"Speech"
'Thought'
X x x x x x
"I thought you knew." Airi gave her a confused look for a second, before smiling. "You were registered, and enrolled, as female."
"Say what now?" Ranma twisted her head to one side and blinked twice.
"Seto-sama requested that you be enrolled as a girl." Airi answered helpfully.
"Why?" She asked slowly.
"With Seto-sama, it's best not to ask questions, and just stay out of her way. Unfortunately, you and Seina-kun have fallen under her eyes. So if you want my advice, go along with what she asks, because resisting will only make her more interested."
"So, you want me to go to school, as a girl. Do you realize the problem I have with hot water?"
"Accidental changes you mean?" Airi asked, and Ranma nodded rapidly. "I wouldn't worry about that, those are made out of the newest fabrics, and will repel any water from touching you, even exposed skin. Within reason of course, if you try and go swimming in them, it won't work. Seto-sama kindly donated them for your use."
"You mean, I can stay a guy if I wear these?" Holding up the overcoat, she rubbed the fabric between her fingers. It was smooth like silk and didn't feel special at all.
"Of course, when not in class, you'll be free to be whichever form you please. Now go get changed." Airi came up behind her, and pushed Ranma back into the change room.
Planting her feet, she spun around to face the taller woman. "How long do I have to be at the school? Seto said she'd get me cured by someone named Washu."
"Hard to say, could be a few days, could be a couple weeks. Depends on what Washu-chan is up to." Airi answered, pushing her inside.
"And I need boxers." She pointed at the string bikini style panties laying off to the side. Female underwear seemed to work out poorly for her. It was just safer to stick with boxers.
"I'll be sure to have some male clothing sent to your room. But for now, figure it out yourself." The door slid closed again, leaving her alone.
Sitting down heavily on the seat, she set the clothes in her lap, and stared at the wall in front of her. 'I can be a girl for a couple weeks. A cure is worth that much, easily.' Removing her gi, she started to put on the supplied clothes. 'And I can still be a guy for the rest of the time, so it's not like the deal with the Chardins.' Floundering in the far too large clothing, she hit the button as instructed, and with a soft hissing noise, they tightened and conformed to her form perfectly.
"Wow, these are nice." Finding a button on the wall marked mirror, she pushed it, and a viewscreen popped up showing her reflection. "Better enjoy the view while I can." She smiled, posing a bit in front of the mirror.
Gathering up her gi, she exited the changing room, and found Seina being strangled by his clothes, as they constricted around his body too tightly. "Is this a common thing with you?" She asked, putting her face in the palm of one of her hands. Her current clothing was marginally better in her eyes, than the baby blue and white sailor like outfit Seina was wearing.
X x x x x x
"Alright Ranma, you can do this." Pacing in front of the deceptively simple green door, Ranma was having a sudden change of heart. Living as a girl for a couple weeks, and then getting a cure, peace of cake. Living as a girl for a couple weeks, with two female roommates, and then getting a cure. Well that just wasn't the same.
It really didn't help that Airi had sprung that one on her just before leaving her alone with the dorm assistant, an elderly but tall woman, who had shown her to the door. When would she be able to get some guy time in with two real girls around? And it wasn't like the male and female dorms were mixed at all, Seina was safely a quarter of a kilometer away. Ranma could only imagine what horrible things the unlucky boy might cause if confined to a small room with two other people.
First things first, she would get some sleep, her day being above and beyond in terms of excitement, had worn her out. Tomorrow there was some boring Academy entrance ceremony, a couple classes, and then she would find a nice place where she could be a guy and not cause problems. 'Least these special clothes work.'
They had transported to a planet within the rings of the space station. The GP Academy being part of a much larger Galactic Academy, it's facilities taking up an entire planet. Transporter tubes were used to ferry people between the other six planets that made up the rest of the Academy.
Being such a common technology, many of the people using them had been eating food and carrying drinks. Seina's bad luck struck again, which surprisingly ended with everyone else getting doused, while she had just gotten a mild spray. Which, thanks to the clothes, hadn't even gotten her wet.
Thinking back on it, the dorm was a strange place, the white stone building was spread out over a vast expanse of land, but trees and plants dominated the landscape. It was like the plants had been specifically grown so that they were part of the structures, rather than them being overgrown.
Shrugging away the strange architecture, Ranma raised a finger, placing it on a fingerprint reader, causing the door to her room slide open obediently. Inside, she guessed, the room was supposed to be clean and clinical like the GP ships. Instead, what she found was a mass of clothes and other random items strewn all over the floor.
The room itself had a green carpeted floor, save for a wooden sitting area directly in front of the door, with a low table positioned in the center. Off to the right were three beds, each one raising a step as they moved away from the door. Across from the beds were desks, simple looking tables raised up off the floor, with a small bench seat, being held up by a post off to one side. At the very top of the steps were a set of wooden cylinders that looked out of place with the rest of the room's decoration.
Spread out, with her body hanging half on, and half off of a bed, was an average looking black haired girl. Her hair was pulled into a loose ponytail at her shoulders, while the front trailed down to either side of her face. A blanket was wrapped around her body from spinning in her bed, and she was snoring softly. All that she was wearing, was a thin white tank top several sizes too big, and a pair of gray boxer shorts.
The other occupant to the room, appeared to be missing, and Ranma considered how best to approach this situation. This kind of situation screamed that someone would get the wrong idea. Glancing around overhead, she wondered where Akane might be off in the galaxy.
