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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
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Ranma 1/2 was created by Rumiko Takahashi and its characters belong to

her, and her alone. I'm just kinda borrowing them. The story below is

for entertainment purposes only, and not to be used commercially.

...Obviously.





"Learning Curve"

        Part V



by:   J. Wagner   (Mako)

jbw@wpi.edu





Thump, thump, thump.



Ryouga's eyes narrowed, and scanned to his left and right quickly.

Snorting, he realized he'd been hemmed in. Ranma was in front of him,

hands out, body tensed to strike. Things were bad. Ryouga's left foot

pivoted slightly, in preparation to move, but Ranma saw it and

compensated appropriately. Shifting a bit, Ryouga took a step towards

his opponent, shoulder low.



"Here!"



A flick of the wrist, and the ball was gone. A junior caught it, spun,

and moved down the court. Ryouga heard Ranma hiss in frustration, and

move to cover him as the two edged to the left. The boy dodged a cover

from another kid, and passed off to another boy who tried for a two

pointer. Ryouga saw, the moment that it was off, that the shot would

be wide.



"Damn it!" he faked to the right, to get in Ranma's way, but the

slightly faster pigtailed boy was headed for the ball, also knowing

that it would miss, and got past without missing a beat. Daisuke got

his hands on the ball, and instantly passed it off to Ranma.



"Here I come, pig boy!" Ranma charged in, and Ryouga moved to

intercept him before he could get halfway down the court. Ranma

stopped short, as he always did when faced with a virtual wall of

Hibiki, and jumped a bit, trying to get the three-pointer all the way

from where he was. Ryouga, however, had both hands up, and one of the

meaty palms got in the way of the shot, forcing Ranma to fall

earthward, ball in hand, and unable to keep moving.



"You were saying something, transvestite?" Ryouga made a quick lunge

for the ball, and Ranma leaned back, avoiding it.



"Shut up, piglet!"



"Watch Hiroshi!" Ryouga yelled, and hopped someone was on Ranma's

classmate. Everyone knew Hiroshi was Ranma's favorite carrier in

basketball, because while he couldn't shoot worth a damn, Hiroshi was

fast, and had a good eye for passing around the ball.



"I'm on it!" a voice from behind confirmed it. Ryouga focused on

Ranma, and smiled. Any second now...



"Geez," Ranma bounced the ball low, in the direction of Hiroshi.

Ryouga looked over his shoulder, saw the kid who should have been

covering Hiroshi miss the ball, leaving Hiroshi open to get it and

head down the court.



Ranma bolted, but Ryouga stuck with him, keeping him covered. Hiroshi

paused near the net, as another older boy came to try and block any

attempt at a three pointer. As was to be expected, Hiroshi hesitated,

and checked to see if Ranma was open. Ducking a bit, and breathing

heavily, Hiroshi waited, before passing it off to the team captain.



"Snatch!" Ryouga's right hand found the ball's surface an instant

before Ranma's, and the larger boy spun out as Ranma reached for it,

keeping his hand low and heading down the court.



"Somebody cover him, damn it!" Ranma headed off himself, but Ryouga

had a head start on him. There was no way he'd catch up in time unless

someone got in Ryouga's way.



"Oh... shit!!" Daisuke's eyes widened, and he jumped out of the way as

Ryouga steamrolled past him without stopping, flexed his feet, and

took to the air. The net shook like a leaf, and the ball hit the

ground hard and bounced off to the side. Ryouga landed, saw Ranma, and

smiled broadly, flashing his canines. Fist raised, he went over to the

other juniors and they exchanged high fives.



A few of them, the faces he recognized, patted him on the back. Actual

words of praise reached his ears, and Ryouga carefully sorted through

the voices for hints of sarcasm or hidden intent. He'd been 'guest'

attending Furinkan for weeks now, getting to know people, and going to

some of the classes. He'd placed well in the tests they'd given him,

but his 'at home' education hadn't covered all the little nuances, and

it had been recommended that he take a senior year of classes. He'd

come close to waving the whole thing off, but...



Ryouga looked off to the side, and saw Nabiki and a few of her

friends, in their gym clothes, watching the game. He'd been

apprehensive about attending high school at all, even if for only a

year, but she'd talked him into it. A little too easily, really. As he

thought, she caught him looking in her direction and gave a little

wave. Blushing, Ryouga bit his lip and turned back to the tip off and

the game.



It hadn't been as bad as he thought it would be, to be perfectly

honest. His memories of junior high were nightmarish -vicious,

annoying brats, incessant teasing, and no incentive to even attend.

And though he suspected people still snickered and joked about his

directional challenges, it was less hateful and more ...light hearted.

He'd focused and started taking it in stride, instead of exploding and

making a scene. It'd been difficult at first, when he'd started

hearing them, but his experiences with Nabiki, and that she underwent

something similar (apparently lots of people did - who knew?) was the

greatest help he could ask for.



Besides, he was a year ahead of Ranma.



Smirking, Ryouga got in the pigtailed boy's face, forcing Ranma to try

and side step, throwing off his pattern down the court. Though he

hadn't gotten into a real fight with Ranma since... since before he

moved in with the Tendos, and he had largely given up trying to kill

(or maim) his former enemy turned rival, he still derived a great deal

of pleasure from making him miserable, and destroying at least little

bits of his happiness.



Attending Furinkan and giving Saotome a little friendly rivalry in the

one field he was good at: physical education, was almost as

entertaining as trying to pound him into an unrecognizable red blob.

Basketball, Soccer, Track... the only sport he shied away from was

Crew, for obvious reasons. After gym, he attended some of Nabiki's

classes, mostly math and science. He used to go to English class, and

the one on Chinese, but after falling asleep listening to stuff he

already knew inside out, he got thrown out. It didn't really matter -

he didn't have to take those classes when school started next year

anyway.



As Daisuke made an easy two pointer, Ryouga growled, and shook his

head. Unfortunately, all the best male athletes were in the Kendo

Club, thanks to Kuno and his Clan, and while that generally wasn't

saying much, it made a big difference in a team game like basketball.

He couldn't carry the whole group himself, not with Ranma and his

cadre of buddies against him. It was something he'd have to work

towards remedying in the future.



Especially with money being placed on the outcome.



Strange that Kuno had been absent for so long, though.



"They're both so good. I don't know who to root for."



"Who'd you bet on?"



"Ranma's team by a six point spread."



"Better cheer for pigtails, then," Nabiki interrupted the two girls,

all smiles, "88 - 90. Too close for the spread to pay off."



"We all know who you placed your money on," one of the girls, with

long light brown hair, nudged Nabiki and gave her a conspiratorial

wink.



"Do you?" Nabiki's smile didn't fade.



"You and Akane are so lucky. All the good guys just fall into your

hands," the other girl with short, slightly wavy hair put in.



"You mean Akane's hands," Nabiki corrected her, while keeping an eye

on the game, "You don't see half the student body attacking me in the

morning."



"Or buying pictures of me," Nabiki's mind added.



"With Ryouga around? They'd have to have a death wish," the longhaired

girl, Yuka, if Nabiki remembered correctly, giggled. Nabiki found it

annoying. She knew this girl, in a way. She was one of Akane's

friends, and she was on the mental list of those who propagated the

myth of the Ice Queen Nabiki Tendo. A minor legend that had only

recently began to thaw. And while Nabiki had never outright done

anything to dispute her reputation, because of its beneficial, if

wrongful, nature, she had always secretly hated it.



Three years ago, when she was a Freshman, trying to make a name for

herself, and, she admitted it, trying to get another student named

Tatewaki Kuno to recognize her from all the other nameless girls that

came in from junior high, she had been quite the opposite. An athlete,

an excellent student, and even a tutor - it had lasted for a year,

before Akane arrived on the scene, and everything went downhill. It

became like home, and she became the 'other' Tendo girl.



