Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sound Hearts ❯ Chapter 1

[ A - All Readers ]

Author's Notes

Hi everybody! I just wanted to clear up some things. First of
all, Ranma and Hotaru are 15 in here. I've noticed that most fanfics put
Hotaru as pretty young around the S season, but I honestly believe she
is around this age.

Also, this, my third fanfic, is the first that I consider
anywhere near good. *Waves a hand across your eyes and says, "You will
love this fanfic..."* Enjoy!


-KaosQu
kaosqu@hotmail.com


Sound Hearts
A Ranma 1/2/Sailormoon S crossover fanfiction
By KaosQu

Chapter 1


Ranma and Genma Saotome entered the small apartment and threw
their packs on the floor. It was a small place. A very small place. One
main room, with a kitchen and a bathroom attached. Ranma didn't know how
his old man had gotten a hold of the place and he didn't care. It would
be nice to be living under a roof for a while.

The young martial artist loved traveling, but it got, as with
most good things, tiresome after a while. Especially after, what? Nine
years of it? Ranma sighed. Had it really been that long since he had
left? Since he had last seen his mother? Ranma shook his head to clear
his thoughts. The old man was saying something.

"You'd better appreciate this boy," Genma said, waving a hand
around the room casually. "You have no idea what troubles I endured to
get us this place."

Ranma shrugged. "Whatever." Pops said something like that every-
time he did something even remotely useful. "So what're we settling down
for?" Ranma was a LITTLE curious as to why Genma had suddenly decided to
halt their training journey.

"Hmph. We're not settling down," Genma replied. "We're just...
postponing our travels temporarily."

"What the heck for?"

"First of all, you need to go back to school," Genma answered.

"School?" Ranma said incredulously. "I haven't in been to school
in god knows how long!"

"Which is why you're going back now." Genma said simply.

"B-but why?!" Ranma sputtered. "I thought we were just going to
train in the Art!"

"A true martial artist must have a sound mind as well as a sound
body," Genma replied knowingly. "You're going to have a lot of catching
up to do in school, boy."

"So what's YOUR excuse?" Ranma demanded, poking Genma in the
belly. "You don't have neither."

"We're talking about you, boy!" Genma replied, pushing Ranma's
hand away.

Ranma muttered something and walked to the other side of the
room; which wasn't all that far away.

"You're sulking about this, boy?" Genma taunted. He knew exactly
what buttons to push to get Ranma worked up. "Why, oh why am I cursed
with such a weakling for a son?" Genma dramatically turned his head sky-
wards and stared at the ceiling. "My own son is being cowed by..." Genma
pretended to shudder. "School."

The results were instantaneous. "What?!" Ranma shouted. "No way
am I gonna let some stupid thing like school bother me! You just watch,
old man, I'll even catch up with the other kids!"

Genma crossed his arms and snorted. "We'll see boy." Genma
waited a moment for Ranma to calm down before speaking again. "Well
Ranma, you just wander around and get to know this place, school starts
tomorrow so you may want to go to a library or some such thing. I'm
going to go... buy you a uniform, here's a key to the door." Genma
tossed a small metal key at Ranma and quickly disappeared from the room
before anything else could be said.

Ranma watched the empty doorframe for a while, fingering the
small key. He eventually closed the door and then walked over to an open
window. <Not like I'll need it.> Ranma thought, pocketing away the key.
Ranma looked out the window and down to the alley below. Third floor. It
was a little higher than he was used to, but no problem. With that last
thought, Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial
Arts leapt out the window.

Somewhere not too far away, a young girl with shoulder-length black
hair coughed one more violent cough and collapsed onto her bed. <Another
seizure...> She curled up and felt tears coming to her eyes. The sei-
zures, her loneliness... everything... Almost everything was wrong with
her life...

After laying in the fetal position for a few more minutes, eyes
shut tight, she slowly sat up. She needed to go outside. She'd been even
more depressed than usual, lately. So thinking, Hotaru Tomoe got off her
bed and left her dim room.


Ranma glanced around as he walked the streets of Juuban, commit-
ting his memory to remember the way... home. Ranma smiled slightly. It
would be a nice to have a place to call home; even if it wasn't much.
Even if he'd probably be gone before too long. He'd been getting tired
of calling he and Genma's beat-up old tent "home".

Ranma turned a corner, taking in everything in and getting a
feel for the place called Juuban. After a while, however, he noticed
that his arm was starting to get irritated. Gritting his teeth in
annoyance, he tore off his black armbands and pocketed it. Maybe he
should've stuck with the white Gi and pants instead of the sleeveless
red Chinese shirt, black pants and armbands. But he decided that he had
enough of looking like his father and managed to scrounge up enough
money to get the shirt. He could only afford the sleeveless one, however
and so got a hold of the armbands. It had worked out fine. For awhile.
It got cold sometimes, and his armbands were too small. <Well, since the
old man says we're gonna be staying here for awhile, I guess I could get
a job or something. I really need some new clothes.> Ranma thought about
it for a second more, which was rather unusual for him. He really had
better things to do than get a job. <Maybe I should just wear that
uniform Pop's getting me.>

Ranma mused about his clothing predicament for awhile more,
barely paying attention to his surroundings as he walked around Juuban,
the sun slowly setting.

After a long while of wandering, Ranma snapped out of his
thoughts when he realized that it was getting cold and that he still
hadn't decided what to do about his clothes. <It's dark already?!> Ranma
thought in surprise. <Geez, I'm glad the Old Man didn't see catch like
this. I left one hell of an opening.>

Ranma stopped walking and took a look around to see where he
was. It was dark now and there was only a little moonlight and some
street lamps to illuminate the way. There was nobody else around in
sight and Ranma guessed that he was in some kind of Park. "Well," Ranma
said to himself. "Guess I should be heading back." Ranma turned around
and was about to head off when he suddenly had a change of heart. "It's
a nice night," Ranma mused. "I'll just take a little walk." So Ranma
turned back around and headed deeper into the park, whistling a cheerful
tune.


Hotaru fell to the ground as the brown-haired boy pushed her to
the ground. She had just been walking around her favorite park, enjoying
the cool night air and, for awhile, forgetting about her lonely life,
when this group of boys had seen her and started calling her names. She
had felt tears coming to her eyes and turned away, when this boy had
pushed her down.

"You freak!" one of the boys shouted.

"You're some kinda witch!" another accused. This one, she recog-
nized seeing somewhere in her school.

Hotaru crawled backwards, afraid. They had always been scared of
her, and called her names, but they had never done THIS before! Then she
felt it. She could feel another seizure coming up. <Not now! I-I need
to, to run away!> But she knew that even if she were fresh, she still
wouldn't get too far with running.

Gage cracked his knuckles and smiled. <We've been afraid of her
long enough, now she's the one who's gonna get hurt.>


Ranma stopped whistling and glanced around cautiously when he
heard something. Voices. Normally, he wouldn't have paid much attention
to something like that, but it was just so out of place from the quiet
he had enjoyed for the past ten minutes or so. Also he felt something
else. A dark wave of... power. The average person wouldn't have noticed
it, but Ranma was a martial artist. And a pretty damn good one too.
Using some of the sneaking skills that Genma had taught him,("You'll
find It very useful one day, boy. I know I have.") Ranma silently melted
into the many shadows and, very quietly, headed towards the voices.

Ranma peeked out from behind a bush after he had reached the
voices and grit his teeth in anger. He saw six guys around his age, some
with baseball bats, calling some black-haired girl names. Then a par-
ticularly big guy pushed the girl down and cracked his knuckles. <How
can they pick on a poor girl like that!? And a cute one, too!> Ranma
gave himself a mental smack to his head. <This is no time to be thinking
like that!>

Ranma was about to leap in to help the girl when he noticed
something. Something only keen eyesight like his could see. Even the guy
in front of the girl probably couldn't see. Ranma could tell that the
girl was about to cry. That was the last straw. He had been considering
using strategy to take out the punks quickly and with minimum force, but
now he didn't care how much pain the guys would be in.

Leaping into the air, Ranma sent a flying kick into one of the
boys head, sending him down hard. He was bleeding, but it wasn't any-
thing TOO serious.

The boy's cry of pain before he passed out, however, alerted the
others to Ranma's presence. Not that it would make any difference on the
outcome of the battle whether or not the guys were facing him. Ranma
absently noticed the girl staring at him as someone shouted out some-
thing that sent the rest of the boys advancing on Ranma.

Hotaru could feel something strangely familiar stirring inside
of her as the boy named Gage stepped forward. She crawled backwards,
feeling tears come to her eyes. Tears that never fell because she saw
something. The red figure of a young boy about her age flying at one of
the boys in the back and sending him to the ground with a kick. Before
she could feel surprised, the other boys had turned around and were
advancing on her savior. Then, though Hotaru didn't notice, the seizure
that had been coming suddenly disappeared.

"You're gonna pay for hurting my pal!" one of the boys cried.

"Ya shouldn't be picking on girls," Ranma replied, quickly
assessing the remaining five boys. Ranma then dropped into a loose
stance and smirked. <Too easy.>

First, the two stronger guys ran up to Ranma, one of them wielding a
bat. Ducking under a wild swing, Ranma twisted slightly and sent three
rapid punches into the other boy and, just as he finished his last
punch, sweep kicked him down and flipped over his body.

A bat was swung at Ranma again just as he landed. Noticing the
shift in shadows and the whistling of air behind him with his keen sen-
ses, Ranma reacted instinctively and shot out with his left hand, grab-
bing the wooden weapon as it flew towards his right side. It stung a
little, but he knew that the pain would be gone in less than half-a-
minute. In fact, the only reason he noticed it at all was the thought
that that weapon might have been used on that poor girl watching him. A
flash of anger and Ranma pulled hard, throwing both bat and stubborn
wielder into a conveniently placed tree.

Gage grit his teeth as two of his friends went down. But there
was still him and his other two friends. Without even a gesture, he
rushed forward, his remaining companions right by him

Ranma jumped up about five feet over a bat swing and landed on
the smart-looking kid's head, sending him down into the ground
unconscious. He then turned his attention to his other two opponents.
The one who looked like he knew martial arts tried to roundhouse him.
That was about the second most basic kick in martial arts and wasn't
executed that great or fast either. And as such, Ranma easily caught it
and sent the boy flying onto one of the unconscious kids as he caught a
punch from Gage. Ranma felt a particular distaste towards that kid as he
had been the one who had been threatening Hotaru.

Ranma caught another fist that was swung at him and slowly
applied pressure to both of his opponents fist. Gage clenched his teeth
and tried to push Ranma away. What the guy didn't know was that Ranma
was strong enough to break concrete. That meant Ranma didn't even break
a sweat as he stood his ground.

"Why were you picking on her?" Ranma demanded. Anybody who
picked on girls better had a pretty damn good reason in Ranma's book.
Something along the lines of 'She's a psychotic alien cat-monster in
disguise, bent on the total destruction of the world!' And Ranma
sincerely doubted the boy before him had a good excuse like that.

Gage said nothing and just tried to push harder. Ranma rolled
his eyes. The guy just didn't know when to give up. Reminded him of
himself, actually... Well, he'd just have to learn the hard way. Then he
heard the swing of a bat from behind him.

Reacting instinctively, Ranma pushed off into the air until he
was upside down, parallel with Gage. That all happened in about a
quarter of a second. That meant that the bat that was swung hit Ranma's
foundation by the time he was up there.

Quickly letting go of his now unconscious support, Ranma
propelled through the air. Of course, as he hadn't gotten that much of a
boost when he let go, Ranma landed rather awkwardly and scraped his arm.
He'd taken a hell of a lot worse in his short fifteen years and just
ignored the 'scratch'. A quick glance at the guy who had swung at him
showed that he was on the ground, unconscious. Probably knocked out when
the other guy fell on top of him.

"Great," Ranma muttered to himself, absently touching the
scrape. "That's what I get for underestimating the thickness of his
head." Then Ranma turned to the girl he had rescued in "You alright?" he
asked worriedly, walking up to the staring girl. The 'scratch' was more
injury to his pride than anything. The girl was more important; she was
the whole reason he was here in the first place.

"F-fine." Hotaru answered, getting up to her feet. "T-thank you
for helping me."

"No problem," Ranma replied casually.

Then Hotaru noticed that Ranma had a scrape on his arm. He had
gotten hurt helping her! She suddenly felt very guilty. "You're
injured!"

"This?" Ranma asked, raising up his arm and glancing at it.
"It's nothing, should be gone by tomorrow." He said, unconcerned.

"Tomorrow?" Hotaru asked doubtfully, momentarily forgetting her
worry for her savior.


"I heal fast." Ranma shrugged.

<Heal fast or not...> Hotaru thought. <I'm going to help him.>
"Here," Hotaru said, reaching out to the wound. "Let me help you."

Ranma stood still, his right arm still outstretched. For some
reason, he trusted the girl like... like he had never trusted anyone
before. It just felt... right to do so. Besides. He had rescued her,
so she probably wouldn't do anything weird to him. "Um, sure. Whatever."

Cupping her right hand over the wound, Hotaru concentrated on
her gift and a pink light burst out form the outstretched hand, covering
the scrape, healing it over in a matter of seconds until there was
nothing but healthy skin left. Once the light disappeared, Hotaru
withdrew her hand and looked at Ranma expectantly, waiting to see what
his reaction would be. Everyone else had shunned her.

Ranma stared in a bit of awe as his scrape disappeared and,
after the girl retracted her hand, reached out and touched the spot
where the scrape had been. It was a was a little warm, but there was
nothing there. Not even a trace of the wound. Even his fast healing
couldn't do that in a matter of seconds! "Wow... what did you do?" he
asked.

"It's a gift I have." Hotaru replied, happy that she could help
him and that he didn't seem to be scared of her. Then her face suddenly
became despondent. "All of my classmates are scared of me because of it.
They won't even talk to me and now, this." Hotaru gestured to the six
unconscious boys lying on the ground.

Ranma looked surprised. "Well, they're all idiots." He said
confidently. "You're lucky to be able to do something cool as that."

Hotaru seemed uncertain for a moment. "Y-you aren't scared of
it?"

Ranma scratched his head in a bit of confusion. "Eh? Why should
I be scared of something like that?" he wondered. "I ain't scared of
nuthin', 'specially not something that helps me."

"Really, you don't think it's... strange?"

"Well, yeah, it is kinda weird that you can... uh... do whatever
you did, but so what?" Ranma was starting to get confused. It was almost
like the girl wanted him to be afraid of her or something. But that was
stupid, he wasn't afraid of anything. Especially not a girl, even if she
could do little magical, pink light-show thingies.

"R-really? Y-you don't think it's...bad?" Hotaru asked, daring
to hope that she had finally found someone who wasn't afraid of her.

"Yeah, sure," Ranma replied, wondering why the girl was asking
such a stupid question. He was a martial artist and would have been
ecstatic to have been able to heal himself after all those injuries he
sustained from his training. "Actually, I wish I could do that too."
Ranma's mind suddenly started turning. Maybe he could do it? Maybe it
was some weird martial arts like technique he could learn. No, she had
said it was a gift or something like that. He was distracted from his
train of thoughts however, when he caught sight of the sad look that
crossed the face of the girl before him.

"No you don't," she said softly. "You don't want it."

"Huh? Why not? Healing people's pretty cool," Ranma said confus-
edly. How much further could he have taken his training if he had been
able to do something like that?

"I'm all alone because of it... No one in my school except the
teachers talk to me. And when my classmates do say something, its always
an insult."

"Huh? But that's stupid! Besides, I really don't care what they
think, that's a pretty useful trick ya got and you should be glad you
can, um... help people and stuff 'cause of it," Ranma continued with
absolute certainty in his words.

"I don't know..." Hotaru trailed off, not completing her
sentence as she realized what a fool she was being. Here was someone
that rescued and was trying to be nice to her and she was trying her
best to convince him she was a freak and scare him off!

"Hey, trust me," Ranma said, smirking arrogantly. Then he
dropped it into a slight frown as he realized he didn't know the girls
name? Would it somehow be rude to ask? Why was he even caring? Hell,
rude to ask the name of someone you rescued? What kind of crap was
that?! Ranma shook his head, annoyed. His mind was starting to get
'screwed up' as he put it.

Hotaru bit her lower lip as she saw the boy who had rescued her
frown. Ooohhh... She hoped she hadn't scared him away. In order to try
and fix things, somehow, Hotaru decided that she should be polite and
introduce herself. In fact, she should have done that awhile ago. "I
suppose you're right." She said quickly, and putting on what she hoped
was a nice smile. She remembered someone, who she couldn't quite
remember right then, saying that she looked nice when she smiled. "My
name is Hotaru Tomoe. Thank you for your help."

"Ranma Saotome," Ranma said, extending his hand, smiling as he
saw the girl, Hotaru, smile. She looked so cute when she did and Ranma
was glad that he had found her. Maybe they could be friends.

Hotaru took Ranma's extended hand and shook it. "I'm pleased to
meet you Ranma." Maybe she finally had a... friend? As Hotaru dwelled
hopefully on that thought, however, she suddenly felt... faint.

Ranma heard Hotaru moan and start to fall backwards. In a flash,
he caught her from behind and gently sat her down. Kneeling before her
as she clutched her chest with one hand and the ground with another,
Ranma wondered what was happening. Had those bastards injured her? "You
alright? What's wrong?"

"N-nothing... I-it's just a... fit... It'll go away... soon..."
Hotaru gasped.

Ranma knelt by uncertainly as Hotaru continued to pant. <JUST a
fit? She's gotta be pretty sick or something then.> Before Ranma could
think about it anymore, Hotaru abruptly fainted. "Hotaru!"


Hotaru slowly opened her eyes and sat up, blinking slowly. She
looked around and saw that she was apparently in a hospital room. <How
did I get here?> She wondered. <The last thing I remember is... Was that
all a dream?> Hotaru bit her lip sadly at the thought and considered it.
<No. It was too real to be a dream. Ranma must have brought me here.>
Hotaru looked over the room again, searching for Ranma. There was a
chair nearby with that had obviously been sat on, but Ranma was nowhere
to be seen. "He must have left." She concluded sadly, getting off her
bed and putting on her shoes, which she found nearby. Then she opened
the door out and bumped into Ranma.

"You're awake!" Ranma exclaimed. And in two seconds flat, she
found herself lying back in bed and holding a cup of water. "What
happened? You just fainted so I took you here." He quickly explained.
"Are you feelin' alright? Did those guys hurt you?" Ranma asked, the
last part with a hint of hostility.

Hotaru took a moment to pick apart all the questions that she
had been bombarded with and then answered, "I'm okay, I get fits like
that a lot." She then carefully slid off the bed again and put down the
glass of water on a table. "Thank you for helping me."

"Hey, no problem, we're friends... right?" Ranma asked with a
hint of hope in his voice that Hotaru barely noticed. And when she did,
she dismissed it.

"Friends..." she murmured thoughtfully. Hotaru smiled,
brightening the room. "Yes, friends." Abruptly, she then turned around
and looked at the door. "I should go home now. My father will be
worried."

"Hey, hold on!" Ranma protested as Hotaru headed towards the
door. "Aren't ya gonna wait for the doctor?" Sure, HE wouldn't have
waited for no doctor, but this was Hotaru here. A girl. Who seemed even
weaker than he thought girls were.

Hotaru shook her head as she exited the room, Ranma close by. "I
was specifically told not to see any doctors."

Ranma frowned. He couldn't understand why someone would say
something as stupid as that. Even his father wasn't as stupid as that.
Especially since this was a girl. They, well... needed more help than
guys. "Well, I'll walk ya home. Those guys may have some angry friends
or something out there, and it's pretty late."

Hotaru regarded Ranma for a moment and smiled again. "Thank you,
I would like that."

"Let's go then," Ranma replied as he took lead and led his new
friend out of the hospital. Ranma smiled. <First day here and I already
got a friend.>


Ranma and Hotaru walked down a dark street quietly. Hotaru was
walking at a leisurely pace, a small smile on her face. It was cold out,
and she was glad that she was wearing pants. Actually, now that she
thought about it, her leg were almost always covered. Actually, they
were always covered. <Why do I do that?> She wondered, frowning sligh-
tly.

Hotaru glanced at Ranma and was surprised to see that he was walking on
top of a chain-link fence, thoughtfully staring at the sky and what
stars could be seen. Then she realized that they hadn't said anything at
all to each other since they had left the hospital about ten minutes
ago. <I may not know much about friends, but I'm sure that they talk to
each other.> And so Hotaru decided that she wanted to have an enjoyable
conversation with her new friend. Her only friend... And she had been
given the perfect opening topic too! "Why are you walking up there,
Ranma?"

"Huh?" Ranma snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Hotaru
apologetically. "Sorry, I wasn't listening, what didja say?"

"I was wondering why you were walking on a fence." Hotaru
answered.

Ranma shrugged. "Balance practice, I guess. It's kinda fun,
too."

"Really? I wish I could do that." Hotaru said, watching
interestedly as Ranma hopped onto a taller fence without even slowing
down.

"Well, what's keeping ya?" Ranma inquired calmly. He was pretty
sure girls could walk on fences. It wasn't exactly a thing only manly
men could do.

Hotaru's face suddenly took on a despondent look and Ranma felt
guilty for bringing up the subject, his other thoughts taking a quick
dive down a cliff. He was about to apologize when Hotaru spoke up. "I
get tired very quickly."

Ranma gave a mental sigh of relief. He didn't have to apologize
and this, he could do something about. "That's no problem. Just come on
up, I'll catch ya if you fall or something."

Hotaru stopped walking and looked at the fence doubtfully. "I'm
not sure I can do it..."

"Not with that attitude you're not!" Ranma interjected. "Just
give it a try, I promise you won't fall or nuthin'. Here, I'll pull you
up." Ranma said, bending down and extending a hand towards his new
friend.

Hotaru hesitantly nodded. "Okay..." she said, taking Ranma's
hand gently and gasping as she found herself instantly pulled on top of
the fence. At first, she felt herself losing her balance, but two strong
arms held her gently by her shoulders and steadied her. The fence top
was very narrow she observed.

"Just stay still for now," Ranma commanded.

Hotaru nodded and stood still for a few seconds until she got
her bearings back. Then she slowly took a look around and gasped in
wonder. "I didn't know things could look so different up here." She
turned her head around, slowly scanning her surroundings, taking in all
of the familiar sights that were no longer so familiar.

"It is kinda cool," Ranma agreed. The double-meaning to what he
said flew right by him.

Hotaru turned slowly and gracefully around, taking in everything
around her. It was surprising how different things could look from up on
a fence. After a short while she then started slowly walking forward,
Ranma close behind, ready to catch her if she happened to fall; which
didn't seem likely as Hotaru slowly walked forward, gradually gaining
speed.

"Not that YOU need it," Ranma began, having seen Hotaru's
graceful and precise steps. "but it's easier to keep your balance if ya
run."

Hotaru paused, a warm feeling filling her because someone had
complimented her. "Really?" she asked. Ranma nodded, and there was a
long moment of silence.

Then, Hotaru abruptly broke out into a sprint and rushed down
the fence. It was true, it seemed so easy for her to run on top of the
fence. She could feel the difference between this and walking.

The world passed by her in a dark blur and she could hear
Ranma's light steps almost directly behind her. With the cool air
rushing by her face she felt wonderful! She felt invigorated! She
felt... tired.

Ranma was startled when Hotaru suddenly ran down the fence, but
got over it quickly. In a flash, he was running behind his new friend,
ready to catch her if she fell. He kept a close eye on her footing and
noticed her still sure and precise steps. He was mildly surprised to see
how fast Hotaru was running. It was certainly an above-average speed.
Just as he finished the thought, however, Hotaru abruptly stopped and
started to fall backwards.

Because he was running too fast, Ranma flipped over the girl and
spun around, catching his friend as she fell down with lightning speed.
<That's right.> Ranma recalled. <She said she gets tired easily.> "Are
you alright?" Ranma asked worriedly.

"That... That was fun..." Hotaru panted.

Ranma smirked. "Didn't I tell ya?"

Hotaru tried to smile through her gasps. "T-thank you Ranma... I
haven't... had that much fun... in a long time."

Ranma shrugged and gently lifted her up. "You're welcome."

"W-what.. are you doing?" Hotaru asked, surprised.

"I'm gonna carry you home, of course." Ranma replied. Then he
realized something. "Um, where exactly do you live?" he asked sheep-
ishly.

Hotaru, having gotten some of her breath back, giggled. "It's...
down this street... some more... I-I'll tell you when we... get here..."

"Alright," Ranma said. "Hold on." And with that he broke into
light jog, Hotaru held gently in his arms.

"You... don't have to... carry me... you know..." Hotaru gasped
out.

Ranma looked down at her. "Don't worry about it, you just sit
back and rest." He then turned his attention back to running, the smile
still on his face.

Hotaru shifted into a more comfortable position and watched
lazily as the world blurred by with Ranma's increased speed. She
silently marveled at Ranma's strength and skill. He was running down a
narrow fence with a girl in his arms at high speeds and wasn't even
slightly winded. She began to wonder if she could ever become like that
and quickly stopped that train of thought. Thinking about her weakness
usually led her to other thoughts that ended up making her even more
depressed. Instead, she focused on enjoying the cool night air and the
scenery passing by as she regained her strength.

Ranma, too, was having a good time. Whenever he and his father
had stopped in a town or city before, he would always like to walk on
fences and, later on, go rooftop hopping. At first, it was to help
train, but Ranma soon found himself doing it just for the heck of it; it
was fun up there.

A great part of it, he supposed, was because his school of
martial arts specialized in mid-air combat and so he naturally sought
out higher ground. But whatever the reason, he enjoyed going to high
places. And now he could share that feeling of... of... rightness with
someone. His first friend in nine years no less. Life was just grand
sometimes.

Ranma ran sown the fence for what seemed like and eternity and,
all too soon for her tastes, Hotaru realized that they were nearing her
house. "We're almost there, Ranma. You can put me down now."

Ranma came to a sudden stop and gently let Hotaru down. He had
noticed a while back that they had started walking on the more stylized,
very narrow metal fences of houses. Big houses.

Hotaru walked forward on the narrower fence-tops, getting a feel
for them. Then, she proceeded to pick up speed, a little surprised that
she could walk at all up there.

Then Hotaru stopped and looked down, apparently realizing something. She
was very near her house and not quite sure if she should jump down.
Ranma, however, guessed what she was thinking, scooped her up in his
arms and jumped down, making the decision for her and then set her down
before she could even be surprised.

Hotaru stood, staring at Ranma in surprise for a few moments. It
had all been so fast! Then, abruptly, like light a street lamp suddenly
switching on, she burst out giggling.

Ranma stared at Hotaru in confusion as she Hotaru giggled for
apparently no reason. "What's so funny?" he asked, feeling a bit of Deja
Vu.

"Nothing..." Hotaru slowly ceased her giggling and looked at
Ranma a little more seriously "Thank you, Ranma. I haven't had so much
fun in a long time."

Ranma shrugged and grinned at Hotaru. "Hey, what're friends
for?" he asked, unconsciously emphasizing the word "friend".

Hotaru noticed the emphasis and smiled slightly. "Well, let's
go." She then turned around and walked towards her house, Ranma by her
side.

Once they reached the gates to her home, Ranma whistled as he
finally noticed that he was surrounded by pretty damn big houses. "Wow,
you've got a pretty nice place."

"I suppose..." Hotaru said slowly. It was a nice house. Big and
spacious. But, except for in her room, she didn't really feel comfor-
table in the building. Especially with Kaolinite around. Especially
since her father had been so distant. Ever since that explosion...

At that moment, the door to the Hotaru's house opened and a man,
with pure white hair and glasses appeared. He looked nice enough, but
Ranma, thought he had sensed... something for a brief moment when the
man had stepped out. Ranma shook his mind free of his thoughts and paid
attention to Hotaru and the man. Hotaru didn't seem to be bothered by
anything.

"Poppa!" Hotaru exclaimed, smiling.

The man walked forward and looked in concern at Hotaru. "Hotaru,
where have you been? I was worried because you were so late."

"I had a fit." Hotaru answered, a little sadly. "And some boys
were picking on me." Then Hotaru gestured to Ranma, who stood by regar-
ding Hotaru's father curiously. "This is Ranma, he helped me and walked
me home."

Hotaru's father smiled at Ranma kindly. "Thank you, Ranma. I am
grateful for your help."

Ranma smirked. "No problem."

Then Hotaru walked over to her fathers side and turned to look
at Ranma. "Will I see you again?"

"Sure!" Ranma replied enthusiastically. "We're friends, right?"

"Friends..." Hotaru said, still not used to the word. Then she
turned to her father, a joyful expression on her face. "Poppa!"

"I'm happy for you, Hotaru," the man said. Then he looked at
Ranma. "Come by anytime, you're welcome here."

"Sure, I'll drop by tomorrow after school," Ranma replied. Then
he looked at Hotaru. "Well, goodnight!"

Then he turned around and jogged out into the street, Hotaru
waving at him from behind. "Goodnight, Ranma!"

As Ranma hopped onto a fence and ran towards he and his old
man's new home, Ranma thought silently about his day. <Who woulda
guessed that walking on a fence with someone could be that fun...> As he
ran on, his thoughts turned towards Hotaru. <Nice girl, too bad she gets
tired easily>. Ranma ran the rest of the way home at breakneck speeds,
on top of fences, thoughtfully. He suddenly found himself looking
forward to tomorrow.

Once he reached his apartment building, Ranma took the stairs
up. Elevators were for slackers like his old man, and he couldn't
exactly jump three stories. Two stories? No problem. Three stories? Not
yet, at least.

Once he entered his new home, Ranma immediately dropped into a
very defensive stance and quickly scanned the room. His old man liked to
lay into Ranma whenever he thought he wasn't paying attention and Ranma
wasn't in the mood to be ambushed. To his mild surprise, however, Ranma
found that he wasn't being attacked.

Upon closer inspection, Ranma found that Genma wasn't even home.
Ranma shrugged. <Guess Pop's still out... Good. I'm in too good a mood
right now to be able ta deal with him.> Ranma then headed to his pack
and took out a package of cupped noodles. He quickly opened it, put on
a counter on the kitchen and, after locating a kettle in his pack,
started to boil some water.

Then he sat down, small part of his mind keeping on a vigilant
look-out for Genma. Another, much smaller part, waited for the kettle
to whistle. The rest of his active mind, went over his day. And so he
thought about Hotaru, of course. He thought of how nice she had been,
Her pretty smile and kind eyes. How great it felt to have helped her out
and, most of all, he thought about the funny feeling he had when he car-
ried her over the fences. That was... different.

But Ranma just chalked it up to his gratefulness for finally
having a friend. Although he did that a little reluctantly. He was happy
to have a friend. Very happy. But he was loathe to admit that he had any
weakness as some part of his mind that was tainted by Genma's influence
told the rest of him that to need anything was a weakness. Of course,
that part was pretty damn small and he didn't exactly pay too much
attention to those particular words. He needed a lot of things in his
life. Food and rest for starters. And friends was somewhere way up there
as well. <Friends like Hotaru...> Ranma was then quite rudely snapped
out of his thoughts as a certain part of his mind informed him that the
kettle had started whistling.

Ranma went over, turned off the fire and then poured the boiling
water into his cup noodles. He then dug into his small meal with light-
ning speed, sucking up all the food within a minute. Finally, he decided
to make good use of his new home and went to fill up the bath.

Ranma sank into the hot waters blissfully. It was wonderfully
soothing to his tense muscles, especially after that cold water. The
fight was one reason. The long hike to get to Juuban was another. Ranma
lay idly in the tub, thinking about nothing. Normally, he would have
probably been trying to come up with new ways to help his training, but
not now. He had had a good day and he wanted to relax right then.

After awhile, Ranma reluctantly got out and dried up, his
martial arts training enabling him to dress in some boxers and a white
shirt in a matter of seconds. He then went out into the... living room,
he supposed and set up his sleeping bag. After he finished, he
immediately dropped down, pulling the cover over him and dropped into a
blissful sleep.

About five minutes later, Genma, panting, came in, tossed a
blue, school uniform to the side of the room and went into the bathroom.
Some time later, a much less smelly and sweaty Genma came out and, after
setting up his sleeping bag, also fell asleep in a matter of seconds. He
snored. Loudly. The grating sounds, however, fell on deaf ears.


Over at the Tomoe home, Hotaru Tomoe said goodnight to her
father and also fell into a blissful sleep, a small smile appearing on
her normally sad face. People who knew her(There were about two, and one
of them was crazy) wouldn't have thought much about this as she usually
smiled when her father bid her goodnight. This time, however, the rea-
sons behind her change in expressions were different than usual.

Outside Hotaru's room, Professor Tomoe slowly walked down the
hall quietly. Once he reached the end of the corridor, he reached out
and pressed a concealed button. With a swish, a section of the wall
pulled upwards, revealing stairs that led down into a dark and morbid
chamber. A huge chamber that was filled with all sorts of machines. But
mostly, all around the room, were tubes that were constantly being
filled with some strange pink liquid. And at the center of the hundreds
of tubes were very small, white, egg-like things with grooves running
down it's sides.

At the center of the dark and mysterious room lay, prone and strangely
foreboding, a table with a phone and several other contraptions on it. A
machine on the center of the table was apparently attached to all of the
other hundreds of tubes in the room. It was to this table that a now
dark and rather evil-looking Professor Tomoe walked to.

"Soon, soon..." he said with a maniacal edge to his voice. "Soon
the Death Busters will be ready..." He paused and look over the hundreds
of eggs. Eggs. For that was what they were. "Once everything is ready,
the world will be ours!" The man reared his head upwards and burst out
into maniacal laughter. It was fortunate that the room was sound-
proofed, or the wicked laughs may very well have turned Hotaru's dreams
into nightmares.


*************************


The sun lazily rose over Juuban and with it, Genma and Ranma.
Genma had awakened first and thrown Ranma out of the, fortunately, open
window and jumped out after him. This would have probably sent an
ordinary man to a hospital, but Ranma was awake the moment he was air-
borne and instinctively flipped to an upright, defensive position as
he shot through air.

And although he would never admit to the old man, he was glad
that Genma had thrown him out the window. The Saotome School specialized
in mid-air combat and if any human were meant to fly, they'd probably be
a Saotome.

Ranma was exhilarated. It may have sounded crazy to any other
person, but he did secretly loved to wake up flying, although he wished
he was dressed in something a little different than boxers and a shirt.

Yes, flying. It felt like flying, and Genma had devised ways to
allow one to stay in the air for much longer than usual. A slight shift
in weight here, a slightly different stance there... There were hundreds
of things to do and different positions to take in the air to help one
stay up longer. And Ranma's quick mind was planning all of the possible
ways he could scrape up a few extra seconds of air-time as he grabbed
Genma's flying kick and flipped himself up with all his strength, more
intent on getting a boost upwards than forcing the old man down. Getting
a good shove up was the best way to stay in the airborne longer.

Ranma felt himself rushing upwards and he forced his head up to
look at the bright blue sky above. He got closer. And closer. And clo-
ser. And it felt like he could go on forever; like the Saotome School of
Anything Goes Martial Arts had no limits!

But finally, gravity took it's hold and he slowed down; then
started to fall. Ranma reluctantly tore his gaze downwards and saw that
he had pushed himself up about two stories above his window. A new
record! Ranma smirked, feeling good about himself and temporarily for-
getting that he was pretty much in the middle of a battle.

Then he noticed that his father had somehow managed to launch
himself up into the air and was flying towards him with an arm outstre-
tched, his hands forming a spear. A burst of pride at his accomplishment
and the knowledge that he had gravity on his side and Ranma decided to
take the challenge and kick the old man back to the ground.

Genma gaped in surprise when he realized that his son was going
to take him head on. There were many things going in the boys favor,
certainly, but still... Ranma had never done this before as Genma still
had more experience and could beat him quite easily in the air. Then
again... They hadn't had a mid-air battle since Ranma had started to win
regularly yet. Well, he'd put the boy back in his place. <So he thinks
he can win me in my won element, eh?> Well, he'd just have to remind
Ranma who was still master of the Saotome School.

Ranma and Genma flew at each other at lightning speeds and im-
pacted hard, drawing grunt from both combatants; Ranma had managed to
get his father in the head and Genma had stabbed his son in his stomach.
Which injury was worth more 'points' is debatable. Ask a male Saotome
and they'd probably say the stomach. Ask a more normal person, how-
ever...

The two pushed away from each other and plummeted towards the
ground at high speeds. Genma turned slightly and took the fall on one
side, manipulating some Ki to absorb the impact. The ground still
cracked slightly from the landing, however.

Ranma, on the other hand, merely flipped around and landed ligh-
tly on his feet. Spinning around in a swift motion, he proceeded to
start taunting his father. "Hah! What's the matter old man? Getting
old? Ya can't even land right anymore, huh?"

He then dropped into a defensive stance in preparation for his
old man's attack, his mind calm and prepared. A part of Ranma's quietly
wondered how the old man had managed to soften a fall like that while
the rest was ready for anything. "Bring it on, old man." Ranma taunted.

