Chapter 4: Who's the Queen Bee? (Part 1).

After the last events before summer break and through the vacation period, life in Nerima was particularly less eccentric for a change.

Some used that time to visit relatives, some used that time to do somethings that were in their to do lists.

And to someone in particular, that time went like an uneventful and somewhat insipid period without any emotion.

And it was going to get more 'boorish'.

With the end of summer break, it was time to go back to school. Second term was about to start and naturally Ranma was not at all pleased with that. He just wanted to turn around and leave but in the end there was nothing he could do about it.

First day of classes and that day started with a surprise and ended with an intrigue.

A new student came to Furinkan for the start of the second term. A transferred girl from another high school and prefecture who came to Nerima.

Her name was Chika Yamauchi and she was pretty, with long light brown hair and interestingly enough gold like eyes.

She came as a pretty and nice girl, and there was something about her because she was the center of attention from the get go.

That again was evident in lunch break time when she was surrounded by a flock of students near the soccer pitch, it seemed like the transfer student was going to fit in just fine in her new school. But when Kuno came to try to woo her, something curious happened to the kendoist.

After that day, and in weeks to come Chika Yamauchi was becoming more and more popular in school grounds, specially with the guys.

Nonetheless, problems started to appear, the boys were becoming more fixated on the transfer student, to the point that they were no longer paying attention to anything else.

They all wanted to spend time with her. She was like a magnet for guys.

All that, after the arrival of a new student there. Oddly enough, Shampoo, after seeing the transfer student quickly considered her as dangerous, something that baffled Akane.

But the most odd thing was yet to come.

That same day, hours later. Ranma saw a note written by his two friends Hiroshi and Daisuke telling him to come to the school pool area.

Finding it odd but still curious as to what it was about, Ranma did go to that place, finding his friends not far from there.

However, something was not right with the two dudes, they stood still, they didn't say a word to him and when they turned around, their eyes had a red ring around them and both were approaching the pigtailed boy with the apparent intention of fighting him.

And even more disconcerting was seeing the transfer student appear behind the two of them. The two guys went to attack him, something he already saw coming.

After a brief scuffle and knocking out his pals, Ranma found out that was just the start of his problems, because more guys were coming after him.

At that moment, Ranma opted to get out of there. Pursued by a group of more than 20 schoolmates who had the same thing just like Hiroshi and Daisuke, the martial artist took things outside.

Minutes after leaving the school grounds, Ranma Saotome managed to put some distance with them. They were a real persistent bunch, intercepting him at different points.

But he managed to hide, behind a pair of trash cans near an electric post.

5:00 P.M.

*breathing sounds*

Ranma was hiding behind a couple of trash cans, the group tailing him passed by without finding him there.

He stood there for some minutes, and when he was sure none of them remained in there, he peeked out of his hiding spot. Indeed, the street was empty, no person in sight.

The pigtailed boy sighed in relief. Now the question was what to do? Not only that, there were more questions. What was going on? Why was he suddenly chased or why his friends tried to fight him?

"What in the world are you doing there sonny?"

'Huh, that voice'

Ranma turned around and a few steps away he found Shampoo's great grand-mother standing there with a trash bag in her hand.

It turned out Ranma was just outside the Cat Café restaurant, he just didn't realize it because he was thinking more about hiding from his pursuers.

"Oh…" he mouthed.

"Let me guess, you have a problem am I right?" the elder asked.

"I, uhhh… *sigh* I guess so?" he was confused.

"Why don't we take this inside and you tell me about it calmly sonny boy?" she went to put the trash bag in the garbage can.

The teen got up and followed the old woman inside the restaurant.

Inside were a few customers enjoying the house specialty: hot Chinese noodles. She took him to take a seat at one of the empty tables while she went to take the order of a customer who had just arrived.

The boy with the braided hair took a seat and looked at some of the customers there, the place was popular in the neighborhood and with the students who often went there at the end of the school day.

So much so that the place was packed at rush hour.

The shuffling of the chair brought him out of his thoughts. The owner of the restaurant came over to listen to what he had to say.

"So what is bothering you this time?" the amazon matriarch asked.

"*sigh* It's a long story…and I actually don't think I believe it myself"

Cologne checked on the wall clock. The hour read 5:10 P.M. "Well, there is time before the night rush begins so start from the beginning"

"Aight'

Ranma told Cologne about the things that happened on the first day of second term and some of the things that happened from that day to the present. From the arrival of the transfer student to his little escape recently.

