Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

"Jupiter Nova Bomb!!!" cried Sailor Jupiter. The massive sphere of lightning that gathered in her raised hand illuminated the night, casting an eerie blue-white light. She hurled the sphere like a baseball towards the slow moving yet powerful demon.

It never knew what hit it. One minute the demon was lumbering towards a group of frightened pedestrians who had taken cover in an alleyway, and in the next he was reduced to a smoldering pile of ash.

Jupiter gave herself a pat on the back. That was the third demon she'd destroyed in less than a week. Neither Mars nor Mercury had even had time to arrive and offer their assistance. She ducked into an abandoned coffee shop and transformed, exchanging the black and green bodysuit and its armor with her new Furinkan High School uniform. Well, from now on they would have to handle demons in Juuban. This time she'd gotten lucky, running across the attacking monstrosity after picking up the deposit for her old apartment. If she rushed she could still make it to her first day at a new school on time.

Ranma nearly screamed. It was his last year at Furinkan and his last in Tokyo if he could manage it. But, even though he'd graduated last year, at the front gates stood Kuno. New students nervously slipped past the arrogant kendoist in his traditional robes.

"I see that my appearance doth strike fear into your heart, Vile Saotome!" he called out in triumph. "Now, free my beloveds from your unholy grasp or I shall smite thee like the lowly worm that you are!!" From his right sleeve, Kuno pulled a short metal cylinder with strange symbols carved all along its surface. Holding it before him, he twisted the bottom, and a three-foot blade of yellow light sprang from the end. A low hum could be heard in the air, as if they were standing under high voltage power lines.

A lightsaber! The idiot had a Kami-forsaken lightsaber! "Jeez, Kuno, where'd ya get your new toy?" Ranma taunted.

"Silence! How dare you mock this most righteous blade, a gift from the gods! With its touch you will finally be scoured from the earth." With a wordless cry he launched himself at Ranma.

All the students, new and old, had put considerable distance between themselves and the soon-to-be combatants. One of them, though, rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet.

Makoto fought the desire to jump in and stop the fight. The Shakespearean reject with the magic sword couldn't be too skilled, but his attacker’s blade could really hurt the other boy, who was remarkably cute. If she got in a fight now, for whatever reason, her poor record could get her expelled before attending a single class; and by the time she could get away and transform into Jupiter the fight would be over. With no other option, Makoto stood with her classmates, readying herself to give first aid if necessary.

Her opinion of the swordsman and his opponent quickly changed. The boy moved faster than anything she had ever seen, becoming an unrecognizable blur as he avoided the sword. Even when the speed of his attacker increased the boy continued to weave himself around the killing blows. By now the fight had moved across the street and was interfering with traffic.

Growing tired of the old game, Ranma finally went on the offensive. Darting forward, he punched Kuno solidly in the gut, doubling him over and causing him to drop his light saber. Ranma bent down and retrieved the now-inactive metal cylinder. "Can't let you get ahold of this again," he told the retching Kuno. With a technique stolen from one of his many rivals, he slipped the cylinder up his sleeve where it disappeared.

Ranma left Kuno on the sidewalk and jumped across the street in one leap, then bounded across the courtyard in another, alighting on the windowsill of his classroom. Akane was already there, scowling at him. She must've come in during the fight. "What's your problem?" he asked hatefully. Akane wasn't his favorite person. In fact, she'd been near the bottom for over a year. Ryoga had attacked him in his sleep with a spiked mace, sending him to the hospital for nearly a week. It had taken that long for his broken leg to heal, not to mention the punctured lung and broken ribs. Then when the damned pig had shown up again and Ranma was about to kill him, Akane had jumped in and told him to 'Leave poor Ryoga alone. It was your fault, anyway!'. Their relationship had been in the gutters majorly after that. The fathers had only turned up the pressure a couple dozen notches after that on the whole marriage thing. And the other girls were still on their campaign to win him by any means necessary.

"Humph!" Akane snorted in response, not deigning to look at him any longer.

Ranma found a seat on the back row next to the window. Looking out and down into the courtyard, he watched as the last students hurried into the building. He caught a glimpse of a purple haired girl in a school uniform. Oh, Kami, no!