Genma grunted and replied. "Don't get cocky just because you
managed to knock me down, boy. I'll show you just how much more you
have to learn."

"I'm waiting, Pops," Ranma replied, smirking. Unless Genma had
been hiding some kind of weird secret technique or something, Ranma
thought he had a damn good chance of winning. It sure as hell wouldn't
be easy; Genma was a pretty good martial artist after all, especially
in the air, but he could win.

Genma tensed and took a defensive stance. The boy was good. Very
good. He would be a true master of the Art one day soon. Very soon.
There wasn't much left for Genma to teach Ranma now, in terms of fight-
ing; but he wasn't about to admit that even to himself, much less Ranma.

There wasn't much left to teach Ranma. That was true. But what
was left was incredible: Ki manipulation. Or, more importantly, as Ranma
already knew a little about that, Ki projection. But that could wait
until later. He still hadn't decided if he should reveal the Forbidden
Techniques to the boy. Sometimes, when he went to sleep, he still
dreamed of their horrible power. But Ranma might need the techniques;
especially with what he had planned for he boy...

"Alright boy, get ready to lose!" And with that, Genma charged
Ranma, his thoughts taking a back seat to the need to beat-up a certain
son.

Ranma blocked and weaved through a quick combination of kicks
and punches, never losing his smirk. He was on a energy high from
meeting Hotaru and the short but invigorating mid-air fight had only
enchanced that.

About an hour or so later, a sweating Ranma and Genma entered
their little apartment. Through the door. Genma had conveniently remem-
bered to bring his key with him before throwing Ranma out the window.
Quietly, they boiled up some water for more cup noodles and ate in
silence.

Then Ranma took a quick bath and brushed his teeth when his
father reminded him that he had to go to school. Genma was feeling
surprised that Ranma hadn't protested and put on his uniform without
complaint before heading off to the window.

Despite what those who 'knew him' might say, Genma could be
rather observant; especially when it came to making sure his son would
be a 'man among men'. And he noticed that Ranma was acting quite
strangely right then.

The boy was in a very good mood as he hadn't made one negative
comment since their morning spar. It couldn't have been just the mid-air
sparring. Genma knew that Ranma enjoyed being in the air, as any
practitioner of his school should. That was one of the reasons he threw
Ranma out: It always cheered him up despite Ranma's protests otherwise.
And that was another thing that was missing. Ranma hadn't raised a word
of false objection to being thrown out the window. <Now that I think of
it, the boy was even smiling in his sleep. Is he actually looking for-
ward to school?>

"Son, are you feeling alright?" Genma asked, a bit concerned.

Ranma turned around in surprise. His father was actually worried
about him? Ranma wondered if Genma was feeling alright. "I'm fine, why?"

"You haven't complained about anything all morning, I was won-
dering if anything interesting happened to you to change your mind about
school," Genma answered.

Ranma shrugged. "I beat-up a buncha bullies yesterday, but I
didn't go out and save the world or nuthin'."

Genma looked at Ranma intently for a few seconds. Then he
straightened and nodded. "Very well, then boy." Well, if Ranma was more
cooperative, so much the better.

Ranma shrugged and jumped out the window and to the street
below. He then hopped onto a fence and walked off to where his father
had said school was, whistling. A few passing pedestrians stared at
Ranma in shock, but otherwise said nothing. After all, the Sailor Senshi
operated here and a boy jumping down three stories unharmed wasn't TOO
strange.

Anyone but the most observant who happened to look at Ranma as
he walked along the fencetops of Juuban right about then, headed towards
his school, whistling cheerfully, would have thought something along the
lines of: "What a cheerful-looking young man."

But despite outward appearances, Ranma was also deep in thought.
<The old man's right, I have been acting a bit weird today... And why
didn't I tell him 'bout Hotaru.> After a moment, Ranma shrugged to him-
self. <It doesn't matter whether he knew I had a friend or not anyways.>

Ranma continued walking along the fences, drawing a few stares
from pedestrians but not much else. He was also silently grateful that
Genma had gotten him loose-fitting clothes. He didn't think he could
stand anything too restrictive of movement. After that thought, Ranma
shook his thoughts clear and became cheerful for real.

After awhile of whistling his jaunty tune, Ranma eventually
caught sight of his school. Hopping off the fence he was on, Ranma
walked across the street to the all-boys junior high school with a
slightly wary air about him. He wasn't usually like this and he supposed
it had something to do with running into a bunch of guys trying to beat
up on a poor girl. He walked through the gates and quickly scanned his
surroundings. The few people who were there were all boys, of course.


<Well, might as well get to class. Let's see, what room was it?
Right, 2-A. I guess that means second floor.> So Ranma entered the
school building and up to the second floor. He strolled down a long
corridor, bright sunlight shining in through the windows to his left.
His search was made simpler because of this as he only had to keep an
eye open on one side of the hallway. <Let's see, 2-A... 2-A... here it
is!> Ranma entered the room with the appropriately marked door and
looked around. There was a middle-aged standing at the other end, his
back turned to Ranma. Apparently, he hadn't noticed Ranma come in. Then
again, Ranma hadn't made a sound as he entered the room, despite his
slight nervousness.

"Uh, 'scuse me?" Ranma began, trying to get the man's attention.

The man turned around and regarded Ranma for a few seconds in
surprise. "And you are?" He questioned.

"Ranma Saotome," was the quick reply, accompanied with a small,
stiff bow.

"Ah, the new student." The man said realization dawning on his
slightly wrinkled face. "You can call me Mr.Kumagai. And how may I help
you." The old man stared at Ranma curiously, awaiting and answer. It
wasn't often that a student, even a new one came to see him personally.

"Er, well..." Ranma began nervously. He wasn't really sure why
he was here right now. It wasn't like he needed help or anything, after
all. Yeah, he could handle things... Still, well... "I'm new, an' all...
So I thought I er..." Ranma trailed off, trying to think of something
that didn't have the word "help" in it. "Thought might need to, uh...
see how far I'm behind." Ranma mentally sighed in relief. He had gotten
through the whole thing without using the word "help".

Mr.Kumagai blinked. Then he blinked again. None of his students
had EVER come to him for help personally. Then he smiled. The boy had
obviously swallowed a lot of his pride to come to him. Actually, the boy
hadn't actually asked for help, but he could tell. Ranma wanted help,
but was too proud to actually say it. In fact, he remembered the prin-
cipal mentioning that the father had said the boy would need extra help.
Well, then he would help. "Well then, you just take a seat over there
and I'll give you a test to see how much you know."

Ranma nodded, his face alit with relief, and took a seat by a
window while Mr.Kumagai rummaged around in his desk. After a short
while, the teacher came over to Ranma's desk with a paper booklet, a
piece of paper and a pencil. "Just go through this booklet and fill in
the correct bubbles here." The man said. "Don't worry. Just take your
time, we aren't doing anything important in class today."

"Um, okay."

"And good luck," the teacher added before he turned around and
headed back to his desk.

Ranma looked after the man for a second before turning back to
his test. He almost fearfully opened the small booklet to the first
page. "History" it read in big, bold letters. Ranma sighed in relief. He
knew he was pretty good in history. Traveling around with Genma, he had
learned a lot about the history of the various places he had been to. He
had tried talking to every new person he met in an attempt to make
friends and got a hefty amount of knowledge instead.

Ranma quickly breezed through the first few pages of the book,
gaining confidence with each answer, then he suddenly cringed. "World
History." He whispered. Ranma slowly went through the World History
pages, only half sure at best on most of the answers. The rest he just
guessed. There were only four choices, after all. After he finished that
section, Ranma turned the page, read the words "Science", and cringed
again.

The sweating martial artist slowly worked through the book,
absently aware that the bell had rung and that students were shuffling
into the class, some of them staring Ranma curiously. The teacher just
told them all to sit down and leave the new student alone.

About two and a half hours later, Ranma was finally done. And so
he put down his pencil and stretched, glad that the ordeal was finally
over. Some of the parts on the test he had easily breezed through, but
most of it took, well... a little longer.

The teacher noticed that his new student was finished and went
over and took his paper away. "You just sit here and try to pay atten-
tion until I can correct this."

Ranma nodded and the teacher walked back to the front of the
class and put Ranma's paper on his desk. Then he returned to his lecture
on history. Surprisingly, Ranma found himself very interested in the
lecture. It really expanded on what he already knew about history and
Ranma found discovered answers to some of the questions he had about
what he had learned from the various people he had meet. He also found
himself particularly interested in all of the battles and assassinations
back then. He kept thinking about what he could have done with his
martial arts skills if he were there. <Heh, I would've kicked alla their
butts...>

All too soon, Ranma found the bell that signaled lunch ringing
and interrupting the teachers lecture. He sighed and stood up,
stretching. <Whew! All that testing and history stuff's made me hungry.>
Ranma then proceeded to follow the flow of students to the lunch room
while Mr.Kumagai took out a dusty answer sheet, blew it clean and
started working on Ranma's test.

After following the rolling mass of blue-dressed teens, Ranma
eventually found himself in a large room that was obviously the caf-
eteria. It was packed tight and Ranma stood in the back, looking at
everyone curiously. He wouldn't be able to get to the front without
doing a lot of punching. Unless...

Ranma smiled. If he couldn't go through them(which he actually
could.) he could go over them! And so thinking, Ranma jumped up, ready
to hop on heads to reach the food. He was hungry damnit!

At that exact same second, he saw another boy, wearing a bandana
jump up, not as high as Ranma, but he could tell the boy was a pretty
good martial artist by the fact that he was able to do what he did at
all. Then he saw that the boy was reaching for something as a voice rang
out in the background.

"Last curry bread!"

<Oh no he's not, I'm hungry!> Ranma twisted slightly, changing
his course sufficiently that he would be sent right over... there! Ranma
reached out with one hand and... yes! He got the bread! And then, hit-
ting the other wall on the other side of the room, he rebounded back
clear across the room and landed on his feet, quickly unwrapping the
bread and devouring it ravenously. The rest of the students turned and
looked at Ranma surprise. They obviously hadn't expected him to get the
bread.

The bandana-clad boy landed and spun on Ranma in rage. "Who are
you!" He demanded, a fist clenched tightly shut.

Ranma looked up from his eating, surprised that someone was
talking to him. "Ranma Saotome." He said, assessing the other boy.
<Pretty strong.> Ranma then noted the cracking floor beneath the boy
<No, make that very strong.> Ranma smiled. Maybe the guy would spar with
him.

The bandana-clad boy was momentarily startled out of his anger
when he saw Ranma smile, but he quickly bared his-

<Fangs?> Ranma thought in surprise.

And shouted out, "Ranma Saotome, that was my bread! I'll make
you pay for this!"

Ranma blinked. Had that been a challenge?

"Let's go outside!" And with that, the boy stalked off
somewhere. Ranma shrugged, finished the rest of his food in a few
seconds and quickly ran after the fanged-boy. "Hey, wait up!" He called
after the boy as the rest of the students slowly exited the cafeteria,
there being no food left.

The bandana-clad boy turned and regarded Ranma with an angry eye
as he ran to him. "What do you want?" he demanded angrily.

"Aw c'mon," Ranma said, rolling his eyes. "It's just bread ya
know?"

"I haven't eaten in days! Only a dishonorable thief like you
would steal my fair share of the bread and let me starve!" The boy
returned hotly.

Ranma narrowed his eyes at the comment on his honor but decided
to let it slide. "Alright I'm... sorry, alright?! I didn't know you were
that hungry! I was pretty hungry too ya know!"

The bandana-clad boy's anger filled faced softened. "Well, I
suppose I can forgive you this time."

Ranma gave a mental sigh of relief. He wasn't afraid of the boy,
but he wanted friends, not enemies. "So what's your name?"

"Ryoga Hibiki," the bandana-clad boy replied proudly.

"So..." Ranma trailed off, trying to think up something to say.
Maybe they could be friends. "You wanna spar?"

Ryoga blinked. "You still want to fight me? Didn't you just
apologize to me?!"

Ranma shrugged. "That's because I don't want no enemies. But I
can tell you're a pretty good martial artist."

Ryoga smirked, confident that he'd pound this Ranma into the
ground. "Fine then. You asked for it, Saotome."

"Alright, let's go outside." Ranma said, smiling.

"Um..." Ryoga began nervously. "You better lead the way."

Ranma looked at Ryoga oddly for a second before shrugging heading
towards the front the nearest exit.


Ryoga fell to the ground with a grunt and quickly rolled back to
his feet, wiping sweat from his brow. <He's fast!>

Ranma, meanwhile, was sweating and having a great time!
<Fighting him's almost as fun as fighting with Pops!> "So, you had
enough yet?" Ranma taunted.

"Yeah right!" Ryoga shouted, Then he charged Ranma with a light-
ningfast series of punch and kicks, most of which Ranma dodged or
blocked. The few that got through, however, managed to bruise him. Ranma
then grabbed a kick, wincing slightly at the pain and sent Ryoga flying
behind him. <He's strong!>

Ryoga rolled and immediately spun around and charged Ranma,
kicking and punching expertly. One of his punches managed to get Ranma
on the shoulder, distracting him long enough to send a kick to his ribs.
Ranma rolled with the kick and quickly jumped back up, sending three
lightning-fast roundhouses that Ryoga may have been able to stop if it
just weren't so damn fast.

Ryoga soon found himself on the defensive as Ranma actually in-
creased the speed of his attacks and pressed him back! Many of the hits
got through Ryoga's defenses as he steadily got more and more tired,
until he realized that this was a quick way to losing. So he decided
that taking a few of Ranma's hits(which weren't as strong as Ryoga's, of
course) would be acceptable if he could pay Ranma back with interest. Of
course, there was the very high chance that that would backfire and
leave Ryoga open to a long and painful combo, but he was hoping that he
could surprise Ranma with his endurance and get a good hit in.

And so Ryoga took one of Ranma's punches and, not bothering to block the
next attacks, kicked a surprised Ranma at the side as he wondered why
his punch had made it through. Ranma blocked, but was still sent stumb-
ling back a few steps. Before he could recover, Ryoga pressed the ad-
vantage with few more punches and kicks which dazed Ranma. But when he
sent the last kick, however, Ranma had flipped over the fanged-boy.
Ryoga immediately jumped upwards, expecting Ranma to try to sweep him;
instead, he found himself hit by several quick kicks to his side and
sent flying to the ground, He stood up and looked at Ranma. He was
standing in a loose stance, breathing hard, probably with a few bruises
under his uniform, and grinning widely.

Ryoga continued staring at Ranma. Then, slowly, as if he weren't
used to it, he too smiled.

"I haven't had such a good fight on ground in a long time!"
Ranma said before he walked over and patted Ryoga on the back as he
seemed to be in a good mood. He was smiling, after all.

Ryoga stood still, as he was in no better condition than Ranma,
and tried to catch his breath. "You're pretty good," He said simply.

"Of course," Ranma said, smirking, although he was a little an-
noyed that he had been distracted by his punch going through. Then he
noticed the crowd of students staring at him and Ryoga in awe. "Um,
maybe we should go inside."

Ryoga nodded and headed off in the opposite direction of the
school building.

"Um, Ryoga? The school is in the other direction." Ranma pointed
out.

"Oh, okay." Ryoga then headed in a different.

"No, THAT way!" Ranma said pointing at the school.

"Oh." Ryoga headed off in the direction of a tree.

Ranma shook his head and wondered if this was Ryoga's weird idea
of a joke.

One of the students decided to help Ranma out and walked up to
him. "You see," The student began as Ranma turned to him. "Ryoga has a
VERY bad sense of direction. In fact, he's absent from school a lot of
times because of it."

"It can't be THAT bad," Ranma argued disbelievingly.

"Take a look for yourself," the student replied, pointing at
Ryoga.

Ranma looked over at Ryoga, who was looking at a tree and scra-
tching his head, asking where the school was. "Okay, maybe you have a
point," Ranma said before he jogged over to Ryoga and pulled him in the
right direction. "School is THIS way, Ryoga."

"You can let me go!" Ryoga shouted, yanking his arm free and
following Ranma. "I can walk by myself!"

Ranma shrugged and led his friend inside and back into the caf-
eteria. Once there, he turned back around and looked at Ryoga, deciding
to ask about his direction problem later. "You're pretty good, Ryoga,
what style do you practice."

Ryoga looked at Ranma and answered proudly. "It's a family
school!"

Ranma smiled. "Cool. I know some other styles but I mostly use
the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. It's my family
school."

"Really?" Ryoga asked, his slight anger at Ranma forgotten for
the moment as he had finally found someone as good as him at martial
arts. "Most of the people here aren't good at martial arts, you're the
first one to give me a good fight."

"Hmph, I could have won," Ranma said confidently.

"Are you insulting my school?!" Ryoga demanded, starting to get
angry.

"Huh? Where did that come from?" Ranma asked in surprise.

"You said you could beat me," Ryoga said slowly.

Ranma blinked. "Yeah, so? It just means that I'm better than
you, it doesn't have nothing to do with your school."

Ryoga clenched his fist and growled. "You." He began. "Are in-
sulting." He pulled back a hand and Ranma suddenly realized that maybe
he had said something wrong. "My skill!?!?" Ryoga was just about to send
a punch that would have broken through solid rock at Ranma when his sto-
mach suddenly made known it's need for food.

Ranma quickly backed off as Ryoga looked down at his stomach and
tried to repair the situation. "Um, look, I'm... sorry... 'bout what I
said. How 'bout I treat ya to some food after school?"

Ryoga looked at Ranma for a long second. Could he trust the
little thief? The guy had stolen his food, after all. But he was
offering to make amends... Ryoga he slowly nodded. It wasn't like there
was anything else for him to do after school. "Fine then. Where's your
room."

An image of Ryoga staring at a tree flashed through Ranma's head
and he sweatdropped. "Um, I'll come to your room, where is it?"

Ryoga pointed out a window and replied, "Room 1-C."

Ranma's sweatdrop got bigger. "Oookay... How about I take you to
your class?"

Ryoga snorted. "I think I can find my way to my own class."

Ranma decided to try a different tactic. "Yeah? So where is it?"
Ryoga pointed in a direction. "That's a tree you idiot!"

Ryoga started to get angry again. "What did you call me?"

Ranma sighed and shook his head. "Never mind, let's go to your
class." And with that, he grabbed Ryoga and dragged him off.


"Let go of me!" Ryoga protested again, snatching his hand back
again and expecting Ranma to grab it and start dragging him around
again. To his surprise, Ranma didn't.

"Well, here you are, Ryoga" Ranma said. Then he lead the
bandana-clad boy to a seat and pushed him onto it. "Sit." Ranma
commanded.

Ryoga reluctantly obliged as, although he hated to admit it, he
probably wouldn't have gotten there without Ranma's help.

Once Ranma saw that Ryoga was apparently not going anywhere, he
let go of the boy. "I'll drop by after school, see ya." And with that,
Ranma headed off to his own class.

Mr.Kumagai munched on his biscuit thoughtfully as he looked at
the results of Ranma's test again. Ranma had done wonderfully on
History. World, History, on the other hand, was considerably worse but
still acceptable. The boy had done fairly well in Physical Science,
however. Not award-winning good, but good enough. The rest of the
science area was completely bombed.

In all the math that weren't word problems, anything that was
more complicated than adding fractions, with the exception of geometry,
was absolutely horrible. His vocabulary wasn't that great either.

From all this data, Mr.Kumagai was able to decide what books to
start Ranma off with. A lot lower level than what he had expected, but
it didn't really matter in the end as long as the boy cooperated. Then
the bell rang and the room started filling with students.

Ranma entered his room and made his way to his desk by the
window again, the students who had seen his 'sparring match' with Ryoga
looking at him in respect. Ranma dropped down on his seat and looked at
the teacher, wondering if he was going to teach history again. To his
disappointment, Mr.Kumagai started talking about Math. Something about
isolation or something like that. That sent Ranma on a long train of
thoughts about loneliness before he finally collapsed on his desktop and
fell asleep. A thrown eraser knocked him back to consciousness.

"Mr.Saotome, I know you're new here," the teacher said. "But try
to stay awake."

Ranma apologized and returned the eraser back to the front while
all the other students snickered. Ranma ignored them and tried to pay
attention to something about bonds or something like that. That sent him
on a train of thoughts that lead him through everything he had done with
Hotaru the previous night and he sighed, impatient for class to end.

After what seemed liked an eternity later of more lectures
later, Ranma was about to fall asleep again. However, the bell rang and
he jumped to his feet, ready to spring out of class.

"Ranma, come here," Mr.Kumagai called. Ranma halted and walked
slowly over to the teacher as the other students all pushed their way
through the door at the same time, eager to get out of school. Ranma
wished the exact same thing.

"Um, what is it?"

The teacher, in response, took out three thick textbooks and
handed them over to Ranma. "History, math and science. I believe I'll be
able to teach you literature and history in class. ."

"..."

"I think you should stay after school for help," the teacher
continued when Ranma didn't say anything.

That got a response. "What?! I can't stay after school!" Ranma
protested.

"Be reasonable, Ranma," Mr.Kumagai said calmly. "If you want to
catch up with the others, you'd best cooperate."

"Isn't there another way?" Ranma asked, more calmly this time.
"I could read the books at home." He suggested hopefully. He really did
NOT want to spend any more time at school than necessary.

The teacher shook his head. "For history, perhaps, but the
others, I think you'll need help. Unless you get a tutor, you'd better
stay after school."

"Well, let me try first!" Ranma protested.

The teacher shrugged; this was what he was used to students
doing. But he'd be more giving with this one. He seemed like the
stubborn type, anyway. "Very well, just learn what you can starting at
the beginning and I'll give you a test at the end of the month to see
how much you've improved." And with a gesture towards the door,
Mr.Kumagai turned to his desk to start grading papers.

Ranma sighed in relief, confident that he would be able to
master everything easily. He had two weeks, after all. Picking up his
books, he exited the room and headed down to the first level, towards
Ryoga's room.


Ryoga sat at his desk fuming. <Where is that thief! It's been
almost two minutes and he's still not here! I bet he just lied to me and
ran off, that coward!>

At that moment, Ranma stepped into the room, three books held at
his side. "Hey Ryoga, let's go." With his free hand, Ranma rooted around
in his pocket to see how much money he had with him. <Not much, but it
should be enough for a decent meal.>

"What took you so long?!" Ryoga demanded.

Ranma blinked. Was he always angry at little things. "Hey, I was
held up by the teacher! This is my first day here, ya know?"

Ryoga muttered something and stood up. "Well, lets go."

Ranma nodded and walked out of class, leading Ryoga through the
hallways of the school until he was finally outside. From there on he
headed to the gate. Ranma stopped for a moment as he neared the main
gates and glanced behind him. He saw, as he half-expected and half-
dreaded, Ryoga wandering somewhere off to right side of the school,
yelling about that coward Saotome. Ranma sighed and ran over to Ryoga,
whacking him on the head. "Ya don't have to go around calling me a
coward just because ya got lost, you know!"

"I bet it was you who got me lost in the first place!" Ryoga
shouted in reply.

Ranma shook his head. "Aw give it a rest already Ryoga, do you
like being angry all the time, or something."

Ryoga froze for a moment, his anger starting to seep away.
Ranma's words managed to strike a nerve. <He-he has a point... Do I like
being angry?> Then Ryoga forced his thoughts away and glared at Ranma.
He wouldn't let a little thief like Ranma get to him. "Whatever, let's
go."

"Okay." Ranma grabbed one of Ryoga's wrists with his free hand
and dragged him out of the school and into the streets. <Let's see,
where was that place again?> Ranma looked around for several moments
before finally deciding to take a left.

"Where are we going, anyways?" Ryoga asked after calming down a
bit from his anger at Ranma's casual treatment of his hands. "And you
can let me go."

Ranma let go of Ryoga and continued walking, glancing behind to
make sure the boy was following. "We're going to see a friend of mine's.
I wanna see if she want's to eat too."

Ryoga noticed the use of a female pronoun and raised an eyebrow.
"You have a girlfriend?" He asked incredulously. What kind of girl would
like a little thief like Ranma?

"Huh? Where'd you get that idea?!" Ranma asked in surprise.

"Hey, I was just asking!" Ryoga said a little defensively as
Ranma took another turn.

"Well, I just met her yesterday so what do YOU think?" Ranma
asked as he decided to hop onto a fence as he could better keep an eye
on Ryoga from up there.

"Um, yes?"

Ranma groaned. "We're not! Okay!"

Ryoga smirked. So the little thief had a sensitive point. "Why
would you get so angry if you weren't?"

"Ah, shut up," Ranma said, shaking his head. "And I am NOT
angry."

"So then you won't mind if I go out with her?" Ryoga asked.
<Damn, I hope he buys that.>

Ranma thought about what to say for a quick second. <I can't say
I don't mind, but if I say I do, he'll think...> Then, Ranma suddenly
had a flash of inspiration. "Look Ryoga, I know it'll be hard for ya,
but try ta be sensitive; I met her by beating up a buncha bullies so...
maybe she's in shock or something." Ranma stopped congratulating himself
and gave himself a mental smack. <Idiot! In shock?! What kinda lame ex-
cuse is that?!>

Fortunately for Ranma, Ryoga seemed to have missed anything that
might appear suspicious and become more thoughtful. "Don't worry, I'm
not planning to do anything." <Except humiliate you.> "Heh heh heh..."

Ranma stared at Ryoga nervously for a few seconds. He didn't
like the way Ryoga was laughing silently to himself.

Pushing it out of his mind, he turned back around and continued
walking, glancing at Ryoga every now and then to make sure he was still
following. Every now and then, he had to shout at Ryoga to come back be-
fore he wandered off. Each time, Ryoga muttered something about humil-
iating Ranma. Ranma decided to ignore the comments and kept on walking
on the fence.

"Why are you walking up there, anyways?" Ryoga asked curiously
and with a touch of annoyance. He was probably just trying to show off.

"Well, it's fun," Ranma replied, shrugging and glad that Ryoga
wasn't saying anything weird. "And balance practice, I guess."

"Practice..." Ryoga said thoughtfully. "You wanna spar
tomorrow?"

Ranma smirked. "I'd love to."


Hotaru nearly ran home but decided against it as it would make
her tired. She had also considered walking on a fence, like Ranma, but
had decided against that too. The students around her would have
probably considered it weird, but she really didn't care; she was
already beyond redemption in their eyes. No, she more afraid that she
may have a seizure up there, and Ranma wouldn't be up there to catch
her. So she settled for a brisk walk home. Ranma said that he would
visit after school and she wanted to be home when he did get there.

The school day had gone by so very slowly for her. She was
already very far ahead of her classes so she didn't pay much attention
to the teacher. And the other students were just as cold and scared of
her as ever. In fact, some of them seemed even more scared. Hotaru also
noticed that the student who Ranma had beat up was absent.

Reaching her house, Hotaru unlocked the door, immediately
sprinted into her room and put her books on her desk. She then turned on
all her lamps and took a moment to admire the way it made her room look
so... mysterious. <I hope Ranma likes it...>

Then the pale girl heard the bell ring. <That must be him! I
hope Kaolinte doesn't scare him off...> She quietly berated herself for
an idiot for that thought. <He beat up six boys, Kaolinite won't scare
him.>

Hotaru changed out of her school uniform. The snug outfit she
now wore covered everything except for her hands and face. And except
for the short skirt, which was more of a gray color, it was all black.
After checking to make sure everything was neat and tidy in her room,
she opened her door and walked down the stairs towards the living room,
where she was sure they would be.


Ranma and Ryoga walked up to the door of Hotaru's house slowly,
both of them a inspecting the huge place with some awe.

"She lives here?" Ryoga asked as he reached the door.

"Yeah, the place looks even bigger in daylight..." Ranma said.
Then he snapped out of his thoughts and decided to ring the bell.

"Alright Ryoga, best behavior." Ranma commanded, his voice full
of mock sternness.

"What?! Are you implying that my behavior isn't good?" Ryoga de-
manded, turning to Ranma with a clenched fist.

"Shut up!" Ranma hissed. "This is NOT the time!"

Ryoga reluctantly turned back around, mentally swearing that he
would humiliate Ranma later.

Just as Ryoga finished that thought and turned back to face the
house, one of the large doors to the house slowly sung open.

Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw who had opened
the door. A woman dressed in red with long, red hair pulled back in some
sort of a pony-tail. His danger-sense(which wasn't too much at his cur-
rent age of fifteen.) had suddenly skyrocketed into the very-bad-things
section when the woman had appeared. It took all of his will power not
to immediately launch into a devastating offensive combination of at-
tacks that would have killed her five times over. He didn't like to
fight with girls, but if his fledgling danger-sense could sense some-
thing of that magnitude, well, it's gotta be bad.

"May I have your names, please?" the woman asked, her voice soft
and polite.

Ranma felt his danger-sense slowly inch back into the normal
range as he stood there, speechless for a few seconds, in a slightly
defensive position. <Was it just a... fluke?> He glance over at Ryoga
and saw that he, too seemed a bit edgy. <Or maybe not...>

Then, Hotaru's father appeared and Ranma relaxed a little bit
more, as nothing involving mass violence had yet occurred. "What is it?
Do we have guests?" Then he noticed Ranma. "Oh, you're Hotaru's friend."
He said, smiling kindly.

The woman seemed a bit surprised. "Hotaru's friend?" Everybody
ignored her.

Ryoga was the first one to respond. "Uh, g-good afternoon, sir."

"Good afternoon, young man." Hotaru's father replied.

Ranma shook his head and spoke. He was being edgy over nothing.
"Um, yeah, good afternoon."

"This is my assistant Kaolinite." He gestured to the red-haired
lady. "Kaolinite, please show our guests to the living room to wait for
Hotaru."

"Yes, Professor," the lady replied as Professor Tomoe turned
around and walked away. Then she turned to Ranma and Ryoga. "Please fol-
low me." The lady turned around and started walking away. Ranma and
Ryoga took off their shoes and followed her, Ryoga closing the door be-
hind him.

Once they were in the living room, Kaolinite pointed to a sofa,
"Please wait here."

"Uh, sure," Ranma replied as the red-head walked away. When he
was sure the strange woman was out of hearing-range, and then some,
Ranma to Ryoga. "Um, did you..." He trailed off.

Ryoga nodded. "She... she's..." Ryoga struggled to find the
right word to describe what he had felt. Evil? Dangerous? A very bad
thing? "There's something about her," he said at last.

Ranma mentally sighed in relief, glad that he wasn't the only
one who felt something. Then he leaned back comfortably on the couch,
allowing himself to forget about Kaolinite and looked around the living
room with curiosity. "Nice place..." he commented.

"Yeah..." Ryoga agreed, his earlier tenseness quickly fading. He
wasn't used to feeling... like that and was glad to forget about it.

"Lot of it's just useless junk, though." Ranma continued,
noticing the vases, dishes and paintings.

"They're supposed to make the house look better," Ryoga replied.

"Well, then I guess they're aren't all that useless..." Ranma
trailed off. "But I wouldn't buy 'em."

"You'd probably steal it." Ryoga said, scowling.

"Will you just forget about that damn bread already?" Ranma
asked in irritation as he reached for a plate of candy on the table.

"No!"

Ranma popped the strawberry-flavored piece of candy in his
mouth, pocketed the wrapper and sighed, sucking on the food.

Then the one of the doors opened and Ranma and Ryoga both turned
around as Hotaru stepped out.

Ranma choked on his piece of candy and had to force it out of
his throat and crush the thing with his teeth before swallowing it.

"Ranma!" Hotaru exclaimed, walking over to Ranma. "You came!"

Ranma took in a few deep breathes before speaking. "Uh, yeah.
You, er look nice," he said nervously, taking a few more breaths.

Hotaru gave a slight blush, barely even noticeable and certainly
not seen by Ranma, who was busy catching his breath. Then she looked
over at Ryoga, who was snickering silently. "Is he your friend?" Hotaru
asked a little nervously. All the boys she knew before Ranma had always
treated her coldly at best.

The reaction from Ryoga was instantaneous as he jumped to his
feet, shaking a fist at Ranma. "Ranma is NOT my friend!" Ryoga shouted.
Then he turned to Ranma. "I'm only here so you can repay me for stealing
my bread!"

"Aw, give it a rest already, Ryoga!" Ranma replied in
irritation. "That piece 'a bread was in the air, it wasn't nobody's
bread, and it sure wasn't yours!"

"Of course it was!" Ryoga argued. "Only a thief like you would
steal it like that!"

"I am NOT a thief!"

"Then why did you steal my bread!"

"It was NOT your bread!"

"Yes it was!" Ryoga dove at Ranma, trying to strangle the
'truth' out of him. "Admit it!"

Ranma nimbly jumped aside, letting Ryoga hit the sofa with a
soft and cushioned thud. "No, that bread was in the air! It was fair
game!" Ryoga spun around, just about ready to rip Ranma's head off.

Before he could, however, Hotaru burst out in giggles. Ranma and
Ryoga instantly froze as the cheerful sound reached their ears and
slowly turned towards Hotaru. "Uh, what's so funny." Ranma asked slowly.
He hadn't known Hotaru too long, but from what he had been able to gat-
her, she didn't seem like the kind to giggle a lot.

"It's funny the way you two argue," Hotaru replied, her soft and
uplifting giggles still trickling forth and easing the tension between
the two martial artist before her.

Ryoga and Ranma simultaneously blinked. "It is?"

Hotaru stopped her giggling and straightened up, smiling. "I'm
sorry, my name is Hotaru Tomoe, welcome to my home." Then she gestured
to the Sofa. "Please have a seat."

Ranma and Ryoga both sat back down. Then Ryoga remembered his
plan to humiliate Ranma. "So you're Ranma's girlfriend?" he asked,
smirking.

Hotaru blushed and looked at the ground while Ranma whacked
Ryoga on the head. "Shut up Ryoga!" the boy shouted. "We just met
yesterday!"

Ryoga ignored Ranma and continued on. "Ranma and I just met and
all the way here, Ranma kept blabbing on and on about how cute you were.
And how nice you are and all these other corny stuff." Hotaru's blush
deepened and she stared at the ground in embarrassment.

<Damn.> Ryoga thought. <I'm just embarrassing Hotaru, Ranma's
not being affected at all.> "And he was also telling me about how he
fantasized about kiss-" Ryoga's words were cut off when Ranma pounced at
him and knocked him to the ground. Ranma then pinned the boy down and
clasped a hand over his mouth, expecting the him to try to break free.
Ryoga didn't.

Ranma looked at Hotaru nervously. "Heh heh, ignore him, he's
just trying to get back at me for beating him or something." Hotaru
nodded and looked back up. However, she still avoided trying to make
eye-contact with Ranma.

Ranma looked down at Ryoga, who was obviously trying laugh. The
young martial-artist didn't see what was so funny about embarrassing
both him and Hotaru, however. "Are ya gonna shut up now, Ryoga?" Ryoga
nodded and Ranma stood back up, releasing Ryoga. Ryoga immediately burst
out laughing and Ranma chose to ignore him and scowled. He instead went
over to get his books as Ryoga got to his feet and sat down on the sofa,
chuckling.

"Can I leave these somewhere?" Ranma asked, indicating his
books.

Hotaru took a few seconds to compose himself before answering.
"Yes, let's go to my room."

Ranma nodded and Ryoga was about to say something to embarrass
Ranma when a cold voice that sent shivers down both their spines spoke
out by the door. "I'll take this tea to your room then," came
Kaolinite's emotionless voice.

Ranma once again resisted the urge to start pounding the woman
and, instead, inched closer to Hotaru and shifted his weight slightly
to allow quicker access to Hotaru in case Kaolinite did turn up to be a
monster in disguise or something. Ranma glanced at Ryoga and could tell
that he had slipped into a more defensive position, the amused expres-
sion on his face gone. The biggest surprise, however, was when he looked
at Hotaru. Her face was narrowed in anger and she seemed, well, angry.

After a few seconds, Hotaru walked forward, grabbed the tray of
tea from Kaolinite and said, her voice filled with ice, "It's alright,
don't stick your nose into my household Kaolinite." Then she stepped
past her disappeared into the hallway behind her.

Ranma and Ryoga looked at each other questioningly as Kaolinite
also disappeared somewhere and quickly ran to catch up with Hotaru.
They followed her up to the second floor of the house where she finally
slowed down back to a normal pace. Was Kaolinte really so bad that a
sweet girl like Hotaru would... dislike her?

"I'm sorry," Hotaru apologized. "My father is a Scientist," she
said as she headed down the hallway, Ranma and Ryoga listening to her
intently. "He's so busy with his projects that she comes over to help.
But..." Hotaru trailed off, remembering all the times Kaolinite had been
mean to her.

Ranma spoke up. "Well, if it makes ya feel better, I don't like
her. She..." Ranma trailed off. <She what? Scares me...? Heck no!> "I
just don't trust her. Ryoga too, I think." The Lost Boy nodded when
Hotaru looked at him.

Hotaru smiled. "Thank you, Ranma."

Then Ryoga realized something. "Hotaru, don't you have a
mother?"

Ranma and Hotaru both paused. Ranma never though much about not
seeing Hotaru's mom around because he had been living with just his own
father for so long. Then he noticed the sad expression on Hotaru's face
and was instantly worried.

