Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong


Just Won't Die Shinji
     



     Shinji wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked up at the ceiling of 
Ranma's dojo. He noted that the rafters supporting the roof of the dojo looked 
fairly new. Then again, he shouldn't be surprised since this dojo had been 
built probably no more than five years ago.
  Ranma sat down in the middle of the dojo floor by Shinji's side. The setting 
sunlight filtering in through the open windows made him looked much more mature 
than his actual personality indicated.
  "I don't think I'll ever beat you," Shinji commented, sitting upward, facing 
Ranma.
  Ranma shrugged. There was nothing to say. He didn't want to sound arrogant, 
but there was no way Shinji would ever beat him. He was just that good.
  "I have a question, if you're so good a fighter, how come you never enter 
competitions?" Shinji asked. Although he generally spent quite a bit alone with 
Ranma training, he never thought to ask that question until now, after a good 
few years had passed.
  Ranma shrugged again, something he constantly did, "I think it's because I 
find no need to compete. I'm good at martial arts but I don't feel the need to 
go out and prove to everyone.
  "Oh," Shinji said, feeling a bit disappointed.  Ranma regarded Shinji for a 
moment. He had to admit that Shinji had grown quite a bit since the fourteen 
year old child he met a few years ago. He didn't even look quite like it did 
back then, having grown several inches taller and his facial features becoming 
more angular and sculpted. His frail frame was no longer there, having been 
molded in to a slim but powerful body. Shinji had the same kind of body that 
Ranma had when he was his age. The only difference was that Ranma had 
concentrated on training and becoming fit and well built. Shinji, on the other 
hand, had to juggle between that and college as well. As a first year college 
student at the prestigiouwas kyo University, Shinji was not only very athletic, 
but also very smart.
  "How come you ask?" Ranma asked curiously.
  "I guess it's because I would've loved to have seen the impact you'd have done 
to the martial arts world if it ever got wind of how powerful martial artists 
can become," Shinji commented. 
  "Even if I did enter tournaments and such, which I would never do, It's not 
right if I do do that," Ranma said, "In case you're wondering, I'm not quite on 
the same level as you and everyone else,"
  Shinji nodded, "I know. You're an Angel, with AT field an all,"
  Ranma smirked, "Dontcha think that would give me an unfair advantage over mere 
humans?"
  "I guess you're right," Shinji sighed. 
  "Why dontcha do it?" Ranma asked, "Why don't you enter tournaments and such?"
  Shinji blushed, "M-me?! E-enter tournaments? F-fight other people? I can't do 
that!"
  "Why not?" came a simple question, "I'm sure you've thought about it from time 
to time. Y'know, 'What's the good of becoming a powerful martial artist if no 
one acknowledges you as one?'"
  "W-well, I have thought about it," Shinji said nervously, looking down at the 
floor, "But considering how you've only been training me for a few years, 
there's no way I can compete against people who've been training for as long as 
five to ten times longer than myself,"
  "In case you're wondering, the way I've been training you is unorthodox," 
Ranma said.
  Shinji chuckled slightly, "I think I figured it out. The fact that you start 
off every one of our sparring sessions with you giving me a lot of your ki ought 
to have given me such a clue. But then again, without you giving me your ki, I 
wouldn't be able to brush off a fraction of the attacks you land on me,"
  "In case you're wondering," Ranma said, "Even though you believe I'm imbuing 
you with my ki, that isn't the case. I stopped doing that about a month ago. I 
merely stand there while you absorb the ki I let forth,"
  "R-r-really?" Shinji's eyes widened.
  "Nah, I'm just kidding," Ranma smirked.
  Shinji's face became somber, "How come I'm not surprised,"
  "What, you think you can just up and learn how to use ki like me in just a few 
years?" Ranma smiled, "I don't think so. It took me several years before I 
became really efficient in using it, and I'm a fast learner,"
  "So I guess it'll take me around ten years to be able to use it effectively, 
huh?" Shinji asked, depressed.
  "Give or take," Ranma said.
  "Man, I'd love to use ki like you can,"
  "Just keep practicing," Ranma said, "That's all I can say. You can shoot ki-
blasts with no problem. However, that's with me giving you the ki to release in 
to such a blast. You still have a long way to go in actually drawing in and out 
your own ki to do such a thing. That'll take a while,"
  "Here's a question," Shinji thought up, "How am I compared to you, when you 
were my age,"
  Ranma laughed aloud.
  "That big a gap, huh?" Shinji felt even more depressed.
  "In case you're wondering, if you look at the way I am now," Ranma said, "I'm 
just a faster and stronger version of what I was when I was your age,"
  "Damn," Shinji said.
  "However, that was because I was training since I was a lil kid," Ranma added, 
"Keep that in mind. You trained for only a few years and you surpass people that 
have been training for much longer than that,"
  "I just wish I'm good enough to at least compete against you,"
  Ranma narrowed his eyes, "What makes you think you're not competing against 
me? You keep me on my toes. Keep in mind you've actually land a blow in every 
here and there, which is an incredible feat considering my reflexes,"
  Shinji laughed, "To date, I have never hit you in a frontal assault. The blows 
I do hit you with are all in the back of your head, which seems to be your 
weakness,"
  "Y'think?" Ranma smirked, "Then again, I doubt I'm the only one that has a 
weakness against being attacked in the back of the head, especially when I don't 
see an attack coming,"
  Shinji was silent. It was underhanded to attack someone from behind, but 
against someone like Ranma, it was probably the only possible way of landing a 
blow.
  "You're a really good fighter, Shinji," Ranma said truthfully, "You're a lot 
better than you believe. Even though you've only been training for a few years, 
the training you undergo is unorthodox,"
  "Of course," Shinji smirked, "However, getting beaten down by you every day 
isn't what I consider traditional training,"
  Ranma smiled, "You don't get it, do you? The training you do, although 
unorthodox, is a lot more helpful than you believe,"
  "I don't really see it," Shinji muttered.
  "What's the one rule I told you to follow that would allow you the opportunity 
to be trained by me?" Ranma asked.
  "To never use what you've taught me with intent for malice," Shinji said, 
"or to show off. I only use what you've taught me for defensive purposes,"
  "And my belief?" Ranma asked.
  "That a strong dog doesn't need to bark," Shinji replied, "That's why I never 
start fights. Either that or back down in case of a confrontation,"
  "That's right," Ranma nodded proudly.
  "Of course, there was that one time-"
  Ranma grinned, "Don't worry, feel free to beat a few heads in from time to 
time. However, because you're a skilled fighter, that doesn't give you the right 
to beat people up,"
  "I know, that's why I never fought against anyone since," Shinji said 
emphatically.
  Ranma shrugged, "Hey, I didn't say I didn't believe you or nothing. Anyway, 
the point is is that because you follow those instructions, you have no idea how 
good a fighter you are. You're an extremely skilled fighter,"
  "I-I am?" Shinji perked up slightly. He always liked getting compliments.
  Ranma got up and walked over to a bokken rack located by the corner of the 
dojo. He picked up of those wooden swords and walked over to Shinji, holding one 
forward for him to take.
  Shinji go up to his feet and took the weapon.
  "What do you want me to do with it?" Shinji looked at the bokken curiously.
  "Break it," 
  "But-"
  "Who cares," Ranma said, "It's just one bokken. It's not like I can't get 
more. If the price of one or two bokkens being destroyed to teach you something 
is what it cost, then so be it,"
  "Okay," Shinji said.
  Shinji grabbed either end of the bokken with each hand, holding the weapon 
parallel to the floor. In one swift motion, he brought the bokken downward while 
raising his left knee, breaking the weapon cleanly in half.
  "Excellent," Ranma said, "Now, did you have trouble breaking it?"
  "No," Shinji shook his head. The then looked at Ranma curiously, "I don't 
understand,"
  "You just broke that with no problem, something not many people can do," Ranma 
said.
  "But it's not that hard to break one,"
  "For someone like you it isn't," Ranma nodded, "But for the average person, 
it's really hard,"
  Shinji became silent, not really knowing what to think. He felt very proud of 
himself but didn't exactly know what to be proud of.
  Ranma held forward the second bokken, "Break this one. However, this time, use 
your bare hands,"
  "Um, o-okay," Shinji said nervously.
  Shinji took the bokken. He took several deep breaths. He then took on end of 
the bokken and dug it in to his right armpit. He held the other end with his 
left hand. He then snaked his right arm under the bokken and up so that it he 
could grip on to the top of his left forearm. 
  Ranma smirked. 
  Shinji gritted his teeth as he exerted his strength, pushing down with the 
left hand on the end of the bokken while pulling up with the right forearm that 
was snaked under the bokken. A loud snap could be heard as the bokken broke 
cleanly in half.
  "Congratulations," Ranma smiled, "You just broke it with just your bare hands, 
something probably around ninety nine percent of this world couldn't do,"
  Shinji looked at the broken weapons lying by his feet.
  "You understand?" Ranma said, "You're a lot stronger and powerful than you 
believe," 
  "W-wow! I-I never knew that!"
  Ranma began heading for the dojo exit, "Anyway, even though the training 
you've been doing is very unorthodox, it does have it's benefits, much more so 
than traditional training,"
  "T-t-thanks. I never knew that," Shinji's eyes were wide. He was looking at 
his hands. He felt this sense of excitement. In a sense, it was exactly like he 
found out he had some special ability he never knew he had.
  "Oh yeah, you owe me for the bokkens,"

  The next day, Shinji woke up early for a change, somewhere around four in the 
morning. But then again, it could have been because he went to sleep early. A 
heavy sleeper through and through, Shinji usually slept in until nine, his first 
class starting at ten-thirty. It took only twenty or so minutes to get to 
campus, leaving him with enough time to get ready and eat before he was expected 
out the door at around ten.
  He left at a later time than Rei and Asuka, the two of them being walked to 
school by Ranma.
  "Damn, it's so early," Shinji yawned, sitting up in his bed. He had gone to 
sleep at around eleven that night, very early by his standards. He was used to 
going to sleep at around three in the morning or so. Most people would think 
that since he was majoring in Engineering Science, he would be up that late 
doing homework and study. Little did they know that he was naturally good at 
college level courses and actually found himself with quite a bit of free time, 
finishing homework very quickly.
  Shinji flopped back down in his bed, intent on going back to sleep. However, 
when he heard the creaking of the floor of the hallway just outside his second 
story bedroom, he sat back upright.
  "Who's up now?" he asked himself.
  He threw his blanket off and walked over toward his door, not caring that he 
was only clad in his t-shirt and boxers.   
  Opening the door, he was surprised to catch sight of Ranma as he walked down 
the hallway toward the stairs leading down.
  "Ranma?" he called out.
  Ranma turned around, a bit surprised, "Oh, g'morning. Did I wake you? Sorry 
about that,"
  "Morning. Nah, I was already awake," Shinji replied, "I went to sleep early. I 
guess my body's used to only five hours of sleep,"
  Ranma smirked, "Hm, I guess college does that to ya, huh?"
  "Where were you headed?"
  "Going out,"
  "It's four in the morning," Shinji said, "Where can you possibly go at four in 
the morning?"
  "I'm going for my morning jog," Ranma replied.
  "You go jogging this early in the morning?" Shinji was very surprised. He 
didn't even know Ranma jogged in the first place. 
  Ranma nodded, "I jog every morning at around now. You just happen to be 
sleeping when I leave the house and still asleep when I come back,"
  "Man, I never knew that,"
  "Well now you know," he replied.
  "How often you been doing this?"
  Ranma thought for a moment, "Every day since the Nerima Massacre, when my 
friends and family were killed. Of course, I only do it when I'm not busy with 
one of my lil adventures,"
  "Oh,"
  "Care you join me?" Ranma asked.
  Shinji seemed somewhat interested, "How far you jog?"
  "Around twenty miles," Ranma said, "Give or take. I usually jog over a few 
cities before turning around and heading back,"
  "T-t-twenty miles?!" Shinji's eyes widened, "That's basically running a 
marathon every day,"
  "Yeah, so?" Ranma said, all the while grinning, "You should know by now that 
I'm kinda outta the ordinary. Running marathon lengths for me is less tiring for 
me than it is for you to, say, read a book,"
  Shinji said nothing.
  "Well, since you don't jog, it'd probably be really hard for you," Ranma said, 
"However, if you want, work you way up to jogging about as much as I do. That 
way, you'll be able to keep up,"
  "Perhaps," Shinji said, "Man, you must be in a lot better shape than I 
believe, to be able to jog like that, and on a regular basis,"
  Ranma smiled, "I try,"
  "You used to do this when you were young also?" Shinji asked.
  Ranma nodded, "Yep,"
 
  Shinji stopped for a moment, wanting to catch his breath. He felt like he was 
going to die from forcing himself to jog for so long. He hadn't jogged for more 
than around five miles but it felt like he had been running for hundreds of 
miles. His legs burned and his whole body ached.
  "God, how the hell does Ranma do it?" Shinji muttered, sitting down on a 
bench. He had only been jogging for around an hour and had luckily stumbled upon 
a bench when he did as he was jogging through a park.
  He rested there for a good fifteen minutes. As he did, he noticed the sun 
rising in the far off horizon beyond the buildings poking up in to the sky. It 
was probably around six or so.
  "Man, what was I thinking?" Shinji told himself. He was sweaty, tired, and 
around five miles away from home.
  "Well I'll be damned," came a familiar voice, "I didn't expect to see you 
here,"
  Shinji turned around and found himself looking at Ranma as Ranma was making 
his way down a path toward the bench.
  "What are you doing here?" Ranma asked, hopping over the bench and sitting 
down next to the young man.
  Shinji felt a bit embarrassed, "Well, I was trying to jog, but I guess I'm no 
good at it,"
  Great, yet another thing I'm not good at, Shinji thought sullenly. I can't 
beat Ranma in sparring. I can't consistently beat Asuka in sparring. I have 
trouble talking to girls. And now I can't even jog for five miles without 
getting tired.
  Ranma whistled, "You're around five miles away from home. Is this your first 
rest stop?"
  Shinji nodded.
  Ranma seemed impressed, "Not bad. Not bad at all,"
  "What do you mean?" Shinji asked, "You jog for twenty miles and you haven't 
even broken a sweat,"
  "That's cause I'm used to it," Ranma said, "However, for someone like you, who 
probably never jogged, being able to make it this far is excellent. Most people 
can't even jog for one mile without needing to rest. How long did it take you to 
reach this far?"
  "Been running for around an hour," Shinji replied.
  Ranma seemed disappointed, "Oh, nevermind. I figure it would have taken you 
around forty minutes to reach here, not an hour. At one hour for five miles, 
that's basically a twelve minutes mile, which is extremely slow,"
  Shinji smirked, "Sorry I don't meet up to your expectations,"
  "No matter," Ranma continued, "The fact that you went five miles, even if it 
was a rather slow pace, is very good,"
  "Thanks, I guess,"
  "So, you done resting?" Ranma smirked, "Wanna jog with me back home?"
  "You're finishing up with your jogging?"
  Ranma nodded, "Yep. I only have the rest of the trip back home before I finish 
with my usual twenty mile jog,"
  "Wow, it's probably around six," Shinji commented, "That means you jogged 
fifteen miles in around two hours. That averages to around six minutes a mile,"
  Ranma shook his head, "It's only ten after five. I left the house at four. 
That averages to about a mile every four minutes and forty seconds,"
  Shinji thinks about it for a moment, doing the math in his head. After a good 
minute, he agrees, "Yeah, you're right. Hey, did you do that in your head?"
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah, why?"
  "You figured it out just like that," Shinji commented, "You must be really 
good with mathematics,"
  "Yeah," Ranma said, "That's probably the only form of academics I'm good at, 
math,"
  "Well, I'd jog with you back to the house, but there's no way I can jog at the 
speed you jog," Shinji commented.
  "Don't worry about it," Ranma replied, waving a dismissive hand, "I take it 
easy. I'll keep at the pace you go,"
  "Really? I don't wanna hold you back,"
  "Don't worry about it, it's fine," he said.
  "Okay,"
  Together, Shinji and Ranma started jogging back toward the house.
  "Say, how come you're out jogging anyway?" Ranma asked curiously.
  Shinji felt a bit embarrassed in saying it but said it nonetheless, "Well, 
even though I can't do what you do now, perhaps I can at least attain the level 
of where you were back then, before you started training exclusively after the 
Nerima Massacre,"
  Ranma smiled warmly, "All right. That's not an easy task but it's not an 
impossible one either. However, if you want, I'll help you every step of the way 
to achieve that goal,"

