Well, it's finally here, Lost and Forgotten chapter 9.

I'd like to thank all my pre-readers first off, the Reverend Jake, Short
Yes, and Octavian, for their comments on the pre-release version of this
chapter. Anyone interested in pre-reading following chapters just drop me a
line and we'll talk ok?  Also any possible C&C that you can think of about
this chapter is also very welcome.

I'd also like to thank Azatlan for putting all the previous parts of the
story up on his site.  They can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/~azatlan/Special-Series/lost-and-forgotten.html

So just go there if you have missed the previous parts or if you just feel
like reading it again since it's been a while between chapter 8 and 9.

Standard disclaimer: The characters and stories of Ranma 1/2 are Copyright
� Rumiko Takahashi, and are used here without permission or license. No
claims to the above copyright are made by the author of this work. This
work is for
non-commercial use ONLY, and is produced for the enjoyment of fans only.
This work is the expression of the author and the depiction of the Ranma 1/2
characters herein are in no way represented to be a part of Ranma 1/2 as
depicted by the original author and copyright holder(s).

Disclaimer disclaimer: The disclaimer you just read was borrowed from a
post to the list a while back, it seemed the most complete that I could see
so I stole it.  This disclaimer is to be used only for non-profit
activities :)

Additional notes:
Words in *X* are in English, Words in <X> are in Chinese and words in any
other type brackets are in some other foreign language that will most
likely be specified within the text of the story.

The suffix -chan denotes the cursed female form of the characters, other
suffixes will most likely be self explanatory.

And now, on with the show, stay tuned for a few more comments at the end of
this chapter.

------------------

Chapter 9- A busy afternoon

	On the night of his first full day in Nerima Jude found himself once more
sitting in the kitchen and writing a note to himself.  He had managed to
avoid walking into the koi pond tonight at least so he retained his
original form.  He pushed his glasses farther up on his nose and looked
over what he had written so far.
	"Hello Jude, boy did you have one helluva day.  This place is absolutely
nuts I tell ya, or I tell me?  Or we tell ourselves?  Whatever, the only
way these damned pronouns and verbs could get worse was if there was time
travel involved I think... Anyway, it started out semi-normal so I'll skip
over it and just go on to the complicated stuff.  Ryoga and I had decided
to wander around Nerima with a map and figure out where stuff was, or at
least, I could and he would just try not to get lost.  Anyway, we decided
to get some food at a little place called the Nekohanten.  This was a bad
idea in retrospect.  You may remember why but I'll tell you anyway, through
various completely accidental occurrences you managed to KO a Chinese
Amazon by the name of Shampoo, or Xian Pu I think her great-grandmother
called her...  Anyway, now because of some idiotic law you're engaged to
her.  Yep, engaged, don't worry though, she's one of Ranma's fiancees and
has no intention of going through with it.  Sure, she's quite good looking,
but marriage at this age with a life as screwy as ours?  I don't think so.
	"Just so you know Shampoo is the girl with as many curves as our other
self and purple hair, seems to not speak Japanese very well.  Other people
of note are Cologne and Mousse.  Yeah, you heard me, Shampoo, Cologne, and
Mousse.  It's a damned trio of toiletries from China or something, although
I guess Cologne and Mousse have slightly different names in Chinese like
Shampoo/Xian Pu.  Anyway, for Cologne imagine Yoda, then change his sex,
give him really long white hair, and then add a normal skin color.  Oh, and
she speaks normally too, Shampoo is the one that talks closer to Yoda then
Cologne.  This old bag is Shampoo's great-grandmother, apparently she's not
someone to get into a fight with either.  Mousse I didn't see much of, I
guess he's got long black hair and glasses quite a bit thicker then ours.
Oh and Shampoo turns into a cat and Mousse into a duck, Jusenkyo strikes
once again.
	"After I got engaged we left and wandered around a bit more, careful to
stay in Nerima, I led the way, not Ryoga.  We met Akane, Ranma, and Ukyo at
Furinkan because Ryoga wanted to see Akane.   Ukyo? You may ask, well,
she's yet another fiancee,  Ranma's, not mine, we have some small grasp on
normalcy still, I hope.  Seems her father and his engaged them when they
were 6 or so, Ranma's father ran off with her father's cart and ditched
Ukyo.  Long story there, anyway, she's got long brown hair, and carries a
really big spatula, that should be enough to recognize her if you forget.
We ate at Ukyo's restaurant, the Ucchan, and nothing that bad happened at
least.  (Another note on things to avoid, Akane's mallet, really big,
really hard, and quite painful, at least, well, as painful as most things
get after those damned boulders and Bakusai Tenketsu training.)"
	Jude flexed his fingers and took up the pencil once more, he had quite a
bit more to cover.  He brought his mind back to when they had left the Ucchan.

