Gecko-chan here. I'd like to thank all of my reviewers, with special thanks to InsaneClarinetPlayingFFX-2Fan for being my first reviewer, and to Billie Jukes for the hot water. Splash Alright, now that I'm humanoid again, let's get started. Again, I own nothing of the multitude of animes, shows, books, etc. that may be referenced in this story. Here's chapter two; I hope you enjoy!
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Redheads and Succubi
Chapter Two: What do you mean "School?"
As the sun came up, the sound of fighting could be heard outside, starting with two loud splashes as Ranma and Ukyo hit the koi pond. At least this would have been the case had Ranma and Ukyo not tied Genma up the night before. Sure, the chains and duct tape might have been slightly excessive, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Thus it was possible for the two youths to get a full nights sleep, if only for one day. The pair slept on, until breakfast was almost ready, and a messenger had to be sent to wake them to get ready.
As Akane, the chosen messenger, sacrificial lamb, what have you, opened the door to the guestroom, she was greeted by a sight that demanded instant vengeance. Ranma and Ukyo, both in cursed forms, were sleeping together, with Ukyo's wings wrapped around the two of them. Akane's face turned bright red, and her battle aura entered the visible light spectrum. With the battle cry of "Ranma no hentai!" Akane launched Ranma out the window, directly into the koi pond.
"What'd ya do that for" the irate Ranma-chan demanded, dragging herself out of the pond.
Akane looked both incredulous and furious. "You pervert! How dare you sleep with another girl?"
Ukyo smirked a bit and pointedly asked, "Would you rather he had slept with you instead?" Akane started sputtering and turning beet red, while Ranma just blushed a little. It wasn't so much the idea of sleeping with a girl that embarrassed him as it was the idea of sleeping with a complete stranger.
Ranma recovered quickly and called back up to Ukyo, "You might as well untie Pops! We should spar a little before breakfast!" Unfortunately for any plans of a nice spar, Akane was recovering as well.
"There isn't any time to spar! There's only about fifteen minutes left before breakfast starts. You two need to hurry and get cleaned up. I'll take care of Uncle Genma," Akane stated, while bending down to take care of the sometimes panda. 'While I don't like the idea, I guess I'll have to let Ranma bathe with Ukyo for the day. It's the only way they'll be done on time,' Akane reluctantly thought, knowing that Kasumi wouldn't appreciate having breakfast get cold waiting for the two cursed individuals to finish separate baths.
"Alright," Ukyo replied, on her way out the door. "Come on, Ranchan! I want to get done before Pops eats all of it on us!" Ranma agreed that the food needed to be saved from the panda, so she quickly hurried back inside and entered the furo.
As Ranma and Ukyo, both in their natural forms, came down the stairs from their baths, Kasumi greeted them brightly, "Good morning. Breakfast is just finishing up. Please take a seat in the dining room and wait for me to bring it out." Barely a moment after the pair had seated themselves, Kasumi brought the food out, and the war began.
Chopsticks lashed back and forth as Genma, Ranma, and Ukyo fought for the food on their plates. Each attempted to steal the food off the others' plates, while protecting their own food from equally intense attacks. After blinking a few times at the trio's antics, Nabiki asked, "What, exactly, are you doing?"
Genma, without letting up on either his assaults on Ranma's and Ukyo's plates or neglecting his own defenses, answered, "The driving principle of the Saotome school of Anything Goes is to treat everything as a form of training. By fighting for our food in this manor, we increase both our speed and our awareness." Genma looked at his plate, and then at each of his charges' plates in turn, and stopped waving his weapons of choice around. It seems that all three of the plates had been thoroughly cleaned. With a shrug, Genma moved on to the next order of business for the morning. "Since we will be staying here for quite some time, I have registered the two of you at the local school."
Both youths were surprised. "School?" they asked simultaneously. Genma merely nodded a serious expression on his face.
Nabiki added, "It's the same school that Akane and I go to. Well, see you there!" Nabiki got up from the table and started for the door.
"Nabiki, wait! I'll go with you," Akane started, standing up from the table as well.
"What are you talking about?" Nabiki countered. "Ranma is your fiancé. You should walk him to school. Besides, neither Ranma nor Ukyo knows where it is." Suitably defeated, Akane resigned herself to her fate.
