Though she tried, Akane Tendo got hardly any 
sleep at all the night before.  As she lay there 
in the darkness, her thoughts wandered and images 
of Ranma kissing Ukyou flashed through her head.  
Though he had attempted to apologize many times 
she had not heard any of them.  In her mind he was 
guilty already, he had always been guilty.
 Perhaps through no fault of his own.  
 He hands shook in frustration as she 
remembered Ranma's father and her own talking 
about the her and Ranma getting married, as if she 
did not even exist.  Neither of them had asked her 
if she wanted this and she was being pushed into 
it.
 True, she thought, her feelings toward Ranma 
had changed.  Initially there had been only 
resentment and dislike, especially following the 
bathroom incident.  But she also seen a kindness 
in Ranma that made him stand out.  She hated boys, 
but Ranma had the potential in him to be a man.
 But even so this was not they way she had 
plotted her life, this is not how she wanted to 
meet the love of her life.  There  were better 
ways.
 But all of her hopes and wishes had died when 
Ryouga had announced that Ranma had kissed Ukyou.  
It had to be Ukyou, of all of his would-be 
fiancees, Akane felt the most threatened by Ukyou.  
Because the two of them seemed to get along where 
she failed.  Because Ukyou pretended to understand 
when Akane felt the frustration growing in her.
 When at last Akane fell into a troubled 
sleep, she dreamt of abandonment, loneliness and 
threat to her freedom that her heritage was 
pushing on her.

 Akane tried not to notice Ranma walking on 
the fence above her.  He always did that it up 
until today it had not bothered her.  Today though 
he seemed to be acting to casual and it gave him 
an arrogant air.  Considering what Ryouga had 
charged Ranma with, Akane felt that he should be 
busy trying to explain himself, instead of walking 
silently above her.
 Still Akane did her best to control her 
temper, though she could feel herself literally 
shaking inside and she had a glare that would make 
wicked stepmothers envious Akane did her best not 
to get angry.  
 "Akane", Ranma began slowly, "Why won't you 
listen to me?"
 "Listen to you Ranma?  You kissed Ukyou why 
would I care to listen to you?"  Akane felt the 
frail grip on her temper snap and she hopped up 
onto the fence and faced Ranma.  "Why would Ryouga 
lie?  Humm?"  Still she held back from hitting 
him, she had resorted to violence to many times in 
the past, and the thought of Ranma with Ukyou had 
motivated her to keep control of how she focused 
her anger.
 "That's just it,"  Ranma looked surprised as 
she confronted him and he took a step backwards, 
attempting to step away from her.  "I don't know 
what Ryouga saw, but it wasn't me."
 Akane's eyes narrowed dangerously.  "But you 
sent him flying," she recalled seeing Ryouga 
sailing towards the center of Tokyo,  "Away from 
us before he could explain or anything."  She took 
a step forward closing the distance to Ranma.
 Once again Ranma took a step back and his 
eyes darted to the left and then to his right.  He 
raised his hands,  "I'm sorry I shouldn't have hit 
him, I didn't realize you were so protective of 
him."  He sounded bitter and jealous.
 Akane took a step forward again and slowly 
and with great effort unclenched her fists.  She 
raised her hands to show Ranma that she wasn't 
going to hit him.   Her shoes slipped and she 
wavered for a second on the fence,  Ranma's hand 
reached out to steady her but at the moment he 
touched her the canal erupted into a geyser.
 Taken by surprise by the erupting geyser, 
Ranma allowed Akane to carry him in her fall.  
Both saw Girl-type Ranma burst forth from the 
fountain of water.  Akane's eyes widened in her 
horror as Ranma-chan sprang towards her and Ranma, 
in her hand was a wicked looking whip. 
 "Can't let you hurt the goods there.", Ranma-
chan cried as she caught a hold of a stunned 
looking Ranma.  Ranma's grip on Akane failed and 
she fell roughly onto the sidewalk, her breath 
knocked out of her.
 "Wha-?"  Ranma croaked, finally finding his 
voice.
