based upon the forever popular ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahasi
used without permission but trying to sue me for money would
be like getting Bill Gates to donate all his money to charity and
become a monk, as I have no money what so ever ^_^
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Village Tale

Chapter 3

        Ranma woke once more just as the first rays peeked
over the horizon.  After Cologne's late night visit he
had no longer been troubled by dreams.  Remembering
that he had a meeting with Cologne later on that morning
, Ranma started to go through his morning stretches and
katas.  His efforts were not as intense as they were in
times past though, as he went through the motions, Ranma
realized that martial arts was not everything and there
were other things worth working towards.  With that
realization came a less sense of urgency.  <Who would of
thought that I would come to this point?> he thought to
himself as a smile spread across his lips.  With a final
flourish to a already complex kata, Ranma wound down his
exercises and prepared to clean himself up for his meeting
with Cologne.  Ranma grabbed the towel he had pulled out
earlier and headed out the door towards the pond just
outside the village that he used to bathe in, since he
still felt uncomfortable bathing in the communal bath, even
while he was in his girl form.  As he headed out Ranma saw
that his usual morning observers were present.  It always
suprised him no matter how often he saw it.  They were
more discreet now than they were in the past, most likely
due to some of the matriarchs who had joined the group,
after all it would not seem proper for an elder of the
village to be seen gawking after a youth.  While he had cut
down on the intensity of his morning workouts, he had not
gone to flab due to in part to a change in diet and
concentrating on definition, his body had become more lean
and chiseled. Ranma waved in the direction of the hut where
he knew the gaggle of ladies was hiding and was rewarded
with the faint whisper of girlish giggles.  Ranma had no
interest in any of them except as friends and even then he
was kind of wary about that.  <My heart belongs to Shampoo>
he thought to himself, then he did a mental double take,
<Jeez I'm sounding just like Moouse!>  At that he gave a
small chuckle. "I wonder how he's doing anyhow?" he said to
himself.  He also realized this was the first time in a few
days that he had thought of anyone from his old life,
excepting those horrible dreams he kept having.

        Cologne looked out her window at the spectacle and shook
her head. [I can understand the young ones taking a look see
but the elders should know better, Xian Se is almost as old
as I am!] she muttered to herself.  She watched as the Amazon
elder in question left the hut, everyone had been hiding in,
with a dreamy look on her face.  <I know she's trying to help
Ranma without hurting him, but this is just plain silly> She
thought as she spied Shampoo leave the hut, an annoyed look
on her face, as if things had not gone the way she had
planned them.  Cologne quickly moved away from the window as
Shampoo started moving towards her hut.  She had just finished
seating herself when Shampoo entered, the frown of
consternation still on her face. 

     [Grandmother this is getting very frustrating!  It almost like
having Moouse around!  Even though he doesn't fawn all over me
that look on his face every time he glances my way is driving
me to frustration, but I can't bring myself to berate him for
it. Not yet, he heart is still healing and it scares me to think
what might happen if I did.] Shampoo said as she sat down in a
chair opposite Cologne.

        [It is indeed a sticky situation.  On one hand do you keep
leading him on, in hopes that he loses interest and finds someone
else, or do you tell him the truth, and hope for the best?  Either
way he is going to get hurt.  There is no easy way out.  I see
that your efforts to get Ranma attached to someone else are not
going to plan eh?]  Cologne cackled as she said this making
Shampoo blush with embarrassment.

        [This is absolutely ludicrous!  you would think that they were
Japanese school girls instead of Amazon warriors!  I tried to get
one of them to approach him and all they could do is blush and
giggle!] , Shampoo said with some ire.

        [Ranma seems to have that effect on most ladies,]  Cologne said
looking straight at Shampoo to emphasize her point. [Do not forget
that you are to go before the council of elders this afternoon to
face judgement about what is owed.] Cologne already knew what
judgement was going to be passed and what the sentence would be,
but was not going to let on. <It will be most interesting to see
the expression on her face> She thought to herself, while keeping
a neutral expression on her face.  Since the incident last night
she had been feeling more spry than she had in a long time, though
it was kind of a anxious moment when it happened.  So far it had
not happened again.