  On the way home, Shinji spotted at building that caught his attention. He 
stopped to regard the building for a moment. The building had almost no windows 
and the few windows that it did, it had large posters posted on them.
  "Makunouchi Gym," he said aloud, reading the sign that hung above the 
entrance.
  "Something the matter?" Ranma asked, noticing Shinji stopping.
  Shinji jerked his thumb toward the gym, "Is that a boxing gym?"
  Ranma nodded, "That? Yeah, it is. Why? Oh, wait, you're interested in boxing?"
  Shinji blushed slightly, "I kinda like it. I've always had a interest in 
anything that has to do with martial arts. Boxing is one of them. Anyway, what 
I'm curious is to the name of the gym,"
  "Wanna go in?" Ranma asked, "The man who owns this gym, Makunouchi, I know 
him,"
  "Would the man who owns this gym happen to be none other than Makunouchi 
Ippo?" Shinji asked, his voice hopeful.
  Ranma seemed a bit surprised, "Yeah. How'd you know this?"
  "Really? It's him?" Shinji's eyes lit up, "Oh man, I didn't know he own a gym 
this close to where we live!"
  "That still doesn't answer my question," Ranma smirked.
  "Makunouchi Ippo," Shinji said, recalling the articles he had read about a 
long time ago, "This guy was the Featherweight Champion a few decades ago and 
was considered one of the greatest boxers of his time. A couple of years after 
he won that title, he jumped up several weight classes to take on and beat 
Mamaru Takamura, the Middleweight Champion at the time. From there, he moved up 
to yet more weight classes to beat a man named Kenmaru Roku, a man who used to 
be considered the world's greatest martial artist fighter back then but switched 
over to boxing and dominating until he fought Makunouchi-san,"
  "How do you know all of this?"
  Shinji gave a small smile, "Well, since I'm doing martial arts, I grew in to 
really enjoy knowing everything there is about various forms of it, boxing being 
one of them. Anyway, this Makunouchi guy is probably my favorite fighter of all 
time," He blushed, "Um, present company excluded of course. He'd be no match for 
you of course,"
  Ranma laughed, "Thanks. Anyway, if you want, I'll introduce you to him,"
  "Um, I-I dunno," Shinji became nervous, "I-I d-don't wanna bother him,"
  "He's a friend of mine," Ranma said, "I met him a long time ago, before I even 
settled in MegaTokyo,"
  "That was a long time ago," Shinji commented.
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah. However, we don't bump in to each other much. I met him 
when I was jogging and he was doing jogging. I usually do my jogging before him 
so we rarely bump in to one another,"
  "Oh," 
  "C'mon, let's go in," Ranma said, "I'll introduce you to him. He's a really 
cool guy,"
  "But it's six in the morning," Shinji commented, "Wouldn't we be disturbing 
him this early?"
  "Nah. His gym open at five. He's been open for over half an hour,"

  "G-g-good morning, M-Makunouchi-san," Shinji said, extremely nervous. He 
regarded the gym owner intently. The man standing before him, although nearing 
sixty, looked to be in incredible shape. He looked to be much younger than what 
his actual age was. He had a timeless look to him, much like Ranma. Ranma looked 
as if he was still in his mid-twenties, even though he was probably nearing a 
hundred or so, provided one counted the time Ranma spent those years merged with 
Rei while in a person that eventually grew up to attend college.
  The man had short black spiky black hair. He looked to weigh probably around 
one hundred ninety pounds of ripped muscles. Shinji noticed that the man's 
forearms were massive, as if getting hit by him would be equivalent to be 
hitting with a baseball bat. There was an innocent child-like look to him.
  "Morning," Ippo bowed politely.
  Shinji, surprised at how such a formidable fighter in his day could be so nice 
in person, nervously bowed.
  "Please, call me Ippo," the man said, "What's your name?"
  "S-S-Shinji I-Ikari," Shinji stammered.
  Ippo smiled warmly, "It's nice to meetcha. There's no need to be nervous,"
  Ranma smiled, "How's everything going?"
  "It's nice seeing you again," Ippo said, "It's been a while since we last saw 
each other. So, what brings you guys here?"
  "Shinji here just wanted to meetcha," Ranma smiled, "Seems like he's a big fan 
of yours,"
  Shinji blushed a deep shade of red.
  "Really? Thanks," Ippo said, "I'm surprised that people still remember who I 
am. I retired from boxing over twenty years ago,"
  Shinji quickly said, "I know who you are. You are probably the greatest boxer 
to have ever entered the ring,"
  Ippo blushed slightly, scratching the back of his head, "Um, I wouldn't quite 
say something to that extent,"
  Ranma grinned. He didn't bother to mention that things might go differently 
had Ranma's given boxing a try. However, it didn't bother Ranma one bit. It 
wasn't as if he had something to prove.
  "I watched all your recorded matches," Shinji said, "My favorite was your 
fight against Takamura-san for the Middleweight Championship,"
  Ippo seemed embarrassed, "Really? You liked that one? I remember that match 
like it was yesterday. My opponent hit me so many times with so many hard 
punches that I actually started hallucinating during the fight,"
  "Really? I never knew that," Shinji's eyes widened.
  Ranma smiled. He noticed that Shinji looked very happy.
  "Although I managed to win at the very end with that lucky punch to my 
opponent's chin," Ippo said, "it definitely wasn't a pretty fight. It was 
completely one-sided until the very very end, during the twelfth round. Frankly, 
that fight wasn't anywhere near as one-sided as some of my earlier fights,"
  "You mean the fight against Miyata-san?" Shinji asked, "Your very first 
opponent, before you even became a pro?"
  Ippo gave Shinji a shocked look, "H-how'd you know?"
  "I read your biography," Shinji replied.
  "Oh," Ippo said, "I should've figured that,"
  Ranma, figuring it was best to leave Shinji and Ippo to talk in private, Ranma 
went about checking out the layout of the gym. He noted that it looked much like 
what the last remembered. It was basically a massive room where everyone 
trained. 
The entire room was empty of anyone but the three of them, the wide open area 
able to echo Shinji's and Ippo's conversations quite well.
  There are five water-filled punching bags located to the right of the 
entrance, the chains holding them hanging all the way down from the rafters of 
the very high ceiling. There were exercise equipment like a benches and 
dumbbells and barbells to the left of the entrance. Along the back left wall 
were five speed bags, an open area nearby most likely for exercises like jump-
ropes or shadow boxing. By the center of the back of the room were two doors, 
one to the locker rooms and the other to the basement where there were was a 
whole lower section to the gym. In the center of the room there was a boxing 
ring. Last but not least, by the back right of the room was a door the most 
likely lead to Ippo's work office.
  As he looked around, he overheard a part of the conversation between Ippo and 
Shinji.
  "Yeah, if you become champion, this man comes out of hiding to challenge you," 
Ippo said, "His name is Boon, and boy, can that man give a beat down,"
  "Whoa, did I hear that correctly?" Ranma interrupted, "There's someone that'll 
come out of hiding to challenge Shinji if he becomes champion?"
  Ippo nodded, "Well, yes, but that's easier said than done. He only challenges 
champion-type fighters,"
  "What kind of guy is this?" Ranma asked, very interested. Ranma had considered 
doing this. Even though he would never enter tournaments, that never meant he 
wouldn't go about challenging the champions of a particular tournament. It meant 
that he wouldn't have to weed through unworthy opponents to fight the champion, 
or contended for champion, if he entered tournaments. It seemed like someone 
thought much like Ranma.
  Ippo turned toward Ranma, "I fought him decades ago, the very day after I beat 
Kenmaru and won the Heavyweight Championship as a matter of fact. I don't know 
much about him. His name is Boon, but I heard it's just a nickname given to 
him,"
  "What kind of guy is this Boon person?" Ranma asked.
  "Big," Ippo said, "Very big. Downright gigantic. He probably weighed around 
six hundred pounds,"
  Ranma seemed a bit disappointed, "Six hundred pounds? How does a guy that big 
move around if he weighed that much? Is he some kinda super sumo wrestler?"
  I guy that big must move really slow, Ranma thought.
  Ippo shook his head, "No. You'd think a guy that big is slow, huh? No way. 
That's not the case with him. He moves freakishly fast. Ranma, I've heard you're 
really fast, but I kind of wonder if that's fast enough to deal with someone 
like him,"
  "Well..." He opened his mouth to say something but choose against it. There 
was no need to say. Just like how Ranma didn't know much about Ippo, Ippo didn't 
know much about him. This was the first time Ranma found out Ippo was the 
Heavyweight Champion in the boxing world, a feat he had to respect and admire. 
Ranma knew that being a champion in any physical field of martial arts took an 
extraordinary amount of training.
  Ippo regarded Ranma for a moment. Ippo knew that Ranma was an excellent 
fighter, even though he never demonstrated it before. He knew Ranma taught 
martial arts classes and was a Grandmaster in the style called Anything Goes 
Martial Arts. Little did Ippo, or many other people for that matter, knew of 
Ranma's adventures or what he had become.
  "Anyway, Boon is a really good fighter," Ippo said, "An exceptional martial 
artist it seems. When we fought, he handicapped himself by allowing himself to 
only use his fists,"
  Ranma and Shinji listened intently, absorbing everything.
  "I lost to him badly," Ippo said, "I hit him fourteen times with my strongest 
punches and none of them seemed to have effected him. It's not something I'm 
proud of, but definitely nothing I'm ashamed of,"
  Ranma seemed impressed, "Wow, that's very impressive. Considering your size 
and the fact that you're a boxer, and was a Heavyweight Champion then, you must 
have a really powerful punch,"
  Ippo blushed, "I dunno about that. It's an okay punch,"
  "Man, I'm kinda eager to find out who this Boon guy is," Ranma commented.
  "A really nice guy, too," Ippo said, "Even though he challenged me, it was 
nothing than a friendly challenge. He just wanted to fight someone really good 
at fighting,"
  Ranma turned toward Shinji, "Hey, isn't that Ryoga's friend? Y'know, that dude 
he mentioned that has spiky hair that seems to love to fight,"
  Shinji shrugged, "I dunno,"
  "Anyway, where can I find this Boon guy?" Ranma asked, "If he's that good, I'd 
like to meet him,"
  "Why?" Shinji asked, confused, "It's not like he stands a chance against you,"
  "What makes you say that?" Ranma said, "There are very good fighters out 
there. There's always someone out there stronger than you,"
  Shinji scratched his head, smirking slightly, "Um, I doubt that applies to 
you. I mean, you were God once. I don't think anything can get more powerful 
than that,"
  Ranma shrugged, "Well, you have a point there, but I ain't God no more,"
  Ippo seemed confused, "What are you talking about?"
  "Nothing," Ranma gave a meek laugh.
  "Anyway, if you want to find him," Ippo started, "I don't think I can be of 
much help. He only showed up to fight champion-type fighters,"
  "You mentioned that the guy you beat, Kenmaru, used to be the Heavyweight 
Champion, has he ever fought him?" Ranma asked.
  Ippo nodded, "Yeah. Kenmaru beat Boon, at least that's what he claims,"
  "What, you don't believe him?" Shinji asked.
  Ippo shrugged, "It's not that I don't believe him. It's just that I find it 
very unlikely that someone like Boon would lose to someone Kenmaru. They fought 
before Kenmaru switched over to boxing. Keep in mind Boon handicaps himself by 
boxing against me. He's a martial artist, not a boxer. If Boon is a fraction as 
hard as when I fought him when he was handicapped, then I doubt Kenmaru could 
win,"
  Ranma seemed excited, "Man, this Boon guy seems really good. I'd really like 
to meet,"
  "Like I said," Ippo shrugged, "He only shows up to challenge you. I dunno if 
you'll ever find him. It's kind of a shame. I wouldn't mind fighting him. He was 
very very formidable. You don't fight good fights like that that often,"
  "Why not just do some kinda ad looking for him?" Shinji suggested, "If he sees 
it, he'll come to you since he'll know you're looking for him,"
  "I tried," Ippo said, "But he never showed up. I stopped looking for him 
around ten years ago,"
  "So the only way to get this guy to show up is to become champion?" Ranma 
asked.
  Ippo nodded.
  Ranma smirked. He turned toward Shinji, a grin on his face. This worried the 
young man.
  "Shinji, forget all that crap I taught you about only using what you learned 
for defensive purposes and not showing off," Ranma said, "I want you to become 
boxing champion,"
  Ippo gave Ranma a wry look, "I don't think you're taking boxing all that 
serious, Ranma. It's very hard work becoming champion,"
  "Can't you train him to become one?" Ranma smiled, "Shinji may not look like 
much, but don't let that fool ya,"
  "Gee, I dunno if I should be flattered or insulted," Shinji muttered.
  "Let's just say that I do take you in," Ippo said, "Which I would have no 
problem in doing so. However, you probably weight around that of a hundred and 
forty pounds. That's junior welterweight class,"
  "What about it?" Ranma asked, "What's wrong with Shinji's weight?"
  "Nothing," Ippo said, regarding Shinji for a moment, "However, considering 
this Boon guy only shows up to challenge the Heavyweight Champion, putting on 
around sixty pounds to reach that weight class is going to be very hard,"
  "Damn," Ranma said, "I never thought about that. It's gonna be really hard to 
gain weight," He smirked, at Shinji, "Too bad you aren't a girl. That way, all 
you'd need to do is look at a something to gain weight,"
  Shinji and Ippo nervously looked around. Luckily, they were all within the gym 
and there were no females around to hear that comment.
  Ranma laughed, "Hey, I just go with the flow. I've been slapped so many times 
the nerves in my cheeks have become so used to it that I don't even feel it 
anymore,"
  "You say that is if that's a good thing," Shinji chuckled.
  Ranma turned toward Ippo, "How about this be a joint project? I'll be in 
charge of getting the weight on him. You can be in charge of training him for 
upcoming matches?"
  Ippo thought about it for a moment. It couldn't hurt to try. If he became 
heavyweight champion, there was a chance Ippo could see Boon again and perhaps 
request a rematch. Ippo also noticed that there was a quality in Shinji that 
told Ippo that the young man can make quite an impact to the boxing world. And 
even if he couldn't make it to the heavyweight class, that wouldn't be all that 
bad since he would most likely dominate in any of the lower weight classes.
  "All right, I'll give it a try," Ippo said.
  "Cool," Ranma smiled, "Heh, this is gonna be a fun lil pet project. I'm 
looking forward to seeing how he turns out,"
  Shinji raised his hand, "Um, I'm still here,"