The thought made her grimace, but Nabiki swallowed her pride, and hid

her thoughts. She couldn't really blame her little sister. Akane

wasn't doing it on purpose, and while she liked being in the

spotlight, she never asked for a lot of what happened to her. She was

far too clueless and lacking in common sense to have been behind any

sort of scheme to throw her older sister into the social backburner,

anyway.



Back in the game, Nabiki saw Ryouga make a quick three pointer, taking

the lead by one. Checking the school clock, she frowned - time for one

last play. Contrary to what Yuka thought, she hadn't bet on the game

at all. It was impossible to predict which was it would turn out, only

that it would almost certainly be a close game. Which meant that all

the idiots who put money on one team far outscoring the other would

default to her. That, combined with her normal cut of the proceeds,

would be a good day's pickings.



On the court, Ranma broke past Ryouga, and in a remarkable display of

not being a ball hog, passed off to one of the younger Freshmen on the

lower classman team, who made an easy under the net shot, that ended

the game. Predictably, Ranma went up to Hibiki to gloat, and the two

started snarling and tossing threats at each other. They hadn't really

exchanged blows, aside from their 'sparring' sessions, in weeks, and

after a few rounds, broke off and walked in different directions.



Nabiki caught up to Ryouga before he wandered off and left the school

grounds. She took his arm, and turned him around. He smiled weakly,

and looked down at her, laughing nervously, "Um... thanks, Nabi-chan."





"I'm buying a leash for you one of these days, Ryo-kun."



"Not again..."



"I mean it this time. A chain one, too, so you won't be able to

accidentally 'break' it like you did that last one."



He shrugged, "You'll never..."



"I'm sure Mousse could make one strong enough."



Ryouga snorted in dismissal, "He wishes."



"Oh, don't be so huffy," Nabiki reached into her purse and took out a

wad of bills, held in a silver clip, "I cleaned up today!"



"You cleaned up? Ah... you mean we cleaned up," he reached for the

yen, but Nabiki dangled it a little out of reach.



"Ah ah  ah... the magic word?"



"Oh," Ryouga scratched his chin idly, "Let's see... is it... 'Hey!'"



"What?" Nabiki blinked, and found the stack of money half gone, "Hey!"



"That's what I said," Ryouga thumbed through the money, "Not bad."



"Ryo-kun! How could you?" she looked up at him, eyes growing watery.

He wavered for a heartbeat, before handing the yen over.



"Geez."



"You really are a softie, Ryo-kun," she gave him a quick peck on the

cheek, and he turned beet red.



"Nabiki! Not in public!" he shrugged into his shoulders, the color

slowly fading from his cheeks. He followed her briskly to the entrance

to the school, "Nabi-chan! We're still on for tonight, right?"



"Yeah," she checked her watch, and turned around. It was starting to

get late, "Why?"



"I dunno... just ...a bad feeling."



***



Ranma Saotome was less than amused.



"What does this stuff always happen to me? Dumb old man. This is all

his fault," the younger Saotome rubbed the rapidly healing bump on his

upper lip. Why had the stupid spirit panda gotten obsessed with him,

of all people? If Genma hadn't stolen his octopus balls then none of

this evening's exercise in idiocy would have happened. Then again,

when wasn't it Genma's fault?



It was bad enough as it was, virtually an entire night wasted on a

date with the... thing, just to get rid of it, without Akane getting

mad and hitting him, and Ryouga laughing his piggy ass off. He'd hoped

he could just enjoy the fair, maybe... maybe spend some time with

Akane without everyone looking over his shoulder and either urging him

on, or trying to 'smite' him, but no: of course, the universe

conspired to ruin things.



Pulling off his shirt, and tossing it into the nearby hamper, Ranma

looked in the mirror, and at the bump below his nose: a goodnight

kiss/headbutt from the evil spirit-panda before it had gone back into

the cursed scroll it came from. Near the end, when it looked like the

panda was going to kiss him, actually kiss him on the lips, and he had

frozen up, Akane had yelled...



"This night was... priceless. Simply priceless."



"Shut up, porkchop!" Ranma kicked off the last of his clothes, and

turned on the shower, letting it run through his thick hair.



"Don't be mad, cross dresser. I'm just pointing out what a nice night

it was watching you try and French kiss a bad drawing."



"Shut your hole, Bacon breath!"



"She-male!"



"Pig fetish!"



"Oh, that's a new one," Ryouga frowned as Ranma turned off the shower,

and relaxed in the furo, the steam turning him male before his ankles

even got below the surface, "Hey, did I say I wanted your Sideshow

Freak self in the same bath as me?"



"Hey, and I don't want to end up smelling like pork products!"



"Why you... the stage entrance is in the back, bearded lady."



"Bearded lady?"



"Damn," Ryouga sighed, "That didn't work, did it? Ok, you win this

round, I guess."



"Eh," Ranma yawned, "At least you didn't call me a 'villainous

sorcerer.' I hate that."



"More than being called a She-male?"



Ranma growled.



"I didn't think so."



"Why do you call me that, anyway," Ranma's hand uncurled from the fist

it had been in, "I'm a guy, damn it!"



"And I'm not a pig. What's your point?"



Ranma frowned, "Just... don't call me that."



"What? She-male, transvestite, cross dresser, pervert, freak show...?"



"All of them!"



"Nah," Ryouga smirked, cruelly, "I like calling you those things. I'd

consider stopping, if you did the same, but I don't think you could go

a day without calling me something insulting."



"You're such an asshole."



"And you're most comfortable in ladies' underwear."



"Look... Ryouga, I'm really not in the mood for this right now," Ranma

held up his hands, "Can't I just sit here and enjoy the water? In

silence?"



"Whatever," Ryouga raised his hands and rested them behind his head,

looking up at the ceiling. The two sat there, in total quiet, for all

of a minute.



"So..." Ranma started.



"So..." Ryouga mimicked, "Wait, did you actually kiss that drawing? We

left after you and it stood there for five minutes without moving."



"After half an hour it head butted me, so I ended up kissing it on the

forehead."



Ryouga smiled, and Ranma noticed it wasn't the normal cruel smile he

used when the two talked, or did anything together, "Akane must've

been relieved."



"Why would that tomboy...?"



"Don't pull that crap with me, Saotome. Save it for school. ...Save it

for Shampoo," Ryouga didn't hide the anger in his voice at that last

part, "You're digging your own grave, you know."



"I don't know what you're talking about."



"Sure you don't. So you didn't kiss the ...whatever it was?"



"Nah. Not really," Ranma cracked a grin, and pointed at the lost boy's

face, "Did you know that you've got red smudges on your face?"



"Er," Ryouga quickly dipped his head into the water, and started

vigorously rubbing his cheeks and the side of his mouth.



"Yeah. You and Nabiki must've loved that movie you went to."



Ryouga laughed nervously, as he tended to do when thinking about those

kinds of things in front of other people, "It... it was ...dark."



"Must've been."



Ryouga bit his lower lip.



"Looks like she's a real dynamo," Ranma chuckled, "Did you see any of

the movie?"



"How dare you, Saotome! Making such statements..."



"Oh, right. Ryouga the perfect gentleman," Ranma rolled his eyes, "I

hate it when Akane calls you that."



"I hate it when anyone calls you that," Ranma too quickly amended.



"You've got real interpersonal problems, you know that, Saotome? I

mean, I've spend my life wandering around Japan aimlessly, but

sometimes you're more lost than I'll ever be."



"Hey!"



"Lemme tell you a story, Saotome," Ryouga tapped his finger on the

side of the furo while Ranma rolled his eyes.



"A story?" Ranma began, "How is a story supposed to...?"



"Just listen. Now, long ago, in Britain, a young King Arthur was..."



"King Arthur?"



"Yes! King Arthur. Haven't you ever heard of...?" Ryouga arched an

eyebrow at Ranma's blank expression, "Look, he was a mythical king,

ok? A great king and warrior."



"Ok."



 "Anyway, he was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a

neighboring kingdom..."



"Why didn't he fight his way out?"



