Disclaimer: All characters portrayed in this story are the property of
Rumiko Takahashi and co.
This story takes place after volume 38 of the Ranma manga and also draws
ideas from the anime.
C & C welcomed.
One Month
By
Donny Cheng
"You want me to what?" Ranma asked, staring disbelievingly at his three
suitors.
"She's ruining my business. She comes by like clockwork everyday to my
restaurant. My grades slipped a bit because of that time I was sick,
not because of my job," Ukyo growled. "No matter what I say, she won't
listen and keeps coming by to tell me 'I'm ruining my education'. It
wouldn't be so bad if she didn't scare my student customers away. On
top of that, when she turns small again, she keeps eating all my food
and never pays me."
"Shampoo no know what problem is. One arrow and nobody care teacher is
gone. Ranma teacher come by one more time to bother Nekohanten and say
Shampoo is 'truant', give Kiss of Death again."
Ranma shuddered at the damage to the surrounding people, namely him, if
Shampoo started hunting Hinako while he was at school. Definitely not
an option. Still it might be a better option than him going directly
after Hinako himself. "You too, Akane?"
"Just do it," Akane grumbled. She didn't like the prospect of Ranma
touching Hinako _there_, but at the moment, she had no other choice.
The woman was getting on her nerves. The teacher had taken to calling
her 'daughter' in class. Hinako saw it as her duty to help her in her
problem areas; Home Economics and Swimming. So far she had burned down
the class room twice and swimming practice was worse than the last
time.
The blind leading the blind as they say.
"Okay, okay. So I get one month of free food at Ucchan's and at
Nekohanten and Akane'll do my homework for a month?"
*Win-win situation. Get rid of Hinako and have Ranma to myself for a
month,* the three girls thought together, coincidently.
* * * * *
Day One...
"Give it up already!" Ranma yelled and sidestepped another of Hinako's
errant ki blasts.
"I see you have not yet learned from your ways...," Hinako started say
when Ranma's image disappeared again. *Damnit where is he?*
She hated it when her alter ego fell for such stupid tricks. She looked
around her but could only see a dozen of her mirror images reflected
back at her. *Really, a fun house? How stupid can I get.*
"Gotcha!"
"Wha...?" Hinako found herself tackled to the ground by one of her own
images apparently. She gasped as she felt the excess chi she had gotten
from the carnival goers drain from her body. "You can remove your hands
from my body now, Ranma. Clever plan, dressing up as me."
"Yeah, smart of me, if I do say so myself...," Ranma gloated before
noticing that his audience was gone.
"Mister? Is this yours?" a vendor asked when Ranma left the room of
mirrors. The vender held up a giggling young Hinako by the scruff of
her collar. "That'll be two hundred yen for the cotton candy."
Ranma sighed. A whole month of this?
* * * * *
Day Seven...
This wasn't working out. She had to do something. It seemed her alter
ego would never learn, always stuck with the mindset of when she was
that age. Why couldn't she have been one of those nice and proper
little girls back then?
*Why me?* Ranma thought to himself as he finally let go of the Hinako.
Another little thing that Happosai forgot to mention was that with each
increasing day, the length of time he had to hold those shiatsu points
became longer. "Hey, I didn't do anything more than I had to!" Ranma
yelled when he saw Hinako's face down, not looking at him.
Hinako looked up from her thoughts and stared at Ranma's blushing face.
*Of course! I might not be able to control myself as a little girl that
well, but I can sure as hell control my adult mind.* "Well that was
fun, see you tomorrow lover boy," Hinako said deliberately in as low a
seductive voice as she could. She almost laughed out loud when she saw
his blush deepen.
* * * * *
Day Eight...
"Oh! Ah... harder... please! Oh, for the love of god, harder," Hinako
moaned.
*Ear plugs. Need ear plugs,* Ranma thought weakly as he held on and
tried to count the seconds till he could feel the ki leave her body. He
was damned glad that only the two of them were in the classroom at this
late hour.
* * * * *
Day Nine...
While Ranma could not hear anything, he didn't really need to. He had
tried closing his eyes so that he couldn't see Hinako's suggestive
looks. However, neither helped the sensations his body felt from
Hinako's writhing body. He had heard that thinking of baseball stats
helped in this sort of situation. Pity he didn't know any.
* * * * *
Day Fifteen...
Hinako stopped squirming around and sighed. Her tactic was simply not
working. Even when she had taken to wearing kids' clothes that fit her
alter ego just right, but threatened to rip on her adult frame, Ranma's
grip didn't budge an inch. A part of her had to give grudging respect
to him for his ability to ignore her. But respect or not, she was not
going to lose a part of herself she had become accustomed to over the
years. However, there were only fifteen more days and she had no idea
how she would stop him. Her dread was that there was no way to stop
this.
