Author's Notes: Hey there everybody. It took me a little work to figure out where I should start this chapter, but I finally decided that it would be best to have some fun stuff happening to our cast before the more serious stuff occurs later in the plot-line. Anyway, enjoy.

Jerry Unipeg- Thanks once more man. Glad you like it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3-Surviving Furinkan

"Come on boy I know you can do better than that!" Genma laughed mockingly and swerved out of the way of one of Ranma's jump kicks. Ranma rebounded off the ground, re-directing the force of his jump kick right into Genma's open backside. "Shut up old man!"

It's another beautiful Monday morning in Nerima and the sounds of fighting could be heard from within the backyard of the Tendo residence as Ranma Saotome and his father Genma Saotome have their morning sparring session.

Meanwhile in the living room of the house Soun Tendo, the owner of the Tendo residence and Dojo, glanced up from his morning newspaper to look over at his oldest daughter Kasumi, who was setting the table for breakfast. "So where is everyone Kasumi? It's not like them to not be down here for breakfast by now."

In her ever-cheery voice Kasumi replied, "Oh last I checked Nabiki was taking a bath, Kaigen was still asleep in the guest room, and Amy and Akane went out for a morning jog." A loud splash echoed from the backyard.

"HA! You lack discipline Ranma!" Genma laughed again as Ranma's miscalculated drop-kick landed him right into the koi pond. There was a loud splash from within the pool and Ranma, now in his girl form, lunged out of the pond and elbowed Genma right in the back of the neck, sending him flying into the water. "Lack this ya old fool!"

Soun looked back at his newspaper, not even blinking an eye at the sight of a panda and red-haired girl fighting in his koi pond.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Half an hour later, the assembled guests/family members of the Tendo residence had all gathered in the living room and were eating their breakfast. Ranma and Genma fought furiously over any food that was in their general areas, while the Tendos continued to eat civilly, paying them no mind at all.

When everyone finished eating Soun noticed that someone was missing from the assembled group. "Has anyone seen Kaigen?" When the members of the household shook their collective heads, Soun scratched his chin. "Ranma-kun, could you go see if he is still in the guest room? He's going to miss school if he doesn't get up soon."

"Sure Tendo-san," Ranma ended the fight over the food with his father by tossing the older man into the koi pond, and then he strolled up the stairs whistling a merry tune, ignoring the gruffs of an angry panda from downstairs. He tugged open the door to the guest room and the first thing he noticed was that it was a mess. Someone had taken almost every piece of bedding and thrown it into a pile in a corner of the room. When he and pop had left this morning the place had been fine. ("I wonder who made such a mess.") He started to tug the pile of blankets apart but something from inside the pile tugged the blankets back into place. "Oh, there you are Kaigen." He tugged on the blankets again and once more they were returned to their original position by a tug from inside the pile. Ranma smiled slyly and parted the blankets on top just enough so that he could get access to a silver-furred ear that poked free of the mass. It twitched slightly and he took the tip of it between his middle and index fingers, positioning it so that it was aimed at him. He took a deep breath, and...

"WAKE UP!!!"

The bundle exploded upwards and Kaigen Amero leaped free from it, bloodshot eyes snapping around fearfully. "GAH!!!!!" He turned to look at Ranma, narrowed his eyes, and then calmly gave Ranma the finger before grabbing his travel pack, trudging out the door and down-stairs towards the guest bathroom. He wandered by the living room and grunted when everyone said good morning to him. Ranma smiled to himself and went back down the stairs whistling that merry tune again.

----------------------------------------

One hour later Amy, Ranma, Kaigen and Akane were all headed for Furinkan High school.

Noticing Kaigen's still bloodshot eyes Akane ventured to ask, "You didn't get much sleep last night?" He grumbled something and picked up the pace of his walk. Akane could have sworn she had heard him say something about a Panda and snoring.

The group made it to Furinkan High school without anything strange happening, which unnerved Ranma because he knew that meant that something was going to happen later today that would counter his good luck so far. Kaigen was about to trudge in but Ranma grabbed the back of his shirt and stopped him cold. "Hang on man, what are we going to do about your ears?"

