Debt, love… Fight!

There’s always time for an ice pop.

This has been…impressive. And also absolutely terrifying.

I feel like I can’t breathe until the guy stops moving, utterly exhausted, almost like it was me that went into the cage and had thrown that masterful final punch. 

He is a genius. If I thought finding this place was shocking, seeing him fight was absolute madness. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had never seen anything like this, and I’m a devout follower of martial arts. He is one in a million, no! He is the best in an entire generation. 

He is flexible, fast, like a huge feline with wicked reflexes and powerful imagination. I remember to breathe just in time to see him rise victorious. Just enough time to get back to myself and realize that I have more pressing problems that I need to take care of.

I tighten my hand bandages and wait for it, while the man standing next to me smiles while cheering alongside the crowd celebrating the champion. 

“He’s good, right?”, he says while clapping with his tiny hands and clenching a long pipe in his mouth. He holds it for a second to inhale the smoke from his pipe. 

“Y-yeah”, I stutter apprehensively, nerves on edge.

There’s a good story behind my presence in this place tonight. Or rather, there’s an unexpected meeting and a long conversation due. Today, I’ve skipped work for the first time ever, and that’s also making me anxious. I told Mrs. O that I was feeling out of sorts, and it’s actually quite true. I can see myself throwing up what little food I’ve eaten right on the mat. 

Happosai however, looks content and relaxed, in fact, bursting with joy describes him even better.

“Tonight, you’re gonna make us very rich baby, very very rich indeed”, he says while winking at me. Gross. 

I slowly inhale while trying to center myself, and see him leave that sort of trap where I’ll soon find myself. I can’t help it, my feet drag me all the way to the edge of the arena. I knew he fought, I knew he had to be good, but he is on a whole other level, my previous conceptions of him shattered. 

I see him smile, see him hug the other fidget, and me, like an idiot, can’t help but interrupt. The face he makes when he sees me, dumbfounded, hurts my pride just a little bit. 

“What are you doing here?”, he asks, stunned and bleeding. I can’t help but throw my shoulders back, letting my determination to be here take over. 

“What do you think? I’ve come here to fight”.

His eyebrows shoot up, while his eyes bulge out and his jaw falls. 

“You have no idea what you are talking about, you are leaving right now”, he replies while grabbing my arm, like he really thinks he has any authority over me or my choices. 

I pull my arm easily, the action seems to catch him by surprise. 

“Oh, you know each other…curious”, the old man says, taking a long smoke from his pipe and blowing out the smoke from his nose, like a tiny pleased dragon. 

Ranma lowers his eyes and frowns, completely bewildered. 

“Old man, what do you know about this?”

“She knows how to fight, let her try it”, the old man impatiently states. 

“She doesn’t…do YOU know how to fight?!”, he asks suddenly, absolutely baffled, and I can’t help but haughtily reply.

“I’ve told you so”

“I would have remembered”, and he makes a point of it by crossing his arms, irritated. 

“I told you I knew how to defend myself”

“I thought you meant with words”, he grits out, clearly about to lose his patience.

“I AM going to fight”, I retort hoping to put an end to this conversation, as the noise around us grows louder, and someone can be heard giving indications through the speakers. 

“Come on girl, show us what you are worth”, Happosai says, while slightly shoving me into “The Pit”. That’s what they call this place. I nervously swallow and walk towards the lights, but he stops me again, desperately holding my hand. 

“Don’t go in there, you don’t get it, this is serious!!”, he exclaims. I feel so insulted, so belittled, I shake off his hand. I come from a long, proud, lineage of martial artists, so I raise my chin and inhale.

“I am much stronger than you think”, I state, leaving no room for questions, finally walking into the cage. 

The lights are blinding, and the blood Ranma and the other guy left on the mat is still fresh. It reeks of sweat, and it’s so hot in here. I feel my heart beat out of my chest, like never before. The voice from the speakers comes back.

“The night has just begun, ladies and gents, so let me introduce you to a new challenger. Straight from the streets of Tokyo comes Akane, born into a family of martial artists, and the last of her line to inherit the art. Can she defeat our unmatched twins?”

