Dramatis Personae.
------------------

"We're home!" Akane called. Ranma and Kohane entered the door as the
younger Tendou removed her shoes. The walk home had been quick, as
the martial artists were eager to get into training mode.
  Soun was there to cheerfully greet them. "Ah, Akane and Ranma-
kun." He glanced at Kohane and asked, "And who is this?"
  "Otousan, this is a new student at school, Imai Kohane."
  "It's just Kohane," she corrected. When she met his eyes, Soun
began to stutter and he collapsed onto his behind. He tried to
scramble backwards.
  Kohane realised before the others what she had done and hurried
past Akane and Ranma, who looked on incredulously. Soun backed up
against the wall, and could do nothing as Kohane worriedly tried to
help him to his feet. She looked at her socked feet to avoid eye
contact, saying, "I'm awfully sorry, Ojisama! I promise it won't
happen again. I usually, that is, I forgot..."
  Soun recovered in his peculiar way. He put a hand on her shoulder
and replied good-naturedly, "We-e-ell, that's okay! All martial
artists are welcome here."
  Akane blinked. "You can tell too, Otousan?"
  A big sweat-bead appeared on the man's hair. "I'm sure our guest
would like to see the dojo. Would you show her around, Akane?
There's a good girl."
  "Yes, Otousan."
  "Thankyou, Ojisama."
  Soun moved towards another room as Ranma, Akane and Kohane headed
off to ditch their bags. Then a black shape zoomed down the corridor
and leaped into Akane's arms. She hugged P-chan in delight, and Ranma
scowled.
  Unnoticed, Soun sneaked out of the room behind them and silently
made for the dining room with an anxious, unreadable expression on
his face.
  "Kohane-san, meet P-chan," Akane said. Kohane fussed over how cute
he was until she met his eyes, where-upon she gasped.
  For a moment there was silence and bigsweats formed on P-chan's,
then Ranma's, head. Ranma had changed suddenly from bemused to nearly
frantic. Suddenly P-chan hopped from Akane's embrace and fled.
  Akane stared and spoke, "I wonder what's got into him..."
  "I could swear, in that animal's eyes, I saw..." Kohane began, but
trailed off when Ranma waved silent, panicked hands at her from
behind Akane.
  "Hmm..?" The Tendou girl looked at her visitor.
  Kohane quickly considered. "...Nothing. Forget it - how 'bout this
dojo! Where's it at?"
  Akane happily led the way.


The three stood in a triangle on the smooth boards. Subdued sun
slanted into the rice-paper windows to illuminate the large room.
Kohane stood firmly in a gi lent to her by Akane (it closely matched
the one worn by her), and she wore a ribbon around her head. Ranma
had not bothered to change, save for baring his feet. He listened
intently to the girl.
  "This place will be quite good," Kohane commented, then addressed
the couple. "What you saw today was an effortless display of my
skills. Even a martial artist of your level, Ranma, could pull off
the _Kudariki Shouten Ha_ as I call it - with the right training."
  Akane glanced at her fiancee and was slightly surprised when she
saw no sign of hurt pride. He's actually hanging off every word! she
mused, and felt a bit jealous of Kohane. And her, only a girl, she
thought sarcastically - but what she had already seen was firmly in
her memory.
  Kohane said, "I don't want to spar with you in this demonstration,
Akane-san. You wouldn't gain anything. But I want to contribute to
the Musabetsu Kakutou school, so don't worry about being excluded.
We'll start now."
  Ranma made no reply. Kohane walked backwards to put some room
between herself and Ranma. They both fell into stances. Akane
instinctively moved away to the wall and out of the firing line.
Kohane began to speak --
  "Wait!" The door banged open and Ryouga walked in. Kohane saw his
eyes and her own narrowed in perplexity. Ryouga realised, his
momentum faltered. Ranma frowned, then stared at his arch-enemy with
resigned annoyance; Akane was the only one genuinely surprised to
see him.
  "And you are?"
  "Hi- Hibiki Ryouga," he replied, flustered. He forced himself to
stand tall, though he kept his eyes lowered. "I over-heard what you
said about training. I'm just as good as Ranma, and whatever he
will learn, I will learn." Besides, he added mentally, after what
I've seen him do, I really need to catch up.
