Waters Under Earth

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum - harnums@hotmail.com

All Ranma characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, first 
published
by Shogakugan in Japan and brought over to North American by Viz
Communications.

Hi.  This is not my first fanfic, but it is my first attempt at
posting something to the FFML... due to the limitations of
Hotmail, I am unable to subscribe to the FFML, so if any C&C
could please be directed to me privately at my e-mail address,
I'd be grateful.  I'm posting this fic in the hope that I can have 
comments on it to help me make it as good as possible before posting it 
to RAAC, so any comments are not only encouraged but very much 
appreciated.  In terms of timeline, this takes place after V38, and in 
fact makes extensive use of elements of the final storyline.  

Chapter 2 : Tangled Webs (2 of 3)

Continued from [Ranma][Fanfic] Waters Under Earth - Chapter 2 (1/3)   

  "You too," Ukyou said.  She crossed the wooden floor quickly
and slid open the front door, glancing back once at the interior
of the restaurant before she stepped outside onto the early
morning streets and closed the door behind her with a soft hiss
of sliding wood.

     "Off to school, then," she said with false cheer.  She began
to walk after only a little hesitation.

**********

     Kodachi watched as the girls filtered through the gate of
St. Hebereke with a slight sneer of disdain on her face.  They
were like sheep; they came, did what they had to, and left.  Not
like her; if she came to this school, it was only because she
chose to.

     Which she was not choosing to do today.  She was so far
ahead in classes already it was laughable to even show up, and
the teachers knew it.  Besides, what was the worst punishment
they could give her?  Detentions she wouldn't attend?  Extra
assigments she would complete as easily as she did anything else
here?

     No, today was the day she tried again to win Ranma's love.
She knew she didn't have it; she'd admitted that to him and to
herself.  But there was nothing you could not make happen if you
worked hard enough at it.  And she was a very hard worker, if
what she was working for was worthwhile.  And if any man was
worth it, it was him.

     She could make him love her.  It was only a matter of time.

     Still, there were difficulties.  Of the three girls who were
also trying to win his love, two of them went to the same school
as him, and the other didn't go to school at all.  They had
plenty of time to spend with him; she didn't have nearly as many
opportunities to be around him.

     "That ends now," she whispered softly, a strange glint in
her eyes.  "Till I have his heart, I shall not go back to
school."

     She shook her head; that was an imprudent thing to say.  "I
shall try today.  And perhaps tomorrow."

     She smiled and stood up from her crouch on the rooftop,
brushing off a few stray specks of dust from the black hem of her
schooldress.  With a quick leap, she left St. Hebereke behind as
she started across the rooftops towards the route Ranma took
to Furinkan.

**********

     Shampoo pedalled her bicycle quickly through the streets,
off on a delivery job.  It was a little early, but the work
helped keep her mind off other things, and it got her out of the
restaurant, away from the constant annoyance of Mousse's
affections.

     This early, most people on the streets were students heading
to school.  This area was near Furinkan, and she recognized the
blue girl's uniform she'd seen on Akane.

     Thinking of Furinkan made her think of Ranma, and that was
something she had no desire to do right now.  So she sped up, and
concentrated entirely on the bicycle and the streets, ignoring
whatever looks she got.  She was used to being stared at by
the people in this country; it was obvious by the way she dressed
that she was not one of them.  She didn't care anymore.  Not that
much, at least.

     But the constant disapproving looks, the whispered comments
behind her back, it still hurt sometimes.  She would tell herself
that she didn't care, but to so often feel unwelcome wherever she
went was not an easy thing to take.

     She sighed, and wished with all her heart that she was back
in the village.  What she had told her great-grandmother was
true; if she could have given up Ranma and gone back to China,
she would have in an instant.  She loved him, but staying here
was killing her, just a little everyday.

     But she couldn't go; the need to fulfill laws and her own
heart held her here.  Which was the stronger, she did not know.

     The bicycle whipped around the corner, and she nearly
collided with someone in a boy's school uniform.  She screeched
around them at the last second, nearly falling off the bike.  She
winced inwardly; her mind hadn't been on the road.

     "Why don't you watch where you're going, you Chinese bimbo?"
the person snapped in a voice that made it clear they weren't a
boy.

