hey again, guys...
the usual stuff - if you need any of the previous parts, you can get them
at http://students.vassar.edu/~meerobin/found.html
...or i can e-mail them to you.

any and all C&C is much appreciated...i'm not actually on this list, so
please respond directly if you can...thanks...

oh, and by the way, i noticed a bunch of Babylon 5/Ranma ideas flying
around a while back - just wanted to let you know (if you
happen to be the type of person that cares about that sort of thing) that
a friend of mine by the name of Shaenon K. Garrity and I are currently 
working on just such a fic, though it's more about the Babylon 5 folks 
in the Ranma cast roles than vice versa...and i'll just say that it's evil 
and sick and twisted, and you have never known fear until you try to
imagine _Bester_ in the role of Kodachi.

here's a _brief_ quote, as a teaser:

Lorien: Oh, too bad. You fall Vorlonnichuan, Spring of Drowned Vorlon. Very
tragic story of Vorlon who drown one million two hundred ten thousand nine
hundred and ninety six *gasp for air*  point two year ago. Now, when
splashed with cold Zima, you become a Vorlon.

scary, huh? anyway, enough plugs, and on with:

The usual disclaimer: all Ranma 1/2 characters belong to 
Takahashi-sama and distributors, all Oh My Goddess! characters 
belong to Fujishima-sama and other distributors...


Found
Part 7
(A Ranma 1/2 - Oh My Goddess! Crossover by Mee Robinson)


     Skuld liked Akari. She had been watching the pig farmer secretly
all morning, trying to decide the best way to announce her presence,
and everything she had seen seemed to indicate that Akari was a
perfect candidate for sharing Ryouga's future happiness. She 
seemed very down to earth and tolerant, qualities which would
no doubt stand her in good stead if she were to enter a relationship
with the often exaggerating lost boy.

     Akari hummed cheerfully to herself as she washed down a 
massive white pig. 

     "How's that feel, Katsunishiki?" she said, starting to scrub.

     The pig grunted with pleasure. A small herd of rather rambunctious 
little piglets swarmed around the two, snorting and squealing in 
anticipation of their own baths. Akari set her bucket down and wiped 
her hands on her apron with a small, contented sigh.

     "Would you like to come out, whoever you are?" she called
towards the haystack where Skuld had hidden herself.

     Skuld nearly choked. 

*****

     Ukyou ran and ran aimlessly until she collapsed, sobbing, in an 
alleyway. Was there not even one decent man in the world? Didn't she 
deserve at least that much? 

     The tears ran, hot and scalding over her frozen cheeks, marking her
face with bright red tracks. Her body convulsed with long pent up sobs 
as she recalled the countless pleasant daydreams of herself and her 
husband to be, daydreams that had, one and all, been blindly betrayed. 

     He didn't mean to hurt her, and, no doubt, didn't even begin to realize 
the extent to which he did. And that hurt most of all; that his betrayal 
was not born of malice, but of ignorance, of a vague, cautious kindness 
instead. That her heart was so. . .inconsequential, no matter how close
they were as friends.

     <Disgraceful.> she heard her father's voice in her mind, gruff and
disapproving as always. And for once, the successful, responsible
businesswoman, proficient in the martial arts, was not there to turn 
a deaf ear. 

     "Oh, father," Ukyou sobbed, and her voice was once again the high, 
childish cry of a young girl, who, so many years ago, had fled from her 
home, never to return. 

     "I _tried_!" she choked. "I tried _so_hard_!"

     Shampoo stood at a distance, carefully concealed within the
shadows. She knew that this was a prime opportunity to take 
advantage of her rival, if she were willing to exploit such a rare
moment of vulnerability. She found herself unable to do so.

     She had never before seen the okonomiyaki chef as she appeared 
now, a shaking, whimpering wreck. She wouldn't have thought her 
capable of such feeling; when she thought of Ukyou, she thought of a 
shrewd and calculating opponent, a girl of persistence and grim 
determination whose tongue was as sharp as her trademark spatulas. 

