Academy Days

A Ranma Alterverse

by Chikiko ( ½ and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.

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Ranma lay in her bed staring upwards in thought. More accurately though, she stared at the bottom of the top bunk, where Nabiki lay sleeping. Even thought it wasn't directly her fault, she still felt partially responsible. But if Soap and Shampoo were any indication, these kinds of fights were pretty normal. In the time her family was there, the two cousins squabbled about something every couple of weeks. Unfortunately they always found some way to involve her, and then get mad at her for supposedly picking a side. It gave her a headache just thinking about it.

Fortunately she didn't have to think about it too long, because just then the door to her room opened and a girl came in saying. "Wake up call!" The girl paused for a moment and checked a clipboard she carried with her. "Is that Nabiki Tendo on the top bunk?"

"Huh?" Answered the sleepy brunette, who had been desperately trying to go back to sleep since the lights suddenly came on several minutes before.

"Did you spend the night here?" The girl asked.

"Uhuh." She managed to say in her sleepy state.

"In case you weren't aware of dorm policy, you're supposed to get permission before spending the night in other people's room."

"Sawee, I didn know." She said finishing it with a yawn. The girl frowned, but decided to let it go.

"Anyway, just wake up. Breakfast is being served till 7:45, and morning chapel is at 8:00."

Once the girl had left, Ranma decided that she might as well get up. Turning to Nabiki, who was still wrapped up on her bed, she asked. "You wanna shower first Nabiki?"

"Nuh uh. I wanna gow back ta sweep," she said as she buried her head into her pillow.

Ranma shrugged. "Ok, then I guess I'll go first."

When Nabiki didn't reply again, she gathered her toiletries and made her way down the hall to the bathroom. Ranma paused when she reached the door, as an uneasy feeling suddenly gripped her. Taking a deep breath, she shook it off and entered the bathroom. The uneasy feeling quickly came back, however, albeit for a different reason, as she saw the girls in various states of undress waiting for a shower. Sighing deeply, she got behind the five other girls waiting girls. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait too long and was able to get into the shower when the shower furthest from the door became available. Ranma was nearly done with his shower when he heard Nabiki's voice. "Ranko? Are you in here?"

Frowning, Ranma lowered the temperature of the water to turn himself back into a girl. Once she was a girl again, she said. "Ya, I'm here."

She was about to ask Nabiki what she wanted when she heard the outer curtain that lead to a small changing area open. "How close are you to finishing?"

Ranma sighed. Thankfully there was still a curtain separating the shower and the changing area. "Um, I'm almost done."

"Oh good, I'll just wait here till then."

"What!"

"That way I can take the shower when you're finished, instead of waiting in that big line."

"If you woulda come when they came to wake us up, you'd be almost done too!"

"Oh well. What can I say? I was too sleepy."

Ranma was about to respond when she heard someone shout.

"Flushing!"

Ranma wondered why anyone would bother to announce the fact that they were going to flush the toilet. She found out a couple of seconds later, when her shower water suddenly turned scalding hot. With a yelp of pain, the now male Ranma tried moving out of the spray of hot water, but instead slipped and fell painfully on his butt, all the while still under the spray of hot water.

Nabiki, concerned about the yelp and sound of her friend falling, pulled the curtain separating them aside. "Are you ok Ranko?" Hearing the curtain open, Ranma fearfully looked up at the towel clad Nabiki. "What are you doing?" Ranma suddenly paused, as she realized her voice was feminine again. "Hey! When did the water turn cold?"

Nabiki blinked in confusion at the redhead sitting on the shower floor. "Are you ok Ranko? I heard you yelp and fall."

"Um ya. The water got really hot all of a sudden, and I kinda slipped."

"Didn't you hear when the girl said flushing? They told us about the showers getting a lot hotter when they flush."

"Uh, I guess I forgot."

Nabiki shook her head and extended her hand to help the smaller girl up. Just as she had stood up however, another girl shouted, "Flushing!" Ranma's eyes widened in fright, knowing that if the hot water hit her now, she'd transform in front of Nabiki. Spinning about so quickly that she nearly fell again, Ranma turned off the water a fraction of a second before hearing a toilet flush.

"Are you done with the shower or was that some exaggerated example of once burned twice shy?"

"You can use it." Ranma said, taking deep breaths to calm her self from the dangerous situation she just went through.

"Thanks!" Nabiki said as she took off her towel. "If I had to wait in that line, I'd end up missing breakfast."

Ranma eep'd as she saw Nabiki undress and quickly moved into the changing room, closing the curtain behind her. "Um ok then, I'll meet you at breakfast."

Not waiting for Nabiki's response, she quicky grabbed her stuff and ran to her room. After getting dressed, Ranma grabbed all her school books and ran off to breakfast. Thankfully, breakfast offered Ranma a welcome reprieve from the morning's craziness. Compared to lunch and dinner breakfast was an extremely quiet affair, as the few people who were present didn't seem all that inclined to talking and the few conversations taking place were all quite hushed.

Shrugging Ranma went back to her meal, and her first bowl of cereal. She had never had cereal before, and she was quickly discovering how good it was. She was almost done with her bowl of Cheerios, when a tray was placed next her. Looking up she saw Akane smiling at her. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Nah! Go ahead."

"Thank you." She said, and watched Ranma happily return to her bowl of cereal. "So are you ready for classes today?"

"I guess so. I wonder if we'll be in the same class."

"I hope so." Akane said smiling.

The smile, however, was short lived, as Nabiki appeared and placed her tray on the other side of Ranma. "This school isn't like Japanese schools, where we stay in the same classroom and the teachers come and go. In American schools, it's the teachers that stay in the same classroom and students that move between them. As it stands, we only have about thirty kids in our class, so we'll probably be in the same class anyway." "I don't seem to remember asking you Nabiki."

Nabiki rolled her eyes and said. "Whatever Akane! I wasn't talking with you, I was talking to Ranko."

Ranko didn't respond. Her time in the amazon village had taught her better, besides she was also quite focused the cup of hot chocolate on the nearside of Nabiki's tray. The cup was much too close to her for comfort. The cafeteria was once again cloaked in silence, as none of the three said anything for the rest of the meal. Unfortunately the peaceful silence Ranma had experienced before the Tendo sisters arrived was replaced by an excruciatingly uncomfortable version of the same silence. Knowing the two sister were now in a foul mood, she decided that for her own safety she would just eat her cereal and warily watch Nabiki's hot chocolate. Ranma happily stood up to put up her tray, when she noticed it was ten minutes for school began. Because of this, Ranma had already moved a little bit when Nabiki slammed her fist on her tray and spilled the hot chocolate on what had been Ranma's chair mere seconds ago. "What's your damn problem Akane?"

"What do you mean my problem? You're the one causing all the fights."

"ME?" Nabiki asked in a near shout. "You're the one who started this whole thing."

"I did not! You did when you told Ranko that I'm an idiot like Kuno, and only interested in fighting! Isn't that right Ranko?" "Oh so now I can't have an opinion? You're such a hypocrite! You don't think I know all of the things you've told your friends about me?" When Akane didn't answer right away, Ranma quickly jumped in and said. "Ok, well I'll see you two at assembly! See you!"

Not waiting for a response, Ranma all but ran for the cafeteria exit and didn't stop running until she reached the Ad building. Entering the building she saw several students sitting in the student lobby talking. She also noticed a few other students gathered around the bulletin board looking at a piece of paper. If she were in Japan, she might have guessed that it was the paper that told the students what classroom they would be assigned to. However since Nabiki said they would be in several classrooms, she had no idea what it might be.

Figuring it was probably important she approached the board and looked at the piece of paper. On paper was a table with sixteen columns and eight rows. Each rows was given a letter while each column a number; a quick scan revealed that she was F14. Not sure what that meant she asked a boy next to her. "Um what is this chart for?"

"Oh that's the seating chart for chapel."

"What's that?" She asked.

"Oh um... that's kinda like home room. You go there they talk to you about stuff give announcements and then you either goto school or work depending on what grade you're in. You must be a freshman right?"

"Ya, sorry about that."

The boy shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Do you know where the chapel is?" Seeing Ranko shake her head, he said. "Follow me, I'll show you."

Ranma followed him until they reached a large auditorium. Several people were already either sitting in their assigned seats or standing about talking with their friends. Thanking the boy, she quickly found her seat on the far right side near the end of the row. Ranma was about to sit down when a girl said, "Wait! Don't sit down yet. I have to get past you to my seat."

"Uh ok." Ranma said to the girl, letting her cross in front of her and sit in the seat next to hers. Glancing around quickly to make sure no one else was going to need pass her on the way to their seats, Ranma sat down. "Sorry, if I scared you. I didn't want to make you stand up after just sitting down."

"It's no big deal."

"Anyway, my name's Risa Santo. You?"

"I I am Ranm..ko, Ranko Saotome."

"Saotome? Hey that's a Japanese name isn't it? Are you Japanese too?" Said the girl excitedly.

"Um ya." Ranma said, noting for the first time that the girl did look somewhat Asian.

"Wow! That's so cool! So am I! Well, I guess technically I'm only half Japanese, but that still makes me Japanese."

Not knowing what to say Ranma nodded. "I guess."

Noting Ranma's uneasiness, she said. "Sorry about that. That was kinda loud wasn't it? I'm sorry I have a bad habit of getting loud when I get excited. My dad's always telling me that it isn't proper behavior for a young lady. Sheesh, You'd think someone that married a Puerto Rican woman would know better."

"Huh?" Ranma said completely confused.

"Puerto Ricans are loud! You've never been around Puerto Ricans have you?"

"Sorry, I've only been in the country a couple of days. I don't even know what a Puerto Rican is."

"You're an ESL student? Wow! Great, you can help me with my Japanese! There aren't that many people I know that can help me, except my parents!"

"Me? Why me?"

"Cuz you're the only native Japanese speaker I know."

"I'm not the only Japanese person here, there are at least two other girls and three guys." Ranma said.

"That's so awesome! That's even more people I can practice with! I know! Since your gonna help me with my Japanese, I'll teach you Spanish. I can't wait, I haven't been this excited about school since like first grade!"

Before Risa could continue, they were interrupted by the principals voice. "If everyone can please take a seat so we can begin." Risa frowned at the interruption, and turned in her chair away from Ranma and toward the front. Ranma was almost thankful for the break, as she had never experienced anyone quite so energetically friendly. Despite having only just met, Risa had treated her as if they had known each other for years.

