needs title, any ideas welcomed.
volunteer prereaders will be worshiped and adored

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Chapter 1

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Visions

The answers are getting harder and harder,
and there ain't no way to bargain or to barter,
but if you got the answer you got the ardor
you might faint from the fight, but your gonna fight it
cause' every challenge could have paradise behind it
if you accept what you lost, and you STAND tall, 
you might just get it back and you can get it all
so now you know why it's a long way to fall. 
				Stand
				Blues Traveler.

She continued to chase after that devil, Ranma Saotome. I only asked her
to give me a chance, but she wouldn't. She wouldn't even consider it.
That is why I continued to challenge Ranma Saotome, I hoped that somehow,
I might win the love of Shampoo. It's the only thing that really matters
to me. 

-----

Mousse is sitting on his bed, writing in his Journal, tears streaming
from his eyes. He has been rejected, once again by Shampoo, but that's
not why he's crying. He's finally seen it with his own eyes that there is
no chance for him and her. He doesn't want to give up, but it seems so
hopeless. He goes back to writing in his journal, but he can't think of
anything to say.

Mousse decided to go for a walk, it was foggy, and it suited his mood
perfectly.. He walks past his usual haunts, the high school, the park,
Ucchans, and finally, the stadium. None of what he has done makes much
sense. The years wasted chasing Shampoo, the times he fought Ranma, his
training in hidden weapon, everything. 

Mousse looks at the walls of the stadium. he notices how high they are.
He can't make out the top of the tower in the fog. He wonders how long it
would take him to reach the top of it. he stands there for a minute and
says, to himself, "Let's find out"

Mousse begins the long ascent to the top of the tower climbing hand over
hand, straining every step of the way, not looking down for a minute.
When he finally reaches the top, he looks down at where the parking lot
should be. Not a single light is on.

Mousse looks down at the gray abyss below him, not able to see the ground
below in the fog. He raises his arms to the sky, and yells at the powers
that be, "Why did you do this to me!?!"

A divine spark cuts through the fog, reaching down from the heavens, like
the finger of Kami and lightly touches Mousse on the head, knocking him
flat on his ass.

Mousse is amazed he survived. In that instant, he saw that even if he
were to throw himself from this tower, he would survive it. It simply
isn't his time. He better make the best of things. He also saw a vision.
A vision of Ranma, Ryoga, Kuno and himself, working together as a team.
And though he knows that this is a vision of the future, it also is a
memory of the past. He was sitting in a chair, and Shampoo was
brainwashing him, for some reason.

 For some reason he remembers something about a card in his wallet. It
can wait till he's back home.

He climbs down carefully, and heads home, everything a blur in the fog.

-------

The next morning, Mousse gets up early. The fact he can see clearly
indicates that he must have fell asleep with his glasses on again. He
gets up to go to the bathroom, looks in the mirror and notices something.

He's not wearing his glasses.

Mousse keeps looking in the mirror, amazed at what he sees. It's not the
fact he's not wearing his glasses. 

It's the fact that he can see without them.

He goes to his wallet, remembering the card, he pulls it out and reads
it, he reads it again, and then a third time in disbelief.

You won't be blind again.

The implications of this scare him. He turns it over, wondering if
anything is on the other side.

Mu-tzu vice president, Tendocorp/Kuno Enterprises. 

After a few minutes, Mousse regains his composure. He's completely
stunned as to what happened. He gets up, and takes a shower, and realizes
that no, he's not going to tell Shampoo. In fact, he is soon going to
leave the employment of the Cat Cafe. He's certainly not going to be
welcome here.

Mousse returns to his room, finds his glasses, and throws them out the
window. He has to have some excuse as to why he's not wearing them.

Mousse goes downstairs, and begins doing all those little things that
prepared the Cat Cafe for its customers. Then, suddenly, he stops. He
realizes that he's not going to be working here anymore, so he might as
well just sit down and relax. He sits down. Then he realizes the
opportunity he has here to make a statement. He knocks over all the
tables and chairs except one in the corner, and sits in the chair,
propping his feet on the table. He considers smashing the bowls and
plates.

Cologne comes downstairs. She notices that the place is a mess, and walks
over to Mousse. "Get up and clean this place, boy. The customers should
be here any minute."

"Why?" Mousse asks, looking off to the left of Cologne, at a little
monkey statue.

"It's your job!" Cologne replies whacking him on the head with her staff.
"You clean, I cook, Shampoo serves. That's how it works."

"What for? Why should I continue to serve a mistress that shows me no
kindness. You never paid me. All this time, I worked my ass off, doing
anything I was told,  and it got me nothing. Shampoo still chases after
Ranma, I get beaten to a pulp almost every day trying to remedy the fact.
I can't believe I've been so wholly blind"

Cologne is about to say something when Shampoo walks down the stairs.
"Mousse! Why this place pigsty?"

Cologne responds. "It appears that Mousse threw a little temper tantrum.
He refuses to clean the place."

"I teach him." Shampoo grabs her Bombari and attacks Mousse with them,
but Mousse unexpectedly plucks them out of her hands, twists her arms
behind her back, holds her there, smiling.

"Now really, Shampoo," Mousse says, smiling sarcastically "You have to
learn to control that temper."

Cologne raises an eyebrow at what just happened. "You can see now?"

