Title: Finding the Silver

Author: Shareon

Summary: Ranma didn't understand how attending Lillian Private Girls' School related to mastery of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. However, past experience had demonstrated time and again how esoteric training could lead to incredible results. A crossover between "Maria-sama ga Miteru" and "Ranma 1/2."

Prologue:

"Gokigenyou."

The clear morning greeting is nowhere to be heard under the serene, blue sky.

While the phrase is equally useful for salutations and farewells, it is so formal and stately as to be almost unknown to itinerant martial artists. It would be much more commonly found on the lips of pure maidens wrapped in deep-colored school uniforms as they pass under the tall gateways of places such as Lillian Private Girls' School.

Founded in Meiji 34, Lillian was originally intended as an academy for young women of nobility. It is now a Catholic school of prestigious tradition. Located in downtown Tokyo, where you can still see traces of Musashi Field's greenery, it is a place protected by God, a garden where maidens can receive tutelage from preschool to university.

Time passes, and even now, in Heisei, three era-names past Meiji, Lillian remains a valuable academy. Nurtured ladies raised in greenhouses are shipped out in carefully packaged boxes after 18 years of education. It is an arrangement which continues to survive.

But such a place is far distant from here, the expansive plains of rural Japan.

He, Ranma Saotome, is the son of Genma Saotome. He is the heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and that fact has necessitated his traveling with his father on an extended training trip for over a decade. He is cursed by Jusenkyou to transform into a girl when brought into contact with cold water, only to transform back into a boy with a similar application of hot water. He is as far away from Lillian in circumstances as he is physically.

Such a phrase has nothing to do with him.

Chapter 1: New School

Ranma gazed over the horizon. The sun was shining, and birds were flying through the air. The only traces of the storm the night before were the small puddles still scattered around their camp.

"It's good that the rain's stopped," Ranma said, relieved at the change in the weather. He hated hiking through the rain. It was cold, wet, and generally miserable, and that had been before their recent trip to Jusenkyo. Ever since then, the rain also brought with it the horrible smell of Genma whenever he was a panda, adding an olfactory offense to the experience.

"What's that?" Genma asked. He was on the trailing end of middle-aged, with a fat stomach and a bald head which he kept hidden from the world beneath a bandanna. He wore a pair of glasses to compensate for his slowly deteriorating eyesight. Despite that, he was also the strongest, fastest, and most skilled martial artist Ranma had ever fought. He was also the laziest. As was typical, he was lounging around as Ranma broke camp.

"I said, 'It's good that the rain's stopped,'" Ranma repeated. He stowed their dismantled tent into his travel pack and moved to smother the last remnants of their campfire.

"Hmm..." Genma said, nodding his head. "The life of a martial artist is fraught with peril."

"Yeah, yeah. Where are we going next, anyway?" Ranma asked. He hoped it was somewhere in a city. Food was more reliable there than in the wilderness, and they were far less likely to be attacked by something like a bear or a wolf. The downside was that in a city, they would also need to avoid being discovered. That meant no fires, cold dinners, and cautious movements everywhere. It was a close balance, but he preferred the reliable food.

"About that. You've learned much over our training trip, and I think it's time for you to begin your first steps to becoming a master of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts," Genma said. He spoke dramatically, which would have had more of an impact if he wasn't still slouched back against a tree.

"What're you on about? I can already beat you," Ranma said, naturally dismissing his father's proclamation. Genma always like to make grandiose statements. Almost invariably, they turned out to be substantially overstated. On the other hand, Ranma could also overstate things. He could beat Genma in a fight, but he lost more often than he won.

"Don't get cocky, boy. I've been holding back on you."

Ranma scoffed.

Genma pushed himself forward and stood up. He looked over at Ranma and said, "You couldn't survive one week without me, and that's what we're going to fix. It's time for you to learn the most powerful set of techniques I ever created: the Umisenken."