 "Hush now little boy, its time to go to 
sleep."  Heaving with all of her might, Ranma-chan 
sent Ranma flying backwards into the wall.  He 
cracked it leaving a sizable impression and then 
slumped forward unconscious.
 As Akane struggled to sit up and focus on 
Ranma chan, she began to notice inconsistencies,  
this Ranma-chan did not have  her hair tied in a 
pigtail it was just a tight pony tail and it hung 
down to the middle of her back.  This girls eyes 
were green not blue.  Akane struggled to her feet 
and faced the strange girl unsteadily.
 "What do you think you are doing?"  Akane 
asked as she wavered on her feet.
 "Oh, please,"  the girl turned her back on 
Akane and bent down and wrapped some tape around 
Ranma's wrists,  "Quit the heroics, if you pretend 
you pass out now," she   bound his ankles as well, 
"I won't hurt you.  Deal?"
 "What makes you think you can beat me, you 
just took us by surprise that's all."  Akane 
steadied herself and assumed a stance, "I'm a 
martial artists."
 Faster than Akane could react, the girl's 
foot lashed out and connected with her stomach 
slamming Akane back into the fence.  Akane doubled 
over and gasped for air.  The girl smiled 
pleasantly at Akane,  "Nah, really you're a 
martial artists?"
 Akane gasped for air, and tried to stand up.  
"Who are you?"  she managed to wheeze out between 
breaths.
 "What do you care?  Oh, just stay down,"  The 
girl planted another kick in Akane's stomach,  
"I'm taking your little boyfriend here and you're 
never going to see him again.  So just stay down 
and do you best to forget you saw me."  She kicked 
Akane once more and scooped up Ranma.  "Ta ta." 
 The last Akane saw before darkness claimed 
her was the girl leaping on the rooftops to the 
west.

 Akane struggled to consciousness, despite the 
searing pain in her stomach.  She gasped and 
struggled to stand up fight even though she know 
it was a useless endeavor.  But the force of her 
anger and frustration was not enough for her to 
overcome her pain.   Akane's eyes focused on the 
blue sky and tried to steady her hoarse breathing, 
concentrating on regaining consciousness.
 It wasn't until she had regained a small 
semblance of normal breathing did she notice Ukyou 
and Shampoo hovering anxiously over her.
 Her eyes narrowed and she glared at Ukyou.  
 Ukyou seeing the gaze knelt beside her, "You 
better lay still for a little bit,"  Akane noticed 
that Ukyou's eyes were haggard and bloodshot, like 
she hadn't slept.  "I'm not sure what happened but 
we found you this way."
 Shampoo, in sharp contrast, looked ready and 
fierce, her face flushed with anger.  "Is Spatula 
Girl's fault we no get here in time."
 "If you saw what I saw you wouldn't be in a 
hurry to confront it either."  Ukyou retorted as 
she eased Akane to her feet.
 Akane could feel the familiar anger stirring 
in her blood as Ukyou touched her.  Ryouga's 
accusation fresh on her mind, despite Ranma's 
disappearance.  She growled loudly.
 Ukyou, apparently unaware of the anger 
directed at her, patted her shoulder, "Its okay, 
don't worry, we'll get them back."
 Akane was suprised by this reaction and 
Ukyou's apparent lack of any feelings of guilt or 
gloating towards her.  Akane bit back her anger 
and resolved to find out more.  At the present 
though there were more pressing matters to be 
concerned with.  "What are you guys doing here?"  
she asked suspiciously.
 Ukyou glanced at Shampoo, "Well, it seems we 
all had a run in recently."
 Shampoo was not in the mood for Ukyou's 
longer version of the story, "Is simple, Shampoo 
attacked and Mousse taken, Ukyou attacked and 
Ryouga taken.  great-grandmother suggest Ranma 
next."  Shampoo eyes flashed dangerously and 
focused on Ukyou.  "Spatula Girl want be careful 
instead of hurry, now lose Ranma as well."
 "If these girls beat us already," Ukyou 
began, "Then its safe to assume they can do it 
again, I still would rather be careful then dead."
