Chapter 6

In a second-year classroom, during the break between first and second period, Tatewaki approached Nabiki at her desk.

"Tendo Nabiki," he addressed her in a solemn manner, "I would have a word with you."

"And to what do I owe the pleasure?" Was Nabiki's sweet-sounding response, made complete by the fake smile that graced her lips.

Tatewaki ignored her attitude and asked, "What more can you tell me about this dragon?"

"You mean..." She held up a photograph of said "dragon," who wore a baby doll nighty and posed suggestively on a large cushion. "This dragon?"

"Oh!" Tatewaki gasped, before taking the photograph. He held it up to his face to "study" it, his hands shaking.

"Perhaps you can identify her better if you saw her from more angles?" Suggested Nabiki, who held out two more photographs.

Tatewaki accepted them, and they quickly joined the first. While he stared at them raptly, he muttered, "So carnal... Such passion!"

"And only five-thousand yen," Nabiki said without missing a beat.

Tatewaki complied without thinking, and money exchanged hands. It was only then that he realized how he had been sidetracked. He coughed behind his fist, as if it would somehow recover his dignity, and said, "Now, about what I have asked...?"

"I've already told you all that I know," Nabiki patiently replied. "The 'pigtailed girl' wore a dragon outfit that had been sent to Ranma, and now she's stuck in it."

"I know that much, Tendo Nabiki," Tatewaki stated, with a hint of annoyance. "Obviously, it was Saotome's intention to trap her from the very beginning."

"Of course," Nabiki sarcastically thought to herself. "Obviously."

"What I meant," Tatewaki pressed on, "is of a more personal nature." He planted his hands on her desk and proceeded to ask, "Where is her lair? What is her weakness? Her favorite color? Her favorite food?"

Nabiki had seen this coming, but she couldn't help wondering what his answer would be to a certain question. So, she asked, "But, isn't the love between a man and a dragon unthinkable — nay, forbidden?"

Tatewaki stood up and snorted derisively before he turned his head away and said, "What do you know of love, Tendo Nabiki? Love cares not for whom or what it strikes. One would be so lucky to have it stoke the passions of one's heart, tending to its flames in the stead of the cold chasm that is loneliness."

Nabiki blinked and thought, "That was actually decent, coming from him."

"Which is why, when I felt the fire of her passion envelop me, I knew what I was feeling in an instant: it was love!" He tucked his arms in front of himself and looked up, toward the heavens, his fists shaking with emotion and his eyes shedding tears. "Surely, it is a cry for release! No one would ever desire to be aligned with that cruel enslaver of women, Saotome!"

While his outburst received odd looks and comments from his fellow classmates, Nabiki raised her hand to her brow, sighed, and thought, "I should have known."

Once she recovered, she looked up at Tatewaki and evenly posed, "But, what about my sister, and the 'pigtailed girl?'"

"Worry not!" Tatewaki assured her, his arms akimbo. "Though I'm sure it would be a challenge for a lesser man, I simply cannot break their hearts. I shall love them all equally!"

"So, you're challenged in more ways than one," Nabiki concluded.

"Did you say something, Tendo Nabiki?" Tatewaki inquired, regarding her with a hard look.

"Oh, nothing," Nabiki said as she turned her head away, sounding as if she had lost interest. "Just thinking aloud to myself."

Two shadowy figures quickly settled themselves into a tree that overlooked a certain school's soccer field, and it wasn't long before they spotted their quarry among the students that were gathered and deciding the members of their teams. The tree wasn't as close as they would have liked, but it had been the most convenient to reach inconspicuously, in addition to offering an agreeable amount of cover.

Sailor Mercury, whose left earring was currently sporting an arm that extended across her cheek and functioned as a headset, pressed the other earring to make a special piece of eyewear appear, which resembled visor sunglasses. She focused her attention on their target, since said target stood out like a sore thumb, and asked, "So, is that who you saw in your vision?"

"I'm sure of it," replied Sailor Mars.

