Story: Carry The Ten

 

 
You know, Ranma was starting to doubt his decision to befriend these two. They didn't really have an awful lot in common, and it was extremely obvious that the real reason they were here was to check out the Tendo sisters. Who were way out of their league, by the way. Not that any of them should even be thinking about being in any of their leagues, they were all at least a decade over! And one of them was a recently divorced mother with an adorable little daughter, what kinda guy their age would be into that?

Oh Ranma, so young, so naive.

"So, what do they normally wear around the house?" Daisuke asked. Slowly, as though trying to get out the question in a way that sounded like a natural, normal thing to ask in everyday conversation and then failing utterly.

Ranma thought back to what he usually saw Kasumi in, mostly pajamas or drab sweatshirts and pants. The summer dress and haircut were new. Akane tended to wear gis. Or simple dresses. And Nabiki… Nabiki didn’t change clothing when coming home from work. So it was all dress blouses and business skirts.

“I don’t know. What do you wear at home?” He said in reply.

“Dude, why do you want to know what a guy wears at home.”” Hiroshi said.

Ranma didn't get it. He really, really didn't get it. This was totally out of his element. This was not his idea of a good time, at all. Give him some lunatic screaming bloody murder, or a random weird martial arts challenge any day of the -

"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"

Perfect. Ranma was already moving when the flying fist came in. A quick somersault away to get a good look at his opponent, get an idea of what he was capable of, and then -

"No fighting in the house!"

And then Akane steps in out of nowhere and has both their arms twisted behind their backs.

"Hey, what gives?" Ranma demanded, unable to twist himself free. Damn this uncute - Urgh! "We were just getting started!"

“Ma’am! This is vengeance! A duel between men!” The other guy complained.

"No, it's a duel between boys," Akane admonished.

“Oh burn!” Nabiki said in the background, having pulled out popcorn from somewhere.

Akane ignored her sister as she had learned to do so over 20 years of experience.  "If you're going to fight it out like real martial artists, do it in the training hall not ten feet away. Not in the living room. The clues are in the name of those room, boys. Got it? You're going to do this properly!"

"Shirtless in the rain?" Nabiki offered. Both Ranma and the other guy got a bit nervous about that, while Akane did break her composure for a moment to shoot some daggers at her older sister.

“Dude she wants to see you shirtless.” Daisuke whispered in awe, quiet enough for hopefully Akane not to hear. A forlorn hope, as he would learn to his horror at the next gym class.

"Mind out of the gutter," Akane warned everyone in earshot. Although, the boys were pretty sure the look she was giving the two boys had an overlay in it that read 'shirtless in rain'.

"What, I just suggested that the sight of these healthy, strapping young men working up a sweat in stormy weather wouldn't be the worst thing in the world," Nabiki shrugged. "Right, sis? I mean, you are on the verge of dragging them off to a more private location to watch them work up a sweat."

"Nabiki! Urgh! You two, in the training hall -"

"Your own personal room, where you are the master of the domain, watching them grapple, seeing them expose their bodies as their loose fitting clothing comes undone from the strain..."

"W-Was she always like this?" Hiroshi asked. Daisuke shrugged. He was enjoying himself too much to commit mental energy to bringing up memories of their math teacher’s past behavior.

In any event, Ranma and Ryoga were dragged off by Akane to the training hall, where they were made to stand opposite each other, separated by about three feet. Nabiki, Hiroshi, and Dasiuke trailing behind.

"Bow!" she commanded. "First clean strike takes it!"

"As opposed to a dirty strike," Daisuke whispered. Nabiki rolled her eyes and held up a card that read '1'. "Too forced?" Daisuke asked, and Nabiki nodded.

But never mind that, for Akane said the word "begin," stepped back and adopted the referee's posture, squatting down so she could watch both boys keenly, ready to move in if either of them made an inappropriate move.
"By sheer coincidence, this puts her eyes at just above crotch level," Hiroshi observed. Nabiki held up a 7 for that one, nodding in approval, but still grading harshly.

