Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written fiction, the views and opinions in this story are not intended to be viewed as those of the author. Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, and Five Pound Gospel are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi, property of their respective rights holders and publishers. Please support the official releases.

CW: This story will contain violence, strong language, sexual humor and situations, drug use, Moroboshi Ataru, and Happosai. You've been warned.

|New Day Nerima|

The rising sun promised another beautiful day in the Special Administration District–if not for the ominous shadow that a very large object rising with it cast over the former ward of Tokyo. The shadow, stretched as it was by the morning sun's rays, slipped over the Special Administration district as the object that made it headed towards its destination–a small but palatial mansion in the Furinkan neighborhood bordered by a high wall that featured a massive swamp-like feature in its back yard.

Inside this mansion, the morning of its mistress was beginning.

"Kodachi-sama, good morning," a much humbler Sarugakure Sasuke greeted Kodachi as she awoke in her large, black-decorated four-post bed. "I hope you rested well?"

"Mm," Kodachi barely replied as she sat up and stretched, paying him no real attention.

Sasuke, who was walking on crutches after the beating he was served, hobbled after her as she got out of bed. "A bath has been drawn and it has been kept hot, a deer has been set out for Mr. Green Turtle, and breakfast is being prepared as we speak."

"Mm," Kodachi repeated. "What is the status of my transfer?"

Sasuke nodded and averted his eyes from his lady as she made her way from her bed to the bath. "As you requested, I sent your notice of transfer and the final payment to the school. You are no longer a student of St. Hebereke and now a student of Furinkan."

Kodachi's bathtub was more of a massive pool, a recreation of a natural onsen connected to her room through a pair of glass doors. Crossing the threshold, she walked straight to the stone edge and stepped in, sinking down to her shoulders and allowing her unbound hair to float around her. As the hot waters began to soak into her, she leaned back against the edge of the onsen and stared at the clouds of water vapor floating above.

"… There is no going back, now." A smile graced her lips, and she let out a slight giggle as she recalled the talk that she had with Nabiki yesterday.

"So, knowing that I'm not endangering my payment for the day… I have a question to ask," Nabiki said as she and Kodachi walked from Furinkan towards the Tendo Dojo the evening before.

Kodachi turned her head to look at Nabiki. She had an idea of what that question was. "Go ahead, Tendo-san."

"What's your endgame, here?"

"Hm?"

"I don't buy you being charitable to the underclasses, or that you want to make right what your family did wrong. What exactly are you up to with the school? With us?"

Kodachi looked ahead. "I'm seeking to find that myself, really. Right now, all I have is an old, run-down school with students that half of which are effectively dead men walking with no ambition or hope." She broke into a big grin, closing her eyes as she did. "My very own blank slate to form as I wish!"

"Tabula rasa, huh?" Nabiki asked.

"And I know what I want to do with it. I do not want this school to be better than the likes of Butsumetsu and Tomobiki. I want it to be better than my own St. Hebereke and Kolkhoz International Academy in Taian. My vision is to create a school that everyone going, even the lost souls who shamble around in ruin, can go with pride and looked upon with it."

Nabiki met that declaration with raised eyebrows. "I can dig it, it, but it'll take a lot more than putting lipstick on a pig. If you have no idea how we're going to get there, there's no point in doing anything more than paying for the students to transfer and bulldozing it."

Kodachi nodded. "You are right, all I have is a beginning and an end. The blank slate and the end goal… but I also have you."

The middle Tendo sister didn't know how to take that. "… Me?"

"I have the will and the resources, but I am also a stranger. I have not the faintest clue what the school and its students need, so I cannot do it alone," Kodachi confessed. "I need all the help I can get, most of all from someone who is as knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the school as you are."

She gave Nabiki a meaningful look, one different from her usual half-mad and smug expressions she cataloged to this point. "Therefore, I wish to put myself in your care, Senpai."

Nabiki's eyes widened, before she turned her head away and closed them in contemplation. She hummed. "Well, a good place to start by improving things is changing the attitude around here, that we're a bunch of delinquents who aren't going to get anywhere in life. Not even the teachers working here believe we'll be any better than the bums at Tomobiki, or Butsumetsu."

Kodachi smiled. "Then, we will start by finding faculty who believe in them!"

"And getting rid of those who don't," Nabiki added.

"I'll start screening them tomorrow," Kodachi was brimming with excitement at the prospect.