Since Mars had only seen the school as a viable location to find the girl in her vision, they had no choice but to check it out during school hours. It had been a stroke of luck that all three of their schools shared similar time slots for lunch, which made excuses for sick leave — or outright skipping class — avoidable. However, only two of the senshi had been sent out for the reconnaissance mission: one to confirm the target, and the other to collaborate information with Luna, who was stationed at their secret headquarters underneath the Crown Game Center. Of course, if they were to run into any trouble, the others could arrive at a moment's notice.

Mars squinted her eyes, finally caught a good look at the girl's face, and thoughtfully said, "It's strange, though. She has the tail and the horns, along with everything else, but I don't see any wings and her eyes look normal." Her brow furrowed as she added, "More importantly, I don't sense any evil coming from her."

"Luna," Mercury spoke into the microphone of her headset, "are you receiving the same readings as I am?"

While Mercury listened to Luna's answer, Mars continued to watch with a critical eye. The crowd of students in the middle of the playing field had just dispersed and found their assigned positions. She noted that, aside from the girl playing as a center forward, she was also the only female playing in the game. Moreover, however, was the fact that no one found it strange for a girl with horns and a tail to be among them.

"Yes; I agree," Mercury said. "Something doesn't add up."

Mars glanced over at Mercury and asked, "What is it?"

"There's definitely something odd about her, aside from the obvious," Mercury replied, as she watched the girl in question. "Not only is she not registered as a student at this school, but I can't get any clear readings."

"What do you mean?" Mars inquired.

Mercury turned to her, indicated her eyewear, and said, "I can't get any conclusive information about her because the readings are inconclusive. The numbers keep fluctuating at random. I can't even measure her height, which doesn't even make any sense; it should be impossible."

"Is it some kind of interference?" Mars queried. "Do you think she infiltrated the school and is using some kind of power to avoid being detected for what she really is?"

"It's a possibility," Mercury conceded. "It's just a matter of whether we decide to watch and wait, to see what she does, or confront her."

"I see," Mars replied, before she returned her attention to the girl in question. She was currently running down the field, alongside a teammate who had the ball.

"She wasn't the only odd thing that was discovered at this school, though," Mercury informed Mars. She removed her glasses, handed them to her companion, then said, "Luna, bring up the file that you found in the student records."

Mars donned the glasses and watched as information was transmitted to her from the computer at their secret base, showing a file for one "Saotome Ranma." The first thing that she noticed was that there were two photographs, instead of one: one of a boy, and the other of a girl. While there was enough of a resemblance for them to be siblings, it still didn't make sense for them to share the same file; especially considering the fact that all of the information pertained only to the male of the two.

"Scroll to the bottom," Mercury instructed. "A special field was added to his — or her — file."

Mars did just that, and it read, "Curse: becomes a girl when exposed to cold water. Hot water reverses this effect."

She read it again, to make sure that she had read it correctly. Then, she turned to Mercury, removed the glasses, and regarded her with an incredulous expression on her face. "It's not just some kind of prank?"

"That's what I thought, at first," Mercury replied, frowning. "However, Luna just discovered a possible correlation between this girl and that file. While we couldn't establish any numerical data on her, Luna was able to take a snapshot when I got a close look of her face. She noticed a similarity between her and the girl in Saotome Ranma's file, and compared them."

"They matched?" Mars inquired, her eyebrows raised.

Mercury nodded her head. "Their facial dimensions were a perfect match: the nose, the jaw... everything. The computer was able to match them one-hundred percent."

Mars looked confused. "But, what does—"

Both senshi were startled when they heard a sudden — and loud — popping sound. When they turned to look at the only person that was of interest to them, they found her rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, and appeared to be in the middle of an apology. In front of her, on the ground, was the soccer ball, which lay flat on the ground, void of air.

"She must be pretty strong," Mars noted, and received a silent nod from Mercury in response.

On the field, Ranma had just offered to fetch a new ball when a familiar voice announced, "I wen' got yo' replacement, keiki!"

Ranma, sensing danger, looked up and saw a pineapple that had been painted to look like a soccer ball heading toward her. She leapt out of the way, more out of concern for her clothes than herself. A few others, who had been standing nearby, hadn't been so lucky to get away when the pineapple exploded.

"What was that?" Mars wondered aloud, alarmed but ready to act.

Mercury donned her glasses once more, at Luna's behest, since witnessing the action for herself would be better than relaying the situation verbally as the events unfolded.

