Ranma and all related characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi. Candidate for Goddess is not mine either. I am merely using these characters and storyline for entertainment purposes only.

Candidate Ranma for Goddess

Chapter 2 - Adjusting

Zero fell back from his opponent. "What are you up to now?"

The man stepped up over him, "As chief of GOA's sanitary station, I cannot stand that unnerving haircut." He stepped right up to Zero and knelt down next to him, snapping a pair of scissors right next to his ear. "First of all, your clothes are not clean. Filthy...filthy..."

"C-Cutting them off? I'll take them off..."

"And you! Though your clothes are in better shape, you understand that you may have brought numerous germs on them when you came...We must get rid of them."

"Hey! Hey! No one's gonna burn my clothes! These're all I got!" Ranma cried. "They're all I got left when I came..." he finished in a more subdued tone. He began thinking of the home he left and the memories that came when they talked about his clothes. They were his best set of red chinese silk shirt and black pants.

"We can synthesize a new set for you, but you have to understand that what are on them could be a hazard to our ship."

"...You can do that?"

"But you wouldn't be able to wear them."

Ranma facefaulted at that. "What the hell does that mean?"

"You will be wearing uniforms." A voice spoke up behind them. Ranma turned and saw it was the captain.

"I thought your duty was finished." Ranma quipped. The chief of the sanitary station was busy cutting Zero's unruly hair, and he was making a powerful effort to avoid it at all costs. Ranma didn't know that he himself was up next.

"Help! Ranma! Old man! Get this crazy guy offa me!"

The captain sighed, blowing out a plume of smoke from the cigarette he was smoking. "I am not an old man. Sure I was the captain that brought you here on that transport. However, I am also qualified to be your scary instructor during your stay that will show you the way. I'm Azuma Hijikata. Nice to meet you"

"Nice ta meetcha, sensei."

Azuma's watch beeped. "Oh, it's that time already? I have to go now. It's time for your entrance ceremony. Don't be late, you two! You should know where to go. I showed you when we came this way. Shouldn't be hard to find..."

He left then. Zero started making louder and louder cries for help. Ranma looked at him, and wondered if HE was going to have to have a haircut himself. And his ears hurt.

-

"Finished! Now you can go anywhere without being so embarrasing!" With that, Zero, clad in a new black and white uniform, Zero left in a dejected manner. When the door closed, the chief turned to Ranma sitting at a waiting chair, the light in just the right position to overshadow his eyes. They glinted in what seemed an evil way. "Now...it's YOUR turn."

Ranma sweatdropped. "Uhh, you just gotta give me a uniform...right? Cause aint NO way yer cuttin off my pigtail!"

"We have regulations. Your hair is not regulation standard. I must correct this." Ranma coulda sworn there was a faint hint of a maniacal laugh in there somewhere.

"No way! No one's gunna cut off this pigtail! Principal Kuno never could, and you aint either!" With that he decided to invoke the Umisenken's cloaking ability and disappeared from view. He figured that that ability would be fine to unseal from his father's forbidden techniques because he wasn't going to use any of the other devastating forms. He just wanted to disappear.

"What? Where did he go?" The chief was startled to see the boy suddenly disappear. He looked back and forth, then hit the lock on the door at his console. Bap! "Aha! Found you!" He leapt at the door and managed to tackle Ranma, knocking him out of his Umisenken cloak. "Thought you could escape that easily? Think again." He lowered his voice in a conspirital manner, "Don't worry, you will still keep your general hairstyle. I need to make sure there are no parasites on your head and I have to simply trim around the top. Candidates are allowed to keep their hairstyles they want, but they have to be within a certain length and what is mostly emphasized is the top of the head. Your pigtail, as long as it stays in that pigtail will not be touched. If anyone sees you change your hairstyle, you MUST come to me for approval. You got it?" He snipped the scissors next to Ranma's ear.

Ranma looked at the chief strangely. "So why the, uhh, bit being so mean to Zero? You scared him to death"

The chief laughed, "That kind of person needs to be forced into doing what must be done. Usually, all candidates are handled in this way. But since you are much older, I'm sure we can handle things like adults. Now, please..." He indicated the chair. Ranma reluctantly sat. "Now, I hope you won't mind...but I WILL have to shorten your pigtail a bit. It is just a little long, and the ends are not very even. I will trim your bangs so they won't get in your way, and take a little off the top for balance." As he spoke, he began trimming the indicated areas. Ranma kept a close watch on him when he trimmed the ends of the pigtail right below the Dragon's Whisker. "And I have something much better than this string to hold your pigtail in place." He made to take it off.

