At any rate, enjoy the fic!
Chapter 7. Keiko, a test and a demonic attack.
Ranma ran through the front gates of Sarayashiki Jr. high school, her red pigtail fluttering in the wind of her passage. She wasn't late yet, but by the time she got some hot water and got to class it would be a close thing.
In the wake of the speeding redhead, Keiko Yukimura blinked rapidly a few times. 'That was Ranko, but what's she doing here?' She thought, as she chased the blur into the school. Unfortunately, by the time she reached where she thought the blur had ended up she was standing in front of the boys washroom and the only one around had been Ranma, who had waved at her as he ran past and called out "Hey Keiko, aren't ya going to be late for class?" at which point she'd realized the time and had to make a mad dash of her own after the pigtailed martial artist.
HR.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, Yusuke was having his own problems. Kuwabara wasn't exactly cooperating with him in his attempts to get him to class on time. The orange haired boy kept drifting off into dreams about some girl while walking, and had bumped into three lockers already. The only good part about this was that while his friend was in his daydreaming state, Kuwabara was more receptive to the spirit world and Yusuke could usually get him moving again.
"This must be some girl." The Urameshi boy muttered, as he passed his hand through the back of Kuwabara's head again, the general effect being similar to a slap upside the head and causing him to snap back to reality.
"Actually," Botan, who had just floated down beside him said, scaring Yusuke and causing him to jump, "The girl he saw was Ranma in his other form." She couldn't help but snicker at both Yusuke's startled jump and the thought of Kuwabara fantasizing about Ranma. 'That'll teach him for saying I'm not scary.' She giggled to herself, as Yusuke turned a little green.
"Ouch, poor guy." Yusuke whistled, as Kuwabara turned into the door of his first class of the day, Science class with Mr. Ewamoto.
Yusuke spent most of the class trying to get Kuwabara to pay attention, but fortunately for him the other boy's periods of zoning out also allowed his friend, or actually Botan, to whisper answers into his ear for the test.
HR.
"How did that idiot Kuwabara manage this?!" Mr. Iwamoto growled, looking over the test he had in front of him. He was hoping that, at best, the delinquent boy had managed to just barely pull off a 50, in which case he could tweak the mark to make him fail. This though, this was IMPOSSIBLE! If he hadn't been watching Kuwabara all class to make sure he wasn't cheating, he'd have sworn that the boy had an answer sheet under his chair. "70 percent…" he muttered, looking over the sheet again. "70 percent."
"Something wrong, Kazuo?" Mr. Takanaka asked, looking over Mr. Ewamoto's shoulder to examine Kuwabara's test.
"Nothing." Ewamoto muttered, cursing at the fact that now that Takanaka had seen it, he couldn't alter the test score or answers. Oh well, that Ranma boy was next and he was absolutely SURE that he would fail miserably. He was more of a delinquent than Urameshi.
In the middle of Physical education, Ranma sneezed and almost flubbed a jump on the high bar. Changing his angle quickly, he grabbed the bar and flipped around it to land gracefully on the mat on the other side.
"While that was quite impressive, it wasn't what you were supposed to do, Mr. Ranma. Try it again." The gym teacher said, slightly amazed.
HR.
On the other side of the gym, in the girls class, Keiko was observing Ranma intently. Well, to be fair, half the girls were doing that, but Keiko was doing it for a different reason. She had started thinking of it as only a joke, a way to pass the time until she got to the vaulting horse, but the thoughts kept running around in her head. When Yusuke had come back to her, in Ranko's body, he had told her that Ranko and Ranma were the same person. At the time, she'd laughed it off as him trying to dodge an accusation of perversion and hadn't thought of it since, however her overheard conversation between Ranma and Mr. Ewamoto had started the thought going through her head again, and there had been some more evidence since then.
Two days ago, Ranma had come into class with his arms pretty well wrapped in bandages. Granted, he had lost most of them over the time since, and she was kind of confused at how someone could heal that fast, but the strange part was that Ranko had shown up at work that night with just as many bandages on her arms. When Keiko had asked where she'd gotten injured, she had answered that it was in a sparring match, and shrugged it off. Another strange thing was that she had seemed to lose her bandages at the same rate as Ranma did. Add to that this morning's incident with Ranko showing up at school only to be replaced with Ranma a few minutes later, and despite how unbelievable it was, she had to consider the possibility that they were the same person. 'I'll talk to Ranko about it at work tonight.' She resolved, before a brusque voice jolted her out of her thoughts.
"Yukimura, you're up! Stop staring at the boys and get over here!" The girls' gym teacher bellowed, causing the blushing brunette to quickly jump to her feet and proceed to the vaulting horse.
HR.
Ranma leaned back in his seat, cracking his back and stretching languidly. His completed test paper lay on the table before him, and he was feeling confident that he had done most, if not all, of it correctly. A great deal of the questions dealt with biology, one of the few classes that Genma had made him study for during the training trip. 'If you know how the human body works, it makes it easier to make it stop.' The old fart had said, and this was one of those occasions, very rare in number, where he had given good advice.
