Sasameki Koto and Ranma ½: Martial Arts Mix
Four
Kasumi scowled at both women as she sat on the couch, Sumika's head in her lap as she checked Sumika over. As she felt for bumps and bruises she said flatly, "Akane, Ranma, I am VERY disappointed in you."
"I'm sorry," Ranma sighed, the redhead looking quite contrite as she explained, "we just got carried away a bit."
Akane was looking at Sumika, who was laying on the couch unconscious while Kasumi attended to her, as the other girl asked, "Is she all right?"
Kasumi looked down at Sumika gently, "I think you got her right in the head, Ranma. She's out cold, but I don't think there's any lasting damage."
"Thank goodness," Ranma sighed in relief. She brightened a bit as she added, "You should have seen her, Kasumi! She may not be trained in Anything Goes, but she IS good."
Akane looked at Ranma questioningly, "I saw her use ki blasts earlier, but wasn't that Amazon techniques in there?"
"Yup," Ranma nodded, "wonder where she picked that up?"
Kasumi was using pressure points on Sumika's scalp as she murmured, "Shampoo showed up earlier today and they fought."
Akane raised her eyebrows, "And Sumika picked up the move just from that?"
Ranma looked down at Sumika, "I really need to spar with her some more."
"Not unless you go easier," Kasumi gave Ranma a look that implied cold dinners and much unpleasantness from the 'mother' of the house.
"Of course," Ranma nodded quickly.
Much more quietly Akane added, "I want her to teach me that heat control trick... hell, you could use it, too."
Ranma watched the unconscious Sumika as she nodded, "Yeah."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Ushio Kazama hesitated as she reached the door of the dojo, then with a resolute squaring of her shoulders went inside. The light brown hair puffed out a sigh as she looked around, not seeing her friend Sumika anywhere.
"Miss Kazama," one of Sumika's triplet brothers nodded in a friendly way, his black hair restrained by a headband as usual, "we haven't seen you in awhile."
Ushio flinched, but maintained a warm smile. The truth was she had been preoccupied with spending time with the new library assistant, so much so that she had not spent much time with her friends. Still, as time went on she found herself missing them, one friend in particular.
"Ryu, I haven't seen Sumika around lately," Ushio admitted, "and the other members of the karate club said she was on training journey."
Ryu scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Yeah, she's meeting her fiancée"
"Fiancée?" Ushio squeaked.
"Yeah, something our dad arranged," Ryu said, completely oblivious to Ushio's reaction, "she's out meeting him at the Tendo dojo in Nerima. Something about merging the schools, I think."
Ushio's mouth was open, but she couldn't get anything out, she was so surprised. It wasn't the idea of Sumika getting engaged that shocked her, instead it was the surge of unexpected jealously that stunned her. Suddenly Ushio wanted to find this guy and beat him into paste!
"You okay?" Ryu asked innocently.
"I'm fine," Ushio managed to get her emotions under control, if just barely. "Who is this guy?" she asked softly.
"Ranma Saotome, of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts."
"Thank you very much," Ushio nodded before striding out of the dojo, a determined look on her pretty face.
For a moment Ryu wondered if he might have caused his sister trouble, then the young man shrugged. 'Eh, whatever happens I'm sure Sumika can handle it,' he decided as he calmly continued his karate practice.
Ushio visibly shuddered as she left the dojo, her thoughts racing. She had no idea what this 'Ranma' might be like, but his being named 'wild horse' was troubling to say the least. She imagined some hairy brute pawing HER Sumika and shuddered. She felt certain she had to go see Sumika and make sure she was all right...
Later that day after eliminating other options Ushio met Tomoe's eyes intently as she said, "I need your help to get to Nerima quickly."
"You want me to drive you there?" Tomoe clarified, the black haired girl smiling slightly.
Ushio nodded, "Please!"
Tomoe looked at her thoughtfully as she drank her tea. For the past several months she had watched Sumika silently moon over Kazama, while the smaller girl had chased after moe cuties. She had encouraged Sumika to tell Kazama about her feelings, but while Sumika was very brave in battle, she was chicken in her personal life.
"But I thought you were seeing someone?" Miyako asked pointedly, the brown haired girl smiling slightly as she sat by her girlfriend Tomoe.
Ushio blushed as she answered, "I'm just worried about Sumika. What if that Ranma person is beating her or something?"
Tomoe didn't think that was terribly likely, but she held her peace. "Do you have the address of the dojo?" she asked instead.
"I asked around," Ushio did not look happy as she explained, "it's rather infamous, actually. That's part of why I'm worried."
Tomoe nodded thoughtfully, having heard a few incredible rumors herself. Admittedly, that was hanging around the karate boasters so she doubted the flying or energy bolt rumors, but still... there might be a grain of truth to it.
Decisively Tomoe said, "The earliest I think we can go is tomorrow. Is that all right with you?"
"Thank you!" Ushio took her hand and squeezed it gently.
Miyako looked curious, "Should we ask Lotte along?"
Tomoe thought about it, "Nah, let's find out what's going on out there first. If we have to, we can call Lotte and everyone else she can dig up later."
"Okay," Ushio sighed in relief, glad she was finally doing something, even if she had to endure Tomoe's horrid driving again.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Sumika moaned weakly as she came awake, then her eyes widened in alarm. Sitting up despite a burst of pain she looked around wildly and demanded, "Where is she? Is Akane all right?"
"Easy!" Kasumi put a hand on her shoulder, steadying her, "Everything is all right."
Sumika blinked as she realized she was back in the Tendo dojo with a splitting headache and a gap in her memory. She shook her head, trying to put the pieces together, "What happened? The last thing I remember is Akane being threatened by that redheaded woman..."
Kasumi smiled grimly, "It's fine, everyone is all right." She paused, "Well, except for you getting a major goose-egg..."
"I remember that, yeah," Sumika put her hand on her head, wincing slightly. She didn't like the look on Kasumi's face, a odd mix of guilt and irritation, so she asked, "Is anything wrong?"
"I think Akane should explain," Kasumi answered, raising her voice to call out, "Akane!"
"She's awake?" Akane asked as she trotted in, followed by the mysterious redhead.
"What the...," Sumika made herself hop off the couch, wincing with pain even as she drew on her ki, hoping she could do something, this time!
"Easy, easy!" Akane yelped, hurrying between Sumika and the redhead, "She's a friend!"
"Huh?" Sumika blinked, surprised.
"I'm really sorry," the redhead half bowed, "I'm Ranko Saotome."
Sumika swayed there a moment, her thoughts racing. It didn't take long to figure out, and her lips pressed together in a hard line of annoyance. "It was all a act," she said flatly.
Akane looked miserable as she looked away from Sumika's bleak expression. "I thought you were holding back earlier," she confessed, "I thought that if you believed I was really in danger you might cut lose..."
"It was all my idea," Ranko said as she met Sumika's eyes, "After Akane told me about the things you can do, I had to see for myself."
"See me get my ass kicked," Sumika scowled, feeling almost as angry at being defeated along with the deception. She turned, swaying a bit as she walked to the door, "I need some air."
"Sumika...," Akane moved to follow her.
Hurrying outside, almost stumbling Sumika growled, "Leave me alone!"
"Oh dear," Kasumi sighed as the door closed.
"We really screwed up, didn't we," Ranma sighed.
Akane bit her lip, "Oh yeah."
To be continued...