“Stupid old lady,” a red head girl muttered. “Can’t believed she got me wet.” Not knowing anything else to do, the young girl made her way to the front gate of Furinkan High School. She was a bit shocked at the welcoming crowd. <<Weird>> Ignoring the stare from the group of boys, she walked to the front entrance expecting the group to depart. However, the boys just stared at her and didn’t move one bit.

“Would you mind getting out of the way?” she snarled.

“Little Lady, please escort yourself from the presence of I, Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School,” Kuno said proudly. Unfortunately, he didn’t bother to watch the glowing red girl in front of him.

“WHAT THE F*** DID YOU SAY?” the redhead growled.

“As expected, such foul manner from the peasant that you are.”

“PEASANT!?”

“Oh, such boyish attitude from one so young. Such unladylike mannerism. Unlike the fierce tigress of Tenod Akane. For no such female exists that surpass the might of my love.”

“AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!” The redhead charged Kuno with pure rage.

“Hahaha, for one so young to attempt to best the mighty Kuno. Very well, if you win, I shall allow you to date me.” Kuno took his fighting stance as the redhead charged.

<<I’m going to pound the F*** into the ground so hard, he’s going to emerge on the other side.>> Red curtain covered her eyes as she leaped at the so called samurai. With a twist in mid, air, she landed a few feet away from the kendoist and went full out. With kicks and punches faster than the eye could register, she became a blur around Kuno.

The audience watched in awe as the redhead pounded the living day light out of Kuno. So immerse in the display, they completely ignored the approaching Akane.

Like usual, Akane ran into the hoard of boys like the day before. The problem was, no one was attacking. Her temper immediately rose a couple of notches at the fact that they had the nerve to ignore her. With a scream, she charged into the unsuspecting crowd.

Before the group even registered the scream from Akane, they were sent flying. Once finished, Akane scanned the surrounding and almost lost her footing at the sight a few meters away. Before her, a red blur surrounded the Kendo captain. Even from this distance, she was certain that Kuno was already unconscious, but his body was jerking within the blur. <<Kami-sama! They’re going to kill Kuno. I got to stop this.>> Akane quickly made her way and shouted at the top of her voice, “STOP THIS!”

Suddenly, the blur dissolved into a figure with its back toward Akane. The body was still tensed and breathing heavily. The sudden impact of Kuno on the ground startled Akane out of her gaze. Akane ran over to the prone Kuno and turned him over. She quickly gasped at the sight. Kuno was completely covered with bruises and cuts. From the way the body was bent, she estimated that he had several joints dislocated. His shallow breathing indicated possible cracked or broken ribs. She was about to tell someone to call an ambulance, but stopped at the sound of approaching siren.

Akane looked at the figure and stomped toward it. Though, she didn’t like Kuno, she had never in her life attacked him that seriously. She was going to give a peace of her mind at the reckless of this girl’s action. <<I don’t care who you are, but you’re not going to get away with this.>> “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING”

The figured ignored Akane and turned toward the entrance.

Akane quickly grabbed her shoulder and forced the girl to face her. As soon as she saw the pure hatred and cold stare, she knew she made a big mistake. Akane audibly gulped at the sight. A cold shiver ran down her spine.

Without word, the redhead turned and left the area. As soon as she was out of sight, Akane drew a few nervous breaths. For the first time in her life, she was scared. Terrified was more like it. The hatred she saw in the redhead’s eyes plagued her. She wasn’t certain what happened to the redhead, but she knew one thing for certain, she was dangerous. Deadly dangerous. Akane quickly grabbed her bag and ran to class.

Some floors above the fight, Nabiki stared at the retreating form. She was extremely thankful that Akane was able to stop the fight without getting injured. As soon as the fight started, she left immediately and called the hospital. For some reason, she knew that pompous head Kuno was in way over his head and if the fight didn’t stop, Kuno would probably be dead. Who ever that redhead was, she needed to know. Both for her family safety as well as everyone else.

Just as Akane arrived in class, the final bell rang. As soon as she was seated, she noticed a boy with pigtailed standing at the front of the class. From the way he stood, she knew he was a martial artist. Unfortunately, he was a boy and she hated boys. Just as she was about to look away, something caught her attention. He has the clearest blue-gray eyes she had ever seen. The eyes were almost identical to the redhead this morning. <<Could it be they’re siblings?>> Though Akane wasn’t completely certain, she needed to talk to him about the redhead. If they’re really siblings, then maybe he could talk to her about this morning fight.

