Innocence of Mine Chapter 2 An Unwilling Passenger, a ranma fanfic

Innocence of Mine

By Douglas Helm and "Tuxedo" Will Wolfshohl

Those characters that are original and the story "Innocence of Mine" are copyrighted ©2006 ShoujoFiction .com by Douglas Helm and Will Wolfshohl. Ranma ½ characters are copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi.

This story and our many other stories reside at our Shoujo Fiction .com domain. Comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Chapter 2 - An Unwilling Passenger

The discussion of the animated antics of Miko-chan and Niko-chan continued while they went to their shoe lockers and changed into their blue-striped shoes. It finally stopped once the pair of children reached Classroom 2-2. After several "ohayo" exchanges, they reached their desks, located in the fourth row adjacent to each other, and sat down. The bell sounded only moments later and the class settled in to begin its day.

A thirty-something teacher strolled into the classroom and sat at her desk. The class president, a little brunette eight year old girl in the first row with shoulder-length brown hair, stood up and instructed. "Minna-san, stand up." They did. "Bow." They did.

Then everyone said, "Ohayo Sensei."

"Ohayo, class."

"Sit," the class president finished and everyone sat down.

The surprises began during roll call. The teen Nabiki was just settling in for a good long sulk when she heard the teacher say, "Saotome, Nabiki?"

And then she heard herself say in a near whisper, "Hai."

As teachers went, Masada-sensei could certainly earn the title of "scary" as her younger self had described earlier that morning. It wasn't in the look. It was in her posture and body language. Even the rowdiest of students paid attention to where their teacher was.

As the teacher was handing back the previous day's homework, Nabiki took the opportunity to glance at the blackboard. 'January, ne? Hai! Three more months and I'll be in Grade 3! Uh... if I pass...' Nabiki sighed. Having someone talking in her head was starting to give the little girl a headache, not to mention confusing her.

"Now, class," Masada-sensei remarked as she went to the front of the room, "We can finish off Homeroom like normal or we can start our test now..." There were groans. "And you can have some extra time for recess afterwards."

Little Nabiki cringed at the mere thought of a math test. 'Math is easy,' the teen scoffed to her younger part who was silently muttering, 'Later... much later... never maybe.'

"Who wants to start now and get extra time?" The younger Saotome glanced about the room. Her heart sank as she saw many of her classmate's hands go up. "That looks like a majority. Okay, minna, then books away."

'IIE!' Nabiki screamed silently while slouching down in her seat. 'Why do you hate math? It can be fun!' The teen felt a wave of disbelief radiate from her younger self. 'Look, Na-chan, I'll help you out and...' The small voice in her head spoke up then, and hissed, 'I don't want your help!'

"Are you okay, Na-chan?" Minako whispered as she watched her friend blush brightly for no apparent reason.

"H-Hai," Nabiki squeaked out, feeling as if she might throw up. She started fervently wishing she would as the test paper was placed on her desk facedown. 'I'm gonna flunk this. I just know it. I should've studied. Mommy and Daddy will be really mad.'

# # # # #

Nabiki Saotome knew this math test would be one of the worst had yet experienced in her young life and would likely garner her a note to be taken to her parents the next day. She had been dreading it all week. On the other hand, it was certainly not the worst math test that the teen Nabiki Tendo had ever taken. True, she couldn't do advanced calculus in her head... yet but she knew how to do simple math even with one hand tied behind her back - but not both. By five minutes into the test, the teen portion of Nabiki had already screamed herself hoarse. 'Why won't the kid listen?' She spent the rest of the time silently fuming and wishing she could get her hands around Kaji's scrawny neck. She knew the old man was watching her somehow from afar laughing his fool head off at her predicament.

Another five minutes passed. By now, the eight year old had resigned herself to her fate and spent the remainder of the test time doodling cute little bunnies all over the paper. The rest of math period didn't fare much better for either Nabiki.

