Title: Journey From The West Chapter 4
Ranma � is the creative work of Rumako Takahashi, a creative genius in the
world of Manga.
She, along with Viz and Kitty, own the rights to the Manga and Anime.
I am merely taking  the characters out for a joy ride.
(This story is not what you think it is.)

Chapter 4 (beta test version)

Contrary to popular opinion among the men of Furinkan High, Ranma Saotome
was not a happy person.

The opinion most of them had, was pretty much; "He's gotta be getting 'it'
every night. What red blooded, Japanese man wouldn't be happy being Ranma
Saotome?"

They assumed that since he was being pursued by the four women that
positively define 'babedom' in Nerima, at least as far as 'martial arts
babedom' was concerned, he had to be happy.

In reality, it was painfully obvious that even though Akane Tendo was
considered to be a member of  "Ranma's collection o' fianc�es", she really
didn't pursue Ranma Saotome. No, it was far more accurate to say that she
regularly poisoned him with her cooking, or pounded him into a fine
paste-like substance in a pique of temper. There were many things that she
did to him, many based on the letter "P" also, things such as pummel, punch,
even punt, but "pursue" was not one of them.

He was a man whose whole view of how things stood could be summed up easily.
He grumbled it as he limped along a street in the Nerima-ku shopping
district.

 "What'd I do to deserve this life?"

Ranma was leaning most of his weight on the wooden pole he'd found on his
way past a construction zone, using it as a staff to help him hobble his way
home.  He was covered in scuff marks, bandages, and bruises. His clothes had
developed a few ragged holes and looked like they'd seen better days. He
cursed audibly, "How the hell does she do it?" He shook his head. "Every
time, it's always...always, gotta be the women's side of a bath-house I land
in. Every god damned time." He muttered angrily to himself, only partially
paying attention to the route he took.

He kept mumbling to himself, "You'd figure that'd be enough... But no,
that's never enough... they've always gotta have something to use as a
weapon with them!" He lashed out viciously with a punch at a concrete light
pole as he passed by it. The pole shook from the force of impact. He kept
making his way along the street, as the pole emitted crackling pops, and
snaps.

"Last week: The All-Tokyo-women's-championship-kendo-team, this week it's
the freaking Nerima-Women's-gardening-club. What'll it be next week? A
softball team? Maybe an all girl archery club?" The light pole started to
show a growing spider web of cracks. It groaned painfully as pieces of
concrete fell off.

Ranma shook his fist at the sky while looking up and shouting, "Damn it! All
I wanna know is this: who the hell brings rakes and garden shears inta a
bath house?"

The concrete in the post shifted and crumbled, as the rebar inside of it
took the load, and the upper part of the pole leaned over slightly. The sign
on the side of the post that read: "Nerima martial artists. Please do not
punch the lightposts", fell off.

Ranma hung his head as he slowly limped along, leaning heavily on his staff
again.
"Geeze, all I need now is-"
"Ran-chan!"

Ranma closed his eyes tiredly and sighed.

 "Awww great, I knew it! Okay, well at least it's only-"

The ringing of a bicycle bell was the all the warning he had.
Suddenly he felt the impact of a 32 inch bicycle tire, propelled by a high
velocity, overly affectionate, Chinese Amazon, land on the back of his head.
The ground rushed up and re-introduced itself to him. It wasn't a happy
reunion.

"Nihao Ranma! Day is beautiful, you take Shampoo on..."

There was a moment of silence.

"Ummm... Ranma?  What you doing under Shampoo-bicycle?"

 Ranma lay pinned like a bug under the bicycle, arms and legs contorted
painfully. The front tire, parked on the back of his head, kept his face
flat to the ground, muffling his voice.

"Of... I fon't knoh, Fampoo. Mayfe I fust felf life a fap, an feh fidefalk
loofet fust fo fomfortable I fouldn't refist."

Shampoo remained where she was, seemingly trying to translate Ranma's words.
Ranma could feel his temper starting to rise. He could tell that Shampoo was
just sitting there with a puzzled look on her face. He jerked his head to
one side a fraction, just enough to get his mouth off the concrete.
"Why do you think I'm down here, Shampoo? Some maniac on a bike knocked me
down and won't get off."

Shampoo put her hand to her mouth hiding a giggle, then said, "You is so
funny, Ranma, is only Shampoo on bicycle; is no maniac."
Ukyo stood nearby, leaning against a lightpost, twirling a few spatula
shurikens in her hands.

"That's what he's sayin', sugar. Why don't you do us all a favor, and get
off of MY Ran-chan now. Unless you really want to get made into a
bimbo-okanomiyaki."

Shampoo narrowed her eyes at Ukyo in irritation and growled, "Spatula girl
make big talk she no can do. Maybe you try make Shampoo move? Shampoo think
she comfortable where is."

Ranma, still pinned,  shook a fist furiously and shouted, "Damn it, Shampoo,
get this bike offa me!"

Shampoo looked down and smiled.

"Okay!"

She promptly rode straight forward, grinding his face into the concrete as
first the front, then the rear wheel road up and over the back of his head.
Ranma sprang to his feet, eyes burning angrily as he faced the Amazon.

"Gee thanks, Shampoo...", he said sarcastically, "that felt great!"

Shampoo smiled and moved in for a textbook Class 3 Chinese-Amazon-Glomp.
The glomp was, as always, a complete success. The results were similarly
predictable.

"Is okay, anytime Ranma like, I do again. You take on date now, yes?"

Ranma closed his eyes, knowing what was coming.

"Hey, leave my Ran-chan alone, you hussy!"

Ranma looked out from behind the waves of violet hair that had been shoved
into his face, only to see Ukyo slip into a combat stance, hefting her
combat spatula in preparation for battle. Shampoo suddenly glomped on
tighter, cutting off Ranma's air supply as her arms tightened around his
neck. His expression spelled out his surprise.

"Go away, Spatula girl. Shampoo is busy with husband."
"He ain't your husband!"

Shampoo faced off against Ukyo, hauling Ranma down into a headlock, the
purpose for the glomp apparently lost in the heat of rivalry.

"Is too!"
"Is not!"
"Is TOO!"
"Is NOT!"
"IS TOO!"
"IS NOT!"
"IS TOO, IS TOO, IS TOO!"
"IS NOT, IS NOT, IS NOT!"
"RRRRRRRR!"

The air between the two rival fianc�es crackled with a static-like
discharge, as battle auras sprang to life.

Throughout the argument, Ranma kept pulling at Shampoo's bar-like arm, as
his face assumed a bluish tint. Her grip kept tightening as the volume of
the argument kept raising, until finally he went limp, his eyes rolling
back.
"We ask Ranma?"
"Fine by me!"

Ranma's world had narrowed to a dark tunnel, one with a bright, white light
shining at the end of it. He somehow knew that Peace and Contentment waited
at the other end of the tunnel. Peace... and no more fianc�es. He happily
drifted toward the light, hearing the voices of his ancestors calling him. A
sense of euphoria flowed into him as he left his worldly troubles behind. He
was about to reach his hand out to touch the light when he was yanked back
viciously.

Ukyo thumped his chest again as Shampoo kept him standing up, his arm held
behind his back in a grip like an industrial vise.

"Don't think for a second that this 'unconscious' act is fooling us, Ranma.
We want an answer."

She thumped his chest again as he gasped in a huge lungful of air and his
eyes shot open.

"Huuuuun? Wha?"

Ukyo came up nearly nose to nose with him and purred, "Ran-chan, tell this
purple haired bimbo to get lost. I've got some extra nice, shrimp and
lobster, okanomiyaki waiting for you."

Ranma felt Shampoo gripping his arm tighter as she whispered in his ear,
"Ranma! You tell Spatula-Girl, go away! Shampoo want hear about what Ranma
do on weekend. Have too too delicious, spicy oyster ramen for husband. Ranma
know what oyster good for, yes?"

Ukyo grabbed Ranma's arm and started pulling, hard.

"He's coming with me!"

Shampoo pulled in the opposite direction on his other arm, harder.

"No! Ranma come with Shampoo."
"No! With me."
"No! Ranma come with Shampoo."
"With me."
"With Shampoo."

The two women yanked him back and forth, more and more violently. Neither
fianc�e noticed anyone watching until a soft female voice broke through the
argument.

"Oh my! Ranma, I see you've run into a couple of your friends. Where are
Akane and Nabiki?"

Kasumi stood off to one side smiling at the scene. Ranma breathed a sigh of
relief as the two fianc�es relaxed their grips and stopped using him as a
pull toy, at least momentarily.

"Uhhh, we kinda got... 'separated'.

Kasumi nodded and walked over, taking Ranma's hand from Ukyo as she spoke,
"Well, it's a good thing I ran into you. I need help carrying some of my
purchases."

Ranma knew a rescue when he saw one, and nodded energetically and replied,
"You bet, Kasumi."

Kasumi turned to look at Ukyo and Shampoo with a kind, yet regretful look in
her eyes.

"I'm sorry, girls, I have to steal Ranma for a while. We're having a party
to welcome a guest this evening, and I need Ranma's help to carry some
things. You three can play later. Please excuse us."

Shampoo and Ukyo stood looking puzzled as Kasumi bustled away with Ranma in
tow. Ukyo watched as Kasumi and Ranma went into a nearby store. Kasumi gave
them a friendly wave goodbye from the doorway, and Ukyo and Shampoo waved
back halfheartedly.

"Ya know, sugar, it's a good thing Ran-chan didn't get engaged to her. I
don't think we'd get away with half the stuff we do with him being engaged
to Akane."
"Shampoo agree. Is hard fight someone like Too-Nice-Girl. She not fight
fair."

Ukyo nodded.

"Damn!"

She turned to look at Shampoo.

"Ya know, that strangle hold was a nice touch."
"Shampoo thank. That strike to chest good too. Revive Ranma just at right
time. "

Ukyo smiled, and cracked her knuckles.

"Heh, thanks. He deserved it. The jerk, going along with the plan for him to
marry that cow Akane. Serves him right."

The two women shook hands, holding the grip and squeezing as hard as
possible, looking each other fiercely in the eye and gritting their teeth.
After a moment or two they broke the grip, facing away from each other and
laughing nervously. They both rubbed at their hands, trying to restore
circulation in them.

"Okay, the truce is over.", Ukyo called over her shoulder ,"From now on,
it's 'no more Ms. Nice chef'. I'm gonna get my Ran-chan, no matter what."

Shampoo looked back at Ukyo over her own shoulder, and sniffed disdainfully,
"Shampoo agree. We no more ally. May best woman win." She jerked a thumb at
her ample chest and commented, "And Shampoo is bestest."

She turned away from Ukyo, with an arrogant flip of her hair. The two women
went on their way, never noticing Kasumi watching through the storefront
window, and shaking her head. In the store, Ranma looked over at Kasumi,
wondering what she was watching out the window.

"So, Kasumi, what's the rush? Not that I'm complaining about the rescue ya
know."

Kasumi turned back and put her hand to her mouth.

"Oh my! We need to hurry Ranma, Cervantes-san arrived early. I sent him to
the house with Ryoga."
"What? Whoa! Wait up a second? What do ya mean?"

Kasumi briefly recounted the events of Dan's arrival, in that he'd arrived
early due to a reschedule of his flight, and how he'd called to say that he
and Ryoga were headed to the dojo.
"Ryoga? Awww crap, oops, sorry, Kasumi. I mean 'Aww man', he's probably in
China by now. You know how bad Ryoga is. He'd get lost fallin' off the end
of a pier."

Kasumi shook her head.
"They arrived at the train-station without any problem. I gave them a key to
the house, and directions. I think Ryoga is just following Cervantes-san."

Ranma looked dubious, but shrugged.
"Okay, I suppose.... If that's the case, maybe they'll make it. So, what all
we gotta get?"
Kasumi thought for a moment, and looked into her bags, handing a couple to
Ranma.
"Well, I haven't had the chance to finish the cake I was going to make,
maybe we could get something. The teahouse may have something. Oh, and I
heard from Mrs. Fujisaka, that the fruit stand, down the street has some
nice mangos in at a reasonable price, along with some other nice fruit. It's
just so hard to know what to offer for dessert. I understand that Americans
can be very picky eaters, and have odd tastes."

Ranma thought for a moment, and then slapped a fist into his palm.
"I've got an idea. After we get something at the teahouse, let's stop by the
ice cream shop. No one hates that stuff. We'll pick up some green tea
flavored kind, and maybe some chocolate, that'll be perfect."

Ranma got a speculative look on his face as he continued, "Hmmmm, if I go
'girl' before we get there, and, ya know...turn on the 'cute', maybe I scam
us some extra stuff too. We'll get some hot water at the teahouse, and I'll
use it to turn back, after I get the ice cream."

He checked his pockets and brought out some money, handing it to Kasumi,
while still talking, "Mom gave me that, over the weekend. It should take
care of the cakes and ice cream I bet."

Kasumi looked uncertainly at the money in her hand.
"I don't know Ranma-kun. If your mother did give this to you, I don't know
if I'd feel right about letting you spend it like that."
Ranma waved her protests off.
"Don't worry 'bout it Kasumi. I'm still a bit pissed off at Nabiki about
this whole thing. So, I'm gonna prove her wrong. I don't make nobodies life
hell just cus I'm hangin' around."

Kasumi still looked a bit dubious.

"Hmmm...well, if you say so, Ranma-kun. But when Nabiki mentioned her plan,
I noticed you didn't seem to like the idea of an outsider all that much."

Ranma shrugged.

