Reyvateil Ranma Book One:
Chapter: Dating Issues
AN: Poll is closed. Result: Jubaan
AN2:New poll will be up soon
Ranma was searching through his clothes and sighed as he realized that the only clothes he had were in one style. Figuring that was settled he remembered that he needed to decide where to go, and realized that he had absolutely no clue as to where modern boys enjoy going to, much less girls, and even less girls from another dimension.
So he quickly went downstairs to speak with the eldest Tendo sister. He found her in the kitchen finishing supper. "Kasumi," he said, "I need a suggestion, I have a date with a girl, she's about my age, where should I take her? It needs to be cheap though, pops never gave me money."
Nabiki was listening in and spoke up, "I have an idea that would make money for us both, if you agree I'll provide a reasonable amount of funds for your date, as a kind of a sign on bonus."
Seeing as Kasumi was thinking on what advice to give, the male in the room asked, "Idea?"
" Yes, and it should give both of us some cash flow," came the reply, as she thought, and I could loosen up on some of my 'other' money making schemes, as well as make up for the fact the schools going to be closed for the foreseeable future. She then continued in a normal tone of voice, "I had heard your singing through the open windows of my classroom and yours, as well as heard the accounts of people who were there. I could arrange for you to sing at parties, and we split the money fifty-fifty."
"Nabiki..." Kasumi started.
"The fifty-fifty is to help pay for his room and board, our finances were fairly tight before they came here, and while getting the fathers out of the house for a while helps while there gone..." Nabiki said.
Kasumi sighed and nodded her head at the point, just as Ranma replied, "Agreed, as long as it's just singing, and it's not parties that someone my age shouldn't be attending."
Kasumi brightened as Nabiki nodded and, she had an idea now that money wasn't as much of a problem. "Ranma how about the amusement park? It's a place where both of you could have fun, and get to know each other without being too intimate for a first date." Kasumi paused for a second as she saw the time, and continued, "although it might be best to go tomorrow, it's far to late tonight."
Ranma nodded and headed for the phone, which had emergency numbers listed next to it such as police, fire department, Doctor Tofu, Hazmat, and the ambulance company. Just as he reached it the phone rang.
Meanwhile At Dr. Tofu's clinic, a group of three girls and two guys were sitting in the living room of doctor Tofu's clinic/home while discussing the plans for the group of dimensional travelers.
"I think I can help you four get set up with some IDs. I have a friend in the local court house, he can expedite the process," the doctor explained.
Lyner nodded then paused as a thought struck him, and he asked, "Shouldn't we do something for Shurelia's cursed form as well?"
"As well as Ranma's," Mir added.
Dr. Tofu nodded as the points were made, and responded, "Yes your right, we should get things set up tomorrow. Shurelia, you and Ranma will need to demonstrate your curses for a judge, but I see no problem after that. Assuming of course, that the judge doesn't have a heart attack. Mir, you should call Ranma and tell him to meet us here tomorrow morning at nine. The number is XXX-XXXX. After your done dinner will be ready, so come to the dining room."
Mir grunted, walked to the phone, and dialed quickly. She was surprised by the quickness that it was answered. "Ranma?" she asked. "We would like to meet you tomorrow here to solve some legal issues with your curse, we're meeting tomorrow at nine. Wait what? You want to cancel for tonight?" her eyes narrowed as she continued the call, "Why?" she relaxed as the explanation on the other side continued. "I see, that actually makes sense, shall we do it the day after tomorrow instead? Nine thirty? Fine." upon hearing the answer she gave a genuine smile and finished the phone call with, "See you tomorrow."
Mir walked to the dining table and seeing an empty place sat down, and asked a question that, if they were going to pretend to be legal citizens, "What are we going to do for money?"
"I have plenty," Lyner said as he brought out a bag of Leaf, the currency of the Towers.
"Mind if I see?" Ono Tofu asked. Lyner slid a small gold coin from the bag across the table to the doctor. Tofu picked up the coin and frowned at it and shook his head, this isn't currency here, but it should be easy to convert it to yen." He also started dishing out servings of food
Lyner's face fell at the first part of the doctors explanation, but brightened up as he heard the second and with a nod dug into the food that was set in-front of him. The rest of the group did the same, and Tofu made plans to call up an antique dealer to appraise the coins, that they looked quite old, and since they were from what is apparently a unknown country, they would be both rare and valued by collectors.
