Ukyou looked up at the sign over her new school. Her new, all-boys school. At ten, she was still young enough not to need breast bindings to appear male. Dressing in masculine fashion was sufficient. The other boy's voices had not yet dropped, so she didn't even really need to conceal her higher tones. The difference was too slight to be noticeable.
Indeed, after five years of living as a boy, she no longer really needed to think about it to mimic the boys' behavior, and fit in easily. Nonetheless, she stood and looked for a long moment at the sign. Five years she had lived each day as a boy... but this would be her first day at an all-boys school.
Most of her classes that day seemed normal. The boys, in fact, seemed quieter during class than they had at her old school. Maybe that was because there were no girls there to impress. But between classes they were quite rowdy. She was prepared for that, but not for the scene that day at lunch. The swarm of boys was rushing, pushing, and shoving to get to the front and get a piece of the bread of the day before it was all gone. A call rang out, loud above the voices of the boys, "Last curry bread of the day!"
Ukyou saw a bread go sailing up over the heads of the boys. Joining in, she vaulted over the boys, just as one boy leapt up, shouting, "Its mine!" She landed on his head, and leapt upward, catching the curry bread. She bit a chunk out of it on the way down. Quite good, really. Not as good as her okynomiyaki, but still good.
Ukyou was shocked to see tears of bitterness in the boy's eyes as he glared at her. She wondered at first why he was so angry. He shouted something at her, but she lost it in the general din. Moving closer, she could see that his clothes were several days worn, and guessed that he hadn't been home.
She knew what a hard home life could be like, and started working her way through the crowd to him. He had turned away by that point, to leave the cafeteria, and she realized that unlike her and the other boys, he did not have a lunch with him. She realized with a shock that the bread would have been his only lunch. She pushed the crowd, eliciting startled yells, and reached his side, just as he exited the lunchroom.
He looked at her when she pulled on his sleeve, and recognized her with a look of rage on his face. She ignored it. "C'mon, man, let's go outside. I'll make you an okynomiyaki." The look on his face at that was stunned amazement, but she ignored it, and grabbed his sleeve, forcing him to keep up with her.
They exited the front doors of the school, and she headed for a tree. She sat beneath it, and pulled out her portable griddle, and her batter and ingredients. She poured batter on the smooth surface. "Beef or Pork?" she asked the boy.
"Huh?"
"Beef then," she responded. She flipped the okynomiyaki, and prepped the ingredients. Then she flipped it again, peppering it with the beef and other toppings as it spun in the air. She caught it easily, and handed it to the boy.
He looked at it wide-eyed for a moment, then said, "Thanks!" with a wide grin, and took it from her. It was half way in his mouth the next moment, and in another, it was gone.
"Wow. You sure eat fast," she commented. Good thing she had extra batter. She slapped two more on the griddle. "I'm sorry about the bread. It's my first day here, and I just kinda reacted." She flipped them both. She wanted to ask him why he didn't have a lunch... but she figured he'd probably be embarrassed about it. But she needed a friend here, and he looked like a good kid. Funny looking teeth though, she commented to herself, noting his long canines. But a hungry kid is a good friend for a chef. She flipped both, peppering them with toppings, and handed him one as she bit into the other. "How 'bout I catch you after school, and I'll treat you dinner to make up for it? My dad makes the best okynomiyaki ever!"
"Uhmm... yeah, sure." Just then the lunch bell rang, and Ukyou had to hurry to cool down her griddle enough to stow it and get to her next class. To her surprise, the guy from lunch was in her last class. She motioned to him when he came in, and he took the seat beside hers. It was math, which she was pretty good at. Her dad had drilled her in it as a kid. You had to be reasonably good at basic math to run a restaurant.
She caught up to him as he left the room after class. "Hey, man. I never got your name. I'm Kuonji Ukyou."
"Oh, uhm. Hi. Hibiki Ryouga. Nice ta meetcha."
"Well, come on, then. Dad'll be annoyed if we're late for dinner."
Ryouga allowed himself to be pulled out of the school, and along the street. He was busily wondering where he was lying asleep, and when he would wake up. Things like this just didn't happen to him.
His friends at school called him 'Lost Boy,' and they meant it. He had the world's worst sense of direction. He only found his way home about once a week, and so he spent a lot of the time going hungry. He didn't have all that many friends... it wasn't easy to make or keep them when you were wearing three or four day old clothing half the time, and always looked hungry. It didn't help that he had sharp teeth, just like the vampires in the movies, so a hungry look from him made most people want to turn and run.