"Hey don't get me wrong, Kasumi, I don't like the idea of some weirdo
foreigner traipsing all over the place. But, I kinda feel responsible and
stuff, I guess. That plus provin' Nabiki wrong about me will be worth it.
Besides, me and Pop traveled all over the place, so half the time 'we' were
the outsiders. I know what it's like, and it usually ain't so much fun. So I
'm gonna do what I can to keep things cool."

Kasumi gave him one of her extra radiant smiles.

"Oh, Ranma-kun, Thank you. It'll be nice to have an ally at home on this.
Daddy is going along with Nabiki...and Akane...well...I know she's unhappy
about the whole situation also. But, for her...well... I think its just that
she's...", Kasumi trailed off glancing away.

Ranma looked up, scratching the back of his head.
"Ya, I know, she's been acting kinda weird lately. Sometimes she's real nice
ta me, and other times, wham, she'll sock me inta next week like she used to
do alla the time'."
He looked back down and nodded to Kasumi.
"Hey we should get going huh? Akane and Nabs and me only had like one or two
places left to hit before we stopped at the ice cream shop. They're probably
done shopping by now, and headed home."

Kasumi nodded in agreement.
"Yes we should hurry. Hopefully this won't take long. Cervantes-san said he
needed to get cleaned up, so that gives us a little time to get this done. I
don't like leaving a guest alone for too long. He might feel neglected. "

She paused a moment, appearing to summon up all her nerve before she spoke,
"I do have one small request I'd like to make Ranma-kun, if I may."

She started wringing her hands a little while looking down.
Ranma could sense a good deal of worry in her.
"Whatever you want Kasumi, just ask and I'll do my best."

Kasumi continued looking down.
"Well... Ranma, if you could, I'd really like you to please try and avoid
showing your curse to our guest, tonight.", She looked up at him finally and
half whispered, "I don't want you to think I blame you for being cursed. You
're a good person Ranma. But it is rather unsettling, and I'd not want to
scare him like that. I don't want him to get a bad impression of any of us.
Just try to not change for the next few hours. Since you and he are going to
have to share the guest room with each other, I don't want him or you to be
uncomfortable with each other. I'm quite certain he'll have enough shocks
ahead for him, one more may be one too many."

Ranma chuckled.

"Heh. Don't worry Kasumi, I'll do my best. I've been trying to avoid cold
water as much as possible since I've been around my Mom so much, and lately
I've actually been kinda successful. She's okay with the fact I am cursed,
but she don't like it any more than I do.  She even bought me a really cool
thermos to keep hot water in, just for those times when I get caught
unexpectedly. So, with that I'll have some hot water with me all the time."

Ranma winked at her, and joking a little he said, "Now, about the rest
though, I don't think it's possible for him to get a bad impression of us,
with you in charge. I mean, I still enjoy being a guest in your house. And
what could be worse than what happened when I showed up."

He laughed.

"I mean, really... what could possibly go wrong? Akane gonna beat him to
death or something, before we get back?"

***

"ACHOO!"

"God Damn it Akane! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have to make an
attempt on every guy's life that takes a bath in this house? I'm surprised
you haven't tried to kill Daddy by now."

Nabiki knelt down, grabbed Dan's shoulder and heaved, turning him over.  Dan
was clearly exposing the fact that he was still fresh out of the furo. In
fact, Nabiki thought to herself, "exposing" seemed particularly apt for the
situation. Akane rapidly turned her gaze away, but yelled back, "He tried to
grab me! He came leaping out of the furo, and was going to rape me. I just
know it."

Nabiki pried back one of Dan's eyelids, checking his eyes for reaction to
light. She looked a little puzzled.

 From somewhere in the house, there was the sound of pounding feet.

"Akane! I'm coming, don't worry I'll rescue you...Damn you Ranma!"

Nabiki held her ear to Dan's chest and sighed.
"Oh great, Ryoga's here too I see.", she commented sarcastically, "More
witnesses, just what we need."
She listened and heard Ryoga running all over the compound; up and down the
stairs, outside, inside, through the garden, back in the front door, through
the garden again, along the roof, even crawling under the house, and back in
the front door again. She straightened up and tossed a towel over Dan's less
public bits.

"Well you're lucky Akane, he's still alive, though he may have a concussion.
Oh look, here comes Ryoga... right on time."

Ryoga rounded the corner and charged through the doorway.

"Don't worry Akane, I'll-Urk!"

The scene that confronted Ryoga brought him to a halt.

Dan was on the floor, flat on his back, bumps obvious on his head, and just
as obvious, was that he was unconscious, wet, and very naked, even though a
towel covered parts. Nabiki was standing to one side of him, her head bowed,
and one hand covering her forehead while her fingers rubbed her temples,
eyes closed in annoyance.

Akane... Akane was unsuccessfully trying to cover herself with a towel while
still holding a bokken in one hand. That final bit of information took
several nano-seconds to make its way through all the well worn pathways of
Ryoga's mind, pathways that usually routed all blame for anything bad that
happened, to rest squarely on the shoulders of Ranma Saotome. Unfortunately,
since Ranma was nowhere to be seen, blaming him suddenly wasn't an option.
This caused a momentary overload in sections of Ryoga's brain.

With no Ranma to blame, this left a clear path for the information, that
Akane was standing in front of  him, almost completely naked, to slip right
past all his mental defenses. As he toppled backward in a faint, the
fountain of blood that shot out of his nose was brief, but spectacular. An
unconscious Ryoga joined an unconscious Dan on the bathroom floor.

Nabiki sighed, still rubbing her temples.

"Akane, get some clothes on for goodness sake."

Akane stalked angrily around Ryoga's prone body, grabbed her yakuta and put
it on, radiating irritation. She then rounded on Nabiki fiercely and
shouted, "What are you blaming me for? This gaijin pervert tried to...
to...." She seemed to lose the capability for speech for a moment, and
growled in anger as her eyes caught fire and she radiated a icy blue aura.

"I'm gonna kill him!"

She started making her way toward Dan, murder in her eyes, and a bokken in
hand.

Nabiki stepped in front of her, "Hold it right there. Try telling me what
happened first." Akane looked her sister right in the eye when she spoke,
"I'd hung up my yakuta and walked into the bathroom. It was all full of
steam. The next thing I know, he jumped out of the furo, and started running
at me with a towel. He was going to tie me up with it, so I-"

Nabiki waved her hands in the air, signaling her to stop.

"Hold it for a second. Don't move. I want to look over the scene."

She walked over to the changing room, and pointed out the black pants that
were folded on top of the hamper, as she talked, "Okay, I'm assuming he
didn't put out the 'in use' sign for the bathroom. But, how did you miss the
pants? They're right in plain sight, impossible to miss. I mean didn't you
think that maybe, someone was in the bathroom?"

Akane blushed and looked away.

Realization dawned on Nabiki's face and she started smirking gleefully,
cocking her hip and pointing at her sister as she taunted, "AHHH HA!  I get
it! You thought it was Ranma in there...didn't you?"

Akane's head jerked up, glaring at her sister. Nabiki stood there smirking,
waggling her finger at her.

"Oh you baaaaad girl! Heh, I wonder what he'd pay to know that you were
trying to walk in on him in the bath"
"Naaabiikiii!"
"Save it, Akane, this is hilarious! You saw black pants and rushed in
thinking you'd flash Ranma, and beat on him for not putting the sign up.
Maybe catching a look at him too. This is rich!"

Akane fumed.

"Only it wasn't him, and you freaked out."

Akane shook her fist at Nabiki as she shouted, "This isn't funny, he did try
to-"

Nabiki gestured with her hand open wide as she talked, "Akane, look at how
he's laid out here. It looks, to me, like he slipped getting out of the tub.
And where did you get that towel from anyway?"
"He was going to use it to tie me up. He had it in his hands when he rushed
at me."

Nabiki sighed and went back to rubbing her temples.

"You don't think that, maybe, just maybe,  he was trying to give it to you
to cover up, huh? You do know that westerners have a lot more hang-ups about
nudity than we do right?"

She glanced meaningfully at her younger sister and commented, "Well... at
least they're more hung up about it than 'some' of us."

Akane shot her sister an angry glare.

"I am not hung up about nudity. But, I still say, he was trying to molest
me, the pervert."
"Fine, fine. Go get something on, and I'll wake up Ryoga-kun here. I'll get
him to carry Cervantes-san  to the guestroom. You just go to the kitchen and
get me an ice pack, or something."
"Forget it! I'm not getting that pervert anything."
"It's not for him!", Nabiki shouted, "It's for me, I'm getting a headache
from all this. He hasn't signed the release form yet, there were a couple
small problems with it, so I had to have it redone, so we might be liable
until he signs the new one."

Akane walked out muttering.

Nabiki sighed, walking over and filled a wash bucket with cold water from
the tap.

"Okay Ryoga-kun."

Splash.

"Wakey wake-ACK!"

Nabiki's eyes bugged. Where Ryoga had been, just a moment earlier, lay an
empty set of clothes. Empty except for a small, squirming, lump in the
middle of them.

"Holy sh-"

She covered her mouth.

"Nabiki", Akane's voice came from down the hall concern in her voice, "Is
there anything wrong?"

Nabiki's mind raced furiously.

"N-No!.. no. nothing's wrong... Uhhhh... just... uhhh... I took a peek under
Dan's towel... just to see if the rumors about American's are true."
"Pervert!"
"It was a joke! Now, go get that icepack, and let me... uhhh... deal with
things."
"Fine."

Nabiki shut the door to the bathroom, then dug into Ryoga's clothes. Pulling
out the lump. Any lingering doubt of what the shape he had assumed, after
the dousing of cold water, were dispelled instantly. She brought out the
little black pig known as P-chan.

"P-Chan? Oh my god Ryoga! You're P-Chan?"

She held the little black pig so that she could look it in its face. His
ears drooped, and he hung his head sadly. He nodded once.
Nabiki sat back on her heels, only just realizing she wasn't standing up
anymore.

"Ohmigod! Akane'll kill you if she finds this out right now!"

Internally, her mind was whirling, thinking, fitting together pieces of
information that she realized that she'd ignored for far too long.

She cursed herself, "How the hell did I miss this ? All the clues were right
there! How could I have been so stupid?"

She stood up quickly, still holding the little black pig, in outstretched
arms.

"Okay, okay, no time to panic Nabiki. Ryoga turned into P-chan, fine...
makes sense. DAMNIT! Okay, okay... so that means it's a Jusenkyo curse.
Yeah, okay.... I just need hot water."

She started pacing the room looking around, wildly.

"Hot water! Hot water! Damn it! Where it hot water when you need it?"

A "Bkwee" from Ryoga caught her attention.

She looked at him.

He pointed at the tub of the Furo with a hoof.

"Right!"

She tossed him into it.

Splash

Ryoga surfaced from the tub yelling,"Curse you! You didn't have to toss me!"

Nabiki turned away from the Naked-Lost-Boy, growling angrily, "Shut up and
get dressed, Hibiki. We'll talk about this later. Right now I'm saving your
bacon, pig-boy."

She could hear him splash out of the tub, and then him pulling on his pants.
Shocked comprehension again dawned on her face.

"Ohmigod! Ranma! That's it! That's why you and Ranma fight all the time,
isn't it?!"

She made a fist and shook it in anger.

"That bastard! He's knew. And he's been hinting it to us for a whole, damned
year."

Nabiki's face fell, she looked like she was about ready to cry.

"And I didn't get it. All those hints, the bandanna, all the 'pig' taunts
and I didn't get it. I'm such an idiot."

She turned back, watching Ryoga put on his shirt.

"It's his fault isn't it? Ranma's I mean!"

Ryoga's head popped out the top of the shirt.

"Of course it's his fault, everything is his fault. Because of Ranma
Saotome, I've seen-"

Nabiki waved him off, "-Hell.  Yeah, I know, I know. Heard it before. Like I
said, we'll talk later. But for now, pick up Dan and carry him to the guest
room."

Ryoga's head snapped to one side to look at Dan, hands balling into fists.

"He tried to...to... To Akane, no less... The bastard, I'll kill him."

Nabiki stepped in front of Ryoga, meeting him eye to eye, and slapped him,
hard.

"Knock it off! He didn't do anything, at least I think he didn't. It looks
like lil' sis walked in on him in the tub, thinking it was Ranma, and she
beat him up, when he tried to give her a towel. Now, pick him up! "

Ryoga looked at Dan again, he considered the situation and picked him up.

Nabiki turned her back to them when the towel that had been covering Dan
fluttered to the floor.

"Pick up the towel and follow me pig-boy"

Ryoga growled in his throat.

"You don't like it? Tough. I've got the goods on you, and don't you forget
it. Now follow me."

Nabiki stalked out of the bathroom. Already she was trying to find ways to
use the latest developments to her advantage. The possibilities seemed
dauntingly vast. But she knew that juggling too many schemes at once left a
greater chance of making a mistake, it was best to proceed slow and steady.
For now, she'd keep things simple.

She made her way up the stairs  to the guest room and held the door open for
Ryoga, as he followed her in, and closed it after them.

"Okay, let me get a futon out, and you can lay him on it."

Nabiki opened one of the shogi covered closets and hauled out a futon,
spreading it out on the floor. Then Ryoga put Dan on it, and they covered
him with one of the blankets stacked in the closet. Nabiki sat on the floor
and tried to figure out what to do next. Ryoga gave her a considering look.

"Okay Ryoga, I'm going to want to hear the whole story at the first
opportunity we have. Which is not right now. But, for now, here's how things
are going to be. You are going to behave yourself. That means; no sleeping
in my sister's bed as P-Chan. No picking fights with Ranma, Keeping your
temper, and staying near one of us, preferably me, so that you don't wonder
off. Got it?"

