Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. This story based on the anime, not the manga.

Chapter 1: The Advent of Twilight

Ironically enough, it all began with a delivery of good news.

Nabiki paused on the threshold between the house and the yard, waiting for the chance to speak, and in the meantime enjoying the view. Ranma Saotome — future brother-in-law, continual source of interesting chaos, and all-around easy mark — was training. Some sort of speed-building exercise, unless Nabiki missed her guess… he had set up a reinforced, padded post in the middle of the yard, and was hitting it with quick, repetitive, low-power kicks.

Even as she watched, Ranma broke the rhythm of the attack, tensing just for a split second, and then lashing out so quickly his leg blurred. Nabiki frowned slightly, expecting the target to go flying and crash through the outer wall. Another unnecessary expense. Didn't these martial artists EVER think about practical things like that?

Whether Ranma had or hadn't must remain unknown. His flurry of kicks left the post still in place, if battered and leaning back at an angle, and himself putting all his weight on his other leg, gasping and panting for breath. And grinning. He'd only been working on this idea for a couple of days, and now, all by himself, he'd managed to achieve Amaguriken speed in something other than a punch. And in his natural, slower form to boot. 'Sure beats the old ghoul's training,' he thought smugly.

The sound of clapping hands drew him back to reality. Ranma turned to find Nabiki walking toward him, applauding and wearing a typical smirk. "Bravo, Saotome. Always nice to see you take one step further beyond what mere mortals can do."

"Hey, what can I say? There's a reason they call me the best," Ranma replied.

After spending a moment wondering idly who 'they' were, Nabiki said, "I was going to tell you something, but since you're in such a good mood, maybe I'd better not."

The sun chose that exact moment to hide behind a cloud, the fading of the light coinciding nicely with the dimming of Ranma's expression. He mumbled something along the lines of "shoulda seen it coming," then spoke a little louder. "Go on an' tell me, Nabiki. Whatever it is, I'd rather get it over with. Is Akane cookin' dinner tonight? Pop have a tussle with animal control again? Or maybe Kuno got another magic sword?"

"No, no, and no," Nabiki replied. She paused, enjoying the irony.

To Ranma, the cause of her hesitation seemed only too apparent. He sighed. "All right. How much?"

"I beg your pardon, Saotome?"

"How much yen you want for whatever bomb you're about to drop on me?"

Nabiki glanced over at the post that hadn't gone crashing through any of the Tendo property. "On the house, just this once."

Ranma paled. If Nabiki wasn't even trying to turn a profit on this, it could only mean… "That bad, huh?"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Ranma, you need to loosen up. You want to hear my news or not?"

"Yeah, I guess. Shoot."

Deciding to stretch the entertainment just a little more, Nabiki began creeping toward the point. "Have you noticed anything… different… these last couple of weeks?"

"Um, Ryoga hasn't been around?"

"He's typically gone for weeks at a time. Try again."

"Our fathers haven't come up with any stupid schemes to force me an' Akane together?"

Nabiki blinked. "Knew I'd been forgetting something." She held up a marriage license, which Ranma couldn't help but notice had had his signature and Akane's forged onto it, then struck a match and reduced it to ashes. "You can pay me for that later. That's not what I was talking about, anyway."

Ranma closed his eyes and massaged his temples, trying to fight off a burgeoning headache. "Would it be worth 200 yen for ya to just tell me outright?"

The middle Tendo nearly burst out laughing. He looked so pathetic. "Well, as much fun as this is, I do have other things to do this afternoon. Keep your pocket change, Saotome. It's Miss Kodachi Kuno, who hasn't been any trouble at all lately. Right?"

"Right," Ranma said warily. "You heard something about that?"

Nabiki nodded. "Seems her luck finally ran out. Kodachi's usual antics might not draw much attention here in Nerima, but the St Hebereke gymnastics team had a competition in greater Tokyo. Guess she never learned discretion is the better part of valor. I don't know what happened exactly, but it seems she's been placed in a mental hospital. So that's one less nutcase out of your hair and ours."

"B-but… that's… that's GOOD news!" Ranma protested.

"And why exactly are you protesting, Saotome?"

"You made it sound like you had something awful to tell me, and you didn't want to ruin my good mood!"

"Oh dear, Ranma, is that what you thought? I just meant that I was going to save the news for some time when you were feeling down, so that it would cheer you up."

A slow grin broke out on Ranma's face. "Well, heck, Nabiki, I guess you succeeded then.” He snorted. "Even if you had to manufacture my bad mood yourself."

"Always happy to be of service," Nabiki returned with a smirk.

Ranma's good mood lasted the rest of the day, and on into the next. In fact, he still had a smile on his face as he and Akane walked home from school the following afternoon.

"You seem happy about something," Akane finally commented.

"Took ya this long to notice? Jeez, you're unobservant." Before Akane's temper could flare, Ranma winked at her. "Just kidding. So Nabiki didn't tell you the good news?"

Akane hesitated on the edge of annoyance, but curiosity won out. "What good news?"

"Kodachi pulled some kinda stunt where she couldn't get away with it. She's been put in the loony bin. So no more sneak attacks, no more paralysis powder, no more laughter that'd give little kids nightmares!" With a satisfied grunt, Ranma leaped into the air, turning a somersault before landing on the fence. "You better believe I'm happy about that. Heck, if they manage to cure her, maybe when she gets out she'll throw her brother and father in to get fixed up too!"

"R-really?! Kodachi's… really gone?!" Akane said, shocked. And feeling more than a little off-balance, to have such a big change come so suddenly out of the blue.

"That's what Nabiki said. Maybe we oughta throw a party to celebrate or something." Ranma glanced down and behind him. “How come you're not smiling, Akane?" he asked, conveniently forgetting that his first reaction had been shock as well.

Akane frowned at him. He made it sound like there was something wrong with her. "For your information, I don't think it's very nice to celebrate somebody getting put in a mental hospital!"

"Jeez, that's a pretty stupid thing to say," Ranma replied with his usual measure of tact. "She needs it. I think it's a great thing to celebrate, that somebody's getting the help they need."

His fiancée's face flushed. "Ranma, you're such an insensitive jerk!"

"That don't change the fact that I'm right, though, now does it?" Ranma asked reasonably. His answer was a book bag to the face. He was knocked backward, barely managing to clamp the fence top between his feet and save himself from a tumble into the canal. "What was THAT for?!" he yelled once he'd recovered his balance.

Akane just gave an angry "Humph!", picked up her fallen book bag, and stalked away. Ranma followed after her at a discreet distance, rubbing the new bruise on his face and more than a little irritated, but with the good mood still present underneath it. It would take a lot more than Akane's usual temper tantrums to knock him out of that.

As it turned out, 'a lot more' was even that moment disembarking from a silver limousine outside the Tendo home.

When Akane came into view of the house some ten minutes later, she stopped and stared at the vehicle, pushing her annoyance at Ranma to the back of her mind. There were almost never any cars parked in front of her home. It usually only happened when certain city council members visited her father. Had she seen this one before? It looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't be sure. There had been that period during her middle school years when Tatewaki had been chauffeured to school in a series of limousines, and Akane couldn't be certain that wasn't what was causing this sense of familiarity.

"Whose car is that?" Ranma asked, walking up next to her.

"I don't know. I was thinking it looked familiar. Have you seen it before?"

Ranma gave the car a long searching glance, before shrugging. "I dunno."

Akane snorted. "Honestly, why did I even ask? Do you ever think of anything other than martial arts and food?"

"Hey, that's not…" Ranma's voice trailed off as the combination of food and martial arts triggered a memory. "Oh, crap. No, no, no…"He was still muttering "no's" under his breath as he pushed past Akane and hurried into the house. She followed, nearly running into him as he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

There were quite a number of people in the living room, including two figures that hadn't been seen for a long time. One was a short, portly man with incredibly large ears. He was seated back a little ways from everyone else, as if he were there more for silent support than to actually take part. Kasumi was there as well, her ever-cheerful smile an incongruous note among all the other expressions. Soun and Genma were also present; Akane's father seemed a little uncomfortable, but his main response to the visitors looked to be determined opposition. Genma was in panda form in one corner, playing inconspicuously with a tire. And the last occupant of the room…

"Hello, Ranma," Kaori Daikoku said calmly. "It's been a long time."

Only because he had been expecting this did Ranma recognize her. Her long brown hair, once straight, was now styled into curls. Previously he had only seen her wear an elaborate wedding kimono and her Martial Arts Takeout uniform. Here and now, she was dressed like an ordinary teenage girl, in a pleasant blouse and skirt combination.

Given the vibes Ranma was getting from this situation, she might as well have sported a set of combat fatigues.

"Kaori." He paused for a moment, as if to gather his strength, then asked, "Why're you here?"

"Because I made a mistake, a long time ago. I walked away when I shouldn't have." Kaori took a deep breath, steeling herself. Even for a determined, take-charge kind of girl like her, saying something like this so flatly was difficult. And she didn't suppose it was going to be all that easy for him, either, just having her reappear out of nowhere and immediately come out with this. Nevertheless, Kaori had thought long and hard, and had decided this was probably the best approach to take. Get the initial shock over with quickly, as when one jumps headlong into cold water. "You were promised to be my husband. My father and I are here now to see that promise made good."

Ranma gazed with disgust at the sweating panda in the corner, and didn't say anything. Akane spoke up. “Excuse me, but you lost the Martial Arts Takeout Race. You said you'd give up on Ranma if I beat you!"

Kaori shifted her gaze to Akane, who in spite of herself took a step backward. She’d never seen such a look of cold disgust and disdain. "I offered to stand aside because it looked like you had some feelings for Ranma. I already admitted I made a mistake. And I'm going to correct it."

