The section's just a _little_ too long for the straight AOL
service to post. I wonder if there's a setting nobody's told
me about to send more than 32k at a time...


-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: 1.txt

Author's Forword: Ah, dear, sweet, sweet mediocrity.

Nothing like posting a bit of rough material to test the waters
a bit. I've had difficulty getting Part 3 of this story going with
the proper flair. I think it has to do with me overcomplicating
things and losing sight of the original goals.

Actually, it's rather like NETTG when I got back to writing it
again; it takes energy to get the wheels running again.

I read through one of the introductory sections to Douglas Adams'
"The Salmon of Doubt." It would seem that I'm not the only one
who's had trouble getting things going. Of course, comparing my
works to those of such a great as he would be rather presumptuous.

So, I shall say that running on an empty inspiration tank is
difficult. I now understand why so many complain about being
able to write yet not come up with anything they like. Getting
writer's blocked happens to us all, and I've managed to cope well
enough so far. There hasn't been a series or section yet that I
haven't gotten seriously blocked on, but I somehow manage to work
through it and find my way to the material I like again.

That's how it goes with this series, and with the other I've been
posting in chunks here and there. It's because, when I'm done
with what I consider the part or chapter, I plan to go back and
rework everything that failed to serve.

I'm mentioning this because this is the last part of GAILR3
that's actually sketched out in prose, and it'll be a while
before I can come up with more. These five chunks I've sent over
the past couple of weeks took over a year to come up with, and I
think they still need a lot of work. But for now, it's what is
done.

I hope some fragment of enjoyment has seeped out of the rather
rough sections so far. I asked and people wanted to see what
was done so far, and here it is.

I would sincerely love to hear any suggestions anyone has to
make. After all, that's why I posted it when it wasn't ready.
And there are no comments that I simply ignore. Every idea
has its place, and I adapt all I can. Ideas are valuable to
me. It's a good thing to never waste them...

Continued from (4/?)...

^_^

	Furinkan High's bell rang and, like a deranged Pavlovian
experiment, the students shuffled out of their classrooms. Some had
the zombie-like expressions of those that had just heard the loud
swishing noise of their future being heartlessly flushed down the
toilet after the last test results were made public.

	Not Ranma, though, who was still in shock from the discovery of
what some of his teachers were like. In the short time that he had
attended Furinkan, the school leadership had gone through teachers
faster than a shoujo anime villain goes through his lackies. Rei
insisted that the few more or less normal ones that had been in
before were merely substitutes who usually worked at Juuban Junior
High or over at the White Dove Academy. The young man hadn't thought
to ask why elementary and Junior High teachers had been assigned to
work at a High School. Actually, he'd also decided not to ask about
a lot of what was going on.

	Questions that Ranma had decided not to ask included things
like, "Hey, why is that vice-principal covered in black armor and
an all-concealing breathing mask?" and "What does that tentacled
thing teach?" not to mention "Why do I have to memorize the steps
for creating a monster from scratch in a lab environment?"

	If put on the spot and asked how he would feel about attending
a school with all of these odd random factors, his response would
have been something along the lines of a long and loud chuckle.

	Of course, that would have been long before the oddity of the
Jusenkyo curse came into play. Actually, he remembered that someone
_had_ asked him that very question a long time ago--some fanged guy
that was always whining about bread or tortillas or something stupid
like that. Hey, that was Ryouga, Ranma realized. He wondered what had
happened to his old friend and rival after Hotaru-sensei blew him
away.

	Ranma walked toward the lunch room alongside Rei, idly noting
to himself among his other mental processes that eating outdoors
wouldn't be a good idea right now since another one of those freak
rain storms had started. Lightning occasionally flashed through the
windows and a low rumbling could be felt and heard now and again.

	Rei turned to him and said, "Oh, on your way out this morning,
did you remember to pick up the lunch Setsuna said she made for you?"

	Ranma looked at her quizzically and asked, "She made me a
lunch?"

	"Oh." Displeased comprehension quickly filled the girl's face.
After a moment, though, she shrugged and laughed softly. "Well, then
I hope you brought money today."

	The boy held up his hands in a wide gesture that meant he was
completely unconcerned. "Yeah, I'll just buy it, like last time."
Suddenly, he noticed that he was very alone in the hallway. "Huh?"

