Roses and Swords
A Quantum Destinies Side Story

Chapter 3


This is a story set in Jurai-Knight's 'Quantum Destinies' universe, and
you will have to be familiar with that piece of work to follow this story.
The events within take place some time after chapter nine of Quantum
Destinies.

Standard Disclaimer:
The Quantum Destines universe is Jurai-Knight's. Many of the characters
within are not. Revolutionary Girl Utena is also owned by someone else.

Any and all C+C is appreciated. You can contact me at sommer@3rdm.net

Roses and Swords is currently being stored at TH's page at:
http://members.tripod.com/DNyx/index.html

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


"You've done well, little grasshopper."

Utena smiled at Dean Fuji's rather weak attempt at a joke. True, she was
something of his prot�g�, having been accepted at Ohtori due to his
personal recommendation, but others had taught her as well, especially
when it came to fighting. Miki and Anthy continued complimenting her on
her victory as well. The accolades felt nice, but they were also starting
to make her feel slightly uncomfortable. Something wasn't quite right.

Utena afforded a glance towards the now conscious Ranma Saotome. He had
not remained knocked out for long, less than a minute. Now that he was
awake, he seemed cognizant of everything around him, which was probably
not a good thing. From the instant he had regained consciousness, Coach
Fujinami and Dean Fuyutsuki were upon him, letting him know that he had
failed his school and that there would be a price to pay for his mistake.
Utena thought she caught the phrase, 'training day and night' in the
diatribe somewhere. She suddenly had a great deal of sympathy for her
opponent.

Ranma appeared shamefaced at his loss as well. He listened closely to what
was being yelled at him, his attention going back and forth between the
men as they took turns berating him. However, he did manage one glance in
Utena's direction. The scowl he leveled at her quickly softened when he
saw the look of sympathy on her face. He wasn't able to do anything else
as Coach Fujinami turned up the volume when he took his turn to yell at
Ranma again. Utena thought she now heard 'any wimp can do five hundred
pushups in an hour. You can do a thousand from now on.'

It definitely sucked to be Ranma Saotome.

Neither Dean Fuyutsuki nor Coach Fujinami continued their tirade for
overlong and Ranma was dismissed to the showers. Utena again watched with
sympathy as he left. She wasn't sorry she had defeated him; it had been a
fight for school pride that she had wanted to win. The only thing she felt
sorry about was the unduly harsh punishment he was receiving because of
his failure.

There was also one other thing that bothered her. At the time it had
occurred, she missed what had happened. The fight had been so intense that
her reactions had been instinctive. She instantly went for any opening
that was there and tried to exploit it. But now that she had a chance to
think, there was one point in the fight that had seemed unusual. Utena had
feinted a hole in her defense in the hopes that Ranma would try to take
advantage of it and leave himself open to the counterattack. It was a move
with some risk; if she had not covered the feint, he would have connected
with her face. However, she had been confident she would be able to move
out of the way of the blow in time and counterattack through the hole in
his defenses that would have appeared from the failed attack. It had
seemed to work, when, for the briefest of seconds, Ranma froze in the
middle of the attack. That opening had been all that she needed. Victory
was hers upon that single error Ranma had made.

Except maybe it had not been an error. Utena remembered a time when
something similar had happened before, in her second fight with Touga. A
low sweeping thrust in Utena's direction, one that probably would have
connected, had never met as Touga seemed to freeze up for a second in
mid-swing. Again, as with this fight, Utena reacted to the unexpected save
and counterattacked, dispatching Touga less than thirty seconds later. It
was only afterward, when Touga complained of something odd happening in
the fight, that he and Utena had pieced together what had happened. Anthy
had used her telekinesis to interfere in the fight.

Later, Anthy swore she had not meant to, and that it had just slipped
because she had wanted Utena to win (and that admission had irritated
Touga to no end, since Anthy had not done the same in his first fight with
Utena). It was only after Anthy apologized, and promised not to let it
happen again, that Utena forgave her. Shortly afterwards, Utena and Touga
had their rematch in private. She won that one as well, but the fact that
her first victory had been tainted ended up souring the rematch. She had
truly believed Anthy was repentant, but if that was what had happened on
this day, then Utena had not truly won her fight. Again.

Utena did not want to embarrass Anthy unnecessarily by making such an
accusation in front of everyone, and it might have simply been Ranma had
made a mistake in the fight, but she had to be sure. Since asking Anthy
directly felt too rude --especially if Utena's suspicions were wrong-- she
chose to attack the problem from a different angle.

Excusing herself from the others and claiming she needed a shower (which
was the truth), Utena left them and went into the gymnasium. As she had
hoped, the men's showers were located near the women's. Now she had a
decision to make. It wasn't likely that Ranma had been in the shower all
that long, meaning the wait might be for a while. On the other hand, if
she tried to take a quick shower of her own, and he proved to be one of
those guys that ran the water over themselves once and thought they were
clean (she added a mental 'yuck' to that), then he might leave before her
and she would not get a chance to ask him any questions.

There was one other choice Utena had, but it wasn't really an acceptable
one. It would guarantee she would get a chance to talk with Ranma, but if
someone saw her do it, her actions could very easily be misconstrued. In
fact, it was almost certain that they would be. A part of her mind told
her she should not have even considered it; she simply was not that sort
of girl. However, she really did want to talk to Ranma, and it was the
surest way to get the job done. The idea that the fight had not been fair
was eating away at her, and she was becoming more convinced by the moment
that something had happened. They had not fought long, but it seemed
nearly impossible that someone as skilled as Ranma would have made such a
blundering mistake so early in a fight.

Utena took a quick look around the gymnasium. It was after school hours,
and there were no school athletic teams having practice, nor were there
any other people using the facility. There wasn't even a janitor around.
The whole place was empty, meaning that no one would ever know if she did
it. Yes. Maybe she should go ahead with her idea. No one would be hurt,
after all. And no one other than Ranma would ever know what had happened.

