Chapter 2: Tomo Died That Day.

"So yeah, she's just been acting... normal, I mean, she's still calling me 'Mother' and everything," Ranma explained, as she nimbly danced around the Tendo Dojo, easily evading Akane's power blows, as per usual. "So, what do you think?"

"I think you should stop jumping around like the drug crazed grasshopper you are and take a punch, but that's not going to happen!" Akane yelled, lunging forward and slamming her hand into the ground, bringing her entire body around for a colossal leg sweep. As she jumped to her feet, cursing Ranma's inevitable leap to avoid the blow, she noticed that the redhead was looking at her with a very serious expression.

"Look, I don't know why you keep coming to me for advice on Sakaki," she started, "but I'd think it's perfectly normal. She's a very quiet girl, I think a bit too quiet, and you're the only parent she's had for most of her life."

"But Ukyo..." Ranma started.

"Is a big jerk!" Akane returned, instantly.

"Um, you do know she's still technically the female part of this relationship, and you're supposed to be calling me that," Ranma said, but couldn't help but smile at the support of her friend. Akane hadn't really changed much from the old days in Nerima, but it wasn't nearly so hard to live with her when you weren't the target of her wrath.

The blue-black haired woman laughed. "Hey, you're my girl friend, so I get to badmouth your spouse," she said, with a crooked grin.

Ranma's eyebrow twitched. "Gee, thanks," She muttered, and then looked around the Dojo. "We really trashed this place," she noted, taking special notice of the small crater that Akane's leg sweep had left in the flooring.

"You will help me though, right Ranma?" Akane asked, turning one of her most winning smiles on the other.

"You know, that is NOT fair." The redhead muttered, sighing. "Yeah, I'll..." As she was about to sign herself up for several hours of work based on the cute smile of a woman she hadn't dated in seventeen years, the cell phone in her pocket rang. Pulling it out, she flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. Kuonji? this is the school," the voice on the other end said. "We have your daughter here..." It trailed off at the end, as if uncertain.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, articulately. "Did Sakaki get in trouble?" Nearby, Akane perked up at this, leaning in to try and hear the phone's speaker. It was a futile effort.

"Um, well, she's not exactly in trouble – I think, it's just that the girl we have here doesn't really match the image on Sakaki-san's student ID, and she was skipping around Tanizaki Sensei's classroom," the woman clarified.

"Skipping?" Ranma exclaimed, causing Akane to stagger back from the volume. Then, something clicked. "Wait, this girl doesn't have bright red hair, does she?"

"Oh yes, how did..." The voice said, before Ranma interrupted.

"All right, I'll be right over," the redhead said, sighing, and then hanging up before the other woman could say anything else.

"So?" Akane asked, as the other martial artist slipped her phone back into her pocket.

"Looks like the repair work's all up to you; Sakaki manifested the curse." Ranma grumbled, and started for the door.

"If you want, I'll drive you over, you know, for moral support," Akane offered, smiling brightly.

Ranma abruptly went pale, and any onlooker would swear that the color drain extended to her blue blouse and black slacks. "Um, no, that's... um, that's fine, Akane. I'll go by myself," she stammered, before charging out of the Dojo.

Akane sighed, slumped her shoulders, and then started glaring around at the wreckage scattered around the room. "Ranma, you idiot," she griped, and started cleaning up.

HR.

"Please stop," Sakaki said, more quietly than usual, as Tomo inquisitively jabbed her in the right breast. To tell the truth, she was rather embarrassed about her outburst in the classroom, but with how persistently irritating Tomo was being, she was getting tempted to use one of the techniques her mother had shown her to freeze the other's poking hand.

"Are you really Sakaki? Prove it!" the other burst out, pointing a shaking finger at the short, red haired girl who sat beside her. "I bet you're some sort of super-villain, in a water solu... dissolving rubber suit, who's come to kidnap Chiyo-chan and make her into your head planner, aren't you?"