* * * * *
Day Sixteen...
Ranma was surprised as Hinako simply stood there in the middle of the
classroom. He was not one to let an opportunity like this slip away.
He mentally strengthened his will. While he didn't know baseball stats,
he did know intricate forms of kata that took quite a bit of
concentration to think of. He was more surprised when by the time ten
minutes was up and the ki within her body dissipated that Hinako had
stood there the entire time.
"Are you finished? If you are, I'm leaving."
Ranma couldn't help but wince at the sound of her cold voice.
* * * * *
Day Seventeen...
"Look, at least put up a fight," Ranma said, trying hard not to outright
beg her. It was starting to annoy him how she stood there like a limp
doll. He felt as if he were picking on a defenseless woman instead of
someone that could blow up the whole city.
"Why? So you'll feel better about what you are robbing me of?"
"Look, you're a menace."
"For doing my job?"
"For, well...," Ranma hesitated, trying to think of something that
Hinako was doing wrong. Despite his attempts at stopping Hinako, the
woman did nothing different from her daily activities. She still
stopped by and tried to convince Cologne to make Shampoo go to school.
Ukyo and Akane were still bothered if their academic studies caused them
to fall behind. "It's not when you're like this, it's when you're
small. You know how much of a pain you are like that?"
Hinako ignored him. She had heard of how Ranma hated his curse and
wanted nothing to do with it from some of the students. How could he
possibly understand what she felt?
When Ranma finally released her, Hinako gave him a cold stare. "See you
tomorrow. You have an appointment with me after class before our little
match. It seems your grades are dropping even further from the pitiful
level they were at before."
Ranma felt lower than dirt.
* * * * *
Day Eighteen...
"Don't you want to be cured? When I'm done with the treatment, you'll
be adult the whole time. I know the time you stay as an adult is longer
now even after your supply of battle aura is empty. I mean, you're
actually helping Akane in the kitchen and in the pool now that you can
actually last the whole class before you turn small. Heck, battle aura
from Gosunkugi is enough to last you a whole hour." The silence and
Hinako's inert body was his only reply. He was tempted to just forget
about the whole deal and let the woman run rampant.
Hinako didn't know why she decided to speak right then to a person that
had no way of understanding her. But with her time trickling down, she
found she needed to get some things off her chest. "Do you know what
it's like to be a child? I am still me when I am in my child form.
It's just that my mental age is frozen in that state. My mind can't
accept all the knowledge and experience I've gained."
"That sound horrible." One of Ranma's recurring nightmares was of his
girl half having a mind of her own.
"Maybe, but I think of it as a blessing. I get to see sides of people I
would never have seen in my adult form. I would never have known what a
wonderful man Akane's father was, for example. Oh, don't look at me
like that. He _is_ nice, but I know that I have no chance of competing
against his dead wife and it would be improper to push it. My alter ego
doesn't suffer from such inhibitions though. When young, I only
remember him being nice to me and I can see him whenever I want."
She rolled her eyes when Ranma still had that semi-disgusted look on his
face. "It's not just him. Other adults and my students only see me as
someone to leer at, to be jealous of, or to be feared. When young, I'm
treated nicely by nearly everyone I meet, no matter how annoying as you
say I might be."
"Not everyone is like that," Ranma said. The last thing he needed was
to feel sorry for her.
She smiled wryly. "What better way to escape some of reality's
harshness than as a small child. By the way, you can let go now. The
ki was gone a couple of minutes ago and my breast is starting to hurt."
Ranma let go of her so fast, Hinako nearly tripped over backwards.
"You're the only boy in Furinkan that would do that," Hinako chuckled.
"Well, see you tomorrow, Ranma."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Ranma said, for the third time this week
leaving in an unhappy state. The food and excuse to be with Akane was
starting to not be worth it.
* * * * *
Day Twenty Two...
"You're seriously going to recite the rules of English diction right
now?" Ranma asked, annoyed.
"You're grades are getting worse. This outside activity you have is not
doing anything to help. It's now taking a hour to apply the treatment.
I might as well tutor you while you're at it."
Ranma would never understand the woman. Just a couple of days ago,
Hinako came to school with a bad 24 hour cold. She could easily not
have come to school and make him start over again. She never missed a
Sunday to tutor at the school for kids that were behind. When he was
late cleaning up the classroom that other day, she was still in the room
finishing up her work. Never once did she try to avoid him by changing
her schedule. And here she was ready to drill more stuff into him.
"Louder. Breathe. Watch your tones. Make sure you make the
distinction between the 'l' and 'r' sounds."
"Why are you torturing me like this?" Ranma asked plaintively.
"I'm your teacher. I want the best for all my students," Hinako said
simply.
