A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Sorry about the wait. I knew that the prologue was a bit short, but I had planned to post this chapter last week. I guess that was a bit unrealistic of me, because school and softball conditioning kicked me in the ass.

Please don't maim me for making Suzuki a martial artist. I needed a way to introduce her to the plot, and she needs some way to defend herself because of her friendship with Ranma. She would either be killed by Shampoo (Xian Pu if you prefer, please let me know) or die by accident otherwise. Additionally, Suzuki and Ranma would have had no real reason to talk to and relate to one another had she not been a martial artist.

In addition, I wanted to establish Ranma's relationship with Suzuki, and this was the best way to do so without making her a fiancée. Again, please don't maim me.

PLEASE NOTE: I have no idea how the school systems in Japan actually work and am making up the details in order to suit my purposes. If anybody knows how Japan's school system works, please PM me the information and I'll go back and fix it.

DISCLAIMER: This is a fan-based work of fiction that features the characters from Ranma ½. Ranma ½ is the brainchild of Rumiko Takahashi and is not my property. Please support the official release.

Chapter 1 – Suzuki

Suzuki Nakamura was not a happy camper.

When her parents told her that in order for her to inherit the dojo she was required to attend both middle school and high school in Japan, she had been excited. She had always wanted to visit her mother's home country, and studying abroad would give her the chance to sightsee as well.

Her parents, reluctant to shut down their branch in America, had arranged a dual-enrollment for Suzuki. Her school had agreed so long as she remained in high academic standing. Should her grade-point average dip below a 3.5, the program will end, leaving Suzuki unable to inherit the family dojo.

Suzuki had been less happy when she found out that because the school systems were so different, her school in America would send her assignments and she would have to self-study the material. According to the agreement between the two schools, Suzuki would attend the classes in Japan as a regular student in addition to her course load from overseas. This included both of the institute's exams.

When she found out about the exams, Suzuki had been furious. Two sets of tests were never in any of her fantasies about studying abroad, and that was not even the beginning of her issues with the arrangement.

Due to being a minor and unable to live alone, Suzuki would have to stay with her mother's family in the next town over. This ordinarily would not be an issue, but the family had been under a considerable amount of financial strain since their branch of the family's martial arts institution had shut down due to lack of will to teach. In order to lessen the stress on her family's budget, Suzuki would have to find her own means of transportation.

From there, her problems multiplied. There would be no time for Suzuki to train at her relatives' house because of the travel time and her workload. Unless she could find a martial arts teacher in the same area as her school willing to train her free of charge, Suzuki's training would stagnate.

With disappointment after disappointment entering her life in succession, Suzuki found herself preparing for another catch-22.

The flight to Tokyo ended up going well, in spite of the usual TSA bureaucracy. There were no delays and Suzuki had arrived at the airport with plenty of time to eat something before the plane took off. She even managed to get a seat next to a cute boy, which was always a plus.

Upon landing, her relatives had met her at baggage claim. Suzuki's uncle and cousins turned out to be… nice if a bit odd and she was grateful that they were kind enough to welcome her into their home. To ease the burden on her family, Suzuki had decided to use her free time to help around the house. This only increased her uncle's enthusiasm at having her stay with them.

For her first day of school, she woke up early and entered the main office twenty minutes before the bell. This, of course, was when the other shoe dropped, leaving her where she was now: The main office of an all-boys' junior high school.

Well, she had found it strange that they only offered pants. Really, Suzuki should have known better.

~ . ~

Suzuki walked up to the door of the main office and knocked briefly. The receptionist called her in, so she bowed politely upon entering and introduced herself. When she came back up from her bent position, she froze.

"This is an all-boys' school," The woman at the desk stated condescendingly. "Are you sure that you're in the right place, Nakamura-chan?"

Suzuki pressed her lips together uncomfortably. "I'm the exchange student from America, ma'am. They said that I was supposed to go here."

The woman pursed her lips together and peered briefly at the girl in front of her from over her glasses with half-lidded eyes. Very pointedly ignoring her, the receptionist henpecked at her keyboard, careful not to chip her bright blue acrylics.

The minutes seemed to crawl by as the receptionist – her name was Aoi Sato, Suzuki noted absently – typed. Suzuki stood awkwardly at the desk and waited, unsure as to whether she should stay or go. After what seemed like a century, but had only really been ten minutes, the woman raised her head and stated,

"Susumi Nakamura."

Suzuki blinked. "Excuse me? My name is Suzuki, not Susumi, Sato-san."

"That's the name we have on file," the woman clarified.

Suzuki sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "The administration must have spelled my name wrong."

She bristled as the woman sniffed derisively. "Well, it can't be fixed now. You will attend this school as a boy – the administration wanted an exchange student, so an exchange student they will have."

Suzuki wanted to say something – anything – that would get her out of the mess her parents had gotten her into, but kept her mouth shut. This was the only school that was willing to go through the headache of an international dual-enrollment, so she would just have to grin and bear it.

She forced a smile, "Thank you very much, Sato-san. I apologize for the inconvenience."

The woman raised an unimpressed brow and searched through her files. "This is your schedule, and here is your locker number," she recited blandly. "Have a great day."

Suzuki bowed politely and left feeling very out of her depth.

~ . ~

Seeing as Suzuki was already a few months ahead, most of the classes were a breeze. Her only hang-up was in Japanese History, and that was mainly due to the American school system's focus (understandably so) on American History. With the help of her youngest cousin, who was only a few months younger than Suzuki was, she was able to catch up quickly. She spent most of her time in the classroom reading ahead and catching up on her other schoolwork.