     Shampoo's eyes narrowed.  She didn't much care about the
bimbo part, but the way Ukyou had said "Chinese" as if it were
some kind of insult was not something she was going to tolerate
from anyone, particularly her rival.

     "Something wrong with being Chinese?" she said in a low,
dangerous voice as she hopped off of her bike and propped it
against a nearby streetlight.  She shifted just slightly, got
into a stance that didn't look threatening, but would let her
move quickly if she needed to.  She took in the area around her
in a second; a side street, bordered on one edge by the fence
that indicated the canal.  Not many people about, and fights
between martial artists in the streets had become common lately.

     "Well, if you're an example of it, then yes," Ukyou said.

     That did it.  The deliveries could wait.

     A certain person needed to be taught a lesson about having
respect for other cultures.

**********

     Ranma glanced suspiciously up ahead at Nabiki's back.  She
was walking a dozen steps ahead of them, at a sedate but still
quick pace.  "She better not try anything like what she did
yesterday."

     "She won't," Akane said from beside him, her schoolbag held
swinging at her side.  "She... I talked to her yesterday."

     Ranma snorted.  "Yeah.  That's reassuring."

     Akane frowned.  "She's not that bad, Ranma.  She's just a
little..."

     She trailed off with a sigh and looked up for a moment
before speaking again.  "She sometimes gets so caught up in her
schemes that she forgets she might be hurting people with them."

     "I don't think she forgets," Ranma muttered.  "I just think
she doesn't care."

     Akane's eyes narrowed.  "She is my sister, Ranma."

     "So you're not mad at her?" Ranma asked pointedly.

     "Of course I'm mad at her," Akane said grudgingly.  "I just
can't hold it against her forever.  She'll..."

     "She'll what?" Ranma asked, turning his head to look at
Akane.  "Find some other way to make money off of me or you?"

     "Ranma..." Akane growled.  "Watch how you talk about my
sister."

     "You mean the one who just disappeared from sight while we
were distracted?" Ranma said as he began to look straight ahead
again.

     Akane hung her head.  "I'm sure she just went around the
corner.  She's probably waiting for us to catch up with her."

     Ranma nodded.  "I'm sure," he said flatly.

     They turned the corner, and Ranma was quite startled when
someone threw their arms around his neck and whispered throatily
into his ear.

     "Ranma my sweet, what a pleasant coincidence."

     Well, it definitely wasn't Nabiki.

**********

     Ukyou decided bickering with Shampoo hadn't been a good idea
the second time she got thrown against the wall of the building.
She'd obviously set the Amazon off somehow, and this wasn't just
one of their little catfights.  Those weren't concerned with
martial arts so much as they were with hair pulling and face
scratching.  In one of those, she could usually hold her own
against the other girl.

     As much as she hated to admit it, though, in a straight
fight like this, Shampoo was better.

     She really wished she'd brought her big spatula this
morning.  As it was, she'd been forced to go straight hand to
hand against Shampoo, because she didn't even have time to go for
some of the smaller ones on the bandolier across her chest.

     She stumbled off from against the wall, barely blocked a
combination of punches from Shampoo, and just managed to avoid a
kick to her side that seemed to come out of nowhere.

     She lashed back with a fist, a blow that looked clumsy to
her eyes.  It had been a long time since she'd actually fought
unarmed.  Too long.

     Shampoo blocked it, but that bought her time to weave back a
few steps and pull a fistful of spatulas from her bandolier,
casting them out in a wide wave against her opponent.

     Shampoo moved to the side, faster than Ukyou thought she was
able to.  It took her only a fraction of a second to recover from
her throw, but somewhere in there Shampoo's leg tangled itself
through hers, and she was facedown on the street, tasting dust in
her mouth, with the other girl on top of her.  Shampoo had a knee
in the small of her back, and Ukyou's left arm twisted and locked
behind her in a tight grip.

     "Still have bad things to say about Chinese?" Shampoo asked
sweetly.  The position didn't actually hurt that much, but she
knew it would hurt a lot more if she tried to struggle.

     "Not really bad things to say about the Chinese," she said
between gritted teeth.  "Just about you.  You're arrogant,
stupid, you dress like a..."

