Quantum Destinies

by Jurai Knight

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world and has done so for almost a century. This is the story of the Ranma 1/2 cast set on that Earth.

26. The Ohtori Gambit

*** Heaven +2.615, -1.494

Belldandy sighed softly as she absently watched the system monitors, noting the ebbs and flows of the various energies of the universe as the numbers were processed through Yggdrasil. She sometimes disliked the occasional solitude of her duties, but someone had to do them. Along with her two beloved sisters, she maintained Yggdrasil in its proper working order, and she was proud (in her own way) to sustain this sacred trust. As the System Administrator, it was her vital duty to work the long hours necessary for keeping all its functions in stable working order. After all, her work here was all she had left, since the day not too long ago when Kami-sama unexpectedly turned the Goddess Relief Office over to Peorth's control for an indeterminate duration. Belldandy's current duties at least kept her occupied, but they were not as fulfilling as the ones she had once performed.

Tapping away at the interface before her (appearing as a keyboard composed of solid light), Belldandy called up one of the Earth Realm monitors available to her. A life-like image appeared in midair, and she smiled somewhat sadly at the face revealed to her. She had never met the particular mortal she now watched, yet his life had somehow fascinated her for several years now. Today was his wedding day, if she understood the significance of the ceremony he was currently involved in correctly. She watched as he took the small cup of sake from the robed and veiled woman before him, her face covered with thick layers of white makeup so that it appeared to be that of a porcelain doll. A single tear rolled down one of Belldandy's cheeks as she saw him drink from the cup and smile at the young woman before him.

However, despite her unexpected melancholy at the sight, the young goddess was not worried for his future. She had watched their first meeting and the following marriage arrangements made between the two families, all done in the traditional manner. She had witnessed both young mortals explore a hesitant courtship with each other as they shyly fell in love. Now, she saw the culmination of their tender passions for each other in matrimony. Another tear slowly rolled down her cheek, and Belldandy absently rubbed it away, chiding herself for growing so attached to a mere mortal. She was very happy for him, yet strangely wistful all the same. She knew that the mortal woman would love him as deeply as any woman could, even as deeply as the young goddess watching found herself wishing that she could.

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*** Earth +2.615, -1.494

Unaware of the benevolent witness to their nuptials, a nerve-racked Keiichi Morisato stood next to his shy, new bride, now known as Kasumi Morisato. The kneeling pair turned to face their friends and their respective families, who had come to share in this happy event. The bride, understandably unwilling to disturb the white perfection of her makeup, could only show her happiness through her eyes, but every guest could see that they shone brightly with her emotions.

The view briefly panned around the audience, showing another young couple seated near the front for a moment. Both teens were dressed in a traditional manner for this solemn occasion. The boy, a seventeen-year old youth named Kinagi Tendo, wore his brown hair tied back into a tight pigtail. He was only recently returned to his family from a grueling, decade-long training trip studying the martial arts under his father's friend, Genma Saotome. On his right sat a black-haired girl, Ranko Saotome, his fiancée and primary sparring partner of late. While she was mainly watching the proceedings, occasionally she glanced at the boy seated next to her, and, more wrathfully, at the Chinese girl clinging to Kinagi like a limpet. She also watched the windows and doors, as if expecting intruders.

Hanging by her fingers outside the window, Sakura Kasugano watched the proceedings with envy, occasionally turning a spiteful gaze at the girl seated with her Tendo-senpai, the boy she loved with all her being. A long, still-healing cut ran down the side of her face, one certain to leave a scar. She ached with her need to attack the Saotome girl, to avenge herself for her injury. She could not imagine hating anyone more than she hated Ranko Saotome. Only her promise to the Tendo boy to not disrupt his sister's marriage held her at bay.

In the back of the room, Asuka Saginomiya struggled against her bonds and tried to work the gag free from her mouth, seething within for being bound like this by her nemesis, that miserable Ranko Saotome strumpet. How dare that lowly commoner treat one of her breeding like this? She was the White Lily! She was the one true love of her precious Kinagi-sama!

Perfume spent most of her time sighing happily as she watched the ceremony while clinging to the arm of her Airen. Occasionally, she stared daggers at the dark-haired Saotome girl. Once the wedding couple departed, the truce Kinagi had asked for would be done. Then Perfume would attack and try to finally end her rivalry with the shorter girl once and for all.

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*** Heaven +2.615, -1.494

So intent was Belldandy on watching all aspects of the wedding that she did not sense the sudden intrusion into the datacore. A solitary figure slowly materialized next to one wall in the chamber, appearing in a swirl of amber light. It stood completely cloaked in dark robes, its head concealed from view behind a hood. Without hesitation, it strode over to one of the nearby consoles and stretched forth a gloved hand. Runes began to scroll across the display in a blur, the figure studying them very intently. As it did so, the face was finally revealed: the Shogun of the Dark.

The Shogun quickly found what he was looking for and paused the display to study the runes on the screen, frowning at what he was seeing. That damnable Washu had somehow managed to bring the equally irritating Doctor back to life and combined forces with him! It appeared the pair would stymie him once again on this iteration. After a few moments, he gestured at the display with one hand in disgust, and the console went back to its normal mode. Stepping away from the wall and turning around, his task completed, he halted for a brief time and watched the scene that the solitary goddess was watching, as well as Belldandy herself. While he did so, he idly recalled once brutally ending the young goddess' life on a prior iteration and obtaining her access codes. While he could not use them as-is on subsequent iterations, they had enabled him to forge new access codes for himself whenever he had need of them.

Perhaps somehow sensing eyes upon her, Belldandy quickly turned and glanced around the chamber, but her senses detected nothing. She checked the system logs, but she was the only one logged in right now. She frowned; a terminal she had been using earlier was still logged into the system. She chastised herself for her carelessness and shut it down.

Suspecting that it was only some sort of phantasm conjured up by her own unexpected emotionalism, the Goddess of the Present eventually turned back to her consoles. She felt safe in the knowledge that the security monitors would sound if there was any unauthorized presence. She went back to studying the young man displayed once more.

Behind Belldandy, the Shogun raised a hand and dissolved away into amber light, a glow that quickly vanished into nothingness. He had already formulated a plan to finally eliminate the Doctor and Washu from any future opposition.

Perhaps on the next iteration he would finally win.

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Quantum Destinies

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic

By S. Thesken aka Jurai Knight

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. This story is inspired by her works and the stories from some of my fellow fanfic authors. Among these are D.B. Sommer's "Shampoo 1/2", Jim Bader's "A Very Scary Thought -aka- Nabiki 1/2", and John Biles' Elseworlds series. All C&C is welcome.

The list of worlds reoccurring in this chapter:

Earth 0.000, 0.000 - The world of Scholar Ranma (Baseline cluster)

Earth +4.612, +4.509 - The world of Shampoo 1/2 (Shampoo 1/2 cluster)

What has gone before in this story (or at least what will help you understand what is going on):

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world and has done so for almost a century. Theorizing that one could travel to alternate timelines by possessing counterparts in them, a young scientist named Ranma Saotome, through use of a device of his own invention, accidentally obtained the skills and memories of a martial artist version of himself. Mousse made his way back to Joketsuzoku after his ordeal at Jusenkyo. Yusaku Godai began dealing with his own women problems. Ryoga and Ukyo finally met and fought, and the truth of Ukyo's gender was revealed by Nabiki towards the end of it, earning the Tendo girl Ukyo's wrath. Genma visits the Arena and enrolls Ranma to participate in an upcoming Amazon Challenge. Ranma began establishing his identity as 'Ranko Kuonji' with Yumi's help, and adjusting to the part of him that was now female. Kuno gets a date to the upcoming dance at Ohtori. Ukyo acquires a familiar admirer, and some individuals from Shampoo's past begin travelling to Tokyo.

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Chapter 26 – The Ohtori Gambit

The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena

of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the

laws of Nature and the player on the other side is hidden

from us.

- Thomas Huxley

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*** Earth 0.000, 0.000

The clash of blades sounded as Juri and Utena locked their weapons together, each of them straining to push the other back. The rising sun cast slowly moving shadows around the pair as their morning duel progressed. Utena shifted suddenly and kneed Juri low in the gut. She was feeling light, and it showed in her graceful movements, smiling almost as brightly as the sun itself. Frankly, combined with what had happened at the Kunos, it was irritating Juri and putting her off her timing.

Utena was happy because Ranma was coming with her to the Spring Formal. Ever since he had accepted her invitation, it seemed like nothing could bring down her mood, not even the likes of Nanami Kiryuu or Saionji Kyouichi. After only a relatively brief time spent in the pigtailed boy's presence, she felt she now truly understood what it meant to find her prince, an amusing thing since she considered herself a prince as well. Her step was light as her heart seemed to sing within her as she battered Juri backwards, her weapon ringing against the other girl's.

The redheaded Juri was still in a bit of shock over what had happened between her and Tatewaki Kuno: her parents were forcing her to attend the Spring Formal with the Kuno heir. Judging by her mother's state of happiness over the past several days, it was also entirely possible that their parents had made an engagement agreement behind their backs. She wished the boy had given her some excuse to engage him in a duel, to see if his reputed skill with a blade was undeserved, but he gave her no such excuse. His manners were impeccable that night. While he spoke in an older, courtlier fashion, it was an oddly charming affectation. And when he had looked at her...

She shied away from her memories of that moment. She was not some weak, swooning girl prone to getting faint-hearted over a boy like so many of the spineless girls on Ohtori's campus. No, she was Juri Arisugawa, a young woman who prided herself on her strength and independence. Ask any of her peers in the Student Council, and they would attest to that. When she and the Kuno heir were together at the dance, she would just ask him outright if he knew anything of an engagement. Right now, she was uncertain if she wanted it to be true or not, which only added to her distraction and made things even easier for Utena.

Off to one side, Miki Kaoru was absently trying to occupy himself with his stopwatch, his attention was distracted. All he could seem to think about was Kodachi Kuno and seeing her at the dance that weekend. He sighed wistfully, his gaze distant.

While Touga Kiryuu was not one to sigh wistfully for any woman, he too was thinking about the upcoming dance, his heart a bit lighter in his chest. Fortunately for him, his troublesome younger sister had been assigned by the family to be the escort for Mikado Sanzenin, so that should keep her from getting under foot while he worked on wooing the eminently attractive Nabiki Tendo. He considered again how best to combine his two goals: seducing the Tendo girl and also eliminating Ranma Saotome from the picture.

Well, he still had a few more days to put a plan into action. He gave a smile to Miki, but his co-conspirator was caught up in his pining for the Kuno girl. That amused Touga.

It was promising to be the most interesting social event of the year.

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As was his usual routine, after completing his early morning workout, Tatewaki Kuno was now meditating, striving to clear his mind of all thought, to empty himself of all distractions. He failed. His mind was troubled, preventing him from achieving serenity. He had not slept well at all last night, not since meeting the Arisugawa girl.

His eyes suddenly opened at the mere thought of her name, seeming to blaze within from the passions he felt burning inside him. He could not get her out of his mind, not since meeting her. Yet how could he be so fickle in his feelings? How could he let his noble, valorous heart stray from his two fierce lionesses, the beautiful Tendo sisters? It was like he was bewitched by the newcomer to his life, like the clever Nabiki and the spirited Akane had previously bewitched him.

She had been dressed traditionally and been properly demure in her movements, but she could have been naked for as much attention as he had paid to her attire. In truth, he was hard pressed to even recall the color of her kimono. He had gazed at her face, smelled the gentle perfume he scented when they were first facing each other and then it seemed as if the very heavens themselves opened behind her. He was lost to her, intently aware of her on a visceral level that very few girls had ever been able to arouse in his heart.

While at dinner, the two mothers had exchanged pleasantries briefly before Kenseiko had begun making a series of inquiries to Juri on her suitability for marriage into the Kunos. During that time, Kodachi had leaned over to him and mentioned in passing that the vision before him was reputed to be a swordswoman of great skill and that she had boldly rejected all previous suitors, for none were apparently able to match her ability with a blade. That had only inflamed his passions even more, for women of strength were his one admitted weakness.

At one time, that would have been the White Lily, but her spitefulness and shrewishness had eventually chilled his ardor. He was thankful to the kami that he had since made the acquaintance of far superior girls since then, young women he would someday have in his bed and his life, such as the clever-eyed and athletic Nabiki Tendo and her fiercely powerful younger sibling. Oh, how he yearned deeply for them both, but especially for the middle Tendo daughter. Her physical strength and combat skill were a challenge to him, a challenge he would someday master and bend her to his will.

Aside from the two sisters, there was another he ached to offer his attentions to, a girl he had caught only the briefest glimpse of. But what a girl she was! A bit shorter than the youngest Tendo, her hair was a lustrous red in color held back into a short pigtail, and her full-breasted and callipygian figure would inflame any man to madness with desire. Kuno felt his body respond powerfully at the mere thought of her shapely frame and the angelic face she possessed. She was a mystery to him, a beautiful, dreamlike, nameless wonder of a girl.

