Ohayou!  A brand new ML to blow up!  Wai!  ^_^

For those of you that have not given up hope totally...


                  ************************************

                      About Bloody Time Productions

                          is pleased to present

                  Ranma 1/2: The Long and Winding Road
                        Episode Two: Rocky Roads


                  ************************************

Zen hopes that you will enjoy it, and that you will, if you have the time,
send any comments or criticisms his way.  Doumo!


Ranma 1/2 - THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
EPISODE TWO:  ROCKY ROADS

by Zen

Based on characters and situations created by Takahashi Rumiko
Ranma 1/2 and characters copyright Shogakukan, Kitty Animation Circle, and
Takahashi Rumiko.
This story copyright 1998 - James A Bateman


*** O_o ***

The night they left Kyoto, Ranma-chan and Ukyou set up camp near a small
stream on a low ridge overlooking the waters of Lake Biwa.  In the
distance, Ranma-chan could just make out a few faint lights.  Must be
Shiga, she thought to herself... that's the closest town.  Turning back to
her work, she pitched their tent while Ukyou set about preparing the meal.

Before long the two of them were sitting on a log by a toasty fire,
savouring rice with one of Ucchan's special sauces, baked yams and steaming
green tea.  The hot food went a long way towards chasing away the day's
accumulated chills, for which Ranma-chan was particularly grateful.

Since their run-in with Ryouga, the trip had been fairly uneventful.  After
a quick train trip from Kobe to Kyoto, they had begun the next leg of the
journey on foot.  They had made good time.  Another day's hike would bring
them within a stone's throw of the monastery where Ukyou's father was
living.

Then the real fun would begin.  The prospect of facing Kuonji-san after all
these years and all that had happened was making Ranma-chan fairly nervous,
and even Ukyou's confidence was doing little to reassure her.  Still, there
were more difficult challenges to be faced, she reflected.  There was a
very good chance that she would never survive to marry Ukyou.

Ranma-chan was startled out of her reverie by a tap on the shoulder from
her companion.  "Hey!  Ran-chan?  Are you okay?"

"Hmmm?  What was that, Ucchan?"

"I asked if you were okay.  It's like you're a million spatials out, you know?"

"I'm sorry, Ucchan... I was just thinking..."

"Thinking about what?  You look like you just lost your best friend."

Ranma-chan had to smile at that.  "No, Ucchan... that's the one thing that
I *haven't* lost."

"Well, try to look at least a *little* bit cheerful.  It's such a beautiful
night...  The sky is so clear..."

Ranma-chan looked up, and nodded.  The sky *was* lovely.  The stars shone
like diamonds, bright and clear, and there was no moon to wash out their
light.  "Yeah, that's one of the things that I always liked about the
mountains.  You never see skies like this further down, let alone in the
cities."

Ukyou leaned up against the red-head and sighed.  "Isn't it romantic,
Ran-chan?  Just the two of us... the fire... the stars... no one around for
kilometers..."

Ranma-chan shifted nervously.  "Uhmm... Ucchan?  Don't you think we ought
to wait til I can change back into a guy?"

Ukyou snorted in amusement and shook her head.  "Well, if you insist."  She
dropped into such an exaggerated pout that Ranma-chan had to laugh.  Ukyou
piped up, "Say.  You were gonna tell me about whatever it was you said to
Ryouga this morning.  It must have been something, 'cause he lit out of
there like his tail was on fire."

"Ah," said Ranma-chan, glad for the change of topic, but regretting it at
the same time.  "Well, you see, there are a number of things that make
Ryouga very, very nervous.  My little 'disguise' kept him off guard long
enough to work in enough of those trigger words to panic him.  Simple,
really."

"Trigger words?  But what were they?"

Ranma-chan sighed.  "I'm afraid that I can't tell you that..."

"You said you'd explain everything!" said Ukyou, with a disappointed look.

"I swore to Ryouga that I would never tell anyone.  There are times that I
really regret that promise... but there's nothing I can do about it now."

"But..." started Ukyou.

"Ucchan, I'm sorry.  I just can't"

"Oh."  Ukyou looked thoughtful.  "Okay.  But what if I guess?  If I can
guess it then you won't have broken your promise."

Ranma-chan looked doubtful, but did not object.  After a moment she
shrugged.  "You can try.  I don't really see how Ryouga can be any madder
at me than he already is."

"That's another thing.  Just what IS Ryouga so mad at you for?  I've never
understood why he was always trying to pick fights with you.  Or is that
some kind of secret too?"

Ranma-chan sighed.  "Ryouga and I went to the same junior high school for a
while.  Even then, he had a horrible sense of direction.  I'd have to lead
him to and from school all the time.  But we had a feud going.  You know
what boys' schools are like - particularly the cafeterias."

Ukyou nodded.  She did indeed.

"Well, by the time Ryouga and I would get to the dining hall, all of the
good stuff was usually gone.  The few scraps that were left were prizes to
be fought for.  Ryouga almost always lost.  He's never forgiven me for
that."

"You mean to say that this whole 'Die Ranma!' routine of his is over
*cafeteria food*?" asked Ukyou incredulously.

"No... no, not all of it.  But that was where it started."  Ranma-chan took
another sip of her tea and stared into the depths of the fire for a moment.
"Ryouga hated losing - almost as much as I do.  He took it very personally,
and swore that he'd get his revenge.  So one day, he challenged me to a
duel.  We were to meet in the back lot behind his house."

"So who won?"

Ranma-chan shrugged.  "We'll never know.  He got lost on the way to the
lot.  I waited for him for three days, but then Pop dragged me off to
China.  When Ryouga finally got to the lot, I was gone, and he's been after
me ever since."

"Three DAYS?" Ukyou eeped.  "Wow.  What'd he do, chase you all the way to
China or something?"

"Ryouga is a very stubborn person.  He can be very pig-headed."

"All the way to China..."  Ukyou's eyes snapped wide open.  "No... Let me
get this straight.  Are you trying NOT to tell me that Ryouga has a
Jyusenkyou curse?  Like yours, your father's, or Shampoo's?"

Silence.

"...and that he turns into something else when splashed with cold water..."

The red-head blinked owlishly at her.

"He does, doesn't he?  ...and that something would be?"

Ranma-chan said nothing.

"Feh.  Knowing Ryouga he probably turns into a wombat or an
inter-dimensional sheep or something."  There had been something about the
way Ranma had described him... 'stubborn' she had said.  <click>  "No!
Surely not! A little... black... pig..."  Ukyou ground to a halt.
Ranma-chan was still silent, but that silence spoke volumes.

Suddenly it all fell into place.  P-chan.  Akane's pet pig had been Ryouga
the whole time.  It was so obvious in retrospect.  P-chan and Ryouga were
never seen together, but one would turn up where the other had been.
P-chan, like Ryouga, would go missing for days or weeks at a time.  They
had both worn the same bandannas.  Ryouga had been terrified of cold water.
He had always refused to eat pork.  "A little... black... pig..." she said
again, almost to herself.  All the signs had been there.  No *wonder* Ranma
hadn't liked it when P-chan had slept...

"Bwaaaaaaaaahhh ha ha ha ha ha ha!"  Ukyou almost rolled off the log they
were sitting on, she was laughing so hard.  "You mean to tell me that
Akane..." she paused to take a breath, "has been sleeping with *Ryouga* for
the whole time, and that she's never even known it?  That is just *too*
rich!"

Ranma-chan nodded miserably.  "'Fraid so.  I kept dropping hints - hell, I
even used to call Ryouga 'P-chan' right in front of Akane, but she never
did catch on."  The red-head cast an angry glance at her fiancee.  "It's
not funny, either.  How would *you* like it if the pet that you'd been
cuddling all that time turned out to be some guy?"

Ukyou sobered.  "Well, why didn't you do anything about it then?"

"Hey!  I did everything that I could to stop it... *and* I got pounded for it."

"You could have just *told* her."  After a moment's reflection she added,
"If I'd been in Akane's place, I'd have wanted you to tell me!"

"I *couldn't* tell her, Ucchan.  I'd made a vow.  Besides..."  Ranma-chan
seemed to deflate a bit as she ran out of steam.  "Besides.  It was my
fault that he got cursed."

"How the hell do you figure that?"

"If I had just waited another day... then I could have kicked his butt, and
he'd never have followed me to China.  Never have followed me to
Jyusenkyou."

"Hey, he's got no one but himself to blame for that."

"Maybe," agreed Ranma-chan sheepishly, "but when he got there... well... It
seems that I sorta accidentally knocked him into one of the pools."

"Oh."  Ukyou was silent for a time.  "She'll kill him, you know.  When she
finds out."

"Maybe.  But I don't think so.  She's always liked Ryouga.  The one she's
gonna want to kill is me.  After all, it'll have been my fault.  Everything
was."

"But he's been lying to her all this time!  Hell, you told her the *truth*
most of the time, and look how she treated you!"

Ranma-chan shrugged.  "Akane can be a surprisingly kind and forgiving
person.  She just never forgave me for being a boy.  Who knows?  Maybe if I
really *had* been 'Ranko' Saotome, we'd have been the best of friends."

Ukyou laughed.  "If you *had* been, then you never would have had all these
engagement problems."

"Don't be so sure," Ranma-chan said darkly.  "Knowing my luck, Pop would
have tossed me into the "Spring of Drowned Boy" deliberately, and I'd
*still* have been engaged to Akane..."

*** o_O ***

The monastery stood, as such places often do, on a lonely, isolated
mountaintop, as far away from the bustle of everyday life as it could
possibly get.  In terms of distance that perhaps wasn't so far, but Japan
is a rugged country - what it lacks in area it makes up for in topography.

The climb had been a hard one, given the ice that persisted in the higher
elevations, and Ranma and Ukyou were both tired.  Ranma hauled himself up
the last of the path and turned to wait for his fiancee.  Looking back out
over the way they had come, Ranma was captivated by the view.  He felt like
he could see forever.  In the distance, he could see peaks that were as
high or even higher than the one upon which he stood.  But what held his
attention was the panorama that was spread below.

Gorges and valleys, nestled between the hills over which they had been
climbing, were thrown into sharp relief in the light of the afternoon sun.
The white blanket that covered much of the scene was ripped and torn,
displaying a variety of colours - the dark, cool greens of tall conifers as
they peeked out from under their snowcaps; the deceptively gentle greys,
browns and reds of the naked rock that rent the field of white like gaping
wounds, and the darker browns and blacks of the bare trees that pierced the
snow cover like so many thousands of bony claws.

Cradled in the center of all of this apparent chaos were the gleaming,
placid waters of Lake Biwa, an island of tranquillity between two hostile
mountain ranges not unlike the eye of a hurricane.  The lake's surface
shone like glass, reflecting the sunlight with almost blinding intensity.

The view left Ranma with a sense of accomplishment for having reached this
peak despite the ruggedness of the terrain.  At the same time it was
humbling, the raw power of the landscape making him feel small and
insignificant by comparison.  It was just the sort of contradiction that
one might expect when visiting a Zen monastery, he thought.

As Ukyou reached the end of the trail, he held out his hand to help her up
the last few steps.  They stood there while she caught her breath, and
Ranma resumed his contemplation of the landscape before turning their
attentions once more to their destination.

The wall was impressive.  Enormous blocks of stone were set together
without mortar; only gravity held them in their places.  Ranma could not
imagine their having been transported here - rather they must have been cut
from the mountain itself, as the top had been leveled for the construction.
The effort that it would have taken to move them even so short a distance
must have been fantastic.

The gateway was equally imposing.  Massive wooden pillars thrust upwards,
topped by an equally massive beam lintel.  The bright red paint that
covered the structure was a stark contrast to the grey of the stone, and
the white of the snow.  Shimenawa, thick ropes made of rice straw,
stretched across the gate and were hung with folded paper streamers that
fluttered in the wind.

Beyond the gate was a small courtyard, and a set of steps that let up to
the heavy wooden doors set deep into the wall itself.  Next to the doors,
from a miniature version of the massive main gate, hung a bronze gong, and
a mallet.  After exchanging a glance with Ukyou, Ranma hefted the mallet
and struck the gong.

As the echoes of the ringing gong started to die out, there came the
distinctive thunk of heavy bolts being drawn back, and the squeak of seldom
used hinges as the door began to open.  Ranma and Ukyou found themselves
peering into the kindly face of an elderly but surprisingly spry monk.
"May I help you?" he asked.

"Uhm..." said Ranma.

"We're here to see my father!" piped up Ukyou.  "Kuonji Haruka."

The monk blinked.  "Indeed.  You would be Ukyou, then, would you not?
Kuonji-san speaks of you often.  Your father is in meditation, near the
exercise yard.  Come.  I shall take you and your friend and we shall see if
he has finished."

The monk gestured for the two to enter the compound, and turned to close
the door, sliding the massive bolts back into place.  He then led them
toward one of the buildings near the outer wall.  As they got closer, Ranma
became increasingly nervous.

Ranma only vaguely remembered Ukyou's father - at the time, he had been
much too glad to have a friend, let alone one that could cook, to pay much
attention to the grown-ups.  What memories he did have of the man were of a
loud, boisterous fellow who had made perhaps the best okonomiyaki that
Ranma had ever tasted.  At least until Ucchan had come to Nerima.

Reaching the door to the outbuilding, their escort stopped and took a quick
peek.  He turned to face them once more and smiled.  "Kuonji-san is
inside." he said, indicating that they should enter.

"You're not going with us?" Ranma asked.

"My, no!  It is not my place," he said simply.  With a bow he added, "I do
hope that you will enjoy your stay.  If you need anything, do not hesitate
to ask."  He turned and walked back the way they had come.

"C'mon, Ran-chan." Ukyou smiled.  "It'll be okay."  Leaving their packs on
the veranda by the door, the couple entered the building.

To look at him, Kuonji Haruka was the last person one would have expected
to find in a monastery.  He was a barrel-chested giant of a man, standing
well over six feet.  He had thick chestnut hair tinged with red, and a full
beard.  There was the slightest hint of grey at his temples.  Thick brows
hooded eyes that were sharp and bright, but betrayed nothing of what the
man might have been thinking.

Upon seeing his daughter approach, he broke into a huge grin.  "My little
Ucchan!"  The voice matched the man, deep and sonorous; a booming voice
with a rich timbre and a compelling quality that any politician would have
sold his soul to have.  "At last!  I have missed you so these past years!
Come!  Let me have a look at you!"

Ukyou rushed forward and hugged her father.  "I've missed you too, Dad."
She held the embrace a moment longer before gently freeing herself.  "I'm
sorry I haven't come sooner..."

Haruka waved her apology aside.  "You've grown so beautiful... just like
your mother..."  He paused, his features set in a sad smile.  "If only
Michi were alive to see you now..."

"Dad?"  Ukyou was blushing furiously, and her voice held a slightly nervous
edge.  "I want you to say 'hello' to someone.  You remember Ranma?"

Ranma stepped forward, his hands clasped behind his back.  With a formal
bow, he said, "Kuonji-san.  It's been a long time."

Haruka turned to Ranma, his expression darkening once more into
unreadability.  "Oh, yes.  I remember Ranma.  So.  Ukyou spoke the truth."
He gave Ranma a curt nod and an appraising stare.  "I can only hope that
this time you will prove worthy of her devotion."

"Dad!" Ukyou gasped.

"Quiet, child."  Never taking his eyes off of Ranma, he went on.  "As I
remember, boy, you were once training to be a martial artist.  May I assume
that you have kept up that training?"

Ranma had stiffened at the open hostility in the elder Kuonji's voice.
Keeping both his voice and his expression carefully neutral, Ranma
answered.  "You may."

Ukyou's father nodded and got to his feet.  Gesturing toward the open
courtyard he said.  "Then come, boy.  Let's see how good you really are."

As Ranma and the monk took up their positions, the older man spoke up
again.  "You have a lot to answer for, boy.  Your family has caused much
grief for mine."

"I wish that I could deny that," said Ranma.  "I can only try to make you
understand that it was not my intent."

"Intent?!" the old man gasped, clearly taken aback.  "Intent?!  What you
*intended* is no longer relevant, boy!  What you did... what your father
did... *these* are the things that you must answer for!

"After you and your father abandoned her, Ukyou retreated into her own
isolated little world.  I could only watch as my daughter grew away from
me... watch as she grew away from herself."  Haruka launched a series of
attacks which Ranma dodged with ease.  "Try as I might, I could not console
her.  Every night she would cry herself to sleep, and every day she would
train.  She avoided the other children her age, even after their teasing
stopped."

Ranma bounced back into a ready stance.  "Ucchan was," he ducked a sweeping
kick, "my best friend!"  Coming inside the monk's attack, fast and low,
Ranma flipped up and dropped behind his opponent. "I never wanted to hurt
her."

Haruka whirled to face the boy, attacking both with blows and with words.
"Hurt her?" he asked, his tone incredulous.  "She wasn't hurt, boy, she was
devastated!  She pushed everything and everyone away from her.  She denied
all that she was, even her own identity!"

"I know that...  now," said an exasperated Ranma as he blocked yet another
series of blows.  "But at the time, I was six years old!  Back then, I
didn't know anything about engagements, or marriage!  Heck, I didn't even
know that Ukyou was a girl!"

Haruka pressed his attack.  "Your father knew!  He took the yattai that I
gave him as dowry, but he left my daughter behind!"