The teacher entered the room and the class rose to their feet and bowed. “Everyone, I would like you to welcome Ranma, er, ….”

“Just Ranma,” Ranma flatly.

“Er… Right. Lets welcome Ranma to our class. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.”

“No.”

“Er… Well, umm…. Just take that seat behind Miss Tendo,” the teacher said nervously as he pointed to the seat near the window.

As Ranma was about to move, a girl shouted, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“None of your damn business,” Ranma said coldly.

The comment startled everyone in the room. The teacher didn’t know what to say. He thought about disciplining the new student for the foul language, but the coldness in the voice stopped him. <<I’ll just ignore it this time.>>

Akane stared blankly at the boy as he made his way to his desk. As he passed, she felt an aura of extreme anger and sadness. Again, she felt shivers ran down her spine. It seems that Ranma was just as angry as the redhead girl from this morning, Akane thought. <<Maybe, I’ll just wait before talking to him…>>

At lunch, Ranma made his way out of the room and found a tree nearby. Unfortunately, it’s the same tree that Akane sat with her friends.

Some distance away, Akane and her friends were talking about today ‘big’ event, namely Ranma and the redhead girl. Most of the topic came down to his attitude and how much it resembled the redhead. Lost in their conversation, they didn’t noticed Ranma until they were a few feet away. The group stopped and watched, as Ranma ate his lunch, not entirely certain on how to approach this.

Looking up from his lunch, Ranma asked flatly, “Is there a problem?”

Quickly, two of the girls shook their heads. Akane was about to tell him that he was sitting in their spot, but her friends quickly dragged her away. Turning to her friends, she snarled, “What you do that for?”

“Come on, Akane. He’s in a bad mood and messing with him is a bad idea.”

“Yeah, very bad,” confirmed another.

“We’ll just sit at a different tree, ok?” pleaded Yuka.

Akane just sighed and nodded. They found a tree nearby and sat down to finish their lunch. From where Akane sat, she had a pretty good view of Ranma. Ranma was in a lotus position and eyes closed. Suddenly, she noticed a dark red aura surrounded Ranma and disappeared. Seconds later, the aura reappeared with the same color, but much denser.

<<Concentrate, damn it. Can’t loose control like that. Breath. Breath.>> As Ranma concentrated on his meditation, the dark red hue enveloped his entire being. He knew about it, but ignored it since it’s pretty common. Common for him. What he didn’t know was the growing crowd that came to watch. Some with fear, others with curiosity, few in awe, and the rest didn’t know what to make of it. None of this ever interrupted his meditation until a horrid laughter echoed through his mind. He tried desperately to ignore the voice, but to no avail. Frustrated, he released his aura along with the scream, “AAARRRGGHHH!” Painting from the released, he eyed the startled crowd for the source of the sound and stopped upon a brown ponytail girl holding a black rose.

“Hohohoho, my what a man,” Kodachi whispered. “Please, let me introduce myself. I am the rising star of St. Hebereke High School, Kuno Kodachi, the Black Rose.”

Unfazed, Ranma narrowed his eyes. <<Kuno?….Kuno?…. Kuno! The same family of that idiotic fool.>>

“You may introduce yourself to my presence, commoner,” said Kodachi, confidently.

Ranma raised his brow and sneered at her. <<She’s not worth the trouble.>> With a wave of his hand, he turned and walked away from the stunned gymnastic.

“H-How dare you turn your back in my presence, commoner!” Kodachi screeched.

Everyone at that time wisely decided to move away from Kodachi. Ranma on the other hand continued to walk away completely ignoring Kodachi and her ranting. Just then, his sixth sense kicked in and he leaped out of harm’s way.

“I suggest you leave before I give you a free visit to your idiotic brother,” Ranma warned.

“To think a commoner like yourself could ever defeat me in a fight,” Kodachi said, nose held high.

“Yeah, and only a psychotic would stand there,” Ranma snickered.

“Vile peasant! I shall show you no mercy,” yelled Kodachi as she leaped into attack. Only moments later, she flew back toward the wall surrounding the school. With a loud crash, the wall crumbled to the ground.

Ranma made his way over to the fallen body and picked her up by the neck. “Next time, I won’t hesitate to kill. Listen and listen very carefully. I fight to kill. So unless you wish to die, then you better leave me alone. I don’t even want to hear your voice. Is that understood?” To his surprise and disappointment, the girl laughed her head off. Shaking his head, he connected his fist against her head, knocking her unconscious. He warily dropped her on the floor and left the scene.