The meeting was fairly short and soon everyone stood up and begin moving into two groups. Nearly all of the sophomores and juniors moved toward an exit door on the right side of the chapel that lead to the "pak bus," as girl sitting to Ranma's right called it. It was the bus that took the students, who worked at the same place her father did, to work. The rest of the students were either seniors or freshmen going to classes, like herself, or juniors and sophomores who worked on campus.

As they were making their way out of the chapel, Risa pulled on Ranma's sleeves. "Hey Ranko, I didn't bring the right books for today, can I share with you?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Cool! You can go on ahead, I'm gonna put the books I do have in my locker."

Ranma nodded her head and went into the classroom. Inside, he noted that instead of desks, there were four rows of long tables. He also noticed Akane sitting in the front row, and Nabiki, away from her sister, in the back; each one had an empty seat next to them. This made Ranma hesitate, since those were the only two empty seats left. That meant sitting next to one of the sisters, which would anger the one he didn't pick, as well as not being able to share with Risa. Sighing she said, "This just isn't my day."

Ranma sighed in relief as he saw Risa walk up next to him. "Hmm there aren't many seats left are there? Oh well I'll take care of it." Risa said to her, before turning to the teacher and asking, "Yo teacher, I forgot my books today. Is it ok if I share with Ranko?"

"You won't need your books today, just take a seat; the bell is about to ring."

"Ok." She said, before heading toward the front of the class for the seat next to Akane. Shrugging, Ranma walked to the seat in the back next to Nabiki.

Just as Ranma sat down the bell indicating the beginning of class rung. As it did the teacher stood up and began taking roll-call. When he finished he said, "Before we start, I'm sure some of you are wondering how to pronounce my name. My name is Kahler, and it rhymes with tailor. I apologize if I butchered some of your names during roll-call. If I did, just pull me aside sometime and let me know the correct way. Anyway, that aside, welcome to algebra class. However as some of you may not have not yet have had pre-algebra yet, our first day of class will be a placement test. Don't worry this isn't a pass or fail kind of test, all it's for is to tell me whether it would be better for you to be in algebra, or pre-algebra. If you find questions on the test that you can't figure out, skip and move on to another one. " Picking up the test, the teacher said. "You'll have most of the period to do the test. Take your time and try to anser the test as best you can. You may start when you get your test."

Ranma quickly began her test when she got it, since many of the others had already started. She felt really embarrassed when she had to skip the fourth through tenth questions. Thankfully the next question was a lot easier but she frowned as she noticed that she seemed to be leaving a lot more questions blank than the ones she answered. She didn't like that. Ranma had spent all of her life training in the martial with her father. She had been told that as the heir to the Saotome school of Anything Goes martial arts, she was suppose to be the best. Her training always reflected that, it was always harder and more intense than what most people considered normal. Many times she was placed in extremely dangerous situations, some even life threatening, but she always came out on top. After it was over she and her mother would always confront her father about it. Her mother was always very angry when he did those type of things, it was both stupid and dangerous. In fact Ranma's mother initially didn't join them on their trip, she came after she had heard that Ranma had been seriously hurt after a training incident involving cats. When she learned what her husband had done to their son, she threatened him with divorce, and some kind of contract that the two had signed before they left. Things had been very tense for long time after that, but she eventually allowed things to continue on the condition that she would go along to ensure he never did anything that stupid again.

Although her father never did anything quite as stupid or as dangerous as the cat fist training again, he did put her though many other dangerous situations. However mad she always was at her fathers training methods, he always told her that if she wanted to be the best she had to work harder than everyone else; that if she only did what everyone else did, how would she ever be better than them? To be best required great sacrifice. The path of a true martial artist was wrought with peril.

Her father had also told her that while he wanted her to be the best, he would never put her in a situation that he didn't think she would be able to handle. Of course he seemed to think that she could handle just about every situation they came across. Although she would never admit it to anyone, especially not her father, but her fathers faith in her abilities was something she was very proud of. In all of their training she worked hard to be the best she could be, both for herself and to prove to her father that her faith in her was justified.

She was proud to be the best, but as she looked at the many blank rows of answers that she had been forced to skip, she asked herself. Am I really the best? Her mother had always been very insistent on Ranma staying up-to-date with her studies. Her father always pushed her to be a man-amongst-men, and her mother always told her that a true man was both strong of body and strong of mind. To be the best her father told her that sometimes you have to do things you don't like, or things you don't want to do.

One such example was fighting with weapons. Her father had always taught her that depending on a weapon was a major handicap. No matter how good you were with a weapon, if you depended on it, then you would be useless without it. However, despite his disdain of weapons and weapon users, her father had ensured that she was highly efficient with a weapon. Not knowing how to use weapons was also a major disability. Weapons provided benefits that one did not have unarmed. In of themselves there was nothing wrong with weapons or even the use of a weapon, the problem only arose if you became dependent on them. That made Ranma think. Her father had told her many times that her mind was one of the strongest weapons one could ever wield. He always stressed to her the importance of adaptablity and not falling into routines. For that she needed to have a sharp mind, to come up with new strategies and find inventive new ways past her father's defenses. But her mother had always told her that education was for the mind what exercise was for the body. The purpose of getting an education was to strengthen the mind. That caused Ranma to look at education in an entirely new light. From that day forward she sought to strengthen her mind more. It took her a while, but she eventually saw its rewards.

However Ranma had always placed education secondary to her martial arts training. But the more she looked at her test, the more she began to realize that she seemed to be far less proficient with her mind than she had thought. A quick glance at Nabiki only deepened that sense of inferiority, as the girl had already finished and seemed to be taking a nap. With a sigh, Ranma decided that if she really was going to have to take school a lot more seriously if she really wanted to be the best.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the teacher stated that they had five minutes before finishing the test. Ranma hung her head as she realized that she was nearly done with the test and had left more than half of the answers blank. With one last sigh Ranma went back to her test to try and finish what she could before the five minutes were up.

Finally the teacher stood up and said, "Ok, times up. Don't worry if you didn't finish that perfectly. Ok, now to grade the test. I'll read the answers to you and you grade along. Normally I'd tell you to switch papers, however, as this is a bit more personal than a normal quiz each of you will grade your own test. After we're done, simply count up the number of correct answer you have and write it on the top of the test." After they had finished grading, the teacher wrote two numbers on the chalk board. "Ok. Firstly let me remind you, not making it into algebra does not mean that you are dumb. It simply means that you have that you need a little more training before you're ready for algebra. There is nothing wrong with that."

"Now I'm sure you've noticed that I wrote two numbers on the board. For those of you who scored less the first number will most likely want to do pre-algebra, and those who scored higher than the second will probably want to be in algebra. If you scored in between these numbers I'd like you to come see me sometime before our next class on Tuesday. That way we can talk and decide where to place you. Let's see, according to that clock there's still five more minutes left to class, however since we don't have anything else to do here today, you may turn in your test and leave early. Those of you who wants to talk to me about their test feel free talk to me."

Ranma sighed. She had scored less than the pre-algebra cut off point. She stood up and handed in the test and noticed that Nabiki was still sitting in her seat. Walking back to her, she noticed that her answer sheet had nearly three times as many times more circles answered than she did. Raising her hand Nabiki asked, "Mr. Kahler, is there a reason we didn't finish grading all the answers? I still have more question on my test." "Actually I gave you a special test Nabiki. After looking at your records, I figured you might finish ahead of everyone else so I gave you a few more challenging questions. If you stay, we can finish grade those questions and see how you did."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "Ok." She said to the teacher. Turning to Ranma, Nabiki said. "Go on ahead Ranko, I'll catch up to you in science class."

"Uh, ok. I'll see you there Nabiki."

Outside the classroom, Ranma found Risa waiting her. "There you are! so how'd you do?"

"Huh?"

"Did you get in algebra or are we gonna be classmates in pre?" "Pre-algebra." She said with a sigh.

"Hey now, don't sound so depressed and all! There's nothing wrong with pre-algebra. Not everyone is a math wiz you know. Its like singing. Some people got it and the rest of us have to work at it. Its Its no big, its kinda like my Dad says. 'You must learn to crawl before you can run.' He's all big on me getting good grades and stuff, but he's not dumb enough to think I'll be the best student without working at it. You know? Anyway we better hurry, we got Dr. K next."

"Who?"

"Dr. K. My friend Raquel told me about him. He's suppose to be a really hard teacher. Come on, let's hurry so we can find a seat together. The last thing I want is to be yelled at by Dr. K."

They quickly walked down the hall to the science classroom. As they entered the classroom, Ranma saw Akane waving at her to sit down next to her on the right side of the classroom. Ranma and Risa went to sit next to her and Ranma introduced them. "Risa this is Akane, Akane this is Risa." "Hello Risa."

"Hey, that's a Japanese name, are you Japanese too?"

"Um yes." Akane said surprised by the excitement in the girls voice. "That's so awesome! I'm half Japanese! Thanks Ranko! You found me someone else I can practice with!"

As Risa began talking to Akane, Ranma began looking at the classroom. The first thing she noticed was that the classroom was very cold and since the blinds where shut the class was kinda dark as well. On the left wall was a display case with different kinds of models of some kinds. Along the walls where many science posers. In fact, she could see at least three posters with the same kinda of table thing on it, as well as other posters that he didn't really understand. Ranma also had a chance to get a look at the teacher before class began. Dr. K was a somewhat older man only a little bit more hair than her father. When she entered the class, Dr. K was adding the final touches to whatever it was he had been writing on the now full chalk board.

The bell indicating that class should start caught Ranma's attention. As soon as the bell had finished ringing, Dr. K began calling out names for roll-call. After roll-call, Dr. K began reading some phrase that he had on one of the four small whiteboards next to the big chalkboard. Dr. K said it was the thought for the week. Unfortunately it was in Latin, so she didn't have a clue what it meant. Thankfully after he finished reading it in Latin, he then translated it into English for the class to understand. He had just finished with the thought of the week, when there was a knock on the door. Opening the door, he said. "You're late! Take a seat quickly." Although Ranma couldn't see who it was at first, it was quickly revealed to be Nabiki. Ranma noticed she dropped some kind of note as she walked past the teachers desk, and took an empty seat in the front row. After Nabiki took her seat, Dr. K immediately began teaching. For the most part all they really did was go over the syllabus. Amongst the requirements of the class was a journal on the notes they took in class. Dr. K made it quite clear that it was important and stated it was worth a lot of extra credit. Unfortunately they were supposed to take notes of what he had written on the board, and what was written on the board was borderline illegible.

