The
Teacher. ~A Ranma ½ Fanfic~
“Ne~e,
Akane …”
“Yeah?”
she replied without looking up from her desk.
Ranma
took the liberty of sitting down on Akane’s bed, causing a squeal from the
mattress springs.
“Don’t
fall through,” muttered Akane.
“Akane,
don’t you ever wonder that maybe there are some people who are … teachers?”
“Teachers
in what sense?”
“Like … you meet them, and you fall in love, and they teach you something very special and very precious, but after that, it’s time to let go?”
“What
kind of dumb theory is that, Ranma?!” cried Akane, who now left her head
stationary so that he couldn’t see a little tear welling up at what he said –
it hit much harder than he had intended.
That was Ranma for you, always saying stupid things not realizing how
much they would affect the people around him.
“Well,
you see,” Ranma continued, “Sometimes you love someone who is so different from
you, and you know it’s true love, but that person is just … so different, you
know? Like a princess falling in love with
a vegetable vender boy. She learns what
it is like to work hard to survive, the happiness of simple songs and games,
everything like that. But after she
learns that, the lesson he has to teach is done, and he wants her to move on to
someone who she will be happier with, just because he knows he can never really
understand her.”
Akane
sat there for a moment, staring at her homework on vectors.
“Well,
Ranma, we’re different, aren’t we?
We’re um … sorta kinda in love, I guess,” she admitted, blushing with
embarrassment at the end of her line.
“That’s
debatable. But the fact of the matter
is that we’re engaged.”
“Not
by any choice of our own. No, Ranma,
engagement is nothing. You can’t be
engaged to someone when you aren’t engaged in the heart. And you can’t be engaged in the heart if you
regard yourself as a teacher. Sure,
maybe you can make it sound noble by saying that she’ll find someone better
afterwards, but what are you saying of yourself? Why aren’t you choosing her, huh?”
“I
didn’t say it was me!”
“You’re
too idiotic to mean anything more subtle than that!” declared the blue-haired
girl.
“Hey!”
shouted Ranma. “Hmph, just what I’d
expect out of a kawaiikune tomboy like you ….”
“You
jerk,” said Akane softly. “When you’re
in love, everyone is a teacher, and no one is a teacher. Do you get that?”
Ranma
fumbled around with words, the only sound coming out being “Er ….”
“There
is no love at all, none at all! None …
if you think that she is there to learn about guys from you, and find out what
they can be like, so that she can use that for a reference in the future. None … if you think that you have nothing to
learn from her. None … if you ever, ever even suggest that you are
better than her. None, Ranma!”
She
continued, “You think you’re better than me, just because you are a better
martial artist? Just because you can
use Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken and Mouko Takabisha? Huh? So tell me, Ranma,
if martial arts is your life and martial arts is your love, why are you staying
here with me, when you know that, although I’m a black-belt by all standards,
I’m not you?! Watch what you say,
‘cause I’m tempted to demonstrate to you a very special vector that points
towards the door and has a very large magnitude, shall we say.”
“Annn~~…
.”
“Yes?”
demanded Akane, her blue aura flaring up.
“I
… I know I learn things from you.”
“You’re
just always too damn proud to admit it!
I’m not fucking asking you to bow down to me! I don’t want that; I don’t need to be a goddess! I just want you to stop treating me like a
doll when we spar and stop acting like I’m some low-life because I don’t go on
month-long training trips to remote parts of China where I could fall into the
Spring of Drowned Lamb with a Large Bird on Its Back!” Akane cried with exasperation. “Not everyone believes like you do, that the
Art is everything! Not even me, the
heir to the Anything Goes Dojo! I love
the Art, yes! I love teaching it to
other people! I use it when I need to
defend myself! Ranma, if you don’t
understand that that makes me a good martial artist, too, just like you, then
maybe you need to really go on another trip, and this time discover every part
of the Art that you’ve never bothered to learn.”
