Tenchi was exhausted for their first day at school the next 
morning, haunted by dreams of the demon mummy that he and 
Ranma had found in the cave.  He thought it all had been a dream 
until he noticed Yosho�s sword hilt lying near his futon.  Tenchi 
grumbled since for once he was the last one up and had to struggle 
to be ready on time.  Almost as an afterthought, he slipped the 
sword hilt into his bookbag.

Chapter 2: Ryoko Attacks!

	Nodaka was puzzled as the boys sat down for breakfast.  
Ranma had actually beat Tenchi to the table which was surprising 
enough, but that her son seemed full of energy and ready to go to 
school?  Nodaka knew that her son wasn't fond of school, but she 
didn't want him to become a ronin whom no woman would marry.  
It also worried her that her son seemed to take no interest in girls.  
Tenchi by contrast, slumped down at the table and picked at his 
food without energy, just like she had expected her son to act, and 
had acted up until yesterday.  Had something happened at the 
shrine?  Both boys had come back a bit moody, but she had just 
assumed father had trained them hard.
	"My Ranma," Nodaka told her son, "You sure seem chipper 
this morning.  I thought that I'd have to drag you out of bed like I 
did when you were younger."
	"Oh I'm just happy to be seeing everyone after such a long 
time away," Ranma answered, not adding that it would be another 
way to put the China trip as far behind him as possible.  Akane's 
rejection still stung and he wanted to be sure that his other friends 
hadn't turned against him as well.
	Nodaka wondered if this could be about a certain brown 
haired girl who'd been calling the house every week to see if 
Ranma was home yet.  She was happy that her son had such a loyal 
friend for so long, but still Nodaka wished that Ukyo would act 
more like a lady and not so much a tomboy.  Wearing a boy's 
uniform of all things and a giant spatula, while effective in combat, 
did look a tad ridiculous.

	Tenchi saw a familiar group as he and his cousin 
approached the school gates, minus the klutzy one who was always 
late for some reason.  What was her name again?  Something to do 
with rabbits and moons.  He was glad that none of them had 
brought those two cats to school today.  It had only happened once, 
but it had been more than enough for Tenchi.  He still wondered 
why Ukyo had been blushing so badly when he had run into her 
afterwards.  Was she embarrassed that her friend had acted like a 
cat?  Tenchi had been a little embarrassed himself, but had been 
more worried about what Ranma would do under the Neko-ken.  
He had seen his cousin tear down whole trees while under its 
influence
	"Ranchan!" a girl with long brown hair yelled out and was 
soon latched on to his arm with a vise-like grip.  "I missed you so 
much.  Oh why did you have to go all the way to China and leave 
me here all alone?"  She was cute and definitely female, as Ranma 
could attest to at that moment, despite the boy's uniform and the 
large spatula strapped to her back.
	Her friends were giving her a 'what are we, chopped liver' 
look, which she totally missed because she was staring deeply into 
Ranma's eyes.  Tenchi wondered how his cousin could be so dense 
to miss how the girl felt about him.  Its not like she even tried to 
hide her feelings.  Quite the opposite.  It seemed that the only 
person at school who didn't know how she felt was the person her 
feelings were directed at.
	Ranma was feeling very nervous, partially from the way 
that Ukyo was staring at him, partially from the way she was 
holding on to him like she thought he was going to float away, but 
mostly what Tenchi had said a week ago about Ukyo being his 
'girlfriend.'  There were just childhood friends, weren't they?  She 
had always grappled onto him since they were kids.  That was just 
the way she was.
	"Ucchan," Ranma managed to say as he struggled in vain to 
loosen her grip.  He never thought when he taught her about holds 
that she'd use them on him or that come up with ones that he 
couldn't shake off.  "I told you that I had to go to China as part of 
my pop's final wishes.  I would have rather stayed in Japan if I had 
any choice in the matter."
	"Well you're back now," she declared so loud that half the 
school could hear her, "and I'm not going to let you go."
	Ukyo was still staring only at Ranma and so missed the 
glares of most of the girls within earshot directed at her and the 
embarrassed looks on her friends.  Ranma had only been back for 
five minutes and she had already made her claim on him, the most 
desirable man at school.