"The monarch could have killed him," Ryouga continued, ignoring the

question, "But was moved by Arthur's youth and ideals. So he offered

him freedom, if he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur

would have a year to find the answer. Then if he still had no answer,

he would be put to death."



"Sounds fair."



"Shut up and listen!" Ryouga took a deep, calming breath and counted

to ten, "The question was: What do women really want?"



"Here we go..."



"...Arthur returned to his kingdom and polled everybody: the princess,

the prostitutes, the priests, the wise men, the court jester. He spoke

with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer. Many

people advised him to consult 'the old woman;' only she would know the

answer. But the price would be high, for she was famous throughout the

kingdom for her exorbitant prices."



"Sounds like Cologne."



"...On the last day of the year, Arthur had no alternative but to talk

to 'the old woman.' She agreed to answer his question, but he'd have

to accept her price first: she wanted to marry Gawain, the most noble

of the Knights of the Round Table and Arthur's closest friend. Arthur

was horrified: She was hunch-backed and hideous, had only one tooth,

smelled like sewage, made obscene noises... the works. He had never

encountered such a nasty, repugnant creature."



"At least she wasn't a tomboy... OW!"



"He refused to force his friend to marry her," Ryouga drew back his

elbow from Ranma's face, "Gawain, upon learning of the proposal, told

Arthur that no sacrifice was too great to save Arthur's life and the

preserve the Round Table. Hence, their wedding was proclaimed, and the

old woman answered Arthur's question thus:"



"What a woman really wants is to be in charge of her own life," Ryouga

spoke sagely, and for once, Ranma didn't interrupt, "Everyone

instantly knew that the old woman had uttered a great truth and that

Arthur's life would be spared. And so it was. The neighboring monarch

granted Arthur total freedom. Finally, came the day of the wedding,

and what a wedding Gawain and the old woman had! Arthur was torn

between relief and anguish. Gawain was proper as always, gentle and

courteous. The old woman put her worst manners on display, and

generally made everyone very uncomfortable. The hour approached.

Gawain, steeling himself for a horrific experience, entered the

bedroom. But what a sight awaited him! The most beautiful woman he'd

ever seen lay before him!"



"What?"



"The astounded Gawain asked what had happened. The beauty replied that

since he had been so kind to her when she'd appeared as 'the old

woman,' she would henceforth be her horrible, deformed self half the

time, and the other half, she would be her beautiful maiden self. She

then asked him: which would he want her to be during the day, and

which during the night?"



Ranma leaned back in the furo, thinking.



"What a cruel question! Gawain pondered his predicament. During the

day: a beautiful woman to show off to his friends, but at night, in

the privacy of his home, 'the old woman'? Or would he prefer having by

day 'the old woman,' but by night a beautiful woman with whom to enjoy

many intimate moments?" Ryouga paused, "Well, Saotome. Can you guess

what Gawain said?"



Ranma ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his head,

"He... I don't know. No clue."



"Gawain replied that he would let her choose for herself," Ryouga

nodded to himself, "And upon hearing this, she announced that she

would be beautiful all the time, because he had respected her enough

to let her be in charge of her own life. The End."



Ranma said nothing.



"Think about the story, Ranma," Ryouga got out of the furo, "I didn't

tell you it for no reason."



As Ryouga dried his hair with a large yellow towel (he called it

'mustard' colored), Ranma thought about the story. The more he thought

about it, the more he was convinced that he would have told the woman

to be beautiful; he wouldn't have even thought about allowing her to

decide for herself, even after hearing the moral of the story just

seconds before. He hardly even noticed when wrapped the towel around

his wait and headed for the door.



"Wait!"



"Yeah?" Ryouga's voice didn't seem that patient.



"Why do you hate me, Ryouga?"



The lost boy seemed a bit surprised by the question, "I don't hate

you... not anymore, Saotome. You just test me sometimes... you don't

know when to stop pushing people until they're already off the cliff."



"Yeah... I... I know," Ranma looked away, at the fogged up window.



"And you did Curse me. Let's not forget that."



"You're the one who followed me to China."



"Oh please," Ryouga shook his head, "That could have been anyone

standing there that day. It could have been some villager, minding his

own business. You could've killed somebody, and you wouldn't even have

known."



"I... I didn't mean to!"



"Doesn't change facts. Sure... I was late to our duel..."



"Four days late."



"But you knew about my directional problem. You sure said so enough

when we fought back then... you knew, and you still left with your

father."



"You didn't have to follow us!"



"You don't get it Saotome," Ryouga sighed, "...I did. I did have to

follow you... you were my enemy- you were my goal. This sounds stupid,

but I really don't think I had anything better to do with my life."



"Geez," Ranma rubbed his upper lip protectively, "Look, I'm sorry

'bout knocking you into the pool, ok?"



"I know you are. If you weren't..." Ryouga didn't feel the need to go

there in any more detail. Instead, he 'hmfed' and left without another

word. Ranma sat in the furo, alone, and thought.





***



    "Ok. Here's one," Mousse poked the fire with one of his swords,

before twirling it in his palm and burying it into the soft ground,

"What do you call a room with fifty prostitutes, and fifty

politicians?"



    "Oh brother... what?"



    "A hundred people who don't do dick! HA!"



    "Geez!" Ukyou shook her head, "That was bad. Ok... I concede

defeat."



    "Victory!"



    "Don't let it go to your head or anything. By tomorrow, I'll have

something much worse than that thought up," Ukyou looked into the pot

that was warming over the flames, "Looks done."



    "Excellent," Mousse started spooning out the trail soup. It was

warm, and while many orders of magnitude better than Akane's cooking,

and far from the worst thing Mousse had made in their little trip,

both silently knew that they looked forward to the days when it was

Ukyou's turn to make the food.



    "How far are we from Jyusenkyou, do you think?" Ukyou broached,

like she did every day.



    "Well, we're defiantly in the Baiyankara Range. Nekonron should be

around here somewhere... they kind of skirt the edges of the

Jyusenkyou area, but travel around a lot. I wouldn't mind stopping by

there to see the place for myself, but they're not particularly

friendly to Joketsuzoku now a days."



    "No one seems to be very friendly to Joketsuzoku around here."



    "It's the Elders. They insist on fighting the Musk whenever they

show up, they provoke the Phoenix Tribe, and they bully the Shichi

Fukudoujin," Mousse rolled his eyes and sighed, "One of these days,

they're going to bite off more than they can chew. I think they

already did with Saotome. Trying to get that guy to commit to anything

is like moving a mountain."



    "I still can't believe that he and Ryouga-kun got drunk back at

that stupid race. Or that I had to drag you in the right direction...

honestly, someone needs to glue those glasses onto your face, sugar."



    "Those trees looked just like the goal post! Identical! Down to

the smallest detail!"



    "You're hopeless," she patted him on the shoulder, and started

eating. He came close to flinching at the statement, but gave her a

small smile instead. She hadn't meant it, of course, but the jibe hit

close to home. He took a tentative sip of the soup, before consigning

it to being a little too hot. As he stirred the contents of the bowl

slowly, his eyes caught sight of a tall Chinese oak, and remembered.



    It had been years ago.



    Mu Tzu had strained his small body to its limit, reaching on

tiptoe for the next branch. His fingertips just brushed it, only

inches out of reach. High above, tauntingly, the highest branches of

the tree danced in a sudden spring breeze, tantalizing him with brief

glances of the sky beyond. On the bridge of his nose, his glasses

almost slipped, and he had to draw back his hand to steady them on his

face.



    He steadied himself and looked down - the ground seemed unusually

far away. He knew he should be happy that he'd gotten this far; most

boys his age certainly wouldn't have been able to double his feat, and

only a few girls of the Joketsuzoku of the same generation. After all,

two branches down, a climber had to swing carefully around the trunk,

moving from one side of the tree almost to the other.



    But this limb, he just couldn't reach, and the trunk was too thick

to possible shimmy up to a better position. Mousse was foiled, and he

knew it. He'd simply have to wait until he grew taller, if he ever

did. The alternative was...