This actually gained a twitching eye from Sakaki, who disguised it rather well by slumping forward, her hair falling over her eyes, and letting out a long sigh. 'At least she didn't accuse me of trying to marry her,' she thought, recalling the stories her mother had told, which were starting to sound more and more plausible as time went on.

In fact, a lot was starting to sound more plausible, at this point. Originally, her desire to become cuter had overcome some of her more logical thought processes, or she would have questioned the story she'd been told, about her mother actually being her father and vise-versa, but now, well, she could pretty well look in the mirror and realize it was true.

Some of the implications were... distressing, though it would sort of explain why she completely failed in being cute most of the time, if she were actually raised by someone who used to be a guy. "Hmm..." she muttered, getting yet another inquisitive look and poke from Tomo. Yes, those pressure point techniques were looking very tempting. If Tomo decided to switch to groping instead, she'd be sorely tempted to paralyze Tomo's entire body, if only for a bit of peace and quiet.

"The principal will see you now," the secretary said in a bored tone, despite the mild amusement the two girls had been affording her. Both students stood and bowed, Tomo several times, before they moved to the back of the waiting room and the frosted glass door that stood there, emblazoned with "H. Ninomiya, principal."

Tomo shoved the door open, bursting in.. "Hey, we're here for causing a disruption in class! Go ahead, do your worst, we can take it! We can take it!" she yelled, posing dramatically.

Behind her, Sakaki sweat dropped, sidling sideways to distance herself from the clear madwoman. This turned out to be a mistake, as once she came into sight of the person sitting at the desk, a brown haired girl who seemed a little too young to be the leader of anything other than the baseball team, the girl bolted upright, pointing a shaking finger at her. "You! What are YOU doing here?"

"I told you, I'm here for detention... or something!" Tomo said, mistaking the target of the exclamation.

"No, I mean that delinquent boy beside you! Saotome, why are you in my school?" the principal demanded, and reached into one of the pockets of her somewhat oversized suit jacket.

"You're talking... to me?" Sakaki asked, uncertainly.

The woman didn't respond, or at least not in the way Sakaki expected. "Happo-fifty-yen-Satsu!" She bellowed, catching both girls in a colorless energy distortion that seemed to suck streams of light from their bodies. Sakaki's was a light pink color, while Tomo's, a kaleidoscopic mix of colors that hurt the eyes just to look at.

As the energy passed into the teen on the other side of the desk, she seemed to convulse for a moment, and then grow several inches in height. Sakaki would have been amazed by this, but she was too busy slumping to the ground, completely drained of energy, to notice.

The woman stood over the two for a moment, looking down at them disapprovingly. "I hope that teaches you not to be delinque... to..." She trailed off, and then she seemed to stiffen, her eyes shooting wide open. "Wee, sugar!" she screamed, charging through the door, and incidentally over the students, to get out into the main office. "I haven't felt this much of a rush since Saotome fed me 32 pixy sticks! Weeehaw!"

The secretary looked on as her boss danced joyously, unsure what to say. "Um, Ma'am?" She tried, though it was fruitless, as Hinako Ninomiya changed course, opening and dancing through the door to the hallways, and then away.

Several minutes later, an older woman who looked startlingly similar to the red haired girl crumpled on the floor walked in, looking somewhat confused and resigned. "I DID just see Hinako-Sensei running through the halls and scribbling happy faces on the doors, right?" She asked.

"Um, probably," the bored secretary returned, furiously chewing the end of a pencil to keep herself from saying or doing anything else. "Are you here for one of the students?"

The woman nodded. "Sakaki, is she all right?" she asked, worriedly.

Wordlessly, the secretary gestured towards the pile-o-girl sprawled out on the floor, and the woman sighed. "With my luck, she probably mistook her for me," she commented, "It's her first drain, so she's probably useless the rest of today. I'm calling her in sick."

The secretary nodded as if this were a matter of course, pulled the pencil from between her teeth and jotted down a note, as Ranma sighed, slinging the dead weight of her changed daughter over her shoulder. She only shuddered a little bit when Sakaki started petting her plait and calling it a "Nice kitty."

