Atmung
A Rozen Maiden fanfic by Aondehafka
Disclaimer: the characters and concepts of Rozen Maiden are owned by Peach Pit, not me. This story is based on the anime, not the manga.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 8: Here Be Dragons
-----------------------
"So that is the infamous Furinkan High School," Shinku observed, staring up at the building.
"Not very elegant, is it," Jun said with a grin. "I bet it won't be suitable for your lifestyle."
"Neither was your room when I first arrived," she replied, catching the reference and smiling back at him. "I'll just have to make whatever changes are needed here."
"Like changing the school mascot from a pineapple to a rose?"
She nodded. "And moving the lunch hour so it coincides with Detective Kun-Kun."
"Just don't make me correct the teachers when they get stuff wrong, okay?" Jun asked, turning serious. "You saw how well that went over, in our last year at Uwaitodani."
"Of course I won't make you do that, Jun," she reassured him.
He blinked. "What? You're agreeing that easily?"
"I will do it myself."
There was a long moment of silence.
"Shinku..." Jun said. "I could have sworn you just implied you didn't want me to hide you anymore. That you want to come to school with me absolutely visible to anybody who's watching."
"Yes, I did," Shinku replied. "Is that a problem? You aren't ashamed of me, are you Jun?"
"No, of course not!" he yelled, dimly aware that he wasn't reaching the standard of poise and calm assurance that a question like that really needed. "But... it's just..."
"Just what?" she said calmly, looking up at him from her position in the crook of his arm. His grip had involuntarily tightened around her when she asked her previous question, which was all the reassurance she really needed. But she certainly wouldn't object to more.
"Just that you could have given me a bit more warning!"
"Now you're being unreasonable," she declared. "After all, there are still two weeks until classes start."
Jun took several deep breaths. "Okay, okay, you're right. And I guess it was better to tell me here, instead of at home where Hina Ichigo or Suisei Seki could overhear."
"Of course. But you know, Jun, that excuse you gave them will not hold Suisei Seki forever," Shinku cautioned him. "She knows you are always working to strengthen your power and skill. I think she may already be starting to doubt that you couldn't really hide two of us at once."
Jun grimaced. "Hopefully she buys it for at least a while longer. I hate telling her she has to stay home, but I'm just not strong enough yet. Not to hide the kind of mischief she'd make."
"Do you think any level of strength will be enough for that?" Shinku asked, remembering the antics Suisei Seki had gotten up to the previous year when she was watching out for Nori. The critical need to keep her friend safe had allowed Suisei Seki to temporarily block out her usual shyness, but that hadn't been an entirely good thing. From what Nori had told them, the Gardener had managed to spawn eight new school legends without getting caught.
The mind boggled at what she could achieve with someone else covering for her.
"Not to hide it completely," Jun admitted. "But at least I might eventually be able to survive."
The two were quiet for several moments, staring thoughtfully up at the building. "Well, Shinku?" Jun said at last. "Have you sensed anything that might work?"
The Fifth Doll shook her head. "We need to get closer," she said, looking frustrated. "I can feel a lot of strange energies. I think there's a good chance we could use something in there as a portal, maybe more than one thing. But we need to go inside and look around to be sure."
"There better be something. There's no way I'm making that commute every morning," Jun muttered. He engaged the particular metaphysical twist that hid both himself and Shinku from observation. "Okay, let's go."
"Why are you hiding us?" she asked as he walked toward the doors.
"So nobody sees us break into the building," he answered. "Don't tell me you didn't notice that crowd out on the athletic field."
"Of course I did," Shinku said loftily. "But their presence means Furinkan must get some use even during the holidays, just like your old school. Since that is true, there would not be anything suspicious about us going inside."
Jun looked from Shinku, to the obviously-chained-shut doors ahead of them, and back to Shinku. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to watch more Detective Kun-Kun," he said. Then he looked back to the doors. "Who puts that kind of a heavy-duty chain on the door to a school anyway? It's as thick around as my wrist."
"Jun..." Suddenly there was nothing at all lofty about Shinku's tone. "It won't open."
"Huh?" he said blankly.
She lifted one hand to her lips and blew, scattering ethereal rose petals into the air. They streamed forward to swirl around the chain... and burned ineffectively to nothingness. "I have never seen anything like this," she said.
Jun boggled at the door for several long moments. He launched a few minor probes of his own, tendrils of power that dissipated as soon as they touched the chain or padlock. On the other hand, the very first window he checked unlatched and slid open without a hitch. "What kind of crazy place is this?" he asked.
"LOOK OUT BELOW!!"
The warning wasn't nearly enough. Fortunately, the interlocked bodies that smashed to earth missed them by a good ten feet.
Jun and Shinku stared, eyes wide and jaws dangling, as the two newcomers jumped out of their impact-crater and twisted into furious motion, grappling with each other with teeth clenched, muscles straining, and arcs of blue lightning racing up and down their bodies. There was a series of furious twists, grabs, and contortions before the black-haired Japanese managed to simultaneously push the blond Westerner off balance and spin around to his side. Abandoning wrestling moves and light shows alike, the boy screamed something about roasting chestnuts and lashed out too quickly for either Jun or Shinku to follow, his hands becoming merely a blur.
They could see the results clearly enough, though. The foreigner sailed through the air once more, unconscious even before he impacted with the boundary wall. "Take that, you dumb jerk!" the Japanese boy called after him. "You better not back out of our agreement, either!"