    To jump for it.



    The branch was thick, and he'd have to jump pretty high, but if he

could snag it, he might be able to pull himself up. And if he missed,

he'd defiantly fall. He was still staring up at the branch, trying to

decide where to go next, when he heard the voices from below start up

again.



    "Mu! Hey, Mu! Come down! Were going to play Amazons and Musk!"



    Why were they bothering him? Couldn't they see that he was busy?



    "Come on, Mu!"



    "Hold on!" Mousse called out and looked down reluctantly. Six boys

from his generation, three of them his year-brothers, and three girls

all stood below. Way below, Mousse amended that. He suddenly started

to feel more than a little dizzy, and he quickly adjusted his glasses

again to keep them from falling.



    "Give it up, Mu Tzu!" it was the group's unofficial leader, Tso

Pu, "Even I can't reach that one!"



    Unlike Mousse, Soap was seven years old, a year older than himself

and most of the other children, but Soap was about a solid head taller

than the boy. And everyone liked Tso Pu, and not just because she was

female and strong.



    "Yeah, come on, Mousse! Before you hurt yourself."



    That was Shan Pu, Tso's sister by one less year. Shan was his

height, and age, and Mousse secretly - very secretly - admired her

purple hair and dark brown eyes. He liked the way she laughed, when

she wasn't laughing at him.



    "Oooh, Shan is worried about poor blind Mu Tzu!" another girl

called out, her voice mocking.



    "No I'm not!" Shampoo yelled, too quickly.



    He turned his face to the bark so they wouldn't see his angry and

embarrassed blush. Frowning, he turned back to the branch, and jumped

as hard as he could. That would show them.



All of them.



He managed to get his arms around the branch, as the crowd of children

turned deathly quiet down below. Scrambling for a hold, Mousse

realized his timing was off, and that his fingers had never quite met

up around the thick branch. There was nothing to grab onto, and only

pressure and his nails on the bark kept him in place. But it was

pressure he couldn't keep up for long.



He looked down, and that was worse. He was hanging above and off to

the side of the limb he had been standing on. If he freefell, he'd

have no chance of landing on it - he'd have to fall the whole way

down, and probably break something. On the positive side of things, at

least he's shut up the others. Only a moment seemed to pass, and then

a voice spoke up.



"Mu Tzu, you stupid male, hold on! I'm coming up to get you!"



Tso Pu.



She was trying to play hero. The taller girl was already climbing up

the tree.



"No," Mousse thought, desperately, "No way! I don't need to be saved

by a girl! I may be male, but I'm not helpless!"



With a snort, Mousse swung himself and dropped. The children below

gasped like a crowd watching a circus performer as he hit the next

branch, feet first, and teetered there for a long, terrible moment,

before finding his balance. He may have been male, and too young to

start formal martial arts training (even if he had been a girl), but

he had watched countless fights, and practiced by himself whenever he

could. He stood there, fighting the urge to hug the branch and

breathing harder than he ever remembered. Below, he sensed a restless

pause.



"Wow."



He peered down. That had been one of the girls. Shampoo? He wasn't

sure.



"You were lucky," Tso yelled up, after letting go of the tree and

landing on her feet near the others, "You should have waited for me to

help you. You shouldn't even be trying to climb by yourself. We're

supposed to play together! Will you come down now?"



Mousse bit back an urge to dare Tso Pu to duplicate his feat. It

would be great if Tso tried and failed, but what if she managed it? Or

did better? Right now, at least somebody was impressed by Mu Tzu...

and a girl somebody, at that!



"Okay," he called down, "But I don't want to be Musk this time!"



He started the descent. He had played Amazon and Musk many times,

and like all boys, he had to play as the Musk raider, or warrior, or

slaver, or whatever name the girls wanted to call them. It wasn't just

the monotony of the part, but its dullness and the fact that it

offered no real challenges or incentives. Carefully, he jumped the

last few feet and landed on the soft ground, facing the others.



"You get to be Musk, 'Moo,'" Plun said, and smiled. Plun was an

ugly girl, with the face of a bat, minus its good features.



"I said I didn't want to be Musk," Mousse repeated, keeping his

voice level.



"We voted, Moo," she called him that stupid nickname again, and he

started to fume, "We voted, and you have to be Musk."



"Yeah. It was a fair vote," Shan Pu added in, meaning, of course,

that the girls had decided it without asking him or any of the other

boys. The tone in her voice was clear - so she didn't like him. His

momentary elation faded, but his stubbornness remained.



"I didn't get to vote!" he blurted out, without really thinking.



"If you really want to then," Tso Pu addressed the other girls,

"All in favor of Mu Tzu being Musk."



All the girl's hands went up. ...Of course.



"All opposed?"



Mousse raised his hand defiantly. The other boys simply looked away.

They were clearly too afraid or just too whipped to speak up. Mousse

silently cursed them.



"I was Musk the last time! All of us were!" he swept his hand out,

indicating the other boys, "We're always the Musk!"



"But you're just sooo good at it, Moo. You'll probably grow up to be

one, I'll bet."



"You take that back, Plun. You take that back right now!" anger boiled

through Mousse's veins so fast, it felt like his scalp would pop off.

Plun hesitated. Mousse realized his voice had come out calmly, not

like he was mad at all, the way Elder Cologne's voice came out when

she was really angry. It had a similar effect, too, freezing the other

girl in her tracks. He made a note to remember that in future dealings

with Pun - she was, basically, a coward and a bully, unless someone

stronger came in and gave her some courage to latch onto.



"That's enough, Plun. You shouldn't say things like that," Tso Pu

finally spoke.



"I'm... sorry," Plun mumbled reluctantly, "What I meant was that

you're good at playing one of them. Because you're male, and you run

fast and stuff."



"I tell you what. I'll be a Musk, too," Tso didn't stop when the other

girls seemed about to interrupt, "Just to show everyone that the roles

aren't set in stone. Okay, Mu Tzu?"



Mousse blinked at the older girl. What was... then it hit him. She

hadn't saved him in the tree, so she would save him now. How typical

of her.



"Fine," he said, having no choice at all.



"Hey, Mousse," Ukyou nudged him, and Mousse quickly returned to the

present, "Your soup is getting cold."



"Oh. Thanks, Ukyou," he looked from her to the tree, to the horizon.

With his free hand, he slid his thick glasses up and onto his

forehead. The stars were just beginning to come out, now that the sun

was gone, but Mousse didn't really want to see them.





***



"Kasumi! Kasumi?! ...Damn it," Ryouga stood on his tiptoes, and looked

over the heads of the crowded market. He'd turned around for a second,

after finding some chocolates Nabiki probably would've loved, and

she'd just disappeared. Box of chocolates in-hand, he'd been about to

wander around a bit trying to find her, when he'd thought the better

of it, and decided to stay put, hoping that Kasumi would double back

and find him.



That had been ten minutes ago.



Looking up from his watch, Ryouga groaned in annoyance. Why did this

kind of thing always happen? He was tempted to blame it on Ranma, just

for the hell of it, but even this predicament was a little 'out there'

in respects to the pigtailed boy. Besides, he'd been trying to kick

that habit of blaming Ranma for everything. While Saotome was

responsible for the greater bulk of the things that haunted his life

with pain and torment, that still left a good ten or fifteen percent

that he wasn't involved in.



"Come on, Kasumi. Where are you?" Ryouga looked around again in vain,

before leaning back against the side of the stand and closing his

eyes.



"Charlotte!!!"



"Oh no," Ryouga's eyes snapped open, "Oh no!!"



"Charlotte! It really is you! Come to Azusa, Charlotte!"



"Woah, hold on there, lady," Ryouga held out his hand, stopping the

charging Azusa Shiratori short of glomping onto him. She blinked large

brown eyes at him in what seemed to the lost boy to be confusion. She

was wearing a fairly typical looking and overly frilly white skating

dress and a white bow - a change from her normal pink, if he

remembered correctly. She was also, of course, in skates of a sort:

roller blades.