After math, the class had a short recess then trooped down to the school's music room for music class. Na-chan, as her friends called her, enjoyed music class apparently because she paid attention and seemed to be better suited to playing the simple melody on the recorder than she did doing simple sums. The older Nabiki wondered if there was a pressure point technique for becoming deaf.

A combined (and to the teen Nabiki's mind, mind-numbingly easy) geography and history class followed Music and the morning was rounded off with learning some simple Hiragana.

# # # # #

Lunch turned out to be even more of a disaster than math class had. It began simply enough, Minako had coaxed a reluctant Nabiki to go and eat outside. This was something that even the older Nabiki could empathize. She didn't want to eat outside in the cold except that her younger version wasn't willing to risk hurting her friend's feelings.

The duo was joined by some other classmates and soon they were all huddled on a bunch, talking and giggling. 'Well,' the teenage Nabiki mused, 'Some topics of conversation don't change.' She felt slightly amused when her younger version blushed and giggled as they talked about a cute boy. Otherwise, she never spoke. 'Of course, you think holding hands with a boy is bad.' Other topics of discussion were also familiar: the rumors flying about the school, homework, and to no surprise, how good Kasumi's cooking was.

The latter was something little Nabiki took great pride in. She even let the funny old voice in her head handle the trades she made with her other friends. While she loved her mommy's cooking, she was willing to trade during lunch because she got to eat Kasumi's cooking at home every night. It seemed only fair that she share such good food with her friends.

As the youngster munched on an onigiri (Japanese rice ball), and glowing pink both from pride in her mother's cooking and the cold, the topic of conversation turned to a subject that made the youngest Saotome anxious. "You guys should've seen my mommy!" Ruri began. The cute raven-haired second-grader had a bowl-shaped haircut and gray eyes behind a pair of blue-rimmed glasses. "I mean... I thought she was gonna explode!"

'Well... Ruri-chan should've done her homework like Sensei said,' the little girl thought sagely. The older Nabiki snorted at that. 'Well, she should've... even if math is yucky.'

'Do you realize that talking to yourself is a sign of insanity, ne? Nani? What's in-insanity?' The teenage part frowned slightly. 'Anyway, Na-chan, don't you think our mommy is going to be pissed when she hears about today's math test?' Nabiki suddenly found herself not very hungry.

"Honto? So what did she do, Ruri-chan?" Minako asked, her eyes wide.

"Probably wished she never had a little puke like you." All the second-graders turned in the direction of the new voice. There standing with her hands in her pockets and smirking, her nose wrinkled as if she had just came across something rotten, was a fairly large (judging by the color of the stripes on her shoes) third-grader.

"Bug off," Ruri hissed. Nabiki squeaked in surprise and shrank backwards.

The nine year old bully glanced to Ruri and then Nabiki. "Why are you hanging out with a baby kindergartener?"

"Nabiki-chan's in our class!" Minako protested. 'Even if she is sort of a baby.' Even now, her little classmate seemed near tears.

The bully blinked. "Honto? You sure?" She glowered down at the petite eight year old who pressed her body as far back on the bench as possible. "She's kinda puny." Nabiki was physically the smallest in her class and, to her dismay, on more than one occasion had been mistaken for a kindergartner even by the other teachers. The pigtailed youth glanced down silently at the bento box in her lap praying that the bully would just go away. Ruri and Minako just watched.

"Naomi!" The older girl cringed. The three second-graders peeked past Naomi to see whom the voice belonged. They observed a large sixth-grader approaching.

"Rei-san..." Naomi whined as she turned to face the approaching girl, who judging by appearance was related to her.

"Stop playing with your little friends and come and eat."

Naomi glared. "Onee-san, I..."

"Come on, Naomi. You what Mom said. I'm starving!" With that, the preteen grabbed her little sister's hand and pulled her across the playground. Minako and Ruri giggled. Nabiki, however, simply sighed in relief.

