Disclaimer: Hmmm. Rumiko Takahashi and Viz and a whole bunch more have dibs on Ranma et al, Fujishima Kousuke and Animeigo takes credit for associating Urd of Norse mythology with kawaii features and a computer engineering degree, Cinderella is an old fairy tale, which leaves me with Hainoko and Kidori, who are derivative and belong to everyone. Basho belongs to himself. Not to worry, since I don't figure on making any money off this, anyway. No gerbils were harmed in the writing of this fanfic, except the one who refused to cross at the crosswalk, and that was his own fault.

ASHES - A Cinderella Story
Chapter Three - Friends

Some are young and some are old
Silver threads among the gold
Let us dip and let us groove
And Chapter Three is on the move.

HIROSHI:

"Ah Wop Bop alubop Ah Lop Bam Boom!"

I loved the shower. The furo was great for soaking, but the shower had acoustics. I could hold the scrub brush like a microphone and really put my soul into the song.

Last night was a fading nightmare. I had inventoried my assets and determined that I was still a walking, talking male. And singing, too, although for some reason I never got to finish. There were always interruptions. For instance:

"Hiroshi!"

I wiped the water out of my eyes and stuck my head outside the curtain. "Yes, Mom?"

"Hiroshi, please hold it down. The neighbors are complaining."

"Aww, Mom! I can't sound THAT bad! And besides, the neighbors left on vacation for a week."

"It is the neighbors beyond them. And the ones from across the street. Hiroshi-chan? Please?"

"Awww...right." Mom meant well. She simply did not appreciate good music. After all, that was an American love song - a classic.

She gave me a weak hug when I came down for breakfast, and said, "You have so many other qualities, Hiro-chan. You should work on them." I recognized the line from one of the 'afternoon drama clubs' she attended without Pops' knowledge.

"Okay, Mom," I sighed, then Hainoko shoved in front of me at the table. "Hey!" I yelped, "That's my place!"

Hainoko smirked at me, "You only want this seat because it is closer to the rice bowl. You snooze, you lose."

"Hainoko - move," said Pops, not even looking up from the morning's sports news. Hainoko made a 'he always takes your side,' glare and grudgingly scooted over.

"Also, Hiroshi-kun, I want you to walk your little sister to school, today," Mom said as she served the soup.

"Why? That's way out of my way!"

"Don't argue, please. She has no one to walk with, and I don't want her on the streets alone."

"What's the matter, Insect?" I said to Hainoko, "Nobody like you enough to walk with you?"

"Boy!" growled Pops, "It's a man's place to take care of weaklings like women. Show your gonads. Be a man!"

"Uh, right," I muttered. "Get arrested for indecent exposure. Very manly." He flipped the paper back up before him and refused to be baited.

Hainoko blinked at me and said, "Yoriko had to go to her grandmothers for a week, but in a few days the space aliens will come along and take me away, and you won't have to worry about me any more."

"Space aliens would bring you back as soon as they heard you whine, Rodent! Cry, cry, cry!"

"Mom!"

"Don't tease her, Hiroshi."

"(Sigh) All right, Mom."

"Here, Hai-chan. I fixed lunch in your favorite panda-bear bento, so you be sure and enjoy it." Mom paused as if to rest, then handed it to her.

"I will, Mommy," Hainoko gave me a warning look as if to say, 'If my big brother doesn't spoil it somehow'.

"Are you okay, Mom?" I asked. Hainoko crowded close to support Mom when she seemed about to fall over.

"I am fine, children. Just a cold. It's nothing (dramatic pause) life-threatening. You go on to school, now."

Pop looked up from his paper to check the sports scores on the miniscule table TV. The Giants had a good start on the season and he wanted to see the highlights before leaving for work. "Back by midnight," he decreed.

"Sure, Pop. Can I stop over for a snack, somewhere?"

"If you're back by midnight."

"Pop, everyone else gets to stay -"

"Midnight."

Pop's voice did not waver. He could repeat the same word, tone by tone, timbre by timbre, decibel by decibel, all day long. "You need your sleep to maintain your virility," he explained.

"Okay, Pop," I said as I left the door open and cleared the steps in a bound, headed for Daisuke's.

"Hiroshi!"

"Yes, Mom?" I called back from the street.

"Please take Hainoko by her school."

Oh. Yeah. "Right, Mom. Sorry."

"Apologize to Hainoko. I am not the one offended."

Apologize to the shrimp? Ewwww.

