Okay, I�ve been planning to write this for quite some time, and only just
got around to it.  It�s a prequel to the shortfic "Coming Back", which I
posted waaaaay back in December, and will go into the events described there
in more detail.

BTW, just so people who don�t like the character know, this is going to be a
"High Shampoo Content" story.  It will also be fairly angsty (although I
don�t consider it a darkfic).


TO LOSE, TO GAIN
  [Part 1 of 2]
A Ranma � Fanfic by Andrew Dynon

Ranma � Created by Rumiko Takahashi

Any & all C&C NEEDED.  MSTs especially welcome.

********
Have you ever been close to tragedy, 
Or been close to folks who have?
Have you ever felt a pain so powerful,
So heavy you collapse?
   - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Knock On Wood"
********

	Dull, grey clouds hung over Nerima ward, blocking the sun, warning of
imminent rainfall over the district.  The rain hadn�t started yet, but
threatened to do so at any moment, pelting the streets and buildings with water.

	Inside a restaurant, a purple-haired girl stirred a pot of ramen that was
cooking on a stove.  She had some strange-looking type of flowers in a bowl
next to her on the bench, and her face, far from carrying its usual cheerful
expression, was, like the sky, gloomy.  She picked up the bowl with the
flowers in it, preparing to tip them into the cooking ramen� and hesitated.
Then, she pushed the cooking-pot away, sighed, and cast the flowers onto the
open flame.  Silently she stared at them as they  burned to ash, then she
turned and sat on the floor of the kitchen, finding herself face-to-face
with her great-grandmother.

	"Shampoo� you are troubled."  It was stating the obvious, but Cologne knew
that sometimes the best thing to do when someone felt like Shampoo did was
to listen to them, let them tell you what they needed to, and help them find
a way to fix things.  Over the past few weeks, the amazon matriarch had
observed her descendant growing increasingly melancholy and listless� to be
frank, unhealthily so.  

	"Yes, great-grandmother.  Shampoo� Shampoo tired of trying do this."

	"I assume you have not forgotten our laws."

	"No, but� Shampoo has tried so many times, failed each time."

	"Understandable.  Too many failures can shatter even a heart of iron.  But
there�s more to it than that, isn�t there?"

	"Shampoo start trying use magic to win Ranma, because Shampoo no think
could make him love her any other way.  But�"

	"But what?" Cologne prompted.

	"But Shampoo think she not want Ranma like that.  Shampoo love Ranma, and
want him love Shampoo.  But Ranma love violent� Ranma love Akane, and
Shampoo not understand why."  She could hold back no longer, and tears began
streaming town her face, mirroring the raindrops that could now be seen
running down the Nekohanten�s window.  "Shampoo just want this to end!!!"
she bawled in a way she could never remember doing.

	Cologne thought silently for several long, agonizing [to Shampoo] moments
before speaking.

	"Very well.  We shall leave, and head back to China.  Pack your things."

	Shampoo and Cologne left quickly and quietly.  The first Ranma or Akane
heard of it was at school the next Monday, when some students mentioned that
"the restaurant with the cute waitress" had suddenly closed down.  Ranma
*would have* rushed there to see what had happened, but that impulse was
prevented from being acted upon by Akane and the softball bat she was
carrying at the time.

*	*	*	*	*

	"We�re home.  Finally." Shampoo said in her native language as she and
Cologne reached the top of the final ridge separating them from the village.
She stood there, viewing the collection of small huts at the bottom of the
valley, letting the wind blow in her face, relieved that all her troubles
seemed to be past.

	Suddenly, she felt herself being grabbed, and turned to see a girl her own
age with dark green odango hair, dressed in a short blue cheongsam [A.
Notes: This is a Chinese dress of the type that Devil Hunter Yohko wears],
hugging her affectionately - the Amazon greeting for a close friend one had
not seen for some time.

	"Xian Pu!  You�re finally home!  I�ve missed you so much!"

	Shampoo returned the hug given to her by her friend.  "Xiao Hua�" she said
wistfully, "I�m glad to see you, too."

	"But, Xian Pu� many of the others� they say�" Shower broke off from hugging
Shampoo, and looked down at the ground.

	"They say what?"

	"They say that you betrayed us, that you are not a true Amazon� some even
say that you should die for your failure." The tone of her voice echoed the
pain in her heart as she continued.  "Xian Pu, I don�t understand why
everyone isn�t just happy that you�re home, like I am!"

