Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong

Just Won't Die Ranma


This fic takes place right before the end of 'Just Won't Die Asuka' during the 
time when Ranma said "Man, you won't believe where I've been the past few 
months"



     Ranma, expecting to reappear back home, felt a sensation of panic as he 
suddenly found himself unable to breath, submerged under water. He had no idea 
how he got there in the first place, but he knew that he had to quickly surface 
or he would risk drowning. 
  His instincts kicked in as he quickly swam upward toward the surface. 
  "What the hell just happened?" Ranma muttered as he surfaced.
  "Oh no, you fall in Nyanichuan," he heard a voice.
  Ranma looked in the direction of the voice, his gaze coming to rest on a 
familiar looking face, a face he hadn't seen in decades. He found himself 
looking at the familiar face of a Chinese man he remembered labeling as 'The 
Chinese Guide'.
  Sensing another presence, he looked upward where he caught sight of a giant 
panda standing on top of a bamboo pole.
  "Whoa, this reminds me of when I was in Jusenkyo," Ranma felt like he was 
experiencing déjà vu. He remembered a scene similar to this, during the time he 
had fallen into the Nyanichuan spring in Jusenkyo and had surfaced and 
discovered he was a woman and was clad in a dogi.
  He looked down at himself, toward his chest.
  "What the?" Ranma's eyes widened as he realized he had breast.
  "You fall in Nyanichuan," The Chinese Guide said, "It very tragic story of 
young girl who drown in spring one thousand five hundred years ago. Now, whoever 
fall in spring take on body of young girl,"
  "What didja say?" Ranma asked.
  "You fall in Nyanichuan-" the man began.
  "Nyanichuan?!" Ranma was surprised.
  Ranma remained floating where he was for a moment, trying to collect his 
thoughts.
  How the hell did I end up here, he wondered. Skuld, now that she's God, was 
supposed to send Urd and I back home but it seems like I ended up-
  "Holy shit, I'm in the past!" Ranma's eyes widened.
  "What was that, sir?" the man asked.
  Ranma quickly climbed out of the spring and got to his feet. He glanced over 
toward the giant panda as it jumped off one of the many bamboo poles sticking 
out of the many springs located around him and landed right by the two of them.
  "Dad?" Ranma asked, wondering if what he was experiencing was some kind of 
dream.
  The panda had this shocked look on his face as he seemed to be trying to say 
something to the Chinese Guide.
  "We must go back to my house," The Chinese Guide said, "You both are cursed. I 
need to splash you with warm water to bring you back to original form. Follow 
me,"
  The Chinese Guide started walking off.
  Ranma realized something, "Wait,"
  "Yes?" the man turned toward him.
  "Which one spring here is the Nanichuan?" Ranma asked, jerking a thumb over 
his back. He remembered having found out a long time ago which one it was, 
during the time he went back in time to prevent the Nerima Massacre, but he had 
forgotten over the years.
  The Chinese Guide pointed toward the spring right next to the one from which 
Ranma had surfaced, "It that spring. Why you ask?"
  Ranma jumped into the spring and surfaced, now back in his original form. When 
he surfaced, he looked at himself and noticed that it looked like he was in a 
younger body now, the body of a healthy young boy of around sixteen.
  "Man, I'm a fucking moron when I was young," Ranma muttered to himself, "I 
could've cured myself right then and there had I bothered to figure out how to 
cure my curse instead of getting dragged back to China,"
  Ranma turned toward the giant panda, an angry look on his face, "You! You're 
the one that made me go through all that because you dragged me back to Japan!"
  Ranma did nothing though. Seeing the panda brought back old memories of his 
father, a father he had lost early in his life.
  The panda looked at Ranma with confusion. 
  "Sir, you should jump into Nanichuan, it will cure you like your son," the 
Chinese Guide stated.
  The panda nodded and jumped into spring. Ranma watched as his father 
resurfaced.
  "That was a good idea, boy," his father, Genma, said, "I was worried we would 
be cursed forever erk-"
  Caught up with emotions, Ranma embraced his father tightly, "I missed you!"
  Genma look down at his son, confused. After a moment, Ranma let go, wiping a 
tear from his eyes.
  "What's wrong with you, boy?" Genma asked.
  "Um, nothing," Ranma smiled softly, "I guess I got caught up in the moment,"
  "Now both of you cured," the Chinese Guide stated.
  Ranma turned toward the man and smirked, "Yeah, it seems like we are,"
  "Like I say before, this very dangerous place," the man stated, "It best you 
not train here,"
  Ranma smiled.
  "Y'know what? That's a good idea,"

  "I'm in the past," Ranma talked to himself as he walked along a dirt trail 
somewhere in China, his father and the Chinese Guide were walking not that far 
behind, "I think Skuld messed up conjuring the portal that would send Urd and I 
back home. Instead, I ended up in my past in my old body. What the heck does 
that mean? How the hell do I get home from here?"
  "That was a good plan, boy," Genma stated, "I would've never have thought of 
jumping into the Nanichuan to cure our curse,"
  "No shit," Ranma said. 
  "What did you say?" Genma seemed to find Ranma's language vulgar.
  "Um, no duh, old man," Ranma rephrased.
  "We should head back to China now," Genma stated, "I think we have been on a 
training mission for long enough and it is about time we head back,"
  Genma's stomach rumbled. He turned toward the Chinese Guide, "I'm hungry, is 
there a place to eat around here?"
  "Joketsuzoku is nearby," the Chinese Guide said, "We can stop there and ask 
for provisions,"
  Ranma snapped his fingers, "That's how I'll get back home. I'll just steal the 
nanban mirror from there and use it to get back home," He smiled at himself, 
"Man, I kick ass. I've been human for no longer than an hour and I'm already 
kick ass,"
  "What are you talking to yourself about?" Genma asked, "Did you hit your head 
during that fall into the spring? You keep talking to yourself for some reason,"
  Ranma shrugged.
  "Joketsuzoku nearby," the Chinese Guide said.
  Ranma paused as he caught sight of a familiar looking person standing on a 
cliff just off to the side of the road. He recognized the figure as none other 
than the Ryoga of that timeline. 
  "Interesting," Ranma recalled to himself, "I remember fighting and chasing my 
old man down this road. That's Ryoga and where I most likely accidentally bumped 
into him and sent him falling down into a spring and got cursed,"
  "You recognize that man standing by the cliff with his back toward us?" Genma 
noticed Ranma regarding Ryoga.
  After a moment, Ranma shook his head.
  "Nah. Let's keep going and not disturb him,"
  
  Ranma, Genma, and the Chinese Guide walked down a dirt path that lead right 
through the village of Joketsuzoku. 
  Once again, Ranma couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia as he remembered 
walking down this dirt trail, gazing around toward the wooden huts located to 
either side of him.
  He didn't remember much about Joketsuzoku, Ranma not having been to the 
village in decades. Actually, he had forgotten much about what had happened 
there. He remembered he met Shampoo there, but he couldn't quite remember how.
  "How did Shampoo and I meet?" Ranma scratched his head.
  "This village women very strong," he overheard the Chinese Guide telling 
Genma.
  "What's that noise I hear?" Genma asked.
  "They show their skill now," the man replied, "They having competition to see 
who strongest warrior in the village. Winning martial arts show is good honor,"
  Ranma followed them as the noise grew louder and louder. Before long, the came 
across a large group of villagers gathered around two combatants as they battled 
one another as they stood on top of a log.
  He recognized one of the combatants as none other than Shampoo.
  "Oh yeah, now I remember," Ranma snapped his fingers, "I was in my cursed form 
and I ate the winner's food and she challenged me and I beat her,"
  Ranma glanced over where he saw his father sitting down in front of a table 
loaded with food, happily stuffing his mouth.
  "Oh fuck!" the blood drained from Ranma's face and he looked toward this 
father, realizing his dad was eating the food that was to be given to the winner 
of the martial arts competition. 
  He quickly ran over to where Genma was and grabbed him by the shirt collar, 
"You goddamn fool, do you have any idea what you just did?!?!"
  "What? What did I do?" Genma asked innocently.
  At that moment, a beautiful purple haired woman approached the group and said 
something in Chinese. She pointed her weapon toward Genma, Genma stopping his 
eaten when he realized the woman's attention was on him.
  "She asking 'What are you doing?'," the Guide translated, a nervous look on 
his face.
  Ranma burst out laughing when he realized that Shampoo's attention was on 
Genma and not him. He also realized that he hadn't been eating and that Genma 
had been the only one eating the food that was meant for the winner of the 
martial arts tournament.
  "Hahahaha, you're screwed, old man,"
  
  Ranma grumbled to himself as he stood on the log, Shampoo standing on the log 
as well. Many female villagers were shouting happily toward Shampoo, blushes on 
all of their faces. This annoyed Ranma because it was obvious that the females 
of the village seemed to find Ranma attractive and was basically judging a book 
by its cover.
  "Why the hell am I being challenged?" Ranma muttered toward the Chinese Guide.
  "She no want to fight your father," the man replied, "She sense that he strong 
and don't want to lose to him and have to marry him. It Amazon law that any 
female that lose to a male outsider must marry him,"
  "That still don't make sense why I hafta fight?" Ranma said.
  "Had your father not said that you were a better candidate for fighting, she 
probably would've left you alone," the Guide said.
  Ranma glared toward Genma as he gave him a shy smile as he stood near the log.
  Shampoo said something in Chinese that basically meant 'Are you ready?'
  Ranma shrugged and nodded, "Whatever,"
  Shampoo began to charge toward Ranma, intent on initiating the first attack. 
However, she came to a sliding halt as Ranma quickly dropped to his hands and 
knees.
  "I give up," Ranma said. He had no intention of fighting Shampoo. Actually, 
what he wanted to do was hug Shampoo and tell him how much he missed her but he 
didn't want to cause a misunderstanding.
  There was nothing but silence, all the female villagers shocked that such a 
powerful fighter, all of them having sensed that he was extremely powerful 
fighter, would so readily give up.
  Ranma got back up to his feet, "You win. I give up,"
  Shampoo said something in Chinese.
  "What did she say?" Ranma asked.
  "She not accept your surrender," Guide translated.
  "What? That's a buncha bull," Ranma said, "Why not?"
  The Guide said something to Shampoo as she replied back.
  "She say she sense you formidable opponent and wish to have formidable 
opponent to fight against," the Guide said.
  "Hell no," Ranma said, "I know exactly what's gonna happen. I'm gonna 
accidentally defeat her and she's gonna comes chasing after me trying to marry 
me. I've been enough crap to know that something like that is definitely gonna 
happen if I try something as stupid as defeating her. Tell her I have no 
intention of fighting,"
  The Guide said something to Shampoo as she replied back one again.
  "I told her you have no intention of fighting," the Guide said, "She said that 
that is not good enough,"
  Ranma hopped off the log and began walking away, "Tell her 'tough shit', of 
whatever kinda Chinese translated equivalent,"
  "Ranma, you must fight her," Genma said.
  "What?" Ranma asked.
  "I will not allow my son to back down from a challenge," Genma said.
  Ranma laughed, "Riiiight,"
  He began walking, heading in the direction of an elderly woman balancing on a 
staff. He recognized her when he was looking around while on the log. He wanted 
to ask her something.
  "Hey, Cologne," Ranma grinned, knowing Cologne knew Japanese.
  "How do you know my name?" Cologne was surprised.
  "You wouldn't happen to have the nanban mirror on ya, would ya?" Ranma asked 
politely, still grinning.
  Cologne regarded the man with a scrutinizing gaze, her surprise indicating 
that Ranma had her off-guard, what with the fact that he seemed to know her name 
and the existence of the nanban mirror.
  "And why should I tell you?" Cologne asked, having no intention of divulging 
information to a stranger, "Especially to someone like yourself wouldn't accept 
a challenge from my great-granddaughter, even though I, and everyone else here, 
know you're a martial artist,"
  Ranma thought about something for a moment.
  "I've got a deal for you," Ranma said, coming up with a plan.
  "A deal? What kind of deal?" Cologne perked an eyebrow.
  "I'll challenge your great-granddaughter in exchange that you tell me where 
the nanban mirror is," Ranma suggested. Once he got his hands on the nanban 
mirror, he would be off that world. Now that he thought about it, it really 
didn't matter what he did to that world so long as he got the nanban mirror. Of 
course, even if that was the case, he had no intention of screwing this world up 
in the process simply for his own amusement.
  Cologne smirked, "Very well,"
  Ranma was surprised that Cologne accepted the deal. He regarded her 
suspiciously. After a moment, he shrugged.
  He turned around and walked back toward the log, hopping back on it.
  "Let's fight," Ranma grinned, getting into a battle stance.
  Shampoo, noticing the battle stance and realizing that Ranma intended to fight 
her.
  She gripped her weapons tightly, a smile on her face, curious as to how 
amazing a fighter this stranger was, wondering if he was the one, the one that 
would defeat her and she would marry. 
  Ranma dashed forward, grabbing Shampoo before she had a chance to react. 
Before she knew what was really happening, she looked down and saw one of her 
opponent's hand on her right breast.
  "Have a nice sleep," Ranma smiled.
  Shampoo dropped her bonboris and slumped forward, her sleep pressure point 
pressed, Ranma catching her before she could fall off the log. He hoisted her up 
in his arms and turned toward Cologne as she gazed toward him, a stunned look on 
her face.
  "What was that, boy?" Genma said in astonishment. He had never seen his son 
move so fast before nor was he able to see exactly what kind of technique Ranma 
had used to incapacitate his opponent so quickly and easily.
  Ranma ignored his father.
  He hopped off the log and walked over to Cologne.
  "Well, I kept my end of the deal," Ranma said, "I fought your great-
granddaughter. Now it's your turn to keep your end of the deal,"
  Cologne reached out a hand and pressed a pressure point on Shampoo's 
unconscious body. Within seconds, Shampoo woke back up.
  "That was mighty impressive," Cologne said to Ranma, "What is your name?"
  "Ranma Saotome," Ranma figured there was nothing wrong with telling her since 
he would be disappearing the moment he got his hands on the nanban mirror.
  "What technique was that?" Cologne asked, noticing that he had used some form 
of pressure point technique very similar to the kinds of high-level pressure 
point techniques she used from time to time.
  "Anything Goes Martial Arts," Ranma said proudly, "Anyway-"
  "Ranma Saotome of Anything Goes Martial Arts," Cologne said, "I'll be sure to 
remember that,"
  "Anyway," Ranma said, "I kept my end of the deal, now it's your turn to keep 
your end of the deal,"
  "Wo Ai Ni," Shampoo said, realizing that Ranma seemed to have defeated her. 
Afterall, why else would she be in Ranma's arms without her weapons. Ranma had 
defeated her and now that only meant one thing, that she was now obligated to 
marry this man. 
  Shampoo kissed Ranma passionately, having no qualms about having to marry such 
a wonderful and amazing person. 
  Ranma's eyes widened as he found himself being glomped and being choked as 
Shampoo wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He quickly placed her 
down on her feet, needing his arms to free himself. 
  "Jeez," Ranma said, "Get a grip on yourself,"
  Shampoo said some Chinese toward him, a blush on her cheeks, the look of love 
in her eyes. This creeped out Ranma because it was the exact same look she gave 
him decades ago, when he had accidentally defeated her when he broke that 
bonbori of hers and it ended up hitting her on her head and knocking her out.
  Ranma quickly turned toward Cologne, "I kept my end of the deal, now it's your 
turn,"
  Cologne said, "I guess you're right,"
  "Where's the nanban mirror?" Ranma asked.
  "It's not here," Cologne smirked, "A man named Happousei stole it many many 
years ago. I have no idea where his whereabouts is,"
  The blood drained from Ranma's face.
  "You've gotta be shittin' me,"

