Negi hadn't had any luck helping Asuna today either. His staff hadn't been able to carry her on her paper route, and trying magic to help her wash up had backfired completely. Still, he couldn't let himself get depressed. He just had to keep doing his best, both with Asuna and with teaching in general.
The timing was good on his newfound resolve, as Shizuna-sensei chose that moment to bring him Takahata's list of students for after-class lessons. There were six faces on the list: Ku Fei, Nodoka, Kaede, Yue, and most importantly to him, Ranma and Asuna. This could be the perfect chance. He could actually help Asuna in something without messing up and start to build Ranma's trust at the same time.
"All right, I'll definitely do my best in the after-school lessons," he vowed.
Soon enough, the time had come to do just that, and Negi found himself in class with the six students in question. He was just thinking of calling the lessons into session when Makie beat him to punch.
"And so, class 2-A's Baka Rangers have assembled."
"Who's a Baka Ranger?" Asuna protested.
"Joined once again by the mysterious Baka White," Makie continued, pointing to Ranma.
"It's been a while, aru." Ku Fei declared.
"I thought I'd gotten the hang of doing just enough to avoid these things too," Ranma grumbled more to herself than in reply. "I really underestimated that last test."
"Well, I'm going to start us off with a short ten question quiz," Negi informed them, not sure of how exactly to respond to the Baka Rangers thing. It did look kind of fun though. "You can't leave until you get at least six right. After I grade them, I'll go over the areas you still need to work on."
Passing out the sheets, he waited as his students hurried to complete them. Yue handed hers in first, surprising him by getting 9 of 10 correct when he hadn't given any extra lessons yet. After she'd walked off with her friends, Ranma handed her test in next. Going over the paper, he saw that she'd gotten half of them right.
"Not bad, Ranma," he told her. "It seems you've got a good base, so it won't take much work at all to get you out of here."
"Aw come on, I only missed it by one," Ranma complained. "Can't you cut me a little slack and let me out of here? I have things to do."
"I'm sorry, Ranma," he answered. "I'll try to make it quick, but these lessons are important for your end of term exams."
"Fine, whatever," Ranma huffed, going back to her seat.
His other students had finished up in the meantime, and a quick grading showed a mix of 3s and 4s with Asuna bringing up the rear with her 2. It looked like he had his work cut out for him after all, but he'd do his best. After a short lesson focusing especially on the areas most or all of them had struggled on, he passed out a second quiz for them to work on. This time, Ranma sped through test and handed it in, getting 9 out of 10 correct.
"Great work," he praised her, glad to see such progress. "If you ever want any extra tutoring, I'd be more than happy to help even outside of these formal lessons."
"Thanks, but the less time I spend on school work the better as far as I'm concerned," Ranma answered, dashing his hopes that it might be the key to getting her to open up. "I'm out of here."
With the exception of Asuna, all the rest of his students passed on the second attempt too, if only barely in Makie's case. Asuna somehow hadn't improved her grade at all. Well, he wasn't going to give up on her. He might not have gotten through to Ranma, but this was still his big chance to help Asuna.
It had been six days since Negi had shown up, and Ranma still hadn't gotten used to the thought of a ten-year-old kid teaching them. Overall, Ranma would have preferred they still had Takahata-sensei, because now she had two teachers trying to push her to mingle with the rest of the class. On the other hand, Negi didn't have as much control over class, which had its benefits. Like when she'd used the confusion of the dodgeball match the other day to slip out of class completely.
Had its downsides too though. Takahata-sensei would have never let the class get that carried away with a strip review game. Ranma had avoided a scene by pretending to sleep through it, because her refusal to participate it that insanity went far beyond simply keeping out of school-girl life. So maybe even that lack of control was just another downside.
Meh, even if she didn't like the change, their new teacher was far down the list of her problems. Even ignoring the obvious giant ones, there was the issue of Takahata-sensei being increasingly scarce lately, and Dean Konoemon getting pushier about his lessons. The old man had a lot of nerve. He'd hardly done one thing for her in four years and he still insisted on wasting both their times on magic lessons she didn't even want.
Worse yet, she'd actually shown up for once tonight, and the old fool hadn't even been there. After all that badgering, he stood her up. Ah well, just meant she'd have more time for things she'd rather be doing. Ranma would head back to her room, change out of this stupid school uniform, and get back to her real training. She had just finished changing into some sweat pants and a simple shirt when she heard a pair of footsteps stopping outside the door.
"The directory says this is her room," she heard Honya say from outside.
Ranma's roommate seemed to have a finger in everything, so it was a regular occurrence for someone to come looking for her. They'd be leaving disappointed this time, however.
"Chao isn't here right now," Ranma called out through the door before they even knocked.
"We didn't come for Chao," Asuna answered, identifying who the other visitor was. "We have something you'll want to hear about the end of term exams."
"Thanks, but not interested."
"This is for your own good," Asuna fired back. "Just open up and talk face to face."
"Actually, I prefer to keep the door closed," Ranma insisted.
"Fine, I'll tell you from here," Asuna continued. "There's a rumor that if 2-A is the worst class on exams again, we're going to be broken up. And those with the worst grades overall could get sent all the way back to kindergarten to start school over."
That was stupid. Who would actually believe someone would do something like that? Then again, if it was Dean Konoemon behind it, Ranma couldn't completely discount it. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to do just a bit more studying than she'd planned.
