Disclaimer: All characters portrayed in this story are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and co. This story takes place after volume 38 of the Ranma manga and also draws ideas from the anime. C & C welcomed. One Month By Donny Cheng "You want me to what?" Ranma asked, stared in disbelief at Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo as they sat in Ucchan's. "That hyper little runt is ruining my business. She comes by like clockwork everyday. My grades slipped a bit because of that time I was ill, not because of my job," Ukyo growled. "No matter what I say, she won't listen and keeps coming by to tell me I'm ruining my education. It wouldn't be so bad if most of my student customers weren't so scared of her and won't stay if she's here. On top of that, when she's a child, she keeps eating all my food and never pays me." "Shampoo no know what problem is. One arrow and nobody care teacher is gone. Ranma teacher come by one more time to bother Nekohanten and say Shampoo is 'truant', give Kiss of Death again." Ranma shuddered at the thought of bystanders getting hurt, namely him, if Shampoo started hunting Hinako while he was at school. It didn't seem to matter to the amazon that she lost the last time either. Definitely not an option. Still it might be a better option than him going directly after Hinako himself. "You too, Akane?" "Just do it," Akane grumbled. She didn't like the prospect of Ranma touching Hinako _there_, but at the moment, she had no other choice. The woman was getting on her nerves. The teacher had taken to calling her 'daughter' in class. Hinako saw it as her duty to help her in her problem areas; Home Economics and Swimming. So far she had burned down the classroom twice and swimming practice was worse than the last time. The blind leading the blind as they say. "Okay, okay. So I get one month of free food at Ucchan's and the Nekohanten and Akane'll do my homework for a month?" *Win-win situation. Get rid of Hinako and have Ranma to myself for a month,* the three girls thought together, coincidently. * * * * * Day One... "Give it up already!" Ranma yelled and sidestepped another of Hinako's errant ki blasts. "I see you haven't learned from your ways...," Hinako started say when Ranma's image disappeared again. *Damnit, where is he?* She hated it when her alter ego fell for such stupid tricks. She looked around her but could only see a dozen of her mirror images reflected back at her. *Really, a fun house? How stupid can I get.* "Gotcha!" "Wha...?" Hinako found herself tackled to the ground by one of her own images apparently. She gasped as she felt the excess chi she had gotten from the carnival goers drain from her body. "You can remove your hands from my body now, Ranma. Clever plan, dressing up as me." "Yeah, smart of me, if I do say so myself...," Ranma gloated before noticing that his audience was gone. "Mister? Is this yours?" a vendor asked when Ranma left the room of mirrors. The vender held a giggling young Hinako in place by the scruff of her collar. "Your sister ate everything in my stall. That'll be two hundred yen for the cotton candy." Ranma sighed. A whole month of this? * * * * * Day Seven... This wasn't working out. She had to do something. It seemed her alter ego would never learn, always stuck with the mindset of when she was that age. Why couldn't she have been one of those nice and proper little girls who didn't take sweets from delinquents back then? While she knew what Ranma wanted to do to her, it still only took a little bit of candy for her to be tricked into some trap. *Why me?* Ranma thought to himself as he finally let go of the Hinako. Another little thing that Happosai forgot to mention was that with each increasing day, the length of time he had to hold those shiatsu points became longer. "Hey, I didn't do anything more than I had to!" Ranma yelled when he saw Hinako's face down, not looking at him. Hinako looked up from her thoughts and stared at Ranma's blushing face. *Of course! I might not be able to control myself as a little girl that well, but I can sure as hell control my adult mind.