Yes! It's finnally here! I've broken this chapter into at least two parts,
the next part of which should be out in a few weeks. ALL C&C ACCEPTED!!;)

--



Ryan Anderson          
-Shampoo's Avatar!
andersor@cs.colorado
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~andersor/fanfic/fanfic.html
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~andersor/tenchi/ryoko.html


---


Ranma 1/2 Fanfic 
Purple-haired Destiny 
By Ryan Anderson 
Part 3: Of Misguided Quests and Misguided Souls

Standard Takahashi Disclaimer: I don't own any of these  
characters, I'm just a poor otaku/college student! Please 
don't sue me!! I don't have any money!! 

What has gone before:
A heck-of-a-lot! Too much for me to synopsize here, If 
you want the previous two chapters, email me at 
andersor@cs.colorado.edu, check the RAAC archives, or my 
fanfic webpage at 
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~andersor/fanfic/fanfic.html

-------------------------------------------


The world was a haze of pain as Ranma staggered down the 
street in the early-morning light. Slumping up against a 
wall for what seemed to be the millionth time, he 
spared a moments look at the sun, seeing that far more 
time had passed than he had thought, and at this rate 
he'd never make it.

With a tired gasp Ranma once more forced his feet to 
move, plodding down the street toward the canal. People 
were starting to make their presence felt, kids walking 
to school, women washing the walks, the sounds of life 
starting to fill the air. Ranma heard none of it, 
however, as he spent all his will power keeping one foot 
placed in front of the other, and everyone else seemed 
to pay just as little attention to him. No one seemed 
willing to meet his gaze, no one noticed the blood 
dripping in a long trail behind him....

All ignored him, save one. From a mailbox on the street 
opposite the staggering martial artist, a pair of eyes 
peered out at Ranma, watching his slow progress.

"Ranma..." the mailbox whispered. "You stole my Ukyo-
sama from me, and once you lead me to her, you're mine."

Ranma didn't notice, though, as he was too busy 
concentrating on staying upright. As the world began to 
lose its focus, the small part of Ranma's mind that 
wasn't focused on walking began to wander....

He could feel it, he wasn't going to make it in time. He 
rounded the last corner, staggering toward the canal, 
before him he could see the slowly expanding pool of red. 
The thick, viscous fluid seemed almost black as it 
reflected the sky in startling clarity, yet the 
reflection seemed twisted... hideous in the red-black 
mirror. Ranma's tired gaze slowly traced the winding pool 
back to its source, the slumped body in the middle... her 
purple hair coated and stained red as she lay face down 
in the puddle.

Dimly Ranma walked over, slumping down beside her, and 
cradled her head in his lap. Tears, his enemy for so 
long, ran unchecked down his cheeks as he stared into 
those horrible, lifeless eyes. Eyes which were once so 
full of life, so full of love....

Slowly Ranma felt his own consciousness going, his blood 
mingling with Shampoo's. What had he done? How could he 
have ever thought to go through with the seppuku? If he 
had just been decisive, he could have made it here with 
time to spare, and now Shampoo was dead, and it was all 
his fault... all his fault.... 

His last thoughts as his consciousness faded was that 
now he would never know what he felt for her, and once 
more the choice had been taken from him. Maybe, if the 
Kami were merciful, he would meet her again in the next 
life....

A scream cut through his nightmare visions, and slowly 
Ranma blinked, looking around, barely able to recognize 
his surroundings through the haze of pain and the 
darkness which threatened to overwhelm him. There, just 
up ahead, was the canal! He had made it! Was he too 
late? If he could just get closer....

Ranma staggered a few more steps, reaching the fence 
next to the canal, vaguely able to make out two shapes on 
the bank. The voices continued, and he forced himself to 
pay attention.

"What! No! Shampoo, not you too!" There was a short 
pause, "Please... please don't leave me all alone!"

Ranma felt relief flooding him. Ukyo... dear sweet 
wonderful Ucchan! She wouldn't let Shampoo kill herself! 
Ranma was still going to be in time!

"Shampoo! Wait... Don't..." Ranma managed to yell, 
summoning the last of his strength. As the world began 
to fall away around him, he held onto his vision as 
long as he could, feeling the darkness trying to over 
take it. However, it was a sight he didn't want to 
lose... ever. One of the most beautiful sight he thought 
he had ever seen, Ukyo and Shampoo's eyes filled with 
such swift and breathtaking joy at seeing him alive as 
they turned and ran towards him....

***

Ranma slowly felt consciousness return to him, and along 
with it the pain and aches that always accompanied 
awaking in the hospital. He was certain he was, indeed, 
in a hospital, he could hear the steady beeping of 
machines somewhere in the background, and the smell of 
the overly-sterile environment was unmistakable.

Ascertaining where he was and that his physical 
condition wasn't nearly as bad as many of the times he 
had ended up here, his next order of business was to 
figure out how he had gotten here. He was pretty certain 
due to the level of activity outside of his room that if 
he so much as blinked someone would come in and explain 
all of what had happened to him, but just at the moment he 
didn't feel like hearing anyone else's explanation. 
Silently he let his mind drift back over the events of the 
past days, trying to figure out which one had ended him up 
here.

It didn't take much to remember. The burning pain of the 
sword blow, the long, torturous walk to save Shampoo... 
all of it came rushing back with frightening clarity. 
Stifling a groan, Ranma began piecing together what must 
have happened after he collapsed, figuring Shampoo and 
Ukyo must have hauled him here post-haste.

Ranma smiled inwardly, still feigning unconsciousness. 
For all Ukyo's screw ups, she certainly came through 
when she was most needed. If Ucchan hadn't been with 
Shampoo, not only would Shampoo most likely be dead, but 
he would be as well... There would have been no way he 
could have made it to the hospital on his own.

Ucchan... Ucchan... What to do about her? On one hand 
she had betrayed him... betrayed him in the worst 
possible way, and was to blame for setting this whole 
chain of events in motion... but on the other hand, she 
had saved his life, Shampoo's life, and she did seem 
genuinely sorry for her mistakes. Mistakes... as if 
that's all that she had made. No, Ukyo had been his best 
friend, and had used that closeness to betray him, drive 
Akane away....

Argh, Ranma grumbled to himself. This was getting him 
nowhere. His world was just a different place now, in 
the last few weeks everything that had been a constant 
in his life had been turned on its ear... even his 
father was nowhere to be found. Well, it was too late 
now, he had gone beyond the point of no return and 
betrayed his family honor, he could never go back to 
either his family or the Tendos now. 

With that knowledge came a certain amount of peace. The 
peace of acceptance. Throughout his long life on the 
road, there was one trait Ranma had learned better than 
any other -- how to move on. Throughout his early years, 
he and his father had stopped at one place after another, 
settling down just long enough for Ranma to start to make 
friends with the local children, then whoosh! Off they 
went again. Ranma had hated it every time, but by the 
fifth time he and his father had uprooted, the pain of 
leaving had lessened significantly. It seemed just a fact 
of life back then, that friendships were temporary, and 
that no matter how much he wanted to stay, the end always 
came.

The pain had returned now, though. He had really thought 
that at last he had found a place that he would never 
have to leave... but he should have known better. 
However, as much as it hurt, Ranma knew the feeling 
would pass, it always had on the road. All that mattered 
now was consolidating what he had. Back on the training 
trip, he had had three things, himself, his martial 
arts, and his father. Now, he was at least a bit ahead 
of that... If he chose, he could not only have himself, 
his martial arts, but his best friend Ucchan as well... 
and Shampoo.

Suddenly anger welled up within him, threatening to 
break his calm, unconscious demeanor. Shampoo... How 
could she have done that to him? Shampoo, who'd he 
finally started trusting and considering a friend, had 
betrayed him, forcing him just like everyone else always 
had, not letting him make the choice for himself. She 
had known damn well that he wouldn't let her die if 
there was anything in his power that he could do to stop 
it! And she had ruthlessly used the knowledge she had 
gained of his honor to force him to live.

Force him to live... as if that was a bad thing. As much 
as he hated being forced to do anything, he had to admit 
there was a pretty good chance that without Shampoo's 
forcing of the issue, he might have actually gone through 
with it. That thought sent a shudder through him, as he 
remembered just how close to death he had come. He could 
still feel the cold steal of the tanto pressed to his 
flesh....

In a way, Ranma supposed, he really had died. With his 
decision to live, he had given up all that his past life 
had been, essentially killing all that had mattered to 
him. 

No, that wasn't quite true. It was more like he had just, 
once more, picked up and moved on... only this time 
instead of leaving a place, he had left the life he had 
known.

