Hello there, yes after a a long summer break of me being away from a PC 
(where I could do insane typing sessions...like I did for this..:) Natsumi 
4 has finally been written. Although it's a little more serious then first 
planned, I wanted to do some things in this to set up later plot elements 
before I did a completly humours story. Ahh the perils of finding out that it 
is indeed hard to balance a Comdey/Drama which makes me appricate Takeuchi-san 
even more for doing it in SM....Anyway fire away with any Comments and flames
(except text wrap, I'll fix that later...:/)

Richard Beaubien
----------------
A really, Reallly Big Ami Mizuno Fan who thinks BSS Mercury would be a great 
OAV series..:)


Truth be known, the reputation of Furnikan High was well known across 
Japan....Not that it was good thing that the school 
was so well known. It's reputation for wierd events, sensless 
property damage and martial arts fights that would make any 
seasoned Hong Kong director jealous was well known around 
Japans education circles. It was for this reason that Kyoko 
selected the location of Furnikan high as the ideal place for 
the special business juku sponsered by the BFC. Such a 
program could bring quick credibilty to any school and 
revitalize it's reputation to the public, and good reputation is
needed for any school to suceed. Thus the princpal of 
this school should of been over joyed at the opportunity 
to have such a progarm from a well respected company 
at his school, but as soon as Kyoko read the information 
report on the princpal she knew the going would be tough.

	The office decour was, in fact, at first glance quite 
normal. There was the usual picture frames of the principal's 
loved one's and the usual office flowers and diplomas gracing 
the walls of the office. But upon closer inspection one could 
easily see the cause of the princpals madness, The picture frames
contained the picture of the Hawaii Five-O cast, with a huge 
picture of Danno in the left corner of the desk. The plants were 
all Hawaian, including a healthy Palm tree which Kyoko thought 
had to be plastic, And the diploma's were  not from some 
respected Japanese unviersity, but from the Tokyo barbers 
College. And at the desk sat Principal Kuno, whistling the 
Magnum PI theme while shining his latest pair of giant scissors. 

	For her part Kyoko was handling the situation quite 
well, she had after all read the personal file for Principal Kuno
and had expected the strange behavior of she had encountered. 
Her assistant, Sayoko, was however the complete opposite 
of Kyoko. She sat there stunned, watching the scissors move 
up and down slowly. Shedidn't care how repulisve the thought
was, but if the maniac made an attempt to cut her hair again 
she would drain his energy untill he looked like a prune . 
Kyoko just smirked at her assitants discomfort, Sayoko didn't 
know that the principal possesed some warped intelligience 
behind the insanity. It would require some shrewed 
negotiating to get what they wanted out of him, but 
Kyoko had the trump card she needed for these negotiations.

"Are you sure you won't reconsider our offer 
Principal Kuno-san?"

"Aloha..I'm sorry but I can't allow such a course to be 
held at the school unless it improves the educational 
standard of the lu-au.." Princpial Kuno replied as 
he opened the scissors in front of Sayoko's face. 

"Perhaps we can confront this problem" Kyoko 
explained as she tried to calm her assitant down. 
Sayoko was after all, within an inch of giving the 
Principle the beating of his life. "Maybe we can 
show you the benfits of our program by giving 
you a guided tour of one of the schools that has 
enjoyed the benfits of our program..." 

"Well I am a busy man.." Principl Kuno muttered 
as he started to polish an even bigger set of 
hair clippers. " I do have a school to keep 
under normal running conditions.." Sayoko tried to hide
her snickers at the last comment, whcih made the principal 
open up and polish the blade of the clippers.

"Well then I'll be forced to tell the people at our Hawain 
school that you won't be joing them.." This peeked the princpals 
attention, or more aptly put caused the princpal to go estatic 
with joy. Sayoko looked on stunned, wondering if this wasn't 
some joke her youma friends played on her. Kyoko however, 
showed no emotion's as she produced a brocheur and paperwork 
for a plane trip to Hawai. She casualy threw them on the desk, 
and in a voice of feigned sincerity continued her sales pitch 
"It's such a shame that you can't come. But alas you 
won't sign these papers and visit out Hawaian school...
all expenses payed."