"Ranchan!" cheered Ukyou. She rushed across the classroom and down the aisle, claiming a seat next to her beloved.

Ranma hadn't even finished groaning when he heard, "Ranma, Shampoo here learn with you!" The bundle of Amazonian energy settled herself in the seat in front of Ranma.

Life sucked. At least it did for Ranma. He was intelligent (sorta), attractive, and could wield a few godlike powers that most people couldn't dream of, but when it came to women, he had the worst luck in the history of mankind. At least Kodachi had been dealt with. He had to thank Nabiki for that. The price was abhorrently high, but kinda… nice. He still couldn't figure out why she had wanted to do 'that' before going off to college.

Just before the late bell rang, a tall brown-haired girl walked into the classroom and took a seat in the front, next to Akane. Noticing Ranma looking at the new arrival, both Shampoo and Ukyou shot the back of her head such powerful glares that Ranma was surprised when she didn't drop dead. A few minutes later and after Hiroshi and Daisuke were sent into the hallway with buckets for being late, the teacher announced to the students, "Class, we have two new students this year. Makoto Kino, and an exchange student from China, Xian Pu. If you two would please stand and introduce yourselves to the class…"

"High, I'm Makoto and I look forward to getting to know you all."

"Hello, Shampoo glad to be in same class as Airen. Nobody better forget," Shampoo warned.

"Today I'll be going over what we'll be learning in the coming months…"

Makoto had walked slowly to her class after witnessing the fight. He couldn't be human. It was impossible. She couldn't even move that fast or jump that far and she was the most physically powerful of the Senshi, next to Haruka, but even she couldn't have matched this 'Ranma' that everyone was talking about. From all the conversations she heard in the hallway, he must be a legend.

The classes went by in a blur, the teachers' droning tone of voice becoming an unrecognizable buzz as she fought to stay awake. Finally the class was dismissed for lunch. Bento in hand, she set out to find a nice tree to eat her meal under. Maybe she could meet a few people, possibly even make some new friends.

"Ranma Saotome, Prepare To Die!!!"

Ranma rolled from his spot under the tree, sandwich still in his mouth, and kickupped to his feet. Ryoga was still carrying the mace around. A long shock of white hair and the missing top to his right ear was the only evidence of how close the lost boy had come to being lobotomized by the vacuum blade that Ranma had intended to kill him nearly a year before. "P-chan, it's so nice to see you."

Tearing his mace from the tree, which was now uprooted, it had become imbedded in Ryoga screamed, "Don't call me that!" From a large pouch at his side he pulled a number of hand sized metal disks. "Die!" Heedless of the students behind Ranma, Ryoga threw the handful of razor sharp disks at his hated foe.

"You damned idiot," Ranma cursed while catching the projectiles within his reach and reducing the ones that he couldn't to lumps of slag with bursts of super heated chi. Ranma returned the weapons to Ryoga at amaguriken speed, slicing two parallel lines in both sides of his face.

Ryoga ignored the minor damage and closed the distance between himself and Ranma. He swung the heavy mace, now glowing yellow and green with chi, with a rabid ferocity, uprooting another tree, halving two, and creating no less than three new gates in the school's outer wall.

Ranma continued to dodge the deadly weapon until he was sure that no one would be injured by his next attack. When the opportunity presented itself he called, "Kijin Raishu Dan," and launched two vacuum blades, one after the other. The first impacted against the chi aura that surrounded the mace causing it to disperse. The second sliced through the unprotected steel at the handle, leaving Ryoga with only a handle.

Without pause, Ryoga threw the useless handle to the ground and unholstered his umbrella. The renewed assault once again had Ranma dodging the blows that would have liquefied a normal man.

Ranma soon grew bored and began to let his guard down. The dagger that nearly imbedded itself in his throat brought him back to full diligence. It seemed that Ryoga was even more determined than usual to kill him. He heard a scream from behind him and saw that Ryoga's dagger was sticking in a girl's thigh to the hilt. His momentary inattention was all that Ryoga needed, allowing him to slam his umbrella into Ranma's shoulder. Ranma flew like a rag doll into one of the few remaining trees. He got to his feet a few seconds later and just managed to avoid another volley of metal disks. Unsteadily, he leapt into the air, alighting on one of the gates.

