Chapter 6 - Rebuilding
Nabiki rubbed her eyes and yawned. It was early in the morning,
during the quiet part of the night, but she was having problems
sleeping again. Oh well, it always helped her to review her latest,
most important project. She got out of bed, turned on her lamp,
opened her Ranma notebook and considered her progress.
Overall, Ranma appeared to be doing somewhat better now, at least so
long as she kept him busy. If given time to think, though, he tended
to fall rapidly back into the uncaring lassitude he exhibited
immediately after he returned. Nevertheless, he was slowing becoming
reasonably responsive in more day to day situations. She could still
see easily see the grief, though. For instance, Ranma frequently had
nightmares, something he had done before only after cat-fist episodes.
He had fallen asleep in her arms post nightmare several times more
since the shi-shi-hokodan episode. She was almost becoming used to
it. It was comforting, and not just to Ranma, although she'd never
admit that.
There had been no more massive shi-shi-hokodan's, thank God. Even
with the wide lassitude she had with the scholarship and expense
account she wrangled from the Kunos, they couldn't afford many of
those.
Cologne's instruction was turning out to be wonderful help with Ranma.
The Martial Arts was still Ranma's first love, and he was most like
his old self in the midst of trying to master a new technique. And
between Ranma's and Cologne's instruction, she herself was progressing
far more rapidly than she had ever believed possible. She could also
see that several of the techniques Cologne was instructing Ranma in
could prove to be invaluable in his new career, even though she was
still far from being able to understand them herself. Still, it gave
her something she could do with Ranma where he led her rather than the
other way around. Further, teaching her was something that he was
good at and enjoyed doing. That was important. He had to feel like
he was in control of as much of his life as possible.
Shampoo and Mousse had both left, forcing Cologne to hire new help.
Nabiki wasn't certain if that was a positive or negative. On the plus
side, the more people Ranma had to talk with, the better he seemed.
On the minus, she didn't want to risk Shampoo's or Mousse's obsessions
upsetting Ranma's still delicate emotional balance.
Ukyo, that was rough. She still was not really comfortable around
Ranma, and showed it despite her best efforts not to. Hurting his
oldest friend took a definite toll on him. Nabiki made a notation to
limit contact between the two until Ukyo was in a better condition,
and another to talk again to Nodaka to brainstorm ideas to help Ukyo,
both personally and to restore her honor.
School studies were proceeding more than satisfactorily. Given
sufficient motivation, Ranma showed a surprising academic ability, and
it also made a wonderful tool for Nabiki to occupy time Ranma would
otherwise spend brooding. At the rate they were going, he would be
ready to take the medical school admissions exam with a near certainty
of passing in just another month or so. He had already done
sufficient work to parlay into a high school degree for him.
Surprisingly, Hiniko-sensei had been of great help with the school
administration once she understood Nabiki's goals. She made a note to
thank Hiniko-sensei, and to ask her to force principal Kuno to release
the final paperwork and process Ranma's degree. She made another note
to talk to Supinreru-sensei at the medical school during their next
visit about arranging their entrance exams.
The medical school, that was a more than a bit of a sore point. Ranma
viewed their visits their to have his curse studied as a minor visit
to hell. Something just barely to be endured. What was worse, once
the doctors and scientists there discovered his abilities as a martial
artist, they had become almost equally interested in those as in his
curse. People able to leap 30 feet into the air, shoot blasts of
energy from their hands, be uninjured by blows which pulverized
concrete, and summon whirlwinds from nothing did not fit into their
world view. Nabiki suspected that if they took one more muscle biopsy
he would scream. He did scream the time they took a bone sample. The
last time they were there the doctors had so many wires and tubes on
him he could barely move, it had taken over an hour to detach
everything.
What was worse, even though the researchers didn't intend to, when
they were distracted or concentrating on the latest experiment they
tended to react to Ranma as if he were a freak of nature. Each time
she and Ranma returned from a visit Ranma noticeably backslid into
depression, sometimes dramatically. On one occasion on the evening of
their return she had caught Ranma contemplating his tanto where it was
displayed in the living room. She had quickly hustled Ranma into a
training session on that occasion.