Ranma sighed, finally blinking open his eyes. A nurse was 
standing over him and wrapping his shoulder in a fresh 
bandage. Ranma still felt rather weak, but already his 
renowned healing abilities were hard at work, replacing 
the blood he had lost. The nurse, seeing he was awake, 
stepped back and gave him a smile. 

"Well, glad to see you awake! With as much blood as you 
lost, I'm surprised you weren't out cold for days! Why in 
the world were you practicing with such a sharp blade? 
Then wandering all over town before your two friends 
brought you in... Honestly! I can never figure out you 
martial artists...."

Ranma smiled weakly at the nurse, glad that even if it 
was a poor excuse Shampoo and Ukyo had concocted, it 
would keep the authorities from poking around. So, he had 
hurt himself in a training accident, huh? Well, the 
excuse made him look incompetent, but then at this point 
he didn't have a lot of pride left to hurt.

The nurse was still babbling on about martial artists she 
had to treat, but finally Ranma stopped her. "Uh, yeah, 
well... Maybe things will improve soon. Anyway, could you 
please tell me if my two 'friends' are still here?"

"Why, yes. As a matter of fact they are. I tried to 
convince them that it could be a whole day before you 
regained consciousness, but they insisted on waiting. 
Shall I show them in?"

Well, thought Ranma, might as well discover what other 
twists fate had in store for him today. He might as well 
face them now. "Uh, yeah, sure."

It took a few minutes after the nurse left for the door 
to open again, a space of time that seemed to stretch on 
forever as Ranma stared out the window, trying to predict 
what would happen next. Or, more to the point, which girl 
would glomp him first. He was betting on Shampoo.

Without warning, the door was practically blown off its 
hinges as a blur of movement came flying through, 
attaching itself to Ranma.  Ranma had been incorrect, 
however, as the blur soon resolved itself into the 
recognizable form of Ukyo, who clutched Ranma with a 
desperate strength, sobbing into his chest.

Awkwardly, Ranma tried to console the near-hysterical 
girl, and slowly her sobs began lessening, until finally 
Ukyo raised her tear-soaked eyes to look into his. For 
once, Ranma really looked into Ukyo's eyes, and what he 
saw there startled him. Ranma had always known Ukyo loved 
him, but he wasn't prepared to face the depth of emotion 
he could feel emanating from those deep, dark brown eyes. 
Ranma might have known Ukyo loved him, but deep down he 
had never really believed it was anything other than 
the feelings of their friendship misinterpreted, or a 
childhood crush. Now, however, he couldn't deny the 
truth of Ukyo's feelings... And, for the first time, 
he really noticed (or more felt, as she was pressed 
against him) just _how_ feminine she was. True, she 
didn't have Shampoo's exotic beauty, but hers was more 
wholesome, less sultry.

Ranma swallowed hard. How could he not have noticed Ukyo 
before now?

"Ranchan... I'm so glad you're okay! Oh Ranchan, please 
forgive me, this is all my fault... If I hadn't tricked 
Akane like that, none of this would have happened!"

That snapped Ranma out of his reverie. How could he just 
forgive Ukyo after what she had done to him and Akane? If 
it hadn't been for her, he'd still be living at the 
Tendos, and everything would be exactly the same as it 
had been....

But then, things _weren't_ as they had been anymore, and 
he wasn't stuck in a violent abusive relationship... and 
what's more, if it hadn't been for Ukyo, both he and 
Shampoo probably would have died. Besides, Ucchan, for 
whatever else she was or might be to him, had always been 
his friend... and now that he'd finally found her again, 
he wasn't about to leave her behind. Ukyo had just 
done too much for him, and she _did_ seem very sincere 
about being sorry for what she had done....

"Its all right Ucchan... You were only doing what you 
thought was right." He said. He wasn't really sure if he 
meant it or not though. He _was_ still upset that Ukyo 
would try to do something like what she had done. It 
wasn't so much the aftermath that upset him now though, as 
the fact that Ukyo had done it in the first place.

"Ranma!..." Ranma looked up sharply stopping the bubbly 
amazon with one cold look. Ucchan had just tried to force 
him to choose her, and in the end Ukyo's plan had hinged 
on his final decision (which, obviously, had been 
contrary to what she had hoped) but Shampoo... Shampoo 
had done everything in her power to make sure that he had 
no choice what so ever.

"Ranma..." This time Shampoo's voice was noticeably 
choked with emotion as she read his cold gaze, and Ranma 
felt his heart crack a little. She had forced him into 
a position that cost him his family, his honor... But she 
had given him life.

And life was what he had really wanted. If it hadn't been 
for Shampoo, he might not have had the courage to scar 
his honor so, and live. And in the end, _that_ had been 
what had changed his mind more than anything else, he had 
wanted to live, to see what the future held... And now 
that he was thinking about it, one of those future options 
he had wanted to explore was with Shampoo.

Vaguely, as he saw her there before him, a pleading, hurt 
look in her eyes, memories of his long walk to save her 
came back to his mind. The feelings of loss and 
hopelessness when he thought for sure she was dead because 
of him... But now, seeing her there before him, _alive_... 
perhaps he still had a chance to explore those future 
opportunities.

Still, he wasn't about to let her off the hook just yet. 
"Shampoo... I know why you did what you did, but that 
doesn't excuse it. You manipulated me and forced me into 
a situation that forced me to scar my honor and hurt my 
mother... how can I forgive that?"

Shampoo seemed to shrink back into herself, on the verge 
of tears, and Ranma just about gave an audible sigh of 
frustration. Shampoo didn't usually take what he said so 
harshly (how could she and still feel anything for him?) 
but he supposed that after this emotional roller coaster 
of a day, she was probably more vulnerable than she'd 
been since he pulled her off that cliff and dragged her 
home. Still, he hoped she wouldn't make a habit out of 
it, that trait was too much like Akane, and he'd come to 
appreciate her for the bubbly and fun individual for whom 
she was.

"Yet, you did save my life... and I'm... grateful." He 
said with a hint of a smile. "So what do I do with you, 
Shampoo? You saved my life, yet you hurt me too... I 
suppose I have no choice but just to call us even."

Ranma's eyes finally lost their steely cast as he let a 
bit of his feelings show through. Maybe it was just the 
pain killers they'd given him for the pain of his 
wounds, but the smile Shampoo gave him made him feel 
more than a little light headed, and it seemed to banish 
all the dark thoughts that had brought him to this 
point. For a moment, as he gazed into her eyes and felt 
the dazzling power of her smile, he felt well and truly 
happy, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out 
what it was exactly that he had to be happy about.

In a flash she was at his side, hugging him just as hard 
as Ukyo had, and for the first time he could remember, he 
was actually in a position where he could enjoy the 
warmth of the glomps (both Shampoo's and Ukyo's earlier) 
without having to fear for a concussion. Shampoo felt 
very similar to the way Ukyo felt when pressed against 
him, but he did notice some slight differences. Shampoo 
was all sinew and muscle, not that Ukyo wasn't strong, 
but with Shampoo it seemed like he could feel every 
muscle pressing against him, tightly controlled and 
mastered. With Ukyo the flow of her form had been more 
soft, less... fiery. Ranma found it odd that he had 
never noticed the more than superficial differences 
between the two before.

Thoughts of Ukyo suddenly caused Ranma to remember that 
he and Shampoo were not alone here, and there was a very 
real possibility that the other person in the room was 
about to take Akane's place as the grand concussion 
giver. However, as Ranma's gaze found Ukyo, he was 
surprised to see that she didn't appear angry, or even 
sad. She just had a far away thoughtful look on her 
face. 

Ranma turned back to Shampoo just as she raised her eyes 
to meet his, joy and love written all over her face. 
"You really mean it? You... you forgive Shampoo?" Ranma 
gave her a slight nod, and Shampoo looked about ready to 
burst with joy. In fact, she seemed ready to express her 
feelings about that forgiveness in more intimate ways 
and was lowering her head to kiss him when Ranma decided 
that they really needed to take things one thing at a 
time... all of them.

Gently disengaging Shampoo (a skill which he had lots of 
practice at, though he rarely succeeded.) he decided to 
take her down a peg. He wasn't ready to marry her yet, 
and didn't want to lead her on any more. ""I'm still not 
happy with you though. And... and I don't know what I'm 
going to do. Where are we going to go now?" he said. If 
there was one thing Ranma was certain about, it was that 
he wanted to get as far away from Nerima as possible. 
There were just too many painful memories here. 

"Well Ranchan, Shampoo and I thought that if you 
didn't... you know... we could all maybe... travel 
together? Maybe start a restaurant somewhere or 
something...."

