Oh wow. I am on a roll. Something about quitting work obviously helped! At the very least, I am a little less depressed.

Richard Ryley - definitely, and now she will be trying to make friends with the people that she was fighting a little while ago. But she has shown herself capable of being able to switch emotions off before - namely when Ranma called her cute, and she will do it again to survive. Keeping Nabiki happy lets her live her life with more freedom than before, since she can DO something about this honour problem.

The Keeper of Worlds - you and all Ryoga fans, look away in a few chapters. He will get a violent treatment, since I have a history of dealing with men who tried to take advantage of me, and in many ways, Ryoga is my way of dealing with them without having to beat anyone up. Depending on how repentant he is, he may get a good back story, however.

Everyone, thank you so much for reviewing and liking! If anyone here is on Tumblr, would you like the story to begin uploading there as well?

Chapter 7

Following Nabiki settling another debt in her own and the Saotome's favour, life at the Tendo dojo settled, for the first time since Ranma's arrival, into some sense of normality. In the weeks leading up to the school year end, the days would start of as any normal household would expect, provided they housed martial artists.

Ranma and his father would have a sparring session, which now tended to end with the panda knocked out or in the pond, while everyone else got ready. Then, Mousse and Shampoo would turn up, and they would all walk to school together, Nabiki and Mousse splitting off to go to the graduation class exams, which Mousse was surprisingly allowed to enter into with minimal prep. The conversation with Loofa (as Ranma tended to call her) went extremely well, with the Elder calling back to the village and letting them know that the boy would be staying to pursue education in Japan, and that Shampoo decided to at least try out a few weeks of school before going back, with the option of staying on for a year. Mousse would not be able to graduate with Nabiki – despite his intelligence, he had too many gaps in his history and the ward would not allow him to receive a diploma after only a few weeks, but he was planning to take extra classes and exams over spring break, and hoped to get good enough grades to join a late joining program at a smaller university come the final term before the summer holidays. If that failed, he was planning to study throughout summer break, and try to get in for September. If not airtight, his plan at least had some sense to it.

Shampoo had been placed into Akane, Ukyo and Ranma's class. For the first couple of days, Akane was distrustful and refused to speak to either ex-fiancée, but after Nabiki reassured her that the engagements were broken off for good, started to warm up to them. Ukyo publicly declared that she released Ranma from all obligations, and Shampoo approached Akane more privately, swearing on the honour and laws of her tribe that she was done for good. Regardless, Akane still hit Ranma every time that the girls touched him, and Shampoo at least looked on with worry at the behaviour, even if the threats were no longer directed at her. It resulted in her minimising contact with the pig-tailed youth, and the few times that she did need to touch him or be in his personal space, she took to informing both Akane and Ranma that she was about to do so. While it cut down on the beatings, since none of it was for nefarious or 'perverted' reasons, the bluette still tended to steam over each time. Ukyo hadn't noticed the difference, but since she was trying to be a friend, she only tended to go for casual touches that Akane simply wasn't able to see as much.

The one thing that forced Akane to trust Shampoo happened on the first day, when the Amazon had been attacked by the entire Hentai Horde, being led by Kuno. On that day the girl declared that all the men who defeated her would not only not be able to marry her, as she was temporarily one of them and the laws could not apply, but if they did defeat her and insisted on her honouring the marriage, they would first be sent to China to plough fields, as was suitable for useless males, learn to keep a house and had to give up their education immediately.

Unsurprisingly, that had not helped the first few days, as a few wishful thinkers didn't immediately clock on to the fact that the girl meant every word, and that she would not hold back in protecting herself. Shampoo was much more direct than Akane and Ranma had ever been. 17 hospitalisations later, the police arrived at the scene to find a large number of boys attacking a single girl in a uniform, the girl admirably defending herself. While before they had no evidence, and they had normally been persuaded by the Principal to accept monetary compensation to turning a blind eye, this time they were able to see the assaults in all their glory. Coupled with the fact that they were not just local cops, but came on an investigation from outside the ward headed by the ward's Chief of Police (a fact to which Nabiki pleaded total ignorance), whose ears Kuno senior always made sure the stories never reached – the man was impossible to bribe. Stopping by, they found Nabiki, and she explained the situation to them for a small fee of two thousand yen.

