Have you ever wondered why the number 13 is unlucky? No? Neither have I...

Chris's eyes scanned over the newest information of Cindy's Project. The information was rather standard, consisting of The Project's hobbies, friends, favorite meals, biggest fears, preferred toothpaste flavor... 'She never misses a beat' he thought as he finished reading a list of The Project's favorite movies.

He opened a file containing pictures of The Project, searching for any clue as to why Cindy would be so interested in this girl. It wasn't everyday after all that the head of SI Corps would personally be involved with a client. As he looked over the pictures, he noticed one person in particular. In almost every picture of The Project was a young man, about a year older than her.

Chris zoomed in on the boy's face. 'I know I've seen him before,' he thought grimly. 'Why's he always hanging around Rizu though?' Chris squinted, trying to remember where he might've seen this boy's face before. 'Could he be… no, Cindy would've told me… wouldn't she?' Chris tapped the screen, a mischievous smile on his face. "I think I should get to know this guy better."

A shiver went down my spine, although that might've had to do with the skimpy gym uniforms we were wearing. Apparently people don't care if you don't wear the regular school uniform but you had to wear the gym outfit. Even if the shorts gave you a wedgie.

"He's doing it again," Sayuri said bitterly.

"Who?" I asked.

"Gosunkugi's taking pictures of Akane," Sayuri said.

I looked out the window to see a scrawny, unhealthy looking kid taking picture after picture of Akane, who was currently on the balance beam. "So?"

"So? It's rude!" Yuka snapped. "Taking pictures of only Akane, it's just like telling a girl she's ugly or something!"

Sayuri and I starred at Yuka. "You want to be stalked?" I asked incredulously.

Yuka's face reddened. "NO! I didn't say that! I just said it's rude to Akane!"

I shook my head. "So have you told her yet?"

Sayuri shrugged. "It always escapes my mind," she said. "Things like that tend to happen with Gosunkugi."

"What, the picture taking or the escaping of the mind?"

"The escaping of the mind."

I shrugged and turned my attention back to the balance beam. It'd be my turn after Akane's and this was a feat I never looked forward to.

"So you know now?" I asked Jhim. "Officially and all?"

Jhim nodded cheerfully. "Yep, I showed up right when Ranma was revealing he was really a girl," he said as he popped open the soda can. "Funny thing was they thought I already knew about it."

I looked up at Jhim warily. "Why would they think that?"

Jhim shrugged. "Seems they thought you'd told me about it a long time ago, so it was kinda awkward when I told them that I didn't know about his curse till that moment."

"Nice to see people trust me," I grumbled. The man behind the ice cream booth sure was taking his time with our ice cream. Must've been perfecting it so that we got maximum ice cream-age. Yeah. I'll go with that.

Jhim laughed as the man behind the booth finally gave him two cones. "Here, it'll make you feel better," he said as he handed me one.

It was a nice day that gave a person the feeling of wanting to go outside and enjoy themselves. Teenagers peered in windows; house wives browsed the many booths and shops while trying to keep an eye on their kids. "It almost seems normal," I said softly.

"Hmm?" Jhim asked. "What'd you say?"

I smiled lazily. "Nothing, s'all good."

Jhim shrugged and walked ahead. "So how's class been going?"

"Well Gosunkugi's been stalking Ranma. It's kinda funny really," I said. "Akane has to be the most oblivious person I know because Gosunkugi is the worst stalker ever."

"You figure this out now?" Jhim commented dryly. "I thought you read the manga."

"Of course I did!" I stated.

Suddenly, a flash of light came from behind one of the nearby carts, surprising me into dropping my ice cream cone.

"Oops," I heard a voice say from where the camera flash came from. "Sorry about that Riz-chan." I looked over to see Kurizu coming out from behind the cart, camera around his neck.

"Speaking of stalkers," Jhim muttered under his breath.

"Kurizu! What are you doing here!" I yelled.

Kurizu smiled and scratched the back of his head. "Well I was out here taking pictures for the school paper when I saw you, and well…" he said. "I couldn't resist! It was such a cute photo opportunity!"

Don't you even act like you're embarrassed you little psycho.

I dropped my head. This guy was going to kill me one of these days, I knew it. "Couldn't you warn me next time?" I said.

"But Riz-chan is so shy about taking pictures," Kurizu said. "And besides, I like pictures of you in your natural beauty, not a fake pose."

"Uh yeah," I said. "Didn't I ask you not to call me Riz-chan?"