Ryoga nodded grudgingly. There was a knock at the door, and a muffled
voice,"Are you two in there?"

"Yeah, Akane, you can come in. Everything is covered."

Nabiki and Ryoga rose to their feet as Akane came in. She was wearing one of
her dresses that she wore during cooler weather.

"Oh Ryoga-kun!", Akane rushed over and hugged him, looking up with
shimmering eyes.

"I was so afraid. I was all alone. And he tried to... to-."

She buried her face in his chest, sobbing for effect.

Nabiki smirked, then shot Ryoga a hard look, when she saw the blissful look
that had appeared on his face while Akane was hugging him.

"Save it, sis. I already filled him in on what happened."

Akane shot her sister a dirty look, and tossed the icepack at her.

"Well, you weren't there. You didn't see the look in his eyes."

Nabiki waved her off. Then took the icepack, and put it on Dan's head.

>From downstairs came a call of; "We're home."

Ranma and Kasumi were on the scene.

"Oh great! Perfect timing. What next?", Nabiki muttered.
"We're in the guestroom" Akane called back loudly, over her shoulder.
"We'll be right there.", was Kasumi's reply.

A few moments later, the eldest Tendo sister walked in, smiling. She then
took in the scene, and gasped.

"Oh my.. OH MY!. What happened?"

Nabiki shrugged, commenting offhandedly, "What else? The same thing that
happened to Ranma when he arrived. The same thing that happens when anyone
shows up here. A fight broke out."

Kasumi rushed over and knelt next to the unconscious Dan as Ranma walked in,
and took in the scene.

"What the hell?!"

Akane detached herself from Ryoga and rushed over to Ranma and pounded him
on the chest while shouting at him, "Where were you? That pervert tried to
rape me, and you were probably off flirting with Shampoo."

Ranma's eyes caught fire, and he started to do a credible imitation of
Soun's demon head.

"HE DID WHAT!?"

Nabiki popped the demon head with a pin, letting the air out of it.

"Relax Ranma, it's nothing like that."

Ranma turned a glare at Nabiki and growled in a dangerous voice, "So what IS
it 'like', huh?"

Kasumi busied herself checking over Dan's wounds and prying open his eyes to
check them. Dan groaned in pain. Nabiki gave Ranma a wry grin and said,
"Well, we'll find out in a minute, it sounds like our guest is waking up.
But, from what I saw, it looked like Akane walked in on him in the bath, and
she walloped him."

Ranma looked at Akane, and everyone expected an insult. They were all
surprised. Ranma looked at Akane with a deeply concerned expression, and
asked in a gentle voice "Akane-chan, Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"
Akane stood speechless, blinking occasionally,  but a moment later shook her
head, unsure what to make of the caring tone in Ranma's voice. She replied,
"I'm okay...I guess. He lunged at me and I grabbed a bokken and-", she
trailed off. He nodded, tension leaving his shoulders visibly. Then he
noticed the scrutiny everyone was giving them.

"Uhhh... good... umm.", he laughed nervously then continued, "See, I told
ya. You just show him what a tomboy you are, and he'll...uhhh... run for
it."

Akane scowled a little, but it was obvious that it was more out of surprise.
Even she'd caught that the last comment was purely for show.

"Oh my, I think he's waking up."

Dan's eyes were blurry when he opened them, and his skull hurt like he'd run
into a tree, head on.  His vision slowly cleared, and he made out a shape
above him. The shape resolved itself into a face.

"Hello, Cervantes-san. You okay?"

The English was accented, but understandable. The voice was Kasumi's, though
it seemed very loud suddenly.  He tried to respond in Japanese, "Ohhh... not
so loud, please. What happened?"

Kasumi smiled, pleased that he was lucid enough to speak Japanese, she
replied in kind, "Please, don't hold this against Akane, she really is a
very sweet girl, she's just a violent maniac."

Nabiki snorted.

 "Oh that makes a lot of sen-.... Hey, sis, I think we've done this whole
scene before."

Ranma looked puzzled and asked, "What did she say Nabiki? My English ain't
so good."

Nabiki smirked at him as she replied, "Neither is your Japanese, Ranma. She
was just apologizing to him for Akane."

Dan sat up slowly, holding a hand to his scalp.

"Madre dios, my head.... Now I remember... I was in the bath, and someone, a
girl I think, walked in saying something like 'Rannnmaa kun'.... or
something like that. Then she attacked me with some kind of stick."

He looked around the room, suddenly he set eyes on Akane, and started
backing away in panic, clutching the blanket to himself as he noticed his
state of undress.

"Christ almighty! That's her!  Keep that maniac away from me."

Kasumi bowed deeply, nearly putting her forehead on the floor from her
kneeling position.

"Please, Cervantes-san. I humbly apologize for this. It was a mistake, I'm
sure. A terrible mistake"

Nabiki nodded and inclined her head as well, considering that the best way
to get him to sign the injury waiver would be to smooth over this situation
quickly. She replied in the best "prepared" English she could. She'd
practiced a few specific phrases for just this sort of occasion, "I
apologize also, Cervantes-san. I hope that we can overcome any bad
impression this event has created. It looks like it was all a
misunderstanding of some sort."

Dan looked to Ryoga for guidance. Ryoga noticed and nodded to him, feeling
oddly pleased that he was being consulted. Dan looked back at Akane. He saw
suspicion in her gaze and more than a little hostility. However, when he
looked back to Kasumi, and found her still bowing, he felt he needed to try
and recover the situation, quickly, before anything got worse.

Making sure to keep the discussion in his hosts language, Dan spoke slowly
and carefully, "Ummm uhh.. Ms. Tendo, please, stop. Please, I'm sure you're
right. Maybe it was an accident or something... So, uhhh... stop bowing,
okay?"

Kasumi looked up a little uncertainly and he smiled back at her, though he
did pick up the ice bag and put it back on his head, squinting in discomfort
as the ice shifted against the tender spots. She straightened up and gave
him a half hearted smile.

"Thank you Cervantes'-san, you are very understanding."

She bowed to him again, stood, and started motioning everyone else to leave,
giving Akane a significant look. She glanced at Ranma curiously, after
noting how he was now watching Dan with more than a little suspicion in his
eye. As the last of them left, she closed
The door and turned back to her injured guest.

"May I look at your wounds Cervantes'-san? I have some first aid training,
and I've read a lot about medicine."

Dan nodded painfully.

She came closer, kneeling beside him, rested her hands on either side of his
face. She held one of his eyes open while using the other as a shield to
vary the light shining into his eye. She watched for the pupils to contract
and expand. She saw nothing.

"Oh My! You may have a concussion! We should take you to a doctor."

Dan looked puzzled and asked, "Huh? How can you tell?"

"Your pupils, they-"

He held a hand up to interrupt her.

"Oh wait.... Hold on a second."

He put the ice bag to one side and held his eye open, while using the
fingers of his other hand to fish something out. A moment later he showed
her a lens.

"Sorry, colored lenses, they might be the problem."

The left eye was now no longer the dark brown it had been, but a blue so
startlingly vivid that she couldn't help staring.

Seeing a pair of, very mismatched, eyes, watching her, she suddenly started
feeling uncomfortable for some indefinable reason. Dan noticed that
something was wrong almost immediately when Kasumi kept looking away. That's
when one of the books on Japan he'd read made sense to him. "To the
Japanese, the face is very important. Scars or oddities of many kinds on it,
make them uncomfortable, and for some, even invoke superstitious reactions."

"I'm sorry...", he laughed nervously, then continued, "I didn't realize that
leaving one in would disturb you. Give me a moment, and I'll take them both
out."

Kasumi sighed with relief, "Thank you. Thank you very much."

He chuckled, and took a moment to remove the twin of the first lens. She
looked at his eyes again, still finding it hard to meet their gaze, but this
time because of how brilliant blue they were.

Ranma's eyes were usually a deep sea blue, and they matched him perfectly.
They would change a little based on his mood, turner lighter at times, and
darker during times of anxiety. The blue of Ranma's eyes just seemed
perfectly right for him.

These were something else entirely. The blue of Dan's eyes were somewhere
between a topaz color and a brilliant sky blue shot through with veins of
silver. They looked almost unreal and very out of place in his tanned face.
However, what was most disconcerting was that they seemed to burn in some
odd way.
However, even though they were a little disturbing, the also shown with
friendliness, and good humor.

"You have pretty color to your eyes. Why hide them you do?"

Dan smiled at her phrasing.

"Ummm, well, I have to wear contacts anyway, and when I took my passport
photo, I had them in. Uhhh, plus some people find them a little 'odd'
looking. There aren't all that many Hispanic people with eyes like mine.
Black hair, tan colored skin, and blue eyes are an odd match at times."

Kasumi smiled.

"Well you should leave them blue. Some people think you are trying too hard
to fit in, or try to be like Japanese maybe if you cover them. But they are
pretty. Now, let me take look at your eyes again, okay?"

Dan nodded.

After a few moments of covering and uncovering his eyes with her hand, she
saw the reactions she was looking for and sighed in relief again. "I don't
think you have a concussion. Cervantes'-san."

"Thanks, glad to hear that. I hate going to doctors."

He shifted his icebag, hissing at the sting. Switching back to Japanese he
said "I  have a request please, Ms. Tendo."

Kasumi tilted her head to one side and replied sweetly, "Anything,
Cervantes'-san> I feel awful that you ended up getting hurt like this."

"It's okay. But please, call 'Dan'. My father is 'Mr. Cervantes''

Kasumi nodded a tiny nod, "If you wish Dan-san."

Dan sighed, "Close enough. Oh, one more thing, please. Your English... very
good Ms. Tendo. But my Japanese need work. It not get better if I not use
it."

Kasumi stifled a grin.

"I see Dan-san...Well, I'll help you with your Japanese if you agree to
speak English with me sometimes. I was looking forward to you being here, so
that I could learn how a native speaks it."

Dan took a few moments to translate what she was saying, and smiled.

"I think I understand, okay, sounds like good idea."

Dan sat quietly for a moment before continuing, "So, Umm, maybe you can take
look at bumps on my head, after I dressed?"

Kasumi nodded, but didn't seem to be moving.

"Umm, usually dress...alone."

"Ahhh", Kasumi blushed, "I thought you might need some help getting dressed,
so I-"

Dan smiled at her, "Oh, I think I can do." He struggled for the right words.

"It takes more than bumps on head to stop me. My mother always said ... my
father has a hard head, and that I had one too."

Kasumi gave him a polite laugh, stood and walked to the door.

When she opened it, she found Akane, Nabiki, Ranma, and Ryoga clustered  in
front of the door, each one carrying an empty drinking glass, Akane's still
pressed to her ear.

Kasumi shooed them all down the hall, then poked her head back into the
guest room.

Dan hastily threw the blanket back over himself.

"If you need any help, call me, please."

Dan sat there blushing.

"Yes, will... Thank you."

Kasumi shut the door.

"Smooth Dan, great first impression you made. Get here at the wrong time.
End up inconveniencing everyone. Screwing up their schedules, and on top of
that, getting flashed by one of the daughters, and getting beaten up by her,
all in the same day... Oh, and lets not forget, getting knocked out in the
nude, and having to be carried to bed. Now you end up flashing the cutest of
the three sisters. Real smooth."

Dan started getting dressed, and put his contacts back in.

***

Kasumi shepherded everyone down the stairway, into the main room of the
house. She went directly to the table and sat at its head.
There was an unspoken command in the air; everyone would join her at the
table. There would be no debate about it.

Once everyone had sat down she took a deep breath, turned to Nabiki and
asked, "What happened here? I leave a guest alone for thirty minutes and
already I am mortified beyond anything I've ever felt."

Akane piped up, "Now wait a minute, I'm the one that almost got-"

Kasumi had not smiled once since sitting at the table, and she turned a dark
look at Akane. This was, for her, a towering rage.

"Did I speak to you, sister?"

Akane sat, her mouth opening and closing impotently.

Kasumi nodded to Nabiki, and prompted her to continue, "Again, younger
sister, I'd like to know 'exactly' what happened, without any of Akane's
ridiculous fantasies."

Nabiki blinked several times, trying to come to grips with seeing her sister
being so forceful. She sighed, shaking her head slowly as she spoke, "Pretty
much what it looked like. We got home, didn't see anyone here. I found your
note, and read it. We assumed that since Dan was with Ryoga we'd probably
not see him for a month or two."

Ryoga growled at the comment, but she carried on, as if he hadn't made a
sound, "Anyway, Akane went to take a bath. The next thing I knew, she'd gone
into the bathroom, pounded Dan into bean jam, and was ranting about him
trying to take advantage of her."

Akane snorted, and nodded her head.

Nabiki took a deep breath and let it out before continuing, "However, from
what I saw, it looked like she surprised him. I think he tried to get a
towel off the towel rack, and give it to her." She shrugged. From across the
table, Akane was shooting dagger-filled looks of betrayal at her.

"Looked like he slipped on some water. Maybe that's why Akane thought he
lunged. Anyway, there was a towel on the floor he was using. And when I got
there, Akane had one also. That's why I figured he'd tried to give her one.
She'd have had to go over him to get a towel, since they were on the other
side of the room, and it didn't look like she had.

Kasumi nodded, urging her slightly to continue,"And then?"

"Well, then Ryoga-kun got there, and passed out seeing lil' sis wearing
nothing but skin and a towel."

Ryoga clamped a hand to his nose, as though it threatened to gush blood
again. Ranma gave Ryoga a nearly hateful glare.

"What the hell? We're gonna have a talk about that in a minute  Pig-boy.
Ain't nobody gonna-"

Kasumi slapped a hand on the table. The others at the table jerked back in
surprise.