***

This time he was ready. There was no way he was going to 
let that slime ball Ranma take Ukyo-sama back after the 
hell he'd put her through! Tsubasa had been disguised as 
a mailbox across the street when Ukyo had kissed Ranma, 
and Tsubasa's heart had shattered upon seeing it... But 
still he had stayed, determined to see Ukyo-sama happy, 
even if it wasn't with him. So, fighting back his tears, 
he had watched the ensuing fight in Ucchan's, and only 
he had seen the crying, hurt Ukyo run from the building. 
Well, after that, he could never forgive Ranma. It was 
bad enough he had conned three women into getting 
engaged to him, but then to spurn the love of Ukyo... It 
was just evil beyond human!

His disguise was perfect too. No one, not even Ukyo, would 
be able to tell that it was *him* inside this pink 
elephant costume. All he had to do now was wait, and 
sooner or later his beautiful Ukyo-sama would come out of 
the hospital, and when she did, he'd make her see how much 
he loved her. He'd glomped her in the past, but this time 
it would be an *extra special* glomp, one that would show 
her beyond any doubt that he was the one for her, not that 
two-timing Ranma.

***

Akane clutched P-chan tightly to her chest as she 
approached the door, nervous anxiety slowing her progress 
to a crawl. Yes, she knew that her pet pig was actually 
Ryouga, but right now she was beyond caring... If telling 
Nodoka the truth went as badly as telling her father, she 
was going to need the comfort of having P-chan near her...

Thank the Kami that her father didn't know about Ryouga's 
curse... He'd been a complete wreck after Ryouga's 
announcement of their "engagement" and her pregnancy, but 
his shock had quickly turned to frightening anger directed 
at Ryouga when he'd found out how heinous the lie was. He 
kept ranting on and on about how his daughter's honor had 
been sullied. In many ways, she did agree with him, what 
Ryouga had done was completely thoughtless and stupid, but 
it wasn't true, and she had able to head off the rumor 
before it spread, so... what harm had been done, really? 
Ryouga had just been trying to protect her from being 
forced to marry, and even if she didn't approve of his 
methods, they were certainly better than Ranma's answer, 
which was just to beat up anyone who even tried to get 
close to her... In fact, she was rather surprised he 
hadn't beaten Ryouga on the spot for what he had said. 

However, Ranma's pummeling wasn't necessary, as her father 
quickly took his place and verbally beat poor Ryouga into 
the ground for "insulting the family honor" or something. 
Ryouga had finally run off, practically in tears, and 
father had told him never to come back, but Akane had soon 
caught up with him again as he got lost in the backyard. 
She was able to explain to him that she didn't view it as 
bad as her father had, and that she still needed him to 
stay, so they had worked out an arrangement where he would 
stay P-chan most of the time until her father's anger 
past. 

Now, with all the unpleasantness done at her house, she 
had one more household to confront before the damage was 
corrected from Ryouga's little fib... and she was 
definitely not looking forward to it. She'd managed to 
hold off coming until this afternoon, but now she had no 
choice, she was going to have to face Ranma again.

The house was dark as Akane finally gathered her courage 
and stepped up to the door. "Hmm... maybe they're not 
home, ne, P-chan?"

P-chan responded with a squeal of agreement and pointed 
back the way that they had come, expressing his 
displeasure at being here too. If Akane was worried about 
coming here, Ryouga was down-right scared. While his curse 
might save him from Nodoka's ire, Ranma would see right 
through it, and he wasn't going to be happy to see Ryouga 
again... even if he did give them a chance to explain (and 
Ryouga doubted he would, the bastard), Nodoka was likely 
to try to force the two into marriage once again... and 
though Akane had promised that she would be adamant about 
not marrying Ranma, Ryouga was still worried that her 
resolve would fail her....

"Well, we should ring the bell anyway, just to check." 
Akane said, reaching out and pressing the doorbell. As the 
chimes struck, Akane waited impatiently, tapping her foot 
on the stair. Finally, with sigh of frustration, she 
turned and began to leave. 

She had just reached the bottom step, however, when the 
door swung open, revealing a very haggard-looking Nodoka. 
Nodoka's face was pale and gaunt, with large bags under 
her eyes as if she hadn't slept for days, and had been 
crying much of that time. Akane simply stared at her in 
shock, not knowing what to make of the always-immaculate 
matriarch of the Saotome clan.

"A-Akane? Is that you dear? Won't you come in..." Nodoka 
said, her voice cheery despite her appearance. 

Akane slowly recovered from the shock of seeing the wasted 
shadow of a woman who stood before her and gave a cautious 
nod before edging past Nodoka and into the house.

The inside of the house was just as dark as it looked from 
the exterior, with all the drapes pulled shut, and the 
lights off. The place looked like some sort of crypt. 
Unconsciously, Akane shivered, holding P-chan a little 
tighter as Nodoka led her to a table in the middle of the 
room, and bid her sit while she went to get tea.

As Nodoka returned from the kitchen, Akane sat as still as 
possible, her hands clasped in front of her trying her 
hardest not to fidget as her nervousness grew. Something 
was very wrong here, and for the life of her she couldn't 
figure out what could possibly have caused such a drastic 
change in Nodoka. 

"So, Akane-chan, To what do I owe the pleasure of this 
visit?" Nodoka asked, taking a sip of her tea. Akane was 
unable to meet her gaze as she stared at the floor, 
feeling completely embarrassed about this. 

"Uh, well, I was kind of hoping to tell both you and Ranma 
at the same time, to get this over with... where is he?"

Nodoka's cup slammed down on the table with a surprising 
amount of force. Akane's head whipped up, but Nodoka's 
demeanor had not changed, she still seemed completely 
serene and at ease.

"Ranma... is no longer with us. He dishonored this family 
by failing to be manly enough to keep you as a fiancee, so 
he has redeemed his honor with his life."

The way Nodoka said it was so conversational, so out of 
place, that Akane was sure she had heard her wrong. "Wha.. 
What?"

"You remember that pact Ranma made to commit seppuku if he 
did not become a 'man amongst men'? Well, if he couldn't 
keep you as his fiancee and make you happy, then obviously 
he wasn't much of a man...."

***

Ryouga felt numb all over as lay clutched to Akane's 
chest. Ranma, dead? The thought seemed impossible... here, 
after all this time of trying to kill his most hated 
rival, it appeared he had succeeded, but he had certainly 
never intended for it to be like this. He had always 
pictured striking Ranma down in the heat of battle, an 
honorable battle between two men, where only one would 
walk away victorious, to be swept into the lovely Akane's 
arms... Yet, here he was, in the lovely Akane's arms... 
and all he felt was empty. 

He hadn't struck down Ranma in any great battle, no, he 
had defeated his foe not with his skill at martial arts, 
but with a simple lie. It was inconceivable to Ryouga... 
great martial artists were suppose to die gloriously in 
battle, not alone and quietly in their own backyard, at 
least not when they were in their prime!

Following Nodoka's announcement and Akane's subsequent 
cries of denial, Nodoka had taken them out back and shown 
them the fresh grave, the broken honor-sword of the 
Saotome clan laying on top of it. "Here lies the last of 
the line of Saotome, who died so that the clan may die 
with honor." Read the inscription on the head stone, 
roughly carved out of the simple granite slab.

Akane had told Nodoka about the lie after that, but the 
elder Saotome hadn't even flinched. She had merely said 
something about Akane still rejecting her son, and that 
honor had been maintained. Akane tried to keep at least 
marginally calm at first, but hearing this last 
denouncement was more than she could bear, and ran from 
the house in tears. Now she was laying on her bed, still 
sobbing and clutching him rather tightly....

Truth be told, Ryouga felt like crying as well. For the 
life of him, he couldn't figure out why... he should be 
happy that Ranma was dead, right? Now he would have Akane 
all to himself, and never have to worry about Ranma ever 
again... but then, he hadn't been the instrument of 
Ranma's demise, so how could he ever feel satisfied, 
having never gotten revenge....

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Simultaneously, 
Akane and P-chan looked up to see the door slide back, 
revealing Nabiki.

"Ah sis, I've got a question..." Nabiki trailed off, 
momentarily stunned by the sight of her sister's tear 
stained face. "Akane? What happened?"

Blearily, Akane rubbed her eyes. "Nabiki..." she sobbed. 
"Ranma's dead! I killed him!"

"NANI?!?" Even the ice queen was shocked by this little 
revelation. Taking a moment to compose herself, Nabiki 
stepped back into the room. "Akane, what *are* you talking 
about??"

"Mrs. Saotome! She had Ranma commit seppuku because I 
rejected him! I saw the g-grave and everything!" Akane 
sobbed out.