After finishing with the syllabus, Dr. K immediately began going over what was written on the board. Ranma immediately noticed Dr. K's teaching style was nothing like any teacher she had ever had. She thought back to her last science teacher. Although he was much younger than Dr. K, the man had always managed to put her to sleep. Ranma doubted however that anyone could easily fall asleep in this man's class. Firstly he was loud. Dr. K apparently had a slight problem with his hearing, so he spoke louder to compensate for it. The man also tended to move around a lot and used a laser pointer to show them where they were at. He was so animated that at one point he had even stepped onto a chair to help express some concept.

Though the class was far more interesting than any other science class she'd ever attended, Ranma just didn't feel comfortable in the class. Ever since she'd gotten her curse, she didn't feel comfortable around science teachers. So it was with great relief that she left the class 80 minutes later. "So what's next?" She asked Akane and Risa. "Well according to the schedule, either home ec or SSL." Answered Risa.

"SSL?" Ranma asked.

"Ya Study Skills Lab." replied Risa. "It's supposed to teach you how to study or something. But I signed up for home ec, so no SSL for me. Either of you taking home ec with me?"

"I am!" Answered Akane.

"What about you Ranko? You in home ec or SSL?"

"Uh lets see." Ranma said as she grabbed her schedule. She frowned slightly and said, "I got SSL."

Risa frowned. "Ah! Oh well I guess I'll see you at lunch?" "Ya I guess I'll see you then." answered Ranma. The two girls waved and went on their way to the next class. Ranma followed their example and went to her own class. Not noticing anyone she knew, she took a seat in the back corner away from most everyone else. The class was just as the name implied, a class for learning to study. It was also very boring. It was with great joy that she left the class eighty minutes later. Checking her schedule she realized she didn't have anything to do this period so she went to the library to see if her mother was there. Doing a quick scan she found her mother, unfortunately she seemed to be working with a student. Ranma sighed in disappointment. It was only eleven in the morning and she already felt more fatigued than her normal intense workouts with her father.

Ranma briefly considered going back to her room and wait for lunch, but decided to stay in the library for a bit and see if she would have a chance to talk to her mother. Ranma sat down on a padded chair near a magazine rack facing her mother. Leaning against the headrest Ranma closed her eyes and contemplated her day. It was only the first day and she'd already been yelled at by the hall monitor for not following dorm procedures, scalded in the shower, nearly doused with hot chocolate, got a low score on a math test, and loaded with science and study skills homework.

On the plus side, she'd already made another friend. A loud and easily excitable friend, but a friend non-the-less. Thankfully she had about an hour before lunch time. A good meal is just what she needed to energize her for the next grueling half of the school day. Seeing that her mother was still talking to the student, Ranma let her mind wander for a few moments. Until she felt a hand gently shaking her.

"Ranko dear, wake up." Her mother said.

Opening her eyes, Ranma said. "I wasn't sleepin, I was just thinking about stuff."

Nodoka raised an eyebrow. "Well you must have been in some really deep meditation. I've tried rousing from your contemplation several times over the last hour, and it took me about a minute to wake you just now." Ranma frowned. "You don't gotta exaggerate Mom, I've only been here " Ranma looked at the clock on the wall and realized that it was now almost twelve fifteen. "Whoa! I was asleep."

"First day of school that rough?" Her mother asked.

Ranma nodded her head. "Ya. Eighty minutes of math and science back to back in one day is a killer."

Nodoka hugged Ranma. "Let's head to the cafe and eat. You can tell me about it on the way there."

Ranma and her mother talked until they reached the lunch line. The mere sight of food was enough to begin revitalizing Ranma. Nodoka smiled at the way Ranma's blue eyes lit up at the sight of the food. Thankfully the line wasn't too long and Ranma quickly packed her tray until it was jam-packed with food. Ignoring the astounded looks on the faces of those around her, Ranma stepped out into the dinning area and began looking for a place to sit.

Spotting Genma, Ranma began walking toward him until she heard Risa's familiar voice coming from the far opposite corner of the cafe. "OI! RANKO! COME HERE!"

Ranma's face quickly camouflaged itself with her hair as everyone turned to look at her. Turning to look at the girl, Ranma saw her and a companion waving at her to sit with them. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, Ranma was further mortified when her mother walked behind her and whispered. "It seems you forgot to tell me you made a new friend today. Go ahead and sit with her, I'll go sit with Genma." Ranma nodded and began heading toward Risa. As she did, Ranma noticed how full the table she was heading to was. Ranma dubiously set his tray down next to Risa, suddenly feeling somewhat self-conscious about the amount of food she got.

Risa smiled at Ranma and said. "Guys I want to introduce you to my newest friend Ranko. These are my friends and their friends. This is Raquel, who sits next to me in chapel; her boyfriend Nick, who's in our class; Christina, her cousin; Wendy, Christina's friend; Annabel, Christina's other friend; Rosa, Nick's cousin; Angel, Rosa's brother; and Josue, their cousin."

Ranma waved somewhat uneasily at all the new people she just sat down next to. Before she had a chance to say anything, Risa noticed the amount of food and Ranma's plate and said. "Boy! You must sure be hungry, that's like more food than all the boys on the table have combined!"

"Risa!" Raquel said. "Calmate girl! You're embarrassing the poor girl."

"Sorry Ranko. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"It's ok." Ranma said dismissively.

"Say Ranko, who's that lady over there that you were talking to when I called you over here?"

Following Risa's line of vision, Ranma saw her mother suddenly look away trying to stop her self from laughing. With a sigh, she said. "Oh that's just my mom."

Risa's eyes widened with excitement. "You're mother? Didn't you say she taught you to speak English?" Ranma nodded her head, which momentarily caused a smile, usually reserved for villains with sinister plans, to briefly appear on Risa's lips.

"If she taught you to speak English, then maybe she can teach me Japanese." Risa said sounding as if she just solved one of the mysteries of life. Standing up she said. "Sorry guys, me and Ranko are gonna go sit with her mom for lunch. I'll see you guys later ok. Bye." Risa grabbed her tray of food before grabbing Ranma and all but dragged her toward Nodoka. When she reached her, Risa bowed deeply before Ranma's parents and nervously said. "Konichiwa Saotome-San. Uh I um uh uh honorably ask permission to sit here with you and your family?"

Nodoka was taken aback for a moment by the girl's action. "Of course dear, any friend of Ranko is always welcome at our table." Risa bowed deeply once more before taking her seat. "Thank you so very much Saotome-San."

Ranma gave Risa an incredulous look. "You didn't have ta do that ya know. You coulda just sat down. It's not like my mom's gonna turn you away or nothin. She was the one that said I should sit with ya in the first place."

"Oh." Risa said sounding slightly disappointed.

Noticing the girls tone, Nodoka decided to clear the slight misunderstanding. "What my Ranko meant to say Risa dear, is that when you called her she wasn't sure whether she should go sit you, her friend, or with us, her parents. I simply told her it was ok for her not to sit with us." "Oh, ok." Risa said sounding relieved.

"You'll have to forgive her. I'm afraid Ranko grew up on the road, so her speech is still somewhat rough."

"I'm right here you know." Ranma said grumpily.

"I know dear." Her mother told her, before turning back to Risa. "So Risa dear, tell me how did you and Ranko meet? You must have just met today, since she didn't tell me about you yesterday."

"Yes, we met this morning in chapel. We sit next to each other in chapel, and since we're in the same grade, we even have a few classes together."

"Oh really! That's so good to hear. I was so worried about her making friends. You watch after her now."

"Oh don't worry Saotome-San, I'll defiantly take good care of her. After all Ranko promised to help me with my Japanese."

"Oh, are you learning to speak Japanese dear?" Nodoka asked in a happily surprised voice.

Risa suddenly got momentarily nervous. "Yes ma'am. I'm actually half Japanese. but growing up here in the US, I never really learned to speak a lot."

Nodoka frowned slightly, which caused Risa to get nervous again. Her father had warned her that some Japanese would be offended of both the fact that she was half-Japanese and that she couldn't speak Japanese either. But her nervousness soon disappeared when Nodoka began smiling again. "Well dear, I've managed to teach Ranko to speak in English, as well as some Korean and Chinese, I'm sure I can help teach you to speak Japanese if you'd like."

Risa's eyes were shining with happiness. "Why thank you Saotome-San, I'm so very grateful!"

Nodoka smiled at the girls antics. "Come by my office after you come back from work, and we'll find a time we can schedule you in." "You're a teacher!" She asked in shock. "I'm so sorry sensei, if I wouldn't have been so familiar with you if I had known you were a teacher!"

"Nonsense, it's lunch time and you're my daughters friend. Besides calling me Saotome-San is the same as calling Mrs. Saotome. You can call me either of those or even just sensei if you'd like. There's no reason to apologize though."

"I'm sorry, my father said I should always be as respectful as possible to people until I've been given permission to be more familiar with them." Nodoka nodded her head. "That's probably a safe strategy when dealing with most Japanese people, but our family is far more open than most Japanese families. You don't have to worry about those kinds of things. Isn't that right Ranko dear?"

Ranma, who had begun digging into her food with her normal flourish, was suddenly caught by the question as she put a large sum of food in her mouth. She Nodded, as she hurriedly finished the bite she had in her mouth. "Ya don't even worry about it. You wouldn't even believe half the stuff we've done and been through. We've you live your on the road all that formality junk don't really mean all that much."

Risa giggled at the distressed look on Ranma's face when her mother suddenly turned the question on her. "So why did you live on the road, if you don't mind me asking?"

Pointing at Genma, who has thus far been ignored by everyone on the table, Ranma said, "Pop's been training me in martial arts." "Oh wow! How cool! That's like in all those movies and anime I watched! So you must be like super kick butt and all that right! Or!" She said adding special emphasis to the or. "Perhaps you're actually like some kind of princess of an ancient kingdom that specializes in martial arts and you've been on the road your whole life to protect yourself until your old enough to take the throne!"

Risa frowned when the three other occupants of the table face faulted. "Uh does that mean none of you have seen Martial Princess Yuki Fireflower?"

"Seen what?" Ranma asked as she picked herself off the floor. "Martial Princess Yuki Fireflower. It's a new anime series, it's apparently already pretty popular in Japan. I figured being from Japan and all, you would have caught the reference."

"No, I'm sorry. We rarely had access to very much television on our travels, and the times we did, Ranma and Genma would be off training."

Risa blinked, astonishment etched to her face. "But you're Japanese!"

