The Man himself appeared in front of An Mei, seemingly from out of
nowhere.  As he made his first swing at her, An Mei snapped into her
defensive stance, a little wearily.  Even a lioness on the hunt grows
weary.  The Man grinned at her as his sword slashed down and a thin line of
blood sprang up on her arm.  An Mei gasped at the pain, and for the first
time in her life, she knew fear.  Fear that she might lose.
        "Surrender, beauty," the Man said in an oddly accented voice.  "And
I will yet allow you to live."
        "I will not surrender!"  An Mei bellowed, driving him back as her
fury lent her a rush of energy.  "I am An Mei!  AN MEI !!!"




        "Fine, then," said a male voice near Ranma's ear.  "An Mei, why
don't you give us the answer?" Ranma's eyes snapped open and he felt his
cheeks burning with embarrassment as a titter of muted laughter swept the
classroom.
        "Oh, man," Ranma thought, burying his face in his hands.  "This day
couldn't get any worse..."


*****

        Ko Ron dragged her clothes on and shuffled agonizingly over to the
door.  With a deep breath, she straightened herself up to her full
diminutive height and opened the door, walking to the kitchen of the
Nekohanten with the vigorous stride of a Leader of the Tribe.  Shan Pu
greeted her with a cheery smile as they began preparing to open the
restaurant for the day.  Ko Ron busied herself at the stove, and Shan Pu
went to the other room to begin setting up the tables.  Ko Ron sighed as
soon as she was alone in the kitchen, and stared down into the boiling
water with a heavy heart.  She was terribly worried about son-in-law, and
her dream memory came back to haunt her.
        "Sun Li..." the old woman murmured, the very name calling up the
memories.  It was shortly after the official Choosing that Ko Ron and Sun
Li had begun their true training as Warriors.  They had of course been
acquainted with the training log for years, but as young Warriors they
would have to prepare to face anything.  So it was that the two friends had
journeyed with the other new Warriors to the sacred training ground of
Jusenkyo.  Each of the Warriors had escaped the training at Jusenkyo
unscathed, except for gentle Sun Li.  She had never had the heart of a
Warrior, so when her turn on the poles came she lacked the ferocity to
defend herself.  Ko Ron had cried out in fear as her dearest friend fell
into one of the Pools of Sorrow, and had cried out again in astonishment as
a red-haired girl emerged in Sun Li's stead.
        "Ah, too bad," the keeper of Jusenkyo had said.  "She fell in the
Spring of Drowned Girl.  There is a very tragic story of a girl who drowned
in the spring over 1,000 years ago."




        "So, Ranma, what was that little scene about?" Akane asked sourly.
It had been so embarrassing for her, to have her fiance acting like such an
idiot!
        "Leave me alone, Akane," Ranma grumbled, snatching up his lunch.
He dashed out into the school yard and settled down under one of the trees
to eat, hoping Akane would just leave him in peace.  He swallowed his food
without tasting it, and then bent over to rest his head on his knees.
        "What is wrong with me?" he thought unhappily...



        "I'll have you, An Mei," the Man growled, crossing the room to
where An Mei stood, bound and helpless in the hands of her captors.  The
Man reached up with hands still wet with Xian Ko's blood to fumble at the
ties to An Mei's blouse.  Over his shoulder, An Mei could see Xian Ko's
lifeless body staring towards her, an expression of surprise and horror
permanently etched on her face.  Xian Ko had died saving the young sisters
of the Tribe, had given her life for their freedom.  She had led the
sisters outside, where they could melt into the shadows and escape, but she
had come back.  She had come back for An Mei.
        Tears of grief and fury streamed down An Mei's face as the Man bent
to kiss her.  An Mei bit him, drawing blood, and the Man wrapped his hands
around her slender throat, strangling her.  Black splotches crawled across
her vision, and then the Man let go of her neck and tore her blouse apart.
Gasping for air, An Mei yanked free of the men holding her and hit the Man
with her bound hands, leaving four bloody nail marks near his eye.
        "Ranma!" somebody called.
        The Man raised his fist to strike, and An Mei threw up her hands to
block the blow.  She felt somebody pushing at her shoulder.
        "Ranma!"
        An Mei turned to see a short-haired girl.  "Who are you?" the
Amazon gasped.  The girl slapped her, hard.
        "Ranma!" Akane said worriedly.  Ranma blinked, swayed a little as
the world came back into focus around him.
        "Akane..." he gasped, and then threw his arms around her and held
her tight.  Akane's eyes flew wide open, but she felt how he was trembling,
how his heart was pounding against his rib cage.  Slowly, instinctively,
she wrapped her arms around him, muttering comforting nonsense into his ear
and patting his back gently.