The next day Ranma was five minutes late arriving at the clinic, and the group set off to the court house. The proceedings went smoothly, until it was time to demonstrate the curses to the judge, the judge was expecting a simple disguise trick, and took a drink of water, but when the cursed individuals splashed themselves with water, which not only added, or subtracted inches, and since Ranma was in the armor she can form by changing to male with her outfit that he/she could make after Mir's dive into him/her, their clothes changed, Ranma's into a black and silver leotard type outfit, and Shurelia's into a suit of white armor. After hacking for a bit the judge saw it was real and signed a document allowing them to have their alternate IDs. He also signed the documents confirming the marriage between Shurelia and Lyner. He did something that wasn't discovered until later, but explained the judges final comment, "And remember to attend school when the school districts distribute the Furinkan students."
Later on, as the paperwork was being finished the Ar tonelico group met with a antique dealer who purchased a few coins with a promise to pay more if his buyers purchased them for more than he expected.
As they stepped out of the court house with their new IDs they noticed that the sun was setting, so with Ranma's promise to pick her up the two groups split up. On the way to the clinic Mir took a look at her ID, stalled, and said, "What the?"
Shurelia walked over and looked at the ID and said, "So that's why you had to fill out the school application." she started to chuckle, but stopped when she remembered that she filled out the same forms, and looked at her own ID, it had the same issue Mir saw with hers.
The age on both ID's was sixteen.
The next day Ranma dressed in a set of adjustable, and new, black silks in his normal style, which Nabiki had found on sale. He took off with some cash in his pocket to pay for the date, and not even the fact that he arrived as a reyvateil caused him to be unhappy, especially since he was not only having a date with a cute girl, but she was defying the panda of a father. After she knocked at the door to the clinic in which the dimensional travelers were staying in, Dr. Tofu answered the door, and said, "Hello Ranma, let me get some hot water for you."
"Thank you, Doctor. Where is Mir?" Ranma asked nervously. As the doctor started to move off.
"Taking a bath, you are wrong gender, might give people the wrong idea about her."
Tofu shook his head and said with a glint in his eyes, "I've been with living with her for the last two and a half days, and I can say that she doesn't care about the opinions of others, with the possible exception of you."
"Me?" Ranma asked surprised.
"Well..." Dr. Tofu started.
"Finish that comment, and..." A female voice said right before Mir entered the room, as she deliberately left the threat vague. She was wearing the same rather skimpy outfit she had put on after Ranma had asked her to put on clothes when they first met except for a leather pouch in a native American style now hanging around her neck.
"Hehehe," the doctor chuckled nervously. "I see.."
"So Ranma are we ready?" Mir asked her date.
Ranma nervously scratched the back of his head as he replied, "Sure, let's go."
As the two left for the subway station in Nerima a picture was taken with the doctors Polaroid camera held by a girl dressed in a whitish silver outfit.
The two moved to the subway station, without incident, Mir was trying to coax information about Ranma's life from him, while Ranma was trying with less success to to the same to her. She was remarkably closed lipped her past. The arrived at the subway station in good order and Ranma pulled the money out and purchased the tickets to the closest amusement park, and led the black haired girl to the proper platform before asking, "Mir, why won't you tell me about your past?"
Mir sighed, and even though he wasn't much more open about his past he, he had told her some. She sighed and replied, "because, I did some horrible stuff earlier in my life, and I want you to get to know me, before I tell you about it, so that you could judge me on who I am today, not who I was then. That is also the reason I didn't want you to dive into me yet."
Ranma nodded, and put his arm left around her shoulders, and replied, "I see... I suppose I cant blame you, but promise me, you will tell me before too long."
Mir looked at him and nodded. She then replied, "When I think your ready, You can dive into me, it will show up there and it will make you understand the problem better than a verbal explanation ever could."
Ranma nodded at her that he understood. The train came in just then, ending their conversation, with a loud screech of breaks a car stopped right in front of them. Neither of them noticed a man with thick glasses as a bandaged eye boarding another car with a crimson haired beauty. The train ride was uneventful, until somebody took Mir's skimpy outlandish dress for an invitation, and grouped her. She turned around with an outraged squawk and slapped the man. The man, who was used to his victims not resisting backed off a step.
