Nabiki just couldn't understand Ranma, and that left her off-balance
in her dealings with him. Ranma's father was so frightened of him
that he even seemed to avoid stepping in his son's shadow, and her
own father practically ran away, screaming or gibbering in terror
at the very sight of Ranma. The young man actaully had to eat
his meals at a different time so he wouldn't distress the
Tendo patriarch. But, even with that much control, or was it
power, Ranma had allowed himself to be enrolled in Furinkan High,
the same school she and Akane attended. Not that school was a
bad thing, far from it, but Ranma didn't seem like the type that
cared that much about, or even really needed, an education. So
here they were, Nabiki and Akane, escorting him to his first day at
the most f#&*ed up school in Japan.
"Ranma, why did you let your dad make you come to school?"
Nabiki voiced her thoughts to Ranma, who strangely enough, was
walking on the chainlinked fence along the sidewalk.
Ranma casually walked off the fence, never breaking stride,
and continued walking next to Nabiki."Oyaji doesn't make me
do anything, not anymore." He smiled boyishly, almost shyly,
and said,"It's been a while since I was around people my own age, so
I just gave him a small victory."
Seeing the look on Ranma's face was strange. He usually wore such
a confident expression, with a smirk that made him look like he
always found his surroundings amusing, that Nabiki was thrown
further off-balance. This was a strange boy indeed.
Akane snorted derisively."Can't see why you want to associate with
us 'normal' people. Afterall, we're just 'normal', not super-
martial artist wizards. How can you even stand to be around
us?"
Now that Nabiki could understand. Akane had been angry enough
after Ranma's treatment of their father, but when she had
challenged Ranma... it hadn't been pretty. Worse, her defeat had
made a complete mockery of her, up to the time, unsurpassed skills.
Of course Nabiki had the little fight on tape, not that she would
sell it, Ranma was too valuable and unpredictable to risk angering,
but a periodic reminder to Akane would definately help control her
ego.
"Mage," Ranma replied absentmindedly."Sorceror is all right too,
but wizard makes me sound old." He was looking intently ahead.
"What 'are' they doing?" he asked, pointing up the road.
Nabiki had been covertly examining Ranma, he was nice to look, so
she didn't see what he was talking about at first. When she
looked down the road she couldn't help but groan. They were
back again. She couldn't understand how Nerima General got them
back on their feet so fast."Ah, those are just Akane's
admirers." Approaching the school, it was obvious that many of
the gathered boys were walking wounded. Many stood on cructches,
had bandages wrapped around their head, and a couple were
in wheelchairs. She was about to elaborate further when
Akane interrupted her.
"I hate boys! I hate boys!" the now glowing girl repeated to
herself slowly through clenched teeth. Then she charged at them
like an angry bull.
Ranma looked to Nabiki, confusion evident on his face."A classmate
of mine made a proclamation at the beginning of the year that
anyone who wanted to date my sister had to defeat her in combat.
That was last semester. They just won't give up."
Ranma's eyes bulged a bit, and for a moment Nabiki thought he was
going to be sick, but then he broke out in a fit of laughter that l
eft him leaning against someone's wall, clutching his ribs.
When Ranma had gotten himself under control, Nabiki asked,"What's
so funny?" Her voice held a note of irratation in it. Akane was
her sister, afterall, and her plight wasn't that funny.
Ranma must have heard the tone of her voice because he said,"Sorry,
I'm not making fun of Akane, it's that the whole situation is
so ridiculously similar to Amazon marriage laws that I couldn't
help but laugh."
"Amazon marriage laws?" Surely he didn't expect her to belive
in Amazons. They were ancient mythology.
"Me and Oyaji ran across them in China. The laws are pretty
stupid, but they stick by them. If an outsider of the opposite
sex defeats you, you have to marry them, but if they're of the
same sex, you have to kill them."
"You're joking, right? There are no such thing as Amazons." They
were nearing the gates of Furinkan, and from the bodies littering
the ground, it was obvious that Akane had already gone ahead to
class. Hmm, Kuno would probably be getting out of the hospital
soon.
As they carefully maneuvered between the broken, groaning bodies,
Ranma commented,"Tell the Amazons that. If you ever decide to,
you better watch out though, they are all fighters." Ranma winced
in sympathy when he stepped over a whimpering boy who had a
baseball bat inserted into a rather sensitive area.