The table went deathly silent, sweat drops dotted everyone's heads.

The even tone of Kasumi's voice cut through the air like a knife,
"Ranma-kun, I am feeling somewhat upset at the moment. I trust that you can
contain yourself for a brief time...Am I correct?"

Ranma nodded, sweating.

"My apologies Kasumi."

Everyone at the table was stunned, Kasumi wasn't acting at all like her
usual, obliviously sweet self, not even remotely.

"Very well, Nabiki, what next?"

"Uhmmm, well, I sent Akane to get dressed, and get an ice pack. Then I woke
up Ryoga and had him carry Cervantes-san to the guest room. Akane brought up
the ice pack, and you and Ranma arrived."

Kasumi nodded, looking at the table, drumming her fingers on it. She sat,
appearing to consider Nabiki's words carefully.

"Fine, fine...you did the right thing Nabiki."

She looked at Ryoga and commented, "Thank you Ryoga-kun, you've been very
helpful. You and Nabiki may go if you wish."

Nabiki bolted to her feet, and dragged Ryoga after her.

"You, me, dojo... now."

Ranma looked at Ryoga curiously. They were all, still, completely off
balance after witnessing the way Kasumi was acting, but he wondered why
Nabiki was dragging Ryoga after her, and why Ryoga looked so downhearted.
"Plus...", he thought to himself, "Me and him are gonna have a little 'talk'
about him peeping on Akane.". His knuckles crackled and popped as he
clenched his fists.

Kasumi cleared her throat, gaining Ranma's attention. Once he was looking at
her again, she spoke, "Ranma-kun, after our discussion today, I hope that
your sentiment is still the same. I noticed you were watching Dan with a
great deal of hostility upstairs. This unfortunate event is best forgotten
in my opinion. It was clearly not his fault."

She paused, looking him in the eye. Ranma was feeling more and more like the
whole world was being turned upside down, "Man, this is weird, where's
Kasumi been hiding this kind of backbone? She's acting like a completely
different person."

He nodded a little. But stated how he felt plainly, "I ain't lettin' no one
hurt Akane."

Kasumi inclined her head, "Good, I expected nothing less from you Ranma-kun.
But from what we've heard, I think it's pretty clear what happened."

Akane was sitting, tears standing out in her eyes. Her sister was ignoring
her completely, not even giving her a chance to hear her side of the story.
In a small voice she said, "Kasumi, older sister...please."

Kasumi ignored her, except for a small tightening around her mouth, and the
gritting of her teeth.

"Ranma-kun, I still would like your assistance. But if you feel that you
can't give it..." , she let the statement trail out.

"No problem Kasumi, it was all a mistake, like you said."

"Good, you may leave now."

Ranma looked at Akane, making no move to leave. Kasumi quirked an eyebrow.

 "I said, Ranma... you may leave...now."

Akane looked at Ranma and nodded a little fearfully and whispered in a tiny
voice, "I think you'd better go Ranma."

"If yer sure..."

Akane nodded again. Ranma stood, bowed to Kasumi, suddenly feeling the need
to, and left, headed to the dojo.He gave a look back, seeing Kasumi saying
something to Akane, and seeing Akane's shoulders shaking. Kasumi sat with
none of her usual soft grace. Instead, she was ramrod stiff, and looked more
than a little stern. He shook his head in disbelief.

He made his way into the dojo,  Ryoga and Nabiki were sitting at one end of
the hall, facing each other. Ryoga looked very very unhappy.

"Ahhh good, come join us, Ranma-kun. Me and P-chan here, were just having a
little discussion."

Ranma big-sweated.

"That's right Ranma-kun, I know."

Nabiki smirked like a cat that had two birds, one under each front paw. She
said, "The only thing is, we haven't had the time to discuss the particulars
of the situation. So...why don't you enlighten me Ranma?", her grin got
nasty, "Why didn't you tell anyone that this swine was sleeping in my
sister's bed? I'd have cleared all your debts for life, for this little gem
of info."

Ryoga cringed.

Ranma sighed, "Cus I promised him. I promised I'd not tell anyone about his
curse. It was a matter of honor."

Nabiki looked interested.

"Oh, and why pray-tell, is that?

"Cus it was my fault in the first place he got cursed."

He looked at Ryoga, who kept looking at the floor and said, "Look, I'm sorry
man, really."

Nabiki nodded, surprised that she'd heard Ranma actually apologize, it
wasn't something she could remember seeing him ever do before.

Ryoga muttered, "Fat lotta good that does me."

Ranma sighed. Nabiki nodded.

"So, when did it happen? Him getting cursed I mean?"

"Ummm, it was the same day I got cursed. He was still chasin' after me over
the bread feud thing. I kinda....knocked him off a cliff inta the spring of
the drowned pig."

Nabiki shook her head, smirking, "I should have known. Okay, here's how
things are going to be then. I'll keep this little secret, provided...you do
what I tell you."

Ranma and Ryoga looked at her, then looked at each other, mutual animosity
put to one side in the face of a greater threat. They  nodded to each other,
then looked back at her and shook their heads.

"Nothin doing, I ain't gonna be no leg breaker. You got problems with
someone holding out on you for money, you take care of it yerself."

Ryoga nodded in agreement, "I'll not be some cheap hood. I've still got some
honor."

Ranma snorted, and Ryoga shot him an ugly look. Nabiki shook her head.

"That's not what I'm saying. If this plan of mine is going to come off
right, we have to keep any real harm from happening to our guest. At least
until I get him to sign the waiver. For it to be legal I have to have him
sign it and get it registered with the courts. Also,  we need to have some
of the chaos orchestrated to have the maximum effect. So, for now, I just
want you two to behave yourselves. Let things get settled down, and then you
two can get back to destroying Nerima like you usually do. I figure that
once I set some of the things in motion that I've got set up, we'll have
maximum chaos, and minimal damage."

Ranma looked puzzled.

"Huh? I don't get it?"

"Don't worry Ranma, I've got it all covered. It can't possibly fail."

The thunder clouds did their thing.

"But in the mean time, what the hell was 'that' in there?"

Nabiki gestured back toward the house.

"Kasumi's never acted like that... ever."

Ranma nodded energetically in agreement, "Yeah, no kidding. When I left, she
basically threw me out of the room. And it looks like she's chewin' out
Akane."

Nabiki blinked several times.

"Okay, that clinches it. Something strange is going on. Do you suppose
something happened to her before we got home?", she shot him a nasty look,
" Did you get her possessed again Ranma? I swear, if you have. I'll-"

Ranma shook his head, "Hey, knock it off, that wasn't my fault, but no, she
seemed perfectly normal up till a little bit ago. She kinda rescued me from
Shampoo and Ukyo earlier in fact. The whole time she was the same old
Kasumi. Sweet as pocky"

Nabiki gave it some consideration.

"What about you Ryoga? The note said you were meeting her with Dan earlier.
You notice anything odd?"

Ryoga shook his head as he answered,  "No, she met us as the train station
and gave me the key to the house. She seemed perfectly normal at the time."

Nabiki's brow furrowed.

"Something isn't right here. It doesn't add up. What about this Dan
character? How did you meet him? Anything strange about him?"

Ryoga rubbed his chin, thinking, then commented, "No, nothing weird. I ran
into him at the airport. He had this sign for the dojo on him, so I asked
him about it. He said he was going to be a guest here, so I kind of followed
him."

He considered what more to say.

"He... he seemed to be a pretty nice person. We talked for a while on the
way here. Even paid for my ticket on the limo-bus.  Ummm... offered me a
steak dinner for helping him out. That's about it, that and I helped him
carry some of the gifts he brought"

Ranma and Nabiki both looked curious.

"Steak?"

"Gifts?"

He nodded to Ranma.

"Yeah, he mentioned that he had some steaks sent along in a cooler."

Nabiki prodded him.

"Let's focus here on what's important... So, what about these gifts?"

Ryoga nodded toward the storage closet.

"I put them in there. Some of them were a little bulky, so I helped him
carry them."

Nabiki looked at the closet and back to Ryoga.

"So, nothing 'strange' or 'odd' about him?"

Ryoga shook his head.

Nabiki got a wry look on her face and commented rhetorically, "Why am I
asking you anyway? I don't even want to imagine what classifies as 'strange'
or 'odd' to you and Ranma. Hell you two define 'strange' and 'odd' in your
own right."

The sound of feet on the steps up to the dojo attracted everyone's
attention. Akane stood at the entranceway, head down, looking at the floor,
hands clasped in front of her. In a tiny voice she half whispered, "Kasumi
said that she wanted everyone to come back in the house, to help with the
party."

Ranma stood quickly and moved over toward her,  Ryoga and Nabiki trailed
behind him. He came closer to Akane but stopped, he'd noticed that some
small dots of moisture had appeared on the floor in front of her.

"Akane... Akane-chan, are you okay?", he asked softly.

She turned her head to one side, still looking down. Ranma put a hand on her
shoulder and she looked up at him. Her eyes were red, and tear tracks ran
down her face. She suddenly threw herself at his chest, and sobbed.

"She yelled at me....K-Kasumi y-yelled at me."

Ranma hesitantly folded his arms around her in a hug, a stunned look on his
face.

Nabiki looked poleaxed.

"She what?"

Akane looked at her sister while leaning her weight against Ranma.

"She c-called me a.. s-spoiled b-brat.... and t-that she was ashamed of
h-how I always acted. L-like no one but me... m-m-mattered."

Akane buried her face in Ranma's chest and started sobbing harder, hicuping.
Ranma looked intensely embarrassed.

Nabiki blinked.

She blinked again.

She turned and looked at Ranma and Ryoga, "Change of plans you two. I want
you to keep an eye on Kasumi. Something is very wrong here."


End of chapter 4 part A



Beginning of Chapter 4 part B

Title: Journey From The West Chapter 4
Ranma � is the creative work of Rumako Takahashi, a creative genius in the
world of Manga.
She, along with Viz and Kitty, own the rights to the Manga and Anime.
I am merely taking  the characters out for a joy ride.
(This story is not what you think it is.)
Chapter 4b

>From the front door of the Tendo home came the sound of three male voices.

"We're home!"

Nabiki shook her head.

"Perfect timing, the Three Martial Arts Stooges have to show up; Daddy,
Panda, and Pervert."

She sighed and said, "Okay, Ryoga, you follow me so that you don't get lost.
Ranma, you help sis pull herself together, then bring her into the living
room. I'll go talk to Daddy and fill him in on things."

Ranma nodded, obviously uncertain how to deal with a crying Akane. It was
something completely outside his realm of expertise. There weren't any
martial-arts-crying-girl techniques he was aware of, so he settled for
patting her on the back while letting her lean on him. However, inside there
was a feeling of anger at the whole situation. Sure, he reasoned,  Akane had
probably over-reacted, and pounded on the guest a little, but Ranma felt
that the whole situation was, somehow, partly the fault of the stranger
upstairs in some way. He'd keep his promise to Kasumi, but that didn't mean
that there couldn't be some payback for Dan's being part in something that
made his Akane cry. After all, she was his fianc�e... it was his job to make
her cry.

Akane looked up at him, fresh tear diamonds glittering on her cheeks. She
asked in a soft voice, "You believe me, don't you, Ranma?"

Ranma looked down. He gave her a half hearted smiled, nodding slightluy,
"Yeah, kinda."

Seeing the puzzled look in her eyes he rushed on, "I think you believe that
it happened like that.", he paused, "But, I remember you walkin' in on me
too. And saying I was a pervert. But I kinda figured out later on it was
because of the jerks at school. You just kept callin' me it, just like I
keep callin' ya a 'tomboy'."

Akane hit him in the chest lightly, "That's because you are a pervert."

Ranma laughed, seeing some of the fire in Akane he was used to.

"Just like yer still a tomboy... tomboy."

Akane gave him a half hearted smile.

"It still hurts, what she said."

Ranma nodded, "That's 'cuse it came from Kasumi. She's never done that
before, at least from what I've seen. If it'd been from me, you'da punted me
halfway across Tokyo,  and felt better about it after."

Akane, clenched her fist.

"I wish I could have-"

Ranma shook his head, while Akane stepped back a little to give them some
more space.

"No ya don't. She's yer sister, and you'd never forgive yourself if ya did
something like that to her. You know, maybe she's just more upset about this
whole thing than we thought. Maybe it's just that things kinda got to her.
Give her a little space and let her calm down."

Kasumi stepped into the dojo, holding a damp rag, several bottles of liquor,
and a bucket of ice.

"Let who calm down...Ranma-kun?"

Ranma blushed and scratched the back of his head while Akane wiped her face
with a cloth that Kasumi tossed to her.

"Uhh, nothing Kasumi. Hey!, how'd you get the booze away from those three
inside?"

Kasumi smiled.

"Oh, I just took it from them.  Now, Ranma, Akane, come on inside I need
some help with things. Since we're moving the party up, I need to get
cooking right now."

Akane got a hopeful look in her eye. Ranma saw it and started to sweat.

Akane stepped forward and said, "Can I help you in the kitchen
Kasumi?...Please."

Ranma cringed, and shook his head desperately as he stood behind Akane.
Kasumi saw his antics, and gave Ranma a hidden apologetic look.

"I suppose so Akane, but you have to agree to one thing."
"Anything, Kasumi"
"You have to agree to follow my directions to the letter."
"Absolutely!"

Ranma's shoulders slumped. Time to dig out the antacid for later.

Akane turned back to Ranma, as Kasumi put the bottles down on a small table
set up in the dojo, and then put them into the ice bucket as it sat on the
rag she'd set under it..