				***

	Ryoga glared up at Ranma walking along a fence.  He was starting to
remember why he had always attacked Ranma the minute he laid eyes on him.
He hadn't done so this time for a few reasons, when he showed up at the
Tendo's he didn't want to make them associate Jude with property damage
right away.  This afternoon at the school-ground he had held his desire to
attack Ranma in because Akane was there.  Now his patience was running low,
even if Akane was there his anger at Ranma was growing steadily.
	It still wasn't as bad as it had been when he would almost end up on a
dinner table once a week, but it was growing to that level.  The last few
weeks after revisiting Jusenkyo had been some of the least depressing times
he could remember for quite some time.
	Part of this was because he was coming to grips with the fact that he was
as cured as he was going to get for the time being.  But mainly it was he
had had someone to talk to in his travels.  Maybe the world wasn't quite
the cold and lonely place it had been.
	These thoughts were cut off as Ranma and Akane began to argue once more,
something about her cooking dinner tonight.  While Ryoga admitted to
himself that Akane's cooking was often quite bad he loved her too much to
ever say such a thing to her face, and even if he did, he wouldn't be
anywhere near as blunt as Ranma was about it.
	Jude had prudently moved out of the way, one blow to the head from Akane's
mallet seemed to be enough for him for the day.  As the insults began to
fly between the two Ryoga finally had enough.
	"RAAAAAAAAAANMAAAAAAA!" he shouted, "How dare you talk to Akane that way!"
 He charged toward Ranma with his umbrella.
	Ranma and Akane shared one brief glance of surprise and then Ranma had
jumped out of the way of Ryoga's charge.
	"What's a matter Ryoga?" Ranma asked as he dodged Ryoga's blows, "I was
just telling Akane that she would kill us all with her cooking, it's not
like I was lying or anything."
	"Shut up Ranma!" Ryoga cried as he nearly connected with Ranma's gut.
	Akane, who had watched all this in surprise for a few moments finally cut
in when Ranma insulted her cooking yet again, she had calmed down after
hitting Jude in the Ucchan but her anger was renewed as she saw him
fighting with Ryoga and still insulting her.  "Die Ranma!" she screamed,
and her mallet was out once more and on a collision course with Ranma's head.
	Ranma's head turned toward Akane as she yelled at him and the minute he
did he knew it was a mistake as Ryoga's umbrella jabbed him in the stomach.
 He oofed as the wind was knocked out of him and tried to dodge out of the
way of any more hits.  While doing so his attention was diverted enough
that Akane's mallet made solid contact with his body.  Soon Ranma was
flying through the air with the greatest of un-ease, an event all too
common when combining Akane and his lack of anything remotely resembling
thought before speech.
	Ryoga watched as Ranma sailed off into the horizon and relaxed, he would
have to continue the fight later.  Akane, now without her mallet, shaded
her eyes as she noted the angle of Ranma's flight, almost as if she was
comparing it to other such flights from the past.
	Jude, on the other hand, was not quite as calm as the two Nerima veterans.
 He blinked.  He blinked again.  He took off his glasses and wiped them
with his shirt and put them on again.  "Uh, excuse me," he said.
	Ryoga and Akane turned toward him with questioning looks upon their faces.
	"Did Ranma just, well, that is, did he, I mean, uh, you know, um, get
knocked into near orbit?"
	Akane nodded and replied somewhat sheepishly, "Well, I don't think he got
that far, he's only done that once or twice that I can recall."
	Jude nodded and filed this occurrence under "Things to just accept and not
over-analyze or you'll get a headache and go crazy," an area in his mind
that seemed to grow larger each day.  "Okay, will he get back today?" he
asked.
	"Yeah, he should show up in under an hour, I don't think he was knocked
quite as far as usual today," Akane replied.  Akane looked at her watch and
said, "Oh, we'd better get back, I'll need time to get everything cooked
before dinner tonight."
	With that said the three made their way back to the Tendo Dojo.

