Then Less Than Then,
Chapter 1,
All the Money
Based on the series Ranma ½, written by Rumiko Takahashi
revised... again (07/07/2011)
For unknown reasons, Ranma didn't go to the Tendos, didn't meet them and didn't have any problems. Instead he went to Granny Saotome, met her rich friends, got a new set of problems and now has to enter an all girl's university attended as well by Akane and Nabiki, and ... many many, many others
"Stupid school…"
Ranma – eighteen year old, student at Otsuma Women's University – was not happy.
"Stupid dress…"
Ranma – a natural redhead, with her hair tied in a thick braid – was not happy with the pencil skirt hugging her thighs.
"Stupid dad…"
Ranma – shorter than average, sporting a healthy bosom – was not happy with the white blouse firmly holding her female anatomy in place.
"Stupid dorms..."
Ranma – dressed in matching three piece charcoal suit with black vest – was , above all, not happy to attend Women's University of Otsuma, or more to the point, plain not happy to be a girl.
While her gender was the biggest problem, she also had some reservations about the name she used to enrol: Ranko Saotome. What was wrong with her real name? Ranma is a cool name; it's a strong and manly name. Ranko was nice for a girl, something she was not, regardless of what was written on her door.
She sighed, entertaining the idea of changing the name on her door with a big black alcohol marker. Deciding against it because of lack of said big black alcohol marker, she cursed at the other nameplate right under her wrong name. It told her that she was an undergraduate economics, the next biggest pain of being here. She could've been enrolled as physical education teacher, biology even physics maybe, but no, according to granny, you'd only survive in Japan with economics.
Ranma opened the door to what would be her new home for the coming four years. She could vaguely guess what she'd find, but still actually seeing it was another matter. The first room was of course the Genkan which not only had a striking shoe cabinet, but a fancy wall mirror as well. Involuntarily she gave her reflection a look over, much to her annoyance.
Besides the fancy student clothes her hair had been done at one of the most expensive hairdressers of Tokyo, her nails were manicured and polished, her face was an artwork of make-up and her subtle jewellery glittered mockingly.
She took of her stylish calf-high black Boss shoes, and exchanged them for black Babe slippers with silver swirling lines as decoration. She stepped from the dark hard-wooden Genkan on the soft crème coloured carpet and entered her apartment.
She stepped into a large room with ceiling-high windows directly opposite the door and to her left. From the floor up, about six feet, were stylish dark brown cupboards with slide doors. The cupboard's top serving as windowsills. A low black wooden dinner table dominated the first part of the room with a glass surface top encircled by chairs made in the same black wood and finished with black cushions.
Walking deeper in the room she found something she might come to like: a sofa, a huge black corner sofa that dominated the other half of the room. She turned around and – looking at the dinner table – noticed that the two looked very much alike in style.
The sofa encircled a larger than usual black tea table with a wooden frame and a glass top. Ranma's face fell when she noticed no warm blankies under the tea table to warm her feet under. Complaining under her breath about silly western ideas about furniture taking over her room, Ranma continued, scanning the rest of the room.
On both sides of the living room there were futuma, paper sliding doors. Ranma walked over to the one on her left, slid it open and walked inside a bedroom. The first thing she saw was a double bed - again build with black wood - with a crème coloured cover, a nightstand on both sides and a dresser opposite the bed. On the other half of the room were the same ceiling-high windows, with a big L shaped desk and a comfy officechair.
There were two doors in the middle of the room. One that she assumed would lead to the bathroom the other to the toilet. Whistling, she had to admit that these dorms had style. She might not care for it and the extravagance but she'd be living in luxury. Moreso because she knew this place was meant for two, but her granny had made sure that she had the place all for herself.
Nevertheless, as far as Ranma was concerned, the fancy room and privacy that came with it, was the only upside to this. Not only did she have to follow class in a subject that absolutely didn't interest her, granny had supplied her with an army of other luxurious trinkets.
She walked back to the dining room and sighed. She threw her purse on the table, leaned against the table and began pondering her situation.