Kaigen glared at him. "What do you mean?"

Ranma rolled his eyes and emphasized what he meant by tugging one of said dog-ears. "While I will admit that the people of Nerima are used to weird stuff, I'd prefer not to take any chances."

"Here, let me see if I can go and find something to conceal them with in the school," Akane said, running into the yard with Amy on her heels. "We'll be back soon you two...ooof!" Amy stumbled back as she bumped into Akane. "What's the...." Her sentence was cut short as she noticed the reason that Akane had stopped. A man in a blue kendo uniform had gotten in her way.

"Ah greetings my dear Akane Tendo! I see you have come running to profess your love for me!" Kuno grasped her hands in his and struck a noble pose.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaigen watched Kuno suspiciously from his position right outside of the school gates, his ears perking up to and letting him hear exactly what Kuno was saying in perfect clarity. "Who's the nut-case and why does he think that Akane likes him?" He and Ranma had spoken last night about their pasts and at one point Ranma had mentioned some crazy guy at his school who was in love with his female form.

Ranma sighed and put his head in his hands. "That would be Tatewaki Kuno. I told you about him last night. Don't worry he's fairly harmless, if a little insane. You get used to him after awhile."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Actually Kuno Sempai we have places to be right now." Akane tried to go around him and he promptly slid into her path once more.

"Ah but my love, there is no need for you to run away in such shyness as before. For you see soon I shall free you from the foul grasp of the evil sorcerer Saotome." Kuno's eyes burned with righteous fury.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Foul sorcerer? What's he talking about? You practice magic?" Considering all of the weird things in Nerima Kaigen had seen so far it didn't seem so far-fetched.

Ranma shook his head and sighed. "He thinks that my female side is a different person and that every time I transform I am using some kind of evil magic to steal her away from him. The worst part about it is that he is so dumb he can't figure out that we're the same person."

"Oh." Kaigen said simply, ears fully erect now as he listened to Kuno's rant.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kuno took his eyes off Akane and looked over at Amy, his bokken snapping up to hover an inch from her face. "And who art thou, enchanting mistress?"

Amy stared at him and slowly replied, "Amy...Hiroshi." Her eyes went huge in confusion as he suddenly glomped her tightly.

"What a lovely name! You shall join the ranks of Akane Tendo and the pig-tailed girl in the halls of my heart!" He had tears of joy streaming down his face, while Amy's eyes were wide in a mix of shock and confusion.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaigen's claws were digging very deep furrows in the stone of the wall, his right ear and eye twitching rapidly. ("He's....touching......her.....")

Ranma glanced at the dog-eared boy and gulped. He could already see this situation ending with Kuno having his face ripped off. "Hey Kaigen.....ummm....Kuno's harmless," Ranma was shaking the other martial artist roughly, noticing that Kaigen's eyes never left Kuno, "he's so delusional it's not his fault anymore when he does crazy stuff like this." When he noticed that he wasn't getting through he was calculating which pressure point he should hit on Kaigen's body to disable him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ah! How blessed am I to have three loves now!" Kuno ecstatically clutched Amy and Akane to his sides, tears of joy still streaming down his face. Akane looked like she was about to save Kaigen the trouble of killing Kuno by doing it herself. Amy was still blinking in confusion.

"Excuse me....Sempai?" Amy didn't really catch this guy's name, so she stuck to his title.

"What is it my chocolate-haired minx?" He smiled warmly to her.

She sweat-dropped and squirmed out of his grasp quickly. "What exactly are you talking about? We've just met and you seem like a good guy and all, but I don't even know your name."

Kuno released Akane and struck up a pose, raising his bokken high into the air. "Ah of course, allow me to introduce myself. I am this school's undefeated Kendo club captain, the rising young of star of the high school fencing world," he took a quick breathe and yelled out, "Many call me the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!" Lightning crashed from out of nowhere. He lowered his bokken and took her hand in his, kissing it gently, "Kuno Tatewaki, age 17."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaigen held a hunk of the wall in his hands, both eyes and ears twitching angrily as he calculated how much force would be needed to drive the hunk of concrete he was holding right into Kuno's skull from here without hitting Amy. ("He...kissed...her...hand...") He was starting to lift back the piece of wall and would have thrown it had Ranma not thought it best right then to break the piece of cement with a punch. As the bits of his impromptu weapon rained down over Kaigen's head, he started to snarl angrily, not even noticing anymore.

