To say Ranma got a bad night’s sleep would be a significant understatement. Despite his father's normally reassuring presence, every creak and groan, every whistle of the wind, every far-off emergency siren seemed to seek out and disrupt Ranma's sleep. Even P-chan didn't help, Ranma had to claim whatever sleep he could by facing his sleeping father's futon until his eyes closed out of sheer exhaustion, only to open them minutes later thanks to whatever noise dared invade their room.

  As such, he had ample time to plan out his last free Thursday, and the last day before he committed to two years of daily girlhood.

  One of his new articles of clothing was a spacious red hoodie. He was going to explore Nerima in his birth form before anybody had a chance to get to know his pink-haired, rosy-eyed alter ego, Miss Ranma Saotome. He would pack a thermos to deal with any likely surprise water attacks, he'd get up early and make himself a bento to eat for lunch, he'd practice some martial arts. When school was out he'd head back to the Tendos, help Mrs. Hana cook, then practice for the exhibition tomorrow. Even when he got back to the Tendo home he'd stay in boy form as much as possible. Previous days he'd been less stringent about it, but this was his final day of unbridled manhood: he was gonna make it last. If he needed to give someone a name he'd say Kenshiro. If someone asked where he lived he'd flippantly say “around, what are you, a cop?”

  Around 4:30 he decided any sleep he managed to get would be irrelevant, so he quietly made his way to the kitchen to get ready. By the time Mrs. Hana woke up an hour later, just before sunrise, he'd already finished lunch for himself, his father, Akio, Naoki, Katsumi, and Mrs. Hana and was working on breakfast: pork fried rice.

  “Ranma? What are you doing up so early?” She hadn't even finished getting fully dressed, rubbing sleep out of her eyes while wearing a robe over her pajamas.

  “Bad night. Made food. Going out later.” Ranma kept stir frying as he monotoned.

  “Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for making breakfast.” Ranma could only subvocalize an acknowledgement, which earned him a much more urgent and disciplinary “Okay young man, move over.”

  Hana shooed him away from the wok and carried on herself. “If you had such a bad night I want you to sit down or go back to bed. I'll finish breakfast.”

  Here Ranma discovered the antithesis of the euphoric feeling of motherly pride: motherly disapproval. “Yes'm,” he quickly mumbled and ducked through the noren, too tired to be defiant.

  He refused to go back to bed, figuring it was too late, so he drummed his fingers on the living room table. To keep his mind occupied he reviewed his plans for the day, mentally checking off his preparations. He'd avoid Furinkan entirely if he could, there'd be more than enough time to explore it later, and he wanted to avoid any other students catching sight of his birth form.

  There was a map on the table, so he grabbed it to better memorize his route. Oddly, it was a map of the route he took from his home in Suginami to junior high to his best friend's house, then from there to the circuitous route they took through China.

  Genma, in panda form, came in and asked him if he was ready and held out the girl's uniform, but Ranma politely declined and the panda wandered off only to be replaced by Akio coming into the bathroom and asking to join him in the furo where Ranma was scrubbing herself off.

  Her lustrous, girl form black hair bounced as she nodded but the motion caused her to fall backwards into the Spring of Drowned Girl, but Naoki- sensei was there in a leather jacket with spiked shoulders pulling him back before he fell all the way in.

  The morning was going really strangely when Mr. Tomioka, his middle school English professor told him he was dressed inappropriately for class and needed to go change since he was in the Furinkan High School’s boy uniform and also a girl, so he needed to either get a dress or change back into a boy but none of his classmates knew where the hot water was.

  Shrugging, he reached for the burlap sack backup uniform and—

  “Ranma?” Katsumi gently shook the black-haired boy snoring on the living room table. He groaned and waved one of his hands at the eldest Tendo son. “Ranma buddy you should go back to bed,” he insisted with another, less gentle shove.

  “He'll be up before long, don't worry,” his mother walked in carrying steaming two bowls of fried rice, setting one in front of Ranma. “When he wakes up, thank him for breakfast and lunch, okay?” she warned him as if he'd somehow forgotten common courtesy.

  Probably because he had, on numerous occasions, completely forgotten common courtesy. It wasn't his fault people made basic interactions so arbitrary!

  “Of course, Mom.” He gave Ranma one more gentle shake before retreating to the kitchen to get himself a bowl.

  On the counters he spotted a stack of bento boxes, already packed and ready, one for every current resident of the Tendo home. At first he frowned. He didn't like to cause a fuss at dinner or breakfast, but he was a picky eater and lunch was the only meal he had any control over. When he inspected the boxes, however, he realized Ranma wrote everybody's names on a little card to differentiate them. Now curious, he found and opened his box. White rice, tamago, grilled mahi mahi, and unpickled vegetable slices. He tore off a piece of the fish to taste: it looked lightly seasoned like he liked, but the dinner Ranma helped make the last two nights was frustratingly salty so he worried the fish would be too.

  Except it wasn't. Not a grain of salt anywhere in his food. He almost started crying and it took all his willpower not to devour the lunch right there, but he resealed the box.

  Normally, Katsumi wasn't one for daydreams or fantasies, preferring to focus on the moment or organizing his thoughts. As he spooned rice into his bowl, however, he pictured Ranma, in girl form, expertly maneuvering through the kitchen in Katsumi's mom's sensible but feminine apron as she made food.

  From there, his logical, task-oriented mind quickly ran through the steps necessary for courting a young woman (and reminded himself that “courting a young woman” was an anachronistic, clinical way to refer to dating) and assigned Ranma's girl form to the role of “Katsumi's future wife.” Akio's obvious schoolboy crush and Naoki's hidden attraction didn't factor into his calculations, it was just Katsumi and Ranma.

  It wasn't until he returned to the living room and saw the still-dozing boy Ranma that he begrudgingly returned to the present. Their gender-bending house guest probably wouldn't appreciate being the subject of Katsumi's inappropriate fantasies, and the older boy promised himself to maintain his usual calm, collected composure.

  “Oi, wake up.” He demanded by prodding Ranma's side with his toes which initiated a sequence of events so quick neither he nor his mother remembered them clearly.

  Reflexively, Ranma sprang into the air, spinning his legs in an ascending circular kick, which knocked Katsumi out into the koi pond. Despite being half-asleep, Ranma caught the bowl of rice Katsumi dropped before it hit the ground.

  Ranma stood, blinking in confusion, as Katsumi dragged himself out of the pond. “Sweetie, I said to leave him alone…” His mother chided from her place at the table. “Ranma, are you all right?”

