getting ready to release chapter 7, am going through
and revising things as i do. just adding a bit here and
there, trying to please a few finicky eaters, er, i
mean pre-readers. BTW, anyone know when the usenet
archives will be fixed?

Featherbrite's Tale, the Bet. v 2.5
by Gregg Sharp based on Rumiko Takahashi's
situations/char
CJ_Angel TM CJAngel (mentioned but does not appear)
other char TM Jack Chalker, JRR Tolkein, Pioneer, and
various other sources credited in the chapters they
appear. Otherwise standard disclaimers, limitations,
substitutions and refunds apply.
Metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/
1a: A Nervous Child (ANC)
---------------------------------------
 A yattai sat in a forest clearing, with two small
tents nearby. Titania walked into the clearing, the
Queen of Faerie inspecting the area where a change was
to be made.

 She'd won the Bet, and while many of those present had
cried "cheat" (especially Loki, but he'd always been a
poor sport), Titania was not one that even the Norse
god of mischief wanted to cross without a lot better
payback.

 Titania smiled and watched invisibly as Ranma
stirred,then got up to go relieve himself. The child
was feeling particularly lonely and unhappy, having
just left his best friend Ucchan behind.

 Now other bets were being exchanged. Who would Ranma
end up with? Nabiki? Ukyou? Akane? Kasumi? Shampoo?
Oberon? Vladimir? Madame Lao? Kodachi? There were even
a few bets being made on a Ryouga-Ranko match, which
amused Titania no end. There were wagers placed on how
many ripples, on how often things changed, and on the
"happiness index" of the whole group. One wagerer had
even tried to place a bet on how many suitors Ranma
ended up with. Only one person had bet that he ended up
alone. Of course, you got excellent odds that way.

 Oh, and one of the planar Nabikis from a timeline that
had already collapsed was now working at the Rival
Relief Office as an Office Lady. Titania herself had
been so amused that she'd added pointed ears and pixie
wings to the girl as a "gift." Everyone was teasing her
about how she was going to make a wonderful tooth
fairy.

 Titania watched Ranma move off, and clicked the
timeline into a permanent mode. Now it was time to sit
back and watch to see what developed.
---------------------1981------------------------------
-----
 Ranma wandered from the camp. He wanted to go back and
visit Ucchan. Why had the other boy been running after
him? Pops said to forget about him, but he was Ucchan's
buddy! It really hurt to leave another friend behind.

 Still, for whatever reason, they had the okonomiyaki
cart, so at least they were still eating well.

 The tinkling of bells caught Ranma's attention. A tiny
pink glow, visible inside an enormous spider's web.

 Ranma saw the huge and hideously black spider, and
seemed to split. One image was of a Ranma who ran back
to his camp, to later awaken and think it was all a
nightmare. That Ranma faded.

 The other Ranma solidified and threw rocks at the big
hairy spider until it fell. A tree branch impacted the
thing three times until it was reduced to splattered
bug bits. Ranma had absolutely no idea what kind of
spider it was, but anything bigger than his head was
not something he wanted crawling around while he was
asleep.

 If he knew that this was actually a bog imp, he would
likely have been far more careful.

 "Thank you," came a voice like chiming bells. "Could
you please free me, little boy?"

 Ranma turned and stared at the butterfly caught there
in the web. Carefully he freed it, using another tree
branch push the sticky webs away from the creature.
"What are you, anyway?" It kinda looked like that pixie
on the "Aura Battler Dunbine" ads he'd seen.

 "You call my kind yousei here, though my kind are
called faerie elsewhere. Thank you, son of Adam, my
name in your reckoning is Featherbrite."

 "My pop's Genma." Ranma wasn't too sure what he was
looking at. Pink pastel wings that
seemed a cross between a butterfly and a dragonfly, the
figure looked mainly like a human woman, nude,with long
pointed ears. There were other differences,
particularly with enormous (comparitively) long eyes.

 "Well, then, son of Genma. You have freed me, so ask
me a wish, and if it is within my power, I shall grant
it." Featherbrite nodded. There were Rules about this
sort of thing, and they had to be followed. Form was
very important to her tribe.

 "You must not be very strong if a spider was gonna eat
you. What kinda wish?" Ranma
sniffled. He still missed his buddy Ucchan.

 "True. My personal power rating is not impressive in
the manner of my kind." The six inch
tall figure glided closer, examining the child. "Wow,
you've been through some serious problems." There were
aberrations in the child's aura she had trouble
interpreting.

 "Can you grant a wish that I'm back home with my
mother?"

 "If I knew where your mother was, I might be able to
take you there." Featherbrite paused. "Uhm, why exactly
are you here, and not with your mother?"

 Ranma gave his muddled explanation of why they were
travelling, that he was to learn and
devote himself to the martial arts.

 "Isn't that...kinda limiting?" Featherbrite had no
idea about normal human childhoods, despite the number
of centuries she had been alive. It all just didn't
seem right. "If you focus only on martial arts, won't
you be kind of stuck for the times you're not
fighting?"

 "Dunno." Ranma hadn't thought about it that much.

 "Well, then, have you decided what you want to wish
for?"

 "How about I wish you could be my friend?" Ranma held
his pinky up.

 "You wish for me to be your friend?" The faerie
blinked. Well, certainly the child seemed to need one.
It was an unusual wish. Seeing the child nod in
response, Featherbrite smiled. "Deal."

 "Umf," Ranma nodded once, solemnly, just like he'd
seen his father do.
----------------------1983-------------------------
 Ranma had just turned seven, and Featherbrite was
miffed at Ranma's father. This was something that
occurred on a regular basis.

 "I can't believe that man, honestly," she huffed, her
little bell-like voice breaking off
into the same monologue she usually had regarding the
youth's father.

 "Oh, come on, Brite. He just wants me to focus on the
Art." Ranma looked a little
sadly at his present, though. The wooden flute the
diminuitive fairy had made for him was
smashed beyond even Featherbrite's ability to put it
back together.

 "Ranma, I want to start teaching you some things
beyond the Art. Things that may not help you in a
fight, but that will help your life outside the match."
Featherbrite didn't add that this was also to take a
large stick and forcibly insert it in Genma's eye.
While most faerie couldn't even begin to understand
moral behavior, they tended to tone some of it down
around human children.

 With as few births as occurred among the faerie,
children of any kind were seen as a
blessing most wondrous.

