'This was really not one of Sousuke's better ideas,' Ranma decided as he sat on the other side of a large oak desk, facing the Principal of the school. Every once in a while, the large, balding man would look up from the paperwork to stare intently at him, most likely hoping that the pigtailed teenager would suddenly be replaced by a well-groomed middle-aged man. Every time he returned to the documents, he had a disappointed expression on his face.
It was all Sousuke's fault, of course. The mercenary meant well, and he certainly had his priorities straight, but the guy simply had no clue how the world worked. And for Ranma, a martial artist who had grown up training in the wilderness, to realize this meant the shortcoming was glaring indeed.
Sousuke had found out from Orion who this Sailor Moon girl was in civilian identity, and had done some traces. As he knew Ranma intended to find a job, why not help get him one as a teacher at the school Sailor Moon attended? Not only would it help them work closer with the Senshi day to day, but it also restricted the time he was at work to the late morning and early afternoon, unlike his first choice of job, a bouncer at a night club. That way he would be free most of the time to fight if called upon, since it seemed most youma battles happened at night. If an attack happened while he was at work, being employed at the school might help him get the Senshi out of class to fight off the threat. And besides that, it was respectable work.
Which was all fine, but Ranma was sixteen years old. He was supposed to be in school as a STUDENT. Not to mention that he hardly felt he was qualified to be anybody's teacher, even if the subject was gym. Was he supposed to train the students how to fight? What kind of limits were there on public schools as far as esoteric training methods were concerned? Assuming he could FIND live crocodiles, was there a special form he was supposed to fill out before he could dump them in the pool? He just didn't know this stuff!
The principal looked up again. Ranma was still a teenage boy. Damn.
He sighed. "Are you really nineteen?"
Ranma blinked. "Is that what the papers say?" Sousuke apparently knew a guy with connections. Or several guys. He wouldn't say much about them. But he did say they were GOOD. Seeing the principal nod, Ranma shrugged. "Then sure. I'm nineteen. Whatever my totally real and not made-up resume says."
The principal groaned and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples. It seemed on the surface that this whole thing was a scam, but he had done several computer checks and everything looked on the level. Not only was Ranma Saotome fit and educated to be a gym teacher, but he even had some experience teaching a year of high school gym and a year as a boot camp combat trainer. And the idea of teenage teachers wasn't COMPLETELY unheard of. His niece was attending Mahora Academy, where it seemed her new English teacher was some sort of teenage pervert, though he had met the man and at least he looked eighteen.
Also, he was in a serious bind ever since Juuban High had faced Furinkan in the baseball tournament. Apparently the Furinkan team thought the sport had something to do with martial arts. Most of Juuban's players had been brought home on stretchers, and Mr. Nomitoya, the previous gym teacher, hadn't been heard from since.
Nothing to do but push on through the interview process. "So, why do you want to teach here Mr. Saotome?"
"Because I enjoy eating, and don't really feel like going back to stealing things to keep from starving," Ranma said seriously.
The Principal's eyes narrowed. "And why should I hire you?"
"Well, you agreed to this interview, so either you already have a reason, or you just don't have anything better to do," Ranma allowed, leaning back in his chair as he rubbed his chin. "Either way, I don't really know." Honestly, he was expecting to have to flee the room to avoid being caught when somebody figured out his papers and I.D. were fake.
The Principal's eyes twitched. "What do you think you could add to the educational experience of the children who attend this school?"
Ranma scratched his head, frowning. That was a tough one. After a moment, he snapped his fingers. "I could teach them what to do if they're suddenly attacked by energy-draining monsters. I heard that happens a lot around here. And I'll bet they don't learn that in any of the other classes!"
The man on the other side of the desk blinked in surprise. That actually sounded... useful. Not very likely it would work, but it would help his standing substantially if he could honestly say that his school was teaching children to safely avoid youma.
Besides that... he didn't really have a lot of options. There was simply no-one else. The temp they had called in was leaving soon for another job, and none of the local agencies had any spare teachers that were willing to work more than a few days at a time. This new kid would have to take on triple-sized classes as it was.
"You're hired," the principal deadpanned, quite nonplussed at seeing Ranma completely stunned by the admission. "I'll have my secretary file your papers and give you the curriculum you'll eventually be teaching. You start Monday of next week. Get here at 7 AM sharp so we can have someone show you around. That is all."
Ranma rose from the chair almost drunkenly, unable to believe that Sousuke's efficient if idiotic idea had actually worked (he was starting to get the idea that most of the mercenary's plans were like that). "Er... okay. Thanks."
The principal grunted. "I have a feeling I'll regret this, but I don't have a lot of options. Just remember your place and your responsibilities, and everything will work out fine."
"Oh, sure. Totally," Ranma said, idly wondering what his "place" and "responsibilities" were. Oh well, they probably weren't that important if he had already been hired without demonstrating them.
'When I get back home, I'm going to have to as Sousuke just what he put in those papers.'
_____________________________________________________________________
Hematite had to keep from laughing with glee as she successfully snuck into her office through the window and scooped up the reams of signed contracts under her desk. Energy! Wonderful, tasty, healthy energy! It was a bit stale for being under her desk for so long, but she was a starving youma in a desert and greedily sucked up her personal oasis.
It took over an hour for her to completely regenerate her arm after that, but when she could finally move her right hand again, her smile nearly lit the darkened room.
After absorbing the rest of the energy, since she would have no need to hand it over to anyone else now, she took on her human disguise, fixed the window, and then stepped outside to enjoy the cool, late evening air.
She was free.
To a point. She was actually paying a significant portion of her salary to a shadow group of warriors so that they wouldn't kill her, but as a youma who knew nothing of material luxury, financial bondage wasn't a meaningful form of oppression to her.
Oh, sure, she had tried to get the better of her captors when it came to negotiations, but she had quickly found out that they were much better at hurting people (and youma) than they were at business. And they tended to stick to what they knew.
So she was being screwed out of her monthly paycheck. But on the other hand, she no longer had to report back to another youma or any of the generals, or fear being annihilated by her boss. Hell, her "boss" was actually her thrall; she commanded him! All energy drained was hers! She no longer had reason to fear being vaporized by the Senshi (or so her captors said; she was reluctant to take their word on it)! She was the first youma she'd ever heard of to phase out of the whole Negaverse invasion and take a neutral position, making her own life on her own terms (sort of).
Feeling quite pleasant about her new, unexpected freedom, and laughing openly at the thought of never having to see another Dark General again, it's entirely understandable that she froze stiff and went pale white when a gigantic visage of Jaedite suddenly appeared over Tokyo and started talking in a loud, booming voice.
Hematite quickly figured out that the Dark General was simply using a vast illusion to challenge the Senshi to battle, and that he wasn't issuing any warnings to working youma or reprimands to possible traitor youma. It also helped that she realized he couldn't possibly see her, though that didn't draw her out of the bushes she had dived into as soon as she saw the face of her former master.
When the message ended and the illusion vanished, Hematite shuddered. Jaedite was going to fight the Senshi head-on?
Wait a minute. Forget the Senshi. Jaedite had just announced his plans to the whole city. Meaning that the company that had assaulted her and killed several of her fellow youma had to know about this, as well as any teams like them, plus the Japanese government.
Hematite shuddered again, and decided to go inside where it was warm and safe, curl up into the fetal position, and then rock back and forth while whimpering to herself. Tomorrow was going to end very badly for somebody. Honestly though, she had no idea whom that would be.
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(Posted Sat, 18 Nov 2006 06:50)
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