(sigh)  After the response to Chapter 1, I'm a little worried about
releasing this chapter.  Chapter's 2 and 3 are very rough.  Ah, well... 
Status report:  I wasn't able to do much this week- between finals and a
case of writers block, I was able to write six lines in Chapter 7...

Regardless, Chapter 3 will be out in one week.  Author's notes and
disclaimer are in the Prologue\Chapter 1.  PLEASE send in C&C's, MST's, or
even flames (provided you prove to me you've read it).  I know these next
couple of chapters need a lot of work, and would appreciate any help.  My
only completed story is on my web page now (see .sig at bottom) but I'm not
posting back chapter's there yet, so if you want earlier parts of this,
e-mail me.  Anyways, on with the story...

-------------------------
Chapter 2:  The Journeys Begin

Note:  I use Utchan to refer to Ukyou's restaurant, and Ucchan to as
Ranma's nickname for her, to keep the two separate.

Akane lay down on her bed, reading her mother's cookbook again.  She smiled
to herself.  'Ranma will be sure to like this recipe!'  She was startled by
a tap on the window.  Looking up, she saw Ranma hanging off the roof by his
feet again.  'I wish he'd stop doing that...'

"What're you doing there, Ranma!?" Akane shouted, opening the window.  "How
many times do I have to tell you to NOT COME IN MY WINDOW!"

Ranma sighed, still hanging on the roof.  "Akane, I want to ask you... a
couple of things.  Can I come in?"

'Is he going to...'  Akane wondered.  "Uh, yeah, okay.  Come on in,
Ranma..."  She backed away from the window to allow him a path inside.  He
flipped his way inside and turned towards her.

"Akane... I need your help..."  The hopeful glint left Akane's eyes, but
Ranma failed to notice.  "My mom has asked me to go on a trip to look for
Natsume's parents, and I don't know where to start.  Have you got any
ideas?"

Akane huffed a little.  This was definitely not what she was expecting.  He
was LEAVING her?  And he had the gall to ask her for help doing so?  "So,
you're leaving?" she asked calmly and sweetly- it was so fun getting him to
let his guard down right before malleting him.

Ranma freaked. She'd tried that trick one too many times.  Even so, he had
no idea what she was so mad about.  "Uh... not exactly..."

That answer confused Akane enough to stop her- for a little while, anyway. 
"Huh?  What do you mean by 'not exactly?'"

Ranma shifted uncomfortably.  "Well, see, I agreed to make the trip because
I was worried that my mom would think it 'unmanly' to refuse.  I don't WANT
to go... but since I have to, I don't want to go alone.  See, the other
thing I wanted to ask you is if you would go with me..."

"R- ranma?"

Ranma panicked.  "Uh, don't get the wrong idea or nothing- I just don't
wanna have to take my lousy pop around with my, and anyone else who I know
of who is used to camping would either try to kill me or marry me..."

Akane sighed.  "How long do you think this trip would take?"

Ranma shrugged.  "If I don't finish in about nine months, I'll come on
home.  Mom said Natsume wanted to know something about her family before
she started one of her own, but if that becomes impossible than I should
just try and get back home to see if there was anything else we could do to
help her with her child."

"Nine months?  That's a long time..."  Akane weighed nine months on the
road with Ranma traveling across all of Japan against nine months of
dealing with Kuno and her classmates in school without Ranma.  "I guess so,
though."

*	*	*	*	*

Ranma entered the Utchan and sat down in front of her griddle iron.  "Hi,
Ucchan," he rose his hand in greeting.

"Hey, Ranchan!  The usual?"  He nodded.  She flipped him a deluxe
okonamiyaki, which he slowly started nibbling.  Ukyou noticed that he
wasn't devouring his food as quickly as usual, and got a little worried. 
"Is something wrong with the food?"

"No, the food's fine..."  He sighed.  "I'm about to leave on a long trip,
and wanted to savor what's probably the last good piece of food I'll have
for quite some time."

Ukyou nearly dropped her spatula.  "You're leaving me?  Why?"

Ranma smiled sadly.  Shampoo had reacted exactly the same way.  "Look, you
remember that pair of sisters you and Shampoo tried to train Akane to
fight?"  Ukyou nodded guiltily- she wasn't exactly trying to TRAIN Akane
then, but she knew who he was talking about.  "Well, they're back, and...
well... one of them is pregnant... and unmarried."  Ukyou gasped.  "They're
staying with us now, and they asked if we could look for their parents, so
that they'll know something of their family before the baby is born.  So,
I'm going out to search..."

Ukyou got a glint in her eye.  "Are you sure you don't want me to go with
you to keep you... company?"