* "Well, that was fun. See you tomorrow lover boy," Hinako said in a low, seductive voice. She almost laughed out loud when she saw his blush deepen. * * * * * Day Eight... "Oh! Ah... harder... please! Rub harder," Hinako moaned. *Ear plugs. Need ear plugs,* Ranma thought weakly as he held on and tried to count the seconds till he could feel the ki leave her body. He was damned glad that only the two of them were in the classroom at this late hour. * * * * * Day Nine... While Ranma could not hear anything, he didn't really need to. He had tried closing his eyes so that he couldn't see Hinako's suggestive looks. However, neither helped the sensations his body felt from Hinako's writhing body. He had heard that thinking of baseball stats helped in this sort of situation. Pity he didn't know any. * * * * * Day Ten... *No using cold water next time,* Ranma thought desperately, trying to hold out as her teacher increased her squirming. Despite being in her Jusenkyo cursed form, Hinako was only a little reluctant to continue with her new tactics. She lost that reluctance when she realized that the cursed form was extremely more sensitive than the male form. It didn't help Ranma that she was less used to being a girl and had thus less control over how it reacted to... stimulation. * * * * * Day Fifteen... Hinako stopped squirming around and sighed. Her tactic was simply not working. Even when she had taken to wearing kids' clothes that fit her alter ego just right, but threatened to rip on her adult frame, Ranma's grip didn't budge an inch. A part of her had to give grudging respect to him for his ability to ignore her. But respect or not, she was not going to lose a part of herself that she had become accustomed to over the years. However, there were only fifteen more days, and she had no idea how she would stop him. Her fear was that there was no way to stop this. * * * * * Day Sixteen... Ranma was surprised as Hinako simply stood there in the middle of the classroom. He was not one to let an opportunity like this slip away. He mentally strengthened his will. While he didn't know baseball stats, he did know intricate forms of kata that took quite a bit of concentration to think of. He was more surprised when by the time ten minutes was up and the ki within her body dissipated that Hinako had stood there the entire time. "Are you finished? If you are, I'm leaving." Ranma couldn't help but wince at the sound of her cold voice. * * * * * Day Seventeen... "Look, at least put up a fight," Ranma said, trying hard not to outright beg her. It was starting to annoy him how she stood there like a limp doll. He felt as if he were picking on a defenseless woman instead of someone that could blow up the whole city. "Why? So you'll feel better about what you are robbing me of?" "Look, you're a menace." "For doing my job?" "For, well...," Ranma hesitated, trying to think of something that Hinako was doing wrong. Despite his attempts at stopping Hinako, the woman did nothing different from her daily activities. She still stopped by and tried to convince Cologne to make Shampoo go to school. Ukyo and Akane were still bothered if their academic studies fell behind. "It's not when you're like this, it's when you're small. You know how much of a pain you are like that?" Hinako ignored him. She had heard of how Ranma hated his curse and wanted nothing to do with it from some of the students. How could he possibly understand what she felt? When Ranma finally released her, Hinako gave him a cold stare. "See you tomorrow. You have an appointment with me after class before our little match. It seems your grades are dropping even further from the pitiful level they were at before." Ranma felt lower than dirt. * * * * * Day Eighteen... "Don't you want to be cured? When I'm done with the treatment, you'll be adult the whole time. I know the time you stay as an adult is longer now even after your supply of battle aura is empty. I mean, you're actually helping Akane in the kitchen and in the pool now that you can last the whole class before you turn small. Heck, battle aura from Gosunkugi is enough to last you a whole hour." The silence and Hinako's inert body was his only reply. He was tempted to just forget about the whole deal and let the woman run rampant. Hinako didn't know why she decided to speak right then to a person that had no way of understanding her. But with her time trickling down, she found she needed to get some things off her chest. "Do you know what it's like to be a child? I am still me when I am in my child form. It's just that my mental age is frozen in that state. I still know everything that my adult form knows, but it's all colored with a child's understanding of such matters." "That sound horrible." One of Ranma's recurring nightmares was of his girl half having a mind of her own. "Maybe, but I think of it as a blessing. I get to see sides of people I would never have seen in my adult form. I would never have known what a wonderful man Akane's father was, for example. Oh, don't look at me like that. He _is_ nice, but I know that I have no chance of competing against his dead wife and it would be improper to push it. My alter ego doesn't suffer from such inhibitions though. When young, I only remember him being nice to me and I can