Chapter Text
“Hypothetically speaking,” Nabiki began, breaking up the clicking of chopsticks against bowls and dishes. She looked at her younger sister who sat on the other side of the table. “If you ran into someone you knew years ago but didn’t remember them, what would you do?”
Akane scrunched up her brow. What in the world was this about? Dad peeked up over the lip of his morning paper, trying to be sneaky. That little move hadn’t worked since Akane had gotten a surprise growth spurt at the tail end of high school. At least Kasumi wasn’t acting weird about the question. Shrugging, Akane answered, “I guess that depends on if they remember me. If neither of us recognize each other, then I’d probably just treat them like any other stranger.”
Dad looked at Nabiki. His eyes were already forming a sheen of tears. “Okay, let’s say that you don’t recognize them,” Nabiki continued while gesturing with her chopsticks, “but they recognize you. What are you doing?”
“Uh, nothing special?” Akane scooped out the last grains of rice left in her bowl. As usual, she finished a bit faster than the rest of her family despite still not having the tightest schedule around.
When Nabiki went for a piece of seaweed before her next question, Dad poked around the right side of the newspaper, hiding his face from Akane. He whispered something to Nabiki and earned himself an eye roll. “And if they aren’t trying to keep it normal? Say they try to remind you of the good old days when you were all buddy-buddy, thick as thieves. You two were really good friends but it’s been years.”
“Wouldn’t I remember them then?” interjected Akane. She felt like she would remember a person like that. After all, there weren’t that many people that could fall under the description. Her core friend group from high school all attend the University of Tokyo with her even if it was bit of a trip out of Furinkan for all of them. It was a good school, and despite them all studying different things, they hung out almost every day.
Anyone else Akane knew wasn’t exactly what she would call a good friend. Sure, she knew plenty of girls on the various sports team back in high school. They only really interacted with her when they needed her to win a competition for them. The rivals and competition involved with eclectic martial arts barely interacted with her after the match. That was fine by her since they were opposition in some form anyway. Beyond that, well, her classmates weren’t much better company.
“Let’s say it’s really hard to remember them.” Nabiki gave Dad the side-eye before putting on a frankly bored face. “You knew each other as kids, you grew apart naturally, something happened and you hit your head. Who cares what happened. Point is, it’s hard to remember them. Do you try and reconnect with them?”
“I guess?” Dad erupted into tears, releasing all the ones he had built up over the course of this hypothetical question. Although with each passing moment, it seemed less like a ridiculous hypothetical to Akane. It was still ridiculous. It just had to be related to something. “Did I miss something on Friday? I had a hunch that things were going oddly normal. Usually Kuno tries to barge into my kendo tournaments, but I didn’t even hear a thunder sound effect the entire day.”
Kasumi cleared her throat and went for her cup of tea. Nabiki waved her hand, dismissing the topic. “Do you want to ask what’s on your mind, Daddy? Or are we going to keep beating around the bush until we have to leave?”
Dad glanced back and forth between Akane and Nabiki. Tears trickled down his eyes, far less than usual. He probably just needed to drink more water after all that drinking he did last night. “But” —he leaned over to Nabiki— “what if she doesn’t remember?”
“What if she can hear you?” snarked Akane. “Seriously, what’s going on? You can just go ahead and tell me who I forgot. It can’t be that big of a deal.” It couldn’t be a big deal if she forgot that person. Akane considered herself to have a pretty good memory even for the people that she only met for one weird competition.
Once more, Nabiki looked at their father expectantly. Naturally, that only made Dad’s lip quiver as he couldn’t decide whether or not to actually come clean with whatever was going on. Rather than watch this play out, Kasumi grabbed the empty platters and excused herself to the kitchen. Maybe Akane should take a note from her sister before this got any more frustrating. There were plenty of ways to kill some time before her first class of the day.
“The literal worst that can happen is that she forgets you ever asked her about it.” Nabiki grabbed a clump of rice and shoved it into her mouth. Chewing around it, she jerked her chopsticks toward her father. “Just go for it.”
Dad had to take three deep breaths to muster up the courage he needed. He shifted in his set and set down his newspaper. “Akane, do you remember a young man named Ranma?”
Ran… the name slipped away from her mind like water through her hand. She couldn’t cup all of it, only part of it. “Rantaro?” she guessed. Instantly, Dad’s shoulders were sagging and a new wave of tears were gathering up at the edges of his eyes. “Sorry, it’s not ringing any bells.”
