Chapter 7: Applications

Ranma sat in Ms. Hinako's class writing down what the homework was. Admittedly, homework wasn't his favorite thing to do, but he was determined to graduate with Akane and he also wanted to go to college in a few years – he needed a decent transcript. He also wanted to re-start the dojo in the Spring, and that meant finishing school on time. Despite the illness and the court appearances, he wasn't too far behind – just a little math to catch up on (thank heavens his illness had happened during a school break). He had managed to knock off a lot of the earlier assigned homework during classes, so it was just Ms. Hinako's work and the calculus left. The way things looked right now, he had time to go home with Akane and spar before he had to get over to the clinic and help close up.

The Tendo house had cleared out a little, so there were fewer distractions. Ryoga and Akari had gone back to the farm this morning and would return late Thursday to be there for the next court date. Maomolin had taken Chiyoko away for more sightseeing and would be back late Wednesday. The Saotomes were staying at a hotel (except for Nodoka) and would be by for dinner, but they were not under foot. Nabiki had also returned to college and would not be back until late Friday (she felt Ranma had enough support in place and she needed to catch up at school). Genma was still at the zoo and seemed to be trying to settle in, so he was out of the picture completely.

As the class was preparing to leave, Ms. Hinako spoke up: "Mr. Sao.. I mean, Ranma? Please stay and see me after class for a few minutes?"

Ranma nodded, but groaned internally. Truth be known, he got along well with the teacher these days, especially outside the classroom (the teacher was a frequent visitor to the dojo now), but he was in a hurry. Still, she meant well, so he kept his mouth shut. Ranma also noticed that the teachers (and his friends) made a point of calling him Ranma now – no one addressed him as "Saotome" anymore.

"Ms. Tendo? You can either wait outside or in here, but if you wait in here, you have to stay quiet. And I mean it," the teacher said as she covered her fishbowl and resumed her child-form. Akane gulped silently as she realized the teacher really did mean it – she was now in her aura draining form. Hinako hopped up on her desk and indicated for Ranma to take a chair closer to her desk. The young man did so warily, but he didn't detect any hostility from the teacher – just a very no nonsense attitude.

"Ranma?" The teacher began. "I wanted you to know that my father and I will be submitting an adoption application for you with Judge Sanu. If it gets approved, I would become your older sister and de facto parent. There's no guarantee that it will - my father is a bit old, but I wanted you to know why we did it."

"I'm a little surprised, Ms. Hinako, but I'm honored," Ranma said cautiously.

She grinned at his hesitation. "Relax, Ranma. I know we are sometimes on opposite sides, but I have your best interests at heart."

"That I believe," he admitted.

"You would still stay at the dojo. You'd still be free to pursue your heart in all matters. I wouldn't interfere with Ms. Saotome and I'd have an excuse to visit more often," she said while casting a mischievous glance at Akane (who only raised an eyebrow). "There would be one major change though."

"Ah, the kicker," thought Ranma. "And that would be?" he prompted out loud.

"That you would be starting college in the Spring with Ms. Tendo," she said firmly. "Your scores are likely to be high enough to get you into any number of colleges and universities."

"But I need to get the dojo going, and there's not enough money to send myself and Akane," he argued. "Nabiki is currently attending, and Kasumi should get started as well."

"I am already financing two students, Ranma. I can afford to send my brother. I am an only child and my family has the money. It's not like I need to worry about my own children." There was a hint of sadness with the last statement.

"I don't want charity," he said stubbornly.

"No kidding. But if I was your sister, it wouldn't be charity," she said. "Besides, you have too much potential to waste. At the very least, you'll probably need two degrees – one in education, the other in business."

"There's no way I'm signing up for eight years," he said with an edge in his voice.

"You think?" she shot back. "but you could pick up two two-year degrees from a Junior college, and you could probably get everything done in three years with some courses counting toward both degrees. The costs would be lower too."

Ranma's brain was trying to keep up with the new ideas she was throwing at him. "Why are you doing this?" he asked.