				***

	Thinking about what happened Jude flipped some pages of his journal to
find the "Things to just accept and not over-analyze or you'll get a
headache and go crazy," section of his journal.  He pencilled in "Mallet
aided human flight" and looked over some of his past entries such as "Where
does the mass go/come from in a Jusenkyo transformation?" and "How the hell
does Ryoga cross oceans without getting wet or even seeing the damned
things?"  Over the last few months he had come to the conclusion that the
laws of physics were merely general trends that governed most of what
happened but not all of it.
	He quickly paged back to his previous entry, to look too long upon the
pages of questions he didn't feel up to thinking about would eventually
lead to doing just that.  He thought back to what Akane had said to Ryoga
just as they had reached the Dojo.

				***

	"Ryoga," Akane said, "There's something I want you to do for me, okay?"
	"Name it Akane!" Ryoga said, his mind whirled with thoughts of what she
might ask him to do and he knew that if it made her happy it would be worth
doing whatever she asked.
	"Now, I know Ranma picks on you a lot," Akane started, not noticing the
glazed eyes and large smile that Ryoga had as he stared off into space,
"But I want you two to stop fighting all the time, someone could get hurt
if you two started tearing up the streets in another fight."
	Some of this slowly sunk into Ryoga's mind and he brought his attention
back to what she was saying, "Huh?" he managed to say.
	"I know you two fight each other to get better but you can still do that,
just do it in the Dojo so no one else is involved, or at least, schedule
times for your fights, can you do that for me Ryoga?"
	Ryoga mulled this over in his mind and finally came to the conclusion that
perhaps this wouldn't be the end of the world.  He could still fight Ranma
if he agreed to it, and it would also make Akane happy if he did what she
said.  He couldn't be there for her as P-Chan any more but at least he
could try to do what he could to make her happy in other ways.
	"Okay Akane, I'll try, but it will only work if Ranma agrees to it as
well," he said.
	Akane smiled and said, "Thank you Ryoga, I'm glad you agreed."  Then she
walked into the house and began to prepare to cook for her family.
	Jude watched Akane walk into the house and then looked at Ryoga.  He had a
large smile on his face and he stared off into space.  Jude waved his hand
in front of Ryoga's eyes and got no response.  "Ryoga," he said, "Hey, are
you there?"
	Awareness slowly came back to Ryoga's eyes as his mind came back down to
earth, "What is it Akane?" he asked quietly.
	"Ryoga, Akane went inside, it's me, Jude, remember?  You were a bit spaced
out there for a while Ryoga, you okay?"
	"I'm just fine Jude," Ryoga replied, he had both of his feet firmly on the
ground now but was still in a good mood.
	"Are you really going to try to only fight Ranma when its scheduled?  Like
sparring matches and stuff?" Jude asked, "�Cause I know you had talked a
lot about getting revenge on Ranma and all."
	"I'll try if it will make Akane happy Jude," Ryoga replied.
	Jude nodded and said, "Okay, well, let's head in as well shall we?  We can
get another match in before Ranma shows up from wherever he was flown to."
	"That sounds like a good idea Jude, I can teach you a bit more about what
we had been working on this morning."
	The two of them walked through the doors of the dojo, neither of them
noticing the shriveled up martial artist hiding in the frame of the front
gate with a bucket full of water.  "Damn," Happosai thought, "I'll have to
wait here that much longer to see my darling Ranma-chan again."

				***

	Jude decided to summarize a bit in his journal, there was nothing that he
really needed to remember that much so he merely wrote, "Well, after
listening to Ryoga talk about how much he loved Akane during our travels we
finally got to see some small bit of it when she asked him not to fight
with Ranma so much, that boy has it bad I tell ya, or... I tell myself or
we tell ourselves or whatever."
	He thought about what happened when Ranma finally arrived back at the Dojo
and shivered, he looked around the kitchen as if checking to see if
something wasn't sneaking up on him and began to write again.
	"I met another inhabitant of the dojo a little later when Ranma returned,
a little man made from the same mold Cologne was by the name of Happosai,
the less we remember about this..... pervert the better."