"Agreement?" Shinku said faintly, forgetting for the moment that Jun had already tripled the strength of the cloaking effect.
"Yeah. After he lost, he had to start using his real name." The mysterious boy snorted. "Calling himself the Ragin' Gaijin Raijin... At least he had a move worth learning."
"D-Does this sort of thing happen often here?" she continued, still on autopilot.
"Pretty much, yeah." Something seemed to occur to the boy. "Wait, you're new here?" he asked, directing the question to Jun. "I thought you came to watch the fight and were trying to get into the school after you saw what Nabiki was charging for the Port-a-Potties."
"How can you not know you haven't seen us before?" Jun wanted to know.
"Eh, all students of Martial Arts Puppetry start to look alike after you've been in enough challenge matches." The boy blinked, suddenly staring harder at Shinku. "Wait a second..."
Before anyone could say anything else, two more people joined the scene. The girls arrived by dashing around the school from the direction of the athletics field rather than plummeting from the heavens, but the way they immediately grasped hold of the unnamed boy and began congratulating him on his win was strange enough to make up for that bit of normalcy. It would have been a little familiar, Jun thought dazedly, if the Japanese brunette and the purple-haired gaijin had been fighting with each other in the process. In that case it would at least have looked like something out of an anime. But no, there was no hint of jealousy that he could see.
"You guys are new here, right?" the boy asked a bit later, after the most excessive of the congratulations had died down. "This is prob'ly the best introduction you could've got to the place, something that shows you how weird it can get and gives you a show to watch without putting you in danger. My name's Ranma Saotome, pleased to meet you."
"And I'm Ukyo Saotome," said the brunette.
"Shampoo Saotome," chimed in the Chinese girl. "Nihao!"
"Shinku, Fifth Doll of Rozen Maiden," the doll in question managed. After a long moment of silence, she cleared her throat. When that received no response, she twitched her head irritably, sending one long tassel of hair flying up to bonk Jun on the ear.
"Ow! Um, I'm Jun Sakurada," he said. "And shouldn't you NOT be able to see us?"
"Huh?" Ranma stared blankly at him for a few moments, after which his gaze shifted from perplexed, to focused, to knowing. "Oh. Sakurada, that stealth technique won't cut it around here. The only people who won't see through it are the ones who're too weak to be a threat anyway."
"I see. Thanks," Jun managed. He then continued in a mumble, "On the bright side, now I've got a cast-iron excuse for Suisei Seki."
"No prob." Ranma looked thoughtful. "Sakurada... that name sounds familiar."
The girls standing on either side of him gave simultaneous annoyed twitches. Shampoo tossed her head and sent a wave of hair up to break against Ranma's face, provoking a sneeze after a fortunate few seconds' delay. "Hmm—not as easy as you made it look," she said, giving Shinku a glance of respect.
"What was that for?" Ranma protested.
Ukyo rolled her eyes. "The school administration only gave you five incoming freshmen, Ranchan. Just five new 'special' students that you, Senior Classman Ranma Saotome, would be responsible for meeting and introducing to Furinkan." She punched him lightly on the arm. "Considering how often new people around here wind up challenging you, I'd've thought you could at least remember when you got a handful of forewarning."
"Oh, yeah. Heh heh." Ranma gave her a sheepish grin. "Would it help if I said that's what I count on you an' Sham-chan for?"
"Try again, Airen," Shampoo said, her voice a cross between a growl and a purr.
It was Ranma's turn to roll his eyes. "I meant one thing I count on you for." He hooked an arm around her and gave her a squeeze. "Definitely not everything."
"That's better," she said happily, snuggling against him.
"Um..." This was Jun. "So... you said... as an upperclassman, you were assigned to show me around?"
"Yeah. And we should probably get moving before the crowd back there decide they've given Ucchan and Sham-chan enough private time with me." Ranma pulled reluctantly away from the girls, glanced at the chained and warded door, shook his head with a sigh, and slipped easily through the open window. "Coming early to see the place was a smart idea," he continued once everyone had followed him inside. "You're starting off a lot better here than I did, I can tell you that. Just don't think it'll be like this every day."
"It won't?" Shinku said. She tried to sound calm and collected, but relief and hopefulness stared obviously through the façade.
"Right. At least half the time you'll get caught up in whatever's going on and have to fight too."
"Jun?" Shinku asked, after a long, sticky silence. "I know it's too late to change my mind about you hiding me while we are here. But is it too late to find whoever authored the Excess in Education Act and make him pay?"
"Still a little too early, I think," Jun said. "No way in hell is it too late." He dredged up a chuckle. "By the way... good luck changing this place to suit your lifestyle."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Notes
It's true that in Ranma's senior year Nabiki would no longer be a student at Furinkan, but he is too much fun and profit for her to abandon him just yet. The reference to the Furinkan mascot is a tribute to D. B. Sommer's Ranma-Marvel fusion fanfic Avenging. The characters and concepts of Ranma ½ are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, and Shogakukan. I suppose I should also mention that the crossover here is with the anime version rather than the manga.
It isn't actually Jun's fault that his hiding technique won't work at Furinkan, as it is based on the human impulse to not see things that don't fit your worldview. Ranma might be wrong when he implies that there's anyone at Furinkan it would fool.