"We'll I guess you more than anyone should get to work then instead of coming to my door and bothering me," Ranma responded.
"If you want to be like that, maybe I shouldn't even tell you this," Asuna said huffily. "But for the sake of the class you should know that there's supposed to be a book deep in Library Island that will make you smarter just reading it. Those of us dragging the class down are going on an expedition to find it tonight."
A magic book that made you smarter? It would be nice to be able to skip studying completely without getting stuck with extra classes. Still, Ranma wasn't about to start playing with random magic books based on rumor. There was no telling what could go wrong.
On the other hand Asuna and her group were probably going to try the thing no matter what she said, so Ranma could just see how it went for them and decide if she wanted to risk it after that. Of course, that didn't mean Ranma had to go with them to get it.
"Well, you can let me know how it goes for you with the book, but I'll be staying here tonight."
"And why should we share it with you if you're going to be so selfish?" Asuna complained. "It wouldn't kill you to drop the attitude for one night and actually help out your classmates."
"Asuna, we shouldn't try to force her if she doesn't want to go," Honya said from the other side of the door. "It's going to be dangerous, so we shouldn't take anyone that doesn't really want to be there."
"Dangerous?" Ranma asked curiously. "How is a library supposed to be dangerous?"
"The part of the library the book is in is filled with all sorts of traps," Honya answered. "Middle school students aren't even allowed in it. If you're not careful, you could lose your life."
Why had no one ever told her about that before? If the traps were even half decent, it could make for some good training. Help keep her sharp and all that.
"Honya, don't make such a big deal about the traps," Asuna whispered, but nearly quiet enough to avoid the enhanced hearing her ears gave her, invisible or not. "You're just going to scare her off."
Oh, no! She wasn't going to get away with that. Ranma marched over the door and flung it open. "Let's get one thing straight, I'm not afraid of traps, your stupid magic book, or even cats. I just don't want to go."
Asuna looked completely confused, while Honya actually cowered behind her a bit. But Asuna's confusion soon turned to a smirk.
"I don't know," she said. "You may say you're not afraid, but when you refuse to leave your room like this, it kind of makes people wonder."
Asuna's acting was so over the top that it was pretty obvious to Ranma she was being played here. But the sad thing was it was working pretty well anyway. She'd practically had her bravery challenged here and didn't like the idea of Asuna being able to call her a coward. Would it really be that bad to make one tiny little exception on her policy? After all, trekking through a forbidden building full of traps while looking for treasure wasn't even the slightest bit girly.
It was a tough call, but if she approached it the right way she could probably avoid any annoying follow-up to tonight. If not, she'd just squash any attempts to make friends after the fact.
"Okay, but I'm not doing this to help anyone out," she declared firmly. "I'm only coming for my own self-interest and to prove that I'm not afraid of any library."
"Good enough," Asuna answered. "Now get anything you need for the trip, because we're leaving as soon as we can."
Negi had been surprised to be dragged out here to Library Island in his pajamas as he'd been getting ready for bed. But that wasn't nearly as shocking as that arrow that had nearly gotten him just for trying to pull a book from a shelf. If he'd known he'd be coming to a place this dangerous, he'd never have put that three day seal on his magic.
"I can't believe after all her talk Ranma didn't even show," Asuna complained loudly.
"Eh, Ranma was supposed to come too?" Negi asked. It was a shame that she hadn't, but he shouldn't be surprised Asuna had failed considering how little success he'd had on that front.
"Oh, if it's Ranma, she's probably the one that's been following us this whole time," Kaede informed them, getting shocked cries from several of the other self-proclaimed Baka Rangers.
"I didn't notice her at all," Ku Fei declared.
"We know you're there, Ranma," Makie then called out behind them. "Why don't you come out?"
The pony-tailed girl then walked out from behind a bookcase, approaching the group a bit sullenly, but Negi wanted to act quickly to make sure she felt welcome.
"I'm so glad you actually joined us," Negi told her cheerfully. "You'll see that it can be a lot of fun to do things together with your friends."
"Don't make me change my mind," Ranma grumbled. "Now where exactly is that book?"
Yue then pulled out a map and held it open so that everyone could see. "If we go down to basement floor 11 and head through this underground passage, we should reach the book."
"Great, I'll go on ahead then and meet you there," Ranma told them, turning immediately and dashing off.
"Wait!" Makie called out, running after her. "Don't go off on your own. It's dangerous."
"Yes, it's best to stay together," Negi yelled, trying to follow as well.
His concern then turned to outright fear as he saw the floor under Makie drop away, leaving her in open air over a potentially deadly drop. And that wasn't the end of their problems, as at the same time the floor under his own feet pressed in about an inch and a giant bookshelf from above came falling straight at his head. Negi should have put a stop to this, now he was going to get both himself and one his students killed.
Only before it could hit, Ku Fei kicked the bookshelf away, while Kaede gathered up all the books still falling toward him at an unbelievable speed, leaving him completely unscratched. Without the distraction of getting squashed himself, Negi turned his attention back to Makie, who he found safely dangling from gymnastics ribbon that she'd managed to catch on a beam above her head.
"Is everyone okay?" he asked, looking around to make sure no one else had gotten caught in any traps. Everything seemed quiet on that front. Negi even thought for a moment that Ranma might rejoin them, as she'd stopped to watch everything that had just happened, but when he looked her way, she just turned around and ran off again, leaping a ten foot gap in bookshelves making up the floor like it was nothing and running off into the distance.
