minor changes, tweaks, one scene deleted, a few scenes
clarified and expanded. if archiving, please substitute
previous versions with this one. thank you.

Featherbrite's Tale, the Bet. 2.5 version
by Gregg Sharp based on Rumiko Takahashi's
situations/char other char TM Jack Chalker, JRR
Tolkein, and other authors. This whole thing is written
for the purpose of momentary enjoyment, *not* as a
character debate. Some people aren't going to like
this, and you know who you are so please don't read
this, because then you'll give me a long and detailed
e-mail about your opinion when it is obvious mine and
thine aren't the same. i'm now killfiling the authors
of such things so any actually constructive feedback
(instead of the usual ranting, obscenties, and/or the
use of the 'buzzword of the day' (ex:"straw man")) you
may have will be lost without ever having to waste
space on my computer.
     true C&C, (that is the comments and criticism that
are not merely snide remarks, smarmy pontifications,
and hostile pejoratives,) originating from people
who've actually read the story, will still be accepted
with thanks.
Metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/
3: Another New Complication
   OR... "Kasumi's New Friend"

------------Tendo-ke,
Nerima----------------------------
 Featherbrite awoke to find the tall girl checking on
her. Another quick probe penetrated
the mortal's flimsy mental defenses.

 Kind, nice, polite, quite intelligent, though there
were restraints and barriers in place. Featherbrite
snapped to full wakefulness and felt sympathy for this
mortal. She'd accidently put in a compulsion that would
have her treating Ranma's father like a low-grade
moron. (Not that he wasn't, in Featherbrite's opinion,
but it might cause further friction if this girl acted
like that before Featherbrite was ready to exploit it.)
(1)

 Worse, this girl had some odd compulsions and
self-imposed restrictions on her behavior that the
faerie couldn't quite understand. Still, there were
some things that Featherbrite had learned after 9,500
years of intermittent observation of the Big Folk. One
of these was that some of these humans suffered from
odd diseases like "shyness" and "insecurity" and other
insanities.

 She'd also learned that some restrictions were
self-defined, others culture-defined, and still others
traumatically defined in the psyche. This last category
was almost always something she could mess around with
and not get the individual she was helping in trouble.
If it was tagged under a "Moral" heading, then removing
it would have bad repercussions. If a restriction was
under "Survival"- this also would be bad.

 In some ways, Featherbrite decided, this girl was even
better as a potential mate to Ranma than the Amazon. It
wouldn't take much, either. A little tweak here, a
little push there, a tiny adjustment behind those
chestnut colored eyes and the girl would be seducing
Ranma within the week.

 Featherbrite sighed. It was SO tempting. She knew
Ranma had some odd ideas about this right/wrong thing,
and probably wouldn't approve. It was so hard not to do
_something_ though.  This "Kasumi" put on a happy face
but that was just on the surface layers. From what the
faerie could see and interpret, if she got this girl
and Ranma together, there was a fair chance of a deeper
happiness developing. All it would take was a little
nudge.

 Featherbrite restrained herself, but it was a close
thing.

 She did cut a few of these odd restrictions that the
girl had put on her own behavior referencing her
intelligence. For some odd reason, this girl thought
that showing off her own talents and intelligence
(other than necessary domestic skills, an area where no
one sought to compete with her) would "upstage" her
sisters and cause them emotional hurt. Humans did some
pretty strange things.

 Kasumi was talking about making the little guest a
little bed when Featherbrite remembered she'd left an
Amazon sleeping on the roof.
--------------Furinkan SHS,
Nerima----------------------------
 Ranma grabbed one end of the whirling chain and
realized immediately that this wasn't a good idea. She
would have dodged but there had been people behind her,
and it was only a whirling length of steel with sleeves
of a darker metal on the links. It wouldn't have been
any problem if she'd been in the uncursed male form.
However, in the half-faerie form...

 Nabiki was moving before the first involuntary scream
from Ranma, reaching into the flames in order pull the
chain weapon away from where it had wrapped first
around Ranma's hand, then the other end around the
faerie-girl's neck.

 Akane was rather surprised that Nabiki had beaten her
to the rescue. Not having read the same stories as her
sister, Akane thought that Kuno must have done
something really odd. Incendiary charges seemed out of
character for the kendoist. A quick glance at Kuno
confirmed that he hadn't expected this sort of thing
either. The samurai was standing there still, in shock
at what his own actions had just wrought.

 "Akane," Nabiki said as she stuffed the chain into her
bookbag. "Give me a hand here. She's gone into shock."

 Akane lifted Ranma, amazed at how light the cursed
form was. "Hot water?"

 "Nurse's office first," Nabiki replied as she opened
the doors to the school. "Those are third degree
burns."

 Kuno continued to stare at the place his winged
goddess had stood. His plans had crumbled away, and
even his usual delusions had trouble putting a positive
spin on this development.
-------------Myou na Maru(2), China------------------
 The "fishing" vessel landed at a small dock that was
conveniently not on any maps, patrol routes, or
official lists. A deal had been cut ages ago
(literally) that as long as certain types of cargo
weren't shipped/sold, then the dock would remain open
and a secret.

 Five Amazons of the Nichieju boarded the ship, not
having to pay for passage as this was part of another
agreement. As long as the ship was of use to the
various groups who made use of its services, it was
neutral ground. The male Amazons and the "Washouts"
were a little nervous about the passengers, but others
took it in stride.

 Parcels were loaded into a haycart, and the ship was
quickly and efficiently unloaded. Just as quickly, the
ship was loaded and set out again. Mainland China had
been a brief stop for several decades now. One of the
crew could remember before the "People's Revolution"
and the closing of Chinese society. Another could
remember being present when Marco Polo decided to take
a long trip.