	He heard a gasp beside him and Rei withdrew. Then, for no
readily apparent reason, a large bucket of water was flung out of an
indoor classroom window, directly into Ranma's face, soaking her
elegant white dress through and through. The pigtailed blonde groaned
for a second with her eyes closed, then ran a hand through her bangs.
"What the... WHY?!" she shouted out in a loud, high-pitched voice,
angrily squeezing some of the moisture out of the clinging top part
of her dress.

	Against the opposite wall, Rei covered her mouth, giggling to
herself when all the flash bulbs from the cameras went off.

	"Hey, what--!?" Ranma cried out, then turned and glared at her,
allowing all the representatives from the school newspaper, the
Furinkan Grand Inquisitor, to run off. "Rei! Why are you laughing and
pointing at me?!"

	"Because you look so funny!" the dark-haired girl replied
honestly, desperately trying, but failing, to disarm her explosive
smirk.

	A teacher in the classroom where the water came from pushed
the door open, holding a student by his ear, shouting, "No, no, NO!
Not into the HALLWAY! When I asked you to throw the water out of the
window, I meant an window leading OUTSIDE!" He shoved the clumsy
boy's face in front of Ranma and whispered to the boy, "Gosunkugi-
san, apologize to this lovely young lady, right now!"

	"Ermh, I, I, I," the zombie-like individual stuttered, then
flung himself down on his knees and pleaded with his hands held up
in fear, "please don't hate me, Miss..." He paused, his gaze going
from the girl's white slippers, then going past her long white
skirt and slowly zeroing in on her face.  He pounded on his forehead,
trying to think of the name. "Pretty princess-like-lady in the white
dress..." He trailed off again.

	Ranma bristled a bit more at the adjectives and nouns being
applied to her at the moment. They were, of course, quite accurate,
but that was no reason to rub her nose in it. She unconsciously
adopted a wide, furious, ultra-feminine stance with her hands on her
hips as she glared down at the young man. "Grr..." Lightning from
the storm outside flashed behind her.

	Gosunkugi gasped and scooted back a little. "Y-y-you're that
famous shapeshifting girl everyone's been writing about!" He quickly
produced a pen and a writing tablet. "Can I have your autograph? I'm
an editor for the school newspaper. Is it really true that you
sometimes disguise yourself as this weird guy 'cause you're looking
for your prince or...?" He stopped when the girl's expression and
mood failed to improve. "What?"

	"I'm a GUY, got it?!" Ranma replied, visibly irked.

	The boy looked up at her with sleepless eyes that would have
made a kicked puppy give up and start selling insurance. "What? Oh!"
He bowed down several times in prostrated obeisance. "Right, I forgot
that it was supposed to be a secret identity, Miss... I mean, Mister
Saotome!"

	Somewhat confused, the Moon Princess rubbed the yellow crescent
mark on her forehead and stared down at Gosunkugi.

	"Can I please have your autograph???" the zombie-boy pleaded.

	Ranma would have needed a few minutes to be sure of what she
should have done. She would have been able to piece together the
evidence and been able to tell that Gosunkugi's actions didn't merit
a beating, nor would she have thought it necessary to hand over
her signature to a complete stranger. However, not really knowing
what else to do, she signed her name in Kanji, handed back the
tablet, then drew back her small fist, preparing to pummel the boy.

	Rei put a hand on the shoulder of the princess's frilled
dress, stopping the unnecessary carnage before it began. "He's
harmless," she noted. "Usually. Look, just let it go, okay?"

	Ranma threw up her arms, giving up. "Oh, all right!" In a
very lady-like manner, she twirled around, her ankle-length skirt
swishing as she resumed her walk with Rei toward the lunch room.
"Hey, stop laughing already! I'll bet nobody else gets soaked like
this on a regular school day..."

^_^

	Usagi ran with her bookbag over her head in a failed effort to
keep herself from getting drenched in the rain. Luna followed close
behind.

	*Boom*Crash!* Lightning flashed and thunder roared in the
background.