“Akane-chan
…”
“Don’t
‘Akane-chan’ me now!”
“Hai,”
replied Ranma, letting his pride drop a bit.
“Gomen nasai … .”
Akane
sighed. “Ranma, your whole life … every
moment of your life has been about improving your technique. And it’s been fulfilling for you, so you
feel like there’s no need to stop, and there’s nothing better than it. But what if, Ranma, what if this obsession
is preventing you from seeing something beautiful, something good and worthy
and noble, from seeing that in everyday life, in everyday people?”
“From
seeing something beautiful in you …,” said Ranma, his eyes softening.
“I
didn’t say it was me!”
“
‘You’re too idiotic to mean anything more subtle than that.’ Touché, Sweetheart.”
“Don’t
‘Sweetheart’ me now!! And … yes I mean
me! Look at what we share! Hordes of random boys and girls after us,
the same stupid temper, a love for Kasumi’s food, the same books on our
bookshelves, an friendship with Doctor Tofu, and deep feelings that we always
express the wrong way. Push come to
shove, Ranma, I’d more readily admit that I’m the girl version of you than a
girl like the my classmates. It’s not …
I’m a princess or something.”
“I
know ….”
“Ranma,
it’s okay to see the world based on what belts people wear. But realize that not all your rules apply to
everyone. Just like a good preacher should
not declare a nonbeliever to be a devil, just like a good opera singer should
not criticize the children who sing in the shower, just like them, so a good
martial artist should not … a martial artist should not make love a martial
art!
“Of
course our love is going to involve martial arts. We might even show off our techniques after our wedding
ceremony. Our child is certainly going
to carry on the tradition of our families.
And I’m going to work in this dojo when I grow up. But our love itself can’t be a martial
art! We’re not training, there are no
sensei. We are feeling things, and
feelings are independent of conscience, independent of skill, independent of
class of race of rank of intelligence of gender! Feelings are feelings.
Love is love. And you, buddy,
are in trouble for making me cry onto my homework page.”
“Akane-chan,
Akane-chan, Akane-chan …. Suki dayo.”
“Ranma-kun,
Ranma-kun, Ranma-kun …. Suki yo.
Fugen-jikkou ….”
Ranma
responded by standing up and hugging Akane from behind. “What I can’t say right now, feel it this
way.”
Akane
breathed deeply, wondering to herself what she would do. She could feel something in the embrace, but
she wasn’t sure if it was all she wanted.
She didn’t just a need a hug or reassurance; she wanted love,
everlasting love. She wanted Ranma, but
she wanted Ranma to want her just as much.
“Koi
wa shian no hoka …,” she whispered.
“Do
you really believe that?” asked Ranma.
“Yes,
I do, Ranma. But I don’t know if such a
love can last forever. Can it, Ranma?”
“How
should I know? It’s always easier if
you can enumerate the reasons and look at them once in awhile. If you can’t make such a list, how do you
know it isn’t lust?”
“That
is something you have to listen to in your heart. Lust doesn’t come from the heart, so when you feel a warmth in
your heart, that is love. But … there’s
more, there’s more ….”
“Yes?”
“Love
is when the idea of using you to learn about love and then going to find my
soulmate disgusts me. Love is when I
shout at you and say that I want to end it but deep down I desperately want you
to stop me from ending it all. Love is
when you keep on mistreating me and I wait a thousand autumns for you to stop
being a jerk. Love is when I say that
Akane and Ranma will be together forever, and my heart rejoices, and nothing in
me wonders if you are really good enough to be the One. Love!
Let’s go out and find it.”
“Right
now? Where would we look?”
“In
each other, dummy!” said Akane, grabbing Ranma’s arm. And so they left the house, running down the streets, looking for
love.
I
am told that they finally found it, three years later, and that indeed, Akane
looked brilliant kicking Ranma’s face in her flowing white gown.
~Fin~