The Amazon warrior took a swing at her opponent with her mace, and Takara jumped backwards to avoid it. Quickly, Takara surmised that she was at a serious disadvantage in this fight. She only had her arms and her legs to fight with, and martial arts weren't her forte to begin with. But her opponent could easily block any punch or kick she dished out, and if those weapons were as heavy as looked, she'd injure herself in the process. So, Takara would either have to attack Shampoo from behind, or otherwise pull off a surprise attack.

That left her with one immediate option: Retreat. Takara turned and ran through the cafeteria in the opposite direction. The scorned Amazon followed suit and occasionally took a jab at the taller girl, smashing a table or a wall in the process. That confirmed Takara's suspicion that the weapons were well-weighted, and it was an impressive feat that the Amazon could even lift them. Her opponent was truly an Amazon Warrior gifted with great strength.

Concerned about the physical wellbeing of the school, Takara ran out the main doors and out into a grassy field with a few trees. The environment didn't give her much to improvise with, but she tried to scramble up a tree, hoping that the altitude and cover from the leaves would give her an opportunity to get a surprise drop kick on her opponent. Plus, as Shampoo was using her hands to hold her strange weapons, she could not climb up after her. Perhaps she would drop her weapons in a mindless pursuit of her prey?

Takara climbed to the highest branch that could support her weight. She turned around with the intention of ascertaining whether she had camouflage in the leaves, but she froze when she saw what her nimble enemy was doing. Shampoo jumped at one tree and used the leverage to jump to an adjacent tree. She bounced between the two trees, and in just a few dizzying seconds, she was standing right in front of the lanky girl.

Stars flashed across Takara's vision, and when they cleared, she saw the curious sight of the green grass above her in the sky. Her mind was clear enough to realize that she was on her way to face planting into the ground. So, she spread out her arms and landed on a handstand. As soon as her hands made contact with the earth, she did a back flip onto her feet. Her arms ached from the maneuver, but truthfully, the pain barely registered in comparison to the blow from the Amazonian maces.

In a single bound, Shampoo landed in front of Takara once more.

"Is that all Sword girl have? Shampoo is not impressed."

"Look, we don't have to fight each other," Takara said, as she tried to catch her breath.

"No fight Each other?" Shampoo said, the confusion in her voice seeming genuine.

She puzzled through it silently for a moment.

"Sword girl is suggesting that we fight together?"

"Maybe," Takara said.

She wasn't sure what detour her opponent's mind had just gone down, but it gave her time to rally her strength.

"Hmm," Shampoo said. "Sword girl weak without sword, but probably stronger with. Maybe Shampoo and Sword girl take out the spatula girl and the violent girl. Then, we finish fight between us, and winner marry Ranma."

"Take out? Like, do you mean kill?"

"No need kill them. Just make it so they no marry Ranma. Maybe use tricks, maybe use magic items, or maybe just threaten them."

Takara became dimly aware of the fact that a crowd of people had gathered to watch this humiliating fight. The Kuno's were among them. How wonderful, she thought to herself.

"Sorry, but I'm not going to play this sick game," Takara said as she turned her attention back to

SMACK.

Her vision blurry, every part of her body aching, she collapsed onto the field again.

Those things hit like a truck, Takara thought to herself as she struggled to stand up.

"Takara stay away from Ranma, or Shampoo do this again."

Shampoo left her with one more blow, and Takara blacked out.

When she opened her eyes again, and the blurriness focused into a discernable image, she found herself staring up at some fluorescent lights. Lifting her head, she saw that she was in a small clinical room – perhaps a private room in the nurse's office? What shocked her, though, was the fact that Kodachi Kuno was sitting next to her on a chair with arms folded and eyes narrowed.

"Uuuuuugh," Takara groaned, as she failed to form coherent words.

"So my treacherous friend awakens," Kodachi said.

"Sorry," Takara managed to say. "What are the odds that you would even know Ranma, let alone be in love with them?"

The gymnast merely stared at her with cold eyes in response.

"How did I get here?" She asked. "Was it you?"