Ranma nodded as he dodged the next punch.  "For that, on behalf of myself,
and my father, I apologize."  Swinging around behind the monk again, Ranma
tapped him lightly, causing him to stumble forward.  "If I had understood
what was going on, things might have been different."

After he recovered his balance, Haruka resumed his advance.  "For yourself,
your apology is..." he thrust out his leg in a solid kick that Ranma
sidestepped.  "...accepted.  So long as you make my Ucchan happy.
However... should your father ever cross my path again..."

Ranma's voice was cold.  "He deserves whatever he gets.  But you'll
probably have to get in line.  You and Ukyou aren't the only ones that have
been hurt by my father's promises... *and* I have him to thank for my
damned curse..."  Dodging the flight of spatulas that Haruka had pulled out
of nowhere to throw, Ranma had to grin.  It was easy to see where Ucchan
had gotten the basis for some of her techniques.

Haruka, meanwhile, was getting frustrated.  Fighting with Ranma was proving
to be like fighting with smoke.  He could not connect with a blow, and
Ranma had yet to launch any sort of a counter offensive.  "Fight!" he
roared.  "You are holding back!"

Ranma had indeed been holding back.  Ukyou's father was good, but he had
nowhere near Ranma's speed or skill.  Ranma had been taking his time,
playing a defensive game - analysing the old man's style, and also allowing
him to tire himself out somewhat.  And the old bird had caught him at it.
With a mental shrug, Ranma shifted into a more offensive pattern.

The fight didn't last long after that.  No matter where the monk tried to
dodge, Ranma was there first with a solid thumping.  Wherever he tried an
attack, Ranma was somewhere else, inside his defences, with yet another
thumping.  Finally, Ranma ended it with a few carefully placed blows that
left Haruka on his backside in the snow and the mud, gasping for air.

"You were," the monk wheezed accusingly, "still holding back, weren't you?"
After a moment, Ranma nodded.  Hauling himself to his feet once more,
Haruka moved to one of the benches in the courtyard and sat down, wiping
the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.  "I thought so."  With a glare
at Ranma he went on, "While I personally appreciate your concern on my
behalf, that is a bad habit to get into, my boy.  When you fight, you must
fight to win."

"I do," said Ranma.

Nodding in satisfaction, Haruka said, "It is good to see that you take your
training and your obligations seriously."

"Obligations," snarled Ranma.  "Don't get me started on 'obligations'.
Thanks to my father, I have entirely too many 'obligations', and there's no
way that I can satisfy one without breaking a lot more of them than I can
keep."

The monk was somewhat taken aback by the bitterness in Ranma's voice.  For
a moment, JUST for a moment, Haruka almost felt sorry for the Saotome
patriarch.  It seemed that Genma had lost something - lost something that
was very precious - the love and respect of his only child.  Then he
thought back over the past ten years of his daughter's life, and any trace
of sympathy vanished.  The one that deserved that sympathy was the boy in
front of him.  "What has he done to you, son?"

Ranma gave Kuonji-san an abbreviated version of the various vows and
entanglements that Genma had entered into on his behalf.  Haruka shook his
head.  "So many fiancees!  Perhaps I should have expected such..."  The old
man examined Ranma intently.  "Yet... you are here now.  You are with my
daughter.  It *is* your intention to marry her, is it not?"

"I am.  It is.  But I can't honestly say that I'm doing it because it's the
honourable thing to do.  I'm not sure that I know what that would be
anymore.  What I do know is that Ukyou is the one that I *want* to marry."

The older man smiled.  "Then my daughter has indeed chosen well."  The
smile faded just a bit.  "Though what of Tendou Akane?  How is she likely
to react to this decision of yours?"

Ranma's face was expressionless, but there was a bitter tone to his voice.
"I expect that she'll be thrilled, now that she won't have to marry the
'pervert'."

"Aahhh.  An open wound, I see." said Haruka not unsympathetically.
"Ukyou's letters indicated that you cared a great deal for her."

Ranma shrugged.  "I guess I still do... but as a friend.  There was a time
that it might have been more, but it just didn't work out."  He sighed.
"In the end, Ucchan was the one that I could talk to.  Akane... Akane never
believed in me."

"I take it then that you did not part on the best of terms."

"No," Ranma winced at the memory of that parting.  "That'd be a safe guess.
I really have no one to blame for that but myself, I suppose.  I certainly
made more than my share of mistakes.  It seems that I was always making
*everybody* mad."

"Everyone except Ukyou?" the monk asked.

Ranma had to grin at that, but his tone was serious.  "Oh, no.  I made
Ukyou mad LOTS of times.  But she was the one who was willing to forgive
me.  Over the past year I've learned a lot of lessons... most of them the
hard way.  But I *have* learned them."

The monk looked dubious but decided to let it pass.  "I am curious, though.
Earlier, while we were sparring, you said something about a curse...  I had
assumed that you meant it figuratively, but after hearing your story I am
no longer so sure..."

Ranma was surprised.  "Didn't Ucchan tell you about it in any of her letters?"

"No, she didn't," Haruka rumbled.  "She said that you had a few... oh, how
*did* she put it... 'unique idiosyncracies' I think it was, but she would
not elaborate."  He continued wryly, "With multiple fiancees, and now a
curse as well... I would say that my Ucchan had, perhaps, understated the
matter."

"Well, it's never been *boring*, I can say that."

"And this curse... it is real?"

Ranma sighed.  "Oh, yes.  It's real."

"What manner of curse is it?  A geas?  A spell of some sort?  You said that
you had your father to thank for it - did he perhaps offend some witch or
spirit?"

"I don't know what you'd call it.  I don't know a lot about magic."  Ranma
shrugged.  "All I know is that I fell into a cursed spring, and now,
whenever I get doused with cold water, I... change."

"Change?"

"Change.  I guess it'd be easiest just to show you."  Ranma went over to
the veranda and retrieved one of the water bottles from the belt of his
pack.  Passing the bottle to Ukyou, he said, "Would you mind, Ucchan?"

"Not if you don't, Ran-chan."

Ranma braced himself as Ukyou poured the water over his head.  There was a
familiar tingle and where there had been a handsome, raven haired boy,
there now stood a voluptuous, red-headed girl.  She shrugged eloquently.
"See?"

Kuonji Haruka's eyes went wide with shock, and a strangled sound escaped
his lips.  The sound became a rumble, and grew very quickly into loud barks
of near hysterical laughter.

This was, to say the least, not the response that Ranma-chan had been
expecting.  Still dripping, and now furious, the red-head grabbed a double
fistful of coarse robe, and hauled the massive monk up off of the ground.
She shook him like a rag doll, while he continued to laugh helplessly.

Gasping for breath, Haruka managed to stammer, "Ucchan... ten years as a
boy... now this... symmetry indeed!  What a sense of humour the Kami have!
Oh, the *irony*!"

"You think this... this *curse* is *funny*?" Ranma-chan growled.  Still
holding him up with one hand, she drew back a fist, ready to pound him into
the next week.

"Eh?  *Curse*?"  Haruka gasped, before dissolving once more into gales of
laughter.  "You have GOT to be kidding.  You see this as a *curse*?  Oh,
the okonomiyaki that I could have sold had I been so cursed..."

Stunned, Ranma-chan dropped the monk on his backside.  She stared at him in
shock as his laughter gradually faded to the occasional chuckle.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Haruka said in a more serious tone, "Look -
I have nothing left to give the two of you but my blessings and some
advice.  Ranma m'boy - think hard on this - that curse of yours can be an
incredible asset.  You can get away with things... Ahh, yes... I see from
your expression that you've discovered that aspect of it already...  It's a
*tool*, boy.  Use it.  Don't let out-dated gender stereotypes get in your
way."

Ranma-chan looked at her soon to be father-in-law thoughtfully.  He was
right - there were things that she could do as a girl that she'd never have
gotten away with in her male form.  She held out her hand and helped the
monk back to his feet.  Finally, she nodded.

"Obviously this transformation is reversible in some way..." mused the monk.

Once more, Ranma-chan nodded.  "Hot water turns me back to my normal self,"
she said.

"Excellent!  Come," Haruka said, "Let us talk more over a hot meal.  You
can tell me all about how you got this curse of yours, and what the two of
you have planned.  Then... we will find you quarters for your stay."

Ranma-chan and Ukyou both perked up visibly at the mention of food.  It had
been a long day; a hot meal and a good night's sleep sounded pretty close
to nirvana.  Hefting their packs, they followed Ukyou's father into the
maze of buildings, hand in hand.

*** O_o ***

Later that night Ukyou found Ranma standing alone on one of the monastery
walls, staring off into space.  She watched him for a time before she
ventured forward.  "Ran-chan?"

The figure before her gave a small start.  "Ucchan... I didn't hear you
come up."  Ukyou couldn't see the rueful grin on his face, but she knew it
was there.  "Pop would've kicked my butt for that one."

Ukyou smiled.  "Should I try to beat the snot out of you next time then?"

She'd meant it as a joke, but Ranma appeared to be giving the question
serious consideration.  Finally he said, "Well, probably not, but it
*would* be a good idea if maybe we started training and sparring a bit
more.  Without the others to fight with all the time, we'll need to work
harder to keep up our skills."

"Ahh," said Ukyou.  "That makes sense, I guess.  Wanna have a match
tomorrow?  I bet Dad would join us if we asked."

Ranma grinned. "I'd like that," he said before turning once more to stare
into the distance.  Ukyou moved up to stand beside him, and together they
watched the stars, twinkling in the crisp night sky.

Finally, Ukyou asked, "So what made you come up here tonight?"

After a pause Ranma said, "I just needed to think for a bit."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

For a minute, Ukyou was afraid that Ranma would say no, or that he might
ignore her question all together.  Finally, though, he said softly, "Akane
will have gotten home tonight."

"Oh."  Ukyou thought about that.  "I guess that means that the jig is up.
When they find out that you weren't on that trip with her, then everyone
will realise that we're gone."

Ranma nodded.  "Yeah.  It's really going to hit the fan now."

"You don't sound too pleased."

"I'm not.  I've been thinking about it, and I made a big mistake."

Ukyou could feel her heart drop into the pit of her stomach.  "You don't
mean that... that choosing me... I mean..."

"NO!"  Ranma whirled to face her, eyes wide.  "It's nothing like that!"  He
paused.  "It's just that I could have handled this mess a lot better.  I
feel bad that I didn't really get a chance to say good-bye to anyone.  I
thought it would be better that way at the time, but now... I'm not so
sure."

"I see," said Ukyou.  She felt a bit guilty for having doubted him, but it
was still all too new.  It was still hard for her to really believe that
she had won.  That Ranma had chosen her.  It was going to take her some
time to get over that, but she was looking forward to every minute of it.
"What would you have done differently?" she asked him.

"I don't know, really," Ranma shrugged.  "I owe old man Tendou an
explanation, at least.  I'd bet that after this, his friendship with Pop
will be a bit strained..."

Ukyou smiled.  "Yes, I imagine it will at that.  I'm sorry that I can't
feel any sympathy for him about that, Ran-chan."

"Oh, I know.  Oyaji deserves whatever he gets.  But not all of the problems
I had at the dojo were his fault.  Just most of 'em."

"Akane?"

Ranma nodded.  "Akane.  I  was never too happy about any of this arranged
marriage stuff... and neither was she.  But... there were times when she
could be very nice to me.  I'd like to think that, deep down, she was a
friend.  But now?  She'll probably hate me forever after this."

"Do you still love her, Ran-chan?"

"Yes... no... As a friend, I'd like to.  I'm afraid that it's not possible
anymore - it might have been if I'd just said good-bye, but now I'll never
know.  But I don't love her in a way that would lead to marriage."  Ranma
turned back to the darkness beyond the wall.

"I've never thought of myself as a coward before.  I've faced lots of
things, but I just couldn't make myself face Akane.  In a way we were a lot
alike.  More like brother and sister, really, than anything else.
Dammit... why can I never think of these things at the time?"

"Would it have helped any if you had?"

"No... likely not.  We might never have gotten this far.  I just feel like
I owed them more than that, and I've let them down."

"So what are you gonna do?"

"I dunno.  I've been working on a letter - an explanation... and an
apology.  I owe her that much - more, really, but the way things are, it's
the best that I can do.  I can't ever go back there - even if I wanted to.
And I DON'T want to."

"Ranma..." Ukyou leaned her head on his shoulder.  She felt him tense up
for a moment at the initial contact, but after a few seconds he began to
relax.  The two of them stood like that, gazing into the night sky, each
lost in their own thoughts.

After a time, Ranma brought his arm up and put it around her.  He was
hesitant, awkward at first, but Ukyou didn't care.  To her it felt
wonderful.  She sighed contentedly.

Ranma heard the sigh and held her just a little tighter.  "I just hope that
you know what you're getting yourself into, Ucchan."

"It doesn't matter, really.  I have what I want - what I've always wanted.
Whatever happens, I can face it now - as long as I have you."

*** o_O ***

Akane was thumping the stuffing out of a practice dummy.  It felt good to
be able to work off her frustrations this way, and frustrations she had
aplenty.  The school trip had been a disaster.  There was no way, she had
reasoned, that things could have gone worse.  She'd been wrong.

She'd come home, planning all manner of mayhem for her fianc�, only to find
that said fianc� was not there either.  He'd disappeared.  No one had even
the slightest idea where he was.  But over the next couple of days, the
pieces had begun to fall into place.

Within twenty-four hours she had known.  Not where he was, but who he was
with.  Now, fourty-eight hours after she'd gotten home, her life had been
turned completely upside down.  She'd made her decisions... all she could
do now was wait.

And beat the ever-living hell out of the practice dummies.  Time and again
she'd feel her control start to slip, and she'd have to slow down and try
to regain her center.  Pummeling the dummies might have been satisfying in
its own right, but she was a trained martial artist, and could ill afford
the lack of discipline.

Gradually, the combinations of beating the dummy, the katas and the
meditations were having the desired effect.  Akane was beginning to have
less trouble maintaining her focus.  Her control improved, and she was able
to think increasingly clearly - to make more rational plans beyond the
simple decision to follow after Ranma.  All she needed now was a lead.

Akane began a new set of kata, flowing through the exercise, letting her
mind wander.  Where could they have gone?  Did they have a specific
destination?  Where in all of Japan should she look for them?  She didn't
have the slightest idea how to even begin such a search.

As her kata wound to a close, Akane started to feel like she was being
watched.  Dropping into a defensive crouch, she spun to face the entrance
to the dojo.  Eiko was standing in the doorway.  Relaxing, Akane stood and
went to greet her friend.

"Eiko-chan!  What brings you out here tonight?" she asked.

The red-head shrugged and smiled.  "I thought that maybe I'd better check
up on you.  You scared us last night, passing out like that."  Her smile
faded and she studied Akane intently.  "Are you okay?"

Akane tried to grin, but it felt forced.  "I'm fine, Eiko-chan.  Really, I
am."  Eiko gave her a dubious look, but let it pass.

"So what are you doing?"

"Practicing."  Akane indicated the dummy on the stand.  "Martial arts
training is a great way to work out frustration or anger."  By way of a
demonstration, Akane lashed out with a kick to the dummy's torso.  With a
loud snap, the timber that held the dummy snapped and the figure was sent
tumbling into the far wall.

Eiko raised an eyebrow.  "You must be awfully frustrated, then..."

Akane looked embarrassed.  "Well, I've been pounding on that one for hours,
so it was probably a little weak.  Usually, my control is much better than
that."

"Control?"

"Yes," Akane nodded.  "That's really what martial arts teach most: control.
How to control your body and your mind... how to control your energy, and
how it is applied.  How to control your emotions.  Things like that."

Eiko looked interested. "Really?  That sounds pretty useful."

"Oh, it is.  Here.  I'll show you what I mean."  Akane led Eiko to one end
of the dojo where she set up a small stack of concrete blocks.  "Now watch
closely.  By controlling the amount of energy in the hit, and by
controlling how and where that energy is applied, I can break this whole
stack of bricks.  Like this."  Tensing, Akane took a moment to focus her
energy, and struck the top of the stack.  There was a loud crack as each
block in the stack fractured under the force of the blow. A small cloud of
dust rose into the air as the pile collapsed.

Eiko nodded, impressed.  "I see," she said.

Akane set up another stack of blocks and moved aside.  "Here, Eiko-chan.
Why don't you give it a try?"

"I'm really not sure," Eiko started.

"Oh, come on," Akane said soothingly.  "It's really not that difficult.
Besides, as strong as you are, it should be easy to learn."

Eiko shrugged and settled in to study the pile.  After a few seconds she
raised her arm and brought her fist down on top of the stack.  There was a
dull boom, and the blocks shattered, almost totally pulverised.  Akane
stared at what was left of the pile in shock.

"Wow!  Are you sure that you've never had any real martial arts training?"
she asked at last.  "You sure didn't seem to have any trouble breaking
those!"

Eiko stared sadly into the rubble.  "No... I've never had any trouble
breaking things," she said softly.  "It's how NOT to break things that's
been so hard for me to learn."

Akane looked up sharply at the sound of Eiko's voice, but she could not
read her friend's expression.  "Martial arts can help there too, Eiko-chan.
You have to learn when and how to hit, but it's just as important to learn
when and how NOT to hit."  Akane stared at the remains of the bricks and
added in a near whisper, "I have trouble with that lesson too, from time to
time."

Eiko nodded and stood up, dusting herself off.  "Here, let me help you
clean up, ne?  Then I guess I'd better be getting home."