"Believe it or not, because I am your friend and I want you to do well. You have a lot of potential as I said. Those two degrees would give you a lot of credentials in a short amount of time," she told him. Her speech was starting to speed up a little.

Part of Ranma couldn't believe he was having this discussion with Ms. Hinako, but he plowed on anyway. "So I could start college in a few years and follow that plan then. Why not wait?" he pressed.

"Because despite my shape, I'm very familiar with life, Ranma," the apparent pre-teen answered. "In a few years, you'll be worried about the dojo even more. You'll also be worried about starting a family. You'll be worried about your parent's health. Things will come up. I've seen this again and again with people through the years. Now is the time to start." She paused and then started again. "Besides," she said quickly and persuasively. "You'll have an easier time attracting students if people know you are in college now. They will see that you can plan and look ahead – that you are settling in for the duration."

"But, that won't happen if I cannot teach because I'm attending college," he countered.

Ms. Hinako smiled internally as she consciously upped her speaking speed, sounding a little hyper as she said: "Well then, you can go to school part time, and teach part time. Even taking one course a semester will move you along, especially at a junior college. The financial drain will be even less."

Ranma was trying to keep up with the change of momentum again. "But I can probably manage to fund one course myself. You don't need to feel that your family has to adopt me to pay for my education," he said.

"Got him!" the teacher thought. "Oh no!" she said brightly and very animatedly. "I want my family to adopt you because I'm fond of you, dear student, and the thought of you as my little brother amuses me. Getting you to agree to start college in the Spring is just a bonus, which you just did."

"Wait! I agreed to what?" Ranma asked. Akane clamped her mouth shut to hide her smile.

"You just said that you could probably afford to pay for one course next Spring, so you can start college then, regardless of the adoption," Hinako said rapidly. "Since it is only one course, you'll have plenty of time for the dojo. It sounds like a good idea to me. The three of us should probably sit down later and discuss what colleges would work for you two. We should meet sometime next week after Judge Sanu rules on the all the adoption applications."

"Applications?" Ranma questioned trying to keep up.

"Oh, I guarantee my family is not the only one filing papers," she said off-handedly while still speaking in a hyperactive fashion. "The chance that we will end up related is slim, but I would like it if it happens. If not, I am still your friend, and more importantly, I know you'll start college in the Spring now. You see, once you start something, it is in your nature to see it through. Now, I have to run and drop off the application. I'll also be checking on colleges and the tests dates this evening. We'll talk about it next week. See you tomorrow!" With that, the little teacher buzzed out the door.

Ranma turned and looked at Akane in confusion. The young woman's eyes were full of mirth from watching the teacher's expert handling of Akane's boyfriend. "What just happened?" he asked.

"You just agreed to start college part-time in the Spring, Ranma," Akane told him while trying not to laugh. "And Ms. Hinako told you she looks at you as a younger brother despite being your teacher. We need to keep that last part to ourselves until after we graduate. And I need to make sure Kasumi sends a wedding invitation to Ms. Hinako. She's going to be part of our lives no matter what, so we might as well suck it up." The laughter started to escape from her as his confused look continued.

Hideo raised an eyebrow at his wife as Shizuka placed the adoption application in front of him. "You have to be kidding," he stated with amusement. "You want to adopt a boy who causes Tarot decks to fly from their users' hands and I Ching coins to become perpetual motion machines?"

"He needs a father in his life," Shizuka pressed.

"For Ranma, 'Father' is a curse word – and with good reason," Hideo pushed back.

"Yes, but he respects you even though you are not a fighter. And because you are not a fighter, he's not likely to enter into one of those silly one-upmanship competitions with you. He listens to you without issuing a challenge," she said with honey dripping from her voice.

Hideo's expression became even more amused. "He is a Wind mage," he stated. "He's my antithesis. Of course, he and I are going to end up in contests. He's just too busy playing with Tofu right now."

"But we can give him the stability he needs," she said persuasively.