  Shinji groaned as he sat in one of his classes later that day. He didn't pay 
all that much attention to what the teacher was teaching. It was a simple 
Physics class required for his major.
  "Me, a Heavyweight Champion, huh?" he asked himself, wondering if something 
like that was really possible.
  "Whatcha say?" a young girl Shinji's age asked him in a squeaky voice. She was 
the only female in the class.
  "Oh nothing, Sumi," he replied, giving her a meek reply, regarding her for a 
moment.
  She was in most of his classes, she being in the same major, Engineering 
Science, as him. She was a pretty girl, sporting short shoulder-length brown 
hair and wore glasses that made her look smart and cute at the same time. This 
was one of the few times she was wearing her glasses instead of contact lenses 
like she usually did. She had gotten her looks from her mother and her 
intelligence from her father.
  "Sometimes I wish the teacher would teach something interesting for a change," 
Sumi said, regarding Shinji for a moment.
  "I know whatcha mean," he replied, giving a meek laugh.
  She had to admit that Shinji stood out among the rest of the group of boys in 
her classes. He seemed to be the only one not intimidated by Sumi's social 
status. Her family was very wealthy, both of them outstanding and very 
prestigious members of society. Her father, Kyo, was the CEO of a major 
engineering firm, quite a contrast from what he used to do, working in the 
engine room of a ship named 'Witch Hunter', machinist-mate in ship term. There, 
he had met his future wife, whom had been hired as a cook. Her mother, Sayuri, 
now owned a massive 
chain of extravagant restaurants.
  Before they knew it, class had ended. That was the last class of the day and 
everyone sighed in relief as the teacher dismissed the class.
  "Hey, Shinji," Sumi called out as Shinji left the room.
  "Y-yeah?" he asked.
  "You worried about the upcoming test?" Sumi asked, catching up to him. As they 
walked along, it was noticeable that he stood good deal taller than her, the top 
of her head reaching his chin level.
  Shinji shook his head, "Not really. I've got a general idea what's going to be 
on it,"
  He was a bit surprised she was speaking to him. She rarely talked to the guys 
in her class. 
  "You did pretty well on the last test, didn't you?" she asked.
  "Y-yeah, I got a ninety four," he said, feeling a bit proud of himself, "Of 
course, it wasn't as high as yours. That's very good of you, scoring a perfect 
hundred on a test that hard,"
  Sumi smiled slightly, "Thanks,"
  "Um, you want me hold your backpack for you?" he asked without much thought. 
He had grown accustomed to carrying girls' backpacks. Ranma, of all people, have 
taught and instilled in him a sense of courtesy toward the opposite sex.
  "Um, no need," she said, smiling slightly, "It's not heavy," 
  That's awfully nice of him to ask, she thought.
  Together, the both of them emerged from the building where their class was 
held, a building labeled 'D cluster', a building where they would be spending 
most of their time in classes. Four of their five classes were in 'D cluster'. 
  As they stepped out in to the breezing cool air, Shinji figured now was a good 
time to keep a conversation going. He was still working at talking more freely 
with girls, something he always had trouble with. 
  "Um, what do you think of Engineering?" he asked, the best thing he could come 
up with after a moment of thinking. 
  Sumi shrugged, "It's fine I guess. Gets a bit boring. I learned quite a bit 
from my dad. He works at an Engineering firm and I used to visit him at work and 
learn while there,"
  "Is it much like what we're learning?"
  "More or less," she replied. She looked up and saw someone leaning by the side 
of the building. She was a bit surprised to see him. It was a man that looked to 
be around two years older than Shinji that stood a good deal taller and larger 
than the young man.
  Shinji and Sumi had been walking in that direction but stopped when the man 
pushed off the building and approached them.
  "Hey, Sumi," the man said, leaning forward and kissing Sumi on the lips. This 
embarrassed her but also made her slightly nervous. 
  "W-what are you doing here?" she asked.
  "What, I can't come see my girl whenever I like?" the man said, smirking at 
Shinji. His eyes were telling Shinji 'This is my woman, back off it you know 
what's good for you'. He didn't even need to give Shinji such a look for he 
already surmised that the man was her boyfriend.
  Sumi gave a meek smile.
  "Who's the twerp?" the man asked her, jerking a thumb toward Shinji.
  "What did you say?" Shinji narrowed his eyes at the man. His heart started 
racing as adrenaline started coursing through his veins. 
  Sumi quickly jumped in to abate the tension, "T-this is Shinji, he's my 
classmate,"
  The boyfriend continued to narrow his eyes at Shinji, taking no action to 
acknowledge the young man.
  "T-this Tou," Sumi said, "M-my boyfriend,"
  "Nice to meetcha," Shinji said, almost gritting his teeth. Ranma had taught 
him better than that, that something like this was above him. It was perfectly 
all right for the man to be hostile toward Shinji since it seemed like Shinji 
was trying to get with his girlfriend.
  "C'mon, let's get going," Tou told Sumi, putting an arm over Sumi's shoulders, 
"I'll drive y'home,"
  "Um, there's no real need," she said nervously, "I'm not heading back to the 
dorms yet. I have to wait for my housemate to get out of class. Her class ends 
fifteen minutes from now. She'll be coming out of 'C Cluster' then,"
  'C Cluster' was located nearby. All the buildings were labeled 
alphabetically.
  "Fine, I'll wait you," he said.
  "Um, take care, Shinji," Sumi dared to tell him even though her boyfriend was 
there, "Good luck with the test,"
  "Thanks, you too," he replied.
  The man narrowed his eyes at Shinji before walking off along with a reluctant 
Sumi, "See y'round, kid,"
  Shinji clenched his hands in to fists. He stood there for several minutes, 
taking deep breaths to calm himself down. 
  "It's not worth it," Shinji told himself, "Ranma would never approve. I'm the 
better man for not escalating it in to something like a fight," 
  After he calmed himself down, he headed in the opposite direction of which 
Sumi and Tou had gone, heading toward 'G Cluster' where he was expected to wait 
to meet up with Rei and Asuka an hour later where they would all then head back 
home together.
  Arriving a his destination, Shinji sat down by one of the benches located in 
the front and closed his eyes, willing what had transpired to disappear from his 
mind. 
  He passed his time wondering about what was in store for him, about what kind 
of training he would be undergoing for boxing. He had always liked boxing and 
didn't seem all that reluctant to actually give it a try. It wasn't that he was 
doing it for Ranma's sake, but more his own sake. As to gaining enough weight to 
reach over two hundred pounds, the heavyweight class, that was something he had 
no intention of doing. He would have to talk to Ranma about that later. He 
enjoyed being light weight and agile on his feet. 
  Shinji was knocked out of his reverie when someone bopped him in the back of 
his head. He didn't even have to look back to know who it was.
  "What the heck were you thinking about?" Asuka smirked, hands on her hips.
  "Does it matter?" Shinji smirked.
  Asuka shrugged, "Not really,"
  She walked around the back of the bench to sit down next to Shinji, taking 
care to sit on the other end so not to be close to him. God forbid people 
thought they were together.
  "Where's Rei?" he asked.
  "How the heck should I know where Wonder Girl is," Asuka spat, "It's not like 
she's in class with me, us being in different majors and all,"
  Since Rei majored in Economics and Asuka in Physics, they never had the same 
classes. Asuka, although she did Physics, she took more advanced for than what 
Shinji was learning so she wasn't in his Physics class.
  Shinji held up his hands defensively, "All right. All right. Forget I asked,"
  They didn't wait long before Rei showed up. 
  When she did, they all got up, ready to head for home.
  "Hey, aren't you going to carry my books?" Asuka said, noticing that her 
backpack of books were still on the bench. Her shoulders hurt from carrying the 
heavy backpack.
  "Oh, sorry," Shinji said, not giving it much thought.
  He walked over and picked up her backpack, throwing it casually over his 
shoulder. He also did the same for Rei, she seemingly having no problem allowing 
him to help her out.
  They headed home together. 

  "Shinji, a champion boxer?!" Asuka's eyes widened as she sat around the dinner 
table, "That's gotta be one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time,"
  Asuka, Ranma, Akane, Rei, and Shinji were gathered around the dinner table. It 
was evening out and everyone was having dinner when Ranma brought that subject 
up.
  Ranma smirked, "Why, what's so funny about it?"
  "Just the thought of Shinji boxing is ridiculous," Asuka commented.
  "Shinji a powerful martial artist," Ranma stated, "What makes it so hard to 
believe that he'd be a powerful boxer? In a sense, it's kinda like what he does 
now except he doesn't hafta worry about kicking nor being kicked,"
  "That's true," Shinji noted, never thinking about that. He would only have to 
worry about punches.
  "And Shinji having to gain weight to reach a higher weight class, heh, I'd 
like 
to see that," Asuka stated, already envisioning a fat Shinji. 
  "Um, speaking of which," Shinji began.
  "That's no problem," Ranma said, "There are weigh-ins before expected matches, 
to make sure Shinji's at the proper weight class before a fight. However, before 
he weigh-in, he'll simply eat around sixty pounds of food,"
  "Me?!? Eat sixty pounds of food!!" Shinji's eyes widened.
  Ranma nodded, "Sure, It's not that hard,"
  Akane laughed, "Ranma, in case you haven't noticed, Shinji can't quite eat as 
much as you,"
  "That's for sure," Shinji added
  "Why, how much can you eat before you're fully?" Ranma asked curiously.
  "About five pounds," Shinji said, "And that includes most of it being liquid,"
  "Oh," Ranma said, "I didn't know that. I guess he'll hafta gain the weight in 
muscle then,"
  "I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Shinji said, "I don't want to 
gain weight. I like my weight where it is,"
  "What, you're worried that you'll grow big and slow?" Ranma smirked.
  Shinji nodded. 
  Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Don't worry about it. There's ways around it. 
Since you can't eat that much before the match, we can cheat and use ki to make 
you seem heavier than what you really are,"
  "You can do that?" Shinji asked.
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah. Either that or you want to do it the hard way and simply 
work out until you have muscles dense enough to bring you up to around two 
hundred pounds,"
  Shinji quickly shook his head, "No thanks,"
  He didn't like the thought of being a huge man. He was actually comfortable of 
his size and build, something he had never been years ago, before he met Ranma.
  "You won't grow big or nothing," Ranma said, "You'll be the same size as you 
are now but you'll simply be heavier,"
  "But wouldn't that make me slower?" he asked. 
  "Um, I think you mistaken what I mean by gaining muscle," Ranma said, 
"I'm talking about you gaining muscle density, not muscle size. For example, how 
much do you think I weigh?"
  "Weigh?" Shinji asked, "Um, I dunno,"
  He regarded Ranma for a moment. Ranma was very muscular but nowhere near as 
muscular as competitive bodybuilders. He had the a very chiseled and tight body 
of 
that of a track athlete.
  "I'd say somewhere around two hundred and ten pounds or so, give or take five 
pounds," Shinji guessed, figuring he was around that weight.
  Ranma laughed, "Nope,"
  "A hundred and eighty five pounds is way too heavy," Asuka said, "He's 
probably around a hundred and eighty pounds,"
  "Nope," Ranma continued to grin, "My real weight is close to three hundred,"
  "Three hundred!!" everyone even Akane said in shock.
  "Yeah," Ranma nodded, "Even though I'm about the same size as an average man 
of my height, my muscles are that much more dense than average muscles. Because 
they're much denser, that's why I'm much stronger and faster than an average 
human being,"
  "Um, perhaps it's because you're not even human anymore," Asuka smirked.
  Ranma ignored her and continued on, "You can choose from three options, but 
since you can't eat sixty pounds of food, then than means you only have two 
options, to either use ki to make yourself seem heavier than you really are, or 
actually build denser muscles,"
  "How long does it take to develop denser muscles?" Shinji asked.
  "Couple years," Ranma said, "Not too long. However, from point of view, I 
think it's best to do both options, just train your body to grow more densely 
packed muscles and use ki to keep your up your body weight to the necessary 
weight class in the meanwhile,"
  "How come Shinji's so interested in boxing all of a sudden?" Akane asked, 
"It's not that I have something against it or anything. It's just that this 
seemed rather sudden,"
  Ranma smiled, "Actually, it's two things. The first is that Shinji's always 
been interested in boxing. The second is that if he becomes Heavyweight 
Champion, a man named Boon will come outta hiding to challenge him. When he 
does, I can challenge this guy,"
  "Who is this guy?" Akane asked. 
  Ranma shrugged, "Dunno. However, I heard he's really powerful. I wouldn't mind 
sparring against him. For a guy to be good enough to only challenge champion-
type 
fighters, that must mean he'd be a good opponent to spar against,"  
  "And you want to fight him?" Asuka asked Ranma.
  "Yep,"

  Shinji knocked on doorjamb of the kitchen as Akane was cleaning the dishes. It 
was fairly late at night and the dishes needed to be cleaned or else she risked 
the food caking up and solidifying to the plates.
  "You enjoy dinner?" Akane asked, not needing to turn around, knowing that it 
was him.
  "Yes, thank you," he said.
  "What can I do for you?"
  Shinji nervously asked, "Um, can you do me a favor?"
  "Sure, what is it?" she asked.
  "Ranma said that if I wanted to undergo training to becoming heavier, I could 
ask if you were willing to make me a special set of clothes," he said.
  "What do you mean a special set of clothes?"
  Shinji blushed slightly, feeling bad for asking Akane to do anything for him 
since she did more than enough already, "Well, basically, make an outfit where 
weight plates can be placed in 'em. Ranma said that I need to wear something 
that weighs around a hundred or so pounds on a regular basis,"
  Akane stopped what she was doing to face Shinji, "He said that?"
  Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I really dunno exactly how to go about it so I figure a 
special vest or something where I can strap on weights would do the trick,"
  Akane smiled, "Actually, that's a rather smart idea. However, I think what 
Ranma was referring to is that you wear a backpack with a hundred pounds in it 
and wear it around with you all the time,"
  "He did?" Shinji said. He felt stupid for not having thought that himself.
  Akane nodded, "Yeah. However, if you want, I can make you an outfit, I don't 
mind,"
  "Really?" Shinji seemed hopeful. He didn't really care all that much for 
backpacks. The weight wouldn't be well distributed as that of a vest or such.
  "Sure, no problem,"
 