Everyone quickly made way for him. From the look in their eyes, one emotion dominated all others, fear. Fear for their life. Fear for their friends. Fear for their family. Fear no one dared denied. Even the so-called ‘Ice Queen’ of Furinkan felt that fear. As it turned out, many members of the audience had to leave quickly to change their uniform.

Akane watched Ranma walked pass her and the rest of the student body in the yard and shuddered at the fact that he didn’t have any objection to hitting girl, pretty, rich, or not. As soon as he disappeared in the building, her knees gave and fell to the floor where she decided it was best to stay until she could find the nerve to walk back to class. The worst part was she sat right in front of him and she had no idea if she could remain calm enough for the rest of the day.

After what felt like several hours, she finally gathered enough courage to walk back to class where she found Ranma seating at his seat staring out the window. She noticed that everyone was standing as far away from him as possible. She also didn’t need any special ability to see that he was glowing dark purple. She gulped as she slowly made her way to her seat and tried to push down the fear she felt growing with each step.

By the time she made it to her seat, the bell rang, startling her for intense concentration. It also stopped Ranma from glowing in class and the rest of the student found enough courage to find their seat while keeping very aware of him. She released a breath of air as the teacher entered the room and began her lesson. She didn’t hear much of the lesson, though. She was too much aware of the presence behind her.

Akane was very relief when the last came around as she quickly left the room to change into her PE uniform. Today, they played softball while the boys watched. In the beginning, she was very tense but soon loosen as she forgot about her trouble and enjoyed the game. Near the end of class, she stepped up to bath and hit a line drive and headed directly for the meditating Ranma. Her eyes widen in horror as it planted itself on his right cheek.

Ranma opened his eyes and scanned the field and stopped his gaze on Akane. She was holding her bat loosely, her eyes wide with fear, her left hand trembled, and her body tensed. He removed the softball and held it in his hand and squeezed until it exploded into dust. He dusted himself and left the field without saying a word. Even the teacher ignored him.

Akane sighed in relief as he left the field. She wondered if she should go and apologized to make sure there was no hard feeling and that he didn’t come back for revenge or something similar. With a heavy sigh, she walked off where Ranma last disappeared. As she reached the top of the hill, she found Ranma walking by the pool and almost tumbled down the hill. She quickly gathered herself and followed him to an abandon building.

She quietly crept through the building, cautiously scanning the area all the while keeping her guard up. Even with all her precaution, she never felt the presence behind her.

“Why did you follow me?”

Akane ‘eeped’ and jumped away from the source and took up a fighting stance. She found Ranma standing loosely and his expression hard, eyes staring at her intently.

“I-I…” she began, but lost her voice. She took several deep breaths and started again, “I-I came to say… um.. I-I’m sorry.”

Ranma looked at her curiously, “What for?”

“F-For the baseball. I didn’t mean to hit you,” she explained.

Ranma snickered and waved his hand, “It’s nothing. I had worst, much worst.” Wit that said, he turned and walked deeper into the building.

Akane watched him for a moment and rushed after him. “Wait!”

Ranma never paused, “What now?”

“T-The redhead.”

He paused, “What about her?”

“S-She’s you?”

They remained silent for a moment, “Yeah,” he stated flatly.

“Um… How?” she asked, her curiosity got the better of her.

“It’s a curse. That’s all you need to know.”

Ranma walked up the stairs until he reached a large living area. From the scene, it was recently cleaned and made livable. She watched him removed some items from a pack and began cooking.

“You live here?” She took the grunt as a ‘yes’ and wondered around the area. The building had been a small apartment complex that was abandoned after a fire several years ago. There were still some old sofas, wooden chairs, and tables left standing or were partially touched by the fire, but wasn’t worth repairing. She paced around the room while keeping Ranma at the corner of her eyes. He was cooking some rice and fishes.

“Why are you still here?”

Startled by the sudden questions, she paused for a moment to compose herself. She thought about and realized that she didn’t know. She should have left after apologizing to him and forget she ever met him. So, why was she still here? Was she curious? Maybe.

She shrugged, “Don’t really know. I guess I’m just curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” he spoke plainly.

Then she remembered who she was talking to and felt a shiver ran down her spine. With that thought, she backed away to the stairs and ran out of the building as quickly as her legs would carry her. After some distance away, she leaned against the wall and placed her hand over her chest. Her heart was beating almost erratically.