Kurizu beamed. "But it suits you! A cute name for a cute girl!"

At this point I was wondering who I'd killed in the past life. Jhim rolled his eyes. "Come on Rizu, we'd better get going," he said, more to Kurizu than to me.

"But I found a shop just down the street that Riz-chan would love!" Kurizu said. "It's got all sorts of cosplay stuff and I know how much you like that stuff Riz-chan," he said to me. Turning to Jhim he said in a deadpan tone "You can go if you want, it seems like you're in a hurry."

Jhim's face had a strained smile on it. "No, I'd love to come along," he said.

Kurizu smiled back brightly and grabbed my hand. "Alright then! Come on Riz-chan," he said.

I had to give the kid one thing: he knew my tastes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing considering who it was but at the time I didn't care.

"Ohmygodit'sthecutestEVER!" I squealed. There were chibi-anime keychains, necklaces, random accessories, and weapons as far as the eye could see (right to the back of the store). The best part though was the giant wall of hats! Kitty hats, puppy ears, random Mario mushroom hats, everything was there!

"This is so cool!" I said, grabbing various hats and trying them on.

Kurizu beamed, obviously proud of himself. "See?" he said, elbowing Jhim in the ribs repeatedly. "I told you Riz-chan would like this place."

Jhim glared at him. "Stop elbowing me. It's annoying."

Kurizu laughed heartily under Jhim's glare. "I don't get why Riz-chan likes you so much Chimofu, you're always so moody."

"At least I'm not an annoying little brat who can't take a hint," Jhim replied icily.

Time to change the subject… "Yeah well I got you both beat cause I'm a pink haired freak with an explosive fetish," I said, smiling broadly.

Both boys shrugged. "So?"

"Tell us something we don't know."

Ouch. "Hey, wait a minute…"

"Excuse me," the lady behind the counter said. "Are you going to buy something?"

"Yeah, just a second," I said. I started digging around in my purse, trying to find my wallet. "What the?" I pulled out a small straw doll. "I don't remember putting that in there."

Kurizu looked over my shoulder at the doll and shrugged. "It's probably Gosunkugi's," Kurizu said.

"How do you know Gosunkugi?" I asked. "You don't go to our school."

"It's got his name on it," he pointed out. "See? Right on the back there." Sure enough, Gosunkugi's name was written on the back of the voodoo doll.

But why was it in my purse?

"Ma'am?" the register lady said impatiently. "We're about to close so if you could make your purchace…"

"Oh, right," I said. While the lady bagged up my new kitty hat, I wondered why the hell Gosunkugi's doll was in my purse. Maybe he dropped it in there by mistake? No, that didn't seem very likely. Maybe it was a glitch in the Twilight Zone. That was the most likely possibility.

Or maybe, I thought as we walked out of the store. Maybe I've stumbled upon a new idea.

I giggled as we walked towards the Tendo dojo, clutching my hat happily. Kurizu's beeper had suddenly gone off (who knew a kid like that had a beeper?) so Jhim and I continued on so I could show Ranma my new hat ("That's cruel Liz." "Yeah but it's funny!"). "Creepiness aside, Kurizu knows a thing or two about how to make a girl happy," I commented.

Jhim grunted while studying a piece of paper in his hands. "Hey Liz, you might wanna take a look at this," he said, handing me the paper. It was a receipt from the bank that had been crumpled up.

"Isn't it kinda rude to look at other people's receipts?" I said as I looked down at the total balance. "Besides, I don't see what the big deal is. That's an okay amount of money in there."

"That's your receipt. It fell out of your purse," Jhim said.

"WHAT!" A quick scan of the paper confirmed that it was indeed mine. "HOW'D THAT HAPPEN!"

"Maybe you eat out too much," Jhim said. "Food'll eat up your budget fast."

"This can't be right," I said alarmed. "I could've sworn I had more in there!" While what I had in there was indeed 'an okay sum of money', it was defiantly not enough to get me through the remainder of the story plot. In fact it might not last out for the next two months. "I can't live on this!"

Jhim chuckled. "Well you could get a job," he said. "And it wouldn't hurt your figure if you didn't eat out as much."

I glared daggers at him. "You wanna repeat that?" I growled. Jhim shook his head. "But still," I said as I turned back to the receipt. "Where am I gonna get a job?"

"Why don't you see if that music store is hiring?" Jhim said. "You know, that one with the hippie and the Beatles stuff?"

"That's a great idea!" I exclaimed. "She's always telling me to drop out of school and work there!"