Ranma was about to respond when Genma suddenly stood up and sighed deeply. "Let's go boy. Our time is up. It's time to head back to work."

Ranma did a double take. "Yo Pops, you ok? I don't think I've ever heard you volunteer to go to work."

Genma growled at him and yelled, "Stop gawking boy and let's go." Picking up his tray, Genma headed for the tray rack.

Ranma stared at Genma's retreating back and his mother. "Is Pops ok?"

Nodoka nodded. "He's fine dear. We came to an understanding last night. Don't worry he'll be back to his normal self soon enough. Your father is just a big baby when he doesn't get his way." Then as an afterthought she added. "Even though he comes out ahead in the long run."

Nodoka shook her head. "Anyway the two of you had better go on, you don't want to be late for your first day of work."

Following Genma's example, they put up their trays and went outside. The pair approached a group of their fellow classmates, just as a large yellow school bus pulled up. Risa frowned. "Ah man the pak bus is already here! I was hoping we'd get to talk a bit more before you had to go."

"You aren't coming? I thought everyone had to go to work?" "Ya everyone's gotta go to work, but I'm not working at pak anymore. One summer is more than enough for me. Thanks to Raquel and Christina, I was able to get a job as Mr. Hamburger's reader. So I'll be grading everyone's history homework and doing whatever else he needs me to do. I really like history, so I'm pretty excited about it. And it sure beats working at pak. But anyway we'd better get going. I don't want to be late, Mr. Hamburger is supposed to be pretty strict and I don't want to make a bad impression on my first day. Good luck at pak, you'll need it." Ranma waved at Risa, as she ran back toward the ad building, before turning back to the group that was now heading into the bus. Seeing Akane about to enter the bus, she called out to her. "Yo Akane, wait up a sec." Akane stepped aside to let others get into the bus. "Hey Ranko! How was lunch?"

"Food was ok. I don't think Risa ate too much though. Her and my mom were talking all through lunch. My mom promised to teach her Japanese."

Akane laughed. "Well good for her. That girl really is something else. We didn't really do much in Home Ec class, so we spent the time talking about all sorts of stuff."

"Ya, she really does like to talk." They shared a laugh as they got on the bus. Ranma looked around for a seat they could share together. She quickly spotted her father sitting up in the front, just behind the bus driver, and she spotted Nabiki sitting in back, next to the door, in the one person seat. Not too far from her, though, Ranma spotted the only empty seat that she and Akane could sit in together.

Ranma pointed the seat out to Akane and was about to head toward it when Genma stopped her. "Boy. We need to talk, sit with me today." Ranma was going to ignore him, until he noticed the serious look on his face. Ranma nodded. "Sorry Akane, I'm gonna sit with my pops for a bit."

"Don't worry about it Ranko. I'll see you around."

Ranma sat down next to her father, and waited for him to say something. However Genma didn't immediately say anything. She could see that he wanted to say something, but wasn't ready yet. So Ranma waited. Not soon after, the bus left the school to take them to their workplace. Still Genma hadn't said a word. Ranma frowned. She didn't like her father's current mood.

Her father wasn't one for keeping things in. When something bothered him, he said it. If you don't like what he had to say, then that was your problem. Getting Genma to shut up when he was unhappy was an act she had previously considered virtually impossible. But now here they were five minutes into the bus drive and he still hadn't said anything. "Yo Pop, are we gonna talk or what?"

"Tell me boy, is this what you really want to do?"

Ranma blinked. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid boy! I'm talking about this going to school and being a girl thing!"

Ranma sighed. "I wanna do this for Mom. You know I don't really gotta choice about the girl thing, especially after what happened at the last school."

"And the Art? What of that? Are you just going to throw away all those years of training to go to school?"

"Hell no! I ain't giving up the art just cuz I'm going to school. I just gotta ... well it just means we gotta work harder during the weekend is all."

"Fine. If that's how you want it, you better be prepared. I'm going to work you five times harder to make up for amount of time your in school."

"About time, I was getting bored with the last training schedule we had going. I just didn't wanna say anythin cuz I know you're getting old and stuff."

"Old! I'll show you who's getting old." Genma said furiously. He was about to say more when the bus started turning to reach their destination. The knowledge that he would soon have to go back to work sobered Genma very quickly.

Soon the bus pulled up to the warehouse and the workers piled out and made their way inside. The returning students, knowing what to do already, immediately clocked in and began working, while the newer ones were met by the manager, a tall muscular woman named Carolyn Jensen. After a small speech, they were given a tour of the facility.

One of the two most prominent things Ranma noticed immediately were the large stacks of large metal baskets full of the various tractor parts that were waiting for packaging. The second was the three lines of small reinforced tables where the returning students and some adults were currently working at. Ranma was placed at the far end of the three lines, next to the office. It was called Rosario's line because that was the name of the line's supervisor. Akane was placed in the middle line known as Martha's line, and Nabiki the first and smallest of the three lines known as Carmen s line. While most lines had ten tables, Carmen's line only had four. Instead, two long tables ran lengthwise where six should have gone.

Most of the tables were big enough that two people could work together, however it seemed the majority of workers worked alone. Ranma, however, had a partner. Ranma had quickly noticed her in her other classes, as she was the only other redhead in her class. She was fairly attractive with straight shoulder length red hair, emerald green eyes hidden behind grey metal-framed glasses, and the tiniest hint of freckles. "Uh hi." Said Ranma not knowing what else to say.

"Hello Ranko."

Ranma blinked. "How'd you know my name?"

"From roll call in class today. Mr Kahler called you Ranko, and Dr. K. Called you Ms. Saotome."

"Oh, ok. So uh what was your name again? Sorry I don't remember."

"That's ok. My name's Rachel Silvers. We need to get to work or Rosario will get mad."

"Uh ok. Whata we gotta do?"

"Well the work here isn't all that complicated. The first thing to do is to look in the basket to the left of the table and look for a ticket." Moving past Ranma, Rachel reached in the three foot tall basket and pulled out a ticket. "Once you have a ticket you just pull of the stickers off the stickers from the back and sign your name on the ticket so they'll know who worked on it." Grabbing a pencil Rachel signed her name on the ticket and had Ranma do the same.

"Ok. Now we have to check to make sure the labels are the right ones. Just compare the numbers on the stickers to this number on the ticket where it says part number. If they match then we're ok. If not you'll have to tell Rosario and she'll get you some new labels." Rachel checked the stickers and said, "Good these labels are ok."

"Now the next thing to do is to look at the instructions. The instructions are right here on the ticket below the sample label that was put on the ticket. Thankfully, we got an easy one for our first job. See, here it says id. That means all we gotta do is put the stickers on the boxes. These are the jobs you want to get because they're really easy to do and help raise your production."

"There is one thing to look out for though. Sometimes these things are kinda weird, like this number above the instructions. That's the packaging code. Usually we don't have to worry about it, but sometime the manufacturer messes up and we have to cover for them. Pretty much the only codes you really have to look out for are 2020 and 2023. That's fill void and ocean wrap. Fill void means just put paper in it so it doesn't move around in the box. Ocean wrap is the ugly one, you have to wrap it in a special kind of wax paper to make sure it doesn't rust. Believe me you don't want to have to do ocean wrap."

"We have a really good job; all we have do is put labels on all five hundred of these boxes and put them in the basket to the right of the table. Pretty simple. Now since we're working together on this, let's split up the job this way. Since you're closer to the basket with the job, you get the boxes and put them on the table. Then we'll both label them. Then you get more boxes and I'll put the boxes that we just finished in the other basket. Sound fair?"

Ranma nodded her head. "Ya, I guess so."

"Good. Go ahead and get like twenty boxes. And I'll divide up the labels."

Nodding at Rachel, Ranma began getting boxes from the basket and placing them on the table. Then Rachel gave them both a strip of stickers to place on the boxes. Rachel showed her where a good place to place the label was and they began working in the pattern Rachel had mentioned. "You're pretty good at this. How'd you get so good?"

"Oh I've been working here all summer. It's a good way to earn money. School here isn't exactly cheap you know, which is why all the money we earn goes straight to pay our bills. Thankfully I don't live in the dorm and my dad is a teacher, so I don't have to pay as much as most everyone else, but it still is a lot of money."

"Your dad's a teacher here?"

Rachel blink. "Ya. You didn't know? My dad's Rick Silvers; he works with your mom in the ESL department."

"Oh! Ya that's right. I guess my mom didn't mention it."

"It's ok."

Ranma wasn't sure what to say after that so they continued doing their job until they finished it a while later. Rachel called Rosario, who came and checked off their job and told them she'd send someone to bring them more work. When she was gone, Rachel turned to Ranma and said. "Ok, now when you finish a job, all you have to do is write it down on your production sheet."

Rachel grabbed two sheets of paper from a small bag on top of the small shelf at the end of the table. She gave one to Ranma and one to herself. "Now in the first blank, just put item number of job we just did. This is what the extra labels are good for. Most people like to do this as soon as they get the job, but I tend to wait till the end."

"Why?" Ranma asked curiously.

"Because after you write the part number they want to know how many pieces there were, and how many you did. Well, sometimes there are mistakes and the ticket will say there are 500 but there are really only 490, or there might be extra and there's 520. So I just wait until after check out to know exactly how many to put in. It doesn't happen a lot, but sometimes it does so I'd rather just fill it out once and not have to change it later. Thankfully this job was right, so in the next column put 500 and since we did it together we divide it up in two, so in the third column put 250."

"Finally in the last column you just write what you had to do. So just write id. That's Important, because if you do a harder job like if you had to VCI, ocean wrap, and/or fill void that will slow you down a lot, so they might adjust your production a little."

"Huh? What's VCI, and what's production for?"

"You'll find out about VCI soon I'm sure, but its just special paper to stop something from rusting. Production is how you get your grade at pak. To get an A for work, you have to maintain an average production per hour for the entire quarter. It also determines how much money you get for allowance every week."

"Allowance?"

"Ya the company we work for gives us up to $20 a week. Depending on how good you do you get more. If you get an 'F' in production for the week you don't get anything. If you get an 'A' you get $20 a week." Ranma was going to ask her another question, but just then a forklift arrived and deposited a large box next to their table. "Well, back to work." Rachel said. Ranma knew she wasn't going to like the job when she heard Rachel sigh. Putting the ticket in front of Ranma, she said. "Ok, now you tell me what to do."

Ranma took the ticket, removed the labels, and signed the back. Then, comparing one of the labels to the ticket she said, "Then I check to make sure the labels are right, which they are, and read the instructions. 'Id. 15 per each. ' Huh? I don't get it?"