Nabiki, regaining a bit of her composure, quietly shut the 
door and went to sit next to her distraught younger 
sister. "Akane... listen to me. I happen to know for a 
fact that Ranma *isn't* dead... I don't know why Mrs. 
Saotome would tell you such a thing, but it just isn't 
true."

"Wha... What?? Ranma's alive? But... but... I saw the 
grave and everything! Mrs. Saotome broke the honor sword 
over it!"

Nabiki gently shook the nearly-hysterical girl, forcing 
her to focus. "Ranma was in the hospital, its true, but I 
can assure you, he is very much alive! Now stop acting so 
silly."

Ryouga, who was listening to all this from his position in 
Akane's lap, felt like a great weight had been taken from 
his shoulders. Ranma was alive! Ha, he had known it all 
along, martial artists just didn't die that way....

"But... if Ranma's *not* dead... where is he? What's 
happened to him? Why was he in the hospital?" Akane asked, 
drying her tears.

"I don't know, sis, but I intend to find out...."

***

Ukyo gave a deep sigh as she stared up at the fluffy white 
clouds floating across the sky... Everything was so messed 
up now, what with Ranma wanting to leave Nerima, and 
Shampoo no longer part of the Amazons... yet it seemed 
something had finally changed for good in their lives. 
Never again would things go back to the way they were, and 
she, for one, was actually quite glad of that fact. Never 
again would she have to watch *her* Ranchan go back to 
that violent, abusive girl, never paying attention to 
her...

No, she chided herself, that wasn't right. Ranchan wasn't 
'hers' anymore either... that was something else that had 
changed. Ranchan seemed to carry himself with less 
arrogance now that he was out of the hospital, and there 
was something new in his eyes... 

The three of them were walking at a rather leisurely pace 
back towards Ucchan's from the hospital and all of them 
seemed lost in their own thoughts. Ever since they had 
made the decision to leave Nerima once and for all last 
night in the hospital, everyone seemed wrapped up in 
saying their own private good-byes to the place. Both of 
the girls walked very close to Ranma as they trudged 
along, as if unwilling to get to far away from him for 
fear of losing him again.

As they walked by the playground, however, all were so 
lost in thought that they failed to notice the large, pink 
elephant statue standing next to the sidewalk, with kids 
climbing all over it. None of them gave it a second 
thought... that is, until the trunk started snaking around 
Ukyo....

Ukyo's mind was completely focused on figuring out where 
they were going next and trying to figure out her new 
situation in life, and so completely missed the overly-
obvious pink-elephant-jungle-gym-that-was-Tsubasa until 
it was too late. The first warning she had was when she 
suddenly felt herself lift off the ground....

***

Shampoo and Ranma both spun around as soon as the scream 
sounded, instantly going into ready positions. However, 
expecting an attack of some sort, both of them just stood 
there with eyes boggled at the scene before them.

Kids stood everywhere, bewildered by the sudden activity 
Of their jungle-gym... Ukyo, the one who had let out 
the scream, was dangling a few inches off the ground, 
securely wrapped in a long pink trunk as the head flipped 
open revealing Tsubasa, who used Ukyo's current state of 
immobilization to fondle her in a *most* in-appropriate 
way....

Ranma finally managed to pry the feminine-looking lecher 
off of Ukyo and restrain him, as Tsubasa tried desperately 
to maintain his hold on Ukyo's leg. Shampoo, On the other 
hand, was desperately trying to hold onto the still-
wrapped-in-pink-elephant-trunk Ukyo, who even though her 
arms were pinned, was ready to *kill* Tsubasa.

"Let me go Shampoo! Let me go! Just let me get my hands on 
that pervert...." Ukyo screamed, straining against her 
bonds. 

Shampoo, however, wouldn't budge. "Ukyo, you listen me. 
He need be punished for that, but if you just hit him 
again, he come back again. Just look at Mousse, he never 
leave Shampoo alone no matter *how* many times I hit him. 
Calm down, then talk to him."

Ukyo looked at Shampoo, fury and betrayal plain on her 
face, but as she gazed into Shampoo's hard eyes, she 
finally sagged. With a nod, Shampoo released her, 
shattering the pink elephant trunk binding her arms with a 
single well-placed blow.

Ranma, by this time, had successfully gotten Tsubasa off 
of Ukyo's leg and out of the pink-elephant, though using a 
lot more painful means than Shampoo's method of calming 
down Ukyo. Holding the cross dresser's arm behind his 
back, Ranma waited to see what would happen next.

Ukyo finally looked up and her eye's locked on Tsubasa. 
For an instant Shampoo thought she was going to try to 
attack him again, and she took a step closer, but with 
visible effort Ukyo forced herself to calm down.

Taking a few steps forward, she slapped Tsubasa, hard, 
right across the face. The smaller man looked back at her, 
being held upright by Ranma as he looked into Ukyo's eyes, 
tears welling in his own. "Ukyo-sama..." he whispered.

"Tsubasa..." What could she say? Ukyo was at a complete 
loss for what to say to the cross-dressing hentai that 
would make him leave her alone... she'd tried to reason 
with him a long time ago, but he hadn't listened then, why 
should he listened to anything she had to say now?

Ukyo looked back toward Shampoo, as if pleading for her to 
just let her beat the stuffing out of him, but Shampoo 
just gave her a stony gaze in reply, there would be no 
taking the easy way out. How the heck was she suppose to 
get rid of Tsubasa? The little twerp had been chasing her 
since junior high, when she had dressed as a boy, and, 
come to think of it, so had he. He had only started cross-
dressing when she had shown him that picture of her 
"fiancee" Ranma, in girl form. And so, deciding that she 
liked girls, Tsubasa had quickly done his best to make 
himself into one. He'd been the laughing stock of the 
school, showing up dressed like a girl to an all boys 
school and chasing after Ukyo, who at the time almost 
everyone thought was a boy. Oh the ridicule he must have 
had to put up with... Ukyo had to give him credit for 
giving up everything for her... but she just couldn't feel 
anything for him, not even friendship. He'd tried to push 
a relationship on her one-too-many times by glomping her 
and generally being a pervert in more ways than just 
cross-dressing. 

Yet how could she get rid of him once and for all? The 
only way to do that would be to some how make herself 
unavailable, and since she wasn't wearing a ring, it would 
be a bit difficult to convince him that she was married... 
not that that would probably stop him. What then? That she 
had some sort of disease? That probably wouldn't work 
either... he'd just want to stay with her and "nurse her 
to health." But how else could she make herself completely 
unavailable to him ever? A memory nagged at the back of 
her mind, back from when she had first met him, when she 
had showed him a picture of her "fiancee" Ranma... who was 
a girl. Not a cross-dresser, not a man-who-looked-like a 
girl, but a real, honest-to-goodness female with all the 
right parts...

Then, Ukyo knew what she had to do. "...You just don't get 
it do you? When I showed you that picture of Ranma's girl 
form back in grade school, did you think you could make me 
like a man just because you looked like a girl? Sorry, but 
I only like *real* women..."

Tsubasa looked on the verge of tears as he shook his head 
back and forth, trying to deny it. Ranma and Shampoo 
just stared at her in mute shock, their eyes practically 
bulging out of their skulls and their jaws hanging half 
way to the ground. 

Finally Tsubasa seemed to recover from his shock slightly, 
and he jerked his arm out of Ranma's loose grasp. "What 
about Ranma! I thought you loved him, and he's a guy!"

Ukyo smiled to herself, she'd been ready for this one. 
"Yeah, but hit him with cold water and *poof*! A *real* 
girl, not some cross-dressed freak!"

"I... I... I don't believe it!" Tsubasa yelled, tears 
running unashamedly down his girlish face.

Ukyo felt nervousness well up within her. If she didn't 
find some way to convince him, he'd just come back 
again... it was now or never, but Ranma was still in his 
male form, and left only....

With a swift grab back behind her, Ukyo grasped Shampoo's 
hand and pulled the shocked Chinese girl into an embrace. 
"Fine you want proof? I'll give you proof!" she yelled at 
Tsubasa. And with that she lowered her face down to 
Shampoo's, who was too shocked to do anything about it. 
Pulling Shampoo close to her, she enveloped the Chinese 
girl's soft lips with her own, pressing against them with 
what she hoped and prayed would be interpreted as a deep 
and passionate kiss by Tsubasa. Shampoo's lips were hard 
and unyielding, and Ukyo could feel her entire body 
tensing up beneath her. Forgive me Shampoo... she thought 
to herself, imagining how unbelievably pissed she was 
likely to be... But then something strange started to 
happen... gradually, as the kiss continued, Shampoo seemed 
to sag, the tension flowing out of her as well as her 
resistance to the kiss. She didn't actually kiss back, but 
she seemed to melt into Ukyo's embrace...