        Ko Ron stared down into the boiling water, oblivious to the sound
of Shan Pu entering the room behind her.  Sun Li had screamed in terror
when she realized she was cursed, and hadn't settled down until the hot
water had changed her back into herself.  The nightmares had begun that
very night, for Sun Li had no Warrior heart to fight against the spirit of
the drowned girl.  For three nights, Ko Ron had stayed by Sun Li's side,
hearing the drowned girl's sad history and comforting Sun Li when she woke.
If only Sun Li had received an animal curse!  Those were so much simpler,
for the spirit of an animal was rarely strong enough to haunt an Amazon.
But this drowned girl was strong, so strong, and she was flooding Sun Li
with her memories.
        "Defiler!" Sun Li had screamed on the third night, her cursed form
leaping out of the bed with fluid grace.  "Defiler!" she shrieked, her eyes
wild, her lips twisted into a snarl of hatred so malevolent, Ko Ron stood
frozen as the cursed girl leaped at her.  Ko Ron gasped in surprise as Sun
Li's hands struck through her defenses, ripping four bloody claw marks into
Ko Ron's shoulder.  Ko Ron had never actually seen the Cat Fist used
before, but she knew on the instant what it was.
        "I will kill you!" Sun Li cried.
        "You may not kill me, Sun Li!" Ko Ron bellowed with the voice of a
Leader, "for I am of your Tribe!"  As she spoke, she threw a cup of hot
water over her friend.  Sun Li gasped, staring in horror at the bloody hand
she held poised to strike at her friend.
        "Ko Ron," she moaned, "What is wrong with me?"
        "Don't worry, Sun Li," Ko Ron answered in a gentle singsong,
leading her back to bed.  "As long as we keep you out of cold water it will
be all right."
        "But I would have-" Sun Li gasped again, her eyes wide with terror.
        "You didn't, my friend," Ko Ron had interrupted, pressing the neck
of her blouse against her wounded shoulder and hoping Sun Li couldn't see
that she was injured.  "And even this spirit, this An Mei, would not strike
a sister of her Tribe."
        "But it wasn't you!" Sun Li cried.  "It was the Man!"
        Ko Ron muttered soothing nonsense to her friend as she draped an
arm around her shoulders and gently pushed her back into the bed.  She
didn't take the time to puzzle over Sun Li's cryptic remark until after the
cursed girl had fallen asleep.  When she woke in the morning, she found
that Sun Li had killed herself during the night.



        "Great grandmother, are you alright?" Shan Pu asked.  Ko Ron shook
herself and turned to face her heir.
        "Shan Pu, come with me.  Son-in-law needs us."  Shan Pu offered no
argument, for Ko Ron had assumed her commanding voice.  The old woman
grabbed her staff and raced out of the Nekohanten as though the ghost of
Sun Li were at her heels, urging her on.  She only prayed she wasn't too
late.



        An Mei raced through the woods, away from her pursuers, away from
Xian Ko's lifeless eyes, away from the Man who had...who had...
        She bit back a shriek at the memory of what the Man had done to
her.  It would have been kinder to have killed her, to have let her join
Xian Ko and the other dead sisters of the Tribe in honor.  At least, thanks
to Xian Ko, the younger Tribe members had been freed.  The Tribe would
survive, and Xian Ko's memory would be kept in their hearts.
        "Xian Ko..." she panted, her own heart wrung with agony at the
thought of her dearest friend's body lying in the Man's stronghold, with
no-one to give her the proper rites or a decent burial.  The sky behind An
Mei turned orange as the Man's stronghold burst into flames, and An Mei
grimly smiled.  Xian Ko at least had a pyre now, and many of the men
responsible for her death would never see another day.  It would have to be
enough.
        "Find her!" a male voice raged, and An Mei's heart quailed.  She
was no Warrior now, but a defeated, honorless woman.  If they caught her
again...but there, just ahead, was the training ground of the Amazons.  The
sacred Pools of Sorrow.  Surely nobody could sorrow more than An Mei, who
would now die without honor, without her Tribe, without Xian Ko.  She heard
men's voices behind her as she leaped into the nearest pool, felt an arrow
piercing her back as the icy waters closed over her head.
        "So this is how it ends..." was her last thought.


