Tendo Nabiki Enterprises, Incorporated Presents:

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic side-story

Careful Destiny

Part Six
"The Very Long Week of Ranma Saotome"
(With apologies to JMS)


by:
Todd Hill
AKA Shadow Stalker

Inspired by the "Ranma 1/2" Manga and Anime by Rumiko Takahashi

WARNING! While this story is *NOT* a lemon, it does have some adult situations in it. Read at your own discretion!

Friday, eight-fifteen in the morning:

Footsteps echoed down the length of the corridor, emphasizing the overwhelming *emptiness* of the area. Bright fluorescent lights cast a harsh glare throughout, and the annoying buzzing of a malfunctioning ballast only made the hallway that much more unwelcoming. A solitary wooden bench placed adjacent to a doorway was the passageway's only adornment. Two young men sat in silence, yet their anxiousness was palpable.
A woman in her early thirties wearing a smartly tailored gray outfit appeared from the doorway. The heels of her shoes clacked authoritatively against the white tiled floor as she emerged and stepped towards them. Her face was bereft of both makeup and expression and she wore her long hair up in a very tight bun. The air of cool efficiency that she emitted was unsettling, as it was meant to be. Glancing at a file that she held in her hand, she stood next to the bench, imposing despite her small frame. "You're first," she said crisply to one of them as she guided him into her office and closed the door behind her.
"By now you should know why you've been called to my office," she began as she took a seat behind a sterile looking and very informal office desk. The boy nodded wordlessly as he took his seat in a chair opposite her.
"My name is Ms. Yoshida and I am a student counselor for Furinkan High School. You should be made aware at this time that I am taping our conversation." With that a tape recorder appeared from her purse. She placed it upright on her desk and hit the record button, then started speaking a little louder. "This is an interview regarding sexual harassment complaint number Four-One-Five-F filed by the school on behalf of the victim. Would you please state your name?"
"They call me Sato."
Ms. Yoshida quirked an eyebrow at hearing his answer, jotted something down and then continued. "What is your age?"
"Umm, I'm sixteen years old."
"Okay, Sato. I want you to please tell me in your own words exactly what happened to cause last night's incident."
"Well, umm... Where should I start?"
Ms. Yoshida looked at him and then at the tape recorder. "I suggest that you start at the beginning and go from there. We need to know everything that is pertinent to what happened on Thursday night, so go as far back as you need."
Sato sighed and looked at the cassette recorder glumly. "Okay, if that's what you want. This may take some time, though."
Ms. Yoshida poured a tall glass of water for him and set it down on his side of the desk. "Take as long as you need. I have several blank cassettes with me." She held up five small cassette containers and then placed them soundlessly on the desk.
Sato sighed again and took a long pull from his water glass. Setting it back down on the nearly barren desk, he reclined in his chair and searched his memory. "Well, the best that I can tell is that it all started on Monday morning. I was hanging around outside after having walked to school. It was too early to be in the classrooms and I was bored..."

<*

"You're kidding me, Sato-kun!"
A young boy with dark hair and expressive brown eyes shook his head defiantly. "No, I'm not kidding you. It really happened that way!"
"Come on! You're making stuff up again, aren't you?" retorted the young lady. She was dressed in the standard Furinkan High School uniform and sported a ponytail that went all the way down to the hemline of her skirt. Taller than most Japanese schoolgirls, she fairly towered over the boy. However, despite her height advantage he seemed to be less than intimidated by her.
"Motoko, I *swear* that I'm telling you the truth," Sato retorted defensively.
Motoko shook her head sadly. "Sato-kun, you and I have been friends for awhile now. In that time I've known you to tell some pretty big stories."
"But this time it's true!" he spluttered.
"Yeah, right! A girl with purple hair dressed in a Darth Vader outfit blasted a wall to pieces and threatened your life."
"I never said she wore a Darth Vader outfit," Sato groused. "I said she was wearing a cloak."
"Oh that's right, a cloak. Anyway, so this supergal walks through a wall and tries to kill you."
Sato laughed nervously. "Well, when you put it that way..."
"Uh-huh," Motoko countered slyly. "This is the biggest load you ever tried to push on me, Sato-kun. Did she use some kind of move, like maybe a 'Power Makeup' chant or something?" She giggled at the very notion.
"Hey! If you're just going to make fun of me you can go away," Sato glowered.
"I'm sorry, Sato-kun," she said earnestly. "I don't mean to sound like I'm making fun of you. It's just..." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's *VERY* hard to believe!"
Sato sighed wearily. "I know I've told you a couple of doozies in the past, but I'm on the level here! The stuff that went on at the Tendo Dojo was..."
"And that's another thing that I can't believe! How did *you* manage to get invited to *that* place? Everyone at school knows what happened last Friday with Akane. Why she'd let anyone visit her after all that is beyond me. Not to mention the fact that her sister Nabiki wouldn't let you in unless you'd paid some kind of admission fee."
"That's not true," Sato said in a small voice. "Nabiki isn't like that."
"Ha! That's a funny one." Motoko giggled at the supposed joke but lost her humor as she saw that the serious expression on Sato's face never wavered. "Oh, come on! You don't really think that, do you?"
Sato shrugged. "I only know what I experienced this weekend. Nabiki never treated me like that while I was there."
Motoko's eyes widened. "You really *were* there, weren't you?"
Sato nodded, and was about to go into greater detail on how he saved Nabiki's life when suddenly he felt a hand clap on his shoulder. Startled, he whirled his head around and his eyes automatically narrowed in anger.
"And he was just about to be somewhere else, isn't that right?" a gruff voice announced from behind. The hand squeezed his shoulder painfully, fingernails digging into the hollow of Sato's shoulder through the white fabric of his school uniform shirt.
Sato winced but held his ground defiantly. "No, I was actually going to stay right here and talk to Motok- OW!" he yelled as the squeezing pressure on his shoulder intensified.
"Actually, I think you were getting ready to leave for your classroom, weren't you?" He gestured to his left, indicating several boys who had accompanied him. "Between you and me, I think that they would be AWFULLY upset if you didn't do as you were told," he said with a sneer.
"You got that right, Yutaka."
"Looks like he's about to pee his pants, Yutaka."
Yutaka looked back into Sato's eyes and seemed mildly surprised at the continued defiance that was there despite the grip he was maintaining on the boy's shoulder.
"Let GO of me!" Sato said, blinking away tears of pain. The awful feeling that radiated from his shoulder was now cascading down his back and chest, worsening by the moment.
"Or what, you'll cry on me?" Yutaka snickered.
"Yutaka, why do you have to be such an asshole?" Motoko glowered, hands on her hips. "We were only talking."
"I don't care for a second-class person like Sato talking to something as fine as you, Motoko-chan," Yutaka said, leering at her lissome figure.
She 'hmmphed' her dissatisfaction and turned her back on him. "You're the only second-class person I see here."
Yutaka's face bent into a mask of rage. Viciously he tossed Sato aside as if he were little more than a rag-doll, causing the youth to slam hard against the turf with an "oof!" that drew stares from passersby. Then he marched towards Motoko until he was standing directly behind her, scant inches separating them. His hot breath blew against her neck as he glared down at her.
Everyone in the area could tell that she'd struck his ego hard. Keeping her back to him, she continued. "Did I say something wrong, Yutaka?"
He forced his breath out in a laugh. "You have it all wrong, Motoko-chan. I don't have any problem with you," he replied in a voice that was softer than what would be expected given his rage. "I just think you can do better than him, that's all."
"For your information, Sato's a friend of mine. He and I aren't-" She cut off her explanation as she caught a glimpse of her fallen friend getting to his feet.
"Don't bother, Motoko. This thing doesn't understand sentences that are longer than five words," Sato bit out, the defiant gleam still in his eye. 'What a way to start the morning,' he added to himself.
A crowd was starting to gather around the three as the confrontation threatened to grow. Motoko looked down at her friend, her expression a mix of surprise and puzzlement.
"What?" Yutaka snarled.
"See what I mean?" Sato asked as he got back on his feet, smirking.
Sato didn't even see it coming. His cheek blazed with pain and he was quite sure he'd bitten his tongue. The slap delivered by the bully was blisteringly fast and was sure to have left a mark. "Watch your mouth, wimp!" Yutaka raised his hand as if to punch him this time. "You should show more respect for seniors-"
"And you should just shut up," a voice said from behind.
"OW!" Yutaka yelled as he jerked back suddenly. A hand grasped his arm at the wrist, completely restricting his movement. "What the- ?!" he yelled out in shock.
"I was wondering when you'd get here," Sato slurred before spitting out a gobbet of blood.
"Sorry I took so long. I had to help Ranko walk to school," Ranma said as he wrenched down on Yutaka's arm, shoving the older boy away. He turned his steely blue eyes towards Sato's aggressor. "As for you-"
Yutaka surprised them both by merely flexing his arm and snorting at Ranma. "Oh, it's you, Saotome... Figures you'd be along to help this loser out. Geeks stick together, right?" He laughed, earning a dangerous scowl from Sato's would-be rescuer. He caught the look and shook his head. "If you think that you're going to try to beat me the way you beat Kuno then you're crazy."
Ranma snorted. "You're right about that. Kuno can at least fight. If I fight you I'll wind up beating you a lot worse than I did him."
The 'Ooohs' and 'Aaahs' from the crowd bolstered Ranma and Sato, who'd moved to stand next to his friend. Yutaka again shook his head. "That's just it, Saotome. I'm on to your game, so you won't be able to do the same thing to me. We all know how you beat Kuno."
"Yeah, I kicked his ass," Ranma said confidently, smirking.
"Well no shit, Sherlock," Yutaka said in a superior manner. "Anyone can get beaten up when they've been so drugged up they can't fight back!"
The crowd erupted in a gale of gasps and whispers as this news descended upon them. Ranma looked incredulous at the very notion of cheating in that way during a fight. "You're so full of it!"
"No I'm not!" Yutaka raised his voice for the benefit of the growing crowd. "I heard it directly from Kuno, himself! He went to the hospital to have himself looked at after school on Friday. While they were treating him, he asked them do a blood test."
"What, was he trying to find out if he was really a girl or somethin'?" Ranma shot back coldly. That earned more 'Ooohs' and a smattering of laughter from the crowd.
"No, they found traces of chemicals in his blood would've slowed down his reflexes. *That's* how you beat him. You drugged him and then you beat up on him!" Yutaka spit at the ground in front of Ranma's feet then aimed an accusatory finger at him, almost touching the tip of the younger boy's nose. "Kuno showed me the results of the blood test! YOU CHEATED! *That's* how you beat him." The crowd grew more boisterous at this news. Some whisperings within earshot of Ranma managed to shock him into silence.
"I heard that too."
"You really think some wimp like Ranma could've beaten a guy as good as Kuno any other way?"
"Geez, that's the most dishonorable thing I've ever heard of!"
Sato absorbed the conversations flowing forth from the crowd as he looked at both Ranma and Yutaka. His mind was swirling with confusion and for a moment he found himself unsure whom to believe.
"I'd never do something like that," Ranma thundered once he'd gotten past being dumbfounded.
"Oh yeah? I've heard somewhere that you have a habit of drugging people up to get whatever you want. You're a disgrace to martial arts, Saotome," Yutaka sneered.
Ranma's gaze flashed white-hot and he crouched into a defensive stance. "I don't have to take that kind of shit from you! If you want to know what I'm made of, then take me on!"
At that, the clock chimes rang announcing the beginning of the school day. The crowd began to disperse and head through the front doors on the way to their classrooms. Yutaka looked at him with an almost pitying stare. "Don't bother. I've got better things to do than waste time proving to a little boy that I'm right."
Before Ranma could say anything Yutaka and his entourage walked away. "See you soon, Motoko-chan," he added with a rakish smile, his voice dwindling as he made for the entranceway.
As soon as the crowd was out of sight, the remaining three shared confused glances. Ranma checked his impulse to run after Yutaka and beat the tar out of him when Sato groaned and collapsed to one knee, favoring his injured shoulder. "Bastard really hurt me this time," he grated in a weakened voice.
"You okay, Sato?" Ranma asked as he knelt down. Motoko likewise knelt down on the other side, her face full of worry.
He nodded and stood again with the help of his friends, wincing as Motoko placed a hand atop his injured shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sato-kun. This was all my fault." Her lower lip trembled slightly.
He shook his head. "It's not your fault that he's an asshole who can't think for himself, Motoko." Smiling, he patted her hand. "This happens to me all the time, you know that. So don't worry, I'll be fine. Go on to class and I'll see you after school, okay?"
Hesitant, she looked him in the eye. "Are you sure, Sato-kun?"
He nodded. "I'm sure, Motoko-chan," he said with a smile.
With that she smiled briefly then walked away. Once she was beyond earshot Ranma spoke. "Looks like he really did a number on your shoulder, Sato."
"Boy, howdy," Sato agreed. "If Yutaka had pushed any harder on my shoulder he would've broken the skin." He winced as he flexed his arm and rotated it. "Where's your sister, anyway?" he asked as he glanced around the grounds.
Ranma snorted. "She didn't want people to see her lookin' 'disabled' so she had me sneak her in through a side entrance. Ranko had to give the nurse a note from Dr. Tofu about her medicines, excusing her from exercise classes and stuff like that. She's probably in her classroom now."
Sato nodded. "Hikaru came in early also. He's been inside for about twenty minutes now." He looked up at the clock. "Speaking of class, we'd better hurry or we'll be late."
Ranma nodded and walked with Sato towards the front entrance. "Hey Sato, why don't you come back to our place after school?" he asked suddenly.
"Umm, sure. I'll see you here after classes are done."
"Will you be okay? About Yutaka, I mean."
Sato nodded. "Yeah. He's a major-league moron, but even he won't do anything during lunch. There are too many teachers around, then. Besides, you know that he gets his rocks off showing off for the girls. I should be okay."
"Okay, then."
"Oh, and Ranma?" Sato said, pausing inside the doorway.
"Yeah?"
"I don't believe what Yutaka said about you."
"Thanks, Sato. That idiot will get what's coming to him, don't worry about that. I don't like insults against my honor."