Ranma shot out his hand and caught the offending appendage in a titaniam-strength grip before it could touch the Dragon's Whisker. "This is a very powerful artifact on my planet. I cannot allow you to touch it. There are powers that can spell catastrophe if this falls into the wrong hands." Ranma's voice had gone hard and menacing. "I'm sorry, but this Whisker stays. I can take it off for a bit if you need to style something, but after that, it's going back on." The chief could hear the capitalization of "Whisker" and decided not to comment on it. He was still wondering how Ranma disappeared without the slightest trace of EX reaction in his hair. He was sure GOA was generally shielded against EX usage, but even after taking Ramna down, he still didn't see any reaction afterward. He nodded.

"Alright" And Ranma took the Whisker off. Trimming the hair until it was even, and rebraiding the pigtail, the cheif motioned to allow Ranma, who was holding the Whisker possessively, to retie it.

"Now for the uniform and mark."

"Mark?"

"It's an identifying mark to tell our system who you are. You are referred to as candidate #90, correct? Well, it's like a tattoo of sorts with 90 on it on the inside of your right forearm. You saw me put it on for Zero and the others. Don't worry. It's 100% painless."

"Eh, just wondering. It's what everyone's got, right?"

"Right. All pilots and pilot candidates have to have them."

"Alright. And I would like a set of uniforms that are just a little stretchy. So it feels a little like my old clothes. And...well...this is embarrasing, but could you get me another set of my old clothes for sentimental purposes?"

"No problem" And the chief smiled.

-

Leaving the sanitary station, Ranma looked around and reviewed where he was. Oh yeah, he had to go to the entrance ceremony. Zero and the others must be there already. He jogged over, getting the feel of the new uniform. At least it didn't restrict his movement in any way. It actually felt very nice. He turned at the right hallway and entered the waiting room Azuma indicated they should go. Upon entering, he saw the ruby-eyed boy, who he found was named Hiead Gner, and Clay, who told him about Hiead. Zero was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Zero?"

"We've been discussing this. We think he's lost." Clay replied.

"Great...another Hibiki. Hope he aint strong as an ox and doesn't go around declaring vengence for anything I do..." Ranma muttered under his breath. He looked at Hiead. It didn't seem that he didn't say a word from any of Clay's rambling. He decided it must have been a very one-sided conversation. "Well, do you think we should find him?"

The door opened and Instructor Azuma came in, "Well, are all you candidates here? The ceremony will start soon."

"Hey, old man!" Ranma quipped.

"Who's an old man here? Wait, where's #88? Bathroom?"

"I dunno. I just got here." Ranma said

"He probably got lost somewhere...that's my guess." Clay added.

Azuma sighed, "What's he up to now? That idiot...wasting my time again" He turned to a nearby console and placed his palm on it. "Instructor #9, Azuma Hijikata"

"He's an instructor?" Clay said surprised.

"Candidate #88: Zero Enna, current location"

"Affirmative" the computer responded. "Candidate #88: Searching...Candidate #88: Not onboard GOA"

"What? Not present? You know that's not possible. Enlarge area...do it again"

"Candidate #88: Not onboard GOA" it responded again. A large red sign popped up saying, "No marker"

"What?" Ranma cried. "I just saw him!"

"He couldn't have gotten onto another shuttle this quickly" Clay said. "He was so enthusiastic when he came, he wouldn't have givin up already."

"He should be locatable anywhere inside GOA...that's what the marking is for."

Ranma said, "Yeah, that's what the chief of sanitary stations said."

"Yet he can't be found...that means he either left or..." He gasped.

"What?"

"You three stay here. We can't start anything until everyone is here." He walked through the door quickly and before the door closed the others could see him beginning to sprint down the hallway.

"Man, it must be really serious..." Ranma mused.

"Quite interesting indeed..." Clay pushed back his glasses with his middle finger.

After a bit, alarms began flashing throughout the station. "Grade #1 candidates, board Pro-Ings and wait for further commands"

Hiead stood up and looked very tense. There must be another attack!

Ranma looked up at him and saw in his eyes and expression a sort of longing, and a fear he didn't understand. It was a sort of look for certain fighters. He knew something big must be up. It musta been something about that Victim attack or something. It would surely delay the entrace ceremony, so he sat back and prepared to wait it out. He wouldn't be able to fight anytime soon until he became an official candidate with his own mecha to fight in. They told him that he was one of the rare people with something called EX that allowed them to connect to their "Pro-Ing" so they could fight. He didn't understand it, but they said that his EX would naturally flow and the computers will do the connections automatically. He wondered if it was his ki that they were talking about. If so, why didn't they also find the other martial artists, and select them as well? Ryouga had a ton of ki. So did Shampoo and Mousse...heck, even his own father had a strong ki well. But they told him he was the only person on Earth with this reaction. He didn't understand at the moment, but he was sure they would be able to tell him later on. He will protect his planet at any cost.