Pursuing a New Path

by ranmafan1

Ranma-AMG crossover. Added Chapter 7, Part 1.

7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Ranma ½, Ah! My Goddess, or any other trademarked/copyrighted product in this fanfiction. They were created by people a lot more imaginative than me. I am also not making any money off of this. This is merely for entertainment purposes.

Note: This story takes place after the Jusendo incident. Ranma is about to enter his junior year of high school. This story starts towards the end of the summer break.

Pursuing a New Path

by ranmafan1

Chapter 6: School Days Are Here Again

Dawn broke the horizon in the Nerima district once again. As its light eventually began to shine through the windows of Mara's bedroom, the demoness began to stir. Not wanting to get up for the moment, she turned over to her side and attempted to fall back asleep. However, that was not to be as the loud sounds of combat outside began to assault her ears. Groaning, Mara reluctantly opened her eyes and blinked the tiredness away from them. After stretching her arms, she drearily stood up and looked outside the window. Fighting in the backyard and in the air were Ranma and his father. Although she was not a fighter, Mara could tell that Ranma had the upper hand in the battle, by a large margin it seemed. There appeared to be a play of emotions running through his face, ranging from annoyance to worry.

Shrugging indifferently, Mara moved away from the window and yawned again from not being fully awake. 'Damn, I miss my coffin.' Although sleeping in a bed was a lot more comfortable to her than a futon, she still was adapting to not resting in a casket. But since she was going to be living with mortals, it was going to be a long time in coming before that would be an option again.

Groaning, Mara remembered that she would be starting school today. "Great, just great," she mumbled to herself. Here she was, a demoness first-class, and she was about to go to high school. "The Boss must really be getting a kick out of this." Not wanting to dwell anymore on the degradation she was going through for the sake of her job, Mara forced herself to start getting ready for the morning. Thinking about what to wear, Mara realized that there probably was some sort of dress code for the students. 'Screw that! There ain't no way I'm putting on a frilly little dress, fuku, or whatever the hell these adolescent girls dress in. I have a sense of style to maintain,' she thought with a smirk.

Outside…

Ducking under another punch from his father, Ranma Saotome was starting to get bored with the fight. Although the adrenaline rush was a good way to wake up for the day, he did not really need to put in a lot of effort to gain the advantage. Still, this was his first actual fight since becoming a demon and Ranma took this time to analyze differences as compared to beforehand. What the martial artist found was disturbing to him.

Although you could say a lot of things about his father, being a mediocre fighter was not one of them. Even though Ranma knew that the gap between their skill levels had gotten quite large in the past few years, he still had to put forth some effort to defeat him, especially when waking up by being thrown out the window (Ranma was internally grateful that he did not land in the koi pond this time). Genma would also occasionally win if Ranma was feeling particularly sluggish one morning. In order to make the battles more interesting, Ranma began to focus more on actually limiting the power and speed of his attacks. To the teenaged demon, it was a decent practice in control. However, where before it was a slightly arduous task to maintain a slow pace with Genma, now it was a supreme effort to simply not overpower his opponent, and this was something Ranma had been trying to avoid. By merely using superior strength and speed to defeat your foe, you give into a temptation that becomes steadily easier over time. This might be acceptable in the short run, but continuous use of this strategy would lead to degradation in pure skill, and he had worked too hard to allow that to happen.

Further reflection on the issue troubled Ranma even more. Who would actually be able to give him a decent challenge now? He imagined that Cologne and Happosai might be capable (who knows what types of tricks they have up their sleeves), but they were fickle about battling with him. The 'Lost Boy' was always good for the occasional sparring since he usually challenged his rival after training in a new technique or maneuver. However, Ryoga's biggest advantage over Ranma was his strength and endurance, but that was not the case anymore.

Without someone of equal or superior fighting ability around, Ranma knew that his own abilities would not develop as quickly as he would like. 'Dammit. What the hell am I going to do about this?' Martial arts had been integrated into his being a long time ago. Just becoming a demon was not going to stop that. 'Wait a minute.' Inspiration suddenly struck him. There had to be demons that practiced martial arts in Nifelheim. That only made sense since there were myths and legends about them and warrior gods. Not only that, but they had to have thousands of years of experience as well. The thought almost made him giddy with anticipation. If his theory turned out to be true, he would have a whole new range of sparring partners to fight against, ones on a different level, which would force him to achieve those heights.

Now that his mood had been sufficiently brightened, he immediately batted his father's pitiful attacks (at least from Ranma's perspective) away. Retaliating with his own offense, Genma found himself easily slammed into the koi pond below, while Ranma back-flipped in midair to easily land next to the Tendo home. Not even bothering to taunt his old man after winning the morning battle, Ranma walked inside.

A thoroughly drenched panda rose out of the pond with a bewildered expression on its face. 'Since when was the boy that good.' Throughout the fight, Genma could not help but notice the lack of attention Ranma was putting into it. Although he tried to take advantage of that fact, any attack put against Ranma seemed to fail. Genma refused to believe that the sudden increase in abilities were due to that Mara girl. The only reason he did not openly scoff at a woman training his son yesterday was that his wife was there, and she never took kindly to that attitude. Shrugging his panda shoulders, Genma let go of the strange occurrences since there were more important matters to attend to, namely getting hot water and food.

Meanwhile, Ranma continued his trek inside the house. As he was about to head upstairs, his mother walked up to him and called out, "Good morning, son. You seem to be in a good mood today." Internally, she was smiling in relief. Maybe he was going to take his studies more seriously this year. Her son never seemed to be that happy when it came to school days. Then Nodoka noticed and remembered his slight changes in appearance. 'Oh my, that is going to take some getting used to.'

Grinning, Ranma stated, "Yeah, mom, things seem a lot better this morning."

Nodoka beamed with pride at her son's words. "That's nice, dear. You had better start getting ready for school. Breakfast is going to be ready soon."

His smile straining with the mention of school, Ranma was still able to force out, "Uh, yeah, I'll, uh, do that." Continuing upstairs, his mood slightly diminished at the prospect of starting another year at Furinken, but Ranma knew his mother thought that schooling was important. Apparently, she assumed that his current attitude was due to actually being enthusiastic about going back. Still, Ranma decided to humor her since it made her happy.

Nodoka tended to wake up early at the Saotome home and walk to the Tendo Dojo so that she could help Kasumi make breakfast. Originally, she had planned on Ranma and Genma to move back. However, the latter was able to convince his wife that living with Akane would help prepare them for their marriage and that he had to stay to maintain the boy's skills.

'Yeah right,' Ranma added to himself. 'More like he wants to stick around so that he can play shogi and drink with Mr. Tendo.'

The Saotome matriarch agreed to the arrangement. Eventually, it became a ritual for her to stay around during the day and help Kasumi with the daily chores. In fact, except for sleeping at her home, she tended to spend most of her time around this house. Of course, Ranma and Genma did stay at their own home occasionally as well, but that was usually on some weekends.

Intermittently, Nodoka discretely requested (or is that ordered) only Genma to come back home for the night. Ranma shuddered, driving off mental pictures for her reasons.

As he reached the top, Ranma's thoughts were interrupted when seeing Mara about to go downstairs. He blinked at the demoness' attire, which consisted of a pair of jeans, white shirt, black vest, and her normal black fingerless gloves. The clothing itself did not give pause to Ranma, but how much it made her look like an effeminate man instead of a woman did. Internally shrugging off the observation (he had enough experience with crossdressers), Ranma continued towards the bathroom while briefing say, "Hey," to the demoness.

Mara just mumbled what appeared to be, "Morning," while continuing to walk down the stairs. It was then that she noticed Ranma's mother, Nodoka, staring at her with a strained smile. 'Oh she had better now get on my case about my clothes this early in the morning.'

"So, Mara-chan," began Nodoka, while the aforementioned demoness withheld a flinch at 'chan' part, "are you all set for your first day of school?" By the tone of her voice and the look in her eye, she was essentially communicating that more appropriate clothing was needed. However, being a mainly traditional woman, she was not going to say her thoughts outloud.

Sighing to herself, Mara stated, "Uh, yeah, basically." 'Damn, it is too early in them morning for this shit. Can't she just get out of my way?'

Nevertheless, the Saotome matriarch pressed onwards, "Do you need any help putting make-up on this morning? It will give us some time for discussion on the situation."

Paling slightly at mention of make-up, the main thought going through Mara's head was 'No way! Not gonna happen!' In actuality, she wanted to scream the words into the woman's face, however that probably would not turn out to be brightest thing to do to her student's mother. So, when in doubt, use Plan B, escape. "Uh, it smells like breakfast is almost ready. I think I'll, uh, go sit down now." Mara almost ran away from Nodoka towards the dining room.

After blinking a couple of times, Nodoka sighed in resignation. She did not really mean to scare the poor girl away, but the clothing Mara was wearing just screamed out to her. Like the rest of Ranma's fiancées, Mara seemed to possess a natural beauty, but that outfit did not emphasize it at all. Apparently, this Mara might be even more of a tomboy than Ranma made Akane seem to be.

Thinking more about the youngest Tendo, Nodoka sadly shook her head. Poor Akane. The girl tried so hard to do traditional wifely duties, but she has yet to have gotten a grasp at any of them. To the woman, it appeared that Akane simply put too much effort and not enough focus into anything she did. The heart might have been in the right place, but still nothing seemed to turn out okay. The one possible exception was her curry, but that in itself was not too spectacular of an accomplishment after all this time. Ranma's other two fiancées, Ukyo and Shampoo, have been excellent cooks in their own rights for years.