With that reassurance in mind, she headed into the men's shower.


Yohko kept under cover as best as she could while following Utena. The day
had proven itself very interesting so far. She realized Nabiki was not
going to be pleased that Ranma lost to the Ohtori girl. She also figured
that since Ranma had beaten Nabiki in their public fight, and Ranma fell
to Utena, others would begin to imply that Utena was better than Nabiki.
And given that Nabiki had been showing a great deal of pride in her
recently revealed fighting skills, it was almost certain that she would
set up some kind of fight with Utena. Given how fast Ranma had fallen to
the pink-haired girl, Yohko was not sure her money would be on her boss
this time around.

Yohko had just made it into the gymnasium, using the bleachers for cover,
as she followed Utena. There was a point where she had almost been seen as
Utena made a quick look around the gym. Yohko recognized it as an 'I'm
going to do something that I don't want anyone else to know about so no
one had better be here' glance. Yohko could read people like a book with
all the spying she had done for Nabiki over the last couple of years. Her
guess was rewarded as she watched Utena take one more furtive glance
before heading into the men's side of the showers.

Nope. Nabiki was not going to be pleased at all.


Ranma allowed the hot water to splash across his face, wiping away the
last vestiges of grime that had been left behind from his sweat. Not that
there had been much of a chance to sweat, not with how short the fight had
been. Never, not in any of his memories, had he been defeated so
thoroughly in so short a time. Not without somehow being tricked or having
some sort of drug or magic used against him. Yet it had been a clean loss
to someone that he should not have lost to. Utena might have been tough,
but he had been confident he could have taken her. She was a girl, and
although he had dropped a match or two to Nabiki, those had been flukes.
He proved that in the real fight they had. And now this Utena girl had
come along, not even specialized in the Anything Goes (at least he could
admit that was part of why Nabiki was so good) and had beaten him in less
time than it took to run a diagnostic test on his resonator.

Well, there had been one odd thing that had occurred during the fight.
That one instance where his fist had been stopped in mid-swing without
anything being there. No one had interfered, and it had not appeared that
Utena had done anything. Perhaps if someone had hurled a thin wire around
his wrist, that might have done it, but it had not felt like something had
been looped around it nor were there any marks to indicate such had
happened. It was as though some sort of force had seized his whole arm and
forced it to stop. Then it went away the moment he was struck by Utena.
That had been the turning point in the fight, and what had eventually
caused him to lose.

The hot water continued to course over Ranma as he looked down at his
hand. There was no visible sign of anything having been done to it. There
was a slight cut from where Utena had blocked a blow of his with her
bokken, but that was nothing. It had not felt as though he had been
drugged. And besides, what sort of drug made your fist stop in mid-motion
and did nothing else? He began to wonder if perhaps he was just making
some kind of excuse for losing the match.

Even as the loss continued to settle in, Ranma swore he would not take it
lying down. Repeatedly, he told himself he was going to train day and
night to take the girl in another fight, not that Dean Fuyutsuki and Coach
Fujinami were going to let him stop. Their combined reprimands assured him
that he would be practically living at the school in order to build up his
fighting skills and stamina further. That would mean he would have even
less time and energy to devote to getting his father back from the world
he was currently trapped in. Dean Fuyutsuki was going to be even less
inclined to listen to any pleading on Ranma's part to be allowed to use
his resonator once more. And then there was the ever increasing number of
women in his life that took up even more of his time. All of them seemed
to want to spend time with him, and were becoming increasingly demanding
that he spend more time with each of them. Sometimes he wondered if he did
not have a worse life then that of his jock counterparts. Engagements and
women were beginning to crawl out of the woodwork and attach themselves to
him, though he admitted that he was dealing with the situation much better
than any of his counterparts had.

Closing his eyes, he raised his face to the shower head and placed his
hand on the valve, increasing the flow of hot water. If only his problems
could be washed away so easily. It was unfortunate his resonator only
transferred his mental essence. Being able to physically leave his world
was beginning to look like the only way he would ever get out of the chaos
his life was rapidly becoming.

"Hi there."

Ranma gave a yelp and nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the
female voice that had come from the entrance of the showers. His head
whipped away from the stream of water and his eyes widened in shock as he
saw that the voice belonged to his opponent, Utena Tenjou. She was leaning
lackadaisically against the wall at the entrance to the showers, still in
that slightly tight white shirt and red shorts that she had worn for the
match. The wide grin she wore reminded him of Nabiki when she thought she
had one up on him. That set him on edge.

The first thing that went through Ranma's mind was that the girl must have
come to rub his face in his loss. And he had been certain she had been
giving him a sympathetic look when he was receiving his admonishment from
his instructors. He was about to shoot off some acidic comment when he
caught on to the fact that she was not exactly looking him in the eyes. It
took a moment for him to realize where her glance had fallen to and what
it was currently lingering upon.

"WAH!" He covered up his privates as best as he could. "What do you think
you're doing?! I'm taking a shower!"

"I can see that," Utena said with a smirk.

"Well then, get out!"

Utena gave him a confused look. "What do you mean? I assumed the showers
here were co-ed, like at Ohtori Academy."

Ranma's hands almost fell away from his privates. "They are?"

"No," she said with a laugh, making a mental note that Ranma didn't seem
to think clearly when he became flustered. "I needed to talk with you."

Ranma felt his anger rise at the apparent attempt to make fun of him.
"Well, wait outside! I'm busy!"

Remaining where she was, Utena said, "You're kind of shy, aren't you?"

"When I'm taking a shower, yes!" Ranma felt heat rising to his cheeks. The
ones on his face. The girl had no business being in the showers.

She continued giving him a sweet smile. "That's a change of pace. Most of
the guys I know seem to want me to see them naked."

"I ain't one of them!"

Utena was surprised at the ever so brief flare of anger she felt at his
vocal refusal. It was as though some part of her, deep inside, felt that
he had no business refusing her; she was the one that had won the fight.
She shook her head free of the errant thought. Her sweet smile turned into
a pensive stare. "I see. You're ashamed of your body."

