A Perspective of Time and Relationships, pt IIIb

[will_marx 0]

NERIMA

Three blocks north of Furinkan HS

 

The Admiral’s runabout touched down in an empty lot.  The personnel hatch opened and William stepped out, school bag in hand.  He nodded to his father and the pilot and the runabout departed.  Marx walked over towards the Saotome residence and looked around.  The dojo sign was still there, as was another sign that read, “To challenge owner to savage combat, use rear entrance.”  He opened the gate, entered, and walked towards the sounds of Ranko and her father sparring.  

 

There was a tap at his shoulder.  Marx spun around.  Standing there was Nodoka, katana barely out of the elaborately lacquered wooden sheath.  “Ah, Marx-san,” She said in Japanese-accented English.  She slid the katana back into its sheath.  “Ohayo.  What can I do for you?”

 

“Ah, ohayo gozaimasu, Saotome-domo…My father transferred me into Furinkan, and I wanted to walk to school with Ranko this morning.”

 

“Then please, call me Auntie.”  

 

“O-of course, Auntie Saotome.”

 

“We’ll see if she’s done sparring with her father yet.  Would you follow me?”  Without waiting for an answer, Nodoka headed for the training yard.  Marx followed.  As they rounded the corner of the house, they could see the clouds of dust that the two martial artists were kicking up.  “Ranko,” her mother called, “Marx-san is here.  He wants to walk to school with you.”

 

Ranko let her defenses down, and her father took advantage of it by kicking her into the koi pond.  “Never let your guard down.”

 

Ranko surfaced and shook out her red hair.  “Why did you do that for, oyaji?”

 

“Because you let you guard down, so I took…Oof!”  Genma never saw Marx give his sensei a flying kick to the back of the head.  The overweight martial artist went down like a sack of bricks.

 

“I believe you were saying something about letting your guard down, sensei.”  Marx said smiling to the prone Genma, as he held his hand out to help Ranko out of the pond.  He averted his eyes when he saw her white gi clinging to, and lost its opaqueness in, places it normally shouldn’t.

 

“Thanks Bill-kun.  Let me go change real quick, and we’ll leave for school.”  Ranko said, as she trotted into the house.  Within five minutes, Ranko was back, dressed in her normal Chinese-style clothes.  “Ready Bill?”

 

He nodded, and they left the Saotome compound, headed for Furinkan.  “How come you’re going to Furinkan now?  Weren’t you in an Academy prep school?”

 

“My father transferred me.  He was saying something about change being a good thing, and we’d get more time to spar.”

Ranko looked at Marx and grinned.  “If you want sparring, Bill-kun, then you’ll get it.”

 

“How so?”

 

“Well, there’s this upperclassman who thinks he’s Kami’s gift to martial arts.  He laid down a challenge, that anyone who can defeat me will date me.  He also thinks that the day he defeats me, I’ll date him.  

 

“I’ve dusted him everyday since he issued that stupid challenge.”

 

They approached the gates of the high school.  There were about forty or so boys standing around.  “Stay back, Bill.  This’ll get messy.”

 

“Ranko Saotome, I love you!”  WHAM!

 

“Ranko, please go out with me!”  BAM!

 

“Ranko!”  SLAP!

 

“I love…” CLONG!

 

“This is for you!”  SMASH!

 

Marx leaned against the outer wall taking in the spectacle before him.  Ranko was like a cheetah on the attack, dodging, weaving, and countering through the would-be suitors.  There were few opportunities for the boys to attack her, before they wound up on an ever-growing pile of wounded and bruised combatants.  His sparring partner was barely breathing heavy, when she looked at the pile of forty-odd wannabe boyfriends.

 

“Truly a boorish lot, these cretins who dare to win thy hand, my pig-tailed goddess.”

 

“Kuno,” Ranko said, “I don’t have time for this.  The bell’s going to ring any moment.”  Ranko motioned for Marx to follow as she headed towards the school.  But a wooden bokken suddenly blocked her path.

