Author's Notes:

Firstly, apologies for the long gap in posting time. Real life has just been a major mess - we're doing our best to get things back onto a more frequent keel, despite what it's been throwing at us.

I'm a little surprised that nobody saw my twist in the previous chapter's opening coming, but pleased that folks took it in such stride! It's reassuring to know that I can write something so different from the cliches and still be warmly welcomed here.

As for the D&D crossover fic, which seems to be very much a source of interest... I'm not sure when I'll start on that. I was thinking maybe try and get into it soon, even alternate between postings for it and postings for this. I really don't know.

Also, let me clear up something that people seemed to be confused by: I don't believe that Nabiki is canonically bisexual. I was just listing the "evidence" that is frequently cited by people who do. I personally feel they're reaching, but then, we have so many people who like to cite even flimsier evidence as proof that Ranma & Ryoga are meant to be lovers, so what can you do?

Chapter 5: A New Rival Arrives! Who is Ryoga?

The sun shone down on an 'ordinary' morning in Nerima, Tokyo, as three not-so-ordinary students casually jogged through the streets in the direction of Furinkan High School.

"You're kidding! They actually tried to put Ranma in a dress?!" Akane giggled gleefully at her sister's explanation, lost in imaginings of Ranma running helter-skelter from a dress like some western vampire from garlic.

"Once they got over the shock of the transformation, yes. Kikuko was fascinated by the idea of having a guy friend she could also play dress up with," Nabiki confessed mischievously, smirking at the memories of yesterday afternoon. An inarticulate noise of frustration made her glance up at the fenceline beside her. "Oh, don't be mad, Ranma; she didn't mean anything bad by it," she said, trying to console her fiance although the thinly surprised mirth in her voice lessened the effect somewhat.

The sole male member of the trinity simply let out a disgusted click of his tongue and pointedly kept his gaze away from Nabiki, still trotting along the fenceline. "I told them both I was a guy! Why did they keep trying to put me in a skirt?" he groused, giving his fiance another in what was a series of looks of betrayal which had started when the normally cool Nabiki had given herself stitches laughing the other day..

"Hey, at least they weren't creeped out by it - that's a good thing, right?" Nabiki asked, still trying to assuage him whilst getting a better handle on her amusement.

"Honestly, you could probably use a few female outfits. It might keep you from running around the house naked all the time," Akane dryly observed.

"Ah, what do you know?" Ranma scoffed back.

"She does have a point... I mean, we can't just give you an endless supply of hot water, Ranma. Our electricity and gas bills won't handle it if you have to run a hot bath the very moment you get splashed..." Nabiki admitted, already it'd required some adjustments on her part and sooner they nipped this in the bud, the sooner her poor depleted shopping budget could recover.

Ranma said nothing in response to that. He just looked ahead with a stubborn expression on his face. Nabiki privately hoped he wasn't going to sulk for too long; it had just been a bit of harmless fun! Nabiki then and there decided she rather disliked it when Ranma gave her the cold shoulder like this...

Soon enough, the gates of Furinkan High School loomed before them... as did a rather unexpected figure.

"Ranma Saotome, I challenge you!" Kuno declared sternly, wooden sword outthrust in a fighting position as he blockaded the way, a convenient breeze making his outfit flow with the wind.

"...Are you serious?" Ranma finally replied after a moment or three of bemused staring, looking at Kuno as if he'd lost his wits. Which, admittedly, was not a far leap as far as most who knew Kuno were concerned.

"I told you I would challenge you again, Saotome!" Kuno retorted bombastically, flourishing his bokken triumphantly.

"Yeah, but not this early, surely? I mean, come on, your eyes are still black as inkstones," Ranma pointed out, his gesture towards the older male's rather impressive pair of shiners making Kuno grimace.

"I... vile Saotome! I shall fight on!" he shouted defiantly, stabbing the air towards Ranma as if to inject the opposing male with the desire to battle.

"Yeah, yeah, fine - but why don't we do it when you're actually back to full strength? I don't want to bully no weakling," Ranma replied, legitimately concerned about Kuno and the effects fighting too soon could have.

...Kuno's reaction, however, showed how much the effort worked..