As Kodachi arrived in the long, window-lit dining hall of her estate, she found a foreign breakfast prepared by Sasuke waiting for her. He stood proudly beside her chair, the little ninja's head held high while she took her seat at the table and began to serve herself.

"Today's breakfast is an extremely nutritious dish from North Africa, Kodachi-sama. It's called shakshuka, and is comprised of tomatoes, peppers, onions, spices, and several eggs poached on top to provide protein," he presented.

More awake, Kodachi was happy to address him. "Thank you, Sasuke."

And it was delicious, spicier than she expected her breakfast to be as well, but it was a welcome kick. This was a fine start to her morning, she decided… before the house began to shake and droning filled the air.

"… Hmm? Sasuke, what is that noise?" Kodachi asked. In the Special Administration District, even Earth's guests had noise ordinances to take into consideration. As the droning grew, however, she recognized it. "… Octopus Six…"

Sasuke went to the window nearest Kodachi and confirmed her suspicions. "… You're right… it's a Mendō-family airship. It's deploying a helicopter, too."

Kodachi frowned. "… So early?"

Sasuke watched the helicopter, a tandem rotor transport painted silver and bearing the insignia of the Mendō family, descend towards the courtyard of the Kuno estate. "The helicopter is coming in for landing. Shall I go meet them?"

"Hm, do as you will, but I am not coming out until I finish breakfast and they are not coming in." Kodachi wanted to make a scene, and one of the best ways to do that was make unannounced guests wait as reprimand for their impertinence.

And so, twenty minutes later, Kuno Kodachi emerged from her home not to a din of thermonuclear engines or helicopter rotor blades, but to the gentle hum of quantum levitation generators working to keep the broad-winged green craft overhead and not crashing to the ground as millions of kilograms of metal. The warm morning breeze caught her hair and blew it off to her right as she walked from the steps and to the parked helicopter in her courtyard, where her guest awaited with a dramatic glare.

Kodachi met the glare with a dispassionate look. "If you want a prompt meeting, please remember to call ahead. Good morning, Mendō Ryōko."

Ryōko grimaced as she beheld the sight of Kodachi not in the elegant and delicately styled uniform of St. Hebereke like her own she wore at the moment, but the frumpy and awfully unfashionable dirndl of Furinkan High School. It was a wretched sight, and an even more wretched confirmation.

"Kodachi-dono," she said as she held aloft something wrapped in a cloth towel. "What is the meaning… of this?!"

One of Ryōko's kuroko took the wrapped item and rushed it over to Kodachi. Setting it down in front of her, the kuroko unwrapped it to reveal a sake dish. White, with a blue lace pattern along the rim, it had been broken into three large pieces with smaller porcelain splinters.

Kodachi looked down upon it, then back at Ryōko. "I am only making official what has been assumed for a year."

With that, she raised her foot and stomped on the already broken dish, shattering it further.

"There are no equals among us, and I am no longer interested in entertaining the illusion."

No longer glaring, Ryōko appeared stunned by Kodachi's declaration. "… But… what of St. Hebereke? What of everything that we had in those days? Are you truly going to leave it all behind for your… your brother's school?"

"Without hesitation," Kodachi snapped back. "For while the Garden of Eden may be a paradise filled with splendor, those willing to leave it to face the cruel world beyond its walls shall find glory!"

Her words fully struck Ryōko, who swooned. "So, it is true then, you seek to ascend. Our years of peace and sisterhood cast aside for the fire that burns within you."

Kodachi cackled. "OHOHOHOHOHO! Do you sincerely believe in that rubbish, Ryōko-dono? Or are you playing the melodramatic younger sister for me like your fool of a brother?!"

Ryōko froze where she stood, then slowly turned to face Kodachi fully, her dramatic dismay replaced by her beatific, utterly empty smile. "You caught me."

Kodachi looked up at her airship, then back at the second Mendō child. "I sent you the dish for a reason, Mendō Ryōko. You shall make sure it is known that the pact is broken as it should've truly been."

Ryōko's smile grew. "Of course, Kodachi-dono, I will let her know that you are coming for her throat… and I will guard mine as well, fufu…"

Kodachi returned the smile, but where Ryōko's was empty, hers overflowed with venom. "Very good, now get out of my sight before I tire of you being within it."

The kuroko rewrapped and picked up the broken sake cup, before scurrying back to Ryōko as she turned and boarded her helicopter. The rotors began to spin up, Kodachi taking it as her cue to return to her house before the wash blew her over. Inside, she found Sasuke pale as a sheet, trembling just beyond the threshold.