HAINOKO:

Bullies are not always boys, and they are not always from the poorer neighborhoods. Hainoko desperately needed a friend. It was not easy being a nobody in a school where the playground was dominated by a two snobby bullies, even if those bullies were girls.

The two sisters Deirdre and Deirdrum made Hainoko miserable, taking her lunch and laughing when Hainoko cried, and then lying about it when the playground supervisors came to see what was wrong. They always made it seem like Hainoko had started the fights, and her classmates always agreed with the snobs.

Hainoko needed a friend, and when she could not find one on the playground she tried for the next best thing - an edge. She became sneaky. In fact, Hainoko was so good at surviving that there were days when she actually got to eat her own lunch. Not that the bullies wanted her food. They only wanted to hurt and humiliate someone, and Hainoko was handy. When they took the food, they would throw it away, spoil it by spitting on it, or pour dirt over the rice and fishcakes.

So, Hainoko spent her school days in a kind of living hell. The only person who made it better was Yoriko, who had moved in next door and walked to school with Hainoko. While the bullies would pick on this neighbor girl also, they would not bother Hainoko and Yoriko when they were together.

When Hainoko complained to her parents, she was disappointed. Father was always too tired, or too busy, and he was uncomfortable around schools. Mother never felt well enough to go down to the school and talk to the principal, and Hiroshi - well...

Hiroshi was a big brother. End of subject.

She stood at the gate, her bento clutched to her breast, not wanting to cross the threshold into the war zone. Her adversaries were in there, obscured by other children, but they could find her as unerringly as sharks found distressed swimmers. They could smell blood.

"What are you waiting for? Go on! I gotta get to school!" Hiroshi encouraged her, in his own way.

Hainoko looked back at him, mutely pleading, but of course he could not understand. He was a big boy. He never got in trouble. He had a friend. With a sigh, she stepped through the gate and awaited her doom. She felt, rather than saw, her brother hurry away to his own schoolyard, where kids were nice to one another. He never looked back. He did not see the ominous shadows sliding up to her, nor hear the jeers as Deirdre and Deirdrum found her bento and took it from her. He did not see the bento flying over the fence to be crushed by a passing truck.

For Hainoko, it was just the start of another day.

HIROSHI:

If wishes could really come true, I would I could wish that last night had never happened. It was a bad dream. It happened to someone else. I denied it, categorically and imperatively.

Unfortunately, at school all the talk was about the singer who had popped up, sang a marvelous song, then disappeared at the stroke of midnight. They were even calling me Cinderella. I didn't know why I got so upset, hearing them drool over her. It's not like I turned into a girl every day. I was not Ranma.

It was like that all morning. There were some really weird Cinderella rumors, but I tried to discount them. What they couldn't pin on me did not happen.

Finally, something happened to take everyone's mind off me. Kodachi showed up. She looked awful. I mean, she looks great, especially when she dresses out for gym, but you could tell she had been in a fight, and she had not won, and she was pissed.

We were eating lunch in the shade of the trees when black rose petals began to fall about one side of the clearing. I was lucky or I would have been one of the first students who fell unconscious. Ranma quickly grabbed Akane and carried her into the open, then turned to face a whirlwind of razor-ribbons and gymnast's clubs.

"Stand aside, Dearest Ranma!" cried Kodachi. She was wearing her combat leotard, which exposed the bruises on her legs. "Do not protect this witch, Darling Ranma! She is not worthy! She hides behind a mask to attack, and she leaves a common flower as her calling card!"

Ranma blocked the missiles and cried, "Will ya lay off, Kodachi? She's been with us all morning! There is no way she could have attacked you!" Akane, still showing her own bruises from the day before, looked at Ranma in surprise, as if she expected him to add an insult.

He finally convinced Kodachi that Akane was innocent. The leotard clad girl came closer, clasped Ranma and leaned her head against his breast while she sobbed, "For you, Ranma-sama Dearest, I will refrain from attacking this peasant!"

Then she leaped away, calling "But that cowardly masked girl, whomever she is, shall feel my wrath! I will find her and show her the revenge of the Kunos! Hohohohohohohoho!"

In the uneasy silence which followed, I leaned over and asked Ranma, "Revenge of the Kunos?"

He made a wry face. "If it's worse than bento-breath behind us, I don't wanna know."

"I heard that, Saotome!" Kuno growled, "Show some respect for your sempai!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I just did."