"You insolent wretch!" Kuno bellowed in outrage at the idea that he might be weak, and charged Ranma... who met him mid-charge. With some deft footwork that neither Nabiki nor Akane could quite follow, Ranma was able to simultaneously dodged around him and tripped him flat on his face.

"Later, Kuno, I got class," Ranma threw over his shoulder, already sprinting off to his homeroom.

"You will rue this day!" Kuno vowed after him from the ground, spitting out bits of dirt that he'd accidentally eaten.

"And yet, somehow, this feels normal," Nabiki observed with a light, almost distant tone as she and her sister walked by the mud spewing Kuno, giving a small shrug at the end.

"I'm just glad that Kuno's forgotten all about me," Akane responded with deep seated relief... but she spoke too soon, for in an instant as if summoned like a spirit of misfortune, Kuno had leapt up from his position on the ground and wrapped her in a passionate embrace.

"Oh, my love, I could never forget you!" he 'assured' her, rubbing his cheek lovingly against her own in a passionate invasion of personal space.

"Get off of me, you pervert!" Akane screamed out, slapping Kuno across the face with such fervor he flew several meters through the air before slamming into the ground once again.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," Nabiki mused wistfully, smirking at the familiar sight of her little sister beating Kuno senseless. Then she hurried off to her own classes; she didn't want to be late, after all.

That afternoon, at school's end...

"When I said I'd fight you later, I didn't mean this very afternoon!" Ranma protested, ducking as Kuno slashed at his head, wondering if he'd need to get a friggin lawyer involved to get Kuno to stop interpreting things so overzealously.

"You won't escape me with your cursed logic, Saotome! Defend yourself!" the enraged kendoist declared, chasing Ranma out through the front doors of Furinkan High and onto the grounds beyond.

Now, it bears mentioning that Ranma could have just kicked Kuno senseless again, but it wasn't really in Ranma's nature to bully people...well, beyond poking at their emotional weak points to goad at least. It wasn't as if Kuno could actually hurt him, so just dodging his attacks and trying to talk some sense into the lunkhead wasn't costing him anything and it was some decent flexibility training as well.

With effortless ease and grace, Ranma wove around his fellow students, and then took one of his now-infamous flying leaps to put further distance between himself and his pursuer... which was when he suddenly found himself under attack from the front! Looking up, Ranma's eyes widened in surprise as he saw another boy leaping at him, descending from a greater height with a bamboo traveling umbrella being brought down in an overhead stabbing motion.

"Ranma, prepare to die!" bellowed the stranger as they plunged back down to earth, his speed and aim making the threat less bombast than he usually heard of late.

But Ranma had no intention of complying with such a 'polite request' like that! He twisted about in midair with eel-like flexibility, so that when the two of them hit the ground, the umbrella's tip slammed into the earth first, whilst Ranma landed neatly on his right hand just in front of his crouching assailant, legs twisted up over his head. A flex of his fingers, and Ranma leapt backwards to land several meters away, eliciting gasps and noises of awe from the watching crowd... though whether it was at the sight of Ranma jumping with one arm or the way the earth suddenly sank into a meter-deep crater that stretched a good meter or two out from where Ranma's assailant had landed, who could say.

Ranma watched the stranger warily; unlike Kuno, this was a real threat. He didn't even notice as Kuno, Nabiki and Akane came up behind him, Kuno's own outrage momentarily stifled at the sight of this stranger and his sudden attack on Kuno's new rival.

The stranger; a rough-looking Japanese boy with brown eyes and messy short black hair tied back with a tiger-stripe bandanna, simply smirked. "At last I found you... Ranma Saotome," he declared darkly. Standing up, he then added, "I see you're still good at running away, Saotome."

"I say, that's rather poor form, attacking Saotome whilst I was trying to engage him in combat!" Kuno protested, despite having let the Hentai Horde attack Akane en mass before, this was his fight..

Nabiki dared to get up closer to her fiance now that the immediate landscaping seemed to be over. "Who is this guy? Do you know him?" she asked Ranma, wondering what part of his rather colorful past she'd be privy to now.

Ignoring them both, the stranger pontificated with melodramatic fervor, "I feel as though I've been waiting for this moment for thousands of years!"