"My name is Hibiki Ryouga, first of all..."



"You'll always be my 'little Charlotte' to me!" With surprising

strength, Azusa pushed his arm aside, and caught him with a full on

squeeze - Ryouga gasped for air. He reprimanded himself; he had

forgotten just how strong the martial arts skater was. Ryouga let out

a deep sigh, and using a fair amount of the more-than-formidable

strength at his disposal, broke out of the hug.



"Listen here, Azusa... Don't do that to me in public, alright?" he

slipped out from her grasp, and took a few steps back and away.



"I guess Azusa will just have to take you home then!" she giggled

vacantly and lunged again, but Ryouga twisted, and she ended up

squeezing a wooden stand holding up a sign.



The sign promptly broke in half.



"You know what I meant!"



"No I didn't," Azusa let go of the remains of the sign, her lower lip

trembling, "Please don't yell at little Azusa..."



"I'm sorry, geez," Ryouga groaned inwardly, "Its just... wait just a

second, Azusa..."



"Now," Azusa slid forward gracefully, her roller blades remarkably

stable in holding her upright, and from out of nowhere pulled out a

small collar with a little pink heart on it. Ryouga recognized it

instantly, and broke out into a nervous sweat, "You'll be coming with

Azusa, Charlotte. One way or another."



Ryouga's brow furrowed, and he slid a foot forward, bringing his arms

to his sides, "Stay back woman... or I'll use my Final Attack!"



"Final Attack?"



"YAAH!" Ryouga faked a lunge, causing Azusa to stumble a bit in

hesitation, and then the lost boy simply turned and ran. Azusa was on

skates, and anyone familiar with her particular brand of martial arts

wouldn't underestimate her speed or agility on them, but when a Hibiki

wanted to move, heaven help anything in his way or those trying to

catch him. Give a Hibiki a day, and he may not even be in the same

time zone.



It was only when that thought set in that Ryouga stopped and looked

around.



"Well this is just... Wonderful. Just wonderful."



Lost.



Lost as usual.



"This is all Azusa's fault. What was she doing? What was she

thinking?! Shouldn't all the crazy people be after Ranma? Huh? Huh?!"



In another state of mind, most people probably would have realized

that talking to oneself wasn't the most normal, or productive, thing

to do at the moment, but that state of mind was just as lost as the

lost boy was. Walking in the usual arbitrary direction, Ryouga drooped

his head in defeat.



"That's it. Don't say anything," No sooner had the words left his

mouth then an ominous thunder came from the south. Looking upwards, he

confirmed it. A storm, which meant rain, and while a little rain

probably wouldn't be enough to make him transform, not after using

Jyusenkyou waterproof soap as religiously as he did over the last two

weeks, which had been amazingly buta-free, but it would get him wet.

And getting wet was both an unpleasant experience, and an

uncomfortable one - too many memories he'd rather not have in the

first place. And if it turned into a downpour, and he got careless, he

could very well end up as a walking side order of bacon.



Ryouga took out his umbrella, tested it, and nodded to himself in

obvious relief. It was reinforced through steady ki infusion, and more

than sturdy. This particular one, Umbrella #6, he'd nicknamed

'Natasha' after a nice girl he'd met when he'd wandered through

Russia, months ago. While naming his weapon was a little secret he

wasn't about to tell anyone (they wouldn't understand the affection a

Hibiki feels for his weapon of choice) Ryouga felt very conventional

about it. He only named one of them if they lasted for more than two

months of steady use, and he had a lot of hard work and effort

invested in 'Natasha.'



Looking around, his eyes searched out for some kind of landmark that

could identify his present and unknown geographical location. There

were the signs, of course, but the street names may as well have been

in Hebrew, a language he always swore to get around to learning, just

for the hell of it, for all the good they did him. Luckily, he had one

of his backup packs with him, so he'd be prepared for the next few

weeks of mindless wandering. Then something caught his eye, or to be

more exact, someone caught his eye.



"Excuse me, sir," he approached the vendor, and gave him a small

smile.



"Yeah, kid?" the man looked down from the paper he was reading, "You

want to buy something?"



"Um... sure," he picked out a copy of the Tokyo Herald, and put down

the money for it - there was an interesting article on a recent surge

in wild animal attacks, "I was also wondering where I was."



"You lost?"



"Yeah, something like that."



"You're in Nerima ward, kid. ...Tokyo," the middle aged man went back

to his reading. Ryouga took the paper and headed off, a smirk on his

lips. Nerima! He hadn't wandered off too far, then. All he had to do

was take it slow and carefully, and sooner or later; he'd run across

someone who could take him to the Tendo Dojo.



"Then again," he looked up, at a nearby roof, and jumped. A distance

of thirty feet wasn't a problem, and a tiny application of ki to his

leg muscles more than gave him the power for it. He held his arms wide

for balance, and landed softly on the roof. Walking up to its highest

point, at the crest that ran down the middle of the top of the house,

he looked out, hoping to spot the Tendo yard or house.



It wasn't in sight, but he did make out part of Furinkan High, which

was a start. Jumping easily from roof to roof, Ryouga felt fairly

confidant that he'd be able to make it back home in time for dinner,

provided Kasumi didn't herself wander around looking for him. At the

thought, Ryouga stopped in mid jump, and went over that again in his

head: since when had the Tendo place been his 'home?' His home was the

Hibiki house, nearby, but out of practical reach for the time being.



"Damn it," he licked his lips, and pondered that. He wasn't really

heading home; he was going back to mooching off the Tendos.

Additionally, he had been in one place for a long time - he hadn't

really felt the soft ground under his feet for a long time. True, it

had only been a few months, but to Ryouga Hibiki, months without

wandering off and getting well and truly lost in a forest or mountain

range of some sort or another... it was both a miracle and a very

unusual feeling. Did he really miss the wandering?



He could just walk off, in some random direction, and come back later,

and at that thought, that impulse, he almost did. The wanderlust was

well known among all those with Hibiki blood. Even those only slightly

related to the line, Ryouga knew of cousins and second cousins he had

all over the world, had an unexplainable urge to see the world and

keep moving. He'd always thought of himself as a shark of sorts,

moving from place to place, eating what he wanted, doing what he

wanted, never really... grounded. Never chained down.



"Geez," he looked from the Furinkan clock tower to the horizon, and

something deep inside wanted to head for the horizon. ...If only for a

few weeks.



"No," he finally decided. He would have the common decency; at least,

to tell them he was going off on a quick mountain training trip.

Nabiki would be annoyed, he suspected, and she really had every right

to be. He was, from a certain point of view, running away from her,

and from 'them.'



He remembered, instantly, that first time she'd gotten to him. He'd

expected it, yes, but he'd also feared it. It was their second date,

and they'd walked in the backyard afterwards. He'd been sulking a bit,

and looking down at the koi in the pond, when, pretty much out of the

blue, she had called his name, and smiled mysteriously. Before even he

could react, she'd literally bounced up and into his arms, and when

she darted her face forward, a few stray strands of hair had come

between them. Without even thinking, he'd reached up, and brushed them

aside, and she'd seemed to materialize into crystal clarity in front

of him. She seized the initiative, and kissed him.



He'd passed out seconds later, and fallen into the pond, but the

feeling still lingered, even now. He had to see her again, tell her

that he wasn't leaving, just... just getting some fresh air. And if

she insisted that he stay, well, he would. She was the most important

thing in his life, without a doubt, but he knew she'd understand.



She always did.



Ryouga's thought instantly changed, and acting on a level usually

reserved for instinct, his umbrella moved, like a blur, and a hard

'splash' sounded on the other side. Dripping cold water, the umbrella

slowly lowered. Ryouga's mouth moved from impartial, to scowling, as

he stared at the cloaked man, who descended from above, empty bucket

in hand. The man's cloak, unlike the parkas Ryouga himself

occasionally wore, concealed him almost completely from view, but

underneath the dark hood, the lost boy was sure this man was smiling.



