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Chapter 2

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Ranma opened her eyes and immediately scanned the area. Though she was expecting an attack of some sort, she was surprised - and momentarily confused - to see that she was not in the guest room at the Tendo Dojo and about to be 'rudely awoken'; instead, she was in a large, fancy bed with a canopy and drapes. She turned her head to the bedstand, and seeing that the clock read 5:00 AM, she looked outside the window. It was still dark out.

Her body was still sore from the exercises she'd done the day before, but she ignored its protests as she dragged herself out of the bed and stood up. She both yawned and stretched, twisting her body about until a few satisfying cracks and pops sounded and relief flooded through her. She sighed and looked down at the night clothes she'd borrowed from the butler – A white T-shirt and gray boxer briefs - without his ever knowing it. They were a bit big on her, but luckily the boxers had an elastic waist that let it ride on her hips.

She sighed as she ran a finger through her sleep-matted hair. Instead of finding the dojo and Tendo family as she'd left them, like she'd planned, the previous day, she'd found out that entire sections of Nerima had been changed overnight. With the dojo gone, that meant all of her personal possessions were also gone, and she had absolutely no idea how to contact her fiancé, or the girl's family. Similarly, the Nekohanten and Ucchan's were missing as well, as were their respective owners. That was just about everyone in her inner circle, all spirited away by some mysterious means in the course of a few hours. The realization had left her in shock and at a complete loss of how to proceed, but now, having had enough time to process the sudden changes, she was finally starting to consider the situation in depth.

'Now that I think about it, aint no way those buildings coulda been torn down and rebuilt in that much time, and they didn't exactly look spankin' new. Unless there's some kind of martial arts construction work style…' She thought, walking to the window. She opened it and leaned on the window sill. 'Even the Furinkan guys have to take a few days to fix that kind of damage, and they're pros. Not only that, but the people I recognized looked different. Ms. Yamane… the old lady who pours her bath water out whenever I run by… that police box bro on the corner of the old ghoul's street… it was like they were different people.'

She looked down at her arms on the window sill.

'I'm different. So exactly how did they do all this? Who did this? Why?' She shook her head and looked outside. 'I've never had a dream that lasted this long and been this consistent, and even so, in a dream, my chi wouldn't change like that. I'm actually weaker than I used to be.' The red headed girl turned back into the room and looked around at all of "Teriha's" possessions. It was a bit more girlish than any of the Tendo sisters' rooms, with garish pink and reds everywhere, all the dolls and feminine accessories. 'This is all just so weird, none of it makes sense. There's just so many things that are different without any rhyme or reason. It's like the whole world's gone crazy!'

She frowned and turned her head back, to gaze out the window. The estate's massive lawn was a bit too European for her, both in design, and in how it didn't leave enough open space for her to really train what with all of the imported plants and hedges.

'What am I even doing here? I can't find anything out if I just play along with these guys and their little princess game.' She shook her head. 'But where do I go? What can I do? The only other place I haven't checked is Kuno's, and…'

She shuddered, then cleared her mind, walked over to the beanbag chair in the middle of the room, and plopped down on it.

'I'm also going to have to find a place to train properly. There's gotta be a park around here somewhere, or something. I'm gonna have to spend every waking moment outside of school fixin' this damn body and trying to figure out what the hell's happened. If I didn't have to figure out what the hell was going on here, I'd be out of here and on a training trip pronto…' Ranma growled and muttered under her breath. 'Man, this whole thing is just starting to piss me off!"

She sighed and blew a few calming breaths, then crossed one leg over the other.

'Well, I'm up now… what to do…' She looked around the room and frowned. There wasn't anything but girls' stuff, and she didn't feel like watching TV, especially whatever was on that early in the morning. 'May as well get ready for school… at least it's a half-day.' She stood up, then walked out of the room.

-x-Usagi-x-

The blonde, double-ponytailed girl who moonlighted as a superhero blinked out of her stupor and stared up into a familiar pair of red eyes.

"Usagi."

She blinked several times, trying to focus on the voice.

"Eh?" She asked.

"If you don't wake up, I am going to pour water on you."

Usagi yawned and turned over on her side.

"That's nice, Chibi-Usa… go play with the other kids…" She yawned again and closed her eyes. "Mmm… Mamo-chan…"

When a pitcher full of ice water fell on her, the blonde screamed and jumped out of the bed.

"That's more like it!" Chibi-Usa cackled while Usagi stared dumbly at the pink-haired teen who had taken residence in her room. The other girl was wearing an unfamiliar school uniform and had a smirk on her face.

As the gears began to turn in her sleep-fogged, yet adrenaline pumped mind, she scowled at the other girl and grit her teeth.

"What was that for!" She demanded.

"It's time to wake up." The pinkette said, pointing at their clock.

It was six thirty exactly.

"What? It's early!" The blonde shouted with indignant rage. "How could you interrupt my beauty sleep like that?"

"Oh come on, you should be getting ready to go to school. Idiot." Chibi-Usa said with a frown. "It would really help your grades if you weren't late all the time, you know?"

Usagi scowled.

"Who cares?"

The pink haired girl rolled her eyes.

"Whatever! Go take a bath and get dressed, then go downstairs and get your food."

The blonde sighed in frustration as she started walking towards the door.

"Stupid daughters and their stupid proactive attitudes…"

-x-x-x-

When Usagi made her way to the dining table that morning, the sound and smell of breakfast wafted in from the kitchen, and the window let in a pleasantly warm ray of light. Seated at the dining table were her parents and brother, and she was met with stares from every single member of the family. Shingo – the younger brother - raised an eyebrow and spoke up.

"Wow, Usagi, you actually got out of bed? Did you piss in your sleep or something?"

Usagi rolled her eyes.

"I'm not you, stupid." She said as she sat down.

"Shingo! Usagi!" Their mother frowned. "It's too early for that! Honestly…"

Usagi blinked as she took her place at the table.

"But hey, if Mom's not cooking, then who is?" She asked, looking around with a frown.

Just then, Chibi-Usa walked in with a tray and set it on the middle of the table.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting." The pinkette said as she distributed plates of omelets and toast around the table.

Usagi stared at the pink haired teenager in confusion as the other girl set food down in front of her. She looked down at the food before her and blinked several times.

"Not at all dear," Ikuko, Usagi's mother, said with a smile. "It's nice to try someone else's cooking for a change!"

The family, save Usagi, all uttered the obligatory phrases before they started eating, while Chibi-Usa sat down with them at the table.

"This is pretty good," Shingo said, drawing a glance from Usagi.

The blonde peered down at her own plate and narrowed her eyes.

'She… she can cook?' The teen thought as she reached down and picked up a fork. She used it to cut up and lift part of an omelet from the plate and inspected it. She sniffed it a few times. 'It… it smells good…'

"What's wrong, Chibi-Usa?" Ikuko asked, looking over at her daughter.

'That's not me!' Usagi mentally wailed as she looked from the omelet to Chibi-Usa, who was smirking at her, and frowned. "Um… is this really safe to eat…?" Usagi muttered. She bit into it and her eyes widened. 'This… this is delicious!' She quickly ate the rest of the omelet and moved on to the rest of the meal, finishing before anyone else.

"Heh." Chibi-Usa wore a smug smile on her face and ate her own food at a more dignified pace, while Usagi frowned and looked down at her plate in defeat.

'Dang. She's… she's good.'

-x-x-x-

As Usagi walked to school with Chibi-Usa beside her, the blonde looked over at the slightly taller girl and frowned. It was… awkward, to say the least, that she was walking side-by-side with a girl that was technically her daughter, but older than her.

"Um… so… how, uh, have you been?"

Chibi-Usa looked over at her and chuckled.

"Well, it's been a few years. At lot's happened, good and bad." Chibi-Usa said with a genuine smile. "But it's been what, a day for you? I haven't missed much, have I?"

Usagi blinked.

"You came back the night you left!"

The pink haired girl nodded.

"Yup, thought so. You miss me?"

Usagi gave her a half-lidded stare.

"Well, I did for the first thirty or so minutes… until I got home…" she muttered.

"Aww, I'm touched," Chibi-Usa said with a grin.

"Why are you here anyway?" Usagi asked. "I'm sure it can't be because schools here are higher quality than where you come from." She said in a deadpan.

"Well, my mom said," Chibi-Usa said turning to look at her with a frown, "To 'expand my horizons' and learn some things they don't teach at a normal school."

Usagi frowned and turned to face her daughter from the future.

"Huh? So what are you supposed to do?"

"You tell me!" The pink haired girl said with a irritated snort. "It was your idea!"

Usagi blinked.

"Good point. I'll get back to you on that…"

"Uhuh. Sure." When they reached a corner, she stopped walking, and Usagi stopped as well, turning to look at her. "Well, I'm going to the high school over here, so see you later!"

Usagi nodded.

"Um… yeah… sure."

The pink haired girl started walking around the corner and turned to look back at her as she waved.

"Don't tell the others yet! I wanna surprise them!"

Usagi blinked, then shrugged and nodded.

"Okay! See you later!" The blonde waved back at the other girl and then started walking again.

-x-x-x-

When Usagi walked into her classroom, every student that was talking went silent, and those who were doing something else caught on to the sudden shift in noise and looked around, quickly noticing her. Usagi walked over to her seat and dropped her stuff there, then plopped down in it.

The silence went on until Usagi looked up and around the room, noticing that everyone was staring at her. She blinked several times.

"What? Is something wrong?"

"You're much earlier than usual." Umino, the boy with thick coke bottle glasses pointed out.

"Did something happen at home, Usagi-chan?" Ami asked, a look of concern on her face.

"Yeah, like your house burning down or something?" Naru Osaka, a girl with bright brown hair who happened to be one of Usagi's childhood friends, asked.

"What? No! I just woke up early, that's all!" She said with a pout. Looks of disbelief and confusion floated around the room, and she frowned. "What, I can't wake up on time for once? Is it criminal for a girl to want to aspire to be a good role model for all the good children in… the…"

Her stomach started to gurgle ominously and she winced, clutching it.

"Uh…" She made a face. "I… have to be right back…" She said, suddenly standing up and running out of the room as fast as she could.

The rest of the students all shared a look of confusion, while Ami stared after her departed friend with a look of concern.

-x-Ranma-x-

Ranma made her way into the classroom she'd been assigned with a sigh.

"Hey." Haruka waved over to her, and Ranma waved back, then went over to sit next to her.

"Yo." Ranma glanced over at where Michiru was sitting as she set her bag down. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know how to get put on the uniform exceptions list, would ya?" She asked.

"Hah, if I did, I'd be on it," The blonde said with a snort. "Why, you don't like the uniform?"

"Hell no." Ranma said with a sigh as she looked down at her skirt. She frowned. 'Back at Furinkan, they let me go in my own threads because of my stupid curse. Now, though…' She scowled and gritted her teeth. 'I'm going to have to make a trip to Jusenkyo soon. If I just jump into the spring of drowned man, that should fix the damned thing, lock or no.' She sighed and looked over at Haruka again. "Hey, did you get the math homework?"

"Huh? Yeah, it was kinda easy," Haruka said. "Did you have trouble?"

Ranma scoffed.

"It's not that I had trouble… I just didn't see any reason to finish it," She snorted.

Haruka snickered.

"You're not good at math?"

"Well, I'm not some kind of super genius, no, but I'm fairly competent," Ranma snorted.

"Oh yeah?" Haruka grabbed a pencil and scribbled something on a piece of paper then held it up. "What's the answer?"

Ranma blinked. It looked like a poorly drawn long division symbol, what with the line on the side being squiggly, but there was only one number there.

"Division, right? You've only got one number there, how am I supposed to answer that?"

Haruka raised an eyebrow.

"This is a radical."

Ranma frowned.

"Radical…?"

Haruka stared at her.

Ranma stared back.

"Hmm. Why don't you do homework with me and Michiru tonight? I'll see if we can help you." She said.

Ranma made a face.

"Ehh… I don't know… I'm busy today." She said. "I'll get back to you on that."