 She'd been able to observe a lot more human behavior
back when Ranma had started attending school and
thought she had the basics down. Leaving Ranma for
brief periods to spend a lot of time in a human library
had helped enormously, though using faerie magic to
decipher the text had been a bit draining.

 "Okay, I guess. Like a new game?"

 "Yes," Featherbrite nodded happily. "A new game
entirely. If you stand in the middle
of this ring, I will take you to someplace new, where a
second here is an hour there."
---------------1984---------------
 Genma stared at what was becoming a usual sight. After
two years of this, he still had
no rational explanation for some of the odd stuff that
happened around Ranma.

 In this case, food. Here they were in the mountains of
Japan, near a monastery where
the monks lived lives of aesthetic hardship.

 Genma's stomach grumbled as he looked at the small
mound of banana peels, apple cores, orange rinds, and
other foods that somehow the boy had managed to forage
during the night.

 He puzzled over the foreign words on the bottle,
wondering what the heck "Flintstones Chewables with
Iron" was, and where the boy had gotten THAT.

 He'd wanted the boy to eat ONLY rice. It would toughen
his stomach and then Ranma would have a much more
efficient digestive system. So, he had to find out how
Ranma was getting this food, and stop it.

 That and figure out why he kept getting the feeling
that someone was laughing at him.
---------------1986----------------
 Genma looked over at where a ten year old child named
Ranma was reading some book and shook his head.

 Ranma was a wimp. He, Genma Saotome, had failed.
Failed miserably to steer his son on the True Path of
Martial Righteousness.

 The boy wouldn't steal. He wouldn't lie. He talked
about a Code of Honor. Where he got
such strange ideas, Genma had no idea. The Code Of
Honor that Genma had taught him was what one would
expect of Anything Goes martial artists. Anything Goes
if it serves Genma's cause.

 Ranma kept showing up with books and magazines and
ancient scrolls. Some dealt with martial arts, many
didn't even meet that level of acceptability. Sun Tzu's
"Art Of War" was one thing, but what use was his
current reading material- "Lord Of The Rings" going to
be? Gymnastics had its place, to be sure, but it was
still wasteful to spend time *reading* when Ranma could
be practicing the Art.

 Then there was all the strange techniques Ranma kept
coming up with that he claimed his imaginary friend was
teaching him. Some might have originated in those
books, but other skills had to have been taught. But
from *where*?

 Instead of stealing food, the boy would get out a hat,
kneel down in the plaza or market,
and begin playing tunes on that bamboo flute. People
actually paid Ranma to keep playing. He
would "find" things for people, and get more money that
way. Then he'd BUY food. This was as unlike the
Master's training as it was possible to get.

 The shame of it all weighed heavily on Genma. The
Master's training had been painful and humiliating, but
effective. Genma had set out to "tone it down a little"
but otherwise put Ranma through the same thing. Turning
his gaze to the heavens, he implored them as to WHY he
had such a worthless son! Where had he gone wrong?

 What he said, however, was to the shopkeeper. "Two
deluxe beef ramen." Ranma wouldn't begrudge his father
the money. This was another sign to Genma that he had
failed.
----------------------------
 Genma found himself puzzled. This was very familiar
territory.

 Genma found himself giving up in disgust. This was
rapidly becoming familiar territory as well.

 That he disliked these constant foiling of his plans
was more than a little understated. He truly HATED this
sort of thing but was learning that Fate (or something)
had other plans.

 The third attempt to get Ranma to learn the Catfist
had ended about as well as the other two. Tie Ranma up
in fish sausages, throw him into a pit of starving
cats, instant unbeatable fighter. Genma turned his eyes
heavenwards and wondered how something so simple could
turn so wrong.

 First time, in went Ranma. Genma had sat back, waiting
to see his son ripped and clawed by the hungry cats.
Except that *somehow* the fish sausages had ended up
being thrown back up into his lap. Genma had spent a
moment being puzzled before cats had starting making
impressive leaps and somehow cleared the walls of the
pit. In very short order, Genma had found himself being
attacked by dozens of insanely hungry felines. He'd
escaped, he was too old to learn such a technique
anyway.

 The second time, Genma had been prepared. He'd thrown
Ranma in, closed the lid over the pit, then run behind
a set of concrete pipes used in construction. After a
few moments, his curiosity got the better of him and he
snuck a peek. There had been Ranma, surrounded by cats.
Unfortunately Ranma had somehow divided the fish cakes
up into roughly even portions and given all of the cats
enough to eat.

 The third time, Genma had taken no chances. One
hundred starving cats, check. Ranma tied up so that he
couldn't possibly get loose, check. Liberally smeared
flesh and clothing using  fish paste, fish oil, and
with a light caviar garnish behind each ear, check. Lid
in place, check. He'd spent days arranging things so
that that everything would be perfect.

 When he'd come by the next morning, there had been a
curious thing. The entire lot was surrounded by
toadstools! How odd, but Genma knew enough about
foraging not to eat these. In went Ranma. The caged
cats were upended into the pit, and Genma had thrown
the lid down immediately and stepped back.

 Genma looked down into the empty pit and wondered how
Ranma had managed to screw up his plans THIS time. Such
a disobedient child. Genma had to admit, though, the
boy was getting really good as an escape artist.

 Just as Genma was prepared to say to heck with it, a
breeze blew over one of the pages of the training
manual. As he read the next page of the Catfist, he
reluctantly admitted that maybe not being able to teach
Ranma that particular technique wasn't so bad after
all.

 Sitting down and waiting for Ranma to show up, Genma
looked again at the various precautions he'd taken, and
had to admit that Ranma *was* rather good at vanishing.
Maybe he'd learned a special technique after all...
-------------1989--------------------------------
 "Ranma, for the insult of the bread, I challenge you!"

 "Oh, keep your shirt on, Ryouga. What about all the
fruit I've shared with you? What about all those
pastries? You wanna fight me, I ain't got no problem
with that, but you want to do it over a few lousy
sandwiches?" Ranma tossed the eternally lost boy an
apple streudel, turning his eyes heavenward in
unconscious imitation of his father's frequent pose.

 "A FEW sandwiches?!" Ryouga caught the streudel,
noting the light flaky crust, that it was so fresh that
the icing was still moist and the apple filling was
still hot as if it had just been pulled from the oven.
Considering that the nearest bakery that produced these
was over fifty miles away, Ryouga found himself
wondering yet again just how Ranma did that.