  “Uhhh…yeah? What happened?” He looked at the food that had mysteriously appeared in his hand, then at Katsumi in his drenched work clothes.

  Katsumi would not revisit his fantasies of “her” for a while.

  As Ranma's first day of school approached, Akio found himself increasingly nervous. Not because of their exhibition, which would go off without a hitch despite the fact that he and Ranma had barely practiced, but everything that was coming after.

  Their “relationship” was still the only thing people seemed to want to talk about. Some of the students from other classes, upperclassmen, and even some of the teachers approached him with questions about Ranma and “her” life. Fortunately Akio didn't have to lie when he said he didn't know much.

  Way more invasive and gross were the guys who used to try to fight him in the mornings. They just wanted to know what Akio and Ranma had done with each other yet, and none of them would accept that their relationship was chaste.

  It didn't help that every time someone asked about that stuff Akio tended to freeze up and turn purple. Kiichi and Shingo believed him when he said he and Ranma hadn't done anything — though their assumption was that if he had he would be bragging about it which was almost as gross — but they did ask if he'd seen her naked, which was unfortunately true. Akio tried to deny it but they knew his tells and made some incorrect assumptions.

  The only ones who seemed to believe him were the girls, and he had to deal with the same “you better treat her right” speech from Ranma's little fan club as well as it seemed like half the girls at school. There's no way Ranma made friends with this many people in the few minutes he'd been on campus…right?

  Ranma said he'd done all sorts of cons and scams before when he was younger, but could he keep up with the rumor machine for two whole years? Especially considering he hadn't been in school since junior high and he had no idea how teen girls were since his last school was boys only!

  By lunch Akio was exhausted, ready to open up the bento box his mom had handed him. At first he thought she'd made it for him, but noticed his name was spelled not with kanji like his mom usually would, 昭光, but with hiragana, あきお. Plus he didn't recognize the handwriting.

  That wouldn't have been a problem by itself, except he just blurted it out when he realized. “Oh! Ranma made my lunch.”

  He was sitting right next to Hiroko and Asami, and the way they spun and squealed almost made him leap out of his seat.

  “She made your lunch?” Hiroko’s voice was a mix of incredulity and adoration.

  “She made your lunch!” Asami’s proclamation, shouted at the same time as Hiroko's question, was equal parts excitement and awe.

  “Uh, I mean, it's not like she made it especially for me. She got up early and made everybody's lunch today.” In Akio's head, the explanation diverted attention away from the idea that he and Ranma had a special relationship, that she was one of those girlfriends who made their boyfriends lunch.

  Unfortunately, he was describing a girl who was already so integrated into her future husband’s family that she was cooking meals for them. Not only that, but they caught that he didn't say she helped his mom make it: the girl was clearly vying to be the next homemaker of the Tendo household.

  “Ooooh, I bet your mom loves her even more than you, huh?” Asami cooed, and immediately he understood his mistake.

  Okay, he could fix this…somehow. What would Ranma and Naoki do? Commit to the bit, pivot to the desired result, borrow from the truth, and don't let them see you panic.

  “Well, we're sharing techniques and practices from our schools, right?” Akio started talking and almost panicked when he realized he didn't know where his mouth was going. “Since she and her dad picked up all sorts of recipes and cooking tricks on their travels they're cooking for us this week, showing us what they learned.”

  That felt…plausible? Akio felt a pang of guilt that he was misleading these girls, but it was in service of making Ranma's life easier.

  Hiroko's eyes lit up, and for a moment Akio thought he'd screwed up again somehow. “Akio, that’s so cool! Are Ranma’s dad and Mrs. Tendo gonna, like…become a thing?”

  Time slowed down as the seed of that idea sprang from Hiroko’s lips to the ever-fertile soil of high school, and Akio learned that he was not as good at wrestling narratives as he was wrestling people.

  What he didn't expect was the sudden panic that rose up in his gut at the idea of their parents getting together. If they did, Akio and Ranma would be step siblings. If Akio and Ranma were step siblings they couldn't get married.

  This would have been perfect: if the heads of the Saotome and Tendo households got married then there was no reason for their heirs’ engagement. Ranma and Akio wouldn't have to pretend to be in any sort of relationship.

  “No!” Akio slammed his fist against his desk as he stood, prompting wide eyes from Hiroko and Asami and everyone else in the room. “They wouldn't do that to Ranma and me!” He asserted passionately.

  Then he blushed and wondered why exactly he did it. Well…to protect Ranma, of course, right? She'd be coming into this environment with only her two explosive visits and whatever Akio and Naoki told their classmates. Ranma already made Akio's life much easier by dealing with Kuno, so he needed to return the favor.

  How exactly was this helping Ranma though? All he'd done was put the focus back on the engagement.

  …Yes! The engagement had one major benefit for Ranma: it was a barrier between her and every boy in school who'd otherwise be all over her. This being Furinkan and Ranma being an accomplished martial artist meant that she might even get challenged for the right to date or something crazy like that.

  That wouldn't happen if Akio was a little passionate about defending their relationship publicly, fictional though it was. Right? Right. So he had to commit to the bit.

  “Sorry, I just…Ranma and I are gonna unify our schools and kick off the next generation of Anything Goes students, right?” A seasoning of truth. “It was my dad's dream, both our dads’ dreams.”

  But everyone already knew that. He needed a little more to seal the deal. Scratching the back of his head, he let his blush show on his face and chuckled. “Plus she is really cute.”

  Gottem. Asami and Hiroko let out some variant of “Awww” and giggled along with some of the other girls, some of the guys looked at him with envy while others just nodded in enthusiastic agreement, and he felt like he'd won a hard fight. Now only Akio looked like a lovestruck idiot.

  Naoki was having a much easier time. Ranma was a kindred spirit, and the older boy had no doubts he'd dominate high school by the time he graduated. Hell, the boy already had a sizeable fan base before his first day, and he clearly knew how to handle himself in social situations.

  Well, except for what happened immediately after his fight with Kodachi. Granted, Naoki had never been told he was engaged to someone by a nemesis right after a stressful fight and had said engagement made public at the same time.

  After the last class of the day, as he gathered his things to leave, Kodachi stopped at his desk. “Naoki-san, I'd like you to tell Saotome-san that I’ll have a gift for her tomorrow.”

  Naoki shot up in horror before she could walk out. “Wait! Wait wait wait…what kind of gift?” He didn't like this. Whatever she was planning couldn't be good for him, Akio, or Ranma. Couldn't she even wait a week before reneging on her promise?