	The blonde jumped in fright. "I HATE LIGHTNING!!!" she whined
loudly, her cries nearly drowned out by the torrents of water
splashing around her. "Luuunaaaa, I'm getting wet and I'm getting
tired and--I wanna go hooooooooooooooooooomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

	"I'm not enjoying this any more than you are!" Luna replied.
"But this is important! We have to get to the Moon Princess! Who
knows how long before she gets attacked again?!"

	Usagi pouted, looking and feeling cold and miserable as she
continued to run.

	"We're almost there!" Luna peered up at the teenager. "Well,
if you can't stand being all wet, then you can go ahead and
transform! Your powers can protect you from the weather."

	The cat's statement instantly caused Usagi to come to a
screeching halt, which was an odd way of doing so, because that very
adjective could easily be applied to to the tone of voice the girl
used used as she glared at her kitty-advisor and politely asked--at
a volume jackhammers would envy-- "IT CAN!? WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT
_EARLIER_?!"

	"Er..." Luna visibly cringed and began eyeing the terrain for
likely escape routes...

^_^

	As luck would have it, there was no hot water easily available
in Furinkan High that day. Rei and Ranma checked the bathrooms,
but apparently the boilers had gone out and several of the water
lines had been damaged from an incident earlier that morning.

	"We're working as fast as we can," irritably explained a
maintenance from atop a tall ladder. He peered down at the blonde,
who seemed a little too anxious to get her precious hot water. "So
what? You'll have to take a cold shower for P.E." He shook his head
while banging on a pipe with a wrench. "Grow up, girl!"

	Ranma clenched a fist, then her shoulders slumped. She let
out a heavy sigh and turned away.

	"And buy a uniform!" the surly faculty member called down.
"This ain't ballroom dancing, you know!"

	During the short walk, the blonde's dress somehow managed to
completely dry itself off. In fact, her appearance had cleared up
so much that she may as well have been wearing makeup and just come
from a professional hair stylist. Nothing seemed out of place to
anyone that saw her pass by. Ranma caught a glimpse of her reflection
in a window with the right lighting. "Stupid magic," she muttered to
herself, shifting uncomfortably in her gown.

	Ranma met up with Rei at the doors to the lunch room. "Any
luck finding hot water???"

	Rei nodded brightly. "Oh, sure, plenty of luck." Her expression
fell. "All of it bad." She pointed at the doors. "Maybe we could ask
someone to heat a little bit up for you. Or you could wait."

	Ranma thought about it, then hung her head. "Oh, forget about
it! I can wait, I can wait."

	"Are you sure?"

	"Sure, why not?"

	Rei folded her arms. "Can you stand spending the entire lunch
hour as a princess?"

	Ranma didn't reply this time. She simply opened the doors
and strode in, grumbling loudly to herself.

	"Well," Rei considered, "since they sort of know already, I
guess it won't be such a problem..."

	*Crash!*Rumble-rumble* Outside, a bolt struck the school's
lightning rod. Everyone winced at the sharp noise, and the lights
flickered, but the effect was only momentary. When they caught sight
of the lovely damsel who had just entered, a hush went over the
students.

	Like a gigantic national press conference, the entire room lit
up with camera flashes. Young men and women with tape recorders
dashed toward toward their quarry, simultaneously balancing pencils
and notebooks under their arms while sipping the last bits of their
juice and milk.

	"Princess-lady, princess-lady!" one reporter cried, shoving
a microphone into Ranma's face. "Is it true that you're looking for
your prince?"

	"Or is it another princess you're after?" another asked.

	"Stand right there for just a second!" A young man in a suit,
a candidate for Freshman Class President, put his arm around the
girl's shoulder and had one of his associates take a picture of him
shaking hands with her. "Thanks!"

	"Hey!" Totally bedazzled by the flashes, Ranma covered her eyes
and tried to regain her bearings.

	"We're still burning to know this one important question: What
_are_ the princess's measurements? If you'll excuse me, I'll take
them right now. Hmmm, nice..."

	*WHAM!* "GET OFF'FA ME ALREADY, WILL YA?!!" Ranma yelled as
she smacked the reporters away and off her. She stood for a moment
in the circle she had cleared, hyperventilating in rage.