"It's a polybag job. What they want us to do is grab those little rollers and put 15 of them in one of these little plastic bags. It doesn't tell you what size to use, but these are small, so we'll just use the small 3x5 polybags."

Ranma looked at the large box that Rachel grabbed the ticket from and was shocked to see it full of tiny rollers. "How many of these things are there?"

Rachel sighed. "10,000! So chances are we aren't going to finish today. We'll just have to do as many as we can and leave the rest to the guys in the morning. Anyway, grab a bunch of those things and split them up into groups of 15. I'm going to put the stickers on the bags, then I'll put them into the bags and put the bags into the bins."

Ranma nodded and they began working. After the third time Ranma lost count and had to recount, they decided to work quietly to help Ranma count better. It was an easy job, but it quickly started wearing on Ranma's nerves. Between losing count or having the rollers roll away from the little groups she made, Ranma was getting more than a little upset. Rachel eventually noticed and asked if Ranma if she wanted to trade. Ranma nodded, and they quickly traded places and started doing each others job. This was far less problematic for her than the other was, but it didn't really get rid of the restlessness that found its way inside her. Having to just stand in place and put little rollers in a bag for a prolonged period of time was very unsettling for her. She was used to being highly active everyday. She wanted to move around, or at least talk or be talked at to distract her from the tedious job she was doing.

Relief came a seemingly eternity later when a loud bell rang. Ranma looked at Rachel questioningly. "It's time to go. We have keyboarding class soon. So we have to go back to school."

"Oh ok. What about this? What should we do about this?" Ranma said, pointing at the job they had been working on.

Rosario, who happened to be close enough to hear them, said, "Don't worry about it. I'll finish it off for you and put it on your production sheets."

Ranma and Rachel both thanked Rosario, quickly clocked out and headed for the pak bus. Once inside the bus, Rachel found a seat next to a boy that she obviously knew. Ranma shrugged and began looking around for her other two friends, Ranma found Nabiki once again sitting in the solitary seat at the back of the bus. Akane was found further up, sitting next to a boy who had obviously sat there just to talk to person sitting across the aisle. So Ranma found a seat near the front of the bus where most of the seats where empty.

The bus trip was noisy but quick, and soon they found themselves back at the ad building. Not knowing where to go, Ranma just followed the few classmates he knew. They went up the stairs and into the computer lab, where he saw Risa typing away at a computer. Risa looked up in time to see Ranma looking at her, so she made hand motions for her to sit in the seat next to her.

"So how was work?" Risa asked as soon as Ranma sat down.

"Painfully boring!"

"Tell me about it! I'm glad I don't have to work there anymore. My new job is so much better! In fact my new boss is gonna be our teacher for this class."

Before they could talk more the bell rang and the teacher asked Risa to pass out some papers to everyone in the class. The goal of the class was simple enough; learn to type using a keyboard. On the board was a table showing what typing speed you needed to get a particular grade. Once you reached the speed for a 'C' in the class, you were no longer required to attend class. It was of course encouraged to stay until you reached 'A' level proficiency, but that decision was left entirely up to the student. Unfortunately for Ranma this was probably the fourth time she could ever remember even using a computer, so she was far from being anywhere near the 'C' level range. By the time the class ended nearly half of the students had already taken their test and being satisfied with their grades left early, so Ranma was only too happy to leave class when it was over. Turning to Risa she asked, "So, what next?"

"Well I have photography class, gymnastics and choir are going next too. If you have one of those classes you had better go, especially if you have gymnastics. Else you just have a free period and you can hang out. Anyway I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow ok."

"Tomorrow? You aren't going to dinner?"

"Nope, sorry. My mom's picking me up after photography. I'm village remember? So I don't live in the dorm. Anyway gotta go see ya." Ranma sighed. She remember Akane telling Risa that she was going to try out for gymnastics during science class, so she was gonna be busy. She also remembered seeing Nabiki having a photography book. Not knowing where Rachel went after class, Ranma was about to head to the library to see if her mother was free when she noticed the pack bus arrive. Seeing her father get off the bus, Ranma popped her knuckles, knowing exactly what she wanted to do.

Ranma waited by the stair way until her father came up and said, "Come on Pop. It's time to practice."

Genma was slightly surprised by Ranma's tone. "Ok boy. Let's go." Ranma and Genma headed out to the gym to begin their practice. Unfortunately, it was full of students auditioning for the gymnastics team. Thankfully, the baseball field near the gym was available and soon Ranma and Genma were practicing. It wasn't an overly intensive battle, but it was exactly what the two of them had needed. Ranma felt the tension that had been building up all day slowly beginning to ebb away. Ranma could tell Genma was feeling about the same as well. Through some unspoken agreement both fighters had agreed that this practice would be merely a relaxing fight.

However just because Ranma and Genma considered it to be a relaxing little bout, doesn't mean that those not familiar with their normal practices would identify it as such. In the middle of their practice a bunch of boys who were also wanting to relieve some stress, came out of the dorm to play some basketball when they saw the Saotome practice session going on. They came out just in time to witness Genma grab Ranma and slam her forcefully into the ground quickly followed by a near boot to the face.

The boys were extremely alarmed. Not knowing what was going on one of the boys quickly ran back inside the dorm to tell the dean that an older man was beating up one of the girls in his class. Had he stayed a bit longer, he would have realized that Ranma could easily fend for herself.

The boys who had stayed behind had been about to try and interpose themselves to help what they thought was a helpless girl, when said girl grabbed Genma's outstretched hand and threw him bodily over her head a good ten feet away. That was more than enough to stop the would be heroes in their tracks. Truth be told they were frozen in place at the sheer incredibility of what they had just seen. A petite five foot tall girl just easily tossed a hefty man about a foot taller than her over her head and ten feet away! Looking at Genma they seriously doubted they could lift him off the ground, much less toss him as far as Ranma did.

While boys just stood there the other boy that had run for the dean came out with several of stronger seniors that had been hanging out in the lobby. They too were stopped and stared amazed as father and his currently-female son furiously traded blows both on the ground and while leaping several feet above it. Ranma and Genma continued oblivious to their spectators until Dean Fowler came out several minutes later and loudly demanded to know what was going on.

The Saotomes stopped inches away from landing a hit on each other and turned to see dean and the twelve boys around them. "Well? What is going on here?" The dean asked angrily, shocking many of those who knew the laid-back man.

"Nothing much, we were just practicing a bit before lunch." Ranma said, answering the angered dean.

"Well from the way Todd described it, it sounded more like you were taking a severe beating."

Ranma laughed at that. "Ya, pop only wishes he could! Like I said, we were just training. I gotta train everyday or else I'm gonna get rusty."

The dean nodded at the two Saotomes. "Well give it a rest for now, its supper time. Others are going to see the two of you and get the wrong idea of what's going on."

Wanted to say something, but the dean had already turned away and was heading back for the dorm. Ranma turned to look at Genma but Genma just shrugged. "You heard him, its time to eat. Let's go. We can figure this out after dinner."

Seconds later the cafeteria dinner staff were as boggled as the lunch staff by the serving sizes Ranma and Genma took. They quickly had to rush and get more food out lest the late coming students who where still in classes wouldn't receive any food. Ignoring them, Ranma and Genma stepping into the eating area and found Nodoka and Nabiki sitting at a table.

Genma made his way to sit next to Nodoka, as Ranma took a seat next to Nabiki. AIt's good of you to join us. Nabiki and I were just having a nice little conversation. Ranko dear, did you know that Nabiki's family owns a dojo in Nerima?"

Nodoka silently placed her hand on Genma's knee underneath the table. Thanks to the nearly twenty years they had known each other, Nodoka was privy to great number of things about Genma that not even Ranma knew of. One of those things was that Genma was extremely ticklish just above his knee. She found it infinitely amusing that she could bring down her husband, the big strong invincible martial artist, with a mere touch. She stole a quick sideways glance at Genma while Ranma gave an exasperated sigh, and was quite pleased to note that Genma was all too aware of the danger he was in.

Nodoka smiled deeply. AWhy what's wrong dear? I just mentioned it because I know your into martial arts. Is it wrong for a mother to want her only daughter to make more friends?"

AWell we do have a dojo, but I've never really been into martial arts much myself. Daddy must all of us learn at least enough to be able to defend ourselves, but I haven't really bothered learning much beyond that." Nabiki Replied.

AThat's ok dear, I've been on the road with these two for the last several years and that's pretty much the limit of my martial abilities." Continued Nodoka.

AThat's right. Ranko told me you guys had been on training trip. How long were you guys traveling?" asked Nabiki.

AWell Ranko and Genma started about eleven years ago, and I joined them about three years later." said Nodoka.

ASo the three of you have been traveling for about eight years together? That's actually kind of funny."

AWhy do you say that?" Nodoka asked looking inquisitively at Nabiki.

ABecause that's about the same amount of time that Yuki in Martial Princess Yuki Fireflower spent on the road with her guardians."

Ranko turned to look at Nabiki questioningly, "Ok, what is this that Martial Princess Yuki Fireflower thing? My friend Risa mentioned it earlier today too."

Nabiki laughed. AIt's only like one of the most popular anime's on the air back home, and ironically enough the two of you seem to have a lot in common."

AHow so dear?" Nodoka prompted.

AWell Yuki was a princess born in a far away kingdom where everyone practices martial arts to the point where they make up all kinds of fancy magic like moves. Anyway Yuki, who's played by my favorite voice actress, Megumi Hayashibara, was born under a special star that predicted that she would be one of the greatest martial artist of all time. However a few years after Yuki was born two neighboring rival kingdoms joined forces to overthrow Yuki's kingdom. So to save her life, her parents sent her away with two of their best advisors to raise her to be good enough to one day reclaim her kingdom." Nabiki explained.

AThat sounds more like Shampoo or one of her ancient amazon legends than it sound like me." protested Ranko.

AWell seeing as how I don't know who this Shampoo is, I couldn't say. However Yuki has really red hair like you, though she keeps in in a long ponytail instead of a braid like you do. Plus she spent eight years on the road with her two advisors, the beautiful and wise Misei and the stout and strong Urusa. Together they traveled, intent on finding new and sometimes dangerous ways to improve Yuki's martial abilities."

The Saotome family sweatdropped at the comparison. AWell what do you know, I guess it is kinda similar."

ASo who this Shampoo person?"

AShampoo is a friend I made in when we were in China. Remember that amazon village I told ya about? Well she's the great granddaughter of the village matriarch and the best fighter in the village."