Ryoga sneered at Ranma, thinking that he was on the retreat. With all of his anger and depression to draw from, Ryoga formed a sickly green sphere of chi in his cupped hands. Thrusting his arms forward, he cried out, "Shi shi hokodan!" The sphere powered towards Ranma, driven by a beam of chi.

Ranma couldn't keep the smirk from his face, Ryoga was just too predictable. Another leap carried him over the attack and high into the air. When Ranma was directly above Ryoga he used his battle aura and some clever movement to stop his arc. Now falling straight towards Ryoga, he poured chi into his extended foot. "Meteor kick!" Ranma's attack drove Ryoga into the ground and created a thirty-foot crater. Another successful victory without endangering noncombatants.

Makoto couldn't bring herself to close her mouth. It just wouldn't shut. She had been in fights before. Mostly with demons and other assorted monsters, but a few humans too. Most of the students treated the fight like any other school yard fight, ignoring the ridiculous amounts of damage being done to the area, the inhuman speed and strength of the fighters, and the casual use of energy attacks. What were they anyway? They certainly weren't magic, she would've known. Two girls in particular had caught her attention.

"Wow, Ryoga's really trying hard this time," the girl with the giant spatula across her back had said.

"Pig Boy too stupid to know he no can win against Airen," added the purple-haired Chinese girl.

"Do you think we should help Ranchan? I wouldn't want him to get hurt." She unsheathed her spatula and held it as if it were weightless.

The Chinese girl, Shampoo, that was her name, pulled two heavy looking wooden handled mace things from nowhere. "Pig Boy better no hurt Airen, or Shampoo kill."

When Ranma plowed Ryoga into the ground, Makoto had had to shield her eyes from the dust and debris that was thrown into the air. She really wished that Ami were around, she could've figured out what was going on easily.

Ranma rushed the crying and bleeding girl to the infirmary. Someone had already run off to call the paramedics. When he barged into the small room the nurse on duty turned white as a sheet and fainted. Leave it to Furinkan to hire a nurse that was scared of blood.

"It hurts," sobbed the girl.

"Um, don't worry. I'll take care of you until the ambulance gets here." Ranma hit several pressure points along her hip and upper thigh, restricting blood flowed to a trickle of its normal pace. The wound stopped bleeding almost immediately. With that done, Ranma pulled the blade free so fast that his patient didn't even know what was happening until he threw the dagger into the trashcan.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," she said wonderingly. She did wince when Ranma taped a wad of gauze onto the wound.

"I used some pressure points to cut off the blood to your leg. It'll wear off in a few minutes, so make sure to tell the doctors."

"Are you really Ranma?" the girl asked breaking the silence that had enveloped the room.

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"I can't believe that 'the' Ranma just saved my life," she said with little hearts in her eyes, ignoring Ranma's question.

Ranma nervously backed away from the dumbstruck girl. He knew that look and it wasn't good. Right after backing out the open door, a pair of men with large bags rushed into the room.

Ranma walked into his classroom ready to tell the teacher why he was late, but he found that the room was empty. He heard a commotion from outside and went to the window only to see a number of police officers digging Ryoga from his pit. Ranma opened the window and jumped from the sill to the crater edge.

"Back away from the crime scene, young man," ordered one of the policemen.

"Crime scene? This is where he," he pointed to Ryoga, "tried to kill me."

"Were you involved in the fight?"

"Yeah. He tried to kill me. I defended myself," he explained as if talking to a child.

The policeman regarded Ranma flatly, then said, "We'll need to take a statement. We would also appreciate it if you could tell us where all his explosives are, if there's any left that is."

"Sure, but there aren't any explosives." It took nearly half an hour to answer all the questions they asked him. Walking into class a second time, Ranma was met with a round of applause.

He had to endure the trip across the room while being congratulated by the entire class. The trend changed when he actually reached his seat.

"What were you doing with that girl?" demanded Ukyou. She idly twirled a spatula shuriken.

"Bad, bad thing happen to unfaithful Amazon husband," She mimicked Ukyou's handwork, but with a small knife that she slipped into a hidden sheath in her sleeve.