"Don't worry," Ku Fei told him. "We may be bad at studying, but we're great at PE."
"We'll all be fine," Kaede agree.
Just who were these people? Negi had just witnessed four of his students performing physical feats he wouldn't have expected to have seen from Olympic athletes.
"I'm sure Ranma can take care of herself too," Konoka chimed in.
"What's with that girl?" Asuna asked in a huff as she watched Ranma disappear off into the distance. "Even when you finally get her to do something, she still has to run off on her own."
That was a sad notion, but despite Konoka's words he was more worried about her physical safety at the moment. Even so, without his magic, he'd just have to focus on the students with him and hope for the best.
It was nice to see that the traps hadn't been a lie, and now that Ranma had seen the other students were plenty capable of taking care of themselves, she was even more determined to do a bit of exploring on her own. Moving in the general direction of their goal, Ranma meandered all over the place deliberately setting off whatever traps she could. Overall though, it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Nearly all the traps were pretty lame. Pit traps and falling bookshelves wouldn't do any real harm to her even if she were slow to get hit by them. The occasional arrow at least posed some threat on that front, but weren't exactly fired at lightning speed.
This place would probably be dangerous enough for your random student, but the traps just weren't made for a martial artist of her caliber. Hoping to get at least a little bit of real training out of this, Ranma decided to up the challenge on her own, navigating the place with her eyes closed and depending on her hearing and danger sense to avoid traps. That really did help a lot, especially since she had to avoid traps without having a clear picture of where the floor was, leading to a couple long drops when she'd messed up.
Again, the falls weren't actually that dangerous, but it did lead to one time where a whole barrage of arrows came for her while she was falling. It had been a close call as she'd had to twist and dodge on the way down, and if midair combat wasn't something of a specialty, it could probably would have gone very poorly. Overall, it had made for the most entertaining part of the experience. Eventually though, she figured she'd better catch up to the other students and find this book of theirs.
Ranma was a little worried she'd have trouble finding this underground passage, but she quickly came upon a trail that was easily visible through all the dust. Looked like the rest of them had already gone on ahead. Coming to a crawl space Ranma could just see someone climbing up out on the other end. Good. She wasn't too far behind. She heard some talking up ahead, something about a book that Negi seemed pretty excited about, but their words became clearer as she closed in on the exit.
"But where's Ranma?" Negi asked. "She went on ahead, but I don't see her anywhere."
"She probably just got lost," Asuna answered.
"Still, maybe we should go back and look for her," Konoka suggested.
"Yes, making sure everyone gets back safely is our top priority," Negi told them.
"Hey, no need to worry about me," Ranma called out, finally reaching the end and sticking her head out. "I can handle anything this place can throw at me."
"Ah, Ranma, you're okay," Makie cheered.
"Yes, we're glad you're not hurt, but please do stick with us the rest of the way so we're not worried about you," Negi told her.
"No promises, Negi-sensei," she said with a shrug, as she took a good look around her. There was a book up on a dais of some sort. On either side of it stood a very large statue of some kind of armored soldier. Also, she could just make out some kind of faint sound.
"I hear something from the right statue," she announced.
She could actually see the rest of the group straining to hear something themselves.
"Are you sure?" Kaede asked.
"I don't hear anything, aru," Ku Fei added.
"I'm certain," she answered as she stepped closer, trying to better make it out. "Don't ever doubt my ears."
Was that breathing?
"We can worry about that later," Asuna insisted. "The book is right there. Let's go get it."
With that, most of the group raced off to try to be the first to the book, only the have the small bridge they were walking on fold away, dropping them board of some sort with the Japanese letters on it.
"Is this Twister?" Makie asked.
The two statues then turned toward them, with the one she'd heard breathing from speaking. "If you want this book, you'll have to answer my questions first. Ho ho ho."
Ranma recognized that voice immediately. What exactly did the dean think he was pulling? Hopping over the board game, she then jumped up onto the statue's shoulder.
"Why don't I just pound you into gravel and take the book by force?" Ranma asked him.
"Because if you don't play along I might stop being so easygoing about you skipping our lessons," he answered in a low whisper, putting a quick damper on Ranma's enthusiasm. Manipulative old geezer.
"Ranma, we don't want to fight the golem if we don't have to," Negi shouted at her. "Just play the game."
"Fine," Ranma answered hopping down. "I'll let this play out."
Ranma was only going to take this playing along thing so far though, leaving the rest of his classmates to contort themselves while translating English vocabulary. When Dean Konoemon announced it was the final question it was clear that no one would be able to reach the last character from their position. Sighing, Ranma decided he could at least go stand on that spot just to finish this so they could get out of here.
"I've got this," Asuna insisted, confusing Ranma as there was no way she'd be able to reach. Only she put her foot down on what was clearly the wrong character.
"Wrong!" the dean quickly yelled, having his golem smash its giant mallet right at Ranma's head. Ranma leaped out of the way, only to find the floor of her landing spot crumbling away from the force of the attack, leaving her to join the rest of the group in falling into the pit beneath them. She vowed she'd get even with the old fool as they all splashed down into the water below.
Negi was still marveling at the Deep Library, as Yue had called it, that they'd found themselves in. The whole place was strange. Not only were there plenty of textbooks among the other reading material, but even a kitchen with food supplied. At that point Ranma came back from the scouting she'd left to do.
