Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Personal Assistant to Love ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Aoi sat across from the private detective that she kept on retainer as he read her the file that he'd put together on Mousse.

 

“His name is Mu Tzu but introduces himself as Mousse. He's seventeen years of age and a Chinese citizen. He was born in a village called Joketsuzoko, which is considered to be an Amazon tribe that is a female dominated society. I couldn't find out a lot about them as they're pretty secretive about their ways” he read.

 

“Amazons, like Wonder Woman?” Aoi questioned.

 

 

“Something like” the detective said and continued “according to his birth certificate his mother's name is Lo Shen and his father's name is Crem Rinx. According to his father's death certificate he died when Mousse was four. He was survived by Mousse, Lo Shen and his three sisters Aloe Vera, Shea Butter and Ylang Ylang. Shea Butter and Ylang Ylang are twins. His employment history includes some sort of job in a Chinese circus and he's worked as a waiter at a Chinese restaurant called the Nekohanten, owned by a woman named Cologne and her great-granddaughter Shampoo. They were both from the same place as him, his employment ended when Cologne sold her restaurant. According to rumours, Mousse and Shampoo may have been romantically involved. He came to work for Kodachi Kuno soon after the restaurant closed” he concluded.

 

“Is he here legally?” she asked.

 

“He was here on a work visa that was filed by Cologne” the detective said.

 

“And now?” Aoi questioned sharply.

 

“The Kuno family applied for one for him and it was approved. This is the picture from his passport” he said handing it to her.

 

Aoi frowned at the image of the young man smiling sheepishly at the camera; he has on a baggy white robe and thick glasses. Other then the long hair he looked nothing like man she'd seen with Kodachi. “Are you sure it's the same person?” she questioned.

 

“She has only one personal assistant and that's him” the detective said in an annoyed tone voice.

 

Aoi eyed the picture; there had been something about the two of them that bothered her, the way that they looked at each other. It had been bad enough when Kodachi had embarrassed their entire school by pursuing that commoner, Ranma. `This gaijin probably would be even worse' she thought as her eyes narrowing to points. Not to mention that Aoi liked to compete with Kodachi when it came to everything, an unhappy Kodachi was like crack to her.

 

Mousse had been at the Kuno's place for a week and was supposed to registering for school that day. He'd been quite dubious about his employment with them at first, but seemed to fit right into the eccentric clan and they had almost become like family to him. They had befriended him in small ways, like Kodachi insisting that he stop jogging in the streets as he would ruin his knees. She gave the code for their private gym that included a padded indoor track. He'd been suspicious at first when Tatewaki kept on showing up at the exact same times as him to work out; he kept on claiming it was a coincidence until Kuno had suggested becoming training partners. Mousse had agreed and discovered that the other boy was an army drill sergeant, personal trainer from hell and Attila the Hun all rolled into one when it came to spotting for him. He would bark sure things as `are you sure it's a male duck you became? Are you truly as girly as you look and move those sugar buns princess.” He also forced Mousse to eat lots of protein, not trusting the chemicals in the powders. Mousse looked horror stricken the first time he'd handed him a glass containing a dozen raw eggs. “Drink this, it'll put hair on your chest and perhaps even on the rest of your body” he taunted. Mousse glared a challenge back and chugged the vile concoction down. At the end of their training sessions together they both were exhausted and bonded in their pain over how they felt about the loss of their loved ones. Mousse found it nice to have someone to open up to, as did Kuno, but he still wouldn't tell him who his new love was. It was too personal to him.

 

Mousse started eating dinner with them at the main dining table; he'd refused to join unless Suzuki was allowed to as well. They had just shrugged and invited him to. Whenever he protested their acts of kindness they would threaten to terminate his employment until he gave in. Tatewaki had become almost like a friend to him and Kodachi was........something else. He couldn't help noticing how cute, friendly and funny she was. He got almost the high feeling being with her that he got when he posted his daily letters to Shampoo. In them he told her about his new life, but never poked fun at his employers, that would be cruel. Besides when they were home alone the madness that they portrayed to the outside world seemed to drop from them like a lead blanket and they relaxed. Yet he could sense a rift in the siblings' relationship and could only wonder as to the cause.

