Legal Stuff:
For the most part none of the characters are mine; they belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Naoko Takeuchi, and many others.
Chapter One: First Day of School
Arimi got up bright and early. Today was the day. Her first day of College, and she couldn't wait. Sure the summer had been fun but the one thing Arimi loved more then spending time with her boyfriend was learning.
Getting out of bed Arimi noticed her roommate was already up and getting dressed.
"Wow Usagi, I didn't have to wake you up." She giggled
"Very funny, you know I was never late for school. I have a class at eight" Usagi pouted in reply.
Arimi looked at her roommate. Having known Usagi since she was in first grade she knew Usagi was right. She had never been late to school, however, she had cut it close allot of times. She watched her roommate get dressed in her old high school uniform, and as usual was wearing her long black hair in dumplings and pigtails. "Um, Usagi? Why are you wearing your High School uniform?"
"Cause guys like the school girl look, unlike you I still need a boyfriend." This comment of Usagi's earned her a shake of the head from Arimi who then goes to takes a shower. In the mean time Usagi made breakfast.
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Ranma had gotten up very early this morning. He didn't have any classes till nine, but he wanted to use his time wisely. He spent the first part of the morning practicing in the park across from his apartment. When he was done he headed back to what was now his home. He was very grateful to be out of his parent's house, now his father couldn't further ruin his life.
As Ranma was nearing the building he saw his apartment mate exiting the building wearing his normal black jeans, black t-shirt, black open sweat jacket ensemble. However instead of wearing his long red hair down with a black bandana in it as usual he wore it braided. Strangely enough he was wearing glasses over his blue eyes. This was strange because as far as Ranma knew Gaijin had 20/20 vision. "You look ready to learn Gaijin."
Gaijin looked at Ranma somewhat indifferently and then said "Please remember to feed Patrick on you way out."
"Sure. You doing anything for lunch?" Ranma said in the doorway.
"Nope, why?" he shrugged.
"Me and some of my friends are getting together. Wanna join us?" Ranma had agreed to meet his high school buddies at lunch.
"Sure why not?" Gaijin said walking off.
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Once in the apartment, Ranma headed to the bathroom and took a quick shower. Then he got dressed for class. He really shouldn't pick on Gaijin for wearing the same basic clothes everyday, because he did the same thing himself; a red Chinese shirt and loose black pants. In all honesty Ranma did copy the style from the manga character with his name. The fictional Saotome Ranma was in many ways like him; both excellent martial artists, both with strong senses of honor, both with big mouths that tend to get them into trouble, and both cursed to transform into girls with cold water. That last one was all thanks to his father the mad scientist.
Unlike the fictional Saotome Ranma, his father wasn't a lying, cheating, and most the time broke martial artist. Instead his father, Saotome Amino, was a scientist who was rarely broke because some fool always funded his experiments. Unfortunately even with the money to hire volunteers for his experiment his father just had to test them on him. There were two experiments that still cursed Ranma to this day. One had given him blue eyes (and hair when Ranma was too lazy to dye it black). The other gave him the same transformation ability as Rumiko Takahashi's fictional character with his name.
Well enough time dwelling on the past, he was out of that house now thanks to a kind gaijin looking for someone to share his two-bedroom apartment.
"Hey P-chan, where are you?" Ranma called out to his roommate's cat.
"Meow." Cried the white cat.
Ranma look Gaijin's pet. He loved cats himself, as hard as it was for people to believe. Most people assumed because of his other similarities with Rumiko Takahashi's character that he be afraid of cats too. He got P-chan's bowl from the shelf and then opened a fresh can of cat food and put it in.
"Remember neither Gaijin or I will be home till later so don't eat it all at once" he said placing the bowl on the floor.
"Meow." Patrick replied going to the bowl.
With that Ranma left the apartment and headed to school
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After he heard the sound of the door lock Patrick stoped eating from the food bowl and made his way to Gaijin's room. He hopped onto the chair in front of Gaijin's computer. For a brief moment a golden crescent moon could be seen on Patrick's forehead. "P-chan. Why does Ranma always call me that? Michael gave me the name Patrick and I don't mind that but P-chan? I wonder how much longer I have to wait until I can reveal myself."
Patrick then opens up an Internet browser and went to Game FAQs. "Let's see, Luna said to go to the Digimon Social Board. I wonder why she picked this place to meet online? She really needs to get an IM."
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Outside a lecture hall Arimi and a friend headed out to the courtyard. Her friend Rei had long black hair and was wearing a black long sleeved blouse and blue jeans. She was wearing a sky blue blouse, black vest, and black slacks. Arimi heard some one call here name and turned around. "So how have your classes been Ranma?"
Ranma joined the two as they continued to the courtyard. "Alright. My classes went okay and I didn't get much homework tonight."
