Gold Digger Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Grave's New Life ❯ Chapter 23
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Nanya 
Anime/Manga: Gold Digger Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Martial Arts / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 06.30.2009 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 383 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Gold Digger Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Martial Arts / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 06.30.2009 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 383 | Status: Completed
Chapter 23: 22 A
Grave's New Life
Chapter Twenty Two
Part 1
Disclaimer: Ranma, Grave, Steamhead and others are owned by Rumiko Takahashi-Sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn respectively.
Note: Real Life’s been a pain in the rear, literally. Time to write this went down to minimal this summer. At least now I can use the computer whenever I'm not working.
Groaning as he sat in the vehicle that most people had the audacity, though he didn’t know what that meant exactly, to call a train, Ranma leaned back in his chair and frowned. Darned train was so crowded at the moment he felt like he was tied up and then thrown in the river, just without the water. Honestly, if he knew where to go, he could probably get there before this train did. Even if he didn't, at least he wouldn't feel so cramped.
“Honestly, it’s not that bad.” His companion next to him said, exasperated, though she felt just as cramped as he did. It wasn’t as if it was eighty outside with humidity up towards ninety percent in a bus with no fan, no air-conditioning and the windows just wouldn’t come down, a fur coat on the body and having to wear clothing on top of the fur coat. As well as seats that were harder than stone to sit on while on said bus for over three hours.
“I know, I know, Grave, I just don't like sitting on this train.” He groused, he'd rather not have to deal with the cramped space. If he was given a map, he could’ve gotten to the place quicker than this train was taking at that moment. Well, he'd at least be able to feel his elbows and not feel like a sardine.
Rolling her eyes, Grave, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, bent over, reaching under the seat and grabbed a small bag that was on the floor, before pulling something out of it and slapping it playfully on Ranma’s chest. “Here, read something before you drive everyone insane.”
Blinking as he took it, Ranma, in a green shirt and black pants, looked at Grave. “So, where’d you get the Manga?” Not that he was really complaining, at least it would give him something to do for the next hour.
“Picked it up yesterday with your mom while shopping.” She replied, not letting him know just what they were shopping for. The Lycanthropoid flushed as she thought about the trip. She had thought Gina and Britanny were kinky. They had absolutely nothing on Nodoka. She didn’t even want to know what half of those... “Accessories” were for either. (1)
Shrugging, Ranma opened the manga and looked it over. Sword fighting, martial arts moves, and some stuff in the past. At least it was interesting. Well, that and the situations that scarred guy would get himself into were quite funny. At least he could ignore the cramped space of the train for awhile. (2)
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Grave Digger smiled and closed her eyes while leaning back into her seat, trying to relax a little. She honestly didn’t know why the coach let her ride with, but she sure wasn’t complaining about it. Even if her going with did help school spirit, she was only really there for Ranma, and no one else. She wondered if the school system was more lax in Japan over certain things. Or maybe people were just too used to seeing weirdness all around them too much. Either one would probably be true. (3) (4)
Several of the students standing nearby looked at Ranma and Grave and felt some jealousy towards the pigtailed pugilist, mostly because he had such a cute looking girl as a girlfriend and they didn’t. (5) (6)
A fairly large boy turned to the side to look at the two. “Say,” he began, causing Ranma to look up and close the manga he was reading, “you nervous about the tournament?” The green-eyed boy asked, slightly nervous. It wasn’t well known, but the tournament was a free-for-all for all involved. Any style of fighting could be used, as long as it wasn’t lethal. It wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret, but not everyone knew about it.
Shrugging, the aforementioned teen shook his head slightly. “Not really. Should I be?” He asked, wondering what the big deal was. It was just a school event. It wasn’t something incredibly important. Like beating the stuffing out of Ryoga the next time he showed up before he got splashed with cold water again and turned into his cursed form.
The bigger teenager nodded slowly. “I think so; I heard that Furinkan High has a Kendo artist that’s so good with his stick that it’s said he can cut through anything. And that’s just the rumors.” Left unsaid was the talk of dementia and other mental problems that said Kendo person had. Personally, the bigger teenager didn’t believe it.
A darker-skinned, brown-eyed and thinner boy took that moment to speak up from the other side of Grave Digger. “Not only that, I heard that their school managed to convince a new girl to join them this year, I heard she was as strong as a gorilla, at least.” He exclaimed. He blinked when he heard some giggling from in front of him. Looking at Grave, he blinked a couple of times. “Say, are you going to enter the tournament?” He asked seriously.
“Hmm?” Grave asked, wondering why he would ask that question to her. “No, I’m not going to enter.” She answered. It wasn’t as if she was a student of the school in the first place. “Besides, I don’t fight.” She paused for a moment, “Unless I have to.” She added as an after-thought.
The boy nodded slightly. “Okay…” He said, trailing off. He wondered why she wasn’t going to enter. There was this… Pervasive aura that surrounded the girl, it made her have a presence that was bigger than what should have been possible. His Kempo sensei had told him that he had a powerful sixth sense, even if it was unrefined.
Grave shrugged, she wondered why he had asked, but that was fine with her. Leaning back into the seat, she closed her eyes and waited for the ride to be over. Ranma was right, the ride did suck.
One hour later…
Grave stretched as she and Ranma walked by the open field where the tournament was going to take place. “Wow… Lots of room.” She said, looking at the ring, which was about three-fourths the size of a basketball court. Though, she wondered why it was so big. It wasn’t as if there was going to be insanely powerful martial arts or magic techniques used, causing the ring to be destroyed in one shot or something.
Nodding and looking around, her best friend nodded as he saw the bleachers, set several feet away from the ring created two semi-circles around the area. “Yeah…” Ranma said as he looked at a couple teams that were in the area. Nothing too impressive, so far, though, he was ready, just incase someone sprung a surprise on him. Like actually being able to take a hit from a fifty-pound rock and stay on their feet.
Nodding, the Lycanthropoid motioned towards where the rest of their team was. Well, more Ranma’s team than hers, she was just there to watch and give support. She knew that Ranma wasn’t going to have too many problems. After all, she highly doubted that anyone in the tournament could actually fight a teleporting undead, get stabbed and come out of it okay, well, mostly okay. She shook her head to clear those unpleasant memories, the last thing she needed was to get depressed and worry the people around her. Well, okay, the absolute last thing she needed was her “sisters” to show up and start a fight with her and cause mass destruction and carnage that was probably going to be worse than what had happened awhile back.
