This is the first of three, possibly four installments that will make up the
whole of Part XVII of Comes the Cold Dragon. I am breaking it up in this
fashion in order to ease the burden on the list server, not because each
individual section should be treated as a separate part of the story.
 
Section "b" shipped out to pre-readers today. Hopefully, I can finish
section "c" early next week and get it out to pre-readers by this coming
Tuesday or Wednesday. I do not yet know if there will be a section "d", but
think it highly likely.
 
Part XVI was recently posted to FFML. The rest of the story is available
here:
 
http://www.iamnota.net/
 
As is ever the case, feedback is welcome.
 
Don Granberry.
 
 
       Most of the characters in this piece and the setting for it, were
conceived of by Rumiko Takahashi for her Ranma1/2 series of Manga. All
such characters and the setting are the property of Takahashi-san and
her licensees. All other characters in the piece are purely fictional
and any resemblances to actual persons living or dead, are purely
coincidental.
 
============================================
Comes the Cold Dragon: Part XVIIa Revision 1
============================================
 
       "Looks as though the adrenaline is finally wearing off," Nabiki said,
tilting her head to her right.
 
       Kiima cut her eyes to the left and saw that Akane was about to nod
off to sleep where she sat at the table. She and Akane together had polished
off something like four liters of fluids, most of it water and had eaten
nearly two kilos of noodles and chicken. Kiima had done most of the
drinking; flying was very thirsty work. She had also eaten a sizeable meal,
but the amount of food Akane put away had been amazing.
 
       "She's been working out a lot lately, I gather," Kiima said.
 
       "Oh, you don't know the half of it," Nabiki replied. "Even before
this latest round of madness started she got in a lot of exercise. The last
couple of weeks would make a military boot camp look like a vacation."
 
       "I've heard that she and Ranma have always fought a lot," Kiima said.
"How is it that he can train her if things are so bad between them?"
 
       "Hah!" Nabiki exclaimed. "They haven't been fighting. That was just
foreplay, isn't that right, baby sister? Akane?"
 
       "Mmmrer...Baaka!..." Akane responded.
 
       "Yep, she's definitely out of it," Nabiki said. "I'd better get her
into bed. Ranma would be well and truly annoyed at me if I let her drown in
a bowl of soup."
 
       "I'll give you a hand," Kiima said.
 
       "No, that's all right. She'll get to bed on her own," Nabiki said
with a smirk. In a sharper voice she shouted, "Akane!"
 
       "Huh, what?" Akane asked as she looked up just in time to keep her
nose out of her soup.
 
       "Go to bed," Nabiki said. "You're falling asleep in your food."
 
       "No I'm not!" Akane said, rubbing her eyes.
 
       "So you won't complain when I show everyone the pictures at school on
Monday, then, will you?"
 
       "Pictures!" Akane came fully to life. "You had better not!"
 
       "Awake now?"
 
       Akane looked around and blinked a couple of times. "I'll just drink
some more tea."
 
       "Don't be silly, Akane," Nabiki said. "You're coming down off of an
adrenaline high. Go to bed."
 
       "He hasn't come back, yet," Akane said with the steely edge to her
voice that only she and Nodoka Saotome could use.
 
       "It's quite likely that Lord Haabu and Lord Ranma will be gone the
entire night, Lady Tendou," Kiima said. "They have numerous problems to
discuss."
 
        "What's the matter, Akane?" Nabiki asked giving her sister a knowing
smirk. "Can't sleep without your bundle bunny? What are you going to do when
we go back home?"
 
       "I can sleep without him!" Akane declared in a defiant tone.
 
       "Then you should do it in bed, not out here at the table," Nabiki
said.
 
       Akane gave Nabiki an angry stare, before getting up and stamping off
toward the house.
 
       "You've been mothering her for a long time," Kiima opined once Akane
was out of earshot.
 
       "I'm more like a drogue chute or sea anchor to her than a mother,"
Nabiki said with a wry smile. "Akane has always been something of an
adrenaline freak. She would never admit it, but she's addicted to
excitement. I guess you were too, huh?"
 
       "No, not really," Kiima said. "I've always had ambitions that
eventually led me into stressful situations, but I never really sought them
out deliberately. At least, not until recently."
 
       "After you took a bath in Akane's spring, you mean?"
 
       Kiima nodded her head. "I often worry about what it does to my
decision-making process."
 
       Nabiki suppressed a laugh. "Let me guess. You find yourself doing
things the hard way now, just to show yourself that you can, right?"
 
       "Sometimes, yes."
 
       "That's my baby sister, all right. I'm looking forward to the day
that Ranma gives in and lets his girlish side off of her leash. That's going
to be some real entertainment."
 
       "One might say the same thing about Lord Haabu," Kiima said with a
pensive look. "But, he can ill afford to do such a thing."
 
       "That's interesting," Nabiki said. "He and Ranma have a lot in
common, don't they?"
 
       "Lord Haabu has had a number of advantages in life compared to Lord
Ranma, but yes, they do have more than just the same curse in common. Lord
Haabu's childhood was so difficult, that I wonder if it could be called a
childhood at all. It's very hard for him to open up to anyone."
 
       "More tea?" Nabiki asked as she lifted the insulated carafe.
 
       "Yes, thank you."
 
       "What was your childhood like?" Nabiki asked as she filled Kiima's
cup. The winged blonde gave Nabiki a warm smile.
 
       "Entirely too brief," she answered. "My eldest brother died before he
could assume his filial duties and my younger brother was always something
of a ne'er-do-well who eventually came to a bad end. I had to take over for
my father."
 
       "Sounds as though it might have been rough," Nabiki said.
 
       "Yes and no," Kiima said with a shrug of her broad shoulders. "The
most fun I can recall having was in learning to fly, and I was something of
a scholar during my youth."
  
       "I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to fly," Nabiki
said. "My first real flight of any kind was when Haabu carried me down to
look at the waterfall. I've never even been on an airplane."
 
       Kiima gave Nabiki a quick smile. "It's not at all the same."
 
       "I suspected as much," Nabiki said. "You actually fly. Haabu just
sort of drifts along by sheer force of will, doesn't he?"
 
       Kiima laughed. "Haabu hasn't completed his training when it comes to
flying. His progress has been hampered because his father and most of the
Musk died fighting the PLA a few years ago."
 
       "That's curious," Nabiki said. "Why didn't the rest of you fight?"
 
       "To us it seemed hopeless," Kiima said. "Man to man, the three great
tribes are terrifying warriors, but against the huge numbers the PLA can
muster and their firearms there is simply no way for us to win. Even so, we
might have joined with Lord Haabu's father had he not been consumed with
unbridled ambition. He wanted to unite the tribes under his rule, you know."
 
       "No, I didn't," Nabiki said, "but it does explain some of Ko Lon's
misgivings."
 
       Kiima shrugged her shoulders. "There was a great deal of mistrust and
friction between the Musk and the Joketsuzoku long before Chi Li declared
himself a king. Lord Haabu spent a great deal of time trying to heal the old
wounds when his father wasn't looking. That's another reason why Lord
Haabu's training is not as far along as it might be. He and his father often
found themselves at odds over policy."
 
       "So the Musk and the PLA clashed and Lord Haabu was not there?"
 
       "Oh, he was there, but Chi Li had put Haabu in charge of his
reserves. Haabu had to decide between his father and the safety of his
people. He chose his people and led his troops away from the battle, taking
up positions that would have been so costly to the PLA that they refrained
from pursuing the remaining Musk. All who witnessed the battle know that
Lord Haabu made the right decision, but I think it haunts him just the
same."
 
       Nabiki closed her eyes and shuddered. "Haabu must really have it in
for the PLA, then."
 
       "If you worry that he is consumed by a desire for revenge, don't be.
He counseled against provoking the PLA, arguing that it was best to let them
break their teeth on American steel. Lord Haabu argued for many years that
our wisest course of action was to get the archives out the Middle Kingdom."
 
       "I don't think that the Americans want a fight with China."
 
       "Tell that to the PLA. They are preparing for just such a clash, even
though some of the younger leaders in Beijing have serious doubts.
 
       "It's madness," Nabiki said in horror-stricken voice.
 
       "Indeed, it is. That is one of the reasons Lord Haabu chose Japan
instead of the Americas. Beijing tends to become very alarmed whenever they
learn of any connection to the United States. Their plans for Japan,
however, are quite different."
 
       "How so?"
 
       "They intend to absorb Japan by encouraging out-migration."
 
       "Hmm, Japan is, perhaps, small enough to for such a strategy to work,
but it would have to be a very long term strategy. It does not seem
plausible."
 
       "How hard would it be for your government to oppose Chinese
interests, if thirty percent or more of your population favored a
pro-Chinese policy?"
 
       Nabiki's eyes widened at this thought.
 
       "Why tender military opposition if all you need to do is to invoke
the ire of your enemy's population against their government?" Kiima asked.
 
       "It's too fantastic, Kiima! Surely you're wrong about Beijing's
intentions," Nabiki said.
 
       "It is what the elders of all three of our tribes believe Beijing's
intensions to be," Kiima said with a shrug of shoulders. "If you think them
in error, you should gather proof as quickly as you can and discuss the
matter with Haabu and Elder Ko Lon."
 
       "So your strategy is to make Beijing think you are playing into their
hands, right? By coming to Japan, Beijing is far less likely to object to
you sneaking your people out of China."
 
       "Exactly."
 
       "You know, Kiima, there have been more than a few Japanese
politicians making these claims about China. I've always chalked them off as
radical xenophobes unworthy of my vote."
 
