Nabiki was sitting in class and trying to pay attention. But, she was already planning on what she should do with Ranma at lunch time. She didn't really want to go find a quiet place to eat lunch alone with him, and she also didn't want to bring him in to socialize with her friends. He wasn't ready for that yet. She was quite happily thinking about playing with him more during lunch.
The door to her classroom being yanked open snapped her out of her reverie. As she looked up at whoever was coming in extremely late, she saw a blur as an object streaked towards her face. Without thinking about it, she reached up and grabbed the object out of the air using instincts and muscle memory from the days when Daddy had trained her in the Art, when she was little. She actually remembered a great deal of it, and she practiced it occasionally in the privacy of her room when she had time. One never knew when skills like that would come in handy.
Puzzled, and somewhat embarrassed that she had revealed that she was a bit more athletic than she let people believe she was, she looked down at what she had caught. It was ... an okonomiyaki? It had a message written on it in sauce. "Come to the back of the gymnasium  —Ukyo", was all it said. Of course, it could have just had a smiley face on it, and she would have known who it was from. That girl was ... a little obsessed with the okonomiyaki thing.
She looked back at the door but only caught a glimpse of a retreating back of someone in a boy's school uniform. She looked back to the front of the room to find the teacher staring at her crossly. She shrugged and set the okonomiyaki to the side and smiled. "Lunch delivery. I guess they got a little ahead of schedule." She said nonchalantly.
The teacher opened his mouth like he was going to argue the point with her, to which she simply raised an eyebrow. She knew he wouldn't be able to prove anything, and she knew he knew she knew. He stared at her for a moment more in irritation, then closed his mouth, and turned back to the board to continue his lesson like the interruption hadn't happened.
Another battle won before it even began, she smugly thought to herself. As the lesson continued, she glanced down at her watch. There was only another few minutes until the lunch bell rang. She was sure Ukyo had meant for her to run off and answer the challenge immediately. She had no intention of doing so. She wasn't as wrapped up in the Bushido thing like Daddy was. Honor had its uses, but she didn't let it rule her life.
When the bell rang, she calmly packed up her stuff and headed out. Her friends called out to her to follow them, but she waved them off. She did this a lot when she had business to take care of, so they were used to it. They smiled and nodded and said they'd save her a seat.
She thought about stopping by Ranma's class and having him go meet with Ukyo, but decided against it. Of all of Ranma's other suitors, Ukyo was the most like herself, and the least violent. Ukyo could be reasoned with ... she hoped.
It was a quick journey to the meeting place as most of the students where heading to the other side of the building, and there was very little foot traffic. She made her way behind the gym as the note had instructed, and sure enough, there was Ukyo, waiting there looking impatient, dressed in her boy's school uniform.
She stopped a good two meters away from Ukyo, and pushed one hip out and rested a hand on it in her best intimidation pose. "What's with all the formality, Ucchan?" She asked. She knew using Ranma's nickname for Ukyo would pull the girl off her center.
Ukyo's left eyebrow started to twitch. "Being ran-chan's fiancée myself ... I thought we should get re-acquainted." Ukyo replied with an uncertain look on her face as she drew her battle spatula. It was clear that Ukyo thought she needed to fight her for Ranma, but she didn't think it was the right thing to do.
Ut-oh, does she want to fight me? That won't end well. She thought to herself as she realized belatedly what Akane had meant about training. She tried to keep Ukyo off-center and decided to bluff. "What, you think you can take Ranma away by force? You underestimate me, Ucchan." She called out in her best confident voice. Ukyou's eyes narrowed. Oops, bluffed wrong. She thought as Ukyo's expression changed from regret to anticipation. She started to back up. On her best day, she might be able to fight Akane to a draw, if Akane was feeling forgiving.
She wasn't going to be able to fight Ukyo with her fists and win. She would destroy the girl in logic, planning or finance. But in a fist fight, Ukyo had the edge, especially if Ukyo was fighting for Ranma. She gathered up her pride and buried it down deep as she got ready to run.
It was too bad that Ranma's ability to come to the rescue only seemed to work when it was Akane in dang— sonofabitch, look at that— she thought with disbelief as she saw Ranma bounding over the rooftops heading straight towards her. She immediately changed her plan as Ukyo charged her and yelled as she raised her battle spatula, "Oh? We'll see about that!"
Ranma crested over the last building and leaped in between them as he yelled, "Don't fight!"
At the same time, she yelled, "I'll sell him to you for six thousand Yen!"
Ukyo surprised her by immediately dropping her battle spatula as she grasped her hands and yelled back gleefully, "Sold!" It was amazing how many people were willing to drop all pretense of the honor code they claimed to live their lives by, if they could find an easy, yet dishonorable, way to get what they wanted.
Ranma looked at them crossly. She ignored him. "Okay, he's your problem," she said as she crossed her arms. She was hoping Ranma would step in and say ... something. She knew he wasn't going to profess his undying love for her, or even for Akane, but she would be disappointed in him if he didn't fight to at least stay in the Tendo household and honor his promise. She looked at him expectantly as Ukyo yelled excited yippee noises.