The two stood, in silence, for several seconds, when Ryouga felt a

drop of cool rainwater land on his left cheek. Raising his umbrella,

silently, he watched this man carefully. He seemed calm, and relaxed,

even as he faced the lost boy down, and he seemed to largely ignore

the rain even as it turned from sprinkle to downpour in typical Nerima

fashion.



"Do you know," Ryouga began, "That you attack Ryouga Hibiki?"



A single, hard laugh was the man's only response, as he clutched the

collar of his cloak, and undid a single button. The laughter paused,

as two predatory eyes looked up at him. There was an animalistic

quality to them that stabbed Ryouga in the gut, on some primal level

that couldn't be explained with words. With a flourish, the man's

cloak left his shoulders, and immediately, as the cloth drifted to the

roof tiles, the rain beat down on the stranger's arms, back, and face.





There was a crack of thunder, and the fight was joined.



***



"It's raining pretty heavily," Akane Tendo had steadily come to

dislike the rain. In years past, it had been almost comforting, the

faint tap-tap of raindrops on the roof, but over the last two years,

the rain generally meant trouble. It generally kept the Jyusenkyou

cursed indoors, and in close proximity to each other - never a good

thing for the structural integrity of the house, or for peaceful

appreciation of the sound of the rain itself.



Oddly, however, things had been quiet lately.



Suspiciously quiet.



Downstairs, Ranma was reading a magazine and snacking on a bag of

potato chips. A small stack of schoolwork and books sat on a nearby

table, untouched. P-chan sat on his haunches next to the books, and

she noticed that his ears perked up when she entered the room. She'd

wondered where he had run off to earlier, and now the answer was

obvious.



"Ranma, have you been feeding P-chan potato chips?" she walked over in

a semi-annoyed fashion, "You know you're just encouraging him to beg."



"It was only one," Ranma lied, and shrugged it off, going back to

reading.



"Well, you're spoiling him," Akane reached down and scratched the

little black piglet behind the ears.



"I'm spoiling him? I've seen you sneak him food when no one's looking.

At least he's smart enough not to try and eat your leftovers."



"Baka," she rapped him on the side of the head halfheartedly, "What

are you reading, anyway?"



"Jyusenkyou Products Catalogue. Shampoo let me borrow it."



Akane frowned.



"I'm thinking about ordering some of that waterproof soap Ryouga uses.

They've got some of that instant Nanniichuan powder Shampoo used the

other day, and a whole bunch of other weird stuff."



"Didn't the Instant Nanniichuan only work once, and then it wore off?"



"Well," Ranma turned the page, "Yeah, but most of the time, I only get

splashed once a day, or once every few days."



"You are not turning our Furo into a Japanese Jyusenkyou, Ranma."



Ranma seemed about to say something, but caught himself.



"No, I ain't planning that. It's just a precaution, you know. I mean,

it's not a cure, but it's better than nothing. The problem," he

sighed, and quickly skipped two more pages, "The problem is money.

None of this stuff is cheap. And then there's the shipping and

handling costs. I just can't afford any of this. I've been thinking

about asking Nabiki for another loan."



"Another one?" Akane leaned in closer, from where she sat on the edge

of the couch, "She'll eat you alive, you know. She doesn't even give

you the family 'discount.'"



"I dunno. She's mellowed out a little," Ranma looked up at her, "Since

she and Ryouga started getting along. The alternative is asking Ryouga

for money, and I won't do that."



"He's probably be happy to give it to you," Akane answered, and Ranma

nodded.



"Yeah, but he'd never let me forget it. Besides, I don't want his

pity."



"Why can't you two just get along? Honestly!" Akane stood up, and

looked around, "And where is Kasumi? It's not like her to be late."



"The rain probably just slowed her down a bit," Ranma cocked his head,

half worried, half dismissive, "She's fine."



"Saotome-san hasn't come back either. Or Ryo-kun," Nabiki's voice came

from behind, and the two teens turned as the older girl walked down

the stairs. At her feet, Dollar jumped carefully from one step to the

next, her puppy size hindering her ability to efficiently transverse

from up to down stairs. At around twelve weeks old, Dollar was still

just barely a puppy, but possessed of a remarkable intelligence and

understanding. Her large brown spots had darkened, especially over the

colored half of her face, and she was growing quickly. At the bottom

of the stairs, the dog waited for Nabiki, slightly impatient, but

restrained.



P-chan was not so held back. With a loud 'bwee' he jumped up and at

the dog. The younger Hibiki dog dodged, swiftly, and P-chan had to

roll to recover himself. Dollar's tail started to wag, but she held

back, waiting.



"Go on," Nabiki waved her hand, and the dog and the pig clashed,

jumping at each other. Akane rolled her eyes in annoyance, but Ranma

watched the two carefully. No doubt neither Akane nor Nabiki saw it,

but both animals had some semblance of a technique. The small pig used

some unusual and crude combination of Judo and Sumo, while the dog

used a swifter, more economical movement style. It was unlike anything

he's seen before - though considering that he was trying to analyze

the 'fighting' techniques of a canine probably said enough right

there.



 And, if he recalled correctly, Ryouga had put off bringing Dollar to

the Tendo Dojo, or even selling any of Shirokuro's puppies, until they

were all almost ten weeks old. Thinking back, Ranma also remembered

that, back when they were younger, Ryouga had mentioned that his house

was 'well guarded.' It was obvious to those that knew her that

Shirokuro was not a normal dog. Ryouga practiced an unusual and

largely informal style of martial arts himself, could the family dogs

have been taught similarly? It was a possibility.



"You don't think he transformed, do you?" Akane asked her sister.



"No. Not unless he got really careless," Nabiki went to the open

living room door, and looked out over the yard.



"Excuse me? This is Ryouga Hibiki we're talking about," Ranma smirked

at his joke, though no one laughed. 'Hmfing' he went back to his

magazine. Mentally, he kicked himself for blurting that out. If

anything, he had to get on Nabiki's good side, or else he could end up

owing an arm and a leg.



Nabiki gave him a quick, disapproving stare, before looking back

outside, through the rain, "That idiot better not have gotten lost out

there."



"Hello everyone!"



"Kasumi!" Akane headed for the kitchen, and found a very wet version

of her older sister, minus the groceries she had supposedly gone out

for, and instead holding a familiar umbrella, with some difficulty,

over one shoulder and a beaten and unconscious piglet in the crook of

her other arm.



"Oneechan!" Nabiki wasn't far behind her sister, but openly gasped

when she saw what she was carrying, "Ryo-kun!?"



"Um... Kasumi...?" Akane pointed to the umbrella, "Isn't that a little

heavy?"



"Oh my, yes it is. Very heavy for an umbrella."



Carefully, Kasumi put the umbrella down against a corner in the room.

Hopefully, it wouldn't fall and break anything. Nabiki and Akane were

both speechless, but Kasumi's next words broke them out of the

surprised funk, "Nabiki-chan, could you please warm up some water?"



"Um... yeah. Sure," Nabiki reached out for the black piglet in

Kasumi's arms, "Is he...?"



"He's been in a bit of a fight, I'm afraid," Kasumi watched as her

younger sister's fingers trailed down one of the Buta-Ryouga's

bruises. In the living room, Ranma quietly got up from the couch, and

headed over. Ryouga had been in a fight? That alone was unusual -

Ryouga didn't have any real enemies, and while occasionally he and

Kuno would fight half-heartedly, anyone in the area who did fight knew

to avoid the lost boy and try someone else if they had an itch to hit

something. Naturally, people still came by wanting to tan Ranma's

hide, but Ryouga hadn't been in a serious fight since their last spar

in the dojo.



And he was hurt?