However, now there was Juri Arisugawa in his life, one who combined so many of the features of his other true loves into a singular package of divine womanhood. She was clever like unto Nabiki Tendo, a fact she ably proved last night as she responded to his mother's questioning. Yet her frame was strong and well-formed, and her gaze carried within it a fierce challenge that reminded him of the younger Tendo. Her face was the face of a goddess, framed by reddish, lustrous hair like that of the mysterious pigtailed girl, its fulsome fullness contained with clasps and worn straight down her back.

How could one man love four women equally? Yet how could he restrain himself and claim only one? His heart burned for them all, each one arousing a unique form of passion within him. Perhaps, at the dance at Ohtori, he would inquire of the Arisugawa girl her feelings on his having mistresses. Although, as a precaution, he would ask his good friend Mikado Sanzenin for advice on the matter first.

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Nabiki focused her perceptions on a point on the ceiling as she pushed her nemesis up again. Dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, the barbell in her hands pistoned up from her body again, and she felt the increasing burn in the muscles in her shoulders and upper arms. Several more drops of sweat fell from her body to drip upon the ground.

"Forty-two," she grunted out when her arm reached full extension and then she lowered them and repeated the cycle. When she got to fifty, she pressed the barbell up one final time and laid it in the rack over her head. She then sat up a bit tiredly and wiped at her face with the towel she had draped around her neck.

Eight sets of fifty repetitions with the weighted barbell brought back memories of her mother working the younger versions of herself and her two sisters until they were ready to drop. The three of them had been the woman's private training cadre, subjected to a regimen of weights, roadwork and various combat exercises that would have made even most Imperial Marines cry like a baby after a single session. Nabiki grinned at the thought, feeling the lithe swell of muscles in her arm with one hand.

Ever since her experience with Ranma's resonator, she had ratcheted up her personal training, no longer content with simply having a good figure and controlling her weight. She had let herself soften somewhat after her mother's death. But, since that day weeks ago, she had not only quickly regained her old form but now far surpassed it. Every muscle in her body was responding amazingly well to exercise, growing even stronger than they had ever been before.

She was grateful that her body type was not one to grow bulky, as some women did, but there was a much greater solidity to her frame now from several additional kilograms of muscle. By combining her knowledge of diet and modern scientific weight training methods with the much more ancient knowledge from her other self, she had transformed her physique with incredible speed. Not that she had been flabby before, but merely being toned was not good enough anymore.

As she rested on the bench for a few moments, she thought about Yohko's concerns for her, that she was making a huge mistake in trying to make Ranma jealous using Touga. She scoffed at the notion. Instead of being a nice guy like her analog's fiancé, Ranma was pretty consistently an obstinate jerk towards her. He needed to be shown that she was not a girl he could just take for granted, no matter how many other girls he currently had vying for his attention. Even after his learning of their engagement, he had never once asked her out on a date, not like he had with Ukyo. He had never once spent lunchtime with her, not like he had with Ukyo and Kodachi. He had never even bought her a can of juice. It was frankly quite irritating to her, and it also hurt.

Thoughts of her rivals for his attentions confused her. Just what did Ranma see in mannish cross-dressers like Ukyo or that Utena girl? Ukyo she could sort of understand, since Ranma had been engaged to her on other timelines he had visited, and maybe Utena was benefitting from his memories of dealings with that other Ukyo as well. When they had shared their stories, he had admitted to one of his analogs being good friends with the okonomiyaki chef. Kodachi was an even easier analysis. Boys liked the floozy look, and the Kuno girl was definitely one of those, right down to her seductive build and dreamy-eyed gaze. Ranma had been oddly evasive about what those other versions of Kodachi Kuno he knew were like, which made Nabiki feel suspicious.

While thinking of her rivals for Ranma, her musings inevitably turned to Akane, and she felt twinges of regret for what was happening between her and her younger sister. They had not spoken very much since she was transferred to Furinkan. At first, things seemed to be going according to plan, but her hopes that Akane would find a boy to take her mind off Ranma had apparently failed. It was amazing that with an Academy full of officer trainees to choose from, not one had measured up to even Akane's admittedly high standards. She was still totally fixated on Ranma, the only boy who had ever managed to overcome her physically.

That was the problem. Akane still only looked at Ranma on a physical level. That was the way her sister looked at every young man. The pigtailed boy was more than a body and more than merely his fighting skills. He had a brilliant future ahead of him someday in the Science Ministry or one of the corporations in the Empire, and he needed a wife who could guide him and advise him to achieve his maximum possible level of success.

The main problem Nabiki saw was that Ranma apparently felt no threats to his growing harem, so he could just take them all for granted. And she was not going to be someone taken for granted. She was going to attend the dance at Ohtori and spend some time with Touga. Without being blatant about it, she would encourage the young nobleman to pursue her and at the same time fend him off by figuratively placing the pigtailed boy between them.

The end result of this? Ranma acquired a strong rival, one handsome, rich and well-spoken as well as being a strong fighter. He would have to pay more attention to her then and be more aware of her feelings, or risk losing her to that rival. Then she could gradually drive off her own rivals for the pigtailed boy's attentions before she finally ended her association with Touga. At that point her relationship with the pigtailed boy could then move on to the next level, the two of them dating each other exclusively and beginning to plan together for their future, like how her best friend Yohko was doing with Kyosuke.

Feeling confident she was on the right path to winning Ranma's heart, Nabiki stood in front of the full-length mirror and flexed, noting the swell of taut muscles flowing under her skin. Her anatomy was more like Kasumi's than Akane's, albeit a bit shorter than her older sister's leggier frame. She admired herself a little in the mirror before she pulled on some sweats, strapped on heavy weights to her arms and legs and then headed out to do her nightly roadwork. Now that Ranma had somehow lucked out and was under the tutelage of a fighting legend like Jun Fan Lee, she knew she had to work even harder and keep training even more severely to keep the pressure on the pigtailed boy, no matter what.

After all, she was the true heir to the Anything-Goes School.

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Standing in the midst of the lab space he had been given by Kodachi, Ranma minutely adjusted the power settings on the device held in his hand and waited as its digital timer counted down to zero. He started the video recorder next to him while he waited. When the timer ran out, he pointed the device at an empty area of the lab and activated it.

A thin stream of energy flowed to a point some three meters in front of him and then a rippling washed outwards across the air before him, forming a field of distortion in a rough circle a little over two meters in diameter. A slight breeze immediately began flowing towards it. While he could still see the far side of the room, the light that reached his eyes was slightly blue-shifted as it passed through the region of distortion. He kept well away from it and tossed a tennis ball into the center. The ball promptly vanished through the wormhole.

Some thirty seconds later, the distortion vanished with a sudden snap, like the breaking of a circuit, and the flow of air halted. Ranma made some notes and adjusted the field settings again, even as the numbers on the digital readout on the device's face blinked several times. A new number suddenly appeared and showed the time until the next window, some three hours from now.

Seeing that, Ranma sighed and turned off the digital video recorder he had been using and set the device down. He had been fortunate earlier to have had several alignments take place in a rather short period of time, allowing him to test variations in field strength and power levels. He made a notation on the equation he was working on, Ranko's equation, the one that had led her to creating this device. It was proving to be a fascinating adjunct to his own researches, and several areas of future study had occurred to him, all because of his new memories from his female analog.

The device only generated a portal when the paraequipotential flux energies between two alternate Earths aligned just right, and even then the effect was not very stable. As soon as the alignment slipped too far out of phase, the portal would collapse, snapping closed and then contact between the two worlds would be lost. Based on his findings, thirty seconds seemed to be the maximum duration of a portal.

He had done as much as he could here. The rest would have to wait until after his father finished building the beacon. He still had to get in some more training time tonight before going home. After packing up what he was taking with him, he powered everything down and turned off the lights. He left and locked the door behind him.

Ranma stood in the empty hallway and looked down it in the direction where Kodachi's room lay, feeling an odd lump in his throat at the thought of the young noblewoman. He resented the fact that Ryoga was pretending to be her pet pig, but he was at a loss as to how to deal with it. Revealing the other boy's secret carried too big a risk of exposing his own, and he wasn't prepared to do that, not yet. But the next time he caught Ryoga alone, he was going to pound him for taking advantage of Kodachi like this. Maybe pig-napping was a viable option. Either way, he figured he still owed the other boy for cursing him to turn into a girl, pig curse or not.

As for Kodachi, they had not spoken much in several days, and he had been spending his lunches with Ukyo. However, he was sure, once he dealt with the dance and this Miki Kaoru guy trying to come between them, that everything would be fine with her once again. There was no way he was going to lose to some bishonen with a stopwatch fetish like Miki.

At least his troubles with Nabiki were much simpler and more easily resolved, without any romantic rivals involved to complicate things between them. She didn't spend any time with any guys other than him. Her reputation as the Iron Bitch kept them all at a distance.

Except for Kuno, but he was an idiot.

Or that Kinnosuke Kashuoh psycho.

Or that smarmy Touga Kiryuu jerk.

Or Ryoga, who had seemed pretty familiar with her.

Hmmm.

Ranma shook his head. He was worrying over nothing and only making himself feel paranoid. Besides, he was a much better choice than any of those other guys. There was no way she was more interested in any of them rather than him. While she had been friendly with that Touga guy when they were at Ohtori, it was probably just some kind of one-time mind game she had been playing on him, to try and make him feel jealous. Well, it wasn't going to work. He was not going to fall for anything cooked up by a bossy, manipulative girl like Nabiki Tendo, no matter how strongly attractive she was to him. They were fierce rivals, both of them determined to best the other once and for all, despite their being engaged to each other. This was as far as his interest in her went. This was the sort of thing he kept telling himself when it came to her.

The matter settled for now in his mind, he turned his thoughts to the crux of the trouble between them. No matter how much Nabiki wanted to claim the top spot of being the true heir to the Anything-Goes School, he wasn't about to let her have it. The way he saw it, he definitely had far more right to it than she did, and he was just going to have to prove it to her through force. Her mastery of the Amaguriken technique was merely a temporary setback in their ongoing struggle with each other. Once he added it to his own repertoire as well, her small advantage over him would be gone and then he would beat her decisively in their next match.

The matter decided, he turned and headed away from Kodachi's room.

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Kodachi was trying on dresses in her room, still trying to make her attire decision for the upcoming dance. According to Konatsu, her new little pet pig, P-chan, was out wandering the grounds and exploring his new home. She would have liked for him to be here. He always seemed so attentive to her when she was changing clothes, and she enjoyed having someone pay her attention like that. If only her fiancé would be that attentive to her. She sighed and removed her current dress to stand once again in only a bra and panties.

She knew they were having a bit of trouble in their budding courtship right now, and it saddened her. She didn't want to be cross with him, but Ranma made things so difficult with his thoughtlessness. Why could he not make more of an effort to send away those other, far less worthy girls that seemed intent on sniffing around him like animals in heat? That horrible Nabiki Tendo was the absolute worst with her clever eyes and flippant remarks, not to mention how infuriating it was to lose to her every time in sparring matches. And the less she thought about that perverted cross-dressing savage named Ukyo Kuonji the better. At least the vile and brutish Akane Tendo had gone away, as well as the sluttish Utena Tenjou.

She picked up another dress.

She just wasn't able to find the right appearance. Should she go for a more demure look? After all, she didn't want to give Miki the wrong idea about where she intended their rekindled relationship to go. She wanted him as her friend and to be her confidant like before.

However, maybe she should go with an outfit more bold and alluring? That would make her feel more desirable and boost her confidence when it came to attracting male attention, but she felt a bit shy about what Miki might think. He might consider her to be interested in him, which, while it was true, it just wouldn't be proper for her to give him that impression, now that she was engaged to Ranma.

Still, the notion of inflaming her childhood friend with desire for her was a naughtily tempting thought. Miki was handsome, and her memories from Sukeban-Kodachi of tender kisses and sweaty intimacies exchanged with the version of the Kaoru boy from her timeline were very tempting. She nibbled briefly on her lower lip and considered the next dress, one which would require her to forego wearing a bra due to its very low-cut front which would expose a truly daring amount of skin, not to mention it being backless. She considered it for a long moment, holding it in front of her.

She just couldn't decide. She tossed the dress on the floor where it joined dozens of others.

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Still fully dressed in his Whitehall uniform, Mikado fell to the bed beneath Asuka, who loomed over him as she sat astride his hips. She was still wearing her Blackhall uniform, having dragged him back here to her private chambers when she found him waiting for her in her home upon her return from school. She usually came home a bit late, due to her duties as captain of Blackhall's undefeated Rhythmic Gymnastics team. She gazed down at him coldly.