It may have been a mistake to parlay Ranma's curse into an admission
into their medical program. Unfortunately, she have any other ideas
compelling enough to get them into a school with Ranma's otherwise
spotty record, his recent work notwithstanding. She still viewed the
practice of medicine as the best route to rebuild Ranma emotionally.
She had also hoped that the process of coming to understand his curse
would help him come to terms with it. If they were very lucky, they
might even come up with some way to mitigate it. He still hated being
a girl though, and the way the examinations were going they might
actually backfire and make him feel even worse about the curse than
before.
Sighing, Nabiki put off the issue until later. She'd talk to Cologne
and ask her advice, and perhaps if she talked to Supinreru-sensei they
could at least slow the pace of experimentation. Especially once they
started classes nd were within daily reach she would have to be very
careful to make certain the researchers didn't overwhelm Ranma.
Also, they would have to start preparations for moving near the
medical school. She intended to have them start a very heavy load of
classes as soon as they passed their entrance exams. They would need
to be close to the campus to do so, not several hours away by train,
and that entailed apartment hunting. Not to mention scheduling visits
back to Nermia, time with Cologne for further studies with her,
finding a place where they could continue to practice martial arts in
or near the college, and any number of other details, all of which
would have to be in place quickly if they were to make the start of
the semester. Nabiki reviewed her moving to do list, and added a few
more items. She would schedule time for them to apartment hunt on
their next visit.
Sighing, Nabiki put her notebook away, hoping she was now tired
enough. Just one more check on Ranma, and she would try to go to
sleep again. Hopefully she could sleep without nightmares herself
tonight. She would hate to have to get sleeping pills for herself.
***
Nabiki paused to take another sip of her bottled tea, and glanced over
to where Ranma was looking at apartment listings. A pile of half
complete medical school paperwork and class registration information
sat in front of her.
"How's the apartment hunt going Ranma ?" she inquired. "Anything
promising yet ?"
"A few. There's not much in the budget range you gave me within easy
walking distance of both the school and a park with a good spot to
practice martial arts" he replied. "Here, have a look while I get
myself another tea. You want something ?"
"Sure, another of these, please" said Nabiki, indicating her tea. She
reached over and picked up the apartment listing Ranma had been
perusing, and looked at the listings he had highlighted. She rapidly
eliminated a couple of them, and double highlighted the ones she
thought especially interesting.
"What's wrong with that one ? Ranma asked, looking over her shoulder
as he placed her new bottle of tea in from of her, and then moved back
to his chair and sat down. The two of them sat in a western style
coffeehouse just across the road from the school campus. It was a
place obviously frequented by the local students, and had several key
resources they needed, like copies of the apartment listing Ranma was
currently taking back from Nabiki.
Nabiki adjusted her new blouse to move a rough spot on the seam as she
leaned over. One thing she rather liked about being out of high
school was the freedom to wear what she liked. Or, at least, wear
what she liked after she'd scheduled time to go shopping on the Kuno
expense account. They couldn't afford anything extravagant, but it
was still fun to do. Besides, she had thought Ranma would die in
agony when she was dragging them between stores getting clothes for
the two of them. It was the most fun she'd had since Ranma had come
home after Akane. And despite his protests, she could see that Ranma
was the better for it, too. It had certainly taken his mind off his
other problems.
"Well, this one may be close for you, but I still don't leap tall
buildings in a single bound. Even if you were to carry me, I wouldn't
recommend drawing more attention to yourself here than you have too"
she pointed out. "It wouldn't do us much good to have the researchers
here withhold your name, as agreed, if we go and make it obvious to
everyone what you can do."
"Alright, you have a point" Ranma acknowledged, his face darkening
with the reminder of his "notoriety" with certain people on this same
campus.
Nabiki internally winced at Ranma's reaction. Time to change topics
again. "Now this other one," Nabiki paused, and smirked, "Well, I
think Cologne would be awfully disappointed in you, especially after
you just said you weren't going to marry anyone. Our parents would
like it, though."
"Huh ? What'd'ya mean Nabiki ?" queried a puzzled Ranma.
"It's one bedroom, you pervert. Trying to get me alone already, eh ?"
Nabiki couldn't help but giggle when Ranma's face turned red from
embarrassment.
