(a/n) – i'm trying a new section break thing. gonna use this break "..." from now on, except when there's drastic scene cuts maybe.

Emiya Clan – Nerima 13

"Ranma-sama."

The martial artist didn't answer at first, completing the kata's sequence he'd been moving through. Though his movements were precise, they still transitioned from form to form with the fluidity of a dancer. After a few moments, he returned to his ready stance for a heartbeat, then dropped it altogether as he looked up.

Koyuki was perched on the top of the wall surrounding the Tendou's property. He was about to return her greeting when she lifted an arm and pointed towards the main gate...

...and then her arm fell off.

"What the–" He watched as her head turned to look at the fallen limb, the motion causing it to lose cohesion as well and crumble into pieces of... snow. Blinking in confusion, he caught a few pieces as her whole body dissolved into powder, watching the small flakes dissolve into water droplets in the summer heat. He made his way to the front gate and found another Koyuki standing there impassively.

"Uh, hi," he said warily. "Y'know, if you wanted to come in, you could have just hopped the fence and do so. We're used to people just barging in like that."

"I did not wish to disturb the rest of the household," she replied. "However, would it be possible for you to call Akane-san outside? I have a request that would involve the two of you."

ooo

Akane narrowed her eyes as she saw their guest standing out in the yard. She glared at Ranma out of the corner of her eye, but softened the look when it became apparent her fiancé was as confused as she was. She returned her gaze to the snow girl. "How's your arm?" she asked diplomatically.

Ranma's eyes snapped towards Koyuki's side. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed that detail, but Koyuki hadn't exactly been telegraphing her disability.

Her good shoulder shifted almost imperceptibly in a shrug. "I'm not currently in any pain, I anticipate complete recovery within the week. In the meantime, however, I have been banned from performing any strenuous physical activities."

"That sounds boring," Ranma said in sympathy. He could recall plenty of instances where he'd been bedridden after some major fight or another, and had been bored out of his mind each time.

Koyuki nodded, "As the rest of my family is engaged in training, I find myself at a loss as to how I should spend my time." She stared at Ranma and Akane in turn, then looked down, her stance becoming less confident. "I was... wondering if you would like to show me around the city..."

*Twitch*

"Oh, Ranma!" Akane squealed. "Isn't this this something, you've got a girl asking you to take her out and show her around..."

"Uh, Akane... I'm pretty sure that's not what she meant," Ranma quickly spun towards Koyuki. "That's not what you meant, right? Hey, Akane, put down the mallet..."

"Ah," Koyuki's quiet voice interrupted. "I mean for the two of you, together."

*SNAP*

"Oh, Ranma! Even better, you've got a pervert for a girlfriend!" She swung her weapon around like a baseball player, "Ranma no baka!"

She suddenly froze as the force of the swing separated Ranma's head from his body. Even as the two pieces melted into the air, she heard a splash and watched Ranma-chan pulling herself out from the koi-pond. The transformed martial artist wrung the water from her shirt before she retied her belt around her waist with a grumble.

"Good to see you're getting better with that," Ranma-chan said to Koyuki. "But did you have to knock me into the pond?"

Koyuki blushed. "I was not watching where I was aiming," she admitted. "I apologize." She turned back to Akane who was still silently fuming. "Akane-san, please recall our conversation a few nights ago. While I do wish to get to know Ranma-sama better, I do not want to deny you the opportunity as well."

The other girl glared at her for a few moments, then dismissed her mallet with a sigh. "Fine, but I'll be keeping my eye on you. Once the pervert changes back we can go."

ooo

"Can you roof hop?" Ranma was rubbing a towel through his hair after grabbing dousing himself with a steaming kettle and grabbing a spare change of clothes. Akane paused in her stretches to wait for the other girl's answer.

"Ordinarily, yes," Koyuki replied. "At the moment..." she looked at her arm. "I am afraid that would count as 'strenuous physical activity'."

Akane was about to make snide remark, but recalled the snow girl's last visit and how she'd been almost anemic after merely walking to the Tendou's. She kept her mouth shut as Ranma simply nodded.

