Chapter 1.

	"Ranma-sama!" The wild, sultry voice purred. "Awake my darling. You
can't possibly sleep now. Oh my Ranma-sama do wake up!"
	"Husband not sleep while Shampoo so close!"
	"Oh Ran-chan, how could you sleep when I have waited so long for this
moment?"
	"Ranma! Baka, wake up!"
	The last voice was a scream in his ear.
	"Aaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh." Ranma screamed, shooting bolt upright in
his futon and staring wildly about him.
	Akane sat back on her heels, her face a mask of concentration as she
fought desperately to control her laughter. For a moment it seemed as though
she would succeed, then satisfaction overcame her and she collapsed into a fit
of unrestrained mirth at her fiance's expense.
	"Waddya do that for?" Ranma demanded, his heart still pounding.
	"What do you think I did it for?" Akane shot back, switching
immediately from amusement to growing anger. "Don't you remember we've a test
today? Baka! I could have just let you lie there. It would have served you
right if I had."
	"What do I care about some stupid test anyway?" He answered. "Only a
kawaiikune tomboy like you could wake someone up like that."
	"And only a hentai baka like you could forget that I told you yesterday
that I'd wake you up early this morning to help you study, something you should
have been doing last night. I don't know why I bothered. I get up early to
study *and* to cook you breakfast *AND* to help you and this is the thanks I
get."
	"At least if I'd woken up myself--." He began. Then abruptly the second
part of Akane's sentence sunk in. "You cooked breakfast! Waddya trying to do?
The test will be bad enough without being poisoned first. I told you that I'd
do the cooking while everyone's in Osaka. Gees! Even Nabiki's cooking'd be
better than the stuff you call food and I've never tasted it. I dunno why it
waits till its on the plate. Why not just let it loose in the house if you want
to kill me so much? I bet it could find its way right up here and--."
	By this time, the room seemed almost to be bathed in the blazing blue
glow of Akane's battle-aura. A moment later, the familiar, but in this case
particularly enraged: "RANMA NO *BAKA*." seemed to make the very house shudder.

	A moment later, Ranma was given a ticket care of Tendo sub-orbital
express into the stratosphere. A faint cry of: "*KAWAIIKUNE*!" Could be heard
fading quickly into the distance, then nothing more save for the patter of
falling plaster and the pounding thuds as Akane stomped from the room and
slammed the door with enough force to shake the house.
	Ranma looked down at Nerima from his new vantage point. The district
really did look picturesque from up here. Unfortunately for Ranma, he had
reached the apex of his arc and was beginning his descent with ever more
frightening speed.
	Ranma sighed, preparing for the inevitable. Moment's later, he splashed
down in someone's back-yard swimming-pool. There was a swirl, then a
sopping-wet head of red hair poked above the water. A moment later a dripping
Ranma-chan emerged, clothed in nothing but the boxers he had worn to bed the
night before.
	"That violent, uncute, macho chick!" She muttered to herself as she
scrambled out, clutching her jaw where a purple bruise was already beginning to
rise, and leaped immediately to the nearest roof. "Wad'd she have to go and do
a thing like that for? Just because she thinks she can cook? Gees! Even C-ko
Kotobuki's cooking would have to be better than her's. At least her's just
poisons A-ko. Akane's has to chase me as well."
	Abruptly, he grinned at the thought of the anime and Akane in a kitchen
together. B-ko wouldn't have to kill A-ko. Their combined efforts would be
enough to do that for everyone within a mile just at the thought of it. He
wondered why Nabiki had never considered trying to sell Akane's cooking to the
military as a new secret weapon.
	Smirking now, Ranma made the last leap and landed on the Tendo roof.
Moment's later, he was climbing in at his window and heading for a hot bath.
>From downstairs came sounds like something heavy being chased about in the
kitchen.
	Ranma shuddered and entered the laundry-room, sliding the door closed
behind him. Moments later he had the bath running and was pouring cold water
over himself before entering. Reaching, he tested the water, and deciding it
was ready, slid into the hot bath with a sigh.