Ranma shook his head.  "That's okay.  Akane's going with me, and-"

"What?!  You would rather go on a trip with Akane than with me?!"  She
raised her spatula menacingly.

Ranma gulped.  "Uh... not really."  Then a fire appeared in his eyes which
startled Ukyou- he'd never looked at her that way, before, except right
after the wedding incident.  "I just can't trust you and Shampoo enough to
leave her here without me."

Ukyou blinked.  "What do you mean by that?"

"If you're willing to bomb my wedding, you might do anything."

Tears started to form in Ukyou's eyes- they'd never talked about it, and so
she had assumed that he didn't mind what she had done at the wedding. 
"Wha... I only did it because I thought-"

"It doesn't matter why you did it- you could have hurt LOTS of people.  If
it were just that incident, however, I wouldn't mind too much- but it's
more.  Remember tearing apart my house?  You could have hurt my mom doing
that!  In fact, there are lots of things you've done recently that have
made it hard to trust you.  You're still my best friend, but I no longer
can risk leaving Akane alone because of you."  Ranma sighed, breathing
deeply to try to regain control of his emotions.  "Look, Ucchan, that's not
why I came here...I didn't want to yell at you.  I wanted to ask you, like
I did Shampoo, if you would stop by the Tendou's and see if you can help
take care of Natsume any."

Ukyou tried to blink away the tears.  "Natsume?  Is she that sister who..."
 Ranma nodded.  "Of course I will."  Ranma finished his okonamiyaki and
turned to leave.  "Oh, and Ranchan?"  He glanced back.  "I'm sorry..."  He
smiled and nodded, then bounded out of the restaurant.

*	*	*	*	*

"But WHY won't you let me come with you?"

Ryouga smiled at Akari.  "Don't worry about it, Akari.  I just want a
chance to talk privately with Ranma and Akane about something."

"But I'd be able to get you there so much faster!  You know you'll just get
lost again!"

"I know," he sighed.  "I want some time to prepare myself for what I have
to say to those two.  After I have my talk with them, and invite everyone
to our upcoming wedding, I'll get someone to lead me back here.  I won't be
gone too long, I hope."  Akari sighed as well.  Ryouga smiled at her again.
 He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her close, giving her a very
passionate kiss.  It had taken a lot of practice, but recently he had
finally conquered that stupid nosebleed problem which had plagued him so
much.  Since then, he and Akari had never been closer.  "Farewell, Akari. 
I'll be back soon, I hope..."

*	*	*	*	*

Ranma walked up to Genma and Souun playing their usual game of shogi. 
"Say, where's Happosai?"

"You didn't know?  I thought I told you last week!"  Genma asked.

"The Master has left us to travel to Osaka for a few months.  He mentioned
something about visiting Lukkosai," Souun said, still studying the shogi
board.  "Why, may I ask?"

"Remember that Akane and I are going to be searching for Natsume and
Kurumi's parents?"  Genma and Souun nodded.  They had already been severely
pounded for celebrating too much and for teasing Ranma and Akane about
eloping when they had announced that they were planning to take this trip,
and weren't going to make that mistake again- at least not this time. 
"Akane figured that Happosai would be the one most likely to point us in
the right direction- he was the only one who we could think of who might
have known their parents, as he knew them before the rest of us."

"Well, that's good thinking."  Genma didn't even look up, as he was
pondering how to respond to Souun's latest move.

"Are you going to need any money?"  Souun asked.

"Um... well, if we need to go to Osaka first, I guess we do..."  Souun
nodded and reached into his pocket.

"Here's fifty thousand yen...  It won't be enough, but that is all I can
afford right now.  You might be able to afford train tickets and a place to
sleep with this, however."

Ranma nodded.  "It'll be enough."

Souun turned back to his game and blinked at what he saw.  "How..."

*	*	*	*	*

Akane, still packing, heard a knock on her door.  "Come in!"

The door slid open and Ranma walked in.  "I'm ready to go, how about you?"

Akane looked up, shocked.  "Ranma, you used the door!"

"Uh, yeah, I suppose I did."  Akane laughed at his expression.  "By the
way, it looks like we'll be traveling by train for the first leg of our
journey."

"Oh?"  Akane said, blushing as she stashed a pair of her polka-dotted
panties into her bag.  "What did Happosai have to say?"

"He's not here- he's visiting Lukkosai in Osaka.  So we're off to Osaka to
find him.  Your father gave me money for the train tickets there."

"What are we going to do if Happosai doesn't know anything?  Or doesn't
remember anything?"