"Okay, I'll admit I know the city's aerial view better than street level," he said with a wink in Akane's direction. "But I can wing it. Anywhere you wanted to see in particular?"

Koyuki thought about it.

ooo

"A pet store?"

Koyuki nodded and leaned against the storefront. "I like puppies. We have a dog back home, but he was already grown before I was born."

Akane nodded, "Your family's dog must be one of the larger breeds?"

"Primy? Yes, he is... quite large." Koyuki gently placed a hand on the glass opposite a tiny puppy holding itself up. "It is always so interesting to see them so small..."

"Dogs aren't so bad..." Ranma made sure to keep the two girls between himself and the front entrance. Pet stores tended to carry the most evil of creatures and he wanted to make sure there was no chance one of them could escape and assault him. "Now, cats on the other hand..."

Ranma's sentence was lost under the sound of screeching tires and a small bell chime. The two girls spun around to find him bowled over by a bicycle, the rear wheel still balanced on the back of his head.

The rider waved merrily at them, "Nihao!"

Akane growled and rolled up her sleeves, "Shampoo!"

Koyuki settled into rigidity, her face not betraying her emotions.

Ranma groaned and picked himself up, idly brushing at the treadmarks covering the back of his shirt. "Whaddya want now, Shampoo?"

"Shampoo come so airen can ask out on date, of course!"

Ranma frowned and dropped an arm casually across Akane's shoulders. She bristled, but he pretended to ignore it. "Didn't you learn anything after our wedding attempt? I'm not gonna take you out on a date like that."

Koyuki's shoulders slumped slightly at his statement.

"Besides, I'm already booked for the rest of the day," he continued. "Me an' Akane are showing Koyuki around the city since she's new to the place."

The cat girl glanced at the snow girl through narrowed eyes. "Shampoo know New-Girl. How is arm?"

Koyuki stared back at her impassively, "It will heal, Shampoo-san. Thank you for your concern."

Ranma looked back at the flat tone of her voice, then turned to face the amazon. "What's that about?" he asked her.

"Is nothing," she replied. "New-Girl challenge Shampoo. She lose, just like Violent-Girl did."

Akane threw off Ranma's arm, "Wait one minute, you broke her arm!"

Ranma blinked, "Wait, what?"

Shampoo tittered, "Shampoo not know New-Girl so weak. Airen should choose better wife. Shampoo best wife over these two."

Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Shampoo..."

"Airen no worry, Shampoo already asked by... Great-Grandmother to not pick on weak girls." She cast another narrow-eyed glare at Koyuki, "Now if Weak Girls wanted to challenge Shampoo again, of course Shampoo will answer."

"That may come in the near future, Shampoo-san," Koyuki said quietly. "Once my injuries have healed I will begin training so that I may answer your properly."

"Good. Shampoo look forward." She turned back to Ranma, "Now, airen, is time for date, yes?"

Akane stepped forward, "Enough! He is not taking you on a date, so leave now or I'll make you leave!"

Shampoo grinned wickedly, "Sound to Shampoo like challenge."

Ranma placed a hand on Akane's shoulder to calm her down, "Uh, Akane..."

Akane threw it off angrily. "Yes! That's a challenge! Now get out of here before I–"

In a sudden blur of motion, Shampoo was off her bike and behind the Tendou, her hand raised and pointed in a knife-strike to the back of her neck.

Akane barely sidestepped in time, the amazon's nails scraping across her cheek as they passed. She dropped into a sweeping kick, which Shampoo dodged by jumping into a somersault over her head.

Ranma blurred into motion himself, coming up behind Shampoo just as she landed and grabbing an arm in a vise-grip. "Stop it! Akane, she's out of your league. Shampoo, back down!"

"Don't interfere, Ranma!" Akane shouted. "I can take her!"

He glared, "No you can't."

"Yes I can!"

Shampoo threw an amused glance at her captor. "Violent-Girl say she can. Shampoo say give her try?"

"Shut it."

Akane's face was twisted with fury. "You wont even let me try! How can we get married if you wont trust me?"

Ranma shook his head, "Don't do it, Akane..."

"I'm happy you want to protect me," she hiccupped as she struggled to hold back angry tears. "But I can fight my own battles too!"