"Fair enough. Have you thought about what kind of club you'd like to join? The class rep is going to need an answer soon, I'm sure, since it's mandatory." The blonde said.

"Eh… a club would just waste my time, really…" The teen muttered. 'I don't plan on being here long enough for it to matter… but if I can't figure out what's going on and fix this quickly enough, I guess karate…' She sighed as the teacher, Hatanaka, walked into the room with another hideous rug-suit and his briefcase, and she grudgingly joined the other students in standing up. 'At least today is a half day.'

"Good morning, students," The man said after they did the customary bowing and were reseated. "It might seem a bit strange, but we have another new student joining us today." He said. The students perked up at this, and he looked over at the door and made a beckoning gesture, and a pink-haired girl with twin ponytails walked into the room.

Ranma noticed surprise on Haruka's face when she saw the girl.

"This is Tsukino Usagi," The man continued with a smile. "She's just moved in from the Chuo ward, and is staying with family members in town. Tsukino-san, is there anything you would like to say?" The man asked.

She looked the class over, and for a moment, looked surprised, but quickly hid it. Finally, she spoke.

"Nice to meet you."

Hatanaka blinked, then cleared his throat.

"Yes, well… please, sit down behind Fujibayashi-kun." The man said, indicating Ranma.

Ranma blinked, glancing back behind herself.

'Wait a sec, wasn't there someone here yesterday?' She thought with a frown. 'Huh. Whatever.'

The girl walked over to the seat and a small pill jar dropped out of her bag. Ranma looked down at it and raised an eyebrow.

'Fast-acting, instant relief laxatives?'

Ranma looked at the new girl incredulously, but quickly averted her eyes and coughed in an attempt to hide her sniggering.

"Huh?" The pink haired girl blinked and looked down at the jar. "Oh, I still had those?" She muttered, kneeling down to pick it up.She replaced it, then sat down behind Ranma and dropped her book bag, yawned, and reclined, looking rather bored.

Ranma noticed Haruka glancing at the new girl several times before and after the teacher started his morning spiel and shook her head with an amused smile.

'Does she eye all the new kids like that?'

-x-Kenichi-x

Kenichi opened his eyes suddenly and blinked several times. He narrowed his eyes in confusion at his surroundings, and then the previous day came back to him. He sat up and looked out the window in his room, noting with displeasure that the sun was up and in the sky already. He glanced at the clock and sighed when he saw that it read seven fifteen.

He got up and out of bed and looked down at his unfinished homework with a bit of doubt, then sighed and started getting ready for school. When he made his way to the dining room set for three, his parents looked at him in surprise again, and he sighed.

"Where's Honoka?" He asked.

His mother and father looked at each other, then at him.

"She goes out an hour early to be with your classmate, remember? The cute martial arts instructor," His father said with a grin. "Thinking maybe you should join them?"

"What do you mean, cute?" Saori frowned at her husband, who chuckled and cringed away from her.

"Maybe." Kenichi said, grabbing his breakfast. He didn't notice the shocked stares it got him, and continued on. "I've been thinking about it." With that, he turned and started out the door. "I'm going now. See you later!"

Saori looked over at her husband with an urgent look.

"See? I told you, he's been acting strange," She said. "It was worse last night, he was screaming about something…"

"No! Our poor son's going insane!"

-x-x-x-

Kenichi walked towards school with a notable limp.

"I think I overdid it…" The teen muttered as he stopped to lean against a wall near the entrance, where others were pouring into the campus. He'd gotten used to working himself to near death (and beyond), but without Ma Kensei's herbal Chinese potions, there would be no way to bring him back from the brink here. He shook his head and sighed, then started walking towards school again.

"Man, this is just so far beyond bizarre," Kenichi muttered. "What's going on here? It's too long and life-like to be a dream…" His eyes widened and he looked down at the ground in shock as he suddenly realized what it was. "Of course! How could I not see it earlier!" He held his head in his hands. 'The masters' dangerous training has obviously gotten to an all-time high, and with all the brain damage…'

"I'm in a coma!"

The students within hearing range all looked at him.

"Er…" Kenichi blinked and started looking around. "N-not that it matters, since I'm in a coma, but maybe I shouldn't have said that so loud…" He shook his head. 'Still, it's supposed to be just like a dream, isn't it? I think my brain is the only one in the world that remembers what pain feels like so accurately that I could dream it up.' He sighed.

When he finally made it to the school yard, it was almost empty of students. The few that remained were hurriedly making their way into the building, or alternatively, away from it. Kenichi glanced at the delinquents skipping class and felt a shudder; after years of being beaten down at their hands he was still unable to shake off the fear that they caused within him, despite having worked to become Ryozanpaku's number one disciple.

And especially now, considering he was back to square one in the martial arts department…

Finally, he saw a girl, a bit shorter than the rest, and wearing the wrong uniform, standing in the middle of the campus and looking about as if searching for something. As he got closer to the buildings, she glanced over in his direction and he blinked.

It was Kushinada Chikage.

Kenichi stopped for a moment and stared at her.

'Huh, wonder what Chikage-chan's doing outside of class… wait, the whole uniform is wrong. She doesn't come to this school?' He muttered, before walking towards her. She simply stared at him as he got near. "Hey, Chikage-chan!" He called out, waving, before slowing down to a stop a few feet away from her. 'Wait a minute, this probably isn't the one I know, is it…'

He coughed.

"Erm…" He looked at her nervously as she gave him that familiar blank stare.

"Band-aid."

He blinked.

'Well, at least that's accurate.'

"Um, yeah..?" He asked.

She nodded, then beckoned him.

"Come."

He blinked as she turned around and started walking away, as if expecting him to follow.

"Huh? But class…"

She turned her head slightly and he could see the corner of her eye.

"Come."

The girl started walking again, and Kenichi frowned, but followed her without any further protest. She led him over to the storage shed he often hid in when he was being chased or otherwise avoiding someone, and opened the door, then walked in. He followed and shut the door behind himself.

She turned around and faced him, and he blinked, staring at her.

"You remember." She said.

He blinked.

"Huh?"

"You remember how things should be," She clarified. "Your body does not remember, but your mind does. Like me."

He frowned.

"Wait, you mean… you remember too?"

She nodded.

"You are the first other that I have encountered as well."

He frowned.

"Wait a minute… if you remember too, then… I'm not the only one!" He cheered and started dancing. "That's great! I'm not crazy! Yes!"

"This is no time for celebration."

He stopped cheering and looked down at her.

"Well, yeah, I guess… if I'm not crazy, then it really is a coma…"

She frowned.

"I cannot confirm or deny that postulation… and though it seems the most likely conclusion, I have been far too lucid for this to be a dream, or anything like it."

"You? I mean me, I'm in a coma," Kenichi said, indicating himself. "And… well, I thought so too, but…" He shrugged. "I've never been in one before, so… I wouldn't know, really."

She nodded.

"Of course, you would consider this to be your own experience…" She muttered. "Hmm… the next most likely conclusion is that I am experiencing severe hallucinations…" She mumbled something else and shook her head, and he frowned. "…but you are an anomaly, which is not consistent with my understanding of that phenomenon…"

"Um, Chikage-chan?" He blinked. "Don't tell me you think you're the one who's… experiencing this weird world?" He asked.

She nodded.

"In this situation, both of us would naturally assume such. 'I know, therefore I am' – lending each of us to the supposition that we are real, rather than the possibility that we are a figment of someone else's imagination."

He frowned.

"Huh… I think I read something like that a while back…"

She nodded again.

"Your room is filled with books. You very well may have," She said.

"Huh?" He blinked. "How did you…"

"Regardless," She interrupted, "We are in this together. We must figure out how to right this situation, whether it is some mental affliction of either of ours, or not."

He nodded.

"Yeah, you're right," He said, sitting down. "But, I've got no idea how to approach this."

"I too have no experience in dealing with such a phenomenon," She agreed, joining him on the ground in seiza. "If my suspicions are correct, then your masters, the group collectively known as Ryozanpaku, are either missing or replaced, correct?"

He nodded.

"They're all gone." He frowned. "Wait, does that mean… Yami, and YOMI… are they also..?"

She shook her head.

"From what little information I have been able to gleam, the organizations exist, but they are restructured. I have not been able to investigate the matter in detail, however. It would be dangerous and foolish to suddenly approach such people with the information that an insider should have, especially if that information is incorrect in some places."

He blinked.

"Yeah, that's true… they might…" He trailed off, frowning.

"That leaves you as my only possible source of information, and you are as clueless as I am." She lowered her gaze to the ground. "The situation is dire. I am willing to put our differences as YOMI and Katsujinken aside to work with you."

Kenichi shrugged and rubbed his eyes, then looked up at her. He was going to have to start wearing those damned glasses, wasn't he?

"Well, okay, but… Chikage-chan, What should we do?"

"We must investigate this matter." Her eyes got a far-away look in them. "First, we will find out just how far reaching these changes are. World history itself may be different. The layout of the city has also changed, and it would help to know what is consistent with our current knowledge. Furthermore, we may not be alone." She said. "As this meeting shows, there may well be other individuals who remember how things should be, and they might know more about the situation."

He nodded.

"Okay… Um, I guess I can, uh, look around town," He said. "But, how are we supposed to fix this? I mean, if this isn't a coma or something… then…"

The two sat there in silence for a moment, and he sighed.

"Hey Chikage-chan," He started, "You remember how to fight, right?"

She nodded.

"I remember the forms my master taught me, but my body… does not. I have begun remedial training, however."

"Yeah, I thought so…" He looked down at himself. "I don't have the money to buy any real training gear… My allowance is terrible, and I don't have a job or anything… There's no way I can really train the way I did with the masters." He said with a sigh.

"I too have experienced trouble in this matter. However, I should point out that the first masters of our respective arts did not possess such 'training gear'. They made use of the world around them. If we are truly dedicated, then we must do the same."

He frowned.

"You mean like training in the mountains? I've done that a few times, but…"

She nodded.

"If that is where you must do it, then, by all means. But there are ways to do it in an urban setting as well," She said. "You will have to be creative."

He nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks for the advice," He said. "I'll figure something out."

She nodded in return and stood up.

"In the meantime, we must tend to worldly matters, as unnecessary as it may seem." She said.

"Huh?" He blinked. "Oh crap, class!" The youth jumped up to his feet as well. "Um, we'll have to get in touch later, Chikage-chan! Bye!"

With that he turned and ran out of the shed at top speed.

-x-x-x-

Kenichi panted as he walked into the classroom, covered with sweat. The rest of the students were looking at him again and ignored them as he walked over to the desk in front of Miu. She was looking out at the clouds again, and though she noticed him out of the corner of her eye, she went back to looking outside. Feeling a bit discouraged by her inattention, he sat down lamely in the desk in front of her and sighed.

Just then, the classroom door slammed open, and everyone looked over at it. Standing there was none other than…

Kenichi gawked.

"N, Niijima!"

The towering pillar of muscle and attitude looked over him and snarled. He whipped an expensive pair of sunglasses off of his face and started walking into the room straight towards Kenichi with an intimidating gait. Suddenly feeling the weight of the other teen's glare, Kenichi shrank in on himself in fear despite himself. This thing before him was not Haruo Niijima. It was a deadly monster, and he could feel that it wanted to devour his soul right then and there.

"So Weak-Legs Keiichi decided to show up to school on time once, huh? Heh, even I didn't predict that." The demon sneered as he neared Kenichi, and Kenichi blinked. It had been so long since people had called him weak-legs Kenichi, it felt strange hearing it again. Kenichi just stared in shock as the thuggish looking Niijima got closer to him.

Then frowned as he realized something.

"Um… My name is Kenichi," He said, pointing at himself.

Niijima snarled.

"Trash! Who said you could talk!" In a blur Kenichi felt himself hauled up into the air. "You've sullied my ears with your disgusting voice, you piece of scummy garbage from the bottom of the dumpster!"

Kenichi stared at Niijima with a blank expression on his face. He opened his mouth to respond, but the girl sitting behind him beat him to it.

"Is that really necessary?"