"Here you go, sir." Ranma said, setting the paper on the teacher's desk and walking out of class for lunch.
On his way down to the lunch room, Ranma saw Kuwabara walking the other way, holding what looked like a home made bento. Falling in next to him, he noticed that the taller boy seemed slightly out of it. "Hey Kuwabara, you Okay?" He asked, cautiously.
"I'm fine…" Kuwabara mumbled, his eyes slightly distant and misty.
"Oookay." Ranma said, drawling the words out slowly. He had thought of an idea this morning and wanted to run it by Kuwabara, but the other boy seemed just a bit out of it. Shrugging, he decided to try it anyways. "Hey Kuwabara, I was wonderin. There ain't any good sparring partners around the school, since…" He shrugged off what he was going to say and continued on. "Anyways, I was wondering if ya wanted to spar with me after school some time?"
"Huh, what?" Kuwabara said, seeming to snap out of a daze. Unknown to Ranma, Yusuke had just slapped his friend in the back of the head again. "What was that?"
"I wanted to know if you wanted to spar after school some times." Ranma clarified, speaking slowly. After a second, his eyes gained a teasing spark. "After all, ya ain't too good at dodging attacks, and I need a punching bag."
"Hey! I ain't a punching bag!" Kuwabara yelled, indignantly.
"Then prove it." Ranma said, smirking.
"Fine." Kuwabara said, but then realized something. "I'll beat you tomorrow, when I'm allowed to fight again. That sound good to you?"
Ranma nodded. "All but the beatin me part, sure." He said, and then walked off grinning. If he couldn't find that guy with the sword again, at least Kuwabara would be fun to fight with.
Floating in mid-air behind Kuwabara, Botan looked at Yusuke quizzically. "Why did you snap him out of his daydreams for that?"
"Simple." Yusuke answered, reclining in relaxation. "When I come back to life, he should be a lot more fun to beat up if Ranma trains him up a bit."
Botan sighed in exasperation. "I should have known."
HR.
Ranma, Kuwabara and his gang stood in Mr. Ewamoto's office, waiting for the teacher to speak from behind his desk. "Well, I don't know how you did it, but you all passed." Ewamoto ground out, laying five test papers out on the table in front of him.
"So our jobs are safe?" Okubo asked, tentatively.
"Yes," Ewamoto said, sighing. "But I will be watching you! Step out of line in school once more, and I'll punish you to the fullest extent, is that understood?" He said, smiling sinisterly.
"Yes sir." All five boys responded, though Ranma's response was slightly mocking and Kuwabara's was angry.
"Good, now get out of here." Ewamoto turned his chair away from the students as he said this, clearly telling them that he was done with them.
"Thanks a lot Kuwabara, you really saved me." Okubo said, as the group exited the teacher's office.
"Aw, it's no problem." Kuwabara laughed, nervously, as he scratched the back of his neck. "But I almost didn't make it today."
"Huh, what happened?" One of Kuwabara's other friends asked, curiously.
"Well," Kuwabara started, before telling the story of Ranma's rescue of him this morning, complete with a few embellishments of his own. Unnoticed to the rambling redhead, one of his companions was turning a little green.
"I, erm, gotta go." Ranma said, quickly, in the middle of Kuwabara's story. Luckily, he had made it to the bathroom before he was sick. A guy liked his girl form, and what was worse, it was Kuwabara. Not that there was anything particularly wrong with Kuwabara, but the way he talked about the "Pigtailed goddess" who saved him this morning. Gah… Yeah, Ranma was definitely not going to hold back during his first spar with Kuwabara, not one bit.
HR.
Later that day, the students' procession out of Sarayashiki Jr. High was stopped when the sound of shattering stone reverberated through the air. As everyone looked towards the source of the sound, they were surprised to see that there was a large hole in the wall surrounding the school, and a tall and muscular man walking through it.
"Ranma Minamino!" The man bellowed, looking around the area. "Where are you?!"
At that moment, two people sighed. One was up in a tree, and was wondering how he had ever been talked into having this idiot on a covert theft team and the other was in the middle of the line of students, and quickly pushed his way past a bunch of classmates to get to the guy who'd just smashed the hole in the wall.
"I'm Ranma, what'cha want?" The pigtailed martial artist stated, surveying his new opponent. The guy was tall, taller than Kuwabara by a fair margin, and very muscular. He also looked about as dumb as a brick, though, so Ranma wasn't particularly worried.
"The name's Gouki. I'm here to take ya to meet a partner of mine. You'd better come along like a nice little human." The man said, cracking his knuckles.
'Human?' Ranma thought, before falling into a stance. "I don't like bein threatened. How 'bout ya try and make me come with ya?" He asked, as he motioned for the rest of the students to back away. Having seen a few brawls between Yusuke and Kuwabara, or other combatants over the years, most of the students obliged Ranma's request.