"Na-chan, why don't ya tell her to get lost?" Minako asked her friend.

"Na-chan do that?" Ruri scoffed. "Naomi's picked on her before and she just sits there and takes it."

"Maybe Naomi-chan wants to be friends," little Nabiki offered. When Minako rolled her eyes, she added, "Well, she might."

"Maybe her onee wants her to be friends with Nabiki," Ruri commented. Then she repeated something her own older teenage sister said when the topic came up. "That's what I would do if I had the hots for Ranma-san." She didn't add the "And he was nearer my age." Her sister was weird sometimes.

'Gak!' the teen part of Nabiki noised while the somewhat bewildered younger part asked, "Had 'the hots'?"

"Rei-sempai, who just saved you, likes your daddy."

"Everybody likes Daddy," the second-grader commented. 'Mommy says so.'

Ruri sighed. "Baka! I mean she REALLY LIKES him." Even if he is ancient.

'I don't believe it!' the teen howled to her younger self.

"But..." 'That's what I said.'

"Come on, Minako-chan. We've saved poor Nabiki AGAIN so it should be safe now." The little blonde didn't look happy for a moment but then shrugging followed Ruri away.

# # # # #

'I wish Yuriko and the others were here,' the seventeen year old thought to herself. Her younger half only gave her a puzzled sensation, although it was tinged with curiosity.

Nabiki didn't expand her thought further; she was too upset with her host's cowardly behavior. When she was this age, she behaved more like little Ruri, she told herself. This gained her the respect of her peers over time. She decided to remain silent hoping that the rest of the day would slide by so that this nightmare would be over.

After science, the girls in the class trooped down to the Home Economics classroom where they donned white aprons and hair coverings. The youngster's mood brightened slightly as she and her friends worked at making tart shells before filling them with a selection of fillings.

As they waited for the treats to bake, the girls discussed what they would do next. "Ne, Na-chan, you okay?" Minako asked her friend as she knelt on a stool, elbow on the counter, and chin in hand. "You're awful quiet."

"Hai! Mina-chan!" Nabiki replied licking her lips ignoring the earlier incident, "I can't wait for those yummy tarts." The teenager didn't interject. Instead, she continued silently fuming. "We gots PE next, ne?"

"Yep!" the ribbon-wearing blonde chirped, "I hope we get to play volleyball."

"Nani? What's that?" Nabiki asked. Both the little blonde and the teenaged Nabiki rolled their eyes. "Well, I just hope we don't gotta do the jump box."

"Of course, we'll HAVETA do it, silly Na-chan," Minako remarked with a sigh. Moving her legs out from under her so that she sat onto the stool heavily, "Not everybody's made it over two boxes yet." She gave her friend a pointed look.

'We're still doing that?' Nabiki questioned. 'Kami-sama, I hate that!' The teen could jump over six boxes gracefully but, as a rule, she abhorred gym class because she had to get all sweaty... although watching Ranma get all sweaty was intriguing. 'Daddy's all stinky like that.' Nabiki let out a giggle.

Before Minako could ask what was so funny, the teacher called them to come and try their tarts.

# # # # #

Gym class was about as bad as math class. For a Saotome offspring, the eight year old was hardly the most athletic child. This was surprising to her older self because even Kasumi had demonstrated both athletic and exceptional hand-eye coordination in school, much less Ranma's prowess. Talking about her older sister's abilities triggered the memory of fifteen year old Kasumi juggling and singing at the same time at her first Furinkan High School cultural festival.

The teen began to wonder if genetics meant anything in this crazy reality. She expected that any progeny of Ranma Saotome would have come out knowing how to battle from the start. On the other hand, Nabiki Saotome seemed to have neither athletic interest nor the motor skills to pull it off. When it came to the box horse, the shy child seemed less coordinated than the class klutz was.

