Waters Under Earth

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum - harnums@hotmail.com

All Ranma characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, first
published by Shogakukan in Japan and brought over to North
America by Viz Communications.

Commentary is craved.  Send it publicly, privately, whatever.  Just
send it.

Homepage at:  http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/9758

Chapter 27 : Trials (2 of 3)

     The tension of the air dissolved into thunderous clapping.
>From off beyond the range of the lamps, the red dancer came back,
pulling off his demon mask and revealing the face of a man no
older than twenty, sweating and smiling proudly.  The other 
dancers stood to their feet and the clapping went on, Akane
joining in, seeing Ryoga do the same.

     The clapping went on for a time, and then the dancers went
back into the crowd, shedding the excess of their costumes as 
they did, accepting the slaps on the back and embraces of the
other villagers with a resolute good nature.

     Rouge turned wide, shimmering eyes to Shampoo.  "That was
amazing," she said.  "I've never seen anything like that
before.  But what happened to the child?  To the first man?  To
the wives?"

     Shampoo shrugged.  "Is only story.  Child learn how to hate
and fear and cause pain from father hurting child, so that why we
have hate and fear and pain.  From wives, we learn how to heal
and love and defend ourselves.  So we have evil and good in us."

     She rolled her eyes.  "Not mean it all true.  But truth
behind it."

     "I don't think it's important whether or not it really
happened that way," Ryoga said quietly.  "It's what it tells us 
about the way we are that's really important."

     Shampoo nodded and looked surprised.  "Yes.  That right."
     
     Fang Shi stood up and again banged the haft of her polearm
on the boards.  She called out in Chinese to the crowd, and again
a hush fell.

     Shampoo's face darkened.  "She is saying I break law for
second time, and must be punished.  She demand an explanation
for Cologne's absence and the absence of my..."

     She paused for a moment.  "Ranma."
     
     Fang Shi spoke again, harshly.  Shampoo paled visibly.  "She
will seek exile."

     Lang Bei stood and said something after a quick glance at
Fang Shi.  Shampoo looked visibly relieved.  "Lang Bei says that
I can tell story to council and to village.  Tell about what
Cologne do."

     She stood to her feet and began to walk towards the Council.
Akane was sure she felt every eye focus upon Shampoo suddenly,
felt the weight of all those stares along with the other girl, 
and realized suddenly what bravery this must take.

     Shampoo stood before the Council on the grass of the field,
head bowed, lit on either side by the flickering of lanterns.  
The hush of the crowd was a loud silence.  Fang Shi snapped
something at her; Lang Bei said something more gently.

     Shampoo stepped onto the platform and looked from face to
face of the Council.  She raised her head, nodded once, then
turned to face the villagers, her back to the Council, and began
to talk.  

     Akane listened, not understanding any of the words, trying
to sense by tone the gist of what Shampoo said.  Rouge translated
occasionally, and from what she said, Akane understood that
Shampoo was telling about what had happened to her in Japan.
Surprisingly, if Rouge was speaking true, the account was
remarkably unbiased.

     She talked for a long time.  Near the end, when she began to
go into detail about how Cologne had gone mad, her face 
tightened, and Akane was close enough to see how much pain was in
her eyes, even as she denounced her great-grandmother before the
entire village.

     Watching Shampoo as she spoke, Akane felt an odd kinship
with her former rival, something that transcended all barriers of
culture or language or past.  She seemed to see into Shampoo's
heart, see how frightened and alone the other girl felt.  And she
felt a strange, fierce pride as Shampoo stood alone and spoke
without the slightest tremble in her voice for nearly two hours,
and the lanterns burned low, and night came on.  Each time 
Shampoo paused for breath, the whispers swept through the crowd.  
And each time she began to speak again, they died and there was 
only silence.

     "I wish I could speak Chinese," Ryoga muttered under his
breath in one period of silence.

     Rouge brushed a hand through her hair.  "It's all very
interesting.  Did all those things really happen to you, Akane?"

     Akane shrugged.  "Shampoo doesn't need to make anything up.
The whole story is weird enough by itself."

     At last, there came a point where Shampoo paused, and said
nothing more.  On the bench behind her, Lang Bei slowly nodded 
her head and stood up.

     "Akane Tendo," she said in Japanese, voice breaking out
across the darkness like a whip.  "Approach the Council."

     Licking her lips nervously, Akane stood up and smoothed out
her skirt, conscious that every eye truly was upon her now as she
walked up to the edge of the wooden platform and paused.  