She was shaken out of her thoughts when she felt someone poking her in the shoulder. Blinking, she turned her head and saw Ranma looking at her with some impatience in his eyes. “Hmm?” She wondered why he looked to be in a hurry.
“Come on, we’re over there.” He said, pointing to an open area where those two guys that were talking to them earlier were at.
Blinking, the Lycanthropoid followed Ranma as he led her to where the rest of the team was at. She was glad that she was wearing as normal clothing as possible, barring her tail, it kept people from staring at her and wondering just what she was.
“Hey you two, the coach gave us the match-ups for the first round while you were gone.” The rather large fellow that had sat behind them was giving them a red sheet of paper for them to look over. On it were which teams were going to face which ones during the tournament. “We got lucky. We don’t have to face Furinkan in the first round.” He said, breathing out a sigh of relief.
“Well, you’ve got to fight this team called ‘Koaltz’.” Grave pointed out as she looked over the sheet. “Then if you win, you’ll have to face Furinkan, if they win.”
The heavy-set kid winced. “Yeah, they’ll win. Their kendo fighter’s one of the best fighters in the country. I heard that he’s almost completely unbeaten.” Seeing the two blink at him curiously, he elaborated. “Apparently there’s this girl on their team that can beat him up pretty easily. No one knows if he lets her win or if she’s just that good.” He shrugged. Either way, he knew his team couldn’t compete with that. He highly doubted that their stand-in was good enough to face over fifty people, fight and actually win every day.
Ranma shrugged it off and didn’t think much of it. He hadn’t seen anyone since he had gotten there that was anywhere near good enough to beat him. He could have been wrong though, if anyone was like his old man, they could hide in plain sight and not be noticed by anyone, unless they wanted to be seen. His old man had said it was something all the better martial artists could do. Heck, Genma had told him that some people were good enough to be standing right in front of others and be completely invisible to everyone around them, without trying to be.
Grave sighed. She wouldn’t feel so nervous, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that was telling her something big was going to happen, and happen soon. What, she had no clue. At least she didn’t think someone was going to show up and kill her. Maybe someone from another team, but not her; though for some reason that didn’t fill her with too much confidence.
“Shouldn’t be too bad.” Ranma muttered to himself. He highly doubted that there’d be any problem with any of the other teams. It wasn’t as if everyone that was in the area went on training journeys for long periods of time.
And why did he just feel as if someone was watching him, smiling and giving him a pat on his back?
“Hey, you okay?” The larger teen asked his teammate as he looked around, eyeing the surroundings as if someone was hiding just out of sight and was teasing him. He looked around as well, but he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
Shaking his head to clear it, Ranma nodded at the other guy. “Yeah, just thought I felt something was all.”
(----)
"Well, this is interesting."
A second voice spoke up. "It's only interesting because you don't remember this from before."
The first one was silent for a while, before agreeing with the second being. "Indeed. I never recalled this happening. Might just be faulty memory though."
"... Faulty memory? You?"
"Okay, okay, time seems to have changed, but how much, I’m not sure about yet."
The second voice had nothing to say to that. (7)
(----)
“Honestly, Uncle Saotome, I don’t know why you came with.” A slightly frustrated teenaged girl said as she sighed. Running a hand through her long, dark hair, she looked at the older, and much larger, man with some disdain. He had come with to give her support; at least, that’s what he said. She probably would have bet good money, if she had any, that he was just there because her father wasn’t home, having a town council meeting to attend, and her eldest sister wasn’t home, having left to visit some friends of hers.
Looking at her “uncle”, she wondered why he always seemed to wear that bandanna around his head. It wasn’t like anyone was going to be fooled into thinking he actually had a head of hair. Then again, Genma Saotome didn’t seem to be all that smart a person.
The man just looked at her and shook his head. “Is it so hard to believe that I would come here and give you support?” He asked. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do that day anyway, and, well, he knew the girl liked martial arts, he might as well see how good she really was. It also gave him an excuse to get out of the house and do something. “What are you worried about?” He asked her.
“Nothing.” She said, rolling her eyes. It wasn’t as if he was her father or anything. If he was, she’d probably deny it every chance she got. She wasn’t exactly sure why, either. Maybe it had something to do with the vibes she got off of him when he was obviously thinking about something and the way his eyes would narrow in thought. It just made him look very creepy and evil.
Grumbling something about ungrateful teenagers and how they don’t respect their elders, the elder man shook his head and looked around for a place to sit down. Looking around the open area, he saw so little potential that it wasn’t funny; nearly no one that was participating had the potential to do little more than get the basics of martial arts mastered in their life-times. His best friend’s daughter, though, she had some potential, how much, he couldn’t tell.
He blinked as he saw someone with a pigtail walk across the grass on the other side of the ring. Shaking his head and looking more closely, whatever he had seen, wasn’t there, or at least, was buried behind a sea of people. ‘Wishful thinking.’ He thought to himself, knowing that Ranma was gone, all because of that crazy Amazon.
(---)
Raising an eyebrow as her young prodigy sneezed pretty harshly, the aged matriarch wondered what was up with the air on this island. She’d ask if the girl was getting sick, but that would have been just silly; after all, Amazons didn’t get sick, outside of ‘that time of the month’. Idly, she wondered WHY the outside world called it that; though she privately thought it was called that because when it was ‘that time of the month’ and Amazons were bothered by males, said males tended to be… Less manly than before.
“Great grandmother, why we no go to fight?” The other Amazon asked in the best Japanese she could manage.
Rolling her eyes, the aged Amazon shook her head. “I told you, this is not something that we should get involved with.” Rolling her eyes at her granddaughter’s pout, she added, “do you really want to deal with weaklings who won’t be able to give you any sort of challenge?” She was immediately gratified to see the purple-haired teen shake her head against that. With that out of the way, the older Amazon turned her head towards the window and thought about how to get her hands on that fat oaf and get the information she needed out of him. If that redhead really was dead and gone, then they wouldn't need to stay in Japan meaninglessly. 'Then again...' She thought to herself, she knew that her great granddaughter rather liked being in Japan, if only for the experience to be outside of the village. After this fiasco was over with, she could see about sending some of their more talented and bright young warriors out into the world.
(---)
Sighing as he saw another person from the other team get defeated by his teammates, Ranma wondered just why he had even bothered to show up at all. There hadn’t been any challenge so far, heck; he could have beaten everyone on both teams in his sleep. (8)
Yawning from her position on the ground, the spotted blonde Lycanthropoid would have agreed with Ranma’s thoughts, that is, if she could actually read minds. As it stood, she was rather bored with the incredibly low-level fighting that happened here. Heck, there were memories that she had from when...
