Ok, here is Part VIII to my story. I renamed it because everyone thinks 
it's a Kuno story!!!

			  Chinese Samurai
			        By Jack Ji
		          Part VIII: The Fourth Horseman
	I woke up and opened my eyes, Shampoo lay naked, clinging 
to me in her sleep. There was a pile of clothes on the floor. I 
remembered what happened and let go of her. However, she still clung 
onto me. For the second time in a week, I woke up with my arms 
around a naked Shampoo.
	I sighed and got up to get on my boxers and my shirt from the 
pile of clothes on the floor. I somehow managed not to disturb 
Shampoo as I rose from the futon.
	I thought about what had happened. I had been so naive to eat 
those cookies so quickly. I should have known there might have been 
something in them. I should have seen it coming with all those attempts 
that Shampoo tried earlier such as back in the storage room when she 
locked the door and tried to make me drink a glass of water with some 
strange powder she had put in it.
	I sat down and laughed about it. That powder must have been 
passion spice. I should have known that she'd get me sooner or later. I 
felt so disappointed, not with her, but with myself. All those hours of 
AIDS education and sex education classes went down the drain.
	I decided to wake her up with a kiss, "Wake up, Shampoo-
chan."
	She opened her beautiful eyes and yawned, "Good morning. 
Shampoo so tired from... last night."
	I gave her a stern face, "Let's talk about last night."
	She smiled and nodded, "Shampoo show she good wife, yes?"
	For some reason my feeling of disappointment at myself 
changed into anger, "You didn't show me you were a good wife. You 
didn't show me anything! I didn't want to do that with you!"
	Her smile faded, and she looked down at the floor. She said, 
"Shampoo sorry."
	"Sorry doesn't cut it," I turned my back to her. I felt so angry. 
I was so angry that I wanted to wrap my hands around her neck and 
squeeze as hard as I could. "You know what we did last night? We 
didn't make love; we didn't have sex; we just fucked! Do you know 
what fucking means? I didn't want to do anything like that with you but 
you forced me to with those cookies. It's-it's just like rape. We didn't 
even use a, a..." Lack of vocabulary got me.
	"We no use what?"
	I turned back to her and yelled, <We didn't use a 
contraceptive!!! Don't you know what a contraceptive is? Are you 
really that stupid?>
	She started crying but it didn't get to me this time. <I'm sorry. 
Great-grandmother told me to-to use the passion spice. She knew that 
you wouldn't go along with this engagement for long so...>
	<So she thought if you got pregnant, I'd marry you,> I calmed 
down finally even though, I don't think I showed it much. <It looks like 
she is much smarter than I expected.>
	"Shampoo show she good wife. Is her fault this happen, not 
Great-grandmother. She take punishment from husband."
	"Punishment?"
	"Yes. Is village law th-that male outsider husband c-can punish 
wife if sh-she make him mad."
	I blinked, "Th-that's domestic abuse!" I thought about it. "But 
it makes sense, I suppose, since he has already beaten his wife in 
combat."
	"Groom no... no give punishment?" she looked back at me 
with an expression of hope.
	I thought about it for a second, "I suppose if I'm going to 
along with this engagement law, I might as well go along with the 
punishment law."
	Shampoo gasped upon hearing this, "Sh-Shampoo get ready 
to take p-punishment." She got up to put some clothes on.
	"No," I stopped her. "I have the perfect punishment for you. It 
only seems fitting for you what did to me." I pulled out my katana and 
pointed it at her neck, "Lie down."
	She did as I ordered and shut her eyes. I heard her mumbling 
"Shampoo good wife" over and over again. I moved over her naked 
body and put the blade up to her neck.
	"I really hope you don't resist because I don't want to 
`accidentally' slit your throat," I  grabbed both her wrists and moved 
them above her head to pin them down. I then pinned down and spread 
her legs with my knees.
	"I did not like what you did to me with those cookies," I said 
as I kissed up and down the side of her neck. I then whispered in her 
ear, "Do you know how I feel?"
	She still had her eyes shut and was still mumbling "Shampoo 
good wife" over and over again. She shook her head to my question as 
a tear rolled down her cheek. I could feel her heart thump.
	"Of course you don't," I whispered again. "Now I will deliver 
my punishment." I clasped both her wrists with one hand and made the 
noise of someone undoing a belt buckle with the other.
	I paused to take a look at her. She still had her eyes shut and 
was crying. I wasn't really angry at her, but I didn't want to show her 
that. I could see the fear she tried to hide behind her sad expression.
	I decided to end my moment of retribution, "Just don't use the 
passion spice on anyone again."
	She opened her eyes, "Th-that all?"
	"That's it," I got off of her.
	"Shampoo thought you going to..."
	"I know, but you should have remembered that I only have 
my boxers on," I pointed to my undergarment. "I guess you were too... 
distracted to really notice."
	"Groom not mad at Shampoo?"
	"Well... I was for just a little bit," I smiled at her. "Anyway, I 
don't abuse women. Just remember that my punishment is that you are 
not allowed to use the passion spice on anyone again."
	"Shampoo understand," she wiped the last tear from her eye. 
<I didn't think you were... that kind of a man.>
	<C'mon, put something and let's go... take a shower... 
together,> I said, a little embarrassed. After what happened the night 
before, I wasn't so shy anymore.
	<You really mean it?> her eyes sparkled with happiness. She 
wrapped towel around herself quickly, "Shampoo ready."
	I held her hand and turned to the door, "So... Uh, how was I?"
	The only answer I got was a phrase that seemed very familiar, 
yet I had never heard it before, "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!"
	The roof collapsed but, fortunately, nothing hit us except bits 
of fragments. When the dust cleared, there was a young man around 
my age wearing a yellow bandanna decorated with black spots. He was 
also carrying a rather large and heavy looking backpack and an 
umbrella.
	"Who are you?" I asked.
