While the chaos continued at the Tendo residence Kasumi slipped out and began to make her way to Furinkan High School, in hopes of finding Hinako and having a word with her before school started. The journey itself had been a short one as Kasumi made use of her longer legs to travel the distance at a quicker pace.
Furinkan High School…
Kasumi made her way through the school gates just in time to see what appeared to be a little girl wearing a yellow dress enter the school building, holding a handful of books against her small torso.
'She must be the teacher Nabiki told me about' Kasumi mused to herself before chasing after the diminutive teacher. Kasumi crossed the courtyard in record time and got through the doors just in time to see Hinako turn off the corridor and began to head up the stairs, Kasumi once again took chase, her footsteps echoing throughout the empty corridor, she soon rounded the turn and started up the stairs, glancing up to see the small hand of her target on the banister on the floor above her. She began to climb the stairs as fast as she could.
'Damn this sundress' Kasumi inwardly cursed as the length of her dress slowed her down, preventing her from climbing the staircase as fast as she could without tripping. She heard the door above her open and close when she reached the second floor, Kasumi let out a frustrated sigh and continued her climb before finally exiting the stairs on the third floor and entered the end of a corridor, she began to head down the said corridor, glancing in each classroom as she did, searching for the teacher.
She finally found the classroom after nearly reaching the opposite side of the hallway, she had glanced in and seen the little girl ticking worksheets and writing comments before adding them to a pile and reaching for the next one. She lightly raised her hand curled into a first before lightly knocking on the door, the girl's head shot up and turned to the door, eyes widening.
"Err…come in" Hinako said hesitantly, caught off guard by the surprise of someone coming to see her, the door opened and Kasumi entered the classroom.
"Hello, am I right in thinking that you are Miss Hinako?" Kasumi greeted.
"Yes, can I help you?" Hinako questioned, raising an eyebrow, putting down her pen and taking a small break from her marking.
"Yes…well, it's not me…you see my sister told me that you might be able to help our friend" Kasumi explained.
"Sister?" Hinako asked.
"Yes, my name is Kasumi Tendo and no doubt you know my little sister, Nabiki" Kasumi replied.
"Ah, the mercenary girl, she certainly has quite the reputation" Hinako replied "So why would she say that I would be able to help your friend, considering how you said it I don't think that your friend simply needs some extra tuition" she continued, Kasumi's expression seemed to fall.
"Well…not really…you see he has had quite a hard life and he…he's suicidal and refuses to open up to any of us and we thought he might open up to you" Kasumi replied.
"Why would he open up to me?" Hinako asked, now giving this issue one hundred and ten percent of her attention.
"You two…you're sort of the same…like you he reverts to been a child after expensing his Ki" Kasumi explained, Hinako stiffened.
'Another…like me…hold on…' Hinako inwardly gasped.
"Is this friend of yours perchance Ranma Saotome?" Hianko questioned, recalling how knowledgeable he had been about her 'condition'.
"Yes" Kasumi admitted with a tired sigh, her expression falling "So will you help him?" she asked.
"How can I help?" Hianko asked, not seeing why Ranma would open up to her just because they both learned the same technique.
"By talking to him and convincing him to open up, reach out to him…Nabiki and I thought that maybe on a lunchtime you could have sort of a therapy session or something" Kasumi admitted, Hinako looked to be considering it for a second before finally letting out a small sigh.
"I'll do what I can…but I can't make any promises, students don't usually open up to teachers about things they're suicidal about, especially those of Ranma's age" Hinako replied.
"I don't think the lack of opening up when it comes to teenagers will be your main problem" Kasumi replied.
"What do you mean?" Hinako asked, before Kasumi could answer the door opened and a small group of students entered the classroom and made their ways to their chairs, normally they would head to the windows and watch the morning fights from a safe distance but after Ranma's response to seeing the fights no one even thought that the fights would continue. Kasumi took their arrival as a sign to leave.
"Thank you for hearing me out Miss Hinako and please do what you can, please tell us when you find out why he's...you know" Kasumi replied, doubting Ranma would appreciate her announcing some of his classmates that he was suicidal, even if they didn't know who it was they would find out soon enough, the diminutive teacher merely nodded in response as the elder Tendo turned and began to take her leave.
Meanwhile…
Nabiki waited until Ranma and Akane had left for school and for Genma to leave to find the shoji board before she began to head upstairs.
"Nabiki why aren't you going to school?" Soun questioned.
"I'm doing some reconnaissance to try and help Ranma and I thought that it would be worth to miss a single day of school" Nabiki replied.
"I see, well don't make a habit of it" Soun replied, he may not know how bad things were with Ranma but he wasn't stupid and could clearly see something was seriously wrong.
"Don't worry I won't" Nabiki replied.
"Nabiki you shouldn't snoop around, if Ranma wants you to learn about his past then he will tell you, you shouldn't try to reveal his secrets by force" Happosai stated as he turned to face the middle Tendo.
"Happosai if we don't know what the problem is then how can we help him?" Nabiki challenged.
"Ranma doesn't want to be helped, his wounds are still raw, when he is ready he will open up on his own, don't force him" Happosai replied.
