There will be: language, nudity, sex, violence, death, and rather detailed descriptions of such. I'm an adult, and a writer. I revel in the coincidence that I'm also an adult writer.

I only own what someone else does not.

AN: Oh, I believe this gauntlet is yours, Lordsfire. Nishishi.

Chapter Seven

With all the things that had changed in the last small while, Ranma could honestly say that she felt she was doing alright keeping up with adapting. One of the smaller, more trivial examples of this was her recent fondness for Pocky.

Most of those that had filled out her acquaintance over the last three years would scoff at that idea, but the truth of the matter stood. Ranma preferred small snacks through the day to glutting herself like her father, but had no qualms against eating anytime the offer presented itself. Living on the road for years had taught her the value of eating when one could and not questioning it, something she doubted many of her current classmates could relate to. Like most teen girls Ranma had been around, the girls of Class 3-A tended to think about their figure quite a lot, but paid less attention to their nutrition in the trade-off. It was a trend she had found personally rather tiresome, but as she made little attempt to interact with her classmates as a whole, didn't affect her directly.

Munching on her second stick of Pocky since locking her apartment with a quick sealing ofuda much to Konoka's interest, Ranma took a measure of her stock of sweets and nodded to herself. Patting at the cargo-style pants she was wearing, she hummed in thought before deciding she would be fine. Four boxes should get her through the afternoon without too much loss of energy.

Pocky wasn't her first choice, of course, as there were better options to replenish her body's energy while she practically starved it of ki, but most had drawbacks of some sort. A lack of portability, being too sweet, or too messy, packaging that was annoying to deal with, etc. Pocky came in its own little boxes that fit nicely into the pockets of her baggy, roomy, sturdy pants, could be nibbled on without drawing too much attention, and was available everywhere from vending machines to the student commons within Mahora itself. Plus, she thought she looked kinda cool with one caught in the crook of her mouth. Content with her current selection – Almond Crush – she made a note to send a box to Hinako-chan at some point in thanks for reacquainting her with the snack. The little teacher would probably be happy to hear from her, and know that she was actually doing well in school this time around.

Peering over at her companion, Konoka fretted with her hands slightly, a thoughtful frown on her face as they crossed into the main courtyard before Ranma's off-campus apartment. "Um, are you sure this is alright? Me following along like this?"

"Nah, it's nothing to worry about," the cursed redhead assured her, idly toying with her mala as she considered the sun's position in the sky while nibbling a bit more of her current stick of Pocky. It was a lie, most likely, but one she hoped to mitigate as best as she could in the coming few days. The beads clinked dully, as if they weren't quite as awake as the young woman running them through her fingers out of recent habit, or perhaps weren't as sure as the redhead about her hopeful thoughts.

The string of beads regardless caught Konoka's attention as she stood nearby. "If you don't mind me asking… you seem rather attached to that," she observed, indicating Ranma's left hand and the string of carved jade beads, each as large as a her smallest fingernail, wrapped in a deliberate sort of pattern around her odd friend's hand.

Ranma regarded the mala for a brief moment before smiling distantly at it. "Yeah, you could say that. On one hand it's a memento from some good friends I made, after things had gone really wrong in my life.

"On the other hand, it's also the only thing that lets me walk around like a normal person anymore," Ranma blithely explained, causing Konoka's eyes to open widely. "Those wings I promised to explain? Without this, I wouldn't be able to walk around like I am now. This string of beads – my mala – seals that side of me away."

"And you're going to explain that when we get to McDowell-san's? The wings?"

"Yeah," Ranma agreed, sparing Konoka a rueful smile as she ran her thumb across the jade crisscrossing her palm. It warmed slightly at her touch, and she could faintly feel it vibrate against her skin. "Thanks for being patient about me explaining things. I had to do this once a few days ago, and seeing as I have to do it again today anyway… well. It takes a bit, and can be a chore."

Konoka considered the distant, almost wistful look on Ranma's face and smiled softly. "It's fine. You must have cared for them very much."

Ranma laughed quietly at that, looking about herself as the two of them passed a few landmarks she'd memorized, highlighting the path she needed to take. She estimated they were just under halfway to Eva's place. "They were a blast. A bit rough around the edges even compared to me, but they knew how to have fun and weren't shy about dragging me along for the ride. Could say I got a bit carried away," she noted before snickering to herself at some inside joke. "Even though I only knew them for a short while, they were a great help. I've never had friends that… unconditional, I guess."

The Kyoto-born girl's expression fell slightly at that. "You… had a rough time growing up, didn't you?"

Nodding wordlessly, Ranma let nothing she felt about that question show on her face. "Yeah, but it could have been worse," she finally offered. "It could always have been worse."

It was a handful of minutes before conversation began again between the two; one lost in thoughts of the past, both good and bad, the other wondering if she was truly ready for what she feared would be revealed soon. "Um… Ranma-san? About Suzu-chan… what is she, really?"

"Heh," the martial artist favored the blushing girl at her side with a sly grin. "You've been just busting at the seams wanting to ask about her all morning, haven't you?" Getting a shy nod in reply, the redhead snickered again. "It's fine, really. I'm going to introduce her to Eva here soon, but I won't really need to explain much to her, so I guess it's fair to tell you as we walk." Reaching up, Ranma touched the origami bee resting in her hair with a fond gesture, where the Shikigami was currently napping to conserve her energy.

"Does that mean," Konoka murmured quietly, brow knit cutely as she connected some dots in her mind, "that she already knows about you? Or just Suzu-chan?"

Ranma thought about that question and realized she'd revealed a bit more than could be considered proper, considering current circumstances. It was forbidden to admit to or demonstrate the supernatural oneself, but telling about another's connections and capabilities was rude beyond measure. Still, Konoka had been witness to not just her own display of prowess the previous day, but also a small sample of Negi-sensei, her roommate Kagurazaka-san, and even Chachamaru's abilities. At this point, it would be best to head the girl's questions off with a solid dose of explanation, rather than let her bumble around and possibly get roped into anything dangerous… or, considering who her roommate was, stupid. Not that Ranma considered Asuna unintelligent, despite her status as a 'Baka-Ranger', but it was clear she'd made some bad choices in this area already.