	One of the reporters had crashed up against the opposite wall.
He slid down and landed his head on the floor before falling with a
dull thud. "Ungh!" Grimacing, but with a hint of a smile, he
triumphantly held up a measuring tape. "All right, it's confirmed,
people! Ninety-three centimeters on the bustline! Repeat: ninety-
three centimeters on the bustline!"

	"Ooooh," many in the large room awed, scribbling it down on
their notepads. "I'm jealous," one noted.

	Rei winced, thanking her great, sainted morning bowl of lucky
charms that she wasn't quite _that_ popular at school yet. "Ouch...
This didn't happen last time. But then again, he was a boy then."

	The reporters regrouped like a swarm of northern Canadian
mosquitoes, going in to suck the last bits of life from their
helpless victim.

	*WHOOSH!*WHACK-WHACK-WHACK!* A rush of air whipped past the
approaching news anchors, driving them away from the Moon Princess.
Several tried to resist, but they were finally each driven down by
the sharp smack of a bokken to the base of the neck.

	When the dust cleared, Kuno Tatewaki stood in front of Ranma,
his wooden sword raised, ready to strike. "Whosoever," he began in
an antique accent, "chooses to molest the sweet princess, whom I
have vowed to serve, whose name was revealed to me as Serenity, whose
beauty is like the petal of a white rose..."

	Ranma's jaw dropped slightly and her left eye started to twitch
while Kuno applied a few more adjectives like "exquisite" and "lovely"
and used a few more similies such as "whose sweet breath is like unto
the pollen of the honeysuckle."

	"...shall suffer the wrath of the Great Blue Thunder and Rolling
Stone of Furinkan High!" Kuno shifted his grip, brandishing his
weapon. "Who dares to accept the challenge?"

	A couple of boys raised their hands. Their girlfriends quickly
smacked them down.

	"None?" asked the Blue Thunder. "Then my work here is done."
He turned around and knelt down before Ranma, in a definite gesture
of absolute servitude. "And now, my Osage no Hime, what shall I do
to better serve thee? Shall I continue my training efforts such that
I may thwart those that would seek to blemish thy flawless
complexion?"

	Ranma scratched her head for a second, her eyesight slowly
returning. "Uh, yeah, you go do that."

	Kuno stood and clenched his fist to his heart. "'Twould be an
honor!" He began to leave. He passed by Rei. "Ah, has the wicked, but
beauteous, sorceress yet repented and decided to date with me?" The
girl just stared at him. "Alas, no. Fear not, I shall return with
the proper skills to banish the evil from thy soul! Farewell, my
charges!" With that, he exited the room and departed for places
unknown.

	Rei approached Ranma from behind. Ranma turned toward her
and saw that she wore a neutral expression. "What? Didn't you just
see that?!"

	The part-time shinto priestess nodded slowly, then when her
resolve failed, she burst out laughing. "Oh, I saw it all right,
'your exquisiteness!'" She started to double over, completely unable
to catch her breath. "Oh my goodness..."

	Ranma pouted. "All right, all right, you can stop that now!
Let's just have lunch, okay?!"

	"Right," Rei said, starting to recover, leaning on the shorter
girl for support. "We wouldn't want malnutrition to blemish your
flawless complexion, now, would we, honeysuckle breath?" she added
with an impish grin.

	"Rei..." Ranma muttered, glaring at her. She desperately
searched his mind for a decent comeback. "Yeah, well, 'wicked but
beauteous sorceress,' why don't you use your magic to..." She paused.
"Umm, to, like, something or other."

	Rei shook her head, smiling at the blonde. "Sure, whatever."
She dug through her bookbag and fished out a brown paper bag. "Well,
I have my lunch. Time for you to buy yours."

	"Yeah, I know, I know."

	When Rei selected a table, Ranma walked toward the lunch line.
She hunted around her dress in search for her wallet. A funny thing
about the curse was that there was often no telling what would
happen to any particular item about her person once she got splashed.
Once, she had left a pen in her pocket. When the curse got activated,
it turned into a long, white quill and a vial of ink, which wasted
no time in spilling out and getting all over everything.

	Surprisingly enough, she had never actually tried taking out
her wallet while transformed. Therefore, one might imagine that she
was quite shocked and alarmed when she pulled out a small, white,
brass-inlaid silk purse. However, she was more surprised upon the
discovery at what the bills had become.