The boys that weren't hospitalised that day were immediately rounded up and taken to the police station in the custody of the Chief of Police himself, where Shampoo and Akane were given a legal recourse – charge all of the boys with assault. Akane took a lot of persuading, since she didn't want to appear weak, but Shampoo and Nabiki finally managed to persuade her that legal recourse was the path that martial artists should follow to protect other, weaker girls. Most of the boys, who had repeat offences, would be going away for several months while they awaited trial, and the ones who only part took in a few attacks would be let out with a large fine and a warning.

From the second week, the mornings were blissfully quiet, except for Kuno (who had not yet jumped into the fray that day, and on whom the police could get no concrete evidence), and it gave the women a chance to bond.

On the Monday of the third week, lunch found the rather strange new group sitting under a tree, waiting for Ukyo to feel them.

It was strange to see just how much the group dynamic had changed. Nabiki, who decided that this group was more fun than her usual lackeys, and who had promoted a trusted girl to take care of business for the time being, was lying in the grass, on her stomach, reading one of the textbooks for her final exams. While her place in University was secure, she wanted to make sure that the scholarship had no chance of running away from her, resulting in long hours of revision. A few meters away, Ukyo had gotten out her grill and was using it to sell to various students who had forgotten or didn't want their bentos.

Shampoo was sitting, or perhaps more aptly, swinging down from the not-quite blooming sakura, only her knees and feet holding her in place. She was chatting animatedly in almost perfect Japanese with Akane and Mousse about Japanese History. That in itself was a surprise. Once Shampoo joined their class, everyone quickly discovered that the silly act had been just that – an act. She had quickly overtaken the majority of the class in all subjects, except Japanese and, ironically, World history – the versions taught in her tribe were very far removed from reality. So much removed, that it was more mythology than history. However, she was top of the class in English after only a week, and drew with Yuka and Akane in almost every other subject. It was obvious that all the girls were jealous, but Akane tried to fight this. Instead, she offered to tutor her old rival in history if she gave her English lessons, bringing back the old sunny girl that Ranma had gotten to know before everything had gone to hell. The trade off seemed to be working.

Yuka and Sayuri, along with Ranma's two male friends had originally tried to give the others room, but were quickly made to feel welcome in the group, anchoring on their pre existing relationships. The girls were planning to come over to Ukyo's later to revise, and the guys were cramming for their exams, Hiroshi occasionally interjecting into Akane's conversation about history.

Ukyo smiled as she took in the scene, Ranma asleep against the tree trunk. Like Ranma, she was not too bothered about education beyond school. She just needed to graduate with decent grades and she would be taking over the family business, working on paying off Nabiki and the rest of the Tendos. Instead of feeling sad at the fact that everyone else seemed to have plans for their future that did not involve crippling debts, she spoke up, "Everyone, lunch is ready. Careful, its hot."

Nabiki scowled from her place on the ground, one eyebrow raised. "Don't go giving away our profits now, Ucchan."

It was so like Nabiki that everyone laughed. Ukyo grinned at her new business partner, a feeling of superiority washing over her. Time to impress. "Actually, I was thinking of what you said the other day, and this is not a free give-away. This is a taste test.

The middle Tendo looked up. "Taste test?"

"Uh huh. I am trying some new flavours and ingredients. I figured since we all eat lunch anyway, I may as well make use of the free group we have here and run new flavours by them. That way we can decide what doesn't work at all, and what we can try as a special with more customers."

Nabiki looked up impressed. "Sounds really good. Consider me impressed and more than a little relieved. What are the flavours?"

And with that, the strange group tucked in.

The end of this day would have been like any other, except two things were out of place. Kuno was standing in his usual morning position, facing the school, wielding the bokken. However, this time, it was not the usual wooden practice sword – instead, he held the sharp family blade that he had turned up to the wedding with, and he looked ready to use it.

