Academy Days
A Ranma Alterverse
by Chikiko (Chikiko@thekirealm.com)
Webpage: (www.thekirealm.com)


Disclaimer:

Ranma ½ and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.


Academy Days Chapter 1

Ranma was happy to note that the rain had long since stopped as the van pulled up to a building. The man said. "I was told that you wanted to begin registering right away, so I brought you straight to the administration building, or the ad building as everyone calls it. May I make a suggestion? Since you don't have a place to live yet, perhaps you could arrange a temporary room in the dorms. I'm sure the deans wouldn't object to that."

"Thank you for the suggestion, we were worried about what we would do about housing. Thank you again so much for all your help. Genma dear, can you pick up the luggage so that Mr Grahm doesn't have to wait on us."

"No, really that's not necessary. I can wait here until your done and then drive you to where your staying."

"Nonsense! You probably have much to do, besides my husband is a big martial artist! Carrying the bags won't be any trouble for him. Isn't that right dear?"

"Yes dear." Genma mumbled as he went to the back and took out the bags, that was their luggage. As the van began to pull away, Genma noticed Ranma was about to enter the building without anything. "Ranma, stop being lazy and take your own bag." He said, as he threw him a bag.

Ranma, who about to pull on the door that had been left slightly ajar, heard his father calling him. Ranma turned to see what his father wanted at the same time he opened the door. The door, which had been left ajar since before the rain began, had gathered a small collection of water on the top of the metal frame. When he suddenly pulled the door open, the water fell directly on top of him and activated his curse. Then a second later, he was hit by the bag she forgot about it due to the sudden change. "Aww man now what are we gonna do?"

"Well we knew this would come up eventually." Nodoka said with a sig. "So we might as well get it taken care of now. Lets grab your bag and see the principal. I hear he's new to this school too, so hopefully he'll try to work with you as much as possible."

They entered the building and followed the sign up the stairs to the office. "Hello! May I help you?" an older girl said from behind the desk.

"Yes, we're here to see the principal to register." Nodoka said, indicating that Ranma was the one to register. "He's expecting us, we just flew in from Japan."

"Ok, go ahead and have a seat and I'll tell him you're here." She then walked into an office and came back out a couple minutes later. "He'll be out in just a few minutes.

Just as Ranma was getting tired of waiting and was about to look for some hot water, the door to the office opened. "Hello Mr and Mrs Saotome, its good to see you. I'm Dave Rassmussen. I hope you had a good flight."

Nodoka nodded. "Yes, the flight went well. A little boring, but that's to be expected."

"Well good. Why don't you step into my office? Ranma and Genma grudgingly came along when Nodoka gave them a warning look. After they were all seated, he began to talk to them about the school. "So as you can see we are a rather small private school. Its projected we'll have about 120 students this year. We have an excellent ESL program here and have students from over 20 different countries making up about 30% of our student population. I was hoping your son would be here though, there are some things he should hear."

Nodoka looked at Ranma uncertainly for a moment. "Ranma's right here." she said indicating her.

He looked at Ranma and glanced down at the application in front of him. "Oh dear! I'm terribly sorry. Apparently there's been a mistake on the application. You see, we were expecting a boy. We even had a room reserved for him. I'm terribly sorry about that. If you give me a moment I can call the deans and have them make the correct room assignments."

Nodoka looked at Ranma again, who hesitantly nodded. Nodoka took a deep breath, as this was the critical moment. This was where most of the school they had gone to before rejected them. "Well, the application is in fact correct. We wanted to talk to you about that. You see Ranma has a small problem. While we were traveling through china on a training trip a few years ago, we came across a mystical training ground called Jusenkyou. Unfortunately we weren't aware that it was cursed, until it was too late. Now, whenever Ranma is splashed with cold water, he transforms into a girl."

The principal looked highly doubtful. "Your saying your son is cursed? I don't mean to sound rude, but your story is very hard to believe."

"Yes, it is. In fact I probably wouldn't have believed it myself a few years ago, but I guess a demonstration is in order. May I borrow your cup of water?" He handed her his cup and she then upended it over Genma's head.

"Growf growf?" said Genma before making a sign in Japanese that said "why'd you do that? You should have poured it over the boy!"

The principal, for his part, couldn't believe it. He just saw a man turn into a giant panda. It was just to unbelievable! "I take it there's a way to undo it?"

"Yes simply splash them with hot water and they'll be back to their normal forms."