"Seems like an interesting girl…this student" Cologne said, after Ranma finished talking about the things that had happened to him.

"I'm just…" he exhaled "I'm just confused, what the heck happened with these guys? With Hiroshi, with Daisuke?"

"Hmm, earlier you said something real interesting"

"Huh, what exactly?" he asked.

"That this new girl was becoming more and more the center of attention" she said.

"Ah, that was delicious" a customer at the closest table near the door stood up after finishing his bowl of noodles, putting the payment money on the table. He waved at Cologne once before leaving.

*sliding door sound*

"Thank you for your patronage!"

"Oh…Yeah" Ranma continued "I guess the guys want to be with her or do stuff for her" he began to fiddle with the rim of an empty glass on the table. He grabbed the glass, shortly holding it in front of her eyes.

He recalled one instance. "I mean, she once asked me to carry sumthin' for her one day. I didn't feel like doin' much that day…but I guess she convinced me to help…"

"I guess some people are just lucky, huh?"

"I wouldn't call that luck sonny"

"What do ya mean?" Ranma asked, curious as to what the elder was implying.

The old woman began to explain "Let's say there are people who do have talent or innate beauty and it just comes naturally to them."

"But, there are also people who don't have those traits or who can't find that special person or who can't make friends and in their desperation resort to methods that are not quite right so to speak."

"You mean there's something fishy goin' on?" Ranma inquired with a bit of surprise and indignation, rising slightly from his seat.

She motioned with her cane for him to calm down and sit back down.

"It's possible that some sort of magic could be involved or some spiritual phenomenon" she saw some of the possible reasons.

"But who would be behind all that?" that was what Ranma wanted to know, so his friends and all those guys were affected by some magic. Who was doing that? And why?.

"I'd begin suspecting that new girl in your school" Cologne said.

"Why her?"

"Because if she hold this much influence over the males in your school, then it's probably she either found a magic object or entered in contact with a spiritual being"

"A spirit? But-"

'*gasp* No…'

A sudden realization came in him. Thinking back he had already been in s similar situation. He looked at the amazon elder and as if she already knew what the pigtailed boy was thinking of, she nodded in confirmation.

"No way, b-but how?" Ranma asked in disbelief.

The last customer in the afternoon hours left the restaurant and there would not be another until the night sales period started. Which came in handy at the time because it seemed that something more urgent than just selling noodles had come along.

*ring ring*

At that moment, the door slid open and Shampoo came in, her bicycle was parked outside and she was bringing the container box she used to carry the deliveries.

"Great grand-mother, me finish with deliveries" she also noticed Ranma was there. "Ranma? How come you here?"

"It's a long story great grand-daughter" the elder answered for him "I need you to take care of the restaurant, there's something else that needs to be taken care of"

"You want me to take care of restaurant while you out great grand-mother?" she asked.

"It won't take long" the elder said.

Ranma and Cologne went out, determined to find out if they were right, deep down hoping to be wrong. Their destination was a place in which they were not too long ago.

5:30 P.M.

The two soon arrived at the site they had in mind. Shakujii Park.

The place had almost recovered from the fire that took place in the midst of that festival many weeks ago. The baseball field had the burnt patches of grass replaced. And the field was closed.

The two made their way behind the baseball field and to the north plaza. There were some pedestrians in the zone.

Going further up, Ranma and Cologne arrived to the lakeside part of the plaza. No one was in that part of the park, and also there was something. From behind one of the trees, there was a portion of soil that looked a little out of place, like it was removed, dug up and soon put back in there.

The breeze blew briefly in the area, playing with the leaves, branches and short grass. Fearing that their hunches were right, they approached the spot in question.

The wise old woman could feel it in her bones, something was not right, she felt like something was missing.

The pigtailed boy, although he did not have the keen perception that she did, also knew that something was wrong.

"One of those spirit beings has escaped again somehow" she said.

'Darn it!'

The two went back to the restaurant, there was nothing more to do there, unfortunately what they had feared to some extent had been confirmed. One of the entities they had struggled to seal and capture in the stone urn somehow managed to break the seal again and escape from the urn.

Strangely, it had only been one, and with what had happened they had more or less an idea of which entity it was that had escaped from its hard stone prison.