*>

"And then what happened?" Ms. Yoshida pressed even as she was madly scribbling notes on a legal-sized notepad.
"Well, then we had classes like always," Sato shrugged.
"Did either Ranma or Yutaka try to do anything at lunch?"
"No, in fact we didn't see Yutaka again for the rest of the day."
"Did anything else happen that day?"
"Uhh, yeah. Other stuff did happen," he responded evasively.
"Like what?" She favored him with a look that plainly said 'I won't take any crap.'
"Well..."
"Don't hold anything back, Sato. We need to hear all of it, regardless of what you may think. Information that you may find trivial may actually be of great importance." She looked at him squarely. "And it may help you and your friend more than you realize."
He gulped and found his voice. "Well, something at lunch did happen, but not with Yutaka."
"Go on," she prodded.
"It has to do with a di- ... I mean, a girl we all know."
"This would be Miss Amagi?" Ms. Yoshida supplied.
Sato nodded. "Yeah, she's the one."
The woman reclined in her chair and favored him with a curious glance. "I'm listening."
"Does it have to go on the tape?"
She nodded. "It's the only way I can document these proceedings properly."
"But who else will be listen-?"
Ms. Yoshida dismissively waved a dainty and well-manicured hand. "For now it's only me, Sato. Our conversations won't become anyone else's concern unless I feel that there is information within them which directly impacts my investigation."
He slumped slightly in his chair, seeing that he wasn't going to be able to dodge the issue. "Okay, okay."