"Tell you what," Akane said.  "Instead, why don't I show you one of my
favourite kata?  It's one that always makes me feel better when I've been
angry.  I can clean this up later."

After a moments thought, Eiko agreed.  "Thank you, Akane.  I'd like that."

*** O_o ***

News travels fast.  If there was anything that was even more of a truism,
it was that bad news travels faster.  And Nabiki Tendou had no qualms
whatever about speeding it on its way.  The sounds of shattering ceramic
echoed through the Nekohanten as a periodic counterpoint to the screams of
one very unhappy Chinese girl.

"Shampoo!  Please!"  Mousse ducked and another bowl shattered on the wall
just behind the space his head had occupied scant fractions of a second
before.  "Calm down!"

"Damn you, Mousse!" the Amazon princess snarled, "Why didn't you tell me
that Ranma had Spatula Girl with him?"

"I didn't see her!  Honestly, I didn't!" wailed the myopic magician as he
dodged the next volley of dinnerware.

"You LIE!" screamed Shampoo.

"No!  I swear, I've told you the truth!" protested Mousse.

"Spatula Girl is very sneaky!"  Shampoo's voice dripped contempt.  "Ukyou
must have drugged Airen's food - there's no other way *you* could possibly
win!"

Mousse flinched.  This was not going as well as he might have hoped.  When
he'd returned from his 'defeat' of Saotome, and given Shampoo the photo
proving his victory, he had been very careful with his word choice.  He'd
said nothing that was strictly untrue, but it had been very carefully
calculated to make Shampoo jump to the desired conclusions.  And it had
worked, too.  Up to a point.

That point had been passed when Shampoo heard about the closing of the
Ucchan.  When Shampoo realised the both Ranma *and* Ukyou were gone, she
had smelled a rat.  She was not, Mousse thought while ducking another dish,
taking it too well.

Truth be told, Ukyou's disappearance had taken him by surprise too.  He had
been sure that when it finally came to a choice, Ranma would have picked
Akane.  It was one of the reasons that he had been so angry with Saotome;
he had always believed that it was just Ranma's ego that had kept him
feeding Shampoo's fantasies.  Now, after the note that he had gotten from
Ranma that day, he was beginning to learn otherwise.

Maybe that was a part of the hold that Ranma had on the women in the area.
He cared - and didn't want to hurt anyone that he didn't have to.  Ranma
was always ready to be someone's friend - if that someone would only let
him.  Still, Mousse reflected, he could be a real jerk, and all the
attention he got from the girls probably didn't do anything to *hurt* his
ego either.  Mousse's eyes widened as he saw Shampoo readying another
volley.  He was never going to be able to dodge all of *that*.  As she
launched her attack, Mousse closed his eyes and braced for the impact.

It didn't come.  After a moment, Mousse opened his eyes again to see
Cologne's staff between him and Shampoo.  All of the ceramic ware that she
had thrown in her last attack was neatly stacked on the counter, having
been intercepted, no doubt, by Cologne.  Shampoo was glaring daggers at the
old woman, who was examining her nails while she waited for her
granddaughter to cool off.

"Great grandmother," said Shampoo, with a heated glare in Mousse's
direction.  "Why do you interfere?"

"Patience, Granddaughter," the old witch replied.  "As an Amazon, you
should have better control of your temper.  You know that you will get
nowhere this way."

Shampoo scowled back at her grandmother defiantly for a few moments before
finally wilting under the elder's steady gaze.  "Yes, Great grandmother,"
she said at last.

"That's better, child.  Now," she said, turning her attention to Mousse,
"We shall get to the bottom of this."

Mousse tried to swallow, but his throat was suddenly very dry.

*** o_O ***

Some hours later, Mousse wiped the sweat from his brow as he faced the
Amazon matriarch.  He'd been lucky.  Cologne had chosen not to challenge
his story directly, so again, Mousse had managed to avoid an outright lie.
But it had been close.  Very close.

Her many years of life experience had given Cologne verbal sparring skills
that were every bit as formidable as her physical abilities.  Her withered
form worked to her advantage here as well, since many assumed her mind to
be as weak and frail as her body appeared.  Mousse knew better.

For her part, Cologne was frustrated.  She knew, beyond any shadow of a
doubt, that there was more to this situation than met the eye.  Had Mousse
said anything that was untrue, she would surely have known - have sensed it
- but Mousse had believed every word he had said.

Of course, she reasoned, it was not necessary to say something that was
untrue to lie.  Word choice, and what was not said as much as what was
said, could lead an unwary questioner to misinterpret the answers that were
given, if the person was clever enough.  Until now, she had never given
Mousse that much credit.

She could get the truth, of course.  She could force it out of him.  But it
would take time, and time was a luxury that she could ill afford.  Whatever
had happened, the important thing was that Ranma was gone.  That could not
be permitted; her great granddaughter's future happiness, indeed, even her
very future, depended on getting Ranma back.

Fact - Ranma was gone.  Fact - Ukyou too, was missing, and her restaurant
had been closed.  It followed logically that the two of them were together.
It also followed that they had no intention of returning to Nerima any time
soon.  Time was of the essence.

Cologne shook her head in exasperation and, for the first time, she felt
every one of her years as they pressed down on her.  However, none of that
showed as she regarded Mousse.

"I still think that there is something that you are not telling us, but,
for the life of me, I cannot imagine what it might be."  Cologne turned
once more to her prot�g� and sighed.  "Shampoo, it is up to you now.  You
must go after him, and bring him back."

Shampoo's eyes lit up, and a hint of a smile crossed her face.  "You mean
it, Great Grandmother?"

Cologne nodded, her expression solemn.  "I do.  Before I can accept this
idiot's defeat of son-in-law, I must see it with my own eyes.

Shampoo nodded vigorously.  "That's right.  There is no way that Mousse
could defeat Airen in proper combat."

The crone turned back to face the boy again.  "I tend to agree... it is
unlikely that you could have defeated Saotome without some kind of
interference..."  Cologne looked thoughtful.  "Ukyou was at best a
consolation prize... But I still would not have expected son-in-law to take
defeat so easily."

Mousse looked pained but held his tongue.  Once the old Amazon had made up
her mind, there was no changing it.  He had no idea what he would do yet,
or even if there were anything that he *could* do, so for the time being,
he kept his own counsel.

Cologne's voice was edged with steel.  "Now go, and prepare.  You will take
Mousse with you, to free you from more mundane chores on the road, but you
*must* bring back your groom.  There must be a rematch, if you want to
maintain your honour, or your standing as an Amazon warrior."

*** O_o ***

Akane sat in her room, thinking.  The lights were off, and the bed was
still made - everything was in its proper place.  Not so much as a piece of
paper was out of order.  The room had taken on the same empty, sterile feel
that Ranma's room had.  It was as if the occupant was already gone.  Her
pack, loaded and secure, sat by the bed.  She was ready.  As ready as she
ever would be.  As soon as there was even the slightest lead, Akane was
prepared to follow.

What was she thinking?  This was madness!  Ranma was gone, and good
riddance!  He hadn't even cared enough to say good-bye!  What did she ever
need him for?  All he did was make fun of her - tease her.  She'd been in
perfect control of her life until he had come along.  She should be glad
that he was gone.

But she wasn't.  Every time she tried to convince herself that she was
better off this way, a still, small voice in the back of her mind called
her a liar.  You've blown it, the voice told her.  You've lost something
very rare, and very precious.  And you'll never find anything like it
again.  Akane desperately hoped that at least one of those statements was
false.

She looked over at her pack.  Getting it ready had been a lot harder than
she had imagined it would be.  Unlike her wayward fianc�, she had little
experience with life on the road.  She had never realised just how much
*stuff* she had... nor how little of it was really necessary.

Kasumi, of all people, had been the one to help her finalise the list of
things that she would take.  Akane was continually amazed by the sheer
breadth of knowledge and skills that her older sister had at her disposal.
And at times like this, she was grateful for them too.

When Kasumi had heard Akane's declaration that she intended to follow after
Ranma, there had been no argument, no attempts to get her to change her
mind.  Instead, Kasumi had simply done whatever she could to see that Akane
was properly prepared for her travels.  She had even provided a number of
dehydrated meals for her... all Akane had to do was boil the water.  And
THAT she could do.

Akane leaned back against the wall and let the tears flow down her face.
She made no sound, save the occasional sniffle.  Her anger had long since
deserted her, leaving her only a longing and an emptiness that made her
heart ache.  For a time she wondered if this had been what Ukyou had felt
all those years ago when Genma had taken Ranma and abandoned her.

Thinking of Genma brought out a flash of anger again.  The old fool had
caused more grief and heartache than he would ever realise.  As quickly as
it came, the anger died.  Genma never *would* realise how much he'd hurt
people, and there was nothing that Akane could do to change that.  Getting
angry about it all over again would only cause her more pain.  That anger
was, after all, a part of what had ruined her relationship with Ranma.

"My anger... your stupid pride," she muttered to the absent Saotome.  "I
wanted a friend... not a fianc�.  It never occurred to me that maybe the
two weren't mutually exclusive.  You idiot.  If only you had told me..."

Drawing her knees up to her chest, Akane rested her head on her arms and
sighed.  It was all so very confusing.  Why had Ranma stayed?  Why had he
left?  If he'd liked her, why, oh *why* had he always behaved like such a
jerk?

There had been times that Ranma could be so infuriating.  He'd make her so
mad that she just couldn't see straight.  And, on rare occasions, he could
do something so sweet and kind that it made her forget that he made her
that angry most of the time.  In those moments she had felt so alive, so
happy.  Had they been nothing more than illusions - daydreams and fantasies
after all?

She'd always thought that there would be plenty of time.  Neither of them
had been ready to get married, no matter what their fathers had wanted.
There was no rush to sort things out.  But that had been a mistake.  It had
just been so much easier not to think about it.

Now the only way she was ever going to find out was to hunt him down and
ask him.  Hope against hope that he would actually tell her.  And the only
way she was going to regain any peace of mind was to find out.

How would he answer?  How did she *want* him to answer?  What was it she
wanted to hear?  She didn't even know that.  She was lost in thought when
there came a gentle tapping on the door.

*** o_O ***

Nabiki was sitting at her desk, staring at a number of pictures that were
arrayed across its top.  Pictures of Ranma in female form.  Looking sadly
at the images of the red-head, a sigh escaped her lips.  "I can understand
why you would be mad at me, Saotome... but I thought that you loved her.
How can you do this to her and still call yourself a man?"

She picked up one of the snaps.  It was more than a little on the risqu�
side; Tatewaki would pay dearly for a print.  He *had* paid dearly for many
like it.  Pictures of the 'pig-tailed girl' had been a very lucrative
business - so much so that Nabiki sometimes tended to 'forget' that Ranma
was a person with feelings like anyone else's.  She had seldom allowed
herself to think that he might resent her little business endeavours.

Deep down, though, Nabiki knew.  She knew that Ranma had hated being
treated as an object - as a prize to be won, or as a resource to be
exploited.  She knew that Akane and Ukyou had been the only girls that had
ever stood a chance of winning Ranma's affections.  They were the only ones
who treated him like a person.  A small shudder passed through Nabiki.
Looking at it in that light, it was no wonder that Ranma had left.

To his father he had been a meal ticket and a means of getting something
without earning it.  To her own father, he had been the future of the
school.  To Cologne, he was fine breeding stock to strengthen the Amazon
tribe, and her granddaughter saw in him the perfect trophy husband.
Kodachi and Tatewaki each saw one of his forms as their dreams come true,
while the other form was the very personification of their worst
nightmares.  Nabiki herself had seldom thought of him as anything more than
a terribly convenient income generator.  Yes, looking at it that way, it
should certainly have come as no surprise.

But he had abandoned Akane.  Whatever sympathy she might have felt for his
position ended when he had walked out on her sister.  If you'd really loved
her, Ranma, you'd still be here.  If only Akane could see that.  Nabiki was
still glaring balefully at the red-head in the photograph when there was a
knock on her door.

Nabiki swept the photos into the top drawer of her desk and closed it as
she called out, "Come in."

"Onee-chan?"  It was Akane.  "Kasumi said that you wanted to talk to me..."

Nabiki swiveled her chair to face her younger sister.  "That's right."  She
patted the bed next to her desk.  "Have a seat."

While Akane shuffled in to sit on the bed, Nabiki took a moment to study
her.  She had been crying again; the tracks of her tears all too visible
against the pallor of her skin.  Damn that Saotome anyway.

"What was all of that Dad was blubbering about your leaving?"

Akane took a deep breath.  "I'm going after him."

"After Ranma."

"You don't approve."

"I do not.  I think that you should forget him.  He's trouble, Akane.  He's
always been nothing but trouble."

"That's what I used to believe too."

"But you don't anymore?"

"I've had a lot of time to think about it."

"Ah," said Nabiki.  "You realize, don't you, that even if you find him, he
may not come back to you."

"I know."

"Are you sure, Akane?  This is really what you want to do..."

"What I want to do?  No.  Of course not.  It's what I *have* to do."  Akane
sniffled.  "I *need* to know, Nabiki."

"What do you need to know?"

"I need to know how things might have been different.  Why he fought for me
all those times, and what changed that."  Taking a shuddering breath, Akane
continued with a tremor in her voice.  "I think that I know some of it...
but I want to hear it from him.  I have to know for sure."

"Is that your final word?"

"Yes.  It is."

Nabiki stared at her sister for a long moment, noting the hurt in her
expression, the misery that she could not hide.  But there was also a set
to her jaw - a grim determination that the older Tendou knew only too well.
With a sigh, she said, "I think that I may have an idea where they're
headed.  I'm not *sure* but it seems like a good bet."

Akane looked thoughtful for a moment.  "Nabiki... I don't want you to take
this the wrong way, but... why are you telling me this?  If you don't think
I should be going after him..."

Nabiki almost grinned.  "Since when has what I thought had any effect once
you had made up your mind about something?  I know you, Akane.  Well enough
to know better than to try and talk you out of this.  On the other hand, if
I help you, maybe you'll be able to put this behind you and get on with
your life."

After a pause, Akane nodded.  "So.  What have you found?"

"I've found Ukyou's father."

*** O_o ***

The following morning, Akane sat down to the table with her family for what
might be the last meal she would share with them for a long while.  It felt
strange to be leaving all of this behind... she'd never been away from home
for more than a few days at a time, and then, she'd always been traveling
with her family, or a large group.  She found, curiously, that a part of
her was looking forward to the trip.  The concept was strangely liberating.

Her father was reacting as she'd expected.  That is to say, he sat at the
head of the table, blubbering into his rice.  She'd given up trying to
reassure him.  Besides, she reflected darkly, a lot of this mess was really
his fault.  He deserved almost as much of the blame as Uncle Genma did.

The panda sitting opposite her was blissfully unaware of the dark thoughts
that she flung his way.  Of course, from the looks of him, he was unaware
of much of anything.  It certainly wasn't like him to be ignoring his food
like that.  Maybe he *was* beginning to see just how much damage he had
done.  Akane certainly hoped so.

Kasumi was her normal, cheerful self.  No one outside of the family would
ever have known from her demeanor that this was not a day just like any
other.  But Akane could tell.  It was the little things that gave her
away... the added attention to Akane's food, the extra little smile, the
slightly sad look hidden deep in her eyes.  Kasumi was, of course,
concerned, but she had faith in her youngest sister.  Knowing that filled
Akane with a warm glow.

The only resident that was missing from the table was Nabiki.  That left
Akane surprised, and a little hurt.  She knew that Nabiki did not approve
of her 'fool's errand', but she'd at least expected her sister to want to
say good-bye... particularly after Nabiki had gone to so much trouble to
give her all that information the night before.

Akane finished her breakfast and brooded.  She couldn't really wait much
longer.  The lead that Nabiki had given her was a tenuous one at best, and
time was short.  Even if Ranma and Ukyou *had* gone to see her father,
there was no guarantee that they'd stay for very long.  Heaving a sigh, she
finally got up and set about putting a couple of last minute items into her
pack.

Then Akane called her friends and asked them to meet her in their favourite
kissaten on the south side of the district.  The AbCb was a small pub and
restaurant that they had discovered one day that had, as Eiko had put it,
some of the best food in the ward.  The staff was certainly friendly, and
rumour had it that the waitress was a bit of a scrapper herself when the
situation called for it.

Having made the arrangements, Akane started to say her good-byes to the
rest of the family.  It was time to go.

As she was shouldering her pack to leave, Nabiki came charging into the
house, winded from running.  "Oh, good," she gasped, "I was afraid that I
was going to miss you."

Akane dropped her pack again and ran to hug her sister. "You almost did,"
she chided.  "Where were you?  I was worried!"

"YOU were worried?" Nabiki asked in mock surprise.  "I'M not the one going
off on some hare-brained expedition for God knows how long."

Akane tried to look outraged, but failed.  Instead she favoured her sister
with a warm look.  "I'm just glad you're here so I can tell you good-bye,"
she said.

Nabiki blushed.  "Yes, well..." she stammered.  "I couldn't let you go off
unprepared.  I have a few things here for you."  Reaching into her pocket,
she pulled out a fat envelope.  Motioning for Akane to sit at the table,
she started going through its contents, passing them to her younger sister
as she did.

"First of all, here's a Japan Rail pass.  It's good for a full year.
There's a second one in the envelope in case you lose this, or on the
chance that you *do* manage to bring him back."