Now Nodoka's thoughts turned towards the okonomiyaki chef and the Chinese Amazon. Although it made her proud that Ranma could stir affections that deeply into other women's hearts, it also troubled Nodoka on how many problems those same feelings seemed to bring to her son. The numerous schemes that have been executed in attempts to win his heart were mind-boggling. It seemed, though, that the intensity of them had decreased somewhat after the failed wedding, which occurred after the infamous events at Jusendo. Even now those involved were tight-lipped about the latter incident and what had actually occurred. She had yet to have heard the full story.

Sighing again, Nodoka thought, 'And now the status quo is going to be broken again.' Every time a fiancée showed up, trouble usually followed. They had been quite fortunate that Ranma was able to get out of the arrangements through martial arts challenges. Thankfully, the involved families did not bring into question the Saotome family honor for setting-up multiple marriages to the same person. This was most likely due to the fact that many of the pacts were made for mundane things like food.

Still, the matriarch had to consider the position of their family honor despite others not officially challenging it. Her husband had done so many idiotic things over the years that at times she wondered if they had any honor left. Admittedly, when they first married, Genma was not the most honest man, but he still had some semblance of honor. Now, he was so different from the person she fell in love with.

'Genma, you fool,' sadly thought Nodoka.

"Mom?"

The hesitant voice broke through Nodoka's thoughts. Blinking a few times in returning to the real world, she noticed her son standing at the foot of the stairs, looking at her worriedly. Shaking her head to clear it, Nodoka inquired, "Yes, son?"

"Um, are you okay?" The nervousness was still present in his speech, but the concern was evident in his eyes.

'Such a good son,' she said to herself. Outloud, Nodoka spoke to Ranma, "Of course, son. Everything is fine. You should go into the dining room now. Breakfast will be ready shortly." With that said, Nodoka walked gracefully towards the kitchen to help Kasumi bring out the dishes.

Still watching his mother until she disappeared from view, Ranma's face clearly portrayed his worry for her. 'What in the world was that about?' When he walked down the stairs, he noted the spaced look and the play of emotions on her features. Ranma could not figure out what kind of thoughts would cause such distress in the woman. Still, if something was wrong, he hoped she would discuss it with him. Sighing quietly to himself, Ranma thought, 'Notin' comes easy for me, does it?'

Walking into the dining room, Ranma observed how everyone save his mother and Kasumi were already seated at the table. Apparently, Genma found hot water since he was human again. He tended to spend less time as a panda than in the past, mostly due to Nodoka insisting upon it. Ranma also saw how Akane and Nabiki were discretely glancing at Mara, or rather her outfit. It seemed that they also could tell how different the girl looked dressed that way. The demoness in question was sitting in Genma's customary spot, so it appeared that he would be sitting between her and Akane. 'Great. Just great,' he dryly told himself.

As soon as his presence was known, Ranma became aware of the shifting of their focus upon him. Seeing Akane's eyes widen in surprise for a moment, Ranma knew that she probably had forgotten about the alterations. Nabiki's calm face did not change in the slightest, although that was not saying much considering the control she had on her emotions.

After sitting down, Ranma did not have to wait long until the eldest women of the house entered into the room. Kasumi cheerfully announced, "Breakfast is ready."

As the people of the household began to eat, Akane kept glimpsing at Ranma through the corner of her eyes. Even with Mara's presence, she completely forgot of her fiancé's new look. Despite not saying anything more on the subject, Akane was still a bit disturbed by it. The one question on whether it was permanent or not kept popping into her mind, but she did not voice it, probably for not wanting to hear the answer. She also assumed that the others had similar thoughts and reasons for not bringing it up, except maybe Genma for whom food was a greater priority.

Taking a quick glance next to the other side of Ranma, Akane saw their new mystery guest. Akane did not quite know what to make of her. When she first saw Mara and Ranma in their…position (Akane had to fight down on her anger at the thought), her first assumptions were that Ranma was acting like a cheating pervert again and that this was another floozy. However, Mara did not act like Ukyo or Shampoo since she seemed to not have shown any genuine affection for him at the time. On the other hand, the two female martial artists made it perfectly clear their intent each time they glomped onto Ranma. Mara looked to have sincerely expressed that it was all a misunderstanding. It could have been a trick, but Akane did not think so. (1)

Still a little wary of Mara, she decided to try and make friends with her. Although they have had their disagreements in the past (to say the least), Akane still thought of Ukyo and Shampoo as somewhat friends, although maybe more towards the former than the latter. They had helped each other many times in the past.

And now Akane was once again examining the blond woman. Upon entering the dining room, the youngest Tendo was quite surprised by what Mara wore. It seemed that there was yet another crossdresser in town, or maybe it was a one-time thing, although Akane was not too sure. The choice in clothing seemed to also dramatically alter her looks. Of course, the same applied to Ukyo, Tsubasa, or Konatsu.

Thinking of Ukyo's dressing habits almost brought a scowl to Akane. It irritated Akane to no end that the okonomiyaki chef was thought of as the 'cute fiancée' despite wearing men's clothes (including a boy's uniform) most of the time. And here she was, the 'uncute fiancée,' who did wear female clothes, and she was still thought of as the tomboy.

Akane blinked for a few seconds and then looked at Mara for a few seconds. Although Mara and Ukyo might both dress like men, the latter at least maintained a girlish attitude, especially while around Ranma. However, Mara seemed to have a more tomboyish one. 'Does this mean…that there is…a fiancée…who is a bigger tomboy than me?!?'

Of course, Akane inadvertently admitted to herself that she was a tomboy, but her recent revelation made her too excited to realize it. In fact, Akane was so happy at the thought that she giggled outloud. Noticing that everyone's eyes were on her, Akane blushed in embarrassment and dug into her food at a faster rate.

Nabiki's own contemplation was interrupted by Akane's giggle. 'Okay that was odd.' Disregarding the incident, she returned her focus onto Mara. Ranma's new look did give her some small pause, but Nabiki shrugged it off almost immediately. If there was one thing that Nabiki learned about Ranma, it was that weird shit happened around him.

Mara had to have helped Ranma somehow. Her earlier suspicion last night seemed to be the only plausible explanation. But now the important question comes up as to why she did it. What was in it for her? Nabiki doubted that it was for only friendship, although it might have played a part in it. However, Mara did not seem like the type to do something without a bigger reason, much like herself. 'What is your game, Mara?'

Clearing her mind of the question, Nabiki got up from the table and prepared to head to school early as usual. There were still betting pools to set-up and today was probably going to be an interesting one. It always was when a new person like Mara showed up at Furinken. Besides, the answer would come to her eventually. "Well, I'm heading out now." Grabbing her bento, Nabiki strode out the door and towards the school. Despite not being a martial artist like Akane or Ranma, she tended to make it to school a lot earlier by walking at a faster pace.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family were enjoying a brief respite after breakfast. It was then that Nodoka broke the morning silence, "I think it is about time you left for school, children? You wouldn't want to be late the first day."

Each of them was given a bento by a smiling Kasumi, although Mara had to strain a smile in gratitude. 'It is too early in the morning for this,' was the demoness' repeated thought.

And so the trio were now leisurely walking along the sidewalk. Okay, two of them were walking along the sidewalk. The other was pacing on the fence nearby.

"What the heck are doing up there?" asked Mara with some annoyance in her voice.

Before the pigtailed martial artist could respond, Akane beat him to the punch. "He says it's balance practice, but it's really just him showing off."

"Heh, you're just jealous 'cause you can't do it," responded Ranma with an arrogant smirk. To emphasize his point in a rational, adult fashion, he stuck out his tongue at her.

Equally showing her maturity, Akane countered in kind by sticking out her own tongue.

Meanwhile, Mara watched the exchange with more than a touch of curiosity. Smiling mysteriously, she noted to herself, 'Well now, isn't this interesting.' Deciding that now would be as good as a time as ever to find out some more information about Furinken, Mara asked. "So, what's this school like?"

Waving his hand dismissively, Ranma stated, "Ah, notin' too special. Ya just got to watch out for your everyday random marital arts challenge, principal who throw exploding pineapples, or boken-carrying, poetry-speaking moron."

His nonchalant response caused a sweatdrop to make its way done Mara's face.

"Baka," Akane started irritably, "Not every school is like ours." That was generally an understatement, although there were a couple of other ones in the Tokyo area that had higher than normal levels of weirdness. In fact, some of the more normal schools used theirs to scare students straight, threatening to transfer them to Furinken. After spending a day at the high school, the students were more than readily agreeable. "Although Ranma does have a point. Watch out for someone named Kuno."

A little confused by their statements, Mara inquired uncertainly, "Um, what's his first name?"

Shrugging indifferently, Ranma stated, "Don't matter really. Just look out for anyone in the Kuno family…" His words trailed off into mutterings about palm trees, poetry, and annoying laughs.

"Uh, right," was all Mara could think of to say.

Eventually, the three made it to the front of Furinken High School. Looking over the building, Mara did not see anything particularly different about it. She had visited high schools in the past, mostly in an attempt to corrupt some unsuspecting student or teacher, and this one did not seem to be all that different from them. Droves of students were making their way through the front doors. As she got closer to the building, Mara noted that more and more attention was being drawn to them. Some of the students were openly staring at them, and then whispering to their neighbors. Mara was able to overhear some for the conversations.

"What happened to Saotome there?"

"Yeah, did he dye his hair or something?"

"Maybe it's another curse."

"Could be, but look at the new guy."