"You've been missing for several days, Mikado-kun," she growled low in anger, even as her hands began removing her jacket. She swiftly tossed it aside and began deftly unbuttoning her blouse. "Nanashi-sensei was not pleased. However, even more importantly, _I_ was not pleased. When you interjected your loathsome, philandering self into my private affairs, volunteering to learn at my side the secrets Nanashi-sensei has to offer, I should have expected your dedication to be weak."

Mikado glared up at her. "Asuka-chan, my sweet," he said in cold tones. "You have no idea what I have been through these past few days."

"Nor do I care to hear about the undoubtedly sordid details," she said grimly. She tossed aside her blouse, finding herself becoming aroused from her dominant position over him. When he reached his hands up to fondle her full breasts, she hastily slapped them away before beginning to undo her brassiere. "You will not touch me unless I allow it, you philandering Casanova wannabe. And I do not allow it now. So just lie there and keep your hands away from me until I say otherwise."

"Truly I am blessed by the warmth of your regard for me," he replied sarcastically, even as he felt his body responding to her nearness. After the exquisite sight of Kodachi Kuno paraded before his eyes in various states of dress and undress for the past few days, he needed relief. And while Asuka was a spiteful, treacherous bitch that could not compare in the least to the demure and innocent Kodachi, it was her abilities in the bedchambers that he needed now. He smiled up at her. "I don't know how I was able to exist without basking in its glow."

So far, he had been managing to attend his classes at Whitehall with the help of the cross-dressing freak, Konatsu, sneaking out while Kodachi was away at school and then quickly returning to her chambers before she returned. However, after several days of that, he could stand it no longer. While he was learning so much about his gentle goddess, his edginess had been building, his need for a woman almost killing him. He needed relief, even from a bitter, vindictive shrew like the White Lily. He would tolerate her petty little power games only so long as he was able to satisfy himself soon.

"Mikado-kun," Asuka said, tossing aside her brassiere, her breasts bared now as she reared back a little. "Do us both a favor and shut up. I have no interest in whatever inane chatter you choose to spew out. I have other needs for that tongue of yours." And with that, she leaned forward and began removing his jacket and shirt, casting them aside to join her own clothing items. She then lowered herself on him and took his lips in a deep and passionate kiss as she let her full weight come to rest on him.

Her hands slid down his arms, enjoying the feel of his muscles, her fingers finally becoming laced with his. A fire was inside her as she kissed with him, and she felt her body responding to his powerfully. Even though she hated every single fiber of his being with a passion, she could not deny the profound physical attraction she felt for him. Being with him was on a plateau all its own. Even the hatred she felt for him seemed to make their unions all the more intense and enjoyable.

Mikado groaned into the kiss, closing his eyes, feeling the weight of her nubile body pressing down on him, light as it was. He despised her personality and always had, even as his body yearned for her. She was a paradox to him. Out of the many dozens of sexual conquests he had made so far in his life, never before had he returned to one for more. Only the wicked, unscrupulous Asuka Saginomiya had that singular honor, of receiving his manly attentions again after he had already taken her virginity. Still, he could not deny how she made him feel, the sheer bliss he felt when their bodies were conjoined in sexual congress together. His hatred for her seemed to make it all the more profound.

Someday, he would take Kodachi to his bed like this and make her his wife, after he claimed the Tendo girl's virginity and discarded her to the trash heap of his other former lovers. Then he would be able to toss the shrewish Asuka aside as well, without as much as a single backwards glance.

The thought of Nabiki fired his libido. There was something about the older girl, beyond the incredible body she had, something he had felt in their one brief encounter. He would not be satisfied until he had bedded her.

Yet there was now another girl he lusted after, the commoner bitch that had almost unmanned him with her knee: Ranko Kuonji. The hours spent listening to his beloved goddess had allowed him to finally learn her name; the girl having once visited Kodachi's class. His best friend Tatewaki had seen her as well, waxing long and poetically about her fierce beauty. Mikado had kept his knowledge of her identity to himself even as he had listened with an inward shake of his head at his best friend's stupidity. The girl was a vicious peasant, not a paragon of femininity.

He already had special plans in mind for her, the thought of the pigtailed girl giving rise to far darker passions than lust within him. Apparently, she had been strong enough to defeat the Tendo girl. In turn, Nabiki had beaten Ranma in a fistfight. That made his plans all the more needful of caution. He would bide his time until his skills were at their peak, sufficiently prepared by Nanashi-sensei's teachings and training and then he would challenge this Ranko Kuonji to a duel. He would then crush her like the lowly insect she was. The commoner girl would pay for attempting to unman him and pay dearly.

For once he had defeated her and beaten her unconscious, he would take her home. He would ravish that beautiful body of hers until he was sated, for the crime she had done to him, demonstrating the indomitable strength of his virility. And once he had satiated his lusts for the girl, he would bring her to a certain place he knew of, where the wealthy and the powerful played dark games of pleasure, vice and debauchery. There he would offer her to the Mistress of that place for proper training, to have her spirit broken and remade into a proper plaything for a man.

When the commoner wench was properly debased and trained, her arrogant spirit crushed for her many sins against him, for daring to cause harm to his precious manhood and getting him cursed to turn into a pig, he would then give her to Tatewaki. At that point, she would make a fine gift for his oldest and closest friend in the world. It would be his token of appreciation for the close bond of man-to-man friendship that they had shared together for years.

The next to fall would be the fools pursuing Kodachi, such as that miserable, low-born cur, Ranma Saotome. As to Miki Kaoru, he was hardly an impediment, coming from an old but faltering noble family, one whose business interests would be fatally damaged if the Sanzenins so much as looked crossly in their direction. Once those two were removed from the picture, Kodachi would surely become his. He would see to it that his father made a significantly larger proposal of money and political capital for Kodachi this time, perhaps even offering his thuggish younger sister in marriage to Tatewaki to further cement their two noble families together in a solid alliance, a proposal that Tatewaki's sire would be an utter fool to turn away.

The thought of his future victory made his blood sing within him. It would be inevitable. Feeling his libido invigorated by his plans, he then turned his full attentions to the vile but exquisitely beautiful Asuka, enjoying her womanly charms to the fullest. She responded with proper eagerness, even if she adamantly refused to cede him control of their encounter.

It was good to be Mikado Sanzenin.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Wednesday morning, there was finally a break in Fuyutsuki's search for the mysterious youth who had attacked Ukyo Kuonji on campus the other day and demonstrated such physical might. One of the students he had heard talking in the hall that morning had mentioned the boy's name: Ryoga Hibiki. He had gone back to his office immediately and done a quick search for the boy in the Project's records. The last name had been familiar.

Ah, yes, he remembered this one now as he read through the file. The boy had responded quite well to the introduction of the symbiote to his body. Unfortunately, while it had increased his natural abilities in strength, endurance and, to a lesser extent, intellect, it had done nothing to cure the genetic trait of direction dyslexia suffered by his family. It had been in hopes of removing that inherited curse that had encouraged his parents to enroll him in the Project.

The boy had grown up in a remote region of the Empire, but the Project administrators had made sure that his home village's school was given a series of instructors who would inculcate the boy with a broad spectrum of knowledge. He read through their reports and nodded. While he wasn't quite the genius that the Saotome boy was, he more than made up for it in physical abilities. Even at his present age, the boy's strength was phenomenal, far beyond that of any other Adam in the Project and able to lift nearly a metric ton of mass.

Fuyutsuki pondered how best to keep the boy around campus. He finally decided that an implanted tracking chip in Ryoga was probably the least obtrusive method to avoid his wandering off for extended periods of time. The boy could live in the dormitories with the other students who had families in more distant regions of Japan. Perhaps until Ryoga had settled himself, he would assign Nabiki Tendo to make sure the boy learned and understood the rules, and she could assist him to get to his classes and take him off-campus with a minimum of fuss. He had no doubts that Ryoga could pass even the Academy's entrance exams. His instructors had given him consistently high marks in scholastics.

Leaning back in his chair and picking up the telephone, he felt quite pleased at this development. He dialed the Security Directorate and requested Ryoga be picked up and delivered to him as soon as possible. After the boy received his tracking chip, he could simply notify them whenever Ryoga went beyond the boundaries of Nerima, and they could retrieve him. Yes, that would deal nicely with the boy's direction problems.

It would be nice to have another Adam on campus. Ranma could use a bit more male competition.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That afternoon, while sparring with Jun Fan Lee for the first time that week, the previous days having been spent exclusively on flexibility exercises and strength training, Ranma kept noticing the other man giving him odd expressions as they went at it for a while. The two had been sparring together intensely for about an hour when the older man suddenly stopped.

"Hold," Lee suddenly said, lowering his hands. "What is this? Were you holding back with Nabiki last week?"

Ranma quickly glanced outside where Nabiki and Kodachi were going through training exercises. A tap on his head brought his attention back to his new master. He saw the man looking at him sternly.

"I wasn't holding back," the pigtailed boy finally said.

"Ranma, I've known a lot of high-end Arena fighters who couldn't keep up with me like you're doing now," Lee commented, his facial expression one of puzzlement. "And I'm not talking your speed alone, but also your flexibility, reflexes, endurance and bodily strength. So, if it wasn't that you were holding back, why are you so much better now?"

The pigtailed boy shrugged. "It's... difficult to explain."

"Try me."

"I can't. Not really." Ranma looked away. At that moment, he wished his real father was around to talk to. This was the sort of thing he had always been able to speak to the man about, even something as strange as a Jusenkyo curse or what happened to him with the resonator.

Master Lee sighed. "Then perhaps I should ask Nabiki to be my disciple, after all. A student who can't confide things to his master shows a lack of trust in that master. If you don't trust me, I can't teach you."

The pigtailed boy snapped his gaze back to the older man. He saw the other man soften his expression a little.

"Perhaps you will find it easier to confide in me if I also confide something to you, Ranma," Lee said after a moment. "Something none of my biographers even know. Come with me."

The two of them went up the roof area. They were alone up there, the rest of the student body currently in their classrooms. The weather was pleasant, with a soft breeze rolling through the air. Cars could be heard passing by on the street in front of the Academy. Down below, Ranma could see Nabiki and Kodachi sparring, the Kuno girl taking the worst of it, but not as badly as she once did. Ranma felt happy to see she was improving.

"What I'm about to tell you is just between you and me, Ranma," Lee said while seated on one of the rooftop benches. "Tell no one else."

"All right." The pigtailed boy sat on another bench and listened.

"Many years ago, when I was a small boy, I became an orphan. My parents died in a car crash in the mountains of western China, but I survived. I was only five." Lee looked up at the skies. "It was there that I met my true master, not the name I gave in stories I told in the Arena."

Ranma looked at his master in puzzlement. "Who was it?"

"A fugitive from the Empire," Lee replied. "One of the most wanted men in the Empire at the time, actually." There was a brief pause. "My true master was Wong Fei-Hung."

"But-" Ramna started to say and then stopped. In those other worlds he knew, Wong Fei-Hung died years before Jun Fan Lee was even born. On Ranma's world, the man had been a persistent thorn in the side of the Empire's efforts to conquer China, with a reward for his capture that many had tried to collect. He instead said, "He would have been almost a century old."

"He was very old." Lee looked over at him. "He finally passed away when I was seventeen. I took everything he taught me and went looking for my fortune in the Arena the day after I buried him in those mountains he had hidden in for so long."

Ranma thought about that. He had been amazed to meet Master Lee, and now he was even more amazed to realize that the man had been taught by such a legendary figure. Wong Fei-Hung had defied the Empire of Japan for over two decades before finally vanishing from sight. Nobody had ever heard from him again.

"He taught you, and now you're teaching me." The pigtailed boy was feeling awed again, like he had when first meeting Master Lee.

"Not if you can't tell me what's going on with you, Ranma," Lee said sternly, his gaze firm. "I want you to explain to me what happened to you over the weekend, between the last time I saw you and Monday. And I want to know how you learned the Anything-Goes style, a dead school that has been lost to the world for generations." He then said, more gently, "I meant what I said, Ranma. A true sort of master-disciple relationship is one built on trust. I can't teach you properly, if you don't think you can trust me."

Ranma took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"All right." The pigtailed boy sat down next to Lee. "This is going to be a long story."

Ranma began to relate his tale, beginning with his acquiring the Anything-Goes School through the resonator from the memories of his analogs, and confirming for the other man that Nabiki had learned her abilities the same way. He went on for some time, trying to cover every detail he could. He ended with his fall into the Jusenkyo water, which prompted an explanation of what he knew of the cursed pools of that place.

Through it all, Lee sat calmly and listened. When Ranma was done, the older man held up a hand.

"So, you turn into a girl?" he asked. "I would like you to show me this other form."

"Now?" Ranma asked, looking a little wide-eyed. After hearing about the existence of other worlds, he was more interested in the fact that he could turn into a girl?

"Yes, Ranma." His expression was calm, but there was a faint twinkle of amusement there. "Now."

