[Ranma/Znt] Sightless Spark - Tsukaima

[Brian]

Thanks to the miraculous power of the modify button, you still can!

[KLSymph]

Brian, either you are some kind of sorcerer or I am very unobservant.

[Brian]

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. ;)

[KLSymph]

Louise suddenly stood up to face the redhead.  "Stop it already," she said.  "As if you even care whether he's my familiar, and not just hoping people will keep watching you. Why don't you show some dignity for once!"

"And you," the redhead said, "just want everyone to believe you summoned a familiar.  And why should we, when you skinned your knees in a second-year flying class?  And spilled an entire cabinet of hydrargyrum while mixing potions?"

"Don't forget getting scared by slugs," said one of the boys, to some laughter from the class and even the amused sounds from their familiars.

"I wasn't scared of slugs," Louise said loudly to the crowd. "They were being thrown."  She turned back to the redhead. "And I attended those classes.  It's not like you even worked in any of them."

The redhead played with her hair in playful disinterest.  "I passed, didn't I?  They're not hard for the rest of us, you know."

Ranma continued to lean against the wall during this exchange, taking it all in.  The class seemed to weigh against Louise with their reactions, but despite how red-faced the girl became, she seemed used to this kind of mockery and didn't look to him for support.  Not that he would've given it; as long as the redhead didn't press any arguments about him, he wasn't going to step into this mess.

"Don't say it as if you're so talented in everything," Louise said.  "All you do is fire this and fire that.  Even if you can't learn some Tristainian decorum after a year here, you could pick up a spell other than Fireball for variety, at least!"

The redhead's smile was scathing.  "I might not bother expanding my spell-list, but I hardly think my talents are inadequate compared to yours."

Then she did that move girls do where they cross their arms under their chest and lift.  It drew the gaze of every male in the room, Ranma included, and made all the other girls visibly seethe.

This must be some of that decorum the redhead never learned.

As the girls began raising their voices in retort, one of the classroom doors opened.  A plump and middle-aged woman entered, dressed in purple looking robes that gave her the same scholarly air that Colbert had.

"What is this?" the woman said.  "So loud in the morning, and it doesn't sound like eagerness to learn."

The class fell a little quieter, but the redhead used the chance to call out.  "Perfect!  Teacher, would you please confirm for us whether this--" She pointed to Ranma.  "--is Valliere's familiar or not?"

The teacher looked upon Ranma in confusion, then back to the expectant looks aimed at her from the rest of the class. "Do you mean this boy here?  The commoner?  I had heard something about about it."  She looked at Louise, whose face was frozen in panic.  "You are Miss Valliere, then?  To have summoned a human familiar is a unique feat."

"We know it is," the redhead said, unabashedly cutting in. "But the class would like a solid confirmation."

The teacher gave the redhead a disapproving glance, but it seemed she had no reason to refuse.  She gestured for Ranma to come closer, and when he did so, she scrutinized him for a second.  Ranma reached for his glove, thinking she would want to inspect the runes.

"I don't sense much out of the ordinary with him," the teacher said instead.

"Ha!"  The redhead's reaction was quick, even though the teacher didn't look like she was done talking.  "As always, you have nothing to show, Valliere!"

The class descended again into laughing and yelling, but Ranma ignored them as he withdrew a small note from his pocket on the inside of his hunting jacket, which he presented to the teacher.  The teacher read it, then turned back to the rest of the class.

"Be silent, class.  It seems I was mistaken.  This commoner has been properly confirmed as Miss Valliere's familiar by the school.  It has been very well verified and documented, so there is no question here after all."

The students looked at each other in stunned silence, but the redhead recovered first, and pointed at Ranma as he hid the document away in his jacket again.  "What is that he just passed you?  It's the Valliere family buying the teachers off, isn't it?"

Louise pushed back without pause.  "How dare you?!  I won't forgive you for throwing dirt on my family name this time, Zerbst!"

Ranma sighed as the two returned to their bickering.  At the same time, the teacher gave a weary sigh of her own.

"You've only gotten this far because of that family name," the redhead said, standing tall to gather the admiring stares of the boys and looking like she was enjoying the argument tremendously.  "I bet all it takes is a word to have the school bowing and scraping for your benefit."

"Who do you see bowing and scraping?" Louise said, not backing down from the taller girl.  "If I had that kind of power, I would've deported you back to Germania long ago!"

The redhead pulled a thin wand from somewhere in her cleavage and pointed it at Louise, drawing nervous frowns from the people sitting nearby.  "Hmph, it sounds like you don't mind trying."

Louise, already enraged beyond concern, drew her own wand to match.  When she did so, the room fell into sudden and strangled quiet.  Even the familiars stopped making noise.

Ranma didn't know most of what the two were going on about. They could've been talking past each other, for all he cared, but this change in the mood piqued his interest.

In the next instant, both standing girls buckled at the knees and sat heavily, each weighed down by a helm of brownish clay that covered their shoulders and head.

"I should say this has been enough foolishness before class," the teacher said as she lowered her wand.  "My word, this generation."