She frowned, cutting her train of thought off right then and there. Those hadn’t been her memories, just the memories of someone else that she had inherited, not ones she had made. ‘So what does that make me?’ She thought to herself. Memories were what defined a person, without them, how did one know if they really existed or not? (9)
She snapped out of her thoughts as Ranma walked towards the ring. Looking at the person who was going to be his opponent, and she used that term loosely, the Lycanthropoid sweat dropped, the guy was a bit a bean pole, not to mention, what she could "see" through her aural sight, which, even she admitted, was very limited, his opponent wasn't that good. "This should be easy." She muttered to herself, causing that one redheaded guy from the train to look over at her.
"Why do you say that?" He asked, though, privately, he felt the exact same way as she did about this upcoming "fight".
"Just a feeling." She replied, nearly giggling as Ranma kicked his opponent out of the ring in less than ten seconds.
"You were right." The teenager next to her deadpanned. That “fight” took less time to finish than it did for him to tie his shoe-laces in the morning.
(---)
“That was pretty good…” Akane Tendo admitted with some reluctance. She wasn’t sure if even she could beat someone, other than that unwanted suitor of hers, that quickly. Then again, that guy’s opponent left himself completely wide open for that kick, not something she would do. (10)
She blinked as she turned her head and looked at her “uncle”. “Uncle Saotome?” She asked as he sat stiff, staring in shock, his face white, almost as if he had seen a ghost. “Uncle Saotome?” She asked, getting slightly worried. Was there something important that she needed to know?
Genma, on the other hand, could only stare stupidly at the ring, Ranma was… Alive? But not only alive, but he had just won a quick match? When Akane shook him slightly, he shook his head to clear out the confusion. “Wha, what? Where’d he go!” (11)
“Who?”
“Ranma! Where did he go?” The portly man asked, a sense of urgency in his voice and a crazed look in his eyes, causing the teenager to lean back, her eyes slightly wide, from fear or plain creepiness, she wasn’t sure. If she had time to think about it, she’d probably say creepiness.
“If you mean the guy that just got done fighting…” Akane trailed off as Genma nodded frantically. “Well, he walked back to his corner and I lost track of him.”
“What! NOOO!” The portly man cried to the heavens, causing nearly everyone around him to jump in surprise, and several to scoot away from the obviously insane person. (12)
Across the grassy area, several students looked towards the stands as they heard someone crying out in pure distress and agony. Many of them sweat-dropped as the scream lasted for several minutes, until there was a loud slap of some type, causing the noise to die off a fast and painful death.
“What was that all about?” Someone asked, causing most everyone to shrug as they didn’t know either.
(---)
Biting back a yawn, Grave Digger wondered just why this day was taking so long. Sure there were lots of schools there that day, but did it need to take this long? Okay, so she was a little impatient, but she didn't get terribly excited when watching people beat the living snot out of each other. Well, she did get worried when Ranma fought, but she couldn't help it, he was her best and only friend in the world. She could count Nodoka as one of her friends; yet, she couldn't help but think that Nodoka was a little closer to her than that, like a family member or something similar.
(---)
He was close, so close, he could feel it. All he needed to do was get past this maze of trees and he’d be right where he needed to be. Growling as a branch slapped him across the face, he swore that as soon as he got out of this maze, he’d get an axe and chop down every last tree in the blasted maze!
“Mommy? Why is that guy walking around in circles?” A young boy asked as he and his mother were walking by an abandoned lot with four trees in the center of it.
The woman shook her head and walked off with her son when the person turned to look at them. “It’s just a lunatic, ignore him.”
Said lunatic growled lightly and shook his head before taking his first step out of that “maze” in several days. Looking around, he nodded, at least he was in civilization again, and not in some smelly, dinky forest. “Ranma, when I find you, I shall make you pay for humiliating me in front of all those people.” The eternally lost boy growled as he walked west.
The mere fact that he had meant to go north never really bothered him before, so why should it now?
Grumbling to himself about curses that caused him to hear voices and make him think he was crazy, Ryoga wondered what he had done to get a horrible, vengeful curse like the one he had. He wasn't a bad person; at least he didn't think he was, so why was he saddled with such a horrible curse on himself? At least he could defend himself, the back of his mind noted. He could have had a curse like a toad or something similiar that couldn't defend itself properly.
Shivering, Ryoga feared he may have ended up in one of those weird places that enjoyed toads as a meal and tried to eat him if he had a curse like that. The only good thing of his curse was the fact that he was still human. He lifted his head as he came close to a school. "Huh? How'd I get here?" He wondered aloud, not that it mattered; he hardly knew where he was at any given moment anyway. He heard noise from somewhere nearby causing him to shrug and head off to those noises. All he hoped was that he got there before everyone took off.
It wouldn't be the first time that he had gotten lost while trying to get around a building.
Awhile later...
“This is boring.” Grave complained, sighing as she sat in the grass. She was so bored. She'd rather be traveling around the city, talking with Ranma, going shopping, heck, having an adventure in the mall would've been more exciting than this was.
Next to her, Ranma shrugged, the next round was about to start with their team facing that Furinkan team he heard so much about. Not that it was going to be a problem for him, everyone's ability was far below his, it wasn't funny. Maybe some of them were hiding their true abilities, he wasn't sure, but he was damn sure he'd be able to beat most everyone without any problems. Maybe if someone like Ryoga showed up he'd have some problems. (13)
"Hey, we'll be done soon, Grave." Ranma said, turning to her and smiling. "Ain't like it's going ta be much of a problem for me." He didn't see anyone with anything close to the skill and ability to beat him yet. Maybe that one guy that spoke funny was hiding some of his real skill, but if he was, Ranma was pretty sure that it wasn't all that much.
He smirked as he walked up to the ring, well, there wasn't much more to call it than that. As he got close to the ring, he noticed someone that he didn't think he'd see for a long time. "Pops!" He asked, with wide eyes as he saw a face that he hadn't seen in at least two months.
"Boy!" Genma asked, his eyes wide, and incredibly surprised to see his son.
"What are YOU doing here!" They both asked at the same time, their eyes wide open as they stared at each other. The sight was quite comical, a slightly over-weight man wearing a Gi and a bandanna, staring bug-eyed at a teenager, who was average height, black hair, and staring back in shock.
