-------------------
CHAPTER EIGHT

	The woman tried to relax her tired body. She sat by the table of an outdoor
cafe sipping tea with the proprietor. For once, she was glad that Ami-chan
had decided to teach her  those utterly boring sessions on tea rituals.
Even the English-born proprietor was surprised at this show of knowledge.
Still, she needed a job. Only problem was where to find it. She  desperately
needed a job since what money she had with her when she first arrived was
almost  used up. 
	Somehow, the man managed to read what was in her mind.
	"Madame," he spoke in perfect Japanese, "I am in need of the services of a
helper in my business especially during peak hours of the day. The pay is
good as it gets and I can at least offer you a decent place to live while
you work with me." The man emphasized his point by  glancing at her travel gear.
	The woman's elation was apparent by the smile she gave the man. She
resisted to urge to kiss the guy for his foresight. She was glad to be able
to have a roof under her head,  even if it was a temporary arrangement. All
thoughts of Chibi left her mind as she haggled with the man concerning her pay.
	"Very well," the man relented. "I agree." The man paused a moment to
consider what to say to her. "Can you start tomorrow. You can stow your
things in the guest room on the top floor and freshen up afterwards."
	The woman bowed her head in thanks to the man's generosity. Indeed, such
generosity was hard to find in a city. The man watched her take her leave.
He felt the stirring of his heart. The woman intrigued him and God knew he
wanted her! 

* * * * * 


	She sat outside the cafe once more, her thoughts pondered her dilemma.
Chibiusa was  nowhere in this city and subsequent searches had led her to
the Tendo residence. Already, she  had found traces of a fight by one of
Rei's pets and another man. The danger to the princess  rose day after day.
She was getting frantic as to how she would find her. Her instincts warned
her of coming trouble. If only she could find her in time!
	She didn't like that one bit.
	Her thoughts were momentarily disturbed as a bunch of rowdy teenagers
passed by. One of them noticed the woman sitting alone by the table. He
signaled his friends to halt as he walked towards the woman. She paid no
heed to him and returned to sipping her tea. 
	"Wanna play with us, sister?" he asked.
	"Get lost." was all she said to him; returning to her contemplation.
	The young man; however, took this rather 'polite' request as an insult. He
pulled out a  fan knife from his pants. She blinked once and before the guy
knew what hit him, he was lying  flat on the pavement nursing a bruised
back. The woman returned to her seat and drank from her  cup once more.
	"I wish to be alone. Get lost before I loose what patience I have left."
This she  delivered in a cold voice. 
	The young man was unperturbed by her 'request' and rushed towards her.
Caught unawares by  this attack, she soon found herself being manhandled by
him. What really ticked her off was when he started squeezing her chest.
Seeing red, she loosened the man's hold on her and threw him a good hundred
feet. His companions took off after that and left their compatriot lying on the
pavement, unconscious.
	"So much for that." she said to herself. 

* * * * *


	Ranma and Mizuki were busily tidying the mess they made of the dojo while
Genma, in  panda form, tried his usual best to shrink from his chores. Ranma
still nursed his bruises from the attack his sister had made. She too was no
less bruised than he. 	
	"I hate this." grumbled Ranma.
	Mizuki stopped from her sweeping to give a nod. "Wish we didn't have gone
too far with that fight." mused a still aching Mizuki.
	"What are you two doing?" asked a Soun in demonic form. 
	Both brother and sister hurriedly went back to their sweeping. 
	By the time they were finished cleaning up the mess, it was time for dinner
with the  both of them famished from the lack of food. Ranma's mouth was
watering at the food laid out at the table. 
	"Dinner." Kasumi called to them all.
	Ranma and Mizuki were the very first at the table and were already gobbling
up the food at an alarming rate. Soun appeared and saw the two finishing up
everything at the table.
	"Arghh!" screamed an enrage demon-Soun. "What are you two doing!"
	Seeing this, both brother and sister finished up what they were eating and
took their  leave. Kasumi sat there, shaking her head in amusement. Soun sat
down and began eating what was left of dinner. The panda was absent for some
reason.
	