"Quite a melodramatic fellow, isn't he?" Kuno observed, oblivious to (or perhaps ignoring) the incredulous stares and unspoken observation of pots speaking of kettles from the Tendo sisters.

Ranma simply looked befuddled, rubbing his chin as he wracked his brain to remember. The guy obviously acted like they had met before, but he just couldn't place him...

"Are you still feigning ignorance, Saotome?" the stranger snapped in indignant outrage, possibly at being implied to be so forgettable... although Nabiki was getting a handle on this guy, and it read 'easy to irk'.

"I'm not so sure he's feigning," Akane replied mischievous tone, grinning at the chance to get in a zing at Ranma.

Ranma ignored her, instead bending his head forward and placing his fingers on his temples, obviously trying to force the memories into place. It would have been more comical if the tense atmosphere hadn't remained entrenched.

Seeing this, the stranger's anger shifted to outright shock and disbelief. "What?! You really mean you don't remember?"

'If this were one of those American cartoons, this guy's jaw would be on the ground,' Nabiki thought to herself. It was an amusing image, she had to admit.

Ranma promptly shook his head, confirming everybody's suspicions. Then he suddenly stopped, eyes brightening as he snapped his fingers triumphantly... Only to then fade back into uncertainty as the thought slipped free of his metaphorical fingers.

By this point, the stranger was visibly trembling with rage. "Enough of this mockery! Answer me one thing Saotome: why didn't you come to fight me at the appointed time!?" he thundered with a raised, accusatory finger.

At this interloper's latest demand, Ranma's face lit up and he pointed at the stranger in vindicated excitement. "Now I remember! You and I were classmates in Junior High, right? It was... ah...um..." he trailed off again; memories could be such slippery things...names too, he pondered to himself whilst everyone around him simply felt beads of disbelieving sweat slide down their faces at his absentmindedness.

"It's Ryoga Hibiki!" the stranger finally snapped with his voice rising several octaves as his flushed face suggested he was nearing an apoplexy of rage. The now named Ryoga pushed his face into Ranma's own as if proximity would help jar Ranma's memory...or was an aborted headbutt, to some of the onlookers.

"Yeah, that was it!" Ranma agreed with a cheerful nod - he had finally managed to recollect who this guy was and the ease of mental strain was a balm to his wracked brain. At this point, Ranma was smiling ear to ear, and he reached out to put a friendly hand on Ryoga's shoulder. "Long time no see!" he chirped, only for the smile on his face to be replaced with surprise as Ryoga brusquely slapped his hand away.

"Just answer my question you coward! Tell me; why didn't you come to the fight?!" Ryoga demanded angrily, his eyes practically shuttered slits covering pools of rage.

Now Ranma looked absolutely flummoxed . "But... I... Ryoga... I waited for you at the agreed place for three days!" he pointed out .

"Three days!?" chorused Kuno and the Tendos in disbelief, it now being their turn to kiss the dirt with the bottom of their jaws in a unified display of amazement.

Ryoga simply scoffed, turning his head in a disdainful dismissal of Ranma's excuse. "Oh, sure, you waited three days. But when I got there on the fourth day, you had already turned tail and ran!" he crowed spitefully as he turned to point at Ranma once more

"Fourth day?!" was the new chorus of dumbfounded voices, their mouths showing prescience and not bothering to be raised and thus avoiding the sensation of whiplash..

Now it was Ranma's turn to look serious, and a bit condescending if one was to be honest. "Uh, Ryoga... lemme ask you a question," he said, to which Ryoga simply gave him a suspicious look in reply but didn't interrupt.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the place where we agreed to meet for the fight? Was the vacant lot behind your house, right?" Ryoga nodded, wondering what Ranma was getting at, " So why the heck did I have to wait more than three days for you to show?!" he snapped. "Seriously, I stood there for three days and nights, I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I just waited and waited, through sun and rain, until finally I collapsed!"

Ryoga glared lividly at Ranma, screaming, "Don't patronize me! Did you think I was just strolling around Japan for my health?!"

"So what were you doing?" Ranma asked simply.

