Purrfectly Normal Behavior Chapter 3: Relationships, a ranma fanfic

My apologies, but this time around I needed to backtrack a little bit and set up a few side relationships. I promise that next time we'll get back to Shampoo, Yuzuyu and the main story.

Purr-fectly Normal Behavior – Part 3
by Juliet Carnell
based on Ranma ½ by Takahashi Rumiko & Aishiteruze Baby by Maki Youko

When all the violent movement finally stopped, Kokoro first allowed herself to breath again. When that seemed to go well, she next allowed herself to think and the first thought that came into her head was that Kippei is an idiot!

First he had pushed her off the curb as he lunged to catch Yuzuyu, she could forgive him for that, but then he had abandoned his little cousin in order to grab Kokoro instead and all so that he could have an excuse to get up her skirt. Even now she could feel his hand on her butt. She could only imagine what had happened to the poor child when she hit the pavement in Kokoro's place.

"Ba-ka!" she shouted as she pounded her fist into Kippei's chest. She hit him as hard as she could, but rather than doing the damage she expected the blow simply recoiled off rock solid muscle. That's when she became aware of the sounds of labored breathing and a smell of sweat that was distinctly different from Kippei's. Cautiously she opened her eyes and in place of the angular face and tousled blond hair of her new boyfriend she saw instead a round boyish face framed by thick black hair.

Ranma struggled to catch his breath. Even a great martial artist has his limits and traversing half a city block in under one second, grabbing the girl milliseconds before she hit the pavement, leaping three meters straight up into the air, bounding off the top of a moving truck, a traffic light and a neon sign before coming to a soft landing on the roof of the pachinko parlor across the street from the ice cream store had left Ranma gasping for air.

Kokoro stared up into the oddly familiar face of the young man that had apparently just saved her life. At first glance he wasn't much to look at. He was dressed in some kind of red silk shirt with Chinese style buttons and collar. The rest of his long black hair was pulled back into a braided pigtail. He didn't look especially strong, but resting in his arms she could intimately feel the toned muscles hidden beneath his baby smooth skin.

He looked like any other boy her age, but he radiated strength from every pore like some action movie hero. The spot where his hand touched her bare flesh grew warm as she began to sense the nuances of his power. She was beginning to wonder what his intentions were when he chose that moment to open his eyes.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Kokoro had known the answer to that question only a moment ago, but suddenly she was aware that her heart was racing and she felt flushed all over. Either she was going into shock or this was something else entirely. She swallowed hard and nodded her head, "I… I think so."

"Good. I think yer boyfriend got the little girl. From the sounds she's makin' I'd say she's alive and well."

Kokoro focused on the distant screams of the five-year old. Why they seemed so far away and where she was right now was still a mystery. She glanced around and saw nothing familiar, this looked more like the roof of some office building than the busy shopping street where she had been standing.

Looking down she suddenly became conscious of the fact that she was still in the young man's arms, still held very closely to his chest and that his hand was still on her rear end, "Um… you can put me down if your getting tired."

The boy smiled, "That's okay, you don't weight nothin'. If you're feeling up to it, I can take you back to yer friends now."

Kokoro nodded, "Where are we anyway?"

The boy looked around, "I ain't exactly sure. I didn't really have time pick a spot. With my luck it's probably a sprinkler factory."

Kokoro looked at him with a puzzled expression. He was a funny mix of manly prowess and childish innocence. She couldn't decide if she wanted him for a little brother or a lover, but at some point she had definitely decide she wanted him.

"My name is Kokoro… Tokunaga Kokoro."

"Hold on tight Kokoro-san," the boy said as he walked to the edge of the roof, "Oh, my name's Saotome Ranma…" he glanced over the edge and then hopped lightly to the top of the short retaining wall, "…sorry 'bout this," then he sprang off into the empty air three stories above the busy street.

o o o

Kippei held onto Yuzuyu for dear life. No matter what he said or did, the terrified little girl would not stop screaming. He was certain now that she had seen what happened to Kokoro, but unfortunately she was still too hysterical to share it with him.

Just what happened to Kokoro was the topic of heated debate at that very moment. The truck driver had searched all around and under his vehicle, but had found no trace of her or even any signs of an impact. Someone had fetched a policeman who was now searching for her behind trees, trash bins and vending machines far down the street. None of the members of his family had seen anything because they had all been looking at Yuzuyu.

