Here is part 2. Have fun... MST's would be nice.

Mousse was repairing the damage he could at Ucchan's, and was working on
the Tea urn when there was a pounding on the door. "We're closed!"
        The pounding continued as he turned off the welding equipment
and
stowed it in his robes. "All right!"
        Mousse eventually opened the door, after first trying to open
the side
of the cooker. In fell a very upset Cologne. *Mousse! Shampoo needs
you!*
        *Pull the other one, O-baba. There is most likely a set of bells
on it.
(In actual fact, although Mousse didnt know it, there was. At the top of
his
left leg. An item he had stored in his robes long ago and forgotten
about.)
Shampoo would rather die than accept help from me.*
        Cologne adopted a pose of supplication. *Im afraid that that may
happen. A demon has taken her.*
        Mousse was a little shocked at this. He began to bluster and
splutter
in disbelief, and was swiftly clobbered by Cologne. *There seems to be
noone
else about. Kuno and his sister will be more strife than use, and we
will never
find Ryouga. Also, the Saotomes and Tendous are absent. I think that
means just
you now.*
        Mousse snapped his fingers. "Gosunkugi!"
        *Why do you wish to see that incompetent? Straw dolls will do
nothing!*
*He will know something about this creature. I am sure of it. However
pathetic he is, he is still a magus.* With that, he swept out of the
hall.
Cologne watched him go.
        *Dumb duck? I think not...* Then the events completely caught up
with
her.*Great-granddaughter... please forgive me.* With that she broke
down, and
started sobbing, disgusted and ashamed that she had caused this to
happen.
                                ******
        Hikaru Gosunkugi could be found where he always was; in the
library.
They actually paid him a small salary to work there. One person who very
rarely
was there was Mousse, but there he was, looking quite upset. "Ohayo,
Mousse.
What are you doing here?" was his first reaction, as loudly as he dared.
        "Gos, I need your help." Gos felt his spirits soar at those
words- this
was the first time anyone had really needed his help. "Shampoo has been
abducted
by a demon of some sort."
        "Ah. That _is_ bad news." Come with me. Mousse waited for the
shelf he
had been addressing to move away; Gos grabbed him by the arm and pulled
him to
a small room nearby. Then Gos pulled out a bunch of keys. Mousse
couldn't see
them clearly, but he got the impression that some of them were very
funny
shapes indeed. (Gos couldn't see them all clearly himself. They weren't
all in
this world. He only appeared to be incompetent, just like Kasumi
appeared to be
oblivious to everything but housework. In fact, Gos wasn't even properly
human,
anymore, but he didn't tell people that. There was also a much more
practical
reason for the straw dolls that he hammered up everywhere.)
        Gos strapped candles to his head again. Mousse sighed, and
reached into
his robes for a lighter or matches(or flint and tinder, or _anything_- a
bottle
of white phosphorous would do) when Gos clicked his fingers and
three-inch
flames exploded into being on top of the candles. The flames were a
disturbing
colour- blood red. By the light they gave off (which, surprisingly, was
a pale
blue, as all magical lights do) Mousse got an idea of the room he was
in. 
        It was lined with books. In one corner was what appeared to be a
small
shrine, surrounded by candles, with a small mirror in the middle. Mousse
thought he could see more than he should in the mirror. There was a
vicious-loking knife in front of the shrine. Braziers smouldered in
corners,
and marked on the floor was a pentagram, cut into the floor, and inlaid
with
gold. There were a few brown stains on the floor. Mousse declined to
think
about what they were. 
        "This is the book we want," said Gos, as he pulled a tome off a
shelf. 
It was a large volume, slightly foxed, and, Mousse guessed, pretty much
demoned.
Gos laid his hand on the cover (<Books cant writhe!> thought Mousse) and
muttered a few words. Then he pulled another key from the keyring, and
unlocked
the book. He flipped through the book (the book actually appeared to
flip
itself) hunting for the right page. "AH! Here we are. Have you anything
personal belonging to her? I can at least find her." Mousse coloured,
and pulled
out the scrap of cloth he had bitten off. "Perfect," grinned Gos, as he
took it.
