“Well son, I took the precau - *cough* - er I mean time to enroll you in school.” Genma broke the news to Ranma when the two woke up the next morning.
“School? I already have my diploma, and I am taking correspondence courses to earn some college credits while you drag me over half of Japan. What do I need school for?”
“Nothing is more important than school, Ranma. You don’t want to be ignorant, do you?”
Nabiki was walking by on the engawa, passing the open door that lead out. “It’s the same school Akane and I go to, Ranma. See you there.”
‘I smell something rotten,’ Ranma mentioned to his soul-mate. ‘Nothing to do but to play along. I’ll just get my independent studies done in class.’
‘Might be interesting to see what the school is like.’ Gina had a passing interest in the Japanese educational system.
Akane was hurriedly rushing up to Nabiki. “Wait, I’ll go with you.”
Nabiki smirked at Akane, thinking of a way to tease her sister. “What’re you talking about? Ranma is your fiancè. Remember? You ought to be walking him to school.”
Ranma was speed-dressing meanwhile, once Nabiki had passed by. “No problem, I’ll be ready to go as soon as I have some breakfast,” he said as he stepped out onto the engawa, dressed for the day.
Akane scowled at the bane of her existence. She had spent most of her morning applying concealer to cover the bruises on her head.
Akane was still scowling as they walked towards school. She was walking on the sidewalk, but Ranma was pacing her by fence top.
“We’re not going to get married you know,” she felt the need to say something to Ranma.
Ranma rolled his eyes. “No d’uh. Like I hadn’t made that perfectly clear already. Oh wait, you’re the idiot that can’t grasp simple concepts. I’m surprised you don’t need Kasumi’s help to get dressed in the morning. You don’t need Kasumi’s help, do you?” Ranma didn’t care he was being rude. He was not happy with the current situation.
Akane growled. “Why don’t you come down here and say that to my face, fem-boy?”
“I’m sorry, my pop taught me not to talk to strangers. And they don’t come stranger than you, little-dickie-dyke.”
Akane growled under her breath as she glared up at Ranma. Maliciously, she kicked at the chain-link fence in an attempt to make Ranma fall off into the canal.
Ranma waved it off as of no concern. Leaping down to the sidewalk, he turned to boast, “Heh, check this out!” That was when he got accidentally splashed by some lady washing her stoop with a ladle.
Grumbling, he looked down at his now female form. “Never fails,” he muttered to himself.
Akane sneered at him, “Serves you right, you jerk. And don’t think I’m going to wait while you go find some hot water.”
As they continued walking towards school, Ranma kept silent about the thermos of hot water she carried in her book bag for just these kinds of emergencies. She rather use it closer to school and rub Akane’s face in it then.
When they did approach the school gates, after Ranma switched back to a guy with his thermos of hot water, Akane rushed forward. Ranma figured she didn’t want to be seen entering with him, a feeling that was mutual. But his curiosity was piqued when a small army of boys, many in athletic gear, came storming out of the school screaming for Akane.
‘I guess I’m not the only guy she’s gotten on the bad side of. Can’t blame them, can I?’
A sleepy giggle answered him. ‘She’s a regular princess. Now let me get some sleep, it is getting late.’
Ranma leapt to the top of the wall to watch the proceedings. Akane tore her way through the crowd of boys. What confused Ranma was that they all seemed to be asking her out on a date. ‘I haven’t seen anything like this since that rural village in China,’ he thought to himself.
“Oh, Ranma! Ranma, get in this school now. Don’t worry about Akane,” Nabiki called down to the boy, but Ranma ignored her, curious to watch the fight.
‘They hold back, and get into each other’s way. They fight each other more than her, trying to keep the others from winning. What an odd thing.’
Soon, the boys laid defeated. Deciding the show was over, Ranma leaped off the wall. Not noticing the newcomer appear, Ranma bounced upon Akane’s head – consequently grinding her face into the dirt – reflexively knocked a rose out of the air without noticing, and sailed gracefully up to the balcony where Nabiki stood. Landing like a cat upon the railing, he addressed the middle Tendo sister.
“So, where’s the office, anyways? I ought to see what class I’m in.” Ranma was oblivious to the admiring stares of the girls standing with Nabiki and the angry stare from the two down below.
Nabiki led Ranma to the office and now he stood waiting his turn. He strongly suspected his father might have pulled some shenanigans with what class he may be registered for, as his father knew he already earned his diploma. Furthermore, Ranma couldn’t find any of his transcripts and school documents that morning when he got ready for school.
“Mr Saotome, here is your class assignment and schedule. I’ll have a student show you to your classroom.” One of the office workers handed over some paper without paying him much mind.
“Actually, you seemed to have placed me by age, but I have been advanced in grade level. I don’t have my records with me, but you can get them from my last school.” Ranma jotted down contact information on a piece of notepaper before sliding it across the counter. Hopefully, once they call the other school, he will be allowed to leave.