  "Where's Happousei?" Ranma asked Genma as they both ran from Joketsuzoku. The 
entire Amazon village was chasing them, intent of getting Ranma back so that he 
could marry the lucky Shampoo.
  "I have no idea," Genma seemed visibly scared.
  "Don't lie, old man," Ranma was angry, "It's because of you I'm in this 
goddamn mess,"
  "I told you, I have no idea," Genma said, "And how do you know who Happousei 
is?"
  "You think I'm stupid?" Ranma said coldly, "I know he used to be your master. 
Where the hell is he?"
  "I said I don't know," Genma said, "My old friend and I buried him. I can't 
remember where,"
  Ranma took a glance toward Genma's eyes. After a moment, he realized that 
Genma was telling the truth, that he really didn't remember where he buried 
Happousei. Of course, Ranma had the ability to read a person's soul and knowing 
this about them that even they didn't know or remember by looking deeply into 
their eyes.
  It seemed like Genma had forgotten that he and Soun had buried Happousei 
deeply within the side of a mountain that was located.
  "Why are you interested in finding the evil man named Happousei?" Genma asked 
nervously.
  "He has something I need," Ranma said.
  "What?" Genma asked.
  "Don't worry about it,"

  Ranma couldn't help but feel nervous as he stood in front of the Tendo Home.
  It had rained earlier in the day and both he and Genma were soaking wet but 
neither of them seemed to mind.
  "You ever notice Nerima seems to have this odd propensity for raining at the 
most inconvenient times?" Ranma asked Genma.
  "Huh?" Genma asked, wondering what 'propensity' meant and since when Ranma 
managed to pick up vocabulary words. There was something odd about Ranma, as if 
him falling into that spring had somehow changed him. He seemed both vulgar and 
educated at the same time, an odd combination.
  Ranma looked at the Tendo's front door and smiled. Seeing the old house sure 
brought back memories. Of course, they were sad memories, but Ranma had moved on 
that those memories didn't have as much an emotional effect on him.
  Over time, the pain of his past had waned to nothing more than a slight ache 
and having those old memories brought into light, although painful, wasn't as 
painful as he figured they would be.
  Genma reached out and knocked on the door.
  After a minute, the door opened to reveal a face familiar to Ranma. It was 
none other than Soun Tendo. 
  "Ah, Genma, old friend, you're finally here," Soun smiled happily, "And you 
must be Ranma,"
  Ranma smiled warmly. It was really nice to see Soun again. He had missed him. 
Of course, Ranma had enough control that he didn't feel the need to just hug him 
uncontrollably. 
  "Yeah, I'm Ranma," Ranma said politely.
  "Please, come in," Soun said, "My three daughters are eager to meet you,"
  "Lead the way," Ranma smiled, eager to see Akane and Nabiki and Kasumi.
  They followed Soun into the house, walking down a hallway where they entered 
the dining area. In there were Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi.
  "These are my three daughters," Soun gestured, "Kasumi, nineteen years old. 
Nabiki, seventeen years old. And Akane, sixteen years old,"
  "Yo," Ranma smiled.
  "So, you're Ranma, huh?" Akane asked, scrutinizing him.
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"
  He couldn't help but stare at Akane. She looked so different from the Akane he 
knew. She looked very young and he had forgotten what she looked like. She 
looked very cute with long hair.
  "My dad mentioned you did martial arts," Akane said, blushing slightly after 
noticing Ranma seemed to be paying keen attention to her.
  Oddly enough, Nabiki and Kasumi noticed Ranma staring for a bit.
  "Most of my life," Ranma nodded, turning his attention away, not aware that he 
had been staring, "We just got back from China," 
  "Akane does martial arts," Nabiki commented, "Why don't you and her spar?"
  "Not interested," Ranma said.
  He was speaking the truth. He had gotten up to a point in martial arts that he 
no longer cared to fight anymore. He knew he was a good fighter and that was 
what mattered. He no longer needed to spar to against someone to prove himself a 
good fighter.
  "Why not?" Nabiki persisted.
  "I think fighting should be reserved to protecting yourself or someone else," 
Ranma grinned. He turned toward Akane, "Dontcha think?"
  "Um, yeah," Akane said.
  Ranma smiled. That sounded like a good enough of a bullshit answer to keep her 
from wanting to spar against him to see how good a fighter he was. Frankly, he 
didn't want to fight anymore, ever. He had fought enough in his life that never 
fighting again would be too soon.
  "You two must be tired from the trip here," Kasumi got up from where she was 
sitting, "I'll go start the bath for you two,"
  "No thanks," Ranma said, "I'll do it myself,"
  "If you'd like," Kasumi smiled warmly, gesturing, "The bathroom is down the 
hallway,"
  "Thanks," Ranma walked off.

  Ranma sat in the bathtub, wondering what he should do.
  It felt nice to take a bath. It soothed his sore body. And boy, did he have a 
sore body. He wasn't used to his body. His body didn't quite move in the way he 
was used to. He was used to possessing a body of inhuman strength and agility, a 
highly tuned human body. The body he was in was pathetically weak and slow 
compared to the body he was used to.
  "Man, it's probably gonna take a while to get used to being human," Ranma said 
to himself.
  He was glad he remembered his training. Although he was basically physically 
handicapped, his martial art skills could easily compensate for it. 
  Ranma looked at his hands, "Hm, I wonder if I can throw ki-blasts like there's 
no tomorrow,"
  He grinned, curious about finding out. He believed that because he knew how to 
throw ki-blasts, that meant his body would know how to do so. 
  "Damn, when the heck did Happousei show up?" Ranma asked himself, "Doesn't he 
show up only a couple of months after my old man and I showed up at the Tendos? 
Maybe I should just hang around and wait for him,"
  Ranma believed it couldn't hurt to hang around here on this world for a while. 
He was used to going on adventures and this would be very much like going on an 
adventure. Of course, this adventure would be very laid back since he knew he 
didn't have to worry about any world-changing events looming in the near future.
  "Hm, should I stay or shouldn't I?" Ranma asked himself. The problem with 
staying was that trouble usually followed him around. Even though he had a 
general idea of the events to come, he was pretty sure it would not happen as he 
remembered since, well, he was very different from the person he used to be.
  Of course, staying would be fun. In a sense, it would be a way to relive his 
childhood. He always believed his childhood had been cut short because of the 
Nerima Massacre and this was a good opportunity to relive it.
  The only thing he had going for him about going to find Happousei now would be 
him getting back home earlier. Of course, there was no real need to get back 
home right away. Actually, now that he thought about it, living here for a while 
would be a whole lot less complicated than back home, what with all those girls 
after him. 
  "I'll stay, what the heck," Ranma decided on a whim, "It'll be fun. Let's find 
out what kinda new situations I'll get into or outta now that I'm older and 
wiser,"
  Ranma decided it was time to get out, that he had been in the bath for long 
enough.
  As he climbed out of the tub, he feel this dizzying sensation envelop him.
  He staggered as he found the room seemingly spinning around him.
  "Oh shit," Ranma said, realizing that he had been in the bathtub for far too 
long and suffered heat stroke.
  He staggered around, trying to reach for the door that led to the dressing 
room. He needed to cool down and fast or he would pass out. It seemed like this 
body was not used to heat like his old body was. He was definitely not used to 
this body and needed to exercise caution.
  Using sheer willpower, he managed to stagger out of the bathroom and out into 
the cool hallway. When a wave of cool air hit him, he suddenly felt his 
dizziness disappearing.
  "Damn, that feels good," he sighed in relief, leaning against the hallway 
wall. 
  "Man, it's probably gonna take me a bit to get used to this body," Ranma said 
to himself.
  At that moment, Akane came walking down the hallway, a towel in her hands. 
Kasumi had realized there were no guest towels out for Ranma and had asked Akane 
to drop some towels off in the dressing room for Ranma.
  Akane stopped dead in her tracks when she caught sight of a naked Ranma 
standing in the hallway. Unfortunately, the shock of seeing Ranma naked made her 
accidentally trip over her own feet, staggering forward where she ended up 
bumping into Ranma and falling down, bringing him down with her.
  Akane ended up accidentally kissing Ranma in the process, she landing on top 
of him. It took a moment for them to realize what had just happened.
  Ranma just lay on his back, looking up at Akane.
  Akane just stared down at him, her eyes wide as she realized she had 
accidentally given her first kiss to Ranma.
  A terrible blush came across her cheeks as she tried to comprehend what had 
transpired.
  After a moment, she realized that Ranma was underneath her and that he was 
completely naked. Ranma noticed the look in her face as it he realized this was 
the start of a terrible misunderstanding. 
  He knew Akane was going to scream.
  "Eeeeeekkkkkkk!!!"