	Ranma was starting to get very embarrassed.  He knew how 
people could take such a statement the wrong way.  Ukyo was 
always saying things like that, but he couldn't tell her to stop, not 
wanting to take the chance of hurting her feelings.  That was just 
the way she was and he'd gotten somewhat used to it over the 
years.  "Ucchan, that's going to be kind of hard.  We're not even in 
the same class this year."
	"Fine, then I'll walk you to your class."  And that was the 
last she would hear on the matter.  Ranma reluctantly let her lead 
the way, giving his cousin a shrug.  Tenchi only smiled and made 
way to his own class, which coincidentally was the class that Ukyo 
was in with the majority of her friends.  He was happy when they 
all started passing him notes, a happiness which crumbled to dust 
when he opened them to find that they were all questions about 
Ranma.

	Tenchi actually managed to find his cousin during lunch 
time before Ukyo had the chance to latch back onto him.  He was 
leaning against a tree, staring up at the sky.
	"See what I meant?"  Tenchi said to him.
	"Huh?" Ranma replied intelligently, his mind on things that 
had happened to him in China and on the way back home.  It had 
been over a week and he still hadn't sorted everything out yet.  So 
much had happened and most of it bad.
	Tenchi took out his boken and bopped his cousin on the 
head because it was the only way to get his attention when he was 
like this.   "About Ukyo baka.  The way she was acting this 
morning it was pretty clear to anyone that she thinks of you as 
more than just a friend.  I'm sure that she's thought of herself as 
your girlfriend for a while now."
	"No way!" Ranma shouted to hide his own doubts, "She's 
just a childhood friend.  I've known her since I was six and she's 
always been like that.  I mean its not like we're going out or 
nothing."
	"Oh, what about that time when you went to the movies, or 
out to lunch, or all the times you've gone to her house or invited 
her over our house?"
	"As I recall you were at the movies with us and the rest of 
her friends . . ."
	"Yes, and I saw how close you two were sitting together.  
You even shared your popcorn with her, which you wouldn't share 
with me, your own cousin!"
	Ranma didn't get the chance to come up with a reply when 
a familiar brown haired girl secured his arm.  "Hiya, Ranchan.  
How about you and your cousin join my friends and me for lunch?  
I even made you a little something in honor of your return."
	Ranma was caught between worry and delight.  Normally 
Ukyo's cooking was just above Akane's, which meant it was almost 
edible, but she could whip up okonomiyaki that made one's mouth 
water.  It was their family's business after all and she had been 
making them for him since Ranma had known her.  Still, she was 
frustrated by her inability to cook anything else and would often 
'experiment' with him as her prime taste-tester.  As a friend he 
endured and tried to make as positive remarks as he could, before 
running to the bathroom.  So as she led him by the arm to where 
the rest of the group sat, he silently prayed, "Please be 
okonomiyaki.  Please be okonomiyaki."
	Ranma was in luck for she had prepared for him a batch of 
okonomiyaki, which she defended like a lioness of her cubs from 
her other friends, especially Usagi who had an appetite that rivaled 
Ranma's own.  Culinary combat between the two bottomless pits 
was not an uncommon sight in the cafeteria.  Usagi was often the 
victor, using the one weapon that Ranma had absolutely no defense 
against, a girl's tears, even if he knew that they were false ones.
Ukyo has really outdone herself, Ranma thought as he bit 
into the first one.  "Wow, Ucchan, these are really great!  I mean 
you always make great okonomiyaki, but these are even better than 
I remember."  It had been over three months since his last 
okonomiyaki.  He'd been eating them for so long that they had 
almost become a staple of his diet.  He would sooner get sick of 
rice than okonomiyaki.
	Ukyo blushed, nearly glowing with the praise.  "Its because 
I made them for you Ranchan."  Actually she had been practicing 
hard on both her okonomiyaki and her martial arts, that is when she 
wasn't busy with her friends.  While she would like to think it was 
all for Ranma, there were other reasons.  The former she didn't 
want to tell Ranma about it since it was going to be a surprise.  The 
latter was probably the one secret that she had ever kept from him, 
but she knew Ranma and it was better that he didn�t know about 
her senshi activities.
	Ranma was busy stuffing his face, so his missed most of 
the last comment, but felt that he had to say something.  His 
mother had successfully drummed some manners into him.  One of 
those manners was that you should always compliment someone 
who gives you a gift and Ukyo always seemed happy when he 
complimented her, unlike a certain tomboy.  "You're such a great 
person Ucchan.  I'm lucky to have met you."  He had heard that on 
TV sometime before and thought he might try it out.