	As Shampoo tried to comfort her distressed friend, Cologne closed her eyes,
and thought to herself about the implications of what Shower had said. {You
may not understand, young one,} she thought, {but I feel I may understand
all too well.}

	As the three amazons entered their home village, Shampoo felt a cold,
hostile aura descend on her.  The tribe members whom the returning
Joketsuzoku met were polite, respectful to her and to Cologne, but it was
easy - too easy - to tell that underneath that surface many of them were
contemptuous of her, regarding her as a failure who had no place in their
society.  If only they had experienced what she had, she thought, and could
understand what had made her return.

	Cologne was met outside the Elder�s hut by Rin Tsu, the second-oldest
member of the tribe, whom leadership had reverted to for the duration of the
time Cologne was in Japan.  She seemed just as withered, if not more so,
than Cologne was, and was dressed in a dark blue, hooded robe.  She looked
at the trio disapprovingly as they approached her.

	" Koh Lon, eldest of the Joketsuzoku, I am sure you are fully aware that
Xian Pu has failed to obey our tribe�s laws."  Rin Tsu stated.  "Therefore,
Xian Pu is a criminal, and as such, she must be punished.  The fact that she
is your great-granddaughter is of no importance."

	"It was not Xian Pu�s fault that she did not marry the man Ranma Saotome."
Cologne replied.  "As the matriarch, I have the final word regarding her
guilt or innocence, and it is my decision to pardon her."

	"That�s right!" Shower interjected, her words to Rin Tsu having a hostility
that many would have correctly called foolish.  "Why can�t you�"

	"SILENCE, XIAO HUA!!" Rin Tsu yelled, and Shower immediately complied.
"Koh Lon, it is evident that you refuse to punish Xian Pu because she is of
your blood.  However, remember that most of the tribe members are not." she
snarled, and turned to leave.  Cologne watched her head off.  She could see
that this matter could potentially cause great trouble for the tribe, and
she could also see that Rin Tsu was likely agitating tribe members over the
matter.  Unfortunately, she could not act against her� not without sparking
hostilities even worse than they were regarding the current matter.  

	Sighing, the elder entered her hut.  She prayed the situation would not
become as bad as she feared.

* 	*	*	*	*

	Shampoo put the handful of herbs she had collected into a pouch and turned
back toward the village she could see silhouetted in the yellow-orange glow
of the setting sun.  She had expected her troubles to end when she came back
to the village� but she could tell, now, that they had only become worse.
If she had thought about it instead of naively feeling happy about putting
her trouble with Ranma behind her, she supposed she would have anticipated
some hostility, but nothing this bad.  With the exception of Shower, her
lifelong friend, hardly anybody spoke to her, and the look in the other
amazons� eyes was one that made it obvious they didn�t consider her their
"sister" anymore.

	Suddenly, she felt herself pushed from behind and fell face-down onto the
rocky path she was walking on.  Recovering and spinning around, she laid
eyes on a girl slightly older than herself, with long, braided, red-brown
hair.  

	"Zhe Lu�"

	"Welcome home," Zhe Lu said in a voice that indicated she was anything but
happy to see Shampoo return. "� TRAITOR!!!"

	"Zhe Lu, back off!" Shampoo warned, not convinced she sounded as
threatening as she wanted to.  "Or I�ll hurt you!"

	"No, you won�t, traitor." Zhe Lu replied.  "*I�m* the one who�s going to
hurt *you*.  No matter what Koh Lon says, you�re no member of our tribe, and
therefore you have no right to be here."

	"You want to fight me?"

	"Yes."

	"Fine then!"  Shampoo advanced toward Zhe Lu and threw a punch, which Zhe
Lu easily blocked.  She then attempted to make several more strikes at Zhe
Lu, all of which were evaded or parried.  Zhe Lu then made her attack, and
Shampoo struggled to avoid the flurry of blows that came toward her.  She
was hit with a number of punches and kicks, knocking her to the ground.
Shampoo�s enemy sneered contemptuously at her.

	"You don�t seem to have improved since you left, traitor."