        Shampoo looked forlorn as her grandmother reminded her of the
meeting.  It was something she had been trying hard not to think
about ever since they got back.  She knew though that there was no
way out of it though, as she was not going to marry Ranma.  She
mentally chuckled to herself.  If someone had told her a year ago
that she would stop loving Ranma she would have called them a liar
and would have tried to do serious bodily harm to them, now to get
out of this she could marry him, which now Ranma wanted to do, but
now she just wanted him as a friend.  [I had better go and prepare
then.] Shampoo said as she went into the back room of the hut to
change into her formal clothes.

        Ranma finished washing up and headed back.

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        Herb was finding out the hard way that humility was not a
lesson that was lightly learned.  His first day working had been
completely degrading, embarising, and tiring.  He had been serving
drinks for the past 10 hours and had been groped fondled and
whistled at the entire time.  It hadn't been just women but men as
well, and that had been completely unsettling to him.  Yet he
struggled through without complaining.  The days had started blur
together.  Herb now had started to get an inkling of what it was
like to be a faceless piece of meat, for that was what he saw in
the faces that leered at him.  He also knew now what it felt like
to be truly poor, for though the manager supplied him a place to
sleep after work, it was no bigger than a broom closet.  As much
as he would love to leave he was bound by the contract he signed
when he first started working here, and honor forbade him to leave
for he would rather die than give up his honor, after all it was all
he had left. [My legs are killing me,] Herb muttered to himself,
[maybe I can get the boss to get me a slightly looser pair of pants.]
The boss has given him 5 sets of pants when had started to work, all
of which were skin tight, which was the uniform requirement.  After
thinking about it for a moment he discarded that notion.  Since he
had started working here the influx of customers had grown by twenty
percent.  Normally this would have stoked his ego had it been anywhere
else, but working here had squashed any sort of ego that he had.

        As he prepared for bed he once again thought of home.  The faces
of his companions, Lime and Mint, flashed through his mind.  Only now
that he was toiling through his personal penance could he appreciate
their devotion to him.  A tear rolled down his cheek as he laid his
head down on his pillow, home seeming a little farther away and
loneliness a little closer.

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        Akane woke as the first rays of the sun warmed her face. 
Instinctively she listened for the sounds of Ranma and his father
doing their morning workout, but only silence reigned.  Even after
all this time she still could not get out of that habit.  Getting out
of bed Akane walked over to her window and opened it.  Reaching under
the sill she felt for the note that she knew would be hidden there.
After a moment of groping around she felt the parchment that was tied
around a rose.  She unrolled the document and carefully set aside the
the white rose within.  The letter said: /Everything is going
according to plan.  How are things going on your end?  The rose is
laced with the special pollen that you asked for.  Remember do not
inhale it yourself, the effects last for 24 hours.  I will meet you
at our usual place, and remember to bring the picture with you tonight
./  It was simply signed Ko-chan.  Akane read over it once more, then
folded it up and stuck it into her pocket.  She then picked up the
rose by the stem, being very careful not to jostle it, and set it in
her desk. 

        Ever since the day she and Kodachi had given Tatawaki his due, they had been meeting on a regular basis.  Since that week ago they found

that they were getting along better and better as friends.  They both
found that though they both loved Ranma it was that same love of him,
no matter what he was that brought them together.  almost everyone else
in town had written him off and completely forgotten him.  Even Ryouga
had seemed to have forgotten him as he never really showed up anymore.
For that matter she hadn't seen P-chan in a long time as well.  To keep
what they had planned away from prying eyes they had arranged a way of
communicating without raising suspicion.  She and Kodachi would still
be hostile to each other in public but whenever one needed to get ahold
of the other they would leave a message under her sill.  They had also
taken to meeting under the bridge where Ranma used to go when he didn't
want to be found.  Somehow they felt a little closer to him while there.
They had also devised a way to throw people off the track if anyone were
to find any of their messages,  They were sent in such a way as to make
the reader think that it was a male that was writing them. 