  Akane glared at Ranma's back as he sat in the porch as she sat in the dining 
area. Everyone else was in the dining area along with her.
  "Akane, what happened?" Soun asked.
  "Ranma was walking around naked," Akane said angrily, "He seems to have 
complete disregard for a thing called modesty,"
  "So what?" Ranma retorted, "Why're you getting your panties up in a bunch? YOU 
saw ME naked. And not only that, YOU kissed ME,"
  "Oh, Akane kissed you? Do tell?" Nabiki smirked, very interested.
  "I did not kiss him! He kissed me!" Akane shouted, blushing beet red.
  Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming along. How 
come complications followed him everywhere?
  "Y'know what?" Ranma laid down on his back, staring up at the ceilings, "Say 
whatever you want. I don't really care,"
  "How come you were naked?" Nabiki asked Ranma.
  "Like I said, he has complete disregard of a thing called modesty," Akane 
stated.
  Kasumi scratched her chin, "From the way I think of it, I figure you probably 
wandered into the hallway because you got out of the bathtub after staying in 
there too long and felt dizzy from heat stroke that you came out into the 
hallway to cool yourself down,"
  Ranma sat upright to look at Kasumi, a stunned look on his face, "Wow, you're 
right. That's a really good guess. How'd you know that?"
  "Well, you were in the bathtub for a while," Kasumi said, "It's only natural 
that you would get dizzy when you climb out of the bathtub after staying in 
there too long,"
  Ranma turned toward Akane, "Kasumi's right,"
  "Then again, perhaps you do have a complete disregard for a thing called 
modesty," Kasumi said softly, smiling warmly.
  Ranma fell down to the ground.
  Kasumi glanced at the clock and looked surprised, "Oh my, I forgot to start 
cooking dinner,"
  Ranma watched as Kasumi got up from where she was sitting and left the went 
into the kitchen. The thought of being able to eat Kasumi's home cooking made 
Ranma's mouth watery.
  "I'll come help," Akane got up, curious as to how their new guests might like 
her cooking.
  Soun became visibly nervous and so did Nabiki.
  Ranma scratched his head, a bit confused. It looked like they were worried 
about Akane cooking for them which confused him because Akane was a great good.
  Unfortunately, Ranma had completely forgotten that the Akane he knew didn't 
became an excellent cook until a long time after practicing, well after he and 
Ryoga had travelled through China and cured themselves of their curse.
  "Um, I just remembered a friend invited me to have dinner at her house," 
Nabiki said glibly, getting up from her seat and leaving the room.
  "Genma, friend, I believe we should go on a training trip together," Soun said 
nervously.
  "Ranma and I just got back from one," Genma said dumbly, "Why would I want to 
go out again on another one? Besides, Ranma and I haven't had a home cooked meal 
in months,"
  Soun felt guilty as he whispered, "My youngest daughter is helping out with 
the cook. Let's just say she is very lacking in the areas of cooking,"
  Ranma snapped his fingers as he suddenly remembered. Akane never became a good 
cook until a long time after the Nerima Massacre, during the time when she and 
Ranma and Ryoga were wandering China during their decade long training trip. It 
wasn't until after Ranma and her and Ryoga came back to Japan after having been 
thought long dead preventing Genom Tower from collapsing.
  "C'mon, how bad could it be?" Genma said, his stomach basically doing the 
talking for him. He was really hungry and eager to eat a home cooked meal.
  Ranma nudged at Genma, "Pretty bad. You'd probably be better of licking your 
own asshole,"
  Genma and Soun looked at Ranma.
  "Ranma, show some respect in the Tendo home and keep the obscenities to a 
minimum," Genma said.
  Soun smiled, "It don't matter. Although Ranma is a bit brash in him way of 
speaking, it is all a part of his character,"
  "Um, not really," Ranma scratched his head, wondering when or why he actually 
started speaking more vulgar. He never usually swore so freely when he was young 
so what made him change?
  "Probably the Nerima Massacre," he said to himself, his words unheard, "Things 
like that do tend to change people,"
  Ranma got up and headed for the kitchen, "I'll get help the girls out,"
  "What for?" Genma said, "You cooking skills leave a lot to be desired,"
  Ranma smirked, "Perhaps, perhaps not,"
  He was confident of his cooking skills. He was actually an amazing cook. Just 
because he rarely cooked back home didn't mean he didn't know his way around the 
kitchen.
  Ranma wandered into the kitchen where he saw Kasumi and Akane standing by the 
sink, washing some vegetables. His gaze lingered on Kasumi longer than usual.
  Man, now that I've grown older, I never realized how terrific a girl Kasumi 
is, Ranma thought to himself. He knew he had taken her for granted now that the 
Kasumi he knew was long gone. She was sweet and caring, two major qualities he 
liked about women.
  If I had to choose a fiancee between Akane, Nabiki, or Kasumi, I'd choose 
Kasumi in an instant, Ranma thought. Of course, that will never be the case. 
Through some stupid stroke of luck, if you can call it luck, I'll end up being 
paired up with Akane in this world and time. 
  "Why are you in here?" Akane said to Ranma in a cold voice, still upset at him 
for what had happened shortly before.
  "Maybe I wanna check out both your asses while you stand in front of the stove 
and sink," Ranma smirked, sitting down in the chair by the table. One thing 
Ranma could be was very flirtatious. He had a knack of keeping a woman off 
balance with odd comments.
  "You pervert," Akane turned around. She couldn't help but feel a bit flattered 
even though the comment was very vulgar.
  "Oh my," Kasumi blushed, blushed.
  Ranma realized that he was in the presence of Kasumi and he should be more 
respectable and show more manners around her. 
  "Um, I just came in here to help out," Ranma said, "My old man and I are 
guests at this house and it wouldn't feel right not helping," Of course, the 
main reason he was there was to prevent Akane from messing up the dish.
  "You know how to cook, Ranma?" Kasumi asked warmly.
  "More or less," Ranma said, "I'd like to help,"
  "We don't really need your help," Akane said, "Kasumi and I will be fine,"
  Ranma feigned hurt feeling, "Oh, really? You don't want my help even though I 
want to help? I guess I'm not good enough, huh?"
  Akane suddenly regretted having said that, "I didn't mean it like that. It's 
just that-"
  Kasumi gestured toward some carrots sitting nearby, "If you'd like, how about 
you clean and cut the carrots?"
  "Sure," Ranma smiled.
  He stepped forward and took a spot between Kasumi and Akane, grabbing a knife 
and the carrots, placing them on the cutting board. As he stood next to Kasumi, 
he stole a glance toward her. 
  Wow, she's really pretty, Ranma thought. He knew Kasumi was a pretty girl but 
he never realized just how pretty she was. There was this mundane prettiness in 
her that he had never seen in other women before.
  Oddly enough, Ranma was shorter than Kasumi but it didn't seem to bother him 
one bit. He knew he would eventually grow to be very tall, at least by Japanese 
standards.
  Man, I must've been a moron when I was this age to not have noticed her like I 
do now now that I'm older, Ranma thought. Of course, that's probably because I 
was sixteen then and had the undeveloped mind of a sixteen year old. Kasumi's 
probably the absolute best person I've ever come across in my life in terms of 
marriage material.
  "Has anyone every told you you're really pretty, Kasumi?" Ranma had to say, 
used to saying whatever was on his mind, "Because you really are,"
  "Thank you, Ranma," Kasumi smiled warmly.
  Akane stole a glance toward Ranma, a surprised look on her face. She couldn't 
help but feel a tinge of jealousy creeping into her for some odd reason.
  What's wrong with me, Akane thought. Why am I getting jealous when I've only 
known Ranma for around a half hour and we started off definitely on the wrong 
foot?
  "Got any aspirations?" he asked, already knowing the answers.
  "Well, I've always liked medicine and wanted to work in the field of 
medicine," Kasumi said, "Of course, that was a long time ago. I don't have time 
for it anymore since I need to manage this household,"
  Akane stopped what she was doing, she never knew that about Kasumi. It was as 
if Ranma had somehow stumbled upon some very personal portion of Kasumi's 
persona.
  "What kinda medicine?" Ranma asked curiously. He wanted to get to know her, 
feeling that knowing more about the Kasumi he had lost meant he could remember 
her and everyone else longer. His memories of his lost friends and family had 
started fading long ago and he had always felt bad that he had started 
forgetting things about them.
  "I like herbal medicine," Kasumi said, "There is a clinic nearby that I visit 
on occasions to borrow books on medicine and such,"
  Ranma smiled, realizing that she was talking about Dr. Tofu's clinic. He 
remembered quite a bit about Dr. Tofu and was looking forward to meeting him. He 
knew Dr. Tofu was a very powerful martial artist and was eager to spar against 
him.
  "I only take out books on occasions," Kasumi continued on, "But I really don't 
have much time to read them since I'm usually busy going out buying for every 
night's dinner and preparing. Even if that's the case, I'm not unhappy,"
  "Well, I'll be glad to help out with the chores around the house so that 
you'll have more time on your hands to do what you want," Ranma offered. 
  "That's very kind of you, Ranma," Kasumi smiled sweetly, "But there is no 
need. The house hold chores aren't all that taxing. I can handle it myself,"
  Ranma was about to be more persistent but decided against it. He was pretty 
sure Kasumi did enjoy doing house chores and that was one of the things that 
defined her character. If he helped around the house, he was pretty sure Kasumi 
would feel like she was losing a sense of purpose living at home. Afterall, she 
was nineteen and should be in college like most girls her age.
  Ranma felt a stab of pain as he looked down and realized he had accidentally 
cut one of his fingers when he wasn't paying attention cutting the carrots.
  "Oh my, you hurt yourself," Kasumi noticed a trickle of blood running down one 
of Ranma's fingers.
  "Don't worry, it's superficial," Ranma said, "It's just a scratch,"
  Kasumi reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a band-aid, "Here, 
let me put this band-aid over the wound,"
  "Um, thanks," Ranma held his hand forward for Kasumi to address. As Kasumi 
held his hand to put the band-aid on, he noticed how tender Kasumi's hands felt. 
This surprised him because he figured they would be rough from constantly doing 
chores.
  "Nice hands," Ranma said.
  "Pardon?" Kasumi looked up at Ranma.
  "Y've got nice hands," Ranma stated, "You must take real good care of 'em,"
  "Thank you," Kasumi smiled warmly.
  Ranma watched as Kasumi addressed the tiny cut on his fingers, a bit awed at 
how gracious Kasumi accepted compliments. That was something he definitely 
remembered about Kasumi, she was sweet and caring and much like a calm port in a 
rough storm. 
  Heh, I wonder what will happen if I press Kasumi's Big-O pressure point, Ranma 
smirked. That would make for quite an interesting scene. After a moment, he 
banished the thought. What the hell am I thinking? This is sweet, loveable 
Kasumi. If I did something like that, it would probably alter her personality 
into something like Misato's. That's just wrong. 
  "Do I have something on my face?" Kasumi touched her face, "I notice you've 
been staring at me quite a bit,"
  Ranma blushed, "Oh, sorry. I guess I couldn't help it,"
  Kasumi giggled. Akane said nothing, seemingly transfixed at watching the scene 
unfolding before her.
  Ranma returned to cutting the carrots.
  "All right, let's get started with dinner,"
  
  Ranma leaned against the doorjamb of the dojo, peering in. Seeing the old dojo 
sure brought back memories, of all those times he had trained in there where he 
was young. 
  "You and Kasumi seem to get along fine," came Akane's voice from behind.
  "Yeah, I like her," Ranma said, "She's a sweet girl,"
  Akane regarded Ranma's back. To her, Ranma seemed to possess a sense of 
maturity not evident in normal sixteen year olds. Sure, there was a sense of 
vulgarity to him that she found annoying, but this mundane aura he exuded seemed 
to interest her.
  "You act a lot older than you seem," Akane said. She noticed Ranma spoke to 
Kasumi like a full grown adult, not some bumbling teenager, usually awkward with 
conversations with women at that age.
  Ranma smiled as he turned toward her, "I'll take that as a compliment," Of 
course, losing one's friends and family in one fell swoop tend to make people 
grow up real fast.
  "Do you like her?" Akane asked, somewhat nervous.
  "What's there not to like about her?" Ranma asked.
  "I guess you have a point," Akane said.
  Ranma decided to change the subject, "So, you train in here a lot?"
  "Yes," Akane said, "Um, so, whatcha think of dinner?"
  "It was pretty good," Ranma said.
  "What do you think of the dish I made?" Akane asked, "You know, the 
dumplings,"
  "Y'want me to be nice or tell the truth?" Ranma asked.
  "The truth," Akane said. 
  "It tasted kinda bad," Ranma said truthfully.
  "What?!? How dare you!!" Akane became suddenly angry.
  Ranma showed no signs of being intimidated by her anger, "Why the hell're ya 
getting angry at me? You asked for the truth,"
  Akane took several breaths to calm herself down, "Why did you find it bad?"
  "It tasted really bad," Ranma shrugged, "Even though I helped out, you must've 
accidentally done something to it that made it taste that way, as if you 
accidentally put in the wrong spices or tried to use one ingredient to 
substitute another ingredient,"
  "I tried really hard, y'know," Akane said, hurt.
  Ranma's lips became a thin line. She did have a point. She had been trying her 
best with the dish was had prepared. It was most unfortunate that her best left 
a lot to be desired.
  "Look, I know you tried your hardest," Ranma said, "It's just that you need 
practice. If you want, I'll teach you how to cook,"
  "Really?" Akane asked. She noticed that Ranma was an excellent cook. That dish 
of curry he made was delicious.
  Ranma shrugged, "Yeah. You make mistakes in the kitchen when you're cooking. 
I'll just watch over you to make sure you don't make mistakes and you should be 
fine. You have the potential to become a great cook, but you just need 
practice,"
  "Really?" Akane blushed.
  "Yeah, everyone has to start somewhere," Ranma said, "Heck, I started off as a 
bad cook as well. Over time, you'll get better, provided you learn from your 
mistakes,"
  Akane said nothing. Ranma had a point.
  "If you ever wanna cook, lettme know and I'll help out," Ranma said, "However, 
if you don't, don't get angry at me for choose to not eat your food if it turns 
out bad,"
  "Um, okay," Akane said, "That sounds like a reasonable deal,"
  "Wanna show me some katas?" Ranma asked, wanting to change the subject. He was 
curious to see how well she did her katas, curious as to how far along the Akane 
he knew had come in terms of martial arts. In terms of pure martial arts, the 
Akane he knew was the most skilled martial artist in the world.   
  Akane looked a bit nervous, like she didn't like the thought of someone 
scrutinizing her. She had a funny feeling Ranma was a very powerful martial 
artist. There was an aura to him that she sense similar to Dr. Tofu's.
  "How about you show me some of your katas?" Akane asked.
  Ranma smiled, "I asked you first,"
  Akane contemplated doing katas in front of Ranma. She was pretty confident of 
herself as a martial artist but wondered how she was compared to a martial 
artist like Ranma.
  "If you want, I can teach you," Ranma offered, "I'm a really good teacher,"
  Actually, Ranma was best known in his world as being the ultimate sensei. He 
was just as good at teaching martial arts as he was in the ways of martial arts. 
His training methods were unorthodox but no one complained, especially when 
every student that graduated from his school usually became champion martial 
artists.
  "How about we spar?" Akane asked, "I'm really curious as to how good a martial 
artist you are,"
  Ranma shook his head, "No thanks,"
  At that moment, the both of them heard Soun calling out for them from the 
house.
  "Hm, I wonder what your old man wants," Ranma scratched his head.
  "I'm not too sure," Akane shrugged.
  Akane and Ranma left the dojo and went into the house. Inside, they saw 
everyone sitting in the dining area around the table.
  Soun gestured toward the an empty seat next to him, "Akane, please, have a 
seat,"
  "What's this about?" Akane asked, sitting down.
  Soun turned toward Ranma as Ranma looked at them curiously, much like Akane.
  "We have decided," Soun said, placing a hand on Genma's shoulder.
  "Decided what?" Ranma asked.
  "We have decided that Akane shall be you fiancee," Soun said, "You two are the 
same age and would make a fine couple,"
  "What?!?!?!" Akane's eyes were wide with surprise.
  Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming.
  "Man, the more things change, the more they stay the same,"

  Ranma took stripped off all of his clothes as his father gave him a rather 
confused look.
  "What are you doing?" Genma asked.
  "I'm taking off all my clothes," Ranma replied.
  "Why?" Genma asked. Even though he was Ranma's father, he didn't particularly 
care to see his son naked.
  Ranma, once stark naked, climbed into his futon, "I like sleeping naked,"
  "Since when?" Genma asked.
  "Since around the time I fell into the Nyanichuan spring," Ranma smirked. He 
had no idea when he preferred to sleep naked but he preferred it. It was more 
comfortable. Of course, it usually created quite a bit of anarchy since he 
sometimes had a tendency of waking up at night to use the bathroom and never 
bothered to get dressed to do so.
  Everyone that lived in his house, Luna and Lina as well whenever they visited,  
had seen him naked at some point in time.
  "Suit yourself," Genma shrugged, lying down in his futon.
  Ranma got into his futon.
  "So, how did you like your first day?" Genma asked.
  Ranma smirked, remembering his father asking him that exact same question long 
long ago in his past, on the night of his first night at the Tendo's.
  "I like this place," Ranma said, already saying something different than back 
then. Back then, he said that he had no intention of staying around, him intent 
on going back to China to find a cure.
  "I'm glad you liked it," Genma stated, "It's a good thing we've cured 
ourselves. It would most likely cause quit a bit of misunderstandings had we not 
been cured of our curse,"
  Ranma laughed, "You have no idea,"
  
  Ranma emerged from the house early in the morning, somewhere around five in 
the morning.
  "Let's start developing my body into the body it's got the potential to be," 
Ranma told himself, stretching his legs. He intended to jog every morning for as 
long as he was here. He was very healthy and in excellent shape, but he knew he 
could be in better shape. 
  As he was about to start off with his morning jog, he heard the door open 
behind him.
  "R-Ranma?" Akane was surprised to see him.
  "Mornin', Akane, my fiancee," Ranma grinned.
  Akane blushed but suddenly became defensive, "We're not fiancees. This fiancee 
business was imposed on the both of us by both our fathers,"
  Ranma shrugged, "Okay,"
  "We're not fiancees," Akane said.
  "I know," Ranma said, "No need to tell me twice,"
  "We should go wake our fathers up and tell them we're both in agreement about 
not wanting to be fiancees," Akane said.
  Ranma said, "Nah,"
  "What?" she asked.
  "Don't bother telling 'em," Ranma said, "Let 'em go on thinking otherwise. 
Actually, it's better that way, if they think we aren't against the idea, 
they'll leave us alone,"
  "Leave us alone? What makes you say that?" Akane asked, confused.
  Ranma leaned forward, his face close to Akane, "They'll leave us alone. If 
they think we're getting along, they'll leave us alone outta fear that their 
interfering will lead to us calling off the engagement,"
  "But that's basically us lying to them," Akane said.
  "So?" Ranma smirked.
  Akane regarded Ranma as he gave her a mischievous look. After a moment, she 
giggled. Ranma did make sense. It was their father's crazy idea to try to try 
and engage them so let it be their father's problems when they realize that 
their offspring couldn't be so easily manipulated.
  "So, now that we've got that cleared, onto something else," Ranma said, "You 
going jogging?"
  Akane nodded, "Yes. Every morning. How about you?"
  "Yeah," Ranma nodded, "If y'want, we can go jogging together. How far you 
usually jog a day,"
  "Around seven miles," she answered, "How about you?"
  "That's pretty good," Ranma stated, "I jog around that much," He actually 
jogged more than twenty miles a day when he was back in his own world when he we 
by himself but he never minded having a jogging companion.
  "Well, wanna start?" Ranma asked, beginning to jog in place.
  "Okay," Akane smiled warmly, "Since you're new around here, I'll show you the 
jogging path I take. The scenery's great,"
  "Cool," Ranma said. He regarded Akane as she stood in front of him in her 
jogging outfit, a pair of shorts and a tank top. After a moment, he grinned, 
"Heh, that outfit of yours sure don't leave much to the imagination if y'know 
what I mean,"
  "Ranma!" Akane blushed with embarrassment. It made her wonder if Ranma was 
somehow flirting with her. Was that how flirting was?
  Ranma said, "Go, lead the way, I'll watch you from behind,"
  "I don't think so," Akane realized Ranma implied.
  Ranma laughed.
  He placed a hand on Akane's shoulder. To Akane, Ranma's hand felt warm and 
gave her a tingling sensation. Oddly enough, she didn't shrug away like she 
usually did whenever a boy touched her. She was pretty sure she hated boys but 
for some odd reason, Ranma seemed different, unlike normal boys.
  Ranma smiled, "C'mon, let's go,"
  Akane and Ranma went jogging side by side.

