Reformations

by TheWorldsTallestLeprechaun

An insignificant (warning, not actually insignificant) event results in 2 girls and a panda showing up on the Tendo families doorstep one fateful morning. What spirals out from there will result in canon Ranma-verse being dissected and altered in ways that would make Frankenstein say, "No..." (Warning: Prohibitively rated M for language and saucy implications, but no actual smut.)

3. Chapter 3

And onward we march, into the depth of hell and madness that is Reformations.

To those who reviewed, followed and favorited, I thank you. Yes, even those who left negative reviews, as I was able to learn somethings from you as well, even if it was just the ability to recognize the difference between honest criticism, a biased or unbiased opinion, or just someone shouting 'Badwrongfun!'. (the proper response to the last is to say, "That is an opinion you are having." and then completely ignore them)

To those who've said that I'm following canon Ranma-verse, that is true...up until a point, as I'm doing a fair bit of a "ripple effect" from Blackfire's presence rather than dropping the writing equivalent of a tactical nuke and scorching Nerima completely bare. In this chapter, there will be SOME deviations from the events as we are aware of them, but it won't be until next chapter that the first major shift occurs.

Also, the reasons why this chapter took it's sweet time getting here is because I have many ideas for stories floating around in my head, (and on my computer) and every now and then the bug jumps up my ass for one of the others instead. Plus, it didn't help that I released Chapter 2 WAY earlier than I'd intended, because now I DON'T HAVE A DAMN BUFFER!

Anyway, I've said it before, and I'll say it till it sticks in your heads: I do not own the Teen Titans or Ranma ½.

Also, {-} will now stand for {words spoken in another language, like two characters speaking Chinese/Tamaranean while everyone else is speaking Japanese} because the sideways V's, aka the greater than, less than symbols don't show up when uploaded to . No, I have no idea why either.

Reformations Chapter 3

Rivalries and Job Opportunities

-2 months ago-

Genma-panda grumbled as he made his way up the mountain path, heading for the cave where he and Ranma had slept the night before going into town. It was a well hidden little crack in the side of a nearby hill, with a decent amount of shrubbery obscuring the entrance from casual observation, and the gap to get inside was just small enough that a more dedicated inspection would conclude that a panda could never make its way inside.

But, then again, panda's aren't known for being able to suck in their guts, hold their breath and walk on their hind legs at the same time, are they?

It was a relief as the two-toned bear finally squeezed through the hole and into the main chamber, largely because he immediately caught sight of his son-turned-daughter sitting near the remains of a very small campfire, barely more than a handful of glowing embers to minimize smoke as that would give away their position to their pursuer. What wasn't a relief as Ranma turned and shot her father a dark look, shushing him before nodding her head to the far wall, was the fact that the redhead wasn't alone.

Genma took a moment to appraise the strangely dressed and armored girl, who was laying on her back with her head propped up on the boy's rucksack, and gave a disapproving chuff.

"Oh don't you start!" Ranma-chan snapped angrily.

The panda growled and narrowed its eyes while jerking it's head over its shoulder, back towards the crack it'd squeezed through.

"I know that. But she was hurt, I couldn't just leave her!"

Seeing that his son's mind was set on helping the unknown girl, Genma looked at her and inquisitively snorted.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

The panda gave the redhead a flat look.

Ranma-chan sighed. "Alright, you asked for it. Did'ja see that falling star a little while ago?"

Genma-panda nodded.

"Well, it landed really close to where I was hidin' out alone." The pigtailed redhead glared at her father, who made a point of suddenly finding a nearby moss-covered wall fascinating. "And when I went to go check it out…" She gestured to the girl. "She's what I found."

The panda froze. Then slowly turned to stare at the dark-haired girl with wide-eyes. After a few moments of silent contemplation, it chuffed again.

Ranma-chan rolled her eyes. "No, pop; she musta' fallen out of an airplane with no parachute and somehow survived-YES, I think she's a damn alien!"

Blackfire heard voices. Or at least a voice, definitely feminine and angry, along with a growling, snuffling sound that made her think of some kind of wild animal. Whatever was happening, she wanted it to stop as it was only making her head hurt worse and she groaned, {Would you cut that out?} in English without opening her eyes.

The sounds immediately silenced, which she was thankful for as she opened her eyes.

The sight of a redhaired girl crouched next to a large animal made her less than thankful as her mind blared a warning that she'd been caught by her little sister and that immature shapeshifting teammate of hers. In a moment, she sat up, eyes flaring angrily as she snarled, {I don't know how you found me, but you'll-}

A sharp stabbing pain somewhere in the region of her temples made Blackfire grimace and clutch her head with an agonized moan, her sudden motion aggravating the injuries she'd gotten in her unexpected free fall from the upper atmosphere. As she remembered what happened before waking up in a cave in the middle of nowhere, the alien scowled darkly and looked up to find that the animal and the girl were both pressing themselves flat against the far wall of the cavern, staring at her with wide, fear-filled eyes.

While she would have taken a few moments to enjoy the only proper reaction to an awe-inspiring figure such as herself, Blackfire had other priorities as she took a closer look at the pair, letting her eyes and mind clear enough for her to realize that this wasn't her sister or the insipid Beast Boy. Asking,{who are you and where am I?} brokered only a confused look between the girl and mammal, prompting Blackfire to roll her eyes and point directly at the redhead, and then down at the ground right in front of her.

The girl swallowed loudly and moved forward, understanding Blackfire's simple command and was soon crouched down next to the slightly woozy exile, who was covering her weakness under a well-practiced look of superiority. She'd started to ask something in her native language, but was cut off by Blackfire grabbing the back of her neck and pulling the wide-eye'd redhead in for a kiss.

Blackfire held her close for several moments, making sure her people's innate ability had enough time to copy as much of the girl's mother-tongue as possible before breaking away. Despite being put off by the similarly colored hair to her hated sibling, Blackfire had to admit that the girl was far from unattractive and her lips were pleasantly soft, making it something of a shame when she finally let go of the utterly stupefied and red-faced girl to ask, "Who are you and where the hell am I?"

It took a few seconds for the redhead to recover her wits, whereupon she shook her head and blurted, "Nani!? How did you-What the hell was that?!"

"I needed to learn your language, and I wasn't about to waste time doing it the boring way, glorbag." Blackfire explained dryly.

The redhead frowned. "Glor...bag?"

For some reason, the urge to tease this strange girl came to Blackfire, and she smirked as she replied, "Basically the same as baka."

"Hey!"

The dark-haired girl laughed lightly at the redheads indignant look, before repeating her question in a less forceful tone. "So, what's your name?"

"Ranma. Saotome Ranma." the redhead replied, still blushing from the unexpected affection despite being annoyed from the insult. "Who're you?"

The knowledge gained from a crash-course in the language of Japan telling her that the redhead's tone and inflections were very masculine, Blackfire cocked an eyebrow curiously as she replied, "Komand'r. Or in your language, Blackfire."

-present day-

The hentai horde looked up as a storm cloud approached Furinkan high school, a strangely isolated darkened patch of sky that brought worried looks to those who wondered if it was some kind of portent or ill omen. As the cloud moved closer, a few of the more religious of the horde whispered a brief prayer before they noticed the approach of two figures.

Nabiki Tendo, poised as ever, strolled calmly towards the mass of boys. Hormonal perverts they might be, but none of them wanted to mess with the undisputed Ice Queen of Furinkan high, lest they suffer her wrath and be struck down even harder than they had been willing to suffer at the hands of her little sister. Next to her was the new transfer student known as Komand'r, or rather Kurohi, a name that brought several questions to people as to whether or not she was in the grips of Chuunibyou and if that was the reason she had apparently fallen for Tatewaki Kuno, due to the similar themes of their nom de guerre's.

While beautiful, especially in her indigo-colored chinese silk pantsuit, the scuttlebutt that she fancied the captain of the kendo team, plus the fact that the dark cloud seemed to be centered over her made several boys hesitate at the idea of asking her out on a date. As she moved closer and it became apparent that she was in a foul mood, her head hanging dejectedly with dark circles under her eyes and a grim frown across her face, the boys who'd been willing to take a chance at a more attainable girl than Akane Tendo resigned themselves to once again becoming part of the morning melee.

As Nabiki and Blackfire passed through the gates and moved through the horde, a voice called, "Hold for a moment." And both girls stopped to watch as Kuno walked up to them, his face set in a stern, determined expression.

"What's up, Kuno-chan?" Nabiki asked gamely as Kuno reached the pair and stood in front of them.

Rather than address Nabiki, Kuno looked at Blackfire and after taking a deep, calming breath, stated plainly, "Komand'r-san. I would like you to know that while the gossip I have been made privy to is somewhat flattering, I have no doubts that I hold the salacious tales of your affection with at least as much disdain as you do."

Blackfire was silent for a few moments, then slowly raised her head to meet Kuno's eyes with the weary, drained expression of one who had spent the better part of last night seriously contemplating mass-murder. In a dry, emotionless voice, she intoned, "Kuno. I am going to say something to you that I never thought I would have to tell you, so I want you to savor this moment." After a second to pause for effect, she offered a grateful, "Thank you." Without a trace of scorn or mean-spirited wickedness.

Kuno nodded his head in return and both girls passed him by, leaving the kendoist to prepare for the arrival of his beloved while those who'd seen the exchange soon convinced themselves that the foreign exchange student was playing hard-to-get with the object of her affections.

OOOOOO

Blackfire's head rested on her desk, lacking in spirit or willpower to watch the carnage of Akane beating the snot out of Kuno and his back-up dancers, as she knew it wouldn't matter if she made a custom foam finger with Akane's name on it and screamed for the bluenette to snap the loudmouthed blowhard over her knee; the ignoramuses who'd somehow got it into their heads that insulting someone was a sign of romantic attraction would still be convinced she was hot for Kuno.

(X'hal...I know I haven't been a good person...or even a mediocre person...but why am I being punished like this?) the villainess despaired silently as Kuno's pre-battle proclamation of victory was silenced mid-sentence, indicating that Akane had 'won' against the egomaniac yet again. (I just had to quit a diet of horse meat cold-turkey, and now I have to deal with people thinking I want that varblernook? How is that fair!?)

"Neh, something wrong, Komie-chan?"

Blackfire twitched at the teasing question from Nabiki, and spoke without raising her head from her desk. "First, Ranma is the only person who I let call me that. Second, thank you so much for reminding me of the fact that he's persona-non-nookie thanks to this stupid engagement, and third; nothing will be wrong as soon as you tell me how long will it take you track down who started this stupid rumor regarding me and that glorbag varblernook."

Nabiki frowned, but let her irritation at Blackfire's rude behavior slide as she replied, "Something like that will take some time. And I've yet to see anything to compensate for the room and board you've gotten from my family."

Blackfire twitched, then turned her head to give the mercenary queen a narrow-eye'd scowl. "Remember what I called you yesterday, and how I didn't mean it as an insult? I'm about to take that part back..."

Nabiki returned Blackfire's ugly look, which broke off as the dark-haired girl sighed heavily. "Fine, fine. I'll see if I can come up with something." Sitting up, Blackfire muttered under her breath, "Still don't know how I'm gonna make some money unless I fall back on old habits…"

Hearing her comment, but choosing not to call attention to it, Nabiki smiled thinly. "Well, if you're that hard up for cash, I could always give you a loan."

