Chapter 10: The Arrival

Disclaimer: I don't Ranma ½, Inuyasha, School Rumble or Full Metal Panic. They are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Kobayashi Jin and Shinji Gatou.

Okay, thanks for the reviews people. I've stopped hyperventilating. I really needed that booster.

As for my incorrigible silence, I have not forgotten about this story. Instead, I have been doing the one thing I thought I would never be doing.

I am planning the storyline.

I never thought I would ever be doing this. But, I suppose it does help: remember from TOWORT that the story happened in different arcs?

To recap, here they are: Nerima Arc (The one week spent in Nerima), Sengoku Jidai Arc (500 years in the past), Shiro Higurashi Arc (no need to explain here) and the aftermath.

These ideas came to me one at a time, which is kinda why they were broken into these separate parts. Crossover High will follow a similar structure, though I highly hope avoiding this path.

As such, over the next few weeks, the silence from me will mean that I'll be altering the storyline where applicable.

But enough rambling. Let's get this show on the road!

As Ukyo and Akane stepped off the train, they found that they had a considerable walk to make to get to their new residence. Thankfully, however, pulling some strings, Nabiki arranged for a pair of bikes to be placed outside the station for their use. After all, they weren't in Nerima and Akane couldn't roof hop (at least, efficiently: 'Japan's biggest klutz' would be Ranma's 'nice way' of putting it).

When they got halfway to their new residence, they saw a huge, red, familiar building. Akane and Ukyo saw it and knew that it meant one thing.

The Nekohanten had moved to Yagami.

Infuriated, Akane got off her bike and stormed to the door, only to dodge at the last second when Shampoo came out, holding her takeout delivery box.

"Hmm? What pervert girl and spatula girl doing here?"

"I think the more appropriate question is what are YOU doing here?" yelled Akane.

"Ah, Shampoo hear Ranma come down here. So, great grandmother and Shampoo come here to open up."

"Weren't you going home?" asked Ukyo suspiciously. She now had decent competition for her food.

"Shampoo said so, but great grandmother said we come here instead."

Akane was infuriated at this and tried to charge at Shampoo. However, Ukyo held the girl in place.

"Not now, Akane."

Shampoo, though, took no notice of this and said, "Shampoo go make delivery now. BYE BYE!" Shampoo jumped onto her bike and rode off.

With the Chinese Amazon bimbo gone, Ukyo let go of Akane. "Akane, you need to calm down a bit."

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? ARE YOU OUTTA YOUR MIND? SHE'S HERE FOR RANMA! I'M NOT GONNA LET HER TAKE HIM!"

"Come one, let's go to the restaurant. We need to go set up."

And so, with that annoyance out of the way, Akane and Ukyo climbed back onto their bikes and rode off down the street.

Ranma and Ryoga made good time across the countryside, running into the town with their luggage whilst sheens of sweat covered their brows.

To pass the time, Ranma and Ryoga made it a competition to see who could get into town first. Naturally, this meant they had run across the countryside, leaving behind a not so noticeable (NOT!) trail of destruction.

Ranma, whilst running, had thought of a new idea for his school of ki based attacks and decided to try pumping ki into his legs to help boost his strength and power. Surprisingly, it had worked and Ranma thought of it as a potential idea for the school. However, Ranma would soon nearly discard the idea after feeling its would include nausea, sore legs and, well, a lot of general hurt.

But, that's then and this is now. Right now, Ranma had managed to win the race by a hair's breadth (Ryoga was a sizable tank) and had taken bragging rights. At least, until they heard something in a distant alleyway.

As they walked into the dank and wet place, they heard the sounds of fighting. Moments later, a body flew in front of them as the last bit of fighting cleared up.

"Damn…you…Hari…Mc…Ken…ji…" was the last words of the man before passing out.

'Harima Kenji?' thought Ranma.

As the dust settled, they saw a blond haired man with red shades, standing in front of a yellow bike. He dressed richly, with a red leather jacket and white pants. (going from memory here, people)

"You're not Harima Kenji!" yelled Ranma incredulously. However, before he could reply, a shout was heard from behind him.

(And now, it's time for a bit canon material)

"HARIMA KENJI!"

Everyone looked around to see Hanai Haruki bulldozing himself towards the group, dressed in his gi.

