Chapter 3. Contemplation and morons.

Nabiki looked after Ranma as he staggered off, looking rather punch drunk. “I wonder what that was about?” She thought, losing sight of the pigtailed boy. His story was rather… odd, and he had forked over all of the money he had in order to get information on himself. Also, he seemed to look a bit different. Slimmer, but more well muscled. Nabiki’s eyes narrowed. She was going to get to the bottom of what was going on here.

About two hours later, after the final school bell rang, Ranma was heading out of the front gates when he heard a voice. “Halt Comrade!” Came a shout from Tatwaki Kuno, captain of the school’s Kendo club.

“Huh? Kuno, wadda you want?” Ranma asked, glairing at the Kendoist.

“Is that any way to treat a comrade in arms My friend?” Kuno asked, reaching for his bokken.

“Comrade in arms? Me? I’d rather feed myself to your sister’s huge alligator.” Ranma snorted, wondering what Kuno was talking about.

“What’s this? My friend and ally in the fight for Akane Tendo has been possessed by some sort of foul monster? I shall exorcise you!” Kuno said, charging at Ranma.

From nearby, Hiroshi and Daisuke looked on, feeling sorry for their friend. They didn’t know why Ranma was acting so strangely, but they did know that with what he had just said, Kuno sempai was going to clean his clock.

“Does Saotome have a death wish?” Nabiki muttered, from her position next to the gates. Her younger sister, Akane, walked up next to her and looked at the two facing off.

“What’s going on sis?” Akane asked, before she saw the scene. “Oh joy. It’s the battle of the perverts.” She said, venomously glaring at both Ranma and Kuno. “There’s no point in watching this Nabiki. That Saotome jerk is just going to be pounded by Kuno again.”

“I don’t know sis.” Nabiki said, as she watched the scene.

Ranma seemed to be completely relaxed, no defence showing at all. Nabiki had seen that stance before, though. Either Ranma had just happened to fall into exactly the same stance as Genma usually used in a fight, or he was more well trained than she gave him credit for. As Kuno charged at Ranma with a battle cry, Ranma dodged to the left of his first sword swing and slammed the blade with his hand. Kuno bore a rather comical look of surprise as he tilted sideways, the momentum imparted to the blade of his Bokken causing him to turn slightly. Coming around with a foot, Ranma belted Kuno in the back as he turned, sending him rocketing into the school’s side wall.

“You gunna get up, Kuno?” Ranma asked, looking at the crumpled form of the Kendoist. To his surprise, the usually resilient boy didn’t even twitch. Shrugging it off, Ranma ran out of the school yard. He was probably late to pick up Ranko. As Ranma left, he was unaware of the number of gaping mouths he had left behind.

“He took out Kuno as fast as I usually do.” Akane stammered, looking at the body of the prone upperclassman. There was something strange going on here. She had fought, if you could call it fighting, Ranma before. There was no way he could have possibly improved this much in the time since she had last fought him. Next to Akane, Nabiki became even more determined to figure out what was wrong with the Saotome boy.

Deeper in the school yard, Hiroshi and Daisuke were gaping. “Hiro, did you just see what I saw?” Daisuke said, looking at one of his two best friends.

“Yeh Dai. I think I did.” Hiroshi said, still staring in shock at where Ranma had fought Kuno. “Should we help Kuno to the nurses office?”

“No way!” Daisuke exclaimed, grinning widely. “We BOTH know Kuno deserved that. Even that horde of his was WAY over the line.”

Hiroshi nodded, and the two left the yard, and the now twitching form of Kuno.

At the middle school, Ranko was leaning against a wall and impatiently awaiting her older brother. Her friends had all gone home about five minutes ago, and Ranma was late.

“Hey Ranko!” Came a voice from down the street. Ranko looked in that direction and had to restrain a giggle. There was Ranma, in Female form, running down the street towards her and soaked to the bone. Ranma’s girl form would take a bit of getting used to, but the younger girl actually really liked this new addition to her brother, as well as his seeming new attitude. It was like having an older sister as well as an older brother.

“How did you get all wet, Ranma?” Ranko asked, Looking Ranma over.

“The old Ladle lady got me down by the school.” Ranma explained, coming to a stop in front of her sister. “You wanna get home now?”

“Yeh, but you’re late!” Ranko complained, pretending to be angry.

Ranma gave an exaggerated sigh. “And how do I make that up to you?” She asked, looking with a false look of apology on her face at the little girl.

‘Well, it’s worth a try.’ Ranko thought, before grinning and saying “Iced cream!”

Ranma fished around in a pocket and found some money that she hadn’t paid to Nabiki.

Five minutes later, the two girls were walking down the street, both with large iced cream cones. “I can’t believe you did that.” Ranko giggled, Remembering Ranma’s blatant flirting with the guy at the iced cream shop.

“That, is an important part of the anything goes school. Get food from wherever you can, so long as you don’t steel it.” She had added the last part herself, as her father’s version of that rule had no provision against theft.

Ranko nodded. It made perfect sense to her, after all.

