Permanent.

Ranma 1/2 and all related characters
are owned by Rumiko Takahashi and are used without
permission.

A sort of moody fic that I churned out today. Came out
pretty good so far hope fully will get more action oriented
later on...


Ranma Saotome sat by the window of the small
apartment she had rented and sighed. In the past year she
had not spoken unless it was absolutely necessary; ever
since the incident in China; her father sat in the corner
and snored loudly, while Mr. P wandered into the room
looking lost as usual. It had been hard to find a place
that would accept pets, especially a giant panda; but the
Manager of the apartment had been so impressed with the
human like manners of the panda that she had allowed them
to remain.

She only did two things now, train and work. She
had managed to get a job in a local diner; it was barely
kept open by its clientele of old men and women. She worked
as a waitress; and had thus far been able to pay the bills
and keep her and the old man fed. The place was going
under and she didn't think it would last.

She watched the rain hit the glass on the window as
a small shower began, it was the beginnings of a much
larger storm as thunder rumbled softly in the distance. Mr.
P jumped up beside her and watched the shower quietly from
her lap; almost out of habit she reached down and tightened
the bandana around his neck.

Outside people scurried away into the cover of buildings; She watched couples dive into secluded corners together, laughing or huddling close in each other's arms; a deep sorrow filled her heart as the
images taunted her; it was something she would now never know. Finally tiring of brooding alone she stood, dropping the pig to the ground gently, and walked into the center of the room and began her Kata.

The panda rolled over to watch her. "Again?" said
its sign. She intensified her movements growing faster and
stronger with each blow. "Your obsessing boy," said the
other side of the sign.

Ranma knew it must be bad if her father thought
she was obsessing over martial arts. "What else have I got
left?" she asked herself in her mind. No answer came.

+++++++++

Ranma weaved through tables with a grace that other
women only wished they could attain; her movements where
quick and sharp as she flawlessly tended to her duties as
if they where nothing more than an afterthought. Tomorrow
she would begin school; She did not like her father's
decision but she did not want to argue with him; it seemed
to be a waste of her breath, lately every conversation
seemed to be a waste of her breath. She passed a table with
one of her regular customers and smiled; She didn't really
feel like smiling but it was part of her job.

Mr. Daimoko watched her flow around the tables
with her usual zeal and unnatural dexterity; but something
was not right, she was depressed from the moment he saw
her. The sad girl did what she had to and more in her work,
often seeming to take to a task as if it were a challenge.
She was quiet and never rude to the customers, a model
employee; but the air of depression was still there. "I
hope she pulls through a young girl like that should enjoy
her life," said a customer to him.

"Yup, she is an excellent employee," replied
Daimoko turning his gaze back to her again. "Easy on the
eyes too, I only wish I was as young again,"

He could have sworn she spared him a spiteful stare for a split second.

+++++++++++++

Ranma walked home and sat at the table with her
father and Mr.P as they ate dinner in the usual way, a free
for all battle, although Ranma occasionally sided with Mr.
P to be fair. She had picked up the pig from Jusenkyo after
she and her father were cursed. The guide and her father
had dropped into a pot of boiling water alive to cook it
for supper. Ranma had walked in and saved it after it
refused to die after several minutes. She had beat her
father for trying to eat anything he had caught near the
springs even after knowing about the curses and nursed the
pig back to health; Only to find her suspicions true, it
had been a man once. The two had a sort of bond between
them, almost like a rivalry each understanding and
sympathizing with the other's situation. Mr. P was a name
they both just sort of adopted over time, as opposed
to "pig" and the like.

+++++++++

Early the next morning, Ranma changed into her
uniform, the skirt was longer than it needed to be and the
blouse loose. Then she put on a thick pair of glasses and
tightened the bindings around her chest her long red hair
was in a loose ponytail with bangs that covered most of her
face. She walked towards the door only to find Mr. P
waiting for him. "I suppose you want to come?"

The pig nodded with a look that said, "You are not
leaving me here all day with -him-."

Ranma offered a rare smile and scooped him into the
bag with a warning glare; Mr. P knew what it meant. "Don't
wander off." Ranma walked out the door and onto the street;
she immediately jumped onto a fence and walked purposefully
towards the school. "I suppose he's trying to cling to some
sort of humanity," she thought as she felt the pig move
around in her bag.