“Twins?!”, I snap my head back to where the old man is sitting, but he doesn’t seem the least bit surprised, in fact, he is clapping like a mad man. That old fucker has set me up, tricked me into getting my ass beat. It’s true he said that the bets would place me on the losing side, that’s why winning made it such an appealing (monetary) offer to me. Did he bet against me?!

They step into the cage. Tall, thin, and clearly way more comfortable being in the space than I am. 

Above the cheering crowds, I could hear Ranma’s powerful voice, screaming.

“Tarô?? Tarô!! What the fuck is this shit?! Did you have free miles with Air China?!”

I don’t understand what that is about, so I just try to focus on the two challengers before me. I open and close my fists, steady my breathing while they size me up and whisper between themselves. Very rude. 

They are dressed to match, except for some changes in the color scheme. One is mainly in red, the other, in blue. 

The cage closes, and I take a standard defense position while I check them out, realizing I don’t get to regret my questionable life choices so far, or even having followed this crazy tiny man that popped out of nowhere on my way to work this morning. 

Money, I need the money, is all I can focus on. 

They split up and start advancing towards me, I guess to corner me, so I have to be smarter than them, and much much faster. 

I lunge at the one in blue, and the sudden movement doesn’t seem to surprise her, she backs up when I throw a hard punch, which she barely dodges. It’s then when I sense her twin’s presence behind me. I’ve created an opening, but what they don’t know is that I did it on purpose. 

I duck, knowing the one in the red tried to catch me unguarded with a high assault, so I throw my leg back and get a hit on her knee, I can hear her complaining while she backs away, I turn and rise again, taking stock of the situation. They need to know that I am dangerous and can’t be underestimated. 

Blue clucks her tongue, did she think I was an easy target? This time, she comes unto me, throwing a few kicks that I block. She’s tough but I can easily keep up. The problem comes when her twin joins in the attack, she grabs me, making me take a punch to the face. It really hurts. 

I twist, and grab Red’s fist that hasn’t moved away fast enough, put her in a holding key and get her in front of me, so Blue will stop punching me. With a scream coming from my very soul, I throw her over my head, and she falls, hard. 

Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I can see blood. But also, for the first time, in a long time I feel different. I feel alive, truly alive. 

“Come on!! There’s two of you, you can do better than this!” I yell, throwing my hair back, and hearing all around me, the screams and cheers from the crowd, they are going wild.

The twins stare at me, full of homicidal rage, and shoot in opposite directions, faster than a gust of wind. 

“They attack from above, watch the cage!!” Ranma shouts from somewhere to my right, and I immediately look up. True enough, one of them is already climbing up the wire cage while the other one tries to push me into a corner. I shuffle us until we are in the middle of the ring, it’s Blue again. 

That’s when I realize, they have very strict roles within the cage. One violently attacks, while the other one is distracting the opponent. Blue is the bait, Red is the hammer. 

Fine, I should get rid of all the distractions then. 

I block the first kick while I listen to Red get ready to drop down on me. I have to be quick, I can’t get caged in again. I throw quick punches, first to the stomach and then to the arm, gritting my teeth and backing into the opposite side of the cage, forcing Red to move if she wants to come at me from above. 

Blue gets cocky, throwing a powerful punch that I dodge, faking a move and getting under her arm, placing myself behind her and putting my arm under her neck. Finally, executing a chokehold, using all of my strength. She screams and scratches me, shoving us hard against the wall of the cage. My back bearing the brunt of it, but I grit my teeth, still pressing into the chokehold while she runs out of air.  

That’s when Red falls, but has no angle to hit me, she just lands next to me and attacks. I turn holding her sister, who is quickly becoming as blue as her outfit. 

Blue’s legs give out, dropping unto the ground, while I, exhausted and panting, back away never letting Red out of my sight. I see her desperation, her indignation, and her anger. 

She screams at me in chinese. I guess it’s personal now. 

I hold my arm, my shoulder feels damaged. Throwing my hair back again, I get back into a defensive stance. 

I no longer hear anything, no longer see the glaring lights, I only see her, who also takes up a kung-fu stance. 

She comes at me, now that the bait and switch is over, so is the subtlety. I dodge Blue’s body, it’s time to end this. All of my teachings, all my time spent training, all of my fights, all of my pain and suffering gather in my fists, in my legs.