	"You are the cause of my troubles!" he shouted at me. I felt 
my chi shield go up as I sensed a HUGE amount of battle aura. "First 
you eliminate one of Ranma's fiancee's and then you try to kill me."
	"Shampoo go get water," she slid the door open, stepped out 
and shut it again. I had no idea why she wanted to drink water.
	"Look, buddy, I think you have the wrong person," I tried to 
talk him out of any fight. "I don't remember ever meeting you before 
and I didn't `eliminate' any of Ranma's fiancee's. I more or less did a 
favor for him and took one."
	"Shut up! How dare you try to hack me with your katana," he 
started to glow a shimmering blue. "Every time Ranma loses a fiancee, I 
have less of a chance of happiness with Akane."
	I had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. He 
formed a blue ball in his hands. It started to grow larger and larger.
	"Akane, dear sweet Akane," he looked up at the sky through 
the hole in the ceiling. "Just thinking about you being with Ranma 
makes me feel so... SHISHI HAKODAN!" The blue ball changed into a 
straight beam heading in my direction.
			******
	Jack stood there and stared at the beam of pure energy coming 
at him. Hearing the words of "shishi hakodan" made one of his many 
memories from his ancestors emerge.
	Ryouga expected to end this quickly. With Jack gone, 
Shampoo would go back to Ranma and everything would be back to 
normal, just like before this gaijin and his friends came to Nerima.
	The ki blast hit Jack's chi shield at full force. It completely 
wiped out the shield and pushed him back against the wall. He hit it 
with a thump and fell to the floor. An extreme feeling of nausea and 
fatigue went through his body.
	"What the..." Ryouga was surprised that his ki blast didn't 
shoot him through restaurant's walls. Jack recovered quickly from the 
sudden blast. He used his katana to help him get to his feet.
	"Why are you attacking me?" he stumbled to his feet.
	"You ruined my slim chance of happiness!" Ryouga pulled off 
a couple of bandannas and started twirling them in his hand. Jack didn't 
notice what he was doing because he was wondering how he pulled out 
so many bandannas out of what looked like just one.
	"DIE!" Ryouga shouted and threw the bandannas at Jack. His 
shout broke Jack's train of thought. He looked at the projectiles coming 
at him. He dodged all of them, except one, which nicked the top of his 
left arm and that was only because he was still disoriented from the ki 
blast that hit him. 
	"What the hell are those?" Jack grabbed his wound. One 
strange thing was the illusion of only one bandanna but the trait of 
sharpness was something totally strange.
	"Now I shall defeat you!" He pulled out about 20 bandannas 
and threw them all at Jack. Instinctively, he unsheathed his katana and 
threw the sheath in the path of a few of the bandannas. The ones that 
hit the sheath were cut in half. Jack dodged the rest with ease.
	"H-how can it do that?" Ryouga pointed at the sheath in 
amazement. He reached up to try to grab it but it disappeared before he 
even got near it.
	"I don't want to fight you," Jack pointed the sword at him. 
"I'll give you one more chance to leave or I'll call the cops on you."
	"Ha! I will not be happy until you are gone!" Ryouga pointed 
his umbrella back at him.
	"Then I guess we'll have to settle this the way I don't want 
to," he lunged in with his katana. Ryouga easily parried it with his 
umbrella.
	"You'll have to do better than that, gaijin," Ryouga taunted 
him. He swung down with the umbrella. Jack quickly got out of the 
way and made a fast counter strike downward. Ryouga tried to block it 
with his umbrella but, since Jack used metal and Ryouga used bamboo, 
his sword cut it right in half.
	"Fine then," he threw the useless umbrella aside. "I shall kill 
you with my bare hands!" He jumped up and began an aerial assault.
	Jack, trying to be fair, let the katana disappear. He then used 
the Air Drill to punch right into Ryouga's gut to send him off target. He 
landed gently on his feet to the side of Jack.
	"Ha! You'll have to hit harder than bwee," he changed into a 
pig as a splash of water fell over him.
	"Shampoo back with water," she was in the doorway holding 
an empty bucket.
	Jack looked at Shampoo. Then he blinked back at P-Chan. He 
looked back and forth between his fiancee and the furious black piglet.
	"Y-you're... P-Chan!" he started laughing.
	"BWEE!" P-Chan jumped up and attempted to bite him.
	Without a thought, Jack swung down as the sword appeared in 
his hands and cut the black pig in half right down the middle.
	"Aiyah! Looking like we have pork for breakfast!"
			******
	"Oops," I looked at the bloody mess in Shampoo's room. Not 
only was there bits of roof and ceiling in her room but two halves of a 
pig corpse. "Uh, heal up."
	The two halves came back together. All the blood on the floor 
and on the blade flew back into the pig like in slow motion playback. 
When everything healed up, P-Chan stood on all fours and backed up 
away from me.
	"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh," I said to the pig.
	"Looking like we not having pork," Shampoo shut the door 
and clasped my empty hand. She had some clothes on now.
	"Let me guess, you fell into Spring of Drowned Pig, right?" I 
asked. The pig had a sad look on his face and nodded. "Why didn't you 
tell me about him when I asked you who else had curses, Shampoo-
chan?"
	"Shampoo not thinking of Ryouga," she looked a little 
ashamed.
	"Ryouga? So your name is Ryouga, eh?" I looked at the pig. It 
nodded again. "You sure are a cute little pig."
	"BWEE!" It looked like it was going to jump at me again but 
remember what happened last time and stopped.
	"Look, so you have this thing with Akane," I started, "but you 
don't need to try to kill me. I really don't like that."
	"Here," Shampoo poured some hot water on the pig. He 
changed back into a guy, a very NAKED guy.
	"Turn around!" he ordered.
	"You no have anything Shampoo no see before," she smiled 
and nudged me.
	"Ah, just turn around, Shampoo-chan," I tried to fake a 
smiled. "A guy needs his privacy." We both turned around.