"Wait!" A girl suddenly shouted, running down the hall way, dressed in the female GP Academy uniform, consisting of the same outfit as the male, but with pink instead of blue. "No!" She cried dramatically, skidding to a stop next to Ranma, and towering over a full head taller than her. "You saw didn't you?" The strange girl had well tanned skin, triangle ears, and bright orange hair. She had an athletic build, and moved like someone who had been trained in combat.
"Saw what?" Ranma asked, confused over question, and stepping out of the way as the girl pushed roughly past her into the room, the door sliding shut in front of her. "Uh." Blinking several times, she figured that this must be the other roommate.
The door slid opened again, revealing the tall girl standing with her hands clasped in front of her hips, and smiling serenely. "Hello, you must be Ranma, please come in." Slipping to the side, the girl raised a hand to indicate that she should enter.
"Kay." She eyed the girl critically. "Saotome Ranma." She greeted.
"I'm Corina Taylor." The tall girl greeted happily. "And that's Adilynn Doley." She pointed at the still sleeping black haired girl. "Sorry I was in such a rush before, I was hoping to－ clean up the room a bit, and I wanted to make a good first impression." She finished with a nervous laugh.
"Meh, no problem." Ranma waved off the girl's concern. As long as she wasn't screaming 'Ranma prepare to die!' or 'Pig-tailed girl I love you!', then they would likely be fine. Although looking at the mess that the room was in, that might not be all the true, the urge to clean was rising suddenly.
"I suppose I'll give you the grand tour, don't worry about waking up Addy, she sleeps all the time." The door shut behind Ranma with a soft hiss. "Looks like they already sent your luggage." Corina pointed towards the group of four wooden cylinders, about half a meter in diameter and a meter in height, arrayed along the back wall.
"These are mine?" Ranma hopped up the steps to inspect the wooden contraptions.
"I don't envy you, that uniform might as well be a big target for the instructors."
Laying her hand on top of one of the containers, the top suddenly popped upwards until the entire center section had raised out of the sides. Folded neatly on three equally spaced shelves were duplicates of the pants she was wearing currently. "That solves my clothes problem." Ranma pushed back down on the top of the lid, and the shelves sunk back down into the cylinder.
"Those are a whole lot nicer than the stuff we get." Corina picked at the white hem of her shirt. "So, what planet are you from? I'm from Seniwa."
"Oh, Earth." She answered.
"No way!" Corina was suddenly in Ranma's face. "That's so cool! It's been all over the net for the past half a year, about how some guy from Earth managed to kill Kagato, THE KAGATO. There's even some rumors floating around that he has Princess Ayeka, the space pirate Ryoko, and even detective first class Mihoshi after him."
"Hold it." She held up her hands to silence the taller girl. "One, who's Kagato? Two, I have no clue who Ayeka and Ryoko are." Ranma resisted the urge to check to see if Mihoshi had entered the room magically.
"Oh!" realization swept over the pointed eared girl's face. "Earth is a developing planet, so you wouldn't know about them. He was a really bad guy who stole tons of expensive stuff, and killed everyone who got in his way."
"That does sound like a bad guy." Ranma commented, popping open another container, and finding more clothes, and a couple pairs of shoes. A pair of white sneakers, and another set of more formal looking black ones.
"Anyways, I'm not sure how you don't know about Princess Ayeka, but she was setup to be the next Queen of Jurai, up until Ryoko attacked Jurai and took out half their fleet, and the future King Yosho ran off to fight her and never returned. Jurai's all hush hush about it, but Addy was able to hack into their system, and found out about it."
"You still owe me that X19-J you promised." Adilynn moaned from her bed, not moving.
"I swear you'll get it." Corina rolled her eyes.
"What's that?" Ranma asked, opening up another container.
"A way out of date computer part, Addy's a collector."
"Ah." When she opened up a small container, something quickly flew out of it, making a quick sweep around the room, before returning to hover in the air directly in front of her.
"Finally!" The small burgundy ball announced happily in a synthesized voice that was neither male or female. "I thought you would never let me out."
"What are you?" Ranma demanded, poking at the floating device.
"I am your personal assistant." The ball dipped in the air as a strange sort of bow. "I have been ordered to assist you with any issues you may have with acclimating yourself to life outside of your developing world, as well as with your studies here at the Academy, by Seto-sama."
"Seto-sama? THE Seto-sama? The Devil Princess?" Corina gaped.
"That's the one." Ranma answered. "So what are you? Some kind of computer?" She tried to view the ball from different angles. It was highly reflective, without any break to the surface. The only variations in color were darker and lighter splotches of color, creating a wood grain pattern.
"Yes, I am a personal education and instruction node, or more commonly refereed to by the acronym, P.E.I.N."
"She must really like you to send something like this." Corina caught the ball in her hand, to get a good look at it.
"Why's that?" Ranma asked.
"Last I heard, these were for Jurai eyes only, these aren't even supposed to be seen or talked about off a Jurai ship. They do pretty much anything."
"Unhand me you Seniwan giant! I am the property of Miss Ranma, and will not be treated in such a barbaric way!" The burgundy ball cried out angrily.
"So how would you know that then?" Ranma wondered, Corina releasing the angry ball to fly behind Ranma's back. She couldn't be sure, but it seemed like the device was glaring at Corina.