     "Get up here, girl," Fang Shi snapped quietly, glaring at
her with hard, dark eyes.  Forcing herself to meet the ancient
woman's gaze, Akane stepped up onto the platform.  The 
Joketsuzoku Council watched her like hawks; even Lang Bei's eyes
seemed without any warmth.

     "Do you believe that Shampoo sincerely wanted Ranma Saotome
as her husband, and tried to convince him to return with her to
China?" Fang Shi asked in a quiet, menacing voice.
     
     Akane thought only for a second before answering.  "Oh, 
sure.  She hardly ever let up."

     Fang Shi nodded, and shouted out to the crowd in Chinese
before turning back to Akane.  "And to what extent did Cologne
aid her in this?"

     That took a longer moment of thought.  "Not much after she
first showed up.  Mostly, she just seemed to watch."

     Fang Shi nodded again, and again called out to the crowd.  
"And did Ranma Saotome defeat Saffron of the Phoenix?"

     Akane closed her eyes and nodded.  "He did."
     
     "And Saffron and his people are real?"
     
     Akane nodded again.
     
     Fang Shi spoke to the crowd again, and Akane opened her
eyes.  The old woman did not look pleased, and neither did 
several other Council members.
     
     "You may leave our presence now, outsider," Fang Shi said.
Akane slowly turned and walked back towards where Rouge and Ryoga
sat at the front of the crowd, trying to somehow meet the eyes of
everyone who stared at her.

     As she settled back down between her friends, she heard Lang
Bei calling out.  Happosai stood up from where he had been 
sitting with Genma and Shampoo's father, and approached the
platform with a large bag slung over his shoulder.  He hopped up
onto the platform, and began to pile objects in front of the
Council, speaking rapidly and loudly in Chinese.  Akane saw the
Council members, even Fang Shi, looking on with interest and
slight amazement.

     "What a horrible man his grandfather sounds," Rouge said
with a trace of disgust.  "Is he truly as vile as he says?"

     Akane was confused for a moment, and then recovered.  "Uh... 
yeah," she said quickly.  Ryoga nodded his head in an 
unconvincing gesture of agreement.

     Fang Shi said something to Happosai, and he bowed and backed
off the platform, leaving the treasures he had stolen so long ago
behind.  Shampoo followed him a moment later, and Fang Shi stood
up, leaning for support on her polearm.  She spoke loudly and
sharply to the crowd.

     "She says the meeting is over," Rouge translated, covering a
yawn with a slim hand.  "The Council will convene in private now.
They will send a messenger to Shampoo's house when a decision is
reached."

     The gathered villagers were already beginning to disperse,
the festive air they had assumed before returning to a degree, as
they walked back towards the village that stood a few hundred 
feet away from the large grassy field in which the meeting had
been held, talking excitedly to each other.  

     Shampoo was before them now, looking downcast, her eyes
shadowed, weariness finally showing through.  "We go home now."

     Akane stood up and put a hand on the Joketsuzoku's shoulder,
feeling the tension running through her.  "How do you think it
went?"

     Shampoo closed her eyes.  "I not know."
     
     Looking suddenly up at the stars, the girl sighed softly.
"This field same place where Ranma defeat me as girl.  It all
begin here.  Now maybe it end here."

     Her shoulders slumped, and the weariness seemed to break
through completely now, as if she might fall.  "Go home now.
Only thing to do is wait."

**********

     Konatsu handed Ukyou the cup of water.  She smiled at him
and sipped from it, sitting up in bed with the covers pulled up
to her waist.  Now that she was fully awake, she was beginning to
realize just what kind of shape she was actually in, and the
realization was not heartening.  She was almost sure she had a
few cracked ribs, and the twisted angle and swollen flesh of her 
right knee left her unsure of whether she'd be able to put weight
on it.  The fingers of her left hand were hard to move without
pain.  Along with those, she had a myriad of cuts and bruises
across her entire body.

     "What are we going to do?" Konatsu lamented, sinking down
into the chair by the bed and sighing.

     Ukyou put her drained cup down on the bedside table and
tried to look reassuringly wise.  "Well, we need to figure out a
way to get out of here first..."

     Konatsu smiled sadly.  "What do you mean, Ukyou?  There are
no locks upon the doors here.  No bars upon the windows."

     Ukyou blinked at him.  "Then why..."
     