       "I know, and they will make trouble for us if they discover that we
are coming here in significant numbers. Fortunately, the whole of the three
tribes is not a large number in relative terms. Even more importantly, we
all despise the fools ruining China from Beijing. Any of us who settle here
will be vociferously opposed to Chinese interests."
 
       "I will check on these things, Captain," Nabiki said in a voice
colder than she intended it to be.
 
       Kiima nodded her head, showing respect for Nabiki's reaction. "I
thought you might have reservations once you found out. I think it better
you know now and have time to properly allay any fears this knowledge might
engender before we begin moving the archives to Japan."
 
       "You're actually more worried about those old tablets and scrolls
than you are about getting your people out of China, aren't you?"
 
       "The people will survive, one way or another, provided they are not
opposed by a government that has gotten its hands on those archives,
Tendou-san."
 
       "Are the fighting techniques recorded in those archives really all
that deadly?"
 
       "You have not seen Lord Haabu go all out in a fight, have you?"
 
       Nabiki stopped and thought for a moment. The fight between Ranma and
Haabu had caused the destruction of an entire mountain. Between the two they
had reduced Houraizan to a stone stump surrounded by a pile of rubble. The
destruction of that mountain had been collateral damage. Ranma and Haabu had
been fighting each other rather than teaming up to excavate.
 
       "I've seen the results on television," Nabiki said.
 
       "Fighting techniques and strategy are only a fraction of what is in
the archives, Tendou-san. There are instructions for making very powerful
artifacts that could cause horrible tragedies if they were misused."
 
       Nabiki thought about that for a moment. It made sense. A lathe could
be used to produce parts for tanks as easily as it could be used to produce
parts for automobiles or baby carriages. It was all a matter of use. She had
a sudden inspiration.
 
       "Is there a technique for making diamonds described in them?"
 
       Kiima laughed out loud.
 
       "I take that as a yes," Nabiki said in a dry voice.
 
       "Yes, Tendou-san, there is a such a technique. We have several tons
of diamonds on hand. They are one of the few things that will let a
craftsman reliably carve jade. However, I know of no living person who has
mastered the technique of making diamonds."
 
       Nabiki smiled at Kiima as she reached into her pocket and set the
large blue stone that Ranma had made down on the table in front of the
Hououzanjin.
 
       Kiima did not react with huge delight the way most women would have.
She picked it up and looked at it carefully. She took note of the stone's
sharp edges and sharp points by carefully feeling them with her fingers.
"How did you come to have this?"
 
       "Ranma made it the other day. He stumbled across the method while
meditating on a piece of charcoal."
 
       "Has he started helping plants to grow, yet?" Kiima asked.
 
       "You mean he should be able to?" Nabiki asked.
 
       Kiima nodded her head as she gently placed the diamond back on the
table. "A small percentage of our ancestors were once capable of many
strange things that were only distantly related to the martial arts.
 
       Nabiki thought of Pinku and Linku and shuddered. These people, wait,
MY people accomplished great wonders, just as modern people have. Only, my
people had a very different technology in the distant past. There is no way
to estimate what the combination of their technology and today's technology
might accomplish. In making diamonds, Ranma is somehow able to distinguish
between different molecules by observing them with his mind, or with some
other, undefined form of sensation. What might a real chemist do with such
skills? What if a Ranma Saotome had the help and guidance of a great
theorist like Einstein? The possibilities are boundless, ne? It's about to
rain soup. All I need to do is to find a bucket.
 
       "I agree with you about the archives, Kiima," Nabiki said in the
voice she used when she meant business. "All the other concerns are of
little consequence."
 
       Kiima cocked an eyebrow at Nabiki and asked, "All of them? Do you
really mean that?"
 
       Nabiki stared Kiima dead in the eye as she answered, "Oh, yes! We
_will_ find a way to work things out."
 
                                   ========
 
       Akane found herself in the middle of a vast desert. She stood on the
rim of a great canyon that wound its way out of sight in both directions.
Far away, out on her left, she could see the faint signs of mountains. The
sun would occasionally glint off their snowy peaks. To her right, the ground
dropped way into what seemed to be an utterly lifeless desert without so
much as a trace of green to relieve its mottling of yellows, duns, ochres
and browns. As far as she could tell, no river ran along the canyon floor.
It seemed to be as lifeless as the desert.
 
       "This heat is too much," she said to the vast emptiness around her.
"I need to find some cooler air."
 
       Akane jumped off the bare rock beneath her feet and into the empty
space above the canyon. Her heart leapt into her throat as she plummeted
toward its rocky bottom. After falling for what seemed a lifetime, she
remembered to spread her wings. The hot air rushing by her face began to
whistle and hum as the gold and red feathers of her great wings caught the
wind and bore her aloft.
 
       "Hah!" Akane cried out with joy. "I almost forgot I had wings. How
silly of me!"
 
       Flying down the canyon, she found rising air on the inside wall of a
bend and began flying a series of figure-eight patterns. She gained altitude
quickly. She longed to fly toward the cool mountains, but the glint of harsh
sunlight on snow caught her eye. It lay far out in the lifeless desert,
surrounded by shifting dunes of powdery sand.
 
       "I guess I'll fly home, first," she muttered. "Home? Since when did I
start living in a desert?"
 
       With a shrug of her shoulders and a shift in the set of her wings,
Akane began a long slow glide over the parched soils below. As she
progressed and her altitude decreased, she smiled to herself. She was over a
badlands and even though there was nothing but lifeless rock and sand below,
it reminded her of flying over the waves of the ocean. The badlands
eventually gave way to great dunes. The air above the dunes was turbulent,
but afforded her many places to find much needed lift.
 
       The dunes eventually gave way to an alkali flat. The air above it was
intolerably hot and the windborne dust above it stung her eyes. She beat her
wings to gain altitude and working hard for every centimeter.
 
       "At least I'm almost there," she said between pants for air.
 
       And, indeed she was. A few kilometers away, a lone butte jutted up
out of the burning flat. Its flanks covered with trees and other plants.
Rather than climbing in a rising spiral, the way she would have had she been
riding a thermal, she held a course for the peak as she climbed.
 
       It turned out that there was much more to the "butte", as Akane
learned once she gained enough height to begin circling it. It was much
longer than it was wide. She had been looking at it from its high end. It
was actually a complex of ridges formed in the shape of a narrow "U". The
rill down its center was choked with plant life and a tumble of large
boulders. A sizeable stream of clear water ran down from the high peak and
through the center of the rill. It formed numerous small pools and cascades
as it ran its course.
 
The stream ran a little way out into the alkali flat before dissipating.
Vile looking plant life surrounded this outfall. Akane got gooseflesh merely
from looking at it. The vast tangle of thorny vines, piles of cacti with
long sharp spines and the tortuously gnarled trees reminded her entirely too
much of the poisonous forest that Pinku and Linku had grown on the grounds
of Furinkan High School.
 
       The source of the water was obviously snowmelt. The upper reaches of
the peak were quite high, far too high for her to fly. Akane suspected that
snow covered the mountaintop the year round. She circled lower, searching
for a safe place to land. After several passes she found a large shelf of
rock jutting out from the side of the mountain. It was just below the upper
fringe of the tree line and had a clear approach from the air.
 
       Immediately upon landing she realized with a start that the place had
been long occupied. The shelf of rock led back into what had once been a
natural recess in the side of the mountain. There were obvious tool marks on
the face of the stone. Someone had made the recess larger and had covered
its long opening with a set of sliding doors. The doors were heavy and made
of wood. Akane counted ten panels in all.
 
"Well, of course it has been occupied, silly!" she said to herself. "This is
my home. My home? Since when did this place become my home? And who built
it?"
 
       She ruffled her feathers and quivered from head to foot. There was a
bright flash and she was suddenly aware that her wings and feathers
disappeared. There was also a distinct change in her vision. She was no
longer able to pick out as much detail at a distance, even though her
peripheral vision now seemed much greater.
 
       "What did I just do?" Akane asked herself. "When did I grow feathers?
For that matter, when did I start sprouting wings?"
 
       She looked down to see a scarlet feather lying at her feet. She bent
down and picked it up. It was then that she realized that she was completely
naked while standing out in the open. Unable to stop herself, she tried to
cover up with her arms and hands while scanning around to see if anyone was
watching her. If there was a hidden watcher, he or she was very well hidden.
Akane relaxed. 
 
       "I guess it's just as well. I could do with a bath and long hot soak
about now."
 
       She walked over to the right most of the sliding doors and examined
it. There was a large handle sticking out of the rock to the right of it.
Acting on a hunch, she pulled down on the lever. There was aloud clank
followed by a distant rumble. The doors began to slide to her left,
revealing the interior of her aerie.
 
       It was an amazing sight. The place had been beautifully finished out.
A far cry from the bare stone walls she had been expecting. One section of
the place was much like the great room at Tendo-ke. The floor was covered
with tatami and there was a low table made of ebony in its center. The
table, she quickly noticed, was equipped with a kotatsu.
 
       "Probably need that up here at night," she muttered.
 
       To the left of the area covered with mats was a well-equipped
kitchen, divided off from the matted room by a counter. There was a wall at
the back of these two spaces, suggesting that there was much more to be seen
further inside. The only thing she did not like about the place was that it
was a bit too dark, even when the doors were open. She walked inside.
 
       The ceiling was fairly low. She spied a vine about the same thickness
as her wrist growing up out of the rock in one corner of the great room. It
clung to the rock wall with tendrils that seemed some how capable of
penetrating the rock. She followed the vine with her eyes. It ran up the
wall and across the ceiling. In the middle of the room, the vine had small
section where numerous branches grew out of its main trunk. Each branch
dangled down a short way. On the end of each branch was what appeared to be
a perfectly formed quartz crystal. Akane reached up and touched one of the
crystals with the tip of her finger, then gasped as it began to emit a soft,
warm colored light.
 