"I'm hoping to be a detective, information gathering is one of my talents." Corina explained.
"So what do I call you?" Ranma turned to address the device.
"Whatever you wish." It answered.
"Uh." Ranma's mouth quirked to one side, she had made fun of Akane so much for her lame name for Ryoga's cursed form, but now faced with naming something herself, it was harder than she thought. "How bought just Pein?" (1)
"That would be acceptable." The computer now known as Pein replied curtly. "Is there anything I can assist you with?"
"Um, no, I think I'm fine."
"I'm just giving her a tour." Corina added.
"Am I correct in that classes will begin tomorrow?" Pein asked.
"Yes." Ranma answered.
"Then if you do not need me for information, I will put myself in sleep mode."
"Sure." She shrugged, watching Pein dip in the air like a bow, before flying over and settling into a spot hovering over one of the corners of the top of her desk.
"Anyways, the room is pretty simple, bed, desk with computer, dresser, and up front we got a tv." Dropping herself at the low table, Corina pulled up a meter wide viewscreen. "You order cafeteria food through here, it tells you what vitamins and whatever you're missing, and suggests what you should get. Don't use it to order out, the prices are ridiculous."
"Ah, and over here's the bathroom." Hopping to her feet, Corina hit a button on the wall to open up the door to the left of the entrance.
Ranma paused in the door way, the rectangular room was simple enough. On the wall to the right were two vertical half cylinders like the transport tubes. One of which looked like it opened from this side, but the other appeared to be the backside for one in another room.
"It's not much, but it has its uses." Corina approached the tube. "This is the shower and laundry tube. I doubt you'd have these on Earth, it uses little nano-machines to clean you, even with your clothes on."
"No water?" Ranma raised an eyebrow at the machine. Aside from the trio of faucets for washing hands, with a wide mirror against the far wall from the entrance, there was no way to get hit by hot water in the room. She frowned at the counter next to the sink which was covered with a veritable sea of cosmetics.
"Nope, I've been using a local bathhouse, but Addy uses this cause she's lazy. Do you have bathhouses on Earth?"
"Yea." Ranma answered, reading the control panel for the washing machine.
"Good, it'll be nice to have some company."
"Uh, no no no, can't do that." Ranma waved her hands in warding. The last couple times she had gone to a public bathhouse, had been an exercise in fighting off an excited Happosai. A couple weeks and she wouldn't be here, living as a girl for that long would be a stretch as it was, she didn't need to add to that by explaining the curse. Well maybe if she figured out that they wouldn't freak out about it, but for now she would have to put up with it.
"Some Earth modesty thing?" The GP cadet asked.
"Yea that's it, real modest." Ranma laughed nervously.
"Oh, sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Shrugging, Corina passed her towards the main room. "That's the tour, let's get some food!" She announced dramatically.
X x x x x x
"You sure do eat a lot for being so little." Corina commented to her, and Ranma just smacked her lips together in response. The food had been eatable, and she had eaten three trays of the stuff. "You shouldn't get so much though, you only have a set number of meals a week without having to pay for it."
"Really?" She asked, sitting up straighter on her cushion next to the low table. "How many?"
"It works out to be two everyday if you want to spread it out over the week."
"Yuck, so little." Ranma frowned, earning a snicker from Adilynn.
The sleeping girl had dragged herself over from her bed, the lowest of the three, in order to get food. She didn't talk much, and seemed to have a bored detachment to everything. Ranma really didn't know how to act towards the girl. Quiet and reserved people set her on edge, who knew what they were thinking. Corina on the other hand, was talkative, friendly, and inquisitive. Mostly about things on Earth, since she had never been to a developing planet.
A loud beeping noise caused Corina to stand up immediately at attention and bring her right hand up in salute. Adilynn did the same, though with far less urgency, while Ranma just remained in her seat, confused over their actions. Across the table, a pair of women in the black GP instructor uniforms appeared floating in mid air. The one on the left was Amane, while the other was a normal looking woman, except for the flat circular dark brown nose, and elf like ears.
Both of Ranma's roommates repeated their names, Corina glanced down at her and jerked her head several times. Grudgingly, Ranma stood up. "Saotome Ranma." She said without saluting.
"Initiating check." The unknown instructor began, both of them raising their hands to cause four small viewscreens a piece to pop up. Three running vertically in front of them, with the fourth off to the right of the middle. Around Ranma's feet a glowing ring formed, and before she had realized it, the light had passed over her head, and disappeared.
"Good, you're all here." Amane's ghostly form said without enthusiasm.
"Tomorrow is the Academy's entrance ceremony at nine am. Be sure to get plenty of sleep and look your best." The unknown instructor added, the two forms and their viewscreens fading from view a second later.
"Why do they even bother doing that?" Adilynn asked, flopping back down on her cushion. "They have scanners in the room that could do it in about a tenth of a second."
"Meh, just another thing to get us into the military mindset." Corina answered. "Everyday the same time, till we graduate."
"I'm going back to bed." Adilynn grabbed her discarded bedsheet and flopped lifelessly on to her bed.
Getting up to follow suit, Ranma was full, it was a long day, and she just wanted to get some nice uninterrupted rest. Corina's hand snaked out and grabbed her by the wrist. "Ah ah ah, no sleep for tonight."
"Huh, why?" Ranma really wasn't interested in an adventure at the moment.
