Over the Jusenkyo Spring
Chapter 4: A House, Food, and too much Hot Water
Next day:
Ranma was still slumbering away having some blissful dreams when a loud ringing noise caused him to fall right out of bed and onto the floor. Quickly, he recovered from the shock and silenced the alarm clock. For a moment he was confused as to why the alarm clock had been set so early until he remembered that he had to meet his friends for a food heist. Judging from the time on the clock he only had ten minutes till he had to meet them.
With no time for breakfast, he quickly got on his red shirt and pants. Opening the window he jumped out of it landing straight into the pool. The chilly morning water soaked him thoroughly, and he felt the familiar feeling of transforming into a squirrel. Swimming over to the side of the pool with his little squirrel legs he climbed out. Ranma shook the water off himself much like a dog would before he dashed off through the hedge. On the other side he saw that the others were already waiting for him.
"So, you decided to wake up today?" RJ joked with a small smile playing on his lips.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Ranma apologized. "So, what's the plan?"
"Well, it's simple," RJ told them with a slight bored voice. "The Jacksons are on a family trip. The only thing left is to get in and get the food out."
"Sounds easy enough," Ranma said in an equally bored voice. He had been hoping that he would get a real challenge, so this information left him feeling disappointed.
"Now, let's get going," RJ ordered going through the hedge. The family, plus Ranma, followed the raccoon through the hedge.
After a bit of running they were in front of the Jacksons residence. RJ paused and looked around for an opening. He spotted the open basement window on the side of the house.
"Okay, guys," RJ whispered to the gang laying out the plan. "We're going in through that basement window over there."
Resuming the plan the critters rushed across the yard jumping in through the basement window. As Ranma jumped in landing swiftly on his feet he heard one of the water pipes screech. Gulping inwardly as not to draw attention to himself he carried on following the others. As he neared the water pipe he began walking a bit faster. He seemed to be a water magnet these days. Of course, as fate would have it before he could safely pass the pipe it broke. The steaming hot water rammed into him sending him flying across the room into the wall.
The boiling water wasn't just painful having burned his front badly, but it also triggered his transformation. Ranma's eyes widened in panic as he inwardly cursed himself. Luck seemed to return to him for he spotted a wash basin nearby. Jumping up he turned the faucet letting the cold water come out. He splashed himself with the cold water which quickly turned him back into a squirrel.
"Are you okay, Ranma?" Verne asked in worry as the gang finally found him. Ranma had transformed back into a squirrel just in time.
"I'm fine. I just needed some cold water," Ranma replied with a soft groan of pain.
RJ rummaged through his bag for something. "Got it," he said happily as he pulled out a small tube of burn gel. RJ then turned his attention to Heather with some mischievousness in his eyes.
"Heather, why don't you play nurse for him and catch up with us after you're finished?"
The young female possum nodded excitedly, and RJ gave Ranma a typical "sorry, I couldn't resist" look. Ranma's eyes widened before glaring at the raccoon. He, RJ, was going down for this. Ranma would make sure of it.
The others headed up the stairs leaving Ranma and Heather by themselves. Ranma sighed and sat down to let Heather rub the burn gel on him. Heather squeezed some of the gel out onto her hands. She went to rub the gel on Ranma's back when Ranma cut in.
"Heather," Ranma drawled out. Annoyance clear in his voice.
"Yes?" she replied, confused.
"Just my front is burned," he told her with the same slightly annoyed tone.
"Sorry," Heather apologized with a sheepish grin on her face.
As she started rubbing the gel on Ranma's chest she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. The splash mark Ranma made was much too big for a squirrel to make. Even with the impact the splash of the water wouldn't have covered almost the entire wall with water. Why was the wall almost the whole wall wet from the impact of a small squirrel?
Heather decided to not muse on it and finished her nursing job on Ranma. Ranma nodded a quick thanks to her before they both rushed up the stairs after the others.
"You've got to be kidding!" RJ shouted in outrage as Ranma and Heather entered the kitchen.
"Something wrong?" Ranma asked as he saw that everyone was just standing in front of the fridge with no food or anything out.
RJ pointed to a lock on the fridge door. "They locked everything," RJ replied, upset.
"What did you expect?" Verne said with a small sigh. "We have been stealing from them for such a long time now. They had to learn it someday." Verne turned to leave with a disappointed look on his face, "Come on, we have to go."
"Wait," Ranma said causing everyone to pause and look at him. "I can pick this lock."
RJ blinked and looked at him for a second before breaking out into a huge grin. "Okay!" he cheered. "Let's help him!"
RJ went over and crouched in front of the refrigerator. Ozzie climbed on top of RJ causing RJ to grunt a little from the added weight. Stella climbed up and went on top of Ozzie causing Ozzie to grunt a bit and RJ to shake a bit. Hammy scurried up the animal-made tower and balanced on top of Stella. RJ began to slink down because of the added weight. Not wanting their tower to collapse Heather, Penny, Lou and their three kids started helping RJ hold up the other animals. Ranma quickly climbed to the top of the tower which just managed to reach the lock.