"Nabiki ! It ain't like that ! Come on, you know me better than
that. It's not like I'd want to do anything, anyway."
"What, I'm not attractive enough ?" Nabiki arched her back and pointed
her chest at Ranma, adopting an obviously campy pout as well.
"Ah man, that's not what I mean, either. I mean, you're pretty and
all, but it's just, well, Akane ..." Ranma trailed off again, sadder
this time.
'Kuso', she swore to herself. 'That's one topic I did not want to
come back to.' "I know Ranma. I'm sorry" she said, softly.
"Anyway," she continued after a short pause, "that still leaves a good
half dozen apartments we can look at. We should be able to find
something there that will work."
Ranma gave a weak smile, and nodded. Changing the topic himself, he
asked, "What do our first semester class schedules look like so far ?
I still can't believe that the dean decided to waive the entrance exam
and just let us both in."
"Well, when you finishing your high school degree in that short a
time, and brought up your grade point average that much, it was
impressive. I imagine the letters of recommendation that
Hiniko-sensei arranged for you helped quite a bit, too. As for me,
well, since I tutored you, I obviously know the material just as well,
and those same letters of recommendation all confirmed it. Since
they've already agreed to let us in as special students, it wasn't
that hard to convince him." Nabiki shrugged modestly. It really
wasn't that hard. Much easier than some of the schemes she had pulled
off back in Nermia.
"As far as our classes go, I've got us signed up for 24 credits each.
This early in our program we can share them all too. In fact, we'll
have share a good 60% of my class load. Unfortunately, you need more
credits for your trauma medical program than I need for my nursing
one, but I'll still be able to help you with your work so we can
graduate and enter our residencies at the same time."
"24 credits, huh ? That sounds like it will actually be a break,
considering what you had me do to get my high school degree."
"Yeah, well, we're just about out of time here. Help me finish up
these forms quickly, and then we've got to see as many of these
apartments as we can before we have to be in the labs again" requested
Nabiki.
Ranma's face fell again, and Nabiki again cursed herself. Quietly,
she passed over half the pile of forms, and pushed a pen into Ranma's
unresponsive hand before turning back to her own pile.
Nabiki rubbed her eyes and yawned. It was early in the morning,
during the quiet part of the night, but she was having problems
sleeping again. Oh well, it always helped her to review her latest,
most important project. She got out of bed, turned on her lamp,
opened her Ranma notebook and considered her progress.
Overall, Ranma appeared to be doing somewhat better now, at least so
long as she kept him busy. If given time to think, though, he tended
to fall rapidly back into the uncaring lassitude he exhibited
immediately after he returned. Nevertheless, he was slowing becoming
reasonably responsive in more day to day situations. She could still
see easily see the grief, though. For instance, Ranma frequently had
nightmares, something he had done before only after cat-fist episodes.
He had fallen asleep in her arms post nightmare several times more
since the shi-shi-hokodan episode. She was almost becoming used to
it. It was comforting, and not just to Ranma, although she'd never
admit that.
There had been no more massive shi-shi-hokodan's, thank God. Even
with the wide lassitude she had with the scholarship and expense
account she wrangled from the Kunos, they couldn't afford many of
those.
Cologne's instruction was turning out to be wonderful help with Ranma.
The Martial Arts was still Ranma's first love, and he was most like
his old self in the midst of trying to master a new technique. And
between Ranma's and Cologne's instruction, she herself was progressing
far more rapidly than she had ever believed possible. She could also
see that several of the techniques Cologne was instructing Ranma in
could prove to be invaluable in his new career, even though she was
still far from being able to understand them herself. Still, it gave
her something she could do with Ranma where he led her rather than the
other way around. Further, teaching her was something that he was
good at and enjoyed doing. That was important. He had to feel like
he was in control of as much of his life as possible.
Shampoo and Mousse had both left, forcing Cologne to hire new help.
Nabiki wasn't certain if that was a positive or negative. On the plus
side, the more people Ranma had to talk with, the better he seemed.
On the minus, she didn't want to risk Shampoo's or Mousse's obsessions
upsetting Ranma's still delicate emotional balance.