Jhim smiled nervously. "Well, I never said you should drop out…"

Suddenly a shrill scream pierced the air, coming from inside the dojo. "You don't think?" I asked.

Jhim nodded. "Looks like Ranma found Hanachiyo."

Not wanting to miss a minute of this, we ran to the dojo at a full sprint. We arrived to see Ranma (in his girl form) clutching Mr. Tendo's head in sheer terror of the fat old cat Genma was holding out in front of him. "What's going on?" I asked.

Ranma took one look at me and paled. "C-cc-ca-cat!" she stuttered, then promptly falling to the ground unconscious.

"What was that?" I asked.

Jhim nudged me and indicated to my kitty hat.

Oh. That.

Just one more… I thought. Carefully…carefully…With shaking hands, I positioned the two cards over the tower and slowly lowered them onto their designated spot. "Success!" I whispered triumphantly as I leaned back to observe the fruits of my labors.

"Hey everyone!" someone yelled from the doorway suddenly, causing me to jump in my seat, bumping the desk with my knees. "Something's going on down at the gym!" As the majority of the class left despite the teacher's protest, I sadly watched the remains of my tower float to the ground.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have been building a tower of cards in the first place, being in class and all. But still, to watch something that you've momentarily put so much energy into fall to the ground can kill your spirit. Alright, probably not your spirit but it's not very pleasant.

Grumbling under my breath, I stood up and looked out the window to see what all the hoop-la was about.

And saw Ranma, sitting up in a tree scratching his ear with his foot. Alright, let the fun begin!

"Rizu!" Akane yelled from the ground below. "There's something wrong with Ranma!"

"I'll say," I commented as Ranma continued to scratch the back of his ear. "People aren't meant to be that flexible."

"Not that!" Akane yelled, stomping her foot in frustration. "He's not acting normal!"

I looked at Ranma who ignored the commotion around him, deciding that using the tree as a scratching post was a better idea. "Hmm… you're right," I mused. "He's a lot more quiet than usual."

"Help us get him down!" Akane yelled.

"Nobody can reach him now," Genma stated as he strolled up to Akane. It's rather uncanny how people were just able to show up out of the blue ready to reveal everything they know about a deep dark past.

"Mr. Saotome," Akane said. "What's wrong with him?"

"When Ranma's fear of cats becomes overwhelming," Genma began as he rummaged through his pack. "He escapes his fear by becoming a cat himself!"

Everyone gasped in amazement… except me. You don't have to read much fanfiction to become thoroughly acquainted with the "Cat-Fu" arch.

"So what do we do now?" Akane asked.

"The only thing that has snapped him out of this," Genma said, taking out various objects from his pack. "Was an old woman who once lived in our neighborhood."

"Then we have to go find that old woman!" Akane exclaimed.

"No," Genma said in a dramatic tone. "I will have to do!"

Oh that's not pretty. I cringed when I saw Genma decked out in his worst 'old woman' costume. At least I hope that's the worst… Damn, I didn't even blink and he changed! Tucking this incident away for further investigation, I backed away from the window and down the stairs.

I suppose now is the best time to test it if any, I thought as I ran towards the violent yowls that were coming from around the corner. Ever since I'd found Gosunkugi's doll the other day, I'd been experimenting with the limits of my personal piece of the Twilight Zone. In other words, I'd been trying to take out things that weren't mine.

It occurred to me that the Twilight Zone of many stories was just one big junk yard, providing the user with whatever was useful in the situation it was being applied to. It was only a theory of course, and one I hadn't looked into much. But if I was right, then this would be the time to prove it.

As I rounded the corner, Ranma was running away on all fours. "Akane!" I yelled to the distraught girl. I reached behind me and pulled out something large and heavy. "Catch!" I yelled as I tossed the bag to her.

Akane caught it easily and looked inside the bag. "Catnip! That's it!" she exclaimed. "No cat can resist the stuff!"

Yes! Score for the Liz! My victory dance would have to wait though; right now there were more pressing matters.

Akane attached the bag of catnip to an arrow and shot it at Ranma… or at least in his general direction. The result was the same though, Ranma sliced the bag open, catnip flying in his face. One sniff and he was down for the count, purring happily and acting a little… odd.

"What do you think is in that stuff anyway?" I asked Akane. Suddenly Ranma jumped from his pile of catnip and towards Akane.

"Akane! Look out!" Sayuri yelled.

WHOMP!