 Nathan Brazil, owner of the Myou Na Maru, was in one
of his phases where he was _not_ the Captain. He
watched the Amazons board and remembered the plains of
Scythia and the horse-riding spear-toting women that
they had been well over 3000 years previously. They had
been a fading legend in Homer's time, but nomads were
notoriously hard to pin down by the later groups of
archaeologists and legend seekers.

 "Well," came a basso grumble from a squat seaman even
shorter than the Wandering Jew, "whatever you can say
about it, it's gotta be different. I mean 'Chinese
Amazons'?"

 "Last time they had crossed the ocean and had been
located in what's Nevada this time around. The time
before that, they were in South America. Every time the
universe gets reset, it's just a little different. If
it weren't a little different each time, I don't think
I could handle it." Nathan watched one of the amazons
getting seasick even before the ship had pulled from
the dock. He wondered what other changes had taken
place with the Amazons. Heck, the Amazons had become a
significant force in American politics during the last
Universe. This time they seemed to be a secret society.

 "Hmph. Still don't know how you do it. I mean, I'm
only 900 years old, and I still feel like going to
sleep and somebody wake me up when someone's actually
doing something new." Tolkein snorted. The old dragon
still spoke with an English accent despite his years of
seperation from that land. He'd taken the name of a
writer from that land as a joke to any who knew his
real nature.

 Nathan grunted softly. Despite appearances, maybe
something major different WOULD happen. Certainly he
didn't remember dragons and faeries showing up in the
20th Century the last time.
---------------------Tendo-ke, Nerima--------------
 "Something's happened to Ranma," Featherbrite was
buzzing along like an unhappy hummingbird. "He's hurt."

 "Oh dear. He's probably at school by now."

 Featherbrite didn't think that Shampoo would wake up,
but she didn't want the warrior to cause problems in
her absence if she did.  There was also the unexplained
matter of the scent of supernatural evil in the yard.

 The faerie sent a structured command into the amazon's
mind. <*This is Kasumi. She is a friend but not a
warrior. You can trust her. Because she's not a
warrior, she may need your protection.*> She sent a
similar set into Kasumi's mind, explaining that the
amazon was a foreign warrior but a friend who needed to
be looked after.

 It was due to the extreme hurry to find out what had
happened to Ranma that Featherbrite hadn't anticipated
the sort of problems that these two sets of
instructions could cause in the future.

 In fact, by the time she remembered casting this spell
again, the effects would have snowballed.(3)

 Shampoo smiled in her sleep. A friend. She had always
wanted one of those.

 Kasumi looked down at her sleeping friend. She was
needed, and this gave her some immediate fulfillment.
Yes, she'd have to take care of this girl. Maybe some
hot tea when she awoke.
----------------Furinkan SHS,
Nerima-----------------------
 Mister Hisakawa, biology teacher, adjusted his belt
and tried to get his attention back on his class. He
was failing miserably.

 A few more photos had been added to his collection of
Ranma-yousei. He had borrowed the Physics Department's
high-speed camera and caught a number of shots of the
flying martial artist. His friends in Tokyo
University's faculty would be intrigued by his sudden
interest in special effects, until they saw the wing
sample he'd managed to get from the patient in the
nurse's office while her "guardian" was occupied
elsewhere.

 Once they actually saw this Ranma, well, Hisakawa
still had some dreams. Being stuck at a minor Senior
High School in a Tokyo suburb was not what he had
planned for his future. Fame, fortune, girls, essays,
girls, money, public recognition, wealth, the lecture
circuit, girls, these were the things that were
rightfully his and that he might yet claim. All he
wanted was his due, that wasn't so bad, was it?

 A pity about the boy, but exploratories would have to
be performed. What were the musculoskeletal connections
for the wings like? Were the internal organs more
suggestive of mammals, or was the insectile nature of
the wings indicative of the internal anatomy?

 Hisakawa knew he couldn't count on much help among the
faculty at Furinkan. The physics teacher, Keiko
Nagai(4) would especially be against any of his plans.
Nagai was planning on having Ranma carry a few
instruments aloft on her next flight. Nagai wanted to
explore how the faerie could make 90 degree turns at
high speeds, or float weightlessly above the school.
Nagai was already (having seen the reaction of metal to
Ranma and paid for information from Nabiki) redesigning
equipment to minimize the use of metal in the testing
devices.

 Likewise Keiko Tomita was already waxing quite
eloquently about crushing the competition from the
other schools if she could get that flute player to
sign up. Seeing the 4'10" Tomita laughing maniacally
and talking about the utter humiliation and destruction
of other High School's music programs had been quite
amusing. One would never have guessed that she had
taken the school's poor performance over the last six
years so personally.

 Sighing to himself, and putting his dreams of the
lecture circuit to the side, Hisakawa-sensei returned
to the lecture of ATP>ADP and how muscles worked. The
fire never left his eyes, however, with the thought
that he might not have to do this again NEXT year.
-------------------------
 Ranma awoke to find that he was a he again, and that
he was alone in the Nurse's office. A quick check
revealed that the Nabiki's scent (an inexpensive but
vaguely flowery-spicy perfume) was still fairly strong
in the air.

 Bandages at wrist and neck covered the worst of the
burns. Ranma could feel a small injury in his back, a
gouge or something.

 Getting up proved to be somewhat more difficult. Years
on the road had taught Ranma a number of things. The
sensation of being poisoned was one of these and he
gave both sets of burns a tentative label of poisonous.
The act of catching certain black chains was filed
under "things you want to avoid in the future."

