraid! Let it out, let your true feelings fly!"

Never had an impression of someone been so thoroughly demolished in such a small amount of time. It was the perfect destruction, the total obliteration of the impression that Akane had on this young man, who had always seemed hard working, polite, respectful and with such shining potential as a martial artist.

"Alright," she said. "I won't be afraid to show my feelings."

Which is why Kuno went back to his old nickname, in a manner of speaking. The Shooting Star of Furinkan. Because Akane tossed him through the air. Akane dusted her hands and started clearing up after hte lesson -

"Hold, my dearest! Let me help you with that."

"K-Kuno?!" Akane stammered in surprise, she'd really thought she was rid of him. The martial artist part of her brain was mildly impressed at how much punishment he seemed to be able to take. Of course, that didn’t stop the rest of her brain from wanting to see how much more he needed to receive in order to leave her alone. "Take the hint! And get those chocolates away from me! I'm not interested!"

He opened his mouth, and from the look on his face she could already tell it was something asinine- so she shoved the box into his throat and tossed him across the sky yet again. Dusted her hands, turned around, and there he was yet again.

"I see, I understand now," Kuno nodded. "Of course, it is only natural that you would not be interested in me."

Alright. That was good. She relaxed a bit upon hearing that.

"A strong martial artist like you would never be interested in a man until he proves his worth in combat! By defeating you, I shall earn your love!"

This time around Akane's hand flashed out and struck him on the back of the head. Once. Exactly once. This time he went down like a rock, and with good timing. Ranma had just arrived.

"Saotome, it's your turn to take out the trash," Akane said, tossing Kuno to him. "Ugh, at least that should be the end of it. There's no way he thinks he can beat me."

<hr>

There are times when you see something so surreal that you think it has to be a nightmare. Things that make no sense at all, yet are there before your eyes. Things that defy belief. Things that leave you utterly baffled at the state of the world, so you reject the reality in front of you.

"Miss Tendo! Date me!"

"No, I shall be the one to defeat and date you!"

"Ignore these weaklings, I'm the perfect man for you!"

The sight of a horde of students, all athletes, with a mixture of boys and a few girls, all bumrushing the front gate of Furinkan High with weapons in hand, proclaiming their intention to simultaneously kick the living shit out of and also date the least cute woman in existence was leaving Ranma Saotome with a deep, intense feeling of... Snark.

“Wow, first you’ve got students now you’ve got boyfriends. You’re really popular Miss Tendo.” Ranma said, the ass.

Akane glared at the teenage boy. Wishing that she hadn’t been asked to bring over some papers Nabiki forgot. Honestly Akane didn’t know if she knew this was happening and had forgotten them on purpose, or if Nabiki was as baffled as she was.

Either way, Akane took a deep breath, took one look at this crowd and then prepared to zip in like a goddamned hurricane. A knee to the stomach, a chop to the back of the neck, sweep the leg, clang their heads together, flying roundhouse kick.... Yes, that was the sort of pain Akane was going to inflict on them.

<i>”Happo Go Yen Satsu!”</i>

Well, except she was a bit late, as all of them collapsed at once to reveal Miss Hinako, holding up a coin in triumph

“Wait? What technique was that? How the hell did she beat them all?” Ranma asked, but nobody answered.

"Hinako," Akane said. She nudged the closest would be paramour with her foot. "I don't suppose you know what is going on around here?"

"Word got out that you would date the first person to beat you in a fight," Hinako said. Then she aimed the coin right at Akane, which got Akane to dive hard to the side, which in turn made Ranma very much not want to be where he was right now. "Happo Go Yen Satsu, Return!"

Holy shit that was a massive burst of energy!The light left Ranma feeling completely blinded for a few seconds. This lady was no joke! He'd better help Akane take her down before anything serious happened! Just as soon as his vision cleared and -

And...

And...

And the first thing he sees when his vision clears is Akane behind Hinako, holding her from behind. One hand very obviously... extremely blatantly... groping the woman's chest. Squeezing her boob. W-Which wasn't hot at all in the slightest, no sir!

"Now Hinako, how many times do I have to tell you?" Akane said, sounding a bit impatient. "It's over between us."

“B-but it’s not like I did anything bad!” Hinako said.

“I’ve had the cops called on me multiple times when you forgot your fish!” Akane said, “And you refuse to be treated.”

“I need it for my job!” Hinako said.

“I’m sorry but it was just too stressful.” Akane said, “I know it’s not your fault, but when I started to dread going out with you it’s a pretty sure sign the relationship was done.”

What? What the hell was - grope, squeeze - what was going on... god her boobs were even bigger than his girl form's. Wait. The way they were talking, it almost sounded like...

"You used to date her?" Ranma asked.

"None of your business who I date, Saotome!" Akane snapped back at him.

"Indeed!" a new voice said. Oh, it was this guy again. Sniffing a rose and sauntering out like he was the very reincarnation of Casanova himself. "It is none of your business, Saotome, if the fair Akane Tendo decides that she wishes to date me-eeeeeee!"

That squealing at the end was because Nabiki had reached out and plucked his ear, giving it a twist as if she was trying to open a door into his head. Not the best idea. She might get sucked in by all the nothing inside.

"Mister Kuno, I believe I warned you about harassing my sister?" Nabiki said.

“OK so you didn’t know about this, good to know Nabiki.” Akane said, still holding onto Hinako’s chest and… and... and her behind!?

"This is your doing, Saotome!" Kuno accusingly waved a finger at him. Nabiki rolled her eyes and dragged his ass indoors. "I will have your hide for this! How dare you interfere in the course of true love!"

He wasn't interfering in anything, it was playing out right there in front of him. Akane's hands had, uh, started wandering a bit. Damn his eyes for seeing this. Now he could never unsee it!

"What just happened here?" Ranma asked.

"You got a martial arts rival over something really dumb," Akane said. "Join the club."

"Please, I joined that club when I was five."

Akane let go of Hinako, “There we go, a week without draining. On the plus side you’ll stay an adult the entire time.” She said.

Hinako whimpered, “I’m sorry Akane!” She said, hugging the other woman. “I thought- I thought you might want to.. to … waaahhh!”

“There there, it’s OK. We can still be friends, you know?” Akane stroked his homeroom teacher’s hair. It was very heartwarming, if only Ranma could keep the image of her molesting Hinako out of his head. "You. Head inside. Unless you want to get involved in this romantic drama between exes?"

"Ma'am, no ma'am!" Ranma said, and then did the smartest thing he had ever done in his life and noped out of there. Though... He did look back as he went inside. "Dammit... I guess she can be hot if she really feels like it. That battle aura when she was about to take those idiots on... man, that really worked for me."

“It did huh?” Hiroshi said, somehow suddenly appearing behind Ranma. This ended up with Hiroshi getting judo thrown when Ranma reacted to a sudden presence behind him. “Ow!”

“Damn it she’s still a decade older than me!”

“That’s the best part.” Daisuke said, helping Hiroshi get off the ground.

Ranma groaned. Great, just what he needed. Stupid kind of hot older fiance number 1.