"I've been practicing my cooking at school a whole lot. I know I've gotten
better!  I'll make some of those cookies you like, Ranma."

Kasumi looked over at Ranma, sympathetically.

"Uhhh... Akane, I appreciate that and all... but-"

"Oh don't worry Ranma, I know how much you like them, and that you won't
want to share.", she wagged her finger at him, "But, I can make plenty more
for you, later. You'll just have to make sure you don't hog them all to
yourself tonight."

With that she ran from the dojo toward the house.

Ranma sighed. Kasumi walked over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder,
"Don't worry Ranma-kun. I'll keep a careful eye on her, I'll make sure they
aren't poisonous, but that's probably the best I can do."

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I guess. But, why is it always me that she uses as a
guinea pig?"

Kasumi smiled.

"You know why Ranma. But, I'll make you a deal, just eat one of hers, and
I'll make you a whole batch, just for you, later. Okay?"

Ranma sighed a little, "Okay Kasumi, yer the greatest."

She covered her mouth with her hand, stifling a giggle.

"Thank you Ranma-kun. That means a lot. Now let's go in and see to the
party."

***

Dan was dressed, in fact he'd been dressed for a while. He was just avoiding
going downstairs. He could tell something was going on down there, and he
didn't want to deal with it. Then he'd looked out the window, and seen the
girl that'd attacked him. "Akane" he reminded himself. She was walking out
to the dojo, wiping at her eyes. It was pretty obvious that she was crying.
Now he felt awful.

"Ouch! Make that 'more than awful'", he remarked to himself, rubbing his
head, "Now I feel awful, and guilty too. Sheesh, like messing up their plans
isn't enough for the day, now I'm messing up the harmony of their home."

He sat and considered the situation, looking for some "out" he could use.
Nothing came to mind.

"Hmmm, I need some advice... Hey! That's it.. Now I just gotta find- "

Dan got up, and made his way to the door and opened it. Ryoga was standing
in the hall, hand raised in preparation for knocking.
Dan let out a relieved breath, "Ryoga, Oh man, am I glad to see you. You're
just the person I was going to go looking for. Get in here. I gotta ask for
some help. I need to know what to do to." Ryoga was looking confused, as Dan
dragged him into the room, speaking rapid-fire English at him.

"Umm, I was just coming up to bring you downstairs. Mr. Tendo just got
home."
"Aww, man.. What next? Well, I'll be quick then. Okay, here's the thing...I
need to do something. You know, to smooth things over. You know...to try and
make things right."

Ryoga looked more confused.

"Huh?"

Dan looked at Ryoga, unsure if the young man was dense, or just acting like
it. Seeing the blank look, he decided that Ryoga was genuinely baffled. Dan
gestured with his arms a bit, "It's like this... I'm not too happy with
getting smacked around so far, but I figure, that whole attack thing is some
kind of weird mistake. But, the way I see it, I'm really making a bad first
impression."

Ryoga's jaw worked, but all that came out was, "Wha-?"

"You know...", Dan started pacing while he talked, "Getting here early and
messing up their schedule, that whole bathroom fiasco, not to mention I saw
Akane a few minutes back crying outside. I feel awful. I mean, I'm
destroying the whole 'harmony-of-the-household' thing I read about."

Ryoga held up a hand.

"What are you talking about? What harmony? Are we talking about this
household?"

Dan nodded. Ryoga snorted, then commented, "Well, first off, from the way
you're acting, it's good to know that you really didn't plan any part of
what happened in the bathroom. I was still a little worried about that." Dan
started protesting, "Hey, I'm not like that, I just tried to get a towel on
her to cover her up and-" Ryoga nodded.

"Understood... Otherwise, I hope you realize, I'd have to kill you for
dishonoring Akane.", he smiled, showing his fangs, "But, about the rest,
don't worry about it. The Tendos aren't all that formal. Old fashioned, yes.
But formal?... no. Anyway...where are you getting this stuff about
'household harmony?'"

Dan fished around in one of his bags, bringing out some books on Japan and
its culture. Ryoga looked at them, thumbing through a few pages. With a
smirk he handed them back.

"Don't believe everything you read Dan-san. Most of these books may look
new, but are reprints of earlier books. Japan has changed a lot in the past
fifty years. The old 'herd' mentality doesn't exist much anymore. Anyway,
most of these sorts of books are full of terrible generalizations that were
never true in the first place."

Dan nodded, saying, "Okay, good advice, thanks. But how can I smooth things
over anyway? I'm willing to bet that if I don't do something soon, Akane
will dislike me for the whole time I'm here. And I really could do without
the stress that that'll cause."

Ryoga considered the question and said, "Well, you could give them the gifts
you brought. Gifts usually help out."

Dan nodded and replied, "Good idea. Man, I'm lucky I ran into you at the
airport, this is another one I owe you."

Dan picked up the ice pack that was now mostly melted.
"Do you suppose they'll mind, if I leave this in the bathroom? I left
something in there."

Ryoga shrugged. Dan opened the door, and Ryoga followed him out of the room.

They dropped the ice pack off in the bathroom sink, and Dan fished around in
the shirt he'd originally been wearing before visiting the furo. After a
couple moments he brought out a necklace of some sort and started to put it
on. Ryoga looked at it curiously.

"What's that?"

Dan put it over his head, then held part of it out toward Ryoga.

"It's a rosary, it's been in my family for ages. Heh, you'd not know it, to
look at it, but it's really, really old. I wear it for good luck. Hey!
That's probably why I met you today."

Ryoga looked at it, it didn't look like anything special, just a few wooden
looking beads, and a crucifix of dark, nearly black wood, with a figure of
Christ on it in old, tarnished, silver. Ryoga was a devout follower of
Shinto, and smiled in amusement.

"Well, I don't know about that. But that sounds a little superstitious to
me."

Dan gave him a mock-hurt look, then smiled and said, "Sure sure, I know what
you mean. But honestly, I wear it mostly because it was my great
grandfather's. He told me that he wore it back when he was in China. In
fact, he told me he'd worn it since he was little.", Dan sighed sadly, "I
only got to see him a few times, you know... when I was really young. But I
still remember him really well. Dad said he was pretty sad most of the
time... except when I got to visit, and then he was all smiles. I was kinda
surprised when he left me everything, in his will, even his old house. But
Dad... he said me and him were best friends at first sight. So I kind of
wear it in honor of him."

Ryoga looked at it again, this time nodding his appreciation and asked, "So
how old is it?"

Dan smiled mysteriously and said, "It's supposedly over five hundred years
old... cool huh?"

Ryoga gave a low whistle as they headed down the stairs, "Not bad, not bad.
But how can you be sure? It doesn't look that old."

Dan shrugged, "Because great grandpa put it in his diary that he found it in
his great grandpa's house. Along with a letter, and a real old bible, it's
signed on the back, 'Miguel Cervantes October  5th,1547  Pueda a Dios tiene
la misericordia en su alma' or something like that."

Ryoga squinted unsure of the translation, "So what's that mean?"

They walked into the living room. Mr. Tendo was sitting at his customary
place, the gaming board across from Genma. Happosai sat at the table,
smoking his pipe, giving Dan a gaze full of contempt and suspicion.

"Tell ya later.", he said under his breath.

Dan switched back to Japanese and spoke, "Mr. Tendo, I'm terribly sorry
for-"

Soun held up his hand, in a gesture for Dan to stop. He stood up from his
place at the table, and walked over. He took a few moments to scrutinize the
young man carefully. Dan didn't look terribly remarkable in his opinion.

The young man was wearing a faded, blue denim dress shirt, and black, cotton
dress pants, with dark socks on his feet. His head was crowned by a thick
mop of curly black hair that seemed to be well cared for and was actually
quite short. His face had almond shaped, expressive eyes, set in a face with
angular cheekbones and a sharply defined nose. Soun's gaze settled on his
eyes for a moment, he decided that they were typical of westerners; they
didn't hide much, and were very direct in their gaze. In Soun's opinion they
were very easy to read. From what he could read from his stance and his
eyes, it looked like Dan was embarrassed and more than a little bit
frightened. Soun chuckled to himself internally. It'd been a while since he'
d had the chance to make a young man squirm under his gaze, and he loved
playing the part of an over protective parent when the opportunity arose.

Turning back to the situation at hand, he considered what he saw. Dan stood
about six feet tall, a good deal taller than most of the occupants of the
room, and his skin had a healthy, golden brown, tint to it, clearly showing
his Hispanic ancestry. Soun judged Dan to be in decent shape, but nowhere
near the monstrous levels of fitness that someone like Ranma or Ryoga kept
themselves in.
Finally he judged the way his guest carried himself, and almost snorted his
amusement. The loose and easy gait of a martial artist, with its low  and
solid center of gravity didn't seem to be something this young man had any
familiarity with at all.

Overall, he decided that this young man didn't seem to be a physical threat,
nor did he look like someone prone to violence, physical or emotional.
He had been a little concerned about how Kasumi and Nabiki had responded to
the passport photo of Dan, that Nabiki had acquired several days earlier.
They'd commented that he looked cute, and Soun had almost called the whole
thing off then and there. He knew, from personal experience, that most women
found older men attractive. His own wife had been 3 years his junior. But
looking at the young man in front of him now, and the manner in which he
carried himself, he decided that he'd not have too much to worry about. The
pubic embarrassment he'd experienced, and having all the girls seeing him
beaten so easily and in such a humiliating manner by Akane, had most
certainly belittled him sufficiently that he'd be afraid to make a move.

Soun nodded to himself and spoke,  "I heard already. I understand that there
were some.... misunderstandings when you arrived. I hope to put those behind
us, and start anew."

Dan nodded a little uncertainly, "If you say, Mr. Tendo. But, want apologize
for arriving early. My flight was rescheduled. I tried have people at
placement agency call you.  I see now, that I should have called ahead
myself."

Soun smiled, "Don't worry son, something as small as that is of no
consequence. Please, let me introduce you to my family, and our other
guests."

Dan smiled, "Thank you. Please, me and Ryoga must get packages from dojo. I
brought gifts for you and family."

Soun smiled and said, "Gifts? Of course! In fact I'll give you a hand if you
like."

Happosai snorted after they all left, "Look at him, already trying to sweet
talk his way in here. Feh, he probably got everyone something except me,
I'll bet."

Kasumi gave the old man a narrow look, "Now, Grandfather Happosai, that's a
spiteful thing to say. That he knew enough to bring gifts at all speaks very
highly of him."

Nabiki chimed in, "I don't remember you bringing any gifts for anyone, a lot
like two other people I could name. Genma tried his best to be
inconspicuous.  Ranma gave a shout from the kitchen, "Hey! I didn't even
know I was gonna end up stayin' here, till it was too late." He came walking
out if the kitchen with a "Piyo Piyo" apron on, carrying a pair of large
plates covered with bite-sized snacks, everything from small steamed
dumplings, to squid balls. Another plate of various pickled vegetables, was
riding on his head.

Nabiki laughed at the sight and went into the kitchen to help carry some
other plates of food out. Ranma set his burden down on the table, and
stalked back into the kitchen taking the apron off and crumpling it up in
his hand, "Shoulda known better'n ta offer ta lend a hand in the kitchen."

Kasumi followed him back in, giggling, "It's okay Ranma-kun. Now Akane, be
careful with that, remember what I told you, one step at a time. Now are you
sure that that was flour?"

Soun walked back into the house, carrying a small stack of gifts. Ryoga and
Dan followed, each carrying something. They set all the packages on the
table. Soun clapped his hands twice.

"Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane, come out. I'd like to introduce everyone to our
guest."

The three daughters filed out of the kitchen, Kasumi wiping her hands on her
apron. Soun nodded to them as they lined up.

"Cervantes-san. I am Soun Tendo, owner of the Tendo Dojo, and master of the
Tendo school of Musabetsu Kakutou Ryu. I welcome you to my home."

Soun bowed, and Dan tried to imitate him as best as he could..

"Thank you Mr Tendo."

He reached to the table and picked up a package, and handed it to him. It
was obvious from the shape, and the sloshing sounds it made is he handled
it, that it was a large bottle of some sort of liquid.

"I not what to get you, but I hear that American Bourbon is very popular in
Japan. So I bought you a nice bottle of best Kentucky Bourbon I could find.
I hope you find some use for."

Soun held the bottle, weighing its considerable bulk, he gave it small
shake, listening to the liquor slosh in its bottle. He smiled broadly.

"Ohh I think me and Saotome can find a use for this, wouldn't you say so
Saotome?"

Genma nodded energetically, "Definitely Tendo, absolutely!"
Putting the bottle safely out of the way of Happosai's grabby hands, Soun
continued, "Now, let me introduce my three daughters; Kasumi, age 20."

Kasumi bowed politely and elegantly. Again Dan felt clumsy in comparison,
but bowed back. He then offered her one of the largest of the boxes on the
table.  She took the box from him and smiled, "Thank you Dan-san."

Soun cleared his throat, "Nabiki, age;18." Nabiki gave a quick bow, and
seemed to have a smirk floating about her lips.
Dan bowed back, "Umm. I really not know what to get you Nabiki, so I decide
to offer you choice. Oh, also, thank you for sending me information on
family, it helpful for choosing gifts. But I could not ask you what you
want.  So I make guess. I brought two for you, you choose one, and  maybe
give other you not choose for your birthday. Want to choose now?"

Nabiki smiled and held her hands together, putting on one of her
mock-excited-girl looks, and answered in English, "Sure, h'okay, I'll gibu
it a try."

Dan smiled, replying in English.