"Young lady, the only 'mistake' was the one made by Genma, when he made that ridiculous agreement with your father! Akane is Ranma's rightful fiancée," Soun declared, for the third time since Kaori's arrival at his home. "You can't just walk in here and demand he leave with you!"

"I'm not demanding anything, Mr. Tendo. I'm offering."

"Offering?" Soun asked, confused. The panda in the corner pricked up its ears, misunderstanding where Kaori was going with this.

"Yes. Offering to Ranma an honorable way out of his situation here," Kaori returned flatly.

"That's ridiculous!" Soun blustered. "You make it sound as if he isn't happy to be here!"

Kaori shrugged. "Well, I suppose he could be… if he's a complete masochist." She turned to face her theoretical fiancé. "May I ask a personal question, Ranma?"

"Can't really stop you, I guess," Ranma grumbled uncharitably.

Kaori didn't seem phased by his attitude. After what she had recently learned, she had gone into this fully expecting to have her work cut out for her to earn his trust. "I notice there's a bruise on your face. Who gave it to you?"

A long moment of silence. Eventually Kaori ended it herself. “Was it the same person who usually hits you? Who punishes you whenever you do something she doesn't like?" She snapped her head around to face Akane again, though still supposedly speaking to Ranma. "Who once gave you a head injury that left you with amnesia?"

She looked away from the now-seething youngest Tendo, sweeping her gaze around the room. No one else tried to meet her eyes. "I guess that's answer enough. We'll be leaving now. Ranma, I'll see you in class tomorrow."

There was silence between Kaori and her father until they left the streets of Nerima behind them. At last, Tetsuro sighed and said, "It looks like you were right."

"Weren't you convinced before now, Father?"

"I had hoped it was mostly exaggeration. Most of what you heard came second- or thirdhand."

"But there was so much of it. You can't have that much smoke without some fire," Kaori said. "And the worst of it was from reliable sources."

"I'm still not too happy about how you broke into those offices to retrieve Ranma's medical records," her father protested weakly. Kaori gave him a glare, and he sighed in defeat. “I know, I know, with something this big the end justifies the means. But still…"

" 'But still' nothing! Ranma is my fiancé. I gave up before because I thought I didn't have a chance. You and I BOTH should have taken more time to check out the situation back then before we made any agreements. We would have saved ourselves dishonor and my fiancé a great deal of pain.

"And now that we know how things really are…" Kaori stared straight ahead, with determination burning in her eyes. "I won't give up again. And I most definitely will not lose."

The door to Ucchan's swung inward, and a familiar pigtailed figure trudged through.

It was still early afternoon, but the after-school rush had subsided by now. Only a handful of customers were present at the moment. Ranma made his way over and sat down at his usual seat in front of the grill. "Hey, Ucchan," he groaned.

"Hey yourself," Ukyo returned quietly, her usual welcoming smile missing as she gave her fiancé a good long look. No bruises, contusions, or lacerations to be seen (the one he'd received earlier had faded by now), but his expression and general demeanor made it clear that he wasn't feeling too happy. "Hard day?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Could I get a coupla house specials, please?"

"Coming right up." Ukyo turned to the grill and whipped out the requested okonomiyaki, passing each to Ranma as it was done.

Once he'd finished, Ranma sighed. "Thanks, Ucchan. Man, today started out so good, and then it went straight in the toilet."

This was hardly a surprise to Ukyo. It wasn't exactly uncommon, to have him come in here when the usual chaos had him feeling a bit down. "So what happened?"

Briefly Ranma wondered again whether this was such a good idea, telling Ukyo himself that another fiancée had appeared. He came to the same conclusion as before; she was going to find out anyway tomorrow, if Kaori really was going to be joining their class at Furinkan. Better he should explain this now, in a way that made sure Ukyo's anger would be focused on the right person. "Just another stupid mistake of Pop's."

Ukyo didn't say anything in response to this. After a minute Ranma resumed speaking. "Y'know, I was about five or six when he took me away from home for good, Ucchan. You an' I met not long after that. But before then, he took me on a lot of little trips, even one when I was still just a baby. And one day…"

He went on to tell the tale of Genma's 'deal' with Tetsuro Daikoku to marry him to Kaori, and the father-daughter duo's appearance a few months before Ukyo arrived in Nerima. How he'd used his girl form to keep Kaori from winning a Martial Arts Takeout race, which had forced them to leave Nerima again.

"Except now she's back," Ranma said glumly. "Came by the dojo and said she wasn't gonna give up this time. As if I needed any more junk like this in my life!"

"No, you've certainly got more than enough fiancées after you already, don't you, Ranchan?"

There was something a little odd about Ukyo's tone, but there was no way Ranma was going to catch subtle details like that in his current mood. "Yeah, you said it. Just when I was in a good mood about Kodachi getting out of the picture, too."

"So what're things like back at the Tendo place, now that this girl's showed up again?"

Ranma made the face of one who bites into a lemon in the dark, thinking it to be a tangerine. "Don't ask. Y'know, there's a reason I'm not there right now."

"You've really had a rough day, haven't you?" Ukyo turned back to the grill and began cooking another okonomiyaki, a jumbo-sized one with plenty of extra toppings. "Have another okonomiyaki."

"Thanks, Ucchan. You're the best," Ranma said.

Ukyo watched quietly as he ate. Once he'd finished, she spoke up. "You know, Ranchan, this Kaori person doesn't have to be a problem."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean there's a real simple way you could get her to leave you alone. It wouldn't solve all your problems, but it'd help with some others too."

A note of wariness entering his voice, Ranma asked, "What's that?"

Ukyo stared him straight in the eyes. The fact that she hadn't smiled once during his visit finally registered in some dim corner of his mind. She took a deep breath, and said, "Choose. All you have to do is say which fiancée you want to be with. You make that choice and mean it, and the others will have to give up. Maybe not right that instant, but you show them you mean it, and they won't hang on forever."

Ranma massaged his forehead with both hands, politely hiding a grimace of weariness. "I kinda doubt it'd work out that smoothly, Ucchan. But guess maybe I should take some time and think about it." He got up. "Tendo's have probably cooled down enough for me to head back now. See ya in class tomorrow."

"Sit. Down."

The tone of absolute command had him back on his stool and blinking in shock. There was a long moment of near-silence, broken only by the hushed movements of Ukyo's remaining few customers as they slipped quietly out the door. One considerate regular flipped the sign from 'open' to 'closed' behind him.

"How many times, Ranma?" Ukyo said at last. "How many times have you come here, scarfed down a free meal while I listened to your troubles, and then, when you were feeling better, you headed on back to the Tendo dojo?"

She actually seemed to be waiting for an answer. Eventually Ranma said, "Wha—"

"Too damn many!" Ukyo interrupted. "Do you think I like this, Ranchan? You think this is fun for me, staying here, being there for you when you need me, and when you don't you go waltzing back to the people who hurt you in the first place?! The people who use you and dump on you and treat you like crap?!"

"It ain't like that!" Ranma protested.

"The HELL it's not!! You know what your problem is?! You grew up with Genma, so you think this junk is no big deal! Well, let me tell you, Ranma, everybody has their limits. Even you. You keep putting up with all the garbage in your life, and thinking it's no problem, you're a tough guy, a man among men, you can handle it. But sooner or later everything's going to blow up in your face. Nobody can keep going forever without getting support from other people!"

"I'm telling you it ain't like that!"

Ranma's outburst heralded another uncomfortable moment of silence, as Ukyo seemed to struggle with herself, trying to decide whether to say something or hold it back. The battle was short-lived.

"No, it really isn't, is it, Ranma? You do have some people who prop you up, tell you it's okay, that they care about you." Ukyo's words came quickly now, and harshly. "You come by and I do everything I can to make you feel better, hell, feel loved, and when you do, when you've dumped all your troubles on me, you go right back to that DAMN BITCH AKANE TENDO!!"

"That's ENOUGH, Ukyo!" Ranma yelled, but his outrage faltered and died in the face of Ukyo's fury.

"It is NOT enough! Do you know how tired I am of getting pushed into the background? Of giving and giving for you, while she takes and takes and TAKES?! Of watching, while you fight for her and she calls you a pervert, while you and EVERYBODY treat her like a precious little princess that can't ever be disappointed or not get her way? Do you know how much this hurts, Ranma?!

"You remember that swim meet last year? I'm a great swimmer. I wanted to represent our class. But then Akane, who CAN'T EVEN FLOAT, butts in, and I'm pushed completely out of the picture. You jump in and try to teach Her Majesty how to swim, and when she fails, you figure out a way for her to cheat her way to victory! And I just had to put on my cute face and pretend like it didn't matter.

"Well, it mattered, Ranma. It mattered a LOT!!"

Ukyo's anger ran out then, leaving her trembling and drawing ragged breaths." 'No man is an island.' I remember that from some English class. You've got people supporting you, but you almost never give back. There’s nobody there for me when I need someone. And I… I can't take it anymore."

She gulped. "Ranma… I… I l-love you." Even now, it was hard to say. "But I'm not going to throw my life away for nothing. I'm not going to keep being a free ear and a free meal to you unless we're on the same page. I want you to go now. And don't come back unti—" She stopped herself, then deliberately said, "unless you're ready to say our engagement is for real."

Ranma opened his mouth to protest, though he had no clue what he was going to say. "GO!" Ukyo cried, losing most of what remained of her composure. It was clear that the storm of tears was not far off.

He took the action that came naturally to a Saotome male, and fled.

The afternoon sun had nearly sunk below the horizon. What light remained was blood-red, and woven through with long shadows. The streets weren't far from empty; what few pedestrians were there, were mostly hurrying back to their houses and apartments, perhaps for a home-cooked meal and the comforts of light, warmth, and company, perhaps to shower and change clothes before leaving again for a dinner date.