HR.

Back in the classroom, the lesson had ground to a halt as no one, not even Yukari-sensei could maintain focus after the change that had taken place just moments before. While Tomo acting as she had was completely normal, even expected, for her, Sakaki had seemed far too cool to behave in such a manner, especially as she did not seem at all surprised by the occurrence that led to her atypical behavior. Now, the classmates, and Yukari, were discussing what could possibly be the cause of these events. Some of the theories were less realistic than others.

"I bet she's a T-1000, here to assassinate Chiyo-chan before she can stop Skynet and win the war," the class representative speculated, while fiddling with his oversized glasses.

"But why did she choose to change then?" asked another classmate. Surprisingly, said classmate was a perfectly normal looking girl. "It blew her cover, didn't it?"

"I bet Chiyo reprogrammed her with her mind!" the boy exclaimed, pointing accusingly at the ten year old.

"But I didn't..." Chiyo stuttered, suddenly on the spot.

"Yeah, her last name isn't Tam, after all," the girl replied.

"Would you dorks give it a rest?" Yukari demanded, slamming her hands down on her desk. "Let's keep this at least a little realistic; it's obviously a magical curse!"

"I-I'm sorry for causing a disturbance," Chiyo said, before moving towards the back of the room, escaping from the gazes of the majority of the class.

The classroom descended into dead silence for a full minute, before half the class turned to the teacher with incredulous looks and said, "Nah." Yukari glared at them, and took note of who would be failing their next quiz.

Off in a shadowed corner, one of the girls was sitting perfectly still, as though in shock, her tears having dried. "Th-that wasn't cool at all," Kaorin stuttered.

"I don't know," Chiyo contributed, moving a hand up to her chin. "I thought it was pretty cool."

"What? Why?" the despondent girl asked, confused.

"Well, I don't know..." Chiyo started, still thinking. "She did change by magic, remember? I never knew magical girls existed, but Sakaki-san is one. That's kind of cool, isn't it? And how she jumped over Yukari-Sensei, that must have been hard."

"Yeah, I guess it was kinda neat." The other girl said, brightening slightly.

Nearby, Yomi nodded. "Yeah, and she had to have lost, like, sixty pounds in that change. It'd be so convenient to be able to do that, and I'd always look awesome."

By this time, the despondent girl didn't seem upset at all, nodding along with the others.

"Yeah, that would be great!" another voice cut in, and they all looked over to see Yukari standing behind them, tapping her foot. "But I THOUGHT I gave you an English composition assignment to be working on right now!"

"Oh, I'm sorry Yukari-Sensei, I..." Chiyo started.

"Um, Sensei? You.. haven't given us anything." Yomi butted in, sweat dropping.

Yukari blinked. "Oh..." She said, then shook her head. "Well of course I didn't, but I am now, so get studying!" She exclaimed, giggling nervously, as she pulled a pile of papers from apparently nowhere and dumped them on Yomi's desk.

HR.

When Sakaki came back to consciousness, she was sitting in the passenger seat of her mother's car, the older woman scowling ferociously at Tokyo city traffic, chanting "Soul of Ice. Soul of Ice." This was usually the state of events when they drove, as Ranma had to restrain herself through force of will from using a kinetic energy blast to send the cars in front of them off the side of the road, but it would be nice if Sakaki could remember how she'd gotten here, this time.

"Hmm?" She asked, rolling a little to the side, until she could see her own reflection in the side-view mirror. The face that stared back was unfamiliar, which shocked her into a slightly higher state of wakefulness, but then the memories of what had happened over the past half an hour rolled in.

"Hey, glad you're awake," Ranma said, still glaring holes into the back of a mini-van with twenty bumper stickers glued to it. "I guess I didn't check far enough up the chain of command for my former teachers. Sorry about that, Sakaki-chan."

"That was... Hinako-Sensei, right?" the younger girl asked, slowly. At her mother's nod, she continued, "Did I get a mark against me?"