	"Er, this isn't legal tender," the school shop clerk said,
waving around the printed parchment script. "It might be wherever
you come from, but, I'm sorry..."

	Ranma refused the offers of nearby nerdy fanboys to buy her
lunch. She didn't like their goofy grins, nor the cameras and the
measuring tape that they were trying to hide behind their backs. So,
she walked back to the circular table where Rei was and sat down,
staring at the transformed yen, which absolutely refused to change
back.

	"Oooh, tough break, Ranma," Rei noted sympathetically, looking
over at the scrap on the table. She had already eaten most of her
food. "I've got some crackers left, if you want them..."

	Ranma nodded, and reached for them.

	"Odango!" a deep female voice from behind Ranma greeted
cheerfully. "My, you're certainly dressed up this afternewd--I mean,
afternoon. For me, I imagine?"

	"Hmm?" Ranma looked up. "Oh, hi, Haruka."

	The tall, masculinely-dressed blonde peered down at her. "Why
so glum? Not feeling very well?"

	"Ranma didn't pick up the lunch Setsuna made for him," Rei
explained to her sister. "That's why he's looking so down. And
all I had left over were some crackers."

	Tendo Haruka smiled gallantly. "Well, Odango," she said,
sliding a seat closer to the princess and deftly slipping an arm
about her upper-back. "Don't worry about lunch," she whispered
seductively, "You can have some of _mine_."

	As if with a wave of her arm, Haruka unfurled a large, western-
style meal, complete with a knife and fork, a steamy steak, mashed
potatoes, and a pair of large, soft, buttery dinner rolls.

	"Uhh," Ranma began uncertainly, somehow managing to completely
ignore the gravity of the situation. In the back of her head, a
small neuron suggested that having lunch with Haruka might not be
such a good idea. When accosted and asked to produce a reason, the
nerve connection explained the entire situation in full, along with
a few predicted scenarios of the outcome. The rest of the martial
artist's mind, however, was filled with the images of the rather
delectible eatables before her. "Sure!" she finally finished with a
shrug, her eyes not departing from the meal.

	Rei stood up, covering her mouth, her cheeks indicating that
she was about to lose control and chuckle wildly again. "Well,
excuse me. I need to go catch up on my, um, studies. Yeah, that's
it." She walked off to another table and sat down, right by
Gosunkugi. He inched away in half-fear, half-rapture. "So, Gos,
how's it going with the newspaper?"

	As lunchtime went on, it turned out that Ranma agreed with one
of Haruka's suggestions to not share the fork. She tried to eat what
she could with the spoon, but for the larger and more solid bits,
the tall woman elegantly cut them up and lifted them to the
magically-created princess's mouth.

	"Um, are you sure it's no problem?" Ranma asked while munching
on the last morsel while Haruka withdrew the fork.

	"For you," Haruka whispered, "it's no trouble at all."

	"Why aren't you using chopsticks?"

	"Well, the steak may be tender, but to do it properly, one
must use a little more... force."

	Haruka gave her another bite, since she was still the only one
of the two with access to a fork.

	"Mmm, thanks a lot, Haruka. I mean, I'd hate to go without
lunch." Ranma paused. "Uh, you don't _have_ to be feeding me like
that."

	Haruka stayed close--perhaps a little too close--to the smaller
girl. "Why, Odango, you're quite welcome. And don't worry about it."

	"Why are you acting so nice all of the sudden, and why is Rei
slumped over, pounding on that table?" The ponytailed princess
blinked hard. "Wow, she's still laughing. What happened earlier
wasn't _that_ funny, was it? And why is everyone staring at us?"

	"They just can't get enough of your good looks," Haruka noted.
Softer, she added, "Nor can I..."

	"What was that?" Ranma asked, turning toward her, suddenly
discovering that her face was only a few centimeters away from
Haruka's. "Uhh, you don't have to get so close..." She tried to
back away.

	"Ah, but you must be cold from being so wet and walking around
for so long. Let me help you warm up a little more."

	"Er, I'm fine, really! You really don't have to..."