	"OK, I'm done."
	We both turned around and saw that he had his backpack on.
	"You have defeated me," he looked down at his feet. "I will 
stop bothering you for now. I must now go on a long trek far away 
from here so that I may train and defeat you when I return."
	"You going to bathroom, yes?" Shampoo laughed. Ryouga 
didn't look too happy about what she said.
	"I don't get it," I looked at her.
	"She's making fun of my bad sense of direction. It's like my 
second curse. Good-bye." He jumped out the hole in the ceiling.
	"Strange guy," I looked at the hole. "Anyway, let's go take 
that shower now. I'll clean up this mess later."
	"Shampoo like that," she had a big smile on her face.
			*******
	It had been three days since Dan left the island. On the first 
day, he mostly thought about his family and what his friends must have 
been going through. They must all have thought he had died. How was 
he going to explain what happened?
	On the second day, he thought about the training he went 
through. It was extremely unorthodox but he didn't really know that. 
He only wondered about the strange weapons and the alligator 
wrestling he had to do.
	Dan started running out of food and water on the third day. He 
calculated that he had only a day of rations left and that was IF he had 
been going the correct direction. The natives had only given him some 
ground up rocks to guide him to the magic portal.
	Finally, around high noon, Dan saw a glittering white oval hole 
floating in the middle of the ocean. He thought it was just a mirage or 
boat at first but when it got bigger and didn't move, he knew it was the 
portal the natives were talking about.
	Dan wanted to jump in and swim with all his might to the 
portal but his martial arts training stopped him. Even though he had 
gone through strange ordeals in it, he still learned the basics such as 
patience and self-control.
	Slowly, like hours to him, he reached the portal. He started to 
bundle up the weapons to get ready to jump into the portal when he 
heard a small grumbling.
	"Looks like I got to eat something again," he picked up an 
island delicacy called "mwato." It was suppose to be smoked fish 
intestines.
	He heard the grumbling again but louder this time. He paused 
for a moment. The grumbling was coming closer. It wasn't his stomach 
after all. He turned around to be face to face with a giant alligator.
	"Oh my god!" he dropped the mwato. "This is why Doug 
wanted me to do the alligator wrestling and why he didn't go through 
the portal already. A giant alligator guards it!"
	Dan quickly hooked all the weapons on his custom made 
Microsoft School of Martial Arts Weapons Belt and jumped off the raft, 
barely avoiding the sharp teeth of the monster. It had chopped the raft 
right in two.
	The alligator spit out the rest of the raft. It looked around but 
couldn't find Dan. Slowly, it rotated in a circle but still couldn't spot 
him. It sunk down lower and swung his tail, trying to feel if he was 
behind it. In a swift motion, it dived down into the water and spotted 
him.
	Dan had waited for this moment. He swam as quickly as he 
could away from it to the surface. He swam for his life. The alligator 
was right behind him. He could practically feel the bubbles down his 
back. Finally, he reached the surface and shot high into the air.
	The alligator followed quickly and also shot into the air. It 
opened its huge jaws to try to swallow Dan as he fell straight down. He 
had to time this perfectly. He saw his feet coming closer and closer to 
the giant cave-like mouth of the alligator.
	His feet reached the mouth. The jaw immediately closed on 
him but Dan went right into the splits. No matter how hard it tried, the 
alligator couldn't shut its jaws. Dan's legs were preventing him.
	He quickly pulled out a few disks from his back pocket and 
threw them into its mouth, cutting up its gums and tongue. It screamed 
out in pain as he jumped out of its jaws. Dan saw the blood stained 
teeth as it closed its jaws.
	Quickly, he landed on the snout and wrapped his computer 
mouse bolo around it. The alligator tried to resist and shake him off but 
failed.
	"Microsoft School of Martial Arts Tonfa Strike!" Dan pulled 
out his keyboard tonfa and hit the alligator right on the head, knocking 
it out cold. It flipped on it's back and floated on the water. "That... 
wasn't *pant*... so hard."
	He unwrapped the bolo and put his weapons back on his belt. 
He caught his breath and took a look at the portal, "Better do it before 
this guy wakes up." Dan jumped into the water to swim into the portal. 
A sharp pain went up his leg as he entered the salt filled water. The 
alligator gave him a small bite on the leg.
			******
	Dan's body floated in the center of the whiteness. There was 
nothing but his wet body and the emptiness. This portal was very 
similar to the Nanban Mirror in that it can take one to any place and 
time one wanted. The only difference was that you didn't need to shed 
a drop of tear, nor can you take it along with it since it isn't portable.
	Dan opened his eyes and stared into the bright nothingness for 
a few moments. He felt like he was floating on clouds or in space. He 
didn't feel disoriented. There was no up, down, north or south here.
	"Where do you wish to go?" a sweet female voice asked.
	"Huh? Who said that?"
	"I am the guardian of the inner portal."
	"Oh, I see. You're one of those invisible entities. OK, if you 
are the guardian, then who was that alligator out in front?"
	"He is the guardian of the outer portal. Where do you wish to 
go?"
	"Just wait a moment," he got out a wet piece of paper. "Oh, 
yuck. It's all wet. Anyway, I want to go to... To Ne-ri-ma District 
Tokyo, Japan."
	"When do you wish to arrive?"
	"What do you mean?"
	"At what point in time do you wish to arrive at your 
destination."
	Dan thought about this now. He could go back in time to do 
humanity good, such as prevent communist takeover of Russia, but he 
didn't want to get stuck there since he couldn't come back. This was a 
one shot deal and he had to make the right decision.
	"When to you wish to arrive?" the voice asked again.
	"Just give me a second," Dan thought some more. Did he 
want to go before the plane crash so that his friends wouldn't have to 
go through the torment? No, that would cause too much confusion 
between the airline and his family. The best time he figured was the day 
he left the island.