"I am not!" Later, Ranma would wonder exactly why he moved his hands from
his front to his hips.

Utena nodded appraisingly in response to his gesture. "I guess not." With
that, she pivoted on her heel and turned her back to Ranma.

Ranma didn't know which he was more surprised by, the fact that he had
unthinkingly stopped covering himself up, or the momentary surge of
annoyance he felt at her turning her back to him after the gesture. He had
wanted her to turn around, so why was he irritated that she had at last
given in to his wishes? It was not as though she had laughed or made some
sort of sarcastic comment about him, though it did almost seem as though
he felt that she should have continued to look.

Getting rid of the strange thoughts, Ranma found himself scowling at the
back of the impudent girl. He was about to say something about her leaving
the shower area altogether when his eyes began to take on a mind of their
own as they roamed over the intruder. Her legs still seemed very long, and
her shorts really appeared that they might be just a little bit too tight.
Not that he was complaining about that. And the way that her odd, pink
hair cascaded down her back...

His hand sprang to the cold water handle of the shower. At least he was in
the right sort of place to calm himself from the sort of reaction he was
having. If Utena turned around now, he doubted if his hands were going to
be able to hide everything.

Had Ranma been able to see Utena'a face, (and not so concerned about her
not turning around to see the state he was in) he would have seen the look
of confusion that overtook her features. Why had she been behaving in such
a manner? She was never anywhere near that forward with anyone she knew,
least of all some guy she had just met. It had taken every bit of
rationalization she could muster to even enter the men's locker room. Once
she was there, and heard the water running, she had almost left without
saying a word. It was as she turned to leave that something happened to
her. There was suddenly an overwhelming, almost primitive, urge to take a
peek at Ranma. She knew she shouldn't do it, --she would have killed
anyone that would have tried something similar with her--, but for some
odd reason the desire would not leave her and she knew that if she did not
do it, some part of her was always going to regret it.

So she was going to play the voyeur, at least that was the plan. However,
once she laid her eyes on his tightly-muscled form, while a small amount
of steam rose from the hot water that doused him, she found her body
reacting on its own as she moved into full view and spoke up. Again, she
could not say why she did it, other than perhaps she was becoming a
pervert of some kind.

Almost as surprising as her move to look at him, was her reaction to
Ranma's 'rejection' at her peeping. The anger she felt almost seemed to be
instinctive, and for the briefest of moments she felt desire surge through
her. The feeling passed as quickly as it came, and she rationalized it
away as it simply being frustration over not having found a truly nice
guy.

Despite the urges she had, and the fact that she really did not belong in
the men's locker room, she remained where she was, provoking Ranma until
he gave his little 'display.' At that point she felt a wave of
satisfaction run through her and at last complied with his wishes by
turning around. She made a mental note to pay closer attention in her
psychology class about sexual drives and feelings. There had to be some
sort of reasonable explanation for her unusual behavior. She was sure of
it.

When she at last felt her thoughts were collected well enough to start
thinking clearly, she spoke to Ranma, leaving her back to him the entire
time. It was surprisingly difficult. Ranma's body was quite pleasing to
the eye, and she found herself wanting to look him over again, especially
since he had seemed to get over at least a little bit of his shyness. But
there was no time for that sort of thing.

"There's something I wanted to ask you," she said loudly enough to be
heard over the running water.

"What about?"

"I had a question about the fight." Utena thought she could hear the sound
of gnashing teeth behind her, but that was absurd. The water was making
too much noise for her to hear that. She waited for Ranma to reply. When
nothing met her but silence, she continued anyway. "During the fight, did
anything odd happen to you?"

Ranma was about to snap back, 'Yeah, I lost' when he remembered the
problem with his fist. At first he was not going to say anything, for fear
she would think he was just making excuses, but then it occurred to him
that she was the one asking the unusual question. Maybe it had not just
been his imagination. "Well, something really weird did happen. I don't
know exactly what it was, but there was a point, towards the end, when I
saw an opening for a shot to your head. I was going to hit you, but then
my fist just seemed to stop. I don't know what did it, but it was unlike
anything I've ever experienced before. And I am not making an excuse. It
really happened."

Utena gave a soft grunt, partially from having her fears confirmed,
partially for the frustration at having been denied a clean victory yet
again. "I believe you, and I think I know what happened. I can't go into
the details, but let's just say I owe you a rematch. Give me a chance to
talk to my friends and clean up, then we can have it." She started to
depart, but stopped before she would be out of sight and turned to look at
Ranma. "By the way, you would never have hit me anyway. The opening was
just a feint to get me under your guard."

Ranma had his doubts about that, and was about to say as much, when he
realized she was looking at him again. He covered himself up and said,
"Fine. I accept the rematch. We'll have it away from the Academy though."
There was no point in having it on school grounds. He was sure he would
win, but if he should suffer a second loss on the same day, and have the
Dean or his coach see it, it would all but ensure he was forced into a
form of eternal slavery that would be disguised as 'training.'

"Sounds good," Utena said.

Ranma watched as she finally left the shower area and departed. Now he at
last had a chance to think about the sudden, and unusual, turn of events.
Somehow, there had been some sort of outside interference at the fight,
though for the life of him Ranma could not figure out what it had been.
Also, Utena had some sort of familiarity with the interference, implying
that it had happened before. It didn't seem likely she was the source; she
was too angry at what had happened. Also, there was something in her
attitude that made it seem her anger was directed elsewhere. As hard as he
tried, there was nothing he could come up with that seemed to make sense.

His thoughts turned to Utena's behavior after the fight. She must have
been pretty brash to just waltz into the men's shower area and grab a look
at his naked body. Part of his mind did point out that maybe he should not
blame her too much. After all, he was good-looking and lots of women were
attracted to him. Why should she be any different? And since she was from
a different school, it might have been her only chance at trying to
impress him. It was just a good thing Nabiki, Kodachi, or Ukyou, for that
matter, had spotted Utena entering the showers. There was no way any of
them would have believed, or accepted, the explanation of what had
happened. They would have immediately blamed him for the perceived wrong,
never mind the fact it was not his fault. Everyone blaming him for things
going wrong seemed to be something that was happening in increasing
amounts in his life. That was another parallel to his counterparts that he
could have lived without.