The last thing the martial artist wanted was her recent friend to get dragged into some idiot scheme involving magic and get hurt. She didn't care about the brat-teacher's plight, or even the looming threat of the Dean's disapproval in that regard; Konoka had wormed her way into the cursed redhead's heart, despite all Ranma had done to shore it up and keep it locked away in a prison of ice. Denial had always been one of her best defenses, but clearly with her ki as haywire as it was and with the Soul of Ice a double-edged sword at best, she had little hope of pushing Konoka away, unlike her previous attempts with the fiancées.

Not that she was in the same situation with Konoka. One awkward day at work hiding in a closet while a couple had loud and very aerobic sex just outside of it as they shared a moment of personal vulnerabili—

"Gwah!" Redfaced, Ranma turned and slammed her forehead into a nearby light pole, dislodging a bit of debris to rain down in a small cloud of dust, a startled flight of birds to take to wing from the nearby trees, and her companion to squeak in sudden terrified surprise at the redhead's erratic behavior. Previous thoughts dislodged, she coughed into a fist and offered a wide-eyed Konoka an awkward smile. "Sorry, zoned out there for a moment."

"I… see…"

"Anyway, you asked if Eva knew about this stuff," Ranma waved about her vaguely, before continuing. "Basically, I can say she'd know what Suzurin is and some of my own circumstances. It's not my place to say more than that, really.

"As for Suzu, you've heard some stories about Shikigami before, yeah?" Seeing the Dean's granddaughter nod, Ranma continued. "Well, most of what you'd read in a manga or see in anime comes close to the mark. There are nature spirits that inhabit the world around us, invisible most of the time and unable to directly affect the world, but a fundamental part of it.

"Most of the time, they're simply referred to as minor kami, the little gods that make up the world," Ranma explained, tucking her hands behind her head as she nibbled her current stick of Pocky down to the base. "There are the spirits we would call yōkai as well, but honestly they're not much different than the little kami – it's all about perspective and intent."

Konoka nodded, the theme familiar from one of the anime she was currently fond of. "Spirits helpful or uninterested in people's lives would be the little kami, while those that cause people problems would be considered yōkai."

Nodding, Ranma turned her head and grinned at the girl. "Yeah, you got it. There are a few hard lines there of course – spirits that are specifically dangerous get classed as yōkai as a rule, and those that are always beneficial are always kami. People like their dividing lines and all.

"Anyway, these spirits can be called to take a physical, solid form," the martial artist continued, snapping out a piece of sealing paper with a flick of her hand into her sleeve. "Using personal ki or the chi of the world if they're good at that kind of thing, an Onmyōji can either bind or invite a spirit to take a form. The energy builds a body for the Shikigami, and part of it is kept as a sort of payment that they take back with them when the summon expires.

"Back when I was learning this stuff, I did that with a young wasp kami. Of course, I screwed it up and overdid it a just a little bit, and she came out the size of a town car."

Konoka, who adored Suzumebachi, regardless had the usual fear of all things that sting, and paled dramatically at the idea of a car sized wasp. "Messed up… a little bit? Town car?!"

Shrugging, Ranma nodded, ignoring the girl's discomfort. "Yeah, it was embarrassing, but she was my first summon you know? Still, after we hashed things out and came to an agreement, she's been my personal Shikigami since. Doesn't hurt that I keep a good supply of apples on hand."

Ranma produced a calligraphy brush with her other hand, and quickly scratched out the word for 'wasp' on the slip of paper she'd produced earlier. "An Onmyōji is someone who utilizes the principles of traditional Buddhist and Shinto mysticism to do the supernatural," the martial artist pointed out, as a clarification. "Some people boil it down to just yin and yang, but they also use the Five Elements Wheel, martial arts, mudras, mantras, Eastern astrology, and like a dozen other things. Basically, it's Eastern Magic, not that I like calling it that."

"You seem to dislike magic quite a lot," Konoka murmured wryly, desperately trying to put the horrifying idea of a rampaging wasp that could literally carry someone off out of her mind.

"Oh you have no idea," Ranma agreed, biting down on the bit of wafer that was left of her Pocky rather savagely before fishing another out of her pocket. "It's why I'm stuck needing to seal myself, why I have this gender-flipping curse, and why it's gotten completely out of hand. Not to mention about a dozen other random things that've gone wrong in the last decade or so.

"But yeah; I don't like magic. I'm great with ki, and don't mind it at all – it's natural, you know? Magic is just wrong. Nothing good ever comes from it."

Konoka frowned at those words, as well as the fact she'd missed where Ranma kept pulling and storing all these random things from again. "Well, what about good magic? Like wishes?"

Ranma's eye twitched faintly. Taking a deep breath to calm her sudden spike of irritation, the redhead looked around at her surroundings, noting they were passing into the more forested outskirts of the area Eva lived. It was another of the off-campus housing areas, but this one was more upscale than her own with actual houses rather than apartments. Alumni that continued on at Mahora, college students, and permanent residents that could afford the costs were the usual residents, Ranma figured, considering the expense that such luxury demanded in Japan. Still, it seemed that like the Kantō Magic Association had intertwined itself around Mahora like a vine; here too Western influences could be found as if they were the norm.

A part of her found that fundamentally distasteful, which brought her back to Konoka's inquiry. "To answer your question, wishes are dangerous. I almost had my sense of self erased and replaced with a fawning, brainless, sex-toy because some jackass who couldn't take no for an answer and had more ego than common sense got a wish one time."

Shocked at her friend's sudden venom, Konoka stopped dead in her tacks, eyes wide. "Oh… oh I'm so sorry, that's—"

"Forget it," Ranma interrupted, shaking her head to dislodge the unpleasant memory surrounding that debacle, and what she'd done to mitigate and complicate it. "It's in the past, and nothing you should be sorry about." Running her hand through her hair, the redhead sighed. "Look, I guess someone could wish for world peace or an end to hunger, but let's be realistic Kono-chan. People aren't that selfless. They have wants that they put before the people around them, all the time. Wishes like that would never get made.