 As the dizzy spell passed, Ranma got up and rinsed his
face off in the sink, remembering at the last minute to
let the water warm up before doing so.

 A tiny figure glowing and sending off sparks, shot
into the room.
-----------Myou No Maru, near
China------------------------------
 "<You suppose this is usual?>" Shammi hung over the
side of the ship. The green tint to her complexion was
an interesting match to the darker green of her
pantsuit.

 "<You mean the way the ship keeps lurching up and
down? Or do you mean the way that glowing green ship
keeps appearing behind us?>" Dina tapped her nunchaku
idly against her boot.

 "<Oceans didn't look nearly so bad on the map. Why
didn't anyone mention this problem of keeping one's
lunch in the proper place?>" Shammi glanced over at the
hooded and cloaked figure of Vanilla, whose reddish
eyes were calmly regarding the two males that had
periodically
reappeared over near the forward railing.

 Shammi had envied the albino very little over the
years, the albino was a better tracker but an
uninspired warrior, a fair cook but everything she made
was bland. Vanilla's ability to remain unfazed during
the ship's movements was the subject of some envy by
Shammi at the moment.

 That left a little nine-year-old girl who was only
slightly less comfortable than Vanilla. Tiger had been
chosen because, once again, she'd managed to get on the
bad side of Elder Cologne. This seemed to happen *way*
too often.

 Tiger was watching the shorter of the two short men
and was coming to an unpleasant conclusion. Both were
very experienced, but the taller of the two was more an
artisan than a warrior. The short one *was* a fighter.
Not a martial artist, but his obvious strength, sense
of balance, and overall appearance of "toughness"
indicated a brawler who had won many fights. She would
have to make SURE she didn't get into a situation where
she had to fight the short man. It would be most
unpleasant.
---------------------------------------------
=========================
(1)- It's been said i need to clarify this.
Featherbrite is not quite the sort of faerie that
appears as the kid's sidekick in some children's video.
In keeping with the slightly more mature audiences that
Ranma was intended for, these are the faerie of the
Faerie Realms, old and fey creatures who don't quite
understand human morality at best. Beings of wild magic
who are quite powerful, but also quite limited.
Featherbrite is near the low end of the power scale.
Oberon (more on him much later) is at the upper end.
Think less "Rainbow Brite" and more Shakespeare and
"L'Mort d'Arthur" era pieces. Another problem is that
FB's view of humans and their customs, practices, and
morals is that she's developed them over the past nine
thousand years and has a rather piecemeal idea of such
things as mating practices...
(2) Spelling corrected.
(3) In keeping with the nature of faerie,
Featherbrite's spells are all pretty much instinctive
weavings of wild magic (referred to as wyld magic
hereafter to avoid confusion with wild use of magic)
with the basics being the entreaty/requests of nature
that Ranma can manage.
(4) Have NO idea what the official names of any of the
teachers, other than Hinako Ninnomiya, are. For
purposes of this fic:
           Sanbei Hisakawa, biology teacher with dreams
of being a lecturer.
      Keiko Nagai, physics teacher
           Keiko Tomita, music teacher and cousin of
Isao Tomita
(5) This is not a canon "three-stooges" story. Physics,
except where otherwise indicated, will apply. Add to
this that (this version at least) Ranma is not stupid,
egotistical, or a jerk, and you make an Akane-Ranma
romance extremely unlikely. i respect Takahashi's
ability to come up with some interesting ideas. Her
idea of the "perfect woman" (Lum, Akane Tendo, etc)
does not agree with mine, nor do i consider the perfect
relationship to be composed of large doses of mistrust,
mutual verbal abuse, and the girl
beating/zapping/bludgeoning the guy. i continue to get
e-mail that disagrees (in varying degrees of
politeness) with my opinion.

3b: Another New Complication
---------------Furinkan SHS, Nerima-------------
 Concern prompted a certain short-haired young girl to
excuse herself from class early. As Keiko Nagai-sensei
had her *own* concern about those events, and under the
pretext of letting a fiancee check on her beloved's
condition, the physics teacher promptly excused that
particular student.

 So it was that in the silence of nearly deserted
halls, one Nabiki Tendo heard a voice talking before
she entered the nurse's office.

 "So, cold iron is a BAD thing. What the heck is cold
iron anyway?"

 Nabiki listened but couldn't hear another voice. She
delayed her entry, wanting to know what she was
stepping into before she got there.

 "Iron that's been refined by other methods than heat?
If you say so. It doesn't make much sense to me,
though. I mean that stuff BURNED." Ranma's voice
sounded tired. "Okay. What did you learn? Was that baka
oyaji of mine telling the truth for once?"

 Nabiki crept up to the doorway and peered in. Ranma
was sitting on the bed, addressing an empty chair. He
was listening to it apparently, too.

 "He did WHAT?!" Ranma was incredulous. "Why did he do
that? She seemed like a pretty nice girl."

 Nabiki blinked. Was Ranma talking to his "imaginary
friend"? She couldn't see or hear anything but at this
point wasn't completely willing to believe Genma was
right about this. Too many other things had blown her
mind lately. At this point, Nabiki thought that if she
were to
see a unicorn trotting through the streets of Nerima,
she would probably just start a betting pool on whether
it would find a virgin. Hopefully *before* it came up
to her. She'd die of embarassment otherwise.

 "Nabiki-chan?" Ranma looked puzzled. Nabiki flattened
herself against a wall and tried not to make any noise.
Had he seen her?