       "Maa!" Akane cried out as she touched several more of the crystals.
Each of them began to glow as well. "Massikaa! What makes them do that, I
wonder?"
 
       She looked around the now well-lit room. Most of the stone had been
covered with wood paneling. It was a blonde-colored wood with a wonderfully
figured grain. Examining the paneling closely, she realized that the
individual panels were not made from any kind of plywood. Each panel was
made of a single board a little over a meter wide. The sight of them took
her breath away. She had only seen the like of it at an ancient Buddhist
temple in Nara, the oldest still in existence in Japan.
 
       "How strange!" Akane exclaimed. "I didn't see any trees this big as I
flew over, or at least, I don't think I did. Maybe they are further down the
mountain."
 
       Screwing up all the courage she could muster, Akane walked into the
kitchen. The floor here was covered with red terra-cotta tiles. It was the
perfect surface for a kitchen floor, she realized. The finish of the tiles
was rough rather than slick, therefore unlikely to become a slip hazard, yet
impermeable enough to reject stains, making them be easy to clean.
 
       "This is the kind of floor Kasumi would choose," she said, then felt
a sharp pang of sadness. "How long as Kasumi been gone now? Wait a minute!
Kasumi isn't gone...or is she? Why do I remember her being so old and gray?
What the hell is going on?"
 
       Alarmed by her confusion and not being particularly comfortable at
being in a kitchen to begin with, Akane made her way back into the great
room. There was a long painting hung on one wall. It was of a place she had
never seen, or at least, not a place that she could remember ever seeing.
 
       It depicted a village crowded onto the cliffs near a rock-ribbed
shore. The streets wound around and up and down, and were replaced
occasionally by long, broad sets of stairs cut into the rock. There were
towns like this one in Japan to be sure, but the architecture was completely
alien to her. She could not recall ever having seen anything like it. The
people in the picture were dressed funny as well. Their clothing was not
quite Asian, nor was it quite what she thought of as Occidental either. The
boats tied up along the quays were not like any she had ever seen before.
Surprisingly, none of them seemed to be made of wood, nor any other
substance she had ever seen boats made from. They seemed almost to have been
made from the same stuff seashells were made of.
 
       "Maybe the artist is just pulling our legs," she muttered. She found
a signature in the lower right corner. It read "Saotome Hitomi" in kanji.
 
       Akane stepped back from the painting and decided to explore the rest
of her "home". She opened the shoji in the back wall and found that it led
to a hallway. Turning left she followed it to another large dimly lit room.
It had several pools of clear water in it.
 
       One of the pools was quite large, easily the size of an Olympic pool,
but much deeper. Part of it ran beneath a set of sliding doors. Akane
assumed that part of the pool was likely to be out in the open air. There
was another, smaller pool of shallow water, as if someone had dug it into
the rock with children in mind. The remaining two were about the size of a
regular furo, just large enough for two or three adults to soak in at one
time. 
 
       On the far side of the room she saw a set of bathing stations with
stools and showerheads, much like what you would find in a public bathhouse
anywhere in Japan. There were no dividing walls, suggesting that no one
living here worried too much about who saw what.
 
       The room was floored with large flagstones of pale colored rock that
had a coarse surface. They felt much like hard sand beneath her bare feet.
 
       "I'm beginning to think Ranma picked out the flooring for this
place," Akane said with a giggle. "We need a little light in here."
 
       She walked over to one of the furo-sized pools and tested the waters
with her finger.
 
       "Whoa! That's really cold!" Akane cried out with a shiver.
 
       Staring down into the pool she could see that there was a kind of
sump in the very bottom covered by what appeared to be a grating made of
wood. Beneath the grating, lying at the bottom of the sump was what appeared
to be a large crystal. Strangely enough, the crystal seemed to be attached
to a vine growing out of the rock.
 
       "I wonder why the grating doesn't float," she said. Something on the
periphery of her vision snagged her attention. She cast a glance upwards and
saw that the vine she had seen in the great room grew on the ceiling of this
space as well. Half a dozen crystals dangled from the vine above the soaking
pool. One of them was orange in color. She reached up and touched it. The
crystal chimed when her fingernail came into contact with it and then it
began to glow. She was surprised by how much light it gave off at first,
then realized that much of the light she was seeing came from the pool of
water. Looking back down she could see that the large crystal lying in the
bottom of the sump was now glowing with a warm orange light.
 
       "Oh, I get it!" she said happily. "I guess I'll go make some tea
while the water warms up."
 
       She found the kitchen without much trouble. The trouble was, as
strange as all kitchens were for Akane, this one was especially mysterious.
Everything in it was more or less recognizable insofar as identifying its
function, but very different in design and appearance. The cups were seemed
far too large. Many of them were incredibly heavy. Some seemed so delicate
that she was afraid to touch them. She found a drawer full of silverware,
except it seemed strangely made, even for stuff from the far west. The pots
and pans were an even greater puzzle.
 
       The pantry was the size of a walk-in closet and was loaded from floor
to ceiling with rack after rack of spices and mysterious looking jars filled
with what appeared to be special sauces and oils. Her eyes grew huge with
delight. Unfortunately, she could not find anything that looked like tea.
 
       Exasperated, she made her way back into the kitchen proper and began
opening and closing all the cabinet doors until she finally opened one and a
sign fell down in front of her. It was dangling from a string and read:
"Akane, do _not_ heat water for tea on the griddle! Use the tea maker under
this cabinet."
 
       "Nani!" Akane exclaimed as her face reddened with embarrassment.
"What's this all about? I can't use my own kitchen?"
 
       "It's not your kitchen, sugar!"
 
       "Ukyou?" Akane asked and looked around the room. "Where are you?"
 
       "Oops!" the voice that sounded like Ukyou Kuonji said. "Wrong Akane!
I forgot it was you that would be here today."
 
       "What's that supposed to mean?" Akane asked sounding both annoyed and
alarmed.  "Where are you?"
 
       "I'm not there, really, Akane, I'm...Oh! I don't know how to explain
this. It's like I'm talking to you on a speakerphone--sort of. I'm not
really there at the aerie with you. I wish I could be, though."
 
       "Ukyou, what is going on? What is this place and where is it? How did
I get here?"
 
       "You flew there like you always do, silly."
 
       "I know I flew here," Akane said in an aggravated voice. "But that
doesn't explain anything!"
 
       "Yeah, I know, sugar," Ukyou's voice responded with a conciliatory
note. "But you'll understand before too terribly long, okay? Be patient for
me, please, baby?"
 
       This last sounded to Akane as though Ukyou were speaking to someone
with whom she had long been a lover. It increased her level of alarm
considerably. 
 
       "Where's Ranma?" Akane demanded.
 
       "He's...he's at his place on the coast, Akane," Ukyou answered in a
tight voice, "almost sixteen hundred kilometers west of where you are now."
 
       "His place?" Akane asked.
 
       "Yes, his place," Ukyou said. "Where you are now belongs to you and
me...or...I guess from your prospective, it will belong to you and me."
 
       "This belongs to us? You and me, I mean?"
 
       "Yes, it does."
 
       "Well where are you and why are you and I living together?"
 
       "I...I'm in a kind of...well...a kind of hospital, I'd guess you'd
say. We aren't living together right now because I can't come home."
 
       "What is going on?" Akane demanded in a loud voice as the last fine
filaments of her patience broke.
 
       "Easy, girl! Easy!" Ukyou said. "Look, I can't stay on here much
longer. I need you to promise me something, okay?"
 
       "Promise you what? What the hell is going on, Ukyou?"
 
       "Look I know it's hard, but you have to be patient. I know patience
isn't your long suit. It isn't exactly mine, either, but that's what I need
you to promise you'll learn to do, okay? If you and I had started early
learning a little patience, we'd both be a lot happier today."
 
       "Ukyou what happened?" Akane asked then decided she was asking the
right question in the wrong way. "Better yet, tell me what is going to
happen. This is the future, isn't it?"
 
       "Yeah...sort of..." Ukyou said with a pause. "Look it's real
complicated, okay? This is a possible future. We could have both had a much
better one, even though this one isn't so bad."
 
       "You aren't supposed to be talking to me, are you?"
 
       A long silence followed Akane's question.
 
       "Not really, no," Ukyou said in a contrite voice.
 
       "Are you going to get into trouble?
 
       Ukyou responded with a bitter laugh.
 
       "I really have got to break this off, Akane. Promise me you'll try to
be patient--for Ran-chan's sake if nothing else." Ukyou's voice sounded as
though she were damming a flood of tears.
 
       Akane wanted ask why Ranma wasn't here in her home where he belonged,
but bit her tongue. Clearly, Ukyou was deeply worried about something.
Taking a deep breath she answered, "Okay, I promise."
 
       "Thanks, sugar," Ukyou's voice answered sounding greatly relieved.
Akane could almost see Ukyou's approving smile, having seen the okonomiyaki
chef wheedle Ranma so many times in the past.
 
       "Oh, no! I gotta go right now! Love you, bye!"
 
       "Ukyou?" Akane asked and waited in a deafening silence. "Ukyou! What
do you mean you love me? That's crazy!"
 