The office worker spared the paper not a single glance. “You’re father worked everything out. Now, please go to class or you’ll be punished for being late.”
Ranma’s eyes narrowed. “And I know,” he said in a cool calm that heralded trouble for those who knew him well enough, “that upon receiving a new student, you have to test him before placing him. I will go to the superintendent about this ‘little’ oversight.”
The office worker glared at Ranma, upset at being questioned by a kid and at having to do more work. “Fine, I’ll get the Vice-Principal. But I warn you, he’s a busy man who hates having his time wasted.”
The Vice-Principal was just as impatient with Ranma, at first. Since Ranma did ask to be tested, the Vice-Principal had no choice but to grudgingly administer it. While Ranma took the test, amusing the man by how fast he sped through it, sure it was a sign of ignorance, he decided to call the school that Ranma insisted he contact. At least he could take out his frustration, at having his busy day bothered by such a rude boy, on the other school for not having stamped out such impertinence.
Blinking at the name of the school, the man realized it was one of the top in the country. The phone call didn’t go as he had expected, and the scantron form only took 10 seconds for the computer to grade. Ranma got a perfect score on the test, including college preparatory questions that many students, even ones in college, failed. The other school lambasted him for not checking any records upon admitting a student, told him Ranma had graduated with high honors, and that Ranma had also passed the college entrance exams well enough to get into such schools as Tokyo U., but had deferred admissions until old enough that he could attend without his father’s permission. The Vice-Principal, the highest authority while the Principal was away, now found himself in an awkward position having called Ranma back into his office once more. His change in attitude was motivated the most by learning that Ranma has been to the Imperial Palace multiple times, honored by the Emperor himself for being the top student in the nation at an extraordinary young age. The Vice-Principal worried about what the child-prodigy might say about Furinkan at his next tea with the Emperor.
“Saotome-san, I apologize for the earlier miscommunication.” The cold, steely stare from the young boy was unsettling. “It seems you were correct in your claim of being assigned to the wrong class.” The man decided to have more oversight upon his lackeys. “Yes, well, unfortunately you have been entered into the system and as such you are enrolled until you graduate or get expelled. As the latter looks bad on records, even for those who do not need to attend, I suggest the former.”
“Okay, then,” Ranma answered cautiously, “It was a pleasure meeting you. If I could get my diploma, I’ll be on my way.”
The Vice-Principal coughed. “Er, it is not that simple. Recommendations for graduations are made by the faculty only at the end of the year. You’ll have to finish off the school year, but I assure you, you’ll be allowed to leave once the year is up.”
Ranma just groaned. “Do I at least get advanced? The class you have me in now will bore me to sleep.”
The other man nodded. “I don’t see why you can’t be put in the senior honor class, the kids whom you’ll be graduating with. I’ve drawn you up a new class assignment and schedule, as well as a note for your new teachers. I’ll take you to your classroom myself.”
Passing through the outer office, the first secretary that Ranma dealt with smirked at the boy, until he noticed the Vice-Principal’s glare that promised that he’ll be dealt with next.
Kuno stewed in his own juices for most of a class period before accepting the only way to get the information he desired was to pay the distasteful and mercenary girl. “Nabiki Tendo, I request you tell me the identity of the cad who dared to defeat my fierce tigress in front of my eyes before I could.” Kuno laid thirty thousand yen out upon Nabiki’s desk.
Scooping up the money, Nabiki answered without any second thought, being distracted by counting the wad of yen Kuno gave her. “His name is Ranma Saotome, Akane’s fiancè. He and his father came into town yesterday. He’s been registered in Akane’s class.” Nabiki was daydreaming about which manga she’d buy with the money and unaware of thinking out loud. “I’ll have to tell Kasumi that Ranma can indeed defeat Akane even more casually than he did last night.”
Kuno paled and nearly choked on his own tongue. “What? I forbid this! So mote the Blue Thunder of Furinkan high,” Kuno screamed as he leapt up, in the middle of class.
“Kuno – Hall – Buckets,” the teacher admonished the boy for disturbing his class.
Akane was grumbling and grousing. Dirt and grit had adhered to her cover-up from when she had her face planted into the ground. Swinging by the bathrooms before going to class, to wash off and reapply the make-up, caused her to be late. So now she stood in the hallways holding buckets full of water, blaming the entire thing on Ranma.
As such, she was in a prime location to watch Kuno storm by. He threw the doors to her class open and shouted out, “Ranma Saotome, I forbid your betrothment to Akane Tendo!”
Akane hung her head. ‘Why me? Now everyone knows I’m engaged to that perverted freak.’
Suddenly she was surrounded by her class. “Is this true, Akane?” “What engagement?” “How could you? You said you despised men.” “What does he got that I don't?”
“Where are you, you coward? Come out and face my indignant wrath.” Kuno was still looking for Ranma. “Are you Saotome?” He began asking the boys in Akane’s class.
