Tomobiki, the Aisuru home, early morning…
"Ohayō gozaimashita, Rui-sama. Tea is prepared."
Hearing that friendly greeting, Megane's mother blinked, and then she looked up to see a smiling black-haired, brown-eyed, tomboyish Niphentaxian-form Avalonian standing in the kitchen, dressed in pair of jeans and a pullover sweatshirt over a T-shirt. Blinking as a touch of confusion ran through her, she then smiled. "Right! Forgot! You're part of that group of Avalonians that watched over my son! Ōta Miho, right?"
"Hai," she said with a smile. "How would you like your tea?"
"Plain, please."
"Hai."
She sat down, picking up the paper as Miho prepared the tea. At that moment, Tokiko walked into the room. "Ohayō, Okā-san, Miho-chan."
"Ohayō, Tokiko-san," Miho said as she gazed fondly at her for a moment. "Would you desire tea? Is Satoshi-sama up yet? He will have to hurry to get to school."
Tokiko hummed. "Well, Onii-san…"
Suddenly, an inhuman scream echoed from upstairs, followed by the cascading sounds of multiple bodies slamming into the floor upstairs. "WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT ARE YOU ROBOTS DOING IN MY BEDROOM?! I DIDN'T GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO WALK IN HERE!"
Tokiko sighed. "…is still too much in shock over the others offering themselves to him like they did last night," she then finished.
"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU SHAMELESS TRAMPS!" that desperate voice cried out as more thumps echoed through the Aisuru home. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
As a chorus of kind pleas and expressions of eternal devotion echoed from upstairs, Rui sighed as she looked up. "He has six girls — with a seventh here in Miho-chan — ready to offer themselves in any which way possible and he's STILL pining over Lum?!" She gazed on her daughter as she took her seat and Miho moved to prepare tea. "What's wrong with him, Tokiko?! Why does he constantly want what he can't have?!"
A smirk. "He's afraid of becoming a nobody again, Okā-san."
Rui blinked. "'Nobody?'"
A nod. "Yep. After that whole thing with the space-taxi, he — and the others, too — discovered they had power and influence when it came to Hensō. It wasn't enough to fully break her away from Ataru, of course, but it was enough to make him and the others feel like they were kings of the world, especially given how unstoppable 'Lum' seemed to be at the time." She then chuckled before nodding her thanks to Miho as tea was handed over. "Suddenly, Ataru turns around and divorces Hensō, driving her off the planet with the help of Nengmek'i-sama and his friends. Much to Onii-san's horror, 'Lum' is proven not to be so unstoppable. And then Hiromi comes along and totally turns everything Onii-san believed as proper upside-down. And he can't take it; none of them can!" A shrug before she sipped her tea, shaking her head. "Even with the proof having flown over this city last night! And now coming to class!"
"He still thinks Hensō is Lum?!" Rui asked.
"Of course! And why not?! The real Lum won't give Onii-san the time of day and is more than happy to share Ataru with her three best friends, not to mention Kyech-san. And they're even thinking of getting Shinobu and Chigaiko into the act!" Tokiko giggled as a scandalised look crossed her mother's face. "That's nowhere CLOSE to the Lum Onii-san knows, so it's easy for him to conclude: Lum is not Lum. Hensō is Lum."
"It is a pity that Satoshi-sama is not an Avalonian," Miho then said as she sat down with her own tea cup; Rui had made it clear that while they were staying with the Aisuru family, Miho's group of Avalonians were NOT to act as housemaids. "He would be able to realise what befell Lum-sama five years ago and accept her as she truthfully is."
"Well, we could whip up a new body for him, but he'll have to accept a sex change. And he's NOT going to take to that very well," Tokiko warned.
"And speaking of which, how are YOU adjusting to all this?!" Rui wondered.
A smile. "I'm alright, Okā-san. When Miho's brother and the others' sisters all prepared this body, they had what happened to Saotome Ranma as an example of what NOT to do when it came to giving Onii-san a new chance at life as a woman." She pointed to the side of her head. "I adjusted to what I was right when I woke up. I'm okay with what I am." She then sighed. "I don't know if that's a good thing or not."
Rui shrugged. "Let's not debate that, Tokiko-chan," she then advised, and then she winced on hearing a big crash! from the direction of the upstairs bedroom. "AISURU SATOSHI! STOP BEING SO CRUEL TO THOSE POOR GIRLS AND MAKE LOVE TO THEM!" she then bellowed upstairs. "THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL THAT I'LL EVER SUPPORT YOU MARRYING THAT BRAT ONI, SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAKE WHAT YOU CAN GET!"
"OKĀ-SAN!" Megane screamed from the upper floor.
Tokiko and Rui laughed while Miho smiled…
Later…
"Tokiko."
"Hai, Onii-san. What is it?"
"Why are these tramps following…URK!"