That caught Ranma's attention. The Fist of a Thousand Seas. It was possible that Genma was exaggerating again, but the name certainly sounded like the real thing. Ranma's mind raced as he pictured what it could be. Some kind of super-attack based on the power of the ocean? Some kind of secret form of protection, hidden deep beneath the waves? The name was impressive, but it gave away nothing.

"What's that?" Ranma asked eagerly. He always liked to add new techniques to his repertoire, and Genma's description made this set sound even more intriguing than normal.

Genma crossed his arms, proud of the effect of his words. He said, "That's what I thought. For this you'll need some special training." He leaned forward towards Ranma, which prompted Ranma to do the same. At the right moment, Genma threw a canteen of water right into Ranma's face.

The cold water triggered Ranma's transformation. She shrank several decimeters, changing from a fairly average height of a boy to being rather short, even for a girl. This was accompanied by a commensurate shrinking of her arms, legs, and torso. The exception to this was her bust and hips, both of which expanded and declared her gender with their decidedly large size. Even her hair, although it remained in its characteristic pigtail, shifted from black to instead become a vivid and eye-catching red.

"What'd you do that for?" Ranma sputtered in her new voice, surprise and annoyance vying for dominance in her exclamation. She was all the more annoyed because she had been caught by surprise. Even after all these years, Genma still managed to catch her off-guard from time to time.

Ranma quickly wiped her face semi-dry with her hand.

"For this training, you'll need to be a girl," Genma said, as if imparting one of the great secrets of the universe to her.

"Are you crazy? I'm a guy!" Her voice sounded harsh from the force of her exclamation.

"I know. It's important you never forget that," Genma said, nodding. "But for this, you'll need to blend in. Pretend. Believe me, compared to the stuff the master did to me and Tendo, this is easy." He involuntarily shuddered, his eyes glazed by some distant horror only he could see. He shook himself back to the present and said, "The first step of your training will be to infiltrate Lillian Private Girls' School."

"What? Why?" Ranma asked. She didn't see how that could be connected in any way to any set of martial arts techniques.

"Don't worry about that for now, boy. Do the first step first. I'll explain the next step later. I don't want to overwhelm you, after all," Genma said. He then gave a hearty laugh. "Besides, it will make it easier to perform the technique if you don't know its final form."

Ranma shook her head and muttered to herself, "Stupid pops."

To say she was skeptical would be an understatement. Even considering all of the strange exercises Genma had put her through over the years, this latest one still managed to be rather unusual. She figured it would make sense sooner or later, though. It usually did. Sometimes.

Ranma hitched her traveling pack on her back, and she followed Genma across the countryside. He led her on a moderate hike across a field until they reached a small road. They then followed it as it merged into a bigger road, and eventually into a highway. As they walked, she ruminated on what this set of techniques could be, and grew more and more excited as she did so. If there was one thing she had noticed over all the years of travel and training, it was the trend that the more esoteric the training, the more powerful the end result would be. For example, Fukuyama had enforced some of the craziest requirements Ranma had ever been subjected to, but her results with the naginata were indisputable.

This training, attending a girls' school, was possibly the second most bizarre thing Genma had ever had her do. That, combined with the promises he had made, left her equal parts curious and eager.

As they continued to walk along the highway, cars speeding past them in a whirl of noise, there was a steady increase in buildings. First it was an occasional farm house. Then there were small towns, which gave way to suburban neighborhoods, until eventually even skyscrapers became commonplace. The size of the city and the number of tall office buildings it contained made it easy to identify that they had returned to Tokyo once again.

Genma led the way straight to Lillian. He entered the tall front gate of the school and hurried through the grounds inside, which allowed Ranma only a cursory look around her as she tried to keep up.

The school was in fact a large complex. The campus felt closer to a temple or a church than to any school Ranma had attended in the past. The grounds had a great deal of similarity to a city park, with a wide brick road leading in from the entrance gateway. Along both sides of the road were dozens of tall trees, behind which were two carefully manicured lawns. Partway into the campus was small grove of trees, in the center of which was a stone statue of a woman wearing a hooded robe.