     Shampoo herself rarely cried, though she had noticed herself 
surrendering to tears more and more often since she had arrived in 
Nerima, on the rooftop late at night when neither Mousse nor her 
great-grandmother could hear her. They were partly tears of relief,
tears she let escape simply because she _could_. Both tears and
laughter flowed more freely here. On some days, it felt like the
very breath she drew into her lungs came more easily now. 

     But they were also tears of frustration. She had never had rivals 
before. If she was less of an amazon because of blood, there was 
nothing she could do to change that. And even with the veil of 
mutual love that bound her to her sisters, she knew she would always 
be different. But no other villager came close to her level of skill or 
beauty. She was the embodiment of the amazon spirit.

     But here in Nerima, she was one of many. Here, even the people who
knew her best looked at her casually and saw a Chinese amazon, without
really knowing what that description entailed. China itself had a 
different meaning for them, even those who had been there and seen it 
firsthand. To them, it was a little-understood world of magic and 
wilderness, its reality obscured and ill-defined through years of 
myth and rumor. The word "amazon" meant very little here, and perhaps 
that was why it had relaxed some of its hold over her. But, taken out
of context, she wondered if any of them truly knew who she was. 
She was trying so hard to impart such a great message, but no one
was really listening. And she was beginning to fear that they never
would.

     She loved Ranma. His heart was so open, so ready to accept. When
she had met and then been defeated by his male form, she had felt as if
her heart was awakening for the first time. Here was a man, a strong,
powerful, beautiful man, to whom her past meant nothing. A man who
could love her for herself.

     Only he didn't. And now, by law, she had to marry him. Or she would 
become something less than an amazon, fulfilling at last the curse 
of her parentage. 

     And her heart was boiling in her chest, full of the greatest hunger 
she had ever known. 

     And so sometimes she cried. Hot, stinging tears of rage, of 
frustration at the unfairness of it all, and, perhaps most painfully of 
all, of hope. Much like Kuonji was crying now. 

     She approached the weeping girl quietly from behind, unsure of 
what to do or say, if she should reach out and try to provide some 
comfort, or if she should strike out with violence at the girl who had 
caused her so much frustration, or, perhaps, if she should turn and run 
away before Ukyou noticed she was there. 

     Even blinded with tears, Ukyou was enough of a martial artist to 
sense the descending hand before it could make contact. She whirled
with a hoarse cry, striking out with a spatula, both fearful and outraged 
that someone had dared to follow her, and had seen her like this. Her face,
red and burning from her tears, contorted when she saw Shampoo,
who had evaded the thrust of the spatula, and now stood just out
of reach.

     There was a moment of awkward silence as Ukyou struggled to 
suppress her sobs, her chest tightening painfully, her throat raw
with the effort. She didn't notice the strange look in Shampoo's eyes, 
a look that was hungry, and defiant, and frighted all at the same time.

     Finally, Shampoo broke the silence.

     "Spatula Girl. . .is okay?"

     Ukyou drew a too-thin breath through her constricted throat.

     "What do you want?" she demanded, feeling sick with the knowledge
that it was the Chinese amazon who had followed her here.

     Shampoo shook her head. "Shampoo want. . .nothing." She extended her
hand again.

     Ukyou flinched back before she looked down and realized that  
Shampoo was only offering a handkerchief. Shaking, she wiped her eyes
with a sleeve and tried to regain her composure. Shampoo lowered her
hand, with a look of regretful understanding.

     Ukyou, after all, had never been more to her than an obstacle. It
could hardly come as a surprise that Ukyou viewed her in the same 
way. 

     But still. . .she would never have believed that Ukyou could cry
like that.

     "Shampoo. . .sorry," she said, somehow feeling that she was trying to 
bridge a gap wider than any sea. 

     "What-what?" Ukyou gasped, uncomprehending. 

     "Spatula Girl. . .Ukyou. . .crying over Ranma. . ." Shampoo said,
struggling to get the words out. "Shampoo know. . .how that feel."

     Ukyou shook her head in outraged disbelief. 

     "What are you _talking_ about?!" she shouted. "I'm crying because
of Konatsu - didn't you see what he did? And I always thought he was 
such. . .such a. . .oh, gods," she trailed off miserably, "He did it all for
me, didn't he? He did it because of me."

*****

     Konatsu shivered, alternatingly hot and cold, high on adrenaline,
depressed with self-loathing.