"My mother..." Hotaru began. "She died a long time ago."

Ryoga immediately felt guilty for bringing such an obviously
painful subject up. "Um, I'm sorry for bringing up the subject..."

Hotaru continued walking again. "It's okay." She said as she
stopped in front of a door and opened it, stepping inside. "Besides, I
want to know more about you two."

Ranma followed Hotaru inside and looked around, his face
lighting up with awe as he took in the dimly-lit room. It was pitch
black, with the windows covered by curtains. Or it would have been, if
not for numerous lamps were placed at various locations, shining softly
and instilling a sense of mysterious peace to those watching. The peace
of calm, soft silence and soothing, resting darkness. The mysteriousness
of the lamps, glowing softly like miniature stars, some apparently in
mid-air at first-glance.

Ranma stared around, caught unprepared for such a unique atmos-
phere. "Wow," Ranma breathed out in awe. The room reminded him of the
nights he had traveling on the road. "This is... cool. I didn't know you
could get a place to look so... cool with just a buncha lamps."

Hotaru smiled. "Thank you." She then went over to put the tea
down and walked over by Ranma. "I like to collect lamps," she said
simply.

"Well, I like your room," Ranma replied simply.

"So do I," Ryoga added, as he looked around. He would have never
been able to make his room like this. Especially with his sense of
direction...

Hotaru then reached out and took hold of Ranma's books, wanting
to have a look at them. Ranma just reacted on instinct and released his
hold on the books when he felt it being tugged with barely a thought
other than to identify that it was Hotaru who wanted the books. Hotaru
was clear, and so the books were given.

Hotaru quickly glanced over the covers of the books curiously.
She was pleased to see that the History book was a high-level one. Not
that that meant much as there weren't really 'levels of History'. The
Math and Science books, however, weren't exactly Junior High School
level. She immediately had a sneaking suspicion as to the reasons.

"Ranma," Hotaru began. "You and Ryoga go to the same school,
right?"

Ranma shrugged as he looked over the room in fascination, "Yeah,
so?" The similar uniforms was a dead giveaway to someone with a brain.
And Hotaru seemed like the type to specialize in that area.

"Why do you have books and not Ryoga?" Hotaru asked.

Ranma stopped inspecting Hotaru's room and sweatdropped. "Uh..."

Ryoga turned his own gaze and looked at Ranma curiously. "Yeah,
Ranma, why DO you bring all those books home?" Ryoga inquired.

"That is..." Ranma said nervously. He didn't exactly want them
to think he was stupid. <What am I gonna say? Maybe I can tell Hotaru,
but I'd probably never hear the end of it from Ryoga!>

Hotaru looked at Ranma curiously. "Hmmm?"

"I'm, uh, a little behind 'cause I haven't been to school this
school before, so I, uh, gotta... catch up," Ranma said, not going into
too much detail. He couldn't bring himself to lie to Hotaru, but he
wasn't about to embarrass himself in front of Ryoga either. <Please let
them buy that! Please let them buy that!>

Hotaru looked back down at the books in her hands. Then she
looked back at Ranma and saw that he was staring nervously at Ryoga and
she suddenly understood. She put the books down and shot Ranma a look
that said they would have to talk about it later.

Ranma mentally breathed a sigh of relief. Hotaru understood.
Then he cringed. <I hope she doesn't think I'm stupid or nothing.>

The three stood in silence for awhile before Ryoga spoke up. "So
when are you going to pay me back for stealing my bread, Ranma." He
demanded.

"Oh yeah!" Ranma snapped his fingers and spun to face Hotaru.
"Hotaru, you wanna go and eat?"

"W-what?" Hotaru asked. That had been a little fast and she
didn't think she had heard correctly. He couldn't have invited her to
go eat with him; nobody ever did anything like that with her anymore.
Even her father...

"Would ya like to go eat with me an Ryoga?" Ranma repeated his
question, eager to get a move on. He was pretty sure Hotaru wouldn't
refuse. He would never have refused a free meal. Then he realized some-
thing else and sighed. Free for them, maybe... "Don't worry, I'm pay-
ing," he added, a little despondent.

Hotaru stared at Ranma. Somebody was being... nice to her.
Nobody had ever been so nice to her for the longest time. And here was
this boy, asking her to go eat with him and his friend. In her
experience, boys tended to be the more cruel of her classmates. Last
night had proved that. And yet here was a boy, who had rescued her and
carried her to a hospital. And here he was... Hotaru smiled. Here was
Ranma, her friend. And Ryoga, someone who had been much kinder to her
than most other people.

"Uh, so... do you?" Ranma asked, starting to feel weird with
Hotaru staring at him like that. Not that he really minded, but it
didn't look like she was really seeing him. It was more like she was
deep in thought or something.

Hotaru beamed her cutest smile at Ranma, who actually staggered
back a step, overwhelmed by the sight. "I'd love to!" She then hurried
over to her wardrobe to dig out a coat as Ranma tried to recover from
her unintentional assault. His mouth almost opened up for an insult
against the girl as that had been a sort of attack and he had been
trained to fight back against any and all attacks. However, all thoughts
about Hotaru that had even a touch of negative power were quickly melted
down and converted to something useful by the facts that she was his,
probably only, friend and hadn't attacked him. In fact, the smile had
been rather pleasant...

Ryoga snickered, walked over by Ranma and whispered into his
ear. "You're already asking her on a date? I thought you just met
yesterday?" Ranma elbowed Ryoga in his gut with enough force to show him
he was serious and told him to "shut up."


An hour later, Ranma, Hotaru and Ryoga walked out of the donut
shop, Ranma a little disgruntled because he had just spent all of his
money. One look at Hotaru's happy face immediately made up for all of
that. The money was just going to go towards food or clothes, anyways.
And his current dress was apparently fine as it had survived the
several small fights that had broken out between him and Ryoga and de-
layed them on the way to the store.

"Well, what now?" Ranma asked no one in particular.

Ryoga shrugged. "You kept your part of the bargain, so I suppose
I should be heading back home now."

An image of Ryoga trudging through snow-covered plains in the
middle of a storm flashed through Ranma's head. "Um, I think we'd better
walk you home," he said. "Ryoga has a lousy sense of direction," he
explained when Hotaru looked at him questioningly.

"I do not!" Ryoga protested.

"Fine, whatever, where do you live, then?" Ranma asked.

"That way," Ryoga pointed back at the store they had just come
from.

Ranma and Hotaru both sweatdropped. "Um, why don't you just tell
us where you live," Ranma suggested.

It was Ryoga's turn to sweatdrop.

Several hours later, Ranma, Hotaru and Ryoga stood in front of a
large house. Hotaru was breathing a little faster than normal and Ranma
and Ryoga's clothes were in disarray. The place wasn't as big as
Hotaru's but it was still a nice, two story home.

"You've got a nice house," Ranma commented, glad that they had
finally found the blasted place, as it was starting to get dark.

He had had a general idea of how bad Ryoga's sense of direction
was, but he hadn't really seen it in action on this scale; it was almost
unbelievable. Still, it had been pretty fun, in his opinion. Running
away from large, vicious animals or guards was actually enjoyable when
he was with people other than Genma. People he really liked. Even having
Ryoga curse at him as he ran across the fencetops, Hotaru in his arms,
had been exhilarating.

And Hotaru. Good ol' Hotaru. At first, he had been worried that
she wouldn't like wandering around town so much, running away from or
brawling with various mammals. But she had enjoyed the whole thing, she
had even said so herself once they had found Ryoga's house. Sure, she
was tired, but not that much, as Ranma had carried her whenever they ran
for anything other than short distances. And they had run a LOT.

"I suppose," Ryoga said in answer to Ranma's comment. "Whenever
I can find it." He admitted ruefully. "And even when I do, there's
almost always no one home."

Then Ryoga walked up to the door to his house and reached into a
pocket, searching for something. He eventually took out a small key. "I
haven't used this in weeks." After unlocking and opening the door, he
stepped inside and immediately turned towards the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Hotaru called after Ryoga.

"My room," was the reply.

Ranma and Hotaru stepped inside the dark house, locking the door behind
them, and went after Ryoga, who was standing in the kitchen scratching
his head. "Where'd they move my room?" he asked in confusion.

"Where exactly is your room?" Hotaru asked.

"Second floor, third door to the right," Ryoga replied.

Ranma smacked his head and grabbed Ryoga, pulling him towards
the stairs, Hotaru following behind. Once they reached the correct door,
Ranma opened the door and turned on the lights inside the room. It was
a pretty bare room with a bed, dresser, a LOT of weights and a desk with
some books and pencils on it. There was also a closet and a door that
probably led to a bathroom.

"My room..." Ryoga said softly. "I haven't been here in almost a
month..."

"Yeah, well you just stay here, Ryoga. I'll drop by ta take you
to school tomorrow. Just leave your window open," Ranma said.

"I don't need your help." Ryoga said, some anger showing.

"Yeah, whatever Ryoga," Ranma replied. "We'll be going now."

"Goodnight Ryoga," Hotaru said, smiling.

"Windows open!"

Then the two were gone, the door closed. Ryoga stood there for a
few moments, staring at the closed door. "I don't need his help," he
repeated. After an introspective moment, he went over and his window
open. "But I'll take it anyways."

Outside, in the darkening streets, Ranma and Hotaru walked
towards Hotaru's home, Ranma whistling cheerfully. Once he saw some
fences, he jumped ontop and turned towards Hotaru. "You wanna come up?"

Hotaru nodded. "Of course."

Once again, Ranma bent down and pulled Hotaru up, startling her
with his speed and gentleness yet again. Again, he let her walk in front
of him. The two walked on in comfortable silence as it got darker and
Ranma decided that he would have to take her rooftop hopping one day. A
few passing pedestrians also glanced at the odd couple curiously but
said nothing.

After awhile, however, Hotaru said something. "Are you having
trouble in school Ranma?"

Ranma started sweating. "Um, not exactly..." He trailed off.

"You said you were trying to catch up with the other students,"
continued Hotaru.

"Uh... so?" Ranma tried.

Hotaru suddenly giggled. "Don't be so nervous, Ranma. I'm not
going to think you're stupid."

"The truth?" Ranma said hesitantly.

"Yes, you haven't been paying attention in class, have you?"
Hotaru asked teasingly.

"Well, not exactly..." said Ranma again, trailing off.

Hotaru frowned a bit. "Exactly what do you mean by 'not
exactly'?" Ranma was acting too nervous for this to just be problems in
school. Even if he was pretty far behind in Math and Science.

Ranma sighed in defeat. "Alright, to tell you the truth, I
haven't been to school in more than nine years."

Hotaru almost fell of the fence in surprise, but was caught by
Ranma. "Nine years?" she repeated, getting back up and facing Ranma.

Ranma looked ashamed. "Well, me and my old man've been traveling
around since I was six or something. We never stayed in a place too long
before, so I never went to school."

Hotaru regarded Ranma for a moment. She supposed it wasn't too
surprising that someone as good at martial arts as him would be lacking
in the academic area. He must have studied martial arts exclusively all
his life. Then again, his history was good and the other areas were
higher than what you would expect for someone who hadn't been to school
for... How long? Nine years? That meant he hadn't been to school since
he was six! It was amazing that he was where he was considering that!

Well, Ranma might need some encouragement. "Don't feel so bad,
Ranma. You're very smart, especially for someone who hasn't been to
school in nine years. That history book was a very high-level one," she
said comfortingly.

Ranma snorted. "What about Math an' Science? And I'm still
pretty far behind in everything else. And on toppa that, I gotta take
this test or something in, what? Two weeks? Geez..."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Hotaru assured Ranma. "You're very
intelligent."

"Huh?" Ranma said in surprise. "Me? Intelligent?" Yeah right.
His ego was big, but Ranma could admit to himself that he wasn't exactly
an... what was that guys name? Einstein? Yeah, that guy who made that
stupid bomb.

"Of course." Hotaru said confidently. "Uneducated but intel-
ligent."

"Um... is there a difference?"

Hotaru thought for a quick second on how to explain it to her
friend. "I mean that you're bright, but there are a lot of things you
don't know."

Ranma nodded his head in understanding, seeing what Hotaru was
getting at. "Oh." It was like when he first started out in martial arts.
Or even just a few years ago. He had a lot of talent in the Art, he just
hadn't learned a lot about it yet. Heck, that was still true now. But
for all that school stuff? Him?

Seeing that Ranma apparently understood what she had said,
Hotaru turned back around and started walking gracefully forward again,
Ranma close behind. "Are you going to stay after-school for help?" she
asked after awhile, already knowing pretty much exactly what had
happened. But she decided she need to be inconspicuous in doing what she
was about to do.

Ranma shook his head. "No way! I don't wanna stay in school any
longer than I have to."

"So what did the teacher suggest?" Hotaru questioned.

Ranma shrugged. "He said something about getting a tutor, but
I'm just gonna try to figure it out myself."

Hotaru smiled and became thoughtful as the two walked on some more in
silence, the sky getting darker and darker. After a short while, Hotaru
spoke again. "I'd be happy to tutor you, Ranma." Ranma froze in mid-
step. On a fence. Which is a LOT harder than it sounds. But defying
gravity was a Saotome specialty.

Hotaru, not hearing Ranma's footsteps behind her, turned around
and looked at Ranma worriedly. "What's wrong Ranma? You... don't have
to let me tutor you if you don't want to." The last part coming out a
little sadly.

Pros and cons regarding accepting Hotaru's offer flashed through
Ranma's head. Foremost on the cons section was: He didn't need help and
he didn't need help from a girl.

Then on the Pros: You DO need help. And you're going to get help
from Hotaru. Hotaru is you're friend, you should spend more time with
you're friends.

"I don't wanna bother you or nuthin'," Ranma said after a long
second. <Idiot! That's never stopped you before!>

Hotaru smiled. Was that all? "Don't worry about that, it'll be
fun, anyway."

<Fun for who?> Ranma thought, not liking the idea of studying.
Then he realized something. <If Hotaru's there, I guess it would be
fun.> Ranma looked back up into Hotaru's kind, purple eyes. In them he
could see concern and hope. Hope? Thinking about it a little longer,
Ranma came to a decision. Hotaru was his first friend in nine years.
Even if they'd only known each other for about a day, Ranma felt... a
bond with her. If Hotaru wanted to tutor him, how could he refuse? So
Ranma smiled. "Sure, I'll be glad to let ya tutor me." And didn't that
Einstein guy study at home and fail math or something?

Hotaru smiled back. "Let's start today, okay?" Then she started
walking gracefully down the fence again, this time with a much faster
pace.

"Today?!" Ranma asked incredulously.

Hotaru nodded. "The test is in two weeks, right?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess."

"Then you have a lot of catching up to do and not much time to
do it in." Hotaru concluded. "Let's go back to my house." With that
Hotaru broke out into a sprint.

Ranma was instantly worried. "Hotaru, slow down, you'll get
tired!"

Hotaru shouted back. "Then you'll catch me, right?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Hotaru said, continuing with her
running. Ranma, followed behind, careful to catch Hotaru should she get
tired.

Hotaru ran, secure in the knowledge that her friend would help
her when she got tired. It was fun running up here. She loved it. <If
only I were strong enough to run longer...> she thought sadly as she ran
on, looking to her side every now and then to enjoy the view. <So dif-
ferent...>

Ranma ran behind Hotaru, a little annoyed but otherwise enjoying
himself. <She's lasting longer than before.> The two continued running
along the fence for awhile longer and Ranma noticed that Hotaru was
starting to slow down and breathe harder.

<I... can't go on much... longer...> Hotaru gasped and fell,
down: Into Ranma's arms. She stared into Ranma's eyes, catching her
breath as he lifted her up, carrying her again. <They're blue...> She
observed as she felt herself moving.

"Geez, why'd you do that, Hotaru?" Ranma asked as he hopped over
onto a fence and headed towards his friend's home.

"W-why... do you do it?" Hotaru said through her quick breaths.

"Yeah but..." Ranma trailed off, trying to think of a polite way
to say that Hotaru was weak. It was strange, actually. Normally, Ranma
would have just said exactly what was on his mind and to hell with the
consequences. He had even thought a little bit when he had talked to
Ryoga. <Weird.>

Hotaru looked at Ranma intently, catching her breath. He was ob-
viously trying to think of something to say that wouldn't insult her.
<That's... sweet of him...> Nobody had been that considerate of her in
a long time. "But I'm... weak, right?" Hotaru asked.

"Uh, I didn't mean ta hurt your feelings or nuthin'," Ranma said
nervously.

"That's... okay... I'm used... to it," Hotaru replied tiredly.

Ranma mentally sighed in relief and then mentally kicked himself
a moment later when he realized something. "No, Hotaru, it ain't okay.
It ain't right for someone ta insult ya. I'm... sorry... okay?" Ranma
said, the last part more defensively than he wanted.

Hotaru stared at Ranma in surprise for several long moments as
he purposely looked at something other than her nervously. Then she
shifted into a more comfortable position. She had figured that Ranma
wasn't the type to have an easy time apologizing about anything. <He's
right... I'm so used to people insulting me that...> "Thank you, Ranma."

Ranma laughed weakly as he ran onwards. "Uh, yeah. No problem."
Hotaru smiled and relaxed, deciding to enjoy the trip home.



Ranma sat on a chair at Hotaru's desk, silently mulling over the
problem before him. Hotaru was on another chair next to him. In front of
Ranma was a piece of paper with a few messy equations scribbled on in
pencil.

Ranma stared at on of the equations intently. Hotaru waited pat-
iently. Ranma stared intently. Hotaru waited patiently. Ranma stared
intently. Hotaru waited patiently. Ranma stared-

"Argh!" He shouted in frustration, ripping his gaze from the
incomprehensible problem before him. "I don't get it!"

Hotaru smiled. "It's easy, Ranma-"

Ranma cut her off. "See, even you think I'm stupid! I can't even
get something as easy as that!" He gave a sigh filled with frustration.

Hotaru frowned. That just wasn't true. Ranma had been picking up
the concepts rather quickly. He just tended to vent his frustration
rather loudly when he didn't understand something.

"That's not what I said, Ranma," Hotaru said. "You're doing very
well, you just have to keep trying."

Ranma looked at Hotaru doubtfully. "I don't know."

"Trust me." Hotaru smiled softly.

Ranma looked at Hotaru for a few seconds. "Well, if ya say so."
Something about her made him want to trust her. Maybe it was because
they were friends. Only for about 24 hours so far, but that hardly mat-
tered.

Hotaru nodded. "Here, let me go over the it again."


Ranma entered he and Genma's apartment and immediately headed
for the bath. He had already had dinner; Hotaru had dug up some food for
him when she heard his stomach mentioning it's need for sustenance.

Soaking in the warm bath, Ranma smiled. The last two days had
probably been some of the best of his life. He hadn't felt this good
since... since Ucchan. He now had one, hopefully two new friends. His
only friends, actually.

Ranma let his thoughts wander for a little bit. He had left his
books at Hotaru's house as he was going to go there everyday after
school to study with her. <I wish I could do something ta help her...>
Hotaru was just so nice. He felt like he should do something in return
for her. <I wonder if I should bring Ryoga along with me?> Ranma mused
over that for a bit. <Nah, I'll just spar with him for awhile after
school before I go ta Hotaru's. I need ta stay in shape...>

After awhile, Ranma stood up. <Well I guess I'd better get some
sleep now.> Quickly drying and changing into his boxers and shirt, Ranma
headed to his already set sleeping bag and fell asleep two seconds after
he was in. The two seconds used to get comfortable. <Man am I glad we've
got carpet...>

Shortly after, Genma entered the apartment and, after tossing a
P.E uniform nearby, he went into the bathroom. A little while later, a
much cleaner Genma came out and dropped onto his sleeping bag, falling
asleep on contact and snoring loudly.

Over at the Tomoe household, Hotaru Tomoe was in a bliss-filled
sleep involving her 'adventures' that day. Professor Soichi Tomoe was
laughing maniacally as a silent Kaolinite stood behind him.


*************************


Ranma sat in his chair, listening intently to the lecture about
the Second World War. He already knew a lot about Japanese history, but
World History was a bit dim to him.

"And as the Americans had so much of their fleet in Pearl Harbor
the Japanese military launched a surprise attack early that morning."

Ranma thought about it. It was smart, he gave it that much.
Launching a surprise attack when most of the enemy was in one spot.

"However, the Japanese government had not yet declared war..."

Ranma frowned. Launching a surprise attack at non-hostile people
wasn't right: a coward's way. It was almost the same as fighting a non-
combatant.

"The United States declared war on Japan the next day and on
Germany and Italy soon after..."

He didn't blame them. If someone just attacked him outta the
blue for no reason, he'd be pretty pissed.

"Some people excuse the whole thing with the old saying 'All is
fair in love and war'."

Ranma frowned again. There was a point, he supposed. War wasn't
like a man to man duel. There were many more lives at risk and there
wasn't room for things like 'being fair'. But then... Ranma raised his
hand.

Mr.Kumagai was pleased that his new student was paying attention
in class. He was even more pleased when that same student raised his
hand. If only he would pay attention in the other classes. He had al-
ready had to knock the boy awake twice that morning. "Yes, Mr.Saotome."

"But we weren't at war with the United States yet so that's
kinda dumb ain't it?"

Mr.Kumagai smiled. "Yes, Mr.Saotome. I'm glad to see that you're
being observant."

Ranma shrugged. He would've thought that the other students
would have noticed something so blatantly obvious.

Some of those other students were surprised that Ranma, who had
fought with Ryoga yesterday and was still standing was so interested in
such a boring class. They had expected him to be some kind of dumb jock
interested only in fighting. Even though Ryoga had proven that he wasn't
an idiot, they had known him for a long time and been used to it.


Ranma stood in front of Ryoga, finishing up the piece of bread.
The later was standing there with two footprints on his face and glaring
at Ranma with anger. "Ranma you little thief!" He screamed in rage, the
rest of the students in the cafeteria backing away nervously. "That was
my bread!"

Ranma smiled, which only served to further enrage the Lost Boy.
"It was in the air, Ryoga; it was fair game. And don't tell me you
haven't eaten for three days or nuthin' either 'cause I fed you yester-
day."

"Damn you Ranma!" Ryoga shouted, shaking his fist, not knowing
what else to say as Ranma had a point.

Ranma, after tossing a piece of plastic wrapping in a conven-
iently-placed trash can, dragged Ryoga outside.

Once out in the open, Ranma let go and turned to Ryoga who, by
now, had calmed down a little bit. "So, you wanna spar?" Ranma asked.

Ryoga smirked and, without answering, rushed at Ranma and threw
several punches capable of breaking through walls at his head.

Ranma, though a little surprised, dodged all of them and jumped
back to a safe distance. "Geez, ya coulda warned me. I did take ya to
school in the morning." Ranma remembered what happened then, though.
After knocking Ryoga awake, they had proceeded with another 'sparing'
session and nearly been late for school.

"A real man wouldn't have needed a warning," Ryoga responded,
adrenaline pumping through him. This was an opponent he didn't need to
hold back on. Someone who could take one of his punches if they hit.

Ranma's thoughts quickly turned to Pearl Harbor when he heard
what Ryoga had said. He just as quickly dismissed all those thoughts. He
had said what he said out of reflex more than anything.

At the end of the Lunch period, Ranma pulled a shocked Ryoga to
his feet and proceeded to drag him to his class. <H-he beat me...> Was
Ryoga's only thought.


Ranma whistled cheerfully as he walked down the fence, Ryoga
following along.

"What're you so happy about?" Ryoga asked, annoyed that Ranma
could be so happy when he was so frustrated. He had just lost a fight,
damnit!

Images flashed through Ranma's head as he considered an answer
to Ryoga's question. There were many images, and many of these images
had Hotaru in them somehow. So Ranma just shrugged. "Life in general."

Ryoga nodded and decided to ask Ranma what had been on his mind
for quite awhile now. "Lets have a rematch."


Ranma, his clothes in disarray and his hair a mess walked away
from Ryoga's house, breathing heavily and then, when he was sure he was
far away enough from the house that there was absolutely no chance Ryoga
could see him, he slumped down and leaned back on a fence. "I showed
that... idiot... Ryoga who's best..." he panted. He had won again, but
Ryoga had put up a heck of lot more fight this time around.

After catching his breath, Ranma stood up, straightened his
clothes and fixed his hair somewhat. Then he smiled and hopped on the
fence, heading towards Hotaru's house. <I love a good match.>


Hotaru sat patiently in the living room, waiting for Ranma to
come by. After she had come home from school, she had breezed through
all of her homework, changed clothes, and ran down to the living room to
wait for Ranma. She was a little disappointed that she had been waiting
for ten minutes already and Ranma still hadn't come.

Then, Kaolinite entered the room and Hotaru was instantly stiff.
Maybe if she just ignored her, Kaolinte would go away. It didn't work.
It never worked. "What are you waiting for, Hotaru?"

Hotaru looked at something other than the red-headed 'lady' and
coldly replied, "Mind your own business, Kaolinte."

"My my, I'm just curious," Kaolinite said with mock hurt.

"..."

"Are you waiting for that young man to come?"

"..."

"Don't tell me you're in love with him?" Kaolinite raised a hand
to her mouth and seemed to radiate shock. "What would your father
think?"

"W-what?!" Hotaru finally responded, turning to Kaolinite, shock
written on her face.

Kaolinite smirked. She, of course, knew what the girl was think-
ing, but she enjoyed irritating the brat. "Don't act so surprised, it's
obvious that you're in love with him."

Hotaru composed herself and realized that Kaolinite was just
being mean to her again. "Leave me alone and mind your own business,
Kaolinite."

But the red-head wasn't quite done yet. "He probably doesn't
even like you."

"Leave me alone!" Hotaru shouted, getting angry. "And I'm NOT in
love with him!" Why did Kaolinite always have to pick on her?!

Kaolinite gave a smirk that she knew Hotaru hated and walked
off, laughing. "You don't even have the courage to admit it to
yourself."

Hotaru turned around, staring at a Vase intently, trying to
think calm thoughts. <That... that... bully!> Just as Hotaru was about
to sink into a chain of familiar depressing thoughts, the doorbell rang.
Hotaru shot to her feet and ran to the door, her negative thoughts
floating away into nothingness like a hydrogen-filled balloon.

Hotaru swung the door open and promptly fell down, gasping, into
two strong arms.

"Hotaru, what's wrong?" Ranma asked in concern as he carried the
gasping girl to the living room, shutting the door with a foot.

"N-nothing..." Hotaru replied as Ranma put her down on a sofa.

"..." Ranma looked at Hotaru doubtfully but didn't argue.

Ranma sat down and waited patiently. <She's been running or
something.> Ranma determined. Ranma stared at Hotaru and waited. And
waited.

After a few more moments, Hotaru caught her breath and stood up.
"Shall we go now?"

Ranma shrugged. "If you're alright, I guess."

Hotaru smiled and turned around, heading to her room.


Ranma stared at the picture of the human skeleton in the book for a
second before he started pointing at particular bones. "That's the,
um... Clavicle. Er... Vertebrae. And... Humerus." Ranma continued naming
bones that he randomly picked out until he was finally through with the
whole diagram. Then he turned around and looked at Hotaru questioningly.

The girl smiled and nodded. Ranma had quite a good memory.
"That's all correct, Ranma. But you should try to do it in a specific
order. Try going from top to bottom, for example..."


"Hmmmm..." Ranma stared at the strange shape in front of him for
a quick second. Then he quickly started scribbling down several messy
equations on a half-filled piece of paper. "There!" He pointed at the
answer, which was circled with a dark pencil mark, proudly.

Hotaru giggled for a few seconds and pointed at the paper.
"Twelve times twelve isn't twenty-four, Ranma."

Ranma scratched his head sheepishly. "Uh... must be a typo."

Hotaru burst out in a fit of giggles.


Ranma stepped out of the bathroom and found Genma sitting on the
floor, looking at him in irritation.

"Why didn't you take a bath earlier, boy?"

Ranma shrugged. "Hey, I just got here."

Genma blinked. Then he shouted, "Foolish boy! I have a job and I
just got here! Where have you been all day?!"

Ranma blinked. "You got a job?"

Genma scowled. "Yes, now tell your father where you've been all
day."

"I'm just going to get tutored by someone after school. And I
was sparing with this guy, too. He's pretty good." Ranma replied
casually as he walked towards his sleeping bag.

"Really?" Genma asked. His attention instantly diverted. "Who is
he?"

"Name's Ryoga Hibiki." Ranma replied as he lay down and shifted
around until he got into a more comfortable position. <Ahhh...
carpet...>

"You won, of course?" Genma asked.

Silence.

"Boy?" Genma walked over to check on Ranma, actually a little
worried, and scowled. <Asleep already.> Then he headed towards the bath-
room.


Hotaru Tomoe slowly opened her eyes and looked around her room,
finding comfort in it's familiarity. <Another seizure...> Strangely, she
found that she wasn't all so depressed about it anymore. Hotaru smiled.
She knew the reason why. And it was dressed in red, long-sleeved Chinese
shirt. She blinked in surprise. <I've never seen him wear that shirt
before... Does it mean something?>


*************************


Hotaru sat in her class, paying scant attention to the teacher's
lecture. The last two days had probably been the best in her life. No-
body had ever talked to her like Ranma. Hotaru smiled for a moment as
she remembered a part of the previous night.


*FLASHBACK*


"You must have traveled a lot, Ranma." Hotaru said suddenly,
trying to strike up a conversation. She wanted to know more about Ranma.

Ranma finished his current piece of chicken and looked up at
Hotaru. "You have no idea," he said. "I've been all over Japan. Man, you
ain't got no idea how far ya can walk, no, run in nine years."

"Was it fun?" Hotaru asked curiously.

"Most of the time, I guess..." Ranma suddenly remembered the Cat
Fist training. He shuddered and tried to forget about the experience.
Not that he ever would, but he could just pretend it never happened and
life would be just fine.

Hotaru noticed the small shudder and the slight terror that
creeped into Ranma's eyes, however. "Is something wrong?" Hotaru thought
that she knew Ranma well enough that she could confidently assume he
wasn't the type to easily show any fear, much less terror. To have it
come spontaneously like that...

Ranma shook his head. "I... don't wanna talk about it." He
thought for a moment. "It's kinda embarrassing, actually."

Hotaru nodded.

"Well, I guess it was pretty fun; I really like martial arts
and, well... I love doing it. Yeah, Pops could be pretty stupid
sometimes, wait, make that mosta the time; but it was nice."

"What exactly did your father do?"

"Stupid stuff." Ranma said, as if it explained everything. Then
he noticed the questioning look on Hotaru's face. "He'd make dumb bets
or run off on a tab or something. But, well, he IS my father and he
always looked out for me, so he's okay."

"At least your father spends a lot of time with you..." Hotaru
said a little sadly. Then she brightened. "I'm glad you're my friend,
Ranma." Hotaru blinked in surprise. <Where did that come from?>

Ranma smiled and cleaned off another piece of chicken. Hotaru
looked like she needed some cheering up. "You know, you're the first
friend I've had in nine years," Ranma admitted. He remembered the last
friend he had: His buddy Ucchan.

Hotaru looked surprised. "R-really?"

Ranma nodded. Hotaru became quite and thought over that bit of
news for a few moments. So he knew what it was like to be that lonely.

"You're my first friend in years, too." Hotaru finally said.

Ranma scowled. "I can't believe those idiots at school are
scared of ya."

Hotaru nodded. "I never want to hurt them, but... they say that
I do. I never remember any of it."

"Well, you're really nice. They're all just stupid or
something," Ranma said comfortingly

Hotaru smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Ranma."

"It's easy ta tell the truth," Ranma replied. <Heh, I am SO
good.>

Hotaru chuckled inwardly. <You're a smooth-talker, Ranma
Saotome.>

Ranma ate in comfortable silence for awhile before he noticed
something. "Hey Hotaru, you gonna eat that?."

Hotaru looked down at her plate and noticed that,
unsurprisingly, she hadn't eaten too much. "I'm not that hungry." she
said.

Ranma blinked, not used to people turning down food. "Well, I'd
be glad to eat it for ya, but you should eat more."

Hotaru face took on a sad look. "You're right. I'm very...
frail..."

Ranma mentally blanched. <Oh great, did I insult her or some-
thing?> "H-hey, that's not what I meant!" Ranma protested.

Hotaru looked up at Ranma, curious. She hadn't meant to sound
like she had been insulted or anything. She had just been stating a
fact. <I wonder what he's going to do?>

<Gotta compliment her...> "You're not too skinny or nuthin', you
look fine." Hotaru blinked. Had Ranma complimented her looks?

"You're, uh... cute. Yeah, that's it! You're really cute!"

Hotaru blushed scarlet and stared at the her plate, her hands
gripping the table-cloth tightly. "R-really?"

"Yeah, sure." Ranma said, his courage gathering. "You're the
cutest girl I ever met, and ya dress great, too!" <Not that I ever met
that many girls, but... whatever...>

Hotaru looked back up at Ranma, still blushing profusely. "T-
thank you Ranma."

Ranma gave a friendly smile, not noticing Hotaru's blush for
some strange reason. "Like I said, it's easy to tell the truth."

Hotaru giggled, the redness on her cheeks starting to fade away.
<You have a quick mouth; but that won't always help you.> The words
sounded strangely prophetic to her. Not that she knew what prophetic
words sounded like; she just felt that that was how they would sound
like.

After awhile, Hotaru stopped giggling and Ranma spoke up. "You
really should eat more, though. It'll help ya get stronger." Then Ranma
smiled. "Then I'll show ya something really cool. Especially if ya like
walking on fences."

Hotaru giggled again and forced herself to start finishing the
rest of the meal. "I can't wait."


*END FLASHBACK*


Hotaru sighed and forced herself to pay attention to the class.
She sighed again. Nothing she didn't already know. Mugen Academy had
high-standards, but as she never had any friends until Ranma came along,
she devoted much of her time to studying. Ignoring the whisperings
around her, she instead tried to think about nothing in particular. She
failed and ended up thinking about Ranma and, occasionally, Ryoga.

"What do you suppose she's so happy about?" a girl asked her
neighbor, trying not to look too conspicuous.

"Did you hear the rumor that she has a boyfriend?" was the whis-
pered reply. Before she could receive an answer, an eraser was thrown at
her head and, a reprimand by the teacher later, the girl stayed very
quiet.

"Hey!" One boy whispered to the guy in front of him. "Did you
hear? That freak has a new friend that beat up Gage and his pals."

The boy in front tilted his head slightly back and whispered,
"Yes, I heard it from one of the guys that were there; he said the guy
was like some kind of monster! Not surprising considering he was helping
HER." An eraser also impacted the skull of this student, giving him a
face full of chalk. A threat to be sent to the principal later, the boy
was joined the rest of his class in being quiet.

The principal usually seemed nice enough, but most people did
not want to have to see him. It wasn't him, but his... scary office and
the strange woman who were often found there that was disturbing. Also,
their current teacher was one of the more light-hearted ones and tended
to like to do strange things like throw chalk-filled erasers at people's
head.

Hotaru was in an oblivious, 'deep-thinking' mode.


Ranma pulled himself up, then let gravity pull him down. Then he
pulled himself up, and let gravity take him back down. Then he pulled
himself up, and let gravity take him back down. Ranma had been repeating
this simple action for what seemed like an eternity. In reality, it had
only been about a minute.

He was a little beat-up because of his 'sparing' session with
Genma in the morning and Ryoga in both the morning and at lunch; but he
had long since recovered from any inconveniences caused by little things
like rock-shattering kicks.

After another minute or so, Ranma got bored and released his
grip on the metal bar, dropping to the ground. What he didn't expect was
to see everybody, including the phys-Ed teacher, staring at him in a
mixture of shock and awe.

"Uh, sorry 'bout that. I just got bored. You want me to get back
on?" Ranma asked nervously. He wasn't really used to getting all this
attention.

Everybody continued staring at him. "What?" Ranma asked, his
nervousness slowly being replaced with annoyance. There was several more
long moments of shocked silence.

Finally, the teacher spoke. "Y-you did 103 pull-ups..."

Ranma laughed weakly. "Uh, yeah... I guess I should get back
on... Sorry, I just got bored of doing the same thing over and over
again."

Then, the teacher said something else. "O-only Hibiki ever did
more than that..."

Ranma narrowed his eyes, a little annoyed. "So I'll admit,
strength's his specialty, not mine; ya don't hafta rub it in my face!
Sheesh!"

The teacher shook his head and absently gestured for Ranma to
sit down. He wondered how fast the boy could run.


Ranma walked towards Hotaru's house, biting on an apple he had
gotten from Ryoga's house. He considered it his reward for helping Ryoga
out by bringing food from the kitchen to the Lost Boy's room so that he
wouldn't starve. A hungry martial artist was a weak martial artist, as
he had learned on his travels.

And Ranma had noticed that the several fights that had occurred
on the way to Ryoga's house were considerably easier. Probably caused by
hunger, though Ryoga would most-likely never admit to something like
that unless it came to one of their lunch-time brawls.

Hopping up onto a fence, Ranma started to whistle, actually deep
in thought, as he headed down a now very familiar path.