  “A surprise. It's nothing nefarious, I assure you.” She replied with uncharacteristic mischief in her voice and an equally uncharacteristic grin that seemed predatory. Naturally, it made it seem entirely nefarious.

  “Kodachi, last time you asked me to deliver a message to Ranma and—” and he couldn't finish the sentence. As far as Kodachi was aware, she'd only ruined a surprise announcement by a couple of days.

  “Er…well it ruined the surprise. I think right now she's not going to be fond of any more surprises, you know?”

  At this Kodachi had the gall to roll her eyes and titter at him. “It's a token of my respect for her prowess. I'll see the two of you tomorrow!” She practically skipped away, in entirely too high of spirits for Naoki's liking.

  Naoki was no longer having an easy day.

  Ranma had a fantastic day. The only water-related mishap was when he visited Dr. Tofu's for lunch and his dad accidentally splashed himself with mop water: it didn't even come close to Ranma.

  The rest of his day was spent just exploring. He spent most of his time walking on fences or vaulting across rooftops, so he didn't talk to anybody, and nobody seemed interested in talking to him.

  It was peaceful, and he didn't remember the last time anything was peaceful.

  He expected to be more anxious about tomorrow, but he felt confident in his ability to live as…to pretend to be a girl. It didn't scare him. If anything, he was kind of excited. Before his first day he already had some potential friends, he'd defeated the girl who was most likely gonna be his nemesis, and he didn't have to worry about boy trouble because he'd accidentally gotten into a relationship with a strong, nice, cute boy who would scare away any would-be suitors and wouldn't let anything bad happen to him.

  After the weirdness of having everyone support him wore off he realized he was glad for it. His dad made sure Dr. Tofu changed his paperwork to reflect it, in case the school needed copies of his medical documentation; Mrs. Hana was helping him figure out normal girl stuff; and Naoki knew how to influence the high school gossip network.

  No wonder he wasn't stressed about being a…playing a girl! Life was gonna be easy, he'd graduate, then he could switch back to being a man full-time, help Akio run the dojo, and develop Anything Goes.

  By then all the high school drama would be behind him and he could look for a cure, or maybe reveal that he acquired the curse after graduating and now he “turned into” a man. Obviously it would ruin the prospects of marriage with Akio and the two would just be good friends.

  He didn't head back until the sun started to set. It felt bad to leave Mrs. Hana hanging like that, but he'd let her know today might go like that.

  It turned out he needn't have worried. As he stepped out of his shoes and announced his return, he heard his dad calling him from the living room. He turned the corner and was greeted by all the Tendos and his father sitting around a table already covered in food.

  “Oh, sorry, did I miss somethin'?” He looked at the smiling faces peering at him, then at the colorful dishes.

  Mrs. Tendo stood. “Ranma, it's a tradition in the Tendo household to make a big meal the day before the first day of the new school year. Since tomorrow is your first day, I wanted to share that part of our lives with you and your father.” She and her sons bowed. “I, uh, do apologize for the food. I bought things that were on sale, and didn't realize until your father came home that I've essentially made you a Girl's Day dinner.”

  Katsumi blushed and scratched the back of his head. “We've never had a reason to celebrate it so we forgot chirashi sushi was, ah, used for that.”

  Ranma considered performatively throwing a huge fit, screaming about how insensitive they were being and how cruel a prank this was…but he was too busy smiling and holding back his more intense emotions.

  “O-oh,” he croaked. “Me goin’ out musta been really convenient then, huh?” He allowed himself to chuckle, which risked making him crack, but…”And don't worry about the food: it's kinda funny!” Honestly, shrimp and eel sounds really good right now. Ooh, is that pickled lotus?

  Dinner was loud and lively, everybody's worries and anxieties drowned under the din of celebration. The Tendo sons shared some of their favorite school stories, a few of which Ranma had already heard from Mrs. Hana, but it was fun hearing them from a different perspective.

  Ranma gave a stirring account of his last school, and the juvenile mischief he got up to with his best friend. Genma listened with a slight smile for most of the story, but nobody noticed how subtly his smile faded when Ranma described himself as “a guardian of the weak and bullied.”

  “The purpose of martial arts is to defend those not strong enough to defend themselves, right pops?” Ranma grinned at his dad, who nodded to hide the change in his demeanor.

  By the end of dinner everyone was in high spirits, and Mrs. Hana dismissed Ranma and her sons to enjoy their evening. Akio and Naoki joined Ranma in the dojo where they'd get at least an hour or two of practice for tomorrow's exhibition.

  “Ranma, heads up: Kuno’s got a surprise planned for you,” Naoki warned him as soon as the dojo doors were closed.

  Akio groaned but Ranma tilted his head in confusion. “If it's for me and not Akio what do you think it could be?”

  “With her it could be anything,” Naoki shrugged and began setting up his camera. “Just keep an eye out for any funny business.”

  Despite the vague warning, Ranma and Akio managed to focus on the sequence of moves Naoki and Akio had put together. Eventually the Tendo boys had to focus on their schoolwork, however, leaving Ranma on his own.

  He slid open the door to the guest room and spotted a bag next to a note on his futon. Even from here he saw teal cloth sticking out of the bag and knew it was that godsdamned uniform.

  The note was from Mrs. Hana, and it explained that she'd picked up Ranma's uniforms while she was out, “just in case.” His lips curled in irritation, not at Mrs. Hana’s kind gesture, but at the situation. Whatever surprise Kodachi had in store for him, it would give him the perfect opportunity to ask about how to get around the uniform requirement.

  Beneath the pinafore were a couple sets of gym clothes and swimsuits, and Ranma blushed slightly when he inspected them. The gym clothes weren't quite the same as his tank tops and boxers. For one, they were smaller, tighter, and lighter. Holding them in his hands and he was all too aware of how little they would cover.

  Maybe if he went and tried them on now, he wouldn't have to worry about any weird feelings tomorrow…no, he promised himself he'd be a girl as little as possible today and he'd stuck to that promise so far. He could handle showing a little skin, it was fine. It was fine .

  …What didn't sit well with him was how fine it was. It shouldn't be fine, right?

  Okay, it wasn't real for him yet, that was the problem. Maybe he should try the gym uniforms out, get properly upset about them. He needed a bath anyway.

  He took the bag with him all the way to the inner bathroom, put up the “do not disturb sign” on the door, and quickly changed into his girl form, just a light splash from the shower. Even in the fitting rooms he didn't look at himself closely, but since this was all about getting to know himself it was time to really examine his form.