AWhat's with the funny name?"

ABeats me! Some kind of amazon tradition or something. Her and Soap nearly beat me up when I laughed about at their names."

ASoap!" Nabiki said, trying to keep in her laughter.

Ranma nodded. AYa, Soap is Shampoo's cousin. I swear when you put those together they always manage to find some way some way to get me in trouble!"

Nodoka laughed. ATell her about the time the three of you tried to go fishing at the lake near the village."

Ranma groaned. ADo I gotta?"

Nabiki's eyes lit up with curiosity at Ranma's sudden reluctance. AIt couldn't have been that bad. What could possibly have happened fishing?"

Nodoka laughed much to Ranma's displeasure. AYes dear, why don't you tell us what could have possibly happened on a small little fishing trip." With a deep sigh Ranma began recounting her adventure at the lake with Soap and Shampoo.

Akane walked slowly from the gym toward the cafeteria. Today had been a pretty hectic day for her, and she wanted to relax a bit now that she was finally done with classes for the day. Although it was only the first day, she had to admit she was glad she was able to come to this school. She had always wanted to go to a different country, even if it was just to visit. Now thanks to this school she was able to live and go to school in America.

She thought back to how it all began several months ago. She had gotten home for school somewhat late and saw a strange woman in their house. She was in the living room talking to her father and Nabiki. Noting the professional manner in which the woman was dressed and the displeased look on her father's face, she assumed that Nabiki had already gotten into trouble at her new school.

She had been about to go to her room to change so she could practice, when she ran into Kasumi in the hall. She had been shocked to hear that the woman was here to offer Nabiki a full scholarship to a private school in America.

Akane couldn't believe that someone would offer Nabiki, the family troublemaker, any kind scholarship, much less a complete scholarship. Thanks to Nabiki, her family's reputation was getting worse and worse, to the point that several students had nearly withdrawn from their dojo. Not only that, one of her best friend's parents had even forbidden them from hanging out, because they didn't want their daughter to be friends with anyone related to Nabiki.

Still even if she couldn't comprehend the reasoning behind it, she didn't want to let the opportunity it presented slip by her. She waited until the woman was ready to leave, before sneaking out the back to wait for her outside the house. She waited until the woman was a bit away from her house before approaching her and asking her what she would have to do to also be able to go to the school.

The woman, whose name was Yuri Aneba, smiled warmly at her and simply gave her an information packet. The packet had all sorts of information about the school, as well of the forms she would need to sign. Thanking the woman, she ran back to her room to look over the packet in greater detail. The more she read about the school the more excited she got, until she reached the financial obligation page.

Her dream of going to school in America was nearly extinguished then and there. The cost of going to the school was $10,000 plus the cost of the plane ticket, and any other misc school cost such as books. There was no way her family could afford to spend that much on her just to go to school. She had nearly thrown the information packet away when she noticed near the bottom of the page a section on student labor. According to the paper a student could account for about 30 - 60 of the cost, depending on how much effort they put in.

It was still a lot of money, but she was sure they could handle it. Besides, if Nabiki was going to go to America, her family could start to regain face in the community, which they had started to lose thanks to Nabiki. As that happened, the schools enrollment would go back up, and help provide the money they would need for her to go to school in America as well. After all someone would have to keep an eye out on Nabiki, who knows what kind of trouble she could start by herself in another country.

So knowing that her father was very thrilled with the idea of Nabiki going to school in America, she secretly filled out the forms and it without anyone in her family knowing. While she was waiting for the news on her acceptance, she lobbied Nabiki's case to her father stating all sorts of reasons why Nabiki should be allowed to go.

Acting in typical fashion, Nabiki sent in her application without waiting to get approval first. Not even a week later, Nabiki had already received her acceptance letter and a small welcoming package. Still she knew her application would probably take some time, after all Nabiki had been preselected to receive the scholarship so it's only natural that she would have been accepted quickly. Still, she had really begun to worry when a month had gone by and she still hadn't gotten any kind of letter from the school.

The letter didn't come until about a week after her father relented about' letting Nabiki attend the school, about a month and a half after Yuri had visited them. The amount of drama that one letter caused the family was nothing short of unbelievable. Both her father and Nabiki were acting like she had betrayed them, and were steadfastly against the idea.

She could understand why her father would be so dead set against it, but Nabiki being against the idea really surprised her. She would have thought that Nabiki would have supported her as she had when it was Nabiki who was trying to get permission to go. Kasumi, who had also helped lobby for Nabiki, was the only visible ally she had. Their combined effort finally paid off after a week and a half of intense deliberation and three days of her having cooked dinner.

Unfortunately she still wasn't in the clear. As Nabiki had been oh so kind to remind her, she only had a little over a month left to get advance payment in, or her acceptance would have be revoked, as per school policy. To make matters worse she hadn't been allowed to withdraw from school to try and work several part time jobs and earn the money she needed herself, so she had been stuck working only a few hours part time after school.

For the next month, she had worked extremely hard to try and get as much money as she could. But even with the money her family had put in to help her she was still several hundred dollars short. With only three days left to come up with the money, she had gotten desperate and asked the only person she knew who might be able to help her: Nabiki.

Everyone in her family knew that Nabiki had saved up a good deal of money in the last few years, and while she would let others borrow it, she always asked for some type of favor as interest. She hated borrowing money from her. Not only did she have to pay her back, but the favors Nabiki always insisted on always a pain. From doing all her chores for a month to IOU favors that were always collected at the most inconvenient times, one quickly learned to only ask Nabiki for money when you were desperate and had no other choice.

Unfortunately desperate and no other choice perfectly described how she had felt back then. The smirk on Nabiki's face when she asked was enough to tell her she was really going to regret it. Sure enough Nabiki didn't disappoint her. She gave her the remaining money and told her would collect on the favor the weekend before their flight. The Thursday before their flight, Akane found out what favor Nabiki wanted from her: she was to go on a date with her classmate Tatewaki Kuno. She tried to protest but Nabiki wouldn't take no for an answer.

The date was set for Saturday, and Nabiki had told her that he was planning to take her to an expensive restaurant so she had dressed up in her fanciest dress. She hadn't been sure what to expect of the date, after all if Nabiki was setting her up with him as a favor he had to be pretty bad. As embarrassing as it was to think of now, she had been pleasantly surprised when she first met Kuno. He was there at the set time in a nice suit with a bouquet of roses. Kuno told her father where they were planning on going and left him his cell phone number in case he needed to contact them. From there he escorted her to a stretch limo and had his chauffer drive them an expensive restaurant in Harajuku called Gesshinkyo.

The restaurant, which served Buddhist vegetarian cuisines, was extremely nice and most of all extremely expensive. She remembered feeling woefully underdressed for being there, but Kuno had assured her that she looked very beautiful. She could still remember how great the food had tasted, it was by far the best restaurant she had ever eaten in; for 12,000 yen a plate one would expect no less.

After dinner they took a small walk down the busy streets of Harajuku, where Akane saw beautiful dress on sale. Kuno noticing that she fancied the dress told her he would buy it for her. She had tried to refuse saying it was to expensive, but he would have nothing of it. He walked right into the store found the first sales woman and told her that he wanted to buy the dress for her as well as any other accessories they had that would compliment it. The sales people realized Kuno was rich and was trying to impress her, so they quickly went to work finding things that would go with the dress. Kuno's family fortune was saved from the department stores sales people when her father called to see if they were on the way home yet. As it was, she practically went home with an entire new wardrobe.

Although she was really thankful that Kuno had bought her all those new clothes, the best part about it was when Nabiki came to see how her date had gone and saw all the new clothes Kuno had bought for her. The look on her face was beyond priceless. Being able to wipe that smug expression of Nabiki's face was almost worth having Kuno infatuated with her. Of course the whole infatuation thing might not have gotten as bad as it is now, if she hadn't given him that small peck on the check to thank him for the dinner and the cloths.

Unfortunately, Nabiki used Kuno's new infatuation to try and get the upper hand in their sisterly feud. Nabiki painted some kind of demented picture of her being heartbroken because their parents were sending her to America to go to school and that she would never see him again. As if she would be heartbroken about that! She was glad to go to school in America, and while she had a fairly nice time on their date Kuno wasn't really her type. Unfortunately, Kuno bought her story and immediately bought a ticket to America on the same flight that they were scheduled to go on. And if inviting Kuno hadn't been bad enough, Nabiki made things even worse, by trading tickets with him so that she was forced to sit next to him the entire fourteen hour flight!

Shaking her head to clear her mind of the dramatic events that lead to her coming to this school, Akane continued on to the cafeteria. While the try outs for the gymnastics team hadn't been all that rigorous, for her anyway, the combination of the exercise, classes and jet lag were making her feel worn out. A good dinner was just what she needed to get rid of the weariness she felt. Granted the food wasn't the quality she was used to at home, but it was still much better than what she could cook. That was for sure.

She sighed deeply. Akane hated not being able to cook when both of her sisters could. Kasumi could probably become a gourmet cook easily if she ever decided that's what she wanted to do. Nabiki, while no where as talented as Kasumi, could still cook a decent meal if she thought it was worth the trouble. That left her being the only one in the family who couldn't cook to save her life. Her father, who was a guy and therefore less skilled in the kitchen, could cook cabbage over an open fire; she couldn't even manage that.

Thankfully, she made it to the cafe before further thoughts of her lack of cooking skills could depress her any further. She quickly got some food and walked out to the dinning area to find someplace to sit. As she was looking for a place to sit, she saw Nabiki sitting with the Saotome's. Ranko was telling something that had all of them laughing, including Ranko's father, who always seemed very moody. Nabiki, who happened to take notice of her just then, momentarily smirked at her with that self-satisfied smirk of hers, before turning back to Ranko's story. She gave her sister a quick glare before quickly finding a table with some people who looked familiar from class and sat with them.

They were surprised by her sudden decision to sit with them, but they didn't say much about it. Although many of them were talking amongst each other, Akane didn't really feel like socializing. Why couldn't Nabiki just drop this whole feud? It was stupid! She had supported her when she wanted to go, why did her coming have to bother her so much?

She had nearly finished her meal when she noticed Nabiki and the Saotome's getting up to leave. Sighing she decided to skip rec and just go to the dorm to either study or give into the temptation of sleep. Standing up she said goodbye to her tablemates and quickly put her tray away. She was halfway to the dorm when she heard Ranma calling her, "Hey Akane, wait up!"

Smiling, she asked, "Yes Ranko?"