Back at ground zero, where the pineapple had exploded, a voice from within the cloud of smoke said, "So, it' true what dey say."

Ranma crossed her arms in annoyance and watched as the smoke cleared, revealing the school's principal in all of his Hawaiian-themed glory. He stood there, ready to strike, with clippers in his hands.

The principal pointed at Ranma and exclaimed, "You give 'em an inch, an' dey grow all ovah you, yeah!"

Among the audience that had gathered around the field to watch, a girl turned to another and whispered, "Is that what they say?"

Wanting to avoid a confrontation with him altogether, Ranma decided to play innocent. So, she posed cutely and said, "Oh, but I'm not one of your students..."

The principal laughed, good-naturedly, before suddenly becoming serious again. With a dangerous glint flashing from the corner of his sunglasses, he said, "Is dat so... Saotome Ranma?"

Shocked, Ranma took a step back and uttered, "What?"

The principal suddenly looked confused, and relaxed his aggressive stance. "Oh, so dis kahuna heard da rumors right?"

"Er..." Ranma voiced, who began to mentally berate herself for giving herself away.

"Oo-tah!" The principal exclaimed with surprise. "So you wen' got dat sex change from da dragon!"

"Say what...?" Came Ranma's baffled response. "No!"

Among the buzz of conversation that erupted around them, one student turned to another and said, "I thought he had been experimented on by aliens."

"I heard it was exposure to radiation," the other student replied.

"No, you're thinking of Godzilla," someone corrected them.

Akane, who had just arrived with Ukyo in order to see what the commotion was all about, wondered, "What is everyone talking about?"

"Eidah way," the principal spoke up, as he raised his weapons once more, "you're gonna lose dat hair!"

Before the principal could attack, however, someone cried out, "Ah! The horny girl!"

Ranma turned around, with a look of disbelief on her face, and groaned when she saw Tatewaki running toward her. He opened his arms wide and declared, "My heart has heard your cry for release! I come, anon!"

Since she didn't have the presence of mind to blast him with her fire breath, she punched him in the face — out of reflex — and yelled, "Do you have any idea of what you just said!?"

Tatewaki stumbled back a few steps, with a confused look on his newly-injured face. "What do you mean, horny girl?"

"I mean that!" Ranma shrieked in alarm and exasperation. "Everyone'll think I'm some kind of pervert!"

She looked around and saw everyone scrutinizing her with a critical eye, and she could tell what kind of conclusion that they were arriving at.

"No! You've got the wrong idea!" She shouted at them, while she waved her arms about frantically.

"An openin', yeah!" Declared the principal, who took the opportunity to attack while Ranma was distracted.

However, despite being distracted, she still sensed him in time to dodge his attack. The principal found himself lunging toward his son instead, who had intercepted him and blocked his clippers with his bokken.

"'Ey!" The principal greeted his son, as if nothing were wrong. "How's it hangin', Tacchi?"

"You..." Tatewaki muttered darkly, as he loomed over his father. "What are you trying to play at!?"

Tatewaki took a swipe at his father, but he danced away from the arc of his blade with ease and laughed as he did so. Ranma, seeing an opportunity to take care of them both, hopped over to Tatewaki's side and looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"Horny girl?" Tatewaki questioned, out of concern, and got walloped over the head for his trouble.

Acting as if Tatewaki hadn't just said "horny girl" again, and thus having hit him in response, Ranma looked back up at him imploringly and plaintively said, "Oh, Kuno-sempai! It's terrible! He's trying to cut my hair!"

"What!?" Tatewaki screamed in outrage, before turning to face his father. "I won't allow it!"

While father and son duked it out, Ranma slipped away to join Akane and Ukyo. Once she reached them, she sighed with relief and turned around to watch the fight.

Akane looked askance at Ranma and smirked. "I bet you can't wait to have your signature pigtail back."

Ranma shot her a cross look.

"Why not put your hair into a braid?" Ukyo suggested.

"Probably wouldn't make any difference," Ranma grumbled in response. "Knowing him, even if I covered up my horns, he'd likely call me 'lizard-tailed girl,' or something like that."