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  And the girl was good looking, he had to admit. She kept all of his musculature, the scars from his travels, the uneven tan on his head, neck, and arms. Briefly she thought she should try to even that out, though it would probably happen naturally with how little the gym uniform covered.

  Speaking of which, he was here for a reason. He pulled the t-shirt and…well they were called shorts, but he'd seen underwear in the bra store that covered more than them. He slipped both pieces of clothing on and counted to five before spinning around to look at himself in the mirror.

  To her chagrin, it didn't feel particularly…”special”. This was probably what every other girl looked like. She wasn't angry or upset or even irritated. It wasn't even frumpy like that awful pinafore, it was just a shirt and shorts.

  What's worse, she couldn't even bring herself to get mad about not getting mad. Seemed a waste of energy.

  Rolling her eyes, she tossed those clothes off and went for the swimsuit. She noted with irony that the one-piece covered more than the gym clothes thanks to the built-in “shorts” that actually went down her thighs a little.

  She supposed it was tighter than the other uniform, and showed off the shape of her body, but that didn't bother her either.

  Fine, whatever. Now she knew, but it felt like a waste of having broken her promise to herself. As she peeled off the suit her eyes wandered to the bag and idled on the uniform.

  If…if she had to wear it, she should make sure it fit, right? Or even better, since she didn't get a chance to try it on, maybe the one Mrs. Hana got her wouldn't fit. If her uniform didn't fit, the school couldn't force her to wear it, and she'd have a couple days to get a new one, right?

  The bag rusted as she pulled it out and unfurled it. The puffed shoulders were kind of cute. Sayuri had similar hair to Ranma's and she looked fine in it, right? Maybe it wasn't as bad as she thought.

  After what seemed like an eternity, she had donned the uniform. She hadn't looked at the mirror yet, she…didn't know what she wanted to see. She expected to look and see a pink-haired girl in a frumpy dress, she expected to get angry about it, and she'd take it off and never worry about it again.

  That's not what she wanted though. She wanted to…she wanted to like what she saw. She wanted to see a normal, if athletic, schoolgirl. And she didn't know why she wanted that.

  So he had to try it on, once he did he'd realize he'd been right and it was a stupid, frumpy dress that nobody could make look good, except for Sayuri. And Yuka and Asami. And Hiroko.

  But not Ranma! Not with her warrior’s physique. Well, Kodachi had a warrior’s physique and she also looked good in it.

  …

  Okay so undershirt, then the dress just kinda slipped on over it. Like with the sundress, the bow in the back was already tied, and Ranma didn't have to futz with it at all.

  Now all she had to do was look at herself in the mirror. Which she was going to do. After the blush died down, of course, he couldn't be all red-faced, that wouldn't be an accurate look at himself. Herself? No, he wasn't actually at school yet, he didn't need to start thinking of herself as a girl. He was a boy.

  He still wasn't looking at himself, though he had no idea why. He'd already tried on that sundress and loved hated it, why was he so worried about a frumpy pinafore?

  Taking a deep breath, he turned and the door slid open as a naked Akio stepped into the bathroom. They stared at each other like deer caught in headlights.

  The irony was that despite how much the uniform covered, Ranma had never felt more naked in front of Akio than he did right now, even the times he was literally unclothed.

  Akio slowly turned beet red and stepped back, but Ranma wouldn't have it. “Akio…” he said calmly, taking a step forward while he kept his rose colored eyes steely and serious. “You're not going to tell anyone about this, right?”

  He gulped and nodded, despite how much bigger than Ranma he was, despite how right now she looked like every other normal Furinkan girl.

  “I just needed to know if it fit, all right? I tried on the other uniforms too, your mom got them for me today.” He needed Akio not to think he was weird. Needed him to see Ranma as another guy, even though he was currently wearing a dress.

  When Akio nodded this time he had a thoughtful look on his face. “Y-yeah, that makes sense, Ranma. I-I’d do the same thing, i-in your situation.”

  Ranma nodded. “Good. And good timing, I was about to shower and I could use help scrubbing my back in the furo when you're done.” He started pulling the uniform off and heard Akio make a strangled, flustered noise. While the dress was over his head he grinned mischievously; it could be fun to mess with the guy sometimes.

  Sleep came quickly for Ranma: in addition to how little he slept the previous night he spent almost the entire day on his feet running, jumping, and climbing, and the dinner and moment in the bathroom left him drained emotionally.

  If he had dreams he didn't remember them, though he woke up curled around a pillow which meant he was doing something in his sleep.

  Unlike the last few days, he was very nervous about starting school now that it was staring him in the face. He stretched and did slow katas in the dojo instead of a proper workout, his peace only interrupted when Akio walked in a few minutes after he started they blushed and sheepishly avoided paying attention to each other.

  Breakfast helped, Mrs. Hana cooked shrimp fried rice using the leftovers from the previous night and it filled Ranma up. He changed and soon he, Akio, and Naoki were headed to school, though not before Genma clapped his hands on Ranma's shoulders and reiterated how proud he was. Mrs. Hana asked Ranma if she could take a picture to commemorate his first day of high school but he politely refused. He didn't want the moment immortalized, not while he was a girl.

  As he walked out the door, he inhaled and she exhaled. Today was Ranma Saotome’s — the Fierce Tigress of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts — first day of high school and she would not be intimidated.

  Akio was already in his gi, and Ranma ended up wearing a sleeveless red tangzhuang and her smallest pair of black pants. Naoki agreed that it gave her an air of mystique and visually differentiated her from Akio. And to be honest, her traveling gi was too big and ratty, she needed new ones.

  Of all the ways she expected the day to go wrong, she didn't expect to see the Horde again. Many of them still sported bandages from their fight against Akio on Monday, but they seemed otherwise rested and in high spirits.

  Naoki, the first to speak, pointed at one of the croquet players standing at the front. “Tanaka? What’re you guys up to?”

  The player hefted his mallet over a shoulder and stepped forward with a grin. “Kuno told us whoever managed to defeat Ranma would be able to take her hand, so we're taking that challenge!”

  A chorus of excited grunts and shouts joined him, and Akio and Naoki groaned. Ranma, however, realized Kodachi's game. This was a wonderful surprise, and she grinned ear to ear.

  “Oh? You're approaching me?” She said, walking forward and handing her bags to Akio. “Didn't I demonstrate the awesome power of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts last time I was here?”

  Some of the boys started to sweat and chuckle nervously. That was fine. She'd start with the biggest, cockiest, meanest-looking athletes and rout them without even breaking a—

  Akio dashed in front of her and raised a finger to the crowd. “If you want a crack at her, you're gonna hafta go through me first!”