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to spar for a bit."

"I thought you said your father would get mad at your for that? I wouldn't want to get you in trouble."

"Well that's the weird thing. I was just talking to pops about how you're a martial artist and he said he wondered how good you were. So I told him you wanted to spar, and unbelievably enough he thought it was a good idea. So you wanna?"

Akane thought about it for a moment. She had wanted to relax, and a quick spar with her father always seemed to relieve a good deal of stress. "Sure, why not! Lead the way."

Ranma led her past the baseball field and down a hill near a gravel road. As soon as they arrived, Genma spoke. "Ok you two, as much as I hate to say this: Anything goes, no holding back. Stop when I tell you." Ignoring the puzzled look Ranma gave him, he said, "Begin!"

Genma wasn't too surprised that neither moved in right away. He was glad to see that Akane didn't jump in right away. He remembered during the early days of their training Soun had been such a hot head that he would often rush in without thinking. Thankfully Akane seemed better trained than that. Instead, the two took the others measure.

Akane's stance was cautious and defensively oriented. Genma immediately recognized it as the stance of his long time sparring partner. That stance alone told him that Akane was a practitioner of the Tendo branch of Anything Goes martial arts. From that stance Soun created many defensively oriented forms and maneuvers. Soun and the defensive techniques he created helped to shape the style and techniques that would make the Saotome branch of Anything Goes martial arts.

Ranma was also in a defensive position, just as Genma had suspected. However his stance was not as fortified as Akane's stance. Ranma was purposefully leaving a small hole in her posture that any martial artist of enough skill would notice. With this technique and Akane's reaction to it, Ranma should be able to make a quick and rough assessment of Akane's skill. If Akane should fail to capitalize on it that would likely indicate her skill as that of a casual practitioner of the art, however if she did try and take advantage of it, Ranma would be ready to retaliate.

Akane was the first to attack. She moved in with a kick and a few punches, which Ranma easily dodged. Akane didn't let that discourage her however, and pressed her attack. Three more punches, a kick, a feint, two punches, a kick and three more punches, all of which were easily avoided. Seeing her attacks her going anywhere, she picked up the pace a bit and continued to press her attack with several more volleys of punches and kicks, as well as elbows and knee thrusts; Ranma avoided each strike.

Genma frowned. Not once did Akane try to take advantage of the opening in Ranma's defense. In fact it seemed like she didn't even notice it. Genma sighed; it seemed that he praised his friend's daughter prematurely. It saddened him to see that his old friend had slacked off that much in teaching his daughter the art. Granted she would never reach Ranma's skill since she was a girl, but she should have done far better than she was doing.

He was about to call for them to stop, as it would have only been a waste of time, when Akane finally seemed to notice the opening and struck at it. Just as he expected, Ranma quickly moved to strike the girl while she was vulnerable. However, much to his surprise, Akane suddenly lashed out with her foot and scored a hit on Ranma.

"That was a nice try, but you gave yourself away. Anyone who could dodge everything I threw at you as easily as you did wouldn't have left an opening like that in their defense."

Picking herself off the floor, Ranma said. "That was pretty good. I'm impressed. I guess it's time for me to take this a bit more serious."

Akane smiled. "Good I was getting tired of holding back myself."

The two circled each other for a few more seconds, before Akane came at Ranma again. Ranma was surprised by how much better Akane was now. While not at Shampoo or Soap's level, she was still quite good. While before, Akane all but broadcasted her moves, making it easy for Ranma to dodge; now her moves where much harder to read, and Ranma found herself having to block a lot of moves instead of simply dodging. Not only that, but most of her attempts to lure Akane into opening a hole in her defense had all been fruitless. About the only times she could score a good solid hit in, were the times that let Akane get hit in as well. However seeing as how Akane hit nearly twice as hard as she did, she would much rather prefer another route if at all possible.

Akane was unlike any other person she'd ever fought. While Akane had a decently strong offense, her primary strength seemed to be on her defense. Not that she hadn't fought others who had a strong defense as well, but Akane didn't seem to take any chances in her defense. After fighting people like her father and Shampoo, Ranma was used to people who would occasionally take small risks to get solid hits in. Ranma had already noticed a small number of times that Akane might have gotten a hit in if she had only had risked it. Then again, had she risked it she might have been able to use her vulnerability to turn the tide in her favor.

Thankfully, Akane was starting to lose some steam for her constant attacks, and it would only be a matter of time before she made a mistake that Ranma would be able to capitalize on. It took a bit longer that Ranma would have guessed, but Akane finally made a mistake and raise her arm a bit too high, leaving her midsection slightly less protected.

Not waiting for her to fix the hole, Ranma quickly maneuvered herself into position and lashed out. Akane doubled over from the blow and was quickly floored with a foot sweep. Deciding to end it now, Ranma moved in for the finishing move. Unfortunately, Akane realized Ranma's intentions and acted quickly. Grabbing a handful of gravel, she threw it at her opponent. Ranma staggered back form both the unexpected attack, and the dust that got in her eye temporarily blinding her.

It wasn't much of an opening, but Akane quickly took advantage of it. She quickly got up and unleashed a furious onslaught of blows. She continued to press her attack, not giving Ranma a chance to recover, until she finally delivered a powerful spin kick that sent Ranma flying into a tree about thirty feet away.

Akane, who was practically out of breath, began to silently berate herself and worriedly started making her way toward Ranma to see if she was ok. Seeing the way Ranma slammed into that tree, she was afraid she might have seriously hurt the smaller girl. She was halfway to her when, to her surprise Ranma slowly began standing up. While she was glad Ranma was ok, she was also extremely shocked. It was unreal that Ranma would be able to stand up from the kind of punishment she just dished out to her. A normal girl her sized would not only been knocked out, but probably in dire need of medical attention. But Ranma not only stood up, she got into a ready stance to continue the fight.

"OK, I'll admit it." Ranma said, wiping a bit of blood from her face. "I was feeling overconfident on account of you being a girl and all, so I was holding back some. So I guess I deserved that. Congratulation on being the third member of the Girls-who-kicked-my-ass-cuz-I-didn't-take-them-seriously-enough club. It's time to take this up a few levels."

Akane looked at her dumbfounded, that attack was supposed to have ended the fight. "You have got to be kidding me?"

Ranma answered by closing the distance between them. Akane saw her charging in and prepared herself. However just before the two met, Ranma jumped up and over her. Akane turned quickly, but before she had a chance to defend herself Ranma connected with kick to the abdomen followed by a string of quick punches that ended with a well connected uppercut.

This time it was Ranma who was surprised to see that her onslaught didn't do much more than stagger the girl. Ranma frowned, realizing Akane was turning out to be a very difficult opponent to beat. Ranma stole a quick glance at her father. To her surprise, instead of the scowl she had expected to see on his face over the way the fight had been going, his face was, oddly enough, somewhat pensive!

It was then that Ranma realized her father knew what to expect. This wasn't a test for her; he was trying to see how good Akane was. That had to be why he had them going full out against each other. As soon as this fight was over she was going to find out how he could have already known how good Akane was.

Ranma turned her attention back to Akane. As expected she hadn't budged, she was taking advantage of her momentary distraction by using those few seconds to catch her breath and recover. She sighed, if she only had some hot water right now this fight would be a lot different. But seeing as how that was impossible she'd just have to find another way of beating her.

A good ten feet away from her, Akane was rubbing her chin where the smaller girl had connected with her uppercut. She knew the redhead was strong, but those last few hits felt like was being hit with a sledge hammer! Thankfully it seemed like that last barrage had tired her out just like her own attack had done.

Unfortunately it seemed like she recovered quickly because she causally started making her way toward her. Once in range the shorter girl began to probe her defense with a few quick and light punches. They were of course easily blocked, even in her tired state. But strangely enough, Ranma continued her light probes. It was almost as if Ranma had reverted to the beginning of their fight. Either Ranma had over exerted herself and was too tired to continue the intensity she had been, or she was trying to goad her into an overconfident offensive by fooling her into believing the former.

Her intuition was telling her Ranma was trying to set her up for a trap, so she held her ground and take advantage of the momentary lull in the intensity of their battle to recover a bit more. Again and again Ranma continued with the light hits looking for possible wholes in her defense she could exploit, thankfully she had yet to find any.

For nearly three minutes Ranma continued her probes, testing and retesting her vital defensive zones. Suddenly just as she began one of those light probes, she changed tactics. The intensity she had been using minutes ago returned with a vengeance. That was when she realized her plan; she had been lured into complacency by the probing attacks. So when the real attack came, she was caught unawares.

Ranma managed to get a good number of hits in before she was able to adjust and defend herself. However just as she did, Ranma began to change her methods again. Now she began with a series of quick airborne attacks. Once again she had been caught by surprise and took several hits before she was able to adjust to her airborne attacks. Unfortunately as she did so, Ranma changed tactics again.

Again and again Ranma began switching between the styles and not letting Akane catch up. Finally the effort of keeping up with Ranma's random attacks caught up to her, Akane was fooled by a feint and was caught unprepared by Ranma's real attack. The blow caught her in the face and sent her spiraling to the ground.

Ranma was almost halfway to her when Genma suddenly called out. "Ok, that's enough."

Ranma slowed down, but continued making her way toward Akane, who was still on the ground. When she reached her, she looked her over to make sure she was ok. To her relief, Akane was just starting to get up when she reach her. Ranma extended her hand out to Akane to help her up. Smiling at Ranma, Akane let the redhead help her up. "Thanks, you're really good! I can't think of the last time I had to push myself that hard."

Ranma smiled. "You're pretty good yourself; there aren't that many people that I have to get that serious against either."

Walking up to the pair, Genma said. "You did fairly good for being Soun's daughter and heir."

Akane looked up at Genma in surprise. "You know my dad?"

"He knows something, that's for sure." Ranma said, glaring at her father.

Akane looked back and forth between father and child trying to figure out what was going on. "Huh? What's going on?"

"I told you before my pop doesn't think too much of girls in the art, so just the fact that he wanted us to fight seriously against each other was already weird. But the way he watched us while we were fighting wasn't normal. There's just no way my pop wouldn't react to a girl kicking my ass the way you were. When I fought Shampoo he looked like he gonna have a hear attack or something. So I'm guessing he somehow knew what to expect."

"Of course I knew what to expect. Not only do I know Soun, but we've fought many times in the past. Its only natural that I would have a vague idea how the daughter of my training partner and best friend would fight."

"Training partner?" Akane yelled. "But that would mean you practice Anything Goes!"

