Grave's New Life

Chapter 16

By Philip Weigel

Disclaimer: My school work ate my dog! AHHHH!! [Blink] Oh, you want a disclaimer. Rumiko Takahashi-sama owns Ranma 1/2. High Lord Fred Perry owns Gold Digger. Other series belong to their owners. This sorry excuse for a story belongs to me. Lawyers belong to evil Demons, they deserve to be banished. Along with the rest of the government, but that would be, supposedly, a bad thing.

I’d like to say that I am SO sorry for the long delay on this. College work was killing me and my drive to write for the last month.

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Ranma grumbled as he ran across the fence top to the address that his mother had given him. “Still can’t believe they talked me inta goin’ ta school.” At least his mom had somehow convinced the school into allowing him to wear casual clothing. “Mishiba High School...” Ranma muttered to himself as he looked at the piece of paper with the address on it. [1]

“And I bet things are going to be dull too.” He muttered to himself, jumping off the fence and running the rest of the way to the school yard. When he got there, the pigtailed martial artist looked around the grounds and took them in. Most of the people were mulling about in front of a three-storied building, a clock tower in the middle of the outer structure of the building. The school yard was mostly empty of anything noticeable, save for the sakura tree on the right side of the yard. ‘Looks like my old school.’ He thought to himself.

Shrugging, Ranma walked into the school yard. ‘It’s going to be so dull.’ He thought to himself.

How little he knew...

(----)

“So, Osaka did not pan out.” A wizened old, dry voice spoke up from inside an abandoned warehouse. A short, white haired, wrinkled old woman stepped over and looked out an open window. The window wasn’t able to be closed, due to the fact that there was no glass pane there at all. The old woman sighed. It had been over a week since coming to Japan, and still they hadn’t found out who that redhead was.

“It would have been easier if I hadn’t messed with that teleporting spell the fat man was casting.” The purple haired girl grumbled to herself. It didn’t help that she had been beaten by that fat man, but she wasn’t going to mention that to her great grandmother. If she did, why, she might actually have to marry that unsightly man.

Said great grandmother raised an eyebrow as she looked at the young, buxom, purple haired girl sitting in the shadows of the building. ‘What are you hiding?’ She thought to herself. “You should speak in Japanese while we’re here, Shampoo.”

Shampoo winced. “Shampoo not like speaking silly language. Make her sound like stupid bimbo.” She said, switching to Japanese. “So, where we go next?”

Cologne smirked. “I’d say a trip to Tokyo is in order.” If the place was anything like it was nearly fifty years ago, then their best bet would be there. If not, then at least they would find someone who might know about the redhead, or that slightly fat bald man.

The violet haired girl nodded. “Shampoo not know why though.” They had tried Osaka, this one place called Hiroshima, and a small shrine, but nothing had panned out. [2]

“You’ll know when we get there.” The old woman said, looking at her charge seriously. She idly wondered if Tokyo still had all those weird martial arts. ‘Or did they loose their warrior spirit?’ Even if there was a good fighter in a group of people, it was the populous at large that determined the spirit of a nation. If the populous was lazy, then the spirit of that nation was also lazy.

Shampoo sighed; she didn’t want to stay in this land any longer than necessary. ‘Still, it’s nice to have a vacation, even if I’m supposed to be killing someone.’

(----)

Growling slightly as he made his way through the trees in a small Japanese forest, Ryoga frowned slightly before running into and through an Evergreen. Thankfully, for him, and not-so thankfully, for an ant-hill, the tree toppled over and fell to the side, rather than forward. “When I find you, Ranma, I’m going to make you pay for what you did to me!” It wasn’t so bad with what he had gotten when he fell into that pool of water that bothered the lost boy. At first he had thought it was neat, until the rest of the curse had kicked in. Stopping at the edge of a cliff, the bandana clad youth shuddered and gripped his head. “GAHH!”

After a few minutes of dispelling the images in his head, Ryoga growled and took a step forward. . .

Of course, he really should have watched where he was, because his next step caused him to fall off the cliff and into the valley below. “RAAANMMMAAA! I have seen true Hell! And it’s UGLY!” Was the scream as Ryoga disappeared from view.

(----)

Yawning as he sat in a large auditorium, which was rather loud from everyone talking, Ranma had to bite back a sneeze that threatened to escape. That was the sixth one that morning, and it wasn’t even ten in the morning yet. Looking at the person next to him, a lean boy about five-foot-five, he had brown eyes, a sharp face. He was wearing a blue jacket uniform and pants, although the jacket was open slightly. “So, what’s happening?”

The boy shrugged. “I guess they’re introducing some new teacher. A Gaijin from what I’ve heard.” He said in a bored tone of voice.

The pigtailed youth shrugged. It could have been worse. They might have had that short crazy woman as a teacher. He smirked to himself. Who would be crazy, or desperate enough to hire a crazy fighting teacher?