Sitting up with a start, the petite Lycanthropoid stared in shock at Genma. After what had happened the last time she saw him, she didn't think she'd ever see his portly ass ever again. (14)
Quickly getting to her feet, she briskly walked up to the ring, ready to tear that jerk a new one if he tried anything to hurt her Ranma. The mere fact that she thought of Ranma as hers never really crossed her mind at that moment. Just as she got there to start an "inquiry" as to why he was there, a new voice spoke up.
"Hey, what's going on here!" A female voice spoke up. The three looked up at the arena to see a girl with brown eyes, long brown hair, and dressed in a white Gi, staring at the three with a slight frown on her face. She blinked when she saw Grave standing there. It wasn’t as if she knew who Grave Digger was, but the mere fact that there was someone who was walking out in public with fur on their body made her more than curious. After all, it wasn’t every day that furry people showed up. (15)
“Uh, nothing.” Ranma said to the girl as it looked like nothing insane was going to happen, at least at that moment. It was probably wishful thinking, but he was sure that nothing bad would happen. (16)
Shaking her head, the other teen nodded and wondered who that furry teenager was. “The next round is ready to get going.” Left unsaid was the fact that she wanted to get it done and hopefully away from a certain samurai as possible. (17)
Nodding, Ranma walked up to the ring, relaxing more as he did so. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with something he couldn’t deal with. Like trying to figure out how to deal with his mother when she got that weird look in her eye, which usually happened after she saw him and Grave together. He blinked as he saw a tall teenager with short brown hair, a blue samurai robe, and wearing nothing on his feet standing there, sniffing on a red flower with his eyes closed. “How truly boorish,” he commented, his voice sounding pompous and bored with the situation. Opening his eyes, he smirked lightly, his brown eyes showing nothing but contempt and condensation for his opponent. “The mere fact that someone such as myself must fight a low-borne commoner such as thee...” He trailed off, shaking his head, before tossing away his flower. “Prepare yourself, knave, for I am the undefeated new star of high school fencing. I am Upperclassman Tatewaki Kuno.” He paused for a moment to level a previously unnoticed wooden sword at Ranma. “But my peers call me The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High.” He said, taking a pose, his stick pointed straight up as lightning struck in the back-ground.
“Nice trick.” Grave commented from the side, before turning and kicking Genma in back as he tried to turn and get away from her. The fact that she used a bit of magic to enhance the strength of the kick was of minor consequence, as was the fact that he was fell onto his face a couple feet away.
Sweat-dropping as the taller person babbled on and on about who he was and how he was, apparently, getting something bad done to him by having to fight with someone he thought was lower than him. Though, Ranma just thought he was complaining about something that made no sense to complain about.
“Now...” the Kendoist said, lowering his weapon to take a traditional kendo stance, “who might you be?”
“Me?” Ranma smirked. “I’m Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.”
This declaration caused a few gasps from a few people, two of which were really interested in hearing about this. ‘Anything Goes? That’s my school...’ Akane thought to herself from the side-lines, before his last name sank in totally. ‘Wait a minute!’ She looked at Genma as he got back to his feet. ‘Are they related?’ She asked herself in wonderment.
“So...” the teenager trailed off slowly, “you share the same school as the beauteous Akane Tendo.” He closed his eyes slowly and in his mind, he knew what he needed to do to get rid of the mistake in front of him. “Have at thee!” He called out, rushing forward with his wooden sword held high.
Ranma blinked and wondered what the heck the other guy’s problem was with him. Leaning to the right, Ranma smirked as he saw the older teen swing downward, only to gawk in amazement as he missed. That amazement soon turned to determination as he turned to face the pigtailed martial artist. “So, you have some minor skills. But that shall not save you from my punishment!” He called out, swinging with such grace, such skill, such power that no mortal on earth could ever hope to stop his fearsome attack.
Yet, that knave kept dodging and avoiding his powerful and fast attacks as if he were dodging a slowly dodge a baseball or something similar. ‘How, how can someone as low borne as this do this? Could, could he be? No, he can’t be superior to me.’ Those thoughts ran through the Kendoist’s head as he took another swing at the dodging martial artist.
Ranma decided that he needed to end it quickly as that last swing came pretty close to actually grazing him. The next instant, when the upperclassman had pulled his weapon back, his foot lashed out, connecting with the swordsman’s head, causing his head to snap back slightly just before his body left the ground, only to travel in a small, spiral arc that caused him to come crashing down on his head.
Groaning as he saw stars, literally, float around his eyes for a moment, Kuno groaned and rolled to his knees, before standing up. “I... Fight on!” He declared as he got to his feet and held his wooden sword up high, causing more than a few people to blink in surprise as he once again, charged his opponent.
“Gee, wasn’t that enough?” Ranma asked, before shaking his head and dodging a swing that would’ve definitely given him a headache if it had connected. Ranma hopped up as Kuno took another swing, this time at his ankles. “You know, you could hurt someone.”
“Yes, you.” Kuno said as the knave jumped up to look him eye-to-eye.
“Yeah, whatever. Bye.” He said, before punching the older boy in the jaw and sending him flying out of the ring. Which wasn’t too hard as the edge was only a foot or so away from where they were fighting. (18)
To Be Continued...
Next time: "Hey, Grave here... Well, this wasn't too bad..."
"It's YOU!"
"What? EEEK!"
Sorry for the cliff-hanger here, in addition, I appologize for how long it took to get this out. The whole summer stunk trying to get this out.
Notes:
(1) Hee hee, Grave can’t handle some of Nodoka’s… “Ideas”
(2) This should be obvious to most people what the manga is.
(3) Again, I know next-to-nothing about Japanese school systems and how they work. So if I got stuff wrong, I apologize.
(4) Heh, too used to seeing weirdness is probably correct, no?
(5) Two points if you know what a pugilist is.
(6) Ranma wouldn’t say that she’s his girlfriend though.
(7) Now, who is this?
(8) Ain’t that a fact?
(9) Sorry about the philosophy thing here, just something to make you think.
(10) Of course not!
(11) Stare stupidly? I think he actually has some intelligence to stare like that!
(12) Probably not insane, just obsessive-compulsive. Heh.
(13) Be careful what you wish for...
(14) Check chapter 19 for more details.
(15) If it was, she’d be on Jade.
(16) You can almost hear the thunder rolling, no?
(17) Technically, Grave is 22 to 23 physically, just short. So most people think she's younger than what she really is. Nodoka sees a 19 to 21 year old. Ranma and Akane both see a 17 to 18-year-old. Genma's too afraid to make any sort of opinion.