"Kei tried to lift you, but then my brother appeared by her side, and she feinted. It was up to me to carry your sorry behind to the nurse's office."

"Oh. Well, thank you, Kodachi."

"I did not due it out of the goodness of my heart. Rather, I did it out of pity."

"It was one of my greatest defeats," Takara admitted as she tried to sit up.

She had initially read Shampoo wrong. The Amazon warrior's mind was as sharp as her body was strong. Though she had looked like she was behaving in a fury of passion, she had been thinking with a tactical mind. She came into the fight with surprise on her side, the knowledge that she would catch Takara unarmed, and she had chosen an environment that gave no advantages to her opponent's fighting style. Looking back, making a break for the outside was probably the only smart move Takara had made in the fight – it kept her out of narrowed hallways and crowded environments.

Aunt Ruby had taught her not to take loses too personally, or to let them wear on her confidence too much. But the truth was, it had been a good number of years since Takara had been so thoroughly trounced in a battle. Just a few days ago she'd gone toe to toe with Ranma. Was the difference in her fighting skills with a sword and without really that great? Or could it be that Ranma had been going easy on her the whole time?

"What gets me, though," Kodachi said, interrupting her thoughts, "Is that for a fleeting moment, I truly thought that you and I could be friends. That you and I radiated on a similar spiritual wavelength."

"We could still be friends, Kodachi," Takara said softly. "I think you're pretty cool."

"And I, you," Kodachi said. "But now when I look into your eyes, I just see another person keeping my darling Ranma from me. We can never be friends. And I would ask, personally, that you not try out for the Rhythmic Gymnastic Team."

"Because I got beat by Shampoo," Takara said glumly.

"Not because of that. You may not be able to defeat an Amazon Warrior, but your abilities are far beyond that of the average school girl we'd be up against. No, the reason is personal. I do not wish to be around you."

"Oh. I get it."

"There is one thing I must know before we part ways, though. Is it true that Ranma never once mentioned my name?"

"I'm sorry, Kodachi."

Kodachi's face scrunched in pain, and tears began to form, but she did not cry out.

"I know that Ranma has yet to fall for me. But I had held onto the hope that I had carved out a special place in the back of his mind. To learn that he thinks of me so little – well, to learn that he doesn't think of me at all. If only I could just move on, but alas, I am lost in love."

"Kodachi," Takara said.

The young woman who called herself the Black Rose stood up and walked towards the door. She paused, briefly, and glanced over her shoulder. Tears were streaming down her face.

"You and I are enemies," she said simply, and left.

Takara exhaled slowly and lay back down. Unfortunately, she knew exactly how Kodachi was feeling. She wished that there was a way for her to just jettison her feelings for Ranma, but it wasn't that easy to shake off the shackles of a heart in love. Not for a teenager with no experience in the world of love, anyway. And especially not Takara.

Though deep down, she was scared at what it meant to pursue Ranma. She tried to imagine the future, and all she saw was crazed young women attacking her at random intervals and jockeying for Ranma's favor. A never ending cycle where nobody ever won, but everyone was enthralled by their passion, and so they kept fighting, on and on. When examined in the bleakest of lights, it was a dark prison, and there was no escape once you were locked in.

Mercifully, these thoughts were interrupted when the nurse came in to check on her.

The nurse was impressed with how quickly her patient had recovered from the battle. Under her breath, she muttered about how weird some of these martial artists in Nerima were, and how strong their constitution was. Although the student was fit to be dismissed, she asked that Takara rest during that period, just to be safe.

And Takara was thankful – her next class was gym class, and she was not about to miss the only class where all her training would be an asset for her. It started out promising enough – she found out that Kei had gym that period as well, and they walked downstairs to the locker room together.

"You're safe! And on your feet already?" Kei gushed excitedly.

"Can't keep a good fighter down, now, can you?"

The two hugged.

"But, who is Ranma? And why is everyone in love with him?" Kei asked.

"I'll fill you in on that later. I just want to have some fun for once today."

The two entered the women's locker room and Kei introduced her friend to the gym teacher. Without much delay, Takara was assigned a locker in the back of the room, given her combination, and told to change into her gym uniform.

