With things finally coming out into the open, Ranma decided to get as much settled as he could while the hot-headed one was still taking her nap. “So the magical cheerleader thing is your secret? Well, training Hotaru and some other girls, I’m cool with that as long as they take it seriously. Unfortunately, you might have screwed up.”
Setsuna could have taken offense, but it was a bit of a pleasant surprise to find Ranma taking this somewhat seriously. “Alright, I’m listening.”
Talking with sane mature people for once, Ranma took a moment to compose his thoughts. “Alright, first off, no one really notices I’m gone normally when I leave by myself. That’s normally though, when some woman comes and makes arrangements and leaves with me, that’s something that becomes news. That was the first thing you did wrong.”
“Second thing you did wrong is you let my father know you have money and you’re willing to pay. He’s a short-sighted greedy idiot that will waste it all on booze and partying as soon as he gets it, and he won’t wait more than a few days for his pay-off. If he had any sort of patience to match his greed he’d be using me to make money more often. Nabiki wouldn’t normally get involved with something like this, but if the offer you made says you’ve got money to spare, she’ll come looking to scam her some easy money.”
Paling just a bit, Setsuna realized his second point was quite the nasty one as it reminded her of why she found Genma so repulsive. Although she had plans to deal with trouble as it popped up, she might have gotten herself more trouble than she was prepared to deal with in this instance.
Seeing he’d made his point, Ranma decided to lighten up the issue a bit. “You tried to play it straight and honest, which might work a bit. It’s not like they’re going to do anything overtly criminal, just be major annoyances. Just gotta make sure you don’t give them any more bait, it all depends on how they took it.”
Humming thoughtfully, Ranma rocked back and forth as he tallied up the situation. “They can get organized pretty quick, hopefully you didn’t give them too many clues to find where you live. Now, you made it real clear to me that I’m just here to train Hotaru and this ain’t some engagement scheme, but you probably won’t convince the girls of that. Then there are guys like Ryoga that’ll never listen to reason, will show up at some random time and will probably rip your place apart. Not that he’d do it on purpose really, it’s just we’re talking about a guy that can make boulders explode by poking them and walk through cement walls without noticing them.”
Pausing a moment, Ranma decided to see if he was wasting his time as this woman seemed pretty sure of herself. “So, you wanna hear how to avoid all that fun coming your way or are you prepared to deal with whatever happens?”
Curious what he had in mind but not overly optimistic, Setsuna nodded. “I’ll listen.”
In full crisis management planning mode, Ranma laid out the most basic options. “Okay, if you wanna play it straight, that might work, but it’s really risky. The better option is when the trouble starts up, let me go, then when things cool down I can come visit when I get a chance. If you’d like something more permanent and you’ve got the money to swing it, get me an apartment, that way there’s no seeing me living with women freakout, plus if anything goes down it shouldn’t involve your home exploding into splinters.”
Setsuna had to admit those were actually reasonable courses of action if things became difficult. “Well, those make for good backup plans if trouble occurs, but what is your estimate of staying at the house.”
Pondering this issue, Ranma condensed it down into a fairly simple version. “Well, first off, combat cheerleader mode will probably just get you hurt, so just pretend to be normal harmless girls. As for trouble, it depends on how long it takes for the old man to get antsy and how much Akane gripes at school, which will depend on how annoyed she is, which will probably be a lot. I don’t have a clue what their reactions were since I got dragged off immediately, so I can’t help ya there. Don’t know how it’ll go down, they might be reasonable or they might just come in like a natural disaster.”
Nodding in thanks to the young man, Setsuna spoke up. “Thank you, I’ll be sure to keep your advice in mind.”
Having cleared both his annoyance with the strange woman and his conscience about potential trouble that would happen, Ranma glanced over at Hotaru. “Well then, how about a little lesson?”
The slender girl seemed surprised by the suggestion, particularly after watching her new sensei make a mockery of one of the most combat capable senshi. “Again?”
Ranma casually backflipped from his seated position to a handstand before launching airborne in continuation of the flip to land on his feet. “Well, you wanna keep your secrets, that’s fine. Basic training will be mostly be physical conditioning to get you in shape, some actual training in techniques and a bit of meditation to round things out. You want specific training, just ask.”
Letting that sink in, he continued on. “What you wear is up to you, we don’t have a special training or fighting outfit. You’ll probably want some kind of exercise or athletic clothes though. I’ll wake you up early and you’ll work up a sweat before breakfast, so that’ll be one exercise outfit and shower. We’ll do another heavy workout in the evening, so you’ll probably want to wash up before bed too.”
Seeing she was still sitting and staring at him, Ranma beckoned her forward. “Well come on, this will be about technique.”
Hotaru hesitantly stood and walked over to face her instructor, obviously feeling timid in his presence.
Sighing, Ranma decided to assess what she needed. “Well, I’ve got a good idea of what you’re capable of, but how about you show me your flexibility?”
A bit surprised, the slender girl hesitantly did the sort of stretching actions that were taught in girl’s PE classes.
Frowning as he realized she was below normal schoolgirl levels even in flexibility, Ranma turned to the woman that seemed to know everything. “Is this just to get her in shape, or does she need to be able to fight sometime soon for some reason?”
Setsuna sighed as she answered, realizing she’d perhaps made things a little too non-romantic between the pair. “No, there is no pressing need to teach her to fight, it’s just to get her into a healthy condition. If she wants to learn to fight, she might prefer physical combat to relying on her abilities.”
Turning back to his student, Ranma sighed at how much work he’d have to do, and that was without interruptions. “Okay, you can stop already. We’ll do some Tai Chi forms for now, they’re pretty gentle, plus they’ll help with your muscle control and flexibility.”
With that, Michiru got a demonstration that was more pleasant to watch as Ranma gently instructed Hotaru, movement-by-movement, in the gentle forms of the style.
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(Posted Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:40)
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