Genma led Ranma past a group of ginko trees and directly to a large building of Western-style architecture. It was two stories tall, with a central building which displayed a large clock on its face, and two long wings stretching out to the left and to the right. Numerous expansive rectangular windows lined the walls around the entire structure.

Once inside, Genma slowed down a bit. With the help of a few signs, he led Ranma to the main office. Along the way, they passed several girls, all wearing black sailor uniform dresses with pleated skirts and white collars. The girls all turned to look at Ranma and Genma as they walked past. It wasn't only the martial arts keikogis they wore, although those alone would have had them standing out like proverbial sore thumbs. Both of them also carried the large packs containing all of their traveling equipment and supplies they had used throughout the years of training to survive in the wilderness.

Genma pushed open the door to the main office. He looked at the administrator sitting in the front desk and said, "Good afternoon. I'd like to speak to the headmistress of the school."

"About what would you like to speak with her?" the administrator asked. She was a middle-aged woman with a narrow face. She wore a yellow buttoned shirt and a black jacket.

"I'd like to enroll my daughter in this school," Genma said. He beckoned to Ranma, who stepped forward a bit. Genma then took her by the shoulders and pulled her forward to stand in front of him.

The administrator looked up at Genma, then down at Ranma, then back up at him again. She asked, "Here? Are you sure?"

"Yes," Genma said, nodding twice.

The administrator took one more penetrating look at Ranma. She then said, "I understand. Please wait here." She stood up and walked to one of the back offices. Although the door was open she knocked anyway, and then she stepped inside.

Genma leaned down and whispered to Ranma, "Just stay quiet and let me do the talking."

Ranma nodded.

With nothing else to do, Ranma took a look around the room. It was a fairly standard office. Small stacks of paper littered the surfaces of the all the various tables. The most distinctive feature of the room was the Christian sculptures and art scattered around it. Most notable was a large painting on a side wall featuring three men, a woman, and a baby, each surrounded by a golden aura.

The click of high heels tapping on the ground from the far door caught Ranma's attention, and she turned back as the administrator re-emerged from the back office.

"The headmistress will see you now," the administrator said, and she gestured with her hands as if to show them the way in.

"Thank you," Genma said with a slight bow. He walked past the administrator, Ranma once again following behind him.

The inner room broke with the theme of being a standard office. While the back half of the room did look professional, with a substantial desk covered with papers, the front half looked closer to a living room. There were two modest sofas, between which was a coffee table. Placed in the center of the table was a vase of white lilies. There was a small statue of a woman with a flowing hooded robe on another table to the side of the room. Beside that statue was another vase, this one with some roses. On the other side of the room was a blackboard. It had several names listed on the side, and days lined up in columns. Across the top was written, "Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. -Thessalonians 5:21-22"

The headmistress herself was a women closer to elderly than middle-aged. Several small wrinkles on her face were in the process of becoming defined creases. She wore a black tunic, a white collar, a white coif covering her hair, and a black veil. Her bearing was one that spoke of kindly acceptance as well as resigned discipline. She looked up at their entrance and said, "Gokigenyou." Her polite and formal greeting sounded strange to Ranma, like giving somebody a gilded and embossed invitation to a casual afternoon sparring session. "I heard that you were interested in enrolling your daughter in Lillian, Mr..."

"Sugita. Kaito Sugita," Genma said fluidly. He gave a slight bow of his head. "Yes, that is correct. I would like to enroll my daughter here."

Ranma felt the weight of judgment upon her as the woman looked her over.

The headmistress focused her gaze for a few seconds and then turned back to Genma. She said, "Forgive me for saying so, but we don't typically accept persons such as yourselves. Why would you like for her to attend?"

"I understand," Genma said. The hint of plaintive emotion entered his voice as he continued, "That's exactly why I came here. You see, Ran..ko..chan's mother died when she was very young. Just a baby, really."