Ranma opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, several clubs used in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics came whistling in at Ukyo from a high angle behind her. Ukyo immediately recovered her composure from the celebration she had been doing and batted them away with her battle spatula.
A cloud of black rose petals showered the area as an insane laughter rained down all around them. She rolled her eyes. It was amazing how many of these people liked to do these dramatic entrances. It wasn't like everyone in town didn't already know about Kodachi Kuno's trademarks already. The silly gymnast wasn't confounding anyone with her entrance.
From behind the cloud of black rose petals a shrill girl's voice lashed out. "The nerve of selling Ranma for a mere six thousand Yen!"
Ranma slumped in exasperation as he heard the voice. She didn't blame him. Kodachi was exhausting. Hell, it was exhausting just sitting through her little entrance. 
"I'll pay sixty one hundred for him!" Kodachi yelled as the rose petals cleared.
She smiled. Now they were in an arena she could control. Ranma could stop it whenever he wanted. But until then, she would have fun with these goofy girls.
Before she could even say anything, Ukyo stepped in front of her and rounded on Kodachi in a combat stance. "And just who are you?!"
Nabiki put her hands on her hips as she ran her eyes over Kodachi. She was in her trademark leotard, and twirling one of those ribbons around like she always did. She couldn't help commenting. "Wow, it's been a while..."
"Kodachi the black rose!" Ranma muttered quietly to himself like he was trying to ward off an evil spirit.
"Sixty two hundred!" Ukyo yelled at Kodachi.
"Sixty two fifty!" Kodachi shot back.
She grinned as she pulled her bullhorn out of her bag and got into her auctioneer persona. "I have sixty two fifty. Sixty two fifty going once..."
Ukyo glared back at her before fixing her stare back on Kodachi to continue yelling offers. "Sixty three hundred!"
"Then I bid sixty three fifty!" Kodachi countered.
Already getting tired of it all, and hoping to prod Ranma into doing something, she turned to him while the girls were shouting escalating numbers at each other. "Sounds like you're worth about a week's allowance..." She tried to prompt him.
Ranma dragged his uneasy gaze from the fighting girls and fixed his stare on her as he twitched in annoyance. "Hey, you—!" He began to say, then he stopped and cocked his head to the side like he was listening to something only he could hear.
A moment later he lunged for her as he yelled. "Uh oh! Duck!" Before she could react to that though, he had grabbed her about the waist and yanked her off her feet like she weighed nothing, as he pulled her hard to the other side of himself, while a large metal ball on the end of a stick came crashing down into the ground where she had been standing. She forced herself to ignore the feelings having his arms around her were bringing to her mind.
Whoa ... was all she could think of as she stared at where she had been standing as a cold shiver ran down her back. She refused to be rattled by these silly girls' violence though, so she pulled her eyes up to Shampoo's cold and determined eyes and smirked. "Hey there, Shampoo." She said as nonchalantly as she could manage. It helped her courage to have Ranma standing there to protect her.
Shampoo smiled the grin of a predator as the young Chinese warrior-girl advanced on her. "If Nabiki dead, then Ranma for free!" Shampoo said in her broken Japanese.
Kodachi immediately jumped in on that plan and turned from shouting at Ukyo to also advancing menacingly on her. "And that is a bargain!" The crazy gymnast said.
Ukyo tapped her fist into her palm as she realized they were right.
She wasn't worried while Ranma was there. She knew he wouldn't let them hurt her. So she played along and put on a panicked face. Privately, she wondered if they were on to her. She doubted it though, they seemed to be pretty surface-level girls.
Ranma didn't wait to let her see what would happen next, he grabbed her hand and sprinted away from the three girls like a spooked deer. She was almost airborne behind him as she struggled to keep up with him while he ran.
The girls gave immediate chase, yelling their usual battle cry nonsense. She felt real panic cross her face as all three of the girls launched weapons at them.
Ukyo threw small, sharp spatulas at them. Kodachi launched her ribbon, and Shampoo threw one of her chúi. As the missiles came closer she started to yell for Ranma to dodge, but all she got out was a worried, "R-Ran—" before he yanked her forward and completely off her feet to scoop her up in his arms and shield her with his body as he ran.
The weapons rained down around them, some of them impacting off him, but he didn't even flinch. She buried her face in his chest in not-all-together mock fear.
As Kodachi chased them she yelled, "Ranma darling, if you value the life of this fiancée—"
Ukyo cut across her, "—You must choose me instead!"
Ranma didn't respond to them, he just continued to run, and occasionally let out little yelps of pain.
She couldn't help but admit that he was at least noble. Even though she knew that the girls weren't attacking with lethal force, and that he was way too tough for their attacks to do much, if any, damage to him. Still, she felt he could use a little encouragement, so she said as he carried her, "I'm so flattered you're suffering for me!"
Ranma rounded a corner and set her down for a moment and said crossly, "I'm suffering because of you!"
She winced at that. He had a point.
Shampoo jumped past Ranma to kick at her and yelled, "Nabiki, you die!"