Ranma stared over her shoulder at Koyuki. At Koyuki's arm. "I just don't want you to get hurt too."

"Do you love me?"

Three heads snapped towards the shaking girl. Ranma's eyes went wide, "Uh..."

"You don't have to say it," Akane ran a fist over her eyes and glared at the amazon. "But if you do, you'll let me do this. Otherwise it means you have no respect for me as a martial artist. You can't love someone you don't respect."

Ranma was quiet for a long moment. Koyuki and Shampoo's eyes darted back and forth between the two. Then they locked onto Ranma as he sighed and stepped away from Shampoo, releasing her arm.

Shampoo grinned and cracked her knuckles, "Shampoo accept challenge."

ooo

Akane swung wildly, a haymaker from her right which promised painful vengeance for her wounded pride. Like the twenty or so times before, Shampoo simply skipped out of the way and stood a few steps away from the berserking girl. Her hands on her hips, a mocking smile on her face. The Tendou growled deep in her throat and launched herself at her faster opponent.

Koyuki watched her with a critical eye. Akane was certainly heads above herself in strength and speed. In close combat, she would probably not last very long against the Tendou. However, even she could see the other girl's strikes were wild, undisciplined. Yet at the same time she had a remarkable situational awareness. No matter which direction Shampoo would escape to, she would follow up with a strike in the appropriate direction. Despite her power-heavy attacks, she never let herself become unbalanced, moving across the street with stable, deliberate footing.

She concluded Akane would fair very well against swarms of opponents of equal skill level, which was still several levels above what Koyuki had come to expect from most human martial artists. Unfortunately, it seemed somewhat less effective on singular opponents of much greater skill.

The asphalt cracked as a jumping attack missed its target by a wide margin, and Shampoo dropped into a stance that suggested boredom. "Violent-Girl no have other attack? Shampoo seen that one already."

As the girl charged forward with a battle cry that sounded more like a scream of rage, Koyuki glanced over at Ranma. He stood apart from her, frowning as he watched his fiancée being toyed with. He had his arms crossed over his chest, but his fingers were gripping his biceps hard enough to leave impressions in the skin. His entire demeanor suggested he wanted to dive in and break up the fight, but his own martial arts code of honor had been triggered to prevent him from doing so.

She looked back just as Shampoo jumped to the side to avoid another combo series from Akane, but this time she fluidly turned her retreat into a spinning kick which swept the Tendou off her feet. Akane hit the ground hard, but managed to roll away to avoid the axe-kick Shampoo used to crater the ground beneath her. She spun back to her feet, then had to drop again as the amazon blurred over her head with a flying kick. As Shampoo recovered, Akane rose back to her feet and deliberately set her stance; left side leading, weight distributed evenly between her legs. Her face was no longer locked in a berserker's fury, but Koyuki could see it in her eyes that she knew she was outmatched. Even so, her pride demanded she see this to the end.

Shampoo caught the change in Akane's face as well and inclined her head in a short salute. She set her own stance, facing Akane directly with one leg slightly lifted in front of the other, her weight balanced on the back foot. She raised an arm and waved the other girl forward.

Akane's mouth contorted into a snarl, but she took the opening, charging in low to avoid the snap kick Shampoo set her way, she planted her left leg and thrust forward into a straight punch towards the amazon's standing leg.

Shampoo recovered from her snap kick and dropped that leg, lightly stepping onto Akane's outstretched arm. Using Akane's own momentum, she lifted her back leg and arched her body forward, spinning into a cartwheel that carried her over the Tendou in a remarkable display of agility. Halfway through, as her arms came down, she grabbed onto Akane's shoulders and twisted, pulling her off her feet again and sending her spinning to the ground in a tumble. Shampoo landed lightly on her feet facing her opponent and immediately charged forward, her hand pulled back for another knife-handed strike.

Disoriented, Akane blinked her eyes open just in time to see the attack coming her way. Resigned, she closed her eyes in defeat and waited for the pain to register...

...and blinked them open as she felt a puff of cold air hit her face. She watched as Shampoo's hand speared through and demolished a snow clone set up in front of her with a confused look on her face. As they both froze in shock, the remaining snow stretched out to ensnare the amazon's arm, pinning her in place.