	Recovering, Shampoo growled at Zhe Lu, and rushed toward the rust-haired
girl.  She landed a punch in her torso, but it was like slamming her fist
into solid steel.  Zhe Lu smirked, grabbed Shampoo�s arm, and twisted
around, locking Shampoo�s joint.  Then, she levered Shampoo with her
shoulder so that the purple-haired girl was upside-down in her grip, and
slammed her head-first into the ground, with enough force for the
medium-sized stone Shampoo�s head landed on to be reduced to a fine dust.
Shampoo lay groaning and only barely conscious, part of her hair stained red
due to bleeding.  Zhe Lu stomped on her abdomen, and she choked up a small
amount of blood.

	"Remember� the fact that I did this to you is your fault alone, and if not
for Koh Lon�s orders, you would be dead now."  Zhe Lu sneered.  "Also
remember, traitor� that I am going to do this to you again, sometime."  

By the time Shampoo managed to stand up, her opponent was gone.

*	*	*	*	*

	The situation was not going to get any better, Cologne thought.  Rin Tsu�s
influence had grown too great in her absence, and there had been a
corresponding wane in the political power among the amazons that was wielded
by herself, their nominal leader.  She had not even been able to punish Zhe
Lu, for fear of causing a riot - a not insignificant number of tribe members
had *supported* Zhe Lu, and believed that Shampoo had gotten off easy for
her crime.  If things continued the way they were going, then there would
only be too options - kill her great-granddaughter, or plunge the tribe into
the blood of a civil war.

	{Shampoo�} she thought to herself.  {For you to forgive me for what I am
about to do is too much to ask.}  

	Cologne wondered if Shampoo ever would have believed that her
great-grandmother was once much like she herself was now.  It seemed that
her family was cursed to lose their childhood very suddenly, and be forced
to grow up emotionally in a short period of time.  She thought back to the
time when she was Shampoo�s age, full of dreams and ideals, rushing off like
so many of her sisters to join the Taiping rebellion and "free China from
the Manchu tyrants".  There, like Shampoo, she had met a man whom she wanted
to love her, but who wouldn�t, and that had indirectly caused the idealism
she had had in her youth to be destroyed.

	"You shall not kill one innocent person or do one unrighteous act, even
though it be to acquire an empire".  Those had been the words of the rebel
leader, Hung Hsiu-Chuan.

	Great propaganda, but unworkable policy.

*	*	*	*	*

	"Xian Pu, by failing to marry Ranma Saotome, who defeated you, is guilty of
violating the laws of the Joketsuzoku.  Although this was through no fault
of her own�" Cologne glared as murmurs from various tribe members were heard
at this "�according to the laws handed down from our goddess, she must still
be punished.  Therefore, from this nightfall, Xian Pu is stripped of status
as a member of the Joketsuzoku, and exiled from all tribal lands.  If she
ever returns, she is to be killed on sight."  It was all Cologne could do to
prevent a civil war.  She knew there would be more than a few who were
unhappy with what they correctly perceived as a light punishment, but at
least this way, she hoped, she could avoid any unnecessary bloodshed�
including that of her great-granddaughter.

	Shampoo, for her part, was shocked by Cologne�s words.  Although she had
known the situation within the tribe full well, the tone her
great-grandmother had spoken in when she delivered the sentence was one that
betrayed no trace of kindness nor sympathy toward her.  Had Cologne truly
allied with the rest of the tribe against her?  To her, it seemed so.

	Cologne beckoned, and Shampoo followed her to a small hut a little way from
the village.  There, the former amazon knelt before her great-grandmother,
who picked up a branding iron with the character for "outcast" embossed on
it.  She prepared herself as Cologne moved to press it on her forehead,
determined not to close her eyes or scream.  But when the brand touched her
skin, searing pain rushed through her entire body, and she let out a scream
that could only be equalled by the damned.  But even the physical pain she
felt was less than her emotional pain, knowing how happy all of her
ex-sisters must be about the pain she felt.

	Then, Cologne picked up a drab grey robe and placed it around her.  Oddly
enough, Shampoo felt something heavy inside the robe.  What it was, she
didn�t know and there would be no opportunity to check.  After Cologne had
placed the robe around her, she took a long strip of black cloth and
blindfolded the purple-haired girl.  Then, she took her hand and led her out
of the hut.