 "She's my fiancee. My father and her father arranged
it. She seems a bit cold and uncaring..." Ranma paused.

 Nabiki closed her eyes. Her image as the Ice Queen
remained intact. Even when people had seen her reaching
into a flame to pull the chains away from her iinazuke,
they had merely supposed it was to protect a potential
source of profit. She felt an unfamiliar pang that
her iinazuke would think this of her.

 "...but that's just her defense against the world.
She's walled off the world to keep from getting hurt,
but there's a caring heart in there. I'm sure she can
be nice and kind and
warm when she's given half a chance."

 Nabiki's eyes weren't the only thing that opened in
shock, her jaw was currently hanging loose. Her? The
legendary mercenary Ice Queen of Furinkan?

 "Well, pops and Mister Tendo made some sort of
arrangement that I'd marry one of Tendo's daughters.
Family honor kind of thing, y'know. No, she's got two
sisters. Actually, I'd like you to look at them and see
if I'm interpreting their auras right."

 Nabiki's mind started to run on high speed. Auras? He
was reading auras? <K-CHING!> This could be one heck of
a business tool if she could learn how he did it. Just
speculating on the uses during negotiations caused her
to miss Ranma's next comment. She tuned back in when
she heard Kasumi's name mentioned.

 A slightly longer pause, then Ranma started again.
"Well, Kasumi looks like she could use a friend,
someone to unburden herself on. She's sorta retreated
from the world so it can't hurt her. Nabiki's erected
walls of ice around herself, and is really into money
as a method of control of her environment. Akane has a
nasty temper that seems to relate violence to release.
Underneath all that, all three seem to be really nice
girls." Another pause. "At least that's what little
I've been able to read from their auras."

 Another long pause. "Well, you did say that faerie
nature tends towards nurturer/healer as opposed to
warrior. Look at my cursed form, I've got a lot more of
that stuff in me than I thought. 'Sides, I can be good
at more than one thing. Something else YOU taught me."

 "She's here?"

 "Candidate #3? Maybe..."

 Nabiki looked up, startled. That voice had not been
heard with her ears. It had been a girl's voice, much
higher and softer than Ranma's cursed form's voice.

 She caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of
her eye, but couldn't see anything when she turned her
head.

 Nabiki had always taken pride on her mind. One of the
things she'd always felt was that the three daughters
Tendo had a different focus, and that hers was the
intellect whereas Akane
was more freely emotional and Kasumi more spiritual.(1)

 (Over the last couple of days, Nabiki felt that she
was on an emotional rollercoaster that would have given
Akane a run for her money.)

 Nabiki took a deep breath. What if Genma had lied?
Since he'd come across as quite sincere, he would have
had to be lying to himself as well, but she didn't
think that was beyond his abilities. He was a much more
accomplished liar than Ranma, that was for certain.

 Nabiki looked at this dispassionately. Ranma had
demonstrated magic, had demonstrated skills that his
father didn't have and actively discounted the values
of. The father also had no idea where Ranma had picked
up these skills. Therefore, Nabiki decided that she was
faced with one of two possibilities. One, Genma had
been lying about no tutors and Ranma had been coached
in music and magic (among other things) during his
training journey. Two, his "imaginary friend" was not
imaginary.

 The first of these Nabiki decided was the most likely
but unsatisfactory for several reasons. The outright
contempt that Ranma's father had for those musical
talents especially was quite apparent. The other was
impossible.

 That particular word was something that Nabiki felt
considerably less certain of after the past two days.

 Nabiki's eyes flicked to the doorway of the nurse's
office. Ranma was leaning out of it to look at her in
concern. She found she... rather liked that. Not that
she wasn't quite capable of looking after herself, but
that someone besides Kasumi was concerned for her
well-being. It gave her one of those warm and fuzzy
feelings, which had been one of those concepts that had
eluded her for many years.

 Nabiki's mind continued to churn over the possibility
that faerie were real. Science taught that one came up
with an idea, tried to find evidence for or against,
and thereby prove the theory. How to determine the
validity of this theory, that was the crux.

 "Featherbrite says your mind's all a-tangle," Ranma's
voice interrupted her train of thought. "She wants to
know if you really want to know."

 Nabiki frowned. Mind-reading? She was most
uncomfortable with that notion, unless (of course) she
was the one doing it. Still...  "Yeah, Saotome. I don't
back down from a challenge either." Nabiki tried to
sound flippant but didn't quite make it. "I'll accept
the truth."

 There was a sudden feeling of warmth and a laugh like
little bells ringing.

 Nabiki blinked. That was *her* body over there, she
was looking through Ranma's eyes! Perched on her own
head was...

 A laughing six-inch tall woman with wings that
resembled the wings of Ranma's cursed form. The pixie
stopped laughing long enough to say something that
sounded like "Candidate number three!" The little
figure looked extremely pleased with this declaration.

 The dislocation ended and Nabiki carefully brought her
own hand up to where she'd seen the figure from the
vision. She frowned as her hand just didn't seem to
want to go where she wanted it to.

 The thought that there may be a lot of things going on
all around her that she couldn't perceive was
intolerable to Nabiki. She WOULD find a way to get past
this. There was also the thought of what it would be
like to have an invisibility like this, the secrets she
could
uncover...

 She WOULD learn how this was done.

 "Brite," Ranma said in a quiet voice, "what exactly
did you mean by 'candidate #3' and why do I have a bad
feeling about this?"
-------------------------------------------
 Genma moved a piece on the shogi board and tried to
ignore the purple haired amazon having an animated
conversation with Kasumi in the kitchen. He'd thought
he'd seen the last of the girl. "Curses, foiled again!"