"Hurry!" RJ rasped. His voice strained from holding them up. "You guys are heavier than you look."
Ranma grabbed hold of the lock. He looked down for a second at his friends to make sure that none of them were watching him. Seeing that they all were too preoccupied in trying to keep the tower from falling he decided it would be safe to do this. He held one of his hands toward the keyhole closing his own eyes in slight concentration.
"Moko Takabisha," he whispered causing a small Chi blast to destroy the inside of the lock completely.
Ranma threw the small remains of the lock to the ground which signaled to the others that they could let their tower fall now. Luckily, everyone was able to land safely on the ground instead of landing piled on top of one another. Ranma opened the fridge door causing a bright light to turn on in the refrigerator making the scene seem dramatic.
Ranma had a proud grin on his face, but it faded when he saw the dreamy look Heather was giving him.
"Okay," Ranma said nervously. "Let's grab the stuff and go."
Everyone formed a line leading to the basement window where Hammy was outside to get everything to the log with his I-could-win-a-Formula-1-race-on-my-feet speed.
Ranma had wandered over to wait by the wash basin; not noticing that he had forgotten to turn off the water. By the time he noticed it the water had flooded over the sink and just poured onto him. Surprisingly, the water was not cold, but warm causing Ranma to transform back into a human. Thinking fast Ranma used the forbidden technique Umisenken turning him invisible. He jumped on the counter and reached over the sink turning the water off. It was then that he realized why the water was hot. Earlier he had turned the faucet to the warm side instead of the cold side, but the water hadn't turned warm until after he had already splashed himself with cold water.
Not wanting to spend anymore time reminiscing on his fault Ranma quickly turned the faucet to the cold side letting cool water come out of it. Splashing himself with the cool water he changed back into a squirrel. Ranma made sure to turn the faucet off this time before he jumped off of the counter and got out of the Umisenken technique allowing him to turn visible again.
"Where'd you go?" Lou asked Ranma as Ranma landed on the tiled floor.
"The water was still on," Ranma answered in a casual voice. He grabbed a bag of chips that he had left on the ground when he had gotten hot water poured on him. Tossing the bag of chips to Lou he told him the rest of his answer. "I just turned it off."
Lou grunted his approval of Ranma's response. Ranma couldn't help the sheepish smile that spread across his face. He didn't exactly lie to Lou. He just hadn't told Lou the whole truth.
Having finished the job everyone headed back to the log to drop off their findings. RJ grinned proudly at his family.
"Good job buddies," RJ said very satisfied on how their raid went. Judging by the looks of the animals' faces they were very proud, too. "Oh, and a special thanks to Ranma for his skill with the lock."
Receiving a "Well done!" pat on the shoulder from RJ brought a smile to Ranma's face. It had never been like this with his father-no. He wasn't going to think about him.
"You're welcome," Ranma told them. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Before Ranma could leave them Verne questioned in a highly skeptical voice, "Where do you go?"
Ranma paused thinking of an excuse quickly, "I have a home on a tree in Saotome's garden. Bye!"
Waiting until Ranma was out of sight Lou finally voiced his thoughts, "He hides something."
"Oh, come on!" Heather voiced with a cheerful smile. "I'm sure he's a great guy!"
Everyone just gave her a blunt "Of course you would say that!" look before turning back to their suspicions about Ranma.
"Maybe he is held as a pet by one of the humans," Ozzie suggested.
"That could be the answer," Verne responded in a thoughtful voice.
Heather was a bit upset about the accusations they were making about Ranma, but then she remembered the splash on the wall in the basement.
"I…saw something in the basement as I nursed Ranma," Heather said in a stoical voice which caused everyone to stare at her curiously.
"What did you see?" her father, Ozzie, asked.
"The wall had a much too big splash mark for Ranma. The mark seemed to be the size of a human," she told them biting her lower lip a bit.
"Don't be ridiculous," RJ said in disbelief. "How could Ranma make a splash mark on the wall the size of a human?"
Hammy excitedly jumped up and down waving his hand high in the air chanting, "Pick me! Pick me!"
"Yes, Hammy?" RJ said like a teacher would to a student.
"Maybe he is a human, and he just disguised himself as a squirrel!" Hammy told them.
At that everyone burst out laughing hysterically.
"Hammy, how could that be possible?" Verne asked while wiping a tear from his cheek caused by all the laughing he did.
In Ranma's house:
Ranma sat in his bathtub taking a nice hot bath. The peaceful mood was disrupted though when he sneezed.
"Someone is talking about me right now," Ranma said as he scrunched his nose.
(A/N): Suspicion arises, but no one knows how right Hammy was. In the next chapter: "Trapped and Escaped. The Neko-ken."