       After another prolonged silence, Akane realized that no answer would
come. Unable to find the tea maker, she stamped out of the kitchen and back
toward the bathing cavern, but decided to do a bit more exploring before she
taking a soak. Sliding open a door in the hallway led her into a sizable
room with a thick carpet on the floor. There was a massive canopied bed set
into a space made by a huge bay window. The bed was half again the size of
what westerner's called a king-sized bed. There was a conversation pit
around a fireplace with a glass front and the room had its own wet bar.
 
       On one wall hung a naginata crossing one of of Ukyou's huge battle
spats. Between them, on a rack designed for them, hung both of the Saotome
family blades. Akane had no trouble recognizing any of the weapons. She had
seen them all before. The naginata belonged to her father.
 
       "Well, I guess we are already kind of rich," Akane muttered as she
took in the rest of her surroundings. The luxurious carpet was dark brown
and the rest of the room had been decorated in fall colors with lots of
wood, glass and brass. It was both elegant and homey at one and the same
time. 
 
       She found three chests of drawers made from fine mahogany, as well as
three very lady-like dressers made of burl walnut. The dressers had large,
cloud-shaped mirrors of thick beveled glass. The drawer pulls and knobs were
made of brass. The drawer bottoms were made of fragrant cedar and had
quarter rounds in their corners. The drawers were loaded with jewelry.
 
       "Geez!" Akane exclaimed. "These dressers must have cost a fortune by
themselves, let alone all the jewelry. Why have we got three of them? Wait a
minute! We've got three of everything in here but only one bed!"
 
       Akane looked around for a moment just to confirm her count and saw
that there were three cased openings leading to three walk-in closets.
 
       "Ranma, you pervert!" she shouted.
 
       A quick scan of the make up and perfumes confirmed her suspicions.
Wait, it was even more complicated than she suspected. All three dressers
had bottles of men's cologne on them as well as various perfumes and
different kinds of make up. She decided to check the closets.
 
       The, middle closet, the first one she walked into, clearly belonged
to Ranma. The one to the right of it obviously was Akane's own. The contents
took her breath away. Not only was there a lavish assortment of clothing
that she was thrilled with, there was another sizeable collection of men's
wear, most of which looked as though it might fit her father.
 
       "Oh, shit," Akane muttered through clenched teeth. "Don't tell me!"
 
       She quickly investigated the contents of the closet on the other side
of Ranma's and yes, there were two sets of clothing in it. The woman's
clothes, Akane realized, would really look good on Ukyou. Much to her shock
and dismay, however, was that the collection of men's clothing was much
larger than her own. Ukyou, apparently, enjoyed being a man.
 
       "Okay, in this future I'm married to two rich perverts and we all
sleep in the same bed. What does that make me?" Thoroughly fucked, she
didn't say aloud.
 
       Staggering out of the closet she noticed an odd looking gray panel on
far wall. It had a wooden frame and was quite large, almost as though
someone had removed a picture from its frame. As she neared it, she realized
that it was a screen of some kind.
 
       "Oh," Akane said. "I wonder how this works."
 
       When she reached out and touched the lower part of the frame, a
picture suddenly appeared. It was a picture of Ranma in his male form, with
Ukyou and herself seated on either side of him. They were sitting on a
wooden bench of the type she would have expected to find in a garden
somewhere in England, but rather than being in a garden, the bench was
situated with its back to a cozy little harbor. Both she and Ukyou were
comfortably cuddled up to Ranma. He, of course, was grinning like the
Cheshire cat.
 
       "I don't believe this!" Akane howled. "That pervert!"
 
       She stamped around the room a couple of times. When she looked back
at the picture, it had changed. This time it was a picture of Onna-Ranma
sitting between two tall, lanky men. One of them strongly reminded Akane of
her father, except he had dark bluish hair with a white forelock. His
haircut looked very similar to the way Akane wore her hair. The other man in
the picture had long reddish hair tied in the back and the sort of whiskers
a man with a heavy beard gets at about five o' clock every day.
 
       "Who are they?" Akane asked the screen. Yellow kanji immediately
appeared over the three people in the image. The screen claimed that the
fellow that looked related to Soun Tendou was named Saotome Akane no Tendou.
The other fellow, it claimed, was named Saotome Ukyou no Kuonji. All three
of the people in the picture looked happy, but Onna-Ranma was positively
glowing.
 
       Akane gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. The picture changed
again. This time, the fellow that the screen had claimed was Saotome  Akane
sat on the right with Onna-Ranma on the left and between them, was a girl in
her mid-twenties. She was powerfully built and taller than either Ranma or
this male Akane. Her dark blue hair was tied back into a braided queue, like
Ranma's. The young woman had mischievous blue eyes and she favored
Onna-Ranma in the face.
 
       "Who...who...who...?" Akane stuttered but the screen seemed to
understand her implied question. It obediently displayed yellow kanji over
the people in the image. The girl's name was Saotome Zanma. The thing that
disturbed Akane the most was that the screen claimed that Onna-Ranma was the
girl's mother and that this male Saotome Akane no Tendou was her father.
 
       "This can't be!" Akane cried out, feeling as though she needed to
reach up and push her eyeballs back into their sockets. "It just cannot be!
He'd...she'd...I'd never..."
 
       When the screen changed images the third time, Akane collapsed to her
knees. Akane saw a picture of herself, albeit a somewhat older version of
herself sitting on the left side of the picture. On the right sat the guy
that the screen claimed was Saotome Ukyou no Kuonji. Between them sat a boy
and a girl. The girl was in her late teens and the boy looked to be perhaps
two years younger. They were Saotome Hitomi no Kuonji and Saotome Ichiro no
Kuonji respectively.
 
       "No way!" Akane screamed. "I am NOT that big of a pervert! At least
he has a decent shave this time."
 
       The picture changed again, this time showing the male Akane seated on
the right and a very proud looking and very female Ukyou on the left.
Between them sat two darling little girls who were obviously twins about
aged ten. The two girls were dressed in matching kimono with their hair all
piled up into formal hairdos complete with turtle shell combs. The four
people on the screen looked both happy and proud.
 
       Akane leapt to her feet and shouted, "No more! I don't want to see
anymore of this!"
 
       Akane backed away from the screen making warding signs with both
hands until her knees struck the edge of the bed and fell over backwards.
 
       "Oh, I suppose I should have _known_ we'd own a waterbed!" she
exclaimed, then froze in horror at what she was staring at above her. The
underside of the canopy was one great mirror, lit around its periphery with
tiny little crystals attached to the vine that seemed to be growing anywhere
a light might be needed. Akane's reflection reminded her that she was not
wearing any clothes. She began to laugh despite the positively lewd image
she could see in the mirror above her.
 
       "This isn't a bedroom!" she shouted between guffaws. "It's a dojo
devoted to sex!"
 
       She laughed some more. "Oh, I get it now. It's the Anything Goes
School of Marital Arts."
 
       She sobered as a cold chill ran down her back. The bed, as warm as it
was and as wonderful as its velvet comforter felt against her skin, suddenly
seemed chill and barren.
 
       "So why I am I here alone?"
 
       She rolled out of the bed and onto her feet, determined to explore
the rest of her mountaintop abode and learn everything she could and she
would have, had her nose not come into contact with the harsh fibers of a
tatami mat. The prickle of the coarse fibers in the mat woke her up.
 
       Akane sat up, rubbed her eyes and then checked her surroundings. She
breathed a sigh of relief once she confirmed that she really was at Ono-ke.
She took in a deep breath and quieted herself to listen. The sound of muted
voices and the faint clink of pots from outside told her that the Amazons
were stirring about.
 
       "It must be near dawn," she mumbled to the empty room. She felt a
quick stab of jealousy and anger in her chest as she realized that Ranma and
Haabu had not made it back, then quickly forced herself to be calm. Ranma
and Haabu are incapable of falling in love with each other, she reminded
herself. Besides, she thought, I promised Ukyou I'd work on my patience.
Wait a minute! That was just a dream. I didn't promise Ukyou anything. Then
again, even though it was just a dream, it was a very vivid dream.
 
       "Maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something, " Akane
muttered aloud.
 
       I'm not queer for Ukyou am I? No, no way! Why did I dream about her
then? Maybe because I needed to tell myself something, but I would only hear
it if she said it? Maybe because I have let sex and jealousy become the
center of my universe? I haven't really done that, have I? Okay, so maybe I
have. I didn't mean to, but why else would I have dragged my most potent
rival into such a wonderfully romantic setting?  Why else would I dream that
I was in such a lovely home isolated by barren desert? And, I gotta face the
facts. I am impatient most of the time. And, I do lose my damned temper too
much. 
 
       Ranma is the Cold Dragon now and there are going to be lots of people
in our lives. I'll have to learn to cope with that and I don't have that
much time to learn how. I have to start keeping my cool. That's why I keep
having these stupid dreams about losing him. I really am afraid I'll lose
him, but I know in my heart that if I do, it'll be my fault. He's already
mine to lose, not Ukyou's to win.
 
       Akane giggled despite herself. "Ukyou's right about the two of us
being impatient. We both tend to go off half-cocked." She stretched the
sleep out of her back and legs and then got up for her morning bath.
 
       "I _am_ going to give Ranma a bad time about neglecting my training,
though," she muttered with a grin as she made her way down the hall.
"That'll get his goat."
 
                                    ==========
 

       "Bakusaitenketsu!"
 
       The sound of shattering rock rent the air as a huge cloud of dust
appeared at the base of a sheer basalt cliff. As the wind caused the dust to
drift away, a large hole appeared at base of the cliff. Two men walked out
of it. The jungle around them was hot, dank, hostile and unfamiliar to both
of them.
 
       "Where in hell are we now, Hibiki!"
 
       "This isn't Hell, Jack!" a younger voice shouted. "This is Earth!"
 