"We're heading into town to get some night life." The Seniwa born girl, gyrated a bit in place. "It's your first night on a new planet, don't you want to see what's here?"
"I'll pass." Ranma had been to enough bars following her old man, she didn't think space ones would be any more interesting.
"That's no fun, there's a big party or festival every night. Oh well, if you don't want to go."
"Festival?" Ranma paused, she did like to go to festivals.
"Yup, there are thousands of races that live on the planet, they all have their own big holidays. Pick any night of the week, and you can find something."
"I guess I can stay up a while longer." She conceded.
X x x x x x
"What are you doing?" Ranma asked, peeking over Corina's arm as the taller girl rapidly typed with one hand on a keyboard and small viewscreen that were hovering over the top of her wrist.
"It's a closed campus, so if you want to leave, then you have to hack into the system to open the door. Addy might a lazy bum, but you can't beat her for hacking into stuff, got her to show me how to do this." Hitting one last button with finality, the large double sided arched door they were standing in front of, opened outwards. "Took me longer than usual, seems like a lot of people are heading out for tonight. Come on before it closes."
Ranma ran after Corina, the tall girl running through the door at a good pace. "So what would have happened if you got it wrong?" She asked as they ducked through a forest with thick trees.
"The security bots are alerted."
"Security bots?"
"Yea, they're these red octopus looking things, if you see one run away."
"Why?" Ranma asked, glancing around for anything red, and being suitably happy with how her clothes were performing.
"They shoot these stick on tattoo's, you'll see a bunch of the guys with them tomorrow I bet. If you get one of those in a place you can't hide, you won't be leaving your room until you get it off."
"Well what is it?"
"I cannot adequately describe how bad it is." Corina leveled a serious gaze at her. "Suffice it to say, mind scarring comes to mind."
"I'll take your word for it." Ranma nodded, coming to a stop at the edge of the tree line. In front of them was a warehouse, with a large close metal garage door, and a normal sized door off to the side. From inside of the building, she could hear a group of males yelling.
"Damn, looks like some of students went this way." Corina brought up her wrist computer. "Wow, we're not going that way, it's filled with security bots." There was a loud whirring noise, and a flying car burst through the metal door, it's top being ripped off, exposing a trio of screaming guys. "Ah! The patrol car I stashed in there!" Corina cried out in sorrow, the car swerving towards them.
"Better get on then." Ranma shouted, leaping into the air, to come down in the back seat. Corina followed easily, dropping into the front.
"Who are you?" A boy with bright red hair and blue eyes asked, hanging on tightly to the headrest of the drivers seat.
"You idiots stole the car I had stashed." Corina crossed her arms angrily.
"Sorry!" A familiar voice apologized from the drivers seat.
"Oh no." Ranma looked horrified at Seina driving the car.
"Seina pay attention!" A brown furred Wau shook Seina's shoulder, the car starting to wobble horribly.
"Sorry! I don't have a license!"
"I take it back, we should not have gotten on." Ranma told Corina, looking for a seat belt.
"Use the auto pilot, you moron." Corina reached forward and hit a button on the center of the steering wheel. Immediately the car leveled out and smoothly moved through the trees. "So which one of you set off the security bots?"
"I did at first." The Wau admitted.
"So where are you two lovely ladies going tonight?" The red haired human asked, running a hand slowly through his hair. "I'm Kenneth Barr."
"Wherever fate takes us." Corina's eyes shifted to the strange mark on Kenneth's face, and she let out a brief shriek. "Gah! Warn people when you get those things!" She averted her eyes.
"Got what?" Ranma asked, looking at the guy's face, and seeing the most horrible image she had ever seen in her life on the guys right cheek. "What in the world is that! She recoiled, thinking that not even Cologne and Happosai naked together could come close to how horrible it was.
"It's hopeless." Kenneth bowed his head, and used a hand to hide the mark.
"I'm Rajau Ga Waura." The Wau greeted, also hiding his right cheek with a clawed hand.
"You two should head back, no one is going to want you around with those things." Corina commented.
"Don't worry, I got a great idea." Rajau answered.
"So where are you going?" Ranma asked, hoping that Seina would be going far far the other way.
"Wherever fate takes us." Kenneth answered, wagging his eyebrows at Corina.
"Cute." Corina answered sarcastically. "Well, since you stole my air car, I guess we'll be traveling into town together."
"Is that it?" Ranma asked, looking through a row of trees running alongside the six lane road. Past the trees was an impressively large circular city. Tiered levels approached the center, where a tall tower stood twice as tall as the tallest building. Hanging over top of the city was a ring with small buildings on it, and then a half and quarter ring further up the tower.
"That's it, Ahmeek, the most populated city on the planet, and cultural hub." Rajau answered.
"Let's hurry! I don't want to miss the best parties!" Kenneth leaned forward and pointed down the road.
X x x x x x
"That's－ your great idea?" Ranma put her face in the palm of her right hand. "Just how low are the GP's standards?" She asked Corina.
"Every organization has to have its low level grunts." The orange haired girl replied, looking just as disgusted. "Very low level." She amended, looking at Kenneth and Rajua, both having donned paper shopping bags to cover their faces. The only visible portion of their faces, being the eye holes.
"If you're jealous, we could get more." Rajua offered helpfully.
"I think this might be a good time for us to go our separate ways." Corina answered the Wau. "Don't you think Ranma?"