*slide*

They re-entered the restaurant. Shampoo welcomed them from the counter, but the purple-haired girl was not the only one there, someone else was there, although her back was turned on them, even though her school uniform and short blue hair were enough hints to know who she was.

She turned around and with a expression of both shock and worry uttered his name as she went to where he was.

"A-Akane, what's going on? Why are you-"

"*huff* *huff* Been trying to find you for a while!" she rested one hand on his shoulder and the other on her leg. "Something weird is going on with the guys…their eyes…I-I had to come out as fast as I could"

"Did they do something to you!?" his muscles tensed, his gaze hardened and his tone got serious.

"N-no" she hastily replied. He let a relieved exhalation, at least she was not harmed.

"Ranma tell me, what's going on?" his fiancée asked again. Shampoo came over to them.

"Well, you see…" the teen scratched his head, unsure of where to start. He knew he had to tell her what had happened despite the uncertainty he sensed in her. He might as well tell her what the two of them had come to know so far.

So he told Akane everything that happened today and all the things he and the old amazon warrior pieced together.

"So that's the same thing you two sealed then, and it escaped?"

"Yeah…" he said.

"But what does it have to do with our classmate?" there still was no clear relation between the two things.

"It's speculation" Cologne took it from there "But I assume our stray anomaly is either possessing that classmate of yours, or in an almost unlikely scenario, residing in her body"

"Spirits can possess the bodies of the living and make them do their bidding"

"What do we do?" Akane asked "How do we get that out of her?"

The elder took something out of her sleeve, something that resembled a pendant with a small crystal inside that was stored inside a hollow pool ball sized container made out of gold colored metal with two openable lids, the upper lid was open, that let one look at the crystal contained inside. A curious looking crafted object.

"Great grand-mother, that is…"

"This pendant is an ancient relic, its crystal was blessed and is pure enough to contain spirits or demons in confinement." She showed it to them. "You can use it to trap that stray spirit possessing that girl"

"Can it work?" the black haired teen took it and inspected it for some seconds before returning it to the old woman. "What if it escapes like it did with that ol' stone urn?"

"Then you can use this" anticipating that, the elder also took a medium sized porcelain urn, maybe jar, with lid included, it had an ornamental pattern of mountains and representations of wind currents.

"Put the pendant inside and place the seals that are inside…it's a failsafe method to contain even the most unruly spirits"

"But first you have to force it out of her body" she added "It won't be possible if it stays in her body"

Not that he considered trapping them both in the urn, much less think it was right to do so, his classmate had nothing to do with that fugitive spirit.

"Hold on, we still have a problem!" Akane put her two cents in (or yen to be more specific), because they had yet to consider a crucial detail.

"What problem?" Ranma asked, 'what could she be referring to?'

His fiancée exhaled, closing her eyes before reminding them of something she had said earlier. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't you remember what she said about boys being vulnerable to her control?" Oh that, he remembered.

She continued "And even if you could resist, you're not immune so there's a chance she could end up controlling you."

Good point, he had to admit. He had forgotten that detail, his thoughts were scattered all over the place even if he looked determined on the outside.

"What if girl Ranma goes to confront evil student girl?" Shampoo asked, after not having said a word for quite a while.

"As a girl?" he looked up, in his mind he imagined himself or rather his female form facing the transferred girl.

"Think about it, none of them know about your cursed form" his fiancée elaborated "That gives you a chance"

"I-I guess" Ranma replied, not totally convinced.

"It's that or the risk of getting controlled" Cologne said "Even if it is by a small margin-"

"Ok ok, I get it!"

"The thing is *suspire*" he said rubbing off his temple "Just how I'm gonna go looking like that? I mean, yeah, I've been as a girl inside the school but actually assisting there as one?"

The short haired chick thought about it for some seconds, resting her head on her arm and her arms on the round wooden table.

"Hrmmm, and not only that" Akane realized that he was right "In school you're registered as a guy, I doubt anyone wouldn't notice a red-haired girl replacing a black-haired boy in the school."

The first time female Ranma was seen was in the school pool after leaping from a window in the third floor, no one has expected seeing a redhead come out the water instead of the black haired teen who fell in there.

After that, Ranma was seen as a girl in a number of occasions (of course none of them knew they were both the same person even if the two shared the same name), but in all those occasions he was already inside the school grounds when the change was triggered. No one has seen her come in from the school gates and her appearances were brief.

