I would have had this one out earlier, but I was locked out of 
the computer lab yesterday...

	Tachi looked at the boy lying in the doorway.  "Help me get him 
inside," she asked Ranko.  "I think he's been hit on the head too many 
times today.  The least we can do is give him an icepack."
	Ranko grabbed the pig-tailed stranger by the legs and started 
dragging him through the clinic.  "Do you know who he is?  It sounds like 
he knows you."  The red-haired girl winked at her cousin.  "Oh, I get 
it.  He's your boyfriend.  That explains the lipstick- ow!  Would you 
stop hitting me with that thing?"
	Tachi calmly put her bokken away.  "I only hit you when you 
deserve it, Ranko.  I learned that from your mom.  And no, he's not my 
boyfriend.  At least, I don't think he is."
	"Huh?"  Ranko hauled Ryo onto the examining table.
	Tachi held out one of the medical journals she'd found in the 
other room.  "Look at the date on this.  It's from last century.  And 
this is the most recent one I could find."
	The titan-haired girl scratched her head.  "So that means... 
uncle Tofu was reading old magazines?"
	"No!"  Tachi slapped the journal down on a counter.  "It means 
we're in the past.  Use your mind, Ranko.  There's no sign aunt Kasumi or 
Bell-chan ever lived here.  It all fits."
	"The past?"  Ranko thought for a moment.  She liked the idea.  "Yes!  
I can keep dad from taking me on that trip to- ouch!"
	"Oh, be quiet.  I only used the magazine this time."  The 
short-haired girl had a dreamy look in her eyes.  "Besides, you're 
thinking small.  Do you know how much money I can make here?  I, Tachi 
Tendo, the undefeated Shooting Star, will make the financial world 
tremble at the mere whisper of my name!"
	In the distance, a massive roll of thunder shook the skies.
	"Hello?"  asked a soft voice.  "Doctor Tofu?"  A beautiful woman 
with long brown hair walked into the room.  "Oh, hello," she said.  "Have 
you seen Doctor Tofu?"
	"He was running down the street with a skeleton," said Ranko.
	"Oh, my.  I wonder why he was doing that?  Well, he must have had 
a good reason."  Kasumi walked over to the examining table and brushed 
the hair out of Ryo's face.  "What happened to this poor boy?"
	Tachi shrugged her shoulders.  "I think he was hit on the head a 
few too many times today.  We just found him, and figured he ought to 
rest here for a while."
	"That's a good idea," agreed Kasumi.  She took a damp cloth and 
wiped the blood and lipstick off his face.
	Ryo stirred at the sound of Kasumi's voice.  His eyes fluttered 
open.  "Bell-chan?"  he asked.  The pig-tailed boy tried to sit up.  "No, 
wait, you're not Bell-chan."
	"No, she's not," whispered Tachi.  "This is Kasumi."
	Ryo nodded.  "Kasumi.  Tachi is a girl, and this is Kasumi.  I 
understand now.  Kodachi escaped from the asylum and poisoned me.  That's 
the only possible explanation."
	"Oh, my.  If you have been poisoned, we should do something about 
that right away."  Kasumi looked around the clinic.  "Oh how I wish 
Doctor Tofu were here!  Well, I can make some tea, at least.  That should 
help a little."  She hurried to the kitchen, moving purposefully.
	"You haven't been poisoned," Tachi explained.  "I think you're 
from the future.  Or, at least, a future."
	"Oh, really?"  Ryo slid off the examining table.  "And what makes 
you say that."
	The short-haired girl held up her left hand.  "First, Ranko and I 
are from the future."  She curled her pinky finger into her palm.  
"Second, you know my name.  That means you're not from this world, not 
any more than I am."  Another finger curled down.  "Third, you're wearing 
your hair in a rather distinctive pig-tail braid.  I only know one person 
who wears his hair that way."  Tachi pointed her index finger at Ryo.  
"Fourth, who are your parents?"
	"Ranma and Ukyou Saotome."
	"Hey!" shouted Ranko.
	Tachi ignored her cousin.  "And are they married?"
	Ryo looked shocked.  "Of course they are!  What kind of a 
question is that?"
	Tachi made a fist.  "Where we come from, Ranma Saotome married 
Akane Tendo."
	Ryo stared at the two girls for a moment.  "I believe you."  He 
held his hands out, palm up.  "I don't know why, but I believe you."
	Kasumi returned with the tea.  She offered the cup to Ryo.  "I 
apologize if this tastes bad, but there wasn't much I could do about the 
medicine."
	Ryo took a sip.  "The tea is excellent, as always.  I do not 
think you could ever make unwholesome food.  Thank you very much."  He 
drained the cup to the dregs.
	"And now we'd better be going," said Tachi.
	"But if your friend has been poisoned, you should wait until 
Doctor Tofu returns."
	"I am afraid we do not have time," said Ryo.
	"Yeah we do," countered Ranko.  "If we're from the future, we 
have-" A bokken to the skull brought an end to the red-haired girl's words.
	"The future?"  Kasumi studied the trio of displaced martial 
artists with her innocent eyes.  "Oh.  I do hope it's a nice future."
	Ryo and Tachi stared at each other.  "I think you'd like it," 
Tachi said at last.  "You have a beautiful daughter."
 	"Bell-chan looks like you," Ryo added.  "She is a goddess on earth, 
and I am to marry her at the end of summer."
	Kasumi smiled.  "I have a feeling you'll be a fine son in law."
	"We do have to get going," insisted Tachi.  "We need to get to 
the bottom of this mystery, and fast.  Who knows what our being here in 
the past could do to the future?"  She gave Ryo a warning glance.  "Any 
future."
	"Be careful," advised Kasumi as the others left the clinic.
	"We will," Ryo assured her.
	The chronologically displaced teens started jogging.  The sidewalk was 
too narrow for the three of them to run side by side, so Ranko jumped to 
the top of the ever-present fence.  "Where are we going?" she called down.
	"To Furinkan High," her cousin replied.  "We're going to need 
help; that means we need my mom."  Tachi glanced at her companions.  "And 
your dad, I guess."
	"If the stories of his high school days are true, pop was pretty 
good at solving problems," said Ryo.
	Tachi frowned.  "Oh, the stories are true all right.  You can 
always count on Ranma Saotome to get you out of a jam."
	Under her breath, the short-haired girl added, "Of course, he was 
the cause of the problems in the first place."