* * * * *
Day Twenty Three...
"No, I'll wait."
"Thank you, Ranma-kun," Hinako said and went back to marking the test
papers. "I'm almost finished."
Ranma frowned. Lately, Hinako was treating him nicer. He wondered what
kind of game she was playing. If it was to make him feel guilty, it was
working. It wreaked havoc with his concentration, so much so that he
couldn't even bring up a basic kata in his mind. While she no longer
made suggestive body movements, he still could not get over the fact
that he was hugging a full bodied woman with one of his hands over her
breast. "Why don't you fight me anymore? You didn't answer me the
other time. I mean, I have to hold you longer, you could probably have
a chance to stopping me."
Hinako looked up from her work. "You'd just lock my hands in place like
you did with that basketball hoop the first time. I prefer not to be
held like that for that long a period time. Besides, you're stronger
than me."
"Still...." *Still what?* Ranma asked himself. He could still remember
her words. She was right that time; it would make him feel better.
* * * * *
Day Twenty Seven...
"You know you could just discipline students another way," Ranma said,
trying to sound offhand about it and failing.
"That's actually sweet of you, Ranma," Hinako said, surprised that he
was actually giving her hints on how to escape him now. "If you don't
want to do it, just stop."
Ranma could just imagine the angry looks of his suitors. They were
already annoyed by the fact that it took longer to cure Hinako each
day.
He got the hint that there better be something at the end of all this or
he was going to be in it deep. "Trust me, that is not an option."
"Look at me Ranma." She laughed when she saw him looking at and then
adverting his eyes when they roamed into her cleavage. The boy was
really too cute. Even after all this time of holding her, he still
hadn't gotten used to it. She wondered if that said something about her
appeal or his own ineptness.
"I didn't mean literally. No boy in the school would take me seriously
if not for my skills. Many of them are starting to lose their fear of
me. It doesn't take much battle aura to turn adult now. I'm stuff full
before I even suck two students of their aura. Even blasting my excess
ki out with Happo Tsurisen Gaeshi doesn't help. Thanks to your
treatment, I stay as an adult for hours now even without the battle
aura."
"Ah." There wasn't really anything more he could say. He suddenly felt
Hinako's head fall against his body, causing the both of them to
collapse on the ground. *Damn, she hasn't attacked me in so long, I
wasn't ready.* However, Hinako did nothing to pull herself from his
grasp. She just lay overtop him inert. He felt something wet seep into
the cloth covering his shoulders where Hinako was. *She's crying?*
Ranma thought, panicking.
"I sucked some battle aura from some rowdy delinquents last night while
I was walking home. I couldn't go to sleep till midnight. I waited and
waited, but I couldn't turn young again. I knew that this would happen
eventually and I've been preparing myself for it, but...," Hinako
whimpered, her voice muffled by Ranma's silk shirt.
Ranma lay there with her over him and found that he could not say a
thing. The only thing he could think of was to let her go. But just as
he released her, he could feel the ki drain away. *Damn, if I let go
just a little sooner...,* he thought belatedly. Awkwardly, he tried to
push the woman off of him, but found that she wrapped her arms around
him during the fall. "Hinako, your...," he stopped when he realized
that his teacher had fallen asleep.
* * * * *
Hinako woke up a few hours later and blushed when she found out where
exactly she was. Her arms had shrunk to that of a child's, making it
easier for her to remove them from around Ranma-kun's back. She sighed
wistfully as she looked at his sleeping face. He was _so_ handsome.
She turned around and cuddled against his body carefully, so that she
didn't wake him, so that he would stay a little longer with her. For
some reason she had this idea that he would be leaving her soon. She
never had anyone take spend so much time with her before, besides her
parents, so she didn't like that thought. For nearly a month, Ranma met
her after school and was always trying to cure her; so sweet of him!
At first she was angry with him for trying to take her super cool attack
away so that she couldn't take care of delinquents anymore, but nobody
that bought her so much candy and was always nice to her could be bad
she figured. She guessed it might be because she always tried using it
on him when he was being bad. Such a naughty boy he was. Well if he
didn't like her shooting at him, she didn't feel too bad about being
cured. And it meant that he would play that hugging game with her that
made her feel nice.
She looked up at the familiar ceiling of the classroom and could barely
make it out. It was getting dark outside. She giggled girlishly as she
thought of the look on Ranma's girlfriends' faces. "Nyah, nyah," she
taunted softly. She supposed she should go and explain it to them that
there was nothing happening between her and Ranma, absolutely nothing.
But the last time she did that, they all looked at her incredulously and
nearly bit her head of saying, 'of course, nothing happened'. The next
day, Ranma came back with bruises and sulked at her instead of thanking
her. How rude!