"I didn't find any easy way out," she told them. "But I could probably climb back to the top and go for help."
Looking at the giant cavern they were in, it had be hundreds of feet back up, and if she fell during the climb, there was no guarantee she'd land in water this time. There was no way Negi could let her do that.
"No, no!" he said forcefully waving his arms. "I'm sure we'll be able to get out of here soon." In the worst case scenario, he could use his magic to fly them out in two more days when the seals wore off. "We should just stick to studying for now. If we study hard starting immediately, we'll be fine even without a magic book."
"Studying," Ranma groaned. "Don't we do enough of that in school?"
Negi was tempted to let her off the hook to try to keep building a good relationship, but his job was on the line this time. "Don't forget that you'll be missing classes today. If you participate in the group study, I'll take care of the attendance issue and you won't have to make up any work."
"Fine," Ranma agreed reluctantly.
Negi was quickly able to set up a small make-shift classroom and begin lessons. Being able to focus his efforts directly on such a small group was really paying off too, and even Asuna made solid progress during the day. It was good that the studying was going so well, but that was the only progress he'd made. Negi had tried tricks like breaking into smaller groups for exercises, but Ranma stayed aloof and uncooperative about it. Then as soon as Negi stopped the lessons, she ran off on her own.
He was beginning to doubt anything he tried would work.
Negi was now officially even more of a busybody than Takahata-sensei. The kid was getting more and more pushy about fitting in with her classmates. Maybe it would be for the best if the class was broken up, just because she might get another teacher. For now though, she should just focus on finding a way to get them out of here. Dean Konoemon wouldn't want to leave them here to rot, so there had to be some sort of escape plan. So she'd been spending her time since their study session ended searching for any hidden exit.
Sure enough, tucked away behind a waterfall she found a door conveniently labeled as an emergency exit. Ranma was about to investigate further when she heard a loud noise off back where everyone was staying. The door could wait for now. First thing first; she wanted to investigate what that was. Rushing back, she found the dean and his golem had made another appearance, and if her eyes didn't deceive her, that was the book he'd been guarding in Makie's hands.
"You won't get away from here with that!" Dean Konoemon yelled out, right before Ranma sent a flying kick into the back of the golem's head, causing it to stagger forward and fall to its hands and knees.
"There's an exit behind the waterfall over there," Ranma pointed out. "I'll hold the golem off while you make a run for it."
"We can't leave you behind," Negi insisted.
"Don't be stupid," Ranma told them as the golem got back to its feet. "I'll be right behind you. And the sooner you're out of here, the less time I need to spend fighting this thing."
Not that Ranma was terribly concerned about that, but she hoped that line would get them to scram. Ranma badly wanted a one-on-one with this thing.
"Let's do what she says, Negi-sensei," Asuna told him. "She can defend herself against that thing a lot better than you can right now."
"Alright," Negi agreed, "but don't push your luck. Follow us as soon as you can."
With the group running off, Ranma charged back at the golem, slamming her entire body into its left leg, knocking it back and leaving it standing on one foot. She then continued her forward motion until she'd passed under it before pivoting quickly and leaping back the other way. She kicked it flat in the back, and with its precarious balance if fell quickly enough this time it didn't even have a chance to catch itself, ending up flat on its stomach.
Not willing to leave it at that, Ranma went up to the head and started punching and kicking at it all over, probing for some weakness in the thick armor.
"Ow, ow," she heard Konoemon complain. "This is abuse of the elderly. Run off with the rest of them so I can finish this properly."
"Sorry, Dean Konoemon," she answered, not even slowing her blows. "You're the one that told me to play along. It wouldn't be very convincing if I held back now, would it?"
Ranma had a lot of frustrations regarding the old man, and he'd just about handed her the perfect opportunity to work some of them out without getting in trouble for it. She wasn't about to walk away from that just yet. So Ranma went to work fighting the thing, taking every chance she got to thrash it, hitting any spot she could and hoping to break the thing apart. The golem was surprisingly fast for its size, but if she stayed focused, it wasn't too hard to avoid.
The biggest problem was doing any real damage to it. The thing might even be harder than the solid rock it appeared to be, and nothing she was trying seemed to do any lasting harm. At least she got the occasional protest from the dean to make it clear that he wasn't enjoying the bumpy ride.
"I'm not going to let you hold me here all day," the dean said a few minutes into their fight. "If you're not going to relent, I'll have to get a little serious."
Ranma took a step back, getting a sense that this was more than just talk, and something was different now. Still, while she would have preferred not to use this, there was one more trick it looked like she'd be able to get off even if the golem was going to be tougher now.
"Before that, can you do one thing for me?" Ranma asked.
"Oh, and what's that?"
"Just keep letting me distract you," Ranma answered, right before Ku Fei sent a kick flying into the Golem's back, sending it sprawling to its knees again. The old man really needed to learn to watch out for surprise attacks.
"You're supposed to be running for the exit with the others," Ranma told her.
"You were taking too long, and we weren't going to leave you behind," she answered. "So I came back to get you."
"I'm fine here, thanks," Ranma said, not wanting to give up her punching bag even if it might get rough from here on.
"I'm not going back without you, aru," Ku Fei insisted.