As he stopped in front of the group, he finally saw the people standing. However, he only recognized one.

"Saotome Ranma! Where is Harima?"

"Don't look at me. I haven't seen him all day."

"Why does everyone keep saying it wrong?" The three martial artists looked at the man, who relaxed.

"It is not 'Harima Kenji.' It's Harry McKenzie." (In Japanese, 'zi' is pronounced as 'ji' or as 'zi'. Obviously, to keep in line with the gags, it's pronounced 'ji')

Hanai's mouth dropped open as he realized his mistake.

"You knew me and called, did you not?"

Hanai looked at him, dumbfounded. However, Harry McKenzie took no notice and continued.

"But, young man, when you ask someone for their name, you must first introduce yours. Is that not the proper manner in this country?"

Realizing his mistake, he started sweating. "Er…my name is Hanai Haruki. Tell me this. Did you do all this?" he asked, looking around at the carnage.

'No shit, Sherlock,' thought Ranma and Ryoga.

Harry continued. "I wanted to settle this peacefully. But Japanese people are so aggressive. They almost hurt themselves really badly."

"But that is strange," Hanai began before Ranma spoke out.

"Not bad. Nearly all their joints have been dislocated and their hips are seriously injured. Couldn't have done better myself."

'You flatter yourself, Ranma,' thought Ryoga, sweat dropping.

"Normal gang fights wouldn't go that far, Saotome," said Hanai

At this point, Ranma turned to look at the pair.

"Name's Saotome Ranma. That's Hibiki Ryoga," he said, pointing at the boy.

"Oh? How about this? Would you believe that I single handedly defeated them all?"

"Well, I didn't think it would go this far…"

"Right? That's just not possible! Not possible! No way!" He soon burst into laughter.

Hanai scratched his head in a Ranma-nesque way, before being forced to defend from Harry's oncoming attacks. Luckily, after the first few punches, Hanai managed a counter attack throwing a punch that stopped Harry from attacking.

"Not bad," said Ryoga.

'T-this guy…' thought Hanai.

"Oh? Hold on a second. A lady is watching," Harry said.

"Oh? Yakumo?" said Ranma.

"Saotome-san, Hanai-senpai!"

Hanai looked around and saw the red-eyed girl looking at their gathering.

'Yakumo?' thought Ryoga. 'Where's the honorific?'

"Y-Y-Yakumo-kun! There's a really good explanation for this…rather, what are you doing this?" he asked, changing the subject halfway his statement.

"Eh, umm, well I was working at my part time job and…"

Harry, though, walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, grabbing her attention. "Excuse me, miss, this place is dangerous. Please step back."

Hanai, infuriated at what he saw, yelled angrily, "Why you…Very well! I will fight you! You shameless bastard!"

"Hmm. You marked my words!"

The standoff went on for a few seconds before Ranma looked to the side.

'This can't be good…'

"Yo, I'm here!"

This statement was enough to attract everyone's attention. However, running through Hanai's head was some rather 'disturbing' thoughts.

'Harima and Yakumo, having a rendezvous?'

However, Harima was only interested in the envelope in his hands, which was hurriedly hidden behind his back.

"Eh? Er, this is not what you think it is!"

"Then why have you come here? To this empty, back alley? Answer me!" said Hanai, flaring his aura.

'He better give a good answer,' thought Ranma.

"Er…actually, the reason is…" 'Crap, hold on, Kenji! If you tell him now, he will find out about your manga! And he is the last person you want to find out!'

Harima regained his composure and said, "What else? To kick your ass!"

'I knew it…' Ranma thought, face palming.

"I like your determination. I will show you the results of my training!"

"Hey, hey…" started Harry.

As Harry kept the boys busy, Ranma ran up to Yakumo and said, "Back off a little bit. Things are gonna get messy."

She nodded and backed up against the wall, looking at the unfolding scene. However, when Harima was carelessly knocked down by Harry and knocking down the envelope, she ran forward, exclaiming, "Ah! The manuscript!"

'Manuscript?' thought Ranma.

Ryoga just stood there, wondering if he was actually a part of this.

However, Harima jut said, "Don't pick that up, Imouto-san. YOU PICK THAT UP, YOU BASTARD!"