  The next day, Shinji woke up at around his usual time, somewhere within the 
vicinity of nine-thirty. When he did and noticed the time, he felt a bit 
disappointed in himself. He had wanted to wake up much earlier to try out 
jogging once again. However, it was understandable that he would wake up late 
since he went to sleep much later than yesterday, having stayed up half the 
night studying for the upcoming test.
  When he sat upright and proceeded to get out of the bed, he felt a great 
sensation of soreness around his leg.
  It only took him a moment to realize that his legs were sore from jogging 
yesterday. It seemed his body wasn't used to it and needed time to adjust. In a 
state of soreness, it would be best to work the body part out to get blood 
flowing in to it to help flush out the acid buildup that had occurred from 
yesterday.
  He took a minute stretching his legs, knowing that it would be an adequate 
substitute for now.
  Heading downstairs, he headed to the kitchen to fix himself some breakfast. 
Since he and Asuka and Rei went to college at different times, it was an 
unreasonable request to ask Akane to prepare breakfast a second time since she 
had already prepared it for everyone else earlier.
  When he entered the kitchen, he was surprised to see Ranma there, eating 
breakfast once again, having prepared it himself.
  "G'morning," Shinji said. 
  Ranma eats so much, he thought.
  "Sleep well?" Ranma smirked. He didn't bother to mention that he had actually 
knocked on his door to see if he wanted to jog in the morning with him, 
disappointed when there was no answer.
  "I-I guess," Shinji answered. He walked over to one of the cupboards and took 
out a box of cereal. He enjoyed cereal for some odd reason. Perhaps because it 
was so convenient to prepare.
  Shinji sat down by Ranma and proceeded to eat his cereal, a bit envious of 
Ranma's giant breakfast.
  "You really like western breakfast, dontcha?" Shinji asked, all the while 
smirking. He regarded the plate of around five scrambled eggs, twenty sausage 
links and bacon strips, and generous serving of hash browns.
  Ranma nodded, "Yep. Oh yeah, before I forget, Akane finished preparing your 
outfit this morning. It's in the livingroom,"
  "It is?" Shinji was surprised. He got up from his seat and headed in to the 
livingroom. A moment later, he came back in to the kitchen, a vest in hand.
  "Whatcha think?" Ranma asked.
  Shinji regarded the vest for a bit. It was a sleeveless vest that looks 
similar to a bulletproof vest but less bulky. It only weight about a pound 
though.
  "You need to put in the weight plates yourself," Ranma commented.
  "You said I'm supposed to start off with around a hundred pounds," Shinji 
asked, "Do you think this can carry that much weight?"
  "It's made of Kevlar," Ranma smirked, "Of course it can. It can carry up to 
around five hundred pounds or so. Of course, I don't recommend trying to find 
out because I think that's even a lot of weight even for you,"
  "Man, I'm really going to be doing this, huh?" Shinji asked, "I'm really going 
to be undergoing this kinda training, huh?"
  Ranma nodded, "Well, sure, if you want. What you do is excellent for training. 
It'll make you very strong as well as increase the density of your muscles 
immensely,"
  "Do you do this?" he asked.
  Ranma proceeded to eat, "Of course, I do it all the time,"
  "You mean you're wearing one?" Shinji asked, "It looks like you're just 
wearing regular clothes,"
  Ranma nodded, "I am. These are just regular clothes I'm wearing,"
  "So how do you do it?" he asked.
  Ranma gestured toward the golden braces that were around his entire forearms. 
There was no real reason why someone would have it in the first place.
  "These arm braces weigh five hundred pounds each," Ranma said, "So I'm 
actually constantly sporting a thousand pounds every day. When I first started 
wearing these, which was around your age, they were very small and just covered 
the wrist. However, as I got older, I started wearing larger and larger ones 
until I eventually reached what I wear regularly now,"
  "A-a t-t-thousand pounds?!" Shinji's eyes widened, "You've gotta be kidding 
me! You mean you weigh around thirteen hundred pounds?"
  Ranma nodded, "Yep,"
  "Then how the heck does the chair support you?" Shinji asked, "There's no way 
a regular chair can support your weight,"
  "The chairs in the house are reinforced," Ranma said, "So they can support the 
weight. However, whenever I go out to restaurants, I simply use ki to lighten 
my current weight at the time. These things are really useful because they 
actually curb your power so that it becomes a pleasant surprise when you do take 
it off and find out how much stronger you've gotten. In a sense, they're 
strength and speed inhibiters,"
  "Um," Shinji said, "What would that had meant if you had removed those so-
called inhibitors when we were being attacked by Angels?"
  Ranma opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.
  "Jeez, I never thought of it. If I took them off, I'd probably be able to beat 
those Angels in one-on-one combat since removing them basically doubles my 
power," was all he could say, 
  Shinji's jaw dropped to the floor.
  "Of course, the past is in the past," Ranma said, "And we'll never really 
know. However, things turned out okay. I stopped those Angels, at the cost of my 
life of course, but stopped them nonetheless. That's what matters,"
  Shinji was unable to say anything. He had come to expect the unexpected when 
the subject dealt with Ranma, but something like this was mind-numbing.
  "Anyway, carrying extra weight is very useful," Ranma continued, "Ryoga does 
the same also," 
  "You mean the backpack?" Shinji asked, "How much does that weigh anyway?"
  Ranma replied, "About ten thousand pounds if I recall correctly, give or take 
a thousand pounds. All I know is that it's just shy of the upper weight limits 
of bridges. This allows him to walk over bridges without risking collapsing 'em. 
Anyway, the weight he and I carry increase as time goes back, and since we've 
been around for so long, it's only natural we carry heavy weights. I hate to 
admit it, but he's much stronger than me. The backpack isn't the only weight he 
carries,"
  "What do you mean?" Shinji asked, "Oh, you meant he umbrella?"
  Ranma nodded, "That, too. It weighs around a thousand now. Those crisscrossing 
bands that you find on his shins weighs around a hundred each leg and 
the braces around his wrists weigh as much as mine,"
  "J-jeez," Shinji gasped.
  Ranma smiled, "Don't worry. Over time, you'll be able to do that as well. It 
takes time. However, you're young and have plenty of it,"
  "I dunno about that," Shinji seemed skeptical, "That's a lot of weight, 
especially what Ryoga carries," 
  "I know," Ranma said, "Sometimes, Ryoga's strength even impresses me,"
  "How much do you think he can lift?" Shinji had to ask.
  Ranma shrugged, "Dunno. But I know it's a lot of weight. We're talking about 
so much that the ground can't support the weight he can lift. The only person I 
can think off the top of my head that can physically lift more than him is that 
God-version of myself since his strength is infinite. However, despite that, he 
can only lift as much as when the ground below his feet allows,"
  "Whoa," Shinji said. The thought that Ryoga could lift more than the ground he 
was standing one was unimaginable.
  "Anyway, the point is is that if you do this kind of training, it'll increase 
muscle density," Ranma said, "That's the important part. It's a long process, 
but it gets easier with time. For now, we combine this and ki to keep your 
weight heavier than used to. However, after some time, we won't need to use ki 
anymore,"
  "Oh,"
  Ranma looked at the clock that hung on the wall, "Hey, shouldn't you be 
getting ready for classes?"
  Shinji's eyes widened. He looked at the clock and noticed that it was nearing 
ten-fifteen.
  "Oh man! I've gotta get going!" Shinji gasped. He quickly went about finishing 
his breakfast before heading for the door.
  "Thanks, Ranma,"  
  "No prob,"

  Shinji shifted uncomfortably in his chair as he went about writing down the 
notes his teacher was writing down. What was causing this was the vest he was 
wearing. He had taken the vest with him to school and had gotten weight plates 
for them in between classes.
  Sumi, whom was sitting behind him, noticed this. She found it rather odd why 
he was doing so. He had been constantly shifting around throughout class.
  When class ended, Shinji slowly headed for the door. The extra hundred pounds 
he was carrying, although well distributed, make it much harder to move around 
naturally. His balance was completely out of whack and his muscles were 
straining to keep his legs stabilized whenever he was standing.
  Shinji slowly headed for the door.
  "Damn, I've gotta carry Asuka's and Rei's backpack as well," Shinji muttered 
under his breath, "That's gonna be a real pain,"
  He wondered what the two of them would think or say when he would split up 
halfway home so he could stop by Makunouchi Gym for his first day of training. 
He also wondered if he should keep the vest on or take it off while there. In 
his backpack he had a clean pair of shorts and t-shirt to change in to for 
whatever workout Ippo had in store for him.
  He felt excited at what was to come. He always liked boxing and would like to 
see how well he did. Although the thought of having to fight someone in a ring 
seemed intimidating, he was used to fighting Ranma and that should help make the 
stress of fighting in one-on-one combat seem less taxing.
  Sumi didn't bother to approach Shinji this time around, a bit worried that her 
boyfriend, Tou, would be waiting around and get the wrong idea. He was the 
jealous type. She didn't appreciate the fact that he bad mouthed Shinji, a man 
he didn't even know, judging him based merely on a brief encounter.
  Shinji emerged from 'D cluster' and in to the chill cool air, grateful to be 
outside and able to breath fresh air. For such a prestigious college, the 
buildings needed better ventilation.
  Shinji glanced toward the side and caught sight of the man named Tou. The man 
gave Shinji a dirty look. All Shinji did was grit his teeth, turn his gaze 
around, continuing on his way.
  "What would Ranma do in a situation like this?" he asked himself, "He'd just 
walk away like it was nothing. How the hell does he let stuff like that just 
slide so easily,"
  Shinji headed over to 'G Cluster' where he sat on the bench, waiting for Asuka 
and Rei.
  He proceeded to study his Physics textbook for the test that he would have 
tomorrow. Even though he was doing very well in class, it was because he studied 
on a consistent basis. In a sense, he was grateful that he had an hour to kill 
everyday while waiting for Rei and Asuka's classes to end. It allowed him 
uninterrupted study time. Ranma seemed to also promote Shinji studying, refusing 
to spar him anytime after ten at night, leaving him with plenty of free time 
afterwards.
  Before long, Asuka and Rei met up with him.
  "Upcoming test?" Rei asked softly. She noticed he tended to study more often 
when there was a test looming in the near future.
  Shinji closed his textbook and looked up, nodding, "Yeah, a Physics test,"
  "Bah, Physics is easy," Asuka said with a dismissive hand, "I aced it when I 
took it in college when I was in Germany back on the other world,"
  "If you took college already, why are you taking it again?" Shinji asked 
curiously.
  "Are you an idiot?" Asuka narrowed her eyes, "Didn't you ask me that a couple 
of weeks ago? It's because we live in a different world and any records of you 
or me or Wonder Girl here don't exist,"
  Shinji smirked, "I guess you have a point. I guess stating that you're an EVA 
pilot has no weight in this world,"
  Asuka narrowed her eyes at him. He was right and she hated him for it. She had 
mentioned that several times to schoolmates and they looked at her like she was 
some kind of lunatic.
  "Don't it annoy you that your life as an EVA pilot means nothing on this 
world?" Asuka asked him in an acidic voice.
  Shinji shrugged, "Not much anymore. It seems like you're still caught up on 
it, and that was, what, around four years ago,"
  "Hmph!" she turned away in disgust, "Something as important as being an EVA 
pilot should never be dismissed and should always be acknowledged. We helped 
save our world from disaster, afterall,"
  "Ranma saved a couple of worlds," Shinji smirked, "He doesn't seem to mind 
that no one acknowledges him for it,"
  That was something he always liked about Ranma. As long as Ranma knew for 
himself, that was all that mattered. What people thought of him or his exploits 
meant nothing to him.
  "Hmph!" Asuka said in annoyance.
  Shinji grabbed a hold of Asuka's and Rei's backpack, throwing them over his 
shoulder along with his own backpack. He staggered slightly for balance.
  "What the heck's wrong with you?" Asuka eyed him critically.
  "N-nothing," Shinji said, blushing slightly. The added weight made it all the 
more harder to keep a steady balance.
  Together, an encumbered Shinji walked as Asuka and Rei walked alongside him, 
totally unaware of the amount of effort he was exerting to continue walking.
  "I hope this is all worth it,"