The class continued in strict silence after the teacher made everyone shut up, and Ranma was told to wait outside so that his presence wouldn't disrupt things further.  From there, he heard the sounds of a lecture about magical elements--rather classical stuff that Ranma had already guessed just from the whole fire affinity business the day before.  Earth, water, air, and fire--he assumed it was Greek-inspired rather than Buddhist--plus some geometry terms thrown in, but most of the lecture was about alchemical uses.  Nothing interesting.

The argument showed him a bit of Louise interacting with her peers, though there were details he couldn't follow.  The whole class had been sort of high-strung, especially when wands got pointed.  That seemed to scare everyone more than a normal girls' slapfight would.

Wasn't Louise reportedly bad at magic?  Hmm.

After class, Louise was the first to rush out of the room, passing Ranma without noticing him.  When she saw him keeping pace about halfway down the hall, she was nearly in tears, and very happy to bite someone's head off.

"Why didn't you stand up for me," she asked, "instead of leaning against the wall for the whole time that Germanian woman belittled me?"

Ranma picked a speck of dried red clay from the many that clung to the black cape over her shoulders, and ignored her burning red face.  That question seemed pretty stupid given the circumstances between them, but she was dumping her hurt feelings on him, and Ranma had no trouble brushing off other people's problems.

"Did you want me to rescue you?" he said, not cloaking a hint of mockery.

"I don't need your help," Louise said without the slightest pause over inconsistency.

Ranma heard a laugh, and turned to see the redheaded girl again come to antagonize Louise.  Unlike Louise, the redhead's mood was as brazen as ever, enough that Ranma wondered if she wasn't somewhat boozed.

"You shouldn't be so stubborn," the redhead said.  "It's not like you can do anything by yourself.  Go on and ask for a commoner's help."

"Are you still looking for a fight?" Louise said with hackles raised.

"With you?  Always."

Though the redhead had been accompanied by a number of boys from the classroom, Ranma noted that they and the rest of the students had started keeping a good distance.

Louise reached into her skirt for her wand, but before she could draw it, Ranma laid one hand on her wrist, making her jump.

"Let me," he said, though he looked straight at the redhead.

Louise froze at his statement.  "Wh-what are you doing?"

The hallway was now filled with students departing from classes.  They murmured at Ranma's words or at the sudden lack of traffic.  The redhead ignored both them and Louise, looking a bit less sure of what to do after Ranma intruded on her spat with Louise.

She asked, "You want to fight for her?  Why?"

Ranma smiled a little too brightly.  "Why so surprised about me protecting her?  I said I'm her familiar, and that's something familiars do."

"Hey, I don't need your protection!"  Louise didn't catch the message when Ranma flattened his smile and turned towards her.  "And are you insane?  You can't fight her!"

Louise didn't know that Ranma had already confronted the redhead, but Ranma could see the redhead hesitating, recalling that her fire did nothing to him.  That'd be a different story from taunting Louise if Louise was bad at magic.

"No worries," the redhead said after that pause.  "It's beneath me to fight a peasant.  You don't have to be so concerned about him, familiar or not."

Louise spoke so quickly it must be a reflex.  "Coward."

Ranma wondered if he should go ahead and say out loud that she needed to shut up.

"On the other hand," the redhead said loudly enough for the entire hallway to hear, "perhaps one of our fine Tristainian gentlemen would be willing to act as my champion for a fight?"

As male faces in the gathered crowd began to brighten, a gurgle slipped from Louise's throat, almost too soft for Ranma to hear over the gossip in the halls.



"Why are you doing this?" Louise asked.

Ranma stared at her, then turned to look back at the servants' exit to the grassy terrace from the main tower, then back.  "Were you waiting out here to catch me?"

Louise ignored Ranma's question.  "You buffoon, do you understand what kind of harm a noble can do to you in a fight?"

Ranma kept staring at her as he began spooning porridge from the small bowl he held into his mouth.  It was very bland. "I'm your familiar," he said between gulps.  "I should be your shield, according to your teacher."  The porridge disappeared all too soon, and he set the empty bowl on a nearby table.  "This fight with your dark-skinned friend is something I want to use to show that relationship. Otherwise, it looks like she'll just keep bringing that up, and who wants to deal with it?"

Louise stood with her hands on her hips, looking like the ten-year-old that Ranma still thought she might be, if he hadn't heard differently.  Why was she so much smaller than everyone else?  "Like I said before, you should just accept being my familiar for real."

"Wouldn't work.  Too much self-respect."

He could hear Louise's nerves fray.  "Then I'll go and have the teachers stop this," she said.

"Knock yourself out," Ranma said as he patted his jacket pocket.  "I figured something might happen, so I talked your schoolmaster into writing up his formal approval.  I even convinced him to not let any of the teachers get in the way.  For your education, you see."

Louise flinched.  "You talked with Old Osmond?  When?  How did you even get an audience?"

"You can do a lot if you don't spend the night crying in your room.  And it was easy to talk the old guy into it.  I dunno, I think he's really bored.  Or he wants to mess with you, maybe."

The prolonged trembling of Louise's body that had been there the entire day intensified further.  "You don't understand. I don't want to say this, but your opponent is top of the class in fire magic.  She won't pause to pity you before burning you alive.  Why aren't you getting this?"

"I thought she wasn't going to fight.  Wasn't she going to get some boys to do it for her?"