This hour marked a short interval of peace for many places in Nerima. Take, for example, the various parks. In daylight there would be plenty of visitors to enjoy these oases of green in the middle of the concrete sprawl. During the later evening hours, numerous couples would come in search of different commodities, such as privacy and seclusion. But for now, the grounds were silent, except for the sound of the wind through leaves.

In all but one park, anyway.

In the fading light, a casual observer would have blinked hard and rubbed his eyes, unsure of how many people he was actually watching. In point of fact there was only one to be seen, a young man in black pants and a Chinese shirt the color of the sunset, with dark hair bound into a pigtail that was all but invisible in the gloom. The young man in question was dancing through the shadows, warding off blows and returning his own to opponents that existed only in his mind's eye. But so convincing were his motions that the hypothetical observer might almost have imagined he or she did see a procession of faceless figures dancing with the one artist of flesh and bone, now striking, now defending, but never with quite enough grace to match his.

Though he moved with such control and fluidity, one glance at Ranma's face would be enough to dispel any illusion of tranquility or joy. There was an unusually hard cast to his features; his mouth was set in a bitter grimace, and his eyes were suspiciously bright in the dimness. He'd been training for quite a long time. It had been enough to keep the thoughts at bay, at first, but they were sneaking back now to the front of his awareness.

'Guess I always knew this was comin' some day.' A spin kick deflected the blade of an opponent's bokken, and the follow-up punch struck the target squarely in its face. 'Same thing I've seen over and over.' Bending like a reed in the wind allowed a blow from a sai to pass harmlessly by him. 'I'm Ranma Saotome, after all.' An elbow struck the solar plexus of the foe behind him, who was off-balance from the failed sai-strike. 'I can get all the fiancées I want.' He launched into a fierce whirl of Amaguriken-speed kicks, demolishing the remaining attackers. Gasping and panting, Ranma came to a halt near a large tree. He leaned against it for a moment, then sank slowly down to sit on the ground with the trunk supporting his back. Finally, in a whisper, he completed the thought out loud: "Just not friends."

He closed his eyes and sat there, as the shades of night lengthened around him. What he should have said to Ukyo, what he would have liked to have said, what he never could have thought to say in the stress of the moment… all these things danced through his mind.

"You aren't bein' fair, Ucchan," he muttered to the wind. "Did you ever ask me what I wanted? Ever stop and think I may not want a fiancée just yet? Ever wonder if I might not be ready for that kinda stuff? Growin' up on the road, with just Pop for company… how come none of ya ever think about what that means? I don't know how to deal with all this stuff! I just keep going along and hopin' I can find a way to work it out without hurting anybody."

He gave a shuddering sigh. "All I want right now is some friends. Is that too much to ask for?" No reply from the twilight. He answered his own question. "Sure looks like it. All the guys wanna kick my head in and the girls want to drag me to the altar.

"And you wonder why I'd rather put up with Akane's violence." Ranma shook his head, more angry than hurt for this moment. "I don't appreciate that junk you said today, Ucchan. Sure she hits me and calls me stupid names, and no, I don't like it, but at least she don't try to control me. Akane's the only one outta the whole lot of you who isn't trying to force me into something I'm not ready for."

Ranma fell silent then, brooding. A stray thought did tickle the corners of his mind… ~does she ask you what you want?~ He pushed it aside as irrelevant. Saying those things out loud had let out enough of the anger that his deeper feelings of hurt had taken the foreground again.

He didn't want to… but he remembered. Remembered again the carefree days he'd had with Ukyo, back when they were six years old and he didn't have a clue about the gender difference. The memories came more clearly now than they had in a long time. Rough-and-tumble games of tag under the bright sunlight. The delicious taste of a well-made okonomiyaki—some of the best food he could remember eating during the whole decade-long training trip. The frustration and triumph of dealing with the Gambling King. That debacle with her secret sauce… he hurriedly pushed his way past those images.

"That's what I wanted to hold onto, you know," he muttered bitterly. "I wanted a friend, not another fiancée. Don't try and make me feel guilty about that. I’m already feeling bad enough as it is. Didn’t want to lose my buddy Ucchan today, that's for sure."

He sat quietly for a time. At last, Ranma got up, and began making his way through the shadow-drenched trees. “Maybe it won't be that bad," he muttered. "I've never seen her anywhere near that pushy over the whole engagement thing. Maybe she was just in a bad mood or something, and hearin' about another fiancée showing up kinda pushed her over the edge. Maybe if I give her a little time to cool off, she'll go back to normal. Heck, maybe she'll even come and apologize to me."

Feeling a little better now, and resolving to let Ukyo make the next move (surely after she'd had some time to think about it and start missing him, she'd realize how unfair all those things she'd said were), he jumped the park fence, landing in the welcome glow of a streetlight, and began the walk toward the Tendo home.

Considering how little Ranma was looking forward to school the next day, it might seem surprising that he and Akane arrived there earlier than usual. However, there are reasons behind even the most seemingly-improbable of events. In this particular case, Kasumi had taken a moment to wake Ranma up herself, rather than entrust the task to Akane. She might prefer to turn an oblivious eye to the typical chaos in the household, but she wasn't that blind. Ranma didn't deserve to have to deal with little sister's current mood first thing in the morning.

And so Ranma had woken up early, earlier than he ever did on days when he and Genma didn't have morning practice. Breakfast had been a quick and silent affair. Genma and Soun had spent the evening drowning their woes over Kaori's return, and Ranma's father was now too hung-over even to attempt a 'speed training' duel over the contents of their plates.

The earliness of the start toward Furinkan was then compounded by the actual walk. Or perhaps the 'stalk' might be a better word. No words were exchanged between Akane and Ranma… the former hurried along at a speed that suggested she would rather leave her companion behind; the latter kept pace easily enough, but maintained a healthy distance between them. And with no random transformations to slow Ranma down, the long and short of it was they both arrived at Furinkan with more time to spare than ever before.

Kaori had still managed to beat them there, however. She was waiting in front of the main doors.

Ranma glanced upward toward his classroom. Just his luck that none of the windows were open yet. Akane had stopped on seeing the other girl, and was now standing still and glowering at her. Ranma slipped past the youngest Tendo, and focused his eyes straight on the door. Maybe if he didn't make eye contact now, Kaori might let it go for the moment.

"Good morning, Ranma," Kaori said, giving him a smile. Not a sultry look, not a devious smirk, not a challenging grin… just a friendly, welcoming, maybe even understated smile.

"Kaori," he sighed. "So you meant it about transferring to Furinkan."

She inclined her head. "Of course I did."

"Excuse me," Akane said acidly, walking forward again, pushing past Ranma and heading toward the school. "Some of us might not want to be late to class. Why don't I just leave you two alone."

"Hey, I don't wanna get stuck on bucket duty either!" Ranma exclaimed, seizing onto the excuse.

"Wait, Ranma. Please? This won't take long," Kaori said before he could take more than a couple of steps. “The first bell hasn't even rung yet. You won't be late."

"What is it?" he asked resignedly.

Kaori sent a cool gaze flickering toward Akane, who had stopped as well and was watching the exchange. Then she returned her attention to Ranma. "I just wanted to say, I know you have to deal with a lot of stress here." The nurse's records she'd 'retrieved' from the Furinkan office had made that fairly clear. "I don't know what kind of strange place this is." The Hawaiian setup, complete with trained guard crabs and booby-trapped coconuts, had been an unwelcome shock during her nocturnal raid on the school. "But I'll try not to cause any trouble for you."

She was still far from happy, but the edge of Akane's anger had been blunted. She and Ranma were now walking homeward from a day that hadn't been nearly as bad as Akane had expected. True, Kaori did manage to worm her way into class with Ranma, but the Martial Arts Takeout girl had been assigned an empty seat clear on the other side of the classroom. Akane smiled thinly. Right next to a couple of incorrigible chatterbox girls, in fact. Watching Miss Hinako get fed up and drain them, incidentally catching Kaori in the wake of her technique, had given Akane quite a bit of guilty satisfaction. She'd never expected to be GLAD the principal had moved Miss Hinako up to keep pace with Ranma when he and Akane had entered their second year.

There had been one other pleasant surprise as well. Akane knew Ranma had gone to Ukyo the prior day, and told her about Kaori. She had expected that today the chef would be all over her fiancé, clinging to him and plying him with her stupid oh-so-delicious okonomiyaki. She'd been looking for a few cutting remarks to be tossed her way as well, about how much better off Ranma honey would be away from the Tendo dojo.

None of that had happened, though. Ukyo had stayed well away, not even making eye contact with Ranma as far as Akane had noticed. One less thing to stress her out. Add that to the fact that Ranma hadn't tried to flirt with Kaori at all so far, and her temper was actually getting pretty close to cooling down completely.

She risked a glance toward Ranma. He was looking down at the pavement, rather sullenly too, she thought. It didn't look like he was feeling all that great himself. After hesitating for a moment, Akane said, "R-Ranma." She heard the catch in her voice and mentally winced. 'Honestly! Like I've got any reason to be nervous!' However, Ranma didn't seem to have noticed. Feeling thankful, Akane swallowed, then spoke again, louder and more steadily. "Ranma."

The youngest Tendo frowned as her fiancé just continued to trudge along. That he hadn't noticed the first time was grounds for relief. Ignoring her this time was not. "Hey, dummy!" she said, her voice rising to just below a shout.

"What is it, tomboy?!" Ranma snapped, his attention successfully caught.

"Well, EXCUSE ME!" Akane returned as the wind breathed new life into the embers of her recent anger. "Just because you're in a bad mood, don't take it out on me!"

"Jeez, if that ain't a case of the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is," Ranma grumbled. "You'd be in a bad mood too if your oldest friend ditched you yesterday and ignored you all day at school today!"

"What's that supposed to…" Akane's mouth closed into a grim line. "This is about Ukyo, isn't it!"

"What d'you care anyway?" Ranma said unhappily.