Ranma shrugged.  "I dunno.  We'll deal with that when we come to it... but
I've had a feeling that Happosai will at least send us on the right track,
at least.  I've had it since you mentioned that photo."  Akane nodded.

"When do we leave?"

"As soon as you're ready."

"Well, I'm ready now." Akane pulled the drawstring closed on her backpack
and tied it closed.

"Whoa, wait a minute.  Let's do a checklist first.  Do you have your
sleeping bag?  Your tent?"  Akane nodded after each.  "Thermos?  Mess kit? 
Rain gear?  Snow gear?  Athletic gear?"

"Athletic gear?"

"Just making sure you were paying attention.  Pocket travel guide for
Osaka?  Maps?  Compass?  Hmm, what else..."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Ranma.  I remembered everything.  Come on, let's
go."

Ranma sighed.  "Okay, just let me grab my bags, then we'll say good-bye to
our folks and we're outta here."

*	*	*	*	*

Ranma and Akane sat across from each other on the train.  Akane just kept
staring out the window, watching the countryside pass by.  Ranma, on the
other hand, was either napping or getting surreptitious glances of Akane.

At one point, Akane turned back to Ranma, irritated.  "What are you looking
at?"

"N-nothing."

"You've been trying to sneak glances of me this whole trip.  What's up? 
Have I got something on my chin?  Are my clothes on crooked?  Do I have a
pimple?  What?"

"Nothing like that... I was just thinking.  This trip could- and probably
will- take close to nine months to complete.  I know from experience that
nine months of straight travel gets AWFULLY boring, so I was wondering...
would you like for me to train you a bit while we travel?  That way, if
this thing DOES go to nine months, we'll at least be able to have turned
you into one of the upper echelon of martial artists."

"Hey, I'm already a competent martial artist!"

Ranma smiled condescendingly, which angered Akane.  "Of course you are," he
said.  "But not in the way you really need to be... not for one on one
match ups."  Akane blinked, her anger at him once again assuaged.

"What do you mean by that?"

Ranma smirked.  "Akane, you are a very good martial artist.  Throw in some
chi attacks, and you'd almost be as good as I am... but you can't handle
fighting duels.  Apparently, all that your father taught you were
techniques designed to handle situations where you are heavily outnumbered.
 Just look at all of the fights between the boys as school when I first
arrived here.  When I did help you, who fought better, you or me?"

"Uh... neither one of us."

Ranma nodded.  "See?  And I haven't particularly trained for anything but
duels since I got here, so you and I are probably still on par fighting
large groups, if you were to take away my chi blasts.  Give me a few weeks
without interruptions, and I'll be able to train you in those.  And then,
we can work on bettering your other fighting skills...  It'd be a real
shock to someone like Kodachi if you suddenly pulled off a Kachu Tenshin
Amaguriken in the middle of a fight."

"I... I think I'd enjoy that.  Thanks!  But do you really think it would
make me better than the others?"

Ranma considered things for a moment.  "Well... probably not Ryouga,
Happosai, or Cologne- even I have trouble with them, and I don't think I'll
be able to bring you up to my level after just nine months- you haven't
been improving your skills much since I got here, and I've been here and
improving a year and a half.  But... you'll probably be significantly
better than Mousse, Shampoo, Kodachi, and Ukyo- at least for a while
anyway."

"What do you mean, 'for a while?'"

"Well... You'd probably stay ahead of everyone but Shampoo if you kept up
your training.  But her... I dunno.  Like I said, even I have trouble with
Cologne, and if Shampoo started training with her and you hit a plateau...
with all of the special attacks Cologne knows that I don't, Shamps is bound
to get better than you eventually.  Assuming, of course, she wants to.  The
others... no.  They could, but they'd need a sensei on par with myself,
which they just doesn't have."

Akane got a little angry.  "Oh, so you think Shampoo has more potential
than me?"

Ranma shook his head.  He didn't want to get into an argument right now-
he'd been able to avoid major ones for a whole week now, and he didn't want
to start a fight over something like this.  "Not more potential.  Just a
more experienced instructor.  If she wanted to, the old ghoul could turn
anyone into someone as powerful as both Ryouga and myself- all she'd have
to do would be to give them the Bakusai Tenketsu, the Kachu Tenshin
Amaguriken, and the Hiryuu Shouten Ha."

"But then-"  She was interrupted as the train screeched to a halt.

"Never mind.  We'll talk about it later- let's go..."

And with that, Ranma and Akane left on their longest journey together.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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           Kuno is Red, Kodachi is Black, 
     You've got 4 Fiancee's, You're under attack!
                           desaix@sysnet.net
    http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7872
                           fanfics available at 
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