 "What was that, Saotome?"

 "Oh, nothing, Tendo." Genma frowned, this was not
going anywhere near according to The Plan. The only
positive point in this was that from the discussion, it
sounded like dinner tonight would be quite spectacular.

 "So, Saotome, your son plays the flute." Soun's
opinion mirrored that of his friend. Time spent on such
useless pursuits detracted from the Art. However, as
Soun had not gone through years of frustration, he
wasn't nearly as negative about these other skills. "He
can cook, and he has some...odd techniques."

 Genma nodded. "Such a disappointment. I had such hopes
for him. He refuses to STEAL, Tendo!Even when we were
training hard on the road, and we could have stolen
food and run away like WE did in the old days. Boy has
no priorities."

 "Hardly the training we went through, eh, Saotome?
Still, he appears to be a skilled martial artist
despite such a lack of focus." Soun moved his own
piece. That the future husband of one of his daughters
had more moral character than his old friend Genma
wasn't nearly as much of a downside for him as it was
for Genma. A good husband for one of his daughters
didn't sound like an entirely bad thing. Still,
whatever you could say about it, Happosai's training
HAD been effective.

 "His skills, pah! Pretty pathetic, if you ask me."
Genma made an off-handed gesture that tried to
encompass years of failed efforts regarding his
training of Ranma. Years of frustration where Fate
herself seemed to mess with the vast majority of
Genma's plans. Why, the boy has no killer instinct. He
doesn't duck work, he refuses to lie most of the time,
talks to an imaginary friend, won't steal, and makes
references to a Code Of Honor. Truly, Tendo, I don't
know where I failed."

 Soun glanced up from the board, sarcasm lightly
inserting itself in his words. "Well, if he's that bad,
maybe we should consider annulling this engagement. He
clearly isn't a worthy heir to the founder of our
school." Clearly Genma was so upset about all this he
wasn't even paying attention to all the pieces Soun was
moving.

 Genma sighed. "It's tempting, but he's still one of
the best I've seen. I think the problem started when he
got too close to a gi... I mean a boy named Ukyou. It
got progressively worse as time went on. Especially
after the failure at the Catfist training."

 "Catfist? The legendary Nekoken?"

 Genma nodded again. "The same. The training is
deceptively simple. Wrap the young trainee in fish
sausages, then throw them into a pit of starving cats.
I did it when the boy was ten, as I wanted him to get
over the imaginary friend stage before putting him
through this."

 Soun was aware that the two girls had stopped talking.
Probably just busy with preparations. "So, was it
effective?"

 "No," Genma studied the board. How had he put himself
in such an indefensible position? "Like many of my
plans, it failed due to unforeseen events.
Unfortunately, the manual's next page warns that it
tends to leave the trainee permanently insane as a
result. I didn't stop the training in time, obviously."

 "Ah, hence the imaginary friend and insistence that
he's working magic and not merely manipulating chi."
Soun frowned a bit. Maybe insanity was in the Saotome
line, the father for using such a training method.

 "That and the boy's ailurophobia."
-------------------
 "Big sister Kasumi, does mean what I think it mean?"
Shampoo whispered from they were listening to the
conversation.

 "No, Shampoo, it means that he's afraid of cats."
Kasumi smiled at the young amazon. It was amazing how
well they got along, so different from each other.
Kasumi realized that
their differences were complimentary, however. That was
probably it.

 "Aiyaa. That no so bad. Shampoo worried for
moment."(2) After all, she was already going to get
even with Ranma's father for one thing. She had to make
sure she was running up the tab correctly.
--------------------
 Unaware of the whispering in the kitchen, Genma
continued. "It's truly terrible, Soun, but my son is
nearly worthless. Maybe one of your daughters can be
the True Heir?"

 "A girl, the Heir? I think not, Saotome. Though Akane
is quite skilled, would she have gone through what we
did? Would she have made the same sacrifices for the
Art?"

 "Hmm. Probably not." Genma thought about this. "Of
course, if one of them gives us a grandson early..."

 "It'll be a chance for us to raise a child to be the
True Heir of Anything Goes," Soun nodded. "I can't
really see Akane going along with this. Underneath all
the violence, she
tends to adopt stray animals and is quite kind-hearted.
Kasumi would never agree to the sort of deal your wife
did. Nabiki..."

 "I've heard Akane speak of her as a heartless
mercenary. If that's just not typical sibling sniping,
would she sell her own child if you give her enough
money?" Genma grinned. "A woman after my own heart."
----------------------------------------
 Nabiki sneezed and shuddered. "Damn, I hope I'm not
catching a cold. Sneezing and sudden chills..."
---------------------------------------
 "Kame-hame-HA!" Akane released the energy blast,
knocking Ranma completely out of the arena.

 "Damn, you win again, Akane!" Ranma didn't look
displeased at the outcome.

 Akane released the controls of the videogame and
glared at Ranma. "You LET me win, didn't you?"

 "Honestly? No. I'm not really used to videogames
though, so maybe I'm just not as good as you at this
sort of thing."

 Akane blinked and spoke quietly almost to herself.
"There's something you're not good at? Well, praise be,
there is SOME justice in this world."

 "Huh?" Ranma acted as if he hadn't heard her, which
wasn't the case even with all the videogames blasting
away at volumes that left his sensitive ears aching.

 "Oh, nothing," Akane grinned. He didn't seem so bad
when he wasn't in that weird form. (IT still gave her
the willies.)(3)

 "So what's next?"