       "Are you sure?"
 
       "Yes, I'm sure! I always know it when I'm here!"
 
       "With you, here is a very relative term, Hibiki. Got any idea of
where on Earth we are?"
 
        "Aaah, well..."
 
       "I didn't thinks so. At least, it _is_ Earth, right? The Earth we
call home, not one of those other weird-ass place, right?"
 
       "Yeah, I'm sure of that."
 
       "Probably can't even drink the water."
 
       "There's lots of places like that!"
 
       "Yeah, I know. You manage to find most of 'em!"
 
       "Hey! Look at this!" the younger man said, as bent down and picked
fairly sizable piece of rock.
 
        "It's a rock."
 
        "It's jade!"
 
        "Jade's green, you dipstick. That's blue--no, hell! It ain't even
blue. It's more of a gray color."
 
        "It's jade, I'm tellin' ya. There's two basic kinds, nephrite and
jadeite. This looks to be nephrite."
 
         The older man turned around a couple of times, taking in their
surroundings, then said, "Well, this ain't anywhere in the Americas."
 
         "Yeah?"
 
         "Yeah. I know the plants and animals there. I've driven all over
it. Congratulations, Hibiki. You managed to find Asia this time. Your
navigation is improving. If I had to guess, and I do, I'd say we were in
Burma."
 
        "You mean Myanmar. I could be Cambodia or Laos or Thailand, maybe.
You better hope like hell we're not in Vietnam."
 
        "Yeah, I know. They hate you guys worse than they do us."
 
        "At least we're not all that far from Japan!"
 
        "Yeah. Like I said, your navigation's improvin'. Keep it up, Hibiki!
You might actually manage to find a bathroom without getting lost one of
these days."
 
       "Oh, hah-hah! You think I get lost like this on purpose?"
 
       "Aw hell, kid! I know ya don't, but it's aggravatin' to beat the band
sometimes, especially when you decide to get seriously lost, like you did
this last time."
 
       Ryouga involuntarily shuddered as he slipped his pack off his
shoulders and sat down.
 
       "Maybe we got lucky and that balrog thing lost our trail, Jack."
 
      "You better hope so, Ryouga. We're gonna have enough trouble getting
through customs with the stuff we got in our packs, never mind that pet of
yours."
 
       "It's not my pet!"
 
       "Yeah, yeah, I know! It wants to marry you. The thing is, I don't
understand what she sees in you," Burton said as he flopped down onto the
ground. Ryouga followed suit, but buried his face in his hands as he did so.
 
       "Look at it this way kid, now you and your buddy Ranma finally have
something in common."
 
       Ryouga stared at Jack, his jaw dangling with disbelief and outrage.
 
       "Ya both beat some fire-breathin' bitch and now she wants to marry
you. I think Ranma is a little better off, though."
  
      "Oh, yeah? How do you figure that, Jack?" Ryouga asked, his voice
heavy with sarcasm.
 
      "Shan Pu doesn't usually carry a whip around with her."
 
      "Hmph! Mu Suu told me she keeps one in her bedroom," Ryouga said with
a snort.
 
      "Into each life, a little rain must fall, Hibiki."
 
      "Better Ranma's than mine! How the hell are we going to get to Japan?"
 
      "That's easy. All you gotta do, is stay _behind_ me, Hibiki. I lead,
you follow, got it? So long as I lead, we don't end up in some weird-assed
place where nothin' makes sense."
 
       "Earth makes sense?"
 
       Burton responded by giving his companion a bleak stare.
 
       "Okay, so it was a stupid question. What do we do next?"
 
      "It's easy. We find a river and follow it to the coast."
 
      "Really? You can always follow a river to a coast? I never could get
that to work"
 
      "Ya gotta travel in the same direction as the water is movin', kid."
 
      "Oh! Now I get it. The river always empties into the sea!"
 
      "Eventually, yeah. Usually you run across a town or a bridge or
somethin' before you reach the coast. Now, hold onto this," Burton said as
handed Ryouga a leather strap. "And stay behind me! Got it?"
 
      "Yeah, I got it. Let's get goin' already. Akari's probably worried
sick about me."
 
      Burton turned and began walking downhill, Ryouga following him along
by holding on to a long leather strap Burton had tied to his own backpack.
 
      "You know," Burton said in a speculative voice as they made their way
down the steep hill. "I'll bet she looks good in one of those brass bras and
chain mail panties."
 
      "Hey!" Ryouga shouted. "You stop talkin' about Akari like that!"
 
      "Who said anything about Akari?" Burton said. "I was thinkin' about
Shan Pu."
 
      "Oh," Ryouga said, as his nose began to bleed. "That's different."
 
      "Too bad about the whip."
 
      "Oh, I don't know. I kinda like the idea of her usin' a whip on
Saotome."
 
                                      ==========

       William Warden Westerlake was well known by those who had met him,
and there were many who met him more than once, as a certifiable madman.
What they did not know, because Westerlake had been very careful to conceal
it from them, was that he was fast becoming a comfortably wealthy madman. He
would very soon be able to cease his adventuring around the more interesting
parts of the Orient.
 
       He had been very careful to cultivate his madman persona everywhere
he went. It helped him explain some of his less than orthodox methods and
practices, such as his habit of having his airplane, an old Lockheed L-100C,
painted once a year by the worst paint shop in all of Asia. The paint always
began to peel away after about three weeks of steady flying.
 
       There was considerable method in this madness. People tended to
ignore or, better yet, simply refused to take notice of things that were
ugly. This suited Westerlake to a tee. The very last thing he wanted was for
anyone to pay any serious attention to his airplane. He wanted them to
ignore it, and they usually did. Most who saw the battered looking old crate
would think it was simply an abandoned junker parked on the apron. If anyone
who knew better asked about the paint job, Westerlake gave them a long spiel
about how the metal of his aircraft had once been cursed by an angry old
yamabushi and that it had since not allowed paint to stick to it from that
day forward. The usual response of the curious individual was to beat a
hasty retreat, which was exactly what Westerlake wanted curious people to
do. Being a madman had many such advantages. Westerlake used every last one
of them to the limits of their effectiveness.
 
       This method of carefully deliberated madness also allowed him to
avoid questions from his clients. None of them ever asked why he was willing
to fly the old L-100 into places other pilots avoided like the plague, and
they never bothered to try to dicker with him when he named a price, even
though his rates were exorbitant. He always demanded to be paid in cash,
half on his acceptance of the job and half on final delivery. His "madness"
also got him out of explaining why he never allowed drugs aboard his
airplane, or would seldom haul mercenaries or their arms. He only made those
kinds of runs for very special clients--a very select list of certain
Departments of State, which, oddly enough, did not include the United
States. He pretended to hate all Americans and loudly refused any who tried
to do business with him. Given that Westerlake was quintessentially
American, this greatly enhanced his madman image. It had the added benefit
of making most of his rather furtive clients feel safe. Westerlake figured
what some of them did not know would eventually hurt them very badly, and
that was exactly how he wanted it.
 
       Westerlake's method behind madness approach to doing business worked
all the time, but its effectiveness was not entirely consistent. Sometimes
it worked beautifully. For instance, it had gotten him his current charter.
The University of Tokyo needed someone crazy enough to haul one of their
professors of paleontology and his sizeable load of fossilized specimens out
of the jungles of Myanmar, but was known to have a heartfelt hatred for drug
trafficking. Ninety percent of Westerlake's business was like this,
adventurous, but legitimate. The other ten percent was not legitimate, but
Westerlake indulged in it as a profitable hobby more than anything else.
 
       Smuggling jade and nephrite was not the sort of thing that would hurt
other people. It might well one day get him and his crew killed or
imprisoned, but it did no harm to others and fattened their wallets. Hell,
half the time he declared most of the stuff and paid the taxes on it. The
times he did not pay the taxes on any of it was because some tax collectors
invariably informed pirates of who was hauling the really nice pieces. The
rubies? Well, the rubies and sapphires were another story. He never paid the
local taxes on those. The miners preferred to keep their operations secret,
and Westerlake did not blame them. What many of the smaller Asian
governments had written on paper as law, and what they did in actual
practice were two very different things most of the time. In Asia,
discretion was usually the better part of valor, but not always. Today
looked as though it might become one of those rare exceptions to all the
rules Westerlake operated by.
 
       The Japanese professor had found a lot of fossils, or maybe it was
just a single very large fossil, Westerlake wasn't sure. What he had been
sure of was that it would take more than one trip. The L-100 was a large,
strong and easy to handle airplane, but it was fussy about being overloaded.
Neither the professor nor the University had been all that happy with the
expense of two extra trips, but they paid anyway. That was not the problem.
The problem was one of the local drug lords. The guy simply did not
understand why Westerlake refused to haul his opium for him, especially
given that Westerlake had a nice legitimate cargo to mix his stuff in with,
and was making more than one trip. The druggie had become loud and
insistent. This was a case where the madness in his methods had proven less
than entirely successful. Westerlake hated it when that happened. It was
going to be a hectic day. Westerlake hated hectic. Mixing an old airplane
with a small crew and hectic was always a bad idea.
 
       "Okay, guys, gather round here a minute," Westerlake called out to
his crew. He stood in the shade of the starboard wing of the L-100 while his
men and his co-pilot, an Australian girl who went by the name of Sheila for
some reason to get into his huddle.
 
       "We got everthang loaded?" Westerlake asked.
 
       "Yep, we got it all, Bill," Teddy Borkman, Westerlake's chief
mechanic and loadmaster said. Teddy was not actually Borkman's first name.
Everyone called him Teddy because he seemed more of bear than a man.
 