  Kohane blinked and regarded the boy. Then she smiled knowingly
and stated, "Very well. _Now_ we will begin. Attack."
  Both guys charged but Ranma started closer to her, so he engaged
Kohane first. His lightning fast forward kick, which ended so many
confrontations before they could begin, flashed towards the girl's
head. As it came close, she motioned with her hands, and the foot
deflected to the side. Ranma was not sure how she did it, but he
pressed the attack. Kohane deflected the following blur of blows in
the same way, without seeming to touch Ranma, then suddenly grasped
his wrist. With a flicking motion and a high-pitched kiai, Kohane
flipped and tossed Ranma to the other end of the dojo.
  Akane gasped.
  Then Ryouga reached her position and hurled a solid fist at her
face. It met her palm and she drew it to her side. Ryouga gritted
his teeth as Kohane twisted his wrist to throw him as well.
Suddenly, Ryouga flipped himself over to the other side so as to
take the pressure off, and he pivoted to hit her in the head with
his heel. Kohane's free hand zipped across to block with the palm.
Ryouga's foot bounced and flew back the way it came, putting him
off-balance. She reapplied the lock, but then simply motioned to
punch him in the chest. There was no connection, but when Kohane
shouted "KYAAA!" the boy flew and thudded into the wall.
  By this stage Akane was standing in near-terrified fascination.
  Ranma had got up and now made a second effort. "TENSHIN
AMAGURI KEN!" he cried, but his multiple fists were stopped by
Kohane's fore-arm. She 'hmphed' then emitted another kiai with her
punch to knock Ranma back. He quickly knelt up, ready for more.
  Kohane relaxed, assumed a scholastic air . "You, Ranma-kun, rely
on your incredible speed to beat your opponent down before he can
realise. Ryouga-kun, your brute strength gives you formidable power
and stamina to keep fighting in the most extreme situations. Both of
these attributes, friends, are basically useless against Tamashiitou,
my own style of spirit combat. Your first lesson: the centre of chi
energy is the most powerful part of your body. Not fists or feet."
  "Fighting with chi, eh?" Ranma said, glancing across the hall at
his rival.
  Ryouga had the same idea. "We do have some experience with that,"
he remarked.
  In unison they faced their palms together and drew upon their
spirit energies. Blazing spheres of power swiftly grew in their
hands.
  Akane's expression shifted nearly to shock when she realised what
was happening. Kohane, for a second, was surprised, then flashed the
other girl a confident, reassuring smile, and steeled herself.
  "MOUKOU TAKABISHA!!", "SHISHI HOUKOU DAN!!"
  Dazzling chi power blazed from the hands, streaming from Ranma and
Ryouga to meet at Kohane's position. The girl vanished, and they
began to think this may be it. Then her erect silhouette became
visible as the blasts faded, finally finishing to show Kohane
standing in the same place, holding two globes of chi in her hands.
  She regarded both. "Interesting. You use the classic Roaring Lion
Bullet, Ryouga-kun, by projecting your excessive depression; Ranma-
kun, your variation centres on the confidence you have in your
abilities and the fact that you've never lost before. I didn't
expect this... Interesting..."
  The boys gaped. "She caught our blasts..." Ryouga began, "...And
is able to tell all that?" finished Ranma.
  Kohane looked at each of them and smiled fiendishly. "This is
good, but lacking in the standards of Tamashiitou. Here - back
atcha!!"
  The energy blazed forth again, but in reverse. Akane heard only
the cries of defeat and the rumble of the blasts.


Kohane walked down the hallway of the quiet, darkened house towards
the bathroom. It was hours since she had arrived at the Tendou's.
Akane had shown her around the whole house following the spectacular
training session. She met Kasumi (who patched up Ranma) and heard
about Nabiki over dinner. And she received one more shock when the
panda she saw playing shougi with the house's patriarch fled her
incredulous stare. Finally, though her workout had been far from
strenuous, she left Akane and Ranma to go and have a bath.
  Closing the outside door, Kohane began to undress, placing the
school dress and shirt, then her underwear in the clothes basket.
She opened the door to the bath - thick steam rolled out - and
closing it behind her, walked forward and saw a small black creature
just as it splashed into the water.