	Into the room walked a woman with shoulder-length blue-green
hair. When she saw who Haruka was sitting with, she gasped and
dropped her books. Then, she marched with a very determined
expression toward the table at which they were sitting. "Well, it
would seem you two have become, shall we say, a little bit closer,
haven't we?"

	"Michiru!" Haruka breathed, releasing Ranma and putting a
hand on her own hip. "I didn't think you were going to be able to
make it today."

	"I managed," Kuno Michiru replied in a calm, refined voice.
"Now, will you please explain yourselves?"

	"What?" Ranma asked. "Oh, this? She was sharing her lunch--"

	"Why?" Haruka interrupted, not losing her grin. "You aren't
jealous, are you?"

	Michiru tensed for a moment, then relaxed and tossed her head.
"Well, perhaps a little." Slowly, cautiously, and with seemingly
with a minumum of effort, she slid Ranma's chair away from Haruka,
around to the other side of the table. Nodding with faint
satisfaction, she took another chair and sat down beside them.

	Ranma watched her curiously.

	Michiru shot Haruka a stiff gaze. In reply, Haruka chuckled
softly and held up her hands as if to say, "Hey, I didn't mean
anything by it."

	After a short, unspoken conversation, Michiru turned toward
the ponytailed girl and put her fingers to her chin, forming a small
triangle. "We did not have much of a chance to speak last time we
met." It was a simple statement, without much inflection.

	"No, we didn't, did we?" Ranma replied, trying to remember
when he had last saw the new girl's face. "Oh! Right, you're that
kendoist's brother, aren't you?"

	Michiru nodded. "He has taken quite a shine to you. Take care
that you do not disappoint him." It would have taken a recording
studio and trained staff a week to detect the warning in her voice.

	"Do you go to school here?" Ranma asked. "I don't see you
around."

	"No."

	"Oh, so you're visiting?"

	"Yes."

	"From where?"

	"Saint Heberke. That is all you need to know."

	"Oh. Why?"

	"That's a secret."

	Ranma frowned and rubbed the back of her neck. "Okay..."

	"You are supposedly a competent martial artist?" Michiru fired
off a question.

	"Yeah, I'm a GREAT martial artist!" Ranma asserted, her
tone suddenly quite defensive. "I'm the BEST!"

	"Ah, I see. The best. Then how is it," Michiru continued, "that
you were unable to defend yourself from that one man that attacked
you and Tachi a few days ago?"

	Ranma's face went blank for a second. "Tachi?" The section of
her brain responsible for analyzing the uses and functions of
nicknames received a nudge and switched itself on. "Oh! Kuno."

	"Yes, with him. How was it that this 'Jadeite' beat you if
you are as strong as you say?"

	"Er..." Ranma turned red. "He surprised me? I was a girl at
the time? I hadn't warmed up? All the stars were aligning themselves
against me?"

	The refined young lady nodded. "Ah, I understand. You will
be prepared on the next occasion when such a thing happens?"

	The petite princess nodded emphatically. "Hoo-yeah, I'll be
ready! Just watch me take that guy down!"

	"Hmm. Then you do not wish to have our help with improving your
skills?"

	Ranma stopped. "Umm! Well, maybe just a little. You could show
me how you did those ki-blasts. You know, just once or twice."

	Michiru smiled. "With great pleasure." She lifted a hand, which
started to glow with her faint blue ki. "Kaikou," she whispered,
moving her hand toward the pigtailed girl's face, "Kan-"

	Haruka quickly pulled down Michiru's glowing hand. "Heh, not
like that." She looked into Ranma's eyes. "So, you _do_ want to learn
it."

	"Yeah," Ranma replied instantly. She made a mental exercise
out of mimicking Michiru's expression. Outwardly, she was as calm and
collected as the other girl. Inwardly, though, she was screaming,
"YES!!! YES, HOO-YEAH, DO I EVER WANNA LEARN THAT SWEET KI-BLASTIN',
BABY!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

	"It's just that I've never really seen it done, close up,
so I haven't been able to learn it," Ranma explained in monotone.

	"That's all right," Michiru said. "We will train you. But
first, I'd like to see some of your credentials. To master what we've
achieved is very strenuous training. You need a certain level of
natural talent to begin with. How do we know that you will not simply
keel over one minute after we start?"