 Shampoo didn't respond only walked back and 
forth in a circle anxiously wringing her hands.  
"Is waste of time,  Ranma gone. Shampoo need help 
from great-grandmother for this."  She started to 
walk away.
 Akane feeling more steady on her feet, pushed 
herself off Ukyou,  "Its okay, I'd like to talk to 
Cologne anyway."  She began moving slowly after 
Shampoo.
 Ukyou walked steadily beside and eyed her 
anxiously,  "Are you sure you're okay.?  You were 
wheezing pretty hard when we found you."
 "I'm fine,"  Akane lied and picked her pace 
to emphasize her point.  She looked over at Ukyou 
and noticed the fear in her eyes and the nervous 
darting glances.  "What happened to you?"  
 Ukyou smiled wanly, "Don't ask, I don't want 
to remember it and you don't want to know."
 Akane merely shrugged,  "So what's this about 
Mousse and Ryouga?"
 "I guess it happened last night, Shampoo was 
attacked on a delivery by some exiled Amazon girl,  
apparently she knew about Mousse's curse and after 
she made short work of him, she faced off against 
Shampoo."  Ukyou suppressed a smile,  "Looks like 
she made short work of her too.  Shampoo has been 
biting nails all day.  But for all her anger she 
didn't push me to much on hurrying."
 "And Ryouga?", Akane prompted.
 Ukyou looked troubled and her eyes lost focus 
as if trying to not to look at something, "They 
got him last night at my shop, poison I suppose, 
he wasn't expecting it."  Ukyou shook her head 
suddenly,  "I awoke this morning and went to see 
Shampoo and Cologne. That's when Cologne suggested 
making sure you were okay."
 Akane nodded and continued to walk in 
silence, it her to talk and it hurt to listen.  
She concentrated on ground on front of her and the 
placement of her feet.  She attempted to consider 
Ukyou's words but found that it was just as 
painful to think.  Shampoo had been defeated which 
explained her anxiousness and anger.  Something 
had happened to Ukyou as well, but the girl was 
unwilling to talk about it.  Akane allowed her 
here privacy.  Apparently, though the girl who 
attacked Ukyou had not been the same as the girl 
who attacked Shampoo.  Akane wondered idly if her 
attacker was the same as either of these two.  
 "She took us by surprise,"  Akane spoke up,  
Shampoo had lingered and allowed the two of them 
to catch up with her, "She was dressed to look 
like the cursed Ranma,"  She always thought of the 
girl type Ranma as his cursed form, "I don't know 
how much of a disguise it was."  She swallowed her 
pride and admitted,  "She was good, she beat me 
easily, and she may have been a match even for 
Ranma."
 Shampoo nodded slowly,  "Hue get good over 
years,  Shampoo hardly put up fight.  Hue exiled 
many years ago, Shampoo no know where she get so 
good."  Akane detected hints of grudging respect 
in Shampoo's tone.
 Ukyou only looked at the two and chose her 
words carefully, "I guess they weren't the same 
then.  At least it doesn't seem that way."  She 
stopped and seemed to struggle with her next 
words,  "I'm not sure what attacked me, but she 
terrified me into blacking out."
 Shampoo snorted and Ukyou's cheeks flushed 
she appeared ready to retort when a gnarled staff 
whacked Shampoo on the head; without realizing it 
they had reached Nekohantan.
 "Stop it, Shampoo.",  Cologne muttered 
angrily, "there are more pressing matters ahead of 
us.  Such as how you three are going to get back 
those boys.  Its obvious you three are in need of 
some training before you can take on the likes of 
those girls though."
 Shampoo grinned ferally, Ukyou flinched and 
Akane stood up straight and smiled proudly.  At 
last,  Cologne would train her and with practice 
she would be as good as Ranma and finally be able 
to look him in the eye without feeling frustration 
creeping into her bones.

If all good things come to an end, then I pray what 
we have between us isn't a good thing.
