Quantum Destinies
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
By Steven Thesken (quantumdestinies@cox.net)

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi.  This story 
is inspired by her works and the stories from some of my fellow fanfic 
authors.  Among these are DB Sommer's "Shampoo 1/2", Jim Bader's "A Very 
Scary Thought -aka- Nabiki 1/2", and John Biles' Elseworlds series.  All 
C&C is welcome.

Other chapters of this story may be found at this website, or you can 
email the author for them:

The Quantum Destinies Homepage
http://members.cox.net/quantumdestinies/


The list of worlds reoccurring in this chapter:
Earth  0.000,0.000 - The world of Scholar-Ranma (Baseline cluster)


What has gone before in this story (or at least what will help you 
understand what is going on):

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over 
five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world 
and has done so for almost a century.  Theorizing that one could travel 
to alternate timelines by possessing counterparts in them, a young 
scientist named Ranma Saotome, through use of a device of his own 
invention, accidentally obtained the skills and memories of a martial 
artist version of himself.  He used those skills to fight several 
opponents, including Akane Tendo, earning her interest in him.  
Meanwhile, Kodachi Kuno escaped from an Earth being torn apart by civil 
war by transferring her mind to this one.   Kodachi sought out Ranma, 
who was a friend in her old life, but ran away at the last moment in 
tears, confused at her feelings.  Her older brother saw this and assumed 
Ranma to have seduced and cast aside his innocent sister.  Nabiki gave 
him Ranma's name, hoping to use Kuno to force a wedge between any 
possible interest between Ranma and Akane.  Ranma visited several more 
versions of himself, including a counterpart who was born female.  Now, 
both Akane Tendo and Kodachi Kuno have Ranma cornered in his lab.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 4 – Romances, Rivalries, and Revelations

     Within each of us, there burns the soul of a warrior.
     In every generation, a few are chosen to prove it.

                              - Mortal Kombat: the TV Series

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


*** Earth  0.000,0.000

Kodachi shifted her weight slightly from one foot to the other as she 
tried to maintain a projection of outward calm.  Inside, she felt as if 
several rather large butterflies were beating against the walls of her 
stomach.  To ease her nervousness, she shifted her attention onto Akane 
once more.  The other girl had turned her back on her to make some sort 
of threatening gesture to Ranma, but she couldn't quite tell what was 
going on from her current position.

What is Akane Tendo doing down here?  She never paid any attention like 
this to Saotome-kun in the other timeline.  A brief memory of all of the 
bullying that the other girl had done to all of the male cadets in 
Kodachi's original timeline surfaced in her mind.  Her grip tightened 
slightly on the leather handle of her bookbag, the knuckles whitening.  
The urge to protect the pigtailed boy from the Tendo girl's depredations 
was growing within her.  Is she bullying poor Saotome-kun for some 
reason?

How did I get myself into this mess? Ranma mused, trying to make sense 
of his present situation.  Akane was still holding onto his chair in a 
way that prevented him from making an easy escape.  Fragments of the 
solid oak armrest sifted down from underneath her hand, and her fist 
continued to hover menacingly beneath his nose.  He hadn't realized 
before quite how strong she was.  He managed to gather his thoughts to a 
degree when her gaze shifted back to stare at the new arrival.

Glaring at the intruder with a cold-eyed stare, Akane inspected the girl 
for any possible threat.  She noticed Kodachi's Blackhall uniform, and a 
slight sneer curled her lip.  What is some pampered noblewoman doing 
here at the Imperial Academy?  A strong martial artist like Ranma just 
couldn't possibly find any interest in some soft piece of fluff like 
her.  Maybe I should just scare her off, and then he and I could get 
back to our business.  Narrowing her eyes slightly, she projected a 
greater level of menace.

As the two girls continued their unspoken duel, Ranma found himself 
caught by Kodachi's unexpected beauty, her hair done up in a single 
ponytail and tied back with a dark blue ribbon.  She simply continued 
standing there pleasantly, her black leather bookbag resting against her 
thigh in a demure pose.  He noticed that she kept glancing at Akane now 
and then, but he was still slightly mesmerized by the sight of her and 
expected her to break out in a chilling laugh at any moment.

To Akane's view, an entirely different Kodachi suddenly appeared, not as 
soft or yielding as her initial impression.  Her eyes answered the Tendo 
girl's challenging look, and an invisible spark of lightning seemed to 
leap between the two with a promise of brutal mayhem in their immediate 
future.  The duo's gazes locked solidly upon each other, both girls mere 
moments away from attacking each other, each somehow recognizing a rival 
almost instantly without a single word being spoken between them.  A 
faint blue glow of battle aura slowly rose around them both.

Ranma suddenly sneezed loudly.

Surprised, Akane turned back towards him, breaking the contest of wills 
between the two girls.  With the break in tension provided by him, the 
two battle auras quickly dissipated.  She suddenly seemed to realize 
what her position might look like to a stranger, and it brought a brief 
blush to her cheeks as she suddenly felt strangely embarrassed.  She 
quickly maneuvered herself over to stand next to him, her stance now 
mirroring the other girl's demure pose.  That done, she went back to 
glaring at Kodachi with her previous level of menace, but the aristocrat 
was now ignoring her.

Kodachi raised one eyebrow as she briefly changed her smile to a smirk 
at the Tendo girl, before restoring her previous pleasant expression to 
her face as she turned to look at Ranma.  She stood there with her arms 
clasped behind her, unconsciously straightening and showing her figure 
off to great effect.  "Oh, I'm so embarrassed at my lack of manners," 
she said sincerely, feeling the giant butterflies increasing in number 
as she looked into his eyes.  She didn't remember them being so blue, so 
handsome, so warm-  She blinked, lowering her gaze demurely to look at 
the floor.  "I haven't introduced myself.  My name is Kodachi Kuno, 
Saotome-san."

Well, she seems to be normal enough, he thought with a small amount of 
surprise.  The image of the laughing psychotic dressed in gymnastic garb 
in his memories was not matching up at all with the pleasant-looking 
girl standing before him so shyly.  He slowly stood up from his chair.  
There was a subtle undertone to the air as he focused his attention on 
her, like hearing a beautiful but half-heard melody, a very relaxing 
sensation; quite unlike the more intense sensations that Akane induced 
in him, but similar in a way as well.

"Yes, umm, it's very nice to meet you, Kuno-dono," said Ranma softly.  
He walked forward, slowly closing the short distance between them, and 
then bowed politely to her.  She gracefully returned the bow, lowering 
her head a fraction of an inch further down than propriety demanded in a 
greeting for one of her higher station, an unspoken form of compliment 
to him.  He didn't really notice, due to his own high levels of 
nervousness, and the years that he had spent away from Japanese society 
dulling him to such subtle nuances.

However, Akane noticed, and her eyes narrowed even more.  How dare that 
pampered bitch?!  She barely managed to restrain her growing rage at 
Kodachi, and the desire to hurl herself at the other girl and attack.  
All of her instincts were screaming at her that this was a rival for 
Ranma's affections, but she wasn't quite sure why.  It was only a 
feeling from deep inside her.  A tightening of her lips occurred, one 
that neither of the other two in the room noticed.  She continued 
standing at parade rest at her current position and attempting to look 
casual, but the attempt was foredoomed to failure due to her building 
irritation at the young aristocrat.

"Uh, you mentioned something about helping me with my work, Kuno-dono?" 
asked the pigtailed boy, keeping his tone polite.  He felt attracted to 
the young noblewoman, surprising him.  It was keeping all of his nerves 
on edge, especially since he kept finding himself expecting her to call 
him 'Ranma-sama' at any moment.  He briefly noticed the look on Akane's 
face, one that seemed to him to be promising record amounts of pain for 
him if he dared to laugh at her discomfort.  He didn't realize that the 
expression might not be directed at him.

"I have been following your achievements in the sciences for several 
months now, Saotome-san," said Kodachi, continuing to ply him with her 
pleasant smile.  "Your name is quite well-known to me, ever since I came 
across some of your recent published works.  I discovered by accident 
that you were back in Japan, and I thought it would be very educational 
to assist you in your current work.  I asked for permission to see you, 
and Fuyutsuki-sensei allowed me to come down to meet you, Saotome-san.  
He thought you wouldn't mind some help with your project."

"My project?"  He couldn't recall that Fuyutsuki had ever even set foot 
in his lab since that first day.  Ranma briefly noticed that Akane was 
muttering something under her breath, but he decided to ignore her for 
his own peace of mind.

The Academy's headmaster was always able to procure the equipment and 
materials that Ranma had needed for his project, that was one of the 
reasons why he came to the Academy in the first place.  Most of the 
resonator was composed of fairly standard components when it came to its 
circuitry, only requiring a few rather unique pieces that he had been 
forced to fabricate from scratch.  Chief among these specially-built 
components was the quantum flux coil, the heart of the resonator.  It 
simply wasn't something that a person could walk into a neighborhood 
electronics store and walk out with.  It required a number of rare 
earths as part of its composition, all of them mixed into the proper 
ratios and forged into a coiled wire with certain tolerances.  Creating 
it had been the single most challenging thing that he had done in his 
life so far.

"Yes," said Kodachi with a nod.  "Fuyutsuki-sensei felt that I could 
learn much from you."  She set her bag down on the table and settled 
herself on the couch near where his equipment was assembled, before 
crossing her legs.  "I'm sure that you could teach me," she shyly 
glanced down at her hands folded in her lap before looking back at him 
with a coquettish smile.  "Many things.  Don't you agree?"  As she asked 
this question, an extra sparkle gleamed in her eyes.  That unexpected 
look froze the pigtailed boy's thoughts dead in their tracks, while 
Akane made soft strangling sounds behind him.

"Um," he adroitly murmured, as he swallowed down a throat suddenly gone 
dry.  Pulling himself together enough to at least speak, he nervously 
said, "That is to say-"

Flashing the Tendo girl a look of triumph, Kodachi thought to herself as 
she smiled, He's so cute!  She quickly returned her gaze to him, looking 
as if she waited for the pigtailed boy to speak the very wisdom of the 
heavens.  Her butterflies were fading a bit, now that she saw that he 
was feeling just as shy as she was.  I can't believe that I never 
noticed that about his counterpart before.  Well, I don't intend to make 
the same mistakes twice.  I'm going to make you mine, Saotome-kun.  I 
don't care what my brother thinks about that, and as for Akane Tendo, 
she very briefly flicked a condescending glance at the gray-uniformed 
girl, her brow furrowing with distaste.  She had better not think about 
getting in my way either.

Over at the position where she was casually standing in a modified 
parade rest stance, the youngest Tendo sister continued glaring at the 
cozy-looking pair, grumbling deep in her throat.  She did not care in 
the slightest for the very warm looks that the other girl was giving to 
Ranma.  The goofy looks that he was giving back to Kodachi charmed her 
even less.  What's with him? she thought with a frown.  Hasn't he ever 
had a girl smile at him before?

Her eyes suddenly opened wide as she realized what was going on with 
him, and a playful smile suddenly appeared on her lips.  So, the great 
Ranma Saotome is shy with girls, eh?  No wonder he's been so resistant 
to me.  The tactics for a plan that was sure to win his heart began to 
form in her mind.  She nodded to herself as the beginnings took form, 
pausing only to glare briefly at her new and unexpected rival.

How dare that pampered weakling of a noblewoman even dare to think of 
laying claim to a real man like my Ranma?  Akane quickly added in a few 
extra touches to her plan to remove the other girl from the picture.  
The aristocrat's feeble story about wanting to help him in his work was 
such an obvious fabrication to her.  I need to talk to Nabiki first to 
set it up.  I'm sure that she'll help me deal with this annoying little 
princess.

Ranma coughed softly into his fist.  The room seemed to be getting a 
little too warm for his comfort, especially if he kept looking at the 
still-smiling Kodachi.  She was gently bobbing her foot demurely up and 
down as she waited for him to speak.  The young noblewoman had artfully 
positioned the hem of her skirt so that he could readily see her trimly 
muscular calves, but her knees and thighs were covered as was proper for 
a young lady of her social stature.

The slight motions of the girl's foot created a quite surprisingly 
powerful curiosity in his mind about the appearance of the rest of her 
legs, let alone the totality of what he was certain was a quite athletic 
body, currently hidden beneath her tailored uniform.  The thought of the 
Kuno girl's counterpart's toned gymnast body from his memories, combined 
with the much more pleasing personality of the aristocratic and gentle 
young woman currently seated before him, was proving to be an intense 
distraction.  He wasn't sure what he would do if this version of her 
turned out to be a gymnast as well.

At least she's not a fighter, he thought with relief.

Looking over at Akane wasn't helping matters either.  Ranma knew full 
well the emotions that she was able to generate in him lately, if he 
allowed himself to feel them.  Interpreting her lethal-looking gaze 
through his memories of the other Akane made him feel distinctly 
uncomfortable.  Since he was between the two girls, he assumed that her 
ire was directed at him.  He forced his eyes back to Kodachi and focused 
on her face with mild difficulty.

"Your offer to help me with my research project is very flattering, 
Kuno-dono, but quite unexpected," said Ranma suddenly.  He needed to put 
some distance between himself and the two girls.  The combined level of 
the attractive feelings that they were causing in him was very quickly 
becoming quite overwhelming.  "Please excuse me for a few moments."

Akane watched him move across the laboratory, her gaze held firmly at a 
point somewhere below his beltline as she watched his backside walking 
away from her.  A coquettish smile was on her face as she suddenly found 
herself considering doing many different things with the pigtailed boy 
other than just fighting with him.  This surprised her, as she had never 
really thought such things about any boy before, since they had all 
shown themselves to be so weak, until Ranma had proven otherwise to her.

She briefly flicked her gaze back to the very irritating presence of 
Kodachi.  A brief but rather pleasant fantasy of beating the other girl 
within an inch of her life, before sending her back to the rest of her 
useless aristocrat peers, filled her thoughts.  It brought a happy 
sparkle to her eyes as she turned her attention back at the pigtailed 
boy.