 Ryouga shook his head, more of this magic stuff no
doubt, and Ranma REFUSED to share how he did it. "How
dare you try to change the subject! I made you a
man-to-man challenge! And don't you dare cheat by using
your magic on me!"

 "Yeah, right, Ryouga. Whatever." Ranma cracked his
knuckles. "You wanna name the time and place?"

 "The empty lot behind my house!" Ryouga knew he could
find it, even without using the magic compass that
Ranma had given him. Like he could trust anything Ranma
did. "Tomorrow afternoon!"

 "Yeah, okay. Ryouga." Ranma shook his head. "Hey,
afterwards you wanna go by the
mall? I'll bring my flute and your drums, we can
practice that piece, maybe get enough money for
a really decent meal?"

 Ryouga smiled, remembering the last group of lessons
in drum techniques. ESPECIALLY
remembering the way some of the girls from that other
High School had looked their way. Ranma
had been right about that, at least, musicians got
attention from the girls. Ryouga dreamed of the day he
had his own groupies. He was *so* tired of living in
Ranma's shadow. That wouldn't last long, though.
"DEAL!"
-------------Mar/10/1990------LIME WARNING(1)--------
 "Featherbrite, you've been naughty!" Ranma shook his
head at the little pixie. They were in the Faerie Realm
so he didn't have to pretend he was muttering to
himself.

 "Hey!" Featherbrite huffed and turned away for a
moment before curiosity got her to consider her
changeling. "Define 'naughty' if you would!"

 "It took me awhile to realize it, but you've been
using enchantments on me, haven't
you?"

 "Hmmmph." Featherbrite floated in midair and turned
her back on Ranma. "You got some objection to that? You
can eat food of the Faerie Realm without fear now.
You're taller and
stronger than you would have been just eating rice
gruel and what that damn father of yours would have
gotten you. What makes you think I've done anything
else?"

 "From oyaji's reaction when we took the bath at that
hot spring. His eyes bugged out
and said something about how he HAD promised to make me
a 'man among men' or some crap like that." Ranma
paused. "I would'a thought it was just some kinda trick
but the other people were staring too."

 "Oh." Featherbrite did something that was very rare
for a faerie. She blushed.

 "What else have you done?"

 "Oh, errr." Featherbrite started to fiddle with her
fingers. "Just a few little things, an infusion of
faerie magic here and there. Enhancing this or that.
Just little things that I'd thought would be good."

 "Promise me. No more enchantments on me unless you
clear it with me ahead of time."

 Featherbrite turned back to Ranma and held her hand up
solemnly. "If you feel that strongly about it. Except
for normal healing magic, I promise not to cast any
additional enchantments on you without your prior
consent."

 "Good." Ranma knew that there were probably some
loopholes there, but that this was
as good as he could reasonably expect to get. "Now what
exactly DID you do that got Oyaji so shocked?"

 Featherbrite looked embarrassed. "Well... I've heard
how human males have this thing about
size and stamina. I've also heard human females
complain about a lack of stamina, endurance, and
THAT sort of thing. So...'cause I didn't want MY friend
to grow up with any sort of deficiency or
inadequacy...I kinda made a couple of...corrections."

 "Why do I have a feeling I'm probably better off not
knowing the details?"

----------Apr/13/1990-------END LIME WARNING----------
 "So, you'll engage my Rink to your Ranma?"

 The woman was impressed with the young man. Quite
handsome, a good cook, a musician, and a capable
martial artist from what she could see. Yes, a fine
catch. Staking out this martial arts tournament had
proven to have unexpected dividends.

 "Well, I don't know. He's already..." Genma watched as
the amazon put another nugget of gold on the table.
"Sold."

 Genma gleefully made off with the money. This was
wonderful. The boy was such a disappointment in so many
ways, but he had become marketable somehow. What these
various parents saw in Ranma was unclear to Genma, but
he'd already sold Ranma six times to parents who wanted
a good mate for their daughters.

 Not that he had any intention of keeping any of the
promises.
---------------------1991------------------------------
------
 An impromptu jam session was underway in the Faerie
Realm. It had been bound to happen sooner or later.
Featherbrite was just as glad that it had been later.

 A minor functionary of the Seelie Court, one of the
Princesses was out surveying when she
heard one of Ranma's music lessons. (Faerie Princesses,
contrary to what mortals might think, were actually
fairly numerous. It was a constant problem as the
number of Faerie Princes were relatively low. Ages ago
Titania had decreed that Mortal Heroes were suitable
lifemates for a Faerie Princess. Unfortunately Heroes
of any stripe tended to be rather hard to find and
justifiably paranoid when they were out doing heroic
deeds.) She and her little group had come to find out
what a mortal musician was doing in the Realms.

 So Featherbrite was hanging protectively near Ranma.
Ranma was attempting to follow along
on his flute a tune that was old when the world was
young. Or, at least, a good deal younger.

 A grinning satyr set the beat with his drums. A pair
of twin sylphs sang a wordless melody
that seemed to curl in and around the voice of Ranma's
flute. The whole thing had an appropriately
otherworldly quality to it that wouldn't have sold well
in mortal pop culture, but did fairly well as an
attempt to gauge the mortal's skill level.

 "So...Bri'te," a hamadryad paused in her examination
of the mortal. "Are all the tales about mortal lovers
true? Are they a raging tempest to the cooler winds of
faeriekind?"

 "I don't know, and I'm NOT going to find out. Nor
should you, Holly! By the standards of his culture, he
is still a child." This was one of the things that
Brite had been nervous about. That one of the faerie
would get curious and decide to lure Ranma off.
ESPECIALLY as Ranma could well qualify as a
Hero-In-Training.

 Tall (for his age), handsome, broad shouldered, a
skilled fighter with magical talents, a bard with lore
of the faerie. Featherbrite glanced nervously at the
Princess. Ranma was WAY too suitably heroic for this to
have gone unnoticed.

 "Hmm. He's your changeling, then?" Holly knew there
was an old custom of saving human children from abusive
parents, stealing and adopting the child. It was rarely
done, especially nowadays with all the problems of
living in the mortal realm now.

 "Yes," Featherbrite nodded, glad that Holly
understood. "And a friend. He saved me from a bog imp
when he was no bigger than a leprechaun. I would
appreciate it if you didn't mess
with him."

 Holly laughed. "I'll tell the others he's under your
wing, so to speak. He's got more than one of us
curious, you know. I take it the resistance spells
woven through him are yours? Nicely done."