That was stunning. It took a hell of a lot to bruise the lost boy,

Ranma could attest to that first hand, and even as the pig-formerly-

known-as-P-chan, he wasn't to be underestimated. His speed could be

phenomenal in his porcine form, and the piglet itself, despite

appearances, was mostly tight muscle, steel-hard bones, tough as all

hell cartilage, and unnaturally long and sharp teeth. Girls may find

the little piglet to be cute, but it could be a real monster when

Ryouga was sufficiently pissed off enough. Ranma had once called

Ryouga's pig form a 'land piranha' and it was an appropriate

description.



"Let me see him," Akane looked more closely at Ryouga, even as he lay

cradled in Kasumi's arm. The real P-chan, and Ryouga's dog, had

already come over. P-chan seemed confused, and jumped up onto a nearby

table, while Dollar seemed a bit more withdrawn



"What's that he's wrapped in? Pantyhose?" Akane felt the odd fabric,

"Pantyhose?!"



"Quiet! You'll wake up the old freak talking like that!" Ranma rushed

over and clasped his hand over Akane's mouth. For a second, there was

stunned silence, and everyone half expected the cackle of

'Pantyhose!!' to ring through the house, but there was nothing.

Ranma's hand fell, and he sighed in relief a heartbeat before Akane

pounded him soundly.



"Baka," the youngest Tendo removed her elbow from the back of his

head.



"Ranma," Kasumi addressed his beaten form, "Could you please go get

something to ...something for Ryouga-kun to wear?"



"Yeah. Sure," Ranma got up, rubbed his sore neck, and headed off

quickly.



"Its pretty warm, oneechan," Nabiki held out the hastily heated kettle

of water, after only a few additional seconds to test it with her

finger. Luckily, the family kept a kettle of lukewarm water available

at all times for Jyusenkyou related emergencies. Kasumi nodded, and

put Buta-Ryouga down on the floor, on a soft washing towel.



"Alright, everyone," Nabiki pointed to Akane and Kasumi, "Turn

around."



"Oh? What about you, Nabi-chan?" Ranma smiled broadly, yellow towel in

hand.



She at last had the decency to blush, before handing the kettle over

to the pigtailed boy. The three Tendo girls turned around, red by

varying degrees, and Ranma knelt next to his... enemy? Rival? Maybe

friend. Regardless, Ranma had another reason for not wanting Nabiki to

be the one snapping him out of his cursed and unconscious state at the

moment.



Splash.



"ARGHHHHH!!!" Ryouga's human eyes opened, frantic, and his right hand

shot out like a snake, catching Ranma by the throat. Ranma gritted his

teeth, and as Ryouga's eyes focused on him, and where he was, all

strength in his iron grip faded. Gasping in surprise and shock, Ryouga

grimaced in obvious pain.



"You ok, man?"



"Yah," Ryouga finally spoke, "Yeah. Ranma, we need to talk. Kasumi...

Kasumi, you found me, didn't you? How?"



She pointed at the television, "It wasn't really that difficult."



"What do you mean?"



Ryouga got up, and wrapped a towel around his waist, nodding to Ranma

in silent thanks. Akane quickly ran into the room, and picked up the

remote control. In a second, the Television was on. Nabiki, meanwhile,

ran up to him and checked one of the larger cuts he had along his left

arm, "Ryo-kun! What the hell happened?"



"Reports of extensive damage over several city blocks... reports

indicate that some type of creature, what some could only describe as

a monster... fled the area and disappeared after fighting with an

unknown martial artist, who also seemed to disappear soon after. I'm

in front of a local coffee shop that took heavy damage to its roof

when, allegedly, the creature landed on it. Whether or not this

incident is related to numerous reports of a monstrous pig attacking

seemingly at random are..."



"Ah, well, there you go," Ryouga scowled, and rubbed the bruise on his

left arm. It had scabbed over and was slightly scratchy. His other arm

found Nabiki's waist, and he pulled her close, even though she ended

up getting wet. A silent moment passed between them, and Ranma was

about to leave, when Ryouga turned a bit and faced him.



"Ranma. Like I said. We need to talk," Ryouga's voice was calm, but

beneath that, strained, "This wasn't the work of just some monster...

we need to see Cologne."



***



Shampoo hated the rain.



More to the point, she hated making deliveries in the rain. Normally,

it was a job that Mousse got shouldered with, but ever since he and

Kuonji had gone to China for Jyusenkyou, and a cure, she had been

forced to take his place. In fact, she had been forced into picking up

after all Mousse' responsibilities in the store. At first, she hadn't

really thought it would be much trouble, remembering that she had

handled most of the Nekohanten's menial work by herself when Cologne

first came. But at the time, the store had been new, and not nearly

half as popular as it was now. Mousse not being around was turning out

to be much more of a hassle than she liked.



"Stupid Mousse. Stupid, stupid Mousse," she repeated, running with

great care while keeping herself sheltered from the elements with a

sturdy umbrella. Normally, deliveries would be a quick affair - her

bike could match the midrange speeds of most cars. It always seemed to

surprise people when they realized she wasn't riding a motorcycle. But

with the rain out, there was no way she could bicycle around without

getting soaked.



As she walked, her thoughts turned to Mousse and Ukyou, and her other

friends. The last time they'd all been together had been that crazy

Hot Springs Race. Mousse had walked into the store one day from one of

his deliveries, and in an abnormally calm voice, told her about the

race, and the prize: a trip to any hot springs in the world. He then

showed her the ticket, and asked if she'd like to go with her.



"You and me, Shampoo. It's as good as a cure for our curses! Agpft!"



Without really thinking about it, she'd overturned a bucket of water

(dirty water at that) on him, taken the ticket, and ran off to find

Ranma. It bothered her, now, how she'd treated him. He knew that she

would have liked the trip to Jyusenkyou the most; out of all the girls

he knew and could have gone with. He'd then gone on to partner with

the violent Tendo girl, and Ryouga and Ukyou had somehow ended up at

the same place.



Oddly, Mousse had been very quiet around her. Only when the race

began, and he and Ranma started fighting for first place, did he start

to talk at all. Only then, in the fights with Ranma and Ryouga did his

normal, boisterous self come through. Then they'd all gotten splashed,

and it was then that Shampoo began to remember exactly why she was

here, or at least why Mousse was here. He didn't care about whom she

wanted to be with anymore, he just wanted to be cured - he wanted her

to be cured, because they were friends. Or at least he seemed to think

so, despite how she treated him.



When they'd finally all found each other, Akane had ended up with

Ranma, and Shampoo with Ryouga. Ukyou and Mousse had apparently found

each other, and headed off on their own. Inwardly, she wondered if

Mousse had even looked for her. At the time, teaming up with Ryouga

had been fun. She still had a soft spot for the clueless boy, even if

they did end up getting lost somewhere in the attic of a building.

Finally, they'd heard familiar voices, and smashed through the roof

down into the 'Smiling Tiger' bath, which Akane and Ranma had stumbled

into.



Ranma had made a snide comment, Ryouga attacked, and both boys ended

up totally plastered by the hot sake before one could drown the other.

It took a half hour to drag them out of the bath, singing 'sea

shanties' and laughing about crude jokes all the way. Needless to say

that, by then, Mousse and Ukyou had won the race, and the two had been

off for China two days later.



"Stupid Mousse. Stupid rain. Stupid Japan!" she grumbled, angrily, and

checked to make sure she had come to the right address. It took only

about twenty seconds before some kid answered the door. He looked to

be around fourteen, with a set of freckles.



"I bring delivery from Nekohanten," Shampoo handed the boy the bill,

"You order?"



"Yeah," he snickered, but Shampoo kept a smile on her face, ignoring

the sound, "Yeah. 'I order.' Hold on, lady."



He came back in a minute with the money, and Shampoo handed over the

order of food. The kid gave her a long look over that made Shampoo

want to knock his jaw into low-earth orbit, before giving her a quick

appreciative smile and closing the door. Shampoo's smile disappeared,

and she headed back to the store, when halfway down the street,

something black and white caught her eye.