see him whenever I want." She rolled her eyes when Ranma still had that semi-disgusted look on his face. "It's not just him. Other adults and my students only see me as someone to leer at, to be jealous of, or to be feared. When young, I'm treated nicely by nearly everyone I meet, no matter how annoying as you say I might be." "Not everyone is like that," Ranma said. The last thing he needed was to feel sorry for her. She smiled wryly. "What better way to escape some of reality's harshness than as a small child. By the way, you can let go now. The ki was gone a couple of minutes ago and my breast is starting to hurt." Ranma let go of her so fast, Hinako nearly tripped over backwards. "You're the only boy in Furinkan that would do that," Hinako chuckled. "Well, see you tomorrow, Ranma." "Yeah, see you tomorrow," Ranma said, for the third time this week leaving in an unhappy state. The food and excuse to be with Akane was starting to not be worth it. * * * * * Day Nineteen... "Hey, I thought we agreed to let Ranma handle this," Akane said, but she did not stop from walking along the ledge over to the window sill where they could see into their classroom. "Shampoo no like this. Thought it was thirty quick and easy treatments. But now learn from Mercenary Girl that it now take half hour." Nabiki frowned at the term Shampoo used but let it pass for now at the trouble she knew was about to happen. Also she needed their help getting to the window as it was on the third floor. "I only noticed how long it was taking Ranma to get home every day." "Who knows what could happen in thirty minutes," Ukyo growled. Akane and Shampoo nodded and with that thought in mind, the three suitors along with Nabiki holding onto Akane peered into the window. * * * * * "That was... incredibly boring," Ukyo said as she walked away from the school with the others. "She's lecturing him for the whole time?" Akane wondered aloud. She had to admit, with all those times she called Ranma a pervert, a great many extreme thoughts and ideas of what exactly was happening ran rampant through her mind. She did not expect _that_ however. "Shampoo knew Ranma loyal." Nabiki rolled her eyes, *Riiight.* "Well, that was bad. I don't know how I'm going to edit these photos. Ranma looks like he's falling asleep, and for a boy holding onto a woman's chest, the poses were extremely tame." "Photos!?" Nabiki blinked innocently as three angry glares looked towards her. "Uh, what photos?" * * * * * Day Twenty Two... "You're seriously going to recite the rules of English diction right now?" Ranma asked, annoyed. "You're grades are getting worse. This outside activity you have is not doing anything to help. It's now taking a hour to apply the treatment. I might as well tutor you while you're at it." Ranma could not understand Hinako's mindset. Just a couple of days ago, she came to school with a bad 24 hour cold. She could easily not have come to school and make him start over again. Also, she never missed a Sunday to tutor at the school for kids that were behind. When he was late cleaning up the classroom that other day, she was still in the room finishing up her work. Never once did she try to avoid him by changing her schedule. And here she was ready to drill more stuff into him. "Louder. Breathe. Watch your tones. Make sure you make the distinction between the 'l' and 'r' sounds." "Why are you torturing me like this?" Ranma asked plaintively. "I'm your teacher. I want the best for all my students," Hinako said simply. * * * * * Day Twenty Three... "No, I'll wait." "Thank you, Ranma-kun," Hinako said and went back to marking the test papers. "I'm almost finished." Ranma frowned. Lately, Hinako was treating him nicer than before. He wondered what kind of game she was playing. If she was to make him feel guilty, it was working. It wreaked havoc with his concentration, so much so that he couldn't even bring up a basic kata in his mind. While she no longer made suggestive body movements, he still could not get over the fact that he was hugging a full bodied woman with one of his hands over her breast. "Why don't you fight me anymore? You didn't answer me the other time. I mean, I have to hold you longer, you could probably have a chance to stopping me." Hinako looked up from her work. "You'd just lock my hands in place like you did with that basketball hoop the first time. I prefer not to be held like that for that long a period time. Besides, you're stronger than me." "Still...." *Still what?