  Ranma grinned as he stood near the koi pond, waiting for his father to attack. 
  Akane watched in surprise from the porch, a towel around her neck. She and 
Ranma had gotten back from jogging and she was shocked to see that Ranma had 
immediate began training against his father.
  "I saw the two of you getting back from jogging this morning," Nabiki smirked, 
looking up from her bowl of soup. She was clad in her school uniform and was 
just finishing up her breakfast before heading off to school.
  "Um, yeah," Akane said.
  "You two seem to be getting along," Nabiki said.
  Akane said, "I guess,"
  "Kinda strange, and here I thought you dislike boys," Nabiki stated.
  "I do," Akane said to Nabiki.
  "How's Ranma different?" Nabiki grinned, "You saw him naked, right? Didn't he 
have something that would classify him as a boy as well?"
  "Nabiki," Akane blushed.
  Nabiki laughed. She finished her soup and excused herself, heading upstairs to 
get her books to leave.
  Akane turned her attention back toward Ranma and Genma, curious as to who 
would win the sparring session. To her surprise, Genma was lying in the middle 
of the koi pond, an embarrassed look on his face.
  "You're getting old, pop," Ranma taunted.
  When Genma had attempted a lunging punch toward him, Ranma sidestepped and 
tripped him right into the koi pond. He turned away from Genma and began heading 
into the house.
  "I thought you said you think fighting should be reserved to protecting 
someone or protecting yourself," Akane smirked, "From what I saw, it seemed like 
you have no qualms about sparring against your father except for the sake of 
training,"
  Ranma smiled, "Oh, yeah, that. Well, I guess I should revise that. I'll only 
fight if it means protecting someone, protecting myself, or I get the chance to 
beat my old man,"
  Akane giggled. She looked at the clock that hung on the wall and realized what 
time it was.
  "Oh my god, I'm going to be late," Akane quickly rushed off to take her 
morning shower and get dressed for school. She hadn't realized what time it was, 
that she had jogged longer than normal, jogging her usually jogging route but at 
a slower pace. Perhaps it was because she subconsciously jogged slower since she 
had indulged in banter with Ranma as they jogged along that whole time and 
actually enjoyed it.
  Around fifteen minutes elapsed, Ranma sparring against his father several more 
times before his father decided to call it quits, him having beaten Ranma not 
even once.
  Ranma headed into the house, feeling the need to rest. He was sweating a bit 
too.
  "You've gotten much better," Genma said, surprised at how easily his son had 
defeated him, "Your fighting skills have gotten much better in the past couple 
of days,"
  Ranma smirked, "Y'have no idea how much better,"
  "Ranma," Genma said, climbing out of the koi pond to approach Ranma, "Starting 
today, you'll be expected to attend school,"
  Ranma shrugged, "Okay,"
  "It's the same school Akane and I go to," Nabiki said, heading down the 
hallway.
  "Nabiki, wait," Akane came rushing down the hallway, now clad in her school 
uniform, "I'll go with you,"
  "What are you talking about?" Nabiki asked Akane, "Ranma's your fiancee. You 
should walk him to school,"
  Ranma grinned, "She's got a point there,"
  Akane regarded Ranma for a moment.
  "Well, what are you waiting for then? Let's get going,"
  
  Ranma and Akane walked along side one another. Ranma kept gazing at a fence as 
he walked along side it.
  "How come you keep staring at the fence?" Akane noticed.
  "I remember I used to like walking on fences," he stated, "It's good for 
balance. I don't do it anymore,"
  "Why not?" she asked.
  "Let's just say I once slipped and one leg went down one side of the fence and 
my other leg went down the other side of the fence," Ranma said, "Let's just say 
being a guy and falling down on the fence like that.....it's pretty painful,"
  Akane said nothing. She felt like giggling but knew she shouldn't.
  Ranma paused for a moment when he sensed his father nearby, spying on the two 
of them. 
  He held his hand out toward Akane.
  Akane looked at Ranma's hand curiously and then up at Ranma. After a moment, 
she realized what Ranma wanted her to do. He wanted them to hold hands as they 
walked along.
  She gulped nervously as she reached a hand out and placed her hand in Ranma's. 
He closed his hand over hers and walked along.
  Akane said nothing, a blush on her face as she followed closely behind. They 
walked along, hand-in-hand until they rounded the corner.
  "Um, don't you think you're taking this fiancee thing a bit far?" Akane asked 
nervously, "I don't know about you, but you're giving me the impression that 
we're actually engaged,"
  Ranma suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, Akane accidentally bumping into 
him.
  At that moment, a spray of water missed hitting him as an elderly lady holding 
a small ladle was throwing water around in front of her sidewalk.
  "Good eye," Akane commented, "She almost got us both wet,"
  "Yeah," Ranma said.
  He let go of Akane's hand, "Sorry about that. I noticed my father spying on 
us. I just wanted to fool him,"
  "Really?" Akane smirked.
  Ranma noticed Akane seemed to be trying to tease him. That would never work.
  "Maybe," Ranma grinned, "But then again, maybe I'm using it as an excuse to 
hold your hand,"  
  Akane blushed.
  She found nothing wrong with that.

  "Akane, you don't happen to have a cell phone, do you?" Ranma asked her from 
out of the blue as the two of them could see the school several block away.
  "A cell phone? Yeah, why?" she asked. She had one but sure rarely, if ever, 
used her cell phone. 
  "Maybe I borrow it?" he asked, extending his hand.
  Akane looked at Ranma's extended hand. After a moment of hesitation, she 
extended her hand forward to put her hand in Ranma's hand.
  "I mean the cell phone," Ranma said, realizing Akane thought he was holding 
his hand forward for her to take his hand instead of him holding his hand 
forward for her to give him her cell phone.
  Akane blushed a deep shade of red from embarrassment, "Oh,"
  Ranma went about as she quickly went about searching through her carry bag for 
her cell phone.
  Man, Akane's so different, Ranma thought. She seems a lot less violent than 
the Akane I remember. I guess it really was my fault why Akane was so violent 
around me, because of my big mouth and my constantly antagonizing her.
  "Here," she handed him the cell phone, "What do you need it for?"
  Ranma smiled, "You'll see,"
  "Um, okay," she said as she watched him put it in his pocket. She had no real 
idea why Ranma needed her cell phone and was intrigued. There was something 
intriguing about Ranma in a mysterious sort of way.
  Together, they walked along silently.  
  "I can't stand boys," Akane grumbled to herself all of a sudden as they 
finally neared the school, the front gate no more than fifty feet in front of 
them.
  Ranma looked toward Akane.
  "Present company excluded," Akane quickly added.
  Ranma smirked.
  Akane ran ahead, "Just hang back for a minute. There's something I need to 
take care of,"
  "Okay," Ranma said.
  Ranma smirked as he saw a massive wave of boys come rushing from the front 
entrance of the school. He watched as Akane rushed right into the group of boys 
and suddenly begin fighting them, all the boys trying to defeat her.
  "Oh yeah," Ranma said to himself, "I completely forgot about that. The boys in 
this school are trying to defeat Akane so they could go on a date with her. Man, 
I'm really forgetting things. The only thing I remembered from my first day of 
school was meeting Kuno,"
  He watched in amusement for a few minutes as Akane dispatched the large group 
of boys trying to defeat her, she fighting them. Before long, she found herself 
standing in the middle of a large group of unconscious boys strewn about all 
over the front courtyard.
  "For Pete's sake, every morning," Akane muttered, slightly winded from the 
intense battle, "What a drag," 
  She had probably found and dispatched at least fifty boys in that single 
fight. 
  "You're a really good fighter," Ranma smiled, still leaning against the school 
gate.
  "Thanks," Akane said, trying to catch her breath.
  "Truly, such a boorish lot," came a deep voice.
  Ranma and Akane turned their attention toward the voice as a man appeared from 
behind a nearby tree, a rose in one hand, a bokken in the other hand.
  "Evidently, each of them intends to ask you out, Akane, on the dawn that he 
finally defeats you,"
  "Kuno-sempai," Akane muttered, obviously not happy to see him.
  "And now, Akane Tendo, might you fight with me?" the man named Kuno got into a 
battle stance, throwing a rose toward Akane, holding his bokken in front of him 
in a battle stance.
  Akane grabbed the rose and sighed.
  "Man, you're pretty popular, aren'tcha?" Ranma grinned, walking forward to 
come to stand next to Ranma, trying to recall exactly what he had said so many 
decades ago when he was in such a situation.
  "You there," Kuno pointed his bokken toward Ranma, "You're being quite 
familiar with Akane Tendo. Who are you boor? Ah, but it is a custom to give 
one's own name first. Fine then, mine I shall give,"
  Ranma shrugged.
  "I am upperclassman Kuno," Kuno said, "Junior Group E. Undefeated new star of 
the high school fencing world. My peers call me 'The Blue Thunder of Furinkan 
High',"
  "Stay out of the way, Ranma," Akane cautioned Ranma, "You'll get hurt,"
  Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out the cell phone Akane had given 
him, "Kuno, huh? What's your first name?"
  "Tatewaki," Kuno answered, waiting patiently for Ranma to give his name. He 
watched as Ranma pressed a few buttons on the cell phone, curious as to what 
Ranma was doing.
  "What are you doing? Are you not going to give me your name?" Kuno asked.
  Ranma smirked, "I'm calling the cops on you,"
  "What?!" Kuno's eyes widened.
  "Hi, yes, I would like to report an assault," Ranma said into the cell phone, 
"The assailant's calls himself Tatewaki Kuno, 'The Blue Thunder of Furinkan 
High'. He has a weapon. I saw him beating up a bunch of boys in the front 
courtyard of Furinkan High,"
  "I did no such thing!!!" Kuno said, sweating profusely.
  "So?" Ranma smirked toward Kuno.
  Kuno, not really knowing what to do and worried that cops would be after him, 
ran away, disappearing around the corner of the back of the school.
  Akane just stared at Ranma with wide eye shock. 
  After a moment, Ranma laughed, "Moron,"
  "Wow, I can't believe you called the cops on him," Akane said.
  Ranma handed the cell phone back to Akane, "Nah. I did no such thing. I just 
pretended like I was calling the cops on him,"
  Akane burst out laughing, "Wow, that's incredible! I can't believe I never 
thought of something like that before. It would had made my mornings so much 
easier since he always challenged me,"
  Ranma continued to grin.
  "Cell phones seems to make for good Kuno-repellent,"

  Akane constantly found herself stealing glances toward Ranma as Ranma slept 
soundly in class. The both of them had made it to the classroom just in time so 
that the teacher didn't consider them late and make them stand outside in the 
hallway holding buckets of water.
  Ranma was introduced to the class to which he was given a seat her the middle 
of the class near Akane. Akane overheard several girls giggling and making 
comments about how cute Ranma was. It made her realize that once lunchtime came 
around, all the students would be surrounding his desk asking him tons of 
questions. 
  Why is Ranma sleeping, Akane thought. The moment the teacher turns around from 
the blackboard, he will notice Ranma sleeping and will call him and ask him to 
answer the math question.
  "Ranma!" the teacher saw the new student sleeping in class.
  Ranma didn't stir.
  The teacher threw a piece of chalk across the room where it hit Ranma in the 
back of the head, waking him up. He yawned as he sat upright, a sleepy look on 
his face.
  "Since you were paying so much attention in my class, perhaps you might be 
able to answer the question," the teacher said sarcastically.
  "You should be a comedian instead of a teacher since it's obvious you're so 
funny with that sarcastic wit of yours," Ranma muttered in annoyance. He didn't 
like being woken up for stupid reasons and this was a stupid reason.
  The teacher glared at Ranma.
  Ranma yawned and asked, "What was the question you wanted me to answer?"
  "If you were paying attention, you would know that I asked 'What values will 
'X' and 'Y' be?'," the teacher said.
  Ranma looked at the blackboard for a moment before saying, "The answers'll be 
'X' equals nine and 'Y' equals the square root of negative nine or, simplified, 
imaginary three,"
  "That is incorrect," the teacher said.
  Ranma looked at the teacher for a moment, wondering if he should embarrass him 
in front of the entire classroom by pointing out that the answer was correct and 
that he had messed up carrying out one of the variables.
  He shrugged, "Okay, I guess I'm wrong then. I don't care anyway. This shit 
you're teaching us's bullshit anyway,"
  "What didja say?" the teacher could've sworn he heard Ranma mutter something 
that had the word 'shit' in it. No student is ever allowed to swear in his 
class,"
  "I said 'Okay, I guess I'm wrong then. I don't care anyway. This shit you're 
teaching us's bullshit anyway'," Ranma repeated loudly. Everyone in the 
classroom gasped at Ranma's audacity.
  "Go stand outside in the hall!" the teacher yelled at him.
  Ranma shrugged as he got up out of his seat and went outside into the hallway.
  Akane looked around the class and could hear many of the girls whispering to 
one another. Most of the girls were whispering to one another about how cool 
Ranma was and how they couldn't wait until lunch to talk to him and get to know 
more about him.
  Oddly enough, Akane felt herself getting angry hearing those girls gossiping 
about Ranma.