Kodachi followed Ranma's movements with her eyes and softly sighed at 
his unexpected poise.  She couldn't recall his analog ever moving with 
such unconsciously graceful movements.  If anything, he seemed to be-

Her thoughts stalled briefly as she suddenly studied him more carefully, 
her expression changing slightly.  He's a martial artist, she quickly 
realized with surprise, her ability at recognizing such things still so 
new to her that she forgave herself for not noticing it before.  He 
appeared to have had many years of training too.

The realization that he knew how to fight somehow added an exciting new 
dimension to her feelings, which surprised Kodachi.  She found herself 
suddenly curious to see how good he might be, so perhaps it was just as 
well that her brother wanted to fight Ranma.  She knew that his body 
must be in at least fair shape if the training that she had seen his 
counterpart undergoing was any indication, not to mention the years of 
training in gymnastics he had told her about before joining the Academy.  
She felt a brief blush cross her face at the direction that her thoughts 
were heading, wondering how muscular he was, and how flexible.  Well 
brought up young ladies of noble families were taught not to think about 
unattached men the way that she found herself thinking about him.  It 
just wasn't proper, but she couldn't help herself.

Her gaze drifted back over to Akane, who was now studying the pigtailed 
boy with a look of possessiveness that did not please the noblewoman at 
all.  A brief fantasy of pounding the other girl into the ground, like 
she had been doing to the White Lily now for several weeks, brought a 
smirk to her face.  Her thoughts were filled with confidence.  You've 
more than met your match in me, Akane Tendo.  I know that I can put you 
down with little difficulty if it came to a fight between us.

Kodachi looked over at the uncovered equipment on the table, a bright 
smile appearing on her face as she instantly recognized a completed 
resonator unit when she saw one.  So this Ranma has completed one too.  
A brief suspicion came into her mind.  Has he encountered a martial 
artist counterpart in his explorations?  That might explain how he looks 
to have had years of training in his movements, unless this timeline 
diverged even further back than I originally thought.  Perhaps my life 
didn't change as much, but his life did.  She turned to watch him some 
more, heaving another soft sigh at the sight of him and how gracefully 
he moved.

Unaware of the intense scrutiny that he was undergoing from the two 
girls during his simple walk across his lab, Ranma went over to the 
small sink in the corner.  His thoughts were slightly confused.  What am 
I going to do?  I don't know if it's such a good idea to bring in anyone 
else to witness what I'm doing down here.  Kodachi seems normal enough, 
but there's something making me feel nervous around her.  I wish that I 
could figure out what it was.

He looked into the mirror, a brief illusion of himself looking like his 
martial artist counterpart suddenly appearing in the glass.  He closed 
his eyes for a few moments.  You're worrying over nothing, Ranma, he 
thought, attempting to calm himself.  That other reality has no bearing 
whatsoever on this life.  In this life, you don't have any enemies or 
romantic rivals looking to beat you up, and you're not engaged to a 
bunch of violent girls either.  Don't start panicking unless Shampoo and 
Ukyo show up, if they even exist in this world.  Focus on your work and 
don't let unfounded worries distract you.  He opened his eyes, feeling a 
little more relaxed now.

After picking up the large mug resting on the shelf above the faucet, he 
slowly rinsed it out.  When he was done, he filled it to the brim with 
some cold water from the tap, and then raised it to his lips and drank.  
Swallowing deeply, he drained the mug in four large gulps.  He looked 
back, somehow fearing the worst, and saw Akane giving him another one of 
her coquettish smiles that was a rather disturbing counterpoint to 
Kodachi's flatly admiring look.  He noticed them both briefly exchanging 
much less friendly glances with each other and suspected that they 
weren't the first ones that they had been giving each other while his 
back was turned.

Okay, maybe my concerns weren't entirely unfounded, he thought with an 
internal grimace.  Let's see.  I have two attractive young women in my 
lab, and both of them aren't making any motions to leave.  But at least 
they seem to be behaving themselves.  So what do I do now?

For a moment, Ranma tried to imagine what Ranko would feel if Kaneda was 
able to best her, hoping to gain some inspiration as to how to act.  An 
uncomfortable feeling came over him as he imagined what her reaction 
would be to someone as smart or smarter than she is.  Uh-oh, he suddenly 
realized, breaking out into a sweat as he looked back at the two girls, 
feeling even more uncertain than he had before.

I'm not accomplishing anything here like this, Akane thought with a 
frown.  Ranma is going to be mine, but first I have to deal with this 
aristocrat bitch, it seems.

"I'll talk to you later, Ranma," said the Tendo girl suddenly, as she 
strode to the open door.  "Don't forget that we have a date."

"Hey!  I never agreed to nothing!" he shouted at her as she was about to 
walk out the door.  "And I'm not fighting you, ever!"

Pausing in the doorframe and turning for a moment, Akane smiled at him 
with a strange glint in her eyes.  "Ranma, you kidder, I expect you to 
meet me at 4:00 p.m. today, just like always.  See you!"  She had 
briefly debated attacking him right then and there to have the fight 
that she craved with him, but things could easily get complicated with 
the added annoyance of the other girl present.

A moment later, she was gone.  Ranma's thoughts were black as he stared 
at the empty doorway.  First she always bullied me, since I never fought 
back.  Then, when I suddenly gained the ability to fight back, she 
cheerfully beat me black and blue.  I stupidly went all noble and helped 
her out in a fight, and it didn't appear to make the slightest bit of 
difference to her.  Even after that, she still apparently won't leave me 
alone until I break her jaw or something.  He sighed.

"So that was Akane Tendo," said Kodachi suddenly from his right.  "She 
seems to be a woman of very great passions."  Ranma noticed that she had 
drawn near to him, but he didn't even remember hearing her stand up from 
the couch.  He casually moved a little ways away from her, trying hard 
not to be too obvious about it.

"Yeah, I suppose," he murmured, as he turned to look over at her.  He 
caught a whiff of the very delicate perfume that she was wearing and 
started to step closer to her before he stopped himself.  He recalled 
absently that both Tendo sisters both wore a similar fragrance, but he 
could not remember ever smelling it before meeting them.  It smelled 
very nice to him.  Must be some new brand, he finally decided.

He studied the young aristocrat and then shrugged his shoulders.  A 
woman in his life was a distraction that he didn't feel he needed right 
now, and he could have been misinterpreting her body language anyway.  
He didn't really understand girls, despite his brief time spent as 
Ranko, and he wasn't too proud to concede that one small point of 
ignorance.  He considered it to be about the only blind spot of 
knowledge in his life, but now he found himself seriously considering 
exploiting his newfound method of learning about girls and their 
mysterious ways.

"So, would you like my help with your project?" Kodachi asked him, 
rocking lightly on the balls of her feet.  Her voice had dropped into a 
more seductive-sounding undertone, and her hands were clasped behind her 
back as she smiled at him.  The position accentuated her bosom and the 
lines of her body, to Ranma's discomfort.  "I very much wish to learn 
all that you can teach me about quantum mechanics."  She looked him in 
the eyes with a hooded gaze.  "To be honest, I was expecting someone 
quite different, based on your papers, perhaps more formal.  In person 
you're very charming."

Ranma felt his ego swell.  "That's a very flattering thing for you to 
say, Kuno-dono.  I, uh, thanks."

"Please," she interrupted, "you may call me Kodachi.  There is no need 
for you to stand on formality with me."  She smiled encouragingly at 
him.

"Umm, all right.  Kodachi it is."  He found himself smiling back at her.  
"You can call me Ranma then, I guess."  He reached up and absently 
scratched at the back of his head with his right hand, looking very 
nervous, and she had to control herself from acting on a sudden desire 
to tug on his pigtail.  The right look from his blue eyes would have had 
her blushing again, she was certain of it.

"It is nice to meet you, Ranma," said Kodachi.  "You are certainly 
nothing like any of the men that I meet from Whitehall."  Her sudden 
forwardness left her feeling uncertain.  "Not that I ever meet any men, 
uh, never mind."

The last thing that she wanted to discuss with Ranma was her the matter 
of her overly-protective older brother.  A brother who wants Akane 
Tendo, she suddenly realized.  All I need do is figure out a way to 
focus all of his attentions exclusively on Akane, and I will have 
managed to eliminate two stumbling blocks at once.  She will keep my 
lonely brother busy, and that will also eliminate Akane Tendo as a 
threat to my destined path of happiness with Saotome-kun.  It's PERFECT!

"So how long have you been interested in science?" asked Ranma, seeing 
that as a far safer topic than dating and relationships.  "I heard that 
Blackhall has some of excellent instructors for their science program."

"Oh, I've loved science since I was a little girl," gushed Kodachi, 
hoping that she wasn't overplaying her hand.  Her skirt swayed gently 
with her movements.  "I think my mother was the one who started my 
interest on that path.  She's a botanist."

"A botanist?" he asked, surprised.  A sudden image of black roses swept 
over him, and he mentally smacked himself to dispel it.

"Oh, yes."  She smiled at him.  "Mother was even brought in to work in 
the Emperor's private botanical gardens last year, due to her expertise 
with rare plant life.  He had a very rare breed of black rose that was 
refusing to bloom, and my mother managed to coax it into life."

Ranma nodded at the explanation, inwardly feeling rather relieved, even 
though the mention of black roses gave him a momentary quiver.  "I see. 
Do you share your mother's interests in the biological sciences?"  He 
took a subtle half-step back, the subtle smell of the girl's perfume 
from so close was becoming distracting once again, but she maintained 
their nearness, moving forward a half step as well.  She continued to 
smile at him, and he felt that the room seemed to be getting a little 
warm again.

"Oh, I helped her grub around in the dirt with her little plants, but it 
didn't really hold much interest for me for a career," replied Kodachi, 
totally misreading his interest in her botanical pursuits.  "I grow some 
flowers at our estate for relaxation, but it's merely a hobby with me."  
She moved another half-step closer to him, her hands still clasped tight 
behind her back demurely, and he absently ran a finger under the edge of 
his collar to loosen it a little.  His back was now pressed against the 
workbench, trapping him.

"Well, umm, how about if I think about it?" he asked, noting by the 
clock on the wall that he was coming up on his training time with Coach 
Takami.  "The assisting part, I mean."  He suddenly reached down to pick 
up her bag, and pressed it into her arms.  "I've got to finish doing 
some straightening up right now.  I have to go to a special training 
class in just a few more minutes."

"What?" asked a slightly bewildered Kodachi.  She started to protest as 
he guided her gently to the door.  "But I-I wanted to talk with you some 
more about what you're working on."  She was still protesting as he 
gently shoved her outside the door.

"I said that I'd think about it.  I promise that I'll talk to you again 
tomorrow.  Come back in the morning.  It would be a lot more convenient 
for me than right now.  I don't really have time to discuss it at the 
moment.  Bye now."  He spoke in a rush, before he lost his nerve 
completely.  She still had her mouth open to say something when he 
closed the door on her.  He slid the deadbolt home with a sigh, and 
leaned his head against the door.

I couldn't seem to concentrate with her looking at me like that, and 
also there was that perfume that she was wearing, thought the pigtailed 
boy with a shrug of his shoulders, as he went over and shut down all of 
his equipment.  He flipped off the main power bar, not noticing from his 
position the warnings that had printed across the screen from Akane's 
earlier fiddling with various switches.  I really don't need any sort of 
distractions right now.  I have to focus on my work.

Heedless of any problems, he covered the equipment with a tarp and began 
gathering his things.  He was looking forward to his training class now.  
Today I really start throwing myself into my training, he thought a bit 
excitedly.  There's going to be a new Ranma Saotome soon.  I can just 
feel it.  Today is the first day of changes in my life.

                   ******************************

Outside of the lab door, Kodachi paused with her hands resting on her 
hips, a little irritated at Ranma's abruptness with her.  He didn't have 
to be so rude, she thought, feeling rather cross with him.  But he told 
me to come back tomorrow morning.  Her expression changed back into a 
wistful smile.  Planning to do exactly that, she turned away from the 
locked door.  I hope that Father and Mother don't object too strongly to 
my transfer.  That would make things complicated.

She slowly walked down the hallway to the stairs, away from the door to 
his lab.  She knew she had pushed the issue a little too hard and paid 
the price, apparently even scaring him a little with her forwardness.  
She heaved a dramatic sigh, a mild frown appearing on her lips.  

Perhaps it is just as well that I not talk to him until tomorrow 
morning, she thought with a brave attempt at a smile.  I'll leave him 
alone for today, since trying to talk with him again right now would 
just be counter-productive.  I need to earn his trust first, since I 
certainly never expected him to be so shy.  His counterpart never seemed 
to feel shy with me, but then he just treated me as a lab partner, not 
as a woman.

Kodachi heaved another sigh as she walked.  I never expected him to feel 
afraid of anything, let alone me, she thought as her face fell into an 
even deeper frown.  It was probably due to that other girl's presence.  
She must know that she's entirely unsuitable for someone gentle and kind 
like Saotome-kun, the vicious, little, barbarian peasant girl.  He needs 
someone nicer and more feminine, but mixed with just the proper amount 
of spirit.  Someone like me.  She was so preoccupied with her thoughts 
that she didn't notice that she wasn't alone.

"Didn't have any luck with him?" asked Akane smugly, stepping out of the 
shadows at the end of the corridor.  "I just thought I'd wait and see 
how things went between you two."  She blocked the other girl's path, 
her jaw set with determination, and her arms folded across her chest.  
Inside, she exulted at the thought of the beating that she planned to 
give to the other girl.

"I do not see how my time spent with Saotome-san should be any concern 
of yours, Tendo-san," Kodachi replied in a very stiff tone of voice.  
She started to walk past the other girl, her head held high.  The nerve 
of the little harridan, she thought with annoyance.