Everyone seemed to have his or her own theory about Kokoro's disappearance. Suzuko felt that she had avoided being hit by the truck, but had wandered off in shock. The owner of the ice cream store felt certain that such a skinny girl had been launched high into the air and fallen much further down the street than anyone was searching. When Satsuki suggested that she might have been knocked into another dimension, Kippei had wanted to knock him further down the street.

Kippei rubbed Yuzuyu's back and tried again to quiet her screams, "It's okay Yuzuyu. They're going to find Kokoro-chan soon. She's going to be okay," but his heart wasn't in it. He cursed his own stupidity and couldn't believe that he had actually pushed his girlfriend into the path of an oncoming truck. Now every minute that passed made it less likely that she would be found unharmed and it was entirely his fault.

He heard a murmuring run through the crowd that had gathered around them and then gasps of surprise, but it really didn't register on him until one woman cried out, "Look, up there!"

Kippei looked up in time to see someone leap off the roof of the building across the street. Rather than falling, the figure rebounded from the top of a lamppost to the roof of a car and then to the sidewalk directly in front of them. It was a boy wearing a red shirt and black trousers and in his arms was Kokoro!

Kippei watched in stunned silence as the boy set Kokoro down. Then to his bewilderment the owner of the ice cream store turned and walked away muttering, "I might have known it was him." Then Kippei noticed that everyone else in the crowd was beginning to walk away as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

Kokoro finally turned towards him and a smile broke across her face. Yuzuyu noticed who it was and her screaming stopped, but Kippei saw that her eyes were still filled with fear and apprehension.

"Kokoro… onee… chan?" Yuzuyu said uncertainly.

Kokoro nodded and began walking towards them, but this did not have the expected effect. Instead the five-year old began wailing again.

Kokoro rushed to kneel down in front of Yuzuyu, but the child pulled away and clung even more tightly to Kippei. "It's all right Yuzuyu," Kokoro said soothingly, "it's really me. I'm not hurt." She spread her arms wide to show the little girl that she was indeed all in one piece.

Yuzuyu's sobbing faded slowly as her eyes suddenly turned from fearful to curious, "Kokoro-onee-chan?"

Kokoro nodded and held out her arms. Yuzuyu gazed at her for a few more seconds and then with a big smile jumped into Kokoro's arms.

"Onee-chan didn't go away?"

"Nope, I'm still here thanks to Ranma-san over there…" while holding Yuzuyu in a big hug she turned to where Ranma had been standing, but he wasn't there. She turned to Kippei and asked, "What happened to Ranma?"

Kippei looked around for the dark haired boy, but he seemed to have melted away along with the rest of the crowd. "I don't know, he was standing there just a second ago."

"But…" Kokoro said with obvious distress, "I never even thanked him!"

o o o

Ranma walked along the riverbank deep in thought. What had him in such a fog was Shampoo's strange behavior this evening. For the entire time he had known her, Shampoo had never once done anything that wasn't directed solely at getting Ranma to marry her. Well… for a while she had wanted to kill Ranma's girl form, but that had ended when Shampoo learned about the curse.

And what had the old ghoul meant when she said that not everything revolved around him and his curse? Didn't everything bad around here happen to him? As far as he knew, he was the only boy in school that turned into a girl all the time, had three fiancées, a panda for a father and rivals that were always trying to kill him. Well… maybe he should set aside that last one for some guys attending tougher schools than Furinkan.

These thoughts had him in such a trance that he failed to notice he was walking past a lighted athletic field, failed to notice the football game in progress there, failed to notice the spectacular overhead kick shot that just missed the goal, and he certainly didn't notice the speeding soccer ball that smashed into the side of head sending him tumbling into the river.

When Ranma came back to his senses he was sitting in cold water up to his waist. Still disoriented from the blow to his head, he had a vivid déjà vu experience of that day months ago when he had sat in the Nyannichuan. As he did then he pulled open the front of his soaking wet shirt and looked down at the two luscious mounds that, unfortunately, were now his… or hers as the case may be.

She shook it off and looked around. Somehow she had managed to drag herself to shallow water on the far side of the river from the road home. She stood up, rung the water out of her shirt and cinched up her pants. She was just trying to decide whether it would be better to swim back across the river of walk down to the next bridge when she heard a commotion above her on the levee.

