Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, W-Juliet, or Love Hina. I also do not own any other characters or stories mentioned within this story. This story is made for the sole purpose of having fun, unless for you having fun is making money, cause no money can or will be made from this story.

Flashy Title, By Lioconvoy

Chapter Five: New Friends

Ranma smiled as he walked and talked with Shinobu it was nice being able to have normal conversation with a girl. At the moment she was leading him to a Coffee Shop run by a friend of hers. “So the seven of you were all in love with the same guy?”

“Yep, so you’re not quite as popular as you think you are.” Shinobu giggled as she teased her new friend, it seemed that like her, he had led an interesting life. Not in the same way, but interesting nonetheless.

“From the sounds of things his seven were nothing compared to the four of mine. How many times has he been punted into low earth orbit?”

“Too many times to count and it still happens whenever he comes back from a dig. He’s a bit of a klutz and when ever he does something to embarrass Naru, she sends him flying.” The youngest Hinata resident stopped and pointed to a small coffee shop. “Here we are.”

--

“Mint have you seen Lime?” Herb sighed; he missed the days when he always knew where his attendants were.

“No Herb-sama, she left while I was making you lunch.”

“I will have to have another talk with him about wandering off.” As the Musk Prince sat down at the dinning room table he noticed what Mint was wearing today: a blue Chinese dress with a slit on one side to show off her legs. “Mint, why must you dress so feminine?”

“I have boobies now, these clothes work well with my boobies. I like how my boobies look in them.” Mint beamed as she said this. Sure her boobies were small, but the right clothes made them look nice. Lime was lucky she got big boobies and could wear anything, but Mint was determined to look better than her tiger friend.

Herb started to eat his lunch, trying not to look at Mint. It was really starting to annoy him that the foxboy enjoyed being cute. He was a man, even trapped in his cursed form he should act like one. Remembering back to the time when he himself was locked female he recalled not acting any different then normal. Why was it Lime and Mint seemed to change so much since being locked?

--

As they returned to their apartment, Ito noticed Makoto seemed a bit down. “Is there something wrong Mako?”

“Ranma is going to kill me.” Nabiki was not supposed to find out that his friend was actually the writer Mizuno Ami. The blonde frowned thinking how it was out of character for him to have such loose lips. Normally it was Ito who jumped to conclusions; maybe she was rubbing off on him. That brought a smile to his face, his love always accused him of changing her, but it seemed that changes were going both ways.

“Well besides being a food thief, what is Ranma like; would he really hurt you over something like this?”

Entering the apartment the only Narita son put down his books and sat down on their couch. He watched as Ito followed him in and closed the door behind her, before joining him on the couch. “He fights for food because it was the only way he could eat while training with his father. If he couldn’t get at the food first he ended up eating nothing. Despite his upbringing, Ranma’s actually a kind person. He can be a little petty, and his ego is partly an act and partly genuine. He could very well be one of the world’s best martial artists; he’s even taken on my father and won.”

“He took on your father! When did this happen?” Her lover’s father, like her own, ran a dojo and was truly strong. She saw Mako fight his father once, and he had trouble fighting him. Ranma actually beat the Narita patriarch?

“Sometime last year while we were with the troupe, father was thinking about taking me back. Akane got Ranma involved and he challenged my father. According Akane, Ranma didn’t just beat my father, he humiliated him.” Given the pigtailed boy’s story about fighting the Phoenix King, his father must not have been on his level.

“Wow, and Ranma would rather be a writer? Misaki and Nobuko used to talk about Mizuno Ami all the time, they thought her books were great, I read part of the first book but I really didn’t get into it.” That might have been because she only did read the first book. Nobuko used to complain about the first and second books; she didn’t start praising ‘Legends of a Wild Horse’ till the third book, however the short girl did assume the books were written by a boy. Maybe her small friend could tell because she was an aspiring writer herself.

“Like me the Art is a part of him, but he wants to be more than just a martial artist. Although his life is pretty crazy as it is, he still enjoys fantasizing about other worlds or other lives.” Musk, Amazons, Kunos, his friend’s life was riddled with oddities. Did the former Saotome write to pretend he had a normal life?

“So when will I be meeting him?”

“I thought we might run into him this morning, but I’ve sure we’ll meet him soon since he’s attending Todai, too.” He wondered where Ranma was this morning, had chaos found him already?”

--

Sitting down at a table belonging to the outdoor café, Ranma looked though one of Shinobu’s art books while she was drawing in another. He noticed she drew many of the characters from ‘Legends of a Wild Horse.’ Most of their pictures matched how he envisioned them. If Mouse had fallen into the Nyannichuan, he’d probably look exactly like her drawing of Ming Chu. The only picture that wasn’t accurate was her picture of Kikyo; it looked like she drew herself. “Um, I’m not an expert in Mizuno Ami’s work but…”

“I shouldn’t have based Kikyo after myself, I know. I was one of seven girls chasing after one guy - I kind of enjoy imagining …I’m the one being chased after by multiple guys. In this sketch book I have drawings of a few of the different scenes from the series, and I’ve replaced Kikyo with myself in here too.” Shinobu blushed as she thought about the scenes the book she was presently drawing in. She always picked on Motoko for her cheesy love stories where she pairs herself with Keitaro, but really was she much better, drawing herself with fictional boys?