     She choked on the words as Shampoo shifted her grip on the
arm slightly.  "What that you say?  I almost think I not hear you
begging for mercy."

     "I won't beg you for anything," Ukyou said.  "Not now, not
ever."

     "Much pride," Shampoo said, and there was almost a kind of
respect in her tone.  "You would make good wife for Ranma."

     Ukyou didn't even speak she was so surprised.

     "Too bad you never have him," Shampoo said with a slight
sadness to her tone.  "You not have him, I not have him.  Is too
bad."

     "What are you talking about?" Ukyou finally said, twisting
her neck slightly to try and get a look at the Amazon's face.  If
she could see her face, she might be able to get an idea of why
she was talking this way.

     "You no there at Jusenkyou," Shampoo said softly.  "You not
see him.  His heart belong to Akane."

     Ukyou's jaw tightened.  The dust of the road tasted bitter
in her mouth.  "How would you know who a man's heart belongs to?"

     "I know," Shampoo said simply, without room for argument in
it.  Ukyou found it anyway.

     "What about Mousse?" she said, putting as much derision
behind it as possibly.

     "I know Mousse's heart belongs to me," Shampoo said softly.
"It is only that I do not want it."

     "Why are you still here, then?" Ukyou said.  "If you're so
sure you can't have him?"

     "Because I will not disgrace myself before my tribe,"
Shampoo said.  "And I love him still.  I no can control heart."

     "You wanna get off me now?" Ukyou gasped.

     "We still rivals," Shampoo said, and there was little in her
voice of what had been there before.  "I want make sure you
remember this, spatula girl.  Remember that I beat you and hold
your face in dust.  Remember that next time you think about
insulting me or my people."

     Almost screaming with frustration at her helplessness, Ukyou
bucked her hips, trying to throw the Amazon off.  It was a stupid
thing to do, completely useless as an escape tactic, and it sent
shooting pains through her entire body.

     "GET OFF ME!"

     She was really starting to hate the taste of all this dust.
It was making her eyes water.  Not from pain, she told herself.
This didn't hurt that bad.  It was just the dust getting her
eyes.

     And it certainly wasn't because she believed any of what
Shampoo was saying.

**********

     "What are you doing here?" Akane said, glaring at Kodachi as
Ranma tried to detach himself from the gymnast's embrace.
"Shouldn't you be at school by now?"

     "What kind of education can compare to spending time with
dear Ranma?" Kodachi said, managing to somehow maneuver Ranma's
arm around her waist.  Akane ground her teeth together and
brought her schoolbag back over her shoulder.

     "Ranma..."

     "You think I want her hangin' all over me like this?" Ranma
protested.

     "It sure looks like it," Akane said flatly.  Ranma noticed
where his arm was, and yanked it off Kodachi's waist with an
embarassed grin.

     "Really, that just kinda..."

     "Go away, you silly girl," Kodachi said, looking down the
end of her nose at Akane.  "I'd like some time alone with my dear
Ranma, if you don't mind."

     "He's not yours..." Akane said.  "And he doesn't like you
hanging around him."

     "Really?" Kodachi said.  "Let's find out."

     She saved Ranma from further struggles by detaching her arms
from him herself and moving a few feet up to stand beside Akane.
She put her hands together in front of her and cocked her head to
one side as she looked at Ranma.  "Ranma dear, do you truly
dislike me so much that you'd prefer if I went away forever and
you never saw me ever again?"

     "Uhh..." Ranma said.  Kodachi's eyes shimmered slightly, and
she gave a barely audible sniffle.  "Of course not, Kodachi.  I
wouldn't want that.  I'd uh... I'd really... uh..."

     He trailed off in the face of Akane's glare.

     "Oh, no, please continue," Akane said icily.  "I've always
wanted to know what it sounds like to hear you say nice things to
a girl."

     She spun on her heel and started quickly off.  "I hope you
two have a lovely time together."

     "Oh, come on, Akane," Ranma said as he started after her.
"I'm just bein'..."

     "Don't mind her temper, dear Ranma," Kodachi said as she
slipped her arm through his and rested her head in the crook of
his shoulder.  Her ponytail tickled his nose with the clean scent
of hair and shampoo.  "We can have a lovely time by ourselves.
Remember how much fun we had on our last date?"