 "Nabiki will still be taking care of her business
deals." Akane thought about it. Might as well have some
fun while her sister's fiance was paying for it. "Got
it, try this game!"

 "Martial Arts Basketbrawl?" Ranma blinked at the odd
game set up. "Soul Krusher JAM? Where do they come up
with these things?"

 "I'll show you how it's done," Akane grinned. She was
gonna beat his butt so badly he'd be walking funny for
a month. She'd found something she could do better than
him, well, that and she definitely had the edge on him
in some of her classes.

 That a little faerie had manipulated the games just a
little had gone unnoticed by Akane. Ranma, wisely,
didn't mention it. He understood the girl's pride, and
giving her things that she could lord over him would
help her deal with his superior skill in martial
arts.(4)

 Ranma almost considered letting Featherbrite do a
little manipulation. Redirect her anger into something
before it could either explode (an outside target) or
implode (if her self-image went on one of those
downward spirals.)

 Featherbrite, for her part, frowned. It would be SO
easy. Just a flick here or a nudge there, and this girl
could rebuild her own self-image in terms of something
other than beating the world into submission. But no,
Ranma had noticed her beginning to do this and had
requested specifically that the faerie not "meddle with
Akane's mind."

 Watching the girl beating Ranma at videogames,
Featherbrite got An Idea. Ranma was distracted now, and
she wasn't to make adjustments in the girl's _mind_.
That did leave her a few other options, and if Ranma's
mentioning of a vampire was correct, then she could at
least put in ONE surprise...
=======================================
(1)- For the most part, as always, Anime continuity.
The catfist training was pushed back from five to ten
due to Ranma's perceived mental state. In the manga,
however, Kasumi is seen several times wearing a cross.
As she doesn't appear to wear jewelry for other
reasons, there is a distinct possibility of her wearing
it due to a religious belief. This is the basis of the
"Closet Catholic Kasumi" concept. Certainly her
obliviousness could be a deeply spiritual nature,  not
focussing on material concepts.
(2)- Fill in the blank however you want.
(3)- An old term referring to the feeling that
something's not quite right.
(4)- scene between Akane & Ranma comes at SKJAM's
request. Akane with a few self-image problems?
Well,yeah. Think about it, you think you're the best,
and suddenly this guy blows in out of town who is all
that and a bag of fries. Given time, she'd probably get
over it...but chapter 4 is coming.

Featherbrite's Tale, the Bet. V2.5
by Gregg Sharp based on Rumiko Takahashi's
situations/char other char TM other authors. "Operation
Shacking Up" is courtesy of the delightfully twisted
imagination of Skysaber, whose Mirrors Multiplied can
be found on a number of other websites. Thanks to all
my prereaders.
3c: Another New Complication
--------------------------------------------
 Kuno put the tape into the machine and pressed play.
The Video Club had been putting together tapes of Akane
fighting the morning group with the result that
Tatewaki Kuno had bought a few of the tapes himself.
They didn't gouge him nearly to the extent that Nabiki
did.

 This had been going on for some time. Nabiki's candid
shots and the Video Club's films were all of great
value to the noble Blue Thunder.

 There was Akane and her usual fight sequence. Such
ferocity, such grace! There was Kuno's own entrance,
flawless as usual. If he postured a little for the
camera, well it was his right and privledge, was it
not? The joining of the Tendo and Kuno lines, two proud
lines of noble samurai blood. What could be more
natural? And Akane was the very essence of that proud
samurai heritage. No doubt when he had tamed the falcon
to accept her jesses, she would make a fitting bride
for one such as himself.

 Then there was this...Saotome person...who had DARED
suggest that he was engaged to one of the Tendo
daughters and living under the same roof as Akane
Tendo!

 There had been rumors about Nabiki being the one
engaged to this Saotome Ranma, but Kuno well knew that
there was only one of the Tendo daughters worth
courting. That this base knave was getting closer to
Akane Tendo under false pretenses made the situation
even more intolerable.

 Rather than let this travesty continue, the Blue
Thunder of Furinkan High attacked this interloper. Like
smoke, the target of his righteous wrath evaded the
blows that should have taught the cur the error of his
ways.

 Being worthy of his Samurai ancestry, Kuno would not
admit defeat. He knew his skill was supreme. His
weapon, the bokken, reflected the finest sword design
ever produced in the world- the katana. Since it was
impossible for him to be defeated by other means,
Saotome MUST have used the black arts.

 Or so ran his thoughts usually. Normally his train of
thought ran with all the fabled precision of the
Japanese rail system. Today it was running more like
Amtrak, and the events of the morning were the cause.

 Kuno continued to watch as the tape cut to the next
series of images, taken from this very morning's
events. The crowds ready to pounce upon the fair Akane
Tendo in what had become a ritual combat. The normal
events fell to the wayside as an airborne arrival
served to disrupt the very events that Kuno had
proclaimed necessary. He watched Nabiki arrive in the
arms of the pigtailed sprite, as she shot down from the
sky in time to do her usual mercenary work.

 Kuno continued to watch, though he didn't want to see
this. The Video Club member was quite skilled, Kuno
noted. Well worth the price he had paid. The video had
tightened on the winged girl, showing the flames and
other details that Kuno had dreaded seeing.  He saw the
image of himself throw the chain, the flames erupting
where it touched the skin.

 There had been many that morning who had been quite
ill from just the sight and smell of the burns.

 Today something monumental had occurred. He had made a
mistake. The old folk tales of putting horseshoes and
nails over windows and doorways to keep the faerie folk
away DID have a basis in fact, as he had thought.
Instead of containment, though, the use of cold iron
had produced a rather different result than he had
expected.

