The True Heir
Oh yeah, just in case you didn't know, there are a whole
bunch of people who own the rights to these characters and I
am not one of them.
Chapter three
An Education...
[It's a calm morning. The sun is rising, the birds are
chirping, and all is right in the world. Suddenly the Tendo
dojo begins to shake as the sounds of combat fill the air.]
"Fight me for real you pervert!"
THUD
"Ouch! Cut that out!"
"Quit whining, you're the one that wanted to spar!"
"Die you jerk!"
WHAM
"You're overextending, you threw yourself way off balance
with that last punch!"
"Shut Up!"
CRASH
"Now that was pathetic, honestly did your father even bother
to teach you ANY of the basics?"
"DIE!!!"
"No thanks."
SLAM
Shaking his head and sighing, Tarou walked away from Akane's
much abused form.
"Are you going to be doing this every morning?" Nabiki was
giving Tarou her best 6:30 am glare of death.
"I hope not. If Akane keeps interfering with my training
like that I'll start to get soft."
"Can't you two at least keep it down? Some of us like to
sleep."
"Look," Tarou rolled his eyes, "I'll try not to be so loud,
but if you really want us to be quiet you should be talking
to her."
Tarou jerked his head at Akane, who was just starting to get
up, "She's the one who can't keep her temper under control."
"Why you!" Akane tried to charge Tarou from behind.
Tarou sidestepped her, and gave her a gentle shove on the
back sending her skidding into the hallway to smash into the
far wall.
"I thought self-control was supposed to be one of the first
things a martial artist learned."
Kasumi poked her head through an open door. "Oh my, are you
two still playing? Akane should really be getting ready for
school soon."
"Oh yeah, school. I knew I was forgetting something. I
should probably be getting ready too."
Nabiki turned to Tarou in surprise, "I thought you were
Kasumi's age, are you going to college? You don't really
look like the type."
"You're right about that." Tarou laughed, "I'm a few months
older than she is, I've been traveling so much I barely had
time to finish high school. Mom seems to think I need a
college degree if I want to teach in a Dojo though."
"Anyway, I'd better go see if I have everything I'm going to
need today."
Kasumi poked her head out again, "Don't forget to take a
bath before breakfast."
"But I didn't even work up a sweat."
Nabiki sniffed the air pointedly, and Kasumi giggled.
"Alright, alright, you've made your point."
[Oooohh, look! It's a dining room, and there are people
there. They're eating breakfast of all things.]
"You didn't have to hit me you know." Tarou was nursing a
large red handprint on his face.
"Well YOU didn't have to stare at my naked body you
pervert!" Akane was nursing a growing rage.
"Where do you get off calling me a pervert? You're the one
who walked in on me!"
"You know he's right Akane, if anyone should be walking in
on him while he's naked it should be Kasumi." Nabiki was
starting to really enjoy the floorshow with her breakfast.
"Nabiki!" Kasumi had turned a nice shade of red with
Nabiki's comments.
"Oh, it shames me so that my own daughter would try to
seduce her sister's fiancé..."
"There there Tendo," Genma patted his friend on the back,
"look on the bright side. If it doesn't work out with Tarou
and Kasumi at least we can always switch the engagement to
Akane."
"Urk!"
"Tarou, are you all right?"
"C-Can't breathe... the horror..."
WHAM!
"U-uncute tomboy..."
"Akane! That was completely uncalled for! Apologize to
Kasumi's fiancé right now!"
"Humph! I'm going to school now."
"Akane!"
"I'm sorry about that, she really is a nice girl. It's just
that she can be a bit violent."
"Gee sis, do you think?" Nabiki shook her head.
"C'mon Saotome, we'd better be going too."
"Speak for yourself, I've got another three hours before my
first class."
Genma perked up.
"This is a perfect opportunity for you to get to know your
future wife boy. Why don't Tendo and I..."
After a desperate glance around the room which revealed a
visibly agitated Kasumi, Tarou cut him off.
"Actually I need to leave early anyway, I don't know my way
around campus yet..."
[Outside Furinkan High School]
Nabiki smirked to herself as she stepped over the third
unmoving body. Akane must have broken at least two records
today. Unless her subordinates were complete incompetents
they must have made a killing on the betting pools.