(18) You’d be surprised at how fast that edge can sneak up on someone, especially if they’ve been knocked down already.
Grave's New Life
Chapter Twenty Two
Part 1
Disclaimer: Ranma, Grave, Steamhead and others are owned by Rumiko Takahashi-Sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn respectively.
Note: Real Life’s been a pain in the rear, literally. Time to write this went down to minimal this summer. At least now I can use the computer whenever I'm not working.
Groaning as he sat in the vehicle that most people had the audacity, though he didn’t know what that meant exactly, to call a train, Ranma leaned back in his chair and frowned. Darned train was so crowded at the moment he felt like he was tied up and then thrown in the river, just without the water. Honestly, if he knew where to go, he could probably get there before this train did. Even if he didn't, at least he wouldn't feel so cramped.
“Honestly, it’s not that bad.” His companion next to him said, exasperated, though she felt just as cramped as he did. It wasn’t as if it was eighty outside with humidity up towards ninety percent in a bus with no fan, no air-conditioning and the windows just wouldn’t come down, a fur coat on the body and having to wear clothing on top of the fur coat. As well as seats that were harder than stone to sit on while on said bus for over three hours.
“I know, I know, Grave, I just don't like sitting on this train.” He groused, he'd rather not have to deal with the cramped space. If he was given a map, he could’ve gotten to the place quicker than this train was taking at that moment. Well, he'd at least be able to feel his elbows and not feel like a sardine.
Rolling her eyes, Grave, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, bent over, reaching under the seat and grabbed a small bag that was on the floor, before pulling something out of it and slapping it playfully on Ranma’s chest. “Here, read something before you drive everyone insane.”
Blinking as he took it, Ranma, in a green shirt and black pants, looked at Grave. “So, where’d you get the Manga?” Not that he was really complaining, at least it would give him something to do for the next hour.
“Picked it up yesterday with your mom while shopping.” She replied, not letting him know just what they were shopping for. The Lycanthropoid flushed as she thought about the trip. She had thought Gina and Britanny were kinky. They had absolutely nothing on Nodoka. She didn’t even want to know what half of those... “Accessories” were for either. (1)
Shrugging, Ranma opened the manga and looked it over. Sword fighting, martial arts moves, and some stuff in the past. At least it was interesting. Well, that and the situations that scarred guy would get himself into were quite funny. At least he could ignore the cramped space of the train for awhile. (2)
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Grave Digger smiled and closed her eyes while leaning back into her seat, trying to relax a little. She honestly didn’t know why the coach let her ride with, but she sure wasn’t complaining about it. Even if her going with did help school spirit, she was only really there for Ranma, and no one else. She wondered if the school system was more lax in Japan over certain things. Or maybe people were just too used to seeing weirdness all around them too much. Either one would probably be true. (3) (4)
Several of the students standing nearby looked at Ranma and Grave and felt some jealousy towards the pigtailed pugilist, mostly because he had such a cute looking girl as a girlfriend and they didn’t. (5) (6)
A fairly large boy turned to the side to look at the two. “Say,” he began, causing Ranma to look up and close the manga he was reading, “you nervous about the tournament?” The green-eyed boy asked, slightly nervous. It wasn’t well known, but the tournament was a free-for-all for all involved. Any style of fighting could be used, as long as it wasn’t lethal. It wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret, but not everyone knew about it.
Shrugging, the aforementioned teen shook his head slightly. “Not really. Should I be?” He asked, wondering what the big deal was. It was just a school event. It wasn’t something incredibly important. Like beating the stuffing out of Ryoga the next time he showed up before he got splashed with cold water again and turned into his cursed form.
The bigger teenager nodded slowly. “I think so; I heard that Furinkan High has a Kendo artist that’s so good with his stick that it’s said he can cut through anything. And that’s just the rumors.” Left unsaid was the talk of dementia and other mental problems that said Kendo person had. Personally, the bigger teenager didn’t believe it.
A darker-skinned, brown-eyed and thinner boy took that moment to speak up from the other side of Grave Digger. “Not only that, I heard that their school managed to convince a new girl to join them this year, I heard she was as strong as a gorilla, at least.” He exclaimed. He blinked when he heard some giggling from in front of him. Looking at Grave, he blinked a couple of times. “Say, are you going to enter the tournament?” He asked seriously.
“Hmm?” Grave asked, wondering why he would ask that question to her. “No, I’m not going to enter.” She answered. It wasn’t as if she was a student of the school in the first place. “Besides, I don’t fight.” She paused for a moment, “Unless I have to.” She added as an after-thought.
The boy nodded slightly. “Okay…” He said, trailing off. He wondered why she wasn’t going to enter. There was this… Pervasive aura that surrounded the girl, it made her have a presence that was bigger than what should have been possible. His Kempo sensei had told him that he had a powerful sixth sense, even if it was unrefined.
Grave shrugged, she wondered why he had asked, but that was fine with her. Leaning back into the seat, she closed her eyes and waited for the ride to be over. Ranma was right, the ride did suck.
One hour later…
Grave stretched as she and Ranma walked by the open field where the tournament was going to take place. “Wow… Lots of room.” She said, looking at the ring, which was about three-fourths the size of a basketball court. Though, she wondered why it was so big. It wasn’t as if there was going to be insanely powerful martial arts or magic techniques used, causing the ring to be destroyed in one shot or something.
Nodding and looking around, her best friend nodded as he saw the bleachers, set several feet away from the ring created two semi-circles around the area. “Yeah…” Ranma said as he looked at a couple teams that were in the area. Nothing too impressive, so far, though, he was ready, just incase someone sprung a surprise on him. Like actually being able to take a hit from a fifty-pound rock and stay on their feet.
Nodding, the Lycanthropoid motioned towards where the rest of their team was. Well, more Ranma’s team than hers, she was just there to watch and give support. She knew that Ranma wasn’t going to have too many problems. After all, she highly doubted that anyone in the tournament could actually fight a teleporting undead, get stabbed and come out of it okay, well, mostly okay. She shook her head to clear those unpleasant memories, the last thing she needed was to get depressed and worry the people around her. Well, okay, the absolute last thing she needed was her “sisters” to show up and start a fight with her and cause mass destruction and carnage that was probably going to be worse than what had happened awhile back.
She was shaken out of her thoughts when she felt someone poking her in the shoulder. Blinking, she turned her head and saw Ranma looking at her with some impatience in his eyes. “Hmm?” She wondered why he looked to be in a hurry.
