"So, when did that guy start being so creepy?" Ranma asked, coming down from the tree to stand next to Nabiki.
"Oh, Kuno's always been like that, I have classes with him," Nabiki said before frowning in thought.
"You have classes WITH him," Ranma said, whirling to face her. That is NOT good.
"What's the matter jealous?" Nabiki smirked a little before going on to voice her doubts, mostly to herself. "There was something a little off about him, though. What was that last comment about 'voidling?' you threw at him."
"Errrr..." Ranma looked around trying to come up with a credible answer. "Oh, well, his kind sorta come from outside, ya know, the void. Ain't...natural..." He shrugged nervously.
"Interesting comment coming from someone with your obvious ancestery," Nabiki noted with an arched eyebrow. I hope he's not a bigot. Because if he's still worried about outsiders back to a day when there Japanese hadn't developed... Her mouth quirked angrily and then was still.
"This ain't a bloodline thing," Ranma said hurriedly, shaking his hands in denial. "Trust me on that one, it's more like...what's in that head of his."
"I suppose it's as good a term as any to describe Kuno's mind," Nabiki said. "Well, we have some time yet. Shall I show you to your room and then take my normal seat for upcoming spectacle."
"How about showing me to the nurses' station first," Ranma asked, glancing after Kuno. "I gotta feeling that I'm going to need to be there quite a bit."
"Get on Kuno's bad side and I can understand how you'd think that," Nabiki said smirking. "Though with how you took my sister yesterday, I don't see where you should be worried."
"I think he's picked up a few secrets you don't know about," Ranma said simply as they walked into the school building.
"Not likely," Nabiki said, smirking. "And this, is the glorious nurses' station. Not much, but it keeps the students healthy." She glanced back to her fiance to note him looking about the empty hallway with a hint of paranoia.
"He's not going to jump out of the walls, Saotome." Ranma merely arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah, well," Ranma said. "Things are happening quicker than I expected."
"What do you mean?" Nabiki asked, wondering if maybe this whole engagement thing was going to get tedious. Ranma's cheeks flashed a cute shade of red to nearly match his hair before he leaned over towards Nabiki.
Nabiki's eyes widened in surprise as Ranma moved to kiss her. On the first day of their engagement no less. No wonder he was looking about the hallway so carefully. Nabiki smiled a little as she leaned forward to meet him, wrapping her arms around him lightly.
When the kiss hit her she was totally unprepared. Her arms quirked out as if she had just kissed an electrical outlet, which was something a little weaker than what she was actually feeling.
Like Shampoo and Mousse before, she stayed conscious long enough to hear Ranma say. "Sorry 'bout this. But I gotta do this."
"Really," Akane said. "Just where was Kuno after all that. If he's going to make all this trouble for me, the least he could do is at least show up." She walked into the building feeling irritable.
"Akane," Sayuri shouted, coming her way. "Your sister!"
"Nabiki?" Akane asked. "What about Nabiki?" If that...Boy...did anything to her...
"She passed out or something," Sayuri said. "The nurse asked me to come get you. Come on." Sayuri hurried back down the hallway, Akane close behind her in a shock of worry and suspicion.
When they reached the nurse's station, they found Nabiki lying in one of the beds, shaking and shivering, her eyes closed in a semblance of sleep. Sitting next to her was an apologetic looking Ranma, and Akane swiftly rounded on him.
"What did you do to her?" Akane demanded, noting Ranma's wince with vindication.
"She just collapsed," Ranma said hesitantly, shrugging. "I got her here as quick as I could."
"Tendo-san," the nurse said, coming into the room. "This is hardly the boy's fault. As far as I can tell your sister seems to have developed some form of epilepsy or something similar."
"Epilepsy?" Akane repeated. "Is that bad?"
"It can be," the nurse said. "In this case it doesn't seem as if she is in danger for her life, but she hasn't come out of the seizure in the last ten minutes, and that worries me." Akane paled.
"Ten minutes," Akane said. "She's been like this for ten minutes?"
"Uh, yeah," Ranma said. "She says there's some doc nearby that you can lead me to that might know what to do."
"Dr. Tofu!" Akane exclaimed. "Of course, he'll know what to do."
Dr. Tofu had spent a rather boring morning so far. Nothing had yet happened that truly required his attention. It had even been a few days since Akane last injured herself. He tried not to wish for some sort of pick up in activity, knowing that such times of peace and good health were few and far between. Unfortunately it seemed it was already too late.
"Dr. Tofu," Akane's voice called from the front of the office.
The doctor quickly stood up and hurried to the front of the clinic. The secretary there was trying to calm down Akane, who was standing next to a rather striking red-haired boy holding Nabiki Tendo.