+++++++++

At the school a large group of boys had gathered
and was attacking a lone girl who was wiping the floor with
them. Ranma watched for a moment before she felt someone's
eyes on her; She grew uncomfortable and moved through the
crowd, silently weaving her way between the boys looking at
the ground as she quickly navigated the crowd without
coming into contact with a single student. Once inside the
building she let out a deep breath that she had not
realized she was holding. Students who had long since grown
used to the battle passed her and moved to their own
lockers and classes without giving her a second glance.
Ranma brushed her bangs back for a second and let them fall
back into her face before moving out of the gaze of a
particular group of girls to find her own way around the
halls.

Nabiki Tendo watched the new arrival walk silently
through the crowd unnoticed. "Who is that?" she wondered
aloud. She looked at the girl through a pair of binoculars
intently and smiled. She was a pretty girl and well trained
in some form of martial arts judging from the way she moved
through the crowd with ease, often ducking into shadows
unnoticed. "That's not something you learn in a Dojo."
Nabiki frowned a little as she followed her movements.

"What?" gasped one of the girls next to her.

"Find out who the new girl is," ordered Nabiki just
before the girl disappeared into the building; Her target
turned and looked straight at her right before she went
in. "She's known I was watching her the whole time,"
thought Nabiki coolly.

"New girl? Sure thing boss." replied the girl as
she scurried away.

+++++++++

"Class this is Miss Saotome, a new transfer student
who has just returned from a trip to China," Ranma bowed as
the Teacher introduced her to the class. "So Miss Saotome
tell us about yourself."

"No." Ranma walked to her seat in the back of the
class ignoring the old man's confused look as he struggled
to recover. She surveyed the room around her and noticed
that the girl who had been fighting the boys in the
courtyard was in the front row. The teacher began class
again after recovering his wits; Ranma sat silently as the
students watched her for a while and then forgot about her.

+++++++++++++

Three weeks pass...

Ranma and the pig sat at the small wooden table
that sat in the center of the apartment with pages of work
sitting in front of them; Mr. P had taken to doing the
assignments the teacher had given the class. She stopped
long enough to watch for a moment as he wrote with a small
inkbottle and the tip of one of his hooves. The girl had
long ago learned his real name, but Mr. P had stuck even
then. Ranma frowned as he signed his paper "Ryoga Hibiki"
and looked at her; she had been beaten again by the pig.

She supposed School work made him feel a little human
again; "Keep it up pig." She flicked him in the head with
her index finger and smiled for a second before she got up
and walked towards the door again; "Off to work," she
thought a little sourly.

+++++++++

The next day a group of girls approached Ranma as
she sat in her corner of the courtyard during
lunch.

"Hello," said the one in front that she recognized
as the 'fight girl' Akane Tendo. "I'm Akane, I've seen you
around but never really gotten to talk to you."

The redhead looked at her evenly and said nothing.

"Ranma is it? I was wondering would like to go with us for ice cream after
school or something?" the girl pushed back her long black
locks of hair looking amazingly cute in the process. Ranma
felt herself blushing and tried to stop it only making it
worse. Akane's smile broadened; "You don't have to be
shy."

"No thanks, I have to work." Ranma stood and walked
away after smiling politely for a moment.

++++++++++

Later after gym class she stood in the shower
staring at the wall. As always she waited for most of the
girls to leave before entering everyone had just assumed
she was just shy. She watched the water drain into the hole
in the floor through the steam; for the first time in a
long while she did not thing how much she hated the water
as she bathed. She could not get that girl out of her
mind. "Perhaps its because she was the first to speak to
you for a long time," her mind reasoned; She turned off the
water and leaned on the wall as she tried to make some
sense of her world again. "Maybe its time you got over
this," said a voice in her head, a voice that was no longer
hers, the voice of a man.

She put a fist through the wall and
growled. "Never," bitterness seemed to punctuate every word
she spoke as of late. The few remaining girls in the shower
shrieked and walked out quickly. She pulled her hand from
the hole to see a frightened looking boy on the other side
staring at her face through the hole, she grinned at him
with a dark look in her eyes, after a second the boy's eyes
started to wander downward. Ranma wrapped her towel around
herself and walked out of the shower leaving him staring at
the falling water and steam.

Daisuke could not believe his eyes; the most
beautiful girl he had ever seen had almost punched him in
the face...by putting her fist through the wall. "Who Was
that?" he wondered. He knew he would have noticed a girl
like that walking around, there was just no way he could
miss it.