Her punches are quick, but all that speed makes them less powerful. I dodge the first few, block the next, and eventually counterattack with a high kick. Jumping back into a somersault, I land a good kick straight to her face, which makes her fall, bleeding, at last. 

She rises once more, I’ll need something stronger to keep her down permanently. 

Dropping my arms, absolutely focused on her, when she comes at me I just dodge and grab her by her jacket lapel, draggin her to the ground, but she still manages to punch me right in the temple. I can hear a high whistling sound in my head, but even then, I don’t let go of her lapel, rising back and punching her in the face. 

The fight gets dirty and messy, until she frees herself twisting her own arm, spluttering and sporting a black eye. I don’t think I’m doing much better. 

I have to end this as soon as possible. I’m panting uncontrollably, my hand bandages feel unbelievably tight, the pain of every punch feels fresh in my body. 

But I’m tougher than her, I know I am. 

I see her climbing again, such an asshole. Keeping my distance, never letting her out of my sight like she was an annoying fly on the wall, I realize the key is to hit her while she flies down, a punch in mid-air. I wait, closing my fists, putting my leg forward. 

She again screams something incomprehensible, and shamelessly takes out a fine blade out of her sleeve. I grit my teeth. 

“GET ON WITH IT”, I taunt, like I’ve gone mad. Maybe I have. 

She falls with the blade between her two hands, diving fast, straight towards me. I only have a tenth of a second to think, to calculate the exact point, the perfect angle. I lunge towards her, she tries to stab me while I kick her so hard that she flies off to the side of the cage. Like scoring a goal. 

She screams in pain and collapses, close to her sister. She tries to get up, but I can’t let that happen. I run to her, lift my leg and dropkick her with everything I have, straight into her chest. She tries to scream, but nothing comes out, she becomes perfectly still. Panting, sweating and bleeding, I stare at the two women at my feet. 

This is..have I…Did I win?

I turn, someone has opened the cage, and I hear once again the screaming, the cheering, a thousand times louder than when I went in. I see him standing on the other side, I would say smiling but it’s hard to tell, my vision is getting cloudy. Staggering, trying to get away from the heat from the lights, the euphoria from my win finally catches up to me. So does the pain. 

“I told you she could fight!”, the old man’s voice rings out in the middle of the celebration, I can only give a painful smile while a couple of hands rest on my shoulders. 

“This has been…I mean…”, weakly, I look up, I feel like my cheek is swelling up, and Ranma is there, just as bruised and battered as me, mouth open in awe. One of his hands rests gently on my cheek, and he clicks his tongue while he checks out my face, “you’ll need some ice”. 

“I’ve won”. I can’t believe it. I’m still processing, I guess. Ranma nods, and smiles. Yes, smiles. Wide grin, hypnotic even. 

“You can fight”.

“I told you I could”. 

“Yeah, you did”.

“I want my money”.

He laughs, genuinely, nods and grabs my hands. I let him, because out of everyone here, out of all the strangers in this place, he is the only one I can kind of consider a friend. 

I teeter up the stairs, holding onto the railings, gritting my teeth while the heat of the fight slowly drains out of me, leaving only exalted feelings and wounds pulsating higher and sharper. 

Many people congratulate us, others curse when we walk by, I guess it’s the people that have lost the most money. Ranma weaves us through the people, and I don’t  let him out of my sight. Finally, we reach a hallway filled with people, but I don’t really pay any particular attention to them. Ranma seems to be in a bad mood, because he moves them out of the way, without manners, and opens a door where he pushes me through. 

“Sit”, he says while pointing at an old couch. More than sit, I melt into it, my legs hanging off one side, and my head spinning out of control. Going from the hubbub into a relatively quiet place really makes me understand what just happened, what I just did. What I achieved. 

Ranma bends next to me, and ices my face so gently, so delicately, with more care than anyone ever shows me, and his expression is definitely one of perplexed and worried. In fact, his face keeps alternating between both expressions, in a very funny way. 

“I’m fine, really”, I say, trying to calm him down. 

“After my first fight, I couldn’t move in three days”, he answers, like he is trying to teach me an important lesson, but I’m trying to not make a big deal about it. 