	Ranma felt the tingle of the onset of the change, then everything
exploded in sudden searing pain and blinding light, and then Nabiki was before
him, her face contorted in agony and terror such as Ranma could never have
conceived could fill a human face, screaming and writhing whilst something
naked and vaguely female, almost hidden beneath curtains of long blue-black
hair, pinned her, its mouth fastened at her throat.
	For a moment, Ranma froze, too shocked and sickened to move. Then with
a choking gasp he launched himself forwards. Quicker than even he could
comprehend, the thing released Nabiki and turned, and Ranma threw back his head
and screamed as Akane lunged towards him, the fresh blood spilling from her
suddenly snarling mouth.
	"Ranma!"
	The scream shocked him from the nightmare or whatever it was and he
found himself on his knees in the tub, water exploding in all directions as his
Katsu Tenshin Amaguriken slammed into it. A moment later the door slammed aside
and Akane rushed into the room.
	"Get away from me!" Ranma screamed, whirling and leaping to cling to
the ceiling.
	"Hentai! Baka!" Akane screamed in return, blushing furiously and
averting her eyes. "I thought you'd hurt yourself or something you jerk. Pity
you didn't."
	Still blushing desperately, Akane whirled from the room and slammed the
door.
	Still shaking, Ranma dropped to the tub once more, ignoring yet another
splash of water as he sat, fighting desperately to bring his shaking and nausea
under control. It was only a dream, or something like it, probably caused by
that violent kawaiikune tomboy waking him up like that, then punting him nearly
into orbit, mixed with the fear of her cooking. Yeah, that must be all it was.
Still, Ranma shuddered at the memory as he emerged from the water and he didn't
feel any better at the thought of the now inevitable meeting with Akane's idea
of breakfast that awaited him below.

	"What's the matter with you this morning?" Akane demanded.
	They were walking to school, Ranma on the fence as usual while she
walked along the street beside him.
	"Nothing." He answered too quickly. "What makes you think anything's
the matter?"
	Akane opened her mouth to answer, but just then a familiar jingling was
heard and a moment later a bicycle came sailing out of nowhere and landed on
Ranma's head.
	"Nihao Ranma." Shampoo cried cheerfully, extracting Ranma from beneath
her bike and glomping on to him. "You take Shampoo on date today?"
	"Listen you Chinese bimbo!" Akane shouted, losing her temper even more
quickly than usual. "We haven't time for this. We've a test first period and
we're gonna be late already so just get to wherever you're going, and you let
go of her you hentai!" She ended in a shriek, glaring at Ranma who had been
unsuccessfully trying to extricate himself from Shampoo's embrace whilst
shaking the stars from his head and trying not to fall off the fence.
	"Hey it's not my fault!" He exclaimed.
	"Ran-chan!" Came another voice at that moment from behind them. "What
do you think you're doing with Shampoo?"
	"Oh man, I *really* don't need this today!" Ranma muttered as Ukyou
came racing towards them.
	"Leave my fiance alone you Chinese airhead!"
	A moment later Ukyou's giant  spatula was descending towards Shampoo's
head. Under normal circumstances, Shampoo would have been able to avoid the
blow with ease, but Akane, particularly enraged at the delay and at what she
perceived as Ranma's usual hesitation in disengaging Shampoo, chose that very
moment to try to nail him with the biggest interdimentional mallet she could
find. The lavender-haired amazon twisted her head aside from Ukyou's attack,
only to see Akane's mallet descending directly towards her.
	"Aiya!" Shampoo shrieked, trying to release Ranma, push him away from
Akane's strike and leap on to her bike, all in one motion.
	While the mallet met its intended target's shoulder rather than his
head, the giant spatula clanged viciously against Shampoo's hand and the
handlebars. For a moment the amazon wobbled, trying vainly to maintain her
balance. Then, clutching desperately at Ranma for support, Shampoo, bike and
ranma crashed from the fence and into the drainage ditch beside it.
	"C-c-c-c-cat! Get it away from me!" Shrieked Ranma-chan as Shampoo-neko
meowed, pawing at her and struggling to get a foothold in the muddy ditch.
	With a scream, Ranma-chan bolted wildly in the direction of Furinkan
while behind her, Akane and Ukyou turned away from the struggling Shampoo.