As the three were walking to school, they walked beside a fence next to a canal. Spotting the training opportunity, Ranma and Ukyo jumped onto the fence and continued walking next to Akane, who stayed on the sidewalk.
"What is this?" Akane demanded. "Are the two of you too good to use the sidewalk like a normal person?"
Ranma answered without breaking stride, "It is balance training. If you'd like, I can teach you how to do it. If nothing else, it might help with your Martial Arts." Akane, hearing a nonexistent slight on her fighting abilities, kicked the fence, sending both Ranma and Ukyo into the canal.
"Damn it!" Ukyo swore. "We can't go to school like this. We need to go back to the house and get some hot water!"
"We don't have enough time to go back," Akane said, thinking of any potential alternatives. "I have a friend on the way who wouldn't mind giving us some hot water."
Ranma responded eagerly, "Let's get going! I want to get that hot water as soon as possible!" Thus, Akane led her little band to Doctor Tofu's office.
After the three entered the atrium, Akane went on into the kitchen to heat some water. The pair stood waiting when Ukyo suddenly stiffened. "Ranma," she began, "there is someone standing behind you."
A chuckle came from behind Ranma, and the pair turned to face the source of the noise, only to see a skeleton. As Ranma hung onto the ceiling like a scared cat, a man wearing large glasses stepped out from behind the skeleton. "I'm surprised you knew I was there. I can normally sneak up on all but the best martial artists."
Ukyo smirked a little and gave the truthful answer. "I used echolocation. It's second nature when I'm in this form."
Tofu could only blink, before he asked, "Have you been to Josenkyo?" Ukyo and Ranma just stared in shock, never expecting anyone to be so calm after seeing Ukyo's cursed form.
"How do you know about Josenkyo?" Ranma demanded, after dropping back down to the floor.
"I've read about it in several of my medical texts, though I have never seen a curse first hand," Tofu answered, with a smile. At that moment, Akane came out with a kettle and poured its contents over Ukyo and Ranma. "So you are both cursed," the doctor remarked, watching the change with great interest.
"Come on," Akane insistently said. "We need to hurry if we're going to make it to school on time!" She literally dragged the now boy and girl out of the office, running fast enough that neither Ranma nor Ukyo were touching the ground. As they were approaching the school, Akane slowed to a stop and quickly explained, "Before we get to school, I need to tell you something. Everyday I am attacked by almost every boy in the school because Upperclassman Kuno proclaimed, 'If you wish to court the fair maiden Akane, you must defeat her in battle. I will accept no other terms,' or something like that. This is my fight, so you two just stay out of it!" As the trio finally approached the school, Akane started to pick up speed and screamed, "I hate boys!"
Ukyo and Ranma looked on in disbelief at the army of boys rushing towards Akane, decked out in athletic equipment and shouting out they're intentions. "Will you go out with me Akane?" one voice asked, while another shouted, "Akane, I love you!" None of the other proclamations of adoration were distinguishable in the growing din.
Ranma turned towards Ukyo and asked, "Hey, Uuchan, do you think we should help her?"
Ukyo quickly shook her head and responded, "No, I think she needs to do this for herself." As Ukyo finished speaking, the last of the boys attacking Akane hit the ground. "See?" Ukyo asked. "Akane didn't need our help after all."
Suddenly, something flew towards Akane, and she deftly plucked it out of the air, revealing it to be a pink rose. "Truly, such a boorish lot. Evidently each of them intends to ask you out, Akane, on the dawn that he finally defeats you. And now, Akane Tendo, might you fight with me?" Kuno didn't allow Akane a chance to answer, as he had already leveled his bokken towards her.
"Wow, Akane," Ranma began, jumping easily to her side. "You sure are popular, aren't you?" Ukyo landed on Akane's other side, with a sweatdrop firmly in place.
"You there!" Kuno insisted, jabbing his bokkon at Ranma. "You are being quite familiar with Akane! Who are you, boor?" the kendoist asked. However, before Ranma could even begin to introduce himself, the samurai-wannabe interrupted again, "Ah! But it is the custom to give one's own name first! Fine then! Mine I shall give!"
"If you want…" Ranma consented, not really caring who introduced himself first.
My name… is Upperclassman Kuno. Junior. Group E. Captain of the kendo club. Undefeated new star of the high school fencing world. But my peers call me… the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"
"'Blue Thunder?'" one spectator asked incredulously. The general consent among those present was that Kuno didn't know what he was talking about. None of his peers called him the 'Blue Thunder'.