Both boys turned to look at Miu, who was staring at them. Kenichi's eyes widened as he noticed a silent anger in the girl's eyes. It was alien and foreign on her… it reminded him of what he'd seen in the eyes of a YOMI or Ragnorak fighter before taking them on.

"Che. You stay out of this, Fuurinji," The alien snorted. "I'll deal with you later."

Suddenly, a piece of chalk hit Kenichi in the face, and he winced.

"Ouch!" He looked up at the door to the class, and the teacher was standing there, watching them with a frown.

"Hmph! Niijima-kun! I hope you don't intend to start a fight right before my eyes!"

"Um, sensei, you missed him," Kenichi muttered weakly.

Niijima just snorted and dropped Kenichi, then sat down where Kenichi had been.

"Wait, hey, I was sitting there!" Kenichi said, getting up to his feet.

"Beat it!" Niijima said, before grinning and folding his hands over the desk. "Unless you're trying to start a fight?"

Kenichi froze and took a step back, grimacing.

'If I keep trying, it might look like I was trying to start something… but I was clearly sitting there first!' He frowned and looked over at the teacher, who was walking towards the front of the class. "Damn it…" He sighed and gathered his materials before walking off to find another empty seat. "Ugh…"

-x-x-x-

At lunch Kenichi looked for Miu only to see that she had disappeared right away, much like the day before. Spotting Niijima instead, the other teen noticed him and smirked, then made a throat-slitting motion, which sent a chill down the boy's spine.

Suddenly the sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway echoed into the classroom, getting closer until the door slammed open, revealing a panting Kisara Nanjou.

Kenichi blinked as the girl walked into the room.

"H-have you guys seen Kenichi-kun today?" She asked.

He blinked and raised up a hand.

"Uh, Kisara-san—"

She immediately whipped her head over to him at a blurring speed.

'Is her spine okay after that?' He shrank back below her gaze.

"Ken-kun!" She ran over to him. "Are you okay? What happened yesterday!"

He blinked.

"Yesterday?"

She nodded.

"Last night! You weren't on Tales of Final Star Online Two: The Silver Revenant Feathers of Celestia!"

The whole room gasped.

"The team waited for hours! We were going to call you but Tanimoto-kun kept saying 'He'll show up in a few seconds!' We got worried when you never did!"

Kenichi blinked.

"Wait a minute. Tanimoto plays this game too?"

Kisara went white as sheet.

"You… did you hit your head or something!" She started to inspect his body. "I knew it! Something happened!"

"Um… uh… actually, I'm fine… then again, the whole coma thing…" He muttered the last part.

"Hah!" They both stopped and looked over at the source of the sharp laughter. Niijima was standing up from his desk. "That kid misses one session of their little internet game and it makes this sort of commotion! How pathetic! I can't believe this place!" He shook his head. The teen put a foot on the window sill that Miu had been sitting by and shifted his weight onto it. "You pigs disgust me. I'm outta here!" With that he turned and leapt out of the window, and Kenichi's eyes widened in shock.

"Hmph! Fine! Stupid jock! And a show-off at that!" Kisara turned around to look at Kenichi with a worried look on her face. "Anyway, Kenichi-kun! What happened yesterday? Did you slip and fall down in the shower and hit your head or something?"

Kenichi winced at her question.

"No way! Even I'm not that clumsy!" He said, pushing Kisara away. "I uh, I just totally forgot that we had planned that session!"

Kisara blinked, and then her eyes rapidly widened as she pulled away from him.

"You really did hit your head, didn't you!" She asked, pointing at him.

Kenichi frowned.

"What are you talking about? I'm just fine, Kisara-san!"

"How can you say that, when you're asking about a 'planned session'?" She stood up and pointed at him. "We grind every night! It's the only reason every member of our party is in the top ten high scores! Because we devote more time to it than we do breathing!" By the time she had finished her brief speech, she was clenching her fist and making a pose.

Kenichi grimaced and shrank down in his chair from the bizarre sight.

"Why do you say that so proudly!"

Kisara blinked and looked down at him, then blushed and covered her face with a hand.

"Er… Did I say that out loud?"

Kenichi sighed.

"Um… Kisara-san… I'm fine." He sighed and straightened himself in his chair. "Listen, about last night… I was thinking about a lot of things," He said. "I guess I lost track of time and forgot to even turn the computer on."

Kisara suddenly took a few steps back as if she had been physically struck.

"Forgot to turn on your computer!" Her face went pale and she suddenly turned and started running for the door, screaming. "He's possessed!"

Kenichi blinked as she ran off down the hall, screaming.

"Oh boy… something tells me this isn't going to be very easily dealt with…" He sighed and looked down at his untouched food. The encounter with Chikage was still fresh in his mind; actually, he hadn't been able to focus on anything else that day. He was happy that there was at least someone out there suffering with him, but honestly would have preferred it to have been Miu.

It was good luck that the weird delinquent-Niijima was gone for now, but without anyone… normal to talk to, he was finding it hard to get on in the day. He just didn't have anything in common with the people in his class – they all remembered things differently than he did, and he was never really the talkative sort anyway, so conversation wasn't happening. Really, the only person he wanted to talk to always mysteriously disappeared during lunch, and the only person that wanted to talk to him

"Shirahama Kenichi!"

He sighed as he turned to look at the door to the classroom, where Kisara stood, pointing at him. In her other hand she held a torn scrap of notebook paper that was done up like some sort of Shinto ward or some such.

'Oh brother,' He sighed and looked back down at his lunch and continued eating.

"I will release the demons inside of you! Evil spirits, begone!" She cried out, striking a pose and then throwing the paper at him. "Hyaaa!"

It flew several centimeters before abruptly flying off course and slowly floating down to the ground.

The rest of the students in the room all went back to minding their own business and Kenichi sighed.

"Kenichi-kun?"

The young would-be martial artist looked up at the sound of a new, yet familiar voice. There at the door stood none other than Tanimoto Natsu.

With a bowl-cut and glasses.

Kenichi sputtered.

"T…Tanimoto-kun?" He muttered, near speechless as the other teen walked into the room. "Um… hi?" He said weakly, unsure of what to expect from the newcomer.

"Hey," the blond said, kneeling down next to him. "You're not wearing your glasses today. Did something happen to them?" The young man asked.

"No, not really," Kenichi said. 'Hm, at least he's a normal person, if not himself…'

"Oh? Well, alright then," The other teen said, standing up. "Well, you seem okay…"

"What are you talking about?" Kisara demanded from behind him. "He's gone nuts! This is the second day in a row he didn't wear his glasses, and he's missed a quest and two grinding sessions now!" She looked down at Kenichi and frowned. "Do you know just how much EXP points you've lost these past couple of days?"

"Umm… no?" Kenichi muttered, shrinking back from her.

"You idiot!" The auburn-haired girl stamped her feet. "You fell out of the top ten! You're way behind!"

He sighed and looked over at Tanimoto.

"Er, yeah… umm… sorry about that… it was, uh, you see, something came up, and… I didn't have time?"

Tanimoto frowned.

"I thought as much. It must be pretty urgent that you can't even leave us a message about it when you're so calmly eating your lunch here." he said.

Kenichi chuckled nervously.

"Eheheh… um, yeah… I've been kinda… preoccupied…" He muttered weakly. "Sorry?"

The other teen just sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"It's okay, but if you could just let us know about these things before hand, that'd be really nice." He said. "But you're going to be on tonight, right?"

Kenichi frowned.

"Um, actually… you see… I uh…"

The other two teens watched as he started to twiddle his thumbs.

"Hmm… how do I put this…" He turned and looked Tanimoto square in the eyes. "I was thinking about quitting."

The other two teens stared at him for a long moment and he began to sweat nervously under their intense gaze…

Until Kisara suddenly fainted.

"What?"

'So much for normal,' Kenichi thought as he stared down at the downed girl while Tanimoto slammed his hands in the young man's desk and got in his face.

"Why?" The blond demanded.

"Is she okay like that?" Kenichi asked, pointing down at Kisara.

"Don't dodge the question!" Tanimoto snapped.

"W-well, actually, I was just thinking of taking up martial arts-"

"Did someone threaten your life! Was it that cur, Niijima? It was, wasn't it!"

"Um, no-" Kenichi blinked, remembering the threatening gesture from earlier. "Well, possibly-"

"Damn you, Niijima!" Natsu balled his fist and slammed it into the table, but it didn't do much more than make a soft meaty thud, which, despite the fact that he knew this wasn't his Tanimoto, surprised Kenichi quite a bit.

"Hey, um, Tanimoto-kun?" Kenichi said, nervously looking around the room and seeing all creeped out looks they were getting, "Maybe you shouldn't talk so loud?"

The blond muttered a curse and looked around.

"You're right, you never know where that bastard's ears are…" He mumbled.

"They are fairly long," Kenichi pointed out. "But actually, he's not involved. I just thought it would be nice to change a bit is all." Kenichi said.

Natsu frowned and gave him a look of clear disbelief.

"…something brought this on." The blond said. "What is it?"

"Welllll… I thought I'd try and reach level ninety-nine in real life, so I'm gonna take Karate and some other stuff…" Kenichi said with a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head. 'Man, I hope they buy that…'

The other teen gave him a half-lidded stare, then shook his head and rubbed his face with one hand.

"And let me guess – you got some kind of self-help book to help you through it?"

"Well… err…"

Natsu sighed.

"Lame. Man, I swear, every few months you get into something absolutely ridiculous." The blond knelt down and grabbed Kisara by the shirt. "Well, whatever. Fine. When you're done, we'll have a week-long grind-fest or something and everything will be back to normal." He shook the auburn-haired girl awake. "Come on Valkyrie, let's go."

Kenichi froze as the girl responded, seeming to awaken.

"What did you just call her?" He asked.

Natsu blinked and stared at him.

"Um… Valkyrie?"

Kenichi frowned.

"Ragnorak?" he asked.

The blond frowned.

"What? Um, no, her player name." He said. "You sure you're okay man?"

Kenichi blinked.

"Uh, yeah," He said quickly. "I just thought… forget it, okay?"

Natsu shook his head and stood up, Kisara joining him.

"Well, we're gonna go grind until class starts." Tanimoto turned around and started walking to the door to the classroom. "C'mon, Valkyrie… he'll be back soon. Just watch."

"Right…" Kisara muttered as she followed right behind. She glanced back at him with a look of concern on her face but kept going.

He turned his attention back to his lunch and sighed.

'Well, somehow, at least that's dealt with… though I doubt it'll last forever…'

-x-Usagi-x-

Usagi groaned as she stepped out of the bathroom and into a crowded hallway. A glance at a nearby clock told her that it was already time for lunch, and there was only one more class left after it. With a sigh she hung her head and slowly walked to her classroom. The pain in her gut had subsided mostly and she was finally, as far as she could tell… empty.

When she made it to the classroom, Ami and Minako were waiting at the entrance with concerned looks on their faces.

"Usagi-chan, are you sick or something?" The girl who was sometimes known as Sailor Mercury looked at her friend intently and held up the other girl's lunch. "You've been running to the bathroom all morning." Usagi accepted it and groaned.

"I'm not sure what it is…" The blonde whined as she turned and started walking towards the door to the hallway. "I'm just glad school is just about over for the week…"

"Well, don't get too relaxed," Ami said. "Remember those strange energy readings from yesterday?"

Usagi frowned as they entered the stairwell and started going down.

"Did something happen?"

The blue haired girl nodded.

"I received a message from…" She quickly looked around, then continued. "…Sailor Neptune."

Both Usagi and Minako blinked.

"What? Really?" The latter blonde asked.

Ami nodded.

"Which, of course, is highly unusual," She said. "You know how those two are."

"Yeah, I thought they preferred to work alone?" Minako said with a frown.

"Right. Anyway, she wanted me to investigate something she found in Nerima with the Mercury Computer."

Usagi made a face.

"What? A different ward?"

Ami nodded.

"She says a new classmate of hers seems to be involved in something troublesome. She lead both her and Uranus to one of the energy signals I picked up yesterday, claiming a martial arts dojo of some sort would be there." Ami said. "It wasn't there at first, but when they approached the area, she thinks they were sucked into some sort of modified, overlaying space, where there was a dojo, but they were quickly sent back."