"You jerk! I can't believe this! You're down in the dumps because your cute fiancée wasn't all over you today?!"

"Look, I never asked for this!" Ranma yelled back at her. "You wanna know what happened at Ucchan's yesterday, Akane? Huh?! I told her about Kaori, and the next thing you know she's tellin' me she's sick an' tired of waitin' around, and not to come back there until I'm ready to 'take the engagement seriously'!"

"Oh, and I'm sure that was just terrible news… Oh, wait, that would mean you'd have to quit freeloading off us, and give up on Shampoo, and Kodachi, and Kaori too! Oh Ranma, you really did have a bad day!"

"DAMMIT!" Ranma roared. "She's my FRIEND, Akane! I ain't got too many of those, in case you hadn't noticed! Am I not supposed to have any others than you?! Huh?! Is that it?!"

"RANMA, YOU—What did you just say?!" Akane asked, her eyes bugging out comically.

"What, are you deaf too? I asked if you think I'm not allowed ta have any other friends than you!"

"But… I… you… that is… really… you…" The fact that she was babbling inanely registered. Akane clamped her mouth shut and just stared at Ranma, who for his part was beginning to feel anxiety dilute his unhappiness. What was the big deal with Akane now?

Did he mean that? The thought whirled dizzyingly through Akane's mind. 'He… he said it so plainly… like it wasn't any big deal at all. Doesn't he know… how much time I spend wondering if he even cares…'At that point her self-deception filters kicked in, forcibly shunting her train of thought onto a slightly different track. 'He really does think of Ukyo like a friend. And she wouldn't be that for him…'

Akane gulped. "Ranma… I'm sorry."

He blinked, and then blinked again. "What'd you say?"

"I said I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had a bad day. I'm sorry I was yelling at you. I'm sorry Ukyo hurt your feelings." That last statement was true, even if part of Akane was also smiling broadly over just what the chef had done, and what Ranma hadn't.

"Go on," Ranma prompted her as she fell silent.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Akane gave him a hurt look. Here she was trying to apologize and everything!

"You left something out. Ain'tcha also sorry about Kaori showing up to cause me more trouble?"

She actually giggled. "That too. But I didn't want to list all the fiancées. I mean, we'd be here all day!"

Ranma sighed at the reminder. "Y'know, I really wish you weren't right."

Only sympathy was in Akane's eyes now as she looked at Ranma. He really was feeling down about all this stuff. 'Well, I'll do something about that. What are friends for?' And if there was a false note in that last clause of thought, Akane's self-deception filters strained it out before it reached her conscious mind. "Cheer up, Ranma." For a moment she hesitated, wondering whether she should say the next part now, or leave it as a surprise. Then she realized… she wanted to make him feel better right away. "I'll cook something really good for you tonight. What would you like me to make?"

That's the trouble with self-deception filters. In the long run, they do more harm than good.

Ranma paled, twitched, and searched desperately for an excuse. "Ah… ah… no, Akane, don't waste your time like that! I'm not gonna have any appetite tonight. So you shouldn't cook. I mean, you REALLY shouldn't cook."

Some things no amount of self-deception can block. Akane's face flushed, and her hands clenched into fists… and then she deflated. 'He may be a jerk, but he's a jerk who's in a bad mood. And… he's my friend…' With a significantly greater measure of wisdom than she usually managed, Akane realized, 'I need to do what he would want, if I want him to feel better.' The wisdom blew a fuse. 'I'm sure I could cook him a great meal,' the fuse was replaced, 'but he'll feel better now if Kasumi's going to be the one doing it.'

Aloud, she said, "Okay, Ranma. Tell you what. I'll ask Kasumi to make sukiyaki tonight. That's one of your favorites, isn't it? Think that'll bring back your appetite?"

Shock at her reaction succeeded in washing Ranma's unhappiness completely away.

A week passed, relatively quietly.

Akane had to admit, she was surprised that Kaori kept her word. The Martial Arts Takeout girl didn't cause any trouble for Ranma at school, and that was the only time they saw her. More often than not, she would find some excuse during the day to talk to him for a few minutes, and that was aggravating, and one day she offered to share her lunch, but she didn't act like it was a big deal when Ranma wormed his way out of it. Still, Akane couldn't shake the feeling that the other girl was just biding her time.

Kasumi glanced over, giving Akane a cheerful smile as her younger sister entered the kitchen. "Good afternoon, Akane."

"Hello, Kasumi." Akane glanced around the kitchen. "Um, you haven't started dinner yet, have you? Is it too late to ask you to make something in particular tonight?"

The oldest Tendo daughter's smile widened. There had been several days last week when Akane had asked for Kasumi to fix some food Ranma particularly liked for dinner. It was so nice, seeing her little sister do something so kind and thoughtful for her fiancé, instead of giving him food poisoning and reducing Kasumi's kitchen to a war zone!

This was the first time this week that Akane had made one of these requests, though. Kasumi supposed that whatever had put the slight grimace of unhappiness on her sister's face must also have made for a hard day for Ranma. Well, she would be happy to cook a dinner that would cheer both of them up. "Of course not, Akane. What would you like me to prepare?"

"I was thinking seven-herb lasagna, with garlic bread."

Kasumi frowned faintly. "Oh my. I don't believe Ranma cares for that dish very much, little sister."

"I kn— I mean, oh, really?" Akane covered her initial reaction with a ruse that wouldn't fool a two-year-old. "Well… I'm really in the mood for Italian food tonight, Kasumi. Could you fix it anyway? I'm sure Ranma won't mind." She didn't want to yell at him, and she wasn't going to hit him. Having something he didn't like for dinner was the least he deserved, as far as Akane was concerned.

"All right. Seven-herb lasagna it is, then." Kasumi walked over to a counter, retrieving a pencil and a pad of paper. She tore a sheet from the latter and began to write. "Where is Ranma, anyway?" she wondered absently.

Akane flushed, glad her sister wasn't looking her way. "He had some studying to do," she grumbled. 'Honestly, I can't believe him! How could he buy into that lame excuse Kaori gave him?! 'Oh, Ranma, if it weren't for you I wouldn't be here at Furinkan in the first place! You have to help me get caught up in class! 'Humph. Serves her right if Ranma's 'help' earns her an 'F' anyway,' Akane thought grumpily.

"Oh. I thought he might have gone by Ukyo's after school," Kasumi said.

Akane wondered for a moment whether her sister had upped her dosage of happy pills or something. "Um, no, Kasumi, remember I told you that Ukyo dumped him?"

"I remember," Kasumi said, somehow managing to sound both sweet and grave at the same time. "I just thought Ranma might have tried to make it up to her, at least as a friend. I’m sure he wasn't happy to have her walk right out of his life like that. Even if they did want two different things."

Akane shrugged. "He's getting over it." Ranma still seemed pained at the way Ukyo continued to ignore him, but unlike that business with Shampoo and the Reversal Jewel, he hadn't done anything stupid to try to win her back. A BIG plus in Akane's book. "Besides, it's not like he's really missing anything. One fiancée finally gives up, big deal. Another showed up even before it could happen."

"I see." Kasumi filled her current sheet of paper and moved onto the next. "Poor Ranma."

"Oh, like he doesn't get a kick out of embarrassing me anyway," Akane muttered under her breath. She glowered in silence for another minute or so, then said louder, "Thanks for making that tonight, Kasumi. I'll see you later—I'm going over to Sayuri's house for the afternoon."

"Oh, wait, Akane. I need you to go to the market and pick up some things for dinner."

Akane turned back around and walked over. "Oh. Okay, big sister. What things?"

Kasumi handed her several sheets of paper covered with her neat, meticulous handwriting. "Here. You might have some trouble finding some of these ingredients, so I've listed directions to various stalls that should have them. The vendors know me by name, so if you tell them you're my sister you should be able to haggle your way to a good price.

"Mrs. Hanabi keeps the best general selection for many of the herbs, but don't try to bargain with her until after you've listened to her talk about her grandchildren for a few minutes. Mr. Fujiwara has the best mushrooms you can find in our market, but if you let him he'll spend an hour trying to convince you to use shiitake instead of portobellos. The best way to handle him is to say you'd really like to try the recipe both ways, to see for yourself, but you can't afford it. He'll give you the shiitake mushrooms for free, and you can trade them at your next stop to Mrs. Onamura for the ricotta…"

Akane listened dazedly, fighting a feeling of dizziness, and wondered whether it was too late to forget about this and just let Ranma's irritating behavior slide.

Shinji leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and tried to let the smooth motion of the bullet train relax him. It would be a long time before the train arrived at his station… better to pass that interval in a nap, if he could. However, he was only able to hold out for a minute before one eyelid lifted, just enough to permit vision, and his rogue eyeball shifted, just enough to catch sight of a certain reflection in the window beside him.

A girl was seated not too far away, a couple of rows behind Shinji and on the opposite side of the train car. It seemed a little odd to him that she would have taken the aisle seat and left the one next to the window vacant, but since her position made it possible to study her reflection, he wasn't complaining at all. The train was currently passing through the darkness of a tunnel, and so the window served to reflect a clear image of her face. She had the look of a proud beauty, with striking features that made Shinji think of a warrior-princess he'd seen in an anime not too long ago. From his current vantage point, he could see only the smallest portion of her hair, but from the earlier episode when she'd left her seat and walked to another car of the train, Shinji knew it trailed all the way down her back in a glorious mane of purple. And when she'd returned to her seat, carrying a steaming cup of tea, he'd gotten quite a nice look at some very appealing curves.

She was clearly a gaijin, Chinese specifically unless he missed his guess, but Shinji didn't come from a particularly traditional family. He would be quite content to while away the time chatting with a pretty girl of any nationality. The only reason he hesitated now was a certain wariness, a sense that this girl might be a little bit more than he was capable of handling.