 "I've had years to build them up and refine them."
Featherbrite nodded, proud of her handiwork. She had
made those enchantments years ago, and they continued
to strengthen on their own since her promise not to lay
additional enchantments on Ranma.

 That promise didn't keep her from refining the ones
already in place.

 Featherbrite looked nervously around. The Princess,
the oriad, the naiad, and both sylphs were looking
quite curiously at Ranma. Speculation and a certain
degree of hunger were evident.

 She was just glad they weren't closer to Makai. That
could have been bad.
------------------------------------
(1)- Featherbrite has never associated this closely
with humans before, but has observed them
off and on for over 9,500 years. Yes, she does have
some truly odd concepts about humans. That's
where some of the humor of this story will come from.
She may be an ANC but she's definitely not
an AKC (All Knowing Character).
---------------------
 The Faerie Princess glanced at her handmaidens as they
left the clearing.

 "Mistress?" The chief among them, a sylph, responded
to the unspoken command.

 "That boy is the pixie's changeling?"

 "Yes, milady. Some nice protective spells too," the
chief handmaiden noted. "Bri'te has indicated that he
is a 'hero in training' or something."

 "A hero? How very... interesting." The Faerie Princess
considered for a moment. "When is a mortal considered
to have reached adulthood?"

 "By many standards, within one mortal year. By others,
not for another five such years. Pardon, my lady, but
I'm not sure which is the case here."

 "Well, in a mortal year, perhaps I should look up this
Ranma again."
----------March 1, 1992-------------
 "Ranma, I don't like this place," said Featherbrite
unhappily.

 "It doesn't look that bad," said Ranma. "Just a
balancing exercise, nothing more. Combat
on top of bamboo poles. The only thing different is the
pools of water." His eyes didn't look towards
Featherbrite, he just seemed to talk out loud a lot.

 "C'mon boy, follow me," Genma leapt for the top of one
of the poles, balancing himself
quite easily.

 "Right behind you," Ranma also found balancing on the
bamboo quite easy.

 "Don't fall in the springs," Featherbrite floated
above Ranma's head. "I see some things
here that are bad. Very powerful raw faerie magic,
beyond anything I can handle. Neither your
glamourie or resistance to enchantment will help you."

 Ranma leapt into battle with his father, ignoring his
friend for the moment. Featherbrite
watched as Genma fell into one of the pools and a panda
emerged.

 The Jusenkyo Guide was rattling off something about
curses which finally got Ranma's attention.
Unfortunately he should have been paying attention to
the panda.

 "Ranma!" Featherbrite extended as much of her magic as
she could, trying to shield him from the effects of the
curse.

 She felt the more powerful magic of the spring warping
her own magic, overwhelming the shield she'd hastily
placed over Ranma. All the times that she'd brought
Ranma over to the
faerie realm had left some residual magic within him
too. Not to mention the various infusions and weavings
of faerie magic she'd done over the years.

 Ranma looked down at herself and screamed.
Featherbrite merely groaned and they both listened to
the Guide going on about how a girl had drowned in the
spring and now whoever
had fallen in the spring took the body of a young girl.
Though he'd never seen one with pointed ears or long
eyes like that before.

 Ranma's attention went from her breasts to her back,
and if anything the shock level was increasing.

 Featherbrite apologized and was explaining that her
shield had been absorbed and twisted by the magic of
the spring. That it looked like it wasn't permanent,
but that there was probably a trigger that would allow
a person in cursed form to return to normal.

 Ranma removed the top of her gi as she stepped out of
the pool, dimly hearing the Jusenkyo Guide stutter and
stop. Ranma reached over her shoulder, feeling the thin
surface behind her, then pulling it forward to where
she could see.

 Ranma glared, first at Featherbrite, then sought out
the panda. Wings snapping wide and to the sides, Ranma
got really angry and launched herself at the startled
panda.

 Featherbrite flew along as best she could, but she was
tired from the attempted shield, and the other two had
strong emotions driving them on. Rescuing the Hibiki
boy from a fall took most of her remaining energy, and
she floated back towards Ranma's backpack and some
rest.
---------------------------------
 "Don't eat that, Ranma." Featherbrite had a feeling
about this. She had a bad feeling
about this. Faerie tended to listen to such feelings.

 "But I'm so hungry," Ranma replied, practically
salivating at the feast before them.

 "Uh oh, Ranma," Featherbrite clung to the girl's
shoulder. "Remember when I told you
that only the 'pure of heart' could see me?"

 "Yeah, go figure that oyaji can't see or hear you."
Genma still thought that Ranma
was talking to an imaginary friend.

 "Well, there are others who can. A magic wielder, or a
psychic, or someone with ties
to the supernatural can see me. There's an old woman
over there who's staring at me."

 "You sure she's not looking at me? Are those damn
wings showing again?"
---------------------------------
 Cologne couldn't help but staring. An Old One. She
hadn't seen one of those in
years. It was associating with that outsider woman.
Now, did that mean the outsider was
a mage, with the Old One a familiar? No, the
relationship was clearly more friendly than a
master-slave one.

 Shampoo had defeated Dowel and was yelling at the girl
about controlling her panda. Cologne settled back to
watch the fight, as the little Old One pointed towards
a nearby kettle. The girl splashed herself,
straightening up as...

 Cologne blinked. Shampoo had challenged a man? This
could be interesting. A Jusenkyo-cursed man who
associated with an Old One, no less. There was a danger
for those who used chi to attentuate their lifespan,
and that was ennui. This looked like it *just* could
get interesting.

 The fight was brief, and once again, Cologne was
annoyed that Shampoo had never managed to learn
subtlety nor patience.

 "<Shampoo,>" Cologne hopped up to her favored Heir as
she was picking herself off the ground.

 "<What is it, Great-Grandmother?>"

 "<Give this one the Kiss Of Marriage, then go with
them, I will contact you shortly.>"

 Puzzled, Shampoo complied. At least he was cute. And
taller and stronger than Mousse.
----------------------------------
 Genma waited until the amazon girl's back was turned,
then struck as hard as he could
manage, using one of her own bonbori.

 Nothing would be allowed to interfere in the plan to
unite the two schools of Anything
Goes martial arts. Even a cute and friendly Amazon
girl. ESPECIALLY a cute and friendly Amazon girl.