Shampoo's weight shifted more heavily to Ukyo's arms
and she reflexively tightened her grip to keep the Amazon
from falling to the ground.  The close proximity caused 
Ukyo a sort of odd fascination.  She because acutely aware 
of the feminine form pressed against her, the whole feel 
of her body, the smell of her perfume and even the taste 
of her lips-

"Ahem... uh, Ucchan? He's, uh... he's gone now..."

Ranma voice seemed to pierce through the haze of her 
thoughts, and suddenly Ukyo became a lot more aware of 
just what she was doing.... Opening her eyes she gazed 
into Shampoo's, whose eyes slowly opened, her faced 
flushed. Embarrassingly, it seemed that Ukyo's own heart 
was beating just a bit faster than normal....

Gently Ukyo let go of Shampoo, standing her back on her 
feet, though it seemed like a feather would push her over. 
Then she tuned to Ranma, finding him flushing from head to 
toe. "Ucchan... I.. I... I... I had no idea!"

Suddenly the full implications of what she had just done 
seemed to slam into her, and her own face turned far more 
red than Ranma's. "N-n-no... Wait, you don't understand!" 
she stammered. "I'm not like that! Really! I just...I just 
did that to get rid of Tsubasa!"

Ranma continued to look at her skeptically, but with the 
pleading look in her eyes, he couldn't help but believe 
her. After all, this was the girl who only last night had 
glomped onto his male form, so surely...

Shampoo, who was just standing there blowing in the 
breeze, finally shook herself back to full awareness. Both 
Ukyo and Ranma turned to look at her as her stance firmed 
and she got an angry look in her eye. Stomping up to 
Ukyo, she slapped the okonomiaki chef hard across the 
face.

Ukyo's head snapped around, a bright red hand mark left on 
her cheek. Ukyo held her ground though, and turned back to 
face Shampoo, prepared to defend her actions, but was 
surprised to find Shampoo smiling at her. 

"That good plan, pervert-spatula girl, but not do that 
again, okay?"

Ukyo numbly nodded at her, clutching her cheek. There was 
something about the way Shampoo had said that she couldn't 
place... though Shampoo seemed to have shrugged it off, 
her eyes looked... haunted. And that slap had been far too 
hard for her the cheerful demeanor she was showing. 

***

The two men simply stood in the park, staring at each 
other. How long they had been there, no one was really 
sure, but no one was willing to interrupt the subtle 
contest of wills between the two martial artists.

"It is good to see you again, Saotome-kun."

"It's been too long, Tendo-kun."

Slowly smiles broke on to the faces of both men and in an 
instant it seemed all the tension drained out of the air. 
Giving Soun a hearty slap on the back, Genma let out a 
loud guffaw.

"So Saotome-kun, it appears that absence does *not* make 
the heart grow fonder."

"Indeed Tendo-kun, my ingrate of a son has run back to his 
mother!"

"Yes, Saotome-kun, He and his mother came by not long 
ago..."

"Really? Are he and Akane once more engaged? Perhaps going 
back to his mother was not such a bad idea after all..."

"Alas, my own daughters turned against me, and drove Ranma 
away! Not only that, but this Hibiki boy told the 
most horrible lies to them about my little girl! We must 
get them back under one roof and soon, or all will be 
lost!"

"That won't be easy, Tendo-kun, as Nodoka, now that she 
has found her boy again, will be hesitant to let him go."

"hmm... we must think of a way, Saotome-kun! The future of 
the Anything-goes school of martial arts depends on us!"

***

Shampoo stared up at the ceiling, silently choking back 
her tears. Damn Ukyo anyway, she thought. This was not 
suppose to happen! She'd vowed never to....

They had decided to stay at Ucchan's for the night, before 
figuring out a way to sell Ucchan's and leave on the next 
day. Shampoo had been able to keep herself busy, helping 
Ukyo clean the restaurant and sparing a bit with Ranma, 
but she knew that she'd have to think about the incident 
in the park eventually....

It wasn't like she could be mad at Ukyo, she hadn't known 
any better, she hadn't known about Shampoo's past. 
Shampoo's shame had always been a secret, ever since 
Cologne had caught her and Lo Xin all those years ago... 

So why should the kiss be hurting her so? No one knew her 
shame, she should just shrug it off, chalk it up as one 
more weird experience here in Nerima and forget about 
it... but for some reason she could not. She seemed 
morbidly fascinated by it, its intensity and vastly 
different feel from when she kissed Ranma. 

Maybe, she thought, it was because Ranma had never kissed 
her back.

Possible, she answered herself, but there was more to it 
than that.

Suddenly there was movement on the other side of the room, 
and Shampoo held her breath, watching as Ukyo slowly, 
stealthily got up from her futon and crept downstairs to 
the restaurant. 

***

Ukyo slumped her head onto the table as she sat at one of 
the booths in the main restaurant and gave a deep sigh. 
Why had she done that? She berated herself. Sure, she 
could rationalize the kiss as necessary to get rid of 
Tsubasa once and for all, but... what had possessed her to 
get so caught up in it? And then there was that slap that 
Shampoo had given her... she'd probably ruined all chance 
at ever having any sort of a friendship with the Chinese 
girl now. She had been surprised that Shampoo hadn't 
left her right then and there.

Still, she kept coming back to questioning her own 
motivations for the kiss. Had she really done it because 
of Tsubasa? Surely if she'd just told him strongly enough 
that she couldn't love him he would have gone away... and 
besides, they were leaving town, so they would probably 
have never seen him again anyway. She didn't love Shampoo, 
of that much she was certain, heck she barely knew the 
girl, and she *did* love Ranchan, so why had she done it?

At that moment a voice sounded in the dark, causing her to 
snap back fully awake. "Ukyo... you want talk about it?" 
It was Shampoo, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

Ukyo sighed. Shampoo was probably not her first choice for 
people to talk to about this, but she really did need to 
discuss this with someone... she felt like it was a weight 
pressing down on her. And besides, at least this meant 
Shampoo was still talking to her. Maybe they could hope to 
salvage a friendship yet.

Ukyo gave her a nod and Shampoo pulled into the booth 
across from her. In the dim light, it was difficult to 
make out much of Shampoo's features, but she seemed overly 
pensive compared to her usual bouncing self. Ukyo wanted 
very badly to talk to her, to try to explain what had 
happened, but she found her self unwilling to speak, and 
completely unable to come up with someway to start.

Thankfully, Shampoo broke the silence. "Ukyo, I want you 
to know that I not mad at you for what you did..." Ukyo 
glanced up at her and idly wondered _why_ she wasn't mad, 
when she had every right to be. "... This not first time 
you kiss girl, ne, Ukyo?"

Ukyo smirked a bit, surprised how quick Shampoo was to 
pick up on things like this. The Chinese girl kept 
constantly surprising her with her insight, in some 
things, while seemingly completely dense and oblivious to 
others. "It was kinda obvious, huh?"

Shampoo blushed a little and looked kind of embarrassed. 
"Well, I saw you kiss Ranma that time, and you more 
hesitant with him."

Ukyo stared out the window for a moment, lost in thought. 
How long had it been? She wondered... "You remember what I 
was like when I first arrived here, right sugar?" Shampoo 
nodded. "I was a boy, in every sense, save one small 
missing part..." Ukyo gave herself a self depreciating 
look, even now cringing a little bit at just how feminine 
she looked. Ever since giving her heart to Ranchan, she 
had started to dress like a girl, trying to let herself 
feel like one again... but she'd grown up as a boy, and 
old habits were still hard to break. She found the very 
thought of wearing a girl's school uniform as repulsive as 
Ranma did, and she still found it hard to wear dresses. 

"Well, when Ranma discovered my real gender, and called me 
cute, it was a complete shock to my system... at first I 
had no idea what to do about it... that was such a 
confusing time. I mean, all my life I'd been put down by 
my parents, who made it seem a bad thing to ever have been 
born a girl! You just can't imagine..." 

"I *hated* being a girl, but then Ranma came along and 
actually seemed to like me more because I was female, and 
I just didn't know what to think. Finally, someone 
accepted me for who I was! It was such a flood of 
emotions... For a while after I came to realize that I was 
attracted to Ranma, I actually thought of myself as gay, 
'cause my image of myself was that of a boy... you just 
couldn't understand. The fact that I was actually a girl 
underneath it all only made it acceptable to everyone 
else... can you imagine that? I was ok with dating girls 
in high school, before I came here, even though I was a 
girl, but the thought of me with a boy had me cringing!"

