Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The Ryoga 1/2 Chronicles ❯ Settling In ( Chapter 4 )

Ryoga 1/2 Chronicles

[4]. Settling In.

Ryoga awoke and took a deep breath of the morning air, enjoying the scent of change in the wind and enjoying even more the smell of Kasumi's cooking which wafted through his window. He knew today was going to be interesting for he was starting school again. Akane had insisted on it, if he was going to teach at the Dojo then he should at least have a high school education under his belt.

Of course Ryoga had resisted at first but more for show, he was in fact quite excited about attending Akane's school and it meant he could fulfil his promise to Ranma without looking like he was stalking the school. He decided a quick shower was in order before breakfast but first his morning work out with his father.

Ryoga stopped himself in surprise. What did his father have anything to do with anything and more over why was he thinking of Genma. Another of the oddities he was going to have to get used to he guessed, however a good morning work out did sound like a good idea. He hopped out his window and landed squarely in the koi pond his female side surfacing several moments later cursing and spouting water in a very unladylike manner. Nabiki looked up from the dining table.

"Looks like you got Raman's attraction to water to Ryoga."

"No, that was my sense of direction I think. All though it's better these days, I still have my moments." Nabiki shrugged and went back to the morning paper she was reading and Ryoga began her warm up, a few stretches and basic strikes in random succession then a little faster slowly building up her momentum till she was ready then suddenly exploding into a flurry of movement, arms and legs mere extensions of her mind executing motions in poetic perfection, feet kicking up clogs of earth and small rocks which promptly found themselves smashed to pieces by her fists or blasted sky high by her heal.

When she finally finished she stood in the centre of a small crater of soil, a small heap of broken stones lining the outer rim. From the dining table Akane watched open mouthed.

"Wow, Ryoga that was fantastic. Ranma could never have done that." Akane said enthusiastically but Ryoga shook her head.

"No, he could. It's something I realised the other day, he was always holding back on us, even me."

"Holding back? No way could he have held back that much, I mean look at the number of times I hit him but I couldn't have touched you just then. He would have had to just let me hit hi…" She stared into Ryoga's eyes thinking. "Him." She finished thoughtfully.

"Yeah, he let you hit him cos it was the only way you'd vent your temper."

"What do you mean my temper!?" She replied suddenly becoming hostile but Ryoga simple held out her hand towards her in a `told you so' gesture. "Oh, I guess I do get carried away a bit don't I." She sat in silence looking at her hands as Ryoga headed to the bathroom to shower off before coming down to breakfast.

To everyone's surprise he now looked completely different. He still wore his new longer hair back in a pony tail held by his yellow and black bandana but he now wore white Chinese style martial arts pants and a black Chinese sleeveless shirt similar to the cloths Ranma had always worn though his umbrella was now slung across his back on some sort of strap.

"Oh my, Ryoga, that's quite of a change isn't it." Kasumi said.

"The cloths I wore were comfortable for travelling in but not very practical otherwise, especially when I'm a girl, so I did some shopping yesterday. What do you think?"

"Very nice, aye sis?" Nabiki said.

"Yes, it is." Akane replied a slightly sad look on her face. Ryoga realised it probably reminded her of Ranma and wondered if he'd made the right choice but the new clothes just felt right against his skin. Ryoga sat down and ate his breakfast quickly then grabbed his books and with Akane in tow headed for school.

"Have a good day." Kasumi called after them.

*

As Ryoga walked beside Akane he could feel a slight tension from her as though she wanted to ask a question, he looked at her expectantly for a minute before she finally spoke.

"Ryoga, do you know why Ranma always walked along the fence here every morning." She said pointing to the chain link fence running along beside them dividing the road from the small river that ran through the town.

"I think it was a kind of balance training or something I don't really know, why?"

"Just curious really." She said, then after a second she jumped up onto the rail and began walking along. Hmm, it's more difficult than just running along it because the balance is different.

"Just be careful, I don't want to have to fish you from the river." Akane stopped and looked crossly at Ryoga.

"Don't worry I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself, besides it's not that difficult I was only making an observation." And with that her foot missed the beam and she toppled over and into the river on the other side.

"Shit." Ryoga cursed before leaping after her. When the two girls finally made it back to dry land, they both new they'd be late

"Not a word Ryoga." Akane warned. Ryoga put her hands up in defence.

"I wasn't going to say a word." Though the words clumsy tomboy kept popping into her mind.

"I guess we'd better turn you back into a guy hadn't we."

"Well we can't yet, I'm still soaking, well have to wait till I dry out. Let's get to school first."

"You seem a lot less concerned about this being a girl business than Ranma was, he'd have never suggested that." Ryoga just shrugged though he wanted to say, it's better than being a pig but he didn't dare say anything about that to Akane in case she put two and two together and came up with a small four legged black piglet called P-Chan.

"Shall we go?" He said instead.

Even without waiting to dry out they were still very late by the time they reached school. Akane looked at Ryoga as they stood catching their breath at the school gates.

"At least we've avoided…"

"Akane my love let me comfort you in your time of sorrow." Kuno said as he charged across the school field.

"Kuno!" She said through slatted eyes. Ryoga stepped between the two.

"Back off Kuno." Kuno stopped short in front of the raven haired young girl and examined her.

"Who are you to address me so formally my pretty young flower?"

"PRETTY YOUNG FLOWER!" WHOMP. Kuno disappeared over the school as Ryoga tried to recover his left eye twitching slightly. "Ok, now I truly understand Ranma's suffering at Kuno's hands."

"He hasn't even tried to grope you yet." Akane pointed put. Ryoga shivered.

"Hey you're cloths are dry now." Ryoga checked his clothes before reaching into his umbrella and pulling out a small flask which he upended over his head, ensuring his cloths remained dry.

"Let's hope I can stay dry for the rest of today, I haven't got any more."

"We can always make some more. Now shall we get you to class?"

Meanwhile in a tree some distance away, Kuno hung upside down and pondered. Ranma had been gone several days now, why was Akane still resisting him and who was this new girl? The pig tailed girl had been missing for several days as well but if Ranma was dead then she would no longer be his and had obviously returned home. Though it surprised him she would have left behind such a fine young specimen as himself at least without saying goodbye. Well now there was a new girl to dote on. The pony tailed girl was indeed very beautiful and strong to. She would be an interesting quarry to pursue.

"Never fear my tender young rose, this knight of honour will not let you whither alone. You shall be mine. Mwa hahahahaha." The branch supporting his weight gave way and he dropped head first to the ground. "Ow!"