Gym class resulted in a skinned knee and the teacher muttering about hopeless causes. As the pigtailed girl dejectedly followed her classmates to the changing rooms, her internal passenger decided to offer some advice. 'Ask our dad... Well, I guess Daddy would help... Of course, he would, Na-chan.' This last thought improved little Nabiki's glum mood.

'Sugoi! Baton Club's next!' This thought lifted her spirits further. Baton Club was, to the teen part of Nabiki's mind, a little astounding. Nabiki Saotome could twirl a baton rather exceptionally. In fact, by the end of the club meeting, the girl was showing off, leaving the instructor, the other club members, and the teenaged Nabiki slack-jawed.

As little Nabiki walked, she gave a sigh of relief that the school day was over. She was also thankful that the nasty older girl in her head had been relatively quiet since gym.

"Nabiki-chan!" A familiar voice caused the youngster's head to come up. Slowly a grinned formed at the sight before her.

"Yuriko-oneechan!" Nabiki cried and happily rushed towards her friend. Nabiki Tendo blinked and could only think, 'Kami-sama, Yuriko's gotten a lot taller.'

Yuriko hugged the eight year old before standing up and giving the little girl a calculating look. "What do you have in the bag?"

"Tarts!" Nabiki answered promptly.

"Oh, can I have one, Na-chan?" By way of answer, Nabiki held the bag out. Yuriko took one and gave the youngster a smile. "Sugoi! But with your mom's cooking skills in you, I'm not surprised."

'So far...' the teen version drawled sarcastically. "Hai," the younger version remarked and then started out of the grounds. 'You should tell Yuriko about the bully,' the teen suggested quietly. 'Yuriko-oneechan wouldn't care. Would too! Would not! Would too! Would not!' The youngster sighed.

"What's the matter, Na-chan?"

"She's arguing with me," Nabiki whined.

"Nani? Who?"

"Her!" Nabiki made a vague gesture, which made Yuriko smirk.

"Well, you tell your new friend to be nice to you."

'Now she thinks you have an imaginary friend!' Nabiki Tendo groused. Much to the teen's annoyance, the little girl stoutly ignored her and started talking to Yuriko about everything except how school had gone that day. Meanwhile, the teen part of Nabiki fumed. 'I can't believe it. She's... I'm going to be held back if my grades don't improve...' When she informed her younger counterpart of the contents of the note she was carrying, the eight year old shrugged it off by saying it was a chance to make new friends, and she would see Minako and Ruri sometimes at recess. The teenager scoffed at her naïve rationalization but it was like trying to talk Akane into loving a brick rather than breaking them.

"Are you coming to my house?" Nabiki asked the older girl. Yuriko smiled down at the youngster and nodded. "Why?"

"Why?" Yuriko questioned back and grinned as Nabiki scrunched her nose up in puzzlement. After a moment, the teen answered, "I'm tutoring your oba and then, we're going out with some friends."

"Oh..." was all the little girl remarked while silently thinking, 'Daddy's going to be really mad!' The older portion of Nabiki blinked and wondered, 'Because? Well, Akane-obachan is supposed to teach a class tonight.' There was a rather long pause and then the younger voice mused, 'He's going to explode!' The teen portion decided a change of subject was in order. 'What does Yuriko tutor Akane in?' The eight year old shrugged. 'Big girl stuff.'

"Hey, kiddo, where'd you go?" Yuriko questioned.

"Nani?"

"I've been talking all this time and you zoned out on me." Nabiki giggled and blushed at the same time. "So, how did you do on your math test today?" the seventeen year old asked. And then snickered when her charge grimaced.

# # # # #

Much to Nabiki Tendo's annoyance, Kasumi had the little girl change from her school uniform into a very pink blouse and skirt. With the cute pigtails she sported, it only made her look even younger. Of course, her younger self thought it was very pretty and loved the outfit; the teen vowed that if she ever had kids, she would never make them wear pink.