--Sarah Leahy, All Good Things

	Though she tried, Akane Tendo got hardly any 
sleep at all the night before.  As she lay there 
in the darkness, her thoughts wandered and images 
of Ranma kissing Ukyou flashed through her head.  
Though he had attempted to apologize many times 
she had not heard any of them.  In her mind he was 
guilty already, he had always been guilty.
	Perhaps through no fault of his own.  
	He hands shook in frustration as she 
remembered Ranma’s father and her own talking 
about the her and Ranma getting married, as if she 
did not even exist.  Neither of them had asked her 
if she wanted this and she was being pushed into 
it.
	True, she thought, her feelings toward Ranma 
had changed.  Initially there had been only 
resentment and dislike, especially following the 
bathroom incident.  But she also seen a kindness 
in Ranma that made him stand out.  She hated boys, 
but Ranma had the potential in him to be a man.
	But even so this was not they way she had 
plotted her life, this is not how she wanted to 
meet the love of her life.  There  were better 
ways.
	But all of her hopes and wishes had died when 
Ryouga had announced that Ranma had kissed Ukyou.  
It had to be Ukyou, of all of his would-be 
fiancees, Akane felt the most threatened by Ukyou.  
Because the two of them seemed to get along where 
she failed.  Because Ukyou pretended to understand 
when Akane felt the frustration growing in her.
	When at last Akane fell into a troubled 
sleep, she dreamt of abandonment, loneliness and 
threat to her freedom that her heritage was 
pushing on her.
	
	Akane tried not to notice Ranma walking on 
the fence above her.  He always did that it up 
until today it had not bothered her.  Today though 
he seemed to be acting to casual and it gave him 
an arrogant air.  Considering what Ryouga had 
charged Ranma with, Akane felt that he should be 
busy trying to explain himself, instead of walking 
silently above her.
	Still Akane did her best to control her 
temper, though she could feel herself literally 
shaking inside and she had a glare that would make 
wicked stepmothers envious Akane did her best not 
to get angry.  
	“Akane”, Ranma began slowly, “Why won’t you 
listen to me?”
	“Listen to you Ranma?  You kissed Ukyou why 
would I care to listen to you?”  Akane felt the 
frail grip on her temper snap and she hopped up 
onto the fence and faced Ranma.  “Why would Ryouga 
lie?  Humm?”  Still she held back from hitting 
him, she had resorted to violence to many times in 
the past, and the thought of Ranma with Ukyou had 
motivated her to keep control of how she focused 
her anger.
	“That’s just it,”  Ranma looked surprised as 
she confronted him and he took a step backwards, 
attempting to step away from her.  “I don’t know 
what Ryouga saw, but it wasn’t me.”
	Akane’s eyes narrowed dangerously.  “But you 
sent him flying,” she recalled seeing Ryouga 
sailing towards the center of Tokyo,  “Away from 
us before he could explain or anything.”  She took 
a step forward closing the distance to Ranma.
	Once again Ranma took a step back and his 
eyes darted to the left and then to his right.  He 
raised his hands,  “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have hit 
him, I didn’t realize you were so protective of 
him.”  He sounded bitter and jealous.
	Akane took a step forward again and slowly 
and with great effort unclenched her fists.  She 
raised her hands to show Ranma that she wasn’t 
going to hit him.   Her shoes slipped and she 
wavered for a second on the fence,  Ranma’s hand 
reached out to steady her but at the moment he 
touched her the canal erupted into a geyser.
	Taken by surprise by the erupting geyser, 
Ranma allowed Akane to carry him in her fall.  
Both saw Girl-type Ranma burst forth from the 
fountain of water.  Akane’s eyes widened in her 
horror as Ranma-chan sprang towards her and Ranma, 
in her hand was a wicked looking whip. 
	“Can’t let you hurt the goods there.”, Ranma-
chan cried as she caught a hold of a stunned 
looking Ranma.  Ranma’s grip on Akane failed and 
she fell roughly onto the sidewalk, her breath 
knocked out of her.
	“Wha-?”  Ranma croaked, finally finding his 
voice.