	"I have chosen my destination time," I said. "I wish to arrive at 
Nerima District, Tokyo, Japan at the same time I left the island."
	"Thank you," the voice said. "Please allow a 24 hour margin of 
error. Enjoy your trip."
	"Twenty-four hour margin of error?" Dan said as he 
disappeared in a white flash of light.
			******
	I sat down with a pencil and a piece of paper in my hand. We 
drew straws to see who would have to write to Dan's family. I lost but 
it was just as well since I was the better writer of the three of us.
	I put the pencil tip down on the paper. I tilted it, but couldn't 
begin. I didn't know where to begin. I was never good at writing 
sympathy cards. Heck, I never was even good at writing birthday cards! 
My mom usually wrote those for me and I just made the touch-ups.
	I sat there for the next few minutes, tapping the pencil. I tried 
to think of a nice way to begin but nothing came to me. With what had 
happened with Shampoo, I couldn't think too well.
	Then I did what I usually do when I have writers block: I 
started writing something else. I thought about writing a short, one-part 
story but I couldn't really think of anything. I then had an idea.
	I started writing a draft copy of an agreement. It would be the 
agreement that Mike, Hanny and I would sign, along with a fourth 
person. It would say what our team really meant and would make us 
more organized and a real team.
	Someone tapped me on the shoulder, "How is it going?"
	I turned around to find that it was Hanny, "Uh, not so great. I 
couldn't start so I began this agreement between you, Mike and me."
	"Oh, Really? How much have you written?"
	"Only the title. I think I'll base it sorta on the Declaration of 
Independence. I'll go and print it out on a word processor when I'm 
done with the draft."
	"Hey, if it's going to be an agreement between the three of us, 
I want some say in it. After all, if only you write it, it wouldn't be a 
team thing."
	"I guess you're right. But it'll be between the FOUR of us, 
when we find a fourth person. Go get Mike so he doesn't get left out."
	"Right," he left to get Mike.
			******
	I had just gotten back from the Furikan High and had printed 
out the final copy of the agreement. Surprisingly, it only took an hour 
between the three of us to go through a few drafts.
	I was re-reading it, just to make sure I didn't make any errors I 
didn't catch. I opened up the door to the spare room where we were 
staying in. I looked up from the paper to see Hanny getting dressed.
	"Awe, Hanny," I turned around. "I didn't want to see that. 
Couldn't you have done this in the bathroom?"
	"Hey, this is my room too, ya know," he finished putting on 
his pants.
	"I guess you're right," I nodded. "Maybe we should part the 
room into fours and make the fourth room a storage room."
	"Why not just part it into three?"
	"Because you can't part a rectangle into three equal parts! 
Don't you remember that from geometry class? Anyway, why don't 
you make a quick sketch of it and we'll just build it."
	"On one condition that the storage room be next to yours.
I can't stand listening to you blast your CD's anymore!"
	"Fine. How do you think this looks?" I handed him the paper.
	It stated the agreement and rules of being a Horsemen. Mostly 
it was about sticking together, such as, "No Horseman shall turn on 
another," "No Horseman shall be replaced except by their heir," and 
"Each Horseman shall protect each other."
	"Looks good," he nodded. "The format looks a lot like the 
Declaration of Independence."
	"Here," I pulled out a piece of paper. "Why don't you start on 
that sketch now, while I go and get some building material."
			******
	"Hey, Akane," I said as she walked by. "Does the dojo happen 
to have a supply of building materials?"
	"Yeah, of course," she said. "What do you need it for?"
	"Well, I was thinking of adding some doors in the guest room. 
That is, with your dad's permission."
	"You have my permission to add anything to the dojo," Soun 
appeared behind me out of nowhere. He was in tears again, "You have 
done us much honor in eliminating one of Ranma's fiancee's."
	"Uh, yeah, thanks," I faked a smiled. "Ah, Akane, can you 
show me where they're stored?"
	"Sure. They're right out here." I followed her lead.
			******
	"OK, Mike" I said to him. We were getting ready to go to 
sleep. "We're going to do some building. We're going to make four 
smaller rooms in here and a small hallway that each door to our room 
goes into. That way, we'll each have our own room and a storage 
room."
	"That's OK. I want the room like it is now,"  I could tell he 
didn't want to do this.
	"Sorry, Mike," Hanny jumped in, "but you have to help us. If 
you do, it'll be a lot quicker."
	"No, that's OK. I don't want to do that."
	"C'mon, Mike," I pleaded with him. "You have to help us."
	He only slouched his back and bobbed his head, "No, you can 
do it without." After he said this all too familiar phrase to me, I knew 
there was no hope of changing his mind.
			******
	In a silent but bright flash of light, Dan Myrick appeared in a 
back alley of Nerima. He opened his eyes and looked up at the sky. He 
was lying on his back with garbage bags all around him.
	He laid there for a few minutes, enjoying the sensation of 
being back in civilization. He took a gasp of air as the sat up and started 
coughing, "Agh! Forgot about the smog in this city!"
	He took a good look around. There were a few alley cats 
looking for something to eat. Above him in an apartment complex, 
some people had hung their clothes outside. He turned around and saw 
two police officers standing over him.
	"Uh, hello," he waved.
	"Well, looks like we got a homeless, gaijin computer salesman 
living here," one of them said. He was pointing at the weapons that Dan 
was carrying on his belt. After all, one might suspect that a person 
might work at a computer store if one saw that person wearing a 
computer keyboard tonfa and computer mouse bolo on a belt.
	"Uh, what you say?" Dan's Japanese wasn't so great yet.
	"C'mon, you're coming with us," one of the officers grabbed 
his arm.
	"Uh, wait! I'm looking for here," he pulled out the piece of 
paper that had the address of Jack's nanny's house.
	"Oh, you're just lost, eh?" one of them took the paper. "I 
know where this is. Come on, we'll take you there."
	"Uh, thank you," he smiled.