She'd be starting a four year course in economics. Economics? She didn't think she was able to hate any other course more than Economics, and she could know. To pass the entrance exam, she had studied... a lot.
"Aaah, this can't be happening," she complained. "Why me?" she sighed again and began massaging her temples. Feeling like sitting down, she walked over to the sofa, and sat down.
'Remember Ranma, education is important,' she remembered her father telling her.
"That's alright old man," She grumbled, imagining her dad in front of her. "But why choose a damn girl university?" frustrated she grinded her teeth and threw a cushion at the wall.
'Remember Ranma, your grandma is dying,' her dad had continued when trying to convince Ranma to enrol at Otsuma's university. 'She doesn't have long, and you don't want to disappoint the old woman who would be so happy to have a granddaughter finishing the school where she learned everything she had to know in life'
"You money hungry no good bloody defect of nature," she grumbled, feeling some tension drift away while throwing insults at her father.
'The only reason the fast bastard thought university is any good is because of the more than generous amount of money I'll get when I successfully complete this year'. Irritated Ranma combed her hair pondering her situation. "blegh...," Ranma balked and stuck out her tongue in distaste at the thought of having to complete the course, as girl. She couldn't even just skip class because she had to pass.
"Damn it! I'd be more than happy to get rid of Ranko. Wouldn't miss her a bit!" feeling the familiar sting of anger at the thought of continuously walking around as girl she sat right up and balled her fist, letting her nails dug into her palm.
"Only bright side is that I will get the money, and not him," she though with a smirk, which turned wry the next second. "No reason to turn girl though! Humph, no reason at all" with a huff, she grabbed another cushion and threw that one against the wall as well.
"Good thing dad got me following school in the past," she mumbled getting up from the sofa. " Wanna bet he knew about the money though?" her eyes were as hard as steel for a moment "Wanna bet he knew and made me follow school! Hmph, would be just like him. Old fat bastard." She shook her head, grinding her teeth.
"Even worse," she observed her room, a frown appearing on her forehead. "Granny decided to have some fun before she crokes." She idly walked away from the sofa towards the table. Next to her purse was a brand new laptop. She had chosen it together with her grandmother. She wanted red, granny wanted pink, they got purple.
Ranma sighed as observed her new Dell XPS; she twitched as she considered its purple colour, and she bawled at the Prada mobile lying next to it. That last thing was definitely not something she had bought together with granny. She didn't want one, but granny insisted and bought her one.
'At least' she thought bitterly 'that's all there is off cute girly stuff,' but the moment she finished that thought she remembered something. "Gah, I forgot!" Ranma reached behind her and began pulling on the black and red clasp holding her pigtail.
The clasp on itself wasn't even that much of a problem. It wasn't manly but it beat that old sweaty worn dragon whisker in looks. She still needed it though and wore it safely under the clasp. What she minded were the glitters and stars coming from it.
She threw the offensive glittering thing unceremoniously on the table and gave her room another look over before walking back to the sofa.
"What am I gonna dooooo?" she mumbled inside a handy pillow, hardly comprehensible. She grabbed a third cushion and pushed her face into it. She could always suffocate herself, and with this sofa she'd go comfy. That's when someone decided to knock on the door
She decided to ignore that and continued suffocating herself.
Her visitor wasn't giving up though; Ranma didn't give up either.
The unknown guest would have none of it and knocked a third time.
"grmlbl, rude rich pushy girls." Ranma straightened, and dragged herself to the door. She opened it for a young cute black haired girl.
"Hello there, I hope I'm not disturbing or anything," she said way too perkily for Ranma's taste.
Ranma mumbled something that the girl didn't quite get.
"What was that?," she asked chipper
"No you're not," she eventually said, and with the greatest effort tried to smile "What'dja want?"
"I've heard you're a new student her, just like me. I wanted to meet you," she finished with a bright smile, not at all let down by Ranma's brusque reply. "Since I saw you getting inside, I thought it'd be alright to introduce myself"
"Hmm." Ranma mused not really paying attention. When the girl offered her hand Ranma mentally sighed but shook her hand "Sure".
