Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ In the Shadow of the Moon ❯ Chapter 1 Strange Day version 2 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Welcome to the newly expanded and revised second version of the first chapter of my story.

Disclaimer - I do not own Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Ruroni Kenshin, or any other series that might be mentioned. This work is for entertainment only and not for profit

Chapter 1v2 - Strange Day

Dawn comes to Nerima on a crisp morning in February. The suns first rays begin to drive the light frost from the still quiet trees. Even the birds are quiet in their song as if unwilling to break the stillness of the moment.

The stillness over Nerima is suddenly shattered by the all too common sounds of a shouts coming from the Tendo compound. In the air above the Koi pond the morning battle, of traded insults and strikes, between father and son is in full swing.

From the kitchen Kasumi sighs at one of the more unkind statements from the elder Saotome. "I do wonder what auntie Nodoka would think if she heard what her husband has to say about women in general." She states idly as though to an unseen guest.

The youngest of the Tendo daughters, Akane, does her best to ignore the daily ritual while she finishes in the furo preparing to face the day. The same could be said of Soun, the family patriarch, as he intently studies the morning newspaper.

Of the members of the household the one taking the continued noise the worst would have to be the middle daughter Nabiki. Groaning while sitting up in bed she tries her best to decide how best to take revenge on those who deprive her of sleep. Preparing to leave her room she grins at a poster of the american comic cat garfield on her room door, wearing an expression that had to match her own unhappy stare. The poster announced her feelings about mornings perfectly, in english. "Give me coffee and no one gets hurt."

The battle outside culminated with a splash. The younger of the Saotomes lands lightly in front of the open shoji to the living room. Ranma smirks at the Panda fuming in the cold water, before turning to walk inside the house. Smiling at Kasumi he helps her move the platers of food from the kitchen to the table in the common room.

The smell of the food motivates the panda to amble into the house. Kasumi meets it on the porch with a pot of hot water and a towel. Ranma notices Akane leaving the furo and dashes in before a bleary eyed Nabiki makes it to the bottom of the stairs. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone, revenge and profit, Nabiki goes back to her room and queues up the wireless cameras she had setup in the furo on her computer.

Hoping for a shot capable of making one Kuno Tatewaki salivate, she is rewarded with....static. Running a diagnostic she finds the cameras are responding properly but no image is being received. After running several more tests the image simply clears up to show an empty bathing area. Groaning in frustration she again sets out on her quest for morning coffee, completely forgetting her computer is still on. From nearby one can almost see a cheshire cat like grin appear when Nabiki enters the furo herself.

When Nabiki joins the others at the table for breakfast, she smiles when her eldest sister sets a large mug of coffee in front of her. Breakfast is a fast paced affair with the father and son fighting each other with their chopsticks over the food. Nabiki manages to eat some food to go with her caffeine infused nectar and excuses herself to gather her school bag from her room.

Now awakened by a bath and several cups of coffee with breakfast, Nabiki notices that she had left her computer active. In the tray of her printer are several full color printouts of her in the furo. On her computer screen there is an open notepad window. "Karma can always find you Nabiki-chan." Nabiki is more than slightly concerned at this and checks her keystroke logger to find that nothing was recorded since she turned on the camera feed.

After shredding the printouts and shutting her computer off, Nabiki heads back downstairs with her school supplies. The food battle is still in full swing and Nabiki quietly asks Kasumi if everyone else remained downstairs since she came down earlier.

Kasumi smiles serenely at her sister. "I did not see anyone head upstairs. Is something wrong imouto?"

Nabiki shakes her head negatively and quickly recovers her "Ice Queen" composure. Nabiki quickly excuses herself as Happosai comes bounding into the room holding a map. Grabbing his students collars he announces, "Come on boys, we have a treasure to find!"

As Happosai begins to drag the fathers from the house Kasumi calls after them. "Ojiisan, when do you think you will all return?"

"We'll be back tonight Kasumi-chan, you won't need to hold dinner for us." Happosai calls back.

Nabiki made it to Furinkan High School in record time. Certain something is up she wanted to check with her contacts before school. Nabiki stops in shock upon seeing a doppelganger for Ranma's female form approaching the bokken wielding Kuno. Nabiki is certain this can not actually be Ranma since she is wearing a girl's school uniform.

Nabiki stops behind a nearby tree out of the pair's sight, and overhears them speaking.

"Kuno-sempai I've been looking for you" The pigtailed girl gushes.

"My pig-tailed goddess have you come to show me your true affections." The mesmerized young man responds.

The girl smiles demurely in response and takes the boy's hand. "Oh yes, please come with me and I will show you how I truly feel about you."

Nabiki follows discretely as she is able, as the dark haired impostor leads the "True Blunder" around to the back of the school and up a ramp. Nabiki cringes at the smell coming from a trash truck waiting at the end of the loading dock.

With a smile the girl proceeds to knock the deluded kendoist out with a knife hand chop to the back of his neck. She then casually trips him into the back of the garbage truck and gives a thumbs up to the driver. As the truck pulls away the girl calls out. "This is where I truly feel you belong Sempai."

The driver begins to leave the campus while chuckling and the young lady turns with a smirk to where Nabiki had come out from around the corner of the building in her shock. "I believe the school is better off without him for the day. Don't you think so Nabiki-chan?" Nabiki finds herself unable to stutter out a response before the girl winks and vanishes from sight.

Nabiki recovers from her shock and races back for the front of the school. As she looks around the entrance for her minions, Nabiki witnesses Akane and Ranma, wearing his normal chinese silks, enter the gate. Checking with members of her crew, she discovers that nobody even remembered seeing Kuno leave.