"Okay, say these Amazons do exist, how do you know so much
about them?" Nabiki asked as they entered the school. She decided
to escort Ranma to the office and help him with the paper
work.
"After I got cursed I kept trying to kill the Oyaji, so he ran off
to give me some time to cool down. A few days after he ran out of
camp while I was sleeping, I found the Amazon village. I was
pretty hungry, so I acted all girly and frightened and stuff.
They took me to their village and fed me for a few days, but on the
day I was planning to leave someone dropped a pot of hot water on
me and I turned back into a guy. Things got pretty bad from
there. They were real pissed for tricking them so a lot of them
tried to kill me." Ranma walked past the office door.
Nabiki grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back and led him
into the office.
"Ah, thanks. Anyway, after a few minutes I was engaged to about
two dozen Amazon women. Eventually, they did over power me, but
I'd taken out a least thirty of them by then. This big ugly one
was about to chop my head off when a bolt of lightning struck her
sword and knocked her out. A gaijin woman walked into view and
burnt the ropes that were holding me to the stake. Turns out that
she was a sorceress and had seen my potential. When the Amazons
found 'that' out they made themsleves scarce. Later I found out
that there's a really big rule they have about not hurting mages,
good or bad."
Chibi-Hinako was busily jumping up and down on the secretary's
desk shouting,"I want bubble gum flavored chalk!" repeatedly.
"So that's the woman who taught you magic?" Nabiki asked. If she
could believe in magic, believing in Amazons wouldn't be too
hard.
"Yeah, she's from America, but she was visiting a friend for a
while. Guess I got lucky."
Lucky didn't even begin to describe it."Excuse me," Nabiki said to
the secratary who was ignoring Chibi-Hinako's tantrum.
"Yes, may I help you?" the gray-haired old woman asked.
"My friend here needs to register for classes."
****
"Class, we have a new student. This is Ranma Saotome," the
teacher introduced.
Excited whispers broke out among the girls in the room causing Akane
to scowl at Ranma. He probably couldn't wait to get his hands on
all those defenseless girls. Well, she wasn't going to let
that happen. She'd talk to Nabiki, maybe give her a little money,
and there would be rumors of Ranma's perverthood going through
the school by the end of the week.
Ranma found an empty window seat near the back. Once the teacher
had managed to quiet the class down, he began a long and boring
lecture on some obscure point of Japanese history that Ranma
missed completely becasue he fell asleep before the teacher
actually mentioned what he was talking about.
****
Ranma didn't know anyone at Furinkan besides Nabiki and Akane, so
at lunch he sought out the older of the girls. Akane definately
wasn't an option. He was carrying his lunch tray over to the
bench where Nabiki and another girl was sitting when a large group
of boys surrounded him.
"Hey Saotome," a tall, brauny guy sneered,"we hear that you're
staying at Akane's place."
Ranma couldn't believe these idiots were actually trying to bully
him. When he didn't say anything, the same guy continued.
"Well, we don't like it, Akane's our's, you hear," he laughed and
the dozen or so other boys joined in.
"You know I would never cheat on your mom, Son," Ranma finally
said. Ranma had long ago decided that most people were
complete idiots, and therefore undeserving of any respect. A
person had to earn his respect and these people weren't doing a
very good job.
The leader of the little gang turned red with rage and
began sputtering. The other boys closed in on Ranma, tightening
the rough circle they had formed around him.
Deciding to end the conflict so that he could at least have time
to eat his lunch, Ranma sprang into action.
****
Nabiki had been watching the little encounter between Ranma and some
of Akane's playmates with a little interest. Ranma could take care
of himself, but when she heard his comment to the brute who had
done the talking, the scene gained her immediate attention. That
had been 'good'! It was when Ranma threw his tray straight into
the air and became a barely visible blur that people starting
gasping in suprise and shock. When Ranma again became visible,
he caught his tray and proceeded on towards her position. Every
last one of the boys who had intended to waylay Ranma was on
the ground, clutching his throat and making sickly gurgling
noises. Several nearby girls looked like they would be
sick.