Not that the sales pitch was needed mind you, for before 
the last statement was completed Principla Kuno was 
well on the way to signing the papers and was already leaving 
the office at warp speed, shouting 'Aloha!!' at the top of his 
lungs. Sayoko looked on in shock, a sweatdrop even apperead 
on her head. But Kyoko knew what the situation meant, she had 
complete control over Frunikan high, and soon she would have 
the best natural resources this district had to offer under her 
control ....And with that she couldn't resist the trademarked evil 
laugh...

			Richard Beaubien

			Presents

			Natsumi, The Magical Girl 

	Chapter 4, Back to School Terror!!!

"So you've been accepted to this business juku that 
the BFC is running at your high scool Nabiki?" 
Kasumi asked as she prepared lunch for Soun and 
Genma. It was the weekend and the juku was slated to 
start on Monday at Furnikan high, with Nabiki being one 
of the starting students in the class. "So are you going 
to join Nabiki-chan?"

"Hai...It could lead to some important info." Besides it 
could lead to some important blackmail oppurtunites 
too Nabiki said to herself. She, afterall, had no 
qualms about steeling from a company that counted 
youma as one of it's main products.

Kasumi sighed as she sliced the bread. "But won't you 
be putting yourself at risk, I mean it is probably a trap."

"Ha...I doubt they would pull something like that. It would 
bring to much attention to them. Headlines saying 'BFC juku 
caused strange monster attack' is not exactly good for business."
She paused to gauge the reaction of her sister, but all she got 
was a slight 'Oh My..' as Kasumi started to prepare the ice tea. 
"Besides I think the BFC may have something more devious 
in mind for this juku. It could be part of it's master plan 
Onnechan.."

"Master Plan?!?" 

"You know, what the BFC wants. World domination, the 
destruction of Microsoft, perhaps maybe they want their 
own postal stamp. But the BFC has to want something..." 
A small breeze swept through the kitchen as Kasumi 
slowly understood what Nabiki was saying. Her mom afterall 
was talking about something in her dreams, something about 
her friends. Maybe if she told Nabiki about the dreams, she 
could help figure out what they mean, and perhaps she could 
help her come to term with why they were happening in the 
first place. "Or else they wouldn't be sending so many Youma 
after us. Youma are not exactly subtle.." Nabiki paused as she 
stared at her sister, and slowly started to wave her hand in 
front of Kasumi's face. "Hey, Onnechan are you paying attention
to me?"

"Ahh, I'm sorry Nabiki-chan" a sheepish Kasumi muttered in 
apology as she bowed in apology. "But I do get what your trying 
to say I think. You seem to think that the BFC must want 
something that's special to Nerima and that's why there doing 
these things, ne?"

"Bingo..And hopefully this juku can help shed some light on 
what the BFC's true motives."

"But still, you could be putting yourself in danger.."

"Don't worry. I can take care of myself Onnechan. I'll be 
able to find out what the BFC is up too no problem" a confident 
Nabiki exclaimed as she started to leave the room. "And don't 
forget...later tonight we have to look at soom design's for 
your fuku. We just have to change it to something that doesn't 
look like Sailor Moon..."

"Oh my.." 

****

"You have some explaining to do Kyoko," was the 
question that came from behind the desk of the 
chairwoman. Kyoko cringed at the question, one 
did not enjoy being called into the chairwoman's 
office. She already weilded a considerable amount 
of power and the intmidating nature of the office 
surroundings only inhanced that image. It also didn't 
help to have one's own failure played back on the 
office monitors too. "Perhaps you can explain why 
you have failed in accuring new resources and have 
lead to the casting of some supsicion on the BFC?"

"I have no excuse, My lady. It was poor planing that
lead to these defetas." Now Kyoko approced the desk and bowed 
before her leader, hoping for another chance to prove herself. 
"But I have another plan that will give us all we need from 
this area..."

"You will get another chance Kyoko, But" the chairwoman 
paused, letting a slight grin appear on her face that Kyoko 
couldn't see."But do not fail, and do not cast supicions on 
the BFC. Remeber the BFC is a reputable company, and 
we do not want our selves caught up in any thing that might 
besmirch our reputation."

"Yes My lady, I won't fail you.." Kyoko respectfully 
replied as she left the room. 

"Mine, come here..."