"Besides that, let's think about how that kind of wish would play out. I'm not saying every wish out there is a Monkey's Paw waiting to happen, but after a while you see a pattern in how magic works. It twists things, corrupts them. Maybe it's human nature coming out in it, but I think it's just how magic is.

"I'd never wish for world peace, because I'm too afraid of magic twisting that wish into something horrible," she explained quietly, looking out over the path behind them. The roadway had turned uphill slightly some time ago, and the view over Mahora was quite pretty, despite the dark turn of her thoughts. Distantly she could see the lake surrounding Library Island as it reflected the midday sun, and the World Tree's many branches swaying in a breeze that didn't quite reach them so far away.

"Wishes like that are too much of a risk," she continued after a moment's pause. "Who's to say it wouldn't get misinterpreted it into killing off anyone or anything that would ever fight, or just stripping away that instinct? Of course, considering nature is all about a fight to survive, the chain of predator and prey, what would that mean?" Ranma let the light of horror build in Konoka's eyes as she realized where she was going with her explanation before making her next point. "Same thing with world hunger, you know? Would it be easier for magic to just make enough food for everyone and everything on Earth, or kill enough of people so that it didn—"

"Stop, just… stop." Konoka begged, head down with her hair hiding her eyes. She shook faintly as what Ranma didn't say circled about in her head like angry birds. She had no idea her friend had such a hard life; has suffered so much that she'd her point of view had twisted into something so cynical. She'd had hints of course; Ranma was worldly, compared to everyone else she knew her own age. There was a weight to her presence that didn't allude to someone who'd walked a hard path, but screamed such a proclamation from the rooftops. When she'd asked about wishes, she was thinking of things like out of fairytales, bedtime stories, and the happy idle musings of her childhood. Wishes were the foundation of fantasy; you made a wish to be a princess, or a warrior, or to be a hero. It was the crux of childhood, the cornerstone of imagination. To hear her friend had suffered so at such a thing; that she had been forced to consider that innocent idea of a simple want being magically fulfilled so critically left her feeling like someone had punched her in the stomach. She hurt for her friend, and maybe worse, she hurt because a part of her realized that in keeping this friend, she'd loose something tenuous and vital that she'd treasured for so long.

A part of her was terrified that this cursed girl before her would turn her world into a place that was stripped of the rosy hue she'd lived in so long. Part of her was exultant that she'd found someone that would rip away those glasses so she could see the world beyond them clearly.

Some of her innocence had been lost the other day, but in truth that was an innocence she would have one day happily shed regardless. Intimacy – sex, she reminded herself – was something that was not only natural, but something she would someday do herself. Of course she wasn't thinking about it yet, not seriously at least, but she knew one day it wouldn't be the fantastic musings of a teenaged girl, but something real and visceral poised to irrevocably change her life. That she'd had someone to lean on, even if it was somewhat strained, had been a comfort she couldn't express at the time. She was grateful to Ranma; grateful that she was brutally honest, that she didn't seem to handle her like she'd break like so many others, that she would simply welcome her into her home without a second thought even if the cost could have proven impossible to pay.

She was no fool; she understood much of what Ranma hadn't said. Whatever was going on recently was something people shouldn't know about. Konoka wasn't sure what the cost of breaking that rule was, but considering how deeply the situation seemed to be rooted – with Negi-sensei and Eva-chan, and Ranma's tacit admittance that her grandfather was involved by pointing out his test – she had worried that it would be something terrible. Would they punish Ranma for being so open to her? Would her grandfather be angry? What about her father?

And she knew, deep down, that with the way her life was and how people treated her, that all the consequences of her stumbling on this hidden world would fall back on her new friend. Her friend that had already suffered so much, that had lived a life that left her with such a jaded view of the fantastic that she couldn't even think something so simple as a wish could be good.

It broke her heart.

Ignoring all sense of personal space and propriety, Konoka launched herself at the redhead as she stood transfixed by her tears and clenched teeth. Tackling Ranma she clung to her and sought the only comfort she could at that moment – the ready and unconditional arms of this enigma named Ranma Saotome.

"I'm sorry," Konoka muttered blearily, sniffling. "I always seem to end up crying on you."

Ranma said nothing for a moment, instead choosing to look up at the sky from where she'd served as cushion for the distraught girl in her arms. Faintly, she noted that Konoka smelled slightly of soap and peaches; probably her shampoo, mulled by the scentless type she favored, she mused. Running her hands along Konoka's back to sooth her as best she could, Ranma sighed. "I'm sorry I upset you—"

"You didn't upset me," the sniffling bundle in Ranma's arms muttered crossly, shutting her up instantly. "I should be thanking you. It was just… sometimes the things we realize aren't easy."

Reaching up, the redhead smoothed Konoka's hair with a tentative hand. "Still. I feel like I should say I'm sorry."

"Then be glad," Konoka murmured into her shoulder before sitting back, smiling a watery smile down at the tense young woman beneath her. "It means you're kind. I like that about you."

Ranma looked up at the girl resting on her hips; it was a position that on any other day she'd be mortified to be caught in. At that moment, however, she just smiled. "I think I can manage that."

"Good," Konoka murmured, blushing slightly as she herself considered their rather compromising position, and how natural Ranma's hands fit along her hips where they'd fallen. For a moment her mind's eye swapped the image below her to that of her cursed friend's male form, then back to the blushing, glazed-eyed redhead she'd shared a moment with only a day before. Then, before she could shake the images away, she was staring down at the shyly blushing face of her beloved friend, Setsuna—

"Ojōsama… please. Be gentle."

"Gwah!" Konoka scrambled off of Ranma as if she was made of fire, her face doing a fair impression itself. A faint portion of her mind not frantically trying to think of anything else recalled a similar situation just a few minutes ago, involving a red-faced Ranma and a light pole. Despite herself the similarity caused her to giggle, as she looked back at her confused companion as she got up and dusted herself off.