HR

Nodoka Saotome hummed happily to herself as she cooked supper for her family. The strange events of the day before were forgotten, and she was lost in the rhythm of the house work. As she transferred a pot of soup from the burner to a cooling tray she heard the front door open, and Ranko’s happy voice coming from the front hall.

“Mom, dad, we’re home!” Ranko called out, as she and Ranma ditched their shoes in the front entrance. The iced cream was long since eaten, since Ranma didn’t want her mother to find out she was feeding Ranko treats before dinner. Parents were pretty hard on people about that.

Nodoka had to do a double take as she saw two girls walk into the kitchen. “Oh, hot water.” Ranma said, as she grabbed a kettle from the stove that Nodoka was intending to use for tea. Poring some of it’s contents over her head, she returned to being male. This pretty much ensured that Nodoka remembered what had happened the day before, as her son had never had a gender changing curse before.

“Hey Ranko. If ya wanna try fence walking tomorrow, try wearing a pair of pants or something, okay?” Ranma said, remembering back to the rather embarrassing incident of this morning.

“Yeh, thanks Ranma.” Ranko said, before Nodoka spoke up.

“Fence walking?” She asked, looking curiously at her daughter.

“Yeh. Ranma’s teachin me how to do balance practice. It’s really fun.” Ranko said, with a happy smile. “The Baka forgot to remind me that I was wearing a skirt this morning, though.” She said, shooting an annoyed look at her older brother.

“Sorry! I don’t normally think about stuff like that.” Ranma said, making warding gestures. “I’m goin to the Dojo to work out, all right?” He asked, looking at his mother.

“That’s fine, Ranma…” Nodoka said, thoroughly confused now.

“Can I go too?” Ranko asked, excitedly.

“I’m gunna be doin some meditation today, Ranko. It’s gunna b really boring.” Ranma explained, looking uncertainly at his sister.

“Okay. I guess I’ll pass.” Ranko said, disappointed.

“How about we start your trainin tomorrow?” Ranma asked, smiling.

“Great!” Ranko said, before running off to her room to do whatever little girls do.

As Ranma left the room as well, Nodoka looked after the two of them. It was strange. Ranma was acting so different, yet Ranko seemed to really like him now. He was acting a lot less ‘Manly’ than usual, but was making his sister a lot more happy, and Even Nodoka kind of liked the way he acted. She wasn’t sure if she wanted her son’s old memories or whatever to come back, and she wondered if that made her a bad mother. Smelling smoke, Nodoka turned to something on the stove and realized that it was burning. Franticly, she tried to save the food.

In the Dojo, Ranma was finally alone to think for a while. Running through a few slow start up stretches to relax himself, he began thinking about the information that he had gotten that day. Apparently, he had been one hell of a pervert, maybe on the same level as Happosai. Then again, The ancient master had never thought to do anything to Kasumi. Everyone accept for his closest friends at school looked on him with at least a little disgust, and KUNO was one of those friends. What was the world coming to? The worst part was that he didn’t remember any of this.

Stopping in his stretching, Ranma knelt on the floor in a meditation position. While he was kneeling, He reviewed what Dr. Tofu had said to him in the clinic. ‘A head injury?’ He wondered, remembering to another such incident in his past. Sure, the memories had all seemed as real as the ones he had in his head now, but they were all obviously derivative. If all he knew was the result of such an injury, then where had Saffron, Herb and the Amazons come from? Not to mention that he was still as strong as he always had been, and the rather concrete evidence of his curse. No, his memories weren’t just some sort of concussion induced hallucination, but if that was so, how did he find himself here? Deciding to try an experiment, Ranma probed his body for a certain kind of Chi. He felt his confidence, a little depression, confusion, love and a few other emotions, but he couldn’t find any of what he was looking for. Sure, there was a little lust Chi in his body, but not the perverted variety that Happosai or the like exuded. According to his memories, and his Chi, he was NOT the pervert that everyone thought him to be. Ranma was jolted out of his contemplation by the sound of Ranko calling his name.

“Anma! Ranma!” Ranko yelled, a few inches from her brother’s face. Ranma’s eyes shot open, and he fell back to the floor with his hands out in warding signs. Ranko giggled. “Mom says that dinner’s ready.” She said, offering her brother a hand up.

“Thanks, Ranko.” Ranma said, before flipping to his feet.

As Ranma, Ranko and Nodoka knelt around the dining table that night, Ranma looked to the empty spot where his father should be. “Mom, where’s pops?” He asked, pointing at the offending cushion.

“He’s over at Soun’s home. He said that he had something to discuss with him.” Nodoka said, frowning disapprovingly.

Although Ranma knew that his father would go to Soun Tendo’s home all the time for games of Shogi, if he were anything like the father he remembered at least, He still felt a sense of impending doom as his mother spoke.

HR

At the Tendo Dojo, Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome were sitting around a Shogi table. “I don’t like it Saotome. You know that this plan has failed twice before.” Soun said, frowning. Even with his thick skull, he had realized that his daughters didn’t really like Genma’s son.