"What's wrong Mir?" Ranma asked concerned.
"That man just grabbed my ass," she replied hotly, and started softly singing.
"No Mir, let me handle this," Ranma said. He then moved to the man and grabbed his shirt, and said, "did you just grope my girlfriend?
The man started shaking his head violently after he discovered that he couldn't escape from the iron hard grasp of the man accosting him. "so your calling my girlfriend a liar?" the man shook his head again and suddenly realized his mistake just before the boy in front of him decked him, sending him into the land of dreams.
Mir was faintly blushing at the display, and whispered to Ranma when he returned to her side, "That wasn't necessary, but thank you."
"I'm well aware that you could've taken him with a song, but I didn't want you to hit the other people," Ranma explained.
Word of how the groper was harmed by the violent man whom was dating the victim spread through the adjacent cars. The story was also countered with one about a groper that ended up tied up in chains by another boyfriend, this one almost three quarters blind in his good non covered eye, of what seemed like a tomboy.
The other woman of the train, while slightly outraged that the two boys seemingly violated the don't look don't tell rules of Japanese society, were secretly glad that the two had been punished.
The ride went peacefully, and the two boy's were unaware of the consequences of their actions, that it would take several weeks for the gropers to obtain the nerve to try again.
Soon enough the subway train stopped at the stop and both the couples who got on in Nerima got off. The left the station and took a bus to the Park.
Mir's eyes widened as they arrived, she in all her years had never seen anything like the place, for in the tower from which he haled, space was at an even greater premium than in Japan, there might be more space in the remaining part of the wings of houris, but unlike Japan, they had to produce everything themselves, which included food, and they were unable to supplement it from the sea since it lay in the sea of death.
Mir was actually more exited than ever, this looked like a chance to reclaim part of what was stolen from her, her childhood.
She followed Ranma to the ticket seller and with a glance at the prices pulled the appropriate amount of money out. Ranma opened his mouth to protest that he would take care of it, but closed it at a look from her. He had just dug out enough money for himself when she handed him his ticket. With a sigh he realized that dates with Mir would have different rules than what the Tendo sisters told him, he replaced the money, and took the ticket. They entered the park, and due to the lateness of the year, found it almost empty. Mir pulled him to a ring toss game booth, and started trying it. Ranma's mouth twitched as he saw which prize she was trying for, it was the peg in front of a rather creepy looking stuffed skeleton. Soon enough the black haired girl got frustrated with her inability to hit the target. She was about to try again when another hand handed the vendor the money and took the three rings. Looking sideways she saw Ranma giving her a grin, and with three tosses won the skeleton, a stiffed zombie, and a doll with a spooky smile. The pigtailed boy handed the three prizes to to his black haired date.
Mir dragged Ranma through the park, where they played some games, he won her a few other items a mask of a dragon, as well as other spooky items. They split the cost of lunch since the black haired reyvateil refused to be the traditional girl on a date and have the male pay for everything.
After lunch They started on the rides, Mir dragged the pigtailed boy to the tunnel of love, and they both got in the boat, although Ranma was nervous about being near so much water. Ahead of them in line Mir recognized Sierra, but didn't say anything to her date especially since she seemed to be on a date herself, Ranma on the other hand didn't recognize her. Behind them a short haired blond and a long haired woman with sea green hair took a boat.
Midway through the ride a small pipe burst before it was shut off dousing Ranma and Mir with cold water. Mir simply shook her head to get the water and resumed her cuddle. Ranma was nervous though, he didn't want people to think her date was a pervert. All to soon the ride came to an end through the loop, and the ride attendant was surprised to find that a male passenger was replaced by a female one, but since she, by her wristband, was apparently a paying customer, and no screams about finding a dead body could be heard, he decided to let it go.
The next stop was a stall for some hot unsweetened tea so the Ranma could change back, although Mir said it wasn't necessary he insisted for her reputation.
The day went on enjoyably for the two, as they went on more rides, won a few more prizes, and generally had a good time. The sole exception was after one of the rollercoasters that had the people hanging down. Mir had ended up feeling slightly queasy after the ride.