"You got a camera?" She asked.
"Ya know what." Kenneth's voice was muffled by the bag. "If you two are going to be such sticks in the mud, then we'll just have to cut you loose! Isn't that right guys?" Rajua nodded in response, while Seina looked lost.
"You're not keeping the car that I had ready for tonight." Corina pointed out.
"Can we still have a ride back?" Kenneth asked, shifting from outraged to apologetic.
"Fine." Corina waved a hand. "But we'll be heading back around one."
"But that's when the best parties start!" Rajau cried dramatically.
"Someone has to act responsibly, I can't exactly expect the two Earthlings to know what's going on." Corina pointed to her and Seina. Ranma pouted, thinking that she certainly wasn't a kid.
"Come on Seina, let's get away from these two buzz kills." Kenneth grabbed Seina around the shoulders and physically hauled the other Earthling off down the busy street. Rajau following quickly behind.
"Oi." Ranma drew Corina's attention. "Don't treat me like a kid."
"Did I? I'm sorry." The tall girl apologized. "I just meant to say that."
"I grew up traveling all over the place, so I'm not some stupid tourist who'll get excited over the smallest thing." She interrupted, crossing her arms.
"You're right, stupid me." Corina laughed nervously for a moment. "We better get going if we don't want to be late."
"Where are we going anyways?"
"A festival celebrating some deity, it doesn't really matter. I just have it on a reliable source that this is the best happening tonight."
"Ah." Nodding her head, a store window caught her eye, and she rushed over to press her face against the glass. "What's this?" She asked excitedly, eying the high technology behind the glass, and not understanding what they did.
"Those are music players."
"Ooh how about these?" She shot over to another shop.
"Kids toys."
"What about these?" Ranma shot over to another shop.
"I thought you said you weren't a tourist?"
X x x x x x
"Wha－ what kin of drinks were dos?" Ranma slurred, staggering through the door of her dorm room while being supported by Corina. The light switched on automatically, showing an empty room, Adylinn having disappeared in the several hours they had been gone.
"Nalumor soda." Corina answered. "And I told you to take it easy with those."
"They were free." She shot back. "It would a been an－ a insult to refuse."
"They were also alcoholic."
"You mean, I'm dwunk?" Walking unsteadily up to the top most bed, which had been the last available. Ranma stripped down to just her long sleeved shirt and boxers, before falling face first on the surprisingly comfortable cot.
This wasn't the first time she had been drinking, no that was when being trained in drunk-fu. Of course, that required an incredibly large amount to be ingested quickly, to the point that most of the fight and training was forgotten. Actually being conscious of her own, intoxication, was a novel experience.
"It'll be fine, it's called soda because it doesn't give you a hang over." Corina explained, slipping off her shoes. A moment later, the door slid open, and Adylinn walked in while rapidly typing with one hand on a small computer viewscreen on her wrist.
"You're back." The black haired girl looked up long enough to notice them. "Good thing, they just had me crank up the security protocols."
"Why?" Corina asked, hitting the control node to unsize her clothes. Ranma was confused over the action for a second, her mental facilities taking a moment to realize that the tall girl was going to undress. Gulping audibly, she blushed, and turned her head in the other direction.
"Some guy named Seiryo threw a fit over all the alerts earlier. So I just setup the security bots to patrol at random intervals, and respond to all door activations regardless of the code." Adylinn dropped unceremoniously on her bed.
"You know you just effectively killed off any trips into town." Corina pointed out crossly.
"I'm still waiting for my X19-J." Was Adylinn's response.
X x x x x x
'Can't sleep.' Ranma dragged herself down to the table. The lights were off, save for a single bar running across the ceiling of the hallway door wall, acting as a night light. In her stupor she had fallen asleep, unfortunately, when the alcohol had been worked out of her system, she had woken up, and was unable to return to slumber.
'Which button is it?' Fumbling with the nearly invisible buttons on the table, she finally found the one to bring up the phone. 'Gah what is that number again?' Slowly entering in the numbers, a meter wide viewscreen popped into view, saying that it was dialing.
"Come on, someone pick up." She insisted, rapidly tapping on the side of the table. It had finally hit her just how far from home she was. This wasn't a trip to China, this was a trip to some distant part of the galaxy, and the only way to go back for good was to let someone play around inside of her head. Finally after ten rings the viewscreen stopped ringing and asked if she wanted to dial again.
"I'll try again in a minute." Ranma laid her head down on the table. "Gotta be late there too."
BEEP BEEP BEEP
"Ack!" Ranma sat straight up from where she had fallen asleep on the table. "I'm up old man." She said groggily, her head bobbing lightly, before falling bonelessly backwards.
"Stupid alarm clock!" Corina shouted, and something heavy slammed into the wall behind a viewscreen displaying the time.
'Oh right, no stupid panda to wake me up.' Ranma blinked several times, sitting up and scratching at an inch above her left breast. Adilynn was still sleeping, apparently the overly loud alarm, and follow up shout from Corina having not affected her.
"Eh, Ranma, why did you sleep there?" Corina asked in a much calmer voice, slipping her feet out of the bed, and scratching at the side of her head.
"No reason." She answered.
Another beep from the table, signaled a human height viewscreen to pop up, showing the elderly woman Ranma had seen standing beside Airi's desk. "Attention all cadets, this is a reminder that the Academy entrance ceremony will be held at nine. All students are required to attend." Message finished, the viewscreen vanished.