"I'm making it my concern, Kuno-dono," said Akane coldly.  She looked up 
as Kodachi started walking past, grabbed the aristocrat girl by one 
shoulder and shoved her hard against the wall.  She released her hold 
immediately and placed her right palm flat against the wall, before she 
suddenly leaned in slightly in a menacing posture.  She smiled in a very 
unpleasant way.  "I have a prior claim on Ranma Saotome, and there is no 
way that some rich, spoiled, debutante witch like you is ever going to 
interfere with that.  Do I make myself clear?"

"Quite clear, Tendo-san," replied the young aristocrat in cool tones, 
her chin held up.  "However, I fear that I must decline your advice 
though.  Please do be good enough to stand aside and let me pass now.  
You wouldn't like it very much if you forced me to remove you from my 
path."  Kodachi started to move to one side, and Akane's other hand 
smacked flat against the wall, mirroring the position of the first.  The 
two girls stood in a silent tableau for several moments.

So, the little debutante witch is going to defy me?  Akane's face took 
on a mirthless smile, yet she was strangely pleased all the same.  The 
mere presence of the other girl was irritating to her, like a faint itch 
at the back of her mind.  A vision of the brutal beating she was going 
to give to Kodachi, or to any other girl that ever dared to come between 
her and Ranma, floated across her mind.  She felt her breath coming a 
little faster as she let the familiar rage build inside her.  No little 
piece of soft, inbred fluff from the nobility is going to stand between 
me and my happiness!

This ill-mannered, loathsome peasant is actually threatening me! thought 
Kodachi with a great deal of surprise.  She narrowed her eyes slightly 
as she met the other girl's own cold gaze, and she felt her heartbeat 
increase as her body prepared itself for savage combat.  She could not 
see how some barbaric and crude commoner, as she thought of the other 
girl standing before her, was ever going to keep her away from a boy 
like Saotome-kun.  You just don't stand a chance against me, Akane 
Tendo.  So it looks like I get the pleasure of beating some manners into 
you!

"Say, what are you two girls still doing around?" asked Ranma's voice 
suddenly from behind Akane.  Neither girl had even heard him leave his 
lab and approach them, they were so focused on each other.  He feared 
that he already knew the answer, from witnessing the tableau that had 
been taking place, but he desperately hoped that he was wrong.

Akane instantly sprang aside from the aristocrat, a blush filling her 
cheeks.  She smiled at Ranma, her eyes downcast and her thoughts 
confused.  "Oh!" she exclaimed, feeling strangely embarrassed at him 
seeing her in such a position.  "We were just, um, chatting, and getting 
to know each other."  She gave a brief, warning glare in the other 
girl's direction.

Kodachi felt her heart skip a beat at the pigtailed boy's sudden 
appearance, but she quickly took advantage of Akane's distraction to 
slip away from the other girl.  It was getting to be time for her to 
head home as it was, so fighting with the ill-mannered peasant could 
wait until the morning.  She locked eyes with the Tendo girl for a brief 
instant, another invisible bolt of lightning passing between them, 
before she turned her attention to Ranma, standing there in his uniform 
and holding his bookbag on his shoulder.

"That's right, Saotome-kun," said the Kuno girl evenly.  "She and I were 
just discussing something, but it wasn't anything very important.  Shall 
we pick this up again in the morning, Tendo-san?"  Another brief look of 
challenge was given and answered between the two girls, despite the 
smiles on both of their faces.  Ranma didn't appear to notice anything 
out of all this.

"Why, yes," said Akane, looking somewhat distracted.  "Kuno-sama and I 
are going to meet tomorrow and have some girl talk.  I'm sure that we'll 
have lots to talk about."  She had another brief but satisfying vision 
of pulping the other girl's face with her fists, and her smile turned 
cold when her gaze swiveled to Kodachi.  Her right hand balled into a 
fist as she struggled to hold her anger in check in front of Ranma.

"I'll see both of you tomorrow then," said the young aristocrat as she 
bowed to Ranma.  She gave Akane the look a noble would give a commoner 
while waiting for the peasant to bow.  After a quick glance at the 
pigtailed youth, Akane bowed, her fists clenched at her side, receiving 
a very slight lowering of the head from the other girl in return.  An 
evil smile briefly crossed Kodachi's face as she looked at Akane, but 
her expression was far more pleasant when she gave a look Ranma's way.  
"Until then, Saotome-kun, Tendo-san.  Adieu."

"Uh, later," said Ranma uncertainly.  He watched her leave with a mildly 
wistful expression.  His companion noticed, and a dark scowl appeared on 
her face.

Just you wait until tomorrow, Kodachi Kuno, thought Akane with a great 
deal of malice directed at the young noblewoman.  I intend to show you 
how wrong you are to even think to mess with me.  She noticed Ranma 
heading away from her towards the stairs and hurried after him.

"Wait up, Ranma!" she shouted after him.  "Let me walk you to the locker 
rooms!"  Since he didn't feel like running away from her, he let her 
draw up even with him.

"I thought you had somewhere else to be?" he remarked.  He kept his 
distance from her as best that he could, ignoring the few looks that he 
was getting from the remaining cadets on the campus at seeing the two of 
them together.

"Well, I just have to meet Nabiki to walk home with her.  You're heading 
the right way, and I don't mind spending some more time with you."  She 
smiled cutely at him, and it was disturbingly familiar to Ranma how much 
it was like the way that the other Akane smiled at his martial artist 
analog sometimes.

I wonder what her reaction would be if I called her an uncute tomboy? he 
found himself briefly wondering.  Maybe if I make her mad enough at me, 
then she'll go away.  After considering it at some length during the 
walk, and watching the vaguely possessive way that Akane walked next to 
him, he doubted it.  I'm going to have to watch my words carefully, but 
that shouldn't be a problem for a genius of my caliber.  A smile crossed 
his face.

                   ******************************

Where is that little idiot? Nabiki mused, tapping one foot on the ground 
in mild impatience.  The idiot in question was ten seconds away from 
earning her wrath.  He was a new addition to her organization this year, 
a form of experiment to see how one of his kind worked out in it.

"I'm here, Tendo-san," said a soft voice from behind her.  She felt her 
heart jump into her throat at the unexpected voice behind her.  She 
covered it, when she recognized the voice, by whirling around to gaze in 
an imperious manner at the very person that she was waiting for.  She 
managed to hide her surprise beneath one of her usual cool looks.

"You were almost late, Gosunkugi-kun," said Nabiki in chilly tones, a 
mild expression of her displeasure.  In a few moments he would have been 
late.  "It is not a good habit to form.  I expect my operatives to be a 
little earlier to each assigned meeting time.  And what's the big idea 
of sneaking up on me like that?"

Hikaru Gosunkugi shrugged his slight shoulders.  The Tendo girl was 
again amazed that someone of such weak physical ability was attending 
the Imperial Academy, especially wearing the gray uniform of a security 
cadet.  However, pinned on his collar was a small black symbol, and the 
reason for his presence at the Academy.  Even she felt a slight thrill 
of fear while looking at it, the unmistakable sign for possibly the most 
feared and secretive arm of the entire Security Directorate: the Mobius 
Institute.

Since the Empire first became aware of their existence several decades 
ago, Espers, as they were commonly called, became a very useful addition 
to the Ministry of Security.  From the time they were first employed 
until very recently, Espers normally attended their own small school, 
one that was considered to be an adjunct to the main Imperial Academy.  
However, this year the higher-ups in the Directorate felt that such a 
training policy was fostering an insular mentality among the Espers, and 
a new idea was being tried out to change that.  So Gosunkugi and one 
other cadet from the Institute now attended classes at the Imperial 
Academy in an attempt to try and learn how to fit in better among their 
future peers in the Directorate.

Gosunkugi's compatriot and senpai was named Kyosuke Kasuga, and he was 
in Nabiki's homeroom class.  He was a shyly distant sort, but actually 
fairly personable in his own way.  Kyosuke was not nearly as inherently 
spooky as Gosunkugi could be most times either.  His Esper abilities 
were mainly psychokinetic in nature, and he was also reported to be able 
to teleport great distances, though he never had demonstrated such 
abilities around Nabiki.  He and Yohko Mano, Nabiki's second in command, 
were currently exploring a relationship with each other that had lasted 
for a couple of months now.

The Tendo girl preferred to keep her distance from the couple whenever 
they were together.  For some strange reason, putting the currentmost 
generation of Devil Hunter and an Esper together in a relationship 
seemed to attract more than a fair share of oddities around them.  The 
last thing that she needed in her life right now was the many types of 
zany strangeness that those two endured in their brief time together.  
Yohko alone could be bad enough to be around at times, but adding an 
Esper to the mix was just 'Asking For It.'

Yohko was currently a little upset with Kyosuke.  The Esper boy had 
apparently showed an interest in another girl that he saw dancing in a 
club while he was out on a date with her.  So the Devil Hunter hadn't 
spoken to him for two days since their date, despite several attempts by 
the boy to patch things up between them.  Personally, Nabiki doubted 
that Yohko had anything to worry about when it came to losing her man to 
some tough-talking streetpunk girl in a leather jacket like Madoka 
Ayukawa.

Gosunkugi, on the other hand, was a relatively low-level Esper, and his 
capabilities were limited to more non-violent things: a fairly strong 
avoidance screen that would cause most people to ignore his presence, 
and some minor mind reading ability.  There were severe limitations on 
his powers though.  A person possessing a decently high level of mental 
awareness would be able to sense him, despite his avoidance screen.  For 
example, most times Nabiki was able to, unless she let herself be 
distracted.

The spooky boy's telepathy was very limited unless he was able to make 
physical contact, and even then he couldn't probe very deeply.  So far, 
Nabiki simply considered him to be an occasionally useful stooge and 
also sometimes a spy, but she kept these thoughts to herself.  Luckily, 
her security training in resisting telepathic probes was sufficient to 
resist if he ever tried his feeble skills on her.  He had also developed 
an amusing crush on Akane which made him easier to work with for her, so 
he worked cheap for that reason.
 
"What do you have to report to me, Gosunkugi-kun?  And make it fast.  
I'm meeting my sister Akane here shortly."

Akane-chan, thought the Esper boy with a slight sigh, as he remembered 
his love goddess.  He didn't let himself dwell on her beauty and charms 
for long though.  For some reason, that tended to irritate Nabiki, and 
he far preferred to stay on the middle Tendo daughter's good side.  
Akane was the main reason why he put up with Nabiki's moods and demands, 
as the Tendo sisters were frequently together.

After he made his report to Nabiki, he was going to begin his personal 
investigation of these dreadful rumors that he had been recently hearing 
about his love goddess pursuing a relationship with that stuck-up 
newcomer named Ranma Saotome.  If they turned out to be true, then he 
planned to do something unpleasant to the pigtailed scholar, but he 
wasn't quite sure what presently.  If necessary, he was planning to do 
some research on the matter.  There was a rather large multitude of 
books on magic that had been entrusted to the Mobius Institute, and he 
might even be able to talk one of the apprentice magic-users into 
helping him.  After all, someone like Saotome just didn't deserve to 
have a vibrant woman like Akane; her ability to beat people up in a 
fight always left him breathless whenever he saw it.

"There is nothing further yet to report on the identity of your rival."  
The Esper boy bowed slightly.  "He has managed to keep himself cloaked 
sufficiently well by acting only through his four chosen intermediaries, 
so I am still unable to discover his identity.  I don't dare try and 
probe them from up close, and their minds are too impenetrable for me to 
get a face from them at range."  He had an expression of distaste on his 
face.

"Whoever he is, he's a canny sort," acknowledged Nabiki with a 
frustrated wave of her hand.  "Continue to monitor his four cronies.  
Perhaps we'll get lucky, one of them will make a mistake, and I'll 
finally learn their leader's true identity."  She had been working to 
narrow the list of possibilities from among her fellow security cadets 
with only a fair amount of luck.  She still had some twenty names left.

The matter of her mystery competitor was beginning to annoy her.  At 
first, it had given her a new thrill to her life to have someone daring 
to compete with her on her own level, master strategist to master 
strategist.  But the attack on her little sister recently was taking 
things just a little too far though.  If Ranma hadn't been around to 
help, who knew what might have resulted.  So she wanted to find this 
person, and his continuing ability to evade her substantial information 
network, even with the aid of people such as Gosunkugi, Mano, and her 
own little sister helping her, was getting on her nerves.  For all she 
knew now, it could have been someone like Ranma pulling the strings from 
the shadows.

Wait a moment, she thought, rather surprised at the direction that her 
thoughts were suddenly taking.  My new rival didn't begin making waves 
until shortly after Saotome's arrival.  And he had even been rather 
convenient in the time of his appearance to save Akane yesterday, and he 
was not touched even once.  There is also the matter of his 'new' level 
of fighting ability.  Could he be the mystery genius behind the attacks 
on my organization?  She shook her head, but the nagging thought that 
Ranma was hiding something from her would not go away.

"Do you require me for anything more, Tendo-san?" Gosunkugi quietly 
asked, his hand fiddling slightly with the gloss black Institute pin on 
his uniform collar.  She waved him away, and the spooky little teen 
faded back into the shadows and vanished.

Just what are you hiding, Ranma-kun?  Nabiki looked up at the cloudy 
sky.  I intend to find out.

                   ******************************

Ranma went through his stretching exercises, striving hard to improve 
his limberness.  He was grateful that he had trained so many years in 
gymnastics, which gave his muscles and tendons conditioning for the 
range of motions that he needed to be able to do if he wished to call 
himself a martial artist of an equivalent caliber to his quantum 
counterpart.  Even so, he needed to be better.  His limberness was 
coming along though, and at a surprisingly rapid pace which astounded 
him even more than it did his coach.

His newfound physicality was a source of great pride, adding even more 
to what was an already impressive ego from his various intellectual 
accomplishments.  He was truly becoming the Imperial ideal for its 
citizens.  He anticipated the day when he considered himself a physical 
match for his quantum counterpart.