Ranma, for her part, just blinked at Konoka as the girl reinforced that age-old truth she'd come to grips with back in Nerima; girls were strange. Instead of worrying on it too much, she fished out another stick of Pocky. "Um, you ok there?"

"Yes," the Dean's granddaughter answered after another fit of giggles, her emotions clearly still on a hair-trigger after yesterday's revelations and those of the night that followed. It made her feel silly, but then, she tended to feel that way anyway sometimes. "I was just thinking we're not so different at times."

Clearly confused, Ranma didn't argue the point – it wasn't that she disagreed, but she just didn't think she knew what Konoka meant. Arguing for the sake of arguing wasn't something she let herself do anymore. "Hmm, if you say so."

Her smile turning secretive and sly, Konoko tucked her hand into Ranma's. She noted how even in a female form, it was larger than her own, warm, and lacked the softness of her own hands. Ranma's were the hands of someone who reached out and grabbed life, ignoring the struggle and how rough it was. Ranma's hand felt safe.

She liked it.

Ranma occasionally peered at their joined hands as they walked the last little distance to Eva's home, but she didn't move to reclaim hers from Konoka's grip. She also noted with some mild exasperation the clinking coming from her left hand – where he mala was wrapped – that sounded suspiciously like chuckling if one listened closely.

"Pervert oni," she muttered quietly, if fondly, before more firmly clasping Konoka's hand.

The house that Ranma's directions lead to was a small cottage style home, with a brief deck and a sharply angled roof. Rustic but austere, it seemed to fit the diminutive girl in the martial artist's mind, as she considered their previous meetings. Eva always seemed to give off an air of being older than her appearance, and something about a Western-styled dwelling just fit the blonde girl's image.

Ranma pushed aside her nearly-instinctive knee-jerk reaction to such thoughts, burying that prejudice somewhere it could be called up and vented later, on more appropriate targets. "How well to you know Eva, Kono-chan?"

"Hm," the girl in question considered the question for a moment before shrugging. "She's been in our class for years, I guess, but I've only rarely spoken to her outside of it. She keeps mostly to herself, or in the last few years, with Karakuri-san. She seems friendly with a few people, like Hakase-san, but I've never spent much time with her."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it," came a familiar voice from above them. Ranma knew what she'd find, but regardless peered up to the overlooking balcony set above the home's small deck. Leaning on the railing there stood the diminutive form of their classmate, Evangeline K. McDowell, her blonde hair nearly blinding in the sun, contrasting the black dress she wore that seemed to practically suck up the light near her. The effect was somewhat dizzying Ranma noted, on a clear day at noon. "I'm not so easily offended. Your grandfather practically forbade me to speak with you, not that I really care for his little demands."

"Um…"

Eva waved off Konoka's discomfort, her smile a slight thing with a cruel edge. "If you're both here, it seems that Ranma's pulled you into something entertaining." Turning, the blonde opened made to step back into the door behind her, but turned and peered over her shoulder. "Well? Don't stand out here all day – come in."

As the upper door closed, Ranma couldn't help the snort of amusement that escaped her. "Yeah, should have expected that. Anyway, let's not keep the brat waiting," matching words to actions, the redhead pulled Konoka along behind her, the other girl's nervousness making her hesitate for a brief moment before Ranma's determination swept her onward.

The inside of Eva's home proved little surprise to Ranma, having seen a number of different styles of architecture on her travels, while at her side Konoka peered curiously at the accents and little touches that made a house a home. The two slipped off their shoes and made their way inside to find Evangeline sitting at a table in the main room, with Chachamaru at her side. "Well, I can't honestly say I'm surprised that Ranma's managed to tangle someone else up in her mess, but that she'd catch the Dean's granddaughter?" the seemingly younger girl stifled a laugh behind her hand, but the sharpness of her gaze was lessened not at all, "Fufufu… I knew you'd make waves, but this? This is absolutely grand."

"Have a seat," the blonde offered, her mirth clear in the smirk she continued to wear. "Chachamaru's tea is some of the best at Mahora."

Slumping into the wide couch across the table from Eva and Chachamaru, Ranma scooted aside to allow Konoka room as well. The couch was a massive squashy thing that was difficult for Ranma to get comfortable on, as she sank some distance into the cushion. Definitely something her previous teacher Hinako would like, but not to her own preference at all. Grimacing, the martial artist rearranged herself, much to her host's quiet amusement. "Speaking of Chachamaru, you ok? After yesterday?"

Her metallic 'ears' perking slightly, the robotic girl nodded to Ranma's question, the gesture softening Evangeline's expression slightly as Chachamaru poured the two guests tea. "Yes, I am doing quite well. I had expected once hostilities commenced with Springfield-sensei, that I would accrue some significant damage. However, thanks to your intervention, such damage was minimalized."

"Glad to hear it," Ranma replied shortly, sparing the artificial girl a slight smile, before turning to their host. "Alright, obviously some things have changed since yesterday. I wanted to keep my meeting with you, but I also promised Kono-chan here an explanation about some things. If we can, I'd like to combine the two."

Eva hummed as she sat, her glass of tea held against her lips. The slight steam of the tea's heat wafted before her face, but she showed little reaction to it, as her stare was steady and measuring. "Hmm. As I said before, Konoe wanted me to keep my distance from his precious granddaughter. However," she countered, smiling toothily over her cup at the cursed martial artist, "I can hardly be faulted if one of her friends has her tag along, and things that are discussed that he's already agreed to, are simply said in her presence."

"Sneaky," Ranma noted, with a grim smile. "I like it."

"Um," Konoka peered between the two, knowing she was missing something critical, and feeling that it had something to do with her grandfather. She had some small issues with the older man, mostly in how he seemed to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in setting up marriage interviews for her, but that was something she could tolerate as long as it remained a casual sort of thing. Currently, they had an understanding in that regard; Konoka would continue to attend the Omiai her grandfather arranged, but no lasting arrangements for marriage would be made. She'd made it quite clear what her father's view on such things were, and despite her grandfather being head of the Konoe family, her father Eishun made it a point that the old man's influence was to extend only to education.