By the time she reached home, it was almost diner and quickly went into the bathroom to clean up. As she left, she found Nabiki standing at the door with an intent look.

“You followed him,” she said in an accusing voice.

Akane didn’t say anything. There was no denying, especially to her sisters.

“Why?”

“I-I just wanted to apologize,” she said weakly.

“For what? What could be so bad that you need to do something so stupid?”

“I-I hit him with a baseball,” she whispered. Somehow the reason didn’t seem so strong right now.

“Who cares! I could care less if a car hit him.”

“It was the right thing to do,” she retorted.

“Right thing!? Are you crazy? He’s dangerous! You could have been hurt or even kill for that matter,” she yelled in anger. It wasn’t like her to loose her control so easily, but what Akane was totally reckless and she needed a good scowl.

“I can take care of myself! I’m a martial artist too!” she shouted defensively.

Nabiki cried in frustration, “You might be a martail artist, but there’s no way in hell you can take him on. So, shove that stupid martial art pride of your and think logic for a moment. He took out Kuno Kodachi like it was nothing. He hit a girl! So don’t even think he’ll hold back against you!”

Akane looked dejected with her head lowered. She knew she wasn’t in league with Ranma, but she didn’t like to be reminded of it, especially by her family.

“Listen Akane. Stay away from him. For your safety, stay as far away from him as possible.”

Akane just nodded and left for diner. Nabiki watched for a moment before joining her for diner. She had a lot of research to do. So far, there was little information available other than those she got from the school record, which was close to useless. Strange, that there was no family name listed in the record. Other than the basic information of height, age, etc, there was nothing else.

No relatives.

No guardian.

No one.

Just him.

Just Ranma.

Diner at the Tendo was relatively quiet until Soun cough, eliciting everyone attention.

“I have great news from a old friend of mind,” he said happily.

Nabiki watched her father intently while keeping a neutral expression. She had more important issues to consider than worry about some friend of his. If she knew her father, and she does, that friend will be some fat freeloading bald guy with a big appetite, which mean the income will be strain even more. If that were the case, she would have to find new source of income. With Kuno in the hospital, she won’t be able to gather her regular allowances.

“He and his son have been on a ten years training trip and have recently crossed China,” Soun continued.

“Oh, China,” Nabiki tried to sound enthusiastic.

“So, what’s so good about China,” Akane voiced her rather annoyed tone.

“Heheh. Well, he and his son should be returning soon.”

“What are their names?”

“Saotome Genma and his son Ranma.”

At the mentioned of ‘Ranma’, but Akane and Nabiki gasped and stared wide eyes.

“What’s Ranma like?” Nabiki asked after her business expression returned.

“Heheh, I don’t know,” he said nervously.

“You know know.”

“Nope,” he shook his head.

“Do you even know how old he is?”

“He’s the same age as Akane, I believe.”

“Do you know when he’s coming?”

Again, he shook his head, “No.”

“Then how do you know he’ll be here?”

Soun pulled out the postcard from his sleeve and handed to Nabiki.

“’Bringing Ranma home from China. Genma’” Nabiki read. She flipped the card over and found a picture of a panda chewing a bamboo with a postmark. She eyed the imprint. “This date almost seven months ago.”

Soun nodded. “They should be here any day now.”

“Right. Well, I’ll just hold my breath till they’re here,” she said sarcastically.

“That’s spirit,” he said, completely missing the undertone.

Nabiki dragged Akane from the diner table and headed to her room. Once inside, she locked the door and motioned for her to sit at the bed.

“Do you think this is the same Ranma?” Akane asked.

Nabiki shrugged, “I don’t really know, but I would definitely place by bet on him.”

“What’re we going to do? What if he comes to live with us?”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. From all indications, I don’t think he even know about us.”

“What about his father?”

Nabiki was silent. What if Genma did come? Father would blindly bring him into the house along with Ranma without realizing the danger. How can you prevent that?

“I don’t know, Sis. But I’m going to everything to make they never step a foot into our home,” she said, determined.

“I hope so,” she said with hint of uncertainty.

“Don’t worry. I always keep my promise. First, I need to confirm if our Ranma is the same Ranma dad was talking about.”

“Couldn’t we just ask him?”

“Are you kidding? We have no idea on how he’ll react.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Let me worry about the detail, but I want you to stay away from him.”

Akane just nodded and left the room and flopped down on her bed.