So, in essence, if none of the students who have been assisting there with him since day one knew about it, there's no way a transfer student who only had a month assisting would know.

In other words, that was the only option to actually deal with the situation he was in.

"on top of that, that nutjob of a director likes her a lot…she probably has him wrapped around her finger"

Now the question was: 'how to pull it off?' If there was no way to have female Ranma be inside Furinkan with long enough time for her to find out whether or not their classmate Chika was possessed by a spirit and remove it from her body then there was no way to do it and things would only get worse.

To do this, they needed someone cunning enough to get 'Ranma' inside the school but in a way that would not cast suspicion while 'she' set things right. Someone to alter student records to register her in school and in a short amount of time. Someone capable of bending the rules and playing by them in her own way.

Someone like…

An idea popped up in the Tendo girl. She had someone who could help them in mind but at the same time she knew that she was a person with whom one had to be careful.

Suddenly she stood up from her chair, slapping her palms on the table, drawing the attention of the others. "L-listen Ranma, I have an idea" Akane scooted up to his seat and as a whisper she speaks in his ear.

The amazons could simply watch in bewilderment as the blue haired teen occulted most of her face with her hand and only Ranma's reactions were visible. He looked shocked at first but as his fiancée kept talking his face turned into one of dread, and finally into one of resignation when she finished.

"Well, I guess we know who to go to..." Ranma left a sigh, slumping a bit on the chair he was sitting on.

"So you two have figured out your next step" Cologne said to which Ranma nodded, reluctantly "You'll still need these" she handed him both the pendant and the porcelain urn.

"Thanks!" Ranma got up from his seat and looked at the wall clock. The time was 6:00 P.M., outside the last hour of the afternoon begun to darken the sky as the sun was just about to start setting in the distance.

Whatever may come, it would have to wait till the next day.

Bidding farewell, the two went back home. They arrived later than usual, especially for him, who usually left earlier because he was not involved in any school clubs unlike her.

Their parents asked them two where they had been, they lied and told them they had stayed for a late school matter. Something that convinced their parents.

They ate dinner a little late but dinner passed almost without anything happening. Although both of them tried to act natural at the table, they couldn't help being absorbed in their thoughts, something the others noticed but didn't make more of it.

Some time after dinner. They were in the hallway on the second floor of the house, not far from the stairs and having in front of them a particular door.

Perhaps it was the weight of the situation that made them feel goosebumps. Or could it be because they felt something undecipherable coming from that door.

Or it could be because they knew who that room behind that door belonged to.

Knowing it was useless to just stand there, Akane knocked on the door, hearing a subsequent 'coming' from inside that instead of making them feel relieved, it caused them a little more anxiety.

The door opened, revealing the owner of that room.

"H-hey sis!"

Standing in front of them and in the door frame, the ice queen eyed the two without even a hint of surprise.

And on her lips a subtle smile was drawn.

The next day.

"Have a nice day in school!"

Akane and Ranma walked together to school, on the way seeing other students, boys and girls, the guys seemed to have returned to normalcy, as if nothing of yesterday had happened.

Going through the same route, but the main difference that morning was Ranma, who was going as a girl. She glanced sideways at the boys walking near them, and indeed, there was nothing strange about them. 'For the moment' the redhead thought.

8:40 A.M.

"Well everyone, can I have your attention now?" the homeroom teacher addressed the class. "Good"

"We're having a new student in our class" at his right Ranma, the female Ranma, standing there with her arms behind her back, holding her elbow with her other hand and sporting the girls' uniform.

The reactions in the classroom were mixed when they saw the redhead, several of the students murmured among themselves.

"Quiet down everybody…as I was saying she'll be joining our class"

"Her name is uhm…I'm sorry missy, but what's your name again?"

Ranma pointed at herself and answered "My name is Atsuko Shimizu, nice to meet you all!"

If the class was already talking quietly about this new girl (even though they had seen her before), upon hearing her name their reactions were even more noticeable, with many of them confused by her name.

"Atsuko? Wasn't her name Ranma?" a female student asked.

"Didn't we see her before?" another student asked, in the midst of differing opinions.

"Boy this is confusing already!"

"All right, all right, calm down everybody!" the teacher interjected before the class became an odyssey of noises.