As dinner time approached they decided to head home, when they heard a voice calling for help, in a relatively abandoned part of the park that they had been on the edge of. The section was abandoned because the electricity, besides the lights wasn't working. Ranma, along with his black haired date, moved in the direction of the voice, only to find a group of five boys attacking a sixteen year old girl with black hair with purple highlights and purple eyes, they had already ripped the front of her blouse when Mir sang the song for a low powered energy ball, while Ranma sent two low powered primal blasts at two others. The energy ball blew two of the thugs into a wall, while the ki attacks did the same for two others. The leader of the thugs turned to see the interlopers, and as soon as he did he was met by a sucker punch that shattered his jaw.
"Are you alright?" Ranma asked. He the took of his shirt and handed it to the girl leaving his chest covered solely in a tank top. "Here you can cover up with this, your shirt is totaled, then we should move to a safer location."
The girl blushed at the figure of the fit pigtailed boy in front of her, and replied, "Thank you." meanwhile her thoughts where spinning, they aren't senshi, but they were able to take them down with what looked like magic, are they yoma? But if so why did they help me? He's cute, is he with her? Should I tell the others?
Mir nodded and was glad that she read Ranma right in that he probably wouldn't appreciate he killing those people, even if they probably deserved it by what they wanted to do to that girl.
The girl spoke up again, "My name is Hotaru Tomoe, it's nice to meet you..."
"Ranma Saotome, and this is Mir, and I think it would be best if we find somewhere to talk. Are you here alone, or with your parents?" the pigtailed boy responded as the black haired girl nodded.
"Ummm, we are supposed to meet in the coffee shop across from the Ferris wheel in about half an hour," Hotaru responded.
"How about we take you there and wait with you, so that you wont be bothered," Mir asked, and as expected her question drew a grateful look from her date.
Hotaru looked relieved that she wouldn't have to be alone after that event, and took the lead to show them the way. ten minutes later they were sitting in the shop, and had ordered some snacks, Hotaru was now wearing a purple souvenir T-shirt, given the shirt she had borrowed back to Ranma, who was now wearing it once again, and was munching on some snacks they had purchased.
Meanwhile back at the sight of the attack a woman in a black and white fuku was looking at the bruised, broken, but still breathing forms of her ward's would be rapists. Her plan had been simple, let Hotaru get attacked, and right before she got raped save her, thus reinforcing Hotaru's belief that not only her fellow senshi would help her, but to prevent her from trying to get a boyfriend and screwing up her plans. Hotaru had been a tad too interested in getting a boyfriend for her liking when her destiny said she shouldn't have one, and actually came close to succeeding. Returning to the gates of time she checked back at the event, but saw static instead of the same scene she had seen before teleporting, and looking at the present she saw herself comforting the purple eyed girl. Completely confused she moved her view to look in on the agreed meeting place, and was shocked to see...
static. She could only see vague shapes, it was if something, or someone was jamming the gates. She ten teleported to the nearest bathroom and walked to the shop. Upon arriving she saw Hotaru safe and chatting with a skimpily clad female that set her teeth on edge for some reason, and a male that did the same, but nowhere near as bad as the girl. Just then a waiter tripped and caught the male with a cup of ice water. The transformation was stunning to the senshi of time, as well as causing the uncomfortable feeling from the neo-girl to spike to nearly the level of the girl she was with, she had never heard of that type of magic. Fortuitously she was in a position so that she could read his lips as he explained about Jesenkyo. With that explanation she left them as her housemates arrived, as she didn't want to have to explain why she was there to them, and as soon as she could she retransformed and moved back to the gates that were her responsibility. The green haired woman immediately started looking at Jesenkyo from a point of about a year in the past, but just before the male she saw with Hotaru fell in static covered the view from the gates, and the static remained to this day. She started cursing as she started the four week long, for her, shutdown, reinitialization, and recalibration of the gates of time. Fortunately she could compress the time, so that she could do it before work in two days.
After the explanation of his curse Hotaru thought for a second and said, "I think it makes you unique, and I would love to be your friends." she then took a breath and mumbled, "besides, my parents made me curious of the other side of the fence as well."
Mir's and Ranma's keen ears, which were part of the reyvateil package as they had to be able to easily distinguish tones for singing, and they had a slight grin and blush respectively.
