(continued from first half...)

- - - - - -

The guards never even saw what hit them.  With a pair of 
lightning-quick, perfectly accurate strikes, Pantyhose Tarou 
rendered them both unconscious.  He grabbed hold of each of 
their collars as they went limp, lowering them gently to the 
floor so their armor wouldn't make much noise.  

He paused to grin at his handiwork.  He'd like to see Hibiki 
or fem-boy pull THAT off.  

He didn't have much time to spare, though.  He crept soundlessly 
down the hallway, blending into the shadows.  He had a job to 
do here - speed and stealth were of the essence.  If everything 
kept going smoothly, he'd have his prize and be long gone 
before anyone in the Musk Dynasty knew he'd been there.

He knew he could have tried to force his way in.  The elite 
fighters of this ancient clan had reputations which even he 
respected, but he doubted they'd be a match for his powerful 
cursed form.  He could have just barreled through their 
defenses and taken what he wanted.  

But this way was better - this way was smarter.  Tarou would 
have liked to test his strength against some of the great 
warriors here, but now was not the time for such indulgences.  
He had to stay focused on his plan.  So long as the Reikoku 
was out there, it was his top priority.  

He chuckled to himself as he slipped past another defense post.  
The guards were oblivious to his presence - he moved amongst 
them like a ghost.  This was a brilliant plan.  If he could 
pull this off, he'd not only defeat the Reikoku, but he would 
become all but invincible.  He just needed to keep his cool, 
maintain his focus, and stick to his plan.

His revenge would come in due time.

- - - - - -

The first thing Ukyou noticed when she woke up was that the 
winds had shifted.  She leaned up on her elbow, feeling the 
breeze on her skin to make sure she wasn't mistaken.  For 
two days, they'd been camped out at the base of this mountain, 
unable to take a shot at the treacherous path across because 
of the intensity of the winds above them.  The villagers nearby 
had warned them in no uncertain terms that trying to cross the 
pass while the winds raged was suicide.  But for the prey of 
the Reikoku, staying still was suicide in another guise.  

If the winds had shifted, then maybe the pass would be clear.  
Ukyou scrambled out from under the covers, stood up, and...

She was nearly floored by the odor which the breeze had carried 
to her nostrils.  There was only one thing in the world that 
made a smell like that - rotting carp. Ukyou was a little 
surprised to realize that the foul stench was coming from 
Ranma's direction.

For the past week or so, Ranma had been setting up camp a 
good distance away from the two of them.  He'd warned them 
both that he was doing some sort of meditative training, and 
that they shouldn't interrupt him.  He refused to elaborate 
further on the matter, but Ukyou had heard him making all 
sorts of noises before he went to bed, clanking around with 
buckets and branches over in his private encampment.  She 
hadn't the foggiest notion of what he could be doing, but 
why did his sleeping area smell so terrible?

"Hey Ranchan!" she shouted.  "Wake up!"

Ryouga rose blearily from slumber a few paces away.  He 
blinked around drowsily for a few moments, but his eyes bugged 
out wide the moment he caught wind of the odor.  He stared 
around wildly for the source of the smell.

"Ranchan!" Ukyou shouted.  "Is something wrong?"

Ryouga held his nose and glared in Ranma's direction.  "What 
the hell?"

Ukyou caught sight of some movement from Ranma's bed.  The 
pig-tailed martial artist was a heavy sleeper usually, but 
she knew he hadn't been resting very well since he started 
this weird training of his.  He was always surly and cranky 
in the mornings now.  "Whaddya want?" he called back.

"It smells like you slept with a dead fish, Saotome!" Ryouga 
snapped.

Ranma sniffed the air, winced, and waved reassuringly to 
them.  "It aint' a big deal.  I'm gonna go clean up before 
breakfast."

"The wind changed, Ranchan!" Ukyou exclaimed.

"Great," he grunted back.  She had hoped he'd be a little 
more enthusiastic - he was the one who was always pushing 
for them to make better time - but it was a little too much 
to expect this early in the morning.  Well, she thought, the 
only place to bathe was a nearby river that came out of the 
mountains.  If the icy water didn't wake him up, nothing 
would.