“So what are you drawing now?”

“Kikyo’s ending kiss with Ukyo. Personally I liked Kenshin better, but Mizuno-san had a reason for pairing Kikyo with Ukyo. I’m just glad she didn’t pair her with Ataru or Fei Lou.” All the romantic scenes in her sketch book were of either Kikyo and Ukyo, or Kikyo and Kenshin. She did have some non romantic scenes drawn as well. “You know there are rumors that Mizuno-san is going to start turning ‘Legends of a Wild Horse’ into a Shojo.”

“…” The pigtailed boy was glad his new friend was looking in her book and not at him, beads of sweat started streaming down his face. Was his story that girly that if it were a manga it be a Shojo?

“I’m sorry.”

“Do you know of any place that is taking in boarders?”

Shinobu looked up out of her books, and Ranma himself turned around to see what was going on. Kitsune, the woman who ran the café, was talking to a younger girl.

“Sorry, I don’t keep up to date on local realty.” Kitsune smiled as she said this, but inwardly she wondered what was wrong with this child.

“I have some extra rooms in the place I’m living at.” He planned on renting out the extra rooms anyway. The girl didn’t seem like she was old enough to be a college student, but whatever her reason for wanting to live on her own he could understand.

“Really? You’d let Tomoe live at your place?” She hoped to stay at the legendary Hinata Inn, but anyplace was better than going home. Her mother had been getting a lot worse lately, in wanting her to be a boy, she almost made her cut her hair and it had taken so long to grow it.

Shinobu wondered, Mitsune had mentioned the Hinata house would be getting a new resident, although she generally tended to interview the potential housemate before taking them to the inn. Why had this girl failed the interview? She seemed normal enough; she had long brown hair and equally brown eyes. She dressed kind of too cutely, but she really didn’t give off an aura of weirdness.

Something in the café owner’s eyes told him there was something wrong with his suggestion. Staring at the possible tenant, he looked past the physical and to the spiritual. Then he found what the problem was. He decided to examine Tomoe; the shape of the legs, wide hips, small waist, and she didn't have Adam’s apple. The form suggested this person was female despite the flat chest, but the ki, it was definitely male. “Yeah, it’s a decent size place, and I have some extra rooms.”

“Thank you!” Tomoe hugged the sitting man. Now she wouldn’t have to return home. She could see he wasn’t very comfortable so she let go and backed off. “My name is Miura Tomoe, thank you for giving me a place to stay.”

“You’re welcome.” Now Shinobu was eyeing him oddly. Hopefully she didn’t misunderstand things.

Yep, he was like Keitaro. How many rivals would she have before the end of the day? Maybe she should think about moving out of the inn and into Ranma’s home too.

--

Stocking the bookstore’s shelves, Nabiki thought about Ranma being Mizuno Ami. Ranma, who always complained when they tried to make him do anything girly, wrote a romance series. Sure, there was action in “Legends of a Wild Horse”, but overall there was a lot more romantic tension.

So many things about Ranma just didn’t add up. His grades before he was disowned were terrible. Recalling the time his scores were publicized on national TV it was amazing he was even a high school student. With that score he had to have only gotten a single question right, and he was proud of himself? Then after he got disowned his grades skyrocketed, he was getting perfect scores…a complete one-eighty. Had he done so bad on…? No there was no way that could have been an act.

“Earth to Nabiki, hey Nabiki, have you guys gotten any new copies of “Endings?”

“Motoko? How long have you been standing there?” She must have been a little too deep in thought.

“About five minutes. Since you don’t spend your time thinking about guys, what has you spaced out?” The Swordswoman smiled at her friend.

“I found out who Mizuno Ami is and I’m just a bit surprised.” Ranma might get mad at her if she spilled his secret, but just telling her friend she had that knowledge might not be a problem, so long as she didn’t share it.

“YOU DID! That’s so cool? What’s she like? My Writings professor was under the assumption that she was really two people because her writing style changed a lot after the second book.”

Looking at her taller raven haired friend, she did have a point, after the first two books, the writing had become a lot better. Ranma was living with them when he would have written those books, and at that time he seemed pretty dumb. “Maybe the Ami Mizuno I met was the first…”

“So there are two? The professor also theorized the first one was a boy, was he right about that too?” Was there anything to old man didn’t know… Following Nabiki to the front counter she watched her friend pull out a copy of the last ‘Legend of a Wild Horse.’

“Yeah, it’s a he, but I’m not entirely sure if there are two people behind the name, it just is kind of unbelievable that the guy I know is Mizuno Ami.” She had read some of Motoko’s own writings, and she could see her friend in it, she couldn’t see Ranma in any books Makoto said he wrote. Well she saw his life, but not his personality. After handing over the book, her friend handed her the money to pay for it. “It’s too bad it’s the last book, but all the loose ends are tied up, so it it’s a decent ending.”