As for the boys, to normal eyes they seemed a blur. To a martial artist, Ryoga (moved first attempting a straightforward blow aimed square at the centre of mass. The trouble with this plan was that Ranma's centre of mass didn't tend to stay in the same place very long, as the boy expertly leaped away.

"Break the floor, you pay for it!" Nabiki warned, and Ryoga had to stop his fist mid punch when Ranma was no longer there. He managed to pull back well despite the sudden shock, and whirled around to leap again at Ranma, this time hauling off his bandannas to toss at him.

Ranma, not being an idiot, didn't let the hurled cloth come close to hitting him, and just as well. Akane managed to catch one before it hit the wall, and she raised an eyebrow, before stepping on another one before it hit anything either. Yes, stepped on it. It had been around shoulder height one moment, Akane took a step forward and then the bandanna was under her foot. How else would you succinctly describe that?

"Uh, is that allowed?" Daisuke asked.

"Technically, the clothes one wears to a fight can often be a factor," Nabiki said, seeming annoyed she knew this much about martial arts. "Several judo chokes, for example, make use of an enemy's collar. That's why there's such a thing as a rear naked choke - it works on an opponent who has no clothes on."

"Ah," Daisuke nodded. "What was the name of that choke again?"

"You just want me to say that word again," Nabiki shrugged. Something about a pretty woman saying the word 'naked' did have that effect on men, didn't it?  "Sorry kid, you got one free shot."

"I will cherish it always."

"Anyway, there's not really anything against using clothes in a fight and - Wow, Ranma's got him tied up like a Christmas present. How about that?"

Indeed, somehow Ranma had managed to tuck Ryoga's arm in between his legs and was standing on top of his back.

"Do you dare... to make me bow?!" Ryoga roared, and pushed himself off the floor, freeing himself from the hold and then leaping forward to continue the fight before -

"Halt!" Akane yelled, getting herself in between the two boys before things could go further. "Ranma had you down for a three count before you freed yourself. If he really wanted to, he could have really hurt you from that position."

"Hey, that was a fun fight," Ranma said. "We should do that again, sometime."

"Hrmph! Darn!" Ryoga stamped his foot in frustration. "I was sure I'd got you this time, Saotome! Mark my words, next time you won't be so lucky!"

"Hehehe, better bring your a-game!" Ranma smirked. "Because I bring nothing less! Although, I am kinda wondering one thing."

"Yeah?" Ryoga grunted.

"Who're you again?"

Silence fell upon the dojo, with Akane performing the slowest facepalm in recorded history.

"And there I was, thinking you two boys might bury the hatchet," Akane groaned. "Ranma, you didn't think to ask Mister Hibiki earlier who he was?"

"He wanted a fight, so I gave him ne!" Ranma said. "I guess that's something an uncute old hag like you -"

And then Ranma had left the training hall. Perfectly upside down at the time, and not of his own volition.

"He had that coming," Daisuke nodded. "I mean, old hag?"

"No accounting for taste," Hiroshi shook his head.

The last boy in the room had a quite different reaction. Awe at what he'd just seen. "That was amazing! That throw, that speed! You handled him instantly!"

"Yeah, well, no big deal," Akane huffed. "There's a ten year age gap between us, I wasn't nearly at his level back then, and he's way better than any of my students- "

"You're taking on students?!" Ryoga gushed. "Then please, take me on as well! Become my sensei! Teach me how to defeat Ranma Saotome!" His arms snapped to his side and he bowed so low Akane was wondering how he was able to keep standing.

"Ah? Oh, well, let me think about that and get back to you," Akane said. "I mean, I'm sort of training Ranma too? I guess? I want to make sure that training you as well won't cause any issues."

"Then I'll take my leave until you have a satisfactory answer, my wise and powerful future sensei!"

Following that proclamation, Ryoga left, deliberately walking over Ranma's back as he did so - and promptly found himself lost.

"Well done, Akane!" Nabiki said, slapping her sister on the back. "You've got another young boy in your burgeoning harem!

“Can we join!?” Daisuke said excitedly.

“Nabiki!” Akane groaned. No matter how many times she learned the lesson, something always drove her to respond to her sister. How irritating.