"Listen! You've absolutely no idea the troubles I've endured!" Ryoga blustered vehemently, . "I started out the morning of the fight, and I ran to meet you! I ran, and I ran, and I ran, and I couldn't find that cursed lot! I went to Enoshima, Osaksa, the Tokyo Tower, Yokohama... and then finally, finally I made it to the lot... and you'd run away like a coward!"

"That's utter nonsense!" Kuno blurted out, finding himself in the unusual position of having to actually defend a rival of his. "There's not a referee in the country who wouldn't have disqualified you for being an hour late, never mind four whole days! If you were that inept at finding your way there, then Ranma clearly won by default," he decreed.

Say what you will about Kuno, that he was crazier than a loon, been smacked with a book on samurai too much as a kid, or that he was as obsessive as a dog with a bone...but the Kunos were nothing if not sticklers for the letters of the rule, and there was no way Ryoga had a case in the upperclassman's mind.

"Shut up, pretty boy! Nobody asked you!" Ryoga growled at him, ignoring the susurrus of the other students agreeing that, for once, Kuno had a point and that Ryoga clearly was an idiot.

Fixating his attention on Ranma, Ryoga addressed his old enemy, "You went and broke a man-to-man promise! And then you dared to run off to China with your father?!" At that, he swung at Ranma with his umbrella, using it like a club.

Ranma simply leapt backwards, neatly evading it. "So let me get this straight; you came all this way to finish the fight?" Ranma didn't look exactly confused at the prospect, but Nabiki could tell he was still trying to match Ryoga's vitriol with the other boy's stated goals and was coming up short.

"I didn't come to finish it! This fight has just begun! This is revenge!" Ryoga screamed fervently, as he flicked open his umbrella and launched it at Ranma as a spinning projectile that created a buzz saw like sound as it swirled past Ranma, and then swung back like a boomerang towards his 'foe'.

Not that this bothered Ranma, who effortlessly dodged it with a simple twist of his body on both passes, not even bothering to look back to see where the killer umbrella was making its return pass towards him. He didn't even flinch or cringe at this rather lethal assault, instead asking again in perplexity, "Revenge? Revenge for what? What'd I ever do to you to make you want revenge on me?"

Catching the returning umbrella, Ryoga held it over his head like a banner of war. "Don't play dumb with me! I'm going to destroy your happiness!" he vowed, his eyes alight with the fires of obsession.

Ranma looked taken aback at Ryoga's words as did everyone else, Kuno included. "M-my happiness...? ...Where do you come up with this stuff?" he asked, a sweat drop of disbelief sliding down his cheek.

"More importantly, what did you do to him, Ranma?" Nabiki asked incredulously, deliberate malice or not on Ranma's part, there was clearly something driving this whole incident.

"I got no idea why he's so mad!" Ranma protested without any shred of duplicity, already wracking his brains to try and figure out what the problem was. Now, come to think of it, just why had he and Ryoga been going to duel each other in that vacant lot anyway...?

"Enough stalling already! Let's fight, Ranma!" Ryoga bellowed once more, before shifting his umbrella into a low-pointing spear-thrust position and charging forward to possibly skewer Ranma like a shish-kebab.

Immediately, Kuno grabbed Akane and withdrew from the impact zone, with Nabiki likewise fleeing off to the side. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that Ranma didn't even seem to notice Ryoga's charge; instead, his face was lighting up as he smacked his palm in realization. "Ranma, watch out!" she called out impulsively.

But Ranma didn't watch out. He didn't even move; instead, he just held out his hand in front of Ryoga's face in a "stop!" gesture, not even flinching as his charging assailant skidded to a halt mere moments before crashing into him, his umbrella thrust past Ranma's face like a spear. Ranma could have just had his teeth knocked down his throat, and as far as anyone could tell, he didn't even blink at his brush with death.

Gasps and murmurs of approval erupted from the watching students at this display of cool under fire. Nabiki distinctly heard somebody nearby mutter, "That Saotome's got more balls than brains!" and privately agree... though she also couldn't deny that he'd looked really, really cool doing that!

"Ryoga... excuse me for a sec, huh? Wait here," Ranma said, cool as a cucumber. Then he wove around Ryoga and ran for the gates to Furinkan High.