Nabiki does her best to hide her confusion and leaves instructions for Ranma to be watched closely for the rest of the day.

Ranma puzzles over how quiet things had been that morning. The only thing that he thought was truly odd, on the way to school, had been seeing someone had let out the air on both tires of Shampoo's bicycle on the way past the Nekohanten. Things had been relatively quiet since the wedding fiasco several months ago, but Ranma just felt himself waiting for the dam to burst.

The sense of impending doom found a minor outlet in the form of the eternally lost boy, Hibiki Ryoga, wandering onto the school grounds before lunch and "challenging" Ranma to a fight. That Ryoga's challenge came in the form of crashing trough a wall and upon seeing his rival shouting "prepare to die", was simply par for the course.

Also par for the course, Ranma thought sadly, was that Akane missed Ryoga's arrival. Coming on the scene a few minutes later, as Ranma was standing on top of the now downed opponent, Akane hit him with an impressive uppercut. "Stop picking on Ryoga." He heard her yell as he went flying over the wall.

"At least hitting water hurts less than hitting cement, but how does she always succeed in knocking me into water." The now wet and female Ranma groused as she climbed out of a rain canal. Heading back to the school she is surprised to find a camp stove heating a kettle of water on the side of the narrow street leading back to the school. Ranma fails to see anyone tending the water and she quickly uses it to change back to his normal form.

Thinking to be polite, Ranma asks to use a nearby water-hose to refill the kettle, but by the time he returns to the spot he finds the camp stove had gone missing. Glancing about Ranma places the kettle back where he found it and returns to Furinkan.

Unfortunately Ranma finds himself given detention for missing the class after lunch and is held after school. The only blessing Ranma could note for the day is he never had to deal with Kuno or Shampoo through out the day. Ukyo generally was on her best behavior without the amazon there to compete with.

Ranma returns to the Tendo residence after the sun had already set and gripes to herself about only she could find one of the few unfrozen puddles when it was as as cold as it was outside.

As smells from the kitchen assault her nose, she realizes there appears to be no one else in the common room. Ranma realizes true horror when she finds Akane in the kitchen. "Kasumi went with Nabiki to the library to help her find university exam study material." Girl with blue black hair calls upon seeing Ranma. "So I am cooking for us."

Ranma cringes and tries to quietly disappear before she can be offered any. The attempt is unsuccessful, as Akane catches her before she can get out the front door. "Ranma come back here and try what I have cooked for you." Ranma makes quick use of the Saotome secret technique, running away until you can think of something better, and Akane gives chase. While Akane was gone from the kitchen, the pot disappears.

Ranma returns, after deftly slipping away from Akane, and is rewarded by meeting Kasumi and Nabiki at the door bearing takeout, along with books. "Are you alright Ranma-chan?" Kasumi inquires of panting girl.

"I think I'll be a'right Kasumi. I'm jus' cold and hungry." Ranma replies while catching her breath.

Kasumi smiles in response and ushers the shorter girl inside. "Well go warm up in the furo Ranma-chan. Nabiki can you help me set out the food?"

Nabiki shrugs and quietly complies with her older sisters request. Akane stomps in the front door a few minutes later. "Kasumi why did you buy takeout? I had food ready for everyone."

Nabiki looks at her younger sister quizzically. "There was not anything in the kitchen when we arrived."

Ranma walks in from the stairs a few minutes later, having changed into dry clothes after a quick soak in the furo. Akane turns on him. "What did you do with the soup I made?"

Kasumi intercedes on the young man's behalf. "Ranma-kun was just arriving here when we did and has not been near the kitchen." Akane can hardly argue with her older sisters serene smile.

Aside from cross looks at Ranma while they eat, Akane chooses to be quiet before retiring to her room. Ranma finds something to watch on TV, while Nabiki returns to her room to try to make sense of what happened earlier in the day.

Kasumi smiles as Happosai returns while dragging his exhausted disciples. Happosai loudly complains, "Blast it that map was worthless.", and continues his tirade. Soun and Genma, lacking even the energy to eat, drag themselves to their rooms and fall asleep.

Happosai after he is certain the fathers were asleep, by their snores, ends his tirade and sits down on the wooden porch. Kasumi quietly brings over a steaming pot of tea and two cups and retires for the night.

After filling both cups, Happosai takes one and hands the other to the young woman sitting across the tray from him. The aged grand master of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu smiles sadly. "So are you convinced now that this environment can not be improved for the boy?"

"Before today I would not have believed that anyone could be surrounded by so much chaos Happi." The young woman quietly replies. "I agree more drastic measures will be necessary for the sake of these children's sanity." The woman's eyes turn hard and cold. "Make sure your worthless students are here in the morning once the others leave for school. I will ask Kasumi to contact Nodoka."

The tea cup is set down and his companion vanishes into the night. Happosai sighs. "I guess my panty thieving days are over. I never expected much from Genma but I thought there might be some hope for Soun since Takara took a liking to him."

notes:

Nerima - North western most special ward of the city of Tokyo

-chan - honorific term often given to those younger than the person speaking, usually for girls or young children,

imouto - little sister

Ojiisan - grandfather

sempai - senior - honorific used to refer to someone older or with higher standing

True Blunder - derogatory play on Kuno's self made title of Blue Thunder

Furinkan High School- fictional school within Nerima ward

Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu - "School of indiscriminate grappling" or Anything Goes martial arts