Akane's eyes got wide.

"Second, I've got a calling card in here... you'll be able to call home
from anywhere.  Just follow the printed instructions.  You can let us know
how you're doing, or call if you get into trouble.  Also, I'll give you
whatever information I can when you call in.  So USE this."

Reaching into the envelope again, Nabiki handed her sister a small plastic
card.  "Here's the last thing... I set up an account this morning in your
name.  This card will let you draw on it when you need the money..."

Akane held the card in trembling fingers.  "But... but..."

"Don't get *too* excited, Akane.  The funds in the account are limited, but
they should last you a little while if you're careful.  Allowing for the
absence of repair bills around here now, I can put aside a little each
month to keep you going.  Here's an estimated budget.  If you keep your
expenses below these figures, you should be all right."

Akane was in shock.  This was certainly not something she'd been expecting.
Staring at her sister, all she could manage was, "Why...?"

Nabiki smiled sadly.  "I thought I'd made that clear last night.  You are,
I think, making a mistake.  But you'll never believe that until you've
actually made it.  So all I can do is try to make it easier for you.  Maybe
that way you can get this out of your system and come back home where you
belong."

Tears flowed freely from Akane's eyes as she threw her arms around her
sister in a fierce hug.  "Thank you, onee-chan," she whispered hoarsely.

"Just be careful," came the reply, "and come back home to us as soon as you
can."

Still sniffling, Akane put the things her sister had given her away, and
made her good-byes once more.  She slung her pack up onto her shoulders and
headed out into the morning.  She had one matter left to take care of, and
she'd be on her way.

*** o_O ***

The Kunou mansion was also the site of frantic travel preparations, as two
of its residents prepared for long journeys.  Just as their father had done
all those years ago, each made ready to chase after their fantasies, though
neither would have appreciated the irony of the comparison.

Kodachi was packing select belongings with a brutal efficiency.  The usual
clothing and supplies were included... all very compact, light weight, and
extremely expensive.  Kodachi believed in having only the best, of course.
She took full advantage of every advance in materials or technology.

For example, her tent fit into a package a fourty centimeters long, fifteen
in diameter and weighed little more than a kilo.  Despite that, when
erected, it was large enough to house two, and keep both dry in even the
harshest of downpours.  The rest of her gear was similar; designed to be as
light and space efficient as possible.

This meant that when she was finished packing the necessities for life on
the road, she had room left over for a few more personal belongings.  A
number of books on plants and their chemistries went into the pack, along
with a large number of small, thick walled glass phials that contained her
herbs, tinctures and extracts, as well as a selection of more modern
pharmacological wonders.  It would never do to be without her tools.

A set of her clubs and ribbons joined the rest of the things she had
packed.  Lastly, Kodachi picked up an envelope from her desk.  Shuffling
through a number of photographs, she selected a number of them and put them
into the envelope.  There were several photos of her beloved Ranma-sama,
and, out of necessity, she added a set of photographs of the pig tailed
harlot and the okonomiyaki cook.

She stared balefully at the pictures of the two girls.  What power is it
that they have over my beloved? she snarled to herself.  What black art,
what manner of evil magic could make him choose to be with the likes of
you, when he has me?  Savagely, she slid the pictures into the envelope and
stuffed it into her pack.

"I swear to you, Ranma, I will free you from their spell.  I will follow to
the ends of the Earth, if need be, and I *will* make you mine once more...
no matter what the cost!"

*** O_o ***

Elsewhere in the bowels of the mansion, Kunou Tatewaki was also packing for
an extended stay on the road.  Tatewaki was much more of a traditionalist
than was his sister, and his choices in travel garb and equipment reflected
that.  His gear was packed in short order, and his pack, along with his
favourite bokken, was leant against the door.

The next several hours he spent poring over his photo collections, culling
the best pictures of Akane and the pig tailed girl into one album that he
could take with him.  It would have been unthinkable to leave all of his
treasures behind.

Finally, though, he too was ready.  Stuffing his precious album into the
pack, he turned to face his shrine to feminine pulchritude and sighed.
"Upon my ancestors, I swear it; I shall rescue you from the clutches of the
evil sorcerer.  Fear not, my loves, the wrath of Kunou Tatewaki is at hand,
and the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High will smite thine enemies!"  Caught up
in the fervor of his righteous wrath, Kunou Tatewaki slung his pack and
stalked out the door.

*** o_O ***

Two fuming Kunous stomped into the foyer of the mansion from opposite
directions at just the same time.  Each came to a sudden halt upon noticing
the other.  They stood, glaring at one another across the emptiness of the
hallway.

"You!" Tatewaki's eyes narrowed as he caught sight of his sister's pack.
"Where are you planning to go that you should need to be so equipped?"

"I go to free my beloved Ranma-sama from the influence of the red-headed,
pig-tailed witch and that spatula toting tomboy, of course.  And just where
do you think you're going?"

"Isn't it obvious?  I am off to rescue the pig-tailed goddess from the
clutches of that vile magician Saotome, and to avenge the injustice wrought
upon the person of the beauteous Tendou Akane."

Kodachi rolled her eyes.  "Spare me, brother dear.  Save your poetic
ravings for the peasants.  They may be more easily impressed."

If Tatewaki was offended by his sister's affront, he gave no outward sign.
"I will pray for the success of your efforts to separate Saotome from the
pig-tailed girl, sister mine, but I warn you, do no harm to her."

Kodachi sniffed haughtily.  "I fail to see what attracts you to her so,
brother, but you'd better hope, then, that she stays out of my way.  For
that matter," she added almost as an afterthought, "you had best stay out
of my way too."

"Nor do I understand your infatuation with that villain Saotome.  He is
beneath your station, sister."

"That is my concern, brother dear."  Kodachi eyed her sibling darkly.  "I
trust that we understand one another then?"

"Perfectly," intoned her brother.  "Saotome shall be yours once I have
delivered his righteous punishment.  Once you have nursed him back to
health, you may do with him as you will."

Still exchanging suspicious glares, the Kunou siblings left the mansion to
follow the rather tenuous leads they had purchased from Nabiki.  The chase
was on.  After a moment of silence, a plaintive voice could be heard.

"Master?"  A pause.  "Mistress?"  Another pause.  "Anyone?"  There was no
answer.  Sayogakure Sasuke smiled to himself.  For the first time in his
life, things were looking up.

*** O_o ***

When Akane got to the AbCb, Eiko and Shinobu were there, waiting for her.
The master of the pub, a dark haired man with a beard and a kind smile,
waved her over toward their booth.  Akane forced a smile and went to join
them.  Shrugging off her pack, she dropped it next to the table and slid in
opposite the two girls.

Shinobu looked as solemn as Akane had ever seen her, while Eiko's
expression was unreadable.  Akane was the first to break the silence.  "I
guess I ought to explain..."

"You're going after him," Shinobu interrupted.  It was not a question.

Akane nodded.

"Why?"

"I... I have to."

"No you don't!  You can do what YOU want to do for a change!" burst
Shinobu.  "You're free now, don't you see that?  Why do you have to go
running away?"

Akane sighed.  "But I'm NOT free.  Somehow... somehow I don't think that I
ever was."  She gazed into Shinobu's troubled eyes.  "This is something
that I just have to do.  I can't let it end this way.  You KNOW that I
can't."

"Why not?" asked Shinobu sullenly.

Akane had to smile at that.  "Why don't you just give up on Ataru?" she
countered.  "Let that Oni girl have him?  After all, all he does is make
you angry..."

"That's not the same thing!" Shinobu began hotly.

"Isn't it?" asked Eiko in a quiet voice.  Both Akane and Shinobu were
startled by the intensity of the red-head's whisper.  "It seems to me that
it's exactly the same thing."

Akane glanced sharply at Eiko, but the red-head was just looking at her
with that same unreadable expression.  For some reason, Akane found it
mildly disturbing.  Trying to gather her thoughts again, Akane reached down
to her pack and withdrew two small parcels wrapped in brightly coloured
paper.  She handed one to each of her friends.

"I don't have any idea how long this will take," she said.  "It could be a
few days, it could be weeks, it might even be years..."

"YEARS?" squeaked Shinobu.

"Years," agreed Akane heavily.  "At any rate, I doubt that I'll be back by
Christmas, and I wanted you to have these."

Shinobu held her package tightly, and looked as though she wanted to cry.
Eiko just nodded.  Akane had the strangest feeling that Eiko was not nearly
as surprised as she ought to be.  Eiko confirmed that supposition a moment
later.  Reaching into the vacant booth behind her, Eiko pulled out a loaded
backpack of her own and set it on the floor next to Akane's.

It was hard to tell who was the more surprised, Shinobu or Akane.  Akane
was the first to find her voice.  "What the heck is that?" she asked.

Eiko looked levelly at her.  "It's a pack.  I'm going with you, if you'll
let me.  I can pay my own way."

Akane was shocked.  "Eiko-chan, that's... that's *insane*.  My reasons for
doing this are crazy enough, but why would *you* want to get involved?"

Eiko shrugged.  "You're my friend.  You need help.  I've already got
permission from my parents."

"No.  No way.  It's just not sensible."

"And what you're doing is?"

"I'm doing what I have to do.  It's sure as hell not what I *want* to be
doing..."

Eiko grinned.  "Then I have the advantage, don't I?  This is something that
I have to do, and what's more, I *want* to."

Akane stared at the red haired girl as if she'd opened a third eye in her
forehead.  "Eiko-chan... I appreciate it, really, I do.  But it's okay.  I
don't need you to defend me."

"Who said anything about defending you?" asked Eiko.  "All *I'm* saying is
that you don't need to be alone.  Believe me, I've lost people close to me
before, and the LAST thing that you need is to be all on your own."

"What's wrong with being on my own?  I *like* being on my own!" said Akane.
"And I can take care of myself."

"I know you can take care of yourself." Eiko sighed.  "You didn't need
Ranma to defend you either.  But, deep down, weren't you glad when he did?"

Akane started to deny that, but the seriousness of her friend's expression
stopped her.  It *had* felt good when Ranma had fought for her.  That was a
large part of why she was going after him.  But this... was different.
Wasn't it?  "Eiko... I can handle it.  You don't have to do this."

"Akane... please.  Let me help."

"But..." Akane's protest died unspoken under the intensity of Eiko's gaze.
"Are you sure about this...?"

The red-head nodded.  "Very."

"But... *why*?  I still don't understand..."

"Neither do I," said Shinobu sulkily.  "I don't see why *either* of you
have to go."

"Because," Eiko said gently, "It's a terrible thing to be alone."

"But what about me?" snuffled Shinobu.  "If both of you go haring off after
Ranma, then *I'll* be alone!  Who will I have to talk to?!"

Eiko took Shinobu's hand in hers.  "It's not going to be forever you know."

"But Akane said it might be years..."

"Might be, Shinobu-chan... *might* be," said Akane soothingly.  "I'm hoping
that it won't.  I'm hoping that this can all be settled in just a few weeks
at most."

Shinobu looked up, tears in her eyes.  "I'm going to miss you."

Akane smiled.  "Don't worry.  I'll..." she glanced at Eiko for a second
before continuing, "WE'LL keep in touch.  I promise."

Eiko nodded emphatically.  "You bet we will.  Besides!  Without us in the
way you can finally land that boyfriend of yours."

"Ataru-kun?" sighed Shinobu.  "I'm beginning to be afraid he'll never grow up."

"No, not that lecher," Eiko grimaced.  "And I don't mean that pompous
blowhard Mendou, either.  I'm talking about the sweet one.  You know, the
one who's always wearing that weird bunny suit."

Shinobu looked startled.  "Inaba-kun?"

Eiko nodded.  "He's cute and he's devoted...  Oh, he's not perfect, I'll
admit, but Lord, show me the man that is..."

"Why not?" agreed Akane.  "He *is* kinda nice.  And he treats you better
than any of the others."

Shinobu looked at Akane.  "Following THAT logic, you'd be going out with
Kunou, or that guy with the bandanna fixation."

Akane rolled her eyes and looked to Eiko for help, but the red-head was
sniggering.  No sympathy there.  Finally, she sighed and grinned.  "Maybe I
should have done, Shinobu-chan... maybe I should have done."

"Well, I guess I better go home.  The sooner you two get this over with,
the sooner you can come home, right?"  Eiko moved to let Shinobu out of the
booth.  The dark haired girl headed for the door, but stopped.  She turned
back to her friends one last time.  "You will be careful, won't you?  And
write?  You promised to keep in touch..."

Akane smiled at her.  "Of course we will, Shinobu-chan.  We'll be okay.  I
promise."  With an answering nod, Shinobu turned and left the kissaten.

After a moment of silence, Eiko piped up.  "So, Akane... I take it you have
a good idea where to start this search?"

Akane reached into a pocket on her pack and drew out a map.  "Hai," she
said, unfolding it.  "There's this monastery, west of Lake Biwa..."

*** o_O ***

Kodachi watched the monastery gates from a nearby ridge.  Nabiki's
information had been terribly vague - but it had been better than no lead
at all.  It was only by happy accident that Kodachi had already known of
this place, as they were a good source of some of the more exotic herbs.
She had taken a gamble that this was, in fact, the same monastery that
Nabiki had alluded to.

The gamble had paid off.  Ranma and the others *were* here.  She'd caught
sight of her beloved earlier in the day as he ran laps around the top of
the perimeter wall.  She smiled to herself.  One day she would have to
break him of that habit.  But for now, she was glad of it.

Zooming in with her binoculars, she could make out two figures as they left
the enclosure.  One was male, and wore a familiar red shirt.  The other was
tall, with dark hair tied with a white ribbon.  That would be Ukyou.
Kodachi kept waiting for a third figure to emerge, but as yet, there was no
trace of the pig tailed girl.

That made Kodachi nervous.  Was she still in the monastery?  Had Ranma and
Ukyou left her elsewhere while they had come here?  If she *was* in the
monastery, then surely Ranma would come back for her... and that was when
Kodachi decided she would make her move.

She settled back down to wait and watch.  She was still there a day later
when Akane made it to the monastery, with Eiko in tow.  At first, Kodachi
had been surprised... she had not expected to see the red haired harridan
keeping company with Akane.  Could it be that Ranma had eluded even her in
favour of that low born cook?

Upon closer examination, though, Kodachi realised her mistake.  The
red-head with Akane was someone else entirely.  The witch had been
elsewhere.  Kodachi cursed herself and fumed.  She had no idea where they
might have gone, and with over a day's lead it would be all but impossible
to track them.  What was she going to do now?

Maybe the people in the monastery knew where they had gone.  At least one
of them would have to.  She would just have to find him and 'persuade' him
to give her the information.  Then a better idea came to her.  Akane would
be asking the same questions, even now.  And she'd likely be getting the
same answers that Kodachi would.  Rather than tipping her own hand, she'd
follow Akane.  The Tendou girl would lead her right to her beloved Ranma.
And no one would be the wiser.

*** O_o ***

Akane was finding another reason to be really grateful for Eiko's company.
After the previous night it was evident that the red-head was not the most
experienced camper in the world, but she was very strong, and a swift
mover.  They had gotten to the monastery where Kuonji Haruka was living
faster that Akane would have dreamed possible.

Once they had been admitted, Eiko told Akane that she would wait for her
while she talked to Ukyou's father.  Akane shot her a grateful look and
then followed their guide deeper into the cloistered grounds of the
monastery.

Akane was escorted to the same building where Ranma and Ukyou had met the
elder Kuonji, scant days before.  She found the monk sitting on a bench,
staring into the garden.  He was facing away from her, and appeared to be
taking no notice of her.  After several minutes of strained silence, Akane
cleared her throat.

The monk did not turn, but said, "Tendou Akane, I presume?"

Akane was startled, both by the monk's identification of her, and the
booming quality of his voice.  "Um... Yes sir... how... how did you know?"

"I have my ways," answered the monk.  Akane could not see his face, but it
sounded as if he were smiling.  "Though I will admit that I was told of
your arrival before you were escorted here, it did not take any great
mental effort to know that you would be coming."

"Ahh," Akane managed intelligently.

"Young Saotome's departure from your domicile was, I take it, rather abrupt?"

"You could say that, yes." said Akane.  "I had wondered if he was here.  It
was my hope that if Ranma and Ukyou had come to visit you, that I might
catch them before they left."

"Why?" asked the monk.

"I... beg your pardon?"

"Why do you seek him?  I was given to understand that you were opposed to a
marriage with him, and that you would be glad to be free of it."

"I was... that is... I am... I think... I mean... I don't know..." Akane
stammered.

The monk turned to face her, and she was struck by the intensity of his
gaze.  His expression belonged to a man with a warm sense of humour, and a
gentle nature.  Not all that unexpected on a monk, but not what Akane
expected from a skilled martial artist.

"Relax, child," he said, "I will not bite you."  He stared at her for a
moment and Akane was sure that he could see right through her.  "You cared
a great deal for him."  It was not a question.

Akane felt her instinctive denial coming to the surface, but fought it back
down again.  "I did."

The battle had not gone unnoticed.  Haruka's smile dimmed a bit as he
watched her.  "Ranma was right.  You and he are a lot alike.  Neither of
you are very comfortable with your feelings."

Hope surged through Akane at that statement.  "You've seen Ranma, then?  He
is here?"

That hope was crushed a moment later when the monk answered.  "He *was*
here.  He and my daughter took their leave of us not a full day ago."