     "That was not a date," Ranma protested, trying to slip away
from Kodachi and catch up to Akane at the same time.  Neither
worked very well.  "I just did that because..."

     "Because you felt sorry for me," Kodachi said in a tight
voice.  She pulled her head away from his shoulder, but kept her
arm linked with his.  "You'll come around in time, though.  None
of those others can compare to me."

     "You've got that right," Ranma said to himself under his
breath in a tone that made it clear that this was a good thing.

     Akane turned the corner up ahead, her pace already picking
up.  Ranma tried to pick up his pace, but Kodachi was content to
continue at a leisurely walk, and she had a tight grip on his
arm.

     "What are you doing?" he heard Akane say in a loud,
surprised voice.  He yanked his arm roughly free from Kodachi's
and sped around the corner to see Akane, aghast, looking at
Shampoo and Ukyou.  The Amazon had the other girl laid flat out
on the ground, with her arm twisted behind her and a knee
against the small of her back.  He could see Ukyou's face was
dust-covered, streaked in a few places with tears.

     "That's enough!" he shouted angrily, stalking forward past
Akane with every muscle of his body tensing.  "Shampoo, get off
her!  You're hurting her!"

     Shampoo slowly looked up and met his eyes.  There was an
expression on her face he'd never seen before, and a look in her
eyes that looked even more out of place.  It looked almost as if
she might keep her hold on Ukyou for a moment, but then he saw
the tense look on her face slowly relax, and she almost gently
took her knee off Ukyou's back, and a moment later released her
hold on the arm and stood up, brushing road dust from the leg of
her pants.

     "You see who better now?" she said, looking down at Ukyou.
There was a half-triumphant, half-sad sound to her voice.

     Ranma glared at her, and she shrank away slightly, taking a
few steps back from Ukyou, who was still lying on the ground.
Ranma knelt down beside her, whatever anger he'd had for her
yesterday evaporating.

     "Hey Ucchan, you alright?" he said.

     Ukyou opened her mouth to respond, but all of Ranma's
attention was taken from her when he heard Akane make a surprised
scream from behind him.

     Then he heard Kodachi begin to laugh.  It sounded even more
unpleasant than usual.

**********

     Kodachi scowled as Ranma slipped away from her and tried to
get Shampoo off of Ukyou.  Whatever those two wanted to get up
to, she didn't care.  Deciding to ignore it, she turned her
attention to Akane.

     "And how are we, Akane Tendo?" she asked in a cheerful
voice.

     Akane looked back at her and frowned fiercely.  "Why don't
you just go away, Kodachi?  No one wants you around."

     "Ranma dear doesn't seem to object," Kodachi said with a
shrug.  "He seems to think rather more of me than he does of
you."

     Out of the corner of her eye, Kodachi saw Shampoo begin to
get off of Ukyou.  Then she switched her gaze back to Akane, who
still seemed unsure of how to respond.

     "He just doesn't like hurting people," Akane said.  "Even a
loon like you, Kodachi."

     Kodachi's eyes narrowed and her face hardened.  "I am not a
loon.  Because I do not choose to follow the common herd like the
rest of you people does not mean I am any less sane."

     Akane snorted.  "Right.  Well, they say crazy people never
think they're crazy."

     "I would rather be crazy," Kodachi said icily.  "Than be an
indecisive, immature, ignorant girl such as yourself.  You do not
even appreciate what you have in him.  Believe me, if our
situations were reversed and I found myself arranged to marry
him, I would not treat him in the way you do.  If being willing
to let myself love someone is crazed, then I suppose I am crazy."

     Akane snarled and started forward.  "You better watch it,
Kodachi."

     Kodachi danced back, rising on her toes gracefully.  "You
wish a duel, Akane Tendo?  The Black Rose shall oblige."

     Akane dropped her bag and cocked a fist.  "Right."

     She swung at Kodachi, a clumsy blow.  Akane had little grace
in Kodachi's eyes, and the gymnast stepped back from the fist as
if it were no effort at all.  "Come, try harder, Akane."

