Here's a repost, with some small changes that a few people have suggested, as
well as any errors I've caught in the past few days.

There's a few things that I think _might_ have problems, but am not sure. If
you've got any comments about the following, I'm appreciate it.

1) Characterization in general and Nabiki specifically. A friend of mine
commented that she seemed a bit more "uptight" than normal. I'm trying to
convey the fact that she's not speaking her native language, but she's still
somewhat laid back.

2) The descriptions of locations. Is any of it confusing?

3) Story flow. Does it keep moving? Are you feeling that something's left
out?

4) Title. Any suggestions appreciated!

************

Transfer Students Part 1: (Untitled)
 a Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
 by Damien Roc

Disclaimer: All Ranma 1/2 characters are the creations (and copyrights) of
Rumiko Takahashi and some coporate bodies that I can't remember. Pay her if
you feel like paying money for this fic. Don't pay me or anyone else.

------------

I should have guessed that something like this would happen. It was bound to,
sooner or later. Hell, I'd even had a warning, down in the dorm lobby: the
look on Steve's face when he said "Hey! You hear the news?" When I looked
confused, he got this sort of smug I-know-something-you-don't-know.

Shrugging (and after a glance at the line to use the single elevator) I
pushed open the door to the stairwell and ran up the nine flights of steps,
two at a time.

"It's always more fun going down," I grunted, panting, as I pushed open the
door to my floor. Directly across from me was the upper part of a huge double
story window and the inverted words of "IVY" spraypainted there in some long
past year by some spirited students.

Down in the central area of the Ivy sub-dorm, I heard the quiet chatter of
some students. Maybe students, anyway. Sometimes, random "friends" of
students wandered in, the leftovers of last weekend's party needing a place
to crash.

I turned left and walked towards the male wing. Right was female.

There were two rows of rooms, one on the north side of the building, one on
the south. In between the two were the study areas, bathroom, and TV room, as
well as some (but never enough) storage space.

I cut past the bathroom, then I heard the voices. They were getting pretty
animated, and I couldn't make out the words immediatly. I rounded the
corner...

And stopped, stunned. My door was open, and three people were standing in
front of it.

I opened my mouth to protest at this intrusion of my space, then stopped when
I realized what language they were speaking.

By a small twist of fate, I was an underclassmen who had a dorm room all to
himself. Even better than that, I didn't have to pay any more than normal. I
lived like a senior, even tho I'm only a sophmore.

There was a catch to all this, however. At any time, my wonderous fortune
could be removed.

Apparently, that's what happened here. "Shit," I muttered, "IE students." So
much for the wonderful parties in my room.

***

There were two girls and a guy. They were asian, but I couldn't tell on sight
which ethnicity. It took me a bit to recognize the language as Japanese.

The guy shouted. He was carrying, by volume, anyway, most of the
conversation. Of the two girls, one regarded him cooly, while the other
(shorter) one just stood there, fuming and glowering at the other two.

The taller girl said something, which momentarily subdued the guy, but then
she added something else, which brought out another round of shouting from
they guy.

Clearly bored with how the conversation was going (around in circles, I
guessed) she rolled her eyes and tuned him out. Then, slightly startled, her
eyes came to rest on me.

Pushing past him, she stepped before me. "Hello," she said in surprisingly
coherent English, even getting the L's right. "I am Te..." She stopped and
shook her head slightly. "I am Nabiki Tendo." Behind her the other girl had
taken up argueing with the guy.

"New here?" I asked. She cocked her head for a moment, thinking, then nodded.
"Hi," I said, forcing a smile, "I'm Kenneth Rey." Then, nodding my head
towards the open door. "Mind if I get to my room?"

That apparently confused her. I pointed, past the argueing couple. "That's my
room. Can I get by?"

Her eyes grew wide when she understood and, flushing slightly red with
embarassment, she stepped out of the way. Turning her head. she said
something to the other two. Her voice carried an air of superiority, and
whatever she said shut them up.

The other girl stepped back, out of my way, and the guy, obviously angry,
stalked into the room. My new roommate, I surmised.

I walked past him and flipped on my computer. As I sat down, the two girls
came in and continued their conversation with they guy, more quietly now.
They only stayed around for a couple more minutes, the taller one, Nabiki, I
reminded myself, saying "Goodbye" in English. It was only later that I
realized it was for my benefit.

After they left, I looked at my roommate and his stuff. He was slightly
shorter than me, but seemed above average height for a Japanese person. Not
too amazing, Hideo Nomo is about six foot. His clothes struck me as strange.
Black pants, kinda like sweat pants, and a red shirt with the sleeves rolled
slightly up, revealing white on the inside. His black hair was in slight
disarray, but the back was tied into a small pig-tail. His features were
finely chiseled, and, from what I could see, he was well muscled.