“I just need a moment, and a few painkillers”, I counter whilst closing my eyes, trying to overcome the nausea and the fatigue. 

The door suddenly opens, and a very tall, but very agitated man appears, hollering at Ranma “go see the doctor immediately, and get him to stitch that wound!”.

“It’s just a scratch, I’ll go in a minute”, he mutters back, but he stops tending to my wounds. “Now Ranma, I mean it”. 

“Tell that quack to come here then, he’s not getting paid to stand around”, he replies, turning again towards me, but I grab the ice pack and hold it myself against my cheek. 

“I’ll stay with the girl, if that’s the problem”.

“It isn’t, and that would make it worse”.

“He’s right, you’re still bleeding”, I know I tend to butt in, but I can’t help it, both men stop arguing and stare at me.

“Stop being so damn stubborn, the third fight is about to begin, you should be there before they have to scoop up the other guy from the mat and you have to wait”.

“Fuck…”, Ranma gets up, grabs a pack of gauze, and wraps them around his side. He looks down at me, and I try to sit up, so he can stop worrying, but sounding grave, he says “I’ll be right back”. He turns towards the other man, and tells him, “If the old man shows up, you keep him here, I have to talk to him”. 

“Don’t worry about it”.

He gives me one last, worried glance, before he leaves the small room, and I end up alone with the other guy. He watches me with caution while he opens a small fridge and offers me a bottle of water, which I proceed to drink in one gulp, trying to get rid of the taste of blood in my mouth.  

“Slow down”, he admonishes while smiling, “there’s a bathroom with a shower behind that door if you want to…”

“Thanks, maybe later, when I get my money”.

“Tarô usually drops by at the end of the evening, and splits part of the betting pool with the winner. It’s around five percent of the total gambled in the fight, not bad, don’t you think?”

“It’s not like I know how this place works…”, I sigh while trying to stay perpendicular enough with the couch. Now that the adrenaline is leaving my body, I am feeling very, very tired. 

“How did you end up here? And how do you know my brother?”

I blink. Brothers? They look nothing alike. 

“I don’t know him that well, he only walked me home once”, I answer, feeling a little awkward and fidgeting with the bottle in my hands.

“You wouldn’t happen to work in a restaurant, would you?”

“How do you know?”

The guy starts laughing like a maniac, and when he’s done, I still don’t get what is so funny. He eyes me, suddenly very interested, and then goes to get a medical kit, leaving it next to me on the sofa. 

“Bandage your arm and ribs, or they’ll hurt like hell tomorrow”. 

“Tomorrow is the busiest day at the restaurant”, I reply, while digging into the medical kit and finding a bottle of painkillers. Without a care, I pop one in my mouth and swallow. 

“I’ll keep watch outside, if you want to take a shower or bandage up. Whatever you need, just let me know”. 

I nod, grateful. He walks out, and I breathe, finally alone. I start to remove the bandages from my hands, and my knuckles are open, raw. I clean them up with disinfectant, bandage them again, but loosely this time. 

I go into the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. 

Oh my god. It’s bad. Really bad. I wash my face and go over all the punches, taking of my shirt and doing as told, bandaging tightly around my ribs, my arm and one of my knees. 

Afterwards, I go back to the sofa where I finish that water bottle, and where thankfully, the painkiller starts to take effect. I curl up, tucking my hands under my head. I’ve never been so tired in my life. I hate putting my guard down, especially in this place, but this is beyond me. 

I fall asleep within seconds.

.

..

…

When I wake up, a fight is going on. I slowly open my eyes to screams and protests, and get up, barely realizing that I’ve fallen deeply asleep on the locker room couch. Slightly dumbfounded, I don’t get why the very heated argument happening right in front of me didn’t wake me earlier. 

“Fucking old greedy geezer!! What you did was fucking reckless!”. Ranma is screaming at the old man, grabbing him by the neck, and the other guy, the one he says is his brother is trying to get him to let go, but not really succeeding. 

“I don’t get what you are complaining about!! You started out the same!”, the old man snaps back, twisting himself while staring menacingly. 

“It’s not the same! I had fought before!!”

