Chapter Seven: Disappearing Into The Shadows.

It was eleven o' clock at night when Dr. Tofu unlocked the clinic doors 
allowing Genma and Mr. Tendo to help the injured Akane inside. Just 
behind them was Ryoga carrying the lifeless Ranma-Chan and behind him 
were Shampoo and Mousse. 
As the doctor tended to Akane's shoulder, Ryoga set Ranma down in a 
chair. 
	"I sure hope we never have to do that again." he grumbled.
"It's a good thing he's still had that inflated ego of his." said Genma 
"Who knows what would have happened had he not been so sure of himself."
"Akane will be all right." said Dr. Tofu as he returned to the front 
hall "But I still haven't finished the cure for the chemical imbalance 
in Ranma's brain yet." 
"I wouldn't worry about it." said Mousse "It looks like she's going to 
be asleep for a while." 
	Dr. Tofu returned to take care of Akane.

The next morning was fairly quiet with Ranma-Chan still passed out in 
the chair. Ryoga, Mousse ands Shampoo had stayed in the clinic during 
the night each of whom were still sleep in various locations in the 
clinic. 
At around ten o' clock, Ryoga and the others were awake. everyone was 
awake except Ranma. 
"I'm beginning to think he's dead." said Ryoga looking over the still 
unconscious body lying in the chair. Ryoga lifted one of Ranma's arms 
then let go. The arm just slumped back over the edge of the chair 
causing three knives to fall out of Ranma's sleeve and clatter to the 
floor. 
	"So that's where he hid them." said Ryoga.
Shampoo started poking around in Ranma's sleeves occasionally tossing 
another knife on the floor. "He have more weapons up sleeves than 
Mousse." she said. 
	
Two hours later, Ranma-Chan woke up to see Ryoga and Mousse taking away 
what had to be at least two dozen knives. Ranma got up, stretched and 
went off to find out what was going on. 
Akane was still fairly tired. The events of the night before had worn 
her out. She was lying in the same bed that Ryoga had occupied just a 
couple of days ago. She rolled over, half-asleep, to see the extremely 
concerned face of Ranma-Chan. 
"Akane, are you going to be all right?" she said in a way that implied 
that if Akane wasn't going to be all right she was going to immediately 
commit suicide. 
	"I'm fine, Ranma." Akane replied with a smile.
"They told me what happened." Ranma-Chan went on "I j-just can't 
believe.. that.. that" Ranma started sobbing between her words "I just 
don't understand it.... I can't even begin to think of why I'd.. I mean 
I love you too much to do something like that.." 
"Don't worry about it." said Akane trying to calm the pathetic, sobbing 
girl. She was sure Ranma's words were just exaggerated so she didn't 
really pay any attention to them. 
Ranma-Chan tried to get herself back together and Akane fell asleep 
again. 
	
'I can't stay here.' Ranma-Chan thought to herself 'If I do I might hurt
Akane again. Or maybe I'll hurt someone else. I can't let that happen. 
I've got to get as far away from here as possible.' 
Ranma-Chan took one last look at Akane and then left through the window.



Chapter Eight: I Don't Want To Say Good-Bye.

"I think I've got it." said Dr. Tofu as he came back into the front hall
with a small hypodermic needle "This will even out the imbalance in 
Ranma's brain chemistry." 
	"Where is Ranma anyway?" asked Mousse.
"He went in to talk to Akane." said Ryoga "He was pretty freaked out 
when I told him what happened." 
	"You told him what happened?!!" said Dr. Tofu.
	"Yeah, why?" said Ryoga.
Dr. Tofu rushed into Akane's room. Ranma was gone. Then he noticed the 
open window on the far end of the room. 
	"That's what I was afraid of." said Tofu.
	Akane slowly woke up. "What's going on here?" she asked.
	"What are you talking about?" grumbled Ryoga.
"Ranma has become paranoid of his other personality." said Dr. Tofu "The
good personality is trying to hide away in case the bad personality 
takes over. This is going to cause a serious destabilization in Ranma's 
brain chemistry and sooner or later he's going to snap and start 
attacking anyone around him." 
	"So what can do about it?" asked Shampoo.
"We have to find him before he disappears." said Tofu "If we don't we 
might never find him." 
	"But, where would he go?" asked Mousse.
"I think I know." said Akane "Dad had us booked for a martial arts 
demonstration on a cruise ship going to China. He told me that he had 
already given Ranma one of the tickets." 
"Well then we'd better get there before that ship leaves." said Ryoga 
"The last thing we need is that nutcase running loose in China." 