"Dr. Tofu my sister..." Her voice was on the verge of breaking into tears. It didn't take but a glance to see that Nabiki was unconscious and shaking violently.
"Oh dear," Dr. Tofu said. "What happened to her."
"She sort of passed out, Doc," Ranma said. Damn, too old and strong, he'd either fight it off or die. Could be a strong ally though.
"The school nurse thinks its a type of epilepsy," Akane said worriedly.
"Bring her over here, and I'll see what is wrong," Dr. Tofu said. "Though I doubt epilepsy." The doctor lead them into the examination room and directed Ranma to lay Nabiki out on the table.
"There doesn't seem to be much pain," Tofu said right off the bat, noting the relief on the part of both teens. "Her face is peaceful at least, that could mean nothing, however." He lay the back of his hand against her forehead and then pulled it away.
"Something the matter?" Akane asked nervously.
"She's burning up," the doctor said seriously as he scooped her up. "Akane..."
"Ranma," the young man supplied.
"Start filling buckets of ice from there," he said, indicating a machine at the end of the hall. As he was speaking he carried the shaking Nabiki into a full bathroom near the back of the building, and slipped her into the empty tub.
As Tofu was taking Nabiki to the tub he kept in case of emergencies like this, Ranma and Akane walked down the hall. Ranma glanced towards the doctor's office and winced as he caught a reflection of himself in hybrid form in one of the small mirrors inside. He started glancing around the ceilings, looking for any mirrors he had already missed.
"Okay now," Tofu said as Akane and Ranma first started arriving with ice, which he piled around Nabiki. "That should help the fever some, yes, she's down a little already. Heartbeat is rapid, but strong and regular. It's almost as if she's just running her body to it's limit."
He settled back to get ready and look at his patients chi next. As he opened his senses to view Nabiki's aura he received two shocks.
The first came from Nabiki, as the embroiled state of chi was revealed. He couldn't quite figure out what was happening, but knew that her aura was changing in response to something. And her body was probably changing with her aura.
Then he turned to look at Ranma and saw the boy's easily mutable aura. There were many things constant about it, honor, duty, determination, remorse, but it was hard to pin down. The boy's aura was also strongly tied to the natural world around him, and not bound so rigidly as other people's aura. It was the aura of someone remarkably talented with chi control...or of someone not altogether human, or both. He looked from Ranma to Nabiki for a moment, and then to Akane. Better not to voice his concerns in front of her, if he was wrong it would just cause trouble.
"You were with her when this happened?" Tofu asked Ranma.
"Err...yeah," Ranma said nervously. "She was...uhh...showin me around places in the school...and then collapsed...so I got her to the nurse's office and she said to bring Nabiki here." He shrugged and looked back at the Doc nervously.
"Akane would you stay with your sister," Tofu asked. "I need to ask your friend some questions."
"He's not my friend," Akane said. "He's Nabiki's fiance." She almost spat the term. "And he better not have done anything to her."
"Fiance?" Tofu asked curiously.
"It was our parents idea," Ranma said irritably. "She didn't seem to mind though."
"Well," Tofu said. "Let's have that talk."
"Sure Doc," Ranma said. They both stood up and started walking out the of the bathroom, back to the office.
"Nothing strange happened at all before she fell," Tofu asked.
"Well there was that Kuno guy, but he didn't do anything," Ranma said. He stopped short of entering Tofu's back office though, almost growling in frustration. "Damn it! I can't do anything about this kinda stuff!" Except cause it anyway.
Ranma stamped his feet into the floor, hard, and the sound of things falling and glass breaking came from the Doctor's office. Ranma winced at every noise and looked at the doctor sheepishly.
"Sorry Doc," Ranma said. "Guess I don't know my own strength."
The doctor meanwhile opened the door cautiously to see his office in mild disarray, and all the precariously placed blessed mirrors fallen and shattered.
"That's okay, Ranma," he said, thinking. "We can just brush the glass aside for now, and I'll clean it up later. Now can you tell me something about yourself?"
"About me?" Ranma repeated, blinking his eyes. "How's that going to help Nabiki." It's a little late for that, Doc.
"Well, it will get you relaxed," he brushed aside some glass from a pair of chairs and gestured for Ranma to sit down. "And maybe you'll think of something you want to tell me."
"Okay," Ranma said, hesitantly as he sat down. "Whatcha want to know?"
"Well, first of all," Tofu said. "I'm curious, how'd you get that red hair? It's almost beyond the range of human hair color."
"Errr..." Ranma glanced around the room cautiously, trying to think of something to say. "I sorta changed my hair color..." he looked decently embarrassed. Tofu glanced at him and considered. It didn't look like a dye job, but, then again, he supposed there were some good ones out there.
