Katsumi bolted upright to a loud thunk coming from his ceiling. A second, softer thunk followed and he heard muffled voices which almost immediately sped away. Confused, he grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and threw open the window, pajamas fluttering in the pre-dawn breeze.

  Craning his neck he saw Genma and Ranma fighting on the roof, standing so close to the edge they could fall at any moment. And yet neither seemed bothered by the potential drop as they gracefully attacked, dodged, and blocked each other. The shouting he heard was clearly good-natured posturing based on the grins on their faces.

  “Hah! One night in a real bed and you’re already going soft on me, old man!”

  “I see roughhousing with your new friend didn’t teach you anything new, boy!”

  For a man in the throes of middle age Katsumi was astounded by Mr. Saotome’s speed and agility. He wasn’t as fast as Ranma but his size and experience were clearly up to the challenge of keeping pace with his teenage son.

  He watched as the two leapt to the tree in the back yard and continued their fight there, though the fact that they were midair didn’t stop them from striking out with fist and foot. The aerial dance was interrupted only when his mother called out to the household that breakfast was ready.

  Genma blocked and gripped Ranma’s hands, turned to the Tendo matriarch and thanked her, oblivious to Ranma’s protestations as they fell into the koi pond. A waterlogged girl pulled herself out of the pond and started yelling at the panda that was her father.

  Oh geez, this is gonna be a thing isn’t it? Katsumi groaned as he started getting dressed.

  Akio was dreaming. It was one of those funny dreams where it starts with waking up, but then he saw Ranma and his dad flying outside his window. The dream continued as he plodded downstairs and saw the gorgeous figure of Ranma’s girl body sitting on the engawa wringing a soaking-wet tank top over the grass wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with Akio’s name on them.

  Sleepily he mumbled something like, “Hey beautiful,” as he walked past her.

  The shrill response dug into his spine as Ranma shouted, “What the hell did you call me?!”

  Suddenly he realized he was actually awake and actually staring at her mostly-naked form. Trying desperately to divert the attention away from himself he darted his eyes around to focus on anything else and picked quite possibly the worst option.

  “Why are you wearing my boxers?”

  Ranma’s eye twitched as he stomped up to Akio, ready to pound the baby Tendo into next week for daring to call him beautiful. Sure it made the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he felt the blush spread from his face down to his navel, but that was embarrassment. Guys did not get called beautiful.

  Fortunately for Akio, he had a guardian angel.

  “RANMA SAOTOME!” boomed his mother’s voice so violently that Ranma shrieked and hopped straight up, clinging to the roof’s overhang like a cricket.

  “What?” the boy-turned-girl yelped back, unsure if he was in trouble or somebody was attacking or what was happening.

  Fuming, Hana marched out into the garden so she could look their youngest guest in the eyes. “Young man, you will keep yourself covered up as long as you’re in my house. Do you understand?”

  Genma chuckled, which as a panda came out sounding like a series of chuffs and barks. Hana whirled on him as well, extending her finger like a virtuoso composer. “Mr. Saotome! Since you will be moving in I expect you to hold you and your son to the standards of urban living. My home is no country retreat for feral pugilists, do you understand?”

  Ranma was embarrassed, but it felt good to see someone take his old man down a peg after their spar. In a single fluid motion he dove off the roof into Akio’s borrowed tank top and rolled until his feet were on the ground right in front of Mrs. Tendo.

  Their host turned back to see Ranma, hands politely at his sides, looking up at her with a pert smirk and doe-like innocence. “I’ll make sure we’re both the best-behaved guests you’ve ever had.”

  Hana blinked. Her sons occasionally tried the cutesy routine on her — rarely did that go in their favor — but Ranma was selling the crap out of it. Was that just the result of years running scams and improvisation, was this something Ranma had practiced prior to acquiring his curse, or was he just a natural at over-the-top performative femininity? Was Hana just a sucker for a young girl’s face since she always wished she’d have at least one daughter?

  “Sorry mama, did I hear you say ‘moving in’?” Naoki was already dressed for school while he stood in the hallway eating his grilled fish. “Aren’t they just staying for a few days?”

  Hana waved her hand dismissively. “Yes yes, there’s been a change of plans. I was going to make the announcement while we were all eating but someone decided to take a dip in the pond.” She stared daggers at Ranma, who recoiled in fear.