				***

	Ranma had finally made his way home after a trip on Air Akane and was less
then pleased.  He had landed in a rose bush near Juuban and was picking
tiny thorns out of various areas on his body as he walked back.  He was
muttering about a certain "uncute tomboy" as he made his way through the
gates.
	He was about to enter the front door when he heard a faint thump behind
him and the sound of water sloshing about in a container.  He turned to see
Happosai grinning up at him with the bucket held ready.  "Come now Ranma,
this won't hurt a bit," the old lech said as he advanced upon the startled
martial artist.
	Ranma wasn't startled for long though, "You aren't going to get me today
ya shriveled up pervert!" he said.  Soon after that he was sprinting around
the corner of the house in hopes of avoiding the soaking and subsequent
groping Happosai would give him.
	Now, on most days in the Tendo household the back yard would have been
empty of all inhabitants during this time of the afternoon.  Kasumi would
be cooking, Ranma's father and Mr. Tendo would be playing shogi or some
other game, and Nabiki and Akane would be doing homework.  Ranma had
counted on this because he needed to have plenty of room to maneuver if he
was to avoid Happosai.
	This wasn't an ordinary day though, Ranma had forgotten to take into
account the two house guests that had arrived the night before and as he
rounded the corner he ran right into a sparring match between Ryoga and Jude.
	As all three of them tumbled to the ground Happosai was coming around the
same corner with the bucket held high in his short arms.  He cackled in
anticipation as he saw that his target was tangled up with that Hibiki boy
and someone who he had never seen before.  "Goodbye Ranma!  Hello
Ranma-chan!" he cried as he tossed the contents of the bucket upon the
three fallen youths.
	He was, needless to say, quite surprised at what happened next.
	Instead of a girl, a piglet, and a normal person, he saw instead three
visions of loveliness where he had expected only one.
	"Three!" he cried, "Three of you!  Oh my prayers have been answered!"
	Ryoga-chan and Ranma-chan were on their feet almost immediately, and they
were the first targets to Happosai's patented chest glomp.   Jude-chan, who
had been on the bottom of the pile, was up a little slower and was
surprised to see a small shriveled up bald man clinging to Ryoga-chan's
chest and shouting something about dying happy.
	Just as Ranma-chan was about to hit the old man on Ryoga-chan's chest he
leaped off and onto her chest instead.  Ranma-chan's blow contacted with
Ryoga-chan's chest.
	"Curse you Ranma!" she shouted, and retaliated, ignoring the pervert and
instead fighting her rival who was trying to pry the shrunken martial arts
master off her chest as well as avoid Ryoga-chan's attacks.
	Jude-chan watched in amazement as things grew steadily out of hand.  She
was about to remind Ryoga of his promise to Akane when she felt a weight on
her chest.
	She looked down to see that she was now the target of the old man's
groping.   The oddness of the situation was almost too much for her, some
small part of her mind said, "Help! I'm being molested by Yoda's cousin!"
while other parts were telling her to get the thing off her chest and get
as far away as possible.  Of all these impulses one surfaced.  She tapped
on the small man's head to get his attention and he looked up at her from
between her breasts, "Yes my pretty?" he asked.
	"Excuse me," Jude-chan said, "But who are you and why are you groping me?"
	This wasn't quite the reaction Happosai had been expecting, anger,
revulsion, hysteria, and screaming he expected, but a question?  That had
never happened before.  In surprise he dropped off of the chest he had so
recently been firmly attached to and made a small bow, "I am Happosai,
master of the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts, who might you be my
pretty?"
	"My name, or at least, what I call myself, is Jude Smith, of no particular
school of martial arts at all, and I would appreciate it if you found other
chests to latch on to, okay?"
	By this time Ryoga-chan and Ranma-chan had stopped their fight, hearing
Happosai introduce himself had cleared their heads enough for them to
remember that they now had a common enemy.  The two stalked toward the
short man with their battle auras glowing in anger.
	"And what chests might those be Jude Smith of no particular school of
martial arts at all?" Happosai asked, oblivious to the danger approaching
from behind him.
	Jude-chan's mind had calmed somewhat once the lech had removed himself
from her chest and she was about to answer, "Anyone's but mine," when she
saw Ranma-chan and Ryoga-chan approaching Happosai.  She smiled and said
instead, "How about theirs?"  She pointed behind him and he looked to see
the two angry martial artists right behind him.
	Needless to say, things got a bit ugly after that.