Ranma chuckled a bit to herself. They really were the Baka Rangers. They just didn't know when to give up. Ranma didn't actually think they'd come back for her. Ah well. Looked like her fun was over. Ku Fei was determined to be stubborn about this, and it just wouldn't feel the same two against one. "Fine, let's get out of here."
Leaving the golem behind, they raced toward the exit, slipping behind the waterfall and through the door. Ranma was surprised to see a giant spiral staircase going all along the outside wall of the large tower. It continued up far into the distance. The two started running up the stairs making it a short distance before the golem smashed through the wall beginning to move up the stairs itself. Looked like Konoemon wanted to ham it up to the end.
The two of them made a couple circuits of the stairs before Ranma got bored of it. It would take too long to get to the top at this rate. Time for a shortcut. Glancing up, she leaped the thirty feet or so to the next level up on the stairs, grabbing the edge and flipping herself over to the topside of it before doing the same thing to continue the climb. After repeating a few times, she found herself in the middle of the rest of the group. Giving them a quick salute, she continued on ahead of them.
"Impressive," she heard Kaede say from below.
"Don't be praising her," Asuna complained. "She finally went and did something cool back there with the buying us time thing, and now she's running off on her own and leaving us to the golem."
The rest of the conversation slowly faded as Ranma continued to speed her way up the stairs. They could think what they liked. Probably better this way instead of giving them ideas that they owed her or something. Not like the dean would actually hurt them. Anyway, at her pace she soon reached the top, finding an elevator which took her to the ground floor and out this crazy labyrinth of a library.
Ranma was tempted to just run back to her room and forget about this whole thing, but she decided to wait around and see exactly what happened with that book. It was a boring wait, but eventually she heard the elevator descend, and soon enough it came back up, but Ranma was in for a surprise when the door actually opened. All the girls but Kaede were now topless, with nothing but their arms to keep them from flashing their chests at anyone that might want to look. There was no sign of their uniforms either. It went against her policy of not getting involved, but Ranma couldn't help but ask.
"Just what were you guys up to that led to this?" Ranma asked.
"It's not our fault," Asuna said quickly. "We overloaded the elevator. And you have a lot of nerve showing your face after you ran off and left us. Looks like in the end you got scared after all."
"Hey, I wasn't scared," Ranma protested. "It's not like he would have hurt you anyway."
"He was a giant golem that was trying to crush us," Asuna fired back. "Of course he would have hurt us."
"Actually, I think Ranma is right," Konoka chimed in. "I'm pretty certain that was my grandpa's voice."
"The dean?" Asuna asked in surprise.
"I knew he sounded familiar," Negi declared. "And the setting in the Deep Library was just a little too convenient. He must have set this all up to help you study."
"Wait a minute," Makie said. "You mean to tell me the Dean had a giant golem robot built and had it attack us to get us to improve our test grades? That's insane!"
"Grandpa can get a bit carried away," Konoka admitted.
"Does that mean the book was fake, aru?" Ku Fei asked. "Then I don't feel so bad about leaving it behind."
They left the book behind? Well, it probably was fake, come to think of it. Still, no more reason to stick around here.
"I'm heading back," Ranma announced. "If you get the urge to do something like this again, don't invite me."
Ranma then ran off without letting them protest. Honestly, the little excursion hadn't been half bad. Traps, exploring secret chambers, and getting to try your training against a golem? There was plenty to like in there. Still, wouldn't do to let them get any ideas. Soon, she was back to the dorms and safe inside her Baka Ranger free room.
"Ah, you're back," Chao declared, looking up from some papers she was reading on her bed.
"Yeah," Ranma said simply.
"So tell me, would you at all be open to doing me a favor?" Chao asked her.
"I'd prefer not to," Ranma answered simply.
"Still too soon, huh?" Chao asked. "Well, let me know when that changes. I have something I'd like to discuss with you then."
Ranma hadn't expected her simple reply to actually stop Chao from even saying what the favor was, but her roommate had never been predictable. It may have been an odd little conversation, but that was nothing for someone who often claimed to be a Martian. Well, Ranma had no shortage of exercise today, so she may as well turn in early so she wouldn't be tired for the test tomorrow. She could try to puzzle out the oddity that was Chao Lingshen another day.
Negi had been thrilled that not only had the class not been the worst in the school, they'd somehow managed to make it all the way to the top of the rankings. Then he'd been officially recognized as a teacher. Still, back in his room now, Negi was starting to come down from that high, as there was one thing that was still really bothering him.
"What's got you down?" Asuna asked, having caught on to his mood. "Shouldn't you be happy about how things went?"
"I know," Negi answered. "It's just Ranma. I was hoping with her coming along that we'd finally get through to her. But even after everything that happened, she just ran off the first chance she got. Nothing I try is working."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. The fact Ranma even came at all was practically a miracle itself. Beyond that, I'm pretty sure we got more real conversation out of her in those two days than I've seen from her in the entire rest of the year before you showed up. Whether she realizes it or not, I think you may be getting through to her."
"Really?" Negi said hopefully, getting a nod from Asuna. "Thanks for letting me know. You've been really nice to me lately."
"Hey, cut it out brat, it wasn't for your sake," she sputtered to tell him. "It's just that if you were still down in the dumps like that when Konoka got back, she'd blame me and I'd never hear the end of it. That's all it was."