The real excitement that evening happened during dinner when Akane, who was sitting beside Yuriko, announced her plans to go out on a date. "But you have a class tonight, Imouto," Kasumi remarked, a tiny frown creasing her brow.

"Ranma can teach it, Onee-chan. It's not like I go out every night of the week."

"You said you'd help teach," her nearly thirty year old sister remarked a little more sharply. Both Soun and Genma remained quiet, although they did nod agreement at their daughter's comment.

"Kami-sama, Kasumi, it's only for tonight. Weren't you ever young?" the teen teased.

"Like it was last week? THREE times?" Ranma pointed out then turned to his wife. "Well, I guess our plans are off, Kasumi-chan."

"Absolutely not!" The stern tone surprised both Nabikis, although the younger one was watching with nervous worry; the older one was simply staring at a side of her older sister she rarely saw. "Akane gave her parole to teach the beginners' class tonight. She should be held to it."

"Maybe... we should discuss this later, Kasumi-chan," Soun remarked while inclining his head towards his young granddaughter.

"Iie, Otou-san," Kasumi said firmly, "My Nabiki-chan KEEPS her promises." And then turning to her daughter, she added, "Ne Musume?"

"Hai!" Nabiki squeaked after a moment, completely startled by what was happening. 'Don't you dare cry, Na-chan!' the teen portion of her mind shouted, 'You're a big girl and if you cry now, then it'll just mean we won't get to hear anything else!' Little Nabiki lowered her eyes to her plate and kept eating, all the time listening intently to the grownups' conversation around her.

"I don't see what the big deal is, minna. It's just a date," Akane explained, "It's not like the world's gonna explode. Besides, Yuri-sempai is going with me."

"You have an obligation to this family, not to mention 'The Art', Akane!" Kasumi lectured. "Our fathers don't run off to imbibe when they have classes scheduled to teach. Even Happosai-ojiisan takes on master's students when he stays here for any length of time."

Akane frowned and said with such brutal honesty that it was just this side of rudeness, "Well, Onee, I didn't have my future happiness arranged for me by our father. Some of us have to work at it." By this point, the eight year old had given up all pretense of eating and sat staring wide-eyed at her aunt and mother.

Into the tense silence, Ranma's voice cut through calmly, "Na-chan, go take your bath."

Nabiki regarded her father. She knew instantly that arguing the point would not be the best choice. "Hai, Daddy," the eight year old replied then got up and padded from the room. 'What were they talking about? I didn't understand those big words,' she asked the older voice. She knew this was likely the only person willing to explain.

There was a long silence and then the older voice remarked, 'Well... Soun-ojiisan and Genma-ojiisan promised that our mommy and daddy would marry each other a long time ago.' There was a silence between the two and then a simply question followed, 'Why?' The older Nabiki sighed noisily and replied in a puzzled tone, 'Not a clue.'

A short time later in the bathroom, the little girl had finished scrubbing when she heard a very familiar voice ring out, "Yo Ranma! Why such the long face?" 'Happosai!' both younger and older versions of Nabiki thought at once. Immediately both rushed towards the door, intent on seeing the ancient master of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. Their plans were interrupted by Kasumi's appearance. While their mother didn't seem upset, she looked distinctly distracted and annoyed.

"Come on, Nabiki-chan," Kasumi told her daughter, "Rise off and climb in the furo."

"I wanna see, Happosai-ojiisama!"

"Not tonight. He has things to discuss with your father."

'Come on, Na-chan,' the older part of Nabiki warned, 'Better not push our mommy too hard.' With some reluctance, the youngster turned to finish off her bathing.

# # # # #

The tenor of the next day was set when little Nabiki Saotome woke up to find herself in a puddle of her own making. The "crime", as the teenaged portion of Nabiki kept referring to it as, which made her younger part feel even worse, was discovered by Ranma when he came to wake up his daughter for breakfast. The eight year old's response to this was to burst into tears, which immediately made the teenager inside feel bad.

