About time you put out something:
This story takes place after volume 38 of the Ranma manga and also draws
ideas from the anime.
Ah, someone else that does it too.
One Month
By
Donny Cheng
"You want me to what?" Ranma asked, staring disbelievingly
'staring in disbelief' works better for me.
at his three
suitors.
"Leave us alone," Akane said.
"Shampoo is, too, too tired of Ranma bothering her," Shampoo said.
"What they said," Ukyou brandished her spatula in Ranma's direction.
Ranma considered this new development. The loss of the three girls that had
become such in intricate part of his life was devastating. He'd have to
pick up three new suitors to keep his life interesting. Asuka the White
Lily, Kaori Daikoku, and Yuka, perhaps?
"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."
Ah, Hinako then.
"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: But it didn't work the first time.
Shampoo: No bother Shampoo with silly details.
"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.
Hehehehe. Very nice.
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
classroom
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.
heh. Very nice thinking on all three parts. Hopelessly doomed to failure,
of course.
"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."
Not too shabby.
"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."
Of course, this would happen fighting where there's sweets around. Perhaps
he'll learn next time.
*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.
Oh yes. Very terrible. I can feel the horror.
Really.
* * * * *
Day Eight...
"Oh! Ah... harder... please! Oh, for the love of god, harder," Hinako
moaned.
I do believe Ranma has now entered the classic 'lose-lose' situation.
Either he gives up, or the other girls get angry with him for picking up
another suitor.
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.
Heh. Cute
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
that she had
had become accustomed to over the
years. However, there were only fifteen more days and
days, and
she had no idea
how she would stop him. Her dread
'fear' would be better, I think
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."
Wow! That is a change.
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.
Her very ample chest. ^_^
"Do you know what
it's like to be a child?
Ranma: Sure. I act like one all the time.
She smiled wryly. "What better way to escape some of reality's
harshness than as a small child.
Because you need to grow up and deal with it like everyone else?
"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."
Hehehehe.
* * * * *
Day Twenty Seven...
Hmm. It's getting close.
"You know you
know, you
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.
Of course. That it's not his fault has nothing to do with it. ^_^
"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.
Definitely the latter.
"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
stuffed
"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
over top
him inert.
him, inert.
He felt something wet seep into
the cloth covering his shoulders where Hinako was. *She's crying?*
Ranma thought, panicking.
That's it. Ranma's lost.
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
drop 'take'
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.
Awww. How sweet.
"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,
Of course. ^_^
but the end result was still an unconvincing
look and
look, and
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.
You're an evil man, Donny.
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
is
"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.
Ah. Very nice finishing sentence there. Very appropriate.
* * * * *
The End. (maybe)
You always say that. :P
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 ^_^
Wow! You're even worse than me. ^_^
Very nice work. Simple but touching. And I'm only about five away from
catching up on my backlog now. Yay!
D.B. Sommer