  Anger flushed through Ranma both because of Akio's temerity in interrupting her challenge, but also because it had a bigger impact on the crowd than her own proclamation. “Hey! This is my fight! You got all these guys to yourself all year!” She slipped in front of Akio, and pouted when she realized with her reduced height she wasn't blocking his sight at all.

  “I could never let my fiancée fight a horde of brigands when I'm more than capable of defending our engagement!” As he dramatically untied his belt and flung away his jacket, Ranma realized he was performing. Unfortunately, the sudden sight of Akio's bare chest and stomach froze her in place and caused her rebuttal to die in her throat.

  Tanaka sputtered as well, “N-no! You're not allowed to interfere!” He protested while clutching his mallet defensively. This reminded Ranma that both her pride and the pride of her family's school was at risk, and she was freed from the confusing spell of Akio's abs.

  “You’re not gonna fight my battles!” She put a hand out and tried to push her well-intentioned but frustratingly attractive friend away, but he stood resolute and all she accomplished was a handful of firm muscle.

  Naoki, fortunately, figured out the perfect way to pivot the unexpected gang to their advantage. Producing a wireless microphone from his bag, he raised one of his arms to address the audience of high schoolers assembled to watch the latest brawl.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, with the arrival of the legendary Fierce Tigress Ranma Saotome herself, and the support of my brother, Akio, the Lion of Tendo, we will officially announce the creation—” he paused and dashed to Akio and Ranma, pushed their hands together and raised them to the sky “of the Unified School of Anything Goes Martial Arts! ”

  Ranma was still mad about Akio's attempt to horn in on her fight, but she couldn't let that disrupt their plans. They had to keep control of the engagement narrative.

  “Thanks to our lovely volunteers today,” Naoki continued, then proceeded to list every athletic club represented in the Horde and their captains, and Ranma realized that almost every one had “martial arts” in their title. What kind of crazy place was Furinkan? “You will witness the Furinkan Anything Goes Masters defeat the entire assembled host of challengers in an awesome no-holds-barred brawl. Who will score more knockouts? The indomitable strength of Akio Tendo or the lightning speed of Ranma Saotome? Let's hear it one more time for the Fierce Tigress!”

  A high-pitched cheer from the audience erupted in support for Ranma.

  “And for the Lion of Tendo!”

  Another cheer, deeper and full of raucous whoops.

  Naoki switched off the mic and leaned in to his conspirators. “You're welcome, go demolish those guys together, yeah?” He hissed before sprinting back to the sidelines.

  One question remained as Ranma and Akio released their hands and shared a look. “Wait, did he set speakers up ahead of time, or…?”

  The Horde let loose a battle cry and charged. Ranma and Akio fell into fighting stances.

  “Hah, this'll be easy, I've done this over a hundred times,” Akio boasted. It was a friendly brag but Ranma wouldn't have it, not when she should have been fighting by herself.

  “Oh yeah? I'll show you what a real martial artist can do.” The Tendo School, at least Akio's interpretation of it, was much more defensive than the Saotome School. On Monday, Akio let most of the Horde approach him and retaliated, focusing on counter attacks, drawing them into his long reach, and punishing mistakes. It was a slow, safe way to deal with large numbers of opponents.

  Befitting her title, Ranma charged right at the Horde, putting herself in front of Akio. She crashed into Tanaka feet-first, driving him back into the oncoming rush like a bowling ball.

  Before anyone could react to her she sprang from head to head, delivering one-hit KOs to unsuspecting temples. A gangly basketball player tried to throw his ball at her but she grabbed it and flung it at his face before slamming him into the ground.

  She was no longer above the crowd, however, and the boys thought that gave them the advantage. They were wrong.

  Grabbing the nearest boy, a boxer who for some reason had his gloves on, she started swinging him around in a wide arc, knocking multiple challengers away entirely, before releasing the spinning pugilist and sending him flying across the courtyard.

  Nobody dared step into the two-meter ring of space surrounding her, and she flicked her pigtail back and let out a Kodachi-inspired laugh into the back of her hand. “I'll have to thank Kuno for this wonderful surprise later!” She exclaimed, adding an extra layer of insult to the many injuries she was dishing out.

  Someone roasted in frustration behind her and she heard his clumsy footfalls as he rushed. Grinning, she casually turned to receive him. He was a kendoist, shinai raised above his head. Without breaking her smile, she stepped back in anticipation of his swing—

  And suddenly felt her feet leave the ground as Akio grabbed her by the waist from behind, scooping her up into both arms against his chest. The shinai struck the ground as he stepped up onto the weapon and snap kicked the attacker back into the throng of boys.

  Ranma very badly wanted to yell at him, to crack him under the jaw with a fist, to knee him in the nose, something to express her intense frustration at being snatched away from the fight like a mewling infant. But he looked down at her with those glittering brown eyes and smirked confidently, and she felt a knot in her chest arrest her words and movements.

  “Gotcha,” he said with surprising softness, gently setting her back down.

  As her feet touched the ground the sensation brought her back to the present and her anger came back in full force. “What are you doing?!” She screamed. “Stay focused on your own fight, you wannabe prince charming!”

  Akio flinched as though he'd been struck, which left him open to an attack from behind by a rugby player. Ranma, not wanting the idiot to actually get hurt, vaulted over both of them, wrenched the attacker’s arm away from Akio, and swept his legs out from under him so that he faceplanted into the dirt.

  She didn't need this right now, why couldn't Akio see that? Why couldn't he see that his attempts to help were…were… undermining her in the eyes of their peers? It was important for her to showcase her skills, and when he butted in like this it made her look weak.

  “Excuse me, tomboy , I just don't wanna see my future wife get hurt!” Akio snapped back and stepped up to her. At first she thought he was gonna grab her again, but he actually grabbed a golf driver that'd been aimed at her head, snatched it out of its owner’s grip, and flung it into the crowd to take out a different opponent.

  Not only was he refusing to listen but now he was insulting her, ruining both objectives of their so-called exhibition.

  More attackers started rushing them so they turned back-to-back and focused on defense while they continued arguing.

  “Don't call me that! Why won't you get it through your thick skull that I don't need you to protect me?” Seven members of the Horde went down in an instant as she kicked so fast that it looked like a single blurry sweep but was actually dozens of kicks delivered to their vitals.