Ranma grabbed her again, wrapped her in his arms and spun with her, and pulled her out of danger again. Unfortunately that also put him in the path of Shampoo's kick, which knocked him to his knees.
Geez, they are getting a little out of control, aren't they? She thought in growing concern. She was starting to worry what would happen to her if they managed to knock Ranma out.
Shampoo looked briefly down at Ranma and regret briefly flashed across her face before she turned back to her with renewed determination set on her warrior's face.
She started to back away from Shampoo, but before she had taken even a single step, Ukyo's giant spatula came swinging in to her field of vision. "How dare you kick my Ranma!" The young chef screamed. Instead of hitting Shampoo, though, Ukyo's strike smashed into Ranma who had just stood back up and in Shampoo's path to protect her. Ranma went down, again. Kodachi landed next and attacked Ukyo with her ribbon as the melee grew.
With the three of them engaged in combat against each other, Ranma leaped back to his feet and pulled her quickly around a corner and into some bushes as he ducked in next to her to hide.
The sounds of the fight carried to their hiding place easily, and she heard Kodachi and Ukyo continue yelling while Shampoo screamed enraged curses in her native Mandarin for another few moments before they all stopped when they realized Ranma was gone and herself with him.
They all yelled parting shots at each other before they split up to look for Ranma. She looked up at him and smiled with genuine appreciation. "That was close." She said softly.
Ranma looked back at her, bruised, with a couple of Ukyo's smaller spatulas still sticking out of his skin. "Now that hurt." He replied with a small smile. She could tell he wasn't actually hurt in any serious way.
Despite the somewhat serious nature of the event, she couldn't help but go for the joke. It was just who she was. "Will you protect me forever?" She asked sweetly as she leaned in with her hands clasped together pleadingly.
"No!" Ranma growled with a frown, in an exasperated tone. He had a hint of a smile on his face though. She could tell that he wasn't being entirely serious. It was fun to play with him.
Before Ranma could say anything else, they both noticed that the bushes around them were moving. They looked down and realized they were partially on Akane, who was covered in bushes in an obvious attempt at camouflaging herself. She was amused that Akane had been spying on them and called her out on it. "Huh? What are you doing there, Akane?" She asked innocently.
"...Nothing..." Akane replied in an extremely embarrassed voice.
She rolled her eyes at her little sister as she stood up, now that the rest of the crazy girls' search had moved further and further away from their position. She reached down and extended her hand to Ranma to help him up.
He looked up at her in confusion, but allowed her to help pull him up. Neither one of them acknowledged that he didn't need any help from her to get up. She looked him up and down, and brushed away the last of the weapons still embedded in him, and nodded her head as she came to a decision. "Come on, Saotome, I'll fix up your boo-boos." She grabbed his hand and started pulling him to follow her.
He followed her in confusion. She looked back at Akane and called out to her little sister. "Can you tell your class and mine that we're going home early today? Thanks, Akane." She smiled as she turned back to guiding Ranma home.
Akane looked blankly after them as they left; her little sister looked crestfallen.

***

A short while later, Ranma was sitting on the ground in her room as she fished around in one of the many large and fully stocked first aid kits they kept around the household, for obvious reasons.
Ranma had gotten his gumption up to argue with her about the fun she had been having. "Will you cut it out already?! This is all because of your stupid gossip!"
She didn't miss a beat as she continued to rummage around in the box for a bandage in the size she wanted. "But, it's true, isn't it? You did switch fiancées, right?" She found the one she wanted and turned to face Ranma as she held it up to challenge him. "You're in love with Akane, is that it? C'mon, if you're still in love with her, admit it." She held her breath, waiting for him to answer.
Ranma huffed and turned away so she couldn't look into his eyes and said angrily, "I don't think so!" He then turned back to her and leaned in and pointed a finger at her. "Look, will you just make up with her... please?!" He pleaded.
Okay. That hurt ... a little bit. She thought. He obviously had feelings for Akane. Well, fine then, she would fight for him. She rounded on him and turned on the tears as she glared at him, "Ranma ... don't you know ... my true feelings...?" He looked blankly at her but she could tell he was nervous. She pressed onward. "I thought I'd never tell you this, but..." She looked away dramatically, she wanted to really sell this, "...for a very long time now..." She turned back to him and clasped her hands pleadingly, "I've been in love with you, Ranma! There, I've said it!" She said as sincerely as she could. She was acting, but strangely, saying the words to him felt ... good? She wasn't exactly sure. He wasn't like some of the guys she had teased in the past. He was ... different. She wondered how he would react to her declaration of love. She found herself hoping he wouldn't laugh at her.
Ranma's face went white. He pushed back away from her and kept going until he ran his back into her bed. "Y-you're kidding, ... right?" He managed to stutter out.
She looked away from him and repeated herself. "I love you! Is that so wrong?"
"Y-you're, you're kidding, r-r-right, Nabiki?" Ranma choked back in shock.
She turned back to him with real and fake tears in her eyes. "No."  She said simply.