Chapter Text
“So, how long today?” Sayuri, an above average looking (in her own words) girl with her dark brown hair in a ponytail was watching as the crowd of boys were mulling about like usual three floors down. They were wearing all sorts of sports equipment or training uniforms while talking about whatever they had on their mind. They were all waiting for the same thing. Akane. Or, more realistically, for Akane to beat them into the dirt like she did every day.
“Nabiki is taking bets for five minutes.” Yuka, her closest friend with light brown straight down hair answered with a shrug. “Said something about Akane being angrier than usual.”
Sayuri sighed. “Great.” Akane was a great girl. She loved having her as a friend. But that girl’s anger was an issue. Luckily for them she usually only ended up venting to them. She never hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it even when she was angry. Well, as far as they knew she didn't. It was still admittedly a little annoying to have her vent about the same things every day.
“There she is.” Yuka commented.
Sayuri looked over and, sure enough, she could see Akane coming to the corner. But she wasn’t alone like they expected. No, there was a boy in red and black walking next to her. She could almost hear Akane shout about how she felt about boys as she rushed ahead. The boy shook his head and jumped up onto the wall that fenced the building, perching up on it as he watched. “I imagine the extra anger has to do with him?”
Yuka shrugged as they continued to watch their angry friend barrel her way through the boys below. “Couldn’t say. You know how little Nabiki likes to give away information for free. Probably though.” Everyone watched as Akane made even shorter work of the boys below than usual. Nabiki wasn’t lying about her being more angry today.
“Now, where’s… ah. There’s Kuno.” Sayuri smirked as she watched the upperclassman step out from behind a tree and she was, as always, glad that she couldn’t hear Kuno’s wax poetic. It was just gag worthy. He was strong though. It was hard to ignore that, even as… unique as he was.
“Yup. Looks like he’s angry at the guy for some reason.” Yuka shrugged. “Then again, anything involving Akane and other guys gets him annoyed.” She sighed “Macho this and that.”
Sayuri nodded as they watched the boy jump, gracefully from the wall onto his feet as he approached Kuno. They argued about something or another and started to fight. What Sayuri found interesting was just how much more effort Kuno was putting into his fight. It went to show just how much he held back against Akane. He literally cut through the wall.
But it was pretty clear that the boy wasn't exactly struggling. Honestly he was having a pretty easy time as lightning struck across the sky. Ugh. The rainy season was a pain in the ass.
“Well, I won my bet. Let's get in our seats.” Yuka spoke up and she was right. Class was about to start. No reason to get drenched.
“Kuno was knocked out by a panda!” Came the shout from those still watching, causing the two to stop and rush back to the window.
“Panda?” Yuka asked as she looked around. All that was there was Kuno getting rained on. “Where?”
One of the boys shook his head and stepped back. “It ran into the building.”
“Was it the guy?” Sayuri asked as they shut the windows and made their way back from them.
“One of those shifters? Might have been one but it carried the guy on his shoulder. Couldn't have been him. Besides, we don't really have any around here.”
Sayuri shrugged, “You never know. It's not like they go around with tails wagging and ears out or anything.” That much was true. Maybe in ancient times control wasn’t as good, but nowadays, they could look just like everyone else. She would know.
The talk of the situation died quickly. Teen attention spans being what they were. Soon enough, they would meet the mystery boy. He came into the room with a little casual gait as he looked over the crowd. He stood up front with his arms behind his back and just stared ahead. He didn’t seem nervous or anything. Just… looking.
Eventually he put his arms to his sides and bowed slightly “I’m Ranma Saotome. I just finished a training journey and came back from China. Pleased to meet you.”
The teacher went over a couple things and, sure enough, confirmed Ranma’s story before sending both him and Akane to hold buckets.
“Well.” Yuka began quietly. “I’m sure he’ll be completely fine and well adjusted.” She muttered, mostly to herself. But Sayuri couldn’t stop a giggle. It wouldn’t be too out of place though. The martial arts sorts were all over the place. At least all Akane had was some anger issues. But even then there was the craziness of her daily mosh pit.
Class seemed to be going fine up until a shout came from the hallway.
“I shall never accept your engagement to Akane!”