Then he cut Mousses finger. "Hey!"
        "Look, this is essential." Gos started his incantation. After a
few
seconds, there was a small explosion in the air, which knocked them both
over.
A face, and not a particularly nice one, was hovering in the middle of
the
room. "Fools. She is mine. As are you."
        Gos, looking paler than normal, started barking words in a very
strange
language at the demon. Mousse couldn't see it, but the demon paled
before it
vanished. Mousse felt himself being lifted up. "Here's your glasses."
Mousse was
sure he'd heard them break, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in
the
mouth. "I managed to banish him. He won't do anything."
        "What about Shampoo?"
        "I'm sorry. I recognise him. Shampoo is probably dead by now, at
the very
least." Mousse began to shake, tears beginning to fall. "no..."
        "Run! The beast is east of here! You can have vengeance. Your
weapons
can defeat him- your chi is strong. Go! East to the mountains!" With
that
ringing in his ears, Mousse pulled himself together and flung open the
door.
"Thanks, Gos." Then he sprinted... straight into a broom cupboard.
Eventually he
found his way out of the room, and sprinted east. He was, after all,
endowed
with a better sense of direction than Ryouga.
For the next two days he ran. He didn't- couldn't- eat or sleep. He just
ran.
What was on his mind was far too important for him to stop for anything.

        Somewhat unsurprisingly, his body caught up with him, and he
slumped to
the ground, unable to continue any more.  He found a couple of toriyaki
sticks in
his robe, and slept for a few hours. As he slept, he dreamed. And what
was most
peculiar about this was that he dreamt of Gos. 
        Gos's face hung in front of him. "You should have slept before
now. If
you had, I could have told you this sooner. I can give you a small link
to Shampoo. Here." Gos faded. And Mousse found himself
somewhere else entirely. It was a large cave. He couldnt see properly,
as there
were things in front of his eyes. He knew he was off the ground. He was
also in
great pain. He found himself leaving his body, and floating. He had a
good look
round .
        The first thing he saw was Shampoo. She was stuck to the wall by
tendrils- long, obscene, fleshy tendrils that invaded every part of her
body.
They were going into her tear ducts, round her eyes, in her ears, under
her
fingernails, nose, mouth... everywhere. Mousse saw those that were
probing
under her skin, and realised that she was being absorbed. Not tortured,
or
killed, but absorbed. Slowly and painfully. But she could still scream.
And he
could hear those screams. Loud, heart-rending screams that had no
semblance of
intelligence in them, no semblance of communication. Just agonised,
animal
screams, continual until her mouth was filled or her nervous system shut
down,
whichever was sooner. And the thought sickened him. He turned, shielding
his
spiritual eyes from the sight, and saw a tunnel. He ran, and he thought
he
heard a coherent scream, begging for help. But he had no means of
helping her
like this. 
        Through the tunnel, he came to an opening. There he saw where he
was,
lit by a fire. He was literally less than two hours walk away from the
cave.
But, at the entrance, he saw a horde of what would have been pathetic
creatures, small, misshapen things, but obviously modified for combat.
Vicious,
bony spines, and long, serrated claws. Twisted parodies of nature. And
they
were lying around the entrance. Waiting for him.
        Here, he realised that he had a problem. Although he now knew
where
Shampoo was, he had no knowledge of how to get back to his body. He
looked back
at where he was. That was when he saw it. The silver cord. He had heard
of it,
but he had never seen one; he didnt even believe that it existed. But if
such
obscenities as what there was living in the cavern could exist, then he
had no
problems with this. He pullled on it. He wanted to get back to his body
so
much. 
        A strange sensation hit him. That of being pulled. He realised
that he
must be being reeled in by his body; he had no other explanation. But
then he
thought of one horrible possibility. The Demon could also be pulling him
back.