<*

"Ewwwgh!" Sato cursed as he took a look at his bento. "Mom's got one hell of a sense of humor. Either that or she forgot to go to the store again."
"What'cha talkin' about, Sato?" Hikaru asked as he pulled his lunch out of his bookbag.
"Look," he replied, shoving his opened bento under Hikaru Gosunkugi's nose.
"Natto?" his friend asked, wrinkling his nose as he spoke the words.
Sato nodded. "She knows I can't stand this stuff. I don't care if it *is* good for me. I'd rather starve!" He scooped out the offensive material and slopped it down on the grass next to where he sat. 'So much for enjoying my lunch... This whole day seems to be just outright bad.'
The afternoon of his discontent was cloudy and breezy, but it wasn't so cool that they couldn't eat outside. Still, some students had opted to eat indoors which made the quad a bit less crowded. 'I guess it isn't too bad...,' he mused as he surveyed his surroundings.
"Sorry about that, man. I'd help ya out, but I'm almost done with mine," Hikaru said around a mouthful of rice.
"I can tell," Sato groused as he watched his friend pop a last bit of onigiri into his mouth. "I guess I can just grab something after school."
"Hey, look at that!" Hikaru said, changing the subject by pointing across the grassy expanse to a growing group of students. "Looks like your girl is back to her old self, Sato. You'd almost think this weekend never happened."
Sato whirled his head over to where his friend indicated and squinted. He could barely make out the figure standing in the center of the press of students, but after a moment's staring he had no doubt that it was Nabiki Tendo. She was gesturing wildly and talking rather loudly. He strained to listen as she continued to attract more people.
"... was the most fearsome display of destructive power that *I* have ever seen. I tell you, this was the work of a mastermind. If you ever wanted to see what an attack looks like UP CLOSE, then you should have been at my place this weekend. It was a moment that I would never forget!" Nabiki shouted at the crowd in a classic salesman's pitch.
"Nabiki, did someone in your family cause it to happen?" some curious person in the cluster of people shouted. Sato abandoned his abysmal lunch and made for the crowd.
"I have no idea! This was completely out of the blue and the person never said why she was attacking us," she answered. As Sato grew closer to her he began to notice details that he'd missed from his distant lunch seat. Her eyes had the dark circles around them that you'd find on people who badly needed some sleep. Her hair was in complete disarray and while she hadn't worn much makeup at all during the weekend, she was completely devoid of it today. The best words that Sato could find to describe her condition were 'tired and worn-out.'
Nabiki flashed a knowing smile as gasps and gales from the surprised audience washed over her. She lowered her head for a moment and let the din of the crowd grow a bit, then held up her hand for silence. "Yes, this girl was about our age and she was not from around here. So I can't tell you where she came from or what she wanted, I can only tell you what she did." Nabiki made the pitch. "And for only 1000 yen I can *show* you what she did."
What had been a very receptive crowd suddenly saw people peeling off and heading away. Interest in her story was dropping quickly at the mention of a price. Sato watched as Nabiki grew frustrated, and it was obvious to him that she needed *some* kind of assistance. She looked like she was about to cry and that prompted him to act. "She's telling the truth!" Sato shouted before he even realized that he was going to speak. As the eyes of most of the student body fell on him, he felt his throat tighten to the point that his voice left him.
Nabiki whirled around to see the person that had spoken behind her. Judging by the look on her face it was obvious that she wasn't expecting the assistance. With wide eyes she looked at him hopefully, silently urging him to continue.
"Umm... that is, I... I was there! I saw it happen," he added, having a hard time controlling his stammering. He paused to swallow and managed to find his voice. "Nabiki and I were standing right there at the wall when it was blown apart by that stranger. It was the scariest moment of my life."
He held his hand out and gestured at one of the photographs Nabiki had held out for display. Gazing down at it, he saw that it was a shot of the inside face of the wall. The shower of mortar debris, barrel tile fragments and bits of stone that lay on the ground was visible at the bottom, adding a lot to the drama of the image. Sato flinched as the photo evoked a sharp memory of what had happened on Saturday. He felt a shudder of fear run through him as he quickly relived the event.
A cough from someone in the crowd brought him back to the present. He shook his head to clear it and then continued speaking. "*This* really happened!" he shouted while pointing at the picture. "She and I are the only ones besides the perpetrator who saw this happen."
Nabiki found her voice as she saw the crowd had not only returned to its previous level, but had also grown. "You have seen how just viewing a picture affected him! This is the real deal! Now, who wants one?"
Sato and Nabiki reeled as the crowd suddenly pressed in on them, all of them demanding at least one picture of the devastated wall. As quickly as she could she began exchanging money for pictures, being sure to take someone's cash before she let a picture leave her hand. Nabiki looked to Sato and offered him a slight smile. "Thanks," she mouthed while her selling continued unabated.
He nodded and returned the smile. Sato stepped closer to her and offered to help her with the sales, then stepped back when her face took on a very cold and businesslike manner. "Thank you, no. I can handle it from here, 'kay?" she whispered, emphasizing the point by turning her back on him to address the rush of people clamoring behind her.
Frowning, Sato turned and walked back to his place on the campus lawn and sat back down. He watched Nabiki as she worked the crowd, now selling chunks of the wall for 3000 yen apiece for the small bits, and 5000 yen for the bigger pieces.
"Hey, I toldja so, Sato. Unless your dick has an image of a 1000 yen bill tattooed on it, she's not going to get anywhere near you," Hikaru quipped.
"At least mine's long enough to have the whole tattoo on it," Sato snapped.
Hikaru snorted. "Yeah, right. Keep dreaming."
"She's the only dream I'm having right now," Sato said with a wistful tone, never taking his eyes off of her as she worked the crowd. "What is it about that school uniform that makes girls look so... sexy?"
"Oh brother!" Hikaru said, rolling his eyes. "I'm outta here."
"Seeya," Sato said absently. He ignored his friend as Hikaru gathered his things and left for the school building. The crowd had dissipated to the point where only five or ten people remained. His face grew expectant as she made her last sale.
Stuffing leftover pictures and other items into an oversized bag as her last customer walked away, she looked up and saw Sato staring directly at her. He just did see a deep blush cover her face before she looked down at the ground. Walking quickly, she passed by him without a word as she made for the entrance to the school building. Sato's head whipped around as he watched her almost break into a run for the door.
'Aw hell!' he thought in frustration as a whole dictionary's worth of words aching to spring forth instead wound up being stuck uselessly in his mind courtesy of Nabiki's cold dismissal. He was about to get up and go inside when his eyes landed on another person sitting alone under one of the trees. He was shocked when he realized who it was.
"Ranma?" he asked as he walked towards his friend. 'Wow, he looks as bad as I feel,' Sato added to himself.
"Uh?" Ranma asked, his eyes holding a faraway look.
"What's up?"
"Oh, nuthin' much, Sato."
"You sure? You look upset."
Ranma turned and looked at him. "Yeah, I am. I've been called a lot of things in my life, but the ones that really piss me off are 'cheater' and 'liar'. Now I can't even find that punk so I can make him set the story straight. I looked around and he's nowhere to be found." He grabbed two fistfuls of grass and pulled them out of the ground, then tossed the abused bits of sod out into the distance.
"Finally found an opponent that you can attack without resorting to alchemy, Saotome?" a condescending voice interrupted from above. Both Ranma and Sato turned sharply and found Tatewaki Kuno standing over them with a smug grin on his face.
"What?!" Ranma thundered, standing quickly and getting in Kuno's face.
"Step back, boy," Kuno warned as he brandished his bokken. "We don't need you trying to drug or poison me again."
"I'm not like your sister, underclassman Kuno," Ranma returned, not moving an inch.
Kuno's eyes narrowed dangerously, causing Sato to shrink back and reconsider standing up next to Ranma. "That's *Upperclassman* you dolt! And just *what* do you know about my sister?"
Ranma hesitated for a moment. "I know enough about her, you punk. What I want to know is how you managed to fake those reports about being drugged. We BOTH know that I beat you fairly." He allowed a smug grin. "You were simply a weaker person, Kuno."
"I'll have you take that back right this moment or you'll be swallowing your teeth, Saotome!" Kuno snarled as he pushed the point of his bokken against Ranma's cheek.
Ranma grabbed the weapon and wrenched it down and away from his face. "You'd better put that thing away before I shove it up your-"
"HEY!" an adult voice shouted. Both stopped in mid-lurch and turned to face a teacher that had appeared out of nowhere. "What's going on here? There's no fighting on school grounds!"
"We were just..." Kuno began coolly before being interrupted with a swipe of the teacher's hand.
"Never mind! I don't care what you two were doing or why. No-one fights at lunch while I work here, understand?"
Ranma nodded wordlessly and stepped back. Kuno however gave the teacher a withering glare. The teacher caught it and got in the boy's face. "I don't care for your attitude."
"My father..."
"I don't give a damn who your father is. This fight is over, now! You can go crying to your daddy later."
Ranma and Sato, who was now standing at his friend's side, stifled their snickering as best as they could but the teacher still caught it. The teacher diverted his attention, his finger somehow pointing at both of them. "I want both of you to behave. We'll have no more aggressive behavior today. Go back to eating your lunch or I'll have you reported to the counselors. I'm sure none of you want that on your records."
Kuno blanched slightly at the threat to his academic standing. Saying nothing further, he aimed an angry glare at Ranma and then walked away. Once he was out of view, the teacher seemed to deflate somewhat. "Now that he's gone I expect you'll behave, right?"
Ranma and Sato nodded, and then watched as the teacher wandered off. "Geez, I sure wanted to slap Kuno around for that," he groused once they were alone. Ranma looked around and noticed that a crowd never formed. "I wonder where everyone is. I thought that Kuno would've had an audience with him."
"Sorry to disappoint you, bro," Ranko said as she approached them, her wrapped bento held in her hands. She tried to smile but wound up wincing instead, the pain from hobbling around on her bad ankle being too much for her to disguise or ignore. "Everyone's been spewing that crap about you cheating so nobody is going to give you the time of day anymore. You've become 'uncool' now." As best as she could, Ranko managed to sit down unassisted next to where her brother was standing. She absently rubbed the bandage-covered cut on her face then turned her attention to her bento.
Ranma sat down next to his sister and put an arm around her. Sato followed suit on the other side of Ranko, but kept his arms to himself. "I don't know what's worse..." Ranma declared. "Kuno spreading those stupid rumors about me or everyone believing them."
Ranko put down her chopsticks and rested her head against his shoulder. "I don't believe it, big brother. I saw what you did to him. The only drug you fed him was a can of whup-ass." She smiled up at him. "Don't forget that I was with you when you helped take out those goons from the Kendo squad. They definitely know who got smacked around and who did the smacking."
Ranma and Sato both snickered. "Thanks for believing in me, sis." He looked down at the ground. "I just hope that Akane doesn't believe all that crap."
"Have you asked her?" his sister asked before wolfing down a piece of hamachi.
"Well, I- That is... No, I haven't. In fact, I haven't seen her since lunch started. Have you?"
Ranko shook her head. "Nope, not at all."
He frowned and looked at Sato. His friend held up his hands in a shrug. "Sorry, Ranma. The only Tendo I've seen so far today was Nabiki and she ... wasn't very interested in talking to me."
Ranma nodded but said nothing, then crossed his arms against his chest. He stewed in silence, mulling over something that Sato couldn't even guess at. Several minutes ticked by before Ranko stood up, once again leaning heavily on her brother's shoulder in order to get on her feet.
"Ranma, don't worry about it right now. We can deal with this after school," Ranko decided. "Besides, I have to go back to the nurse and take my medicine now that I've had lunch."
Ranma looked up at his sister, then stood. "Okay, sis. I guess I'll see you after school." They hugged, then she walked stiffly back to the school building. Both watched her until she was inside the building, then Sato glanced down at his watch. "It's almost time-"
A shrill voice and a whirl of long honey-blonde hair cut him off. Sato looked in stunned silence as Kinuko Amagi latched herself to Ranma's arm and held herself close to him. He tried not to look envious as he realized that she wasn't just hugging his friend, she was rubbing her body against his.
Ranma's face was an excellent example of shock and frustration. He tried to stammer an objection but Kinuko's close-body contact was obviously making it impossible for him to talk. He looked like he was about to panic and flinched rather violently when she finally spoke.
"I just wanted you to know that I don't believe what that zitface Yutaka has been saying about you, Ranchan." She ran her hand up and down against his back. "After all, you certainly managed to conquer *me* with your talents," she purred, holding herself even tighter against him. "I believe in you!"
Ranma's lower lip trembled and he managed only a minor squeak in response to her rather sensual declaration. Sato, meanwhile, continued to take in the scene with an odd mixture of fear and awe.
"Well, I'd better get back to class, Ranchan. See you later, 'kay?" she asked with a wink and a smile. Not waiting for a response, Kinuko kissed Ranma quickly on the lips. Catching Sato's eye, she winked again before backing away. "See you later, Sato!" she said with a cute wave.
Sato groaned mentally and barely suppressed a shudder at the level of cuteness she was displaying. "Umm, yeah. Seeya, Kin-chan," he replied, not realizing that he was waving back in a fashion similar to hers.
"Yeah," Ranma said absently, then shook his head as if to snap himself out of his mini-fugue.
Sato looked at his friend for a moment and could almost swear that Ranma looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Yo, you okay in there, man? Are you even here?" he asked of his friend, waving a hand in front of Ranma's face. Meeting with no response, Sato shrugged and turned to watch as Kinuko trotted back towards the school. "That blonde hair of hers... I've wonder if all of her is blonde now."
Ranma snorted at that but didn't comment. Turning to his friend he replied, "Sorry, man. I've had a lot on my mind."
Sato dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about it, we can talk later on at your place. Besides it looks like everyone is getting back to class, so we should get going."
"Yeah, I guess so. The sooner this day is over, the better," Ranma groused as he led the way back to the school building.

*>

Sato's embarrassment was obvious as he halted his story. He watched as the counselor wrote more notes on her pad then looked up at him.
"I don't see why you were so upset about telling me that, Sato."
"Well, Akane doesn't know about that last part. I know Ranma has been trying to get together with her, so her hearing about what happened on Monday between him and Kinuko wouldn't help things any."
Ms. Yoshida nodded. "Ahh, and you're afraid that Ranma's apparent love interest may find out about it from this tape and take offense?"
Sato nodded. "Ranma's got enough trouble this week. I don't think that I need to be adding anything else to his list of problems."
Ms. Yoshida quirked her left eyebrow but refrained from pressing Sato for details on what he felt was on Ranma's trouble list. "I don't see any reason for apprising Miss Tendo of that bit of information. Not at the present time, anyway."
"Thanks."
Ms. Yoshida circled something on her pad. "What is all of this about an attack? Sounds a bit melodramatic to me."
"You wouldn't think so if you saw what that person did to the boundary wall of the Tendo's home," Sato replied. "It was very fast and very scary. I wouldn't call it anything *but* an attack."
"Why did it happen?"
"Well, I don't know *why* it happened, I'm afraid. I only know the events because I was there. No-one knows why she hit that place last Saturday, nor do we know where she went." Sato shrugged, trying to push the incident from his mind. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not talk about it."
Ms. Yoshida raised her eyebrow in mild surprise. She was about to press him for more details despite his reluctance to talk about it, but the earnest fear she saw in his eyes caused her to reconsider. She changed the direction of the conversation to get things back on track. "So what else happened on Monday?"
"That's about it."
"Really?" She eyed him critically.
"Yeah... well, that's all that happened at school."
She sighed and clasped her hands together in front of her chest as if trying to politely restrain something. "I'll need to hear about things outside of school as well if they pertain in any way to last night's events."
Sato shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know how much this information will help, but I did spend some time over at Ranma's place that evening."
"Ah, you had mentioned an invitation from him earlier," Ms. Yoshida commented, underlining something on her notepad as she spoke. At his nod she urged him to continue.
"Well..."