Thinking about Utena again, he also considered the fact that she had
dropped by for his confirmation that something odd had interfered with him
in the fight. Once she received that confirmation, she immediately wanted
a fair rematch. That meant she had some sense of honor, something that was
not very evident in most of his opponents, either in his own or his
counterparts' memories.

Ranma found himself unconsciously nodding in approval of her behavior
(concerning the fight, not the peeping). He took his time cleaning up,
silently deciding that she was most likely taking some sort of measure to
make sure their fight was not interfered with this time. Yes. He felt sure
it would be a fair fight this time, and in a fair fight, he was certain he
would win. Utena would never know what hit her. And then afterwards, he
could have an official rematch, and after a second victory, this one in
front of Dean Fuyutsuki and Coach Fujinami, they would get off his back
about needing the inhuman amount of training they had threatened him with.

Yes. He didn't have anything further to fear from Utena Tenjou.

Utena's head popped from around the corner of the showers. "By the way,
did anyone tell you you've got a really nice-looking hiney?"  She narrowly
evaded the bar of soap thrown at her head. Laughing, she quickly left the
showers, ignoring the string of accusations of her being a perverted
weirdo that followed in her wake.


Utena snickered to herself as she exited the men's locker room for real
this time. Ranma's reaction to her dropping by 'one last time', was worth
going back for. Tweaking him was fun, and he seemed even cuter when he was
flustered. Too bad it was not likely she would be seeing him again. He was
a lot more fun to hang around with than most of the other guys she knew.
The upcoming rematch might very well be the last time she saw him, so she
swore she'd commit everything to memory and make it an event to remember.

Rather than heading for the girl's locker rooms, she exited the gymnasium
and went to locate Anthy. Utena found her and Miki waiting by the
limousine that had transported them to the Imperial Academy. Dean Fuji was
nowhere to be seen, for which Utena was glad. The fewer people there were
around, the less it would embarrass Anthy.

Anthy was the first to her side as she gave Utena a bright smile. The
smile faded ever so slightly when she noticed the frown the pink-haired
girl wore.

"Anthy," Utena began. "I thought I told you not to interfere with the
matches."

Anthy gave her a perplexed look. "Yes, you did."

"Then why did you interfere in this one?"

Anthy's perplexed look grew. "But I didn't."

Utena's hand came up to her forehead. Anthy did appear sincere, but there
was no other explanation Utena could come up with. "Are you absolutely
certain there is no chance whatsoever that you used your esper powers to
interfere in the match?"

Anthy nodded her head. "Yes. I am."

"You are?" Utena asked again. "Think real carefully. You said before when
you interfered in my first rematch with Touga that you didn't mean to
interfere either, and that your control just seemed to slip for a moment
because you wanted me to win. Are you absolutely certain it didn't happen
again?"

Doubt began to creep across Anthy's features. "I'm mostly certain."

Utena let out a sigh. "Anthy, you did interfere, didn't you?"

Anthy's shoulders seemed to sag slightly. "I'm not sure. I don't think I
did. And I know I didn't want to. But Mr. Saotome seemed to be pressing
you very hard, and I might have slipped just a tiny bit and maybe did just
a little something. I didn't mean it if I did."

The downcast look Anthy had made Utena lose her hold on the anger that had
been building up. Anthy was capable of many things, but lying wasn't one
of them. "Look, I appreciate you wanting me to win so badly, but you can't
keep doing things like that. It's a matter of pride and I can't have
anyone helping me in a fight. Now if this keeps up, you're not going to be
allowed to be around during any of my fights."

Anthy stared at the ground. "I'm sorry. I promise I won't let it happen
again," she softly murmured.

Utena moved to Anthy's side. "I'm sure you won't. I have faith in you."
Utena found herself rewarded by Anthy's smile returning. "That's better."
Utena then turned to Miki. "Do me a favor, make sure she gets back safely
to our dorm. Nanami's been developing a bad tendency to pick on Anthy when
I'm not around."

"I didn't know that," Miki said.

Utena noted the way Miki's hand, still hanging at his side, balled up into
a fist. She had suspected he had something of a soft spot for Anthy,
spending a lot of time around her and treating her like a person instead
of an object, which was unlike just about everyone else on the Student
Council. Of course, Utena also thought he would occasionally give her
sidelong glances when he thought she wasn't looking. There were mixed
feelings about that. Miki was a nice guy, but she felt more comfortable
with him as a friend instead of a romantic interest. And that time
obsession he had was incredibly annoying. Besides, she had to admit that
in light of the way she had been looking at Ranma, it was pretty obvious
she was looking for a different type of guy. Probably nothing would come
of this chance meeting with him, but it was still interesting.

Anthy spoke up. "Aren't you coming with us, Miss Utena?"

"No. I'm going to stick around here and have a rematch with Ranma. It's
the least I owe him from what happened because of the fight." Utena
shrugged. That was the only reason she was doing it, at least that was
what she told herself. "Besides, I'm going to feel guilty about him having
to do all of that extra work his teachers seem to be giving him. I mean,
he was going to lose the fight anyway, even without your interference, but
I'll feel better once he goes down in defeat fair and square. Tell Dean
Fuji I'll find my own way back home."

Utena turned to leave when Anthy stopped her. "Wait a moment."

Utena did as she was asked. Anthy went into the limousine, then came out
with a pink rose. She handed it to Utena. "For luck," she explained.