Climbing up the embankment to the jogging path, Ranma saw two older boys menacing a young girl with short red hair. Ranma hopped over the guardrail and moved in closer. She heard the boys trying to talk the girl into going to a karaoke place with them. The girl refused quite loudly and the boys closed in on her.

As Ranma watched the scene unfold, the girl reached into her pocket and pulled something out. There was a flash of light as the girl let a chrome bicycle chain uncoil from her hand. She told the boys to back off and then began swinging the chain around wildly. The boys just laughed at her and one tried to grab her wrist. The girl dodged away and swung the chain at the boys. She managed to miss them both by more than half a meter, but it almost hit her in the head as it snapped back around.

Ranma had seen enough. This girl had plenty of nerve, but she didn't know the first thing about using that chain in a real fight. Ranma just dropkicked the first boy over the guardrail. The second boy turned to face this new opponent, but made the fatal mistake of doing a double take when that opponent turned out to be another petite redhead. A roundhouse kick sent him flying after his buddy.

Ranma grabbed the girl's wrist and started dragging her down the road. "We need to get outta here before any more of those goons show up!"

The girl screamed and brandished the chain again, "Get off me! I'll hurt you!" She swung the chain wildly again, but Ranma easily caught it in her free hand and with a quick tug pulled it from the girl's grasp. She then tossed it in the air where it spun like a propeller above their heads. Ranma then thrust her arm into the whirling chain and it wrapped harmlessly around her wrist.

"You gotta be more careful with that thing or you're gonna to hurt yourself. Now come on and run!"

After running for about a kilometer, they stopped under a streetlight to catch their breath. Ranma scanned the path behind them for pursuers, while the girl got her first good look at who had saved her.

"Hey, you're a girl!"

Ranma scratched the back of her head and said in a pained voice, "Yeah, I guess so."

The girl chuckled, "And you've got red hair."

"So do you," Ranma looked back and sized her up. She looked like a middle schooler and was wearing an unfamiliar green uniform, red sneakers and a red and white knit sweatband on her right wrist. She was about the same height as Ranma, but her red hair was cut very short. It was a strange sensation, like looking at yourself in a mirror and having someone else look back. "I'm Ranma by the way."

"I'm Miki, you really decked those guys. Do you know martial arts or something?"

"Well… or somethin'…" Ranma proceeded to tell her a little about the Art and then showed her how to use the bicycle chain without hurting herself, "The key is not to break your wrist until the chain reaches the target," she demonstrated by swinging the chain at the lamppost. It swung in a loose arc until it was almost to the aluminum pole then Ranma twisted her wrist and the chain snapped straight out like a sword. It just barely touched the pole making a tiny pinging noise.

"The most important thing for you to remember is to follow through," she added as the chain swung around and ended up back in her hand, "You gotta follow through every time whether you hit somethin' or not."

"I'll remember that for sure," Miki said with a grin.

"Oh, and if yer havin' trouble holding on to it, attach it to some keys or maybe your wallet."

"Great idea! Thanks Ranma-san!"

Ranma held out her hand and dropped the bunched up chain into Miki's open palm. As she did so, she noticed a line of nasty looking burn marks along Miki's forearm. "Wow, you must really live in a tough neighborhood. How'd you get those scars?"

Miki quickly pulled her wristband up to cover most the scars, "I don't want to talk about that, okay?"

"Sure, no problem," Ranma wondered if it had been some sort of gang initiation, "Is it okay to ask where yer from? I've never seen a uniform like that."

"Oh, you wouldn't have, it's a private school and I don't live around here," Miki said, "I came here to visit my cousin, but nobody was home. I was heading back to the train station when those guys stopped me."

Ranma looked back in the direction that they had come from, "Well the closest station is back that way…" she looked at Miki and raised an eyebrow, but the other redhead shook her head no. "Me neither. There's another station not far away on the other side of the river. I gotta go that way anyway, so if want I can walk you there."

"I'd like that Ranma-san. You know, you're okay."

They walked on down the path until they came to the next bridge and then crossed over. Walking down the same road as before, Ranma eyed the athletic field warily as they passed, but this time no errant balls went out of their way to hit her, probably because she was already a girl.