“See?” Nabiki swallowed her food. “Harmless. Just like it’s been every other time.” Every other time? They asked this before? Akane was sure she would remember talking about some Rantaro guy before. Surely there couldn't be that many people with that name out there. “I told you it’s no use. Honestly, I don’t get why you keep trying.”
Naturally that was the time Nabiki held out her hand. With tears running down the sides of his face, Dad pulled out a crumpled bill from his pocket and handed it to his middle daughter. She straightened it out along the edge of the table before pocketing it a little self-satisfied grin.
At least that narrowed down what this could possibly be about. Nabiki wasn’t interested in it so there was no way it helped her get more money. Dad was interested in it so it was likely something to do with her love life or an old martial arts debt that somehow managed to go under the radar for the years. Considering that it had something to do with some guy named Rantaro, it could really be either. Although if Akane had supposedly known this guy before, then she was probably forgetting some guy that Dad wanted her to get hitched to.
Wasn’t that Picolet guy enough to teach him this was a bad idea? Ugh, this new guy was probably even creepier than that rich jerk. There was absolutely no way that Akane was going to put up with another so-called engagement. In fact, she didn’t have to put up with it at all.
“I just remembered I agreed to meet up with my friends.” Standing up, Akane brushed off her skirt. “See ya!” She scurried off before either members of her family could stick another weird question in her face.
Technically, Akane didn’t lie about meeting her friends. She just wasn’t doing that before class when all of them had to go to different buildings anyway. Well, most of them. But Akane was in an entirely different program than her friends so it may as well be true.
At the same time, it was much to early to head to class. By more luck than anything, Akane managed to catch the train before her usual one and ended up in Bunkyō much earlier than she would have otherwise. Which was fine. She didn’t usually need to kill time on days with her earlier classes. Breakfast with her family plus the train ride over tended to eat up enough time that she was usually hurrying to class.
Well, there was nothing like a good cup of coffee. Akane could squeeze one in if she kept a little light with dinner or added an extra lap to her run later. Easy enough. Putting a little pep into her step, Akane headed through the streets of the city.
While far from the university campus, Akane’s café of choice was a small and cozy spot she enjoyed regardless of the occasion. If she wanted a quick coffee, there were plenty of chains closer to school. However, there was little like sitting down in a calm neighborhood where she was far from the chaos that usually surrounded her life.
A bell chimed as the door swung open, welcoming Akane into a used bookstore filled with tables and chairs to one side. Nestled behind shelves at the back of the store was a counter, where a woman with pink hair was nursing a creamy cup of coffee. She was idly chatting with a woman not much older than her but with brown hair. That woman was picking apart a croissant with her fingers so she could grab the fluffy insides without any of the flaky parts.
“Wel—” The one with pink hair ducked behind the desk as if that would erase her presence entirely. The other woman looked down beneath the counter and cleared her throat. Two hands shot out around the edge of the counter and grabbed the half-finished coffee, bringing it down to the flimsy hiding spot.
Stepping around the hiding barista, the brunette smiled at Akane. “Welcome to Bousingot! What can I get you started with?” Fabric rustled while Akane approached the counter with her order on the tip of her tongue. “Hm?” The brunette bent down and cupped her ear to her coworker. “Hot chocolate with a shot of espresso?”
“Do I come around that often?” Akane asked, her lips tugging up playfully. Considering how often she switched up her order, she wouldn’t doubt that someone could clock her usual. She didn’t think she frequented the café enough for anyone to do so though. Between Akane and her friends, they tended to rotate who was picking their hangout spot. With six people trying to choose somewhere to go, it was rare to visit the same place within two weeks of the last visit.
Especially since Sayuri always wanted to go to a new trendy spot that had somehow opened up without anyone else being aware of it. And Hiroko had a huge sweet tooth that needed to be fed before a rampaging demon was released again. There was also Asami, who kept picking weirder and weirder areas to explore. At least they got to try new food, but it usually wasn’t worth stumbling upon magical girls battling monsters or a child detective handling a new case.
“Often enough for someone,” said the brunette, although she directed her words more to her coworker than Akane. “Speaking of which, come on out!” Reaching down, she hooked her hands around something and yanked hard.
