Ghost Raised

Chapter 4: The Fiancées are a Coming- Announcement

Life had quickly fallen into a pattern during the next few days for Ranma and Whim. Wake up, eat, go to school, thunder rod Kuno to minimize damage to school property, go to classes, use various ice bombs on Kuno the reasons for which depended on what form Ranma was in, eat lunch, Ice-bomb Akane for attacking him/her due to perceived perversions, finish classes, return home while dodging the girls and/or guys out for dates, do homework, eat dinner, perform experiments, practice his sword work, card work, play some family games, and sleep. The change in this happened on Thursday of the first week, when Ranma received two short letters.

Letter one:

Dear Ranma,

How has your new school been? I hope it's going good, because my parents and yours arranged for me to transfer to Furinkan as well. According to dad I'll be living with you for the school year, so that we may get to know each other beyond our regular letters. I can't wait to meet not only you and Whim, but the other fiancée as well, and I hope we will get along despite the fact that we are both trying for your hand due to our parents. I'll be at your house Sunday the XX.

Your fiancée;

Moka.

Letter two came with a largish clear box full of what looked like lollipops. The box had a 'Don't Open' sign on it. The letter itself read:

Ranma,

Hi, it's Mizore. My parents arranged for me to move into your place to attend Furinkan School with you. See you Sunday.

Mizore.

The scream of horror that reverberated through the house at the time had a near fatality; the old ladle lady that splashed Ranma the first day of school was walking by the house at the time, and had a heart attack. Fortunately, or unfortunately for Ranma's water soluble maleness, the woman survived because of someone calling an ambulance that brought her to the hospital for prompt treatment.

Ranma's parents and Whim ran into the room to see what the matter was. As they entered the main room they saw Ranma looking at two pieces of paper with two enveloped on the floor. Ranma, hearing them enter the room, turned toward the three with a twitching eyebrow and asked, "When exactly were you going to tell me my fiancées are coming? I would have liked more than three or four days to prepare myself for their arrival. Not to mention more than a day to prepare them for the school."

"Roxis, I thought you were going to tell him a week ago?" Pamela asked sweetly.

"I thought we agreed you would," Roxis replied, sweating under the glare Ranma directed at him when he heard what Pamela said.

"Oh dear, sorry Ranma I heard them talking about telling you so I didn't," Whim replied somewhat sheepishly.

*sigh* "At least tell me that you remembered to get their rooms ready," Ranma asked tiredly.

"The furniture will be delivered while you are at school tomorrow," Roxis replied.

"Whim lets go to the lab, we need to make sure that the dangerous stuff is locked up. I don't want a repeat of my accident," Ranma said. He then saw Pamela's face fall and added, "Not that I mind it all that much anymore, I can understand forgetting about experiments, and my getting adopted WAS sudden."

Pamela's face brightened as she realized Ranma wasn't upset, and quickly went back to finishing the cleaning the two guest rooms.

An hour later Ranma was finished organizing his workshop, the bombs and other dangerous materials locked in cabinets, and the rest sorted onto shelves. He then went to his desk to write a couple of survival guides for Furinkan High school.

The first section of the guide read:

1. Avoid the guy in the kendo outfit. He will send a gang after you claiming that in order to date you they have to beat you up. He thinks this applies even if you don't agree.

2. If he starts the aforementioned challenge either ask me to deal with it, or hurt the group badly, and say you will do worse if they try again. This, at least for me, stopped all but the kendo guy from bothering me.

3. Guy in kendo outfit keeps bothering you? Hurt him, or ask me for help.

4. Avoid Akane, she will probably think you are perverts for being betrothed to the same person and attack. See solution for number three.

5. Avoid Nabiki, she will try and bilk you out of your money, or try to chase you away from me. She apparently wants to marry me due to my family influence (not interested).

6. Nabiki has spies that try and ferret out blackmail material on other students, threaten them and they generally go away.

7. Finally a personal request, help me get rid of all the girls and guys after me. I have no intention of cheating on you two.