				***

	Jude smiled at the thought of seeing Happosai's form shrinking in the
distance as he was punted somewhere towards central Tokyo.  He had gladly
joined in once Ranma and Ryoga had started pummeling the old man.  He still
wasn't sure why he had acted so calmly before that but it seemed to have
worked in some way or another.
	He yawned and reminded himself that he still had quite a bit to tell
himself before he could get to sleep.  He was mostly sure that he would be
able to remember in the morning but he didn't want to take any chances.  He
stretched and shook his head to clear out any cobwebs before continuing.
	"Here's another note, always look for an occupied sign before entering the
bath, it will save a lot of trouble.  Confused?  Well, you shouldn't be
since it seems to make enough sense as it is, anyway, here's what happened,
you may need to know in the future, or I may need to, or we may need to, or
whatever.  Am I doing this too often?  I don't know, maybe I'm more tired
then I thought I was, anyway, listen up and I'll tell me what we did so you
and I can remember, or something."
	Jude looked at what he had just wrote and shook his head, he was
definitely going to have to try to stick with one form of address or he
would make himself crazy trying to read it and write it.
	He put those thoughts out of his head and began to write once more.

				***

	Ranma had reacted slightly differently when Akane asked that he and Ryoga
only fight in the dojo or when it was scheduled.
	"Has Ryoga agreed to this?" he asked as he dried his wet hair with a
towel.  Akane had stopped him just after all three of the curse victims
changed back and told him about what she wanted.
	Akane nodded and said, "Yes, he has."
	Ranma thought this over for a bit.  Against what was commonly thought of
him, he usually didn't go looking for fights, they found him quite easily
enough on their own for him to want any more.  If Ryoga had agreed to keep
the fights as practice instead of random attacks Ranma might get through
his days with a little less stress then usual.
	It wasn't that he disliked the fights themselves, they kept his skills up
quite well, it was just that they seemed to snowball and come at the worst
possible times.  "Kinda like this damned curse," he thought to himself,
"Always showing up at the worst time."
	"Okay," he said to Akane, "In fact, I was thinking about doing something
like this anyway."
	Akane started to say something to the effect that she seriously doubted
that he had really thought of it, when Ranma spoke again, "In fact I think
I'll go see if ol' pig-boy wants to fight right now."
	He left cracking his knuckles and grinning about being able to release
some frustration while Akane watched him leave.  "Well, that went better
than I thought it would," she said.  She walked back into the kitchen and
went back to her attempts to cook.
	Ranma found Ryoga eager to fight and the two proceeded to try to level the
dojo.  Jude watched for a few minutes but soon figured it would most likely
be safer elsewhere and went into the house.  He noted to himself that he
had worked up quite a sweat during the workout with Ryoga and the later
fight with Happosai so he asked if it was alright to use the bath to clean
up before dinner.
	Soun had looked up from his game briefly and said, "That shouldn't be too
much trouble Jude, I don't think it's being used right now so go right ahead."
	Jude thanked him and decided not to mention that Genma had managed to
switch a few game pieces around while he was distracted.  He made his way
to the Tendo bath and opened the door, completely missing the occupied sign
on the front of the door as he entered.
	He called up the brief crash course on Japanese bathing that Ryoga had
given him and stripped in the front section of the bathroom before entering
the second.  He had completely missed any clues that might have said that
someone else was in the bath already, from the clothes hanging up to the
slight sounds of water moving in the other part of the bath.
	Jude slid open the door and saw Kasumi just stepping out of the bath.  He
blinked and she was still there.  His glasses steamed up, either from the
steam in the bathroom or a distant relation to Dr. Tofu.  Not knowing what
else to do, he turned quietly and exited the bath area closing the door
behind him.
	Now had it been either of the other Tendo daughters Jude would have most
likely been in a great deal of trouble.  Akane would have instantly
declared him a pervert and gone out of her way to defend herself, and
Nabiki would have had easy material for blackmail.  Kasumi, on the other
hand, merely said, "Oh my."
	She thought to herself that perhaps she used that phrase too much but was
cut off when Jude spoke through the door to her.  "Um, I'm, that is, I
mean, I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here you see, so I uh, I, just
walked in, I mean, I didn't do it on purpose or anything, I don't want you