Okay. I'm, uh…" Ranma began, "staying at the Tendo Practice Hall..." He evaded Kuno's angry swipe without missing a beat. "I'm heir to the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling…" Ranma took a moment to toss his bag to Akane, so that he wouldn't need to worry about it being damaged. "I am Ranma Saotome! And I accept your challenge!"
"So, you scoundrel," Kuno began, as both he and Ranma dropped into fighting stances. "Hounding Akane, eh?" He took this opportunity to become slightly more delusional, announcing, "I, Upperclassman Kuno, shall bring you to Justice!" Refusing to listen to any reasonable explanations, Kuno attacked. Ranma easily dodged the attack; however, the wall behind him was less fortunate and was cleaved in twain.
As the fight continued, Ukyo noticed that the sky was becoming dark, a harbinger of rain to come, and called out, "Hey, Ranchan! Unless you want to get a little wet, I suggest you hurry up!" When Ranma didn't seem to hear the warning at all, Ukyo took the initiative. With nary a flexing of her arms, an oversized battle spatula appeared in her hand. Ukyo used the spatula to knock Kuno out cold, an easy task since the kendoist had developed tunnel vision, only seeing Ranma before him. Once Kuno was prostrate, Ukyo banished the spatula back to the place from whence it came, before turning to Ranma and asking, "Now that the fool is taken care of, do you think we can make it into the school before we get rained on?"
Ranma looked around, having not noticed the darkening skies. When he saw the solid wall of water advancing towards them, he quickly answered, "Come on! We need to get into the school, now!" Ranma picked Akane up, ignoring her protests, and sprinted to the school doors, with Ukyo no more than two steps behind. Barely a second after Ukyo had gained sanctuary within the halls of the school, the rain caught up to them. Ranma let out a sigh of relief, and muttered, "Well, that was a close one."
Right as Akane, Ukyo, and Ranma entered their classroom, the starting bell rang. Had the fight with Kuno gone on any longer than it had, the trio would have been late for class and be forced to stand in the hallway holding two buckets of water each.
Kumano Yamabushi, the teacher, looked up from his desk, adjusted his glasses, and announced the new students, "Class, we have two new students today. Could you two please tell us a little about yourselves? Also, you are not wearing the proper school uniforms. I'll let it slide for today, but I expect you to wear proper school attire in the future."
Ranma responded first, saying, "I am Ranma Saotome, and I have been on a training trip for the last ten years. I am going to be the best martial artist ever."
"I am Ukyo Kuonji, and I have been training with Ranchan for the last nine and a half years. I also like to cook okonomiyaki." After finishing their introductions, both new students looked to the teacher expectantly.
"All right," Mr. Yamabushi began, "you can take the two seats behind Akane, since you seem to get along with her." Ukyo and Ranma sat in the seats indicated to them, and class began. Everything was going fine, until Mr. Yamabushi decided to ask Ranma to answer a question, without looking away from the chalkboard first. "Ranma, who was the jackal-headed god in Egyptian mythology?"
"Anubis was, Sensei," answered an oddly feminine voice. Unnoticed by everyone, including Ranma, the ceiling had leaked, dripping cold rainwater onto the aquatransexual, triggering his curse. She was decidedly confused when her new teacher whipped around as soon as she had started to speak.
"Excuse me, miss," Mr. Yamabushi began gently, before he demanded, "but who are you, and where did Ranma go?"
"What!" Ranma exclaimed before looking down and noticing certain, more obvious changes in her morphology. "Damn it! Can't I manage to make it through a single day without having my curse revealed?" Blank stares emanated from everyone in the room, except for Ukyo and Akane, who already knew about the curse. "Fine, I might as well get this over with. Sensei, may I go to the bathroom to get some water? It will help with my explanation." Upon receiving a barely perceptible nod, Ranma left the room to fetch a pail of water. Of course, he walked right past the buckets of water next to the door waiting in case a delinquent needed to be sent into the hall with them as punishment.
"Well," Ukyo said reasonably, "I might as well set up for the explanation." With that said, Ukyo sprang into action, setting up her cooking equipment in a flash.
"Where did you have all of that?" Akane asked, eying the impressive set up.