     He had enjoyed it. Even at the last moment, with his mistress's
voice finally breaking through the song of the blood rushing through his 
ears - it had felt _good_ to beat up on that pathetic, little man. And it 
had felt _wonderful_ to be awake and alive for the first time since. . .
ever.

     <I must be a horrible person,> he thought to himself glumly. 

     To be sure, his ninja training had never emphasized the finer points
of honor. With his family, it had always just been "assassinate, 
assassinate, assassinate." But. . .hadn't he left his family to escape
exactly that kind of inhumane ideal?

     <Will she ever be able to forgive me?>

     Konatsu didn't know. Surely, Ukyou was the most open and loving
person he knew. But she also didn't suffer dishonorable behavior
lightly. And she had been very upset - even hurt - when she'd run
away from the restaurant that morning. He'd hurt her. The woman 
he loved most in the world.

     <What if she hates me now?>

     No. He'd never be able to deal with that. She was the one person in the 
world who had ever truly shared her life with him, who had ever showed
him kindness. If she hated him now. . .because of what he'd done this
afternoon. . .He shook his head. No.

     Konatsu looked around for the last time at what had been his home 
for the better part of a year. The only home he'd ever known. He wanted 
to remember it that way - good memories only.

     He shouldered his makeshift pack. It was light - he had very few 
belongings.

     "Good-bye, Ukyou-sama," he whispered to the empty apartment.

     He turned the lights out as he left.

*****

     Ukyou sat on the sidewalk in a gray world, without moving, or even 
really thinking. She could feel the cold and the dampness of the 
pavement through her clothes, and she knew without looking that 
Shampoo was still there too; but she felt numb, as if, having cried the 
tears that had been dammed up inside her for so long, there was no more 
feeling left in her heart at all. So, when she felt Shampoo's arms 
around her, half lifting her to her feet, she didn't resist, or even 
think about how strange it was. And when the purple-haired girl took 
her arm and began to gently, but insistently, lead her back the way 
she had come, she followed, all the way to the Nekohanten. 

     Cologne looked a little surprised when she saw the okonomiyaki 
chef on the premises, in her great-granddaughter's company, no less. The 
girl stared back, her eyes wide and blank, her face expressionless. 
Cologne thoughtfully tossed a wokful of noodles. It was highly probable 
that that troublemaker, Urd, was behind this somehow. And yet she had
sworn that she wasn't around to cause mischief this time. And, no 
matter how much Urd enjoyed being the cause of chaos and mayhem,
her innermost heart had always proved to be loyal and true. 

     Inwardly, Cologne shrugged. It wasn't like she hated Ukyou, who 
seemed like a nice enough child, almost an amazon in spirit. It was 
just that her own flesh and blood had always taken precedence. But, 
other than that, she saw no reason for her great-granddaughter and 
this girl to be bitter enemies. Why, fellow amazons had often fought 
in competitions with many times as much persistence and violence. 
And without the need to indulge in vengeance or hatred when all was 
said and done. At least not usually.

     "Welcome  back, Great-granddaughter," she called out. "I see you've 
brought a friend home today."

     Shampoo left Ukyou standing by the door and approached the counter.

     "Yes, Hibachan. . ." she said, and then paused, trying to think of what 
to say next, how best to explain the other girl's presence. 

     While she was immersed in deliberation, Cologne spun two bowls of 
steaming ramen across the counter at her. Reflexively, she caught them, 
and began to look around the room for their destination.

     "For the two of you," Cologne said gently, nodding toward Ukyou, who
was still standing in the doorway, blinking dazedly at the bespectacled 
duck that was now flapping madly at her feet and squawking.

     "Hibachan. . .thank you. We. . .we go eat upstairs, is okay?"

     Cologne nodded and watched as her great-granddaughter led  Ukyou 
up the back staircase and into the living quarters, pausing only 
briefly to kick Mousse into an open broom closet. 

     Cologne sighed. She was three hundred years old and had experienced 
enough of life so that she was very seldom shocked by anything. She 
had not been expecting to see Shampoo to make peace with the 
okonomiyaki chef, no matter for how short a time. On the other hand, she 
had learned enough about human nature to know many truths about her
great-granddaughter, including things that Shampoo was too proud 
or too ashamed to let show openly. Like the fact that she was much
happier in Nerima than she had ever been with the Joketsuzoku.