It struck me that he was ruggedly handsome, at least by American standards.
Widen the eyes, give him three inches of height and a bit of stubble, and
he's be perfect for the lead in Jerry Bruckheimer's next $100 million dollar
B-movie.

As far as his belongings, there were barely any. A backpack and a bedroll,
apparently. -Maybe the rest is coming later- I guessed.

For a moment, he just stood there, anger clear on his face but lacking an
object to be directed at. Finally, he just grabbed his bedroll and unrolled
it with a fling of his arms. It landed on the floor in a slightly messy
jumble, but he ignored that and just sat on the bedding.

I was a bit surprised. I had spread out and occupied the entire room, but the
second bed (now a bunk below which my refrigerator, TV, and clothes dressers
were) was obviously unoccupied.

"Hey," I said, getting his attention. He turned his head, assuming a bored
look. "You can use that bed up there." I pointed at the bunk bed. He looked
up and shrugged, but didn't do anything besides lay back.

"Oh-kay," I mumbled, then went back to my schoolwook.

Sometime later, I suddenly stopped typing when I felt this weird sensation. I
turned around to see my roommate staring intently at me.

Then he spoke, "Herro," he said, "I... Saotome Ranma." It was all I could do
to not burst out laughing.

"Hi, Saotome," I said, keeping a straight face. "I'm Kenneth Rey."

He frowned slightly. "Kennesu," he said. I smiled, it was like I'd been
transported into a bad fifties movie and was talking to an "asian" extra.

"Call me Kenny."

That was a bit easier for him. "Keni."

"It's a start," I said, turning back to my work. Then, under my breath, I
added, "We've got to work on your English, buddy."

Saotome apparently didn't want to say more either. He walked over and sat
down in the windowsill, his anger gone, now he just had a bored look on his
face.

***

I didn't see too much of Saotome over the next few days. He was around, but
he didn't do... anything. When he was in the room, he just sat there, staring
out the window or maybe doing pushups or other exercises. He didn't try to
talk to me, and I couldn't afford the time to talk to him.

Ceres came by two evenings later to force me to take a break. She started to
say something as she pushed open the door, then stopped when she saw him.

"Kenny... who's that?" Saotome's head rolled around to regard her for a
moment, then he went back to staring outside.

I shrugged as I punched in another equation. "My roommate."

She frowned. "You don't have a roommate."

"I do now."

"Great," she harumphed. "Just great."

I'd expected the conversation that was about to come. About all the lost
parties and such. Not too much I could do.

Ceres surprised me. "Well," she said brightly, "Can't worry about it." She
grabbed the back of my chair and pulled me away from my computer. I furiously
tried to finish the problem, but gave up as my fingers started hitting the
wrong keys. "You'll kill yourself if you keep working like that. You can
afford me a few games and a dinner." 

She pulled open one of my drawers and took out two ping-pong paddles. "Red or
blue?" she asked.

"Blue." I caught the tossed paddle and followed her out of my room and down
to the small common area at the end of the hall. A few of the guys in the
dorm had confiscated the best ping-pong table on campus from another dorm. It
was ferociously guarded at all times.

"So tell me about him," Ceres ordered me as we began volleying to warm up.

"Who?"

"Your roommate."

"I don't know anything about him."

"Nothing?"

"Not much. His names Saotome Ranma."

She laughed. "That's funny." I shrugged. "So he's Chinese or something?"

"Japanese, actually."

She shrugged and grabbed the ball. "Zilch up." She served the ball. "What's
the difference?"

We knocked it back and forth a few times before she got the point. "Quite a
bit... I think."

"How can you tell?"

I laughed. "They sound different."

Ceres shrugged. "Whatever. Don't know anything else? Doesn't he talk."

"Not much." My first serve, but I was down by four then. "Oh, four."

"He stupid or something?"

"No, Ceres, he doesn't speak English."

That confused her, and I got the point. "Hey! No fair!" she complained, but
let it go. "Don't they have to speak English to come over here?"

"A little, but I think they come to improve." That ended the conversation,
and we moved on to other things as we finishe the first game. Ceres beat me
21 to 13.

"Getting old, Kenny."

"Sure, just serve the ball."

I was on my way to thoroughly trouncing her for revenge when I heard a slight
cough behind me. Ceres immediatly stopped playing. "Uhh, Kenny..." she
pointed behind me with her paddle.