It was then that Mara overhead some comments that made her sweatdrop, specifically those coming from the adolescent women.

"Oh, he's so dreamy!"

"Dreamy?…well, maybe in a bishounen kind of way."

'Ah, crap!' thought Mara. She completely forgot how her normal street clothing style made her look. Taking a glance at her companions, Mara observed that they did not seem even to acknowledge the side comments. 'Probably because they tune them out.'

This was true to a certain degree. Hearing the same rumors everyday at Furinken had taught the two to simply ignore what others were saying.

As Mara began to think on how to slightly change her clothes to avoid these situations, a new voice interrupted her contemplations.

"Hold, Saotome!!!" The voice was full of arrogance and self-righteousness. Looking towards its owner, Mara spotted a teenager dressed in casual samurai-style clothing and in his one hand he carried a boken.

'This must be the moron they were talking about,' thought Mara while examining the newcomer. The demoness was debating on whether she should laugh or gag at him. She did not really need to hear anymore from him to get a good grip on his personality since she had seen similar ones many times in the past. The stance and haughtiness portrayed in his face clearly told Mara that this boy seemed to think the world revolved around him. The demoness did not really have a problem with people who had an ego, but only for those who deserved it. 'Hmph. Probably some spoiled rich brat who thinks he should get everything that he wants.'

While Mara concluded her assessment, Nabiki overlooked the proceedings. 'Well, Kuno-baby's right on time.' The betting pools were all set for the day. No one really gambled that Ranma would lose to Kuno, except for Gosunkugi who had wishing thinking. Therefore the primary bets tended to be on how long Kuno would last or if Akane would be the one to punt him into orbit. Turning her eyesight towards Mara, she noted the blond was examining Kuno and apparently finding him lacking. 'This should be interesting.'

"So, the sorcerer Saotome hath decided to once again disrupt the hollowed halls of Furinken with his foul presence. Truly, it the duty of a sworn samurai to protect his land from all evil that invades it." After raising up his boken into the air, Kuno continued, "Therefore, I must once again take up the task to cleanse this place of learning from your diabolical schemes and save my twin loves so that they may relish in my embrace. So sayeth the Blue Thunder of Furinken High." Slicing his boken down, a crash of lightning is seen in the background.

Blinking her eyes, Mara wondered where the lightning came from since she did not feel any ki, mana, or pishogue release. Looking around, she spot a diminutive ninja hiding (not successfully) in nearby bushes with lighting equipment and a boombox. Sweatdropping, Mara drawled out in her mind, 'Riigghhht.'

Going into a basic kendo stance, Kuno began to speak again, "Now, Saotome, prepare to meet thy…" The wannabe samurai trailed off as he just became aware of the changes in Ranma's appearance. One could almost hear the wheels turning in Kuno's head on trying to justify what he was seeing. If possible, the teenager's posture seemed to grow even more conceited. "What is this? Hath the illusions surroundings Saotome's true nature been thwarted. Verily, my righteous blade hath at last broken through the spells hiding the cur's form from the world, and I can see it clearly," pointing the boken directly at Ranma, Kuno proclaimed in a loud voice, "Thou art not a foul sorcerer!"

This drew gasps from all around, even Nabiki was dumbfounded by his announcement. However, before anyone could draw conclusions from it, Kuno continued, "The truth must be that thou art a demon summoned from the depths of hell." To this, the courtyard of students, save for Ranma, Akane, and Mara, facefaulted. Being too flabbergasted by his declaration, no one noticed the nervous sweatdrops formed on Ranma's and Mara's faces.

Not wasting any time to deliver his own sense of justice, Kuno charged at Ranma with his boken raised. Shaking out of his contemplation on how Kuno was actually right for once, Ranma easily evaded the first slash and the follow-up.

As the two continued to fight (or more like Ranma simply avoiding every attack), another person made her way on the scene. "Hey, Akane. So, boken boy didn't waste any time this year with Ranchan?" Turning towards the newcomer, Mara saw a girl wearing a boy's uniform and who had a large…spatula attached to her back. She easily saw how the individual was a woman with her senses.

Akane stopped watching the fight and greeted the okonomiyaki chef. "Oh, hi Ukyo. Yeah well, what else is new? Kuno doesn't seem like he'll ever get a clue. Now he's calling Ranma a demon instead of a sorcerer."

Chuckling a bit, Ukyo looked at her fiancé in action. "That's true, sugar. I guess that is once thing that will never change…" She trailed off after seeing Ranma's new hair color. Uncertainly, Ukyo asked, "Uh, Akane, what happened to Ranchan?"

Sighing, Akane responded while pointing towards the demoness, "Apparently, it's the result of some training from Mara here."

Blinking owlishly a few times, Ukyo turned her attention towards the aforementioned person. After examining her for a few moments, there was a noticeable twitch in her left eye. "So, you a new fiancée to Ranma?"

Even Mara was a little surprised a few moments by the statement. Smirking in reply, Mara responded, "Yeah. I guess you would know, being a woman yourself. So, I take it your one of Ranma's other fiancées as well?"

Raising an eyebrow in respect, Ukyo answered, "Ya got it, sugar. So, I suppose this is another one of Genma's infamous arrangements? By the way, the name's Ukyo Kuonji of the Kuonji School of Okonomiyaki Chef Martial Arts." Deciding by Mara's looks that she was a Westerner, Ukyo brought her hand out for a greeting. Ukyo determined that playing it cool for the time being would be the most prudent action. Akane did not seem to be hostile towards the girl and that was a good sign to the chef that Mara was not really interested in the arrangement. Still, she would keep a watchful eye on the latest fiancée.

Smirking in response, Mara stated. "Yeah, my parents told me to stay here until they can come and straighten things out. I'll be staying at Akane's place in the meantime. Anyway my name is Mara, Mara Demonica of the Demonica School of Energy Manipulation." Mara brought out her own hand and shook it briefly with Ukyo's.

The chef was barely able to stop another twitch in her eye at the mention of another fiancée living under the same roof as her Ranchan. In addition, Mara's mentioning that she was a martial artist of energy manipulation put her off a bit since ki attacks could be pretty dangerous. 'There'll be enough time to worry about that later.' Looking at her fiancé continuing to dodge Kuno's attacks, she commented, "It looks like Ranchan is making it last this time around."

Akane just snorted and stated, "Probably because the baka doesn't want to go into the school yet." Talking towards Ranma, she yelled out, "Ranma, finish it up already or you're going to be late!"

Absentmindedly dodging another strike, Ranma blinked and replied, "Oh, okay." Suddenly, Ranma blurred and was within Kuno's defense and striking at a multitude of openings in it. With one final snap kick, the other boy was sent flying towards a startled Gosunkugi who did not even have a chance to scream before Kuno crashed into him. As it was, the scrawny teenager was carrying a bottle of holy water with him in the hopes that it work in another one of his rituals to bring misery on Ranma. Now the bottle was sent flying out of his hands and defying the laws of physics (but obeying those of Jusenkyo) landed on the closest cursed individual.

Gasps were heard all around the schoolyard. And after many rubbing of eyes, even more gasps were made. Almost immediately, the boys started to drool at the image of perfection before them. Even several girls present who had yet to 'come out of the closet' blushed with the naughty thoughts that came to mind. Of course, these were the same young women who hoped that Akane actually did hate boys last year in favor of the fairer sex.

The reactions by those looking at the residential martial artist genius were understandable. For a long time, the students of Furinken had become used to Ranma's curse. It was just part of the normalcy of the area. Even the new freshmen that recently transferred from the local junior high were familiar with the happenings there. However, seeing such a drastic change in the curse was enough to give anyone of them pause, especially since it turned him into unquestionably the most beautiful woman in town. It was soon after the shock worn off that the gossip mill started rolling out again, particularly by the guys (at least the ones who were not still drooling).

"Look at Saotome! She's a total babe!"

"I don't think babe is enough to describe that body!"

"Yummy! Yummy!"

A couple of students looked oddly at that person who made that last comment, but he responded confusedly with, "What?"

At her spot looking outside the window, Nabiki dropped all pretense of a calm and cool exterior and simply gawked with the rest of her classmates in total bewilderment at Ranma's girl-form. Many random thoughts entered into the middle Tendo sister's mind, but they all focused around the main theme of, 'What the hell!?!' Desperately trying to overcome her shock, Nabiki focused her attention not on the youngest Saotome, but on Mara instead. Narrowing her eyes, Nabiki began to think logically once again, 'This is somehow her fault. It has to be.' Too many things had been changing in such a short time for there to be any other explanation, especially since they began with Mara's arrival. Whatever the blond was up to, Nabiki wanted to find out about it soon. These modifications in the norm were altering her understanding as well as her control of the situations, and Nabiki needed a constant awareness on the activities in Nerima.

Refocusing on Ranma-chan, Nabiki felt a twitch developing in her eyes. She was always proud of her body. Despite not being one of the elite martial artists in town, Nabiki still was able to keep in shape and maintain a figure that she believed rivaled any one of Ranma's fiancées or his girl-form. However, she was no competition towards Ranma-chan's new look. In fact, Nabiki thought that no one in Nerima, even Ms. Hinako, could compete with Ranma-chan now. Almost immediately, Nabiki squashed that line of thought. 'I am not jealous of Ranma!'

Meanwhile, the person in question hung her head in resignation. The big secret was out, well okay, the big secret of her being a demon (or demoness as Ranma was a she at the time) was not known. However, the whole school was now aware that her girl-form was insanely gorgeous. Now, she could almost feel a countdown until there would be an explosion of activity due to this revelation. It turned out not to be a very long one.