Abandoning any pretense of disinterest, he studied the reflection more closely. On further scrutiny, it seemed as if there was a hint of a smile on the girl's lips, a softness to the gleam in her eyes that he hadn't noticed before. Still a proud beauty, no question about that, but perhaps not so unapproachable as he had first thought.

As is often the case with teenage boys, it was his hormones that ultimately made the decision.

Shinji got to his feet, and crossed the distance between himself and the girl. As he arrived next to her, he noticed that she had apparently put some sort of vaguely horrible-looking mannequin in the seat next to her. Perhaps it was something conceived along the lines of a Western scarecrow, he mused, except designed to frighten away demons and evil spirits. Certainly it looked grim enough for that. Turning his eyes back to more appealing sights, Shinji cleared his throat, hoping to start a pleasant conversation with the finest babe he'd seen in a month.

It's generally not a good idea to interrupt Cologne when she is meditating. The Matriarch's eyes snapped open, and she turned to face the interloper with a scowl. "Did you want something, sonny boy?" she asked in an ominous tone.

Shinji turned and fled. But at least he didn't run screaming.

"Same as all the rest of perverted Japanese boys," Shampoo muttered. "Shampoo think Airen is only real man in whole country." The hints of softness that had so erroneously encouraged Shinji became more pronounced. "Wonder how much he miss Shampoo while we gone these weeks?"

Her great-grandmother didn't reply, having already closed her eyes once more. Shampoo answered the question in the privacy of her own mind. 'If he have to eat violent pervert girl's cooking much while Shampoo not around to save him, Airen probably be very glad to see me come back.' She smiled, a grin that tried to be secretive, yet had pride leaking out around the edges. 'Wonder what he think of surprise Shampoo have for him.'

She looked down at her hands, folded in her lap. They had always been the hands of a warrior, slim and feminine to be sure, but strong and capable, with the calluses that were an inevitable result of a lifetime of dedicated training. Only Shampoo herself could make out the difference now—a few extra scars, tiny ones here and there, nothing noticeable. Certainly nothing disfiguring.

Nothing at all to indicate to a casual observer that she'd spent two weeks thrusting her hands into an open fire, trying desperately to grab roasting chestnuts before she herself was cooked.

'Hope you be proud, Airen. One thing for sure… you know who is real warrior, out of girls after you heart. Is not spatula girl. Is for sure not violent pervert what think best way to win is cheat with super-strength noodle. Is Amazon who not afraid to shed blood and sweat and tears, learn new things, keep challenging self as warrior.'

Shampoo thought back to the training her beloved had undergone to learn the Chestnut Fist. She smiled again, a gentle, rebuking look directed to the still-distant object of her affections, as she remembered the stress poor Ranma had suffered. Admittedly, he (or was that she?) had learned the move more quickly than Shampoo had. But as Shampoo thought back to the trials the Matriarch had inflicted upon Ranma, and compared them to her own recent memories of her great-grandmother soothing her burns with a special Amazon medicinal balm, she knew which path to mastery she would rather take. "One of these days, Airen, you realize just how much Great-Grandmother already do for you," she whispered. “Someday you even see how much better would be, to come willing and with respect. Shampoo hope is soon."

By the time they'd walked three-quarters of the way home from school, in silence, and without Akane ever looking his way, even Ranma was able to catch a clue that something might be wrong. 'Why's she givin' me this silent treatment?' he wondered. 'I haven't done anything to tick her off, have I?' He thought back over the day. He was just about certain he hadn't said anything insulting, and he hadn't fought anyone, not even Kuno, so it wasn't like she could be mad at him for 'bullying the weak'. 'Maybe she ain't mad at me, though. Maybe she's just worried about something.'

Rather than ponder it any longer, Ranma took his usual direct approach to a problem. He'd been walking a few paces to one side and a little behind Akane. Ranma picked up his pace, moving in front, turned to face her, and stopped, studying her expression. Not very conclusive, he decided—she didn't look like she was happy, but it wasn't the angry face he'd seen so many times either. "Yo, Akane, what's wrong?"

" 'What's wrong?' Why should anything be wrong?" Akane asked, in a tone that even Ranma recognized as sarcastic.

"Well, you haven't said a word to me or even looked my way this whole time. It’s almost like you're mad at me or something. Which wouldn't be all that unusual except for the fact that I ain't done anything lately."

"Oh, no, of course you haven't done anything, nothing at ALL to hurt my feelings, right Ranma? Why would it bother me how you're spending all this time on your stupid study dates with your cute new fiancée Kaori?" The same girl that had as good as called her a murderess in training. And did her fiancé stick up for her? 'Hah! They probably spend half their time with her talking bad about me, and him thanking her for being so nice and cute and sweet and a good cook!'

Well, at least now he knew what the problem was. It was just Akane getting the wrong idea about him and another girl. Like he wasn't familiar with that song and dance. "Jeez, Akane, usually whenever you start blamin' me for something I didn't even do, you're at least HALF right. Like, when Shampoo tries to get me to go on a date with her, at least there's SOMEONE trying to get the thing going that ticked you off." He snorted. "This time you ain't even got that much right. I've met with her three times, and all we do is go over stupid school stuff. Even a tomboy like you shouldn't get jealous of a date," he rolled his eyes as he said the last word, "like that."

"Do you really think I'm that stupid, Ranma?!" Akane demanded. "Well, I've got news for you. I'm not dumb enough to believe she'd go to the worst student in the school to help her! If you're going to lie to my face about how innocent this all is, you could at least try and think up a better story."

"Man, is there EVER a time you could jump to a conclusion, and you don't?" Ranma complained. "I know I ain't the greatest at all that school stuff, Akane. Thanks for throwin' it back in my face, by the way. And yeah, Kaori did figure that out the first time we met. Now she's the one helping me," he made a face, "whether I like it or not. She made me promise to keep meeting with her so she could try to help me get my grades up. Why everybody and their dog seems to know I never skip out on a promise is more than I can figure.” That last was said in a grumbling undertone. "And how every girl I meet knows I'm gonna cave in if she looks like she's gonna cry is another thing I'd like to find out someday."

"Ranma, this is so stupid," Akane said bitterly, more hurt now than angry. “She came over to our house and said to your face that she came back to go through with the engagement. And now you're going off and meeting with her in private, and you're trying to make it look like it's nothing more than just an innocent study session?! I'm not that dumb, Ranma, and I don't think you are either."

"ARRGH!" Ranma threw up his hands in frustration. “For cryin' out loud, Akane, which one of us has had girls throwin' themselves at him for the last year? I think I should be able to recognize it by now! She don't flirt with me, she isn't trying to get me to do romantic stuff with her, she hasn't said ONE WORD about the engagement, heck, she ain't even offered to cook for me! She's acting as different from Shampoo as YOU do!"

Akane started to say something in response to this, but Ranma didn't hear it. His attention had been riveted by an unexpected sound. Unexpected because his keen senses had pinned it as coming from the supposedly-empty air fifty feet behind and forty feet above him.

By the time Shampoo had opened her eyes from the sneeze, Ranma had already whirled and caught sight of her. This was more warning than he usually got. All too often, Shampoo would descend from the heavens like a Valkyrie who'd traded in her warhorse for a bicycle, and his first warning would be the actual shock of impact. Here and now, though, Ranma had just enough time to spring backward into the air.

It was a purely reflex action, rather than one made through conscious thought. Even as he left the ground, his tactical sense picked up on an anomaly. Namely, the path of Shampoo's descent would have brought her to a landing several feet behind him, rather than on top of him. “Maybe the sneeze threw her aim off," he muttered.

Even Ranma is fully capable of misjudging someone else's plan of attack. His evasive tactics actually helped Shampoo. The amorous airborne Amazon gave a big smile and pushed away from her bike, using it as the leverage she needed to initiate a jump directly toward her Airen. The bicycle smashed into the ground with tremendous force, leaving an impressive crater in the street yet somehow remaining unharmed. Meanwhile, its mistress sailed directly toward her beloved.

Ranma would easily have been skilled enough to knock Shampoo away with a punch or kick, but one might as well talk about Ryoga seducing Akane. As she neared him, eyes gleaming, arms spread wide for a welcoming hug, the most he could do was shoot out one hand, intending to brace his palm against the top of her head and pivot himself harmlessly around her. His eyes widened dramatically when Shampoo's own hand whipped round, catching his wrist, pulling herself to him, and gleefully locking her arms around his torso.

Now, in addition to the usual confusing ways Shampoo's full-body embraces made him feel, Ranma was also shooting completely uncontrolled through the air. He closed his eyes and braced himself, not looking forward to the moment when he'd be the one absorbing the impact for both of them.

The pavement approached… there was a confused whirling moment of dizziness… and they landed, upright, Shampoo touching down feet-first on the street, bracing herself to take the impact. If Ranma had had his eyes open, he might have at least reacted in time to keep the jolt from lodging his head in her cleavage. Probably not, though… his track record with things like that wasn't very good.

"Aiyah! Husband must really have missed Shampoo to give greeting like this!" the Amazon teased.

Ranma extracted himself and staggered backward. "Hey, Shampoo, how's it going?" he asked, with more than a hint of resignation in his tone. Was there even a point to protesting? he wondered. No. It would just be a waste of breath. "Haven't seen you for a while."

"Shampoo miss you while gone, Airen, very much." She winked at him. "Want to come over to Cat Café tonight for all you can eat free dinner? Shampoo fix all you favorite foods."

"Excuse me." Akane's tone could have flash-frozen mercury. “I’m sure I don't mind if you go off and spend the evening with Shampoo, Ranma. But don't you think your fiancée Kaori might be a little hurt?"

Shampoo's bubbly good humor waned noticeably. She looked from Ranma to Akane, then back to Ranma. "What she talking about, Airen?"