 She hadn't explained that Amazon Law stuff to Ranma
yet, as something had seemed to
spook her about him. Genma knew that every so often
Ranma would be talking to something that
wasn't there. That sort of thing _would_ throw a few
people off.

 Since it had occurred after leaving Ukyou, Genma had
realized what it was. Ranma had been so attached to his
Ucchan that he had invented an imaginary friend to
replace her. It was a good thing he'd seperated the two
when he had!

 Genma wiped the smirk off his face, then went to check
out of the inn. With any luck, nobody would check that
old steamer trunk until long after they were gone.
----------------------------------------
 Featherbrite didn't buy it for a moment. The way that
girl had been looking at Ranma, there was no way she'd
just been following them to make sure they left the
amazon lands. She wasn't entirely sure what, but that
hadn't been the whole story.

 She knew Ranma agreed. Probably that baka Genma had
done something to drive her off. Just like him, the old
panda! Every time Ranma was going to make a new friend,
his father would go
hauling him off on further training.

 Featherbrite sighed and continued to search, knowing
she'd be able to track Ranma by
the bond they shared. This girl, though. Frankly, she'd
been hoping that Ranma would get mated
soon. Past time he had a mate, or two, or three. Why
humans had to be so uptight about these
things...

 There were still questions Featherbrite had that
needed answers, and she hoped that by
observing Shampoo she could figure them out.

 Except that the Amazon seemed to be able to sense her
presence. Featherbrite had seen
the amazon get more and more nervous the longer she was
around Featherbrite. Hmmm. Well, she'd
see what she could do.
----------------------------------------
 The panda tried to drag the girl to the house, but she
wasn't having anything to do with it. Finally, Genma
managed to splash the darting winged girl with hot
water after the rains stopped.

 After that, the panda was able to stun Ranma with a
street sign and drag his unconcious body into the Tendo
household.

 Ranma woke up slowly, finding himself surrounded by
three girls and a man of about his father's age.
Moaning at the pain at the back of his head, he took in
the auras of those present in the manner that
Featherbrite had taught him.

 The man was a complicated blur, always shifting from
one extreme to another. He had a bright glow that spoke
of much experience, but the strength was "off" and
Ranma didn't have enough experience to tell what was
wrong with this picture. What the heck was purple and
yellow supposed to signify?

 The oldest looking one was radiating white, pale gold,
and a weaving of dark blue. Basically a nice young
girl, beneath that there was a great sadness, and
personal self-sacrifice. Ranma decided to be this
girl's friend, to try to break down the shell and see
if she
could be healed.

 The other two also showed signs of that underlying
sadness. The second one had just  erected wall after
wall around herself, while the younger fairly burned
with a barely suppressed anger that was ready to be
unleashed as soon as she could find something to focus
it on. Underneath the walls or the anger there was
someone nicer.

 Everyone in this family, Ranma decided, really needed
some help. They'd all faced tragedy of some sort, and
none of them had coped that well with it.

 "You wouldn't be..."

 Ranma winced again as his head began to throb. "I'm
Ranma Saotome. Sorry to trouble you."

 "No trouble!" Soun gestured. "My eldest daughter,
Kasumi, she's 19. My eldest daughter, Nabiki, she's 17.
My youngest daughter, Akane, she's 16. Pick any one you
want, she'll be your new bride."

 "I told you, father, I HATE boys." Akane looked over
the figure and decided that while he was cute,
technically so was Kuno and look what a freak of nature
HE was. Besides, there was something just *wrong* about
the boy.

 Nabiki speculated. The boy had a thoughtful look to
him, and he was major cute. She had taken stock of his
physical attributes and been quite impressed. Maybe...

 Kasumi observed carefully. He didn't look THAT young.
Something about the way his eyes looked at her sent an
odd feeling along her spine. He was tall, broad, and
had really nice muscle definition. He wouldn't have
looked out of place on the cover of a romance novel.
(Not that Kasumi would admit reading them.)

 Ranma decided. The angry one didn't require additional
pressure, the eldest needed a friend, and the middle
one had a large loneliness in her aura. Until he could
figure a way out of this mess, go with the least damage
or the most good.

 "Nabiki. No offense to you other two." Ranma smiled at
both, noting the stunned expression on the youngest and
the faint disappointment in the eldest.

 "Interesting. Why me?" Nabiki felt uncomfortable at
the attention, ecstatic that SHE (the one who would
have to BUY a date at Furinkan) had been chosen over
Akane (unwanted suitors up the yin-yang).

 Kasumi frowned slightly. She knew she wasn't
attractive, had a sex appeal of zip, but there had been
a brief guilty hope that she would be chosen. Still,
this younger boy had been nice and polite, and he'd
only been conscious for a few moments before being
forced to choose a bride. No doubt Nabiki wearing a
flattering kimono compared to Akane's sweaty yellow gi
and her own housedress had clued Ranma in as far as who
was the most interested in this engagement.

 "Well, er, it's that kimono of yours." Ranma noted
Kasumi nodding and wondered what that was about. "Er,
combined with your hairstyle, it just tells me how
complicated your personality really is." Saotome
special technique: verbal dodge.

 "Better you than me, sis," Akane snorted. She
continued to stare at Ranma out of the corner of her
eye, however. Much as she hated guys, she was used to
being the center of their attention. Being casually but
politely dismissed like that...

 Ranma thought for a moment then sighed. They may throw
everything out now, but they'd find out sooner or
later. "You may not want this, though. When I was in
China, something terrible happened."

 Ranma explained his curse, that he'd gotten mixed up
in some magic during his training journey, and then
that fateful plunge into Jusenkyo. He was prepared for
the disbelieving looks. Then he splashed himself.

 The sound of jaws dropping simultaneously around the
room could be heard in what was otherwise near-total
silence. Genma was the only one who didn't react.

 "Wings?" Kasumi stared at the pastel wings that
vaguely resembled those of a dragonfly.

 "A girl?" Akane looked disgusted. Bad enough that
she'd almost gotten engaged to a boy, but to a boy who
turned into a girl? She'd begun to think he was kind of
cute, she should have known he was a pervert. Well, at
the very least this meant that Nabiki would reject
him/her and they could put all this engagement nonsense
behind them.

 Nabiki blink-blinked. The slender elfin form was
looking directly into her eyes with eyes that seemed to
see right through her and managed to convey a sort of
sad understanding. There was a faint smell of
raspberry/citrus in the air. It was the conveyed mood
from those eyes, the expectation that Nabiki would be
disgusted and horrified by this change that cut through
all the reactions swirling through her. She shouldered
those reactions to the side and forced a
neutral/friendly expression into place.