"I'm going to go get cleaned up." Corina said on her way to the bathroom, a GP uniform slung over one arm.
"Miss Ranma, might I suggest that you have breakfast?" Pein supplied helpfully, swinging into view in front of Ranma.
"Ack!" Ranma brought her hands up in warding, before dropping them. "Don't do that."
"I apologize, it was not my intent to startle."
"Just give a little warning next time." Ranma glowered, thinking that the small device was worse than a cat for sneaking up on people.
"I will decrease the auditory dampeners on my propulsion device, so that you notice my arrival with more ease." Pein said with an apologetic tone.
"Sure, do that." Ranma answered without knowing what the ball was talking about.
"Shall we see what dishes are available?" Pein floated over to hover just off of the table, and the menu came up. The viewscreen quickly shifted to a readout of nutrients and other things that she didn't recognize. "It appears that you are getting the needed caloric intake for your metabolism. Though you are missing many of the nutrients your body needs."
"What are you talking about? I eat pretty good."
"You eat enough, but what you eat is wrong."
"And what should I be eating?" Ranma crossed her arms.
"Any of the standard meals here will provide the necessary vitamins and minerals. Earth's medical knowledge is, if you forgive the term, in what would be called the dark ages. You should however use specialty meals until your system has closed to within two to three percent of the optimal amount." Pein explained. "Shall I order your meal?"
"Go ahead." A second later, a tray of food appeared in front of Ranma.
"My databank indicates that you are to wear formal wear for this entrance ceremony."
Pausing in eating, Ranma turned to glare at Pein. "If by formal, you mean a big frilly dress, then no."
"If you would like to wear one, that can be arranged, your storage compartments have been filled with various clothing to help facilitate your new life as part of the Jurai military."
"No dress." Ranma pointed her chopsticks at the ball, Pein floating off towards the back of the room, only to pause halfway.
"It is my understanding that your culture on Earth has clothing similar to Jurai formal wear. My databank says that they are called－ kimono, would that be acceptable?"
"No." Ranma replied, and Pein bowed before heading off. Without knowing what some space kimono looked like, she wasn't going to agree to wear one. 'Wait why am I worrying about making a half hearted commitment to some floating ball? Bah!'
"Morning." Adilynn dropped down next to Ranma, and quickly called up food.
"Mornin." Ranma replied, quickly finishing her food, and headed off to get dressed. In the back she found that Pein was able to lift and move about objects somehow, and the device had laid out clothes on her cot. "What else can you do?" She wondered.
"My abilities are limited in terms of physical acts. Though I am able to lift objects weighing less than five kilograms. My primary task is to provide information to you, and assist you in becoming acclimated to life off a developing planet."
"Yea yea I get it, help me get used to living in space." Waving a hand dismissively, Ranma didn't mind the clothes that had been laid out. A pair of gray pants, a red shirt like she was wearing now, but with a darker red border. Laying across the shirt was a thing gray obi. "What's this?" Ranma picked up a different piece of clothing, and held it at arms length.
"Jurai ceremonial dress includes a cloak or cape." Pein answered. "You are free to dress as you please, of course."
"I'm not really big into capes." Ranma dropped the cloak back on the bed.
"While you are free to wear whatever you wish, might I suggest that you wear it this once? As a representative of Jurai, you should look your best."
"And－ these." Ranma pointed to the pair of panties that were also laid out. Motioning with a finger for Pein to come closer she continued in a whisper. "Airi said she was sending down male clothes, I want boxers."
"I am sorry, I had assumed you would wear garments appropriate to your form. I will retrieve them at once." Hovering over to the canisters, Pein activated controls on the top ring, causing ten buttons to appear, each with a number on them.
"Hey wait, how does that work?" She asked, not wanting to have Pein be her personal slave, even though the device seemed built to serve.
"As you wish, these luggage containers work off a subspace storage system. The buttons on top indicate which of the ten subspace compartments you wish to bring forward. "
"Sounds easy enough."
"Adilynn! Why aren't you getting dressed?" Corina suddenly chided Adilynn, who was leisurely eating breakfast. "We have to be there in ten minutes." Now dressed in her pink and white uniform, Corina adjusted a cylindrical hat with the English letter K printed to be over the left eye.
"It starts at nine, it's only eight fifteen." Adilynn continued to eat her food slowly.
"Which will give us thirty five minutes to get in good with the professors."
"Suck up." Adilynn sniped, and proceeded to turn the viewscreen over the table into a television.
"Honestly." Corina shook her head. "Least you're getting ready."
"Not much else to do is there?" Ranma shrugged.
"Fair enough." Corina shrugged and sat down to get something to eat.
"Miss Ranma, might I also suggest that you wear your hair differently." Pein suggested.
"I like my pigtail."
"Jurai custom states that to appear masculine one's hair is pulled back in a single braid, while to appear feminine requires two." Pein continued.
"I'm fine with a pigtail."
"Of course, but might I suggest a simple ponytail."
Ranma leveled a neutral gaze at the ball. "How much trouble would I get in if I threw you through a wall?"
"You would be in trouble with the academy for causing damage to the dorm facilities. There would be minimal damage to myself, but I would have to report your action to Seto-sama."
"How bout this, I do this this once, I'll wear the cape, put my hair in a ponytail, and maybe act all prim and proper, if you never ask me to do it again."
