Jaqui_K

Akane has a secret meeting with a certain rival. A meeting where they can openly discuss things that they cannot divulge to anyone else.

“Okay, I’m off. Be back later, Sis,” Akane called out as she finished putting on her shoes.

“Alright, Akane. Please make sure to have a good time,” Kasumi responded from the kitchen.

Akane grabbed her bag and headed out. Trying to be as casual as possible to avoid any-

“Yo, Akane!”

-distractions. She gave a small sigh as her currently dark haired fiancée landed in front of her. “What do you want, Ranma?”

“Eh, just wondering where you’re going today is all. Not like I care or anything, just got nothin’ better to do.”

“Oh, well if you really have to know, I’m meeting up with some friends for a spa day. Manicures, pedicures, makeovers, stuff like that.” Akane then gave a look which resembled a hawk that just spotted a tasty rabbit on the ground. “Of course, if you really don’t have anything to do, you’re more than welcome to join us.”

Ranma had a quick look of shock that quickly shifted into indifference. “Nah. No way I’d be interested in some dumb girly crap like that. It’ll be perfect for a tomboy like you though. You need all the help you can geeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttt!”

Akane lowered her foot as the pigtailed martial artist continued sailing high in the air towards the direction of the backyard. Such a thing wouldn’t actually hurt the idiot even if there wasn’t a pond to break the fall. Still, it was the principle of the thing. She shouldered her bag and continued along her way, a small smirk on her face as a loud splash could be heard somewhere behind.

At some point, that excuse is going to stop working on her. Well, at least then it will be one secret we can finally let out in the open.

A bit of walking, a couple of bus rides, several train stops, and a few dozen checks to make sure she wasn’t being followed later, Akane arrived at her destination in Shinjuku: a somewhat small, out of the way teahouse. She entered and gave a nod and smile to the owner as she headed to a private room. Closing the door behind her, she took a moment to bask in the lovely decor. The colorful and fragrant plants set perfectly all around. The beautiful French style chairs and table. The fine looking cups and saucers placed immaculately. A petal floating past her face.

A rose petal, the color of pitch black.

Akane casually brought a hand up and caught the large wooden mallet that was speeding towards her head. She gave a half lidded glare towards the person holding onto the other end of the mallet, still up in the air mid swing. A girl with long black hair styled in a side ponytail and wearing a dark schoolgirl uniform.

“Do you really have to do this every time, Kodachi?” Akane asked in an annoyed tone.

Kodachi Kuno let go of the mallet and lighted herself on the ground in a stylistic pose. “But of course, Akane Tendo. For soon the day shall come where I finally succeed at vanquishing you and freeing my darling Ranma for my own!.” She placed the back of a hand up to her mouth and gave off an ear splitting laugh. “OH~HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”

“You can do that later,” Akane huffed while tossing the mallet to the side. “Right now we’re supposed to be having tea.”

“OH~HOHOHOHO-oh right.” Kodachi immediately went over to the table and sat down.

Akane followed and took a seat right across from the martial arts gymnast. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a tupperware container.

“Hmmm, and what horrible anathema to the great art of baking have you dared to bring in today?” Kodachi asked with a mocking sneer.

“As if you actually care, but I decided to try out a simple tea cake. I’m getting much better at making them now,” Akane said with light dismissal while opening the container and displaying what could possibly be recognized as a tea cake if one were to squint really hard. “Feel free to try some.”

Kodachi’s dismissal was anything but light. “Ha! As if you could ever get even close to my darling Ranma with such an abomination.” She then reached behind her and pulled (from where Akane still couldn’t figure out) a full silver platter, on which were several fluffy and delicious looking pastry puffs. “Now, these lovely chouquettes that I prepared would certainly ensnare his heart.” Giving a confident smirk, she elegantly popped one of her confectionaries in her mouth. “Not that you ever stood even a remote chance of matching my-”

Akane rolled her eyes at the now frozen in place gymnast. “You know, Kodachi. Your food might have a better chance with Ranma if you didn’t insist on using paralysis powder for every recipe,” she casually commented before taking a hard bite out of her tea cake. She managed to pull only a half grimace and just a light bit of trembling as she forced the confectionary by technicality down her throat. Banging on her chest a couple of times, she managed to wheeze out, “Yup, definitely getting better.”

A knock at the door and the owner of the tea house came in with a kettle. “I hope everything is going alright ladies.”