  Ranma leaned against the wall outside the classroom.
  He felt a bit bad at having gotten angry in the classroom like that but he 
didn't really care. He didn't like taking crap from anyone if he didn't have to, 
even if it was a teacher that children respected. 
  "Man, what the heck happened on my first day of school," Ranma asked himself, 
trying to remember.
  He turned his gaze down the hallway where he saw Kuno, holding a bucket of 
water, coming running down the hall toward him.
  "Oh yeah, Kuno found out from Nabiki and Akane and I were engaged," Ranma 
smirked, "Akane and I were late so we were both standing outside in the hallway 
when Kuno tried to attack me,"
  Kuno came to a skidding halt right by Ranma, trying to slash him with the 
bucket of water, Ranma skillfully dodging it.
  "Never Ranma Saotome," Kuno said, having found out Ranma's name from Nabiki, " 
I shall never accept your engagement to Akane!"
  Inside the classroom, everyone overheard what Kuno had said outside in the 
hallway. Most of the students turned toward Akane.
  "Is that true, Akane?" a classmate asked her.
  "I thought you hate boys," another classmate said.
  Akane blushed a deep shade of red, "I-it's not what you think!"
  Oh my god, she thought. What the heck is going on outside? That sounded like 
Kuno.
  Everyone in the classroom quickly got up and rushed toward the window 
separating the hallway from the classroom and opened it to hear and see what was 
going on outside in the hallway.
  "Ranma, is that true?" one student asked him.
  "You're really engaged to Akane?" another one asked.
  Kuno took a swing at him with the bokken, Ranma skillfully dodging it.
  "This is no place to fight," Ranma said, running off down the hallway, "Follow 
me,"
  "That I shall," Kuno followed suit.
  All the students started rushing out of the classroom to follow after Ranma 
and Kuno, ignoring the teacher's attempted requests for all the students to get 
back in the classroom and back in their seats.
  "This is great," one student said.
  "Ooooh, and the winner gets to go out with Akane," a female student stated, 
believing it romantic that two guys fight over a girl.
  Akane got up out of her seat and followed after the class.
  "Let's get outside," Ranma said, running straight toward the open window, 
"Follow me,"
  Ranma jumped out the open window.
  "Fear not," Kuno said, intend on jumping out the window with Ranma.
  "Hey, this is the third floor!" one student said.
  Everyone stopped by the open window and looked, worried at what they would 
see, that being two broken bodies at the ground three stories below. Much to 
everyone's surprise, they saw only Kuno falling down and into the school pool 
down below.
  "Heh, moron," Ranma smirked, holding onto the end of the window. He knew of 
the pool down below and had no intention of jumping in. He had grabbed onto the 
window edge as he jumped out, Kuno following out and making a leap, unaware of 
what Ranma had done until it was too late.  
  Kuno hit the pool with great impact, executing a perfect belly-flop. Everyone 
winced as they all knew that that had to hurt. After a few seconds, Kuno floated 
to the surface, unconscious.
  "Heh," Ranma smirked, still holding the edge of the window and looking down at 
Kuno's unconscious form. 
  After a moment, he pulled himself up and climbed back into the window.
  "We thought you were a goner," one student said.
  "Ranma, that was incredible," one female student said. 
  "Yeah, I'm the man," Ranma smiled confidently. It was rather funny how easy it 
was to get rid of Kuno. Kuno was so idiotic it was criminal.
  "That was awesome, Ranma," several students said.
  Akane made her way through the crowd of students and up to where Ranma was as 
many of them gave him pats on the back. Most of the students nearby began 
talking to him all at the same time.
  "Kuno was a jerk. I'm glad put him in his place,"
  "He deserved what was coming to him,"
  "Man, you really fooled that Kuno,"
  Ranma smiled, "Hey, dontcha guys all have a thing called class?"
  "Hey, is it true?" one student asked, "Are you and Akane engaged?"
  "Um," Ranma wondered what to say. He cast Akane a quick glance, wondering if 
she might be able to give him a hint on whether or not he should tell everyone 
if the engagement was real or a ruse. The barrage of questions about the 
engagement didn't stop, Ranma finding himself becoming overwhelmed.
  "Yes, we're engaged," Akane blurted out. This surprised Ranma. Of all things, 
he figured she would say the exact opposite.
  Everyone became deathly silent.
  "Um, she's right," Ranma said, following Akane's lead, "Anyone got a problem 
with it?"
  No one said anything.
  "Everyone, get back to class or you're all going to get detention," someone 
shouted from down the hallway. 
  Everyone turned their attention toward the person that said it. It was none 
other than the teacher. Because no one wanted to get detention, they all quickly 
headed off down the hallway, disappearing back into their classroom.
  Akane ended up getting dragged off with the group, casting Ranma a furtive 
look as Ranma remained where he was, smirking as he leaned up against the window 
as the teacher approached him.
  "Are you the cause of all this?" the teacher ask Ranma.
  Ranma jerked a thumb out the window toward Kuno as he could now be seen slowly 
climbing out of the pool, having regained consciousness, "That guy started it,"
  "I'm gonna keep an eye on you," the teacher said, glaring at Ranma, "I'm sure 
you're nothing but trouble,"   
  Ranma shrugged, "So?"




<new stuff 10/29>
 



  Akane and Nabiki walked home together after school was over. Ranma wasn't 
there
  "I heard what Ranma did to Kuno," Nabiki smirked, "I wish I could've been 
there to see it,"
  "There wasn't all that much to see," Akane answered, "I saw him have Kuno 
follow him and jump out the window. However, Ranma grabbed onto the window edge 
as he jumped out. Kuno didn't realize this until it was too late,"
  Nabiki said, "It seems news spread fast of your engagement to Ranma,"
  "Actually, it spread all because of you," Ranma said, his voice a bit cold.
  "Me? What makes you say that?" Nabiki pointed toward herself.
  "You're an indirect cause of it, but you're the one that caused it," Ranma 
rephrased.
  "How so?" she was curious.
  Ranma said, "You told Kuno. Kuno blurted it out in front of the classroom and 
now everyone thinks that,"
  "I did no such thing," Nabiki said glibly.
  Nabiki shrugged, "Well, it was bound to be known sooner or later. I guess it 
was sooner than later,"
  Ranma shrugged, "I guess you have a point,"
  A strong gust of wind blew by, causing both Nabiki and Akane to yelp out in 
surprise as they tried to keep their dress from blowing upward and revealing 
their panties.
  Ranma grinned.
  "You saw 'em, didn't you?" Akane glared at Ranma.
  "Heh, both yours and Nabiki's panties are white," Ranma added.
  Nabiki and Akane both had deep blushes on their cheeks. While Nabiki displayed 
signs of embarrassment, Akane displayed signs of anger.
  "Ranma!" Akane snapped, feeling the need to strike him, "You're such a 
pervert,"
  "Oh, like it's my fault the wind blew your dresses up," Ranma smiled.
  Akane found herself unable to say anything.
  Ranma grinned, figuring he might as well have some fun, "Of course, if I did 
something like this, that's a good reason to be angry,"
  He slapped Akane on her backside, causing the young girl to yelp out in 
surprise.
  "Ranma!" Akane turned toward him, instantly fuming. However, he was no longer 
there, having taken off down the street. She yelled out after him, chasing after 
him, "Get back here!"
  Nabiki stood where she was for a moment and smirked, watching the two of them 
running down the street before they disappeared around a corner. She then 
proceeded to walk home on her own, a slight blush on her cheeks. There was 
something to Ranma she found intriguing.
  "What an interesting person,"

  Akane watched Ranma had he did some katas in the dojo, her gaze transfixed on 
him. The incident that had happened earlier had been long forgotten, Akane 
letting it slide just this one time when Ranma pointed out to her that she had 
seen him naked afterall and him slapping her backside made them now even.
  She noticed Ranma's movements were very fluid, exuding confidence. 
  "You look like you've been training for a lot longer than since you were a 
baby," Akane stated. She knew well enough about martial arts that it took 
decades of practice and training to display martial arts skills Ranma was 
displaying. 
  Ranma smiled, "Thanks. I'm a quick learner,"
  He decided against seeing if he could shoot ki-blasts. He was pretty sure he 
could but didn't want to try and come up with an excuse on how he knew such 
techniques. Heck, how the heck would he be able to explain it to his father 
without telling the truth? No, it was best to never reveal some of the more 
advanced techniques he knew. Then again, it isn't as if he needed it anyway.
  "C'mon, let's spar," Akane said, eager to see just how good a fighter Ranma 
was. Although she was a prideful fighter, Akane, for some reason, felt like she 
wouldn't really feel bad if she lost a sparring match against someone like 
Ranma.
  Ranma shook his head, "Nope,"
  "Why not?" Akane asked, "I want to spar against you,"
  Ranma chuckled, "Wow, that sounded like a whine,"
  Akane said, "I'm not whining. I just find it rather odd why you're so against 
sparring. It's an excellent form of training,"
  "So's meditation," Ranma grinned, "Of course, I don't see you doing it,"
  "Neither do you," Akane retorted.
  "Y'got a point," Ranma said, "Anyway, the point is is I'm not interested in 
sparring against you. I'll teach you, but I won't spar,"
  Akane asked, "Do you have a thing against fighting? During the two times that 
it seems like you could've fought against Kuno, you managed to outwit him,"
  Ranma smirked, "Outwitting Kuno isn't all that hard,"
  Akane giggled.
  "If I don't need to fight, I won't fight," Ranma said, "And before you ask 
about me sparring my old man, I guess I do it because of habit. That's all. I 
don't care about fighting,"
  Akane thought about asking him to train her. Although she had no real idea how 
good Ranma was, she was pretty sure he was a lot better than her. Of course, she 
would never admit it without sparring and finding out first-hand. 
  She looked at the clock and noticed what time it was, "We should head in, 
dinner is almost ready,"
  Ranma smiled happily, "Cool,"

  "So, how was school?" Genma asked Ranma.
  "Fine," Ranma said, munching down on his meal as he and everyone else sat 
around the dinner table.
  He noticed Soun looking rather depressed. It took a moment for Ranma to 
realize why. Soun was depressed that he now had to worry about having two more 
extra mouths to feed. And it also didn't help that both Ranma and Genma ate 
quite a bit.
  I'll fix that, Ranma thought to himself. I'll do something about that. My old 
man and I were freeloaders then, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be a 
freeloader now that I hafta do everything all over again.
  "Did you get along fine with all the students?" Genma asked.
  Ranma shrugged, "More or less. The teachers aren't all that fond of me,"
  "That's because you constantly sleep in class," Akane smirked.
  "Actually, I think what really annoys them is when they think I'm not paying 
attention and asking me a question and I answer it," Ranma chuckled.
  "Ranma's doing well in school?" Genma was surprised.
  Ranma shrugged, "Well enough. Of course, it'll probably take a good week or so 
of constantly doing this before the teachers realize that it's better to just 
let me sleep instead of trying to see if there's an answer I can't answer,"
  Ranma was fairly smart. Of course, in class, he seemed like a genius. Him 
possessing the mind and intelligence of an adult and being in a high school 
class was akin to a high school student being in a kindergarten class. Compared 
to all the other student in his class, he seemed very smart. Of course, compared 
to some of the adults he knew and associated with back on his home world, he 
wasn't smart at all. It was all relative. 
  "I'm glad to hear you're doing well in school," Genma said.
  "Yeah, it's obvious I got my brains from mom's side of the family," Ranma 
grinned.
  Everyone in the room laughed.
  Ranma noticed Nabiki staring at him, "What, do I have something on my face?" 
He proceeded to wipe at his face, figuring a piece of rice had gotten stuck to 
his cheek.
  "Um, there was, but you got it," Nabiki lied.
  She quickly went about eating, quickly bringing her bowl of rice up to her 
face to eat, doing so to hide her blush.
  
  "Akane, you can go on ahead," Ranma said to Akane the next day as they were 
walking to school. Nabiki wasn't with them, she having gone back to the house to 
pick up a text book she forgot while Akane and Ranma went on.
  "I hafta go do something," Ranma said, "It'll probably take all morning,"
  "What? Do what?" she asked.
  "Don't worry your pretty little head over it," Ranma said, "It's nothing. I'll 
be in school after lunch,"
  "What, you're skipping morning classes?" Akane was surprised, "This is your 
second day of school and you're already skipping classes,"
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah. I guess I am,"
  "Why?" she asked.
  "Don't worry about it," Ranma said, "And don't worry about what I'm gonna miss 
in class anyway. It's not like I don't already know all the stuff the 
teachers're teaching anyway,"
  "Still," she persisted.
  "Don't worry," Ranma said.
  "Why don't you just tell me?" Akane asked after a moment. 
  Ranma laughed, "Hah, if I told you, you'd get all jealous and stuff. No way,"
  "What do you mean by that?" Akane asked, getting angry, "And what makes you 
think I would get jealous of whatever you do? You don't even know me," 
  Ranma thought about it for a moment before he said, "Forget it. Look, just 
trust me,"
  Akane said nothing.
  She didn't really know Ranma that well and it wasn't as if she had any control 
over him anyway. If he didn't want to tell her, she had a good reason to believe 
that he wouldn't tell her. 
  After a moment, she said, "And what if everyone starts asking me about you? 
What am I to say?"
  "Tell them I felt sick," Ranma shrugged.
  "You want me to lie?" Akane felt annoyed.
  "All right, tell them the truth," he said, "It doesn't make any difference,"
  "And what truth would that be?" she asked. 
  "That you don't know," Ranma answered matter-of-factly, "Just tell them I went 
off to do something but you don't know what,"
  "But-" she tried to say.
  "Talk to y'later," Ranma ran off before Akane could say anything.
  Akane just stood there, puzzled. She and Ranma had gone jogging this morning 
and she thought the two of them were getting along fine. How come Ranma suddenly 
didn't want to tell her what he was up to? 
  Realizing that there was nothing much she could do about it, Ranma long gone 
and she not having a clue where to start looking for him, she decided to head 
off to school. Perhaps Ranma would tell her when they met up after lunch.
  