Blackfire's eyes narrowed, and she looked out of the corner of her eye at the grinning brunette. "A loan."

"Yeah. Since Ranma is Akane's fiancé and you're his student, we're practically family." Her smile widened ever-so-slightly. "Don't worry, I've got very reasonable rates."

A moment of silence passed between the two girls, only to be broken by a snort from Blackfire. It was soon followed by a quiet laugh, which grew into a series of chuckles, while Nabiki was likewise snickered in amusement. In moments, the two girls were sharing a delighted laugh that chilled the blood and loosened the bowels of all in earshot, who wondered what sort of madness had been wrought on the world that would allow Nabiki Tendo to meet someone who shared her manipulative and malicious personality.

"Oh X'hal…" Blackfire giggled as she wiped a tear from her eye. "I needed that."

"Careful, or I might charge you for therapy."

Blackfire gave another laugh. "Oh, my dear sweet Ice Queen, you would faint if you knew the things that are running through my head! Speaking of which…"

Nabiki cocked an eyebrow interestedly as Blackfire brought out the travel guide Genma had used to take him and Ranma to Jusenkyo. As her new roommate started flipping through it, Nabiki asked, "What are you doing?"

"Since beating Kuno isn't going to get him off your sister's back, I need to come up with an alternative method for taking him down a peg."

Nabiki's eyes narrowed, already running through the money she might lose from the morning betting pools if the brawls ended. "You going to order some Jusenkyo water to use on Kuno?"

"That was the plan," Blackfire murmured as she intently started reading the brochure.

"Seems a bit cruel to me."

Blackfire smirked. "Well, if he can't handle seeing how the other half lives, that's not my problem, is it? Besides, I could be really evil and get some water from the spring of drowned duck or drowned octopus and see how long he lasts before ending up someone's dinner."

Putting aside the decidedly horrific idea Blackfire had come up with, as she couldn't possibly be serious about having Kuno be cooked and eaten, Nabiki blinked quizzically and asked, "...How does a duck drown?"

"It's magic, don't ask me." Blackfire replied before becoming completely absorbed in the book, and Nabiki turned away to let the dark-haired girl scheme in peace.

OOOOOO

(Zaprudaj!) Blackfire snarled as she slammed the book closed. Fuming angrily as the surrounding students broke out their bentos or bolted for the door lest they miss out on any preferred vittles from the cafeteria, the alien growled as she pulled out a box of her own, which had been prepared by the simperingly sweet Kasumi. Reminded too much of how the brunette resembled her little sister only fouled Blackfire's mood even more, even as she had to admit that her lunch was rather tasty.

(Why in hell would whoever wrote this worthless piece of trash wait until the very end to put a damn disclaimer saying anything from Jusenkyo has to be 'approved' by some random ass villages out in the middle of nowhere!?) Blackfire asked herself as she chewed a mouthful of lightly seasoned rice. (I mean, the Amazon's are one thing, but who the hell are the Musk, or this Phoenix tribe? How many 'empires' could possibly be tucked away in one little country? No wonder humanity hasn't unified and developed FTL if they're still dealing with backwoods, vurthmar-sniffing hicks rather than focusing on getting off of this rock.) mentally brushing aside that thought process for the moment as unproductive, if stress-relieving, Blackfire mused on what she had gleaned from the travel book. (But some of those products would make Ranma's life a lot easier...and open up all sorts of possibilities for fun-)

"Tendo Nabiki? Komand'r-san?"

Being addressed by the reason why she'd wasted several hours combing through a deceptively thick tome did nothing to ease Blackfire's temper, though she managed to adopt a calm facade as she turned to Kuno and asked, "You wanted something, varblernook?"

Kuno's eye twitched at the word he'd come to recognize as some kind of insult, though he'd be damned if he knew what it was. "Tell me, what do you or Tendo Nabiki know if the pig-tailed, tree-borne kettle-girl I beheld yesterday?"

"The redhead?"

"Indeed."

"Wearing Chinese clothes?"

"Yes?"

"Who knocked you out?"

Kuno's eye twitched. "The same."

Blackfire turned away from him and looked impassively out the window. "No idea. Never saw her before."

Kuno's twitching eye worsened while Blackfire restrained the urge to laugh in the enraged boy's face, when Nabiki offered, "Oh, her? I know who she is."

Blackfire turned to look suspiciously at the page-cut brunette as Kuno asked hopefully. "Truly?"

"Yep," Nabiki answered gamely. "I know her really well."

"Excellent." Kuno smiled thinly before turning to his desk and taking out a piece of paper and a pen. As both girls curiously watched him write, the kendoist chuckled to himself in a way that sounded decidedly twisted. "She thinks she can defeat me and walk away? She will be sorely mistaken!"

(Oh goodie,) Nabiki shook her head ruefully. (Kuno-chan's got a grudge.)

Blackfire, lacking the familiarity bias of knowing Kuno for longer than 2 days, saw the eager, anticipatory look in the kendoist's eyes and thought for a moment on what that could mean. While normally familiarity would lend an edge to deducing a person's mental state, here Blackfire's personal experience helped her connect the dots regarding Kuno's somewhat giddy expression and she realized she was looking at the formation of a schoolyard crush. Her eyes widened and she quickly covered her mouth, hiding the smile that was starting to form as she thought. (Oh no. Oh my X'hal, this is going to be glorious!)

For the rest of the day, following Kuno giving Nabiki a letter that was addressed to the 'tree-borne kettle-girl', Blackfire would give a periodic twitch that few noticed. Those who did soon dismissed her strange behavior, never imagining that they were watching a girl who was trying not to rupture something as she resisted the urge to cackle maniacally.

OOOOOO

"Nabiki."

"Hmm? What is it, Blackfire?"

"Don't suppose you'd let me give Ranma the varblernook's letter?"

"Mmm...why not."

"Thank you, Nabiki."

"...why do I have the sudden and very unpleasant feeling that I just lost out on a profit?"

"Hehehehehehe…"

OOOOOO

"Hey, listen." Ranma said as he casually tilted his head from side-to-side and dodged several straight punches from his fiancee. "I really am sorry about what happened the other day, in the furo."

"Hmph." Akane frowned at him, more irritated by the fact that he was having a normal conversation rather than taking her seriously. "You expect me to believe that?"

"It's the truth!" Ranma declared as he jumped over her sudden snap kick, lightly pushing against her extended shin and giving himself enough momentum to easily flip over her head and land behind her. "I wasn't tryin' to see you naked! And I finally figured out why you've been so ticked off about it!"

"Yeah? And why's that?" Akane asked harshly as she turned around, making ready to continue their spar.

"Cause you thought I was one of those idiots from school, didn't you?"

Akane paused at that, the scowl on Ranma's face making it clear what he thought of her many unwanted paramours, as well as being associated with them. Again, like a tickle that refused to be scratched, memories from a few nights ago surfaced, this time of his horrified expression when Blackfire told him that Akane had been afraid of him swam across her mind. As her fiancé's insight had apparently altered his fear into a form of contempt, Akane felt a small sense of camaraderie form and replied honestly. "Yeah, I did...but if you didn't mean to spy on me, why did you pretend you were really a girl?"

"Cause if you guys thought I was really a girl, we would've gotten engaged." Ranma replied simply as he crossed his arms. "I figured if I waited long enough, me, pops, and Komie-chan would leave again with no problems."

Akane cocked an eyebrow quizzically. "And what was going to stop your father from changing back and telling us the truth?"

Ranma grimaced and looked away, scratching his cheek in an embarrassed gesture. "I...didn't think that far ahead...best I could come up with was telling you pops was senile or somethin'..."

Akane blinked. Despite herself, a smile slowly formed and she giggled, which soon grew into a mirthful chuckle as she asked, "Really?! That was the best you could come up with!?"

Ranma was caught off-guard by the change in the bluenette's attitude, which was much more akin to the girl who'd asked him to be friends when he'd first arrived then the temperamental tomboy she'd turned into after they'd been affianced. Shaking his head as he tried to ignore how cute she looked right now, he replied defensively, "Hey, it was the best I could do on short notice! I didn't see you comin' up with anythin'!"

"Well, I thought you were a girl, so I didn't need to stop the engagement." Akane replied as her laughter faded. In a much better mood, she readied herself for more sparring, though her eyes narrowed momentarily as she declared, "Anyway, would you start taking me seriously? All the hopping around you're doing is making me mad."

Ranma considered her words and thought about the trials she was facing at school. Feeling a little bit happier about this otherwise ludicrous engagement due to the less-stressful atmosphere, he decided to go along with her request as he straightened up, laced his fingers behind his head and looked away from her with a supremely bored expression.

OOOOOO

Blackfire growled as Ranma said "Good." With an infuriatingly smug tone, which had to be delivered with an outrageous 'you're not worth my time' posture she could practically hear as he added, "Maybe you'll actually be able to hit me, tomboy."

Having heard the pair talking in the dojo, Blackfire and Nabiki had been surreptitiously listening in, though at the moment, Ranma's so-called student was groaning in frustration. "Dammit, Saotome, I told you to not to use your old man's training methods with her! Or ever!"

"That's training?" Nabiki cocked her head curiously.

"Yeah, and like most of the panda's methods, the times when it works are few, far between, and very situational." Blackfire affirmed as she stood up. Opening the door to the dojo, she caught sight of Akane's scowl and affixed a calm smile to her face as she called, "Hey, Ranma! I got some messages for you!" and acquired target-lock on the pigtailed boy.

The interruption made Akane growl as she'd been ready to lay into the arrogant jackass, feeling especially put out due to the sudden reversal in his previously understanding tone. But her anger was eased somewhat by the presence of the...easy ex-girlfriend to her fiancé. While Akane still wanted to stomp Kuno into the mud and prove she was better than him, the fact that Blackfire had gone out of her way to assist in dealing with the horde and Kuno had improved the dark-haired girls stock portfolio in her mind. Not that that stopped a small, slightly mean smile from forming as she remembered the new rumors regarding Blackfire's romantic interests and thought, (At least nobody thinks I like that blowhard.)

"What's that, Komie-chan?" Ranma looked curiously at the paper in her hand as she approached him, but when he reached to take it from her, Blackfire pulled her hand away from his and said teasingly, "Ah-ah-ah, Saotome, I need to give you my message first."

Ranma, confused by the sudden switch, asked, "Okay, what's your message?"

Nabiki and Akane's eyes widened in surprise as Ranma's head suddenly snapped forward with a shout of shocked pain, due to Blackfire cuffing him in the back of the head with lightning speed and yelling, "That, you glorbag!"

While Ranma hissed and rubbed the sudden sore spot on his skull, Blackfire growled, "I told you not to use your dad's stupid training methods! What the hell made you think now was the right time to 'Motivate Through Spite'?!"

Akane blinked, running Ranma's unexplained insult through her mind along with the briefly peaceful moment following minutes of infuriatingly futile attempts to land a hit on him as she straightened up. "Nani? He was training me?"

"Yeah." Blackfire tossed out as she looked away from her wincing friend to the girl he'd been sparring with. "By pissing you off so you'd want to prove yourself to him, with the added bonus of immunizing you to enemies who'll try the same thing to throw off your concentration."