She was whistling cheerfully as she dragged Kuno towards the
nurses office by his feet. Her expression became even more
cheerful each time she heard his head slam onto another of
the stairs at the entrance.
Maybe the headache would make him less likely to argue about
her fee...
She shrugged a little.
If not, she always had some aspirin to sell him.
[Later, inside the school, Nabiki's classroom]
"Tell me Nabiki Tendo," Kuno was sporting a swollen black
eye, "who is that... Tarou person of which my beloved was
speaking this morning?"
The neighboring student's leaned forward, all hoping for
some free hint of gossip from the local ice queen.
"Oh, Tarou. He's no one special, he's just engaged to my
sister..."
"I SHALL NOT ALLOW IT!!!"
Nabiki stared at Kuno's retreating form, "...Kasumi."
"What!"
"You have another sister?"
"Of course you moron! She was that really nice girl who
graduated last year."
"Oh her, she made the best... Hey! Where'd everyone go?"
[In the hallway]
Nabiki was running full tilt trying to beat the rest of her
class to the impending disaster.
She spotted Kuno just as he rushed into Akane's classroom.
She had gone less than another two steps when the collective
shout of over twenty voices pierced the school.
"ENGAGED!?"
Both Akane and Kuno managed to have their shouts of protest
and denial overwhelmed by the rising gossip.
It only took a few moments for essentially the entire school
to crowd around Akane's classroom. In that time, Nabiki
managed to establish herself firmly as the only reliable
source of information relating to the engagement scandal.
Her cause was only helped by Akane's angry pout and refusal
to respond to questions.
Kuno's unconsciousness didn't hurt either.
It was a good day to be the queen...
[Back at the Tendo house, Kasumi is hanging laundry.]
Watching Kasumi go about her morning routine, a stranger or
a casual observer would be struck with a sense of almost
unearthly peace and calm. There was simply something about
her which automatically brought to mind images of comfort
and contentment. Her tranquil expression seemed to bleed
off serenity.
Soun was neither a stranger nor a casual observer. While
Genma seemed oblivious to it, to Soun there was something
decidedly off in Kasumi's demeanor.
She seemed... heavier in some way. Her movements, while
smooth and graceful, lacked their typical freedom. Her
serene expression was missing the light smile on her lips
and the sparkle in her eyes that made even complete
strangers see her as kind and approachable. There was no
doubt about it, Kasumi was depressed.
He was at a loss to deal with it. All he wanted was for his
daughters to be happy, and for the future of the school to
be secure.
Tarou was a fine young man. Yes, he was abrasive. Yes, he
was uncultured. Yes, he had overreacted badly to Akane's
aggression. In spite of all that, even in the short time he
had been present, he'd shown himself to be an excellent
martial artist and a proud young man with a strong sense of
honor. Even when angry, he attempted to be respectful.
If only he wasn't so stubborn.
Kasumi was sweet and kind and understanding. The perfect
daughter. She was also too passive. Left to her own
devices, she'd cheerfully go through life letting other
people take advantage of her giving nature.
Tarou would look after her. Soun was certain of it. The
boy had a true martial artist's instincts and would never
allow her to be harmed. His honor and uncompromising nature
would keep him from taking advantage of her himself.
In return, Kasumi would soften those sharp edges the boy
had. With her help, he'd turn into the sort of man that the
entire community would look up to and turn to in times of
need. The sort of man that Soun himself had been while his
wife was still alive.
They were a good match, Soun was sure of it. If only the
two would stop fighting the engagement and take the time to
let things work out on their own.
He sighed deeply. The gods only knew how long that would
take with the way the boy kept running away.
He looked back to the game board and his eyes widened in
shock.
"Genma, how did that rook get there?"
"That was two moves ago Soun, it isn't like you to be this
distracted."
"Genma..."
"yes?"
"We're playing Shoji, not chess."
[On a non-descript college campus.]
"Stupid morons," Tarou growled as he shouldered through a
tightly packed group of talking students.