Utena should have realized it. One of the few interests Anthy had was in
tending the botanical rose garden in the school's arboretum. She was the
talk among the horticulturists and botanists at the school. The various
roses she grew were more vibrant and alive than any others everyone had
ever seen. Anthy claimed all one had to do was treat them with respect and
love, then they would blossom as you wanted them to. Utena would not have
been surprised if it was some kind of esper thing, but Anthy maintained
she never did anything of the kind with them. They just liked to grow for
her, she said. It was another odd characteristic of the girl Utena
regarded as friend. A weird friend, but a friend all the same.

Utena accepted the offered rose and thanked Anthy. She told them 'so long'
once more before heading off to the girl's locker room. There was just
enough time for her to clean up before her rematch with Ranma.


Ranma picked up the pace as he led Utena towards the vacant lot that was
located a little distance from the school. From what he had heard others
say, it was a place where more than a handful of fights took place when
one did not want the prying eyes of the Academy's teaching body looking
over their shoulders. It was in the opposite direction from his home, but
he would still have plenty of time to defeat Utena and make it home in
time for dinner. That was assuming the fake Genma hadn't eaten every
edible thing in the house beforehand.

The sun started to set as daytime began to give way to the early hours of
the evening. The streets were unusually deserted. It was to the point
where Ranma swore that he and Utena passed no more than a half dozen
people on their journey, when there should have been at least fifty for
that time of the day. The shadows of the buildings they passed sprawled
across the ground, as though they were the hands of giants reaching for
both he and Utena. Everything had an oddly surreal feeling, which made him
uncomfortable. It unusual, for ordinarily he could not care less what the
nature of a battlefield was. All that mattered was the opponent he was
facing.

Ranma's thoughts returned to Utena. One of the reasons the light was
fading fast was that she had taken forever to clean herself up after the
fight. It had taken so long that he had been tempted to enter the girls'
locker room and urge her to hurry. There had also been the temptation to
get back at her for peeping at him. And it was not as though she did not
have a nice body, what he had seen of it. If he had entered the shower, he
would have been able to know for certain if the whole package was the same
way.

Of course, there was also no telling what her reaction would be to that.
It was not as though she would have had any business complaining after
what she had pulled earlier, but he was not sure if she would be offended,
or just flattered. There was no way he was going to try to encourage her
to become interested in him. His hands were more than full with all of the
women already in his life. He certainly did not need Utena fawning over
him as well, even if she was cute and he had felt sort of turned on when
they had fought.

Ranma shook his head. It was the same thing that had happened leading up
to the first fight, and that sort of thinking was the last thing he
needed. Especially since he had just thought that he did not need the girl
in his life. No. After he beat her in this rematch, and a nice, big public
one later on, that would be all of the contact he would have. Unless she
initiated some with him, in which case he would be screwed. Metaphorically
speaking, of course.

After a few minutes, he managed to tear his thoughts away from Utena's
looks and back to the matters at hand. When Utena had emerged from the
locker room, she was dressed once more in the school uniform she had
arrived in, with a pink rose now adorning its left breast. It made sense
since all of the clothing she had just fought in was full of sweat. It
might have been just as well, since Ranma himself had changed into his
school uniform also. Originally he had planned on returning home and
getting another set of fighting clothes, but he quickly reconsidered. It
was getting late and there was no time for going home, then heading out to
the lot, and then traveling back. Also it would raise questions from his
mother about where he was going, especially since she would probably have
dinner started. Ranma wanted to get the whole fight thing out of the way.
After defeating Utena, he would relax and then go home. It was a good
plan. What could possibly go wrong?

The sun had almost set by the time they made it to the empty lot. It was a
simple thing, in between two plain, gray buildings with only a handful of
windows on either side, and the windows were boarded up on one of them.
Another side of the lot was connected to the edge of a nearby park, while
the fourth had a plain wooden fence that separated it from the street on
the other side. There was no one to be seen, nor were there any of the
sounds one associated with people being around. A soft wind blew, echoing
off the walls of the nearby buildings and making the place seem almost
desolate, as though they were going to be fighting on some sort of barren
plain.

The sun dipped behind several nearby statues. All of them were of famous
people in the Empire's past. The angle the sun hit the statues at produced
elongated, distorted shadows that clung to the wall of one of the
buildings that bordered the lot. That made it appear as though a demonic
audience was observing them from the shadows; the only spectators he and
Utena would have for their duel. The whole thing bothered Ranma enough
that he felt a chill run down his spine.

Utena seemed less affected by the unusual aura their impromptu
battleground held. Again she gave Ranma a wry little smile, as though she
was going to enjoy the upcoming rematch. Ranma found himself involuntarily
returning the grin. He admitted that she did look cute when she smiled,
but all of the other girls he knew did too, even Akane. That was no reason
to want her to stick around. There was going to be a fight between them in
a few minutes, a vicious duel in which only one of them was going to walk
away. Any sympathy would have to be given after the fight, not before.

They went more quickly through their respective warm up routines. Each of
them wanted to get on with the fight and find who the better fighter truly
was. Neither of them paid the close attention to the other that they had
in the previous warm up that they had. Victory was now the only thing on
their minds.

The shadows on the wall seemed more demonic than ever as they wordlessly
began their match. Having taken a measure of one another in their previous
duel, they immediately attacked, holding little in reserve. Bokken thrusts
were dodged and a variety of fists and kicks avoided. Soft grunts and hard
breathing followed, becoming increasingly louder as the fight continued,
neither gaining an advantage over the other.

That was not to say that both went unscathed during the length of the
battle. An assortment of punches and blows began to add up on each of the
duelists. A punch in the gut for Utena. A strike from her bokken across
Ranma's face. A thrust kick into the back of Utena's hamstring. A knee
into Ranma's face from an unexpected leap attack from Utena. The tally on
each side rose in even amounts as the fight progressed.

For over twenty minutes the two fought. Longer than any match Utena had
been in. Longer than any fight Ranma had with Nabiki. Neither gave quarter
as they kept up the inhuman tempo of the fight. Exhaustion entered the
fray on both sides. Bursts of adrenaline became more important as rasping
breaths became heavier and heavier. Yet still the fight continued, neither
opponent willing to accept their first defeat at the other's hands.