 

It was that morning that he caught on when he found Tatewaki memorizing lines of poetic verse out loud. He frowned over his book and said in his flowery voice “O, how this spring of love resembleth/The uncertain glory of an April day;/Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,/And by and by a cloud takes all away. Shoot what's the next line?” he said with a frown

 

“So you and Kodachi, it's all a ruse?” Mousse said.

 

Kuno blushed that he had overheard him again and promised himself to make the silent Chinese martial artist wear belled ankle bracelets. He turned to now black clad PA and said, “come in here and shut the door.” Mousse did as he was directed. “Look what I have to tell you can't repeat to anyone. Agreed?”

 

“I promise” Mousse said.

 

“As you know our family is extremely rich?” Mousse nodded. “We're been plagued in the past with people who wanted to marry us for our money. Well there is a slight genetic condition which runs in our family; for the most part it's controlled easily enough by medication. However our family members are prone to manic attacks once in a while. However let's just say that I encourage people to believe we're all as mad as hatters to discourage gold diggers” he explained.

 

“Really, isn't your father taking it a little far?” Mousse asked.

 

“Sadly he stopped taking his medications years ago and might permanently be like that” Kuno explained.

 

“So the uniforms, strange behaviour and the poetry; none of its real?” Mousse asked. “Don't you think you're being a little extreme?” he asked.

 

“Have you ever wondered why Kodachi and I rarely mingle? There's a reason for it and it's a tragic one. When she was fourteen a known gigolo in his late twenties wooed her and won her, she barely escaped with her virginity intact. She was a lonely girl, so it was easy for him to steal her heart away. I was so involved with my Kendo club that I barely had time to notice what my little sister had been doing; it was Sasuke who tipped me off to their affair. She thought she was in love and begged me to let her marry him, but I had researched him and discovered his trail of broken hearted women with empty bank accounts. I ordered Kodachi from the room and showed him my evidence and threatened to turn him over to the police for that and corrupting a minor if he didn't leave Japan that night. I later told Kodachi that he'd changed his mind about their marriage as I didn't want to break her heart. She blamed me in the end and swore that she hated me. She went slightly mad and to mock me she starting imitating my own my manner speaking and dressing until it became ingrained into her personality. I still can't bring myself to tell her that she was played for a fool; I was rather relieved when Ranma came around” he admitted.

 

“So Kodachi is really just a slightly eccentric normal girl?” Mousse asked.

 

“She'll never be completely normal, but she's still just a lonely girl looking for love like all the rest of us. She just goes to extremes in order to achieve it.......like yourself” Kuno confirmed. Mousse could only stare back.

 

Mousse was nervous as Kodachi fussed as he was about to depart for school with Kuno. He suddenly felt five years old again with his mother weeping in front of his school. She seemed to be more nervous then him while she fussed with his collar and tuck some stray hairs behind his ear. She asked him if he had his lunch three times until Kuno snapped “Kodachi, he's not going meet the Prime Minister, he's just enrolling in a new school as tons of students do every year. Now you had better get going or you'll be late for school yourself”

 

Kodachi leaned back, “I guess you'll be alright” she said hesitantly.

 

“If you want I'll pick you up after school and we can walk home together?” Mousse offered.

 

“I'd like that” Kodachi said, suddenly feeling warmer then she should.

 

“I'll be about twenty minutes late if you don't mind waiting. I'll tell you all about my day” Mousse said blushing.

 

“I don't mind” she said blushing in return.

 

Kuno looked from one to the other and said “so there you go, he'll meet you later. Now we have to go Mousse” Kuno said, he wanted to see Nabiki when she arrived at school.