			******
	Belldandy was chopping some vegetables in the kitchen and 
humming happily. She was making dinner for them all when she 
stopped suddenly due to a strange disturbance.
	"What is it, Onesama?" Skuld asked her older sister. "Why did 
you stop?"
	Belldandy began chopping again, "I felt a strange disturbance 
that I haven't felt for a long time."
	"Could it be a bug?" Skuld looked concerned.
	"No, this is not from a bug," she assured her younger sister. "I 
felt the space-time continuum displace. I believe someone has recently 
gone back in time."
	"C-couldn't that be bad?"
	"It could, Skuld. Fortunately, I only felt a slight disturbance so 
whoever went back in time, didn't go very far back."
	"Oh, that's good."
			******
	Hanny and I got the entire day off to spend it building the 
doors and walls to our rooms. No one hit their finger with a hammer 
and no one bonked their head. Nothing really happened except for 
Happosai being bashed through the roof.
	That's when I found out why they kept so much wood and 
building supplies around the dojo. The roof tends to get a lot of holes in 
it.
	We made two walls to make a small hall that lead to the 
originial door of the spare room. We then split the two sides in half on 
both sides of the hallway and made four small rectangular rooms.
	By sunset, we had moved our extra stuff into the spare room 
and our personal things into each of our respective rooms. I had the 
room to the left of the door when you entered. Mike's was across from 
mine and Hanny's was next to Mike's. As planned, the storage room 
was next to mine. Hanny wanted to be far away from my CD player.
	Somehow, I felt like we'd need the spare room for some other 
reason than storage. Anyway, the team effort of building this was fun 
and it got my mind off of what happened with Shampoo and Dan's 
death. I still couldnt' beleive that he was gone.
			******
	Akane and Ranma were walking home from another typical 
day at school. They had their arguments when Ukyou gave Ranma 
some okonomiyaki to eat. The only strange thing was that Shampoo 
wasn't there to struggle with Ukyou. Akane was walking on the street 
while Ranma was just a little behind her on the fence. They didn't 
speak to each other.
	Akane broke the silence, "Ranma, have you noticed what 
happens every time Jack plays his CD's?"
	"Nope, I ain't nosy, ya know."
	"Well, every time I pass by his room when he plays his CD's, 
I see this glowing redness. It looks a lot like how you build up your ki 
for a ki blast."
	"Ah, the guy's just meditatin'," he concluded. "Each guy does 
it differently."
	"I'm not so sure about that. His ki charge doesn't feel the 
same as your ki charge; his feels more hostile. I can feel it right through 
the door."
	"Who knows what his gaijin martial arts teacher has taught 
him," he shrugged off what Akane said.
			******	
	I was once again, back in Nekohanten and, once again, 
cooking with Cologne in the kitchen. Shampoo was avoiding me for 
some reason. I was lucky that Mousse didn't know what had happened 
because he would be very mad at me. He would try to kill me probably.
	I was surprised that my cooking skills had improved. I was 
starting to become a very good cook, as well as a good martial artist. 
That is mainly the reason I didn't confront Cologne about the `incident' 
that happened. I didn't want to seem ungrateful and I felt that things 
had evened themselves out.
	"Come back here with me, young son-in-law," she said the 
very familiar phrase. "I have something new to teach you."
	"Yes, Great-grandmother," I followed her to the back of the 
restaurant.
	"Sit down, young son-in-law," she ordered. I did as she said. 
"Listen to my lecture carefully, for I will not repeat myself. You have 
learned how to drain chi, ne?"
	"Yes, Great-grandmother," I nodded, "and for that, I am 
grateful."
	"Now," she continued on, "I will teach you how to transfer chi 
and also tell you the properties of it."
	"Thank you, Great-grandmother."
	"Now stop interrupting me. I shall start with a simple lecture of 
chi. It is the very essence of life. As you know, you may drain it for 
your own use as well as transfer it. In this world, there are a few chi 
bottles that can store chi for a long period of time. Once stored in the 
bottle, the drainee's chi will not replenish itself until the bottle is opened 
and their chi is released again. The only person that can open the bottle 
is the drainer. I will teach you how to do this later today.
	"If you are good enough, you can sense the difference 
between people's chi. It similar to people's scents that dogs pick up. I 
believe you will be able to distinguish the difference.
	"Each person has their very own chi that will replenish itself 
slowly. Most people do not have the ability to use it nor can they use 
the technique to drain others. If a foreign chi comes in, it will slowly 
fade if not used. Very seldom does a foreign chi stay in someone's 
body permanently. One of those times is when two people copulate. A 
little bit of each person's chi stays in the main system of the other's. It 
will never fade, and will act as a small partitioned part. You will 
probably sense this sometime.
	"When you drain someone's chi, you drain their main supply 
of chi. Each person's chi is like a tree; their chi has a main supply that 
has tributaries that go into different branches of their body to keep them 
alive. It is possible to drain these certain directories of chi, but that takes 
many years of practice.
	"That is my lecture. I hope you have understood all of what I 
said, young son-in-law."
	"Uh, I think I did, Great-grandmother," I scratched my head. 
"Thank you very much for telling me this."
	"You are welcome," she smiled. "Mousse!"
	Shampoo pushed out a large board. Mousse was tied to it and 
was struggling to get free, "Why have you done this to me, Shampoo?"
	She ignored him and went back into the restaurant.
	"Drain his chi, young son-in-law," she said rather frankly. 
"Then return it to him."
	I closed my eyes and started concentrating. I imagined pouring 
a bottle with "Mousse" labeled on it being poured into a bottle labeled 
"Jack." 
	I started to feel the chi of Mousse. I could feel the difference 
between his and Shampoo's chi. The major difference I felt was that his 
chi was male and hers was female. The second difference I felt was 
rather strange. Half the chi that I felt was of a male and the other half 
felt strange. 