Held limp by the armpits, the pink-haired woman dangled in the air. The moment she made eye contact with Akane, she snatched her name tag off her apron and stuffed it inside her pocket. “H-Hi there, ‘Ka—uh, I mean, Miss?” She looked away at a particularly uninteresting swirl in the countertop. It must have been a thrill to study that shape and how it came to be in a tree.
Akane snorted. “I guess I do come around too much. Feels like I would have remembered that.” While Akane laughed, the brunette lowered the pink-haired girl back onto her feet and slid over to a coffee bean grinder. Without the support, the girl was a good head shorter than Akane and would probably end up being the shortest around even if all of Akane’s close friends came by. “So, we’ve met before?”
The girl’s eyes darted from a swirl on the counter to something beneath it. “Uh, yeah. Guess you must’a forgot about it.” Slowly, she reached down. And down. And down. Akane raised an eyebrow, tempted to lean over the counter. “Sorry, I just” —The girl grabbed her half-finished cup of coffee and held it in front of herself— “There.”
“Are you always this nervous?” asked Akane. She was sure she would have remembered someone who acted like this. Not many people stuttered that bad when they also had the confidence to go full on pink.
“Nervous? Me?” The girl blew a raspberry and waved off the accusation. “Not in a million years. You just caught me at a bad time, yeah.” She looked the other direction for an excuse. “I’ve got a test on Friday! That’s all. You know how it is. Gotta study, study, study.”
“Uh huh.” Akane scanned the girl’s apron. Bereft of a name tag, the stains were most eye-catching on it. Large splashes marred the dark brown fabric up and down its length until one couldn’t place a hand on it without touching at least one such mark. “What’s got you so troubled?”
The girl blinked, caught off guard by actually needing to elaborate. “Well, there’s… psychology?” She shrugged and continued on, “Didn’t think I’d actually need to pick up something like that, but getting better doesn’t start with the body. The brain’s gotta make the first steps, else everything else don’t mean anything.”
“Oh?” Akane placed one arm on the counter as the girl cupped her coffee with both of her hands. It had long since lost its steam, but what heat remained was undoubtedly calming to grasp. “My friend usually describes psych as more of figuring out someone’s reasons. Something about there being a lot of unconscious links between trauma and behavior?” She didn’t recall much of Asami’s rambles. At least, outside of her connecting Kuno’s actions to a complicated relationship with his mom.
That was funny, but she also didn’t want to think about Kuno doing anything like that with his mom. Or any other person really. Just the idea made her feel gross regardless of who it was with. Regardless of how funny it was to speculate what a relationship between Kuno and that ice skating girl would be.
“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” said the girl. “Everyone has different things to take away from something because of how they approach it. So whatever your friend wanted out of it is what she got since she was looking for that thing.” Impossibly blue eyes looked up at Akane through red eyelashes and pink bangs. “Or something like that. Ain’t exactly my area of expertise.”
“Sounded pretty spot on to me.” Akane smiled, all traces of amusement lost for a genuine softness that couldn’t be wiped away from her face. Were the girl’s eyelashes naturally red or was that a trick of the light between the pink hair dye and the soft overhead lights?
“You’re just saying that.” Despite her words, the girl smiled back at Akane. “I’m just rambling. I don’t really know what I’m talking about. Psych’s super complicated stuff, you know?”
“Isn’t that why you’re going to school? To learn how to explain the complicated stuff?” Akane earned herself an eye roll without a hint of that smile going away. If anything, it grew more fond.
“Well, someone has to explain things to all the dummies out there.” The verbal jab was unexpected but it somehow felt natural coming from the girl. If anything, Akane wanted to hear a little bit more of it.
So she did her best to poke and prod. Channel her inner Nabiki as it were. Akane leaned her weight onto her arm, settling closer to the other girl’s face. “You must have spent awfully long on the other side of that equation. Eventually, you had to start paying it back, right?”
Blue eyes widened and sparkled while a smile grew even wider than before. “Did you just—Oh my gosh.” The girl guffawed. She tried to hide her laughter, but gave up almost immediately when Akane joined in with a slight chuckle of her own. “Ugh, that was so dumb.”
“Hey, you’re still laughing, aren’t you?” Akane kept smiling when her own giggling had died down. “It can’t have been that bad. You’ve probably heard way worse from some guys around here.”