Had there been a crowd watching the fight, it would have been mesmerized
by the elegant violence that ensued as the two combatants flowed into a
seamless pattern of aggression and passion. Both felt themselves elevating
to a level of proficiency in their art they had rarely felt before in
being taken to the limit of both ability and endurance. Conscious thought
was reserved for attack and defense, but, subconsciously, neither wanted
the fight to end for fear of losing the emotional high being experienced
in their duel. It was far more than the physical attraction felt from the
alterations done to them by science, it was a physical and emotional
ecstasy that they would have made its presence known under any
circumstance.

The feeling, the moment of connection the two experienced in their bond of
violence, was shattered by the sound of clapping.

Spirit Eagle emerged from his hiding place next to one of the buildings
and allowed the duo to see him. His approach to them paused momentarily
when he saw the twin looks of pure rage that were directed towards him,
even before he declared his intentions to them. The surprise only lasted a
moment before he shook it off. In their exhausted state, he had nothing to
fear from them.

As Spirit Eagle advanced towards the pair, his mind reviewed the events
leading up to this moment. He had surreptitiously followed the pair from
the Imperial Academy, after having witnessed only the tail end of their
match. He had hoped to arrive there sooner, but traffic had been unusually
heavy due to road construction. Upon seeing his target (and Ranma) he had
quickly become impressed with her fighting skill. It appeared he was going
to get a decent match this day, assuming the boy did not rough her up too
much. A few moments of watching Ranma in action convinced Spirit Eagle
that Utena's victory was most definitely not assured. With that in mind,
it had been quite a surprise to see Ranma leave himself so blatantly open
in the match and fall so quickly in short order. At the time, Spirit Eagle
wondered if he had overestimated Ranma's skill, at least until seeing the
back lot brawl the two had been having.

After the fight had ended, Spirit Eagle waited to see if an opportunity to
break Utena in half would present itself. Attacking her on the Academy
grounds was somewhat risky, but it could be done. Staying out of sight, he
followed Utena only to discover there was another watcher, one of the
schoolgirls of the Imperial Academy if he judged her attire correctly,
also following Utena. If that had not been bad enough, Utena had entered
the boy's locker room shortly after the fight. Spirit Eagle had little
doubt as to the nature of her visit, and decided that the 'condemned'
should have one last fling before she became physically unable to have
such an experience again for a very long time.

Since he had chosen to give her the extra time, he waited until she had
emerged from the gymnasium and gone outside. He had seen her approach the
limousine that they had presumably arrived in, and began to fear he would
have to follow her all the way back to Ohtori. Luckily, after saying a few
words to her comrades, she left them, the vehicle departing with everyone
that had arrived with her shortly afterwards. That was all the
confirmation the Native American needed to know he was going to get his
chance in a short while.

He followed her back to the gymnasium, debating whether or not to try to
get at her in the showers, when Ranma posted himself outside the girl's
locker room and waited. That irked Spirit Eagle; apparently Ranma wanted
another helping of Utena before she left. It was doubly irritating to
Spirit Eagle when the two met up and headed out, leaving the school
grounds together. At that point, Spirit Eagle was certain the two were
probably going to rent a room in a love motel for another quickie, the
horny little things. He had to admit that he had not been any better at
that age. He was counting on probably having to sneak inside the hotel and
to beat both of them up, when they went to an abandoned back lot instead.
His first thought was that Ranma was being incredibly cheap in electing to
do it in some deserted area instead of shelling out the cash to treat
Utena with at least a little dignity. Then he saw the two start to warm
up. Now things made sense. They were apparently going to hold a rematch of
some kind. Since Spirit Eagle was beginning to wonder if he was ever going
to have a chance to take on Utena alone, he decided to let the two fight
it out. Once they were both sufficiently weakened, he would march in and
beat them up.

The fight lasted too long, however. Spirit Eagle had wanted to get back
before nightfall, and that opportunity had already come and gone. Worse,
the two were having an incredibly long duel. Spirit Eagle had learned
martial arts and had become a fighter simply because it was the quickest
way to get what he wanted, and he had no compunction against using
violence to achieve his goals. Any beauty to the art itself was lost on
him, and he failed to appreciate the elegance of what he had just
witnessed. All that he had seen was that the pair had fought for a while
and were now exhausted. That meant it was time to make his move.

Spirit Eagle stood in the middle of the battleground, allowing the two to
admire his form. He was very tall, just over six feet in height, and was
two hundred and seventy pounds of solid muscle. More than one opponent had
hit him only to discover that he was rock solid. Speed was not his forte,
but he was quick enough, and more than powerful enough to take on almost
anyone and win. Certainly he could take care of two exhausted children, no
matter how good they were in peak condition.

He had elected to travel around in a black silk top and matching black
pants, with a red sash to break up the ensemble. It wasn't his usual fare;
instead he preferred fighting in the more traditional garb of his
homeland, just like he had when he was in the Arena. But it would have
attracted too much attention and there was always a chance that someone
would recognize him from his days in the arena. Jun Fan Lee might have
been the star of the Arena in Spirit Eagle's day, but the Native American
warrior had managed to attract a small group of loyal followers.
Occasionally, he still gave out autographs. Somehow he doubted either
Utena or Ranma were going to want his.

Ranma was the first to speak. "Who the hell are you?!" Rage was evident in
his voice, even though from the expression on his face he had calmed down
at least a little from the interruption. Utena might not have spoken, but
her aggressive posture and near snarl on her features indicated she was in
the same frame of mind as Ranma.

"The name's Spirit Eagle. Former Arena Champion." He did not bother
employing any of the showmanship he frequently displayed in fights.
Playing to the crowd was something he had been taught by his Arena
'masters', though the only time he used such abilities was when he was
going to have a fight before an audience. Somehow he doubted if either of
his opponents were going to appreciate his flare for the dramatic.

