Permanent 10
	Ranma's apprentice.

	Ranma walked beside Akane towards the school as usual. Akane hung
back with her friends and talked vigorously. Ranma looked back at her and
sighed. "Hey Ranma what's up?" asked Yuka.
	"You'll find out when we get to school." said Akane with a small
smile.
	"I got a hundred yen that says he's calling himself 'black
eagle.'" commented Nabiki as the group caught up with her.
	"Your on, I think its 'Dark angel' myself." said Ranma from her
perch with a smile.
	Akane smiled as Ranma cheerfully walked towards the school and
argued happily with Nabiki over Kuno's new name.

	Kuno smiled as the group of girls walked towards the gates of
Furinkan. "Ah, Ranma-kun, I the Dark angel, the Black eagle of Furinkan
high would spar with you." said the boy dramatically as he pointed his
bokken at Ranma. His ten foot long wings were spread wide and he held the
bokken in his clawed hand. A dark smile was on his lips. 
	"Draw." said Nabiki and Ranma in unison. They looked at each
other and started laughing.
	"Are you mocking me?" asked Kuno with a frown.
	"No Kuno, Its just something that happened on the way to school."
said Ranma as she eyed him carefully.
	"Ah, very well then you accept my challenge?!" said Kuno with a
smile.

	"What the hell is he thinking?" muttered Daisuke as he looked at
Kuno's wings skeptically.
	"Those things look rediculus who is he trying to fool? I guess he
thinks those fake wings make him look like one happening dude." said
Daisuke from next to him.
	"Happening dude?" said Hiroshi with a strange stare.
	"Shut up man." muttered Daisuke. "Kick his ass Ranma!" he cried
as he waved at her.
	"Man you've got it bad." muttered Hiroshi as he watched his
pathetic friend drool. Then he looked at Ranma for a moment. "Kick his
ass Ranma!" he cried with his friend.
	"I thought you thought she was creepy." said Daisuke.
	"I saw the light my friend, she just jumped.
	"Yea, heheh heh heh." agreed his friend.

	"I think they actually make him look kind of regal for once."
said one of the nearby girls. Her friends looked at her strangely and
backed away. "What?!" she cried.

	From a nearby set of bushes Hikaru Gosunkugi watched in awe. He
was very near to the pair and could see Kuno's back closely. He could see
the muscles tense up and move as Kuno moved around. He lifted his camera
and began to snap photos despite his shock. "The wings are real." he
thought over and over. "How?!" he asked himself out loud.

	Kuno swung at Ranma with blinding speed and she ducked under the
strike easily. Kuno was much faster but his patterns were still readable.
Then Kuno changed. Ranma took a light blow on her side and backed away
with a surprised look. 
	Kuno smiled. "Point. You can learn allot about yourself when you
can only hear the truth Saotome." said the Kendoist with a smile. Ranma
grit her teeth and charged.
	Kuno was not expecting her to rush him he swung wildly and Ranma
dodged skillfully around his blows barely. How ever fast he was now Ranma
was still faster. "Damn." he said as she struck his chest.
	"Point." she said with a smile.
	Then Kuno did something completely unexpected. 

	Ranma charged again and Kuno began to beat his wings. Ranma was
taken by surprise and thrown back from the sheer force of the wind
created. She grit her teeth and struggled to keep her balance. Kuno
smiled and jumped up into the air, he spread his wings and soared up.
	"They work?" said Ranma in disbelief. "Now I know why he wanted
to keep them." 
	
	The entire student body of Furinkan high stared at the spectacle
in disbelief. Kuno was flying around and diving at Ranma at high speeds
in an attempt to tag him from above. She kept away pretty well but almost
took several of the strikes. "OOH, he really is an angel!" cried one of
the girls in delight. No one said anything.
	