He'd spent most of the morning wandering around aimlessly
trying to kill time. Unfortunately he'd wasted too much
time, and if he wasn't careful, he'd be late for his first
class.
"Why the hell do I have to take foreign language classes
anyway? It isn't like a martial artist needs to speak
English..."
His train of thought was disrupted by something slamming
into his leg.
He looked down to see a little girl in an oversized dress.
She was carrying a satchel, and had been knocked down when
she ran into him.
"Watch where you're going brat!"
She had initially looked upset and embarrassed, but at his
words she instantly switched to angry. She hopped to her
feet and started hitting him.
"Oooh, you delinquent! How dare you!"
He glared at her, he punches were annoying, but lacked the
strength to actually hurt.
"Look little girl, I don't have time for this. I'm gonna be
late for class."
"That's no excuse for delinquent behavior!" She produced a
five Yen coin out of nowhere and pointed it at him.
"Happoh Five-Yen Satsu!"
Tarou didn't know what to be more surprised about, the fact
that he didn't have the energy even stand up, or that the
annoying little twit just turned into a gorgeous woman in a
dress that might as well have been spray-painted on.
She picked him up by the front of his shirt.
"Now, you might be a delinquent, but that's no excuse for
you to miss class. Tell me where it is and I'll drop you off."
It took all of his strength just to form the words. Arguing
with her wasn't an option.
"...language...building...wing...C...room...204..."
She snorted contemptuously and rolled her eyes.
"It figures you'd be one of MY students."
She started walking, dragging him behind her by his shirt.
"Come on delinquent. We don't want to be late."
[The Language building, wing C, room 204]
The woman is standing in front of a blackboard introducing
herself. It's a fairly small room, with about twenty desks.
The desks are packed, but there is a noticeable lack of
female students.
Oddly enough for an entry level English class, most of the
students appear to be upperclassmen and grad students.
There's even one man who is almost certainly a full
professor.
"My name," she glances around the room and shakes her head,
"as most of you know... is Hinako Ninomiya. This is English
101. I would hope that since this is my last semester here
as a grad student, we will all complete this semester
successfully..." She glares pointedly at a few of the
students. "For once."
She gestures towards Tarou, who is seated in the center of
the front row and looks like a withered husk.
"The one face you all don't recognize is Mr. Saotome here."
She sighs dramatically.
"When I found out that I was actually going to have a
freshman in my class... for a change, I was hoping to get
some actual teaching done. Unfortunately Tarou seems to be
just as much of a delinquent as the rest of you. I'm sure
he'll fit right in."
With that, she turned to attempting to actually teach the
class.
The entire class paid very close attention to her, if not the
lesson.
To Tarou, it seemed as though every time she turned around
to write on the board, another student would thank him for
his 'Noble Sacrifice' which resulted in her current form.
He did his best to pay attention to her lesson. She was
actually a good teacher after all, and he did need to pass
the class. Unfortunately, in his weakened state, even
listening was a struggle. Lifting his pencil to take notes
was brutal.
Oh well, he thought as she turned around to write another
verb form on the board, at least she's got a nice ass.
[Back outside on the college campus, afternoon]
Tarou trudged across campus, heading for the bus stop. When
he first saw that even on Mondays, his busiest day, he only
had three classes, he was happy. Somehow it never occurred
to him that just three hours in the classroom could be that
exhausting. And the bit with the little energy-vampire
didn't help anything.
"Mr. Saotome!"
Oh damn, it's her, and she's a brat again.
Reluctantly, he stopped walking so that she could catch up
with him. He wasn't about to piss her off again today.
She was breathless when she reached him. She looked every
bit like a girl in her very early teens right down to body
language. It struck him as amazing that she could go
through such a profound transformation. He had to restrain
himself from laughing. Where did he get off getting
surprised at someone else's transformation?
She finally regained her breath.
"I want you to know that I'm not going to hold this morning
against you. It's your first day of class and you were
stressed out, and while that doesn't excuse your rudeness
it does help explain it. And I should have been watching
where I was going."
In a supreme effort of will, Tarou bit back his retort to
the 'rudeness' comment. She was his teacher, and getting
her angry would be stupid and pointless. Steeling himself,
he apologized.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I need to learn to watch my
temper..."