  “When will you realize that I can't be seen as the guy who doesn't stand up for his girl?” Akio blocked a baseball bat and stole it just like he did on Monday, but this time he went on the offensive and swung it with abandon, clobbering multiple targets at once. “Plus if Kodachi thinks this is some sort of loophole out of her promise I'm not gonna just sit here and let her get away with it!”

  Ranma refused to let Akio’s romantic declaration make her blush or mess with her heart or maybe even swoon later once they'd dealt with the circumstance at hand. It was pretty awesome knowing she had such a devoted fian—friend to fight by her side.

  But then Akio reached over her with his baseball bat and clobbered one of the doubles tennis players she was fighting, once again playing the hero when she really didn't need it.

  Once she dispatched the remaining tennis player with an axe kick, she saw that Tanaka guy’s bruised face approaching Akio with croquet mallet in hand.

  “‘scuse me, need to borrow this!” she demanded, slamming a palm into Tanaka’s confused face and wrenching the mallet away from him. “Hey, Akio!”

  The Tendo boy bashed two of their attackers together before whirling to face Ranma. “What's—UGH!”

  Ranma swung the mallet into Akio's stomach with enough force to send him flying through the crowd — Ranma noted smugly that he took out a few challengers on his way — and crashing into the wall next to Naoki, sending spiderweb cracks through the brick on impact.

  Gasps shot through the audience and even the Horde paused, unsure of what Ranma's apparent betrayal of her fiancé meant, but she casually flicked her pigtail, tossed the mallet aside like loose trash, and cracked her knuckles.

  “Okay. Who's next?” She grinned viciously.

  Naoki's voice and gentle slaps stirred Akio from his hazy daze. When his eyes focused he groaned, feeling intense pain on his stomach and back. Who hit him? Nobody in the Horde was that strong.

  “—bro? Baby bro? You with me?” Naoki didn't stop chattering or patting his face after his eyes opened, concern written all over his older brother's face.

  “Yeah, yeah, who hit me? Tanaka? Yoshioka? Please tell me it wasn't Satō.” Akio wasn't gonna be able to live this down. He'd gone the whole year without losing to these buffoons, and as soon as a pretty girl got involved he went down in one hit.

  “Uhhh…” Naoki hesitated and looked around nervously. Why was he avoiding the question?

  “Naoki-san? Tendo-san? What's going on?” Suddenly Kodachi was crouched next to Akio, gingerly poking the bruise already forming where the mallet hit him. She was wearing a teal kimono today with white sakura petals trailing down the sides.

  “Ah! Kodachi!” Akio yelped, surging to his feet as Naoki handed him the top of his gi. “We should have known you would try to weasel out of your promise!”

  She flinched and averted her gaze, the truth of Akio's confrontation clearly causing her a great deal of shame and guilt.

  “I don't know of what you speak…but that you accuse me reveals just how awful I've been.” Those couldn't be tears gathering in her eyes, right? Akio didn't know if he'd be able to maintain his righteous anger against his oldest friend crying.

  Naoki, at least, didn't have that weakness. “Don't give us that! You told me you had a surprise for Ranma and then the Horde challenges her, saying you put ‘em up to it?”

  Her eyes narrowed and the tears were replaced by a fiery blaze. “No! I was going to invite Ranma to join the girls' hockey team next year!”

  She held up the teal and orange bundle of cloth she'd been holding and let it unfurl. Sure enough it was a hockey jersey, the name SAOTOME stitched in romaji over the number 38.

  “O-ohhh…” Akio sputtered. Once again he was amazed that Ranma had enmeshed herself— himself into the school, his first nemesis was already making him custom gifts.

  “Okay but Tanaka literally said ‘Kuno told us if we beat Ranma we could take her hand’, explain that!” Naoki impatiently demanded, which made Kodachi's eyes go wide.

  “No…he wouldn't dare—” she hissed.

  Ranma finished up the last of her challengers with a dismissive backhand and performatively stretched and yawned. “Well that wasn't much of a warmup, but I guess I'll take what I can get.” Once Akio was out of the picture, Ranma could stop worrying about getting shown up or the big oaf cramping her style. She did feel a little bad about hitting him with a mallet, but she could make that up to him later.

  Before she could check on him though, a slow clap started behind her. She turned, sighed, and looked up at the — of course — incredibly tall…boy? Man? Person. Honestly, she couldn’t focus on his height or gender, not when his outfit was so loud.

  Knee-height black riding boots covered white jodhpurs. A royal blue shirt peeked out from beneath a royal blue hussar jacket with gold epaulettes, and a black shoulder cape. A raised collar gave him the bearing of some kind of old-timey Western aristocrat. Once she finally looked at his face, his eyes and dark hair were eerily familiar.

  “Lady Saotome, words captured neither your beauty nor your skill. Allow me to introduce myself,” he performed a Western-style bow with one arm in front of his stomach, the other behind his back, and Ranma rolled her eyes. Whatever this guy was doing was not endearing him to her. “I am Tatewaki Kuno, age 16, rising star, l'hydre à treize têtes , and future captain of the St. Khushrenada School for Young Gentlemen fencing team.”

  Ohhh, that’s why he looked familiar, he was Kodachi’s little brother. “Oh, hey, Mrs. Tendo told me about you. Uh, hi! Sounds like you already know me.” She’d be friendly, from what she heard he used to be good friends with Akio and Naoki, there wasn’t any need to antagonize him even though she was catching seriously bad vibes from him.

  “My sister has told me quite a lot of your prowess, but spared too much recounting your fair form.” Suddenly she was much less interested in being friendly or polite, but before she could respond he swung his fist, launching some sort of projectile at her.

  Reflexively, she caught it and held it aloft, planning on returning it to sender, when a colorful petal drifted down in front of her face. She looked at the payload in her hands and realized it was a gorgeous bouquet of orchids in red, pink, purple, and blue.

  Flowers. A boy…he, they…she…it was a bouquet of…and…her favorite colors? But he was actually a boy, but a boy…and…Akio…what?“Please, no…” she mumbled as she felt the color drain out of her body. She wanted to blow away like dust. The kami clearly had a cruel sense of humor, to pull this on her first day. The whole engagement thing was supposed to prevent stuff like this!

  “Oh my gods,” Naoki suddenly mumbled while Akio was busy tying his gi. “Look how hot Tatewaki got…”

  “Tatewaki, what?” Akio blanched and realized Kodachi's younger brother had just appeared in the courtyard. He was chatting with Ranma, though from here Akio couldn't make out what they were saying.

  That didn't matter once Tatewaki threw the flower, and Akio saw Ranma's shoulders slump. In a frenzy, he surged forward and put his hand on Ranma's shoulder to reassure her before the younger Kuno could follow up. She didn't respond but that was fine, Akio wouldn't know what to do in her situation either.