"There isn't a problem here," Utena said, the anger now almost dissipated.
"This is an honorable duel between two fighters."

"Well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you there. There is a
problem here, but I'm afraid you're the one that's it." Spirit Eagle
cracked his knuckles as he moved closer to Utena.

"What do you mean?" Utena asked, noting Spirit Eagle's carefully measured
steps and marking him as someone that knew how to fight, just as he
claimed. She noted that Ranma was glaring at the stranger as well. Utena
began to sense a set up, but at least it appeared Ranma was not behind it.

"Someone wants you and your mouth out of the way, girl. I'm afraid you
made enemies with the wrong person this time."

"Hey! Butt out of this!" Ranma shouted. Even if what the Native American
had said was true, he had no business interfering in a private fight.
Also, something about the large man unsettled Ranma, a reek of violence.
Also, Utena had not come across as the sort of person that made enemies
easily. She had actually been quite friendly to Ranma, had proven herself
honorable and even gracious when she had 'won' their previous duel. She
had also shown a measure of trust in allowing Ranma to choose the
battlefield where their rematch would take place. All of the facts that
cried out that Utena had probably not done anything that would merit
having someone like Spirit Eagle hunting down.

Spirit Eagle afforded a glance to Ranma. "This doesn't concern you. Stay
out of it." For some reason, he doubted that Ranma would take the advice.
That was the other reason he had waited until both of them had expended a
lot of energy. Beating either of them up one-on-one would have been easy.
Dealing with both of them at the same time was a different matter. In
their current shape, however, he anticipated little in the way of
difficulty, even if they double teamed him.

Which was what it appeared they were going to do. Spirit Eagle was now
closer to Utena than Ranma, but he found that the boy was moving closer,
almost as though he was going to protect Utena, not that it would do
either of them any good. All that would accomplish would be having two
people beaten up instead of one.

"I think it is my business." Ranma moved closer as he continued. "You bust
up a private duel and act like you're going to attack someone that's
already been through a tough fight. That doesn't seem too fair to me and
just speaks volumes about your character."

Spirit Eagle gave a little shrug, a move meant to relax them for a
split-second, then attacked. He charged Utena, who was too slow to get out
of the way of the shoulder block the man threw. The impact hurled her
several feet away.

With her out of the way, he turned his attention to Ranma. The boy still
had a good bit of speed left as he connected with a fist to Spirit Eagle's
jaw. The blow was solid, but lacked enough force to do much damage to the
larger man. Spirit Eagle retaliated by taking several swings at Ranma's
head, all of which he evaded. After the fourth fist towards Ranma's head,
Spirit Eagle switched tactics and lashed out with a foot, striking Ranma
in the stomach. The fight was proving itself a little more difficult than
he had originally thought, but he knew he was going to win in the end.

A bokken struck Spirit Eagle in the back. Instinctively he spun around
with a backfist while his mind processed the fact that the blow meant
Utena had already recovered and was ready for more. The backfist missed,
and worse, rather than give Spirit Eagle the chance to back away from
Utena, left him open for a right to his own jaw. The punch he lashed out
with was blocked by Utena's bokken, but drove her backwards once more.
Again Spirit Eagle had no chance to do anything as someone kicked him
right on top of the head.

Spirit Eagle staggered backward a little from the unexpected blow. Ranma
landed several feet in front of him, next to the recovered Utena. Rather
than press an attack, Ranma turned to the girl.

"Are you all right?"

"Of course," Utena said. "Are you all right?"

"Never better," Ranma lied. The man hit nearly as hard as Ryouga. Aside
from that, Utena had nailed him in the stomach a couple of times already,
which did nothing to help him withstand Spirit Eagle's assault. "He's
going down."

"You got that right," Utena replied as both surged forward and attacked.

In the first few moments, Spirit Eagle found himself hard-pressed by the
attacking duo. However, their previous battle had taken its toll, and when
their initial assault began to falter, the Native American warrior
retaliated by fighting off the double team and getting an increasing
number of blow past both warriors' defenses. He landed a few more on
Ranma, but Utena was not built as solidly as Ranma, and suffered more from
each blow.

Ranma bought them a measure of respite, when he attacked Spirit Eagle
again with a midair assault. Spirit Eagle made a mental note of that, and
continued fighting, waiting for Ranma to take to the air again. There had
been a particularly annoying fighter in the Arena that had a fondness for
mixing aerial attacks in with his style. He had beaten Spirit Eagle once
on a televised match by using a series of attacks that way. But Spirit
Eagle learned from his mistake and with the help of another fighter, a
blond European that was simply known as Masters, had developed a counter
to such attacks. In the rematch, the man that had originally beaten him
fell in short order to the specially devised defense.

Now it would serve Spirit Eagle well once more as Ranma took to the air
for a third time. The man avoided a kick from Utena, crouched and leapt
straight up into the air, his arm extended. His fist began to glow with
blue chi as he called out the name of the attack.

"HADOU SHORYU KEN!"

The nature of the attack caught Ranma off guard. The fist of energy struck
him cleanly in the jaw, sending him flying nearly twenty feet away. Bereft
of his senses, Ranma was barely able to get to his hands and knees.

Spirit Eagle landed on the ground only to have a vicious bokken thrust
strike him in the lower ribs. The blow hit so solidly that the next to
last rib in his left side was broken.  A backfist connected with Utena's
face, stunning her and driving her to the ground as Spirit Eagle roared
out in pain. Her bokken landed at his feet even as he evaluated the damage
the strike had done to him. Already he was finding it hard to breathe
without a great deal of pain, and was thankful the rib had not punctured
his lung.

Ignoring the pain, he picked up the bokken. "This little toy has caused me
more than enough problems today." He hurled it like a spear, over the
fence and out into the street. It would be making no reappearance today.

Satisfied it was indeed gone, he stalked towards Utena, who was still on
the ground. "Before it was just business. Now it's personal." He
considered starting with her right leg. Maybe he would pull it out of her
hip before actually breaking the bone.