Almost the entire class suddenly rushed to the hall windows. A quick glance confirmed that Yuka was gone and, sure enough, Sayuri could see her hair just peeking out from the front of the group.
Sayuri didn’t want to be out of the loop, so she rushed up, just in time to hear Kuno shout “Stand your ground!” before slicing through a metal pail like it was nothing. She could see how the air pushed back the people in front’s hair from it.
Ranma rushed off and everyone started to follow him along. She could vaguely hear people make up theories about what this fight meant but her attention was caught by something else. There was a scent in the air. Something new but slightly familiar.
She grabbed the shoulder of a tall, broad shouldered boy who was following the group, who grunted a little as he was pulled back. “Taichi.”
Taichi frowned and rolled his shoulder. “Come on, Sai. You know I’m a weakling.”
Sayuri rolled her eyes. “Oh, hush, you baby. Look. You’re one of the guys, right?”
Taichi looked himself over with a raised brow. “Uh… I mean, yeah?”
Sayuri rolled her eyes again “Whatever. Look. You wanna hang out around Ranma a bit? Try prodding his thoughts on us.”
Taichi raised his brow and looked down the hall where everyone had run to. “What makes you think he might be one?”
Sayuri tapped her nose softly. “The nose knows.”
Taichi rolled his eyes. “Of course it was that. You should seriously get a job with the cops or something, you bloodhound.”
Sayuri puffed out her chest with a grin. “I’ll get an internship with my dad one of these days.”
Taichi smirked and shook his head. “I’ll give it a shot. You want to talk to Akari and I’ll talk to Etsurou?”
Sayuri hummed before shaking her head. “No. Not yet. We’re not sure if he’s one of us. We don’t want to try to out him if he wants to keep it on the down low.”
Taichi shrugged. “Yeah, alright. Sounds fine to me. But if it’s your nose, you’re probably right.”
Sayuri smirked, “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She said before looking back down the hall as the rest of the class started to come back. “Hey, Yuka! What happened?” She asked as she rushed over to her friend.
Yuka nodded politely to Taichi before looking back at Sayuri. “Well. They jumped out the window into the pool.”
‘From the third floor?!’ Sayuri thought in alarm. She was sure it was okay since people weren’t screaming in horror. Still, the fact they did it at all was insane.
Yuka nodded. “I think Kuno passed out for a little bit but then Ranma slammed him onto his back and flipped out of the area. I think I saw some red on his head. I hope I just mis-saw. His clothes were red too after all.”
Sayuri frowned softly. “Well, I hope he’s okay.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sayuri’s worries only increased as neither he, nor Akane returned to classes that day. She was sure Akane was fine. She wasn’t the one that had apparently jumped out of a third story floor into a pool and might have a head injury.
She sighed and shook her head as she neared her home. Surely Akane would have let her know if something happened. She’d just have to ask tomorrow. Nothing else for it, really.
She pushed the door open and called out “I’m home!” To her surprise she got two responses.
“Welcome home!”
“Hey, Sayuri!”
She quickly rushed to the second response. “Dad!” She exclaimed as her human ears faded away and floppy dog ears appeared as her face changed. Her face started elongating as a fur covered her skin and a tail formed until she was once more her hybrid form. She jumped onto the couch and hugged her father who was still in his police uniform.
He grunted as Sayuri all but jumped on him and hugged him. “Did you get off work early?”
He chuckled and nodded softly. “Yup. Kiba offered to take my shift since I was pretty tired.” He chuckled as he hugged her back. “How was school?”
She frowned a little “It was… weird. We got a new guy. Ranma Saotome. He got in a fight with Kuno. It wasn’t his fault as far as I know.” She shrugged “Ended up holding up pails but then everyone heard that he’s apparently engaged to Akane, I don’t know for sure. They fought again, then jumped out the window and into the pool… Yuka said she saw red on his head. Him and Akane didn’t come back to class.” She frowned. She wasn’t sure whether to mention that he might be a shifter too, but she didn’t want to say anything when she wasn’t sure. She would if she was right though. Her dad did a great job of helping them out quietly. Especially with discrimination.
Her father frowned too. “That sounds like a lot for one day. I hope he’s okay.” He paused and seemed to be thinking of something. “What did you say his last name was?”