In the middle of all that commotion one person stood quiet and calm, the other student who got transferred there a month ago: Chika Yamauchi.

Meanwhile Ranma (or Atsuko as she decided to call herself), stood there, trying to contain her satisfaction at having the whole classroom talking about her.

Hours ago.

The two were for hours in the room of Akane's middle sister, there they told her what had happened and although she did not understand everything, everything they told her the mercenary girl decided to help them...in exchange for something of course (although she preferred to leave the details of that something as a secret), so that night, she came up with a plan for them.

First, she got access to the school's computer system and altered the student records to enter Ranma under a different name (Atsuko Shimizu) and made-up information (her 'contacts' would be able to cross-check that information). With a speed of 56kbps something like that took them hours to do.

Second, she personally gave 'Atsuko' some 'tips' and tricks to make an impression on her 'first day of school'. If the transfer student saw her position as the queen bee threatened, then 'Atsuko' would have a better chance of getting to the bottom of the issue and ending the problem.

Ranma was somewhat reluctant of playing a girly like role but he figured he had no option. So he spent hours seeing and imitating Nabiki as she illustrated him in some of the womanly ways.

Back to the present time.

Ranma turned her gaze to Chika's seat, who looked at her with a seemingly neutral expression but even so the redhead could sense some discomfort in her eyes. Oh boy, she knew that day was going to be a big day.

Throughout the first period of classes, new girl Atsuko tried her best to do well in class (which in itself was much more than she usually did as Ranma) and perhaps didn't do as well as she did in math and history classes, but in other subjects she did surprisingly well. Rather it was that subtle charm, affable predisposition, palpable intensity mixed with exuberant energy that won her the attention of half the boys and surprisingly, most of the girls. All that, following the pointers and advices given by Nabiki. And the only one not reacting to it was Chika.

When the first class period was over and it was time for the lunch break, Ranma took advantage of the moment to actually start sniffing around and go after Chika, to see if she could confirm her suspicions.

She came out to the courtyard with a small group of classmates, she had to keep her Atsuko façade until she was out of their sight.

"Hehe…say, can anyone tell me the way to the bathrooms?" she asked.

After listening to the directions of one of her classmates (she knew where it was though), Atsuko went towards the bathrooms near the classrooms building.

At that moment there was no one going in or coming out so she could stop pretending for a bit. Now where to go? Where was Chika? The school wasn't too big but searching for someone wasn't easy.

Curiously enough, she only pretended to go to the bathroom but she but she slipped away to the lockers from where she took out the two items she had been given yesterday, the pendant sand the porcelain urn. She took the pendant, hiding it inside and urn and she strapped the urn on her back. From there she tried to sneak around without getting seen.

She was about to enter the boys' restroom when she heard a noise and a voice coming from the girls' restroom, something that made her stop in her tracks.

"But….that….no sense…."

From there she couldn't hear much about it so she looked around and when she saw that no one was coming, she approached the girls' bathroom, the redhead had already heard that voice but it was difficult to hear it well and understand it without getting closer.

"I-I'm sorry…I won't question you" from what it seemed the long haired girl was talking or maybe apologizing with someone. "Just don't let her take them away from me…"

She could feel worry and panic in her voice.

"I-I" she whimpered in desperation "I don't want to go back to what I was before...I can't lose it all!"

Other than that she heard white noise, probably that was the water going down the faucet and overflowing the sink for some reason.

*splash* "Why…why do I have to go through this again!?"

"…Hehe, you just leave everything to me"

Ranma's eyes widened, he recognized the other voice talking with Chika.

End of Chapter 4, part 1.

Author's notes: Greetings everyone, Ranko here with the usual notes.

I'd like to apologize for not posting in quite a while, however I did have a lot in my plate so to state, that is why I couldn't post until today.

I'm thinking of how to keep the course of this story, and I'm in a bit of a bind because I scrapped the concept of a whole chapter I had and now I have to come up with a new idea.

Meanwhile, I'll post the other chapters that are finished and clean some others I'm still not convinced with.

And, that's all, I haven't checked the site in a while as well, but I thank all those who gave their honest opinion. I do want to improve my style but I suppose it something I have yet to figure out, how, that is.

In any case, I hope you stick around. Don't worry, I intend to see this story go its course through, to its conclusion.

Without further ado, thanks for following and liking my story. Drop a review as well. And have a good time too!

Ranko out.