Her smile, he reflected, really put her way past the line of
decency for cuteness. It was starting to get annoying being
around her. And for some reason he couldn't get her adult
form out of his head. Damned mind.
"I hope we won't have to go through anything like that
again. I noticed you taking notes in class, it'd be nice if
we could..."
Whatever she was about to say was cut off as the sprinklers
came on and the predictable happened.
[The Tendo Dojo]
"Tendo old friend," Genma said as he placed another piece on
the shoji board, "I have the feeling that the boy has done
something stupid."
"Why do you say that Saotome?" Soun studied the board
intently, Tarou seems like a fairly responsible boy. Not
at all like you were at that age. How much trouble could he
get into?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..."
The two were interrupted by the sound of a giant creature
flying into and landing on the Tendo property.
"Ah, speak of the devil."
"Hi pops, Mr. Tendo," a wet Tarou walked into the house, "is
there any food around? I didn't get a chance to pick
anything up on the way back."
Genma shook his head, "How many times does this have to
happen before you learn to watch out for sprinklers?"
"You're one to talk old man, or have you forgotten Hong Kong
already?"
Soun spoke up, "I take it then that your curse has become
common knowledge?"
"You could say that," Tarou laughed wryly, "there weren't
too many people around, but one of them was one of my
teachers I'm sure it'll be all over campus by tomorrow."
"You do know what this means right Tarou?"
"Better than you do pops, I'm going to need to find a
reputable priest in the area to help me convince at least
the administration that I'm not some sort of Hell-spawn."
Soun looked up, "Well maybe not a priest. Now that I think
of it, the local doctor is well trusted in such matters, and
he is a friend of the family. Maybe you should go talk to
him..."
End Chapter three
Authors notes:
This one's a day late. I really have no acceptable excuse
for that. What happened was that because this was the last
of the chapters I had pre-written material for, I put off
working on it until yesterday. When I started work on it,
I realized that most of it was absolutely worthless to me
given the way I have the story plotted.
The original unfinished story I've been feeding off of was
full of annoying fanfiction conventions that I've since come
to despise thoroughly. Among other things I was using the
complete cop-out of a pre-existing relationship that so many
fanfiction writers seem to love.
In my opinion, if you're going to write a story that
essentially revolves around relationships, you need to show
those relationships developing.
I'm writing about a set of characters from an immature
series that are all noticeably more mature than the original
cast. In my experience, people become more complex as they
develop, not less. That's why I'm trying so hard to build
characterization from the ground up.
None of these people were really shown as more than two
dimensional stereotypes in the original story. I've never
met a two dimensional stereotype in real life.
No one's going to fall in love at first sight. No one is
going to be entirely predictable in their behavior. Even
the background characters will act differently than you are
probably used to. People change their behavior depending on
the company they are in at the time.
Around Ranma and Akane, everyone acts violently and
immaturely to some degree because those two are so violent
and immature. Contrast that with Kasumi and the behavior
she inspires even in the original story and you'll hopefully
see my point.
What I'm trying to do is to put Tarou and Kasumi in the same
position as Ranma and Akane were, and to use that as a
vehicle to tell a completely different story even though the
situation is the same.
I said before that this is a mental exercise for me. I'm
trying to improve not only my writing, but my understanding
of humanity as well. Well that and see how well I can keep
a series of self-imposed deadlines.
If I stick with it and finish the story, I currently have
over forty chapters roughly plotted out. That's all I
intend to write of this story, ever. If I write what I have
plotted I will have a complete story. Any more or any less
would only harm the story in my opinion.
To keep myself from getting bogged down with endless
rewrites, I'm not going to make any revisions to the plot of
existing chapters. I'll fix grammar and spelling, maybe
even improve my wording, but the story itself will be
unchanged until I have a complete rough draft of the entire
story. That way I don't run the risk of destroying my
plotting for future chapters and necessitate a time
consuming complete rewrite.
Once I get fanfiction.net to stop destroying my spacing and
section breaks, I'll go back and do a superficial edit of my
existing chapters. Right now things seem to run together
too much for my taste when I go back to look at it.