     "Stone walls do not a prison make," Konatsu said quietly.
"Sometimes, they don't need to.  My staying here was the only way
I could be sure you were safe.  I should have told you not to
come after me.  I should have told you."

     She shook her head.  "I would have come no matter what."
     
     Konatsu didn't seem to hear her.  "Now that you're awake, 
I'll talk to Hako, see if I can get her to let you go if you
promise not to return.  But..."

     He hung his head.  "I don't think it will work."
     
     Ukyou felt a flare of anger.  "Konatsu, I'm not leaving this
place without you.  Do you want to stay here?"

     He answered with silence.  Ukyou went on.  "There's no locks
here?  We can just walk out?"

     "We'd never make it," Konatsu said.  "You don't understand
what Kenzan is, Ukyou.  She is ancient.  Wherever I go, Hako can
find me.  She can find you too.  I was able to stop her from
hurting you once, but I don't have any more tricks to pull."

     "Konatsu!" she said sharply.  "You can't--"
     
     "No," he interrupted, gazing at her fiercely.  "I can.  I am
not going to let her hurt you.  And that means staying here."

     Ukyou was incredulous.  "But she's insane!"
     
     Konatsu shook his head.  "No.  What she is, is worse than
insane."

     He reached up and brushed a lock of hair away from his face.
"But she is clan leader, and I must obey her."

     "You stopped obeying your mother and sisters," Ukyou pointed
out.

     Konatsu's looked away from her, towards the door that 
presumably led out of the room.  "Hako is not like my mother and
sisters."

     Ukyou nodded silently and stared at the sheets of the bed.
     
     "Did you ever hear anything about Ranma?" Konatsu said after
a few moments of uncomfortable quiet had passed.

     "Akane went to China to look for him with some of the 
others," Ukyou said.  "I would have gone, but..."

     "You chose to come after me instead of him?" Konatsu asked 
in a soft, wondering voice.

     Ukyou nodded, feeling her face tighten as the tide of
conflicting emotions the thought of Ranma brought out in her rose
to the surface.  "Yeah.  I... Everyone else was going after him,
but you..."

     She trailed off, made mute by the stunned look in his large,
dark eyes.  Once you knew Konatsu was male, she realized, you 
began to look at him in a different way, searching for what made
him masculine rather than feminine.  It helped that he wasn't
wearing any makeup right now, but as she studied the lines of
his face, she could not understand why she had ever thought he
was female.

     "Thank you, Ukyou," he said, reaching out and taking her
hand between two of his.  "You... you have no idea how much that
means to me."

     And she could not bring herself to speak, the depths of his
eyes catching her soul and holding it.  "No problem," she finally
managed to croak.

     A sudden knocking on the door made him release her hand and
turn in his chair.  The door swung open, and Ukyou released her
held breath when she saw that it was not Hako.  The woman who 
stepped into the room seemed almost the opposite of the cruel 
leader of Kenzan.  She was short and plump, and she had the most 
serene, lovely face Ukyou had ever seen, flawless and smooth, 
with bright, kind eyes and a broad smile.

     "I hope I am not interrupting anything," she said.  Her
voice was very soft, almost a whisper.  "It is good to see you
are awake finally."

     Konatsu rose out of the chair and stood between the woman
and the bed.  "Who are you?"

     The woman half-bowed.  "I am Nenreiko.  I am a healer at
times.  May I examine your friend?"

     Konatsu glanced back to Ukyou.  "Ukyou?"
     
     Ukyou looked at Nenreiko for a long moment, and then nodded.
Somehow, she trusted her.  The plump woman stepped past Konatsu, 
graceful despite her stockiness and a pronounced limp in her left 
leg, and stood at one side of the bed.  She stretched out her 
hand and touched Ukyou's forehead, her fingertips cool and
soothing.

     She nodded slowly, her smile never leaving her face.  "What
I am going to do may hurt a little."

     "That's okay," Ukyou said.  Standing nearby, Konatsu's face
twisted in a half-frown, as Nenreiko moved her hand down to 
Ukyou's left shoulder and rested there.  Ukyou winced; she had a
lot of bruises there from being thrown against the wall by Hako.

     "Are you ready?" Nenreiko asked softly.
     
     Ukyou nodded.  And pain snapped brutally through her entire 
left arm, through bone and sinew and blood and flesh, so huge she 
could not even scream, could only let out a whimper like a dying 
animal.  Her vision darkened.  Unconsciousness threatened for a
long second.