That caused Hideo to burst out laughing. "He's a Lord of Chaos – he attracts it. Instability only makes him stronger."

"Bull! He seeks stability; he seeks comfort. He wants to settle down. He's only eighteen and he's already world-weary. That's one of the reasons marrying Akane appeals to him," she retorted.

"I'd say wanting to marry Akane proves my point, not yours," Hideo grinned back at his wife.

She swatted him with a newspaper for that comment. Shizuka was very protective of the Tendo daughters, but she privately had to admit that her husband was right on that one.

Hideo laughed again, but sobered up and grabbed his wife's hand. "I think he'd probably be better off with Tofu," he told her seriously. "He's closer to Tofu than he is to us."

Shizuka saw that her husband was now ready to really discuss the matter, so she dropped her wheedling. "No, I disagree, Love. Tofu is too close to Kasumi. He's too tied into Akane's family already. Ranma needs somewhere outside the dojo that he can claim – at least for a little while. Besides, Tofu can act like a big kid sometimes and…"

"And…" Hideo prompted.

"And the thought of abandoning Ranma to those puppies bothers me. Ranma is human. He doesn't have Tofu's wild side for dealing with the Kitsunes," she finished.

Hideo thought about that point silently to himself: "The real problem, Love, is that you don't think anyone will ever be good enough for Kasumi, Kimiko's daughter. But Tofu is a good man. He acts like a big kid sometimes but that's because the other times he has to be the most sober one in the room. He's dealt with a lot of crap the rest of us have never dreamed of. Yes, he is part Kitsune, but he's mostly human too. Besides, in a contest between the Kitsune nation and Ranma, I'd honestly bet on Ranma's wild side triumphing over the Kitsunes. Still, that's neither here nor there for this discussion…"

Out loud, Hideo said: "I'm not sure I agree with you, Love. However, I think we should fill out the application."

Shizuka immediately leaped into his arms and hugged him, despite the fact that he was sitting down. "Whoa! Whoa!" he cautioned her. "We will probably not be awarded custody. My guess is most of Ranma's friends will apply too. And Ranma's almost a man legally – I'd argue he is already there in many ways. This is not the same as really adopting a child, which we may want to consider for real before we get too much older. I just think we should let him know we have his back any way we can and that includes clan adoption. O.K.?"

She pulled back and looked at her husband. "Are you serious about wanting to adopt a child, too?" she asked breathlessly.

"Yes, but we need to survive the Storm first," he said soberly. "That will take most of our efforts for a bit. However, I think that will happen in the next twelve months and we need to plan for a life beyond that."

She hugged Hideo fiercely and said: "Thank you!" Hideo returned the hug without a word. After a minute or two, Shizuka release him. "All right," she said. "First order of business…"

"Yes, Love?" he answered.

"SIGN RIGHT HERE!" she ordered tapping on the form's signature box.

"It's just wrong," Sayuri complained to Yuka.

"It's a clan adoption," Yuka explained patiently to her friend. "It's just a show of support for Ranma, an offer of a little stability to him, and the chance to add a little color to your family tree. My own Family Registry has to be the most boring thing on earth."

"Somehow, I don't think those are your parent's thoughts," Sayuri commented.

"Well, Dad thinks adding Ranma to the Registry will gain the family business some clout with the town. Mom's just fond of Ranma and doesn't want him to be without a family. Hiroshi's family knows Ranma a lot better, so they are doing it solely because they like him," Yuka said.

"Daisuke's father doesn't want to have to pay for another college education," Sayuri said. "But his Mom is arguing that Ranma won't accept the money anyway, so it's a moot point. Daisuke thinks it would be amusing to call Ranma his brother and sister."

"I think Daisuke is asking for a mouth full of broken teeth, but I think his mom is right. Mr. Pride wouldn't accept a dime," Yuka added.

"It's still wrong…" Sayuri repeated.

"Why on earth is it wrong?" Yuka asked.

"Because if my family adopted Ranma, he'd be my brother and fantasizing about your brother is just creepy…" Sayuri said with a shudder.