  "Good morning, ladies," Ranma smiled warmly toward a group of four gorgeous 
women.
  The women stopped to look at the young teenager. They were all dressed in 
attire that indicated that they were successful businesswomen. They were every 
bit as beautiful as they were successful.
  They were all in their mid-twenties and were on their way to the train station 
to go to work. They regarded the young teenager curiously.
  "Do you all have a minute you can spare?" he asked.
  They all looked at one another before they nodded.
  "My name is Ranma Saotome," Ranma said, "What are your names?"
  All four girls looked at one another for a bit before they gave him their 
names.
  "I'm Minda," one woman said, "This is Mika, Cheri, and Amasa,"
  "Are you girls free this weekend?" he asked.
  "Kid, you're about ten years too early," one woman smiled warmly, "I must say, 
you've got more guts than any man I've ever come across to approach all four of 
us at the same time,"
  Ranma smiled, "Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure unlike any guy you've ever come 
across,"
  The group laughed, admiring the young boy's confidence. 
  "Anyway, I'm a sensei at the Anything School of Martial Arts," Ranma said, 
getting to the point, "I'm interested in teaching you all some martial arts,"
  "Martial arts?" one asked.
  Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out four business cards that he took 
from the dojo. He handed each woman a card.
  "This is the school I work for," Ranma said seriously, "This weekend, I'm 
going to be giving free martial arts lessons starting at noon until whenever. 
I'd like for you girls to come check us out. You can come and watch or take 
lessons as well. If y'want lessons, just wear clothes like jogging pants. You 
can bring whoever you like,"
  "Free martial arts lessons, that's interesting," one woman said.
  The other girls agreed.
  "What's the catch?" one woman asked, skeptic.
  Ranma said, "There is no catch. Just come if you feel like it,"
  "You're going to be teaching the class?" another woman asked.
  Ranma nodded.
  "But you're only, what, sixteen," the woman said. 
  "Hey, don't judge a book by its cover," Ranma said in annoyance, "I'm not 
judging you so I appreciate it if you don't judge me. You should judge me by my 
abilities, not my appearance,"
  "I'm sorry," the woman said, "I was out of line. I know exactly what you mean. 
Actually, the four of us know what you mean. We've often been judged on our 
appearance and not our abilities,"
  "Anyway, if you can, please come," Ranma said, "I scribbled down the times 
when I'll be teaching,"
  "Okay," another woman said, "We'll keep it in mind,"
  "Thanks," Ranma said. 
  "Well, it was nice talking to you," a woman said, "It's best we get going now, 
our train will be here shortly,"
  Ranma watched as the women headed off, disappearing around the corner. 
  After a minute, he spotted two beautiful women walking down the street.
  He smiled as he crossed the street to have a word with them.
  
  Nabiki watched Ranma from a safe distance.
  "Who are all these women he's walking up to?" she asked herself. She had gone 
home to retrieve a missing text book and had spotted Ranma while she was on her 
way back to school. Because she was running late, she had decided to take a 
shortcut.
  When she spotted Ranma, she saw him standing in front of four very beautiful 
women, talking to them. It made her wonder where Akane was and why she wasn't 
with him. She also wondered if Ranma knew those women. As she watched, she saw 
Ranma seeming approach every beautiful random woman that came across his path.
  When she noticed this, she had reached into her book bag and pulled out a 
camera and took pictures. She always carried a camera, usually using it to take 
candid pictures of Akane so that she could sell them to Kuno for an exorbitant 
amount of money. This was the first time she was using the camera for something 
else.
  "Ranma's some kind of playboy," Nabiki said, "He's hitting on every beautiful 
girl he comes across,"
  She had taken several pictures of Ranma talking to girls before she finally 
decided that she was definitely going to be late if she didn't hurry on to 
school.
  Nabiki couldn't help but feel sad as she ran off to school after having spied 
on Ranma for around five minutes. She thought Ranma might actually be an okay 
guy, but after she saw what she saw, it was obvious she was wrong. 
  Since it was obvious Ranma was a jerk just like every other guy out there, 
there was no reason for Nabiki to take pity on him.
  "I wonder how much money I can make blackmailing him with those pictures,"

  "Hey, Akane, Ranma's here," one girl called out as she sat by the window. 
  It was during lunch and someone spotted Ranma from within the classroom as he 
was walking across the courtyard toward the front entrance.
  "Man, you're so lucky," a female classmate said, "He's really hot,"
  Akane let out an annoyed breath. It was strange how so many of the girls in 
the class took such a liking to him. She had a funny feeling it was because of 
the incident with the teacher and the way he just spoke his mind and generally 
made himself seem like a bad boy. What was with women finding bad boys so 
attractive? 
  She glanced out the window where she saw Ranma. Seeing him made her curious as 
to where he had been.   
  She watched as he disappeared into the school, reappearing as he walked 
through the classroom door and took a seat at his desk. Several students 
approached him and started talking to him, asking him where he had been.
  She didn't bother approaching him, figuring there was no real need. She was 
pretty sure none of the students would find out about where Ranma had been 
anyway.
  "Hey, are you writing some kinda biography on me?" Ranma seemed annoyed, "Who 
cares where I've been? Quit asking me so many questions,"
  The fact that Ranma seemed to constantly tell people to basically mind their 
own business made him seem all the more mysterious and intriguing, especially to 
the female populace.
  "The teacher gave a pop quiz today," someone commented, "He doesn't do make-
ups,"
  Ranma shrugged, "So?" He yawned as he placed his arms on the desk and rest his 
head down, "I'm gonna go take a nap,"
  "The teacher's going to be in soon," one student said.
  "So? It never stopped me before," Ranma shrugged, "Ain't gonna stop me now,"
  He promptly went to sleep. He didn't go to sleep because he was tired. He 
simply went to sleep because he would rather sleep instead of stay awake during 
a boring class. Sure, he could just leave, but then he would have to deal with 
authorities spotting him wandering around and wondering why he wasn't in school. 
Afterall, he did look like a teenager.
  Before long, lunch time was over and the teacher entered the classroom.
  When the teacher noticed Ranma sleeping, he got angry. The whole classroom 
watched in quiet anticipation between what was going to happen. They wondered if 
they would see another Ranma-teacher interaction like what they had seen 
yesterday. 
  "Ranma, wake up!" the teacher shouted across the classroom toward Ranma.
  Ranma opened his eyes and looked at the teacher, "What?"
  "You will not sleep in my class," the teacher said angrily, "If you want to 
sleep, it will not be in my class,"
  Ranma got up and headed for the door, "Okay,"
  "Where do you think you're going?" the teacher called out as Ranma opened the 
door.
  "I'm going home," Ranma said.
  "Get back in your seat!" the teacher yelled.
  "What the fuck?" Ranma turned toward the teacher, "Get off my case!"
  The entire class gasped. The teacher was completely shocked at Ranma's 
response. Never in his life had he ever had a student like Ranma before.
  Ranma had a thing with authority. He disliked it as well as being told what to 
do. Actually, that was untrue. He had no real problems with authority, just 
misuse of it. 
  Ranma was an adult. The teacher was an adult. Therefore, the argument that 
would come between them would be an adult one. This was one of the reasons why 
many children could not really talk back to a teacher, because they didn't have 
the mindset as an adult.    
  "You are overstepping your bounds as a teacher," Ranma said, "My sleeping in 
class is not disrupting your class. Afterall, everyone in this class can clearly 
hear what you're saying and I'm not preventing anyone from learning. 
Unfortunately, my sleeping in class bothers YOU. You are just like those 
teachers that don't like students wearing hats or chewing gum in class. You have 
no authority to tell a student what to wear or chew. You are a teacher and your 
job is to teach. You are a professional and having something bother YOU while 
you're teaching is unprofessional. So long as what anyone is doing is NOT 
disrupting the class, you have no authority in the matter. I've watched several 
students yesterday raise their hands and ask to go to the bathroom and you 
declining. You have no authority to decide that. It does not disrupt the class. 
Unfortunately, it disrupts you, which is very unprofessional. You are not 
professional,"
  The teacher was stunned at the argument Ranma brought up.
  "If you were a professional, you will continue to teach the students while I 
sleep," Ranma continued on, "This is because, as a professional, it is more 
important to you that you have the children learn from you instead of you 
getting pissed off because of one student,"
  The teacher said nothing.
  "Now, which one would you rather choose, to be professional and let me sleep?" 
Ranma asked patiently, "Or be unprofessional and kick me out of the class 
because it bothers you that I'm sleeping in class,"
  The teacher stood there silently, everyone in class wondering what the man 
would say.
  "Fine, you may sleep," the teacher relented, "However, if you do not know the 
materials that I'm teaching for the upcoming test, it is because you were 
sleeping when you shouldn'tve,"
  "I'm aware of that and I'll take my chances," 

  Ranma approached the teacher at the end of school day.
  "I'd like to have a word with you, alone please," Ranma said to the teacher.
  The teacher regarded Ranma for a moment before he said, "We can talk in my 
office,"
  Ranma followed the teacher to his office. It was a cozy office with lots of 
textbooks strewn about.
  "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" the teacher asked.
  "I'm sorry for the outburst in the class like that," Ranma said, "It's just 
that I didn't like to be told what to do. I did not do it for attention at your 
expense,"
  The teacher sighed, "I figured. You brought up a few good points. Your 
sleeping in class really did bother me and it didn't disrupt the class at all,"
  "If it did, you should have told me," Ranma said, "There was no need to try 
and make an example out of me in front of the whole class,"
  "I'll be sure to remember that," the teacher said.
  "I'm glad to hear it," Ranma smiled.
  "Is that all?" the teacher asked.
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah. That's all. I just wanted to apologize and be on my way. 
See you later,"
  Before Ranma left the office, the teacher said, "Wait,"
  "You missed the pop quiz this morning," the teacher stated.
  "I had something important to do this morning," Ranma answered.
  The teacher regarded Ranma for a moment before he turned toward his desk and 
opened up a draw and pulled a piece of paper out.
  "I don't give out make-up, but for you, I'll make an exception," the teacher 
said, "If you stay for a half hour, I can quickly whip a make up quiz and you 
can take it in my office,"
  Ranma smiled, "Thanks, teach, but don't worry. I'll take the zero,"
  "Are you sure?" the teacher asked, "Each quiz counts as five percent of your 
final grade. I'm confident I know the material. I don't need a grade to prove 
it. Just curious though, the quiz, what was it on?"
  The teacher pulled out another piece of paper from his desk and showed it to 
him, "That's the pop quiz I gave,"
  Ranma looked at it for a moment.
  "The answer's 'X' equals fifteen," Ranma handed the paper back to him after a 
minute.
  "That's right," the teacher was surprised, "You did that in your head?"
  "I'm good at math," Ranma smirked, "But then again, someone in the class 
could've told me the answer that they came up with and I'm just pretending I did 
it in my head,"
  The teacher laughed, "Perhaps,"
  Ranma headed for the door, "I'll see you around,"
  After Ranma was gone, the teacher looked down at the quiz paper. It was the 
quiz question for his 'Advanced Calculus' class, a college-level course he 
taught that was much much harder than the math class Ranma was currently.
  The teacher opened up the grade book and wrote a '100' in front of the space 
where Ranma's quiz score was supposed to be. 
  
  Ranma saw Akane waiting for by the tree located near the school gate. The 
wasn't paying all that much attention, too busy watching the front entrance to 
have notice Ranma emerged from around the side of the school.
  Ranma snuck up behind Akane and grabbed her by the side, "Boo!"
  Akane yelped out in surprise, closing her eyes and swinging her book bag 
around instinctively toward her attacker.
  Ranma ducked just as the book bag swung by over him, missing his head by 
inches. He took several steps back and watched as Akane swung her bag around as 
if she was trying to swat away attacking bees with it, screaming in fright, her 
eyes closed.
  After a moment of swinging her bag around, Akane stopped to look around. It 
took a moment for her to realize that no one was unconscious by her feet and 
that Ranma was standing nearby, a big smile on his face.
  "I'm glad to see your martial arts training kicked in really well," Ranma 
smiled, almost laughing.
  "Y-you were the one that snuck up on me like that?" Akane found herself 
becoming angry.
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah. Oh man, it was so funny watching you swinging your bag 
around like that. I swear, if any bees were nearby, I'm sure you would've got 
them all,"
  "Y-you jerk!!!" Akane started fuming, realizing Ranma was having a good laugh 
at her expense.
  At the heat of the moment, she threw her book bag at him out of anger and 
embarrassment. To her surprise, and perhaps her expectations, Ranma caught 
easily.
  "C'mon, I was just messing around," Ranma said, "It's not like I slapped ya on 
the butt or something,"  
  "Don't you even think about it!" Akane took a defensive stance.
  Ranma chuckled as walked straight toward Akane. Akane didn't move, not wanting 
to show signs of being intimidated. If he made any sudden moves, she would let 
him have it.
  Ranma made a motion with his arm that she had never seen before. And because 
of that, she had no idea how to react or counter attack. However, before she was 
about to do something, Ranma ended up reaching out and placing an arm around her 
shoulder.
  "C'mon let's get a bite to eat, I'm hungry," he said happily. 
  He did that from time to time, placing his arm over a girl's shoulder, usually 
completely unaware that he was even doing so. It was a thing he did without much 
thought, very similar along the lines of him patting someone's head.
  Akane found herself blushing as she tried to keep up with him, Ranma's stride 
longer than hers. Her anger toward him seemed to have been completely forgotten.
  "Um, okay," she said.
  "Unhand her," came a voice from behind them.
  Ranma stopped walking and turned around to face the voice, taking his arm off 
Akane. He took his arm off her exactly as he did putting his arm around her, 
completely unaware of his actions.
  "Well, if it isn't Kuno?" Ranma smiled.
  Kuno held his bokken forward, the tip pointed toward Ranma.
  Ranma, still holding Akane's book bag, opened it up and reached in, fishing 
around. After a second, he pulled out Akane's cell phone. He began to punch in 
the numbers for the police.
  "Ha ha ha, it is useless!" Kuno laughed, "By the time the authorities get 
here, I will be long gone!"
  Kuno then promptly turned around and ran away, laughing as he continued to run 
down the street, eventually disappearing around a corner.
  Ranma turned back around and headed off down the street, "As I was saying, 
let's go get something to head,"  
  "Um, okay," she followed, well aware that Ranma no longer had his arm around 
her. Had Kuno not had showed up, Ranma would had most likely kept his arm around 
her until they stopped to get something to eat.
  Oddly enough, she felt a bit angry at Kuno for what he had done.
  