The bluenette was stunned by that, the mental illumination which had cast Ranma in an egotistical and casually mean light were shifting again. Though they were a fair ways away from flattering the pigtailed boy as it became apparent that the baka didn't know enough to tell someone when he was trying to help them versus just insulting them.

"And besides," Blackfire once again turned her irritated gaze on Ranma. "That kind of training won't work with her! Akane needs help with her defense, and insulting her when she's already on a hair trigger cause of Kuno and the horde makes her more aggressive, AND you look like a raging jackass!"

Akane reddened in embarrassment and irritation while Ranma recovered and glared at Blackfire. Then he looked over his shoulder and caught sight of the scowling bluenette, and internally thunked himself for missing what now seemed like an obvious mistake. With a soft sigh, he turned to Akane and bowed slightly. "Sorry, Akane. I was tryin' to take this seriously, like you asked."

Still miffed, but much less so as understanding had tempered her frustration, Akane nodded back and replied, "Apology accepted, but don't just insult me like that again."

Blackfire gave a subtle smile at the teens, prompting a curious look from Nabiki before Blackfire gamely declared, "Alright, that's all I needed." Before holding out the piece of paper to him. "It's from the varblernook."

Ranma looked at the paper, noting who it was addressed to and gave a small sigh of relief as he took it from her. "Thank kami that blowhard doesn't know about my curse."

"Not for lack of trying, anyway." Blackfire smirked, then cocked her head quizzically. "Why'd you smash him when you came out of the pool, anyway?"

Ranma growled, "Freakin' perv grabbed my chest while we were underwater." As he unfolded the slip of paper, not noticing the nods of understanding from the two sisters and the sympathetic wince from Blackfire.

Curiosity brought Akane up behind Ranma to look over his shoulder. "Tree-borne kettle-girl, meet me in the soccer field after school." She read aloud.

"Sounds like a letter of challenge to me." Nabiki smiled cheerfully. "Kuno-chan has a bad habit of holding grudges, you know."

(Oh, that wasn't a grudge he was holding, Ice Queen.) Blackfire thought as she struggled against revealing the same malicious glee she'd been holding back since lunch. (And believe me, I'd know.)

"You sure you're going to be okay?" Akane asked with obvious concern, thinking about how different Kuno might be with time to prepare and driven by revenge.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Ranma crumpled up the letter in his fist, his expression determined as he declared, "I won't lose to anyone."

"That's what I like to hear!" Blackfire said cheerfully as she slapped Ranma on the back, her tone and behavior expressing nothing but happy support for her friend, which sent mental air raid sirens screaming through Nabiki's mind. The dark-haired girl then turned to Akane and smiled helpfully. "You want to help your fiance patch up some of those holes in her defense before you go? Could be a good warm-up for Kuno."

While the idea of being a practice run grated her nerves, the chance to fix an area she was apparently lacking in made Akane smile, especially now that the baka knew better than to start badmouthing her out of hand. Of course, that dimmed when Ranma hesitantly said, "No...that's okay." which earned him several angry looks from his fiancee, former-lover, and sister-in-law.

"What? Why the hell not, Saotome…" Blackfire trailed off as she looked at him before groaning and rolling her eyes, "Zaprudaj, Ranma! Were you doing that stupid training cause of your 'no hitting girls' thing?"

"Yeah…"

"Saotome, how is Akane gonna get better if you don't toughen her up? There's a big difference between hitting someone while sparring and slapping them around!"

Ranma frowned. "You say that, but that doesn't mean I like it. Besides, you know what happened the last time I didn't hold back against a girl."

Blackfire paused and admitted, "Okay, that's valid." Which prompted a mutual look of curiosity to pass between Akane and Nabiki. Before either of the sisters could ask, Blackfire eye'd Akane up and down with a predatory grin. "Alright then, how about I help Akane out instead?"

"Nani?"

"Nani?"

Akane and Ranma's simultaneous exclamation brought a chuckle from Blackfire and Nabiki before the former chipperly declared, "You go upstairs and focus on the duel, while me and Akane can have a little sparring match. It's win-win!"

Thinking about the differences in their abilities, and not merely their training and experiences, Ranma looked nervously between the two girls. "I'm...not sure…"

Akane narrowed her eyes at the pigtailed boy, but before she could make her feelings known on his lack of confidence in her, Blackfire suddenly usurped her irritation by pouting and patting Ranma's chest in a consoling manner. "Don't worry, Ranma; I promise I won't hurt your fianceé." The dark-haired girl's condescending remark only ramped up Akane's outrage even further when she gave her a pitying look and added, "After all, she's such a fragile little butterflower."

Sometimes, social cues, body language, and tone of voice can paint certain situations in drastically different lights, making the arena of casual conversation a very delicate balancing act. What just occurred between the heir to the Tendo school of Indiscriminate Grappling and the villainous former princess of Tamaran had all the delicacy and subtext of a depleted Uranium bunker buster, and only someone with the social awareness of a concussed wombat could miss the mocking tone in Blackfire's voice, or think that whatever happened next was any of their business.

While Ranma still suffered from the unfortunate maladies of being raised in the wilderness by a man who thought saying 'please' and 'thank you' was an unnecessary luxury, the recent weeks under Blackfire's tutelage had brought the pig-tailed boys conversational awareness up to the level of your average marsupial, thus saving him from a grim fate as he saw the storm approaching and declared, "O-okay then, Komie." While slowly backing away from the two suddenly very hostile girls. The smell of ozone was becoming thicker and he swallowed nervously as he headed for the door that Nabiki had fled through seconds earlier.

Alone in the dojo, with nothing but the four walls to bear witness to the eventual carnage, Akane locked eyes with the arrogantly smirking Blackfire and snarled, "I thought 'Motivation through Spite' was stupid?"

"It's a…'situational' training method." Blackfire purred as she strolled forward, rolling her hips in a way that seemed at odds with the tense atmosphere between the two girls, except it put forth the impression of a panther stalking its prey rather than seductive. In either case, the tone and posture practically screamed that the dark-haired young woman was going to savor what came next. "It doesn't really work if there's zero chance of closing the gap between your skill level and your teacher's."

Akane's lips curled as a the wispy, light-blue flames of her battle aura began to flicker across her body. "So, you're not good enough to be a challenge to me?"

Blackfire's smile widened. "Ooh, nice one! And if you're talking about using the Anything Goes Style, then yes, you're obviously going to be better than me." As she reached the bluenette, Blackfire straightened up and fixed Akane with a haughty sneer. "But in everything else, little girl, I'm a lot more experienced than you."

The faint, blue glow was deepening to an angry red as Akane envisioned all the ways she was going to smash the smug tramp in front of her.

"Also, Ranma was taking it easy on you, cause he likes you."

The bluenette's battle aura vanished as the shock of Blackfire's statement made her blurt, "Nani!?"

What little air still remained in Akane's lungs after that gasp was evicted forcefully when Blackfire's fist planted itself in the bluenette's stomach, and the remaining power behind the strike lifted Akane off the ground and sent her sprawling. While she rolled on the floor, desperately trying to reclaim the wind she'd lost, Blackfire smiled sadistically and declared, "While I, am a bitch. And there's a very big difference between that and a 'martial artist'."

Her breath recovered, Akane glared furiously at her opponent, but her immediate impulse to decry Blackfire for the cheap shot died on her lips when she saw the dark-haired girl's smile. A thought came to the bluenette, making her swallow her condemnations as she got to her feet, and glared angrily at her opponent as she shifted into a ready stance and snarled, "I'm going to make you pay for that!"

If anything, that made Blackfire's grin widen even more and she cheered, "Oh good! Looks like you've got a little bit of a bitch in you too!" Akane felt something tug at a corner of her lips, an inkling that brought a feeling of...satisfaction to her as Blackfire assumed what appeared to be a wrestling stance, crouching slightly with her hands raised up, giving the impression of a feral animal ready to pounce as she growled maliciously, "This is gonna be fun!"

OOOOOO

Nabiki grinned wickedly as she placed the lens of her camera up to the very small gap in the dojo's door, occasionally pressing the shutter button to capture a particularly noteworthy moment of the…'boisterous' sparring match between Blackfire and Akane. Although at this point, Nabiki wasn't sure if she was looking at duel between two martial artists or a miniaturized soccer riot.

The brunette winced while she snapped another picture, as a particularly powerful sidekick from Akane had struck Blackfire in her unguarded mid-section and thrown her against the far wall of the dojo, some 15 feet away. Nabiki could see the faint spider-webbing of the plaster where the dark-haired girl had hit, and internally grimaced as she calculated how much the repairs from this 'friendly match' was going to take out of the families budget. Despite the hard hit, Blackfire simply shook her head and gave her opponent a feral, savage grin before leaping back into the fray with a gleeful cackle. The only thing more surprising than Blackfire's wide smile after being floored, which possibly belied some kind of masochistic streak, was that Akane was grinning as well.

Shaking her head as she considered the downsides to a person's mental state that came from studying martial arts, and all the blunt force trauma that came with it, Nabiki slid the door to the dojo closed again and left her sister to brawl with her brother-in-law's girlfriend.

OOOOOO

Akane was in pain.

She ached. She throbbed. She burned. She twitched.

But she wasn't angry.

Laying on her back while staring at the ceiling of the dojo, panting heavily following her match with Blackfire, Akane couldn't stop smiling. Even though her body felt like she'd been dragged across a mile of poorly maintained asphalt, the bluenette internally cheered because she finally understood what it meant to be taken seriously as a martial artist.

Her father, God bless him, couldn't bring himself to hurt his baby girl following the tragic death of their mother. He'd taught her all the proper forms for kata's and strikes, as well as exercises to build her muscles enough to withstand the rigors of combat, but he only agreed to spar with her after a ludicrous amount of arm twisting and even then, treated her with all the delicacy of a china doll. Since he'd all but shut down the dojo when he found himself a widower, Akane also never had a true sparring partner, as her sisters were too busy fulfilling roles in the family that their mother couldn't do anymore.

Then she'd started High School, and Kuno made his ridiculous challenge.

And Akane found out that while he'd never hit her, her father had taught her very well, as none of the perverts at school could lay a hand on her, even the ones who were supposed to learning how to fight. Karate, sumo, fencing, boxing, and even the star of the Kendo team couldn't touch her. At the time, she'd been so focused on the idiocy of a bunch of boys thinking they could get a date without asking her like a normal person that she wasn't able to appreciate how much more skilled she was than them. But then the fights had dragged on, and no matter how hard she hit Kuno, he and the horde kept coming back. By dint of sheer stubbornness, they continued to attack her, and deep in Akane's heart, doubts had begun to form.

If she was truly a martial artist, shouldn't she have beaten them by now?

If they were able to assault her day-after-day, does that mean she wasn't hurting them?

If she wasn't hurting them, then why were they pretending otherwise?

While the anger at the hormonal stupidity had insisted she just needed to punch them harder until they backed off, which is what she trained herself for in the weeks following Kuno's proclamation, there was still a niggling doubt that she wasn't as good a fighter as she'd always believed and her various pursuer's had been letting her win. Then Ranma had arrived and thoroughly schooled her, seemingly without effort, and that seed of doubt took root.