"You don't know her.  The boys will make fun of you for a while, but they won't kill you for her.  Then she'll get bored of watching and fight you herself anyway."

Ranma blinked at the tiny pink girl.  "Are you worried about me?"

Louise's facial muscles twitched.  "No!  What will happen to me when you get annihilated?"

Ranma regarded Louise for a long, disappointed moment, until she began to grow uncomfortable at his silence.  "You're not cute," he said, provoking her temper once again.  "And I'll be fine.  I got a few tricks."

Louise followed him, ranting about his boorishness and disobedience, all the way to the small shack where Colbert had kept a small research lab.

It wasn't hard to find, being the only shack there as well as filling the air with the bitter smell of industrial chemicals.  Ranma was about to pound on the wooden door when Colbert opened it from inside, absent-mindedly looking like he was hurrying off somewhere else.

"Mister Colbert," Louise said before Ranma could get a word out.  "I beg you, give me permission to punish this commoner for his willful disrespect!"

Ranma and Colbert both turned to look at the girl, and Louise stared back without any of the humble supplication her request should've carried.

Colbert said, "...No."  While Louise glowered at the dismissal, he turned to Ranma.  "And what do you want?"

"I need my sword back for something."

"Oh."  The man frowned and adjusted his spectacles.  "I'd say that's not how confiscation works, but it doesn't much matter now."  He pointed back into the dimly lit room.

Ranma entered the lab, a small workspace cluttered with hand tools and containers, some organized in bins and shelves but many strewn across the tabletops.  Open notebooks were laid around in similar randomness, and the smell of sulfur and carbon products was even heavier inside.

There in the center of a cleared patch of stone floor, he saw his katana resting flat.  Sort of flat.  The curved blade of the katana had somehow developed a harsh twist in the middle, the metal bent as if it had been subjected to a focused heat that softened one section of the blade and warped it in a new, upward angle.  The heat that one might create by, for example, firing a mid-potency fire spell repeatedly at one spot.

Ranma fell to his hands and knees in defeat before his broken weapon.

"I have to go to lunch," Colbert said.  "So... close up when you're done."

Ranma heard the man's shamed retreat fade into the distance, and then the room was filled with subdued quiet.

Louise waited a while before asking, "Are you alright?"

"Sure," Ranma said as he hopped back to his feet and wiped metal shavings from his pants.  "Just being dramatic."

The disgust on Louise's face was quite pointed.

Setting his amusement aside, Ranma picked up his bent sword and set it on the nearby worktable.  He scanned the room for tools, and among the screws and chisels in what he assumed
was the woodworking corner he found a small hammer.  "You're definitely going to be killed," Louise said while Ranma picked up the hammer and a thin metal rod.  "You think your stupid jokes will save you in a real fight?"

Though it wasn't the right tool for the job, Ranma placed the metal rod against the katana's hilt and tapped with the hammer, pushing out bit by bit the mekugi--wooden peg--that secured the hilt to the tang of the sword.  "Who's to say we'll have a real fight?  I haven't seen one happen since coming here."

Louise squinted at his work as Ranma pulled the hilt free of the tang, and then pulled the tsuba--the oval disk that rested between hilt and blade as a hand-guard--off of the tang the same way.  "What are you doing?" she said.

Ranma inspected the disk, making sure that it and the characters inscribed on it were undamaged.  "You know much about swords?"

"Of course not.  I've never used one."

"So what's the point of me explaining it?"

In response, Louise seized Ranma by the jacket and turned him to face her.  Ranma retreated as she pushed him into the table with all her teenage strength.  "I've had enough!" she said.  "If you don't want to become a black mark on the courtyard, you're going to stop and you're going to listen to what I have to say!"

Well now, this was different.  Maybe the girl had decided to bring out some real initiative, after spending so much time sulking and avoiding him.  "I'm listening," he said, letting himself be pushed into the table as Louise stood there shaking.

"If you pick a fight with the people in my class," Louise said, "you'll be killed, and it won't prove to anyone that you're my familiar.  That Germainian witch just wants me to look bad, and she's been doing it forever.  It's nothing you should stick your nose in, so stop leading her on."

"You might be fine with that happening," Ranma said, "but I'm not gonna sit down and stay quiet."  He slipped the disk into his jacket's inside pocket.  "What good will it do if we don't confront our problems?"

"You have to be some kind of barbarian if you can be so relaxed about confronting a noble.  You've obviously never seen what magic is able to do to a mere commoner. Especially right now when you don't even have your weapon."

"I'm not worried," Ranma said.  "Why don't you show me some of this magic I should be scared of, if you're so sure. Wait, weren't you not too good at it?"

Louise backed away from him a little bit.  "I'm good enough to blast you," she said, and brandished the wand.

Before the tip of that wand could be pointed at him, Ranma darted around Louise's side, moving his body out of her line of sight.  When the girl swung her arm to follow him, he slipped all the way around to her back.  A little ducking and weaving maintained that situation between them as Louise tried to whirl and face him.  When she tried to be clever and point the wand behind her, Ranma poked her under the ribs, then snatched the wand out of her hand as she shrieked.

Not a disciplined combat magician, this one.