	"Damn!" cursed Ranma as she rolled on the ground away from
another of the kendoist strikes. She turned and saw him diving again. She
stood and jumped into the air. Kuno was taken by surprise and swung
clumsily at Ranma who dodged and grabbed his shirt. She shifted her
weight and drug him to the ground The pair rolled for about twenty feet
when they hit and came to a stop near a tree. Ranma landed on top and
punched at Kuno's face stopping just before the tip of his nose. "Point.
I win." she said with a smile.
	Kuno grinned and nodded. "You took me by surprise Saotome,
tomorrow will be different." he said as she let him stand.
	Ranma smirked, she could get to like this little game. For the
first time in a long while she had a challenge.

	Durring lunch Akane Tendo sat with some friends at her usual
spot. She laughed and smiled as she conversed with them. Ranma was
strangely absent and she glanced around occasionally. Hikaru sat in the
bushes and sighed as he snapped a few photos. "Today Akane Tendo I will
have you!" he said to himself as he pulled out a voodoo doll and nailed
it to a tree with tears in his eyes. He took a small bag out of his
pocket and dumped its contents onto the ground. An assorted array of
strange things fell out, things like dried eyes and tails. He looked at a
small piece of paper and began to read directions off as he followed
them. 
	"All right, First I take the eyes and place them in the yak urine
and then I add the herb mixture, and then I tie the leather on top of the
bottle with the lizard tail and shake it up. It should glow pink and then
I just say who I..." he looked at the bottle in disappointment. He had a
rather disgusting stink bomb for his work and he knew it. "Stupid
salesman, it didn't work." he said to himself.
	"That's because you didn't do it right." said a feminine voice.
Hikaru froze and turned to see Ranma hanging upside down from a tree
branch just inches away from him. 
	"Auuuuggghhh!" he cried in surprise.
	"Shut up fool. Who ever wrote those instructions is a moron, the
ingredients are right but you mixed them totally wrong." said Ranma
casually.
	"Um, you've done this before?" asked Gosunkugi as he turned
completely red.
	"No." said Ranma with a cold stare. "You must be Hikaru
Gosunkugi, the other 'Sorcerer' Kuno mentioned." said Ranma as she jumped
down beside him.
	"Uh, yea, please don't tell Akane about this." said the boy
pathetically.
	"Don't worry it wouldn't have worked anyway, love is fates
favorite toy and she doesn't like sharing. It wouldn't have come out the
way you wanted it to, you might have ended up dating Kuno. Even if it had
worked I would have destroyed the spell." said Ranma as she assessed the
boy.
	Gosunkugi shuddered as he thought of the possibility of dating
Kuno. "Wait a minute. How do you know that?" said the boy as he turned
and stared at Ranma in disbelief.
	"How do you think I know brainiac?" said Ranma smugly.
	Gosunkugi backed into a tree. "Your a witch!" he cried.
	"Keep it down, and I prefer the term Mage thank you." replied
Ranma curtly.
	"What do you want?" said the frightened boy.
	"You and I need to talk kid. I've been watching you. You've been
using some pretty dangerous and stupid magic, luckily you've never gotten
it right. This is as close as you've come." said Ranma as she held up the
bottle he had just mixed.
	"I don't want to clean up your mess on the off chance that you
get something right or really screw something up in the wrong way. I can
garrentee that if the kinds of spells you've been trying to use do come
out right they aren't gonna react the way your expecting. Magic is very
dangerous for some one like you. You don't think about what might happen,
only what you want to happen and that's not the way it works I'm afraid.
You had better find something else to do with your spare time got it?"
said Ranma with a warning glare.
	"B-but I..." stammered the frightened boy as he backed into the
tree.
	"Look no buts here. This is some dangerous crap your messing
with, I want the book your getting it from -now-." growled Ranma.
	"I don't have it with me." stammered the boy.