The sparring match with Blackfire tugged very hard at the insecure weed growing in her spirit, for many of the same reasons that the dark-haired girl had laid out regarding the willingness of the horde to brave her wrath. Unlike a certain blathering swordsman, Blackfire had no reason to restrain herself against the youngest of the Tendo daughters. Obviously there would be something held back as this wasn't a duel to the death, but otherwise, there was nothing but absolute honesty in their full-contact spar.

As Akane mulled over the outcome of the match, which had been Blackfire's win if only by a slim margin, a soft giggle turned into low groan when she wondered if this is what shonen manga's meant about fighters being able to 'speak with their fists'. Without moving from her (at the moment) cozy resting place on the floor, Akane called, "Neh, Komand'r-san?"

Blackfire, sitting nearby with her back against the wall of the dojo, her head lolled back as she wearily wondered if the supposedly normal human would someday have enough strength to break a Tamaranean's bones, replied wearily, "Yeah, Akane?"

"...You hit really hard."

Blackfire quietly laughed, the admiration and pleased surprise in the bluenette's voice heartening her, and easing a few of the aliens doubts regarding the relationship her friend/teacher/lover might have with the otherwise temperamental girl. "Thanks. You hit really hard too."

"Thanks."

The two sat in a companionable silence for a little while, before Akane managed to push herself up onto her elbows, wincing as she looked over her shoulder to her mildly bruised opponent. "Neh, Komand'r-san? What did you mean about Ranma liking me?"

Blackfire noticed the mild blush on Akane's face and gave the bluenette a knowing smile. "Yesterday, when we saw you tear through those idiots? The glorbag had a goofy grin on his face right before Kuno showed himself."

There was a temptation to think her perverted fiancee had been getting off on watching her smack down the horde, but that temptation was fueled by her frustration with the engagement, which was in very short supply at the moment. Instead, Akane asked, "Why is that?"

"Well," Blackfire began airily, as though she was more clueless than she really was. "If I had to guess...after all, I'm not a mindreader-"

Akane spat out a laugh, which quickly turned into a high-pitched squeak of "Ite!" From the protest of her battered abs.

"-it's because Ranma doesn't want to settle down with a girl who's a…" the dark-haired girl looked curiously at the bluenette. "What's the phrase for the supposedly 'ideal' woman? Yamato Nadeshiko?"

"Hai." Akane affirmed with a small nod as she thought to herself. "Then, Ranma doesn't want the perfect girl?"

"If by perfect, you mean a spineless; 'yes darling' , 'of course my husband' , 'whatever you say sweetheart', then yeah, Ranma doesn't want that." Blackfire's derisive tone made it clear that she had a rather low opinion on that subject as well. "This might be one of the few things Ranma ever benefitted from being raised by his dad, because he was never around girls for a long period of time before I showed up, and I ended up showing him that not all girls are frail little creampuffs who stay at home and care for their husbands because they're too weak to do anything on their own."

Akane's eyes narrowed. "Where the hell would he get…" She trailed off as Blackfire gave her a flat look, making the bluenette grumble, "Oh..."

"Yeah. Genma's particular brand of 'Motivation through Spite' was to call Ranma 'weak and girly' and that he needed to 'act like a man'. Which is funny coming from the panda, because I only had to thrash him once before he cut that shit out." Blackfire and Akane shared an evil grin at that, before the dark-haired girl gave something resembling a relieved sigh. "When we met, Ranma realized that girls aren't as weak as his old man implied, and if he had to choose between a girly-girl or a 'tomboy', then he'd rather be with someone who wasn't totally helpless."

Seeing the connection between the dark-haired girl's remarks and Ranma's supposed enjoyment of her morning trial, Akane's cheeks reddened and she gave a soft, "Oh…"

"Yeah, seeing that you take the art as seriously as he does, even if you need more training, made him feel a lot better about this engagement."

Still blushing, Akane finished sitting up and looked away from Blackfire as she murmured quietly, "Ano...it's too soon...and we didn't choose-"

"I'm not saying he's already picking out a ring and planning the honeymoon." Blackfire rolled her eyes. "It just means you both share an interest. Although, he's probably wishing he was out buying a wedding ring right now."

Akane's eyes bugged and she turned around, grimacing as the sudden twist brought several uncomfortable clenches to her muscles even as she blurted, "What did you say?!"

Figuring that it was now safe to reveal her diabolical scheme, Blackfire's emotional dam cracked as she gave a malicious giggle, which grew louder when she saw Akane's shocked expression. "Ranma is wishing he was buying an engagement ring, cause if she was wearing one, that varblernook wouldn't be asking 'the tree-borne kettle girl' out on a date!"

Akane's jaw-dropped as the otherwise calm and collected Blackfire spasmed with glee. Then she began to giggle as well. Soon enough, the dojo echoed with the laughter of the two girls, interspersed occasionally with brief gasps of "Ite!" from Akane and while Blackfire howled, "Hahahahaha-Ow! Ow! Oh, it hurts to laugh!"

OOOOOO

Ranma-chan walked into the Tendo home, still holding the bouquet of roses in her arms as her shock and mute horror of the kendoist's proclamation of love had robbed her of her higher brain functions. It was for this same reason that she'd taken off her shoes and dimly announced, "I'm home…" before realizing that Blackfire was leaning against the wall opposite the door, near the hallway entrance and watching the redhead with one of the biggest shit-eating grins Ranma-chan had ever seen her wear before.

Looking from the roses to Ranma-chan's stunned expression, Blackfire asked cheerfully, "Victory trophy?"

Ranma-chan shook her head slowly.

"Consolation prize?"

Another shake.

Blackfire snorted rudely before saying in the high-pitched voice of someone stifling a gut-busting laugh, "Well, at least Kuno isn't Akane's problem anymore!"

Ranma-chan's eye twitched. Then she stalked up to the giggling alien and silently thrust the bouquet into Blackfire's arms. As the redhead silently walked away from the now uncontrollably howling alien, she wondered how things could possibly get any worse.

-NSFW-ish content below/Ranma has no genre savvy-

(If you want to avoid, scroll until italics are gone)

The smell of grass mixed with the scent of Blackfire's body underneath him, making their coupling all the sweeter for Ranma as she cooed his name.

"Glad we found this place, Komie-chan?" he asked, knowing what the answer would be as the sunlight across her bare skin brought a renewed appreciation for her beauty.

"I love it, Ranma!" His lover's voice rose in delight and desire, the singing birds overhead blending with her lyrical moans. Then, she started to shiver in a way that he knew all too well and gasped, "It-it's so good! X'hal, Ranma; there's only one thing that could make this perfect!"

Seeing her eyes brighten, and smiling widely at the warning sign for his girlfriend's imminent departure for the land of clouds and rain, Ranma replied, "And I know what that is, Komie-chan!" before suddenly shifting gears. The change in tempo brought a surprised, wordless shout from Blackfire, which was soon muffled against his lips as he amplified her pleasure with a perfectly timed kiss, until her voice rose several octaves and a bright light registered through his closed eyes, bringing a smile to his face as he stilled his motions to better enjoy the fruits of his labors.

Soon enough, Komand'r's breathing slowed and her appreciative moans faded into whimpers of grateful relief as he broke their kiss and looked down at her flushed, smiling face with a mixture of affection and pride in a job well done. "There you go," Ranma offered cheerily. "Perfect, like you said."

"That was wonderful." Blackfire admitted breathlessly, when her mouth suddenly twisted into a coy, mischievous grin he'd come to appreciate more with every day. "But not what I was talking about."

"Oh?" Ranma returned her grin as he started to move once more. "So it's my turn then?"

"Heehee, kinda."

He had enough time to blink quizzically at her cheery reply when Blackfire snapped her fingers, and he gasped as a sudden deluge of cold water rained down from above, soaking the both of them and activating his curse. While the sight of water clinging like dew to his lover's body was even more arousing, Ranma-chan suddenly lacked the wherewithal and equipment to truly show his appreciation as she sputtered, "Nani!? Komie, how'd you do that!?"

"Little trick I learned out in space." She replied with that same smile. "I can summon cold water anytime I want."

"Why didn't you use it before now!?"

"No reason to. But now I've got a VERY good reason," the dark-haired girl's smile turned even more wicked and Ranma-chan quietly gasped as her girlfriend's hands slid along her thighs.

"A-as girls!?" Ranma gulped, finding herself on the backfoot while her sensitive skin was massaged by gloriously soft hands. "B-but we've never done this before!"

"First time for everything..." Blackfire whispered huskily. "But don't worry, baby, I got someone to help us out."

The smell of the grass faded, and the birdsong became muted as Ranma asked, "Help? From who?"

In the unexpected silence, a voice from behind Ranma-chan saying "Pigtailed girl..." Made a shot of ice race down her spine.

(...Nooo…)

Slowly turning to look over her shoulder, a feeling of dread bloomed in her heart as a figure approached through an inexplicable fog that Ranma swore hadn't been there a second ago.

(No, no, no…!)

Ranma-chan's mouth went dry and her eyes widened in horror as the mist parted and Tatewaki Kuno stepped into view, fully unclothed as he determinedly looked at her and declared, "Pigtailed girl...Saotome...I love you."

(nonononoNoNoNoNoNONONONONO-!)

OOOOOO

Ranma shot out of bed with a scream of "FUUUUUUU-!", soaked with cold sweat as he quickly looked around. Realizing he was back in the guest bedroom of the Tendo home, his breathing eased as he slowly got his heartbeat under control.

After a few moments of quietly repeating "Just a dream...it was just a dream…" as a soothing mantra, the door to the guest room cracked open and Blackfire peeked in. While somewhat happy to see her, the wicked smile on her face brought all sorts of negative connotations to Ranma's current mood and he shuddered as the dark-haired girl asked cheerily, "What's the matter, Ranma? Bad dream?"

"You have no idea…" Ranma replied with a nervous swallow, to which Blackfire chuckled lightly. After a moment, he murmured, "Neh, Komie-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"You...can't summon cold water, can you?"

Blackfire blinked. "Uhh...I'd have told you if I could, so no."

"Y...you'd never...you and me...with another guy…" Ranma's head slowly turned to give his girlfriend a haunted, pleading look. "Would you?"

As she was still amused by the situation involving Kuno being attracted to Ranma's cursed form, Blackfire should have lost herself in a hysterical fit at her beau's over-reaction to being asked on a date.

Except...his question now had her mental gears turning, and the alien's expression shut down, completely dead eye'd as she asked calmly, "Saotome. Did you have a dream about you, me...and Kuno?"

Ranma nodded mutely.

Blackfire's eye twitched. "No, Saotome. I would not be a part of a 3-way with you and Kuno, and I'm frankly insulted you thought you had to ask me that."

Ranma blushed and looked down. "Sorry...I was just worried-"

"Yeah, well I'm so glad you're feeling better," Blackfire growled before she walked away, throwing out over her shoulder, "Cause now, I'm going to be having nightmares about that varblernook coming at me with his stick! See if I try to help you out again!"

While Ranma wanted to apologize to her...a small part of him cheered from a strange unexplained sense that the karmic scales had rebalanced.

OOOOOO

That night, Blackfire stepped into her and Nabiki's shared room, stretching as she thanked genetics for Tamaranean healing. A little sunlight, some food, and the bruises she'd gotten from her fight with Akane were already fading.