"Gym uniform?" Takara asked, blinking.

"Yeah. Shorts and a T-shirt. Nothing too fancy."

"I didn't bring anything like that."

"We can't have you out in your regular uniform. You can root around in the lost items box in the back, see if you can find anything your size."

"It might not fit well," Takara said, shyly.

"We'll all girls here. I'll let it slide this once so long as you're not flashing anybody."

"Thank you," Takara said, and the gym teacher wondered off.

"You didn't bring a gym uniform?" Kei asked.

"Last time I was in school I was a little kid, and they let me wear my regular clothes. I didn't know gym uniforms were a thing."

"I see," Kei said.

After a few minutes, Takara was able to pick out the largest items of clothing from the lost and found box. Examining herself in the mirror, she frowned. She looked like a dork – her shorts went up far too high above her knees, and she was showing enough midriff to be an American popstar.

"Well, you're not flashing anyone," Kei said.

"I think that's the only compliment this outfit will get me," Takara said, and laughed.

And, for the first time that day, Takara found herself truly enjoying herself. They had broken off into teams to play some softball, and the other students took notice of her athletic abilities. Luckily, she had spent hundreds of hours deflecting projectiles with her sword – some of them very small, and very fast. Which made hitting a softball with a bat easy in comparison. Her athletic prowess seemed to be a doorway to get the other girls to drop their guard a little. Some of the other girls spoke to her of their own will, and she learned a few of their names, and they even shared a few laughs.

It was perhaps a bit transactional, and a little shallow, but it gave her hope that maybe she could make friends at this strange private school, and maybe she wouldn't be wallowing in total misery the whole time. When she returned to the locker room, she realized that she was sweating profusely. She'd already had a workout when she battled Shampoo, and she'd given it her all during the softball game. Takara had hoped that maybe she could skip the awkwardness of the shower on her first day, but realized she didn't have a choice.

She relaxed a little bit when she saw that there were little dividers between the shower heads. It gave some privacy, at least.

"You can definitely see the results of your training," Kei said, as the two of them chose adjacent showers.

"And you're a speedy little thing, aren't you?" Takara asked.

They chit-chatted while they rinsed off. And everything was going well until the water stopped. A chorus of groans rang out through the shower room.

"Not again!"

"The water infrastructure is ancient," Kei said.

Takara looked at the showerhead and shrugged. She was probably clean enough at this point, anyway. But before she could turn around, the showerheads sprayed her with a blast of some of the coldest water that had ever touched her skin. Scores of girls shrieked in response to this frigid burst of water, and Takara was no exception – except her curse had activated, and her shout was a bit more masculine than the others.

"Are you okay?" Kei asked, concerned.

"Listen closely," Takara said. She tried to pitch his voice a little bit higher. "I have a magical curse on me. When I get hit with cold water, I turn into a guy. Hot water brings me back."

"Jusenkyo?" Kei whispered.

"You've heard of it?"

"I'm the captain of the Turned-Based Martial Arts Academic Team," she said in response. "I'm the queen of trivia."

"You gotta help me out here, Kei, or I am in deep, deep trouble."

"It'll probably be hours before the water heater is repaired. But I have a plan. First, I'll get a towel - "

"Just do it, quick! Hurry!"

Takara covered herself in the front, and hoped that nobody that happened to walk by was paying attention. If her lack of curves didn't give her away, then all of the body hair probably would. But maybe if she stayed still, she would become invisible in the eyes of others.

"There's a guy in the showers!" A girl screamed.

Of course, Takara sighed. It couldn't be that simple. She ran out of the shower, terrified young women on either side of her. Kei ran up to her and threw her a towel, which Takara promptly tied around her waist. Upon seeing the masculine form of her new roommate, she froze, and her eyes widened.

"You really do have a boy's body," she said, in awe.

"Focus!" Takara barked.

"Staircase in the back. Science lab, third floor," Kei mumbled, averting her gaze.