  “Hey that was pop’s fault, I didn’t know he was just gonna stop.”

  Ranma and his father, both in their birth forms after a quick splash from the kettle, joined the Tendos as they were finishing breakfast. They both went for the same bowl, scowled at each other to assert dominance, but Ranma relented and took the last one for himself.

  “This will only take a moment Katsumi, I know Dr. Tofu will understand so listen to what I have to say first.” Hana began as her oldest son was already trying to run out the door. He sighed as obviously as he could and sat back down, performatively checking his watch.

  “Last night I invited Mr. Saotome and Ranma to live with us on a permanent basis. This morning they told me they agreed.”

  She expected push back, or protests, or Katsumi at least to make a snarky comment, but all three boys nodded as they processed what she said. “Do...does anyone have any questions?”

  Katsumi answered first, “Not really. I assume if they’ve been living an itinerant lifestyle it makes sense that they haven’t had a permanent place to stay for a while. Tokyo prices just keep going up so it’d be hard to find a place if you wanted to settle down.”

  He practically sped through his words. While he said them with a clinical detachment the Saotomes didn’t detect any judgment or condescension in his tone. He just stared at them in a way that made them want to argue but the only thing they could do was agree.

  “That’s...right,” Genma reluctantly assented. Years of living as a wild man made him want to wring the arrogant child’s neck, but he had a sneaking suspicion that was something he’d have to get used to.

  Katsumi nodded and looked back to Hana. “Was there anything else, mother?”

  She gave him a look. The look was disapproval, but she shook her head. “No, that was all. Have a good day at work!” By the end of her sentence he was already out the front door.

  Akio broke the silence that followed. “Oh, it’s not related to them staying, but Ranma, can I ask you a favor?” Turning a little pink once the attention quickly passed to him, Ranma just nodded.

  “Thanks. I was hoping you’d walk to school with Naoki and me. There’s a...combat ritual that I’ve been a part of before class starts and I was hoping you would watch me and give me some notes to practice later?”

  Ranma realized he was staring directly at Akio’s big, brown eyes so he flicked his gaze down, which just meant he was now staring at the boy’s broad chest in a tank top. He couldn’t decide which option was worse, so he deflected with an exaggerated shrug.

  “Sure, I guess. Got nothing better going on.”

  His father cleared his throat. “Actually, you do need to be somewhere today. We’re going to go meet this Dr. Tofu, see what he has to say, and then we’re going to help Mrs. Tendo with the groceries.”

  Ranma groaned. He’d honestly hoped they’d forgotten about that. “Okay, whatever, guess I’ll check out the fight tomorrow.”

  “Actually Ranma, I think it’s a good idea to go to the school,” Hana interrupted. “Since you’ll be staying here we should get you enrolled. Your father told me he tutored you some during your trip, if you can score well on the assessment you can start in a week or two. You can go to the doctor after you get back.”

  “Good idea, Mrs. Tendo. These boys can show you where the office is and you can bring back the registration form and let us know what else they’ll need to get that started.” Genma smiled. He hadn’t done well with things like math and science but he enjoyed going through history with Ranma, he was confident the boy wasn’t that far behind in his studies.

  His son was frowning though, and Genma knew why. The whole reason he’d taken Ranma out of school and into the Chinese wilderness was to get away from all the rumors and bullying that had tormented him during those middle school years. He didn’t dare bring that up in front of their host and Ranma’s new friends though, so he clapped a hand against Ranma’s back and let out a hearty chuckle. “Plus think of all the sports you’ll be able to dominate. You think those kids have seen anything like Ranma Saotome before? I doubt it!”

  The smile on his face and fire in his eyes was all the confirmation Genma needed to know that his tactic worked.

  They’d learned all sorts of strange, esoteric martial arts on their journey which Ranma was itching to try in a real fight. And what were sports but martial arts competitions with very particular rules? He thought through all the ones he’d want to try: Kendo, archery, basketball, volleyball, soccer, gymnastics, cheerleading, lacro—wait, cheerleading?

  Surely he was just excited about cheerleaders. Of course, that was why he thought about that. He was less sure why he pictured himself — or, at least, herself, given that he was in his cursed form in the image — in a cheerleading uniform but he’d been picturing himself in all sorts of uniforms as part of the daydream.

