Chapter 15
"Well?" Akane demanded arrogantly as Ranma stepped though the doorway.
"Well
what?" Ranma replied crossly, his body ached these past few days from
head to toe from sparring with Shippou, Kouga, and occasionally
Sesshoumaru relearning his natural demon attacks as well as the flow of
the demonic energy through his body.
Kagome had explained, as his
soul was that of a demon, his body was a natural conductor of demonic
energy, which was why so many curses had attached themselves to him so
easily in the first place. Even though all of his former demon gifts
bled over into his new form, it was still difficult relearning and
performing everything in an entirely human body. And then there had been
something about his recent 'transformations' being the result of the
demon soul coming to the forefront…
But he was still in no mood for any lectures from the hot-headed tomboy.
"Where have you been?" Akane demanded as she watched Ranma drop his shoes beside the door.
"Training," he replied shortly as he strode past her into the kitchen.
"Training where?" She demand as he took a bottle of water from the fridge and began guzzling.
Ranma
paused, slowly lowered the bottle as he gave her a very cold look.
Drinking the rest of the water he tossed the empty container into the
recycle bin. Giving a careless shrug as his answer he moved into the
living room.
"Saotome Ranma! I demand to know where you've been!" Akane shouted at his back as she stormed after him.
Ranma gave her an irritated look, "Why?" He demanded bluntly in return.
The youngest Tendo child stuttered angrily in response, before snapping, "That's not the point here!"
"What
is the point here then?" Ranma asked raising an eyebrow arrogantly. "I
am simply training away from the dojo and instead of a pleasant hello
when I step through the door I get yelled at by you." Ranma said as he jabbed a finger at her chest.
"This is my house and you live here so you have to answer my question." Akane snapped. "Where were you?"
"Akane,
as you so often seem to forget. I'm legally an adult now and the only
person that I am accountable to in this situation is your father, as he is the landlord. And Tendo-kun knows and approves that I'm continuing my training. So you have no right to demand to know where and how I spent my time!" Ranma snarled in return.
"Now
excuse me, I have to go study for the classical myth exam tomorrow.
Good night." With that he whirled on his heel, bid their avid audience a
good night as well and made his way up the stairs to his own room.
"He's right you know Akane-chan," Kasumi said in a motherly tone of voice.
"He's right about what?" Akane whined.
"You're
not his keeper." Kasumi replied bluntly. "As a courtesy he tells me
every morning when he expects to be home, and so far he's always been
extremely punctual. He's not getting into trouble, in fact if I didn't
know for a fact that he's training I'd almost think he's getting
tutored."
"What?" Four surprised voices chorused as one.
"I
thought at least you would have known Saotome-kun, your son's marks have
improved dramatically these past few months." Kasumi said with an
innocent expression, gleefully drinking in their gape mouthed faces. "In
fact, he'll have no trouble now graduating from his freshmen year of
university. Unlike someone I could mention Akane-chan."
Akane
turned red under her sister's sharp reminder of her own low marks.
Mumbling an excuse she hastily left the living room to retreat to her
own bedroom.
"That was out of character Kasumi-chan," Nabiki said
as she returned to her accounting books for her university studies in
commerce.
"Not really," Kasumi replied with an airy smile, "I
merely believe that Akane-chan should set her priorities straight. She
spends too much time worrying about Ranma-kun and there's really no
need."
"Huh," Nabiki replied as she cast a glance at her eldest sister. Something was up.
"Besides, things are finally starting to settle down around here, and the peace is so nice. I don't want to see it disturbed."
Yep,
Nabiki thought, something is definitely going on that could bear some
looking into. Now that Kasumi had mentioned it, she hadn't see any other
of Ranma's friends around lately either, except the Amazon girl and
pizza cook when they made deliveries.
And if she remembered
correctly, they hadn't seemed to know where Ranma was either. Who knows,
she might even be able to answer her little sister's questions about
what Ranma was doing after school for her… for a small fee of course.
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