to think that, but, um, are you ok?  I mean, are you mad at me or anything?"
	While Jude didn't think Kasumi was a person to get angry easily he _had_
only met her last night.  His main exposure to Tendo women being Akane
didn't help in his estimation of her possibility to explode.
	So it was with great relief that Jude heard Kasumi say, "No, I understand,
just try not to do it again okay?  Didn't you see the "occupied" sign on
the door?"
	"Um, I was a bit distracted when I came in, I must have missed it, sorry
about that," Jude replied, he tried to think of what to do next, this was a
situation that he had no experience in.  "Or," he thought, "If I did have
any experience with this stuff I've forgotten it, same difference."
	"Why don't you hand me my clothes and a towel and while I get dressed you
can get dressed and then we can be as proper as possible in a situation
like this," Kasumi said from across the wall.
	"That sounds like a good idea to me," Jude replied, he looked around the
room and saw the clothes that he had missed so easily just a few moments ago.
	He took them down and then grabbed a towel from a nearby stack and said,
"Here they come Kasumi, I'll slide open the door and hand them to you
through it, don't worry, I won't peek."
	"Thank you Jude," Kasumi replied.
	In theory it would have worked.  Everything would have gone as planned.
But, as is usually the case in Nerima, things didn't work out in quite the
way they were expected too.  Murphy's Law was enforced with infinitely more
reliability then any of the law's of physics.
	The main factor in what happened next was most likely the floor itself.
It had become quite slippery from all the water that had accumulated over
the day and made walking treacherous if a person was distracted.
	As Kasumi walked to the door where Jude was holding her clothes and a
towel, she slipped.  As most people are wont to do when they slip she
reached for the nearest object to hold on to.  This object turned out to be
Jude's arm.
	As she fell he started to fall as well, he tried to grab onto the sliding
door for support but it only ended up opening all the way.  This resulted
in Kasumi, Kasumi's clothes, a towel, and Jude, all in a pile on the floor.
	Now, this in itself would merely be a somewhat painful accident that both
of them could easily ignore, but Murphy was on a roll and his law continued
to act upon the two.
	As Ranma would know, one of Murphy's Law's many sub-sections states, "When
two people of the opposite sex are in a compromising situation a third
party will often witness said compromising position and jump to the wrong
conclusion as quickly as possible."
	Now, out of all the people in the household, the worst possible person to
witness two naked people, one of them a Tendo daughter, upon the floor in a
bathroom would be Soun Tendo himself.  And who should happen to have
finished his game of shogi and decide to take a bath before eating but the
Tendo patriarch himself.
	"What are you doing to my DAUGHTER!" he shouted as he saw the two upon the
floor.
	Jude and Kasumi, whose brains had been appropriately frozen as a result of
what had just happened, were quickly brought back to awareness of the
situation.
	Jude, in his first encounter with "The Demon Head of Soun Tendo" wasn't
too coherent as could be expected.  He started to say something about
"Accidents" and "Falling down" but Soun would hear none of it.  He advanced
upon his very startled houseguest, intent upon avenging his daughter.
	To say that his rage was enormous would be an understatement, here was
someone he had invited into his house and home and this was how he was
repaid?  With an attack upon his daughter?
	The coming events had the potential to be quite messy for there were few
things in this world that could stop a raging martial artist, who happened
to be a father, in his tracks.
	Luckily for Jude, one of them was in the room with him.
	"Father," Kasumi said, Jude looked up to see that somehow she had clothed
herself and fixed her hair to its regular state in the few brief moments
between their separation and now.
	Soun Tendo stopped in his tracks, he turned toward his daughter and said,
"Yes Kasumi?  What did he do to you?"
	"Nothing father," Kasumi replied, "I fell and accidentally pulled Jude
down with me."
	Soun's anger deflated slightly, but something nagged at his mind, he
thought for a moment and then it came to him.  "But, Kasumi, why were you
both naked?"
	Kasumi explained the situation to him and he calmed even more.  She told
of how Jude had been handing her her clothes from across the barrier and
had already apologized for accidentally seeing her.  When she finished she
smiled to see that her father understood the situation.
	Seeing his eldest daughter smile like that made all of Soun's anger
disappear, he walked toward Jude and said, "Sorry about that boy, I guess I
jumped to the wrong conclusion."
	Jude nodded quietly, he was still in shock from the fright of his first
"Demon Head" sighting and couldn't do much more then that.


