"Ranma!" The bellows could be heard throughout the entire hospital, startling several patients and just as many resident nurses. A portly man dressed in a white gi stalked through the hallways, quickly glancing into each room before continuing on his way. A faded bandana covered the top of his head and glasses adorned his face, which he was constantly pushing up. He was Genma Saotome, martial artist and father to one Ranma, who was currently missing, as the boy had done every day over the past two weeks. As soon as practice was over, Ranma would almost disappear.
At first, Genma hadn't really cared what the boy was doing, as long as it didn't interfere with training and feeding Genma. However, he'd just found this rich couple with a young daughter and he needed to show off the boy if he was going to get the dowry for the engagement. A picture just wasn't enough for this group apparently. That had been two days ago and until now, Ranma had been evading capture.
A familiar laughter drifted down the hallway, pulling Genma up short as he turned and dashed towards the sound. Seemed like Ranma was happy about something. That couldn't be allowed. If he was happy, he might end up focusing on whatever it was made him happy instead of studying the art and working towards Genma's retirement. Peeking into the room, he found his son sitting on a hospital bed, talking to a young girl. The elder Saotome frowned as he took in the slightly sickly appearance of the not so little girl. Easily twice the boy's age, so she was useless as a fiancée, besides, a weak girl like her wouldn't have anything to offer as a dowry, especially with no family here looking after her.
His mind made up, Genma blundered into the room. "Boy! What do you think you're doing here with that weak girl? You're skipping out on training. Oh why have the Gods cursed me with such a disrespectful son?" The portly fighter went into an overly dramatic pose that both other occupants in the room immediately dismissed, though the girl did seem to giggle at his antics. Still frowning, Genma reached over and snagged Ranma's gi, hauling the squirming boy from the bed.
"Hey! Watch it pops! What do you think you're doing?"
Ignoring the faint protests and hits his son was getting in on his fortunately padded sides, Genma began hauling the boy from the room. Several nurses stepped into the room, their silent frowns looking down on Genma though he shrugged them off. What he almost couldn't resist was the cries starting to come from the girl on the bed. However, his stomach and greed won out in the end and he strode from the room, though not before his son shot back one last comment to the girl.
"Don't worry! I'll find you again. We're friends, always."
Ranma bolted awake, sweat beading on his brow. The house was silent except for the buzzsaw snores coming from the giant panda sleeping just a few feet away. Scanning the area, Ranma tried to search for the source of the disturbance that woke up but found nothing. Even the faint tendrils of his dream was already fading away to mist, lost to recesses of his unconscious memory.
Turning his head to regard the window, he noted that there was still another hour until sunrise. Yawning and standing, he threw an idle kick at his pandified father, who just grunted and turned over onto his side, though he did stop snoring. Grinning in satisfaction, Ranma turned and hopped to the window then outside. Just enough time to get some practice and yard work in. Anything Goes Martial Arts Gardening at its best. Twenty minutes later, the weeks were pulled, garden tilled and everything in the yard looked good. Another twenty minutes later and a slightly sweating Ranma was heading in for a quick rinse before climbing back to his futon. Wouldn't do for him not to be there for his ritual morning wakeup calls. Wonder which it would be today.
The brief sensation of flying. Ah. Must be the panda this morning. Changing his direction mid-flight, Ranma managed to avoid the koi pond, sparing the poor traumatized fish. Landing lightly on the rocks, he turned a grin towards his father who had launched himself through the air with a flying kick. Tensing his legs, Ranma jumped into the air and the two began exchanging blows. The morning spar was underway.
It was midway through the morning classes and it as all Ranma could do to just stay awake. Not only was history completely uninteresting to the martial artist, but he had missed out on some precious sleep this morning. Laying his head on the desk, he was tempted to just go to sleep when the loud speaker squawked to life.
"Good morning students. You will be receiving a new teacher today. She will be teaching you English. Please treat her with the same respect you do every other member of the faculty here. Thank you."
Excited murmurs arose among the students and the current teacher side in frustration. There was no chance of controlling the students now. Sighing, he turned and gathered up his teaching supplies, handed out the homework assignment and told everyone they had study time until lunch.
Everyone broke off into group to discuss the new teacher, speculating on what she would be like and if she would be able to handle the amount of chaos that resided at Furinkan High School. Ranma did his best to stay out of the discussion. It didn't matter to him who his teachers were. He'd still do the homework, get grades just enough to pass, then go home and continue his training, as he'd been taught. Hiroshi and Daisuke tried to talk to Ranma about whether the teacher would be as attractive as their respective girlfriends and each guy was talking up the virtues of his current dating partner as compared to the imagined attributes of the new teacher. Ranma ignored them.
The collected murmurs broke off as a voice was heard from outside the room, though the words were unintelligible. The doors slid open and in stepped a tall woman in raven hair that fell way below her waist. Her voluptuous form was sheath in a yellow dress that was way too many sizes too small for her. All of this went unnoticed by Ranma as he was resting his head on his desk, trying studiously to ignore everything in the world. All he wanted to do was sleep.
A smooth sultry voice purred from the lady as she introduced herself to the class. "Greetings students. I'm your new English teacher, Ms. Hinako Ninomiya." Most of the class was unable to respond, still trying to get over the idea of someone with such obvious sex appeal working at their school. The boys were drooling, the girls were growling, both reactions the tall brunette was used to. What she wasn't used to was the delinquent trying to sleep through her introduction.
Whipping out a five yen coin, she aimed it at the boy, yelling out, "Hapo go-en Satsu!" Ranma's survival instinct kicked in and he immediately bolted onto the ceiling, gazing down in surprise as he came suddenly awake. Looking down, he saw a boy unfortunate enough to get caught in the attack fall over as if drained. Narrowing his eyes at the challenge, Ranma landed lightly next to the desk, watching the new teacher through critical eyes. Something about her sparked a memory though he wasn't sure what it was. That hair seemed so familiar though but he didn't know any older women, especially not someone like this. He'd remember a chi draining technique if it was used against him.
"What did ya do that for?" His voice was strong though filled with annoyance. Never before had a teacher attacked him with anything more than a mundane projectile and they all stopped after he kept catching the items even in his sleep.
Ms. Hinako glared at the student. How dare he challenge her! "You're a delinquent and it's my job to punish you!" She brought her hands up again, wielding her weapon of choice, the tiny coin pointed towards the boy. Instead of waiting to take his punishment like he was supposed to, the boy jumped to the window and out of the way.
"Geez teach. You could hurt someone. Not everyone is a martial artist like me. Well, maybe the tomboy or Uchan would survive that most of the other students would be out for hours if you hit them with that attack. Lets take this outside. I'll meet you there." With those words, he leaned backwards and feel out of the room.
Ms. Hinako gasped and dived towards the suicidal boy, trying to catch him before he went splat on the school grounds three stories below. She tripped over a student who didn't quite manage to get out of the way and ended up falling through the window.
Ranma, already safe on the ground, looked up to see the teacher dive through the window. "Ah man! Why'd she do that?" With a powerful flex of his legs, he leapt up to catch her, his strong arms cradling the much taller woman against his chest. Adjusting their flight, he landed lighting in the courtyard when he felt his burden grow a lot lighter. Looking down, he nearly dropped her in shock. "Hinako-chan?" he asked in shock of the suddenly eight year old looking girl in his arms who he had last seen as he was dragged from a hospital almost 13 years ago.
The little girl looked up at her savior with huge eyes glistening as an almost forgotten memory rushed to the surface, some of the happiest days of her life. Nearly crying, she asked, "Ranma-chan?" At his slow nod, she wrapped her tiny arms around him, "You came back to me."