+++++++++++++

It would be almost three days before Daisuke was
proven not to be insane. He wandered around asking about
the beautiful red haired girl who had put her hand through
the wall for the rest of the week.

"Jeez Daisuke, the only girl around here with red hair is
that creepy Saotome kid; maybe she should go out with
Gosunkugi," Hiroshi snorted crudely at his joke during
lunch the day after the incident.

"Don't be gross, she was a goddess," Daisuke's eyes
glazed over as he desperately tried to picture the event in
his mind again.

++++++++++++

Then on Friday...

Tatewaki Kuno stepped out from behind a tree in
front of Akane Tendo with his bukoten held ready. Ranma was
less than three feet behind the girl hoping to get by
before the carnage started again. "Shit," muttered the girl
as she tried to pick up her pace to avoid the fight before
it started; As she had planed Kuno did not notice her,
unfortunately he also did not notice slicing her bag in
half as he swung at Akane. Ranma stopped wide-eyed staring
at the bag half in her arms; the pig was gone.

"Ryoga!" cried Ranma softly as Kuno's foot came
down on the other half of her bag without thinking She
threw herself into the boy and knocked him away from the
bag.

"Who would Dare?!" roared Kuno as he turned to see
a small average looking girl bent over half a bag holding a
small pig. "How dare you interfere-" he spoke until she
looked up at him.

"He's cut." She gave him an angry stare that bored
deep into his own eyes; the pig in her arms had a shallow
gash along its side.

"What?" said Kuno not quite comprehending the
situation yet.

"You hurt my friend." said the girl she did not say
it with emotion, she had spoken evenly and coolly as if she
was giving the time. She stood up and removed her glasses
before flexing every muscle in her chest; tearing the tight
and restrictive binding on her breast, finally she reached
up and tied a ribbon from her bag onto her hair creating a
more manageable ponytail and clenched her fist at her sides
after laying the animal on the ground gently.

Kuno and the rest of the student body gasped as the
normally quiet girl went from an average, cute looking, but
quiet and odd girl; to a stunning and fierce looking pissed
off babe, in a matter of seconds. The girl looked at the
pig as the animal glared at Kuno angrily nursing its side.

"I challenge you," said Ranma calmly.

Kuno laughed and smiled his best smile at
her. "Very well if you win I shall allow you to date with
me."

"If I win there won't be any of you left to date,"
growled the girl as she stepped back and remained relaxed.

Kuno swung once, that was all; Ranma was on him
immediately, she crushed him easily, pounding on him for
almost a full minute; strategically placing blows to keep
him standing although he wanted to fall after the first;
Kuno collapsed in a heap when it was all over.

"Wow," said Akane as she looked over Kuno and noted
he had a long red mark in the same manner as the pig did
along his side, his Kendo uniform was torn to shreds along
the area she had concentrated most of her blows. It would
make a rather nasty bruise for some time. Ranma walked
towards the school with the pig cradled in her arms. She
held it in a respectful manner, not that of a young girl
comforting a pet. Akane watched as the girl disappeared
towards the nurse's office.

Nabiki ran up to Akane and frowned as she
desperately tried to catch her breath and speak at the same
time. "We have to find out where she lives."

"Why?" asked Akane after clearing the daze from
what she had just seen.

"Akane are you blind?" asked Nabiki with a
surprised look crossing her features for a moment.

"What do you mean?" asked the younger girl as she
tried to turn her attentions from the girl's diminishing
figure.

"She was using the Anything Goes style, you of all
people should know that," said Nabiki coolly with a smug
smile.

"Only two families practice that style that is
rediculo-" Akane stopped; Nabiki was right.

+++++++++

Ranma walked towards her home and watched the two
girls follow her silently as they could. "Come on out, you
aren't hiding from anyone Tendo," she said after a few
bocks. Akane stepped out of hiding and blushed at being
caught. "And the other girl." Nabiki grumbled and stepped
from her own spot. "What do you want?"

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" asked
Akane.

"My father taught me," said Ranma turning away.

"Wait!" called Akane after her.

"What is it?" sighed Ranma.

"Why do you act like that? Would it hurt you to
smile?" She looked at Ranma with a sad expression almost
pitying.

"You wouldn't understand," Ranma turned away in
disgust, she didn't need pity.