  Regardless, he’d show up all those so-called athletes. Impress the ladies a bit, find a girlfriend. His dad mentioning wives and kids last night had stuck with him. Though he doubted he’d find a girl like that at his school: if one existed he had the sense that Akio would already be in a relationship with her. He started to get jealous just thinking of it and chuckled to himself. It was good that he’d found a rival in the youngest Tendo. Maybe he’d learn how to get some of that insane power the kid had in exchange for teaching him a thing or two about speed.

  Naoki and Akio walked along the river at a quick pace. Ranma was effortlessly following them on the safety fence. They couldn’t tell if he was showing off or if that was just habit. He seemed to like to balance or perch on things.

  He’d also been quiet, which they weren’t expecting.

  Five minutes into the walk Akio finally said something. “So Ranma, where’d you live before you went to China?”

  “Tokyo, we moved around and didn’t stay in one place for too long. Part of that was training but it was mostly dad finding work where he could. Longest we stayed in one place was Suginami for three years.” He didn’t mention that’s where he went to middle school, or any of the awful things that happened there. It did make him reminisce about his best friend from that time in his ilfe. He hoped he got a chance to see him again, assuming he hadn’t gotten himself lost somewhere.

  “Oh wow, that’s close. Weird knowing we could have met you by chance one day,” Naoki mused.

  “That’d have been something. Though now I’m wondering if my dad intentionally never brought us to Nerima…” Ranma was just speculating but he suddenly wondered why Genma had never thought to pull the whole school unification thing earlier. Maybe he originally intended to wait until Ranma was 20?

  Once they’d reached the end of the fence, Ranma leapt off, did a superfluous flip just to show off, and landed in front of the Tendo boys. “So what’s this combat ritu—AL!” A surprise surge of cold water rushed over him, shrinking him down to his shapely spring form.

  His attacker, a clearly blind but nice-looking old lady, didn’t even seem to notice she’d hit someone.

  “Uggghhh, honestly the worst part about this stupid curse is having wet clothes to deal with all day.” He was being whiny, sure, but at this point he felt like he deserved it.

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  Akio gallantly draped his school jacket over Ranma, whose cheeks started to match his hair color. “Oh! Uh, thank you? I was just gonna head back to your place and take a bath.” He realized he could smell Akio on the jacket and had to make several snap-decision judgments about whether or not he would hand it back. Then he chided himself for even having that feeling. He was a boy, Akio was a boy, they could both smell like sandalwood and mint, that’d be fine. Plus he was shivering despite the warm summer morning, so he had to keep the jacket. By the time he was heading back home he’d be dry and warm.

  While Ranma’s thoughts spiraled, Naoki shook his head. “That’ll take too long. We could stop at Dr. Tofu’s…” he started to suggest but Akio cut him off.

  “I mean you’re not actually coming to school with us or anything. You just want to pop in, grab a registration form, and pop out, right? We still need to get there and get through the Horde.”

  Akio was surprised by how intense his older brother was as he stepped forward and jabbed a finger in Akio’s face. “We’re not making him stay in that form any longer than he has to.” It had been a long time since Naoki was able to take Akio in a fight. He usually wasn’t so forceful with his younger brother. This had the opposite of the intended effect though, and Akio gritted his teeth in irritation.

  Ranma didn’t want to start a fight, especially before getting into a real one, so he opted to placate everybody. “Hey, Naoki-sensei, remember what you taught me last night?”

  “You’re gonna have to be more specific.” He monotoned while continuing to stare Akio down.

  Leaping onto a street sign, crossing his arms, and letting the jacket flutter around him in the breeze, Ranma struck a pose like he’d seen in manga and grinned broadly. He could see his shadow and knew he was exuding a masculine, powerful aura.

  Naoki and Akio were captivated by the display, the older Tendo beaming with pride as he realized he had enabled this swaggering confidence.

  Despite the pitch of his voice in spring form, Ranma’s voice rang out, “That no matter what my body is telling me, I’m me! Ranma Saotome!” He curled his fist into a ball and stuck out his thumb to point at himself as he grinned madly. “I’ll change if I feel like it, when I feel like it, but I wanna get to this fight thing.”

  The Tendo boys, moved by Ranma’s excitement, shouted in agreement and began dashing toward the school, followed closely by their new housemate.