* Ranma asked himself. He could still remember her words. She was right that time; it would make him feel better. * * * * * Day Twenty Seven... "You know, you could just discipline students another way," Ranma said, trying to sound offhand about it and failing. "That's actually sweet of you, Ranma," Hinako said, surprised that he was actually giving her hints on how to escape him now. "If you don't want to do it, just stop." Ranma could just imagine the angry looks of his suitors. They were already annoyed by the fact that it took longer to cure Hinako each day. He got the hint that there better be something at the end of all this or he was going to be in it deep. "Trust me, that is not an option." "Look at me, Ranma." She laughed when she saw him looking at and then adverting his eyes when they roamed into her cleavage. The boy was really too cute. Even after all this time of holding her, he still hadn't gotten used to it. She wondered if that said something about her appeal or his own ineptness. "I didn't mean literally. No boy in the school would take me seriously if not for my skills. Many of them are starting to lose their fear of me. It doesn't take much battle aura to turn adult now. I'm stuffed full before I even suck two students of their aura. Even blasting my excess ki out with Happo Tsurisen Gaeshi doesn't help. Thanks to your treatment, I stay as an adult for hours now even without the battle aura. And I can't drain more ki while I'm adult." "Ah." There wasn't really anything more he could say. He suddenly felt Hinako's head fall against his body, causing the both of them to collapse on the ground. *Damn, she hasn't attacked me in so long, I wasn't ready.* However, Hinako did nothing to pull herself from his grasp. She just lay over top him, inert. He heard muffled sounds that he couldn't place and then felt something wet seep into the cloth covering his shoulders where Hinako was. *She's crying?* Ranma thought, panicking. "I sucked some battle aura from some rowdy delinquents last night while I was walking home. I couldn't go to sleep till midnight, till I turned back into a child. I waited and waited, but I couldn't turn young again. I knew that this would happen eventually and I've been preparing myself for it, but...," Hinako whimpered, her voice muffled by Ranma's silk shirt. Ranma lay there with her over him and found that he could not say a thing. The only thing he could think of was to let her go. But just as he released her, he could feel the ki drain away. *Damn, if I let go just a little sooner...,* he thought belatedly. Awkwardly, he tried to push the woman off of him, but found that she wrapped her arms around him during the fall. "Hinako, your...," he stopped when he realized that his teacher had fallen asleep. * * * * * Hinako woke up a few hours later and blushed when she found out where exactly she was. Her arms had shrunk to that of a child's, making it easier for her to remove them from around Ranma-kun's back. She sighed wistfully as she looked at his sleeping face. He was _so_ nice. She turned around and cuddled against his body carefully, so that she didn't wake him, so that he would stay a little longer with her. For some reason she had this idea that he would be leaving her soon. She never had anyone spend so much time with her before, besides her parents, so she didn't like that thought. For nearly a month, Ranma met her after school and was always trying to cure her; so sweet of him! At first she was angry with him for trying to take her super cool attack away so that she couldn't take care of delinquents anymore, but nobody that bought her so much candy and was always nice to her could be bad she figured. She guessed it might be because she always tried using it on him when he was being bad. Such a naughty boy he was. Well if he didn't like her shooting at him, she didn't feel too bad about being cured. And it meant that he would play that hugging game with her that made her feel nice. She could barely make out the familiar ceiling of the classroom above her. It was getting dark outside. She giggled girlishly, thinking of the looks on the faces of Ranma's girlfriends. "Nyah, nyah," she taunted softly. She supposed she should go and explain it to them that there was nothing happening between her and Ranma, absolutely nothing. But the last time she did that, they all looked at her incredulously and nearly bit her head of saying, 'of course, nothing happened'. The next day, Ranma came back with bruises and sulked at her instead of thanking her. How rude! *Oops,* she thought when she heard Ranma give an oomph when she elbowed him in the stomach. Still, despite being angry with her, he still brought her candy for class while some other students brought her apples; yuck! He always looked so sad these days when he gave her candy. He wouldn't even smile when she put a gold star on his cheek after he passed his oral English