Louise's scream turned from surprise to anger as she, this short little girl, jumped all over him grabbing at her wand, sprawling over his chest in a far from lady-like manner while he raised the prize out of her reach.  She was light and soft, and Ranma would've pushed her off if he wasn't
worried that she'd break at any kind of heavy treatment.

Then Louise realized what she's doing, and jumped back with a shamed face.  "You're just doing this to humiliate me, aren't you?  Like everyone else."

"It's not about you," Ranma said.  "But as long as you're not strong enough to stop it, other people will do what they want.  Why're you bad at this magic stuff anyway?  The rest of the kids seem to do fine."

His question, even though he asked it to check Louise's skills without interest in her reasons, made Louise even more upset.  "I don't need to answer an ignorant commoner like you!  Now return my wand!"

"Why?  If you're bad at magic, I might as well take it.  I can probably find a use.  You might think 'I can't use magic' is a good reason to skip a fight, but I do what I can with what I have.  I'll take a chance and see what happens."

"Your arrogance will kill you," Louise said.  "How am I supposed to protect you if you throw yourself into a fight with nobles?"

"I guess it's up to you to stop things before it gets that far."  Ranma tossed the wand to her.  "Find a way.  It won't be your achievement if I solved everything for you."

[Jason_Miao]

Some brief proofing (likely incomplete, since I've had a few beers so am not at my best).

> She turned back to the redhead. "And I attended those class.

classes

> What is that he just passed you?

?

> "You buffoon, do you understand what kind of harm a noble can do to you in a fight?"

Works, but consider replacing "do you" with "don't you".

> She was light and soft, and Ranma would've pushed her off if he wasn't worried that she'll break at any kind of heavy treatment.

she'd

[KLSymph]

Some brief proofing (likely incomplete, since I've had a few beers so am not at my best).

Drunk proofreading is the best proofreading.

> She turned back to the redhead. "And I attended those class.

classes

Fixed.

> What is that he just passed you?

?

I think this works. It's just "What's that he just passed you?" without the contraction.

> "You buffoon, do you understand what kind of harm a noble can do to you in a fight?"

Works, but consider replacing "do you" with "don't you".

I leaned towards this way because I wanted to create a slightly more-than-casual tone through that slightly less usual phrasing.

> She was light and soft, and Ranma would've pushed her off if he wasn't worried that she'll break at any kind of heavy treatment.

she'd

Similar reason as above, but this time I'll take your suggestion.

Thanks for reading.

[Anastasia]

Oooh, new chapter.

I like how Ranma's treating the typical duel setup. Instead of it being a chance for the summon to show off, he's using it to get Louise to do something productive. The entire chapter's refreshing since it avoids retreading canon like so many other fics do. I wonder if Louise can actually manage to deal with things?

[Jason_Miao]

> What is that he just passed you?

?

I think this works. It's just "What's that he just passed you?" without the contraction.

Question: Why remove the contraction?  Casual spoke English is hardly efficient or perfect, so "What's that..." instead of "What did he just pass you?" makes sense in that context.  But if you're going for casual debate, then wouldn't "What's" flow better?  Or is that just how her speech is romanized in the translations of ZnT?

Also, when skimming through this once more:

I even convinced him to not let any of the teachers get in the way for your education, you see.

Did you mean "I even convinced him to not let any of the teachers get in the way of your education, you see." or "I even convinced him to not let any of the teachers get in the way.  For your education, you see."?

[KLSymph]

I like how Ranma's treating the typical duel setup. Instead of it being a chance for the summon to show off, he's using it to get Louise to do something productive.

That's why I enjoy writing this character.  He's more interested in getting things done than in boasting about himself.

Question: Why remove the contraction?  Casual spoke English is hardly efficient or perfect, so "What's that..." instead of "What did he just pass you?" makes sense in that context.  But if you're going for casual debate, then wouldn't "What's" flow better?  Or is that just how her speech is romanized in the translations of ZnT?

This is an issue of that separation between noble and commoner I mentioned before. The speaker is a noble, so I feel there should be an ingrained level of formality in her habitual word choice  (even though she's less formal than most) due to her assumed upbringing and education that sets her voice apart from how the commoners would speak.

On a more technical note, I didn't want to start one sentence with "What's" and the next one with "It's", since that doesn't flow well to my ear.  (I admit it seems a little inconsistent for a contraction to be here but not there.)  Also, when I read the contracted version "what's that" my mind tends to put a stress on "that", while having "what is that" spreads the stress more evenly across all three words, which sounds more correct to me.

"What did he just pass you" ... that phrasing doesn't seem to fit in this particular situation, for some reason.  *Repeats it a few times.*  Nope.  Just sounds... clunky.

Did you mean "I even convinced him to not let any of the teachers get in the way of your education, you see." or "I even convinced him to not let any of the teachers get in the way.  For your education, you see."?

Fixed. Should be the second one.

[Yuthirin]

Ranma fell to his hands and knees in defeat before his brok

This bit ends here abruptly. Not sure if it's intended or not.

[KLSymph]

Huh. It sliced off the last 30% of the chapter, which I've now restored. It wasn't like that when I originally posted it (seeing how Jason_Miao quoted a selection of the missing part).

That is weird.