"Oh.  I see," said Akane, dejected.  "I don't suppose that..."

"I cannot tell you where they have gone," the monk agreed.  "I can
understand how you must feel, Tendou-san, and I am truly sorry that it had
to be this way.  But at the same time, my daughter is happier than I have
known her to be in well over ten years.  You cannot seriously expect me to
jeopardize that."

Akane nodded.  Ukyou had what she wanted now, and her father would be a
fool indeed to help someone who might be trying to take that away from her.
Still, she had one more question to ask the monk.  "And Ranma?  Is Ranma
happy?"

The monk paused.  Finally, he said, "Yes.  I think that he is.  He still
has issues to deal with, to be sure, but I sensed about him an air of
relief.  As though a burden had been lifted from his shoulders."

That had not been the answer that Akane wanted to hear.  At least she
didn't think that it was.  It certainly did not answer any of the questions
that were tearing at her heart.

"I see," said Akane.  "I understand.  Thank you for your time, Kuonji-san.
Please forgive me for having disturbed you."

Haruka watched the girl as she turned to go.  She looked so unhappy - so
lost.  So very like his own daughter had all those years ago.  His heart
went out to her.  He was satisfied that Ranma would honor his vows to
Ukyou... where would be the harm in helping this lost soul?

"Tendou-san... A moment.  What are your intentions?  Are you trying to take
Ranma away from my daughter again?"

"To be honest?  If I thought I could... I might.  I'm... I'm afraid that
it's too late for that now.  But I need some answers.  And Ranma is the
only one that can give them to me."

The answer seemed to satisfy the monk.  "Tendou-san,  I am sorry.  I really
do not know where they are going.  All I know, and all I can tell you, is
that their next stop was to be in Tokyo.  There was one more loose end that
Ranma said he had to tie up."

Akane thought about that for a moment.  What loose ends could there be for
Ranma to deal with in Tokyo?  Had he planned to come back to talk to her
after all?  Somehow it didn't seem likely.

Another answer came to mind, but it was not one that she liked at all.
Ranma's mother lived in Tokyo.  Could he really be going to see her?  It
was impossible.  Not even Ranma was that stupid.

Turning to face the old man, she asked.  "Tell me... did either of them
mention the name 'Nodoka'?"

"I am not certain... they might have.  Is it important?"

"It could be a matter of life and death."

The old man thought hard, trying to remember exactly what had been said.
Finally, he shrugged.  "I am truly sorry.  I really cannot remember."

After thanking the elder Kuonji for his time, Akane ran to collect her pack
and her travelling companion.  It was a flimsy lead at best, but it was a
lead.  And it left her with a hard knot in the pit of her stomach.

"What happened?" asked Eiko as she and Akane left the monastery.  "Did you
find out where they were going next?"

"I think so," said a worried Akane.  "But I hope not.  If they're going
where I think they are, then we have to get to Tokyo fast.  Or else Ranma
may not be around for me to talk to anymore."

Eiko blinked, but took the news in stride.  "Come on then," she said with a
smile.  "We'd better get moving."

*** o_O ***

Ranma and Ukyou were camped by a small stream in the hills just outside of
Tokyo.  The next morning would see them to the train station just a few
kilometers away, and by mid-afternoon they would reach their next
destination.

They had just finished their dinner, and the argument was one that had been
brewing since they'd left the monastery.  "Are you *sure* that we have to
make this stop?"

Ranma sighed.  "Ucchan... I'm sure.  We have to go to see my mom.  I have
to let her know that I'm still alive, and that I miss her...  At the very
least I want her to meet the woman I'm going to marry."

"I just don't think that it's a very good idea.  What about your curse?
What are you going to do if she finds out about that?"

"She's not going to 'find out'.  I'm going to tell her about it.  I'm going
to tell her everything."

"You're joking, right?" squeaked Ukyou.

Ranma shook his head.  "No.  I'm not."

"Ranma!  I didn't accept your proposal just to have you commit suicide!"

"Do you remember something you said to me the night that I came to the
Ucchan?  The night that I asked you to marry me?"

"I'll remember that night for the rest of my life.  What, specifically, are
you asking about?"

Ranma grinned.  "You told me that I was running away.  That it wasn't like
me to solve a problem by running away from it..."

"I'm sorry!  I didn't mean it like that!  Besides, I was afraid that you
were running away from me too!  Dammit, Ranma, we're free!  Let's just GO
while we can!"

Ranma shook his head sadly.  "But we're NOT free.  Not yet.  You were
RIGHT, Ucchan... I WAS running, just like my pop always did."  Ranma paused
for a moment as a thought struck him.  "Maybe... I've always been
running...  Well, I'm not going to do that anymore; at least not from my
mother."

"And what about the others?  Shampoo?  Tatewaki?  His twisted sister...
Are we going to go deal with all of them, too?"

"We'll have to deal with them when the time comes.  Later.  Hopefully a LOT
later.  As much as I hate it, running from some of these people is the only
answer that will work for now.  But this is something that I can't put off
any longer."

"Can't you just write your mom a letter then, like the ones you wrote for
the Tendous?"

"No.  I blew it with the Tendous... I should have handled that better from
the start.  But it's too late to fix that now."  Ranma patted the side of
his pack.  "I can only hope that these letters will help smooth things over
- at least they'll have an explanation, and for what it may be worth, an
apology."  He sighed.  "Maybe it's even for the best.  If I *had* tried to
talk to Akane... we'd just have ended up fighting again."

"But..."

"Look... I didn't object to going to see your father, did I?  You know how
nervous I was about that.  But I went... because it was important to you."

"Yah, but it's not the same.  Dad always *liked* you.  Your mother... your
mother might want to kill you."

Ranma let that pass for the moment.  "Ucchan... Try to understand.  I
hadn't seen my mother for twelve years.  Twelve years!  And then, when I
did see her, I had to *lie* to her.  To pretend to be somebody else.  All
she wanted was to see her family again.  But every time she came by the
dojo, all she'd find would be 'Ranko' and her pet panda.  She was nice
enough to me as Ranko, but I could see it in her eyes... it was her son
that she wanted to find."

His voice dropped to a whisper.  "Honour is very important to my mother -
and it's very important to me.  Thanks to my father, there *is* no solution
to this mess where honour can be satisfied completely, except for seppuku.
I hope that it won't come to that - that she'll accept me.  But I can't lie
to her anymore...  I may never get to see her again, and this will be the
last chance I have to tell her... tell her that I love her.  Tell her how
much I've missed her all of these years."

There was a long silence.  Ranma looked at his fiancee.  She was so
beautiful in the firelight.  It tore at him to see the silver trails of the
tears that were running down her face.  She might be right.  He had been
given a chance to start over - to rebuild something that he had lost - to
make it bigger and better.  If his mother *did* hold him to the promise of
seppuku, he'd be throwing all of that away again.

But he had to do it.  He had to tell his mother the truth.  Had to make her
understand what had happened - why he had made the choices he had.  She was
the one parent he had whose opinion still had any real meaning for him.  If
she rejected him... well if she did, at least it would be over quickly.

Ranma had promised Ukyou that he would not leave her again.  But could he
keep even that promise?  So very many promises... so many of them broken...
was there truly any way out except death?  Ranma imagined that he could
feel the cold steel as it tore through his body.  One last moment of agony,
but in that moment, he could still win.

Ranma was so lost in thought that he almost didn't hear Ukyou's voice.
"And if she does hold you to that promise?  What will you do then?"

"Die."

"That's not very damned funny."

Ranma poked at the embers of their fire with a stick.  "No.  It's not."

"You... you mean that, then?  You'd really kill yourself if she told you to?"

"I'd have to, wouldn't I?"  Ranma turned haunted eyes to his fiancee.
"D'you think that I *want* to die?  This is the hardest part of this whole
mess.  I can't really believe it will come to that.  The person that has
visited the Tendous has been so kind and caring.  But at the same time, she
has a peculiar sense of propriety.  I just don't know what she'll do for
sure!"

Ranma stopped prodding the coals and tossed the stick into the fire.  He
watched it blacken and smoke as it started to burn.  "I don't know her,
Ucchan.  She's my mother, and she's almost a total stranger.  I don't
really know much of anything about her past her visits to the dojo, and
what Pop has told me.  And you know how reliable *that* information must
be."

Ukyou almost had to smile at that.

"Ucchan... I want you to promise me something."

Ukyou's half smile faltered.  She wasn't going to like this, she could
tell.  "Promise you what?"

"I want you to promise me that... that if it *does* come to seppuku, you
won't try to stop me."

"WHAT?!" Ukyou exclaimed, "You can't seriously expect me to make a promise
like that!"

"Ucchan... please.  Don't do this.  This is a matter of... of honour.  You
of all people should know what that means."

"But what good is honour if it means that I lose you all over again?" asked
Ukyou sullenly.  "Oh, Ranma..."

"Then you think that I've failed...  You think that I'm not enough of a man
to fulfill that promise..."

"No!  Of course not.  But she doesn't know you like I do.  She might not
see it until it was too late!"

"That's the chance that I've got to take.  Will you promise me that,
Ucchan?"  Ranma sighed, watching Ukyou stare into the fire.  "Please?"

With a shudder, Ukyou closed her eyes and hung her head.  Her voice was so
quiet that it was almost lost in the crackle of the fire.  "All right, damn
you...  I... promise.  I won't interfere."

*** O_o ***

The house was a modest one - not as large as the Tendou home, but ample.
The grounds were immaculately kept - the garden was neat and elegant,
despite the covering of snow.  A small stream of water ran down an artfully
constructed rock face and into a small pond.  The burble of the water and
the regular clack of the deer-scare were the only sounds that broke the
stillness.

Ranma-chan stood in the gateway, staring at the house.  How many years, she
thought to herself.  How many years has it been since I was last here?
Thirteen?  Fourteen?  It looks so familiar... but so strange at the same
time.

"It's lovely..." said a voice behind her.

"It is," Ranma-chan agreed.  "I had almost forgotten how nice a place home
could be."

Looking down at herself Ranma-chan sighed.  This was not the way she had
planned this, but fate apparently had other ideas.  In the long run it
really wouldn't matter.  She had promised herself that she was going to
tell her mother about the curse anyway.  Perhaps it would even be easier
this way.  She felt Ukyou place a hand on her shoulder and smiled to
herself.  "It's time, Ucchan.  Shall we?"

"If we must," said Ukyou as her fianc� rang the bell.

*** o_O ***

Ranma-chan stood, trembling slightly as they waited for the door to be
answered.  Part of her mind was screaming at her that she should bolt and
run, that Ukyou was right, that this was all one big mistake.  But this was
her mother.  She would not, *could* not run from her anymore.

She could hear footsteps from inside the house approaching the door, but
the snap of the latch still made her jump.  The door slid aside and
Ranma-chan found herself staring up into the startled face of Saotome
Nodoka.

"Er... Hi," she managed lamely.

"Ranko-chan!  Thank the Gods that you're all right!"  Nodoka grabbed the
red-head in a fierce hug.  "Where have you been?  Everyone has been so
worried about you!"

That took Ranma-chan by surprise.  "They... they have?"

"Of course they have, dear.  Akane was very upset when she called."

"Akane... called here?"

"They've been looking for you everywhere.  She said that you'd had a fight..."

Ranma-chan seemed to fold in on herself.  "Yes... you could say that."  She
shivered violently.

Nodoka felt it and let her go.  "Come in, child.  You must be freezing."
Noticing Ukyou standing there, she asked.  "And who's your friend?"

"My name is Kuonji Ukyou," said Ukyou, as she followed Ranma-chan and
Nodoka into the house.

"Kuonji... that name sounds familiar... do you know my son, Ukyou-san?"

Ukyou and Ranma-chan exchanged glances.  "Yes ma'am.  It would be safe to
say that I know him..."

Nodoka led the couple into the living room of the house, and waved them
toward the table.  "You girls wait right there, while I call the dojo and
let them know that you're safe."

"Please!" Ranma-chan said, "Don't."

"But Ranko-chan!  I must let them know that you are all right - you
wouldn't want them to keep worrying, would you?"

For a moment, Ranma-chan felt her resolve waver.  It would be easy, she
thought.  So easy to just go back - back to things as they were - as they
had always been.  It would almost have to be easier than what she was about
to do.  She looked to Ukyou, saw her encouraging smile, and felt her
strength return.  No; there was no going back.  The decision had finally
been made, and it was the right one.  Ukyou had kept her part of the
bargain.  Now it was her turn.

"Please," she repeated, "hear me out first.  Then you can call whoever you
want to."

"But..." Nodoka started to say.  Ranma-chan tensed, a little more of her
agitation showing through.

"I beg you... don't make me leave now..."

"Why Ranko-chan... I would never do that to you."  She's terrified, thought
Nodoka.  What could it be that she's so afraid of?

"Don't be so sure," said the red-head miserably.  "There's so much that you
don't know.  So much that I have to tell you."

"Very well, Ranko-chan, why don't you sit down here and tell me all about it."

"This might take a while," said Ukyou.  "How about I make some tea?"

"Oh, no, I should be doing that," protested Nodoka.

"No, you and... Ranko have a lot to talk about.  Just point me at the
kitchen, and let me worry about this."

Ranma-chan shot her fiancee a grateful look.  "Thanks, Ucchan.  It's
through that door, and the second on the left, if I remember it correctly."

Nodoka turned back toward Ranma-chan, an expression of surprise on her
face.  "Why... yes, that's right.  But... how could you know...?"

Ranma-chan sighed and set her pack down next to the table.  "It's a long
story, believe me."  Collapsing wearily next to her pack, she opened one of
the side pockets and withdrew a small, silk wrapped bundle.  Bound with a
thin cord, the bundle was roughly cylindrical, about six centimeters wide,
and forty long.  Setting it carefully on the table, Ranma-chan proceeded to
untie the bindings, and gently unwrap the parcel.

Nodoka gasped as the last of the silk slipped away to reveal the lacquered
scabbard and cloth wrapped handle of a ceremonial tanto.  The knife was
obviously quite old, but well cared for - the product of a master maker.
The tsuba bore the Saotome family crest.

"What are you doing with that?  Where... where did you get it?" asked
Nodoka, the slightest tremor in her voice.

"It was given to me when I was eight years old, by my father."

"But how... I mean..."  Nodoka trailed off helplessly.

Looking sadly at her mother, Ranma-chan said in a quiet voice, "A long time
ago, there were promises made... to you.  Promises about me.  As a result,
the way that I see it, this conversation can end one of three ways.  One is
that you will hear what I have to say and forgive me - in that event, this
will stay with me, and I will see you whenever I can."  She indicated the
tanto on the table.

"Ranko..."

She took a deep breath.  "The second possibility is that you will hear what
I have to say, and you will reject it... and me.  I will leave this here.
I will renounce my family, and I will never darken your door again."  Her
voice was starting to shake a bit as she concluded.  "The third is that
when you hear my story, you will find my dishonour to be too great, and I
will have to use this..."

Nodoka was horrified.  "Ranko!  What ever are you talking about?  You're
just a girl!  You are not bound by any promises to me!"

Ranma-chan winced.  "Please!  Don't call me that!  I *am* bound... by
tradition and honour.  Bound by promises...  promises made to you, and to
others on my behalf...  promises made by my father..." her voice dropped to
a near whisper, "...and I can't keep them all."

"But what has that got to do with..."

"You don't understand!  My father..."  There was a harsh edge to the
red-head's voice which she fought to control, "...my father is Saotome
Genma."

Nodoka fainted.

"Well, *that* went well," said Ukyou from the doorway.

*** O_o ***

Nodoka sat, staring into space, her face a mask of shocked disbelief.  She
hadn't even touched her tea.  "To think," she was saying.  "After all these
years, I never even suspected.  I knew that Genma could be a scoundrel, of
course, but... this!"  She turned to the anxious red-head, trying to keep
her voice neutral.  "Tell me, Ranko-chan... what is she like?  What kind of
woman is your mother?"

Ranma-chan blinked.  "No!  It's not anything like that!  Pops was... Pops
was never unfaithful to you!"

"Ranko," Nodoka said gently, "It is not nice to lie.  I appreciate that you
would like to spare my feelings, but really.  What else am I to think?
Unless my husband adopted you..." she trailed off hopefully.  Ranma-chan
shook her head in a sad negative.  "Then there really is no other
explanation, is there?  I have no daughters."

"I know..." said Ranma-chan in a very small voice.  Looking down at herself
she continued.  "And now you have only half a son."

Nodoka looked up sharply.  "What do you mean by that?"

Ukyou came back into the room with a steaming kettle.  She handed it to
Ranma-chan and took a seat at the table across from Nodoka.  Holding the
kettle, Ranma-chan turned to the elder Saotome and said, "The first thing
that I have to tell you is that my name isn't 'Ranko'."  Reaching up, she
poured the hot water over her head.  Her outline blurred, shifting as
curves flattened out, and her body grew taller; bulkier.  Her fiery hair
darkened to black, and her voice grew harsher and deeper as the now male
Ranma finished, "My name... is Saotome Ranma."

For the second time that afternoon, Nodoka fainted.

*** x_X ***

When Nodoka came to, she found herself staring into the deep blue eyes of
her son.  "Ra... Ranma?" she asked.  "Is that really you?"  The figure
nodded.  "Oh, thank God!  I just had the strangest dream..."  A pained
expression crossed her son's face, leaving a haunted look in his eyes.
There was something very wrong here.  "Where's Ranko?" she asked,
struggling to sit up.