Mousse watched as Cologne's face paled and then became bright red. He quickly decided that it was a good time to do inventory and walked quietly to the pantry.

"Are you out of your mind!" Cologne said harshly to Shampoo. The elder ripped up the forms Shampoo had handed to her.

Shampoo was shocked at her Grandmother's reaction. "But Grandmother, then we could take…"

"We can't take Ranma anywhere," Cologne said haughtily. "Did you learn nothing about this country? Ranma is Japanese. There is no way the Japanese government is going to give one of their own to a foreigner, especially if there are hundreds of petitions to adopt him!"

"Hundreds of petitions? What petitions?" Shampoo asked confused.

"Every sensei and mage in this town will file an adoption petition to keep Ranma here. Every cop or merchant will think about filing, and many will. Every status-crazed Family will consult with their lawyers. And I'm not even mentioning Ranma's true friends," Cologne rattled off. "Any *one* of these would trump our request!"

"But this judge hates magic! He'd love to see the back of Ranma! You'd told me so yourself when he first showed up!" Shampoo protested.

Cologne sniffed: "He hates lies; he hates trickery; he hates superstition. He thought 'magic' was a sham to fool the gullible. Now he's seen proof it's real and he wants to understand it – Nerima has gotten under his skin. He fits in here. Besides – just in case this wasn't obvious – he actually likes Ranma. He doesn't want Ranma to go anywhere. When are you going to learn that people change? They grow or die!"

Shampoo looked at Cologne in shock. Cologne closed her eyes in annoyance and added: "And where would we take Ranma? The Village doesn't want him. He scares them witless. He beat Herb. He beat Saffron. Did you even *feel* what he did two days ago?"

"He made a little breeze blow…" Shampoo started.

"He made it blow across all of Nerima! Do you have any idea how much power that took? Of the masses involved? He shouldn't be able to walk right now after that 'little breeze', but he looks like he'd do it again in a heartbeat!" Cologne answered sharply.

"All the more reason to bring Ranma to China!" Shampoo insisted. "We need power!"

"Power?" Cologne mocked coldly. "We need a windmill – not a typhoon, child. You don't invite a natural disaster into your home. Even China wants Ranma to stay here."

"Huh?"

"In court yesterday, did you notice the tall golden-eyed man standing with Ryoga? He sort of looked like a cross between Ryoga and Ranma with about ten years added?" Cologne asked.

"Yeah…" Shampoo answered slowly. "He sort of felt familiar…"

"Yes, I bet he did, child," Cologne said condescendingly. "He's an old suitor of yours. That was Maomolin, the Cat Ghost." Shampoo's mouth popped open. "Judging from the pretty woman at his side, he's obviously gotten over you. But, somehow, someway he's now a guardian of Ranma and Ryoga. Both the Chinese and Japanese Spirit worlds want Ranma to stay in Nerima. And you think I'm going to cross them?"

"But Maomolim is not the entire Spirit world!" Shampoo pointed out. "And he's a coward!"

Cologne rolled her eyes and countered: "Back a coward into a corner and he'll come out swinging with all he has. And Maomolin is now a *physical* spirit. He's had a major power increase and it feels like he's now a guardian of several people – that doesn't happen without Others getting involved. Crossing him could lead to new converts for the Spirit World."

Shampoo was stunned at her Grandmother's assessment. Cologne continued: "Ranma is not one of us and he will never be one of us. I told you this is over! That is final!" Cologne turned her back on Shampoo and went to find Mousse.

Shampoo's eyes hardened. "Ranma will be one of us…the test will say so," she whispered. "Then you and the others will have to accept him… "

Toshio Kuno reviewed the adoption application form. As far as available resources went, he was a shoo-in to be granted custody of Ranma. Unfortunately, Ranma wouldn't know him from a hole-in-the-wall, and the young man was wise enough to know that money wasn't everything. Kuno laughed at himself. Truth-be-known, Toshio knew money wasn't everything, or he wouldn't be interested in the lad or the lad's mother. "But it does make misery more tolerable," he repeated the adage in his thoughts.