The two of them ran through the chaos of screaming girls to a back staircase. Takara was concerned about student traffic, but she noticed that this stairwell seemed to have gone out of use. There was a general tackiness about it, and a state of disrepair – this was the first thing in the school building that she had seen that been so unrefined. Some of the doors were boarded shut.

"The door to the third floor still functions. There's a science lab right next to it that's not used this period. We get some test tubes and heat up some water on a burner, get you back in girl form."

"That part works," she said. "But I'm still a guy running around in a towel."

"We'll grab some lab coats," Kei said. "We'll sneak back down to the locker room and get our clothes."

"That's an amazing plan for such short notice."

"What's amazing is that I haven't fainted upon seeing you," Kei said.

That was interesting, Takara thought to herself, before she refocused her mind on the current crisis.

The two rushed into the science lab on the third floor. Takara paused, and tried to lock the door, but realized she could not do that without a key. Kei, on the other hand got right to work heating up a test tube full of water. Takara went to a big clothing rack in the back of the class and picked out a lab coat that fit her male body – thankfully, it was shorter than her female form – and picked out one that looked like it could fit Kei.

"How hot do you need the water to be?" Kei asked

"Warm," Takara said, as she handed Kei her spare lab coat.

"You don't know the exact temperature?" Kei asked.

"No,"

"We'll do some experiments later," Kei promised.

She grabbed the test tube and turned around to face her roommate but found herself studying the masculine form standing before her. Kei's eyes widened, and her focus faltered – she looked up at Takara, and then her eyes went all the way down. Suddenly, the notion that her friend was straight became easier to believe.

"Focus!" Takara hissed.

Kei squeaked, and then splashed the hot water onto her friend. In an instant, the boy in a lab coat had grown taller and more feminine, and the buttons she had so meticulosity buttoned popped out, leaving the top half of her lab coat open.

"Hah! We did it! We're half-way home!" Takara cheered."

"Hold it right there," a voice called from behind.

Takara and Kei turned around in horror. One of the security guards – a middle aged woman with a gruesome scowl – was standing in the doorway, looking at them. And from her perspective she was looking at two teenage girls with lab coats mostly unbuttoned standing close to one another. The guard picked up her walkie-talkie and spoke into it.

"I've found Kei, and she has an accomplice. They're up to something perverted. Still on the lookout for the boy. Over."

Takara sighed.

"What do we do now?" Kei whispered.

"Surrender."

The principal of St. Herebeke's sat behind her desk and leaned back into her chair.

"I believe you when you say that the fight with the Chinese girl was unprovoked. She took out the security guard at the front entrance and the police were too terrified of the girl to investigate. I doubt you could have avoided that battle. But do you really expect me to believe that you turned into a boy due to some kind of magical curse?" She asked.

"That's right," Takara said.

"Uh-huh."

"We could prove it, if you brought us some cold water," Kei said, with a hint of hope in her voice.

"Mmm. Even if it wasn't a lie, we could consider such a curse to be sacrilegious, and have you expelled, anyway. Curses are born from the devil, after all."

"So, what? You think Kei somehow snuck a naked boy into the locker room?"

"She is a genius," The principal conceded.

"She's can't look at a boy without fainting. She could barely look at my boy form."

"Kei is one of my brightest pupils. I'm sure she could engineer a way of doing it."

"Fine," Takara said. "But if you don't believe I'm the boy in question, why am I even here?"

"When the guard caught her, you were there, flashing your breasts to her. It was clearly a moment of sapphic deviancy."

"That was a wardrobe malfunction after the transformation back to girl mode," Takara said, her cheeks blushing.

Both girls were aware that the moment probably looked suggestive to an outside observer, and it would be hard to convince anyone otherwise.

"I believe the two of you decided to celebrate your little victory with deviant sexual acts."

Takara sighed, and Kei looked to the floor. Neither of them were thinking on their feet fast enough to make a convincing lie, and the truth was unfortunately too absurd for the principal to believe.

"If you've no other defenses for yourself," the principal said. "Then I shall render my judgement: The two of you shall be expelled from St Herebeke's. The records show that you're in the dorms. I'll give you until sundown to gather your things. And I never wish to see the two of your in these hallowed halls again."

