Finally, it was the end of the three days Ranma had to spend at school as a girl. And it had been a hectic three days as well, with the introduction of a new boy at Furinkan. Certainly, a lot more things had happened in the span of those three days than average. But now that Ranma could return to his male form, maybe everything at school would calm down too.

Ranma found himself ready for breakfast a lot sooner than usual, and with his father gone, he had nobody to spar with either. Itching to have something to do, Ranma decided to go see how Kasumi was doing in the kitchen.

"Hey Kasumi, is there anything you need help with?" Ranma asked as he peered round the edge of the doorway.

"Oh hi! I forgot you were a boy again now!" Kasumi said without turning round, still stirring the soup. "Actually, I'm fine… but I guess you could help chop up some onions?" she said, realising Ranma wanted to do something at least.

Ranma grabbed a knife to begin chopping. "Sure! I can manage onions without crying, no problem!"

Kasumi smiled. "I'm sure you can. What about when you're in your girl form? Do you cry then?"

"I don't know, I've never tried,"

"Maybe you should. You might be better at cooking if you do it in your girl form."

Ranma thought about this for a moment. "Hmm… But I won't ever need to, so I'll just stick in the form I prefer."

"I guess you really are glad to be back as a boy."

"Uh huh! Of course! Now I can go back and beat up all the boys who looked at me over the past three days!" Ranma said, chopping the onions faster. "And Happosai! Especially him!"


When Ranma and Akane got to school, Kuno and Ukyo were already there and waiting again. Akane instinctively and automatically ran up to Kuno and gave him a mighty kick that sent him flying. He could be heard crying out "Date meeeeeeee" as he flew further away, in a wide arc over the school. The three others watched his trajectory until he was out of sight behind the school building.

"Hey, where's Ranko?" was the first thing Ukyo asked. But then he saw who it was in front of him, Ranma Saotome instead of Ranko. Ukyo jumped back, and glared at him menacingly. "You're here! What kept you so long, hiding for three days?"

Ranma was taken aback. What had he done to aggravate Ukyo? And even if there was something, wouldn't it have been when he was a girl?

Then he remembered that Ukyo had mentioned something about this before. Luckily his secret wasn't exposed just yet.

Ranma decided to deal with the sudden problem that had appeared with one of the trademark Saotome techniques: running away. He dragged Akane with him through the front doors and up the stairs to their classroom.

"Hey! Don't try to run off!" Ukyo shouted at him, but he was already away.


However, Ukyo was in the same class as Ranma and Akane. "Crap! How did I manage to forget that?" Ranma thought when he saw Ukyo follow the two of them into their classroom. Ukyo did not look pleased at all, he had a stern look on his face that didn't give away much.

Ukyo, surprisingly enough, did not talk to Ranma though, instead he sat back in his own seat as if nothing had happened, apart from his sour mood.

"Huh?" Ranma said. What was up with him? One moment he was attacking him, the next he was ignoring him? How confusing.

Akane was, naturally, sulking about how Ranma had violently dragged her. But instead of beating him up, this time she was venting about it to Yuka and Sayuri. "My arm still hurts from that! He's so inconsiderate, he should know I like Ukyo!"

Yuka gasped. "You… you like Ukyo?"

"No! Not like that! As in, I don't want to get dragged into whatever fight Ranma's having with him."

"Oh…" Yuka sighed, with a hint of disappointment and relief. Sayuri on the other hand sniggered.

"Shut up!" said Akane.

Akane glared at where Ranma was sitting. He was currently slouched on the desk. Then he looked up, saw Akane's expression, gave a "hmph!" and turned his head away. Akane did the same.

A little later, their teacher came into the classroom to take the register and other such duties. The whole class hushed down and moved to their seats.

Then Ukyo got up and walked to the front of the class. The teacher was puzzled, but stood to the side.

"I have an announcement to make!" Ukyo declared. "I challenge Ranma Saotome to a duel, today, at noon, on the school yard in front of the gym!"

Ukyo finished his speech, looking around the class, feeling satisfied. But instead of the faces of surprise he expected, he was met with looks of boredom.

"Again?"

"Really?"

"Of course this happens…"

"Give me a break…"

Ukyo looked around, confused.

"Alright, now if you're done now, get back to your seat. I need to take the register." the teacher said, pushing Ukyo aside and taking his place at the centre of the front. Ukyo, a bit unsure, walked back to his desk and sat down.

"Well that wasn't the result I was looking for…"


Lunch break came around, and most of the school had already gathered around a space in front of the gym. In the centre was a raised platform with ropes around the edge, resembling a boxing ring. There was clearly something about to happen, a fight most likely, but naturally most of the students already knew from the gossip being passed around and between classes throughout the morning. The only people oblivious to all this were the teachers, and that wasn't because they didn't know, it was that they didn't want to interfere and possibly get hurt. Everybody knew that nobody was a match for either Ukyo or Ranma in this school.

In the centre of the ring stood Ukyo. He had already prepared by setting up some pots full of ingredients along the edge of the ring. The aroma of the freshly prepared ingredients wafted far and wide, giving everyone an appetite. By now most students had encountered Ukyo's cooking. His okonomiyaki had already become famous throughout the school. Because of this a lot of the students were in support of Ukyo, and had even bet on him to win this fight. This wasn't entirely motivated by food, however - there was also the fact that Ukyo had comprehensively beaten Kuno at his own game.

On the edge of the crowd, pushing his way through, was Ranma. He was not particularly happy about this, having to fight somebody because of some grudge held against him again. While Ranma enjoyed being able to freely fight against someone, he didn't know how good or bad Ukyo was. Also, to be frank, Ranma simply wanted a bit of a break this day after having to spend three strenuous days as his female self.

Anyway, Ranma made it to the ring, and hopped in. "Why don't you tell me first why you even challenged me to this duel? I think I have a right to know."

Ukyo looked somewhat taken aback. "You need me to explain to you why I'm doing such a thing? What are you, dumb?"

"Hey, don't call me dumb! I can't remember a thing I could have done to upset you from the day we met to when we left! Unless you're still upset about me beating you everyday for okonomiyaki?" Ranma shouted back.

"What? No! Are you actually stupid, it was because of you leaving!" Ukyo shouted back.

"Well, sorry for not giving you a proper farewell!"

This whole motive for revenge reminded Ranma of a certain somebody else. Was it in his fate to cause bad things to happen to people he left or something?

"Oh, for god's sake! That's enough talking, it's time for fighting!" Ukyo pointed at Ranma for greater dramatic effect. The crowd cheered.

"Oh, you wanna fight? I'm ready!" Ranma said, sinking into stance.

Ukyo and Ranma readied to charge at each other.


Oh dear, I'm rapidly reaching the point where I have no idea what to put next. But here's what I had saved about three months ago, and I figured I should at least put it out here first. Another reason I decided to stop here is because I struggle to write fight scenes a lot. How do I not repeat myself too much when I write them?

Well, whatever. Don't expect a chapter 5 anytime soon though. I might come back to this but it might very well end up being rewritten, and even then that's not very likely. Or maybe I'll start another story, only this time I'll actually put some planning into it.

Other questions - what is too short for a chapter, and what is too long? This chapter is substantially shorter than the other three, because I gave up halfway through, but is it actually too short to publish as a complete chapter? I realise different people have different styles and preferences, but I'd like to know what people actually like.

Is the description for this story okay, or should I put more detail into it? I know that I only choose to read something if the description intrigues me, but I don't know exactly what that even is. Right now the current summary seems to me to be a bit low-effort.

Okay I'm rambling on quite a bit now. Goodbye readers.