A few weeks into the school year, puberty hit Suzuki hard. She started to develop breasts, so the administration requested that she bind them. This was painful, as her chest was sensitive due to the changes that it was undergoing, but Suzuki did as she was told to do. It wasn't the first time that the administration made such a request, either. On her second day of school, the board had 'politely requested' that she either cut her hair or kept it in a braid. Unwilling to chop off her long locks, which were a point of pride for Suzuki, she opted instead to keep it in a thick braid down her back.

Her first period had been a real pain, too. It hit in the middle of the morning, so Suzuki had to make a makeshift pad out of toilet paper. Because she hadn't experienced any signs of PMS, Suzuki thought that she had dodged a bullet. Unfortunately, she got a migraine and started cramping at noon, which continued throughout the day. That day, Suzuki had been abruptly reminded of how hard hiding her gender would be – especially if that ordeal was to be repeated monthly.

Puberty, however, turned out to be the least of her problems.

As an all-boys' school, the days were bound to be chaotic. None of her classmates had an attention span better than a goldfish, and the word 'school' ended up being a euphemism for 'day-care.' Her peers were lacking in discipline and frequently disruptive. Lunch ended up being the only time she was able to escape and take a breather.

Normally, Suzuki would prepare her own lunch and eat it outside, away from all the chaos around her. This morning, however, she had dropped her bento box. It hit the ground at just the right angle for the plastic to shatter, spilling its contents all over the street. Unless she wanted to starve, she would have to do the one thing that she had desperately tried to avoid.

Suzuki would have to face the cafeteria.

~ . ~

Dread pooled cold and hard in her stomach as Suzuki prepared herself to enter the cafeteria. The lunch bell had only just rang, and already she could hear the muted din through the doors. She hovered at the door a little longer, hemming and hawing over actually entering the room, when suddenly the choice was wrenched from her grasp.

Two black-haired blurs stormed up to the doors from behind her, sweeping Suzuki up in their wake. Abruptly, the soft clamor became a roar as the two boys dragged her into the cafeteria.

Almost as soon as they came the boys were gone, leaving Suzuki sat on the floor in shock over what just happened. From her point on the floor, she scanned the crowd for her attackers.

'Just how many people actually go to school here?' Suzuki wondered incredulously as she watched the lunch lady toss out bread to the boys like scraps of meat to dogs.

She finally caught sight of the two blurs, and her eyes widened in awe. These two boys were leagues above her in athletic ability alone, and their skill in martial arts was incredible. The things that she could learn from them!

That thought brought her train of thought to a screeching halt. Suzuki barely even knew them, so what made her think that they would even be willing to teach her anything? She was so caught up in her own head that she didn't notice that one of the boys had stopped and was standing over her until a hand was shoved into her face.

"Are ya alright?" One of the boys asked, his hand still extended. Suzuki blinked back shock and took the offered help.

"Thanks," she said. "I'm fine, I just wasn't paying attention."

"Sorry 'bout that," he said sheepishly.

"It's really not your fault," Suzuki told him. "I was the one standing in front of the door like a moron. Besides if I was going that fast, I probably would have run someone over too."

He looked as if he was going to say something else, but she cut him off and asked, "Do you mind helping me out with my martial arts training? I don't have a teacher at the moment, and I could learn a lot just from sparring with you."

He tilted his head in thought. "You're that exchange student, right? Susumi or somethin' like that?"

She grimaced. "Yeah… something like that. So, do you mind helping me out a bit?"

"Sure," he agreed. "The name's Ranma, by the way. I'll meet you in the courtyard after school."

Suzuki smiled. "Sounds good. Thank you."

Somewhere deep down inside of her, Suzuki knew that she would regret this decision.

~ . ~

Suzuki could not decide for the life of her whether training with Ranma was the best decision she had ever made or one of her worst life choices yet, and that includes masquerading as a boy for her middle-school education. He was an absolute monster.

Ranma was better than she was in speed, strength, balance, and agility. To top it all off, he was naturally gifted – a martial arts prodigy! Sparring with him always left her feeling like one big bruise afterwards, but she could feel herself getting better. He also gave her some helpful drills to do outside of sparring that would improve her overall performance.

A month ago, she had barely been able to keep up with him. At present she still wasn't anywhere near his level, but she was a lot closer. It was a credit to both his skills as a teacher and as a martial artist that Suzuki had improved so quickly. She had told him so, but he just scratched his head awkwardly and shook off her praise. Normally she would have just brushed the incident aside as him fishing for compliments, but Ranma was so boastful about his skill everywhere else that Suzuki had gotten the feeling that there was more to the issue.

In response, Suzuki began to make an effort at becoming Ranma's friend. She talked to him during lunch after his daily spar with the other boy, Ryoga. After seeing him struggle in his classes, Suzuki helped him study. Ranma hadn't been too happy about studying cutting into his training time, but once she had explained to him that remedial work would only take up more time, he had been happy to set aside an hour for them to do their homework together.

Her association with Ranma had brought her to Ryoga's attention, something that Suzuki had been a bit leery of. Eventually though, Ryoga had proven himself nice, if a bit intense, and Suzuki found herself relaxing in his company.

From there, sparring became even more intense. Ranma and Ryoga had the most absurd rivalry. Her one-on-one spars became free-for-alls that ended up with her forgotten on the sidelines, though she was gradually beginning to last longer in those as well. Suzuki hadn't been recognized as a worthy opponent for longer than she would have liked, but she got there in the end. Soon, their spars became less for the sake of work and more for the sake of fun.

Loathe as she was to disturb the balance of their friendship, Suzuki knew that she would have to tell them that she was a girl at some point. However, they disappeared before she got the chance to tell them anything.

It would be a while before she saw her friends again, and their dynamic would never quite be the same the next time that the trio met each other.