Harima charged at Harry, throwing all-or-nothing punches. Harry, though, dodged all of them.

"You have good punches." *DODGE* "But they mean nothing if it doesn't connect!" Harima, in response, leapt at him and flew into a flying kick, Bruce Lee style.

'What?' thought Harry. 'This guy…'

Harry then then let Harima fall to the ground and started a roundhouse kick at Harima, only to be blocked by Hanai.

"I'm your opponent, am I not?" he said.

Ranma used this moment to run to the fallen papers on the ground and pick them up.

'What the? Is this manga?' Ranma then looked at the signature. 'Harima Hario. How original.' He replaced the papers and gave them to Yakumo.

"Interesting…" said Harry. "And I thought there were no more samurai in this country…never mind."

As Harima stood up, the reason for this obscure statement was unveiled. The beret he had been wearing underneath revealed a bald head.

"I see you've noticed it. What's wrong? Why have you stopped?"

Hanai, looking at him, backed up against the wall, horrified.

"It's too late to back down, now that you have seen my power." His head gleamed in the sun.

'Is this the renowned samurai?' thought Harry, surprised. 'So shiny!'

Yakumo, though, took no notice and picked up his hat and offered it to him.

Hanai, though, had other thoughts. 'This baldy, Yakumo-kun? Is it this baldy? That stole your heart?'

Harima let out a bull-like roar, charging at him. However, Harry continued to dodge.

As Harima continued to fight, some of the garbage bins flew into the air and fell towards Yakumo.

'Ah!' Yakumo shielded herself, expecting it to hit her. It didn't come.

Instead, Ranma was in front of her, arm outstretched, holding the bin with his palm.

"Now look, I don't know why you're fighting here. But if you are gonna fight, at least do so in a place where you won't hurt innocent bystanders," said Ranma.

All in all, a very rushed scene of events took place, Ryoga deduced. His carefully trained eyes saw Hanai charge at Harima for endangering Yakumo. Right after that, more bits of loose things flew towards Yakumo. Ranma used Amaguriken speed to block all the oncoming projectiles. One of which included a garbage bin with garbage water in it.

As Ranma-chan looked at herself, she said, "Ah well, coulda been worse."

A garbage lid hit her in the face.

"THAT'S IT! WHO WANTS SOME OF THIS?" she yelled, leaping into the fray.

As the contenders fought against each other, Yakumo looked bewildered. Ryoga was puzzled as to how a simple meeting to discuss the contents of the envelope could to turn into an all out brawl between three men and a transgender girl.

Maybe Nerima was taking a hike into Yagami.

Then again, maybe not.

The victor saw the three boys walking off with mere bruises. After Ranma-chan had given each boy a thorough ass-kicking, she 'politely' asked each to leave. Whilst this may be incredulous, note the 'politely' had been 'EXTRA polite.' If you get my drift.

"Oh!"

Hanai looked at the Ryoga. "Whilst I may not like to do this, I till have my duties to uphold. If you see Saotome, tell him to come into school. We have the Athletics Carnival selections coming up." He then walked off without a glance towards Ranma-chan, probably because of his tattered pride. Harima and Yakumo soon left together, probably to discuss their manga. Harry just roared away with his bike.

When Ranma-chan pulled out her thermos, Ryoga asked, "Who the hell were those guys?"

"Well, I don't know who the guy with blonde hair is. The one with sunglasses is Harima Kenji, delinquent and, apparently, a manga-ka (manga artist). The one with glasses and dressed in the gi is Hanai Haruki, male leader of 2-C, my homeroom. You're in their too, by the way," said Ranma, turning back into a guy halfway during the speech.

"The girl is Tsukamoto Yakumo, in 1-D. Her sister's in my class, 2-C. I've actually met them before."

"Oh?"

And, as Ranma was telling Ryoga about his first visit to Yagami (refer to Ch. 1), they walked the little distance they had left to get to the restaurant, arriving about 5 minutes later, where Akane was waiting for him.

"There you are!" *WHAM*

Ranma geld the lump which had appeared. "What was that for?"

"You didn't say goodbye to me!"

"Ah." Ranma pulled her into a full French makeout.

"Get a room!" yelled Ryoga, looking to see where Ukyo was.