"You know what it is, don't you, what Ranma's hiding" Nabiki stated, her gaze narrowing.
"I know some of what he's hiding yes" Happosai admitted.
"Then tell me" Nabiki responded.
"No" Happosai replied.
"Happosai, he's suicidal, we managed to stop him the first night he came here and I don't think we'll be able to stop him next time and even if we're lucky enough that we can stop him the next time and the time after and even the time after that he only needs to get 'lucky' once" Nabiki spat.
"He attempted suicide" Soun gasped.
"Yes" Nabiki stated.
"There is nothing I can do Nabiki, I don't know the whole thing and I can't tell you what I do know, only that he is broken emotionally and mentally but…physically…he's stronger than anyone and anything I have ever come across" Happosai replied.
"What do you mean?" Nabiki questioned.
"Ranma possesses the aura of destruction, appropriately named for it is something a martial artist of a high calibre like Ranma learns subconsciously to protect themselves…after they experience something on par with torture. The attack itself is an aura that fuels itself on one dominant emotion and with someone like Ranma who is so emotionally unstable that he has forced control upon himself, he is unwilling to feel, and this technique only enforces it, you see, this aura is death incarnate, when fuelled by rage it can level mountains and the angrier to the user becomes the more powerful and uncontrollable it is and that is only one emotion, so imagine how powerful others would be, it is called the aura of destruction because it will destroy everything the minute it is unleashed which is why Ranma surprises me, he possess this power and he controls it, a new impossible feat. By refusing to feel he can control it but it comes with a price, something traumatic happened to him and so he locked up his emotions" Happosai replied.
"Just tell me what you know, we need to help him" Nabiki pushed.
"It is for him to tell you not me, it's a delicate subject, the best we can do is support him and make sure he knows that he can talk to us and that we're here for him" Happosai replied, Nabiki let out a tired sigh and simply left the duo to head upstairs once Genma re-entered the room, shoji board in hand, heading straight to the guestroom.
Soun rose from where he sat and headed to the phone.
"Soun where are you going?" Genma questioned, Soun fought the urge to verbally assault his friend, knowing that it was most likely down to him that Ranma was suicidal and had even attempted it, if not certain that it was his fault
"Oh, I just need to make a phone call Saotome, just set the game up, I'll just be a minute" Soun replied as he entered the hallway.
"Will do Tendo" Genma replied cheerfully, doing his best to ignore his Master.
Soun picked up the phone, flicking through the address book beside it before he found the number he was looking for and began to dial it, he heard the tone for a couple of minutes before a voice appeared on the other end.
"Hello" came a feminine voice.
"Hello, am I right in thinking that this is the Saotome residence?" Soun questioned.
"Yes" came the reply.
"Are you Mrs Saotome?" Soun questioned.
"No, she's out at the moment can I take a message?" she replied.
"Ok, just make sure you have a pen and paper this message is of great importance" Soun replied.
"Ok, just a second" she replied, Soun soon heard the sound of items falling over, pens rolling around and paper been retrieved, followed by a small curse as something shattered, in the background.
"Okay I've got them" she replied.
"Good, her son is at the Tendo Residence and he needs her, now" Soun stated, he heard a gasp on the other end.
"You've found Ranma" she gasped.
"Less found more like he and his father turned up here a couple days ago, now make sure Nodoka finds out that Ranma needs her ASAP" Soun said, his voice frantic, he heard scribbling in the background, the sound of pen meeting paper.
"Don't worry I'll tell her" she replied her tone serious.
"Thank you, goodbye and make sure she gets the message" Soun stated.
"Don't worry she will, goodbye and thank you for calling" she replied before the line went dead, Soun placed the phone on the hook before heading back to the shoji board.
Meanwhile…
Nabiki was in the guestroom, digging through Genma's pack, after having been through Ranma's and found a spare set of clothes, some training scrolls, big rocks and a few shards of glass, the weight alone was too much for Nabiki to lift.
'Why the hell would he put all that shit in Ranma's pack' Nabiki inwardly cursed as she continued to search through Genma's packs, she stiffened when she found a red, battered book, she lifted it out, she turned to open it only to find a locked latch upon it.
'Locked, now I know this has some critical info in it' Nabiki inwardly mused as she fished a pair of hair pins from her pocket 'I knew these would come in handy' she inwardly chuckled as she began to pick the lock, after a couple minutes the latch released.
'Yes' Nabiki inwardly cheered before opening the book and beginning to flick through it, eyes scanning every detail within it when a slip of paper fell out from between the pages, her gaze dropped on it, she closed the book and placed it on the floor and reached down to the piece of paper and flipped it over and began to read it, it was some sort of receipt.
'One redhead for 5000 yen' Nabiki read, frowning 'Is this talking about Ranma?' she mused, she looked back to the book where the slip had fallen from, she found it detailed the day's events that led to the receipt and felt her blood turn cold as all the blood drained from her face.
'That, that monster' Nabiki inwardly cursed before replacing the packs and leaving the guestroom, heading to her own, taking the book with her.
A/N Hope you all like the update, you can thank MilandaAnza for this update since it was MilandaAnza's suggestions that led to this update, plz review, things will start to pick up soon.