Looking between Eva and Ranma, she could tell that neither of them shared her mostly positive view of her grandfather. "That is, Ranma's not going to get in trouble for this, will she…?"

Eva considered the question with a raised brow, before laughing quietly again. "Oh, you are a precious little thing. No, all things considered I doubt there will be any significant punishment leveled against Saotome. However, this will likely incite your grandfather's ire."

"Meh," Ranma replied, as Konoka worried at her teacup. "The old man doesn't really scare me. I've seen – and fought – older."

"I wouldn't consider the abuse of the elderly a virtue, Saotome," the blonde countered, earning her a glare. "But regardless, you have little to really worry on, all things considered. He could hardly argue the point of exposing his precious granddaughter to magic, when he himself appointed that magi brat Springfield to the post of teacher for her. Then, of course, there's the rest of 3-A…" she mused, clicking her tongue in mild annoyance.

Konoka blinked at that, confused until she considered how she'd hardly suspected Ranma to be something out of the ordinary till the other day, much less her teacher, or her roommate Asuna for that matter. How many others in her class were just as different? Clearly her grandfather knew something, and if she wasn't mistaken with how her memories were beginning to show, her father was in the thick of it as well. "Who else in our class?"

Eva clicked her tongue again, sipping her tea as she regarded the young Konoe with a disparaging glare. "Not my place to say, or inclination to do so. Sufficed to say, neither that brat teacher nor your new friend are wholly unique among your classmates, or Mahora in general."

Mahora in general…? "What? You mean the entire—"

"C'mon Eva, don't tease her so much," Ranma groused, setting her tea down with a rough 'clink' of abused china. "It's not like she's not going to figure it out soon enough anyway, and I'm not about to screw with the one good friend I have, keeping a bunch of secrets that don't matter in the long run."

"Oh? Is that so? And you don't worry at all about Enforcers coming and giving you a fur coat?"

Ranma sneered at that, waving the smaller girl's implied warning aside. "If they come, I'll deal with them." Turning to the confused Konoka, she continued in a less confrontational tone, "What Eva's beating around the bush about, is that Mahora's the center of a Magic Association. It's based here."

"And your grandfather is warden of the asylum," Evangeline cut in, earning her a cross look from Ranma. "Specifically, Konoemon Konoe, your grandfather, is head of the Kantō Magic Association. Which is a curious situation, as your father, Eishun Konoe, is head of the Kansai Onmyōdō Association."

Konoka stared at the small blonde that had shared her classes for years, her mouth seemingly developing a desert climate suddenly. Finding it hard to breathe, much less swallow the sudden knot of something lodged just above her heart, the young woman bent forward as she worked to keep her focus. It wasn't to be.

Some while later, Konoka awoke to the feeling of a gentle hand slowly combing through her hair and the unmistakable feeling of a lap beneath her head. Unusual, however, was the amount of muscle she could feel sometimes coil and tense beneath her when her unnamed pillow shifted. Keeping her eyes closed for the moment, she listened to the conversation going on just above her.

"…mean that he didn't tell me that on purpose?"

"I doubt Konoe would risk you becoming involved with what is essentially a rival faction," the cultured, if foreign, inflection belonging to Evangeline responded. "Regardless, you came to Mahora for information about your curse; as much as Kansai would have been a better fit for your current abilities with their greater breadth of knowledge dealing with Eastern Magic, they would be essentially useless in that endeavor."

A terse sigh ruffled her bangs, as the hand idling in her hair paused, the fingers tensing for a moment before resuming their soothing motion. "I guess you're right," Ranma replied darkly, confirming Konoka's guess about who's lap she was currently resting on. Regardless, she kept her breathing even and her eyes closed, unwilling to relinquish her comfortable situation. "Goemon did send me here, not Kansai. It just irks me, you know? Having things like that kept from me. What if one day I want to learn more about Onmyōdō? I doubt Kansai'd let me just waltz in and use their libraries if it was known I was working with old man Konoe here."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Eva countered, the catty smile Konoka imagined she wore evident in her voice. "Things have come to a moderate calm these days. It's been twenty years since there were open hostilities, though that doesn't mean the two get along at all. At most, there are unofficial skirmishes here and there, at best, a tense sort of cold war." There was a 'clink' of a teacup, before Evangeline continued. "There's also new developments to consider… I mean, you do have a lap full of the head of Kansai's daughter. I think that would be good for something, at least."

Again, Ranma's hand tensed, this time shaking in annoyance as well. Stifling the urge to reach up and take that hand, Konoka waited instead. She wanted to know what Ranma would say to Evangeline's taunt. Wanted to know more than she honestly felt should be reasonable, with how her chest suddenly felt tighter, her stomach seemingly full of angry moths.

"You think I'd use Kono-chan like that?" There was a quiet, vicious edge to Ranma's words that had she not been focusing on keeping her breathing even, would have made her gasp. "I know her dad's the head of Kansai now, but I'd never use her like that."

Evangeline chuckled at Ranma's reply, and Konoka could practically feel the blonde's eyes on her. "Well, I'm sure she's quite happy to know that, considering the blush she's currently sporting."

"Eh? Eh! Kono-chan?"

Jerking upright as if she was spring-loaded, Konoka sat up with a sudden lurch that left her hair falling about her face and shoulders in a disheveled mess. She ignored it in favor of trying to get her traitorous emotions back under control. "Sorry, I was still a bit dizzy," she lied, gulping down great lungful's of air to steady herself. "How long was I out?"

"Just a few minutes; nothing to worry about," the blonde girl replied, dismissing her concern with her usual disdainful tone. "You didn't miss anything of consequence. Saotome and I were simply discussing matters irrelevant."

Looking between the two, Konoka frowned but kept her peace on whether she believed that. Instead she shoved the conversation into a place she wasn't so uncomfortable, with the kind of tact she'd grown used to coming from Ranma, "Well, that's good. I'm still waiting for my explanation, though."

"Heh," Ranma laughed quietly, shaking her head. "Guess that means it's my turn.