* * * * *

	Spring stopped walking.
	This was a bad thing, as far as the local contractors were 
concerned.  The purple-haired amazon had left a trail of destruction to 
rival any of Ryoga's worst rages.  Every single wall that crossed her 
path now had a girl-sized hole in it.
	This was also a good thing, as far as the Furinkan High School 
grounds were concerned.  Ranma and company caused enough structural 
damage by themselves.  The school board did not need Spring to add to that 
week's repair bill.
	Spring was still frustrated and upset, though, and she could have 
cared less for contractors and school boards.  Her quest to find a strong 
husband had been a near-total disaster.  She'd only met one boy who was 
strong enough to give her a good fight, and he'd disappeared before they 
could decide who was the better fighter.
	And there was no way Spring would settle for anything less than a 
boy who could best her in a fight.  She had a family tradition to 
uphold.  That was, after all, why Cologne had sent her to Japan in the 
first place.

* * * * *

	For the average boy, Furinkan high was a dangerous, depressing 
place.  If you weren't careful, you could end up as collateral damage in 
a fight between obscenely powerful martial artists.  Worse than that, 
every cute girl was either under Kuno's protection, engaged to Ranma 
Saotome, or both.  It just wasn't fair.
	When Spring arrived at the front gates of the school at 
lunchtime, the testosterone-driven half of the Furinkan High population 
saw their chance.  Everyone knew that Ranma spent the first part of the 
lunch period running from Akane, and the other part in the infirmary.
	In less than no time, the young amazon found herself the center 
of a wide ring of boys, all of them shouting and asking her questions.
	"Who are you?  What's you're name?"
	"I haven't seen you around before.  Are you going to school here?"
	"Are you from China?  You look like you're from China."
	Spring, for all her training, was not very good at languages, 
particularly Japanese.  The best she could do when confronted by the 
drooling hordes of Furinkan High was nod and smile a lot, which only 
encouraged the lot of them.  Then one boy, with a bit more brains than 
the rest, finally worked himself up to asking the one question his 
fellows dreaded the most.
	"Are you engaged to Ranma?"
	The crowd instantly fell silent.
	Spring frowned.  "Spring no engaged to anyone."
	"DATE ME!" the crowd roared in unison.
	Spring was shocked by their enthusiasm.  _This trip might not be 
a failure after all.  At a school this big there's got to be a decent 
fighter somewhere._  "Spring only date boy who beat her in fight," she 
declared, having to shout a bit to be heard over the crowd.
	The boys of Furinkan High thought about this for a minute.
	One of them pushed his way to the front of the pack.  "I'll fight 
you," he announced.  Spring bowed to him, then attacked.  The boy went 
down hard.
	"Me next!" shouted a half-dozen boys at once.  That started a 
mele the likes of which hadn't been seen since the days before Ranma 
Saotome enrolled.
	Spring was busy for the next few minutes.  She'd never had to 
fight that many people at once before.
 ______
{B-{=__