They went down to the faculty restroom in the same structure where the training with Tiger had once taken place for the rematch against Utena. There was only one door in and out, allowing even more security. While Master Lee waited, Ranma went into the shower stall and stripped off his clothing. He took a deep breath and stepped under the spray of cold water, watching himself and counting seconds in his mind. After a count of a hundred and forty, foam suddenly appeared on his skin when the waterproof soap finally failed, and the transformation occurred moments later.

After toweling off, Ranma-chan put back on her Chinese-style shirt and gi pants and stepped out of the shower stall. Master Lee gave her a speculative look and nodded.

"You become a more interesting student the longer I come to know you, Ranma Saotome. I will keep your secret, and I trust you will keep mine. You have my word I will tell no one else about your problem. Now come along... girl. I've seen how strong your yang aspect is. Let's see how strong your yin aspect is."

With that, Master Lee strode out of the room, and Ranma-chan trailed behind him after a few moments. They ended up in the same training hall where Ranma had done his training with Tiger. The damage from his battles with the catgirl had been cleaned up, the room repainted. It was very quiet.

"Now, let us see how you do as a girl, my young disciple," Lee said with an amused look.

Ranma-chan was a little irritated that this all seemed to be so funny to the man. She attacked with a fury, and Lee accepted her intense efforts against his seemingly unbreakable defenses and even maintained a running commentary as he fended her off.

"Your speed is improved, but your reach is a bit shorter than your male form's and your impact power is slightly less," the older man said with a very slight smile. "Your flexibility and range of motion seems to be relatively unchanged from your male aspect, but your center of gravity is a bit lower. Be wary of that, as well as the change in reach. Such things could be critical in a fight if you aren't fully prepared for them and were to change in mid-battle. Don't count on the waterproof soap to protect you for an entire battle."

It went on for quite a while in such a fashion. At the end, when the pigtailed girl was finally winded and stood there panting hard and rebuilding her endurance, she was gratified to see that Master Lee actually looked a bit winded as well. However, instead of looking tired, he kept nodding and looking at her with an invigorated manner about him.

"This is good, Ranma," said the older man, sounding a bit intrigued at the possibilities. "This is actually a very good thing. Each of your aspects brings different but relatively equal strengths and weaknesses to the table. By training you in both forms, I can use them to compare their relative progress. That will allow me to train you even better and faster, to find and eliminate any flaws you have. Some of the most advanced techniques I know will be somewhat easier for you to learn as a female, kicking techniques for example, while others will be easier when you are male."

Then he said something that surprised her.

"You remind me of someone I once knew when I was younger, who had the opposite curse to yours."

Ranma-chan blinked. "Uh, what was her name?"

"Yumi Kuonji," he said with a smile. "She was quite a woman." He paused and considered. "And man, for that matter."

"Funny you should mention her..." Ranma-chan said after a moment.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Godai checked his watch for the fifteenth time as he waited outside the gates of Furinkan. Kasumi had called to say she was running a little late but would be there soon. He smoothed his hair once more, wondering why he felt so nervous. It wasn't a date, just two prospective friends having a get together. One of those people happened to be a beautiful woman of grace, but that was beside the point.

A car pulled up, screeching to a stop in front of him, a sensible but stylish vehicle in dark blue with Security Directorate plates. The window rolled down, revealing Kasumi in uniform. She tipped down her mirrored sunglasses and gave him a smile.

"Sorry I'm late, Godai-san," she said with a nod.

He got in and buckled his seatbelt, and a moment later the car was off, weaving its way into traffic as Kasumi worked the clutch and shift like a master. Godai saw his life flash before his eyes for a moment as she maneuvered in between cars, sometimes close enough that only another millimeter closer would have had her touching another vehicle's metal.

Thankfully, the ride was short, and they arrived at Café ABCB in one piece. Godai got out on somewhat shaky legs, feeling like he had aged at least a year or two from her daredevil driving. He smiled to know he was still alive.

"I'm starved, Godai-san," Kasumi said with a gentle smile, removing her sunglasses as she got out of the car. "I missed lunch."

Kyoko had made him his lunch, but he did not think that was something he should mention to Kasumi. He just nodded and walked around the car to head with her into the restaurant. By that time, he regained enough of his senses to open the door for her.

Dinner was excellent, and Godai could not remember the last time he had eaten such a delicious steak. Kasumi was able to finish a fairly large plate of food herself, which surprised him until he recalled that this wasn't a date, just two friends getting together. She didn't need to restrain her appetite as most women Godai knew would do on a first date.

Throughout the meal, Kasumi engaged him in pleasant conversation, and he was happy to learn that she was well read in matters of military history, not that it was a surprise due to what he knew of her family's history. The two of them talked about some of the Empire's generals of the past, but all Godai could later recall of the conversation was how beautiful her eyes were.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After Master Lee called and informed Nodoka that training was running late for Ranma that evening, Ranma-chan and the man arrived outside the Yu-chan just as the dinner crowd was getting heavier. They went inside, following a pair of salarymen. As the door closed, Yumi and Master Lee caught each other's gaze.

A couple of seconds later, there was a sudden, brief commotion inside and then Yumi came sailing straight out through the door without it being opened first in an explosion of wood and glass. Master Lee came bounding out right behind her, catching up just as she landed on her feet on the pavement.

The two of them began a furious melee, exchanging punches and kicks in a fierce battle. Several patrons came out to watch, some even still holding their plates with steaming okonomiyaki upon them. They began to eat as the struggle on the street continued and got even fiercer. But what was odd was that both combatants were smiling and looking like they were having the time of their lives.

"I see you've gotten better, old man," Yumi commented to him as the two of them changed tactics and grappled with each other.

"And you've gotten even more impressive, Yumi-chan," Lee replied as they struggled with each other. Breaking her hold on his arm suddenly, he lashed out with a kick to her stomach that she quickly deflected.

Off to one side, Ranma-chan and Ukyo were also watching as the two adults unleashed the full measure of their skills, almost, but not quite, hitting each other with full force. Ukyo gently nudged the pigtailed girl, who looked back to see her smiling. Ranma-chan didn't quite understand what Ukyo wanted until she threw an obvious punch.

"Oh, so you want to play too?" And, with that, the two teenage girls held their own impromptu sparring match together, both of them smiling as they began testing each other's skills intensely. The other people on the street cheered as they watched the two duos merge into a foursome in the center of the street and go at it together as if the whole thing was choreographed, Yumi and Ukyo eventually teaming up against Ranma-chan and Jun Fan Lee. Everyone was treating it like a floor show for their meals. The patrons of other restaurants came out on the street to watch as well.

A while later, Master Lee was holding an ice bag up against a blackened eye as he sat across a table from Yumi, who was holding another ice bag to her jaw. "I see you play as rough as ever, Jun-kun," she said to him with a tired smile, her tone teasing. "It's nice to see that a man your age is still so... vigorous."

In the background, Ranma-chan and Ukyo were fixing the damaged door. Yumi looked over at their efforts and then gave the Chinese man a look with a raised eyebrow. "You are going to pay to fix that, right?"

Master Lee nodded, reaching into a pocket and dropping a wad of yen notes on the table. "This should cover the damages, Yumi-chan." He gave her a smile. "Nice fight. I see you still lead with your right though, and your guard could use some work."

Yumi laughed and then grimaced at the sudden pain from her sore ribs. "Don't make me laugh," she complained. "It hurts." There was a pause. "So, what are you doing here with my daughter?"

He nodded in apparent understanding. "I met her on the street when I was looking for you." He chuckled. "The rude girl didn't even tell me her name."

"Oh, it's Ranko Kuonji," said Yumi with a wink. She looked over at the two teens discussing how best to remove the pieces of the old door and replace it with a new one. "You two kids keep working on that door. This old man and I are going to go do some drinking. Don't wait up."

Yumi and Master Lee got up from their table and left the ice bags there. The two teens went back to working on the door after they left. Ukyo nudged Ranma-chan and grinned.

"You're a really good fighter, Ranko," said Ukyo. "That was a lot of fun."

The pigtailed girl considered the matter, her second sparring match against Ukyo while in girl form. She nodded and snorted once. "Yeah, I guess it was pretty fun."

"Thanks for coming by again so soon," Ukyo said with a smile. "It's nice to have someone my own age to talk to."

"Uh, I heard you have a boyfriend," Ranma-chan said, trying to be casual about it. "Don't you talk to him?"

"Well, I guess I feel a little more comfortable talking with you." Ukyo shrugged her shoulders. "Ranma's a great guy, but I don't have any girl friends here, other than you."

Ranma-chan beamed to hear what Ukyo thought of her male aspect. "What about some of the girls in your school?"

"They all thought I was a boy, until recently," Ukyo replied, sounding a bit irritated about it. "They still would, if it wasn't for that horrible bitch, Nabiki Tendo. You beat her up once, remember?"

Ranma-chan had been still trying to digest the 'great guy' concept and didn't quite hear everything Ukyo had just said. She said in surprise, "Waitasec. I did what?"

"Oh yeah, you put her down pretty brutally. It was quite a fight. I was watching, in case you needed any help. You knocked out her friend Yohko too."

The pigtailed girl filed that away. It must have happened while she was out of her head after the dip in the tank. Keeping the Jusenkyo curse a secret was looking like a very wise thing now. There was no telling how Nabiki would react to knowing it was her fiancé's cursed form that had beaten her up. Ranma-chan didn't really count it as a victory since she had no memory at all of doing it. She felt bad about beating up Yohko though, the other girl having never done anything bad to her. Maybe when things had cooled off a bit, she would apologize to Yohko and try to make some sort of reparations.

"Speaking of guys," Ukyo said as she helped Ranma-chan set the new door into place. "Do you have a boyfriend, Ranko?"

Startled at the question, the pigtailed girl blinked. "Uh, no," she finally said after a moment.

"Well, I'd suggest my friend Ryoga-"

Ranma-chan immediately waved her hands in negation. "No, no, that's okay! I'm not looking for a boyfriend right now."

"He's really a sweetheart when you get to know him," Ukyo continued, pressing on despite Ranma-chan's increasing agitation. "And when he smiles, he can be really cute."

Ranma-chan was not really thrilled to hear Ukyo praising Ryoga like this. She tried to interrupt with a question. "Uh, did you ever tell him that?"

"O-of course not!" Ukyo replied, blushing and looking down. "He's just a friend! And I was supposed to be acting like a boy! Boys don't say things like that to other boys!"

The pigtailed girl said nothing, just eyed Ukyo as she blushed and stammered. Her hands slowly curled into fists at her sides as she listened, irritated suddenly about Ryoga, realizing that Ukyo had feelings for the Lost Boy. She was surprised to feel a surge of jealousy over that.

Ryoga was proving himself to be quite a ladies man, Ranma-chan decided sourly. He first showed up with Ryoko in tow. He had a past with Ukyo. He was pretending to be Kodachi's pet pig, and he had been suspiciously nice towards Nabiki. The combination was all very suspect when he thought about it a bit. Maybe this version of Ryoga wasn't quite the painfully shy with girls, muscle-bound oaf his analogs were.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Friday night, Ranma sat with his family at the shrine near their house. Across the table, Ryoko and her parents sat across from them. He felt tense, and it worried him that the Masaki girl kept looking shyly away from him and blushing. That was a bad sign.

The sparring match before dinner had been pretty intense. Ryoko was an excellent fighter, probably on a par with Nabiki and himself due to her incredible strength and endurance. Her skill was only a bit less than his new level of ability, which made her a challenging opponent.

However, he had nearly lost when she had done something amazing. She gave him a grin in the middle of the match and then a second Ryoko had suddenly appeared. The two of them came at him as a pair, and he had a hard time of it for a while. Fortunately, the two of them were not a perfect team, and he was able to defeat them eventually.

Now dinner was completed, and the actual omiai was in progress. The two mothers were doing most of the talking. Ryoko's father was a pretty quiet man, and Genma was being quiet as well, the two of them drinking cups of sake.

"So I see no reason why an engagement cannot take place between our two children, Nodoka," said Achika, pleased that Ranma had been able to defeat her daughter. When Ryoko had brought forth her twin self, she had been certain Ranma was going to lose. No one had ever before beaten her daughter when she fought in an array like that, but the boy had rallied with great skill and ended the match with a victory.

"I agree," Nodoka replied, happy with how the evening was turning out. "And as there are no engagement agreements already in place, Ryoko will be Ranma's first wife."

Ranma started to speak, but then Genma suddenly said, "The first wife will be Nabiki. There is already an engagement agreement in place with the Tendo family."

Ryoko's right eyelid twitched for a few moments at that, and her enmity for the middle Tendo daughter suddenly surged to new heights. The edge of the table gripped in her hands began to powder.

Achika turned a suddenly wrathful gaze at Genma. Her dream of finally getting her stubborn, wayward daughter safely wed to her best friend's son was crumbling right before her eyes. Fury filled her gaze.