Oh yeah, just in case you didn't know, there are a whole
bunch of people who own the rights to these characters and I
am not one of them.
Chapter three
An Education...
[It's a calm morning. The sun is rising, the birds are
chirping, and all is right in the world. Suddenly the Tendo
dojo begins to shake as the sounds of combat fill the air.]
"Fight me for real you pervert!"
THUD
"Ouch! Cut that out!"
"Quit whining, you're the one that wanted to spar!"
"Die you jerk!"
WHAM
"You're overextending, you threw yourself way off balance
with that last punch!"
"Shut Up!"
CRASH
"Now that was pathetic, honestly did your father even bother
to teach you ANY of the basics?"
"DIE!!!"
"No thanks."
SLAM
Shaking his head and sighing, Tarou walked away from Akane's
much abused form.
"Are you going to be doing this every morning?" Nabiki was
giving Tarou her best 6:30 am glare of death.
"I hope not. If Akane keeps interfering with my training
like that I'll start to get soft."
"Can't you two at least keep it down? Some of us like to
sleep."
"Look," Tarou rolled his eyes, "I'll try not to be so loud,
but if you really want us to be quiet you should be talking
to her."
Tarou jerked his head at Akane, who was just starting to get
up, "She's the one who can't keep her temper under control."
"Why you!" Akane tried to charge Tarou from behind.
Tarou sidestepped her, and gave her a gentle shove on the
back sending her skidding into the hallway to smash into the
far wall.
"I thought self-control was supposed to be one of the first
things a martial artist learned."
Kasumi poked her head through an open door. "Oh my, are you
two still playing? Akane should really be getting ready for
school soon."
"Oh yeah, school. I knew I was forgetting something. I
should probably be getting ready too."
Nabiki turned to Tarou in surprise, "I thought you were
Kasumi's age, are you going to college? You don't really
look like the type."
"You're right about that." Tarou laughed, "I'm a few months
older than she is, I've been traveling so much I barely had
time to finish high school. Mom seems to think I need a
college degree if I want to teach in a Dojo though."
"Anyway, I'd better go see if I have everything I'm going to
need today."
Kasumi poked her head out again, "Don't forget to take a
bath before breakfast."
"But I didn't even work up a sweat."
Nabiki sniffed the air pointedly, and Kasumi giggled.
"Alright, alright, you've made your point."
[Oooohh, look! It's a dining room, and there are people
there. They're eating breakfast of all things.]
"You didn't have to hit me you know." Tarou was nursing a
large red handprint on his face.
"Well YOU didn't have to stare at my naked body you
pervert!" Akane was nursing a growing rage.
"Where do you get off calling me a pervert? You're the one
who walked in on me!"
"You know he's right Akane, if anyone should be walking in
on him while he's naked it should be Kasumi." Nabiki was
starting to really enjoy the floorshow with her breakfast.
"Nabiki!" Kasumi had turned a nice shade of red with
Nabiki's comments.
"Oh, it shames me so that my own daughter would try to
seduce her sister's fiancé..."
"There there Tendo," Genma patted his friend on the back,
"look on the bright side. If it doesn't work out with Tarou
and Kasumi at least we can always switch the engagement to
Akane."
"Urk!"
"Tarou, are you all right?"
"C-Can't breathe... the horror..."
WHAM!
"U-uncute tomboy..."
"Akane! That was completely uncalled for! Apologize to
Kasumi's fiancé right now!"
"Humph! I'm going to school now."
"Akane!"
"I'm sorry about that, she really is a nice girl. It's just
that she can be a bit violent."
"Gee sis, do you think?" Nabiki shook her head.
"C'mon Saotome, we'd better be going too."
"Speak for yourself, I've got another three hours before my
first class."
Genma perked up.
"This is a perfect opportunity for you to get to know your
future wife boy. Why don't Tendo and I..."
After a desperate glance around the room which revealed a
visibly agitated Kasumi, Tarou cut him off.
"Actually I need to leave early anyway, I don't know my way
around campus yet..."
[Outside Furinkan High School]
Nabiki smirked to herself as she stepped over the third
unmoving body. Akane must have broken at least two records
today. Unless her subordinates were complete incompetents
they must have made a killing on the betting pools.