 

“Okay bye” Kodachi said and kissed Mousse on the cheek impulsively. Mousse touched where she had kissed him and opened his mouth to question why, Kuno merely just dragged him out of there by his collar and hustled him to school. “I've arranged for you to be in the same classes as Akane, Ranma and Ukyou so that you'll be with friends” Kuno said.

 

“I would hardly describe them as friends” Mousse said cautiously.

 

“Nonsense, Kodachi and I made our peace with them a while ago, everything's good now. You can't dwell in the past, people evolve and perceptions do alter. I told them that you were coming and they volunteered to show you the ropes” Kuno said, still towing the younger boy behind him.

 

“Really?” Mousse said dubiously.

 

“Ask them yourself” Kuno said and then stopped short when he saw Nabiki. Mousse could only see a group of girls and examined each one to try and guess who Kuno's love interest was. He saw Nabiki Tendo and dismissed her as Kuno had never shared anything other than an unusual friendship with her. The other girls started whispering when they noticed Mousse and Kuno staring at them. Nabiki turned around at this and regarded them. Mousse blushed and smiled at her sheepishly; she smiled back and returned to talking to her friends.

 

“Come on let's get you enrolled” Kuno said to cover up his own embarrassment.

 

When Mousse was shown into Principal Kuno's office, he was struck by how much father resembled son, if Tatchi was about twenty years older that is, wore a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, a lei and had a palm tree on his head. Still they had similar buildings, similarly sculpted faces and the same unruly hair, but Tatchi's was darker. Mousse couldn't help looking from one to the other to compare them. “What?” Kuno asked sharply.

 

“Nothing” Mousse said.

 

“Hello kaka I be the big kahouna Principal mon, Principal Kuno. I understand that you wish to enrolled dis kaka in ma school?” he asked Kuno.

 

“Yes this is Mu Tzu, you could consider him to be a Chinese exchange student I guess” he said.

 

Principal Kuno took one look at Mousse and said “what we be exchanging him for, nice Japanese kaka with no girly hair?” he asked point blank which even caused Kuno to snicker.

 

“He's working for us as I told you. I have his paperwork here, you'll find everything is in order” Kuno said handing that to his secretary.

 

She checked it over “this does seemed to be complete, but I have to call his last school to verify this” she said.

 

“Me look over the kaka's transcripts too” Principal Kuno said following her.

 

“Kuno where did you get my transcripts from?” Mousse asked him.

 

“Your mother arranged for them to be delivered” Kuno said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

“My mother, you've been in contact with her?” Mousse said in a startled voice.

 

“Sure as soon as you came to work for us I called her and explained that you were going to be attending school and she sent them to me. She's a most pleasant lady. You really should call her more often” Kuno chided. “You sisters seemed quite friendly too, I sent them a laptop and established email accounts for them so that you can better keep in touch with them” Kuno said.

 

“Why?” Mousse asked, though whatever the eccentric and curiously generous Kunos did was quickly losing its shock value to him.

 

“Staying in touch with family's important” Kuno said somewhat wistfully as he stared at the office his father had gone into. Mousse had the sense to keep quiet.

 

Principal Kuno rejoined them “the kaka's enrolled, now we just have to give him a bald cut and he go to class” he said and whipped his clippers towards Mousse's head, he gasped when a chain tipped with a knife came out of nowhere and not only knocked it out of the air but took off a lock of his own hair. Principal Kuno gulped when it was retracted and disappeared.

 

 

“No weapons in da school” he said weakly.

 

“The clippers are weapon that apparently you whip at your student's heads, I believe that to be illegal” Mousse said, the threat clear in his voice. “Now hear this, cutting my hair is against my religious beliefs, got it” he said thrusting his face into the Principal's in a challenging manner.

 

“You never cut it?” Kuno said dubiously at how he wore his hair in a long pageboy and the elder Kuno's expression echoed his.