  Shinji entered Makunouchi Gym. It was only barely after four in the afternoon. 
By his side were Asuka and Rei. When he did, a lot of the gym patrons stopped 
what they were doing to check out the two cute girls that was with him. None of 
them recognized the three newcomers.
  "So, this is the gym you're going to be working out in?" Asuka regarded the 
interior. It looked rather dank and there were no females in the entire gym. It 
basically reeked of testosterone, of guys trying to become great fighters and 
building up their bodies to almost grossly chiseled definition.
  "How long will you be training here?" Rei asked softly. She looked over at the 
five punching bags by the right where they were all in use.
  All five guys there, noticing they were being observed by a girl, went about 
showing off, punching it with much more fervor, the chain suspending it from the 
rafters high above rattling loudly.
  "Hmph, they're showing off," Asuka said in annoyance. All guys did that. 
Whenever she happened to glance in any guy's direction, most of it 
unintentionally, they would suck in their stomachs and hold out their chests 
more, trying to make themselves seem more of a presence.
  Asuka and Rei regarded Ippo as emerged from the office by the back of the vast 
room and approach the three of them. Although they didn't know how, they noticed 
that this man was a lot older than his appearance indicated.
  I thought Ranma was the only guy that looked ageless, Asuka thought to 
herself.
  "Hello, M-Makunouchi-san," Shinji bowed courteously.
  "Please, call me Ippo," Ippo said with a smile. 
  "O-okay," Shinji said.
  Ippo noticed the two girls, "Hi, I'm Ippo,"
  Both girls greeted him politely, even Asuka, and introduced themselves. Over 
time, Asuka had somehow become grown much more respectful of adults, more so 
than people her age. Perhaps it was because there was a great sense of wisdom 
found in them that came with experience and long life.
  "Are you girls here to join as well?" Ippo asked, a bit hopeful. He wouldn't 
mind having more females around. It would draw in more potential trainees.
  Asuka shook her head, "No. We were just passing by and just wanted to see,"
  "Are the three of you together?" he asked.
  "Yeah," Shinji said, "We all live together with Ranma. He basically takes care 
of us,"
  "Oh, you know Ranma, huh?" Ippo smiled.
  "You know him?" Asuka asked, a bit interested.
  "Yeah, we met a while ago," he shrugged, "But we don't talk much. He's a 
really nice guy,"
  Asuka let out a snort, "Ranma, nice? I dunno about that,"
  She had mixed assumptions of Ranma. True, he was a nice guy at heart, but for 
a guy that was generally nice, he could be outright annoying, especially when he 
teased her all the time. However, over time, she knew that if she didn't provoke 
him, he would not provoke her.
  "Are you girls going to stay and watch?" Ippo asked. He gazed around and 
noticed several of the patrons working more strenuous than usual.
  "Um," Asuka thought for a moment.
  "I can't," Rei said softly, "I have some homework I need to finish,"
  "Oh," Ippo said. He turned toward Asuka, "How about you?"
  "Um, no. I'm gonna go as well," she replied. She didn't want to end up walking 
home alone with Shinji. She would much rather be with Wonder Girl than Baka-
Shinji.
  Asuka and Rei headed for the door.
  "Don't worry, Shinji, I won't wait up," Asuka smirked at him in a dry voice.
  "I wouldn't expect it any other way," Shinji smirked back, used to Asuka's 
antics. She seemed to still hold hostilities toward him, but he had gotten used 
to it. It wasn't that she hated him, but rather found him annoying, kind of like 
the way she believed she found Ranma annoying.
  "Well, feel free to visit," Ippo said warmly.
  "Perhaps," Asuka shrugged, not giving it much thought. She preferred not to be 
around Shinji more than used to if need be.
  Rei and Asuka said their goodbyes and left, leaving Shinji and Ippo alone.
  Ippo gestured toward the extra backpacks Shinji was carrying, "What's with the 
extra backpacks?"
  "Damn, I forgot to give it back to 'em," Shinji said, quickly heading out the 
door to catch them. Stepping outside, he realized that it was too late, that 
both girls were already long gone.
  Ippo chuckled, "It seems like you're gonna hafta bring both of them back home 
with you.
  Shinji scratched his head, wondering if Rei was going home to do homework, how 
would she back able to without her backpack. 
  "I better not give myself a headache trying to figure it out," Shinji 
commented.
  "Well, are you ready for some training?" Ippo asked, "I don't know how far 
along you are with martial arts training, but I'd like to start you off real 
easy to gauge what kind of level you're at initially,"
  "Okay,"

  Shinji emerged from the locker room, clad in some sweat pants and a t-shirt, 
perfect training attire. Underneath the attire was the hundred pound vest he 
had chosen to keep on. Ranma had said that he was expected to wear it all the 
time, even in sleep so it was best to keep to it.
   He looked around the gym, wondering what he should be doing. 
  "Shinji," Ippo called his name. He was by the open area by the back left of 
the gym. In one of his hands was a jump-rope.
  Shinji approached Ippo. He took hold of the jump-rope.
  "Here," Ippo said, "Just do jump-rope for now. It helps build agility as well 
as endurance,"
  "Um, okay," Shinji said.
  He looked at the jump-rope in his hands. He had rarely ever did such an 
exercise. He didn't even recall doing it much when he was in high school and 
never did it once since he came to this world. He was probably really rusty.
  "How long do I do it for?" he asked curiously.
  "Ten minutes'll be fine," Ippo said, "I'm gonna go over by the punching bag 
and help some of the new guys out. I'll be back later,"
  "O-okay," Shinji said, a bit disappointed. He would have liked to have Ippo 
giving him his full attention in his training. I guess that'll never be the 
case, not with some many people around here, Shinji thought.
  He attempted to jump-rope. He didn't manage to get more than ten hops before 
he ended up tripping over the rope, falling to the ground and becoming tangled. 
The weight of the vest proved too cumbersome.
  Several of the gym patrons started laughing when they noticed him.
  Shinji blushed a deep shade of red as he proceeded to untangle himself. As he 
did so, Ippo approached him again, a smirk on his lips.
  "Um, I-I'm really rusty," Shinji said in an embarrassed tone, giving him a 
very meek smile.
  Ippo laughed, "Don't worry about it. I had trouble the first time around. 
Heck, I ended up in the same predicament as you,"
  "You did?"
  Ippo nodded, "Yeah. Yes, it's embarrassing but you'll get used to it,"
  "I dunno if I'll ever get used to being embarrassed," Shinji said. 
 Ippo give him a meek smile, "Not that. I mean getting used to doing jump-rope,"
  "Oh,"

  Shinji came back home at around seven in the evening, his entire body aching 
all over.
  He hadn't bothered changing out of his training clothes and reeked of sweat. 
Not one minute after getting home, Asuka came down the stairs, an annoyed look 
on her face, "It's about time you came home. I couldn't do my homework until you 
came home,"
  She grabbed the backpack from him and headed back up the stairs.
  "You're welcome," Shinji said wryly. 
  Damn, if she needed it so badly, she could had come back to the gym and got it 
herself, he thought.
  Rei approached him a minutes later, as he was dropper her and his backpack off 
in the livingroom.
  "Thank you," she said in a soft voice, picking the backpack up off the floor.
  "Oh, no problem," Shinji smiled, glad that at least someone was grateful. He 
doubted Asuka would ever be grateful toward him. Of all the times he had carried 
her backpack, not once had she thanked him, at least not without giving him a 
rather dismissive thanks.
  Shinji proceeded upstairs to his room to get a clean pair of clothes so that 
he could take a shower and wash the day's workout out of his system and off his 
body. As he was heading up the stairs, he bumped in to Ranma as he was on his 
way down.
  "Ah, you're back," Ranma smiled, "How was the training?"
  "I'm not too sure what to think," Shinji commented, "All I did was jump-rope 
and sit-ups,"
  Ranma thought for a moment, "Ah, he's helping you build up stamina and 
endurance as well as basic footing. If I were to train someone new, that's 
probably the first thing I would do. Did you do anything else?"
  Shinji shook his head, "No. I didn't do anything past that. Jump-rope was 
almost impossibly hard,"
  Ranma chuckled, "Lettme guess, it was because you were wearing that weight 
vest that kept bogging you down?"
  Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"
  "Don't worry," Ranma smiled, "You'll get used to it. Just don't take it off. 
Eventually, your body'll get used to the added weight,"
  "I dunno," Shinji sighed, gesturing, "It seems awfully hard to do even simply 
things with this vest on. How long does it take before I'll get used to it?"
  "About a month or so," Ranma said, "Perhaps a bit more,"
  Shinji face-faulted, "Damn,"
  "Hey, it's hard work," Ranma laughed, "But in the long run, it'll vastly 
improve you. You won't see it right away, but when you take off the vest for the 
first time, you'll be pleasantly surprised,"
  "I'm supposed to keep the vest on all the time?" Shinji asked, "What about 
when I'm taking a shower or something?"
  "Only take it off when you have to," Ranma said, "Like for stuff such as 
taking a shower or perhaps washing it every here and there. Other than that, 
don't take it off,"
  "O-okay,"
  "Anyway, now that you're home, are you ready to spar?" Ranma smirked.
  "S-spar?!" Shinji's eyes widened, "I-I just got back from training at the 
gym!"
  "So?" he said, "Training at the gym is different than training here. Ippo's in 
charge of training you in terms of becoming a boxer. I'm training you to put 
weight on you. In a sense, I need to train you to counter Ippo's training,"
  "C-counter Ippo's training? What do you mean?" Shinji was confused.
  "Ippo's training is geared toward becoming a great boxer, but in the process 
it also causes weight loss and fat reductions," Ranma said, "I hafta counteract 
that and actually make you gain weight. Sparring is the best way. If you don't 
spar, especially with the vest on, your weight is going to plummet and you're 
going to drop weight classes, something that we don't want happening,"
  Shinji was silent. He had no idea that he would be undergoing such harsh 
training. He was still sore from jogging the other day and now he had to spar 
against Ranma after having become more sore from training with Ippo? This was 
too much.
  Ranma sensed Shinji's plight and said, "I know, this seems very very hard. It 
is, but given some time, you'll get used to this. It's kind of like how it was 
when I first started training you. You were probably in as much pain then as you 
now. However, over time, your body gets used to it,"
  "I guess you have a point,"

  Shinji flopped on to the bed, more tired than he had ever been in his life. 
His entire body ached badly. His aches even ached. It was only ten in the 
evening but Shinji felt so tired that he could probably sleep clear in to next 
week.
  "Damn, and I have a Physics test to study for," he said, muttering under his 
breath. He was prepared for the upcoming test, having been studying all the 
time, but it didn't allow him the freedom to actually skip on studying on the 
day before the test.
  Languidly, Shinji got back up out of his bed and walked over to his desk. He 
sat down in his chair, only to have it break under the weight of Shinji and the 
extra hundred pounds he had on. The chair was old and needed to be replaced long 
ago anyway.
  Shinji ended up staring at the ceiling for several long minutes. Afterwards, 
he started laughing.
  "How the heck do you get used to something like this?"
  
  Sumi glanced around her first class, Calculus, her ten-thirty class, wondering 
where Shinji was. If he was sick, then that meant he would miss the upcoming 
Physics class later in the day. He would miss taking the test.
  At around an half hour in to the class, she saw Shinji enter the classroom. 
Even from where she was sitting, she noticed the dark rings under his eyes. 
  He must've been up real late studying, she thought.
  Since this was college, the professor didn't bother to scold Shinji for being 
late. Whether or not Shinji choose to come to class didn't really matter to the 
professor, quite a contrast to how high school life was. There was a much 
greater sense of freedom in terms of going to classes.
  Upon sitting down in his seat, Shinji reached in to his backpack and took out 
his notebook, robotically copying down whatever he saw was on the blackboard.
  As he did so, after around five minutes of copying, Shinji placed his arms and 
head on the desks, falling deep asleep.
  
  "Shinji," Sumi said in a soft voice.
  Shinji stirred slightly. The first class had ended and they were expected to 
head down the hall to their next class which would start in fifteen minutes.
  Sumi gave him a gentle nudge.
  "Huh?" Shinji yawned, opening his eyes. He looked up, rubbing his eyes as 
regarded Sumi for a second, "W-where am I?"
  "Class just ended," she said.
  "Oh," he said. He began packing up his books and tried to get up. To his 
surprise, he was unable to. His legs had fallen completely asleep and refused to 
move.
  Sumi looked at Shinji curiously, "Something the matter?"
  "Um, m-my legs fell asleep," Shinji blushed as he looked at his legs. He knew 
they were asleep. He felt a tingling prickling sensation running up and down 
both legs. It was because of the way he sleep leaning forward on to the desk 
which had cut off circulation to his legs.
  Sumi smirked, "You're kidding me, right?"
  Shinji tried to get up again but found it futile. Sumi noticed this.
  "Hm, it seems you're right," she commented.
  What would Ranma do in this situation, Shinji though to himself. Hm, if his 
legs were asleep, he'd probably push a few pressure points to wake them of. Of 
course, since I'm not Ranma, I have no idea what pressure points I'm supposed to 
push.
  "Um, I guess I'll just sit here and wait until they wake back up," Shinji gave 
a nervous laugh.
  "O-okay," she said. She wondered if she should stay and wait for him. However, 
since they barely knew each other, there was nothing obligating her to do so. 
  "Um, I guess I'll see you in class then," she said after a moment.
  "H-hopefully," Shinji gave a meek smile, "Provided my legs decide to wake up,"
  Sumi giggled.
  "So, you study for the test?" she asked, figuring that since she had fifteen 
minutes to kill, she might as well pass her time talking to Shinji since while 
she was there.
  Shinji was pounding on his legs when she asked the question. He stopped to 
look at her, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What was that?"
  Sumi giggled again. She took a moment to clear her through and repeat the 
question, "Did you study for the Physics test?"
  Shinji nodded, "Y-yeah. I studied until three in the morning. That's why I 
kind of overslept and came to class late. I didn't even get a chance to eat 
breakfast because I was in such a rush,"
  "It's bad if you skip on breakfast," she commented. She immediately thought to 
herself that she was some kind of nag. Shinji was his own person, afterall. 
Whether he chose to skip breakfast or not was his own prerogative.
  "I guess I'll go get some food later," Shinji said, "As soon as my legs wake 
up. Um, did you study?"
  Sumi nodded, "Yeah. I studied until midnight before I finally passed out and 
fell asleep. I was studying since I got back to the dorms at around five,"
  "Y-you were studying all day?" Shinji asked, "That's a lot longer than me. I 
only started at around eleven until three in the morning,"
  "How come you started studying so late?" she asked, "I mean, if you don't mind 
my asking that is,"
  Shinji thought about it for a moment, remembering what Ranma said. It was best 
to not let anyone know what he was doing. Having people know would prompt him to 
want to reveal his progress and that should be kept secret until an absolute 
must. As to why Ranma wanted this Shinji had yet to know.
  "Um, I guess I let it slip," Shinji said in a meek voice, embarrassed with 
himself, "I lost track of time,"
  "Oh," she said, not really knowing what to think. She figured Shinji wouldn't 
do something like that and studied regularly like she did. Then again, it was 
wrong of her to assume things anyway.
  Shinji found himself able to move his legs slightly, "Hm, it seems like my 
legs are waking back up,"
  "That's good to hear,"
  Before long, Shinji was able to get up out of his seat, even though it was 
under much effort, his legs very sore and Shinji having forgotten that he was 
also wearing an additional hundred pound vest.
  "Careful," Sumi grabbed one of his arms, to steady him, figuring he was going 
to trip over his own feet.
  Shinji blushed a deep shade of red when he noticed Sumi hold her. He had never 
really been close to a girl before so he didn't really know how to react. Sure, 
Asuka and Rei were girls but they didn't count. The closeness he was to Sumi and 
him very uncomfortable.
  "Um, I-I'm okay," he said, taking a step away, forcing his legs to work and 
not give out under him.
  "You sure?" she asked, totally oblivious to Shinji's discomfort.
  Shinji nodded quickly, "Um, y-you g-go on ahead. I-I'll meetcha in class,"
  "Are you sure?" she asked.
  "Y-yeah," he said, "I-I'll be fine,"
  "Okay," she said, "Um, I guess I'll see you in class,"
  After a moment, she turned around and left the class, leaving Shinji by his 
lonesome. 
  Shinji sighed in relief, glad Sumi was no longer nearby. He couldn't help but 
admit that Sumi was a pretty girl but considering she was in a relationship with 
that guy, Tou, he needed to keep his distance. Besides, he wasn't good with girl 
and preferred to be at a comfortable distance from them, at least until he felt 
more confident with himself.
  Shinji waited a good five minutes, leaning against a desk for support, before 
his legs finally woke up completely. He moved them around a bit, testing to make 
sure that he had full use of them. When he was satisfied that he did, he grabbed 
his backpack and proceeded for the door.
  "Man, I wonder if I can really get used to this like Ranma said,"