As she pulled off her shirt, and made a mental note to expand her wardrobe now that she was back in something resembling civilization, Blackfire caught sight of a manila envelope sitting on Nabiki's desk with the pile of paperwork the ice queen had dubbed, 'the household finances'. As the page-cut brunette was downstairs watching tv, Blackfire smiled and walked over to the desk and decided to do some snooping.

OOOOOO

Nabiki yawned as she headed for her room, already anticipating the fluffiness of her pillow and the relief that sleep would bring.

But when she opened her door, and found a topless Blackfire oh-so-casually examining several photographs while sitting on the edge of Nabiki's bed, the brunette's expected relief morphed into very present shock with a hint of dread.

"It's funny…" Blackfire mused as she critically eye'd a picture of Ranma-chan in girlform, splayed out across a mattress for a mid-afternoon nap wearing boxers and a white wifebeater. "You wouldn't think a girl could run her family's finances, a series of betting pools and junior scale spy ring, and have a hobby of amateur photography…" Her eyes flicked up to meet Nabiki's in a carefully neutral expression. "But I guess you learn something new everyday, don't you?"

The shock of Blackfire finding her photographs disappeared with impressive speed, and Nabiki quickly adopted a cold, calculating expression. "Mind if I ask why you were sticking your nose into my personal business?"

Blackfire's eyes hardened ever-so-slightly. "Only after you tell me why you're taking pictures of your sister and Ranma, and if I'm interpreting your notes correctly…" She tilted her head towards Nabiki's desk, where some of the brunette's financial records were laid open. "Selling them to guys at school?"

Now it was a fight to retain her poise, though the Ice Queen rallied magnificently under the added pressure of having one of her more...morally grey business ventures revealed. Crossing her arms, Nabiki declared impassively, "I'm doing my best to keep this family afloat. I don't know if you noticed, but we don't have much in the way of students."

"Oh, I did notice that." Blackfire flicked through the pictures and found one of Akane lifting weights, which she flipped around and showed to the brunette. "Except your sister, who's learning how to fight for free."

"She is the heir to the school."

"And you still found a way to make money off of her. Or more specifically," Blackfire's eyes narrowed. "Off of the varblernook. Since I don't think the other jackasses at school would be buying pin-ups of her showing off her 'fierce spirit'." the dark-haired girl enjoyed the momentary silence and privately approved of how her roommate didn't even flinch at the accusation. "Don't worry though, I'm not going to tell Akane about your little scheme."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. " You're not?"

"No. She's your family. Why should I care if you abuse her trust to make some money?" Blackfire offered amicably as she stood up, setting the pictures to the side and hiding her smirk as that last comment had brought a reaction from Nabiki, albeit only a slight narrowing of her eyes. Facing the brunette, Blackfire adopted a very wide, cheerful smile that wouldn't have looked out of place on Kasumi...save it carried all the warmth and sweetness of a sugar-coated razorblade. "What I do care about, is why you spread that rumor about me having a crush on Kuno?"

Nabiki swore she could hear her molars grinding as she gritted her teeth, internally cursing the day Blackfire had shown up on her families doorstep. The damn gaijin was matching wits with her from the word go, but she refused to admit she was outgunned yet. After a moment of spinning her wheels, Nabiki adopted a carefully amused smirk and replied, "You can't guess, Komand'r-san?"

"Oh, I've got guesses." Blackfire's eyes narrowed slightly. "And my number one is that you wanted to keep the money flowing in from betting pools on Akane's brawls. And I'll tell you the same thing I told the panda yesterday; I will not be used. By you, him, or anyone else."

The tense atmosphere thickened noticeably, while Nabiki maintained her well-honed expression of amused superiority as she said, "Oh, Komand'r-san. I thought you knew me better than that."

"How so?"

"I didn't put that out because it would make me money, although that's a very nice bonus at the moment." The brunette's eyes narrowed and her smirk turned slightly more wicked. "I did it cause it was funny."

Blackfire's eyes widened. The sheer chutzpah of the Ice Queen had almost floored the villainess, and despite herself, her ire retreated just enough for a corner of her lips to quirk up in a small smile. "Oh, you are a bitch."

"Hmm, you would know, wouldn't you? After all, great minds do think alike."

At that, Blackfire chuckled, and Nabiki's grin turned slightly less malicious and more genuine as her roommate said, "Alright then, since we've got that out in the open, I'll level with you. I can handle the new rumors about me and the varblernook, and the pictures you're hawking on campus. But there is one thing that's got me a little peeved at you right now."

"And that is?"

The dark-haired girl adopted an expression that made Nabiki stiffen. Half-lidded eyes and a very subtle curve to Blackfire's lips that said someone was in for a fun night as she stepped forward, almost gliding across the middle Tendo daughters carpet until she was in front of Nabiki, making the brunette fight to maintain her calm and detached poise as Blackfire purred, "You know I'm looking for a way to earn my keep around here, right?"

"Right." Nabiki thanked the Kami that she managed to keep a stutter out of her voice as a few traitorous braincell's made her eyes flicker towards the dark-haired girls lips and put out a decidedly unwarranted curiosity to find out if they were as soft as they looked, though she managed to suppress those same hormonally corrupted thoughts before her gaze went below Komand'r's collarbone.

"Well, would you rather rely on pure luck to get candid photo's of Ranma or your sister to make your bank?" Blackfire smirked victoriously. "Or have a stable source of material at your disposal...for a price."

While she'd maintained her poise so far, there was the tiniest of breaks in the mask as Nabiki's eyes widened fractionally. Though for anyone who knew her, it would be fair to say that this was the equivalent of her jaw falling through the floor in shock. "You want me to take pictures of you?"

"No, I want you to pay me for the privilege of taking pictures of me." Blackfire corrected Nabiki cheerfully. "Because if you try sneaking pictures of me and selling them on campus, we'll see if you can handle a sparring match like your little sister can."

Eyes narrowing at the threat, Nabiki replied coldly, "You obviously don't want a job that badly, if you're starting things off by threatening your boss."

Blackfire chuckled. "Just letting you know where I stand. And besides, you've got a good head for business. Think of how much more money you'll make with a subject who knows how to turn guys on, and is going to help you with that?"

Considering that she was struggling mightily against her own hormones due to the proximity of an exotic beauty who was giving off an aura that screamed 'do bad bad things to me', Nabiki could easily imagine the profits of such an enterprise. After a moment, she gave a noncommittal shrug and admitted, "I'll think about it."

"That's all I ask," Blackfire purred as she made her way to her bedroll and pack of clothes.

As she pulled out another boys T-shirt, Nabiki cocked an eyebrow and said "You do need your own wardrobe, don't you?"

Blackfire chuckled as she pulled the shirt over her head. "What, this? This isn't why I need a some of my own clothes." grabbing the hem of the shirt, the dark-haired girl took a deep breath and sighed contentedly. "This just makes it a bit easier to sleep at night. Plus, it drives Ranma nuts when I do this."

Nabiki gave a light laugh as she walked over to her desk, while Blackfire pulled a book titled Famous Myths and their Interpretations from her bookbag and started reading it. Until the last of the lights faded and the need for sleep made itself known, the two girls shared a companionable sort of silence.

But as the two girls drifted off to sleep, Nabiki gratefully mused, (Thank god she didn't find the latest pictures)

OOOOOO

On their way to school yet again, Ranma watched Akane from the fence he was strolling along with curiousity and more than a little concern, noticing her wince every now and then as they walked. Recalling the 'match' between her and Blackfire that he'd heard all the way up in the guest room of the Tendo home, the pigtailed boy asked hesitantly, "Hey, Akane? Are you okay?"

While feeling a little envious of how quickly Blackfire had recovered from the pounding she'd gotten the day before, Akane was nevertheless breathing easier than she had in a long time with the knowledge that she'd given the deceptively stronger girl a run for her money. While there was still a gap between her skills and those of her fiancee and his...friend, she took more than a fair bit of comfort from the slight twinges of pain, thinking of them as marks of respect that she'd rightfully earned. With all that in mind, Akane gave Ranma a reassuring smile, not even feeling annoyed with his 'showing off' by balancing on the fence as she replied, "Yep. As a matter-of-fact, I feel fine."

"You sure?" Ranma hopped down off of the fence, privately noting to himself how a smile suited Akane so much more than the angry looks he'd seen over the last few days as he opined, "Cause it looks like you're hurting a bit. Was Komie-chan rough with you or something?"

There was a tiny twinge of annoyance from the feeling that she was being treated like a porcelain doll, but it did nothing to dampen the bluenette's mood. In fact, it actually put her in a mind to try a different tactic, and she internally giggled at Ranma's sudden tense posture when she smiled at him in what she thought was a decent imitation of his girlfriends habitual Cheshire Cat grin. "Hmm...I think I gave as good as I got, if that's what you mean. Besides, I'm more than fine enough to handle those perverts in the horde."

The bluenette's confident declaration made Ranma feel relieved, even as he quietly cursed himself for letting Komand'r 'influence' his fiancee in some way. Unfortunately, her comment on the horde brought the thought of seeing Kuno to Ranma's mind, and his shuddered in disgust before asking grimly, "Don't suppose you'd be willing to let me smack down that blowhard?"

With the information from Blackfire on what had brought Ranma out to meet Kuno last night, Akane had to fight back a laugh at the grim expression on Ranma's face. Knowing that he was looking to satisfy a personal score rather than 'protect her', which would have earned him a beating on it's own right, Akane merely smirked at the pigtailed boy and offered, "How about we race for it?"

Ranma blinked quizzically. "Race? What kind of race?"

"I'll make a beeline for Kuno today, instead of smashing all of those perverts in the horde, and whoever gets there first can pound him flat."

Ranma chuckled despite himself. "Come on, you're gonna have a handicap, and that ain't fair."

"Oh, I don't know…" Akane side-eyed her fiance and smiled thinly. "I think you're gonna need a few moments to...strengthen your resolve to face Kuno-sempai. Neh, 'tree-borne kettle-girl'?"

Ranma froze, eyes wide as Akane continued walking away from him. The smile on the bluenette's face grew bigger and bigger, until the morning's silence was broken by an incensed voice shouting, "WHAT THE HELL DID KOMIE TELL YOU!?"

Ranma's only answer was his fiancee's delighted laughter as she took advantage of his shock to get a headstart on their race.

OOOOOO

Blackfire chortled with glee, having watched Akane and Ranma both give Kuno a simultaneous boot-to-da-head before dashing into Furinkan High School without a second look. "Oh, this is just beautiful!"

"Hmm. It almost seems like they're getting along." Nabiki mused thoughtfully before giving her manipulative roommate an appraising look. "Whatever you're doing to get them together seems to be working."

"Thank you, but I don't think that's because of me encouraging them." Blackfire admitted graciously. "I think that's just Ranma being pissed at the varblernook for yesterday."

Nabiki cocked an eyebrow curiously "The duel? Do you know what happened?"

Blackfire gave Nabiki a sneaky, malicious grin. "I have a good idea. And it's a lot like why you told everyone I was tsundere for Kuno. And Chuunibyou, whatever the hell that is."