"Hey, come back here!" Ryoga protested feebly, his momentum both emotional and physical utterly halted by Ranma's rather out of place actions.

'He looks more like a dog that had forgotten why it was barking than a teenager in a towering rage,' thought Nabiki.

"I'll be back in a sec!" Ranma called back in assurance, already disappearing out through the gates.

In his wake, he left a confused and puzzled audience. Kuno slowly shook his head as murmurs broke out around him from a rather put out audience. "Now what madness is percolating in that fevered brain of his?" he wondered aloud, causing a new resurgence of 'pot meet kettle' comments that he ignored with aplomb.

"Don't ask me... I don't think even Nabiki knows what he's thinking half the time," Akane conceded, too dumbfounded by what was going on to really protest Kuno's proximity at the moment. So long as he kept his hand on her shoulder, she supposed she could tolerate him for now.

Indifferent to the commentary behind him, Ranma pelted through the streets at close to his top speed. It had taken an embarrassingly long time to retrieve the relevant memories, but in his defense, he'd honestly never expected to see Ryoga again in his lifetime. Still, the connections had finally been made, and that gave him purpose; he was pretty certain he knew how to settle whatever was bugging Ryoga. Now, if he could only find... aha!

In his rush through the streets, Ranma found himself coming upon the otherwise unusual sight of a giant panda bear sweeping at the doorway to what looked like a local chiropractic clinic.

Skidding to a halt in front of the overgrown cuddly toy, Ranma called out, "Yo, pop! You know where there's a sandwich vending machine?"

The panda let out a rumbling noise as he nodded his great furry head and withdrew, from seemingly nowhere, a sign bearing written instructions towards the nearest one.

"Thanks, pop!" Ranma said, and rushed on past where the sign directed. Moments later, he was running back past Genma, his arms full of various breads and sandwiches.

Genma wondered what that had all been about... not that it stopped him from grabbing the packet of bread that Ranma had dropped in his wake. He'd have to work on that with the boy; one didn't waste good food after all.

Back at Furinkan High School, the confusion of audience renewed once more as the absentee martial artist rejoined them, arms laden with flavored breads and sandwiches, whereupon coming to a complete stop he tossed one to Ryoga. The dusty vengeance-seeker snatched it from the air and looked at it uncomprehendingly. "Curry bread...? What the? Tell me, Saotome, now what are you...?"

"Howsabout it? Forgive and forget, whaddya say?" Ranma suggested hopefully, eliciting a furious scowl from Ryoga complete with growl.

"You mock me!" Ryoga snapped angrily, unthinkingly squeezing the curry bread in his fist and causing the plastic casing to pop.

Ranma simply sighed, although he did appear unsurprised to the onlookers. "Geeze, you're greedy. Okay here, chow mein bread, croquet bread, melon bread, cutlet sandwich, meat bread, seaweed bread..." And with each bread he named, he threw a corresponding packet to Ryoga, who caught them all as flawlessly as Ranma had thrown them, the shifting of the pile of edibles leading the audience to bob their heads like the viewers of a tenis match.

"Happy now? I didn't forget anything, did I?" Ranma asked with less than hidden impatience of his own

At this point, Ryoga was visibly fuming is that steam coming out of his ears? Nabiki thought to herself with some degree of horrified awe... though he'd also grabbed up all the bread that Ranma had thrown at him, too she'd observed. Well, who was she to fault Ryoga for taking up Ranma on a free meal, "What do you take me for, Ranma Saotome?!" he thundered in his fury, albeit looking slightly less impressive with a double-armfull of snack sandwiches.

"I must admit, I'm puzzled too - why the bread, Saotome?" Kuno interjected, trying to keep the titters threatening to bubble out under control. Despite himself, he was rather enjoying this little farce of his rival's but this had dragged on rather long and Kuno had practice to conduct at home.

"Some clarification would be nice." Nabiki chimed in, her own curiosity beyond piqued at this point although she hid it better than the others..

"Well, this is why we were having that fight in the first place," Ranma explained matter-of-factly, as it were perfectly obvious.

"Over bread?" Everyone around the martial artists asked in unison, their in unison response causing Ranma to blanch for a moment.