Minako frowned.

"Is the classmate dangerous?"

Ami shook her head as they reached the bottom stairs and continued into another hallway.

"We don't know. But she showed up the same day the new energy signals appeared and lead them right to one, so I'm guessing she's involved. Neptune says the girl claimed to have been kidnapped and given a false identity by an unknown party, but when they tried to take her to where she supposedly actually lived – this phantom dojo of hers - and several other places, they found other buildings and people there instead. At first, she and Haruka thought it might be a joke, but after they went to Nerima, she thought there might actually be something to the story."

Usagi frowned.

"That's… odd, to say the least…" She said. "Oh boy… I hope this doesn't turn into some new big thing…"

"Well, I agreed to meet with this girl," Ami said. "If there is something going on, then she may be able to help us figure it out."

"When are we gonna meet her then?" Minako asked.

"Tomorrow's our best bet," Ami said. "Technically, I'm the only one that has to be there, but I'd rather everyone was there to back me up in case things get serious."

Minako and Usagi nodded.

"We can do tomorrow," the pony-tailed haired girl said. "Right, Minako-chan?"

"Yeah. We'll be there." Minako said. "Are we going to Nerima today or what?"

Ami nodded.

"If everyone is free, I'd like to," She said. "It is a pressing matter."

-x-Ranma-x-

In a hidden corner of the school's campus, behind the main building, where trees and grass were plentiful, Ranma moved. Her body flowed softly through a series of forms and strikes - swiftly, seamlessly, with both grace, and poise. And then she tripped.

Despite herself, the redhead screamed as she fell towards the grass, her arms rushing up to absorb the brunt of the fall. She winced on hitting the ground and bit her lip. She'd fallen awkwardly and hit her elbow the wrong way. She turned her body and sat up as the pain echoed throughout her arm, glaring at the offending appendage with disappointment.

"Really? Is that really all it takes?" She muttered. She sighed and shook her head. 'As out of shape as I am… I'm gonna have to start drilling this stupid body of mine with the most basic of basics… That's gonna take weeks!' She growled, but there was no way around it. Before she could even perform the easiest of kata, she would have to get her body used to the movements and establish reflexes, speed, and strength. Reflexes alone would take weeks, but the journey of improving strength and speed was one without end to a martial artist of her caliber, and she was going to have to start from scratch.

As she started to consider what basic forms to practice, she felt a tingling in her awareness – that nagging sort of feeling that one was being watched – and without really thinking, turned around and looked up. There was a tree with thick branches above her, and she could not clearly see through it, but that familiar feeling remained. She closed her eyes and expanded her awareness to the ambient chi that reverberated throughout the area – from the grass beneath her, the many insects crawling on and through the dirt, the energy of the earth itself, and finally the tree, whose massive life-force brimmed with healthy energy – except for that spot of unmistakably malevolent energy in the center of the branches.

She opened her eyes and stood up. With her mind in that state, she could see the pulse of life clinging to those objects in the form of dim auras, both sheathed around them like a second skin and bleeding off in every direction in steady waves.

"You again?" She demanded, seeing and yet not seeing the youkai she'd met the day before. The branches hid his body from sight, but his aura shone through clearly, a black outline against the green of the tree. "What do you want?"

He snorted and crossed his arms, but did not answer, and she frowned.

"You're the one behind this whole body switching thing, aren't you?" She growled, clenching her fists. "Well? Tell me!"

"No. I'm not."

She blinked.

"Huh?" She frowned, then scratched her head. "Then what the hell are you stalking me for?"

"That is my business." He said simply.

She frowned.

"I think I have a right to know," She said.

"Then you are delusional. Or stupid. Probably both."

She growled again.

"Listen, pal… you're really starting to piss me off!"

He snickered.

"Even ignoring your penchant for clichés, considering your performance just a few seconds ago, you're more likely to hurt yourself than me."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Oh yeah?" The would-be martial artist closed her eyes and focused on finding her center.

A moment later, anyone watching the scene would have seen her seem to disappear. Ranma made her way to and climbed up the tree where the youkai was watching and positioned herself behind him. When she reached him, she looked down at him in surprise; he was a lot shorter than she'd expected. Almost a whole head shorter than she was, and with a thin frame to boot. He was wearing the same all black ensemble from before – a black trench coat, black pants, and combat boots, while his hair was mess of unruly black spikes, a white streak near the front and top. As she crept up behind him, she studied his youki closely. It was… malevolent, but somehow… calm… it seemed to lack the insatiable hunger for violence that most youkai radiated-

Suddenly, all instinct screamed for her to move, and she did, falling roughly to the side and almost off of the tree. She quickly compensated and used her momentum to swing her body down, underneath the branch, and sling herself back up. She was momentarily surprised to see his back again, as he was now facing the other direction and holding a sword, its blade in the space where her head had been only seconds before.

"Hn…" The youkai made an amused sound and subtly looked around, the only moving part of his body being his eyes. Ranma frowned, taking a step back from him. "Oh?" The demon turned to look at her. A spot under the bandana tied around his forehead started to glow pink in the shape of an oval. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to try and sneak up on dangerous people, little girl?"

'It doesn't work on demons?' She thought with a frown. 'No… it seemed to work for a bit… he saw through it somehow. I'll have to work on that.'

Ranma crossed her arms.

"First off, I'm not a girl," She said. "Second," She narrowed her eyes. "You're stalking me. Doesn't that make you a hypocrite?"

He chuckled.

"You don't have the ability to threaten me. I have no reason to explain myself to you."

"Listen pal, you're gonna tell me just what's going on here, and you're gonna help me fix it." She declared. The youkai snorted and said nothing, instead letting an amused expression appear on his face, and Ranma scowled and balled up her fists. "You think you're that much better than me, huh? Fine, let's see what's so great about you!"

She leapt at him with a kick, but he simply raised an eyebrow and bent slightly to the side, letting her fly over him. Ranma quickly reached out and grabbed hold of a tree branch to arrest her momentum and twisted her body, swinging her foot down at him. He quickly twisted out of the way and slammed his elbow in her thigh as it passed, eliciting a pained hiss from the red head. She brought her legs up to the branch she was holding onto and pushed off of it, then twisted in the air and flew at him with a punch ready.

The youkai caught her fist when she swung, then slammed his own into her nose, and Ranma cried out in pain and surprise as she fell down from the tree to the ground. She recovered from the shock quickly enough to turn in the air and land on her hands, using her chi to reinforce her arm strength and absorb the shock. She grunted upon landing as pain shot up through her arms, and knew that if it hadn't been for the control she had, both of them would have been broken by the fall.

'Damn it!' She thought, sitting up and glaring at the youkai in the tree.

"Pathetic, but no less than I expected." The youkai snorted.

She growled. 'If it wasn't for this stupid body..!' Ranma frowned as she felt something wet on her face and reached up. She brought her hand away and her frowned at the blood that was on it. She made a frustrated sound and wiped it off on her shirt, then looked over at the demon with her fists clenched. "I'm gonna kick your ass." She said. "Just watch!"

He snorted.

"I don't think you'll live long enough to do that." He said, turning around. Without another word, he leapt out of the tree and faded from sight.

She let out a roar of frustration and slammed her fists down into the ground. Blood gathered on her chin and dripped down onto the grass, and remembering her situation, she reached up and pinched her nose.

'Even if I train my body, I'll have a glass jaw if I don't find a good sparring partner… and drilling the forms can only take you so far.' She realized. 'Maybe I should find a dojo… but then again, they'll want me to focus on learning their forms, and things might get complicated…' Ranma sighed and sat down, making sure to keep her nose held tight. 'Maybe the karate club..? Then again, most Karate clubs don't have people at the level I'd need. Man, it looks like Ryouga might be my only hope.'

-x-Usagi-x-

Usagi Tsukino looked down at her packed lunch with a sigh. Having learned from the most brilliant minds the entire solar system had to offer for most of her life kind of set the bar pretty high already, but not only was she now going to a common school, but she was in the past! She really couldn't understand what her mother was thinking, sending her back then… now. The senshi and her father had all surprisingly agreed with the idea, though, so there had to be something to it that she just wouldn't have access to in her home time and situation.

One thing was for sure; she'd gotten used to being a royal – crown princess, no less - what with all of the celebrity and privileges it came with, but it was definitely good to take a break from all of that.

"Tsukino Usagi, huh?"

The pink haired pony-tailed girl looked up, hearing the familiar, yet slightly different voice. Tenou Haruka was looking back at her from her own chair with an eyebrow raised. She noticed that the seat ahead of her was empty, but there had been a girl with a stylish red pigtail sitting there earlier.

"You know, you have the same name and a similar hairstyle as a girl I know."

The girl who was once known as Chibi-Usa looked over at the boyish blonde with a grin.

"Yup."

Haruka made a face that indicated she was confused, and Chibi-Usa laughed lightly.

"I don't get it." The blonde admitted. "You're not her, are you? I'm pretty sure she was still in middle school."

"That's right." Usagi said.

"And I'm going to go ahead and assume you know who I'm talking about." Haruka said.

"I live with her." The pink haired girl admitted.

Haruka frowned.

"Who are you?"

"Hm? I'm Tsukino Usagi."

"You know what I mean." The other girl said with a frown.

"Why don't you figure it out? You're good at that." Usagi said with a smirk.

"Hmph." The blonde narrowed her eyes. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about Ranma, would you?" The blonde asked.

"Ranma?" Chibi-Usa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes or no?"

The pink haired girl shrugged.

"Depends."

Haruka frowned.

"Why don't you give me a straightforward answer?"

Chibi-Usa gestured with her chin over towards the door, where a red-haired pig-tailed girl stood. Haruka blinked, and Ranma walked over to her desk and sat down with a frustrated sigh. The blonde frowned upon noticing a spot of blood on the other girl's shirt, and opened her mouth to speak, but the red-head beat her to it.

"Hey, Haruka," The girl started. "You ever thought of taking martial arts seriously?"

The blonde blinked as her own question died in her throat.

"I take martial arts seriously," She said with narrowed eyes. "Does this have to do with why there's blood on your shirt?"

The red-head shook her head and held up a hand.

"No, no, I mean livin' it."

Haruka frowned.

"What do you mean?"

The red-head sighed, and Usagi started eating her lunch as the girl went into a spiel.

"Listen. Some people learn martial arts for the sake of a better lifestyle, and some people live for the sake of a better martial arts. Every waking moment is dedicated to honing your skill, and you are willing to do whatever it takes, even if it could be potentially fatal. For The Art, no sacrifice is too great, and every increment of improvement is a valuable step on your never-ending journey to perfection, an ideal you acknowledge cannot be reached, but always strived for."

The blonde silently considered it for a moment, and Usagi could tell the other girl was seriously considering it.

'Hmm…' The pink haired girl considered it herself as Haruka finally reacted.

"I suppose that would be the next step…" The blonde surmised. "One day, the thrill I get from racing may not be enough. But when I think like that…" Haruka chuckled and shook her head. "I'm… assuming this is related to the blood?"

"Oh, I fell out of a tree." Ranma admitted. "Hit my nose on a branch on the way down. Other than that, fine."

"Fell out of a tree?" Haruka frowned. "Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yeah, yeah." Ranma said.

"Hmm. If you say so." The blonde glanced at Usagi as Ranma stretched her arms high over her head. "What brought up your question, anyway?"

"Oh, I'm looking for a sparring partner," Ranma admitted. "I need someone who can dedicate as much time as I'm planning to. It's impossible to improve yourself if you can't identify your own weaknesses, and to do that requires you fight as many different people and styles as possible."

Usagi raised an eyebrow.

"You're a martial artist?" She asked, interest leaking into her voice. "You don't strike me as one."

Ranma turned to look at her.

"Yeah, but I'm… out of practice for reasons that are beyond my control. That all stops today, though." She said.

The pink haired girl sat back and regarded her. After a moment, she shrugged and went back to eating. Ranma and Haruka were silent as the blonde contemplated the other girl's words, then turned to face her.