"Um, that's the uh... arctic valve?" Ranma looked at Hotaru
questioningly.

Hotaru giggled and shook her head. "Aortic Valve," she said.

Ranma laughed weakly. All of those organ parts looked
practically the same to him. "Yeah, aortic valve..."


"6 times 8?"

"48."

"11 times 1?"

"121."

"12 times 12?"

"22."

Hotaru giggled. "Try again, Ranma."


Hotaru stared across at Ranma as he gobbled down another piece
of chicken. His table manners were certainly lacking, but she didn't
mind. It was actually kind of fun to watch her friend eating.

Ranma and Hotaru were sitting at the same table that they had
used to eat dinner on for the last three days. A small one down in the
kitchen.

They also ate alone as both Ranma and Hotaru had noticed that,
for some reason, the two didn't see Kaolinite or Hotaru's father that
much since Ranma had started staying over to be tutored. In fact, Ranma
had only seen the Professor once since then. And all he had heard were
two words: "Oh, hello."

As for Kaolinite, whenever Ranma saw her, he always felt shivers
run up his spine. The red-head never even said much. She would just give
a basic greeting and then look at him for a long second with those
piercing eyes of hers, smirk, and walk away. Ranma was secretly grateful
that he hadn't seen Kaolinite all that much.

He also took a guilty pleasure that Hotaru was also very
obviously bothered whenever the woman appeared. She almost looked like
she was waiting for Kaolinite to burst out laughing and do something.
Ranma secretly felt the same way.

"So Hotaru," Ranma started as he swallowed down some of the
noodles. "Tell me 'bout yourself." Ranma was quite curious to Hotaru's
background, although he guessed that it was a pretty lonely one.

Hotaru's eyes bright eyes filled with a touch of sadness and,
before Ranma could say anything else, she spoke. "It's... nowhere near
as interesting as your life."

Ranma opened his mouth to speak, but was beat to it by Hotaru.
"You already know that I don't have any friends besides you." Her
thoughts briefly flashed to Ryoga, but he was really an acquaintance,
even though she desperately wanted another friend.

"Ya know my thoughts on the matter." Ranma had also thought
about Ryoga, but decided that the two didn't know each other enough. He
made a mental note to remedy that.

Smiling briefly at Ranma's comment, Hotaru continued, a far-off
look appearing on her eyes. "But when my mother was still alive and my
father was closer, I really enjoyed life." Images of the three of them
in a field of flowers, laughing, came to her. Hotaru then turned sad
again. "About 4 years ago, there was an accident."

Ranma blinked. Was this why she was so frail?

"I was with my father and some other scientists at a genetics
lab." Hotaru took a breath.

Ranma's eyes widened. They didn't dissect her or anything did
they?

"And there was an explosion."

Ranma almost sighed in relief. Then he gave himself a mental
boot to the head. "You were in an explosion?!" he asked, shocked.

Hotaru nodded before continuing. "Everybody died except me and
my father."

"That's horrible..." Ranma trailed off. He didn't like the
thought of seeing the people around him suddenly die. "Is that why you
get tired so easily."

Hotaru shrugged. "I've always been a little frail, but ever
since, I've had these seizures."

Ranma was, once again, shocked. "Seizures?! I didn't know you
got seizures." An image of Hotaru, convulsing on the ground with white
fluid flowing from her mouth came to Ranma's head and he shuddered.

Hotaru guessed what Ranma was thinking and giggled. Ranma
snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Hotaru questioningly. "Huh?"

"I know what you're thinking, Ranma."

Ranma blinked. "You do?"

Hotaru nodded and smiled. "In my seizures, I just... pass out or
something. I don't know because I don't really remember what happens to
me then." An image of a dark chamber filled with dolls flashed through
Hotaru's head and she mentally shuddered.

<That's kinda like what happens to me when I go c-cat.> Ranma
thought to himself. "I know how that feels like." Ranma said to Hotaru.

"To go into seizures and not remember anything?" Hotaru asked
with curiosity. Ranma seemed very healthy.

Ranma looked around him to see if anybody was listening and then
leaned closer to Hotaru. "Remember that thing I said was embarrassing?"
he whispered out.

Hotaru nodded. She did remembered Ranma saying that last night.
She also remembered the subject sparking a little curiosity within her.
Now she was very curious indeed. <What could his father have done?>

"Well," Ranma continued, relaxing back into his chair. "When IT
happens, I don't remember much either." Ranma was mildly surprised he
could recall that a little detail like that. Even though it wasn't ex-
actly easy to forget something as big as that, he had always managed to
steer his thoughts clear of the Cat Fist training.

And he had only gone into 'Cat Mode' once before: When he had
first learned the technique. Every other time, he had ran away screaming
in terror in time to retain his sanity. It was always embarrassing to
look back on those times.

Hotaru looked at Ranma thoughtfully, wondering exactly what 'It'
was. Then she decided that maybe asking Ranma would satisfy her curi-
osity. "What happens to you, Ranma?"

Ranma stared at Hotaru. It was so hard to refuse her an answer.
Just four little words: I'm afraid of cats. Her questioning, purple
eyes alone almost made him say it. Then, there was everything else.

Ranma opened his mouth.

Hotaru waited patiently, an encouraging smile appearing on her
face.

Ranma snapped his mouth shut. He had almost said it. Almost. Her
smile was what had broken him out of his trance. Her smile. He didn't
want to see that smile turn into a condescending smirk; to hear mocking
laughter come from those perfect lips.

Strangely, he just couldn't envision Hotaru doing that, but just
the thought alone that it could happen stopped him. Maybe he had even
already said too much. "I don't wanna talk about it," he quickly blurted
out. "It's embarrassing," he added after a moment to lighten the serious
tone of his words.

Hotaru was silent for a moment. What had his father done to
Ranma? Then she nodded. "It's okay Ranma, you don't have to tell me."
Inside, Hotaru almost burst with curiosity, but she beat it all down and
shoved it far, far away. She didn't want to force Ranma to do anything
he didn't want to.

Ranma mentally sighed in relief when Hotaru didn't press the
matter. Before he could relax, however, he was suddenly struck with a
thought. <How the heck am I gonna get out of the Cat Fist if I use it
again?> Ranma looked at Hotaru and briefly considered asking her about
it before he remembered his earlier decision. <She doesn't need to
know...> He told himself.

Hotaru noticed that Ranma suddenly seemed disturbed, as if he
had just made a horrible discovery. "What's wrong Ranma?"

Ranma forced his thoughts away and smiled at Hotaru. "Don't
worry about it," he said, his voice sounding more confident than he
felt.

Hotaru looked at Ranma carefully for a few seconds and then re-
turned to her eating. "Okay..."

Ranma also returned to his eating, feeling guilty that he had
killed the conversation.

A minute of uncomfortable silence painfully ticked by. The only
sounds being those of food being chewed upon. That was just too much for
Ranma. He was attuned to silence more than most other people, but he was
also used to action. And though he could enjoy just being in Hotaru's
company alone, this time was different. This silence left Ranma on edge
and he felt an almost urgent need to end it.

<I'm the stupidest person alive.> Ranma scolded himself. <I
shouldn't have even MENTIONED those stupid... animals.> Ranma shuddered.
Just the thought of those... things... scared him. Best to just ignore
it. Ranma didn't like admitting he was scared of anything. Especially
not of some stupid little furball. A scary stupid little furball... A
furball with sharp claws... Scratching... Biting... Trying to- <Stop it!
Don't think about it... Think 'a something else... Think... Hotaru!
Yeah, talk to Hotaru!>

To his immense relief, Ranma was able to push all thoughts of
cats far, far away and come up with a way to start a new conversation
with Hotaru at the same time. "You know," He began, swallowing down the
last of his noodles as quickly as he could, which was unbelievably fast.

Hotaru almost wept with relief. The silence had been almost un-
bearable for her. And for some reason, the thought of that being so
seemed odd to her. She usually enjoyed silence. Even after, when Ranma
and her had just been near each other, doing nothing, she had enjoyed
that. This... She had been beginning to feel that maybe she had offended
Ranma somehow. Especially with those strange looks that had passed over
his face for awhile there. She had never seen that particular emotion
displayed by Ranma before. But she felt that it had seemed familiar;
like she had seen something like it long ago, very often... Hotaru
pushed all stray thoughts out of her head and focused her attention on
Ranma.

"I haven't seen my mother in more than nine years," Ranma
finished, a tinge of sorrow in his words.

Hotaru was surprised. Surely he must have visited? He still had
a mother and hadn't seen her for longer than she had last seen her own!
"Why not?"

Ranma shrugged, a little bitter about the whole thing. "Pops
just never took us back. I think he sent her a postcard every now and
then, though."

Hotaru was silent for a moment. A very long moment that made
Ranma nervous. Then she spoke, almost too quietly to hear. "You must
miss her." She said simply, with an air of knowing.

Ranma smiled glumly. "Yeah, I guess I do."

Hotaru sighed wistfully, staring at her bowl of noodles. "You're
lucky to still have a mother." Ranma said nothing. What could he say?

Then, Hotaru abruptly smiled and looked back up at Ranma. "Maybe
I'm being selfish..."

Ranma listened intently. He was the one who was being selfish.
He was freeloading off of her and being tutored free of charge in her
comfortable room.

Normally he wouldn't have thought much about something like
that, especially since he did rescue her, but Hotaru was his friend. His
best. He felt that just being with Hotaru was payment enough for that
little deed.

"But I'm happy that you can relate to me." Despite the light-
hearted way in which she had said that, Hotaru was indeed guiltily glad
that someone could relate to her somewhat. She took comfort in the fact
that Ranma had been through some of what she had been through. Even if
his experience was considerably different. He knew his mother was still
alive and had been distracted by his travels and training.

And despite Hotaru's suspicion that Ranma's father had done
something VERY stupid, she knew that he had at least been there for
Ranma; to protect and raise him. Her own father had been so distant
since the explosion.

Ranma mentally sighed in relief. This was why he had mentioned
his mother in the first place. That and to get rid of the uncomfortable
silence. "I'm, uh, glad too."

"Tell me about some of the things that kept you away from your
mother." Hotaru said, having figured out that Ranma had been trying to
break the silence.

"Well..." Ranma strained his brain and trailed off in an attempt
to buy time. What to tell her? "I've been to a lot of forests." Yeah.
That was good. Forests. Had nothing to do with cats. Well, maybe a
little...

"Forests..." Hotaru said, trailing off into thought. "I've only
been to the park. I don't think I've ever left Tokyo."

Ranma looked at Hotaru incredulously for a few seconds. Then he
remembered that Hotaru got tired easily. That must have been what kept
her. "Well, I'll take ya sometime then." Ranma decided. It would be to a
shame if her health kept her from seeing the outside world. Cities were
fine, but it got sore on the eyes after awhile. Especially for Ranma,
who had been on the road for almost longer than he could remember.

Hotaru shook her head. "I'm too weak-"

Ranma cut her off. "Hey, I'll protect ya." Then he thought for a
moment more. "But if you're so worried about your health..."

Hotaru listened intently. She would love to go see a forest,
especially if Ranma was taking her. <But I'm too weak... I'll just be in
the way...>

Ranma snapped his fingers, inspiration hitting like a well aimed
bullet. "I've got it!"

"What?" Hotaru was very curious to what Ranma's solution would
be.

"I'll train you!" Ranma answered, beaming with pride at his
brilliant idea. It was all so perfect! Hotaru was weak not just because
of her sickness, it was also because she didn't eat or exercise enough.
And with training in the Art, she'd be able to defend herself too. There
were a few problems, though. Ranma had NEVER had to teach anybody be-
fore. But hey, he was Ranma Saotome, he'd figure it out. <Maybe I can
get Ryoga to help...>

As Ranma was musing over this, Hotaru was gawking at Ranma, her
mouth hanging open. "T-train?"

Ranma snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Hotaru, smiling.
"Sure, I'll teach ya how to defend yourself and get you to do some ex-
ercise. Piece a cake!"

Hotaru had her doubts. Very many doubts. But Ranma just looked
so enthusiastic right then that it was hard to disbelieve what he said.
He was full of confidence. Something she had noticed he lacked while she
had been tutoring her. "I don't think I can..."

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Especially with me as your teacher!"
Ranma smiled broadly.

"I'm not sure..."

Ranma sighed. "Alright, how 'bout we talk about it after I take
that test." He couldn't see why Hotaru was so reluctant, but she pro-
bably had her reasons. Probably a girl thing.

"Alright then Ranma."

"But meanwhile, you eat up and I'll make sure you get some exer-
cise, alright?"

*Sigh* "Okay..."

"Hey, ya don't have ta be so moody. It'll help ya out in the
end, trust me." Ranma looked at Hotaru carefully, wondering if anything
was wrong. He would have jumped at the chance to get good training.

Hotaru looked up to try and force a smile. It didn't work
because, Gazing into Ranma's concerned eyes, Hotaru was filled with
warmth and a real smile bloomed across her delicate face. "Okay, but you
promise to take me to the forest, right?"

Ranma leaned back in his chair and nodded. "It's a promise."

"Well, now that we're finished, let's go back upstairs."

Ranma nodded and stood up. Then he froze as he realized
something. "Hotaru..."

Hotaru looked up at Ranma. "Hmmm?"

"Ya didn't finish your food."


Ranma Saotome sank into his sleeping bag and promptly fell into
a dream involving him, Hotaru, and trees. With Ryoga lost somewhere in-
between.

A little later, Genma came in, tossed a bag of various
foodstuffs to the side of the room, and entered the bath.


Hotaru Tomoe was dreaming about the same thing Ranma was, minus
the Ryoga bit and plus a much nicer outfit for herself.


Ryoga Hibiki was soundly asleep in his room, dreaming of beating
Ranma up and dining on delicious cafeteria bread. But since Ranma had
been helpful, disregarding the stealing bread thing, for the past few
days, the pig-tailed martial artist wasn't beaten up TOO badly.


*************************


"Take this you thief!" Ryoga sent his red umbrella flying at
Ranma, spinning like a buzzsaw. <Now that I have my umbrella, there's
no way Ranma can beat me!>

Ranma casually leaned over to one side as the whirling weapon
went spinning past him, rustling his hair slightly. Then straightened,
looking at Ryoga curiously. "What are ya using the umbrella for?"

Ryoga smacked his head. Wasn't it obvious? "I'm trying to kill
you, you idiot!"

Ranma froze. The crowd that had assembled to watch the fight
slowly, so as to not remind a certain powerful and skilled martial art-
ist to their presence, backed further away from the two combatants.

"You're trying to KILL me?" He asked incredulously. Maybe this
bread feud thing had gone too far. Not that he couldn't handle Ryoga,
he just wanted to be able to sleep soundly at night. Without having to
worry about midnight attacks or anything stupid like that.

Ryoga stopped and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Well,
not exactly kill you, but... you know what I mean!"

Ranma mentally sighed in relief. He didn't want a blood feud or
anything like that. "Well, ya ain't gonna beat me."

"And why not?" Ryoga asked, clenching his fist. Ranma was insul-
ting his skill again. Even though Ryoga now had the upper hand with the
superior reach and the strength of his umbrella, Ranma was still being
cocky.

"Well, for starters, you ain't got the umbrella no more," Ranma
answered, gesturing to the red umbrella about 30 feet behind him with a
smirk.

Ryoga's eyes widened in shock as Ranma shot forward with
blazing speed to severely beat-up the bandana-clad martial artist.


Kaolinite watched from the shadows as Hotaru shook off her shoes
and walked with quickly to her room. Most people wouldn't notice a
difference form this and the Hotaru from a week ago, but Kaolinite was
very observant. The professor's daughter had been acting most unusual
ever since she had met those two boys. She seemed much more alive and
moved with an energy that had previously been absent. And now she was
tutoring one of them. Kaolinite had mentioned it to the professor and
he didn't appear worried.

But despite that, Kaolinite was... not worried, but wary. The
boy, and the other one for that matter, had seemed very nervous
every time she appeared. <I'm being foolish.> Kaolinite reprimanded
herself. <What can those two children do? The only ones I have to worry
about are those Sailor Senshi.>

So Kaolinite decided to go bring the professor some tea. Even if
Hotaru had a boyfriend, which didn't seem to be the case with this
Ranma, it didn't matter. <In the end, the brat will become our messiah.
Then, it won't matter how close the two are.>


Ranma flipped to his feet and dusted himself off. 20 feet away,
Ryoga was looking smug, his umbrella held defensively before him. "So
ya can take me on with an umbrella." Ranma admitted in annoyance.

"Admit it Ranma, you lost," Ryoga said tauntingly as Ranma
glared at the Lost Boy.

Ranma composed himself and dropped into a ready stance. He had
been having a good day. He had actually understood a lot of what
Mr.Kumagai had lectured on outside of History and Literature and had a
good meal. Then there was that great fight between he and Genma in the
morning. And he had won as had recently become usual. On top of that,
he was about to visit his best friend. No way was he going to lose now.
"That was just a lucky shot. Just try it again."

Ryoga smirked. "You asked for it, Ranma."


Ranma whistled cheerfully on the fence as he lead a battered and
angry Ryoga to the boy's home. "Stupid Ranma..." Ryoga muttered. "He
just got lucky..."

Ranma chose to ignore the fanged boy's dark mutterings. Life was
great and the guy wasn't about to get Ranma feeling down. Even if
everything in his life suddenly got screwed up, as long as Hotaru was
there to be his friend, everything would be fine.


"Ooookay..." Ranma said, trailing off to buy himself some time.
"It's..."

"Stop stalling, Ranma."

Ranma sweatdropped. "Uh... Who says I'm stalling?"

Hotaru giggled. "Me."


"Ya should eat more, Hotaru," Ranma suggested casually, noticing
the small portions of food that Hotaru was slowly chewing.

"I'm not really hungry," Hotaru replied after swallowing.

Ranma sighed. "Hotaru, you ain't gonna get healthier eating just
how much you need. Ya gotta eat more. Ya know, go above and beyond and
all that stuff."

"..."

"Ya know, back when I was still on the road with Pops, half of
what you're eating now would be like... well, a lot!" Ranma continued
when Hotaru was silent.

"You mean you had to eat less than this?" Hotaru asked,
startled. She had seen how much Ranma could eat and the thought of him
eating so little on a regular basis was just... Hard to imagine.

"Yup," Ranma confirmed. Well, on a lotta days, anyways.

"Oh, that's horrible."

"Yup, back then, it was a struggle just ta get by." <Geez, me an
Pops were on the road just a week ago and I'm already talking like it
was years ago or something.> Ranma realized in surprise.

"You talk like this happened years ago."

"Uh..." Ranma thought nervously. Sometimes he felt like Hotaru
was a mind-reader or something. "Stop changing the subject!" Ranma
snapped quickly. "And eat some more." Ranma proceeded to scoop generous
portions of mashed potatoes and chicken onto Hotaru's plate.

Hotaru smiled. It was so simple to figure out what Ranma was
thinking sometimes. Then she frowned. That was a lot of food.


"Why the heck is it inorganic?" Ranma asked no one in
particular.

Hotaru, as she was currently right next to Ranma and reading the
same book, however, heard. "Carbon Dioxide?" She asked of Ranma.

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "It's got carbon in it, don't it?"

Hotaru wondered herself why they had deemed carbon dioxide in-
organic. "The scientists just decided that it is, Ranma." Hotaru said.
"It's not a big deal."

"I guess..." Ranma said. "I still think it's kinda stupid,
though. They shoulda at least given a reason."

"Can't handle it, Ranma?" Hotaru asked teasingly.

"Huh?" Ranma's head spun around faster than the eye can see.
"What are ya talking about? I just think it's stupid, that's all."

Hotaru giggled. "Relax Ranma."

"Maybe it's 'cause it's a gas or something..." Ranma muttered.

Hotaru blinked. Did she hear correctly? Did Ranma say what she
thought he said? "What did you just say, Ranma?"

Ranma blinked. "Uh, that it's stupid?"

"No, after that," Hotaru said anxiously.

"Um, that it's not organic cause it's a gas?" Ranma said slowly.
Hotaru sat still for several seconds, staring at Ranma.

Ranma fidgeted nervously, wondering what Hotaru was doing.

Then, slowly, a smile spread across Hotaru's face and Ranma
almost sighed in relief. He had no idea what the heck was going on, but
if Hotaru was happy...

Long before Ranma could think up of something to say, however,
the boy abruptly found himself wrapped by two slender arms and knocked
to the ground. <What the?> Ranma thought in shock, raising his head and
discovering Hotaru had him in an enthusiastic hug.

"Uhh..." Ranma had no idea what to do. He tried to think back to
the last time he had been hugged by a girl and came up with nothing.
Besides, if Hotaru felt like hugging him, who was he to argue? Might as
well enjoy it. Yes, enjoy the slender arms wrapped comfortably around
him; the warm head pressed against his chest: the soft-

Before he could think any further however, he felt the pressure
around him relieved and he quickly got to his feet, feeling strangely
disappointed. He pushed the feeling aside and looked at Hotaru. The girl
had her head down and looked a little embarrassed.

"..."

"..." Ranma strained to think of something say. But he didn't
know what had brought on the spontaneous hug, so decided to remain
silent.

Hotaru continued staring at her feet intently for a few more
agonizing seconds before she said something. "I'm sorry, I just got
overenthusiastic."

Ranma blinked. She was sorry? "Uh, it's alright. I don't mind."

Hotaru slowly raised up her head and looked a Ranma for a quick
second before spinning around and staring at the open science book on
her desk, without really seeing it. She just needed a little time to
compose herself. That one stupid hug had thrown her mentally unbalanced.
<Not stupid.> She amended. <Just unexpected.> And then Ranma's comment
didn't help her calm down one bit. A small part of her mind, the...
dark... part, knew Ranma enough and was calm enough not to misinterpret,
but the rest of her...

As Ranma was not enjoying the silence, he decided to break it
and asked. "Um, what the heck was it for?" <Not that I'm complaining...>
He mentally added.

Hotaru slowly turned back around after a few more seconds and
looked at Ranma, trying hard not to jump onto her bed and bury her face
in it in embarrassment. Ranma was so calm. Or at least he put up a calm
front. And here she was all flustered because of one overenthusiastic
hug that had knocked Ranma down. <It was just a hug...> Hotaru said to
herself. <I didn't kiss him or anything...> Before that last thought
could start to embarrass her further, Hotaru quickly shoved it off a
mental cliff.

Ranma was starting to get nervous. Actually, he was already ner-
vous but had been able to hide it well enough. Actually, he didn't hide
it too well, but Hotaru just didn't notice. <W-what the heck is she
doing... She's just looking at me...> Ranma started to fidget. He had no
idea what was going on; he'd just asked a question, that was all.

"Um..." Hotaru said finally, breaking the awkward silence, but
not her gaze. "I was just... glad that..." <Glad for what?! Glad for
what?!> her mind screamed. The answer was right on the tip of her
tongue, she was just too flustered to remember it. <It was just a
hug...> She started repeating to herself. Of course, this may have had
more effect if she had hugged more people in her life. Or been shown
more affection. And a hundred other little things.

Ranma continued looking at Hotaru. She was trying to say
something but seemed very nervous. <Nah, can't be right. That's usually
me.> So Ranma looked in Hotaru's nervous eyes and waited for an
explanation. Not that he needed one, but he was curious.

"Glad that..." Hotaru stared right back into Ranma's gray-blue
eyes and tried getting out an explanation. Of course, Ranma's curious,
nervous, and with a touch of concern here and there eyes were quite
distracting.

Ranma, meanwhile, was starting to think that maybe something was
wrong. Maybe Hotaru was getting sick again. He was about to open his
mouth to ask when the girl in front of him spoke up, never averting the
gaze that made Ranma so nervous. The gaze that seemed to stare right
into his soul and reveal secrets that he didn't even know existed. Be-
fore he could say anything, however, Hotaru finally spoke.

"Glad that you were thinking for yourself," Hotaru got out
quickly, immediately feeling a lot better. But she still continued
staring at Ranma's eyes. The eyes that seemed to know all. To know the
secrets that were hidden even from herself. Hotaru subconsciously leaned
closer to Ranma, making real her desire to look closer at those all-
seeing eyes; the sharp eyes of a martial artist.

A small part of Ranma noticed that Hotaru was coming closer to
him and he ignored it, more intent on gazing at the lovely girl. With a
sudden rush that almost startled Ranma out of his gaze, he realized just
how much of an understatement a certain compliment to the girl before
him was. And he was subconsciously drawn closer to the figure before
him that radiated a quite but powerful aura. An aura that seemed dormant
but added a... mystical quality to Hotaru. The mysterious atmosphere of
the room they were in also helped.

Ranma leaned in closer, his subconscious trying to make one of
Ranma's unknown desires come true.

Hotaru stood still, her subconscious hoping that one of Hotaru's secret,
even to herself, desires would come true. Ranma seemed almost like a
mystical apparition in the mysterious atmosphere of her room. And a very
handsome one at that. She almost blushed again.

Ranma came closer, not really noticing what he was doing; en-
tranced by Hotaru's eyes.

Hotaru waited, leaning towards Ranma a little, not really
knowing what was going on. She was enraptured by Ranma's eyes and wasn't
willing to break out of it.

Closer.

Closer.

"I apologize for interrupting anything, but I thought you would
like some coffee," Kaolinite looked at the two with a smug smile. <So
those two are getting close. I might as well be on the safe side and
stop anything from happening.>

Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin as his sleeping danger-sense
suddenly skyrocketed. Spinning around and dropping onto a defensive
stance, Ranma nearly shot forward with a kick to Kaolinite's head for
more than one reason.

Hotaru also snapped out of her trance and spun on Kaolinite an-
grily. "What do you want Kaolinite?" She snapped.

"I brought you coffee," the red-head replied with a
condescending smirk.

Ranma slowly got out of his stance as he realized that it was
just Kaolinite.

"We don't want it," Hotaru replied with the coldness of death.

"Uh, it's bad for your health," Ranma added as he composed him-
self. He wanted the red-head out of there and some time to think.

The red-head said nothing and left, closing the door behind her.

Then, Ranma and Hotaru simultaneously turned around and faced
each other, both deep in thought. Hotaru had no idea what had just hap-
pened. Ranma, on the other hand, realized it about a five seconds later.

First, his eyes widened in shock; next, he glanced at Hotaru.
She apparently didn't know what had happened. <Okay Ranma, calm down.
Let's just get outta here before she can figure it out. We can think
later.>

"Uh..." Ranma began. "It's getting late, I think I'd better go
now." Ranma had just decided that the Saotome Final Attack could be
effectively applied here.

Hotaru absently nodded and Ranma practically burst out running
to Hotaru's window. Going under the curtains, he pulled open the long
unused windows and jumped outside. "Bye!"

A confused Hotaru stood very silent for a moment, the wind blowing her
window curtain gently. "What just happened?" She wondered.


Ranma pulled exited the restroom and then made his way to his
sleeping bag. He was home a lot earlier than usual these past few days
and Genma hadn't come home yet. <Good. I need time to think.> So Ranma
plopped down on his sleeping bag and stared at the ceiling.

"Let's see..." He started recalling what had happened.

The minutes ticked by and Ranma lay there. It was almost all a
blur to him. The only thing he could remember clearly was Hotaru's eyes,
filled with... with... a mixture of things. But he knew that he had
almost kissed the girl. Almost. Ranma didn't know whether to be relieved
or disappointed.

The pig-tailed martial artist some thought more. "Let's see, she
hugged me," Ranma smiled. "Then she was really..." Ranma sighed. His
body wanted to get some rest, even if it was early, but he really wanted
to know exactly what had happened. "Then she said I was thinking for
myself..."

As the next memory came, Ranma didn't blush, but instead, just
felt very uncomfortable. He had a sneaking suspicion that blushing
wasn't anywhere near a manly thing to do. <Then I thought she really
was cute...> Ranma frowned suddenly. <No, that ain't right, I thought
she was...> This time, Ranma did feel his face heat up and burrowed
deep into his sleeping bag. If Genma saw him now, he'd never hear the
end of it.


"Goodnight Poppa," Hotaru called out as her father closed the
door and walked off. Her father always seemed to know exactly when
Hotaru was going to sleep. It was strange and Hotaru decided not to
think about it. It just meant that he still loved her. That was why he
would pay close enough attention to know when she went to bed.

Yes, he loved her. Even though he had stopped kissing her good-
night on her forehead. Hotaru absently touched her forehead and suddenly
had a nagging feeling that she had just stumbled onto something impor-
tant. Something to do with kisses she guessed.

<Kissing... What does that have to do with...> Hotaru trailed
off and thought hard. <Kissing... Ranma... Kissing...> She was getting
close, she knew it. The answer was within her grasp. An image of Ranma's
enchanting eyes flashed through Hotaru's head.

Before she could think any more on the matter, however, Hotaru
suddenly didn't feel too good. "*cough* Not *cough* now..." Hotaru then
passed out.


"Then I..." Ranma sighed and, to his immense relief, he could
feel his face returning to normal. "Then I almost kissed her..." Ranma
had no idea what that meant or what to do. <What does that mean?> Ranma
thought a little harder, thinking back to some advice his old man had
given him. Had Ranma been mentally balanced right then, he may have
realized that that wasn't the best of ideas.

And so the decision that Ranma made, naturally, involved
shirking any forms of work. <If I just ignore it, everything'll turn out
alright.>

*************************


Ranma found himself flying out a window again, as he had been
doing for every morning since he and his father had move in and quickly
did a few mid-air stretches before stretching out a leg and using his
father's head as a stepping stone to propel him upwards, mildly sur-
prised that the same trick had worked two days in a row.

That was when Genma did something new. Ranma found himself sud-
denly pulled to the ground with his father as the balding man grabbed
Ranma's ankle.

Ranma looked down in shock and saw his father smirking. "Not so
easy today, boy!"

Ranma's last thought before the two impacted the very hard ground
was about how he was really going to hurt the old man.


Hotaru hummed happily to herself as she walked to school. Her
head was still held down, but the usual depressed expression was gone.
She wished that school was out today. She never liked going to school on
Saturdays much before as all her classmates were mean to her; but now,
she almost despised it.

Some of the students who were walking nearby glanced at Hotaru
nervously and kept their distance from her. Hotaru chose ignored them
and continued walking and humming.

<Was that?...> Hotaru slowly, almost suspiciously turned around
and stared at something through the window of a shop. Then, slowly, she
smiled. Ranma would love it. The place was closed now, but she could get
it on the way back from school. With a hint of worry on her face, Hotaru
rooted around inside her bag for a bit and then nodded happily to her-
self. She had enough money.


Ranma forced himself to pay attention to class. It had been get-
ting much easier with each passing day, but he still had a lot of
trouble understanding most of what Mr.Kumagai blabbered on and on about
in class. He shook his head. He couldn't wait till lunch.


Ranma spin kicked at Ryoga's head and followed up with two quick
jabs and then a lightning-fast snap kick. All of which were blocked by
the Lost Boy.

Ranma felt better already. Although he hadn't landed a hit at
his rival and hopefully friend yet, he had gotten out a lot of the frus-
tration in his system.

Despite his decision concerning the matter, he felt that Hotaru
might know what he had did. She was pretty smart, after all. He couldn't
picture an angry Hotaru, except for at Kaolinite, and, for some strange
reason that made him even more nervous.

<What the hell?!> Ryoga thought angrily as he blocked another
series of lightning-fast kicks and punches. <He's a lot stronger
today...> Then Ryoga felt a familiar surge of confidence flash through
him. <I'll beat him today, even without my umbrella!>


Ranma pulled a reluctant Ryoga to his feet. "Thanks for the
match, Ryoga." Ranma said, smiling. He felt a little bad for venting on
the poor guy, but shrugged the feeling off. Ryoga was a martial artist.
If anything, the beating probably helped him. And it had done wonders
for Ranma's mood.

"You just got lucky, Ranma," Ryoga grumbled as he stared at the
boy before him with open hostility.

Ranma seemed amused, and that only enraged Ryoga even more. "For
everyday this past week?"

"Yes!" Ryoga shouted.

Ranma rubbed his ears and looked at Ryoga, annoyed. "Ya didn't
hafta yell you know?"

Ryoga glared at Ranma.

Ranma sighed. All this anger wasn't doing either of them any
good. He just wanted a sparring partner and maybe a friend. "Look Ryoga,
why are ya always so angry."

"Because you're always stealing my bread!" Ryoga replied
automatically.

Ranma took a few deep breathes to calm himself and not start
another exchange of insults with Ryoga before continuing. "Why is it
your bread?"

"Because I saw it first!" The boy replied, starting to cool down
as his anger seeped away what with Ranma not provoking him in any way
he could discern.

"So if I saw 1000 yen on the ground and you picked it up first,
it's still mine?" Ranma asked, trying to be logical; something that
Hotaru had taught him of. Before he would have just said to hell with it
and let things continue to rot.

"No, it's mine!" Ryoga answered hotly.

Ranma took another breath. "So why's the bread that's in the air
and no one except me has touched yet, yours?" Ranma asked.

The rest of Ryoga's remaining anger evaporated as he pondered
that question Ranma had asked. Could it be? Could the thief have a
point?

Ranma saw Ryoga's thoughtful look and almost wept with relief.
"Tell ya what, Ryoga. How 'bout you come with me to visit Hotaru tomor-
row? We can spar and stuff too. I know there's not much ta do in that
house of yours."

Ryoga looked at Ranma curiously. "Hotaru? You mean your girl-
friend?"

Ranma smacked his head and took a deep breath. "No. We're just
friends, okay?."

Ryoga smirked. He was sure he had heard disappointment in that
voice. He, of all people should know. He had heard that arrogance-filled
voice for the past few weeks and was no stranger to disappointment. Even
if it was barely there, Ryoga could tell.

"Fine," Ryoga answered. <If only for that sweet girl. Ranma's
obviously too much of a coward to do anything. Then again... I don't
know if a thief like him deserves a sweet girl like Hotaru... But she
seems to like him...>

Ryoga's train of thoughts was broken by voice of the very person
he was thinking about. One of them, anyway. "Well, see ya later Ryoga."

Ryoga blinked. Not that he needed Ranma's help, but the little
thief usually insisted on dragging him to his classroom. He only went
along with it because he felt Ranma needed to do something to make up
for his crimes, of course. "Aren't you..." Ryoga trailed off as he
finally noticed that he already was in his classroom. <How did he do
that?>


"Excuse me," Hotaru said, getting the attention of an gray-
haired man who apparently either worked at or owned the small clothing
shop Hotaru was currently in. "I would like to buy that shirt over
there." Hotaru pointed to the long-sleeved red Chinese shirt that was
currently on display.

The man looked towards the indicated direction and smiled when
he saw what Hotaru talking about. "Ah... Excellent choice, miss," the
man commented as he walked over to where the shirt was.

"It is both a very durable and comfortable piece of clothing.
I'm sure you will find it satisfactory for your needs."

"Oh, it's for a friend, not me," Hotaru said as she pulled out a
bunch of yen notes and handed the appropriate amount to the man.

"Then he's very lucky to have a nice girl like you for a
friend," the man amended. He had thought the girl was a little too small
for the shirt.

"..." Hotaru thought it was the other way around. She was lucky
to have Ranma as a friend. The least she could do was buy Ranma the
shirt. Then her mind picked up on something. "How did you know this was
for a boy?"

The old man shrugged. "Although able to accommodate either
gender, the shirt was made for a man."

"Oh," Hotaru said. It made sense. The man had basically made an
assumption. Well, it didn't really matter, anyway, she was just curious.

The man folded up the shirt and tucked it in a bag, handing it
over to Hotaru. "Thank you for your help, miss. Come back soon." He
smiled at the girl. "And may you find happiness in your life."

Hotaru blinked. What did that have to do with anything? Oh well,
it was a nice thing to say, anyway. Nodding and giving a grateful smile,
Hotaru was then was gone.

The man watched as the young girl quickly left the store the
glass door swinging shut behind her. He smiled as he noticed how much
more alive and energetic she seemed to be. And his heart warmed when he
saw that her smile had not left her face once she was outside and
walking home.

He had watched the young girl walk by his shop many times for
the past years. Everytime she had been so sad that he almost wanted to
cry. At first he had wondered why, but the many conversations from
students who came to his store and the looks they gave her when they
walked past her soon gave him an answer. She was 'different'. Cursed
with a blessing.

But for the past week, the girl he had learned was Hotaru had
changed. She was happy. And now he knew why. He could sleep happier
at night now, knowing that not all of today's youth were cruel. Whoever
this young lad Hotaru had met was, he wished him well.

"Ranma, I have a surprise for you!" Hotaru exclaimed cheerfully
as she opened the door.

"Eh?" Before anything else could be said, Ranma found himself
being dragged by a smiling Hotaru towards her room. He hadn't expected
Hotaru to want to start tutoring right away. They usually spent a few
minutes just chatting before they started any studying. Hotaru had said
something about a surprise...

Once they were inside Hotaru's room and the door was closed behind them,
Hotaru pulled out a brown paper bag off her desk and handed it over to
Ranma.

"Huh? What's this?" Ranma wondered aloud as he took the bag.
>From the feel of things, it was some kind of piece of clothing.