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

I found Ryoga that night, and dragged him home to our apartment. He came without argument, which surprised me. At least he was no longer trying to poke things with his finger while shouting, "Bakusai tenketsu!"

I asked him what had happened. Why had I been changed into a girl and chased around like that? I got angry. I yelled at him, and he took the abuse in the manner of a prize boar ignoring a pesky fly. He merely shrugged and tried to avoid talking about it, as if it were not real, which made me shout that much louder.

He merely looked down at his bracelet now and then and tried, not very successfully, to hide a yawn.

"I know it happened! You were there! You saw!" I pulled at my hair in frustration and yelled, "We were talking about wishing and I said 'I want to be a rock star', and..."

-poof-

I went on in a decidedly softer, gentler voice, "...and now I am again, and I didn't really want to be, and oh, Kami-sama! I'm stuck again! What if it is permanent? Daisuke's coming over! I have to hide! Where can I hide?"

In the hall an ancient upright cabinet was stored. I thought of closing myself in it. However, there was a mirror on the cabinet door. It caught me and would not let me go. Looking at the diaphonous blouse and the blue mini-skirt and jacket combo I was wearing, I sighed. "What am I going to do now? Daisuke is coming over tonight! We were going to cruise the park for chicks! Specially ones who look just like this, darn it! I can't wear this in public! I can see myself through it!"

Myself.

There was someone standing in my place and she was a she, quite obviously, and it was me, and I was going to start doing something painful to that mirror very soon if I did not look away from it.

Ryoga was unhelpful. He was wearing one of those chain-link bracelets with an inscribed plate. He kept reading the inscription as if he could not remember what it said.

"All I know is that you have a recurring wish which requires a trigger to make it work," he said. "Your trigger is..."

"I know! I know!" I blurted, "Saying the words 'I want to be a rock star'!" I was unhappy. I was deeply depressed. Why did my voice make me sound so thrilled to be alive that I could hug everyone? Yeck. I did not want to hug anyone.

He went on, "According to this, since you did not request any changes following your trial period, you will remain in your rock star form for two hours, the average length of a rock music performance. (mumblemumble) You will quit turning into your rock star form once you get what you really wanted from the wish."

"This is not a rock star costume! This is a disgrace! This is an embarrassment! Just look at this!"

He took a really good look at me and turned abruptly away, staunching his nose. He said, "Adyway, chewel be bag do dorbal affer doo hours."

"I can't wait! I'll just have to find a way to undo it. I'll say the words again! 'I want to be a rock star'! I don't want to be a rock star! Star rock a be to want I! Hot water! Maybe that will do it!"

I splashed.

"No, it didn't! Cold water! I'll try that!"

I splashed, again.

"No, again! Dammit! Nothing does anything!"

"There is one gambit which might work, when Daisuke gets here," Ryoga said as he lifted his backpack.

"Anything! What?"

"I have learned of the Saotome ultimate secret technique, to be used only in the face of total disaster."

"Great! What is it?"

"Run," he shrugged the backpack into place.

"Wouldn't that look great! A blue-eyed bimbo running through down-town Nerima! Where the heck would I go?"

Ryoga shrugged again. "That's your problem," he said, brushing his hands of the entire matter.

"Waitaminute! You can't just walk off like this! This is partly your fault, too, you know!"

"Quit pawing me!"

"Sorry. I was just carried away. I am about to be publicly humiliated, and you grant wishes. Grant me this one wish!"

"No! No can do. And quit talking about it! Something bad will happen!"

I wilted. "There has to be something you can conjure up! Can't you control it?"

Ryoga frowned. "The only way I can explain it, something in my aura is conditioned to grant wishes to some deserving, unselfish person. I don't get to decide who that person is. And if I talk about it any more, we are both going to regret it."

"I'll be deserving! I'll be unselfish!"

Ryouga paused, then asked, "What do you think of Akane?"

"What?"

"Do you think Akane is cute and deserving?"

"Are you off your rocker? Sure, I think Akane is cute, but...she is also engaged to Ranma. I wouldn't want to spoil that!" Not and live to tell about it...if Ranma didn't kill me she would!

"That's not what I was asking," Ryoga said, heading for the door.

I was becoming desperate. "If you don't stay and at least try, I will start screaming!"

"Say what?" Ryoga paled and softly eased the door shut without exiting.

"I said I would scream!"

There was a haunted gleam of fear in his eye. He could handle charging rhinocerii, but he could not handle this. He almost whimpered as he said, "But...but...isn't that sort of...girlish?"