He had no way of knowing, and so let himself go.
        Twenty minutes later, he found that he was lucky. He was
inhabiting
himself with no actual problems. <What to do?> he thought, as he sat for
a
while. <I am outnumbered at least fifty to one. I _couldn't_ defeat them
on my
own, really... but I'll have to try. Best to just charge them.> 
        Fifteen minutes later, he was accelerating towards the entrance.
<They
are- were- about _there_!>  he thought, as he released a spray of
shuriken,
knives and explosives at the positions he had seen them at. There were a
lot of
screams and meaty explosions as he tore through, claws extended, and
ripping
those in his way. None gave him any trouble; he had never killed before
in his
life, but found that he just didn't care. He also realised he seemed to
be a
lot stronger than he thought. <Hah! Adrenalin works wonders,> he
thought, as he
ripped his way through the last few abominations.
        Inside the tunnel, he could hear more screams. He continued to
run,
increasing his speed. It was a testament to his endurance that he could
ignore
the pains in his chest and legs, from the damage caused by his
continuous
running. As he finally entered the cavern, the screams stopped. 
        At his first glance, his heart froze. Shampoo was hanging there,
limply. He then realised that she was still alive, but she was
unconscious, and
probably wouldn't last much longer. He immediately tried to cut her
down. Claws
and knives ruptured tendrils, and she began to sag away from the wall.
With no
small satisfaction, he saw that some of them were vacating her body.
        There was a sudden rush of air from behind him.  As he turned,
he heard
the demon's voice. *How dare you take what is rightfully mine!*
        *Rightfully yours?! You call abduction a righteous means of
possession?* as he said this he turned, and was vaguely surprised by the
apparent lack of imagination on the demon's part. It seemed to have
taken the
classic western form of red skin, cloven hooves, vicious ox-like horns,
tusks
and big wings. All in all, it was a fairly impressive sight, being about
twice
as tall as him, and sitting on an (incredibly tacky, to Mousse at least)
throne
of smouldering skulls.   
        *She was given to me.*
        Mousse couldn't believe this. *By whom?*
        The Demon chuckled. *Your mistress, I believe. Cologne.* With
that ,it
pointed at Mousse, and grinned.*Now, you are mine as well.* The Demons
finger
extended impossibly fast, and impaled Mousse through the right hand side
of the
chest. 
        Mousse was in agony. The spear of flesh that had impaled him was
an
inch thick, at least, and he felt that he ought to give up. But one
thing broke
through his dejection. Shampoo. Closely followed by Gos' words. <You can
defeat
it. Your Chi is strong.> Mousse raised his claws. He focussed on them,
made them
part of himself, made all his items part of himself. They began to glow
with a
pale fire. White fire. Bringing them up, he ripped through the Demon's
finger,
and threw himself back into the attack, simultaneously swearing
vengeance of
some sort upon Cologne. He closed in and let rip with a combination of
his two
favourite attacks- the Swan Fist and the Ostrich Leg kick., both
releasing
enormous chi blasts into the beast. 
        For the first time in its long life, the Demon was at a loss.
The Chi
the young man was using was coming from an almost bottomless well, and
there
was no way he seemed to be able to stop it. And the martial arts methods
Mousse
was using it had never seen before. It did, however, decide that the
Swan Fist
was nothing more than an insult <How DARE he hit me with a child's
potty!>.
Deciding enough was enough, he lashed out with his fists, only to lose
them to 
a katana Mousse pulled out of nowhere. This, too, was supercharged with
the 
white flames. 
        Mousse knew he was dying. Instead of its normal blur, his vision
was
almost totally gone. He was bleeding profusely from his chest, and he
was sure
he had a punctured lung- he couldn't breathe properly. A swift kick from
the
Demon tore a chunk out of his leg, and he did a similar action with his
claws.
Hedecided it was now futile to fight for his life, but Shampoo, still
alive,
was worth dying for. 