“Ranma, calm down”, his brother begs. 

“Are you fucking blind?? She had fought before too!” Happosai retorts while freeing himself from Ranma’s hold, who doesn’t seem ready to let go. 

“She could have died!!” Ranma yells. 

“She won!”, the old man replies. 

I think it’s time for me to speak up.

“I wanted to fight”, I say as I struggle to rise, and that’s when I feel something slip down my body. I see a red jacket pooled around me on the floor, and only then I realize. They must have placed it on me. 

This simple gesture, the care, the attention. I’m stunned. I blink, trying to get back into the discussion. “I came willingly”, I repeat, while picking up the jacket and handing it back to the man in front of me, with wild black hair, and no more blood on his face. Just a lot of bandages. 

He looks at me, and seems to let go of some of his anger, just for a second, before glaring back at the old man and aiming a very menacing finger at him. 

“Don’t ever mess with her with your shitty, empty promises old man. This has been the first and last time”. 

“You speak for her?” Happosai jeers, crossing his arms. The jacket is still in my arms, I try to not flinch from the pain. 

“Since when do you think you can decide things for me?”

The other guy, the “brother”, is apparently having the time of his life, his eyes looking over everyone, fervent attention never wavering. 

Ranma sighs while impatiently turning towards me. We are not that close that he can tell me what to do or where to be, as a matter of fact, no one has told me what to do since I turned seventeen, and I’m not gonna let anyone change that fact. 

“They could have killed you”, he tries to make the point. I raise my chin, proud but in pain. 

“And?”

“And this isn’t a place where you should be, even if you know how to fight. There are way more dangerous people than those twins, and Tarô loves to raise the stakes and claim favorites just to watch them be destroyed, for fun. He’s a fucking sadist, and you are a perfect victim. Don’t make it easy for him, don’t give him the satisfaction”, he finishes by coming up to me, towering over me, I can feel his breath on me, his steady eyes trying to make me understand. 

The problem, I understand perfectly. But I am desperate. “I need the money”, I growl behind gritted teeth. 

“It’s not worth it”, he replies.

“But you fight every week”, I snap back, starting to get mad at this guy, clenching my fists trying to control myself.

“No, not every week. And it’s not the same”

“Is it because I’m a girl?”. A low whistle comes out from his brother behind him, and he purses his lips like he just swallowed a bitter pill. 

“It’s because you are weak”, he snarls, filled with as much rage as I am. 

We stare at each other, about to explode, and I’m very tempted to show him how wrong he is, when the sound of a fancy pair of shoes walking towards us snaps us out of it. Someone knocks on the door, letting his presence be known to the room.

“Am I bothering my winners?”, a man dressed in an exquisite, expensive looking gray suit, asks. Another man walks after him, with two large bags which he dumps beside him. “Your winnings for the night, I hope you spend them responsibly”, he chuckles, delighted with himself, until his eyes set on me and his smile grows even larger. “Miss Akane, it has been an absolute pleasure having you as my guest. I do hope you come back and delight us with your presence. Happosai says you’ll rank rather well, and my spotter is never wrong”. 

I hear the very tall man in front of me grunt, and see his feet shuffle softly, just enough to hide me from sight. 

“Tarô”, he spits out his name, you can feel the venom in the way he says it. If I thought he could be dangerous before, it seems I had barely scratched the surface of his rage. So this is the dangerous man he was trying to warn me about. I step out from behind me, to see the guy. 

“Saotome, did Mousse give you too much trouble? Almost everyone had bet on you, if you had the decency to lose I would have become even wealthier”, he says it in a way that he must assume comes off as friendly and cheerful, but Ranma only tightens his jaw.

“You are not that lucky”.

“Maybe not tonight”, he counters, like it’s only a matter of time before Ranma loses, like he wants to watch him fall, “Anyway, I’m off, do let me know when you would like to fight again”. 

“She’s never fighting again Tarô. Leave her out of it,” he roars, and I am taken aback. My jaw is shaking, the fact that he is speaking for me is so upsetting, I get a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I get that he wants to protect me, and I would love nothing more than to bask in that feeling, but he doesn’t understand that I have something to achieve. 