  Shinji entered his second class for the day just as it was beginning. He sat 
down in the only open desk, yawing as he did so. Although he was used to going 
on around five or four hours of sleep a day, he wasn't used to be physically 
tired from all that strenuous training he did yesterday.
  He rested his head on his arms and promptly closed his eyes.
  From the other side of the class room, Sumi smirked as she saw him do this.
  That Shinji is quite a strange guy, she thought. She couldn't help but find 
him mildly intriguing, despite the fact that her boyfriend, Tou, had called him 
a boring loser. Hmph, it's not like Tou even knows what kind of guy Shinji is 
anyway.
  "I'll sleep through this class," Shinji yawned, "Afterwards, I'll grab a quick 
bite to eat for breakfast and be wide awake and ready for Physics after this 
class,"

  Shinji stretched as he emerged from the classroom and in to the hallway, a bit 
satisfied with how he did on the Physics class. Since he was done with the test, 
he was allowed to leave. 
  He placed his backpack on the floor, wanting to stretch a bit before heading 
out. Since he had a good hour and a half left before he needed to meet up with 
Asuka and Rei, he had much time to kill.
  He had expected to do badly on the test but it seemed he was well prepared for 
it, most of the questions pertaining to what he had studied the hour during the 
time he was waiting for Rei and Asuka.
  "Shinji, how'd you do?" a fellow classmate asked, a young man around Shinji's 
age if not younger.
  Shinji smiled, "I think I did okay. I missed that last part of the final 
question, but I think I at least got some points in terms of partial credit,"
  "I bombed mine," the classmate said, "I had no idea how to do the second 
question so I skipped it,"
  "S-skipped it? The second question is worth a third of your test grade," 
Shinji gasped.
  The classmate gave a meek smile, "I know. That's why I said I bombed it,"
  "Um, b-better luck next time," Shinji said, not really knowing what to say. He 
felt a bit awkward since tests grades were based on a curved. If he did real 
well on a test, that meant anyone that did badly would be penalized. Shinji did 
average in all of his classes but excelled in Physics and was considered a 
curve-breakers. To an extent, it kind of embarrassed him that he did so well in 
Physics and was one of the people breaking the curve. 
  Sumi emerged from the classroom. When Shinji noticed her, he didn't feel all 
that bad anymore since she got better grades than him and would also be 
categorized as a curve-breaker as well. Misery loved company, afterall.
  "H-how'd you do, S-Sumi?" one of the boys asked her, figuring it was a good 
chance to strike up a conversation with her. Although everyone knew that she had 
a boyfriend, that didn't mean they couldn't talk to her.
  "I think I did okay," she stated.
  "Isn't that what you said during your last test and ended up getting a 
hundred?" another boy commented, smirking.
  "I guess," she gave a meek reply.
  Shinji didn't bother saying anything. She probably got a hundred, he thought 
to himself. 
  He picked up his backpack and threw it over his shoulders. 
  Sumi noticed Shinji as he headed down the hallway, disappearing around the 
hallway. She felt a bit disappointed because she had wanted to ask him how he 
think he did. He had looked a bit worried going in to the test and she was 
curious if he had been able to keep everything together and do well.
  Shinji emerged from 'D Cluster' and in to pouring rain. Because there was an 
alcove in front of the entrance, he didn't have to worry about getting wet 
unless he stepped out from there.
  Damn, it was nice out when I got here, he thought. But then again, it did look 
like it was going to rain when I came out to get a quick bite to eat before the 
test.
  Shinji looked at his watch.
  "An hour and twenty five minutes to kill," he said to himself, "What should I 
do?"
  He contemplated going to the campus cafeteria and staying there and studying 
until he was expected to meet up Asuka and Rei. However, he chose against it. 
There was no need to study right away, especially right after a test.
  Shinji chose to sit down on the ground, figuring it was best to just rest and 
wait. He could use the free time to simply meditate. He hadn't done that in a 
while.
  Ranma says it's good to meditate more often now that I'm carrying all that 
extra weight, he thought. Of course, it's kinda embarrassing but I guess there's 
nothing much I can do about it. Besides, Ranma seems to have no problem 
meditating in public so neither should I,"
  Shinji got in to an Indian-style sitting position, making sure he was out of 
everyone's way in case they wanted to leave or enter the building. He closed his 
eyes and proceeded to clear his mind, willing his body to heal itself faster. He 
was still very sore, afterall.
  Several student from his class emerged from his building, finished with the 
test. They all stopped to ask Shinji what he was doing but was ignored.
  "Damn, what a weirdo," one of them commented.
  Shinji opened one of his eyes and regarded the student's back as he walked 
away, a bit of an annoyed look on his face. 
  Let it go, Shinji told himself.
  After a moment, he closed his eyes again and went about meditating.
  Sumi was the last to emerge from the building and was surprised to see Shinji 
there.
  "Whatcha doing?" she asked curiously. She walked around him and noticed that 
his eyes were closed.
  Whoa, this guys is doing some kind of mediation or something, she thought, 
feeling embarrassed for having bothered him.
  Sumi looked out toward the pouring rain and sighed, a bit angry at herself for 
not having brought an umbrella. 
  She walked out a bit to gaze around, wondering if her boyfriend was around 
waiting for her. She noticed that he wasn't there.
  She glanced at her watch. She had to wait around forty five minutes before her 
housemate would get out of class. What was she to do?
  She looked over at Shinji again. Man, that's kind of weird what he's doing, 
she thought. To her, it seemed like a thing a weirdo would do.
  She stood there in total and awkward silence, for a good fifteen minutes, 
wishing for the rain to let up. She felt very awkward just standing there, 
knowing that Shinji was meditating. What does one do around someone that was 
meditating?
  After fifteen more minutes, the silence was driving Sumi nuts. She walked over 
to where Shinji was and was about to nudge him to get his attention but was 
startled when Shinji said something.
  "Yes?" he asked, opening his eyes, turning his attention to her. 
  "H-how'd you know I was behind you?" she asked.
  Shinji had this confused and excited look on his face as he said, "Um, I 
really dunno how to explain it. I somehow did," 
  It was an odd sensation but for some odd reason, he had definitely felt Sumi's 
presence when she approached him and got close to him. He didn't sense her 
before but knew she had been there the whole time. It wasn't until she actually 
came in closer did he sense her. It was as if she had entered an invisible aura 
he was emanating and that allowed him to know exactly where she was in reference 
to him.
  Shinji got up to his feet, gritting his teeth as he felt needle-like 
sensations traveling up and down his legs. His legs had been in the process of 
falling asleep.
  "I think I just learned something," Shinji said to himself, loud enough for 
Sumi to hear.
  "What?"
  "Um, n-nevermind," he gave a meek smile.
  There was a bit of an awkward silence before Sumi spoke.
  "How long do you think before the rain let's up?" she asked.
  Shinji looked up at the sky. 
  Damn, what did Ranma teach me, he thought. There was a sign in the clouds to 
look for that gave an indication of when the rain would stop but I can't 
remember what it is.
  "I dunno," he said after a moment, realizing that he can't remember what Ranma 
taught him. It was hard remembering all the stuff Ranma had taught him over the 
years.
  "So, how'd you do on the test?" she asked.
  Shinji didn't get a chance to answer her question when her boyfriend, Tou, 
rounded the corner of the building and entered the alcove.
  "T-Tou," Sumi was surprised. 
  Tou looked at his girlfriend and Shinji. He easily recognized that it was the 
same skinny twerp that she was talking to the other day.
  "What do you think you're doing?" Tou asked, the question more geared toward 
Shinji than Sumi.
  "We were just talking," Sumi said, "No need to jump to conclusions,"
  "Stay away from her!" Tou sneered at Shinji.
  Before Shinji could react, Tou shoved him. Because of his half-asleep legs and 
the fact that he was encumbered by the weighted vest, Shinji lost his balance, 
tripping over his own feet, falling backwards where he ended up slamming in to 
the entrance door and falling to the ground.
  Shinji grimaced at the pain that was shooting up his arms since he had used 
them to cushion his face. The weighted vest made the fall fell that much more 
painful.
  "Tou, what the heck did you have to do that for?!" Sumi shouted at him. Tou 
was a nice guy from time to time but he had to do something about that temper of 
his.
  Tou smirked, "I just gave him a shove. Who'dve thought he'd be so clumsy as to 
trip over his own feet and fall like that,"
  Before Sumi could do anything, Tou grabbed her hand and almost half dragged 
her away, "C'mon, let's get outta here,"
  "S-sorry," was all Sumi could said to Shinji before she was dragged off and 
disappeared around the corner of 'D Cluster'.
  Shinji got up in to a sitting position, very angry with himself, nearing the 
brink of tears. 
  "Damnit!!" punched the ground, his fist actually becoming embedded in it, too 
angry to even notice this.
  He rubbed his eyes, getting to his feet. He brushed the dust from his outfit. 
He looked down and notices that his shirt had become ripped, when he tumbled to 
the ground.
  He took several deep breaths, willing himself to calm down. A good thirty 
minutes elapsed before he felt reasonably clear-headed.
  "I-it's n-not worth it," he told himself in a calm voice, "I-I-I'm above 
that,"
  Shinji looked at his watch. He should head on over to 'G Cluster' now since 
Asuka and Rei would be showing up there shortly. There was an alcove by the 
building entrance where he could wait while out of the rain.
  He grabbed his backpack and headed out.

  Shinji entered the gym alone. Once again, he had forgotten to give back Asuka 
and Rei their backpack. Before he realized it, they were long gone. Since the 
rain had stopped not too long ago, there was no need for both girls to go in to 
the gym to seek shelter from the rain.
  Ippo was there to greet him. He noticed the cuts on Shinji's arms and the 
partially ripped shirt.
  "What happened? Did you get in a fight or something?" Ippo asked curiously.
  "Um, k-kinda," Shinji said, "A person shoved me and I fell," He had chosen to 
tell Ippo the truth where he otherwise lied to Asuka and Rei when they asked, a walling them that he tripped.
  "A bully?"
  Shinji thought about it for a moment, "Not really. I guess it's just an 
isolated incident. I kinda feel bad that I didn't do anything,"
  "Don't worry about it," Ippo said, "What happened?"
  "A guy thought I was hitting on his girlfriend," Shinji said after a moment, 
"I wasn't. She's in my class and we were just talking about a test we just had. 
Anyway, he jumped to conclusions and shoved me and I fell,"
  "Well, As long as you're okay, that's what matters," Ippo said.
  "How would you had dealt with a situation like that?" Shinji asked.
  "You mean when I was your age?" Ippo said, "I used to get picked on bullies 
when I was in high school. They stopped picking on my when I took up boxing 
though,"
  "Y-you used to get picked on?!" Shinji was shocked. Never in his life would he 
had believed a person as good a fighter as Ippo would get picked on.
  Ippo chuckled, "Not picked on either. I used to get beat up. I mean really 
beat up. Bloody nose and everything. However, over time, I got used to it,"
  "What happened after you become a boxer? Did you ever beat them up for what 
they did?" Shinji asked.
  Ippo shook his head, "No. I never got in to boxing to get revenge. When I 
actually became good enough to actually beat them up, and when the opportunity 
presented itself, I never bothered. It just wasn't worth it,"
  "Wasn't worth it, huh?" Shinji said, "That seems to be the same motto Ranma 
uses,"
  Ippo smiled warmly, "It's a good motto,"
  "It gets really frustrating," Shinji complained, "I know I could've taken 
him..."
  "So? If you knew, then what's there to prove?" Ippo said, "You're a better man 
for walking away,"
  "Hmph, I sure don't feel it," Shinji muttered.
  "Don't worry about it," Ippo said, "Just let it slide. You'll understand over 
time,"
  "Perhaps," Shinji shrugged.
  "Didja bring a change of clothes?" Ippo asked.
  Shinji nodded.
  "All right, why dontcha get changed," he smiled, "Since it seems like you have 
some frustrations to vent out, we cut down on the stamina and endurance 
training. You can use the punching bag to vent for a bit,"
  "Really? T-thanks," Shinji seemed happy. He had been wanting to hit a punching 
bag since that incident. He had the urge to punch something continuously.
  Eagerly, Shinji headed for the locker room.
  
  Shinji struggled his way through doing jump-ropes, the vest continuing to 
encumber him. However, he noticed that he had improved ever-so-slightly. Of 
course, he made a complete fool of himself when he ended up getting entangled in 
the rope like before but it didn't seem to bother him as much, not even when 
several gym patrons laughed at him. Perhaps it was that he noticed the 
improvement in himself that made it not all that bothersome.
  Shinji struggled through doing sit-ups without too much trouble. The vest 
didn't prove that much a hindrance, the weights mostly resting around his waist 
since he was lying on the ground.
  "You've improved on the jump-rope," Ippo commented, "You did better today than 
yesterday,"
  "T-thanks," Shinji blushed, surprised that Ippo noticed it.
  "Well, let's get you on to the punching bag," Ippo smiled, knowing the young 
man was eager to do this exercise.
  Shinji followed Ippo over to the punching bags, only one of them not being 
used at the moment. 
  "Since you've trained in martial arts," Ippo said, "I assume Ranma taught you 
the proper motion and form for certain punches,"
  "Like what kind of punches?" Shinji asked. 
  "Like hook punches and straights and jabs and such," Ippo replied.
  Shinji nodded, "Yeah, he taught me those," He even felt confident that he had 
excellent form when punching. He had spent quite a bit of time simply practicing 
punching, Ranma constantly observing him and making tiny adjustments to his form 
until it was what Ranma deemed textbook perfect.
  Ippo gestured, "Give the punching bag a few test punches. It doesn't matter 
what kind of punches. I'd just like to see how good your form is,"
  "Um, okay," Shinji said, feeling nervous from knowing that he was being 
evaluated. He had grown used to Ranma evaluating his punches but never someone 
other than him.
  Shinji gave the punching back several perfectly executed combination of 
punches. He put in a moderate amount of strength behind his punches but was a 
bit surprised when he noticed the bag didn't sway all that much.
  "H-how's that?" Shinji asked, breathing slightly heavily. Punching a punching 
bag was a rather invigorating and strenuous exercise.
  Ippo was very impressed, "Your punches have perfect form,"
  "T-thanks," Shinji smiled.
  "All right, now that you're warmed up, why not give the punching bag a few of 
your strongest punches," Ippo said, walking around an behind the bag, holding 
his hands against it to help prevent it from swaying too much.
  "Um," Shinji wondered if he should mention that he was wearing a vest that was 
seriously curbing his power since he was using most of it to hold the weight. 
When the image of Ranma telling him to keep it secret entered his mind, he chose 
not to tell him, "Okay, I'll give it a try,"
  Shinji cocked his arm back and stood in a traditional karate stance. He then 
stepped forward, executing a perfect right straight punch right at the bag, 
using all of his might.
  His punch barely moved the bag.
  "Um, w-was that your hardest?" Ippo asked.
  Shinji blushed, very embarrassed.
  Ippo scratched the back of his head. I don't get it, he thought. Shinji has a 
lot of potential and I know it. However, his speed and strength are below 
average at the moment. 
  "What kind of training does Ranma give you?" Ippo had to ask.
  "Um, at the moment, we just spar," Shinji answered truthfully. He didn't 
bother to divulge the fact that he was wearing a weighted vest underneath his 
clothes.
  Ippo had a stumped look on his face, "Hm, I don't get it,"
  "Is something the matter?" Shinji asked.
  "Well, nothing really," Ippo said, "It's just that I'm a bit confused as to 
why you're at the level that you're at. At the moment, you're actually below 
average in terms of strength and speed for a person of your build and size,"  
  Shinji gritted his teeth. He really wanted to tell Ippo the truth. However, 
Ranma said it was best to keep it a secret if possible. 
  "I dunno," Shinji gave a meek smile.
  Ippo shrugged, "Well, no matter. It's nothing to worry about. I definitely see 
potential in you. It'll probably take a bit of time, but that's nothing to worry 
about,"
  Shinji smiled, "Yeah, just give me some time, you'll see an improvement soon 
enough,"
  "Well, at the moment, since we know where you stand in terms of speed and 
strength, we're going to concentrate on building up your endurance," Ippo said, 
"What I mean is that we need to do stuff like jogging and jump-rope and such.
  "J-jogging?" Shinji asked, wondering if it would be possible to jog with that 
much added weight. However, he wasn't going to give up unless he gave it a try.
  "You don't have to worry about that," Ippo said, "For the next month, we'll 
just concentrate on building up your stamina. We'll work mostly at doing jump-
rope and eating a proper and nutritious diet to get you in to excellent shape 
for when real training begins,"
  "Diet? But ain't I supposed to gain weight?"
  Ippo nodded, "Yes. However, I'll leave Ranma to do that. He'll probably have 
you emulate whatever diet he has since he is in excellent shape,"
  "So what would you like me to do?"
  Ippo walked over to the other side of the gym, Shinji following him. He picked 
up a jump-rope that was hanging on a hook by the wall. He smiled as he held it 
forward for him to take.
  "Jump-rope, huh?" Shinji asked, wondering if he would eventually come to dread 
doing jump-rope.
  "Yep,"