* * * * * 
	
Later on, after having eaten their fill from Ucchan's, Ranma and his sister
head back to the dojo hoping that Mr. Tendo had regained his temper. As a
peace offering, they had bought a  large deluxe okonomiyaki from Ucchan's.
Hopefully, this would curb his wrath.
	"You're not bad yourself, brother." she told him while they walked backed
to the dojo. 
	"Where'd you learn that technique you used against me?" he asked curiously,
remembering  the power of that attack. "It went through my attack easy."
	"I mixed my attacks." she answered.
	"Huh?" 
	Mizuki rolled her eyes heavenward wondering at the same time how her
brother could ever have become a martial artist with a brain like a rock.
She tried to hide her exasperation from him. No telling how that might
affect him or their relationship as brother and sister. 
	"Martial Arts. The_ one _we use, Ranma, can be mixed with other forms or
techniques to  make a new one. My attack's a mixture of most of what I've
gleaned from my brief training under the tutelage of a master. If you just
practice your martial arts a bit more seriously, maybe_ you'll be able to
beat me the next time."
	Ranma chose not to make a comment. He still could not believe his sister
capable of doing such things. While he was at it, he wondered just where did
she come by her training. And if he remembered it right, she said something
about being trained in the Anything Goes Martial Arts! But that was plain
nuts! Only the Saotome and Tendo family knew of this specialized form! 
Just who was this master of hers?!
He did nothing and continued to skulk at his defeat. He sighed. Sure, he
might win if he asked for a rematch. Somehow, that felt very wrong. his own. 
	
* * * * * 


	Three weeks had passed since Ranma had disappeared. It was pretty peaceful
in the  neighborhood right now. No Ranma was there to make Akane scream like
a harridan. No Happosai who went around making female lives miserable. No
Shampoo who went around bicycling into their house and running over people.
No new sudden appearances of fiancees or enemies. No new momentous and
extremely laughable events had transpired since then. There is a word for
this kind of event. 
	That word spelled out as B O R I N G. 
	Nabiki and Yuriko spent the time going around Nerima and visiting every
place. Nabiki was almost regretting the peacefulness back at the dojo. At
least with Ranma, things were never  that dull. She sighed in barely kept
remorse in her voice. Yuriko noticed this and hoped that  Nabiki wasn't
sinking back into her depression. 
	For Yuriko, these summer days left her feeling strange. It was as if
something had been erased in her mind. something that made her uneasy and
worried. For all her knowledge in sorcery, she wasn't that good as Prof.
Miyabi or Naoko or even Natsumi. And her gut instincts told her she might be
needing them soon. She made a mental note of asking them to come visit them
at Nabiki's house soon. Hateful as it was, she decided to keep it a secret
from her friend.
	"Yuriko." Nabiki called to her deep-in-thought friend. "Thinking about
something?" she  asked.
	Yuriko gave her a smile and followed her friend back to the dojo. 
	"I miss him." Nabiki said suddenly.
	Yuriko took a few moments before she realized who she was talking about. 
	"You thinking too much about him again." she reprimanded cautiously, afraid
that something within Nabiki might snap.
	Nabiki bobbed her head up and down. She fought to hold back the tears in
her eyes. After close to a year since his death, she still could not get
over him. Her heart ached to  see him once more. Yuriko did not need to be a
telepath to read her thoughts. She sympathized  with Nabiki. Not many people
could see through her more than she or Nabiki’s late boyfriend had. She
prayed that someday things could be different for her.
	Both girls found themselves heading straight for a cafe and sitting down on
one of the cafe's outdoor tables. Both rested tire feet and stuffed their
bags on a chair and called for  the waitress who was serving a nearby customer. 
	Yuriko gasped at the woman who approached them both. The woman radiated
some form of aura which shone every so often to her trained sorceress eyes.
It glowed a brilliant blue-gold. Whoever she was, she was definitely
powerful. She could definitely feel it!
	Nabiki stared at her friend who was looking wide eyed at the waitress
before them. She  was tempted to think that her friend was a lesbian by the
way she was looking at the woman. She kept the thought to herself. She
decided to look at woman as well while she waited for her friend to  snap
out of her trance. 
	The woman was definitely someone whom a lot of people would pant after.
Even with the  gaudy black and white frilled uniform, the woman looked
positively enchanting. Her blue-black  hair tied in a single thick braid
down her back. Her eyes were the color of the sky. 
	For her part, the waitress calmly and most patiently waited on the two as
they stared at her with wide and awe-struck eyes. She was used to this since
it was  a common enough occurrence. She took no notice of it anymore than it
disturbed the proprietor since it attracted business to them. The proprietor
could say  nothing or fault them for their reactions to his employee. 
	"Would you two like anything?" she asked them both after a reasonable
amount of waiting  on the pair. 
Both snapped out of their trance. Nabiki ordered the house special while
Yuriko ordered nothing more than a big boiling pot of lemon tea.
	"You're going to starve with the way you're eating." Nabiki scolded her
companion.
	"I don't eat much for lunch." was her only reply.
	Nabiki left her alone and waited for her ordered food.