She was whistling cheerfully as she dragged Kuno towards the
nurses office by his feet. Her expression became even more
cheerful each time she heard his head slam onto another of
the stairs at the entrance.
Maybe the headache would make him less likely to argue about
her fee...
She shrugged a little.
If not, she always had some aspirin to sell him.
[Later, inside the school, Nabiki's classroom]
"Tell me Nabiki Tendo," Kuno was sporting a swollen black
eye, "who is that... Tarou person of which my beloved was
speaking this morning?"
The neighboring student's leaned forward, all hoping for
some free hint of gossip from the local ice queen.
"Oh, Tarou. He's no one special, he's just engaged to my
sister..."
"I SHALL NOT ALLOW IT!!!"
Nabiki stared at Kuno's retreating form, "...Kasumi."
"What!"
"You have another sister?"
"Of course you moron! She was that really nice girl who
graduated last year."
"Oh her, she made the best... Hey! Where'd everyone go?"
[In the hallway]
Nabiki was running full tilt trying to beat the rest of her
class to the impending disaster.
She spotted Kuno just as he rushed into Akane's classroom.
She had gone less than another two steps when the collective
shout of over twenty voices pierced the school.
"ENGAGED!?"
Both Akane and Kuno managed to have their shouts of protest
and denial overwhelmed by the rising gossip.
It only took a few moments for essentially the entire school
to crowd around Akane's classroom. In that time, Nabiki
managed to establish herself firmly as the only reliable
source of information relating to the engagement scandal.
Her cause was only helped by Akane's angry pout and refusal
to respond to questions.
Kuno's unconsciousness didn't hurt either.
It was a good day to be the queen...
[Back at the Tendo house, Kasumi is hanging laundry.]
Watching Kasumi go about her morning routine, a stranger or
a casual observer would be struck with a sense of almost
unearthly peace and calm. There was simply something about
her which automatically brought to mind images of comfort
and contentment. Her tranquil expression seemed to bleed
off serenity.
Soun was neither a stranger nor a casual observer. While
Genma seemed oblivious to it, to Soun there was something
decidedly off in Kasumi's demeanor.
She seemed... heavier in some way. Her movements, while
smooth and graceful, lacked their typical freedom. Her
serene expression was missing the light smile on her lips
and the sparkle in her eyes that made even complete
strangers see her as kind and approachable. There was no
doubt about it, Kasumi was depressed.
He was at a loss to deal with it. All he wanted was for his
daughters to be happy, and for the future of the school to
be secure.
Tarou was a fine young man. Yes, he was abrasive. Yes, he
was uncultured. Yes, he had overreacted badly to Akane's
aggression. In spite of all that, even in the short time he
had been present, he'd shown himself to be an excellent
martial artist and a proud young man with a strong sense of
honor. Even when angry, he attempted to be respectful.
If only he wasn't so stubborn.
Kasumi was sweet and kind and understanding. The perfect
daughter. She was also too passive. Left to her own
devices, she'd cheerfully go through life letting other
people take advantage of her giving nature.
Tarou would look after her. Soun was certain of it. The
boy had a true martial artist's instincts and would never
allow her to be harmed. His honor and uncompromising nature
would keep him from taking advantage of her himself.
In return, Kasumi would soften those sharp edges the boy
had. With her help, he'd turn into the sort of man that the
entire community would look up to and turn to in times of
need. The sort of man that Soun himself had been while his
wife was still alive.
They were a good match, Soun was sure of it. If only the
two would stop fighting the engagement and take the time to
let things work out on their own.
He sighed deeply. The gods only knew how long that would
take with the way the boy kept running away.
He looked back to the game board and his eyes widened in
shock.
"Genma, how did that rook get there?"
"That was two moves ago Soun, it isn't like you to be this
distracted."
"Genma..."
"yes?"
"We're playing Shoji, not chess."
[On a non-descript college campus.]
"Stupid morons," Tarou growled as he shouldered through a
tightly packed group of talking students.