       "What about the engines?" Westerlake asked.
 
       "Jojo and Monk finished putting that new starter on number three
about fifteen minutes ago, Bill," Borkman answered. "It rolls over now just
fine."
 
       "You sure? You didn't start the engine," Westerlake said.
 
       "It's okay, Bill," Sheila said. "I didn't fire it up because I didn't
want the locals to think we were ready."
 
       "Good thinking, Sheila," Westerlake said. "Where's the perfessor?"
 
       "Got him and his slides, his microscopes and his papers comfortably
stowed up forward," Borkman said. "I made sure that he took crap before I
put him on board. He's happily pecking away at that little computer thingy
of his."
 
       "Good!" Westerlake said. "What about fuel? How much did we find?"
 
       "Enough to get us to Bangkok, maybe," Sheila answered.
 
       "It'll hafta do," Westerlake said. "I figgered out how to get rid of
those goons down there at the end of the strip."
 
       Sheila stared her boss in the eye and said, "Why do I get the feelin'
that I ain't gonna like this?"
 
       "Because you aren't," Westerlake answered. "The local goombah is
short on muscle that he can trust, okay?"
 
       "Yeah, so?" Borkman asked.
 
       "So I'm gonna make a deal with him to haul his shit. He knows we're
short on fuel, so he'll be expecting us to land in Bangkok where his
customer will be waiting for us."
 
       "Bill, he'll hold you until his stuff is on board and he'll probably
make us carry one of his goons with us," Sheila interjected.
 
       "Yeah, well, he won't be able to hold me," Westerlake said. "I got a
plan for dealing with that. You guys stick close to the bird and be ready to
get it off the ground fast when I show up, you got it?"
 
       "Oh, brother!" the man they all called Jojo exclaimed. "We're gonna
get shot at again."
 
       "Probably, yeah," Westerlake said, "but they'll be making goin' away
shots instead of being at the far end of the strip. Better yet, once they
load that truck with their dope, they won't have room for that Bophors."
 
       Generally speaking, Westerlake hated it when people shot holes in his
airplane, but it was especially bad when they used the forty-millimeter
stuff. He really hated that.
 
       "At least this time it won't be the cops shooting at us," Sheila
said. "We're gonna be cruising on two engines again, aren't we?"
 
       "Yeah, for a little ways," Westerlake said.
 
       "Oh, great!" Sheila said. "This is gettin' better already. Now he's
plannin' to land somewhere in this godforsaken hellhole to pick up fuel.
We'll get shot at again, Bill!"
 
       "Hmm, maybe," Westerlake said, "but I doubt it."
 
       "Oh, come on, Bill! You're not thinkin' of landin' in Manerplaw!"
Sheila cried out. "The Gingerbread man is well and truly pissed at us. You
know what he'll do when we put down there."
 
       His crew groaned. Saw Bo Mya, the Karen guerrilla leader they had
dubbed the "Gingerbread Man" was irascible on the best of days. Their last
visit to Manerplaw had been very interesting.
 
       "The Gingerbread man gets unmad just about as fast as he gets mad and
I figger he's gotten over that last little deal we struck with him,"
Westerlake said. "Anybody got a better idea? You want we should try to make
a deal with the slorks?"
 
       "Other than hauling this asshole's junk?" Borkman asked. "No."
 
       "And the last thing I want to do is to deal with the bloody SLORC!"
Sheila exclaimed.
 
       "Then get this thing ready without making it look like it's ready,"
Westerlake said. "Jojo, you and Monk open the lower panel on number three
and act like you're having a serious problem with it.
 
       "Gotcha, Boss!" the two men chorused. Both of them were grinning.
 
       "Teddy..."
 
       "Yeah, I know, Bill! I'll put the Professor on a short leash. What do
I do if he needs to take another crap?"
 
       "Give him a bucket if you have to, just don't let him out of the
plane. They won't pay us if we bring the cargo back without him."
 
       Sheila held her nose and rolled her eyes.
 
       "I'll be back," Westerlake said as he walked hurriedly toward the
ancient and horribly battered Landrover their paleontologist client had
rented.
 
       "Oh, we're looking forward to that!" Sheila shouted at his back.
Westerlake turned and gave her a grin, but kept going.
 
       "Well, you know the score guys!" Sheila said in a tired voice. "Let's
get started with the monkey drill. If we get out of this one alive, I'll
nevah come back to bloody Burma evah again."
 
       "You've said that four times that I know of, Sheila," Borkman.
 
       "Yeah, well, I mean it this time, Teddy!" Sheila said as she walked
up the cargo ramp and into the L-100. "This place is gettin' to be entirely
too hot for the likes o' me."
  
       "You've got a point," Borkman said. He shuddered while Sheila take
her whip off of hanger in the cargo bay and tie it to her belt. "Why haven't
you ever learned to use a proper sidearm?"
 
       "If I'm ever mad enough to kill someone," Sheila answered through
clenched teeth, "I'll want him to die slowly. Besides, if a bullwhip was
good enough for my dad, it's good enough for me."
 
       "Indy always carried a pistol too, Sheila Jones!" Borkman said with
an exaggerated sigh, knowing that no argument he could muster would ever
persuade her. "A great big honkin' Webley!"
 
                                  =========
 
       Nabiki Tendou sat next to Kiima on a bench situated between the Ono
house and the old potting shed. They watched in silence as Akane began going
through the same kata for the fifth time. Akane had, earlier that morning,
demonstrated three other kata for them. After that she had merely repeated
the same kata, the first one taught to beginners in the Anything Goes
School. Far from being bored, both Kiima and Nabiki were actually intrigued.
 
       "So, what do you think?" Nabiki asked Kiima in a low voice.
 
       "Not only is she much better than when I first met her," Kiima
answered, "her power grows as she warms up."
 
       "That's what I was thinking," Nabiki said. "It's a pretty good sign
that she still has a way to go, right?"
 
       "Yes, but she is already well advanced over the majority of warriors
she will ever meet."
 
       "That will never be enough for my baby sister," Nabiki said as she
carefully studied Kiima's face. "She won't settle for anything less than her
maximum."
 
       "Mmm!" Kiima answered, causing Nabiki to smile.
 
       "Sitting here next to you in your cursed form while watching Akane
practice is a very strange experience."
 
       Kiima gave Nabiki a lopsided grin.
 
       "You even smile the way she does."
 
       "I'm sorry," Kiima said in a contrite voice. "This body reacts in
ways I cannot always anticipate. I do not mean to mock your sister."
 
       Nabiki turned her eyes back to Akane. She was nearing the end of the
kata.
 
       "That's interesting," Nabiki said. "Have you ever practiced this
particular kata?"
 
       "No, this is the first time that I recall ever having seen it, but if
you're guessing that it seems very familiar to me, you guess correctly."
 
       "I haven't done this kata for almost five years now, but I did it so
much when Dad was teaching us, I think I could make every single move,"
Nabiki said as Akane finished her work and came to a stop in the ready
position.
 
       "Really?" Kiima asked.
 
       "Hey, Akane!" Nabiki called out.
 
       "Yes?" Akane answered. Nabiki noticed with pride that her sister was
not breathing hard at all, even though she had worked out enough that
morning to work up a sweat in the cold air.
 
       "Mind if we join you?"
 
       "Kiima doesn't know this kata, Nabiki."
 
       "Oh, I think you're wrong on that score," Nabiki said. "I want to see
how much her body has learned and how much mine has forgotten."
 
       Akane stared at them for a moment, then grinned. "You think I left
all the kata I know in the spring?"
 
       "That's what I want to find out, Akane," Nabiki answered. "You
practiced a lot more than I did and I'm pretty sure I still remember how to
do this one."
 
       "All right then," Akane said, giving them both a delighted smile,
"let's give it a try."
 
       Nabiki and Kiima got up off the bench and joined Akane in the yard.
Nabiki was wearing a gi, but Kiima was wearing a pair of dungarees much like
Ranma's, as well as a shirt very similar to the ones Ranma preferred.
Clothing for Kiima had become something of a real problem after she acquired
her curse.
 
       "You lead, Akane, but go slow, okay?" Nabiki implored. "Kiima has
never actually performed this kata and I haven't tried for years now."
 
       "We'll do it by the numbers the first time," Akane said as she nodded
her head in agreement. "Then we'll repeat it at a medium pace."
 
       "Okay," Nabiki said, "Just remember that a medium pace for you is
just this side of lightning for us ordinary mortals, okay?"
 
       "Have I really gotten that much better?" Akane asked.
 
       "I think it probably has something to do with you finally getting
laid, little sister. You're more relaxed."
 
       "Oh, ha-ha, Nabiki!" Akane said in sarcastic voice. "READY!"
 
       Nabiki snapped herself into the ready position and cleared her mind.
 
       "Ichi!"
 
       Nabiki slid her right foot forward and to the right, planted it
firmly and remembered to press her knee out toward the right so that it was
plumb above the edge of her right foot. This was move was designed to
protect the knee from being damaged by a kick. At the same time that she was
stepping forward, she threw an overhand right at her imaginary opponent and
much to her surprise, her body remembered not to lock her elbow out at its
fullest extension. Her fist felt as solid as a rock and the knuckles of her
right hand were in perfect alignment. Nabiki grinned, remembering that she
always had trouble getting her left hand to do that.
 
       Akane led them through the rest of the kata and Nabiki felt
enormously pleased with herself at the end. Even though she had fumbled
several of the moves, she still remembered them all in sequence.
 
       "That was simply astounding!" Kiima exclaimed.