"Maybe you should have chosen a more subtle color," Tofu suggested. "How long have you been studying the martial arts?"
"All my life, Doc," Ranma said. "I still don't see how this is going to help you with Nabiki, unless you think I did something to her."
"Did you?" Tofu asked.
"If I can, Doc," Ranma said firmly. "I'm going to see to it nobody gets hurt around here." He didn't answer the question though.
"And you think there is reason people might get hurt," Dr. Tofu asked.
"There's a bad bunch around," Ranma answered. "First met 'em in China, and looks like they got here ahead of me."
"Anything like you?" Tofu asked. Ranma hesitated a bit.
"Yes and no, Doc," Ranma said. "I ain't got it all figured out myself."
"I should see to Nabiki now," Dr. Tofu said after a long moment.
"I'll come by ta see her later," Ranma said nervously. "I gotta do that much at least, if this whole engagement thing goes anywhere, I gotta watch her at a time like this."
"That sounds like a wise decision, Ranma," Tofu said. And a smart one if you mean harm.
"Kasumi," Akane called out as they came home. "Kasumi, it's terrible!" She barely noted the prayer papers liberally pasted to the walls.
"Akane, are you home already?" Kasumi said, coming out of the kitchen. "And Ranma? What are you doing here? Is Nabiki at least still in school?"
"Nabiki...she...there's something wrong with Nabiki," Akane said finally. "The nurse said it was epilepsy."
Kasumi blanched. If it was epilepsy in truth then Nabiki would have to deal with it for the rest of her life. She hoped it truly wasn't something so debilitating.
"But Dr. Tofu doesn't know what it is," Akane said, obviously worried and wanting Kasumi to assuage her fears. For the moment she was a little child about to lose a family member again. "He says her chi is out of control."
"Oh my," Kasumi said, and looked to Ranma.
"He said her heartbeat was strong and the beat was regular," Ranma said. "She's got a fever, but he's keepin that down by keeping her in ice."
"I'm certain Dr. Tofu knows what's best," Kasumi assured Akane. "Did something strange happen at school?"
"Nope, after that Kuno kid talked to us, she showed me around and then she collapsed," Ranma said. It was the truth as far as it went.
"Kuno," Akane growled. "I bet he did something to Nabiki. Maybe he finally realized she was ripping him off all the time or something."
"Don't try to take Kuno," Ranma snapped in response looking up. Kasumi took note of the grim and forbidding tone and looked up curiously.
"I can take Kuno easy," Akane said. "I do it everyday, he's nothing."
"I don't think the Kuno you know is the same Kuno I saw today," Ranma said, still serious.
"What's the matter," Akane asked. "Don't you think a girl can take care of herself?"
"I think a girl can take care of herself just fine if she knows when to hold off," Ranma said. "Whatever he was before, that guy's been making deals, and he isn't someone to take on lightly now."
"Perhaps you should listen to Ranma for now," Kasumi said. "Besides, this isn't the sort of thing that you have described Kuno as doing, now is it."
"I suppose not," Akane said glummly. "I just hope its not like...you know..."
"Oh, Akane," Kasumi said. "That was a lot different than this. Mother's illness didn't happen all at once."
Ranma sneezed and shook his head. As he reached out to grab one of the prayer papers and use it for a kleenex he looked around the room.
"Where's Pop and Tendo-san?" Ranma asked.
"Oh," Kasumi said, watching Ranma blow his nose on her morning's work. "They're out celebrating the engagement. Father is going to be so heartbroken." Ranma winced at that.
"Gah, that father of yours is a bad influence," Akane said. "I can just imagine what bits of him YOU'RE hiding from us."
"Yeah, sorry 'bout this," Ranma said sheepishly.
"Why," Kasumi said watching him closely. "You didn't have anything to do with this."
"I just don't like bringing the news, you know?" Ranma said. You know, it's a lot easier to fool people when ya don't actually answer the question.
"I suppose not," Kasumi said. "I suppose we'll just have to wait and pray. By the way, Ranma, what religion are you?"
"Never really thought about it," Ranma said, shrugging. "I guess they all got their strong points, an' their weak points. Though I've really been leaning toward Shintoism these last coupla months."
"I see," Kasumi said.
"What are you talking about religion for at a time like this?" Akane demanded. "I swear Kasumi, it's like you've gone insane recently!"
"It probably had something to do with the wedding plans," Ranma said sullenly. "Sounds like she's sure Nabiki'll be fine."
"Yes," Kasumi said. "Yes, everything is going to be fine."
"I wonder," Ranma said under his breath.