"Oh, it's nothing important, Shampoo," Akane replied before Ranma could say anything. "Just another fiancée showed up while you were gone, that's all. Her name's Kaori Daikoku, and her family owns a whole chain of restaurants. How many times have you two gone out this week, Ranma? It was three, wasn't it? Kaori sure moves fast," she said in an utterly false tone of sweetness and light. "Well, what business is it of mine anyway? Have a good time, you two." This last was more growled than spoken, as Akane turned and stalked away. But at least the anger kept her from feeling the hurt.

"Okay, Airen, Shampoo hear that from violent girl. Now what is real story?" The Amazon pitched her voice loud enough that Akane couldn't possibly miss it. Heck, people in adjacent buildings probably heard.

"It ain't like that, that's for sure!" Ranma said vehemently. "It's another one of those stupid promises my old man made when I was a little kid and we were wandering around on a training journey. He was hungry, and agreed to engage me to this guy's daughter if the guy gave him a meal. Then he skipped out with me and hoped he'd never see them again."

Shampoo snorted so fiercely that the long tassels of her hair flopped an inch away from her chest. "She think she can walk in now and expect to get husband like you, for stupid little price paid of one meal to panda father?! Is insult to good man like Airen." She gave him a piercing stare. "And what violent girl say about dates, where she get that wrong?"

"Huh. Those so-called 'dates' are just her helping me with my schoolwork. Which I don't even want anyway, but she kinda made me promise to go along with it."

The Amazon was smiling cheerfully again. "So she insult worth of Airen AND she waste you time. No worry, Ranma, Shampoo know you not like to hit girls. I go and take care of this one for you."

"Thanks, Shampoo, I… What! No, you can't do that!" Ranma protested.

"Why not?" The dangerous gleam was back in Shampoo's eye. "You say she nothing to you, right?"

"That's kinda the POINT, Shampoo! She ain't tried to get me on a date or nothing. She hasn't caused me any trouble at all yet!" Not counting Akane's reaction, but Ranma was sure she'd have found something else to misunderstand if Kaori hadn't been there. "And you know, not liking to hit girls kinda means I don't want OTHER people to go hurt them FOR me, either!"

Shampoo paused for a moment, then said decisively, "Ranma, you look Shampoo in eyes and tell how you really feel about new girl. Take what time you need to get words right."

It didn't take him all that long to find those words. "I wish she hadn't come. I don't need more complications in my life. But since she is here, I'm at least glad that she's not trying to get all romantic or cause me trouble."

After another few seconds of piercing scrutiny, Shampoo was satisfied. Whoever this new girl was, or whatever she thought might be the case, she wasn't a rival. The Amazon still intended to check this Kaori out from a distance sometime soon, just to be able to put a face to the name, but there didn't seem to be any need to take things further. "And she not hit you, feed you poison, call you stupid names? Okay, Airen, Shampoo leave her alone until she do something to hurt you."

Anyone who believes that one person can't make a real difference has never been to Furinkan High School, unless they visited while Principal Kuno was away in Hawaii. The 'headmaster from Hell' was ultimately responsible for ruining the high school experience of more individuals than could be easily counted. He took a positive delight in aggravating and attempted bullying of the student body. And if he usually left a way for them to squirm out of the really annoying schemes, this was because it was more fun to watch them writhe and wriggle their way free. After all, if he really did give all the kids bad haircuts, what would he have left to threaten them the next time he was bored?

For some reason, Principal Kuno didn't get anywhere near the same level of enjoyment from harassing teachers as he did the students. When he'd first become the headmaster of Furinkan, he had had every intention of being an equal-opportunity annoyance, dedicated to giving a hard time to instructors and pupils alike. But it just hadn't been any fun, possibly because the teachers either needed their jobs too badly to put up any fight, or didn't, and quit. These days, Principal Kuno didn't bother trying to torment the teachers; he dragooned them into playing supporting roles when a more elaborate scheme needed extra labor, and ignored them otherwise.

Ironically enough, however, the teachers generally hated the situation at Furinkan worse than the students. After all, the latter could escape after three years. Having taught at Furinkan didn't exactly spice up an educator's resume, and the longer he'd been there, the likelier he'd be there for good. Many a naive, optimistic, idealistic young teacher, fresh out of university, had found those qualities drained from them like water from an unstoppered sink, once they were trapped in Furinkan.

Ranma Saotome, currently sinking in a morass of adenosine triphosphates, aerobic and anaerobic respirations, and glycolipid absorption reactions, found himself wishing his biology teacher was one of them.

"This is ridiculous!" Ranma agreed wholeheartedly with this, but it was actually Kaori who had spoken. This was the fourth time now that they had gotten together at her place for a study session. "Why are we studying material of this level?! This seems more like something we ought to get at university!"

Ranma gave an aggrieved sigh. "I think this is Mr. Takashi's way of fightin' back, or something. Ain't none of the teachers who like Principal Kuno, but most of them just keep their heads down, don't make waves, and try to ignore all the junk he piles on us at school. Far as I know, Mr. Takashi's the only one who pushes this kind of work load on his students. He says he's doin' his best to get us ready for college. That if we can handle stuff like this now, it'll help us then." He snorted. "And may the Kami have mercy on any student who tells him maybe he don't want to go on to university."

"Don't you?" Kaori asked inquisitively.

"Are you kidding?! Bad enough I have to suffer through this junk now. No WAY am I going to put myself through four more years or however long it is of hell!"

"Ranma, you shouldn't look at it like that," his study companion said gently. "You've never been to any high school other than Furinkan, have you?" When he grunted and shook his head, she went on, "The place is a madhouse. It's nothing like the high school I was attending before I transferred here."

"Huh? No pineapple-headed morons with haircut fetishes?"

Kaori shook her head, smiling a little. "Not a one. No insane kendoists or chi-vampire teachers either. Even the clubs there are normal… no chemistry nerds brewing up nitroglycerine in the back room."

"Bet you wish you were back there sometimes," Ranma commented, absently selecting a pork bun from the plate of snacks Kaori had provided for the session, and beginning to munch.

"Sometimes, yes. It was a much better school than Furinkan, that's for sure. And that's why I said you shouldn't look at university as if it will be more of the same. It won’t. It won't be nearly as bad as this."

"Huh. Maybe it wouldn't be so crazy, but that just means I'd be bored outta my skull. This kinda stuff just isn't interesting to me, Kaori." Ranma gestured to the open biology textbook. "I mean, look at this. It drones on and on and on about just what chemical processes happen when a muscle contracts. I start thinkin' about that in the middle of a fight, and next thing you know I'm gonna be on the ground taking a short nap. Or not so short, dependin' on who I was fighting."

"There's more to university than just this. Really, there's more to school in general. Or there should be." Kaori felt a pang as she thought back to the friends she'd left behind when she came to Nerima. "As long as you're at Furinkan, you aren't really seeing school like it should be."

"Well, it ain't like I was given a choice about going there or not," Ranma grumbled. "Y'know, Kaori, you oughta go back to your old school, if you liked it a lot better than this one. It’s just gonna be a matter of time before Principal Kuno comes up with some new stupid stunt to make our lives miserable. You wouldn't want that pretty haircut mangled or nothin', would you?"

"N-no, I wouldn't," Kaori said, blushing faintly. Fortunately Ranma didn't notice, as he was attending to another pork bun. She had recovered her composure by the time he looked back at her. "Anyway, I have it on good authority," meaning the to-do list she had found when she raided the Furinkan office a while back, "that his next scheme is going to be changing the dress code. The boys will be wearing swim trunks, and the girls will get grass skirts and leis. And nothing else."

Ranma gave a strangled sound of apprehension. That'd nail him both coming and going. "Definitely gonna be time for a training trip soon. Let the other guys deal with this one."

"I don't think the guys will do much protesting," Kaori said with a smile. "But the girls will probably rush the podium and beat him to a pulp before he even finishes speaking."

"Now that might be fun to watch," Ranma chuckled. "Maybe you could string him up with that Ramen Noodle Noose thingie of yours."

Kaori blinked. "When did you see me use that? I never saw you after the start of the Martial Arts Takeout race." Before Ranma could do much more than begin to sweat, she continued, "Were you just watching from somewhere I couldn't see?"

"Uh, yeah, that's it exactly," Ranma said. 'At least for the first half of the race…'"You had some pretty good moves, I thought."

"Thank you, Ranma. I would have won, too, if I hadn't been double-teamed." Kaori glowered off into the distance for a moment. "Things would have been different."

He didn't know what to say to that, so he kept quiet. After a long moment of silence, she spoke again, in a more tentative tone that was usual for her. "I think about it sometimes. Do you? What it would have been like to leave this place behind? You wouldn't have been trapped in Furinkan. You wouldn't have had to deal with nearly so much stress, or so many doctor's visits. I’d like to think you'd have been happier, if I'd managed to win that contest then."

"Yeah, well, I dunno. I don't like being forced into stuff, Kaori." That was about as subtle as Ranma felt capable of being.

She inclined her head. "I know."

He blinked. "You do? How?"

"Silly, it didn't take me all that long to figure out, once we were spending time together like this."

Now there was a definite chill running up and down his spine. "Whaddaya mean by that? I thought these were just, you know, study dates."

"Of course they are that, Ranma." Kaori met his gaze fearlessly. "But it's more than just that, isn't it? It's a chance for us to get to know each other. A chance to start out slow, without any pressure, and build something solid. Instead of just being thrown together as fiancées." 'I tried that last time, and it didn't work very well.'

'So was I right, or was Akane?'

Ranma was now walking back to the Tendo place, much more slowly than usual. He was mulling over the revelation from his latest get-together with Kaori. It had come as a shock, and a rather nasty one too, that the innocent study sessions had indeed been motivated by her desire as a fiancée to get closer to him. Kaori, apparently sensing his skittish discomfort, had called an end to the session shortly after she'd said her piece about growing to know one another without any pressure forcing them together. She'd said that she wasn't willing to spend any more of her Saturday morning with ridiculously in-depth biology studies, but this time even Ranma could see a deeper meaning behind the words.