"Oh," Ukyo explained, "when we visited an Amazon village in China, they taught me some elementary Hidden Weapon Techniques. They realized my spatula hindered my ability to fly, so they were kind enough to help." Surprisingly enough, despite the fact that their conversation had been held at a normal volume, no one else in the room heard it.
Finally Ranma returned, in male form, which caused Mr. Yamabushi to start, demanding, "Where did you go, and who was that girl who took your seat?" Ukyo started to bang her head against the desk in disbelief, but stopped when she felt it beginning to cave in.
"Yo, Sensei," Ranma began, defensively. "I told you, I am that girl! I just changed back to my natural form while I was in the bathroom. Look, I can prove it if you want." Ranma gestured with the pail in his hand, causing a small splash to fly towards Ukyo, who managed to catch it in a pot before it could hit her, and placed the pot on her stove to heat it.
"Yes," Mr. Yamabushi said. "I'm sure we would all love to see this proof of yours." Ranma shrugged, and poured a small amount of the water from the pail onto his head, instantly becoming a she. "Ga- ga- ga-," the flabbergasted teacher stuttered, having a hard time forcing his lower jaw to work properly. The rest of the class was in a similar position.
Ranma-chan smirked a little, and asked, "Do ya believe me now?" When the entire class nodded mutely, and Akane and Ukyo had managed to overcome their giggles, Ranma continued, "In a remote part of China, there is a legendary training ground, called 'Jusenkyo.' There are hundreds upon hundreds of springs here, and every one is cursed."
"Cursed?" One brave student asked. Alright, so he wasn't so much brave as he was cynical, but that is hardly important at the moment. "What do you mean 'cursed'?"
Ukyo took over for the time being, wanting to have some part in the discussion, "There is a strong magic in each of the springs that transforms whatever falls into it into the first, and therefore last, thing that has drowned in that particular spring. Ranchan, here, fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl, and you can see the results."
"Luckily," Ranma continued, "the curse is reversed with hot water. Unfortunately, the curse is triggered again with a splash of cold water."
"Wait," The cynical student from before began, "can't you just find a Spring of Drowned Boy, or Man, or something and cure yourself?"
Ranma shuddered at the thought, and replied, "I don't think that would be a very good idea. From what I can tell, the curses are cumulative, so if I were to mix my curse with that of the Spring of Drowned Man, the results would not be pretty."
"Why do you think these curses are cumulative?" asked an inquisitive girl near the front of the class, without any sarcasm, just curiosity, in her voice. She pushed her long, light brown hair behind one ear, revealing a pencil perched there.
Ukyo jumped in before Ranma could expose her curse as well, "Well, we've seen someone who's fallen into two pools, the first was an animal spring, and the second was the Spring of Drowned Girl, and it had some odd results." This seemed to satisfy the class for the moment, and Ranma was allowed to change back to his natural form, using the water Ukyo had heated for him.
"Well, in light of your… condition, Ranma, I would like you to switch seats with Ukyo," Mr. Yamabushi said, wanting to get back to his actual lesson. While he had lived in Nerima for many years, he wasn't used to the oddities that came with the region. Just the Kuno family was enough to make him consider moving to a quieter region, say Juuban.
"Um, Sensei," Ukyo began, nervously, "I don't think that would be such a good idea." Sure, Ranma was much more of a water magnet than she was, but she knew better than to push her luck that far.
Kumano Yamabushi, however, desperately wanted to get back to his lesson, and he wouldn't have any more back talking students. "You will either sit in the seat I've told you to, or you can stand in the hall," he all but shouted, startling his students, who thought he was the very personification of patience.
Ukyo, not wanting to start school with any disciplinary problems, complied, saying, "I'll sit in the seat, Sensei, but please remember that I tried to warn you." Ukyo sat down, and class began again. Mr. Yamabushi didn't notice that Ukyo was continuing to heat the water on her stove, in preparation for the inevitable.
After an hour, with no interruptions, math class had begun, and Mr. Yamabushi called Ukyo up to the board. "Ukyo, please factor the expression I have written on the board. Here is the chalk. I hope your writing is legible."