"I think I'll pass on that for now," The blonde said. "But one day, I might take you up on it."

Ranma nodded once, then turned away.

"I never really thought about it, but oyaji's training trip helped me out in ways I'd never considered…" She said with a sigh. "Whatever. I'll figure somethin' out."

Usagi snuck a glance at the redhead.

'Could that be it? Hmm… Naahhh…'

-x-x-x-

When the bell rang, Usagi stood up and gathered her bag with a sigh, as she headed to the door.

"Finally," She muttered with a sigh.

When she reached the door, though, she was openly surprised to see one Setsuna Meiou standing right outside, looking at her with a smile.

"How was your first day?" The woman asked as she stepped to the side to let other students file out.

"Puu!" She hugged the older woman, then stood back and looked up at her. "Why are you here? I thought you were…"

The woman held up a finger to mouth and winked.

"Let's just say your mother saw fit to give me another… extended vacation. Besides, technically I am there. And here. So. Your day?"

The pink haired girl shrugged. If it was okay, then it was okay, and she wasn't going to complain.

"Boring. Everything they're teaching, I learned years ago!"

The green haired woman sighed.

"Well, you're not here for the academics."

The pink haired girl frowned.

"Then why am I here?"

"You know I can't tell you that."

"Bah. Useless!"

The Senshi of Pluto chuckled.

"Be that as it may…" She separated from the teen.

"S…Setsuna?"

The two of them turned to look at the door, where Michiru, Ranma, and Haruka were standing, looking at them.

"You… you're…"

Ranma looked from the green haired woman to Haruka, who was apparently struggling to put her thoughts together verbally, and Michiru spoke up.

"You're looking well," The aquamarine haired girl said with a smile. "Considering the last time we saw you."

Setsuna gave a small smile of her own back to the other three.

"I've been better, I assure you. Miss Fujibayashi, have you decided on which club you'd like to join?"

Ranma blinked as Michiru and Setsuna looked at her, then shrugged.

"Is there a go home early club? If not, I guess karate," she said with a sigh.

"Then karate it is," The woman said with a nod. "I'll inform the student council for you. I'll show you where the karate club meets." She looked down at Usagi. "What about you, have you put any thought into it yet?"

The pink haired girl blinked, then shook her head.

"No, I've been trying to figure this stupid situation out all day," She said with a sigh.

Setsuna chuckled.

"You shouldn't worry about it. Here, clubs are starting soon, so why don't I take Miss Fujibayashi to the Karate club, and we can talk about it after." She looked down at Haruka and Michiru. "Miss Kaiou, Miss Tenou, I'll contact you when necessary. Until then, you should get to your clubs." The two teens nodded and turned to leave, and she turned and started walking. "Miss Tsukino, Miss Fujibayashi, please come this way."

-x-Kenichi-x-

When school was out, Kenichi was only mildly surprised to see Chikage waiting for him outside.

"Hey, Chikage-chan." He said with a wave as he walked over to her. "Did you figure anything new out?"

She shook her head.

"I was unable to make effective use of my time during school," She admitted, grabbing him by the wrist and took off running. "Come quickly, we must begin the investigation."

"Huh? Hey, hey, I can walk on my own, you know!"

-x-x-x-

A moment later, the two of them were panting and sweating, and walking at a more sedate pace.

"Remind me not to do that again." Chikage said, stopping to lean against a light pole. "I do not have nearly as much stamina as I am used to…"

"Hey Chikage-chan," Kenichi said, stopping to sit down on the sidewalk. "Don't do that again."

"That is not what I meant…" She said, joining him on the ground.

"Where are we going, anyway?" He asked, looking down at her.

"Diner."

He blinked and looked over at her.

"A diner?"

She nodded and reached into her bookbag, then retrieved a thousand yen note and held it up to him with a look of wonderment on her face.

"I received this from my… foster parents."

He blinked and looked at her.

"What are you getting at a diner with just that?" He asked.

"Ice cream." She said with a fierce nod.

"Um, Chikage-chan," Kenichi said with a smile, "You can just go to an ice cream parlor… I'm sure there's one nearby." He said.

She looked at him with confusion.

"There is a place that deals exclusively in ice cream?" She asked.

"Yes," He said with a smile.

She grabbed him by the shirt with both hands and pulled him until they were face to face.

"Why did you not tell me this sooner? You will take me there at once!"

He shrank back at the fierce look in her eyes.

"U-um, sure, just calm down…"

-x-x-x-

"Well, at least little things like this are still the same," Kenichi said with a happy sigh as he sat down at a table.

Chikage set down a platter with a veritable mountain of scoops of different flavors of ice cream in front of her and stared at it with drool dripping from her mouth and Kenichi chuckled.

"You know, you're supposed to eat it," He said. "Not watch it."

"I am contemplating where to begin…" She muttered. "Hmm…"

He sighed.

"So anyway," He started, leaning back in his chair. "I was thinking, we should probably make a list of the differences we notice between this world and the one we know," He said. "Chikage-chan? What do you…"

The would be martial artist trailed off, noticing how intently she was still squaring off with the mountain of sugar.

'Well, that's okay. Hmm… I should probably try and find out happened to the other members of the alliance. Kisara-san, Tanimoto-kun and Niijima I've seen, but Takeda, Ukita, Freya, Thor, Sieg and the others are all unaccounted for.' He reached into his bookbag and retrieved a notepad and pencil, then started listing the names of Ryozanpaku and Shinpaku members, and putting various comments on the ones of the people he knew the status of. 'Sakaki-shishou, is out there somewhere… Apachai-san, Shigure-san and Ba-sensei might be too. If they remember how the world is supposed to be, they might be able to help figure this whole mess out. We just have to find them…'

He stopped and looked over at Chikage.

"Hey, Chikage-chan… did you try to get in touch with your own master?"

She looked over at him.

"…Yes. I was unable to." She said.

Then she started eating.

He blinked.

'I guess that's that…'

-x-Ranma-x-

Ranma sighed as she stood before the limousine with a familiar man sitting in the driver's seat.

'I could leave…' She thought, frowning and looking around. 'I could leave, use some pocket change to get supplies, and go on a real training trip without dealing with this bullshit…' She looked down at the limo and narrowed her eyes. The idea was becoming more attractive by the second. 'If I do that, though, I'll never find out what happened to everyone.'

She blinked once, then opened the door and sat down inside the limo.

'I'll wait for one week. If Ryouga doesn't call me, then I'm bookin' it to China after I whip myself back into shape. Maybe I can hang around some small villages or something before I go.'

"Young miss? Are you okay?"

Ranma looked up at the chauffeur.

"You seem a bit upset."

She sighed.

"Let's just go."

The man stared at her for a moment, then nodded and started driving.

-x-x-x-

Ranma stared out at the city as the limo took her to the mansion. She hadn't done it yet because of various distractions, but she'd made it a habit to learn the layout of any area she was in so she could get from place to place without any hassle. Being able to roof hop made it a lot easier for urban and suburban areas, and back in Nerima, Ranma could be anywhere she wanted to in ten to twenty minutes without ever getting in a vehicle. Now that her body was… lacking, she was starting to fully appreciate the distance from one place to another. When the driver turned into the familiar upscale neighborhood, they passed by a park with extensive gardens and natural scenery, and Ranma mentally noted the location as they started going up the street.

When they pulled into the roundabout before the mansion's main entrance, Ranma opened the door immediately and stepped out, taking her bag with her. She glanced at the girly design and cute knick-knacks with a disgusted frown, but shook her head and turned her attention to her surroundings. The butler was already driving the limousine away asshe started walking along the stone path that split in both directions and lead to the main entrance.

'You'd think people would have something better to spend their money on,' She thought with a frown as she made her way up the stairs and to the two large doors.

When she opened them, she found a maid already waiting for her in the foyer.

"Welcome back, young miss." The woman said with a polite bow.

Ranma blinked.

"Hm? Ah, er, hi."

The woman giggled.

"Dinner will be ready at seven," The maid said. "Is there anything you need at the moment?"

"Nah," Ranma said as she started walking towards the only door in the elaborately decorated room whose other side she was familiar with. "I'm gonna be going out for a walk and hanging around that park down the street, so uh, let people know." She said.

"Certainly, young miss."

-x-x-x-

Ranma frowned as she rifled through the drawers in "her" room. There were a number of outfits that she knew would look good on her, but nothing that was appropriate for training in. After a few moments of searching, she was able to find some black yoga pants and a red sports bra that looked practically unworn.

'Well, it's not a dogi, but it's better than nothing.' She thought as she started to unfasten her shirt. The red head unceremoniously tossed the white shirt onto the floor and started to undo her bra. As she took it off and glanced at it in disgust, she absently wondered why they were so mandatory. Most girls said they helped support their breasts, but Ranma herself fell into the category of girls who could never find the perfect fit, and whose straps always bit painfully into the shoulder, and of course, it always reminded her of the worst thing that had ever happened to her.

She was also mildly convinced that one of her breasts was a little bit bigger than the other, too, which did not help.

Ranma looked down at the offending breast with an eyebrow raised and cupped each one in a corresponding hand, trying to compare the two. After a moment, and convincing herself that maybe she was just seeing things, she just sighed and resumed changing her clothes, and, when she was finished, stepped back to look at herself in the vanity mirror.

'Meh,' She thought, poking her slight belly. 'I'll be rid of you soon enough. Still look good, too.' She smirked and turned around, checking herself out. 'If only Akane could be as sexy as me. Ah, well. Not everyone is perfect.'

-x-Usagi-x-

"Man, why do we have to do this today?" Usagi whined as she walked along the sidewalk with Ami and Minako by her side. The three had gone to their respective homes and now wore causal clothes. "I've barely got enough change for a one way trip… and all those perverted molesters on the train make me ill!"

"I'll help cover the trip back," Ami said. "We'll be fine if we stick together."

"Yeah, Odango," Minako said. "Besides, those perverted molesters will be there tomorrow, anyway, so it's not like it matters."

The three girls stopped in front of the train station and started looking around for their friends, and were in turn spotted by them.

"Oiii! Usagiii!"

They all turned at Makoto's voice and saw her standing with Rei near a bike stand.

"Mako-chan!" The blonde called back and waved with a grin as she and her two companions started walking over to them. "What's the happy-haps?"

Ami and Minako looked at her.

"Happy-haps?" Ami asked.

"I heard it on TV," Usagi admitted as the two groups met.

"Hey you guys," Makoto said. "So we're going to Nerima right?"

"Yes," Ami said. "I figured we could go today because it was a half day, and if we do it today we won't have to on our day off."

"Sounds good to me," Rei said as they started walking together. "What exactly is going on so far? Can you tell?"

"Well, it seems what the Mercury Computer has been detecting are chrono-spatial schisms, ruptures in the fabric of space and time. The computer has been scanning these energy signatures and searching for similar signals since yesterday; at first, I thought it had been a static event, but they seem to be increasing in number… radiating out from the southeast," She said. "Near Kyoto."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Kyoto?" Minako asked, bodily turning to look at her. "How are we supposed to deal with something that far? That's one heck of a commute!"

"I'm not sure," Ami said with a sigh. "But, these… ruptures in space are appearing all over the country, and will have appeared over all of Japan by tonight. Strangely, they seem to be disappearing just as quickly. The one that was in Nerima may already be gone."

"What can we do about it? What are these… ruptures even doing?" Rei asked.

"It doesn't seem like there is much we can do," the blue haired girl admitted. "At the same time, there doesn't seem like anything needs to be done so far. Despite the waves of ruptured space, I haven't detected attacks on civilians or anything similar to previous enemy activity. As far as I can tell, these things are harmless. We're just checking it out because it's the closest one, and there may be something we can find out there."

Usagi blinked.

"Really? So nothing's happening?" The blonde asked.

"Of course something's happening, stupid." Rei snorted, rolling her eyes. "We just don't know what. She just said we're going there to find out what we can."

"Hey, I'm not stupid!" Usagi barked, but was ignored.