She told Miki more about martial arts and about her travels in Japan and China. Miki seemed to soak it all up, but whenever Ranma would ask her anything about herself, she would either clam up or change the subject. From what little she did say Ranma got the feeling that her tough attitude was all talk. She seemed new to the role and not at all comfortable with it. Again Ranma wondered if she had been coerced into joining a gang. Some schools were infamous for their tough girl-gangs and Miki may have fallen prey to one of them.

They were getting near the station when Ranma started telling her about an incident at school involving Akane, Shampoo and Ukyou. She avoided mentioning anything about the engagements of course.

"You sure have a lot of friends at school," Miki said in a casual tone, but Ranma could tell it was anything but a casual remark.

"Well, not so many." Ranma started counting them up in her head and was suddenly amazed by the number of people she could actually count as friends, "Maybe just a couple of others."

"I don't have any friends at school," Miki said. It was the first thing she had said all evening without the fake bravado.

"Really, what about the girls you hang out with?" it was an offhand way of asking if she was in a gang, but it might just work.

"I don't hang out with anybody," she was beginning to sound annoyed, "Nobody at my school will even talk to me. Okay?"

Ranma just nodded, not wanting to fan the flames that had just sprung up between them. As they walked on in silence she realized that Miki had finally told her something about herself. She put that together with all the other little clues and thought, "Miki's a loner, like I used to be."

She took another close look at the tough girl wannabe. The aggressive and tenacious attitude reminded her of Akane, but without the anger and hostility. It might just be the sailor suit uniform with the really short skirt and knee socks, but Miki was cuter then Akane too. Ranma found herself wondering what Miki might look like in other kinds of clothes or even no clothes at all.

Then suddenly they were outside the station and Miki turned to face Ranma. "Thanks for walking with me all the way. I really enjoyed hearing all about your martial arts," She held up a yellow cell phone, "Would you like to trade numbers?"

Looking somewhat embarrassed Ranma said, "Well, I don't have a cell phone. Pop can't even afford a separate phone for us at the dojo, but you can leave a message for me at the Tendo School of Indiscriminant Grappling. It's in the phone book."

Miki smiled, "I think I can remember that. Well, I better get going."

"Yeah, I'll bet your parents are getting worried about you."

"I'll bet they're not," Miki sneered.

Ranma really didn't want to let her go this way. He wanted to know that he would be able see her again, but most of all he really wanted her to know that he was actually a boy. Just inside the station he spotted a coffee kiosk and got an idea, "Miki, would you wait for me inside the station for a couple of minutes? There's somethin' I'd really like to show you."

Miki glanced at the time display on her cell phone, "Okay, but I really do have to be going soon."

"This'll only take a few seconds!"

Ranma dashed inside the station and begged the girl at the coffee stand to give her a cup of hot water. Then racing into the toilet she locked herself in a stall and poured the scalding water over her head. The now very male Ranma stopped for just a few seconds at the mirrors to make sure he didn't look like a drowned rat before racing out into the station again.

Miki was nowhere in sight and then he heard the sound of a train accelerating away on the tracks overhead. Even though he knew she was gone he looked around for her anyway. He cursed himself for not getting her phone number, because he just knew she would never call the dojo. Disappointed and tired after a long evening, Ranma headed out of the station. He turned towards home and was immediately doused by a passing street cleaning truck.

o o o

As the train passed through Nerima on its way downtown, Miki sat and thought about the amazing girl she had met tonight. Ranma-san was everything Miki wanted to be, strong, self-reliant and competent. She talked tough and could back it up with real fighting ability. She even sounded like a boy! If Miki could pull all that off as well as Ranma did, no one at school would ever bother her again.

She fingered the scars on her arm and thought back to those first few weeks after her class had ostracized her. She had wondered what it would be like to hurt someone. Now she wondered what it must feel like to fly through the air and smash in someone's face in with your feet. If she could do that, even her homeroom teacher would have to respect her.

But Ranma had been studying martial arts her entire life. She had mentioned dozens of different techniques that she had mastered and she was still learning more. It was hopeless for Miki to even begin such training now. She would be forced out of school long before it would do her any good.

The train was pulling into her stop so Miki got up and waited for the doors to open. Out on the platform a tall broad shouldered boy stood waiting to get on. The doors opened and Miki stepped out just as the boy tried to step in right in front of her. They bumped into one another and the collision knocked Miki off her feet. It had been like walking into a brick wall!

