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, stared in disbelief at Akane, Ukyo,
and Shampoo as they sat in Ucchan's.
"That hyper little runt is ruining my business. She comes by like
clockwork everyday. My grades slipped a bit because of that time I was
ill, 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 most of my student customers weren't so scared
of her and won't stay if she's here. On top of that, when she's a
child, 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 thought of bystanders getting hurt, namely him,
if Shampoo started hunting Hinako while he was at school. It didn't
seem to matter to the amazon that she lost the last time either.
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 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 the
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 haven't 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 a giggling young Hinako in place by the
scruff of her collar. "Your sister ate everything in my stall.
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 who didn't take sweets from delinquents back then? While
she knew what Ranma wanted to do to her, it still only took a little
bit of candy for her to be tricked into some trap.
*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 in a low, seductive
voice. She almost laughed out loud when she saw his blush deepen.
* * * * *
Day Eight...
"Oh! Ah... harder... please! Rub 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 Ten...
*No using cold water next time,* Ranma thought desperately, trying to
hold out as her teacher increased her squirming. Despite being in her
Jusenkyo cursed form, Hinako was only a little reluctant to continue
with her new tactics. She lost that reluctance when she realized that
the cursed form was extremely more sensitive than the male form. It
didn't help Ranma that she was less used to being a girl and had thus
less control over how it reacted to... stimulation.
* * * * *
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 that 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 fear 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 fell
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 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. I still know
everything that my adult form knows, but it's all colored with a
child's understanding of such matters."
"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 Nineteen...
"Hey, I thought we agreed to let Ranma handle this," Akane said, but
she did not stop from walking along the ledge over to the window sill
where they could see into their classroom.
"Shampoo no like this. Thought it was thirty quick and easy
treatments. But now learn from Mercenary Girl that it now take half
hour."
Nabiki frowned at the term Shampoo used but let it pass for now at the
trouble she knew was about to happen. Also she needed their help
getting to the window as it was on the third floor. "I only noticed
how long it was taking Ranma to get home every day."
"Who knows what could happen in thirty minutes," Ukyo growled.
Akane and Shampoo nodded and with that thought in mind, the three
suitors along with Nabiki holding onto Akane peered into the window.
* * * * *
"That was... incredibly boring," Ukyo said as she walked away from the
school with the others.
"She's lecturing him for the whole time?" Akane wondered aloud. She
had to admit, with all those times she called Ranma a pervert, a great
many extreme thoughts and ideas of what exactly was happening ran
rampant through her mind. She did not expect _that_ however.
"Shampoo knew Ranma loyal."
Nabiki rolled her eyes, *Riiight.* "Well, that was bad. I don't know
how I'm going to edit these photos. Ranma looks like he's falling
asleep, and for a boy holding onto a woman's chest, the poses were
extremely tame."
"Photos!?"
Nabiki blinked innocently as three angry glares looked towards her.
"Uh, what photos?"
* * * * *
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 could not understand Hinako's mindset. Just a couple of days
ago, she came to school with a bad 24 hour cold. She could easily not
have come to school and make him start over again. Also, 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 than before. He
wondered what kind of game she was playing. If she 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 stuffed
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. And I can't drain more ki while I'm adult."
"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 over top him, inert. He heard muffled sounds that
he couldn't place and then 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, till I
turned back into a child. 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_ nice.
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 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 could barely make out the familiar ceiling of the classroom above
her. It was getting dark outside. She giggled girlishly, thinking of
the looks on the faces of Ranma's girlfriends. "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 being 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
after he passed 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 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 making 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, and
well, just in case she still bothered us."
*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 seriously. "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 stay on her face for long and she turned
serious. "I want to thank you for what you did. I know you gave me
many chances. From the many suggestions on avoiding you to not even
holding me very 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, "is 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)
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