Disclaimer: I do not own any partof Ranma 1/2 or GTO. The both belong to somebody else. Therefore... You ca-an't sue me! Neener neener neener
Ranma was tired. Tired of going through the same routine every day, with the fights, flirts, and mallets. He was especially tired of keeping up the act. He was sick of walking around with a stupid look on his face and talking like a dumb jock. But if there was one thing he'd learned in his short life, it was that the dumber people thought you were the less trouble they caused. Now, I know what you're thinking. Yes, Ranma's life is utterly chaotic, but it could be worse. Playing dumb may have gotten him into trouble a lot, but it most often got him out of it. When in a sticky situation, it was sometimes a good idea to act too stupid to know what was going on.
He was now flying over Nerima, a result of one of the incidences where that ploy didn't work. It never worked with Akane's 'hit first, ask later' policy. Recently, he had begun taking pains to avoid her and it seemed like having to put up with the foul-tempered bitch had finally taken its toll. 'I've had enough of this bullshit,' thought Ranma. 'I've managed to save up enough cash from workin' for Uchan to pay of the mercenary. It's time to move out.' That settled, he turned in mid-air, landed lightly on his feet in a park, and made his way back to the Tendo dojo.
When he arrived at the dojo, he entered the guest room through the window, bypassing the rest of the house to avoid confrontation. Considering he'd never really unpacked to begin with, it didn't take him long to snatch up the few items and articles of clothing that weren't already in his travel pack. He left a note for Nabiki in her empty room along with enough money to pay off his debts. Then he returned to the guest room, snatched up his pack, and hopped back out the window and as far away from that house as he could before stopping at a distant grocery store for supplies. Having bought enough for a few months, he continued on his way, not sure of where he was headed, only that he wanted to get far away from that house.
'Finally,' he thought as he sped away, 'no more blackmail, food poisoning, mallets to the head, wedding plans, rescues, or hearin' that old bastard complain about havin' an "ungrateful, weak, or spoiled" son.' He pondered that list bitterly. 'Of all that, the rescues hurt the most. You'd think Akane would at least be nice to me after all the times I saved her ass. But, like the sayin' goes, "you can't teach an old bitch new tricks".' He noticed that he had made his way to a wooded area about three blocks from Furinkan (and about six from the Tendo dojo), and decided to set up camp in a clearing.
It was a beautiful Monday morning at Furinkan High. The sun was shining brightly with not a cloud in the sky, the students were chatting merrily as they sat in class, and the local bookie/loan shark/information broker was doing business as usual. The only things out of the ordinary were the fact that said broker was still reeling from the discovery of her cash cow having paid her off and flown the coop. The younger sister of the mercenary was oblivious as always (and irritated at not having said cash cow around as an excuse for being late).
Normally, Nabiki wouldn't worry about Ranma's absence. She wouldn't be worried now if it wasn't for the fact that he'd paid her, in full. Added to that, he was also in school already. 'What's going on?' she thought. 'If he wanted to run away, wouldn't he ditch school?'
Little did she know, at that very moment, Ranma was discussing that very subject with his homeroom teacher. "Ninomiya sensei," he said to a child-like Hinako, "I wanted to let you know that this'll be my last week of class."
"Oh, really," she replied. "Skipping school is for delinquents, Mr. Saotome." She made as if to pull some change from her pocket.
"Chi gau," said Ranma quickly, tensing for the impending energy drain, "I'm movin' away." He visibly relaxed as her hand left her pocket.
"Oh," she mused, "I guess that's okay then. Just be sure to try harder at your next school and I won't have to come discipline you." Ranma sweat-dropped at that, but decided not to comment. As I said, he was only pretending to be stupid.
Meanwhile, Akane was sitting at her desk, fuming at Ranma. Why? The usual reasons of suspicion, irritation at imagined slights, anger at his apparent flirting with the teacher (never mind that the teacher looked like a 9 year-old), and more irritation that she couldn't hear what was being said and didn't know what was going on.
'What's that pervert up to now?' she thought. If it wasn't for her fear of being drained, she would have jumped to her programmed series of actions: when in doubt, 1) blame Ranma, 2) yell at Ranma, and 3) hit Ranma. As it was, all she could do was sit there and stew in her irritation. She pounced as soon as he returned to his seat in front of her. "What was that all about?" she asked, rudely.
"None o' yer business," he replied, just as rudely.
"What did you say?" she asked through clenched teeth.
"I said, 'None o' yer business'," he repeated as if to a deaf person.
This, of course, set of the usual Akane bomb, and Mallet-sama appeared to the catch phrase of "RANMA NO BAKA!" She took aim, swung, and… missed, completely destroying his desk in the process. She was shocked. 'I missed,' she thought. 'I never miss.' Of course, it never occurred to her that he might actually be letting her hit him, or that hitting him was a bad thing. Then, she suddenly realised that Ranma must have ducked, and that a certain, energy draining, delinquent punishing teacher was staring at her with a particular look in her eye.
If you want to make it through the school day healthy, it's usually best not to attract the attention of the school disciplinarian/ki vampire. "HAPPO GO EN SATSU!" Akane dropped back into her seat as a skeletal husk while Ranma tried to contain his sniggers. For once, Akane was being punished for her violence at no cost to him. Unfortunately, this didn't improve Akane's sour mood for the day, but then, what could? Through the rest of the school day, Akane kept trying to mallet Ranma and he kept ducking. Whenever Hinako saw it happen, she would drain Akane for bullying Ranma. Needless to say, Akane spent a great deal of the day slumped over her desk.