He'd spent most of the morning wandering around aimlessly
trying to kill time. Unfortunately he'd wasted too much
time, and if he wasn't careful, he'd be late for his first
class.
"Why the hell do I have to take foreign language classes
anyway? It isn't like a martial artist needs to speak
English..."
His train of thought was disrupted by something slamming
into his leg.
He looked down to see a little girl in an oversized dress.
She was carrying a satchel, and had been knocked down when
she ran into him.
"Watch where you're going brat!"
She had initially looked upset and embarrassed, but at his
words she instantly switched to angry. She hopped to her
feet and started hitting him.
"Oooh, you delinquent! How dare you!"
He glared at her, he punches were annoying, but lacked the
strength to actually hurt.
"Look little girl, I don't have time for this. I'm gonna be
late for class."
"That's no excuse for delinquent behavior!" She produced a
five Yen coin out of nowhere and pointed it at him.
"Happoh Five-Yen Satsu!"
Tarou didn't know what to be more surprised about, the fact
that he didn't have the energy even stand up, or that the
annoying little twit just turned into a gorgeous woman in a
dress that might as well have been spray-painted on.
She picked him up by the front of his shirt.
"Now, you might be a delinquent, but that's no excuse for
you to miss class. Tell me where it is and I'll drop you off."
It took all of his strength just to form the words. Arguing
with her wasn't an option.
"...language...building...wing...C...room...204..."
She snorted contemptuously and rolled her eyes.
"It figures you'd be one of MY students."
She started walking, dragging him behind her by his shirt.
"Come on delinquent. We don't want to be late."
[The Language building, wing C, room 204]
The woman is standing in front of a blackboard introducing
herself. It's a fairly small room, with about twenty desks.
The desks are packed, but there is a noticeable lack of
female students.
Oddly enough for an entry level English class, most of the
students appear to be upperclassmen and grad students.
There's even one man who is almost certainly a full
professor.
"My name," she glances around the room and shakes her head,
"as most of you know... is Hinako Ninomiya. This is English
101. I would hope that since this is my last semester here
as a grad student, we will all complete this semester
successfully..." She glares pointedly at a few of the
students. "For once."
She gestures towards Tarou, who is seated in the center of
the front row and looks like a withered husk.
"The one face you all don't recognize is Mr. Saotome here."
She sighs dramatically.
"When I found out that I was actually going to have a
freshman in my class... for a change, I was hoping to get
some actual teaching done. Unfortunately Tarou seems to be
just as much of a delinquent as the rest of you. I'm sure
he'll fit right in."
With that, she turned to attempting to actually teach the
class.
The entire class paid very close attention to her, if not the
lesson.
To Tarou, it seemed as though every time she turned around
to write on the board, another student would thank him for
his 'Noble Sacrifice' which resulted in her current form.
He did his best to pay attention to her lesson. She was
actually a good teacher after all, and he did need to pass
the class. Unfortunately, in his weakened state, even
listening was a struggle. Lifting his pencil to take notes
was brutal.
Oh well, he thought as she turned around to write another
verb form on the board, at least she's got a nice ass.
[Back outside on the college campus, afternoon]
Tarou trudged across campus, heading for the bus stop. When
he first saw that even on Mondays, his busiest day, he only
had three classes, he was happy. Somehow it never occurred
to him that just three hours in the classroom could be that
exhausting. And the bit with the little energy-vampire
didn't help anything.
"Mr. Saotome!"
Oh damn, it's her, and she's a brat again.
Reluctantly, he stopped walking so that she could catch up
with him. He wasn't about to piss her off again today.
She was breathless when she reached him. She looked every
bit like a girl in her very early teens right down to body
language. It struck him as amazing that she could go
through such a profound transformation. He had to restrain
himself from laughing. Where did he get off getting
surprised at someone else's transformation?
She finally regained her breath.
"I want you to know that I'm not going to hold this morning
against you. It's your first day of class and you were
stressed out, and while that doesn't excuse your rudeness
it does help explain it. And I should have been watching
where I was going."
In a supreme effort of will, Tarou bit back his retort to
the 'rudeness' comment. She was his teacher, and getting
her angry would be stupid and pointless. Steeling himself,
he apologized.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I need to learn to watch my
temper..."