"Okay, English it is then. Well, I got your pants size from Kasumi in a
letter, so in one of the packages are some Levi's, 5 pair. They should fit
you I think, and some new CD's. The other choice is something my Grandfather
gave me a long time ago. It's a-"

"Yippee!". Nabiki switched back to Japanese. She had Yen signs floating in
front of her eyes, "Levi's? 5 pair of Levi's? You bet I'll take those!" Dan
nodded, a little taken aback at her reaction, "Ummm, Okay, okay, here ya
go."

Nabiki tore into the package, and held up a pair of indigo blue pants.
Kasumi closed her eyes in irritation, Nabiki was making a spectacle of
herself. One just did not open a gift in front of the giver like that,
especially when one paid no attention to the care that went into the
wrapping. She decided that it was high time that she went and paid her
sister a visit, and remind her how a proper young lady conducted herself.

"Whoo hoo! Cha'ching! I'm going to go put these on. Thank you!", Nabiki
gathered up the rest of the jeans, and bolted up the stairs in a flash,
Kasumi sighed. Akane stood there alone, radiating malice.

Soun nodded to Dan and said, "And Akane, age 17"

Dan picked up his gift for her off the table and bowed, offering it to her.

"Your sister tell me that you are liking to cook, and very good at English.
So I thought you like something like these. You need any help with
translation of recipes, I help, okay?."

Akane held the package, considering it. It was wrapped in a soft, blue
colored, tissue paper, with an elaborate bow on top,  and was rather heavy.
She could tell by the weight what they were...books. She could feel it in
her bones, there were cookbooks in that package.

Dan bowed again, speaking slowly and carefully, hoping he got the words just
right.  "I apologize for any part I had in the earlier misunderstanding. I
promise, I meant no harm. Could we, start over? Akane looked at him, he
appeared to be sincere. But, she still wasn't convinced. The cookbooks
however, were calling to her, and they did offer a pretty good incentive to
accept his apology, at least for now.

"Okay, Cervantes-san. I guess so. Just watch yourself from now on."

She noticed the hard look Kasumi was giving her and swallowed.

"Ummm...Thank you."

She took the books and turned away after a quick bow.  She walked past
Ranma, whispering, "Now I have all sorts of new things to make for you to
try." She smiled at him. He looked back at her with a serious look on his
face.

"Sheesh, what'd I do to you this time? Why are you tryin' to poison me
again?"

She smacked him on the head with the stack of books., "Jerk."

Soun coughed and motioned to Ranma saying, "This is Ranma Saotome age 17,
the son of my good friend Genma Saotome."
Ranma gave Dan a cocky wave, "Yo."

Soun continued, "He is Akane's fianc�e and lives here with us also. You and
him will be sharing the guest room."

Dan looked confused, for a moment, and dug into his pocket, he pulled out a
book and started looking in it.
"Kon'.. Kon'yak ...Kon'yakku.......ahh here it is..  Fiancee?"

Dan pointed between Ranma and Akane, "You mean he's is going to marry her?"

Soun nodded, as did Genma. Ranma exploded into action, gesticulating madly,
"Hey, how many times I gotta say it, No-one is tellin' me who I'm gonna
marry."

"That's right, and like I'd marry a pervert like Ranma anyway. Hah! That'll
be the day."
"Feh, like an uncute tomboy like you'll need to worry about getting
married."

Kasumi walked over and grabbed them both by the tips of their ears, twisting
them and chiding, "Now, now you two...", she grit her teeth, "No more
lover's quarrels for right now." Ranma and Akane grimaced as she let go.

Dan sweated and turned to Ryoga, who held a tall cylinder about 5 and a half
feet tall, wrapped in blue paper. He took the package and handed it to
Ranma,saying "Ummm, Nabiki Tendo not tell me you getting married, just say
you staying here too. I was told you really like martial arts, assumed you
just staying for training. So I looked for something you might like....or
use in martial arts."

Ranma took the package and shook it. It thumped inside.

"What is it?"
"Open it and see."

Ranma shrugged and asked, "Ummm, yer sure it's okay? I mean usually yer not
supposed to.. ya know.. open a gift in fronta the giver." Dan nodded,
saying, "It okay."

Ranma shrugged and undid the tape fastening some of the paper on one end,
and found a plastic cap which he popped off. A rounded end of what looked
like black wood was visible inside the tube. He slid a few feet of it out.

"A staff?"

Dan nodded and said, "It was something great grandfather got in California a
long time ago...I think...But, be careful, it heavy. I hurt toe with it
once, when little." Ranma smirked and replied, "Don't worry, I know my way
around weapons, even though I don't like to use 'em. To easy for 'em ta get
taken away." He slid the staff out of the tube, noticing as he did, that it
was very heavy. Far heavier than it looked.

The body of it was a charcoal black wood with a satiny finish, as though
worn smooth by handling There were a couple leather thongs tied to the
staff, one at each end. Each thong had a pair of trinkets attached to it.
One had a disk covered with squiggly designs with an octagonal hole in the
middle, along with a few feathers held in a small bundle. The other thong
had what looked like a tooth from a big reptile attached, and a piece of
jade.

"Interesting wood, what is it?"

"Ironwood, I think. That why it so heavy. Don't drop in the water, it not
float. I showed to antique dealer who friend of family. He said he think it
American Indian or something. You like?"

Ranma picked up the staff, hefting it, considering, he said, "Hmmm, we'll
take it outside and I'll try some staff kata with it.  Thanks though, it
looks cool."

Nabiki came down the stairs in a rush, her new blue jeans on. She posed,
blowing a kiss, showing them off.

 "They're perfect. Thank you."

Soun smiled and said, "Now, this is my friend Genma Saotome, Ranma's father.
He was living here with Ranma until recently." Genma nodded as he got up
from the game board he was setting up and said, "Nice to meet you, son."

Dan bowed and then grabbed the last remaining gift off the table, offering
it to Genma.

"I hope that these meet with your.....",Dan paused in thought, grabbed up
his book again, thumbed through it, and found the word he was looking for,
"...satisfaction. I'm sorry, my Japanese is not good."

Genma chuckled and patted him on the shoulder saying, "You're doing fine.
Thank you for the gift"

"Ummm, Nabiki said your wife might be here. I sorry she did not come. I
thought she might like them?"

Genma nodded and hefted the package in his hands, it was about the size of a
shirt box, but considerably heavier than he'd expected. His curiosity piqued
he asked, "Hmmm? Them?"

"Yes, Formal chopsticks, most of them are wood, but some are metal and some
even jade and other stones. Ummm... My great grandfather had many old things
from Japan and China. These were chopsticks in nice lacquer case,  looked
nice. I thought maybe your wife might like them."

Ranma laughed and added tauntingly, "Hey Pop! Chopsticks, perfect for you.
You're always stuffin' your mouth."

"Insolent boy, I'll see you in the back yard, and stuff those words back in
your mouth for you. Bring that 'toy' of yours along and I'll show you how a
true martial artist uses a staff."

Genma looked at Dan's shocked reaction to his yelling at Ranma, and coughed,
"Uhmmm.. well...thank you for your gift. My wife should be here soon though.
So, I'll wait for her to arrive, and let her open them."

 Dan smiled and nodded.

Happosai snorted.

 "See, told ya."

Dan snapped his fingers and said, "I knew I almost forget someone. One
minute."

Dan ran from the room , obviously headed to the guest room as he took the
stairs, three at a time.

Kasumi took the opportunity to open her gift, carefully folding the wrapping
paper as she removed it. Inside was a complete tea set, held in a fine,
lacquered wood, box.

"Oh my!, Father, look at this. This is absolutely darling. The glaze work on
these cups is odd, and I don't think I've seen a tea set style anything like
this before. But it's very pretty."

Happosai came scuttling over, snatching the teacup from her hand,
scrutinizing it., "Pah, its probably some cheap piece of cra-"

His grabby little hands suddenly got very gentle. He set the cup down
carefully.

 "Well, now.... maybe it's not so bad after all."

Kasumi looked curious and asked, "What do you mean Grandfather?"

Happosai took a small drag of his pipe and said, "Well I don't think he
knows it, but it looks like you have yourself a genuine pre-Ming dynasty tea
set, maybe even Tang dynasty, it looks like it's in perfect shape too,  Not
too shabby."

"Is that valuable?"

Happosai looked evasive and replied with more than a hint of slyness, "Could
be, could be, dear." Happosai patted her on the hand, "But don't worry your
pretty little head about it. Just keep it from getting broken."

Dan came running back down the stairway, narrowly avoiding a ceiling beam
that threatened to knock him out, "Here we go. Present for teacher,
Happosai."

He handed a flat box to Happosai, though oddly he held it slightly above the
little man. Happosai took the box, and, tossing custom to the wind, tore
into it. He brought out something dark brown, leather, and rather
coat-like. He asked,  "Huh? What's this?"

Dan smiled and explained, "Nabiki tell me how much you like modern things,
and things from other countries...."

Nabiki smirked, waiting to see how badly Happosai would react to the poorly
chosen gift. It was common knowledge to everyone in the house that Happosai
felt everything modern was a waste of time, unless, of course, it somehow
involved panties, and that he vehemently disliked foreigners and foreign
things, unless they were pretty young women  or food of course.

"So, I got you a Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket"

Happosai turned it over, looking at the emblem on the back, then flipped it
around to look at the front again, "Har-leyu Dai-bu-id-sun?

Happosai looked at the back of the jacket again with its aggressive looking
Eagle, all done in various shades of stitched and dyed leather. It was
almost like he was still unsure what it was.

He flipped it around a final time, and tried it on. It looked too big at
first, but seemed to still fit well enough. He sniffed the arm of the jacket
and commented,  "Hey!... This ain't to bad...I was feeling a little chilled
actually... Thanks boy."

Dan nodded, but looked at him consideringly, and frowned, "Not quite right
though." He reached into his shirt pocket, coming up with another small
giftbox.
Nabiki sweated, unsure why Happosai wasn't exploding in one of his typical
tantrums. Instead he stood there, wearing a leather jacket that looked more
at home on some rich teenager. She felt she could name a dozen boys at
school who, although they wouldn't have 'killed' for it, would have
definitely 'maimed' someone, for a genuine Harley biker jacket.

Dan handed the small box to Happosai, who again ripped away the wrapping,
and found a pair of mirrored sunglasses in his hand. The little man promptly
put them on. They fit perfectly and somehow went very well with the jacket.

Dan gave him a 'thumbs up', and smiled.Happosai  nodded his approval. Then
looked at Nabiki. He gave her a double thumbs up,

"Ayyyyee!!, pretty lady."

Nabiki boggled.

Kasumi picked up her box, putting the teacup back inside with the rest of
the set.

 "Thank you Dan-san. I love it. I might even try the set out a little later,
It's supposed to be chill tonight, a nice cup of tea might be just the
thing. Perhaps you would join me? We could talk for a while."

He nodded, "Absolutely, in fact I-"

The bell at the gate to the house rang. Kasumi frowned and asked, "Now who
could that be? Auntie would have just come in."

Dan brightened suddenly and said,"Hey, Perfect timing. That's probably my
luggage." He turned and gestured to Ryoga, speaking in English, "Hey,
remember what I said? Steaks wait for no man. Let's go get that icechest!"

***

Several large suitcases, a duffle bag, and an ice chest sat on the sidewalk.
The Japan Airlines worker stood with a clipboard in hand, his unruly shock
of black hair barely contained by his hat.   As Dan and Ryoga walked up, the
worker asked,"Are you...", the young man looked at the clipboard, "Dan
Cervantes'?" Dan nodded, and took the board from the young man when he had
it handed to him.

"Sign, please."

Dan quickly scribbled his name on the indicated line, and handed the board
back, "Thank you, you were very prompt , Mr..."

"Watanabe"

He looked past Dan at the group behind him, "Ummm, did you need any help
with taking the bags inside, sir?"

He started scratching the back of his head in embarrassment and replied,
"No, thank you for offering, Mr. Watanabe.... Ummm. You know your way around
Tokyo good if you do this job right?"

The young man nodded, while Ryoga worked his way around Dan and grabbed a
pair of suitcases.  He handed one to Soun, and one to Ranma, picking up the
a third one, and the duffle bag for himself, leaving Dan with the ice chest,
and a shoulder bag. He nodded to Dan, and started walking back to the house,
leaving him talking to the worker.

"Sort of, I'm only doing this part time to get some extra money."

"Mnnnnn, Well, I am going to be student at university. I wondering if you
could tell me the best route to take please."

The young man nodded again saying, "Sure, no problem, what university?
Tokyo? You doing international business?"

"Nekomi."

"No kidding? Hey, that's where I go."

Dan was happily surprised and said, "I guess I lucky today. I need to
register in couple days, and will need to go, using trains. You can tell me
best way to go?" The worker nodded and replied, "Sure, but don't take the
trains. There's an easier way, if you're living over here, that is. Nekomi
is really near Disney Land Japan. So, there's a lot of special busses that
run right by the university. You could grab one of those, and avoid the
crowds."

Dan nodded his understanding.

 "Good idea. I'll try it. You going to college and working this job part
time, yes?"

The young man nodded.

Dan smiled and handed him a couple thousand yen, with a smile.

The young man looked at the money and sighed longingly, but offered it back
saying, "We aren't supposed to take tips."

Dan pushed it back toward him.

 "You were kind, offer advice to outsider. Good deeds should always be
repaid. It not tip...just  'thank you'.  Hope to see you at school. Maybe
you can offer advice about classes some time."

The young man nodded, then smiled, saying "Hey! Since you might not know it,
the clubs on Campus are having a big festival starting the day after
tomorrow. You should come to it before registering. Maybe you'll find a club
you'll like, and get some good advice on classes."