        An Mei looked around her in bewilderment at the neatly manicured,
grassy yard.
        "Where am I?" she wondered aloud.
        "Ranma, what's wrong with you?"
        An Mei backed away from the girl that held her and looked down at
herself in horror.  She was one of them!  One of the men!  Overwhelmed with
shame and rage and pain and horror, she sank to her knees moaning.  The
Godesses had cursed her with a male body, to punish her for her lack of
honor.  With a heartbroken cry of terror, An Mei raced for the cover of
trees.
        "Ranma!" the girl cried after her.
        An Mei darted through the trees, as swift in her fear as an arrow's
flight, far ahead of her pursuer.



        Ko Ron and Shan Pu followed the sound of Akane's voice to find her
in the short stretch of trees near the high school, frantically searching
the ground to find some indication of which way Ranma/An Mei had gone.
        "You'll find no trace of her here," Ko Ron said.  "She'll head for
cover.  Quickly, if you were looking for a lot of trees to hide in, which
way would you go?"
        "This way!" Akane cried, running after Ranma with the two Amazons
easily keeping pace.  "What's wrong with him?" Akane gasped.
        "The spirit of the drowned girl is starting to overwhelm him," Ko
Ron huffed.
        "WHAT?!?!" Akane and Shan Pu cried in unison.   As briefly as
possible, Ko Ron tried to explain...


        Somewhere, deep in the recesses of his mind, Ranma's spirit cringed
in horror.  An Mei's memories were too real, too vivid... the Man ripped
his shirt open, and he struck out with his bound hands.  The Man struck
him, again and again until he collapsed into the arms of those who held
him.  Through a haze of pain, Ranma felt the rest of his clothing torn
away, and his body being tossed to the ground with a painful jolt.  And
then the Man was on top of him, and the others looked down at him laughing
and waiting their turn, and Xian Ko's dead eyes stared into his, and the
agony and shame were too much, he couldn't bear it, he couldn't bear it and
it wouldn't stop...