After Ranma finished the guide with other pointers on who to avoid, or who to befriend, as well as informing them of the gym situation, he stretched. Taking a look at the clock at the edge of his dark wood desk he noticed that he had just enough time to copy the guide before bed. Quickly making a copy of the guide he repacked his book bag with his attack items, and went to bed feeling that tomorrow will be different. He had no idea how right he was.

A good distance away, at the Tendo Dojo, two girls were making plans. The plans of the two girls were vastly different, but about the same subject, Ranma Ibis, and how to get him to date them.

Kasumi was looking through her recipes. Her plan was a simple one, and based off of something she heard, 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach,' so she was creating a bento for him, and she hoped that he didn't hold what happened at the house against her. Selecting the recipes for the bento wasn't hard considering that she makes them for her younger sisters. She had waited a few days, so that Ranma would have a chance to cool off. Placing the recipes aside she went off to prepare for bed, and as she drifted off to sleep she dreamed of a young man helping her create a happy home for her family.

Meanwhile Nabiki was searching for some hold on Ranma to get him to date her. She was currently failing, badly. She would try blackmail about the bombs, but considering that they have only been used in self defense and that Ranma had a license to carry and use them in that capacity it was a dead end. Not to mention, that course of action would almost certainly land her in jail since he would bring the blackmail to the police's attention. Her final decision was to simply ask, and hope he was over the conversation from Monday. Turning out the lights she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the wealth and influence being the wife of a certain young man would bring her.

The next day started like any other, at least until Ranma entered his classroom with whim behind him. When he entered he saw someone standing by his desk. "Nabiki, what are you doing here?" he said coldly.

"I just wanted to ask…" she started to respond.

"Whatever you're going to ask, I'm not interested," Ranma interrupted still in the same cold voice.

"But…" Nabiki started while thinking, How dare he?

"Listen, I have a good idea of what you're going to ask, and the answer is no, I have absolutely no interest in a bitch like you, or in fulfilling a void pact," he then pushed past her and sat at his desk with Whim moving to her own. The class which had assembled at this time was awestruck that someone dared to treat Nabiki like that.

Nabiki stood there trying to articulate her thoughts and arguments, but couldn't think of a good response. Clenching her fists and jaw in anger, she decided to retreat until she could create a plan, nearly bowling over Akane as she left the classroom.

Akane just looked in shock as her sister stalked past, wondering what made her angry, Akane walked into the classroom only to see Ranma at his desk with a pair of those ice-bombs he keeps hitting her and Kuno with on the desk. She considered attacking him for upsetting her sister with his perversions, but decided that she didn't want to be iced up today like she has been for the last week.

Ranma quickly fell asleep during classes, not only because they were dull, but also because in the physical sciences he was far above the course work. The teachers had already tested him in those subjects and found that he had passed the previous year's final with a perfect score, so they just let him sleep as long as the homework and tests were completed.

Shortly before lunch a young woman with her first crush, was walking to the school with a freshly made bento. Her plan was simple; ask him to join her for lunch, and share the bento with him. What could go wrong? She had a sinking feeling as soon as she asked herself that question.

At the school the lunch bell had just rang, and Ranma was in an especially foul mood. The day was simply not going well. First it was Nabiki coming on to him, then the other girls decided to follow her lead during the class breaks, and finally after he was splashed the boys took their turn along with a few more girls. I was a testament to his self control that the school wasn't a pile of rubble. As Ranma and Whim headed to their normal tree to eat Ranma saw Kasumi approaching, and asked venomously, "What are you doing here Tendo?"

Taken aback by the venom that she had never had directed at her before she composed herself, and responded, "I was wondering if we could have lunch together, I made this bento for us…" she started holding the bento out.

This was the final straw that broke the camel's back. With a quick backhand Ranma knocked the bento out of her hands and onto the ground, scattering the contents. "What is with you people? What did I ever do to make you think I was interested in any of you? I ALREADY AM ENGAGED! And I have absolutely NO interest in ANY of the Tendo family. So LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ranma shouted angrily, he then turned to the crowd that gathered due to his shouting, and said, "I don't mind being friends with you, but I'm sick and tired of getting badgered for dates."

Kasumi looked at Ranma then the remains of the bento she made especially for him before bursting into tears and running from the school grounds.

"Ranma! How dare you do that to Kasumi?" Akane said as she rushed to attack him.