As Ukyo stood up, she felt a slight rustling that confirmed her fears. As Ukyo walked to the board, the entire class gasped, though Mr. Yamabushi had taken his glasses off in order to clean the lenses, so he didn't notice what was causing such a commotion. "Let's see," Ukyo mumbled to herself. "Two X squared plus eight X plus eight. I'm glad I kept that math book from middle school. Factor out the two so I get two times the quantity X squared plus four X plus four… Hmm, that's a perfect square… The answer is two times the quantity X plus two squared. 2(x2)+8x+82(x+2)2"
Finally, Mr. Yamabushi put his glasses on and looked to the board to check Ukyo's work. "Very go…" Mr. Yamabushi started, stopping suddenly when he saw Ukyo. "Who… What are you?"
Ukyo was hurt; she hadn't expected a reaction like that, at least not after the story about Josenkyo. "I'm Ukyo. Ranchan wasn't the only one cursed at Jusenkyo."
The eyes of the inquisitive girl in the front lit up like halogen lamps, temporarily blinding Ranma, who had been hit by their reflection off his teacher's glasses. "You're the person you were talking about, the one who fell into two springs!"
Ukyo nodded sadly. "Yes, I fell into the Spring of Drowned Bat, and then into the Spring of Drowned Girl."
"More like lunged," Ranma commented.
"Wait," the girl inquired, "when you were a bat, did you manage to launch yourself into the air, or did you walk over to the other spring?"
Ukyo was surprised by the question, so she answered automatically, "I don't see what it matters, but I climbed out of the pool I was in, saw Ranchan fall into the other spring, and sprang towards him to help him. I guess I did manage to fly from the ground without thinking about it."
"Amazing!" the girl exclaimed. "The bat that drowned in the pool must have been a vampire bat. They are the only ones capable of taking off from the ground."
"But that doesn't make sense," Ukyo muttered. "I haven't drunk any blood, nor have I had an urge to. Besides, I can use echolocation."
"Well," the girl began, before being interrupted.
"While all of this is fascinating," Mr. Yamabushi said, venomously, "it is not part of our lesson, so please wait until lunch for your private conversations."
"Fine," the girl said. "My name is Keiko Rihatsu, by the way." The two girls shook hands, and Ukyo headed back to her seat, forgetting to change back into her normal form. Approximately five seconds later, the lunch bell rang. "That was rather pointless. Come on Ukyo, let's talk!" Keiko dragged the winged girl out of the classroom, to a private area where they could finish their conversation.
"So, what were you saying before?" Ukyo asked once they were situated.
"As far as I can figure, you don't crave blood because you aren't a pure vampire bat. There must be enough human DNA so that you don't need blood to survive. As far as the echolocation goes, vampire bats do use echolocation, along with scent, sight, and sound, which explains why you seem to have better than average senses."
"Wow," Ukyo commented. "You seem to know an awful lot about bats."
"What can I say?" asked Keiko rhetorically. "I like to read about nature, and I remember most of it."
"That must be nice." Ukyo said.
"Say, I wonder if Ranma would like to be friends with me as well," Keiko wondered.
Ukyo blinked and asked, "You don't think he's a freak or a pervert because he changes into a girl?"
"No, why would I?" Keiko asked. "It isn't his fault he fell into that spring."
Ukyo pat Keiko on the shoulder, saying, "If you really feel that way, I'm sure Ranchan would love to be friends with you. Isn't that right, Ranchan?"
"Let me guess," Keiko began, "He's right behind me."
Ukyo giggled, "Nope. SHE is." Keiko turned around, and found herself nose to nose with Ranma-chan.
"Boo," Ranma-chan said with a smile, causing Keiko to jump back, right into Ukyo's arms. "Sure, I'll be your friend. Pops might say friends are nothing but distractions, but I don't believe him."
"Speaking of Pops," Ukyo began warily. "He hasn't ruined anything yet. Something must be wrong. This is just too good to be true." Back at the Tendo dojo, Genma sneezed, giving Soun the chance to rearrange the shoji board in his favor.
"Yo, Keiko, do you practice Martial Arts?" Ranma-chan asked, curious.
Keiko laughed a little, "No, I don't. I'm not really interested in fighting. Maybe if they came up with a Martial Arts Studying or something I would start." Keiko noticed the almost evil glint in Ranma-chan's eyes, and she nervously asked, "Um, Ranma, what are you thinking?"
Akane took this opportunity to show up, shouting, "Ranma no hentai! How dare you stare at a girl's chest like that!" Ranma-chan and Keiko blinked, as Ranma-chan's eyes hadn't drifted below neck-level.