"P-pigtailed girl," stuttered a voice not too far away from Ranma-chan. This time it was filled so much affection and awe that it sent a chill down her spine. Hesitantly turning towards the owner, she saw how Tatewaki Kuno was staring at her with star-filled eyes. Once again, one could almost see how Kuno's mind was trying to wrap around this new occurrence to fit his deluded perceptions on the world. "Can it be? Have I at last broken the foul demon's spells that bonded thee to his will?" Standing up tall and proud, he proclaimed to those listening, "Yes! At last the pigtailed girl…nay mere girl cannot fully encompass the beauty that stands before me…therefore, the pigtailed goddess hath been set free from the demon Saotome's clutches!" Kuno stopped talking and simply obtained a faraway look in his eyes.

'Great. Just great. Now I'm a demon as a guy and a goddess as girl. Well at least he is half-right,' sourly thought Ranma-chan.

While Ranma was contemplating Kuno's new titles for both his forms, Mara was finding the situation pretty hilarious. 'Who would think that this deluded moron would actually correctly guess Ranma being a demon?' Not being able to stop herself from making a quip to Ranma-chan about that very fact, Mara strolled past Akane and Ukyo (who were both wide-eyed and incapable of speech at the moment) and walked towards the girl in question. As soon as she was within whispering distance, Mara leaned forward and began, "Boy, Ranma, that Kuno boy sure…"

However, Mara did not get too far into her statement before the upperclassmen regained his bearings, saw the two together, and came to a presumptuous conclusion as usual. Pulling another boken out of nowhere, he pointed the blade at Mara and demanded, "You there! How dare you be familiar with the pigtailed goddess!?! I will not allow it! Have at thee!" After his tirade, Kuno burst into action and leapt towards Mara with his boken raised.

The demoness looked dumbfounded at the charging teenager. So taken aback was Mara that Kuno's attack nearly connected, but in a burst of speed Mara was easily able to avoid it. Ranma-chan also leapt out of the way just to be on the safe side, regardless if it was not aimed at her. Initially, she was going to tackle Mara to the ground, but apparently Mara was fast enough to dodge the boken.

Seeing at how he missed his target, Kuno looked at Mara and then to his boken. "You evaded my blade…I see it now…Thou art a minion of the demon Saotome, sent to re-enslave the pigtailed goddess to his will! Very well, I shall vanquish thee in addition to thy dark master." With a wordless yell, Kuno charged towards Mara again, who, without difficulty, sidestepped every attack.

Although she was not a martial artist, Mara still had overwhelming power (to say the least) to draw upon. Thus it was child's play to move faster than Kuno's strikes. However, despite the lack of threat Kuno posed towards her, Mara was still getting annoyed with him. The demoness figured that Kuno mistook her for a man and presumed that she was a threat to him having Ranma-chan. Mara could have ended the fight immediately, but doing so might have raised more questions later than if she looked to have had some difficulty with it. 'I think that should be long enough.'

Making it appear as if she just luckily found an opening, Mara knocked his boken away and gave Kuno a quick uppercut to the chin, although she withheld almost all of her strength since she could not kill the guy. After Kuno fell down and seemingly out for the count, Mara snorted and turned her back to the guy. Apparently, she underestimated Kuno's resilience (which was due to being hit many a time by Akane and Ranma) and Kuno grabbed her from behind with a cry of, "I have thee!"

However, Kuno's victory was short-lived as his hands came into contact with two mounds of female flesh. Nearly shaking in rage, Mara cried out, "You pervert!" and subsequently backhanded him with substantial more strength than before. Of course, since Kuno had a firm grip on the Mara shirt, it tore open with the force with which he was punched. Although it was not enough to completely expose her chest to the world, a substantial amount of cleavage was still shown as proof for the audience what her actual gender was.

Just before unconsciousness overcame him, Kuno saw this as she turned hate-filled eyes upon him. Although his mind ignored the expression on her face, it still noted the blond tresses of her hair shining under the sunlight. His last thought before awareness left him was, 'An angel…a warrior angel.'

Trying to shake off her rage (and in the process not kill Kuno), Mara stomped off towards the building. Not even looking back, she nearly shouted to Ranma-chan, Akane, and Ukyo, "Let's get inside."

As the shock began to wear off, the three turned towards each other. Her eyes darkening slightly, Akane said to Ranma-chan evenly, "You have some explaining to do later." With a similar expression on her face, Ukyo looked pointedly at Ranma-chan as well. It did not take a genius to figure out that Akane was referring to the changes in the curse.

Gulping slightly, Ranma-chan hurriedly nodded her head in agreement. Silently, the three made their way into the school.

Watching the exchange below, Nabiki was still a bit overwhelmed by the morning's events. She was also cursing herself for not foreseeing how the student populace would interpret Mara's appearance. It would have made her a tidy profit if she planned things accordingly with that information. Still, you could not cry over spilled milk.

Listening to her associates and classmates gossiping again about Ranma-chan and Mara being actually a woman almost made her smile. Gossip was good in her book because it would eventually lead to people wanting answers, and, of course, they would go to her for them. Grimacing slightly, Nabiki thought on how she would not have all of the answers, however. 'All in due time, Nabiki,' she repeated to herself, 'All in due time.' With that thought in mind, Nabiki walked towards her seat since the bell was going to ring soon.

After Ranma quickly obtained some hot water, they made their way towards the classroom. Surprisingly, the group still had some time to spare until the late bell would ring. By some strange coincidence (yeah right), Mara turned out to have the same schedule and homeroom as Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo. Stepping into the room, all conversation ceased and the group was subject to the stares of their classmates. Deciding that dwelling on the looks was not doing them any good, they decided to simply take their seats. Mara took one that was empty at the time, due to Gosunkugi still being laid out on the front lawn.

Just as the bell rang, a hyperactive child with brown hair and a yellow dress skipped into the front of the class. "Good morning, class!" The students greeted their teacher in kind.

Her voice was sugary sweet and made Mara want to wretch on the spot. Blinking in realization, she thought, 'This child is our teacher!' Narrowing her eyes slightly in suspicion, Mara used her senses to look at the other's aura. What she discovered was strange. 'It's almost like a vacuum of some sort. Interesting.'

It was then that the child continued her introduction, "As you know, my name is Ms. Hinako Ninomiya and I'm going to be your homeroom teacher again this year." Most of the students silently groaned to themselves by the statement. Wagging a finger in admonishment, Ms. Hinako stated with as much authority as her child voice could carry (which was not a lot), "Principal Kuno told me that you delinquents still needed to be disciplined, especially you Ranma Saotome." Pointing towards the student in question, Hinako blinked at the hair color and unexpectedly exclaimed, "Oh! I like the hair, Mr. Saotome. It's so kawaii!" Everyone sweatdropped at that.

Regaining her composure, Hinako stated, "Anyway, we have a new student today, a…" Opening her desk drawer, she shuffled through the contents of it, taking out several bags of candy. Sweatdrops returned with a vengeance. "Here we go!" Taking out a sheet Hinako read, "a Mara Demonica! Could you please stand up here and introduce yourself to the class?"

Grumbling a bit, Mara nevertheless complied. As soon as she was in the front of the room, she simply said, "The name is Mara Demonica and I'm from Norway. I will be staying in Japan for an indeterminate amount of time."

Ms. Hinako asked her students, "Are there any questions for Ms. Demonica here?"

One male student raised his hand. "Yes?" drawled out Mara.

Gathering his courage, he inquired, "Is it true that your another one of Ranma's fiancées?"

Blinking in surprise, Mara simply stated, "Um, yes." 'How did they find out so quickly?' After a moment's thought the answer came to her. 'It must be that Nabiki girl.'

The three martial artists in the room sighed in resignation, already knowing that it was Nabiki who sold that information. In addition, rumors tended to spread at a higher-than-normal rate at Furinken as compared to other schools. Right now, the class was discussing on how Ranma got a Westerner for a fiancée this time around. They immediately shut-up when Hinako brought out a…fifty-yen coin. This confused Mara greatly.

Examining her head to toe (especially her clothing), Hinako asked bluntly, "Are you a delinquent, Ms. Demonica?"

Again, surprised by the question, Mara thought for a moment, before she smirked in reply. "That depends on your definition of delinquency, Ms. Hinako."

"Huh," replied by the child teacher in bewilderment, who did not really expect this response.

Mara elaborated, "I mean, are you referring to delinquency as compared to the rules of this school? Furinken seems to have a school policy that is substantially different than other ones in the area. Or maybe you are talking about delinquency in Japanese culture? Then again, I am from Norway, do you want me to evaluate my behavior as compared to my homeland norms? There are some general differences between the cultural values of the two places."

Hinako's face was full of confusion. In fact, one could almost see the question marks blinking around her. Although she would have been able to respond appropriately as an adult, her child mind could not wrap itself around such abstract thinking. Therefore, Hinako simply stated, "Um, you can take your seat, Ms. Demonica." After scratching her head for a moment, she gave up thinking on the subject and simply took roll call.

As Mara went back to her seat, she felt the watchful eyes of her classmates, but that did not really bother the demoness much. Folding her hands behind her head, Mara commented to herself, 'Hehehe. That was fun.'

Eventually, the bell for the first class rang and Ms. Hinako stated, "Okay, class, it's time for your first lesson in English for the year."

Many of the students groaned, but Mara simply rolled her eyes. 'This is gonna be pointless.' Fifteen minutes into the class, she was correct and bored out of her mind. Mara noticed that Ranma already fell asleep.