As Ranma detached himself from Akane, he said, "That make up for it?"

"Maybe," she responded cheekily.

As Ranma walked inside, Ukyo came out and saw Ryoga, hugged him and kissed him, which promptly made him nose bleed. He was still shy around cute girls.

However, as always, all good things come to an end. And so, with the end of the day, Ukyo cooked up her dinner and Akane, heavily supervised, made deserts, which were given great comments. Ranma then walked out of the room, saying he needed training. He then ran 100 km away and threw up, then began to work on his new idea.

When Ranma came back, sweaty and dirty, he found the furo all ready for him. He sank into the depths of the water and started theorizing about his new school.

'Well, with the cold aura, I might just be able to conjure up a Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken at freezing temperatures. That's gonna be something I need to figure out.'

'And, if I'm gonna be using Soul of Ice, I might as well do something hot for the heck of it. Hell, it might be easier than Soul of Ice. Herb did say the Amazon techniques were a good place to start.'

'And, another thing could be that I could combine the two…hey, that might actually work!'

"I got it!"

He stood up, punching the air just as Ryoga came through the doorway.

"Got what, Ranma?"

"Huh? Oh, just a new idea for an attack," he replied, sitting back down.

"Well, hurry up, I need to use that too, you know."

"Be my guest," he said, getting out.

As Ranma left the furo, completely dressed, he walked down the hallway to his new room. He opened the door and found what he had brought set up for him, presumably by Akane.

He had a copy of the picture from Toma's island, some of the assorted weapons he had found over the years, including the Gekkaja (Saffron never called when he took it) and some of the minor items.

Then his eyes fell on a wooden necklace. He remembered that he was supposed to give it to Kagome before he left. Maybe he'd give it to her for a birthday present.

It was basically a set of wooden beads not unlike that the ones Buddhist monks used. The difference is this set was small enough to fit around his wrist and that in the middle of each bead, was a kanji.

'Aishiteru, Kagome. Ranma.'

He picked it up and looked at it, realizing that while Kagome may find it a great gift, others may find it misleading. Particularly Akane and Inuyasha.

Then he realized the Akane hadn't confronted him about it yet, which meant she was doing a great job of holding in her anger (unlikely, but possible, given her training), Ukyo had managed to calm her down or Ukyo had set up the room.

The last guess turned out to be right when he heard a knock on the door and he opened it. Ukyo stood there, looking at the bracelet.

"I see that you're the one who set everything up," said Ranma.

"Well, I was gonna get Akane to do it, but she was too preoccupied with waiting for you," she said. "When…" Ranma knew what she was going to say and signaled her to stop.

"Just before I left, I got it for her, using all the money which I scrapped together. And that was no easy task, considering Pop. I was gonna give it to her, but then I left for China. When I got to the Tendo's, I had just remembered about it. So, while I was sitting there, I thought, 'Ah, well. Too late now. I don't even know where she lived.' So, I held onto it, as a good luck charm. Probably what actually made me survive Nerima."

"And…"

"Maybe White Day or her birthday. Not too far off."

"Right. So…"

"No. This is between me and Kagome. I'm not gonna tell Akane. It's a gift, nothing more."

"Well, she may see it the wrong way."

"I know. But, I really do want to give this to Kagome, seeing as it was supposed to go to her."

Ukyo nodded. "I won't say anything else, then." She left, bidding Ranma good night.

Ranma sighed, holding the bracelet in his hands. 'Well, there might be another use for it, but for now, I think as a gift would be the best use for it.'

He stored the bracelet away, hopefully for another day.

Okay, into the good part, now. 10 chapters and I've nearly set everything to go. I know I've said I would have everything set up by now, but I promise to have it all set up by Ch. 11. If not, you don't have to review for me for one week and I have to give you guys two chapters as punishment.

As for the bracelet thing, I was gonna include it in TOWORT, but I never found a good time to include it. However, that'll be the basis of the next story I'll do, after SOSN.

On another note, though, just make sure to tell me what you think. See the little button down there? Yeah, the one that says review chapter/story? Yeah, that's the one. Press it. It brings good luck. Especially if you write comments. Good or bad, doesn't matter. So, yeah, press it.

Laters, people!