The jolt of surprise lanced through Ranma, and she whipped her head up and around to look at Genma in response. She had had no idea her mother was dead. She had never heard that before. For that matter, she hadn't even known that she had had a mother at all. Intellectually she knew she must have, but she had never really thought about it before. Somehow over the years, the topic had simply never come up. The sudden realization of the absence left her feeling strange, as if somebody had just pointed out she had a birthmark on her arm that she had never noticed before.

"I'm sorry," The headmistress said quietly. She tapped her right hand to her forehead, chest, left shoulder, and right shoulder. She then clutched it with her left hand in front of her.

"Her dying wish was that Ranko-chan grow up to be a proper lady. But I'm just a martial artist. I tried my best, but... well... see?" Genma asked. He used his arms to gesture at Ranma from head to foot.

Ranma wasn't really paying attention to him, though. She was more preoccupied with the declaration that her mother was dead. She wasn't sure how to take it. It was like hearing that she would never in her life be able to visit France. She had never really thought about it before, let alone cared about it. However, hearing that she would never even have a chance to know her mother made her feel like she was somehow missing out on something.

"You see?" Genma repeated. "I'm just not qualified. I've asked around, and this is the best place to learn about this kind of thing."

The headmistress blinked in response. She looked down at her hands, still clutched in front of her chest. She then said, "I see. As you know, we are a very exclusive private school. We began in Meiji 34, as an academy for young women of nobility. We continue that proud tradition to this day as a prestigious Catholic school dedicated to Maria-sama. Her grace is such that she would never turn away a person in need. We shall find a place for your daughter here."

"Thank you," Genma said, tears streaming from his eyes.

"Of course, there is the matter of tuition," the headmistress said.

"Naturally," Genma said nonchalantly. "Who should I make the check out to?"

Ranma half-ignored their discussion, instead thinking about the declaration that her mother was dead. She eventually came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter to her. If she never went to France, then she never went to France. It might have been different if her mother had actually appeared in her life, much like how randomly waking up one day in a French park would definitely have been most consequential. However, the mere realization of the absence in and of itself didn't make a previously inconsequential idea important.

The headmistress and Genma came to some agreement about the tuition, as he scribbled something on a small sheet of paper and handed it over to her. She looked it over and then looked back up at Genma. She said, "I believe that everything is in order. You will be able to buy uniforms at several nearby clothing stores." She then turned to Ranma. "Please return here tomorrow morning at 8:00. I will introduce you to your teacher then. Welcome to Lillian Private Girls' School. Gokigenyou." The parting phrase sounded as just as excessively polite and formal as when it was used as a greeting.

"Until next time."

Genma led Ranma out of the office, out of the building, and eventually out of the campus. They then made their way to a nearby clothing store.

At the store, Genma explained to the shopkeeper that they needed to get some uniforms, and indeed some clothing in general, for Ranma. The shopkeeper looked skeptical, but still helped measure her. The man then went to a back room and returned forward with two sailor dresses. They had long sleeves and, excepting the white collar and cuffs, were made of a thick almost-black cloth. The shopkeeper left them on a table and went to the back room once again. When he returned the second time, he was carrying two sets of gym uniforms, a jacket, and a book bag. He left those on a table next to the sailor dresses and went back a third time. This time he brought with him three pairs of shoes. This was repeated one more time, with the shopkeeper bringing forward a small stack of neckerchiefs, socks, and underwear. The pile of clothes added up to be a rather large and heavy mass.

Genma handed over another small sheet of paper to the man. Genma then left the store, Ranma following behind him while carrying all of the clothes she now owned in a large bag.

Once they were safely on the street and several blocks away, Genma turned back to Ranma and said, "That went well. In the future, you'll need to be able to do stuff like that by yourself. Now you'll have two, maybe three, weeks to complete your training. You'll need to be done before then. Remember: You're on a timer here, and you'll only have one shot at this."