	Ukyo was now glowing bright enough to read by, while her 
friends winced in collective envy.  While they would have liked 
some attention from Ranma, Ukyo had staked her claim on him for 
longer than they had known her.  And she defended that claim with 
a fierceness that made the toughest girls at school back off, 
especially when she had her spatulas with her.
	Despite Ranma's enormous appetite, even he couldn't finish 
all of the okonomiyaki so he shared them with the pleading Usagi, 
his cousin, and their other friends.  The whole time Tenchi 
wondering just how thick headed his cousin could be to not see the 
way Ukyo looked at him.  Whatever Ranma may say, that wasn't 
the look of a childhood buddy.  �Why can't any girl look at me that 
way?� he thought sullenly as he picked at his food, unaware of a 
female set of eyes that watched him with that very look.

	Ranma swore under his breath as he climbed the stairs up to 
the roof.  The teacher had him stay behind and finish all of the 
homework that he hadn't done over the summer.  What was he 
supposed to do, bring his textbooks to China with him?  He swore 
again when he accidentally knocked over a bucket of water and 
activated his curse.  At least everyone had gone home so they 
didn't know what a freak he had become.  What would Ukyo think 
if she saw him now?  Probably laugh at him or something.  But she 
would find out sooner or later.  Should he tell her?  He should be 
going home, but needed a quiet place to think for a few minutes 
and the roof seemed to be about the best choice.
	Then he noticed someone sleeping up there.  Probably 
some old drunk, he thought, though looking closer realized that it 
was his cousin Tenchi.  Man, he must have been exhausted, but 
then he didn't look too good this morning.  The whole demon in 
the cave thing must have really gotten to him.  Ranma was pretty 
sure that it had been a trick that their grandfather had played on 
them somehow.  Demons weren't real, were they?
	Ranma went over to his cousin and shook him awake, 
"Come on Tenchi, rise and shine.  If you were so tired you should 
have stayed home, tell my mom that you were sick or something."
	"Huh?" Tenchi replied, still half-asleep, wondering why a 
strange red haired woman was shaking him.
	"Jeez, you're hopeless," Ranma said and dropped him back 
to the ground.
	Suddenly there was a sound that made all of Ranma's hairs 
stand on end.  It was the one thing that truly filled him with dread.  
It was the sound of a cat.  He spun around in fear, his pulse 
quickening, but there wasn't a feline in sight.  That was when he 
noticed someone sitting on the roof of the stairwell.  She was a 
young, silver haired woman in strange clothes.  He simply stared at 
her, not knowing what else to do.  He had the feeling that she 
wasn't a student.
	"Ryoko," she said simply.
	"Huh?" Ranma replied.
	"That's my name," and then opened her eyes which glowed 
with the light of twin suns, disturbingly familiar eyes.
	"You're that, that freeze dried demon!"
	"It was cold in that cave and dark.  I didn't like it.  700 
hundred years I was in there alone, until a little boy came.  He even 
brought a friend.  They would keep me company even though they 
didn't know I was there.  I vowed that when I was finally released I 
would make them mine.  Not you or anyone else is going to take 
them from me!"
	Ranma started to wonder if the cats would have been better.  
He didn't have a clue what this demon woman was talking about, 
but she seemed pretty pissed at him.  Ranma had never fought a 
demon before.  When he saw the energy sword form in her hand 
decided that he didn't want to start.  He tossed Tenchi over his 
shoulder and started to run back into the school, not sure what he 
was going to do when he got there.
	Luckily, Tenchi awoke soon after and was running on his 
own, even more afraid than Ranma that a demon was after them.  
Ryoko was really fast and agile and for once Ranma was actually 
thankful for how quick his curse form was.  It saved him from 
serious injury more than a few times since the demon seemed out 
for his/her blood.
	The two cousins got separated, each ducking into a 
classroom and trying to be completely silent to avoid attracting the 
demon's attention.
	Tenchi had seen the demon set to kill his cousin and knew 
that he had to do something, but what could he do?  Then he 
smelled something.  What is that?  Oh, gas fumes.  "Gas fumes!"  
he shouted accidentally, putting his hands on his mouth.  But he 
was too late, the damage had been done.
	Then suddenly he wasn't alone as the demon seemed to 
flow out of the wall like it wasn't there.  "I will make you pay for 
betraying me," she shouted, making Tenchi more confused than 
ever.
