Ranma and Miu looked around as they entered the grounds of Ryozanpaku to see that everything seemed to be going on as usual for the inhabitants. Kenichi was undergoing training from Apachai, which mostly consisted of punching a pair of handheld targets. Shigure was out on the grass going through her sword forms in a pattern that brought her in a circuit around the dojo’s inner perimeter. Kensei was nowhere to be seen thanks to Shigure’s close proximity, and Sakaki doing some one-handed balance and exercise inside the dojo with the door open.
“Hey guys we’re back,” Miu said as she waved her arm to greet them.
The announcement went seemingly unnoticed for the most part, until Shigure turned around a corner. “Welcome back girls, did you have a good time?” Kensei asked from his spot, perched above the dojo gate with a camcorder in his hand. “Wait a minute Ranma, you’re a girl! Don’t tell me last night, the two of you decided to… experiment?”
In the dojo, Sakaki fell flat on his face.
Over by the corner, Kenichi completely missed his target and stumbled into Apachi’s stomach.
Apachai’s face went completely blank. “Apa?”
Shigure looked back around the corner and raised an eyebrow.
“WHAT?” Miu yelled, scandalized at the very idea.
“No!” Ranma answered before launching a flying kick at the man, who was gone long before Ranma got anywhere close to his position.
Kensei Ma put away his camera and sighed. “Ah well, I can still dream though.”
“Not if I can help it!” Miu shouted before tossing her husband’s shoes at the Chinese martial artist, which he deflected rather than dodged, and continued to keep well out of either girls reach. She quickly gave up with the chase when Kensei bounded onto the dojo’s roof, and went back to get Ranma’s shoes.
When Miu gave Ranma her shoes back, Ranma looked around the grounds and then back to the other martial artists. “Where’s Akisame?”
After picking himself up, Kenichi looked over to answer the redhead’s question. “I think he went to go see what the Elder wanted from the supermarket.”
“I’m gonna go change and get our stuff,” Ranma told Miu before heading for the house.
“Okay, I’ll get into my normal clothes and say bye to Grandpa,” Miu said.
Inside the house, Ranma headed to the bathroom and turned on the shower. As she waited for the water to get hot, redhead looked back at her reflection in the mirror. Thanks to years of training, the cubby cuteness of her face had been refined into one of shapely beauty. Her arms and legs were thicker too, although they still held their effeminate charm. Unfortunately her breasts were still too big, since Ranma spent most of his days as a guy, they hadn’t seen a reduction in size do to diet and exercise. If anything, her body was twice as beautiful as it had been a few years previously.
Ranma hated her female body.
It wasn’t the catcalls and attention she got as a girl, or the wisecracks like the one she had earlier from Kensei. Although those things were annoying, she had learned to ignore them for the most part. Being in a female form was just… unnatural. Before she had even started to master her ki, Ranma had to first learn how to gain a self-awareness both physical and mental that most people would consider impossible.
As a girl, being in an unnatural body made that impossible.
Turning away from the mirror, Ranma got into the shower to change back.
Back in her bedroom, Miu was also looking at herself in a mirror. She had changed out of the dress she had worn back at the hotel and unto the blue skintight suit she usually wore when fighting, training, or just going about her business really. After taking a few moments to brush her hair, Miu put her hairclip back and grabbed her jacket.
The glint of something in the corner of her eye caught Miu’s attention, and she looked down to see her old pair of glasses. With the encounter with Kisara still fresh in her mind, Miu picked the things up and sighed. Back when she had first entered high school, Miu had gotten into a highly ranked school. But, thanks to her training she had lead a somewhat secluded life, and hadn’t realized at the time how strange it would seem to everyone to meet a girl with her abilities. It was nothing like she could do now of course, just some basic stuff life roof-hopping, jumping across rivers, and running up walls. Still, she was different enough to become isolated from all the social groups because of those abilities.
When she transferred to a new school a month later, Miu tried a different approach. In an attempt to blend in she put her hair into a braid, and tried to downplay her sexiness by adding a pair of glasses to her ensemble. Although Miu still had a few odd quirks, she at least looked normal enough for people to approach during that time.
Unfortunately, her whole plan fell apart when she ended up joining the gymnastics club to become its star in less than a day, then there were all the fights at school, and in the general area surrounding the school, and the Ranma problem; although they managed to keep that last one from being found out by the general populace. So by the time she had entered her second year, Miu had discarded the meek nerdy persona in favor of her more public one.
After putting her glasses into the dresser drawer, she put such thoughts aside and headed towards the storage room that had become Ranma’s living space.
Meanwhile, Ranma was already in his room and putting on his fighting clothes.
About a year after joining Ryozanpaku, Ranma had given up his usual Chinese attire. He had become tired of shoes that were either a size too small or too big, and practically swimming in his clothes half the time. While they were light and somewhat adjustable, there had been too many times when changing into a girl had caused wardrobe problems during a fight by having someone grab her baggy shirt or a shoe slipping off causing a loss of balance. Not to mention silk was practically transparent when wet.
Shigure was the one who solved his problem… sort of. The seemingly emotionless kunochi made an outfit much like her own, although it did have pants, and put in several features to deal with a wearer that changed sizes. Elastic material in the front and waist that kept the pants from falling off and provide support for her chest area. There were also several hidden laces that would allow him to cut down on bagginess once tied, and both the leather arm and shin braces were very adjustable. Although all the adjustments took a little time to do in the middle of a fight, it was better than what he had been using previously.
It had been a little strange to walk around in a ninja getup. At least Shigure had stopped making them from her usual purple material and got some white cloth.
