Ranma's Secret Admirer prologue and 1/4
by Trisha L. Sebastian


[All the characters herein are the intellectual property of Rumiko
Takahashi and the physical property of Viz Communications and who
ever else has their greedy fingers in the pie.  Except for the new
character, she's mine.]

PROLOGUE


	"Hey, glad you could make it!  Everyone else is in the living
room."

	I walked through the door, took off my shoes and carried my 
sleeping bag to the living room.  Already the rest of the gang was there,
laughing at the cartoons on the TV.  Everyone except for....

	"Where's Akane?  Isn't she coming?"

	"Um, she had to cancel at the last minute.  Something about a 
demon at school that she and Ranma have to get rid of."

	I nodded, a sad expression on my face, but inside a secret blossom
of joy filled me.  I sat down, spread out my blankets and grabbed some
chips from the table.


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


	"So who do you think is the cutest?"

	All slumber parties eventually get down to the most important topic:
the cutest guy in school.  Usually, we'd be discussing the merits of 
Hiroshi's smile or Daisuke's hair, but tonight with Akane gone, we could
really warm up to the topic.

	"Oh, Ranma, definitely.  Those eyes draw you in from a mile
away!"

	"But Kunou-sempai is older!  And he's so tall."

	"Eh, neither of them can hold a candle to Ryouga-kun!"

	They all giggled and another girl decided to add her opinion.  
"But what about Mousse?  His hair is so nice and it's real cute when
he's bumping into things..."

	They laughed.  "Come on!  There's no way that Mousse will
ever give you the time of day.  He's too hung up on his 'Shampoo'!"

	I retorted.  "Like there's any chance that Ranma, Kunou-sempai
and Ryouga would give you the time of day?  They're all hung up on Akane.
Everyone is!"

	The rest of the girls fell silent.  They knew I was right.  
One girl got up to go to the bathroom, and another flipped on the TV.  Soon,
all of them were engrossed in the newest music video by the latest idol 
singer, but I didn't care.  I hated being right.


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


	"It's time for bed, girls.  You've been up way too late."

	Reluctantly, the girls turned out their flashlights, cleaned
up the food and snuggled down into their sleeping bags.  I slipped
out a penlight from her overnight bag and began to write.  I had
put it off long enough.  It was time to reveal my true feelings,
once and for all.

		"Dear Ranma......."



CHAPTER ONE


	"So anyway, I try and hit this 'demon', but it's like he
ain't there!  It was kinda like fightin' the old lech, so I figured that..."

	"Oh come off it, Ranma!  You had no idea who we were up against."
Akane grumbled.  "And it was two weeks ago!  Everyone knows what happened
already!"  She bit into her sandwich angrily.

	"Yeah, but Megumi ain't heard it yet.  She just got here, remember?"

	Megumi laughed.  "Actually, Ukyou told me all about it yesterday
after I got off the train.  We talked about a lot of things."

	"Oh."  Ranma looked dejected.  He gathered up his lunch box.  "Well,
I gotta go now."  He got to his feet and started to hurry off when he felt ]
someone run into him.  He quickly sidestepped, while grabbing a hold of an
out stretched arm.  "Watch where you're going!"

	"Oh, sorry about that," I replied.  He was touching me!  He was
actually holding my arm!  "It was my fault, I didn't look where I was going."
Quickly, I slipped the note into his bento, hoping that Akane didn't notice.

	"Well, okay then."  He hurried off, waving to Daisuke.

	I looked off in the distance at him, watching him fade into the 
distance.  The sound of my name caught my attention.  "Hmm?"

	Akane grinned.  "I was just wondering if you could join me
and Megumi for lunch."

	I shook my head absent-mindedly.  "No, I've got an appointment
to keep."  I took off, deliberately avoiding the path Ranma was taking, 
but instead circling around the school to the spot where all the boys hung
out.  There, I watched him smile, watched him laugh.  I ate my lunch 
quietly basking in the sight of Ranma Saotome.


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


	Ranma trudged wearily to the door.  Flinging it open, she called out,
"I'm home!"  She shucked off her shoes and dropping off her bento in the 
kitchen, she flopped down on the couch in front of the TV.  Every muscle
in her body ached.  Her head was still ringing and she could feel a nasty
bruise start to form on her right flank.  Damnit, she thought, wringing
out her shirt, why do they all have to gang up on me all at once?