“I’ll be back”, I say as I step out from behind Ranma. He looks at me, danger flashing in his eyes, every part of him screaming at me to shut up. 

“Didn’t doubt it for a second”, Tarô replies, and looks at me before winking, and leaving with his bodyguard behind. 

The silence becomes overwhelming, in the tiny locker room. I feel slightly ill, thinking about how hard he has tried to get me away from this, and how he has failed. His mouth is crooked, his eyebrows pushed together, his breathing, heavy. 

“Well, lovely, time to count your money”, Happosai quipped, throwing me one of the bags, and only then, do I temporarily forget the angry fighter that wants to strangle me. I open the bag and can’t comprehend the absurd amount of bills in there. 

“How…how much is in here?”, my legs tremble when I ask.

“Three million”, the old man grins, “I don’t lie girly”

“Three…MILLION?”

I stare at the bag, my throat feels so dry I can’t even swallow. However Ranma doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to his bag. 

“Fine, if you have a dying wish, I can’t stop you”, his voice is cold as ice, distant. He won’t look at me, won’t look at anyone while he stands firm, towering over everyone in the middle of the room. I close my bag with shaking hands, feeling so exposed in a way I’ve never felt before. 

I guess I owe him an explanation. Or at least, an apology.

“Listen…”

“No, YOU listen”, he turns towards me so fast, and I can feel his barely contained anger come raging out of his mouth, with a few steps he has me backed up against the damn couch, “They will hurt you. They will leave you half dead! And if you still keep coming back because of the damn money, you’ll be sold to some chinese mafia, left somewhere no one, even your family, will ever find you. You never should have come through that door!”

I can’t help but shrink a little, at his anger, for the way he is speaking to me, for being so out of sorts, but in a second, my pride and my stubborn nature come out. 

“I can win!”

“Sooner or later…you’ll lose”, he replies, deathly serious, like he has seen a future that leaves no room for other alternatives. 

“If you are that worried, why don’t you train her?”, the old man glibly says, in the middle of our heated discussion. We both turn to see him, stunned by such an absurd idea, and yet, something new, and hopeful, is blossoming inside me, at the idea that someone like him could take me on as a student. 

The old man finally looks tired, he cracks his back, lights his pipe, and smokes. 

“I’m going to bed, these old bones have seen enough battles for one day. You’ll have to figure it out without me”, he turns just before walking out the door, “Akane-chan, it has been a pleasure. I will see you soon, I am sure you’ll learn some new tricks”. 

He leaves us, Ranma, his so-called brother and myself, speechless, with the suggestion still floating in the air. Ranma huffs, I stare, still holding onto my bag and his jacket, unwilling to leave without either. 

He runs a hand over his face, rubs his eyes, whimpers, and finally, his shoulders sink. 

“We start Sunday”, he mutters, subdued. 

It takes me a second, but I realize he accepted the challenge, and not only that, he is throwing it back. 

“B-but, on Sundays I help out at the market…”

“And now you don’t, this is more important, do you understand?”

I can only nod. He picks up his bag, and looks at me like he just pardoned my life. 

“I’ll walk you home”

.

..

…

I try not to limp, as hard as I can. The damage to my knee isn’t the worst of all my aches and pains, but my own weight pushing down on it during the walk home, makes me think that at some point I’ll need to sit down, probably sooner than later.

Ranma walks straight and vaguely menacing, with his hands in his pockets and silent as a grave. 

I’m keeping a very safe and prudent two meters, about seven feet behind him, hugging my bag close to my chest. It feels dangerous to have this much money on me. It’s not like I am in any real danger right now, especially with the company I have at the moment. Ranma by himself is overwhelming, no one is coming up to him, not even by mistake. 

My house isn’t close, and I think I’ll have to take a bus at some point, but I don’t dare interrupt this self-imposed silence. I know he is mad at me, although I don’t think he has real reasons to be mad besides the fact that I chose not to follow his advice.

My knee is burning, I really need to get on a bus. I stop, and not hearing my steps behind him, make him turn slowly, clearly tired. 

“The bus would save us an hour’s worth”, I point behind me, towards a corner to our left. He shrugs his shoulders, and walks back, towards the bus stop. I check the schedule on my phone, and breathe out of relief when I sit down at the bus stop bench, stretching my leg. 