Breakfast was all but ready by the time the shivering 
Ranma-chan returned from the river.  She scrambled up as 
close to the campfire as humanly possible, twisting to try 
to get as much of her body into the warmth as she could 
manage.  "P... put some more wood on, Ucchan," she begged 
through chattering teeth.

"Just a sec, Ranchan.  I don't wanna burn the breakfast."

Ryouga regarded the red-headed girl dubiously.  "What were 
you doing?  What was with that smell?"

"S...shut up," she snapped.  Ranma-chan dug into her breakfast 
like a starving wolf the moment Ukyou set it in front of her.  

"Really, Ranchan," Ukyou said between bites of her own 
breakfast.  "Why don't you tell us what you're up to?"

Ranma-chan grunted and washed down a mouthful with a swig 
of coffee.  "Don't you guys worry about it.  I think I almost 
got the hang of it now."

"Of what?" Ryouga asked.

"Somethin' that won't do you guys no good, believe me."

"It's just..." Ukyou tried to put the right mixture of 
nonchalance and suggestiveness into her tone, "I was hoping 
you wouldn't be sleeping so far away from me... us, I mean..."

Ranma-chan gave her that blank stare with which she'd become 
all too familiar.  Ukyou sighed.  They didn't come much more 
clueless than her fiancee.

"Feh," Ryouga snorted.  "The farther the better, as far as 
I'm concerned."

Ranma-chan gave him a black look.  "Oh, is that so, P-Chan?"

"Don't call me that!"

Ranma-chan got a sly, malicious look on her face.  "Maybe you 
just want me away so you can try snugglin' up in another 
girl's bed at night, eh piggy?"

Ukyou just about gagged.  Ryouga bolted to his feet, his 
face flushing red with anger and embarrassment.  "Shut up, 
Ranma!"

Ranma-chan pretended not to notice either of their shocked 
reactions.  "Listen, Ucchan, if Ryouga turns into the 
wonder-pig and tries to put the moves on you, just whack him 
with the spatula."

"How DARE you!" Ryouga snarled.  He took a wild swipe at 
Ranma-chan's head, which she ducked easily.  His own momentum 
sent him stumbling away.  

"Ranchan..." Ukyou gasped.

Ranma-chan adopted a lazy stance, keeping her eyes on the 
enraged Ryouga.  She was feeling a bit vicious this morning, 
and it was fun to tease this big lunk.  "Oh sure, P-Chan, now 
you get all mad.  But you can't deny it, can you?  You never 
miss a chance to go crawlin' into Akane's bed, do you?"

"That's not true!" Ryouga howled, his voice sounding strangled 
and tight.  His next flurry of blows all missed their mark.

"Don't be shy!"  Ranma-chan chided.  "You're her widdle P-Chan!  
I think you like it better that way!"

"Is... is that true?"  Ukyou asked.

Ryouga broke off his attack, paralyzed by his intense shame.  
He stared at her with horrified eyes, his mouth working 
silently around words he couldn't bring himself to speak.

Ukyou had known that P-Chan was Akane's pet, but nobody had 
ever told her that he slept in the same bed as the Tendou 
girl.  She and Akane weren't exactly the best of friends, 
but Ukyou tried to imagine how she'd feel if something like 
that were happening to her.  If a guy took advantage of her 
like that, she'd... she'd...

"How come you haven't told her?" she snapped at Ranma-chan.

The smug look of triumph disappeared from Ranma-chan's 
features.  She was expecting Ryouga to get the sharp end of 
Ukyou's tongue (and probably a few good whacks from the 
battle spatula).  She hadn't expected to be on the defensive 
all of a sudden.

"She... I..." Ranma-chan stuttered.  Then she crossed her 
arms and looked defiant.  "It ain't like I haven't tried, you 
know!  Akane's just about the thickest girl in the world!  
Is it my fault the she's too stupid to figure it out?"

"She's stupid all right," Ukyou muttered, seething with 
anger.  "She's stupid to EVER trust a pair of jackasses like 
you!"