	In the next instant, a high keening scream made them turn. For a
moment, Shampoo-cat was frozen, her fur standing on end, blue eyes suddenly
huge with terror as she stared at Akane. Then with a murderous scream Shampoo
launched herself at Akane's face, claws extended, mouth pulled back into a
maniacal snarl of rage and fear as her eyes rolled wildly from side to side.
	Akane shrieked, stumbling backwards. Then there was a dull ringing thud
and Shampoo-cat dropped limply to the ground.
	"What on earth was the matter with her?" Ukyou exclaimed, sheathing her
giant spatula.
	Akane, still shaking, looked down at Shampoo's limp form.
	"I--, I don't know," She managed at last. "but it wasn't normal, not
even for Shampoo."
	"Hey, that wouldn't be normal even for Kodachi!" Ukyou said.
	Akane nodded, then suddenly there came the faint sound of a bell. "Oh
god, we're gonna be late!" She exclaimed. "That jerk. It's all his fault!"
	"Hey, you leave Ran-chan out of this." Cried Ukyou, immediately
defensive.
	Stooping, she scooped up Shampoo-cat and turned her over in her hands,
checking to see that she was still breathing. Satisfied, she put the cat down
on her clothes and reached into her school-bag for a thermos. A moment and a
splash of hot water later and Shampoo was human again and beginning to stir.
	"Come on!" Ukyou said quickly. "I don't think either of us should be
here when she wakes up."
	And with that, she began at a dead run towards the school, Akane
keeping easy pace beside her.
	Shampoo opened her eyes, gasping, the horror of what she had seen so
vivid in her mind that she had quite forgotten the blow that had knocked her
senseless. She must get back to Nekohanten as quickly as she could. Great
Grandmother must be told of this.
	With frantic speed, Shampoo dressed and gathered up her weapons. Then,
leaping on to her bicycle, she sped away towards her home.

	"Oh man I *really* didn't need that today!" Ranma was stalking gloomily
towards the lunch-room, his bento conspicuous by its absence. "And I didn't
have a chance to make my own lunch this morning. If that macho chick really
expects me to eat the stuff she calls food--."
	He shuddered at the memory of the snarling green something that had
leaped at him when he had opened his lunch-box that morning to throw it in the
kitchen dust-bin. He could still feel the thing's tentacles curling around his
hand.
	"How does she do that?" He muttered to himself. "She should get a job
as a biologist. She could make new species all on her own without having to
find them."
	"Hey Ran-chan." Ukyou called, hurrying up to him, the longed-for
okonomiyaki held before her. "I thought you might be especially happy to have
this today," She beamed ecstatically at his expression. "and for once I don't
think we'll be seeing Shampoo."
	She giggled, the strangeness already vanished from the memory.
	"Thanks Uk-chan!" Ranma exclaimed with real relief as he wolfed down
the okonomiyaki with even more gusto than usual.
	At that moment, the wall exploded in a shower of bricks and Ranma
turned, expecting to hear Shampoo's greeting. Instead, the all-too-familiar:
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!" Followed by a storm of bandannas had him
ducking and weaving wildly as other students yelped and scattered in all
directions.
	"Hey Ryoga, waddya think you're doing!" Ranma demanded. "You can't
chuck those around in here!"
	"Saotome, you accursed cur!" Came another cry.
	A moment later, Kuno leaped towards him, his normally spick kendo
outfit sliced from neck to waist. "How dare you treat the blue thunder of
Furinkan high with such malevolent distain. By all the gods you shall rue this
day."
	"Hey, that was Ryoga you idiot!" Ranma exclaimed.
	"Silence peasant!" Kuno raved. "Seek not to attempt to deceive the blue
thunder and cast aspersions upon another with thy accursed lies and calumnies."

	"Yeah, then what's that around your neck?" Ranma sneered.
	Kuno reached up a hand and extracted the black and yellow cloth that
had lodged in the torn material that had once been his shirt.
	"Then it is true!" Kuno exclaimed. "The accursed Hibiki has chosen to
ally himself with the treacherous sorcerer Saotome. No doubt you plan to divide
your unholy lusts between my Akane Tendo and my beautiful pig-tailed goddess.
Then Hibiki, prepare to meet thy doom. Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!"
