The All-Americans
By
Joshua Trujillo

Part 6 - A Fair of the Heart II

The volume coming from the crowd died away as they watched 
Ranma and Ryouga circle each other. It was obvious to everyone 
that they had not only met before, but that there was unfinished 
business between them. A light breeze blew in across the lake. 
Ryouga in his jeans and boots and Ranma in his shorts and tee shirt 
and sneakers set a pair to watch.

Nabiki could hear some of the girls near her gasp as Ryouga had 
taken off his vest. He did look about as good as Ranma, just not as 
cut. Nabiki wondered what could drive Ranma to a level of anger 
that she'd never seen before. He hadn't even been this mad when 
Akane had whacked him with the board.

Ryouga circled to the nearest tree, a waist-thick sapling, never 
letting Ranma out of his sight. He glanced up quickly. Ranma 
looked away for an instant and Ryouga ripped the trunk of the tree 
away from its roots. In a single motion, he swung it around at 
Ranma, who easily jumped away to avoid it. Ryouga smiled and 
leaped into the air after him.

Ranma saw the bastard screaming up towards him and readied a 
small energy surge into his hands. Ranma centered his energy and 
fired, pushing himself even higher. Ranma could see that the bolts 
didn't seem to be getting through. He didn't have much time to 
think as Ryouga slammed into him. Ranma twisted and fired 
another shot square into Ryouga's gut. Ryouga exhaled slightly and 
smiled. Which earned him an old fashioned uppercut from Ranma.

Nabiki could see them fighting and tumbling end over end until a 
huge tremor issued several yards away, telling her that they'd 
landed. The crowd rushed to the impact zone. Nabiki pushed her 
way through and saw a rather large crater. Ryouga moaned as he 
lay on his back while Ranma sat up and rubbed his head.

"I hope you're happy," Ranma said, punching Ryouga in the gut.

A low growl issued from Ryouga, who started punching Ranma 
back. Ryouga punched with his right arm and Ranma caught it. 
Ranma twisted it around into Ryouga's back. Ranma smiled. He 
could force Ryouga to surrender with this, but he wanted to knock 
this asshole out. Ranma reached up with his left hand across 
Ryouga's back, but froze when he couldn't kick Ryouga's feet out 
from under him.

The move would have smashed Ryouga headfirst into the ground, 
hopefully knocking him out. Ryouga snarled and twisted his own 
arm back around and in a lightening fast move, brought both arms 
together around Ranma's neck. Ranma struggled, but his left arm 
was trapped and he was quickly losing consciousness.

Ryouga smiled. This guy wanted to take the game so seriously, 
then he'd pay the price. Not Ryouga's fault, really. It was only a 
damned football game after all. He wouldn't kill Ranma, just knock 
him senseless. Then he'd-

"Ryouga?" A small voice said from the crowd.

Ryouga looked over and saw her. The longish dark hair, the tight 
round face and those huge eyes. Akane had made her way to the 
front and was peering into the crater. Ryouga's heart went out to 
her. He...She...NO, WAIT!

Ranma powered up his energy. Two swirling balls of light formed 
at the outward edges of his power envelope, one at his head, the 
other at his feet. They circled inwards, faster and faster, until they 
converged in his center and annihilated each other in a massive 
explosion.

Ryouga could feel the energy blast that hit him shudder through his 
senses as it threw him across the lake. All went white with pain 
and then the darkness claimed him.

***

Ranma dropped to his knees, choking in pain. Damn...He liked the 
shirt too...

Nabiki and Akane ran into the crater to Ranma's side. Each 
grabbed a side and pulled him to the grass above.

"Ranma?" Nabiki asked, raising his head to her, "Are you okay?"

Ranma nodded.

"Can you make it back to the blanket?" Akane asked.

"Just let me rest here a minute," he said weakly.

Nabiki looked to Akane and she nodded. Akane knew more about 
these kinds of things than Nabiki.

"So how do you know Ryouga anyway?" Akane asked.

Ranma opened his eyes and smiled at Akane. Akane and her 
questions...

"Back in Denver," Ranma began, sitting up as gently as he could, 
"He was on an opposing football team. He was the best defensive 
back that anyone had ever seen. I was the best running back. I still 
am. We weren't even in High school yet. He got frustrated by not 
being able to hit me during the game, so he waited until the end of 
the game and got me with a cheap shot."

"No," Akane said, shaking her head, "It had to be a mistake or 
something. Ryouga would never do that. He's a gentleman. True, 
he's a bit of a brute at times, but still..."

Ranma smiled at her again. There was something there, between 
them. He wondered what it was.

"Well," Ranma said, getting to his feet, "Accident or no, he broke 
three of my ribs in the process. It kept me out of basketball AND 
baseball that year. Dad moved me before the next year began, so I 
had no chance to get even."