  Furinkan High School stood surrounded by stone walls that prevented Ranma from seeing into the courtyard, but outside everything seemed peaceful. He didn’t see anything that indicated there was some sort of fight happening.

  Naoki was flagging, not being quite as durable as the martial artists, and he slowed to a walk as they got close. Akio waved goodbye to him and gave Ranma a quick rundown. “Okay! Get somewhere you can keep an eye on me while I take these guys out. Oh and hold this, I really appreciate it!” He threw his school bag to Ranma who caught it despite being confused.

  “Wait, what?” Ranma tried to get him to explain but he surged forward through the gate. Ranma hopped up onto the wall and saw a literal Horde of boys, most of whom were wearing athletic uniforms. He saw baseball bats, bokutos, hockey sticks, boxing gloves, rugby pads. There was a sumo wrestler even! All of them converged on Akio once he passed through the gate.

  And Ranma was enraptured by his new friend. Akio slammed into a baseball player who’d been too slow. He snaked an arm through the boy’s arms and twisted, disarming him and taking the bat for himself. Instead of wielding it like a club he spun it around like a short staff, blocking blows from a couple of lacrosse players.

  While he held the bat and used it for defense, his legs were a flurry of offensive motion. Ranma was legitimately confused as to why he didn’t seem this fast in their spar yesterday. Maybe being a third-party observer made things seem faster? Regardless, a breeze chilled him again and he pulled the jacket tighter, which had the effect of intensifying that scent. He was suddenly very happy that his new friend was otherwise occupied.

  The bat performed well as a mini-staff. Using jabs and sweeps he kept anyone from getting too close while his feet struck out. Ranma realized that Akio’s biggest weakness was range. In a one-on-one he could grapple and that would be that, but against a group that wasn’t an option. Using the bat was a great way to make up for that shortcoming.

  Sumo boy rushed while Akio was busy striking at a boy in a Speedo, and Ranma felt his heart stop for an instant. He was about to get hit! But before the wrestler got close enough to strike Akio backflipped over him and clobbered him over the head. Ranma whooped, realizing that the Tendo had already incorporated some of what he’d learned in their spar yesterday. With that kind of mobility he’d be able to mitigate the range issue.

  Some of the boys didn’t even bother continuing as Akio kept knocking away their compatriots without getting hit once, and before he knew it the fight was over. Akio threw the bat at an charging warrior in a kendo outfit and bokuto. The fool took the bait and swatted the bat away, which gave Akio an opening to pull him into a grapple and bend backwards, piledriving the boy’s face into the dirt.

  While he was sad he didn’t get to participate in the fight, Ranma was hyped up and excited for his friend. Akio, breathing hard, surveyed the damage he’d done and turned to Ranma in a victory pose, flashing his beautiful smile and making a V with his fingertips. Time slowed as Ranma gazed upon him, illuminated by the morning rays of the sun, still panting from the effort.

  “That was awesome!” Ranma exclaimed as he leapt down. He finally took the jacket off to give back to Akio along with his bag, and held a hand out to give the Tendo boy a celebratory high five.

  “Once again these delirious fools assail you only to be met with swift and decisive ends, my dear Akio, Lion of Tendo.” A husky but melodic voice rang out from across the yard, prompting Akio’s eyes to roll and Ranma’s hand to drop. When Ranma saw the person the voice was attached to, however, his jaw, the jacket, and the bag dropped as well.

  A tall girl, around Naoki’s height, advanced on the two of them. She wasn’t wearing the school uniform, instead she wore a green kimono with black roses creeping up from the hem and a yellow belt tied in the back to resemble a sunburst. Her sleeves were rolled up, her raven black hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, and she held a hockey stick as if it was a naginata.

  “Wh—huh?” Ranma exclaimed. “Who’s this, the drama teacher?”

  “Hi Kodachi,” Akio groaned. “I didn’t even take a hit that time, will you please call these guys off?”

  Ranma stared at him, slack-jawed. “You know this lady?”

  Akio was about to respond, about to tell Ranma about how Kodachi had been Naoki’s weird friend for a while before becoming smitten with Akio in middle school, but she spoke first.

  “You, common wench! You speak to Akio with wanton familiarity! Who do you think you are?” She leveled the hockey stick at Ranma with venom in her words and ice in her gaze.