"Hey, it makes more sense than you'd think!" Ranma protested defensively, holding his hands out to entreat them for a moment. "See, Ryoga and I met when we were attending the same all-boys junior high school - real low-class dump, nowhere near as fancy at Furinkan. But it was cheap and it was willing to accept a nomad like me, so that's all that pops cared about. Lunchtime was the worst; they never had enough funds to provide food for all the kids, so the lunch-ladies would just throw out whatever they had and let the boys fight for them," he explained.

"You're seriously telling us that you and Ryoga met... dueling over bread?" a dumbfounded Nabiki responded. She'd heard some...colorful stories from Papa when he'd had a couple cups of sake, but this was well into the territory of the odder ones

"Yep. I can remember it as if it were only yesterday, now; it was the last piece of curry bread left for the day. Lunch-lady threw it out, Ryoga jumped for it... and then I jumped past him and snagged it first," Ranma said, nodding to himself and smiling wistfully at the memory of an ancient victory.

By this point, Ryoga had unwrapped some of the bread and was surreptitiously chowing down; pride or no pride, it'd been too long since his last meal. He and Ranma had both taken a seat on the ground as Ranma told his little story, and so he was caught off-guard when Ranma looked at him and smirked, adding, "And then Ryoga gives me this big song and deal over how he'd never forgive me. You were blubbering over a piece of bread, for crying out loud!"

"Ah, shut up, Ranma!" Ryoga growled sheepishly, glaring at Ranma and everyone around them for good measure. When Ranma put it like that... it did sound a little pathetic, but he would be buried 3 years before he admitted that.

"But surely you jest, Saotome?" Kuno countered, his brow raised in 'majestic skepticism' although the school opinion was that he tended to look more like he was auditioning for Monty Python. "A single piece of bread is no cause for a duel, never mind for Ryoga to pursue you for so long."

"Well, the curry bread was kind of just the start of things. When he challenged me like that, I couldn't resist answering him, so we competed at every lunch thereafter. And I always won. First it was the chow mein bread. Then it was the croquet bread. The melon bread. Cutlet sandwich. Meat bread... let's see, seaweed bread, egg bread, salad sandwich, soup bread... no, wait, there's no such thing," Ranma amended himself.

At this point, Ryoga, Nabiki and Kuno were all staring flatly at Ranma, whilst Ranma's audience found trickles of sweat sliding comedically down their faces in disbelief

"I begin to see Ryoga's justification..." Kuno observed dryly, knowing that even if it were just over lunch bread, he would certainly wish to thrash someone who bested him so flagrantly, and soundly at that..

"Did you ever think maybe you were taking it a little overboard, Ranma?" Nabiki asked, although that was more for form, as she certainly wouldn't let someone who she had an edge over win like that...her merciless fleecing of Kuno was a testament to that.

"Hey, it's not like I was just letting Ryoga starve! He went right back and got something else afterwards, because he was the best brawler in the school... he just wasn't good enough to beat me!" Ranma squawked, giving Nabiki a mild look of betrayal that fell on unimpressed eyes .

"For your information, this goes far beyond bread, Saotome," Ryoga grumbled, superciliously wiping his mouth free of crumbs , his glare at Ranma only redoubling in intensity as he heard Ranma's take on their 'rivalry'.

Ranma simply gave him an innocent stare in reply. "Does it really?" he asked, his brain already beginning to ache in anticipation of another rummage through the proverbial mental back rooms.

"Of course it does!" Ryoga hollered at full blast, making some of the students that had carelessly gotten close to him clasp their hands over their ears.

Lunging to his feet, Ryoga grabbed his umbrella and responded to Ranma's put upon, "So what is it now?!" with a shout of "Don't play dumb!" before stabbing at Ranma with the bamboo implement.

Ranma shot backwards across the ground, performing a sort of high-speed roll that he turned into a handstand-spring to reach his feet before leaping up into the air, with Ryoga hot on his proverbial heels. "Come'on, tell me what this is about!" Ranma entreated, wanting to just get this whole thing over with so he could go back to the Tendo house, kick his dad around and have another Kasumi cooked dinner.