* * * * * 


	Somewhere in a deserted back alley, a lone, shrunken figure emerged from
out of nowhere, a bulging sack slung behind his back. A close inspection of
the sack revealed quite an assortment of silky women's wear -- lingerie to
be more precise. The man wore a large grin in his rather weathered face. His
small hands grasped the sack with loving care. Truly he had quite a large
haul  from his escapade in that place he went into. And without any Ranma to
spoil his fun, it was a place of heavenly delight. He still recalled with
clarity of the countless women he had fun with during his temporary sojourn
in that place. Too bad it had to end so soon.
	He had an evil grin on his weathered face as he envisioned Ranma's reaction
when he used his new technique on him. Indeed, it would be such an immortal
moment. His thoughts were still trying to contrive up ways to humiliate
Ranma when his other enhanced senses warned him of  women close by. 
	The grin on his face took a more lecherous form as he bounded across the
street where he sensed them. He halted a few meters away from a cafe and
indeed, there were two new female bodies to make his acquaintance with. All
thoughts of Ranma were erased and replaced by a burning desire to bury
himself between a pair of breasts....
	"Pretty lady!" he called out to the closest of the two, a blue-haired
woman. The woman turned around, as expected, and he eagerly awaited his
landing on her chest. He landed smack in the middle of her chest and
marveled at the suppleness of her flesh.
	"Ah.. Pretty lady..." murmured Happosai in contentment
	SMACK! POW! CRASH!
	Happosia found himself lying flat on the ground and feeling just a tad bit
battered by the trashing he took. He raised his eyes to see a woman towering
before him, a red tinged aura surrounded her form. 
	"You crazy old pervert!" screamed the woman, punting him --sack and all--
to greet  heaven's angels.
	"AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
	The waitress returned to clear away their meal. Yuriko was still breathing
a bit hard  from rage. She could not believe at the old man's audacity. She
gripped the cup tightly in her hands, wishing she had more thoroughly
punished the old man. Her thoughts were rudely interrupted as a pair of
hands had grabbed her breasts from  behind. She cried out in outrage;
feeling the sudden urge to rip apart the person responsible for defiling
her. As it was to be expected, Happosai was now severely beaten up by Yuriko
who used her skills as a sorceress to extract the sweetest of vengeance upon
the old man. Nabiki  watched in wry amusement as Happosai got what he so
deserved. 
	As she was about to deliver her final blow upon him, he escaped. Yuriko
blinked in  surprise wondering how the lecher had escaped her ward. She
looked around to spot the old man. A sudden scream from the waitress alerted
her to his whereabouts. She took off in hot pursuit only to see the waitress
efficiently get rid of her unwanted burden by tossing him inside a large
pressure cooker – which she noted appeared out of nowhere --and sent it
along a path that would take it to the river.
	"Wow." was all Yuriko could say as she watched, her own rage slowly
draining away.
	"Damn fool." uttered the furious waitress as she stomped off towards the
kitchens.
	Yuriko shivered in dread. She felt a keen sense of awe and fear for the
waitress. What she saw around her was no ordinary aura. It glowed and
flickered about her in a way that was  supposed to be impossible. Even
normal people had an aura that exhibited no variations in its color makeup.
But hers did. Varying from blue to gold to blue-gold and even a shade of
black. Most ordinary  people's aura was colored a light shade of blue. What
did the woman's color shifting aura mean?
It was time to find some answers.
	The waitress returned at their table and collected the bill from the two
and departed only to find the persistent old lecher rubbing his face on her
breasts. Unable to contain her anger any longer, she blasted the old man
into a dimensional warp carrying him to the deepest, darkest pit there existed.
	"Wow." breathed an awed Yuriko. 
	Without thinking why, she stepped towards the still furious waitress. She
wondered why  she was doing this; but a part of her seemed to know the
reason and refused the rest of herself to know. "Uh…… Excuse me...."
	The enraged waitress whirled around. "WHAT?!" she demanded in a furious tone.  
	"Can we talk somewhere private?" Yuriko wanted to know.
	The woman wondered who the blue-haired lass was. She felt a pang of sorrow
for how closely she resembled Ami-chan. "Come again?' she asked in a more
modulated, less furious tone.
	"I need to talk to you for a sec." She eyed the crowd a while. "In
private." she pressed.
	The woman caught the urgent tone in her voice and nodded, leading her to a
corner of the  cafe.

* * * * * 


	"What was that you told her?" asked a curious Nabiki later on as they
traversed the road  back to the dojo.
	Yuriko shifted her gaze to her companion. "Hmmm?"
	"I want to know what you told her." repeated Nabiki.
	"Nothing." she answered. Nabiki gave her friend her patented gaze of
disbelief. "I just told her I wanted to find out who she is and where to
find her should I have need to ask her some rather private things."
	"Sorcerous stuff again?" Nabiki asked in disbelief. "Honestly, Yuriko, I
think you're getting addicted to sorcery more quickly than you are to your
college course."
	"Yep." came the cheerful reply.