"It's for you, silly," Hotaru giggled. "I just saw it today and
knew it would be perfect for you."

Ranma reached inside the bag and pulled out the red Chinese
shirt, his eyes widening in recognition. "Hey, this looks just like a
shirt I saw awhile back that I wanted!" He exclaimed.

"It's perfect, then!" Hotaru beamed. "I knew that I should have
bought it!" She even remembered herself imagining Ranma wearing a shirt
exactly like it.

Ranma smiled and put the shirt back into the bag. "Thanks,
Hotaru," he said.

Hotaru beamed and any worries about accepting help from a girl
were cleanly wiped from Ranma's head. This wasn't just a girl, after
all. This was Hotaru. "I'll wear it tomorrow," Ranma said as he placed
the bag ontop of his friend's desk.

Hotaru nodded.

"And speaking of Tomorrow, could we have the day off?"

Hotaru blinked. "Why?"

Ranma shrugged. "So we can go and do something fun." Not that
what he had been doing the past week hadn't been fun, he enjoyed doing
anything with Hotaru. "C'mon, we need a break from school. I'll bring
Ryoga, too."

Hotaru was thoughtful for a moment. Ranma could really benefit
from a full day of tutoring, but he didn't need it. He already had more
than enough time to catch up for that test at the end of the month as
long as it wasn't honors-student difficult or some other such thing. And
she really wanted to go anyway. "Okay Ranma."

Ranma grinned. "We'll be here first thing in the morning."

"Now let's study."

Ranma groaned.


Ranma whistled merrily as he walked home via the fencetops. He
could hardly wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow he, Hotaru and Ryoga would
just go out and have fun. Just a buddy thing. Actually, Ryoga would pro-
bably find something to get angry at and take it out on Ranma, but he
didn't mind. Hotaru was there so everything would be dandy.


Hotaru closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep. She wanted the
night to be over with and morning to come. The fastest way for that to
happen was for her to go get some sleep. But it seemed that the harder
she tried to fall asleep, the harder it became to even try.

Hotaru sighed. She thought that her, until recently, isolated
life-style had taught her something of patience. She was beginning to
wonder. <Oh, I can't wait.> Hotaru sighed again. <I shouldn't act so
childish.> Hotaru scolded herself. She was going to see Ranma in the
morning, not in the afternoon like usual. She should be able to wait no
problem. And Ryoga. She wondered what Ryoga wold do. He had seemed like
nice enough when she had met him. But then again, she never told him
about her 'powers'.

Hotaru sighed again. <I need to go to sleep... Or else I won't
be strong enough to...> Two seconds after she finished that thought,
Hotaru was soundly asleep.


*************************


"Stupid old man!" Ranma yelled as he was once again pulled down
by Genma. He couldn't believe Genma was able to pull the same trick over
him twice in a roll!

The two impacted the ground again, creating small craters at
their landing spots. Ranma quickly flipped to his feet and dropped into
a defensive stance, wincing slightly. He hadn't had time to even land
correctly.

Ranma looked at Genma and wondered how the old man had managed
to take a fall like that and be smiling. "I am really going to hurt
you," Ranma said slowly. Although he would never admit it, that fall had
really hurt. More pain than actual injury, but that hardly mattered.

"Don't be so sure, boy," Genma replied, smirking.

The two stared at each other for a few more seconds, saying
nothing. They were both waiting for the other to make a move. Neither of
the two were very patient persons, and both of them knew it. However,
Ranma had a very annoying pain coming from his back and that was enough
incentive for him to rush forward and try to take out the old man.

"Take this old man!" Four lightning-fast roundhouses to Genma's
mid-section were easily blocked and Ranma found himself suddenly put on
the defensive as Genma grabbed one of his kicks sent Ranma flying over
his shoulder and to a rough and slightly painful landing.

"What's wrong, boy? You're getting weak," Genma taunted as Ranma
got back to his feet.

Ranma clenched his teeth. What was wrong with him? The stupid
pain had probably done something. He knew he'd been getting better what
with all the fights with Ryoga, so he knew it wasn't his skill that was
slipping. "You just got lucky, old man. It won't happen again."

"Overconfidence will be your downfall, boy."

Ranma's response was a flying kick to the Genma's head that was
blocked followed by a quick sweep kick that wasn't. Genma rolled back-
wards and was soon on his feet, but before he could do anything else he
found himself blocking a flurry of kicks and punches.

One of Ranma's front kicks hit Genma hard in the stomach.
"Stupid." As Genma staggered backwards, Ranma spin kicked him, sending
him staggering to the side. "Old." Trying to keep perfect concentration,
Ranma put everything he had, all his strength and willpower, even his
anger and pain, into one uppercut. "Man!" Genma was sent flying high
into the sky and far off into the horizon.

Ranma froze and stared at Genma's rapidly disappearing form in
shock. After the old man had faded away from sight, Ranma slowly turned
his gaze to his still clenched fist, the pain in his back forgotten.
"Wow." He didn't even notice the yellow aura around him that started to
fade away.


Ryoga pulled down his yellow shirt and hefted his umbrella,
making a few practice swings with the heavy red weapon. Ryoga smiled. He
wasn't about to admit it to Ranma, but he was looking forward to the
day.

"Yo Ryoga, you awake yet?"

Ryoga spun around and raised his umbrella defensively. There,
leaning next to his open window, was Ranma. Ryoga was usually able to at
least 'sense' his rival's approach, but he hadn't been paying too much
attention right then.

Ryoga mentally berated himself for his lapse of attention and
then noticed something. "You have a new shirt Ranma." Ranma wasn't
wearing the school uniform that he was used to seeing him in, but a
large, red Chinese shirt with the sleeves pulled up and loose, black
pants. The shirt appeared to be of good quality and was obviously new.

Ranma smiled slightly. "Hotaru gave it to me yesterday." He
said.

"She must really like you."

"I guess..." Ranma said, trailing off, wondering what all this
was leading to.

"What have you two been doing lately?" Ryoga asked, smirking.

"Um, studying?" Ryoga's subtle insinuations went right over
Ranma's head and out the window.

Ryoga gave an exasperated sigh. "Well, let's go."

Ranma nodded, a little surprised that Ryoga had not attacked him
yet. "Yeah, sure." Well, he'd ask for a little match on the way to
Hotaru's. A nice soak had taken freshened Ranma up after his fight with
Genma and he was itching for a good fight.


Ranma smoothed out his slightly ruffled shirt and glanced at
Ryoga, who was doing the same with his clothes. "Well, now that we're
done with our daily match, let's go."

Ryoga nodded and followed Ranma as he walked through the gates
of the Tomoe household and to the front doors. Ranma rung the bell and
the two waited in silence.

Shortly after, the door opened and, once again, the two martial
artists tensed as Kaolinite appeared, looking at the them with an un-
readable expression.

"I-is Hotaru home?" Ranma asked.

"Hotaru is busy right now. You can come back later." Kaolinite
answered curtly before shutting the door.

Ranma and Ryoga stared at the door. Slowly, Ryoga turned towards
Ranma. "Busy?" he said. "No offense, but Hotaru doesn't seem like the
type to be busy."

"Well, I definitely don't trust that red-head," Ranma replied.

"So what do we do?"

Ranma was at a lost. If they rang the bell again, Kaolinite
would get it and send them off. They could just hope that Hotaru or her
father would answer it next, but if Kaolinite answered it, well...
they'd look weird. "You got any ideas?" Ranma asked finally.

"Hey, you've spent most of the week here, right? You come up
with something." Ryoga replied.

"Um..." Ranma thought about it. "How about..." What to do? The
day just didn't seem as bright without Hotaru. <Stupid Kaolinite... What
am I gonna do?> Then it clicked. He'd just do the opposite of what he
did two days ago! "We can go to her window!"

Ryoga wasn't quite so enthusiastic about the idea. "Are you sure
that's a good idea?"

"You've got a better idea?" Ranma asked impatiently.

"But what if she's... well... you know?!" Ryoga said in frus-
tration, blushing.

Ranma looked at Ryoga oddly. "What the heck are you talking
about, Ryoga?"

"What if she's changing!" Ryoga hissed, glancing around to make
see if anybody heard him.

Ranma turned slightly red at the thought and coughed. "Don't
worry," he said quietly. "Her windows are always covered, remember?
We'll just knock, that's all."

"Why don't you just go then?" Ryoga suggested.

"Uh, I need someone to cover the rear."

Ryoga looked at Ranma strangely.

Ranma sighed. "Alright, so that you won't be around if Kaolinte
suddenly decides to go shopping or something."

Ryoga thought about that. The last thing he wanted right about
then was to be seen by Kaolinite. "Good point. Let's go."

Ranma nodded and the two martial artists leapt onto the roof.


Hotaru hurried down the stairs and to the living room. She had
heard the doorbell ring and that, more likely than not, meant Ranma had
come. Therefore, she was rather surprised when she didn't find him
yawning on the sofa when she reached the room.

"Ranma?" She said confusedly. "Where is he?" Hotaru then slowly
made her way to the front door. Maybe he was waiting at the door. The
thought that it could have been someone else never crossed her mind.

Unfortunately, Hotaru instead bumped into the last person she
wanted to see any day. "Kaolinite." She said coldly. Then Hotaru took a
deep breath and composed herself. She wanted answers and she supposed
that being harsh with Kaolinite wouldn't get them.

"What is it?"

"Was Ranma at the door?" she asked, trying not to snap at the
lady in front of her. Even when Hotaru tried to be act polite around
Kaolinite, the red-head's voice always managed to sound... so...
superior!

"Yes." The lady replied, her face showing a slight amount of an-
noyance and impatience.

Hotaru took a deep mental breath. "Where is he?"

"I sent him away."

"What?!" Hotaru wanted to throttle Kaolinite, but there was no
time. She had seen how fast Ranma could move and even though he wasn't
likely to go that fast right now therewasnotellingand-

"You are so selfish..." Kaolinite trailed off and closed her
mouth when she realized that her words hadn't kept Hotaru and that she
was already running towards the front door. Kaolinite frowned, turned
back around and continued down the hall. Oh well. It wasn't important
anyway.

Hotaru threw her front door opened and ran outside. There was no
telling where Ranma could be by now. <Oooh... That stupid Kaolinite!
What did she say to Ranma? Doesn't he know that-> Hotaru stopped running
and turned back around to look at her house. She thought she heard
voices. On the roof... Hotaru slowly turned her gaze upwards.

"Are you sure it's this way?"

"Yes! I've been to her room for the past week, of course I'm
sure!"

"I think it's this way."

"Argh!"

Hotaru could see the backs of two figures. One of them was
wearing a yellow shirt and the other... Could it be? Yes, it had to be
him! Either the red shirt or the pig-tail alone were dead give-aways.

"Like I'm gonna listen to you with your lousy sense of
direction!"

"What?!"

"I said you have a lousy sense of direction! Geez, is your
hearing screwed up too?"

"Die, Ranma!"

The red figure was quickly grabbed and thrown off the roof,
right in front of Hotaru.

Ranma twisted in mid-air and landed safely on his feet, shaking
a fist at Ryoga. "What the heck did you do that for?!" he demanded.

Ryoga said nothing and stared at something past Ranma's
shoulders.

"Huh?" Ranma slowly turned around when he heard a familiar
girlish giggling behind him. He had been so preoccupied with getting to
Hotaru's room and now this verbal and physical argument with Ryoga that
someone had managed to go by his notice! Then he found out the someone
he had missed was also the same person he had been looking for! "H-
Hotaru?!" He sputtered.

Ryoga jumped down by Ranma and Hotaru cut off her giggling and
looked at Ranma, smiling. "What were you doing on my roof Ranma?"

"Ah... It... Kaolinite.... and, er..." Ranma said nervously.

Hotaru gave a mental sigh of relief. She should have known Ranma
would have been smart enough not to fall for whatever Kaolinite said.
She suspected it once she saw him on the roof and now, even though Ranma
was just babbling, she knew it. Ryoga too, she supposed.

Ryoga decided to say something as Ranma was obviously too busy
making an idiot of himself. "We were just going to call you because
Kaolinite said you were busy and we didn't believe her," he said, stop-
ping to take a deep breath.

"Yeah!" Ranma nodded fervently. "You know we don't trust
Kaolinite!"

Hotaru looked at Ryoga for a moment. Then she looked at Ranma.
Ranma and Ryoga both looked back, Ranma a little nervously.

Then, Hotaru smiled. "I should have known Kaolinite couldn't
have tricked you."

"Um, yeah." Ranma said.

Hotaru giggled again and gave both Ranma and Ryoga a quick hug.
"Thank you for believing in me." Hotaru said. "Shall we go?"

Ranma and Ryoga blinked, the same question crossing their minds.
<Believing in her?>

"Yeah, let's go," Ranma said after a second, stepping behind
Hotaru and facing the gate. "And don't get lost, Ryoga."

"Shut up, Ranma! Just go already!" Ryoga snapped, glaring at
Ranma.

Hotaru watched amusedly as Ranma stuck his tongue out at Ryoga
and quickly sprinted away as Ryoga chased after him with his umbrella.
She jogged after them and, fortunately for her health, the two rivals
had stopped running too fast once they had exited the Tomoe estate.

Ryoga, getting frustrated at running after the faster Ranma,
stopped and tried another tactic. "Come back here, Ranma you jerk!"

Ranma laughed and turned around. "Yeah right, Ryoga. Why don't
YOU come over HERE, huh?"

Ryoga smirked. "If you don't, I'll tell Hotaru here the real
reason why you went to her roof."

Hotaru turned towards Ranma and looked at him with an inquiring
look. Ranma just stood there scratching his head. "Huh? What the heck
are you talking about, Ryoga? We came up there to call her."

Ryoga's eyes seemed to gain an evil glint and he said, slowly.
"Are you sure?"

Ranma looked at Ryoga oddly. "Ryoga, are you feeling alright?"

Ryoga mentally screamed but tried not to show an outwards
change. "Do you want me to tell Hotaru?"

"Why dontcha, I'm kinda curious myself about what the heck
you're talking about."

Ryoga couldn't take it anymore. Could Ranma really be this
stupid?! "Don't you remember, you idiot?!" Ryoga shouted in frustration.

Ranma rubbed an ear slightly and Hotaru steadied herself. "You
didn't have to yell, you know?"

"Just tell us what you're talking about," Hotaru suggested.

Ryoga smacked his head and groaned. There was no being subtle
with Ranma, he supposed. "Don't you remember what I said before we went
on the roof?" He asked slowly.

"Uh..." Ranma thought about it. "That it wasn't a good idea?"

"And why did I think that?"

"Um..." Ranma picked his brain. "Um... because you'd get lost on
the way up?"

Ryoga threw a punch at Ranma, which was easily dodged. "No you
idiot!"

Ranma made a show of dusting himself and looked at Ryoga an-
noyedly. "Geez, then just tell us what you're talking already."

"Argh!" Ryoga screamed. "Never mind!"

Hotaru backed off, and Ranma rubbed his ears again. "Didja hafta
yell again? Geez..."

Ryoga glared at Ranma.

Ranma stood there for a moment, looking at Ryoga as his ears re-
covered from the yelling. Hotaru waited patiently. Then, a look of
realization crossed Ranma's features and he snapped his fingers. "Oh, I
remember!"

Ryoga lifted his head and looked at Ranma hopefully. Hotaru
leaned closer to Ranma, as if she were afraid she might not hear.

"You were afraid we'd be pee..." Ranma trailed off and his face
took on a nervous look. "Well, we've wasted enough time. Let's go!" He
then started walking off.

Ryoga and Hotaru quickly ran after him.

"What is it, Ranma? Tell me," Hotaru pleaded.

"Yes, Ranma. Tell her." Ryoga agreed.

"Shut up Ryoga. Besides, it was you who thought of that anyways.
And I knew the windows were covered, remember," Ranma replied, not
looking at either Ryoga or Hotaru.

"If you're not worried, then tell her," Ryoga replied.

"What are you talking about, Ranma," Hotaru asked.

"Nothing, never mind!" Ranma said quickly, covering his ears and
shaking his head. "Lemme alone!"

"Ha ha! Just tell her Ranma!" Ryoga laughed. Hotaru looked at
Ranma, her face alight with curiosity.

"You were the one who thought about it, not me! Why don't you
tell her?!" Ranma shot back at Ryoga.

Ryoga stopped his laughing. He had forgotten about that little
part. He had just intended to say it and get Ranma flustered up. "Uh,
no!"

"Tell me what?" Hotaru asked, impatiently.

"Nothing!" Both martial artists said at once, immediately
turning around and starting to walk off.

Hotaru stood behind for a moment, startled. After a second, she
hurried after the two. <I'll ask later.>


Hotaru sat down at a booth by the window and Ranma sat down
right by her. Ryoga took the other side.

"You're sitting with me, Ranma?" Hotaru asked in surprise. Not
that she minded, but she would have thought that Ranma would... well,
sit with Ryoga or something. Anything but sit with her.

Ranma scratched his head sheepishly. "Um, I guess I'm just used
to sitting next to you. Hehe, sorry."

"It's alright, I don't mind," Hotaru smiled.

Ranma seemed relieved(that he didn't make a fool of himself) and
sat back down. Ryoga looked at the two sitting across from him curi-
ously. "He's sitting next to you because he likes you."

"Well, we are friends," Ranma said as Hotaru looked at Ryoga
oddly.

"Friends usually like each other," Hotaru pointed out, a small
part of her relieved that Ranma had said what he did. The memory of her
previous, lonely... existence... was still strong in her mind.

Ryoga scowled. "Let me rephrase that..."

"Yes?" Hotaru listened interestedly. This was so different from
anything she had done with her free time before and she was enjoying
every bit of it.

"Ranma wants to sit next to you..." Ryoga paused for effect.

"Go on," Ranma said, taking a sip of his milk. He more
interested in eating his food than listening to whatever dumb insult
Ryoga had come up with. Although that look in the boy's eyes seemed
familiar somehow. It was like the one he had on when...

"Because he's in love with you!" Ryoga finished, grinning.

*ppphhhsssssssstttttt*

Ryoga silently wiped milk off his face.

Ranma wiped his mouth cleaned and turned over to look at Hotaru,
who was staring at the tabletop with a blush on her face. "H-hey, don't
listen ta him Hotaru! He's always doing that for some reason." Ranma
cast Ryoga a dark look.

Hotaru barely registered Ranma's words and tried to think her
face clear.

"Hotaru? You listening?" Ranma waved a hand frantically in front
of his friend's face, still getting no response.

<Ranma's in love with me? No, that can't be right... Ryoga was
teasing Ranma like this last time. He's just doing it again...> Hotaru
shook out of her thoughts as she felt someone shaking her. "W-what?"

"Hotaru," Ranma sighed in relief. "I was starting to think you
fell into some kinda weird seizure or something."

"I-I'm fine..."

Ranma cast another dark look at Ryoga. "Sorry 'bout Ryoga, he's
always trying to get back at me cause I always beat him when we fight."

"F-Fight?" Hotaru's face took on a sad look. Was she just
another instrument in some person's game? Was that all she was to
people? Ranma even seemed to be... to strongly dislike the idea of
loving her.

"Not that you're not cute or nothing," Ranma continued. "But I
am NOT in love with you."

Hotaru smiled. Maybe she had taken things a little to the
extreme. "R-right." Then she looked across her. But there was still
Ryoga...

"Yeah right, Ranma," Ryoga snorted. "You know you want her."

Hotaru looked closely at Ryoga's face, trying not to think to
much about his comment or she might get embarrassed. Ryoga seemed so
convinced. And Hotaru could tell that Ryoga, like Ranma, didn't lie a
lot. And from what she could tell, he was like Ranma when he did try to
lie. It was never too believable. Maybe she had she was wrong again.

"Put a sock in it," Ranma replied, waving a hand in irritation.

Ryoga became quiet and sat very still, barely moving at all.

A minute of uncomfortable silence passed.

"You didn't deny it, Ranma."

"Shut up!"


Ranma glanced at Hotaru as he was looking through his menu and
found that she was finished already! <I forgot, she doesn't eat a lot.>
"Um, Hotaru?"

Hotaru turned around and looked at Ranma. "Yes, Ranma?"

"I know you're paying for this, so maybe I shouldn't be saying
anything..." Ranma remembered THAT little argument. Actually, it was an
argument between him and Ryoga over who'd pay. Ryoga saying the thief
should pay to make up for stealing his food and Ranma saying he paid
last time. Hotaru had then intervened and declared that she would pay,
to both Ranma and Ryoga's protests. But there was no changing her mind,
so they had reluctantly accepted.

"Don't worry, Ranma. It's nothing," Hotaru assured, smiling.

Ranma looked apologetic before he shoved those thoughts away.
"Um, actually, I was just wondering what you were ordering."

Hotaru pointed at something on the menu.

Ranma sweatdropped. "Um, remember that chat I had with you?"

Hotaru began to get a strange feeling of Deja Vu as she looked
at Ranma. "Which one?"

"The one where I said you should eat more."

"..."

"If you don't want to, it's okay." Ranma said quickly. "But I
just think you should eat more."

Hotaru stared at Ranma and Ryoga watched on with interest. It
wasn't that she didn't want to get healthy; it was just that she wasn't
that hungry. "I'm not really hungry."

"You sure? 'Cause you could be not hungry and really be hungry.
It never happened to me but I heard some guy say something like that at
school," Ranma said, trying to convince Hotaru to get more food. What
was the point of going out to eat if you ate so little?

Hotaru tried a different tactic. "What are you ordering, Ranma?"

"Um, that." Ranma pointed at one of the cheaper items.

"That's not that much food either," Hotaru pointed out.

"Yeah, but-"

"But what?"

"That's different!"

"Why?"

"I don't wanna freeload offa ya, that's why!"

"I said it would be okay."

"But..." Ranma trailed off helplessly. If this were, say, Ryoga;
he'd just go and take advantage of the generous offer and order what he
REALLY wanted. But this wasn't Ryoga. This was Hotaru. He couldn't do
something so... so... evil to her! She was... special.

Hotaru mentally smiled. She didn't really like to manipulate
Ranma. She was really afraid he might hate her if she did that, but...
it was the only way she could think of to talk Ranma into letting her
eat only a little bit of food. But she still felt bad. Especially as a
part of her actually did like doing that. "Okay Ranma. If you order a
lot of food, so will I."

"..."

"Well?" Hotaru looked at Ranma, who was being very silent and
fidgeting nervously. She felt so bad, doing this to Ranma. <Maybe I
should just do what he wants? It's not a big deal. I can eat it...
But...>

Ranma was frustrated. He had no idea what he should do. <Should
I do it? But I don't wanna freeload! But she said she didn't mind...
Argh! Give me a sign!>

"Just order more, Ranma." Ryoga decided to interrupt Hotaru and
Ranma's staring contest. It was interesting at first, but got boring
after awhile. And Ranma wasn't exactly something he liked to look at for
prolonged periods of time. Hotaru was okay, but Ranma was a big,
thieving jerk.

Ranma snapped out of his thoughts and he and Hotaru both tuned
around and looked at Ryoga. "Huh?"

"You heard me, just order more," Ryoga replied with a bored wave
of his hand.

"But..." Ranma trailed off and gave Ryoga a meaningful look.
Hotaru waited for a reply from Ranma.

"She said not to worry to worry about it so don't."

Ranma looked from Ryoga's almost bored expression and then to
Hotaru's patient one. What should he do? "Hotaru?"

"Do whatever you want, Ranma," Hotaru said, smiling. "Whatever
makes you happy makes me happy."

Ranma stared at Hotaru for a moment and then down at the menu in his
hands. That was a really sweet thing for her to say.

"Okay," he said finally, looking up at Hotaru. "I'll order
more."

Hotaru looked at Ranma's expression and burst out giggling. Sud-
denly, eating a lot of food didn't seem so bad anymore.

"W-what's so funny?" Ranma asked worriedly, reaching for a
napkin.

"You don't have to sound so serious!" Hotaru replied between
giggles. Ryoga was even chuckling slightly.

Ranma rolled his eyes and sat back. "Hey, what're you ordering
Ryoga?"

Ryoga froze and slowly looked up at Ranma. "Um..."


Hotaru looked at the assortment of food before her in awe. There
was a LOT of food. She wasn't worried about the price, it wasn't that
much. But this was a LOT of food. "Are you sure we can finish this?" She
asked.

Ranma nodded. "No problem. The only thing we hafta worry about
is making sure you eat a lot."

"..."

Ranma looked down a the 'meal' before him and nodded in satis-
faction. If Hotaru didn't mind the price, then he was happy. And she
said whatever makes him happy made her happy, right? Then everything was
perfect since they were both happy. "Alright Hotaru, Ryoga... Let's
eat!"


Three very stuffed teenagers walked out of a restaurant and
headed down a random direction.

Ranma belched and sighed in satisfaction. He felt just great. He
glanced over at Ryoga. He was keeping himself 'gentleman-like' or what-
ever, but he could tell that the boy was quite full. It took a martial
artist like Ranma to tell that the Lost boy was stuffed, but he could
tell. It would take more than a big meal to impede a martial artist's
performance.

Hotaru, on the other hand, was stumbling a bit. She was positive
she had never eaten so much in her life. Whenever she had finished a
plate, Ranma was there with a smile and another plate of food. She
couldn't refuse him. He just seemed so happy when she ate. The best she
could do was eat slower. But Ranma NEVER wasted food and he made sure
she ate a lot, so the trio was at the restaurant for quite awhile.

"I'm... so full..." Hotaru said, stumbling next to Ranma. "I
don't think I can walk any-" Hotaru stopped talking when she started to
fall. Into Ranma's arms.

"Just lean on my shoulder," Ranma suggested. "I think maybe you
ate a bit too much."

"And... who's fault... is that?" Hotaru asked slowly as she was
put back on her feet. She immediately grabbed onto one of Ranma's shoul-
ders for support and leaned on it. After Ranma was sure that Hotaru was
okay, he started walking again.

Ryoga looked on, amused. "Why don't you carry her?"

"She need's the exercise," Ranma replied quickly. The truth was,
he didn't exactly know why he didn't carry Hotaru. He knew he certainly
wouldn't mind it. But maybe Hotaru would. Maybe that was why. Or maybe
it was because of all these pedestrians looking at them. No. That wasn't
it. Ranma could care less what everybody else thought of him carrying
Hotaru. It was people like them who tormented Hotaru. Ranma shook his
head. Maybe he was saying "maybe" too much.

"Maybe she needs the rest more," Ryoga suggested.

"If she wanted to be carried, she'd ask okay?" Ranma replied in
annoyance. He then looked down at Hotaru. "Right Hotaru? If ya want me
ta carry you anytime, just say so."

Hotaru smiled. "Right."

Ranma looked up at Ryoga. "There, so shut up."

"Whatever," Ryoga answered, rolling his eyes. "So where do we go
now?"

Ranma shrugged and looked over to Hotaru. "I dunno. Where you
wanna go, Hotaru?"

"This was your idea... You can decide," Hotaru answered.

Ranma thought about it. Exactly where did he go whenever he went
out just to have fun? <Have I ever even done something like this be-
fore?> The answer he came up with was "no". <Oh great.> "Um, hey. You
two live here, you tell me where to go."

Ryoga thought about it. He never did much. He always trained on
his spare time. "I don't really go out much," he said "You all know
about my direction problem." He added darkly.

"Well, I guess we both have an excuse," Ranma said. Then he
looked at Hotaru. "Well, what do you do with your spare time?"

"Read or study." Hotaru replied.

"Oookay..." Ranma said slowly. "Do you ever go out?" He asked.
He suspected the answer was no. Hotaru was a little on the pale side.

"I go to the park sometimes," Hotaru said brightly, glad that
she had an answer for Ranma.

Ranma snapped his fingers. "Perfect! We'll go to a park! Ryoga
and I can spar a bit and we can give Hotaru a few tips on self-defense.
What do you guys think?"

"Hmmm..." Ryoga rubbed his chin. he went to the park sometimes.
Or, actually, he got lost and ended up in one. "I don't have any other
ideas."

"Are you sure you two should be fighting so soon after eating?"
Hotaru asked worriedly.

Ranma slapped her on the back. "Don't worry about it! We're mar-
tial artists, we'll do fine," He said enthusiastically.

Hotaru smiled. Ranma seemed so eager. "Well, let's go then."
Then she added. "Ryoga... The nearest park is THIS way."


Hotaru smiled as Ryoga yelled insults at Ranma as he pulled the
Lost Boy up. <Smile...> She thought wonderingly. She had been doing that
so much more lately. It almost felt natural to smile when Ranma was
around. She even laughed sometimes.(Well, giggle, anyways.) She even
felt that she had smiled and laughed the past week more than she ever
had in the rest of her life. Or at least since her mother died.

After that, she still had fun when her father spent time with
her, but he didn't do that too often. And after the explosion, he
stopped doing that altogether. Since then, she had really started
becoming depressed. And now that Ranma and Ryoga were here... Life was
enjoyable again. She no longer found happiness in just the solitude of
her room or the pages of a book.

"Hey Hotaru!"

Hotaru snapped out of her thoughts. "W-what is it?"

"Now that Ryoga and I are done." Ranma indicated the bruised up
boy next to him. "Let's get you learning."

"..."

"Hey, don't worry 'bout nothing. We ain't gonna fight with you,
just give you some training." <I don't fight with girls anyways.> Ranma
mentally added.

"If you really want me to..." Hotaru said slowly, getting up
from the bench she was on.

"Of course WE want you to!" Ranma exclaimed. "You gotta be able
to beat up those guys if they try to attack you again." That was the
reason he was even training Hotaru in the first place. He was a little
reluctant to do it, but his friend's safety had priority over his male
pride and pretty much everything else.

"Ranma's right, Hotaru,." Ryoga added reluctantly. He didn't like to
give anything to the little thief, but this was for Hotaru's benefit.
"You need to be able to defend yourself."

"And go to the forest!" Ranma added with a cheerful smile.

"Um, right. That too," Ryoga amended, glancing at Ranma oddly.

Hotaru giggled and walked over to the two martial artists. Ranma
seemed a little ruffled but otherwise okay. Ryoga was in about the same
shape. "So what do I do?"

Ranma thought about it. "Um, what do you think Ryoga?"

Ryoga thought about it. Hotaru looked like she needed to build
up her physical attributes more than anything else. "Well, I'd say she
should run or something."

Hotaru cringed. She hated running. She was fast, she knew. But
could only last a very short period of time before her sides hurt and
she started feeling faint.

"She can do all that strength training and stuff later. Right
now, I just want to get her more skilled," Ranma said in reply to the
suggestion.

Ryoga looked at Ranma doubtfully. There was not much point in
being very skilled if you couldn't last long. "Well, I'd say teach her
how to block first."

Ranma snapped his fingers. "Great idea! We'll teach you some
blocks and stuff."

"Okay..." Hotaru said. She supposed she should learn defense
before anything else.

"Alright then. Ryoga, you step back and DON'T MOVE. You're...
stronger than me... so I'll do this."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow and stepped about ten feet under Ranma's
watchful eyes. Had he just been complimented by Ranma?

After he was sure Ryoga was still there, Ranma turned back to
Hotaru. "Okay, I'll just throw a punch or something and you try to block
it, okay? Don't worry, I wont hurtcha."

Hotaru nodded. She wasn't sure she could do this, but Ranma had
said it would help her, so she had to at least try. "Okay Ranma." Hotaru
fluidly dropped into a defensive stance and tensed, ready for a fight.

Ranma blinked. "Huh? Do you know martial arts already?"

Hotaru looked at Ranma oddly. "What are you talking about,
Ranma?"

"You're in a pretty good stance right there," Ranma said, ges-
turing at Hotaru.

Hotaru looked down at herself and she found that Ranma was right
and she was indeed standing, with her feet spread out, knees bent and
hands held up before her, in a ready stance.

"Wow..." she whispered. "I must have copied you and Ryoga..."
That was the only reason she could think of for her knowing it. <But it
felt so... natural...>

Ranma shrugged, a little doubtful. "Well, whatever. Ya seem to
have everything right so, moving on..." Ranma dropped into a loose
stance, just so Hotaru would know what to expect. "Okay Hotaru, you just
watch me very closely and try to predict what I'm gonna do, okay?"

Hotaru nodded. "Okay, Ranma."

Ranma smiled and stayed very still for a few moments. He then
made a very exaggerated show of tightening his right fist and shifting
his weight to his left leg. He was both satisfied and disappointed when
he saw Hotaru widen her eyes. She had recognized what he was about to
do, but she should have kept better control of her emotions.

Hotaru immediately realized that Ranma was about to punch at her
with his right arm. For some reason, she knew that what Ranma was doing
should be blatantly obvious and was almost embarrassed by it, but she
shrugged that off. Hotaru tensed and waited.

Ranma sent an average speed punch at Hotaru's face. It was
average by average martial arts standards, but was incredibly slow by
his own. He could still, however, put a lot of force in that one punch.
But he didn't. He made sure that the punch was so weak it couldn't break
tissue paper. He could never forgive himself if he hurt Hotaru.

A flash of memory from a previous fight she had, and Hotaru
instinctively raised her right hand, fist closed, and pushed the in-
coming arm aside. Stepping up with her left foot, she then gave two
quick punches to Ranma's ribs. She never realized that she had never
been in a fight before and the memory was soon gone.

Ranma was shocked. Shocked that Hotaru had just did what she
did. It certainly didn't hurt and he knew about a fifty ways to counter
what she just did right off the top of his head. There were plenty of
ways to counter punches, after all. But still... Hotaru wasn't supposed
to know ANY martial arts. And he didn't recall him using a basic
maneuver like that on Ryoga, or vice-versa.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Ranma!" Hotaru exclaimed. "I didn't mean to
hit you! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Ranma pushed all of his surprise away and turned around to face
Hotaru. "Don't worry, it didn't hurt at all." Ranma took a deep breath.
"Um, Hotaru..."

"Y-yes?" Hotaru asked. She was afraid Ranma was mad at her. He
had said it was okay, but why was he all serious now?

"Are you sure you don't any martial arts?"

Hotaru seemed very surprised. Why would Ranma ask her something
like that? "No, why?"

"Because you just executed a martial arts technique." Ryoga an-
swered, joining the two. It was something almost all martial artists
learned waaay in the beginning, but it WAS still martial arts.

Hotaru blinked and thought back. <I saw Ranma's punch... And
then he tried to punch me and I...> Hotaru's jaw dropped down. She HAD
done something! "I-it just came naturally..." She said wonderingly.

Ranma was very silent for a moment. Then at thought struck him
and he smiled. "Well, that's great!"

"W-what?" Hotaru looked at Ranma questioningly.

"Martial arts must be in your blood or something, that's why you
know what you do! You just... um, whatchamacallit... subconsciously!
Yeah, subconsciously picked up some martial arts! Happens to me all the
time, I just know I'm doing it."

Ryoga seemed thoughtful for a moment. Then he smiled. "That
makes sense, you must have a lot of potential." He patted Hotaru on the
back in congratulations, glad that Hotaru seemed to have some talent.

Only Hotaru was doubtful about Ranma's theory. Subconsciously
learning martial arts? She supposed she wasn't an expert on either the
human mind or martial arts, but still... "I'm not so sure..."

Ranma shrugged. "Well, you got a better idea?"

"No..."

"Then let's see what else ya... um... subconsciously learned!"


Hotaru lay back down on the bench, Ranma and Ryoga to her right.
She wasn't tired, nor were her 'teachers'. The techniques she had l
earned were easy to perform and she got a lot of rest in-between each
one. The only thing that could have been a little troublesome was lear-
ning how to take a fall. But it appeared she had 'subconsciously
learned' that as well. Hotaru smiled. She had her doubts about Ranma's
theory, but couldn't think of a better one. So she was, instead, happy
that Ranma was using his head.

Ranma looked at Hotaru thoughtfully. She had learned so much in
an hour. He smirked. 'Learn' indeed. Ranma felt he was just reminding
Hotaru. She already seemed to know about martial arts. All he had done
so far was remind Hotaru of the basics and help her polish it up a bit.
He was glad. This meant it would be a lot easier to train Hotaru.

"Well, whaddya guys wanna do now?" Ranma asked as he stood back
up. He had expected to spend a lot more time training Hotaru. It wasn't
even Lunch time yet and he had finished! For now anyway...

Ryoga shrugged. Hotaru was silent.

"Oookay..." Ranma said slowly. "Let's just walk around for
a while then."

"Sounds good to me," Hotaru smiled, getting up.

Ryoga yawned. "Whatever."


"So then I beat up Ryoga real good," Ranma finished proudly,
looking at Hotaru with a smirk.

Ryoga scowled. "You just got lucky that time, Ranma."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Ranma replied rolling his eyes.

"It sounds like you do this often," Hotaru commented with a
giggle.

"Do what? Fight?" Ranma asked in confusion.

Hotaru nodded.

"It's all in the spirit of, um..." Ranma picked his brain;
exactly what was it in the spirit of? "Er... It's all in... good spirit!
Yeah, that's it. All in good spirit. Right, Ryoga 'ol buddy?"

