Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahsai

Tenchi Muyo is owned by Pioneer

As usual, I have no right to be doing this.

Furinkan Muyo

By Steve Pardue

http://www.spardue.org/anime

"Alright! Settle down, now."

The teacher brought the ruler in his hand down on the desk with a resounding slap. Several students who had been sleeping jerked awake. The others began to drift into their desks by ones and twos, until gradually the class was paying attention to the teacher, more or less.

Nabiki Tendo sat in her desk and idlly twirled her pen. She was exhausted from the night before - Ranma had not been very cooperative posing for his pictures. It would be nice to take a little nap, but Nabiki didn't want any of her flock thinking she was getting lax.

As the teacher started roll call, the door opened and two students walked in. The first was a boy, a little average looking, but handsome enough. He wore his hair short, with a small rattail in the back. He wore the same school uniform as every other boy in the school except for Ranma and Kuno. Nabiki shruged. Another student, another yen.

The girl however, piqued Nabiki's interest. Her hair was a colored a vivid cyan, which looked like it could glow in the dark. She was tall, and looked to be a in her early twenties instead of her late teens. She wore the same blue jumper as the rest of the school, but had the sleeves of her blouse rolled up almost to her shoulders, revealing long and thin, yet muscular, arms. The thing which really caught Nabiki's interest, however, were her eyes. They were a brilliant yellow, which was odd enough, but her pupils were vertical slits, like a cat's eye.

While the boy spoke to the teacher, the girl leaned up against the wall, one foot braced behind her. Her eyes were almost completely closed, but Nabiki could just make out the movement of her eyes as she looked the class over. After making several passes over the class, the girl seemed to notice Nabiki watching her. She opened her eyes and looked at Nabiki.

Nabiki met the new girl's stare, and for a minute there was a battle of wills. Nabiki kept her face expressionless, but the girl began to smile slowly. The smile didn't comfort Nabiki, it reminded her too much of a predator playing with its prey. At Furinkan, Nabiki was the predator. The girl nodded once, slowly and delierately, at Nabiki, then turned to watch the boy again.

The boy nodded several times as the teacher spoke, then faced the class. The teacher motioned for the girl to stand by the boy. The teacher then addressed the class.

"These are Tenchi and Ryoko Masaki. They are new to Furinkan and Nerima, so please help them get settled in. Two of you can take the two seats in the last row."

Tenchi smiled at the class as he followed Ryoko down the row past Nabiki to their seats. As Ryoko passed she smirked, but did not look at Nabiki. Nabiki ignored the smirk, and began to ponder the two newcomers.

It should be interesting, she thought. It had been a while since she had to break someone, and the girl seemed to be a strong one. Nabiki looked forward to the coming day with renewed interest.

-*-

Ranma was sitting next to Akane eating the lunch Kasumi had prepared when the two new students walked by. He studied them as they headed towards a small grove of trees on the far side of the lawn.

Akane, noticing where Ranma's attention was focused, slapped the back of his head.

"Ouch! Hey! What was that for?"

"Don't go looking for another fiancee Ranma!"

"I wasn't! Anyway, I was just studying their moves."

"Yeah, I noticed! Jerk."

Nabiki was walking towards them while watching the two new students.

"I'm not lyin Akane. The boy's been training. The girl, well, I can't place her. She doesn't move like a martial artist, but she radiates confdence. Actually, she's kinda like a predator. Ya know, like a wolf in a flock of sheep. They move with this total confidence, like, 'I'm here. You know I'm here. There's nothin' you can do ta stop me, you know it and I know it.' That's what she moves like. A predator in the middle of her prey."

Nabiki listened carefully to Ranma's words. He was an idiot, but not stupid. And when it came to fighting and reading fighters, he was always on the money. If he took the girl seriously, then she would as well. Interesting though, that he thought the boy was trained. Nabiki still wasn't that impressed with Tenchi.

Akane smiled as Nabiki sat down and began to eat. "Hi, Sis. Glad to see you and all, but you don't usually eat with us. What's up?"

Nabiki gestured at the two new students, who were sitting at the foot of a tree. "I heard you two talking about them."

"Yeah. Ranma here was eyeing the girl, and trying to feed me some line about the two of them being fighters." Akane glared at her fiancee, who was doing his best to control his mouth. Ranma wanted to finish his luch today without a beating.

After taking a sip of her drink, Nabiki responded. "He might be right."

Akane looked at her sister curiously. "What do you mean?"

"Those two are in my class. Tenchi and Ryoko Masaki."