"What do you want My Lady.." was the answer as Mine 
began to form in the chairwoman's office. 

The chairwoman looked at the videotape closely. 
"Kyoko has another plan, perhaps your opperative 
can keep an eye on it and see that she doesn't fail."

"Yes My lady.."

"And Mine...If she fails please fix the situation so 
nothing comes back to the company's doorstep." 

"Hai.." And with that Mine left the office leaving the 
chairwoman there looking at the skyline of Nerima. 
A serious look crossed her face as she turned to 
look at the still playing videotape. "Damn you Kyoko,"
she yellled "I'm not going to let you ruin 30 good years of 
my work. I will get what I want..."

****

"Uhh, yeah I know it's going to be difficult, but hey 
you do owe me for certain favor's. Yes, this should 
cancel out most of the debts you owe me. Look just 
get me some info on the past of the BFC and we'll 
talk about fee's later. All right, nice talking to you 
too, Ja ne." 

And with that Nabiki hung up the phone, more confused 
about the BFC than ever. She had a sneaking supscion as to 
what the BFC wanted from Nerima, hell there was only 
one thing anyone could want from this district. Martial 
artists, it was Nerima's number one export (and import
too). But still Nabiki had no idea as to why the BFC 
wanted martial artists, although she did suspect that 
they were after world control (weren't all bad guy's 
after world control in the end Nabiki thought.) 

Yes, that would easily explain everything, so why did
Nabiki think there was more to this BFC than just 
world domination. There had to be some reason 
they came to Nerima to recruit martial artists, it 
was certainily a hell of a big risk coming into 
Ranma's backyard just to get people to break 
bricks and sticks. No, the BFC must have 
something more in mind than world domination 
or else they wouldn't have risked coming here 
Nabiki thought. And if she could find out why 
they might be able to stop them before somebody 
actually got hurt by the youma attacks.

****

'Sayoko, were are you?" Kyoko asked as she 
looked over the class list for her Juku plan. The 
names represented a bland who's who of Furnikan 
high, offering nothing really special but enough 
for the BFC to gain control over the school. 

"I'm here Kyoko-san."

"Here..." she passed the class list over 
to her assistant. "This is the list of people 
who will be taking our class. Please study 
them and decide who would be best for 
the first wave of new recruits."

"Hai.." was the reply as Sayoko slowly 
flipped through the class list. Nothing stood out to 
her untill she reaced the last page. "HIM!!!"

"Sigh.." Kyoko knew exactly who Sayoko 
was yelling about. "Yep, Tatewaki Kuno, age 
17 is in this class."

"No, No, NO!! I don't want my hair cut, 
nope find someone else to do this plan.."

Kyoko just galred at her assitant. "I did my 
research, this guy doesn't have a Hawaii 
fetish, and if you bale out on me know both of 
us will have a rather messy early retirement if 
you know what I mean.."

Sayoko gulped. That last thing she wanted to do 
was have an early retirement. She had heard from 
others in the company that it really wasn't a pleasent 
experience, especially if you've failed the company in 
any way. But still, she didn't want to be within a 
hundred kilometers of anyone with the family name 
Kuno. A soft sigh came from Sayoko. it seemed like 
fate just had it out for her this week. 

"Don't worry, I'll be there to watch your back."
Kyoko assured her assitiant, which caused Sayoko 
to sweatdrop.

****

Ucchan's wasn't open this weekend, which meant 
that it missed one of the busiest times of the week 
when it comes to the restaurant business. Not the Ukyou 
cared anymore, she had more important things to worry 
about than some small restaurant. She was after all a junior 
executive in the BFC. "So Mine-san, what do you want me 
to do in this Business juku?" 

Mine hesitated a bit as she looked at her new assitiant. "If 
given the oppurtunity elminate them without bring suspicion 
to the BFC."

"Hai, Mine-san" And with that Ukyou went into the back room 
of Ucchans to prepare for Monday, to prepare for her 
battle plan and to prepare to elimiante her first targets for 
her new employer. A small sigh could be heard coming from 
Mine in the front room as she started to leave the store. "There 
is no going back now, Ukyou. You are now, no longer human.."

****

The Monday of the Juku....