"I'd start at the beginning, but that'd be boring. I can sum up about the first ten years of my life with one word: training. My father, he was a damn good martial artist. Probably one of the best in the world, but he knew there were things he lacked. I didn't know it on our training trip, but there were things he was doing with me, that'd he'd done years later himself, knowing that starting me off early would only give me a stronger foundation to work with.

"One of the things he did early on was unlock my potential for ki." Looking over to a rapt Konoka, Ranma chuckled quietly. "Kono-chan, do you know what ki is? Really is?"

Shaking her head, the young woman replied, "I only know what anime and the manga's I've read have said about it. Most of the time they just leave it as a mystery."

Ranma considered Konoka's most likely exposures to those media before beginning to explain. "The best way I recall being taught about ki, was that it was the energy of life in motion. It's the vital spark in living things that's both fuel and product of simply living.

"However, you can cultivate it. You can work your body and mind for years, and find that epiphany where they meet. Once you do that, you can begin to actively harness the power of your spirit, and the strength of your body."

Peering down at her hands, Ranma took a deep breath, losing it in a shaky sigh. "That way takes years. Sometimes decades. There are masters out there that have been refining their Art for their whole lives, but they might never touch their ki.

"There is, however, one almost guaranteed way to bring someone to that point where they can feel their ki, and it becomes something more than just that mysterious something else inside you. Usually people forget it about it after, or just write it off as adrenaline, but a martial artist that's been studying would know," Taking a deep breath, Ranma faltered, her hands shaking again. Glaring down at them, the martial artist practically snarled at the physical sign of her weakness. "You hear about it sometimes. People get put in danger, or find the people they care about threatened. Fathers ignoring fires to save their kids on the top floor of a burning building, coming out without so much as a scorch mark. Wives peeling jammed car doors off to get a husband out of a wrecked car."

Ranma fumbled at her pocket, finding her snacks but with her shaking hands, breaking the one she'd pulled out. "Damn it," she muttered, tossing the two halves onto the nearby saucer with her tea cup. "Pops figured he'd kill two birds with one stone," the cursed girl continued, eyes distant in memory. "He'd found something about an unbeatable technique, a sort of ultimate style shortcut. If I'd been older, maybe I would've talked him out of it, but I was maybe six. I didn't know how stupid his ideas could get then. He was my Pops – he was making me the best. I already had a record of beating nearly anyone but the heads of Dojos by that point, so I had no reason to distrust him

"So, we tried his shortcut," Ranma managed between clenched teeth. She hated remembering this, hated it more than anything. She would gladly face Herb, Happosai, Khu Lon, even Saffron again rather than remember this. "It didn't work the first time. Or the fifth time. But, eventually it did… as well as it could.

"I went berserk. Nearly killed him. I was covered in blood and filth and turning everything he put between us into kindling. Eventually I just ran out of steam, but my head… I wasn't driving anymore, if you get where I'm coming from." The cursed martial artist ran a hand through her hair, taking a shaky breath. "Eventually I calmed down, and Pops stitched me up. From then on, it was easier. I could always feel this well of energy inside me.

"Pops got distant after that. I think he knew he'd screwed up, bad. But, we never stopped training. From then on it took a steep turn, and where before I was just running for endurance, now I was carrying a hundred pounds and taunting wolves with raw meat while outpacing them and their flanking maneuvers." She ignored the incredulous and horrified looks she was getting, chuckling at the memories.

"That's pretty much the trend from that point forward. Push my limits constantly, never let up, turn everything into a training exercise. Eating became speed and precision training; if I was slow or couldn't aim my chopsticks, I went to sleep hungry. When I was asleep, he'd throw things at me, so that I'd learn to subconsciously keep track of my surroundings. Walking was awareness and balance, since he was always ambushing me somehow." Seeing the girl's confusion on that, Ranma elaborated. "He knew I'd get used to him doing it, so he'd piss off people in the towns we were in, and aim them my way."

Konoka didn't know how to feel about what she was hearing. On one hand, it was horrifying. But, just looking at Ranma, she could tell these were happy memories, for her friend. Somehow. She didn't understand, but worse, she had no idea how to react. Sparing a glance at her classmate Evangeline, she gained nothing; the blonde was simply staring at Ranma with the same calculating look she seemed to always have.

"Well, up till Jusenkyo, anyway," Ranma groused. "One of my friends later, who lives near the springs, explained how she thought they worked, but the Dean mentioned they were… I think he called then an engine of death and transformation magic."

Evangeline's gaze sharpened at that. "Death magic, he said? Not Shadow or just dark, but specifically Death Magic?"

Ranma nodded, eying the blonde. "Yeah, he was aware of them."

"I've come across references to Jusenkyo in passing, in my studies," the smaller girl offered, gaze hooded as she nibbled at her thumbnail idly. "The pools there are fed by a spring that's charged by some mechanism, leaving them lacking a fundamental balance. They draw at the life force around them, causing people and animals to drown.

"Once the pool has a victim, from then on, anything that falls into that pool becomes cursed so that they change into the form of the thing that drowned. Cold water would activate the curse, while warm would for a time, change the victim back."

Again, Ranma was subject to Evangeline's gaze, her blue eyes too sharp to belong to someone so young. "This would be your cursed form?" Seeing Ranma nod, the small girl sighed leaning on her hand. "I see. And this is the form with the ki imbalance. That would make sense, then."

"How so?"

"As you probably guessed from your little spat with the Springfield brat, I'm the 'vampire' of Sakura Lane," the diminutive girl explained, getting nods from the two girls. It had definitely come up during the aborted fight between Negi and Chachamaru, and both had been there to hear the accusations and allegations that the teacher and Asuna were working under, as well as the instigator Chamo's urgings. "What's important about that, is that it makes me a magical creature. I can sense magic with much more precision than a human mage. What I noticed about you that day over coffee was that your uncursed form, your normal body, has a much higher potential for magic than I would have expected."

Ranma hissed at that, shaking her head in denial. "No, that can't be right. No one's ever said anything like that before. Why would that be true; how could you even tell? I was supposed to show you the curse today, since you've not seen it work. How can you say something like that without even seeing it?"