Ranma looked across the lawn at the two, who were eating their luches. The girl was drinking from a thermos, which the boy was trying to take away from her. "Brother and sister, huh?"

Nabiki shrugged. "I guess so. I checked their transcripts. They went to different schools until they moved here, but they have the same address."

Ranma grunted, then returned to eating his lunch.

-*-

Tenchi watched as the girl across the lawn from he and Ryoko punched the young man she was eating lunch with, knocking him into the school.

"This sure looks like a tough school."

Ryoko, still trying to feed him his lunch, looked at the two girls he was looking at. "That's the girl from our class. Nabiki, I think. She's going to be trouble Tenchi."

"Why do you say that?"

Ryoko looked at Tenchi seriously. "I can tell. I'm in a rough career field. If you don't have good instincts you don't last long. Trust me, Tenchi. That girl is ruthless."

As Tenchi ate, Ryoko watched Nabiki. The violent girl left soon after she belted the boy she was sitting with. Soon, Nabiki had begun to be visited by other students, usually one at a time. In fact, as Ryoko looked around the lawn, she could see that there was a line of sorts formed up to visit the girl. Ryoko nodded. Yes, this girl Nabiki was definately going to be trouble, one way or another.

-*-

Ryoko smiled as she let the ugly blue jumper of her school uniform drop to the floor. It felt good to be out of it. She stretched, fingers locked together and her hands pushed as high over her head as she could force them.

Pulling her gym suit out of the locker she casually kicked her school uniform into the locker with her foot. Soon she was dressed and started to walk towards the exit.

As she passed the last row of lockers she heard an excited burst of giggling. Looking down the row, she could see a large group of girls gathered at the end. They were whispering excitedly among themselves, but Ryoko could make out Tenchi's name from time to time. She frowned to herself. The two of them hadn't even been here one day and already the local girls were going after Tenchi.

Ryoko had already put up with as much competition for Tenchi as she could stand - she wasn't about to let a new group of girls latch on to him. Besides, at least Ayeka was a real rival, someone she could respect. But these girls were really pathetic.

It took the girls several minutes to realize that their conversation was being observed. At first only the girls facing Ryoko saw her, but gradually all of them turned and saw the new girl standing behind them, tapping her foot.

Ryoko had her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed. Contrary to the expression on her face, her mouth was set into a feral grin. Later, the girls closet to her would swear that they had heard Ryoko growling.

"Tenchi is mine."

The girls blinked. Ryoko leaned forward slightly, and suddenly her presence seemed to engulf all of those who faced her.

"If you want him, you'll have to deal with me first."

Ryoko's smile widened, exposing her fangs.

"All clear?"

The girls nodded nervously.

Ryoko's mood suddenly lightened. She stood up straight and laughed. Turning to the door she started to leave the locker room.

"Good. See you on the field!"

One row over, Nabiki rubbed her chin, considering the new turn of events.

-*-

The boys of Furinkan were exercising in the gym today, while the girls used the fields. For Ranma, this meant a chance to show off. On the paralell bars he pushed his body hard, forcing it to twist and contort itself as fast as possible through the simple gymnastics routine used by the school. Even the most athletic of Furinkan's students took twice as long as Ranma to complete the exercise.

As Ranma sat back down on the mat and toweled his hair, he saw the new boy, Tenchi, sitting surrouded by other boys. Most of them were seniors, but there were a few underclassmen as well.

The boys seemed to be hounding Tenchi, and were quite excited. Tenchi held up his hand and said something. Immediately a hush fell on the group. Ranma saw several of the boys looking at him. The group began to break up. Ranma, curious about the new boy, got up to go talk to him.

"Hi. I'm Ranma Saotome."

The new boy studied him for a minute before introducing himself. "Tenchi Masaki."

Ranma squatted next to Tenchi. "So, you're new around here, huh?"

Tenchi nodded. "Ryoko and I just moved back from the countryside. Its kind of hard to get used to living in the city again. But at least I don't have to till the fields anymore. But on the other hand, we do have to budget for the carrots."

Ranma frowned. "Carrots?"

Tenchi nodded. "Ryo-ohki will only eat carrots."

Ranma nodded, but Tenchi could see he didn't understand. Tenchi gestured towards the parallel bars, where the rest of Ranma's calss was struggling through the exercise. "I saw you on the bars. You're pretty good."

Ranma shrugged. "Thanks. Its pretty simple stuff compared to the training Pops put me through."

Tenchi's eyes flashed for a minute. "What sort of training?"