	When I felt that, I remembered that I felt a similar thing with 
Shampoo. I remembered that half of what I felt was Shampoo's female 
chi and the other half was something else. It wasn't the same as 
Mousse's mysterious half but was very similar.
	I opened my eyes to see that Mousse had passed out. Cologne 
was smiling happily at my feat, even though I've done it before, "Very 
good, young son-in-law. Now, transfer the chi back to him. Just think 
of pouring a glass of juice back into the original pitcher."
	"That's another very good analogy, Great-grandmother," I 
smiled. I shut my eyes and thought of pouring a bottle labeled "Jack" 
back into a bottle labeled "Mousse." I felt my chi leaving me. I started 
feeling weaker and more fatigued.
	"Stop, young son-in-law!" Cologne yelled. I opened my eyes. 
Things were starting to get blurry as I lost my concentration. The 
transfer of chi stopped.
	Mousse was awake again. In fact, I must have given him too 
much of my chi because he broke free of his bonds, "Now I shall finish 
you off in your weakened state!"
	I felt so weak that I couldn't even speak up to him. I dropped 
to my knees and felt like barfing.
	Suddenly, I felt better. I looked up and saw that Cologne was 
draining Mousse's chi and sending it to me. Mousse dropped to the 
ground and passed out.
	She finished what she was doing and began again, "You must 
learn to control how much you give away of your own chi. As for now, 
you should not give your chi away to anyone because you may pass 
out or die. 
	"What I just did was a chi transfer. You have learned how to 
drain so learning transfer should be very easy for you. All you need to 
do is think of pouring a glass of juice in another glass of juice. I will let 
you try it on your own. As for now, here is one of the bottles I spoke 
about earlier. Do not lose it, young son-in-law."
	She handed me the bottle, "Thank you Great-grandmother." I 
took a better look at the bottle. It was similar to a Coca-Cola bottle.
	I dragged Mousse back into the restaurant and continued 
working again.
			******
	"Here you are," the officer stopped the car. "Try not to get lost 
again, OK?"
	"Uh, yes, sirs. Uh, thank you again," he stepped out of the 
small white police car. He stopped to take a look at the humble looking 
house.
	He started walking up to it. He stopped suddenly to think 
about how he would explain things. How would he explain what he had 
gone through?
	He starting walking up to the door again. He supposed that the 
truth would be the best. Besides that, he knew that Jack, Mike and 
Hanny will understand and explain everything to his nanny's family. 
He only hoped that his parents didn't get a message from the air line 
and started his funeral plans.
	He knocked on the door. A little while later, Jack's nanny 
opened it, "Hello. What can I do for you?"
	"Uh... Is Jack, Hanny, and Mike here?"
	"No, they're not staying here anymore. Who are you?"
	"My name is Dan. I am... uh, a friend," he tried to explain in 
the best Japanese he could.
	Jack's nanny looked very confused, "How can you be Dan? 
He died."
	"Hey, who is this?" Ken peek over his mom's shoulder.
	"Uh.. Speak English?" Dan asked.
	<Yeah, I speak English,> Ken nodded. <Just not too well.>
	<Well, your English seems better than my Japanese. Can I 
come in?>
	<Uh, who are you?>
	<I'm Dan. I'm Jack, Mike and Hanny's friend who was 
dropped into the middle of the ocean. It's a long story.>
	<Well, for some reason, I believe you. Maybe it's the 
computer hardware. Come in and tell me about happened to you.>
	<Thanks!>
	"What's going on? Why are you letting him in?" Jack's nanny 
wanted to know what was going on.
	"Just wait a minute, Mom."
	Dan walked in and sat down. For the next few hours, he told 
his story.
	<That's an unbelievable story.>
	<How else do you explain how I got here?>
	<I suppose you're right.>
	"What did he say?" Jack's nanny wanted a translation. Ken 
did the best of a translation as he could. "Oh, let me bandage your leg."
	Dan didn't get that. He only sat there and sipped his tea. When 
Jack's nanny came back with some bandages and iodine, he 
understood what she wanted to do.
	"It's late already. I think you should stay over here tonight and 
go over to where your friends are staying tomorrow morning."
	<Uh... I caught about half of that.>
	<My mom said that you should stay and go to your friends 
tomorrow.>
	<Yeah. I *yawn* think I'll stay over to...night,> he passed out.
	Ken smiled and put him in the guest room that Jack and his 
friends had stayed in. After what he had been through, he deserved the 
long rest.
			******
	I was walking back to Tendo Training Hall and was pondering 
what Cologne had told me. I was fiddling around with the bottle she 
had given me. Mostly what I thought of was those strange "other" chi's 
that I felt. It didn't feel human, for one thing. However, I still couldn't 
think of what it could be.
	I walked past an alley with two cats fighting over some fish. It 
was strange how cats fight. Seeing this made one of my ancestor's 
memories emerge. They were images of the Cat Fist. It was very similar 
to how those cats fought.
	I continued walking and past a small pond in the park. There 
were a few little kids feeding the geese there. It made me wish Shampoo 
were there with me to enjoy a sunset in the park.
	I finally reached the doors of Tendo Training Hall. When I 
opened them, I finally realized it! The two strange chi's in Shampoo 
and Mousse were that of their curses! I felt like such a fool for not 
seeing it immediately.
	I then came to the conclusion that when they got cursed, their 
curses took up half their main chi supply. I then got a wild idea. If it 
took up half their chi supply, I could drain it into the bottle and they 
could have a cure. The only problem is, there was only one bottle and I 
wasn't that great at chi transferring yet.
	"Yo, Jack," Ranma greeted me. "Why'd you bring an empty 
bottle?"
	I then got another idea, "This isn't any regular bottle. Follow 
me and I'll explain."
	I went into the living room, "OK, sit down and listen up. I can 
give you a cure to your curse."
	"Really?! You got some of that nannichuan?" Ranma jumped 
in the air and looked very happy.