The villainess blinked at the sound of a choked snort, and turned to look curiously at the brunette who was holding her stomach and hunched over, clearly fighting back great belly laughs.

Blackfire's eyes narrowed, but before she could ask why Nabiki looked like she had yesterday, the teacher came in and told everyone to get in their seats.

OOOOOO

Blackfire stood up and stretched as the lunch bell rang, prompting Nabiki to look quizzically at her as she reached for her bookbag and the bento within with one hand. "What're you doing?"

"Going to the library." Blackfire tossed out idly as she picked her own bookbag off the floor. "I need to look up some things."

"Fair enough." Nabiki admitted before giving Blackfire a teasing grin. "Does that something include-"

"Yes." Blackfire offered disdainfully, refusing to look back at the smirking Ice Queen, who'd offered to explain the additional cultural term she'd been labeled with, for a significant price. Once again the knowledge of a know-it-all grin kept Blackfire from going into debt with the money-minded girl, though Nabiki did inform her that she wasn't responsible for that addition to the rumor mill.

As she left the room, Blackfire paused in the doorway, smiling as Kuno approached Nabiki with a stuffed panda, which was tossed onto the middle Tendo's desk. Her patience paid off when Kuno said something, and Blackfire could guess what it was, that made Nabiki do a spit-take straight into Kuno's face. Laughing loudly, Blackfire made her way to the library to figure out how to unravel the fuster-cluck she was now involved in.

OOOOOO

"Here's the set, Kuno-chan. Do we have a deal?"

"So pure and innocent! Sold!"

"I aim to please...oh, and I have a special set for Akane today...at double the price."

"Double!? Surely you jest, even I have limits to my appreciation of she who fights with the ferocity of an amazon!"

"Well, that's just it, Kuno. These pics twice as expensive, because it's a 2-for-1 special. Here…"

"...sold...and you will tell no one of this."

"That's extra, Kuno-chan."

"Grrr…"

OOOOOO

The librarian looked up, scowling darkly at the sound of splintering wood from somewhere in the stacks of books. Moving quickly, the wizened old woman found a dark-haired girl she marginally recognized as a new transfer student, who was glaring at thick magazine in front of her, one of her hands clenched so tightly on the table that her fingers were biting into the wood as she snarled, "it's my freaking name you braindead bass-ackwards apes! Not an edgy X'hal-damned nickname I made up to be unique, you-"

"Komand'r-san." The librarian declared coolly as she approached the dark-haired teen, who immediately narrowed her eyes at the older woman, clearly displeased with her presence at the moment. "Do not damage school property inside the library, or you will be reprimanded severely."

Blackfire withdrew her fingers from the tabletop, but smirked mockingly at the librarian as she asked, "Yeah? How severely?

The old woman's eye twitched, then she pushed her glasses up her nose, the light reflecting off the lenses hiding her eyes as she smiled in a way that sent a chill down Blackfire's spine as she said, "Ahh, you're new to Nerima, yes? Then I will show you."

The woman looked to a nearby shelf, one eyebrow cocked curiously as she reached out and pulled a thick tome from the shelf. She tsked and said, "Now, some careless student has put this book in the wrong place. Such a bother."

Blackfire looked incredulously at the librarian, and opened her mouth to ask what she was playing at, when the book the old woman was holding was lightly tossed into the air with the flick of her wrist. The book spun lazily as it arced downwards, dropping just behind the old woman's shoulder when the librarian brought her arm up and rapped the spine of the book with the back of her hand with all the force of a gentle breeze.

The book shot out and slammed into a bookshelf some 20 feet behind the librarian, slotting perfectly into an empty space in a row that was now completely filled and sending the 10-foot by 30-foot wooden shelf rocking back several inches, before settling down flat on the floor again with a deceptively loud rumble.

Blackfire stared at the shelf, her jaw nearly touching the tabletop as the librarian adjusted her glasses again and gave the teenager a cold look. "Nerima is an energetic place, Komand'r-san. And the librarians here take their duties very seriously, as we are prepared to protect such precious knowledge from any who would damage it. Understood?"

"...Yeah...message received." Blackfire affirmed with a slow nod. As the older woman nodded in return and walked away, the alien mused quietly, "And I thought Yutracknian Secret-Keeper's were scary…" before returning to her studies.

While not wholly against the idea of learning precisely what the middle Tendo had set in motion regarding her and Kuno, and more importantly, how to counter it; Blackfire's predominant reason for perusing local magazines and catalogues was as simple as it was familiar. She formulating a plan to screw someone over, and do it in such away that would cause a great deal of misery for someone she didn't like, and reap a very nice benefit as a bonus.

As her finger ran across the tiny, easily missed advertisement for 'Lo Xion's Curiosity's', a shop that supposedly specialized in Chinese import's, a wide smile spread across the Tamaranean's face and she softly whispered, "Gotcha."

"...do you want, Kuno?"

Blackfire blinked and looked up from the paper, hearing a very familiar voice coming from somewhere nearby, followed by another voice that she dimly recognized. Getting out of her seat, she followed the sounds to an open window some distance away just as her current nemesis and totally unwanted love interest snapped, "Quoth Nabiki Tendo, 'if you want the pig-tailed girl to receive your gift, you must give it to Saotome Ranma! Explain how you know of the pig-tailed girl immediately!"

(Oh, bitch!) Blackfire thought to herself as she peeked out the window, spotting Ranma and Kuno standing outside and off to her left. While she couldn't see the expression on Ranma's face, it wasn't hard for her to imagine his disgust at being singled out by his puckish possibly-sister-in-law. (Not that it isn't kinda funny, but still…)

Blackfire's quiet appreciation for Nabiki's set up was interrupted by Ranma coldly declaring, "Forget it, Kuno." as he tossed a stuffed panda back into Kuno's hands, and made to walk past him. When he stopped and said something out of the corner of his mouth that Blackfire couldn't hear, Kuno's eyes widened in shock and a smile spread across her face as Ranma walked away from him.

Spotting another window on a nearby wall, where Ranma had just rounded the corner outside, Blackfire made her way over and threw it open just as the pigtailed boy walked past, calling out "Hey, Saotome!" as she did.

"Komie?" Ranma looked surprised as he stopped and turned to the smiling girl. "What're you doing?"

"I was reading, up until I heard you chatting with the varblernook." She replied with a wicked smirk. "What was that last thing you said to him? You tell him you don't swing that way?"

Ranma turned faintly green and shook himself out before vehemently shouting, "NO! I said if I had anything to say about it, he'd never see the pig-tailed girl again!"

Blackfire's smile disappeared immediately and she gave a flat, "You what."

Seeing her slightly narrowed eyes and recognizing her tone, Ranma rolled his eyes and said, "Komie, don't start with me, okay? I'm not going to tell him about my curse-"

"No, you're just going to tell him you'd rather imprison a girl than let her out of your sight, you glorbag varblernook!"

Ranma reeled back as Blackfire snarled at him, leaning out of the window with her eyes glowing in fury. While somewhat afraid of how angry she apparently was, her words sank into his mind and Ranma's mouth dropped open as he blurted, "NANI!? I didn't say that!"

"That's exactly what you said!" Blackfire snapped. "Or at least that's what you implied! What in X'hal's name were you-"

Blackfire yanked her head back with a yipe as a sudden deluge fell from above, narrowly missing her head while Ranma was completely soaked with water, triggering his curse and leaving Blackfire to stare at a dumbfounded redhead. Looking up, Blackfire caught an upturned bucket being held out the window by a pair of hands, and heard a voice call from somewhere above them. "Oi! Be careful, what if someone was down there!?"

"Oh relax." Replied a slightly closer, and much more blasé feminine voice as the bucket was withdrawn from view. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Blackfire's eye twitched, and her irritation focused on the latest weapon in the arsenal of Ranma's curse as she shouted, "THERE WAS SOMEONE DOWN HERE, YOU SELF-CENTERED PLUBARK!"

A half second later, a brown-haired, glasses-wearing girl poked her head out the upper window, looking down with an angry expression as she shouted, "WHAT'D YOU CALL ME, YOU-"

The girl's ire disappeared in a choked gurgle, as she'd barely registered the sopping wet redheaded girl who she thought was the one that had shouted, to find that she was being focused on by a pair of small, violet searchlights as some new transfer student from another class was looking at her furiously. With an 'eep!' of fright, the senior ducked back inside and slammed the window shut.

"YOU BETTER RUN, BITCH!" Blackfire shouted before an outraged Kuno, who'd apparently recovered from whatever shocked stupor Ranma had accidentally put him into, rounded the corner or the building while shouting, "What did you mean by that, Saotome!?"

Despite herself, Blackfire couldn't help but smile as Kuno spun Ranma-chan towards him, the redhead wearing an expression of supreme disdain while Kuno registered the girl before him and smiled widely as he declared, "It's you! The pig-tailed girl, is it not?"

"Well, whaddya know, you found her." Blackfire mused with a smirk.

Ranma-chan shot her friend a betrayed look before Kuno grabbed her shoulders and said, "How I have missed you so!"

While the swordsmans's passionate declaration may have swooned the average girl, (or at least one that didn't know a thing about the tall swordsman) Ranma-chan responded to his affections and proximity by shouting, "Hands off!" And slugging him full in the face.

Blackfire cocked an eyebrow at that, as she'd expected Kuno to do more than lean back and adopt an expression that broadcast his internal musing of (well, that's a thing that just happened). She then burst out laughing when the kendoist called and raised his previous violation of Ranma-chan's personal space by wrapping her in a tight hug and saying, "I shall never let you go!"

"Oh my X'hal!" Blackfire cackled while Ranma-chan's eye twitched in outrage and disbelief, moments away from pounding Kuno into the ground like a railroad spike. "I should be selling tickets!"

"Oh, good idea, Kurohi-san."

Blackfire turned towards the voice approaching Ranma and Kuno from behind the pigtailed teen in question. She smiled at the sight of Nabiki, but mostly at Nabiki's cargo as the bobcut brunette was carrying a teakettle up to the pair and offering dryly, "But it's a little too late for that, now, so all we can do is salvage whatever we can of this situation."

"Salvage away, roomie." Blackfire declared with a wide, happy smile as Nabiki walked straight up behind Ranma and, without either Kuno or his unrequited-and-about-to-pulverize-him love interest noticing, poured the contents of the kettle onto the mass of redhair in Kuno's arms.

As Ranma let out several pained squawks and steam rose from her/his head, Blackfire cocked an eyebrow and glanced at Nabiki as she said, "Oh, sorry Ranma-kun. Was that too hot?"

"If you have to ask, then yes." Blackfire stated dryly as she wasn't too keen on ruining what would be a good memory for Ranma when the blowhard realized the truth about his 'kettle-girl'.

On that note, Kuno uttered a quizzical, "Ranma?" And Blackfire focused all her attention on the kendoist as he pulled back and stared at the dark-haired boy in his arms. Obviously done dealing with Kuno's particular brand of lunacy, Ranma snapped, "Hands off!" Before planting the bottom of one of his slippered feet square against Kuno's face, and Blackfire set off an internal timer until the varblernook's glorious reaction to finding out he'd pined for another man.