'Damn you, Kaji!' She'd stopped wetting the bed back when she was four.

"It's okay, pumpkin," Ranma said soothingly as he lifted he daughter into a hug. Holding her close, he rubbed her back and continued softly, "You know, it's not your fault, Nabiki-chan. I just forgot to wake you up last night. Don't be mad at me, okay?" Snuffling a little, the eight year old snuggled close and hugged her father back. Ranma continued to stroke her hair and make soothing noises.

'This is nice,' the older Nabiki remarked. She had known Ranma could be compassionate, if he really wanted to be, but actually seeing it in practice was something that moved Nabiki's heart. 'Okay Kaji, I get it... Now can I get out of here?' the teen thought but there was no response.

The youngster had just started to feel better about "the accident" she had caused when Akane poked her head in looking thunderous. "Kami-sama! What's all the commotion about, Ranma?" She was still wearing her pajamas.

"Nabiki-chan had an accident," he answered. "Would you get us some clean sheets, please Akane-chan?"

"Again?" Akane squawked with something approaching disgust, "She's eight, not three!"

"AKANE... the sheets?"

"Get 'em yourself!" the teen huffed savagely and stomped down the hall to change.

Breakfast that morning was tension-filled silence. Neither Kasumi nor Akane were talking to each other and it was obvious that they didn't want to hear from anybody else. Little Nabiki sat at the low table silently eating angry as well. She was fuming over the fact that she was missing her favorite anime show because her aunt was grounded, which meant no TV. Minako was sure to razz her about missing it.

Soun, apparently not wanting to see his daughters fight, commented, "Akane-chan, I'd like you to..." He trailed off at the glare his youngest daughter was giving him. "Be reasonable."

"Dad! She grounded me!" The teen slammed her fist onto the table. "And embarrassed me in front of Yuriko! She's not my mother."

"Well Musume..." Soun began, hoping to circumvent the impending explosion from Kasumi, "You did give her word to help out yesterday."

"You're always take HER side... Well, I'm leaving for school!" Akane huffed and getting up marched from the room.

"Teenagers." Ranma sighed. "Maybe she'll decide to shack up with Kuno."

Nabiki lifted her head and stared at her father. "Daddy, what's 'shack up' mean?"

"Young lady," her mother said sternly, "Go brush your teeth." Reluctantly, the child did so.

# # # # #

The school day started off on a bad note when Nabiki and her two friends, Minako and Ruri, stopped by the huge bulletin board where the classes' test scores and rankings would be posted for the math test taken the previous day. They moved to the column of the board labeled "2-2". Nabiki, who was fairly small, needed Minako and Ruri to communicate what they could see over the crowd of children in front of them.

"Sugoi! My butt's saved!" Minako whooped with delight after they had been standing there for about two minutes. "I went up three spots!" The blonde did a little dance and then hugged Nabiki. "Mommy won't be mad!"

"Well..." Ruri drawled a moment later, "At least, I didn't drop."

"Nabiki-chan," Ruri began a moment later, "Hate to say this but you're third from the bottom." The eight year old went positively pink and looked down at her shoes. "Saotome-san shouldn't be too mad though."

"Yeah but Sensei will be." And that, as the girls were to find out, was an understatement.

School seemed to go downhill from there. During the combined history/geography period, Nabiki was sent into the hall to hold two pails of sand because of Minako whispering something, which caused her to giggle.

Lunch gave Nabiki a bit of a break, though she did see Naomi struggling to get free from a headlock the older girl called Rei had on her. "She shouldn't be so mean to Naomi-sempai," Nabiki remarked. Minako and Ruri gave each other a look that communicated exasperation while Nabiki slid lower in her seat. The youngster thought she would never live down gym class as long as she lived.

At last, the day ended and Nabiki Saotome trudged from the elementary school feeling unhappy. That was until she saw her father waiting outside for her.

End of Chapter 2

Coming next in Chapter 3 - Peeling the Onion