Before she could hit the floor of the train though, the boy had gathered her up in his arms, rushed her out to the platform and set her gently down on the nearest bench. Her head swam at the speed at which all this happened.

"I'm really sorry," the boy stammered, "I guess I wasn't looking where I was going. Are you all right? I didn't hurt you did I?"

Miki held up her hand to stop him from talking, "I'm okay, but you better hurry because the train is going to leave any second now." She waved him towards the train, but he didn't budge. Looking from side to side he seemed to be unsure which way to go to get to the train that was right behind him.

"Oh, yeah… thank you," he finally turned and looked at the open train doors, "If you're sure that you're all right, I really do need to go. I have really have to get to Furinkan tonight."

"Furinkan? That train just came from Furinkan, you need to catch the train on the other platform."

"Really? Are you sure? I could have sworn this was the right platform."

Miki stood up, "Well, it's not. Look, there's a walkway to the other platform half way down that staircase over there."

"Really?" The boy smiled, "Thank you very much!"

He turned and started heading for the staircase, but then suddenly turned ninety degrees and headed straight into the train again. Miki raced over and grabbed his arm just before he stepped through the doors.

"Hold on there cowboy! Didn't I just finish telling you that was the wrong train?"

"Train? I thought this was the way to the staircase." Just then the chimes sounded and the train doors closed. As the cars accelerated away, the boy added, "Or not."

Miki chuckled, "You don't have a very good sense of direction, do you?"

The boy scratched at the back of his head and said, "My friends keep telling the same thing."

"Why don't I just show you the way to the other platform?"

"Would you mind?"

As she led him to the other side of the station, Miki checked the guy out. He was dressed in an orange pullover tunic and black pants. He was carrying a retro styled backpack to which a traditional Japanese umbrella was tied. His unkempt black hair was held at bay with a yellow and brown spotted bandana. Under thick bushy bangs, his brow seemed to be frozen into furrows as if he were perpetually mad at someone.

When they got to the other platform, she positioned him just behind the yellow line right where the center doors of the center car would stop. "Now, just don't move from this spot until the train arrives, then just step inside and get off at the fifth stop. Just listen to the announcements and you can't go wrong. Okay?"

"I don't know how to properly thank you… I don't even know your name."

"I'm Sakashita Miki."

"And I am Hibiki Ryoga, at your service Sakashita-san." Ryoga bowed to Miki who giggled at all the formality.

"Are you going to be okay if I leave you here alone Hibiki-san?"

"Get on the train and off again at the fifth stop, it's simple!" Ryoga smiled and Miki nearly broke up.

"Okay then," she laughed, "I've gotta go now. Bye."

"Good bye Sakashita-san and thank you again."

Miki walked to the top of the stairs. She turned for one last look at the strange boy and… he was gone! She scanned up and down the platform and just caught sight of him heading towards the emergency exit at the far end.

She stood with him and made sure he didn't move again for the next ten minutes until the train arrived, then she pushed him straight into the car and waited until the doors closed. She held up her hand and one by one closed all five fingers, "The fifth stop, okay?" she shouted.

He nodded and gave her the thumbs up sign. He was on his own now, but she still waited until the train was completely out of the station before she turned to leave.

"Ten to one he gets off at the wrong station," she said to herself, and then she began laughing. It felt good to laugh like that. Ryoga was genuinely funny, like the comic relief in a good manga adventure. And he was cute too!

o o o

Ryoga stood at the door just as the smart little girl had told him to. A man standing nearby heard him mumbling to himself and moved away quickly.

"That was three, the next one's four. That was three, the next one's four…"

He just had to see Akane tonight. How many weeks ago had he promised to take her out? His backpack was filled with souvenirs from every corner of Japan, but he knew that wouldn't make up for missing their date.

"That was three, the next one's four…"

He also had a score to settle with Ranma. After all he had been the one to send Ryoga out the convenience store to get soy sauce that night. Well he had a surprise for Ranma in his back pack as well, a collection of soy sauces from the finest regions in all Japan!

"That was three, the next one's four…"

A man and woman walked past Ryoga on their way to the front car, "…and the trip was supposed to be four days and five nights in Hawaii, but…"

"That was four, the next one's five…"

It wasn't until the train doors closed behind him that Ryoga heard the announcement, "Furinkan Station next! The next stop will be Furinkan Station," and then the train began pulling away.