Tatewaki, who had been close enough to overhear her, drove his father away long enough for him to tearfully shout, "Oh, horny girl; I'm touched by how you know me so intimately!"

In response, Ranma dropped her head in defeat. Akane, feeling that she had suffered enough, stepped over to her side and rested a hand on her shoulder.

Ninomiya arrived upon the scene a moment later, with a bit of drool at the corner of her mouth, having been awoken by the explosion moments before. She noticed Ranma's massive battle aura, but the fight between the principal and his son was what drew her attention, since the dragon girl's battle aura was what seemed to be its "resting" state. So, she took out a five-yen coin and approached them.

"Fighting during a period of fun and relaxation..." She muttered, her eyes narrowed on her targets, before holding up the coin between her index and middle fingers. "You must be delinquents!"

Both Kunos paused to regard her, when they heard her voice, but it had been too late to do anything more than that before they felt their energy being sucked away. In a matter of seconds they were completely drained, and left to drift away in the breeze. Ninomiya, now an adult, tossed her hair aside in a dismissive manner as she watched them leave the immediate area.

With that done, she looked over her shoulder, spied Ranma, and purposefully made her way toward her. The serious look on her face was a cause of concern for the redhead, so she prepared to take defensive measures against her — just in case.

Once Ninomiya reached her intended target, she suddenly smiled brightly and said, "I'd like to thank you for the ride you gave me earlier, Saotome."

"Huh?" Came Ranma's intelligent response. "Oh, uh... You're welcome?"

And, just like that, it was over. However, after only taking a few steps away, Ninomiya tossed, "perhaps we can do it again, sometime," over her shoulder.

Ranma watched her leave, but only until she noticed the looks that she was getting from everyone around her. Akane and Ukyo, in particular, were emitting some rather dangerous vibes, which gave her a bad feeling.

"What?" She challenged them, suppressing the nervousness in her voice as she did so.

Ukyo wielded her peel threateningly and glared at her as she deliberately said, "That must have been some 'ride.'"

"What are you talking about?" Ranma replied, confused.

From behind her, she heard Daisuke angrily mutter, "When a sexy woman says something like that, with that kind of smile, it can only mean one thing."

"You sex fiend!" Hiroshi exclaimed, before he leapt upon Ranma's back and wrapped an arm around her neck. "What about my dreams!?"

"What about 'em!?" Ranma angrily retorted, before slipping out of his grasp. Upset by what everyone was thinking about her, she faced them and shouted, "It wasn't like that! And, besides: we were both girls at the time!"

Akane booted Ranma toward the sky and shouted, "That isn't any better, you pervert!"

Ranma was launched into the distance, as expected, but she didn't mind: she had allowed it to happen, after all. She was still upset, of course, but at least she didn't have to deal with any more nonsense for the time being. It gave her some time to cool down and think about what had happened. Before that, however, there was one thing on her mind that she felt needed to be addressed before she lost the opportunity to do so. So, she summoned her wings and controlled her descent back toward the school.

Back in a certain tree, where Mercury and Mars remained perched, the sailor senshi in question watched — in silence — as the girl who had just kicked away their target began to stomp her way back into the school building, who was followed by an equally-irate girl who had a peel strapped to her back. By the time they were gone, the other students began to go about their own business, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. Even despite the fact that a little girl had drained two people of their energy, like so many of their enemies had done, and became an adult in the process. No one had batted an eye; they had simply taken it in stride.

"Mercury," Mars spoke up in a controlled tone, "did all of that just happen?"

After Luna finished expressing her own disbelief on the other end of her headset, Mercury said, "As unbelievable as it all was, I believe so."

"But," Mercury went on to say, to both Luna and Mars, "at least we have a good lead, regarding her identity. If she really is Saotome Ranma, then we won't be restricted to watching her during lunch."

"Why watch when we can talk?" A new voice suggested from behind them.

Mars and Mercury looked over their shoulders, and they were surprised — and a little alarmed — to see the very subject of their conversation as the source of the voice. Said subject had her arms crossed beneath her bosom, and wore a frown upon her face. More importantly, however, was the fact that she was flying. The wings in Mars' vision, that had been absent before, had shown themselves.

"Well?" Ranma prodded, when they failed to respond quickly enough. "Can I help you with something?"