 

“Wouldst thou not spar with me, my love?  Must I once again prove my worth to you?  Should we not show all the peasants that only I am the truly worthy one to receive thy favors?  Very well, if you can defeat me, I will allow you to date with me.”

 

Marx walked over to Ranko.  “My, you’re popular today.  Who’s the blowhard?”

 

There was a bokken pointed at Marx’s chest.  “You there, you are being quite familiar with my pigtailed goddess.”  Marx was about to reply, but Kuno didn’t give him a chance.  “Who are you, boor?  Ah!  But it is customary to give one’s own name first!  Fine then!  Mine I shall give!

 

“My name is Upperclassmen Tatewaki Kuno, Junior, Group E; captain of the Kendo Club, undefeated new star of the high school fencing world.  But my peers call me…The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High.”  There was a bolt of lightning and crash of thunder in the background.

 

Students looking out the windows and standing around were looking at Marx in amazement.  “Ooo!  Someone new is taking on Kuno.”

 

“He must have a death wish.”

 

“Blue Thunder?  That’s a new one.”

 

“Yeah, wasn’t he calling himself the Shooting Star last week?”

 

Marx assumed his stance.  “I am William Marx, an heir to the Antietam Ranch, and a student of the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling.  And I accept your challenge.”  

 

Ranko looked at her friend, as he tossed his bag at her, with an incredulous look on her face.  She shook her head.  “Bill,” she muttered, “he’s going to mop the floor with you.”

 

“Have at thee, knave,” Kuno shouted as he charged Marx.  Marx jumped back as the bokken just barely missed his chest.  The sapling that was next to Marx took the hit, and was severed in two.  

 

“Impressive,” Marx said, as he dodged another blow.  He ducked past Kuno’s defenses and gave four quick rabbit punches to Kuno’s stomach.  The wannabe samurai staggered back after the last hit.

 

“What be this?  I, Tatewaki Kuno have been struck?”  Kuno paused and looked at Marx.  “A practitioner of black magic, no doubt, who not only managed to hit me, but has also ensorcelled my pigtailed goddess.  I must smite thee with the vengeance of Heaven.  That is the duty of a noble…urk” As Kuno was pontificating; Marx hit him with a series of quick blows that knocked the wind out of his sails.

 

“Blowhard,” Marx muttered.  Kuno recovered and charged the young martial artist, bokken swinging.

 

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  Strike!  Strike!  Strike!  Strike!”  Marx kept backpedaling as Kuno tried to hit him with the bokken.  With a flip over Kuno, Marx landed and tripped up the delusional kendoist, sending him flying.

 

“Shall we go inside,” Marx asked of Ranko as the bell rang.

 

“Bill, look out!”  She called as Kuno charged.  With an air of casualness, Marx elbowed Kuno in the gut, brought his fist up quickly; smashing Kuno’s nose then brought it down into a very…tender area of male anatomy.  

 

Kuno sank to his knees, clutching himself, tears pouring down his face.  “Marx,” he gasped, “I fight on.”  He then promptly keeled over, and passed out.

 

Marx looked at the kendoist lying on the ground.  “Don’t try to attack me from behind.  And that last hit’s for annoying my friend.”

 

* * *

 

Up in one of the classrooms, the teacher was introducing a new student to the class.  “Class, we have a new student transferring in from Rhydin High School, William Marx.  However, that does not excuse you from being late with Ms. Saotome.  

 

“Stand in the hall.”  Marx nodded, and joined his sparring partner out in the hall, holding two buckets of dirty mop water.

 

“So what’s with Kuno?”  He asked.

 

“He’s the one that made that stupid challenge that if anyone wanted to date me, they had to defeat me in combat.  I always defeat him when he tries to attack.  But I think he holds a lot back when he fights me, because I’m a girl.”

 

“Some martial artists do when they fight a woman.  Unless they’ve been training with them for some time.”  Ranko smiled at that.  “Besides, I really think Kuno is a bit of a loony any way.  Anyone who thinks that they’re the vengeance of Heaven really needs to have a nice long vacation in a padded 8x8 cell.”