Then today at lunch, yet again, some new kid had come along, and taken his bread, that would have been his only lunch for the day. He had shouted out his usual challenge, then marched out of the lunch hall, knowing that he'd find the kid sometime after school, and teach him not to steal his bread again. Or he wouldn't have to, cause his friends would get to the kid first, and point out how mean it was to take something from somebody who had nothing.
But he didn't get to, cause the kid showed up right beside him, hauled him outside, and cooked him several delicious okynomiyaki. He had hardly believed the kid when he invited him to come over and eat with his family, and had responded half-heartedly, but not really expected to see the kid again. Yet here he was, being dragged off to Ukyou's house to eat his father's okynomiyaki.
He pinched himself. Ouch. Nope, not awake yet.
---
Ukyou stood on the steps of her father's home watching Ryouga. He was standing at the edge of the street, looking back and forth. He clearly didn't know which way to go. She sighed, and walked down to stand beside him. "Don't know how to get home from here, huh? It's ok, I'll walk you back to the school. You can get home from there, right?"
"Uhm...," Ryouga looked down, and scuffed his foot against the ground. Oh dear, Ukyou thought, he can't have that bad a sense of direction can he?
"You can't? Hmmm. Alright, how about this. I'll ask my father if you can stay the night. I think we've got an extra futon somewhere. You can crash in the living room. After school tomorrow, we'll go by the office. They're sure to have your address on file. I should be able to find your house then, ok?"
Ryouga looked at Ukyou with startled eyes. "You'd... really? You think you're dad would let me stay?"
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Its not like I'm a girl or something, she though ironically to herself. That was why she had suggested the living room. She didn't think her dad would take being a guy so far as to let another guy crash in her bedroom.
---
At lunch the next day, Ukyou again cooked Ryouga several okynomiyaki, and Ryouga finally began to get used to the idea that he wasn't dreaming, and that somehow he had managed to gain a friend who didn't just want protection from bullies or someone to tease. On the way over, Ukyou had seen Ryouga's terrible sense of direction first hand, but said nothing, simply grabbing Ryouga's sleeve, and pulling him after her. Ryouga had nevertheless been startled when Ukyou had caught up to him as he was racing for the lunchroom, and pulled him from the crush of students. He was about to erupt in anger, when he saw who it was, and his stomach rumbled in memory of the delicious okynomiyaki Ukyou had cooked the day before.
After school, when Ukyou again caught him, and hauled him down to the office, and dealt with the curiousity of the clerks, getting the information without mentioning Ryouga's difficulty, Ryouga was becoming seriously confused. He had never had a friend who didn't want something before, and he was started to get worried... whatever Ukyou wanted, it was bound to be big.
When Ukyou actually found his house, though, and his mother turned out to be home, he was so excited that it simply slipped his mind that he had meant to ask Ukyou what he really wanted. He just introduced Ukyou to his mother, and badgered him into staying for dinner. Ukyou obviously appreciated the meal, commenting on the different flavours. He ended up making them okynomiyaki for dessert, after Ryouga's mother asked him about his interest in food, and he told them about his father's restaurant.
The next morning, as Ryouga was leaving his house, greatly relieved to be wearing fresh new clothes, and to have had time to soak in a real bath last night, he was startled to find Ukyou balanced on the front fence, waiting for him. Ukyou didn't say anything, just grabbed Ryouga, pulling him up onto the fence, and running ahead, hauling Ryouga along behind. Halfway there, he glanced back, and laughing, shouted, "I knew you could do it, Ryouga. You run fences before?" Ryouga just shook his head. He was trying to avoid thinking about it too much. He was a martial artist, and he had good balance, but damn it was gonna hurt if his feet slipped. He grimaced just thinking about it.
---
That Saturday, Ukyou again showed up outside Ryouga's house. Ukyou hollered up at Ryouga's window, tossing a rock up to rap against it, "Hey, Ryouga. One of your friends told me you were a martial artist. What say we go down to the park, and spar?"
Ryouga poked his head out the window, nodded happily, and jumped out, landing lightly on the lawn. "Sure... say, what's that?" he asked, noticing the bandolier of... spatulas? Not to mention that massive spatula on Ukyou's back...
"I do Martial Arts Okynomiyaki," Ukyou said, grabbing his sleeve. "C'mon, let's go." Ukyou again leapt onto their fence, pulling Ryouga up behind him.
Ryouga leaned up against a tree, after they had tired of sparring, looking out over the pond. "That was fun. You're really good, Ukyou. Did your dad teach you?"
"Yeah...," Ukyou's voice had suddenly grown dark and angry, and Ryouga looked over at him in surprise. "I gotta be good enough to get my revenge." Ryouga didn't comment. He knew how that was. He had had many fights for revenge.