"Look at me, you blockhead! Do I look like a guy right now?"

"Uh...no," He winced as he rubbed his forehead.

"Right now, I AM a girl. Just like Ranma!"

Ryoga stiffened at the comparison, eyed me with sudden suspicion. "You are not like Ranma," he declared. "I don't hate you...yet."

"Well, you are going to! How far are you going to get if I chase you down the street accusing you of taking advantage of me?"

"You...now..." Torn in two directions, Ryoga settled onto his haunches and tried to reason with me. He would have had more luck with Ranma. I was seething. Bubbling, perkily seething.

"And furthermore..." I wanted to dump my whole life of misery onto him while I had him on the defensive. I wanted to let him know exactly what kind of trouble he had caused. I never got the chance.

There was a sudden brightness as the door opened and someone walked in. That someone stopped, stared, and cried out, "Woah! You're here! This is great, and I beat Hiroshi to you! Boy, am I lucky!"

"Daisuke? Oh, no! Look, I can explain..."

"How's about a date? Let's beat it before that joker Hiroshi gets here."

"H...Hiroshi?" I stuttered, thinking, The dumb goof. He does not recognise me. He is trying to date me because he thinks I am my girl.

I looked from Ryoga's confused frown to Daisuke's feverish grin, and something clicked. My scowl traveled, with a knack worthy of Ryoga's navigational skills, until it became a calculating smile. I contemplated vengeance, or at the very least, a whale of a practical joke. Steal my girl, will he?

"Of course!" I said, plastering all the sincerity I could muster onto my face. I had to get a coat, a blanket, or anything to cover up with. No way was I going out dressed as I was.

"And while you are buying me dinner, you can tell me about your friend, Hiroshi."

"What friend, Hiroshi?" Daisuke drawled, wearing a sloppy, dazed smile. If I didn't know him better, I would have called him an oversexed, hormone-driven teenager with lust on the brain. As a matter of fact, I did know him well enough to call him that, and the fact that I was the subject of that lust made me uncomfortable. I wanted to retaliate.

"Say goodbye to Ryoga," I suggested, dragging Daisuke along by the tie.

"Yeah, sure. Bai-bai, Rogy-kun."

Ryoga watched us go with something like fear in his expression.

"Hope you have money, sap," I muttered to myself, drawing on one of Moms' coats. It was about as fashionable as a tent. "This evening is going to cost you plenty."

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

The evening was a mixed success. I had dined sumptuously and extravagantly, with Daisuke footing the bill.

However...

Why did I do it? I meant at first to get a dig at Dai-kun for presuming to steal 'my girl'. Sometime during the evening, when the two hours were up, I was going to jump up and say, 'Look at me, you chump! Guess who I really am!' and then I would suddenly shift my appearance and he would be so shocked he would probably pass out. At least that was the plan. I mean, I would have to tell him sooner or later, anyway. He was my buddy.

However...

We first went by the park, the way we always did, scouting out goodlooking girls who would not let us approach for a million yen but who would be disappointed if we did not notice them. Somewhere along the way, I began to see a different side of Daisuke. Beneath the bluster, he was deathly afraid of girls. Oh, he started out brash and bragging, but as the hour wore on he began to withdraw. Then we hurried to a restaurant for dinner, where I ordered the most expensive meal I could find on the menu. Even then, I intended to let him in on the secret, tell him how it happened and have a good laugh.

However...

There were a couple of girls from our class sitting at the next table, and when they saw me they decided that I needed rescuing. So they invited me to the 'powderroom'. They practically dragged me away from the table, to the girl's restroom, with me frantically trying to escape. Once inside, I hurriedly turned my face to the wall to keep from nosebleeding, but all they wanted to do was stand around and talk, which was fortunate. Besides, turning to the wall did not help, since it was a mirror.

I locked myself in a stall and talked over the walls. After they got over the thrill of talking to a 'real' rock star, they started getting personal.

"I can't believe it!"Yuki gushed, "Of all they guys that you could date, you choose Daisuke? What could you see in him?"

"Well, I..." I started to say.

"Oh, you don't know!" Saori took up the lecture, "He's always been a member of the Loser's Club along with his friend, Hiroshi. I think Hiroshi must be the president of the club. Maybe Dai-kun is a good kisser? I bet that's it. He certainly isn't all that great looking. Did you kiss him yet? Is he any good?"