"She's right here, Mom.  She hasn't gone anywhere."

Nodoka scanned the room, but there was only Ranma, and... what was her
name... oh yes, Ukyou.  That was it.  Both were watching her with concerned
expressions.  Of Ranko there was no trace.  "Where is she, son?  I don't
see her!  She was so upset... she must have run off.  We have to find
her..."

"Mother, please!  Don't do this!  She's right here!  You *saw* it, Mother."
Ranma paused to take a deep breath and summon his courage.  "Mother...
Ranko...  Ranko and I...  we're the same.  *I* am Ranko..."

"No!  That cannot be true!"  Nodoka looked stricken.  "Ranko is a girl!  A
sweet, innocent girl!  My son is a man!  A man among men!  Genma promised
me that!"

"Mother, LOOK at me!"  Ranma grabbed a glass of water from the table and
poured its contents over his head.  Once more his outline shifted, growing
shorter and filling out, and developing a decidedly unmasculine curvature.
Water still dripping out of her now red hair, Ranma-chan continued in a
much more subdued voice, "The girl that you knew as Ranko... is your son."

Nodoka gasped for breath, an expression of horror and revulsion twisting
her features.  "NO!  It's not possible..." she moaned.  "Genma swore to me
- swore on his *life* that he would raise you to be a man among men!  A man
among men!  What perversion..."

"Mother... no... please... it's not like that..."

"Don't call me that!  How can you be my son?!"

"Mother..."  Ranma-chan sat back as if Nodoka had slapped her.  In a way,
she wished that she had.  A slap she could have handled.  But instead, her
worst nightmare was playing itself out right in front of her eyes.  The
life drained out of the red-head's expression and mechanically, she reached
for the knife in its scabbard.  Her hand was trembling as she picked it up.
It was better this way, she told herself.  One searing instant, then she'd
never feel pain again...

"Ran-chan!  NO!!" cried Ukyou.  True to her promise, she made no move to
interfere, but the agony in her voice and in her eyes told just how much it
was costing her.

Ranma-chan stared at the knife in her hands before turning tear filled eyes
to her fiancee.  "I'm sorry, Ucchan.  I...  I have to do this.  You know
that I do.  It's a matter of honour..."  Her grip tightened convulsively on
the handle of the dagger as she slipped it free of its sheath.  "I'm sorry.
Forgive me..." she whispered.

Ukyou's cry and the glint of light off the tanto blade broke Nodoka out of
her horrified stupor.  "What are you *doing*?" she shrieked, grabbing for
Ranma's arm.

"What I *have* to do!" the red-head sobbed.  "What honour demands that I
do.  What I promised you that I would do if I failed to become what you
wanted."  Ranma-chan tried to bring the blade toward her abdomen, but she
had no strength and Nodoka's grip was like iron.

"Where in God's name did you get *that* idea?"

"Pops promised!  *I* promised...  promised that I'd be a real man, or we'd
commit seppuku..."

"NO!!  Ranko... Ranma... This was never what I wanted!  You have to listen
to me.  That promise was meant to keep Genma on his best behaviour.  It was
never meant to apply to you!  You weren't even five years old!  There's no
way that you could have understood what your father was doing!"

"But honour demands..."

"Demands nothing of the sort," said Nodoka firmly.

Ukyou heaved a sigh of relief when the knife dropped from Ranma-chan's
nerveless fingers and clattered to the floor.

Nodoka's voice was low and intense, and there were tears in her eyes.
"Rank... Ranma.  Please... I don't understand.  Help me to understand.  How
is this possible?  What *happened* to you?!"

Ranma-chan blinked, as if coming out of a trance.  She seemed to be
surprised to find that she was still alive.  She looked down at the knife
on the floor, and to her arm, the arm that Nodoka still held in a viselike
grip.  She blinked again, and said in a quiet, uncertain voice, "Mother...?"

More gently, Nodoka said, "Ranma, tell me.  What happened?"

Unable to meet her mother's gaze, Ranma-chan mumbled, "Jyusenkyou."

"Jyusenkyou?  What is Jyusenkyou?"

"The name means 'Pools of Sorrow'.  It's a legendary martial arts training
ground in China.  Pops searched for it for weeks, before we finally
stumbled across it, somewhere in the Bayankhala Mountain range in Quing
Hai."

"Pools of Sorrow?  That seems an odd name for a training ground."

Ranma-chan nodded glumly.  "It's also called the 'Training Ground of Cursed
Springs', and it is well named.  The valley itself is beautiful, shrouded
in mist in the mornings.  Literally hundreds of small pools cover the
valley floor.  There are bamboo poles to stand on - the object is to keep
aloft, and avoid getting dunked.  At the time it didn't seem like anything
special."

Freeing her arm from her mother's grasp, Ranma-chan reached for her cup and
took a shaky draught from her tea.  Nodoka retrieved the tanto, and after
re-sheathing it, passed it to Ukyou while her child continued to speak.

"But with each of the pools, there is associated a legend... a 'very tragic
story' of some person or creature that was drowned in that pool, at some
point in the distant past.  If you fall into one of the pools, then you
turn into whatever drowned in that pool all those years ago.  Hot water
will reverse the change, but only until the next time you get hit with cold
water."

"Maaaaaa..."

"We found out about it the hard way.  I knocked Pops into one of the pools
first.  It turned out to be the one the guide called 'Shon Mao niichuan'."

"Shon Mao..."  Nodoka's eyes widened as the connections were made.  'Ranko'
had kept a pet.  "Do you mean to tell me that your father... that Genma...
that Genma is that *Panda* bear?"

Ranma-chan nodded.  "I'm afraid so.  When he came up out of that pool like
that, I was so startled that I let my guard down completely.  The next
thing I knew the old man had knocked me into the Nyan niichuan.  So now...
every time I get splashed with cold water... I end up like *this*."

"The whole time.  He was there, at the dojo, the whole time.  There were
never any training trips - no expeditions... every time I visited, he was
there... you were there..."

Ranma-chan wilted again at the hurt tone in her mother's voice.

"Why, Ranma?  Why the lies?  Why the deception?  Why didn't you just *tell*
me?"

"How could I?  There was that promise that Pops had made... and I had made
it too!  Look at me!  Do I *look* like a 'man among men' to you?"

"But I never meant for..."

"We didn't know that!  Pops was... is still terrified of you, and that
promise, just as I was.  I think that Pops really believes that he had my
best interests at heart.  But there was no way that I could go on living
that way.  It was destroying me.  I couldn't keep up the lie any longer."

Favouring her mother with a pleading look, Ranma-chan continued in a quiet
voice.  "I couldn't lie to *you* anymore.  Do you know how badly I wanted
to tell you?  How hard I *tried*?  The fact that I failed still shames me.
Do you know how much it *hurt* every time you would come to the Tendous'
looking for us?  You would be so close... so close that I could reach out
and touch you, but I couldn't tell you who I was!

"You were always so disappointed to find that your husband and your son
were 'away' - I *saw* the pain it caused you...  and with every visit, that
threat of seppuku lost some of its hold.  It would have been easier to die
than to go on like that."

Nodoka was quiet for a time, thinking.  Finally she said, "And the
Tendous... why did they participate in this deception?"

Still hanging her head, Ranma-chan said softly, "They were trying to
protect us.  It was more than we deserved.  Mother, I am so sorry..."

"It all makes so much more sense now.  At last I understand why all of you
seemed so *tense* when I would come to visit..."  Nodoka eyed the miserable
girl sympathetically.  "...and now I can understand just why you so hated
to dress up the way I wanted you to.  I'm sorry for that... If I had
known..."

"If you had known, then Pops would have tried to run, and we'd be God only
knows where by now."  Ranma-chan paused, trying to choose her words
carefully.  "Look, I don't want you to think that I *like* girls' clothes
or nothing, but...  it was worth it.  It was worth it to see you smile.
I'm just sorry that I didn't tell you the truth before.  I never wanted to
hurt you."

Satisfied that the immediate danger was past, Ukyou took the kettle back
into the kitchen to get more hot water.  Nodoka watched in horrified
fascination as the transformation was repeated, and 'Ranko's' body
dissolved to become that of her son.  She reached out toward Ranma, but she
stopped short of touching him, as if she were afraid that he wasn't real
after all.

"So... It's all true..." she breathed.

Ranma flinched and looked at the floor.  "Yes... It's true.  I'm sorry,
Mother."

Shaking herself out of her daze, Nodoka took refuge in taking charge.  "No
matter.  The important thing is that you're back home, with me, where you
belong.  Thank you, Ukyou, for helping him... for bringing him back to me.
You are a good friend for my son to have."

Ukyou tensed, but said nothing.  Ranma started to look even more
uncomfortable.  He did not like the feel of this.  "Mother..."

"Tomorrow we'll go back to the dojo and collect the rest of your things,
*and*," Nodoka added darkly, "I'll deal with your father..."

"Mother... no."

"It will also give you the chance to make up with Akane...  I'm sure that
she's been worried sick about you..."

"Mother... listen..."

"...and then we'll all come back here and live together like a family
should.  It is my fault - I never should have let your father take you away
as I did..."

"Mother, Please!"

Nodoka ground to a halt, an expression of puzzled concern on her face.
"Yes, Ranma?  What is it?"

"Mother...  I'm not going back."

A leaden silence descended on the group as Nodoka stared at her son.  "I
beg your pardon?" she managed at last.

"I'm not going back to the dojo."

"Of course we're going back!  We must collect your father, and you must set
things right with your fiancee..."

"No, Mother, I can't do that."

"Son, I understand that you and Akane had a disagreement... Akane told me
that she'd had a fight with 'Ranko', but really, you can work it out."

"But, you *don't* understand.  It's not that simple anymore."  Ranma sighed
and stared at the tabletop.  "Yes, we had a fight.  It was a bad fight,
too.  But it was just the last in a long line of fights."  Ranma looked up
at his mother.  "We were always fighting - since the day we met."

"You're not being fair, son.  Akane is a sweet girl, and she loves you very
much.  What would make you doubt that?"

"Well, the words 'I hate you' were a subtle hint."  Ranma shook his head
sadly.  "Most of it is my fault, I guess.  It was raining on the day we
first arrived at the dojo, and naturally, everyone thought I was a girl.
Akane was so friendly... I imagine it was at least partly relief.  She
wasn't too keen on the idea of an arranged marriage either.  But when she
found out that I really *was* a boy, she was ... upset.  I don't think that
she's ever forgiven me for it."

Ranma sighed.  "Since then it's been a constant battle.  It seems that all
I can do is make her angry, and I don't want to do that anymore."

"But Ranma, I don't understand.  Tendou-san has told me about all the times
that you have fought for Akane... all of the times that you have gone to
her aid... how can you say that you have no feelings for her?"

"I'm not saying that.  I'm saying that I don't *love* her.  Not like that,
anyway.  Not anymore.  I'd like to think of her as a friend, but I don't
want to marry her, and she doesn't want to marry me."

"But, you really don't have a choice, son.  Akane is your fiancee, and your
marriage to her is a matter of family honour.  You must have faith that it
will work out in the end."

"Don't you think that I *know* that?" A note of anguish crept into Ranma's
voice.  "I wish it were really that easy, but it's not.  Besides that,
there are other... complications."

"'Complications'?  What do you mean, 'complications'?"

Ranma took a deep breath.  "Mother," he said, "I'd like to introduce you to
Kuonji Ukyou.  She's my fiancee."

There was a terrible, ghastly silence.

Nodoka blinked.  "Excuse me.  Could you repeat that please?  It almost
sounded like you said that Ukyou was your..."

"My fiancee.  Yes.  She is."

"Ahhh," said Nodoka intelligently.  After a moment's contemplation, she
said, "Ranma, you place me in a very... awkward position.  I have no wish
to be rude to Kuonji-san here, but surely you realize that such a marriage
is quite out of the question.  You are honour bound to marry a Tendou.  If
you and Akane cannot get along, Tendou-san has two other daughters.  You
will simply have to marry one of them."

"Mother, you're not listening to me."  Ranma held his teacup tightly, as if
he might draw warmth from it as he spoke.  "Nabiki... Nabiki doesn't want
me either.  All she ever saw in me was a way to make money.  Selling
pictures, blackmail, even renting me out to whoever could pay the price."
Ranma shuddered.  "You could force a marriage, I suppose, but frankly, I'd
be inclined to commit seppuku first."

The bitterness in Ranma's voice shocked Nodoka.  "Well, then it will have
to be Kasumi.  She would make a wonderful wife."

"You're right, she would," Ranma said, "but for someone else, not for me.
Mom, she already has someone that she likes - even if she hasn't yet worked
up the nerve to do anything about it."

"But she is a dutiful daughter.  She would certainly marry you if her
father asked it of her."

"That's true.  She would.  She wouldn't even hesitate."

"There.  You see!  There is a Tendou solution that will enable us to keep
our family's honour intact."

"No.  There isn't.  First of all, even if I wanted to, there's no way that
I can honourably break my engagement to Ucchan either.  But more to the
point, Kasumi has already given up her life for that family.  I'll not ask
her to give up anything more."

"But son, honour demands..."

"Demands that I destroy the happiness of someone that I care about?  Of
someone who was kind to me?  Does honour demand that I bring her pain and
loneliness as a reward for her kindness?  Is THAT what you are telling me?"

"Ranma!  I am your mother, and you will not speak to me in that fashion!
The matter is closed.  You will marry a Tendou, as was arranged by your
father.  You must understand that the promise he made takes precedence over
any preferences that you might have."

"Oh, I understand that perfectly!" Ranma shot back.  "No one *ever* asked
me what I thought about any of this!  The first I even *heard* of the
Tendou engagement was the day that Pop and I arrived at the dojo!"  Ranma
made an effort to calm himself before continuing.  "That's a part of the
problem!  Pop is also the one that promised that I would marry Ucchan here!"

There was another one of *those* silences.  Finally, "I beg your pardon?"

"Remember I told you earlier that there was no way that I could keep all of
the promises that had been made in my name?"

Nodoka nodded.

"Well, now you know why!  Just how many women do you think that I can marry?"

"Are you trying to tell me, Ranma, that your father has engaged you to
*two* girls?"

"No, I'm not..." Ranma began.

"But you just said..."

"...by my count, there have been six, to date."

"Seven," supplied Ukyou helpfully.

"Seven?" asked Ranma.  "Are you sure?"

"SEVEN?!" squawked Nodoka.

Ukyou nodded her head.  "Yup.  Seven."

"Let's see," Ranma started counting off on his fingers, "There's Akane, and
there was Kaori, and then there's you, and there was that Mano girl..."

"Wasn't she the one with the really strange grandmother?"

"Yeah, that's the one all right... she *was* weird.  Lessee, after Yohko,
there was Tomoko, and finally Biiko.  Nope.  That's just six."

"You're forgetting, Ran-chan, there was that ditzy blonde girl with the
buns and the really long pigtails."

"Oh, right... I remember now.  You're right.  It was seven."

"Seven!" said Nodoka again.  "Your father has engaged you to *seven* girls?"

"Well," Ranma said miserably, "those are the ones that I know about.  Pop
never told me about any of 'em until they showed up looking to collect.
There may be more that just haven't caught up with us yet - I don't know
for sure."

"Is this some kind of joke?  I assure you, son, that it is *not* funny."

Ranma spread his arms in a gesture of surrender.  "Do I *look* like I'm
laughing?  No matter *what* I do, I'm lost.  No matter who I end up
marrying, I have to break promises to do it.  What would you have had me
do?"

"Then you must keep the arrangement with the most valid claim.  Your father
had promised you to Tendou-san even before you were born.  That grants the
Tendou claim seniority."

Ranma just looked tired.  "Does it?" he asked.  "And what did Pop and
Tendou-san do to seal the arrangement?"

"It was a verbal pledge, and as such, is quite binding.  Why do you ask?"

"Well, you see, when Kuonji-san arranged with Pop to engage me to Ukyou, he
put up his yattai as a dowry.  Pop took it, and me, but he abandoned Ukyou
here."

"He.  Did.  WHAT?!"  Nodoka turned toward Ukyou, her eyes blazing.  "Is
this true?"

Ukyou shuddered at the fury evident in Nodoka's expression, but she managed
to nod an affirmation.

"I see."  Turning back to Ranma, she said, "perhaps you better tell me this
story from the beginning."

"All of it, or just the highlights?  It's a long story..."

"All of it."

Ranma sighed and started his tale.  He hadn't been exaggerating, it *was* a
long story, made all the longer by Nodoka's frequent interruptions for
clarification or greater detail.  He told her everything - from his
earliest memories to the time he had spent with Ucchan in Kansai, to the
fights with Ryouga, to the trip to China and the resultant complications,
to their arrival at the Tendou's and all of the strange things that had
happened since.  He held nothing back, answering all of her questions as
fully and honestly as he could.  Finally, several hours and six pots of tea
later, Ranma reached the end of his narrative.  A long silence followed.  A
very long silence.

Ranma started to sweat.  "Mother?"

Nodoka merely sat there, radiating an aura of quiet fury.  Her eyes were
dark, but still they seemed to glow with a primal fire.  "Son, I suggest
you take a bath before you catch your death of cold.  We will speak more of
this in the morning.  You may sleep in your old room."