Ranma-chan was taken aback, but Ryouga was positively crushed.  
He howled inarticulately, buried his tear-streaked face in his 
hands, and sprinted off into the thicket of evergreens.  

"Ryouga!" Ranma-chan called after the sobbing martial artist.  
She glared back at Ukyou.  "Now look what ya did!"

"What I did? Don't blame ME for this!"

"If he gets lost, it could take forever to find him!" 
Ranma-chan exclaimed.  "We gotta get movin' before the winds 
change again, damn it!"

"All right, all right!" Ukyou threw up her hands in disgust.  
"Let's split up and find the moron."

Without waiting for a response, Ukyou whirled and stalked 
off into the woods, battle-spatula firmly in her grip.  
Ranma-chan watched her leave, a perplexed look on her 
face.  

<Stupid enough to trust me, is it?> Ranma-chan thought 
irritably.  <What does SHE know?  Akane ain't never trusted 
me once in her miserable life.  Besides, it ain't my fault 
she's too big an idiot to figure out the truth for herself.  
Maybe if she DID ever trust me for a single second, I'd... 
I'd...>

The thought trailed off.  Ranma-chan glared at the woods 
sullenly, angry at both Ukyou and Ryouga.  It's not like 
it was Ukyou's business, anyway.  She wished she'd never 
brought it up in the first place.  Still, she didn't have 
time to stand around and mope about it - they needed to 
find Ryouga, or they'd all be in a world of trouble.  
Ranma-chan chose a direction at random and began her 
search.

Ukyou stomped through the forest, grinding her teeth and 
flexing her grip on her spatula.  She couldn't decide which 
one of those two jerks had her more pissed off.  Part of her 
wanted to take heart from the whole thing - if Ranchan treated 
Akane that way, he couldn't possibly be serious about her as 
a fiancee.  That's how she wanted to see it, anyway.  But she 
couldn't help but think that if the positions were switched, 
and if she was the one who was unknowingly inviting a disguised 
boy into her bed every night instead of Akane, that Ranma 
wouldn't react any differently.  Not for the first time on 
this whole trip, she wondered what kind of jerk she was engaged 
to.  

And as for Ryouga... boy, she was going to give that guy an 
earful when she found him.  She'd thought he was a relatively 
nice, harmless, dim guy.  She'd actually gotten to like him a 
bit on this trip.  Who would have thought he'd turn out to be 
a pervert of the first order?  When she thought of him sneaking 
into Akane's room, watching her dress, leering at her while 
she slept... 

Ukyou perked up as she heard a soft, distant sound.  She 
strained to listen... it sounded like somebody crying.  That 
had to be Ryouga.  She hefted her spatula grimly and headed 
towards the noise.  She'd give him something to cry about...

He was sitting at the edge of a ravine, leaning against a 
tree and weeping.  Ukyou opened her mouth to shout at him, 
then closed it again as she watched.  He wasn't just crying 
a little bit.  His whole body convulsed with each body-wracking 
sob.  His voice sounded raw and hoarse.  She'd never seen a 
man cry his heart out like that.

"Oh Akane..." he gasped between his sobs.  "I'm so... I'm 
sorr..."

Ukyou lowered her spatula, her anger seeping away as she 
watched the lost boy weep.  It was hard to think about hurting 
a guy who was torturing himself so thoroughly on his own.  She 
couldn't stay mad at someone who was so clearly in such pain, 
even if he was a pervert.  

She wasn't sure how long the crying went on.  She wanted to 
turn and leave him be, feeling embarrassed at intruding upon 
him in a moment like this, but she couldn't afford to lose 
track of him.  Uncertain of what to do, she simply waited 
silently behind him and watched as he twisted in a storm of 
his own anguish.  

Finally, his sobbing tapered off.  He was running out of 
energy - Ukyou had spent a few nights bawling herself to 
sleep, and she knew that it took a lot out of you.  Even a 
guy like Ryouga couldn't keep it up forever.  

"Go ahead," he said.  "Hit me."

Ukyou nearly jumped out of her skin.  How long had he known 
she was there?