It was at this time that Ms. Hinako decided to voice her opinion on Ranma's lack of awareness. "Mr. Saotome!" exclaimed the teacher while throwing the piece of chalk at Ranma's head. Suddenly, his arm lashed out and caught the object without him waking up. Her eye twitching, Ms. Hinako snapped her booked shut, walked over to Ranma, and smashed it on top of his head.

Drowsily, Ranma awoke and rubbed the top of his skull in irritation. "Is it second period yet?"

Her face flushing in anger, Ms. Hinako took out her fifty-yen coin, pointed it at Ranma and yelled out, "Happö Goju-en Satsu!" (2)

The familiar phrase instantly snapped Ranma fully awake and he instinctively covered his arms over himself since it was too late to dodge. Blinking for a few moments, Ranma realized that this aura was not being absorbed. Tentatively, he peaked out and saw that Ms. Hinako was looking dumbfounded at the coin. Again, the teacher exclaimed, "Happö Goju-en Satsu!" Ranma cringed, but nothing happened. Now Hinako was shaking the coin as if it were broken.

Meanwhile, Mara witnessed the exchange and found it to be most enlightening. 'So that child uses the coin as a focus to drain auras.' Most likely then, the child was in actuality an adult with a completely messed up metabolism who used the absorbed ki to regain her adulthood. 'It certainly explains the strange aura she possesses. Now who around here would be capable of altering ki pathways in such a manner?' In any case, one thing was for sure and it was that the technique would be useless against her or Ranma since their bodies existed on pishogue and not on ki. 'It seems that Ranma is starting to realize the same thing,' she thought with a smirk.

Indeed, Ranma's mind was turning over and over on why Hinako's attack was ineffective to him. The answer came surprisingly easily, especially since his own senses were able to discern how Hinako's aura extended through the coin could not latch onto his and absorb it. In short, the energies were too different to connect with each other. 'Different energies. Of course! I use this pishogue stuff now, but Ms. Hinako's technique drains ki. That means…it's completely useless against me!' Almost giddy with the prospect of no more ki-draining, he came to another startling conclusion. 'Wait a minute! Pressure points alter ki flows. Also, the normal Hiryu Shoten Ha uses an opponent's ki against them.' Now those attacks would not work on him as well.

Of course, Ranma's only thought on how pressure point attacks were now useless against him. He neglected to take into consideration that healing ones would also be ineffective. However, as mentioned, he was too excited at the moment to think about it fully. So happy was Ranma that he decided to laugh outloud in glee. Although it was one of joy to Ranma, it sounded quite evil to everyone else. Little Hinako, being scared by the laugh and knowing that her attack was not working for some reason, used the only weapon that she had available…and so she threw the book at Ranma, who was suddenly silenced by the weight impacting his face. Composing herself, Hinako stated to Ranma while pointing at the board, "I don't know how you did that, Mr. Saotome, but it does not get you out of participating in class. Now read that sentence."

Grumbling a bit and once again rubbing his head, Ranma wearily looked at the written sentence on the board. Therefore, it came as a surprise to Ranma that he could perfectly understand the words. Scratching his head in confusion, the pigtailed demon thought, 'Is this English?' Outloud, he read the sentence, " 'Mrs. Tanaka went to the grocery store to buy some food.' Right, Hinako-sensei?"

Hinako blinked, looked at the board, and shyly answered, "Um, correct, Mr. Saotome." At this announcement, the students locked up. The collective thought was that Ranma actually got an answer right…in English…on the first try! Resolving herself, Hinako decided to see how far Ranma's knowledge went, "Okay, Mr. Saotome, try this one out." With that said, Hinako erased the one on the board and wrote something else.

'Is this some sort of joke?' thought Ranma. " 'The flight to New York was rough due to the high turbulence experienced by the plane.' "

Now chibi-Hinako was sweating slightly (which was actually a pretty funny sight) due to Ranma, the most delinquent student in the school, getting another correct answer. In fact, most of the other students in the class were in a similar predicament and having the same thoughts. "Um, right again, Mr. Saotome. How about this?"

And so for the next ten minutes, Ms. Hinako kept on writing English sentences on the board, while Ranma kept reading them off correctly.

" 'The persuasive argument by the mayor…' "

" 'Four score and seven years ago,…' "

" 'To be, or not to be: that is the question:…' "

Throughout the whole instance, Mara could barely contain her laughter. Apparently, Ranma did not realize the truth (probably from not reading it yet in the manual) that all higher levels demons and gods could intrinsically read, write, as well as speak all mortal languages. It was a necessity for them since they could at any moment need to interact with any given culture. The look on the teacher's face now was simply priceless.

Ms. Hinako was a nervous wreck at the moment. Nothing was happening as usual as compared to last year. First, her ki-draining attack does not work on Ranma and now he was seemingly a master of the English language. She needed some normalcy right now. "Mr. Saotome!" she barked out in a commanding tone, "Go to sleep!"

"Huh," replied the boy in question with some bewilderment, "But, teach, you said to…"

"Do it!" exclaimed Ms. Hinako, who suddenly raised a mallet the size of herself into the air.

Ranma eeped in surprise and put his head onto the desk to try and do as the teacher commanded.

Hinako blinked at the large mallet in her hand, wondering where it came from. Shrugging, she place the weapon onto her desk and continued with the day's lessons, "Now class, turn your books to page…"

As the students quickly complied to avoid Ms. Hinako's wrath, Mara quietly snickered to herself while thinking, 'School might not be so bad after all.'

It was now second period, and although Akane and Ukyo wanted to question Ranma on the…unusual circumstances from before, there was simply no time to do so. Besides, they could always get their answers at lunchtime.

The world history teacher Masamichi Fujisawa (who bore a striking resemblance to his namesake) entered the classroom. "Good morning, class." After they greeted him appropriately, he continued, "For the first part of this course, we are going to learn about revolutions around the world. Because my own expertise is in the area, we'll start with the American Revolution."

Yawning a bit, Mara once more set herself up for another meaningless lesson, especially if you were alive back then. Surprisingly, the roles were reversed this time with her falling asleep and Ranma being wide-awake. Just as she was about to doze off, the teacher's voice called her name, "Ms. Demonica, perhaps you could answer the question?"

A little tiredly, Mara asked, "Yeah, yeah, so what is it?"

Peeved by her attitude, he grounded out, "Can you please tell us a fact about George Washington?"

Rubbing her eyes, Mara responded, "Well, he had a sweet tooth."

Not finding the answer pleasing, "Ms. Demonica, please hold those buckets outside in the hall this minute."

Grumbling, but nonetheless complying, Mara got up and did what she was told to do. It seemed that the teacher was especially annoyed with her answer since he made her wait out in the hall for the rest of the period. Throughout the whole time, Mara occupied herself with thoughts on how to curse the man for this degradation.

Eventually, the morning classes ended and the lunch period began. Ranma, Akane, Ukyo, and Mara made their way towards a secluded tree on the front lawn. Once they were seated, Akane turned towards Ranma and demanded, "Explain."

Sweating slightly, Ranma dubiously asked, "Um, which thing?"

This time it was Ukyo that spoke, "Oh, I don't know, Ranchan, how about the fact that Ms. Hinako's attack did not work on you. Or how you seem to be fluent in English?"

Akane concluded with, "Or maybe how your cursed form is a supermodel now!?!"

As the nervousness began to escalate within him, Ranma took a deep breath and employed the Soul of Ice to calm himself down. During the rest of the morning, he had thought long about how to explain the situation. It was during one of the breaks between classes that Mara gave him a note briefly describing how he indeed knew English, among other languages. Ranma, of course, taking no chances ate the note so that no one would find it, which probably would have happened knowing his luck.

He was not all that comfortable with the concept of lying, but stretching the truth in these cases were necessary. Once Ranma felt that he had obtained his center, the pigtailed demon began his explanation, "Well, over the summer, I wanted to learn something new and without the usual messes around, I guess I actually started to pick things up quicker. English was pretty much a breeze after that." What Ranma was proud of here was that it was not really a lie. During the summer, he did want to learn something new, except he did not specify it being English, when in reality it was martial arts techniques. Also, English was technically easy after that, only he neglected to mention that it was recently.

After letting that sink in, Ranma continued, "For the Happö Goju-en Satsu and my, uh, curse, I guess that would be because of Mara's training. Almost all of her techniques revolve around energy manipulation, and learning them kinda got me to have better control of my own. I was sorta surprised I was actually able to stop her draining from me. As for the curse, um, I don't know how that changed…" He scratched his head in embarrassment. Okay, so maybe he could not fill in all of the details yet, but Ranma was still proud of what he did come up with. It really is amazing what tactical geniuses could do if they put their minds to it.

Although she did not show it on the outside, Mara was highly impressed with Ranma's explanations, especially since he did not show such aptitude towards it before. Well, Mara had her own reasoning for the curse anyway, so she might as well not let it go to waste. Ironically, it was mostly the truth, but disregarding the demonic aspect to it. "The changes in his girl-form are probably due to a stabilization in the energy field matrix that composes the curse. It basically equilibrated the fluctuations in mass and energy differentials that occur during the transformation so that both the girl-form and boy-form were more closely similar." During the whole explanation she remained perfectly professor-like to further emphasize the points.

For several minutes, the three were pondering what she had said and tried to make some sense of it. Tentatively, Ukyo summarized, "So basically, the curse changed so that the girl-form more closely resembled his normal one."