"Wait a second," Makoto prompted, putting a hand on her hip. "What about that girl you told us about in the text? Sailor Neptune's classmate? And didn't you detect a negative energy signal during school yesterday near where some kid got beat up?"

Ami nodded and folded her computer back up, replacing it in her bag.

"We'll have to talk to her," She said. "She might be able to tell us something about what's going on, and if we should really be worried or not. As for that negative energy, well, it may be separate from this, but I doubt it. Still, unless it appears again, this is our only real lead."

-x-x-x-

Sometime later, the group of five stood before a house on a relatively large property.

"This is the place," Ami said as she fished in her bag for the Mercury Computer.

"It looks normal enough," Makoto said as she and the others looked around. "You sure this is it?"

"Let me see," The blue haired girl said as she recovered the device and flipped it open. "Hmm… yes. This is it," She said, looking up. "There are still traces of energy here…"

"Only traces?" Rei frowned. "I can feel it in the air… like a gathering of chaotic energy." She said, closing her eyes.

"There is a great deal of raw mana in the area, and disjointed at that, but it is dissipating." Ami agreed.

"I'm worried about this gathering of energy," Rei said with a frown as she turned to look at the house. "It just gives me the chills. I've never run into something like this before. What could have caused it?"

"It might be the directly or indirectly related to the rupture, but I haven't seen anything indicating that yet. None of the other locations had anything like this." Ami said as she tapped some keys on the computer. "Hmm… It seems to be the result of an unstable spell matrix."

The other four girls blinked and looked at her.

"Spell… Matrix?"

"There was some type of magical spell or enchantment that… for lack of a better phrase, seems to have spontaneously exploded."

"…Should we be worried?" Rei asked.

"Not from what I can see. The mana that was woven into it is hanging around the area, but it will dissipate completely soon. Maybe a day or two."

"Wait a minute," Usagi said. "Why would there have been a magic spell here?"

The five girls stood there in silence.

"I mean, every magic using person we've run into to date has either been another one of us or an enemy. Is it just me, or does this seem like bad news?"

"That's a good point," Minako muttered. "If there's someone who can use magic running about… chances are it's a bad guy. We've already met the senshi of every planet, haven't we?"

"Well, as far as we know, yes." Ami said. "But there could be one for our own star, Sol, or other moons… Hmm, let me see…" She started to rapidly tap some commands into the little device.

"We haven't run into a Sailor Earth," Makoto pointed out.

"I don't think there is one," Ami said. "I'll look into it later, though."

"Well, if there's nothing we can do here," Usagi said, sighing. "We may as well go home. Man, what a wasted trip…"

"Excuse me," A voice called out from the side, and the five girls turned to face a young man. "Could you girls direct me to the Tendo Dojo?"

Almost immediately four of the five girls were stricken by his appearance. He wore a yellow tunic and black trousers, wore a large backpack and carried an umbrella over one shoulder. The fringes of his hair were a rough mop that was kept out of his eyes by a yellow bandanna with black polkadots. His face was slightly effeminate, but worn and rugged, and he had a prominent fang.

"I'm sorry, I really seem to be lost," He said. "I think the area has been renovated since the last time I was here…"

"Oh, we're not from around here either," Ami said.

The youth looked surprised by this, but his expression quickly changed to one of dismay.

"I'm sorry, we're not sure where any local dojos would be."

"Ah… okay, sorry to bother you," He said, turning to walk away.

"Wait!"

He blinked and stopped as Minako and Makoto suddenly appeared at each side, wrapping an arm around his.

"What's your name? I'll help you find your dojo!" Makoto offered.

"What? No, I'll help him!" Minako said.

"H-huh?" The young man seemed taken aback by the sudden attention, but quickly recovered. "Wait, really? Oh, thank you!"

Ami frowned as she recalled something.

"Excuse me, the dojo you're looking for… what can you tell me about it?" She asked, reaching into her bag and retrieving the Mercury Computer. She opened it and started tapping a few keys, and he looked over at her.

"Hmm? Well, it's called the Tendo Dojo. The head instructor is a master of his own personal branch of an obscure style," He explained. "It's actually very similar to my family's style."

"Oh? What's it called?" Rei asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Musabetsu Kakutou Ryuu," He said. "I only know of two other masters in the style."

"Indiscriminate Grappling?" Makoto frowned. "I've never heard of that…"

"Well, like I said, it's very obscure," He said with a nod. "It's a composite of styles from around the world, like Karate, Jujutsu, Kung Fu, Wu Shu, Muay Thai, and even some western variations, like Sambo and wrestling. Apparently, in order to learn it properly, you actually have to travel around and study with foreign masters. Being able to switch styles in the middle of a fight, as well as string together attacks and utilize tenets from more than one at a time is the main idea." He said. "There are also a number of original attacks that take movements from the other styles."

"Oh?" Rei frowned. "That sounds a bit… unusual…" She said. "Is that even practical? Can they take on students like that? It seems like it would take years just to learn the basics of all of those different styles."

"Yes, but on the plus side they can teach pretty much any style they want," He said with a shrug.

"Wow," Makoto started, sounding genuinely impressed. "I'd love to check this place out…"

"That all sounds very interesting, but…" Ami started, and the other girls all turned to look at her. "Would you happen to know the dojo's address?"

He blinked.

"Oh! Oh, um, yes," He said. "I stay there a lot, so…" He cleared his throat and gave it to them.

Ami simply nodded, while the other girls all looked at each other, then at the house they'd all been sent to investigate.

"I see," The blue haired teen said with a nod. "What did you say your name was?"

He blinked.

"Oh, um, sorry, I forgot to," He admitted sheepishly, rubbing his head. "Heh. Hibiki Ryouga. Pleased to meet you," He said.

"I'm Kino Makoto, nice to meet you!"

"Aino Minako, at your service!"

Ryouga blinked.

"Um…" He looked over at the other three. "So, do you know where it might be based on that?"

Ami shook her head.

"My apologies."

"I see," He nodded and pulled away from the girls on his side. "Well, you girls be careful around here, okay? This particular area can be dangerous at the wrong time of day."

"Wait!" Minako said. "Are you going to be free later?" She asked.

He blinked.

"Um… I don't know?" He said nervously. "I've really gotta find this dojo…"

"Well, in that case," She said, reaching into her bag and retrieving a scrap of paper. "Here, my phone number. Call me when you get a chance, okay?" She winked and slid the paper into his hand, and he blinked, looking down at it.

"Err…"

"What? You cheater!" Makoto cried out. "Wait, let me write mine on there too!" She said, snatching the paper away from him.

"Hey, who said you could use that!" Minako demanded as she tried to take it back from the taller girl, who had somehow gotten out a pen and was writing her phone number on it as well. "Get your own paper!"

"Here!" Makoto said as she turned back to face Ryouga.

Only to see that he was gone.

"Huh? Where'd he go?"

The other girls turned to look from her and Minako to the young man and noticed as well.

"That was rather quick," Ami said.

"Grr! You two clowns scared him off!" Rei shouted. "I didn't even get a chance to introduce myself!"

"Um… sorry? Heheh…" The two chuckled nervously, then shared a heavy sigh. "We're pathetic, aren't we…"

Ami laughed.

"Well, we should get going," She said. "What should we do when we get back?"

"Well, I blew a lot of my allowance on this trip," Usagi said with a sigh. "You guys wanna hang out at my place? We can try playing some of my brother's new games…" She said.

"What kind of games are they?" Ami asked as the group started walking.

"I donno, he just got them a few days ago," She said.

-x-Kenichi-x-

Outside the ice cream parlor, Chikage was cradling her head as she and Kenichi walked down the sidewalk.

"Ugh… my head and stomach…"

"You shouldn't have eaten so much ice cream all at once," Kenichi admonished. "Don't worry, it'll go away." He looked down at the notepad. "Hmm… Well, Miu-san said that Sakaki-shishou was a very popular sensei," He said. "Maybe we should start with him?"

Chikage looked up at him.

"How would we go about doing that?" She asked, fighting off a wince.

"Erm, well…" He scratched his head. "I guess we could always ask her?"

Chikage nodded.

"Then call her."

"Right," The martial artist said, reaching into his pocket and retrieving his cell phone. After dialing Miu's number, he held it up to his ear and waited. After a moment of ringing, her voice answered.

"Hello!"

"Ah, hi-"

"You've reached the phone of Fuurinji Miu! I'm not available, so please leave a message and I will try to respond!"

There was a beep and he sighed.

"Um, Hi, Miu-san, it's me – Kenichi – you know, Honoka's brother – anyway… I was just wondering if you could tell me more about Sakaki-sensei? I know you said he has a lot of-"

There was another beep and a woman's voice began talking.

"If you would like to send your message as is, please press one…"

"Oh come on!" Kenichi groaned. "I wasn't even done!"

"…would like to re-record the message, press three…"

He pressed three and held it up to his ear again.

"Miu-san, it's Honoka's brother, Kenichi. Please call me back whenever you can." He said. He brought it away and sighed, then pressed one.

"Message sent."

He sighed and pocketed the phone again.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to wait on that." He said, looking down at Chikage. "What now?"

Chikage pointed at him.

"You forgot to give her your phone number."

He frowned.

"I'm sure she has caller ID…"

She narrowed her eyes.

"And if she doesn't?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it several times, then finally sighed and reached into his pocket once more.

-x-x-x-

After yet another phone call, the two were walking down the sidewalk again in silence.

"Um, so…" Kenichi said, looking down at Chikage.

"Yes?" She asked, looking at him.

"What are we doing now?"

She stared at him.

"I thought you had a plan."

He stared back at her. The two stood there in silence for a moment.

"…Um, I don't," He admitted. "The only thing we've got to go on is the possibility that Miu-san knows more about Sakaki-Shishou." He said.

"There must be some way for us to gather information." She said. "What would you use to look up where people live?"

He blinked.

"Telephone directory? The Internet? I don't know…"

She nodded.

"Then we shall."

He shrugged.

"Beats standing around, I guess," He agreed. "I have both at my house, we can do it there."

-x-x-x-

As they neared Kenichi's house, Chikage suddenly stopped walking. Kenichi looked over at the younger girl and blinked.

"Chikage-chan? Something wrong?" He asked.

"We are surrounded," She said. "Nine of them."

Kenichi blinked and looked around.

"What?" He muttered. He looked around the street as paranoia started to set in. There were plenty of places for someone to be hiding; he was at the end of a bridge over some canal, there was a tall brick fence on the opposite of the side of the bridge and various other obstacles, such as light poles, mailboxes and the like in his line of sight.

"Interesting." He frowned upon hearing Niijima's voice, as the man in question stepped out from behind the corner of the fence, a hand in each pocket. Kenichi blinked; the other teen was wearing an expensive suit complete with a tie. The other eight stepped out of various hiding spaces as well in groups of two and three. "I'd known you were a freak, Kenshi, but I didn't think you were a lolicon."

"What?" Kenichi blinked.

Niijima pointed at Chikage.

"Where did you pick your little escort up, anyway? The corner of a primary school?"

Kenichi gagged, while Chikage looked up at Kenichi with a frown.

"You are a lolicon?" She asked.

"No! No! No. I am not a lolicon!" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Ugh… what do you want, Niijima?"

"I think it's obvious what we came here for, Weak Legs Kichi." The thuggish Niijima pounded one fist into the other.

"My name, it's Kenichi," The martial artist replied with a small sigh.

"Shaddap! Who cares about the name of trash? Break his puny, miserable legs!"

The thugs all grinned and chuckled as they started to approach. Kenichi took stock of all of them best he could with his bad eyes, then narrowed them.

'I can do this. Even with this weak body, if I remember the training…' He looked straight ahead, his stance becoming more firm.

Niijima frowned.

"Hmm… he seems to know a thing or two." The suit wearing teen muttered and raised an eyebrow. "But he doesn't move like a fighter at all. What are you idiots waiting for? He's just imitating something he saw in a movie!"