"Do you think I overdid it?" he asked Nabiki.
Even as she answered no to his question, Nabiki was thinking
of possible uses for Ranma. Besides his possible future as
her instructor in the arcane arts, Ranma represented a half
dozen different financial ventures, but most of those wouldn't get
his consent and as she had just seen, Ranma was not someone to
be uspet, even if you disregarded all the interesting ways he had
of blowing people up. But if she was seen to be his friend, and
she was in a way becoming one, just the reputation he was sure to
gain would be a very good deterent to debtors. Who would skip out on
a payment when they were looking down the barrel of a fully
loaded Ranma?"How was your first day?" she asked him. Had she
blinked or did all the food just disappear off Ranma's tray?
Ranma wiped his mouth with a napkin before answering,"Eh,
pretty boring. The girls kept passing me notes and I got sent out
of class a lot." He shrugged,"It's not like I really care or
anything, but it really sucks to get blamed for stuff that isn't
your fault."
Nabiki nodded in agreement. It had been a long while since anyone
had accused her of doing anything besides swindling them, but
she remembered getting blamed for breaking Akane's toys when they
were kids. Nabiki secretly suspected that it was Kasumi who
kept twisting the heads off all of Akane's dolls, but no one had
ever had the nerve to accuse Kasumi of anything.
"Who's your friend, Nabiki?" Rei, one of Nabiki's business
associates, asked.
"Ranma Saotome, a friend on the family. Ranma, this is Rei
Hino."
They exchanged greeetings and Ranma looked over at his victims who
were still on the ground choking.
"You didn't do anything dangerous or permanent, did you?" Nabiki
asked. There was only so much that she could cover up or gloss
over, and Ranma may have pushed a little past her limits.
"Nah, they just think they're choking, the effect will wear off in
a few more minutes," he answered. Across the yard, Akane was
sitting under a tree with two other girls, and all three were
glaring at him. Ranma smiled and waved, hoping to further upset
the tempermental Tendo.
"What exactly did you do to them," Rei asked worriedly. Her
younger brother was one of the idiots who had been harassing
Ranma.
"It's just a prssure point that makes a person think their throat
is swollen shut."
"So they're not in any danger?"
"They may be a bunch of assholes, but I wouldn't kill them or
anything like that over something so stupid." The bell rang,
signalling a return to class. Ranma told the girls he would see
them later and went to put his tray up.
"He wouldn't really kill somebody, would he," Rei asked
urgently.
"No, he was just joking around." At least Nabiki hoped he was
joking. Ranma didn't really seem like a killer, though.
****
"Just look at him over there hitting on my sister," Akane growled
to Yuka and Sayori.
"You should report him to the police. He did threaten your kill
you dad," Yuka said between bites of a sandwhich.
"And tell them that he did it with a ball of fire?" Akane
pointed out."No, I'll just have to get rid of him myself."
"How, you said that he beat you easily when you sparred with-"
Sayori broke of the question when she heard Akane snarl.
"Damned pervert, I'll get him, just watch." An uneasy silence
grew between the three girls.
Yuka and Sayori shared a concerned glance behind their friend's
back. They knew that the new arrival, this Ranma Saotome, was
only making Akane's rage hotter. For months the boys had attacked
her relentlessly and for months she had fought them off, becoming
more and more brutal with them as the weeks wore on. It
wasn't uncommon for two or three of her attackers to spend weeks out
of school with multiple broken bones, but that course of action,
though useful with others, wouldn't work on Ranma, and Akane knew
it. So how was she going to get Ranma out of her life?
"Um...Akane, how do you plan to get him?" Yuka eventually asked.
Akane grinned hatefully, and directed a glare at Ranma. Yuka
and Sayori, both upset at Ranma for further angering their f
riend, gifted him with glares of their own. Across the field
Ranma waved to them.
Akane growled again and little sparks of battle aura began to
appear around her."Ranma doesn't know how Nabiki really is. All I
have to do is pay her enough and she'll make Ranma run back to
China crying like a little girl." Then she started chuckling.
Yuka and Sayori slowly scooted away from Akane. Her battle aura
was becoming a bit uncomfortable to be near. Thankfully, the
bell rang.
****
"Nabiki, I need to talk to you in private," Akane whispered to
her sister.