"K-K-Kodachi-sama…!" He squeaked. "D-d-d-d-did you just b-b-b-break the p-p-p-p-pact?!"

"What of it?" Kodachi asked. "You say it like it wasn't inevitable."

Sasuke all but screamed. "My Lady! It's one thing to resume your childhood quarrels! But you've just declared a blood feud with the daughters of the Mendō, the Mizunokoji, AND the Sa–!"

The tiny ninja stopped when a long green ribbon abruptly snapped around his head, covering his mouth and silencing him. Pulling the ribbon's baton towards her chest to make it taut, Kodachi glared at Sasuke darkly.

"The only daughter you should concern yourself with, is she of the Kuno Clan," she hissed at him. "The die has long been cast, and with my brother's absence I have no recourse but to act. It was only a matter of time before the White Lily moved to assert herself, so I have decided when she will."

"Mph! Mmm!" Sasuke pled, and Kodachi loosened the ribbon to let him speak. "But there's still the matter of the Mendō and Mizunokoji! Why are you picking a fight with them?!"

Kodachi's glare softened, then disappeared for an amused smirk. "Because my ambitions know no limit, Sarugakure Sasuke. I will not indulge in half-measures."

As the helicopter and its immense mothership departed, Kodachi unwound Sasuke completely and went to the door to watch the craft depart through the window. "And of those two, I have nothing to fear from either."

"So what are your plans for Golden Week?" Nabiki asked at the breakfast table where the Tendo sisters and Katie all convened for a special edition of their morning ritual. As if they had not stuffed themselves to the gills the night before, Katie and Akane were scything through Kasumi's prepared breakfast to the eldest sister's satisfaction, while she and Nabiki ate at more reasonable quantities and rates.

Akane looked up from her rice. "Honestly, I'm surprised that we're still observing it."

Katie shrugged her shoulders. "I ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. Though speakin' of livestock, maybe we oughta go rounding up the guys. They're starting to get into places."

Making a face, Akane shook her head. "Ew, no."

Kasumi nodded. "I saw that the boys are still… hmm… broken; some have wandered out as far as Taian. They don't really do anything, they're just… there."

Akane huffed. "I stand by it. If they're going to have this meltdown, then they deserve it."

Nabiki finished her food. "You know, there are some boys at school who aren't zombies."

Katie looked at her. "You're pulling my leg; some decent guys?"

"I noticed them yesterday while taking Kodachi around the school. Most of them are first years who thought better of going after a popular girl, but there are a few second years and even a third year who just didn't take part in Kuno's crap, so don't be surprised if you see a boy carrying on like a normal student."

Akane nodded. "Good, but if any of them ask me out, they're getting an emphatic no."

"Of course," Nabiki and Katie both said, knowing how much she had no interest in boys. They side-eyed each other and spoke again. "Jinx."

Nabiki continued. "But actually… rounding up the boys isn't a bad idea. If I can borrow you two for the morning to help bring as many as you can to the gymnasium, Kodachi will make it worth your while."

Katie was interested. "Oh? Why does she need all the boys rounded up?"

Nabiki chuckled. "That is a surprise. For whom, I am not at will to divulge, but let's just say that when we get back to class Friday… classes are going to be interesting."

Looking at Katie, Akane giggled. "Well, Senpai, up for making some Golden Week spending money?"

"As I'll ever be, hon," Katie replied.

Kasumi smiled, happy to see the two get along, before breakfast was interrupted by Katie's phone ringing.

"Who's calling this early?" She pulled her phone out and looked at it. "It's Kaori?"

As the Tendo sister watched, she started the call. "Hey, Kaori, what's up…?" Her eyes widened in shock, then she got angry. "… What the hell?! We'll be right over!"

She stood up as she ended the call. "Akaneko, Nabiki, we gotta go."

"What?" Her kouhai asked as she stood.

"Something big?" Nabiki asked as she got up too.

Katie nodded and headed for the door. "Ucchan got robbed last night. Kaori said they're over at Dr. Tofu's."

Akane gasped. "What?!"

It took minutes for Katie, Akane, and Nabiki to arrive at Dr. Tofu's clinic. Just outside it, the doctor himself stood with a well-bandaged and surly looking Ucchan, a brooding Ryūnosuke, and an anxious Kaori who waved them over as soon as she saw them coming. The remains of Ucchan's completely destroyed cart were standing next to the front door of Tofu's clinic, Ucchan glaring at them bitterly.

Dr. Tofu nodded in greeting to the new arrivals. "Izland-san, Akane-kun, Nabiki-kun."