Ukyo shook her head, unwilling to meet Shampoo's gaze. 
"And yet... I couldn't deny my feelings for him. Once I 
found out about his curse, it was like a great release... 
suddenly, I knew, beyond any doubt, that he was the 
perfect man for me, in that while he could love me as a 
woman, and I he, as a man, he also had a female side, so 
that my "masculine" side would never have a problem with 
him. Silly huh?"

Ukyo could feel tears welling in her eyes as she poured 
her soul out... she hadn't intended to tell Shampoo all 
this, but once she started talking about it, it was like 
she couldn't stop, like the floodgates had been opened. 
For so long she'd kept all this stuff so bottled up, never 
letting herself think about it too much, for fear of what 
others would think of her, but for some reason she wanted, 
no, *needed* to tell Shampoo... Shampoo, the first girl 
she'd kissed since she'd left Kyoto.

Ukyo looked up as she felt a hand cover hers. It was a 
friendly gesture, but one she infinitely appreciated. At 
least Shampoo hadn't reviled her for what she had revealed 
about herself. She wasn't sure she would have been able to 
take that. "Yes," Ukyo continued, "I was rather popular 
with the girls my freshman year of high school in Kyoto, 
before I left that old life behind once I got wind that 
Ranma was here. It was never anything serious, of course, 
as a guy I was expected to go out on dates and have 
girlfriends, though I never let them get too close, or 
become too intimate, unless they find out my shame... my 
womanhood." 

"It seemed so damned inconvenient, being female. If I was 
just a boy, I never would have been able to bring shame to 
my family by getting dumped by Ranma at such an early age, 
and I would have been able to be proud of my body, but..." 
Ukyo took a deep breath, trying to get a hold on her 
emotions. "You want to hear something funny? My father was 
actually *proud* when I went out on dates... he used to 
make comments like how "manly" his "son" was... It used to 
make me feel good, so I would do anything to be more 
manly, yet it also made me feel so ashamed of myself, 
whenever I would catch a glimpse of myself in the bath, or 
whenever all my friends went swimming...

Ukyo couldn't take it any more, the tears began slipping 
down her face as she was once more confronted with her old 
pain... she was amazed how deep the wound in her soul 
seemed to go, it had never seemed this bad before, but 
now... she felt so empty inside. Vaguely she felt Shampoo 
slide around to her side of the booth and hug her, just 
holding her as she wept against her shoulder. Ukyo 
couldn't believe she was doing this, breaking down like 
this in front of someone who only a day ago she wouldn't 
have trusted to tell her the time of day! And now, now she 
was crying against her shoulder, pouring her soul out to 
the Chinese girl... what was wrong with her?

***

Shampoo gently patted the distraught girl on the back, 
waiting for her tears to run themselves out. Amazons were 
always taught that tears showed weakness, but right now it 
was all Shampoo could do to keep from shedding them 
herself.

"But that wasn't all of it!" continued Ukyo, still 
sobbing. "It wasn't just that Ranma was some cute guy who 
made me suddenly remember I was female! No, he had to be 
this really nice guy... I mean, sure, Ranchan's not 
perfect, but he was fun to be around, a good friend, and 
we've been through so much together! I don't care what 
gender he is or isn't anymore... I love him!

Shampoo sighed to herself. It would be so much easier if 
Ukyo's love for Ranma was just some crush... but it seemed 
her feelings for him ran as deep as her own. 

Not that her feelings had always been true... At first, 
before she knew of his curse, she had chased after him 
because of the Amazon laws, but her heart hadn't really 
been in it... but then, that was the root of her shame 
after all...

Ukyo finally seemed to quite down, and pulled away from 
Shampoo, startling her out of her reverie. She just hoped 
Ukyo hadn't noticed she'd been playing with her hair...

"Shampoo... Why don't you hate me?"

"huh?" The question was rather out of the blue... "Aiya... 
Why would I hate you?"

"Well, I kissed you, and you know my true gender and all 
that... any other girl would have done worse than just 
slap me for it."

Shampoo felt the heat of a blush slowly creep up on her, 
though she tried to fight it... "uh, er... Shampoo see 
that you trying to get rid of pervert-boy, so uh... was 
willing to help."

Ukyo seemed to ponder this in the darkness for a moment, 
and Shampoo fervently hoped she bought it. Finally Ukyo 
looked back up and met her gaze, smiling at her and 
nodding, accepting that explanation. For a moment though, 
Shampoo caught herself flushing at that smile, the way 
Ukyo's dark hair reflected the soft white moon light, the 
way the shadows highlighted her face... but as soon as 
she realized she was staring, she felt the old anger 
return.

The heat of anger began to rise up in her, directed at 
herself. Staring at another girl like that... her great-
grandmother's words came back to her, the harsh gleaming 
in her eyes as she swung her staff at her... Lo Xin had 
had hair like Ukyo's... only dark blue instead of 
black. They both looked so much the same in the moonlight 
though...

Shampoo's fist clenched in anger. She was an Amazon 
warrior! How could she dishonor herself and her family so? 
It was impossible, it was wrong, great-grandmother had 
said so... 

Suddenly her anger found a new focus. It was all Ukyo's 
fault, she was trying to tempt her, to make her fall into 
that pit of depravity that Lo Xin had tried to throw her 
into! After all, she loved Ranma, big, strong, muscular, 
MALE Ranma... she could picture the beautiful hard lines 
of his lithe form moving so gracefully through a kata, the 
sun causing her beautiful and striking red hair to burn 
with a strange intensity as her shirt stuck to her ample 
chest...

"NO!" The yell tore itself from her as she smashed her 
fist through the table in front of her. She wasn't a 
pervert! Why did these feelings keep assaulting her??

"Shampoo..."

Ukyo's voice seemed to snap her back to reality, and to 
the fact that she was now standing in the middle of the 
room, surrounded by the splinters of a table. Fearfully 
she looked back behind her, finding Ukyo still standing at 
the booth they had been talking in, looking at her with 
wide eyes. It was all too much, suddenly the room seemed 
far too small and Shampoo *had* to get out of there... 
Almost before she could complete the thought she was 
moving toward the door, seeking the escape of the cool 
night air, but something was faster... with a series of 
thunks, five spatulas embedded themselves mere inches 
before her. 

Spinning, Shampoo faced Ukyo, who had another couple of 
spatulas ready in her hands. "Oh no you don't Shampoo... 
I just poured my soul out to you, and now you think you're 
gonna go running off when you so obviously need someone 
to talk to? I think not..."

All it would take was two steps, a leap... Ukyo wasn't 
bad, but she was no match for Shampoo's speed. With one 
blow she could take the chef down, then back out the door 
before she could regain her feet... Shampoo looked up at 
her advisory, ready for action, but found Ukyo just 
standing in the moonlight, idly twirling a spatula. 
Shampoo could still see the redness around her eyes from 
crying....

Slowly the anger drained out of her, and her shoulders 
slumped. She had never told anyone of her shame before... 
only her great-grandmother knew... but her great-
grandmother wasn't here, for once, and would never know... 
Still she could hear the matriarch's voice echoing in her 
head "You are never to speak of this again! If you do, I 
will *personally* give you the kiss of death!" But, here 
she was, thousands of miles from her home, banished 
forever from the Amazons... and Ukyo had kissed a girl 
before too...

Slowly Shampoo slunk back to the booth where Ukyo stood 
waiting and slumped down across from her. Resting her 
hands on the table, she couldn't bring herself to meet the 
okonomiyaki chef's eyes.

"In Amazon village... It is matter of pride to have many 
male concubines. Each Amazon only allowed one husband 
though. In theory, Amazon warrior is suppose to be so 
good, that only man she let win can beat her, and then he 
become husband... fighting between sexes is like marriage 
ceremony here in Japan. If woman lets man win, then that 
means she accept him as husband." Shampoo gave out a 
little sigh, then continued.

"In Joketsuku, many womans my age are already married... 
but I no find man I love..."

"Shampoo honey, this is all fascinating, but I don't see 
how this relates..."

Shampoo finally looked up into Ukyo's eyes. "Joketsuku is 
small village... is part of being good warrior to have 
many concubines and have many strong children. When... 
When Shampoo was twelve, I have best friend... my *only* 
friend named Lo Xin... "

Ukyo looked startled. "Wait, you're trying to tell me that 
you only had *one* friend growing up? What about Mousse?"

Shampoo nodded sadly. "Hai... After mother died, great-
grandmother took me in, trained me to be *best* warrior in 
tribe... I not have easy time making friends when keep 
beating up everyone all time... and Mousse, he *never* 
good friend... always want to be more than friends...."