“Saotome? Do you know his family?” She asked. She’d seen him like this before. It was usually when he was thinking about work.
He didn’t answer right away as he looked to the side. “Hm… It sounds familiar.” He shrugged. “Why don’t you say hi to your mom? I know you want to hug her too.”
Sayuri narrowed her eyes before rolling them. “Yeah, alright.” She said before hopping off, tail wagging under her skirt as she rushed to the kitchen. “Hey, mom!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hey Kiba.”
“Masayoshi? What are you calling for? You’re supposed to be at home.” Kiba leaned back in his chair.
“Hey. I just need to run a name past you. It sounds familiar but I can’t place it for the life of me. Saotome.”
Kiba rolled his eyes and turned to the computer. A blocky, thick thing. But it certainly did the job. “Lemme look, you overachiever.” he grumbled, ignoring the thanks he got afterwards.
It didn’t take long though as he whistled. “Well. You asked quite the question, Masa.”
“What do you mean?”
“Saotome is an old family of scammers and criminals. Nothing big. Just cons, scams, dine and dash, light theft.” He wasn’t underselling it either. It seemed like every member of the Saotome family had something in their system. “Probably the most tame is Nodoka Saotome. Some harassment and carrying around her family sword despite being a clutz with it.”
He could hear Masayoshi hum before he spoke again. “Anything on Ranma Saotome? He’s supposed to be a student. But now you have me wondering.”
Kiba went through digital page after page. “Huh? Nope. Nothing on a “Ranma” outside of relations. His dad Genma, though. If you can find him, I think the captain will be pretty happy. He’s got a pretty long list and more than a couple of accusations from Spain to east China.”
“He might be around the Tendou family. Apparently their kids are engaged.”
“I’ll pass a notice around. If we’re lucky we might actually get him. He’s known for being pretty slippery apparently. Especially if he’s been getting away for this long.” Kiba said as he started to write out a note and could hear the loud buzz and clunking noises of the printer doing what it did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the evening passed, Sayuri decided she wasn’t able to wait for the next day so she was waiting on the phone as it rang.
click
“Hello? Tendou residence.”
“Hey Kasumi. It's Sayuri. Is Akane home?”
“Oh, Yes. One minute.” She could hear Kasumi call out for her and some other shouts, including Akane letting out an angry shout of some sort.
She waited with the phone held away from her face a little. She could hear Akane taking a few breaths close enough that she could hear it. Probably to calm herself. “Hello?”
“Hey Akane! It's Sayuri.”
“Oh! Hey. What's up?” Akane asked with a thankfully calm voice. It wouldn't be a very productive conversation if she was annoyed by something.
“Hey yourself, girl. You and the new guy disappeared. Are you two alright? Yuka said she saw some red on Ranma's head when he got out of the pool. Is he alright?”
Akane made a small noise and paused for a moment before she finally answered. “Yeah, we're fine. I'm not sure what Yuka saw but that idiot is just fine. He was just fed up with school for the day and, I have to admit, I wanted to get away from everyone for a bit too.”
Sayuri nodded as she wrapped the phone cord around her finger. “Good, good. Glad to hear it. Me and Yuka will try to help out with the rumors. But, what's the truth, hmm~?”
Akane groaned before sighing “It's just a stupid contact that our dads made up before we were born. Neither of us want anything to do with it. So, we'll probably just be stuck telling our dads “no” for a while until they drop it.”
Sayuri nodded to herself. At least it didn't seem like this Ranma fellow was too bad. At least he was better than the idiots who fought her every day. They would have jumped at it. Heck, Kuno did. Out of a three story window.
“Well, I hope it goes okay for you guys. I know I'd hate to get married in high school.” She stuck her tongue out at the idea. She had enough things on her plate to worry about.
Akane laughed a little and sighed. “Yeah…I don't know why dad thinks it makes sense in this day and age.” There was the sound of a crash and splash in the background which was quickly followed by Akane's growl. “That dumbass…” She grumbled away from the phone before speaking again. “Hey, I gotta go. Ranma's dad is being stupid again. I'll see you at school and we can talk again, okay?” She said before shouting away from the phone “You're going to kill the koi if you keep doing that! You dumb panda!”
Sayuri blinked as the phone clicked. “Huh. Sounds pretty hectic.”