Tatewaki Kuno was never a patient man. He always 
wanted to get what he wanted, when he wanted it no 
matter what the cost. He was also a very dense man, 
often ignoring the blatently obvious in his prusuits of 
wealth, which would explian his obsession's for the 
pig tailed girl and Akane Tendo. It was these two 
qualities that was leading to the scene that Kuno was
creating at this moment in time. "What, why do I have 
to go to some business school. Why does Kuno, already 
the wealthist man here, have to go learn how to make more money?
Why can't I be out there spending a blissfull day with my 
loved in the glorious bath of sunshine.."

Nabiki looked on with her usual look of disgust, not 
that she was suprised by this show from Kuno. If anything 
she was shocked that he hadn't started reciting epic tales of 
his battles against the evil Ranma Saotome, wait a minute, he's 
on to those now. Well Nabiki knew one thing, school was never 
boring around here with this cast of characters. And with that 
Nabiki decided to inspect the classroom surrondings and see 
who else was sucked into this potential trap. 

Of course there was Kuno, who was sticking out like a sore 
thumb. In the back was Ukyou, or some one that looked like 
Ukyou. The potential suitor for Ranma was dressed in a smart 
red business suit, which suprised Nabiki since Ukyou never wore 
anything beyond her cooking outfit and school uniform. Maybe 
she was finally growing past the Ranma-obsession stage that seemed
to affect most of the females in town, Nabiki thought. Well one
thing was for certain, Kuno was sounding more like an idiot by 
the minute. Nabiki tried to hide her laughter, obviosuly this 
wasn't a traditional Japanese juku. If it was Kuno would be 
outside holding two water tanks instead of reciting a passage 
from Hamlet. Maybe this could be entertaining after all...

Sayoko on the other hand didn't find this entertaining one 
little bit. She swore that this kid was more annyoing then his 
dad, she certainily felt sorry for the pig tailed girl and 
Akane. Perhaps she wondered why she just didn't blast him
right now. "Kuno-san, as much as we find Ran enjoyable can we 
please get started?"

"Ahh...sorry Sensei."

"It's all right." Sayoko muttered as she slowly started to 
burst a bubble on her bubble paper. "Let's get started, 
can anyone explain the...."

"Alas,yes I can explain why I love them. For they are 
like the wind..." Sayoko facefaulted, why did she have to 
get stick with such an idiot. She slowly began to burst more 
bubbles on her paper. Her stress aid was helping her stay in 
control, but when it run's out not even heaven would be 
able to help save that idiot. 

Ukyou just watched the situation with a watchfull gaze. It was 
clear from the get go that this situation was going to fall 
apart and come back to the BFC's doorstep if it was 
allowed to continue. But Ukyou wouldn't allow it 
to continue, she would stop this before it would come 
back to the BFC. All she needed to do was wait for 
the perfect moment and then she would strike. After 
all the BFC doesn't tolerate failure....

****

It was after school at the Tendo dojo, and like most day's 
the usual events were happening. Soun and Genma were playing 
Go, Ranma and Akane were settling there disagrements in there 
usual manner and Kasumi was sitting there sulking. Which really 
wasn't normal but given the circumstances it was perfectly 
understandable. She was worrying about Nabiki and this BFC 
juku, after all it did scream out trap no matter how obvious 
something like that would be. But still that was no reason to 
charging of as Natsumi and busting in on class, after all 
Nabiki said that would be bad for her image. 

(But it could be a trap, and Nabiki could be in danger.)
That repeated over and over in Kasumi's head, she just 
couldn't shake that feeling that something was going to 
happen. And if something happened to Nabiki, well 
she wouldn't be in any condition to market Natsumi no 
matter what her image was like. Besides Kasumi did 
have an errand to run around Furnikan high later today. 

"Father, Saotome-san!! I'm going out to run an errand."
Kasumi exclaimed as she picked up her broach and 
started to run towards the school. For his part Soun 
turned around to say goodbye, which caused him to 
turn around and miss Genma making a move on the 
go board that was slightly against the rules. "Satome-san, 
you didn't happen to make an illegal move there did you?"

But Genma didn't replay, all that was there was a cute 
Panda playing with a ball and Soun in the middle of a
rather painfull facefault. 