Ryoga glared at Ranma. "I am not your buddy." He said slowly.

Hotaru giggled. "Don't be so serious Ryoga. Ranma does some
stupid things sometimes, I suppose. But he's really a nice person."

"Yeah, Ryoga. Listen to Hotaru," Ranma added smirking.

Ryoga muttered something about pony-tailed thieves but was
otherwise silent.

The trio continued walking on, this time in a mostly comfortable
silence.

"Hotaru?" Ranma asked suddenly. There was something he was
curious about.

"What is-" Hotaru abruptly stopped walking and clutched her side
in pain, falling down on one knee.

Ranma shot down by her side, Ryoga behind him. "Hotaru! What's
wrong?" <Is she having another seizure?>

"R-Ranma..." Hotaru gasped out. "I-it's just... I'll be...
fine..." Hotaru's eyes shut and with a gasp, she fell forward. Ranma
gently caught her and lifted her up in his arms.

"W-what's wrong with her?" Ryoga asked, his voice full of
concern for the girl's welfare. She was HIS friend as well, after all.

"She gets these seizures sometimes," Ranma replied quickly, his
eyes never leaving Hotaru's unconscious form. "It's happened ever since
she was in this lab explosion with her dad four years ago."

"Hotaru was in an explosion?" Ryoga asked in shock.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, the explosion caused the seizure, but she
doesn't know why. Some idiot told her she's not supposed to see a
doctor."

"What do we do?"

Ranma sighed. "I guess we should take her back home. Follow me
and don't get lost."

Ryoga didn't give his usual scowl but, instead, just numbly
nodded as Ranma led him to Hotaru's house.


A city.

Dark and foreboding, covered by a red sky that spoke of death.

People, frozen in stone, expressions of terror marking their
faces.

Girls. Faces of girls that she had never met before. And yet
they seemed so familiar. She felt she should know them, trust them. But
that was silly, they were just statues, like the millions of others
dotting the dead and deserted city.

And yet... she HAD seen them. On television, on the newspapers,
everywhere! Sailor Senshi, defenders of Love and Justice; protectors of
Tokyo. Particularly Juuban. THEY would help her! They would turn ever-
yone back to flesh! But wait... They, too, were stone.

She shook her head. She didn't know any Sailor Senshi. She
barely even had any friends.

And then, as if her thoughts had summoned those very same
people, they appeared before her, their faces marked with that arrogant
smirk she had become so used to.

She reached out a hand to one. The one she felt closest to.

Then she faltered. Her arms were bare. And more than that, there
was something in one of her hands. A long weapon of strange, gleaming
metal that sparkled with power. It felt so right in her hands, as if it
belonged, and whispered to her that it cared not what it was used for;
Good or Evil, whatever it's master desired.

She shook her head again. Evil? She wouldn't do anything evil.
Almost everybody thought she was evil, but she wasn't. Almost everybody.
She looked again at the two who were her friends. Once again, she
reached out to them.

The one she felt closest to reached out a hand, his smirk
shifting to a kind smile. The other watched on with that amused look he
wore every now and then.

Then, she felt it.

A darkness came over her and she felt her control ripped from
her; her being pushed back into a dark corner as she screamed out in
pain.

Her friend, immediately breaking out into a run towards her.
Ready to help her, protect her. The other, close behind, worry marring
his features.

She smirked. She smirked and yet she didn't. It was her and it
wasn't.

She never smirked.

And her friends knew that. With fluid ease they stopped and
dropped into defensive stances, worry and determination on both of their
faces.

She raised her weapon, the cruel smirk never leaving her face.

Her friends tensed. They knew the danger they were in but they
would not abandon her while they still felt hope. And even then, maybe
not. She knew them enough to know that.

"No!" she wanted to scream. "Run away!" she wanted to shout. But
she didn't, couldn't. She no longer had control. Her friends would stay
and they would die something told her. Herself and not herself. Only
four years of herself.

A word echoed through her being: Messiah.

The weapon flashed downwards with lightning speed. Both of her
friends reacted with reflexes born from a life spent in training, leap-
ing skillfully out of the deadly pole-arm's path and to safety.

A surge of hope. They were good, perhaps they would not die.

They ran towards her. Obviously with the intent of restraining
her.

The weapon flashed again. Hope was cut down with it as one of
her friends fell down. The other one. Strong as an ox and as unyielding
as a mountain. And he was down.

Her other friend was by his side in and instant, pulling him
back to safety. Words were exchanged. Perhaps last words.

The remaining one came back to his feet, determination lighting
his face. The other remained on the barren ground, his life essence
flowing away despite the crude bandages made.

Her weapon. No, the weapon moved again. With lightning speed and
precision it flew towards her remaining friend.

He dodged.

Another strike.

Dodged.

Another and another. All missed. She despaired. He would never
win if he did not attack her. What was he doing?

Strike after strike, all missing. Her friend moved as the wind,
flowed like water. The weapon did not hit him.

She would have cried if she could. Her friend would die if he
did not attack her, something whispered to her. But he would not attack
her. Even while his comrade lay dying on the ground, he would not attack
her.

A moment of control. Her voice regained for but a second.
Breaking the dread silence, she screamed. "Run!"

Her friend faltered, his eyes widening in surprise. He jumped
back a second later as the weapon flew at him again.

She could not speak again, but she pleaded to him with her eyes.
Pleaded with him to take the other and run.

He stared at her hopelessly. Then, he nodded, his eyes promising
he would return. Lifting his fallen companion up, he turned and ran.

She pursued. Hope came that her friends would survive. That she
would see them again as herself. That it would be like before, when she
was happy.

Then she felt it.

Her friend likely did to as he faltered for a second in his
flight. But that was all.

She stopped and turned around. Three objects, glowing with
celestial power. So much power. One part of her, the part in control,
raised a hand, reaching towards the objects of power. The other part,
herself, wanted to run away. Run to her friend and escape from this
nightmare with him.

But she didn't.

The objects came closer. To her and each other.

Closer.

Closer.

A twisted parody of a half-forgotten moment of her life. One she
still didn't understand. But she felt it was important. That it would
reveal some piece of information that would fix everything. Some so-
important piece of information that she could not remember! She strug-
gled with it. If she could just figure it out! So close!

Too late.

The objects became as one and the light intensified.

Bright.

Blinding.

But she could still see it. Just barely. A cup, beautiful and
adorned with jewels. It came down. She touched it.

Power. Pure, unbelievable power. It flowed to her, from the cup
and to her fingertips. Then, throughout her entire body. Every fiber of
her being was filled with strength unimaginable. And it was all use for
one thing.

The silence seemed to be become more intense.

Then it ended.

A loud, deafening rumbling from behind her.

She turned. One part triumphant, the other fraught with fear.

She saw her friend. He had stopped running and was staring at...

The End. Of everything.

A rolling mass of dark destruction, destroying everything in
it's path. The buildings, the statues, everything.

She wanted to scream. There must be a way! A word flashed
through her mind: Messiah.

"Too late," The other part of her taunted.

An image of a young girl, so familiar, flashed through her.
Every- thing about her from the buns on her head to her strange clothing
was so familiar. Her face calm and her eyes friendly and sad. Someone
she could trust, she felt. Someone that could fix everything. Someone
that was frozen in stone.

She despaired.

Her friend turned back to her, his eyes pleading.

She felt like dying. Perhaps she would, along with everything
else.

"Your friend will die..." The other taunted. Tears fell to her
eyes and down her face. A face once twisted with an evil smirk. Now sad.
But that was all she could control. "We may not kill him ourselves, but
he cannot escape the inevitable... The Silence..." Silence. The word
felt strangely soothing and repulsive at the same time.

Tears fell. From her face or his, she could not be sure. How
could she make things right?

Messiah?


Hotaru snapped awake, grabbing onto the nearest solid thing with
a strength born of fear. Fear born of something she could not remember.
Something she, perhaps, did not want to remember.

"Hotaru!" Ranma exclaimed as his friend shot awake and wrapped
her arms around his torso with in an iron embrace. <What the?! Even
Ryoga ain't this strong!>

The voice. She felt so much relief at hearing it. Hearing it say
her name. Say HER name. Unbidden, tears came.

<S-she's crying!> Ranma almost panicked. Crying girls was some-
thing he could not, apparently, handle. "W-what's wrong, Hotaru?" He
asked worriedly, setting her down on her feet and nervously returning
her hug because it felt like the right thing to do, even if it felt
'unmanly'.

Ryoga watched on, concern in his eyes. Both he and Ranma had
noticed that Hotaru seemed to be having a nightmare. He could tell this
was no time to try to humiliate Ranma.

Hotaru said nothing and continued to cry. A thought she did not
understand echoing through her mind: He's alive...

To make sure, she tightened her hold on Ranma and took comfort
on his own hold on her. She let the tears run loose. She needed to let
it out. <He's alive... He's alive... They're both alive... Everything's
okay...>

"Hotaru..." Ranma said slowly as the girl he held slowly to stop
crying. "What's wrong?"

Hotaru sniffled a few more times and reluctantly broke out of
Ranma's gentle hold. "I just... had a nightmare..." She said slowly. It
sounded silly, even to her. She couldn't even remember what it was
about, but she could, however, still feel the fear, the helplessness.
And then she felt an unbelievable sense of relief that both Ranma and
Ryoga were standing before her, safe and sound.

"Um..." Ranma trailed off, trying to think of something properly
reassuring to say. He wasn't any expert on this; especially with Genma
as his father. Nightmares were considered unmanly and resulted in even
more intensive training the next day. As a result, Ranma had stopped
mentioning anything about nightmares to his father. Even the ones about
the... cats...

"Don't worry, it was just a dream," Ryoga interjected quickly as
Ranma didn't seem to know what to say.

"Yeah, it was just a dream, everything's alright now," Ranma ad-
ded, picking up on what Ryoga was doing: Reassuring her.

Hotaru took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. "T-thank
you," she said softly.

Ranma and Ryoga smiled reassuringly.

Hotaru's forced smiled became genuine. She felt so safe with
Ranma and Ryoga with her. "I'm sorry about your shirt, Ranma."

Ranma glanced down at his tear-stained shirt. "Ahhh, it's
alright. You're the one who gave it to me anyways."

Several moments of uncomfortable silence passed.

"Where are we?" Hotaru finally asked, breaking the silence. The
silence had seemed so familiar. So frightening, that she just had to END
it.

"Um, we're pretty close to your house," Ranma answered. "You
passed out so I thought we should take you home..."

"Thank you," Hotaru replied simply.

"Yeah, no problem..." Ranma said. "Um, maybe we should take you
home." Ranma didn't really want to leave Hotaru, but her health was
first priority. It was his job to protect her, her felt.

"It's alright," Hotaru quickly said. Leaving Ranma and Ryoga and
being... alone... was the last thing she wanted right then. "I'm fine
now."

Ranma shrugged and pretended indifference. But he was secretly
grateful that Hotaru wanted to go on with their day.

Ryoga just stood, a passive observer. He, apparently, had no say
in the matter. Ah well. He didn't mind going on with the day.

"So what do we do now?" Ryoga asked.

Ranma shrugged. "How 'bout we let Hotaru decide?"

Hotaru looked at Ranma and Ryoga's expectant eyes and smiled.
They were okay. She felt the fear and helplessness slowly drift away and
took a deep breath. "How about we just walk around for a little bit.
Maybe we can find a place to eat lunch, too."

Ranma nodded enthusiastically. Ryoga practically copied Ranma.
Hotaru giggled, the last remnants of her nightmare drifting away. Okay,
let's just walk."


"It was pretty strange," Ryoga continued, his two-person
audience listening interestedly. "There were ones a foot high!"

"I dunno Ryoga..." Ranma said, not to sure about the credibility
of Ryoga's story. "I ain't no expert, but a foot's pretty big for a
mushroom..."

"Are you calling me a liar!" Ryoga demanded angrily.

"Of course not!" Ranma quickly replied, his hands raised up
before him defensively.

Ryoga relaxed.

"You don't drink, do you?"

"Ranma..." Ryoga growled dangerously. The pedestrians that were
around the three teenagers quickly moved away from the martial artist.
His anger was almost tangible. Some of the more cowardly even ran across
the street just to be sure they were safe. Of course, what they didn't
know was that if Ryoga did attack Ranma, the third thing he'd try would
involve Ranma flying to the that side of the street.

"It's okay, Ryoga," Hotaru said, smiling amusedly. "Ranma's just
teasing you."

Ryoga scowled, but unclenched his fists and settled down, calm
for the most part. "I'm only letting you go because of Hotaru."

"Hmph. Ryoga Hibiki, taking orders from a girl." Ranma smirked.

Hotaru frowned. Ryoga snickered. "Do you have something against
girls, Ranma?" Ryoga asked.

Ranma blinked. He had been expecting Ryoga to get angry and try
to 'kill' him. "Huh?"

"Do you have something against girls?" Ryoga repeated.

"Uh, no," Ranma answered. "Hotaru's a girl and I like her." He
added after a moment.

Hotaru lost her frown and Ryoga smirked. Ranma looked at both of
them, a confused look on his face. For a moment there, he had been
afraid he had said something wrong. Normally, he wouldn't really care,
but he didn't like seeing Hotaru unhappy for any reason. Especially not
because of him. "Man, I don't get you guys at all..." Ranma muttered.

Ryoga laughed and Hotaru giggled at Ranma. Ranma tried to ignore
him and walked on.

"Hey, guys," Ranma called as he noticed something.

His two companions composed themselves and looked at Ranma.
"What is it now?" Ryoga asked, prepared to be sucker-punched by Ranma or
any number of other violent things.

"What's an arcade?"

Ryoga blinked. Arcade. The word brought back flashes of memory
from his childhood. When his parents had been around more often. When he
had enjoyed life and had fun. Flashes of bright lights and unceasing
high-pitched noises. Fun. "I think I've been to one before, but I don't
really remember it."

"It's a place filled with gaming machines," Hotaru supplied.

"Gaming machines?" Ranma asked. What the heck was a gaming
machine?

Hotaru tried another answer. "Arcade machines."

"Arcade machines?" Ranma asked. What the heck was an arcade
machine? Gaming machine made more sense than arcade machine.

"A machine that you play games on," Ryoga interjected.

"You play games on a machine?" Ranma asked.

Ryoga and Hotaru nodded.

"So is it fun?"

Ryoga and Hotaru froze.

"I've never actually been to one before," Hotaru said after a
moment.

"I haven't been to one in years," Ryoga admitted.

"So was it fun when you were there?" Ranma asked, turning to
Ryoga.

"Um, I think so," Ryoga replied slowly.

"So what, exactly, do we do in there?"

"You put money in a machine and play the game on it," Ryoga
replied.

Ranma frowned. He wasn't exactly keen on spending money. "Well,
I was gonna say to go in here, but I don't wanna spend my money on
games..."

"Well, personally, I'd like to see an arcade again," Ryoga said.

Ranma turned towards Hotaru. "How 'bout you?"

"It sounds like it could be fun," Hotaru said.

Ranma thought about it. They had zero to little experience with
arcades. That meant it could be fun trying out something new with his
friends. And he was a little curious himself. But then there was the
little thing about money... Ranma glanced back at Hotaru's eager face
and the choice was made for him. "Well, let's check it out!" He an-
nounced.

Hotaru smiled and Ryoga nodded as Ranma walked through the now
open, automatic doors of Crown Arcade.

It wasn't exactly as Ryoga had expected. He remembered a dark
place full of flashing machines. This place had ample lighting, though
there were plenty of machines. There were many people, too, but he
remembered a lot more. Ryoga shrugged to himself and looked at his...
company and saw that they too were looking around curiously.

"So what do we do?" Ranma asked.

"Find a game we like and play it." Ryoga answered, walking
towards a machine.

A hand quickly shot out and pulled him back. "What are you
doing?!" Ryoga demanded. "Let go of me!"

Ranma rolled his eyes and released the Lost Boy. "You were
heading for the door, brick-head."

"What did you call me?"

Hotaru giggled and Ranma and Ryoga both stopped what they were
doing. They had just become so used to stopping their little fights when
Hotaru did something that it was now natural.

"So what's so funny now?" Ranma asked tiredly.

"Just the way you two always manage get into fights," Hotaru
replied.

Ranma and Ryoga both sighed. "Well, let's go this way," Ranma
suggested, pointing to their left.

Ryoga shrugged, his anger at Ranma forgotten as he followed
Ranma. Hotaru grabbed him and turned him in the right direction when he
started heading for the right instead.

As the three walked along, they studied the various machines
they passed.

"There's a lot of these Sailor V games," Ranma pointed out.

"That's most likely because she's a real person," Hotaru sug-
gested.

"Oh yeah." Ranma snapped his fingers in recollection. "I
remember hearing something 'bout some girls running around fighting
monsters or something."

"The Sailor Senshi," Hotaru said, a feeling of Deja Vu creeping
along her spine.

"I can't believe they dress in those little skirts," Ranma said.
"I mean, do they actually FIGHT like that?"

Hotaru giggled. "They've been doing for a long time now, Ranma."

"So I guess they've got some experience with monster-hunting; I
bet I could kick their butts. Not that I would 'cause they're girls an
all, but I could."

"I'm not so sure, Ranma," Hotaru said, feeling that she should
defend the Senshi for some reason.

"Sure I can," Ranma replied confidently. "I-"

"Hey, this looks fun," Ryoga said, cutting off Ranma's sentence.

"What?" Ranma and Hotaru asked simultaneously, turning to what
Ryoga was looking at.

"Enforcers: Lethal," Ryoga answered as he walked up to a
machine.

"What's so fun about that?" Ranma wondered as he walked next to
Ryoga. "How the heck are you supposed to play it anyways? There ain't no
sticks or nothing on it."

"I think you use those guns," Hotaru answered, pointing at a
plastic, red gun next to Ranma.

"G-guns?" Ranma sputtered. "You use guns in this thing!"

"They're not real, you idiot," Ryoga said, whacking Ranma on the
head for his stupidity. "I suppose I use this blue one, then."

Ranma rubbed the back of his head, annoyed and picked up the
gun, noticing that there was a cord connecting it to the arcade machine.
"So what do we do, oh wise one?" he asked sarcastically.

Ryoga shrugged. "I guess we shoot things on the screen"

"Doesn't sound so great," Ranma said, looking over all the char-
acters popping up on the chaotic screen, various firearms held in their
digitized hands.

"Consider it reflex training." Hotaru suggested.

"Reflex training, huh?" Ranma said thoughtfully. "Guess I could
try it. Whadda we do?"

"You put some coins in there," Ryoga pointed at a slot next to
Ranma's hand. "and play."

"Money?" Ranma said slowly. "Great..." he muttered sarcastically
as he slowly rooted around in his pants for the correct amount of
change.

"It's not that much, Ranma," Hotaru pointed out with an amused
smile.

"Yeah, yeah..." Ranma replied in annoyance as he inserted a coin
into the machine. "Tell me that when I'm starving on the road, why
dontcha?"

"Oh shut up, Ranma," Ryoga said in irritation. "Just enjoy the
game."

"..."

"It's starting, you two," Hotaru pointed out as the screen
changed. "I think you're supposed to shoot at the level you want to go
to."

*BAM*

"Okay." Ranma smirked. "This game should be a 'cinch."

"Especially with me helping," Ryoga added.

"If it were possible, you'd probably get us lost in the game,"
Ranma commented, snickering.

"Why you..." Ryoga growled, ready to drop his gun and pound
Ranma.

"Whoops, no time to talk, game's starting!" Ranma quickly spun
towards the screen.

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

"Heh, that was almost too easy," Ranma commented, smirking.

*BAM*

"I just saved your life, Ryoga."

"Ah shut up!" Ryoga growled. " And leave some for me!"

*BAM* *CLICK* *CLICK* *BANG* *BANG*

"Hey! What gives?! My gun ain't working!" Ranma shouted angrily
as Ryoga laughed and blasted the two terrorists who had shot Ranma.

"Ranma, you have to reload," Hotaru said, pointing at some
writing on the arcade machine.

"Reload by shooting off screen?!" Ranma read in disbelief. "Why
the hell didn't they say that earlier?!"

*BANG*

"Argh! Why weren't you covering me you idiot?!" Ranma demanded
as Ryoga burst out in more laughter and shot down several more ski-
masked terrorists.

"I have my own problems to deal with," Ryoga answered, still
laughing. "Just reload and do something!"

"You're just lucky I ran out of bullets first," Ranma muttered
as he reloaded. "Or you'd be the one with-"

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

"Holes," Ranma finished as he reloaded early and proceed to mow
down several more masked evil-doers.

"Yeah right, at least I now how to read, unlike some thieves..."
Ryoga replied as he blasted and reloaded. Blasted and reloaded.

Hotaru giggled and sat down on a conveniently placed chair. She
was glad they had decided to come to the arcade. It was so funny
watching Ranma and Ryoga play.

"Um..." Ranma shot down some more masked terrorists and
reloaded.

*BANG*

"Ranma!!!" Ryoga shouted in anger. "Why didn't you shoot that
psycho! I'm injured now!"

"But it's a girl..." Ranma pointed out. Indeed, the black-garbed
terrorist had several important things that a male one didn't. "See,
she's got long hair, red-lips and everything!"

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

"It's just a game, damnit!"

*BAM* *BAM*

"Then don't take it so seriously, sheesh..." Ranma said, hesi-
tantly putting a hole in a few female terrorist's heads.

*BAM* *BAM* *BEEP*

"What the hell!?" Ryoga shouted as he lost another health point.
"Why did I a lose a heart?!"

"Hahahaha!" was Ranma reply.

*BAM* *BAM*

"You..."

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

"Probably..." Ranma reloaded.

*BAM* *BAM*

"Just..."

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

"Suck!" Ranma finished as he reloaded and the camera view showed
them, apparently, running outside.

"Damn you, Ranma!" Ryoga dropped his gun, and drew back a fist,
ready to beat Ranma into a pulp. Hotaru quickly jumped to her feet and
interfered.

"Ranma's just teasing you, Ryoga!" Hotaru said quickly. "You
lost a point because you shot a bystander."

"Bystander?" Ryoga said questioningly as he picked his gun back
up.

"Hahaha!" Ranma laughed. "Man, I'd hate to give you a gun in
real life! Shooting innocent people!" Ranma continued laughing as he
expertly put holes in five foreheads that popped out of some widows. He
had made the interesting discovery that he had a very good aim when he
put his mind to it.

"Shut up!" Ryoga snapped as he turned his attention back to
game.

*BANG*

"Hahaha! Ya shoulda been paying attention, Ryoga!"

*BAM* *BAM*

"I wish they'd let me shoot my partner..." Ryoga muttered as a
large helicopter filled up the screen. "Do we shoot that?"

*BANG*

"Hahaha! That answer your question?"

"Shut up!"


"Well, that was pretty easy," Ranma decided as he put down his
gun and stretched.

"You know, I didn't expect us to beat that thing in one try,"
Ryoga commented, rubbing his neck. Even the ending had been kind of
stupid.

"Well, whaddya expect, what with my superior reflexes helping
ya," Ranma answered with an arrogant smirk.

"Don't get cocky, Ranma," Ryoga replied, a hint of annoyance in
his voice.

"I think you both did great," Hotaru interjected. "You two make
a good team."

"Both?" Ranma said incredulously. "Ryoga's the one who shot that
innocent bystander, remember? And he almost got me killed with that
stupid tank!"

"It was one lousy accident! You're-"

"Calm down, you two!" Hotaru said in exasperation. It was
amazing how quickly those two could get into an argument, sometimes.
Extremely annoying but amazing nonetheless. "Let's go to a different
machine, okay?"

Ranma decided to ignore Ryoga and nodded at Hotaru. She was one
person whose ideas he couldn't just ignore. Even if he acted like he
didn't, he always paid attention to Hotaru's ideas and opinions.

Ryoga glared at Ranma for a few seconds but turned away when
Ranma ignored him. He nodded at Hotaru. "Let's go then."

Hotaru gave each of her two friends a quick smile and turned
around, heading down the aisle of machines. "What do you two want to
play now?"

"What do you want to play?" Ranma asked in return. Ryoga and he
had already played a machine. He felt Hotaru should do something now.

"Me?" Hotaru asked in surprise. She was still a little unused to
people thinking about her feelings on matters. "It's okay, you two just
play. I like watching."

"Hey, you gotta do something too, ya know?" Ranma replied. "It
ain't fair if we do everything and leave you outta it."

"I don't mind-"

"C'mon Hotaru! I'll play a game with ya," Ranma pleaded. Hotaru
really needed to enjoy life more. And arcade games were perfect fine to
help her accomplish that.

"What about me?" Ryoga asked.

"Huh? Um..." Ranma thought about it. What to do with Ryoga? "I
know! We'll just leave you at some machine while we play. Or you can
watch us if ya want."

<Hmmm... I should leave the two lovebirds alone... Heh heh
heh...> Ryoga grinned broadly at Ranma and Hotaru. "No, you two have
your fun... heh heh heh... I'll just go play some other game... heh heh
heh..."

Ranma fidgeted nervously. He didn't like the way Ryoga was
chuckling to himself. It was... no. It couldn't be scary. Ryoga did NOT
scare him. It was just unusual to see the guy like that.

Hotaru looked at Ryoga curiously. He certainly seemed happy.
Well, as long as he wasn't fighting with her Ra- Hotaru shook her head.
Kaolinite must have been rubbing off on her. As long as he wasn't fight-
ing with Ranma.

"Okay then. It sounds fun." She gave a bright smile.

Ranma's breath caught as he saw Hotaru smile and he took a
moment to compose himself. It was strange. Hotaru never affected him
like this before. At least not her smile. Deciding to ignore the
incident and the other, similar past incidents, Ranma turned his gaze to
Ryoga. Looking at Hotaru was proving too... pleasant.

Ryoga snickered as Ranma quickly turned away from Hotaru and
looked at him. Hotaru may not have noticed, but Ryoga certainly did.
Ranma was... what was a good word? Well, whatever. It would be best to
leave the two alone now, Ryoga told himself. "I'll just go to that one
over there."

<Oh no.> Ranma thought as Ryoga walked away. Shaking his head he
started to go after the Lost Boy. "Hold on-"

"Wait, look." Hotaru pulled Ranma back and pointed. "Look, he
made it."

Ranma stared. Indeed, Ryoga had made it to a machine! Some kind
of large one that looked like a car. Ryoga had walked, what? 40 feet!
"H-he made it!" Ranma sputtered. Had he exaggerated Ryoga's lack of a
sense of direction?

An image of a Ryoga staring at tree stupidly passed through
Ranma's head. <N-no... He must've just lucked out or something. Yeah...
That's it...>

"Yes, now let's find a game, okay?" Hotaru asked, smiling.

Ranma looked over at Hotaru, saw her smile, and nodded dumbly.
"S-sure thing..."

Hotaru looked around the her for an interesting game. "How
about... That one?" Hotaru pointed at a machine.

"O-okay..."


"Let's see... Some kind of driving game..." Ryoga said to
himself as he sat down on the chair, his umbrella on the ground. "One
pedal for the gas, the other for the brake," he noted as he looked down
at his feet. "Um... Ignore those..." Ryoga decided as he couldn't figure
out what 'gears' were. "And the steering wheel." he finished as he
placed a hand on the wheel.

He deposited a coin into a slot with his free hand and waited.

"Ready," the game announced through speakers.

"Ready..." Ryoga said, gripping the steering wheel.

"Set."

"Set..."

"Go!"

Ryoga slammed down on the pedal and the car on the screen was
off. He almost kicked a hole through the floor of the machine, but Ryoga
didn't notice that. What he did notice, however, was his car crashing
into a large fence. "Damn, where'd that stupid fence come from?!"


*BOOM*

"Damnit! I died again!" Ranma shouted in frustration as his red
aircraft blew up in a large, orange explosion before his eyes.

"Don't give up, Ranma," Hotaru said with a reassuring smile as
she effortlessly maneuvered her blue craft through large plasma blasts
and energy beams, weaving a path of destruction through the level. It
may have had more effect if Ranma had been looking at her right then as
opposed to cursing at the monitor before him.

"Easy for you to say, you've died ONE time since we started
play- ing this! Look at that!" Ranma pointed to Hotaru's craft with one
hand as he pulled hard to the left. "You've got that big purple thing!
It's... It's blowing everything up!" Indeed, Hotaru's craft was firing
forth a constant beam of fluctuating energy, homing onto any enemy and
effectively destroying them.

Ranma's new, blinking red craft flew forth from the bottom of
the screen and quickly picked up a few floating M's and H's. "And all
I've got are a couple 'a missiles and this little pea-shooter!"

"And three bombs," Hotaru added.

"And three bo- Shit!" Ranma quickly slammed a palm down on
second button on the arcade machine, nearly breaking through it. A large
explosion soon erupted from the screen, shielding Ranma's craft from all
forms of enemy projectiles.

"Two bombs," Hotaru said, giggling.

"TWO bombs," Ranma repeated, rolling his eyes.

"Keep trying, Ranma. You're not doing so bad."

"Yeah yeah..." Ranma replied. "If YOU say so..."

"You're so silly, Ranma," Hotaru giggled.

"I don't know wha- Mine! That power-up is mine!"


Minako Aino slowly peeked out from behind the arcade machine she
was hiding behind. He was so cute! What a coincidence that she would run
into someone like this now! The little study session thing could wait
until later; this was obviously the work of fate! It must have been her
reward for helping with that Black Moon Family incident or something
like that.

Taking a deep breath, Minako walked up to the boy in the racing
machine with a cheerful smile. Who could fight destiny, after all?

"Argh! Not again!" Ryoga shouted in frustration as his shiny new
racing car exploded into many flaming pieces of wreckage on the screen
before him. "That jerk! How does he always managed to ruin my life?!
Even when I'm trying to be nice to him!"

"Having trouble?" came a cheerful and obviously female voice.

Ryoga blinked. He didn't have that many... acquaintances. And
only one of them was a girl. And she was with his other... acquaintance.
And the voice he had just heard was quite different from hers. Ryoga
thus said the first thing on his mind. "Huh?" He slowly turned his head
to the direction of the voice.

Ryoga looked at the smiling girl before him curiously. She was
smiling at him and gave him an impression of... niceness. Much like
Hotaru had given him when he first met her. But this one seemed a lot
more cheerful and happy. Her smile made Ryoga relax and her blue eyes
told him that she was someone he could trust. All in all, almost the
exact opposite of what Kaolinite had constantly made him feel.

"Um... Could you please repeat what you just said," Ryoga asked
sheepishly. He had been so absorbed observing the strange girl that he
had forgotten what she had said.

"I was just wondering if you were having trouble with the game,"
The girl replied, still smiling as she took a seat at the racing machine
next to the one Ryoga was on.

Ryoga rubbed his head sheepishly. "Um, well... er... maybe a
little." He admitted.

Minako sighed wistfully to herself. He was acting soooo cute!
Then she took a hold of herself. She had to stay in control. She
couldn't let herself wander off into some daydream like Usagi or she
would never catch herself a boyfriend. Then again, with her luck, this
guy probably already had a girlfriend... <NO! Don't think like that,
Minako!>

"Mind if I help you?" Minako asked cheerfully, putting on her
best smile.

Ryoga's brain almost melted. Hotaru had smiled at him before.
And she was also cute; but she had never affected him like this. Ranma
had been there with him and Ryoga had used him as sort of focus to cling
to in order to remain... ah... normal. That and he felt that Hotaru
liked Ranma a LOT more than him and thus wasn't affected so much
anyways. If Ryoga had realized this, he might have almost wished Ranma
was there. As he didn't, there was only one thought going through his
head right then. <Is she being... nice? To me?>

"Um... okay."

Minako smiled. "My name is Minako Aino."

"R-Ryoga Hibiki..."

Minako waited a moment to see if anything else would be said.
Ryoga only seemed to stare at her. Minako quelled a little blush and
composed herself. "Move over, I'll help you."

"Gah?"

Minako almost giggled. The boy, Ryoga, was obviously overcome by
her beauty.

Ryoga, in truth, was actually trying to handle that someone
other than Hotaru and possibly that jerk Ranma-but-let's-not-think-
about-that, was being nice to him. Here was this beautiful girl and she
was being nice to HIM! With his luck, it seemed incomprehensible.

Minako decided that Ryoga hadn't said "no" and slid down on the
seat by Ryoga, nudging him to the side a little. It was a little tight,
but SHE certainly didn't mind.

There are many males on the world who can handle sharing the
same seat with a girl. Even if they are incredibly beautiful girls(All
in the eye of the beholder, of course.) Ryoga, wasn't among them. He
could hardly handle a girl being nice to him, much less sharing a small
arcade machine seat with them.(He even went to an all boys school! Even
if he was absent many times, it still counted for something.) And he
considered Minako to be quite beautiful. And now she was squirming.
Ryoga, naturally, had blood rush out of his nose and passed out.

Minako slowly turned around and looked at Ryoga. The first sign
that something was wrong had been the splash of crimson that suddenly
appeared on the screen before her. The suddenly limp body next to her
was also an indication.

"R-Ryoga?" Ryoga was passed out with some blood flowing out of
his nose. Maybe she had gone a little too far. But she had honestly been
trying to help! <Just my luck...> Minako was a bit miffed. She finally
found a nice looking guy who seemed interested in her and he passed out.
Then she brightened. This meant he liked her! "Hmmm... I'd better wipe
off that blood."


"This is too much," Ranma said simply as he maneuvered his
little red craft behind Hotaru's and tried to do the exact same thing
she did while rapidly and constantly tapping the big red button next to
the joystick. He had learned that keeping behind Hotaru and copying her
tended to keep him alive longer in the game. That, of course, saved him
precious money. Of course, he had been dying a lot less lately.

Of course, this didn't work most of the time when going against
those annoying boss ships as many of their blasts were shot at an angle.
"Ah, Damnit!" Ranma had lost yet another ship.

Another ship came up from the bottom of the screen and, Ranma
decided to hide in a corner and watch Hotaru play. She was still on her
first credit! He stared disbelievingly as Hotaru smoothly maneuvered
through a dizzying torrent of energy blasts and beams and sent bomb
after bomb and that constant purple energy beam at the boss. He added
some of his own bombs occasionally as well; when there were slightly
less projectiles to dodge. It wasn't too long before the strange, fly-
ing, space-ship thing was dust. Hotaru had picked up quite a bit of
bombs throughout the game, what with her dying only once through the
whole thing.

"We won." She said, turning to Ranma with a smile.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Yeah, WE," Ranma said, making sure his
voice was appropriately sarcastic.

"Yes, WE," Hotaru repeated as she turned back to the screen.
"Oh, I have a first place ranking!"

"Why am I not surprised," Ranma replied, turning back to look at
the screen.

"You have second place, Ranma!"

"Eh?"

Indeed, right below the first place line was a blinking A. When
Ranma reached out and nudged the joystick a little, it changed to an B.
"Well, whaddya know..." Ranma said as he moved his joystick around until
the letter R appeared. "I did get in the top ten..."

"You beat everyone below you by at least two digits." Hotaru
pointed out as she inputted her initials.

Ranma snorted. "Well you beat EVERYBODY by at least FOUR digits!"

"..."

"Congratulations!" Ranma said as a smile quickly appeared on his
face. He gave Hotaru a friendly pat on the back. "Now aren't you glad we
came here?"

Hotaru smiled. For a moment, she had thought Ranma had been...
miffed that she had done so well. "Yes, I am."

"Just another one of my genius ideas," Ranma replied with a
slight wave of his hand.

"H.T..." Hotaru said, ignoring Ranma's comment. She already knew
how arrogant he could be.

"And R.S..." Ranma finished. He smiled slightly. "I like it."

Hotaru turned to Ranma. "We make a good team, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do," Ranma replied simply.

A moment of silence passed as they both stared at their initials
initials on the screen before them, leaning on the machine. It was a
perfect moment of peace and they both appreciated it greatly. Even Ryoga
had "shut up" as Ranma thought; and "stopped shouting" as Hotaru would
have said.

The moment ended when the screen changed to show the top fifty.

"Let's go see what Ryoga's doing," Hotaru suggested as she
looked at the screen before her with a smile.

"Yeah, I noticed he shut up about a minute or so ago," Ranma re-
plied. Ryoga had been quite vocal whenever he died or whatever on his
machine.

Ranma turned around and looked for the boy. He found him. "Huh?"

Hotaru turned around curiously, wondering what had surprised
Ranma. She saw Ryoga apparently passed out on his chair and being
gently shaken by a some blond-haired girl. "Did Ryoga... pass out?"

"I dunno, let's find out," Ranma suggested as he walked towards
the odd couple, Hotaru right behind him.


Minako shook Ryoga gently by his shoulders, at the same time re-
sisting the urge to touch any other parts of the boy. "Ryoga, wake up."
The blood had stopped flowing from his nose and she had wiped away the
rest. This had been a bit of a strange meeting, but she had to admit
there had been stranger ones. Usagi had been one of those...

"Hey, what's wrong with Ryoga?"

Minako blinked and slowly looked up. Ooohhh... Another handsome
boy! She was really glad she had skipped out on the study session today!
Then Minako narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she noticed the girl by
the boy.