	Akane shuffled in shortly afterwards, a tired expression on her 
face.  Instead of neatly taking her shoes and her bookbag to her room, she
dropped them in the corner of the hallway.  She flopped down on the couch
next to Ranma and they looked at each other, a silent compliment in their
eyes as they noted each others' skill.

	Finally, Ranma spoke.  "Damnit, Akane!  I can't keep watchin' your
back all the time!"

	"You watching my back?  I had everything under control!  You were
the one who messed up!" Akane growled, her muscles tensing up and instantly
regretting it.  She groaned, flinging herself back on the couch.

	Kasumi entered from the kitchen and seeing them boneless on the 
couch, she said, "Oh, my!  Were you in a fight?"

	Akane nodded, "Yeah, seems like everyone decided to gang up on
us today."  She counted them off in her mind: Ukyou, Shampoo, Tsubasa, 
Ryouga, Kodachi, Mousse, Kunou-sempai...  the list was endless.

	Ranma sighed.  "Why can't they leave me alone?  It ain't my fault!"
She got up to go to the dojo and work out the kinks in her muscles.  As she 
passed Kasumi in the kitchen to get a kettle of water, Kasumi stopped her.
"I found this note in your bento.  It's addressed to you."

	Ranma frowned.  A note?  Who in the heck could it be from?  She took
it with listless fingers and grabbed the kettle off the stove.  Once outside,
she poured the kettle over her head, relishing in the warmth and the change.
He looked down at the note and unfolded it.

	"What's that, Ranma?"

	Ranma jumped.  "Oh, hey it's you, Nabiki."  He must have been really
out of it to let her sneak up on him like that.  He took a quick glance at 
the note and grimaced.  "It's nothin'."

	Nabiki smiled craftily.  "If it really were nothing, you wouldn't
mind if I took a look at it, would you?"

	Ranma panicked.  "Well, maybe it's not somethin' you'd wanna see."
He tried to stuff it in his pants pocket, but Nabiki was quicker than
him and she managed to snag it.  She read out loud:

		"I wish you were mine.  I can't stand seeing
		those other girls with you.  Sometimes I dream
		that you tell them that I'm really the only
		one for you.  I love you.

				Your secret admirer"

	Nabiki whistled.  "Man, she's got it bad for you.  Anyone we know?
We definitely can rule Shampoo out.  She can't write this well."

	He grabbed it away from her.  "It's none of your business, Nabiki."

	"Oh, dear brother-to-be, it is.  Anything that concerns my family 
concerns me."  She steepled her fingers under her chin, and Ranma flinched
at the look.

	"Okay, how much do I owe you for keeping this quiet?"

	She smiled.  "I'll just consider this a favor, in exchange for a
favor to be named later."

	Ranma grimaced.  "Just as long as it don't involve bathing suits
and cameras, okay?"

	Nabiki adopted a pout.  "Like I'd do anything like that, Ranma-kun."
She grinned at him and turned away.  She hurried to her room.  She had a lot
of research to do.


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


	Ranma sighed, taking in the night air on the roof.  That was a real
close call, having Nabiki find out like that.  He took the rest of the notes
from his pocket, two weeks worth of notes.  Whoever this girl was, she
was nothing but persistant.  The first one showed up in his locker, the
second in one of his text books, the third on his chair.  She must be
getting real bold to put one in his lunch box.  He rifled through them,
reading snatches of thoughts:

	"I hope you don't think me rude if I say this..."

	"I saw you at the park yesterday..."

	"Does it hurt when you change into a girl?"

	"Don't you wish you weren't engaged to all those girls...?"
	
	"I wish that I could have you all to myself..."

	"Those other girls don't deserve you..."

	"I love you, Ranma Saotome...."

	He thought back to the people who could have put it in there and no 
one came to mind.  Kodachi?  She doesn't even go to the same school... 
but she could have hired someone from school to do this for her....  It 
couldn't be Shampoo; Nabiki's right, she can't write too well.  Ukyou?  
Now there was a real possibility, but she wouldn't be this secretive, would 
she?

	Naw, it wasn't any of them, but someone new.  Someone he hasn't met
before.  He sighed again, muttering to himself, "Whoever you are, I'm gonna 
find you out and I'm gonna put a stop to this."

	Far away, a girl sneezed as she put the finishing touches on another
note to her dearest love.



TO BE CONTINUED..............


Author's Notes:

6-3-98:  This is the first installment of Ranma's Secret Admirer, second
in my short story arc.  It is due to be finished by Anime Expo time.  
Comments are appreciated, flames are not.  Just direct
them to: sebast5228@earthlink.net