"A bargain? I believe I would have to add the stipulation that you abide by Jurai traditions in circumstances that require it. There are several ceremonies you may partake which require strict adherence to Jurai formal dress standards."
"I get final say for everything else? You won't keep bugging me about it?"
"That is acceptable."
"I know I'm going to regret this."
X x x x x x
"Is it me, or is everyone looking at me?" Ranma asked Adilynn, standing with the black haired girl in the very back row of the assembly. Neither of them had been in a hurry for the assembly, and Ranma hoped it would be over quickly. Taking a guess, she figured there were a thousand or so cadets standing in two groups, divided into male and female, in a vast hallway. Every so often, heads would turn back to give her dirty or inquisitive looks.
"You do kind of stand out."
"You're right about that." She groaned, glancing down at her chest, and sighing.
The cloak she was wearing was a deep green, with a beige stripe running down from the four corners of the square neck the front and back from the corners of the square collar. The sides were split from the padded shoulders down to the bottom, and there was a neck wide space in the front, a gold chain binding the two sides at the top. There were other bands of color that broke up the main colors, but Ranma hadn't spent a great deal of time examining it.
As a plus, if her hair wasn't done up in such a feminine looking ponytail, the cloak would have hid her body, and she could have passed for a guy. That is if she wasn't close to a head shorter than most of the people she was standing next to. Which really made being at the assembly a worthless gesture.
Rolling her eyes upwards, she examined the tall arched windows leading up to the bark of the tree that grew the immense hall. If anything, it reminded her of a church, rather than something one would find at a school. The light level was high, and all the windows were open, allowing fresh air to freely flow through the hall.
Looking over at the male students, Ranma had trouble resisting the urge to laugh. Most of them had been caught by the upgraded security system, and had received several of those horrific tattoos for their trouble. Several soft thumps echoed through the hall, indicating that someone was adjusting a microphone, which instantly drew the attention of the assembled students.
"Welcome everyone to the GP Academy."
Ranma leaned to the side and was able to see down a lane of bodies to see, Mikami, the elderly Kuramitsu she had met on the immigration station. She was standing behind a podium at the far side of the room. "This academy was created as a short-term training course, to instruct GP cadets on how to preserve the peace of the galaxy, and protect the welfare of the people."
Standing near to Mikami was a group of men and women wearing the teachers uniform. Amane was in the group, and Ranma could see Kiriko as well. Standing off by himself, with a microphone on a stand in front of him, was Seiryo, his forehead wrapped in bandages, and a sour look on his face.
"Therefore, our curriculum also consists of on the job training. There is no doubt many of you here will find the training very difficult. Yet I pray with all my heart that all of you GP cadets before me today, will graduate from this academy as model GP officers. Never lose hope and never quit working hard, so that one day you too, will become a fine officer. Good luck!" Mikami finished her speech by saluting the assembled students. Shrugging, Ranma returned the salute with the rest of the cadets, she was too tired to be rebellious.
"Next is the freshmen speech, chosen to be presented to you by the freshmen representative, Yamada Seina." Seiryo announced.
"Why does it have to be Seina." Ranma groaned.
"So that's who they were talking about when I went in to do the security change." Adilynn nodded to herself.
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, several girls around them twisting to listen better.
"Pink boy was trying to get you to be the class representative."
"Me? Why me?"
"I dunno, he was yelling a lot, and I wasn't paying much attention." (2)
"In that case, better Seina than me." Frowning, Ranma leaned over to see Seina fumbling with the microphone. "Maybe not." She thought, feeling a growing sense of doom. Seina drew back and took a deep breath, the speakers suddenly humming to life even from her position in the back of the room.
X x x x x x
"WHAT?" Ranma said far too loudly, an incessant ringing masking what was being said to her. The woman dressed in what looked like a medical uniform patted her on the shoulder, before bringing up a pen shaped object and shining it into her ear. Almost immediately the ringing in one ear abated. The woman quickly shifted and did the same on her other ear.
"Can you hear me?" The nurse asked.
"YEA－ ah, yea I can." Ranma answered, using a pinkie to dig at an ear, breaking up the dried blood that had collected due to a broken ear drum. "Thanks."
"Looks like classes will be delayed, you should return to your room." The nurse instructed, heading off to help another student.
"Gotcha." She said to the woman's back, and redid her ponytail, which had come undone in the explosion.
Getting to her feet, Ranma dusted herself off as best she could. Seina's bad luck had struck once again, turning the speakers into what amounted to a sound bomb. Not only has there been an ear drum shattering roar, but the rapid expanse of air had created a wind tunnel effect. Even though Ranma's ears now functioned properly now, there was still a hollow throbbing in her skull.
Choosing to get some fresh air and explore, Ranma walked past several maintenance groups already cleaning up the debris that had been thrown around. Walking through the campus was like waking through a park. Bird like creatures were everywhere, as well as small furry animals, and even some reptile based ones.
A soft beeping from her wrist, made Ranma pull her arms out from underneath the cloak, and push the button on the bottom of the wrist. In response, a small viewscreen popped up, displaying Mikami's image. "Attention students, due to a computer failure, select classes will be held until it is repaired. The only class for today will be Physical Education, please check your schedule for the time you will attend." Message complete, the viewscreen shut off.
