Soun and Genma decided to examine the apartment complex and the dojo before doing anything else. When they arrived, two young men stared at the elder martial artists, one adjusting his spectacles doubtfully, the other coughing politely and turning to look at a very tired looking green-haired girl. Nearby, a girl Genma vaguely recognized from the night before -- part of the camera crew, or something -- stood next to a younger boy.
"If you're looking to rent, Nabiki's in the office," the boy offered.
"Er.... Well, my son asked me to look at the dojo here," Genma explained, jerking his head towards the dilapidated building in the side-yard.
"Oh, right," the interviewer said, snapping her fingers. "You're Saotome-dono's father, right? Saotome Genma?"
"And teacher," Genma said with pride.
"He trained at my dojo," Soun added helpfully.
Genma decided not to correct the man and smiled widely, nodding.
"Oh," the men in the yard said collectively, reassessing the men.
"Well," the boy said, grinning, "Ranm-- Er, that is.... Saotome-dono said that I should talk to you about training. You are Tendo Soun, right?"
"That's right!" the man said, pleased to be recognized. "The Tendo Dojo: We Train Heroes!"
Genma winced. He didn't want the dojo his son inherited to have a stupid name like that ... but he decided to let it pass. Ranma could rename it easily once it was inherited, after all. "Is anyone else interested in joining us?"
"Actually, yeah," the man with the spectacles said, nodding. "I know some martial arts -- mostly how to use a sword -- but Noriyasu-sensei said I should learn more."
"Hey, Setsuna-chan," the younger man said, winking at the green-haired girl. "You think I should train?"
Her left eyebrow twitched, and Setsuna replied, "Like, I think geologists are way cooler than archeologists. Archeology is like, so totally boring!"
"Bah," Genma snorted, shaking his head. "That's not true at all. Tendo, you remember when we worked with Jones-sensei? That temple with all the children?"
"I can't ever forget it," Soun said in a suddenly dry voice. "Stupid snakes. But yes -- we had to fight quite a few slavers to get out of that one."
"Anyway," Genma continued, unperturbed, "archeologists explore, adventure, and from what Jones-sensei showed me, they get the girls."
"I can back that one up," the man with spectacles said with authority. "Noriyasu-sensei mentioned Jones-sensei a few times."
"Well, damn," the geologist in training said. "I dunno ... maybe my guidance counselor will agree on a dual major? I mean ... geology won't be as useless if I've got archeology with it, will it?"
"Yeah!" Setsuna said, nodding quickly. "That sounds totally cool! Like, study both! But then, you'll have to work way hard to do that and be a martial artist! You should just stick with school, Mamorou."
"Feh," Mamorou retorted, "it's not like I'm doing anything at night. I'll be fine!"
"Oooh," Setsuna moaned, covering her eyes with her hands.
"I know," Mamorou said, grinning. "I'm amazing. Hey, Setsuna-chan, are you seeing anyone?"
"I think I need to lie down," the green-haired girl whimpered, turning around and fleeing into one of the apartments.
"She likes me," Mamorou stage whispered to the boy. "You see it, right Tenchi?"
"Oh, yeah," Tenchi replied doubtfully. "Sure thing." Turning back to the martial artists, he asked, "How soon can we start classes? Urashima-san and Chiba-san here are in college already, and I'll be starting at, um, Furinkan next Monday."
"Well...." Soun faltered and blinked. "I suppose ... tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. Any time will be fine; we'll be there all day."
Genma nodded thoughtfully. It wouldn't help him with his plan of getting closer to Hotaru, at least, not immediately. But it would be a start on working towards earning his son's respect back, at least. "A fine idea," he agreed, nodding. "But, we do need to check out this building. Even though he is very good, my son isn't a sensei yet."
"I'd be willing to train under someone who took out that kaiju yesterday anyway," Tenchi said with a shrug. "But yeah. If we're going to be living here, we should probably check out that building. There could be a basement with a demon in it or something."
Keitaro and Mamorou shared a blink, then looked at Tenchi. Nanami merely looked confused.
"I'm pretty sure the biggest demon in this town is the Master," Genma said doubtfully. "But if you'd like to take a look with us, I won't complain."
"Well, it's pretty beaten up," Keitaro said, glancing at the building. "I know a bit about fixing up broken buildings, though. Had a lot of problems at the last place I stayed where I had to patch up holes in the walls and stuff. I guess I could help Saotome-dono out if he needs it; we might want somewhere nearby to spar."
With that, they went to inspect the dojo.
Genma winced as the door failed to slide open, instead falling back into the building and collapsing into a billowing cloud of dust. The cloud expanded deeper into the darkened room, turning into shining shafts of light where ancient holes had worn through the ceiling, showing that the floor was mostly gone, and rotted through where it remained.
"This isn't so bad," the part-time panda reasoned. "We'll just need to replace some of it."
"You mean all of it?" Nanami asked doubtfully. "If you push the walls too hard I'm sure this thing will collapse."
Genma glanced up at the peak of the roof and surreptitiously kicked at the nearest main support. It was solid, though much of the wall around it crumbled away in dust.
"We'll need a new floor," Soun assessed, frowning. "And walls. And a ceiling, too."
"So, the entire thing, pretty much," Tenchi said. "Just like Jinnai-san said."
"You can call me Nanami, Tenchi-kun," Nanami said. "But yeah. This thing is trashed."
"Mostly," Genma agreed. "But unless I'm mistaken, the foundation is solid, as is the frame. The rest of the building can be replaced relatively quickly. How long would you say, Tendo?"
"I'd say four weeks for both of us working on it," Soun said uneasily. "Less if we called a builder. But we're going to be busy teaching classes."
"Good point," Genma realized. "Well, it's not like Ranma's too busy. We'll just have Nabiki order the lumber for him, and let him take care of it himself. We can even offer to take care of his daughter while he's working on it!"
"Er.... Can we train her?" Soun asked doubtfully.
"My son can't possibly be training her," Genma retorted. "She's just a girl, after all. We'll come up with something, I'm sure."
***
Ranma shivered suddenly, glancing around himself. He was currently in a department store, perusing things that the clerks had told him women would love. All he saw was a rather disturbing number of young women all looking at him with ... something in their eyes.
He shifted his shoulders uncomfortably and glanced at a window. Sunset wasn't terribly far away, so he had to hurry. A present for his mother hadn't been a problem. Gifts for the girls required a bit more thought, but had been added, too. After consideration, he'd also gotten something for Hotaru.... But Urd was harder to shop for.
What did goddesses like, anyway?
He smiled as something caught his eyes. It would have to be enough, he decided, pointing at it, and producing his ID card. It was swiped, and he watched an alarming number of yen change on the register's display into 'approved'.
"Please sign here," the clerk said brightly, holding out a copy of the receipt. He almost choked to see that the machine had printed out his name as 'Special Operative Saotome Ranma', but signed it anyway.
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(Posted Tue, 18 Apr 2006 09:56)
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