The Return of the Phoenix (Revised)
Chapter 1: The Pork Chop Express.
`Dear Mr. Saotome,
We are pleased to inform you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Whilst most new students receive their letters of application at age eleven, your father declined the request for you to attend our school. But we at Hogwarts feel that the time has come to offer you a chance to join our magical community. Our representative will arrive on the 31rst of July to explain in detail the offer you have received.
Yours Sincerely.
Minerva Mcgonnagal
Deputy Head Mistress.
Ranma just stared at the letter for several moments before he burst out laughing. Oh this was too much, after the failed wedding and the final loss of his cure this happens, the Kami's must really hate him. As for his old man well he'd better have a hell of an explanation as to why he never told Ranma about the original letter sent to him back when he was eleven. He sat there on the roof staring out at nothing contemplating the letter.
Clank
He glanced to his left as the stepladder came into view and a head of blue black hair came over the edge. "Ranma?"
"You know a bit more effort in your training instead of just hitting me and some bricks you could probably hop up here like the rest of us."
Akane hid the hurt his comment caused as she finished climbing the ladder up onto the roof and perched beside him on the tiles. She knew she should be angry, livid in fact, after everything that happened he still couldn't say that he loved her, not that it mattered really. After Jusendo everything had changed...Ranma had changed, he had killed a god to save her life, she didn't need him to say he loved her for her to know. No. What she was mad about was Shampoo and Ukyo and their explosive cooking, heh, and Ranma had a cheek to call her cooking dangerous. No. Because of them, she was still Akane Tendo when she should really be Akane Saotome but she was to depressed to be angry. Since the wedding disaster Ranma had been avoiding her spending all his time on the roof or in his room except at meal times, he was probably mad at her for not telling him about the cask of spring of the drowned Man that had arrived for him. Not that she blamed him, because of her yet again his chance at a cure was gone. And this time it may prove to be his last.
"Ranma we have to talk about what happened. I-I don't blame what happened on you."
Ranma after two years of constantly being on the blunt end of her Hammer because he was always blamed just looked at her with that whole 'Yeah right' expression.
She bit her bottom lip and tried to fight back the tears as she saw the look on his face...a determined expression soon replaced that and she just knew he was going to call off their engagement. "I...I'm sorry Ranma..." That was too much for her and she burst into tears all the stress from the wedding and Jusendo sent her bawling and she jumped to her feet and tried to get down the ladder trying to hide her tears from him. A pair of muscular arms slid around her pulling her against a well-defined chest, her face burying itself in the red silk her tears soaking the material.
"Ah geez, hell, don't cry Akane, why are you crying, I'm sorry. I don't know what I did but I'm sorry." Ranma's hands that could so easily reduce stone to dust, gently ran through her blue black hair as he tried his best to comfort the woman he loved.
"You lost your cure because of me Ranma. First the cursed springs, then the cask, it's all my fault, now you will never be cured..." Her small hands clenched around his shirt tugging him closer to him in a desperate need for nearness. "Please...please don't break our engagement."
Ranma sat there stunned..."Wha...what?" He cupped her chin tilting her face up so their eyes would meet. "Why would I do that you Macho Tomboy, your cooking maybe toxic and you might mallet me for no reason but if I haven't broken it off yet why would I break it off now?"
Akane hiccoughed "Baka..." She slipped her arms around his waist and snuggled against him her eyes red from her tears and her cheeks stained. "Why do you stay with me?" She looked deep into his blue eyes looking for an answer. "I'm not cute I can't cook I'm a terrible martial artist...Shampoo and Ukyo are much better than me..."
Ranma felt his heart thud painfully in his chest as his blue eyes met her chocolate brown. "Y-your not un-cute…Don't believe me when I say that. Y-your beautiful. Thought you were beautiful the first day I met you and I'm sorry if I made you feel like you weren't." He wrapped his arms around her pulling her tightly against his chest. "I just wasn't ready to get married back then, an-and if I had said what I really felt then Pops and your dad would have had us married by the end of the day."
He gently rested his chin on the top of her head and let loose a soft sigh. "I would have married you Akane, you were like a dream in that wedding gown. I would have married you even though I'm not ready to be a husband."
Akane tensed in his arms and pulled back enough so that she could meet his gaze. "If your not ready then why would you marry me." Her chocolate brown orbs stared deeply back into his stormy blue looking for answers in his eyes.
Ranma flashed his trademark smirk. "Because maybe I can't say it, and maybe I don't show it in the traditional ways, I don't do flowers, I'm not Kuno, I don't do silly little tokens, I ain't Ryoga, what I do is be here, I don't wanna own ya Akane. But if anyone tries taking ya away from me without ya first telling me ya wanna go, and that you really mean it. Then till the day I die I will come for you."
For minutes after Ranma's impromptu speech the two teens sat there looking at one and other letting the silence settle around them both like an old friend. Slowly like an unstoppable force of nature they two drifted closer their lips almost brushing softly against each other. Finally it seemed the two would share a kiss that both were ready for. Unfortunately life had other plans. As the two drifted closer the outer wall that surrounded the dojo exploded inwards in a shower of small pebbles and dust and the sounds of a voice Ranma was in no mood to hear right now.
"WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW!"
The two teens snapped apart scooting several feet apart in the blink of an eye blushing furiously. Ranma sighed and rubbed the back of his head before standing and leaping nimbly of the roof and landing upon the soft gravel path. "You have perfect timing Pork chop."
Ryoga spun around looking at his rival in surprise. "Ranma what are you doing here in China?"
Ranma raised an eyebrow at the China comment. "You ain't in China pork chop, ya sure as hell ain't anywhere near the cursed springs, you're at Tendo's Dojo. Where I told you not to come back for a very long time, in EITHER forms."
Was a pity for Ranma that as soon as he said Tendo Ryoga's eyes glazed over as thoughts of seeing Akane once more overwrote any thoughts of self-preservation. "Hello Ryoga, what brings you back to the Dojo?"
Ryoga snapped out of daze and spun round to face the object of his affection. He blushed a bright red. "Heh heh hello Akane, wa-wait, why were you crying. RANMA WHAT DID YOU DO TO AKANE!" His embarrassment turned to anger at his Rival once more and all common sense just took the first flight out of Nerima. "RANMA PREPARE TO DIE!" He dropped his rucksack on the grass and faced his rival sending a wicked haymaker towards the surprised but not unprepared Ranma. He spun around the uppercut and drove his foot solidly into Ryoga's gut with a front snap kick.
"Damn it Ryoga I din't do nothing." Ranma shifted his stance slightly while Akane stood there dumbstruck. This time she knew she couldn't blame this fight on Ranma, Ryoga had clearly thrown the first punch. The lost boy slid backwards across the gravel from the force of the blow and he snarled and darted across the Tendo grounds intent on destroying Ranma once and for all and claiming Akane as his own and declaring his undying love for her. Unfortunately for him Ranma had other plans. Ryoga threw everything he had into beating Ranma down, kick after kick, punch after punch, only the dim thoughts of Akane so close stopped him from unleashing a Shi Shi Hokkuden or the Bakusai Tenketsu. He lunged forward with another Upper cut determined to put an end to this fight only to find Ranma no longer in front of him and found himself facing the Tendo's Koi pond. He panicked his arms flailing in the air for balance trying to prevent himself falling.
Ranma smirked at his rival's predicament. "I warned you not to come back anytime soon Porkchop." He spun on his heel and lashed out with a low spin kick his foot connecting with the back of the lost boy's knees driving him down into a kneeling position. Ranma completed the spin and launched a light snap kick to the back of the lost boy's head and knocked him into the pond.
Ranma folded his arms across his chest and he waited and watched as the black piglet struggled out of its clothes and scrambled out onto the path. Akane stood there a look of comprehension and then absolute horror on her face. "P-P-chan?" The little piglet bwee'd and scurried towards her whilst Ranma face faulted into the gravel path. Still in shock Akane opened her arms and the piglet leapt into her embrace and glared at Ranma over Akane's shoulder. Slowly almost mechanically she turned and walked back into her house passing by Kasumi not responding to her sister's pleasant queries about what had happened outside. Instead she set the black piglet on the counter in the kitchen and quickly grabbed the kettle always kept on standby for Ranma or his father and doused the piglet.
Akane stared at the black hair and more importantly the yellow and black bandana that was keeping that hair from a certain lost boy's eyes. "Ry..Ryoga!" Slowly her battle Aura started to glow surrounding her in a bright red nimbus that radiated anger.
"Wa...wait Akane I can explain.... It's...Its all Ranma's fault!" Ryoga stammered, a sweatdrop forming on the back of his head his finger pointing at Ranma. "You Bastard!" Ryoga quivered with anger beginning to glow a sickly green as despair filled his body Akane knew his secret she would hate him forever now. "You swore you would keep it a secret!"
Ranma shrugged from the open doorway of the kitchen. "I warned you to stay away, you helped ruin our wedding and you tried to take something that was mine. I would have shared the cure Pork chop, not like the water can only be used once you know. But you, Pops and Mousse all decided it would be yours and yours alone."
Ryoga cupped his hands a green ball forming between his palms. "SHI SHI...."
He never finished as a cry of "Ryoga No Baka!" filled the house and a massive Hammer slammed into his skull sending him into the floor. As he bounced of the floor Akane caught him on the upswing and sent him flying through the roof his voice trailing into the distance with his battle cry of "RANMA THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Silently Ranma and Akane stood in the Tendos kitchen. Akane's eyes slowly filled with tears as the realization of what had happened over the past two years finally sunk. Without words she ran across the kitchen and wrapped her arms around Ranma's waist and hugged him tightly, her quiet sobs filling the kitchen.
Ranma stared down at the youngest Tendo's head as she clung to him. "Aw man."
TBC….
AN: Well Ladies and Gents the next installment of my rewrite has arrived. For those Interested the next chapter heralds the arrival of a certain member of staff from Hogwarts till then…
Yours Sincerely
The Evil Kai Lun Mau