        An Mei stopped in a small clearing, certain somehow that this was
the thickest growth of trees she would find.  She panted, glancing down at
her male body with a muted sense of horror.  The Godesses had given her a
male body, but was it really to punish her for her weakness?  Or... could
it possibly be to give her one last chance to avenge herself?
        A girl came rushing into the clearing, calling Ranma's name and
brushing her short dark hair off her forehead.  An Mei looked up and saw
not the short-haired girl, but the Man standing over her, leering.
        "Defiler!  I will kill you!" she bellowed, leaping up, and suddenly
a wooden staff caught her in the chin as an old woman appeared.
        "You may not kill me, An Mei!" the old woman bellowed, "For I am of
your Tribe!"
        "You!" An Mei gasped.  Suddenly she remembered seeing Ko Ron as a
young woman, but that didn't make any sense.  There was no Ko Ron in An
Mei's Tribe...but somehow An Mei was sure that the old woman was telling
the truth.
        A young woman joined them in the clearing, and An Mei's eyes
widened in disbelief.
        "Xian Ko!" she gasped, awestruck, approaching the young Amazon on
shaking legs.  "Xian Ko!  But...but how is it that you're alive?"
        "An Mei?" Shan Pu asked hesitantly.  An Mei threw herself into Shan
Pu's arms with a strangled cry, and Shan Pu hugged her, trying not to think
about Ranma's body pressing up against her, Ranma's arms encircling her and
his hot breath against her neck.  Akane gaped at them, realizing for the
first time that it was a stranger in Ranma's body, that he truly wasn't
there.
        "Xian Ko, I thought you were dead.  You've grown so, you're taller
than me now!" An Mei sobbed.
        "An Mei, you must listen to me," Ko Ron said urgently.  "I am a
Leader of the Tribe, and you must hear me!"
        "Yes," An Mei said, turning to stand beside her friend and bowing
her head.  Ko Ron would condemn her now, for her failure to protect her
sisters, for her failure to avenge Xian Ko, for allowing the Man to defile
her.  She clung to Shan Pu's hand for comfort.
        "An Mei, you must know that we honor Xian Ko, that she is a hero to
us.  All of the Warriors of our Tribe honor her for her bravery in freeing
the Tribe from those who had captured them."
        "Yes," An Mei said with a slight, bitter smile.  That was as it
should be.
        "The Leaders of our Tribe share her name.  I, Ko Ron, carry her
name with pride."
        An Mei nodded, her throat tightening with unshed tears.
        "But you must also know, An Mei, that we will honor you as well."
        "What?" An Mei gasped, looking deep into the old woman's eyes.
        "I swear to you, An Mei, on the blood of our ancestors, that your
name will be honored in the Tribe."
        "But how can that be?  When I failed so..." An Mei stopped, the
words choked off by bitter tears.
        "You failed in nothing," Ko Ron said gently, hesitantly putting a
hand on the Warrior's shoulder.  "You fought with valor to rescue your
sisters, and it is because of you and Xian Ko that the Tribe survived.
Even in the face of the greatest shame and sorrow our kind can know, you
did all you could to grant your young sisters their freedom. There was
nothing more you could do, An Mei, and you did much more than many of us
would have managed.  You are the very heart of honor."
        "Xian Ko!  Did you hear-?" An Mei began, turning to Shan Pu.
        "That is not Xian Ko, An Mei," Ko Ron said sadly.
        "What?"  An Mei dropped Shan Pu's hand and stood back, staring at
the face that was so familiar...and yet different somehow.  Shan Pu nodded,
and An Mei realized that it truly was not her Xian Ko.
        "That is Shan Pu, my great-granddaughter.  It has been many long
years since Xian Ko's spirit moved on to the next level."
        "You mean...she did die?"  An Mei shook her head as she spoke,
gazing pleadingly into the old woman's eyes.
        "She did die...as did you, An Mei."
        "No!"  An Mei fell to her knees, overwhelmed, and began to cry
again.  For her sorrow and loss, for Xian Ko, for all the things she had
never lived to see and do...
        "There is nothing here for you now, An Mei," Ko Ron said.  "Your
spirit has remained here for many years,  because you thought you had been
shamed and cast out of the Tribe."
        "But if I am honored in the Tribe..." An Mei sighed, wiping her
tears and beginning to smile as hope dawned.
        "Then you may join the other sisters.  Surely Xian Ko has waited
for you long enough."  An Mei stood, brushed her wet cheek against Ko
Ron's, and then suddenly she was gone.  Ko Ron and Akane caught Ranma's
limp body as he fell, and gently lowered him to the ground.  Akane knelt
with Ranma's head in her lap, and she and Shan Pu stared at the old woman
with questions burning in their eyes.
        "It is finished," Ko Ron sighed.  "Son-in-law will be fine, for he
has the heart of a Warrior.  He might not even remember any of this."
        Akane held Ranma in her arms as he shuddered, and then his eyelids
fluttered open.  For a moment Akane thought she saw An Mei, and then the
familiar gleam stole its way back into his eyes.  Akane released the breath
she hadn't known she was holding, as she realized that it really was the
Ranma she knew.
        "What...?" Ranma mumbled, seeming disoriented and oddly subdued.
Not even a crack about Akane holding him while he slept!
        "It's a long story, Ranma," Akane answered, helping him to push
himself upright.  There would be time to explain it all later, after she
had let it sink in for a while herself.  And it would only be a matter of
time before he was back to his wise-cracking self.  Showing uncustomary
self-restraint, Shan Pu offered Ranma a hand up as he got shakily to his
feet.  Akane led the way back to the school, and Shan Pu and Ranma
followed, making no sound and leaving behind them no trace of their
passage.
        Ko Ron retrieved her staff and made her own way home, her head held
high with pride...for she was of the Tribe.


THE END