"Wait, Akane! It isn't how it looks!" Ranma-chan begged as she watched Akane rip a bench off the ground and approached, holding it like a club.
Everyone, including Keiko, was shocked when Keiko moved in front of Ranma-chan. "Ranma wasn't doing anything perverted! We were just talking," she tried valiantly to save her new friend from what looked to be a lethal attack.
"Oh really?" Akane demanded. "Then what was that look he was giving you?"
Keiko thought for a brief second, and said, "I don't know, but it'd be easier to find out by asking her than by bashing her into the ground." When Akane consented, and lowered her bench, Keiko continued, "So, Ranma, what was that look for?"
Ranma-chan giggled, and announced, "I was just contemplating how to create Martial Arts Studying!" Once the others had pulled themselves out of the ground, Ranma-chan continued, "Keiko, your training will start today, as will yours, Akane. We start with balance." Her plan fully formulated, Ranma-chan sat and ate, though the evil grin never left her face.
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After the classes were over, the four girls met outside of the school before heading towards the Tendo dojo. Both Ranma and Ukyo were in their cursed forms because they had been splashed roughly five seconds after they returned to their normal forms, every time. Keiko looked to Ranma-chan and asked, "So, how are we going to practice our balance?"
Ranma smiled and pointed to the fence to their right. "We are all going to walk home on top of that fence."
"Ranma no baka!" Akane exclaimed. "How will that help us any? We can't walk on it like you and Ukyo can."
"I know," Ranma-chan smirked. "I'll walk behind you, Akane, and Ukyo will walk behind Keiko, and stop you from falling off."
Ukyo grinned and swept Keiko off of her feet, before she spread her wings and leapt agilely onto the fence, where she set Keiko down on her feet, saying "Come on, let's get started before anything can go wrong!"
Ranma-chan decided not to push her luck, so she asked, "Akane, do you want me to help you onto the fence, or can you manage by yourself?"
Akane blushed, and replied, "Sure, Ranma, you can help me on. Not that I need any help or anything." Even before she had finished speaking, she found herself deposited gently on the fence, with Ranma's hands lightly grasping her waist. "Ranma, if you try to do anything perverted, I'll hit you into the ionosphere!"
"Is that a bad thing?" Ranma asked innocently, with a large grin on her face, despite knowing the answer. They had covered the levels of the atmosphere in their last class. Akane thought he was serious, and growled, while the other two girls giggled at the joke.
The four girls slowly made their way to the dojo. While no one fell, there were several close calls. Keiko almost fell nearly twice as many times as Akane had, which showed Ranma's prudence in arranging partners as she had. While her balance was naturally better than Ukyo's, Ukyo's wings allowed her to compensate much easier for her partner than Ranma-chan could. The fact that Ranma was still perfecting her balance as a girl didn't help any, either.
When the girls finally reached the dojo, they faced an obstacle of a different type. Standing in their way was Genma, in human form. His face was unreadable, despite the fact that it broadcasted his feelings to the outside world perfectly. "Ranma! What are you doing as a girl? Have you no pride? Oh, to think that my son is so wimpy that he hides his shame as a girl!"
Ranma was about to attack her father, but the three natural girls beat her to it. Akane ripped a segment of the fence out of the ground and rushed Genma, Ukyo retrieved her spatula from wherever she kept it, and Keiko threw a handful of sharp, pointy, number two pencils at the baka. The pencils hit first, sinking into Genma's side at least a full inch. Next, Akane flattened Baka-sama into the ground, repeatedly, with the fence. Finally, Ukyo scraped Genma off the ground with her battle spatula, flinging him into the koi pond.
"Yo, Pops!" Ukyo yelled, "Ya should know by now that girls are not as week as you seem to think!"
"Uncle Genma! How dare you call us weak, just because we're girls!" Akane exclaimed, while trying to fit the fence back into its fittings.
Keiko stared at the panda in the koi pond for a second before she realized the only logical explanation. No, it isn't the typical 'logic' found in Nerima, it was real logic. "I take it your father fell into the Spring of drowned Panda." Keiko stated, dead pan.
Ranma-chan rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed, "I guess we forgot to mention the panda. It's entirely his fault, anyways."
"Oh?" Keiko inquired, "In what manner?"
