THE PATH TO A COLD HEART: RANMA VS KENICHI

Warning: This takes place straight after the D and D tournament saga from the kenichi manga, and takes place after the end of the Ranma Manga. It contains heavy spoilers and will not make much sense if you are not up to date on both mangas.

EDIT: People have been thinking that Kokin got off easy at the end, so I've had to include some minor spoilers from the next chapter, which looks at the fight in more detail. (And yes, you are right, in a fair fight, Ryoga would probably win, but who said anything about fair?)

CHAPTER 3: RYOGA GOES TO SCHOOL

"Hey Takeda, did you and Ukita make it?" asked Nijima

"Nah, man. We both failed the entrance exam."

"Oohh, tough luck. Maybe next year." He replied.

Just then, the bandana clad boy and his girlfriend walked past.

"I'm sooooo happy for you Ryoga!"

"Aww, c'mon Akari," Ryoga blushed, "the only reason I got any of the questions right was because you helped me study."

Nijima didn't care about any of the mushy stuff. He sensed an unusually high fighting spirit coming from the boy. 'This needs investigating' he thought.

He turned to Matsui.

"Keep an eye on that one," he whispered.

.

"Alright, class," announced Kyoko, "I have some very exiting news. We have some exchange students this year. Please welcome them."

Nijima and the rest of shinpaku were shocked to see that the exchange students were very familiar.

"This is Tirawit Kokin, from Thailand."

The tattooed blond boy bowed slightly.

"This is Boris Ivanov, from Russia."

The serious looking one saluted.

"And these are Rachel and Ethan Stanley from America."

The Big guy and the girl waved at the audience. Rachel's wave being more extravagant, as while she was waving she blew a kiss at Ryoga, and got a dirty look from Akari."

Kyoko turned to the principal.

"Any news on those two Chinese boys?"

"Not yet," he replied.

.

Ryoga was walking down the hall, when he saw a group of large men attacking a small guy. The boy with the tattooed face from the ceremony was among them.

Ryoga didn't care if he was new; nobody attacks the weak while he's around.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he shouted.

"Huh, some kid's trying to play hero. I'll leave this to you guys." Kokin said, and walked away.

The other guys squared Ryoga up. He smirked.

Kokin tuned round in time to see Ryoga dispatch the last delinquent. 'This guy could be a problem' he thought, and walked down the hall to his first class.

Ryoga left to go to his class.

Nijima was watching from the shadows. 'Extraordinary!' he thought. 'This guy's as strong as Kenichi.'

.

Nijima entered class and spotted Ryoga. He sat directly behind him.

Two big guys came up to Ryoga and Nijima.

"What are you two doing in our seats?" asked one of them.

Boris, who was previously unnoticed by Nijima, came over.

"What's wrong here?" he asked gruffly.

"Those two boys stole our seats!" replied one of the big guys.

Ryoga stood up.

"I'm so sorry, I thought it was free. I'll go find another seat."

"Just a second, small fry. You ain't getting out of this one so easily." Threatened the delinquent.

Nijima slithered away.

Boris stepped between the big guys and Ryoga.

"NO FIGHTING IN CLASS! Ryoga Hibiki, go find another seat. You two, sit down and SHUT UP!"

'Some first day.' Thought Ryoga.

.

At recess, Ryoga met up with Akari on the roof of the school.

"That Rachel girl is so annoying," she said. "I can't believe she made a pass at you! She's been chatting up every boy in my class. I swear if I see her again I will hit her so hard…"

Akari was interrupted by a door being kicked open. Rachel and Ethan were standing behind it.

"I heard that, you bitch!" shouted Rachel.

Rachel then ran towards Akari and kicked her in the stomach. Akari fell to her knees, and coughed up blood.

Ryoga grabbed Rachel by the collar.

"What did you just do? WHAT DID YOU…"

Ryoga let go and backed away.

"I..I'm sorry"

He couldn't believe he had just shouted at a girl so aggressively.

Ethan grabbed his sister.

"Jesus, ever heard of restraint? You almost blew our cover." He whispered.

"She deserved it." Rachel replied.

"Get back in the school, I'll clean up this mess. Yami won't like this."

Ethan watched Rachel run back into school teary eyed, the turned to Ryoga.

"I am so sorry. You'll have to forgive her, she thinks she can do what she wants. If she gets insulted, she gets angry."

"Yeah, I knew a girl like that. Her name was Ranma."

Ryoga and Ethan each took one arm and carried Akari to the nurse's office.

.

Ryoga was sitting on the bench outside the main entrance. Kokin walked past, but stopped, and turned to Ryoga.

"Wait, you're the boy who defeated all those karate goons, aren't you?" Kokin asked.

"YOUR karate goons." Ryoga corrected.

"Well, how about a real challenge them. You seem pretty strong, so I want to challenge you. Me and you, in the woods over there, right now."

"Your on."

.

Ethan, Rachel and Boris waited for Kokin after school. He finally appeared, but he was clutching his stomach in pain.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, "that bandana clad boy was too strong to ignore, so I fought him and left him in the forest. Damn is that boy is weird! He almost beat me, and just you wait until you hear what happens when he get's wet…"

"You're unusually talkative," commented Rachel

"Damn it!" shouted Ethan." "Between Rachel hurting that girl and this, we'll take out the whole school at this rate!"

"Relax," said Kokin, "He's alive, but dead as a martial artist, if you know what I mean."

As they left for the limousine to YOMI HQ, Boris stared at the wall behind him. 'I could have sworn I saw the shadow of an alien' he thought.

To Be Continued…