not even close to satisfied with this chapter, but it will have to
do until i can get down to Stalking Moon and rent Mousse's 
introductory episodes again. (may be two-three weeks before
i've even got that much money in the budget.)
The Art____Chapter 6: 
    
by GreggSharp     Metroanime@aol.com
  Ranma 1/2 created by Rumiko Takahashi, AMG created
by Kosuke Fujishima, Gold Digger owned/created by
Fred Perry, Megumi Hayashibara is a goddess of cute.
  i don't have money so don't sue me, hire me and we
can BOTH make money. does anyone actually read these
things.
--------------------------
	Multiversal set 3M-20491-TAKAS357v has a
set of warnings at the entryways by which that
particular set of universes can be accessed. It's
in the M series of coreward branches so magic works.
It's in the 20K series and so humans are the dominant
species if you count effect on immediate environment
(as most travellers do) as what constitutes a dominant
species.
       This, however, isn't what the warnings are about.
The warnings come from having timelines and realities
that are not merely bent, but definitely skewed and
often thoroughly twisted.
--------------------------
	THE ART 6: TALE OF MOUSSE AND SQUIRREL

	The "Lynch Genma" party came back to the
Tendo-ke disheartened. The only trace they'd found
of the panda was a note stating something about going
on a training journey. All things considered, that
probably meant he wasn't on the same dimensional plane
at this point. Probably spying on the Kachina spirits
or trying to pick up tantric magic from the Hindus,
at least that was the consensus.

	"So, Ukyou," Akane said with a thoughtful
expression, "you've been following Ranma for eight
years or so?"

	"Yes, sugar. I made the mistake of listening
to that Ryouga, and without any way for me to cross
universes without him..." Ukyou shrugged.

	"So you visited the Faerie Realms?"

	"Yeah, me and Ryouga got into those Mists Of
Change, too. Really odd place where what you take as
the normal laws of physics just don't seem to work more
often than not. Once I threw one of my spatulas, and
it turned into a cheese grater before it got halfway to
the target."

	<SPLASH!>

	Ranma-chan looked over at Nabiki with a glare. 

	"So did Ranma and his father. The Faerie Realms
cause one's outer nature to come forward. In this and
similar realities, water is the trigger to transform
from cursed to uncursed form. Hot to restore, cold to
trigger," Nabiki explained.

	"So Ranchan's got a feminine side?" Ukyou did
a shrug. "It could be worse."

	<SPLASH!>

	"Akane!" Ranma looked over at where Akane was
smirking at the pile of clothing that had been Ukyou
a moment ago.

	"True natures are revealed, right, Ranma? In
your case, it's the heritage from your mother the
Valkyrie. Your father is a fat lazy panda. Before we
go making all nice and friendly with ANOTHER fiancee,
shouldn't we know what she's like?"

	Ranma watched sadly as something small moved
in Ukyou's clothing. "Ucchan, I'm sorry about this."

	A small fuzzy head peeked out from one of 
Ukyou's sleeves. Large expressive ears twitched as 
equally large soulful blue eyes blinked at Ranma. With
great hesitation, the small striped body began moving
forward.

	"Oh, she's sooo cute." Kasumi had woken up
in time to see Ukyou get splashed.

	Nabiki frowned as the little creature quickly
scrambled free of the sleeve and hid behind Ranma. "I'm
not sure what that is. It looks a little bit like a 
squirrel or a fox, but it also has some feline features."

	"I recognize it," Ranma said, holding a hand
down for Ukyou. When she didn't move, he slowly brought
the hand to her and began stroking the fur. Ukyou
very slowly began to relax. "They call them fox-squirrels
or squirrelfoxes, or foxcats depending on which world
you find 'em in and they're in several different worlds.
They're omnivores, mainly eat fruit and nuts but also 
small rodents. They fill the same basic niche as cats
do on other worlds."

	"So what's this mean? Can we trust her?"

	"Trust her to do what?" Ranma felt the little
body tense. "Trust her not to splash YOU with cold
water? Yes. If you corner one, their claws and teeth
are very very sharp, but they're also very affectionate
and loyal creatures." Ranma smiled as she felt the body
relax a little bit. "They make fair watchdogs, are quite
territorial, and like a hummingbird, will take on
opponents many times their size. They're fast, fairly
clever, and easily trained."

	Ukyou sniffed, jumped into Ranma's lap and
made a slight buzzing noise. She waited until Akane
was staring at her before Ukyou stuck her tongue out
at Akane.

