On Saturday, Ranma got kicked out early by Genma to spar... again! The training went on until breakfast. Afterwards, Ranma spent the rest of the morning reading the diary of Phantomias on the roof, where nobody would disturb him. He half-expected one of his rivals or fiancees to show up and ruin his day, but surprisingly, nobody showed up. Five minutes before eleven, he put the diary back under his shirt.
"Time to get going," he murmured. Then a smile crept on his face. "I can't wait to see Haruka again. It's really been too long. He stretched a bit, then looked over to the neighbor's roof. "I guess I'll go there by roof-hopping," he murmured. "It's not that far, and I could use the training."
He just wanted to leave, when a voice called him from down below: "Ranma, where are you going?"
Ranma sighed when he recognized the voice of his fiancee number one. "Akane, I'm just going for a small tour of roof-hopping. To clear my head, ya see?"
"Oh... can I come?" she asked eagerly.
'Uh-oh,' Ranma thought. 'I can't have Akane tagging along, I know what will happen when she finds out that I'm gonna visit a girl I haven't seen in a long time...'
"Sorry, Akane, but I doubt you could keep up with me. I don't really wanna have to wait for you."
"I'll just have to do my best to keep up," Akane frowned. "I've gotten better, Ranma, but I'll never be as good as you are if you don't want me to train with you. And if you refuse to spar with me, the least you could do is to take me along with you."
"Sorry, Akane, maybe some other time. See ya!" And he leapt over to the next roof with a single jump, kept running and jumped from roof to roof until he was out of sight.
Akane silently fumed. "That jerk..." she grumbled. "He never wants to do anything with me... fine! See if I care! I can do it by myself!"
She then sighed and leaned against the door frame. "Aw, who am I kidding? I can't even jump up the roof by myself... Ranma's right, maybe I should train a bit more by myself... But who could help me find out how good I really am?"
"Akane? Is that you? Wh-what are you doing in Hokkaido?"
Akane turned around and saw Ryoga Hibiki standing next to the gate, a befuddled expression on his face.
She grinned. "Ryoga, this is the Tendo Dojo. You're not in Hokkaido."
He scratched his head. "Damn, I thought this place looked familiar..."
Akane smiled and came closer to him. "Saaay, Ryoga... could you do me a biiig favor?"
Ranma managed to reach Juuban within minutes, and only one more minute later, he had reached the place where Haruka was living with her friends. She had often sent him photos of the house per e-mail, so he knew what it looked like.
He grinned. "Just in time!" He leapt down to the street and walked up to the front door, where he rang the bell.
He heard footsteps, then the door opened and a high voice asked: "Yes?"
Ranma looked down and saw the cute face of a young girl, which was framed by dark, violet hair. 'This has to be Hotaru, the foster daughter Haruka told me so much about,' he thought.
He smiled. "Hi there! I'm Ranma Saotome, a friend of Haruka's."
"Oh... you're the same boy she told us so much about?" Hotaru asked. She gave him a short bow. "I am pleased to meet you, Saotome-san! I'm Hotaru... Hotaru Tomoe."
'What a nice, polite little girl,' Ranma thought. "Nice to meetcha, Hotaru. And you can call me just Ranma. Every friend of Haruka is a friend of mine."
She smiled. "Okay, Ranma-san. Oh, and Haruka-papa is in the garage... I think she's working on her bike again. Wait a minute, I'll take you to her..."
'Now that's great timing!' Ranma thought as he followed Hotaru to the garage, where he could hear the clanking of metal. Then he frowned. 'Wait a minute... Haruka-papa??'
They entered the garage, and Ranma could see a pair of legs in jeans that were sticking out from under a heavy motorbike.
"Haruka-papa!" Hotaru shouted. "Your friend Ranma is here to see you."
"Just a minute," Haruka replied, then something heavy fell down to the floor, Haruka cursed something unintelligible, and then she slid out from under her bike with oil-greased arms and face.
"Ranma!" she said with a grin. "Good to see you, buddy!"
"Hey, Haruka!" he said. "Long time no see, huh?"
"You can say that again," she replied with a smirk. She then turned to Hotaru. "Thanks, Hotaru, now why don't you go inside and see if Michiru needs anything?"
Taking the hint, Hotaru nodded and turned around to leave. "It was nice meeting you, Ranma-san," she said before she left.
"Cute girl," Ranma said as he looked after her. "You never told me when you and Michiru decided to adopt a foster child."
"Uuuuh... there have been... special circumstances," Haruka chuckled nervously, knowing that she couldn't possibly tell her friend of anything that was Senshi business. To change the subject, she quickly said: "Say, what do you think of my bike?"