Dan looked a little dubious but asked, "What kind of clubs."

The young man held his arms out wide, saying "Oh there's all sorts of them.
I'm in the motor club myself. We're doing a drag racing demonstration at the
start of the festival. You know, to attract some new members."

Dan nodded and replied, "Hmmm motor club... maybe. I here to take classes of
professor Kakuta. Maybe make time...work motors, maybe good thing."

The young man gave a low whistle before continuing, "Kakuta, huh? Well, he's
a great teacher. I hear he's working on the ceramic engine research project.
You sure you're up to him? He's a fun guy, but a tough teacher, sounds like
you need some language practice before stepping in his class."

Dan nodded and said, "I know, but that why I here. I met professor when he
in the United States. I saw him after lecture in student union, I bought him
some coffee after...we talked for ....umm... about 6 hours. He convince me
to come to Japan. He say that I must come here, that he let me help on
project."

The worker blinked several times, "You're kidding right? Doc won't let
anyone help him on that project. He guards it like it's a newborn. What'd
you and him talk about?"

Dan smiled and replied, "Oh... I just point out problems in his design, and
that he need use special metal for crankshaft, incorporating Vanadium with
high carbon steel in a ferric carbon matrix resulting in a super plasticine
alloy. He gave me funny look at first. But after talk a while, he ask me
come work with him after I show what I mean."

The young man blinked several more times at Dan and answered in an unsure
voice, "Ummmm...", sweatdrops followed, "I... uh.. see?... I guess...So,
anyway, there are really only two clubs for gear-heads at Nekomi. The Motor
club, and the Racing club. Stop by during the festival, I'll introduce you
around to everyone in our club. There are some real good people in it...I
wish I could talk more, but I have a lot more deliveries to make before I
get off. The sooner I get done, the sooner I get dinner"

"Ack, Dinner! I have to go too. Nice meet you."

Dan grabbed the ice-chest and ran back toward the Tendo home.

Ryoga met him at the door.

"I thought you'd gotten lost out there."

Dan laughed.

"Not really, I just ran into someone that goes to the same university as I'
ll be going. Thought I'd ask some advice. We started talking 'shop'."

Dan walked the ice chest into the kitchen and put it on the countertop. He
then patted the rosary and smirked while saying, "See, told you it's lucky.
Provided I'm wearing it, I'm almost certain to have good luck."

Ryoga snorted and replied, "Good luck is just bad luck leaving you alone for
a little while, piling up, waiting to hit you all at once, burying you under
an avalanche of woe and sorrow. "

"Man, are you negative. Well, just give me a few minutes to get the packing
tape off this hunk-a-junk, and we'll see if a nice porterhouse will wipe
that look of gloom off your face."

Dan untaped the ice chest, popped the top off, and pulled out a partially
unfrozen steak as Kasumi walked in the kitchen.

"Oh my! What's that you have there Dan-san? "
Dan put the steak on the counter, still in its plastic wrap.

"Hi Ms Tendo. Ummm, I hear beef expensive here. So bring some with me. Ryoga
was good help leading here today ...I promised him  nice steak dinner, is
okay?."

Kasumi frowned a little and commented, "Hmmm, well... I don't really have
dinner ready yet, just some of the snacks that I was going to have for the
party.... I was just about to get the rice cooking, and make a few main
dishes."

Dan nodded and started fishing more steaks out of the chest.

 "If you want, can have steak for everyone. Take less time to cook. I know I
am very hungry. Steak sound good to me. The rest can go in freezer?"

Kasumi nodded once.

"That sounds fine I suppose. But I didn't know you were bringing anything
like that, I'm not sure the freezer will hold it all."

Dan opened the freezer section, giving it a quick look and commented, "Look
like you need ice in here... Ice trays all empty. Anyway, should all fit, I
think. If some left over, they still frozen.. maybe let thaw in
refrigerator, and make something out of  tomorrow... okay?"

Kasumi considered his words a moment and gave a single nod. Dan kept pulling
meat out of the ice chest, and he didn't look like he was going to stop.

"Ummm, Dan-san...."

He turned back to her, holding what looked like a standing rib roast. She
took the roast out of his hands, set it down , and started shooing him away
from the counter, and out of her kitchen.

"I'll take care of this for you. Why don't you go out in the yard? Ranma was
waiting for you and Ryoga before trying out your gift. Go on now, shoo shoo.
You too, Ryoga-kun. Out."

Backing their way out of the kitchen, Dan turned to regard Ryoga and said,
"Whoa, I guess she doesn't like people messing up her kitchen huh?" Ryoga
looked back at him, a very uncertain look on his face and replied, "Ummm...
She's usually not like this."

Akane walked past them, headed into the kitchen and commented snidely, "She
probably just didn't want a pervert in her kitchen."
She shot a nasty look in Dan's direction. Dan looked back to Ryoga, "Huh?
Me?" Ryoga smacked him on the back of the head as they walked into the main
room leading to the back yard, "Yeah, you...", in a lower voice he added in
a friendly tone, "Don't worry about it, I'll talk to her. Just keep clear
for now."

Dan nodded and sighed. He walked onto the backyard deck, "Yeah, I suppose
so. Well, let's go. No sense waiting to see what he has in store for us.
Though honestly, I just want to go back upstairs right now and sleep for a
day or two. That plane ride killed me."
Ryoga nodded sympathetically, "Well, knowing Ranma, he'll make so much
noise, you won't be able to sleep." Dan groaned as he stepped on the deck.

Happosai sat there, smoking his pipe. Soun and Genma sat at the Shogi board,
playing another of their innumerable games. Happosai heard their approach,
and prepared himself, he was sure he knew what was coming.

"Ummm Excuse me Teacher Happosai...", Dan began.

Happosai looked up at Dan with narrowed eyes full of suspicion, and shouted
at him, sending the young man staggering back.

"Ahh ha! There you are. I wondered when you'd start.", the old man chortled.

Dan looked confused.and asked,"Start? Start what?"

Happosai poked him in the leg with his pipe.

"Feh! Fine, play the innocent! I'm onto you boy. Don't thing for a minute
that just because you got me a nice gift, that I'm going to consent to
teaching you diddly." He snorted and crossed his arms, looking away with
disdain evident on his face, still smoking his pipe, and blowing smoke out
the corner of his mouth in Dan's direction.

"I knew you'd be seeking me out soon enough, trying to pry my sacred,
martial arts, secrets out of me. You, with your sneaky, foreign devil
subterfuges. Well it ain't gonna work, you outsider. So suck on that!", he
blew a noxious cloud in his direction.

Dan sat on the deck next to the old man, trying to ignore the pungent smoke,
"Ummm, Mr..."

"Happosai... and that's all yer gonna get outta me. I ain't gonna tell you
anything more."
"Ummmm... okay, Mr. Happosai... I just want to ask-"
"AH HA!", the little man shouted, "Begging already are you?, well it won't
mean a thing. I'll not be moved."
"I not begging, I want talk with you about that, but-"
Happosai whirled around, pointing at him accusingly and shouting
triumphantly, "See! I knew it!"
 Ummmm... but maybe later, after party, okay?"

Happosai squinted at him his suspicion obviously growing even greater, "Oh
ho! Planning on trying to trick me when I'm in a weakened state are you?
Think you'll make a fool of the old master when he's done in by drink do
you?

He stood up an started pacing, gesturing with his pipe and ranting, " I know
your game...Try and get the old man drunk. Then, when his wits are
befuddled, you move in for the kill. You get him to agree to your demands.
Playing on his honor as a martial artist to make him betray himself.", he
nodded sagely and said in a half whisper, "Yer a clearer one, I'll give you
that. I've used that trick successfully myself many times."

He stopped pacing, and fired a look at Dan, a sly tone in his voice as he
said.. "I see they trained you well boy... whoever REALLY sent you here that
is. Usually that's a perfect ploy. Ha! But it's only effective if the other
person isn't aware of the trick."

Happosai started shaking his pipe at the young man, glaring at him fiercely.

 "Well, it won't work, I tell you. I'm on to you and your wicked plans, you
foreign devil. It'll be a cold day in hell before you put one over on Grand
Master Happosai. You hear me? A cold day in hell!!!"

Dan put his hands up in a gesture of surrender and hopeless confusion, "Who
send me? I not understand. It not like that. I just come out to see Ranma
now. Kasumi say he is out here."

Happosai stood with his tiny fist still raised in defiance. He asked,
"Really?"

Dan nodded. Happosai sat back down, smoking his pipe peacefully once more.
In a pleasant tone he said, "Oh! Well... that's different...He's in the
dojo."

"Ummm.. thank you?", Dan said in a very uncertain tone.

Happosai shrugged noncommittally and said, "Don't mention it."

Dan got up and headed to the Dojo shaking his head and looked at Ryoga, he
asked, "Is he always like that?"

Ryoga nodded and answered, "Pretty much."

"Great...",Dan replied sarcastically, "...should be interesting."

Ryoga rolled his eyes.

***

As they walked into the dojo, Ryoga gave Dan a quick introduction to the
custom of bowing to show respect to the training hall.
Soun and Genma nodded at them as they entered. Ranma stepped forward into
the center of the dojo with the staff in hand, it shown with a satin-like
black finish. Looking almost like a bar made of the woods namesake.

Ranma nodded to them.

 "Yer right, the thing's really heavy for it's size. Kinda hard to get used
to.

Ryoga snorted and said, "Weakling. Perhaps you should leave the weapons to
real men, Ranma."

Ranma gave him a level stare and said, "Bring in on Pork Butt. I still plan
on 'discussing' you peeping on Akane. We could have that little 'talk' right
now."

Ryoga walked to his pack where it lay leaning against the wall, and pulled
his umbrella free from the top of the pack.

"Anytime Ranma, in fact now sounds like a perfect time for-"
"A perfect time for me to remind you what I said earlier?, about you two
fighting?"

Ryoga turned to see Nabiki standing at the dojo entrance, with arms crossed.
He started sweating. He pointed at Ranma with his umbrella and said, "He
started it."

 Nabiki was tapping her foot, and raised an eyebrow. Ryoga hung his head and
said, "Fine...", he shot a dark look at Ranma, "I won't forget that 'pork
butt' comment though."

Dan stood there, radiating confusion. Happosai chose that moment to walk in.

"So, what are you all up too out here? Ahhh, Ranma my boy, let's see what
sort of weapon that is, you've got there."

Ranma hefted it. Happosai held out his hand.

"I donno, old man, it might be a little too heavy for a proper staff, and I'
m not sure how brittle it is.anyway. Heavy doesn't mean strong. It might not
be able to take a good hit. Hey, Cervantes-san is this ironwood stuff
brittle?"

Dan shook his head, after taking a few moments to work past Ranma's
pronunciation.

"Ummm... no, is one of strongest woods there is. Very tough."

Happosai nodded to himself, then held out his hand toward Ranma, beckoning
him to hand him the staff.

 "Let me see that for a minute Ranma, I think there's something you forgot
to check."

Ranma looked curious, but passed the little man the staff asking, "Huh?
Whatcha mean? I didn't forget nothin'."

Happosai hefted the staff a moment, then smacked Ranma on the forehead with
it sharply.

Ranma cluched his forehead painfully, and backed off cursing, "What the hell
'd you do that for, ya old freak?"

Happosai chuckled and replied, "You forgot to take off the ornamentation on
the staff you fool.", he gestured to the leather thongs still on the staff,
"How can you fight with these things getting in your way? Get them off now!"
He tossed the staff back to Ranma.

Ranma grumbled, but untied the leather straps, and set the various items to
one side. Happosai smiled and put his hands on his hips and shouted,
"Good...RANMA! Go-Ju Ryu third staff kata with opponent. Let's see it."

Ranma slipped into a relaxed position, glaring challengingly at the old man,
and leaning on his staff.

"So who's gonna be my opponent? Or do you want it done solo?"

Happosai looked around the room, and then smirked as he saw his targets,
"Soun, move it, grab a staff and get in there. You've been slacking too
long, I think its time I whipped you, and that fat tub of lard, Genma back
into fighting shape. You two are a disgrace, letting yourselves go like
this."

Soun jumped to his feet with a look of dread in his eye. He grabbed a staff
and walked onto the floor mats,"I need a few minutes to stretch and warm up
first, master."

He knew that Happosai wouldn't take his excuse for putting off the exercise,
and was already contemplating the muscles he might end up pulling without a
good warm-up. Surprisingly Happosai just grunted his ascent, "Take no less
than 5 minutes of stretching, preferably ten. I'll not have you whining
later about hurting yourself, Soun. Now then...GENMA! Get out there and
stretch too, I'll not have any of my students, even useless ones like
yourself, slacking off like this. Hop to it."

Dan stood where he was, blinking in surprise at the amount of noise the
little old man was putting out. Happosai looked up, and gave him an evil
grin.

"Ha! Bet it just roasts yer chestnuts that I'm not gonna let you join in,
doesn't it, boy? Bet yer chompin' at the bit to learn all about our school
of martial arts... heh.", he prodded Dan's stomach with his pipe and
continued, "Well, tough! I decided yer not worthy, so forget it. You'll have
to look elsewhere if you want to learn. As far as you're concerned, this
dojo doesn't even exist. So how do you like that?"

Happosai crossed his arms in self satisfaction.

Dan stood there, still unsure what to say.

Genma and Soun went through a variety of contortionistic exercises,
loosening up. As they did so, Akane walked in through  the dojo entrance, a
lovely woman in a formal kimono beside her.

Akane said,  "Ranma, you're mother is he-, oh there you are Mr. Saotome.
Auntie Nodaka is here."

