After all the hullabaloo that had resulted from her coming to Furinkan, the two had, after some time and many detentions, developed....something. A...closeness. Perhaps it was because they were both people trapped between two worlds-Ranma with Male and Female, Hinako with Age and Youth. You wouldn't call it 'love'...not yet, and certainly not in public. But with all the crazyness in their lives, it felt good to both of them to have someone they felt they could count on with no strings attached.
"You don't seem too happy. Talk about it?"
"...."
Hinako's eyes narrowed.
"When we started this, we said 'no secrets', no hiding. We have to do that enough already. So talk. You KNOW it'll do you good. You HAVE been reading those books I've been lending you, right?"
"...Of course I have, you think I want to be as bad as my old man?"
A direct consequence of the time they spent together was that Ranma was getting a chance to really learn. The main reason for the detention sessions was due to Ranma's sleeping in class and missing massive sections of the curriculum, which he had to make up somehow. It took quite some doing, but the surprisingly simple answer at first was this:
Make it relate to Martial Arts.
Mathematics was quite easy-dealing with forces, heights, depths, angles and so on.
Languages and things of that nature were somewhat harder. But it was worked around by putting it in terms of another type of battlefield, one where every last move of the body, every twitch, every word counted.
Oddly enough, after the initial problems were cleared, Ranma became quite the scholar. He devoured the various texts he was given, and when quiet times came, he'd sneak off to the library, check out more books and eat up the contents of those. Hinako helped by checking out various things when she could. Whilst Kasumi had not been told of any of this...the fact that she started leaving her borrowed textbooks where Ranma could get at them spoke volumes. Sometimes there were even bookmarks.
"...THEY'RE at it again." How he made something like 'They're' sound like a curse was a mystery to Hinako.
"...Ah."
"..Yes, 'Ah'."
"There's not much that can be done about it, though. They'd just deny the whole thing, even WITH proof."
"....Perhaps...."
Now Ranma's eyes narrowed.
"I don't like that look..."
"....Got an idea."
"Oh?"
"They've been using me as a buffer, a dam. Remove the dam, and everything comes flooding in."
"You're...leaving?"
"Yep. Might become a monk or something. Or go on a LONG journey. Something like that. You're welcome to come along. Hell, you NEED a cure to what's been done to you. No one should have to live like that."
"Well..."
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(Posted Sat, 09 Oct 2004 19:55)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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