Just as Ranma finished getting everything on, Miu opened the sliding door.
“You dressed?”
Ranma turned around and gave her a deadpan look. “You know, people usually ask that before opening the door.”
Miu gave a little laugh and decided not to comment on how she’d already seen everything he had up close. “Come on, my grandpa will probably freak if we leave without telling him.”
On the other side of the compound, Hayato Furinji sat in deep thought with his arms and legs crossed inside one of the larger unoccupied rooms in front of a Buda statue. A blight battle aura surrounded the man that was probably the most powerful martial artist in the world, giving off all the light the room need. After much contemplation he looked up and glared. “I want some Snickers, and two packets of suckers. Make sure it’s a mixed bag, but not tropical fruit themed or anything like that! I just want the normal kind.” He couldn’t stand that new age flavor junk.
Akisame nodded and wrote the order down on the shopping list.
All of a sudden the door behind him slid open, letting light into the room. “Hey Grandpa we’re back, just dropping by to get our stuff and we’ll be off.”
“Ah Miu, I’ll have some three eggs, rice, and a glass of orange juice,” Akisame told the girl.
“I’M NOT DOING YOUR ERRANDS ON MY HONEYMOON!”
The jujitsu master with the white eyes stepped back in shock and horror. “But… but what about our meals? The laundry? Who’ll do the taxes?”
Miu rolled her eyes at the man’s exaggerated emotions and sighed. These guys really were pathetic when confronted with real world problems. “It’s not like I’ll be gone permanently.” Although, she did see some problems that would crop up later on down the line if she continued to live in the dojo with Ranma. But with no real source of income, there was no way they could afford an apartment, or a house.
Alas, the eternally empty wallet was the curse of a true martial artist.
As Miu had her conversation, her grandfather Hayato looked over to his son-in-law. When he had first met Ranma, he had been less than impressed with the boy. As he had gotten to know the lad over the next couple of weeks, that opinion had changed to something akin to disgust. Despite the damage to his pride, Ranma had still been an arrogant, self-absorbed fool when they first met. There was no doubt in the old man’s mind that if he had thrown the child out of the dojo after his loss, Ranma would have ended up joining with the likes of YOMI, or got himself killed in some meaningless brawl.
But Ranma had also been rather young back then, especially in mind and spirit. Because of that, Hayato had decided to take the boy under his wing and teach him. The decision was something that would lead to some of the biggest headaches of his life.
The boy had been twisted inside in so many ways. He practiced martial arts for any real reason other than to feed his ego, and try to gain the defining thing in life that all men sought to obtain their happiness. He had no respect for others, or himself for that matter. He also had no patience, and seemed willing to try any cheap trick in order to gain power as fast as possible.
Hayato thought that was probably his worst trait at the time. Ranma wanted the power and skill of a master in order to try and validate his existence, but was unwilling to absorb the wisdom that came with such a journey. That alone made him dangerous to both himself and everyone around him.
Hayato had even set it up so Ranma and Miu went to different schools to try and tone down the bad influence Ranma would have on her. Of course that didn’t end up going according to plan, but then he never thought of how much of a good influence that Miu would be to Ranma. Their getting close also caused a whole mess of problems on its own, but Hayato had managed to keep them from being too damaging.
The young man standing before him today wasn’t quite a different man, but Hayato supposed that many people had matured much less in the few short years they had been together. Ranma still had several arrogant tendencies, but he no long thought of himself as above most other people, or needed a constant stream of victories in battle and endless women to keep him from sinking into a depression.
“So, you’re going to be going to this Teno Dojo then?” Hayato asked the young man.
Ranma looked over and shuffled his feet. “It’s the uh, Tendo Dojo. I figure it’s the only staring place I’ve got. The other people I knew moved around a lot.” Ranma supposed he could ask Niijima to try and track down Ukyo for him, but that also meant having to be in the guy’s presence again. It wasn’t the best place to be.
For his response, Hayato crossed his arms and nodded. He knew that the boy didn’t truly have to confront his past in such a way to continue to progress. The way the old man saw it, Ranma’s past was finished with, it had no hold over him anymore. While those were some lingering doubts left in the boy’s mind about his current self being his true identity or just some temporary change, they would no doubt fade with time.
But the boy always did try and jump at challenges, another leftover trait from his first days at Ryozanpaku. The only difference was that this time, it wasn’t some exercise or battle to build his skills. This test would be on Ranma’s character, and while it was the quickest path of his all choices, it wasn’t necessarily the easiest, or the worst.
“In that case I wish you good luck, and a speedy return,” Hayato told his students.
Miu blinked at how well her grandfather seemed to be taking everything much better than she had expected. He hadn’t been able to stop crying at her wedding. Something told her she had best not push her luck and get going. “Okay Grandpa goodbye. I’ll see you in a few days!”
Seeing that he was getting that look in his eyes, Miu quickly grabbed Ranma and hustled him out the door.
“A few days?” Hayato mumbled under his breath.
Akisame sighed and crossed his arms. “Yes, it seems that they’ve got some errand to run before their trip to China.” Now who would cook his breakfast the way he needed it? Fast food was too full of junk to be of any use.
“B-But… I thought they were only going to be gone for the afternoon,” Hayato said. What about China? They were going there for just a weekend right?
Knowing what was coming, Akisame quickly dashed to the exit. “Well I’d better get going. Don’t want the market to run out of stock.” He shut the door behind him, and then made his way towards the exit of the dojo’s wall before the other man could even start his emotional breakdown.
“My baby girl is leaving me!”
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(Posted Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:13)
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