*Oops,* she thought when she heard Ranma give an oomph when she elbowed
him in the stomach. Still, despite that he was angry with her, he still
brought her candy for class while some other students brought her
apples; yuck! He always looked so sad these days when he gave her
candy. He wouldn't even smile when she put a gold star on his cheek
when he gave his oral English assignment. She had this strange idea
that he would happier after three more days. She hoped it was true.
* * * * *
Day Twenty Eight...
"Ranchan, your hand!" Ukyo cried. "Oh, what happened?"
"This isn't some trick so that you could start over with Hinako, is it?"
Akane ask suspiciously, thinking back to the teacher's statement that
nothing was happening between them and Ranma asking how they would feel
if he stopped administering the counter technique. She looked over at
Ranma's fingers and they were definitely very red and bruised. "Oh, how
did that happen! I'll go and get the nurse." She ignored the
snickering from Sayuri and Yuka.
"Don't bother, it looks worse than it is. I got careless this morning
and blocked Kuno's bokken the wrong way," Ranma said, waving it off.
"And about Hinako... this little problem won't stop me," Ranma said and
tried his best to look unconvincing without looking unconvincing about
it. He failed of course, but the end result was still an unconvincing
look and Ukyo immediately told him not to try it with Hinako tonight.
"But the whole project will be down the drain," Ranma grimaced, the pain
in his hand made it quite easy for him to achieve that effect.
"Don't worry about it. I've caught up with my grades, Shampoo showed
Hinako her Joketsuzoku grade twelve equivalency diploma, and well, Akane
can swim with a lifesaver by herself and has a one in three chance of
success with that curry dish. She shouldn't be around to bother us
anymore anyway. We just saw that you had only a few days left and let
you keep doing it so it wouldn't be a waste of time."
*Actually, the three of us had each tried harder to please Hinako in
case just such an occasion had happened. Or at least I did,* Akane
thought blushing at how far she went for him.
Hinako watched the commotion in class, unwilling to use her technique
for once. Ranma-kun is hurt? Oh, poor baby. I wonder if he'll come
and see me today.
* * * * *
Day Thirty...
Ranma found himself staring down at Hinako, but somehow he felt as if he
was being stared down at. Her cute little face was marred by a crossed
look. "What did you want to see me after class for?"
"You're ignoring me!"
"No, I'm not. I answered all your questions in class...," he was cut
off as Hinako jumped at him and glomped onto him.
"Yes, you are. You were going to go back home again today without
playing with me just like the other two days."
"Uh, well about that... I decided you're better like this. Until you're
ready to let go of, well, when you find the right person for you, maybe
he'll, well, you'll understand when you're older," Ranma said, knowing
how literally true that was. He was slightly surprised and little
disappointed that adult Hinako didn't mention anything to him at all
about him not going after her with the cure anymore.
"I'm older than you, Ranma."
Ranma chuckled as her cherub face looked up at him with all
seriousness.
"Not now you aren't...," no sooner than those words escaped his lips
than he heard her whisper Happo Go-en Satsu and found himself being held
very closely by an adult Hinako.
"And now?" Hinako asked archly.
"Y-You... from me," Ranma stuttered weakly and felt his battle aura
removed.
"You've held me long enough and I figure it's time for payback," she
smirked, but it didn't hold for long and she turned serious. "I want to
thank you for what you did. I know you gave me many chances. From
giving me suggestions on avoiding you to not even holding me hard
anymore. It's only a part of the truth when I said that you'd just over
power me if I put up any fight. The other reason was that I wanted to
see if you'd do it. Call it the teacher in me if you want, but I wanted
to see if you'd grow. Hard to believe, but the problem student I was
called here to take care of is the student that I feel most fortunate to
have."
Hinako felt Ranma slump limply against her. "The sucking of your aura
was punishment for what you put me through the first couple of weeks and
ignoring me the last few days. This," she looked down at their two
bodies close together, "and this," she kissed him on his cheek, "are my
thanks." She then let him go and saw him staring wide eyed up at her
from the floor. She took her time to move her legs so that the hem of
her skirt was no longer over his line of sight.
"When I'm ready to let go of my youth and my power, I'll see you again.
I'll remember your words," she promised and left him there to think of
what she meant. She de-aged when she reached outside school grounds and
found herself merrily skipping back home. *Not now, but maybe later,
Ranma,* Hinako thought happily. She was still too young at heart.
* * * * *
The End. (maybe)
Author's Notes: This was written for the FFIRC montly one hour
challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't get any where close to being done in
that amount of time and it ended up being five hours ^_^ *If you really
want to know, I ended at the end of Day Seventeen.*
Same reasons as Scott Schimmel for the [TKOContest], so here's another
:P