---
It was three years later, shortly before the end of a school year, when they were both thirteen, that Ryouga got lost one night. Early the next morning, cold and wet, in driving rain, he found himself outside Ukyou's house, and decided to wait. He would go to school with Ukyou, and Ukyou would bring him home.
Ryouga leapt lightly to land on Ukyou's windowsill, and was about to rap on the window pane, when he realized what he was seeing. Ukyou, not looking at him, but at a mirror, was wincing as... as _she_ carefully bound her... her... Ryouga's nose dripped blood, and he lost his hold on the window, and fell with a wet thud to the ground below, not noticing the rain spattering down at him.
He got up suddenly, afraid she would look out and see him, and in a flash he was over the fence and gone. It was some time before he looked up, and he had no idea where he was. He sat, huddled and miserable, under a bridge, as the rain poured down around him.
His thoughts were in a turmoil. His best friend was a... a... a girl? It didn't even occur to him to think that she had lied to him. She had never told him she was a guy... 'you just kinda assumed it', he said to himself. 'But dangit, what's she doing going to a guy's school?!' He answered himself almost immediately. 'Revenge. She's gotta get revenge on somebody, because... Man, what could they have done to her?'
He... he was no better than they had been, peeping on her like that. Even if he hadn't known, he had seen her... her... He pinched his nose. 'Man, she's really cute before she puts on...'
That's when he decided. He owed her. For everything she had done for him, for being his friend, even when he was just a dirty, smelly guy who couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag, she had been his friend. He'd have to forget what he'd seen, just forget it, until she was ready to tell him... or ready to leave. He would have to go with her, then. Whoever had done this to her, whatever evil thing he had done to make her live like this, he had to pay.
---
It was nearly a year later that they were sitting in a park, having just finished a vigorous sparring session. It had taken everything Ryouga had, the year before, to think of her as a guy again, and to spar as if nothing had changed. But he had... and now he got the feeling something was about to change. Would she tell him, he wondered?
He had watched her, occasionally, when she went alone to the park. The look of utter hatred and fury she wore when she attacked the trees had pained him. He knew now who had hurt her so badly. She had chanted his name, as she attacked the tree. Ranma... and then afterwards, she had sat, slumped against it, crying, and sobbing about 'Ranchan.' Ryouga wondered if it was the same person.
He looked at her now, and she had a look of pain and determination on her face.
"Ryouga," she said, then faltered.
"I'm coming with you, Ukyou," he stated.
She stared at him in stunned surprise. "What? But, but, how?"
"I don't know what this Ranma character did to you," he said vehemently, "But you didn't deserve it. Whatever it was, you didn't deserve it. If you leave without me, Ukyou, I'm just gonna be the Lost Boy again, wandering, never knowing where I am. There's only one thing I can do with my life that's worth doing... and that's go with my best friend, and help her do what she's gotta do." He had practiced this speech in his head for nearly a year.
Ukyou's eyes grew wide... "How... how long?" How did he find out, she thought, how?
"About a year, Ukyou. Please let me come with you. I meant what I said. If you don't let me come, I'm just gonna end up wandering, never accomplishing anything. I won't interfere in your revenge. I understand that kinda stuff. But I can help you keep your edge, while you hunt for him, can't I?" His eyes pleaded with hers. He needed this, his honor needed this. She had given him his life back. For four years, he had had a normal life, like a normal boy. She had given him something she had never had. She hadn't had a normal life. She had been forced to live like a guy, and now it was his turn to help her.
"I... you're sure? You really want to come and help me? I don't know how long it will be. I could be searching a very long time."
"Come on, Ukyou. What else am I gonna do?" He grinned up at her, willing her to see the humour. She laughed, and his smile widened, showing his sharp canines.
"Alright, Ryouga. Come with me then." Then she sat, and she told him the story.
She told him how she had met Ranchan, when his father had distracted them so he could snatch an okynomiyaki from the cart, and she had attacked him to get it back. He had defeated her, and eaten it.
They had fought every morning thereafter, and played together for hours. Then finally, she had gone to her daddy, and asked him to engage her to Ranma. She hadn't really understood what it meant to be married, only that it meant being together forever, and she wanted to keep her best friend forever.
His father had agreed... and then the next morning, Genma-san had taken the yatai, her dowry, and run away. She had chased after them crying in, and watched hopelessly as the yatai had dwindled in the distance, Ranma sitting on it, waving at her.
When she came back to herself, she found that Ryouga was holding her, comforting her, and she was sobbing into his shoulder. It hurt everytime she thought about it, but it was worse when she had to talk about it, to acknowledge that Ranchan had left her.
Ryouga didn't say anything. He couldn't. It was all he could do to just maintain the pretense that he was comforting his best friend, a guy, not holding a girl. He just held her.