	"Well," Ranma added, "I've been training for almost my entire
life so I can be the greatest martial artist in the world."

	"And who has been training you? Masters of various styles?"

	"No, just my pop."

	Haruka slapped her forehead, the noise of which echoed
throughout the entire room. "Just HIM?!" With a very pained
expression, she looked down, buried her face in her hands, and
groaned. "Ugh. Odango, and here I thought you had so much potential."

	Ranma ignored Haruka's outburst, her attention focused entirely
on combating Michiru's difficult-to-look-at gaze.

	Michiru's eyes seemed to sparkle. "I see. He is this 'Genma'
character I've heard so much about?"

	"Yeah, that's him."

	"You're not ready," Michiru stated flatly.

	"WHAT?!"

	"What she means to say," Haruka cut in, taking several breaths
to recover her composure, "is that you'll need a bit more preparation
than just training under _him_ for a few years."

	"Hey, Pop's a good martial artist! And I'm even better than he
is." Ranma stood up and waved for Gosunkugi to come forward. "Watch."

	"Have you forgiven me yet?" the zombie-eyed-boy asked.

	The girl in the sparkling white gown shook her head. "Nope!
Can I beat you up?"

	Gosunkugi nodded. "Yes, I deserve it!" He closed his eyes.

	*BAM-POW-THWACKK!* In a fluid motion, Ranma smacked him to
the floor, booted him into the air, then leapt up and punched
him into the opposite wall. He fell out of the indentation he
made in the previously flat surface and some other students rushed
toward him to check on the damage.

	"Wow, he's still alive!" one noted in genuine surprise.

	"Thank you, princess-lady!" Gosunkugi groaned. "May I have
another?"

	"How's that?" Ranma asked, her arms folded across her chest.

	"That student has no skill to speak of," Michiru said. "This
proves nothing."

	"Well, maybe I can ask that kendoist, whatshisname, to fight
me for a bit?"

	"Don't even think about hurting my brother."

	"She's a little protective of him," Haruka explained.

	"HOW can I prove myself, then?" Ranma asked impatiently.
"Do I have to, like, beat you in an unarmed, no holds barred duel
to the death in a big steel cage?!"

	Michiru considered this. "That can be arranged, yes. Though
I doubt you'll last very long."

	Ranma pointed a finger across the table at her. "Yeah? You
just wait. I'll take ya down in no time flat!"

	With one arm held sheepishly behind her neck, Haruka waved at
them. "Girls, girls. There's no need to fight just yet."

	Michiru glanced at her. "Yes, there is."

	Ranma nodded in agreement. "Yeah!"

	Haruka chuckled, half at herself and half at the others. "How
about, instead of killing each other to prove who's more woman,"
she paused and grinned at Ranma's glare, "or man, we could go easy on
you while doing the training in exchange for some kind of fee."

	Michiru sat down and folded her arms, attempting not to look
like she felt emotionally threatened by the blonde's presence. "Yes,
that would be appropriate."

	Ranma backed down and thought for a second. "Okay, how much?"

	"It's not that easy," Michiru said. "You see, we have plenty of
money."

	The pigtailed princess bit her lip, not quite sure where the
conversation was going. "So...?"

	"We'll gladly train you," Haruka added, "if you can bring us
a-"

	"A big diamond? A birth certificate? A pot of gold? A firstborn
child? A shrubbery?"

	Michiru shook her head. "No, more like something magical."

	"Magical? Like 'hocus-pocus' magical or poof, 'Aaah! I'm a 
girl' magical?"

	"A magic sword, for example."

	"Oh. Why?"

	"We are, shall we say, collectors of talismans."

	Ranma blinked. "Oh. Well..." The ponytailed girl hunted around
in her clothes. "Let's see..." She pulled out a pink and red sceptre
and placed it on the table. "I got this cute rod--the guide said it
was from this magical kingdom a thousand years ago. And, lessee..."

	She produced a large, multifaceted silver-colored gem. "Don't
tell anyone, but I was crying this morning after a cat got after me
and this thing just appeared in front of me."

	Next, she placed on the table a golden chalice with several
layers of decorations and wing-things. "And I don't know WHERE I got
this thing from."

	Michiru watched silently while Haruka boggled at the multitude
of objects being stacked before them.