"I deserve it," he muttered in a dead tone.  "I deserve it 
all."

Ukyou caught her breath, and took a deep sigh.  She moved to 
sit down beside him, facing at an angle away from him.  It 
was too intense a situation to sit facing him, at least right 
now.  "I ain't gonna hit you, sugar," she heard herself say.  
Part of her still wanted to smack him one, but the urge wasn't 
strong now.  

"Why not?" he whispered.  

She shrugged.  "How come you keep doin' it, if you know it's 
wrong?"

"I don't... I don't do it on purpose," he said.

"That's not what Ranchan says," she observed.

He spat.  "What the hell does HE know?  He doesn't know what 
it's like.  He probably thinks I get some sort of cheap 
thrill out of it.  That's about the limit of his 
understanding."

"Don't blame Ranma for this," Ukyou admonished.  "He's not 
the one who sneaks into her room, watches her get dressed, 
and..."

"I don't do that!" he protested.  His reaction was 
instantaneous, and he sounded genuinely mortified.  "I 
could never... I wouldn't even THINK of..."

"But you do sleep with her, right?"

"..."

Ukyou let the silence hang between them for a little while 
before she spoke up again.  "You should stop it."

"You don't think I've tried?" he moaned.  "I've tried and 
TRIED to leave her behind forever, dozens of times.  But every 
time I always seem to end up going back, and I always end up 
getting splashed..."

"If you wanted to, you could stop."

"I've... I've promised myself so many times," he explained in 
a mournful voice.  "I've vowed never to be P-Chan again.  
But when I get splashed... it's like I lose all my resolve.  
She calls to me, and I forget all the promises I made as a 
man.  All I can think of is how much I miss her, how warm I 
feel when she holds me.  I love her so much... I can't stay 
away."

"Ryouga..."

"It's pathetic," he spat angrily, wiping his face with the 
back of his hand.  "It's a pitiful mockery of human love, but 
it's all I've got.  You can't know what it's like to be so 
wretched and lonely.  You're so cute and friendly, and 
everybody likes you."

Ukyou blinked in surprise at that.  

"It's different for me," he went on.  "I... I'm so lonely.  
So lonely all the time.  And fate keeps bringing me back to 
her, as her pet pig.  Is that my destiny, to have only that 
feeble excuse for love?  There have been times... that I've 
been willing to give up being human altogether.  To live the 
rest of my life as her little P-Chan... just so I could be 
close to her."

Ukyou pivoted to stare at him, rendered speechless by the 
way he'd bared his soul to her.  Something he'd said struck 
her as particularly chilling - he spoke of his resolve fading 
when he turned into a pig.  Ukyou had wondered about Ranma in 
the past, about how his curse affected his mind.  It often 
seemed to her that his whole personality changed when his body 
did.  He was certainly willing to do all sorts of things that 
he'd never dream of doing as a boy.  He'd even wear dresses 
and flirt with other guys.  She'd even seen him go so far as 
to pretend to be Ryouga's fiancee.

It had never occurred to her to wonder what the curse did to 
the people who turned into animals.  Did it affect their minds 
as well?  It sounded like maybe it did, from what Ryouga said.  
A little piglet didn't have much room in its head for things 
like promises and vows.  All it knew was that it was small and 
helpless, and that it wanted somebody to love and protect it.  
Maybe when Ryouga changed, he became more like a piglet than 
even he understood.

It occurred to her to wonder what happened to Tarou's mind 
when he became that monster.  She shuddered and refused to 
think about the implications of that.

"Hey sugar," she said, "don't beat yourself up too much about 
it, okay?"  Right now, he didn't seem like such a pervert to 
her anymore.  "Believe me, I have some idea of how hard it is 
to be in love with someone that you can't get close to."

He turned to look at her.  "You... you understand?"

She shrugged.  "I still don't think it's right, but I can't 
blame you too much.  I mean, I have to be honest with myself.  
If I could turn into a puppy or something and snuggle up to 
Ranchan, could I really stop myself?  I really don't know."