Ranma gawked at them. How could they be so oblivious? She had been badly injured and bleeding. What did they expect of him? Probably to let her die rather than touching her. "I'm gonna pretend you two didn't even say anything."

They shared a look and turned a much fiercer one on Ranma. "Ranchan, don't make us tell you ag-"

"Shut up!" he whispered. "Just shut up and leave me alone!"

Ukyou jerked back as if he had slapped her, looking hurt. Shampoo had a smug grin plastered across her face. "Spatula girl leave Ranma alone. Shampoo take care of him."

He turned to Shampoo. "You too. Be quiet and leave me alone." Ranma was pleased to see that the Amazon sported the same hurt look. They needed some sense knocked into them.

"I can't believe that jerk picking on Ryoga-kun that way! Who does he think he is?" Akane said. Her battle aura wasn't quite visible to the naked eye, but it was close.

"Who are you talking about?" Makoto asked the girl next to her. Surely she wasn't talking about Ranma.

Akane answered, "Ranma, of course. He's always picking fights with Ryoga."

"The same Ryoga that almost killed that freshman with the knife?" she returned defensively.

"If Ranma wasn't so mean to him, he wouldn't have done that. Besides, he shouldn't have dodged it," answered the shorthaired girl matter-of-factly.

Makoto was beginning to seriously consider finding a new place to sit, a place far from the delusional girl. "How do you know Ranma?"

"He's my fiancé."

Makoto's head made a resounding thump on her desk. How in the world could she be engaged to somebody she so obviously hates?

"It's an arranged marriage. I would never be like one of his other fiancées, always fawning over him. Damned baka hentai."

Other fiancées? What kind of rabbit hole had she fallen through? "Other fiancées? He's got more than one?"

Akane laughed bitterly. "There's Ukyou. She's the one with the spatula. Shampoo is the Chinese bimbo. And Kodachi who isn't here, but you probably saw her brother trying to kill Ranma with the sword this morning."

Maybe he was a hentai. She had said that her marriage was arranged, though, maybe the others were as well. "Are they arranged marriages also?"

Another laugh. "Ukyou is. He has to marry Shampoo because he beat her in a fight, and Kodachi has an arrangement with his father, so that makes her one too."

Makoto refrained from saying that Ranma may not be a pervert; that he just had bad luck, but she doubted the girl would care what she said. She nodded agreement and began paying attention to the teacher who was ignoring the fact that no one was paying attention.

Makoto was in her new apartment after school when her wrist communicator began beeping. Turning it on revealed Ami. "Ami-chan, I miss you already."

Ami grinned and asked, "Do you miss us enough to let us come over and see your new place?"

"Sure, come on over!" she enthused. "I'll have some brownies baked. Tell Artemis and Luna I'll have them a bowl of cream and some tuna."

"That's great, Mako-chan. We'll be there in an hour." The tiny screen went blank.

It was closer to an hour and fifteen minutes, but Makoto didn't care. Rei and Ami were the only other Senshi, beside herself, still alive— something that they never talked about— and her only friends. Rei still had her long black hair in a tight braid and Ami's bluish-black still brushed against her shoulders. She laughed at herself. Of course they hadn't changed. It had only been two days since she last saw them.

"Wow, this place is a lot bigger than your other one," Rei said. "She gently sat a duffel bag on a nearby couch. A very pregnant Luna ambled out, complaining about the ride. Artemis jumped up to her and began teasing her about being fat. He earned a catty-slap for his trouble.

"I was joking, honest," he whined, holding his nose with a paw.

The girls ignored the cats as they began arguing with each other.

"You guys won't believe what I saw today." Makoto waited until the two girls demanded playfully to be told. "As soon as I got to school this guy with a lightsaber like in that movie attacked this other guy. They moved so fast, especially the other Ranma. That's the guy who got attacked. Then Ranma took Kuno, that's the guy with the sword, down with one hit. Then at lunch this guy named Ryoga attacked Ranma. Ryoga was knocking over trees and stuff trying to crush Ranma with a huge mace. Ranma used some kinda energy blade to destroy it…" she continued telling them of her entire day, "…and he has four fiancées."

When it was over Ami leaned forward and laid the back of her hand against Makoto's head. "Are you feeling all right, Mako-chan?"

"You don't believe me?" she returned in shock.