Ukyo just shook her head, and gestured for Shampoo to 
continue her story.

Shampoo sighed, and picked up where she left off. "Lo Xin 
was not good warrior, and because of that, her mother 
always hit her when she not do well in practice. I always 
try to help her, but she just not have heart of warrior. 
Then, one day when she run away from her home, we alone in 
forest, and she say to me, "Shan pu, you my best friend, 
right? You always love me?" and I say "Yes, Lo Xin, we 
always be best of friends." And the she leaned over, and 
kissed me! I was very startled, but then she run home. 
Later, we talk some more, and she ask me if I liked the 
kiss, and I said yes, and then she asked if we could try 
it again... You get idea. For whole year, we inseparable, 
and try many things... Then, one day in forest, as we lie 
together, great-grandmother comes looking for me, and she 
find us...."

Shampoo shakes at the memory, once more looking down at 
the floor. "Great-grandmother... was very angry. She chase 
Lo Xin away, then she hit me with staff several times. She 
tell me that it dishonorable for Amazon warrior to love 
other warriors, and that I would bring disgrace to the 
family. She then say that if I ever speak of it again, she 
give me kiss of death... I was forbidden from seeing Lo 
Xin, but two days later, she no come to school. I ask 
great-grandmother where she is, and if I may go see if she 
ok, but grandmother just say that she sick, and be back 
soon... but she not! I find out later, that when she got 
home, Great-grandmother tell Lo Xin's mother what she 
do... and Lo Xin's mother get furiously angry, and she hit 
Lo Xin too hard...."

Shampoo finally broke down into sobs, unable to continue. 
The pain and the anger at losing her first love seemed to 
overwhelm her, like some wave of despair washing over her. 
Vaguely she felt Ukyo comfort her, just as she had 
comforted the chef earlier, but she couldn't bring herself 
to care... all she saw were long-buried images of Lo Xin's 
face...

Ukyo just shook her head in horror as she held the sobbing 
Amazon. "Shampoo... That's.. that's... *aweful!*"

"E-everyone say that it "not natural" to have these 
feelings for girl, that that make Shampoo a pervert! So I 
do what is right, I forget about Lo Xin, go on with 
life... I no let myself think of womans that way. Then 
Ranma come. She so brash, so arrogant, I think I teach her 
a lesson, but I was tired from fighting all day in 
tournament, and Ranma beat me easy. When... when I fall,  
I lose everything that mean anything to me anymore... I no 
had any friends, and being best all that matter to me! So 
I give Ranma kiss of death..." Shampoo trailed off, lost 
in thought for a moment, remembering the shocked and 
happily-surprised look the beautiful red-head had given 
her upon receiving that kiss....

Finally, Shampoo continued. "I chase Ranma all over China, 
but many times I just watch her from distance, instead of 
attacking like Amazon should. I found I liked outside 
world, it wonderful place full of so many new things, and 
in a way, I felt free for first time. I also find that I 
have fun chasing Ranma, it was like game of cat and 
mouse... I was having fun chasing her around, but I never 
realize that the feeling was not mutual. When I get to 
Japan, and met boy-type Ranma, I was surprised, but didn't 
first think that he and girl-type Ranma the same... When 
he defeat me in combat, I so surprised that I not know 
what to do. By law, this strange foreign boy suddenly my 
husband! I not want that, but I no could bare bringing 
more disgrace to my family, so I... kiss him. I didn't 
understand then why he run from me, I think I must be what 
big dumb men want, right? But he still seem scared of me. 
Then... Then he show me curse..."

"I stand there, watching boy who suppose to be my husband 
suddenly become girl I like, you think I be happy, right? 
But no, Shampoo no could be happy, 'cause if boy-type-
Ranma really girl, then marriage is no valid, and I have 
to kill! Not only that, but it mean that I was still a 
pervert girl, for kissing a girl! When he told me, all I 
think is that great-grandmother would be so angry... and I 
get angry at self for letting myself feel this way for 
Ranma at all, and I lash out, striking again and again, 
hoping that maybe I kill Ranma, and then I no be pervert 
anymore! But Ranma fall, and all it take is one stroke and 
I kill her... but I look down into her eyes, and I see the 
fear there... fear of me! And I know she hate me, and that 
hurt so much... so much..." 

Shampoo was crying again, the sobs shaking her violently. 
After a moment though, she pressed on in her tale. "I 
realize then that I love her, and it not matter that I 
pervert because of it, or that great-grandmother give me 
kiss of death... I love Ranma! But Ranma no love me... she 
fear me... So I run, go back to Joketsuku to take 
punishment, and no have Ranma fear me anymore...."

Ukyo patted Shampoo on the back, trying to offer what 
comfort she could. If there was one thing she could 
sympathize with, it was unrequited love....

"I go back to Amazon village, and tell great-grandmother 
that I love Ranma and am married to her even though she 
girl, and Great-grandmother get very angry. But instead of 
kill me, she take me to training grounds of Juksenkyo, and 
there I get cat-curse. Guide then tell us truth about 
Ranma, that he actually boy, and great-grandmother gets 
very happy, saying that if I love him even though he's a 
man, then no will lose face in village! 

"Great-grandmother and I come back, I try to be man's 
ideal of good woman, but it never works... You see Ukyo? 
We in same boat. Ranma is only person who is perfect for 
us, and he doesn't love either of us...."

The tears threatened to come again, but she blinked them 
back. Ukyo gave her a small smile, "Shampoo... I had no 
idea... thank you for telling me... I... I don't know what 
to say."

Shampoo suddenly narrowed her eyes at Ukyo. "You tell 
anyone this, especially Ranma, and Shampoo kill!"

Ukyo took an involuntary step back from the force of 
Shampoo's sad gaze and threw her hands up in a defensive 
position. "Of course not! He probably wouldn't believe it 
anyway... But you have to promise not to tell Ranma... 
about me... either."

Shampoo's gaze lost its steely cast and she smiled back at 
the chef. Lo Xin... How long had it been since she'd 
thought of her lost lover? After she had left Ranma the 
first time, she had gone home fully expecting to be killed 
for admitting that she loved who she thought to be a 
girl... In many ways, she had *wanted* to be killed for 
her transgression... if her beloved great-grandmother had 
killed her, she wouldn't have to deal with the pain of 
chasing after a girl who hadn't returned the feelings she 
had for her, and probably never could... On the long 
journey home, she had just hoped that the Kami were kind 
enough to unite her with Lo Xin in the next life....

Her great-grandmother had been furious, but had never 
given her the promised kiss of death... to this day 
Shampoo wondered why she had only taken her to the cursed 
springs of Juksenkyo instead of killing her. She knew her 
great-grandmother really did love her... or, at least, she 
had _thought_ that Khu Lon cared for her, until she had 
done the unthinkable and kicked her out of the tribe, 
banished her from her home. Now more than ever Khu Lon's 
actions didn't make any sense. She had loved her enough to 
not kill her, despite how grievously she might have 
wounded the family's honor if anyone else had found out, 
yet she had taken from Shampoo the only place she had ever 
been truly happy, her home. 

Even now, despite her love for Ranma, she still wished 
that the two of them could roam the beautiful hills where 
she had grown up... the primal remote regions of China 
called to her soul, and made her long to return to them, 
but her love for Ranma was stronger. She only hoped she 
could convince him to return to China with her eventually. 
And yet, even if they did go back to China, they could 
never go near her home again... Cologne *would* give her 
the kiss of death this time. But why, if her great-
grandmother hated her so much, and wanted her to marry a 
man so badly had she reacted so harshly when Mousse beat 
her? Had she really taken that much of a liking to Ranma? 
Did she hate Mousse that much? Nothing made sense 
anymore...

Ukyo tapped her on the shoulder, and Shampoo was startled 
back to full wakefulness. "Shampoo! We have to go to bed, 
you're falling asleep down here!"

Tiredly, Shampoo nodded, feeling drained after such an 
emotional outpouring, and Ukyo didn't look much better. 
Slowly the two girls made their way off to bed.

***

"Kodachi-sama! The "guest room" has been prepared, as per 
your orders."

"Good, you are absolutely sure it is constructed sturdily 
and to my exact specifications?" Kodachi said, raising an 
eyebrow at the sweating ninja-retainer.

"Y-yes Kodachi-sama... though I wonder about the cats..."

"Fool! It is not your place to "wonder" or "think." Now, 
My Ranma-sama is in desperate need of me, and I must be 
off before he gets himself in any further trouble. Oh 
hohohohohoho! Ranma-sama! I'll protect you and then you'll 
come willingly into my arms!"