"Kaigen calm down!!" Ranma knew it didn't matter what he said anymore. ("Looks like I'm going to have stop Kuno right now before Kaigen stops him forever.") Ranma was about to run in and kick Kuno in the head, but as his eyes turned back to the scene in the school-yard he felt them bug out of his skull at what Kuno was about to do. ("On second thought....maybe I'll just let Kaigen have him.")

---------------------------------

Moments before...

"Uh, that's nice and all Sempai but I'm not really interested," In all honesty Amy wasn't even listening to what she was saying. She was focused on trying to figure out a way to get rid of this guy without hurting his feelings. He seemed nice enough....sorta....but he seemed a bit unbalanced. ("Scratch that...he's really unbalanced.") She became so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't have time to react when Kuno leaned in to kiss her on the lips. She froze at his approach and all thoughts of mercy and trying to let him off easy were gone.

Before Kuno had even gotten close enough to feel her breath on his face oblivion and pain overtook him as a pair of fists, a mallet and a baseball bat all headed for his face.

THUD!

THUD!

THUD!

THUD!

Everyone in Nerima watched as another human rocket screeched up into the air from Furinkan high school. This one was going much faster than usual though.

------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean a fishermen and his crew watched in amazement as a person struck the water with an ear-splitting boom. Shortly after they fished him out, took one look at him, and then dropped him back into the water.

"We shall never speak of him again." Every crew member agreed with the captain's statement.

---------------------------------------------------------

Everyone had wisely vacated the immediate area around the four who had just made Kuno disappear very quickly. Amy stood there for another second, eyes twitching rapidly, before she puts her bat back into the same dimensional space that Akane keeps her mallet and stomps off into the school, screaming in fury. "The nerve of that jerk! What does he think I am!?" Anyone in her immediate way is literally thrown aside.

Kaigen stood there and tried to calculate how long it would take Kuno to get back. He had to be sure he could clear his schedule so that he could make that day "Sempai killing day". Ranma and Akane were entertaining similar prospects in their own heads.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Everyone allow me to introduce one of the newest students to our class. They're here from Kyoto as part of special study program involving Nerima's educational system. Please introduce yourselves to the class."

"Hi there, I'm Amy Hiroshi. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I hope that before I leave I get to know all of you very well." Amy shot everyone in the class her best smile and bowed slightly.

When silence followed her announcement all eyes turned to Kaigen, whose eyes were still twitching in anger at the events that had occurred this morning. Out of courtesy to a request Amy made to him, he had flattened his ears to his head and had ruffled his hair just enough to conceal them. "Hey there, I'm Kaigen Amero." A few seconds passed and when he didn't continue everyone face-fell.

"Is that all you have to say?" The teacher sighed when Kaigen nodded. "Alright then, take a seat there next to Saotome-kun. Amy-san sit down next to Tendo-san near the back."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tapping his pencil to his desk Ranma sighed and looked out the window, ignoring the teacher's geometry lesson completely. ("It's not like I'm going to ever use geometry in a fight.") Yawning, he twirled the pencil with his fingers and looked over to see if Kaigen was paying attention either. Smirking slightly at the far-away look in Kaigen's eyes, Ranma went back to watching the window. ("Glad I'm not alone.")

Kaigen wanted with every inch of his being to flick his ears right now. He knew he couldn't though and that made him whimper quietly in frustration at his predicament. He knew there would be no way to flick his ears without people noticing them. Plus the fact that his tail was stuffed down his pants to keep it out of sight made him feel even more agitated. ("I better just ask the teacher if I can go use the restroom.") He was about to do just that when someone behind him asked, "Hey, what's with the ears man?"

That caught everyone's attention and all eyes turned to Kaigen. Ranma put his face in his hand and groaned. Akane and Amy both repeated the action. ("Kaigen no baka,") all three of them thought at once.