				***

	Jude yawned and thought that today had been too eventful by far, he was
writing more then he usually wrote by far.  He was glad that at least Mr.
Tendo had calmed down when Kasumi explained everything to him, things would
have been unpleasant to say the least if she hadn't been able to.  He was
also glad that everyone else in the house hadn't noticed Mr. Tendo's
shouting, the situation might have gotten out of hand if they had came to
see what was the matter.
	After he had finished his bath it was time to eat, for some reason
everyone had made quite a fuss about the fact that it was Akane's cooking
that they were eating.  Jude tried to think of how to describe it while he
remembered what had happened.

				***

	All of the occupants of the Tendo household reluctantly sat down at the
dinner table as Akane brought out dish after dish of what might perhaps be
called food.
	Nabiki tried to order take-out but was stared down by an angry sister.
Kasumi looked to the bright side and thought that perhaps this time it
might not be so bad.  Genma contemplated calling his wife and telling her
about his curse, it would perhaps be less painful.  Soun cried that his
daughter would be so cruel as to cook for him once more.
	On a normal day Ranma would have been openly declaring that they would all
soon be dead from eating Akane's cooking.  Ryoga, also on a normal day,
would then get quite angry for insulting Akane, even though he too knew it
was true.  But this wasn't a normal day, today the two had had one of their
longest uninterrupted fights that they could remember and both were quite
worn out.  It had managed to work off a great deal of stress between the
two, at least for now, and had ended in a draw with neither opponent having
a clear upper hand.
	Jude was proof that ignorance was bliss.  He was puzzled that all the
people at the table seemed to have looks of dread upon their faces.  It was
as if they were all facing a mortal danger with no choice but to accept it.
 Ranma's warning about Akane's cooking came back to him but he disregarded
it as exaggeration.  He looked over the odd looking dishes and couldn't see
anything out of the ordinary.  At least, to his eyes.  Having very little
experience with Japanese food he couldn't see that every dish looked
somehow, wrong, at least to everyone else at the table.
	They all filled their plates with food and for a brief time there was
silence as they all waited for someone else to take the first bite.
	Akane started to glare around the table, angry that they wouldn't even
_try_ her cooking after she worked so hard at it.  She was about to say
something when she heard the sound of chop sticks being clacked together.
	Her eyes, and the eyes of everyone else at the table, were drawn slowly to
where Jude was sitting.
	He fumbled slightly with the chop sticks, trying to get used to them, then
he selected a piece of food, what it was he wasn't quite sure, and put it
in his mouth.
	There was a collective blink of astonishment across the table.
	Jaws dropped when, instead of reacting violently to the first taste of
what had to be a terrible poison, Jude instead began to chew.  Jaws dropped
further when he swallowed.
	Jude took a drink of water and then selected another piece of food and ate
this as well.
	They watched in amazement as he cleaned off his plate.
	"That was good Akane," he said, "Thank you."
	Akane beamed and said, "You're welcome Jude, I'm glad you liked it, unlike
_some_ people that haven't even tried it yet!"  With this Akane turned her
eyes to the rest of her family and their, as yet, untouched plates.
	The minds of those around the table boggled with two impossibilities.
Either Akane had finally cooked something edible and pleasant tasting or
Jude had a very strong stomach.  They were leaning toward the latter
explanation as they all took up their chop sticks and took a bite.
	All of them fell to the floor in shock at tasting, well, Akane's normal
cooking.
	"How," Ranma asked Jude, "How could you eat this horrible stuff and say
its.... good?!"
	Jude was quite puzzled by the reactions of everyone else, he turned to
Ranma and said, "What do you mean?  It was good, in fact, it kinda tasted
like chicken really."
	"Chicken?" Ranma asked.
	"Yeah, albeit, an oddly seasoned chicken, but chicken nonetheless."
	Soun looked from his food to his newest houseguest and made a connection,
"Say Jude," he said.
	"Yes?"
	"You wouldn't happen to be related to Natsumi and Kurumi would you?" Soun
asked.
	"Um, well, not that I know of, although, they could be my sisters for all
I know," Jude replied, "Who are they?"
	At this Nabiki spoke up, "Akane, you were one of the most involved in
this, why don't you tell Jude all about those two and what happened?"
	Akane nodded and said, "It all started with this rash of food burglaries..."
	While Akane was distracted Nabiki had everyone else get rid of all the
food and quietly ordered take out, the kitchen was in no condition for
Kasumi to cook anything more tonight so that was their only choice.
	Akane was so wrapped up her telling of the events that occurred when two
of her father's missing "daughters" reappeared that she never noticed
everyone quietly destroying any evidence that her cooking had existed and
eating a real meal.