"I'm Akane Tendo, pleased to meet you"
"Ranm... nko, Ranko Saotome!"
Ranma released her hand, and waited for the girl to say something else. When the silence continued on, Ranma found it a good excuse to say goodbye and close the door. Akane wanted to know more though.
"So, what do you study here?" she asked shyly.
"Hmm," Ranma frowned, thinking that her course was written on her door. Slowly she walked out of her room, closed her door far enough to see the nameplate telling her she was a student economics.
"Economics apparently," she said dryly, looking at the plate together with Akane. They stared at it for a while before Akane offered her direction.
"That's a pity. I won't see you in many classes. I study literature" but then her eyes lighted up as she remembered something. "My sis can help you though, she's a second year undergraduate economics, and really good, though she's kinda horrible to be around with" Ranma frowned at the casualness with which Akane insulted her sister.
"I'm sure she is," Ranma replied, hoping this conversation wasn't going to take too long,
"How long have you been here?" Akane insisted.
"Just arrived," Ranma replied curtly.
"I've been here a day now. I live five rooms further together with my sister" she pointed vaguely towards some room further down the hall. "Otherwise I couldn't afford these kinds of dorms. They are really luxurious aren't they?"
"They sure are" Ranma agreed. She was hoping that her short answers would give the girl a hint.
"It is good it has two bedrooms, otherwise I'd have to get my own dorm and I'd have to choose one of those less luxurious ones," Akane went on, unperturbed by Ranma's briskness.
Ranma only made some noise in response.
"Do you have a roommate?"
Ranma was getting tired of the conversation. She was nice enough and any other time it might've been nice to talk, but not now. Now was for chopping of her own head, not giggling and befriending girls
"No"
"Wow, you got the room all to yourself? A giant plus when wanting to take a shower whenever you want. Still," the girl mused "the rooms have no baths, those are still public. Good thing there are only girls here."
Ranma nodded absently, not really listening anymore, hoping the girl would just go
"No bath," she agreed, nodding.
Then she stopped nodding. "No bath!" she turned around and ran back in her room.
Akane leaned slightly over to her left trying to peer into the girl's room. She instantly straightened when she heard the girl screaming in utter misery.
"I'll eh, meet you some other time then, bye-bye" and with that the black haired girl took off.
Ranma in the mean time was staring at her compact bathroom in disbelief.
"No, no, no, no, this is not true. I love baths, long hot baths. No" She shook her head in disbelief, looking at the admittedly large shower.
"Where's the bath?" she asked looking balefully at the shower stall.
"I love baths!" The compact bathroom didn't make a bath appear though. Besides the sink opposite the shower and a cupboard, the room didn't offer any other hygiene facility.
Slowly a stunned Ranma closed the door. She turned around, leaned against the door and plumbed down on the ground.
"Guess no baths for me," the girl said with a snivel.
This was the first day, only the first day, and already Ranma wanted to jump off a building. Besides that the fact that it probably would only bruise her, it wouldn't solve anything.
The real problem wasn't really that she had to attend classes, heck, she had attended all of them in high school as well, and though boring, she'd managed. No, she had to actually pay attention, take notes, listen and learn.
Granted, the teachers here were a great deal better than the ones in high school. Some courses actually seemed interesting enough, but not so interesting that she'd spend day in, day out in a classroom jotting down all what they say. Some girls had camera's and recorders with them to make sure they didn't miss anything professors said.
Maybe that's why granny had given her a laptop? Not that she needed to, all was relatively simple now, but then it was only a first day.
A second problem was the age old problem, that of being a girl. And besides it being just so goddamn frustrating, girls did what girls so, which happened to be socialising with other girls, giggling, drooling, talking about movie stars and whatnot. Take this long haired girl that was running up to her. She'd be the fifth today to talk to her.
"Hey, hey, what's your number?" the girl asked with a wide smile. She was the type of girl with lots of make-up, lots of jewellery, her hair bleached and pulled up and an even tighter costume then Ranma had with some bottoms open at the top.