"Well, I..." I started to come out and face them, but about that time one of them said she had to 'adjust some straps'. So I chose to remain locked in.

"I think maybe he must be very funny or else he is very polite and gentlemanly," mused Yuki. "There's no way a girl as good looking and classy as you are would go out with some dweeb like Dai-kun without there being something good about him."

"Well, I..." I started to say.

"You're right!" Saori piped up, "I'm going to get Dai-kun alone sometime and give him a field test!"

"Wow," said Yuki, mockingly, "Talk about self-discipline!"

"He might not be so bad. Like Cinderella said, there has to be something to him."

I sat silently waiting, forgotten, as they continued talking and planning on how to get Dai alone. I was upset that they thought so poorly of me as Hiroshi; happy that Dai was going to be getting a few good breaks with some girls; confused because I was irritated that they wanted to find out what made him attractive to me. I mean, I wasn't jealous or anything, but we had come here together.

As I made my way back from the 'powderroom', I saw our booth surrounded by a group of our guy friends from school. I quickly sat and huddled down by drawing the edges of the tent tight around my neck. The heat was almost unbearable, but there was no way I was going to allow any of these perverts a glimpse of what lay underneath the canvas. They called Daisuke aside to talk to him, as if I were not even there.

"Hey, check it out! Daisuke's got a date with Cinderella-chan!"

"Oh, no! Say it ain't so, man! She's not with him...he's with her! He's a lapdog! Gotta be!"

"That's right! Daisuke! Is SHE really your date?"

Daisuke replied somberly, "She's my date."

"What's wrong with you? A knockout like that and you're complaining? Man, I'd be caroling from the housetops!"

Daisuke turned his head to one side and hissed, "She likes girls, understand? I take her to the park and she wants to watch other chicks! Is that right? Am I in hell?"

"Oh, man, a lesbo! What a challenge!"

"He's right! A groovy chick like her needs some lovin' to see the proper path! You wanta tag team?"

"Never mind," said Daisuke, aware of the growing swarm of guys around his 'date'. "I'm gonna take her home. It's getting late."

"You are so noble. Is it true...that she disappears at midnight?"

"I dunno," Daisuke stopped to think, and he brightened, able to focus on only one thing at a time. "Let's watch and see!"

"Hey, Cin-chan!" cried someone, "Wanna autograph my tongue?"

"Let's go," I said to my 'date'. Daisuke examined his depleted wallet and agreed. I was beginning to feel sorry for him. He would have spent his entire savings, beggared himself, even agreed to do chores to help pay for my entertainment, and I was tricking him. I had seen a new side of him that night.

Serves him right, I thought. But, I'm gonna owe him when this is over. When. Oh, Kami-sama, I hope it will be over, someday soon!

As we walked away from the restaurant, I thought about the money he had spent. He's not as rich as a Kuno. He probably expected some little show of appreciation, which I was determined not to give. The two hour limit was approaching fast and I had to get away from him. If I stood and chatted I was going to change in front of him, and suddenly that was the last thing I wanted to do. As I thought about how easily the girls had accepted me, I wondered who else I might get close to, in disguise.

I stopped on a street corner a block or so from my apartment and said, "Well, I guess it's g'bye. I had a great time. Did you?"

"Yes." He lied, looking anywhere except at me. If he had stopped trying to act like someone else, I would have relented and told him everything.

Then he stepped closer. I stood and looked up into Dai-kun's eyes. Between the gleams of uncertainty and wounded pride, I saw something else that unnerved me.

I saw something that looked like hope.

He was getting ready to pucker up. I had to get away from there.

"Look!" I cried, pointing up toward downtown Tokyo, "There's Godzilla!"

"Where?" he looked. The old cynical Daisuke I had known would never have fallen for such a stupid stunt. The new Daisuke, more vulnerable, more gullible, had to look. When he turned back I was already around the corner and gone.

THE TENDO HOUSE:

"Forgive me, Saotome, I have something to do. No time for a match, right now," said Suon.

"Just as well," replied Genma. "I have some serious thinking to do, myself." With that, he splashed into a panda and was soon snoring beneath a tree near the koi pond.

"Where's Father?" Kasumi asked later.

"Out. I think he's upset for some reason," replied Nabiki. "He has been mooning around all day."

"He keeps looking at our old family picture," Akane added.

"Oh, then he will be okay," Kasumi returned to the salad.

Nabiki exchanged glances with Akane, as if to say, 'How did she decide that?'

End: Chapter Three