He ended, rushing at Ryoga with a blur of speed.
	Ranma and Ukyou rolled their eyes, then watched, Ranma smirking with
satisfaction as Ryoga leaped back through the hole he'd made in the wall,
leading Kuno outside where he'd have more room.
	"Come on," Ukyou said with a grin. "let's see how long it takes Ryoga."

	Still smirking, Ranma followed her through the hole.
	"Stand and defend yourself, coward! Infidel!" Kuno ranted, charging at
the still retreating form.
	Abruptly, Ryoga swung round and with one tremendous blow, brought his
umbrella down on Kuno's swinging bokan. There was a crack, and Kuno found
himself holding a considerably shortened piece of wood. A kick to the face from
Ryoga ended the fight and he turned once more towards Ranma.
	"Don't think that little distraction of your's has made me forget!"
Ryoga shouted.
	"Wha!" Ranma gaped. "You must be an even bigger idiot than I thought,
P-chan."
	"And don't call me P-chan!" Ryoga screamed, rushing wildly at him.
	As usual, Ranma leaped over him and the fight had begun.
	Ukyou sighed and watched them chase one another across the
school-grounds until at last, tired of the fight, Ranma waited his chance,
guiding the fight towards a drainage ditch near the fence until he stood,
almost on the lip of the drop. Then, as Ryoga leaped at him again, Ranma
flipped over him and tagged him from behind, sending him sprawling into the
muddy water.
	"Ranmbwee!" Ryoga screamed as his body shrank and changed.
	A moment later, Ranma reached down towards the struggling black pig.
	"Heheheh, looks like you lost again P-ch--." He began with a smirk.
	A moment later he stared in utter disbelief as Ryoga gave an
ear-splitting bwee and shot skywards. Head up, Ranma gaped at the arcing black
form. For a moment, nothing more happened. Then with another bwee, ki-energy
exploded into the heavens in a colossal flash. A moment later, Ryoga's limp
form dropped from above, Ranma catching him by reflex; he was too stunned to do
more. Ryoga lay unmoving in his hands, all four legs curled up as though
hugging something to him, his eyes wide and unseeing.
	"Hey, P-chan!" Ranma managed at last. "Hey Ryoga, you alright in
there?"
	"Ranma!" Came a scream.
	A moment later Akane was descending on him, mallet in hand.
	"Oh man!" Ranma thought. "Hey it's not what you th--."
	He got no further.
	"Picking on my poor P-chan again?" Akane growled, plucking the little
black piglet from the twitching form. "What a jerk!"
	With a furious kick, she sent Ranma tumbling into the ditch.
	"Aaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh!" Ranma-chan screamed, shooting to her feet
and staring at Akane as though she'd just grown horns. "Get away from me! Don't
touch me!"
	Then with another scream, Ranma-chan leaped the fence and was gone.
	"What's got into him!" Akane gasped, staring in shocked disbelief at
the space Ranma-chan had occupied scant moments before.
	"What did you do to Ran-chan?" Ukyou screamed, leaping to stand facing
Akane, her giant spatula already drawn.
	"N-n-nothing!" Akane gasped, for once utterly unable to react.
	Vividly in her mind, she could still see the look on Ranma-chan's face
as she'd screamed. It had been one of absolute, all-engulfing horror, horror
and loathing.

	She was afraid. It was something that she still found very hard to come
to terms with, even though she had made her decision early that morning. Never
one to shrink from anything, she nevertheless shivered with apprehension as she
prepared herself for a meeting that she knew might prove one of the most
difficult she had ever had to face. Not that she was afraid of that meeting in
itself, merely of what it might reveal.
	Forcing calm, she inspected herself one last time in the full-length
mirror in her room. It would not do to be anything other than flawless in
appearance. Satisfied, she moved to her window and opening it, leaped quickly
to the sill, then to the roof above. It was for Ranma she was doing this, she
reminded herself. For him, she could face anything. For him, she would
sacrifice the world, her very soul. At that thought, she shivered again,
sobering as she remembered where she was going and why.

	Shampoo, her anxiety of the morning temporarily set aside, had just
finished with the lunch-time rush when the door opened once more. Shampoo
turned from wiping down the counter, a beaming smile on her face for the
customer, then frowned at the figure who stood before her.