"Wh-what?" Nodoka exclaimed. Shocking everyone, she suddenly turned and abandoned her previous poise, grabbing Genma by the collar and hauling him close to her face, her eyes blazing. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Genma began babbling in terror at the sight, confessing to the three engagements he had put into place with the other fathers. Achika handed Nodoka a bokken when she held out her hand, as if they had practiced such a move together. The scene that followed was one of simply amazing brutality.

"Ranma," said Ryoko, addressing him suddenly. "Do you want to be engaged to Nabiki Tendo?" Her hair seemed to be floating in the air around her head a bit from the sheer power of her battle aura, her gaze particularly intense, as was her tone. "Perhaps I can help get you out of it."

While Genma continued to yelp in the background as Nodoka beat him with her weapon, Achika slid over and said smoothly, "Why yes, Ranma. A girl like Ryoko would be a far better choice for you as your first wife than someone like Nabiki Tendo."

Ranma was still absorbing the fact that Ukyo was his fiancée and not really paying attention. He wondered if she knew. He noticed the pair looking intently at him.

"Uh, that's okay," he said suddenly. He bowed to the two of them as the carnage finally came to an end. "Thank you for the match, Ryoko. Maybe we can do it again sometime."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Later, after the Saotomes had gone home for the evening, Nodoka helping Ranma guide a bruised, battered and insensate Genma, Achika sat alone in the main area of the temple with only the moon for her light. An empty bottle of sake rested next to her, and she was filling her cup from a second bottle. Her husband had already gone home, and Ryoko was off somewhere sulking. Achika couldn't blame her. The whole experience was humiliating.

From the grave, her old enemy Kimiko had achieved one final, galling victory over her, keeping her only daughter apart from Nodoka's only son. She took a sip of sake, feeling it burn down her throat as she remembered how much she had once hated that smug soldier girl. Nodoka had told her who Nabiki's mother was shortly after the omiai with them.

Belldandy came into the room, and Achika acknowledged her presence with a nod, taking another sip. The girl was supposed to be a goddess, but Achika had her doubts. The foreigner had absented herself while the now-failed omiai had occurred.

"You are troubled," Belldandy observed gently. She sat down next to Achika. "You wanted Ryoko to marry Ranma."

"The girl needs a strong husband," Achika said grimly, taking another sip of sake. "But the boy is already taken by another." Her lip curled. "He is claimed by the daughter of an old enemy."

Belldandy looked at the open doorway to the outside, listening to the cicadas cry. She found it a soothing sound. "Nabiki has done nothing wrong in this. She is strong too, and she needs a strong man as well."

A grunt of annoyance from Achika was the only reply to that.

Ryoko suddenly appeared, flipping into the room, having apparently been on the roof thinking. She immediately kowtowed to Achika. "Mother, I've thought about this long and hard. Do I have your permission to make a challenge to Nabiki Tendo for Ranma's hand?" She burned inside at the chance to avenge herself on the other girl, who had treated her so rudely at their first meeting and now laid claim to the boy she liked.

Sitting tall and looking like a feudal lord, Achika nodded. "You do."

"Nabiki is very strong," Belldandy observed. "Will a duel really solve anything?" She did not like the idea of violence.

"I can beat her." Ryoko's tone was fierce. One of her hands closed into a fist. "I will crush her."

Belldandy frowned. All this talk of violence would not end well, but it was not her place to interfere, only to observe and give advice until the proper time.

Only then had she been given permission to act.

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Ranma found himself within the walls of the Tendo Dojo, dressed in his usual red, Chinese-style shirt and black gi pants. From somewhere else nearby, he heard the sounds of feminine laughter. It seemed to be coming from the house. He stood up from where he had found himself sitting. After so many previous experiences, he knew he was dreaming.

He slid open the main room of the house, and a bacchanal revelry was occurring. He could not identify the music that was playing, but it had a good sound to it. In the center of the room was his mirror image wearing a big smile, dressed in feudal-era finery like a samurai lord and holding a cup of sake.

"Come on in, bookworm!" said his doppelganger, waving at him to enter. "It's a party!"

Draped on the other Ranma was a familiar pair of girls, dressed in rather revealing costumes. One was Nabiki, giving him a sultry grin, her tight yellow dress exposing quite a bit of skin. On the other side was Shampoo, in a white cheongsam that hugged her body in all the right places and exposed long legs currently curled underneath her. The other Ranma had his arms around both girls; one hand idly fondled Shampoo's bottom, and his welcome had spilled some of his sake on Nabiki.

Arrayed around the room were more girls. Ukyo was over to one side, drinking and looking lovingly at the other Ranma. Her outfit left no question of her gender, exposing generous portions of her bust and thighs. Akane was another, dressed like a dancer and unsteadily weaving in place as if drunk, Kodachi sat next to her dressed in a gymnastics leotard. Utena smiled at him from her place at the other Ranma's knee.

"I know you," said Ranma. "Don't I?"

His double grinned. "Of course you do, bookworm. I'm another vision of what might have been for you." He turned and gave Nabiki a deep kiss before speaking again. "I'm Ranma Saotome..."

"Of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts," Ranma finished and then looked puzzled. "I haven't used the resonator for a while. I thought I'd assimilated the last of those other lives."

"Not me, bookworm!" The other Ranma got up from his position where he was surrounded by girls. "I'm the last one, but I'm not the Ghost of Christmas Future, not by a long shot." He reached down with one hand and lifted Utena up before giving her a deep kiss. His gaze turned to Ranma as he kissed the girl. There was a moaning sound coming from the Ohtori cadet after a few moments.

The doppelganger broke the kiss and came over to put his arm around Ranma. His appearance now seemed a little fuzzy around the edges. "When you wake up, it's going to be a whole new world for you, bookworm. I may be a martial artist like those other Ranmas, but I'm not socially retarded and sexually stunted like them. I know what girls are good for. You can thank Sakura-chan and Madoka-chan for that."

Versions of the Furinkan cadet and Ranma's dance teacher appeared suddenly, gazing at the other Ranma adoringly and dressed in risqué clothes like the other girls. The other Ranma gave them each a kiss. He turned and smiled at Ranma.

"My memories were sleeping inside you while you dealt with the more socially awkward versions of us, not to mention that redheaded tomboy. But seeing sweet Sakura-chan and dancing with Madoka-chan woke me back up. I had a date with Madoka-chan, and I think she's sweet on us now."

The girls suddenly vanished, and the other Ranma looked a little more faded and tattered in his image. He looked down at himself and frowned.

"I guess my time's about up, bookworm. I'm not sure how much of me is going to continue on in you, since you've got quite a lot filling your head already, but try and remember me." He leaned in closer to whisper, "And kiss a few of the girls already, will you? Tough little Ukyo and sweet, dreamy-eyed Kodachi are waiting for you to be a man with them, not to mention Nabiki. Show that Tendo girl who's the man between you two, okay? Heck, speaking of Tendo girls, even that psycho Akane chick might be a lot of fun in the right circumstances. And if you ever run into Shampoo on your world, don't screw it up, okay? She's been a good wife to me, and she's just incredible in the sack. Take it from me, I never had better."

The other Ranma faded even more as he flashed a thumb up and grinned.

"Now go be a man, bookworm."

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Ranma woke up, blinking at the sunlight coming in his window. After all the waiting, after all his preparations for the dance, it was finally Saturday morning, the day of the Spring Formal at Ohtori. He had a lot to do today to get ready.

His mother was seated at the table when he came down to breakfast, but Genma wasn't present, likely still recovering from his beating. Nodoka still looked upset about last night, and Ranma decided to let her be. He ate his breakfast at a more leisurely pace to avoid rousing her ire.

"I noticed the tuxedo in your closet yesterday, Ranma dear," his mother said suddenly. "Did Kodachi invite you to something formal?"

Ranma swallowed his food. "Utena invited me to a big dance at Ohtori tonight. I told you last week."

"Oh, that's right." She smiled at him and got up for a few minutes. She came back with a small stack of yen notes and set them in front of him. "You show Utena a good time tonight."

"Thanks, Mom." Ranma went back to eating his breakfast. "Uh, I guess last night was a surprise. It was for me."

"Yes, it's most uncharacteristic of your father to do something so impulsive and then not tell me." She looked at him. "Ranma, I'll forgive your father about this eventually, but things are going to be tense in the household for a while." She sipped her tea for a moment. "Try not to mention anything about the engagement agreements to the girls until I've had some time to think about it, all right? If it was a shock for you, imagine how they'll feel about it. They might start competing for your attention, or fighting with each other. We don't want that."

He nodded, not wanting to tell her that it was already far too late for that. She smiled at him again. "Don't look so worried, Ranma dear. This will all work out somehow."

"Okay, I gotta go now, Mom," he said, pocketing the money and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Things would all be fixed soon, he assured himself. Once his real father had the beacon completed, he was ready to open the gateway to finally bring him back home.

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"So, Ranma, what do you think about this hot redhead all the guys are talking about?"

Ranma coughed, some of his meat cutlet sandwich going down the wrong way at the sudden question. He looked up in surprise at Daisuke and Hiroshi, the pair currently standing near where he had been eating lunch on one of the rooftop benches with Kyosuke. The esper boy whacked him a few times on the back to help him.

"R-redhead?" Ranma finally managed to get out. Memories of other worlds floated across his mind as he took a breath, a similar version of this questioning taking place. "What redhead? Minami?"

"Not her. The other one. Try and keep up, Saotome." Hiroshi wondered how observant the pigtailed boy really was. After all, he had been eating lunch with a disguised girl for a while now without ever even appearing to realize it.

"I heard her name was Ranko Kuonji." That comment came from Daisuke. "I thought you might know her since you were friends with Ukyo."

"Why ask me about her?" Ranma wondered. "I've got enough troubles with girls."

"Yes, we all feel so sorry for you, Saotome," Daisuke said in sarcastic tones. "You've got Nabiki Tendo and that Kodachi Kuno cutie in your training class, and you're good friends with Ukyo Kuonji, who turns out to be a cute girl. There's even a rumor going around that you slept with that cadet from Ohtori."

"I didn't sleep with her!" Ranma took a big bite of his sandwich and washed it down with some apple juice. "Jeesh! Don't people have anything better to do than make up stupid rumors? Anyway, I don't know anything about this girl you're asking about."

"What are you two idiots doing?" Sayuri blared at them, as she and Yuka came over and Yuka grabbed Daisuke by the ear. She started dragging him off as he yelped. "You were going to eat with us for lunch," Sayuri reminded them, suddenly slapping Hiroshi when he mistakenly muttered "so noisy" at all the fuss.

"Those two are going to be controlled when they get married," Ranma mused about the two boys.

"Yeah, like that would ever happen to a couple of guys like us," said Kyosuke with a chuckle. "Yohko's certainly not that way with me."

Ranma took another bite of his sandwich. "I wish I could say the same thing about Nabiki," he said sourly. He sipped some more of his juice, thinking about the Tendo girl. Either it was coming from the download of memories from a half-male version of her, or something she already was, she seemed really intent on being the man in their relationship.

"Yohko told me that Nabiki's pretty mad about getting beaten up by her." Kyosuke took a bite of his own sandwich.

Ranma nodded. It was just his luck that Nabiki was now going to be after both his male side and female side.

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When Nabiki got to her locker to pick up her shoes for the day to head home, she was startled to find a letter in it. It was simply addressed on the outside to "Nabiki Tendo" and no other markings. She didn't get love letters from boys like her female peers, so she wasn't sure what it was.

She ripped it open, and a smirk appeared on her face. It was a formal letter of challenge from Ryoko Masaki. She snorted and put it away in her bag. She'd take care of Goblin Girl easily enough in a day or two. Right now, she had more important things to do, like getting home and preparing for the dance. Touga had notified her that he was going to be coming by limo to pick her up at four to take her to dinner before the dance.

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Kodachi got into her family's limo and settled herself into the seat as the car headed towards Whitehall. Thoughts of Miki were making her smile. She had finally decided on the perfect dress, and she was eager to spend a wonderful evening with him.

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Kuno's thoughts were on the four women he yearned for as he stood waiting for his ride home. A smile lit his face at the thought of them, four such strong women. He was looking forward to his evening.

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Captain Shun Mitaka pulled his car to a halt outside the walls of the Tendo household and contemplated the place. He had gotten the address from the school registrar. A pair of tennis rackets was in the trunk. He had heard from one of the other instructors that Godai liked to play. He thought a game or two of tennis would give him an opportunity to get some more information on that beautiful redhead who drove the lieutenant to work each morning.

There was a woman sweeping the walkway when he entered the grounds. He approached her and doffed his hat, running his hand once through his short hair as he did so. "Excuse me, Miss?"

Kyoko turned around and beheld Captain Mitaka, and she felt her heart seem to skip a beat at seeing the uniformed man, startling her. She bowed to him in greeting, receiving one in reply. "Uh, yes? Can I help you?"