 "So," Nabiki finally managed. "Are those wings
functional?"

 Ranma blinked. She could feel...sympathy? Not pity
exactly, but the middle girl was sorting through her
own feelings. Ranma began a slow smile. "Do you want to
see?" Ranma stepped out into the backyard and held out
her hands. Maybe this would work out, she hoped so, she
could really use someone to talk to right now.
Featherbrite just didn't understand the human
experience too well, and his father wasn't the sort to
inspire confidence.

 Nabiki was quite hesitant, taking the sylph's hands
out in the yard. She was rewarded with a bright smile
from Ranma and an odd tingling sensation that seemed to
pass from Ranma through her. Then she noticed that the
sensation was almost of freefalling and the ground was
no longer pressing against her feet.

 Looking down, Nabiki saw that both of them were merely
a couple of feet up.

 "I noticed that if I'm carrying something, I can make
it lighter and carry it, unless it's metal. I seem to
have problems with anything metal." Ranma's voice was
very calm and soothing, as if she half expected Nabiki
to begin freaking out.

 Nabiki found the loss of control unsettling, but the
possibilities of this mode of transport were already
beginning to register. An old line in a manga about the
Faerie Folk being slain by the touch of cold iron came
back to her, and she looked with concern at her
transformed
iinazuke.

 "What are you doing with my sister, you pervert!"
Akane had been frozen with shock for a moment, then
started stalking forward. In her vast years of
experience, all boys were perverts, and the idea of
becoming something like THAT was completely perverted.
Nabiki didn't know how to fall, she could get easily
injured from even a short drop. That she might be
jealous was, of course, ignored.

 Kasumi found herself feeling something else, something
almost completely new to her. Watching the two lift
off, their hair drifting up as if both were weightless,
to stand there drifting in midair...Kasumi actually
felt a brief stab of jealousy. To effortlessly fly,
free and unfettered, to be able to watch the house and
her responsibilities dwindle away...

 Ranma tightened her grip as Akane stalked forward,
spreading her wings slightly. The two shot up into the
air to almost rooftop height.

 Nabiki wasn't idle, her mind continuing to catalog and
analyze the experience. She hadn't felt any
acceleration, as if inertia had been somehow suspended
here. More ideas began to flick into place. How fast
could she go? How high? How far out did this
weightlessness go? How much mass could Ranma negate?

 Nabiki glanced down as they drifted in place, then
shut her eyes. Every instinct said that they were about
to fall, that nothing was supporting them, that they'd
get hurt when they hit.

 Seeing Nabiki close her eyes and clench her jaw, Ranma
slowly lowered the two down again. She watched
carefully, seeing more with the violet eyes of her
cursed form than merely reflected light. Nabiki
flinched slightly as her feet touched the ground, then
she started breathing again.

 "Sorry, Nabiki, I guess you weren't ready for that..."
Ranma was suddenly interrupted by having Akane grab her
shirt.

 "WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!" Akane pulled
Ranma off balance in order to shout in the sylph's
face. Concern for her sister, anger at this arranged
marriage thing, disgust at the thought of being married
to something not completely human, more disgust at the
thought of how close she'd come to being married to a
girl, bruised pride that she'd been passed over just
like with Doctor Tofu, that annoying buzzing sensation,
and a certain degree of jealousy combined to form
something she was more comfortable with. Anger. "NABIKI
DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO FALL, SHE'S NOT A MARTIAL ARTIST."
Akane stopped as Nabiki placed her hand over Akane's
mouth.

 "Next time, Saotome, I want to be held a little bit
closer and I am NOT looking down." Nabiki had thought
of dozens of ways to make money on this sort of thing,
and had surmised something that Ranma hadn't realized
yet himself. This last was that the legends of Faerie
generally represented them as being very open
emotionally, if not quite human. Based on her limited
exposure to both forms, she could see where the cursed
form was much more expressive and open.

 And what was with the girl's perfume anyway? There was
a smell as of a recent rain in a pine forest, somehow
evocative of spring. And were her eyes changing color?
Was that due to viewing them at different angles of
lighting or something else? So many questions. Nabiki's
curiosity was engaged, and it was a powerful thing once
aroused.

 Being held at arm's length though, that had to go. She
wanted a better safety margin. A
glance over at her younger sister brought Nabiki a
brief smile. A guy was paying attention to HER, not
bowing and scraping to the little princess. She'd have
to (subtly) rub Akane's face in it later, it was one of
those things that Akane had always held over her...
Akane the popular one, as opposed to Nabiki the feared
one, or Kasumi the ignored one.

 Kasumi looked down and realized she'd dropped a cup
while watching the brief flight. "Oh my. That was one
of the good cups too."

 "Allow me," Ranma walked over, giving the still
angry/concerned Akane a wide berth. Quite
obviously she would have to be careful around the
youngest. The youngest girl's aura was flashing through
so many color cycles (though that light blue tinge of
pride seemed to be the strongest) that Ranma wasn't
sure at all of what the young lady was feeling. "I can
fix this."

 Kasumi looked at all the tiny pieces of the cup. "I'll
just get a broom."

 Ranma held her hands over the cup and began
concentrating, finding the parts that were once
together and convincing them to rejoin.

 Kasumi took a step back, but smiled as the pieces of
the cup moved together, fitting back into a whole. The
cracks finally smoothing over as the pieces fused as if
it had never broken.

 Nabiki whistled. More money to be made, even better,
now they didn't have to buy a new cup to replace the
broken one. Even Akane blinked at this, the idea
occurring to her that after she broke the bricks,
Nabiki's fiancee could make them whole again. Never
again having to buy new bricks could save that money
for other uses.

 "Ah, to have such talent in the Art, but to waste it
on such trivial things, Tendo!" Genma made a pleading
gesture to the heavens. "What did I do to deserve such
an ungrateful child?"

 Soun opened his mouth to reply then caught the looks
Nabiki and Kasumi were giving Genma. Wisely, he shut
his mouth. For some reason he could see the idea of
adding panda steaks to the menu floating briefly on the
air between his middle and eldest daughters. Surely
that was just his imagination though.

 Kasumi picked up the cup and turned it over in her
hands. There was no sign it had ever been broken. How
useful! Her eyes caught Ranma's as the sylph reached
for the kettle. "Can you do this on other than cups?
Any other substances?" Kasumi immediately started to
think of other household uses for such a talent.