[Anastasia]

Did you edit it after your initial post? I know SR sometimes trims posts on posting, but never after that. That is odd.

[KLSymph]

I fixed some stuff that Jason pointed out.  I can't tell why that particular place was truncated, though.

...Fanfic gremlins!

[KLSymph]

Ranma stood in the courtyard, and returning his stare was a small frog that sat in the grass at his feet.  Curious teens surrounded him at a distance, waiting in quiet anticipation to see how this confrontation would end.

Not knowing what else to do, Ranma lifted his heel.  As he held that foot over the frog, he heard a scream, and then the blonde with the curls from Louise's glass shoved her way through the ring of spectators, ran past Ranma, and scooped up the frog in her hands.

"How dare you steal my familiar for your stupid duel," she said to the redhead in an indignant screech.  "I'll report this effrontery straight to the schoolmaster, Zerbst!"

"I don't think he'll care," the redhead said.  "Children's harmless play, and all that."

One of the boys brandished a rose and stood up against the redhead.  "Damn you, Kirche!" he said.  "To assault my beloved Montmorency!  I demand satisfaction on her behalf!"

"If you want to impress Montmorency," the redhead said, "then come fight this commoner for me.  That'll do the job far better."

"What?  Really?"

The boy with the rose looked over in Ranma's direction at the girl with the frog.  The girl with the frog frowned, and yelled, "No!"

The boy flinched, then turned his wrath back onto the redhead.  "Damn you, Kirche!  You think you can fool me?!"

Ranma heard a faint groan from the girl next to him under the much louder sound of other people snickering.

During the lunch hour, the redhead had gathered quite a large audience of idle kids for the fight with Ranma.  The redhead probably wanted to humiliate Louise by getting him beaten up, but one of the handful of boys hanging around her argued it wasn't right for nobles to face a commoner, so they put a random familiar in front of him instead.

Though Ranma figured the real entertainment was seeing the blonde girl's reaction, not the idiocy of him fighting a frog.

After the blonde girl wandered away and the boy with the rose got laughed off the field, the next boy of the nobility to appear was a rather pudgy kid who looked like he didn't want to be here at all.  Not that he looked afraid of Ranma, but he kept looking around and whining that he hated having to face a commoner.

Well, Ranma was here to give good a show as Louise's familiar.  A little flashiness would be do the job... but not only was that ungraceful, he wanted Louise to put some effort of her own into this.

Ranma looked over at Louise, who was standing a dozen paces away from him in the opposite direction of the redhead. Louise looked extremely cross, which gave him no clues about how to handle this opponent.

"Listen up," the redhead said toward them, but at a voice meant for the entire gathering.  "We can't get a tidy answer from Louise, so to prove he's Louise's real familiar, he'll have to pass a few tests."

She pointed to the fat boy.  "Commoners get hurt too easily, but we'll start by seeing how he deals with a regular wind mage."

"Which means what?" Louise said.

"Against wind," the redhead said, "not getting knocked out for a few seconds is probably good enough."  She turned to the fat boy.  "Well, jump to it.  And don't mess up."

The boy squinted at the redhead, having exhausted his ability to complain about the treatment.  At his position many meters away, he half-turned toward Ranma--not showing much concern about what Ranma would do--and pointed a thin wooden wand, while slowly and loudly chanting a few syllables that Ranma didn't understand.

The result was rather unsophisticated: a fast-traveling blast of air that crossed the distance quickly, but not so quickly that Ranma couldn't see the grass flatten in front of him first and steel himself for the impact.  And it wasn't much of an impact, but around an eight of twelve on the Beaufort scale--enough force to make walking difficult for the average pedestrian but rather tame for Ranma's travels.

Ranma stooped down as the boy--with visible exertion--ramped up the wind speed up to nine for a second, not that he thought being so careful was needed.  The boy couldn't even maintain that power for a whole second before wearing out completely, falling on his rear like someone had pushed him over.

"Was that it?" the redhead said, while Ranma brushed off the bits of grass that had been blown at him.  The entire affair had taken about four seconds, and although a few surprised faces among the gathered teens was turned at Ranma, nobody looked impressed by the fat boy's efforts.  "Well," the redhead said to the boy after a bit of thought, "it's about all I expected from you.  Won't somebody roll him out of here?"

The boy's weak retort made Ranma feel bad, though not bad enough to bother speaking out.

The redhead turned her peeved expression toward Ranma, while Ranma looked over at Louise standing a safe distance away. "Don't get a big head over it," Louise yelled to him, as if Ranma might be proud of beating such a petty challenge. Even though this spectacle had drawn a crowd, he was hoping to make more impact than that, and so far he doubted anyone was much convinced about him being a familiar.

"Who else?" the redhead said, looking over her gathered boys.

Another teen, with brown hair, stepped forward up.  "It is so gauche for us to test the zero," he said, "but for your sake, let me demean my craft."

While Louise yelled something, the redhead nodded and the new boy did his own wand-waving and incantation--this time, Ranma felt a slight trembling in the earth before a single pillar of dirt rose up from the ground in front of him.

"If you're no simple commoner," the boy said with a sneer, "then why not try to break this?  If you have the strength, of course."