Kodachi immediately broke from her paralysis and looked over. “Ah yes, quite well. I see you brought our tea, Proprietor.”

“I’m never getting you to call me by my name, am I?” The owner said with a smile as she poured for her two customers. “The tea for today is a honeydew blend. Now, if you are interested, I also just finished preparing some lovely éclairs with sweet strawberry filling.”

“No, that’s quite alright, Miss Fumiko,” Akane responded, making sure to put emphasis on the name. “Thank you very much for the tea though.”

“Well, if either of you change your mind please be sure to let me know,” Fumiko said, before leaving the tea kettle on the table and exiting the room.

Alone once again, the two didn’t say anything, calmly sipping their tea while never breaking eye contact. Finally it was Kodachi who broke the silence. “I’m surprised you didn’t immediately leap at getting some actual food from our proprietor that isn’t a misshapen mass of toxic waste,” she said smugly as she ate another of her chouquettes. “If you’d like, I would be more that willing to call-”

Akane rolled her eyes again and bit off another chunk of her tea cake. After managing to get it down her throat, she took a calm sip of tea to wash it down. “Can we just get on with this? I thought there was something you wanted to talk with me about.”

Kodachi once again broke from her frozen state. “Oh, yes of course. I’d been informed that you were recently on an excursion to a hot spring resort with my darling Ranma. While I’m certain I have nothing to worry about, I would like some confirmation that nothing untoward occurred.”

“Oh, it was quite boring,” Akane said while making a show to deliberately refill her own cup herself. “If you don’t count the haunted doll that is.”

“Haunted doll?” Kodochi asked while refilling her cup. “Ah, I see. It was one of those resorts.”

“Indeed,” Akane casually responded while taking a sip. “Ranma accidentally knocked the doll over, so of course the spirit took over my body to get revenge.”

“Oh, naturally. But of course my darling Ranma resolved everything just fine.”

“Eventually. Being trapped as a doll was not fun though. I really hope I never have to go through anything like that again. But…”

“Hmmm? But what?”

“Well,” Akane said, looking away while a light blush appeared on her cheeks. “It’s just…while I was trapped in the doll’s body and no one knew it was me, Ranma still acted so kind and gentle towards me.”

Kodachi gave a deep throated laugh. “OH~HOHOHO! Of course that would be the only way my darling Ranma could ever show kindness towards someone like you.” She smugly gobbled down another of her pastries. “Why, if he knew that the doll was actually you, he would have promptly tossed you in the garbage where-”

Akane gave a small huff and then quickly forced down another bite of her tea cake, then in a most calm and no way aggressive manner took another sip of her tea. “Let’s move on to something else. Oh, I recently visited Ryoga’s house. Turned out he had Akari over as well, and I guess he was still a bit embarrassed for me to see him nervous around his girlfriend?”

“Ah right, the pig couple.”

“Hey!” Akane responded with a scowl. “It’s not Ryoga’s fault that he likes to be hugged but can’t control his strength in his normal form!”

“I’m simply making a comment,” Kodachi said with a smile. “A pig and a pig farmer. A perfect match for such lowly commoners.”

“Alright fine,” Akane said with a smile of her own. “Then I guess you don’t want to hear about Ranma in a maid’s outfit.”

Kodachi paused a moment, then gave a dismissive wave with her hand. “Yes, yes. I am quite aware of my darling Ranma's propensity for using his other form as a method for playing dress up.”

“Oh,” Akane responded, her smile growing into a full grin. “I wasn’t necessarily talking about her girl form.”

The gymnast froze again, this time without the aid of one of her pastries. Recovering, she faked a casual glance over to Akane. “Oh?” she managed to squeak out.

“Well,” Akane said, leaning back in her chair, “admittedly, it did start that way. She was pretending to be Ryoga’s maid, to help him out on his date with Akari. Of course, Ranma was still being Ranma, so it went about as well as one could expect. Hot water somehow managed to find her and Ryoga didn’t take it all that well. We did all manage to just all hang out together in the end, and I had a really nice chat with Akari. I liked that.”

“D-did you happen to take any photographs of the occasion?”

“Sorry. In all the excitement, that completely slipped our minds.”

At this point, any modicum of civility had completely eroded away. Kodachi stood up and slammed one hand on the table. “Yes, well from what you described, perhaps the farm girl is more to your liking. Oh, but then you would have to explain all the times you took her boyfriend to bed with you. I’m sure my darling Ranma wouldn’t be too happy hearing the truth about your little pet pig!”