     Akane did, launching a combination of kicks and punches that
Kodachi wove and dodged away from, taking the two of them further
away from the situation between Ranma, Akane and Ukyou.

     "This takes almost a little effort to avoid," Kodachi said,
glancing back at the rapidly approaching fence that bordered the
canal.  "Still, you haven't gotten much better than the last
time.  Remember the last time?"

     She put a hand to her cheek.  "Oh, I'm sorry.  I forgot.
You did such a clumsy little thing like sprain your ankle, and
you had to get that little pig-tailed hussy to fight in your
place."

     "If you know who that pig-tailed hussy was," Akane growled
as Kodachi dodged a kick, "you wouldn't think it was so funny."

     "Not as funny as this will be," Kodachi said as Akane threw
another punch.  This time she didn't dodge it; she caught it,
catching the wrist and rolling back onto her shoulders, using
Akane's momentum to drag her down with her.

     A defeat was one thing.  That was easy.  A truly humiliating
defeat, though, that was another thing entirely.

     She placed one black-shoed foot in Akane's midsection, and
carried through with the move by kicking up, launching the
surprised girl over the edge of the canal and towards the water
below.

     She heard a splash, and a surprised yell.  Kodachi grinned,
and did what she usually did when she had a victory like this.
She began to laugh.

     That stopped when she felt someone grab her arm, much too
tightly to be comfortable.  She turned her head, and looked into
Ranma's grey eyes.  The anger in them made even her shrink
slightly.

     "What are you doing?" he shouted, shaking her by the arm.

     "Just cooling down her temper a little," Kodachi said, but
there was a hint of doubt there in her voice, a hint that she
realized she might have made a mistake here.  Ranma's eyes pinned 
her, and they would not let her look away.  "You're hurting my
arm, Ranma dear..."

     "Are you nuts?" Ranma shouted again, his grip tightening for
a moment.  "She can't swim."

     He let go, almost flung her aside, and leaped over the fence
and down into the canal.  Kodachi ran to the fence, looked down,
saw him fall towards the water and the struggling form of Akane.

     She saw him hit.

     And then, with a low, disbelieving sound that rose from deep
inside her, she saw him change.

**********

     The canal wasn't that deep, perhaps only a little over six
feet at this time of year.  But it was enough to be dangerous to
someone like Akane, Ranma realized.  It wasn't just that she
couldn't swim; even someone who couldn't swim could float.  What
was the matter was that she panicked whenever she got into water
she couldn't stand in.  She thrashed her arms, opened her mouth
to yell, drove herself deeper below the surface of the water and
swallowed it in great gulps.  He knew; he'd seen it before.

     He was only barely conscious of the change in his body as he
hit the water, as his body shrank and grew in places.  He was
only aware of Akane, struggling to stay afloat and taking in as
much water as she did air.

     She was a few feet ahead; Ranma hadn't timed her leap as
well as she'd hoped.  Ranma pulled herself forward, stroking with
her arms and kicking with her legs as hard as she could.  She
could hear Akane gasping and choking, a sound that wrenched at
her somewhere deep inside.

     Just as she reached her, Akane's head sank below the water
with one last frantic wave of her arms.  A few bubbles rose.

     Ranma was there in a second, ducking under the waters and
grabbing Akane, getting her under the armpits and dragging her
back to the surface.  Akane coughed and choked in the smaller
girl's arms, and Ranma realized with panic that she had too much
water in her lungs to breathe.

     She had to get her on to land, and quick.

     "Give her to me!"

     Shampoo was stretching her arm down, perched on the inch or
so of concrete lip on the side of the fence that faced the canal
with her other hand clinging to the wire mesh of the fence.
Ukyou was a concerned face on the other side; he couldn't see
Kodachi at all.

     Somehow, without even purchase for her feet, she managed to
lift Akane up to Shampoo.  The Amazon grabbed the half-conscious
girl by the front of her soaked school dress, and effortlessly
lifted her up, carefully passing her over the fence to Ukyou.
She hopped back over, and as Ranma began to climb out of the
canal, Shampoo and Ukyou laid the coughing Akane down on the
ground.

     Ranma could see Kodachi now, standing a few feet away, her
face slightly pale and trembling.  She was furious with the
gymnast, but that could wait for now.  She had to see to Akane.