He turned dejectedly and looked for an exit sign, as if it made any difference, but he couldn't let a little mistake like this get him down. The announcement had said that Furinkan was the next stop, so he couldn't be more than a few kilometers from his goal. Resolutely he marched down the stairs and out the main exit walking right past the huge two-meter tall street map with the big blue bulls eye and the words "You Are Here" written in both English and Japanese.

He walked to the curb and noticed that the streets had been recently washed and there were still puddles of water everywhere. He'd have to be careful not to let any passing cars splash him. He looked around at his options, there was a main road leading both left and right and a side street running straight ahead.

If only Ryoga had known that the road to the right led directly to the main shopping district of Furinkan or that if he walked just 1.86 kilometers straight ahead he would pass through the back gate of the Tendo School of Indiscriminant Grappling, through the dojo, down the connecting covered walkway, into the kitchen past Kasumi cleaning up after dinner, through the main room where Souun and Genma were playing Shoji while Nabiki watched the nightly business report on TV and finally come to the garden where his love Akane was performing a kata, he might not have chosen to turn left.

He walked along the road for a while and then for no particular reason turned down a residential side street. He passed a modern looking pre-school and soon came to a convenience store. He was trying to decide if he should go inside and get something to eat when a young couple with a small child walked out of the store.

This was a little strange because the child looked to be maybe five or six and the couple really didn't look much older than he did. The boy with the blond hair gave the cute girl a hug, but they didn't kiss. Then the boy and the little girl walked off in one direction while the girl went off in another.

This was a little confusing, but Ryoga lived with confusion. Confusion was an old friend and he had a pact with it. Confusion didn't bother him and in return he got confused as often as possible.

He gave up on the convenience store and decided to head off down a new path. So of course he turned around and followed the girl down the same street he had just arrived on. He saw yet another pre-school, "How many of those things do you need in the same neighborhood?" and then came to an intersection with a road that looked familiar. Standing on the corner, waiting to cross with the light was the same girl he had just seen in front of the store.

As he also waited for the light he took a closer look her. He was sure now that this girl was too young to have a child that old. She was maybe sixteen or seventeen and had long light brown hair. Her clothes were nice, but the skirt she was wear was a little short. Not that he was complaining about it, she had really nice legs. She was thin like a model and he was wondering if that was what she did for a living when she turned and confronted him.

"What is it? Did you follow me?"

"Um… no, I'm just going the same way and I… um… was wondering…"

"What? What were you wondering?"

He didn't want to say he had been wondering if she were old enough to have a five-year old child or if she was an underwear model, so he said the only other thing on his mind, "You wouldn't be going to Furinkan by any chance?"

The girl blinked, "Oh," her stern looked softened a little, "I'm sorry, I thought maybe… oh, never mind. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to Furinkan. I'm headed in the other direction, but it's not far from here. Just straight down this road. You can get there in five minutes if you take the train. The station's only a block that way or you can walk there in about twenty minutes. Just stay on this road and you can't miss it."

"Really?" Ryoga stared down the street in amazement, "Thank you so much. I'm sorry if I frightened you."

"That's okay," she said, "I'm just a little jumpy. Things have been a little more lively than I'm used to tonight." The light changed and the walk sign turned green, "Oh, I have to go. Good luck finding Furinkan… uh…"

"Ryoga, my name's Ryoga."

"I'm Kokoro, it was nice meeting you."

Ryoga watched her as she walked off across the intersection and down the street on the other side, "Kokoro," he whispered, "goodbye my guardian angel."

He turned and faced down the street in the opposite direction from the one Kokoro had indicated. Some forty miles ahead lay the docks of Yokahama and certain doom, but he looked one more time down the street where his angel had long since disappeared into the distance and with a heavy sigh he turned around and miraculously wound up in downtown Furinkan some twenty minutes later.

END – Part 3

All characters in this story are a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental.

This work is copyright © 2006 by Juliet Carnell, it is not public domain and all rights are reserved. This work is not for publication. This work may not be reproduced, distributed or sold in any format or media. This work may not be included in any collection without the express written permission of the author. The reader may make one printed or electronic copy of this work for personal use.