“That’s not fair!” Akane stood up as well, almost knocking her chair to the ground. “I didn’t know about Ryoga’s curse then!”

Kodachi gave a satisfied smirk. “Oh, and would they really believe that you simply missed the truth, even with all the evidence staring you in the face? I’m sure my darling Ranma would most certainly want to hear about your precious P-chan's little secret. After which he would gladly come into my arms.”

Akane was taken aback for a moment, but then gave her own smirk right back. “Right, I can picture Ranma right now.” Akane then lowered her voice into a deep tenor and pantomimed a shocked expression. “Gee, Kodachi. Does that mean ya knew ‘bout my curse the whole time, but still kept attackin’ me in my girl form?”

“T-that’s not true,” Kodachi said, now taken aback herself. “I didn’t know until much later.”

“What?” Akane continued, keeping up her impression. “Ya mean ya didn’t even figure out ‘til after all the lowly commoners did?”

“I…I…” The look of shock on Kodachi’s face quickly developed into anger as she reached behind her to pull out a gymnastic ribbon. “Fine! You may have won this round, Akane Tendo, but someday I shall find the method to reveal the truth to my darling Ranma. Then, I shall have him for myself. OH~HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”

Kodachi twirled the ribbon around her as a swarm of black rose petals appeared, clouding Akane’s vision. Once the rose petals cleared away, the crazed gymnast was nowhere to be seen.

Akane looked at the sight before her, then turned towards the window on the far wall that Kodachi was almost finished leaving from. She gave a sigh, then grabbed the broom in the corner so she could clean up all the rose petals that now strewn across the whole floor.

“Can we have at least one meeting that doesn’t end this way,” she muttered to herself as she went to work.

It was close to sunset when Akane made her way home. As she approached the front gate, she spotted another person that was sneaking in. “Ranma?”

Her currently red-haired fiancée froze midstep, before turning to give an oversized grin. “Oh, hey Akane. I was just, yanno, out training.”

Akane looked down at the quite adorable yellow and white sundress the redhead was currently wearing. “Uh huh.”

Ranma started to nervously scratch the base of her pigtail. “Um, well, it was…I mean…”

“Hey, look. It’s fine. I don’t care if you go out and scam for snacks.”

“Huh?”

Akane smiled and reached up, wiping some pink from the corner of Ranma’s mouth. “Honestly, I’m more surprised there are any places left for you to scam.” She then plopped the bit of confectionary in her own mouth. "I see strawberry's still your favorite."

“Oh, oh right. Well…there’s this new place that opened up, and they…um…had this really tasty strawberry…ice cream I had to try.”

“Well, I hope you had a good time.”

“Yeah. It was…pretty fun I guess. H-how about you. Did you enjoy your...uh...spa thing?”

“Oh, it went about as well as I could expect.”

“Oh. That’s good I guess.” The current redhead turned away, cheeks showing a hint of red.

“Yeah." Akane gave her own slight smile which fell when the conversation from earlier entered her mind. Um, Ranma?”

“What?”

“I, um…just wanted to say…um…I think that dress looks really nice on you.”

Ranma blinked and looked back at Akane with surprised and hopeful expression. “Really? You mean that?”

Akane gave a warm smile that manage to remain on her face. “Yes.”

Ranma returned the smile and looked away again. “Oh. T-thanks.”

“S-sure.”

“Well…I…I mean…” Ranma’s smile slowly faded. “I’m a guy of course, so it doesn’t matter. I…I better go and change quick before Pops sees me and blows a gasket or something.” Ranma started to head into the house. 

“Ranma, wait!” Akane's hand reached out, although she wasn't quite close enough to make contact.

The redhead stopped and turned back around. “Huh? What is it?”

Akane paused and lowered her hand. “It’s just…if there’s anything you ever want to talk about, I’ll be here to listen, okay?”

“Oh. Um, thanks for that. Same for you, I guess.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“So, um, was there something you wanted to talk about now?”

“I…” Akane looked down at the ground. “No. Not right now. How about you?”

“Um…” Now it was Ranma’s turn to study the pavement directly below. “Not really. Maybe we can talk later though.”

Akane looked up with the whisper of a smile. “I’d like that.”

Ranma gave a smile back and then turned and went into the house. Akane paused for a moment, deep in thought before she shook her head slightly and followed her fiancée inside.