Ryouga got a glazed look on his face and stared off into the 
distance.  "A... puppy."

"Ryouga?"

"Why... why couldn't I turn into a puppy?" he said, not really 
addressing her directly.  "That wouldn't be so bad.  Everybody 
likes puppies.  Everybody wants to help a lost puppy.  Nobody 
takes a look at a puppy and says:  'Hey!  I think I'll have 
that for dinner!'"

Ukyou bit back a giggle.  He whirled on her and looked 
irritated.

"You think I'm kidding?  Do you know how many times people 
have tried to cook me as P-Chan?  Do you?  Neither do I!  
It's happened so often that I've actually LOST TRACK!"

"Oh come on..."

"You're a cook!  Don't tell me you never looked at P-Chan 
and thought about making me into a pork okonomiyaki!"

"Ryouga, I..."  

"All cooks do!" he ranted.  "Do you know what it's like to 
turn into a potential breakfast every time it rains?  Do you 
know what it's like to be hung up by your legs in a kitchen 
and watching a chef prepare a stew for you?  NO!  Of course 
you don't!   A puppy... God, what I wouldn't GIVE to turn into 
a puppy!  Why do I have to turn into an edible little pig?  
Why do I have to be so scrumptious?"

Ukyou couldn't contain herself anymore.  Laughter erupted 
from her in great waves.  She rolled on the ground, clutching 
her sides as she convulsed with mirth.

Ryouga glared at her angrily.  "It isn't funny!  This is my 
life we're talking about."

She tried to bring herself under control and apologize, but 
one look at his irate expression sent her back into a fit of 
giggling and laughing.  "S... scrum... scrumptious!" she managed 
to gasp, then howled with hilarity.

Ryouga shook his head and found himself battling a grin of his 
own.  Laughing fits were infectious, and even Ryouga wasn't 
immune.  The whole situation was so absurd that it was, in a 
way, funny.  "Oh shut up," he grumbled, but he couldn't put 
much force behind it.  

Ukyou desperately tried to compose herself, but snickers 
and giggles still escaped her unbidden.  She made a show of 
bowing formally before him.  "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

Ryouga chuckled.  "'Crouch of the Wild Tiger' technique, 
eh?"

She looked up at him and batted her eyes winningly.  "I'm 
really sorry, sugar.  Please forgive me!"

Ryouga's heart took a few bounces around his ribcage, and he 
quickly turned away to hide his sudden embarrassment.  "D... 
don't do that.  I forgive you.  Geez."

She clapped him on the shoulder, then ruffled his hair.  It 
was a gesture she did without thinking, but it felt right 
somehow.  She hauled herself to her feet and offered her hand 
to him.  "Come on, Ryouga.  Let's head back to camp.  We've 
gotta get through that pass before the winds get bad again."

Ryouga nodded wordlessly, then took a hold of her hand.  He 
stared at the back of her head as she led him through the 
trees, his mind swirling through a muddy stew of emotions and 
thoughts.  <What a strange trip this has been,> he told 
himself.  That much, at least, was beyond dispute.

- - - - - - 

"Nabiki?  What's the matter, you look terrible!"

Tendou Nabiki turned to face her elder sister.  She supposed 
that she did look terrible.  She didn't even really recall 
making the trip from Ucchan's Okonomiyaki back to the Tendou 
Dojo - it was all kind of a blur.  She was in shock, she 
realized.  There was a time when she wouldn't have dreamed 
of allowing herself to be seen in public looking rattled or 
disheveled, but the past weeks had worn her composure down 
to the barest of threads.  

"Are you all right, Nabiki?"  Kasumi sounded genuinely 
concerned.  

Nabiki stared at her with a stricken look.  "Konatsu's 
sick," she announced in a leaden tone.  "He... he can't 
work."

"Oh dear, that's too bad," Kasumi said.  "Are you hungry?  
You look so tired."

"He's sick," she repeated numbly.  "He passed out from 
exhaustion.  I... I worked him into the ground."

"Well I'm sure he'll get better with some rest," Kasumi 
assured her.  