Ukyo, that was rough. She still was not really comfortable around
Ranma, and showed it despite her best efforts not to. Hurting his
oldest friend took a definite toll on him. Nabiki made a notation to
limit contact between the two until Ukyo was in a better condition,
and another to talk again to Nodaka to brainstorm ideas to help Ukyo,
both personally and to restore her honor.
School studies were proceeding more than satisfactorily. Given
sufficient motivation, Ranma showed a surprising academic ability, and
it also made a wonderful tool for Nabiki to occupy time Ranma would
otherwise spend brooding. At the rate they were going, he would be
ready to take the medical school admissions exam with a near certainty
of passing in just another month or so. He had already done
sufficient work to parlay into a high school degree for him.
Surprisingly, Hiniko-sensei had been of great help with the school
administration once she understood Nabiki's goals. She made a note to
thank Hiniko-sensei, and to ask her to force principal Kuno to release
the final paperwork and process Ranma's degree. She made another note
to talk to Supinreru-sensei at the medical school during their next
visit about arranging their entrance exams.
The medical school, that was a more than a bit of a sore point. Ranma
viewed their visits their to have his curse studied as a minor visit
to hell. Something just barely to be endured. What was worse, once
the doctors and scientists there discovered his abilities as a martial
artist, they had become almost equally interested in those as in his
curse. People able to leap 30 feet into the air, shoot blasts of
energy from their hands, be uninjured by blows which pulverized
concrete, and summon whirlwinds from nothing did not fit into their
world view. Nabiki suspected that if they took one more muscle biopsy
he would scream. He did scream the time they took a bone sample. The
last time they were there the doctors had so many wires and tubes on
him he could barely move, it had taken over an hour to detach
everything.
What was worse, even though the researchers didn't intend to, when
they were distracted or concentrating on the latest experiment they
tended to react to Ranma as if he were a freak of nature. Each time
she and Ranma returned from a visit Ranma noticeably backslid into
depression, sometimes dramatically. On one occasion on the evening of
their return she had caught Ranma contemplating his tanto where it was
displayed in the living room. She had quickly hustled Ranma into a
training session on that occasion.
It may have been a mistake to parlay Ranma's curse into an admission
into their medical program. Unfortunately, she have any other ideas
compelling enough to get them into a school with Ranma's otherwise
spotty record, his recent work notwithstanding. She still viewed the
practice of medicine as the best route to rebuild Ranma emotionally.
She had also hoped that the process of coming to understand his curse
would help him come to terms with it. If they were very lucky, they
might even come up with some way to mitigate it. He still hated being
a girl though, and the way the examinations were going they might
actually backfire and make him feel even worse about the curse than
before.
Sighing, Nabiki put off the issue until later. She'd talk to Cologne
and ask her advice, and perhaps if she talked to Supinreru-sensei they
could at least slow the pace of experimentation. Especially once they
started classes nd were within daily reach she would have to be very
careful to make certain the researchers didn't overwhelm Ranma.
Also, they would have to start preparations for moving near the
medical school. She intended to have them start a very heavy load of
classes as soon as they passed their entrance exams. They would need
to be close to the campus to do so, not several hours away by train,
and that entailed apartment hunting. Not to mention scheduling visits
back to Nermia, time with Cologne for further studies with her,
finding a place where they could continue to practice martial arts in
or near the college, and any number of other details, all of which
would have to be in place quickly if they were to make the start of
the semester. Nabiki reviewed her moving to do list, and added a few
more items. She would schedule time for them to apartment hunt on
their next visit.
Sighing, Nabiki put her notebook away, hoping she was now tired
enough. Just one more check on Ranma, and she would try to go to
sleep again. Hopefully she could sleep without nightmares herself
tonight. She would hate to have to get sleeping pills for herself.
***
Nabiki paused to take another sip of her bottled tea, and glanced over
to where Ranma was looking at apartment listings. A pile of half
complete medical school paperwork and class registration information
sat in front of her.
"How's the apartment hunt going Ranma ?" she inquired. "Anything
promising yet ?"
"A few. There's not much in the budget range you gave me within easy
walking distance of both the school and a park with a good spot to
practice martial arts" he replied. "Here, have a look while I get
myself another tea. You want something ?"