Spirit Eagle was towering above her when he heard the cry of anger come
from above him. He looked up to see that Ranma had at least partially
recovered, although there did seem to be a sort of glaze to his eyes.
Spirit Eagle wondered if the boy was fighting with a concussion. It really
didn't matter. When the large man hit Ranma this time, he wouldn't be
getting up for several days. Perhaps Spirit Eagle would break all of the
boy's limbs as well.

Again the Native American warrior crouched and prepared to launch another
Hadou Shoryu Ken. Just as he was about to leap, a pair of hands locked
themselves around his ankles. He looked down to see that the Tenjou girl
had attached herself to his ankles, and from the look on her face, had no
intention of relinquishing her hold.

Spirit Eagle only had time to look up into the sky as both of Ranma's feet
connected cleanly with the larger man's face. He roared out in pain as he
fell over, his balance destroyed between Utena's hold and the blow he had
just received. Utena regained her footing while keeping her grip on his
right ankle. Spirit Eagle tried to make her release the hold by striking
her in the face with his free leg, but all he succeeded in doing was
kicking her in the shoulder. There was no second kick as Ranma threw one
of his own into the spot where Spirit Eagle's broken rib was. The cry of
agony was cut off as he found himself airborne. Utena had shifted her grip
and was now muscling him over her shoulder in a variation of a judo toss,
though with the way he was balanced, it was pure muscle that enabled her
to force him over her shoulder and into the ground. Spirit Eagle found
himself breathing dirt as Utena maintained her grip on his leg, twisting
it until he thought he felt a pop at the knee.

At last he gave her a solid kick that released her hold and forced her
away. Spirit Eagle tried limping to his feet, ignoring both the pain in
his chest and leg. He had just made it up when he saw that both Ranma and
Utena were standing before him, staring at him evilly. They did not bother
looking at each other as they spoke.

"You want to finish him off?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," Utena replied. "And you?"

"You better believe it."

"Let's do it together then."

Panic filled Spirit Eagle's eyes as the duo drew back and threw two
tremendous punches aimed right at his face. He knew he wasn't going to be
able to block the blows, and all that went through his mind was the
ignominy of it all in being defeated by a couple of kids.

Then the world went dark.


Ranma and Utena looked down at the sprawled out and very unconscious form
of Spirit Eagle. Both of them nudged the prone body before them with their
feet. When they received no response to the prod, each let out a sigh of
relief. Even Ranma was not quite used to having a third party interrupt
his duels.

"He wasn't so tough," Ranma said.

Utena looked at Ranma and wondered what that was supposed to mean. His
uniform was ripped where he skidded across the ground. The right side of
his face was covered in dirt from where it had hit the ground from when he
was knocked out of the air, and there were still burn marks along the
length of his jaw from where Spirit Eagle had unleashed that leaping chi
attack. And that wasn't counting the injuries he had accumulated at
Utena's hands before the Native American had interrupted the fight. Ranma
appeared as though he could barely stand.

Utena's estimation was on the mark. Ranma's pride was barely enough to
keep him upright. However, even hurting as much as he was, he still looked
Utena over. Spirit Eagle had also marked her up. She seemed to be favoring
both her stomach and shoulder at the same time. The right side of her face
was swollen and slightly discolored from where one of Spirit Eagle's fists
had connected, and her outfit was torn in several spots, though none were
too revealing, for which he was thankful.

"I don't think we're in very good shape to continue this fight," Utena
said. Adrenaline had stopped flowing through her body and exhaustion began
to creep in. Continuing a fight was the last thing she wanted to do. All
she wanted was to go back to her bed at Ohtori and fall asleep.

The same thing that was happening to Utena was also occurring within
Ranma. His body was worn from the combined injuries he had accumulated
from the twin fights. Of course, he thought that since he was a guy he
could take it, but Utena did not look much better, if at all. The sun had
long since gone down and it was truly night. It was going to take him
almost an hour to get back home, which lay in the opposite direction he
had taken from school to the empty lot.

"How are you going to get back?" Ranma asked Utena.

Utena considered that. When she had told the others she would find her own
way back, she had not really considered how she was going to go about it.
"I guess I can take the train. I should have enough money." She rifled
through the bag she had brought with her to make sure that she had enough.
She produced a wallet and fished out the money that was within, holding it
out for both her and Ranma to see.

"You don't have enough money to buy a hard time." Ranma figured that the
one hundred and twenty-five yen she had produced was not going to get her
anywhere.

Utena gave a laugh that was more out of embarrassment than anything else.
"I guess I left my money in my other wallet, and I don't think I can call
anyone to pick me up this late at night. Looks like I've got a long walk
ahead."

Ranma considered that. It was late. Ohtori was miles away. Clouds had
formed overhead and were rumbling with the distant sound of thunder. Utena
looked like she had been worked over by a gang of thugs. She was worn out.
There was no telling where her bokken was now, and she had no money.
Leaving her to walk back to Ohtori alone was just asking for trouble.

The words came to his mouth almost before he realized it. "You can stay at
my place tonight. Tomorrow you can call whoever you have to get back to
school, or I can loan you some money and you can take the train back or
something."

Utena felt the heat rise to her cheeks at the suggestion. Still, she
responded almost as quickly as the words formed in her mind. "Okay. Are
you sure it won't be a problem?  I don't want to impose."

Problems? Nabiki. Kodachi. Akane. Ukyou. His mother. His false father. The
rumors that would circulate at school if anyone heard that she had stayed
at his place.

"No. No problem."

"Thanks."

The warm smile she gave eradicated any feelings of doubt he had. Somehow,
he knew deep inside that inviting her along had been the right thing to
do.

But then again, Ranma Saotome had never been known for having very good
judgment


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Author's notes:
I know I told some of you this would only be three chapters. Well it
appears there will be at least one more to add here. Hopefully you'll like
it and it will prove to make the ending a little more enjoyable. Thanks to
Jurai-Knight and Jim Bader for looking this over.