  Akane took a peek into dojo and was surprised to see Ranma on his hands and 
knees near the edge of the floor mat, scrubbing at the floor with a brush. She 
was there to tell him that dinner was ready.
  "What are you doing?" she asked.
  "What's it look like I'm doing?" he asked, not looking up, intent on 
scrubbing.
  Akane said, "It looks like you're trying to scrub the dojo's floor mat clean,"
  "Bingo," Ranma said.
  "How come?" she asked.
  Ranma continued scrubbing, "It mostly has to do with what I was doing this 
morning,"
  "And what would that be?" she asked.
  "I went out this morning talking to as many random girls as I could," Ranma 
stated, "I spent the whole morning doing nothing but that. I probably approached 
a good two hundred girls,"
  "You what?!" Akane said loudly, feeling angry. So that was what Ranma was 
doing all along, talking to girls?
  Ranma stopped scrubbing to look at her, "THAT is why I didn't tell you. It's 
specifically THAT reaction that made me not tell you. You'd get all angry at me 
and think I was up to no good and start jumping to conclusions,"
  Akane said nothing.
  "I didn't need you following me around," Ranma said, "If I told you, there was 
a chance you would follow me around. Of course, because I didn't tell you, you 
didn't follow me,"
  "And what makes you think I would want to follow you around after you told me 
that?" Akane said defensively, a bit angry at how Ranma would assume how she 
would act when they only knew each other shortly.
  Ranma smirked, "I didn't know. I just wanted to be safe. And not only that, 
had you followed me, you would've missed the pop quiz,"
  He knew Akane so well that he was positive that was exactly what she would do. 
She would just watch him and get angrier and angrier, most likely thinking he 
was some kind of playboy. She would then spend the rest of the day being angry 
at Ranma, not stopping once to think spying on him was wrong on her part.
  "Why were you spending this morning talking to all these random girls?" Akane 
asked, believing that perhaps Ranma was right. There was a good chance she would 
had followed him. Actually, she was pretty sure she would had definitely had 
done so.
  Ranma said, "I don't wanna be a freeloader in this house. I'm not like my dad 
and I wanna earn my stay here. I told all these girls that I'm going to be 
giving free martial arts lessons this weekend and that they're welcome to come 
and check it out,"
  "But why only girls?" Akane was confused.
  Ranma grinned, "Because, I'm a guy. I'd rather teach girls than guys. They're 
softer and smell nicer,"
  Akane glared at him but decided to hold her temper. Ranma seemed to have a 
teasing personality and she was pretty sure he was just teasing her and there 
were more reasons for doing so.
  "I intend to teach only girls this weekend," Ranma said, "When the weekend is 
over, whoever wants to continue training can sign up for real. Word is going to 
spread that the dojo has a lot of female members. When guys here about this, 
they're all going to want to join as well. Girls are more likely to join 
something that has more girls than guys. Guys are more likely to join something 
that has more girls than guys. In a way, my approaching only girls to get them 
to join is the perfect choice," 
  Akane thought about that for a moment. Ranma's plan seemed rather sound.
  "That's why you're cleaning the floor mats, in anticipation of all those girls 
that will be coming here to try out those free lessons?" Akane asked.
  "Bingo," he said.
  Akane looked around for a brush, "I'll help,"
  Ranma smiled warmly, "Thanks, but it's okay. I've got it,"
  "You've been in this dojo ever since we got back from school," Akane said, 
"You're not even a quarter of the way finished with scrubbing the floor mat,"
  "That's because I cleaned everything else," Ranma said, "The floor mat's the 
last thing left. I only started around twenty minutes ago. Just go on and eat,"
  "I'll help," Akane persisted, "I helped make dinner and I'd like you to try it 
out,"
  "You did?" Ranma's eyes widened.
  Akane nodded.
  "Thanks for the info," Ranma went about scrubbing again, "I'll be sure to take 
my time cleaning. That way, I'll be done AFTER dinner is over,"
  "Jerk," she glared at him but made no attempt to hit him. 
  Ranma chuckled.

  The following morning went jogging with Akane. It went by uneventful, the two 
of them getting back home in around an hour and a half. 
  "Are you nervous?" Akane asked from out of the blue.
  "Nervous, about what?" Ranma asked.
  "About teaching," Akane said. Even though she would not be taking part in 
teaching a class, the thought of doing so made her very nervous.
  Ranma shook his head, "Nah, not at all,"
  "The thought makes me queasy," Akane said, revealing something not many people 
knew about her, "I'm not good enough to start teaching. I have no problems with 
learning martial arts, teaching it is something entirely different,"
  Ranma smiled, "I'm sure you'll do fine when the time comes,"
  "Have you ever taught classes before?" Akane asked.
  "No, I never taught before," Ranma said. He couldn't help but feel bad that he 
was lying right to Akane's face. Although he could lie with a very straight 
face, that didn't mean he didn't feel bad. There were some really good reason 
why. The girl before him was basically the girl he had fallen in love with many 
decades ago. Of course, her death devastated him, but he managed to pick himself 
up and move on. 
  Because he was able to move on, he could never return back to the way it used 
to be. Of course, even though he had moved on, the past will always be there and 
him having been once in love with her will also be there.
  He regarded her for a bit, swearing to himself that he would tell her who he 
was before he left. He owed her that. Of course, he had no idea exactly how he 
would go about explaining it.
  'I'm the adult version of the boy you were supposed to meet. I used to be 
cursed, changing into a girl whenever I am splashed with cold water. I'm over a 
hundred years old, have travelled to many worlds, fought evil corporations, 
destroyed worlds, saved worlds, fought divine beings, fought humanoid robots, 
became God, tried to kill God, and had died countless times'
  Ranma laughed. What a life he had been through. And what was funny is that 
having to relive a portion of his past was yet another notch under his belt in 
terms of what he had been through.  
  "What's so funny?" Akane asked.
  Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nothing important,"
  "Oh, okay," she said. 
  She really was curious as to what he found funny, but it was useless to 
persist.  
  "If you want, join the class as well as I teach," Ranma changed the subject, 
"Maybe you might learn some new stuff,"
  Akane said, "You're going to be teaching a beginner's class. I'm pretty 
confident that I already know the basics,"
  Ranma smirked, "Who knows?"
  "What do you plan on teaching?" she asked curiously.
  "Some simple but useful techniques," he shrugged, "Stuff like how to escape 
holds and such without actually needing to resort to violence,"
  Akane scratched her head, "Like what do you mean?"
  Ranma reached out and grabbed Akane's wrist, "For example, what would you do 
if a guy grabbed your wrist like this?"
  As if relying on instinct, Akane used her other hand to strike toward Ranma's 
solar plexus, a quick but effective way of incapacitating her assailant. It 
wasn't until after she struck the forearm of Ranma's other hand as he blocked 
the attack did she realized who she was attacking.
  "Without resorting to violence," Ranma said, "That means without using any 
kinda attack,"
  She gave her arm a quick yank, but to her surprise, Ranma's grip was a lot 
stronger than she had anticipated. His arm didn't budge and she could no free 
herself from his grasp.
  After a moment, she used her free hand to grab Ranma's grabbing arm and twist 
his wrist, causing Ranma's arm to bend at an awkward angle, Ranma ending up 
facing away from her, his arm bent backwards behind him and his wrist locked at 
an awkward angle.
  "That's one way to do it," Ranma said, smirking. 
  Akane smirked, feeling like she was in control of the situation. That was one 
of the things she loved about martial arts, being able to turn a chaotic 
situation into a controllable one.
  "Of course, what if your attacker is stronger than you?" Ranma said. He used 
brute strength to overpower Akane's hold on him, eventually bringing himself to 
face her, his hand on her wrist again.
  Akane looked down at her hands and realized that Ranma seemed to have easily 
broken her hold. She tried to twist his wrist again but he held his arm taut, 
Akane unable to move it. She continued to struggle, trying to use her own brute 
strength to overpower Ranma's own.
  After a while, she started to realize Ranma was a lot stronger than her, so 
much so that even her attempt joint manipulations didn't have any effect on him.
  "It's kinda like trying to put an armbar on someone whose arm is stronger than 
the amount of strength you can apply on the hold," Ranma smiled, "Even though it 
take very little strength to manipulate joints, it still takes some strength. If 
a person is significantly stronger than you, you're not going to overpower him, 
even if you have knowledge of joint manipulations on your side,"
  "Okay, then what do you suggest?" Akane asked, "You're restricting me from 
being able to attack you. If I'm able to attack you, then I would be able to get 
out of the hold. A simply punch can cause you to lose your hold,"
  Ranma said, "Yes, but how many girls do you think in that class can punch like 
you can?"
  Akane said nothing. Probably not many, if any.
  "I guess you have a point," Akane said, "Okay, what do you suggest?"
  Ranma released his grip and extended his hand, "Grab a hold of my hand and 
I'll show you,"
  Akane did as she was told. She grabbed his hand, intent on holding it firm, 
curious as to what Ranma was going to show her. She watched as Ranma flicked his 
wrist up and around her own wrist, causing her to instantly lose her hold of 
him.
  "That's all," Ranma smiled.

  Ranma stood outside the Tendo home at around noon.
  It was nearing noontime and he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as to how 
many potential students would show up. He hoped he had made a good enough first 
impression on all the people he had come across that they were willing to give 
him and his martial arts lessons a try.
  Out of the two hundred or so females he had talked to, he surmised that around 
a hundred showing up would be an excellent turn out. Too many people had too 
many things to do that a good impression would not be enough to convince them to 
give him a try.
  Everyone in the house now knew of Ranma's plans, Ranma having told them of his 
campaign. Kasumi had offered to bake some brownies for the welcomed visitors, 
much to Ranma's protests. He had wanted to do everything himself but it seemed 
like everyone wanted to help. Soun and Genma mowed the lawn, something Ranma had 
never crossed Ranma's mind. Akane went about fixing up the garden, upending 
whatever weeds there were. Nabiki went about helping Akane out as well.
  "I was wrong about you," Nabiki had said to Ranma.
  "Huh?" Ranma scratched his head, "Wrong about me in what way?"
  Nabiki just gave Ranma a warm smile and headed off to help out Akane. Ranma 
had no real idea what she meant by that but he didn't really care. Little did 
Ranma know that Nabiki went up to her room and ripped up the photo she took of 
Ranma that day she saw him talking to all those women, very angry at herself for 
having thought the worst of Ranma.
  At around fifteen to noon, he spied three females walking down the street, 
heading in his general direction. His heart skipped a beat in excitement as he 
recognized them. They were three of the four beautiful females he had spoke to 
first when he started this campaign, the beautiful business women that were on 
their way to the train station when he met them.
  "Well, we're here," one of them said.
  "Morning Minda, Cheri, Mika," Ranma greeted them by their names. The fact that 
Ranma remembered their names made him seem much more personable in their eyes.
  "Amasa couldn't make it," one woman said, "She's visiting relatives,"
  Ranma smiled, "It bothers me none. I'd be glad if even one of you came, let 
alone three. You three plan on participating or just watching?"
  "We'll watch, for now," one of them said, "But we're dressed appropriately as 
you have mentioned just in case we decide watching isn't good enough and want to 
learn,"
  Ranma chuckled, "That's good to hear. I'll do my best to get you girls wanting 
to participate then. Anyway, you're a bit early but that's no problem. Just head 
on in and head around the house to the dojo. I'll be with you shortly,"
  "Okay," all three of them said, entering through the front gate.
  He waited around patiently for around five minutes before two large groups of 
females could be seen approaching the house, each group coming down from either 
directions down the road.
  When they all approached him, he greeted each and everyone one of them by 
name, surprising everyone there on how he could remember so many names. He told 
them all that they were glad he could come and told them to walk around the 
house and to wait in the dojo. 
  Most of them seemed a bit skeptic about Ranma's abilities, he being so young-
looking, but it seemed like the first impression Ranma made on them had been 
effective enough for them to give him the benefit of the doubt.
  "Man, that rocks, I've already got more than a hundred potential students," 
Ranma said, wondering just how many of those would decide to stay one and take 
more lessons.
  When it was exactly noon, Akane emerged out through the front gate.
  "Hey," Ranma smiled, "How goes the dojo? Is everyone getting restless?"
  Akane gave a shrugged, "Okay, I guess. Not yet. I didn't anticipate so many 
people showing up. The dojo is almost to capacity,"
  Ranma said, "Don't worry. If more show up, we can move the class outside into 
the backyard. There's plenty of space there,"
  Akane stared at Ranma for a bit. She was very nervous about the what was to 
come but Ranma seemed perfectly at ease, as if he was born for something like 
this.
  "You better start the class now," Akane said, looking at her watch, "It's now 
exactly twelve. I'll stay out here and show anyone showing up late the way to 
the dojo,"
  Ranma smiled warmly, "Okay, thanks,"
  He headed in through the front gate.
  