 Genma stopped his stretching exercises and started walking toward his wife.
Happosai stepped into his path, scowling, his voice a rumble of
disapprovement, "And who said you could stop exercising Genma?"

"But, my wife-"
"Your wife, will thank me for getting your fat, flabby body back in shape.
Having this foreigner show up may have been just the thing you and Soun
needed. Made me take a good, hard, look at you two."

He started poking Genma's prodigious belly with his pipe. Where Happosai
poked, ripples flowed outward on the surface of Genma's flab. Happosai
shouted, "You've gone soft Genma", poke, "Soft and flabby", poke, "I'm going
to take a personal interest in you. Are you paying attention?", poke, "I
intend to melt that fat right off you, and make candles with it if
necessary.", poke, poke, poke.

 As he kept prodding him, Happosai was gradually forcing  Genma's back to
the wall, and the waves of ripples grew more and more pronounced.

"I'm ashamed to call you my student the way you look right now, Genma. In a
couple months, I'll have made you drop 50 pounds of fat, and put 60 pounds
of muscle in its place. Then I'll really get started. Your wife'll be
dancing for joywhen I'm through with you two. I'll make a new man out of
you, Genma....Now get to work. I want 5000 hindu squats out of you, starting
right now."

Happosai turned away, shaking his head, and blinking rapidly. He muttered to
himself,  "Ripples...of....blubber...almost...hypnotizing."

Dan turned to Nabiki and asked, "Ummm, Ms. Tendo...Nabiki...why Mr. Saotome
crying like that?"

Nabiki smirked in amusement as she replied, "Umm.. Japanese work ethic...He
is crying righteous-tears-of-joy. He's very pleased that Master Happosai is
paying so much attention to him, and helping him improve himself."

"Ahhhh, I see..." , Dan nodded with understanding, and added, " For moment I
thought he just crying like baby."

Nabiki nodded and said, "It's easy to not see the subtle difference, you
being an outsider and all. Don't worry, this is a good thing."

Internally she was calculating the decrease in underwear theft the shift in
Happosai's attention, would bring Nerima. With any luck she'd be able to get
with her Yakuza contacts tonight, and make changes to her bets that revolved
around the old troll and his stealing habits.

Happosai whirled on Soun, turning his back on Genma, "Soun!", he shouted,
"Are you done stretching?"

Soun nodded and said, "Well, what are you wating for? Spring? Get to it!"

Nodaka walked over to join Nabiki and Dan, Akane just stood there taking in
the action, and keeping her distance from the American.

"Nabiki dear, is this your guest?"

Nabiki nodded and replied, "Yes auntie, Dan Cervantes Allow me to introduce
Nodaka Saotome."

Dan bowed as politely as he could, "I am pleased to meet you."

Nodaka smiled and said, "The pleasure is mutual Cervantes-san. I understand
you will be staying in the same room as my dear Ranma. I've heard all sorts
of things about American men. Most of it, very manly. Would you consider
yourself manly, Cervantes-san? I certainly don't want Ranma to pick up any
bad habits."

Dan looked at her oddly, try as he might, he just couldn't make sense of
what she was saying, "Umm... I not sure what you mean."

Nabiki smirked and spoke up for him, "You'll have to forgive Cervantes-san
Auntie. He got hit on the head by Akane when he saw her in the nude in the
bathroom. He's not fully recovered yet."

Nodaka smiled broadly and commented, "Ahhh so it is true! Excellent,
excellent...", she bowed to him slightly, "...peeping on a much younger
woman, and so soon upon arriving. Manly indeed."

Dan dug out his pocket dictionary and started looking in it, commenting in
english to himself, "Nozu.. nozuk.... it's not in here. Damn. How am I
supposed to know what she said without the verb?"

He decided to just play along and replied, "Ummm, yes, I try and do that as
much as can." His response seemed to please her immensely, so he figured he'
d gotten it right.

Nodaka nodded toward the center of the dojo and said, "Oh, Nabiki, it looks
like your father is getting ready to spar with Ranma. Let's watch."

Ranma bounced lightly on his feet as Soun took up a ready stance with his
staff, "I'll try to go easy on ya Mr. Tendo. I know ya ain't been practicin'
so's it wouldn't be fair if I gave it my all."

Soun gave him a level look as he whirled his own staff, "Ranma, son, don't
be too sure of yourself. This old snake is still able to bite."

Happosai yelled from alongside of them, "Enough talk from you two. Two
person staff kata, like I said before. Get to it."

Ranma seized the initiative and started the formalized set of stances, both
attacks and defenses that made up the kata. Ranma started adding small
subtle improvisational twists to it. Soun adapted, and the kata flowed
between them, their staffs whirling and humming blurs of black and tan.

"Faster you two slackers! You aren't even trying."

Ranma smiled, and increased the tempo a notch, his muscles having a bit of
trouble accommodating the added weight of his staff, but also letting him
strike with far more weight and power than he was used to. He smiled. The
staff felt a little unwieldy right now, but he could tell, that given a
little time, it would mesh perfectly with his style. Just running through
this kata was helping immensely. If fact, the staff felt good in his hands,
as though it belonged there.

Soun, also noted the added striking power that the extra weight of Ranma's
staff carried, but he also noticed that it wore on Ranma and that the
adjustments he was having to make were slowing his reactions measurably. He
knew that Ranma's biggest advantage was his speed, and that the staff was
blunting that edge. Soun smiled internally, he'd show the boy what a real
martial artist was made of, and tried to increase the speed of the kata a
bit more. If Ranma made a mistake, he'd pull the blow just shy of hitting
him, but it'd teach the boy a valuable lesson about underestimating his
future father in law. A moment later he heard a crackle, and the world went
dark.

>From the sidelines, Dan watched the kata flow between the two martial
artists. The predefined motions flowed naturally from one form to the next.
He sucked in a quick breath during some of the more impressive exchanges. So
far he was completely impressed by the display he was witnessing. But, even
his relatively unschooled eye could tell, that with the pace being set, Soun
was going to outlast Ranma. The weight of the staff was throwing Ranma's
timing off, and he had a frustrated look on his face.

The staves had long ago become little more than half seen blurs, and
momentary flickers of graphite black and honey colored maple. The sharp
clacks of the two staffs meeting had become a steady stream of background
noise. Thrusts were met by deflections, and counter attacks were blocked by
parries that held off strikes like a stone wall. The two combatants seemed
to flow with each other as if they were dancing. The tempo kept increasing
maddeningly, until suddenly, a crunching crackle broke the rhythm, followed
by a soft series of thudding sounds.

Ranma stood with his staff still in hand, a smile now on his face. A moment
later he was falling to the ground bonelessly,  his eyes rolling back. Soun
stood motionless for a  moment also, the two halves of his former staff in
hand. He swayed a moment , and then he too collapsed to the floor in a heap.

Dan rushed toward the center of the floor to offer aid, asking,  "What
happened? What happened?"

Happosai was there as well, and Nabiki was rushing  to her father's side.
She heard herself call out, "Daddy!"

Genma quickly grabbed the rag and the bucket of ice that Kasumi had put in
the room just a little earlier. He dashed to the fallen pair and started
wetting the rag for use as a cold compress, "I don't know, I missed that
last exchange while I was exchange."

Akane made her way to Ranma saying,  "I saw it...Ranma struck , and Daddy
blocked it, but his staff broke. The strike went right through it and hit
him right on the head."

She fell to her knees beside Ranma, anguish clear on her face. Nabiki looked
at her sister and asked, "Great, but why's Ranma out too?"

Akane took the Rag from Genma, and ripped it in half. She used her part of
it to mop Ranma's head, it came away a deep crimson, "When Ranma hit Daddy,
h-his arm jerked.... ", tears sprang to her eyes and she didn't seem to even
notice them, "I, I think he hit Ranma on the side of the head...really
hard... with a piece of his s-s-staff.", she choked back what sounded like a
sob.

She looked down  at Ranmas unconscious form. She'd kneeled down and sat with
her legs tucked under her, and pulled his head into her lap. She blushed,
imagining how the scene looked, but applied the cool, wet, rag gently to
Ranma's head wound.

Nabiki looked at Happosai angrily, half expecting the little troll to be
smirking with amusement at her downed father. Instead, she found that the
old man's countenance was surprisingly gentle, and that he was feeling the
area where Ranma had struck with great care, and applying a cold compress to
Soun's head.

"Easy there Soun old boy, don't you worry about anything. Your master's
here, you'll be just fine. You've taken a lot worse from this old man. Just
lay there and take it easy for a while."

Soun's eyes fluttered open a little and focused on Happosai, he pulled back,
startled and a little fearful. Happosai gave him a harsh look and said,
"Stop moving around son. You took a nasty hit there. Just lay back and let
me take care of things." Nabiki looked at the old man with a vague sense of
growing horror. Kasumi had turned mean, Happosai was acting like he cared
about someone other than himself. She felt like she'd been dropped into a
sick, twisted parody of her life.

Nodaka, who'd stood frozen for the last few moments, suddenly bolted out of
the dojo, running past Kasumi who was just entering.

"Oh my, Auntie Nodaka, what's going on?"

She put her hand to her mouth, taking in the seen, "Oh My goodness!"

She turned a reproachful gaze on her youngest sister and said sternly,
"Akane Tendo! Really!...and after I just talked to you about doing things li
ke this-"

Akane turned on her sister, shouting angrily, "Damn it, Kasumi! That's not
fair. I didn't have anything to do with this...honest. Daddy and Ranma had a
training accident."

Genma nodded, re-wetting Soun's compress for Happosai, and wringing out the
one for Ranma.

"The life of a martial artist is fraught with danger.", he commented.

Dan chuckled sarcastically and said, "Apparantly it fraught with head trauma
too. Glad I judged 'unworthy'."

He stood up and turned to Ryoga, who stood off to one side of the training
area a surprised look on his face.

 "Ryoga, I'm going to go to that store I saw on the way here. The ice trays
were empty when I took a look in the kitchen earlier, maybe that store has
some ice I can buy. I think these two will be needing it soon."

Ryoga nodded, still looking surprised. Dan walked past Nabiki and muttered,
"Now I see why you send waiver in package. You people is nuts."

As Dan walked out Ranma's eyes fluttered open, "Oh man. Who?, Wha-?", Ranma
lifted a hand to his head and flinched as his hand touched his wound, "Aghh
my head. What happened?" He looked up, finding Akane looking down at him,
relief plain on her, upside down, face.

He closed his eyes and growled softly, "Okay tomboy, what'd you mallet me
for that time?"

She hit him on the chest with a fist and replied,"Daddy hit you, you jerk."
His eyes shot open and he said,"Wha? No Way! Yer pop'd never be able ta lay
a finger on me. Much less put me out like that." Ranma tried to sit up and
she promptly pushed him back down, making his head thump back down on her
thighs. She admonished him crossly,  "Stay still, you idiot. You've got a
head wound, and you're bleeding all over. Let me clean up the cut and see
how bad it is. We may need to get you to Doctor Tofu."

Ranma found that his brief attempt at rising had introduced him to a whole
new world of nausea. He decided that whatever he was leaning on felt nice
and soft, much more comfortable than getting up. Akane lay her hand on his
cheek and applied a little pressure, he turned his head as she indicated.
Akane murmured softly, "There, now just relax." She looked over at Kasumi
who still stood in the doorway nodding her approval at Akane's gentle but
firm behavior.
.
"Kasumi, could you get me something to clean Ranma's wound with, and some
antiseptic? I think I saw some hydrogen peroxide in the bathroom."

Kasumi nodded and left.

Ryoga walked over and picked up the pieces of Soun's staff, looking them
over, the ends showed a impact break, its edges, jagged with splinters. He
shook his head and muttered to himself, "This can't be right." Nabiki looked
back at her father and Ranma, they seemed to be being cared for well enough,
and she was curious about what Ryoga was doing.

"Hey, Sweet and sour!"

He looked at her coldly.

She smirked, "Fine, fine...Ryoga...what are you doing over there?"

He shrugged, tuning back to examining the staff ends and responded, "Looking
things over, Nabiki. Something about this doesn't add up."

Nabiki gave him a curious look, letting him continue.

"I was watching the whole thing. Ranma and Mr Tendo were doing the kata just
fine. They were focusing their ki even, and using it to magnify the force of
their strikes and blocks. But your father's staff, it just...broke... like
it was nothing more than a normal piece of wood...It was almost...", he
gestured vaguely, "almost like... I donno."

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he talked, "It's weird, I mean I watched
them, they were reinforcing the wood with their ki like normal, you know,
like what Kuno does with his bokken, or how Shampoo does with her big mace
things so she can use them easily. The staff should NOT have broken like
that."

Nabiki nodded in agreement, "Okay, I may not have practiced in years, but I
know the basics. Fine, but you look like there's something else you want to
say. So, spit it out already."

Ryoga shrugged, and picked up another piece of the broken staff before
responding, "Well, you see, I just don't get it. Sure Mr. Tendo hit him with
this.", she held up the stout maple rod as he continued, " Sure, it was a
hard hit, and Ranma probably wasn't ready for it. But it sure as hell
shouldn't have knocked him out like it did."

Nabiki blinked, and said in a subdued voice, "You're... you're right.", she
looked worried and it carried over to her voice, "I've seen Ranma smach face
first into concrete and not get knocked out. What in the world is going on
here?"

TBC

C&C welcome.. But please don't go on about characters being OOC... I am
fully aware of it. In fact the characters in the story even make comments
about it.  Be assured there is a reason. Stay tuned to find out what is
going on.


Just keep in mind, that as I said, "This story is not what you think it is."


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