That day did not seem to be as far away from him as he once would have 
thought.  His muscle strength and his body's conditioning were very 
steadily improving, and at a roughly similar pace to his agility and 
limberness.  The annoying thing to him was that using his analog's 
combat skills in his own body still made him feel like a rusty martial 
artist, and he suspected that it would for some time yet to come.  He 
knew there was so much more that he was capable of, but he possessed no 
doubts that he would achieve greatness someday.

Once he finished his stretching exercises, he hopped up onto his feet 
and took off for the running track at a sprinting pace.  When he got 
there, Fuyutsuki was standing there, and Takami was not around.  The 
older man was smiling at him as Ranma came running up.

"Hello, Ranma," greeted the older man.  "Takami-sensei invited me here 
to see how you were progressing.  You don't mind if I watch a little of 
your training today, do you?"

"Huh?" said the pigtailed boy, surprised.  "No, that's all right, sir."

"SAOTOME!" screamed Takami, spotting him over near the bleachers but not 
seeing Fuyutsuki.  "HURRY IT UP!  I WANT TO SEE YOU DONE WITH TEN KLICKS 
A.S.A.P.!  YOU WERE THE ONE WHO WANTED THIS TO BE HARDER!"

When he got closer, the coach noticed the older man standing there and 
bowed, before speaking in a much quieter voice.  "I didn't see you 
there, sir."

"Quite all right, Takami-sensei," said Fuyutsuki, returning the bow and 
then waving his hand to one side.  "Pretend that I'm not even here."

"Yes, sir."  He noticed Ranma still standing there and scowled.  "ARE 
YOU WAITING FOR A BUS, CADET?!  GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR!  MOVE IT!!"

The pigtailed boy snapped into sudden motion and went tearing off down 
the track at full speed.

"He certainly seems more physically fit than when he first arrived, 
Coach," observed Fuyutsuki as he watched Ranma with a dispassionate 
expression, like the pigtailed scholar was a lab animal in an experiment 
of his.  "You've done an impressive job with the boy."

"Well, I can't take all the credit, sir," said Takami.  "Saotome's 
managed to surpass all of my expectations.  I've never seen such a high 
ability to adapt and improve to such a rigorous level of training 
before, nor such a natural talent at physical performance as he has, 
other than perhaps the two Tendo girls.  The boy's simply a marvel to 
train."

"Indeed.  But this morning you mentioned a new approach that you wanted 
to try in his training regimen?"

"Yes, sir."  Takami removed his cap and scratched at the back of his 
skull.  "Especially after what I saw him achieve during the regular 
class today."

"Oh?" asked Fuyutsuki in an interested tone.  "What happened today?"

"He managed to match the record for a first-year cadet doing a five 
kilometer run.  But I don't think that he would have been able to do it 
without the challenge from the younger Tendo girl.  She managed to goad 
him into a faster pace.  I think if I could make some adjustments to 
their training schedules, then I could use this rivalry to make them 
even better."

"What do you propose, Takami-sensei?"  Fuyutsuki watched Ranma running 
around the track.

"Currently, the boy's schedule is to have his regular physical training 
class, then a free period, then this extra training?"

Fuyutsuki nodded.

"And Akane Tendo has her Imperial History class at the same time as 
Saotome's free period?"  Seeing another nod, he grunted.  "I want to 
change his schedule and hers then.  I want her to train with the boy 
during a three hour special class to be overseen by myself and Coach 
Fujinami, to take place after they finish their scholastic studies."

"An interesting notion," said Fuyutsuki, nodding approvingly.  "You want 
to intensify their martial arts training then?"  Fujinami was the most 
capable martial arts instructor on campus, with a Seventh Dan rating in 
Shorinji Kempo and an Eighth in Shotokan Karate.

"I suspect that of the two of them, Ranma truly has the potential to be 
a grandmaster inside of him, and I think I can turn their rivalry to 
good use for that.  The boy's expressed an interest in improving his 
fighting skills, and I want to give him a chance to do just that.  You 
watched the tape of him and the Tendo girl?"

"Yes," acknowledged Fuyutsuki.  "The camera angle was a little off, but 
from what I could see I was quite impressed with his skills.  I had 
always thought that Akane Tendo was impressive, but Ranma shows clear 
signs of eventually outdoing her completely."

"He was beating the Tendo girl in that match," said Takami with a 
bewildered look.  "And I don't know how his skills improved so much so 
quickly, for the life of me.  Only one day earlier she was mopping the 
training mat with his face, and now this?  It was totally uncanny, like 
I was watching a different person fighting entirely.  He was using moves 
that I've never seen before, and I've seen a lot."

"Nor have I," said Fuyutsuki with a ghost of a smile on his face.  "It's 
a pretty puzzle though, isn't it?"

"You could say that.  Myself, I just find it to be damn spooky, but I 
find myself liking the boy.  He's earnestly trying to improve himself, 
and ever since yesterday it's been like something lit a fire underneath 
him.  Perhaps all of the beatings that he suffered at the Tendo girl's 
hands before yesterday forced some sort of breakthrough in him.  He's a 
pretty proud kid."

"What of the older Tendo girl?" asked Fuyutsuki.  "Do you see much 
potential in her?"

"Nabiki?" said Takami slowly, as if tasting the name in his thoughts.  
He nodded a moment later.  "Yes, that might be a good idea as well.  She 
has arguably more potential than her sister, I think, but she doesn't 
try nearly as hard as she could.  I can't seem to find a way to motivate 
her to reach for excellence, but I think she could outdo her sister if 
she only found reason to try."

"I agree."  Fuyutsuki had been a little disappointed with the other 
Tendo girl's slower development.  There was also the added benefit of 
seeing the three youths interacting in close proximity for such a great 
length of time, he mused with an inner smile.  Under such stressful 
conditions as training at that intensive a level, the boy should develop 
a bond with one or the other of the Tendo girls.  Then it would be time 
to discuss Ranma's future with Genma.  He should be mated with one or 
more of the girls from the Project.  He and the others in charge of it 
had such plans for the next generation.

"So I have your permission to change each of their study schedules, 
starting tomorrow?  I think this will be just what both Tendo girls 
need.  For example, I think I can force a breakthrough on Nabiki if I 
force her to train alongside the boy.  She does have a competitive 
streak, just a quieter one than Akane's.  But if I set her against 
Saotome, then maybe I can push her further along the same path that he's 
following."

"You have my permission, Takami-sensei."  Fuyutsuki smiled.  "By the 
way, you never mentioned your opinion of Akane."

"She's a different story," replied Takami, nodding thoughtfully. "She 
was actually stagnating in her training before the boy's match with her. 
However, his new abilities have also sparked a new fire in her.  She's 
apparently determined to match him every step of the way as he improves.  
Strange as it may sound, I think she's smitten with the boy.  I never 
noticed it before, since she always treated him with such tremendous 
contempt, at least up until after their match yesterday."

Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome, a couple? wondered Fuyutsuki.  This is 
quite interesting news.  I wonder if she has had a chance to meet the 
Kuno girl yet?  I would almost suspect the gentle hand of fate in action 
to bring her here, especially as she was seeking to meet the boy.  Most 
curious indeed.

"I will be most interested in seeing the results of this change, Takami-
sensei," he said calmly, a fatherly smile on his face now as he watched 
Ranma running.  I have such plans for you, Saotome-san.  A glorious new 
day is dawning for the Empire, heralded by you and the other children 
like you.  What wonders will you and the others bring forth?  It is 
still hard for me to believe that the day fast approaches.

                   ******************************

During the walk home, Nabiki was silent as she contemplated the mystery 
of Ranma.  One day he's a nothing, and the next he turns into a martial 
arts wonder.  There's something that I'm missing here, but what?

Akane, walking along beside her, wore a wistful smile on her face as she 
thought about the pigtailed boy.  It was only dimmed slightly as she 
tried to figure out why, now that he had finally revealed his true 
strength to her, did a rival for him appear out of nowhere?  That damn 
Kuno bitch, she thought darkly.  How dare she show up and try to steal 
him away from me!

Memories of the aristocrat girl set her teeth on edge, and she found 
herself looking forward to the fight tomorrow.  She probably won't even 
show up, knowing I intend to rearrange her delicate features, she 
thought confidently.  A pampered, inbred noblewoman like that won't be 
much of a challenge for me, but once I send her back to her worthless 
peers then I can devote all of my attentions to Ranma.

Nabiki heard Akane sigh once more, and she could tell by the wistful 
smile on her sister's face that it was over the pigtailed boy.  Ranma, 
Ranma, Ranma, what is it about you that's changed?  And what is it that 
you're hiding down in that laboratory of yours?  She suddenly paused, 
and the younger Tendo walked on ahead for a few paces before turning to 
look back.

Ranma's lab, thought the older Tendo.  The answers were probably there.

"What's wrong, Nabiki?"  Akane studied her sister.

"I just remembered something that I forgot to take care of back at the 
Academy."  Her thoughts were far from her younger sister right now.

"Do you want me to come with you?" asked Akane, recalling the recent 
attack on herself, and being concerned for her older sister.

"No, I'll be fine."  Nabiki smiled confidently.  "I don't think it will 
take very long.  You go on ahead.  I'll be home in a little while."

"Okay, Sis," said the younger Tendo, waving goodbye as she turned around 
and continued on her way.  "I'll see you at dinner."

Nabiki turned around, her thoughts already on the task ahead of her.  
She absently patted the pocket that contained her mini-camera and set of 
lockpicks.  I'm probably imagining things about Ranma-kun, she thought 
with a cool smile.  But I am curious about what he's been doing down 
there for all these weeks.

An ominous rumble of thunder rolled across the skies as she hurried back 
to the Academy buildings.  She paid it no mind, quite used to the odd 
weather patterns that Nerima always seemed to have.

                   ******************************

Ranma paused between sets of sit-ups and allowed his body to hang from 
the boots that held his feet vertically in midair.  Sweat dripped off of 
his face and fell to the wooden floor a foot beneath his forehead.  He 
turned his head to see a bright flash of lightning race across the sky 
outside.

"What's the holdup, Saotome?" asked Takami, coming over nearer to him 
with his usual clipboard in hand.  "You still have another fifty sit-ups 
to do before you're done."  He loudly whacked Ranma across his stomach 
muscles with the clipboard.  "No slacking off.  You wanted hell, and I'm 
going to give it to you!"

"Yes, sir!" shouted the pigtailed boy, as he started into another set of 
sit-ups, his stomach muscles objecting to the activity.  He focused his 
attention on his efforts, ignoring everything else.

                   ******************************

Soun sat in his office in the heart of the Security Directorate, and he 
was only able to keep a smile off of his face by sheer discipline, now 
that his plans were close to fruition.  He studied the middle-aged woman 
seated in his office with a critical eye.  To put his plans into motion, 
for dealing with the matter of the Saotome boy, was going to require 
meticulous care to make everything seem like a perfectly natural set of 
occurrences.  Luckily, the main plan itself was relatively simple.

He had spent a great deal of time in researching all of the finest 
matchmaking agencies in the Empire as the first part of his plan.  A 
fortunate discovery for him during this research was coming across Otsu 
Mitsuma, a pleasant-looking, middle-aged lady who was a former operative 
for the Directorate many years ago, before she decided to get married 
and have a family.  She currently worked part-time at one of the best 
agencies as a matchmaking advisor, perfect for his needs.  She was 
amenable to the assignment, even confessing to Soun that she missed the 
thrill of field work.

The bug that one of his operatives had managed to place within the 
Saotome home a week before Ranma's return back to Japan gave him all of 
the information that he needed on dealing with the decision maker in the 
family, Nodoka Saotome.  She was apparently the real strength in the 
household, and she was the one who would make the final decision on the 
girl that Ranma was going to marry.

Soun smiled in his thoughts at learning of Genma's meek acquiescence to 
his wife's decision to pursue a search for a bride for Ranma.  He had 
certainly never been that subservient with his own wife, Kimiko, when 
she was still alive, even though she had been a combat veteran of many 
savage campaigns during her time with the Imperial Special Forces.

He still remembered the day that he had first met her, the woman who was 
to become his wife.  He, a young agent newly assigned to the Directorate 
with a promising future ahead of him, had been wearing his best dress 
uniform and feeling more than a little bit worried upon meeting the 
young woman that had been chosen by his parents to be his new bride.  He 
had been sitting in the front room of his parents home when his blushing 
fiancée and her family had arrived.

His parents had escorted the Nakakamis into the front room, a smiling 
older couple, and a frowning girl his own age with short hair who was 
wearing a military dress uniform, a patch from the Imperial Special 
Forces proudly displayed on one shoulder beneath her rank insignia.  She 
had been a junior grade lieutenant then, and she had not been quite the 
blushing innocent that Soun had been hoping for.  Even now, he could 
still remember that first look she gave him.

He had thought that she was going to kill him right then and there from 
the glare she gave him when their eyes first met, as if she blamed him 
for the whole situation.  After such a terrifying look, Soun remembered 
finding himself regretting that he was unarmed.  He had known that she 
came from a proud warrior family, but he hadn't expected to feel afraid 
of the woman who was going to be his wife.

Both sets of parents had chosen to withdraw at that time, to let the new 
couple get to know each other.  She had stared at the floor.  He had 
quickly found his own spot to stare at and joined her in the activity.  
It was a moment heavy with tension.

Soun wasn't ashamed to admit, in the privacy of his own memories, that 
he had sat there petrified in fright from the glares that the girl had 
been giving him.  She remained sitting there with her hands clenched in 
her lap, her knees together, only looking at him occasionally.  She did 
have a faint coloring on her cheeks, but it was offset by the almost 
murderous gaze in her eyes.

He still had yet to meet a woman who was as beautiful and deadly as 
Kimiko.  She was also the only woman he had ever loved.  The terror he 
felt at their first meeting only added to the spice that was their 
passion. 

"So, we are going to be married," she had said softly as an opening 
salvo in their first conversation, a rough edge to her voice.

"Yes."  Soun was feeling more uncomfortable by the minute.  He had 
turned to look at her once more, only a brief glance, and had seen her 
studying him.  "What?"