Ranma touched the pillar, noting both the bits of dirt that crumbled and fell at his touch and the extra surprise hiding deeper inside.  Was he supposed to injure himself trying to punch through the dirt?  Seemed a little cautious for someone so certain of his superiority.

Ranma turned his head back toward Louise.  "Can you help a bit?" he said.  "I can't exactly punch through rock."

"Oh Louise," the redhead said immediately.  "I'm so sorry, I'm afraid your commoner can't tell the difference between stone and soil."

While other people chuckled and the boy widened his eyes at Ranma, Louise shook with suppressed anger at all the ridicule.  She had to take a few deep breaths, but once she got a hold of herself, she walked up closer to Ranma and--setting aside her continual glare--did her own little show with her wand and the chanting.

Unlike with the boys, nothing appeared to happen at this display, but Ranma expected that.  Louise had stated that since he was confident enough to fight against her wishes, she would do no more to aid him than pantomime some spellcasting.

Ranma turned back to the pillar of dirt, drew one one fist back, and punched the pillar with a mighty blow.  Then he turned back to Louise and said, "Something's wrong!  It didn't work!"

Only two people on that lawn weren't laughing so hard they had to hold their stomachs.  The first was too busy stepping backwards.  The second was too busy trying to throttle the first.

"Certainly matching the rumored talents of the daughter of Duke Valliere," the boy said to the redhead.  "Always a chuckle, yes?"

"Don't listen to them," Ranma said to Louise.  "I'm sure you can do it if you try harder."  The laughter grew louder at that claim.

"Why do you keep humiliating me?" Louise said, her face red from exertion.  "I can't do what you're telling me to do!"

Ranma stopped dodging suddenly, and Louise crashed into him. She sort of bounced off, but she managed not to fall down from the impact.

It was obvious Louise couldn't cast a spell to make him strong enough to punch through rock.  He realized that from all the comments about her, even if she refused to talk about it herself.  And that made no difference to him--what did he need with extra power?

"I'm not telling you to do magic," Ranma said with none of the humor of everyone else on the field.  "Haven't you been listening?  What matters right now isn't whether you can cast a spell, but whether we support each other as though I'm your familiar.  You're not doing your half."

"What does that even mean?  You keep telling me to figure it out, but--"

Ranma looked around at the crowd of teens who were watching the two of them with unhidden interest and derision.  The redhead seemed especially interested in the pause, though Ranma didn't think they could hear from so far away, while the earth mage boy was already bored from waiting.

As for Ranma himself, he was starting to lose patience with Louise's dullness.  "Fine," he said, and gestured Louise to come closer.  "I'll give you a pass this time, but you better do this right."

Louise frowned in confusion, but she came within arm's reach before stopping again.  The girl was tensing all of her small body, maybe expecting him to lash out at her if she came any closer.

"Put out your hands," Ranma said, unpleased with her hesitation.  When Louise did so, he lowered one knee to the grass, which was just enough to put her face above his with their difference in height.  He placed his gloved left hand hand upon the pocket where he put the tsuba from his sword, then on top of her outstretched palms.

Louise stared him with complete confusion, while the rest of the teens began jeering at the sight.  When Louise tried to pull her hands back, Ranma closed his hand on hers.  "Ignore them," he said, not that he wanted anyone to get the wrong idea here either.  "Hold onto my hand tight, and don't flinch."

"What are you doing?" Louise said in a fluster.  "I don't like this."

As if Ranma enjoyed kneeling for her.

"Shut up and close your eyes," he said, and whether or not she did so, he closed his own.

Inside his body, spirit flowed from the vessel of his heart toward his left hand.  Though his eyes were closed and his hand was covered, Ranma knew that the markings--laid on his hand by that teacher Colbert--now glowed with dim fire. Louise's tiny scream told him as much, though Ranma hoped everyone else was too far away to notice.

This trick wasn't something a magician should be so frightened over, though Ranma admitted she may screaming about the painful heat bleeding from his hand than from the surprise of what he had done.  Whichever it was, he kept gripping the hand she wasn't able to pull back for another ten seconds for the heat to dim before releasing it and sending her scrambling back.

Couldn't that girl even pretend to support him?  Ugh.

While Louise retreated, Ranma turned and stepped back up to the earth mage's pillar.  The boy still looked as smug and bored as before, and the audience was still as noisy and insulting.  The redhead now stared at him with a silent frown.

"And what good did that serve?" the boy said, though Ranma didn't know whether the boy was addressing him or Louise. "If you would only commisserate on your inabilities, at least keep it short!  Bear in mind that your betters have important business in the afternoon."

Ranma figured the boy wasn't expecting an answer from a mere commoner like himself, so he wordlessly removed the black glove from his left hand.  The redhead looked on with clear fascination as he flexed his fingers, while the boy showed no similar concern.

How to do this right?  Ranma would rather keep his powers low-key to not disturb the situation much, but at the same time it would be just so satisfying to knock all these people out of their assumptions.  Commoners can't have powers, hah.

Ranma raised his left hand and made a gentle slashing motion.  As his fingers touched the pillar of soil and hidden stone, the runes on the back of that hand flared. The arc of his hand didn't slow as it crossed the pillar, drawing a ragged diagonal scar on the surface that glowed a brilliant red.