	“Hush now little boy, its time to go to 
sleep.”  Heaving with all of her might, Ranma-chan 
sent Ranma flying backwards into the wall.  He 
cracked it leaving a sizable impression and then 
slumped forward unconscious.
	As Akane struggled to sit up and focus on 
Ranma chan, she began to notice inconsistencies,  
this Ranma-chan did not have  her hair tied in a 
pigtail it was just a tight pony tail and it hung 
down to the middle of her back.  This girls eyes 
were green not blue.  Akane struggled to her feet 
and faced the strange girl unsteadily.
	“What do you think you are doing?”  Akane 
asked as she wavered on her feet.
	“Oh, please,”  the girl turned her back on 
Akane and bent down and wrapped some tape around 
Ranma’s wrists,  “Quit the heroics, if you pretend 
you pass out now,” she   bound his ankles as well, 
“I won’t hurt you.  Deal?”
	“What makes you think you can beat me, you 
just took us by surprise that’s all.”  Akane 
steadied herself and assumed a stance, “I’m a 
martial artists.”
	Faster than Akane could react, the girl’s 
foot lashed out and connected with her stomach 
slamming Akane back into the fence.  Akane doubled 
over and gasped for air.  The girl smiled 
pleasantly at Akane,  “Nah, really you’re a 
martial artists?”
	Akane gasped for air, and tried to stand up.  
“Who are you?”  she managed to wheeze out between 
breaths.
	“What do you care?  Oh, just stay down,”  The 
girl planted another kick in Akane’s stomach,  
“I’m taking your little boyfriend here and you’re 
never going to see him again.  So just stay down 
and do you best to forget you saw me.”  She kicked 
Akane once more and scooped up Ranma.  “Ta ta.” 
	The last Akane saw before darkness claimed 
her was the girl leaping on the rooftops to the 
west.
	
	Akane struggled to consciousness, despite the 
searing pain in her stomach.  She gasped and 
struggled to stand up fight even though she know 
it was a useless endeavor.  But the force of her 
anger and frustration was not enough for her to 
overcome her pain.   Akane’s eyes focused on the 
blue sky and tried to steady her hoarse breathing, 
concentrating on regaining consciousness.
	It wasn’t until she had regained a small 
semblance of normal breathing did she notice Ukyou 
and Shampoo hovering anxiously over her.
	Her eyes narrowed and she glared at Ukyou.  
	Ukyou seeing the gaze knelt beside her, “You 
better lay still for a little bit,”  Akane noticed 
that Ukyou’s eyes were haggard and bloodshot, like 
she hadn’t slept.  “I’m not sure what happened but 
we found you this way.”
	Shampoo, in sharp contrast, looked ready and 
fierce, her face flushed with anger.  “Is Spatula 
Girl’s fault we no get here in time.”
	“If you saw what I saw you wouldn’t be in a 
hurry to confront it either.”  Ukyou retorted as 
she eased Akane to her feet.
	Akane could feel the familiar anger stirring 
in her blood as Ukyou touched her.  Ryouga’s 
accusation fresh on her mind, despite Ranma’s 
disappearance.  She growled loudly.
	Ukyou, apparently unaware of the anger 
directed at her, patted her shoulder, “Its okay, 
don’t worry, we’ll get them back.”
	Akane was suprised by this reaction and 
Ukyou’s apparent lack of any feelings of guilt or 
gloating towards her.  Akane bit back her anger 
and resolved to find out more.  At the present 
though there were more pressing matters to be 
concerned with.  “What are you guys doing here?”  
she asked suspiciously.
	Ukyou glanced at Shampoo, “Well, it seems we 
all had a run in recently.”
	Shampoo was not in the mood for Ukyou’s 
longer version of the story, “Is simple, Shampoo 
attacked and Mousse taken, Ukyou attacked and 
Ryouga taken.  great-grandmother suggest Ranma 
next.”  Shampoo eyes flashed dangerously and 
focused on Ukyou.  “Spatula Girl want be careful 
instead of hurry, now lose Ranma as well.”