     She had witnessed three hundred years of changing seasons, but
even so, she was unable to foresee the outcome of her great-
granddaughter's love. 

*****

     Ukyou had never seen the upstairs of the Nekohanten before, but she 
just couldn't muster up enough curiosity to look around and observe 
much of her surroundings. Her mind seemed capable of handling very 
little at the moment. The ramen was hot, and she could feel her body 
beginning to thaw. The carpeting was soft and warm beneath her 
fingertips. 

     Oh, she was tired. Not surprising really, considering how little
she'd managed to sleep these last couple of nights. 

     There was a knock on the door. She glanced at it slowly, feeling
as though she was wrapped in a haze of indifference.

     Shampoo scowled as she got up to answer the door. She had trained as an
amazon since before she had learned how to walk. She knew how to listen
to the great hush of the wilderness and to hear a cacophony, and how to
listen to that cacophony until she could hear a symphony, and then to resolve 
that symphony into a million individual voices, each one another secretive
and untamed creature.  

     She knew that knock.

     "What you want, Mousse?" she demanded as she opened the door.

     "Was that Ukyou?" he asked in hushed tones, peeking around her into 
the room.

     "Yes, is Spatula - is Ukyou. " Shampoo whispered fiercely. "You go 
away now."

     "Is this all part of a plan for you to get Ranma?" he said, pushing his 
glasses onto his forehead.

     Shampoo glanced over her shoulder at Ukyou, who had stopped 
watching them and was now staring dimly into space.

     "And if is?" she hissed, turning back to glare at him. "Is none of Mousse's
business what it is!"

     "Sh-Shampoo!!! How can you say that?! You know it's - you know I'm the
only -"

     "Go _away_, _stupid_ Mousse!" she yelled, pushing him forcefully away and 
slamming the door in his face.

     When she turned back to Ukyou, she was surprised to see that the 
okonomiyaki chef was staring straight at her. 

     "Men," Ukyou said, her voice quiet and dull.

     "Yes. . .men," Shampoo repeated.

     "I'm just so sick of. . .men," Ukyou said with resignation. 

     "Shampoo understand," Shampoo answered, wishing she knew how to 
phrase her words better in Japanese.

     "Do you?" Ukyou mused. "I guess you do." 

     Ukyou closed her eyes wearily. <I should go home,> she thought. But 
she didn't want to. She didn't feel up to facing Konatsu if he was home,
and she wasn't sure she could take the emptiness of the apartment if
he wasn't. Not to mention the incredible effort it would take to simply
move. 

     Someone was picking her up, and removing the empty ramen bowl from
her hand. Someone strong, and warm, and gentle. . . 

*****

     <Idiot Mousse,> Shampoo thought as she furiously brushed her hair that 
night.

     He was obviously devoted to her. Too devoted. Painfully over-devoted.

     He felt sorry for her.

     Blind as he was, even as a child, before he had been old enough to 
understand her family situation - he had always sensed something about 
her - a fragility, an emotional incompleteness that needed to be filled. 
A vulnerability. 

     She hated that. 

     Through his constant attention, he demonstrated his belief that her 
situation _was_ important, and deserving of pity and special treatment.
More reminders of her own shortcomings. Reminders that she didn't need.
But. . .were they shortcomings?

     She looked at Ukyou, fast asleep on her bed. 

     *You think I don't understand,* she said quietly to the sleeping girl. *But
I do understand, Ukyou - I understand everything.*

     Ukyou, unconscious, failed to answer.

     Shampoo sighed, trying to calculate if there was enough room in the 
bed for them both. She decided that there was. 

     "Well, good night, Spatula Girl," she said as she turned out the light
and fought her way under the covers.

*****

     Ukyou was awakened by someone squirming out of bed from beside her.
There was a breath of cool air as the covers were thrown back, and a 
sudden influx of very bright sunlight as curtains were drawn back 
from the windows.

     "Ow," she muttered complainingly, rubbing her eyes. 