At the end of the day, Hinako asked Ranma to see her after school, which cheered Akane up as she thought he was in trouble. She left the school with a smug look on her face, forgetting about the number of times she'd been drained for her behaviour. After all the students had gone, Ranma approached the little teacher's desk.
"Saotome-san," she began, "I'm beginning to see why you're moving."
"You are?" he asked with feigned curiosity.
"Oh, yes," she replied, seriously. "That Tendo Akane is quite a delinquent bully. I've been considering the problem and it occurred to me that she might be the cause of you poor grades. Having to constantly defend yourself must be quite a distraction. I was wondering if you would appreciate having the rest of the week off from school. I could tutor you at home, instead, so that you can catch up with the rest of the class."
"I don't think that's necessary, teach," said Ranma, hastily. 'Can't have her findin' out about my "dumb" act,' he thought. "I think I can handle a few more days. I already put up with it fer two years, didn't I?"
"I… guess… if you think that's best, Saotome-san." He nodded vigorously to get her to drop the subject. "Very well, see you tomorrow."
"Ja ne!" and with that, he rushed out of school and headed for his camp ground.
Ranma had kept up the act for another week, the last he'd have to bother with. He also continued ducking Mallet-sama. The Tendos and his parents had finally figured out that he'd left and were putting pressure on Akane to bring him back. Added to that, was the fact that no one could figure out where he'd run off to. Oh, sure, Ryoga had come across his camp ground by sheer luck a couple of times. But it wasn't like anyone could trust his directions. As a result of the pressure on her, Akane tried to punish Ranma more often for his absence. The key word is tried. She had yet to land a blow.
Although she was putting more effort into lashing out, Akane had learned not to fool around in Miss Ninomiya's class (constant draining will do that to ya), but she had several other opportunities during the day. And, since this is Akane we're talking about, just because she always missed didn't mean she'd give up. Because of her increasing frustration at not being able to bully… er… administer just punishment to Ranma, Ryoga (whenever he showed up) put more effort into punishing him in her stead.
Unfortunately for Ryoga, after having faced (and defeated) a demi-god, Ranma considered the Lost Boy a pushover and no longer worth the effort. Plus, some weeks prior, Ranma had been secretly training in the Bakusai Tenketsu, and we all know he's a prodigy when it comes to martial arts. Now, a simple kick was as effective on Ryoga as it was on Kuno, who was his usual, annoying self.
Kuno had become more of a problem lately for the simple reason that Akane, when she wasn't trying to hit him, was splashing him with cold water just for the hell of it. And, as it was usually in front of Kuno, he had to wonder if the "Blue Thunder" really was stupid enough not to see the truth or if he was faking it. The fact that Kuno kept mistaking his boy half for the "Osagina Onna" lately was somewhat worrisome.
Finally, it was the weekend. Ranma had managed to keep working for Ukyo without getting her in too much trouble with the Fiancée Brigade, and had saved enough (along with what he had left from paying Nabiki) to move on. Of all the people he'd be leaving behind, Ukyo was the one to cause the least trouble. They had resolved their particular fiancé trouble with the mutual confession that they thought of each other as siblings.
Ranma was leaving Nerima with a clear conscience. What with all the times Akane had cancelled their engagement and the fact that she was setting the pattern for spousal abuse before they were even married, Ranma had absolutely no intention of staying with her. As to the amazon thing, due to fact that the only tie they had on him was an arcane law that's not even considered valid outside their own borders, he wasn't even considering that match, especially since the Kiss of Marriage was given nowhere near Joketsuzoku Village. Kodachi didn't even count as a fiancée.
With the hellish week over, Ranma packed up his camp and went to collect his final pay cheque from Ucchan's. Since his girl half brought in so many customers, along with the feminine Konatsu, Ukyo's generosity and friendship had made working there worthwhile.
"Hey, Ucchan," he said as he entered the shop.
"Hey, sugar," she replied. "That tomboy was here lookin' for ya again."
"Really?" he asked in surprise, sitting at the grill. "She still think yer hidin' me?"
"Yep. Went an' searched the place, too."
"Damn. I knew she was stubborn, but this is ridiculous."
"I think she hit the Neko Hanten too, cause Shampoo blew through here a coupla times. By the way, I had to take repairs outta yer pay," she said, handing him the cash filled envelope.
"Aw, geez, Ucchan. Cut me some slack, will ya?"
"Nuh-uh, Ran-chan. It's bad enough I feed that bottomless pit you call a stomach for free. So, where ya headed?"
"I thought I'd hit Juuban. It sounds pretty peaceful."
"It won't be for very long if you're going there."
"What's that s'posed ta mean?" Ranma asked indignantly.
"Face it, Ran-chan, yer a walkin' chaos magnet. Wherever you go, trouble follows."
"Well the only trouble that's likely to follow me is Ryoga and the Amazons, and that's only if they know where I am." In truth, Ranma had lied about his destination in case there was anyone listening who shouldn't be. As the saying goes, 'It's not paranoid if they really are out to get you'. (AN: I bet you thought this was gonna be a SM crossover.) "Well," he said as he stood and collected his belongings, "gotta go. Ja ne."
"See ya round, Ran-chan," Ukyo replied, watching him leave. 'I hope you're happier wherever you're goin',' she thought.
As soon as he left, he turned and headed, not toward Juuban, but his true destination.