A living creature would've already died from that, but the pillar didn't collapse.  Seeing only the visible display, all the students of the magic school feel silent.  The redhead looked shocked, as did some of the other students, but most--including the earth mage--seemed only confused at what Ranma had done.

The earth mage asked, "What the devil was tha--"

Ranma pressed his entire hand against the pillar and flared the runes again.  The pillar exploded with a bang, sending a blistering shower of stone pebbles on everyone in that direction.  Though it wasn't the sort of effect that could injure, it sent all those people screaming and taking cover, which was enough for Ranma.

The earth mage scrambled back to his feet, his face all paled, while students around him pointed scared and angry glares on Ranma.  Ranma didn't know what Louise's reaction was, but he doubted it was very different.  The boys around the redhead, who were so eagerly waiting their turn to confront and humiliate him, looked quite a lot less enthused when Ranma returned his own pleasant but condescending face of challenge, but before anyone else could answer, the redhead shoved the earth mage aside.

"I am Kirche, the Ardent, of the principality of Anhalt-Zerbst."

Her voice pressed the rising clamour back down to silence. She looked neither scared nor angry, but her forcefulness sounded no less upset than anyone else.  She was, Ranma noticed, the first person here to introduce herself to him.

Ranma waved, and called back across the distance.  "Hello! Nice to meet you!"

The redhead, Kirche, seemed rather pissed off about that reply.  She raised her wand, but before she could act, Louise darted between them.  Ranma blinked at this sudden intrusion, but while he didn't care for it, he kept quiet to see what the two girls would do.

"Don't you dare!" Louise said to Kirche.  "I'm not going to let you attack my familiar."

"And how will you stop me?" Kirche said, confirming Louise's accusation. 

Louise's sharp reply was lost to the wind as Ranma pushed her away from the blast of flame that came next.  Ranma supposed he should apologize to Louise later for doubting her claim that Kirche would fight.  He dialed up his chi-driven resistance to high temperatures until he could feel a rough discomfort from the passing fire, but no more higher.  After all, it wouldn't be believable if he acted completely immune to fire.

He didn't know what Kirche's problem was, but the redhead was out for blood from the outset.  She spared no further words of challenge, and her spells of concentrated flame flew at him repeatedly, covering the field with acrid smoke and the phantom sound of crackling wood.  She was focused on overwhelming him with heat and dazzle.  It was much less refined than Colbert's casting from the day before.

The fact that he dodged all her attacks insulted her more.

Even the other kids were getting caught up at this point, screaming and running for cover all around him, though Ranma didn't notice any of them actually aflame.  Ranma wondered if Kirche was just going for spectacle than actual combat effectiveness, but the grass around Ranma was blackening, and he admitted the burning ambient heat was getting more dangerous than the actual flame.

All in all, Ranma couldn't call it a fight, at least not like what Louise had claimed it would be.  He kept a clear head despite the chaos, and in his clarity, he saw three things as the spectacle ended.  One, the rushing in of magician teachers through the fleeing crowd of students. Two, Kirche getting annoyed at his continued failure to become ash and chanting up a much larger spell.  And three, Louise leaving her cowering state to chant her own magic at Kirche.

At some point during that observation, Ranma didn't know when, the fight ended.



About an hour later, Louise and Kirche, both quite injured, were in Osmond's office under the condemning stares of the large teaching staff and getting a stiff rant from Colbert about how a big gap had been blasted out of the north courtyard, putting a part of the student body into traction, and forcing classes to be canceled.

Louise was hanging her head as she sat on a high and uncomfortable-looking stool, visibly keeping herself from crying.  Kirche, on the other hand, tossed back her long red hair--a gesture that looked less impressive with the black scuff marks all over her face and clothes--and scoffed at all the lecturing Colbert had done.

"Why should I be blamed here?" Kirche said.  "I'm not the one who made the explosion."

Colbert sported a mighty twitch on his face.  "You're the one who started this!  Because neither of you can control yourselves, we're still digging students out of the courtyard.  How you two managed to escape more serious harm is a miracle and an injustice, but surely the Founder protects fools from themselves.  We can't even find Miss Valliere's familiar.  Who knows if he's been blown to dust."

Ranma frowned, and said, "No, I'm doing fine."

Heads whipped around in his direction, and more than one gasp sounded as the crowd of teachers all gawked at him sitting there on a stool he had brought into the room. Ranma looked down at the servant's clothes he had changed back to, then up at all the stares.

His expression grew flat.  "Running with the commoners-are-invisible thing a little far, aren't you?"

"I saw you," Colbert said.

Ranma looked at him.  "No you didn't."

Colbert fell quiet again.

Ranma turned to Louise, who looked almost relieved for a second before covering it up.  He then glanced at Kirche, who didn't hide anything.  "How are you still alive?" Kirche said.  "You were right there, and not even the people far away walked away from that blast."

"I've been in explosions," Ranma said.  "You just gotta learn the right bracing position.  Shield your head and cover your ribs with your knees."  He started to demonstrate, then stopped.  "It's not important.  Where are we on the whole familiar debate?"

"No dice," Kirche said with what Ranma thought was spiteful petulance.  "I still refuse to accept it."