				***

	Jude finally came to a conclusion as to what to write, and he started once
more knowing that this was the last bit of information he had to give
himself about the events of today so that he wouldn't forget.
	"Well, I guess it could be said that Akane's cooking is... unique.  Or my
taste buds are.  Or something.  Apparently to everyone else it was
something quite atrocious.  To me it was good, if oddly seasoned.  Perhaps
its just a matter of growing up with different food.  Or perhaps my brains
got scrambled more than I thought and something that normal people hate I
don't mind, whatever.  That's all that happened and I don't feel like
covering the incidental stuff, its late, I'm tired, and you know all you
need to know.  So ha!"
	Jude smiled sleepily and closed his journal.  He wrapped it up in its
pouch and turned off the lights in the kitchen.
	Perhaps it was fatigue, perhaps bad lighting, or maybe just Murphy making
sure his law was never forgotten, but Jude managed to find the koi pond
once more on his way back to the training hall where he and Ryoga were
sleeping.
	Jude-chan grumbled as she slogged her way to the hall and opened the door.
 She rummaged in her pack until she pulled out her towel and dried herself
off.
	The noise she made awoke Ryoga and he said, "Is that you Jude?  What's
going on?"
	"Nothing, go back to sleep," she replied as she herself crawled into her
bedding.  "At least the blankets are longer this way," she thought to herself.
	Her mind meandered sleepily about the events of the day and she spoke once
more, "Ryoga?" she said, "You still awake?"
	"Yes," came the reply, "What is it?"
	"What do you think about going to school?" Jude-chan asked.
	"I think," Ryoga yawned, "That we should talk about it in the morning."
	Jude-chan replied with a yawn of her own, "Good idea," she muttered.  Soon
they were both asleep, it had been a long day indeed.  But tomorrow was
another day, who knows what it might hold?


-------------

More Author's Notes-

Hi everyone that read all the way through the chapter.  After reading all
the way through I have a few questions in the way of C&C that I am
wondering about.

1) General characterizations, is there any blatant OOCness in the chapter
that you've noticed?  I know Ryoga is a bit OOC throughout but that's more
in the context of the story then anything else.

2) The bath scene, it needs a bit of work, but I wasn't quite sure how to
go about it, so if you can think of anything to say about how it might be
changed let me know ok?

3) General opinions about Jude, tell me what you think, I've been trying to
avoid making a perfect character and I think I've succeeded in at least the
power levels department but I'm wondering about any other aspects.  I know
he's a bit mellow for the Ranmaverse in these first chapters, but I think
I've got a handle on the whys and hows of some of his personality, at
least, I hope I do. :)

Those are the main specific issues that have come up to me, but anything
else you feel like commenting on please do.

In the next chapter expect to see the return of Shampoo and the first day
at Furinkan High.  And maybe a few other things that haven't come to mind yet.

Thanks for reading all the way down to the bottom and let me know what you
think about the fic ok?

-Jeremy


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