To Ranma, who was walking along the fence, Nabiki said,"Go on
ahead Ranma, me and Akane need to talk privately."
Ranma shrugged and ran ahead. Akane didn't look happy and he
wasn't about to get involved in a family dispute.
"So what you need, Sis?" Nabiki asked once Ranma was out of
sight.
Getting to the point, Akane said,"I need you to make the whole
school see how much of a pervert Ranma is. I've only got 6000 yen,
but I'll take out a loan if you need me to."
Alarm momentarily flashed in Nabiki's eyes. She bent close to
Akane and fiercely whispered,"I don't want to hear anymore talk
like that out of you, Akane! Just because Ranma's better than you
are in the martial arts doesn't mean you have to hate him."
Nabiki realized that she was defending Ranma for no reason. She
hadn't even thought about the incentives of staying on his good
side.
Akane pushed right on ahead,"I hate him because he threatened
Daddy, and he's a pervert! Can you imagine what he does to that
poor girl body he's got?"
"Akane, I'm not going to help you mess up Ranma's reputation. He's
a friend, and I don't have too many of those. And besides, I
have video evidence of the things you do to your poor body."
There, that ought to shut her up.
Akane was about to say something else when she caught the meaning
of what her sister had said. In between heartbeats, her face went
from slightly pink from the chilly air and anger, to purple, and
her mouth started making funny little fish gulps.
Ranma was her friend. Well, he might be someday, but it was a
start. The thought almost made Nabiki stop laughing as her
sister walked home woodenly, her face purple and her fists
clenched tightly.
She couldn't believe Nabiki, her own sister, would side with
that... that pervert! And the nerve of the girl too spy on her
doing 'that'! Ooooh, she didn't need Nabiki's help, she could do it
on her own. Akane walked past the front gate of her home, she
needed to pick up a few things from the store.
****
Nabiki found Ranma in the dojo. He was doing a very basic
anything goes kata that she recognized from her childhood when she
had still practiced the Art. She sat down to wait for him to
finish. Only after observing him for a couple minutes did
Nabiki notice how the air around Ranma seemed to shimmer as if it
were very hot."Ranma, what's wrong with the air?"
Ranma's response sounded strange and muffled."I'm making the
air thicker so that its harder to move through."
That explained it. Ranma was doing the equivalent to training
with heavy weighted clothing. Curious, Nabiki walked to the edge
of the distorted air and pushed her hand into it. It felt like
trying to push her hand through wet cement! The force Ranma
was exerting to move through that stuff had to be enormous.
Finally, a few minutes later, Ranma stopped the kata, and the air
in the dojo returned to normal. He was sweating profusely and
panting, but his face held a delighted grin."Lasted twenty
seconds longer this time," he told Nabiki.
"That's nice. I just came to warn you that Akane may be planning
to reveal your curse to the people at school tomorrow."
Towelling himself off, Ranma said,"Thanks Nabiki. Are you sure
that Akane isn't...you know..." he made the universal insane
person gesture by swirling his finger around his ear.
Nabiki found herself laughing at Ranma. He was almost like a
walking contradiction, sometimes cold and collected, and every
so often, bashful and awkward."I don't think she is, but we
never really had her tested."
****
Akane dumped all the things she had bought onto her bed. There
were water balloons, water guns, edible panties, a polaroid camera,
a flesh colored dildo, and a very sleazy set of black silk
lingerie. She would show everybody just how perverted Ranma was if
it killed her.
****
Later that evening, the Tendos and Saotomes were watching the news
on tv. They were featuring a new french restaurant on the
cooking segment, but the camera operator momentarily stumbled and
his camera swung to the side. To Akane's horror, it showed her
coming out of the sex shop with a bag of stuff. All eyes turned to
the belligered girl. Needless to say, she fainted.
****
Author's Notes: How does everyone like the story so far? If
you noticed I used the name of Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon as one
of Nabiki's business associates. If I get good responses, or
just decide to, an alternate Sailor Moon universe may cross with my
new Ranma one. All you Akane lovers out there, sorry, but Akane's
life is gonna get worse before-wait, it won't get any better. Send
all C&C to dark_phoneix@hotmail.com
Need input!!!