     Then Nenreiko took her hand away, and the pain stopped.
Almost sobbing, Ukyou lay for a moment in the aftershocks of that
pain, before she realized it didn't hurt anymore.  Her left arm
felt slightly numb, but there was no more pain, and she flexed
the fingers of her hand easily.  "How did you..."

     Nenreiko's smile seemed permanent.  "I have certain skills."
     
     "Did Hako send you?" Konatsu asked, still glaring
suspiciously at the woman.

     Nenreiko nodded.  "Hako and I are acquaintances.  We do not
share the same views on all things, nor does she dictate to me
what I do."

     "Konatsu," Ukyou said quietly, staring wonderingly at her
arm.  "It's okay.  Really, it's okay."

     He nodded, licked his lips uncomfortably, and turned to 
stare at the door.  Nenreiko turned her attention back to Ukyou.
"Ready for more?"

     Ukyou nodded again.  
     
     "Don't feel you need to hold back the screams," the plump
woman said.  "In fact, it's better if you don't."

     She put a gentle hand on each side of Ukyou's ribcage, and
Ukyou gritted her teeth and waited.  A steel-sheathed fist
clenched her torso for an infinite expanse of pain, and she
gasped and sucked air desperately when Nenreiko took her hands
away.  Again, the pain of bruised or cracked ribs was gone.  She
felt tears of agony on her face.

     Nenreiko stepped away from the bed.  "It is not safe to do
too much at one time.  You'll need to rest for a while before I
can work on you again."

     "Thank you," Ukyou whispered weakly.  Nenreiko nodded once
and turned to go, limping heavily across the floor as she did.
She passed the silent Konatsu, whose eyes tracked her as she
opened the door and left.  Ukyou caught a glimpse of a narrow
wooden hallway beyond the open door, and then it vanished.

     Konatsu sat down at the foot of the bed and folded his hands
in his lap.  "Did it hurt much?"

     Ukyou nodded.  "A lot.  But only for a second, and it 
doesn't hurt anymore."

     "Nothing good can come from Hako."  Konatsu's face was dark
with anger.  "Only pain, in the end."

**********

     Nabiki walked the streets as night came on, one hand thrust
into the pocket of her jeans, the other gripping the bulging
envelope tightly at her side.

     She stared at her feet as she walked, and looked up at last
to see where she had gotten to.  Somehow, the familiar path of 
the streets had become entangled in her mind.  The area she was 
in was shabby and poor, tenement-style apartment buildings rising
all around, between faded storefronts covered with dust.  It was
not a place she ever would have walked through.  It was place to
be avoided, a place without hope.  She ignored the people passing
by as if above them, ignored the faint sound of children laughing
that echoed from between open windows dozens of feet above the
sidewalk.

     She was, she realized with a twinge of annoyance, lost.  She
had no idea where she was, and no idea how to find her way back.
How, she wondered, had she ever gone so far astray?
     
     Two hard-eyed boys about her age tracked her with their eyes
as they lounged against the wall of an abandoned building, 
cigarettes clamped between their teeth glowing red in the slow
fall of the night.  Half the streetlamps here seemed broken or
flickering, and there was too much, too much dark.  The shadows
seemed to gather in the corners of buildings and the depths of
alleyways.  Annoyance began to give way to fear as she paused at 
a corner and studied the unfamiliar street names.  Where was she?

     "You dropped this."
     
     She turned to see one of the boys proffering the envelope of
money, a slight grin on his face.  Smoke wreathed his face from
the cigarette held burning between his fingers.

     Warily, she reached out and took it.  "Thank you."
     
     He nodded and turned to walk back to his friend, then 
paused.  "You lost?"

     "A little," she replied grudgingly.
     
     "Just go up that way there," the boy said, pointing up a
long, narrow street.  "Take a right, go up another block, and
you'll be at one of the main streets.  This area's sort of a
maze."

     Nabiki nodded an abrupt thanks and turned away, anxious to
leave the place behind.  She heard the boy scuffing his shoes 
across the sidewalk as he went back to join his friend, the sound 
of their conversation again filling the air.  She saw people 
calling out to each other from the open windows of apartments, 
other people looking up from where they walked on the sidewalk to 
return the greeting.  Despite the darkness of the place, the 
looming shadows of the buildings and the broken lights, the air 
was filled with the hum of human voice.