"Hmm, probably not. She was too busy skipping down the halls when I saw her to file any kind of paperwork, and she probably drained you because you looked like me," Ranma returned, then her constant annoyed glare turned speculative. "I wonder if she can still put punitive notes into my school files."

Sakaki sighed, and then looked into the mirror again, reminding herself that she was cute now, at least... even though she would have to be very careful NEVER to approach her principal in this body.

The car fell into an uncomfortable silence for a moment, before Ranma spoke, "So, um, I guess it happened to you, too." She muttered, "I'm really sorry, if I'd have known my curse would affect my kids..." She shook her head. "I'm glad to have you, but I didn't really want to stick you with it."

Sakaki looked at her mother, noticing that the older redhead really did look upset, however, taking a closer look, she noticed something else. "Mom, what happened to your hair?" she burst out, noting that the plate had been messily lopped off by what looked like a sharp knife, what was left of the longer locks falling to frame her face.

Ranma blinked, surprised at such an off-topic question. "Just, kinda felt like a change." She said, laughing nervously. Sakaki was slightly doubtful that the reason was that simple, as the car shook violently for a few seconds as she said it. Then again, she didn't really want to pry, especially with what had just been said.

"I don't mind." She finally said, quietly.

"What?" Ranma asked, surprised.

"I... kind of like looking like this," Sakaki returned, her face, which already looked childishly cute as Ranma's had when she was a teen, suffused with her usual light blush.

"Well," Ranma said, not having expected that response. "I... guess that's good, then, I mean, if you don't mind the curse..." She muttered something about Pandas and cliffs, but Sakaki's ears weren't good enough to catch it. "Hey, I know, let's go out and hit the ice-cream shop!"

"What?" Sakaki asked, confused.

"It really helps to get some energy into you after you get drained by Hinako like that." Ranma explained, 'And I'll teach those bastard counter-boys for muttering about me being too old!' She thought, but didn't speak this part aloud.

HR.

"What do you think, Sakaki-chan? Double fudge ripple?" Ranma asked.

"Chocolate dipped," Sakaki confirmed in a monotone. "With sprinkles."

"That's my girl," Ranma said proudly. "Now get in there and do what I taught you."

With a nod, Sakaki marched into the ice-cream parlor and made her way to the counter. When the counter-boy looked down at her, she started going through the actions her mother had instructed her in. First, she put her hands behind her back and leaned forward, keeping her eyes open and blinking only when she had to. "Excuse me sir, but can I have two Chocolate fudge cones with chocolate dip and sprinkles?" she asked, trying to get her voice to sound as cute as she could.

The boy at the counter looked at the oddly acting girl, and was overcome by twin senses of infatuation and... wrongness, as if there were some universal rule being violated. "Um, yes Ma'am, coming right up!" he said, quickly turning to fill the order, but taking covert glances back at the girl, who was now rocking back and forth on her heels, hands still clasped.

He hurriedly assembled the two cones, stopping only long enough to ensure that one had extra sprinkles. After all, the girl WAS really cute, and then handed them to her. She frowned cutely for a moment, and then tried to hand one cone off to the other hand, but then realized that she couldn't hold two cones that way. "Um, could you hold this for me?" she asked, offering one back to the counter-boy.

He looked at her, and was once more overcome by the twin sensations, especially as she seemed to be quivering her lip a bit. "D... don't worry about it, they're on the house for a girl as cute as you!" he exclaimed.

"Really?" she asked, and suddenly the wrongness dissipated as her smile grew to about twice its previous size. "You're serious?"

"Y...yeah, sure. No problem," the boy stuttered, just a little surprised by the reaction.

"Oh, thank you!" the little redhead exclaimed, before turning and walking happily out of the restaurant. 'I was right, cuteness IS power!' She thought, giddily.

Seeing her daughter come out with the prizes, Ranma bowed low. "You have learned well, my student," she said, in her most pompous Genma impression.

"Thank you, Sensei," Sakaki returned, though she didn't bow, as it would likely spill her ice cream.