Genma nodded. "Yes, years ago Soun and I trained under the same demon of a master for many years developing our individual styles. You still have a way to go before you reach the level Soun was at when we went our separate ways, but with more training I'm sure you can get there. If you want to get there, then be here tomorrow after dinner."

Nabiki sat in her room, working on her science homework. It wasn't due for another week, but seeing as how she had nothing better to do, she decided to get it done. While most people would be at rec having fun or getting to know new people, she just didn't feel like doing that after her private talk with Mrs. Saotome.

It wasn't because she had been scolded or in any kind of trouble, but because she was seriously considering the things she had been told. Her talk with Mrs. Saotome was very different from any talk she had ever had with any teacher. She had a strange way of getting to her and making her feel like she cared about her. Dinner was a good example. Despite their serious talk before dinner, when her family came Mrs. Saotome was able rid any negative mood and made her feel completely welcome into her families dinner time.

That was a feat that even her family wouldn't be able to replicate. Any fight or discussion before a meal always bubbled over into the meal, and since most of those fights were usually centered around her, she was the one who felt like the outcast from the family. So the fact that a virtual stranger could make her feel welcome, when even her own family couldn't, made her appreciate the woman that much more.

As such, she was thinking over the things they had talked about. Mrs Saotome had asked why she and Akane had been fighting so much over the past several days. She listened to her complete story without comment, and once finished didn't pass any kind of judgment. Instead she told her about a similar fight she had once had with her own sister when she was a kid. In the end she had given her some advice on how to deal with her sister and told her that if she ever needed to talk to her that she should feel free to see her anytime. As cliché a statement as it was, she didn't doubt for a minute that Ranko's mother really meant it.

So unlike the majority of her previous teachers, she decided to listen to her. As such, she was sitting in her room waiting for Akane to get back from a sparring match with Ranko, so that she could apologize. She frowned as she looked at the clock. It was nearly study hall time, and Akane had still not returned.

Despite the fact that she would often tease and belittle Akane for being so into martial arts, she knew her sister was extremely talented in her chosen art. As such, she found it hard to believe that it was still going on. While would have liked nothing more than to see Akane finally lose a martial arts match, she wasn't going to hold her breath hoping that Ranko would be able to beat Akane. After all, Akane was taller, heavier, and had an extremely good defense. Despite all Ranko's years on the road, she doubted Ranko was as lucky as Yuki Fireflower, who could somehow managed win despite how badly the odds were stacked against her.

After all, just six months ago Akane had defeated the grandmaster of martial arts video game fighting. Some kooky martial arts that required its practioners to use special moves from video games like Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Tekkin and who knows what other kindsof video games. In hindsight the match was rather comical, but at the time it seemed quite dangerous. The guy even had some kind of flame thrower so he could imitate throwing a haduken!

She still prayed for the day that the Grandmaster of Martial Arts Synchronized Swimming challenged Akane to a fight, since even floatation devices couldn't seem to keep Akane above water. While wishing that her sister would lose did seem kind of mean, in her opinion Akane needed to be brought down a few pegs. Akane was raised a princess through and through. Everything she wanted she got; if someone got something and she didn't, she would cry or throw some kind of tantrum until it was given to her. Just like her trip to this school.

For the first time in her life, she was chosen above her sisters. All her life it was always Kasumi this, or Akane that, but for the first time the spotlight was on her. So what did little miss princess do, she through a hissy fit about it. She had a full scholarship to go to this school and it took her over a month to get permission and yet little miss princess got permission a week after she said she wanted to go, despite the ten thousand dollar price tag! It made her sick!

While Kasumi was given just about as much attention as Akane, at least she didn't always get her way. Just before they had left, Kasumi had wanted to buy a really nice dress to impress some guy with, but of course Daddy had said they couldn't afford it since they had to put Akane through school in America. And worst of all, Kasumi didn't even complain about it! She just nodded her head and accepted it like it was to be expected. She had wanted to scream at her for not even putting up a fight, but she likely knew it was impossible. So she ended up just giving her sister the money, since no one else in the family would have helped her. Not only that, but as the oldest Kasumi was always given the most chores in the house. Especially since Akane would often skip her chores and so Kasumi would have to do them "in order to set an example for her younger sisters."

Nabiki took a deep breath as she realized she was making herself more agitated with Akane, which would only make apologizing to her that much harder. Not that she had anything to apologize for, but Mrs. Saotome had said even though it felt like she was just feeding her ego, the end result would be getting Akane off her back. Something that bother her all the much now, but would eventually drive her mad. As Mrs. Saotome said, it was better to do it now when all it took was a simple, if fake, apology, rather than waiting for later when she would likely be more bitter. Taking another deep breath she went back to doing her science homework and waiting.

It was halfway through study hall, an hour later, when the door to their room opened and Akane walked in. After leaving Genma, Akane spent the next hour in the dean's office with Ranko trying to explain the why had been fighting during rec period. They deans, Rey and Corbitt, at first thought that they had gotten into a real fight, and it took a lot of convincing that they were just sparring. It wasn't until Mrs. Saotome was called into the office that they were finally able to explain they had just been sparring. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it, from there they were lectured on their behavior and how they should have taken it easier, especially since someone might have seen the fight and misinterpreted it. While she didn't especially like all the bruises she was currently sporting, she couldn't seem to get dean Rey to understand that going easy wouldn't have helped them any.

Because of all the trouble and the fact that she would have lost the match if Genma hadn't stopped Ranko, she was in no mood to speak with her sister. Thankfully she was on her bed seemingly asleep. Since she didn't have any homework due tomorrow, she decided to would just go to sleep. Grabbing her pajamas from the closet, she began to change.

"I hope you didn't hurt poor Ranko too badly." Nabiki said jokingly.

"Shut up! What do you know anyway?" Akane spat angrily at her sister.

Surprised by her sister's venomous response, Nabiki cracked an eye open and looked at her sister. Upon seeing her sister, Nabiki gasped. There stood Akane with bruises covering her from head to foot, though the heaviest concentration of bruises seem to be her arms. On top of that she had at least five bandages, the most obvious being the one just above her right eye. Even more surprising was that she seemed to be heavily favoring her left leg. "Holy Cow! What happened to you!"

"Nothing! Just leave me alone."

"Nothing? Right now you look like you just got your ass handed to you! In all the fights you've ever fought in I've never seen you come out looking this bad."

"Said it was nothing, so just leave me the hell alone!" Akane yelled angrily at her sister.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you in a bad mood."

"Well I am so just drop it ok!"

"Ok. Ok. I'm dropping it. Anyway I was thinking about the last few days and I just wanted to say that …"

"For crying out loud, why can't you just leave me alone already? I don't care if you think that this was all my freaking fault ok! I don't want to talk about it, ok? I just want you to leave me the hell alone!"

"Fine whatever! I was going to apologize to you, but if you want to be spoiled little princess then go ahead be a little bitch!"

"Well that's some way to apologize! Someone would almost think you were trying to pick a fight!"

"How the hell was I trying to pick a fight? I've never seen you look so beat up! I was wondering what happened!"

"Ya, well, you should learn to shut up sometimes! It wasn't any of your business anyways!"

"I should have known you would be a sore loser. You may as well live with it, it's not like you can go crying to Daddy about it. After all he can't change the fact that not only did you lose but for the looks of it you lost pretty badly!"

"I'm warning you Nabiki! Just leave me alone right now!"

"Or what? You'll hit me? This isn't back home where you can get away with that kind of stuff you know. Hit me and you'll likely get suspended. Won't that be an irony to write home about. Dear Daddy, guess what? Your precious little princess Akane got suspended before I did. I'm sure that would blow ever well back home."

"Shut up!" yelled Akane throwing a book at her sister and just barely missing her. "Just shut up! Leave me alone! I'm so sick and tired of you. Why do you always have to mean to me? I don't know where you get off calling me a bitch, when you're the biggest bitch I know! That's why nobody likes you! Look at how you treat everyone! Don't you care what people think or say about the things that you do? Do you know how many students we lost because people don't want to go to a school that is related to you? "

"Well it's better to be a bitch than a spoiled princess. I don't have to cry to daddy to get what I want. I earned my scholarship here, unlike you. You whined and cried to Daddy until he finally caved in and said you can come. We all know the only reason you even want to be here is because someone gave me more attention than they gave you."

"That is not true, I've always wanted to come here."

"Ya right, you didn't even know about this school until they came to talk to me about going here! Don't even try that! Weren't you the one who said you couldn't wait to go to Furinkan so that you could go to school with Akira-kun? So what happened with that? Huh? You were always saying Akira-kun this and Akira-kun that? So what happened to Akira-kun? Did something happen, is that why you suddenly decided to come here instead? Well Akane, did you really always want to come here or does it have something to do with Akira-kun?"

Nabiki smirked as Akane paled for a second before giving her a murderous look. The way she clenched her fists and the way she set her jaw, she knew she had hit pay dirt. "You're suddenly being awfully quite Akane. I wonder why? You know now that we're talking about Akira-kun, you'll never believe that rumor I heard about him. I heard a group of his friends saying that he was sleeping with this girl, but that he got tired of her and dumped her for one of her best friends. It's a good thing you're not interested in him anymore."

Akane looked on the verge of either crying to killing someone. "You know, just before we left, I could have sworn I saw Akira-kun with Aoi-chan. Isn't she one of your best friends Akane? I wonder why she was with him? Do you think she's the one he's sleeping with now?"

Not wanting to give her sister the satisfaction of seeing her crying, Akane ran out of the room toward the lobby. She knew her sister could be a bitch at times, but of all the things to bring up, she had to bring that up. The wound of Akira and Aoi's was still fresh; Nabiki had basically reinserted the dagger and twisted for the sheer sadistic pleasure of torturing her.

She couldn't understand what she had done to Nabiki for her to hate her so much! As far back as she could remember, Nabiki had always picked on her. Why her? She never picked on Kasumi! It was always only her.

Marching to the phone, she decided she was sick and tired of having to deal with Nabiki. What kind of a sister would purposely remind their grieving sister that they had been used by a boy? Just thinking about it made her feel dirty, as if she were some kind of cheap slut. No, she was going to find a way to end this all once and for all.

Picking up one of the lobby phones, she started dialing. It took a bit but finally she heard the phone ringing. "Tendo residence, can I help you."

Hearing the voice, Akane wiped her tears. "Mom, I'm so glad you picked up the phone. Nabiki is causing trouble already and I can't deal with it anymore. I need you to do something about it!"