  Bristling at the idea that she couldn’t be friends with the nice guy who liked to fight, Ranma opened her mouth to shout back at the weirdo but was cut off.

  “Though it is proper for one to introduce themselves first, I suppose. My name is Kodachi Kuno, upperclassman Kuno, junior. Group E. School president and captain of the girls’ hockey team, I am Furinkan’s Black Rose!” She rose her hockey stick as a crack of lightning filled the sky and out of nowhere a flurry of black rose petals whirled around her.

  Ranma blinked, not quite sure if what was happening was real. Maybe he’d never actually woken up this morning. He pinched Akio, who yelped in surprise. “Okay, not dreaming I guess,” he muttered to himself.

  “You’re supposed to pinch you!” he heard Akio whine. Kodachi’s eyes flared at the touch.

  “Well, I’m staying at the Tendo dojo for a while,” Ranma began, which incensed the older girl even more, and she once again interrupted before Ranma could continue.

  “You what? What manner of madness is this? I shall be the only woman to lay with Akio Tendo!” Ranma went crimson at the suggestion, and was grateful to see Akio blush as well.

  Both of them began protesting Kodachi’s assumption, but the wannabe onna-bugeisha was well beyond convincing at this point. “I shall defeat you here, harlot, and claim gallant Akio’s hand for myself!” She rushed forward with the stick, jabbing with furious but disciplined motions.

  Immediately Ranma was on the back foot, forced to dodge away from the strikes. Getting inside her range would prove difficult, but it was the fastest way to neutralize her. She sprang up into a tree, outside of Kuno’s reach, but the upperclassman swung it with such speed and ferocity that she cut straight through the trunk, which began to slide and fall.

  He figured the stone wall around the school would be better able to resist a blow from the...plastic? He didn’t know what hockey sticks were made of. It would better be able to resist a blow from a hockey stick but she surprised him by annihilating the part of the wall he’d been standing on. The dust from the blockback gave Ranma enough of an opening that he could dive in right in front of the girl, and he tried to deescalate.

  “Listen! I’m not interested in Akio like that! I’m just staying at their home as a tenant, my dad is a friend of Mrs. Tendo!” He pressed his face as close to hers as he could and walked forward. She tried to step back fast enough to bring her makeshift naginata to bear but Ranma would not relent.

  She’s...so fast! Kodachi grimaced. She tried striking at the stranger with the handle but Ranma twirled around the blow and swept her legs, practically throwing her to the ground. In a fluid motion he snatched the hockey stick from her while she fell and hurled it to the horizon.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta get to the administrative office. See you around never!” Ranma gloated before dashing away with Akio right as it began to rain, soaking Kodachi to the bone. The upperclassman lay there for a moment as the rain mixed with the tears of her shame. This wasn’t over.

  Akio quickly gave Ranma directions to the registration office on the third floor and booked it to class just in time for the bell to ring. Cognizant of the fact that he was a girl at the moment, Ranma took a detour to the bathrooms. Gloriously, the sinks did hot as well as cold water and he splashed himself to change back to his birth form. He noticed a bruise forming on his neck and realized that Kuno had somehow struck him while she whirled that stick around and he hadn’t even noticed it. Hopefully he never met her again while a girl.

  Getting a copy of the registration form was easy, they even provided a plastic folder for him to take it home to make sure it didn’t get wet, which he appreciated. When he asked what else they needed for registration, other than a simple intake form with his personal details, they told him it was late enough into the school year that he could wait until summer to take an assessment test and determine if he would be joining the second years or starting first year fresh. The couple of months left in the year he could use to prep for the test, meet the teachers, and familiarize himself with the school. He would still have to take the end-of-year exams, but the counselor he spoke to told him to think of them as practice for the assessment.

  After the discussion he practically skipped toward the entrance. He didn’t know if he was still feeling excited after the fight earlier, newfound confidence from Naoki’s “lesson” the night before, or like things were just going his way for once but it was immensely satisfying.

  The plastic folder turned out to be helpful immediately. As he turned a corner he crashed into a group of girls holding buckets full of water in the hall. He yelped as he tumbled into a puddle, pushing the one he’d run into with a long dark ponytail away to keep her from falling with him.

  “Owwwwww, oh no I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed. “Are you okay?” He could tell he was once again in spring form.

