“Name?”
“Shihôin, Ranma.”
“Age?”
“Ten.”
“Birth date?”
“Unknown?”
The principal looked up from the paperwork to the dark skinned woman. “You don’t know your own son’s birthday?”
Yoruichi sighed. “I adopted him after he was abandoned by his father, a man who felt birthdays would make him weak. Even Ranma doesn’t know when it is.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I wish,” she growled, turning slightly, and flexing her hand.
“O ... kay,” said the principal, deciding that moving on might be better for his health. “Well, see if you can find out. We need the information soon.”
“I’ll have it by the end of the week.”
“Fine,” he said, moving on. “I see you have been privately tutoring him for the last few weeks. Any particular reason?”
“His father, and let’s say it explains why there are no school transcripts with that application.”
“Weak?”
“Yes.”
The principal sighed. This boy’s father was obviously a piece of work. “Well, we will have to test him to see what grade he would best fit into. If it is below what we usually put students in his age group in, you will have the option to keep tutoring him for the rest of the school period. We can keep your application on file in the meantime and you can bring him back in to be retested at any time.”
“Thank you,” said Yoruichi. “Ranma?”
“Yes?” asked the boy in a quiet tone, looking back from the window that he had been staring at. So many children here...
“Please go with the principal so he can give you those tests we discussed.”
Ranma merely nodded, and turned to the principal. “I am ready for the tests, sir.”
The man nodded, as he stood up. “Well, I will say this; he’s very respectful for his age.”
Smiling, Yoruichi patted Ranma on his head. “We’ve done our best.”
Ranma sat facing the window again, his tests complete, as he and Yoruichi waited for the results. “So many kids here,” he muttered.
“And a great deal many of them will be possible friends for you,” said Yoruichi. “You need to learn to socialize with kids your own age; more so now than ever before.”
Ranma nodded. “Cause I might flip out?”
“Partially,” she replied. “Truth be told, Ranma, you need to learn what a normal life is like. You only have that half assed job that Genma did to rely on, and it will hurt you later on in life. Now you need to gain as much of a normal life as possible, before...”
“Before I snap again?” he said, looking over to see her sadly nod. “But what if it happens here?”
“It won’t. You’ve done really well with those meditations, and I doubt you’ll meet anyone here even half as annoying as your old man.”
“I hope,” muttered Ranma. “Will Jinta and Ururu be coming as well?”
“They are different cases,” she replied, trying to change the subject. Ranma was nowhere near ready to mentally deal with artificial souls and gigai.
“Ms. Shihôin?”
Yoruichi stood up, smoothing out her dress clothes (which she really hated, as they were restricting for the part-time cat) as she faced the principal. “Yes?”
“Your son is a little low on some of his scores, but I believe if you continue to tutor him on those subjects at home, he should be able to start attending classes with his peers by tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” she said, bowing. “Ranma, please thank ... Ranma?”
“Where did he go?” asked the principal.
Yoruichi was about to respond, when she heard the scream of a Hollow. Turning back towards the window, she saw a rather large one, and if she wasn’t mistaken—and she hoped she was—it was a very powerful one, a beast with intelligence as well as bloodlust.
And Ranma, in his reishi form, was running right to it.
Ranma ‘felt’ its arrival, even before the thing had made its usual call. The air literally was saturated with the dark reiatsu. Without even thinking—something he just knew he was going to get yelled at for when he finished with the Hollow—he shifted into his spirit form, and went towards the source of darkness.
“Well now, they send a small Shinigami out to face me,” smirked the Hollow. “You’ll be a nice snack before I dine on these children.”
Ranma felt his blood boil at the thing before him. “I will give you one chance to return to Hueco Mundo. If not, I will end you here.”
“You think someone as small as you can even stand against me? bellowed the Hollow.
Ranma smirked, as his hands grasped his two zanpakutô. “You were warned.”
And then ... he vanished.
The Hollow could only blink, before its world lit up in pain.
Yoruichi quickly made her way to the battle, looking for injured parties of children who were running from the seemingly random explosions along the outer wall and playground. This is going to take a lot of time to alter their memories.
What she found at the scene of the battle was shocking to her.
Ranma had both his zanpakutô out, moving quickly, using the Flash Step to stay ahead of the Hollow’s attacks, while doing serious damage to the massive creature.
Yet there he was, fighting it, a smile on his face, and no Hollow features of his own detected. When they had first begun to train him after the Broken Shaft test, he usually fell into that form, the thrill of combat seeming to draw it out.
In fact, the meeting with his father had been the first time it had come out so quickly, showing that not only could other factors could mess with it, but certain people would always bring it dangerously close to the surface.
“Stand still so I can kill you, boy!” yelled the beast.
“Kiss my ass, you pasty-faced clown!” yelled Ranma, his zanpakutô slicing its arm completely off, sending the creature back, screaming.
“Ranma!” yelled Yoruichi. “Stop playing around with it and finish it! We don’t have time for you to be playing like this!”
“Ahhh,” moaned Ranma, “I was starting to get the hang of using both zanpakutô against it.”
“You bug! I’ll eat your bones!”
“Ah, shut up,” groaned Ranma, before he vanished.
Before the Hollow could understand where he had gone, Ranma was in front of its mask, his zanpakutô slicing in an X-fashion, before his brain even fully registered he was there.
And then, it broke apart.
“You played with it.”
“I needed to unwind,” he replied, trying to sound innocent.
She wasn’t buying it. “You know we taught you never to play with a Hollow. They adapt, regenerate, and have any number of abilities they can pull out in a moment’s notice. Now tell me the truth.”
“... I was tired of holding back.”
“Excuse me?”
“With the others, I’m always holding back, afraid if I let go, they’ll get hurt. I don’t wanna hurt them.”
“I see,” she said, walking over to him, and pulling him into a motherly hug. “But you don’t have that problem with Hollows, do you?”
“No, they can take what I can dish out, I can find my limits.”
“We’ll discuss this when we get home, maybe Kisuke can figure out something you can really go out against, without risking it with a Hollow.” Though knowing him, he’ll just insist that he should go against Hollows, probably say it is good for the economy with all the damaged areas needing to be fixed.
“Okay.”
“Besides, you have school tomorrow, and we need to get you some clothes.”
Ranma paled at that, remembering their last trip when he needed clothes. “Can we keep it under an hour this time?”
“Maybe, after all, we’re not the ones paying.”
Back at his shop, Kisuke felt a sudden chill go down his back, and into his wallet. “I think I know where my credit card went.”
At the Gates, Pluto sighed. Ranma’s life was starting to get better, but it appeared chaos was inevitable.
But it was the improvements that she was most grateful for. Yoruichi was showing herself to be a great influence on the former Saotome. She had adopted him into her clan—informally of course, since her clan couldn’t be told without revealing where she was. She was insuring he was going to have social skills and the ability to relate to others outside of insults, a plus considering several stray comments from him could turn Sailor Moon into Neo-Queen Serenity, Dominatrix of Crystal Tokyo.
And the less said about the leather-wearing reincarnated princess, the better.
Though Rei enjoying the submissive position did raise more questions than it answered about her attitude towards Usagi.
So ... he was in school, and was going to learn to keep his mouth in control. That was good.
Of course, a chill going down her back told her it wasn’t going to be that easy, as the Gates skipped to...
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(Posted Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:39)
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