***

Ukyo was up early the next morning, rising before all her 
guests, so she was already cooking breakfast okonomiyaki 
before she heard the door slam as the next person went to 
bathe. Ukyo had never been a morning person, but for some 
reason she had woken up completely refreshed....

Shampoo exited the shower only a few minutes later, the 
exact opposite of Ukyo. "Not exactly a morning person" was 
the understatement of the century when applied to Shampoo, 
who supposed it was probably some sort of after-affect of 
her curse, that she liked to sleep in and curl up in 
sunbeams. Blearily, she took a seat at the grill across 
from Ukyo, resting her head on the counter.

"Sleep well?" Ukyo asked, jokingly. Shampoo didn't see the 
need to reply to that, and just laid there, letting the 
smell of cooking food gradually wake her up. Finally, she 
lifted her head as an okonomiyaki landed on her plate. 
"Arigato... Where's Ranma?"

Ukyo shrugged, she was rather curious herself. "Don't 
know. I thought he always got up early myself... doesn't 
he usually get up early to train or something?"

Shampoo nodded in response, perking up a little bit. 
"Perhaps we go wake him."

Ukyo smiled devilishly, holding up a convenient wash-
bucket next to the counter. "I've got the perfect way..."

Both girls silently crept up the stairs to the guest 
bedroom. It had originally been inhabited by Konatsu, but 
business had been so good at Ucchan's lately that Ukyo had 
been able to pay him enough that he was able to move out. 
(and he actually had too, after Ukyo had made it quite 
clear that if he didn't, he'd get kicked out.) The door 
slid open without a sound, the hinges well oiled since 
Konatsu liked to move around completely unheard. The 
interior of the roof was dark, with a single futon on 
which the bulge of sleeping Ranma lay.

The girls smiled at each other, readying their buckets, 
before yelling in unison "Ha!" and dumping the contents on 
to the bed.

However, instead of the room being filled with a stead 
stream of curses from a rudely awakened Ranma-chan, as the 
girls expected, nothing happened. Their smiles fading, 
both girls looked back at each other.

"Uh, I know that Ranma is a deep sleeper, but this is 
ridiculous!"

Shampoo nodded in agreement. "Aiya, that always work when 
Akane do it..."

The girls approached the futon, only to find it empty, a 
wet pillow creating the bulge they had mistaken for Ranma.

Ukyo looked up, glancing around the room and taking note 
that Ranma's traveling pack was still there. "He's 
gone... but his stuff is still here... could he have just 
gone for a jog or something? Shampoo?"

Shampoo, however, wasn't paying attention to her, she 
seemed entirely focused on something underneath the 
pillow.

"What is it sugar?" Ukyo asked, as Shampoo raised her head 
to meet Ukyo's gaze. As Shampoo lifted what she had been 
staring at, Ukyo felt the blood drain from her face....

It was a single, black, rose petal.

***

The voices were quiet as she stared into his beautiful 
face, so amazingly handsome and child-like when he slept. 
The voices never came when she was with him... with him, 
she was complete. No voice ever came to her while she was 
in his embrace that said she was worthless... nonononono, 
she was *worth* something when she was with him...

Gently she placed his sleeping form on the bed of the 
pitch-dark room... oh how she hated having to keep him in 
this barbaric place, yet it was the only way to cure her 
only love's... illness. He had tried to kill himself, she 
had heard, and indeed she could see the recently healed 
scars along his shoulder. She had no idea as to why he 
should have cut himself there of all places, it certainly 
didn't conform to any form of seppuku that she knew 
of... but then her Ranma-sama had never been of noble 
birth, a fact which she found most embarrassing, and 
therefore could not be expected to know the proper rituals 
involved in proper suicide. However, as had been pointed 
out to her years earlier when she had tried something 
similar, for one's death to be honorable, one had to have 
the proper reasons, and just not being able to deal with 
the pain was not, according to her mother, a good 
reason...

Well, her mother and father had cured her of *her* illness 
with this method, now she would use it to cure her beloved 
Ranma-sama. She simply could not believe that a being as 
perfect as him could possibly have done anything horrible 
enough to warrant seppuku, so he must just be... ill.

With a smile, Kodachi stood back to wait for him to 
awaken, then his recovery and re-education could begin....

***

Mousse stared over the sea as the boat gently rocked 
beneath him. The shores of his beloved home land were 
rapidly approaching, but for once he did not think about 
the beauty of the coast, as he had on every one of his 
other trips home.

This time he was too preoccupied with the hate building 
with in him.

She had rejected him, laughed at him, beat him... but none 
of that cold possibly compare to the icy-cold hand that 
had gripped his heart as he had watched her take "her" 
Ranma back from Ukyo, even after Ukyo's plan had worked so 
well. She had chosen Ranma over him even though Ranma had 
cheated on her! Had kissed another woman! How could 
Shampoo, the proud Amazon warrior, possibly stand for this 
grave insult to her honor??

There was only one answer, she could not. The Shampoo he 
had loved was truly dead, replaced with this weak-willed 
usurper who wore her skin but caved in to Ranma's every 
whim... And while it chilled his heart and cut him to the 
bone to see her in this state, it also filled him with 
such all-encompassing rage as he had never possessed. That 
she would throw everything she was away for that bastard 
Saotome, who didn't care one whit for her, when she could 
have him waiting on her hand and foot, as she deserved, 
was the worst insult he could possibly imagine. 

In her eyes, he must be the smallest slime to ever crawl 
the earth, the most wretched being... and he had wasted 
almost his entire adult life chasing after her, and she 
utterly despised him. How could he have been so blind? He 
thought back with contempt about how she had talked to him 
about "being friends" that night in the Tendo dojo... he 
wondered if she'd even waited a whole minute after he'd 
left before bursting into laughter and running to tell 
that slut Ranma she loved so much about the blind boy's 
latest idiocy. 

How many times in his life had he been laughed at? 
Ridiculed? For years in his village, the other kids had 
picked on him, spit on him... and all because of this damn 
disability... He had never believed that Shampoo was among 
those who laughed at him, but now he began to wonder... he 
could never see their faces, only hear the cruelty in 
their tone as the laughed and pointed... had she been 
their? Had he been that wrong about her? 

One way or another, he intended to find out the truth...

***

[END PART 1]
[TO BE CONTINUED!]

Author's note:
Alright alright, so this has been a *heck* of a long time 
coming, but I finally got this part done... <sigh> the 
next part shouldn't take anywhere near as long. Ok, now 
for some explanations:

Nodoka has decided, that for all intensive purposes, Ranma 
*did* kill himself. After all, if she's marked him as 
deceased on the family register, and has a grave to prove 
he's dead, who's to say he's not? Also, by saying he's 
dead, she creates the illusion (for herself, mostly) that 
the family honor has been maintained. Ranma is no longer a 
Saotome.

Not to fear Nabiki fans, there will be lots more of her 
poking around in the next chapter, doing what she does 
best... and for you Kodachi fans out there, Ko-chan is  
going to get a *big* part in the next part of this 
chapter... look for lots of insight into her character.

Now, as for Ukyo and Shampoo, don't all of you jump up at 
once and say "Ah! They're going to end up together!" 
because while I haven't exactly decided how its going to 
end yet, I'm pretty sure that's not going to be it. That 
part is in there to establish both character's sexual 
ambiguity, as well as show the confusing and hardship both 
of them are facing as they are starting to come out of 
their adolescent years. Also, now that we had the big 
introspection into both of their characters, look for 
something similar for Ranma, Mousse and Kodachi in the 
next part. 

Now, we have the mystery of Cologne... Is she good? Is she 
Evil? Does it matter? Does she really love her great-
granddaughter? Why did she do what she did? What grand 
scheme has the crafty matriarch cooked up this time? Well, 
more and more of this subplot is going to become apparent 
as the story goes on. 

One other note. I got some questions from my pre-readers 
about girls fooling around at age twelve, most people 
would consider that way too young. Well, That scene is 
partial based on something that actually happened to a 
friend of mine at age *ten*, so it does happen. Also, 
children who are abused often act out sexually at a much 
younger age, and though we don't know whether or not Lo 
Xin was sexually abused, one form of abuse often goes 
hand-in-hand with another...

C&C is *always* welcome! MSTs, flames, parodies, comments, 
reviews, anything and everything! 

Special thanks to my pre-readers, Wade Tritschler, C. 
Wong, JD Farber, Mark Doherty, Mister Panda, Jeff Shelton, 
Janet, Dragoon... anyone I missed? Thanks a lot all of 
you!

Thanks for Reading!
Ryan Anderson
andersor@cs.colorado.edu
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~andersor/fanfic/fanfic.html