Negi really was grateful to Asuna for her encouragement. He hadn't known Ranma very long, so it would have been easy to miss any changes. Not to mention, she might be a lot like Asuna and just say mean things to hide how she really felt. So Negi wouldn't give up. He'd just try even harder. He just needed to think over what to do next. As he was walking around trying to think of something, a package sitting the on the table caught his eye.
"Oh yeah, that came for you earlier," Asuna told him as he walked over to look at it.
"This is from Nee-san," Negi said excitedly after reading the label. Tearing it open, he pulled out a book, his excitement growing as he read the cover. "This is the book I asked her to send me. It's exactly what I need."
Flipping through it, he found the page he wanted. The timing couldn't have been better. "Asuna, do you know where Ranma's room is?"
"Yeah, why?" she asked.
"You'll see soon enough, just hurry and show me," he told her impatiently.
"Fine, fine," Asuna said, getting up and heading to the door.
Slipping a piece of a paper into the book to mark his spot, he left it behind and followed after her. Down the hallway, they came to a door which Asuna knocked on. It quickly opened to reveal a different classmate, as Chao Lingshen stood there.
"What can I do for you, Negi-sensei?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, but is Ranma here?" he asked.
"You're in luck," she answered. "And I do mean that. You won't normally find her hanging around here during the day."
"I don't know if it's his good luck or my bad luck," Ranma announced, taking Chao's place at the door. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to thank you for all the hard work you put in for the test," he told her. "You got your grade all the way up to an 81, and without the effort you and your classmates put in to improve, I wouldn't be an official teacher right now."
"Great. Is that all?" Ranma asked.
"No, I wanted to more than just say thank you," he continued. "I learned a good luck charm I want to use on you."
"Say it if you like, doesn't matter to me either way," Ranma told him. "But can you hurry it up?"
"Um, actually could you come back to my room?" Negi asked. "I left the book on it back there."
Not to mention the fact that even if he was going to pass it off as a good luck charm the fewer people he'd have to fool the better. So he shouldn't do this in front of an outsider like Chao.
"In that case I'll pass," Ranma said. "I was about to head out, and I'd rather not take any detours."
Negi's face fell, but before he could try to convince Ranma, Asuna jumped into the conversation. "You have no idea how enthusiastic he was about doing this for you," Asuna told him. "I don't think he's ever going to stop pestering you until you let him, so you may as well get it out of the way. Besides, it's just down the hall."
"I'll make you a deal," Ranma said. "Promise to leave me alone over spring break and I'll come along."
"Deal," Negi quickly answered, grabbing her hand and shaking it, afraid she might take back the offer. "This way." Negi hurried on ahead as Asuna and Ranma followed, quickly making his way back to their room and entering
"Why are you following us in?" Ranma asked Asuna.
"Because it's my room too," she told him.
"You share a room?" Ranma asked in surprise. "No, actually forget that question. I don't really care."
Meanwhile, Negi had grabbed the book and his staff, reading it over one last time as Asuna shut the door behind them. Pointing his staff at Ranma he began chanting the spell.
"What are you doing?" Ranma asked, looking panicked as she backed up, her retreat stopped by the recently closed door.
But Negi didn't stop, quickly finishing the chant. It's one he'd learned over a year ago hoping to cure the petrification from the people in the village. Of course its ability to dispel magic wasn't nearly strong enough, and had all but forgotten about it until now, which was why he needed the book to remind him exactly how it went. He only hoped it was capable of curing whatever was wrong with Ranma.
Negi wasn't expecting there to be any visible sign even if it did work, but as soon as he finished chanting, there was a small flash of light, followed by Negi realizing that there were very noticeable changes to Ranma. It was hard to miss those cat ears and tail. Even her eyes, while still blue, had a very cat-like shape to the irises. What on earth had just happened?
"Where exactly do you get off casting a spell at me out of the blue like that?" Ranma then asked approaching angrily. "And being a ten-year-old teacher isn't enough for you, you have to be a mage too? I suppose the staff should have made me suspicious."
"Oh, you know that much about magic?" Negi asked excitedly, glad to at least have one more person he could talk openly with.
"Can you two please focus on the real issue here," Asuna protested. "Like why on earth did you turn Ranma into a cat-girl?"
"Turn me into a what?" Ranma asked, grabbing her tail and holding it out to look at it. "You dispelled the illusion?! Why would you do something like that?!"
Oh, an illusion. That made a lot of sense. He couldn't imagine how the spell he'd just cast would have done that to Ranma. He wanted to question her further, but the door chose that moment to open, letting Konoka in at a very inopportune time.
"Oh, hello Ranma," she said as she took in the sight in front of her. "I didn't know you were into cosplay."
"Yes, cosplay," Negi quickly said, trying to cover up the magical nature of recent events. "I had no idea either."
"Wow, it looks so real." Konoka commented. "Can I see how it's done?"
Ranma got a deer in headlights look on her face as Konoka approached, turning suddenly to race for the window, throwing it open and leaping out.
"We're on the fifth floor!" Asuna protested as they all ran over to see if she was okay.
But Ranma was already up and running off, not looking the least bit injured.
"Ranma really is amazing at jumping," Konoka noted, and remembering back to library, Negi couldn't help but agree. "Do you think she practiced it as part of her cat-person cosplay?"
Negi was glad that Konoka was so quick to believe that's all it was, but he still wasn't sure how to explain why she would be doing cosplay in their room to begin with. Thankfully, he didn't have to explain just yet, as Asuna grabbed his wrist and started dragging him out the door.