"Hey doc," Katie greeted before she addressed the victims. "Son of a bitch; Ucchan, Ryūnosuke, you two all right?"

"He's fine, we're fine," Ryūnosuke snapped back.

Nabiki looked at the bandages covering the two. "You sure? They look like they did a number on you."

Ryūnosuke folded her arms. "I've been through worse."

Ucchan didn't respond to Nabiki, he just stared at his demolished livelihood. "I told you not to call them, Kaori."

Kaori was not having it. "Well, too bad, this is serious! You guys got ragdolled by a bunch of creeps and these two are the strongest people in this town I know."

"What kind of creeps are we talking about," Nabiki asked, "Butsumetsu?"

Kaori shook her head. "It couldn't have been Butsumetsu. Soban doesn't let anyone in his gang go out at night, and he's pummeled any who tried."

"Okay, if it wasn't them," Akane cut in, "Who did this?"

At their questions, Ryūnosuke grimaced and looked away, and Akane lifted her eyebrows in confusion. "… What?"

"… I… I didn't see them," Ryūnosuke said. "They got the jump on us, and I was out before I even saw who they were."

Katie and Akane looked at one another, then at Nabiki, who shared their serious expression. Katie turned to Ucchan. "… Did you see?"

Ucchan again did not look from his wrecked cart. "They…"

He closed his eyes and clenched his fist. "… They came at us without warning. There were a lot of them, maybe two dozen. They all wore black and masks too. They had chains, and clubs, and cricket bats… and they weren't pushovers."

Akane joined Ucchan's side. "Is that all?"

Ucchan finally did look, not at Akane but at Ryūnosuke, who met her gaze with the same hardened expression. When she gave a slight shake of her head, Ucchan turned from her back to Akane. "Yeah. It's not much to go by, but… that's all I saw."

Katie lifted an eyebrow, and glanced Nabiki's way. Indeed, she was rolling her eyes.

"You said you were saving that money for your brick and mortar," Akane said, "I'm sorry that you lost it."

"It's not about the money," Ucchan said. "I can always make more of that." He clenched his fist harder. "I promised myself I'd never get robbed again, and I had a good freakin' run of it until last night. Now… now I'm so angry I could…!"

Akane placed a hand on Ucchan's shoulder. "Then let us help you."

Ucchan looked at her, then shook his head. "Don't get involved in this mess, sugar. Don't any of you get involved. It's my situation and I'm gonna resolve it."

"We are gonna resolve it!" Ryūnosuke corrected. "They came after the two of us, and the two of us are going to get 'em back!"

Akane looked back and forth between them. "Then let us help! We're martial artists, too!"

Kaori agreed with Akane. "She's right, you two. If we let those sickos get away with robbing people at night, then who knows how bold they might get. We gotta find them and pummel them into the pavement."

Ryūnosuke turned to Kaori. "Listen here, delivery girl! We're gonna handle it, okay?!"

"My butt's on the line here, too! If business dries up around here because of thieves, I'm gonna have to go work in Japan again. Have you been out there, recently? It somehow got worse in the last four months!"

Akane looked at her. "What, really?"

Kaori dropped her shoulders and groaned. "Ugh, it was terrible, but that's neither here nor there."

Nabiki looked at Katie again. "You sure you wanna get wrapped up in this? It might get stupid."

"I'm already living here, hon," Katie pointed out.

Nabiki closed her eyes and conceded with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm glad I'm a pacifist."

Dr Tofu spoke up. "Ucchan, Ryūnosuke-kun, please reconsider going after them with just the two of you. Akane-kun and Izurando-san are both tremendously talented and skilled. For miscreants as violent as they are, you're going to need all the help you can get."

Ryūnosuke snapped at all of them. "I said we don't need any help, and I definitely don't want yours!"

"Excuse me?!" Akane and Kaori said in unison.

Katie tilted her head to the right slightly. "What the hell? Look, you may not want our help or whatever, but we have as much interest in dealing with whoever these guys are as you do. So whether or not you want our help, we're dealing with them!"

Ucchan growled and turned away, his long ponytail flicking behind him. "Then I'm just gonna find 'em and beat 'em down before you can get your hands on 'em!"

With that he took off, first running down the street before jumping onto the roof of a car, and from there up the side of a building leaping from window ledge to window ledge before he vaulted up over onto the roof.

Kaori called after him. "Fine, be that way you damn hard-headed idiot!"