“I wonder what Shinobu will start drawing now that she can’t put herself with Kenshin or Ukyo.” Sneaking a peek at her younger friend’s art books wasn’t hard, but had she yet to show Nabiki Shinobu’s embarrassing drawings because the girl kept her book with her.

--

Motoko acted pretty much the same way around turtles. A small kitten had crossed their path and Shinobu picked it up, Tomoe thought it was cute, but when she held it up to Ranma, he actually ran away. After putting down the cat she and Tomoe started looking for Ranma, the little girl, at least, needed to find him for a place to stay. “Ranma!”

“What is a Ranma? Is it tasty?”

Turning around she saw the other Hinata resident her age, Kaora Suu. The princess must have just came from one of the science labs at Todai because she was still wearing her lab coat over her other clothes. “Ranma is a Todai student I met earlier.”

“Ranma said he’d let Tomoe stay at his place too.” Looking around Tomoe hoped she hadn’t lost him. She didn’t have any place to stay tonight because she thought she’d be staying that the Hinata Inn. Running away from home was a lot harder then it seemed. Still if her Uncle could do it, so could she.

--

Climbing down from a tree Ranma worried just how bad he looked in front of Shinobu. She just had to lift that stray c… up to him. If he wanted to try a normal relationship with anyone, it probably would be for the best that he came clean with his little phobia, it was just that he’d rather as few people knew about it as possible. What were the chances of things actually working out between him and the first normal girl he ever met?

Just how far had he run from them? As much pretending that went on during his time at the Tendo’s, his fear was one of the few things he was honest about. Then again, how does one be dishonest about a fear? Playing dumb wasn’t that hard, it killed his grades, but then again his grades at Furinkan didn’t really mean anything. He wasn’t even legitimately registered there in the first place. Fortunately there was Okano-sensei, he was a licensed teacher and was able to privately teach Ranma and the grades that he got from him were added to his true transcript.

It wasn’t always easy finding time to go to Okano-sensei’s home, but somehow he managed. Unfortunately whenever he went near the house he ended up female. Sensei’s mother had a habit of washing her sidewalks whenever he passed, whether it was before school, after school, or the middle of the day. Oddly enough it was easier to learn as a girl, still he was a guy and he wouldn’t be attending college in his cursed form.

“Ranma?”

Turning around he saw one friend he had been expecting to see sooner. The taller blond looked like he out for a jog. “Hey Makochan, how are you doing? Ito with you?”

“No she’s furiously studying a cook book. Her food’s normally edible but she wants to make it tasty too.” For the last year Ito had a sempai in the troupe teach her how to cook and slowly but surely she was getting better. “What are you up to?”

“Looking for the people I ran from after they picked up a c...”

“And to think you used to love cats. So why are you looking for them?” He and Ito needed to get a cat; it could be his bodyguard against Ranma once he found out the youngest Narita spilled his secret to the Ice Queen.

“One of them is going to be moving into my place and the other I’m thinking about asking to be the artist for the ‘Legends of a Wild Horse’ manga.” Shinobu had some real talent and since she was already familiar with the characters, she definitely was his first choice. It would be better than letting his publisher choose an artist for him at random.

“You’re actually going ahead on that? I’m kind of surprised; you know it’s going to be a Shojo, right. I mean the after the first two volumes it became more of a love story than an action story.” The story didn’t even change subtly book two was a little romantic, but book three where Kenshin appeared was without a doubt a love story.

“Well there is enough of a fan base, and the girl I met has already drawn the characters. Looking at her work I think it’ll probably be pretty cool.” The reason behind the change in story was that he wanted to keep it loosely based upon his real life, but he didn’t want it to be obvious that it was. Although he hadn’t intended to make it a romance, somehow it ended up that way. Maybe his cursed form had a minor influence on him that he didn’t overall notice.

“And the other person you’re looking for is going to be your tenant? Male or female?”

“Male, but you can’t tell by the way his body is shaped. He doesn’t have a prominent Adam’s apple, his waist is small, but his hips are wide. If you just look at him you’d think he was a cute young girl, and he’s dressed like one too. After being fooled twice before I’ve learned to look past the surface to a person’s ki.” Okano-sensei was annoyed about that, there were differences between males and females aside from boobs; he always got on the former Saotome for not looking for the signs. In a fight he’d pay attention to his opponent’s movement to the minutest of detail, but other than that he tended to ignore details everywhere else.

“Well I played a girl for two years; it isn’t that hard to disguise one’s figure. I had at least two guys fall for me. You should meet Ito’s cousin Tomoe, he’s a weird one. He actually thinks he’s a girl, and acts pretty girly too.” His friend now had a strange look on his face.

“Ito’s family name is Miura, right?”

“Yeah.” As they continued to walk in the direction Ranma was leading them, Makoto got the feeling he’d be seeing a certain sixteen year old soon.

--

Lio's corner:

- Actually I’ve never read “Ranma: The Second Time Around…” never even heard of it before the review by A.Nonymous. I still haven’t read it either, what’s it about, is it any good?

- Herb’s appearance is definitely abrupt, mainly because I knew what I wanted to do, but not how I wanted to do it. Hopefully the development of his character from this point on won’t be hindered too badly. If anyone wants to write a back story feel free.