* * * * * 


	"At last, we're back in Nerima." sighed a very tired and haggard Ryouga
Hibiki to his equally tired and very vexed little companion. 
	The little girl just mumbled an incoherent curse; wishing she was a bit
smarter in choosing her protector. Having lost Radler was a terrible blow
for her. But this new one was making her think twice about that loss. How
she missed the cheerful presence of Radler. Come to think of it, she never
really new of his name except for what he gave her. 
Of course, she *did* find out about his true name from Setsuna and from
Radler himself during that time he became delirious enough for him to
remember portions of his past. 
And this place was somehow connected to it for some reason. Why? She needed
to find out. He was dead and much as she hated it, she needed to find
someone trustworthy enough to help her.  
She stared at  the heavens briefly, offering up a silent prayer to the man
who had sacrificed all to see her safe. She felt hot tears streaming down
her cheeks. 
	"Uncle Radler..."
	She closed her eyes to picture him. She normally called him uncle since he
pretty much acted like one. How she wished he was here now.
	She turned to face a very tired Ryouga.  A terrible rage took hold of her
as she grabbed Ryouga by his collar. "Ryouga, you stupid jerk!" she
practically screamed in his ear. "Did you have to just take me for a walk in
that rain forest?!" she demanded, shaking him like a rag doll. "What the
heck is the matter with you? It's a miracle we even made it out of there!"
She continued to shake him until her anger drained away. Only then did she
notice he had fainted away. 
	She noted Ryouga seemed to this quite often with women.
	She dropped him with a loud thud as she contemplated her surroundings. It
appeared to be the outskirts of Nerima but she wasn't sure since she grew up
mostly in Neo-Tokyo and lived a while in Tokyo of the past.
This past.
She knew it was a hopeless quest to try and change the future. It was
something she had learned from Setsuna and Radler. 
She let her senses drift in the winds, letting it scout her way and 'see'
any potential danger that  may lie ahead. She was still very wary  and
confused as to why her mother hadn't bothered to  send some of the others to
hunt her down. It made her very edgy and traveling Asia's remaining tropical
rain forests and visiting Leningrad and Greenwich did not help her at all.
Right now, she wished she had her uncle with her instead of a boy who seemed
to always seemed to have a penchant for getting *REALLY* lost! 
There were some beneficial things she picked up from her unexpected trip.
She *did* learn a bunch of new languages that would make her Ami-chan proud. 
And, after spending all those time with him in that unexpected little
'trip,' she found her current protector to be quite strong but definitely
lacking some neurons in his brains which would go a long way in explaining
his deficiency. Still, Ryouga was at least kind and caring at times which
painfully reminded her of her lost foster uncle.
	She looked back at the still dazed Ryouga. She sighed and proceeded to drag
him towards Nerima.	 
	After hours of negotiating the roads of Nerima, she finally managed to drag
the still inert form of Ryouga in front of the gates of the Tendo Dojo –
with a little help from Luna P, of course! She dumped Ryouga beside the
dojo's sign.  She starts searching for a doorbell to announce her arrival.
	As it so happened, Kasumi had just returned from her shopping and on her
way home that same time.  As she neared the dojo, she noticed a little girl
barely eleven of age and had  strange red eyes looking for something.
	"Excuse me," she asked of the little girl. "what may you be looking for,
little girl?"
	A very vexed Chibiusa whirled around to face a  demure-faced young woman
with long brown hair. "Do you happen to know where the doorbell  might be?"
she asked furiously.
	"Doorbell?" Kasumi echoed back. She looked at the pink-haired girl. She
then noticed a very unconscious and bedraggled Ryouga Hibiki lying behind
some bushes.  "Oh my!" she gasped, placing a hand to her mouth.
	Kasumi maintained her saintly look and lead the little girl towards the
dojo's gates. On her way in, she instructed <bullied -- Kasumi style> Mr.
Saotome to fetch Ryouga. She rummaged in the fridge and came up with three
not-very-cold strawberry pies. She popped it into the microwave and gave the
girl a glass of lemonade while waiting for the pies to come out of the
microwave. 
	Ting! 
	Kasumi removed the now hot pies and them to the starving girl and
admonished her not to burn her tongue. She smiled at the girl before going
back to her chores of cooking.
"Hey, Kasumi." Nabiki called out from the doorway. "Did you happen to see
where Ranma went? I need to talk to him about some business offers."
"He just went out with his sister on some errand." She answered.
	"Uh-Huh." 
	Nabiki then noticed their guest sitting by a corner of the kitchen stuffing
herself with what was supposed to be her midnight snack for the night! She
resisted an impulse to snatch them out from the girl since it was obvious
that she needed it more than she did right now. "There goes my snack!" she
wailed silently. 
	Within Nabiki's inner most consciousness, something is roused from its
slumber.....