	"What crazy girl want here?" She demanded, reaching for her bonbori.
	Kodachi Kuno looked straight into her eyes, her gaze disconcertingly
level and calm.
	"I wish to speak to your great grandmother." She said quietly.
	Her voice too was unlike any tone Shampoo had ever heard from her, a
low threatening purr, yet a sound more absolutely determined and rational than
Shampoo could have conceived her capable. Unnerved by the change, yet still
determined to maintain her contempt for this mad Japanese witch, Shampoo glared
at the female Kuno, one of her bonbori poised in her hand.
	"Why you want speak to Great Grandmother?" She demanded, her eyes
spitting venom and suspicion. "If it potion you want--."
	"Shampoo," Kodachi said very softly, and now her voice was a low snarl
of utterly un-Kodachi-like rage, focussed and cold as midnight. "I'm only going
to say this once. If you do not tell Cologne that I am here and now, I swear to
you by all the gods that I will tear out your eyes and tongue and feed them to
you before I leave this place."
	"That will not be necessary." Came a sudden cool voice from the doorway
as Shampoo's eyes blazed and she tensed, preparing to pound Kodachi to a
memory.
	A moment later, Cologne hopped up on to the counter and stood, calmly
studying the gymnast.
	"Does this visit" She continued, her tone still calm. "concern a dream
or vision?"
	Shampoo gasped as she saw Kodachi's eyes for a moment go wide with
startled surprise before she covered her astonishment with what should have
been one of her patented laughs. However, the mania seemed to have vanished
from her and she remained unmoving.
	"How?" She demanded, then suddenly her eyes regained some of their old
mania. "Is this some play on your part old witch. If so--."
	"It is no doing of mine; I also have dreamed recently of things that
are, shall we say, concerning?"
	Cologne chuckled at her own understatement and turned as the door
opened.
	"Greetings son-in-law." She said without surprise. "We were just about
to begin. I'm surprised it took you so long."
	"Wha!" was all Ranma could exclaim.

	"It seems to me" Cologne continued after hearing each relate the dream
or flash he or she had experienced. "that there is too much consistency, *far*
too much, for this to be either imagination or coincidence. Shared dreams are
possible, but only between those either bound together by love or by fate.
Since the former is very unlikely," She chuckled again as she glanced between
Kodachi and her great granddaughter. "we must consider either the latter or
turn our attention to other possibilities. Tell me," She continued, turning to
Kodachi. "when did this dream begin?"
	"Last night, or rather, before I arose this morning." Kodachi answered,
her fingers never still as they played with the ribbon in her lap.
	"And your's, son-in-law?" She inquired of Ranma.
	"This morning, when I er--, entered the bath after that kawaiikune
tomboy punted me into someone's swimming-pool." He answered.
	"During the change?" Cologne said quietly. "Interesting, since Shampoo
also experienced her vision at such a time."
	"Change?" Kodachi inquired, her expression immediately both wary and
curious.
	"Waitaminute!" Ranma exclaimed suddenly. "Ryoga!"
	"Ryoga had a similar experience?" Cologne demanded, her gaze suddenly
fixed on Ranma's face.
	"Yeah, at least, it might have been something like that, when I knocked
him into a water-ditch." Ranma said. "He suddenly lost it far more than usual
and Shishi-Hokoudanned. Nearly took Uk-chan's head off."
	"A pity he didn't." Kodachi muttered to herself.
	Cologne gave Ranma a meaning glance and grinned ghoulishly. "Also, hmm,
under *identical* circumstances." She said, emphasising the word.
	Ranma didn't catch the meaning for a moment, then just gaped at her.
	"You knew!" His expression demanded.
	Cologne nodded and chuckled again and Ranma shivered. What didn't the
old ghoul know?
	"Then it seems to me that we have the beginning of a theory at least."
She continued. "Mousse!" She shouted suddenly. "In here, immediately."
	A moment later Mousse entered, his glasses for once in their proper
place.
	"Saotome!" He cried immediately. "I see that your engagement to Akane
means nothing to you after all. Is not Kodachi also enough for you? What are
you doing with my Shampoo!"