Kaigen blinked in confusion until he realized that his left ear had decided it was done being folded, and had perked up without his consent. He sighed and let the right ear perk up too. Both were twitching rather rapidly in agitation at being in one position for so long. ("Hey it's not my fault you two are so easily excitable.") Then he chided himself for having a mental conversation with his ears. At this point Kaigen noticed he was getting stared at by everyone in the room, so he growled and bared his teeth slightly. "Is there a problem?" He made sure to flex his claws to get the point across that he disliked being stared at. When everyone took their attention back to the chalkboard Kaigen smiled smugly and went back to his day-dreaming, his ears twitching happily now that they were no longer confined.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Around lunchtime...

Everyone was outside and having their lunch on this beautiful day. Most people were having casual conservations with their friends, but one conversation came out so loud that everyone in the yard couldn't help but watch as the girl in school was yelling her brains out at the really weird new guy. Both were sitting up on top of the wall and giving their "audience" a great show.

"You idiot! Weren't you supposed to keep a low profile on the ears!?" Amy struck Kaigen in the back of the head with the flat of her hand.

Rubbing the back of his skull gingerly, Kaigen shrugged. "It's not my fault that my ears decided they didn't like being hidden." His reward for his answer was another slap in the back of the head that hit so hard his tail, which he had recently allowed out of its hiding place in his pant leg, stood straight out on its end.

"What're you talking about!? They're your ears stupid, keep control of them!" Amy shoved him off his spot on the wall and took another bite out of her bento angrily.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Ranma nearly fell over laughing as he watched the two argue. "This is better than a movie!" Kaigen had climbed back up to his seat, only to have Amy shove him off the wall again.

Akane glowered at him. "You're an idiot, you know that right Ranma?"

Ranma took his attention off the two on the wall to stick his tongue out at Akane. "Bleah! At least I'm not an uncute tomboy!"

Akane put her bento off to the side. "You're right. You aren't an uncute tomboy." She stood and brought her mallet out of dimension space. "You're something worse than that." Her voice was still very calm. Almost deathly calm. "You're a BAKA!"

THUD!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone watched as Ranma Saotome arched through the air above them and with a crash he landed on top of the roof. From her seat Nabiki smiled and pulled out her notebook. ("So let's see now. Akane hit Ranma to the school roof. That's a new location to put down on the odds list.") She made a mark of that and started doing some math in her head to calculate how much money she had made off the bets people placed. The "Where Akane hits Ranma" betting circle was by far one of her most profitable businesses ever at the school.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaigen dodged another shove by Amy and yelled, "Stop it! Let me eat my lunch in peace!"

Amy handed him his bento and smiled sweetly. "Okay then. Just do me a favor and have your lunch away from me!" She grabbed the collar of his shirt and threw him straight into the wall of the school building. He seemed to stick to it for a moment before sliding down with a screeching noise. As he finally reached the ground Kaigen twitched a couple of times but otherwise didn't move.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nabiki was surrounded by a ring of people who were placing bets on where Amy would throw Kaigen the next time the two of them had an argument. Her eyes lit up with yen signs as she pondered just how profitable having Kaigen at Furinkan High could be.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The school bell rang and everyone filed back into the building for the rest of their classes. Ranma still had yet to make an appearance, and Amy was dragging Kaigen in by his leg, smiling slightly every time she felt his skull hit something on the way to class. When they arrived they found Ranma sitting at his desk already. Amy dropped Kaigen at the other boy's feet and marched father back in the room, taking her seat next to Akane.

Ranma sighed and nudged the still unconscious Kaigen with is foot. "You need to work on your recovery time. If Akane had thrown me into that wall I would have been back on my feet almost instantly."

Kaigen suddenly woke up with a scream of terror, and looked around in fear. "Where am I?" His ears twitched and he touched them carefully, breathing a sigh of relief. "Oh good, they're still there." Ranma and most of the class stared at him, and he blushed slightly before taking his seat.

To be continued...

Next Chapter: Surviving Furinkan (part 2)