That came from Tokiko's heel slamming HARD into his foot, which made Megane scream out. "Look, stupid!" she then snarled as she glared deeply into his eyes, her own glasses glowing infernally (just like his did whenever he got really mad). "Even if these girls are bioroids and don't have much in the way of experience when it comes to dealing with other people, that DOESN'T give you the right to insult them like that!" she snarled. "They've got feelings, too! And if you hurt them, I'll make what Nengmek'i-sama did to you six months ago look like a garden tea party in comparison!"
Megane awked on hearing that dire threat as he tried to waive his sister off. By then, the other Stormtroopers and their sisters — each pair followed by a group of very happy Avalonians just like the Aisuru siblings were now — came up to join them. "Oh, man! You, too?!" Perm wondered as he saw the girls now with Megane and his sister. "Don't tell me you gotta put up to them, too?!"
Before Megane could answer, Nijiko smirked as she gazed on the Aisuru siblings' companions. "So how was he, girls?! Did any of you score with the big stud here?!"
Megane awked as Tokiko laughed. "Not without trying, of course!" the latter said, and then she leered at the other Stormtroopers, all of whom look as if they hadn't gained much in the way of sleep the previous night. "What about them?!" she asked.
The Stormtroopers' sisters all smirked. "Their resistance is still strong, but it is futile in the end," Takako said as she gave Chibi a knowing look. "Making Nii-chan's girls all parade around NAKED in his bedroom almost broke him!"
Chibi awked. "CHIBI!" Megane screamed out. "HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN OUR SACRED OATH?! HOW DARE YOU THINK OF ANY OTHER WOMAN THAN LUM-SAN?!"
"Oh, look who's talking!" Tokiko then said. "What about your 'Venus,' Onii-san?!"
Megane yelped. "And don't start playing 'holier than thou,' Nii-kun!" Nijiko warned as she glared at Perm. "I'll be more than happy to tell the whole school about all the dates you do on the side, even NOW, with a ton of girls from all over Tomobiki!"
"HEY!" Perm screamed out.
"Ohayō!"
Megane perked. "LUM-SAN!" he yelped before turning around, and then he moaned. "Ah! It's only the stupid double…AWRRRK!" he then screamed out as Ataru's hand then shot out of nowhere to snare him by the throat and squeeze HARD.
"Listen, you four-eyed traitor to the human race!" Ataru snarled as his eyes began to glow and the shadows on his face darkened. "You can keep on heaping all the shit you want over me, but NEVER say a bad thing about my girl! ANY of them! GOT ME?!"
Megane couldn't respond as his larynx was being crushed by his classmate's hand. The other Stormtroopers, who immediately moved to jump Ataru for hurting their leader, were being held back by their sisters, who had them all in overpowering headlocks. After a moment, Lum then sighed as she gently squeezed her lover's shoulder. "Darling, don't waste your time with this useless mound of flesh," she said. "He's not worth it." She then sent a scathing look at the other Stormtroopers. "NONE of them are!"
All four boys looked horrified by that dire pronouncement from the Oni. "True," Ataru then said as he casually flung Megane into a nearby telephone pole.
By then, the others were quick to notice two other people currently accompanying the Moroboshi siblings and their normal companions. "Eh?! Saotome-san! Tendō-san! What are YOU TWO doing here?!" Mitsuko then asked. "Don't you go to Fūrinkan?!"
"Not for the next week or so," Akane answered as she squeezed Ranma's hand, which he quickly returned. "We'll be temporarily going to Tomobiki High while we're on a training trip with Ataru-san's sister Negako."
"Why's that?" Tokiko asked.
Everyone then headed down the street. "Well, Jijii…that's Happōsai, the grandmaster of our school…actually developed the basic principles of Musabetsu Kakutō-ryū after seeing one of Negako's past hosts in action during the Bakumatsu period," Ranma said as everyone shifted closer so they could hear him. "He actually became Negako's first real friend after she became sentient back in 1808; he tried to give her a magical body of her own a couple of times, too."
"So before Ranma can be declared the new Grandmaster of our school, Ojii-san wanted him to come train under Negako-san to the point where he'd be declared chūnin in Saikō Jinseijutsu Ninjutsu-ryū," Akane added. "We'll do the initial training now and see what has to happen this week, then plan future training trips accordingly."
"Waaaah! That's cool!" Takako gushed.
"What about your other fiancées?!" Tokiko then asked. "And the idiots that chase after them, not to mention Akane-san?! What's going to happen if they come after you?!"
"I'm sure the Grandmaster will make VERY sure that others won't impose themselves on all of us," Hiromi then assured them. "If they do, they'll be dealt with."
"With lethal force, Hiromi-sama?" Koshaji Enjō then asked, smiling knowingly.
Hiromi moaned. "Hopefully not to THAT extreme, Kyoko-san."
The others all laughed…
Meanwhile, at Fūrinkan…
"So where are Akane-chan and Ranma-kun?!" Asano Sayuri demanded.
"Yeah!" Chanpatsu Hiroshi added. "This strange woman comes out of nowhere, twists Kunō-kōchōsensei into a pretzel, shatters both of Kunō-baka's hands and turns Ninomiya-sensei's ki-draining attack against her! And then she walks out of the school with both Ranma's and Akane-chan's school records! What's the deal here, Nabiki?!"