"I need to talk to you, now," she told him as she continued to pull him down the hall a way. Looking around to make sure there was no one in sight, she continued in a hushed tone. "If that was an illusion does that mean Ranma really is a cat-girl? Is that even possible?"
"Yes, there are a race of people like that," Negi answered. "I just wasn't aware any of them lived outside the magic world. It came as quite a shock to me. I just hope that my spell also got rid of the curse."
"No, I don't think there really is a curse," Asuna told him. "Didn't you see how she freaked out when we saw her like that? You probably misunderstood what she said and it was more like 'why am I cursed to be born like this?' You were right all along, and she was keeping people away so they wouldn't find out her secret."
"Don't you think it's a little extreme for something like that?" Negi asked. "It's not that big of a deal."
"I don't know how it is in magic circles, but it's a big deal for normal people," Asuna explained. "If this was like a movie and they found out, there'd be scientists saying 'we need to dissect her to find out what she is.'"
"What, but she's out there like that now," Negi said, suddenly terrified. "What if she gets seen?"
"Wait, wait, that's just the movies. I don't know if they'd actually do that. I'm just saying she has reasons to be worried."
"Well, at the very least we should try to help keep her secret, since it is my fault in the first place," Negi told her. "You don't think Konoka will tell anyone else about what happened, do you?"
"Er, um, we should probably talk to her about that," Asuna admitted, as the two of them looked back to see Konoka had stepped out of the room back down the hall and was now talking to the rest of the library expedition club.
"And when I walked in, I saw Ranma cosplaying," she told them.
"No way!" Haruna asked in surprise. "What was she wearing?"
"A cat-girl outfit," she answered. "It was really good too. She even had those special contacts."
"Er, it might be a little late to stop it now," Asuna said weakly.
Well, at least it wasn't Ranma's actual secret that was out. Negi just hoped Ranma wouldn't be too upset about this.
Ever since she'd disappeared for a couple of days, leaving her at her wits end, Setsuna had been keeping a much closer eye on Konoka, barely letting her out of her sight. She was worried that all of this might lead to someone noticing her stalking, so she'd panicked a bit when the door opened again so soon after Konoka had entered her room. Setsuna had barely made it around the corner down the hall before Asuna and Negi-sensei came out.
She was just about to bolt again as they walked closer when they stopped and began discussing Ranma. Learning Ranma's secret had certainly been a revelation. Setsuna had always felt there was something different about Ranma, and now she knew exactly what it was. She could certainly empathize with the demi-human girl. Setsuna knew exactly how it felt to be an outcast because you weren't human. Trying to hide that fact and fit in was a real struggle.
And if it was an illusion, Ranma probably couldn't even hide her non-human physiology the same way Setsuna could hide her wings. Ranma's behavior made a lot more sense in that context. Sadly, Setsuna realized that even she herself had been a bit harsh on Ranma in the past, putting everything down to just a bad personality. Well, she might not be able to do much, but she could at least be more understanding from here on out.
Ranma was pretty sure she'd made it to the dean's office without anyone else seeing her. There wasn't much she could do about Negi and Asuna knowing about the illusion, but they were obviously in the know about magic to begin with. At least Konoka has passed it off as cosplay. Not that her thinking that was a great idea, but as much as Dean Konoemon seemed determined to keep her in the dark regarding magic, Ranma was glad she hadn't blown that secret. She did not want to see how the dean would react to that.
"Why didn't you tell me my teacher was a mage," Ranma complained, as the dean finished putting the illusion back up. Ranma had explained what had happened to her, and wasn't too pleased to be caught off guard like that.
"That is odd. I was sure I was planning to say something during one of your lessons," he replied. "Tell me, how many of them have you shown up for since he arrived?"
"Er, well, I guess I can let you off the hook for this one," Ranma said weakly.
"And you know, with the right training, you could replace the illusion yourself if something like this happened again," he continued. "I've got some time free now if you're available."
"Thanks, but that won't be necessary," Ranma told him meekly hoping to get out of here quickly. "I'll just be more careful from now on."
"No, I insist," he declared. "After all, I haven't got a chance to thank you for participating so … enthusiastically in my little game. In fact, spring break is just around the corner, so we'll have plenty of time for extra sessions."
Ranma gave up trying to talk her way out of this and made a run for the door, only to see it slam shut on its own. Turning instead for the window, she saw it already shutting as well.
"Now, let's review what we went over last time," Konoemon began.
It was the final day of the school year, and Chisame sat in the classroom, once again silently ranting about the overly weird class they were in. And now that 10-year-old brat was an official teacher? So they were going to be stuck with him next year too? What happened to her normal school life? Ranma then walked in, making her the last member of the class to return from the ceremony.
"I'm so glad you're here and … like that," Negi said excitedly when he spotted her. "I'm … uh … sorry for the other day."
Ranma just ignored him and walked back to her seat. The girl's unfriendly behavior may make her unpopular, but considering the state of the class, wouldn't any sane person want to avoid them? She was easily one of the most normal people in the class as far as Chisame was concerned. Even better, as long as Ranma was so vocally anti-social, the teachers focused all their attention on her and let Chisame more quietly avoid her classmates. She'd hate it if Negi had been pestering her like he had been Ranma since he'd shown up.