	Genma-panda popped in and wrote on a sign, <I want some 
too!>
	"No, I don't have any nannichuan," I blinked at him.
	"Growf!" Genma-panda frowned and left.
	"OK," I began again, "your cursed form is taking up half of 
your main chi supply. I can transfer it into this bottle and you'll be free 
of your curse. The bottle will prevent the cursed chi from getting out."
	"I ain't gettin' none of  this," he started to look a little bored.
	"Fine," I sighed. I drew a little stick figure and put "Ranma" 
over it. I then drew a female stick figure and wrote curse over it. I put a 
plus sign between them and an equal sign after the female stick figure. I 
then put a male and female stick figure in parenthesis to the right of the 
equal sign, "Get it now?"
	"Uh, I think so," he scratched his head.
	I then drew a bottle and put arrows from the female stick 
figure at the bottle and crossed out the two female stick figures, "Do 
you get it now?"
	"Yeah, I get it now," he looked happy again. "Can you do this 
now?"
	"Ah... Sure!"
	"Great! What do I do?"
	"Just sit there. I'll do everything. Oh, your female chi will be in 
this bottle."
	"Got it. Now start whatever you're gonna do!"
	I closed my eyes and held the bottle in front of me in both 
hands. I concentrated as much on picturing a glass labeled "Ranma-
chan" and the bottle in my hands. I couldn't feel the chi itself since I 
was directing it to the bottle.
	"Ack! Is this suppose to happen?"
	I ignored him. A few minutes later, I felt that the bottle was full 
and that Ranma's cursed chi was completely in the bottle. I put the top 
on the glass bottle and opened my eyes.
	Everything looked blurry. I felt very dizzy and nauseous. The 
room started spinning. I couldn't focus my eyes on anything.
	"Dinner's ready!" Kasumi called out.
	"Ah! You stupid jerk! You messed up!" Was the last thing I 
heard as I dropped the bottle and passed out.
			******
	"Oh my, Jack must have been very tired," Kasumi stared at 
Jack's unconscious body on the living room floor. She didn't seem to 
notice that Ranma, now a girl, was running crazily and yelling.
	"You stupid idiot! Wake up! You messed up!"
	"Oh, Ranma, just calm down," Nabiki walked over with a tea 
kettle. "He probably just didn't have enough practice. Such 
incompetence." She started pouring the hot water over Ranma-chan.
	"Hey, why am I still a girl?" Ranma-chan looked at her chest. 
"Is that water hot enough?"
	"It should be," she poured a little on her own hand.  "Either 
way, I'm still adding this to your tab."
	"Did I hear Kasumi call for dinner?" Hanny walked in the 
living room. "Hey, what's Jack doing on the floor like that?"
	"The stupid idiot passed out," Ranma-chan said as she went 
into the kitchen. She thought that the water wasn't hot enough and took 
a boiling pot of water off the stove and, out of frustration, dumped it on 
herself, "Ow! Hot! Hot! Hot!"
	"What happened, Ranma?" Akane came into the room. "I 
heard you scream."
	Ranma-chan came back, "I poured boiling water on myself."
	"You baka, why did you do that?"
	"Take a look yourself. I'm still a girl!"
	"What? You can't change back into a guy?" Akane got out the 
first aid kit.
	"No, that stupid Jack did this to me," she pointed at Jack, who 
Hanny was tending to. "He said he had a cure but messed up."
	Akane looked at the bottle on the floor, "What's this?" It had a 
white misty aura in it.
	Ranma-chan picked it up, "This thing must have my male ki."
	"Male ki? Just how did Jack do this?"
	"I can't open this thing," she tried with all her might to pop the 
top open but couldn't. She didn't know that the only person that could 
open it was Jack. "He musta put my male ki in here on accident. He had 
all this mumo jumbo about puttin' my cursed ki in here but he messed 
up and passed out. Stupid thing." She chucked it out the window and 
out of the city.
	"Ranma, you really should think before you act," Nabiki 
shook her head. "All you had to do was probably break the bottle and 
you would be a guy again. Now we'll probably never see that bottle 
again."
	"What?!" Ranma-chan just realized this. She started to jump 
out the window to look for the magical bottle, "I gotta find that bottle!"
	Akane pulled her back, "Oh, no, you don't. I'm going to 
bandage you up from your burns first."
	"I'll put Jack in his room," Hanny had nothing else to do.
	"Did I hear that dinner's ready?" Mike walked in.
	"C'mon, Mike," Hanny began. "Help me with Jack."
	"What happened to him?" Mike asked.
	"It's hard to explain," Hanny sighed. "Hurry up so we can eat 
before everything is gone."
			******
	In a vast forest outside Tokyo, Ryouga Hibiki was on a long 
training trek away from the city. He wanted to find some place peaceful 
where he could practice his skills and come back to Nerima to defeat 
Jack.
	"This looks like a good place to camp for the nigh," he set 
down his backpack. In a quick, swift motion, he pulled out his sleeping 
bag and started a fire. Many years of on the road gave him practice at 
doing this.
	As he tended to the fire, a small glass object started to fall out 
of the sky. Ryouga didn't notice this, because he was too busy making 
something to eat.
	The object came closer, and closer. Then, finally, it hit him 
right on the head, "Ow!" He rubbed the back of his head and turned 
around.
	He spotted the projectile that hit him. It was a glass bottle, 
much resembling that of a Coca-Cola bottle. He picked it up and saw 
that it contained a misty white aura in it.
	"What could be in here?" he tried to open the top but it 
wouldn't budge. He bashed it gently across some rocks, only to shatter 
them. He threw it as hard as it could on the ground, only to make a 
small crater in it. He then set it near a boulder and used the breaking 
point, hoping the debris would shatter the bottle and disclose the 
contents of it.
	"Oh, well," he gave up and put it in his backpack. He went 
back to his fire and took out something to roast on it.