Dr. Tofu watched him go, grimacing. "He's going to rip those stitches…"

Katie looked from the direction Ucchan went, to Ryūnosuke. "What about you, gonna not be a stubborn git about an L and let us help?"

Looking absolutely hurt, and more than a little anxious behind her tough façade, Ryūnosuke spat on the ground. "Do whatever you want, except get in my way."

With that she stormed off, headed back for Tomobiki.

Akane turned to her, Nabiki, and Kaori. "… The heck is wrong with them?!"

Dr. Tofu sighed. "They were just as obstinate about the details of the fight when I was treating them, too. It made going to look for their attackers difficult."

Nabiki shrugged her shoulders. "They got beat up and they wanna get them back before anyone else does. When pride is on the line, martial artists can be the stupidest people."

Akane recoiled, like that dig had been aimed at her. "I'm not that bad!"

Deciding she wasn't going to ruin Akane's morning out of the goodness of her big sister heart by correcting her, Nabiki started walking. "That's because you haven't found something to be a stubborn idiot for, yet."

Akane stamped her foot once and shouted as she marched after her. "I wouldn't be a stubborn idiot over anything!"

Katie sighed and looked at Kaori. "Gimme a call when you wanna go look for these bums, eh girl?"

"I'm gonna crash at your place until then, so I'm not wiped when we go do this thing. What about you, it's Golden Week… why the uniforms?"

"We got school stuff, don't mind us," Katie said. "Tell the bae to go to bed if she's still gaming when you get in there."

"If I haven't already been up all night, I'd tuck her in myself–if you know what I mean. Anyway, later." With a final grumble about Ucchan's stupidity, Kaori took off, vacating even faster than he did.

Dr. Tofu turned to Katie. "This is a lot to ask, but it is as Kaori said: You and Akane are the strongest in the neighborhood. So, I thank you for volunteering to help deal with this problem."

Katie nodded. "Ain't no thing, doc. That said, was there anything you could figure out about these guys? How they fought, maybe somethin' Ucchan or Ryu let slip?"

Dr. Tofu reached up and adjusted his glasses, impressed by the question. "Now that you mention it, there were a few things, but it's not much. From their injuries, their attackers strictly used weapons, mostly blunt force implements, but both have shallow, straight cuts from a bladed weapon. From the angle of the attacks and how they would've moved to evade the cuts, I can only surmise it was a slashing weapon like a short sword or maybe even a sickle."

Katie nodded, impressed with the doctor's attention to detail in turn. "Anything else?"

"When Ucchan was describing their attackers, he left out something he said to me last night: the black they were wearing looked like leather."

Katie rubbed her cheek. "So… a bunch of guys dressed in black leather waving around weapons? That's not something that goes unnoticed around here."

Dr. Tofu shook his head. "No, it is not. Unfortunately, this is the first time anyone's seen anything like that around here. I hope you can figure out more–and take care of yourself while you're out there." He reached into the pocket of his dark blue attire and pulled out a phone. "Just in case, let's exchange numbers, in case you need back up."

Katie pulled out her phone and tapped it to his, immediately exchanging contact information. "Good idea. I'll see you around, doc."

With a smile, Dr. Tofu bowed in farewell. "I certainly hope not."

Pausing at the odd reply, it quickly clicked. "Ahhh… doctors have a sick sense of humor, huh?!"

His smile grew some. "Laughter is the best medicine."

"I prefer apples for avoiding doctor visits, so don't get mad if I ever whip one at you," Katie said as she walked away, before calling out to Nabiki and Akane. "Hey, Akaneko, Nabikiko, wait up!"

"Don't call me that," Nabiki snapped back.

"Be nice or I'll throw an apple at you, too," Katie teased.

"… What?" Responded a contextless Nabiki.

Dr. Tofu let out a sigh and stretched. He spent the whole night tending to the two, and he'd forgotten to get some rest himself. As he went inside the clinic, he hoped could get some and be ready to come to their aid. It'd be nice to work with someone a little less prone to stomach cramps for once.

Up the street, Katie folded her hands behind her head. "All right girls… I got a lead."

"Already?" Akane asked.

Katie nodded and looked over her at Nabiki. "What Kaori said caught my attention. Why does Soban care so much about no one going out at night?"

Nabiki nodded. "I'd say because the idiot's scared of the dark, but he's no Mendō Shūtaro, gonna shake him down?"

Akane lit up. "Oh, so this is a mystery, now?"

"It sure is, my dear Watson," Katie replied.

A/N: The game is afoot.