“Come on, we’re over there.” He said, pointing to an open area where those two guys that were talking to them earlier were at.
Blinking, the Lycanthropoid followed Ranma as he led her to where the rest of the team was at. She was glad that she was wearing as normal clothing as possible, barring her tail, it kept people from staring at her and wondering just what she was.
“Hey you two, the coach gave us the match-ups for the first round while you were gone.” The rather large fellow that had sat behind them was giving them a red sheet of paper for them to look over. On it were which teams were going to face which ones during the tournament. “We got lucky. We don’t have to face Furinkan in the first round.” He said, breathing out a sigh of relief.
“Well, you’ve got to fight this team called ‘Koaltz’.” Grave pointed out as she looked over the sheet. “Then if you win, you’ll have to face Furinkan, if they win.”
The heavy-set kid winced. “Yeah, they’ll win. Their kendo fighter’s one of the best fighters in the country. I heard that he’s almost completely unbeaten.” Seeing the two blink at him curiously, he elaborated. “Apparently there’s this girl on their team that can beat him up pretty easily. No one knows if he lets her win or if she’s just that good.” He shrugged. Either way, he knew his team couldn’t compete with that. He highly doubted that their stand-in was good enough to face over fifty people, fight and actually win every day.
Ranma shrugged it off and didn’t think much of it. He hadn’t seen anyone since he had gotten there that was anywhere near good enough to beat him. He could have been wrong though, if anyone was like his old man, they could hide in plain sight and not be noticed by anyone, unless they wanted to be seen. His old man had said it was something all the better martial artists could do. Heck, Genma had told him that some people were good enough to be standing right in front of others and be completely invisible to everyone around them, without trying to be.
Grave sighed. She wouldn’t feel so nervous, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that was telling her something big was going to happen, and happen soon. What, she had no clue. At least she didn’t think someone was going to show up and kill her. Maybe someone from another team, but not her; though for some reason that didn’t fill her with too much confidence.
“Shouldn’t be too bad.” Ranma muttered to himself. He highly doubted that there’d be any problem with any of the other teams. It wasn’t as if everyone that was in the area went on training journeys for long periods of time.
And why did he just feel as if someone was watching him, smiling and giving him a pat on his back?
“Hey, you okay?” The larger teen asked his teammate as he looked around, eyeing the surroundings as if someone was hiding just out of sight and was teasing him. He looked around as well, but he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
Shaking his head to clear it, Ranma nodded at the other guy. “Yeah, just thought I felt something was all.”
(----)
"Well, this is interesting."
A second voice spoke up. "It's only interesting because you don't remember this from before."
The first one was silent for a while, before agreeing with the second being. "Indeed. I never recalled this happening. Might just be faulty memory though."
"... Faulty memory? You?"
"Okay, okay, time seems to have changed, but how much, I’m not sure about yet."
The second voice had nothing to say to that. (7)
(----)
“Honestly, Uncle Saotome, I don’t know why you came with.” A slightly frustrated teenaged girl said as she sighed. Running a hand through her long, dark hair, she looked at the older, and much larger, man with some disdain. He had come with to give her support; at least, that’s what he said. She probably would have bet good money, if she had any, that he was just there because her father wasn’t home, having a town council meeting to attend, and her eldest sister wasn’t home, having left to visit some friends of hers.
Looking at her “uncle”, she wondered why he always seemed to wear that bandanna around his head. It wasn’t like anyone was going to be fooled into thinking he actually had a head of hair. Then again, Genma Saotome didn’t seem to be all that smart a person.
The man just looked at her and shook his head. “Is it so hard to believe that I would come here and give you support?” He asked. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do that day anyway, and, well, he knew the girl liked martial arts, he might as well see how good she really was. It also gave him an excuse to get out of the house and do something. “What are you worried about?” He asked her.
“Nothing.” She said, rolling her eyes. It wasn’t as if he was her father or anything. If he was, she’d probably deny it every chance she got. She wasn’t exactly sure why, either. Maybe it had something to do with the vibes she got off of him when he was obviously thinking about something and the way his eyes would narrow in thought. It just made him look very creepy and evil.
Grumbling something about ungrateful teenagers and how they don’t respect their elders, the elder man shook his head and looked around for a place to sit down. Looking around the open area, he saw so little potential that it wasn’t funny; nearly no one that was participating had the potential to do little more than get the basics of martial arts mastered in their life-times. His best friend’s daughter, though, she had some potential, how much, he couldn’t tell.
He blinked as he saw someone with a pigtail walk across the grass on the other side of the ring. Shaking his head and looking more closely, whatever he had seen, wasn’t there, or at least, was buried behind a sea of people. ‘Wishful thinking.’ He thought to himself, knowing that Ranma was gone, all because of that crazy Amazon.
(---)
Raising an eyebrow as her young prodigy sneezed pretty harshly, the aged matriarch wondered what was up with the air on this island. She’d ask if the girl was getting sick, but that would have been just silly; after all, Amazons didn’t get sick, outside of ‘that time of the month’. Idly, she wondered WHY the outside world called it that; though she privately thought it was called that because when it was ‘that time of the month’ and Amazons were bothered by males, said males tended to be… Less manly than before.
“Great grandmother, why we no go to fight?” The other Amazon asked in the best Japanese she could manage.
Rolling her eyes, the aged Amazon shook her head. “I told you, this is not something that we should get involved with.” Rolling her eyes at her granddaughter’s pout, she added, “do you really want to deal with weaklings who won’t be able to give you any sort of challenge?” She was immediately gratified to see the purple-haired teen shake her head against that. With that out of the way, the older Amazon turned her head towards the window and thought about how to get her hands on that fat oaf and get the information she needed out of him. If that redhead really was dead and gone, then they wouldn't need to stay in Japan meaninglessly. 'Then again...' She thought to herself, she knew that her great granddaughter rather liked being in Japan, if only for the experience to be outside of the village. After this fiasco was over with, she could see about sending some of their more talented and bright young warriors out into the world.
(---)
Sighing as he saw another person from the other team get defeated by his teammates, Ranma wondered just why he had even bothered to show up at all. There hadn’t been any challenge so far, heck; he could have beaten everyone on both teams in his sleep. (8)
Yawning from her position on the ground, the spotted blonde Lycanthropoid would have agreed with Ranma’s thoughts, that is, if she could actually read minds. As it stood, she was rather bored with the incredibly low-level fighting that happened here. Heck, there were memories that she had from when...