  Shinji entered the house at around six-thirty, around half hour earlier than 
last time. He had stopped training at six but it had taken him that much longer 
to trek home, his legs dead tired and reluctant to move in the motion his brain 
had been telling them to.
  "So tired," Shinji told himself, yawning as he dropped both Asuka's and Rei's 
backpack by the foot of the stairs, heading in to the kitchen where he flopped 
down on the couch. When he realized that he was all sweaty and such, he 
languidly twisted over so that he could allow himself to fall off and on to the 
floor, not wanting to dirty the couch.
  Shinji closed his eyes, knowing that deep sleep would soon bestow him. He 
didn't care that falling asleep now would mess up his sleep schedule completely. 
He was too tired to care.
  "Can't go to sleep now," he heard Ranma's voice.
  Shinji opened his eyes, "I'm so tired,"
  Ranma grinned, "I know. Just give it some time. You've only been at it for two 
days,"
  "God, I've gotta keep this up for a month before I get used to it?" Shinji 
groaned, "I don't think I can do it,"
  "I thought the same when I was going through what you did," Ranma commented.
  "Still,"
  "Where'd you get those scratches?" Ranma asked, "Y'get in a fight or 
somethin'?"
  A bit embarrassed, Shinji said, "Something like that. A guy pushed me and I 
fell," 
  "Why didntja beat the crap outta him?" Ranma asked.
  "Huh? But you said that I should never get in to a fight if it could be 
avoided," Shinji's eyes darted toward Ranma.
  "Oh yeah," Ranma gave a meek laugh, "I forgot, I did say that. Nevermind,"
  Shinji sighed. Ranma was so unpredictable.
  "C'mon, get up," Ranma said, all the while grinning, "You're done with 
training at the gym, now you hafta train at the dojo,"
  "D-do I hafta?" Shinji whined.
  Ranma shrugged, "Fine, if you don't want to, then don't," He felt a bit 
disappointed in Shinji. He believed Shinji was better than that, that he 
wouldn't allow something like a few aches and tiredness to prevent his long-term 
commitment to improving his mind and body.
  Shinji groaned as he sat up in to an upright position.
  Ranma smirked, "There y'go. I figure you're not the type that would give up. 
You're not the same person you used to be a few years ago,"
  "Ugh,"

  Shinji passed out in to deep sleep before he made it in to the house after his 
hour and a half long sparring session with Ranma. They had been sparring ever 
since Shinji ate some dinner after having come home. Oddly enough, Shinji was 
surprised to find a unique meal had been prepared for him that varied quite a 
bit from the rest of the household. It seemed Ranma didn't need to be asked and 
had already known that Shinji needed to alter his eating habits. He had 
requested Akane to prepare him a special meal.
  It was only around nine when Ranma said that it was enough, having realized 
that Shinji had ran out of steam over an hour ago but continued to push on 
through sheer will.
  Ranma had emerged from the dojo about a half hour later, having stayed to do 
some katas to wind down. When he did, he glanced right by the exit where he saw 
Shinji fast asleep.
  He laughed.
  Without saying a word, he crouched down and picked him up, Shinji not stirring 
one bit as Ranma threw him over his shoulder and carried him toward the house.
  "Fast asleep, huh?" Akane asked. She had been watching some late evening 
television in the livingroom, figuring it was a good way to relax before going 
to sleep.
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah, didn't even make it in to the house before falling 
asleep,"
  "He's getting pretty good, huh?" Akane asked, "Back then, you used to carry 
him in to the house because he was constantly getting knocked out. It seems like 
that's not the case,"
  "Whatcha talkin' about? I can knock him out as easily now as back then" Ranma 
smirked, "However, the sparring we did isn't based on who wins. It's all just to 
train him to get used to reacting to incoming attacks. I'm only attacking him 
with the same speed as an average person. All I need to do is speed up my 
attacks and it'll feel like he's learning from square one again,"
  "When do you plan on speeding up your attacks?" Akane asked.
  Ranma shrugged, "In about a month or so. Right now, it's like he's starting 
all over again since he's so bogged down with that weight vest you made for 
him,"
  "It's slowing him down that much, huh?"
  Ranma shrugged again, "Yes and no. He is significantly slower now that before 
he started wearing it. However, little does he know that he's actually faster 
wearing it now than when he first started training,"
  "He's come a long way from the frail meek boy he used to be," Akane smiled 
warmly.
  "Yep,"

  Shinji woke up in a world of pain.
  "God," he muttered. He turned his head to look at the clock. It was around 
eight-thirty, indicating that Shinji had slept for almost twelve hours.
  He groaned as he sat upright. He yawned several times as he remained in that 
upright position for close to ten minutes before he shook the sleep from his 
head and got out of bed. There was no use in going back to sleep since he would 
have to wake up a half hour later.
  He looked down at himself and noticed that he was clad in his dogi. It took a 
moment for him to realize that he had fallen asleep immediately after exiting 
the dojo and that Ranma must had carried him to his bed.
  He grabbed a clean pair of clothes and headed out and downstairs, in need of a 
shower.
  As he walked by the kitchen, he saw Ranma preparing himself some breakfast.
  "Morning," Shinji said, figuring it was good to let Ranma know that he was 
awake.
  Ranma turned around, "Ah, you're awake. I'm preparing breakfast, y'want some?"
  "Um, what are you making?" he asked.
  "I'm making myself the usual," Ranma smirked, "However, while I'm making 
myself something, it won't take much effort to prepare your meal. From now on, 
you're going to be eating a strict diet,"
  Shinji groaned.
  "Don't mind," Ranma chuckled, "It'll all be worth it,"
  Shinji headed to the bathroom where he took a shower, taking off his vest 
while he did so. He emerged from the restroom ten minutes later feeling rather 
refreshed.
  "Man, that shower did wonders," he commented, stretching a bit. His body 
wasn't aching that much anymore, the hot water helping to sooth his muscles.
  When he entered the kitchen, Ranma was sitting down by the table by the corner 
of the room, busy eating his meal. He glanced toward the food in front of the 
empty seat that would be his.
  "What is this?" Shinji gestured at the plate. He didn't bother to ask how 
Ranma had managed to finish cooking breakfast in the span of time it took Shinji 
to shower.
  "Nothing fancy," Ranma shrugged, "Just an apple, some grape juice, a small 
serving of cereal, and a toast with cheese and tomato,"
  Shinji shrugged and sat down and proceeded to eat the apple. He figured this 
breakfast would had consisted of something like steamed vegetables or such.
  "We'll gradually work your way up to a stricter diet," Ranma said, seemingly 
reading Shinji's mind, "For now, this'll help replenish the glucose you need to 
sustain you until your early lunch,"
  "Early lunch?"
  "Yeah, you're going to be eating six times a day from here on," Ranma said.
  "S-six times?!"
  Ranma nodded, "Yeah, it's a good way of removing unnecessary weight,"
  "Hold up," Shinji was confused, "First off, why would you want me to lose 
weight? Also, wouldn't eating more during the day make me actually gain weight?"
  Ranma shook his head, "Nah, it's a misconception. People think that a good way 
to lose weight it to actually eat less. Doing that does the exact opposite since 
eating less frequently makes your body believe it won't know when its next meal 
is and would therefore store fat for energy reserves in between meals. Eating 
more often does the opposite since your body gets used to constantly being fed 
so it actually eats up the fat since it doesn't need it because it expects the 
next meal to be only a few hours later. The unnecessary weight I'm referring to 
is 
fat,"
  "I never knew that, that eating more makes you lose weight," Shinji said.
  Ranma shrugged, producing a piece of paper from his pocket, "Many people don't 
realize that. Anyway, take this. It's a meal plan for the day. Just stick to it 
and you'll be fine,"
  "Um, o-okay,"

  Shinji muttered under his breath as he entered his second class for the day, a 
tomato in hand. Since he only had fifteen minutes in between his first and 
second class, he had to trek down to the cafeteria to buy himself a tomato. It 
had stated on the piece of paper that he was to eat a tomato now.
  "Jeez, I can't believe I'm gonna eat this," he said. He took a bite in to it 
and felt like retching. He had never eating a plain tomato before. He didn't 
mind eating tomatoes, so long as he was eating it with something else. Perhaps 
eating it with something else helped hide the taste quite well since eating a 
plain tomato was an acquired taste.
  "Ugh," Shinji said as he finished the entire tomato.
  After finishing it, he wiped his hands and threw away the napkin. He noticed 
that his hand felt a bit stick from the tomato despite cleaning his hand. He 
needed to actually wash them.
  Shinji got out of his seat and headed for the door, heading for the bathroom. 
As he rounded the corner, he bumped in to Sumi as she was coming around in the 
opposite direction. 
  The both of them ended up bumping in to one another and falling to the ground, 
Sumi's partially opened backpack spilling its contents, several textbook.
  "S-s-sorry," Shinji stammered, quickly fumbling around, gathering up the 
textbooks as Sumi got to her feet. He felt like kicking himself. He probably 
would reacted in time to actually grab Sumi before she fell over if it weren't 
for that damn vest he was wearing. Instead, it not only made him very awkward 
and clumsy, it also made him move much slower to physically react.
  "I-it's okay," Sumi said, "It's my fault anyway. I shouldn'tve been running," 
  She didn't bother to mention that when she ran in to Shinji, it felt like  
running in to a brick wall.
  "A-are you okay?" he asked nervously, handing Sumi back her textbooks.
  Sumi nodded.
  There was a moment of awkward silence as Shinji tried to think of something to 
say. 
  Sumi made it easy for him by saying, "Um, about yesterday...I'm sorry that Tou 
shoved you like that,"
  Shinji gave a meek smile, "I-it's okay,"
  "You didn't get hurt, did you?" she asked. Shinji had looked like he took a 
nasty spill when he lost his balance from the shove and fell that day.
  "I'm fine," he replied, glad that his sleeves weren't rolled up which would 
had exposed the scratches on his forearms.
  "He apologizes for what he did yesterday," she lied. Even though she had 
scolded at Tou shortly after he had dragged her off, he seemed to give no 
indication of wanting to apologize even though he was in the wrong.
  Shinji smiled, "Don't worry about it," 
  He felt it was unnecessary and even embarrassing if he were to mention that 
his ego had gotten more hurt than his body that day.
  "Um, c-class it about to start," he said the first thing that came to his 
mind.
  "Aren't you going?" she asked, noticing that Shinji had been going in the 
opposite direction when they bumped in to one another.
  "Yeah, in a bit. I was just on my way to wash my hands," he nodded.
  "Oh. Okay. Well, I'll meetcha in class," she said, heading down the hallway.
  "O-okay," he said, heading off.
  Sumi went to her classroom and sat down. When she placed her textbooks down on 
her desk, she noticed that there was these red tomato juice stains the size of 
fingertips on her textbooks.
  "What the?"