     She counted the money in the envelope, found to her
surprise it was all there, and felt an unfamiliar sense of regret
that she had been as rude as she had been to the boy.  She 
followed his directions, and on finding herself within a few
minutes at a place she recognized, began to wonder how she had
ever become lost at all.  

     Across the street, she saw a small park, darkly clustered 
with trees and wound throughout with concrete paths thinly 
suffused in the light of streetlamps placed at regular intervals 
along their edges.  Cutting across it would get her home quicker 
than any other way, and a quick glance at her watch showed her it 
had been over an hour now since she'd left the house.  The night 
was deepening, and she had to be home for bed.  There was school 
tomorrow, and she still had a few bits of homework to do.

     She crossed the street in a cluster of several of the other
people that made up the crowds of the night streets, crowds that
were slowly thinning down in residential areas like this as the
hours went by.  Entering into the park, she walked down the path,
past a bench where the murmurs of two lovers rose into the night
as they embraced.  For a moment, she felt an aching sense of
profound loneliness, and then it passed as she went deeper into
the park, under the shadows cast by trees.  From far off, there
came the screaming of a siren, rising and falling, like the tide
rolling in and out.

     Nabiki walked off the path, away from the glare of lights
and into a shadowed grove, leaning her back against a tree and
hugging her arms around herself.  Summer was fading, the night
was cold, and the leaves of the trees soon would turn, and fall,
and die.

     "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself, closing
her eyes and listening to the crinkle of the envelope as she
tightened her grip on it.  The bark of the tree was rough against
her back.  A twig cracked behind her, and a hand fell upon her
shoulder.  She let out a yelp and instinctively started to run,
but a strong hand grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

     "Nabiki Tendo," a familiar voice said into her ear.  "Why do
you seek to flee from me?"

     Kuno's hand released her arm, and she turned to look at him,
rubbing the spot he'd gripped.  "You surprised me.  Why are you
sneaking up on a girl in a park, anyway?  You looking to get
arrested."

     There was a strange look in Kuno's eyes, she noted vaguely.
He said nothing, only bent down and picked up the envelope she'd
dropped.  Scattered bills were spread out on the ground between
them, fallen when the unsealed envelope had opened upon hitting 
the ground.

     "You dropped this," he said sardonically as he straightened
to his feet and held it out to her, his eyes sweeping across the 
thousands of yen scattered across the ground.  "Profit has been 
good lately, has it not?"

     "Not your business," Nabiki replied shortly, snatching the
envelope back from him.  "Well, are you going to help me pick 
them up or not?"

     Kuno smiled and knelt, beginning to gather up bills into his
hands.  Nabiki crouched down and began to do the same.  Their
eyes met across the foot of space between them, and Nabiki
realized only then that Kuno was wearing the shirt and pants of
his school uniform.  She had not seen him in those since before
Ranma had come.  A vague feeling of wrongness began to spread
through her.

     "I believe that is all of them," Kuno said, handing her the
money he had gathered and standing back up.  "Quite a lot of
money, Nabiki Tendo.  What did you get it all for?"

     Nabiki regarded him flatly.  "This and that."
     
     "Ahh," Kuno replied sagely.  "Indeed."
     
     Nabiki looked him up and down.  "Why are you dressed like 
that?  What happened to the samurai costume?"

     Kuno shrugged.  "I do what I want."
     
     Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed her shoulder in a tight
grip.  "Stop working for them, Nabiki.  They will take everything
they can from you, and then they will destroy you."

     Her mouth went dry, and for a shocked moment, she could not
respond.  Instinct took over quickly, though.  "What are you
talking about, Kuno-baby?"

     "You know what I am talking about," he said quietly.  "You
do not see what it is you serve, Nabiki.  You must see that there
will be a time when they need you no longer, and then what?"

     His eyes caught her, and there was none of the Kuno she knew
in them, no sign of him at all.  "Already it begins, Nabiki.  
They leave, all those who were gathered to him, and only we who
were here before remain."

     "Who?" Nabiki snapped.  "Ranma?"
     
     Kuno nodded.  His eyes were hard, so hard, dark and bright. 
"He was the key.  I saw that from the start.  I was shown that 
from the start.  But all else was lies, Nabiki.  All else was 
lies.  They kill us for their sport, Nabiki.  For their sport."

     He was, Nabiki realized with cold conviction, insane.  She
saw it with a sudden, absolute clarity.  The buffoonery had been
a guise, a mask.  He was not a fool; he was a madman.  But more 
frightening than that, more frightening than almost anything else 
could have possibly been, he knew.  Somehow, somehow, he knew.
     