assignment. She had this strange idea that he would happier after three more days. She hoped it was true. * * * * * Day Twenty Eight... "Ranchan, your hand!" Ukyo cried. "Oh, what happened?" "This isn't some trick so that you could start over with Hinako, is it?" Akane ask suspiciously, thinking back to the teacher's statement that nothing was happening between them and Ranma asking how they would feel if he stopped administering the counter technique. She looked over at Ranma's fingers and they were definitely very red and bruised. "Oh, how did that happen! I'll go get the nurse." She ignored the snickering from Sayuri and Yuka. "Don't bother, it looks worse than it is. I got careless this morning and blocked Kuno's bokken the wrong way," Ranma said, waving it off. "And about Hinako... this little problem won't stop me," Ranma said and tried his best to look unconvincing without looking unconvincing about it. He failed of course, but the end result was still an unconvincing look, and Ukyo immediately told him not to try it with Hinako tonight. "But the whole project will be down the drain," Ranma grimaced, the pain in his hand making it quite easy for him to achieve that effect. "Don't worry about it. I've caught up with my grades, Shampoo showed Hinako her Joketsuzoku grade twelve equivalency diploma, and well, Akane can swim with a lifesaver by herself and has a one in three chance of success with that curry dish. She shouldn't be around to bother us anymore anyway. We just saw that you had only a few days left and let you keep doing it so it wouldn't be a waste of time, and well, just in case she still bothered us." *Actually, the three of us had each tried harder to please Hinako in case just such an occasion had happened. Or at least I did,* Akane thought blushing at how far she went for him. Hinako watched the commotion in class, unwilling to use her technique for once. Ranma-kun is hurt? Oh, poor baby. I wonder if he'll come and see me today. * * * * * Day Thirty... Ranma found himself staring down at Hinako, but somehow he felt as if he was being stared down at. Her cute little face was marred by a crossed look. "What did you want to see me after class for?" "You're ignoring me!" "No, I'm not. I answered all your questions in class...," he was cut off as Hinako jumped at him and glomped onto him. "Yes, you are. You were going to go back home again today without playing with me just like the other two days." "Uh, well about that... I decided you're better like this. Until you're ready to let go of, well, when you find the right person for you, maybe he'll, well, you'll understand when you're older," Ranma said, knowing how literally true that was. He was slightly surprised and little disappointed that adult Hinako didn't mention anything to him at all about him not going after her with the cure anymore. "I'm older than you, Ranma." Ranma chuckled as her cherub face looked up at him seriously. "Not now you aren't...," no sooner than those words escaped his lips than he heard her whisper Happo Go-en Satsu and found himself being held very closely by an adult Hinako. "And now?" Hinako asked archly. "Y-You... from me," Ranma stuttered weakly and felt his battle aura removed. "You've held me long enough and I figure it's time for payback," she smirked, but it didn't stay on her face for long and she turned serious. "I want to thank you for what you did. I know you gave me many chances. From the many suggestions on avoiding you to not even holding me very hard anymore. It's only a part of the truth when I said that you'd just over power me if I put up any fight. The other reason was that I wanted to see if you'd do it. Call it the teacher in me if you want, but I wanted to see if you'd grow. Hard to believe, but the problem student I was called here to take care of is the student that I feel most fortunate to have." Hinako felt Ranma slump limply against her. "The sucking of your aura was punishment for what you put me through the first couple of weeks and ignoring me the last few days. This," she looked down at their two bodies close together, "and this," she kissed him on his cheek, "is my thanks." She then let him go and saw him staring wide eyed up at her from the floor. She took her time to move her legs so that the hem of her skirt was no longer over his line of sight. "When I'm ready to let go of my youth and my power, I'll see you again. I'll remember your words," she promised and left him there to think of what she meant. She de-aged when she reached outside school grounds and found herself merrily skipping back home. *Not now, but maybe later, Ranma,* Hinako thought happily. She was still too young at heart. * * * * * The End. (maybe)