Although, she felt a brief flash of sympathy for her friend and former-lover as he flipped his pigtail over his shoulder and muttered, "Now do you get it, Kuno?" before slowly walking away from the stunned kendoist. While it would cause trouble to have his curse become public knowledge, the alternative of having Kuno chasing after him would be worse in the long run, and far more likely to cause havoc with his life.

"I had no idea…" Kuno whispered softly as he stared at Ranma's back, as though seeing him for the first time.

Noting that he appeared to be taking the information of the true identity of his pigtailed girl rather well, Blackfire nonetheless grinned expectantly as she counted (4...3...2…), before suddenly finding herself with a mouthful of something she would have given anything to never know the taste of.

Because while Blackfire had eaten many strange and exotic foods, (with occasional breaks for humble pie or crow) she'd never before eaten shit. Unfortunately, that's exactly what she did, at least metaphorically when Kuno's outraged shout of "Hold Saotome! Where have you hidden the pigtailed girl?!" made her facefault right out the window she was leaning out of and straight into the ground.

"I don't know what sorcery you used to spirit her away," Kuno went on while dramatically pointing at the thoroughly confused Ranma, who had stopped and turned back around following the swordsman's bass-ackwards but technically accurate accusation of legerdemain. "but you will return her at once!"

(He's not human.) Blackfire thought as she spat out the dirt that had gone into her mouth and glared at Kuno's back, seriously considering cleaning the gene pool by exterminating him before he had a chance to breed. (No sentient being could be this X'hal-damned dense! How has his skull not collapsed in on itself?!)

"W-wait, Kuno!" Ranma waved his hands with an incredulous, strained expression as he said, "It's not like that at all!"

"Ohh, looks like we're going to have to spell it out for him." Nabiki said while giving Kuno a sympathetic look.

It was only the fact that Blackfire was too busy getting to her feet and angrily muttering as she brushed the dirt out of her dress that kept Nabiki from being called out on her obvious desire to cause mischief as she waved to her irate classmate and called, "Hey, Kuno-chan? Would you come here for a second?"

Looking suspiciously at Nabiki, Kuno nonetheless followed her as she moved a few steps away, while Ranma sent a glance at Blackfire and smirked slightly even as he asked, "You okay, Komie-chan?"

"Oh yeah, I'm just fantastic." Blackfire said acidically. "Except for the fact that everyone in this school thinks my standards are so low that I want to bang that braindead varblernook!"

Ranma chuckled lightly. "Not so much fun being on the receiving end, is it?" which earned him a flat look from Blackfire.

"...if you didn't know how to make me app'ureesh, I would end you…"

Ranma blushed at that, but his smile didn't fade. Blackfire's did however, when she noticed Nabiki standing in front of Kuno, with her hands clasped in front of her and a starry-eye'd, overly dramatic expression of sorrow on her face. Seeing Kuno's shoulders lock up, Blackfire asked in a quiet, carefully neutral tone, "Saotome, what is Nabiki doing?"

"She said she was gonna explain what was going on to Kuno."

Blackfire turned to look at Ranma with wide, utterly flabbergasted eyes. "And you LET her?!"

Ranma didn't have a chance to counter that, when Kuno screamed, "YOU WRETCH!" and suddenly turned and lunged at the pigtailed boy with a bokken that Blackfire swore hadn't been in Kuno's hand a second ago. Ranma easily dodged out of the way, and Kuno turned to face him, tears pouring down his face, which was twisted in a grimace of pure disgust and hatred as he intoned, "Vile fiend! How could you despoil such a pure and innocent creature!?"

As Kuno dramatically covered his face like he was too distraught to even look at Ranma, the pigtailed boy and Blackfire both shouted at Nabiki, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU TELL HIM!?"

"What?" Nabiki said with a supremely indifferent shrug. "I just said you and the pigtailed girl were of one mind and one body."

"Nani!?"

"You did WHAT!?"

Before Blackfire or Ranma could react, Kuno finished his non-combat posturing and shouted, "ENSLAVER OF WOMEN!" as he leapt into the air, slashing furiously at Ranma with a speed that Blackfire hadn't seen the Kendoist use up until now. While noting grimly that Kuno had been holding back a lot against Akane, she ran over to Nabiki and snarled, "You have one chance to explain what the hell you were thinking before I make what Ranma does to Kuno look like a love-tap!"

"What?" Nabiki looked away from the brawl. "What are you-"

The middle Tendo stopped dead, her eyes widening in shock as her carefully managed facade of cool control melted under the violet lights emanating from Blackfire's eyes. No trick of the light, or reflection or any sort of mundane explanation would suffice for what Nabiki saw as the glowing-eye'd girl in front of her growled in a low, utterly livid voice, "Why the hell would you say something like that?!"

Nabiki quailed slightly under her suddenly much stranger roommates gaze, but not enough for her to admit the true reason for her unhelpful word choice regarding Ranma's circumstances. Using the fact that she was honestly freaked out by Blackfire's suddenly luminescent eye's to add a sheen of validity to her words, the Ice Queen stammered, "I-I-I thought it would be funny, because it sounded like Ranma was-"

The remainder of her words were swallowed back down as Blackfire's eyes only glowed brighter, and her expression turned more furious. "You lying prugnar! I should incin-!"

Both girls had paid only marginal attention to the fight, as Ranma was dancing around Kuno's blows like the swordsman was moving through tar. Then, the swordsman furiously shouted, "FOOL!" and Blackfire's eyes were pulled away from Nabiki as he struck again.

She'd seen Ranma take strong hits before.

She'd seen an ordinary human handle blows that would have wounded even a Tamaranean such as herself, were it not for her current circumstances.

But she'd also seen the loudmouthed swordsman cleave through tree limbs and shatter concrete with his seemingly ordinary hunk of wood.

So when Kuno hit Ranma square across his unguarded midsection, the fact that the pigtailed boy wasn't immediately bisected or bent like a capital-U brought a feeling of confident assurance in his abilities to the alien ex-princess.

But that came after the brief half-second where her heart had stopped and she'd seized up in fear for her friend/lover's life.

While he was gingerly holding his right-side, Ranma otherwise gave no sign of being hit by Kuno and made to create some distance between them with a quick backstep. As Kuno closed in and renewed his assault, Blackfire's eyes narrowed as she saw that Ranma was again dodging around his strikes with ease, but now it was by a much narrower margin as he was snatching slips of paper that were fluttering in the air around the two fighters.

Seeing Ranma stare at the papers with an incensed expression, Blackfire's mind clicked on Nabiki's motivation for misleading Kuno. Rather than call her out on it immediately however, Blackfire shelved that little nugget for the right opportunity to show the so-called Ice Queen why she shouldn't have screwed with the Queen of the Universe. But while she formulated ways to hammer the nail into Nabiki for her deception, she caught sight of familiar figure standing behind a statue of some human or other, a little ways away from where Ranma and Kuno were fighting.

"X'hal damn it, what's she doing here!?" Blackfire groaned in irritation, wishing that Akane hadn't been watching for too long, even as the alien pessimistically surmised that wishing for centauri moon diamond to drop out of the sky would have about as much chance of coming true. "This just keeps getting worse!"

"Why?" no longer under the semi-hypnotizing, or at least fear-inducing gaze of Blackfire, Nabiki likewise turned her calculating mind onto the fight. "Is Ranma going to lose?"

"Cause of that hit? No." Blackfire growled as she watched Ranma tumble from an irritated Kuno with a series of backwards somersaults, the kendoist seemingly having taken offense with his opponent not keeping his attention on their battle, and stopped at the feet of Akane. "The varblernook doesn't have a chance, but your sister is watching Kuno go at Ranma a lot harder than he's ever fought against her, and that's gonna screw-up what little progress they've made towards being friends-"

As if to prove her point, Akane suddenly flushed beet-red and shouted something indecipherable, but clearly angry as she punted Ranma into the air, and straight towards Kuno. While Blackfire still had some small hope that Akane wouldn't get too much of an idea of just how much Kuno was disrespecting her abilities by not taking her seriously, that hope was crushed when the swordsman shouted "I STRIKE!" and his bokken blurred as he tried to stab Ranma with his blunted weapon. As if to punctuate the gap between the abilities he'd displayed to Akane and the power he brought to bear on Ranma, the monument Akane was standing next to began to splinter and shatter apropos of nothing, while Kuno continued his ineffectual assault on Ranma, several meters away.

"Wow," Nabiki breathed, not used to seeing Kuno get this serious with an opponent before, and realizing the full scope of the category-5 shitstorm brewing just off the horizon, thanks to Kuno and the horde's degradation of her sister's skills. "Just the airpressure from his strikes alone…"

Blackfire glared at Nabiki out of the corner of her eye, making the brunette flinch at the light and unless she was mistaken, a fair bit of heat emanating from the dark-haired girl's eyes. Before either could resume the interrogation or comment further on the fight, Ranma's voice calling, "Look out!" distracted them as Kuno capitalized on his opponent's weakness and lunged in. While he missed Ranma by a narrow margin, when Blackfire saw the pigtailed boy's foot move in a rising arc that seemed to pass in front of Kuno, and used the momentum to backflip away, she knew the fight was over. Calming down now that the violence had subsided, and not being too keen on revealing her own little secret before she was damn good and ready, Blackfire's eye's faded back to their normal, non-illuminated state as she side-eye'd Nabiki and coldly declared, "To be continued," Before going over to her beau, his fianceé, and the now collapsed swordsman.

"What happened?" Akane asked as she looked down at Kuno, not understanding how the upperclassman could have fallen just because Ranma swept his foot in front of him.

"Ranma kicked him." Blackfire replied as she reached the duo-technically-trio as Kuno was still present in body, if not in mind. As Akane flipped the swordsman onto his back, Blackfire nodded in satisfaction as she saw a series of shoe-prints running up Kuno's body, and afforded herself a small grin at one distinctive mark square across the blowhards mouth.

"Wow...every kick hit a vulnerable spot." Akane said with wide eyes, running over the only attack Ranma had made in her head. "I didn't even see it."

"Not too surprising." Ranma said as he stretched his hands behind his head. "He wasn't nearly as good as he thinks he is."

Akane stiffened at that, and Blackfire shot Ranma a pointed look. "Ranma. Kuno is out cold, so there's no reason to insult him. Got it?"

Ranma looked blankly at Blackfire and asked, "What're you talking about, Komie? You did the same thing yesterday."

Eye twitching in indignation, Blackfire stalked over to Ranma and hissed in his ear, "I am not your fiancee, who just found out how good Kuno really is, and doesn't need to hear you whacking off your own ego over beating him!"

Ranma's eyes widened and he looked at Akane again, remembering the theory Blackfire had put out the other day regarding Akane's abilities or lack thereof. He tried to think of something reassuring to say to her, but was mercifully saved from swallowing his achilles tendon when Akane turned to him with a concerned look and asked, "Are you sure about that? He did manage to hit you."

Despite himself, Ranma couldn't help but preen a little as he stretched casually and said, "Ah, that was nothin'." While ignoring the throbbing pain from the ribs on his right side.

Akane stepped forward and was about to check Ranma to make sure, except there was a blink-and-you'd-miss-it snarl from Blackfire, which gave the bluenette pause as the dark-haired girl fixed a wide, falsely cheery smile on her face as she said, "Oh really? Then this," She slapped a hand against Ranma's side, not harshly, but with a bit more force than a pat on the back. "Doesn't hurt?"