<*

"Ah, welcome to my domain, Sato!" Genma said with a warm smile as Ranma and Ranko escorted the hapless youth into the training hall. "I'm glad that you decided to take me up on my offer."
Sato blushed and studied the mats intently. "Umm, yes sir."
Genma looked at him sternly. "Remember the first thing we talked about on Saturday?"
Sato's eyes widened. "Oh, sorry Sensei!"
"Sensei?" Ranko repeated, confused. "What's going on here? I thought Sato was just coming over to hang out."
"Actually, sweetie, after seeing what Sato did to protect Nabiki I felt that he'd earned the right to be trained in the family art."
"Oh, is that so?" She eyed Sato critically, her hand to her chin. "I guess that I don't see anything wrong with that," Ranko said with a playful smile. "Welcome to the family, Sato."
"Heh, thanks," Sato said with a nervous smile.
"You're being awfully quiet, son. What's going on with you?" Genma asked as his eyes studied Ranma.
"It's. . . nothing, pop," Ranma said dismissively.
"Nothing, my eye! I can tell there's something wrong with you. What happened at school today?" Genma eyed his son critically. "Nothing's gone wrong with the Tendos, has it?"
"Hey, bro! What's going on with you?" Ranko hissed. "Why dontcha just tell him?"
"I can take care of myself, sis," Ranma retorted hotly, cheeks coloring. "And no, it doesn't have anything to do with Akane or her family. I'm telling you, this is really nothing to worry about."
"But-" Sato began then stopped when he saw the look in his friend's eyes.
"What do you have to take care of, Ranma?" Genma pressed.
"I said it's nothin', pop. I can deal with it," Ranma replied matter-of-factly.
"Are you sure?" his father demanded.
"Yeah, don't worry about me. You know what I'm capable of now, so just trust me." Ranma held his father's gaze and didn't back down.
Genma relented. "Okay, son. I'll let you deal with it. However if you need anything, you let me know." He turned back to Sato. "Now, let's get to work, shall we?" He surveyed the boy with a critical eye. "Okay, first thing's first. You need to dress properly for these workouts. Your pants will be okay for this evening, but I'm afraid you're going to have to take your shirt off so that your arms can move freely."
Sato blushed profusely. "T..take my shirt off now?!" He gulped as he regarded the three Saotomes warily, particularly Ranko.
"Oh, come on! We're all men here," Genma said confidently.
"HEY!" Ranko shouted indignantly.
Her father winced. "Sorry, sweetie. I didn't mean it that way."
"I dunno," Sato replied uncertainly, his body language broadcasting self-consciousness.
"Oh, I can leave if you want me to, Sato," Ranko suggested, her feet already pointed towards the door.
"No, you don't have to leave, Ranko," Sato replied quickly, reminding himself that she wasn't like most of the petty girls he'd known at the school. "I'll do it." He steeled himself and unbuttoned his long-sleeved school uniform shirt slowly. Tugging up at the bottom of it, he pulled the tails out from his trousers then slipped the shirt off his arms. He busied himself with folding the shirt before putting it away, using the time to get used to being 'exposed' in front of a girl.
"I don't see what you were so worried about. You look just fine to me," Ranko said, the playful glint in her eyes returning.
Sato blushed severely, his pale white arms and chest turning a deep crimson hue along with his face, eliciting a giggle from the youngest Saotome.
"Sis! Quit teasing him," Ranma said, speaking up for his friend.
"I was being honest, Ranma. He looks fine to me."
"Ahem!" Genma interrupted, clearing his throat and getting everyone's attention in the process. "If the visual inspection is over with I think we should get some work done while we still have enough time. I don't want to be in here all night."
Using Ranko and Ranma as assistants, Genma guided Sato through the basics of blocking and had him go through repetitive drills.
After about twenty minutes of watching Sato do the moves Ranma was demonstrating, Genma interrupted. "Okay, let's take a moment." He looked his new pupil over. "Your form is actually quite good for a beginner. However while you are doing the motions correctly you're not quite doing the moves correctly."
"I don't understand, Sensei," Sato replied. "I'm doing it right but I'm doing it wrong?"
"He's talking about passion, Sato," Ranko clarified.
"Pop's right," Ranma agreed. "You need to do it with more force." Seeing that he still wasn't quite getting it, Ranma stood next to Sato. "Watch me closely."
Sato watched as Ranma demonstrated the basic arm-block technique with a slow, fluid motion. "This is how you're doing it."
Sato nodded. "Right. I was doing it just like you showed me."
Ranma shook his head. "You were following the motions of the defense, but you left out the key ingredient." He stood in a passive stance, then suddenly he moved his arms with a lightning-quick *SNAP!*, performing the block again but with a lot more force. "YAH!" he yelled as he performed the maneuver.
"Wow!" Sato said, his eyes wide.
"You see the difference now?" Genma asked. Sato nodded as he watched Ranma return to a passive stance and then step back. "Now you try it again."
Sato coughed, then swallowed nervously. "I'm not sure if I can do that."
"Oh, sure you can!" Ranko retorted.
"You won't know until you try, man," Ranma offered.
"I guess you're right." Sato mimicked his friend's passive stance. "Aah!" he shouted as the new Anything Goes student tried to move his arms with the same amount of force that Ranma had used. Lacking the coordination, Sato wound up throwing his arm out too far and barely missed tagging Genma in the gut. "Oh, I'm sorry, Sensei!" he said quickly while he straightened himself.
Genma chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Sato. You're getting there, which is a good thing. We just need to work on your form a little more. Practice is the only thing that'll help with that. Also, you need to work on your confidence. Anyone who has to protect himself or others has to do so with confidence, otherwise you're going to get whipped every time."
Sato nodded. "I've had enough of getting whipped, that's for sure. Especially today."
"Oh? You have something going on at school as well, Sato?" Genma asked.
"Yeah, it's a thug at school who likes to use me for punching practice whenever he gets near me."
Genma's demeanor changed instantly from passive interest to concern. "How often does this happen to you?"
"At least once a week, Sensei."
Genma looked at his new pupil askance. "Every week?! And just how long has this been going on?"
"About four or five years now," Sato admitted.
Genma shook his head in disbelief. "Sato, I've known you for the better part of your life and this is the first time you've told me about any of this. Why have you let it go on for so long?" he asked of his student, unable to hide a shocked look. Getting no response from his pupil, Genma kept up the questioning. "Have you at least tried to fight back?"
"Not effectively because I usually get beaten worse whenever I resist. I got hurt today because I held my ground against him."
"Well, it's admirable that you at least stand up to him," Genma conceded, though his face still plainly showed his concern. "But I don't agree with you allowing him to keep on hitting you."
"But it's not like-" Sato protested, but stopped when Genma held up a hand.
"I realize that you'd fight him back if you knew how. That's what we're going to correct with these lessons." Genma smiled. "It's a good thing I did follow my hunch. You keep up this training and soon you will be able to defend yourself effectively."
Sato smiled and bowed. "Thank you, Sensei."
"That's the spirit!" Ranko enthused. "I'd love to watch you be able to kick his butt sometime, Sato."
"Well, let's teach him how to crawl, first. Then he can start learning how to walk. Okay sis?" Ranma said with a wink.
"True enough, son," Genma agreed. "With that in mind, let's get back to work." The Saotomes then worked together to show Sato more of the fundamentals of defense. Using words of encouragement, Ranko and Ranma pushed Sato through a series of drills that grew in intensity over the course of the evening.
Over an hour and a half later Ranma and Genma busied themselves with cleaning up the place while Sato caught his breath. His body was sore all over but despite that he felt invigorated and he relished the empowering feeling that the workout had given him. Ranko grabbed Sato's left arm to get his attention, then handed him a towel. "Looks like you could use this," she said as gazed at his sweat-covered torso.
"Whew! Thanks Ranko. I sure could!" He toweled himself off, no longer caring that she was looking at his bare chest.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" she asked.
"The towel?" he asked, confused. "Yeah, I guess so."
"No, the afterglow, silly!" she teased.
He showed her a confused look and tried not to seem like he was being deliberately stupid in front of her.
"I'm referring to the feeling you get after a good workout."
"Oh! Yeah. Well, it hurts but it also feels good if you know what I mean."
"Yep, that's the afterglow alright." She looked down at herself. "I won't know what that feels like for a little while," she groused.
"Don't worry, sis. If I know you, it won't be long before you're working out again," Ranma commented as he approached them. "Just be sure you don't overdo it." He stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Sato watched with a touch of envy as Ranko put one of her hands atop her brother's and squeezed it affectionately.
"Well, that does it for the first night, Sato. You did well," Genma praised. "You're a lot better than the spoiled brats I'm teaching downtown. I expect good things from you."
Sato blushed at the praise. "Thank you, Sensei."
"So I want you back here right after school every day for the rest of this week."
Sato's eyes almost fell out of their sockets. "Every day?" 'Ouch! I'm not going to make it through the rest of the week if every night is like this one,' he kept to himself.
Genma nodded. "We need to improve your stamina and get your body familiar with using its muscles in ways that you likely haven't ever used them before." He pounded the boy on the back. Sato coughed, but otherwise managed not to show he'd been affected by the friendly smite. "I won't lie to you, though. It'll hurt in the beginning, but if you keep at it you will benefit greatly from this training."
"I understand," Sato replied, nodding solemnly. He picked up his shirt and put it on. "I'm sorry, but I'd better get home now. My mom doesn't like it if I'm out too late on a school night."
"I understand. Have a good night, Sato." Genma said before walking out of the training hall.
"You'd better spend some time soaking in the bath before you go to sleep tonight," Ranma advised his friend. "Trust me, you'll appreciate it."
"Yeah, and take an aspirin or something, too. You pushed yourself good and hard tonight," Ranko added. "You'll definitely feel it in the morning."
Okay, thanks you two," Sato said with a smile. "Good night!" He turned and walked out the door, sparing a wave for Ranko before his steps took him beyond her view.

*>

"So did you?"
"Pardon me?" Sato asked, doing a double take at the change in focus.
"Did you do what they suggested and soak in the bath for awhile?"
"Oh, that! Yeah. I did soak when I got home. Also took Ranko's advice and popped a couple of aspirin before I went to bed."
"Did it help?"
"Not much," Sato said, wincing. "I was still sore on my arms and legs. It made the other workouts-"
"What bothered you about being shirtless in front of a group of people?" Ms. Yoshida interrupted. "It's natural for boys your age to dress that way when they're doing physical labor or working out."
"Umm. It's just that. . . I'm not used to showing off like that in front of strangers."
"I thought they were your friends."
"Oh, they are! But I mean ..." Flummoxed, Sato searched for the right thing to say. "Ranko..."
"You think that girls shouldn't see you like that?"
"Well, it's not only girls. I don't let anyone see me like that. I think it's rude to be undressed in public."
"I see. So have you always been so shy around girls, Sato?"
"What?!" Sato blurted out, feeling the question as if it were a punch to the gut.
"Have you always been shy around girls?" she clarified.
"Now see here, Ms. Yoshida!" he protested before being cut off by a very intense glare from his inquisitor.
"Don't take that attitude with me, young man," she scolded. "I can ask anything that I like, and I feel that this is important to my investigation. I'll ask you one last time: Have you always been shy around girls?"
He hesitated for a moment then slumped in his chair. "Yeah," he responded in a small voice. "Girls don't like me. Except for a few like Ranko and Motoko who are my friends, girls usually tease me. They only talk to me as a last resort."
She fixed him with an intense gaze. "Do you hate them because of that?"
Sato bounded out of his chair. "No, of course I don't!" he fairly shouted. Ms. Yoshida quirked an eyebrow at him again and he quickly resumed his seat. "I mean, I don't hate them for hating me."
She nodded and wrote down something else in her notepad. "Do you think that everyone hates you?"
"I'm not paranoid, Ms. Yoshida," Sato countered. He leveled a gaze of his own at her. "Why are you doing this to me? I thought you wanted information on everything that happened this week."
"I do," she replied simply.
"So what does that have to do with me?"
"Everything."
"I-"
"Okay, Sato. Let's get back to it. Tell me what happened on Tuesday."