"Lucky you, I got tons. Hey Arimi mind doing my homework for me? You're always saying you love to learn." Rei chimed in
"No thank you. I have a lot too. Ranma will your roommate be joining us for lunch?" Arimi stated and changed the subject.
"Yeah, Gaijin said he'd come." Ranma replied
The three of them found a tree to sit under and set down a blanket that Arimi took out of her bag. After sitting down, Rei took a bento box out of her bag then looked to Ranma as she opened it up. "Your roommate's name is Gaijin?"
Ranma took out two bento boxes and handed one to Arimi. "Nope, he won't tell me his name. I had made the mistake of saying thank you gaijin when we first met. When I finally asked him for his name he said he might as well get used to being called gaijin."
"Really, why should he get used to being called Gaijin?" Rei asked puzzled.
"Because I am a gaijin." Said a voice from behind her.
Rei looked up to see Gaijin standing over her. He took a seat on the blanket opposite of her, opened up a brown bag and pulled out a sandwich. Arimi looked at him as he started eating. "Um, we wouldn't have to call you Gaijin if you told us you name."
"Why is my name so important? You haven't even told me yours." He replied biting into his sandwitch.
"I'm Arimi, and this is Rei."
"So what's your name?" Rei said slightly annoyed
"Gaijin." Taking another bite.
"Our teacher in Journalism called him Taylor." Usagi said approaching the group. As she attempted to join them on the blanket she tripped over Gaijin's foot, fell on Rei, and spilled the contents of a drink she was carrying on Ranma. In an instant Ranma was female.
"Thanks Usagi." Ranma commented
"Sorry Ranma." Usagi pouted
Gaijin took his glasses off and raised an eyebrow while looking at Ranma. "Curse?"
"No. My dad." Ranma said moving one of her blue locks out of her eyes.
"Science did that to you? Um, knowing your hair is naturally blue, why did the dye come out when you transformed" Gaijin put down his sandwich.
"Who knows, Pop's still trying to figure that one out, but yeah this is the result of another of his experiments." Ranma sighed.
Rei looked at Gaijin curiously. "Do you believe in magic?"
"Yes, and I practice it as well. I haven't learned any transformation spells though." He replied taking a can of juice from his bag.
"You practice magic? Care to show us some?" Rei smirked disbelieving.
"No, there is a price for me using magic. I try not to use spells when ever possible." He opened the can and took a drink.
"Really? What kind price?" Usagi spoke up from her own lunch.
"Something I'd rather not talk about. Or deal with." Gaijin replied picking up his sandwich again.
"How about a new topic of conversation? Um, Gaijin you and Usagi are in the same Journalism class?" Arimi decided maybe a change in conversation was in order before Rei got into another of her no such thing as magic rants.
"Yeah, I'd like to be a writer; most of my influences are Manga so I came to Japan to be closer to the source." He finished his sandwich after saying this.
"We had to interview each it other this morning as our first assignment." Usagi stated looking at Gaijin. He was an interesting person in her mind. Where had she heard the name Taylor before today.
"Is it true that she's never been late for school, I don't mean to be rude but she does seem to be a bit um, on the uncoordinated side." Noticing Usagi looking at him grabbed a second sandwich from his bag and ignored her.
Ranma set down his now empty box lunch. "It's true, some how Usagi has always made it to where she's supposed to be on time."
Arimi closed her box and handed to back to Ranma. Ranma then put both boxes in his bag. "I think the only thing Usagi has in common with Naoko Takeuchi's character is she can't cook"
Usagi frowned a little and looked at Arimi. "You can't cook either Arimi. That's why Ranma always has to make your lunches."
"Rei, Usagi, and Ranma, and other Manga characters in this group?" Gaijin said trying to play peace keeper at the same time being slightly curious.
"There's Gohan, he doesn't have any classes today. He'd probably be jealous of you interviewing Usagi though." Rei quipped.
Gaijin shrugs and crumples up his bag. He then gets up. "I see, well I have another class to get ready for."
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At Tokyo tower an a young man wearing blue jeans and black t-shirt with the Destron insignia steps away from a pair of binoculars. He pauses then takes a green note book out of a black pack he's carrying. He tears out a page and throws it in the trash. He walks away and heads to an elevator.
Inside the trash can, the piece of paper glows.
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Lio's Corner
After quite a while I've gone back and revised the first chapter of this story. My first letter of review ever mentioned it was hard to understand who was speaking what. Reading it after all this time I can see what he meant.
Gaijins full name originally wasn't mentioned till chapter four, but not it's mentioned here. Artemis mentioned his first name and Usagi later mentioned his last name. For those of you reading this for the first time, you'll find out later why Michael Taylor prefers people not to know who he is.
One last note, this is an un-pre-read revision, and I only have MS Word to help me along. If your interested in helping me get my stuff out faster please contact me.