"Because of you, Saotome, I've seen Hell!" Ryoga roared, swinging his umbrella at Ranma like a club, only for Ranma to dodge with a lean backwards.

They both hit the ground on their feet, with Ranma turning back to face Ryoga. "I wish you'd just talk to me...coherently" Ranma added, since Ryoga's next rejoinder only proved Ranma's jab.

"As if mere words could convey my suffering!" Ryoga scoffed. He flicked his umbrella open and once again threw it at Ranma like a boomerang.

Nabiki began to make a mental list of how many times Ryoga used certain lines. It already wasn't short, and with depressing foresight Nabiki had a feeling that it would only get longer if Ryoga stuck around

This time, Ranma evaded it by leaping upwards and backwards, disappearing from view behind the crowd of students watching this sudden battle.

As the shaft of his umbrella slapped against his palm, Ryoga cursed and rumbled out loud. "I missed him!" And charged into the crowd, who parted rapidly before his latest bullrush. Without hesitating, Ryoga ran up the steps into Furinkan and right through Furinkan. As in, literally through the school's front floor!

The sounds of destruction echoed out to the dumbfounded students as Ryoga literally plunged headfirst through solid concrete walls, crushing desks and chairs underfoot as he ploughed on, screaming Ranma's name in the process.

Gawping at the sight of so much destruction, Nabiki turned back from the gaping hole Ryoga had torn through the front doors to see Ranma, standing only feet away from her and looking as bemused as she felt.

"Sheesh, where's he going? Is he lost again?" Ranma wondered aloud.

Minutes slowly ticked by, the sounds of destruction having faded into nothing, and the students began to drift away, none of whom were eager to call the teachers and get blamed for this. Nabiki went over to Ranma and put her hand on his arm. "Come on, Ranma; let's go home."

"But, Ryoga-" her fiance protested, not wanting to run from a fight.

"He's obviously lost by now - and if he took four days of constant searching to find a vacant lot behind his house, he's not getting back here any time soon," she calmly pointed out, much to Ranma's chagrin.

Ranma gave a manly display of discontent... or, rather, pouted like a little kid who just got told he couldn't play with his friend. Lucky for him that Nabiki thought he looked cute whilst doing so. But finally after a couple moments of stubborn heel digging, he nodded and allowed his fiancee to lead him back to the Tendo Dojo.

Ironically, as Nabiki was doing that, Ryoga was standing in front of the Tofu Chiropractic Clinic, staring dumbfounded at the panda sweeping off the front porch with a broom. Such was his shock at having literally run into the creature that it had managed to momentarily chase all thoughts of Ranma from his mind. Especially when it grinned at him and waved, as if it knew him somehow...

"Mr. Saotome? Do we have a visitor?" Came a voice from behind the panda's fuzzy bulk. A figure stepped around the creature, revealing itself as a handsome older man. "Why, hello there; I'm Dr. Tofu Ono, and this is my clinic. Can I help you?"

Ryoga instinctively shook his head, and then stopped. "Saotome!? As in... Ranma Saotome?"

"Oh, you know Mr. Saotome's son? I haven't met him yet, but Mr. Saotome tells me he's a fine young man - heir to the Saotome School, no less," Dr. Tofu said, still smiling in a genial manner .

...There was so much wrong with that sentence that Ryoga didn't know where to begin. But, this provided him an opportunity... "Do you know where Ranma Saotome is?"

"Why, he lives at the Tendo Dojo, with his fiancee, Nabiki Tendo. Would you like the address?" Dr. Tofu asked him, thinking this was nothing more than an out of town friend trying to reconnect with Ranma.

"Oh, yes, please! It would be so helpful!" Ryoga said, a grin spreading across his face that almost made Tofu pause. Finally, a bit of good luck! Now that he knew where Ranma lived, he would find that slippery little coward, and make him pay!

Later that evening...

Ryoga did his best not to make too much of a mess as he wolfed down the food that his hosts had so generously shared with him.

It had been far too long since he'd had a home-cooked meal, but he still had his manners. It had been so humiliating when he'd walked into the town hall in that little village in Shikoku - for the second time since he'd stopped that wild boar, no less! - but this was so good it was almost worth it.