	"AKANE, NO!"

	Ukyou-f looked startled and jumped as a large
hammer slammed into the space she'd just occupied. The
idea that this could happen was apparently a surprise
to the little foxcat. She passed Ranma's head, trying
to pick up speed.

	Even through the haze of pain, Ranma thanked
kami that she had been in female form when Mjolnir had
slammed into her crossed legs. It wasn't much of a
consolation. The blow to her head a moment later at 
least removed the awareness of the pain for a time.

	Seeing Ranma slam into a wall and then drop
like a ragdoll, everyone's shocked gaze switched back
to Akane who was chasing the foxcat around, swinging
her hammer and making large holes in the surrounding
enviroment.

	"COME BACK HERE, YOU!" <SMASH, tinkle.> "YOU
LITTLE RODENT! COME BACK HERE!" <CRASH, shatter> "
UKYOU, STOP RIGHT THERE!" <THUD, CRUNCH, Smash.>

	Shampoo leapt forward between the two. Akane
never hit her adopted sister except in sparring matches.
They were good friends under it all.

	<SLAM!> Shampoo realized in mid-air that Akane
was rapidly entering her berserker state. At that point
she also realized what she was flying towards.

	"Akane, no!" Nabiki watched as the television
became a piece of abstract art.

	Ukyou saw Ranma lying still and raced towards
him. She didn't realize how close Akane was, or that
both Nabiki and Kasumi were moving to intercept their
sister.

	"GOT YOU!" Akane slammed the little critter
with her hammer as it leapt onto Ranma's chest. "I
guess I showed you!"

	"Akane," Nabiki said pleasantly. "Actions have
consequences." 

	Kasumi sniffled. Ranma wasn't breathing too well
and Ukyou wasn't breathing at all. She felt so helpless.
"Don't die. Please don't die."

	"I-I didn't mean to..."

	"DON'T DIE!" Kasumi screamed. Her third eye 
opened.
---------------------
	Wings fluttered over Nerima, passing the dimly
glowing wards of the Three Fates Shrine, a moment
later passing a wereboar wandering the streets. He
was close, he knew he was close.
---------------------
	Cologne narrowed her eyes. The Tower had just
crossed The Lovers. "A new factor enters the scene,
disrupting my plans to matchmake my great-granddaughter
with the mage Ranma, eh?"

	She slapped another card into place. Past 
Influences was revealed as the Seven of Stars, which
she knew from past drawings indicated Genma. No surprise
there, disasters surrounded Ranma's father, but it was
mainly Ranma who would pay the price for his father's
lack of moral strength.

	Present Influences was drawn and placed. This 
was an Amazon deck and had cards that weren't in more
traditional decks. This was one of them, the Amazon
showing a spear carrying woman standing on the back of
a charging horse. Cologne mused as to whether it meant
herself or her great-granddaughter, or merely the more
common meaning of "a woman in charge" or "skill over
force."

	Future Influences was no surprise, The Mage.
Ranma himself, possibly, as he gained more control over
his Art and therefore his environment.

	Cologne placed the next three cards in quick
succession. Questioner: High Priestess. Environment:
Wheel Of Fortune. Modifier: Nine Of Eyes. The questioner
was obviously a reference to herself, an Elder of the
Chinese Amazons. The Wheel Of Fortune, meant that things
were in flux, a period of chaos where all her carefully
laid plans could be set awry. Nine Of Eyes, supernatural
evil or black magic.

	The final card, the outcome, was carefully laid
down. Cologne looked at it in deep thought for several
moments before gathering the cards up again. This would
never do. Just the number of major arcana that appeared
was evidence of something not right. The final card was
of the Six Of Wands. Taken with the others it meant 
an evil mage of some kind or a practitioner of the
Dark Arts.

	Her eyes widened. It couldn't be him...could
it? Making a sound of disgust, she gathered her things.
If THAT fool was involved, then it had become time to
take a personal hand in the events.

	"Bag, come here." As the old carpetbag scuttled
over, Cologne began throwing the items she'd need into
it. This was going to be a long trip.
--------------------------
	"I'm a what?" Ukyou looked around. "What are 
you all looking at, anyway?" Hot water had restored her
to human form, and she had been glad that Ranma wasn't 
awake while she scrambled for her clothing.

	"The sign of wu on your forehead, mainly,"
Nabiki explained in a gentle voice. "Ukyou, you're now
linked to Kasumi in a rather intimate way."

	"What, I..."