"You don't have to keep looking at me like I'm going to bite you or 
something," she had said in irritation.  "I'll have you know that I'm a 
very nice girl underneath this uniform."

He didn't really remember what he had said in response, but the next 
thing he had known was the feel of her hands on his jacket as she had 
bodily picked him up and shoved him up against the wall.  She had then 
gazed into his eyes with fury burning in hers.

"Look, buddy!" she had growled at him.  "Either you treat me with proper 
respect, or I'll rip both of your arms off and beat you to death with 
them!  If I say that I'm a nice girl, then you damn well better believe 
it!  I may be a soldier, but I'm also a woman.  You're going to be my 
husband, so you're going to have to deal with those two things.  Are we 
clear?"

"Quite clear, Nakakami-san.  You can put me back down on the ground now.  
Please?"

She had laughed at that as she had put him back down, but, instead of 
feeling irritated, that smile and laugh had captured his heart.  He had 
even complimented her on that when his feet touched back down to the 
ground.

It had been a beginning for them.

Soun's memories flashed forward over the events that soon after followed 
in their lives together: their courtship, a surprisingly long and drawn 
out one filled with many more complications than he cared to remember; 
their eventual marriage a year later, and how nervous he had been; the 
birth of their eldest daughter, Kasumi; the births of the other two 
daughters that she had given to him; the happy years that had followed 
as the former warrior explored being a mother as well; and finally, the 
emptiness left behind when her vibrancy was taken from him forever.  He 
had thrown himself into his work to deal with the pain, seeing her face 
in all three girls.  He had loved his daughters as best that he could, 
but it was so very easy to use his duty to hide from the pain.

During Kimiko's all-too-brief time spent as their mother, all of their 
daughters had benefited from her passing on her combat skills, and while 
Kasumi was the best among them, only Akane had really inherited his 
wife's warrior spirit.  Her death had left a hole in the household, but 
he was able to see her every time that he looked at Akane.  She was 
looking more and more like her all the time.

However, His youngest child was not the girl that he hoped to match with 
the Saotome boy.  Oh no, that honor was reserved for Nabiki.  Akane, as 
much as Soun loved her as a daughter, was not Nabiki's equal in his 
heart.  The middle Tendo daughter reminded him most of himself at that 
age, ambitious, clever and full of promise.  Her skills at gathering 
information and organizing people were truly impressive, and she 
deserved to be rewarded with the finest match that he could find.  So he 
had chosen the best for her in a husband, someone who could keep up with 
her quick wit, and that someone was Ranma Saotome.  And it was what 
Kimiko had wanted.

Akane, on the other hand, needed a husband who was better suited to her 
personality, another inheritance from Kimiko, and who was even stronger 
in combat than she was, and Ranma was more scholar than warrior.  She 
would eat a boy like him alive, since he would be unable to stand 
against her strength.  Although she tried hard to please him, the girl 
was totally ill-suited in temperament to becoming a member of the 
Directorate, and he feared that she would only embarrass the family 
reputation for excellence if she continued in her attempts.  The 
qualities that would have enabled her to be a fine soldier of the Empire 
would only hinder her effectiveness as a future security operative.  It 
required a subtler touch than she was capable of.

Soon, however, Nabiki would be engaged to the man that he and Kimiko had 
chosen for her, and then he would be able to turn all of his attentions 
to Akane's future next.  There were several choices for his youngest 
daughter that he was going to explore once the matter of Nabiki and 
Ranma was finally settled.  He had also even sounded out some of his 
contacts among the Defense Directorate at obtaining a place for Akane in 
the military.  The Tendos and Nakakamis had honorably served under both 
ministries over the years, his own family admittedly favoring the 
Security Directorate, so he was not anticipating any difficulties in 
getting Akane transferred.  He was certain that his youngest daughter 
would earn numerous honors fighting for the glory of the Empire on the 
field of battle someday.

"Director Tendo?" intruded a gentle voice into his thoughts.  He looked 
up and cursed himself for allowing himself to drift off into a state of 
inattention like that.  It did not befit the image that he had of 
himself.  He folded his hands in front of him on his desk.

"My apologies, Mitsuma-san," he said sincerely.  "I have been listening 
to your report with great interest.  I was simply recalling something I 
need to deal with.  I trust that you understand the extreme level of 
importance for this assignment to the future of the Empire?"

"I don't quite see how arranging a marriage could be that important, but 
I will do all in my power to arrange for your daughter Nabiki to be 
engaged to Ranma Saotome," Otsu said pleasantly.  "You are paying me 
enough to do so, after all.  I have reviewed his file extensively, and I 
believe that I can sell Nabiki quite easily to Saotome-san."

"It's very important that my name never be mentioned in this transaction 
as anything but the father of the bride-to-be," he cautioned.  "It is 
also quite vital that you not appear to be too eager about Nabiki, just 
enough that suspicions will not be raised.  Do you have the throwaway 
candidates' files that I selected for you?"

"Oh my, yes," chuckled Otsu.  She pulled out a couple of manila file 
folders and set them on his desk.  She picked one back up and waved it 
around.  "Wherever did you find this girl?  According to her file, she's 
been rejected in over two dozen different bridal candidate selections 
for all sorts of reasons in the last year alone, including beating up 
several of the potential grooms.  Admittedly, her family background 
criteria will fit the profile that you gave me, but the girl herself, 
no.  According to the boy's personality profile and hers, they'll be 
like oil and water, totally incompatible."

She pointed at a section of one of the pages and said, "Take this for 
example.  Does she really dress up as a boy?"

"Amusingly enough, yes," said Soun with a chuckle.  "I understand that 
the Kuonjis are getting quite desperate to wed their only daughter off.  
She has apparently rejected all of the local boys, a few of them rather 
violently.  I have it on very good authority that the Kuonjis are the 
finest of the remaining true ninja clans left in the Empire, and Ukyo is 
supposed to be next in line to inherit its leadership.  That is, 
provided that she can find a husband."

"Ah, I see.  But why the dressing as a boy part?  That I don't quite 
understand."

"Blame her senile great-grandfather for that one," said Soun with 
another chuckle.  "While the parents managed the day to day affairs of 
the Kuonji's interests and taking care of the family shrine in the Koga 
mountain area, she was being raised and trained as a ninja by her the 
man back up in the mountains, learning ninja lore.  Unfortunately for 
Ukyo, for some strange reason, the old fool apparently became convinced 
early on that she was a boy, and he raised her as one for years.  Her 
parents didn't learn this until a little less than a year ago, but the 
damage was done.  I'm told that her mother about had a heart attack at 
meeting her 'son' at that time."

"Does Ukyo know that she's female?"  Otsu's brown eyes had widened a 
little at the tragic tale.

"Oh, she does," he admitted.  "However, according to her psychological 
profile, the problem is that she simply isn't aware of the proper ways 
to act as a girl, so she tends to be rather mannish in her attitudes.  
But she also wishes to be a real girl, so there's quite a bit of 
fascinating gender confusion going on.  The girl is quite an interesting 
psychological study, as well as being a formidable martial artist by all 
accounts."

"Oh my."  Otsu smiled.  "Her first meeting with Ranma will be rather 
interesting."

"To say the least," said Soun, handing the file back to Otsu.  "That's 
why she's one of the throwaway candidates.  Her family background is an 
excellent match, but I very much doubt that Nodoka Saotome would look 
with very much favor on having someone like Ukyo for a daughter-in-law.  
Despite her samurai family background and warrior training in her youth, 
a traditional woman like Nodoka would surely find Ukyo, well, flawed.  
The girl is totally unsuitable, but her flaws will make Nabiki shine by 
comparison."

"And the other one?"  Otsu picked up the other file folder.

"Ah, the other side of the equation.  I picked this name myself from a 
stack that one of the bridal services gave one of my contacts.  The girl 
is perfectly unsuitable for entirely different reasons than the first."

"Kodachi Kuno?" asked Otsu, her eyes widening a little.  "How could you 
possibly expect me to suggest such a match?  The girl is a daughter of 
high birth.  Her family registry is filled with blue-blooded nobility.  
Ranma Saotome, while he does descend from samurai stock, would never be 
acceptable to the Kunos' patriarch unless he was a great warrior of some 
sort as well."

"And if he was that, he would have no interest in a timid mouse like 
Kodachi Kuno," said Soun in a scornful tone of voice.  "According to her 
file, the girl is typical of an overbred daughter of nobility and has 
done everything that she was ever told to do.  She had an opportunity to 
attend the Imperial Academy extended to her, but she instead chose to 
attend Blackhall, at her mother's insistence."

"She is quite lovely," said Otsu, doubt in her voice.  "The boy might be 
taken by her looks."

"My daughter Nabiki can easily outshine a spoiled aristocrat girl like 
Kodachi Kuno.  She was chosen to show the opposite end of the scale from 
Ukyo, a girl without much spirit despite having an impressive family 
background.  Between the two of them, Nabiki will shine forth like a 
star in the heavens.  After all, my dear daughter comes from a good 
family with excellent connections for a boy like Ranma.  Play your part 
and nothing can possibly go wrong with the arrangements."

"You have my word, Tendo-san, that I will follow your instructions to 
the letter," said Otsu with a smile.  "Your daughter Nabiki will be 
pledged to Ranma Saotome as you desire.  Nothing will stand in the way 
of that."

"Excellent, dear woman," said Soun with a smile.  "I am counting on 
you."

                   ******************************

"What sort of game are you playing at, Tendo?" wondered Hinako in the 
privacy of her office.  She had heard that Soun was speaking with a 
former Directorate operative in his office, a woman who worked in one of 
the matchmaking bureaus.

The intercom on her desk suddenly buzzed.  "Director Ninomiya?" asked a 
voice over it, her new assistant, a young woman named Yui Ikari.

"Yes, Yui?" Hinako replied.  "What is it?"

"I have the files you were asking for from the Ministry of Science," 
said Yui over the intercom.  "Oh, and I have also heard that Director 
Tendo is finished with his meeting with the Mitsuma woman."

"Excellent.  Bring in those reports, and then you can go home, Yui.  
You've done enough for one day."

"Yes, Ma'am.  I'm on my way."

Outside, at her desk, Yui gathered up the files on her desk that Hinako 
wanted.  So late in the day, there were few people around.  She was 
looking forward to a quiet evening at home with her pet cat, perhaps 
relaxing in the bath with a romance novel.

She walked the short distance from her desk to Hinako's office door and 
gently knocked before opening it.  I swear, Ninomiya-san needs to get a 
boyfriend, she muttered in her thoughts.  Not that my life is any great 
shakes socially, but all this obsessing that she does over Tendo-san and 
his activities can't be good for her.

Hinako looked up from her obsessively tidy desk, in the middle of making 
notes on a pad of paper.  "You can set those there, Yui," she said, 
pointing at a spot near her right elbow on the desk.  She then went back 
to making cryptic notes on the paper she was writing upon.

"Yes, Ma'am."  Yui set the stack of folders on the desk at the appointed 
place.  "Are you sure that you won't be needing me for anything more 
this evening?"

"Positive," said Hinako, looking up with a smile.  "Go on home and have 
a good evening, Yui.  You've done enough, and tomorrow is another day."

"Thank you, Ma'am.  Goodnight."  She turned to go.

"Oh, by the way, how is everything going with your new boyfriend?" asked 
Hinako, looking at the other woman with a smile.  "I noticed that you 
had a new picture on your desk.  Things didn't work out between you and 
Captain Rokubungi?"

"Oh, we had a parting of the ways some time ago," said the girl with a 
brave attempt at a smile.  May you rot in the lowest and hottest corner 
of hell, Gendo, for cheating on me! she thought behind the fake smile.  
"He told me he was accepting a new assignment in one of the northern 
Chinese prefectures, and that was the last that I've heard from him."

"He was a little old for you, I suppose.  So who is your new one?"

"Keiichi?"  A more genuine smile was on her face now.  "Oh, he's just a 
good friend right now, but who knows what the future holds?  He's one of 
the design engineers at Mishima, making better vehicles for the Empire 
and all that.  He and I met while I was out with Miyuki and Natsumi 
after work several weeks ago.  He's really very sweet, and I like him."

"He obviously makes you happy," noted Hinako, smiling gently at the 
younger woman.  "Take it from a woman who knows, Yui.  If you find a man 
who makes you happy, then grab on with both hands and don't let anyone 
take him from you."

"Yes, Ma'am, but he's just a friend."  She suddenly looked at the floor, 
and a faint blush crossed her cheeks.

"I see," said Hinako, in an amused tone of voice.  "Well, you give my 
best to your 'friend' when you see him next, Yui.  Now go on.  Get out 
of this place for the night."  She pointed at the door with one finger.  
"I'll see you in the morning."

"Yes, Ma'am."  Yui left, closing the door behind her.

Hinako set the pad on the desk and gently rubbed her eyes.  Hopefully, 
these files will explain what interest that Soun could have in Ranma.  
They were certainly buried deeply enough in the Science Ministry's 
archives.

She pulled one of the files to her, and read what was written on the 
cover.  Ranma Saotome, Project Phoenix, file number one-zero-eight.  
What in the sacred name of the Emperor is Project Phoenix?  She flipped 
the file open, revealing a small sheaf of papers and a single, silvery 
compact disk in a plastic sleeve.  She pulled it out and turned it over 
in her hands.  There was nothing written on it, save for the same file 
number as was on the folder.

Setting it aside, she scanned through the papers.  Much of what was in 
them appeared to be concerned with a physical given to one subject, 
named Ranma Saotome, age five, over a decade ago.  Hmm.  A fairly 
complete set of tests done, both physical and mental, including a full 
genetic analysis.  No abnormalities or defects determined.  Somewhat 
above-average both physiologically and neurologically, a basically 
normal and healthy boy.  Deemed suitable for induction into Project 
Phoenix, whatever that is.  So why all the interest in the boy on Soun's 
part?