        The Demon saw an opening and took it.
        Mousse didn't see the Demons horns fly up towards his chin.
There were
just a few seconds of exquisite agony as the horn went through the soft
part of
his lower jaw, his tongue, and tore away through the side of his mouth.
Then he
ceased to feel. His body had given up, finally. He took hold if the
demons
face, and ripped the jaw away, showing the strength he didn't know he
had.
        His legs could no longer support him. He fell to his knees. 
        Shampoo was on the ground. The tendrils had left her as the
Demon
focussed its powers on Mousse. She was still in pain, but she was
recovering.
She could see Mousse was not going to last much longer. 
        Mousse finally tore out the Demons belly. Black ichor showered
him and
evaporated, as the Demon fell backwards, to all intents and purposes,
dead. He
could still see, a bit. He turned his head, and saw that Shampoo was
free.
        Shampoo was stunned. <*He would do all this... for me?*> She had
known
for years that he loved her, and that she had rejected him at every
turn, but
this was something she had never expected. She realised that she did
love him,
after all. Deeply. And now he was dying for her. She was used to the
thrill of
the chase when she went after Ranma, but she felt unfulfilled after
that. The
hollowness she felt at those times only seemed to go away when she was
chatting
idly with Mousse. She watched, and moved closer, as he turned to her.
        "Shggmpgh..." the damage to his face made his speech all but 
incomprehensible. "Ah... lahgh... yuh." Through a rising flood of tears,
she
saw him collapse. He was finally dead, in the pursuit of his dream,
which she
had turned into a nightmare for him.
        Shampoo scrambled over to him. Every move was agony, but she
managed
it. She knelt beside him. She raised his head, and cradled it on her
lap. *So
do I, you idiot.* she sobbed. *_So_do_I_!* The last was screamed to a
silent
room. She sat that way a long time, as his ruined lips turned blue, and
his
face and hair were drenched with tears. Her tears. She never thought
she'd cry
over him. She kissed him, once, on his cold lips. 
        Meanwhile, the universe had a problem. Due to an earthquake in
Siberia,
a plane crash in Belgium, and a massacre in America, it had to redirect
some of
the life force that would normally have dissipated naturally. It just
couldn't
cope. However, in the vicinity of the demon, there was a potential
storage
vessel.         
        A small arc of crackling energy crawled through the air over to
Mousse,
and stopped when it touched his head. 
        A problem. The vessel needed repairs. Due to a tiny error on the
part
of one of the minor kami who had been delegated the job of sorting out
this
mess, the universe neglected to realise that restoring a mutilated
corpse and 
filling it with life force would have the effect of resurrecting that
corpse.
It did it.
        Shampoo started, and got ready to fight the Demon, until she
realised that 
something more than an attack was being used. She watched the
scene in amazement as the horrific injuries healed before her eyes.
        First, the hole in Mousse's chest healed. Tissues and bone
flowed and
crept, layer by layer, vessels crawling into position like maggots.
Shampoo
hurriedly put that revolting simile out of her mind. Next, his leg
flowed back
into shape, the splintered bone oozing like hot wax, and yet more
tissues
flowing- and writhing- back into position. She noticed that all his
muscles
were becoming more defined- he would have more strength than ever now.
Now his
jaw slowly restored itself. Shampoo was thunderstruck by the rapid
healing. 
        The same kami noticed a small flaw in the receptacle being
prepared. A
tiny thing, easily corrected. It fixed that as well.
        Mousse's eyes rippled, a little like REM sleep. 
        As the kami transferred the last of the lifeforce, the overload
dissipated. It tried to put the lifeforce where it should be, but
couldn't. A
little icon flashed up, pointing out that lifeforce camnnot be drained
from a
living being. After a couple of seconds, the kami yelled the
supernatural
equivalent of "Bollocks!" as it contemplated the amount of paperwork
this would
cause- losing this much lifeforce was bound to screw up the system in
some way.