  “Akio-kun! Glad to see you after so long.” Tatewaki’s eyes narrowed and voiced was strained, as if he was holding something back. But he strode forward and brought his hand out for a Western style handshake.

  “Tatewaki-kun,” Akio shook his hand quickly but politely. It was clear Tatewaki was behind the Horde today, and he’d come with a bouquet for Ranma. His former friend was up to something, “What’s this all about?”

  The last time he and Tatewaki saw each other was a few days after the first day of high school, when Kodachi asked him out. Since then they’d had no communication of any kind, and if circumstances were different Akio would have loved catching up with Tatewaki, maybe sparring to see what he’d learned at his fancy private school.

  “I wanted to meet the woman who defeated my sister, of course.” His expression turned to a sneer, a cold fire burning in his eyes. “In romance as well as on the battlefield. When I learned she was to be wed to you I had to see what she could possibly offer that my sister could not.”

  Of course it was some sort of family ego thing. “Well, I hope you got what you came for then. We were planning a big announcement and you messed it up.”

  “Not quite. I came to make the radiant pigtailed girl a superior offer: marry me instead.” His smile was infuriating and Akio really wanted to punch him in the face.

  “Excuse me?” He gripped Ranma’s shoulder tighter and inched forward, trying to put himself between her and Tatewaki.

  “I'm asking your fiancée to marry me. With her skills she'd make an excellent Kuno.” Crossing his arms he gave Akio the smuggest, most predatory grin he'd ever seen. “Though I suppose I should prove myself worthy of her first, hmm?”

  Akio's blood boiled. What was Tatewaki thinking? Ranma wasn't gonna marry him, he wasn't gonna marry anyone, but especially not another man. Akio supposed their fake engagement obliged him to respond to Tatewaki's challenge.

  “Well I'm not gonna let you! You want her, you gotta go through me!” He proclaimed for the second time today, though he kept his clothes on this time.

  She was vaguely aware of a presence next to her, a hand on her shoulder, and heated voices. Probably about her, but she wasn’t sure. The hand pulled her close to someone and she leaned against them without thinking. That just aggravated the voices and she was snapped out of her reverie by the sound of a slap.

  Tatewaki had produced a glove and struck Akio with it. “Akio Tendo, I challenge you to a duel. Saturday 21, after school at St. Khushrenada. Fencing, of course.” Ranma wasn’t sure what they were fighting about, but she wanted Akio to punch this guy in the face.

  “You’re on, Tatewaki! Winner keeps Ranma’s hand in marriage!” He pulled Ranma against him even tighter, but her desire to see Akio enact righteous violence against the younger Kuno vanished as she realized the stakes.

  “Wait, what? Akio!” she protested but Akio guided her toward the entrance to Furinkan. He hadn’t listened to her at all! It was one thing to interrupt her challenges and treat her like some sort of fragile waif, but it was another thing entirely to make her some sort of trophy.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna lose. I’ve been fighting Tatewaki since we were little, he can’t beat me.” His confident smile frustratingly eased some of her anxiety, but that wasn’t the point. Was he going to keep doing this stupid gallant savior thing every time a fight broke out? Furinkan seemed like a great school to be a martial artist, but was she gonna have to deal with hopeful suitors as well as Akio’s misplaced attention?

  “I don’t care about that, I ain’t gonna be the prize in no duel! ‘Specially one I’m not even in!” She burned with righteous anger, but Akio actually shot her an irritated look.

  “You mean like the one you had with Kodachi over me? ” It was the first negative emotion he’d expressed since they arrived at school, which simultaneously relieved and panicked Ranma.

  “Th-that was different! She added that after challenging me!”

  “You still accepted! You had a chance to call the fight off but you didn’t. I’m gonna win, so don’t worry about it; I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.” And he smiled again, which for some reason heated up her face and tied her stomach into knots, leaving her stunned enough for Akio to lead them into the building.

  Kuno and Naoki caught up with them next to the shoe lockers, and Ranma realized she was still holding the bouquet. Ashamed, she growled, crumpled them into a ball, and chucked them out the door.

  She glared at Kuno, who had the decency to look embarrassed by her brother’s conduct. “Upperclassman, can you get your brother to call off his stupid duel? Akio won’t listen to reason.”

  “I…will ask him, but we have agreed not to interfere with each others’ business.” She scratched her cheek and blushed. “There’s no guarantee he’ll listen to me, and considering it was quite brazen of him just to come here he likely has an agenda. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”

  Ranma shook her head. “Nah, thanks for that at least. Sorry I thought you were the one who sicced those guys on me.”

  In the awkward pause that followed, Ranma overheard Naoki saying to Akio “Did you see those pants? When did he get so tall? I just wanna climb him —”

  “Please stop talking about this,” Akio pleaded.

  “Oh! I had this made for you, Saotome-san,” Kuno held out the jersey, letting Ranma take a good look at it. “Consider it an open invitation to the girls' hockey team next year if you're interested. I believe with you on the team we'll be unbeatable.”

  “Uhhh…thank you, upperclassman Kuno,” Ranma accepted the gift and made a non-committal noise of acceptance as she bowed.

  “Okay Ranma, I gotta go get changed, see you in 1-F,” Akio tapped her shoulder and then headed off to the locker rooms.

  She groaned, realizing she'd be in the same class as him. He was the last jerk she wanted to see right now.

  Once Kodachi wasn't around, Ranma was swarmed by students eager to ask questions and confirm gossip. To her chagrin, a lot of them were about the engagement and Akio.

  She fielded those questions as best she could, but it just got worse when she got to homeroom. Hiroko and Asami practically bowled her over and dragged her to the back corner with devilish intent in their eyes.

  “Ranma! It's so cool that you're in our class!”

  “Did you have to fight to get in the same class as Akio?”

  “Ooh, good point, you'd think they wouldn't want to put you in the same room as your fiancé, otherwise you'd get distracted. ” Hiroko winked mischievously, and Ranma's cheeks warmed at the embarrassing thought of ogling her good friend.

  “Ah but we're so excited to get to hang out with you! You should totally come eat lunch with us, we’re gonna meet Sayuri and Yuka on the roof.”

  “Wait, you probably want to eat with Akio, don't you?” Ranma scowled when Asami mentioned Akio again, which made the girls gasp.