 The old stories and myths were often contradictory,
and it appeared that some of those were rather more
accurate than others. Cold iron was a poison to the
faerie folk, but did not instantly slay them as SOME
accounts had held. Kuno was still trying to determine
if that had indeed been the case.

 In trying to capture the beautiful young winged maid,
he had quite possibly destroyed her. He had not seen
the girl since then. Nor was anyone willing to talk to
him on the subject. Even Nabiki, who would normally
sell information on ANYTHING given enough yen, had
merely shot him a disgusted look and departed. Worse,
she had gone to check on her fiance who had somehow
become injured that very morning. Ranma Saotome
actually *was* engaged to Nabiki Tendo. How anyone
could pursue that soulless moneylender when they could
pursue Akane was beyond Tatewaki Kuno's grasp. Or, as
it appeared, it was the soulless moneylender who was
pursuing Saotome.

 Had he been wrong somehow about them? Mislead through
no fault of his own, of course!

 This brought Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of
Furinkan High School, the rising star of the Kendo
world, to an entirely unfamiliar activity.

 He was thinking. More, he was considering that if,
indeed, he had made one such grievous error...

 Might he not have made others? And, if this all but
unthinkable event WERE true, was it not the duty of a
samurai to correct those errors? To right any
injustices that he may have
(however unlikely) committed?

 Which would make him even more perfect, of course, but
that was a burden he could well shoulder.
-----Tendo-ke, Nerima-------------------
 "Nihao, Ranma!" Shampoo flew (not literally) out of
the house to perform a near perfect example of the
Amazon Glomp(tm) upon an unsuspecting Ranma. His gasp
of pain was enough to tell her that this wasn't really
a good thing to do.

 "Who is this, Ranma?" Nabiki's voice went cold. Wasn't
he HER iinazuke? Then, of course, she realized that she
wasn't really supposed to care. After all, it was her
father's arrangement. Nothing SHE really wanted, after
all.

 "Urk." Ranma managed, wincing.

 "Looks like she knows him really well," Akane was torn
between being angry at Ranma tolerating this girl's
hug, enjoying seeing her sister with boy troubles, and
some sympathy
for how pale Ranma had gone when the girl had put
pressure on the bandages on his neck.

 The skin didn't look black and blistered anymore, but
that still looked like it hurt. Akane was actually
surprised that Ranma was still mobile after that sort
of injury, trained martial artist or not. The skin had
been blackened and cracked and smoking even after the
chain had been removed. To Nabiki's disappointment,
injuries in one form carried over to the other form.

 Featherbrite merely sighed. None of the girls here
could see or hear her normally. She could try a mental
link in order to communicate, but mortals had funny
ideas about things like that. Especially Ranma, for
some reason. Maybe he'd never forgiven her for the "Man
Among Men" thing...

 "Uhm, Miss..." Nabiki paused as she noticed the color
her iinazuke was turning. Maybe he _wasn't_ doing this
deliberately. The way his eyes rolled up in his head
was a definite clue.

 "Aiyaaa." Shampoo felt the groom collapse. "This no
good. Husband lose strength somehow?"

 "Husband?" Nabiki spoke the word in such a way that
one could readily imagine ice crystals forming in
mid-air.

 "Husband?" Akane smiled. Now there was proof of what
she had suspected all along. He *was* a pervert. Now
this stone-age engagement nonsense would be ended.

 "Girl's at least got taste," Featherbrite noted, even
though only Ranma and the recent arrival of Kasumi
could see and hear her. "Honestly, have things changed
that much since Sultan Whatshisname?"(2)

 "Oh, Shampoo, you might want to let them get ready for
an early dinner."

 "Ah! Big sister Kasumi is right!" Shampoo began
dragging Ranma into the house. "Airen eat much, get
strength back fast!"

 "Oh, and Shampoo," Kasumi held up a hand. "By our
laws, he isn't your husband yet. He's also got that
engagement to Nabiki."

 Shampoo nodded. "Which one Nabiki?"

 "I'm Nabiki." Nabiki grabbed Ranma away from Shampoo.
"What do you mean 'husband'?"

 "Shampoo, Nabiki is my sister. Promise me you won't
hurt her." Kasumi's voice was firm and there was a long
moment of silence.

 Shampoo looked from Kasumi to Nabiki and back again.
"Shampoo promise. Shampoo no kill sister of Kasumi.
Shampoo show appreciation by washing friend's sister's
hair with special shampoo?"

 "Why that would be quite nice, Shampoo." Kasumi nodded
happily.
-------------Faculty Lounge, University Of Tokyo-------
 "Hisakawa's really flipped out this time."

 "What? That loser?" Kuniko made a depreciating
gesture. "What's he got this time, did
he sight Gojira? Mermaids?"

 "A sylph," Isao fed the tape into the machine. "Even
sent a tissue sample."

 "Yeah, right. I always knew ol' Buzzard Face would
flip out." Kuniko blew a smoke ring
towards the ceiling. "He's scum, you know."

 "Everyone has to have their dreams." Isao Nusumu hit
play. "Even if..."

 "The special effects are pretty good," conceded Kuniko
Kumo. "I didn't know he was
into that sort of thing."

 "He isn't." Isao watched the tape as camera angles
switched and another scene played.
"Look at how jerky he is with camera. That's Hisakawa's
all-thumbs work all right. I think we
need to go to Nerima."

 "You're serious?" At Isao's nod, Kuniko's eyes went to
slits. "And if this is for real?"