"Uh, I was looking for Lt. Yusaku Godai, and I was told he lived here. Is he at home?" He could not seem to look away from her face, noting her push back a lock of long hair from her face with one hand. He felt very envious of Godai for knowing two such beautiful women.

Then Kasumi emerged from the house and walked past them, having stopped by to have a late lunch with her father. She gave a polite bow to the pair and continued on her way. Mitaka felt like his neck was going to break at resisting the urge to turn to look. He kept his eyes on Kyoko and let loose with a dazzling smile. He corrected his previous inner statement, now very envious of Godai for knowing three such beautiful women.

"Lt. Godai isn't here right now," Kyoko said finally, feeling a hint of irritation inside her at the thought of where he was and who he was with. "I believe he's out with a woman right now."

"Ayaka Kisaragi?" Mitaka was taking a guess, but he realized he had guessed right when he saw Kyoko's hands tightening on the broom handle she was holding.

"Yes." Kyoko's voice was tight. She could only imagine what sort of sordid things the Kisaragi woman was enticing Godai into. She hoped he was strong-willed enough to resist.

"Well, since he's not here, could I interest you in an afternoon out playing tennis and maybe an early dinner?" He gave her a dazzling smile as cherry blossoms seemed to swirl in the air around them.

Kyoko, startled, looked at him for several moments and then nodded.

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Despite intentions to moderate his alcohol intake on his get-together with Ayaka, Godai already had a glass of Bacardi rum in front of him, actually his second for the afternoon. It had been a fun time with the redheaded Institute agent so far, a good meal already in him, almost feeling like it was a real date to him. He took a sip of his drink, starting to relax from the stresses of his week.

Ayaka was feeling mellow as she finished her second glass of rum. She was having a great time chatting and drinking with Godai. She wondered if he might like to go and do some karaoke with her, but she knew she needed to be a bit more inebriated to have a good time at that. It just wasn't as much fun when sober.

"So, Godai-kun," Ayaka said suddenly as she looked at him. "Are you seeing anyone right now? Got a girlfriend?"

Godai coughed a bit, feeling rum searing his throat, startled at being asked such a direct question by a woman. "A-am I s-seeing anyone? A g-girlfriend?" His thoughts drifted to Kasumi and the wish he had made that night, but she was a married woman and just wanted a friend. He shook his head, feeling suddenly depressed. "No, I'm n-not seeing anyone."

"Well, you're a great guy. There are lots of women who'd like a guy like you." Ayaka swallowed some of her rum and grinned at him. She moved a little closer, her leg touching his as she gazed at him. "Take me, for example. I like you."

"Y-you do?" Godai's eyes widened a little in shock, and he took a drink to calm himself.

Ayaka clinked her glass to his when he set it down, and she nodded. "So, maybe this could be considered a date, Godai-kun. What do you think about that?"

"D-date?" Godai said with a gulp. Ayaka wanted to date him? He was surprised. "Y-you don't have a boyfriend?"

Ayaka frowned. "Boyfriend?" She took another drink of her rum. "The last guy I was with was a jerk. No, I don't have a boyfriend." She took one more drink and looked steadily at him. "I haven't had good luck with men. My boss says I need someone steadier and more reliable. No more playboy types."

"Uh, steady and reliable?" That was the first time a woman had ever said something like that to him. He took another drink.

Ayaka snuggled a little closer to him and took another sip of her drink. "Uh huh." She turned and gazed into his eyes, the two of them very close now. "Are you a steady and reliable sort of guy?"

Feeling her hip touching his and seeing the full swell of her bosom when he looked down, Godai could only nod helplessly.

"Good," Ayaka said with a grin. She took another sip from her glass and encouraged her companion to drink more.

She was looking forward to the rest of their evening together.

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Yohko smiled as she sat with Kyosuke in the very back of the movie theater, his arm around her, and her fingers entwined with his as they held hands and watched the film. She leaned her head on his shoulder and gave out a very quiet sigh of contentment. She felt so lucky to have a boyfriend like him in her life, finally feeling free of her past bad luck with men. They had been dating for a few months now, without him becoming possessed, seeing something 'Man Was Not Meant To Know' and going totally insane, or dying in some bloody, horrible fashion. Before Kyosuke, she had started to lose hope about ever having a successful relationship.

Unfortunately, the Institute cadet was proving to be almost painfully shy with her, despite _numerous_ hints on her part that he could be more aggressive. Make that much more aggressive. After all, they were involved together in a long-term, steady relationship, which meant certain things were supposed to be happening between them. But they weren't happening. The most intense activities that seemed to occur between them was either some snuggling like this or maybe a little kissing. It was starting to make her afraid maybe he didn't find her attractive enough to try something more with her, or maybe her being a Devil Hunter made her seem unfeminine.

Even when she had invited him over to her house on Monday to study with her, the two of them all alone while her grandmother was away for the night, Kyosuke remained a gentleman with her. And she had even worn a low-cut blouse and a tight pair of cutoff shorts for his benefit. Maybe she just wasn't being obvious enough to him in her attempts to take their relationship to the next level. Or maybe he was afraid of being rejected if he came on too strong.

She was about to lean up and start kissing him along the underside of his jawline when there was a sudden noisy commotion from the front area of the theater. Several people were running, scrambling away as best they could and screaming as a large ball of energy materialized right in front of the screen and quickly transformed itself into a four-armed demon with leprous skin and a pretty serious set of dental work. And the less said about his other accoutrements, the better. What was it that made most demons perverts too? Didn't they get enough satisfaction ripping people's intestines out through their nostrils?

"FOOLISH MORTALS! RUNNING SHALL DO YOU NO GOOD! FOR I AM THE DEMON LORD PAIN-INNA-REER, AND I COME TO FEAST UPON YOUR BLOOD AND SOULS!"

Yohko growled deeply, and her gaze narrowed lethally as it focused on the unwelcome intrusion upon her date with her boyfriend. Something like this always seemed to happen whenever they were out together in public, since Nerima seemed to have the most serious infestations of spirit entities in all of Tokyo. With a grimace, she broke away from her embrace with Kyosuke and got out of her seat, stalking her way down towards the creature, intent on doing some serious demon butt-kicking in the next few moments. At least that would help her work out some of her feelings of frustration, even if it was not at all how she had planned for her date with her boyfriend to go.

"AH! A HUMAN FEMALE COMES TO OFFER HERSELF TO ME IN A HOPE FOR MERCY! SPLENDID! I SHALL AVAIL MYSELF OF YOUR NUBILE YOUNG FLESH, BEFORE I- ACK!" There was a disturbing sound of bones breaking like kindling wood and then some teeth as well. "AHHH! CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT THIS?" The sound of more bones breaking was heard and then an almost effeminate squeal. "AIYEE! IT HURTS! OH GODS! MERCY!"

Kyosuke winced and turned his face away from the gruesome spectacle, resisting the urge to clutch himself in sympathy for where Yohko had just brutalized the demon. Then the Devil Hunter girl started to really get serious, and she had not even bothered to transform yet. Punches, kicks and other techniques from her martial arts arsenal were unleashed almost with abandon on the creature.

He decided to let her be while she worked out her issues. Ever since her shopping trip with Nabiki, she had been rather edgy and tense and maybe this would help. He was extremely glad her present wrath wasn't being aimed at him though. He winced again as Yohko did something unmentionable to the demon, and another rather high-pitched squealing was heard and then more begging. He quickly resolved to buy her a large bouquet of flowers and a very big box of expensive chocolates later on, just to be safe.

Since Ranma was now involved with Nabiki, sort of, he would have to ask him how he handled their relationship. After all, the two hadn't been seen brawling with each other outside of their training class for a while, so maybe they were getting along a bit better now. The pigtailed boy was probably his best source of advice for handling moody, highly combat-capable girls.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ranma considered his reflection in the mirror, decked out in a black tuxedo. He was striking poses and examining the results. He smiled. Tonight was going to be an opportunity to get away from most of his problems for a while. All he had to worry about was having a good evening with Utena and keeping an eye on Kodachi.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Utena turned around slowly in front of the mirror in her room and contemplated her appearance one more time in the light blue dress she was now wearing. Slender straps held the silk cloth of the gathered décolletage up over her breasts, exposing only the tops of their swell and a bit of cleavage, even while it plunged low in the back, almost to her derriere. The skirt region fell well below her knees, and it showed off the calves of her long, coltish legs rather nicely. A matching pair of high-heeled shoes completed the ensemble.

Anthy and Wakaba sat on the bed and both smiled at the sight of her. Ranma was coming to pick Utena up for dinner before the dance, so she was getting ready a bit early. She didn't want him to have to wait.

"This Ranma guy's not going to know what hit him," Wakaba commented. "He'll love seeing you in it." Her tones then dropped to a dark mutter. "And I'm sure he'll try getting you out of it."

"What was that?" Utena said, turning to look at her friend with a puzzled smile.

"Nothing," said Wakaba quickly. She smiled, planning to keep a very close eye on Utena's date.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Miki Kaoru waited in the sitting room while Kodachi completed her preparation for their date. His stopwatch was currently accumulating minutes and seconds as he waited, resisting the urge to pace. When she stepped into view, his thumb absently pushed the button, stopping it. He arose from his seat, a sense of wonder filling him at the sight of her.

Kodachi paused in the doorway, suddenly feeling a bit shy, dressed in a fine silk dress in light green. She had decided in the end to go for something more risqué than demure. The dress was backless, dipping down to her derriere. The front was held to her by a tie that went behind her neck and plunged down low in the middle to expose her cleavage. The skirt went down to her calves, but it was slit up high on one side, exposing tantalizing glimpses of her thigh. She wore long gloves that matched to the dress and reached to her upper arms.

Coming over to her, Miki swept down low in a courtly bow and took her hand in his. He felt tempted to give it a kiss but held back, not trusting himself to stop there. Not letting go of her hand, he stood back up straight and gazed into her eyes.

"You will be the loveliest woman there," he said sincerely, not letting go of her hand. He inhaled her delicate perfume, feeling his body seem to tingle in response to her nearness. "Sh-shall we go?" he finally managed to get out.

Kodachi nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She was fighting down an urge to skip the dance completely and just take Miki back to her room. She was shocked to have such a shameless, animalistic urge, betraying her feelings for Ranma and likely harming her reaffirmed friendship with Miki if she gave into it. She blamed Sukeban-Kodachi, suddenly imagining she could hear the girl's mocking laughter in the back of her mind.

Miki offered his arm, and the pair went to his waiting limousine.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Touga Kiryu arrived at the Tendos' home, he bade his driver wait for him as he exited the vehicle. He seemed to gleam in the late afternoon sunlight with a supreme level of handsomeness, every hair falling into perfect place with any sort of movements he made with his head. His fine white suit was perfect, without a single piece of lint or blemish of any kind on it.

When he approached the house, he was greeted by Nabiki Tendo at the door, already prepared for his arrival. He was pleased at her apparent eagerness to be off on their date. He took a moment to admire the black dress she wore, pleased to see that his gift fit her so perfectly, and the heels he had included accentuated well the athletic loveliness of her long legs. She looked womanly in such an outfit, and it caused an unexpected ache in his heart when he saw her.

That sensation actually shocked him. When she drew nearer, there was an even more powerful response to her presence than he had felt before with her. He realized after a moment that he had forgotten his manners in his distraction and reached out for her hand after she had begun to offer it.

"Nabiki Tendo, he said warmly, touching her gloved hand with his lips in a light kiss before looking up at her eyes. "You look most lovely this evening. I am honored that you will be joining me for this little soiree at Ohtori."

"A pleasure, Kiryuu-kun," Nabiki replied, trying to project calm and grace. She glanced back at the house once, enjoying with a corner of her perceptions the pleasant upwelling of sensations Touga was arousing within her, hoping to get away before the false Soun noticed her departure. It was only the two of them in the house right now. Kyoko had decided to take some time off and left on a date of her own earlier, and Akane was off somewhere with her new friend, Sakura.

She didn't know how Ranma put up with the fake Genma, but having the false Soun around was gradually fraying her nerves as she covered for him at home. He kept watching her and sometimes even making babbling comments on how pleased he was to see her marrying Ranma. He was not quite stupid enough to talk openly about that in front of Akane, but it was only a matter of time before he caused that situation to explode in Nabiki's face.

He also sometimes talked to her about how her training class was going. It was probably only a matter of time before he put up a shingle and began advertising for students for the Anything-Goes School. Nabiki had suspected it was coming and had tried to not burden Ranma with what it was like for her at home, but they were running out of time.

Back in the house was a letter that had arrived just today, an official notice delivered by courier pouch from the Imperial Court. Soun Tendo had been selected to be the next Minister of Security for the Empire. As part of his ascension to that post, he would be required to submit to a telepathic scan by someone from the Mobius Institute to ensure his loyalty to the Emperor. While she was confident her real father would pass, the false Soun would likely be found out. Her father had worked too long and hard, sacrificed too much, to get this far in his career.