       "Did you remember all of it?" Nabiki asked. She had intended to keep
an eye on the Hououzanjin, but performing the kata had taken up all her
concentration.
 
       "Not quite," Kiima said, "but I think I could have done all of it had
I not let my mind get in the way."
 
       "That _was_ pretty amazing," Akane said. "Let's do it by the numbers
again and see how much more of it she remembers. You remembered all of it,
didn't you, Nabiki?"
 
       "Yeah, I did, sis."
 
       "Ready!" Akane ordered. Everyone got into ready position, but Akane
hesitated. Nabiki looked around to see what was wrong and gasped aloud.
Ranma was standing at the corner of the house, staring at them with a
speculative look on his face. He held a wooden bucket in his left hand. The
bucket was stuffed full of clean clothing and bathing gear. He grinned at
them as he walked out into the yard.
 
       "I'll call the numbers, Akane," Ranma said, "that way you can
concentrate a little better, okay?"
 
       "Ranma, I'm sorry! I know I'm not supposed to teach,
but-we-were-just..." Ranma cut Akane off with a wave of his hand.
 
       "I know what you were doing and I'm glad Nabiki thought of it," he
said in a calm voice. "This is a great experiment, Nabiki. I should have
thought of it before now myself."
 
       "Thank you, sensei," Nabiki said.
 
       "You're welcome," Ranma said, giving her a warm smile.
 
       "Where's Haabu?" Nabiki asked, suddenly aware that her heart was
beginning to race.
 
       "Inside takin' a bath," Ranma said. "We both need one bad. Kasumi
said there was just enough water left for one person to bathe. What happened
to the power?"
 
       "Maybe Kiima and I should go and offer to scrub his back," Nabiki
said with one of her more evil smirks. "Do you think he'd freak?"
 
       Kiima burst out laughing.
 
       "I take that as a yes," Nabiki said.
 
       "As grand a joke as it would be, Nabiki-san," Kiima said as she
sobered up. "I dare not indulge. I am still under his command."
 
       "I understand," Nabiki said. "May I be excused, sensei?"
 
       Ranma grinned and held out his hand.
 
       "Ten thousand yen," he said.
 
       "Well, hallelujah!" Nabiki exclaimed. "I finally hit him in the
wallet enough times for him to learn something. May I run a tab, sensei?"
 
       "Sure, at the standard interest rates," Ranma said. "You're
dismissed."
 
       Nabiki left without another word. Ranma looked over to Akane and saw
that she was staring after her departing sister in slack-jawed amazement.
 
       "What's the matter, Akane?" Ranma asked.
 
       "I can't believe she'd even think of...with..."
 
       Kiima giggled.
 
       "Oh, hell!" Ranma exclaimed. "She was just kidding, Akane! Ready!"
 
       Akane and Kiima assumed the ready position. Ranma began calling out
the numbers at much faster rate than Akane had, forcing them to recall and
execute the moves of the kata at a much faster pace. Kiima managed to do all
of it with only one minor misstep. More importantly to Ranma, he could see
that she already had that little extra something, the smoothness and control
that he was trying to instill in Akane. The kata was coming to Kiima from
her somatic memory rather than her cognitive memory. She was not thinking
about it, she was simply doing the job. Akane was still thinking about each
and every piece. 
 
       "Akane, you have got to start trusting your body," Ranma said.
"You've done this enough by now that it knows what to do without you letting
your mind get in the way."
 
       "I'm trying, sensei!" Akane exclaimed.
 
       "I know," Ranma said. "That's what all this practice is for. Ready!"
 
       He called the numbers and let them work through the kata step by
step, paying particular attention to Kiima. It became clear that her body
remembered what to do well before they finished the exercise.
 
       "Okay, this time, do it on your own," Ranma said. "Ready? Begin!"
 
       Akane whipped through the kata while Kiima flowed through the steps,
easily keeping pace with the younger girl. The two of them put on an awesome
display. Akane's still raw talent contrasted with Kiima's years of
experience and confidence in what her body could do. The contrast between
their essential grasp of the art was made all the more apparent by their
similarities in physical appearance.
 
       (Saotome, have you looked at them closely?)
 
       (Yeah, Akane's changed a lot. Kiima still looks like Akane did before
Jusendou.)
 
       (Scary, huh?)
 
       (A little, yeah. Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin', Red?)
 
       (Having them spar together?)
 
       (Oh, yeah!)
 
       (We have to do it if Kiima will agree. Not even sparring with
shit-daddy would teach Akane as much.)
 
       (Yeah, to bad we never got to spar with our mirror twins, huh?)
 
       (No kidding!)
 
       (I wonder if there is any way we could call them back out of that
mirror?)
 
       (Hmph! There might be three or four of them in there by now,
Saotome.)
 
       (Whaddaya mean?)
 
       (Neither one of them suffered from terminal prudishness.)
 
       (Oh. Oh, shit!)
 
       (Didn't think about that, did you?)
 
       (Why would I?)
 
       (Geez, you're such a prude!)
 
       Akane and Kiima finished the kata.
 
       "That was really good!" Ranma exclaimed while clapping his hands.
"Really good!"
 
       Both the girls bowed toward him and chorused, "Thank you, sensei."
 
       "Kiima, would you do Akane a favor later today sometime?"
 
       "Of course, sensei."
 
       "Would you be willing to spar with her?"
 
       Kiima and Akane exchanged wide-eyed glances, then a huge grin filled
Kiima's face.
 
       "That should prove most interesting for both of us, sensei," Kiima
said. "I would be happy to spar with Akane, provided she has no objections."
 
       Akane's faced showed her excitement as she spoke, "I'd love that!
Where I could I find a better sparring partner?"
 
       "Careful what you wish for, Akane," Ranma said with a rueful grin,
"you are about to get it."
 
       Akane's face darkened for a moment, then she took in a deep breath
and let it out slowly. Her face brightened, "It's not like I expect to win,
sensei."
 
       (Look at that, Satome! She controlled her temper!)
 
       (Yeah, I'm proud of her. That temper of hers was beginnin' to worry
the hell outta me.)
 
       "That's good!" Ranma exclaimed. "If Captain Kiima will excuse us for
now, it's time for you to tackle a different challenge, Akane."
 
       Of course, sensei," Kiima said, with a nod of her head.

       "What challenge, sensei?" Akane asked.
 
       "Swimming and scrubbing my back," Ranma said. "Come on, let's go down
to the river."
 
       Akane's features went rigid with fear, but she followed Ranma's lead.
 
       "Oh, come on, Akane," Ranma implored as they walked along side by
side. "I ain't gonna do to you what Pop's did ta me."
 
       "Why?" Akane asked, still looking deeply concerned.
 
       "Because what worked with me won't work with you."
 
       "You haven't come up with something worse, have you?"
 
       "Of course not!" Ranma said. "I love you, silly."
 
       "And, your dad loves you, Ranma, but he dropped you into a pit full
of starving cats."
 
       "I ain't nothin' like the old man, now am I?"
 
       "Every once in a while you are a whole lot like him!"
 
       "Well thanks for the vote of confidence."
 
       "You're welcome, pervert."
 
       "Tomboy!"
 
       "Bleee!"
 
       "You owe me a kiss for that one!"
 
       Akane happily complied.
 
       "Whoa!" Akane exclaimed, holding her nose.
 
       "I really do need a bath, don't I?"
 
       "You got that right! What did you guys do all night? Ride around in a
trawler?"
 
       "Mostly we just hung out and taught each other a few things," Ranma
said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I tried to get Haabu started on getting
in touch with his girl side."
 
       "It smells like it!" Akane shouted, feigning her usual ire.
 
       "Oh, ha-ha!" Ranma retorted. "Very funny."
 
       "How many fish did you catch?"
 
       "Two big tuna, the first time. Then I had to go back out and catch
about three more. Haabu got really hungry."
 
       "Why'd he get so hungry?"
 
       "I showed him how to absorb power."
 
       "Power?"
 
       "Yeah, you know, like the way I did from the power lines."
 
       "Power lines? What are you talking about, Ranma?"
 
       "Oh, that's right! I never toldja 'bout that, did I?"
 
       "No, you didn't!"
 
       Ranma explained what he had done while they were staying at Tofu's
clinic.
 
       "How come you never told me or Tofu about this?"
 
       Ranma stopped walking and thought for a minute. "You know what? I
didn't realize what I had done at the time. It wasn't until we were here for
a few days that I finally figured it out."
 
       "Well at least now we know why there's been a major power outage."
 
       "Huh?" Ranma stared at his fiancee in alarm.
 
       "Yeah, all of Tokyo is down," Akane said. "The news reports are
calling it a "power cascade" or something like that, I can't remember for
sure now."
 
       "Shit! That's why those helicopters kept buzzing us."
 
       "Helicopters?" Akane asked. "They saw you?"
 
       "Well, yeah, I guess so," Ranma said as he scratched the back of his
neck. "Haabu and I didn't try ta hide or nothin'. They passed over us a
dozen times or more."
 
       "Did they try to pick you up?"
 
       "Nah, they just waved at us."
 
       "Which forms were you in?"
 
       "Ah, we were girls at the time."
 
       "I wouldn't worry about it, Ranma. There's no way they connected you
and Haabu with the power outage."
 
       "Huh?"
 
       "You know how guys are," Akane said, "They were just being their
usual perverted selves is all."
 
       Ranma started laughing.
 
       "What?"
 
       "I told Haabu that without thinkin'," Ranma said as he stopped at the
edge of the river, "then I had ta stop him from blasting the choppers!"
 
       "I don't blame him!" Akane said with heartfelt rancor. "Hmph! Guys
can be so disgusting".
 