Evangeline spared the distraught martial artist a flat glare before her gaze softened. "I can see the flows of magic in you, how they move, and the shadow of your normal form."

From beside Ranma, Konoka reached over and tentatively laid a hand on the clenched fist of her recent friend. "Ranma, please… relax. Maybe there's an answer here."

"Indeed," Evangeline murmured. "When your curse became erratic and nothing seemed to help, you then used the heated waters of Jusendo, correct?" Seeing the redhead nod, the vampire clicked her tongue. "So many things all playing with this one strand of magic. No wonder it's become so tangled.

"I don't know what the heated pure waters were meant to do, but the result was clear. They took what potential you had, and drastically accelerated it. As it was a supernatural effect, it began with the supernatural in you – your ki. This excess of ki in your cursed form required a balance, even if it wasn't an obvious one," the diminutive blonde surmised, leaning forward over her peaked fingers. "The curse itself follows a given pattern; things that interfere with it, have to pay a price to do so. A balance must always be maintained. To offset the curse being 'stubborn' as I believe you described it to the Dean, your natural form was invested with more and more potential for magic. This potential allowed the curse to strengthen, essentially."

Furrowing her brow in thought, Ranma came to the most direct solution she could with the material given. "If I could remove that potential, it would counter the curse? It'd stop being so hard to trigger either way?"

Eva tilted her head back and forth, considering the martial artist's drastically minimalized summation. "Perhaps," she allowed, before holding up a hand to forestall Ranma's excitement. "Or it could permanently lock it. Without some potential for magic to affect you, the curse cannot function. All things have a minimal amount of magic within them, just as all things possess ki or chi."

With a terse sound, Ranma stood and began pacing. "So, what can I do?"

Evangeline spread her hands out before her. "With this much? Nothing. We need to run tests before we know anything for certain," the little vampire declared, an unholy light entering her eyes. "Now, I think it's time to see this curse directly!" Clapping her hands, she began laughing quietly, which didn't last long before she was cackling madly while rubbing her hands together.

Ranma stared back at the little vampire and wondered if perhaps a lifetime as a girl with wings wasn't such a bad thing after all.

It was nearly dark when the two girls emerged from Evangeline's home, and neither looked unweathered from the experience. "Worst. Day. Ever," Ranma muttered, swaying on her feet slightly before catching her balance. Her hair resembled something birds had attempted to nest in, there were water and other stains on her clothes, and a pallor about the redhead that spoke of bone-deep weariness.

"Do you think there are any vampire hunters in our class?" Konoka asked with an uncharacteristically sharp tone from Ranma's side. "I mean, I'm sure she was just trying to help – wait. No. No, I don't actually believe that at all."

Despite the amount of pain and weariness she was currently dealing with, Ranma chuckled at Konoka's ire. "It's fine. Really. I get what she was trying to do back there."

"Oh, I do as well," the Dean's granddaughter agreed with cold evenness. "I've never seen someone make such a convincing argument for the promotion of vampire extermination before, really."

Reaching over, Ranma wrapped an arm around her irate friend and began the long walk back to her own apartment. "Don't worry about it, Kono-chan. Eva was a bit rough, but I'm happy for it. If she can figure something out from all that, that could help me, I'd gladly do it again."

Konoka spared her slightly punch-drunk friend with a gimlet eye. "You are doing it again. On Wednesday."

That brought the martial artist up short, her expression turning from one of dawning relief, into one of dawning horror. "W-Wait, what? When did I agree to that?!"

"I think it was half an hour into that session when she had you strapped to a metal table," Konoka recalled, her expression more severe than Ranma had ever seen. "You know, where she kept spraying you over and over with boiling and freezing water, with the electrical probes clamped to your… er," the girl lost her composure there, as her mouth caught up with her memory and there was a general fault in the interface between the two. "Your chest," she finally managed, looking away with a twitching eye.

"Oh. I don't even remember that part."

Konoka twitched. "Still… I suppose if she does have anything to offer after this…"

Ranma shook off what memories she did have of Eva's… testing… to try and calm her friend down. "Look, it's alright. That wasn't even on my top hundred bad things list."

"That does not make it better!"

Sighing, the martial artist turned Konoka to face her. "Konoka. Listen. I knew Eva was something of a monster going into this. You learn to pick up on the little details that tell you someone's a sadistic witch that only gleans some measure of personal satisfaction and worth from the suffering and embarrassment of others after the kind of things I've dealt with.

"Despite all that, she's also a six-hundred year old vampire," Ranma reminded the girl whose eyes she was peering into, seeing the hard edge of righteous fury dim as she spoke. "She's got enough experience to know what she's looking for, and how to find it. If there's some chance of there being a way to fix my curse, then yeah; I'll go back. I'll go back a hundred times."

Konoka loosed the thread of her anger, feeling small and helpless without it to bolster her. "But… she hurt you, Ranma. You were screaming…"

"Sometimes you have to hurt to keep going forward," the martial artist dismissed, far too easily, the Dean's granddaughter decided. "Besides, we got more out of it than just some stuff I don't remember and tests about my curse, right?"

"Perhaps," Konoka murmured, looking away. "I understand what's going on now, at least. And I have an idea what my father is so worried about, here."

"And…?"

"I know what it means to be a mage, and what secrets I need to keep," she grudgingly admitted, clutching at the massive tome she had clutched beneath her arm. She had only the most rudimentary understanding of the broader scope of that simple statement, but that was why she'd be returning with Ranma on Wednesday as well. It was also why she was carrying the book Evangeline had lent 'Ranma' on magic. That Evangeline had gleefully pointed out she had quite a lot of potential herself was a shock. That Ranma had asked, on her behalf, for a book that was a good primer for a beginner was even more so. She knew how poorly her friend felt about mages.

Ranma, however, was not done making her point. "And?"

Konoka raked her mind for what else the redhead could mean, before realization dawned. Drawing in on herself a bit, Konoka murmured, quieter, "and maybe a way to approach Secchan."

Nodding, the martial artist relented. "Knowing that your dad runs the Kansai Onmyōdō Association puts some things in perspective. With her being part of the Shinmei-ryū, I can guess she was probably training back when you two were kids, since I know they're based back in Kyoto."

