Ami Mizuno had been unsure what to expect when her friend Minako had told her about this job. Minako claimed to have heard about it from her contacts in the Tokyo metropolitan police department and that Ami would not have to submit any resumes or references because they would already know all about her. All she had to do was show up at the agreed time for a job interview. Up until now she had not known what was the strangest about that claim that Minako had contacts with the police who knew somebody who would want to hire her or the idea that they had access to all her records.
Now that she had reached the location that Minako had given her she concluded that it had to be strangest thing about this possible job. After closely following the instructions about which train to take where and when she had found herself at a seemingly abandoned station in the middle of nowhere particular. The only place of interest that this stop might ever have serviced was the now abandoned amusement park directly in front of it. She wondered why the train still stopped here and the station had not been taken out of service.
She also wondered where the person was that was supposed to pick her up. The train had dropped her here almost fifteen minutes ago. If she had not known her better she would have suspected Minako of having played some sort of cruel prank on her.
What little Minako could tell her about the job had sounded rather interesting: a teaching position at some sort of girls-school for special children. After becoming a doctor becoming a teacher had always been her second favorite career when she was little. And while she had not quite given up on her first choice just yet she had to admit that regular 48-hour shifts really did not mix with even occasional Sailor-emergencies. So for now teaching sounded like the next best thing.
Minako could not tell her what class she would have taught at this supposed school of hers. Ami would certainly have been qualified for number of subject. While at University Ami had augmented her rather boring medical studies, which mostly consisted of memorizing things, with some more interesting classes from throughout the academic field. By the time she had reached the point in her medical internship that she had realized that things were not going to work out for her she had acquired enough credits and goodwill with some of her professors that she had still been able to get a degree in a different field. In fact several professors had offered to help her with her dissertation and take care of what they called minor paperwork so that Ami could become their graduate student.
In the end she had compromised by choosing a topic for her dissertation in theoretical physics that included aspects of many of her favorite subjects ranging from math to philosophy and even touched up some issues that had previously only come up during her extracurricular activities. Everybody had been very impressed with her work and Ami had finally become Doctor Mizuno after a fashion.
And now she had thought she might actually land a job with it that would not require her to relocate to somewhere outside Tokyo where she was still needed by her friends. Only it seemed more and more likely as she waited in vain for somebody to pick her up that the job would turn out to be a bust.
Ami had just about decided to take the next train home when somebody called her name.
"Yes, that's me, Ami Mizuno," she confirmed to the man approaching her. "Are you from the school?"
"Yeah, I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this" The young man replied self-consciously scratching the back of his head and playing nervously with his pig-tail. "I thought the custodian would pick you up as he always does with new staff but Oe-kun had a small accident in the staff toilets yesterday with a mop-handle and nobody told me until just a moment ago that I was supposed to do it instead. Really sorry about the wait."
"That's okay Saotome-san," Ami said smiling friendly at the man. "I didn't have to wait long."
"Er, right then," he said acting as if he had expected to be physically punished for that minor inconvenience. "I better lead the way back to the school."
"So are you a member of the staff too Saotome-san?" Ami asked trying to make some conversation as she fell into step with him.
"Physical Education," Ranma confirmed proudly "I will try to get those girls into shape and also teach some advanced self-defense classes to those girls who show the talent for it. I think they also plan to saddle me with whatever weirdness that crops up that they can't fit in anywhere else."
"That sounds interesting," Ami replied politely somewhat mystified by his answer. "Where is the school anyway? Is it far the only buildings I can see from here are part of the amusement park complex."
"Not far," Ranma said stopping in front of a big iron gate and pushing it open. "In fact we are already there."
Stepping through the gate Ami was shocked to see that the park suddenly appeared not nearly as abandoned as it had from the outside. Some sort of magical disguise field must have hidden its true state. There were no visitors but workers and construction equipment could be seen in many places from where she stood. She wondered what was going on and wether it might be a good idea to transform, but the man who had introduced himself as Ranma Saotome made no threatening move instead he stretched out a hand and pointed a building in the distance. It was a large pink fairy-tale castle that in time past must have been the central attraction of the park.
"Welcome," he announced solemnly, "to Pretty Heart the Tokyo Magical Girl Academy."
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(Posted Wed, 31 May 2006 01:24)
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