*	*	*	*	*

	Shampoo felt herself grabbed roughly and thrown out of the cart she had
been riding in, her body impacting on stony, sloping ground.  Removing her
blindfold, she could see that the land was not very different from her
former home - hilly and bare, with very few signs of human habitation.  With
her body sore from the rough journey she had had, she climbed to the top of
the hill she was on, and saw a cliff a little way downhill on the other
side.  Sitting on a stone near the cliff edge, she wept.  There was nothing
left, everything she had once possessed had now been taken from her, all
that she had ever desired was eternally unreachable.  Her love, her
"friends", her status as an amazon� and her self-respect.  In the moments as
she stood on the edge of the cliff, she silently prayed for her next life to
be better than this one had been.

	Then, she fell, but not off the cliff.  Somebody had grabbed her from
behind, and she fell backward, ending up half-sitting, half-lying on the
ground.  Turning around, she laid eyes on the person who had rescued her.
Xiao Hua.

	"Xian Pu!  Please, don�t do this!" she pleaded, tears flowing down her cheeks.

	"Why shouldn�t I?  I�m just an arrogant little girl who brought shame to
the family and all of the Joketsuzoku through her own stupidity!  They were
right, I deserve to die!  You�re polluting yourself by being near me!"  She
tried to stand, to throw herself off the cliff, but Xiao Hua grabbed her leg.
	
	"Don�t say things like that!  It wasn�t your fault!  Can�t you see that
they did this hoping you�d kill yourself?  If you do, then they�ve won!"

	"But everything�s gone." Shampoo broke down into a fit of tears.  "I�ve
lost everything.  How can I live like that?"

	"By making something new." Xiao Hua looked straight into Shampoo�s eyes,
and smiled at her.  "Since you�ve lost everything you�ve had in your life,
it can only get better from now on.  And since your life�s going to get
better, why end it?"

	The pair stared at each other for several seemingly-endless seconds.  Then,
Shampoo�s face broke into a smile, and she leaned forward to hug her friend.
She would have cried with joy� if she had any tears left after her sorrow.
Removing the cloak she had been wearing, she raised it over her head� and
heard the clatter of wood on stone as something fell out of it, onto the
ground behind her.  Then she let go of the cloak, and stood watching as it
caught the wind and sailed away from the cliff.

	"Shampoo, What�s that?" Shower asked, pointing toward the item that had
fallen out of the cloak - how was it, Shampoo asked herself, that she had
not noticed it until it fell out of there? - and saw a small, plain wooden
box.  Opening it, Shampoo saw a sheet of parchment, and underneath that, a
thick, leather-bound book.  She picked up the parchment, and let out her
breath in surprise as she read it aloud.

	"My dearest Great-Granddaughter,

	"I cannot ask you to forgive me , or any of your former sisters, for what
has been done to you, and I accept responsibility for.  It is ironic that a
law our goddess made for the good of our people has resulted in your loss.
However, I feel you are the only person this may be safe with.  Please
protect it, and may the future be brighter than the past."

	"And what�s the book she wants you to protect?"  Shower asked.

	Shampoo opened the front cover.

	"Her manual of fighting techniques."

END PART ONE.

IN PART 2: "Where�s Mousse?", you ask?  He�s going to make his appearance in
part 2, as Shampoo attempts to create a new life for herself.  But the
shadows of the past are not easily removed.  Let�s just say that, for her
own sake, Shampoo had better learn the techniques in that book well.  She�s
going to need them.


AUTHOR�S NOTES:  Well, I finally got this done� after eight friggin� months
of putting it off.  Hopefully, part 2 won�t take that long to come out.

It�s ironic that constant character-bashing can actually make you *like* the
character in question.  The Shampoo-bashing that many people (they know who
they are) engaged in was kind of why I wrote this fic.

This story is a prequel to my shortfic "Coming Back" (written in December
last year) that examines the events therein in greater detail.  Between when
that came out and now, Nick Leifker wrote "Borrowed Time" which contained
some similar concepts to the ones used here.  I don�t think it had any
direct influence, but�

The move Zhe Lu used on Shampoo was based on one in a cool martial arts OVA
called "Natsuki Crisis", which is not nearly as well known as it deserves.
I may be writing a Ranma/Natsuki Crisis crossover sometime in the future.

Just repeating:  Any and all C&C is welcome.  MSTs are especially appreciated.	
_______________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Dynon

"You're only young once, but you can be immature any day."
	- The Coodabeen Champions

ALL THE PARANOID PEOPLE ARE OUT TO GET ME.