 

“I trim it” he said, with his cheeks glowing.

 

“Principal Kuno, you have to accept his hair length if it has to do with his beliefs” Kuno said much to Mousse's relief. “You wouldn't want a whole tribe of angry Amazon's coming here because you made him cut it, I met his female counterparts and they are really quite deadly” Kuno cautioned.

 

“Sigh, so many mon want long hair in school. Don't kaka's want to look like kaka's anymore?” he said with a sigh. “Okay, you keep girly hair and run along to class” he said with a brush off gesture.

 

“I'll walk Mr. Mu to his classroom” his secretary volunteered and led him there.

 

Once he was gone Principal Kuno took off his sunglasses and said “so that pretty boy is living with my young impressionable daughter?”

 

“Father?” Kuno said in surprise.

 

“I took a whole whack of meds when you said you were coming” he explained.

 

“There's nothing to fear Mousse's an honourable man who would never take advantage of a girl. He loves with his whole heart and would never stray or hurt his love interest” Kuno promised.

 

“How's Kodachi with him?” Principal Kuno asked him.

 

“They seem to be good friends and perhaps there's a little crushing going on” Kuno said.

 

Principal Kuno frowned at that “there's nothing a father likes to hear more. Is he good enough for her?” he asked.

 

“Mom was a maid before you married her, how would it be any different?” Kuno countered.

 

“Hey your mother was only working part-time as a maid for the summer to supplement the scholarship that she won in a beauty contest. Kodachi looks so much like she did. I complained that she hadn't dusted the tops of the pictures properly and she handed me her duster and told me to do it as she couldn't reach that high” Principal Kuno said with a wistful smile.

 

“And you did it. I'm surprised you didn't fire her” the other Kuno said.

 

“No, I was already in love with her. We Kunos' always feel completely sane around the person we're in love with, whereas it makes the rest of the world crazy” Principal Kuno said.

 

“That is true of us” Kuno agreed thinking of how clear his thinking was when he was around Nabiki.

 

Mousse had little time to talk with the Saotome's and Ukyou as he tried to adjust to being back in school. It didn't help that girls seemed to be checking him out and this caused him to blush. He blew a sigh of relief when the lunch bell sounded. “Yo Mousse wait up” Ranma called to him. Mousse waited for him politely and made an oofing when he punched him in the stomach.

 

“What was that for?” he demanded.

 

“That I had to hear from Kodachi that you had lost your job and were planning to live on the streets rather then come stay with us” Ranma declared.

 

“It's true Mousse, you should have come to us” Akane said.

 

“Or to me, I could have given you a job you Jackass” Ukyou snarled. “It could have been the best of both worlds, Konatsu could have gotten the tips as people think he's a cute girl and you could have gotten the tips as a cute guy.”

 

“Why would you do that for me?” Mousse asked.

 

“Duh, we're your friend and we care about you” Ranma said rolling his eyes. Mousse felt overwhelmed at this. “We're sorry we were there for you, but with the wedding......”

 

“The honeymoon” Akane added.

 

“Then having to figure out what to do with all those wedding gifts.....” Ranma sighed.

 

“Now we see why people register” Akane finished. Mousse grinned that they were already finishing each other's sentences.

 

“Anyway we should have at least called you when we got the news about Shampoo” Ranma said. “We're sorry Mousse” he said softly.

“You look great if its any consultation” Akane added.

 

“Can you forgive us?” Ukyou said.

 

Mousse felt happy because he realized that he had friends “there's nothing to forgive” he said.

 

“Good let's go eat lunch” Ranma said draping an arm around him. Mousse laughed along while he described how he and Akane couldn't afford a honeymoon and she just happened to win one in a contest she didn't remember entering. He went on to describe the exclusive resort that only catered to the rich and famous and how they had been treated like royalty. Mousse had a good idea who had arranged this bogus prize, a girl whose eyes were so grey they were practically silver.