	His tirade was stopped as Cologne bounced her staff off his head, not
quite hard enough to put him to sleep.
	"I didn't call you here to prove yourself yet more of a fool than you
have shown thus far." She said mildly.
	"And I not your Shampoo." Shampoo cried. "I Ranma's."
	"Over my soul." Kodachi cried, leaping to her feet.
	"If that what crazy girl want!" Shampoo answered, also standing.
	"Enough!" Cologne commanded, flicking Kodachi back into her place with
her staff and giving her great granddaughter a withering look. "Now, if you
will excuse us for a moment, Kodachi, son-in-law? Shampoo, Mousse!"
	At her command, both followed her from the room. Moments later there
came a splash, followed by a few seconds of silence. Then, for the first time
in his life, Ranma heard a duck scream in terror.

	"I can't believe such a thing of her!"
	Mousse glared at Ranma as though he were somehow to blame for the
horror he had seen.
	After that first blood-curdling scream, there had followed several
seconds of wild quacking whilst Ranma stared shaken and Kodachi simply stared
bewildered. Then had come another splash and yet more screaming, this time in
Mousse's voice. The visions it seemed, occurred with either transformation.
Then had followed a furious discussion in Mandarin, followed by a few seconds
of silence, then the reappearance of Cologne, Shampoo and Mousse, the last
still pale and shaking.
	"The indications leave little room for interpretation." Cologne said
simply. "However if by your statement you mean that it is difficult to believe
that the Akane Tendo you know could be capable of what you have seen, I would
have to agree."
	"Violent girl capable of anything!" Shampoo announced with conviction.
	"I doubt it." Said Kodachi simply, staggering Ranma and receiving a
startled glance from the old crone. "She hasn't the strength or
self-confidence."
	Ranma grimaced. He should have known better than to regard Kodachi's
sudden apparent generosity and rationality as anything other than a temporary
aberration.
	"Crazy girl certainly do such a thing." Shampoo continued.
	Kodachi leaped up once more, glaring malevolently at her.
	"To torment you would be a pleasure, although ultimately pointless. You
would provide less than pathetic entertainment if what I saw in the dream was
any indication."
	Shampoo leaped to her feet and Kodachi whirled.
	Cologne sighed as they chased one another around the restaurant for a
few seconds before Kodachi bounded to a window and disappeared, a storm of
black rose-petals in her wake, her wild laughter still lacking something of its
usual insanity as Shampoo avoided the petals and leaped after her.
	Ranma and Mousse remained still for a few seconds, then Ranma rose to
his feet.
	"What we saw? It couldn't happen?" He demanded, his tone subdued as his
eyes fixed on the ancient amazon.
	Cologne sighed again and her expression was unwontedly troubled as she
returned his gaze.
	"I don't know." Was all she said.

	"Oh man come on Akane!" Ranma cried as he entered the kitchen.
	Something unrecognisable was hissing and bubbling on the stove while
dark green smoke choked the air. For once, the smoke had little smell, which to
Ranma's mind only made matters worse. At least usually he knew that she was
trying to poison him. Whatever this stuff was it was giving him no warning.
	Akane, her apron covered in some dark brown oily stuff and her hair
dusted with a fine soot that was the same colour as the smoke, was busy
hammering away at the mixture with what looked to be one of her patented
mallets.
	"Ranma, I'm not in a very good mood tonight." Akane warned quietly
through clenched teeth, the ferocity of her hammering increasing.
	Abruptly there was a tearing bang and the pot split in two, the dark
stuff gushing out on to the stove.
	"I don't need this, I *really* don't need this." Ranma muttered as his
fiance turned on him.
	"Baka! Now look what you made me do!" She exploded, raising the
dark-coated mallet high in the air.
	A moment later it crashed down on Ranma's head.
	"And get <slam> out of <slam> my <slam> kitchen!" She finished,
creating a Ranma-sized hole in the wall.
	From outside came the familiar cry of: "Kawaiikune!" Followed by a
sudden frantic shout as Ranma tried desperately to avoid the pond and what he
was sure would accompany the transformation.
	He didn't succeed. There was a splash, then a blood-curdling scream as
Ranma-chan shot skywards.