"Akane," Nabiki said, "I really don't think it was an accident. 
Especially since Ryouga taunted Ranma with it before the fight."

"NO!" Akane shouted, "You're wrong. You know nothing about 
him!"

"Whoa, sorry that I fought your boyfriend Akane," Ranma said.

Akane blushed and shook her head. She couldn't even complete a 
thought, so she kicked Ranma in the gut instead.

"He's not my boyfriend," Akane said, picking Ranma up off the 
ground again, "He's just got some problems that I'm helping him 
work through, that's ALL."

Nabiki shoved Akane away and held Ranma to her.

"Dammit, that's enough," she yelled at Akane, "I don't want you 
hitting my boyfriend anymore, you got that?!"

Ranma eased Nabiki off of him and went to Akane, who had 
visibly withered under her sister's ire. Ranma took her by the 
shoulders and faced her.

"Akane," Ranma said softly, "Ryouga and I have unfinished 
business. And I'm afraid that tonight was only the start, but if you 
don't want us to fight, then I'll..."

"You won't fight him?"

"No," Ranma smiled again, "I won't fight him, okay?"

Akane pulled him into a tight hug, but broke it when she saw the 
look she was getting from Nabiki. Nabiki didn't like this, not one 
bit. Ranma was her boyfriend dammit! Why was he making all 
these promises and everything for Akane? She bit away the 
jealousy as soon as it happened when she remembered who it was 
that encouraged her to go after Ranma in the first place. Akane 
wanted her to be happy...Didn't she?

They made their way back to the blanket and did a quick 
explanation of why most off Ranma's shirt was missing. It worried 
Nodoka to know that that had NOT been a premature firework 
explosion, but rather an energy, or chi, blast coming from her own 
son.

"Chi?" Kasumi asked.

"Kind of difficult to explain," Ranma said, his head nestled in 
Nabiki's lap, "Kind of like the energy of a person. Potential energy 
of spirit, I guess you could say. Burning Crow taught me many odd 
things like that. No, I just ruin a shirt every time I do that because 
of where the annihilation point is."

"Do you have a name for that?" Akane asked, brushing a few stray 
hairs from his forehead.

Nabiki shot her a look, which she either ignored or didn't see.

"Yeah, I don't really know how to pronounce it, but in his 
language, it's 'Star Fire'."

"How many of those chi blasts do you know?" Akane asked, 
remembering the one he'd shown her earlier.

Ranma thought for a moment, began to answer and stopped, 
remembering some more.

"About a hundred and fifty, or so," he said finally, "Though not all 
of them are that powerful. Some of them aren't even for attack."

There was silence around the blanket as the women tried to digest 
that idea. Nabiki quietly stroked his hair and held him close. Akane 
was glad he was on her side, though she wished he didn't have 
something against Ryouga. Ryouga had too many problems of his 
own, he didn't need someone like Ranma beating him up on a 
regular basis as well. 

Nodoka wondered what her son had gone through in order to 
become so powerful. It frightened her a bit as the thought of his 
mental stability ran through her head. She dismissed it though. He 
would have shown some signs before now, wouldn't he? Kasumi 
sighed quietly, but wouldn't quite show what she was thinking.

***

The rest of the evening went off without fighting. Ranma was glad 
about that. He had more people beat on him in the last month than 
he had all of last season in football. All this violence, geez...Nabiki 
tasted pretty good. He wondered who else wanted to beat him up in 
this town. Probably this Kuno person if he was still that obsessed 
over Nabiki.

Pookie Bear? What kind of person could he be? Ooo-That's her 
tongue! Ryouga was in town. That worried Ranma. Not much, but 
it still worried him slightly. They were one and one, but only 
because Ryouga let down his guard when he saw Akane. There 
was something there that Ranma would have to look into. Perhaps 
he was dating Akane. Secretly perhaps?

Ranma flinched slightly as Nabiki ran a hand across his chest. 
They stopped necking and she looked at him. The light from the 
fireworks lit the lines that ran across the right side of his face. She 
had never seen those before.

Scar lines? Scars from what? He frowned and touched his chest in 
a couple of places.

"Must've taken some good shots in the fighting," He said.

Nabiki smiled. Good shots? This from the same man who got 
knocked out by a board and didn't even get a scratch. She supposed 
to herself that it meant that Ryouga had hit him pretty hard. It 
made her worry more to think that someone like Ryouga might 
have it in for her boyfriend. He was a psycho. Except when he was 
around Akane.

Nabiki had originally dismissed it as puppy love, but now she 
thought there might be something more there. She saw the couple 
of times that Akane was with Ryouga before. She seemed happy 
and sad at the same time. She seemed...Nabiki didn't know, and it 
bugged her. She thought for a moment about watching the end of 
the fireworks while contemplating this little sibling dilemma, but 
Ranma was laying there, giving her his cute smirk. So, of course, 
she just had to kiss him.

At least until the finale ended.

***