Before Ranma could express his disappointment, Osmond asked, "You were able to manifest some magical power, based on the familiar's bond, were you?"

Ranma was annoyed but not very surprised that Kirche still didn't believe his claim.  At least from looking around, none of the teachers seem to share her doubts, since no commoner could do what Ranma did.  He wasn't sure what to say to Osmond and Colbert though, since they knew he was no true familiar.

Even Louise was watching him for his answer, and in light of her passivity, Ranma thought quickly about which way to go. The questioning would become intrusive soon, and he wasn't about to explain his skills.  The situation needed a spark of diversion.

Being prepared for this sort of thing, Ranma had one ready. "I found I have an instinct," he said, "for what I can do as a familiar.  I don't have the learning to explain them, but I have some weird powers I never had before, that I can somehow use now."

Osmond and the teachers looked between themselves.  "That sounds... plausible for a familiar," someone said.

"Wait just one moment," Colbert said, revving up to the most obvious rebuttal to Ranma's claim.

"But when I was summoned by her," Ranma said, glancing toward Louise, "I felt the link between us was weaker than it should be, from what people I've asked have said.  It even messed up my runes."

Ranma pulled out his left hand, drawing curious gazes at the markings on the back of it.  Colbert was the first to get up close, and the first to shout in confusion.  The runic symbols he had drawn had been replaced--by Ranma when nobody was looking--with something that should be quite unrecognizable to the teachers: the flowing Sanskrit symbols making the word anitya.

A weak joke, Ranma admitted, but it was less sarcastic than stamping "liar" on his hand instead.

As he guessed, Colbert and the other teachers had no knowledge of the script.  Colbert glanced at Osmond, who also had no response.  Kirche looked at Louise, who was stunned silent.

"So I'm a familiar," Ranma said in satisfaction, "but I'm not sure if I'm really contracted yet."

"Yes you certainly are," Louise said as other eyes fell on her.  "You can't just declare in front of everyone that you're not mine!"

She sounded panicky, but her presumption and possessiveness annoyed Ranma.  "It's just how I feel," Ranma said.  "I answered a question, and you don't have to believe it.  The rest I'll leave to people who know what they're doing."

Letting that lazily hidden insult hanging in the air, he went back into silence.  All the teachers begin to mutter about the information Ranma just threw in.  A few of them doubted Ranma's explanation, and Kirche made feeble protestations at the rest.  Ranma watched as Osmond observed the argument for a while, then commanded the teachers to all sleep on the matter while he pondered on his own.

Colbert and the other teachers reluctantly left, as did Kirche.  Ranma, Louise, and Osmond remained in the office.

Osmond looked between Ranma and Louise.  "Now what shall we do about this?"

"Sir Osmond," Louise said.  "Surely you don't believe this insanity.  Can't you force this commoner--?"

"Since I'm in the room," Ranma said, "shouldn't you be dealing with me instead?"

Louise bit back a retort, and looked away.

Osmond coughed.  "I am hesitant to use force, even for a commoner.  This situation is unprecedented, and should be carefully examined."

"I summoned him, so he's mine.  What's so unprecedented about it?"

"That argument would be reasonable otherwise, but here the summoned familiar rejects its summoner.  That alone is beyond expectation, so the reasonable assumptions must also be questioned."

Louise hesitated, and seeing that hesitation, Ranma shrugged and spoke up.  "Maybe I should go find someone else interested in a familiar.  There's gotta be someone who'd make a better choice."

Louise and Osmond started at Ranma for giving that simple suggestion, and Osmond quickly said, "Familiars aren't shared in this fashion."  At the sight of Louise's horror, he added, "Why not give Miss Valliere another chance?  She seems poor at negotiating, but I would be willing to do so on her behalf."

Ranma looked at Osmond, suspecting that the old man had his own reasons involving his own benefit, as adults often did. "If it's bargaining for my service, I want her to do it, since nothing you could say will make me want to stay with this girl.  Didn't that teacher Colbert say she was supposed to treat me as a familiar?  Over the course of the day, she hasn't done a single thing for me, liking being a pleasant companion, supporting me when in trouble, or even giving me food or shelter."

"Fine," Louise said through misty eyes.  "Is that what you want to hear?  I ignored you and treated you badly.  I'm sorry and I'll do better from now on!  What more do you want from me?"

Ranma saw that Louise was getting ready to burst into tears, and it was a tossup whether she was actually that fragile or she was trying to play on his pity.  Whichever it was, her expression was annoying him even more.

"What I want," he said, "is--"

An interesting time, Ranma thought.  For now at least, but he paused before saying it.  While staying with Louise looked less and less appealing the longer he knew the girl, maybe this was a chance to learn new things and exercise his powers under the excuse of being a familiar.

--an education, and social advancement."

The last part was something he threw in for credibility. From what he knew about societies, the lower classes usually wanted to scale the social ladder.  He cared little about that, but it would make more sense to the nobles--and piss them off as a bonus--while letting him see more of this new world.

It would be a little interesting.

"Give me that, and I'll think about being your familiar. But can you offer me those things?"

[thepanda]

"I am hesitant to do use force, even for a commoner.

Drop the 'do'.