****

"So does anyone know the law of Supply and Demand?" Sayoko asked, hoping 
to probe how much the class knew about business. Nabiki started to raise 
her hand, she after all knew the answer inside out. But Kuno was the one 
to stand up and shout out the answer. "Hey, that's simple!!I demand 
something and someone supplies it!!!"

The entire class facefaulted except Nabiki and Ukyou, who 
had rather large sweatdrops on them none the less. Nabiki began 
to wonder if Kuno would behave like this all the time in an 
unregulated classroom. While it would be fun, it would also make 
learning damn immposible. Ukyou looked on, preparing for 
the cracking point which she knew was coming soon. 
Sayoko, for her part, was looking for he bubble paper 
to help control her stress. Unfourtently for her it ran out, and 
unfortunatly for Kuno he was in the middle of his lighting pose
which just happend to push Sayoko off what was left of her pillar of sanity. 

"THAT'S IT!! I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU!!!" Sayoko
yelled at the top of her lungs as she glowed a mysterious blue 
aura. The classroom was in a general panic, although Nabiki had
kept her cool. She was after all, thanks to Ranma, used to 
living with fights and blue aura's. Besides it would be fun to 
watch Kuno get his butt kicked by a youma. Still it puzzled 
Nabiki as to why they dropped the ruse so quickly, perhaps 
this wasn't part of the BFC master paln after all. 

"PREPARE TO FACE A MILLION KINDS OF PAIN YOU IDIOT!!"
was the next thing Sayoko exclaimed in utter hystaria. Now the 
blue glow completly envloped her, revaling her Youma form. 
Now the entire class started to scream, except Ukyou and Nabiki 
you watched the situation closly for completly differnt reasons. 
"AS FOR THE REST OF YOU PREPARE TO SERVE THE...."

"IT'S A MONSTER!!!RUN!!!" Ukyou screamed at the top of her 
lungs. Soon the entire class was running away, except for Nabiki 
who was watching the scene closly. Perhaps this could reveal 
something about the BFC's master plan she thought. But the 
chain of thought was broken up by a loud crash through the 
window. In the middle of the room stood Natsumi. 

"I won't allow you to use school as place to terroize 
innocents!!" At that statement Nabiki whinced,it wasn't 
like Kuno was an innocent. "For love and justice I'm the 
magical girl Natsumi, and your time is up!!"

Sayoko sighed. "Well I guess I have to fight you. But could you 
let me do one thing first. Could you let me KILL THIS 
BAKA!!" Sayoko jumped towards Kuno and tried to place 
a kick between his forhead. For his part, Kuno tried to defend 
himself with his Bokken, but failed miserably and was knocked 
into the far wall. Sayoko lauged insanely at the fallen Kuno and 
prepared for the final strike, ignoring the fact Natsumi was 
jumping towards her. 

"Natsumi Kick" was the call as Natsumi placed a jump kick 
into Sayoko launching the youma into the far board. Placing 
herself between the youma and Kuno she turned to face 
Nabiki and ordered her to "Take him out of here now!!"

Nabiki obayed, dragging the unconcious Kuno out of the 
room as he was saying that he would smite the monster himself. 
Well he was always stubborn when he's unconcious too, Nabiki 
thought as she left the room. She had to look for a place to 
dump Kuno so she could go back help Kasumi. Maybe Ukyou 
could help carry him she thought as she turned around to see 
Ukyou, but when she did she couldn't see her. 

In fact Ukyou was still in the room, behind Natsumi though 
Natsumi didn't notice her. She was more concerned about 
the youma then Ukyou as she started to radiate green energy. 
She was about to launch the energy when a huge spatual came down 
on her head from behind knocking her out. Sayoko looked on in 
surprise as Ukyou approched her. 

"So you are the agent that's here. Thank you...Urrkk" In the 
midsection of Sayoko was a small glowing green spatula. 
Ukyou continued to approach her with an evil grin on her 
face. "Why...why..?" Sayoko asked as she started to cough up 
blood.

"Because you failed the BFC, and we don't like failures!!"
Ukyou lauged as she brought the hilt of her giant spatual down 
on Sayoko splitting her into two. Soon nothing was left of 
Sayoko but a small pile of dust. A scream could be heard in 
the background as Kyoko began to appear.

"Why, why did you do it!!"