"Poor young'un... By the looks of it, y'all must be halfway to starving!" said the village headman, still boisterously happy to see the hero of his village even after having feasted his own self earlier. "Lissen, why don't y'all forget about Tokyo and stay with us in this here village?"

Ryoga nearly choked on his rice at the very idea , but managed to swallow the mouthful. "No way! I'm sorry, I absolutely cannot! There's something I have to do in Tokyo!" he protested. He thought about springing up and returning to the hunt for Ranma... but, truth be told, he was exhausted. It'd been a long, long couple of days. "Though... is it okay if I stay the night? I promise I'll just set my tent up somewhere that I won't be in the way..."

"A tent!" scoffed the headman. "Now, you lissen here, boy; you done saved this village from cranky ol' Ino, so y'all can stay right here tonight, y'hear me?"

"You're very generous, sir," Ryoga replied, sighing in relief. Then, a thought struck him. "Though... can I trouble you for some paper? I need to send a letter..."

At the Tendo Dojo...

"So, you saw Ryoga while you were at work, pop?" Ranma asked in between bites of Kasumi's latest dinner, his manners already noticeably improved between a 'diet' of positive reinforcement of more food from Kasumi and smiles from Nabiki, and negative reinforcement of hand smacks from Soun and Akane..

"That's right; he ran into me whilst he was running through the streets looking for you. I see he still couldn't find his way out of a closet," Genma replied sardonically, never having been impressed with Ryoga even when he and Ranma had been in school together. For all his faults, Genma was a firm believer in a martial artist always having situational awareness.

"That reminds me, pop; did Ryoga and I have some kind of fight going on besides that bread duel?"

"...Not that I can recall," Genma replied, after a moment's thought. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, he was acting really weird; he's super mad at me, but he insists it's about more than just the bread, and I sure as heck don't remember us having anything more to duel over than that!" Ranma explained, gesticulating for emphasis whilst keeping his chopsticks near his food in case of fatherly raids.

"Well, he never was the most reasonable of kids," Genma responded pensively. "I still can't believe you wouldn't let us go until the morning of the fourth day..."

"Hey, it was a man-to-man promise for a fight!" Ranma protested sheepishly, blushing slightly at the universally raised brows of the whole Tendo household.

"So, will Ryoga be coming back?" Nabiki interjected, in a small display of support to get the heat off Ranma's...less than sensible approach to appointment keeping. "Think we can get another little show together for the kids at Furinkan?"

She was already imagining scoring another few months worth of allowance when Ranma cleaned that loser's clock in front of everybody and the mischievous leer on her face made her father both amused and worried about his middle child in equal measure.

"Uh... yes and no?" Ranma finally replied, shrugging hopelessly. "I mean, ticked off as he was, I figure he's going to keep coming back until we settle things. But with how screwed up his sense of direction is... well, I got no way of knowing when he'll show up," he elaborated apologetically.

"Figures..." Nabiki sighed. Oh, she knew she could probably whip up some kind of betting on the fly, but if she'd been able to set things up beforehand, she would have been raking in the money!

Chapter End & Closing Notes

Now, this chapter will seem kind of short to people compared to the previous ones. In fact, originally, it was much longer, covering Ranma's first official duel with Ryoga as well as the introduction of P-chan. But, well, life and length have been conspiring against us, so we decided that a split would be in our best interest.

We can't be certain when the next chapter will be out, so we'll make no promises in regards release date. But we are working on it as hard as we can, and we'll share it as soon as possible.

Incidentally, those who've watched episode 7 will notice some... discrepancies... between it and what I describe going down in this chapter's first half or so (as there was in the Ryoga stuff in the last chapter). Beyond the tweaks to account for the different relationships laid to ground in this fic, there's also the fact that Ryoga's arrival in Nerima is actually one of the series earliest plot-holes! See, we have absolutely no idea how Ryoga figured out that Ranma was at Furinkan, nor how he learned he was at the Tendo Dojo, never mind how he sent Ranma that challenge letter that Ranma gets in the start of episode 8. So, I took a few liberties to try and explain how it was that those things came to be. Hopefully, they don't detract from your enjoyment of this fic!