  Is that Akane's weird piglet? she wondered, and stared into the
disturbed surface. Then a bandanna-tied head bobbed up and shook
itself of water.
  For a moment after Ryouga noticed Kohane, he just stared, clouded,
at her form, his eyes paralysed yet seeming to run up and down every
soft contour. A trickle of nose blood ran down diagonally past his
mouth to drip from his chin into the steaming bath. The small sound
prompted him to look up at Kohane's face.
  Kohane, for an instant, was completely fazed. She just about lost
it and would have begun pounding Ryouga without thought to technique
or deadly accuracy, when her hard-learned, pin-point refined power
of reason took over to say, "He's no pervert. He was obviously here
before I got here and is totally innocent. But how come he was..."
  Ryouga made a cautious move, but Kohane shot a warning hand out,
shouting a quiet kiai. Ryouga was subtly frozen in place. "Just
stay there, Ryouga-kun." Kohane stiffly turned and retreated to the
outer room.
  Ryouga wondered how such a quiet noise could have such a stunning
effect, at the same time as his mind was filled with the picture of
the sudden movement the girl's chest had made when she produced the
sound.
  Presently Kohane returned, wearing the shirt and dress which
looked hastily fitted. She approached the hopeless Ryouga
deliberately and knelt beside the bath rim. "I'm not angry, though
I can't stand perverts. I just want to know one thing: why, and
_how_, on Earth are you also a PIG!?"
  Ryouga blinked a few times, then began the story of the incident
at Jusenkyou and the cause of endless days of weird adventure.


Akane had been trying to study, but was now staring out of her open
window at the sparse lights of Nerima. The unused pen idly flicked
around in her hand. Akane was not keeping track of time, but she
knew it was getting late. I should get to sleep, she thought, and
yawned big. When her eyes opened Ranma was hanging inverted before
her. She eyed him with sleepy curiosity.
  "I gotta talk with you," he said.
  Akane mused, I've rarely seen him so insecure. She stood and
moved to her bed and Ranma swung over the sill into the room. He
shut the window.
  "Is it about Kohane-san?" she asked.
  Ranma sat backwards on the desk chair across the room. "Yes." He
searched for the right words. "...It's so hard to explain."
  "You mean, how things make sense around her but later you can't
figure it out?"
  "You too?"
  Akane leaned back on her elbows to look at the ceiling. "I know
one thing: _you_ definitely weren't acting yourself." She held up
her index finger and continued, "You always say that you don't fight
girls, even when one yourself. But you really tried to get her in
that fight." Akane extended her middle finger, "And you were so
thoroughly defeated, but you acted like it was supposed to happen."
She put her hands under her and sat forward. "So how do you feel
now?"
  "I don't know. I didn't think of it at the time - it just seems
like a defeat in training. Looking back, I don't see how I could
face her at all. She's so powerful, Akane - way out of our league."
  She yawned a little more. "Kohane-san's certainly a strange
person. Maybe being around her has a sort of effect on our minds
somehow. What should we do about it?"
  Akane was not looking at Ranma. He watched as she leaned back
again, her firm legs exposed by the short, dark dress she wore, her
arms covered by the sleeves of the lighter skivvy. Her hair hung
back, her head turned to the side, an expression of contemplative
drowsiness on her face. Ranma tried to focus on the matter at hand.
  "We need to know just who she is. After all this hospitality,
she's gotta tell us."
  "Oh, Ranma. I'm sure we only need to ask her nicely."
  Just then there was a knock at the door. Akane and Ranma shared a
glance and she called, "Come in."
  Kohane stood in the doorway. "Did I interrupt something?" she
asked apologetically.
  "No, of course not." Akane sat up straight.
  The girl entered the room and said straight out, "I know all about
it, Ranma-kun. Ryouga-kun told me."
  He looked resigned. "You would have found out. It's not something
w-... er, I really try to hide."
  "And so who is that panda?"
  "Oyaji."
  "Okay." A long moment of silence. "You deserve," stated Kohane,
"to know about me now. You wondered anyway, right? Let's go down-
stairs."
  They filed out, and Ranma whispered aside to her, "Kohane-san.
Thankyou for not mentioning Ryouga."
  "You almost did yourself. I take it Akane-san doesn't know. Why?"
  "That's complicated. I'll tell you later."
  "All right."