"Huh?" Ranma regarded the girl with a frown "My number! Is that something perverted?" Ranma had no idea what the fresh girl next to her was asking. She had heard some pretty disturbing stuff about girly student clubs doing weird and perverted stuff. She didn't want any of that. She couldn't imagine joining horrific clubs like that awful sleep-over club she'd heard about.
"Your cell!" the girl continued to smile, a bit more strained though. "Look, we might wanna meet later. For a tea or something. Give me your mobile number so we can meet or something"
Ranma shook her head. How was she so sure she'd give it to her? She hardly knew the girl. Yea they had been talking right through the teacher's class eighty minutes straight, or rather she'd been talking talking about teacher this, student that, university such, and Ranma had tried to pay attention. If anything she really didn't want to give it to her.
Ranma sighed, and fished through her bag looking for the small purple device. Eventually she found it somewhere locked between bundles of loose paper she had yet to map.
"Okay," Ranma said with a sigh "How does this..." Ranma took a step back when she saw the feral grin of the girl when she took out her cell.
"Wow, that's one fancy prada cell you got there. You must be one of those rich kids here at Otsuma's. How much did you pay for this?" The girl looked up at Ranma with barely contained curiosity.
Ranma couldn't help but feel a little good at the sudden attention she was getting.
"Well now!" Ranma wanted to tell something impressive, but she had no idea what the big deal was with her mobile. It was nice and purple and she hadn't managed to call anyone yet, she hoped that it could do that.
"My granny gave it to me," Ranma eventually said, not sure what she wanted to say.
"Cool granny, remind me to meet her." She gushed, not taking her eyes of the shiny device.
Ranma nodded, not sure if that was a good idea. 'At any rate, she wants my number now. Let's see where I can find this' Ranma began looking at the thing from all sides, but couldn't for the life of her find a number on the device. She saw she could open it somewhere, tried that and found a number.
"Okay, my number is..." Ranma was about to read the number, when she heard her groan.
"What!" Ranma asked impatient
"What are you doing?" the other girl asked nosily with a slight hint of frustration.
"I'm giving you my number is what I'm doing! That's what you asked, ain't it!" Ranma really didn't feel too happy with this girl. She wanted a number, she was about to give her a number. Why wasn't she happy?
"I want your mobile number, not the mobile's serial number" she said, accentuating every word as if Ranma was a simpleton.
"Hey! I'm not stupid okay? I just don't know any of this stuff." Ranma looked at the silly device, closed it and gave the thing to the girl.
"Here, you try to find my number. I obviously don't know!" Ranma snorted and pointedly looked away from the girl. The girl's finger flashed over the device, apparently knowing exactly what she was doing to Ranma's surprise because the girl apparently hadn't seen a mobile like hers before.
In only a couple of seconds the machine made some noise and out of the corners of her eyes, Ranma could see a number appearing on the screen of her mobile.
"Okay, your number is 080 1892 2012, don't forget it"
"080 1 What? I can't remember that number. Besides shouldn't I remember other's people number? Ain't like I'm going to call myself." Ranma said with a frown.
The girl shook her head, keeping her eyes on the phone.
"You'll be giving your number to a lot of girls." As an afterthought, the girl added "be careful which girls though. Some might end up calling you every time of the day". She finished as if she knew what she was talking about.
"Here," the girl pushed the phone back in Ranma's hands. She looked at the flashy screen and saw a name and number.
"Hitomi Sayuri 080 0709 2017. So your name's Hitomi?" Ranma peered curiously at the girl.
"Yeah, don't forget it" she said with a big smile.
Ranma made some affirmative noise then stared a bit more at the strange device before putting it away.
They talked a bit more about the courses, about the teachers they had already seen. And the ones she didn't like. More accurately, Hitomi was the one talking, Ranma was the one trying to release some first day school strain, and failed miserably since the girl next to her found it necessary to keep giving reasons to be increasingly stressed what with all the dirt of the school she was hearing.
Eventually though, they reached Ranma's room, and without as much as a "this is my room, wonderful talking to you, catch ya later, byebye *SLAM*" said goodbye to the surprised girl.