	“If these girls beat us already,” Ukyou 
began, “Then its safe to assume they can do it 
again, I still would rather be careful then dead.”
	Shampoo didn’t respond only walked back and 
forth in a circle anxiously wringing her hands.  
“Is waste of time,  Ranma gone. Shampoo need help 
from great-grandmother for this.”  She started to 
walk away.
	Akane feeling more steady on her feet, pushed 
herself off Ukyou,  “Its okay, I’d like to talk to 
Cologne anyway.”  She began moving slowly after 
Shampoo.
	Ukyou walked steadily beside and eyed her 
anxiously,  “Are you sure you’re okay.?  You were 
wheezing pretty hard when we found you.”
	“I’m fine,”  Akane lied and picked her pace 
to emphasize her point.  She looked over at Ukyou 
and noticed the fear in her eyes and the nervous 
darting glances.  “What happened to you?”  
	Ukyou smiled wanly, “Don’t ask, I don’t want 
to remember it and you don’t want to know.”
	Akane merely shrugged,  “So what’s this about 
Mousse and Ryouga?”
	“I guess it happened last night, Shampoo was 
attacked on a delivery by some exiled Amazon girl,  
apparently she knew about Mousse’s curse and after 
she made short work of him, she faced off against 
Shampoo.”  Ukyou suppressed a smile,  “Looks like 
she made short work of her too.  Shampoo has been 
biting nails all day.  But for all her anger she 
didn’t push me to much on hurrying.”
	“And Ryouga?”, Akane prompted.
	Ukyou looked troubled and her eyes lost focus 
as if trying to not to look at something, “They 
got him last night at my shop, poison I suppose, 
he wasn’t expecting it.”  Ukyou shook her head 
suddenly,  “I awoke this morning and went to see 
Shampoo and Cologne. That’s when Cologne suggested 
making sure you were okay.”
	Akane nodded and continued to walk in 
silence, it her to talk and it hurt to listen.  
She concentrated on ground on front of her and the 
placement of her feet.  She attempted to consider 
Ukyou’s words but found that it was just as 
painful to think.  Shampoo had been defeated which 
explained her anxiousness and anger.  Something 
had happened to Ukyou as well, but the girl was 
unwilling to talk about it.  Akane allowed her 
here privacy.  Apparently, though the girl who 
attacked Ukyou had not been the same as the girl 
who attacked Shampoo.  Akane wondered idly if her 
attacker was the same as either of these two.  
	“She took us by surprise,”  Akane spoke up,  
Shampoo had lingered and allowed the two of them 
to catch up with her, “She was dressed to look 
like the cursed Ranma,”  She always thought of the 
girl type Ranma as his cursed form, “I don’t know 
how much of a disguise it was.”  She swallowed her 
pride and admitted,  “She was good, she beat me 
easily, and she may have been a match even for 
Ranma.”
	Shampoo nodded slowly,  “Hue get good over 
years,  Shampoo hardly put up fight.  Hue exiled 
many years ago, Shampoo no know where she get so 
good.”  Akane detected hints of grudging respect 
in Shampoo’s tone.
	Ukyou only looked at the two and chose her 
words carefully, “I guess they weren’t the same 
then.  At least it doesn’t seem that way.”  She 
stopped and seemed to struggle with her next 
words,  “I’m not sure what attacked me, but she 
terrified me into blacking out.”
	Shampoo snorted and Ukyou’s cheeks flushed 
she appeared ready to retort when a gnarled staff 
whacked Shampoo on the head; without realizing it 
they had reached Nekohantan.
	“Stop it, Shampoo.”,  Cologne muttered 
angrily, “there are more pressing matters ahead of 
us.  Such as how you three are going to get back 
those boys.  Its obvious you three are in need of 
some training before you can take on the likes of 
those girls though.”
	Shampoo grinned ferally, Ukyou flinched and 
Akane stood up straight and smiled proudly.  At 
last,  Cologne would train her and with practice 
she would be as good as Ranma and finally be able 
to look him in the eye without feeling frustration 
creeping into her bones.