"Would you be planning on revealing this curse? As you saw today, it seems to rain frequently here during the warmer months. Should the rest of the student body find out, it could cause quite a big disturbance and embarrassment for Ranma as well. Kids at his age can be quite mean to each other, especially older kids to the freshman."

"Unfortunately we know that quite well. As to revealing his curse, that all depends on what Ranma wants. I won't force him either way." Then turning to look at Ranma she asked "What would you like to do?"

Ranma wasn't sure what to do. If he did reveal his curse, everyone would bother him about it. Like the students at the school he tried to go to about two years ago, who took squirt guns filled with hot and cold water and would keep squirting him when he wasn't looking. Yet if he tried to hide it and it was found out, it could be even worse. "I don't think revealing it would be a good idea."

The principal looked pensive for a few minutes. "This is going to be a very sensitive issue. We want to work with you as much as we can, but we also have to make sure we follow the school regulations. For example should Ranma get caught in the rain one day on his way to the dorm, that could create a lot of problems for us. Because girls are not allowed in the boys dorm, should a parent be in the lobby at the time, they could get a wrong impression. We've had complaints in the past when a students sister came to visit with her parents, and would go to the girl bathroom in the lobby. Some parents see these girls coming and going from their brothers rooms, and have assume these girls are students. I know this may seem trivial and superficial to you, but we can't afford to be giving parents the wrong impression of our school."

"So what would you like to do? There is seemingly an endless supply of cold water, and unfortunately at times it seems as if the cold water seeks them out."

"Well I am planning on calling the other members of the administrative counsel, which includes the deans, vice principle and a few others. We need to discuss this with the deans, since it is their dorms. If you'll excuse me for a minute while I call them."

After a few minutes three people arrived followed by another a minute later. The principal began to introduce them. Pointing to the man to his right, he said. "This is Ben Jones. He's the vice principal here." Next he pointed to a young and very attractive looking woman. "This is our new girls dean Yamalet Rey." The next two were complete opposites. The first was young and very skinny, while the second was a larger older man. "This is Brian Kettleson, our gymnastics couch and assistant boys dean, and this is Tom Fowler, head boys dean. Everyone these are the Saotome's. Ranma and his family just flew in today from Japan."

The assistant dean, who seemed to be staring at the panda that was sitting in the chair across from him, asked. "Wait I thought Ranma was a boy, and why is there a panda here in the office?"

"That Brian is exactly why I called an emergency ad counsel meeting. Ranma if you would please."

Ranma picked up the cup of hot water she got while they were waiting for the other faculty members to arrive. She lifted it up above her head and poured it over herself surprising those who didn't already know about the curse. He was about to put it down when he said "oh ya, I almost forgot." And threw the remaining hot water at Genma, surprising everyone even more.

"Ranma has some kind of curse. Could you explain it more Mrs Saotome?"

"Yes certainly. I guess it would be best if I started back at the beginning so you can grasp the whole situation. First you must understand that my husband comes from a long line of skilled martial artists. So to carry on that tradition, my husband took Ranma to train him in the art at a very young age. For a few years they traveled alone until my husband decided to train our son in an ancient technique called the neko ken or the cat fist."

"I swear to you, I had no idea that would happen to the boy." Genma interrupted. "The pages were stuck together, I would have never tired if I had known."

Nodoka gave Genma a 'let's not get into that discussion again' look. "Anyway, it is a very dangerous technique, which can bring insanity or even death to the person who would try to master it. Nevertheless, as my husband just mentioned, that part was written on another page that was stuck to the first. So he threw Ranma into a pit of starving cats."

The members of the ad committee looked extremely shocked and concerned. The principal said. "Well thank goodness it seems he came out safe from that."

Nodoka winced. "That is something else we need to talk about. You see because of that, Ranma has severe fear of cats. I don't mean to sound like I'm going off the subject, but this is very important for several reasons. One is because he'll be uncontrollably terrified and will probably try to run away. Secondly and probably most importantly, if his fear of cats becomes to much for him to bear, his mind will cope by acting just like a cat. It is when the power of the neko ken is unleashed. While in the neko ken, Ranma will act just like a cat, including attacking any perceived threat. He is nearly unstoppable in that state, which leads us to three. So far, we know of only two ways to stop the neko ken. Either by triggering her curse, male or female, or by cuddling up to someone he trust such as myself."

Everyone seemed to vary between incredulous to surprised. The girls dean spoke. "Well it's a good thing you told us now. My sister and I were thinking of getting a pet, and Lizzette wanted to get a cat. Also we can send out a memo to all the faculty warning them of Ranma's problem. Luckily, no one on campus owns cat to my knowledge."