"Yes, Ryoga doesn't often pass out for no reason," The girl
said.

"And even when I give em one, he STILL stays up," The boy added
with a smirk.

Okay. They both apparently knew Ryoga well. That meant there was
a chance the girl could be one of their girlfriends. But that still left
one free. Unless they were both chasing after her or something... Minako
shook her head. That was highly unlikely. If the girl were anybody's
girlfriend, she'd probably the one in red's. She was with him, after
all. That was good. Even though either one would have been a suitable
catch for Minako, she still preferred Ryoga since she had met him first.

"He had a nose-bleed and then just passed out," Minako said.

The boy scratched his head in confusion. "Just like that?"

Minako nodded. She was holding back the reason why he had the
nose-bleed in the first place, but she was still telling the truth. It
was cute, but still embarrassing to talk about it.

"That's weird..." Ranma muttered. Ryoga usually took on a LOT of
damage, and he had yet to knock the boy out. Actually, if victories were
determined by state of consciousness, he supposed he hadn't actually
beaten Ryoga yet.

Hotaru was also surprised. She had seen some of Ranma and
Ryoga's fights. Actually, she had seen a lot of fights between the two.
Not only was Hotaru surprised that Ryoga had passed out from a nose
bleed, she was surprised that he had even bled in the first place.
Hotaru knew that Ranma punched REALLY hard and the only time Ryoga bled,
was with the internal bleeding of bruises. <What could have made Ryoga
bleed?>

"Do you know why he bled in the first place?" Hotaru questioned.
"Ryoga is very strong and doesn't hurt easily."

The girl coughed and stared at the floor. "Um, never mind, let's
just wake him up, okay?"

Hotaru narrowed her eyes suspiciously. The girl was obviously
hiding something. Well, she would just have to see what Ryoga said.
Hotaru glanced at Ranma to determine what his reaction was.

Ranma slapped Ryoga's face. "Yo, wake up Ryoga!"

Hotaru blinked. It had apparently passed right over his head.
She giggled. It was a kind of cute, really.

Both Ranma and the girl turned to Hotaru curiously. "What's so
funny?" They simultaneously asked.

"Nothing," She replied simply. But she gave the blond girl a
meaningful glance.

Minako smiled weakly and turned her attention back to the boy
and Ryoga. So the girl knew she was hiding something. Well, it really
wasn't TOO important anyway.

"Should you really be slapping him like that?" Minako wondered
aloud.

"Ahh, he can take it," Ranma relpied. "He may have a lousy sense
of direction, but I'll admit he's pretty damn strong."

"Well, he certainly looks like it," Minako muttered with a sigh.
"My name's Minako Aino, by the way," Minako added after a moment.

"Ranma Saotome," Ranma replied, stopping his slapping and
shaking for a moment to smile at the girl.

"And I'm Hotaru Tomoe," Hotaru said as Minako looked to her.

"So, you two are Ryoga's friends?"

"Yes," Hotaru said, smiling and looking at Ranma. She could
guess what his answer would be.

"Um... I guess... I mean... maybe..." Ranma said hesitantly.

"He's... no friend of mine!" Ryoga cut in groggily as he pushed
Ranma away and sat up. He slowly looked to his left and saw Minako,
looking at him with concern. <She's worried about me...> He thought
wistfully. Then he looked at Ranma and Hotaru. <Shouldn't they be over
there?> Then Ryoga suddenly had a dark thought. <He better not be here
to make moves on Minako! Just my luck to find a girl who might...
like... me, and Ranma's here to ruin it!> "Ranma..." Ryoga growled.

Ranma backed away from Ryoga, his hands held up defensively.
"What?" Not that he was scared of Ryoga, it was just that the guy looked
very angry right now.

"Grrr..."

Minako looked from Ranma to Ryoga and blinked. They were
friends, right? But she was getting negative vibes from Ryoga; what was
going on? <Well, whatever it is, I'd better put an end to it.>

"Well, now that you're awake, are you ready for me to help you?"

Ryoga forgot about his mounting anger towards Ranma and looked
over at Minako. "S-sure."

"Okay." Minako beamed and slid next to Ryoga while Ranma and
Hotaru watched curiously. "Now what's the problem?"

Ryoga remained silent, staring at Minako. Minako waited
patiently; she had PLENTY of time and it was flattering the way Ryoga
was staring at her. <Ooohhh... He's so cute!>

Ranma took a breath, boredom starting to appear. Ryoga was
just... sitting there. He was starting to wish he HAD pissed Ryoga off.
<Stupid Ryoga, what the heck's he doing?>

Hotaru herself was wondering what Ryoga was doing. Ranma and
herself sometimes spent quite moments like this together, and she had
enjoyed it, but... Ryoga had just met this girl! He was just... sitting
there! Staring at her... Staring at her... Why did that remind her of
something?

<Dumb Ryoga... He's just sittin' there... Dumb Ryoga...> Ranma
took a deep breath. He wanted to patient, he really did! But this was
just too much. <C'mon... You can take this, Ranma... You... can...
Damnit, I can't!> "Yo Ryoga! You awake?!"

Ryoga snapped out of his trance and tore his gaze from Minako.
"W-what? What?!"

"Geez, so you ARE still alive," Ranma replied with a smirk.

"You were staring at Minako," Hotaru added helpfully.

Ryoga could feel his face heating up and quickly turned his at-
tention to the arcade screen. "Ahem, sorry. I was... er... nevermind!"

Minako sighed. Ranma and Ryoga seemed to overlook it, but Hotaru
looked at Minako curiously. That wasn't a 'This is really dumb' sigh; it
was a 'I wish...' kind of sigh. Hotaru herself had used that same sigh
so many times before she met Ranma. Could it be that she and Ryoga
were... "So why did you pass out, Ryoga?"

"Um... well... I, uh..." Ryoga strained for an answer. He
couldn't tell why! At least not with Minako there! It was... well... It
just wouldn't do! She'd probably think he was a pervert or something!
Not to mention what Ranma would do... Ryoga suppressed the urge to
shudder. "I was, uh..."

"Well, would you like me to help you now?" Minako asked, trying
to take pressure off Ryoga. The poor guy was obviously very
uncomfortable about what had happened. But then again, why should he be
uncomfortable with saying that he had been overcome by her beauty?

"Sure!" Ryoga exclaimed, grabbing at the opportunity to change
the subject. Hotaru frowned and Ranma yawned.

"What's wrong now, Ryoga? Don't tell me ya get lost in games,
too?" Ranma questioned with a smirk.

"Shut up Ranma!" Ryoga snapped back. The guy could be so
annoying sometimes! Scratch that. Make it most of the time.

"Geez, don't blow an artery, Ryoga." Ranma replied in annoyance.
Ryoga could be so serious sometimes. Scratch that. Make that most of
the time.

"Ranma," Minako said, catching the pig-tailed martial artist's
attention.

"Huh? What?"

"Please shut up and leave Ryoga alone."

Ranma rolled his eyes "Yeah right, like I could do something
like that..."

Ryoga and Hotaru froze.

"He'd probably get lost, blame it on me, and start hunting me
down or something."

Hotaru shook her head, smiling to herself. She should have known
better than to think Ranma would even suggest that he and Ryoga were
friends.

Ryoga scowled and Minako was starting to get confused. Why did
Ranma keep insulting Ryoga's sense of direction?

"Well, you go and do whatever," Ranma said, making a dismissive
motion with his hand. "I'll just take a seat right over there." Ranma
walked over and plopped down on the machine next to the one Ryoga and
Minako was on. Hotaru followed Ranma propped her elbows on the back of
the chair, resting her chin on the back of her hands.

Minako turned back to Ryoga and smiled cheerfully, happily
noticing that Ryoga was had a small blush on his face. Well, before she
could teach Ryoga, she needed a little information...


Ranma turned his eyes away from Minako and Ryoga and looked at
something much more pleasant in his opinion. "Hey, Hotaru, you wanna sit
down or something? I can get off."

"Oh, It's alright Ranma," Hotaru replied, smiling at Ranma. It
was so sweet of him to worry about her like that.

"Ya sure? I mean, I know you need it more than me." Ranma
regretted saying those words as soon as it left his mouth. <Aw, damnit!
I must really like makin' an idiot outta myself...> He hadn't meant to
insult Hotaru, it just happened! "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean ta..."

Hotaru shook her head. "Don't worry Ranma. It's just the truth."

"Y-yeah, but..."

Hotaru smiled reassuringly at Ranma. She didn't mind that Ranma
had said indirectly said she was weak; she knew she was. She was just
glad that he thought about her feelings at all. From what she gathered,
Ranma was never so considerate to anybody else. "Ranma, it's okay. I
know I'm frail."

"But..."

"Just drop the subject, please?" Hotaru pleaded. She didn't like
seeing Ranma look so guilty; she liked the cheerful, smiling Ranma much
more.

Ranma forced a smile because he felt that that was what he
should do. He could never refuse those purple eyes. Well, most of the
time anyways. Or at least if it didn't involve little four-legged, furry
mammals.

"Um, well, standing's good for your health," Ranma said.

Hotaru smiled amusedly. Not the best way to change the subject,
but it worked, she supposed.


Minako stared disbelievingly. Ryoga, somehow, constantly managed
to get his car turned backwards whenever they played the game. And when
he didn't, he ended up a piece of flaming wreckage next to some fence.

"Um, I guess I died again..." Ryoga said, trailing off and
chuckling weakly while trying not to have a nosebleed from being in
contact with Minako's side. If he just ignored her and focused on the
ggame, h was sure he could stop crashing into those annoying walls. The
fact that he had been crashing into walls even before Minako came eluded
him.

"Are you sure you want to keep trying, Ryoga? Maybe we could
play some other game, Hmmm?" Minako asked, trying to radiate cuteness
as she smiled at Ryoga.

"Ah... whatever you say..." Ryoga replied, not really thinking
much as he stared at Minako. His brain was currently a little whacked-
out due to the overload of cuteness.

"Okay." Minako beamed. "What would you like to do?"

"Ah... whatever you want..." Ryoga replied.

Minako suppressed the urge to smirk. Makoto would be sooo
jealous! But then there was that other little detail that had crushed
her dreams so many times before. "Ryoga, do you have a girlfriend?"
<Please say no! Please say no!>

"G-girlfriend?" Ryoga sputtered, his brain overcoming the excess
sugar with a nice dose of insulin.

<Oh no... Please no!> Minako despaired. "Is she... Hotaru?"
Minako asked softly, hope all but gone. If it weren't true, Ryoga would
have denied it all by now, right?

"H-Hotaru?" Ryoga repeated, trying to get his brain to come up
with a good reply. "No" would have worked nicely, but he, apparently,
had other plans.

"I... see..." Minako said, getting up slowly, her dreams shat-
tering into so many pieces. She had just made a fool of herself once
again. She should've known better than to think she could find love so
easily.

"W-what?" Ryoga managed to get out.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't have been chasing after you, huh?"
Minako asked, trying to work up a small laugh. But she was far too de-
pressed for that. So depressed that her brain hadn't figured out that
if Ryoga had Hotaru, then Ranma would have been free.

"C-chasing me?" Ryoga said disbelievingly. She really did like
him?!

This time, Minako did laugh. A bitter laugh full of self-pity
that caught Ranma and Hotaru's attention. "Well, maybe I'll see you
around, Ryoga." She turned around and walked away, heading for the exit,
her feet practically dragging across the ground.

Ryoga stared after her, trying to figure out something to say.
What he should have done was so obvious, that he missed it.

Ranma stared after Minako curiously, as did Hotaru. He was won-
dering exactly how she had managed to get that weird expression on
Ryoga's face. Maybe she could teach him?

"Where is Minako going?" Hotaru asked, turning to Ryoga once the
glass entrance swung shut behind Minako.

"S-she... Me... you..."

"Huh? What about Hotaru?" Ranma asked, jumping to his feet at
the mention of his friend.

"Me... Hotaru?"

"Ryoga," Hotaru said. "Take a deep breath and count to ten."

Ryoga nodded numbly, taking in a deep breath.<One.> Minako
thought he and Hotaru were a couple. <Two.> Even after all the trouble
he went through to get her and Ranma together! <Three.> She had liked
him! <Four> And now... <Five.> Why?! Why?! <Six.> He must be cursed or
something... <Seven.> Waitaminute... <Eight.> The pieces of the puzzle
slowly fell together. That it was a totally screwed-up puzzle passed by
Ryoga's head. <Nine.> This had to be... <Ten.> "This is all your fault
Ranma!!!" Ryoga shouted in rage, spinning to Ranma and glaring him,
fangs bared and fists clenched.

Hotaru was beginning to have doubts about her idea. She had
thought that Ryoga would have composed himself after he took her sug-
gestion to heart, but... She had, instead, watched as Ryoga's expression
slowly shifted from confused, to suspicion, and finally settling on all
too familiar rage. At Ranma.

Ranma stared at Ryoga, picking his brain. As far as he knew, he
hadn't done anything to anger Ryoga recently. Or maybe he had done it
and not realized it or something? Or Ryoga might just be automatically
blaming him for something someone else did... Or Minako could have...

Ranma shook his head. This was getting stupid. <Okay... Hotaru
says to be logical... Use my head and all that stuff... So why is Ryoga
mad at me?> Ranma snapped his fingers, a smirk appearing that only fur-
thered angered Ryoga. <I'll just ask! Heh heh... I'm such a genius!>

"What the hell are you mad at now, Ryoga? You should calm down
before ya have a heart attack or something." <Hmmm... that didn't come
out quite right...>

Hotaru suppressed the urge to laugh and, instead, wondered if
she should intervene. Ryoga looked like a volcano ready to explode and
Ranma would most likely be the one to suffer because of it. But Ranma
had a lot of pride and probably wouldn't want help anyway...

"It's like they say, every man is a... um... dumb moron...
Yeah, I think that's it... Course, that only applies in your- Ahhhhh!"
Ranma's sentence was cut off as he found himself grabbed by Ryoga with a
lightning speed that surprised even Ranma, who was the expert in that
area, and thrown flying out the door.

After a shocked moment, Hotaru decided that she should follow
Ranma and Ryoga. Ryoga seemed a lot angrier now than he usually was
towards Ranma. She might have to interfere.

A short distance away, Minako froze as a realization hit her.
<So what if Ryoga's taken? I can still try!> she thought, determination
surging through her. Ryoga did seem like he was interested in her, after
all. <And I can't let the others know I skipped out on our study session
for nothing.> she added after a moments thought.

So Minako spun around and started heading back to the arcade,
determined to win over Ryoga. <Oh, and Ranma's cute, too... But more
importantly, he's free! Hotaru can't have BOTH of them.> Minako noted
that information in case Ryoga proved a failure. <This is destiny, I
know it!> A huge, almost scary smile bloomed across Minako's face as she
headed back towards the arcade.

"Aaahhh!!!" Ranma flew out the thankfully open doors and across
the street, impacting a conveniently placed wall and making a few nice,
long cracks. He quickly flipped back to his feet, wincing slightly.
<Stupid Ryoga... Hitting me while I was talkin'... What the heck's his
problem anyways?> "What the heck's the big idea, Ryoga ya idiot?!" Ranma
demanded as Ryoga burst out from the arcade.

"This is all YOUR fault Ranma!!!" Ryoga shouted back in reply as
he launched his umbrella at Ranma like a missile.

Ranma quickly leaned back, allowing the projectile to fly over
him. Once people got a look at the red weapon that was imbedded in the
wall behind the pig-tailed martial artist, they quickly backed VERY far
away from Ranma. None of them thought that having an umbrella sticking
out of their heads was very appealing. That other guy might have more
umbrellas tucked away somewhere, after all.

"What did I do now?" Ranma asked, rolling his eyes and dropping
into a defensive stance despite the fact that Ryoga was across the
street and cars were still passing by.

"Damn you Saotome, die!!!" Ryoga shouted as he ran across the
street, ignoring the cars that swerved wildly around, attempting to
avoid hitting the boy. Ranma shook his head in disbelief and flipped
into the air as Ryoga barreled past him and embedded his fist in the
wall behind the pig-tailed martial artist.

As Ryoga retracted his hand and spun around to face Ranma,
Hotaru also burst from the arcade. She easily located Ranma and Ryoga as
they were directly across from her. Stopping, she watched worriedly;
this somehow seemed different from the fights Ranma and Ryoga had had
before. <Should I do something?> She wondered.

Ranma ducked under a punch and blocked a kick from Ryoga,
wincing a little from having to absorb such a powerful blow. He barely
had time to do even that, however, as he was forced to hop to his left
and back as Ryoga tried to crescent kick him, and then skillfully weave
through a quick flurry of punches and kicks. Ranma was then pushed back
further as Ryoga increased the power of his attacks and he had to block
a few. <Damn! He's so damn strong!>

"What-" Ranma shifted his head slightly to one side and one of
Ryoga's punches flew by his head. Not letting it distract him, Ranma
grabbed a kick that Ryoga sent immediately after, sending the boy flying
behind him. Rather then rush forward and attack the downed martial
artist, Ranma waited in his best defensive stance, not winded but def-
initely bruised up. Besides, his hand kind of stung from grabbing that
stupidly powerful kick. "What the heck's the problem, Ryoga?! Will ya at
least tell me that?!" Ranma demanded. This was getting out of hand;
Ryoga had NEVER been this mad at him before.

"This is all your fault." Ryoga replied, his teeth clenched and
a red haze of anger coming over him.

"What's the heck is 'this'?!" Ranma almost shouted in
frustration. <Man, Ryoga's gonna kill me with stress if he doesn't just
do it the old-fashioned way!>

"Shut up and take your beating like a man!" Ryoga shouted in
return, shooting forward with a complicated series of kicks and punches
that even Ranma had trouble reading.

<Damn!> Ranma thought as a kick got through his defenses and
sent him stumbling to the side. Ryoga pressed the advantage with a quick
open-handed strike to Ranma's chest and knee to his stomach.

Trying to ignore the pain, Ranma rolled backwards, flipping to
his feet and jumping a good distance away from the enraged boy before
him. THEN he tried to catch his breath. <Damn Ryoga... This sucks...>
Just as Ranma managed to get his breath back, he noticed that Ryoga was
about to crash into him with a devastating flying kick.

Knowing that taking or even blocking such an attack from an
angry Ryoga would not be a good idea, Ranma pushed all of his pain away
and, reaching out with a hand, grabbed Ryoga's ankle, redirecting the
lost boy towards a nearby wall and almost jerking his arm out of it's
socket in the process. But despite the flash of pain, he didn't stop
there; calling forth from his knowledge of the Saotome specialty of mid-
air combat, Ranma shot out with his other hand before the boy could
react to being redirected and grabbed Ryoga's shoulder, swinging himself
up onto the lost boy's back and pushing him down.

Giving a nice shove to add to the power of gravity, Ranma soon
had, to his immense relief, Ryoga's face embedded in concrete. And not
exactly willing to let a psychotic Ryoga free, Ranma quickly grabbed
both of the bandanna-clad martial artist's arms and twisted them back-
wards while placing a knee on his back to hold him down. "Ryoga, calm
down!"

"Damn you Ranma!" Ryoga replied in rage, as he spit bitter con-
crete from his mouth.

"You're trapped, Ryoga! Calm down!" Ranma shot back angrily.
Ryoga's attitude was really starting to get to him. Especially since he
had no idea what was bugging the idiot this time. "What's yer problem
anyways?" Ranma asked in annoyance as Ryoga tried shrugging Ranma off,
only to have his arms twisted quite painfully.

"This is all your fault!" Ryoga replied, his voice filled with
malice.

"What exactly is my fault?!" Ranma demanded, starting to get
angry with Ryoga's annoyingly cryptic answers.

"Damn you!"

"Just answer me, you idiot!"

"It's your fault Minako left!"

"Eh?" Ranma froze, confusion coming over him. He almost relaxed
his hold on Ryoga, but the immediate struggle for freedom from the boy
snapped him back to his senses. "Why the heck is it MY fault that Minako
left?!" Ranma demanded, pressing down with his knee to still Ryoga.

<Damn you Ranma!> Ryoga thought in rage. <He steals my food,
makes Minako run off, and on top of that, now he's humiliating me!>
"Don't play dumb with me, Saotome!" Ryoga replied accusingly.

"I don't know what the heck you're talking about!" Ranma yelled
in anger. Ryoga was such an annoying idiot sometimes!

"Shut up!" Ryoga hissed as he grit his teeth and put all his
strength into breaking free. He felt Ranma twisting his arm and pressing
down with his knee to push him back down, but he would NOT let that stop
him. The pain didn't matter... All that mattered was punishing Ranma...
"Damn you Ranma..." Ryoga gathered all his strength and pushed upwards,
pulling his arms over his head, along with Ranma.

<Oh shit!> Ranma thought as Ryoga pushed backwards with unbe-
lievable strength and started to flip him over his head. Two ideas
flashed before Ranma now: He could continue holding on to Ryoga and
become one with the ground, or he could let go and flip away, landing
safely on his feet.

Half a second later, Ranma was still holding onto Ryoga's arms and
landed on his feet, the ground cracking slightly beneath him from the
force of the impact. Using the momentum from Ryoga's attempt to smash
Ryoga into the ground, he then sent Ryoga flying over his head and into
a familiar wall. <More than one way to skin a... Okay... Bad analogy...>

"Stop it Ryoga!" Ranma demanded in irritation as his rival stood
back up. <Wait a minute... Why's he smil- Oh no...> Ranma shook his head
in despair as Ryoga stood up and pulled his red umbrella out of the wall
Ranma had conveniently thrown him at.

Hotaru was starting to worry. Ranma and Ryoga fought a lot,
sure, but they had never caused property damage before. Or at least not
anything noticeable. And she could tell that Ryoga was VERY angry. She
hadn't caught much of what the two were saying and was a little confused
as to what Ryoga was angry about, but then again, Ryoga seemed like he
always angry at something. <Should I do something? Someone might get
hurt...> Hotaru bit on her lower lip and wondered what she should do. It
would be best to let the two get everything out of their system, but...

"Gah!" Ranma yelped as the umbrella that he had jumped over a
second or so ago U-turned and ripped a pant leg as he rolled to the
side. <Phew. That almost got the shirt!> "Fine, if you won't calm down,
than don't expect me ta go easy on you!"

Ryoga caught his returning umbrella with an outstretched hand
and hefted it up with a smirk. "Just get ready to lose, Ranma." Ryoga's
smirk was effectively wiped off his face when Ranma's foot impacted it
and sent him into the rubble of a familiar wall.

"Ha! What's the matter Ryoga, I thought you were gonna beat me."
Ranma taunted as jumped back a few feet. Forget about calming Ryoga
down, it was time to beat some sense into that stubborn idiot!

"Shut up Ranma!" Ryoga shouted as he jumped to his feet and
charged Ranma with the intention of skewering the young martial artist
with his umbrella.

Ranma smirked and jumped up and onto Ryoga's head, propelling
himself to safety and kicking the Lost Boy into the ground at the same
time. Ryoga extracted himself from the sidewalk, spun around, and
charged Ranma again.

Ranma sidestepped a thrust from Ryoga's umbrella and ducked one of his
punches, sending a quick one of his own at Ryoga's chest, which was
intercepted by his umbrella. Ranma then jumped up a few feet and kicked
at Ryoga's head as he noticed the almost invisible signs that Ryoga was
about to try to kick his feet out from under him.

What he wasn't expecting, however, was for Ryoga to actually
dodge his kick by leaning his head slightly over to one side. Reacting
instantly, Ranma reached out behind him and handsprung off the ground
and into the air as he fell back. This, however, left little room for
defense and Ryoga happened to choose that moment to swing his umbrella
at Ranma's side.

The umbrella impacted Ranma even as he tried to somehow twist
and avoid it. Pain immediately followed as Ranma found himself flying
towards the middle of the street.

The pain burning his side was incredible but Ranma had taken
worse on the training trip with his father. Wincing, Ranma forced
himself to focus on more important matters: Like avoiding that yellow
car he was about to imbed himself into.

"Ranma!" Hotaru gasped as Ryoga managed to hit Ranma with his
umbrella and sent the boy flying into the street. Right towards that
yellow car.

Hotaru's shout registered somewhere in the back of Ranma's mind
as he expertly twisted around in-mid air and landed on the roof of the
yellow car, propelling away half a second later and landing safely on
the street.

He turned towards where he heard Hotaru. He saw his friend
standing with a look of extreme concern that immediately turned into
exasperation as he started to bow, a grin plastered on his face. A
second later, the look, much to Ranma's confusion, changed again.

"Watch out!" Hotaru shouted in horror, a hand extended and
pointing at something.

"Eh?" Ranma turned around, wondering if Ryoga was trying to
ambush him. And what was that annoying honking sound?

Ryoga's jaw dropped and his anger disappeared as Ranma jumped
off the yellow car he had sent him flying at. Was he the only one that
noticed that a very large truck was about to go through Ranma's landing
zone? <Stupid Ranma!> Ryoga thought as he rushed towards the idiot,
knowing he would make it there a second or so after impact, but going
anyway. Nobody but HIM was going to kill Ranma! Or so he told himself.

"Aaahhh!" Ranma screamed as he leapt as fast as he could to the
side, hoping to avoid a long trip to slumberland. He didn't quite make
it, however, and the front of the truck knocked hard into his left
shoulder, sending him flying away and into blissful unconsciousness.

Reacting instinctively, Ryoga jumped forward and reached out
with both arms catching Ranma and landing safely on the sidewalk as the
truck rushed by behind him. <That was close.> Ryoga thought as he lay
Ranma gently on the ground, Hotaru suddenly appearing on Ranma's other
side.

"Ranma! Are you alright!" Hotaru exclaimed, afraid to touch
Ranma for fear of further injuring him. He had been hit by a TRUCK after
all, even if it did look like the truck had barely touched him. In fact,
the only thing keeping Hotaru from immediately trying to heal Ranma was
that she didn't know exactly where his injuries were. And the only thing
that kept her from just trying to heal all of Ranma's body was that she
didn't think she could handle it. So Hotaru resisted the urge to tear
off Ranma's new shirt and looked up at Ryoga expectantly as a small
crowd gathered around the three teens.

With a gentleness that would have surprised any who knew of the
Lost Boy's rivalry with Ranma(such as Hotaru), Ryoga undid Ranma's black
cloth belt and untied the unconscious boy's shirt. He then pulled the
red cloth off with a few quick tugs and put it to his side.

Ryoga then slowly examined Ranma, as if the area of injury
weren't obvious. Ranma's entire upper left arm was an ugly mess of
black and blue bruises and the right side of his mid-section was also a
little bruised, along with a few other small areas around his body. It
was amazing that there was no external bleeding at all.

"His arm is just very badly bruised," Ryoga reported. "I don't
know if anything's broken, but he won't be using that arm for awhile..."
Ryoga trailed off, looking up at Hotaru. He knew the injury probably
looked bad and ugly, but it wasn't really anything serious. Especially
if Ranma's healing was anything like his own. And that was WITHOUT
proper treatment. With the help of modern technology, Ranma would be
back to his annoying, thieving self in a matter of days. Or at least he
better!

Hotaru stared. She would have immediately launched into healing
Ranma in another situation, but now, she stared. Under other circum-
stances, she might have been embarrassed of staring at Ranma's strong,
well-built chest, but that wasn't what was on, or rather in her mind
right now. Another part of her was striving for control now, enjoying
the pain, suffering and all-around negative vibes coming from the im-
mediate area.

"We should get him to a hospital or something..." Ryoga
suggested after noticing that Hotaru wasn't going to do anything.

Hotaru snapped out of her trance and felt the dark part of her
recede once a familiar groaning reached her ears. A voice that was much
more important than anything else.

"W-what hit me?" Ranma asked groggily as he regained conscious-
ness. He tried to lift himself off the ground, but pain immediately
surged through his left arm and he fell back onto the ground. "T-that
hurts..."
He admitted ruefully.

Tears filled Hotaru's eyes and she flung herself onto Ranma,
burying her face into his chest.

Ranma winced as someone whom he somehow knew was Hotaru embraced
him. He was just glad that she avoided touching his arm. He didn't know
how bad it was, but it hurt like hell. "N-no need ta... cry..." Ranma
choked out as he felt tears run down his side. A small part of him noted
that the crystalline drops that touched the injury were soothingly cool
and dulled the slight pain. The rest of Ranma was trying to ignore the
pain from his shoulder and noticing that his favorite shirt was gone.
"I-is my shirt okay?"

Hotaru lifted herself off of Ranma and wiped away her tears,
wondering herself why she had gotten so emotional. Ranma's life wasn't
in danger. Even if it were, she would have killed herself healing him if
she had to. "You idiot..." she whispered, her voice full of a jumbled
array of emotions. "What about you?"

"I-I'm fine..." Ranma answered hoarsely, barely hearing Hotaru's
words though his headache; but the tears told him all he need to know.
"W-what about the shirt?"

Hotaru resisted the sudden urge to yell at Ranma and looked over
at Ryoga. "Ryoga?"

Ryoga lifted up the red Chinese shirt for Ranma to see. "It
isn't even wrinkled," he announced to Ranma, who smiled weakly in satis-
faction.

"I feel... pretty bad..." Ranma stated, shifting his gaze to the
sky and simultaneously realizing that he had just made a huge under-
statement. The pain was limited to his left arm and right side, but he
knew it was mostly just that: pain. It wasn't a serious injury. Heck, he
didn't even feel any bleeding. But he still felt like he had just gone
through an all-night free for all sparing session with both Ryoga and
Genma.

"Stay still." Hotaru commanded firmly, leaning forward slightly
and extending her right hand over Ranma's injured arm.

Ranma's eyes widened as he realized what Hotaru was about to do.
"I-I don't think you should... It's a... big injury..." He hadn't tried
to look at the injury, but the pain had told him enough.

If anything, that only strengthened Hotaru's determination to
heal Ranma and she just ignored him and closed her eyes, concentrating.
She had never healed anything this big before and wasn't sure she could
do it. Heck, she didn't heal people often period. But she sure as hell
was going to try! At the very least, it would ease Ranma's pain.

Ryoga's question as to what the heck Hotaru was doing died off
in his mouth as a pink light burst out from Hotaru's hand and bathed
Ranma's upper arm, slowly replacing the ugly blob of black and blue with
healthy skin.

Ranma couldn't help but sigh in relief as his headache
blissfully disappeared and the pain receded from his arm, leaving a
soothingly cool sensation behind. This was different from the first time
Hotaru had healed him and he was practically in heaven. There was still
that slight, annoying throb by his side, but that was okay. A moment,
later, that disappeared too as Hotaru brought her hand and that blessed,
pink light over to that area as well.

Ranma sat up to give his undying gratitude to Hotaru and found
he didn't need to as she collapsed into his arms. "Hotaru!" He gasped,
slowly standing up and cradling his friend gently in his arms. <Stupid!
Stupid!> Ranma berated himself. <I shoulda stopped her...> Ranma shook
his head, trying to clear all negative thoughts from his mind and
concentrated on Hotaru's angelic and unconscious form. <She's
alright...> Ranma told himself as he noticed the rise and fall of her
chest.

Trying to prevent a blush and/or nose-bleed from his discovery,
Ranma turned his gaze away from that particular area of Hotaru and to
her softly smiling face. All his thoughts slowly melted away as he took
in Hotaru's content expression and smiled. He slowly got back to the
ground and continued staring at his friend, content with the peace that
had enveloped them.

Ryoga shook his head and snapped out of his shocked trance after
Ranma sat back down again. He then glanced around him, wondering how the
'spectators' were taking this.

He sadly noticed a vast majority of them walking away, some mut-
tering the words "demon" or "witch". He noticed one person, a young
lady, snap her cell phone shut and walked away, a mystified expression
on her face. The few people that were still around were, for the most
part, staring at Ranma and Hotaru in shock. Hotaru's feat had been...
unexpected... But it wasn't bad or anything. It had healed Ranma and
Ryoga, for one, would have been glad to have someone who could do stuff
like that travelling with him.

And speaking of the two... Ryoga turned back to see what Ranma
was doing. Last he saw, Ranma had caught Hotaru as she... fainted...
"Ranma!"

"Huh?" Ranma snapped out of his thoughts in annoyance and turned
around to look at Ryoga in irritation. "What?" Ranma asked, although he
already knew the answer was going to be about Hotaru and her 'powers'.
He hoped he wouldn't take it like those other kids Hotaru had told him
about. If he did, then a fight could be arranged. Then again, he was
feeling a little tired...

"You'd better put on your shirt."

Ranma blinked. "Uh... Sure..."

"Then we'd better leave."

"Um... yeah..." Ranma replied, turning back to Hotaru.

Several moments passed and Ryoga was losing patience. "Let's go
already!" he snapped.

Ranma snapped back into reality and tore his gaze from Hotaru's
lovely face and back to Ryoga's considerably less enjoyable one. "What
didja say?"

"Put your shirt on and let's get out of here!" Ryoga almost
shouted. Then he indicated the shocked people that were standing around
staring at the three. "I'd bet money that somebody called the police
already."

"Oh," Ranma said intelligibly, placing Hotaru gently on the
ground and slipping back into his shirt. After quickly tying his shirt
closed, he then wrapped his black belt around his waist and tied it with
several quick tugs. After his clothing was secured back on, he knelt
down on one knee and gingerly lifted Hotaru back off the ground.
Glancing around, he noticed the people staring at him. Ryoga was right,
it would be best if they left now.

Ranma broke into a light jog away from the area, Ryoga close be-
hind. It was much easier for the Lost Boy to follow as Ranma kept in a
straight line, jumping over people who were in his way and gradually
gaining speed.

The fast, almost inhuman sprint lasted for a few minutes longer
before Ranma started to slow down. A minute or so later, he had stopped
completely and was panting for air.

Ryoga looked at Ranma for a moment in surprise as he wasn't any-
where near tired. "You're tired already?" Then he sneered. "What's the
matter, you can't even run while carrying someone anymore?"

"Shut... up," Ranma replied tiredly. "Hotaru may've healed all
that other crap... but I'm still beat from my little... disagreement
with... that truck..." Ranma then narrowed his eyes accusingly at Ryoga.
"Just what was the... big idea anyways? Throwing me at a truck?"

"Hey!" Ryoga said defensively. "I threw you at the yellow car;
you're the one who jumped in front of a truck! If you had just taken
your beating like a man, you wouldn't have been hit in the first place
anyways!"

Ranma rolled his eyes and shifted Hotaru slightly into a more
comfortable position. "What kinda dumb... excuse is that? I coulda been
killed!"

"..." Ryoga flinched and stared at the ground in a bit of guilt.
Just a LITTLE, mind you.

"Well, since ya did go and catch me..." Ranma started.

Ryoga raised his head and looked at Ranma oddly. "How did you
know I caught you? You were unconscious!"

Ranma shrugged slightly, still trying to regain his strength. He
hadn't felt this tired since the times Genma had forced him to train
days straight without sleep when they reached that one training ground.
He had trained HARD that time while Genma 'supervised'. In fact, if he
hadn't known that the whole ordeal would had, indeed, made him a lot
better, he would have strangled the old man then and there. And now he
had just been hit by one stupid truck and was already dead-tired. Maybe
he was losing it. "Some- body had to... have caught me... Or I woulda
been... roadkill..."

"I'm not so sure..." Ryoga said, glancing at Hotaru
meaningfully.

"I'll tell you... later," Ranma said, actually realizing what
Ryoga was wondering about. "But anyways... since it is sorta... my...
fault... and ya did save me..." Ranma had to force the last part out
with teeth clenched and muscles tensed. Long moments passed and Ranma
stared at Ryoga with an unwavering gaze, as if judging him. Ryoga almost
flinched, but managed to restrain himself from showing any signs of
weakness.

"I'll let it drop," Ranma said finally.

"But Hotaru..." Ranma trailed off, letting it be known that he
did not approve of Hotaru being hurt even as an indirect result of
Ryoga's actions.

"... I understand..." Ryoga said quietly, staring at the ground
in shame.

Ranma nodded and rested leaned back against in the shad of a
fence, by the fell of wood behind him, to rest, absently noticing that
they had somehow made it into a residential area of Juuban. A few
seconds later, he decided to heck with it and slid to the ground, still
carrying Hotaru. He then laid her in his lap but blushed red and quickly
set her by his side instead when he realized something about where he
was placing a certain part of his friend...

Soon, Ryoga also took a seat, deciding that he shouldn't let
Ranma get to much more recovery than him somewhere in the back of his
mind. Glancing to his side to check on that self-same martial artist, he
saw, to his slight amusement, that Hotaru was serenely asleep with a
slight smile, and resting her head on Ranma's shoulder- The latter
wearing a content expression on his face and staring thoughtfully at the
clouds.

Ryoga gave several quick coughs, successfully catching the
Ranma's attention. The pig-tailed boy, however, did not turn over to
look at the Lost Boy for fear of disturbing the girl contently resting
by his side. Instead, he asked in a quite and content voice, "What is it
Ryoga?"