The silvery compact disk caught her eye, and she slipped it out of the 
plastic sleeve.  Holding it up in her hands, its mirrored surface dimly 
reflected the light from the lamp on her desk.  Perhaps the answers are 
in here, she thought as she slipped the disk into the proper slot in the 
front of her Navi.  She waited, somewhat impatiently, as the system read 
the information on the disk.

A moment later, a terse message appeared on her Navi's screen, and she 
looked at it, rather unsurprised.

*ENCRYPTION PROTOCOLS ACTIVE.  INPUT PASSWORD:

Bastards, she thought, without much anger.  It was about what she would 
have expected at this point.  She tried a few times with some sample 
passwords that she thought might work, but they came back with negative 
responses.  Ah well, I have some of the best decryption software that 
the Security Directorate has available.  I should have no difficulties 
cracking this.

Hinako tapped away at a few keys, connecting her personal system to one 
of the Shinohara-manufactured mainframes in the basement.  She left the 
disk in the drive and let the software start up.  After a few moments, 
it came back with an analysis of the encryption.

*FILES SEALED BY IMPERIAL EDICT.  FURTHER USE OF DIRECTORATE DECRYPTION
*ALGORITHMS IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN WITHOUT ROYAL AUTHORIZATION – INPUT
*AUTHORIZATION CODE:

Sitting back in her chair, she stared at the lines printed on her 
monitor in puzzlement.  What was it about Project Phoenix that could be 
of such sensitivity, or so secret, that it required an Imperial Edict 
Seal to protect it from Security Directorate investigation?  She pulled 
out a small 5-yen coin from one pocket and began absently playing with 
it, rolling it back and forth between her fingers.  It was a nervous 
gesture of hers that she had had for years.

There's more to this than meets the eye, she decided after several long 
moments.  She stood up and watched the rain falling outside her window 
against the darkening sky.  The coin in her hands rested between her 
index and middle fingers, and she brought her palm up to focus on the 
small hole in the center of the coin.  She flipped it into the air and 
snatched it back up with the same hand.  I was just curious before, but 
now I'm even more determined than ever to know the answers.  What secret 
do you hold, Saotome-san?

                   ******************************

Nabiki managed to make it into the main Academy building before the rain 
really began coming down.  She shook off her umbrella and set it in the 
rack by the main door.  The evening cleaning staff could be heard 
working in the building, and the sounds of electric cleaning equipment 
were humming in the distance.  She smiled when she saw that no one 
appeared to notice her arrival.

Off to her right was the entrance to the stairs, and she quietly opened 
the door and closed it behind her.  The lights were on in the hallway, 
for which she was grateful.  She had a flashlight on her, but she 
preferred to save its batteries for when she might need them.  No sounds 
came up from below, so it looked like she would not have to worry about 
anyone disturbing her little bit of burglary.

Ranma's laboratory door was locked, and she eyed it with an unhappy 
look.  Lockpicking was not one of her better skills, but she had to give 
it a try to get through the door.  She pulled out the small zippered 
case that her father had given her for a birthday present.  She eyed the 
lock again and pulled out a couple of items.

"Seems like a standard Academy door lock," she murmured softly to 
herself.  She knelt down next to the door and inserted a pick and probe 
gently into the lock.  She tapped a button on the side of her watch 
until the digital readout changed to stopwatch mode.  Nabiki took a deep 
breath and let it out.

She tapped a button, setting the chronometer into motion, and it began 
counting off fractions of a second.  She quickly began fiddling with the 
lockpick, her tongue wedged between her lips on the left side of her 
mouth.  Come on, Nabiki, you can do this.

Down at the other end of the corridor, she heard a few of the cleaning 
staff descending down the stairs.

Work the lock, she thought, slightly frantic.  Don't think about getting 
caught.  Just work the lock.

The final tumbler clicked into place, and she turned the probe with a 
grateful sigh, hearing the deadbolt slide open.  She pulled out her pick 
and probe with a smile, absently tapping her finger to stop the counting 
of the stopwatch.  She opened the door quietly and quickly slipped 
inside Ranma's lab a moment later.

She closed the door behind her with a confident grin and set her bookbag 
down on the floor to one side of the door.  She very gently slid the 
deadbolt shut, mere moments before she heard a hand test the door.  The 
lock rattling sounded very loud in the quiet of the room.  A moment 
later she heard the footsteps passing on.

After letting out a sigh of relief, she flipped on her flashlight and 
let the beam move about the room.  There's something fun about doing 
this sort of thing, she thought with a smile.  She pointed the narrow 
flashlight beam at her watch.  Not bad, fifty-two seconds.  Daddy raised 
me up to be a proper investigator, not to mention a pretty good thief.

She found the light switch and turned on the power, flipping her small 
flashlight off as the fluorescent bulbs flickered into life.  She eyed 
the contents of Ranma's lab dispassionately for a moment as she let her 
gaze sweep around the room.  Her eyes settled on the cloth-covered table 
on one side of the room next to a rather ugly-looking couch.  What have 
you been working on down here, Ranma-kun?

Flipping off the cloth covering the table and its contents, she beheld a 
modest collection of equipment sitting there neatly.  A small computer 
monitor sat next to a power bar and a keyboard, both of them connected 
to a gray case.  A thick wire ran to a headset of some sort, with 
several prongs on it running down to several small, flat, black metal 
plates.  It all looked rather anti-climactic.  She had been expecting to 
see something much more impressive.

Curious, she flipped on the main power bar and let the equipment warm 
up.  The screen immediately began printing out an intriguing series of 
self-test messages.

*SELF-CHECK COMPLETE

*ALL LOGIC COMPONENTS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN DESIGNATED PARAMETERS

*QUANTUM FLUX COIL IS FUNCTIONING WITHIN DESIGNATED PARAMETERS

*NEURAL INDUCTION SENSORS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN DESIGNATED PARAMETERS

*SYSTEM HAS 5 QUANTUM COORDINATES STORED IN STABLE MEMORY

*TIME DURATION OF RECENT TEST RUN:  30.00 MINUTES

*SCAN FOR NEW COORDINATES:

The cursor paused at this point as it awaited some form of input.  A 
sense of amazement and wonder filled her at that moment.

Quantum flux coil? Nabiki thought as she looked over the case in the 
middle.  She turned the headset over in her hands, suspecting that it 
was most likely the 'neural induction sensors' that the one system 
message referred to.  Quantum coordinates?  What could Ranma-kun be 
playing with down here?  Her curiosity was piqued from all of the 
mysterious-purposed hardware and arcane phrases.

"Let's see what happens if I type 'yes' there," she muttered with a 
smile.  She typed the word in and hit the return key.

*SELECT QUANTUM REGION FOR SCAN:  RANDOM

The word 'RANDOM' was blinking, so she just hit return, not knowing what 
else to do.

*SET CYCLE INTO ACTIVE MODE:  YES

Again, the input word was blinking, so Nabiki tapped the return key once 
again.

*SET TIME DURATION FOR TEST:

She carefully typed in '30.00 MINUTES' and tapped the return key once 
more, taking her cue from the report of the length of the most recent 
test run.

*WAITING FOR SIGNAL FROM NEURAL INTERLINK HEADSET

That was it, no further input requests.  Well, what do I do now to get 
this thing to show me what it does?  She eyed the headset resting in her 
lap and the couch behind her.  I guess Ranma-kun wears this and lays 
down on the couch.

Nabiki, carrying the headset in one hand, sat down on the edge of the 
couch so that she could see the screen.  She put the headset on her 
skull and waited to see what happened.  I feel silly doing this, she 
thought with a sardonic grin.  There was a vaguely pleasant hum that 
felt as if it was within her brain, and she started to remove the 
headset when she noticed that a computer generated voice was speaking.  
On the screen a pair of sine waves suddenly appeared and slowly began 
moving into convergence.

The computer spoke in gentle tones, its artificial voice repeating over 
and over for several seconds the same word, "Searching.  Searching.  
Searching."

Suddenly, it said, "Quantum signature match found.  Initiating upload 
cycle."

Nabiki felt a moment of nothingness, and her body suddenly flopped back 
as if she'd been poleaxed and sprawled partway across the couch, her 
eyes closed as if in sleep.  One arm fell off the edge of the couch and 
rested on the cool concrete floor.

The timer began counting down.

                   ******************************

*** Earth  +4.614,+4.496

There was a brief and mildly disturbing moment of dislocation, a sort of 
non-existence of self, and then Nabiki suddenly found herself in another 
place, one she did not immediately recognize.  It was early evening, but 
the skies were clear, instead of raining as she distinctly remembered it 
doing outside only a few minutes before.  She was outside, somewhere in 
Tokyo it looked like.  However, she had no idea what had just happened 
to her, and the skyline looked different.

I-what?  Where am I?  She looked around in confusion, and her brain felt 
slightly fuzzy, almost like it was wrapped in soft cotton.  The feeling 
faded quickly, allowing her thoughts to clear.  Okay, Nabiki, calm down 
and take stock.

She stood where she was and blinked her eyes as she adjusted to her new 
surroundings.  Mere moments after her return to awareness, and possibly 
even more surprising and disturbing to her, a confusing stream of mental 
images suddenly seemed to fill her mind over the course of a single 
moment.  It was a kaleidoscopic torrent of memories, an entire lifetime 
of experiences shoved into her awareness all at once.  The unutterable 
rush of the occurrence totally overwhelmed her for that moment.  It took 
her a few moments afterwards to realize that someone was speaking to 
her.

"Nabiki?" asked a familiar, male voice, concerned.  "Are you okay?"

Looking over to her right, she was startled to see a very familiar-
looking young man standing next to her, dressed in an outfit of Chinese-
style clothes.  She recognized his face instantly and then couldn't help 
staring for a moment.  It was Ranma, yet it somehow also wasn't.  Seeing 
something that was so very familiar to her, and yet knowing with an 
absolute certainty that it wasn't in the very same breath, was a bit 
disturbing to her.  However, it was not nearly as surprising as the 
thought that suddenly popped into her head when she looked at him.

Ranma-kun is my fiancé, Nabiki instantly realized, then wondered why 
that thought would come to her like that.  He was looking at her with a 
worried expression on his face, and she felt a strange warmth from deep 
inside her at seeing his obvious concern.  She smiled back at him 
pleasantly, and it felt right to do.

"I'm fine, Ranma-kun," she said calmly.  "I guess I was just lost in 
thought."  He nodded, apparently accepting her explanation at face 
value.  Her years of practice at hiding her feelings kept her from 
showing the quivery nervousness that she was feeling at this new and 
unexpected experience.  Everything around her felt completely familiar 
to her, and yet it wasn't at the same time.  So where am I? she found 
herself wondering.

Nerima, near the Tendo Dojo, came a sudden thought to her, one that 
wasn't really in words and just seemed to come from the back of her 
brain, but she was suddenly fully aware of where she was.  She nodded 
contentedly at the name for a moment, then she paused and cocked her 
head in confusion.  Tendo Dojo?

She suddenly realized that she wasn't wearing her Academy uniform and 
looked down at herself.  She saw that she herself was also dressed in 
Chinese-style clothes similar to Ranma's, but it was not a surprise, for 
some reason.  She casually raised her right hand up to stroke the silky 
material of the shirt and caught a glimpse of her hand.  It was her 
hand, and yet it wasn't.  Fascinated by that simple thing, she studied 
it for a moment and noticed the calluses on them, somewhat thicker than 
the ones that she expected to see, oddly reminding her of her mother's 
hands.

These are the hands of a heavily-trained fighter, she realized in an 
instant.  She noticed her reflection in a plate glass window next to her 
and looked at herself, noting the braid at the back of her hair, longer 
than she normally wore it.  A warrior's braid.  She then wondered how 
she knew to call it that.

Behind her, Ranma stared at his fiancée and was not sure what to make of 
Nabiki's sudden change in mood.  She was checking herself over as if she 
was seeing herself for the first time, and that was just plain strange 
to him.  He decided not to press the issue though.  If she wanted him to 
know what was going on, then she would tell him.

Suddenly, a new mass of memories became clear to her, rising unbidden 
into her awareness around a single, central realization.  I am Nabiki 
Tendo, the heir to the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts.  Random 
other memories came to her, associated with that one central thought, 
and it was like the stories she had heard people tell of seeing their 
lives flashing before their eyes before they died.  Slowly, over several 
moments, many of the memories slowly sorted themselves out in her mind, 
and they were immensely fascinating to her.

Up until less than two months ago, she had been out on a decade-long 
training journey with Genma Saotome, Ranma's father, learning and 
improving her now formidable skills in the martial arts.  A new torrent 
of memories sped through her mind, too quickly for her to really grasp 
onto anything firmly.  So many people had been met over that time, 
places seen, and various fighting techniques learned.  It was like 
seeing herself as the heroine of a martial arts action movie series, and 
it was both terrifying and wonderful.  She felt an unexpected joy fill 
her upon embracing these new memories, as if they filled an empty place 
within herself that she had not even known existed until that one 
shining moment of revelation.

One of the more terrifying memories centered around falling into a pool 
of water during some sort of martial arts training exercise, one of many 
in a mysterious valley located in China, and a name for the place popped 
into her awareness.  Jusenkyo?  The name of the place conjured up 
another powerful image for her, of a handsome young man dressed as she 
herself was in the reflection.  She tried to follow that thought, to 
learn who this young man was, but it seemed to hover ever so 
tantalizingly out of reach.

Nabiki turned back to face the reflection of herself in the plate glass 
window.  She noticed Ranma's face also being reflected in the glass, and 
he was simply staring at her with a confused look.  She turned to look 
at him, and he stared expectantly at her.

"I'm going to take a walk by myself, Ranchan," she said, and his look of 
confusion reappeared.  "Don't worry.  I won't be long.  I just have to 
check on something."  A sudden impulse came to her.  "Don't let your old 
man eat my share of dinner, okay?"

That seemed to reassure him, and he smiled at her.  "Sure thing, Nabiki.  
How long you think you're gonna be?  I can let Kasumi know."