Only today, it looked as if more people than just Negi had something they wanted to say to Ranma, as a small crowd was forming around her desk, all firing off questions so fast Chisame could barely understand half of what was being said.
"Are you really into cosplay?" "Did you buy the cat-girl outfit or did you make it yourself?" "Do you have any pictures?" "Can you dress up for the class?" "How did you keep such a big scoop like this secret from me for so long?"
And the questions went on and on despite Ranma's panicked look and lack of answers. Chisame never would have guessed they shared a hobby as well as an outlook on the class. Cat-girl, huh? She could definitely see that. Ranma had the cute look needed to really pull something like that off. Wouldn't even need the touching up Chisame did to her own images. Still, letting the class find out was an amateur mistake. That's why Chisame never dressed up outside her own room. She felt sorry for the girl, but she was going to have to live with her slip-up.
"Back off," Setsuna demanded, forcing her way into the crowd and doing her best to push people away. "Can't you see she doesn't want to talk about it? Just leave her alone."
"Since when are you friends with Ranma?" Asakura asked.
"I'm not," Setsuna quickly answered. "I just don't like watching the class treat someone like that."
It was pretty crazy at that. What sort of class descended like vultures on a student over a little bit of gossip? And of course their child teacher hadn't been able to keep order at all. If anything, his being here just added to the chaos that went on in their class. As seen when Negi's students suggested a party in his honor as soon as they'd been torn away from Ranma. Chisame just couldn't take any more of this today.
"I feel sick to my stomach," she announced. "I'm going back to the dorms."
Hurrying out, she was only a few strides out of the school when Negi came running up behind her trying to offer medicine for the upset stomach. The idiot hadn't even realized she'd been lying about that. He then followed her all the way back to the dorms, so she wasn't able to lose him until she was safe in her room. Needing to cool off, she quickly got fully into costume, logging on to her website and typing away.
"Something horrible happened today," she wrote. "We've got some pervert teaching the class. He had a girl in class practically in tears and Chiu is afraid he'll go after her next."
Chisame watched with glee as the replies started pouring in, offering support. This was exactly what she needed. Moving on, she started taking pictures of her latest outfits, finishing off with a great bunny-girl costume she'd recently made. Getting back on the computer, she worked her magic and touched up all the images until even a somewhat plain girl like her could look like an idol. Which was why she was the top net idol in the world.
And she wasn't going to slip up like Ranma and let her extracurricular activities get out. Feeling very proud of herself she turned around, only to almost die in shock from seeing Negi standing right there looking at her.
"I'm sorry, but the door was open, so I let myself in," he exclaimed.
Chisame quickly put her glasses back on, but it was far too late for that to be enough to hide anything.
"Wow, this is amazing," Negi said as he looked over the pictures on her screen.
Of course it was. She wouldn't have made her way to the top if it wasn't. But she needed to get rid of the brat now. She'd seen what had happened to Ranma earlier today when she'd been outed, and there was no way Chisame was letting the same thing happen to her. She was just thinking over whether she'd be able to get away with murdering him and hiding his body when he pulled the glasses off her face.
"Wow, you really are pretty even without the changes," he declared, making her blush despite herself.
Just what did this brat think he was saying? He was only ten, for crying out loud. Worse yet, he then took off out of her room still holding her glasses.
"Give those back," she ordered, running after him. They were already out of the dorms and halfway back to the school before he finally stopped, allowing her catch up but still dodging any attempts to her grab back her glasses.
"Come to the party," he suggested. "The weather is great and it will be a lot of fun."
"I hate parties, go back to bothering Ranma," Chisame told him. "I'm sure she plans to skip too."
"Actually, I sort of promised to leave her alone over spring break," he said.
"Great, so without your pet project you have to fall back on me," Chisame muttered, turning back to the dorms. "Well I'm going home."
But she wasn't able to make any progress, as Negi had already grabbed her by the wrist and was now pulling her in the other direction. She tried to pull away from him but couldn't manage, and he was still dragging her along despite her efforts to stop him. How was a kid like this so strong anyway?
"I'll go already. I'll go," she finally said as she saw them approaching where the rest of the class was setting up outside for the party. "Just let me change first."
But Negi didn't slow in the least, and she soon found herself right in the middle of her classmates, still in her bunny-girl costume.
"Who is that? Negi-sensei's secret girlfriend?" she heard someone ask.
"Wait," Asuna said. "Is that Hasegawa?"
No, this was the worst case scenario. They'd recognized her. Now she found herself surrounded and given much the same treatment Ranma had just received earlier.
"That's a great costume." "Did you make it yourself?" "Anyone else find it strange that the two biggest loners in the class both cosplay?" "Are you and Saotome-san secretly friend?" "Do you ever cosplay together?"
Looking over to where Negi was smiling as he watched, Chisame vowed that one day she would kill him.
Author's Notes:
I suspect there'd be a few rather happy readers if I could keep up this sort of writing pace consistently, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen. For starters, I have a lot of ideas and subplots of things I want to do, but haven't really hashed out a clear timeline of their order yet. This is was the last chapter I'm comfortable writing until I do.
On that same front I couldn't tell exactly when certain Ranma characters will show up even if I wanted to spoil it at the moment. But as devoid of them as this chapter was, they will be showing up in force sooner or later.
Until then, I've got plenty to work with just with the large cast of Negima characters.