Elsewhere far from where Kazuma and Aqua were a woman stood on top of a burning house, she calmly used a handful of paper tows to remove the blood of her latest victims from her sword.
Even as the embers of the fire beneath her began to rise and seemed to dance around her, the woman's expression didn't change.
She didn't have a bloodthirsty grin or stern expression that one would expect a swordsman to have, if anything the woman's expression seemed kind.
Yet even as the heat of the fires beneath her drew closer, the woman slowly placed her sword back into its sheath, yet before the sound of the sword locking itself back into place could be heard she was already gone from the spot she had been standing on.
The next day as usual everyone was in class waiting for the teacher to come in and as usual, the trouble makers in class were bullying one of the students who dint talk to anyone.
They circled the boy making sure that he couldn't run away, but after one of the bullies shoved him with enough force to that it somehow managed to send the boy towards where Aqua and her friends were all of the bullies just glared at him.
None of the bullies tried to get closer to the boy, and those that even considered it quickly turned to look at Ranma and Kuwabara who just kept on talking to each other about a show that Kuwabara had seen yesterday.
The boy immediately stood up before walking toward the wall and leaning on it, because no one in the class wanted to fight Ranma and Kuwabara together most of the people that would get bullied stayed close to them whenever the teacher was gone.
The sound of the classroom door opening made everyone immediately go back to their seats, but as the teacher walked into the class everyone noticed that he wasn't alone.
With him was a blond girl who was wearing another school's uniform, the girl wore a white sailor uniform that had a short black skirt, the class was on filled with whistles and the sound of the boys catcalling the girl.
"Alright shut up, haven't any of you bastards seen a girl before!" the teacher said o the boys before turning to the girl
"Look, you see the girl with the blue hair, she will show you around and teach you the rules," the teacher said to the girl before turning to Aqua.
'Aqua, show her the ropes, and by Aqua I men you and ur friends Kazuma' the teacher said to Kazuma who didn't say anything.
As the girl walked towards Aqua bot the boys and girls acted as if they would pull her skirt down or put their hands into it, but never did.
Aqua watched as the teacher kept a close eye for anyone that did go through with the threat, Aqua knew that if any of the boys or girls pulled the girl's skirt down or put their hand in it, the teacher would break their hands.
When the girl finally reached Aqua and stood in front of her, she was already crying.
'Hey teach' Ranma said to the teacher but he didn't finish what he was going to say because the teacher was already looking at him
'Come on let's go" Ranma said to everyone before they all left the classroom
What the teacher had allowed to happen was cruel but the girl needed to learn fast, both the school and the neighborhood weren't places where the weak could survive.
The teacher kept his eyes focused on the door and when it closed he began to talk.
"So I have an announcement to make, the yearly fights have started," the teacher said to everyone, and immediately all of the students began to cheer
"Shut up let me finish!" the teacher yell before continuing with his announcement.
"After a certain incident, with a certain someone, a lot of people have turned their heads in our direction, meaning that both you bozos and us teachers will have a lot of work ahead of us"
"Let's be honest, none of you like me and I don't like you. The same goes for the other schools, but this place is ours and no outsider gets to do whatever they want here" the teacher said to everyone, however, this time no one cheered.
All of the students knew what the fights meant, every year people from different places would come to their neighborhood and pay a lot of money to see the students and some adults fight.
It was a time when everyone that participated risked their bodies and lives for a chance to make enough money to at least live comfortably for a little while.
On rare occasions when someone wealthy came, entire schools would fight each other.
Everyone knew that the people paying to watch them hurt each other didn't care about them but they were happy enough to have enough money to pay for the things that their families needed but couldn't afford.
During this time, everyone that had practiced placing bets would bet everything that they had earned hoping to win enough that they didn't have to bet again.
It was rare but some of the students as well as their families did manage to leave and were now living in better neighborhoods.