	"Look, what's that out the window!"  he yelled and was 
surprised that she actually fell for it.  Using this distraction, he 
exercised the better part of valor and ran for his life.  A sudden 
explosion of a minute later knocked him flat on his back.  Tenchi 
found himself staring up at his cousin.
	"What the hell was that?"  the redhead demanded, 
wondering if Tenchi had set off the bomb that the chemistry club 
was making.
	"Oh, I think the demon set off leaking gas with her power," 
and then clapped his hands in a Shinto prayer, "Pity, she was kind 
of cute."
	"Cute?  She was trying to kill us!"
	Tenchi didn't get the chance to reply as they both noticed 
someone walk out of the flames, apparently unhurt.  Both bolted, 
not even looking where they were going.
	Tenchi hid in another classroom, careful not to make a 
sound this time.  He jumped five feet in the air when the fire alarm 
finally went off.  That was when he noticed the alarm looked like 
the gem on the demon's wrist.  He remembered the legend that the 
gems were the source of her power.  If he could somehow get the 
gem off her there was a chance that they could get her back in that 
cave.  But how to do it?
	That was when he heard a familiar voice from the 
schoolyard that he eventually identified as Ranma in his female 
form.
"All right I'm sick of running.  You want me, come and get 
me."
While Tenchi didn't know the voice too well, he knew that 
tone.  It was Ranma's 'my pride is at stake so I won't back down no 
matter what' tone and it had been serious trouble to both of them in 
the past.  Tenchi dearly hoped that it wouldn't get his cousin killed 
this time.  While it would be nice to have a room all to himself, he 
would miss the company.  It had been pretty lonely while Ranma 
had been away.  Tenchi grabbed his school bag and made his way 
to the yard, not really knowing what to do when he got there, but 
realizing that his cousin might need his help.
	The fight would have been amazing for Tenchi to watch if 
his cousin's life hadn't been at stake.  Ranma had always been the 
best unarmed martial artist he had known, but whatever he had 
gone through in China had made him even better.  He moved so 
fast that he was almost a blur and landed blows that made Tenchi 
wince.  The only problem was the demon took all that he had 
without even flinching and didn't seem to be tired at all while 
Ranma was quickly being worn down.  Tenchi knew that if he 
didn't do something and quick it would be all over for his cousin.
	Heedless of the consequences, Tenchi jumped right 
between the two combatants as the demon was about to land a 
painful blow.  He knew he wasn't very good at hand to hand, but he 
had to try.  To his surprise, a blue light that emerged from his 
knapsack deflected Ryoko�s blow.  She pulled back and threw a 
dozen yellow spheres at them, but a blue shield that suddenly 
appeared blocked them all.  Then his bag was vaporized and the 
sword hilt of his ancestor hovered in the air before him.
	Tenchi reached out and took it just as Ryoko tried to land a 
blow with her energy sword, only to be blocked by a blade of blue 
energy that emerged from the hilt of Yosho's sword.
	"Hey, no fair cheating!" she complained.
Before he knew it, he was fighting the demon and gaining 
ground, the sword seeming to have a mind of its own.  Still, Tenchi 
couldn't break through the demon's defenses, she was just too good 
a fighter.  He admired her skill even as was nearly cleaved in half 
by it.
Ryoko had been focusing so intently on her new opponent 
that she had forgotten about the red haired girl.  That proved to be 
a mistake.  Suddenly she was hit the jaw with a flying kick, hard 
enough to make her stagger.  Sensing an opening, Tenchi darted in 
with his sword and cut off her hand at the wrist, taking her jewel of 
power with it.
	Ranma and Tenchi eyed her warily as Ryoko sighed and 
said, "Oh well, another battle lost.  That's the story of my life."  
That was when she noticed her right hand had been lopped clean 
off.
	Both Tenchi and Ranma stumbled over themselves to 
apologize.  Even though this demon had tried to kill them, all of 
her menace had left her now and one-handed she seemed almost 
pitiful.  Tenchi especially felt ashamed of what he had done, even 
though the sword had almost been acting on its own.
	"I'm sorry," he said, bowing.
	Ryoko only smiled and with a wave of her left hand, the 
right one was restored.  Both cousins were still applauding to this 
feat of magic when Ryoko vanished into the concrete.



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