HR

Tomo was just coming to, looking around before inching her way out of the now empty office into the reception area, on her stomach as she lacked the energy to stand at the moment. Looking down at the human caterpillar, the secretary drawled, "You might want to return to class."

With a tired groan, Tomo crawled out into the hallway and slowly made her way towards Class 3-1, each foot a new battle against the world. Finally, after what seemed to be hours of excruciating struggle, she made her way to the classroom's door. Just as she reached out to drag it open, a bell rang, signaling the end of the period and the start of lunch.

The door slammed open and a pack of starving students stampeded out, nearly crushing Tomo beneath their slippered feet. Several times, she had to contort her body as an inattentive student almost stepped on her.

As she was skipping out of the classroom, preparatory to going down to the teacher's lounge for a bit of Nyamo's lunch, Yukari looked over at the panting figure on the floor. "Hey, are you all right, Tomo?"

"I'm fine." The girl groaned out, and attempted to give the "V" sign before her hand fell limply to the tile.

"Oh, all right then!" Yukari replied brightly, continuing on her way and salivating at the thought of her impending free lunch.

"Tomo, is that you out there?" Yomi asked, looking out into the hallway. The stricken girl just waved and gave a weak laugh. "What's wrong with you?"

"Maybe she's dead?" one of the girls still in the classroom postulated.

"No! She can't be dead!" Chiyo declared vehemently. Running over to the door, she grabbed the nearest appendage and began pulling. It took all of her not so formidable strength to move Tomo part way into the room. Yomi stopped her after Tomo had been dragged a full foot. Giving all the gawking guys in the room a death glare, she flipped Tomo's skirt back down and dragged her the rest of the way in and over to her desk, dropping her onto the floor next to it.

"So what happened," Yomi asked. "The last time I saw you this out of it was in third grade."

"The principal's a Youma, call the Senshi!" Tomo said, deliriously.

"What happened in third grade?" The class representative asked as he leaned casually on his desk, munching on soda crackers. As he hadn't been gawking at Tomo's panties, he hadn't been glared into the terrified inability to speak.

"She decided she didn't need a coat when she was playing in the snow," Yomi began.

"So she was in bed sick?" Chiyo asked, grimacing in sympathy.

"No, they had to sedate her to keep her from jumping up and down on the hospital beds when she went in with pneumonia." Yomi drawled, looking at her friend sidelong.

"I told you, Youma!" Tomo exclaimed, and this time she managed to drag herself to her knees on the edge of one of the desks, her fist raised into the air.

"She's fine," Yomi sighed, raising one hand to rub at her forehead.

HR.

As Yukari entered the staff room, she noticed that her best friend was slumped over in a chair, sweat dripping down her face as she pressed it into the table. Wait... were those tears?

"Hey, what's up?" Yukari asked, sliding onto the edge of the desk, right next to the other's face. Nyamo abruptly sat up.

"Do you have to do that to a doomed woman?" She muttered, acidly.

"Ooh, this sounds good! What happened?" Yukari asked, leaning forward.

Nyamo sighed. "Someone jumped into the middle of our dodge ball game and stole the ball. I ran after her to chase her down. I caught up to her pretty quickly, but when I tackled her, it turned out to be Ninomiya-san."

Yukari blinked. "You tackled our principal?" she asked, actually a little stunned.

Nyamo nodded sullenly.

"Now you're getting it! Starting to act just like me! I told you I'd rub off on you some day!" Yukari said, cheerfully.

Nyamo groaned again, slamming her head back down into the desk.

"So... that's a no on me getting some of your food, right?" Yukari offered, after several moments of silence. Nyamo just sighed, digging through a desk drawer and offering a sandwich.

END.

Weebee:Hey Chiyo, I'm gunna steal your dog, hope you don't mind. We don't need him for a few chapters, after all.

Chiyo: Wait, no! Mr. Tadakichi!

Weebee runs off, carrying a 110 pound dog above his head with little difficulty.

Weebee: Mine, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!