Nabiki shook her head slowly.  It all felt like a terrible 
dream.  "You don't understand.  We're... we're on the edge 
right now.  If we miss even a day of business... the 
restaurant will go under.  We can't afford... to close 
down."

Nabiki hardly noticed that her sister had gently herded her 
into the dining room and sat her down at the table.  Her 
body was on autopilot while her brain turned her unsolvable 
dilemma over and over.  

"Would you like some tea and a snack?"  Kasumi asked.

"We're doomed," Nabiki said with certainty.

"Now, now.  That's no way to talk.  I'm sure you'll think of 
something," Kasumi insisted.  She bustled her way off to the 
kitchen, humming to herself as she worked to prepare Nabiki's 
food.

Nabiki had never experienced such acute failure in her life.  
All her confidence had been eroded down to nothing since she'd 
taken on management of Ucchan's.  She, Tendou Nabiki, Nerima's 
brightest business protege, had driven a well-established and 
respected restaurant straight into the ground.  It hadn't even 
taken her a month to achieve this ignominious feat.  Part of 
her mind desperately cast about for something or somebody to 
blame, but there was no denying it.  She had made all the 
mistakes.  It was all her doing.

And then, there was Konatsu.  Guilt was not an emotion with 
which Nabiki was familiar, but she felt terrible about what 
she'd done to the young ninja.  Konatsu had given her his 
complete loyalty from the first day on.  At first, she'd been 
amused by and even a little bit contemptuous of the servile 
cross-dresser, dismissing him as nothing more than a 
natural-born lackey with no will of his own.  After time, 
she'd discovered that it was hard to maintain such an 
attitude towards a guy who worked his heart out for you 
every waking hour.  

But what had she done with that loyalty?  She'd used it and 
abused it.  She'd taxed Konatsu to his limit in the restaurant 
with her ambitious schemes and plans, and then she'd piled 
even more duties on him.  She'd kept Ucchan's open for longer
hours, trying to overcome the loss of profit, and he'd shouldered
the burden without a word of protest.  She'd used the brilliant 
ninja for her scams and plots, sending him out into the night 
after work to spy on people and gather dirt on her classmates.  
When she'd gotten desperate with the take-out service, she'd 
pushed him even harder to find more blackmail victims for to 
act as delivery workers.  And she'd expected him to be up 
bright and early the next day, to have the restaurant ready 
for the breakfast crowd.  

He'd never complained once.  Had she really thought he was 
spineless?  Konatsu had given everything he had to that 
restaurant, and he'd never once lost his good temper or friendly 
smile.  Even as his health had deteriorated, he'd kept on going 
with all his might.  When he collapsed from exhaustion today, 
he hadn't been concerned about himself.  All that mattered to 
him was that he thought he'd failed her.  

Konatsu possessed a kind of courage which Nabiki had never 
before understood or appreciated.  She had been the one who 
failed him.  That, she realized, was even worse than her shame 
at ruining the business.  He'd given her loyalty and devotion 
that she'd done nothing to deserve, and she'd ground him into the
dust for it.

Tendou Nabiki had never felt so low.

"Here's some tea, Nabiki," Kasumi said as she set the cup down 
in front of her sister.  "And here are some bean buns I made."


"Th... thanks."  

Kasumi settled herself primly down at the table and smiled at 
her.  "That should make you feel better.  Have you thought of 
anything?"

"There's... what can I do?" she moaned.  "We don't have a 
cook.  We can't run the restaurant without a cook."

"Well, then perhaps you could hire one," Kasumi suggested.  
"Until Konatsu gets better, that is."

"We can't afford it," Nabiki said, shaking her head.  "Nobody 
would work for the sort of salary that Konatsu makes."

"Perhaps you can find a friend to do it, then?" Kasumi 
offered.

Nabiki wondered if there was anybody at Furinkan who qualified 
as a friend anymore.  Her recent blackmail blitz had not won 
her any popularity points, and she'd never been the best-liked 
girl in school to begin with. There'd been a time when she'd 
have been able to blackmail or con somebody into doing the 
job, but she didn't have the leverage left to pull it off.  
"There's... nobody," she whispered.