Nodoka then continued. "Well after I heard about that, I immediately took off to find them and have been with them ever since, providing for Ranma's education. Well my husband thought that Ranma was becoming weak for spending so much time studying. So he became desperate and went to a legendary training ground in china called Jusenkyou. It was at Jusenkyou and its many cursed springs that they received their curses. Before I had the chance to warn them of what the guide had told me, Genma had already fallen. I tried to tell Ranma to be careful, but I only served to distract him and Genma, who hadn't realized what happened, knocked him into another of the springs. Now they are cursed like all of Jusenkyou's victims to take the body of the whatever drowned in the spring when splashed with cold water. Hot water will temporarily change them back. However as of yet, there isn't any known cure for Jusenkyou's curse."

Everyone was deep in thought. Each wondering what to make of this situation they were in. Nodoka was getting worried about whether Ranma would get into the school as she watched them ponder. The boys deans talked amongst themselves for a bit before the head dean asked. "Ranma can we ask you a few questions?"

"Sure I guess. I don't see why not." He said.

"About how often does your curse get activated?"

"I guess every couple of days or so. Sometimes several times a day. Well that not counting when I take baths and stuff cuz most of the time your only able to find cold water you know."

"How do you feel about your curse?"

"Well its kinda annoying. I mean one minute you're a guy and then suddenly you're a girl. Sometimes its embarrassing cuz sometimes you don't even realized you change and well . . . ya its just embarassin and stuff. I mean nothing there nothing wrong with being a girl if you were born on, but still.."

The younger dean asked. "You mean to say you don't notice when you change? Don't you shrink or grow at least five inches or so?"

"Well ya, I normally do. Its just sometimes you know? Pretty much, you don't even think about cuz your used to it. Kinda like pops. He spends so much time as a panda you gotta wonder if he knows he's changed."

With a sigh the head dean spoke. "Ok here's the problem. Ranma your curse is triggered too easily and is very uncontrollable." If it was something else like a full moon, sunlight or even hot water, we could work around those. I don't only say this because it makes our job harder, but for yourself as well. The boys in our dorm use a communal bath. If your curse got out every boy in that dorm would start taking cold showers, and it won't be to try to control themselves either. I can't prevent something like that from happening and I don't want you to have to go through that."

Nodoka nodded her head. She really couldn't fault him for his reasoning, she knew he was right. Still, it was a tremendous let down to have come all this way to be rejected. She initially intended to tell them about it over the phone, but her sister recommended she wait until they arrived. She had told her that it would be much easier for them reject his application over the phone, then it would be if they told them after having flown half way across the world to get there.

The head dean saw the disappointment etched on the Nodoka's face. He didn't want to turn them away, but he had been a boys dean for a long time and knew what boys Ranma's age where like. "I hate to have to say this, but unless you can find some way to control the curse, we can't let him in the dorm. You have to understand its as much for his sake as for ours."

Nodoka looked down sadly. She had gotten hopefully when they didn't reject them the moment they told them about the curse. She knew Genma was be happy about it, and Ranma would likely be relieved as well. All she could do was hope that they could find a cure and try again some other time. Getting up she said. "I see, well thank you for giving us a chance. That's far more than most other schools have done."

Ranma saw when his mother looked down, and sighed. He felt bad about making his mother so sad. He knew it was because of him and his curse. He really didn't want to go to the school, but his mother had her hopes on it. He wished that there was something he could do, he would gladly go to the school if it would make his mother happy. But he knew there's nothing he could do except either find a cure or . . . Ranma got up. "Wait a minute. What if . . . well, what if I . . . instead of me going to school here, what if my sister Ranko come here." He said before splashing himself with a cup of water nearby.

The girls dean eyebrows arched highly hearing that, but before she could say anything, Nodoka said. "But Ranma, you don't like being in your girl form."

Genma was next to speak and he was not very happy. "Boy have you gone mad? How can you even think about staying as a girl?"

"Ah shut up old man, we wouldn't even be in this mess if it wasn't for you anyway. Anyway, thanks to you it won't be the first time either. Besides what's the difference? You've been a panda for like a few weeks straight before."

"Ranma, Genma this isn't the time or the place to discuss this. After waiting for them to calm down she turned to Ranma. "Now Ranma dear, are you sure? Do you really mean it?"

Ranma looked down. "Ya I guess so, if there's no other way. I'm mean I'd rather not even goto school, but well you really wanted me do come here. So I guess its no big deal, besides it can't be any worse than when I was at those other schools. It'll be like when we stayed with the amazons the first time." Turning to the faculty members he asked. "Would it be ok? Its much easier to control the curse in my curse formed since hot water isn't as common as cold."

