Soul Searching

By: Awlric Hayell (AKA Ryushi Nigami)

Disclaimer: Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Hatori Ohka belongs to me. End of discussion

A/N: Well, I got bored and wrote this one day. That's all I have to say at the moment. It's not a finished work and it probably never will be. Feel free to use this plot in any way you wish, so long as I get some credit.

Chap 1: Who am I?

Ranma Saotome was lying on the roof of the Tendou Dojo, relaxing during a brief reprieve from his daily conundrums. However, though his body was at rest, his mind was far from it. Truthfully, his lightning quick, martial arts oriented intellect was being used for a rare activity: philosophizing.

"Who am I?" He muttered to himself, frowning. "The heck is that s'pose ta mean?" He thought back to when the question was first posed to him.

"Class, I would like to welcome a new student into our midst. Please, introduce yourself."

Ranma's ears twitched from where he was sleeping behind an open book. New students normally meant new chaos in Nerima. Chances were, if he looked up right at that moment, the new student would be (A) a new fiancé, and Akane would punch Ranma through the roof for even glancing at her, (B) A prodigy of some obscure and strange school of martial arts who vowed to kill or defeat a Saotome, or, at slim to nil odds, (C) A normal, but still strange, new student.

"Ohayo, minna-san." Ranma started to pay more attention. The voice was male and didn't carry that tone of angst, despair, rage, or hate that Ranma heard from every other martial artist with a grudge against his Pops. "My name is Hatori Ohka. My blood type is O and I like to philosophize in my spare time." Of course, the bit about philosophy was strange, but everyone in Nerima is like that. That one girl who always seemed normal was a closet music otaku.

"Hello Hatori." The class (except for Ranma) echoed back monotonously.

The Sub (apparently, Miss Hinako was at home with a tummy ache from too much ice cream and they actually found a normal person who was willing to take over for the day. They briefed him on the various trouble students…actually, they just exaggerated Ranma's delinquency.) glanced down at the seating chart. "Well, it would seem that the only seat open is next to Saotome-san."

Ranma blinked. Where did that girl who sat next to him go? He knew he saw her there when he came in. Something wasn't right…

A few light footsteps, one scraping chair, and a rustling of clothes later, Hatori was seated next to infamous delinquent Ranma Saotome, bane of teachers everywhere. Ranma felt the new guy's eyes on him but ignored it. A few minutes later, Ranma turned to finally look at the new guy. He was fairly plain. He wore the standard Furinkan Boys uniform and a strange necklace that looked like the black half of a yin-yang. His unkempt blue hair screamed of dye, since his eyebrows were still a natural black, and his red and green eyes examined Ranma at their leisure. Ranma began to grow uncomfortable with the searching look. "Alright new guy, I'm getting' tired of be stared at like an animal in a zoo. Wadd'ya want?"

"Who are you?" Hatori asked curiously.

The question threw Ranma for a loop. "Who am I? I'm Ranma Saotome, heir to the Musabetsu Kakuto Saotome-ryu, and the Best martial artist of my generation." Ranma would have said 'best martial artist in the world' but experience had taught him that there's always someone better.

"Oh, I know who you are, God-killer." Ranma bristled at the casual title. He was still trying to forget what happened at Jusendo. "But who are you?"

Ranma thought on this for a second. "What kind of stupid question is that?! I-"

"SAOTOME!"

Ranma jerked awake and reflexively caught the chalk aimed at his head. "What?" He snapped back. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the Goth girl who normally sat next to him was back and Hatori had disappeared. 'Musta been a dream…"

"Since you were obviously paying attention," The Sub rolled his eyes as the rest of the class laughed. "Perhaps you can shed some light on this equation on the board."

Unbeknownst to Ranma, since he was asleep at the time, the Sub had looked through an old college Calculus textbook he happened to have with him, wrote a complex integral equation on the board, and wrote the solution and answer on a separate piece of paper and handed it to one of the students in the front row so as to have them answer it when the Martial artist couldn't. He thought it would be a good prank on the delinquent.

However, contrary to popular belief, Ranma was not as dumb as he looked. There wasn't much to do on the training trip when Genma stopped by a town for booze. So, while Genma binged and got drunk, Ranma snuck out to the local library for some 'training'. He read every book he could find and committed them to memory for ideas. Hey, Anything Goes, remember? As a result, Ranma had a whole lot of knowledge that Genma might have considered useless. He mostly used the Dumb Jock routine to let people underestimate him. But he was just woken up and so, half asleep, he forgot to sputter and stammer until the teacher called on someone else.

Ranma glanced up at the board, searched his memory for that Integrals Made Easy book he once read, did a few quick calculations, and muttered the answer before putting his head back down for some sleep.

The Sub's eye twitched. "SAOTOME!"

Ranma glared at him sleepily. "What now?"

"What is the answer?"

"Three pi times the square root of two." Ranma answered, yawning.

"WRONG!" The Sub yelled.

The student the Sub handed the solution to raised her hand shakily.

"Yes, what's the answer?"

She glanced down at the sheet and over at Ranma before shuddering. "Saotome was right, sensei. The answer is three pi times the square root of two."

Ranma nodded and put his head back on his desk. "Told ya. I'm going back to sleep, now." Within seconds there were light snores coming from Ranma's desk.

Everyone stared at him in shock for about a minute before panicking. "IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!"

Ranma sighed. "They didn't have to evacuate the school. It was only calculus." He looked up at the stars again. "Who am I? A martial artist? A fiancé? A man among men?" He scoffed. "Doubtful. I'm a girl half the time. What does 'Who am I' mean?"

End

Well, that's that for now. I'll put the rest up later. Ja ne!