>From the tone of her voice, Ranma could tell that it would be no use
arguing.  Wearily he got to his feet and picked up his pack.  Looking to
Ukyou, he got a hopeful smile.  Ranma just shook his head and shrugged.  He
had no idea what his mother was thinking, or how she was going to react.
And just now, he was far too tired to care.

*** O_o ***

After Ranma had left the room, Nodoka took a deep breath, and tried to calm
herself.  She was not entirely successful, but she managed to keep her tone
civil as she turned once more to Ukyou.  "Ukyou-san, may I request your
assistance with these things?"  She indicated the table where the remains
of tea and snacks were scattered.

Ukyou nodded politely, "Of course, Saotome-san."

The two gathered the dirty dishes onto trays and carried them back to the
kitchen sink.  After several moments of awkward silence, Nodoka again found
her voice, though she would not face Ukyou as she spoke.

"My husband and my son have caused you quite a bit of grief, and for that I
must apologize.  But surely you can see that he must marry Akane.  It is a
matter of honour for her family, and for ours."

Ukyou bristled.  "And what of MY family's honour?  My honour?  Do they mean
any less?"

Nodoka sagged, a defeated look entering her eyes.  "No.  Of course not.  It
was not my intent to impugn your honour.  But I must find a satisfactory
resolution for all of this.  That this situation has gone unchecked for so
long already is intolerable."

Calming herself, Ukyou replied.  "I know you didn't.  But what you are
asking... I've devoted ten years of my life to finding Ran-chan again - and
the last two to winning him back.  Now that my dream has finally come true,
you would ask me to throw it all away?"

"What else can I do?  I see my family breaking apart before my very eyes,
and there appears to be no way that I can stop it.  I have not seen my son
for over a dozen years, and now that he has finally come home, you will be
taking him away again."

"Ranma loves you very much.  You - and your approval - mean a lot to him;
otherwise, we would not have come."  Ukyou paused, gathering her courage.
"You already have cause not to like me, but there is something that I think
you deserve to know.  I was against our coming here."

Nodoka was taken aback.  "You were?  But why?"

"May I speak frankly?"

"Please do."

"Honour is very important to Ran-chan.  To be brutally honest, I don't know
how he managed it - his father was a less than stellar teacher in that
area.  Be that as it may, Ranma is one of the kindest, noblest people that
I know."

Staring at the tray of dirty teacups, Ukyou continued.  "Ranma came here to
tell you these things, fully expecting to die for them.  He expected that
you would hold him to that promise that he and his father made to you, all
those years ago.  He believed that you would consider his curse as evidence
of his failure."

"And you were afraid that I would hold him responsible for that..."

Ukyou nodded.  "I was.  I am.  I don't want to lose him again.  I lost him
once, over ten years ago, and it is an experience that I have no wish to
repeat.  He means too much to me."

"And yet you feared that he was not man enough to meet the terms of his
promise?"

Ukyou's voice had the sharp edge of anger held barely in check, and her
eyes flashed.  "No.  Even as a girl, Ranma is more of a 'man' than any
hundred others that I know.  YOU are the one that I don't know, and you are
the one that he has to convince."

"But, I'm his mother!  How could you believe that I might wish to see my
own son dead?"

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but... Genma is his father, and HE
believed it.  Ranma believed it.  The Tendous believed it.  I had no reason
to doubt it."

Nodoka's expression darkened, but she could not argue the point.  "My
husband has much to answer for, it seems.  He is the one who has truly
taken my son away from me."

Softening her tone a bit, Ukyou went on, "Ranma feels trapped by his
honour.  He wants very badly to be able to fulfill all his obligations, but
he can't do it.  He knows he can't, and the knowledge is tearing him
apart."  Ukyou's voice grew hoarse and she wrung a dishtowel nervously.  "I
think... I'm afraid that, maybe, deep down, a part of him *wanted* to die.
More than anything, Ranma hates to lose, and with all of the promises that
bind him, there is no way he can win."

"But, when Ranma almost killed her... himself here tonight, you made no
move to stop him...  Why not?"

"I promised him that I wouldn't interfere.  It was the harshest vow that
I've ever made."  Ukyou's reply was little more than a whisper.  She looked
back up at the elder Saotome.  "But you were the only one who *could* have
stopped him.  It's your forgiveness, your understanding and support that he
needs - not mine."

Turning on the tap, Nodoka filled one of the basins with hot water and
soap.  She stared at the steaming basin, trying to assimilate the new
significance that the water's heat held for her.  Finally, she began
washing the teacups and plates, passing them to Ukyou to be dried.

"I must apologize, Ukyou-san.  This is... a difficult situation.  Please
try to understand.  Over the course of my visits to the Tendou Dojo, I have
become quite attached to Akane-chan.  I have come to love her as I might my
own daughter.  Now I find that Ranma doubts her love for him, and it pains
me to think that she might not become a part of my family after all."

Ukyou nodded thoughtfully.  "I do understand.  I can not honestly claim
that Akane was a friend - there was too much between us for that - but
under other circumstances, we might have easily become friends."

The Saotome matriarch almost smiled.  "I'm glad to hear that."  Nodoka
turned back to the dishes she was washing.  "Ranma does not believe that
Akane loves him."  It was not a question.

"No.  He doesn't."

"Do you?  Do you think that Akane loves my son?"

Ukyou had been dreading just that question.  She was pretty sure that Akane
did love Ranma, but... "I don't know," she said at last.  "She's never
acted like it - she would certainly never have admitted it to me if she
did."  Ukyou turned to face Nodoka, her expression a mask of anger.  "If
she doesn't, then she's a bigger fool than I think she is."

Startled by the young girl's vehemence, Nodoka asked, "And Ranma... does he
love Akane?"

"No."  A pause.  "He did once, I think.  But not anymore."

"What happened?"

"She never trusted him.  In his own way, Ranma tried everything that he
could, but it never worked.  When something went wrong, she was sure that
it was Ranma's fault, whether it was or not."

Ukyou reached for the next teacup.  "Some things *were* his fault.
Ran-chan isn't perfect - growing up on the road didn't prepare him for the
sort of social sparring that normal people engage in every day.  Ranma
tends to say what's on his mind, with little thought for how others might
take it.  He's getting better, after living with the Tendous, but he'll
never be a diplomat.

"Akane, on the other hand, was always angry.  Ranma gave her an easy target
for that anger.  Since he wouldn't fight her, at least not physically, and
there was no way that she could hurt him, he was safe for her to vent on."

Having run out of teacups to be dried, Ukyou started polishing the counter
top.  "Except that she *was* hurting him - sticking a knife in his heart
where he was the weakest.  Over time... the constant bickering... the
name-calling... the fighting... they wore him down.  Akane told Ranma that
she hated him so often that he started to believe it.  The fact that she
never *meant* it didn't matter anymore."

"You seem to know a lot about it."

"Ran-chan and I talked a lot when he was upset."  Ukyou shrugged.
"Sometimes I think that maybe I was the only one that would *listen* to
him."

Nodoka thought about that for a while.  Finally, she asked softly, "If
Akane were to tell him that she loved him then, would you release him?
Would you give him back to her?"

"No.  Akane's had her chance and she blew it."  Ukyou sighed heavily.  "If
he had wanted to go, *really* wanted to go, then I would not have stood in
his way.  But," she continued in a determined tone of voice, "you should
know that even then, I would have fought for him; that I would have done
everything in my power to make sure that he chose me."

"I see."  Nodoka turned to study the girl before her.  Ukyou was obviously
nervous, but she showed no signs of backing down.  "Your loyalty does you
credit - I wish that I could find it in myself to be happier that my son
has found such a partner."

Taking the dishtowel from Ukyou, Nodoka draped it over a bar on the wall.
Turning back to the girl she forced her expression into what she hoped was
a friendly smile.  "It is very late, and I must... meditate on what you
have told me.  Come.  Ranma should be in bed by now.  I'll show you where
to find the bath and the guest room.  You must be exhausted."

"Thank you, I am."

*** z_z ***

The next morning came all too early for Ranma, despite the fact that he had
slept late.  The night had been a long and uncomfortable one, with real
sleep not coming until almost with the dawn.  He yawned and stretched,
rubbing at the dark circles that had formed under his eyes.  Sitting up, he
stared blearily around the room.  Fragments of memories, hazy with age,
drifted through his mind's eye.  He could *almost* remember... the chest in
the corner, the quilt draped over the sill of the window... but in the end
the memories were too old, too far gone for him to take much comfort from
them.  It had just been too long.

Slowly, Ranma got up and gathered his things.  He padded down to the
bathroom once more to brush his teeth and wash the sleep from his eyes,
then returned to his room to dress and get his pack ready for travel again.
When he had finished, he carried it into the living room, and set it on the
floor.

There was no sign of his mother, and he guessed that Ukyou was still
asleep, so he sat, staring out the window into the late morning, going over
the events of the previous night in his mind.  To say that it had been a
rough night would be to grossly understate the issue.  There had been
several times that he had not been sure that he would still be alive to see
this morning, and at least one where he had been sure that he would not.
But his mother had, so far, not demanded his death - she had, in fact,
actively restrained him from giving it to her.  He hoped that it was a good
sign.

He remembered the expression that she had worn when she'd told him to go to
bed and shuddered.  He'd never seen someone look so... controlled before.
He could almost feel the tempest of emotion that had raged beneath that
calm surface, so great was its intensity.  But no trace of that turmoil had
reached his mother's face.  Only the dark flashing in her eyes had betrayed
her.

Maybe Ukyou had been right.  Maybe this was all a big mistake.  But
whatever happened, Ranma was glad at least that there would be no more
lies.  Of all the things that his father had asked him to do, lying to his
mother had been the hardest.  And now, for good or ill, it was over.

He was still brooding about it, wallowing in the silence, when he heard the
guest room door slide open, followed by Ukyou padding down the hall towards
the bathroom.  A few moments later, he heard her return to the guest room,
and the door slid closed again.  Try as he might, Ranma could hear no other
sounds of activity in the house.  There was only the gentle rustle of the
wind against the walls, and the occasional creak as the timbers in the
house shifted minutely.

A few minutes later Ukyou came into the living room, set her pack down next
to his, and plopped down beside him with a sigh.  She didn't look like she
had slept very well either.  She flashed him a tired smile.  "Good morning,
Ran-chan."

"Is it morning?" asked Ranma.  "I thought that it was after noon."

Ukyou looked at her watch.  "You're right.  It is."  She looked back to
him, studying his face.  "You look like hell," she said diplomatically.

"Didn't sleep too good," Ranma agreed, stifling a yawn.  "I *feel* like hell."

"So where's your Mom?"

Ranma shrugged.  "Dunno.  I haven't seen a trace of her since I went to bed
last night.  I thought I heard her a few times, but I figured it was a
dream or something."

The two settled down in silence to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  One o'clock
came and went, and still there was no sign of his mother.  Ranma got up and
started to pace.  He hated waiting - he had never been good at it.  Like a
caged tiger, he prowled the confines of the living room, trying to shed his
nervous energy without appearing to be impatient.  It wasn't working.

By the time three o'clock was approaching, Ranma was ready to go crazy.
>From her seat by the table, Ukyou finally took pity on him and asked,
"So... you think we should go look for her or something?"

"I dunno.  Do you think we oughtta?"

"Well, it is almost three.  I guess it couldn't hurt..."

"Good," Ranma almost grinned.  Holding a hand out to Ukyou he helped her to
her feet, and the two of them set out to find the missing Saotome.

*** O_o ***

Behind the Saotome home there was a dojo.  Not so large or elaborate as the
Tendou dojo, it was still finely crafted, and had been well cared for.
This was not a teaching dojo, but something far more personal.  It was here
that Ranma and Ukyou finally located Saotome Nodoka.

The cone of silence that surrounded the little structure was all but
tangible.  Ranma got there first, but stopped just inside the doorway,
gazing into the hall, a shocked expression on his face.  Ukyou almost ran
into him.  She started to ask him why he had stopped when she looked in and
the question died unasked.

Bits of cotton batting and straw littered the floor.  At one end of the
hall, a post held the tattered remains of a training dummy that had been so
savagely slashed that it was all but unrecognizable.  There were two more
husks just like it in the corner.  Nodoka, dressed in a white robe, with a
strip of white cloth tied around her head, was sitting, stiffly erect, in
the center of the dojo, facing the kamidana.  The candles on either side of
the little wall mounted altar were lit, and there was incense burning.

Hesitantly, Ranma came further into the dojo.  If his mother heard him, she
gave no sign.  She just sat immobile, staring into space.  To look at the
dark circles under her eyes it was pretty obvious that she had not slept at
all.  A tightness grew in Ranma's chest as he noticed the teartracks that
also stained her face.  "Mother?"

Nodoka said nothing, merely shuddered as another silent sob shook her.

Concerned, Ranma put a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder.  "Mother?"

"DON'T call me that!" Nodoka hissed as she pulled away from her son's
touch.  Getting slowly to her feet, she turned to face the boy, an
expression of raw fury on her face.  "Do you not understand what your
father has done?  How thoroughly he has disgraced the Saotome name?"

Ranma stepped back, surprised and hurt.  He had not known what kind of
reaction to expect, but he was fairly sure that this wasn't it.  All he
could do was stand and gape.

"And you seem determined to follow in his footsteps!  You have an
obligation, a debt of honour, to your family and to the Tendou clan, and
one which you tell me that you have no intention of fulfilling.  You have
allowed other, more... persistent entanglements to interfere with your
judgment.  More is at stake here than just your future, you know.  You
carry on your shoulders the future of the school - the future of the Art!
That is not a responsibility that you can discard lightly!"

Making a visible effort to calm herself, Nodoka went on.  "You have left me
at a loss, Ranma.  I cannot accept your solution to these problems.  I
cannot support your decision to marry Kuonji-san, and yet, try as I might,
neither can I condemn it.  It saddens me that you and Akane-chan could not
work out your differences.  I cannot help but feel it might have been
otherwise had you really tried."

Ranma just looked sad.  "We did try.  Akane tried.  I tried.  But by the
time either of us decided that we didn't really want to hurt the other...
it was too late.  We just couldn't stop.  I'd do or say something stupid,
and she'd get mad.  Every time, I'd end up doing something wrong.  I'd make
her angrier, and she'd hit me, or tell me that she didn't want anything to
do with a pervert like me."

"Did it never occur to you that she might not have meant it that way?  That
it might just have been her anger speaking?  That, perhaps, she would have
spoken more kindly after having a chance for that anger to pass?"

"It did.  But it was taking longer and longer for that to happen.  With
every fight - with every new complication that popped up, she'd get mad a
little faster, stay mad a little longer.  I couldn't even blame her for it!
I didn't want to see the day when she never got over it."

"And yet, she lied for you!  She lied to protect you every time I came to
the dojo!"

"That's true.  She did.  She even stopped me from telling you who I was,
because Pop had convinced her that you would kill me."

"And you believed it too!  How could you *believe* that I would be capable
of demanding the death of my own son?  Did I seem to be so terrible as
that?"

"It was," said Ranma stiffly, "a matter of honour."

"You lied to me... for almost two years.  Every time I would visit, you
allowed me to believe that you were someone else.  How is that a matter of
honour?"

"I tried to tell you..."

"But you didn't try hard enough.  And what of the Tendous?  How will you
make up for the dishonour that you have done them, and their family?  You
cannot unilaterally break the engagement that your father arranged - not
honourably."

"And I *can* unilaterally break the engagement to Ucchan?  Is that what
you're saying?  Pop arranged that!  What about the engagement to Kaori?  or
Yohko?  Tomoko?  Usagi?  Biiko?  Pop arranged ALL of them!"

"It was always your father's intention that you should marry a Tendou!
That the schools should be united!  It was his lifelong dream!"

"Enough!  I told you that there was no way that I could fulfill all of my
obligations...  I didn't ask for this situation, but one way or another I'm
damned well gonna end it."

"Ranma!"  Nodoka was outraged.

Ranma's voice dropped low, became intense  "There *is* a way, you know - to
save face - to restore honour.  I offered it to you once.  I will ask you
once more, will you serve as my Kaishaku?"

Ranma did not think that it was possible for Nodoka to look any unhappier,
but she managed it.  Shaking her head, she cried,  "NO!  You know that I
cannot do that.  That is NOT an option!  I will not condone it!"

"Then you leave me no way out."  Ranma spread his arms helplessly.

"Ranma, you are asking me to either stand aside and watch as my family -
watch as all that I hold dear - is torn apart, or else kill my only child!
What kind of choice is that?!"

"Don't you understand?  I'm trying NOT to tear our family apart - I'm
trying to put it back together!  Until you first visited the dojo, I didn't
even know that I still *had* a mother!  I came here because I wanted to
know you as my mother, not as 'Auntie Saotome'.  What else would you have
me do?"

"You can go back to the dojo with me!  You can apologize to Tendou-san and
to Akane.  We can still fix this!  We can still make it work!"  Nodoka was
sobbing openly.  "Please, Ranma.  If you love me - if you respect your
Mother, you will do this!"

Ranma stared at his mother, longing to be able to give her what she wanted,
to do as she asked - but it was impossible.  She was wrong; it would never
work the way she wanted it to.  Couldn't she *see* that?  "I'm sorry,
Mother," he whispered.  "I can't do that.  You know... you *have* to know
that I can't."

"Why not?  WHY?!"

"Because I don't love her, Mother.  And she doesn't want me.  She never has."

"You cannot really believe that, son!  Akane *does* love you!  I know that
she does!  You know it too, deep down!  Admit it!  Before it's too late!"