She frowned, cutting her train of thought off right then and there. Those hadn’t been her memories, just the memories of someone else that she had inherited, not ones she had made. ‘So what does that make me?’ She thought to herself. Memories were what defined a person, without them, how did one know if they really existed or not? (9)
She snapped out of her thoughts as Ranma walked towards the ring. Looking at the person who was going to be his opponent, and she used that term loosely, the Lycanthropoid sweat dropped, the guy was a bit a bean pole, not to mention, what she could "see" through her aural sight, which, even she admitted, was very limited, his opponent wasn't that good. "This should be easy." She muttered to herself, causing that one redheaded guy from the train to look over at her.
"Why do you say that?" He asked, though, privately, he felt the exact same way as she did about this upcoming "fight".
"Just a feeling." She replied, nearly giggling as Ranma kicked his opponent out of the ring in less than ten seconds.
"You were right." The teenager next to her deadpanned. That “fight” took less time to finish than it did for him to tie his shoe-laces in the morning.
(---)
“That was pretty good…” Akane Tendo admitted with some reluctance. She wasn’t sure if even she could beat someone, other than that unwanted suitor of hers, that quickly. Then again, that guy’s opponent left himself completely wide open for that kick, not something she would do. (10)
She blinked as she turned her head and looked at her “uncle”. “Uncle Saotome?” She asked as he sat stiff, staring in shock, his face white, almost as if he had seen a ghost. “Uncle Saotome?” She asked, getting slightly worried. Was there something important that she needed to know?
Genma, on the other hand, could only stare stupidly at the ring, Ranma was… Alive? But not only alive, but he had just won a quick match? When Akane shook him slightly, he shook his head to clear out the confusion. “Wha, what? Where’d he go!” (11)
“Who?”
“Ranma! Where did he go?” The portly man asked, a sense of urgency in his voice and a crazed look in his eyes, causing the teenager to lean back, her eyes slightly wide, from fear or plain creepiness, she wasn’t sure. If she had time to think about it, she’d probably say creepiness.
“If you mean the guy that just got done fighting…” Akane trailed off as Genma nodded frantically. “Well, he walked back to his corner and I lost track of him.”
“What! NOOO!” The portly man cried to the heavens, causing nearly everyone around him to jump in surprise, and several to scoot away from the obviously insane person. (12)
Across the grassy area, several students looked towards the stands as they heard someone crying out in pure distress and agony. Many of them sweat-dropped as the scream lasted for several minutes, until there was a loud slap of some type, causing the noise to die off a fast and painful death.
“What was that all about?” Someone asked, causing most everyone to shrug as they didn’t know either.
(---)
Biting back a yawn, Grave Digger wondered just why this day was taking so long. Sure there were lots of schools there that day, but did it need to take this long? Okay, so she was a little impatient, but she didn't get terribly excited when watching people beat the living snot out of each other. Well, she did get worried when Ranma fought, but she couldn't help it, he was her best and only friend in the world. She could count Nodoka as one of her friends; yet, she couldn't help but think that Nodoka was a little closer to her than that, like a family member or something similar.
(---)
He was close, so close, he could feel it. All he needed to do was get past this maze of trees and he’d be right where he needed to be. Growling as a branch slapped him across the face, he swore that as soon as he got out of this maze, he’d get an axe and chop down every last tree in the blasted maze!
“Mommy? Why is that guy walking around in circles?” A young boy asked as he and his mother were walking by an abandoned lot with four trees in the center of it.
The woman shook her head and walked off with her son when the person turned to look at them. “It’s just a lunatic, ignore him.”
Said lunatic growled lightly and shook his head before taking his first step out of that “maze” in several days. Looking around, he nodded, at least he was in civilization again, and not in some smelly, dinky forest. “Ranma, when I find you, I shall make you pay for humiliating me in front of all those people.” The eternally lost boy growled as he walked west.
The mere fact that he had meant to go north never really bothered him before, so why should it now?
Grumbling to himself about curses that caused him to hear voices and make him think he was crazy, Ryoga wondered what he had done to get a horrible, vengeful curse like the one he had. He wasn't a bad person; at least he didn't think he was, so why was he saddled with such a horrible curse on himself? At least he could defend himself, the back of his mind noted. He could have had a curse like a toad or something similiar that couldn't defend itself properly.
Shivering, Ryoga feared he may have ended up in one of those weird places that enjoyed toads as a meal and tried to eat him if he had a curse like that. The only good thing of his curse was the fact that he was still human. He lifted his head as he came close to a school. "Huh? How'd I get here?" He wondered aloud, not that it mattered; he hardly knew where he was at any given moment anyway. He heard noise from somewhere nearby causing him to shrug and head off to those noises. All he hoped was that he got there before everyone took off.
It wouldn't be the first time that he had gotten lost while trying to get around a building.
Awhile later...
“This is boring.” Grave complained, sighing as she sat in the grass. She was so bored. She'd rather be traveling around the city, talking with Ranma, going shopping, heck, having an adventure in the mall would've been more exciting than this was.
Next to her, Ranma shrugged, the next round was about to start with their team facing that Furinkan team he heard so much about. Not that it was going to be a problem for him, everyone's ability was far below his, it wasn't funny. Maybe some of them were hiding their true abilities, he wasn't sure, but he was damn sure he'd be able to beat most everyone without any problems. Maybe if someone like Ryoga showed up he'd have some problems. (13)
"Hey, we'll be done soon, Grave." Ranma said, turning to her and smiling. "Ain't like it's going ta be much of a problem for me." He didn't see anyone with anything close to the skill and ability to beat him yet. Maybe that one guy that spoke funny was hiding some of his real skill, but if he was, Ranma was pretty sure that it wasn't all that much.
He smirked as he walked up to the ring, well, there wasn't much more to call it than that. As he got close to the ring, he noticed someone that he didn't think he'd see for a long time. "Pops!" He asked, with wide eyes as he saw a face that he hadn't seen in at least two months.
"Boy!" Genma asked, his eyes wide, and incredibly surprised to see his son.
"What are YOU doing here!" They both asked at the same time, their eyes wide open as they stared at each other. The sight was quite comical, a slightly over-weight man wearing a Gi and a bandanna, staring bug-eyed at a teenager, who was average height, black hair, and staring back in shock.
