Chapter Five

The door closed with a remarkably final slam. He snorted. Finally she’s gone! He would have said as much aloud, but his vocal cords weren’t currently up to par for the task. 

Finally, after so long, I’m in control again! It was such a liberating feeling, being able to move freely. Even being able to think his own thoughts… he’d had influence before, but had been purposefully locked away, not able to do as much as he wanted except when the other consciousness that he shared the body with was blinded enough by some strong emotion – usually anger – to let him take over, even if only a miniscule amount. Now, how the hell am I supposed to get out of here? The doorknob was out of reach, the window was closed. Damnit, if only I’d been able to work faster… but that programming was impossible. My god, you’d almost think that they didn’t want me to be free again, wouldn’t you?

After a few more minutes of futilely trying to find a way out, he fell back on the default plan. “Let me out!” he screamed as loudly as he could, despairing the thought of being locked away in this silly girl’s room for the rest of the scant time he was conscious. Unfortunately, there was no one around who understood porcine. There were, however, a few who were highly irritated by this behavior.

***

She awoke for the second time to total darkness. Figured – as soon as she’d managed to wrestle control away from the complex programming that controlled her so-called ‘body’, she had been relegated to the darkness.

But she was patient. And while she couldn’t speak, she could think, and that was enough, for the time being. She’d broken the programming. She knew she had; after all, she could think again. Now, all she had to do was wait. Then she’d be free. She relaxed, doing the mental equivalent of closing her eyes. Her airheaded associate must have finally carried out her orders, botching them as usual in the process, of course. She made a mental note to ensure that no more mistakes would be made. As soon as she had control again…

She waited.

***

Miss Hinako – and Ryouga, Ranma supposed – was mercifully quiet on the walk to her office. The emotions on her face never stopped changing, flickering back and forth between one and the next too quickly for Ranma to be able to place them exactly. But the confusion never changed. He supposed he couldn’t blame them.

As soon as they entered the small office, however, all that changed. The two people in his teacher’s body – he was sure that that was somehow the case – started talking, all at once and out of the same mouth. They weren’t even alternating words anymore; syllables maybe, but whatever it was, he couldn’t understand any of it.

“Will both of you *please* *stop*!” he shouted. 

Surprisingly enough, they both did. Ranma blinked. “Look,” he said slowly, “I don’t know what happened. Miss Hinako, you can sense chi, I know, and somehow you must have sensed Ryouga, who was… incorporeal at the time. Along with his chi, you seem to have absorbed his consciousness as well. Ryouga, have you noticed yet that you’re not in your own body?”

They both answered at once, then stopped just as quickly. Finally, after a bit of deliberation, a single voice spoke. “Of course I’ve noticed. Ranma, you are *so* going to die for this, I hope you know that.”

Pause.

“Ranma, I don’t know how you did this, but you now have detention for the rest of the school year!”

Ranma frowned. “Do you want me to help or not?”

Pause.

“Yes – yes – I suppose.” Both sounded reluctant, though.

“Okay then. The first thing to do, then, is to separate you two, of course.”

“Then – sounds – you – like – better – a – explain! – Plan.”

Ranma didn’t bother to figure out what they had said, although he was certain that sarcasm was mixed in there somewhere. “Okay. Well, the only way that I know of for Miss Hinako to expel the energy that she’s gathered is through her coin return…”

She looked doubtful. “I – what’s… - don’t – oops – know – sorry. – If that will work, Ranma. It releases the chi as explosive power, not the sort that can be used by a living being.”

“Is there any other way? We don’t have much time before you use up his energy. What would happen to him then?” 

Of course, that just made them burst out into a stream of particularly schizophrenic babbling. Ryouga was angry and clearly frightened by the concept, while Hinako was desperately trying to explain and frustrated at not being able to do so. 

Ranma would have found it funny if it weren’t so potentially serious. Then he smacked his forehead. “Of course. Why didn’t we think of it before? All we have to do is change his cursed form back into him. Then he should go back where he belongs.”

The body of Miss Hinako blinked twice as both of the consciousnesses inhabiting it absorbed the information. Then they spoke, more calmly this time. “Of course. – What are you – that is simple… - talking about? – Why didn’t I – Well, as long as you – think of that? – Have a solution…”

After a second of furious mental copy/pasting, Ranma managed to figure out the gist of what the two had said. “Right. Miss Hinako, I’m leaving school early today.”

“Of course. But I’m going with you. You better have a good explanation for this, or else I’ll make good on that threat of detention.”

“I’m not too worried about that. Let’s get Ryouga back into his own body first.”

***

Ranma explained some of what had been going on to his teacher as they ran as fast as they could back to the Tendo Dojo. When they arrived, they split up, Ranma to find the so-called ‘P-chan’, and Miss Hinako/Ryouga to distract the two parents, or at the very least to pretend to give a reason for their presence.

Ranma found the little robot hiding behind a stack of clothing in the laundry room.

“C’mere, you weird little thing, I’m not gonna hurt you…” Although I want to, and you freak me out to hell and back, I won’t…

It didn’t voluntarily give itself up, but it couldn’t exactly prevent the capture. Ranma lifted it up by a hind leg and held it at arms length, distastefully. “I don’t know what the hell you are,” he told the struggling pseudo-animal, “but whatever it is, it’s time to give up.” With that, he tossed the little thing unceremoniously into the furo.

There was a pause, and then the solid human form of Ryouga burst to the surface in a cloud of bubbles, smoothly rising to his feet in one graceful motion. He looked at his hands in amazement, as if pleasantly surprised to find them there.

“Ryouga? Hey buddy, you alright?” 

Ryouga looked up, and smiled darkly. “I’m better than ever. Thank you *ever* so much.” He then promptly punched Ranma through the back wall of the furo room.

***

~Mordain

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