I really didn't have that much sake.

Honestly, that night, I only had, like, a few pints. And there might have been some gambling that went on, but not too much. Okay, so I did win kinda big after a while, and maybe I did have something to do with all the sake I downed. Though I'm positive my winning had to do with the fact that I wasn't having Kenshin call all the shots. Great guy; can't gamble to save his life.

Anyway, it had been a late night, so I was dead tired. Add that on top of sleeping off a few pints of sake, and I was out. So you can imagine my mood when some chic's scream brought me unwillingly to consciousness.

I groaned and rolled over, figuring it was some other chic outside getting kidnaped.

"Help!!" the female voice shrieked again.

I scowled. "Get Kenshin ta help," I grumbled, not wanting to move, as her voice seemed to shatter my overhung head.

Then something really did collide with my head. My eyes grudgingly opened to see a girl with short black hair wearing strange clothes and thwacking me in the head with a bag of some sort.

Now, I knew the previous night had been pretty crazy, but it was nowhere near crazy enough for me to wake up with a girl in my room.

"What the-?!"

The girl continued hitting me with her bag, all the while screaming: "Get outta my house!! I can't believe you're in my house!! Out!! OUT!!"

And I knew for a fact that four pints of sake are not enough to get me into someone else's house, especially a girl's.

"Hold on! Stop!" I said as I finally sat straight up. Not exactly a good idea when one is experiencing a hangover. "Whoa . . ."

The girl desisted her assault, breathing hard and cocking her bag above her head, preparing for another attack. "Who . . . are you? . . . and what . . . did you do . . . with Ranma?"

Confusion city.

"What the heck are you talking about?" I still refused to believe I was anywhere other than my place. "You musta got the wrong room, cause-!"

"I know I didn't get the wrong room, you . . . you-!" She apparently refrained from settling on one label for me. "This is my family's house!! What are you doing in it instead of Ranma?!"

Fate is so cruel. You're lucky to remember your own name and where you were when you sacked out when you're hung over, let alone take in a whole new environment with people you don't know. That's for people who can't control themselves when they're drunk.

"I-I don't know!! I don't know how I got here!! All I know is I fell asleep in my place, and now I'm here!"

The girl dropped her bag, looking at him strangely. "What's your name?"

"S-Sanosuke Sagara."

"Sagara, huh? . . . I don't know anyone by that name . . . where you from?"

"Tokyo . . .?"

She furrowed her brow.

"What year is it, Sagara?"

"Uh . . . the 11th year of the Meiji?"

She sighed. "So . . . time travel then."

Something seemed to sort of finally click in my aggled brain.

"A-am I . . . in the future?"

"Yeah . . . that's what it's looking like . . ."

"Does that mean this- Ranma is back at my place?"

"Probably. That's usually the case with these types of things."

I couldn't imagine this sort of thing happening on every day. "So you deal with these sorts of things a lot?"

She shrugged. "Kind of. Though time-travel and sporadic events like that seem to be on a trade basis."

I blinked, still trying to grasp what was really going on.

"Oh, I'm Akane Tendo, by the way. Sorry about whacking you with my schoolbag." She smiled sheepishly.

"Eh, that's okay . . . I've had a lot worse happen to me than getting hit on the head with a bag . . ."

"Here . . ." she walked out of the room into the hall, "I'll introduce you to the res of my family . . ."

I stood up and wandered along behind her as she led me to another room. "So, is this Ranma guy you're brother or something?"

Akane snorted. "Not remotely. He's just a big moronic jerk of a person that's staying with us." She cracked her knuckles at the absent abyss that was Ranma.

This was definitely a chic to steer clear of.

"Really?" I asked, cocking a brow, "you seemed pretty worried about him back there . . ."

She scowled. "What're you saying?!?"

"N-nothing!"

I had a feeling that this day was going to be one long day.