"Please reconsider," Kei said. "I can't go to public school – "

"You should have thought of that before you acted out on your perversions," the principal snorted.

"How about you don't kick Kei out," Takara pleaded. "Just me. Let me take the full brunt of it."

"No deal," the principal said. "Kei was the one running the show here, and she won't even admit to it."

The two roommates exchanged a glance, imploring the other one to think of something, fast. But the events of the day had drained their imaginations, and slowly, they realized that they had lost this battle.

"I was unable to contact your parents, Ms. Ogawa," the principal said, before turning her attention to the taller student. "And Ms. – how do you pronounce your last name? My notes say that your residence does not have a phone, and I was unable to contact your aunt. So I'm afraid you'll have to walk home with your personal possessions."

"I don't have anywhere to go," Kei said, sniffling. "My family doesn't even have a house in town, and they're impossible to contact when they're on a business trip."

"You can stay at my place," Takara said, as she put a consoling hand on her friend's arm.

"You two lovebirds keep your hands to yourself!" The principal barked as she slammed her fist on the desk.

Reluctantly, Takara broke contact with her Kei, and glared at the principal one last time.

Takara and Kei walked back to their dorm in silence. The shorter girl was taking it especially hard, as this was her second year in St Herebeke's, and it had been her home for a year and a half. Takara was simply exhausted. There was the embarrassment of being seen naked in her boy form by a bunch of girls, and the shame from her inglorious defeat at the hands of the Amazon. Both girls were surprised to find a box in front of their dorm door, labeled "UCCHAN'S."

"Did you order something?" Kei asked.

"Nope."

They looked at the box a few moments before opening it, deciding it probably wasn't a trap. It turned out to be an extra large Okonomiyaki with a long message – with breathtaking penmanship – written in the okonomiyaki sauce.

"Hey Takara, this is Ukyo. Nabiki told me you're the fourth fiancée. Welcome to the club! It gets kinda crazy. If you ever want to talk, come down to my restaurant. You don't got to worry about me attacking you or anything. I don't see you as a threat. If Ran-chan wanted an old friend who's good with a weapon, I already go that covered.

Best wishes,

Ukyo Kuonji"

"I'm assuming Ran-chan is the same Ranma you mentioned earlier," Kei said.

"Yeah. I don't know what to make of this Okonomiyaki message. Should I be insulted that she doesn't see I'm a threat, or relieved?"

"The last part is a little passive aggressive," Kei said. "But maybe it just comes off colder in the written word."

"We've got some food for the road, anyway."

"Now might be a good time to tell me about your relationship status," Kei said.

Takara shrugged. Why not? As the two ate the okonomiyaki – which was incredibly delicious –and packed, and cleaned, Takara told her roommate her entire history with Ranma Saotome. She didn't skimp on any of the details – not the night they cuddled, nor her complicated feelings towards Ranma, nor the make-out session with Akane.

"Wow," was all Kei could say at the end of the story. "Makes me kinda glad I haven't tried dating anyone."

"Just because it hurts sometimes, or it gets hard, doesn't mean you should avoid it."

"Mmm. Maybe."

"I'm actually a little envious. I think it would be nice to be straight. Then I wouldn't have to worry about being attracted to my fellow women."

"Straight?" Kei blinked. "Oh, I'm not straight."

"But you said you're not a lesbian or bisexual"

"Maybe those are all the words for sexuality we have, but sexuality is far more complicated still. I've developed the word "Amoremsexual" to describe myself. Amorem is the Latin word for love. I'm not attracted to people's bodies unless I'm emotionally attracted to them. And well, despite that, I might have a preference for boys."

Takara thought about it. Akane had tried to understand why she still felt an attraction to Ranma in his boy form. Maybe, Akane was a little bit Amoremsexual, on top of being lesbian? It seemed like that would cancel out the lesbian part of the equation, but Takara's mind was expanding, and her definitions of sexuality were becoming broader. For a moment, she was awestruck at the thought of how many different sexualities there could be. Come to think of it, her Aunt Ruby had never dated anyone.