  “Oh, that's right! You hit him this morning, didn't you? Are you guys fighting? Is your engagement over already?” Ranma couldn't let that rumor get out, otherwise the suitor problem would only get worse, and Kuno would probably start bothering Akio again, even after Ranma earned him fair and square. Even though she was still mad about Tatewaki, she had to behave like a supportive new girlfriend.

  “No! No nothing like that!” Ranma waved her hands and whisper-shouted. She had to play things carefully, figure out a good reason to have malleted him that didn't make it seem like they were having anything other than normal early relationship issues.

  Of course, Ranma had never been in a relationship, nor had she ever paid attention to the concept of romance. Girls normally liked it when boys came and rescued them, right? Even Kuno referred to Akio as a gallant, knightly lion or whatever.

  Maybe that was the angle. Ranma was obviously a lone martial arts badass, used to taking on challenges by herself: it was weird to suddenly have a boy come in and do the work for her. She was probably even scared by the idea someone would do that for her, because what if it meant she was losing her edge or going soft?

  She pulled Hiroko and Asami close and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I'm just not…used to boys doing things for me without some sort of expectation, yanno? It's sweet that Akio wants to keep me safe but we barely know each other.”

  Brought into her confidence, the girls nodded somberly. Hiroko put a hand on Ranma's shoulder. “My big sister was like that when she met her husband, don't worry: remember Akio just wants to keep you safe.”

  Asami nodded in agreement, and Ranma let out a carefully calculated sigh of relief. “Thanks guys. I do kinda like it, but I’m worried it means he doesn’t take me seriously.”

  As if summoned, Akio came through the door freshly washed and wearing his uniform right before the bell rang.

  Ranma introduced herself to the class and, of course, found herself seated next to Akio. He was still frustrated and the tension was palpable; she'd need to do some more damage control.

  Akio was in a bad mood. Ranma didn't have to reciprocate his fake feelings but he didn't have to injure Akio either. Fortunately the school nurse said his bruises were superficial and would heal quickly.

  More irritating was how defensive Ranma got about the duel against Tatewaki. She was being completely unreasonable! Tatewaki was Akio’s longtime friend and rival who he hadn’t seen in over a year, he’d been challenged specifically, and Ranma already fought Kodachi for basically the same thing.

  It wasn't just unreasonable, it was hypocritical, it was infuriating. And now people were going to spread rumors about their rocky relationship. Oh gods, if he was really unlucky they'd think it was all one-sided. He'd done a great job acting like he had a crush on her, what if people assumed she didn't actually like him? Like their engagement was forced on her?

  If Kodachi ever heard that story he'd probably have to deal with her wrath instead of her affection, and that sounded much worse.

  Fortunately he didn't have to worry about that for long. During first period, Ranma asked to be excused. As he got out of his desk, he slipped and Akio's hand shot out to catch him. When he pulled himself up his arms suddenly wrapped around Akio's waist and in a panicked, breathy voice he exclaimed “Oh, thank you so much Kiochan!”

  The murmurs that spread through the class in response set Akio's heart at ease, and he looked down at Ranma pressing herself against him and looking straight up, dopey grin on her face. Akio's heart skipped a beat but he couldn't let himself be distracted for his friend's sake, no matter how cute she was right now.

  “No problem Ranma, I'll always be there to catch you.” The saccharine display elicited a few “awwwws” from the class and Ranma sold it even harder with a blush. He’d have to ask how she did that.

  “C’mon you two, hands off each other during class. Miss Saotome, you are excused.” The teacher interrupted.

  She let go of the hug but squeezed his hand as she practically skipped to the door. Akio knew he was tomato red as he sat back in his seat. Asami and Hiroko sent him big smiles, the latter even a V sign.

  He allowed himself a silly grin and tried to focus for the rest of class.

  Lunch provided Ranma another opportunity to publicly reaffirm her devotion to Akio and the engagement. Despite wanting to hang out with her new friends, she bid farewell to Hiroko and Asami to eat with Akio, Shingo, and Kiichi.

  The four of them pushed desks together and started chatting. Ranma was relieved Akio's friends were more interested in her than her and Akio, about the places she'd been and the martial arts she'd learned. Though she was gonna punch Kiichi in the face if he kept letting his gaze wander to her chest.

  Still, she made sure to act like she and Akio were close, scooting her chair close enough their thighs were touching, tittered any time he made a funny joke or comment, complimented his mom's cooking…

  “Oh, you didn't make this today, Ranma?” Shingo asked innocently.

  Her chopsticks stopped moving as she slowly tilted her head up to look at Shingo, then Akio, who was blushing. She wasn't sure if she should be irritated or proud that he'd apparently been bragging about his fiancée cooking for him like a good little housewife, but she knew she needed to pretend to be the latter.

  “Nope! This is all Mrs. Tendo’s, even mine!” She said with a smile. “I'm looking forward to learning even more from her! What did Akio say about my food?” It had been a while since she'd last pulled a con like this, she was worried she was getting rusty. But it was getting easier as the day went on! She didn't expect to ask about Akio's opinion of her cooking, it just slipped out of her mouth, and it was the exact thing a girl like her—like the students expected her to be—would ask about.

  Before any of the boys could answer her, though, Hiroko put her elbows down and smirked venomously. “I'll have you know that he didn't say anything, Ranma.”

  Asami, from the other side, slapped her palm on the desks. “Not about your food anyway.”

  Akio started sinking in his chair, hoping he'd be able to disappear, but his height did him no favors. “C’mon, guys, I just wasn't expecting it…”

  “Oh?” Ranma's curiosity was piqued. “What did he say?” She didn’t bring it up, but she laughed when she realized her friends decided not to eat on the roof after all, too curious about Ranma and Akio to pass up this opportunity.

  Kiichi was eager to join in on needling his friend. “Oh, are you saying you don't think she's ‘really cute’?”

  Akio's friends laughed as he went from red to purple and tried very hard to avoid looking at Ranma. She, however, didn't expect to blush in return and covered it up with a laugh of her own. After school, she needed to sit down with the Tendo brothers and work out exactly how they were gonna act out their relationship, because things were already progressing faster than she was comfortable with.

  Still, she didn't want to walk anything back, so she looped one of her arms around Akio's and smiled. “You're not too bad yourself, handsome.”

  When he turned to look at her she had a flashback to when she'd first arrived at the Tendo's, only five days ago, before her curse was revealed. It was dangerous to look him in the eyes, the way it made her stomach flip.

  For the rest of lunch she pivoted to talking to their friends. Enough about her and definitely enough about her and Akio. She never did let go of his arm though.

  Damn, Ranma thought, I'm so good at pretending to be a girl.