Ukyo decided to answer, while bashing the panda on the head a few times for good measure, "It was his idea to go and train at Josenkyo, when he couldn't read a word of Chinese! He is also the one who knocked both Ranchan and me into the Spring of Drowned Girl and the Spring of Drowned Bat, respectively." Keiko's eyes glowed lightly with understanding.
"Hey, Keiko," Ranma asked, pointing to the pencils still sticking out of Genma's hide, "where did you learn to do that?"
Keiko blushed and replied, "I got bored one day after I had exhausted the books available to me at the time, so I set up a cardboard target and threw pencils at it. It took me a few dozen tries to get a few to stick into my target, and a couple more hours to get them to consistently stick into the target. After I got them to stay in the target, I worked on my aim."
"Wow," Ranma muttered, impressed with Keiko's proficiency with pencils. "I think we've found the first part of Martial Arts Studying." Akane and Ukyo wholeheartedly agreed.
Hearing the noise outside, Kasumi looked out, noticed that both Ukyo and Ranma were in their cursed forms and grabbed the kettle of water she had put on the stove when Nabiki told her it would be needed. Kettle in hand, Kasumi walked out of the house. "I have hot water for you two!" she announced to the cursed teens. Ukyo and Ranma hurriedly poured the water onto themselves, returning them to their natural bodies. "Oh my, we seem to have another guest. Would you like some tea?"
"Thank you for asking," Keiko replied, "but no thank you. I want to train some more."
"That's all right. I'll bring some tea and treats out to the dojo in case you change your minds," Kasumi said, before heading back into the house.
"Come on," Ranma called out. "Let's start the training before it gets too late!" With this said, everyone proceeded to the dojo, where they all trained together until it was time for Keiko to leave; everyone promised to continue the training tomorrow.
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In a randomly darkened room of the school, a conversation that was to have a huge impact on the student life was taking place. "I'm sorry, sir," Mr. Yamabushi began, "I'm afraid that if I stay here, I'm going to start developing ulcers. I need to leave Nerima before I go insane!"
"I see," the mysterious vice-principal murmured from behind his steepled hands. "And where, exactly, am I supposed to find someone capable of teaching here? Not many teachers have the mind set to handle teaching in such a school."
"I know that," Mr. Yamabushi stated. "However, I am not one of these teachers. I'll be going now. I've heard Juuban is nice this time of year." Finished with what he was going to say, Kumano Yamabushi picked up his briefcase and walked out of the office.
"Now what am I supposed to do?" the vice principal complained. "I need to find a new teacher by tomorrow morning!"
There was a knock on the door, and a voice asked, "Excuse me? Do you know a place I can get a job?" The vice-principle jumped at the seemingly heaven given chance, throwing the door completely open and ushering the person inside.
"Actually," the vice-principal explained, "we just received an opening. Would you like to take the position?"
The visitor warily asked, "What exactly would I be doing?"
"Well, I was hoping that you could teach here. One of our teachers just quit." When the potential recruit inquired why the previous teacher had left, the vice-principal answered truthfully, "Nerima has a history of being a little odd. Apparently, it has gotten worse, to the point that it drove off one of my teachers." Even if he lost his prey, it would be cheaper to find someone else now, rather than having to pay a teacher for one day before finding another one.
"A little weirdness is all?" the figure asked. When she received an affirmative nod, the youthful woman smirked. "I can handle weird. Sure, I'll take the job."
The vice-principal gave a sigh of relief, "Good. Consider yourself hired. By the way, what is your name?" For some reason, background checks weren't deemed overly important at this school. Either that or the VP was getting really desperate and was willing to hire anyone, up to an admitted serial killer. Luckily, the new teacher was not a murderer.
"My name's Ember, Ember McLain." The ghost rock star, now teacher, said with a smile.
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This is Jonakhensu again. I'd like to thank you for reading my fanfic up to this point. As I said earlier, this was going to be a somewhat serious fic. Unfortunately, it seems more that it is more likely going to become close to a parody, if not a true parody. I'm at least going to try to keep the Fourth Wall intact. Again, please review with any flames (to laugh at), comments, criticisms, suggestions, ideas, etc. Please notice that the crossovers have begun… What is going to happen next? NIHIHIHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHA!
Thank you,
Jonakhensu
I also thank InsaneClarinetPlayingFFX-2Fan for acting as my Beta reader, and Innortal for pointing out that I misspelt Jusenkyo.