  Shinji emerged alone from 'D Cluster' shortly after his Physics class had 
ended. As he did, he reached in to his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper 
Ranma had given him. It told that he was to eat several ounces of steamed 
chicken and a cup of steamed broccoli.
  "Ugh," he groaned again.
  He looked at this watch. Since it was only shortly before three in the 
afternoon and he had an hour to kill before he was expected to meet Asuka and 
Rei by 'G Cluster', it meant he had plenty of time to actually leave campus and 
head over to the Chinese restaurant that he passed by all the time on his way to 
college. He was sure that place could fill in an odd request such as steam 
chicken and steamed broccoli.
  He attempted to jog in the general direction of the Chinese restaurant but 
immediately gave after around ten steps, becoming very winded.
  "Damn vest," he muttered. The vest kept in a constant state of weariness. He 
could deal with it though. Anything more strenuous than walking with the vest 
and perhaps two extra backpacks was too much to handle. Jogging with the vest 
was too energy consuming.
  Shinji walked across campus, noticing Sumi's boyfriend waiting by the building 
where he emerged. He didn't bother to approach the man, figuring it was best to 
avoid him. There was no need to accept an apology from him face-to-face when 
Sumi had said he apologized already. Sumi's word was good enough.
  Shinji made it to the Chinese restaurant after ten minutes of walking. Once 
there, he placed his order. He gave a meek laugh when the people behind the 
counter gave him an odd look at the unusualness of his order. However, after a 
ten minute wait, he received his order like he wanted. 
  Heading back toward campus, 'G Cluster' to be more precise, Shinji was 
surprised to spot Sumi's boyfriend drive right by him. They both recognized each 
other and made eye contact.
  Tou and Shinji both narrowed their eyes at one another, assessing each other. 
After a moment, Tou slammed on the accelerator and his car sped off.
  Shinji paused for a moment to regard the rear of the car became smaller and 
smaller, eventually rounding a corner at breakneck speeds. He recognized the 
model and kind of car that guy drove. It was a classic in this day and age, a 
McLaren F1, a car that used to be considered the fastest production car around 
forty years ago. Nowadays, topping out at approximately two hundred and thirty 
miles per hour, the car's top speed was still considered fast in this time and 
age.
  "Hmph," Shinji snorted, "Priss' motorcycle can do twice the speed of that 
car,"
  Shinji sighed. He felt somewhat jealous. He would like to have a car. He 
actually had a license, thanks to Misato actually teaching him how to drive and 
him actually passing his driver's test. Unfortunately, since neither Ranma nor 
Akane believed in owning a car, it meant Shinji had no ready access to a car 
either, not without having to go to Misato or the others to ask to use their 
cars, something he felt very uncomfortable about.
  "It's because both Ranma and Akane can actually sprint faster than today's 
fastest cars," Shinji muttered, sighing depressedly, "That's why they don't 
bother getting a car,"
  Shinji choose to think about other things as he walked his way back across 
campus, thinking about what Ippo had in store for training today. Would it be 
more jump-rope and sit-ups? 
  "Most likely," Shinji sighed. He really liked boxing but he couldn't help but 
question exactly why he was going through this in the first place. It felt more 
like he was doing it because Ranma wanted him to. But then again, he did like 
boxing and it seemed to be good enough reason to give it a try. Perhaps he did 
have potential to becoming a good boxer. At least in the boxing world, he didn't 
have to worry about only being considered second best since Ranma wasn't part of 
that world.
  Shinji said down on the bench in front of 'G Cluster', proceeding to eat his 
meal. He wondered if he could become the best in the boxing world. At the 
current moment, he felt very doubtful, but considering Ippo and Ranma were both 
simultaneously training, perhaps he had a chance. 
  Before long, Shinji finished his meal. A few minutes after he finished and 
threw away the container his meal came in, Asuka and Rei met up with him.
  Together, they headed home together.

  "You seem to constantly forget to give the to girls you're with their 
backpacks before yoimpllit up," Ippo smirked, as Shinji entered the gym once 
again, realizing that Asuka and Rei were long gone.
  Shinji dropped his and the girls' backpack off by entrance, off to the side so 
it wouldn't get in the way of people coming or going. He grabbed a set of 
clothes from his backpack and headed off to the locker room.
  He emerged a few minutes later, clad in his usual training attire. He 
approached Ippo as he was helping someone out with his form on the punching bag. 
He waited a few minutes until he was free.
  "So, what do I do today?" Shinji asked.
  Ippo gestured toward the hooks that hung the jump-rope by the back left of the 
gym.
  "Jump-rope, huh?"
  Ippo nodded, "Yep. We've got a little over five months before your pro test. 
You've got a bit to go before you'll pass, but you'll make it in time. For the 
next couple of weeks, we need to get your stamina and endurance up so we can 
work on speed and strength exercises then,"
  Shinji gasped, "P-p-pro test?!"
  Ippo smiled happily, "Yep. I signed you up for the upcoming pro tests. It's a 
bit over five months from now. After five months, you'll be ready to enter the 
ring,"
  The color seemed to drain from Shinji's face.
  "A r-ring? W-with people watching?" Shinji seemed visibly nervous.
  Ippo nodded, "Yes,"
  "Um,"
  "Don't worry about it," Ippo said in a soft voice, "It might seem overwhelming 
at the moment, but you'll grow used to it. Before the pro tests, you'll be 
sparring in here, to help you get used to fighting in a ring,"
  Shinji gulped. He glanced toward the ring in the center of the gym. Because 
of its location, it meant everyone could watch him easily as he made a fool out 
of himself.
  "Shinji," Ippo noticed the young man seeming a bit distraught, "You don't have 
to worry about it, not for a while. Over time, you'll gradually get used to it,"
  "I-I guess," Shinji said reluctantly. When Ippo had mentioned about the pro 
test and fighting in a ring, it made Shinji realize that, to date, he had never 
sparred against someone other than Ranma, Asuka, or Akane, and with an audience.
  He looked over toward the ring, "Um, is that the same ring where you started 
getting used to an audience while sparring?"
  Ippo replied, "No. It was a different ring at a different gym,"
  "Oh," Shinji said, "Wait, you mean you didn't start your boxing career here, 
in this gym?"
  "No," Ippo said, smiling, "This gym used to actually be called Katsukawa Gym. 
I used to train at a gym called Kamogawa Gym. Anyway, after a while of training 
there, I go married and had kids and ended up I moved to MegaTokyo, I switched 
gyms and started training here. Eventually, because of the people I drew in 
because I was the Heavyweight Champion and was training here, the owner of this 
gym, Katsukawa-san, or Coach as he liked to be called, asked that I become 
partners with him. I did. After a while, when he retired, he handed over this 
gym to me and put it in my name,"
  "Wow," Shinji was impressed.
  "Anyway," Ippo waved a dismissive hand, "Enough about me. Let's concentrate on 
you and get you on those jump-rope right away,"
  "O-okay," he sighed.

  At around five, Shinji stopped his jump-roping. He remembered that the piece 
of paper Ranma gave him and indicated that he was to eat something at around 
five or five-thirty. He reached in to his pocket to get the paper, realizing 
that it was in his other pants pocket after a moment.
  "Something the matter?" Ippo asked, noticing Shinji had stopped, approaching 
him. Since Ippo liked to walk around the gym observing everyone, he saw Shinji 
stopped almost immediately.
  "I'm supposed to eat something, but I don't know what," Shinji said, "I left 
the piece of paper saying what in my other pants pocket,"
  Ippo looked at the clock, "Oh, you're right. I forgot. I'll go get you your 
food,"
  "Y-you know what I'm supposed to have?" Shinji was a bit surprised.
  Ippo nodded as he headed toward his office where he had a fridge in there, 
"Yeah, I know. I'll be right back,"
  When Ippo emerged from the office a moment later, the had in his hand an apple 
which he threw over to Shinji. Unfortunately, it had been a bad choice for 
Shinji was unable to catch it due to the weight of the vest. The apple ended up 
falling to the ground where it exploded in to several pieces, all of them 
sliding across the floor where a few patrons doing some shadow boxing nearby 
ended up slipping on them, falling to the floor in a loud crash.
  "S-sorry," Shinji gave a meek smile.
  
  Shinji wanted to go right to bed as he entered the house. It was around six-
thirty, him taking around the same amount of time getting home as before. 
  He dropped Asuka's and Rei's backpack by the foot of the stairs, heading 
toward the kitchen. Dinner should be ready soon, everyone expecting him home no 
later than seven.
  Shinji entered the kitchen and was surprised to see that Akane wasn't the only 
one in there like he was expecting. In there was Akane and Luna.
  "L-Luna?" Shinji said, very surprised.
  Luna turned around and smiled warmly, "Shinji!"
  Without saying anything else, she walked forward and gave him a warm embrace. 
Akane smirked as she noticed the huge shade of red form around Shinji's cheeks. 
It was obvious he could feel Luna's breasts pressing against his own chest quite 
well.
  "Wow, you've grown since I last saw you," Luna commented, taking a step back. 
When she noticed the blush on his cheeks, she gave him a wry smile, "You better 
not be having hentai thoughts,"
  Shinji blushed in embarrassment, "N-no!"
  "It feels like it's been ages since I last saw you," Luna commented, regarding 
him for a moment.
  "When did you get here? Are you here by yourself?" Shinji asked, feeling 
somewhat self-conscious under her gaze, even though it wasn't a scrutinizing 
one. 
  Luna continued to smile, "We got here at around two in the afternoon. I mean 
we as in Lina, Emiko, and myself. How are you doing? How's college?"
  "I'm doing fine. Asuka and Rei and I will be having finals really soon. How 
was your visit back your world? Has anything changed since you were last there?" 
he asked.
  "Basically nothing has changed. Everything stayed the same," Luna said, "Only 
a day had passed since we actually left that world and to this one,"
  "Did you guys stay on your world long?" Shinji asked, "Around three months 
passed on this world since you left to visit your world,"
  Luna shook here head, "No. We stayed there for as long as we had been away 
from here. They wanted to stay a bit longer and actually have it where we came 
back and only a day had elapsed since we left, but I didn't want to do that 
since it would throw all of our ages out of synch with how there are,"
  Shinji smiled, "Well, it's nice that you're back,"
  "I'm glad to be back," she returned the smile.
  "Are you guys going to be staying here from now on?" he asked. He wouldn't 
mind if they stayed. Luna was such a kind person. Having Lina and Emiko around 
definitely made the household more lively since the two of them and Asuka seemed 
to always be at each other's throat.
  Luna shrugged a bit, "Well, we have no plans to going back any time soon. 
We'll probably stay here for a few months before going back to our own world to 
visit it,"
  Akane giggle, "Luna, it seems like you're enjoying your rather unorthodox 
vacation from your job waitressing back on your own world,"
  Luna laughed warmly, "You'll find no arguments here,"
  "Where's Lina and Emiko? I didn't see them on the way in," Shinji asked.
  Akane spoke up, "Lina's taking a bath. Emiko is in the dojo doing katas. You 
should leave Emiko alone because she seems a bit upset because she noticed 
recently come to the realization that her fighting abilities had dramatically 
decreased since she first came to this world,"
  "It has?" Shinji was surprised.
  Akane nodded, "Yes. She sparred against Asuka this morning and Asuka came very 
close to beating her. This was the first time she ever came close to losing a 
sparring match to her and it really upset her,"
  "R-r-really? She almost lost?" Shinji was very surprised. Emiko used to be so 
skilled a fighter than he couldn't even touch her. If Asuka could come close to 
beating her, then that meant he might be able to beat her since he could beat 
Asuka.
  Akane nodded, "Yeah. Just leave her be. She only sparred against Asuka at 
around five, shortly after Asuka and Rei came home from school. Emiko had been 
doing katas since, which has been around a half hour or so. She still needs time 
to let off some steam," 
  "Okay," Shinji said, "I'll be sure not to go to the dojo tonight," In a way, 
Shinji was inwardly happy, not because Emiko had almost lost to Asuka, far from 
it, but because that mean he wouldn't need to spar against Ranma tonight like 
they usually did. He was tired and can go to sleep right after he had dinner.
  Ranma entered the kitchen. He greeted everyone and then proceed over to the 
fridge, looking through it. After a few moments of searching, he realized that 
it was best to simply wait for dinner to be finished and closed the fridge door. 
He showed no surprise at seeing Luna there since he had been around when she and 
the others arrived.
  "Don't bother going to the dojo," Ranma told Shinji, "Emiko's in there and she 
needs time to cool off,"
  "I heard," Shinji said, gesturing toward Akane, "Akane told me all about it. 
Um, so, I guess we won't be sparring tonight, huh?"
  Ranma laughed, "That's what you think,"
  Shinji face-faulted.
  "We're not gonna spar in the dojo tonight," Ranma said, "We're gonna spar in 
the backyard,"
  Shinji sighed, "Fine,"
  Ranma left the kitchen. He walked down the hallway and headed to the bathroom. 
He wanted to take a shower. He entered the laundry room, the room one had to 
walk through to get to the bathroom. There, he proceeded to take off his 
clothes, throwing them in the hamper, not once noticing the cape and boots and 
armor that was set just off to the side of the hamper.
  Stark naked, Ranma slid the door to the bathroom open, just as Lina was 
finished with her bath and was on her way to the other room to dry off and get 
dressed.
  Their eyes locked. 
  Lina froze like a deer caught gazing at car headlight, as she realized that 
she was no longer alone in the bathroom and was standing naked. Standing before 
her was Ranma, every bit as naked as she was. The difference was that Ranma 
seemed not one bit bothered by the fact that he was naked.
  Ranma, knowing he was done for and would be in a world of pain, figured it was 
best to at least go down in blazing glory. 
  "Ah, so red is your natural hair color,"  
  Lina shrieked and pointed both her hands, palm open at Ranma's face.
  A moment later, in the kitchen, Shinji, unable to keep his balance, fell to 
the ground when the entire house shook.
  "What the?" he said. He looked toward the said to see that Akane and Luna were 
still standing, neither of them having lost their balance, unlike him.
  "What was that?" Luna asked curiously.
  Akane sighed, "What do you think? Your sister was taking a bath. Ranma 
probably accidentally walked in on her,"
  "Oh," Luna said.
  Together, the three of them exited the kitchen and to the bathroom. When they 
opened the door that led to the bathroom, they found themselves looking out the 
house, through a massive gaping hole where a section of the wall used to be. 
  In a moment of shock, Lina had shot a fireball right in to Ranma's face, 
sending him and a section of the house in to the sky.
  Akane narrowed her eyes at Lina, who had been standing there, a towel wrapped 
around her torso. Ranma was no longer in sight.
  "S-sorry," Lina said gave a meek smile.

  Shinji entered the dojo a short time after seven-thirty, knowing that he would 
find Emiko still in there. He had eaten dinner with everyone except for Emiko 
and Ranma, Emiko having remained in the dojo while Ranma was probably orbiting 
around the planet at the moment.
  Since Ranma wasn't around and would had most likely brought some food for 
Emiko, Shinji took it upon himself to bring her some dinner. Ranma would had 
wanted him to do that.
  Shinji took a moment to regard Emiko for a moment. She was clad in a dogi that 
was most likely loaned to her by Akane. Her skin looked slightly flushed and 
glistened with sweat from having continuously done katas. Her long flowing brown 
hair could be seen fluttering about as she pivoted and turned and executed 
attacks and blocks toward an unseen opponent. 
  He couldn't help but notice that despite being a highly skilled female ninja, 
she still looked like a regular girl. One could never judge a book by its cover.
  The lights in the dojo were off and the light of the setting sun filtering 
through the windows gave the interior a rather soothing look to it.
  "Um," Shinji began, knocking on the doorjamb of the entrance, wanting to get 
her attention.
  Emiko stopped what she was doing and looked over and saw Shinji.
  "Shinji," she said, feeling somewhat glad to see him. He was a nice guy and 
she never disliked his company, "When did you get home?"
  "N-not too long ago," he said, "Um, I would've come and greeted you sooner, 
but I figured you wanted to be left alone. So, how was the trip back to your 
world? Did you have a good time?"
  Emiko nodded, "The trip back was fine. I visited Rene-sama during my stay,"
  "Rene?"
  "She's a girl that I used to watch over, and was in charge of keeping out of 
harm's way," Emiko answered.
  "Oh,"
  Emiko gestured toward the bowl of food in Shinji's hands.
  Shinji blushed slightly, "Oh, this. It's some food from dinner. Since you 
weren't there for dinner, um, I figure I'd bring it here for you. Akane's 
cooking is really good and it'd be a shame to miss it,"
  "Um, thanks," Emiko smiled, touched by the gesture, "But I'm not that hungry,"
  He looked down at the food, tempted to ea