Besides, Ranma associated the name "Kuno" with Tatewaki and Kodachi, the banes of the young man's existence. Toshio knew that Ranma would never select his application, especially with Sanu standing over him. If Judge Kato was there, Kuno would get a better recommendation, but that wasn't happening; Sanu wanted to see the job done himself. Even so, Toshio doubted even Kato could put a positive enough spin on things to have Ranma smile upon the application. Toshio's niece and nephew had done too thorough a job.

Still, that wasn't the point – the point was to have Ranma become more familiar with Toshio's name, and recognize that Toshio was not the enemy. Kuno had made a point of having people mention just who was responsible for the appropriation of the large hospital room when everyone was recovering after the Summoning and who was responsible for getting Kasumi back in town as fast as possible. He was also having people note things that the billionaire did for the town. He did have people grumble about him too, so Ranma wouldn't smell a rat with the surplus of information suddenly available about the man behind the town (and Kuno could always count on the police to grumble).

"This way, if I manage to pull off that little coup at the DNA lab, he's at least heard more about me and will hopefully have a 'neutral' attitude toward me ('positive' is way too much to hope for)," Toshio thought to himself. "If the test switch doesn't work, I'll have to hope that the neutral attitude will be there as I try and make Nodoka's acquaintance. If Ranma doesn't at least tolerate me, Nodoka will never consent to actually go out for an evening with me."

He picked up Nodoka's file again and looked at the woman's photograph and read the new information in her profile regarding her family. Once more, Kuno laughed at himself for being a smitten fool. "I'm almost as bad as Tatewaki," he thought. "Ah, well. I'm human I guess. Let's see if I can at least manage not to annoy the lady with my attention. If so, I'll be well ahead of my poor nephew…"

The phone rang at Ucchan's again. Konatsu looked at his employer and she indicated he should get the phone again. "Hello, this is Ucchan's Okonomiyaki Shop," he answered. "Yes, 'Hello' again Mr. Kuonji….No, I am afraid Mistress Ukyo is not around right now…. No, I'm not sure when she'll be back. Honestly, I think she might have gotten sick of the local chaos and gone to visit a friend for a few days. She just told me to mind the store….Yes, sir, she did tell me to use the freshest butter." Ukyo rolled her eyes at this point. "Yes, sir, she mentioned that as well. No, sir. I'm not expecting any shortages; I'm well stocked…. Yes, sir, I have the griddle at half heat." Now Konatsu rolled his eyes. There was a long pause. "Do we have a FAX machine?" he repeated.

Konatsu looked at Ukyo who suddenly nodded fiercely, and grabbed a notepad. She wrote a FAX number down and passed it to him. Konatsu gave the number to Mr. Kuonji. After promising to "Take care of it", he said "Goodbye" and hung up. He looked at Ukyo and asked: "We have a FAX line?"

"No, the copy center down the street has one. I use that for the few times I need one," Ukyo answered.

"He didn't tell me what he was sending. He just asked me to run it over to the Nerima Court House," Konatsu told her.

"That chauvinistic JACKASS!" Ukyo hissed. "If he thinks he's going to do an end-run around me, he has another thing coming!"

"What's he sending?" Konatsu asked.

"Adoption papers for Ranma," Ukyo said with disgust.

Konatsu looked confused. "O.K., admittedly, trying to adopt your former fiancé is a bit 'out there'. But you don't want Ranma anymore for your husband. Would you really care if Ranma was your brother?"

"Strictly speaking, it would be weird, but I'd deal," Ukyo huffed. "The real problem is that Ranma is older than I am by a month or so."

Konatsu was a Kunoichi. That meant he understood traditions, especially family traditions. "There's a Birthright in your family – isn't there?" he asked.

"Yes! And it's mine!" she insisted fiercely. "But 'Daddy-dearest' wants to pass it to a son. I've given up on Ranma, but my father hasn't. He's determined to adopt Ranma and pass it to him, shutting me out completely. I need to get those papers and destroy them."