Shrugging indifferently, Mara replied, "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

Akane shook her head from the technical jargon and turned back to Ranma, "Okay, I guess that sort of makes sense, but why didn't you tell us before? Also, how could you learn a technique to block Ms. Hinako's ki-draining one so quickly? It's only been a couple of days!"

Surprisingly, it was actually Ukyo who saved the day on these ones. "Oh, lay off of Ranchan, sugar. I mean, how would you explain gently to everyone that you suddenly beat Ms. Hinako in the looks department." Wagging a finger in admonishment, she continued, "I think you also forget how fast Ranma-honey learns techniques. Remember he learned the Hiryu Shoten Ha in only a couple of days too." After speaking, she sighed in adoration to the last statement.

Picking at her food a bit, Akane replied uncertainly, "Well, I guess that makes sense."

"Great!" Ukyo exclaimed with much enthusiasm. Pulling out a grill out of nowhere (it is a Nerima martial artist trademark), she added, "So, who's up for some okonomiyaki!"

At the nurse's station…

Tatewaki Kuno once more was returning to the land of consciousness and woke up in a familiar setting. He had been there on more than one occasion, most of the time due to one of his 'loves' expressing their true feelings towards him. Turning his head, Kuno also saw that Nabiki Tendo was sitting on a nearby chair, sucking on a lollipop.

"Well, now, welcome back to the land of the living, Kuno-baby. Don't worry. I'll put dragging you up onto your weakly tab," casually stated the middle Tendo sister.

Still in a daze, but clearly remembering the events that transpired before (or at least how he wanted to remember them), Kuno asked, "Nabiki Tendo, who was that blond-haired, warrior angel?" There was definite awe in his voice.

Blinking a few times to think that question over, Nabiki suddenly smirked as everything fell into place. 'So, adding another one to your list of loves, eh Kuno-baby.' Holding out her hand, she stated, "3000 yen." After swiftly getting the money, Nabiki told him, "Her name is Mara Demonica and she is staying at our place for a while." Purposely being silent for a moment, Nabiki then added, "She is also Ranma's latest fiancée." Her smirk widened upon noticing the changes in Kuno's demeanor.

After his face paled, Kuno almost immediately switched emotions to anger. Suddenly, he stood up, as if disregarding his previous injuries completely and drew another random boken. In a thunderous voice, he proclaimed, "I shall not allow it!" Kuno then charged out of the nurses' station in search of his quarry.

Nabiki's grin never left as she flipped the bills in her hand. 'Easy money.'

In the courtyard…

Ranma and the gang were quietly enjoying their meals when the resident kendo idiot charged onto the front lawn. Searching about wildly, his eyes finally locked onto Ranma. Loudly, Kuno exclaimed for all to hear, "Never, Ranma Saotome! Never shall I accept your engagement to the warrior angel!"

Turning over his comment a couple of times in their brains, the collective reply that they could only think of was, "Huh?"

Looking at Mara with tears in his eyes, Kuno declared to her, "Oh, my warrior angel, I see it now that the demon Saotome hath placed an illusion onto thee before so that I may by chance strike down thy beauty. For his twisted heart shall not let thee exist if he could not claim it for himself. O' cruel fate, why dost thou allow the wretched villain to bind my three loves to his service. It must be destiny that I alone can see his true nefariousness and am given the power to free them."

Having heard enough of his rambling, Ranma flipped to his feet and cracked his knuckles in preparation for the fight. "Man, Kuno, I think every time you talk, you become loonier than the last time. Well, I…" Ranma suddenly trailed as he felt a rather large energy spike next to him. Slowly looking over, he saw Mara staring at Kuno with glowing red eyes. Her slash marks were also shining brightly, but only Ranma could see that. Gradually, the demon backed off away from her and motioned for his companions to do the same.

Mara was angry, no she was pissed off, to say the least. This moron had the nerve to attack her before for no reason. Then he went off and grabbed her chest (it was a different situation when Ranma accidentally did it). Now this samurai wannabe had the audacity to name her as his love and describe her as a warrior angel! An angel! 'Oh, this guy is so going down!' Gathering pishogue into her hands, she interrupted Kuno's speech with a loud, "Shut up!!!" followed by a subsequent blast of black lightning from her hand. Kuno did not even have a chance to 'eep' before the bolt hit and knocked him into orbit. Mara had the restraint for the energy attack not to kill Kuno, but he would not be getting up anytime soon.

Sitting back down, Mara let out a sigh of relief, "Man that felt good." Holding out her plate, she asked the chef, "Can I have seconds?"

Ukyo hastily nodded an affirmative and started whipping out another okonomiyaki.

It was later in the day that Mara was becoming bored out of her mind again. For the demoness was in a class that she detested even back in her real school days, Physical Education. Mara hated the whole concept of it, especially since the only sport that she was good at was table tennis. Right now, the girls were playing softball and the guys were on the track and field course.

Suddenly, the coach called her name, "Ms. Demonica, you're up!"

Sighing, Mara stood up, grabbed a bat and walked over to the plate. Akane was at the pitcher's mound. After winding up the pitch, the youngest Tendo threw a fastball. Nonchalantly, Mara swung and the ball connected with the bat. Those in the outfield looked up and prepared to make a catch…only to find the ball going up, up, and further up until it was flying outside the Furinken grounds. Slowly, they turned their heads to look dumbly at Mara.

The demoness did not even bother walking around the bases. Instead, she opted to take her previous seat, while thinking, 'Boring. Boring. Boring."

Over at the track and field course, the guys were one-by-one going through their normal routines. They tended not to have competitions among themselves since whose team had Ranma on it always won in the end (he would not accept defeat even if he had to do all the work himself). Right now it was the demon's turn and, as usual, he was doing everything flawlessly.

In the meantime, two of Ranma's school friends, Hiroshi and Daisuke, were conversing with the other boys.

"I'm telling you guys, I don't think it's such a great idea," commented Hiroshi.

Daisuke backed-up his pal, "I have to agree with 'Roshi here." Shaking his head, he continued, "I don't know what you were thinking there, rigging the showers to only use cold water. You do remember what happened to Tomo, right?"

The boys collectively cringed in recall. Once Ranma's curse was first discovered, one of their past classmates named Tomo threw a bucket of cold water onto Ranma while he was changing in the locker room to get a peak at Ranma-chan. The martial artist did not take too kindly to it and made an example out of the boy. Sure, no permanent injury was inflicted onto him, but Tomo was never able to look at a plunger the same again.

Resolving himself, Udo (another meaningless random character) argued back to the two, "Look, Ranma isn't even going to find out. I mean, it'll seem just like a plumbing problem. Besides, you saw how his cursed form looked before. Can you honestly tell me that you don't want to see her naked?"

If they had thought logically, both Hiroshi and Daisuke would have realized that Ranma was not really stupid and would figure out the truth of the matter quite easily.

"You have a point there," quickly amended Daisuke.

"True. True," nodded Hiroshi in agreement.

Of course, teenage hormones threw logic out the window.

As the class ended and the respective groups went to their shower rooms, the guys acted as casual as they could so as not to alert suspicion. However, as Ranma entered the room, his danger sense went off for some reason. It was not on the 'you are about to be attacked scale' but it was still going off nonetheless. Scanning around warily, Ranma noted that whenever he looked at a guy, he would avoid his gaze. Some even had the stupidity to try and whistle innocently. Once Ranma saw a similar reaction from everyone present, he developed a slight twitch in his eye.

Walking over to the stalls without bothering to undress, Ranma turned on the hot water. Several of the students gulped in apprehension, but why they did not run for their lives could be anyone's guess. After waiting long enough for the water to heat-up if it did start out cold, Ranma put his hand under it. Sure enough, the familiar change overtook him. Yup, her suspicion was right. They messed with the plumbing. 'Maybe it time for a refresher course,' Ranma-chan thought to herself. The tick in her eye became noticeable now and she slowly turned towards the rest of her male classmates. The aforementioned teenagers were huddled together and whimpering in fear at the figure standing before them.

Their screams echoed throughout the grounds of Furinken. Although their punishment was not as severe as Tomo's was (most likely because they did not actually see anything), those male students present would not used bars of soap for a while. In fact, the local stores were going to have a large increase in sales of the liquid dispenser varieties for months to come.

After school, Ranma, Akane, and Mara made their way back to the Tendo Dojo. Ukyo said goodbye to them and headed to Ucchan's. Rumors were flying around as to what actually happened in the shower room, but nothing could be confirmed. Akane would have asked Ranma directly, but that dark glint in his eyes was simply disturbing. All she could make out from his mutterings were something about perverts and soap. 'On second thought, I don't think I really want to know,' Akane told herself.

Eventually, the group made its way home and went in with a collective, "Tadaima!" Upon entering they saw Genma Saotome with an ice pack on his head. When asked what had happened, Genma stated that he was outside when out of nowhere a softball hit him (there is some justice in the world), to which Akane sweatdropped while Mara simply chuckled. Ranma was just plain confused. Soon, the teenagers (including one pretending to be a teenager) worked on their homework, although Mara finished it rather quickly for obvious reasons. She settled herself down to watch some television until the food was ready.

After dinner was served, everyone broke up to do their separate things. Mara returned to watching television, while Nabiki went upstairs to check her financial books. Soun and Genma played yet another game of shogi. Kasumi and Nodoka were cleaning up while amicably talking to one another. Finally, Ranma and Akane were sparring in the dojo, which mostly consisted of the former avoiding every one of the latter's attacks.