	Kasumi apologized. She hadn't meant to do 
anything of the sort.

	Nabiki gently explained the situation to Ukyou.

	"You ATE MY SOUL!?" Ukyou looked at Kasumi 
with a horrified expression.

	Kasumi apologized again. The Triclops briefly
took over, gave Ukyou the redeye. "Biiii-dah!" Then
Kasumi was back apologizing again.

	Ranma, would have protested over his childhood 
friend being treated like this, except he was still
unconcious. 

	The Triclops manifested again, staring straight
into Ukyou's eyes. Ukyou's eyes went blank almost 
immediately.

	Akane started forward, "Hey, what are you 
doing?"

	The Triclops smiled as Akane was caught. "You
hit me, half-sister. That hammer of yours hurt, you
know." The Triclops was much better at projective
telepathy than Kasumi, while Kasumi did emotions
and the like quite well, the Triclops had much more 
control over the ability. She also wasn't nearly as 
nice as Kasumi.

	"Akane," continued the Triclops in a low voice.
She then sketched out a series of posthypnotic
suggestions for what would be thoroughly atypical
behavior for Akane. "Now go over into the corner, wake
up, but sit down and shut up until we're done."

	Nabiki watched Akane walk over to the corner,
sit down, and look very puzzled.

	Shampoo watched the two and decided she did
NOT want to get involved here. Besides, she was curious
herself.

	"Now, Ukyou, tell us about your family and your
relation to Ranma." The Triclops didn't dislike Ukyou,
just considered her a puzzle to be unraveled.

	"My clan is Kuonji, and I am the last of my
line," Ukyou said as if reciting from some report. "My
family line had served the Emperor for one thousand
years before falling in the Tokugawa era. We started
out as warriors, samurai. It became obvious during the
days of the Shogun Of Darkness that the way of the
samurai was not enough. Then came the marriage of one
of our line with one of the Tsukitate clan of ninjas,
and the subsequent merger. It was a loss of honor, in
the pursuit of duty.

	"We were slaughtered for political reasons
during the Tokugawa era. We served the Imperial family
and power was being further drawn from their control.
My great-grandfather started working from yattai during
this period. We adopted our martial arts to this end
and lost much of our magic.

	"There is no more we, merely I."

	"Why do you heal so quickly?" Kasumi's third
eye was still open. "How did you resist becoming my wu?"

	"I do not know."

	The Triclops pondered this. "It is impossible
for her to lie to me. In every regard I can find, she
is a mere human, without esper abilities or magic. 
Therefore she is under some sort of protection. Now
the rest of my request, what is your relationship to
Ranma?"

	Ukyou explained how Genma had accepted a dowry
from her father, a yattai and a secret scroll with the
spells "Hide" and "Leap" for her betrothal to Ranma.

	"Ungh," Ranma managed as he got into an upright
position. "Ouch. I'll have to cast 'Healing Sleep' on
myself later. Huh?"

	Ranma's fingers flicked, tracing a pattern in
midair. "Kasumi? No, it's not the Triclops..."

	"What wrong, Ranma?" Shampoo felt it too, a
cold sensation as if a chill breeze had come from
somewhere.

	Ukyou shook her head, clearing it. Something
odd was going on, and she'd dispute this violation
of her mind when she had a defense against the Triclops.

	"Heh heh heh. Shampoo, at last I have found you."

	"Oh no," Shampoo backed away. "Ranma, you have
really good spells, yes?"

	"Well, yeah. I've got enough chi left for some
spells."

	"Not what I mean. That Mousse's voice. He 
practitioner of Chinese Black Magic."

	"Necromancy? No wonder we're getting the
evil aura crap," Nabiki swore. She only had one spirit
ward on her (mainly to use on Kasumi if the Triclops
got too out-of-hand.)

	Kasumi merely sneered. Her fangs made such an
expression particularly effective as she was still in
Triclops form. "A necromancer? Pfeh."

	Shampoo glanced around nervously. Akane hefted
her copy of Mjolnir. Nabiki readied her spirit ward.
Kasumi held her hands a few inches apart and readied
a pattern. Ranma fumbled around in the scrolls he still
had for a good anti-undead spell.

	"Now I have you, Shampoo!" The voice came again,
followed by the sounds of bushes crashing and something
slamming into a wall.