"Looks good, from what I can tell," Ranma nodded. "It's been a very long time since I had the chance to do anything mechanical, you know?"
"You could always come for a visit," Haruka suggested. "I'd be glad to teach you again."
"Just like in old times, eh?" he chuckled. Then he got serious. "Haruka... there's actually a reason why I wanted to see you again."
"I already thought as much," she nodded, leaning against her work bench. "Shoot!"
Ranma pulled out the diary and opened the page with Phantomias' 'special vehicle'. Carefully tearing the page out of the old book, he showed it to his old friend. "Here, take a look at this. What do you think?"
Haruka whistled when she saw the blueprints. "Wow, now that's one interesting contraption. Where did you get that?"
"I... can't tell you that," Ranma sighed. "At least not now."
She raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Ooookay... and you're showing me this because...?"
"See, I... I decided I wanted my own bike, but not just a normal one you can buy in every bike shop. And when I found these blueprints, I just knew that I wanted a bike with all these additional tools and gadgets. I know it's not gonna be easy, but I'm willing to work to pay it off."
"So you came to me, knowing that I'm pretty good with this stuff," Haruka assumed. "Well, I can tell you one thing, Ranma: If I decide to help you with it, it's going to take me some time. You're right, this is pretty complicated stuff, and I don't know if I can get all the necessary parts... but I'll figure something out. What worries me the most is: What do you plan to do with all that stuff? You're not trying to rob a bank, do you?"
"You know I wouldn't do anything like that," Ranma told her in a very serious tone of voice. "And I wouldn't come to you if I didn't know that you would help me. I have a very special reason why I need this bike, but I can't tell you everything about it yet. I just ask you to trust me on this one..."
"Hmmm..." Haruka rubbed her chin. "You know, both of us could get into serious trouble if this comes out."
"I know," Ranma nodded. "And if you decide it's not worth the risk, I understand if you're not willing to help me with this..."
"Are you kidding me?" Haruka grinned. "This is just what I've been dreaming of since racing and tinkering became my hobby. This is the biggest challenge I ever had in my life. I just wanted to make sure that you know what you're getting yourself into."
"So... you're gonna do it?" Ranma asked, in a surprised, but hopeful voice.
"Just leave it to me!" Haruka smirked. She gestured over to something big that was covered with a big blanket. "I still have this old bike standing around there, you know? A racing rival of mine lost it in a bet, and when he gave it to me, he asked me to do the best with it. Well, I can't really go against both his and your requests, can I?"
"Wow, that's really... thank you, Haruka! I really wouldn't have this done by anyone but you. And you can really do it?"
"Sure," she said and looked at the blueprints. "It's complicated, but yeah, I guess I can do it. Just give me two or three days, and I'll call you when you can come to pick up your new super-bike. Hmmm, I better give you my cell phone number, in case you need to speak to me personally. You don't know if it's gonna be me, Michiru or Setsuna who's gonna pick up the phone. And I'm usually carrying my cellphone with me, see?" And she gestured at the work bench, where her cellphone was lying.
"That's great, thanks! I think I'll just write it down in the book... Um, do you have a pen?"
"Sure," she said absent-mindedly as she reached into the pocket of her pants and gave him a pen.
Ranma looked at the unusual, shimmering pen for a while, then shrugged and started writing down the number Haruka dictated.
"That's it," Ranma grinned. "Thanks again, Haruka! I really appreciate your help! Now, I'm sorry but i have to leave now... there's some place I have to go to."
"I don't think you're gonna tell me what kind of place this is, huh?" she asked him with an amused grin.
Ranma shook his head. "Nope. At least not now. Maybe I'm gonna tell you everything, given some time. But I just need to sort out a few things before I can be certain. And um, you're not gonna tell any of your friends about this, are you?"
She shook her head. "No, no, I'm just gonna tell them that I'm doing a friend a favor... well, that is the truth, after all. Just stay out of trouble you can't handle, okay?"
"Hey," Ranma gave her his standard, confidant, Saotome-smirk. "Ranma Saotome doesn't lose! Well, see ya! And tell Hotaru-chan it was nice meeting her."
"Will do. Bye, Ranma!"
And Ranma gave her one final wave, turned around and left. Haruka stepped out of the garage and watched him as he jumped from roof to roof.
She grinned. 'If he only knew that I can do that as well, once I transform into Sailor Uranus...'
Then she thought of something. 'Wait a minute... that pen I gave him...'
She gasped. "Oh no!" she shouted. "I just gave Ranma Usagi's Disguise Pen... and now he has taken it with him!"
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(Posted Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:48)
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