"I should be back in a half hour," she said, shrugging her shoulders.  
The longer she was here, the less it felt like a dream and the more like 
real life.  There was a quality to dreams that was simply not present, 
and that left her with the inescapable conclusion that she was really 
here, wherever 'here' was.  Looking at her companion kept filling her 
with strange new feelings that she was unused to, and she wasn't sure 
what to do if she saw her family until she had figured out what was 
going on.  So she waved at him and jogged off down the street, needing 
some time to think and reason out what had happened.

Ranma watched Nabiki run off, and then shook his head.  If there's 
anyone in this city who doesn't need a chaperone, it's her, he thought 
with a smile.  Turning his feet back towards home, he walked in the 
opposite direction from the way she had gone.

Nabiki never remembered feeling so alive before, as she did while she 
ran down the street, recognizing places and streets that were a mixture 
of both similar and very different from the Nerima that she had known 
for her entire life.  On an impulse, she almost effortlessly bounded to 
the top of a wall without thinking about it, gracefully landing a moment 
after her feet had left the ground.  She suddenly laughed at the sky, 
feeling a new sense of freedom in herself, and a new confidence.

I'm not dreaming, she firmly decided.  She knew from her own experience 
that dreams had their own tone, and this felt too 'real' to be a dream.  
So she focused on what she did know about what was going on around her.  
One, I activated Ranma-kun's device in his lab.  Two, I found myself 
here, with my mind filled with memories of new experiences that I never 
lived.  Three, wherever here is, I'm a martial artist of great skill.  
Four, his device referred to a component within itself called a quantum 
flux coil.  She sat down on the top of the wall.

"So what does that all add up to, Tendo?" she muttered softly to herself 
as she studied the stars beginning to emerge in the evening sky.  "It 
either adds up to one strange dream that you're having in Ranma-kun's 
lab, or this is all somehow very real.  And you've already determined to 
your own satisfaction that this isn't a dream.  So if this is real-"

Nabiki suddenly snapped her fingers.

"If this is real, then this is how he developed his new combat skills 
overnight," she concluded, talking softly to herself.  "Somehow, in some 
way, this is me, only in another life.  A life where I did all of these 
things that are in my new memories now."  She held up her hand and made 
a fist.

"Let's see what this other me is capable of," she said with a grin as 
she leaped from the top of the wall to a nearby rooftop.

The next several minutes were filled with a laughing Nabiki leaping and 
running from rooftop to rooftop across Nerima.  Her fists and feet 
lashed out at a thousand phantom opponents as she tested the body she 
now wore to its limits.  It was an exhilarating and wondrous experience, 
and she marveled at the flow and grace of each motion of her body.  She 
knew that she was the preeminent martial artist among her peers here, 
and every movement of her body proved it to herself.

She stopped on a random rooftop and went through a swift kata of blocks 
and strikes, feeling the perfection of every movement as she jumped and 
dodged.  She smiled broadly as her hands wove through the graceful 
motions of the various Kung Fu styles, her body filled with unbelievable 
agility and power.  As she moved in a random way through the martial 
arts lore that this body knew in every fiber of its being, she felt 
something deep inside of her change, but she was not sure what it was.  
She paused at the end, feeling her breath coming a little quicker.

Oh, Ranchan, she thought with a smile, bringing her right fist around to 
hover before her body, palm upright.  To invent something like this.  
You truly are a genius, and that must be why I love you so.

That unexpected thought brought her movements to a stumbling halt, and 
she was still standing there looking confused when the world went away 
around her.  She felt a moment of dislocation.

                   ******************************

Nabiki looked around in surprise.  Where did Ranma go?  She lowered her 
hands from the combat stance that she found herself in.  Did I get into 
a fight with someone?  What just happened here?

Feeling a rumbling of hunger from her stomach, she decided that eating 
was more important right now than dealing with her confusion.  She 
leaped to the next rooftop and began heading home.

                   ******************************

*** Heaven  0.000,0.000

The systems of Yggdrasil hummed along smoothly, maintained by the many 
gods and goddesses assigned to that task.  Belldandy, the Goddess of the 
Present, had her attention focused upon her central workstation as she 
managed the daily file updates for the main system.  Yet her gaze 
quickly noticed the message appearing on one of the secondary screens.  
She paused in her activities to study the scrolling symbols.

*DESTINY PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED.  PROBABILITY NODE ALTERATION INITIATED.

*REVISING CURRENT INDEXED NODE STATUS FROM CLASS THREE TO CLASS ONE.

*PARADIGM SHIFT DETECTED.  TIME TO COMPLETION: UNKNOWN.

The young goddess eyed the screen and frowned ever so slightly, a sign 
of her concern.  She reflected on the nature of the Destiny Protocols 
for a moment.

A system as complex as the universe reflected a middle ground between 
two extremes.

On the one hand, every event that has ever happened, is happening now, 
or ever will happen, have all been meticulously predetermined to the 
last detail.  Reality was a clockwork mechanism, predestined to follow a 
rigid and unchanging fate that allowed only for the illusion of free 
will.

On the other hand, random chance was the controlling factor in all 
things.  God played dice with the universe, and everything that happened 
in it was unpredictable and uncontrolled.

Neither option was fully correct, but neither were they fully incorrect.

Instead, reality should be thought of as a pinball machine.  Playing 
pinball required the right combination of skill and chance, and an 
understanding and mastery of indeterminacy as balls careened all over 
the playing area.  Control and randomness interacting together in a form 
of synergy.

Yggdrasil had just put a new ball into play.

                   ******************************

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

"Retrieval cycle complete," said a soft voice in the background.

Nabiki slowly opened her eyes and simply stared at the plain cement 
ceiling over her head, broken only by faint cracks, conduits, and the 
fluorescent lights.  She suddenly became aware of her back muscles 
complaining slightly from the awkward position they were in, and she 
shifted around to a more comfortable one, raising her arm up off the 
cold concrete floor.

That was simply incredible, she mused as she sat up slowly.  Her 
thoughts felt a little bit strange, as if her awareness was divided 
among two very similar thought patterns, but the feeling quickly went 
away.  She absently squeezed her right shoulder with her left hand, and 
a faint grimace appeared on her face as she noted the lesser amount of 
muscle on herself with some dismay.  She already missed having the 
lithely well-sculpted musculature of her body in that other life.  I 
need to work myself into better shape.  Correction.  I will work myself 
into better shape.  I always thought I was in excellent condition, but 
that other body was even more so.

She took a moment to stare at the resonator, humming lightly to itself 
with power.  She had come here expecting to find the answers to her 
questions about Ranma, and instead she found herself with more questions 
than before.  Ranma-kun, your secret is even more amazing than anything 
that I was expecting.  How did you ever come up with something like 
this?

Nabiki suddenly smiled.  Like it or not, Ranma-kun, you have a new 
partner in your endeavors.  There's no way that I'm going to walk away 
from this, now that I've seen what I've seen.  You owe me an explanation 
now.  She lifted the headset off her skull and allowed it to rest in her 
lap.  Memories from that other life hovered in her mind like fireflies, 
refusing to settle where she could examine them more closely.

Standing up, she set the headset back where she found it and noted the 
new text printed on the screen.

*TEST RUN COMPLETE... FILE #0000006 ADDED TO STABLE MEMORY.  DETAILS?

"Sure, why not?" she muttered.  She typed out 'YES' and hit the return 
key, finding herself almost breathless to see what would come up next.  
She wasn't disappointed when the screen quickly began printing out more 
information on the new file that she had just unintentionally created.

*FILE #0000006 - QUANTUM DIVERGENCE POINT OCCURRED:
  4,910 YEARS
     10 MONTHS
     15 DAYS
      9 HOURS
     35 MINUTES
     31 SECONDS AGO.

Ohmygod, the Tendo girl thought as she sat there in stunned silence.  
The count of seconds continued to rise as she watched it.  I was right.  
It wasn't a dream.  It wasn't an imaginary world.  It was real, and I 
was there, living and breathing inside another version of myself.

She looked at her hand, curling it into a fist and opening it back up 
several times.  I was a fighter, a martial artist.  How simply amazing.  
She looked at the resonator and a sly smile came onto her face.  You and 
I definitely need to talk, Ranma-kun.

Not knowing if there was any special way of turning the device off, 
Nabiki simply shut down the power at the main switch.  The device died, 
locking shut once again the window between dimensions that it offered.  
She had the odd sensation of the memories from that other life fading 
into the background noise of her own thoughts, as if her mind was 
soaking them up like a sponge.  It was not unpleasant, and it made her 
feel strangely more complete as a person.

Since she planned to talk to Ranma in the morning anyway, she did not 
make any real attempts to hide her presence.  She put the headset back 
where she found it and covered over the equipment with the tarp.  She 
gazed at the covered table with a smile, and she felt an eagerness fill 
her to see what other mysteries were hidden across that gauntlet that 
she had just crossed and returned from.  But that could wait until 
tomorrow, after she confronted Ranma with her knowledge of his secret.

Nabiki snapped on her flashlight a moment before turning off the 
fluorescent lights.  She picked up her bookbag and listened at the door 
to see if she heard any activity in the hallway beyond.  Hearing 
nothing, she slid open the deadbolt and slipped out of Ranma's lab into 
the darkened hallway.

She slipped the tiny flashlight between her teeth as she pulled out her 
set of lockpicks and went to work relocking the door.  She didn't even 
bother timing herself this time.

                   ******************************

"The Boss was pretty mad at us for yesterday, wasn't he, Hayate?" asked 
Kena, as he pulled a cold can of beer from the street vending machine 
with a grimace.  "I thought he was going to kill you for lying to him 
like that."

"Somehow it just seemed to be a better idea than telling him that you 
and I got our butts whipped by Saotome," said Hayate.  "He made us both 
look like fools!"

"You at least had more warning than I did," said the other boy stiffly.  
He gently rubbed at his bandage currently itching his nose, wincing at 
the pain.  "The little punk caught me by surprise, and he broke my damn 
nose!  You got any idea how embarrassing that is?"

"Yeah, but Hiei's gonna fix him good," said his companion with an evil 
smirk.  "Whatever he leaves behind, you and I can have fun with."

"Sounds good."  Kena tipped his head back and drank deeply from the can 
of beer.  When he lowered his face back down, a smile suddenly lit up 
his features as he saw what was coming their way on the other side of 
the street.  He nodded once with his chin.  "Looks like our luck is 
improving today already.  See who's coming?"

Hayate turned to look and smiled wickedly.  Nabiki was walking on the 
other side of the street past them, alone.  He slipped his chain out of 
his pocket as Kena tossed his half-empty can into the alley behind him 
where it landed with a thunk against some trash bags.

"No bodyguards, and out alone like this," smirked Hayate.  "Care to have 
a little fun with the bitch?"

"Sure."  Kena smiled, pulling one of his balisong knives out and quickly 
flipping it open.  "I'm going to enjoy seeing the high-and-mighty Nabiki 
Tendo bleeding.  Maybe it'll make my nose hurt a little less."

Over on the other side of the street, the Tendo girl walked along with a 
bemused look on her face.  She was still thinking about that other life 
and wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings very well, but a 
sudden quivering at the back of her neck caused her to leave off from 
her thoughts and stop.

In front of her stepped Hayate and Kena, wicked smiles on their faces.  
She suddenly realized that she was alone on the street with the two 
fighters, and that she didn't have Akane or Yohko around to defend her.  
This is bad, she thought, frowning, as she started to back up slowly 
away from the two street punks.

"Evening, Tendo-san," drawled Kena as he drew out a second knife.  "A 
pretty thing like yourself should be careful, out alone on a darkened 
street.  Maybe my buddy and me here could escort you?"  He nudged Hayate 
with an elbow and chuckled.

"Yeah," chuckled the other boy, flipping the weighted end of his chain 
in a lazy circle around his hand.  "Never know what sort of things could 
happen to a cute girl like yourself."

Nabiki turned and ran.  The two punks squawked for a moment in surprise 
at seeing her getting away and chased after her.  They called out all 
manner of threats and catcalls at her as they ran close behind her, 
slowly gaining.

She ducked down an alleyway in an attempt to lose the armed pair, but 
they followed right on her heels.  This is what I get for depending on 
others to do my fighting for me, she thought angrily at herself.

"Running's just gonna make it harder on ya when we catch ya," gasped 
Kena as he managed to close the range a little more.  He never knew that 
she could run so fast, and it only added to his anger.  His companion 
just panted along right beside him without speaking, saving his breath 
for running.

Nabiki turned a corner and suddenly found herself facing a dead-end 
alleyway.  Seeing her trapped when they came around the corner, Hayate 
and Kena slowed to a walk and grinned at her.  Nabiki backed away from 
the pair slowly.  Damn it!  If I could just fight like my other self, 
I'd wipe the alleyway with these two jerks!

At a nod from Hayate, Kena came in with a low chuckle and faked a swing 
at Nabiki.  "Gonna make you bleed a little first, Nabiki-chan, before 
Hayate and I have some real fun with you.  Ain't nobody gonna be saving 
you here.  You're all ours."  He swung once more at her, and she blocked 
with her bookbag.

Suddenly, the Tendo girl felt like something clicked into place within 
her, and a cool smile appeared on her face.  She ducked under Kena's 
outstretched arm on his next swing, blocking his knife thrust with the 
bookbag held in her left hand, and she dropped split-legged to the 
pavement.  Her right fist fired up lightning-quick, with all the 
strength that she had in her arm, and it impacted solidly into the boy's 
groin area.

Kena coughed hard, then gave off a soft whimper of pain and staggered 
back from her, dropping his knives and clutching at himself.

The other boy immediately paused in his approach, and the fun that he 
had planned for this girl had suddenly turned serious.  That idiot Kena 
must've been caught by surprise, he thought with a shake of his head.  
Everybody knows that Nabiki Tendo doesn't fight; she has others do her 
fighting for her.

Nabiki gracefully flipped herself back to her feet and took up a combat 
stance, tossing her bookbag to one side.  She smiled coyly at Hayate and 
made a come-hither gesture with her right hand towards her suddenly 
uncertain assailant.  "Here I am," she called out in a mocking tone.  
"Come and get some."