 "We'll cut Hisakawa out of the loop before he knows
what's hit him. Why let him drag the rest of us down
when THIS could set us up nicely for years to come?"

 Kuniko and Isao grinned at that, each visualizing how
they could use this sort
of thing to further their own agendas. Of course, each
would betray the other as soon as the opportunity
arose.
-------------Tendo-ke, Nerima-------------------
 The two  fathers sat at one end of the table. Ranma
and Nabiki were at the other end. Akane, Kasumi, and
Shampoo listened in on the sidelines.

 Genma pushed his glasses back up his nose, looking as
stern and fatherly as he could manage. "How to begin?"

 "So what is this big news bulletin?" Nabiki was openly
suspicious. She'd had to deal with her father's bizarre
schemes before.

 Soun crossed his arms in front of his chest and
regarded the two children in front of them. "Now that
Shampoo will be staying here, there will be some
changes in the sleeping arrangements."

 "She is NOT staying in my room," Akane glared at
everyone trying to find someone who would disagree. She
wanted it clear at the beginning that this was not
negotiable.

 "Shampoo can stay in big-sister Kasumi's room or in
room with airen. Is no big deal." Shampoo smiled and
nodded her head politely. Either was acceptable for
her.

 "Which is not fair to Kasumi," smoothly interjected
Soun Tendo. "So, Ranma, you will move into Nabiki's
room as well."

 "Hey, I'm already sleeping with Pop in the room!"

 Genma looked disapprovingly at his son. "Show some
gratitude, boy! We've been sharing the same tents and
campsites for ten years! It's high time I exercised my
rights as your father and got a little privacy!"

 "Privacy! What about Nabiki? What about HER privacy?"

 Nabiki nodded. The whole thing smelled of one of her
father's schemes. She valued her privacy, though with
vampires running around she also valued the protection
value having Ranma at hand would provide. Now if she
could just figure out why the phrase "Ranma at hand"
brought a brief blush to her face.

 Genma adjusted his glasses again. "That's not a
concern, boy. Just show some gratitude for once and
listen to your father on this."

 "You ARE a guest here, you know," Soun reminded Ranma
of the cultural obligations of a guest in a Japanese
home.

 Kasumi spoke from where she stood. "Father, are you
really sure that this is the best idea? I don't mind
having Shampoo share my room. We also have another
guest room."

 "Shampoo can stay in the other guest room. There is no
reason for you to burden yourself unnecessarily,
Kasumi. As for Ranma, you needn't worry about him. I'm
sure he'll be a perfect gentleman. Besides, he and
Nabiki are already engaged to be married. It is only
right that they learn to live together in harmony.
Sharing space is a big step in that direction." Soun
nodded and looked thoughtful as if this was all just
occurring to him.

 "A *brilliant* solution, Tendo," chimed in Genma.

 "Thank you, Saotome," said Soun with a nod of the
head.

 "Oh man," Ranma rubbed his forehead as if he had a
headache. "Couldn't I just sleep in the living room or
the dojo or something?"

 Soun looked as if he was going to manifest his demon
head at any moment. "WHAT!? And have someone cluttering
up my home like a vagrant? That is absolutely out of
the question. Appearances are vitally important to the
future of the Anything Goes school."

 Nabiki folded her arms and gave her own stern look
towards her father. "Actually, daddy, if appearances
are what concern you, consider what it looks like to
have me share my room with a boy." She was NOT happy
about this.

 Soun and Genma spoke in an eerie unison. "That's why
we'll pretend he's just a girl!"

 "Excuse me?" Ranma blinked. Just the chorus indicated
that they had rehearsed this. If so, they were pretty
well set in their course.

 "What?" Nabiki felt like facefaulting. She came to the
same conclusion as Ranma.

 "Oh my."

 "Yeah, right," Akane offered.

 "Everyone speak slower. Shampoo not finding all words
fast enough!" Shampoo was flipping frantically through
her translation dictionary. "Vagrant?"

 Genma ignored the amazon. "That's right. He'll just
have to stay in girl form for the evenings. That way
there's no question of modesty."

 Nabiki facefaulted, noting that she had beaten Ranma
to it by several seconds.

Much later:

 "Are you sure about this, Saotome?"

 Genma leaned forward. "Trust me, Tendo. The boy hates
being a girl for any length of time. He'll soon disobey
us. And when your daughter finds she has a handsome
young man sleeping in her room..."

 Soun grinned. "We let nature take its course! Oh, my
friend, this will work. Then we'll have grandchildren
and you can train one to be the True Heir of the
Anything Goes fighting style. What a grand day."

 Genma nodded with a satisfied smirk. "It's Soun and
Genma's Operation Shacking Up!"

 Shampoo edged away from the roof. It was as she had
expected. Now, how to foil the plot? She might just
have to wash that man right out of someone's hair after
all.
---------------------------------------
(1)- As Nabiki stated earlier, these are Third Degree
Burns. It has been stated that Ranma has had worse. The
neck and one wrist were completely wrapped. So figure
that's about two inches of both areas. He didn't faint
from the pain, he went into shock. This is a pretty
severe trauma. I'm not exaggerating about the sort of
reactions you get on these kind of injuries. The smell
kinda lingers too. Even with Ranma's recuperative
powers, the poisonous effects are gonna keep him a
little woozy.
(2)- Featherbrite's lived a long time (12,000 years)
and has seen a lot of human history (9,500 of those
years, usually at the outskirts) during that time. She
couldn't tell you who the ruler was, but his harem had
such delightful gossip... She'd probably drive any
number of historians nuts. But then, so would Nathan.
-----------------------------------------
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/

ja ne,
gregg