The girl wiped a tear from her eye, rustling her eyelashes slightly out of place. They were definitely a deep red though, a stark contrast to her pink eyebrows and hair. “Well, duh. Half the guys who come in have only gone on pity dates from chicks who don’t got the heart to say no. They couldn’t talk their way out of a paper bag.”
“Hey, some guys aren’t that bad,” Akane protested a little weakly. Although when it came to good guys, she couldn’t come up with that many off the top of her head.
“Oh yeah?” The girl leaned forward with mischief drawn all over her face. “Then name one.”
“There’s uh… Mousse?” Admittedly, he wasn’t the best when Shampoo was around, but most of the time he wasn’t working, he was a fairly normal person. Mostly. “He works at this little Chinese restaurant back in Furinkan and he’s pretty cool. He practices—”
“Hidden weapons style fighting,” said the barista at the same time as Akane.
“You’ve heard of him?”
“A little.” With the way she shrugged, Akane could tell she meant she knew more than she let on. Whatever happened there was probably not her business. Mousse had a rather extensive life outside of his obsessive crush anyway so it wasn’t that hard to believe. “Ran into the guy a few times and kicked his butt. No big deal.”
Huh, small world. Tokyo was a large place but Akane supposed someone had to handle deliveries when Shampoo was too occupied with whatever scheme she was concocting to make Akane’s life an annoyance. Mousse was bound to be running deliveries with his glasses tied to his face. Making Cologne go out and deliver didn’t seem like quite the same friendly face. Especially when she was definitely a large part of the kitchen at the Nekohanten.
A to-go cup slid across the counter and bumped against Akane’s arm. A trail of steam wafted out from the plastic lid and it was nearly scalding to the touch. “Order up,” chided the brunette. “Don’t get too lost in her eyes, Romeo. I’m pretty sure you have a class you have to get to.”
Akane checked her watch. “Oh shoot. Here, what do I owe you?” Before she could open up her wallet, the brunette held up a hand.
“It’s on the house. Consider it a gift for actually talking to this dummy.” She winked and jerked her thumb in the direction of her coworker.
The pink-haired girl blushed and stammered out, “Just because it’s gone well so far, don’t mean—”
“Uh uh.” The brunette pressed a finger against the girl’s lips. “Say it and you’ll jinx it for sure.” The girl rolled her eyes but stopped talking nonetheless. “Good girl. Now say goodbye to your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my—”
“I don’t even know her—”
The two turned away at the same time, faces burning in embarrassment. Akane wasn’t sure her embarrassment being shared was helping to lessen any of it. If anything, it made it worse that it was mutual in some regard.
“I totally believe whatever you were going to say,” said the brunette in the most sarcastic way possible.
“I think I should get going.” Akane was definitely going to try and avoid coming here in the morning if it was going to be like that every time. Gosh, how long was it going to take for her face to stop burning? Surely some fresh air would help cool her down. “I’ll see you around,” she said toward the pink-haired girl before moving to leave.
“Wait.” The girl reached out with one hand and cringed when Akane looked back over her shoulder. She curled her fingers into a first and bit the inside of her lip. “M-My name is… it’s Ranma. Ranma Saotome.”
“Ran…” Akane blinked rapidly. A twinge of pain passed through her forehead but vanished just as quickly as it came.
Scalding heat trickled through her hand and down her arm. When did she get a drink? She didn’t remember ordering one, but she had one. That must have meant she had paid for it or someone had paid for her. A quick glance around showed that none of her friends were in the building though.
Looking back at the two employees behind the counter, she could somewhat tell that they were familiar. They had probably worked a shift when she visited to study with her friends. The brunette was one that Akane definitely saw before but never engaged with beyond ordering. Yet the one with pink hair was a complete mystery. Maybe she was a new hire here. Both of them looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something.
“Uh, thanks for this?” She gestured with her to-go cup. In an instant, the pink-haired girl wilted and dropped onto the counter like a wet towel. She whined into the wooden surface, her ponytail draping across her shoulder with each hiccup of her shoulders. “Is she okay?”
The brunette patted her coworker on the back. “Yeah, she’s okay. She just tends to get moody around girls with blue hair and, well, you know.” The woman waved at Akane and let her wrist fall limp.
Was that a reference to something? Akane wasn’t going to question it. Maybe it was something around Būnkyo that she just didn’t know about yet. “Uh, right. Well, take care!”