This is kind of ridiculous, with this much money I could afford the small luxury of a cab. But I hold back, because I need every measly, miserable yen. 

Once again, deathly quiet and with his arms crossed staring at both sides of the street, he looks more like my bodyguard, than a companion. 

The bus doesn’t take too long, and he waits for me to get on it, before getting on himself. Like he’s trying to keep an eye on me, or maybe because it’s the gentlemanly thing to do, I don’t know. We sit all the way in the back, Ranma also sighing when he sits and stretches his legs, which reach the seat in front of us. I wonder if he can fit in a small airplane seat, with those long legs of his. 

“Thank you for helping me out during the fight”, I try to start a friendly chat, “your suggestions were very useful”. 

He looks at me sideways, with those deep azure eyes. He doesn’t smile, just shrugs. I’m kind of missing the old him, the shy and curious one. 

“You fight well”, he admits, and not begrudgingly, he really means it. His acknowledgment makes my heart race, and a small smile reaches my lips, it feels like another win tonight. 

“Thanks, you…you are amazing”, I can hear myself stutter, bashfully, like I just became his biggest fan after this showing. I blush, clear my throat, and finally, make him smile again. 

He looks at me interested, pleased by my compliment. He is so vain. 

“Yes, well, I still don’t fight every week, my brother and I usually only take part once a month, and that’s enough to cover our bills”. 

I nod, understanding the situation. If I have won three million yen in one night, I can’t imagine how much more he has won. This guy is a mystery, he doesn’t seem rich or desperate, just indifferent. Rolling with the punches. I think I envy him a little. 

“Have you ever won as much?”, I ask, couldn’t help myself. Ranma looks around, making sure no one can hear us.

“No, everyone bets on me, so Tarô’s winnings when I fight aren’t that great. That’s why he’s wishing I would lose, I’m becoming too much of a regular in that cesspool”.

“So this isn’t normal?”, I ask, trying to understand how this new world works. Ranma shakes his head.

“The more likely you are to win, the more the bets skew towards you. You only make really good money when you go up against someone really good, or in your case, it’s your first time. It’s the best money you are ever going to get, which is why you should take it and run, never come back, before you really get hurt”.

“But you are still fighting”, I say, and he sighs while putting his hands in his pockets. 

“It pays the bills, and it’s not like I know how to do anything else”.

The bus reaches my stop, and I insist on walking the rest of the way by myself, but he won’t let me go alone, especially not when I’m walking with three million yen in a bag. 

The night is cold and silent, I burrow into my coat while Ranma stops at a combini. I count with my fingers. Three million, plus what I make in a year at the cafeteria, not counting extra work, or Sundays at the market. It is a small fortune, but nowhere near enough. 

I would need forty nights like this one, to be able to pay Kuno back, but it is a good start. 

Ranma leaves the combini with a bag in his hand and a pleased face. He hands me a tonkatsu and egg snack, I can’t believe it. 

“Don’t tell me you are not hungry, I’m sure you haven’t eaten from the nerves”

And he is absolutely right, I take the food while thanking him, and finish the whole thing in three bites on the way to the lodging house. He looks at me while he eats his own, much slower than I did. He must think I’m starving all the time. He goes through his bag again, and gives me a rice ball, filled with tuna. I can’t help but blush and bite my lower lip.

“Eat”, he insists, “or your bruises won’t heal”. 

I’m dying of shame, but I accept, and this time, I eat it like a lady, small bites. But still, scandalously fast. 

He smiles and seems very pleased with himself since we ran into each other at the cage. He finishes his own snacks and puts his hand inside the bag, again. He seems capable of pulling anything out of it by now. 

“I guess you earned it”, he says while he places an ice popsicle in my hand. Lemon flavored. I am immediately sent back to my childhood, of warm afternoons with my sisters under the porch eating watermelon, and our mother gifting us some ice popsicles. 

I will not cry over a lemon flavored ice popsicle. 

I pout with my lips. 

“You don’t like it? If you don’t want it, I’ll eat it”, he says as he pulls another one out of the bag, ripping off the paper wrapping, putting the whole thing in his mouth. 