* * * * * 


	Ranma had finally returned to the dojo after having taking three weeks off
to himself to train himself in order to somehow match his sister's skill.
Never had he thought to lose to a younger person especially not to his own
sister 
He discarded his cumbersome backpack and trudged tiredly to the baths eager
to ease his tired muscles and rid himself of three weeks of accumulated dirt
and sweat. 
	Ranma, true to his usual unlucky streak or just plain old clumsiness, did
not bother to even check to see if anyone was in the baths. Fortunately for
him, or rather a bit unfortunately, it was his sister, Mizuki, rinsing
herself with cold water.  Unlike Akane, however;  Mizuki just splashed Ranma
with cold water from the bucket she held and instant girl! 
	"Gha!!" protested a shivering Ranma.
	"Lucky for you it wasn't Akane or else she'd have given you another flying
lesson." she told her transformed brother. She stood up and helped herself
to the warm water in the tub while a still shivering Ranma tried hard not to
stare at her sister.  "You really do not need to avert your eyes on me you
know."  informed Mizuki from the tub. "Right now, you're a girl and as a
girl., you've got absolutely nothing to worry about. Now quit this demure
act and take a bath! You stink!" 
	While Ranma washed herself , Mizuki watched her brother ..sister  She
marginally envied her brother for having this female side of his have such
an incredibly well-built form. Still, envy for one's own brother wasn't
worth pursuing since it would lead to fights. She closed her eyes and waited
for Kasumi's call to dinner.

* * * * * 
	
Mizuki woke up half an hour later to find herself all alone in the baths
with the water having turned cold. She eased herself out of the tub and
rubbed herself dry with one of the bath towels nearby. She left the baths
clad in a pink bath towel with her bath implements on one hand and the other
busying itself with combing her  long brown hair. She heard Kasumi's call to
dinner and hurried to her room to get ready before the wolves finish off
dinner without her. 

* * * * * 	


	At the dinner table, Ranma looked wide-eyed at the young girl who sat
beside Kasumi. Ryouga sat next to her and was severely tight-lipped about
anything concerning the little girl. Akane sat there, taking in this new
development in the their lives in stride. Mr. Saotome and his father paid no
heed to their visitor and simply gobbled  up dinner to quickly return to
their rather stimulating game of shogi.
	Mizuki entered the living room to find a pink-haired little girl sitting in
with Kasumi. Her mood brightened upon seeing Ryouga Hibiki and quickly
latched herself onto him. Ryouga reacted as usual by nearly collapsing in an
incoherent heap. Girls seem to affect him so, observed Nabiki. 
	Yuriko stared hard at the little girl. Her enhanced senses felt the golden
aura that surrounded the little girl. She stared hard upon those red eyes.
Whoever this girl may be, she was far older than her looks suggested. 
	"Who are you?" asked Yuriko. 
	The little girl looked up from her bowl to look upon the woman who had
asked the question. She opened her mouth as if to speak but thought better
of it and held her silence. She stared down at her food, deciding if she
were to tell them anything about herself. Her uncle had warned her of the
inherent dangers of trusting anyone. 'Trust is a double-edged sword. To
trust a person means that you have to trust all whom he knew.' That was
something that her uncle always reminded her of. Would it be wise to trust
these people whom she barely knew? Still, without help, she could never have
her vengeance. 
	"My name is Chibusa. I come from a place that your people would someday
call Neo-Tokyo. Suffice it to say that things have gone horribly wrong in my
time and I am seeking people to help me put it back together again."
	"Come again." a disbelieving Ranma asked. 
	Chibiusa gave him a small smile. She understood his reclutance to believe.
It took her the better part of a day to hammer understanding into Ryouga's
brain. She wondered how long it would take to finally convince this group.
She sighed and began to tell her tale of woe upon the people gathered around
her. 

* * * * * 


	"At long last!" Rei exclaimed excitedly. "The little wench has fallen into
my trap. Time to spring it on her. Hahahahahaha!!!!"
	She smiled like a Cheshire cat. Tonight would spell the end of her
highness, the Moon Princess! Tonight, she would regain what was lost to her.
	"This should be fun." she told herself.
	Everyone within a three block radius shivered at the chilling laugh they
heard sound in the night.