****

"So how's it going?" Ranko asked as she headed down the hallway towards her brother.
Ranma acknowledged his sister's approach with a halfhearted wave of his hand and a grim look on his face.
"Oh, that good?" she quipped, looking down at her brother as she stood near him.
"I've not been interviewed yet. She's had Sato in there for over an hour and a half now. I have no idea what they're saying-"
"But you at least know what they're talking about."
Ranma nodded. "I hope Sato holds up in there. He doesn't deserve to have all of this lumped on his shoulders. Not when-"
"Hey, don't sweat it. I think he's capable of taking care of himself, bro."
"Yeah, I guess you're right, sis. Besides, it 's not like I don't already have enough things to worry about."
"Geez, you're Mister Depression right now aren't you, Ranma?" his sister said with a scowl.
"Well excuse me! It's not like I don't have a reason to be upset or nothin'." Ranma stared at his feet. "This hasn't been a great week, Ranko."
Ranko softened her look and let her irritation at her brother's glum disposition ebb. "You're right, bro; I'm sorry." She sat down beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. "This should make you feel a little better, though. I've been working on finding out the truth about Kinuko."
"And?" he asked urgently.
"I've still got one more lead to follow, but so far most of the people that I've talked to have said that she's usually full of it."
Ranma visibly relaxed, his shoulders touching the back of the bench for the first time since he sat down. "Yeah. she's full of somethin' alright," he quipped with a growing smirk.

****

"Sato?"
"Umm, yes Ms. Yoshida?" he said, lifting his weary eyes to look at her.
"Why don't we take a break? I've got to make a phone call, so why don't you go outside and sit with Ranma until I'm done."
Sato nodded numbly, grateful for the chance to stop talking about the not-too-good week that he had. He was mentally fatigued from the almost ninety minutes of grilling that he'd endured under the unrelenting gaze of the formidable Ms. Yoshida. Standing from his seat, he barely managed to avoid stumbling over the corner of the chair as he made his way for the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he turned back to look at her. "I'll be outside," he announced as he turned the knob and slowly pulled the door open.
Her only response was a nod as she turned her attention to the telephone. "Hello, Nerima Prefectural hospital? This is Ms. Kumiko Yoshida..." was all he heard as he stepped out of the room and into the hallway. As he stepped around the door, he saw that Ranma was sitting on the bench with his sister.
Ranko kissed her brother gently on the cheek. "I'll probably be able to fill in all the holes after lunch today. This person will likely know more than any of the others, so I'll get down to the bottom of the whole-"
The door to Ms. Yoshida's office closed, catching their attention and silencing Ranko. Sato slowly stepped out into the hallway, favoring the Saotomes with a weary expression. "Hi, you two."
"Heya, Sato. You doing okay in there, man?" Ranma asked, concerned.
"That lady's a tough woman, that's for sure," Sato admitted. "Still, she's not accused me of anything. Yet..." he added glumly.
"Hey! You don't have any reason to be worried, Sato-kun," Ranko admonished, standing up from the bench and looking him in the eyes.
"Thanks. By the way, you're looking great today," Sato said as he gave Ranko the once-over.
Ranko blushed, her hand automatically going to her cheek. "I'm glad that I was finally able to take that bandage off of my face. I was starting to feel like the Battousai walking around Kyoto for awhile there."
"You can barely see the scar at all," Ranma added, smiling at her.
"Yeah, and the doctor said that by the end of next week it should disappear completely." Ranko looked at Sato. "Speaking of doctors, how are you doing, Rambo?"
Sato blushed. "Heh, I know that I've been training hard and your dad likes my progress, but I doubt that I've earned that title."
Ranko snickered, her big blue eyes sparkling as she looked up at him. "Okay, we'll debate your official title some other time. I was wondering how you were feeling after everything that went down last night."
Sato shrugged. "My eye looks a lot worse than it feels. My ribs aren't as sore as they were last night. Things could've been worse I guess."
Ranko nodded. "You see? You're not as sore or injured as you should be given what you went through. Just goes to show that you're already putting your training into action, Sato. In fact-" She put a hand on his waist and reached the other around the back of his head, then kissed him soundly on the lips. "I'm proud of ya," she said after their lips had parted. She mussed his hair, giggling at the stunned expression on Sato's face. "Way to go, tiger!" she purred, throwing in a wink for good measure before walking down the hall.
"Umm, yeah. Thanks," Sato replied, blushing severely. He touched his fingers to his lips and found that they still tingled from the unexpected liplock Ranma's sister had thrown on him. His insides churned and he fought hard to control a primal urge that Ranko's affection had triggered. "Wow. I was NOT expecting that."
Ranma tried hard not to snicker at his friend's predicament, but couldn't contain it. Sato looked at him with a smirk of his own, then joined in the laughter. "That's my sister, for ya," Ranma commented. "She's awfully direct, isn't she?"
"Yeah. It's one of the things I've always liked about her."
"Me too," Ranma admitted. "I like it that she doesn't hold back. Makes for a great sparring partner."
Sato's smile turned into a grimace and he rubbed his ribs. "I'll say! She does a FANTASTIC job of not holding back in that regard."
Both turned their heads towards the door as the clacking sound of the lock caught their attention. Standing next to the bench was Ms. Yoshida, eyeing both of them critically.
"Mr. Saotome, you and I have an appointment in my office."
Ranma swallowed hard and stood to follow her inside. He gave Sato one last look before he disappeared behind the door, the latch clacking behind him with a sound of finality.
Sato stared at the closed door for a moment and then groaned. "Good luck in there, my friend. The way she treated me in there... You're gonna need it," he said in a low voice.