(----)

In Hawaii, a tall man with a pineapple tree that grew on his head sneezed, blinked, then shrugged it off before planning for his return trip home.

(----)

The noise in the auditorium quickly died down as the Principal, a lanky man in a blue suit walked up to a microphone in the middle of the stage and spoke. “Good morning. Well, I’ll make this short so you all can get back to your classes.” He had to hold back a smirk as the majority of the students groaned. Skip class would they? Not on his watch, but this was important. “Today we have a new teacher joining us for the year.” He said in a loud, clear voice. “His name is,” he paused for a moment to look at a slightly damp piece of paper, “um, Professor, um, darn, I can’t read the rest of this. It’s soaked.” The Principle’s face flushed red as the students all began laughing at him.

“It is not my fault that you can’t understand how steam will save the world!” A voice with a slight Western accent spoke up from behind the curtain. Everyone hushed up as the curtain was risen up, revealing a wall of steam behind it.

Several people blinked many times until a portion of the steam, around four and three quarters feet in height and three feet in length walked forward towards the microphone. Everyone watched as the steam rolled away to reveal a man about four and a half feet tall, with short, spiky hair that stuck out in all directions, thick glasses on his face, and a white lab coat around his body. [3]

The Principal nodded and stepped back as the man got close to the microphone. “Good morning. I am Professor Steamhead and I shall be your new science teacher.” He didn’t even bat an eyelash as several of the students started laughing at him. “True, my name may be funny, but I guarantee that you will all learn something from me before you leave here.”

One person behind Ranma snickered. “Yeah, how not to name my children.” A few people around him chuckled, though Ranma blinked, not really sure what that meant. What did naming children have to do with a person’s name? Sure, the name was weird, but not that weird.

Steamhead smiled as he looked over the students. "And as an esteemed professor of Steamology, I think it best to show you all an example of how steam shall make our lives better. But I will need a volunteer." Prof. Steamhead looked around the room, looking for any suitable volunteers, before pointing at a boy with a pigtail. "You there!"

Ranma blinked. "Wha?" Why him? Well, it could have been someone else, but for some reason, Ranma seriously doubted it.

"Yes, you!" Steamhead said seriously, his foot tapping as he waited for his volunteer to get on stage.

"Who? Me?" Ranma asked, confusedly.

"No, your mama. YES, YOU!" Steamhead shouted. "Up here, on the double! Chop-chop!" The shorter man clapped his hands together impatiently.

Ranma sweat-dropped, before shrugging. "Fine." At least he was near the isle. Standing up quickly, he jumped over the people next to him, landing in the isle, before walking onto the stage.

Prof. Steamhead nodded his head. "And your name is?" He asked the pigtailed youth that made it up to the stage.

"Saotome Ranma." Was the reply.

"Ah, well, Mr. Saotome," Steamhead went back behind the curtain which had closed. There was sounds of movement and a small crash. More steam started to come out form behind the closed curtain.

Finally, the professor of Steamology came out with a metallic disc with tubes that were onto cuffs; eight of the rings in all. "Here! Put on this harness."

Ranma blinked. "Ohhhkayyy..." He said slowly, looking the contraption over. "How the heck do I put this on?" He asked, expecting laughter from the others.

No one laughed though, because they didn't know what the contraption was either.

"Oh for the love of..." Prof. Steamhead groaned. "Please, give that to me, Saotome-san."

Rolling his eyes, Ranma handed the device over to the American. 'Sheesh! No patience.' He thought to himself.

Taking hold of the device, Steamhead jumped up, slapping the disc onto Ranma's back. The tubes shot forth, wrapping about Ranma's legs and arms, the rings securely fastening about him.

"Hey, what the?!" The youth exclaimed, looking at the device as it was wrapped around him. "Okay, so why'd you do that?" He asked the American, slightly annoyed; he looked funny at that moment, even if he didn't care how he usually looked.

"Try doing something," Steamhead told Ranma. "You'll find this steam-powered device will increase your natural abilities twenty-fold." If the youth tried to jump, like most of the people who tried that, he might be lucky enough to touch the rafters, and nothing else.

Ranma blinked. "Twenty-fold?" Okay, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all. Tensing slightly, Ranma jumped up. . .

And through the auditorium celing.

Steamhead blinked his eyes in surprise as sunlight went into the room. "Odd, I didn't think I set it for fifty-fold." Of course, Prof. Steamhead hadn't thought a martial artist of high caliber would be using such a device.

(----)

“Neko-tama? What’s wrong?” A slightly worried Nodoka asked as she walked into the living room. On a chair near a window sat Grave Digger, looking out the window. The only thing that the older redhead could call the look was one of longing. [4]

A little startled, the short Werecheetah blinked and looked at the older woman. “Oh, Auntie. I’m sorry, I was just,” she sighed, looking back out the window, “thinking.” She hated waiting for anything, it was even worse in the fact that she had to stay home all day while her friend was at school.