	Ranma withdrew a few stylized pens with planetary symbols on
them and put them in the growing pile. "I think someone called
these hentai sticks or henshin sticks or something--no, don't ask
me where I got all this girly stuff. Oh! Here's something." She
took out a golden ring with glowing red writing on it. "One Ring
to Rule Them All, One Ring to Bind Them..." She stared at the others
with her now-hardened expression, her eyes speaking volumes of
warning and danger. "I never used this, but the guy said it makes
people invisible, invincible, and holds within it the power of
Sauron, the--"

	Michiru coughed in surprise. "Ahh, umm, er..." She gathered her
resolve and cleared her throat. "Ranma, for someone who needs to
travel light, you're certanly a pack rat."

	"So are these any good for ya?" Ranma asked with a grin.

	Michiru visibly deflated, running her fingers through her
shoulder-length hair while her face went through a series of mixed
emotions. She slowly shook her head as she closely examined the items
in question. She picked up the rod, then set it back down, and tapped
a couple of the other objects. Finally, she looked straight into the
Moon Princess's eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Ranma. It's all a bunch
of worthless junk." She sighed and, in a fluid one-armed motion,
shoved the pile off the table, directly into a large garbage can.

	Ranma blinked, a bit disappointed. "Oh..."

	"It will be best if these are put in a more appropriate place,
like the dump," Michiru said with a hint of disdain.

	A student on cleaning duty came by and started to drag off the
can. Ranma's hand went out and caught the handle. "Hey!" she said. "I
need to pawn these!" She pulled out the Holy Grail and looked at it.
"Been drinking my tea outta this thing..."

	The student nodded several times, threw his arm around the
princess, had one of his friends take a snapshot, then dashed away,
hooting and hollering triumphantly. "Woooooooooo!"

	"Hey!" Ranma yelled after him. She started to stand, but Haruka
pulled her back down.

	The deep-voiced woman attempted an encouraging smile. "I guess
you'll just have to accept the fact that you're not cut out for the
level of martial arts that we train at."

	"Yes, I am!" Ranma insisted.

	"We are rather busy," Michiru added. "We can't be babying
someone like you when we have serious preparations to do."

	"BABYING?!"

	"Why don't you ask Rei?" Haruka suggested. "She's about your
skill level."

	"But--!"

	It took a while, but Ranma eventually agreed.

	By the time Ranma walked over to ask about it, Rei already had
a few of her books out and had started on some of her homework.

	"Say," Ranma said, "do you remember that fire-attack you used
on me the day we met?"

	The dark-haired sixteen-year-old looked up at her. "Yes, why?"

	"Can you teach it to me?"

	Rei thought about it for a moment. "Alright, I'll show you the
basics. We can start after we get home and I finish my homework,
okay?"

	"Can't we do it now???"

	"Not right now."

	"Aww, please?"

	"This is due in ten minutes!"

	"I can learn it in ten minutes!"

	"Not now!"

	"YES, now!"

	Rei looked up at the dainty female, then glared back at the
paper on the table, seemingly angry that the insufferable material
hadn't finished itself yet. "NOW, huh?" She put down her pencil and
placed her hands together, index fingers extended. A small flame
appeared at her fingertips. She pointed it at Ranma. "You REALLY want
to learn it NOW?"

	Ranma looked at the ki-flame. Somewhere at the back of her
brain, she remembered something she had read about ki-attacks, a long
time ago: they hurt VERY badly when they hit. "Or later!" she added,
backing down. "Later's fine! Really!"

^_^

To be continued when I can...

Ideas are one thing, true, but finding how to write them out is the
real trick.

I guess this might be one of those things I have to sort out on
my own. Just have to sit on a rock for a while, resting my chin on
my fist until I figure it out. Whelp, gotta go on a metaphysical
exploratory tour. Be back in a bit!

-------------------------------
Benjamin A. Oliver
boredcollective@aol.com

	"We are the Bored. Lower your shields and surrender your fics.
	 We will add your standup and slapstick comedy to our own.
	 Your humor will adapt to entertain us.
	 Resistance is and always has been: Futile."

Collective works available at:
http://rakhal.com/florestica/ben-oliver/index.html

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