"I know no such thing!" snarled Ranma.  "What I know is that Akane spends a
lot of time angry with me - that I make her unhappy.  It's not something
I'm proud of;  it's not something I ever wanted to do, but I can't seem to
avoid it!  And I know that I don't want to hurt her anymore.  Or anyone
else."

"But you ARE hurting her, Ranma... and you're hurting ME!  You're hurting
your family!  Don't you care about that?  Can't you see that what you're
doing is wrong?"

"But Mother!  You're asking me to ruin her life - to ruin mine - to ruin
Ucchan's - how is that any better?  How will that fix anything?"

Nodoka tried another tack.  "You said that Ukyou was your friend!  Your
childhood friend!  Surely she can be made to understand why she must
relinquish her claim!  If she loves you; if she is really your friend, then
she will do it."

Ukyou started to say something at that, but Ranma beat her to it.  "Yes,
Ukyou is my friend!  That's why I chose her!  As badly as Pop and I have
treated her, she's been there for me!  She's been a friend when I really
needed one - when no one else wanted to be!  Is it so surprising that I
might want to have that in my life?"

"You make her sound like some sort of saint," said Nodoka bitterly.

"Saint?"  Ranma looked perplexed.  "No, she's no saint.  But she is the
first of my fiancees that wanted me, and was willing to trust me.  We may
squabble, but she'll at least tell me what she's feeling!"

"So you will not leave her?  You will not go back to Akane?"

"No!"  Ranma clenched his fists in frustration.  "I left her once, Mother.
I am NOT going to make that mistake again."

"Ranma... you break your mother's heart..."

"Mother... I'm sorry..."

Nodoka gave full vent to her pain, lashing out at her son as thirteen years
of bitter loneliness burst forth.  "Then go!  Just GO!  Leave me!  If you
won't do what you know is right, then it is up to me to think of a way to
restore our family's honour!"

Ranma stood for a moment, gaping at his mother.  Shock, horror and pain
fought for control of his expression, and he seemed to be having trouble
breathing.  Finally, a shudder passed through him, and he hung his head.
When he looked back up at his mother's face, the pain and the sorrow were
still there, but there was something else as well - resignation, perhaps.
It was all Ranma could do to keep his voice from breaking as he told her,
"I...  I understand."

Slowly, Ranma turned and left the dojo, walking toward the main house.  He
did not look back.  Ukyou stood, her gaze moving back and forth between
mother and son, a stunned expression frozen on her face.  She watched Ranma
enter the house, then turned once more to his mother.  Favouring her with a
withering look, the young okonomiyaki cook ran after her fianc�, leaving
Nodoka standing by herself amidst the debris.

*** o_O ***

By the time Nodoka had calmed down and returned to the house, Ranma and
Ukyou were nowhere to be found.  Nodoka searched the house, but somehow she
knew what she would find.  It was empty.  She walked sadly into the living
room.  They could not have been gone for long, perhaps no more than a few
minutes.  It might as well have been hours.

A chill passed through her as a sense of emptiness settled over the house,
and over her heart.  Ranma had been there for the first time in over twelve
years, and then for less than thirty hours.  Now, even so shortly after his
departure, the house felt wrong.  Incomplete.  Empty.

Nodoka began to wish that she had dealt with Ranma more calmly, more
rationally.  She had let her pain, and her loneliness get the better of
her, and she had said a lot of things that she didn't really mean.  She
knew that she had hurt her son; she had seen it in his eyes.  She should
have chosen her words with more care.  A sinking feeling gnawed at the pit
of her stomach, a feeling which grew in intensity as she noticed several
items that had been left on the table.  Trembling, she bent down to
investigate.

The first was a note - the handwriting was Ranma's, though how she knew
that she couldn't say.  It was short, just two lines long, asking for her
understanding, if not her forgiveness, and that she deliver the
accompanying letters, if she got the chance.  Nodoka looked, and sure
enough, there were two letters sitting on the table where the note had
been.  One, a thick one, was addressed to Tendou Akane.  The other, little
more than a note itself from the feel, was addressed to her sister Nabiki.

The last item on the table made Nodoka's blood run cold.  There, tied once
more in its silk wrappings, lay Ranma's tanto.  A snippet of the previous
day's conversation replayed in her mind.  At the time it had been said in
such a soft voice, but now it was loud as thunder in her ears.  "...the
second possibility is that you will hear what I have to say, and you will
reject it... and me.  I will leave this here.  I will renounce my family,
and I will never darken your door again..."

Her own words from the dojo followed, the way an avalanche follows a skier.
"Go!  Just GO!  Leave Me!"

And then, the expression of pain and sorrow that had crossed her son's face
as he had uttered those fateful words... "I understand."  Then he had left,
just as she had asked.

She looked back at the note, now crumpled in her fist.  It hadn't been
written to 'Mother' but to 'Saotome-san'.  "...I will renounce my
family..."  Saotome Nodoka sank to her knees with an anguished sob as she
realised that Ranma... that her son... was gone.

*** O_o ***

Happousai was not a happy man.  As was the rule, when Happousai was not
happy, no one else could be allowed happiness either, least of all his two
cowering students, Genma and Soun.

"What have you two fools done *this* time?" snarled the ancient pervert.
"I come back from a short visit to China, and what do I find has happened
in my absence?  I find that the two of you have chased off almost every
female martial artist in the area!"

"We're sorry, Master..." Genma was groveling.  He'd gone for the pond when
Happousai had first showed up, but the old man wouldn't allow it.  Soun,
meanwhile, was sobbing in true Tendou fashion, wailing incoherently about
his beloved daughter and the future of the school.

Favouring the pair with a heated glare, Happousai tapped his pipe into the
palm of his hand menacingly.  "I get back, and where is my star pupil?
She... I mean he, has run off, with that cute okonomiyaki cook no less.
THEN I find that dear sweet Akane has taken off in pursuit, with no one to
defend her.  The Chinese cutey's gone after him as well, AND the crazy one
with the flower fetish.  DON'T YOU SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" he roared.

"They're all GONE!  All the pretty ladies!  And, it's YOUR fault!  Just
what is it that you plan to do about this mess, eh?  How do you plan to
atone for this?!"

Genma was almost speechless in fear.  "Don't worry, Master," he babbled,
"Akane will find Ranma, and she'll bring him back.  And everything will be
all right again, you'll see!"

"Maybe she will," Happousai snarled, "but even if she *does*, what am I
supposed to do in the meantime?  Panty raids are no fun if there's no
challenge, and with Ranma and all the women who can fight gone, where is
the fun?"

The old man began to pace.  "No, no... this just won't do."  He stopped to
glare again at the two cringing figures.  "Get your things packed, boys,
we're going on the road again."

"Master, No!" gasped Genma.

"Are you defying me?"  Happousai's tone was low and dangerous.

"But Master," wailed Soun, "If we go, who will look after the dojo?  Who
will protect my darling girls?"

"Who cares?" stormed the pervert.  "You two are a disgrace, d'you know
that?  What is to become of the school if *you* are the best that it can
produce?  You've let the future of the Art slip through your fingers!  And
you let him run off with a weapons user by all the gods!  What were you
*thinking*!"

Stomping off toward his room, Happousai tossed back, "You two clowns have
three hours to get packed.  Be ready, or you *will* regret it."

A strained silence of a sort descended on the Tendou living room, broken
only by Soun's bawling and gnashing of teeth.  In the background, a phone
rang.  This was ridiculous, thought Genma.  How had all of this happened?
What had he done to deserve such misfortune?  He shook his head.  Life on
the road with the master was a harsh life indeed, given the Master's...
appetites.  What were he and Tendou going to do?

"Saotome!  What are we going to do?" wailed Soun.

"I don't know, Tendou.  I don't know."

Nabiki walked into the room, and favoured the pair with a bored look.  "We
just got a call from Auntie Saotome."

Genma's head snapped up and he stared at Nabiki.  "What... what..." he
stammered.

"What did she say?" asked Nabiki sweetly.  "Nothing much.  Except that
she'll be here in a few hours, and that she was particularly eager to talk
to you, Uncle."

Genma paled.

"Oh... and she sounded VERY upset," Nabiki said as she left the room.  "I
don't know what it was all about, but I think it's safe to say that she is
*pissed*."

"Tendou-kun?"

"You have a plan, Saotome-kun?"

"You heard the Master.  Let's get packed.  NOW."

*** o_O ***

That night the couple checked into a hotel near the train station.  The
morning would see the start of their journey out of Tokyo.  Ranma had
wanted to find less expensive accommodations, but Ukyou insisted, and Ranma
was far too tired and emotionally drained to argue the point.

When they got to their room, Ranma dropped his pack in the closet, and
headed for the bathroom.  A few moments later, a damp and disheveled
Ranma-chan walked back out and collapsed into one of the beds, burying
herself deep in the covers.

Ranma-chan curled into a tight ball, and Ukyou could hear the sobs that
tore themselves from the red-head's throat despite obvious efforts to quell
them.  Ukyou moved toward the bed, intending to comfort her fianc�.  She
sat down and put her arms around her as best she could.  "It's okay,
Ran-chan.  Let it go.  Let it all out."

Ukyou was a bit startled when the figure she was holding stiffened and
pulled away from her.  "No, it is NOT okay..." Ranma-chan said with a
snarl, "Guys do not cry, dammit!  Guys do NOT cry!"

"Everyone cries if they're hurting bad enough," said Ukyou.  "There's no
shame in crying, even for a guy."

"What do you know?" snapped the red-head.  "YOU can go back any time you
want to, and your Dad will be glad to see you..."

Ukyou stepped back, a pained look in her eyes.  "And you think that means
that I can't understand?  Should I stop *trying* to understand just because
my scars are different from yours?"  She turned away and closed her eyes,
not even trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.  "Do you really believe
that I'll think any less of you because you can cry?"

A plaintive, almost strangled sound made Ukyou look back at her companion.
Ranma-chan was huddled in the middle of the bed, her knees drawn up against
her chest.  Tremors shook her as she fought to contain her anguish; another
fight that she was losing.  She looked up at Ukyou, her expression full of
lonliness and despair.  "Ucchan?" she said in a very small voice.  "I'm
sorry..."

"Oh, Ranma..."  Ukyou sat down next to her again and drew her into a tight
hug.  This time there was no resistance.  Ranma-chan collapsed into the
embrace, burying her face in Ukyou's shoulder, letting the tears flow
freely as she finally allowed herself the 'weakness' of crying.

Ukyou just held her, listening to her muffled sobs and making small
comforting sounds.  This release was just what Ranma-chan needed.  After a
time, the shaking stopped, her breathing slowed, turning deep and even, and
she became a dead weight in Ukyou's arms.

Freeing herself gently from her sleeping fianc�'s grasp, Ukyou tucked her
into the bed, and pulled the blankets up over her.  Gazing down at the
snoring red-head she smiled sadly.  Ranma-chan looked more at peace than
she had in days.  That had to be a good sign.

Making her way to the other bed, Ukyou fell wearily into it.  It had been
such a very long day.  She turned out the light and lay for a time, staring
up into the darkness, thinking.  The worst was over, at least she hoped
that it was, and they had made it through.  The road ahead was still not a
smooth one, but it was wide open.  It took a while, but sleep finally came.

*** O_o ***

The next morning, Ukyou awoke and looked over to find Ranma-chan lying on
her back, staring up at the ceiling.  It looked as though she had been
crying again; her face was tear-stained, and her eyes were red and puffy.
But she was calmer now - a little more of her usual determination showing
through.

"Ran-chan?" she asked.  "Are you okay?"

"No."  For a long time, Ranma-chan said nothing more.  When she did speak
again, it was barely more than a whisper.  "You were right, Ucchan.  It was
a mistake.  It would have been kinder to have left her with her illusions."
There was a pause.  "And me with mine."

Ukyou sighed.  "Oh, Ranma... you know better than that.  You did the right
thing.  It may not feel like it right now, but you know that you did."

"How can you say that?  The 'right' thing would have been for me to have
kept my original promise... for me to have committed seppuku.  It was the
only truly honourable solution."

"Ranma, if I thought you really believed that, I'd smack you silly."

Ranma-chan's response was dry.  "And what makes you think that I don't?"
she asked.

"I know that it would have been the easy way out," Ukyou snorted.  "I know
that if you had really believed that you deserved to die for the mess that
you're in, your mother would not have been able to stop you the other
night.  And above all I know that you're not a quitter."

"Even I get tired of fighting losing battles, Ucchan," said the red-head
wearily.  "And I seem to be losing so *many* of them lately."

"Thanks a lot," sniffed Ukyou.

Ranma-chan closed her eyes and groaned.  "You *know* that's not what I meant."

"Yeah, I do.  But I also know that it's not like you to spend so much time
feeling sorry for yourself.  What is it that you're always telling me?  'A
Saotome never *ever* quits?'"

The red-head heaved a deep sigh.  "But I'm not a Saotome anymore, am I?"

Ukyou wondered just how hard it would really be to kick herself.  "I'm
sorry, Ran-chan.  I know that this is hard for you.  I just hate to see you
so down.  It's... unnatural somehow."

"Oh, I'll be all right.  It's just that my home... my family... they're all
gone now.  There's nothing left."

"There's me," said Ukyou quietly.

"But Ucchan, I don't even have a *name* to give you anymore."

"What's in a name?" Ukyou shrugged.

"Whaddya *mean* 'what's in a name'?!  Tradition... the School..."

Ukyou smiled and began to recite, "What's in a name?  That which we call a
rose, by any other name would smell as sweet;  So Romeo would, were he not
Romeo call'd, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title.
Romeo, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee, take all
myself."

Ranma-chan looked at her fiance� in surprise.  Noting her expression, Ukyou
grinned sheepishly.  "It's from 'Romeo and Juliet'... for some reason, I've
always liked that play."

Ranma-chan nodded and was silent a moment, as she sorted out the meaning in
the quote.  "Thank you, Ucchan.  That... helps."  Images of the Kunou
siblings flashed through the red-head's mind, and she shuddered. "Please,
though," she said with feeling.  "Just don't even *mention* 'roses'.
Especially not black ones."

It took a minute for Ukyou to make the connection, and she giggled.
"Gomen, Ran-chan, Gomen!  It's just that I never wanted you for your name."
With a mischievous grin, she leaned over and whispered something in the
red-head's ear.

Ranma-chan's eyes grew wide as saucers, and she flushed a bright crimson.
"Um.  Yes.  Well, we'll talk about that later, ne?"

*** o_O ***

After a hot shower and a large breakfast, Ranma was feeling a lot better.
He was still subdued, but his natural optimism was beginning to come back
to the surface.  He and Ukyou got to the train station, and were trying to
decide where to go.

Studying the map at one of the kiosks, Ranma finally stabbed at a point on
the display and said, "How about here?"

Ukyou looked where he was pointing.  "Are you sure. Ran-chan?"

"Why not?  It'll be a chance to make a fresh start.  There'll be lots of
people around, and plenty of work for someone with my skills.  And I'd
imagine that you could make a killing with your okonomiyaki..."

Ukyou studied the map again and considered.  Ranma just might be right.
She grinned at the thought.  It was certainly as good an idea as any.
"You're on, Ran-chan.  Let's go!

*** O_O ***

TO BE CONTINUED

*** O_O ***

END EPISODE TWO

*** O_O ***

Author's Notes:

If you've gotten this far, Zen thanks you for taking the time to read this!
It is Zen's hope that episode three will be out a LOT faster than episode
two was.  Zen has no plans for any more dark epics along the lines of
"Bitter End", so they should not get in the way.

You'll note that this episode overlaps parts of the first episode - it
picks up with Ranma and Ukyou the day of their encounter with Ryouga, and
follows them until they get to see Ukyou's father.  It picks up with Akane
on the evening of the day she announces to her father her intention to
follow after Ranma.

What's in the future for Ranma and Ukyou?  Well, things will go wrong as
they always do... but you can be sure that these two will come out on top,
and that they will continue to grow close as their relationship develops.
Zen hopes to make upcoming episodes a little less angsty, and a lot more
warm and fuzzy.  At least for *some* of the characters.

A number of people have started following after them - and you'll be seeing
more of them from time to time as they complicate things for the happy
couple in future episodes.

Next in line, though, is an experimental fic... Zen's first true attempt at
a crossover.  It's well over half done, and is, in part, what held up this
episode.  Look for it soon, or else expect to read that Richard Lawson has
gone postal and started shooting fanfic writers. ^_-

As ever, comments and criticisms are welcome.  Zen has tried to weed out
most of the typos, but Zen is also certain that there are still plenty of
them in here.  The little buggers breed like crazy.

Again, Zen owes a lot to his pre-readers who were willing to take the time
to point out all the flaws in this story.  Some of them were even fixed.
Thanks to Nick Leifker, Sebastian Weinberg, Richard Lawson, Greg Sandborn,
Mike Loader, Travis Butler and Trisha Sebastian.  And if Zen has left
anyone off this list, please accept Zen's apologies and Zen's thanks.

Thanks to all of you for your patience, and your interest in seeing this
story continue.  Zen hopes that you will think that it was worth the wait,
and Zen'll try not to let you down. ^_^

As ever, comments, observations, large sums of cash, and anything related
to the Lovely Angels can be sent to:

Ayanami@mindspring.com

Zen no Itan-sha
January, 1998

Zen no Itan-sha
Apprentice to the Angels of the Apocalypse