"What? What I'm doing, was taught to me by people way more dangerous than you see in movies!" Kenichi snorted. The men all roared and started charging for him. When the first one was in range, he stepped around a punch and retaliated with one of his own to the man's sternum, followed by an uppercut. He swerved his body around to avoid a punch from behind and grabbed the person behind him and tossed them over his shoulder. He looked over at Chikage and noticed that one of the men was lying on the ground in front of her, groaning in pain.

"What the hell…" Niijima narrowed his eyes at the two in the middle of the commotion and frowned. The rest of his flunkies were staring at them in confusion. "So you do know a thing or two. Heh. Heh… heh heh heh! That should make breaking you all the more fun! Do it! Break weak legs' puny weak legs!"

"Hey, come on…" Kenichi said nervously as the men started to take out weapons.

"What about the girl, boss?" One of the men asked.

"Do I look like I care about little girls?" Niijima asked the man with a frown. "Really?"

The man shrugged.

"Whatever."

Kenichi sighed as Chikage moved to stand back to back with him. The gangsters surrounded them and approached.

"Remember not to get too close to my back." She said, glancing at him.

"Oh man…" Kenichi muttered as one of them leapt at him with a knife. He redirected the blade with his right hand and punched the man in the face with his left, then took hold of the man's wrist and heaved, swinging him into the gangster to his right, while raising his left foot and kicking to his left, hitting the man there mid-lunge in the stomach and knocking the wind out of him. He slammed his elbow into the man's face and ducked under a wild haymaker from the front, taking hold of the man's arm and using his own momentum to fling him overhead. He turned to face the stunned gangster to his left and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him away.

The young martial artist took a defensive stance as he surveyed the three men who were lying pain on the ground; One of them was stunned, but the two he'd knocked into each other were recovering. He took a glance at Chikage to see that she was in much the same situation; the young YOMI fighter had just brutally slammed the man he'd sent overhead into one of the men on the ground before her, and the two were groaning in pain. There were three more who were standing up and scowling at her.

"You little shits," One of the men muttered, and Kenichi frowned as he held his knife up. "I'll kill you both!"

"No! Stop."

The entire group turned to face Niijima in confusion. The suit wearing teen was walking towards Kenichi and Chikage with a scowl.

"Your Seikuuken is near perfect; you can accurately predict the movements of your foes and consciously react, and you also have textbook perfect technique."

He assumed a stance of his own.

"But you have no power, speed, or reflex, as if you've never trained a day in your life, which makes absolutely no sense." He narrowed his eyes. "How the hell does that happen?"

"I really wish I knew." Kenichi admitted.

"Hmph. I'll still break you!" Niijima shouted out.

Before he could move, though, something dropped in between Kenichi and Niijima from above, and they all froze.

Kenichi froze and blinked, seeing Miu crouched in front of him. She slowly stood up and the group backed away. Kenichi's eyes went wide.

'This… this aura! It's nothing like peaceful Miu-san's aura at all! It's like… back then…' He resisted the urge to back away in fear as his mind flashed back to the time Kanou Shou had sent the blonde into a berserk rage. It was more subdued than that time, but definitely the same.

The blonde turned and looked over at Kenichi. The look of concern in her eyes threw him off.

"Kenichi-san! You're safe?"

"Uh… yeah…" He said, scratching his head. 'Heh heh… she's worried about me!'

She smiled.

"Good. I'm glad I made it in time." She suddenly turned over to look at Niijima. "Get lost. Unless you want me to break you and your friends."

Kenichi's lip trembled.

'…S-so un-Miu-like…'

Niijima frowned.

"Hmph. Boys, that's enough for now," The long eared teen said. The thugs all growled and backed away.

"Hey boss, why don't you fight her? You can take her!" One of them said, pointing at the blonde.

"Shut up, idiot! Do you think I really want to tire myself out before tonight?" The alien said, glaring at the man. "We've dallied enough as it is. I expected Weak Legs to go down quickly enough that it wouldn't have mattered we'd stopped, but at this rate, we'll be late. Let's go." With that, he turned and started walking, and Kenichi grinned at him.

'Ah, good ol' Niijima, fastest running legs in the world.' The teen thought. He looked over at Miu as the thugs made their retreat. "But, why didn't you just start attacking? I thought you hated guys like that?" He asked.

"Heh," She smiled at him, and all of his feelings of anxiety towards her faded away. "Grandfather always said to give them a chance to surrender."

'Her smiles are still the same!' He thought with a euphoric grin.

"But Kenichi-san," Miu's look changed to one of curiosity. "I didn't know you knew martial arts."

He blinked.

"Hm? Ah, well I guess you could say I've trained a little here and there," He said with a small grin, scratching his head.

"Really?" She smiled. "Hmm, you'll have to tell me about it sometime." The blonde looked down at Chikage, who was staring at her. "Who's your friend?"

"Huh?" Kenichi blinked, then looked down at Chikage. "Uh, well, uh… this is Kushinada Chikage-chan," He said. "She goes to the middle school near ours."

Miu smiled.

"Oh? Your friend?"

He blinked, then nodded.

"Yeah."

"Nice to meet you, Kushinada-san," Miu said with a polite bow.

Chikage reciprocated.

"…Nice to meet you, Fuurinji-san."

Miu blinked and looked up in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Er, I told her about you," Kenichi said.

"Oh, okay." Miu giggled. "Right, of course. Well, I've got to go pick up Honoka-chan. Stay out of trouble now, okay?" She grinned and waved, then turned and crouched down to leap.

Kenichi blinked at how quickly she'd gotten ready to leave, and held a hand out towards her.

"Ah! Wait!"

She blinked.

"Hm? What is it?"

"I was wondering if you could tell us how to reach Sakaki Shio-sensei," He said. "I know he's busy, but I still would like to try and meet him." He said.

Miu blinked, then stood and turned to look at him.

"Sakaki-sensei? Well, his dojo is in Azabu Juuban," She said. "More than that, I can't say. He likes to be secretive because too many people are looking for him already," She said with a shrug. "Sorry I can't be of help."

Chikage frowned.

"Can't, or won't?" She asked.

The blonde looked down at her with a smile.

"Can't. He changes location often, so it's not easy for me to say just where he is right now. But most likely he's in Azabu Juuban." She said. "Are you still going to look for him?"

Kenichi nodded.

"I don't have much choice," He said. "I don't know if I can trust anyone else with my karate training."

She stared at him for a moment.

"Well, do your best." She said. "Bye!"

"One more thing," He said. "I left a message on your phone asking you to call me, but you can forget it." He said.

She nodded, and in one clean leap, made it up to the nearest roof, where she continued on.

Kenichi watched the last spot he'd seen her for a long moment, before sighing and turning to look at Chikage.

"I guess we're going to Juuban," He said. "Do you have money for a train ride?" He asked.

She shook her head.

"Hmm…" He frowned. "He may not even be in the telephone directory." He said. "We'll have to go there and search."

"Where do we start?" She asked.

Kenichi shook his head.

"I've got no clue," He said. "I guess we can try some dojos out, ask around."

She nodded.

"Very well. Let us depart."

He stared at her.

"Um, Juuban is like three or four districts away," He said. "We can't just walk there. Like I said, we need to ride a train," He said.

She nodded.

"Very well. Let us depart."

"We don't have train money." He said.

She stared at him.

"…How much does it cost?" She asked.

He shrugged.

"Hmm, maybe five to six hundred yen for me, but they might give you child rates or something," He said. "We shouldn't need more than a thousand yen one way."

Chikage stared at him for a moment, then looked down at the ground.

"Oh…"

"Don't worry about it." He said. "I'll talk to my parents and see if they don't mind covering it," He said. "But for now, you should go home. You… live with foster parents now, right?" He asked.

She hesitated for a moment, but nodded.

"They might get worried that you're staying out so long," He said. "We can do it tomorrow. There's no school after all," He said. "That will give us more time to ask around anyway."

She stared at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Fine. We'll meet up tomorrow. I'll call you."

"Alright, let me just give you my phone number." He said.

She shook her head.

"I already have it."

He blinked.

"When..?"

She turned around.

"You said it in the message earlier."

Kenichi blinked.

"Oh… right."

-x-x-x-

Sometime later, Kenichi sighed as he cleared a space in his room, and then sat down in it.

"Coma or no, I've got to train some way or another. Then again, if it is a dream, then my real body is going to be missing out anyway and this would be pointless…" He sighed.

With that, he laid down and started to do sit ups.

Five semi sit-ups later his face was scrunched up in excruciating pain as he attempted to complete his sixth.

"Owowowow!" He dropped down to the ground and twisted his body, putting a hand to his aching stomach. "Man! I can't believe this! Was I ever this bad before?" He frowned, remembering the very first days of his training. "I think I was a little better…" He muttered, then shook his head. "Still, unless I go at the pace the Senseis set for me, I'll never make any progress." He took a few deep breaths and then started another situp.

Roughly an hour later, he was covered in sweat and lying prone on the floor.

"That's… I think that's how much Koetsuji-sensei made me do on the first day." he muttered as he lay face down in a puddle of sweat. He tried to move his arm but stopped when it rejected his demands with harsh pain. "Maybe I'll just… lay here for a while…"

After a long bath, he went to bed and did not move again until morning.

-x-Usagi-x-

Usagi sighed as she walked along the sidewalk toward the Tsukino household.

'She never answered that text message I sent,' She thought with a frown. "What are you doing, stupid Odango? I hope you didn't ruin it…" She muttered as she stopped before the two story house. She looked over at Luna-P, who floated just over her shoulder. "If she ruined it, you're gonna help me punish her." The ball just floated there, and she turned and walked up to the door. She opened it and walked in, but was immediately blasted with the sound of machine gun fire.

"Just die already!" Shingo cried out above the gunfire. There was suddenly a particularly loud retort and the sound of a messy, gory explosion as the machine gun sounds stopped. "No! Damn you!"

"Double Kill!"

"My turn!" Makoto cried out. "Gimme your controller!"

"I'll avenge you Shingo!" Rei said. "C'mon, girls, we've got to stop this serial killer!"

The loud retort and gory explosion sounded again.

"Triple Kill! Rampage!"

"The heck!" Rei cried out. "How!"

Usagi blinked as she closed the door, took her shoes off and wandered into the room with the television. There, situated around the TV, were the senshi, Luna, Artemis, and Shingo. On the TV was a first person shooting video game of some sort, and there was a four-way split-screen on.

"It is a sniper rifle," Ami said as she glanced over at her friend. "It has a very long range."

"Grr! Bah, whose turn is it?"

"Uhhh, I'll pass," The Usagi sitting by the television said. "Until someone kills Ami-chan, then I'm in." she said.

Usagi raised an eyebrow as she set her bag down and walked further into the room. No one seemed to notice her.

"Then I'll just keep playing,"

"No way, give it to me," Shingo said.

"You just died!" Rei snorted.

"You died after I did!" He retorted.

"Bah, whatever," She snorted.

"Okay, everyone," Makoto said. "Truce until Ami-chan is dead?"

"Sounds good to me," Minako said.

As the pink haired teen watched, it soon became obvious which player was Ami. The blue haired girl continued to rack up headshot kills with her sniper rifle, even in close range, without the scope or an aiming cursor.

"How are you doing that?" Shingo demanded. "You've gotta be cheating!"

"I like this weapon," Ami said simply.

"Use something else!"

"Okay," The blue haired girl acquiesced.

One rocket propelled grenade explosion later, Shingo was growling with frustration.

"That one's even cheaper! Use a real gun!"

"This game won't let me use real guns," Ami said.

"Ha. Ha." Shingo sighed. "Whose turn was it?"

Usagi grinned as she walked up to the group.

"Mine," She said, holding a hand out expectantly.

Everyone turned to look at her, cats included, and at that point, all of them except for Shingo froze.

"Oh, hey, Usagi. You're back?" Shingo said, handing her the controller.

"Yup. What's the happy-haps, girls?" She asked, smirking at their reaction.

Blonde Usagi's eyes widened as she gasped.

"I forgot all about you!" She said. "Uhh, err, I mean…"

The rest of the group turned to look at her.

"Umm…" She pointed at the screen. "Aren't you guys online?" She asked.

Ami quickly turned to look at the screen.