"How do you know?" asked Nabiki.

Ranma sighed again and turned to face the girls
again; She had not spoken this much in a long time. "Well,
what do you want to know?"

"Where did you learn the any thing goes style?"
asked the older girl.

Ranma gasped. "How do you know what it's called?"

+++++++++++

Akane smiled as Ranma gaped at the sign on the gate
to her home. "Weird, eh Mr.P?" she asked the pig. Akane was
a little surprised when the pig nodded in reply.

"Your pig is so cute! Can I hold him?" asked Akane
smiling at the pig.

"If he wants to let you, he isn't really a pet.
Just don't put him down or he'll get lost," answered Ranma
not really paying attention.

"Hello young lady are you interested in taking a
class with us?" Soun Tendo appeared next to the three girls
from the gate; he had walked out after seeing Ranma staring
at the sign.

"No thanks, I already know the style; although I am
a bit surprised to see some one else teaches it."

Soun looked at her oddly. "Well now, I doubt that
miss...?" said Soun warily to the girl.

"Saotome, Ranma Saotome," replied girl; Soun gasped
and staggered back as he attempted to stay conscious.

++++++++++

Soun sat across from the girl looking cheerful as
she nervously looked around. "So how is old Genma?"

"Gone," replied Ranma casually.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Soun looked a little
pale suddenly. "You have a brother I understand?" the man
tried his best to sound cheerful.

"I am an only child," answered Ranma.

"And your Mother?" asked Soun desperately
attempting to control his emotions.

"Haven't seen her in ten years," said the girl,
she was looking less and less interested in the
conversation, but she was at least trying to be polite.

Soun looked at the girl in shock. "That is truly
sad," he tried his best to look dignified.

"How did you know my father?" asked Ranma suddenly
in a suspicious tone.

"We were best friends for many years training
under the same master," replied Soun barely holding back
tears.

"I see." Ranma frowned and turned away from him
absently.

Akane looked at her softly from her place at the
table; it explained a lot about her; the girl's family was
gone and she had to work to support herself and who ever
she was living with; Desperate to end the tension Akane
piped up. "Ranma, you want to go spar in the Dojo?"

Ranma turned to face her and a small smile formed
on her lips, "sure."

+++++++++++++++

Ranma recognized Akane's style from earlier fights
and never gave it a second thought; but now up close and
personal she saw that it was indeed Anything Goes style.
Even though it was a little rough and inexperienced. Ranma
flipped over Akane as she Charged at her screaming "This
time for real!" She landed behind her and tapped her on the
back of the head.

"Wow, you're pretty good." said Akane laughing. Ranma
soon joined in; it was the first time she had laughed in a
very long time. "It's getting late, won't somebody get
worried about you?"

"I live alone," said Ranma. "Well, just me and the
animals." she corrected.

"Oh," Akane looked surprised for a moment.

Soun walked up to the pair. He had been watching
for some time now and spoke up. "Someone as young as you
living alone?"

Ranma turned pale, if she was turned over to the
government now who knows what would happen to her father
and Ryoga. "I-I uhhh..."

"I feel responsible for you young lady. Your father
was a good friend who helped me keep my sanity over those
terrible years of training with the master. If Genma had a
son then our two families would have been joined through
Marriage. Therefore, I would like to think of you as
family, I would be honored if you would stay with us."
Soun started crying a river of tears.

"B-but, you just met me, and I uh..." stammered
Ranma

Ranma did not know what to say to the man; they had
returned to the living room and sat around the table again
as Soun made his proposition. It would help her
considerably to have a stable home and not have to worry
about scratching together enough to pay the rent and feed
her and her 'family'; she frowned and thought for a
moment. "I accept...on two conditions, One is that you
allow me to keep my animals, and the second is that you
allow me to pay rent."

"Very well. I hope they are well trained," replied
Soun as he seemed to beam happiness.

"You could say that," was all Ranma could think to
say.

+++++++++++

Nabiki was sitting with the pig in front of the
television going over some problems in her notebook and
doing the budget. "You're right that is wrong," she
corrected and looked to the pig it nodded and pressed some
numbers on her calculator. "Right that should do it," she
said to it and it squealed happily.

Soun saw this and sweat. "Lets go Mr. P, we have
some stuff to talk about at home." The pig jumped into her
arms as she passed and the two walked out into the night.