  The girl he ran into actually seemed to have avoided the splash and was still standing: Ranma took the brunt of it. She and her friends glared at him for a moment before they realized he was legitimately sorry and that he’d saved her from getting drenched like him.

  “Don’t...don’t worry about!” she said, offering Ranma a hand up and a smile. “Are you okay? That was a lot. I’m Sayuri, what’s your name?”

  He didn’t stop to think before taking her hand and blurting his name out, he was just happy they weren’t mad. “Ranma Saotome!” Shit. Shit! Why’d I say that? Now if he came to school as a boy they’d think he was weird. Or a freak. Or worse, some kind of pervert.

  No, no, it’d be okay. If he got out of the conversation quickly enough whenever he came back he could say he just died his hair or something. If he wore different clothes he could pull it off, right? Though...if his curse were to get out later that would make him look like a liar.

  Before his fears consumed him, Sayuri gestured to her friends. “This is Yuka, Asami, and Hiroko.” The other girls nodded, waved.

  Hiroko, whose hair was shorter than Naoki’s but had freckles on her cheeks and nose that looked adorable, was looking at him with stars in her eyes. “Is that a tangzhuang? Are you from China!?” she practically squealed.

  Trying to pitch his voice down subtly Ranma answered brusquely. “It is but I grew up in Tokyo. Just got back from a training in China.” He inched away from the group but they were persistent and apparently very interested in learning more about him. They were probably bored from having to stand in the hall. If he could just be rude to them he could run off but he was enjoying the chance to make friends with actual girls for the first time in his life! The closest he’d ever gotten to hanging out with girls was...a week ago, when he and his dad came across that village of warrior women before they’d figured out how to control their curse.

  But the longer he took to get out of the conversation the worse it was gonna be when his curse eventually came out. Considering he’d ended up in his cursed form three times already today — and it wasn’t even noon yet — something would happen beyond his control and that would be that, the secret would be out. Ugh, if only hot water is what changed him instead of cold. Cold water was basically everywhere!

  A single thought skipped across his mind as the pressure of just how hard it would be to manage his condition: It would be easier to stay as a girl full-time at school.

  He wouldn’t even allow himself to process that thought as panic welled up within him. “Sorry girls, I’ve actually got to get this form home—”

  “RANMA SAOTOME!” bellowed a voice from down the hall, thick with hate and anger.

  Oh gods, this is going to keep happening, isn’t it? He thought as Kuno advanced. She was wearing a white kimono over her uniform and had a golf driver instead of a hockey stick this time, but the savagery on her face was no less intense.

  He almost responded before he realized he’d never told Kuno his name. One of the girls — Yuka, was it? — whispered “You haven’t even started and you’ve got upperclassman Kuno mad at you? Are you dating Akio Tendo or something?”

  To keep anyone from seeing the recognition on his face Ranma stayed focused on Kodachi. “Kuno who are you talking about?” He quickly threw together a name that sounded good. “My name is Yoi—”

  “Akio’s brother told me everything! How you and your cretinous father have infiltrated House Tendo to steal it from its rightful owners!” She sounded personally offended somehow, or maybe she took her onna-bugeisha schtick too seriously? Ranma figured she probably felt like she owned the Tendo house if she had designs on Akio.

  Anger flitted through him. To imply that his newfound friendship with the Tendos was false, like it was part of some elaborate scam? And to implicate his father in it?

  …Well, okay, he’d done some sketchy stuff in the past, but Ranma didn’t think he’d so much as shoplifted for at least a year, and he wasn’t as good at the long cons as Ranma used to be. He seemed like he was legitimately trying to be a more honest person.

  Which is why Ranma was so pissed off by this Kodachi chick. He started to approach her, realizing that if she charged him there was a good chance his new frien—these girls would be at risk. “Don’t talk about my pops, blueblood.” He growled.

  Raising her club like a katana, Kuno charged. Ranma grabbed one of Asami’s buckets and flung it. His intent wasn’t to splash her directly but to soak the floor. She leapt into the air, not realizing that she’d played directly into Ranma’s gambit.

  Saotome leapt as well, and Kuno swung her blade vertically…which snagged on the roof, arresting her momentum and allowing Ranma to deliver a kick directly to her midsection. The two tumbled to the ground, sliding away from Sayuri and her friends.