 "Well, yeah, as long as it's a simple object and it
isn't metal. I can't do metal too well for some
reason." Ranma yanked at her ponytail in a nervous
gesture, especially as Akane smirked. Ranma had a bad
feeling about the look in her eyes.

 Akane was merely smirking because she now had a tool.
This Ranma was a boy, and boy = pervert. If he got out
of hand, he had trouble with metal and this could be
used to teach him his place.

 Nabiki leaned against a wall and had an entirely
different smirk. Simple objects, as long as they
weren't made of metal? Seamless repair of breaks? Yen
signs began to dance in her vision. Museums,
archaeologists, wealthy people with expensive
breakables. Just going down to a junkyard and finding
broken things, then reselling the repaired versions
could net her a fair amount of revenue.

 Her gaze flicked back to Ranma as he restored his
masculinity and his humanity with a splash of hot
water. Her gaze swept up and down his frame in an
appreciative survey. She had expected some dumb lout,
that the best she could hope for was that he was cute.
She began tallying up the pluses and minuses and found,
overall that she could live with the inconvenience of
the minuses and enjoy the pluses. Nabiki's grin
increased slightly as her eyes went exploring. She
could think of a few pluses for both forms.

 "So, Ranma," Nabiki still wasn't sure about this whole
engagement thing, but a short term
relationship didn't seem too unattractive, in fact it
seemed downright lucrative. And not all the profit she
was looking at was monetary in nature. "I've got some
research to do, but don't forget you owe me a longer
flight tomorrow."

 Ranma nodded, a faint smile showing on his face. He
couldn't read her emotions as easily as when in his
faerie form, but Nabiki didn't look nearly as angry or
unhappy as she had earlier.

 Two others watched with very different feelings on the
whole thing.
--------------China-----------
 Featherbrite continued to watch the purple haired
girl, who continued to peer into
shadows as if she felt something was...off.

 "<Ah, Shampoo, and you have brought the Old One.>"

 Shampoo had been on edge for quite some time. She
jumped into the air, trying to look in all directions
at once. "<Where? What is it? I have felt like there
was something there...>"

 Cologne sighed. "<Child, relax. The Old Ones were
often mischievous, rarely malicious, though often
alien. I'd judge that this one offered you no harm.>"

 "True," Featherbrite replied, noting again that this
small and old-appearing figure was quite capable of
seeing her. "I am called Featherbrite, a wind-faerie of
the Cor Mai Tal tribe, honored one."

 "<Honored one, eh?>" Cologne hopped over to where she
could get a better look at the tiny figure. It was not
often that she ran across one smaller and more ancient
than herself. She rather enjoyed this. "<Translation
effect, eh? That's handy. Mind telling me what's going
on, little one?>"

 "<Okay, Great Grandmama. It's...>" Shampoo's voice
trailed off as Cologne shot her the dreaded Grandmother
Look, a special attack known to freeze children in
their place. It did so.

 Featherbrite began to tell her tale, that of her
friend Ranma returning to be told by his father that
the Amazon had gone back to her village, but that both
Ranma and Featherbrite had felt that the panda wasn't
telling the whole story.

 "<Shampoo, didn't you tell the boy why you had come
after him?>" On seeing Shampoo shake her head, Cologne
gave an exasperated growl. "<Well, why not? I can't
believe you found
the boy intimidating!>"

 "<Great Grandmother, something did not feel right. It
just...felt strange. Then the strangeness followed
me!>"

 "<Little one, can you show yourself to my Great
Granddaughter?>"

 "No, only some people can see me. Usually it is the
pure of heart, or a child, or those who are mages."
Featherbrite thought briefly. "It would be difficult to
do this without either
using a spell or an infusion of faerie magic. Possible,
but it would require time and some work."

 Cologne sighed and found a rock to sit on. "<Well,
Featherbrite, you said? Let me tell you what is going
on with that friend of yours and my Great-Granddaughter
here.>"

 Shampoo moved carefully, watching Cologne's eyes as
she addressed...nothing. Shampoo continued to stare and
noticed that there was a point about three feet in
front of her Great-Grandmother where her own eyes
refused to focus. There was a...ripple in the air,
almost a heat shimmer. Shampoo continued to stare,
trying to make out this "Old One" through sheer will.

 "<So when Shampoo was defeated, she gave the boy the
Kiss Of Marriage.>"

 "Marriage?" Featherbrite thought about it. There were
so MANY confusing human customs. She'd run into this
before, though. There was that Sultan Whatshisname, and
he'd had thirty wives. How many centuries ago had that
been? But had that changed? "That means an arrangement
between exclusive mates, doesn't it? I'm not sure I
approve."

 "<Don't tell me, you think he should wait till he's
older?>" Cologne chuckled. It wasn't unheard of for a
marriage to take place between fourteen year olds in
her society.

 "Hmmm? No, no, he's an adolescent. Old enough. I just
don't understand exclusive mates. Favored mate, THAT I
could see."

 "<First mate? Most favored mate?>" Cologne knew from
the bits and pieces of stories that faerie viewed
things much differently from humans. How could she
explain marriage to someone who likely didn't even
understand the human need for ceremony?

 "DEAL!" Featherbrite exclaimed, bobbing in the air
happily. She'd gotten a good deal  for Ranma, and maybe
this girl would help take away some of his father's
influence!

 Cologne's face went blank momentarily, then she
groaned. Maybe the son-in-law would be able to explain
this.
-------Japan------------
 Akane had been waiting for the knock on her door.
"Come in, Nabiki."

 Nabiki opened the door and let herself in, pausing for
a moment to regard her sister.

 Akane answered the unasked question. "I don't trust
him."

 "Why not?" Nabiki leaned against the closed door and
continued to study Akane.

 "He's a boy. I know boys, look at how many of 'em I've
got after me. They're all jerks and perverts." Akane
made a dismissing gesture to indicate what she thought
of the boys at school.

 "So. He's not from around here. Admittedly we've just
met him, but he doesn't *seem* that bad."

 "Which means he's hiding something." Akane nodded her
head. "I'll tolerate him for your sake, sis. One wrong
move though, and *kapowie*!"

 Nabiki watched her sister and determined several
things. One of which cut back in her own plans to rub
Akane's face in the fact that Nabiki had a handsome
guy. Akane was telling the truth, and there was more to
this Ranma than could be easily summed up in a single
sentence. There was a vibrancy about the young man that
the male population of Furinkan was missing. And that
this guy had chosen Nabiki over Akane had rattled
little sister's cage.