"Nabiki!" shouted Soun from within the house. "Where are you at, daughter?"

"We should go now." Nabiki turned and hurried Touga away from the house.

Touga was confused. "Perhaps I should meet your father before we go. It would be rude to just leave."

"Kiryuu-kun," she said in suddenly coquettish tones, taking his arm more warmly in hers and pressing her breast against his limb. "Wouldn't you prefer to spend every moment possible with me tonight, and not my father?"

Almost overcome by his desires for her, Touga smiled. Perhaps the gift of the dress had been more a potent aphrodisiac than he realized. She seemed quite eager to spend time with him, and who was he to deny her?

"Your carriage awaits to take you to the ball, Nabiki Tendo," he said gallantly.

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When Ranma finally arrived at the door to Utena's room, he felt a sudden surge of nervousness strike him. Other than going to the movies once with Ukyo, he hadn't been on a real date before. What would they talk about? Would he remember how to dance? He popped a breath mint into his mouth from a package he'd picked up somewhere, just in case. He smoothed his hair and tried to calm himself. He wanted to run away, and he wasn't sure why.

He mustered his courage and rang the doorbell. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself while he waited. Then he almost jumped back when the door was opened very suddenly, his martial artist reflexes expecting some kind of attack coming.

Utena stood there in the doorway, and he swallowed down a suddenly dry throat at the sight of her. He could not seem to stop himself as his eyes traversed her body, pausing ever so briefly at the swell of her breasts revealed in her décolletage, down her sleekly womanly figure to finally reach her coltish legs in high heels. And then he returned his gaze to her face, seeing her blue eyes, clear skin and her pink hair gathered into a beautiful hairstyle. He smelled her delicate perfume and felt a pleasant tingling along his nerves.

When the doorbell rang, Utena had practically run to answer it, Anthy and Wakaba trailing behind her, both of them amused by her antics. She had checked herself one last time, slipped on her shoes and laced the straps around her ankles and then she had taken several deep breaths. Anthy handed her a breath mint, and she popped it into her mouth as the other two girls went to hide back out of sight. Fearing she had made her date wait too long, she opened the door quickly before she ran away and hid in her room. She was surprised to feel that way. No other boy had ever made her feel that timid before.

Ranma stood there in the hallway before her door, and she swallowed down a suddenly dry throat at the sight of him. He was so handsome in his tuxedo; it almost made her heart seem to stop in her chest. Her thoughts flickered back to their first meetings, their battles together and then that night staying over at his house. She recalled the kiss she had given him on the cheek when she left.

They stood there just staring at each other for several moments. Both of them were suddenly aware that this moment was real, that they were a boy and girl who were about to go out on a serious date. Utena blushed, and Ranma put his hand behind his head and looked a bit nervous.

Wakaba was chewing on the handkerchief she held in her hands, able to feel the tension even from back where she was. Anthy was a calmer presence beside her, but she was tense too. The two girls waited for one of the pair to speak, or at least do something other than look like a pair of mannequins.

"You look really good, Utena," Ranma managed to stutter out. He was feeling awkward, half-hoping someone attacked him because then at least he would feel more confident in what to do.

"Th-thank you. So do you." Utena felt her heart pounding in her chest, unable to stop looking at him. It had been like this when she had first met him and every time since then.

Seeing her regard, feeling his own attraction towards her, recognizing on a visceral level that she was a beautiful girl who was attracted to him, something seemed to click inside Ranma, like a missing piece suddenly snapping into place. He felt his posture change, grow more confident, and he smiled warmly at Utena. He reached out and gently took her hand.

"I have reservations for dinner at one of the restaurants near Ohtori," he said as he met her gaze. "I am honored that you will be joining me for this evening. I'll do my best to make it a memorable one for you."

Wakaba dropped her jaw. The guy had gone from nervous and shy to this suavely smooth young man in a single moment of time. She remembered how he had seemed to her before, cute but not really confident with girls. Now he seemed to be radiating self-assurance. Not quite up there with the likes of Touga Kiryuu, but not too far behind it either.

"I've been looking forward to dinner and tonight's dance, Ranma," said Utena, his poise helping her restore hers. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door with him.

After the door closed behind the couple, Anthy murmured, "Maybe he is her prince, after all."

Wakaba frowned. "Maybe." She didn't sound convinced. "Come on. We need to get ready for the dance too.

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Nabiki walked next to Touga as they arrived at the hall where Ohtori was holding the Spring Formal. Roses were everywhere, from petals strewn on the ground to baskets containing numerous bouquets. It was like a fairy tale scene as well-dressed young men and women walked in arm-in-arm. She felt like a princess in her dress and heels.

Standing tall next to Nabiki, Touga felt her arm on his. Dinner had been an enjoyable affair, but his desires had not been for the food. He could not seem to take his eyes off of his lovely companion. At his urging, they had shared a bottle of wine with dinner. By his estimate, they had split the bottle evenly between them by the end of the meal.

Through another door arrived Kodachi and Miki, her holding on to his arm as they entered. Dinner had been a wonderful experience, talking and laughing with her handsome friend, and they had even had a fine wine with their meal. Her enhanced metabolism had mostly burned it off by now, but the remnants were leaving a pleasant little glow within her. The alcohol had eased her nervousness at dinner. She felt so much closer to Miki now. He was truly a good friend.

Mikado, Kuno and their dates arrived through a third door. Juri and Nanami were eyeing each other as the foursome walked in, the younger girl with irritation at the presence of the older girl, one she felt frequently whenever they were together. For her part, Juri was mostly ignoring the Kiryuu girl's dark looks, as usual finding her to be beneath notice.

The Kuno heir was in high spirits, and his meal and dinner conversation with his lovely companion had been stimulating to him. He was enjoying his evening quite well so far. He patted Juri's hand on his arm as he surveyed the room like a general come to conquer, receiving a genuine smile from her in return.

At her date's side, Juri was feeling quite contented, which surprised her a bit. The two of them had discussed swordsmanship at dinner as well as less martial topics, and she had been delighted to discover that her initial impression of him had been correct. She liked him quite well, and his feudal-era manners were charming. His knowledge of the different schools of Kenjutsu had been surprisingly vast as well. He had promised her a duel at their earliest convenience, and she was looking forward to it. But right now she was enjoying his presence and hoping they could dance together tonight.

Having endured a couple of hours already with the little shrew he was escorting, Mikado was in a less than jovial mood. While Nanami Kiryuu was quite pleasing to look upon, in spirit she reminded him of the White Lily all too much, filled with a malicious will. The wine they had consumed with dinner had dulled her sharp tongue, but it had the unwelcome (to him) side effect of unlocking her libido a bit too much more than he cared for.

Nanami held on tightly to Mikado's arm, feeling a pleasant tingling run through her body and enjoying the smell of his musky cologne. She had never imagined any other boy but her brother arousing her like this. She could admit to herself that she had been most ill-mannered to him at their meal together, but she intended to make it up to him now. She turned her gaze to him, and the flower petals blowing in the air seemed to briefly form a halo over his head, causing her breath to catch in her throat.

Ranma and Utena straight-armed the doors open together like a pair of heroes returned from battle as they entered via the fourth set of double doors, each of them smiling and laughing as they appeared. The pigtailed boy felt fortunate tonight at his travels in Europe with his father, and he had impressed his date with his knowledge of French cuisine at the little bistro where they had shared dinner together earlier that evening. He gazed out at the room, looking forward to dancing with Utena.

Clinging a bit tightly to his arm, feeling it touching the side of her breast, Utena was already having a wonderful time. She had enjoyed talking with Ranma at dinner, finding herself unable to look away from him as he told her tales of places he had been, and she had shared a few stories of her own. A pleasant tingling ran through her body at his nearness, and she was idly wondering if he might like to spend the night in her room, if things went late tonight. She justified that in her mind as repayment for her being allowed to stay at his home weeks ago. That was all it was. Really.

Nabiki caught sight of Ranma first, followed quickly in turn by the others noticing everyone else who had arrived, except for Juri, Kuno, Nanami and Utena, who were all too pre-occupied with their dates to look at anyone else. Frowns began appearing on faces. Fists began clenching at sides.

Seeing her fiancé defying her will (and very clear instructions) one more time, his unexpected appearance with the Tenjou girl caused Nabiki's right eyebrow to twitch and a vein suddenly popped up on her forehead. Absently realizing that her situation appeared bad as well in comparison, she held her place and seethed silently instead. Her grip on Touga's arm tightened a slight amount. Her gaze shifted over to see that her debutante rival was taking this about as well as she was, paradoxically making her feel a little better.

Kodachi's gaze focused upon the sight of the commoner harlot currently standing there with her fiancé. The dress the other girl was wearing, clearly one bought off the rack from an ordinary boutique, left little doubt to her eyes that the unworthy girl was trying to seduce Ranma. She clutched more tightly at Miki's arm and happened to glance over and saw Nabiki standing with Touga. What was left of her previous good mood promptly evaporated.

His attention split, Mikado glanced back and forth between Kodachi and Ranma. His gaze was dark and filled with loathing as he looked at the pigtailed boy. After only a short time under Nanashi's training, he was already better than he had been since his last encounter with his rival, but he still felt he needed an edge if he tried something tonight. Feeling the flask of rum in his jacket, one he had decided to bring if the date with the Kiryuu girl grew too agonizing to take without something to dull the pain, an idea occurred to him.

Miki eyed Ranma in an unfriendly fashion, and he felt Kodachi's grip suddenly tighten on him. He absently patted her hand to comfort her. He felt the flask in his jacket under his other arm, one filled with a sweet but potent liqueur. He and Touga would be there to rescue their dates when the Saotome boy made an asinine fool of himself after he drank a few cups of spiked punch. He smiled in anticipation of Kodachi's gratitude.

Standing at Nabiki's side and enjoying her nearness, Touga spotted Ranma across the room as he arrived grinning like an idiot next to the delightsome beauty that was the Tenjou girl, inwardly appalled a bit that the other was apparently more in Utena's favor than he was. He noted his lovely companion tightening her grip on his arm and could feel the tension radiating from her. It annoyed him that a near-peasant like Ranma was even a rival for the heart of an intriguing girl like Nabiki. He smiled coolly, looking forward to ending that rivalry, his hand briefly touching the flask at his hip, concealed by his jacket.

Ranma was startled to see both Kodachi and Nabiki at the dance, and his laughter at Utena's last joke came to a stuttering halt. He looked from one fiancée to the other, frowning. After a moment, he turned to look at Utena, his smile returning at the sight of her face. He had come here to be with her, and he was not going to ruin her evening by getting pulled into something stupid like his analogs would have been at seeing this setup.

"Shall we dance, Utena?" he asked gently. He received a smile and nod in return.

Seeing the pigtailed boy heading to the dance floor, Miki, Touga and Mikado immediately did the same. Seeing his good friend going to the dance floor, Kuno turned to look at Juri.

"'Twould be an honor if you would dance with me, my lady," he said to her.

"I accept," she replied with a smile. Deciding on having a little more privacy, the two went out on one of the verandas to dance, since it was far less crowded.

On the main dance floor, the other three boys made it a point to pass nearby Ranma now and then as he danced quite ably with Utena. The pigtailed boy felt more than one solid elbow strike hitting him in the back of his ribcage as he danced. He growled under his breath after the fourth such impact, Mikado having come around for a second pass.

During occasional breaks, Ranma went over to have punch with Utena at the snack table, as well as sampling the food. It was all quite good, he mused as he set his cup behind him. When he took another drink, it was fuller than he remembered, but he shrugged and swallowed it down, thirsty from the dancing.

After his third cup of punch, he decided to give Utena a break and she went off to chat with her two friends: Anthy and Wakaba. Seeing Miki dancing with Kodachi, he walked over and tapped the other boy on the shoulder. "May I cut in?"

"Of course," Miki replied with a smile, stepping back as Ranma took his place. His smile promptly vanished as he reached into a pocket and clicked his stopwatch before going back to the table he and Kodachi were using, sitting down to rest. He eyed the dancing couple darkly. The flask in his jacket was much emptier now.

"Funny seeing you here at the dance, Kodachi," Ranma said mildly in reproof as he moved gracefully on the dance floor with her. "Is that guy a friend of yours?"

Kodachi looked peeved but maintained her poise. "Miki Kaoru is a dear childhood friend of mine, Saotome-kun," she said with a frown, her body moving with his as the music filled the air and other dancers flowed around them. "What about you and that girl you're with? You two have been very friendly with each other."

"Utena invited me," Ranma declared defensively, dropping Kodachi into a dip. "And I thought it might be fun to go dancing."

Her body unconsciously slipping up close to his as they continued to move together to the music, their dancing became more intimate. Kodachi felt hurt and annoyed by his words. "You could have simply asked me, Saotome-kun. I love to dance. By the way, not that it matters, but you're a very good dancer." There was a pause. "I would not be opposed to going dancing with you someday."