"Yeah, I got it. That's step one done. Easy. What's next?" Ranma asked. For all of Genma's bluster, it seemed like this training would be simple. She hadn't even needed to really do anything so far. That in no way diminished her eagerness to advance, though.

"Yes. Good. Now..." Genma said, slowing down and leaning forward to Ranma. She didn't take the bait this time and remained on-guard for a splash of water to her face, or worse. "Now... let's go find a place to stay."

"What? I meant what's the next step of the training?" Ranma all but shouted. She had been prepared to advance to step two, or at least to be attacked in some fashion. The banality of Genma's declaration had been anticlimactic to say the least. She felt like she was being toyed with.

"Shh..." Genma said, waving his hands for Ranma to quiet down. "I know what you're thinking, but it's what I said earlier. The first thing you need to do is to infiltrate the school. I know you've been admitted, but you need to actually get into it. You must be completely ordinary in your appearance and behavior. You need to blend in and become invisible to them, like a tree in the forest. Do that first. Once you've achieved that, I'll tell you the second step. If you know what that is now, it'll just mess you up."

It irked Ranma, but she could see the reasoning. Learning how to throw before learning how to grab was just pointless. Worse, trying to learn how to punch without knowing how to first make a fist was just asking get a broken thumb. Everything had a proper order. She had been through enough forms of training that she could accept the reasoning, even if she didn't like it.

"Fine, but this had better be worth it," Ranma said.

"Good. Now let's go find a place to stay," Genma said, resuming their trip down the street.

The two of them moved at a light jog. As they went, Ranma occasionally looked backwards. She would need to retrace their steps the following morning, and seeing the landmarks from the appropriate perspective would help a great deal for that. The periodic check also helped to spot if anybody was setting up an ambush for them. It was something she had gotten very used to doing after the Amazon village incident at the end of her training trip in China. Now that she was back in Japan, that particular threat would no longer be an issue, but the habit was still a good one to keep, just in case.

They passed a park, but Genma kept leading them onward. Past a few more streets, they came across what looked like a large Shinto temple. Tori gates stood in the front, and there was what appeared to be a small forest behind it. It would have been the perfect place to hide out, but despite that, Genma kept walking. At the end of the temple, they took a right and crossed a bridge. A few streets later, there was a big sign advertising some sports drink. They took a left there and continued past more streets. They eventually came across what appeared to be a smaller Buddhist temple. This one must have suited Genma better, as he slowed to a stop and took a look around for any spectators.

Ranma had traveled enough with Genma to know what would happen next. He hopped over some bushes and behind some trees. Ranma checked for any observers as well, and upon confirming there were none, followed right behind him. Meals would be cold while they stayed here; they couldn't risk a fire and drawing attention to themselves. Martial arts practice would need to be conducted several blocks away for the same reason. There were definite drawbacks along with the benefits of camping out in a city.

Also, as expected, Ranma ended up doing most of the camp setup while Genma wandered off to do whatever he did. He claimed he was searching for water, food, and other supplies. Ranma always suspected it was just Genma being lazy. Regardless, it fell to Ranma to set up their tent. She also laid out the bedrolls and unpacked the basic supplies which were to be used on a regular basis. The sun was on the decline once she considered the camp properly set.

They had some jerky for dinner, along with some dry cereal. After that, Genma led Ranma out of the camp towards a nearby river. Along the way, they stopped by a convenience store, where Ranma was able to acquire some hot water to transform.

Once they reached the river, the pair commenced their vigorous martial arts practice. Even after the sun had set, they continued their fight, using the dim illumination of the streetlights lining the near and far side of the riverbanks to continue their practice.

It was nearing midnight before they made their way back to the camp. Ranma was glad he had set up everything earlier. He was exhausted, and was glad he could just collapse onto his bedroll.

Minutes later, he was asleep.

Last Updated: October 1, 2020