****

"Please have a seat," Ms. Yoshida directed, pointing to the chair that had recently been occupied by his friend. Ranma nodded and sat down, never taking his eyes off of the woman standing across the desk from him. She took note of his intensity, but didn't comment.
After a few minutes of silence, Ranma began to fidget in his seat. He watched as Ms. Yoshida labeled a cassette tape and placed it into the recorder that was sitting on the desk. Next she slowly and deliberately flipped a page on her legal notepad, smoothing out the ruled yellow paper with her petite hand before taking her pen and writing Ranma's name at the top. He started slightly when she finally spoke.
"I'm going to dispense with the usual starter questions. I have your record in front of me." She indicated a manila folder with his name and birth date written on a colored label across the top. "I want you to be absolutely up-front with me about everything that I'm going to ask you. Do not hold anything back, and do not assume that I don't need to know something."
"Okay," Ranma nodded, watching as she flipped through the rather voluminous stack of papers contained in his student folder.
"Well well, we've had a busy week, haven't we Mr. Saotome?" she commented as she searched through the sheaf of papers. "In the last four days you have managed to rack up two complaints of attempted assault against you from Tatewaki Kuno, one complaint of harassment from Kinuko Amagi against Akane Tendo in which you were listed as a potential accomplice, and finally a teacher's report naming you in an incidence of assault and battery against Yutaka Hanashin on school grounds." She leveled a curious look at him as she continued. "Not to mention nine unconfirmed reports of threats you've made verbal or otherwise against members of the Kendo team." She pressed the record button on here tape recorder and eyed him critically. "Perhaps you're not getting enough attention in class, Ranma?" she quipped.
Ranma sat stone-faced while she read off the litany of charges and accusations. Once she had finished, he looked her straight in the eye. "Just nine in a week? I coulda sworn that I'd done that many in a single day against those goons." He showed the beginnings of a smug grin but it didn't last long. He found himself swallowing nervously and shrinking back in his seat a bit as he met with the full force of a glare from Ms. Yoshida that was redoubtable enough to rival Akane at her worst. The original Akane, that is.
As soon as he was silent, she favored him with a smug grin of her own. "Now that we have the pecking order established, let's drop the smart aleck comments and stick to the facts, shall we?" She hefted a much larger stack of folders and placed them on an empty spot on her desk with a loud *thunk.* "These are the complaints that I just mentioned to you. As you can see, you're in a great deal of trouble young man." She eyed him critically. "Given the sheer volume of them, I am surprised to see you acting so cocky. Care to explain yourself, Ranma?"
He shrugged and sat back in his chair. "Well, there's not too much to explain, really."
"Oh? How's that?"
"Well, for a long time people thought that I was as a nobody. Then one day I beat up Kuno and showed everybody that I can defend myself. When you come right down to it, I think it's all just a lot of jealousy."
Ms. Yoshida quirked her eyebrow once again. "Oh? And?"
"And? And, what? That's it."
"Oh, don't stop now, Ranma. You're spinning quite an amusing tale, here." She struck a pose worthy of a Hollywood starlet. "It's not my fault that I'm so wonderful! Everyone just has to stop being jealous of me," Ms. Yoshida declared in a dramatic tone, mocking him. She then became serious once again. "That about the size of it?"
"No," he spat, looking at the floor to avoid her critical gaze. "I'm just answerin' your questions. You asked me why I've been in so much trouble this week and I answered you truthfully."
"Oh, you answered me alright, but not to my satisfaction." She leaned forward on the desk. "Why have you been getting into so many fights?"
"I *told* you why. There are guys here that don't like me, an' I used to let them push me around. I got tired of it and started defending myself. Now that those cowards know they can't beat me up, they sic people like *you* on me instead." He leveled his own gaze at her. "I guess you'd be happier if I were beaten up and kicked around and just accepted it."
"I'd be happier if you just answered my question," she snapped, meeting his stare head-on instead of looking away.
"How many injuries do you think I would need before it would be okay to fight back, anyway?" Ranma continued, ignoring her. "Maybe if I was paralyzed from the legs down or somethin'? Would you be happier then?" He sat forward in his chair, daring her to respond. She didn't disappoint him.
"That's *quite enough* of that!" Ms. Yoshida yelled, slapping her hand on the desk. The two glared at each other for a moment before she regained her composure. "You can play the guilt card all you like, Ranma. It won't change the fact that we have two people in the hospital. How many times have your foes put *you* in the hospital, young man?"
Ranma paused to consider that point, then sat back in his chair. "Whatever. . ."
"Fine, let's start again, shall we?" She flipped a page on her legal pad and tapped her pen against the blank piece of paper. "I think we'll take this on an incident-by-incident basis. Let's start with Tatewaki Kuno. As you said you 'beat him up' last Friday. He acknowledges the conflict took place, however he has provided me with documentation that proves that he was drugged and hence wasn't fighting at his normal level." She pulled out the affidavit and the attached doctor's statement and laid them on the table. "This is a pretty serious charge, Ranma. If I were you, I would be more concerned."
"Why should I be? He's obviously lyin', Ms. Yoshida," Ranma returned. "I walked to school that day with my sister. He arrived at the school in his limo and we fought just as soon as he got out of the car. If I did drug that loser, when did I manage to do it?"
She nodded and wrote a couple of things down on her notepad. "Several people, including Sato, have confirmed your accounting of these events. I asked Tatewaki Kuno about the timing of the events last Friday morning and he conceded that you did not personally drug him."
"See?" Ranma said with a smug grin. "He's lying, and that's that." Satisfied that he'd proven his point, he reclined in his chair, crossed his legs and put his hands behind his head.
She continued, ignoring his statement and his arrogant posture. "However, he maintains that he was drugged before the fight and the doctor's note is irrefutable on that point. This means that someone else administered the sedative."
Ranma's eyes flew open in shock, as he understood where she was going with this. "You can't be serious!"
Ms. Yoshida nodded. "Tatewaki Kuno was loathe to admit it during our interview earlier this morning, but the only logical conclusion is that Akane Tendo drugged him while they were together in the car."
"NO!" Ranma thundered. "You *can't* believe that Akane would have done anything like that!"
"Look at the facts, Ranma." She ticked points off on her fingers. "You are obviously interested in this girl. You admit that your fight with Kuno was a milestone and that prior to that day you would not have been able to defeat him. Also, there has been some unsubstantiated rumor going around that you have resorted to drugging people in the past. Most importantly, keep in mind that she was next to him in that car all the way to the school, giving her ample opportunity to drug him. Furthermore, a fight was the only honorable way that Akane Tendo's engagement to Tatewaki Kuno would have been broken." Ms. Yoshida paused to place her hand on the desk, then continued. "It is not too hard to imagine that Akane would've conspired with you to drug Tatewaki Kuno to help ensure that you would defeat him and cause her engagement to disappear."
"Listen! You're making assumptions without knowin' all the facts. You also seem to be believin' everything that jerk Kuno has to say without challenging any of it."
"He's not the one who is in trouble, Ranma. You are."
"Maybe he *should* be the one who's in trouble!" Ranma fumed. His anger swelled almost to the bursting point. He tried to calm himself but couldn't get past the sheer audacity of the accusations. He glared at Ms. Yoshida, his gaze boring right through her head. "I know for a fact that I knocked that son of a bitch on his ass with my bare hands and drugs had NOTHING to do with it!" He balled his hands into fists. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. "You know, he's so full of it! He can't beat me so he has to go and find some lame-ass excuse. What a crock of shit!" He slammed his fist down on the desk in frustration.
Ms. Yoshida regarded him warily and debated the wisdom of pressing a button near her leg to summon school security. She paused, however, once she realized that Ranma wasn't directing his ire at her. She kept her finger over the button but didn't quite press it as he continued with his rant.
"I can almost bet you that his doctor's statement is wrong! And you know what else? It was probably bought, too! The Kuno family is supposed to be rich, after all."
"You're just making that up," Ms. Yoshida challenged.
"The hell I am! I know what I did and did not do, and I know for a *fact* that wimp Kuno was not drugged." He began ticking off points on his fingers, mimicking what Ms. Yoshida had done to him. "Akane and I didn't even talk to each other until *after* the fight was over, so there was no way she could have 'conspired' with me to do anything. Also, I did not tell Akane that I was going to challenge Kuno to break his engagement to her. I never would have put her through that. And even if Kuno *was* drugged, what about that psycho sister of his? I heard she knows her way around a few chemicals and drugs. Heck, what about the limo driver? Didn't *he* have the same amount of time as Akane to drug Kuno? AND where'n'the hell would someone like Akane have gotten those drugs in the first place?" He put his hands down on the desk. "For an investigator, you seem to be ignorin' a whole buncha stuff." He leaned forward. "Tell me something; have you even talked to Akane?"
Ms. Yoshida was writing furiously. "Let me catch up, Ranma." The scribbling persisted for another twenty seconds before she laid her pen down on the notepad and massaged her writing hand. "That's quite a bit information you just gave me." She showed him a tolerant smile. "I'm not here to prosecute you for the drugging accusation. I'm here to get to the bottom of what happened last night."
Ranma's jaw hit the desk. "Then why are you doin' this to me?" he demanded.
"Researching prior bad acts to establish a pattern of behavior," she said matter-of-factly.
His eyes narrowed. "You just like pressing my buttons."
"I just like getting to the truth."
"Yeah, well the truth is that I'm not the kind of person who likes to cheat to win. I did kick Kuno's ass that day and if he wants me to prove it I'll be glad to repeat it for him whenever he likes."
Ms. Yoshida sighed and flipped over her now-filled page to expose another blank one. "Do you always get this angry?"
"Hey!" he protested defensively. "If you knew the full story you wouldn't be treatin' me like this. I don't deserve any of this crap, you know."
"Oh, trust me. By the end of the day I *will* know the full story. Also, what you deserve is yet to be determined," she said with a bit of a gleam in her eye. "Now that you've proven my point about anger and violence in your present life, let's take a quick look at your past. The school record shows that you were a stellar student until almost a month ago. You used to participate in the school band. You got really good grades and excepting for some behavioral quirks that border on Anime overload you were a very normal kid." She gestured at the pile of complaints against Ranma. "Not the kind of person who would do all of this, wouldn't you say?"
"What's past is past," Ranma replied simply, not able or willing to discuss the past of his 'other' self.
"What's past is prologue," Ms. Yoshida countered with a quirk of her right eyebrow.
"Whatever. People can change, you know."
"I realize this, and part of what I've been trying to figure out since I first received this case is just *what* made you change so dramatically from what you were before."
Ranma pondered the best way to answer her question. He certainly wasn't going to mention the curse or the wish, but he had to say something quickly. 'Last thing I need is to get her even more suspicious and have her start nosin' around in my life.' When he did answer her, he spoke carefully. "I had to change in order to make my life better. I just couldn't accept things the way they were anymore. I got tired of it, you know?"
"Well, one of your friends has a different opinion about it." Ms. Yoshida picked up a manila folder and withdrew an official-looking document. She began to read it, then summarized its contents for Ranma after she was done. "Kinuko Amagi has suggested in her deposition from yesterday that the breakup between you and she, something she characterizes as temporary, caused you to change. She claims that the two of you were madly in love and that the breakup was a horrible burden on your soul. You took the news so badly that you, and I quote, 'resorted to violence in order to cope with the loss of his dearest love.' I must admit that the timing is rather interesting. Care to comment on that, Ranma?"
Ranma snorted derisively. "That nutbar has an awfully high opinion of herself. I don't care about her anymore, that's for certain. Only someone as crazy as her would say something as stupid as that, anyways." He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "She's not the cause for any of my successes or failures, period."
"But you *did* endure martial arts training after the breakup, didn't you?" Ms. Yoshida countered as she flipped through her smaller stack of papers on the opposite side of the desk. "Several people that were interviewed by the school after last Friday's events have all stated that you and violence went together like oil and water. The sudden change in your nature ties in with your breakup with Miss Amagi. Perhaps she does have some credence to her words after all?"
Ranma rolled his eyes. "I embraced martial arts a long time ago because it is a family tradition. It isn't some kind of sudden fad or whatever, and Kinuko has *nothin'* to do with me learning the arts." He paused for a moment. "But I guess you could say that I intensified my training recently to help me forget that I ever dated her." He smirked at that and didn't care that it was a little white lie. It sounded good to him, after all. "What's this thing with Kinuko, anyway? What exactly does she think me and Akane were doing to her?"
Ms. Yoshida ignored the question and parried with one of her own. "So is this anger of yours something that will stay with you for the rest of your life or do you think that it'll go away as you grow up?"
Ranma blinked at the question, but didn't hesitate for long. "It depends on what you mean by 'angry.' If you're wondering if I'm gonna be a more aggressive person than I was in the past, then the answer is yes. If people think that I'm angry because I don't roll over and play dead anymore, then that's their problem. I will never walk away from a fight, and I won't let anyone get the best of me. No one walks over Ranma Saotome. Not anymore," he said defiantly.
"Well, that's a consistent answer, at least." She paused and looked down at her lengthy sheet of notes. "You know, we've been dancing around this point since we started talking. I admit that defending yourself against attacks from other students is good, but the charges that you're facing today seem to point to an overly aggressive behavior on your part. In fact, it's one more suited to being a bully than being the victim of one."
"Yutaka is the one who should be called a bully," Ranma retorted hotly.
Ms. Yoshida smiled and pulled yet another manila folder off of the pile then placed it in front of her on the desk. "Speaking of Yutaka, you and he have had quite a week together, haven't you?" She poked at the folder that she'd just placed in front of her. "This incident on Wednesday between the two of you that almost sparked a riot in the quad is rather noteworthy."
"Well, it was somethin' that he started! All week he's been yelling at me from far away and givin' me crap about that drugging thing. At lunch on Wednesday he got in my face for the first time." Ranma's look hardened as he recalled the event.