"No we believe you. It's just that we've never heard you talk about a boy so much without being in love with him. Does he look like your old sempai, too?" answered Rei.

"That is weird, isn't it? I guess I just sensed that he was taken or something, but you're right, he does look like my old sempai."

"Are you sure that he isn't evil?" Luna asked. Artemis was dealt with; now she wanted to get back into the role she was meant for.

"Pretty much. Everybody I talked to seemed to know about Ranma. He's a legend. I'm not even going to tell you all the stuff I heard about him, you'd laugh for the rest of the night. From what they told me, though, today was pretty much a standard day at Furinkan, except with less fighting."

"Goodness, out of the fire and into the frying pan." Ami shook her head in mock disapproval.

"I did not tell them to sit with me!" bellowed Ranma. Akane was currently trying to tenderize him with her mallet.

"Don't lie to me! I saw it all. And I still haven't punished you for picking on Ryoga. Get back here!" She followed him around a corner only to find him gone.

Ranma had used the umisenken to sneak out of the house and was now at the Nekohanten for his daily lessons. Surprisingly, it was these times that were the most peaceful for Ranma. Cologne had forbidden Shampoo and Mousse from bothering him during the sessions where she taught him how to better control his chi. She had extended that rule to all his suitors and rivals after the third visit from Kodachi.

"Be cautious Son-in-law. There is powerful magic in Nerima," Cologne warned him almost as soon as he stepped into the lot behind the restaurant.

Ranma shrugged it off. "Why don't you show me how to sense magic? That way I could avoid it."

She shook her shriveled head. "Not until you master the elemental chi abilities."

"Okay, so what is it today? I don't have to make a yard gnome dance again, do I?" The elemental chi abilities as she called them were extraordinary and very powerful, but the training was the most unorthodox of any he'd ever undertaken.

"Not today." She waved her staff at a large tub of water. "You've got to turn that into an ice sculpture of me using only your feet."

When he finally stopped laughing, thinks to a considerable number of hits to the head, Ranma managed to ask how he was supposed to carry out his task.

"This is one of the harder abilities to master. You'll have to use cold chi to freeze the water while using heavy chi to hold the water in the proper shape. Holding the shape is the hard part."

"No crap," he said sarcastically. "Ow!" Rubbing his head, he took off his slippers and dived head first into his work. Not literally.

"No, no, no," she chided impatiently. Over an hour of indiscriminate lumps of ice had given Ranma plenty of practice manipulating hot chi, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. "Hold it in place and freeze it slowly."

"Well, could I at least put my feet in the water? It's hard controlling the chi through the metal." Not to mention that he was beginning to cramp up from not moving in so much time.

"No, you may not. Now, I've got to go help Shampoo get ready for the dinner rush. When I get back, I want a passable likeness of me or you'll have to make it twice as big." Cologne hopped off leaving Ranma alone.

He could forge a sword from a lump of metal without touching it, make the earth open up under someone and swallow them, and any number of other things. Even float in mid-air. Cologne insisted that it would go no further than that, but he was determined to learn to fly. But control of water eluded him, his skill being only rudimentary. She had told him when he began the training that if he learned to control water well enough that he would be able to heal people of minor wounds like he automatically had been doing to himself for years.

"Can Shampoo take Airen something to drink, great-grandmother?" Shampoo asked sweetly. That the water was spiked she forgot to mention.

"For the last time, no. As repayment for you destroying his wedding, I promised him that I would no longer interfere with his life. Since then, Son-in-law has become an almost respectful student and is learning at a rate that will leave me with nothing to teach him in only a matter of months. I won't let you ruin the trust he has in me."

"But great-grandmother," she whined, “you no be interfering. Shampoo just being nice to Airen."

"And where will he think the love potion mixed in with the water came from?"

How had she found out? "Okay, great-grandmother. Shampoo sorry."

Hearing the bell ring, Cologne went to greet the early customers… and very nearly blasted them from existence. From the three harmless-looking girls, two of whom had some martial arts training, radiated huge magical auras. Fire around the long black-haired girl, water from her shorter companion, and lightning around the tall brown-haired girl. "Welcome to the Nekohanten. My waitress is currently indisposed, but she'll be out in a minute." Only the fact that none of them carried any malevolent intent in their hearts saved them.