	"Just what *is* the matter with him lately?" Akane thought, remembering
again the look on Ranma's face that morning.
	"I gotta calm down, I gotta calm down!" Ranma-chan said again and again
as she crouched on the roof. "It's just a dream. It's not as if it's real, or
likely. Akane may be violent and unfeminine, but that thing--."
	It had been Shampoo this time, caught in that same grip, screaming and
screaming as the demonic Akane pinned her with effortless ease and tore at her
shoulder with its sharp teeth.
	"It's not Akane. It's some demon trying to get at us. Probably
something that old hentai managed to summon up and forgot to tell us about."
	With that thought, some calm returned to him. Whatever it was, it
wasn't going to hurt Akane; it wasn't going to make, to make *that* of her.
	With sudden purpose, Ranma-chan made her way to the window of the
guest-room and slipped into the house once more. She would have to change back,
and that would mean another brief exposure to the horror. Steeling herself,
Ranma-chan moved to the bathroom. She didn't want Akane to see this, nor did
she want her in the room when the "thing" appeared. Moving to the tub,
Ranma-chan leaned over it, ringing out her wet clothes. She'd change them after
this. Turning on the water, she adjusted it and dunked her head beneath it. A
moment later the horror appeared again, freezing him for a few seconds.
	"Ukyou this time." He noted with a kind of numb fascination.
	Then it was over and Ranma was turning off the water. Stilling the
shivers, he stood, turning to glance at his reflection in the mirror.
	Akane heard the scream from the kitchen.
	"What now!" She gasped, turning and racing towards the closed door of
the bath.
	"I'm only half changed, god, I'm only half changed!"
	Ranma's scream froze Akane in her tracks. For a moment she remained,
her head up, her eyes wide with shock. Then another scream, this time of pain,
snapped her into life once more. Hurling herself forwards, Akane slammed the
door aside and burst into the room. She stopped short, staring in utter horror
at what she saw. Ranma, blood streaming from his skin like perspiration, was
crouched over the tub, his whole body rigid in agony, his face, half turned
towards her, twisting and straining as he fought with all the will he had to
choke back the screams.
	"Ranma!" Akane screamed, stumbling to fall to her knees beside him.
	"M--my body!" He choked. "It's tearing, it's--!" For a moment he tried
to stand, then, as Akane watched, Ranma began to change, his hair becoming a
blur of black and red, his body twisting and writhing as portions of it shifted
between his male and female forms. There were the sickening sounds of
splintering, shattering bone and other sounds of tearing. Then with another
scream, Ranma pitched forwards into the tub, and through its surface.
	"Ranma!" Akane screamed again, lunging desperately to take hold of
something to pull him back.
	In horrified shock, she felt her hand pass through Ranma's leg. Then
she lost her balance and pitched herself forwards into the abyss. The last
thing of which she was aware as numbing shock and deadly cold engulfed her was
her own screaming and the continuing cracks and sounds of splintering as Ranma
dissolved before her darkening vision. Then all was blackness and terror as
Akane plunged down into absolute oblivion.

--------------------
Notes:
	I've really no clear idea of how to improve this.  Ranma and Akane feel
about right to me, although I've not seen/read nearly all there is to see/read
and would like others' opinions on how Ranma should react, not only to the ever
more horrible dream-like flashes but to the real Akane because of them.  As for
Kodachi!  How do you write a (perhaps) temporarily shocked-to-sanity Kodachi
whilst she remains Kodachi?  I've absolutely no idea and would welcome any
suggestions.  Would Ryoga really lose control like that should he see a demonic
Akane or would he immediately try to tear Ranma apart, blaming him?  What would
Shampoo do after such a vision and Cologne after such a dream?  I assume
Shampoo would redouble her efforts to remove Akane, but would Cologne put aside
the fiance fiasco and help or simply take what she considers the easy way out
and try to kill Akane before the imagined change can take place?  And Happosai?
I haven't even begun to consider what he would do (although he must play a
part, after all he has a great deal of power when needed).  Oh yes, and
speaking of Cologne, does she know about Ryoga's curse (I couldn't remember --
I assume she does and therefore I'll have to modify Ranma's reaction) and is
her characterisation in this as much of a mess as I think?