"I study the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. Which basically means anything Pop wants it to mean. Kenpo, karate, judo, kickboxing, gymnastics, swimming, stealing, begging - you name it, it fits in Pop's style." Ranma watched Tenchi closely to judge his reaction.

"It sounds interesting. Grandfather has been training me in swordsmanship since I was little, but I've never studied much unarmed combat."

Ranma was intrigued. "What style does your Grandfather teach?"

"I'm not sure, to tell you the truth." Tenchi rubbed the back of his head, and laughed. It was always embarassing to admit that. "He just refers to it as the family style. I do know the basic kendo forms, though. I'm trying out for the club after school. I'm supposed to have a match with the club captain."

Ranma snorted. "Just watch out that he doesn't talk you to death first."

Now it was Tenchi's turn to look puzzled. "Okay."

Ranma's class began to move to the exercise. "Looks like I gotta go. See you later, Tenchi." Ranma jogged off.

Tenchi stood to follow his class. "Seems like a nice guy..."

-*-

Akane crouched in right field. The softball game was tied. It was only the fith inning, but the instructor had announced that it would be the last of the game since the period was running out.

All around the softball field the boys were watching the senior girls face off against the juniors. It had been an exciting game so far. Ryoko was pitching for the seniors, and the only person whom she had not struck out was Akane. She had hit a home run. The junior's pitcher wasn't as good as Ryoko, and had given up several hits. But excellent play by the other girls had held the seniors to one run - Ryoko's homerun.

Akane could see Ranma out of the corner of her eye. The jerk was trying not to be obvious about it, but he was watching her closely. He probably thought she was going to mess up and cost her team the game. How dare he act like that! She'd show him.

The girl at bat hit a ground ball directly to the first baseman. That was the second out. Akane looked to the dugout and saw Ryoko picking up a bat. As the cyan haired girl walked up to the plate she grinned at Akane.

The first pitch was low and outside. Ryoko ignored it and the umpire called the ball. The second pitch was low, and Ryoko ignored it. A strike. The next pitch was the one Ryoko wanted. A level pitch coming in fast. Ryoko swung.

"KLONGGG!"

The contact of the bat and the ball sounded like someone had struck a temple bell. Ryoko dropped the bat and took off for first at a liesurely pace. Even though the ball was slow to rise, it was moving fast enough that it would clear the outfield fence.

Akane saw the ball coming straight towards her. It was fast and was going to be well over her head by the time it reached her. Akane took a running step and pushed off as hard as she could, using every bit of her trainig and strength to try and reach the ball. To her suprise, she found that she had actually jumped directly into the ball's path, instead of reaching for the ball it was headed directly for her face. She managed to get her glove in front of the ball.

The impact was vicious. Akane's glove snapped back, hitting her in the face and causing her to flip over backwards. Instictively she pulled her legs in tight to her chest, causing her body to continue its tumble until she was upright. Luckily her leap had been high enough that she had time to complete the maneuver before hitting the ground.

She heard cheers and applause as she held the ball over her head in her glove and started to jog off the field. Her hand was throbbing, and she could feel a trickle of blood from her nose where the glove had hit it.

Ryoko was standing at first base as Akane ran by, and watched Akane with narrowed eyes as she passed.

As usual, Ryoko laid on the heat for the first two batters. Akane wasn't sure how the girl managed to get that much speed out of an underhanded throw. The coaches were already talking about getting her onto the school's softball team. After the second out, Akane was up.

Akane walked to the plate, the bat held under her arm while she tried to massage some feeling back into her hand. Dr. Tofu would have to look at it when she left school. Akane was just glad she only had one period remaining after gym.

Taking up her stance, she looked at Ryoko.

Ryoko nodded at her once and began her wind up. Akane could see that this was going to be a straightforward shootout. She tensed her shoulders and prepared to swing. The pitch was going to be fast and flat, Ryoko hadn't thrown anything else all day.

As soon as Akane saw Ryoko release the ball she started to swing. At the speed Ryoko threw you couldn't wait if you wanted to get a hit. Akane snarled as she pulled the bat around, digging in with her heel and applying as much strength and leverage as she could.

Akane's swing conected. A line drive, straight at Ryoko's head. Akane froze when she saw what had happened. She and Ryoko had a rivalry going, but she didn't want to hurt the girl.

"SMACK!"

Ryoko stood, her right arm held straight in front of her. In her gloveless hand she held the ball. There was scattered applause from the bystanders. The coack blew her whistle and the girls started into the lockers to shower and change.

Akane waited for Ryoko as the new girl walked off the mound. When the girl approached her Akane smmiled nervously. "Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to hurt you or anything."

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'm fine. That was some catch you made earlier."