"I got it fixed last night."

"I find that hard to believe. And where did you get the courage to stand
up to us?"

"It's not courage, it's resentment. I do silly things when I'm angry.
Remember the time I tried to turn Akane into a duck?"

"You know I'm going to have to teach you  a lesson, Mousse."

"Really? I'd have never guessed."

Cologne is furious, she charges Mousse, but unexpectedly Mousse throws
Shampoo aside, dodges Cologne, and hits her in the back of the head with
a crowbar, knocking her unconscious, all in one fluid movement. (I know a
crowbar isn't a traditional Japanese weapon, but it is just as
effective.)

"Stupid Mousse," says Shampoo. "When you hit Cologne, you set Shampoo
free! Now Shampoo KILL!"

Shampoo jump kicks Mousse, making the same mistake Cologne did. Mousse
once again sidesteps, but this time, he brings his arm across her middle,
knocking the wind out of her, That gives him time to grab her in a strong
embrace.

"You really must not lose your temper like this," says Mousse, "It leaves
you wide open to counter attacks."

"Let Shampoo go!" Shampoo says struggling against Mousse's viselike
embrace."

"You can tell Cologne when she comes around that I quit."

"What you mean you quit?"

"Just what I said Shampoo," replies Mousse "I quit."

And then Mousse does the one thing he regrets not doing all these years.
Before she can turn away, he kisses Shampoo, on the lips. It might just
be aftereffects of the lightning blast last night, but sparks jump from
his lips to hers, and he feels a great release of the tension built up
inside of him all these years.

He lets her go, and walks out the door, and Shampoo can't do anything
about it. She's in a complete state of shock.

-------

Mousse is walking in the park, when he runs into Ranma. Ranma gets into a
fighting stance, and as a joke Mousse pulls out a bouquet of flowers.

"I'm not going to fight you, unless you insist," says Mousse.

"I don't trust you, Mousse."

Mousse explains to Ranma. "There is no chance with me and Shampoo, I've
seen to that myself. And.."

"What do you mean you saw to it yourself."

"I quit my job at the Cat Cafe... and kissed her."

"She's going to kill you, you know that, don't you? I'm surprised you're
still alive."

"It was something I had to do. I needed to close that chapter of my life"

Suddenly there is a loud crash from a building at the edge of the park. 

"Shampoo KILL!!!!"

Ranma jumps back, not wanting to get in the way of this amazon. Mousse,
however was caught completely off guard, and Shampoo manages to tackle
him. She looks at Mousse in fury.  "Why you kiss Shampoo? What you think
you doing? You go crazy or something, duck-boy!"

Mousse simply answers, "You wouldn't understand."

Shampoo flips Mousse over so that she can see the look of terror on his
face when she finally dashes his brains out with her Bombarii. She raises
the bombarii high above her head, and prepares to bring it crashing down
upon his head.

She can't do it. She had worked herself into a frenzy at the Cat Cafe,
she was ready to kill him. But now that she is here, with him at her
mercy, she can't do it. 

Shampoo tries to remember what happened this morning. The mess in the Cat
Cafe, the fact that Mousse refused to clean up, The fact he made Cologne
and her look like a pair of fools, and finally when he kissed her. And
now, she really wants to beat the living daylights out of him.

She once again raises the bombarii above her head, and brings it down....

Right next to his head.

"Shampoo be back when Shampoo comes to senses." Shampoo says bitterly to
Mousse. She gets up, and walks back to the Cat Cafe.

"What the hell just happened?" says Ranma.

Mousse just lies there, trembling on the ground.

"Ranma," calls Ryoga at the edge of the park. "I challenge you for Akane,
and for keeps."

"What?"

"I will abide by the results of this fight, and so shall you."

"What makes you think Akane would have you even if you did defeat me, 
P-chan?"

Mousse rolls out from in between them. He knows this is going to be a
spectacular fight. Ryoga charges Ranma, swinging his umbrella at him, but
Ranma dodges, easily, kicking Ryoga in the back in response.  

Ryoga gets back up and continues the attack, feinting and parrying with
his umbrella, as though it weighed almost nothing. After a few minutes,
he lands a blow on Ranma, knocking him into a tree.

Mousse takes a look at his watch. "Uh guys...."

"Not now Mousse." says Ranma.

"But Ranma..."

"He said not now!" replies Ryoga.

Mousse takes about five steps back, and then the park sprinkler system
turns on.

"I tried to warn you."

A buxom redhead walks up to Mousse and says "Shut up Mousse."

------

Shampoo walks into the cat cafe. She looks shaken, as though a great
fundamental truth she has lived with, had suddenly dissolved in the light
of day. She sits down in a chair and drops her bombarii on the floor.

"I take it you did it." says Cologne to Shampoo, feeling a bit sorry for
her.

Shampoo takes a minute to figure out exactly how to say what she has to
tell Cologne. Finally she responds, "Shampoo no could."

"What do you mean you couldn't? It's easy, just bring the bombarii down
on his head real hard.."

"It not that. Shampoo not know why, but as soon as Shampoo have him at
mercy," Shampoo begins to sob, " ...no can do it."

"But Shampoo, he dishonored you. You just can't let him get away with
it."

"Shampoo try again later... need time to prepare."

fanfic TO DATE is about 40 pages long.... will post in chapters

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