He had been pretty unhappy as he began the walk away from the Daikoku apartment. So she WAS thinking of herself as a fiancée for real! Well, okay, really he should've known that from the beginning, after what she'd said at the Tendo place. But he hadn't thought it had anything to do with the study sessions! And who could blame him? Like he'd told Akane, she really hadn't tried anything romantic at all. Her attitude had mainly been brisk and businesslike, reminding him somewhat of Nabiki in her more helpful moments. Except Kaori didn't charge any yen for her time and effort. Or wear an occasional smirk when some problem of his amused her.

There had been glimpses, though, through that no-nonsense facade. By the time he was out of sight of Kaori's apartment building, Ranma had turned his thoughts to these, searching his memory, analyzing them as best he could. Each time he came up with the same conclusion.

Namely, behind Kaori's impersonal, focused-on-the-schoolwork mien, there had been overtones of friendship. Not romance. Not desire. Not (brief shudder) wedding bells and thrown rice and til-death-do-you-part. Simple friendship—one area where he never seemed to have much luck.

He remembered something from class on Thursday. His math teacher had sprung a pop quiz on the students, and it just so happened that the subject was one he and Kaori had spent most of their third session covering. Ranma had been surprised to find that most of the questions on the quiz were easy. On Friday, when the papers were passed back, the teacher gave him a few words of surprised congratulations on his B+. After staring at the paper for a few seconds, Ranma had glanced over at Kaori. She was already looking his way. The expression on her face had been pleased satisfaction. She was happy for him, he thought, and also probably proud of what she had accomplished.

But the main thing he remembered now was what hadn't been there. Happiness, yes, satisfaction, no doubt, but that was all. Ranma had seen no trace of the love-light that often sparkled in Shampoo's or (in the past, anyway) Ukyo's eyes. He'd seen that many times, even occasionally from Akane when she was under some kind of spell or something, and it usually made him uncomfortable. If he were honest with himself, more often than not it frightened him. Ranma knew there was a lot he wasn't ready to handle yet, due to having grown up the way he did with the father he had. Personally, he thought it was a miracle he'd turned out as good as he was, with Genma as the main influence in his life. But that didn't mean he was prepared yet to deal with something as fragile and mysterious as a girl's heart.

Not that Ranma thought of it in such poetic terms. He just knew he wasn't ready for the stuff most of his fiancées seemed eager to drag him into.

Which thought had brought him back to Kaori. His mood was beginning to improve by now, as his natural resilience fought to overcome the bad mood he'd had at the start of the walk. Maybe she really meant it about not pushing him, not forcing him, not trying to take things any faster than he was ready for. Maybe he really could have another fiancée who was a friend first and foremost.

'Just look at today,' he thought. 'She probably knew I didn't feel like sticking around and talking more just then. She didn't push or nothing, just ended the session like it wasn't any big deal and let me go on my way.' He tried and failed to imagine Shampoo reacting similarly. His thoughts shied away from Ukyo. 'Heck, it was even less awkward than something like that would've been with Akane. Wonder why that is.'

Trying to understand Akane was one area where he never had much success. Not really being in the mood for more deep thought at this point, Ranma pushed his contemplations aside. He was feeling better now, and that was all he really needed for the moment.

A turn in his path had just brought him onto a street with a fence on one side. As was his habit, at least when not recuperating from a recent battle, Ranma left the street behind with an impressive leap, landing on the fence to continue his walk along the far narrower pathway. At this point it didn't really hone his balance any further, but it would at least keep his skills from deteriorating. Even though he did run the risk of falling into the canal on the other side of—

"LOOK OUT!!"

Ranma's head whipped around to face the direction of the shout. An out-of-control cart heavily laden with packages was speeding directly toward his section of fence. From the pace, it was clear that when it hit, no amount of balancing finesse would keep him safely on the top rail and out of the water.

This was where he should have frozen in place, his eyes bugging out and his arms waving ineffectively, until the runaway struck and catapulted him into the drink. However, Ranma, apparently not having read the script, jumped forward instead. His new speed training came to good use here, as he landed on one foot beside the cart and snaked out the other more quickly than the eye could follow, striking a rear wheel and smashing it into immobility. The cart made a screeching, grinding turn that left it and its cargo resting safely a few feet short of the fence.

Ranma smirked at the sight for a moment, then glanced around. There were a couple of passersby a little ways up the street from which the cart had come, who were currently staring at him with their eyes as wide as saucers—'Must be new to Nerima,' he thought—but no sign of anyone who might be responsible for the runaway. He toyed with the idea of sticking around until someone did show up in the hopes that there might be some kind of reward, but then dismissed the idea as something more appropriate for his old man. It was reward enough that he'd avoided being splashed.

From the other side of the canal, a pair of eyes regarded him intently. The distance between Ranma and the watcher, not to mention the two chain-link fences, made it difficult to compare him with the photograph clenched tightly in one hand. But there were other criteria by which a judgment could be made, and the observer's heart beat quickly now, anticipating an end to a long, long journey. Of course, a new one would begin immediately thereafter, but such is the way of life. She was actually quite looking forward to it.

Ranma hadn't gone very far when he began to get that old, familiar feeling. That distinct sensation when the hair stands up on the back of the neck, and the mouth suddenly goes dry, and the certain knowledge of an impending attack causes the heart rate to speed up.

He cranked up his awareness of the immediate surroundings, and paused for a moment, hoping at least that this time that he could catch sight of whoever was after his hide before they were descending on him, shouting some variation of "Ranma, prepare to die!" Of course, his challengers weren't always that courteous. In fact, usually the first time an opponent appeared, they'd just charge in without any warning at all. Ryoga… Mousse… Shampoo back when she was hunting his girl form… it had been the same thing in each case. So he wasn't all that surprised now as the seconds ticked by with no cries of challenge.

After waiting a few moments, Ranma began walking again, more slowly this time, and with his senses still on full alert for an ambush. As it turned out, though, he needn't have bothered… a few minutes of walking brought him around a corner into a larger street, with a vacant lot a little ways ahead of him. And in the center of that lot, facing directly toward him, stood a figure in an obvious combat stance.

Ranma paused, studying the other, and heaved a sigh of resignation. One of the bad things about being as good as he was, was how his reputation would draw kooks as well as serious challengers. Not that he was in the mood for a real fight just now, but dealing with putzes like this generally left a disgusted taste in his mouth.

The other stood about as tall as he did, with a more slender build. That was about all the detail Ranma could make out, as his challenger was clothed head-to-toe in an obviously-homemade ninja outfit. Ranma would have been willing to bet every last yen he owned that the inspiration for the garb had been either a kid's anime or a Halloween costume, and he was all but certain the mask had started out life as a pillowcase. A pair of cheap, tourist-gimmicky sai stuck in a belt around the other's waist completed the impression of incompetence.

He sighed again, then walked forward into the lot. "Yo… You looking for me?"

"If you're Ranma Saotome." It was more growled than spoken.

"I am. Guess we haven't met before, huh? So what's your problem?"

"Problem? What problem?" Maybe this guy just had a sore throat or something, Ranma speculated. He was still speaking as gruffly as before, but there had been honest surprise in the response. "This is a challenge, Saotome. That's all."

"Right. It mighta been nice to get, like, a letter or something first, but never mind," he replied sarcastically. "You gonna give me a name to go with this challenge?"

"No. Not yet, anyway." Now there was amusement in the growl. "Maybe I'll tell you later."

"Ohhhhkay. So what endpoint you want for this?" Ranma snorted, giving the sai a disdainful glance. "First blood?"

"We'll end the match with knockout or submission." The figure drew the sai and gave them an elaborate twirl. "And it starts now!"

'Man, I never thought I'd find someone who was more ridiculous in battle than Tsubasa,' Ranma thought disgustedly, as the shinobi wannabe began sidling toward him in the most ridiculously exaggerated parody he'd ever seen of the way movies messed up a ninja's stalking gait. 'This is one guy who really needs to find a new hobby. Guess convincing him of that is gonna be my good deed for the afternoon.'

By now his opponent had sidled close enough for Ranma to clearly note that the edges of the sai were as dull as butter knives. The pigtailed martial artist had seen letter openers that came to a sharper point, and can openers made of higher-quality steel. Shaking his head one last time in aggravation and resignation, he darted forward, tensing for a power kick to his opponent's shoulder. Ranma was all but certain that the first bit of real pain would—

The instant he had committed to the attack, everything changed. With speed not far from the Amaguriken, his opponent whipped his right arm in an arc, releasing one sai. Ranma was caught too much by surprise to block, and its hilt smacked him in the center of his forehead. His opponent's remaining sai was airborne as well, released from the grip of the left hand to land discarded on the ground.

Before it had fallen more than an inch, its former wielder had closed the remaining distance to Ranma. He'd been caught at the perfect moment of awkwardness at the beginning of his own attack, knocked off-balance by the sudden shift in his opponent's apparent skill level as much as the blow to his forehead. And fast though he was, he couldn't recover nearly quickly enough now. The challenger pivoted as he reached Ranma, bringing his left elbow up diagonally into his target's jaw. The blow disoriented Ranma further and knocked him back a pace. Meanwhile, his attacker was still turning, coming out of a full three-sixty, his right heel driving into Ranma's side in a tight spin kick. Another rotation, and another kick, a more powerful one that slammed into his hip and actually knocked him a couple of inches into the air. He hit the ground and rolled a few feet backward before forcing himself back to his feet.

The entire attack sequence had taken a little more than two seconds.

"There's a Western saying for times like these." This time there was a clear sense of smug amusement behind the gruff tones. "Never judge a book by its cover." He inclined his head. "Or its pillowcase."