The second change was one that everyone other than Kuno had clearly noticed. There were two police cars outside the gates from the morning, when the remnants of the Hentai Horde had been reminded that the police meant business this time and the 'challenge for a date' business had to stop. They may have also been hoping to finally be able to deal with the Kuno clan, but if asked later, they would claim that their presence at the event that took place was either coincidental, or they had simply been doing the rounds after the previous week's fiasco.

Clearly, Kuno was stupider than usual that day, as he clearly did not consider the police to be a problem of any sort to him.

"Vile sorcerer, prepare to meet your demise! Free the pigtailed goddess and Akane, as well as the rest of your harem from your clutches or prepare to face your doom!"

The entire group gained a collective sweatdrop and Ranma sighed. Kuno clearly took the three second pause as an invitation to continue.

"Are you too much of a coward Saotome? Prepare to meet your doom at the hand of one who seeks these ladies freedom!"

With those words the kendo poet charged directly towards the group, making straight for Ranma, sword raised. Out of the corner of her eye, Nabiki saw the police reach for the radio in one car, while the officers in the other vehicle got out and started walking briskly towards the impending fight. She grabbed Ranma's sleeve a millisecond before he bounded away, tugging and catching his attention.

"Let him cut you."

Ranma looked at her like she had gone mad – she just inclined her head in the direction of the patrol cars.

You could almost see the light bulb go on, though Nabiki could never be sure if it was because he had decided it was for buying her time to reach the police, or if she wanted to get the crazy guy arrested.

Nodding, the martial artist jumped to meet his opponent head on, both shouting insults at one another.

Akane, in the mean time, was seething. "That jerk! I can take care of Kuno myself!"

Ukyo shook her head, while unobtrusively blocking the girl's path with one of her spatulas. "I think you are missing the point. They aren't even really fighting for you in the strictest sense. Kuno just insulted his manhood and martial arts, integrity, motivation, and challenged him. Challenged Ranma directly, and not you. It would be dishonourable to intervene unless the fight poses a danger to us or some of the other students. I doubt that Ranma will let it come to that, but Kuno is too insane to see he is dangerous."

Akane looked at the others, and found that they were all nodding along. "Unless Kuno tries something really dangerous, there is little point of joining in the fray. It's Ranma, and he won't let himself be hurt..."

Mousse cut off as he stared at something that he never thought to see. The kendoist had just sliced into the pig tailed boy's shoulder. Blood spilled everywhere.

Several things happened at once.

Mousse and Shampoo both launched themselves towards the fight, intent on separating the two. Ukyo cracked her knuckles and prepared a spatula to knock the sword out of Kuno's hands at a distance. Nabiki broke into a dead run from her location half way around the school yard, intent on making it to the police in time.

Akane paused, unsure if she should gloat that Ranma was not invincible, but immediately discarded the notion. Kuno brought an illegal weapon to a fight, and Ranma had little occasion to defend against weapons like that. There was no loss of honour on his part, and now he was in further danger from the lunatic.

Her heart constricted, and she sprinted after the others.

And then, Kuno fell to the ground twitching, Ranma landing safely to his side, blood spilling freely from the wound.

Everything stopped, except Akane, who ran up to Ranma and proceeded to both scream at her fiancé and agonise over his wound. Mousse was already making his way over, pulling a first aid box out of his sleeves and helping Akane bandage the cut.

A police officer, who a moment before stood behind where Kuno fell, chose that moment to approach the group, weapon still raised. "Are you kids alright?" Everyone except Ranma and Akane nodded, and the man spoke into a walkie-talkie. "We have a situation at Furinkan school." The static that followed and was unintelligible to everyone expect the police, it seemed. "Negative, suspect was armed and attacked another civilian. We used a taser gun to bring him down. Request back up to have the man incarcerated. Alert the Chief that there are multiple witnesses."

Something was said back to him and the man thanked his colleague and came up to the teens. "Would you be willing to come to the station with us and give a statement? You will be given an option to press charges while there."

Everyone nodded. After all, this was the first chance that they had to get rid of Kuno for good.

AN: Next up - Kuno's eyes get opened by law enforcement. Now with poetic speech!

Let me know if you want the stories posted to my Tumblr, and I will. Asks and general interaction seem simpler there. :)