"Thanks. That hit of yours had a lot of power. I think I bruised some of the bones in my hand."

Ryoko looked at Akane's hand, which was already turning purple and starting to swell. "You sure you didn't break it?"

"Pretty sure. My name's Akane, by the way."

"Ryoko." Ryoko casually stretched. "Say, Akane. How do you know Nabiki? I saw you two sitting together at lunch."

"She's my sister."

"Ahh. Well, see you later." Ryoko waved as she turned down the row to her locker.

"Yeah, okay."

-*-

Nabiki had Ranma cornerd against the wall outside the school. Around them students were rushing to leave before the principle could come up with some sort of wierd requirement to depart.

"So Tencchi is going to fight Kuno?"

"Yeah, that's what he told me. He wants to join the Kenddo club, but I figure that will last about as long as the fight. I don't think Kuno can beat him, and you know Kuno ain't gonna let anyone in the club who's stronger thann he is."

Nabiki brooded. She'd severely underestimated those two new students. They were much more capable than she had first thought. The way the betting was running for the Kuno/Tenchi match-up, if Kuno didn't make a good showing she'd wind up losing money. Well, at least there was a sure fire way to get Kuno to fight better.

"OK, Ranma, here's the deal. I want Kuno to perform well in this match. The best way to get him to do that is to get his 'pig-tailed goddess' involved. Nabiki reached into her bag and pulled out a squeeze bottle of water. She also had a thermos of hot water. Ranma was always good for a few yen when he was looking for hot water.

"Hey now, Nabiki! I like Tenchi. I don't wanna get invol..."

Ranma's voice jumped an octave or two as Nabiki sprayed him down.

"...ed - damn it Nabiki!"

Nabiki pushed Ranma-chan around the side of the building. "Just let Kuno know you'll be watching the fight. That's all you have to do."

"Why? Why would I want to do *anything* to help Kuno?"

Nabiki smiled. Nabiki's smile had been known to reduce strong minded men to cowering wrecks.

"We could start with the fact that you buried the lunch Akane made for you last night in the backyard."

Ranma paled. "N-no. I'll do it. All I gotta do is wave and let him know I'm watching, right?"

"Yep. Thats all."

-*-

So far, Tenchi was distinctly unimpressed with the captain of the Kendo club. While Kuno obviously knew the basics well he seemed to be rather narrow-minded about utilizing those skills. In addition, he wouldn't shut up. Yes, that was the worst, as Tenchi saw it.

Ryoko stood at one end of the field. She was cheering Tenchi on, and waving a fist of money in the air. Tenchi frowned slightly. He didn't like Ryoko betting, especially on him. She got so worked up about money. As usual, she had a crowd of boys around her making bets.

At the other end of the field Nabiki stood, flanked on either side by her two assistants. The two girls were busy collecting bets and updating a small blackboard listing the odds. Nabiki stood staring at Ryoko, who was grinning back at her.

Tenchi had been holding back against Kuno, afterall, this was really just a test to show his proficiency. It was really disappointing. If this was the best the school had to offer his skills were really going to slip. Between sparring with his Grandfather, the girls getting kidnapped and running for his life from every enforcement agancy in the known universe, Tenchi was used to vigorus workouts. This bout was not very taxing.

Out of the corner of his eye Tenchi caught a flash of red. After parrying Kuno's strike and launching a blow in return, he was able to see more clearly what had caught his eye.

On the hill above the two combatants a young girl with vibrant red hair stood waving. She was wearing a red chinese shirt and black pants. Tenchi thought the outfit was familiar.

"Yoo-hoo!" called the girl. "Kuno!"

The captain of the kendo club turned at the girls voice and stared.

"Ah! What light beyond yonder hill breaks? Hark! It is my pig-tailed goddess! Never fear! After I have vanquished this foe I shall dedicate his defeat to you, and we shall date!"

Tenchi, who had been in a guard postion, lowered his sword as Kuno's speech continued. He could hear Ryoko on the sidelines screaming at him to hit Kuno while his guard was down. Tenchi considered it for a minute, but ultimately decided it would be rather unsportsmanlike. Then Kuno opened his mouth to continue his speech and Tenchi decidded his sanity was more important than sportsmanship.

He smashed Kuno.

-*-

That afternoon Tenchi walked down the streets of Nerima checking the addresses of the houses. Several of the boys had mentioned that the Tendo Dojo was one of the best in Nerima. Apparently the owner was pretty well known.

Walking down the street he walked closely along a stone wall surrounding a large yard.. From the other side he could hear the occasional sh