        Shampoo watched with no little quantity of awe as Mousse
regained his
colour, and started to breathe again. She started to cry again, but this
time
out of joy. She had him back.
Mousse woke as something hot and wet hit his face. As usual, everything
was a blur. He was also wondering why he was still alive. He took off
his
glasses to clean them, and gasped. Shampoo looked straight at him, happy
tears
in her eyes.
        "Shampoo... I can _see_!" This was a revelation for him, and was
surprised as she hugged him. 
        "Airen..." she murmured.
        Mousse was sure he'd misheard. "What?"
        "Airen." *You are worthy of the title, Mousse. Marry me. Forget
the 
laws. I love you, always have, and always will. I cant ignore it now.
Marry me.*
She stared into his eyes, her own brimming over, and saw the man she
knew she
loved. She would forget Ranma, and take pleasure in telling Cologne just
what
she thought of the laws concerning him now. She kissed Mousse, and let
him
carry her out, and back to Nerima.
        Gos smiled. he was pleased with the way things had worked out,
for two
reasons. Firstly, he had been of help. Secondly, a major rival to him
was out
of the picture. <Thanks, Cologne.>
                                ******
        Cologne was worried. She had not heard from Mousse in over a
week. She
had just about given up hope. 
        *Cologne! You stupid old ghoul, where are you?* That was Mousse,
and no
mistake. And ...he was carrying Shampoo! *Oh, thank Buddha...*
        *Don't give me that. I know what you did.* He kicked her into a
wall.
*You gave her to that abomination!* This was a snarl, very unlike
Mousse.
        *It was a mistake. I summoned it to deal with her problem, but
it left
after I said Great-grand-daughter.*
        Mousse softened a bit. *Well, it sort of worked. Im marrying
Shampoo.*
        *What?! What about the laws?!*
        *To hell with them.* This was from both of them. 
        *What happened to your glasses?*
        *Long story. Ill tell you in the morning. Right now...* he
looked at
Shampoo, who nodded, her arms wrapped around his neck. *We have things
to do.
We will see you in the morning.* With that, he swept upstairs, to his
room.
        A few hours later, after a particularly satisfying biological
act,
Mousse smoked the first cigarette of his life. Shampoo, snuggled up
against
him, enjoying the peace, wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Even dumber
duck."
       "I think I'm entitled. I saved you, was resurrected, and just
made love."
*Hrruck! Hrruck!* He coughed. "Okay, it's also my last." He stubbed it
out on
the weapons at the side of the bed, and lobbed the stub out the
skylight. 
        Cologne crept through the door. "Your breakfasts. I have
checked, and
rescuing her counts as beating her. It's tenuous, but it will hold."
        "Great," said Mousse. He thought for a second. "And as this was
all your
fault, you can pay for the wedding." 
        Cologne had no response to this, and crept out the door. Mousse
looked
at Shampoo. "Shall we get up?"
        "Let obaba struggle for a while. Get up late."
        "That's how all this started, I think..." The next couple of
hours were
filled with breakfast and catching up on lost time.
                                ******
Loyalty Rewarded- Epilogue.
A few days later, Mousse went over to Ucchan's with a bouquet. "Thanks."
        "Anytime."
        "We're getting married in a month."
        "So soon?"
        "Yeah... look, you ought to know. Ranma has decided to go
through with his engagement to Akane."
        "So now I have no chance. Thanks for warning me." Tears began to
fill
Ukyou's eyes. Mousse patted her on the arm.
        "Um... thanks again."
        "You were pretty good at kissing, at the end."
        "Really?  Thanks for the tuition."
        Ukyou blushed. "Thanks. Sorry, but I've got customers. You'd
better go."
        "See you. Call round anytime!"
        "See you." As Mousse left, he met Shampoo going the other way,
looking
for a bridesmaid. 


C&C sincerely solicited- cmharris@glam.ac.uk