<*

"How do you feel, Sato? You're lookin' a little sore," Ranma commented as his friend stretched and groaned before sitting down on the grass beside him.
"Ugh... I think we're going to have to talk to your sister about her footwork," Sato groused. "She just got the use of her ankle back and she's already wiping the floor with me. She does remember that I'm a novice, doesn't she?"
Ranma snickered at that. "Yeah, she does. She just expects you to do well is all. I think that you handled yourself pretty well last night. After two days lessons you're already blocking like a first year student would after two *months* of lessons."
"If I hadn't been blocking her at all my head wouldn't be attached to my shoulders anymore!" Sato retorted. He tried to look serious as he said it, but his composure broke and both boys wound up laughing.
"See?" Ranma asked through his laughter. "That's the best way for you to learn. You have to understand that the secret to being a success in martial arts is not dying."
"Yeah, right," Sato commented. "I kinda figured that one out."
Ranma snorted and began to unpack his bento. As he took his chopsticks in hand, a gentle breeze shifted the leaves overhead causing soft dappled sunlight to play across his arms. He paused and looked up at the canopy of the tree and admired how the sun's rays played through the branches. Ranma couldn't help but smile as he absorbed what he could of the peaceful moment.
"Well, look who's here! It's Furinkan's own drug dealer and his trusty sidekick, WimpMaster!" a voice taunted from behind them. "Didja cheat in any fights today, Ranma?"
Ranma's eyes narrowed at the taunt. He carefully placed his chopsticks on his bento and sat it on the ground next to him. He turned his head in the direction of the voice just in time to see the sneering face of Yutaka as he stepped around from the other side of the tree.
Ranma smiled nastily. "Hey, Sato, look! The Garbage man is already here." His smile grew as watched Yutaka's smug grin vanish. He stood up and continued his taunt, adopting the voice a kindergarten teacher would to a stubborn child. "I'm sorry Garbage man, but you'll have to come back. I'm not done eating yet."
"What?" Yutaka snarled.
"Uhh... Ranma, I don't think taunting him is such a good idea. Remember that you almost got into trouble on Monday when Kuno started in on you," Sato whispered cautiously. He eyed Yutaka nervously as the bully glared down at the two of them.
"Hey, don't worry. He's nothin'," Ranma replied loud enough for Yutaka to hear. He then looked directly at Yutaka. "Listen, Garbage man. If you're that hungry for trash, you can go shovel some shit out of the sewage pipes or somethin'. I'm sure that your ancestors did that for a living so the practice should come naturally to you." Ranma made a shooing gesture. "Now run along, Garbage man. I'm done with you."
The older bully's face was a picture-perfect representation of someone on the verge of exploding in rage. Ranma bet that if it were possible, the oaf would spontaneously combust in front of their eyes. But instead of saying anything else, Yutaka made a throat-clearing noise and spat a big wad of sputum into Ranma's bento.
"Oops, did I just ruin your lunch?" he asked, his smug grin returning.
Ranma sighed. It was his favorite lunch, too. The uneaten bento contained six pieces of Nigiri-Saba with fresh pickled seaweed on top and a couple of good slices of Bluefin Toro to boot. Ranma bent down, picked up the bento and looked at it. "You spit in my lunch."
"Yeah, I think I did. What're you gonna do about it, WIMP?" Yutaka asked, guffawing at the sour expression on Ranma's face.
"Well, if you wanted a taste of it so badly, you should've ASKED!" Ranma yelled as he turned the bento sideways, front facing out, and slammed it into Yutaka's face. The contents of his lunchbox sprayed all over the thug, showering him with pieces of pickled mackerel, tuna and specks of rice.
"Oh shit!" Sato yelled as the violence erupted suddenly. He stood and backed away a couple of steps from the center of the battle.
Yutaka yelled in pain as the hard ridges of the plastic container met with his face, bending his nose until it threatened to break. He then landed on the grass on his rump; the force of Ranma's smite more than the bigger boy could withstand. He yelled again as Ranma threw the emptied bento at him. The box dinged off of the top of Yutaka's head and landed some distance away in the grass.
"You know, that rice suits you," Ranma commented. He pointed at the coating of fish and rice that covered Yutaka's head and shoulders and laughed.
"You'll pay for that, you asshole!" Yutaka bellowed. He made a move to get up, but paused when he saw the look in Ranma's eyes.
"If you want to keep your arms from being broken you'll keep your ugly ass on the turf, Garbage man!" Ranma warned. He brought his fists up in a defensive stance.
"I don't think so, wimp." Yutaka snickered at Ranma's stunned expression.
"What makes you think I won't?" he challenged, wondering what had the bully so bold all of a sudden.
"Uhh, Ranma?" Sato said softly off to his friend's side.
"Yeah, what is it, Sato?" Ranma asked, never taking his eyes off of Yutaka.
"I think... you'd better stop," he said in a strained voice.
The change in Sato's voice gave him pause. Ranma turned to look at his friend and was shocked at what he saw. One of Yutaka's thugs had appeared out of nowhere. He had Sato in his grasp with a knife blade held against his throat.
"I think WimpMaster is right," Yutaka said in a mocking tone. Ranma turned back to him and watched as he stood up and dusted his pants off. The bully nodded at something behind Ranma, causing him to turn around.
The Anything Goes student's eyes narrowed as he counted ten boys standing behind him. All of them wielded items that were capable of inflicting rather nasty amounts of damage, including several that were outright banned from the campus. Ranma put his arms down at his sides, realizing that he wouldn't be able to defend against all of them *and* keep Sato from being hurt or worse.
Yutaka nodded. "So you're not completely stupid." He walked over to Ranma got in his face. "Now about the mess on my shirt. I think someone's gonna have to clean it off for me."
Ranma sneered. "Like hell, you loser! I'll..."
"Ah-ah-ah! Be nice," the boy holding Sato chastised. The thug made his point literally by pressing the tip of the blade into the skin of Sato's throat. Ranma's friend winced in pain but didn't cry out, and sighed slightly in relief when the pressure relented. "You get the idea? Now try it again, wimp."
Ranma flushed with rage but held his ground. He was also somewhat relieved that Sato wasn't bleeding. "Okay! What do you want?"
"What I want is a piece of yer ass!" Yutaka snarled, backhanding Ranma's face as hard as he could.
Ranma felt the blow connect and experienced it from two points of view. On one side he felt the sharp *snap* of skin and bone colliding most painfully. He tasted blood in his mouth and temporarily lost sensation on the right side of his face. His 'other' perspective let him conclude that Yutaka had never taken any martial arts training. His method was pure street brawling, which suited Ranma just fine. He looked up and smirked at the puzzled expression on the older boy's face. Despite the fact that the blow was powerful enough to knock someone on the ground, Ranma remained on his feet. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and regarded Yutaka with a disappointed expression. "Is that it?"
Yutaka's jaw was slack. He stared at the shorter youth in silence for a moment as if he were reassessing Ranma. "You got lucky, wimp," he said finally, flexing his arms.
"Naah, that's not why," Ranma countered, wiping the back of his hand against his lip. It came away bloody, which only made him angrier. "The problem is that you hit like a pussy."
"WHAT?! I'm going to-" he didn't even finish his sentence as he leapt at Ranma. The agile youth avoided Yutaka's clumsy lunge and easily parried the follow-up haymaker that would've taken his head off had he truly been a novice at fighting. Ranma realized that Yutaka's goons were starting to close in on him and he was quickly running out of space to maneuver. He prepared for the next swing to be delivered when everything came to a screeching halt.
"HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" an adult voice shouted from a distance, causing Yutaka's crew to quickly pocket their weapons. The one with his knife to Sato's throat pulled the weapon away and shoved the boy to the ground before concealing the blade and stepping back. They all turned to walk away from Ranma in different directions before the teacher could get to them.
"You got lucky, Saotome," Yutaka sneered as he walked away. "Next time you'll get hurt a lot worse."
Ranma stood his ground as the bully walked away. He looked over to Sato, who was rubbing his throat and glaring at the departing crowd. "You okay, man?" he asked of his friend.
Sato nodded, still glowering at the person who'd been holding the knife. "Yeah, that asshole didn't cut me or anything. Still, I could've done without having live steel pushing against my neck." He rubbed the violated skin again. "What is UP with that guy, anyways? You know he's never acted like this before. Not around us, anyway."
"I have no idea, Sato." Ranma looked at the departing form of Yutaka. "But if he does it again, he won't know what hit him."
"What is it with you, Saotome?" the teacher huffed as he approached the two. "This is the third time this week that I've had to intervene in a fight involving you and someone from a higher grade."
"I-" Sato began, but stopped as the teacher interrupted him.
"And you're always here with him when these scuffles break out! Are the two of you initiating fights just because you love physical punishment?"
"But Yutaka started it!" Ranma shot back. "We didn't say anything to him."
"It doesn't matter. I've had it with you causing violence on the quad during lunch." He held up his hand to forestall any further protest from Ranma. "If you do it again, I'm writing you up." He pointed at Sato. "BOTH of you!" He stormed off, muttering something about 'overactive brats.'

*>

Ms. Yoshida tapped the manila folder again with a well-manicured fingernail. "It appears that you didn't take his advice, Ranma." She pulled a triplicate form out of the folder and placed it out for his inspection. "This is a write up of you and Sato yesterday after your fourth straight incidence of violence on campus."
"Well, it was a little different that time. It was Kuno's little harem of sword swingers instead of Yutaka. They just wouldn't let up," Ranma replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, those kendo goofs *needed* another lesson in pain management," he added with a smug grin.
"Why don't you just walk away from someone whenever he or she starts in on you?"
"It's not that simple. It's a matter of protecting my honor. Those bastards were stepping on it." He allowed a small grin. "So I had to step back harder."
"Is your honor more important than your academic standing?"
"In this case, yes it is. People respect you if you stand up for yourself and defend your honor. I'm probably going to teach martial arts when I grow up. How can I do that if I don't have my students' respect?"
Ms. Yoshida nodded at that and wrote a paragraph of notes on her pad. "And you think that your future students would not respect you for understanding when to fight and when not to fight?"
Ranma's eyes widened slightly at that. "Hey! I ... I *do* know when to fight and when not to fight, you know," he said weakly.
"Um hmmm," Ms Yoshida responded distractedly. His interrogator paused for a second as she perused her notes before asking him another question. "You and Sato have both mentioned a student with a knife during the fight on Wednesday. Do you remember who that person was?"
Ranma shook his head. "I don't know his name, but I do know that he was in Yutaka's little gang. I always saw him walking around with that fool. If you had a picture of them I'd be able to tell you which one it was."
Ms. Yoshida scribbled something down on her pad, then looked up at him again. "You two are the only ones who have ever seen someone brandishing a knife on school grounds. I'm afraid that I can't quite believe that accusation without a third person verifying it."
"But it's true!" Ranma spluttered.
"So you say," Ms. Yoshida countered. "You and your best friend. Not exactly a pair of unbiased witnesses. This all could be part of a smokescreen to hide the fact that when the pressure was on, you couldn't handle it during a fight."
Ranma recognized fighting words when he heard them. "Hey! What is it with you and your grudge against my skills? I'm not makin' any of this stuff up. Why're you givin' me such a hard time, anyways?"
"Frankly, Ranma, it's because the security here at the school is pretty reliable, meaning that weaponry would have to be smuggled in through rather elaborate means. Furthermore, it's the lack of unbiased witnesses." She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "In any event, it just means that if you want to prove to me that this person pulled a knife and threatened Sato's life, you're going to have to find someone more credible than yourself to come up and let the school know."
"Fine! I know I'm right and that's what matters most," Ranma spat. He crossed his arms and glared at his shoes.
"So what happened after Yutaka left?" Ms. Yoshida asked after another slight pause, hoping to get the investigation back on track.
Ranma calmed down and picked up where he'd left off. "After the teacher walked away, I told Sato that I had to go get something to eat. Since my lunch was ruined and I was starved, I went looking for a snack. I got something out of the vending machine and..." He stopped his train of thought, as he suddenly grew very uncomfortable. He occupied his time by staring at the desktop.
"And?" Ms. Yoshida prodded.
"And I saw Akane down the hallway," Ranma finished unwillingly.
"Oh? Was she alone?"
Ranma sighed, realizing that he couldn't avoid it. "No, she was talking to Kinuko."
"Ah! I was wondering when you would get to this," Ms. Yoshida exclaimed as she fished about for another manila folder. A few seconds later she found the right folder and then pulled out a small stack of paper. On the top of the stack was that official-looking form that she had examined earlier. Ranma craned his neck and squinted to get a better look at it. "Furinkan High School Disciplinary Action Form. Complainant(s): Amagi Kinuko. Defendant(s): Tendo Akane, Saotome Ranma." She placed the empty folder to the side and started scanning through the rest of the attached paperwork. "This is what you had asked me about earlier, Ranma."
"Oh, well I've never seen that before today," he said with a shrug.
"I'm a little surprised, Ranma. It has your name on it, after all. Everyone listed on the front of this form should have at least been notified that it was being filed for or against him or her." She wrote something down on her pad and then referred back to the form. "Well, I'll read some of this to you to see if it jogs your memory."
"Umm, okay. Dunno what good that'll do," Ranma commented, trying to sound disinterested.