As other people shouted questions at her, Tendō Nabiki was truly in her element. While she really didn't care too much for what happened to the other members of her family — the emotional barrenness of the Tendō home in the wake of the death of her mother, added to the sheer overwhelming chaos that followed Ranma's arrival in her life, had, over the years, pretty much burned away all but the most basic feelings she had for her siblings — she did know that she still needed the support of her home to give her the right launch pad to make her mark in the wide world beyond.
And with what Happōsai just told her and Kasumi last night…
"Okay, people! Calm down here!" she then said as she held up both her hands to calm the crowd around her down, and then she smirked. "It doesn't come cheap!"
The others around her all moaned as they reached for their wallets…
Tomobiki…
"So you're actually going to renounce your family name?!" Nijiko exclaimed.
"I have no choice," Ranma said as everyone made their way onto the grounds of Tomobiki High School. "Turns out, both my parents and Akane's father have been feeding us all a ton of lies over the last year, especially when it came to things like 'uniting the two schools' and 'following honour' and all that." He then smirked. "It turns out Oyaji was expelled from his family, the Hayashi Clan of Nagoya, when he married Okufuro."
"Why?!" Tokiko asked. "And why aren't you 'Hayashi Ranma' instead of 'Saotome Ranma?'"
"Because the Saotome Clan of Shinjuku was, at the time the marriage happened, seen as a socially higher family since they are descent of samurai, while the Hayashi Clan are descent from merchants," Akane explained. "So when the marriage happened, Genma was adopted by Nodoka's father as his son beforehand so that Nodoka wouldn't be 'marrying down' in the eyes of her peers." She then sneered. "Not that she had much to back up her claim of being 'nobility,'" she then added with a shake of her head.
"So what's the real story?" Michiko asked.
Ranma and Akane shared a look and a smile. "Ranma's maternal great-grandfather was American," the latter then said. "Professor Henry W. Jones, Junior."
"Indiana Jones, in other words," Ataru said with a smirk.
Silence.
"No way!" Takako breathed out.
"What's so damned wrong with that?!" Nijiko demanded.
Akane shrugged. "As far as I'm concerned, nothing at all," she said before she gave Ranma a kind smile. "But it does explain some of the hair-brained things Ranma here's gotten himself involved with over the years!"
Everyone took that in, and then people began to laugh. "So why aren't you 'Ranma Jones' then?" Ran then asked as she gazed in curiosity at Ranma.
"Well, if Hijii-san wants to adopt me, I won't mind it," Ranma admitted, and then he perked as he sensed the principal of Tomobiki High approach. "Ohayō, Kōchō-sensei."
"Ohayō," Akane said as she and her boyfriend bowed to him.
"Ah, Tendō-kun! Saotome-kun!" the principal said before he caught himself, and then he gave Ranma a sincere, apologetic look. "Oh, dear me! Excuse me! I meant no insult because of that! Will that be 'Hayashi-kun' or 'Jones-kun?'"
Sensing that the elderly school administrator was trying not to offend him, Ranma gave him a reassuring smile. "As I was explaining to all of Ataru's friends here, sir, if Hijii-san wants to adopt me, I won't mind it. But as soon as Hiromi's friends help with all the formal arrangements, it'll be 'Hayashi Ranma.'"
A nod. "Very well. We'll make the changes to your school records right now; Negako-san brought yours and Tendō-kun's records to the school an hour ago so we could process them." He then gazed on Bachō Mōki. "Uma-kun, both Tendō-kun and Hayashi-kun will be in your class. See to it they make it to homeroom class on time."
"Hai!" Mōki said with a nod.
"HOLD IT!"
Everyone tensed on hearing that shout, and then they turned as Onsen Mark marched up to them, shinai at the ready. "Is there a problem, Onsen-sensei?!" Hiromi asked.
Onsen ignored her as he glared into Ranma's eyes. "Hayashi, you make DAMN sure that ALL your stupid friends don't come here to cause trouble!" the vice-principal snarled as he pointed at him. "The school's maintenance budget has already been drained because of all the things that happened her when Lum's sister was here…!"
"HEY!" the Stormtroopers all yelled in outrage.
"BE QUIET!" Onsen bellowed out, shouting the four men down. He glared once more at Ranma. "Any 'doors' made by your Chinese friend, YOU fix them! Got me?!"
"Hai!" Ranma said, nodding.
"Good!"
And with that, Onsen stormed off. "Well, other than that, I trust your stay here will be educational," the Principal said with a smile before he headed to his office.
The two new arrivals from Fūrinkan blinked, and then they turned to gaze on the Moroboshi siblings. "Hey, Ataru! Is he always that laid back?" Ranma asked.
"Wait until he hits us with a 'physical,'" Tariko warned.
"Hai, we are due for something like that soon, ne?" Hiromi mused.
"What's a 'physical?'" Akane asked.
"C'mon in. We'll explain it to you," Ataru said as he waved everyone with him…
So as Ranma and Akane start their first day at Tomobiki High…
(Posted Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:07)
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