Akane tried to deny everything. “It’s not like that, our fathers decided. I’m not marrying the idiot.” but no one listened, being too busy gossiping.
Indistinct noise of screaming and a crowd talking could be heard all the way in Ranma’s classroom.
Ranma raised his hand. “Sensei,” he asked when the teacher called on him, “is it always this loud here?”
“No, today is a rather quiet day. You’ll get used to it soon.” The teacher then returned to his lesson.
Class went well enough. Ranma found it to be quite easy, though. But lunch proved how different Furinkan would be from the schools he attended in the past. Lunch was when Ranma met Tatewaki Kuno.
“You there, foul knave. Are you the one they call Ranma Saotome?” Kuno, dressed once more in his kendo uniform, accosted Ranma as he sat down to eat with his new classmates.
Ranma blinked, then looked at his new friends. “Interesting welcoming committee you have here. Last school I went to, they handed out complementary pocket protectors and had these three perky girls that would tell you all about the school and various clubs. I had joined the motor club there.”
“Well, we don’t have a motor club here. But there is a shop class,” one of his classmates mentioned.
“I’m in the drama club, myself,” said another of his classmates.
Kuno, angry at being ignored, pulled out his boken. “Vile cur, do not ignore me. I am your upperclassman, Tatewaki Kuno, Junior, Group E, Captain of the Kendo Club, raising star of Kendo, and Blue Thunder of Furinkan High.”
Ranma winked at his friends before smirking at Kuno. “Well, underclassman. I am Ranma Saotome, of the Senior class, Group A. How about showing us some respect, underclassman?”
Kuno recognized one of the people sitting at the table as being the class president for the senior level students. “Upperclassman Ryoji? Why are you sitting with a first year?”
Ryoji Takashi rolled his eyes. “Ranma is in the senior class. He’s been advanced ahead.”
“What villainy is this? That someone so bourgeois should be advanced ahead of myself, the shining example of intellect at this school!”
Ranma sighed. “Does he gets on everyone’s nerves?” He got a bunch of nods from the students who heard him.
Kuno posed with his sword held high. “Be that as it may, I will not stand for your engagement to the fair Akane Tendo.”
Ranma shrugged. “Hey, I don’t like it either. If you want to marry your girlfriend, go ahead. I have no interest in Akane.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Akane, who was nearby watching, yelled out.
“Hah, you expect me to believe you have no interest in the beauteous Akane Tendo, Fierce Tigress of Furinkan High?”
Ranma rolled his eyes. “She’s short tempered, violent, and unable to grasp reality. Now that I think about it, you’re perfect for her.”
Kuno charged. “Speaking ill of Akane Tendo! Die!”
Ranma calmly ducked under the sword strike, grabbed Kuno’s outstretched arm, and spun him into Akane. “Here you go, now kiss and make up.”
Anything Kuno might of said was lost when Akane began to violently pummel him to get him off of her.
“Let’s go finish up lunch in the classroom,” Ryoji advised.
As Ranma picked up his lunch and followed his class president, Akane stood in his way. “And where are you going? Why haven’t you been in class yet?”
“He was in class, underclassman. If yourself and Kuno can’t behave properly, I’ll let everyone know how honorless you two are.” Ryoji gave Akane a no-nonsense look that caused her to back down.
“Sorry, upperclassman,” she mumbled.
Ranma and his friends then continued into class. “What’s he doing with the senior class?” Akane muttered to herself after they left.
After lunch, Kuno burst into Ranma’s classroom. “Face me like a man, Saotome!” he cried as he threw a bucketful of water at Ranma.
Ranma, drenching wet and female, groaned softly. ‘Who is this nutcase?’
“Now see here, young man,” the teacher tried to maintain control of his class, but his efforts were lost on Kuno.
“What black magic is this? The cowardly fool has ran off, leaving a girl to fight his battles for him,” Kuno mocked.
Ranma got up, slowly approached her target, and looked him in the eyes. “Three strikes, and you’re out.”
“Ah,” Kuno responded, “Thou wishes a date with my manly self. I accept your challenge, you may date with me if you win.”
“Who said anything about a date?” Ranma growled dangerously. Faster anyone could blink, Ranma had Kuno in a headlock and rushed towards an open window. Leaping, she pulled the helpless kendoist with her out of the window. The class hurried to watch what seemed to be a grisly suicide-homicide attempt. Plummeting, Kuno screamed. Ranma, however, calmly maneuvered so she was over Kuno. Landing upon the boy, Ranma immediately sprung upwards. Sailing gracefully, she alighted casually upon the window’s sill like a cat.
The class stared at her, wide eyed. Down below, Kuno raised his head, weakly, and proclaimed in a pain filled voice, “I fight on.”
“What?” Ranma asked. “I didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary on him, and that seemed to be the most expedient way to get rid of him.”
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(Posted Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:16)
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