"You've worked with them? As a martial artist?"

Laughing quietly, Ranma shook her head in a negative. "Oh no, not at all. Pops had a list of martial schools we would not challenge or try to learn the techniques of. Your friend's is one of them."

Konoka blinked in confusion at that. Considering what she knew of Ranma's father from her stories, it didn't make sense. "But why?"

Peering up at the sky Ranma hummed in thought. Here, some distance from the campus, she could actually see the stars… it was nice. Maybe she'd come up some when it wasn't just to visit Eva to stargaze some. "I used to think it was because they were an armed style school. Pops didn't want to focus on weapons, and actually only let me learn what armed styles I know to make counters for them.

"Now, I wonder," the martial artist murmured, clenching her left hand in muted, distant anger. Some of the things that the little vampire had said, when she'd learned it was the Neko-ken that Genma had subjected her to, made better sense. She was just glad the brat had waited till Konoka was out of the room to mention them.

'Possession,' she mused angrily to herself. If the Neko-ken had worked the way it was supposed to, she would have had a cat yōkai bound within her, created by all the suffering, death, and desperation of the hundreds of cats involved. If the technique had created that yōkai, but she hadn't been strong enough to resist its control, it would have destroyed her mind and made her little more than puppet shell for an evil spirit of Genma's making.

The only thing that Genma's botched attempt had managed to do, however, was imprint on her a cat-themed berserk state, a phobia to trigger it, and unlock her ki. Considering the usual blowback from Genma's more elaborate failures, Ranma was actually glad of the current outcome. As she'd told Konoka before – things could have been worse.

Of course, she doubted Genma really knew what he'd done, other than some likely misinterpreted jargon gleaned from the scroll he'd learned the Neko-ken training method from. It would explain why he'd avoided not just the Shinmei-ryū, after that point, but any other well-known demon-hunter families as well. It might also explain why he'd been dodging his wife as well… if one of Ranma's suspicions wasn't a mistake.

Pulling her neglected Pocky box from a pocket, Ranma tore open one of the small packets inside the box, offering one of the snacks to Konoka. "Anyway, are you going to stay the night again?"

Caught off guard, the Dean's granddaughter sputtered and nearly dropped the Pocky she'd just picked out of the box. "I, that is, er… auu."

"It's fine," Ranma assured her, laughing at the girl's stricken expression. "You can have the bed again. I was just wondering."

"I really should talk with Asuna-chan and Negi-sensei," Konoka murmured, having gotten caught up in the wake of Ranma's day. True, she hadn't planned on doing so until after the weekend, but she did plan on thinking on what she'd say. So far, she'd spared it barely a thought since waking up.

At her side, Ranma nodded, "Yeah, but make sure you do it with a clear head. Don't go into it angry. I'm sure they've had some time to cool down, maybe talk with your gramps some." Chuckling, the marital artist folded her hands behind her head with a rueful smile around her snack. "Something I wish I'd been better at when it mattered."

"Do you think they'll listen?"

Ranma shrugged. She wanted to assure her friend that her roommates would see reason, but it wasn't something experience told her to expect. Reasoning with people that had some issue with her never worked in Nerima, and her track record in Mahora wasn't too stellar either, considering her first meeting with the Dean.

As the two were rounding one of the bends that let the lane they were on turn toward the greater portion of the campus, Ranma paused, humming quietly. "Hey, you know? I think I left something back at Eva's." Reaching into her pocket, the redhead took out a box of Pocky, and her keys. "You go on ahead, Kono-chan."

"Eh?" Catching the tossed items while fumbling her book a moment, Konoka blinked in confusion as Ranma turned with a wave and started walking back the way they'd just come. "But—"

"Why don't you give those roommates of yours a call, just to let them know you're alright when you get back? Oh, and be sure to use the key. I don't want you getting zapped."

With that, the martial artist turned around the bend and out of sight, leaving the Dean's granddaughter alone on the lane. The streetlights were bright, but there were patches of dark like faint rungs on a ladder along the way, as the afternoon deepened into twilight. Those lights flickered and steadied as the sun dropped lower, and the winds turned slightly colder against her skin. Above her, the sky turned slowly with a canopy of stars she knew would dim as the campus lights shined back up at them, and in the far distance, she could make out the great dark shadow of the World Tree rising like a brief mountain.

It was a nice night, Konoka knew, and one she'd normally enjoy going on a walk out in. But for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong about it. "Fine," she eventually muttered, rolling her eyes as she started the small trek back to Ranma's apartment. "But I swear you better have a good reason for then when you get back."

Not very distant, the martial artist in question chuckled quietly, leaning her head back against one of the large trees as she did so. "Yeah, yeah, Kono-chan. I hear you," she murmured to the unhearing night.

Those trees she stood beneath were nearly as regular as the lamps that light the way. Old, thick of foliage, and broad of limb, they formed a natural barrier between the lane and the sparse forest those ways contained. They also managed to make a decent screen for the forest, obscuring it from the roads that made up their border. Viewed from the campus, she imagined there'd be little way someone could see along those lanes, due to them. In other words, they made an excellent place for an ambush. Between her lips she rolled a fresh stick of Almond Crush, the last of her current box. Stretching her arms above her, the redhead closed her eyes, grinned, and waited.

She didn't need to do so for very long. Across the way a lone figure dropped from the trees, landing silently and taking a familiar stance as they faced the apparently unconcerned redhead. For her part, Ranma simply cracked open an eye and let her grin stretch into a familiar smirk. Kicking slightly off the tree behind her, she muttered a quiet greeting as she tucked her hands into her pockets, "Took you long enough…"

"Setsuna Sakurazaki."

AN: Yes, you've just been cliffhanged. Yes, the Pocky becomes relevant. No, I'm not making promises about future updates. Yes, this is entirely Lordsfire's fault. Yes, I also wrote this on a whim in a day without any kind of proofing /beta. Nyeh.

Oh, and losing your writing dictionary edits and source materials? Tends to inspire hours of rage.