Ranma seized up and dropped to his knees, hissing in pain as Blackfire looked impassively at him. "Not as good as he thought, huh?" While Ranma shot her a one-eye'd glare, Blackfire noticed some of the paper's he'd been grabbing out of the air littering the ground. Digging out that chunk of material regarding Nabiki's motivation for bullshitting Kuno earlier, the alien gave the Ice Queen a slightly predatory grin before saying, "Oh? What's this?" and reaching for the discarded photographs.

Nabiki stiffened, but kept her expression carefully neutral as Blackfire gave a pronounced whistle and gestured to Akane, flashing the bluenette a picture of herself lifting a pair of barbells with a determined look. "Wow, you do good work, Nabiki!"

"What!?" Akane looked from Blackfire, to the picture, then to her fiancee who was holding more pictures, and then finally ending on her sister, who she gave a betrayed look and shouted, "Nee-san, how could you!?"

"What?" Nabiki smiled in a carefree way. "It's just a little hobby of mine."

Akane's groaned in disgust, while Blackfire idly said, "Well, this explains that 'one body one soul' thing you told Kuno."

"Huh?" Ranma looked curiously at Blackfire, still rubbing his sore spot as he got to his feet. "How's that?"

"Because of the blowhard keeps thinking you're two different people, then he'll keep buying pictures of your girlside." Blackfire replied matter-of-factly, before smirking at Ranma and adding, "What, you don't like having a fan, 'tree-borne kettle-girl'?"

Nabiki had a small hope, that among the pictures Kuno had purchased earlier, her latest editions weren't among those that had fallen out of his hakama and thus she could escape from here with her hide intact, having suddenly found herself wrong-footed regarding her brother-in-law's 'traveling companion'.

That hope ended up being for naught as Ranma responded to Blackfire's teasing statement by giving her a narrow eye'd look and snarkily offering, "I don't know. Do you like the idea of Kuno being a fan of yours too?" and thrusting a particular photo in front of the dark-haired girl's face.

Blackfire blinked. Then she blinked again as she refocused on a picture that must have been taken during she and Akane's sparring match the other day, showcasing herself hauling back for a haymaker with an ecstatic grin while Akane had her arms up to intercept the blow. Not that it did any good as Blackfire remembered faking the bluenette out and clotheslining her across the chest, but that didn't matter at the moment as she examined the picture with one twitching eye, before slowly looking at Nabiki, who did a very impressive job of looking unafraid in the face of a very pissed off Tamaranean. Rather than tear a few strips off of her, metaphorically and maybe literally, Blackfire smiled and said, "Ohh, good job, Nabiki. This going to make things a lot easier on me."

Akane, Ranma, and Nabiki all blinked and the brunette asked, "What's that supposed to mean?" with a carefully arched eyebrow, while internally running Blackfire's unexpected reaction through her mind at a rapid pace.

"If Kuno's going to be buying pictures of me, it means I can easily earn my keep around here, since I'm exempt from the 'future family member's get free room and board' rule."

Ranma's jaw dropped and he rounded on Nabiki with an outraged, "What!?"

"I volunteered, Ranma." Blackfire waved off her irate friend. "Cause while I don't mind getting a free meal, I don't want to be put in the same category as your old man."

"Oh...that's fair."

"More than fair," Blackfire purred as she smirked at Nabiki. "Since little miss entrepreneur sells her picture's to Kuno for 1000 yen a pop, I'll make hefty chunk of change with my 50% cut of the profits."

3 shouts echoed almost simultaneously at that statement, with Nabiki hollering "50 PERCENT!?" while her sister let out an equally outraged, "1000 YEN!?" And Ranma crying out in shock, "You're going to LET her take more pictures of you!?"

Answering Ranma's question first, Blackfire offered him a small smile and said, "Why not? She did it anyway, and this way, I can control what's in the pictures and make some money off of it. And…" She turned her eyes back on Nabiki, commending the Ice Queen for not flinching as she brought a glow to her eye's, safe from Akane noticing as the bluenette was standing slightly behind her, and Akane's attention was on the older sibling who'd betrayed her trust. "I'm getting 50%, because otherwise, you're going to have to recoup the losses for buying a new camera, every time I find out you've cheated me out of my fair share."

Nabiki's eyes narrowed a slight chill filled the air. "You're threatening me again?"

Blackfire's lightshow ended, but her smile didn't crack even as Akane and Ranma both looked at her suspiciously, following Nabiki's particular emphasis on the word 'again'. "Oh, Nabiki. Threats are what somebody gives when they don't intend to follow through on them, and there isn't a doubt in my mind that Akane wouldn't care if I broke a few of your camera's." She side-eye'd the bluenette and grinned evilly. "Or if she wanted to have a little sparring match with you."

Nabiki would never admit to being afraid of anyone or anything, but even she couldn't deny the shot of ice water that ran down her spine as her sister's eyes widened in understanding, and then she turned an equally evil smile on her nee-san. "Why, no, Kurohi-san. I wouldn't mind that at all."

(Bitch…) Nabiki mused in a mixture of admiration and anger as she fixed Blackfire with a steely glare. After a few seconds, the brunette growled, "Fine. 500 yen for every picture of you I sell."

"500?" Blackfire repeated with a hint of delight. "Oh, Tendo-san, you think I'm gonna settle for so little? I'm going to see at least 1000 yen per picture, and that's only for the regular schmucks." She looked down at Kuno. "If I don't get at least ¥2500 off of him, I'll be shocked."

"What?!" Nabiki's eye twitched. "Even Kuno has limits, and he doesn't even like you! Why would he pay that much for your picture?!"

At that, Blackfire's smile curved in a sultry manner, and Nabiki was reminded of the night before as the dark-haired girl purred, "Because men have a dick and a brain, and only enough blood to run one at a time. And the pictures you're going to sell of me will be guaranteed to make any guy who looks at them think with their small head more than their big one."

A poignant silence descended at that, with Nabiki's eyes slowly widening while Ranma and Akane's faces reddened significantly. "Y-y-you're going to sell pictures of yourself," Akane sputtered in outrage. "Doing this-and-that!?"

"If you mean sex, no." Blackfire shot the bluenette a dry look. "Cause believe it or not, I do have some restraint. But more than that, I'm hot, and I know how to drive guys crazy."

Ranma felt a flash of gratitude for Blackfire's lessons on minding his words. This was because the urge to agree with her by saying, 'damn right' was promptly dope-smacked by a little mini-version of her, who scowled darkly and pointed at his still angry and embarrassed fianceé. Instead, Ranma scratched the back of his head and gave the dark-haired girl a slightly awkward, unhappy look as he said, "I really don't like that idea, Komie. You shouldn't let guys be seein' your...you know."

Blackfire stilled. And then she slowly turned around, and Ranma realized that he'd simply swapped one foot out of his mouth and replaced it with the other as Blackfire smiled cheerily at him and asked in a voice that was almost Kasumi-esque in tone. "Ranma. Are you telling me what to do?"

Ranma shook his head so quickly, his pale, drawn face became a blur of motion.

"Good boy."

Akane cocked an eyebrow and looked between Blackfire and Ranma a few times while Nabiki stifled the wide smile threatening to break her cold mask, both sisters sharing the identical thought of, (She has him trained well…)

Sufficiently terrified into obedience, Ranma let the shudders die away before looking at the pictures of himself and frowned. Akane, noticing his expression, asked, "What's wrong?" As she glanced at the picture of Ranma-chan demonstrating her lack of feminine modesty by pulling her shirt off in the middle of the yard. The bluenette's eye twitched at the sight of her father in the background of the photo, doing a spit-take while not turning away from his son/daughter-in-law's bared chest.

"I just don't like the idea of guys liking my girlside, you know?" Ranma pursed his lips as he looked down at the unconscious Kuno. "Especially the guys around here…"

The heavy tone of disgust in Ranma's voice gave the bluenette a strange, happy feeling. Like she'd found a comrade-in-arms regarding Kuno and the horde, even as that nagging insecurity regarding her abilities needled her with image after image of Kuno attacking Ranma with a speed she'd never seen before.

"Then again." Ranma looked back at his picture and said, "I don't blame em. My cursed form is probably the hottest girl they've ever seen before."

Nabiki blinked as Blackfire's face fell, the two of them having moved away from the engaged pair to discuss things privately, even as the dark-haired girl deadpanned, "Did he really just say that?"

"Yeah." Nabiki affirmed with a look over Blackfire's shoulder, to where her sister was glaring daggers at her fiancé. "Yeah, he did."

"...we'll finish this up later," Blackfire declared with a growl as she walked past Nabiki and headed back towards school. "Cause I am not helping him."

"Fair enough." The brunette replied as she made to follow her roommate, the two of them ignoring the sudden sounds of pain and violence coming from behind them. As they left the scene however, Nabiki side-eye'd Blackfire and smiled. "There is one upside to this though."

"And that is?"

"Ranma beat Kuno. And this time, there were witnesses."

Blackfire blinked as that thought struck her, and her previously irritated expression morphed into one of almost indecent joy as she crowed, "Ohh yeah! I can't believe I forgot about that!" The dark-haired girl threw her head back and smiled at the sky as she added with a relieved sigh, "Now things are starting to look up."

OOOOOO

Author notes

1: Chuunibyou, AKA 2nd year syndrome is something that usually happens in middle-school, or to those with the maturity of middle-schoolers, where they'll act all 'special' and 'unique' and 'mysterious' in edge-lordy ways. (For example: Lala the Dullahan from "Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou/Daily Life With A Monster Girl" is a/going through Chuunibyou by playing up the myth that Dullahan's are messengers of death...and since the protagonist of DLWaMG remembers acting like that when he was younger, he knows she's fulla shit.)

2: My brain is a weird and oftentimes musical place. A song that I consider to be a 'theme' for Blackfire is Feng Shui Engine Remix by MusicMasterKasb.

3: As for Blackfire and Akane's 'relationship', it was one of those situations where it just fit an empty puzzle-piece slot in my head and I ran with it, especially because too many people see Akane's behavior and go 'Spoiled brat' and 'weak' while dismissing her own skills in the Art. She's not a bad fighter, she's just not as good as many of the wrecking crew, and that's a completely different animal. When you throw in the fact that all they do is treat her with kid gloves or dismiss her entirely, well...let's just say a little Fight Club bonding will probably do wonders, eh?

4: While Ranma's dream sounds fairly creepy and dark, I heard something far different and funnier inside my head when Kuno showed up. (DBZ Abridged, Episode 10, when Goku and Vegeta had the Garlic Gun/Kamehameha beam struggle)

5: Library-Fu. 'Nuff said.

6: I repeat, in certain ways, this seems like I'm sticking to Canon. But next time, the first big shake-up arrives, due to Blackfire having an 'almost' nuclear meltdown.

Reformations part 4 will hopefully be coming soon, even if college is bending me over a table and making me spell RUN. Please be patient with me, and have faith…

Also, thinking about releasing a few other fics on here that are Ranma related, 1 crossover, 1 not. (plenty of references in the 'not' though.) We'll see what happens...and if I can keep those stories updated on a firm schedule rather than this one where I'm playing grab-ass and catch-up.