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Bound to Stay by Kalissa

Chapter 2

Their eyes met and it was at that moment that Nabiki knew that it really was him. Saotome Ranma was back and hell, did he choose an effective entrance. The whispering began among the crowd but neither paid it any attention. For each of them the presence of the other signified something and both had disbelieving looks on their faces though for no more than a second before scolding their expressions back to an emotionless masks.

Then all the hell broke loose. Fiancées finally came to and realized who exactly was standing in front of them and hurried to voice their opinion on the matter of the fight and his sudden departure on his so called 'training trip'.

"Ranma no baka where in hell have you been and what is the meaning of all this?" bellowed Akane, in an uncontrollable rage.

With her battle aura shining like a small sun and her hand itching for her mallet, she was quite a sight so it was no wonder that the student body parted in front of her like the Red Sea once did for Moses.

"Ran-Chan what happened to you? Are you all right? You're not hurt are you?" Worriedly asked Ukyo.

She had been cooking her okonomyaki in the shade of the trees when the fight started and now was hurriedly pushing through the crowd to get to him.

"Ayah, Airen back from training trip! Shampoo like Airen new look! Airen take Shampoo on date, yes?" Said Chinese Amazon enthusiastically gloomping onto Ranma.

Shampoo has been near the school, heading to the lunch area for any possible news about Ranma, when she had heard sounds of fighting and when she saw what was going on, she had decided to watch from the safety of the top of a fence.

All this time Nabiki was silently watching the scene. She was stunned. For the first time in her life, Ice Queen was speechless. Cool and collected on the outside she was awed, surprised, and even more so scared on the inside. The reason for this was standing no more then three meters away from her. If it wasn't for his eyes so different and yet the same she would have never believed that the man in front of her was indeed Saotome Ranma, pigtailed eighteen year old and hair of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.

Indeed, everything about him had changed. The first noticeable change was his clothing. Instead of the ever-present Chinese shirt, kung-fu pants and slippers, he was clad in a pair of rather tight leather pants that rested on his hips, a skin-tight muscle shirt that showed of every inch of his upper body and army boots that were partialy covered by his pants. To top it off he wore a leather coat that gave him a somewhat mysterious look. The color scheme has changed too, now he wore all black which successfully contributed to his look of a sexy badass. His famous hairstyle was altered as well where once was a cute pigtail now was a low masculine ponytail loosely held together with a piece of a leather string. His body matured. He was nearly six foot tall with broad shoulders and a very good build. His face was cute before but now with the baby fat gone it became downright beautiful. In other words in front of her was standing every girl's wet dream and the hungry stares of the female population of the Furinkan High proved this. All this surprised her and when she allowed herself to really look and not just asses Ranma's new appearance the change had left her awed. However, what scared her were his eyes. When they looked at each other for those few moments, she had her breath taken away from her by the coldness of those blue orbs. His eyes like his voice before were colder then an artic desert itself and like his voice they were completely void of any emotion. It was scary because the same breathtaking silver streaked blue-gray eyes were full of innocence only a week ago. This new Ranma's posture and graceful almost cat like movements told the world of his confidence developed from inner power and experience, traces of which were newer there before. He had confidence before but it related only to fighting and was more a brash arrogance than anything else. Right now Nabiki could swear she saw a confidence of the one who lead a long and complicated life, this you often see in older people but never has she seen it in one so young.

All this information Nabiki gathered in less then a minute and she was already finished and back to watching what would soon turn in a disaster in her competent opinion when she saw all the girls finally reach Ranma.

At the present, he was being squashed between an overly exited Shampoo and equally as exited Ukyo. Both girls were rattling non-stop about some nonsense and trying to get his attention by pressing their generous curves into him, while at the same time shooting each other killer looks. Akane was standing a few feet away and going on and on with her famous 'Ranma you baka pervert' speech in full battle aura mode while readying to pound Ranma face first into the ground with that giant mallet of hers.

That's when Ranma finally spoke

"Get. Off. Of. Me."

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