"Maybe I'll take you dancing someday then," he said in mild challenge, dipping her again, her leg rising high and straight behind him as they moved together in harmony. "What do you think about that?"

"As you are my fiancé, I have no choice but to accept," she said with a briefly coquettish look, her annoyance a bit faded as they continued moving together on the dance floor. She felt aroused by his nearness and the skillful way he moved with her to the music. She had never suspected he was such a good dancer.

When the music stopped, Miki came to gather Kodachi away, and Ranma went back over to the punch bowl. He watched Miki and Kodachi dancing with a frown, reaching behind himself to grab three more cups of punch, one right after the other, and draining them dry. He was starting to feel a warm burning inside. Nabiki walked by, apparently trying to ignore him, and he grabbed her hand.

"Come and dance with me?" he asked her.

"If you insist," Nabiki replied with a shrug, letting him guide her to the dance floor.

Behind them, Touga replaced the flask to his hip. It was a bit over half-empty now.

"So, you and that Touga guy, are you two childhood friends?" Ranma pulled Nabiki closer as music for a tango began. They began moving together to the latin rhythms.

"Is that jealousy I hear in your voice?" Nabiki said softly into his ear. "What about you and the Prince of Ohtori? You had never even met her before the challenge match you two had, and now you two look like a dating couple. You've never even taken me on a single date, and we're engaged, Ranma Saotome." A hint of hurt was in her tones, escaping her usual iron control of her emotions.

The two of them began moving more intimately together as the tango reached the mid-point of the music. Ranma dipped her, feeling her leg partially wrapped around him as he gazed into her eyes. He didn't respond to her words immediately.

"So, what are you saying?" he asked her suddenly when they were both back upright, her body pressed against his tightly. He pulled back to look at her face. "You want to treat the agreement those two fakes made as a real engagement?"

"Would that be so bad?" Nabiki slid her body around his as the tango continued. "Like it or not, Ranma-kun, we're kind of stuck with each other because of those two fakes." She trailed her fingers along his jawline as she returned to his front, strutting a bit as she moved around him.

"I finished the device." Ranma spun Nabiki outward and then pulled her back into a tight embrace. "As soon as my father completes the beacon, we can bring our real fathers home and send those two idiots back."

She ran her hand up to his shoulder and gazed into his eyes. She nodded. "The sooner the better."

"Agreed." The music finally reached its climax, the two of them sharing an intimate moment as they moved together and then stopped, gazing intently into each other's eyes as they caught their breaths, neither quite knowing what to say. When it was over, Touga came to claim Nabiki and moved off with her in another dance. Ranma stalked over to the table where the punch was and stood with his back to it. He grabbed a cup and drank it quickly, feeling it burning down his throat.

Burning? He glanced at the cup, suddenly confused. He felt a bit unsteady, and the room was moving as he weaved a bit.

"Had a bit too much punch to drink, Saotome?" said a familiar voice behind him.

Ranma turned to see Mikado standing there, looking at him with a wicked smile on his lips. The other boy waggled a flask and then put it back into his jacket. While he was standing there, suddenly seeing two of Mikado for a moment, the other boy attacked.

The dance music shifted to a more lively tempo, a heavy techno beat, as the pigtailed boy shot off the edge of a balcony to land in one of the many courtyards, his feet skidding back a little, propelled there by the other boy's kick. Mikado came down to land near him at the end of a long leap.

Charging at Ranma with a snarl of hatred, their fight began.

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"You sure look like you're having a good time, Utena," Wakaba said with a smile as the three girls walked around to cool off. Each of them had cups of sweet punch in their hands. "I have to admit, that Saotome guy is a really good dancer."

Utena smiled. She felt wonderful. She hoped Ranma was enjoying his evening as much as she was.

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Ranma's head snapped to one side from Mikado's punch, one of several blows he had taken so far during the fight. He lashed out with a punch and kick of his own, but he missed. Mikado seemed to be moving faster and better than he had before, which was confusing.

"What's the matter, Saotome?" the other boy taunted, driving his knee upwards into Ranma's ribcage and knocking him over to land on his back, a Muay Thai maneuver that Nanashi had taught him. "No smart remarks to make this time?" Before Ranma could stand, Mikado hit him in the face with another hard punch.

Things were going much better than Mikado had hoped. He had noticed the two Ohtori cadets giving spiked cups of punch to Ranma earlier that evening. The rum he had given the pigtailed boy straight up seemed to have finished the job. He hit Ranma several more times in succession, bloodying his face. It felt good to expend his energies this way, and he drove another savage blow into the other boy's gut.

Rallying, Ranma managed to block the next couple of strikes and got a solid hit upwards in an explosive uppercut to Mikado's jaw. He felt woozy on his feet and staggered a bit, angry that he was losing because of dishonorable cheating on the other boy's part. He launched himself in a flying kick that gave him the satisfaction of hearing a solid impact into Mikado's shoulder.

"Damn you, Saotome!" Mikado, his lip split from the uppercut, got a firm hold of Ranma's jacket and slammed him down face first into the pavement. "Still got some fight in you? This should take care of that." He rolled the pigtailed boy over and forced his jaw open before pouring more of the flask down his throat.

Ranma felt the rum hit the back of his throat and gagged and sputtered, swallowing some more of it, feeling it burning all the way down his gullet. "Get off me!" He kicked Mikado away in a sudden spasm of movement, spilling some more of the rum on himself. He got back to his feet and weaved in place slightly. There was something tickling the back of his brain and trying to get his attention, about alcohol and fighting that he should know.

That was it, the memory suddenly clicking into place inside him. He had learned it for one of his first movie roles, wanting to be authentic on camera. Or rather, his actor analog had done so.

Spotting the flask laying on the ground, Ranma grabbed it up and poured some more in his mouth. He swallowed it. Mikado was looking at him in puzzlement.

"Never figured you for a drinker, Saotome," the other boy mocked him. He paused in his attacks, deciding to let his nemesis have one last drink before he put him down, if Ranma so chose.

Ranma drained the last of the rum down his throat where it burned warmly inside him. He tossed the empty flask away and then hiccupped once. He took up a stance, his hands out in front of him as if they held cups, weaving in place. He gave a taunting smile to Mikado.

"Come and (hic) get me, Sanzenin."

"When I'm through with you, they're going to need a stretcher to carry you home!" Mikado charged again, infuriated, another punch aimed at Ranma's head. To his surprise, the other boy jerked suddenly to one side and a powerful punch hit Mikado in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. He lashed out with a kick, and Ranma dodged aside again, rolling over his limb and striking down with an elbow.

Again and again, Mikado tried to attack, and each attack was thrown back in his face or dodged when Ranma seemed to spasm suddenly and apparently at random. He punched and missed, receiving an elbow to the face for his efforts. He kicked and was blocked, and the other boy slammed a kick into his face in reply.

After a time, Ranma's metabolism began clearing the alcohol from his body. He realized he was sitting on an unconscious Mikado by one of the fountains, not quite sure how he had won the fight. He got up, his body aching in places. He had fought and won, that much he could recall, but the details were hazy.

"There you are," said Utena, and he turned to see her coming his way. When she saw his bruised and battered face, the rips in his tuxedo and the unconscious boy bleeding from his nose and mouth into the pavement, she felt her previous annoyance at his unexplained absence vanish. He had clearly been in a fight. She took out her handkerchief and dipped it into the water in the fountain before cleaning some of the blood from his face. "Are you all right, Ranma?"

"Yeah, it looks worse than it is," he said with a grimace of pain when she dabbed under his nose. "The last thing I remember clearly is this jerk attacking me." He sighed and looked sad. "Sorry about ruining our date."

"Oh, I had a great time up until now," she reassured him. "So don't you worry about that." She gave him a smile, glad to know he was all right. "You and I sure do seem to attract violent jerks, don't we?"

Ranma chuckled at that one and then grimaced again, his ribs aching. With Utena's help, he stood up. Eyeing the fountain as if the water might reach out and attack him, he started walking away from it, Utena helping hold him up.

"We'll go back to my room, and you can rest there tonight," she said suddenly. "You shouldn't try to travel without some rest first. I can call your mother and let her know you're staying over."

Ranma nodded tiredly at first, wanting to find some place to lie down and rest for a while. Then her words seemed to percolate up into his awareness. His half-open eyes snapped open fully.

"Uh, that's okay, Utena. I wouldn't want to impose."

At that moment, others arrived.

Nabiki and Kodachi saw Ranma's beaten appearance and took in Mikado's unconscious form by the fountain. They shared a look and then came over to Utena.

"We'll take him from here, Tenjou," said Nabiki, moving to take over holding the pigtailed boy up. She smelled alcohol on his breath and clothes and noticed the open flask lying to one side on the ground. She had felt the hip flask under Touga's jacket while they were dancing but had thought little of it at the time. Now she wasn't so certain.

Mikado wasn't good enough to hurt Ranma this badly, she was certain of that. But if someone had gone to the trouble of spiking all the punch she had seen him drinking during the night, it might be possible. She recalled seeing either Miki or Touga at the snack table whenever Ranma was there. That was suspicious, but she had no proof of any wrongdoing on their parts.

"No need to trouble yourself about this guy anymore, Tenjou. Kuno-dono and I can take care of everything from here." Behind Nabiki's fake smile, her unspoken message from their last encounter was repeated: 'Don't ever come near him again.'

"Yes, we shall take care of his injuries and see him safely home." Kodachi put herself under Ranma's other arm. Her rivalry with Nabiki was set aside in the face of a common threat from an outsider.

Standing off to one side, Miki and Touga both glowered a bit at the pigtailed boy getting attention from three attractive girls. When the girls looked their way, they brightened as if nothing at all was the matter.

"You can use my limousine to get him home, Nabiki," said Touga with a smile.

"And we can carry your friend, Kodachi," Miki exclaimed. "I wouldn't want to see you stain your lovely dress."

Kodachi smiled at Miki. "You're very kind to do so, Kaoru-kun." It was clear to her that the treacherous Sanzenin animal had attacked Ranma. She would have kicked him, but she was too far away and also didn't want to shock Miki by committing such an unladylike act in his view.

While they stood there, Nanami suddenly rushed past them all, even her brother, to attend to the fallen Sanzenin boy. She gave Ranma a brief, extremely malicious look as she wet her handkerchief and began cleaning Mikado's face.

Touga was a little startled to see this, but he hid it well, only raising one eyebrow. He shifted Nabiki's share of Ranma to himself, disappointed that his plan had been derailed. No matter. A victory after a few setbacks would only make the final conquest all the sweeter.

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Meanwhile, on one of the verandas, Kuno and Juri Arisugawa were taking a break from dancing. They stood close together and watched the stars. No words were spoken between them, but he was holding her hand as they stood at the railing.

Juri was smiling and feeling warm inside.

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"It was an entertaining evening, Nabiki Tendo," said Touga with a smile after helping put Ranma in the car. "I look forward to seeing what our next time together holds." He gave her a kiss on her hand.

"It might be fun at that," Nabiki replied, smiling. She had been a little concerned that the nobleman might try something, based on his reputation, but he had been a perfect gentleman with her all evening. She would continue to explore a friendship with him. She could always correct him if things got too serious between them.

On the other side of the car, Miki and Kodachi stood together. "I had a good time with you, Kaoru-kun." She leaned closer to him, and Miki thought she was going to kiss his cheek. "Because of this evening, I think Saotome-kun and I will have a better relationship," she whispered into his ear. "Thank you for your help." She then gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"No problem," Miki said calmly, his fist clenching at his side as he feigned happiness for her. When she was inside the car, he glared at the semi-conscious pigtailed boy. He wanted to scream and rage at the unfairness of it all. Why did Ranma have Kodachi's warmest regards, and he was just seen as a friend?

Utena approached him after saying her goodbyes to Ranma. She had been hustled out of the car a little rudely by the Tendo girl, but she didn't want to damage her dress by starting a fight, tempting as it was to smash the other girl for her impertinence.

"Thank you for your help, Miki," she said with a smile. "Can I count on your help with Ranma in the future?"

Miki blinked. He turned to face her. "What do you mean?"

"I noticed that you and Kodachi Kuno are good friends. Knowing her, do you think she's right for someone like Ranma?"

"No." His tone was certain as he watched the limousine driving away.

She turned to face Touga. "Do you think Nabiki Tendo is right for him?"

"I think such a girl is wasted on one like him," the nobleman said with a smile.

"Can I count on your assistance in getting Ranma away from them?" She smiled at the pair. "I mean, since they aren't right for him."

Miki and Touga looked briefly at each other and suddenly both boys wore matching smiles. They nodded to each other in silent agreement.

"In speaking for Miki and myself, we'd be quite happy to assist you in getting them apart, Utena my dear."

Utena nodded, grateful for their promised aid. She turned to watch the limousine carrying Ranma fade off into the night.

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My heartfelt thanks goes out to all of my readers for all of their comments and suggestions.