	Ryouga's voice cut through the brief stillness.
"WHO are you calling Shampoo!" <CRASH> "You moron!" 
<SMASH> "Getting back up, eh? Let's see how you handle
a quarter-ton lycanthrope!" <pause> "Squueeaallll" 
<SNAP, CRACKLE, POP>

	The silhoutte of Ryouga's wereboar form, aka
"Porkchop" walked by the window, briefly stopping to
scrape something off of his tusks.

	"Aiyaa, good thing Mousse is blind as bat."

	The Triclops snorted, then shifted back to
Kasumi who started apologizing to Ukyou for what had
just occurred.

	"Kasumi, I haven't got a problem with you. That
three-eyed witch you transform into, on the other
hand..." Ukyou glared. "My mind is a very precious 
possession and I do NOT like people mucking about with
it."

	"I think I've got some suggestions for dinner
tomorrow," Nabiki said with a smile.
--------------------------
	"Hah! Now I have you, Shampoo!" Mousse showed
his fangs. "Now you shall be my bride for all eternity!"

	Shampoo shook her head and breathed on him. This
surprised Mousse who fell over and was writhing on the
ground in agony a moment later.

	"What? How?"

	"Shampoo have many potstickers at dinner."

	"And I," Ukyou smiled, "have prepared this! 
Garlic pizza attack!"

	"Arrrgghhhh. I...prefer traditional okonomiyaki!"
Mousse was backed into a corner. "Well, I can
always be patient, knowing that one day you'll slip up
and Shampoo will join me in undeath." Mousse shifted
into bat form.

	"LIGHTNING FLARE!" Ranma's lightning bolt
slapped the little bat out of the air.

	Deciding that maybe the bat wasn't a good idea,
Mousse shifted to human form then to a wolf.

	"You're right, Shampoo, gullibility factor 7
at least." Nabiki nodded. "Akane?"

	"And with the bases loaded," Akane muttering
her own play-by-play, "Akane Tendo steps up to the 
plate. The crowd goes wild."

	The wolf looked over at Akane using Mjolnir IV
and getting ready to slam him into lunar orbit. He 
shifted again, back to human and then into a mist. He 
wondered though, why suddenly everyone except Akane was
holding their ears, why Ranma was casting a spell on
Akane, and just what did Akane hope to accomplish by
spinning that hammer faster and faster. After all, 
Mousse knew that he couldn't be hit by that hammer while
in mist form.

	Ranma's "Greased Lightning" spell accelerated
Akane's speed, Akane grinned and threw her hammer as
fast and hard as she possibly could. 

	<BOOM!> The hammer went through the mist,
absolutely harmlessly, as Mousse knew it would. What
really hurt was the vaccuum formed behind the hammer,
the pressure wave around the hammer, and the ionized
trail the hammer left behind.

	Mousse hit the ground moaning, having had his
mist form turned inside out and stretched out over a
quarter mile long flight plan. He stood up in the street,
shaking his head. "Damn, if I weren't undead that would
have killed me."

	"Ahem."

	"Oh, you, Kasumi isn't it? Well you're not my
target of choice, but I really need to drain something
to get my strength back. Nothing personal." Mousse
stepped forward, baring his fangs.

	"Nothing personal," agreed the Triclops.
-----------------------------------
	"Look at this pretty bottle," said Kasumi. "I
had it when the Triclops went back to sleep. Funny, I
usually remember everything the Triclops does but I
don't remember where she got this. It is pretty though,
isn't it?"

	"Yes, that's very nice. It'd make a great
suncatcher don't you think, Ranma?"

	"Of course, Nabiki."

	"Shampoo know just where to put it, so it get
first light of dawn. It look really good there."

	The mists within the bottle briefly formed
letters. "Could we possibly negotiate this?"
-----------------------
	Cologne stopped and watched from a distance.
Mousse's intellect had dropped off even further since
he'd become undead. Well, it was hardly unexpected. At
least she'd put those damn pervert skeletons of his
into stasis. She hadn't bothered to destroy them, as
you never know when something like that could come in
handy.
-----------------------
	The Dragon moved from the ice floe into the
freezing waters, sliding in without making a single
splash despite the great bulk and mass.

	It was still going on as had been foreseen.
===================================
Marks end of ch 6 of The Art.
	Next Chapter 7:The Choice
Admittedly this is a change of pace after the slapstick
of the first few chapters, gomen ne. There will be
completely serious chapters, as there was in TOS, but
am trying to at least maintain some light heartedness
in the series. (Ranma is MAINLY comedy after all.)
may have to completely rewrite this later, still not
nearly satisfied with it.
Mata ne, minaasan!