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Part Three: Surviving In A Modern World
Chapter One: Life As We Know It
It had been several days since Ranma had learned the secret of opening the library’s door. Every day, Nodoka and Ranma had journeyed to the depths to venture into its musty gloom and once again ponder the words of the ancient masters. This day would normally be like no other, with Ranma and Nodoka pouring over the crumbling old tomes, except for one thing. A little thing really, but it’s the little things that make all the difference, isn’t it?
**********
"There is no WAY you are gonna get me to do THAT!"
Ranma was in fine form. Nodoka was growing ever more quickly frustrated with his stubborn refusal to performing her wishes in this one area.
"Ranma! You must learn –"
"I said NO! There is no way!"
"Ranma..." Nodoka growled, letting the covering on the ancestral katana slip.
"NO! I ain’t doin’ it!" Ranma roared, ignoring the katana and everything else in his bull-headed attempt to get out of this of all tasks.
"And what, exactly, is wrong with learning how to behave like a lady?!"
"I’M A GUY!"
"Well, I’m sure we can all see THAT fact."
That was unexpected.
Both Ranma and Nodoka dropped their argument in order to turn to the source of the new voice.
In the entrance to the library stood a young woman, perhaps a bit younger than Ranma, perhaps not, with long glossy, raven black hair which hug past her hips. It was Rei, dressed in a pair of purple denim shorts and a yellow, green and purple striped t-shirt under a yellow windbreaker. Purple socks and yellow tennis shoes adorned her feet. The entire ensemble was completed with a yellow baseball cap with a purple brim pulled on backwards over her long hair. She smirked at her cousin has he stared in shock.
"What? Didn’t think I knew how to get down here? Hey, I’m a Hino, aren’t I? What’d you expect?!"
"R-r-rei-san! What are you doing here?" Ranma stuttered.
"Well, I felt like going and catching a movie over at the theatre in the mall, and I was wondering if you’d like to come?"
"What about the other girls?" Ranma wondered.
"Usagi’s off with Mamoru, that’s her boyfriend, you’ll meet him eventually. Minako is with Makoto, I think they’re cooking or something. And finally, Ami is studying. So, since no one else is available, and I don’t feel like going alone, I came over to invite you. What, is there something wrong with me that you don’t want to be seen in public with me?!" Rei demanded, beginning to get angry.
"Wrong?! N-n-no! What could possibly be wrong with you?! I mean, you’re pretty a-an-and nice a-an-and..."
"Ranma... why don’t you just answer her question." It was a direct order, and Ranma knew better than to disobey.
"Uh... oh... sure, Rei-san. I’ll go with you."
"Great, Ranma-san! Come on!"
With that, Rei latched onto Ranma’s arm and drug him out of the building.
**********
Once out of the house and on their way down the street, Rei finally voiced the question that had been plaguing her.
"What are you so nervous about, Ranma?!"
"Nervous?! ME? I’m not nervous!" Ranma declared, while scanning the street and roof tops and everything else nearby him except for his cousin.
"You are too. So, out with it! What’s up?"
"Uh... well..." Ranma tugged at his pigtail and stared up at the sky a lot before answering. "You see, A-a-akane... my fiancée... she’s kinda.. ya know... jealous... and stuff.... and I kinda don’t wanna... make her mad or nothin..."
"Jealous? Of me?! Ranma-san! We’re COUSINS! That’s ... that’s wrong! That’s just WRONG!"
Ranma just shrugged and kept walking. After a bit, Rei did too.
**********
"So, here we are, Ranma-san. What would you like to see?" Rei asked, gesturing towards the marquee.
"I dunno. I don’t go to movies much. What would you recommend, Rei-san?"
"Well, let’s see... you’re a martial artist, and a guy, so that’s out... so that... and that... Hey, have you ever heard of Jackie Chan?"
"Jackie Chan? He’s from Taiwan isn’t he?"
"Yeah. He does a lot of martial arts movies. He’s real funny. You might like him. I know a lot of guys do..."
Ranma shrugged. "Okay, you’re the expert on movies here. Why don’t we see that?"
"Ok... oh! They’ve re-released one of his older ones!" With a smile, Rei drug a bemused Ranma to the ticket counter. "Two for Drunken Master, please! Thank you!"
**********
Inside, Ranma pops for the popcorn and soda, since Rei paid for the tickets and all. It was only fair after all.
They found their seats rather quickly and waited patiently in relative silence as the opening credits began rolling.
**********
Periodically through out the film, Rei stole glances at the delighted Ranma sitting next to her. The young man was handsome, she had to admit. But there was something about him. Something... strange. She just couldn’t put her finger on quite what it was, but she had a peculiar feeling of déjà vu. It was as if they had done this before, or at least something similar... she just had this overwhelming feeling that she knew him from somewhere else.
**********
Despite the fact that the Jackie Chan fellow on the screen was quite amusing, not to mention informative, (Ranma was already plotting on how he could use some of those moves in his next battle) Ranma couldn’t help glancing around for Akane. Every second that passed he waited for the fated Hammer of Doom to strike. Every second it didn’t he just got tenser and tenser. He began looking around the theatre whenever he thought that Rei wasn’t looking, which wasn’t often he noticed.
**********
Maybe it was the increased nervousness between the pair, maybe not. Whatever it was, they both noticed the fact that a youma was approaching and fast. Unfortunately, or maybe not, Ranma noticed it first.
Scooping Rei up into his arms, he made a standing leap from their seats to the door of a nearby storage closet. Pushing her inside he muttered hurriedly, "Stay here. There’s something bad coming. I don’t know what it is, but you’ll be safer in here. I’ll handle it."
Rei wouldn’t have any of that. "That’s a Youma, Ranma! You’ll be killed!"
"Just stay put!" Ranma almost snarled, then closed the door and prepared for battle.
**********
The Youma appeared moments later. It was big, it was greenish purple and it was scaly. It was also really ugly and had lots of teeth, but that was pretty much a given with Youma. Oh, it also had bad breath. Its name was George and it was actually a very nice Youma. It just happened to have the rather nasty taste for eating human souls. Which probably explained the bad breath.
Ranma’s soul was looking fairly tasty at the moment, so George decided that he would chew on that human first.
Ranma decided otherwise.
"Hey, Barney! Yeah, you! That’s right! I’m talking to you, you sick lil’ FREAK!"
Now, as mentioned earlier, George wasn’t really a bad Youma, he was actually quite nice. But, you see, among Youma there is an unspoken law. And that is The Law of the Unmentioned. That’s right The Law of the Unmentioned. And the Unmentioned happens to be a renegade Youma that sings off-key about love and happiness and tends to cause cavities through sugar overload. That’s right, Barney the Purple Dinosaur. So, normally, George would have brushed off what Ranma had said, in fact the Freak comment was quite a compliment, but since he had dared to infer that George was anything like the Unmentioned...
George opened his gigantic maw and roared in reply.
Ranma just smirked and tossed a small Moko Takabushi at the roaring Youma.
George got really pissed off at that, and charged blindly at Ranma.
Ranma leapt out of the way and kicked George in the tail on the way back down behind him.
The battle was on.
End Chapter One