The harbor was a little more than ten miles from the clinic. The cruise 
ship was docked and ready to leave in an hour's time. A few yard from 
the ship stood Ranma-Chan bundled up in a trench coat trying to hide her
face in case anyone came looking for her. 
About twenty minutes later, Dr. Tofu, Akane and Ryoga arrived at the 
pier and started searching for Ranma. 
"Hey!" said Ryoga pointing towards a figure standing near the ship "That
kind of looks like her." 
	"I didn't know Ranma had a trench coat." said Akane.
	Ranma-Chan noticed them. 'I sure hope they didn't see me.' she thought.
	"We can't let her know..." began Dr. Tofu.
	"Hey! Ranma!" shouted Akane.
	"...we're here..." Tofu finished.
Ranma immediately dropped the trench coat and made a break for it. She 
jumped up on several stacks of crates and started running along the 
rooftops of the harbor rooftops. Ryoga ran after her followed by Akane. 
Dr. Tofu decided to follow on the ground. 
To make one thing certain, running along the rooftops was a fairly 
hazardous practice. At anytime you could slip and fall and possibly kill
yourself. Ranma-Chan looked behind her to see how close Ryoga and Akane 
were. Unfortunately, she didn't notice the sharp drop to the next 
rooftop and fell. Ranma fell right through the next roof and into the 
building. 
	Ryoga and Akane stopped and stared down into the hole.
	"What exactly is this place?" asked Akane.
	"I.. think this is a bath house." said Ryoga.
	"Uh..oh" Akane mumbled.

Ryoga and Akane jumped down through the hole into the building. It was 
in fact a bath house. But there were no signs of Ranma. The bath house 
was still fully operational but it was closed for some reason. Possibly 
renovations. 
	"I don't see her." said Ryoga "Do you?"
	"No." replied Akane.
Just then there was the sound of some one struggling out of one off the 
baths of hot water. "Hak! I really hate when that happens.." 
	Akane and Ryoga turned around.
	It was Ranma.


Chapter Nine: A Conflict Of Interest.

Ranma was hardly the figure of terror that they had seen in the 
warehouse. It's hard to take someone seriously when they're soaking wet 
and trying to get back to their feet. 
	"Hey, where's the doc?" asked Ryoga.
	"I don't know." grumbled Akane "But we have bigger problems right now."
"All right!" grumbled Ranma as he half-walked, half-stumbled towards 
them "Now you're.. uh... what the?" Ranma began searching his pockets 
and patting his sleeves and shirt searching for his weapons. "Dammit! 
who...?" 
'Now's my chance.' Ryoga thought to himself "Saotome! Prepare to die!!!"
he shouted charging towards Ranma. Ranma's attention quickly shifted as 
he dodged Ryoga's attack and kicked him in the head. 
"Even with surprise on your side you still suck." grumbled Ranma. He 
picked Ryoga up and flung him against the wall. "You're pathetic, you 
know that?" 
Akane decided that now was the time to attack. Just then, Ranma clutched
his hand to his head as though he had a severe headache. 
	"What do you think you're doing?!" Ranma grumbled.
	Akane just stood there. Was he talking to her?
"I'm keeping you from making a huge mistake!" said Ranma answering his 
own question. He was having a conversation with himself. 

Dr. Tofu spent several minutes trying to get through the locks on the 
door to the bath house. If he didn't get in there who knows what could 
happen. 

Akane just stood and watched as Ranma argued with himself. Ryoga was 
slumped in a corner rubbing his head. 
"Mistake?" Ranma growled "I'm trying to get rid of the petty annoyances 
in our existence! Do you have a problem with that?!" 
	"That doesn't justify trying to kill people!" Ranma replied.
"Justify? There's a laugh!" Ranma went on "When have they ever justified
attacking us?!" Ranma was so busy talking that he didn't notice that Dr.
Tofu was right behind him. "Why must you be so...[jab!] OW!" Ranma spun 
around and grabbed the doctor by the collar of his shirt. "What'd you do
that for?!" Ranma yelled "You... id.. idi.. uhhh.." Ranma stumbled 
backwards a bit and then passed out right into a bucket of cold water. 
"Think you could cut it a little closer next time?" grumbled Ryoga as he
got to his feet. 

Outside the entire Tendo family (and Genma) were waiting. Ryoga was, 
once again, carrying the unconscious form of Ranma-Chan. 
"We've been waiting for you!" Mr. Tendo shouted "If we don't hurry we're
going to miss the..." Mr. Tendo was cut off by the loud fog horn of the 
cruise ship as it slowly made it's way from the pier out to sea. 
"..ship" finished Tendo with a certain level of depression. 
"Oh, well." said Akane trying to comfort her father "It would probably 
have been a lousy cruise anyway." 


Epilogue:
  
Ranma-Chan's eyes slowly started to open and focus on the world around 
her. She was in Dr. Tofu's clinic. 
"Ugh.." Ranma groaned "Wha- happened? I can't remember anything.. 
since.. uh.. hey! What am I doing here? Why on earth am I dressed in 
black? What's going on here?" 
	"It's a long story." said Akane.
"Well, I sure hope someone's gonna tell it to me." said Ranma rubbing 
her head "On second thought.. I'm not sure I really want to know." 

THE END

AUTHOR'S NOTES: It took a long time for me to plan out this fic because 
I had to work in the cruise ship angle and so on. I had originally 
intended to sink the ship by having Ryoga accidentally punching a hole 
in it or something but that seemed a little far fetched. Other than that
this is exactly how I planned it. 

-The Emperor 
 

	

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Emperor Stephen "The Mega Man" Schlueter
Leader Of The Crimson Empire
"It's not like I start the fights or anything.She just overreacts to 
every little thing!" -Ranma Saotome
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