  Ranma stood in the front of the dojo floor mat and looked at the class in 
front of him. 
  There were around forty five females standing on the floor mat, ready to 
learn. The remaining ones all stood along the walls in the back, there to 
observe.
  Genma and Soun were not there. That meant Ranma was the only male among a very 
large group of females.
  "Everyone, my name is Ranma Saotome," Ranma said in a loud voice, "I'm glad 
you've all come. I'm going to be your sensei for today as well as tomorrow, 
provided you deem me worthy enough and come back on Sunday,"
  Everyone laughed.
  "What I'm gonna be teaching you today are tried-and-true techniques to real-
world situations," Ranma said. He then pointed toward a very meek looking woman 
at the front of the class, "Jennifer, can you please step forward and help me 
with something?"
  The girl nervously stepped forward.
  Ranma smiled toward the nervous girl, "Don't worry, Jen. I won't let anything 
happen to you. Please, hold out your right hand,"
  The girl seemed to calm down somewhat. This was because Ranma definitely had a 
knack for making people feel comfortable around him. His voice was soft and he 
always made eye contact.
  She held out her right hand.
  Ranma slowly, not wanting to frighten the girl, reached out and closed his 
hand around her wrist.
  "Okay, Jen, try and pull your wrist away," he said softly.
  The girl tried to yank her wrist away but couldn't, Ranma's hold too taut for 
her. As she continued to struggle, the look of frustration could be seen on her 
face, as if the motions made her recall a similar situation she had been in.
  "That's enough," Ranma said. He waited for her to stop struggling before he 
let go of his hold of her, to let the class see that it was he that let her go, 
not she having broken his hold. He also let go to make the girl feel more at 
ease.
  "I was just holding onto her wrist," Ranma said to the class, "I'm sure many 
of are familiar with this situation, where some guy grabbed your arm but you 
just wanted to get away from him. What Jen here did, trying to yank her arm away 
but being unable to because the guy is stronger than her, is probably something 
many of you tried to do as well,"
  Many of the girls in the room nodded in agreement.
  Ranma held his hand forward toward the girl, "Here, please grab my wrist like 
I grabbed yours a second ago. Hold on tightly,"
  She did as she was told.
  "Okay, now let's say I'm in Jen's shoes and she's the guy grabbing a hold of 
my arm," Ranma said, moving his arm around slowly as if he were trying to yank 
his arm out but couldn't. One of the reason why is due to the differences in 
strength. A guy is usually stronger than the girl. Of course, there are 
exceptions, but y'know what I mean,"
  Everyone regarded him, following what he was saying.
  "However, there is no need to use strength," Ranma said, "With a simply flick 
of the wrist, like this," Ranma flicked his wrist, breaking the girl's hold on 
him, "You can escape the hold,"
  "Wait, can you show us again?" one girl asked near the back of the class, her 
interest piqued.
  Ranma demonstrated the technique again, doing so from various angles, very 
slowly so everyone could see it clearly.
  "Now, please turn toward the person nearest you and practice it on one 
another, alternating between being the person grabbing and the person being 
grabbed," Ranma said.
  Everyone on the floor mat did as they were told. Ranma could be seen walking 
around among the group, watching everyone as they went about practicing the 
technique on their partner. On occasions, he stopped to watch certain partners. 
To those that had the technique wrong, he would coach them on an individual 
basis until they got it right before moving onto the next pairing.
  Ranma glanced toward the back of the dojo where he saw several other girls 
trying the technique out as well. He approached them as well and helped them out 
patiently. 
  "If you'd like, feel free to step onto the floor mat and practice," Ranma 
gestured in a soft voice, "It's easier for me to see you and see if you're doing 
the technique wrong so I can help correct it quicker,"
  After around ten minutes, Ranma walked back to the front.
  "Okay, are you guys comfortable with that technique?" Ranma smiled, "What do 
you guys think of it?"
  "It's really easy," one girl said.
  "Yes, very easy," another said
  Ranma smiled, "Yep. Of course, there is a chance that it's easy because you're 
partnered up with a girl and that she isn't gripping you tightly like a guy 
would grip you. Because of that, how about we see how well it works on a guy? 
Anyone here confident enough to step forward and let me grab their wrist?"
  Everyone looked at one another nervously.
  After a moment, one girl stepped forward, Jen, the meek girl from before.
  Ranma smiled. He took a hold of Jen's extended hand. On the first try, she 
panicked and messed up the motions. Ranma simply told her it was alright and to 
just relax, that it wasn't a test.
  When he took a hold of her wrist a second time, she flicked her wrist in the 
way he had taught her. To her surprise, Ranma was unable to keep his hold.
  The class broke out in cheer as most of the women started clapping.
  Ranma smirked, "Man, it's not hard to amuse you guys, huh?"
  "Well, perhaps it's because you're a guy and have never been in such a 
situation," one girl in the back said, "I'm pretty sure, for us, many of us, 
we've been in such a situation,"
  "That's correct," Ranma nodded, "Okay, what I just showed you was how to break 
out of a specific hold on a specific are. Now, let's all switch hands and try it 
again. Afterall, there's no telling which arm someone might grab so, naturally, 
it's recommended that you know how to break the hold on both arms,"
  Everyone went about practicing again. Many of them made mistakes, not used to 
mirroring their motions since they were using a different arm. However, before 
long, everyone started picking it up.
  After ten minutes of practicing had elapsed, Ranma stopped the class to speak 
to it again. He then went about teaching them how to break out of a hold had 
someone grabbed one arm with their opposite arm.
  Before long, Ranma taught four techniques on how to escape arm grabs based on 
which arm was grabbed by which arm from their assailant. Afterall, a technique 
where someone grabbed one's left arm with his left arm was different from a 
technique where someone grabbed one's left arm with his right arm.
  "Now that I've showed you how to escape a very common hold, what else would 
you guys like me to teach you how to escape?" Ranma asked, "I don't wanna lead 
the class. I want you guys to lead the class. What kinda things do you girls 
deal with that you want to have a response to? Sexual harassment like someone 
grabbing your butt? Someone putting their arm over your shoulder when you don't 
want it there? Someone backing you up against a wall and placing both arms on 
the wall behind you and you're between their arms? How to keep a door closed 
when the guy is trying to push or pull it open? How to get past someone that is 
standing in front of you and mimicking your moves as to not let you pass him?"
  Everyone looked at one another. It seemed like everything Ranma suggested were 
things all of them were eager to learn.
  "Sexual harassment," one woman suggested loudly, "The one where some asshole 
grabs your butt during work,"  
  "Yeah!" several girls cheered, eager to learn.
  Ranma motioned for another girl to step forward, "Mataki, can you please step 
forward?"
  The girl nervously stepped forward.
  "Okay," Ranma turned his back toward the girl, "Pretend you're the guy and I'm 
the girl and grab my butt,"
  "What?" the girl blushed, "You want me to grab your butt?"
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I'll demonstrate how to deal with it," 
  "Um," the girl seemed hesitant.
  Ranma laughed, "Don't worry, I'll get my revenge when I get to grab your butt 
after you learn the technique and are expected to try and use it against me,"
  The whole class burst out laughing.

  At around six in the afternoon, Ranma concluded the class. He had originally 
planned on teaching until around four but ended up teaching for an additional 
two more hours, most of the girls staying there the whole time. 
  He was surprised that well over a half of all the girls that showed up stayed 
the whole time, figuring many of them needed to leave early to do something else 
like start dinner or eat or such. Actually, Kasumi bringing in brownies and 
drinks for everyone at around three helped kept everyone going.
  "Well, everyone, I hope you guys enjoyed class," Ranma bowed politely, 
everyone bowing politely in return, "I hope you all found the session productive 
and not a waste of time,"
  "You were great," one woman said.
  "I learned a lot today," another woman said.
  "I'll definitely be here tomorrow," another one said.
  Ranma watched as the last of the potential students left the dojo. Once they 
were all gone, Genma, Soun, and Akane approached him as he sat down on a bench 
in one corner of the room.
  "So, guys, whatcha think?" Ranma smirked.
  "That was great, Ranma," Akane said truthfully.
  "I'm proud of you, son," Genma said, "You make a great sensei,"
  "I'm very impressed, Ranma," Soun said, "Your teaching methods are a bit 
unorthodox, but they work. I was amazed at how you seemed to draw in everyone 
watching into participating,"
  Ranma smiled, "Thanks,"
  "I wonder how many will be back tomorrow and how many will join," Soun said, 
"It'd be great if everyone joined. If that were the case, Ranma, you will have 
drawn in more students in two days than this school had in years,"
  Ranma smirked. He knew the truth. The dojo hadn't had students in years. The 
money Soun had didn't come from teaching martial arts. It came from the fact 
that he was a council member of Nerima. It was very modesty pay, but it was pay 
nonetheless.
  "I'm pretty sure many will join," Ranma said confidently, "I think that today 
went so well that there's a good chance we will see new faces because the ones 
here today might bring others for tomorrow,"
  Soun looked hopeful, as if the future of the School rested on Ranma's 
shoulders.
  "I really hope so,"  

  The next day, Sunday, was much like Ranma had anticipated.
  When noon rolled around, there were around thirty more potential students than 
there were on Saturday. Some of them were ones that he had met before but 
couldn't make it on Saturday. The rest came there because others whom had been 
there dragged them along. Oddly enough, all those new faces were female, easily 
convinced to come along because they had been told that the class were all 
female.
  Before even the first girl could cross the gate, Ranma tested them.
  "Do you want to find out if you can break a hold I showed you yesterday?" 
Ranma asked returning faces. He asked them, to give them a chance to see if they 
could see if they retained what they learned. 
  For the girls that accepted, Ranma grabbed them in one of the many ways he had 
taught them. The majority of them managed to escape or counter the hold without 
much trouble. Some took a moment before they recalled what they learned and 
broke out. All the girls that did accept managed to break out of those holds.
  For the girls that didn't feel confident and declined, Ranma just gave them a 
warm smile and told them that it was perfectly all right for them to have 
declined if they didn't feel confident.
  Ranma taught in the exact same fashion as the other day, by asking the girls 
what they wanted to learn and ways to deal with certain situations. This time 
around, Genma and Soun were there to observe, the two of them the only ones 
sitting in the back of the dojo.
  He gave a recap of around half the lessons he had taught the other day. Even 
though most of the people there had learned it before, they had no problems with 
practicing them again. This is was because they believed the extra practice was 
just as useful as learning something new.
  Ranma also created new scenarios and situations for the class, all of them 
real-world scenarios many of them were familiar with or had gone through and 
wished they had been able to have dealt with it with knowledge of how to deal 
with such a situation.
  "Are you ever going to teach us how to punch or kick?" one woman asked when 
Ranma asked the class for suggestions of scenarios to deal with.
  Ranma said to the class, "You guys interested in learning kicks and punches?"
  "Yeah!" many of them cheered.
  "Okay," Ranma said, "I can do that,"
  He went about explaining how there were several vital and vulnerable areas on 
a person's body, explaining how each of those spot, if hit correctly, could send 
a person keeling over in pain or disoriented.
  "And last but certainly not least, the groin," Ranma smirked, "I'm not gonna 
teach you about hitting that place because I'm pretty sure all you girls learned 
that hitting that place on a guy's one really easy to make a guy cry. You girls 
probably learned it in the playground in elementary school, where you kicked 
boys there just for the heck of it,"
  The entire class burst out laughing, enjoying Ranma's down-to-earth comments. 
He was very informative but in a creative and humorous fashion.
  He didn't spend much time explaining them the form for punching and kicking. 
Instead, he spent the bulk of his time explaining the exact location of where to 
strike the person. 
  "Pop, Mr. Tendo, come up here," Ranma smirked.
  "Us?" Genma and Soun pointed at themselves.
  Ranma nodded, "Yep,"
  Genma and Soun went up to the front of the class.
  "This here's my old man, Genma Saotome, and this is Soun Tendo," Ranma 
gestured, "Um, they taught me martial arts that I know,"
  "That means-" one girl began.
  "Yes," Ranma nodded, "Like the way I'm your sensei, they are my sensei. 
Anyway, the form for your punches and kicks don't need to be perfect. The most 
important aspect of attacking is in the location of your attack," 
  Ranma gestured toward Genma and Soun, "These two have offered to help out with 
today's class. They have volunteered to be the punching dummies for your punches 
and kicks, to show to you through their pain if your punches and kicks land in 
the right location,"
  "We are?!" they both said.
  Ranma chuckled, "Now you are,"
  The class burst out laughing. It was obvious that that was completely 
unplanned but the class really liked Ranma's spontaneity. 
  "Come on, guys, it's all for the sake of the art," Ranma taunted.
  "If that's the case, you join offer to be the punching dummy as well," Genma 
smirked. If he was going down with Soun, he might as well bring his son along 
with him. He was that kind of father.
  Ranma turned toward the class, "What do you say class? Wanna kick my ass as 
well?"
  The class burst out in cheer. 
  "Okay," Ranma stepped forward, "I'm game. I'll volunteer. Okay, class, 
everyone, please line up in a single file in no particular order,"
  The class did as Ranma had requested, lining up in a single file. Because 
there were so many students, the line reached the back of the dojo and snaked 
along the back wall toward the entrance. 
  "Here's what we do," Ranma said, "Because each one of us are different in 
size, that means the locations of our vital points are in different locations. 
We will stand here as you individually approach us and try and hit us in one of 
our vital spots. Uh uh, don't even THINK of us letting you hit is in THAT vital 
spot,"
  The class burst out laughing.
  "How about that solar plexus spot?" one woman asked.
  "That sounds like a good idea," Ranma said. He looked at Soun and Genma to 
either side of him, "You guys ready?"
  "Your methods are very unorthodox," Soun muttered, "But I guess I have no 
choice. Afterall, this is all for the art,"
  "I don't want to do this for the art," Genma complained, worried that he was 
going to get really hurt.
  Ranma sneered, "Dad!"
  "Fine fine," Genma relented, believing that this was for the better. If he 
really thought about it, if doing this helped draw in potential students, that 
meant he might be able to start teaching as well. He had applied for a job at a 
local acupuncture clinic the other day and word hadn't gotten back to him yet. 
He had a funny feeling he would rather teach martial arts than work as an 
assistant. Even though he wasn't all that great a father, he was a good martial 
arts teacher, having taught Ranma, afterall.
  "All right, let's begin," Ranma said.
  The woman at the very front of the line walked forward. She punched Genma 
right in the solar plexus. The man keeled over, winded. The woman's eyes widened 
in surprise.
  "Wow, did I do that?" the woman's eyes were wide.
  Ranma said, "No, my old man faked it. Pop, quit it,"
  Genma sighed as he straightened up. The punch didn't hurt but he would rather 
have it that way. He didn't want to allow himself to get hit in the solar 
plexus. Getting hit there really hurt.
  "You need to punch him right here," Ranma gestured, "Because he's taller than 
me, you need to hit him a little bit higher,"
  "Okay," the woman said. She cocked her arm back and punched again. This time, 
Genma keeled over, gripping his stomach, the wind knocked out of him, coughing.
  The class burst out laughing. Genma was a very large man, his size even 
intimidating to the many women that didn't know him, that the sight of him 
seeming so stunned after an attack was amazing.
  Ranma smirked, "That's perfect. Now try it on me," When the woman hesitated, 
"Don't worry. It'll be fine,"
  "Um, okay," the woman said. She punched Ranma right in the solar plexus.
  "Erk!" Ranma gasped for air, keeling forward. He winced in pain, rubbing at 
his chest, breathing heavily, "That's good,"
  The woman, caught up in the moment, stepped toward the side and punched Soun 
in the solar plexus as well, the man keeling over before he had a chance to 
protest and ask that the woman hit him lightly.
  Satisfied, the woman walked away and took a spot at the back of the line, just 
as the woman now in the front of the line walked forward to try out what she 
learned.
  The color from Genma's and Soun's face became pale as they realized that they 
were in for a world of hurt. There were well over a hundred potential students. 
That meant they would be punched in the solar plexus at least over a hundred 
times.
  Ranma smirked. Today's lesson was going to be a painful one for them.

  "That concludes our lessons," 
  The class started clapping, grateful for Ranma and all that he had taught 
them.
  "If you guys are interested in learning more martial arts, please sign up and 
join our school," Ranma gestured toward a stack of paper and a box of pens near 
the back of the dojo, "It's only two thousand yen per month,"
  The price for lessons was so low that many of the people present thought Ranma 
was crazy or had no grasp just how little he was charging. Two thousand yen was 
around twenty US dollars.
  "Are you sure?" one girl had to ask, "At that price, I feel like I'm taking 
advantage of you,"
  "Pervert," Ranma grinned, "I'm only sixteen,"
  "Not like that!" the girl shouted, embarrassed.
  Ranma burst out laughing as did most of the class.
  "Actually, two thousand yen per month is fine," Ranma said, "It's a special 
that will only work if you sign up today,"
  Ranma smiled. 
  The fee to sign up was so incredible that no one would want to pass it up. All 
the girls would be signing up and for probably a good year or so. When word got 
out that the school had many women training there, guys would want to join the 
school and would be more than willing to pay a good price for lessons. Girls 
joined because they were interested in learning martial arts. Guys would be 
joining, interested in the women. It was a rather devious strategy, but that was 
how men were.
  Everyone in the class headed over to the stacks of paper and picked one up 
each and could be seen signing up.
  Soun turned toward Ranma, tears flowing from his eyes from the happiness, "I'm 
so happy. You have revitalized this school,"
  Ranma smirked, "Not completely. I got the ball rolling. It's up to you and my 
Pop to get everything squared away and help out with the teaching,"
  "You don't have to worry about that," Soun said, "We can handle that,"
  Ranma smiled, "Cool,"
  Soun hugged Ranma, threatening the squeeze the life out of him.
  "Erk," Ranma said.
  "You make me so proud," Soun had to say, "I look forwa