       Turning to Akane Ranma said, "Ya like me ta look atcha, dontcha?"
 
       "That's different," Akane said, then gasped as Ranma began to undo
her gi top. It fell off her shoulders almost of its own accord.
 
       "Where did you learn that trick, Ranma?"
 
       "From dealin' with Happosai," he answered, giving her a salacious
grin. "Have I told you that you're beautiful today?"
 
       "Pervert!"
 
       "Yeah, but I'm your favorite pervert, right?"
 
       "Oh!" Akane exclaimed. Ranma gave her a deep kiss while caressing one
of her breasts with his left hand while undoing her pants with the other.
She shivered as her britches dropped down around her ankles.
 
       "Ranma!"
 
       Ranma stepped back and gave her a long lustful looking over. Then
began peeling his clothes off.
 
       "Hey! You know we can't..."
 
       "Yeah, yeah!" Ranma said as he scooped Akane up in his arms and waded
out into the river.

       "I brought you down here to give you a swimming lesson--kind of."
 
       "What do you mean, 'kind of'?"
 
       "Ya gotta start learnin' how to float."
 
       "You know I don't float!"
 
       "Yeah, I have kinda noticed that," Ranma said. He had kept wading
deeper into the pools while they were talking.
 
       "Whoa!" Akane exclaimed as the water came into contact with her back.
"That's cold!" 
 
       "Just relax, Akane," Ranma said in a soft voice. "I'm gonna hold you.
You're not gonna sink or nothin'."
 
       "But it's so damned cold!" Akane complained.
 
       "You oughtta try it as a guy!" Ranma said. "Now relax those iron hard
muscles of yours. That's it. Now, take a deep breath and let it out slow."
 
       Akane complied. Ranma slowly let the water hold up more and more of
Akane's weight as he felt her relax.
 
       "I thought cold didn't bother you anymore!" she asked.
 
       "It does if I let it."
 
       "And you're letting it bother you now?"
 
       "Sure!" Ranma said. "How else can I tell when you've had enough."
 
       "How will you know without being in your girl form?"
 
       "'Cause when my guy side has had all it can possibly take, my girl
side can stand about another hour, that's why. Weren't you listenin' when me
and Haabu were talkin' yesterday?"
 
       "You knew I followed you?"
 
       "I'd a been disappointed if you hadn't. That was one of the best
fights I've ever been in."
 
       "You really didn't mind?"
 
       "I'd said somethin' if I had, Akane. You know how I am."
 
       "That really was the best fight I have ever seen," Akane murmured.
"You've changed a lot since Jusendou."
 
       "Yeah, a little I guess," Ranma looked down at Akane and gave her a
smile.
 
       (She hasn't noticed, Saotome!)
 
       (Yeah, I know. She'll float like a cork until she does.)
 
       "So tell me, Tomboy, what have you learned over the last two days?"
 
       "About the art?"
 
       "What else would I be askin' about?"
 
       Akane gave him a smart-alec grin and said, "I think I'll start
pretending to be Kasumi for the next month or so."
 
       (Saotome don't you dare say one damned word about her cooking! She's
serious about this! Ow! I didn't say you had to bite our tongue!)
 
       "Kasumi, huh?" Ranma managed to choke out. "Why her? I like my Tomboy
just the way she is!"
 
       (Good move, Saotome! I didn't think you had it in ya!)
 
       (She's floatin' like a leaf on the water, Red. I don't wanna mess her
up.)
 
       "Do you really mean that?"
 
       "Hey! I coulda picked Kasumi if I had really wanted her, ya know."
 
       "I have to do it, Ranma," Akane said as her face became serious. "At
least for a little while."
 
       "Why's that, Tomboy?"
 
       "I have to get a grip on my temper and learn a little patience."
 
       (Saotome, watch you damned mouth!)
 
       (Well, what do I say to her now?)
 
       (Tell her not to over do it!)
 
       "I guess I could put up with that for a few days," Ranma said in
dubious tones. "Just don't over do it, okay?"
 
       "But I do need to make a few changes, though, right?"
 
       "Yeah, just so long as you don't get carried away,
Akane. Somebody's gotta keep me in line and that ain't no job for a
powder-puff."
 
       (I didn't think we had it in us, Saotome! Where'd you come up with
that line?)
 
       "Kiss me, you big unruly stud!" Akane exclaimed. Ranma had to catch
her to keep her from sinking because she tried to sit up, without realizing
that he wasn't really holding her up. He caught her and very quickly kissed
her lips.
 
       "I was floating!" Akane shouted after they broke their kiss. "I was
actually floating on my own, wasn't I?"
 
       "Yeah, you sure were, Tomboy!" Ranma said before kissing her again.
"Congratulations."
 
       "You tricked me!"
 
       "Yeah, I did."
 
       "Now I can't float!"
 
       "That's because you're thinkin' about it again."
 
       "Do you think about walking on the water?" Akane asked sounding
annoyed.
 
       "Only kinda," Ranma said. "If you think about it too much, you decide
its impossible and you sink. Of course, ya gotta work your ki at the same
time."
 
       "Then I could learn to do that, too, couldn't I?"
 
       "Sure."
 
       Tears came into Akane's eyes as she looked up at Ranma.
 
       (Why's she cryin'? What the hell did I do wrong?)
 
       (Calm down, Saotome! She's crying because she's happy and grateful.)
 
       (Huh?)
 
       (Quit staring at her nipples and look her in the eye, dummy! I'm
supposed to be the pervert, remember?)
 
       (Oh, yeah! Right.)
 
       "Hey, Akane," Ranma said in as gentle voice as he could muster.
"You're the one that floated today. All I did is all I'll ever be able to
do. I showed you the path. You're the one that walked it. It'll always be
that way."
 
       "Thank you, sensei," Akane said as she reached behind Ranma's head
and pulled it down for another kiss. "Now, let's get you bathed and into
some clean clothes."
 
       "I still smell pretty fishy, don't I?"
 
       Akane sniffed the air a couple of times then said, "And little like a
barnyard, too."
 
       "Oh, yeah. I guess I got that from riding in the back of that guy's
truck," Ranma said as he held Akane in his arms and waded back into
shallower water.
 
       "You guys hitched a ride with someone?" Akane asked. "You're starting
to shiver, Ranma."
 
       "Yeah, I noticed, and yeah, we hitched a ride. Actually, I talked
Haabu into doing the hitching part."
 
       "While he was in his girl form?" Akane asked in a surprised voice.
 
       "Yeah, I showed him how to pose and everything."
 
       "You're incorrigible! He actually did it?"
 
       "Yeah, I told him to just pretend that the driver was Nabiki and he
took to it like a duck to water," Ranma said then laughed. "You shoulda seen
the driver's face!"
 
       Akane lathered up a washrag and began scrubbing Ranma's chest with
it. 
 
       "I can just imagine," Akane said. "I'll bet that guy couldn't believe
his luck." 
 
       "He's lucky Haabu didn't blast him all the way to Mars. What was
really funny was that the guy kicked his little brother out of the cab and
insisted that Haabu ride in front with him and his sister."
 
       "Oh, no!"
 
       "Yeah, so me and his little brother rode in the back with his field
hands and cows. If it hadn't been for the cows, it woulda got colder than
hell back there."
 
       "Well, I bet the field hands got a kick out of your company, didn't
they?" Akane gave him a conspiratorial grin.
 
       (She's takin' this really well, Red! I can't believe it. You don't
suppose her and Kiima switched places do ya?)
 
       (Don't be silly, Saotome! Look at her aura.)
 
       (But, but she's not mad at me.)
 
       (She probably thinks she's talking to your girl side.)
 
       (Oh!)
 
       "They weren't in all that good a shape, Akane. When the driver saw
Haabu, he slammed on his brakes so hard that them and the cows all slammed
into the cab of the truck. I sure wish I could've gotten a picture."
 
       "Men are so silly!" Akane exclaimed as she started scrubbing Ranma's
back.
 
       "Yeah, we are," Ranma said. "That's what makes bein' a girl so much
fun sometimes."
 
       "Wait a minute!" Akane said with an edge to her voice. "Who am I
talking to here? Ranma or Ranko?"
 
       "Both of us, Akane. We're the same person, remember?"
 
       "But which of you is in control right now?"
 
       "I am."
 
       "Grrr!"
 
       "You really are talking to both sides of us, Akane."
 
       "Oh!" Akane exclaimed. "I guess I never realized you could do that.
This really freaks me out sometimes, you know?"
 
       "Ten days ago you would have sent me to the moon over something like
this, ya know."
 
       "Ten days ago I would still not have been able to understand you,
baka," Akane said as she handed Ranma the rag and soap. "Do your legs and
rinse off. You're turning blue."
 
       "Okay."
 
       "You did bring more than one towel, right?"
 
       "I brought you a change of clothes, too. They're in the bucket under
my stuff."
 
       (She sure is giving our tool a hungry stare.)
 
       (Well what did you expect, Saotome?)
 
       (Oh, no! It's standin' up!)
 
       "That's a relief!" Akane said, openly staring at Rama's condition. "I
was beginning to think it would disappear altogether."
 
       "Oh, come on! It never bothered you when cold water turned it into
something else." 
 
Akane giggled and said, "Hurry up and finish so we can get in out of this
cold, you baka! I'm freezing."
 
       "Yeah, okay! Okay!" Ranma said as his teeth began to chatter.
 
       "Why don't you just start ignoring the cold again like you've been
doing?"
 
       "It wouldn't be fair to you."
 
       "That's very sweet of you, Ranma, but will you please hurry up?"


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