"The victor has already been decided," Koyuki said from the sidelines. "Further combat is unnecessary at this point."

Shampoo glared openly at her. "Challenge is decided by knockout, as New-Girl should remember."

Koyuki's arm throbbed with the memory of that pain, though she didn't let it show on her face. Before she could formulate a reply, Ranma had interposed himself between them.

"You've made your point, you've won your duel this time."

Shampoo glared at him briefly, then her face softened into a smile. "Shampoo go for now. But next time airen take on date, yes?"

"We'll see," Ranma said in exasperation. He reached down to give Akane a hand up, then gave a pointed look at Koyuki.

The snow girl released the barrier holding Shampoo in place and the amazon absently rubbed her wrist as she favored Ranma with an enigmatic smile. Without another word she flickered over to her forgotten bicycle and kicked it into motion.

Ranma waited until she was down the street and out of sight, his hand wrapped around Akane's shoulders protectively. After she was gone, he turned the two of them and walked back over to where Koyuki was standing, a concerned expression on his face. "So, you fought Shampoo too?"

"I did," she confirmed. "It did not conclude in my favor."

"So I see," he said with a glance at her arm. "And you still want to fight her again."

"Yes, Ranma-sama."

Ranma looked down at Akane, then back at Koyuki. "Can you win?"

Koyuki shook her head. "As I am right now, I would not last even as long as Akane-san. The majority of my family is similarly mismatched against close-ranged fighters of your caliber, so we are attempting to bring our skillsets back into parity."

"Oh? Who's teaching them?"

"Ryouga-san wandered onto our property a few days ago." Ranma arched an eyebrow at that. "Assuming he has not yet wandered away, he should be monitoring my siblings' progress."

"That's the training you were talking about?" Akane asked, still simmering slightly from her loss.

"A few of us are attempting to train to a level where we can actually fight with opponents of your level on equal footing," Koyuki clarified. "A few, like myself, have alternate skillsets that we depend on. Our training would focus on bringing up our speed to the point where we can safely use those skills in a fast-moving combat situation."

"I want in," the Tendou said.

"Akane..." Ranma began.

"No," she glared at him. "I used to think I was the best! I could beat Kuno, I could beat anybody! Then you, your father, and everybody else came! Now I'm just second string and I've never gotten any better!" She looked down and sniffed. "You wouldn't help me get any better..."

Ranma stared in silence for a few moments. "I told you, I didn't want to hurt you..."

"That doesn't mean you don't even let me try!" she growled. "You don't spar with me, you just play tag."

"If I may, Ranma-sama," Koyuki began. "I, too, wish for you to be an active participant in our training. Ryouga-san tries, but he has admitted to being currently overwhelmed. Your assistance would go a long way for us."

Akane looked shocked. "Ryouga-kun said that?"

"Yes; we did ask if Ranma-sama would be of help, but he said he did not think Ranma-sama would be of use. I am here asking on my own."

Ranma sputtered. "What? I can teach anyone better than that stupid pig-boy! Tomorrow, lead me to your place! I'll show him..."

Koyuki bowed to hide her grin. "Yes, Ranma-sama."

"...And stop calling me that. It's weird."

"If you wish, Ashikabi-sama."

"...Not that either."

Later that night...

"Make a fist."

Koyuki clenched her hand as tightly as it would go, trying to work through the stiffness left by weeks of inactivity. Chiho watched her with a critical eye.

"No pain? Not even any twinges?"

"None, Chiho-kaasan. It is still a bit sore, but I should be able to work through that fairly quickly."

Chiho hummed and tapped a light-pen against her chin thoughtfully. "You Sekirei always seem to heal more quickly than the rest of us. I admit I'm slightly jealous."

"My apologies."

"Don't be," Chiho made a brief scribble on her PDA, then thumbed the device off. "You should be fine now, but I still want you to take it easy. I'll be making sure Chiyo keeps an eye on you, so try not to do anything foolish, okay?"

Koyuki nodded and smiled, "Thank you, Chiho-kaasan."