I looked down to see Akane's face braced for an impact while Ranma purred happily on her lap. It didn't take long for Akane to realize she wasn't being clawed to death, but it did take her a second to notice her fiancé sitting on her lap like nothing was wrong.

"She did it!" one of the basketball players shouted triumphantly.

"Amazing Akane!" Yuka exclaimed.

"I guess he knows his fiancée," Sayuri giggled.

"His- no! That's not it!" Akane protested vehemently. She looked down at Ranma sharply. "Come on! Get off!"

Ranma looked up at her innocently. And I backed away.

"I said…" Akane said before she was cut off. Even I was shocked by the scene of Ranma kissing Akane in front of the entire school. I mean, that's not something you see everyday. Or ever again for that matter…

The kiss really wasn't a kiss as much as it was a peck on the lips. It was enough however to shock the hell out of Akane. And a shocked Akane is a violent Akane.

"You… IDIOT!" Picking up Ranma by scruff of his shirt, Akane punched him into the lower atmosphere.

"Was that their first kiss?" one girl whispered to her friend.

The friend shrugged. "Looks like it," she whispered back.

Akane looked like she was ready to cry… or trigger the Apocalypse. Maybe both. Angrily, she stomped back into the school, although the stomps were rather weak.

"Akane," Sayuri said quietly, being the closest one to her at the time. "You alright?"

Akane stopped and straightened her back. "I'M GOING HOME!"

It was rather odd going shopping by myself, not that I minded horribly. I was more of an introvert then most people knew, needing time by myself to 'recharge'.

The Amazons were coming back; Shampoo was probably already here. I knew that to survive the rest of the story (HA!), I had to avoid them at all costs. If Shampoo had told Cologne her theory on my heritage, Cologne would most likely be investigating my past. Problem was that I didn't have a past, at least not one that she'd buy. The last thing I needed was a manipulative Amazon finding out about my "unique situation".

I sighed heavily when I heard a rap on the window next to me. Looking up I saw Kotori, Sayuri, and Yuka inside the ice cream parlor grinning like idiots. Kotori motioned for me to come inside while Yuka made exaggerated pointing motions to the large ice cream sundaes they were eating.

I grinned back, taking the hint and walking into the restaurant. Never turn down an offer for food, that's my motto.

"Rizu! We were just talking about you!" Sayuri said as I sat down next to Kotori. "You gonna order something?"

"Actually, I'm a little short on money right now…" I said in my best 'I'm so embarrassed about this give me money' tone.

"No problem, I got it," Yuka said as the waiter came up to the table. I smiled and ordered my ice cream parfait. And another one falls victim to The Liz's Mooching skillz. Don't get me wrong here, I'd rather pay for my own meals than have a friend do it for me most of the time. Most of the time.

"Out shopping?" Kotori asked. "Watcha get?"

"Dinner," I said.

"The usual ramen and hot dogs huh?"

"Maaaayybe," I said as the waiter placed my sundae in front of me. "So what if it is?" Ah, sweet dairy treat bliss! How I've missed it in the last few days!

"Jeez Rizu," Yuka said while I shoveled ice cream in my mouth. "Don't you watch your figure?"

"Says the girl with the ultimate banana split," I said. "All to herself."

Yuka frowned, her face slightly red. "At least slow down a little, you're gonna get brain freeze."

Sayuri laughed and poked Yuka's stomach. "Sure, get the attention away from yourself."

"Speaking of brain freeze," Kotori said suddenly. "Is it true Ranma kissed Akane for the first time today?"

"It looked like it might've been the first time," Yuka said. "But they are engaged. Maybe it was just they're first time in public?"

"No, it was defiantly their first kiss," I said. "By the way Akane reacted you'd think he'd done more than kiss her."

"Maybe he did do more," Sayuri said bitterly. "I wouldn't put it past him."

"Aw come on," I said. "He may be an idiot but he's no Casanova."

Sayuri made a rude noise and dug into her ice cream. "In any case Akane could do so much better than him."

Yuka and Kotori nodded in agreement. "He may be a hunk but he has the maturity level of a monkey," Yuka said.

"Of course he does, I mean look at how he was raised!" Kotori said. "Constantly traveling and fighting, it's no wonder he's such a goober."

I snickered. Goober, hehe. "Really guys, he's not that bad. And besides, he's practically made for Akane."

"Says you," Yuka said. "I still think Akane could get a nicer guy."

I sighed and finished off my ice cream while the other girls continued to discuss everyone's love interests. For joy.

The Liz says Monkey.