"Maybe you could get someone, and promise to pay them back 
later?" 

Nabiki sighed and hung her head.  "Nobody will be stupid 
enough to do that.  Sis, it's hopeless.  I have to find someone 
who can run the shop, cook the meals, and who will do it for 
free.  I have until tomorrow.  There's... there's no way."

Kasumi patted her reassuringly on the shoulder and smiled.  
"It sounds difficult, but there's always a way.  Maybe we 
can talk some more after I make dinner, okay?"  The eldest 
Tendou daughter rose from her place and shuffled back into 
the kitchen.  

Nabiki stared at the kitchen door, the wheels in her mind 
turning.  Her inner swindler offered up a solution which she 
hadn't considered.  She needed a cook, and she needed someone 
who'd do it for free.  Who else fit the bill... but her big 
sister?

Kasumi could do it, she realized.  Kasumi could cook just 
about anything, and she had a nice friendly manner that 
customers would love.  And Kasumi would cheerfully cut her 
own hand off if someone in her family asked her to do it.  
She'd agree in a heartbeat.  It would only be for a few 
days, after all, until Konatsu got better.   It was the perfect 
solution.

Except...

Except it meant crossing a line that Nabiki had drawn for 
herself years ago, when she'd first discovered how much fun 
it was to scam money from the suckers of the world.  She'd 
always told herself that anybody who let themselves get 
swindled got what they deserved.  Her schoolmates, her friends, 
and even her family were all fair game... everybody except 
Kasumi.

Kasumi was the perfect sucker - it would be child's play to 
con her into doing just about anything you wanted.  She was 
sweet-tempered, trusting, and gullible.  And she'd always been 
the only person who Nabiki would never consider drawing into 
one of her scams.  Kasumi was like Nabiki's sacred ground - 
the last piece of her own innocence, a bit of her own soul 
that had never been for sale.

<It's not so bad,> a voice within her whispered.  <It's not 
even really a con.  You're just asking for her help, that's 
all.  It's only for a few days.>

But she knew that was all rationalization.  Tendou Nabiki knew 
a fast one when she heard it, even when it came from inside 
herself.  She had a choice now.  Either she could let the 
restaurant fail completely, or she could take advantage of 
the one person in the world she'd sworn she'd never touch.  

Nabiki rose slowly from the table.  Her legs felt like they 
were a thousand miles away, but they carried her all the 
same towards the kitchen door.  She watched her beloved 
sister bustling about the kitchen, preparing another 
gourmet-quality dinner with her usual understated brilliance.  
Nabiki's mouth felt dry as a desert in midsummer.  

"Hey sis?" she rasped.

Kasumi paused and turned to face her, a bright and open smile 
on her face.  "Yes, Nabiki?"

"I... I need your help with something."

- - - - - -


                    end of chapter six



-----------------------------------------------------------
                      AUTHOR'S NOTES
-----------------------------------------------------------

This chapter took me a lot longer to craft than the previous
ones.  My thanks to those of you who have written me with
encouragement to keep writing.  Fanfiction is, of course, a
luxury, and the past few months have seen precious little 
spare time for me.  And once you get out of the writing rhythm,
it can be a real challenge to get back in.  Especially on a
transitional chapter like this one...

Anyway, I'm hoping the next one won't take so long, even with
the interruption of Christmas and such.  The next chapter has
more action and conflict, so it shouldn't be so difficult...

I wrote a bit about the nature of the Jusenkyou curse in this
chapter and how it affects the minds of its victims.  I'm aware
that this is a topic that gets debated now and then with a 
certain fervor, and I'm not out to start another argument.  

COMING SOON:  Will all the training pay off when the Reikoku
catches up to Ranma and his friends?  Can Akane's rise above her
hardships?  Can her father actually help?  What will Nabiki's
decision be?  And what is Pantyhose Tarou up to, anyway?     

COPYRIGHT STUFF:  All the Ranma characters belong to Takahashi Rumiko,
and are licensed in America by Viz Communications.    

GRT - November 1998
grayson@rigroup.net