"Looks like things are looking up." Ranma smiled to herself. "Let's see, how did Pein say how to work this thing again." Thinking about the class schedule, she hit the button again, instantly a viewscreen popped up displaying a calender. The days were listed horizontally, with the time vertically, and class blocks listed in their correct spots. "Ha! Super advanced technology zero, Ranma one."
"About four hours to kill, guess I could try calling Earth again, and take a nap." Strolling casually back through the campus, Ranma found her spirits raising slightly. Things were looking up for the currently ponytailed girl. While she had joined accidentally, this might turn out to be a good career. Wasn't like she had ever thought about it much. Teaching wasn't her thing, and helping to make the Galaxy safe sounded far more rewarding, not to mention exciting.
X x x x x x
Unclipping the clasp holding her cloak in place, Ranma dropped it on to her bed. Pein protested that she needed to keep it folded correctly. He buzzed around and quickly did it for her, explaining as he did how to do it. Black hair came down next, to be quickly put back into a pigtail. Both of her roommates were out, Adilynn having been called to help with the computer system, and Corina had never came back to the room.
"It's too bad classes were canceled for the day." Pein followed her as she went to try and phone Earth again.
"I'll survive." She sat down in front of the table and pulled up the main display. Rapidly becoming acclimated to the simple computer systems, she hit the number in for the Tendo home. Two rings later, and Kasumi answered the phone.
"Hey Kasumi." She greeted the eldest sister.
"Ranma, aren't you out in space?" Kasumi gave the phone a confused look.
"Well yea, but they have these telephones that work somehow through space." She explained. "I can even see you."
"See me?"
"Yea, look up and to the left a bit, is there anything there?"
"No, there's nothing there." Kasumi gave her phone a confused glance.
"Oh well, is anyone else around? I need to talk to my old man about something."
"I'm the only one here at the moment, Uncle Saotome ran away when this woman claiming to be your mother showed up earlier."
"So she wasn't just some crazy lady." Ranma mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, listen, I may be back on Earth in a couple weeks so I'll try and stop by then. But I'll call again later."
"I'll let everyone know that you called." Kasumi said before Ranma hit the disconnect button.
"Sheesh, if I didn't know better, I'd think they were avoiding me." Standing up, Ranma stretched out, and yawned. "You mind waking me up about fifteen minutes before gym?" She asked Pein. "I feel like taking a nap."
"Of course Miss Ranma."
X x x x x x
"Alright line up, line up! Five rows of five ladies!"
Ending up in the middle, Ranma was looking forward to getting some exercise. The teacher for this class was a woman with dark blue hair cut short in front but longer in the back. Wearing a gray track suit, she was currently reading the roster from a clear plastic clipboard.
Glancing around, Ranma was a bit disappointed to see that there were nothing but girls in the class, but hoped that one or two of them might actually give her a challenge. She was dressed with green track pants, and a tighter white cotton t-shirt. The rest of the students had pink track pants, and a white t-shirt with a pink border going horizontally across the top.
They had met on the north side of a track three fourths of a kilometer in length.
"Good, everyone is here. I am Sayu Orihara. As you all know thanks to a little issue with the computer system, which also limits what we can do to purely outside activities until it is fixed. Let's begin with a light warm up. Ten laps around the track, fifty pushups and situps, begin!"
Starting off at a light jog, Ranma immediately found herself staring at the backs of the other students as they rocketed off down the track. 'Woah, they're all pretty fast.' Increasing her pace, Ranma was able to catch up and keep pace easily enough. Finishing the ten laps in five minutes, Ranma was lightly winded at the end. Running over seven kilometers at a dead sprint wasn't part of her normal work out. (3)
No one else seemed to have this problem, as they quickly started to do pushups at a similar fast pace. Not wanting to be shown up, she quickly worked twice as fast as everyone else. Done with pushups in about five seconds, she took a moment to take a breath before rolling on to her back for sit ups.
"Saotome." The teacher came to stand over her. "It says in my file that you aren't bodily enhanced."
Pausing, she answered. "So?" Glancing around, she quickly realized that she was behind again.
"Nothing, it's just very impressive that you're able to keep up. If something is too much you don't have to do it."
"Yea right." She scoffed at the idea, finishing slightly behind the other students.
"It's your choice." Sayu shrugged. "Alright, stretch yourselves out and we'll get into a real work out."
X x x x x x
Corina sat watching television, while sipping from a cup of hot tea. The Academy hadn't even started with classes yet, and she was already itching to get to the hands on experience. She just knew that actual classes were going to be far too simplistic to keep her attention. At least her roommates were good. She had known Adylinn for over a year before joining the Academy. Ranma was fun to hang around with, she far closer to her own personality than the lazy Adylinn.
Speaking of Ranma, the door slid open to reveal the Earthling in her gym clothing. The short girl looked positively beat, dragging her feet like she had just completed the Academies physical fitness exam twice over.
"You alright?" Corina asked.
"Ha! I didn't need no body enhancing." Ranma smiled deliriously and then gave a few quick scary laughs.
"Maybe you should lay down for a bit." She suggested, eying the black haired girl warily.
"Maybe I will." Ranma staggered up to and collapsed on her cot.
'Earthlings are a little off.' She thought to herself.
X x x x x x
Author Notes:
1 – Pronounced like "pine" tree.
2 - Ranma being a citizen of Jurai, and not an official part of the GP, cannot be the GP class representative.
3 – About 90 km per hour or 55 miles per hour.