A/N: I have no excuse for the slow update. No decent one, anyway. For what it's worth, and hopefully a little extra, I humbly apologize. This will be finished, but I am not the most reliable of updaters. I'll try to keep the pace up, but I promise nothing.
Also, while it is true that 'Ranma discovering Nabiki's soft side' is done fairly often, I, frankly, don't believe that Nabiki is secretly a self sacrificing angle. Just like I refuse to accept a humble Ranma. That said, this is not one of those stories. Nabiki did cry, yes, but that was for a diffrent reason then 'I don't like being like this'.
If I owned Ranma 1/2, do you think this would be a fanfic?
Moment Two - A Bunch of Books
Nabiki Tendo was walking through her favorite place in Furikan High School; the Furikan High School Library.
She normally visits it to look at economic theory's, physcology, and stock history. True, most of this could be found on the internet, but there is a kind of... peace with books, making them seem more real. Like all the hands of the people that touched that book, flipped the pages, added a fraction of their knowledge too it. The little indents that show what pages where dogged eared, what books are more worn then others despite the age.
But that is not important at this time.
What is important is that she is not the only inhabitant of the library this day, this moment.
Normally the library is empty. Nobody is there except for her and, occasionally, the librarian. In a school which is fascinated by the martial arts freaks that come by, it is rare to find somebody actually in the library. Those that are interested in learning use the computers more then the library.
So, nine times out of ten, she is alone. One time out of ten, the librarian is in there with her. And zero times out of ten, this time, Ranma is with her.
She only saw him for a moment. He was hidden in a corner of the library, away from prying eyes. Really, the bookshelves were arranged in such a way that only somebody in her exact position could see him, and even then, only if they happened to turn their head at just the right angle.
In that little corner Ranma sat, books and scrolls on his table, separated into two different piles. One to his right, another to his left.
A quick scan of the titles included 'Idiots Guide to Running a Dojo', 'Obscure and Totally Useless Martial Arts Techniques', 'Practicing Martial Arts in the 20th Century', and 'The Nature of the Ki Manipulation'.
Nabiki couldn't see much, but she did see Ranma, hunched over an old, big book, face concentrated in a way normally reserved for martial arts.
Was he studying?
He was awful at school.
Maybe... he just didn't think it was important?
...Just like her?
And then Nabiki finished her step, and the moment was over.