"You fight as dirty as my old man," Ranma snapped, assuming a real stance this time.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

THAT comment was enough to jar the Saotome heir right out of his readiness. His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped, and his opponent blazed forward again.

Declining to be caught off-guard this time, Ranma backpedaled, blocking the flurry of kicks and punches with no real difficulty. At the first available break in the tempo of the attack, he launched a few quick blows of his own. His opponent couldn't quite manage to deflect them, absorbing them instead on crossed forearms.

And then, as Ranma's next punch shot forward, the nameless challenger lifted one arm and lowered the other, twisting them to pin Ranma's wrist. The pigtailed martial artist swung his free hand around in a hard blow aimed toward the elbow. It would have freed his arm had it landed, but his opponent was already moving, pivoting in the same direction as Ranma's countermove, sending him flying into the air with a heavily modified Judo throw.

Of course, finding himself involuntarily airborne was rather less trouble for a practitioner of Saotome Anything Goes than for the average teenage martial artist. Ranma righted himself effortlessly and landed in a new ready stance. This time it was his opponent's turn to boggle, shock causing the tight stance to loosen, and his jaw hanging slack (not that this could be seen behind the mask, of course).

"Nice try," Ranma snorted, and dashed forward. 'Two can play the 'attack-while-the-other-guy's-distracted-game.'

WHAM! His opponent flowed smoothly to one side, reaching out almost gently to grasp hold of Ranma's outstretched arm, redirecting his momentum with an Aikido technique that sent the pigtailed martial artist slamming into the ground. Ranma quickly rolled to one side, evading the follow-up Dragon Stamp (a technique that was certainly NOT found in the art of Aikido).He sprang back to his feet, immediately following this with a more impressive jump that put a couple of meters between himself and his foe.

It had not escaped Ranma's attention that holding back was giving him the worst of these exchanges. For a brief moment he considered going to full Amaguriken speed and unloading a couple hundred punches and kicks into his opponent. Nah, he decided, he was irritated, but not that irritated. Instead… "MOKO TAKABISHA!"

The other didn't even try to dodge. Instead, he shot his hands forward as if to intercept the chi blast. Then, as the missile struck, he ripped them apart with a grunt. The chi projectile shattered, for want of a better word, exploding into coruscating sparks and streams of energy.

Through the fading haze came his opponent, charging forward and launching a whirlwind series of punches. He had been fast before, but now—temporarily boosted as he was with power leeched from the disrupted chi attack—it was all Ranma could do to block the offensive.

Block it the pigtailed martial artist did, however, holding nothing back now that he was purely on the defensive. His guard held rock steady, and after half a minute the other's onslaught faltered. The blows had been incredibly fast, Ranma noted, but not really all that powerful.

As his mysterious adversary broke the attack, Ranma heard him gulping for air. "Sounds like somebody's about hit his limit," he observed with his trademark irritatingly cocky grin. "Tryin' to beat me with speed tends to do that. Ya might be able to give me a workout in a couple more years, though."

The other gave a wordless cry of rage and charged forward, in an attack almost as sloppy as his initial pose had appeared. It was Ranma's turn to shift quickly to the side. Instead of an Aikido move—he wasn't really fond of them anyway—he swung low and snaked one foot out to sweep his enemy.

The Saotome heir never would be quite able to reconstruct what happened next. His attack did indeed take his opponent's feet out from under him… but somehow the other twisted in midair (how the HECK did he get so flexible?!), jackknifing both legs around to catch Ranma's upper right arm between his ankles. This left him inverted, his bent neck and hunched shoulders all that kept his head from hitting the ground. He bent at the waist, his torso coming up, and one hand shooting ahead and around to touch Ranma in just the right spot on the back of his neck.

Even as his opponent's legs had locked around his arm, Ranma had begun moving to disengage. And so the strike to his Instant Unconsciousness point was merely a glancing connection which left him stunned and reeling, rather than taking a short nap. His opponent continued the motion into a flip away from Ranma, landing feet first and turning back to face him.

"Yield." The other was still panting for breath, but neither that nor the hoarse tone of voice disguised the triumph behind the word.

Yield?! Give up?! Like HELL he would! Ranma would have liked to yell his defiance back in his enemy's face, but remaining on his feet was taking just about all he had left. The world was spinning and twisting in dizzying whirls. His vision was blurry, and there was a roaring in his ears. His muscles felt like water…

Ranma's body might have been on the verge of collapse, but he still could still access his chi. With a supreme effort, he steadied one hand, croaked, "Moko Takabisha," and loosed a ball of energy. The other just shook his head at the sight. A valiant attempt, and very impressive that he'd managed it, but the attack had gone wildly astray, its course sending it out of the lot and into the street rather than toward Ranma's opponent.

The chi smashed into a fire hydrant… and as inevitably as the sun rising in the east, the resultant spray of water struck the nearest victim of Jusenkyo. Ranma-chan got back to her feet, bruised from the impact, and very, VERY unhappy, but no longer suffering from the shiatsu strike. The Instant Unconsciousness point was just slightly different in men and women.

"What the HELL?!"

The cry resounded through the air, easily drowning out the noise of the rushing water. Ranma-chan blinked. That certainly hadn't been the gruff tones the other had been using until now. In fact…

His challenger reached up with one trembling hand and ripped off the ninja mask. Even before the action was complete, Ranma-chan already sensed the important part of what was going to be revealed.

The cloth came away, revealing an angular face framed by shoulder-length brown hair. The cheekbones were sharper than would normally be considered attractive. The eyes were a tawny hazel color, with some trick of the overall facial structure making them seem as piercing as those of a hawk. The lips could not remotely be described as full; at the moment, shock had whitened them and thinned them even further. The nose was thin as well, and sharp as a knife's edge.

And the neck held absolutely no Adam's Apple whatsoever. This was a girl rather less attractive than he usually encountered, but it was a girl nonetheless.

"Care to explain yourself, Ranma?" she asked, shock and discomfiture plain to be heard. "This isn't the kind of thing a girl expects to see when she meets her fiancé for the first time."

For a moment, Ranma-chan just stood there, bedraggled, dripping wet, shoulders slumped, head downcast, the very picture of someone who feels like the heavens are having just a little too much fun at her expense. Then she heaved a deep sigh, straightened up, and said, "Any particular reason you didn't introduce yourself right from the start?"

Her recent opponent snorted. "Simple. You're a guy," Ranma-chan glared as she heard a definite trace of uncertainty there, "and that usually means you'd hold back if you knew you were fighting a girl. I didn't want that. I wanted to know how good you really were.

"Guess I saw that, all right. But I think we've got some more important things to talk about." The girl strode over, closing the distance between them and peering right into Ranma-chan's face. "No, it's not that illusion trick Lao Che used," she said to herself absently. "Your eyes would be glowing. Is this real? How the heck did you turn into a girl?!"

"Guess you never heard of Jusenkyo, huh?" When the other girl shook her head, Ranma-chan gave the basic explanation.

"I don't believe it," the other girl said, though her tone made it clear she was protesting against the strangeness rather than calling Ranma-chan a liar. "I've seen some crazy things, but nothing this bad." She regarded Ranma-chan contemplatively for a bit, then stepped back and fixed her with a piercing stare. "So how do you feel about this curse, Saotome?"

"What kinda stupid question is that?!" Ranma-chan all but exploded. "I am a GUY. Tried a whole buncha times to get it cured, but it never seems to work out. I HATE the damn thing!!"

"I hear you." Ranma-chan wondered why the other girl looked relieved. "No offense, I just had to ask. So you said hot water will turn you back to normal, right? Let's go get some… there's a cafe right over there."

A few minutes later, the two of them were seated at a table after each making use of one of the restrooms. Ranma was back in his birth form. His newest fiancée had taken the opportunity to change her outfit and remove the chest bindings she'd used to conceal her true gender. Not that it had been a hard secret to keep, as the figure this revealed was a bit less impressive than Akane's.

Once they were seated, a rather awkward silence fell, broken only when the girl ordered tea from a passing waitress. Ranma barely noticed when the beverage arrived; he was too busy thinking dark thoughts toward Genma. He nearly jumped out of his chair when his companion cleared her throat loudly.

"So! Where do you want to start getting to know each other?" she asked.

"Ah, okay, how about telling me your name?" Ranma asked.

A long, even more awkward moment of silence, as the as-yet-anonymous girl was now staring incredulously at him. At last she said, "You didn't care enough to remember your own fiancée's name?!" Shock was the strongest emotion present in her tone, but hints of pain and anger were noticeable as well.

"Seein' as how my old man never told me about you, it's not really my fault, now is it?"

"He… never… told… you?!" At this point, shock had completely pushed aside pain and anger.

"Nope," Ranma said bitterly. "That ain't how it works. Pop never mentions these stupid arrangements until one of them blows up in my face. You're… let's see… yeah, you're the fourth fiancée Pop's arranged for me. How many more are lurking out there, only my old man knows."

"I see." The girl's face was nearly as white as a sheet. "I'm… my name is Kaede. Kaede Hayashibara."

"An' what's your story? I mean, when and how and why did we get engaged?" Ranma asked resignedly.

"It…" Kaede took a deep breath, seeming to pull herself together a little. "It was about eleven years ago. I may not get all the details right, because I was off visiting relatives at the time this happened. My father told me the story later.

"Anyway, at the time, my father owned and operated a dojo. One day, your training trip brought you and Genma to his door. Your father challenged mine; if he won, Dad would provide the two of you with room and board for a week. If he lost, you and Genma would do any odd jobs that needed doing, free of charge."

Kaede looked down into her still-untouched cup of tea. "Dad's eyes still light up when he talks about that battle, Ranma," she said. "Our family has some very effective techniques that were never taught to the regular students. Dad used them all when he fought your father, but he couldn't take him down. He simply couldn't kee