I turned. "Oh, hi!" I forced a smile on my face. "Nabiki, wasn't it?"

She nodded. "I just wanted to make sure that..." she stopped when we heard
shouting behind her. Japanese shouting. Nabiki sighed and continued, "Make
sure that Ranma is not a bother."

I blinked in surprise. "Bother, no... He hasn't done anything, really."

Then there was this thunderous crash.

"What the fuck was that?" Ceres shouted. I pushed past Nabiki, running
towards my room.

My door had been ripped off its hinges, and was slammed on top of Saotome. He
was alive, I could tell by his twitching. In fact, he was already rising.

The second Japanese girl, Akane - Nabiki's younger sister, was breathing
heavily with anger. Saotome jumped up, edging to fight back. Nabiki
intervened between them, saying something in Japanese. Saotome seethed with
rage, but didn't do anything. Akane turned her chin up and brushed past me
and Ceres.

Nabiki said something else. He waved it away and turned towards the window,
pushed it open, and jumped out.

Ceres gasped. "Oh, my God! What'd you say to him?" I shouted.

Nabiki blinked. "Oh, nothing."

"Nothing?" I was stupified. "He just killed himself!"

"Ranma?" She waved the worry away with her hand. "He is fine."

"But we're nine stories up!" Ceres cried.

I stepped over the door and looked out the window. Far down below, I could
see the distinctive red shirt and black pants of Ranma Saotome, running away.
"I don't believe it."

"Do not worry about the door," Nabiki said. "I will cover it." I turned, and
caught a glimpse of a mischevious glint in her eyes, but she turned away.
"Goodbye."

"Kenny," Ceres said after a minute. "What was that about?"

I shook my head, bewildered. "I... don't know."

***

The next week brought a few startling realizations, the biggest being that
Nabiki was in a number of my business classes, and a slight lightening of my
workload. I managed to take a bit of time to try and communicate with my
roommate.

For the most part, I failed. I gathered that he didn't want to be here in the
States, but not much else.

"He's not very responsive, you know." I commented to Nabiki one day in the
computer lab.

"Who?" 

"Saotome. He's more lethargic than a slug."

She shrugged. "I could talk to him for you..." There was something with the
way she spoke, the way she trailed off, I could feel the "but it'll cost
you." at the end. Something told me (my economic well-being, probably) that
Nabiki wasn't one I wanted to cross... or owe.

"No. I think this is something he and I have to sort out."

Nabiki shrugged and went back to work.

"Insult him," she suddenly said a bit later.

"What?"

"Insult him. Ranma hates being insulted." I thought about Saotome. I thought
about all that power in his body. I shuddered to think what would happen to
me if I angered him.

"Eh-heh. No thanks." But I did decide to have a long talk with him.

***

"Hey, Saotome," I announced the next day. He stopped the kata he'd been
practicing and looked at me, annoyed. "We've gotta talk."

He blinked a couple of times, but just stood there, looking slightly
confused. -And there's the reason- I thought. "We. Have. To. Talk." I said
more slowly. I waited a moment for him to figure it out. Then he shrugged and
said something in Japanese. I took it to be "Whatever."

"Outside," I added. I opened the door and led the way to the elevator.

"Saotome," I started when we'd left the building. "We have a slight problem."
I glanced over at him. He was slightly behind me, so I waited for him to
catch up. "We need to communicate. I don't understand Japanese, and you're
not very good with English."

I was leading him to "The Puddle". Nominally, it was a small pond. Some
brilliant person had decided to line a natural contour of the land with
concrete to collect rainwater. Unfortunately, it was so shallow that it dried
up with startling regularity. No plant life lived in it (but there was a
small "island" in the middle) and only a pair of tenacious ducks claimed it
as home. It was ugly and, when the weather warmed, smelly, so it didn't
attract a lot of people. Saotome and I could converse in relative privacy.

"Now, I don't know how your classes are going, but in our room, at least,
we've got to stop this." I leaned over the railing of a small deck, watching
the two ducks paddle around a bit of water left from the last storm. It
started to rain. The ducks quacked a bit at this change of events; behind me,
I heard a small yelp.

"I'm just asking you to try, at least, to communicate." I turned towards him.
"Saotome. I'll try to..." I stopped speaking.

Ranma Saotome was gone. In his place, looking very annoyed and wringing out
his clothes, which clung to her very buxom body, was a cute, red-haired girl.

Something was seriously wrong here.

--- To Be Continued ---

Comments and Criticism (and even some praise ^_^) welcome. Grammatical
corrections are also helpful.

Damien Roc