Makoto nearly reached for her henshin rod when the withered old woman hopped in front of them, thinking that she was a demon or youma, maybe even a troll. When she welcomed them to her restaurant she calmed considerably.

"I heard that this place is really great," she told her two friends.

"They don't really serve cats here, do they?" Artemis asked from his and Luna's carry bag.

"No, silly, that's just a name." Ami giggled, reaching down and scratching the cat's head.

"Yeah, dummy, have a little common sense," berated Luna.

Ami leaned across the table and whispered to the other two girls, "Poor Artemis. Luna sure is being mean to him."

"I think it’s because she's pregnant and he's not," commented Rei.

They were interrupted by a, "Welcome to Nekohanten, Shampoo take your order."

"Hey, Shampoo," greeted Makoto.

"Mako-chan, who your friends?"

"She's Ami, and this is Rei. Girls, this is Shampoo, one of Ranma's fiancées."

Shampoo squealed in delight. She loved talking about her Airen and since Makoto hadn't shown any interest in him earlier she could really cut loose. "Ranma so strong fighter. Don't you think so, Mako-chan?"

"The best I've ever seen."

"Airen too, too handsome, too," she added.

Makoto nodded. "Shampoo, you saw the fight today and know Ranma. Can you tell us how him and Ryoga did all that stuff?"

"Airen and stupid Pig-boy train very, very hard in martial arts. They learn to control their chi years ago, much better than Shampoo."

It couldn't really all be martial arts, but she still asked, "Can you do anything like they did?"

"Great-grandmother teach Shampoo many simple things, but Shampoo learn this one on her own." Shampoo held her hands a few inches apart and concentrated. A few seconds later a pinkish purple light began to form between them, eventually forming into a fist sized ball.

"Shampoo!"

"Aiyah," she jumped in surprise and lost her focus, causing the ball to disappear.

"Why didn't you tell me you had begun mastering your chi?" Cologne asked her after hopping across the room.

"Shampoo wanted to surprise great-grandmother." She smiled.

Cologne smiled widely. "I'm very proud of you— but that doesn't excuse you from your duties."

"Shampoo talking to new friend Mako-chan and forgot, sorry."

"Don't worry child, I'm not upset. Just take their orders and you can talk while they eat." She hopped back into the kitchen.

Makoto and the other girls ordered their ramen and waited for Shampoo to return.

"That was unusual," Rei said when they were alone.

"She's nice," Ami added.

"Yeah, she is, but did you see what she did? How did she do it, Ami?" Makoto asked.

"I can answer that," said Rei. "Sorta. When I do my fire readings I use a small amount of chi. I can't imagine how much a person would need or how well they would need to control it, but that was chi, I felt it."

"That old woman, Shampoo's great-grandmother, do you think she could teach us how to use our chi?"

"I don't think so, Ami. It took years for me to manipulate a small amount. Shampoo and Ranma must've devoted their whole lives to mastering their chi. Grandfather couldn't even come close to what I saw her do, and he's older than dirt."

Shampoo arrived with a bowl of steaming ramen in each hand, and one balanced on her head. With a flurry of motion she had each bowl sitting in front of its proper customer. Then Shampoo hurried back into the kitchen to return a few seconds later with their tea. Once they were served, she sat in the empty place beside Ami.

"Sorry Shampoo took so long. Shampoo watching Ranma practice behind Nekohanten."

"That's okay," Makoto said between mouthfuls of noodles.

The girls spent the rest of the time before the dinner crowd came in talking about Ranma and other weird stuff that happens in Nerima.

Cologne didn't know what to think about Shampoo befriending one of the strange girls, but set that problem aside in favor of planning out how to better train her great-granddaughter. She hopped into the back expecting to see a more presentable, but still un-passable lump of ice. Cologne was surprised, however, to see that not only had Ranma made a near perfect copy of her right down to the wrinkles, he had also made a copy of Happosai. The really bad part was that the two ice figurines were locked together in a passionate kiss. Ranma was nowhere to be seen. Well, she'd find out just how much he liked the advanced bakusai tenketsu training tomorrow.

To be continued.

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: May 21, 2007