<*

"I know, Ami-chan. I'll be right there," Kinuko Amagi said, smiling brightly. She gave her head a toss, her gorgeous blonde hair cascading down her head and perfectly framing her beautiful face.
"You're so cool, Kinuko," a nearby girl enthused, eyeing her enviously.
"Why thank you. I don't know why I always get such praise, though." She fanned her face with a hand. "I'm just a simple girl that happened to be born beautiful."
"I was wondering how you got your hair- Hey, look! There's Akane!" the girl said before wandering off in Akane Tendo's direction.
'Oh! That girl is always bothering me. Why doesn't she just learn to leave me alone?' Kinuko despaired as she glanced in her rival's direction. Tears began forming along her eyes, threatening to spill over and smudge her expertly placed makeup; especially the wild apricot silk blush that usually costs three thousand yen that she bought last weekend for a STEAL. 'Maybe if I go over there and talk to her, she will understand just how much she hurts me whenever she plays with my emotions,' Kinuko rationalized as she collected herself and dabbed daintily at her watery eyes with a tissue.
She walked over to where Akane was standing and hesitantly tapped the girl on her left shoulder. "Pardon me, Akane. May I talk to you for a moment?" Kinuko asked meekly.
"What do you want, you ugly troll?" Akane snapped, her left eye twitching violently. She glared at Kinuko relentlessly and crossed her arms over her flat chest while tapping her foot impatiently.
"Well, I was wondering if... that is, why you are chasing after my poor Ranma. Surely you know the strain that my beloved has been under." Kinuko nervously adjusted the straps on her school uniform and made sure that her immaculate pleats were properly aligned.
"Since you broke up with him, you mean?" the gorilla spat.
"Well, yes. Since that time we have reconciled and are once again the happy couple that we were always destined to be." Kinuko smiled at joyful notion of her life with her beloved Ranma. "Because he and I are indeed back together, I would appreciate it if you would stop your pursuit of him. I'm asking you nicely, since that is the only way I could possibly act."
"Ha! You lost your chance with him you whore! I may not have your fabulous looks, great fashion sense or high intelligence, but I will still take him from you!" Akane sneered, her plain face made to look even angrier by all the zits that covered both her cheeks. "I have always lost to you in the past, Kinuko, but not this time! Your beloved Ranma will soon be mine!" Akane laughed maniacally, her stringy long hair falling flat against her scalp and looking like it had not been washed in over a *week*!
"We may have had our differences in the past, but I implore you Akane; cease your destructive actions before my dearest Ranchan gets hurt." She sniffled, the tears from earlier threatening to resurface. "Can't you see that I love him with all my heart, and he loves me? He has even said so!"

*>

"I have NOT!" Ranma spluttered. "What kind of fantasy world is that dingbat living in?" He shuddered in revulsion.
"You deny having a past with Kinuko?" Ms. Yoshida queried.
"No, I don't deny that. She and I have dated before. But do I love her? Absolutely NOT!" Ranma shook his head rather violently and crossed his arms against his chest.
"Well, we'll get back to that in a moment. As I was just saying. . ."

<*

Akane raised her brutish arm and aimed it at the defenseless Kinuko. "If you don't turn around and walk away now I will slap your face and rip your shirt open," she snarled.
Kinuko looked down at the ground to avoid Akane's glare. She distracted herself by admiring the brand new Akira Fubuki black leather big sole shoes she bought yesterday, which were on sale for half price at Miss Paradise Shoe Market. "Please! I do not wish to start a fight with you, Akane. I do not resort to violence, nor to I like to make a scene. I am merely a peace-loving girl who is trying to do the right thing for her man. Surely you can understand that, can't you?"
"How can I understand that? If I understood that, I never would have left the side of the remarkable Tatewaki Kuno! I lost my opportunity with that fabulous man, so now I'm going to hurt you once again by taking your precious Ran-chan away from you!" She laughed maniacally again, something that came naturally to her.
"No, please! I could not bear to have my heart broken by such an evil woman. You should look at yourself, Akane. Look into the mirror and see the darkness that surrounds your soul. The only way for you to make yourself happy is to hurt others. Well, I won't allow you to hurt Ranma just to make yourself feel better." Kinuko balled her hands into fists, something she rarely did. "Just because you feel inadequate to me does not mean that I am to blame. I am only being myself and I never have asked you to compare yourself to me! You should just accept who you are and get on with your life. Quit torturing me and my Ranma!"
Akane made a move to slap Kinuko, but stopped as her beady little eyes caught sight of something in the distance. She lowered her arm to her side and smiled evilly. "Well, there's Mr. Handsome over there. Let's just see who he really wants," she growled as she headed in poor Ranma's direction. "Hey Stud! Wanna feel a real woman?" Akane crowed, grabbing her crotch lewdly through the green fabric of her uniform which had food stains *all over* it!
"Oh, hello Akane," Ranma said with obvious disinterest. He looked at her the same way he would a big ugly beetle crawling through trash on the ground at the park.
Kinuko had to walk briskly to keep up with the brutish girl, who obviously worked out with weights and used steroids. She barely managed to get to Ranma without wrinkling her outfit. She stopped, smiling shyly at him. "Hi, Ranma."
"Well hello there, you beautiful lady!" Ranma clasped his hands to his chest, a forlorn look on his face. "My heart has ached since our parting. For so long I have wanted to see your smiling face again. Now that you are here I can profess my undying love for you and settle once and for all this unkind contest between you and that dreadful Akane."

*>

"I NEVER SAID THAT!" Ranma protested loudly. Wide-eyed, he shot out of his seat and with a shaking hand pointing at the papers in Ms. Yoshida's grasp.
"Shh! I'm almost done," Ms. Yoshida replied, barely containing her mirth.
"But I never said that!" Ranma growled, resuming his seat reluctantly. "She's out of her mind! I don't even sound like that!"
"Anyway..."

<*

Akane put her fists on her stick-figure hips and glared at Kinuko. Then she put her books down on the ground between her bowed legs and reached up to adjust her training bra since it was probably pinching the folds of fat under her armpits. She picked her nose and then looked at Ranma with her nasty brown bloodshot eyes. "So which of us do you want?"
"I " Ranma began, but stopped. He attempted to stammer something, but was obviously overwhelmed by Akane's brutish manliness. "I- That is-"
"What?" an obviously dejected Akane replied. "You can't prefer that girl over me, Ranma. Sure, I have buck teeth, thick armpit hair, knobby knees and bad breath, but still I *have* to be a better choice for you, right?"
Kinuko looked sadly at Akane yet said nothing. 'I hate for her to see the truth in this fashion, but that girl must face reality,' she thought as the flabby has-been kept trying unsuccessfully to win Ranma's favor. Kinuko, however, was satisfied that she was the one he wanted. His silence was all of the vindication that she needed.

*>

"Oh, come ON!" Ranma said disgustedly.
"What's the matter, Ranma?"
"What's the matter, Ranma?" he mocked. He gave her a sour look. "You've *got* to be kidding me!"
"So you dispute this account?"
"Duh!"
"What is wrong with it?"
"Everything's wrong with it!" he snapped. "She's got it all backwards. I never even greeted Kinuko like that. I don't talk like that and I *surely* don't like her."
"Well, I do have to admit that the story seems to have a certain... slant to it," Ms. Yoshida conceded, barely concealing a smirk. "But it is interesting that you say that Kinuko has it all backwards."
Ranma swallowed hard at the look he was getting from her. "Wha- What do you mean?"
"I simply mean that here you are saying that Kinuko was wrong when she said that you chose her over Akane."
"Well... I just-" he began, but paused when the proper words failed him.
"Love her?" Ms. Yoshida completed.
Ranma backpedaled. "Huh?! Whattaya mean? I'm just sayin' that I didn't choose Kinuko."
"Which means that you chose Akane, right? Isn't that what you're trying to say?" Ms. Yoshida pushed.
"No-no-no!" He shook his head violently. "I didn't choose anything!"
"Ah," Ms. Yoshida replied, writing yet again on her legal pad. "So you're still up in the air about it."
Ranma stifled a scream and resisted the urge to pull out his hair in frustration. "What are you doing to me?" he demanded.
"Oh, come on now! Despite all of your protestations, you do seem awfully intent on Akane. Are you *sure* you don't love that girl, Ranma?"
Ranma growled. "Why is it important for you to know how I feel about her? What does it have to do with you? Are you jealous or something?"
Ms. Yoshida laughed heartily. "Sorry about this, Ranma, but you're just too young for me. Not to mention a bit too rough and tumble. I like my men with a bit more panache." She smiled at him. "To answer your question, I'm trying to learn more about what happened last night and understanding you is a key part of that."
"So what is it to you if I do like Akane?" Ranma ventured.
"Well, it would force me to narrow the way that I evaluate your behavior over the entire week. For example, I would have to say that everything that has happened this week was simply an attempt to win Akane's heart. I admit that such manly gestures would be an attention-getter. Specifically, your pursuit of martial arts would be a great way to enhance your chances with a girl like her, who was only recently betrothed to the most popular kendoist on campus."
Ranma showed her a hurt look. "Do you hate martial arts, Ms. Yoshida? I'd say so 'cos right now you are doin' a pretty good job of insulting it and me with that crap you're spewing. If you're doin' martial arts to get a girl's attention, you're doin' it for the wrong reason. *True* martial artists don't train for years just to win a girl's heart. They do it because it's a part of their life and they love doing it. Doin' martial arts makes me what I am."
She quirked an eyebrow and underlined something on her notepad. "What about this particular case, then? Just why exactly did you fight Kuno?"
"It was a matter of honor," Ranma said simply. "Whenever he'd say in public about ending his engagement to her if someone beat him in a fight, he shamed Akane. In other words he treated her like trash. I was offended by that so I decided to do something about it."
"Why do you care so much about Akane's honor? Also, how do you know so much about her situation, anyway?" Ms. Yoshida parried.
Ranma snorted and shook his head, growing tired of all the verbal sparring he was enduring. He ignored the first question and concentrated on the second. "Oh, it wasn't a secret, Ms. Yoshida. Everybody knew about that lame-ass challenge he made to all the guys at the school."
"And in that challenge you didn't even consider the possibility of going after Akane yourself-"
"Yes, okay! I admit that I was interested in Akane. She's different from all the other girls out there and I think she's cool because of it." Ranma exhaled loudly. "Well, except for my sis. Ranko and Akane are kinda similar, but I'm not gonna go out and date my sister."
"I wouldn't think so," Ms. Yoshida interjected.
Ranma continued. "But even though I was interested in Akane, I wasn't gonna just go fight Kuno and ask her out in the next instant or anything. At that time I was more concerned with defeating him than dating her."
"More concerned with defeating him?" She sighed and placed her pen down on her pad. "Once again you're placing a higher value on fighting than you do on anything else. You seem to be focusing primarily on combat, and it's making me wonder about how that has affected your temper and your tolerance of others. In the short time that we have spoken you have flown off the handle quite a bit. Your temper rages frequently and these complaints are a direct result of that."
"I already toldja, I'm not gonna let anyone push me around anymore! If they have to learn that the hard way, then oh well." Ranma ran his fingers through his hair, then rested his hands on his legs. "They don't have to keep coming after me, ya know?"
"Do you even understand the implications of all of these write ups being in your folder, Ranma?" Ms. Yoshida asked as she waved her hand over the stack. "And besides that, do you understand that in this reckless quest for glory you're dragging Sato down along with you?" She shot him an accusatory glare.
"Hey! What do you mean?"
"As always, I'm talking about what happened last night."
"My family training Sato had NOTHING to do with what happened last night." Ranma glared at her, thoroughly insulted.
"I'm not talking about the training that he's re