        Akane proceeded to get dressed. Since this was a Sunday and no
school she had arranged it so she would be out all day.  She had been
noticing that more and more lately how nauseated and uncomfortable she
had become around the Tendo family.  She found herself spending more
time away from the dojo, and when she was asked about it she would make
one excuse or another.  She had also noticed that Nabiki had started to
spy on her.  Akane had talked to Kodachi a bit earlier on that problem
and they had managed come up with a good solution.  As she left her room
and walked down the stairs she heard the door to Nabiki's room open and
close.  She walked out the door and out through the dojo gates, then
proceeded down the street.  She walked the same route she had been for
the past few days.  Sure enough she felt Nabiki following her some
distance back.  When Akane reached the corner of the building
that once held the Ucchan, she quickly ducked around the corner, and a
ninja who dressed exactly like her stepped out and continued to walk down
the road.  Akane hid behind the dumpster that was there and a minute
later Nabiki came strolling by.  She waited a few more minutes to make
sure that Nabiki was no longer around, and then took off the other
direction.  Akane chuckled to herself as she recalled how she and Kodachi
had come up with the idea.   At first they were not sure that it was
going to work, but when Nabiki didn't notice the change they grew more
sure of themselves, the Kuno family ninjas were doing a good job.
A few minutes later she reached the bridge, and after making sure that
there was no-one around, Akane went around the side and walked underneath.

        Kodachi was sitting in her usual spot when she spotted Akane coming around the corner.  Her ninja's must have done their work because she knew that Akane would not have shown up here otherwise.  "Hello Akane.  Did you bring it?" she said as Akane took her usual place across form her.  Though she wouldn't quite call her a friend yet, kodachi was finding herself enjoying these meetings more and more.  <Akane may still be my rival for Ranma-sama's heart but I find myself starting to like her. She does have a flair for being vindictive, and she's the only one who knows how to get to where dearest is.>  She thought to herself and gave a small laugh.  She couldn't help but smile a bit as Akane gave a bit of a shudder.  "Well let

us get down to the second phase of our vengeance."

        Akane nodded to Kodachi.  "I will have everything set up by tonight.  I
take it that your people are ready?"    "The Kuno family ninjas are always ready.  They will await your signal just on the other side of the wall.  If we hadn't already made plans, it would be most interesting to see what their expressions would be when they find everything falling apart around them." 

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        Nabiki looked around.  She had up until five minutes ago been keeping a discreet eye on her sister.  She had heard rumors that Akane had been seeing someone discreetly the past few days.  Nabiki had checked with everyone she knew and nobody had any idea who it was.  That was why she was following her little sister around.  After all it would do to have her make another colossal mistake of falling in love with someone improper.  She had been doing this now for several days and still turned up nothing unusual, beside the fact she chose to walk by the now closed Ucchan and Nekohanten.  "Where could she have gone?" she said to herself, "there is no place she could have walked into and this road is as straight as an arrow.", for now Akane was nowhere to be seen, just normal people walking back and forth on their daily business.  Shrugging Nabiki kept walking the way she had been heading, and if she bumped into her well she could just claim it was a coincidence.

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        The man watched as Nabiki walked by and smiled.  Reaching down to pick up the grocery bag that was beside him he headed off in the other direction.  All was going to plan.  The mistress of the manor would be most pleased and when she was happy life around the estate was much more enjoyable.

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Authors notes:

        well hello to everyone out there.  I apologize for this taking so long
but RL has been keeping me real busy for a while now.  I would also like
to ask those people who were pre-reading for me to send me their email
addresses again because when my old machine belched out the cloud of
blue smoke it took my hard drive along with it.  any and all C&C would be
appreciated ( I know there are spelling mistakes but this is just a rough)
I also have some other fics I am working on at the same time as this one
and hope to have them out soon as well. (I will never ride greyhound to Expo
again!!!! stupid bus driver got lost. and I so wanted to attend the fanfic panel
;_;)

Rabbit
-Reality is only what we perceive it to be.-