     "Is morning. You sleep very long time," she heard someone say.

     Ukyou sat bolt upright in shock, hurting her back.

     "Shampoo?! Where did you?! - how did I?! - oh. . ."

     Yesterday. A lot had happened yesterday, hadn't it? Konatsu 
had happened. The new Konatsu. The violent Konatsu. The one she 
was probably most responsible for making, both as an example and 
as - well, what _he_ saw as a. . .

     "Oh, _gods_," she muttered to herself. "What a mess. I should get 
back to the - Oh, no! The RESTAURANT!"

     Shampoo stared at Ukyou, who had managed, in a single motion,
to leap halfway across the room from where she had been sitting 
in bed a mere moment before.

     "Is still early," she remarked mildly. "Is only seven o'clock."

     "Oh," said Ukyou, realizing she'd slept in her clothes the entire
night, including her habitual bindings. "Mmph. _Ow_."

     Shampoo looked at her quizzically. 

     "You want bath?" she offered.

     Ukyou stared at her. This was so strange, for the two of them to 
be in the same room with each other - Shampoo's room, no less - 
and not to be at each other's throats. To have woken up in the same
bed was stranger still. But these past few days had been anything
but normal. Well, call it a temporary truce. There'd been plenty of those,
hadn't there?

     She exhaled, feeling every stiff joint and sore muscle in her 
body. A bath sounded good.

     "Sure, sugar," she said tiredly. "And. . .thanks."

*****

     The bath here was somewhat larger than her own, though that was
only to be expected. After all, the apartment here was meant for two
or three people, at least. And hers was only meant for one. 

     It smelled sweet. Shampoo had emptied a goodly amount of some 
kind of floral scented bath oil into the water, undoubtedly how she 
prepared it for herself. Ukyou was glad that she hadn't joined her. Even 
with everything that had occurred during the past few days, she still 
thought it would be just too weird to deal with to be taking a bath 
alone with the unfathomable amazon. 

     She sighed and stretched, feeling the worst of her discomfort
alleviate in the warmth of the water. 

     "I must go home," she said to herself, hoping that if she just got
more accustomed to the idea, it would seem more pleasant. No such
luck.

     She shook her head. Oh well. Might as well get it over with.

     She stood and began to towel herself off, not much relishing the 
thought of dressing in yesterday's clothes again, when there was
a soft knock on the door.

     "Who is it?" she called out cautiously.

     "Is Shampoo," the amazon girl replied from the other side of the 
door.

     "What - " Ukyou said, poking her head outside, only to have the door
pulled open and a bundle of clothing pressed into her arms. Shampoo
entered immediately after, dressed for waitressing, and shut the
door behind her.

     "Shampoo have to get ready for working," she said, and began to
wash her face at the sink.

     "Oh," said Ukyou, staring down at the clothing in her arms. An 
embroidered silk shirt of Shampoo's, and a pair of loose pants,
quite like the ones that Ranma usually wore. 

     The clothes were fancier than what she usually wore, and they 
were Shampoo's, but. . .well, at least they were clean. 

     "Uh. . .thanks again," she said, as she began to put them on.

     " ' welcome," Shampoo said around a mouthful of toothpaste.

     It all fit Ukyou perfectly, which surprised her for some reason. 
She frowned thoughtfully at herself and tugged a little at the shirt.

     "Is problem?" said Shampoo, who noticed.

     "No, no problem. . ." said Ukyou slowly, and then suddenly realized 
what it was. "It's just that I always thought that - well - uh - " she
sputtered to a halt, blushing furiously.

     Shampoo blinked at her.  

     "What? What you always think?"

     "Well - I just always thought that yours were bigger!" Ukyou finished in 
an embarrassed rush, pointing at the amazon's chest.

     Shampoo glanced at her own chest momentarily before looking
at Ukyou's for comparison. She frowned puzzledly.

     "Why you think _that_?" 

     Ukyou flushed even brighter. "Oh, never mind!"

     Shampoo shrugged. "Shampoo have to work now. You go home?"

     Ukyou sighed, and grit her teeth at the prospect. 

      "Yes," she said. "I suppose I'd better."

----------------
End Part Seven
----------------