     Shampoo was pressing down on Akane's stomach, forcing the
water out of her lungs, as Ukyou carefully held the girl's head
in her lap.  Akane coughed up water on the ground in front of her
with weak heaves of her throat, but it looked like she was going
to be okay.  Ranma knelt down next to the two girls ministering
to the third and brushed a hand through the damp bangs of her
hair.

     "Is she alright?" she asked Shampoo.

     The Amazon nodded.  "Little water in lungs.  Nothing
serious.  She just need to get her breath back."

     Ranma saw Kodachi had come closer, and stood up with an
angry expression on her face.  She took a step towards the taller
girl and grabbed her by the shoulders, leaving damp palm-prints
on the black school dress.

     "What the hell were you thinking?" she yelled, shaking the
pale-faced Kodachi.  "What did you think you were doing?"

     "Who... where did Ranma darling go?" Kodachi said, her lips
barely moving.

     "I am Ranma, you nut!" Ranma shouted harshly.  "Get it
through your head!  You coulda really hurt her!  Dammit,
Kodachi..."

     She let go and let her arms drop to her sides.  She didn't
like to hit girls, but she wanted to hit Kodachi more than nearly
anything right now.

     She restrained the impulse, though.  Kodachi looked
stricken, her face bordering on shock and guilt that Ranma had
never thought the Black Rose capable of having.

     "Please forgive me, Ranma," Kodachi whispered.  "I did not
know.  I did not know of your fiancee's difficulties with water.
I will go now.  Please forgive me."

     She bowed, just slightly, and hurried off, leaving Ranma
wet, stunned and female behind her.

**********

     Akane coughed the last of the water out of her lungs, and
looked up with eyes blurred by tears and lack of oxygen at the
two girls who knelt beside her.

     "You okay, Akane?" Shampoo asked.  "I know you not good
swimmer."

     "I'm alright," Akane said, surprised at how weak her voice
sounded.  "What..."

     "You tried to swallow the canal," Ukyou said.  There was a
teasing note to her voice, but also concern as well.  "Kodachi
tossed you in while..."

     She looked at Shampoo, seemingly embarassed, and the Amazon
looked away, her face going just a shade towards red.

     "Ranma..." Akane said slowly.

     "He jumped in and handed you to Shampoo," Ukyou said.  "She
hauled you over the fence and pumped the water out of you."

     Akane blinked.  Shampoo had always been the most persistent
of all the other girls, the one who always seemed to have some
plot to get rid of her and get Ranma for herself.

     "Thank you, Shampoo," she said.  "You..."

     "Is nothing," Shampoo said quickly.  "I need get back to
deliveries."

     "It wasn't nothing," Ranma said as she knelt down beside
Akane.  "Hey Akane.  How you feeling?"

     "Wet," Akane said with a weak grin.  She coughed, and Ukyou
helped her sit up while patting her on the back.

     To her surprise, Ranma reached out and took her hand.  It
didn't even occur to her until a moment later that he was female,
and then she realized it didn't matter.

     "I'm glad you're okay," Ranma said with a relieved smile.
She glanced at Ukyou and Shampoo, and her smile diminished a bit.
"I'm gonna take Akane home.  You guys better go."

     Shampoo stood up.  "Bye Ranma.  Bye Akane."

     She nodded her head in a quick gesture of farewell, than ran
to grab her bicycle from the wall.  Ukyou looked at Ranma,
hesitation to speak showing on her face.

     "Ranchan, couldn't I..." she began.  Ranma shook his head.

     "We'll talk later, Ukyou," Ranma said.  Ukyou gulped and
nodded.  She stood up and walked away, as Ranma pulled Akane to
her feet.

     "I'm okay," Akane said.  "I just need to get some dry
clothes, and then..."

     She was interrupted by a spasm of coughing.  Ranma shook her
head and sighed.  "You need to get home and rest, Akane.  I'm not
gonna argue with you about this.  Let's go."

     Akane nodded mutely, and let Ranma lead her along by the
hand.

**********

Continued in [Ranma][Fanfic] Waters Under Earth - Chapter 2 (3/3)

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