A quick long ice bomb later and an Akane sickle replaced Akane.

Conversation flew through the crowd as both the announcement of Ranma's engagement spread as well as how he had treated one of the nicest people they knew.

Nabiki herself was in shock. Her sister was turned down without even a moments consideration on Ranma's part. If Kasumi was rejected like that what chance did she have? She then thought of what Ranma said, and decided that he might have been pressed too hard today, and after thinking about it, decided to support Kasumi. She probably had a better chance than she did, and if Kasumi gets together with Ranma she could always ask her to use the influence of the Ibis family.

Ranma for his part simply sat under his normal tree eating, and trying to get his temper under control. Thankfully Kuno was once again encased in the frozen pool from earlier in the day, so he wasn't around to respark his anger.

The rest of the school avoided him as much as possible throughout the rest of the day, none of them wanted to get the 'cold' shoulder treatment that Akane got earlier. Ranma noticed the fact that they were avoiding him, and was privately grateful. While he was capable of enjoying the company of others, and he was not a loner by nature, he was uncomfortable in large groups, or in being the center of attention like he was today.

As he looked back on his actions later, Ranma would admit he might have been a bit harsh, but he was sick of the people in school hitting on him. Who they were was dependent on his current form, with only a few girls… and guys trying no matter the form.

Walking home was, for once, a quite affair. Nobody was jumping up asking for a date. Ranma got home just in time to see a man in a dirty brown Gi stalk out of the house. Ranma, recognizing Soun, reached into his bag, and grabbed a bomb randomly as the man approached.

"How dare you do that to my daughter? It's bad enough you broke an honor pact, but you insulted her when she took the time to make you that lunch!" the angry man shouted in Ranma's face.

"What? The fact that she was probably just after me for the same reason Nabiki is? Or to preserve a voided pact? Or more likely on your orders? Trust me, marring into your family is the LAST thing I would ever want. However you might be right that I went too far, please send my apologies for my rudeness in declining her offer, I had a bad day up to that point and shouldn't have taken it out on her, but the answer is still no. Now out of my way," Ranma replied evenly. He then stepped past the man who was trying to formulate a response started to walk to the house.

Whim bowed politely before following her master.

Soun wanted to follow Ranma, but unfortunately he knew about bad days, and looking for an excuse to vent. With a sigh he replied, "Wait, will you be willing to apologize to her directly? I know about bad days and needing to vent, but she came home in tears, and when I left after getting the story ten minutes ago she was still crying."

Ranma turned to Whim sighed, and said, "Whim, tell mom where I'm going and I'll be back in less than an hour." He then turned to Soun and said, "I'm only going to apologize for my overreaction, but my answer will still be no, understand?"

"Yes," the man sighed.

As they walked to the dojo in silence Soun took the opportunity to examine how Ranma moved. What he saw disappointed him, while Ranma had the walk of a fighter, it was not the walk of one who spent his life as a martial artist. The walk did look familiar and after a second he recognized the walk. "Sword," he said simply

"Huh?" Ranma replied.

"You've been trained to use a sword almost exclusively," the mustached man clarified.

"Yes, how did you know?" Ranma replied suspiciously.

"Your walk," Soun said simply.

Ranma nodded accepting the explanation as they approached the dojo.

"Come in, I'll lead you to Kasumi," Soun said.

Kasumi was in the dining room still crying. As she heard two sets of footsteps approach. "Excuse me Kasumi," a familiar voice said.

She looked up and saw Ranma standing by her father. "What do you want?" she sobbed.

"I wish to apologize; my actions earlier were a bit over the top. I had a bad day with everyone and their brother asking me out, and you were the last straw that made me lose my temper. While I would've still declined I'm generally am more polite about declining such invitations," Ranma answered gently. "I've said my piece goodbye." He then walked out of the house.

Kasumi's tears slowly stopped after he left, and while she was still sad, went to the bathroom to get cleaned up when a thought occurred to her. Ranma had said he over reacted due to a bad day, so it's possible that he might be more receptive at a later time, after all it wasn't like his supposed fiancées were here.

Unfortunately, she had no clue as to what was coming next Sunday…

End chapter 4.