Wearily, Ranma threw her bag on the dinner table and then herself on the sofa.
Her first day of school had been horrible. She knew no one, contrary to many nervous and excited girlfriends who did and together had chosen the same school, and same direction.
Even Hitomi, the one she had talked with today knew some other girls. Why she felt she had to talk to her was beyond Ranma. Nevertheless, not less than five girls had come up to her to ask where she came from, which high school she had attended and how beautiful her school outfit, clasp and hair was and if that was her natural colour. Ranma didn't mind attention; in fact, she loved it. But for the moment she had some major adjustment problems.
Then there were the classes. They were... not interesting. She didn't care about management, about holding conferences, about making a budget, about philosophy and any of the other courses she was yet to see in the days to come.
Mumbling disagreements with her dorm, with the university with her dad, and with the world in general, she lifted her head and looked at the clock.
17:04
"Damn it! Already that late?" Ranma put her head in a pillow, mumbling curses and wondering how the hell she got herself in this mess. The courses, the school, the girl's dorm and above all, Ranko got to her.
It all began two years ago when she came back from China. Fresh with a new curse, he and his dad were supposed to visit a friend. For some reason his dad changed his mind and they moved in with Genma's mom.
Seeing how his dad had to sleep for about three months outside, it was safe to say she wasn't too thrilled with her son. Granny Saotome apparently had chosen to cut all ties with Genma.
That didn't stop her to be incredibly thrilled with the newest addition to the Saotome line. A fact Ranma didn't really mind, but he did wish she knew that he was a he, not a she. Her terrible eyesight was no excuse; she had excellent ears and a good brain. His dad didn't help by not actively denying that he was not a girl. After a bit, Ranma began to understand that though. Genma had to make up for a lot with granny Saotome, and it was obvious that granny held the fairer sex in high regard.
After a year, granny Saotome was so absolutely besotted with Ranma's chaotic life, and whenever Ranma needed help, she'd be there. Being an alibi for the many girls chasing him – even though she thought he was a she – trying to fight off Ranma's many enemies with her frying pan. She built him a large dojo with all whistles and bells, gave him a very luxurious room, and Ranma only had to ask and she'd give it to him.
He didn't want anything though. If he'd had a say in anything he just wanted to enjoy his art, think as little about school as possible and enjoy the occasional spar with friends like Ryoga who wanted her dead.
Granny had some other ideas though. One day she told Ranma that she was planning to donate all her money to the all woman's university of Otsuma, but told Ranma that if she were to successfully complete school there, she'd change her will and make sure Ranma would inherit her considerable fortune.
Seeing how she casually bought Ranma's the most absurd stuff, she had to be quite wealthy indeed.
Ranma didn't care about money, Ranma didn't want to go to university, Ranma certainly didn't want to go as a girl. His dad however had other plans. And after long tiresome speeches he had convinced Ranma to go along with it.
What followed were the most horrible three months of his life. He had to study, and not just anything, he had to study Economics, because that's what her granny thought he'd need to manage her money wisely. Ranma was no idiot, and not unfamiliar with school. Genma had trained him hard in the art; he also made sure Ranma didn't get behind in school. Low grades were not tolerated.
Regardless, Ranma wasn't prepared for the immense hard entrance exam that Otsuma University put her students through. It took the combined help of his granny, pops, Ryoga, his four fiancées and the old mummy to study. Two weeks ago he had gotten his letter of admission. His grades weren't the best (something that bothered Ranma) but he got in. Preparations could begin.
Choosing the room was simple enough. The most expensive on the school's ground with no roommate (it wouldn't do to have people finding out about her curse). Her wardrobe was a special story that required an army of clothes designers. More everyday clothes were bought together with granny in stores where the cheapest thing was a hanky of 4000 yen.
Everything was made to fit her body. In Ranma's opinion, they did a terrible job because everything was just a tad too small.
Underwear, skirts, shorts, blouses, chemise, jackets, shawls, trousers, jeans even lingerie and purses, she'd have to have everything and all of top quality with no other reason but to have everything of top quality.