"Shoot!" There was suddenly an explosion and she winced as her character exploded along with the person who had snuck up on her. "Aww, darn. I forgot I'd switched to that one," She said with a sigh.

"Yesss!" Shingo cried out.

The rest of the group stared at the TV for a moment, then turned to look at Usagi again.

"Chibi-Usa!" Minako cried out.

The pink haired teen chuckled malevolently.

"Except, I'm older than you now." She said with a smirk.

The girls, sans Usagi, all stared at her.

"Well, this is unexpected." Ami said. "Did someone want to take my player?" She asked, holding her controller up.

Pink haired Usagi blinked.

'So…nonchalant…'

"Uh, yeah," Blonde Usagi said, taking it. "What other games did you get, Shingo?"

"What are you doing back here? I thought you left for good!" Makoto said.

"I've got that new fighting game, some puzzle games, and that new Sailor Moon adventure game. It's even got those new senshi who appeared recently, you know, the outers?"

Usagi giggled.

"Neat! I wanna try that one next!"

"Uhh," Pink-haired Usagi frowned. "Stop interrupting my dramatic return!"

"Well… it's kinda ruined already," The other Usagi said.

"Not really," Rei said. "I still feel a bit shocked, to be honest." She turned to look at Pink Usagi. "Though it is kind of fading fast."

"Ugh…" Pink Usagi sighed. "Um, well, yeah. I'm back. Hi."

The other girls all nodded slowly, their expressions fading from shocked to normal.

"What are you talking about?" Shingo asked.

"Errr, nothing, Shingo," Usagi blonde said. "We're just being silly."

"Whatever," He said. "Who wants to switch modes?"

"Wait, I haven't played yet," Usagi Pink said.

"You were playing last night," Shingo said with a frown.

"But I still wanna," She said with a frown. "Listen to your elders!"

He rolled his eyes.

"We're just switching to teams," He said. "I want to try playing a team battle on the net."

"You mean you don't want Ami-chan to be able to kill you anymore," Rei said with a snort.

"A team battle sounds fun," Ami said. "There are tanks, right? Can I drive?"

"Knock yourself out," Shingo said.

Ami nodded and looked over at pink Usagi and patted a spot next to her on the ground.

"Here, why don't you sit down?"

"So, what are you here to do this time?" Rei asked as the girl did just that. "Still in training?"

"Hmm? No, I've been promoted to full time in that regard. I'm still not as good as mom, though." She admitted. "Actually, I'm here to learn something, but I have no idea what it is."

"So still in training," Rei said with a smirk.

"Bah," Pink Usagi said. "To be honest, I can't think of this as anything other than a vacation compared to back home."

"Well, it's nice to have you back, even if it is only after a day," Makoto said with a smile. "You look well."

"Thanks," The pink haired girl said, turning to look at the television.

"Do you have a boyfriend yet? You're older than us, right?" Minako asked.

Pink Usagi glanced at Blonde Usagi.

"Well… Mom… and dad," She started. "Are kinda… protective of me…"

"What? That sounds lame," Blonde Usagi said. The other girls all turned to look at her. "Oh, wait. Uh, I mean… eh heh…"

"Tell me about it," The girl from the future said with a snort.

"The game's starting," Shingo said. "Try not to die, I don't wanna lose!"

"We'll talk after this," Usagi said.

-x-x-x-

Sometime later, the girls were upstairs and walking into Usagis' room.

"You're pretty good at video games, Ami-chan," Makoto said. "Do you own some like those?"

"Mmhmm," The blue haired girl said as the last of the group walked into the room and shut the door behind them. "But I hardly ever get a chance to play because I'm either studying or on the net."

"Eh?" Minako blinked. "Then why are you so good?"

"I'm not sure," Ami said, bringing a finger to her mouth. "Latent talent?"

"Maybe you should get a power that lets you use a sniper rifle," Usagi said with a sigh.

"That might be something to look into," Ami said with a nod. "Though I'm sure it would be different in real life."

Usagi gasped.

"I was joking… jo-king!"

"So was I," Ami said with a smile.

The rest of the girls, sans Usagi, laughed.

"Or was I?" The blue haired girl said, as she narrowed her eyes.

Everyone suddenly stopped laughing and Artemis cleared his throat.

"Anyway," He said. "It's nice that Chibi-Usa is back…"

"Don't call me that," The pink haired girl said with a frown. "I'm older than them now! That was a childish little nickname."

"You'll always be Chibi-Usa to us," Rei said with a grin.

"Yeah," Minako started. "But really, now that you're older, we can totally hang out in style."

"Yeah! So," Makoto started. "How old are you now?"

"Sixteen," Chibi-Usa said with a resigned sigh. "I'm going to the high school in this area. You'll never guess who my classmates are."

"The outer senshi?" Ami asked with a raised eye brow.

Chibi-Usa looked at her in annoyance.

"Do you have to spoil everything?"

Ami blinked.

"I was right?"

Chibi-Usa sighed and dropped down on her mother's bed.

"Yeah. Them."

"Huh. Er, sorry?" The blue haired girl said with a nervous blush as the other girls giggled. "I didn't mean to, ah… ruin your fun."

"No, it's okay. Anyway, as for why I'm here," Chibi-Usa said, crossing her arms. "Mom told me to try and learn something other than what they teach in school." She said with a sigh.

The other girls all stared at her.

"That sounds vague and rather useless," Rei said, glancing at Usagi. "Not surprising considering who your mother is."

"Grr…" Usagi growled as she sat down on Chibi-Usa's bed.

"Hmm, well, how are things in the future?" Ami asked.

"I'm not allowed to tell you that," Chibi-Usa said. "Couldn't even if I wanted to. Last time was a special occasion because we needed your help and our enemies were causing you trouble anyway."

"That makes sense," Artemis said.

"Though I would have expected a lazier attitude from Usagi," Luna admitted.

"Stop teasing me!" The blonde girl whined.

"Well, it's only the truth…" Luna said sheepishly.

"You're all so mean!" The dual pony-tailed girl muttered. "When I'm being nice enough to host you all in my own room no less!"

"Chibi-Usa," Ami started. "Is there anything you can tell us about the situation that's unfolding right now?"

The pink haired girl blinked.

"What? What are you talking about?"

The blue haired girl crossed her arms.

"Well, there are strange ruptures appearing in the space-time fabric around the country, and I'm not sure if it will stop in Japan," She said. "They seem benign, but something tells us they aren't."

"Oh, is that what you were talking about earlier?" Artemis asked, looking at Luna. The other moon cat nodded. "Hmm. It does indeed sound strange…"

Chibi-Usa frowned.

"I… don't know what you're talking about. If something big is going on and I'm going to be involved, then Mom might have locked away my memories regarding it," She said. "Sorry."

The girls and two cats sat there in silence for a moment.

"You know," Rei started, looking over at Usagi. "You're starting to get unusually proactive here. Somehow, this worries me."

"Er, I'm sure we'll pull through," Usagi said. "Right? Proof of that is sitting right here," She gestured Chibi-Usa.

"You can't take that for granted," Ami admonished. "From what I understand, we do not exist in a static timeline. We've made changes already," She said. "That kind of attitude might end up destroying this so called proof. You wouldn't want to do that, now would you?"

"Wouldn't that create a time paradox?" Rei asked.

"I don't know, but that's another reason to avoid being so complacent," Ami said. "In any case, it just means we need to be on our guard and do what we can when the time comes." She turned to look at Chibi-Usa. "If you're classmates with Kaiou-san, then… do you know of any other new students in the class?"

The pink haired girl blinked.

"Oh yeah… That Ranma girl," She said, tilting her head. "She joined the Karate clube today. Why?"

"According to Neptune, she might have something to do with what's happening," Ami said. "Just as a precaution, you might want to keep an eye on her."

Chibi-Usa shrugged.

"If you say so." She clapped her hands. "So… what TV dramas are you watching these days?"

-x-Ranma-x-

Ranma panted heavily as she stood before a tree, maintaining her stance. She grunted as she sloppily kicked at the tree and brought her leg back down, barely managing to keep her balance.

"Three hundred seventy eight…"

She kicked up again, flinging sweat in the air in all directions with her exaggerated motions.

"Three hundred seventy three…"

The whole world had gotten incredibly woozy as of late, and she was finding it hard to stand up. Ranma growled and clenched her fists, gritting her teeth.

"Like I could lose to this stupid body! Eiyaaah!" She let out a loud kiai as she kicked the tree one more time. "Three hundred eighty!"

The moment the redhead's foot touched down on the grass behind her, she moved back, as the world seemed to swirl around her. She fell back down onto the grass and reached around, her hand falling onto a nearby water bottle. She quickly opened it and brought it to her mouth and lazily poured its contents, gulping down what she could and letting the excess spill off. It was empty in seconds, but the swirling rainbow of colors slowly started to dissipate as the world stopped spinning around her.

As she stared up at the stars slowly starting to gather overhead, the red-head just floated in a state of semi-consciousness, aware of the world around her, but without really processing any thoughts. After a few moments, little bits and pieces of her mind came back, and ideas trickled in and out as she considered her situation.

'Man, walking back is gonna suck,' She thought as her adrenaline faded away. Utilizing her chi, she'd managed to push herself much farther than before. A normal person might have died doing the number of exercises she'd managed, but it was all starting to come down on her as every muscle and joint ached, and she closed her eyes, moaning in pain. She quickly bit her lip and the sound died down to a hum that resonated with her breathing. 'Cripes, I'm weak.'

Ten minutes later, she was breathing normally again and ignoring the stiffness and pain in her legs.

'Man, and I only got through half of what I'd planned to,' She thought, looking up at familiar constellations. Even using her Chi to reinforce her body, there was only so much more she could do than a normal person. A breeze went through the park, and she sat up and started testing her arms, rowing them about and stretching them overhead. They were sore, but not as bad as they'd been when she started her kicking exercises. 'I'll walk home on my hands, then.' She thought as she stood up. The redhead looked about to see the way out of the park, then bent over and stood on her hands. After establishing her balance by tweaking her legs overhead, she lifted one hand up and put it forward, then brought it down on the grass in front of her.

She repeated this until she was at the door to the mansion.

-x-Hiei-x-

Hiei didn't bother to look at the bouncer of the seedy club he was walking into, even as the large man called out to him. When the man reached out to grab him, he simply unsheathed his katana and, without looking, split a ring the man was wearing in half, then replaced his weapon.

The bouncer didn't try to stop him again.

When he got inside, the youkai frowned as he looked around. The lights and effects of Club Aensland were as gaudy as always, and it smelled of booze. Expensive booze, but still, booze. He nonetheless quickly spotted who he was looking for, and walked over to the silver haired youkai with a frown.

"Hiei," Yoko Kurama acknowledged, without turning away from the dancer he was watching on stage. "How's Yusuke holding up?"

"Hasn't woken up, yet, but he's still alive. What have you found out?"

"We seem to be members of a select few group of survivors," Yoko said. "From what I can tell, it's as if the gate to Makai was never unsealed. The only people who recall it having been, have been S class youkai, whom that gate was made specifically to keep in Makai, yet somehow are out with the rest of us."

"I was beginning to suspect as much. How is that even possible?" Hiei asked with a frown.

"The same way Yusuke's Mazoku aspect was resealed, and my Shuuichi aspect has disappeared completely?" Kurama said, turning to glance at him. "I'm afraid my research hasn't been very forthcoming. Mukuro-san sends you her regards, by the way."

"Hmph." Hiei turned to leave, but was suddenly struck in the face by a piece of cloth, which then proceeded to hang from his hair. He stood stock still for a moment, then reached up and removed the article of clothing from his head, and turned to look at the stripper on stage.

"Come on, don't leave." She said. She was light skinned, very voluptuous, had green hair, a pair of bat wings sprouting from her back and a much smaller pair from her head.

She was also now topless.

"You just got here. Stick around for a bit, why don't you? I'll give you a private show later." She said with a smile and a wink.

"Hmm." Hiei considered it, then turned to face the stage as he stuck the racy bit of cloth into his cloak.

Kurama chuckled.