  Kodachi was far from finished though, and jabbed her fingers into Ranma’s side. He yelped in pain as she rolled, pinning him and pressing the club into his neck. Ranma did not appreciate how the Nerima folks loved to shut down his ability to breathe. That was his favorite ability!

  She didn’t expect how flexible he was though, as he managed to snake his legs around her torso and under her arms. Kicking with his whole body, he flung her off of him, sending her dozens of feet down the hallway.

  The girls started coming toward him as he picked himself off the floor but he waved them away. “Nuhhh…no! She’s not done!” he managed to cough up as he caught his breath and whirled to face Kuno again, but saw she’d gone flying out an open window.

  For a moment he let himself relax before Hiroko shrieked. “We’re on the third floor!”

  Without thinking he dashed and leapt out the window. The last thing he needed was to kill a random girl on…not even technically his first day, like Yuka said! Fortunately the window overlooked the pool, but he saw Kuno lying face down, unmoving.

  Diving perfectly, he shot through the water toward her and pushed her up from underneath as he awkwardly paddled to the pool’s edge. By the time he got her there students had noticed a commotion and were crowding the hallways trying to get a look at what was going on.

  Kodachi wasn’t breathing, so Ranma groaned and got her in position for CPR. He really hoped she woke up before he got to the rescue breaths. Before he started chest compressions he shouted up at the window. “Sayuri, get a doctor! Or…school medic, or whatever y’all have!”

  Then he started pushing. Everybody was different and he was terrified he’d press too hard. Most of the time if he was doing CPR it was on his dad, and the middle-aged martial artist could handle a lot of punishment.

  To his immense relief, after the fourth or fifth compression she coughed and expelled the water from her lungs and started breathing on her own, taking gasping breaths. Ranma leaned back and gave her space. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he said sheepishly. “At least you didn’t need any rescue breaths.”

  Eyes wide, Kodachi stared at the girl. She was probably her own age, maybe a little younger, Naoki didn’t say. Gears shifted and turned in her head. Slowly, but they turned nevertheless.

  Ranma considered it a win that she wasn’t attacking anymore.

  Once the drama died down and the actual school nurse came to check on Kodachi along with the swim coach Ranma was swarmed by students. He spotted Akio and Naoki in the crowd, both seemed confused but concerned. Drenched as he was, it was impossible to deny that he currently shared more in common physically with the girls than the other boys. He had to be very careful how he answered questions.

  He was staying with the Tendos. His father had been friends with Akio and Naoki’s dad. He’d just gotten there on Sunday but his family would be staying with them full-time. Yes, he was going to be coming to school as well once the registration went through.

  The attention was getting to him but after a few minutes of pestering the teachers managed to wrangle everyone and get them back to class. Yuka handed him the registration form that he’d dropped and all four girls took an extra couple of minutes gushing about how awesome he was, and how everybody had been so scared of Kodachi, and they even asked if he’d be willing to show them some martial arts.

  What stuck in his mind was the way they phrased the request. “Ran-chan, you’re so cool!” Sayuri exclaimed. “Are you gonna be teaching at the Tendos? Are you gonna do girls’ classes? It’s gonna be so great having another girl around who’s so good at martial arts, you and Akio will make such an awesome team!”

  Girls’ classes. A girl who’s good at martial arts. They saw him as a girl. How couldn’t they, when that’s all they’d seen? His thoughts drifted as he finally processed how the day had gone. How cold water seemed to stalk him at every turn. How impressed and relieved the girls looked at him. Not just Sayuri, Yuka, Asami, and Hiroko, but almost all the girls he’d talked to — some kept staring at his chest judgmentally for some reason. It felt nice how quickly they’d warmed up to him, welcomed him.

  It also cast doubt on his decision to go back to school as a boy. Nobody had ever reacted to him like that, were never so warm and bubbly. Everybody always thought he was a potential threat until he proved he wasn’t. Wasn’t Akio a cool guy? Did he not keep them safe? Were they all like the Horde? Akio said that was like, half the male student body, but the ones he’d seen were all athletes. Was that how it worked at a mixed school? Would anybody be able to trust him if he went back as a guy, especially after the splash he’d made on the first day as a girl?

  Flipping the registration form around as he walked through the Tendo’s front gate he let himself have the thought he’d put on pause when Kodachi showed up. Wouldn’t it be simpler to just go as a girl full-time?