     Nabiki turned and ran.  She expected him to follow, his long
legs to outpace her, expected more revelations of the deepest
secrets of her life to rise from him like from some damned oracle
staring into her soul, but he only stood, watching her go.

**********

     "Can either of you make light?" Ranma asked.
     
     He felt a tingle like a shock of electricity from Wiyeed's
hand to his.  "No," the girl said moments later.  "I can reach my
ki, but I get nothing."

     "Nor I," Herb growled.  He sounded very close by.  
     
     Ranma reached out towards where Herb's voice had come from,
and felt it impact with a hard chest.  "Herb?"

     A hand grabbed his wrist.  "Yes."
     
     Wiyeed's footsteps echoed on the stone floor as she moved,
presumably to stand next to her brother.  "Take my hand, 
brother."

     Herb presumably did so.  Ranma could not see anything.  His
eyes had made no adjustment to the darkness in all this time.

     "Focus," Wiyeed said.  "Picture your ki flowing from out of 
your hands into the hands you are holding."

     As Ranma did so, he felt a much sharper shock from the hands
he was holding.  There was a moment in which he seemed to be one
and yet three, and then he was only one again, and on the edge of
his senses he could feel Herb and Wiyeed, the shape of their
power.  

     "Concentrate," Wiyeed whispered.  "Make light.  All of us
together."

     He felt the power flow through them, an endless cycle, from
Herb's hand to his hand to Wiyeed, and he willed the light to
come, placed his will with theirs.  And the light came, thin and
pale, but it came, outlining their bodies in white fire, casting
back the darkness and showing them a small room of stone without
exits, low-ceilinged and confining.  Lime was on his back in one
corner.  In another, Ranma saw Kima sprawled half-leaning against
the wall, wings askew.  Mint was curled into a tight ball in
another corner.  None of them were moving.

     "Don't let go of each other's hands," Wiyeed said, her face
pale in the light.

     "Where are we?" Herb asked wearily, looking even more 
haggard than his sister.  His white hair looked almost silver 
from the way the light struck it.

     MY PLACE.
     
     Wiyeed pursed her lips and looked at the ground as the huge
voice echoed.  There was a vast grief in her eyes.  "When Tanzei
interrupted the Nightpool ceremony, he must have..."

     CLEVER CLEVER CLEVER the voice taunted, rising from the
stone.  CLEVER CLEVER CLEVER CLEVER.

     "Shut up," Herb snarled.  Surprisingly, the voice did.  
"What is that?"

     "Can't we try to figure out what we're doing here later?"
Ranma asked peevishly.  "Why don't we make sure everyone else is
alright first?"

     They moved over to Kima, hands still linked.  Ranma saw with
a surprising amount of relief that her chest rose and fell with
slow, even breaths.  "Kima?"
     
     She blinked and opened her eyes, looking blearily up at him.
"Where are we?"

     MY PLACE.
     
     "I told you to shut up," Herb shouted, ripping his hand out
of Ranma's and letting fly with a blast of ki at the ceiling.  
The light around their bodies immediately extinguished, and they
saw the room for a moment longer before Herb's blast slammed into
the ceiling and dissipated.  Then, again, they were in darkness.

     "Brother!" Wiyeed admonished.
     
     "My head hurts," Herb muttered.  "Make him shut up, Wiyeed."
     
     "I can't, Herb," Wiyeed said with a strange compassion.  
"Not any more.  Only you can."

     Herb's voice was edged with pain.  "He's so strong, Wiyeed.
And he's got so much hate."

     Ranma heard the sound of Kima rising to her feet, and then
her hand touched his shoulder.  "What's going on?" she whispered.

     "I don't know," Ranma said.  "Everything seemed to be going
fine, and then we woke up here..."

     "The waters of the dragons are linked by their kinship,"
Wiyeed said in a tight, quiet voice.  She squeezed his hand 
lightly in hers.  "I tried to use the waters at Jusendo to 
bring us through to the Lady's home, but..."

     CLEVER the voice said from the darkness, cutting her off.
YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WATER CLEAN.  YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT
MIGHT FIND ITS WAY INSIDE IF YOU'RE NOT CAREFUL.

     "Oh?" Ranma said.  "And what found its way inside, then?"
     
     ME.

-Continued in section 3

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