"Is it possible to not be sexual at all, do you think?" Takara asked.

"I don't see why not. I've come up with a word for that, too," Kei said.

"What is it?"

"Nihilsexual. Nihil being the Latin word for nothing."

"I think my aunt's like that."

By this point in the early evening, they'd managed to clean the dorm and pack everything up. Kei took a few boxes, but Takara slung two bags of clothes over her shoulders and took a big stack of boxes. As the two walked through Nerima towards Aunt Ruby's apartment, Takara finally decided to ask her new friend the question she had been dying to ask her since this morning.

"So," she said, casually. "Why are you so afraid of boys?"

"It's sort of a screwed up story," Kei said.

"Did somebody – "

"No. I was never assaulted. It had to do with my upbringing. My mom had four daughters with a man, but he wouldn't marry her, and they split up. She was a little mentally unhinged, and told my sisters and I how evil men and boys were. Like, literally evil. Think magic and curse-related powers. Then she kind of kept us hidden away from the other sex. Eventually, she met my stepfather, and fell in love again, and dropped all of that. But I was young when I heard all that nonsense, and it really screwed me up."

"I'm sorry."

"I've gotten over most of it. But when I first see a guy, all of those stories pop up in the back of my brain, briefly."

Takara thought about it.

"Why didn't you freak out when you saw me in my boy form?"

"Well," Kei said, thinking about it. "You're not a boy."

"You saw me naked. And you definitely took a look down there."

"Sorry about that," Kei said, blushing. "But maybe it's because your gender isn't male."

"Come again?"

"Well, sex and gender are often used interchangeably, but they're different concepts. Sex is the physicality of your body, and gender is more like your spirit, or what you are on the inside."

"And so you saw through my sex?"

"It's all just a theory. I don't know how we'd test it, though."

To avoid seeing any guys, Kei was mostly looking at the ground in front of her, keeping a short distance behind Takara. She gasped when she saw Takara fall backwards into her, boxes flying everywhere. In all of the chaos, her glasses flew off her face and onto the ground.

"Watch it!" Takara said in a huff. "Oh –Ranma?"

"Takara? Oh, uh, I'm sorry. Let me help you up."

Half-blind without her glasses, Kei had to slowly feel around the sidewalk until she found them.

"What are you doing here?"

"Err, My roommate Kei and I got kicked out of St. Herebeke's."

Kei put her glasses back on her head and let out an audible sigh when she realized they weren't scratched or broken. It became apparent that food and ingredients were spread about on the ground in between the boxes. Somebody's groceries, perhaps? She stood up and looked at the person standing before her. At first glance, it seemed like a boy wearing a red-silk shirt of Chinese origin. He had a polite smile and his long black hair was tied back into a single pigtail. But that couldn't be. Obviously, this was the famous Ranma she'd heard about all day, but he was in his cursed form.

"Ranma Saotome, it is a pleasure to meet you," she said, as she bowed. "I am Kei Ogawa."

"Oh. Uh, same."

"Takara has already told me of your curse. But I must say, I had pictured your female form quite differently."

"Whaddya mean?" Ranma asked, confused.

"Well, women's bodies come in many different forms, and I had imagined your female form to be more traditionally feminine. As it is, it's still rather masculine."

Ranma's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Uh, this is my guy form."

Kei blinked.

"What? Really? But – "

Kei turned to face Takara, who gave her a warning glance.

"Takara," another voice said.

"Good to see you again, Akane," Takara said, a bit more warily.

Amongst all the confusion, Kei hadn't even noticed the other person standing off to the side of Ranma. It appeared to be a girl in a karate gi, but upon looking at her, Kei felt her insides freeze with a sudden primal terror. A scream welled up from deep within her lungs and escaped her mouth. She felt her grasp on consciousness fading, and fell backwards onto the ground.

Takara looked down at her fainted friend, and in an instant, Akane was by her side, checking her pulse.

"Is your friend okay?" Akane asked. "Should we call for help?"

Takara studied the person kneeling before her with wide eyes, and then glanced back down at her friend.

"She'll be fine. Certain things just make her faint, is all."