As most of the residents were getting ready to sleep, Mara was relaxing in the furo. The day had been…unusual to say the least. 'Well, at least I got past the first hurdle so far.' A lot of questions were asked, specifically those related to the changes in Ranma, and they seemed to have gotten out of it okay. The main source of her frustrations for the day was that Kuno boy. Instead of just blasting him unconscious, Mara now felt that she should have broken both his arms and legs just to be on the safe side. 'Okay that's enough of that thinking,' Mara berated herself, 'Now is the time to relax.' Sighing, the demoness closed her eyes and sank deeper into the water, tuning out the world from her mind. So lost with the outside world was Mara that she did not hear or notice any other noises.

Nabiki cracked the door open slightly, just enough to see if Mara would be aware of her presence. Seeing the blond had her eyes closed, she thought, 'Perfect!' After sliding the entry open even more, Nabiki took out her camera and started to take pictures. It was times like these that she was thankful for buying the silent model, where all of the motorized parts were barely audible.

The middle Tendo sister was originally unsure as to whether or not she should take photos of Mara to sell to Kuno. She had heard of what happened to him afterwards. However, Nabiki then thought that whatever Mara did not know would not hurt her (Nabiki). In addition, the sweet siren's song of money overwrote her normal thinking processes.

It would seem that teenage hormones were not the only thing that could overcome rationality. Greed seemed to be a good substitute as well.

Taking pictures of Ranma were a given, especially with how he looked now. The pigtailed teenager slept like a log and provocative pictures could be set-up during the night. However, Nabiki did not know about Mara's sleeping habits. For all she knew, Mara might actually be even more alert during her sleep. One could never know with these martial artists. Therefore, it was a much safer bet to do it now, where she would get even more worthwhile pictures. Besides, all of Nabiki's pictures were relatively clean despite some rumors to the contrary. The reason for this was that she did not want to risk any possible future legal ramifications. Even here, Mara's chest was not clearly visible being submerged under water.

Satisfied with her work, Nabiki silently closed the door and tiptoed away back to her room. She would have to get the pictures developed at an hour photo shop tomorrow.

The next morning came and everyone got ready for the day. Mara dressed in clothes that, while similar in style to beforehand, definitely showed her female attributes so as not to make the same confusion. When Akane questioned Kasumi about Nabiki's whereabouts, the eldest sister explained to her that Nabiki said she had some errands to do this morning and left early. Soon after, breakfast was served and the trio once more was on their way to school.

Much to their delight, Kuno was not around that morning to harass them. Homeroom came and went without an incident. When it was time for English, Ms. Hinako insisted that Ranma sleep through it, for which he easily complied. During second period, Mr. Fujisawa gave Mara detention for saying that Napolean Bonaparte liked to play board games. It was around this time that Kuno, covered from head to toe in bandages, limped his way into Nabiki's classroom at the end of the period. As everyone filed out of the room while avoiding anywhere near Kuno, the injured kendoist hobbled over towards Nabiki.

Putting on as much authority into his voice as he could, Kuno inquired, "Nabiki Tendo, can you tell me where the villain Saotome is now?"

Grinning, Nabiki pulled out a set of photos from her satchel. "Of course, I can, Kuno-baby, for the normal price. However, before I do, I think that you would find these very interesting." Placing the pictures on her desk, Nabiki noted with some satisfaction on how Kuno desperately grabbed them and soon was drooling at the shots of her sister in the dojo, Ranma-chan sleeping, and Mara in the furo. Holding out her hand, Nabiki stated in a business tone, "That will be 10,000 yen for the set." Blinking, the Tendo sister saw that Kuno was still in a trance while looking at the pictures. Sighing, Nabiki thought tiredly, 'This could take a while. I really should just ask for money upfront for the photos.'

During lunchtime, Ranma, Mara, Akane, and Ukyo were sitting by the same place as yesterday. The demoness was noticeably irritated about the detention she had gotten earlier.

"Well, what did you expect, sugar? I mean I get a kick out of what you say, but I don't think that the teacher has the same sense of humor," commented Ukyo while flipping another okonomiyaki.

It was then that the students of Furinken heard a familiar laugh. "Ohohohohohohoho!" While everyone else equated it with the Black Rose of St. Herbeke, one individual thought it was someone completely different.

So great was Mara's shock at hearing that laugh, she did not even think before suddenly standing up and shouting, "Urd!" 'It can't be! How did she find out I was here!' Therefore, it was a great surprise, mixed in with relief, when Mara discovered the owner's voice was not Urd, but a black-haired girl wearing a Catholic School uniform.

Folding her hands under her chin, Kodachi stated dramatically, "Oh, Ranma-sama, it is such a glorious day that I felt the need to bask in your embrace once more. I…" She broke off her speech when noticing the changes in Ranma. "Oh, my darling, I just love what you have done to your hair! It is so devilishly handsome." To this, everyone sweatdropped, especially Ranma and Mara. Sighing theatrically, Kodachi added, "But first…" She then ripped off her uniform, revealing a gymnastics outfit underneath it. After twirling around a ribbon a few times, Kodachi spoke directly to Mara, "You there, peasant, how is that you know Urd-sensei? Speak now, for you are in the presence of Kodachi, the Black Rose of St. Herbeke."

'Urd-sensei?' dumbly thought Mara. It was then that the peasant-part seeped into her brain, making Mara's eye twitch in irritation. Deciding to humor the girl for the moment, she replied, "Well, that laugh did sound familiar. However, maybe we don't know the same Urd."

Laughing a bit, Kodachi replied in her normal, haughty tone, "That is most likely the case since a woman of such refinement and beauty would not associate herself with the likes of a commoner like you."

Those words actually hurt Mara on so many levels that she barely was able to withhold her anger from vaporizing the girl in front of her. Instead, she grated out, "So, how do the Urd for which you are referring?"

Sniffing disdainfully, Kodachi replied, "As if you are worthy to know any my history. Nonetheless I will relate the story since my dearest Ranma-sama should hear it, for Urd-sensei was the one woman who had taught me how to show proper affection for my love."

Many sweatdrops were on people's foreheads, imagining the person in question that helped Kodachi became the person she was today.

Flashback (as told from how things actually happened)…

A chibi-Kodachi is sniffling on the sidewalk. She had a little crush on a boy in her class, but upon expressing it to him, he just told her that girls were icky and ran off. Now she was depressed from the rejection and did not know what to do. Therefore, Kodachi decided to take a walk and think about things. And so here she was.

Hearing some yelling to the side, Kodachi saw a bickering couple who were sitting on a stonewall. After a couple of minutes of arguing, the two turned their backs to each other. Unnoticed by them (although it was clearly visible to the little girl), a platinum-haired woman with tanned skin rose from the bushes behind the pair and took out an eyedropper. After squirting a couple of drops of some liquid into their drinks, she quickly hid back into the bushes. The couple grabbed their beverages and almost simultaneously took a swing from them. Then they looked into each other's eyes. To little Kodachi's surprise, the resentment that existed between them was almost instantly swept away. The two fell into an embrace and kissed. After a few minutes, the couple left, holding each other's hands.

Afterwards, the woman from the bushes stood up and brushed out her clothes. Holding up a vial, she proclaimed, "Urd's special love potion always does the trick. Oh, Urd, you are such a genius! Ohohohohohho!"

Urd's self-congratulations were cut short when she felt a shy tugging on her pant leg. Looking down, she noted a small girl looking at her expectedly. "Um, what is it, little one?"

Twirling her foot into the ground, Kodachi timidly said, "That was very nice what you did for them back there."

Urd looked at the vial in her hand and back at Kodachi. Sweating slightly (although it was unnoticed by Kodachi), the goddess tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. "Oh, this, well, um, it…just helped them to realize their true feelings for each other…yeah, that's, uh, it." Urd looked back and forth, trying to find a means of escape. In fact, she was so caught up in looking for a television that Urd barely registered the next question that Kodachi asked.

After listening attentively to Urd, Kodachi asked in a small voice, "So, you can use stuff like that to help get someone to like you?"

Urd, who did not hear the 'like that' part, thought that Kodachi was referring to things like love letters and not potions. Therefore, she responded appropriately, "Uh, yeah, sure, kiddo. Well, the lesson is over for the day. I have to get going now. Maybe we will see each other later." Not waiting to hear a reply, Urd ran over towards a local television store that she spotted.

Meanwhile, Kodachi was considering what the woman named Urd said. Her child mind believed that what Urd put into their drinks was medicine since it came from similar containers. 'Mommy says that plants can make medicine and mommy knows about them.' And thus Kodachi resolved herself to learn botany from her mother.

Looking towards the store where the woman disappeared into, chibi-Kodachi sighed in adoration and thought, 'I'll make you proud, Urd-sensei!'

End flashback.

The sweatdrops increased on everyone's heads after listening to the story. Of course, they were hearing it from Kodachi's perspective and not Urd's, so the mental images conjured in their minds were quite distorted. Basically, the Black Rose described Urd as perfection who sought Kodachi out personally to teach her the ways on how to woo her destined. Those who knew the Kuno family better than most believed that like her brother, she rewrote history to match her personal views at the moment.

Shaking her head out of her revelry, Kodachi stated factually to Mara, "And so now you know why someone such as yourself could not possibly be familiar with the Urd-sensei that I know? Such a noble woman seeking to guide those children meant for greatness would not associate with the likes of yourself."

The twitch in her eye becoming greater, Mara sarcastically thought, 'Yeah right, and I'm sure that there are plenty of people named Urd who have that particular laugh.'