“Come on Tendo. Just one more time. Nabiki hasn’t tried yet, and Ranma has made much progress in his training.” Genma said, remembering how he had ‘Just barely managed to knock his son out the day before.’ “Besides. Have you forgotten what the master will do to us if we don’t have an heir for him?”

Soun shivered. “No, old friend I have not but I don’t think this is a very good idea. Nabiki is…”

Soun was cut off by Genma’s next words. “Of Marriageable age and has not attempted to be with Ranma yet. I feel that we should at least try it once.”

Soun sighed. “All right Saotome. ONE more try and then we drop this, all right?”

“All right Tendo. We’ll tell them tomorrow.” Genma said, looking relieved. Unknown to the two psudo-martial artists, There were two people watching them. The small and shrivelled one cackled as it thought that it’s favourite student may be ready for it to train him while the middle Tendo daughter narrowed her eyes in a mixture of anger and thought. Being engaged to Ranma Saotome was a rather abhorrent concept, but it could let her get close enough to him to figure out what was going on. She had heard the phrase “Curiosity killed the cat” before, but she wasn’t a cat.

Late that night, Ranma was laying in his bed when he heard a knocking sound at his window. Trying to ignore it, he rolled over. Hearing the sound again, he grunted in annoyance and climbed out of bed, walking over to the window to see what was going on. Opening it, Ranma saw a black shadowy figure slink through and into his room.

“Wadda you want, Old freak?” Ranma asked, as he turned to look at the diminutive master of the anything goes school.

“Hmph.” Happosai said, crossing his arms. “I just came to see if what Genma said was true.” He said, fingering his pipe.

“Oh, what did the old man say?” Ranma asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Your father has told me that you have become proficient enough to defeat him. Actually, that’s not what he said exactly but that is what I translated it as. Now, I want to know. Is this true?” Happosai said, looking at Ranma intently.

“Yeh, I can beat pop. Why?” Ranma asked, becoming suspicious.

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Happosai said, hopping back out of Ranma’s open window.

“Was that a challenge, old freak?” Ranma asked, sticking his head out after Happosai.

“But of course my boy!” Happosai cackled, from his position on the lawn of the Saotome house.

Ranma grunted in acknowledgement, before hopping from the window and down to the ground. Happosai raised an eyebrow. Ranma shouldn’t be capable of that, at least he wasn’t the last time he had seen him. Disregarding this fact, The grand Master of the anything goes school charged at the rather sleepy Saotome boy.

Genma and Nodoka awoke to the sounds of explosions and a battle about five minutes later. “What in the world is that?” Nodoka asked, as she got up from her side of the bed that she and her husband shared, walking to the window and looking out. “Oh dear Genma, you should probably see this.” She said, worriedly.

Genma grumbled about missing sleep as he walked up next to his wife, and then his grumbling stopped as he saw the scene out the window. Ranma was leaping and spinning, dodging dozens of tiny firecrackers that Happosai tossed like machine gun bullets. As the Saotome parents watched, their son got tired of the dodging game.

“All right old freak, you’ve asked for it!” Ranma said, actually having quite a bit of fun. Happosai was the first real challenge he had had since he had woken up a day and a half ago, as Genma and Kuno were pushovers. Spinning to face the master of anything goes directly, Ranma cupped his hands and yelled “Moko Takabisha!” Firing a ball of blue energy that overwhelmed some of the fireworks that were flying towards him, and actually caught a surprised Happosai flat footed.

Happosai coughed out a puff of smoke as he looked at Ranma in surprise. “Well, Genma wasn’t lying about you, my boy! That attack wasn’t fuelled by perversion, either. Good work. I’ll be happy to have you as my Heir!” After saying this, the old man bounded off, with one parting shot over his shoulder. “Train hard, boy!”

“What if I don’t wanna be your Heir!” Ranma called, indignantly, shaking a fist at Happosai’s retreating form. He thought he could hear the old man call “Too bad!” But wasn’t sure. Noticing that he had woken up the entire house, Ranma quickly apologized before hopping up to his window again. Genma and Nodoka slowly Walked back to bed, while Ranko, who had also been watching from her own window, just muttered “Sugoi…” under her breath before returning to bed.

A few blocks away, Happosai was a very happy man. He didn’t know how it had happened, but someone had actually become a good heir to his school. Although he loved his panty raids and silky darlings, he knew that his perversion flooded Chi was unhealthy for him, and even more so for anyone he taught the art to, so he hadn’t wanted to train an Heir himself. Unfortunately, His two students had not done any better than he, one because he was afraid to train his children and the other because the one child that he trained had ended up as much of a pervert as Happosai himself. Now though, things were different. Happosai didn’t know how he had done it, but Ranma had managed to learn the anything goes style and fuel his life force with something other than the perversion that infested Happosai’s own aura. Confidence wasn’t exactly a healthy power source either, but it was possible to jump from confidence fuelled chi to pure Ki use, where Happosai’s own aura had forced him to become dependant on it.

With a happy glint in his eye, Happosai hopped off to the Tendo Dojo in order to rest. That fight had taken a lot out of him.