Nodoka blinked at that answer, before smiling. ‘So, this Neko-tama fancies my son, huh?’ She thought giddily. True, she didn’t know much about their relationship, if anything, just that they had been together for awhile, not that it mattered to her. “Oh dear, it seems that I forgot to give Ranma some of his lunch.” She mock-gasped, smiling internally as she saw her guest perk up and look at her, her greenish-blue eyes lighting up in surprise at those words, “Neko-tama, could you be a dear and give Ranma his lunch?” She asked as she walked back into kitchen. “It’ll take me a moment to get it ready. Get dressed and take it to him for me, please?”

“Of course, Auntie.” She said, quickly, getting up and running upstairs to get some clothes on that would allow her to blend in with the people outside a little easier. After reaching the top of the stairs, she thought about Britanny’s first day in school in her hybrid form and how nervous she was to be around normal people, before shrugging. What did she care about that loser of a so-called sister of hers?

Nodoka smiled as she put a few food-stuffs in a small bento. Not enough to fill her husband, nor her son, she suspected, but at least it would give that poor Neko-tama an excuse to go see her son.

It didn’t take long for her guest to come down from getting changed. The kimono-clad woman raised an eyebrow at the choice of clothing; it was that skin-tight purple one-piece with a tail hole that she had worn when she first arrived. She raised an eyebrow and smirked lightly. “If you’re trying to seduce my son, Neko-tama-chan, that might just be the outfit to do it in.”

Said “Neko-tama” blushed in spite of herself. “Well,” she began at length, “maybe.” It was probably a good thing that Ranma’s mother didn’t know how they first had met. ‘She might think we already slept together.’ She thought to herself, although the prospect itself wasn’t a bad thing, not at all.

Smiling at the flustered girl, Nodoka handed her a small box. “Here you go, dear. You better hurry before my son eats a tree or something.” She giggled at the younger girl’s slightly perplexed look. “Don’t worry about it, dear. Run along and get going or you’ll miss your chance to see my son again.”

Grave eeped and quickly ran out the door. A moment later, she returned with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. “Um, Auntie,” she began. “Just where is the school anyway?” She hadn’t been awake when Nodoka had given Ranma instructions, and she was new to Japan, so her ignorance could be forgiven.

Smiling, Nodoka gave the young Werecheetah the directions to where Ranma’s school was at. Smiling, Grave nodded. “Thanks, Auntie.” She said, before running out the door. [5]

Nodoka shook her head before sighing. A light smirk came to her face as she thought about her son and “Neko-tama”. “Oooh, I do hope things work out between them.” As she thought about it, her thoughts soon turned to something she hoped happened in the near future. “Wai! They’ll be so adorable!!” She gushed, thinking about children between her son and that “Neko-tama”. [6]

(----)

Sitting under the Sakura tree, Ranma bit back a sneeze before opening his Bento box. Thinking back on his morning, he had to admit that it was fun, experiencing near flight from that device that the new teacher had put on him. It only took about a half hour to get back down onto the Earth from that jump. When he told the professor that, the older man smiled, nodded, before taking the device back; just as well, Ranma didn't feel all that comfortable with such a device on him. After all, what kind of martial artist would use cheap tricks to get ahead? [7]

(----)

In Japan, several people sneezed all at once, before wondering what that was all about.

(----)

Shaking his head to clear his thought about power-ups, Ranma smirked and picked up a piece of food. He was so glad that it was his mother’s cooking and not his old man’s, or his own for that matter. While he could cook some decent foods, they were nowhere near as good as they should have been. ‘Yeah, just edible and nothing else.’ He thought to himself, before taking a bite of the food and smiling. “This is good.” He muttered to himself, before making like a vacuum and sucking up the food into that black hole he affectionately called a stomach.

“Hey!” A familiar voice spoke up, causing the martial artist to jump slightly and hop to his feet. He calmed down when he noticed who it was. “Hi, Grave. What’s up?” Though, he did wonder how the heck she snuck up on him without him noticing. Maybe it was the food; he hardly noticed anything when he was eating food.

The mini-Lycan smiled and held up a small box. “Your mother said she didn’t put enough food into your lunch box, so she asked me to bring some for you.” Her smile widened as she saw his blue eyes brighten at those words.

“Alright, thanks Grave!” He smiled at her and took the offered Bento, before opening it and going to town. He blinked as he felt Grave sit down right next to him, but he didn’t stop eating. If she wanted some, she would ask.