"Because the BFC is doing some coporate restructuring, 
and your one of the one's laid off!!" Mine laughed as
she appeared in the room.

"Mine...." 

"Die Kyoko.." Mine said as she prepared an energy blast 
and threw it towards Kyoko. Kyoko just stood there 
next to what remained of Sayoko and started to cry. Taking 
the full brunt of the blast, her last words before she started 
to fade away were "Sayoko-chan....Mine-chan.......I..."

"What about Natsumi Mine-san?" Ukyou asked as she 
approached her boss. 

"Leave her for now, we need her to complete this plan and 
deflect the suspcion away from the BFC.."

****

Natsumi didn't know how long she was out, but when she came to 
she knew she had one splitting headache. And there was still a 
youma out there too, she thought as she sprang to attention. But
the room didn't have any youma in it, instead it was full of 
people talking to each other. And in the middle it looked like a
teacher was giving an interview to the police. Natsumi started 
to slowly limp over to this teacher, wondering if she was the 
one that knocked her out. 

"Ahh there's the hero of the hour!!" Mine yelled as she ran to 
hug Natsumi. "Your the one that saved my life!! I'd like to thank
you for destroying the youma and saving my life." And with that 
Mine bowed, and let go a small laugh. She always was a good 
actor, even in high school....

Natsumi was a bit perplexed, but replied polietly "Thanks..." 
Although I didn't destroy this youma she added to herself. 
Not that the class cared, it surronded her and wanted her 
autograph. Mine continued her story to the police, although 
Natsumi could still hear bit's a pieces of the story inbetween 
the yells of her fans. 

"These Youma bounded me up as my class was about to 
begin. They were from the Sapparo company, and I think 
they wanted to destroy the BFC's name. I'm just so gald 
Natsumi was there to help save the BFC's repuation."
On that last statement Natsumi almost choked, her save 
the BFC!! But Natsumi knew enough, she could leave now. 
Although she had more question's then answers....

****

"Well it's obvious it's the BFC.." Nabiki said as she sliced up 
the carrots for dinner. 

" I figured that out too, but what are they up too.." Kasumi 
asked, not expecting an answer. It was certainily weird for 
someone to destroy their own trap, and Kasumi began 
to think that the BFC may just be more than some 
crackpot monsters after world domination. "Still 
I don't know why they spared me..."

"You were neccesary for their plan, with you there 
you helped save their repuation (and destroy the 
reputation of Sapparo..)" and I should drop their 
stock tommorow Nabiki added to herself as she 
threw the carrots in the stir fry. "A good reputaion 
right now is more important than one dead magical 
girl, at least right now it is."

"Ahhh.." Kasumi replied as she startedto cook the stir fry
in order to forget the BFC. "Anyway, thanks for helping 
me cook tonight Nabiki-chan."

"It's not free Onnechan. Your going to be modeling new 
fuku for me tonight in the dojo.." Nabiki replied as she 
started to season the curry. 

"But what about father!!And ..." 

"Don't worry, they'll all be gone tonight. I think 
there going after Happosai or something.."

"Oh my.." Kasumi replied, no sure at what she was 
more shocked at Happosai or the fuku fashion show. 
But perhaps the fashion show wasn't a bad idea, after 
all they needed to get their minds of the BFC for awhile.
"Okay...just don't give me a skirt too short.."

"All right..all right.." Nabiki sighed, she could see the yen 
from the ecchi market dissapear. Beside's didn't all magical 
girls have a short skirt...

****

It was late at night in the BFC office complex, and Mine was 
the only one left in the builidng. She was in her office looking at a 
few old picture and plaques on her wall. But what she was really 
looking at was one patcicular plaque on the wall. It was the 
junior excutive of the year, and in the picture was the two 
award winners. One of them was Mine and the other was her 
best friend at the time, a friend that as the caption they added 
at the bottom of the plaque said would be a 'friend forever'. 
The other person in the picture was Kyoko.

"Kyoko-chan..." Mine muttered in between tears as she slowly 
burnt the plaque sevearing once and for all the ties she had 
with her former human life.She then sat back in the chair and 
cried for the last time in her life.

End of Part 4...

C&C welcome as always

Ja ne!!

Richard Beaubien
------------------
Mizuno Ami-chan forever!!!