I shake my head, and also rip off the paper, biting into it with delight. I could moan from how good it is. The ice popsicle isn’t only delicious, but it also soothes all the punches I took to the face. I should have known. 

Ranma walks beside me, no longer in front of me, with heavy steps, but at my rhythm. He adapts to me. He is keeping me company, just like he said he would, and I like that. It softens me, fills me with a feeling I can’t name, or explain. 

“Thank you”, I say as I finish the popsicle, he finished his a while ago, and kept the stick in his mouth, mindlessly. The lodger house is in front of us, but I point towards the bath house.

“It must be annoying not having a bath at home”, he blurted, following me inside and again, paying again. 

“I’m used to it”, I answer while shrugging my shoulders. 

Mrs. Matsuri is staring, probably at all the noticeable bruises in our faces, but is polite enough not to say anything. I scrub off all the sweat and blood, I won’t go into the bath today, not with so many wounds, it doesn’t seem right, but I do spend a long time under the showerhead, letting it drip down my body while I assess the damages. 

When I get out he’s still waiting on me, I get close enough I can smell the soap on his skin. He looks relaxed, nothing like the angry guy I was dealing with for most of the afternoon. He’s holding a large tea bottle, which he offers up. 

I can’t deny I’m thirsty. 

I take several sips from it before handing it back, but he kindly lets me know I can keep it. We make it to the front of the lodger house, the small pension where I rent a room that fits my whole existence. 

“I’ll be by on Sunday at six am, to begin your training”.

“I’m usually running at that time”, I quickly reply.

“I know”, he smiles. 

“What does that mean? Have you been spying on me?”

He just chuckles, while he turns and leaves. I stare for a while, watching his figure walk away through the lonely street.

How many things has he given me today? And how many has he received in return?

I squeeze the tea bottle. I have three million yen, and the promise of making even more money. I didn’t show up for work today, fought to the death in a ring, and won. 

I had an ice popsicle with a boy. 

I could swear it has been the best Friday of my life. 

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NOTE: AAHH!! Did you see? We had a guest illustrator for this chapter! We absolutely loved all her art ❤️!

A huge thank you to Shojoranko for collaborating with us on this chapter. We LOVE her RanAkane fanfictions and fanarts. Go check out her social media on X and FF

*A huge thank you to Dani for translating chapters 2 and 3!! You’re a lifesaver.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

I wrote this chapter a while ago. For Akane’s first fight, I chose the twin sisters, Pink and Link, even though they don’t appear until the later volumes of the original manga. They’re complementary characters with a strong comedic role, and I’m sorry if I didn’t do them justice in this fic, but I needed a challenge for our girl, and I thought: what’s better than a 2-for-1?

What I enjoyed the most were the scenes where Ranma steps in—he’s just too sweet with her. And as the title suggests, if you set your mind to it, there’s always time for ice cream.

As always, I want to thank my betas, Lucita-chan and SakuraSaotome, for taking the time to proofread this. Lately, I’ve been giving them too much work—I’ll have to make it up to them.

I also want to thank Shojoranko for her wonderful collaboration on this chapter with her beautiful illustrations. They’re full of color and energy! She’s done an impeccable job, and I hope she keeps surprising us with her gorgeous art in the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Isa’s art, as always, is so beautiful—it makes me wish I had included more romantic scenes! But I must stay strong for the sake of the plot!

Thank you all for your lovely comments. Kisses!

Lum

ILLUSTRATOR’S NOTE:

Ah, I got delayed… Lum writes so fast, and I draw so slowly. I hope you liked the illustrations for this chapter. Shojo’s collaboration was the best!! I loved seeing her interpretation of the scenes.

What did you think of the chapter? Our girl is happy—despite the beating she took… she’s happy. And Ranma is so… 🫦 worried and handsome. LOL, I love him.

By the way, Shojo is one of my favorite Rankane authors—go read EVERYTHING by her! But especially Hijos del Jade,  Oh god, I just want to share the trauma. Come suffer with me! Just put on If the World Was Ending in the background and go full depressive mode (for those who, like me, enjoy suffering while reading).

I hope you leave us some lovely comments, and see you in the next chapter!

Isa