"Hello Hotaru, who are your friends?" a short haired woman dressed in men's clothes asked from behind the named girl. "they're pretty cute, aren't they Michiru?"
She was swatted on the back of the head by another young woman, this one with long sea green tresses. "Behave Haruka, don't chase her new friends away," she said sternly before smiling at the two. "So how do you know our daughter?"
"They saved me from some boys, and bought me this shirt after they had tore my other one to try and get it off of me," Hotaru explained to her parental figures, all the while leaving out that Ranma was originally male, and exactly how they saved her.
Both Haruka and Michiru were royally pissed at what they were hearing, but realized that the boys involved were punished, apparently rather severely, meant that they had nothing to do.
"Thank you for rescuing our daughter," Michiru said. "and I hope you can become good friends, Ranma, Mir." The green haired woman saw them looking at them, and Hotaru, so she clarified, "We adopted her after something bad happened to her father."
The two nodded, Ranma because he could always use a friend, and Mir because she had developed a soft spot for the girl as well.
"Now here," Michiru said as she wrote down their address and phone number, and handed it to the two. "please come visit, our daughter needs more friends, but now we need to head home, Hotaru has school tomorrow, and I imagine you two do as well."
Ranma took the paper and put it in his pocket, and silently promised to visit their new friend, and blushed as she caught a snippet of conversation from the blond of departing family, "So those two share our leanings?"
"We should head back ourselves," Ranma said as she stood up.
Mir nodded as she was deep in thought, something about the past conversations combined with how she was alone in an abandoned place, made her think something wasn't adding up.
They left the park, and since Mir insisted that Ranma didn't need to change back, as she said she was interested in him/her as a whole, not just the part he was born as.
The two took the female only car back, so they wouldn't have to deal with gropers, and Ranma asked, "Why?"
"Huh?" Mir responded confused.
"Why didn't you want me to change back?"
"Oh that, well several reasons, first I consider this as much 'you' as your other form, second I don't really care how most people see me, third I saw this car and figured we would have less trouble if we took it, and most importantly, I wanted you to see that I'm not embarrassed to be seen with you like this, and I want to be your girlfriend, and perhaps more later, with the whole you not just half," Mir said, quietly so that Ranma's secret wouldn't be reveled.
"Oh," Ranma said speculatively while digesting what her date had said.
"Ranma, was something weird about her getting attacked, when she seemed like a girl that would know better than to go there alone, and her parents don't seen like the type to let her go out without proper instructions." Mir said speculatively.
Ranma nodded, and replied, "Yes, but we will never know will we?"
Mir nodded, and the rest of the subway ride passed in companionable silence.
Meanwhile in Haruka's car, Haruka was grilling Hotaru, "Why did you go there? I thought you were smarter than that."
"Ummm, Setsuna-mama told me to go there, and she said I'd have an important encounter." Hotaru replied sheepishly.
"Is that so..." Haruka said with narrowed eyes.
Michiru was also radiating a sense of anger but replied, "But you have to admit, she did have an important encounter with her new friends."
Haruka nodded and commented angrily, "but I still will have words with her."
Ranma and Mir had just arrived at Dr. Tofu's clinic, Ranma was considering what to do to finish the date, as he wanted to give her a good night kiss, but before he could come to a decision, Mir decided to take the initiative, and planted a quick kiss on her lips.
Ranma was stunned, and would've said something, but the door to the clinic opened, and revealed Shurelia holding a pot of hot water, which was left over from the tea that was just made for the group.
"Here Ranma, from what I heard it isn't a good idea for a girl to be alone at night here, especially since you have a maniac on your tail," Shurelia explained as she handed the kettle to Ranma.
She used it to turn back to male, and Mir, with an impish smile pulled his head down for another quick kiss before saying, "I had fun today, lets go on another date sometime." she then headed inside. Shurelia was amused at the antics of her towers biggest boogeyman, and sincerely hoped that it would prevent a second incident.
Ranma, realizing that Mir had gone before he could reply took his leave of Shurelia, and headed off into the sunset, back to the Tendo Dojo.
EN: I'm basing this off the fact that I went to the great escape a week or two before they closed for the winter and they where virtually empty.