 "Gee, Akane, I would've thought you'd be happy about
your big sister getting a boyfriend." Nabiki shook her
head and tried to look amused.

 "I'm just hoping you don't get hurt, Nabiki. He's too
good to be true in some ways, too weird to be
acceptable in others. And this whole arranged marriage
thing stinks!"

 "Give him a chance, Akane. He isn't *that* bad."
Nabiki wanted to convince herself as well. After all,
the boy had chosen *her* instead of Akane. She wanted
to believe that Ranma was  more discerning than the
average Furinkan youth, as opposed to there being
something wrong with him.

 Akane shook her own head. "It isn't like you to let
yourself get pulled along by some 'pretty boy' even if
he's got some skills. SOMEBODY has to be suspicious and
use their heads here. What if I'm right? Can we take
the chance?"
-------------------------
 "School?" Ranma shuddered. His father had gotten
fairly nasty earlier about time spent away from martial
arts training, so now being all but shoved out the door
to go to school just seemed to be more of his father's
doublespeak at work.

 "You're going to the same school as Akane and me, I'll
meet you there." The shock had worn off, and now Nabiki
was feeling serious doubts. Ranma's splash in the pond
this morning had
convinced her that the last evening was NOT a dream.

 Yesterday morning, magic had been the stuff of empty
headed people's fantasies, a convenient mechanism in
manga, foolish dreams born of the desire that life not
be the dog-eat-dog world that Nabiki knew it was.
Yesterday morning, and every morning before that,
Nabiki had well known that there was no magic, no
miracles, nothing beyond the rational world.

 Today magic was looking rather sullenly at her as she
prepared to leave him behind and go meet with her
factors.

 Nabiki walked quickly from the house, putting distance
between her and the impossible. She'd seen it, but it
couldn't be. It could NOT be. Changing forms, he
violated conservation of  mass without even considering
where the energy for the process came from! Flying in
that faerie form had no regard for such factors as
gravity or inertia. Making that cup come together as if
it had never been broken?

 It was all impossible. It couldn't be done. She'd seen
it last night, and then saw almost everything again the
very next morning. Nabiki shook slightly as she ran,
not even realizing that she was running away in more
than meaning of the term.
-------------------------
 Ranma watched sadly, seeing the fear and confusion
swirling around his erstwhile iinazuke. He'd mishandled
the situation, gone too fast, he now realized. With his
father and Nabiki's father pushing for a fast
engagement and marriage, they'd likely push any chance
for that eventuality out the door.

 Ranma sighed and gathered his things, putting his
flute within the case that Kasumi had
handed him. Thanking her for the kindness, he waited
for Akane to show him the way to school.

 Now if they could just go five minutes without him
freaking her out, or her insulting him, Ranma would
count the day as being at least not a total loss.
----------------------China----------------------------
-----------
 "<I really wish I could see you,>" Shampoo noted to
her invisible companion. "<Great Grandmother told me
that I should open my mind, try to see with my mind or
my heart and not my eyes. Now if she had just told me
HOW I'm supposed to do this.>"

 Featherbrite sat on the Amazon's head and smiled.
Without knowing why, Shampoo had gone into a
long-distance loping run that she could maintain for
hours at a time. Also without it really registering on
the warrior's mind, she had taken each branch and turn
that would eventually lead her to Ranma.

 There was communication, and then there was
communication. Since the Amazon could neither see nor
hear her companion, the companion was using other
methods to get to know the Amazon and lead her to
Ranma. A few passes of enchantment, and subtle nudges
got the bouncy young girl into a thoughtful and
talkative mood.

 Featherbrite listened to the girl's story during the
periods where Shampoo was walking, and found that the
barbarian princess was not as simple as she appeared.
The faerie continued to "tweak" a few things, and
Shampoo found herself relating major events in her life
to the invisible companion. All the while, Featherbrite
tried to remove the amazon's uneasiness towards her-
the result of faerie not precisely being of the world
that Shampoo's senses were so highly tuned to. Shampoo
was not as prone to anger as others were, though fear
and anger were the most frequent responses to the
faerie presence. Years of being around humans had
taught Featherbrite how to damp the effect, and usually
this just manifested as a sense of something out of
place.

 Shampoo found herself in a circle of toadstools after
six hours of her pace, yawning and wondering why this
felt like such a good place to take a nap.
--------Japan-------
 "Good thing there was a pool there," said one of the
students as Ranma and Kuno continued to fall from the
third floor of the school.

 Ranma's yelp said otherwise.

 "You idiot," grumbled Akane. "What, did you think you
could fly as a boy too?"

 "What did you say, Akane?" Hiroshi glanced at Akane,
wondering what the heck THAT comment had meant.

 The waters of the pool erupting a moment later gave
answer. Wings spread and with the sparkling glow that
meant her self-control was currently shot, Ranma shot
out of the pool.

 "That idiot groped me!" Ranma shuddered in mid-air.

 "RANMA! YOU IDIOT! Did you want everyone to know about
your curse?!"

 Ranma blinked, realizing where she was. Also realizing
all of the classmates were currently staring at Akane.
"Way to go," Ranma mumbled.

 "Oops," managed Akane as she realized the same thing.
"Well, it's your own fault, you freak!"

 Ranma glided to within a few feet of the open window.
"I thought we settled that already! It's a curse,
curses are not something you CHOOSE to get. Curses are
inflicted. About the only thing this curse has going
for it is this flying! (Which is a bit of a rush, but
that's beside the point.)"

 "Look at you," Akane wasn't quite yelling but it came
close. How dare he argue with her! "Not only are you a
pervert, you're a perversion! You're a freak!" He was
calling attention to her, people would think SHE was a
freak or something for associating with Ranma.

 The crowd looked from one to the other, not quite
understanding what was going on but some
of it was beginning to penetrate.

 "So Ranma turns into some kinda elf girl, cause of
some curse." Daisuke summed up for the
even slower members of the crowd. "Least she's cute."

 Both Ranma and Akane looked disgusted at this last
observation.

 Far below them, Tatewaki Kuno was making his own
observations, staring up at the winged girl above him.
A pig-tailed goddess, a waterborne sprite, a vision of
otherworldly beauty. Now, how was he going to catch
her?
------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/

ja ne,
gregg