No taunts, no insults, no mockery. Just a simple, non-
patronizing question. A simple, untwisted name, like they were friends.
"Um..." For a moment, Ryoga was at a lost for words. He could not recall
a single moment before when Ranma had answered him so... peacefully. So
much like a... friend...

Ryoga shook his head and forced his thoughts away. "I was
wondering about the thing Hotaru did," Ryoga replied, keeping any
negative tones or comments from his words for once.

Ranma was silent, his gaze never averting from the clouds far
above him. Eventually, he spoke, his voice still soft but now with a
hint of amusement tingeing it. "I'll tell you 'bout that if you tell me
why you attacked me."

Ryoga's eyes narrowed, his anger threatening to rise once again
as he was reminded of that. "..."

"Now don't get angry, Ryoga," Ranma said, his voice seemingly
tired. "We just went through that and look what happened."

Ryoga forced himself to calm down as he realized the truth of
Ranma's words. Pretty much because of the fight, Ranma had almost been
road pizza and Hotaru had been put in danger because she tried to help
him. The feeling of shame at being the one responsible once again
flooded Ryoga's being and he lowered his head, subdued. "R-right..."

"You said something about Minako." Ranma continued with that
same tone of voice used earlier. "What about Minako?"

"S-she left because of you..." Ryoga said, somehow unable to be-
come angry. Or maybe it was because Hotaru was in the way of his
pounding Ranma to the ground... Yes... That had to be it...

"Why's that?" A simple, simple question. One, that if answered a
little earlier, might have averted the chaos that had erupted not even
half-an-hour ago.

"She was chasing after me..." Ryoga replied, not feeling any
embarrassment, too busy feeling bad for everything he had caused.

"Ain't that a good thing?" Ranma asked, not really an expert on
things like that, but in a relaxed and logical state of mind that wanted
to put an end to all this confusion and have a bit of peace and quite
with his best friend and his, hopefully, other friend.

"But she thought Hotaru was my girlfriend."

"I... see..." Ranma didn't know how to react to that. His first
instinct had been to challenge Ryoga and beat him up, but once again,
that calm and content part, nurtured by Hotaru, cooled down his hot
temper and prevented violence. Still, the urge was still there and Ranma
tensed a little. Besides, he was still way too tired for his likings.

"So she left." There was a tinge of bitterness in Ryoga's words.

"And why is this my fault?" Ranma asked. Everything seemed to be
his fault in Ryoga's book.

Ryoga bit his lip. His previous retort would have been somewhere
along the lines of, 'If you'd just accepted Hotaru like a man, this
never would have happened.' But... Ranma's unusual attitude was having a
strange effect on his anger. "I... guess it's not..." He muttered.
"Sorry..." It was barely even a whisper and most people wouldn't have
even heard it at all, much less make it out.

Ranma was silent. If Ryoga had looked over, he wouldn't have no-
ticed any difference from Ranma now and Ranma a minute ago. He might
have even thought Ranma had not heard him. But he had. This time, Ranma
was frozen in shock,. <What the? Ryoga... apologized to me?!> It was...
unbelievable! From the day he met him, Ranma had realized that Ryoga was
even more apology-avoidant than he himself was. The closest thing to an
apology Ranma had gotten from Ryoga had been: "Good point."

"..." Ryoga was starting to get a little annoyed. No, not angry,
annoyed. Here he had swallowed his pride and apologized and Ranma wasn't
even going to say a lousy word!

"Apology accepted."

"Huh?" Ranma's words, though making little sense to the fanged
martial artist, had effectively burst the bubble of negative energy
building around Ryoga's mind.

"I said I accept your apology." Ranma replied, smiling this time
and actually turning his head slightly towards Ryoga.

"Oh," Ryoga said, leaning back on the fence and staring at the
clouds. Now there was nothing to hold against Ranma. If anything, Ranma
had a reason to be angry at him. The only thing he could blame on Ranma
was... nothing. Everything from before had been settled with a fight and
now this was finished. So what now?

"Feeling good, Ryoga?" Ranma asked out of the blue.

"W-what?" Ryoga stuttered. He had indeed been starting to feel
good.

"Ain't ya glad that everything's settled?" Ranma replied with a
smirk. in truth, he could have asked that question any number of times
before. Usually after a fight. But Ryoga seemed to be in a rare, intro-
spective and rational happy-mood right now. Before, the question would
have probably been twisted around into an insult and another fight would
have broken out.

"..." Ryoga said nothing and continued to stare at the clouds,
deep in thought. Everything was settled. That led him back to his earl-
ier question: What now? But before he could figure that out, he needed
an answer to Ranma's question. He hated to admit it, but his life had
practically centered around Ranma since he had met him. Centered on
beating him, that was. It had only been about a week, but he felt like
he had been doing it his whole life.

What was life like before Ranma? Boring and dull with some
friends that didn't understand him. All there was was martial arts. And
to be used for what? Beat up the occasional new kid who thought he could
be a bully and terrorize his friends or classmates. In short, it had
been, pretty much, a pointless existence, brightened by the occasional
visit or run-in with wandering parents or relatives who had been his
only real challenge.

And then Ranma had come. Someone who he couldn't beat. And there
was a meaning to life. A meaning that wasn't 'protect the people who you
sometimes talk with' or 'beat your family and learn some new techniques
from them as a reward.' He had a rival. And now that was gone.

No, Ryoga realized. He still had a rival. He would always have a
rival from now on. Ranma would always be his rival. He would always have
a purpose now: To beat Ranma Saotome. Ryoga smirked. He liked that: Just
rivalry.

So he turned to Ranma, who still had his head slightly turned
and was looking at Ryoga curiously. Ryoga realized suddenly that he had
been thinking for a rather long time and looked a little embarrassed,
but managed to say what was on his mind anyway. "Yeah, I'm glad."

"Good. So am I," Ranma said, smiling. <He coulda done that a
looong time ago. Well... days ago, anyway...> Then Ranma snorted. Ryoga
was too busy staring at the clouds and being deep in thought to notice.
Hotaru just stirred slightly and her breathing eased some more. <Figures
it'd take something like my almost dying to beat it into him that we
coulda been... friends... Wait... I wonder if he actually did figure
THAT out?> Ranma shrugged and figured it didn't matter as long as Ryoga
acted like a friend. Or maybe a friendly rival. That would be nice.

A minute of silence passed, only the soft sounds of Hotaru's
breathing reminding the two martial artists present that they were still
alive. After awhile, however, Ryoga decided to end it. "By your breath-
ing, I'd say you've got you're strength back."

"Yeah," Ranma replied. He had indeed regained his strength.
Well, he caught his breath and was feeling a hell of lot better, anyway.
He had been afraid to have to spend the whole day sleeping to get back
into good health. It had taken him twenty four hours of non-stop sleep
in a cozy bed for him to recover after that days long training-ground
thing (He had insisted his father give him the bed. Ranma's skills were,
apparently, good enough then that threats of beating the living crap out
of the old man if he did otherwise were effective.)

"Should we take Hotaru back to her house now?"

"I... guess..." Ranma replied hesitantly. He knew he really
should take his friend home what with her being unconscious and all,
but... he just wanted to spend more time with her. <You idiot... You
spent time with her all week!> Ranma berated himself. He was being
selfish. He just couldn't be selfish with Hotaru. She needed to rest and
here he was wanting to be with her.

"That doesn't sound like what you want to do," Ryoga commented,
having noted Ranma's hesitance and studied his face carefully. The Lost
Boy could be quite observant about some things.

"O-of course I do! She needs to rest..." Ranma replied, desper-
ately putting up a defense. He hoped that Ryoga's usual thick head would
cover for his rather poor acting skills. He didn't want to leave Hotaru,
but he didn't want Ryoga to know that. He'd never hear the end of it no
matter how Ryoga interpreted it. And there were actually only two ways
Ryoga would probably interpret it. One of them would probably lead to a
fight. <Great, just when things between me and Ryoga cool down...>

Ryoga smirked. "You don't sound like you want to bring her
home." He said.

"I'm only worried 'bout Hotaru, okay? So I think... we should
take her home," Ranma replied edgily. It was hard not to just spill it
and say he actually did prefer that they wait a bit more. But then
again, Ryoga had THAT look. Maybe he already knew?

"Heh. Noble words, Saotome, but I know the truth," Ryoga said, a
smirk still plastered on his face.

"Man, what the heck are ya talking about Ryoga?" Ranma asked,
getting both nervous and annoyed at the same time. "I ain't into all
this cryptic stuff."

"Let's rest awhile more, shall we?" Ryoga suggested in reply
before turning his attention back to cloud-watching and effectively
ending the conversation.

Rather than pursue the rather pointless conversation that Ryoga
had ended, Ranma smiled. So Ryoga knew... Well, at least he wasn't
making a big fuss of it. No, instead, he had taken the pressure off of
Ranma and suggested they stay here a little longer. Which was exactly
what he wanted. Just a little more time. The little truck incident had
ended their day early and he just wanted a bit more time with them. With
his friends. With Hotaru and Ryoga. With Hotaru...

Ranma turned his gaze back to the clouds and the skies. The
skies. Where his school specialized. The infinite, beautiful sky.
Beautiful... Like... Hotaru... Ranma felt a sudden, rushing desire to
look at Hotaru's face. Her lovely face. So he turned around and gently
took her by the shoulders, turning her gently away from him and then and
cradling her upper-body in his lap.

Ranma stared at Hotaru. She was angelic in her sleep. Her petite
lips were parted slightly and formed a small, cute oval. Her closed eyes
gave him an impression of innocence and were highlighted nicely by her
fine eyebrows. Half of her raven-black hair was tossed wildly, over her
face while the other half fell on Ranma's arm. Ranma resisted the urge
to move the hair away for some reason. It just felt wrong to him to
disturb the beautiful girl before him in anyway. In fact, he even felt a
little guilty that he had moved her just so he could look at her.

Ranma continued staring at Hotaru for a few minutes longer. He
could have passed the whole day just staring at that face. The person
whom he had rescued. Whom had been there to help him with his school-
ork. Whom had been there for him to talk to. Whom he had shared the
joys of fence-walking with. Hotaru. His friend.

Ryoga turned around and noticed that Ranma was holding Hotaru
over his lap and staring at her. He smirked and watched, wondering what
Ranma was going to do.

He watched. And watched. And watched. Eventually, Ryoga decided
that nothing was going to happen anytime soon and decided that even
though Hotaru was easy on the eyes, he would have more fun looking at
clouds. And after Ranma was finished drooling on Hotaru, he could ask
him about that thing she did.

Ranma sighed for some reason, unknown even to him, and gently
placed Hotaru back beside him. Her head instantly fell back down on
Ranma's shoulders and the pig-tailed martial artist just smiled and
turned back to cloud-watching.

Several minutes of more or less comfortable silence passed and
Ranma and Ryoga still sat comfortably on the sidewalk, watching the
clouds. Hotaru was still unconscious, resting her head on Ranma's
shoulder. Ranma didn't really mind the whole situation, but he was a
little curious about one thing.

"Yo Ryoga," Ranma called out, his voice seemingly undifferent
from the casual and almost bored one he used so often. But if someone
who knew Ranma well would have listened carefully, they might have
noticed the curiosity and wariness in it. And the only person who knew
Ranma well enough for that that wouldn't have cared and thus not noticed
it anyway.

Ryoga slowly turned back to Ranma and noted that Hotaru was back
to Ranma's side. "What?" he asked.

"I was wonderin' if you were ever going ta ask about Hotaru."
Ranma replied, tensing a bit and ready to pound Ryoga onto the ground,
despite the fact that he was still a little tired. Sure, It may have
seemed like Ryoga had taken the whole 'healing thing' alright, but Ranma
wasn't about to take any chances.

"I was going to ask you about that after you finished with
having your perverted thoughts about Hotaru," Ryoga replied, smirking.

"What?!" Ranma demanded, almost jumping to his feet before he
realized that would have given Hotaru a rather painful introduction to
the sidewalk. So he settled for glaring at Ryoga. "What the hell are you
talking about now?"

"I saw you staring at her a moment ago." Ryoga replied with a
casual wave of his hand. "There's no need to get so upset."

"I was just checking on her!" Ranma almost shouted. "And I'm not
upset!"

"You don't have to lie, Ranma," Ryoga said. "There's nothing
wrong with staring at Hotaru like that."

"Just shut up," Ranma hissed, turning back and staring ahead of
him in silent anger. <Stupid Ryoga... I was just checking on her, that's
all... If anybody's perverted, it's Ryoga... Getting all cozy with
Minako on that machine back there... Stupid Ryoga...>

Ryoga just laughed and Ranma resisted the urge to pound him.
After this went on for the next minute, however, Ranma's patience was
starting to wear thin. "Will you shut up already!" He shouted,
forgetting that he might have wakened Hotaru.

"Hahahaha!"

"Shut up ya stupid moron!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me, you pervert! Hahahaha!"

"Grrrr..." Ranma clenched his fist so hard that it might have
actually hurt if he had been calm enough o notice the pain. "I am NOT a
pervert!"

Ryoga stopped laughing and turned to regard Ranma. The pig-
tailed martial artist was glaring at Ryoga, his whole body tensed and
his fists clenched so hard the Ryoga could clearly see the veins. And
his face... His brow was furrowed and his eyes now mere slits. But even
that failed to hide the anger that radiated from those blue orbs. And
Ranma's teeth were bared, like a wild animal ready to attack. All he was
missing were Ryoga's fangs.

Ryoga stared a little longer, comparing this face to what he
imagined he looked like whenever he was angry. Ranma continued to glare
at Ryoga. Slowly, however, the anger started to drain away as Ryoga
hadn't doing anything yet.

And then, "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

The anger in Ranma ignited uncontrollably; a burst of flame so
powerful that if Ranma had been fighting right now, nothing short of
Hotaru could have calmed him down. And all of this was directed at one
person: Ryoga.

To put it lightly, Ranma was mad. Nobody called him a pervert!
He KNEW he was the farthest thing from that and NOBODY called him that!
It was time to fight. Time to call forth the secret techniques of the
Saotome School that he had never had to use before. The art of fighting
that he had rarely even practiced, much less applied in real life.

"Who's the pervert?! You were the one who was cuddling up to
Minako!"

Then again, he did have a little more practice than usual with
these techniques lately.

"What?!" Ryoga froze. He hadn't expected retaliation.

"Yeah you heard me! I bet that's why you passed out! You're per-
verted fantasies were probably getting too much for even your sick mind
to handle!"

"Why you..." Now it was Ryoga's turn to get mad. Ranma hadn't
actually called him 'that word' yet, but...

"Pervert!"

That did it. Nobody called Ryoga a pervert and got away with it.
"Look who's talking! You were the one who was practically drooling on
Hotaru just a few minutes ago!"

"I was just worried about her!" Ranma snapped back. "And what
about you huh? You were the one going 'What if she's changing?'"

"That just proves I'm not perverted like you!" Ryoga shouted in
defense, wishing he could pound Ranma into the ground right about then.
But as Hotaru was in the way, he restrained himself.

"Yeah right!" Ranma shouted, radiating disbelief. "You've got a
sick mind, that's why ya even thought about that in the first place!"

"I'd bet you didn't mention it just so you could peep on her!"

"That's stupid! And you were the one being all cozy with
Minako!"

"You're probably just jealous!"

"Of an idiot like you? Don't make me laugh!"

"I guess you're right..."

Ranma smirked, glad that Ryoga finally saw things his way.
"Hmph, about time you got some sense knocked into that thick head of
yours."

"Because you're after Hotaru!"

"What?!"

"Pervert!"

"I am not!"

"Then why are you so angry, huh?"

"Maybe it's because you're shouting a buncha stupid lies 'bout
me!" Ranma suggested angrily. He wasn't a pervert! If anybody was a per-
vert, it was that idiot Ryoga! And him going after Hotaru? That was
just... just... He just wasn't!

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Ryoga reverted back to his highly amused state
and started laughing at Ranma as the pig-tailed martial artist attempted
to bombard him with insults.

"Damn you!" Ranma wanted to scream in frustration. How could the
stupid techniques work if the opponent wouldn't fight! He was doing so
well just a minute ago too! And now Ryoga was just laughing at him!

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Ryoga continued laughing. He had found
that arguing with Ranma was next to pointless and that laughing at his
rival had much more effect in annoying the boy. And Ranma had gotten so
frustrated, he had even stopped calling him a pervert! This was perfect!

"What's so funny?"

"Haha... ha..." Ryoga's laughter trailed off and then died alto-
gether as he heard a familiar, quiet feminine voice reach his ears.

Ranma's prepared insult died on his lips as he felt a now familiar, soft
lump move from his shoulder and a curious, soothing voice reach his
ears. And Ranma felt fear.

Hotaru looked at Ranma, and then at Ryoga. And then she turned
back to Ranma again. Both of them were frozen in what appeared to be a
state of shock. Actually, it was really a state of, mostly, fear, but
she didn't know that.

"What's so funny?" she repeated, wondering why Ryoga had been
laughing so much when she woke up. She had felt refreshed after her
little nap and it had been refreshing to hear a positive sound coming
from Ryoga. "Die Ranma"s got old after awhile.

Hotaru looked at Ranma, deducing that he had been the one to
make the joke or whatever. Oh! She had been sleeping on his shoulder!
The injured arm!

Ranma watched as Hotaru's curios features shifted into shock and
started to fear the worse: That Hotaru had heard something and really
thought he was a pervert. If she did, he was going to have a long 'chat'
with Ryoga.

"Is your arm okay?" Hotaru asked worriedly, reaching out with a
hand and touching the area were the wound had been gingerly. When Ranma
didn't fall over dead, she gave a small, relieved smile. She had been
able to heal him. And she was still alive too.

"Its fine..." Ranma said, Hotaru's smile relieving him of his
fears. She couldn't be angry if she was smiling so cutely, right?
"Thanks to you."

"You're welcome," Hotaru replied, leaning back on the fence and
looking at the clouds, still smiling slightly. Ranma was so sweet to
remember to thank her.

Ranma and Ryoga both gave a simultaneous sigh of relief. That
wasn't such a good idea, however, as it reminded Hotaru of her earlier
question. "What were you laughing at earlier, Ryoga?" came the innocent
voice.

"Uh..." Ryoga started to fidget nervously. He just couldn't lie
to such and innocent and sweet voice. He cast Ranma a pleading glance.

Ranma decided that helping Ryoga out would be in his best inter-
est, considering what Ryoga had been laughing about. "He was laughing at
me." Ranma supplied quickly.

"Oh." Hotaru cast Ryoga a quick, disapproving glance. First he
had virtually thrown Ranma in front of a truck and now he was laughing
at him. She turned back around before she could notice the way Ryoga
cringed.

Ranma himself was fidgeting nervously, wondering if he was next.
Sure, it was just a look, but it was from Hotaru! That was just...
scary.

"You really shouldn't have done that, Ryoga," Hotaru
reprimanded. "Wasn't throwing him into the middle of the street enough?"
Hotaru had never ever scolded, chastised, or even anything similar to
that, one of her peers before. The Hotaru of a week ago would have shied
away at even the thought of doing such a thing; but this Hotaru was
filled with concern for a certain pig-tailed martial artist and... anger
at his being endangered.

"I-I'm sorry..." Ryoga mumbled, staring at the ground in shame
as he was reminded of the incident. And it felt so much worse hearing it
from Hotaru.

"Um, Hotaru?" Ranma asked, trying to get his friends attention.

"Yes Ranma?" Hotaru turned to Ranma, her face softening as she
did.

"Um, I already... uh... talked it over with Ryoga, and I decided
to... well... forgive him an' all for that," Ranma replied nervously.
"It was sorta my fault, since I jumped in front of the truck. And Ryoga
did... catch me..."

Hotaru looked back at Ryoga and noticed, to her surprise, that
he actually looked sorry for what he did. Well, everything had worked
out in the end... And Ryoga actually seemed sorry for what he did! A far
cry from the Ryoga who was more willing to starve to death than saying
he was sorry for something.

If Ryoga was, in fact, remorseful, then that meant he must have
really regretted what he had done. That was all Hotaru hoped for. The
young girl smiled at Ryoga, immediately relieving him of several nega-
tive emotions. "Well, if Ranma forgives you, so can I. Just be more
careful in the future, okay?"

"O-okay," Ryoga returned meekly.

Hotaru smiled again and resumed looking at the sky. Everything
was taken care of now. Or at least she wanted it to be. Hotaru didn't
want any past mistakes to interfere in her and her friend's friendship
later on.

Wait... Almost everything. Ryoga had seen her heal. But he
hadn't run off in fear or anything yet, so maybe he was like Ranma?
Hotaru sure hoped so.

"Ryoga?"

"W-what?" came the nervous reply.

Hotaru almost frowned. Maybe Ryoga was afraid of her? He had
been acting strangely since she had woken up. She looked over at the
bandana-clad martial artist, studying him carefully. He didn't really
seem afraid... Just nervous... But that could still be bad if it was
related to her 'powers'. And 'bad', in her vocabulary, included a lot of
name-calling, ugly comments and hurt feelings.

"What do you think... about my healing Ranma?" Hotaru asked
softly, subconsciously scooting closer to Ranma. She just felt safe
around Ranma, and almost everybody else who had learned of her ability
to heal had shunned and even scared her. But Ranma hadn't. Ranma would
protect her and make it seem less scary if Ryoga turned out like the
rest of them. Even if it didn't look like Ryoga was going to be like the
others, it still felt nice, at least, to be close to Ranma.

Ryoga mentally sighed in relief. He had been afraid that Hotaru
had been about to call him a pervert because she had heard all those
things he and Ranma had argued about earlier. His only solace would have
lain in that Ranma would have been dragged down with him; Ryoga would
have done it himself if he had too. No way was he taking a fall like
that alone when there was someone else to blame. So it was to his im-
mense relief that Hotaru asked his how he felt about the whole 'healing
Ranma' thing instead.

"Um, yeah..." Ryoga said, composing himself and managing to con-
vince himself that Hotaru hadn't heard anything 'bad'. "What did you
do?"

"I healed him," Hotaru replied softly. To her surprise, she
didn't seem to feel scared or anxious. She had just known Ryoga so well,
that she just couldn't be scared by him unless he outright took a knife
to her throat or something equally drastic. "It's a... gift... I have."

"Oh," Ryoga said simply. "That's nice." No matter how hard he
tried, Ryoga just couldn't get himself to feel surprised. He had already
pretty much figured out what had happened; it had been rather obvious.
He had just needed to hear it from Hotaru or Ranma's own lips.

Hotaru was in a similar state as Ryoga. She just couldn't feel
surprised. Deep down, she already knew Ryoga didn't really mind her
'power'. All the signs were there: Ryoga had still been with them when
she had woken up and had even been laughing. So Hotaru just smiled.

Ryoga looked at her for a moment more before returning Hotaru's
smile quickly and turning back to the skies.

Watching everything silently, Ranma nodded in satisfaction as
everything appeared to work out and then also turned back to watching
the skies. It looked like everything had been settled. Well, Ryoga would
likely still be after him after again before the day was done, but he
was used to that. What mattered was that Ryoga wasn't scared of, or more
importantly, trying to beat up Hotaru. Ranma's face darkened briefly as
he thought of that. If Ryoga had tried that, well... There wouldn't have
been enough left of him to make a pork bun. Ranma blinked. Pork buns?
Where had he gotten that from? Well, Ryoga was pig-headed most of the
time...

A smile appeared on Ranma's face then. Well, Ryoga was, appar-
ently, smarter than he looked. Everything was okay for the moment and
that suited Ranma just fine. Ryoga would probably be after him again
soon enough, but then again, Ranma wasn't sure if he could go too long
without a little action anyway. As long as Hotaru was okay; that was all
that mattered. He could put up with, or even enjoy whatever other crap
was thrown at him as long as she was okay.

Ranma's musings were interrupted as he once again felt a
familiar lump fall on his shoulder. Confused, Ranma turned his head over
to his left. <Hotaru's asleep again?> Was Ranma's unspoken question.

Once he looked at Hotaru though, it was obviously apparent that
she wasn't asleep. It was a bit harder to see his friends face from the
side, but Ranma quite clearly noticed that Hotaru's eyes were open,
staring off at nothing. Ranma's first thought was that Hotaru had fallen
into some kind of weird seizure. Immediately after that thought came the
realization that Hotaru had a smile gracing her face. The smile in
itself would have been enough to stop Ranma, if only to admire it.
Instead, Ranma wondered why Hotaru would be smiling in the middle of a
seizure.

Hotaru felt the eyes of her friend rest on her; likely worried
about her. Once, her smile would have slipped and disappeared right
then, replaced by the nervousness of being studied by someone. Someone
who would likely end up fearing and hating her. Heck, once, a smile
wouldn't have even been on Hotaru's face. But Hotaru knew Ranma; he
would not fear or hate her. And being near him only made her feel safe;
much like her father used to make her feel, still made her feel whenever
he tucked her in at night. And her smile stayed. If anything, Ranma's
gaze only encouraged it.

Hotaru almost giggled at what Ranma was probably thinking right
now. Likely something along the lines of her having another one of her
'fits'. Hotaru's smile almost did drop at the thought of that. The fits
had been getting less frequent, for some reason. Perhaps because she
was eating more she theorized; thanks would have to go to Ranma for
that. But that wasn't important right now. What was important was that
Ranma, and possibly Ryoga was likely to ask questions right about then.

"Uh... Are you awake?" came a questioning, and confused voice
from her right.

"Yes," was her simple reply.

"Um... Not that I... I mean, uh..." Ranma tried, frustratingly.
He couldn't see what the big deal about his question was; just ask his
friend why she was resting on his shoulder. Except, he didn't want to
be... um... rude. Yeah. That was it. A part of Ranma's mind snorted. It
was true, Ranma was a lot more polite and kind to Hotaru than any other
person he knew, but he was far from being a perfect gentleman around
her. In fact, Ranma believed he might even accidentally taught Hotaru a
few inappropriate words he'd picked up from his father.

By this time, Ryoga had noticed that something vaguely
resembling a sentence was coming from Ranma. Turning away from the
clouds, Ryoga looked over at the duo consisting of his friend and his
rival. He noticed, no big surprise, that Hotaru's head had somehow found
it's way back onto Ranma's shoulders.

After another moment of studying, he realized, with slightly
more surprise, that Hotaru looked rather awake. The smile wasn't
anything special, although Ryoga thought the girl looked rather cute
with in on. The problem was that Ryoga couldn't think of a single way
how Hotaru could have been asleep with both her eyes open and
occasionally blinking.

Unlike Ranma, he came to the right conclusion rather quickly.
<She's awake.> And her head was on Ranma's shoulder. Another speculative
moment later and Ryoga shrugged to himself. <She must be tired.> Ranma
was currently babbling incoherently and Ryoga enjoyed watching Ranma
making a fool of himself more than pondering rather pointless thoughts.

"Ranma..." Hotaru said softly, interrupting Ranma. The pig-
tailed youth shut his mouth, effectively silencing his "uh"s, "um"s, and
etc. "You're not making sense."

Ranma gave a frustrated sigh. "Nevermind." He muttered, turning
away from Hotaru and looking back up at the clouds.

A worried frown instantly formed on Hotaru's face at Ranma's
curt reply. Raising her, she looked at Ranma carefully. Had she somehow
insulted him? Hotaru was almost scared of the thought. <No.> She
decided, shaking her head as she took in Ranma's tense expression rather
nervously. <H-he's not mad... He's not...> Hotaru kept repeating the
mantra to herself, trying to calms her nerves enough to look up and
actually ask Ranma if something was wrong. <Ranma's not mad... He won't
hurt me...>

Ranma the slight pressure lift from his shoulder and then felt
the his friends eyes watching him. He couldn't help but feel a little
empty with the now-familiar lump gone. A small part of himself worried
that he might have somehow insulted his friend, he turned to look at
Hotaru, tensing a little bit. Having Hotaru angry at him scared him more
than almost anything else he could think of. Where would he be if his
only friend(unless you counted Ryoga) was angry at him?

Upon catching sight of the slightly fearful expression on
Hotaru's face, he felt a bit of anger creep into him. If someone was
going to scare his friend, well, then it was his sacred duty to beat
that idiot into the ground. At the same time, however, Ranma couldn't
help but feel a little relieved; Hotaru wasn't angry at him. After all,
he hadn't done anything to scare her, right?

"What's wrong Hotaru?"

Hotaru stared at Ranma's face. There wasn't any anger in the
face. Or if there was, she didn't notice it. Hotaru sighed in relief,
causing to Ranma to grow more perplexed.

"Ahhh..." Ranma said intelligibly. It almost looked like Hotaru
was glad at something. He had been half-expecting that someone had some-
how mugged Hotaru while he wasn't looking. Now that that theory proved
incorrect, Ranma wasn't sure what to do.

Catching Ranma's confused expression, Hotaru smiled, also in
relief. Same ol' Ranma. Same ol', never-angry Ranma. Annoyed? Yes.
angry, no. "I'm sorry, Ranma..." Hotaru said, smiling reassuringly up
at Ranma.

"Uhhh..." Was Ranma's reply. The pig-tailed martial artist sud-
denly had flash of memory from a few years back. He had been looking at
a TV through store window, watching some kind of movie or something
curiously. He remembered that right after the girl said she was sorry,
she ran off into the rain crying. Ranma had promptly forgotten all about
the whole thing as Genma had entered the scene and dragged him off to
train for the rest of the day. Now, as the whole thing flooded back with
vivid clarity, Ranma wasn't so sure he wanted to know what Hotaru was
sorry about. <C'mon Saotome! Turn on the ol' charm and lets haul butt
outta here!>

"I thought you were... angry... at me..."

Ranma barely even registered the words, much less their meaning.
"Uh, yeah, 'course I am." He quickly turned back to looking at the
clouds, hoping he had a done a good job dropping the subject.

Hotaru stared, speechless and not sure how to react. It wasn't
an insult or anything, really... But... Did it mean he was really angry
at her? It couldn't be, could it? But...

After Ryoga managed to stop gaping, he wondered exactly how
stupid Ranma could get. Okay, Ryoga could admit that he himself could be
a little thick-headed; but this was... Geez, talk about insensitive.
Ryoga didn't know much about girls, but he was pretty damn sure what
Ranma did wasn't exactly anywhere near the lines of tactful. But still,
he had recognized that look on Ranma's face. He had... panicked? Well,
at least Ranma had a reason...

"Y-you're just joking, r-right?" Hotaru asked, her voice
shaking. Indeed, the outcome of her life hung on Ranma's next words.
Ranma wasn't angry at her, he wasn't!

"W-what?" Ranma asked in confusion, twitching a little as Hotaru
suddenly clutched one of his hands. It wasn't that he minded the act in
of itself, but there was... He could feel something was wrong. Something
that vaguely resembled his danger sense was telling him that he had just
screwed up somewhere.

"I-I know you're joking..." Hotaru almost whispered, more to
herself than anybody, although she had suddenly developed a deathgrip on
Ranma's hand.

"W-what?" Ranma repeated.

Tears began to form in her eyes and Hotaru's tightened her grip,
clinging desperately to Ranma. She couldn't imagine how things had
turned out so bad. Everything had been fine just a minute ago, and
now... now... NO! Ranma didn't hate her, wasn't angry at her! He wasn't!

Ranma almost panicked. He couldn't even imagine what had brought
things to this. Everything had been fine just a moment ago, and now,
Hotaru was almost crying! And he just knew it had to somehow be his
fault. <Damn! What's going on?!>

A flash of inspiration struck and Ranma grabbed onto the idea
like his life depended on it. And in his opinion, it did. He looked up
at Ryoga pleadingly, desperately. Ryoga had probably been watching, he'd
know what to do?

"R-right Ranma? You're just... joking..." came Hotaru's small
voice, desperate for an answer. No, desperate for a certain answer.

Ranma glanced down at Hotaru, and immediately looked back up at
Ryoga. He needed to know what was going on! Hotaru looked... damn,
Hotaru looked even worse than when he had first met her, when those
punks had been picking on her!

Ryoga started nodding fervently, mouthing the words "Say yes!"

"Uh, yeah! Yes, you're right!" Ranma blurted out quickly, hoping
that Ryoga hadn't tried to trick him or something. Because if Hotaru
cried because of this... Well, Ryoga would be in for the beating of his
life. No, make that beatings.

At Hotaru's relieved smile, Ranma felt a great burden lifted
from his shoulders and relaxed his tensed muscles. Ranma gave a small
chuckle. He hadn't even realized he had been tense. Ranma quickly tensed
again as he felt something shoot onto and wrap around his chest.

Slowly, he looked down. And just as he half-expected, there was
Hotaru, her arms wrapped around him in a fierce hug and her face buried
in his chest. He beat down the reflex to break free and run away and
instead, sat very still, twitching nervously every now and then.

"I knew it!" came the soft but strong voice.

Ranma slowly relaxed his muscles and let out a sigh of relief. He didn't
know what had happened, but it looked like everything was okay again.

"I knew it!" Hotaru repeated.

"Yeah..." Ranma said slowly. He wasn't sure what was going on,
but he felt he should say something... reassuring, or some such thing
like that.

"I knew you weren't angry at me..."

Ranma blanched. That was what the whole thing had been about?!
<Damn! I'm such an idiot! What the heck did I do?!> Well, if he had been
dumb enough to do something that almost made Hotaru cry, well, it was
his sacred duty to fix it then! Now how to go about accomplishing that
was another matter altogether.

"Uh, 'course I wasn't mad at you," Ranma said, his words
soothing to Hotaru's ears. "How could I get mad at, uh, you?"

Hotaru just gripped Ranma tighter, as if afraid that she might
lose him and whispered back. "I-I'm sorry, I just thought... You
said..." Hotaru trailed off, closing her eyes and letting the feeling
of security envelope her. "I'm sorry..."

"It's... my... fault..." Ranma said, slowly, twitching slightly.
He wasn't exactly fond of admitting he was at fault at something,
especially when he had no idea what he had supposedly done, but this was
Hotaru! She was... well... she was probably right! After all, she was so
smart, and he was... well... behind! Ranma twitched again. Now he had
just admitted to another weakness. Well, actually, he had already ad-
mitted he was behind in class, but he didn't like reminding himself of
the fact one bit.

Before Hotaru could say something in reply, Ranma continued.
"I'm sorry, okay?"

Hotaru loosened her grip a little and nodded slightly, as small
smile actually forming.

Ranma sighed in relief and slowly wrapped his arms around Hotaru
twitching a little every now and them. He wasn't sure what to do, and he
didn't feel hugging was very manly, but this was the only thing he could
think of to make Hotaru feel better. From what he had seen, girls seemed
to hug each other a lot, so he supposed hugging Hotaru was would be
appropriate, even though he wasn't a girl. "Uh, yeah... Lets just forget
'bout the whole thing, okay?"

Another nod and Ranma smiled slightly, unconsciously pulling
Hotaru closer to him. Instead of looking at the clouds this time, he
gazed down at the girl currently wrapped around his chest, her legs
curled up and resting on his lap. The pig-tailed young man sighed,
content that everything was alright.

Hotaru nestled back into Ranma's chest, pulling her legs up and
relaxing herself. She had been so afraid and scared, and she wanted to
be close to Ranma right then. He made her feel safe, like her father did
when he tucked her in, but this was still more... more real. Because not
only did she feel safe, but she knew Ranma could take on anybody that
might hurt her.

She felt Ranma wrap his own arms around her and sighed in
content. A warm feeling, like a blanket, enveloped her as Ranma's arms
did, and she felt like nothing could hurt her, as long as Ranma was
there. The feeling of being safe was absolute, and if the world had
suddenly started to explode around her, she wouldn't have cared, because
as long as Ranma was there, she knew that she would be alright.

Ryoga watched as Ranma slowly pulled Hotaru to him with a smirk.
He noticed the twitching, but dismissed it. He was pretty sure that he
himself would have had trouble hugging a girl. Especially one he liked.

Ryoga chuckled as he realized something: He was probably the
only one who knew what had happened.

Far overhead, a flock of white birds soared through the skies,
the sun reflecting of their pure-white feathers. They shot through white
clouds and rode the wind-currents with years of experience, mocking
those below with their freedom and daring any to try to challenge their
skill as they flew towards their unknown destination.

And if one had inhumanly good eyesight, and looked closely
enough, one might have been able to make out the dirty white piece of
almost-camouflaged cloth fluttering bravely from a feathery neck.


To be continued...


Author's Notes

Wow, you read the whole thing! I hoped you liked it. And about
that last paragraph; no, Genma hasn't been somehow Jusenkyo cursed.
Anyway, tell me what you think about the story and should do. It seems
like I'll be trying to pair up Ryoga and Minako, but I dunno. I was
thinking about bringing Akari in, when I just spontaneously decided to
bring in Minako. As for who Ranma's ending up with; well, I think I made
my preference rather obvious.

And, also, this isn't the first fanfic I've written, it's my
third. My second one was stupid, and although I liked my first one, it
wasn't very good at all.

Finally, please send me your comments and all that good stuff.
Actually, even if I get a lousy response to this fic, I'll probably
stubbornly continue with it anyway...


-KaosQu
kaosqu@hotmail.com


-As you slide down the banister of life, may there be no
splinters be pointing the wrong way.