Kodachi turned towards her darling again, "Ranma-sama, let us leave these grounds at once so that we may dine on more exquisite delicacies rather than the paltry food available here."

This time it was Ukyo who had the tick in her eye. " 'Paltry food?' " she repeated while preparing to take out her battle spatula.

Now a familiar bell ringing caused Ranma to hang his head in resignation. 'Just when you think it can't get any worse.'

"Nihao!" As was expected, the Chinese Amazon Shampoo rode in on her bicycle with a ramen box in hand. Surprisingly, she did not land on Ranma's head this time. Jumping off her transportation, she bounded over to her beloved, "Hello, Airen! Shampoo bring ramen for lunch."

Before Ranma could even get a word in, Kodachi bet him to the punch, "You Amazon hussy! Ranma-sama was about to agree in dining with me."

Narrowing her eyes at the girl, Shampoo replied, "Stupid Rose Girl, Airen would rather spend time with proper wife than…" The Amazon trailed off as she noticed the new girl. If possible, Shampoo's eyes narrowed even further as a suspicion came to her. "Who you?"

Once more, Ranma tried to talk and say that she was just a friend, but Mara interrupted again. "Mara Demonica…Ranma's fiancée" 'As if I would hide that bit of information from these little girls.'

The Black Rose exclaimed in disbelief, "What!!! Another harridan has come for the affections of my Ranma-sama! I shall not allow it!" Twirling around her ribbon, Kodachi prepared to inflict damage upon Mara, when Shampoo block her path with one arm.

Turning towards the latest fiancée, Shampoo stated coolly, "This deal. You make challenge to Ranma for engagement. If he win, you go home. Is good, yes?"

This time it was Mara's turn to narrow her own eyes. "I'm afraid that is not possible since I need to wait for my parents to come and get this straightened out. In the meantime, I will be staying at the Tendo Dojo." The last part was not necessary to be said, but Mara wanted to shove something into their faces.

Silently simmering in anger, Shampoo brought out her bonbori and prepared to attack the girl, "Then you fight with Shampoo."

"For once I agree with the Amazon. More interlopers are not needed between Ranma-sama and myself." As Kodachi was about to strike at Mara as well, Ranma jumped between the demoness and them.

"Okay, that's enough. You heard Mara. We just need to wait until her parents come and everything will be settled then." Truth be told, Ranma was not afraid for Mara's safety at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite since he was more concerned with Shampoo's and Kodachi's. The murderous glint in Mara's eyes and the black lightning crackling along her fists gave him an indication that the two were about to be beaten severely. Unless she was hiding it well, Ranma wondered how Shampoo's danger sense did not seem to be going off at it. Kodachi he could understand, but not Shampoo.

After looking back and forth between the two, Shampoo slowly nodded her head. "Very well, Airen. Shampoo wait…for now." Putting her weapons away, she took the ramen box, got onto her bicycle, and sped away.

Coming to a similar conclusion, Kodachi straightened up to her full height and stated, "I suppose that I can wait to deliver my punishment for a later date. Fair well, my darling! Ohohohohoho!" The gymnast bounded away as well.

Ranma wiped the sweat collecting on his forehead. Looking cautiously behind him, he observed with some relief that Mara seemed to have gotten a better control of her anger with the absence of the time. 'Well, there's one disaster averted.'

Down the street, Shampoo finally let down the mask she was wearing. 'In the face of an enemy, an Amazon shows no fear,' the purple-haired martial artist thought to herself. But in front of that woman, it was extremely difficult to do. Something in those eyes…was just not right. If it did come down to a fight, Shampoo did not look forward to that day. Not at all.

Back at the courtyard, things have settled down again and everyone returned to eating. When questioned about who this Urd person was, Mara was tight-lipped about it and gave some runaround answers, basically saying that the person was just someone she met a while ago. The demoness was now considering Kodachi's story in greater detail. Obviously, the 'Black Rose' thought of things differently than how they actually went. Mara had been…acquaintances with Urd for a long time now and the demoness knew that the goddess would not openly encourage little girls to drug people. Still, Urd inadvertently affected Kodachi's development. 'I wonder how many other lives you screwed up, Urd?'

At a certain temple…

The goddess of the past and self-proclaimed cupid of love Urd suddenly sneezed while sitting on the couch. She was currently engaging in one of her favorite pastimes (besides interfering with others' romances) and that was watching soap operas. Rubbing at her nose a bit, Urd thought, 'Hmm…someone must be talking about me.'

Even though Urd found the drama being portrayed on television to be fascinating, the goddess was still bored out of her mind. A few days ago, she and her sisters felt several releases of demonic energy in a district called Nerima. Upon their first detection, they were about to teleport and investigate when Kami-sama called them directly. He stated that they were not to interfere with that area for the time being, which disturbed the goddesses slightly. Usually, any sort of demonic activity meant trouble and it was their job to keep it in check. However, He was the boss and thus they stayed home.

Tracking down the demon responsible for the energy would have been a good break from the recent monotony of events for Urd. Meddling with Keiichi and Belldandy's developing relationship was always fun, but they seemed to need her prodding less and less nowadays.

Urd decided that what she needed was another love challenge. Perhaps finding a couple who were so in love, but refused to acknowledge it. Even better would be a love triangle, square, or some other polygon that needed to be untangled. Oh how great that would be! 'But where could I find such complicated relationship in Japan?'

At a particular schoolyard, a pigtailed demon sneezed. In addition, a certain manager of the Hinata Inn and another teenager living with various aliens in another temple sneezed as well.

Back at Furinken…

Time flashed forward now towards the end of the school day for Mara. She had just come out of detention and was not in a happy mood. In fact, Mara was reaching a breaking point from all of nuisances of the past couple of days. The perverted moron Kuno, the teacher Masamichi Fujisawa, the insane gymnast Kodachi, and the Amazon Shampoo. Mara so wanted to teach them all a lesson that they would never forget, and she was not referring to merely bashing their heads into the pavements. However, Mara also realized that discretion was needed in her current assignment. Punting and blasting Kuno into the atmosphere seemed to be commonplace around here, but other methods of punishment might bring too much attention to herself.

'Boy, do I need a nice long soak in that furo,' Mara thought to herself in bliss. But her tranquil moment was interrupted by one voice that she did not want to hear now.

"Ah, my warrior angel, at last we are alone together! Perhaps the demon's hold on thee is waning and thou sought my embrace to forever break it."

Scowling, Mara turned around…and smirked at seeing him so heavily bandaged. "You don't look so good, Kuno. Why don't you just walk away before I make it even worse?"

Unfazed, Kuno continued limping towards Mara and spoke, "Your concern is appreciated, my love. My heart knows that thy hands inflicted these grievous injures only while under the control of the demon Saotome."

Disgusted with the man in front of him, Mara clarified, "You really are a moron, aren't you? Can't you get it through your thick skull? I don't love you. I don't even like you, so just go away before I give you even more 'grievous injuries.' "

Soon Kuno was within a couple of feet of Mara. Undaunted by her words, Kuno prattled on, "It would seem that Saotome's spell can hold thee under his control to great distances. Nonetheless, it must be weakened in his absence. Like legends of old, a kiss from your samurai should break the curse. Come, let our lips touch in unbridled passion." As soon as Kuno started to lower his face towards Mara, it met an incoming fist. The force of the punch caused Kuno to not only fly down, but also allowed a certain group of pictures to be drop out of his samurai garb.

Curious, Mara picked up the photos and sorted through them. 'Pictures of Akane practicing. Pictures of Ranma-chan sleeping. Hmm…these must have been taken recently because they are of her new cursed form. And pictures of…' Suddenly, Mara's blood start to near boil in anger. Of course, anger would be only the correct term if it could metaphorically describe a volcano about to erupt and causing widespread chaos to the populace below.

"Where did you get these?" The cool, deadly tone of Mara's voice would have sent the bravest of real samurai running for hills.

However, Kuno, who was not a real samurai, was also not a very observant fellow. Therefore, he stated casually, "Do not worry, my love. They are but mere portraits that I had obtained from the mercenary Nabiki Tendo so that I may…" The rest of his speech was cutoff as Mara kicked the fool in the head, making him unconscious again.

"Nabiki Tendo, eh?" whispered the demoness, whose voice was pure ice. She did not need to hear any more of the idiot's ranting since he had confirmed her suspicion.

While Mara was ice on the outside, her mind was a blazing inferno on the inside. 'I have had it! I HAVE HAD IT!' Those little mortals dared to treat her, Mara, demoness first-class unlimited, in such a manner! The hell with discretion!

Looking down at the photos, they combusted instantly upon contact with the black fire that ignited in her hand. "Oh they'll pay, alright," she whispered to no one in general. "They will pay."

An ominous chill went through the spines of several people in Nerima.

End Chapter 6.

Author's Notes:

(1) Yes, Akane is overestimating her observation skills.

(2) The "Happö Goju-en Satsu" is the more powerful version of the "Happö Go-en Satsu". In this one, Hinako uses a fifty-yen coin and can drain ki without a person actually having to project a battle aura. Remember that a normal person can produce a battle aura when angry just like a martial artist. However, it is so weak that it does not become visible.

Wow, the longest chapter to date. As I was writing this one, I had thought of splitting it into two sections, but then reconsidered it since that only interrupts the story flow. I also added the Urd cameo to give an explanation as to why the goddesses are not making their appearance yet. There are going to be a lot more interactions between Ranma, Mara, Akane and the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew before that happens. Well, I guess that is it for now. Comments and criticism would be appreciated.

-ranmafan1