"But Ranma would never steal your Birthright! He's not Genma!" Konatsu insisted.

"No, he wouldn't, but he doesn't know there's a Birthright on the line and I really don't want to bother him or Akane with this right now – there are too many other things in play. When things settle down, I'll need their help. I need their wedding to be after my 20th birthday – or to at least keep it quiet until then. Unfortunately, if Ranma doesn't know about the issue, I could see the idiot accepting my father's offer because he might honestly like being my brother!" Ukyo explained. "My father wants to use you as a proxy since the adoption papers have to be hand-delivered to the Town Clerk. Thank god he's too cheap to hire a lawyer!"

Konatsu thought about that for a second and then replied: "O.K. so you pick-up the papers, burn them, and give me the ashes." Ukyo looked askance at him until he explained: "I promised your father I'd take the papers to the Court House – I never said what condition they would be in."

Ukyo smirked, ran over to him, pulled his head down, and kissed his forehead. She let go and ran for the door. "Back soon," she called as she ran out.

Konatsu smiled and said to himself after she was gone: "And then once I dispose of the ashes, I'll find Ranma. My dear Ukyo doesn't want to explain things just yet, but this is Ranma. All I have to tell him is that the Kounji adoption is a legal trap from her dad, and that's all it will take…"

Tofu Ono read through the Family Code articles again. There was a little vagueness in some parts, left up to the judges' interpretation. "I'm definitely not a lawyer," he thought. "But, I need to be safe rather than sorry. It might be easier for me to adopt Ranma if Kasumi and I did it together, but if Kasumi officially becomes Ranma's parent, there might be issues with a marriage between Ranma and Akane. I don't want the Kunos to have even a crack to pry into. I need to adopt Ranma solo and that's that. Besides, I'm not married yet. Kasumi as his 'step-mom' will not cause any issues – the law is clear about that at least." He pulled over the adoption form and began to fill it out.

He knew many of Ranma's friends were filling out the form as well, including Shizuka and Hideo. He wouldn't object if those two were awarded custody, but Shizuka could be a little possessive sometimes (Tofu had a momentary vision of Nodoka and Shizuka each having a hold of one of Ranma's arms and pulling in the opposite directions). Of Ranma's school chums, he could see things working well with Hiroshi's family, but not so much with some of the others. "Sayuri's family would be an absolute disaster," he thought. "Hinako might work well, so long as Ranma stayed at the dojo, but Soun might find his life a bit more interesting." Tofu grinned to himself at the thought of Soun having to deal with the woman-child on a more regular basis.

There were also many people in town filling out the forms as well. Many merchants were familiar with Ranma and saw him as a good investment – especially in terms of goodwill. Others, like Mr. Sakai, the fishmonger, and Mr. Saitou, the café owner, were genuinely fond of Ranma even if they jokingly said they were just trying to adopt him so they can get some work out of him. Tofu knew of at least half-a-dozen policemen/policewomen filling out the form as well. "Sergeant Imia's family is probably the best fit there," Tofu thought. "That would probably work out quite well."

Still, Tofu felt that he himself was best to serve as Ranma's guardian. Tofu had already contacted the head of his family, and obtained permission to try. Tofu was an old hand at dealing with young mages and had a lot of experience with young men in need of guidance (or just needing someone on their side). He and Ranma already had a good mentor-student relationship, and a healthy friendship. Tofu was sure the two of them could shape things into an uncle-nephew relationship without much effort. He knew Ranma didn't need a father-figure.

Now, he just needed to convince Sanu of that. Sanu might balk at having a single parent, even if this was just a clan adoption. For that matter, he might balk just because it was an Ono making the request. Still, Tofu would try. Hopefully, the judge would at least talk to him. If the judge didn't agree, then Tofu could try and steer the judge to one of the other applicants that would work.

"I should have a few ideas for some good recommendations before I go in there," the doc thought to himself before continuing on with the form.

A/N: Next up: Sorting the Piles