Her smile, he reflected, really put her way past the line of
decency for cuteness. It was starting to get annoying being
around her. And for some reason he couldn't get her adult
form out of his head. Damned mind.
"I hope we won't have to go through anything like that
again. I noticed you taking notes in class, it'd be nice if
we could..."
Whatever she was about to say was cut off as the sprinklers
came on and the predictable happened.
[The Tendo Dojo]
"Tendo old friend," Genma said as he placed another piece on
the shoji board, "I have the feeling that the boy has done
something stupid."
"Why do you say that Saotome?" Soun studied the board
intently, Tarou seems like a fairly responsible boy. Not
at all like you were at that age. How much trouble could he
get into?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..."
The two were interrupted by the sound of a giant creature
flying into and landing on the Tendo property.
"Ah, speak of the devil."
"Hi pops, Mr. Tendo," a wet Tarou walked into the house, "is
there any food around? I didn't get a chance to pick
anything up on the way back."
Genma shook his head, "How many times does this have to
happen before you learn to watch out for sprinklers?"
"You're one to talk old man, or have you forgotten Hong Kong
already?"
Soun spoke up, "I take it then that your curse has become
common knowledge?"
"You could say that," Tarou laughed wryly, "there weren't
too many people around, but one of them was one of my
teachers I'm sure it'll be all over campus by tomorrow."
"You do know what this means right Tarou?"
"Better than you do pops, I'm going to need to find a
reputable priest in the area to help me convince at least
the administration that I'm not some sort of Hell-spawn."
Soun looked up, "Well maybe not a priest. Now that I think
of it, the local doctor is well trusted in such matters, and
he is a friend of the family. Maybe you should go talk to
him..."
End Chapter three
Authors notes:
This one's a day late. I really have no acceptable excuse
for that. What happened was that because this was the last
of the chapters I had pre-written material for, I put off
working on it until yesterday. When I started work on it,
I realized that most of it was absolutely worthless to me
given the way I have the story plotted.
The original unfinished story I've been feeding off of was
full of annoying fanfiction conventions that I've since come
to despise thoroughly. Among other things I was using the
complete cop-out of a pre-existing relationship that so many
fanfiction writers seem to love.
In my opinion, if you're going to write a story that
essentially revolves around relationships, you need to show
those relationships developing.
I'm writing about a set of characters from an immature
series that are all noticeably more mature than the original
cast. In my experience, people become more complex as they
develop, not less. That's why I'm trying so hard to build
characterization from the ground up.
None of these people were really shown as more than two
dimensional stereotypes in the original story. I've never
met a two dimensional stereotype in real life.
No one's going to fall in love at first sight. No one is
going to be entirely predictable in their behavior. Even
the background characters will act differently than you are
probably used to. People change their behavior depending on
the company they are in at the time.
Around Ranma and Akane, everyone acts violently and
immaturely to some degree because those two are so violent
and immature. Contrast that with Kasumi and the behavior
she inspires even in the original story and you'll hopefully
see my point.
What I'm trying to do is to put Tarou and Kasumi in the same
position as Ranma and Akane were, and to use that as a
vehicle to tell a completely different story even though the
situation is the same.
I said before that this is a mental exercise for me. I'm
trying to improve not only my writing, but my understanding
of humanity as well. Well that and see how well I can keep
a series of self-imposed deadlines.
If I stick with it and finish the story, I currently have
over forty chapters roughly plotted out. That's all I
intend to write of this story, ever. If I write what I have
plotted I will have a complete story. Any more or any less
would only harm the story in my opinion.
To keep myself from getting bogged down with endless
rewrites, I'm not going to make any revisions to the plot of
existing chapters. I'll fix grammar and spelling, maybe
even improve my wording, but the story itself will be
unchanged until I have a complete rough draft of the entire
story. That way I don't run the risk of destroying my
plotting for future chapters and necessitate a time
consuming complete rewrite.
Once I get fanfiction.net to stop destroying my spacing and
section breaks, I'll go back and do a superficial edit of my
existing chapters. Right now things seem to run together
too much for my taste when I go back to look at it.