"Sure, another of these, please" said Nabiki, indicating her tea. She
reached over and picked up the apartment listing Ranma had been
perusing, and looked at the listings he had highlighted. She rapidly
eliminated a couple of them, and double highlighted the ones she
thought especially interesting.
"What's wrong with that one ? Ranma asked, looking over her shoulder
as he placed her new bottle of tea in from of her, and then moved back
to his chair and sat down. The two of them sat in a western style
coffeehouse just across the road from the school campus. It was a
place obviously frequented by the local students, and had several key
resources they needed, like copies of the apartment listing Ranma was
currently taking back from Nabiki.
Nabiki adjusted her new blouse to move a rough spot on the seam as she
leaned over. One thing she rather liked about being out of high
school was the freedom to wear what she liked. Or, at least, wear
what she liked after she'd scheduled time to go shopping on the Kuno
expense account. They couldn't afford anything extravagant, but it
was still fun to do. Besides, she had thought Ranma would die in
agony when she was dragging them between stores getting clothes for
the two of them. It was the most fun she'd had since Ranma had come
home after Akane. And despite his protests, she could see that Ranma
was the better for it, too. It had certainly taken his mind off his
other problems.
"Well, this one may be close for you, but I still don't leap tall
buildings in a single bound. Even if you were to carry me, I wouldn't
recommend drawing more attention to yourself here than you have too"
she pointed out. "It wouldn't do us much good to have the researchers
here withhold your name, as agreed, if we go and make it obvious to
everyone what you can do."
"Alright, you have a point" Ranma acknowledged, his face darkening
with the reminder of his "notoriety" with certain people on this same
campus.
Nabiki internally winced at Ranma's reaction. Time to change topics
again. "Now this other one," Nabiki paused, and smirked, "Well, I
think Cologne would be awfully disappointed in you, especially after
you just said you weren't going to marry anyone. Our parents would
like it, though."
"Huh ? What'd'ya mean Nabiki ?" queried a puzzled Ranma.
"It's one bedroom, you pervert. Trying to get me alone already, eh ?"
Nabiki couldn't help but giggle when Ranma's face turned red from
embarrassment.
"Nabiki ! It ain't like that ! Come on, you know me better than
that. It's not like I'd want to do anything, anyway."
"What, I'm not attractive enough ?" Nabiki arched her back and pointed
her chest at Ranma, adopting an obviously campy pout as well.
"Ah man, that's not what I mean, either. I mean, you're pretty and
all, but it's just, well, Akane ..." Ranma trailed off again, sadder
this time.
'Kuso', she swore to herself. 'That's one topic I did not want to
come back to.' "I know Ranma. I'm sorry" she said, softly.
"Anyway," she continued after a short pause, "that still leaves a good
half dozen apartments we can look at. We should be able to find
something there that will work."
Ranma gave a weak smile, and nodded. Changing the topic himself, he
asked, "What do our first semester class schedules look like so far ?
I still can't believe that the dean decided to waive the entrance exam
and just let us both in."
"Well, when you finishing your high school degree in that short a
time, and brought up your grade point average that much, it was
impressive. I imagine the letters of recommendation that
Hiniko-sensei arranged for you helped quite a bit, too. As for me,
well, since I tutored you, I obviously know the material just as well,
and those same letters of recommendation all confirmed it. Since
they've already agreed to let us in as special students, it wasn't
that hard to convince him." Nabiki shrugged modestly. It really
wasn't that hard. Much easier than some of the schemes she had pulled
off back in Nermia.
"As far as our classes go, I've got us signed up for 24 credits each.
This early in our program we can share them all too. In fact, we'll
have share a good 60% of my class load. Unfortunately, you need more
credits for your trauma medical program than I need for my nursing
one, but I'll still be able to help you with your work so we can
graduate and enter our residencies at the same time."
"24 credits, huh ? That sounds like it will actually be a break,
considering what you had me do to get my high school degree."
"Yeah, well, we're just about out of time here. Help me finish up
these forms quickly, and then we've got to see as many of these
apartments as we can before we have to be in the labs again" requested
Nabiki.
Ranma's face fell again, and Nabiki again cursed herself. Quietly,
she passed over half the pile of forms, and pushed a pen into Ranma's
unresponsive hand before turning back to her own pile.