Sitting up with a start, the petite Lycanthropoid stared in shock at Genma. After what had happened the last time she saw him, she didn't think she'd ever see his portly ass ever again. (14)
Quickly getting to her feet, she briskly walked up to the ring, ready to tear that jerk a new one if he tried anything to hurt her Ranma. The mere fact that she thought of Ranma as hers never really crossed her mind at that moment. Just as she got there to start an "inquiry" as to why he was there, a new voice spoke up.
"Hey, what's going on here!" A female voice spoke up. The three looked up at the arena to see a girl with brown eyes, long brown hair, and dressed in a white Gi, staring at the three with a slight frown on her face. She blinked when she saw Grave standing there. It wasn’t as if she knew who Grave Digger was, but the mere fact that there was someone who was walking out in public with fur on their body made her more than curious. After all, it wasn’t every day that furry people showed up. (15)
“Uh, nothing.” Ranma said to the girl as it looked like nothing insane was going to happen, at least at that moment. It was probably wishful thinking, but he was sure that nothing bad would happen. (16)
Shaking her head, the other teen nodded and wondered who that furry teenager was. “The next round is ready to get going.” Left unsaid was the fact that she wanted to get it done and hopefully away from a certain samurai as possible. (17)
Nodding, Ranma walked up to the ring, relaxing more as he did so. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with something he couldn’t deal with. Like trying to figure out how to deal with his mother when she got that weird look in her eye, which usually happened after she saw him and Grave together. He blinked as he saw a tall teenager with short brown hair, a blue samurai robe, and wearing nothing on his feet standing there, sniffing on a red flower with his eyes closed. “How truly boorish,” he commented, his voice sounding pompous and bored with the situation. Opening his eyes, he smirked lightly, his brown eyes showing nothing but contempt and condensation for his opponent. “The mere fact that someone such as myself must fight a low-borne commoner such as thee...” He trailed off, shaking his head, before tossing away his flower. “Prepare yourself, knave, for I am the undefeated new star of high school fencing. I am Upperclassman Tatewaki Kuno.” He paused for a moment to level a previously unnoticed wooden sword at Ranma. “But my peers call me The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High.” He said, taking a pose, his stick pointed straight up as lightning struck in the back-ground.
“Nice trick.” Grave commented from the side, before turning and kicking Genma in back as he tried to turn and get away from her. The fact that she used a bit of magic to enhance the strength of the kick was of minor consequence, as was the fact that he was fell onto his face a couple feet away.
Sweat-dropping as the taller person babbled on and on about who he was and how he was, apparently, getting something bad done to him by having to fight with someone he thought was lower than him. Though, Ranma just thought he was complaining about something that made no sense to complain about.
“Now...” the Kendoist said, lowering his weapon to take a traditional kendo stance, “who might you be?”
“Me?” Ranma smirked. “I’m Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.”
This declaration caused a few gasps from a few people, two of which were really interested in hearing about this. ‘Anything Goes? That’s my school...’ Akane thought to herself from the side-lines, before his last name sank in totally. ‘Wait a minute!’ She looked at Genma as he got back to his feet. ‘Are they related?’ She asked herself in wonderment.
“So...” the teenager trailed off slowly, “you share the same school as the beauteous Akane Tendo.” He closed his eyes slowly and in his mind, he knew what he needed to do to get rid of the mistake in front of him. “Have at thee!” He called out, rushing forward with his wooden sword held high.
Ranma blinked and wondered what the heck the other guy’s problem was with him. Leaning to the right, Ranma smirked as he saw the older teen swing downward, only to gawk in amazement as he missed. That amazement soon turned to determination as he turned to face the pigtailed martial artist. “So, you have some minor skills. But that shall not save you from my punishment!” He called out, swinging with such grace, such skill, such power that no mortal on earth could ever hope to stop his fearsome attack.
Yet, that knave kept dodging and avoiding his powerful and fast attacks as if he were dodging a slowly dodge a baseball or something similar. ‘How, how can someone as low borne as this do this? Could, could he be? No, he can’t be superior to me.’ Those thoughts ran through the Kendoist’s head as he took another swing at the dodging martial artist.
Ranma decided that he needed to end it quickly as that last swing came pretty close to actually grazing him. The next instant, when the upperclassman had pulled his weapon back, his foot lashed out, connecting with the swordsman’s head, causing his head to snap back slightly just before his body left the ground, only to travel in a small, spiral arc that caused him to come crashing down on his head.
Groaning as he saw stars, literally, float around his eyes for a moment, Kuno groaned and rolled to his knees, before standing up. “I... Fight on!” He declared as he got to his feet and held his wooden sword up high, causing more than a few people to blink in surprise as he once again, charged his opponent.
“Gee, wasn’t that enough?” Ranma asked, before shaking his head and dodging a swing that would’ve definitely given him a headache if it had connected. Ranma hopped up as Kuno took another swing, this time at his ankles. “You know, you could hurt someone.”
“Yes, you.” Kuno said as the knave jumped up to look him eye-to-eye.
“Yeah, whatever. Bye.” He said, before punching the older boy in the jaw and sending him flying out of the ring. Which wasn’t too hard as the edge was only a foot or so away from where they were fighting. (18)
To Be Continued...
Next time: "Hey, Grave here... Well, this wasn't too bad..."
"It's YOU!"
"What? EEEK!"
Sorry for the cliff-hanger here, in addition, I appologize for how long it took to get this out. The whole summer stunk trying to get this out.
Notes:
(1) Hee hee, Grave can’t handle some of Nodoka’s… “Ideas”
(2) This should be obvious to most people what the manga is.
(3) Again, I know next-to-nothing about Japanese school systems and how they work. So if I got stuff wrong, I apologize.
(4) Heh, too used to seeing weirdness is probably correct, no?
(5) Two points if you know what a pugilist is.
(6) Ranma wouldn’t say that she’s his girlfriend though.
(7) Now, who is this?
(8) Ain’t that a fact?
(9) Sorry about the philosophy thing here, just something to make you think.
(10) Of course not!
(11) Stare stupidly? I think he actually has some intelligence to stare like that!
(12) Probably not insane, just obsessive-compulsive. Heh.
(13) Be careful what you wish for...
(14) Check chapter 19 for more details.
(15) If it was, she’d be on Jade.
(16) You can almost hear the thunder rolling, no?
(17) Technically, Grave is 22 to 23 physically, just short. So most people think she's younger than what she really is. Nodoka sees a 19 to 21 year old. Ranma and Akane both see a 17 to 18-year-old. Genma's too afraid to make any sort of opinion.
(18) You’d be surprised at how fast that edge can sneak up on someone, especially if they’ve been knocked down already.