The mini-Lycan sighed happily and leaned back against the tree. It was nice out, she was with her best friend, and most importantly, that so-called family of hers wasn’t around trying to kill her. ‘Yeah, life is good.’ She thought to herself. There was nothing that could spoil this moment, nothing.

She blinked as she heard thunder in the distance. It didn’t look like it was about to rain, so why was there thunder in the distance? She shrugged; it didn’t matter too much to her. ‘Nothing wrong with a little thunder.’ She thought to herself.

(----)

Several students blinked as they took in the unusual person in purple skin-tight clothing walk over to the new student. There weren’t many people that had pure white faces, much less tails coming out of their back-sides. Most of the people shrugged it off as the person sat down next to the new kid quietly. Though, most of them started whispering among each other, saying how weird it was that some sort of furry with a tail would show up at their school.

A few moments later, several of the students jumped at the crack of thunder in the distance. Looking around, not a single one could see any dark clouds in the sky. They had to wonder just where that thunder had come from.

A couple minutes later, a haggard and slightly battered figure stumbled his way onto the courtyard. Grabbing a near-by male student, he lifted him up and looked at him sharply. “Listen, I’ve been through hell,” he said slowly, his green eyes practically glowing with a slight insanity, “so you have one chance to answer this.” The brown-haired individual smirked darkly as the person nodded. “Does Ranma Saotome go to school here?”

“Um, who?” The boy asked uncertainly, finding that it was slightly difficult to breathe while someone held you by your neck, at least he wasn’t squeezing tightly.

The youth’s left eye twitched and he let out a low growl from his throat out. “He’s about my height, blue eyes, very cocky, has his hair done in a pigtail. Know anyone like that?”

The kid nodded as best he could, before pointing a shaky finger at the Sakura tree. “O, over there. He’s sitting next to...” before the kid could finish his sentence, the youth dropped him and turned to the tree. “Ranma Saotome, you will pay for what you did to me.” He said, before running up to the tree as he saw his hated nemesis walking out from behind the tree. ‘The coward, always hiding.’ He thought to himself. “PREPARE TO DIE!!”

Ranma blinked, the hairs on the back of his neck sticking up for no apparent reason. Well, the yell may have had something to do with his danger sense going off at that moment. Grabbing Grave Digger, Ranma jumped up and back, before the ground around where he was standing a few minutes exploded and collapsed. He blinked as a fairly muscular teenager, about his age, wearing a tiger-patterned bandana, brown pants and a green shirt stood up with a nasty sneer on his face. ‘Now, where have I seen him before?’ He thought to himself. Something about the person in front of him nagged at his memory, but he just couldn’t remember at that moment.

“So, still good at running away, huh?” The teen said. “You haven’t changed at all.”

Ranma blinked. Now where had he heard that voice before?

“Um, Ranma, you can put me down now.” Grave said, even if it was reluctantly. She would have loved to stay in his arms, but if that psycho that was in front of them attacked, she’d just slow her friend down if things came down to that.

Said person blinked, before setting Grave Digger down on her feet absently. “So,” he began slowly, “why the heck are you attacking me?”

Ranma and Grave both sweat-dropped as the person in front of them face-faulted into the ground so hard that the asphalt cracked around his head. “That had to hurt.” They both said at the same time.

“RANMA! HOW DARE YOU FORGET ABOUT ME?!” He shouted as he stood up, cracking his knuckles. “And after you ran away from our duel to go to China!!”

His eyes lighting up, Ranma smiled brightly as he remembered just who the person in front of him was. “Hey, Ryoga. How you doing?”

“I’d be better if you were dead!” Ryoga said, charging forward, his fist reared back. “And I’ll make sure you see Hell!” [8, 9]

To be continued... (Aren’t I a stinker?)

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Preview of the Next Chapter:

Let’s get ready to rumble! Ranma Vs. Ryoga!

Next chapter will be a test chapter. You’ll see why when I get around to writing it. Again, I’m sorry for the delay in this chapter.

[1] All apologies to anyone that’s ever visited Japanese schools before. I’m ad-libbing this from what I’ve read and what I’ve seen.

[2] Heh, figure out what shrine this one is. Like I said before, cameos will show up on occasion.

[3] What? You expected this to be either a normal teacher or something?

[4] Everyone in Nerima has their little quirks. This is just a little quirk.

[5] I said that I was ad-libbing here.

[6] What? You thought she wouldn’t be thinking about grandchildren or something?

[7] Pot, this is kettle, you are black. Of course, out of the group, in the Manga at least, Ranma seemed (at least up through book 12) the least likely to get a power-up when it wasn’t necessary. The Battle Doji thing threw that out of whack.

[8] Yeah, I know this follows the Manga fairly closely, but I decided to use the lines, at least right away.

[9] How’d Ryoga get to Ranma’s school so quickly? Simple enough, the deal with the auditorium was in the morning, and Ryoga is showing up in the afternoon.