"Kill the bitch!" squeaked Kena, as he leaned against a wall and 
regained his breath.  "Show her that she's way out of her league!"

"That's right," said Nabiki softly, batting her eyelashes.  "Show me how 
big and strong you are.  After all, I'm only a weak and helpless girl."  
Her fear was gone, replaced by a sense of anticipation as her heart rate 
sped up and her breathing deepened.  She felt totally in control of the 
situation, and the knowledge of dozens of disabling moves quickly 
flashed across her thoughts as she gazed at her adversary and his 
current stance.  But she wanted this to last.

Lashing out with his chain, Hayate missed when Nabiki stepped aside, and 
her mocking grin was firmly fixed on her face.  She leaped into the air, 
feeling a strange energy adding strength to her legs, her body doing a 
quick somersault in midair, and she landed easily on her feet on the 
other side of the boy.  Her thoughts focused on the fight, she never 
even thought to question how she was able to do that.  Her left fist 
lashed out in a backhanded punch that snapped the chain-wielder's head 
to the side, and she followed it up with a hard uppercut from her right 
fist.

Hayate flew up and crashed back down to the ground in the alleyway, 
stunned, and she turned around to see Kena coming at her with a snarl of 
anger.  His silvery blade darted around her body in a rapid series of 
strikes almost too fast for the eye to follow.  With her newfound grace, 
Nabiki dodged around the razor-sharp blade, keeping her skin well away 
from the edge.

"Nobody does what you did to me and lives, Tendo!" snarled the enraged 
boy in a much higher octave than usual.  Pure adrenaline was helping him 
ignore the pain as he savagely attacked her with elbow strikes, punches, 
stabs with his blade, and an occasional kick.  Like a ghost, she flowed 
around them all, dodging most, and parrying those she was unable to 
dodge.

"Looks like your friend is ready to play some more," noted Nabiki with 
another sardonic grin as she spotted Hayate trying to attack her on her 
blindside.  She ducked under the chain, parried another one of Kena's 
strikes, and then tossed him headlong into the other boy as hard as she 
could.  She heard a satisfying crunching sound as Kena's nose broke for 
the second time in as many days against Hayate's forehead.

"You're supposed to fall down at this point," she said calmly as she saw 
that Hayate still remained standing, leaving Kena to flop around on the 
ground and scream with pain as he clutched at his twice-broken nose.  
She coolly drove her foot across Kena's face in an attempt to shut him 
up.  The abused blade fighter's eyes rolled back up into his skull as he 
went unconscious.

Hayate managed to loop his chain around her neck in that brief moment of 
inattention on her part, and yanked on it, pulling her in, while he 
launched a savage kick into her gut.  She leaped over the kick, using 
her newfound momentum to continue up and forward, driving her knee up 
into his chin.  There was the sound of a bone-crunching impact, and the 
boy's head snapped back as a bright spray of crimson fluid, and a few 
small chunks of teeth, flew up out of his mouth, narrowly missing her 
clothes.

As the chain-wielder collapsed to the ground, mostly unconscious, Nabiki 
landed gently on one foot and immediately pivoted herself around in a 
tight spin that freed her neck from the chain.  The movement also 
slammed her raised foot against Hayate's backside in a solid kick as he 
struggled to stand back up.  She coolly watched the boy's face impact 
against a brick wall, led by his forehead, and he slowly slid down it a 
moment later, leaving a smear of blood.

Soft groans emerged from the two unconscious members of the Wolf Pack as 
she dropped back down into a ready stance.  She suddenly became aware of 
what she had just done, and a strange glint appeared in her eyes as she 
surveyed the results of her efforts.  A few light bruises were on her 
neck and arms from the chain's impacts, but she was otherwise unharmed.  
A heady feeling of excitement at her victory filled her as she gazed 
down at her two former attackers.

Now I know what Akane always talked about, Nabiki mused with a wry 
smile.  There is something fun about fighting, at least when you know 
what you're doing.  She flexed her hand and made a few practice punches, 
and they felt pretty good to her, as if she had done them for years.  
Nabiki chuckled softly.  Won't Ranma-kun be surprised when he sees what 
I can do now, too.  Maybe I should do like Akane and challenge him to a 
fight.  She smiled at that thought, picturing the look on his face.  I 
wonder if I could beat him?  No, she knew she could beat him.

Setting that thought aside for the moment, she slowly straightened her 
uniform and dusted herself off while gazing in a somewhat contemptuous 
manner at Kena, before she bent down and grabbed Hayate by the front of 
his uniform.  She judged him to be the less damaged of the pair, and a 
better recipient for the message she was about to give him.  His eyes 
focused on her face too slowly for her tastes, and she smacked him about 
his cheeks until he did.  Blood dribbled in a thick stream from his 
mouth as he gazed at her with fear written in his eyes.

"Listen up, you little wretch!" she snarled into his face.  "I want you 
to pass along a message for me.  You tell your punk-ass boss that I'm 
getting tired of these attacks on me and my people.  If he doesn't stop, 
then I'm going to come down on him like the wrath of God, no matter how 
well he tries to hide from me.  Don't you ever forget this, I run the 
Academy."  She pulled the boy's face a little closer to her.  "You tell 
him to close up shop.  Our little competition is now over, and I've 
won."

Nabiki let the beaten boy fall back to the pavement without any further 
thought and went over to her bookbag.  She picked it up and dusted it 
off casually, before slinging it over her shoulder.  She glared at the 
two boys lying in the alleyway, filled with confidence at her newfound 
skills, and walked off into the gathering darkness.  She vanished from 
Hayate's sight a few moments later when she turned and went around the 
corner.

First that bastard Saotome kicks our asses, and now Nabiki Tendo does 
the same? thought Hayate with a groan of pain, suddenly spitting one of 
his teeth out whole.  Damn bitch!  I'm gonna get her for this!  Both her 
and Saotome die for this!  He looked at his tooth, shining wetly with 
his blood as it sat on the ground near him.  He let his body slump down 
against the pavement, his vision blurring, since it hurt too much to try 
and stand.  One clear thought filled his mind shortly before he fell 
unconscious.  Damn, the Boss ain't gonna like this.

                   ******************************

Dinnertime around the Kunos' table was always a very quiet affair, and 
tonight was no exception.  Kodachi sipped delicately at her miso soup, 
appreciating the mild flavors, even as her eyes shifted from watching 
her father to her mother and back again.  Her parents were seated at the 
extreme ends of the long table, while she and her brother sat across 
from each other in the middle.  No one spoke.  Her parents thought 
speech disturbed the dignity of a family meal.

Across from her, Kuno ate his soup quietly, the bruises on his face much 
diminished from how they appeared at lunchtime.  His eyes met hers once, 
and a neutral expression was on his face, before he quickly returned his 
attention to his meal.  The house would have to begin burning down 
around him before he would break the sacred quiet of the evening meal.

From her position, Kenseiko Kuno, the matriarch of the household, 
noticed that her only daughter appeared a bit agitated over something.  
She was a beautiful, regal sort of woman, much as Kodachi would probably 
look with another twenty years added to her age.  She enjoyed her 
position as Lady of the Kuno household, and she loved both of her 
children dearly.  However, lately Kodachi was beginning to worry her so.

"Dachi-chan," she said, breaking with tradition and causing her daughter 
to almost jump from her chair in surprise.  Down at the other end of the 
table, her husband raised his eyes to look with surprise at his wife but 
said nothing.

"Yes, Mother?" answered Kodachi.  Across from her, Kuno continued to eat 
his soup, mirroring his father doing the same at the end of the table.

"You appear restive, child.  I fear that it is disturbing your enjoyment 
of your meal.  Tell your mother what is wrong."  Her gentle tones had 
the ring of steel behind them.

"Well, I suppose that it might as well be said here," said Kodachi 
quietly.  The two Kuno men continued to ignore the conversation between 
the two women.  "I spoke with the headmaster of the Imperial Academy 
today, and he is willing to accept me as a transfer student."

Both Kuno men stopped eating and stared at her.

"Oh my," said Kenseiko hesitantly.  "Why would you ever want to do that?  
I thought that you were happy at Blackhall.  I went there when I was 
your age, and I could not imagine a finer school for a young lady of 
quality to attend.  Why would you want to leave your own kind to 
associate with such riffraff as populate that place?"  She dabbed at her 
lips with a napkin, as the servants emerged to replace the soup bowls 
with the next course.

"She does it for the sake of a vile cad," growled Kuno in low tones.  "I 
told you to have nothing further to do with him, and you defied me!  
Your own brother!"

"Manners, son," chided Kenseiko.  The boy immediately bowed his head to 
his mother and refrained from speaking further for the moment.  His 
father said nothing, only began eating his rice and fish quietly, and he 
ignored his son when the boy looked to him for support.  "What is this 
about a young man, Dachi-chan?  Have you taken a lover?"

"Mother!"  Kodachi's cheeks flamed with embarrassment.  "It is not like 
that at all!  I am simply not happy among my so-called peers.  Plus, the 
Imperial Academy offers more challenging coursework in the sciences."

"But what of this young man that your brother spoke so adamantly about?" 
asked her mother with a gentle smile.  "Does he have a name?"

Kodachi muttered something far too softly to be heard, her cheeks still 
continuing to burn bright red.

"His name is Ranma Saotome, Mother," said Kuno suddenly with a grimace 
of distaste.  "He has apparently seduced my sister with words of cunning 
and deceit.  A base corrupter of an innocent virgin he is!"

"Brother Dear!" shouted Kodachi, wishing that she was near enough to 
kick him in the shins for his words.  "Desist in this name-calling, I 
implore you!"

"Did he not bring you to tears by his mere presence only yesterday, my 
dear sister?"  Their mother turned her gaze to him and he quickly 
continued.  "I bore witness to her tears myself, Mother.  She waited 
outside the gates to that place, hiding herself behind a tree when the 
villain emerged.  She started to approach him, but broke and ran in 
tears at the last moment.  I have sworn myself to smite the vile wretch 
for his crime!"

"Good for you, my son," said his father unexpectedly from the other end 
of the table.  Kuno turned his head to stare at his sire, and he would 
not have been more shocked if one of the statuary had chosen that moment 
to speak.  "I entrust you with the sacred task of proving the worth of 
this Saotome boy.  But if he can overcome you, then I shall consider 
allowing him to court your sister."

"WHAT?!" shouted Kuno, echoed by the two women a moment later.

"I am familiar with the Saotome name for reasons that do not concern 
you, Tachi-kun," said the Kuno family patriarch with a grim look.  "If 
this boy can defeat you, then he is welcome to pay court to your sister.  
I shall say no more on this matter."  With that, he went back to eating.

Kuno sat there with a stunned expression, mirrored by one on his 
sister's face.

"I will allow you to transfer, Dachi-chan," said Kenseiko with a 
thoughtful tone to her voice.  Kuno made strangling sounds from his 
position at the table, but Kodachi looked to her mother with a smile 
that lit up the room and then turned to look at her brother in triumph.

"Perhaps you should transfer as well, Brother Dear," said Kodachi in a 
saccharine-sweet tone of voice.  "It would allow you to be near your new 
love, Akane Tendo."

Their father raised his eyes again for a moment, but did not speak.  
Their mother, on the other hand, was a different story.

"My son, is this true?" she asked, a suspicious look upon her face.  "I 
had thought you interested in that Saginomiya girl, the one with the odd 
flower fetish.  She seemed eminently suitable for you, and her family is 
excellent.  What sort of background do the Tendos hail from?"

"A noble background, I assure you," said Kuno, attempting to soothe his 
mother.  "After speaking with her elder sister and being informed that 
the Tendos were of noble blood, I checked on that myself.  They are of 
landless samurai background and have served as squires to several great 
lords over the centuries."

"Soun Tendo's daughter?"  The elder Kuno looked up once more from his 
meal.  When his son nodded, he appeared satisfied over something and 
returned to eating.  Kuno stared at his father for a moment before 
returning his attentions to his mother.

"I shall tentatively allow you to pay court to this Tendo girl, my son," 
said Kenseiko.  "However, if you choose to pursue it beyond making her 
your mistress, then I must require that you bring her before me that I 
may determine her suitability as a wife."

"Of course, Mother," said Kuno fervently.  "I would not even dream of 
doing otherwise."  He returned to his meal, visions of his new love 
filling his mind.

Across from him, Kodachi looked both pleased and concerned.  I hope that 
you do no harm to Ranma Saotome, Brother Dear, for your sake.  She went 
back to eating, and the table reverted to silence.

                   ******************************

Nabiki collapsed into her bed after finishing dinner with her sister and 
doing her homework.  This has been such a strange day, she thought with 
a faint smile.  She lifted her hand above her face and studied at it for 
a long moment, her memories suddenly filled with thoughts of her mother, 
and the great warrior she had been.  Ever since her death, the diligent 
training routines that a younger Nabiki had once followed so religiously 
had faded off over the years.  Her physical training at the Academy had 
compensated for the years of slacking off to a large degree, but she was 
well below the capabilities of her other life.

She now knew that she had been coasting for too long, only doing the 
minimum required of her to pass, and that was now going to change.  I've 
let myself sit in Akane's shadow when it came to the physical things for 
too long.  I can see now that I'm more than capable of outdoing her when 
it comes to combat.  And thanks to Ranchan's little toy, I've gotten ten 
years of martial arts skill training.

The last thing that Nabiki realized before sleep claimed her was to 
question the change in how she referred to Ranma.  When did I start to 
call him Ranchan?


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Special thanks goes out to Jim Bader for his kind permission to borrow 
from Nabiki 1/2 (A Very Scary Thought) for Earth  +4.614,+4.496 (Nabiki 
1/2).

My heartfelt thanks goes out to all of my usual pre-readers for all of 
their comments and suggestions.  A special thanks goes out to DB Sommer 
and Michael Allen for their very detailed help with grammar and 
plotting.