Gouki, the soul eater demon, grinned. He had been looking for this kid for three days. As Hiei had said, it had been hard to find him and he was more than ready to work off some steam. With a roar of challenge, he charged at his human opponent… and found him not there.
"C'mon, you can do better than that, can't you?" Ranma asked, leaning casually against the wall near the hole Gouki had created. The larger man growled, charging again, and Ranma decided to counter with a blow of his own while dodging this time. Unfortunately, he quickly found out that punching Gouki was a bad idea, as his arm started throbbing from the shock of his hand slamming into his opponent's stone-like skin. "What the he…" he was cut off as the large man used his distraction to catch him with a blow that sent him flying half way across the school yard and into a trench on the ground of his own making.
"Why is it that half the guys around here are ridiculously strong?" Ranma muttered, as he hauled himself to his feet. Taking stock of his situation, he found that he had no broken bones, but many small bruises and a bump on the back of his head. Rubbing at the bump, he grinned. "That hurt a little." He said, as he rejoined the battle.
Within a few minutes, Ranma was hurting more than a little. That first punch his opponent had landed had taken quite a lot out of him, and he was only barely dodging most of the time. He had attempted to take a few shots since then, but even aiming for usually vital spots, including the desperation move that Genma had called the 'Squirrel Maneuver,' seemed to have no effect. Desperately, the pigtailed martial artist tried to think of a technique that could hurt the thick skinned monster before him. If he had a few handy trees to bounce off of he could try a momentum assisted kick, but he didn't, and it was entirely possible that even if he did the move would probably just break his leg. Within a few seconds, his frantically rummaging mind came upon a technique that could, at least, buy him some time. Admittedly, he had only read the scroll teaching the move once, but even if it only worked for a few seconds it could work.
While dodging, Ranma started to talk. "That's it, time to end this!" He yelled, catching Gouki's attention. "Saotome school of anything goes final attack!" He continued, and as Gouki was hardening his defenses in expectation, the young man used the opportunity to take up what looked like a modified preying mantis stance and vanish from sight.
"What the hell?" Gouki demanded, looking around for his opponent. Ranma, for his part, was desperately trying to focus his Chi to keep up the technique. He wasn't technically far enough advanced in manipulating his aura to do this, and it took all of his concentration to keep from flickering back into sight, however while he was invisible, Gouki couldn't attack him, and he could possibly recover some of his lost strength.
Gouki snorted. "Running away, should have expected as much from a human."
In the trees, the figure who was watching couldn't help but be impressed. Admittedly, his Jagaan eye could see Ranma, holding position a little distance from his opponent, but without that very special ability, which he was sure no one in spirit world security had, the boy was virtually undetectable unless you bumped into him.
On the battlefield, Gouki was getting annoyed. "Come out, now!" He bellowed, looking around for where Ranma could possibly be hiding. Most of the students who had been watching the fight had cleared out when Ranma had almost hit them on one of his headlong flights, and the yard looked almost completely empty. Seeing that there was one girl just exiting the building, the demon grinned and ran to her, grabbing her by the arm and holding her up.
"Come out, or this one dies!" He snarled, holding a fist above the girl's head.
The girl, a seventh grader, did a perfectly natural thing in such a situation and started to whimper softly.
Whether Ranma would have given in to Gouki's threat or not was actually a moot issue. The Umisen ken depended on one suppressing their Chi, and the burst of angry chi that the pigtailed boy let off at the demon's actions pretty well dispersed it. Instantly, Gouki dropped the girl, and showing more speed than he had all fight in an attempt to keep Ranma from disappearing again, he closed and grabbed the boy by the throat.
"To hell with Hiei's orders." He snarled, as he began squeezing Ranma's neck, intent on choking him to death.
It was at that moment that the shadow hidden in the trees chose to act, dropping to the ground and running towards the victorious demon. Unsheathing his sword, Hiei removed Gouki's head in one clean stroke. "I thought I distinctly told you not to kill him. You don't listen very well, do you?" He said, sheathing the blade as the large and muscular demon toppled to the ground.
Ranma, who had been dropped to the ground when Gouki died, looked up at the voice. "Wha…" he muttered, seeing the guy he'd slammed into a tree three days earlier.
"You owe me, and I have a job I need done. Come to the park tonight." Hiei said, shortly, before bounding off into the city. Ranma just gawked, rubbing at the marks on his neck where Gouki's hands had wrapped it, before walking off as well.
END.
So, how was it, Huh? Huh? Tell me tell me tell me!
Now that I got THAT out of my system, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As for why Gouki called Ranma "Ranma Minamino," he got the name from Hiei, who only knows that Kurama's human last name is Minamino, and his brother's name is Ranma, ergo Ranma Minamino.
Oh, and sorry for the Kuno Kuwa reference. I like Kuwabara, but he's SO easy to make fun of!
C ya soon. I'll try and get the next OS chapter out soon, but maybe this is good enough a present for ya, James."