Then came technology: a top of the line laptop, a way too shiny mobile and a music playing device and of course everything that was included in the room.
Speaking of the technology, Ranma still hadn't founded the all surround music system, the big computer, the television, the DVD player or loudspeakers. As far as she knew, the sensor lights were the only bit of technology available. Granted, she didn't need light switches.
Lying in the sofa, not knowing what to do, Ranma got up and decided to do something.
She'd go for a quick workout in the school gym to release some stress and afterwards eat a bite, then look at all the books she had and then sweet sleep.
"Not too shabby." Ranma regarded the gym, whistling softly. She gave the wall a soft punch to see if it was as sturdy as it looked. She clicked her tongue when she felt the wall giving away. "Let's hope I won't have any fights here. Wouldn't last a day," she concluded giving the gym a last look-over.
"Okay, according to this schedule, no one ain't gonna use the gym for the evening. Meaning I can do whatever training I want without spectators." Ranma wrote her name on the schedule indicating she would be using it for the next hour. People wanting to use the gym outside schoolhours could do so by filling in their names on the schema.
And so Ranma began training. First slow but gradually faster, with more variation, more dangerous, complex and longer combinations. After a minute or twenty she began jumping around, appearing to defy gravitation.
The mind was centred; nothing outside her sphere could influence her, her concentration supreme. Any aggression near her would result into immediate and direct action. Any presence in her direct area of training would be noted and evaded; all presence outside her radius of concentration was to be ignored to maintain her inner centre. With no interference, Ranma continued training rigorously.
She had a lot of pent of frustration. The stress of trying to get into this school, the insane tests she had to complete to qualify, the things she had to study, the girl's dorm, the first week of preparation and the first day in the girl's dorm and now getting used to living in an all-girl dorm. Meeting new people, making sure she wouldn't transform, trying to pay attention, adding to the already bucketful of stress with no outlet.
Regardless of how stressful she was, she made sure her frustration went to effective, and controlled training. Every move, kick, hit, smash, fist was thrust with utmost precession. She directed her anger in maintaining concentration and letting it evaporate into nothingness. The thrusts however were done which such ferocity, speed and strength that she consciously had to make sure not to hit walls.
She became a flying whirlwind of legs and arms, ghostfighting an incredible foe.
After half an hour or so she steadily began slowing down, staying more on the ground. After another five she gave the air one last slow kick, and that was that.
Happy with the effort a slightly sweating Ranma turned around, intent on going for some stretching and a well-deserved shower, and came eye to eye with no less then forty bug eyed people.
Ranma froze up, not knowing what to do or say. Being in the middle was good, she had no idea though what those girls were doing here. She reasoned they were her for the gym.
Ranma laughed nervously. "Heh, I ehm... thought the gym was free this evening? No? My bad," mumbling excuses, and looking awkwardly at all the girls Ranma walked out of the gym. As she walked past them, she got a bit unnerved by their creepy stares.
"Sheesh," she mumbled, trying not to look at the stunned people. "Okay, so the place apparently wasn't free, no reason to look at me like that, humph, no reason at all."
Leaving the people to try to come to grips with their now seriously distraught reality, Ranma went back to her room.
"A workout and a hot shower, pure magic." he blinked a couple of times when it dawned on him. "At least, it's pure magic for me" he finished with a smile.
Ranma nonchalantly threw his towel on the ground, and got comfortable in his office chair.
"Now let's take a look at these books." Ranma's voice was a couple of baritones heavier. Maybe not the best of ideas in an all girls dorm to be a guy, but he doubted any girl was going to bother him.
Feeling energetic he grabbed the first book on the high pillar of books. "History of currency"
Ten minutes later.
"Why is that every studybook is so damn boring?" Ranma complained
Ranma put the book back on the desk, sighed heavily and leaned backwards in his chair.
"Guess I'll go to bed. But first!"
Ranma stood up, went back to his bathroom, splashed his face with cold water, complained about its temperature, and went to bed.