"Yamalet its your dorm, the decision is up to you." Said the principle to the girls dean.

"Um well I'm not exactly sure if would be a good idea. Sure you'd be a girl physically, but you're still mentally a boy. While you wouldn't bathe with them, that doesn't solve everything.

Many girls, at night or just walking to and from the showers, will often walk around in enough of a state of undress that they wouldn't want a boy to see them that way. It would be very inappropriate and dishonest to the girls."

"Well that maybe so, but as you can see, physically Ranma is as female as they are. Besides, they wouldn't have anything Ranma hasn't seen on himself anyway. In his female form, he is just like any other girl his age, including a regular menstrual cycle. The only difference is that Ranma likes other girls, which would be considered normal if she was a natural lesbian. So I don't see any reason why you shouldn't let her. Ranma is perfectly capable of following the rules just like any other student."

The girls dean sighed. "Well to be honest, this school hasn't had any openly homosexual students to this point, so we've never had to deal with that. Plus the fact that this will be my first year deaning, so I definitely have no experience dealing with this. However, I guess if you follow the rules and understand that we will have to have you monitored, I suppose that it'll be ok. That of course includes not having a roommate."

"I want to work with you as much as possible." The principal stated. "It's not fair for you not to be able to go to school because of a curse you have, but you will be on probation. This school has a strict hands off policy. While we don't mind if you make friends or date, physical forms of intimacy such as kissing, hugging and holding hands are not allowed. If you break probation, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

The vice principle looked at Nodoka "Does that sound fair Mrs Saotome? Ranma?"

"So basically you want me to act like the other guys are expected to act.... sorta? I guess that's fine, I mean I am a guy so it's no big deal. Besides I don't think anyone gonna want be huggin and kissing me."

The principal said. "Well if that's all taken care of, Dean Rey if you would please help Ranma get settled in and then we can have a small tour of campus. Oh yes, Mrs Saotome if you could for our records sake, could you fill out an application for your daughter, since we've technically only accepted your son."

She nodded and took an application from him and the four of them began to walk out the administration building. No sooner had Ranma walked out the door, when water fell from above and splashed her. "What did I ever do to deserve this?" Ranma muttered.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry I was working on the roof up here, when I accidentally kicked the bucket of water that was up here down.."

"Well we're ok, but next time you should put a warning sign. You just happened to wet, unintentionally of course, a new student. Ranma, Mr and Mrs Saotome, I'd like you to meat Mr Corbit. He's the maintenance man and the husband of my assistant dean. By the way Ranma, she's also the school nurse. So if you feel sick or need attention, she's the one to goto. She couldn't be at the meeting because she's gone to pick up a few more students from another airport. I'll introduce you to her tonight."

"Umm Dean Rey, my name's Ranko not Ranma." Ranma said reminding her of the name she was supposed to be using.

"I'm so sorry about that Ranko. It was an accident. I'm sorry for ruining your first day on campus and you to Mr and Mrs Saotome." The maintenance man said from the top of the building.

"Ah don't worry about it, happens all the time" Ranma informed.

"Well if you'll excuse me, I've got to get her checked in the dorm. If you'll follow me." The Saotome's followed Dean Rey towards the dorm. After they were far enough away, the dean turned toward Ranma. "I see what you mean about water. If you had been a boy your secret would have already been out, which of course only reinforces our concerns. I hope you don't think I was trying to pick on you, but as a boy, you're still subject to all of the rules every other boy on campus has to follow. Also since your supposed to be a girl, the boy's dorm is off limits to you. Anyway enough about rules, we can talk about it later during dorm assembly. You, Ann, and I can go over more specific rules concerning your special problems/needs. Well this building here is the girls dorm. In a way your kind of lucky, the girls dorm has quick access to the ad building, where most of the classes meet, and the café. You'll appreciate that more when winter comes."

They went inside the dorm and received her room key. After unpacking they were given a small tour of the campus. After the tour of campus was done, the dean excused herself to attend a faculty meeting. The rest of the day became a blur of activities between registering, eating, attending more meetings and getting a temporary place for her parents. Ranma was feeling extremely exhausted and worse yet it wasn't even her first day. By this point all Ranma wanted to do was just goto sleep, and that's exactly what she

Authors notes.

I'm finally got around to typing this out, I've had it written for months now on paper!!! Well the rest of the cast will start showing up in chapter 3. Which is already half written. =)

please send any questions or comments to chikiko@thekirealm.com