 

“Bill, can I ask you a question?”  Her partner in crime nodded.  “Do you know anything about what our fathers are doing?”

 

Marx shook his head.  “Not a clue.  All I know is that two days ago, my father transferred me here, and told me about it yesterday.  I was not happy about it.”

 

“That’s not the half of it, Bill.  I overheard my father talking to your father the other night.  It was purely by accident that I did.  But it sounded like they were discussing potential marriage plans.  And I know I’m an only child, so there’s a better than ninety percent chance that I’m one half of it.”

 

“And Chris is already married.  Ginny is such a bookworm, that I wouldn’t be surprised if she wound up marrying a Vulcan.  But I doubt she’d be the one marrying you.  Which means…” Marx dropped the buckets he was holding and looked at his sparring partner.  “We’re engaged.  I’m going to kill him.”  He slid his glasses up on to his head, and began rubbing the bridge of his nose.  “I’m so going to kill my old man for his meddling.”

 

The sliding panels behind them slid open.  “You’re engaged!”  The class exclaimed.  There was thudding coming from down the hall.

 

“Marx, you foul daemon.  I will never allow you to enslave my pigtailed goddess!”  Kuno shouted, dressed in his traditional hakama, bokken on his back and a pair of buckets in his hands.  He threw one, then the other bucket at Marx.  “Never, never shall I condone your engagement to my pigtailed goddess!”  Kuno drew his bokken and charged Marx.

Marx ducked the first swing.  “Hey Kuno!  This is no place for a fight.  If you want, follow me!”  Marx ran towards one of the windows, leapt over the ledge and out the window.

 

“Agreed,” was the first reasonable thing that Kuno said, as he leapt out the window.

 

“BILL,” Ranko called, as she saw her erstwhile fiancé jump out the window.  “We’re on the third floor!  And there’s a pool below you!”

 

Marx looked down, as he fell through the air.  “Great, now she tells me,” he muttered, as he hit the water with a splash.  He began swimming away from where he entered, heading for the closest wall of the pool.

 

Kuno hit the water nearest the wall that Marx was swimming for.  As the young martial artist surfaced for air, the deranged kendoist grabbed him.  “Marx,” he said, “I fight…”

Marx, in the midst of a sudden flashback to his being attacked by the wee beastie in that lake up on the High Horn, grabbed the samurai wannabe by his hakama, and slammed him onto the concrete walkway around the pool.  Marx climbed out, water pouring out of his school uniform.  He removed his slippers and poured water out from there as well.  “Never grab me like that,” he said the prostrate and unconscious upperclassman.

 

Ranko came running up.  “You all right, Bill-kun?”

 

Young Marx shook his head, sending water everywhere.  “I’m fine.”  He looked at Kuno.  “Is that baka going to do this every day now?”

 

Ranko looked at her inadvertent fiancé and nodded.  “He’ll never learn.  Nor will he give up, Bill.  Remember when I told you about sparring opportunities here?”  Marx nodded.  “You’ve just made him your number one enemy.”

 

Marx rolled his eyes.  “Great.  Just great.”

 

Ranko smiled at her friend, now fiancé.  “It’s alright, Bill.  The entire family is nuts.  His sister is the undisputed high school Rhythmic Gymnastics champion, but that’s because she attacks her opponents the night before, forcing a forfeit.”

 

Marx shook his head as they entered the school building.  “Pop,” he muttered, “what have you gotten me in?”

 

Ranko chuckled.  “Welcome to Furinkan, Bill-kun.”

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Author's Notes on Japanese used

 

Baka- fool, idiot, moron.  Obviously not a nice term.

 

Bokken- A training sword shaped like a katana, used for practicing forms.

 

Ohayo- Good Morning. Gozaimasu- strengthens, and in this case, formalizes the greeting.

 

Oyaji- Old Man.

 

-domo- Honorific suffix for someone of higher status to whom the speaker is paying respect to.

 

-kun- Honorific suffix for someone whom the speaker is familiar with

 

-san- Default honorific suffix.