	After school that day Ranma followed him home. "But if my parents
find me with a girl when they come home..." stammered the boy.
	"They'll probably cry tears of joy." said Ranma flatly.
	Hikaru just hung his head in defeat. "Here we are." he said as he
turned into his yard. It was an average home normal really. Even
Gosunkugi's room looked normal when he opened the door. Ranma shielded
her face and backed into the wall as the force of the book's power
overwhelmed her. 
	"Jeezus kid what have you got?!" she cried in anger. Voices
screamed in pain and cursed in various languages as she entered. A book
sat opened on the desk in the corner. "You left a magic tome opened? Are
you dense?!" she screamed.
	"No one told me I wasn't supposed to!" retorted Gosunkugi.
	Ranma ran over and slammed the book shut. She glared at the cover
and pulled her hand away in revulsion. "Just as I though, Necronomicon
exmortum. I'm sick of these things." she muttered.
	"You've seen it before?" asked Gosunkugi in surprise.
	"I have seven, I had to 'confiscate' them from idiots like you."
grumbled Ranma bitterly. She placed her hands over the book and mumbled
something. All the power in the room seemed to move in reverse for a
moment and a lock appeared on the book.
	"What did you do?" asked Hikaru from behind Ranma.
	"I sealed it." she said as she placed the book under her arm and
began to walk out of the room.
	"Cool!" exclaimed the boy as she left. She turned to see that he
had sealed his math book.
	"Idiot. You can't open it now! How are you going to do your
homework?" she said angrily.
	"I hadn't thought of that." said Hikaru with a defeated stare.
	"Exactly why you shouldn't be using magic I had to learn the hard
way." said Ranma coolly.
	"What if, you taught me?" said Gosunkugi with a withering stare.
He was having trouble speaking to her if he looked at her. It was easy to
think she was a boy if he didn't see her.
	"No." said Ranma.
	"Please I'll do anything!" cried the boy.
	"So you can go and screw up like this again? You lucky this book
didn't eat your soul the moment you opened it! I've seen it happen and it
isn't pretty." said Ranma angrily. 
	Hikaru shrunk back, "But no one told me..." he started.
	"You couldn't tell this thing was evil the moment you touched
it?! You knew! Don't give me that bull shit you little worm!" screamed
Ranma as she slapped him hard. "You could have done things you don't even
want to think about with this if you had screwed up."
	"Please teach me. I'll change, I won't use it to make Akane love
me or hurt anyone, I swear!" cried the boy as he fell to his knees.
	"Why do you want to learn magic?" said Ranma with a cold stare.
"If he says 'to help people' I'm walking out the door." she thought
coldly.
	"Because without it I'm nothing. I'm just some creepy kid with no
friends. Nobody. Just someone people will half remember in the year book,
they'll look at me and go, 'hey look its that creepy Gosunkugi kid,
remember him? I don't want to be like that." said the boy, tears began to
fall down his face.
	"Stop crying your a boy aren't you." said Ranma angrily, she then
winced as the words brought back a bitter feeling in herself. Hikaru
stood and tried to gain back some of his dignity.
	"You will never touch another book like this. Do you understand."
said Ranma as she glared at him. He nodded and a weak smile formed. 
	"I'll help you learn, but I can't really teach you, you have to
learn on your own." said Ranma as she turned to leave. She stopped just
as he was about to thank her. "Let's get one thing straight, I am only
doing this because I know you'll just go and try this on your own if I
don't. I don't want you getting another copy of this or something worse."
said Ranma as she walked out.
	"Worse?" said Gosunkugi to himself as he watched her leave. He
paled and sat down on his bed. He began to realize what the book was
doing to him while he had it, with out its influence he felt his head
clear and he realized just how evil it was. The feeling he had gotten but
foolishly ignored when he had found it became clear. He knew she was
right, he already felt an unbelievable urge to find another copy. Then he
thought again. "Worse? Is that possible?" The urge died down suddenly and
he felt much better.
	"Yes boy, it is." said a voice in the back of his mind. He looked
out the window to see Ranma staring at him from the street. She turned
and began to walk home.
TbC....
C&C welcome. Please actually I love it really. Send to Catbert25@juno.com

	Next time: Another threat from China? A double attack! Plus Kuno
deals with his new form, is it what he had hoped it was?

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