			******
	I slowly opened my eyes to the bright sun and the chirping of 
birds outside. I felt so refreshed, like I've never felt before after waking 
up. I sat up, and remembered why I felt so refreshed. My head was still 
a little clouded.
	I looked at my clock, "Oh, man. Six o'clock! Why'd I have to 
wake up so early!" I got dressed and walked out to get something to eat.
	As usual, I walked by the kitchen, only to hear Kasumi 
chopping vegetables. I sometimes thought that she spent all day and 
night in the kitchen.
	"Hey, Kasumi," I said. "Do you have something to eat? I'm 
starving."
	"Oh my, you should be," she smiled at me. "You must have 
been very sleepy because you slept for the whole day yesterday."
	"WHAT?!" I shouted.
	"That's right," she smiled again. "You passed out around 
seven two night ago and slept through the entire day yesterday. I'm 
sure you're well rested now."
	"Why didn't someone wake me up?" I felt like pounding the 
little air head into the floor. I didn't know why, but I got extremely mad 
again. It was exactly the same as when I got mad at Shampoo but more 
extreme this time.
	<We tried, Jack,> a familiar voice answered for Kasumi, <but 
we failed. Didn't you think we'd try?>
	I turned around, <Oh, hi, Dan. DAN?!>
	He had a sly smirk on his face, <Yeah, it's me. Thought I was 
dead, didn't you?>
	<Dan... You're... Alive!!!> I gave him a huge hug.
	<Hey, stop that,> he grabbed my arm and threw me across the 
room. I quickly flipped in the air and landed on my feet.
	<When'd you learn to do something like that?> I was 
dumbfounded.
	<It's a long story,>  he smiled. <I already told Mike and 
Hanny.>
	<Well, when did you get here and how?>
	<C'mon, I'll explain as we eat breakfast,> he got some food 
from Kasumi and motioned for me to follow him into the living room.
	I sat down and listened to Dan's trek as I ate. He told me about 
falling out of the plane, meeting Doug and his training. I almost choked 
on my food when I heard that. Training that much without a break is 
killer! He then told me about the alligator, portal, guardian and the 
police. Finally, he finished off by telling me that he got here yesterday 
morning.
	I finished my breakfast, <Wait, did you get the storage room?>
	He nodded, <Yeah, you didn't notice that your room had 
more stuff in it?>
	<Hey, I've been sleeping for the past day and a half, OK? Oh, 
did you sign->
	He interrupted me, <Yup. Hanny took out the paper after he 
heard the stuff about my training and had me sign it.>
	I felt so happy and yet relieved, <I knew that we'd find a 
fourth Horsemen soon. Anyway, I'm glad I never wrote to your parents 
telling them that you died.>
	<I'm glad of that too. Let me tell you, NEVER go on one of 
those dirt cheap airlines.>
	<I will never do that after what you've been through.> I was 
very glad that Dan was back with us. Not only that, but the Horsemen 
were at full power now. Even though Dan has had only a few days 
experience in martial arts, I was sure that he was still pretty good. After 
all, with Cologne and Happosai around, he could get some help.
	<Those weapons sound really strange,> I chuckled.
	<Yeah, but they work well,> he replied. <I like my belt. See? It 
can carry all the weapons on it.>
	<I still think the disks are really cool. I mean, if South's 
chemistry teachers heard about that, they'd test it immediately. Even if 
they couldn't find what it is, they'd take the metal to the University of 
Oregon to find out.>
	<True, but that's IF they find out.>
	<True. So, is your leg healed up yet?> I looked at the bandage 
on his leg.
	<Yeah, Mike took me over to where he works. Dr. Tofu -- 
strange name-- took a look at it and said that it wasn't infected.>
	<That's good,> I replied. Before what I thought had been his 
death, Dan and I weren't that good friends. After I thought he died, I 
felt so bad that I didn't know him better. <You know, Dan, I really 
missed you when I thought you were dead.>
	<You did?>
	<Yeah, I felt guilty that I didn't know you better.>
	<Well, you can make it up by showing me around the Furikan 
computer lab.>
	<Alright, it's a deal,> I smiled at him.
	<Now, what's this about you having a fiancee and all about 
this curse stuff? Hanny and Mike wouldn't explain it to me.>
	I scratched my head, <I don't know really how to explain it 
all...>
	<Just starting from the beginning of everything.>
	I nodded, <OK. Well, you see, there's this place in China 
called Jusenkyo...>


			End Part VIII
			Finished 6/20

Author's notes: Pretty boring, eh? At least I put a little of the 
Goddesses in there. I changed the title of the story because a lot of 
people thought it was a Kuno story.

Anyway, thought Jack was going to cure Ranma, didn't you? No, this 
isn't one of those self-insertions where the author fixes everything up. 
And if you think this is an ego trip where the author is more powerful 
than Ranma and becomes the hero, just you wait.

Anyway, I might as well let the cat out of the bag. I got the idea of the 
Four Horsemen from watching too much WCW wrestling. It sounded 
so cool on TV but sounds so dorky on here. I know that wrestling it 
fake, but then again, so are all sitcoms.

It took me quite a while to finish part VIII mostly because of finals!

Do you think that all this chi stuff is really boring? Are the explanations 
really hard to follow? I've been trying to change my writing style lately 
and I hope it shows if you've read parts I and II.

OK, I'll admit that I specifically left out certain dates and stuff because I 
knew they'd mess up the story. I mean, with going back in time and all. 
I think I got things pretty close. Anyone really keeping track of time in 
my story? You'd have to re-read all the previous parts to see if this time 
thing matches up!

Can you believe that MS Word 6.0 has the word "continuum" in it? It 
totally surprised me!

Preview of Part IX: Relationships develop...

                            
______________________________________________________________________________
 Member of the #ShAS#: Shampoo Appreciation Society - Our favorite femaline!
	  jackji@efn.org - Jack Ji - http://www.efn.org/~jackji