"Mr. Saotome?" for the life of her, she couldn't imagine a real wild

panda lose in Tokyo, it had to be her panda-cursed father-in-law. As

she got closer, it certainly looked like him. In Shampoo's experience,

few pandas stood on their hind legs waving a sign that says, 'I'm just

a helpless little panda! Don't her me!' He looked to be hurt, and

while she normally had no real feelings towards Genma Saotome, simple

decency demanded that she do something, if only because he was Ranma's

father.



But... why was there pantyhose tied around his neck?



***



"The Jyusenkyou Visitor Registry has been stolen?"



"Yes," Cologne hung up the phone and hopped over to the table,

balancing effortlessly on her staff, "The Guide himself has confirmed

it. He was attacked in his home over two weeks ago."



"The Pantyhose Perpetrator and the Registry Robber are almost

certainly one and the same," Ranma rested his chin on his knuckles,

the two wooden hashi chopsticks in his hand twitching slightly.

Ranma's eyes fell on his father, still in panda-form, currently

stuffing his face with dumplings, then to Nabiki, who was engaged with

picking at her bowl of ramen somewhat suspiciously. Behind him and off

to the side, Ryouga stood, leaning against a wall. He had bandages

around his left arm, but otherwise took to his injuries naturally. He

had been quiet since they came here, and seemed to be brooding.



Or meditating.



Truthfully, Ranma still couldn't quite understand what ran through the

lost boy's mind half the time. Only Nabiki seemed to have a clue as to

what he was thinking or feeling. Ryouga guarded his true self too

carefully for anyone to get too close to seeing the real him. It was

frustrating, because Ranma really didn't want the lost boy as an enemy

anymore. It'd be nice to have one real best friend again that he could

talk to freely, and just be himself around.



"So basically," Akane looked up from her food, "We don't know

anything. Except that Ryouga and Saotome-san were attacked by a man

wearing a cloak, and that this man has a Jyusenkyou curse."



The panda grumbled something and went back to eating. Ryouga was

silent, save to grunt in acknowledgement. Cologne shook her head, "No.

There is one other thing we know about him."



"That's for sure," Happosai nodded gravely from his position on the

table, his ramen finished, "He had great taste in lingerie!"



A second later, Happosai was twitching on the floor. Cologne cleared

her throat, "As I was saying, we know one other thing... He was

looking for a man who had visited Jyusenkyou. The guide remembered

that much, before he was knocked out."



"Hmf," Ranma smirked, leaning back in his chair, "That means we have

the perfect bait. With Mousse gone, I'm the only guy in town who's

been to Jyusenkyou. Which means I let him come to me."



Outside, the rain dwindled, if only momentarily. High above, clouds

brewed, building up for an encore performance over Tokyo. The roof was

quiet, as usual, and Ranma felt a sort of ease seep into him as he sat

and watched the clouds roll and wrestle with each other in the night

sky. It was a sort of neutral ground, now, by mutual agreement. Ryouga

usually went up here to think and brood, and Ranma enjoyed the sense

of isolation, serenity and calm that came from getting away from

things ten feet below them.



They rarely talked, however. But they listened - they listened to the

sound of fish jumping out of the pond to try and catch an unsuspecting

fly, to far off sirens, or to the occasional cricket and bird, going

about its life. They listened to the same things, and there was a sort

of understanding that this they could share, without having to fight

or spar over. And sometimes, Ranma would talk, and Ryouga would

listen. He didn't always reply, preferring silence and guarded words,

but he would listen and hear Ranma out, even if he didn't call the

other boy 'friend.'



It was enough.



But today, Ryouga was the first to speak, "Hey. Ranma. You remember

that movie we watched on TV the other day? 'Rashomon?'"



"Yeah," Ranma only remembered it partly. The premise was simple,

though Ranma found it a bit dull: a rape and a murder, seen from four

different points of view - a bandit, a woman, her husband, and a

woodcutter. They all agreed on a few facts, but in the end, the

stories were all very different, each altered to put the narrator in

the best light. As it turned out, even the murder victim, the husband,

wasn't a reliable witness when his spirit was raised up from the dead

to testify. Only the woodcutter, who seemed to be merely an observer,

had anything approaching an objective view. And yet the film cast

doubt on even his version of events, leaving Ranma with the frustrated

revelation that he could never know for certain the truth of what had

happened.



"You know... I've been thinking. It was the victim himself... his

version of events was the most doubtful out of all four," Ryouga said,

as much to himself as to the pigtailed boy. Obviously, in reality,

there was only one true set of events that took place. But no observer

could be objective, the one most affected by it least of all.



"Yeah. I guess so," Ranma wasn't quite sure where the lost boy was

going with this, "What's up man? You look awfully serious, considering

that it was just a movie."



"I was just... thinking about you and me. I was thinking about the

bread feud. About lots of things, really," Ryouga looked up at the

sky, "You'd better watch yourself, Ranma."



"Huh?"



"I will give you one warning. This Pantyhose Perpetrator is... a Demon

of Jyusenkyou."



"What?" Ranma's back straightened up, "A Demon?"



***



"Ranma, are you sure you're going to be all right? Ryouga isn't

exactly a pushover, you know. If he got hurt..."



"He also turns into a little pig when he gets wet," Ranma cut her off

softly. The sky was still overcast, and threatening to rain at any

second. Akane brought an umbrella of her own, just in case, but Ranma

wasn't as worried. Or his thoughts were just on other matters.



"Still... I remember that fight you and Ryouga had," Akane sighed, how

could anyone who had been there forget that fight?



"This Pantyhose person must be pretty powerful, aren't you..."



Ranma wasn't looking at her - his eyes were on a rapidly descending

form, clad in a flowing cloak, obscuring his form. Ranma's body

tensed, but didn't jump until the figure had already committed his

bucket of water to splashing the pigtailed martial artist. A part of

the fence Ranma had been walking on got soaked, but both fighters

landed on the ground, at the same time, dry and untouched.



"So, you've found me, eh?" Ranma threw off his backpack, "I've been

waiting for you... and unlike the others, I won't be so easily

beaten!"



Uncharacteristically, Ranma took the initiative and charged. Without

so much as a word, or a hint of hesitation, the cloaked stranger met

him, the light pink pantyhose tied like a scarf around his face

fluttering in the wind. Ranma stopped short, leaned back, and opened

up with a barrage of snap kicks, just below his normal Amaguriken

speeds, but fast enough to blur visibly. The cloaked stranger pulled

back, and brought his arms up, blocking the blows from different

angles by pivoting slightly at his knees and waist.



With a flourish, and a single hard laugh, the man spun out, his cloak

billowing and hiding his movements. A sharp heel kick exploded from

the confusion, and Ranma was hard pressed to dodge it. He'd

anticipated an attack, but as used to distractions as he was from

fighting Mousse, he had underestimated this opponent's speed. Sensing

an opening, Ranma ducked, and sweep kicked low, catching his

opponent's ankle just as it flexed, sending the cloaked fighter into

the air in the form of a tiny jump. In midair, the pantyhose scarf

undid, and the cloak fell from the fighter as he twisted to land

perfectly to Ranma's right.



"You shall regret this," a tall young man was revealed as the cloak

drifted to land nearby. He wore loose baggy pants, an odd dragonscale

vest coupled with matching forearm bracers, and a pantyhose sash tied

about his waist. He had a wild crop of dark brown hair, thick

eyelashes, and a pair of earrings. Akane blinked - he was handsome in

a bishounen sort of way, but he certainly didn't look like the type

that could do damage to a walking tank like Ryouga Hibiki. Ranma took

a step towards the other boy. Akane suspected he was thinking the same

thing.



"Ok, pal. Just who the hell are you?" Ranma growled, advancing.

Overhead, the clouds thundered. The other fighter only chuckled softly

to himself, as the raindrops started to fall.



"Ranma! Be careful! It's starting to rain!"



"Yeah, I know!" Ranma broke into another charge, "I'll just worry

about that after I've made this guy talk!"



As Ranma left the ground, committed to a jump kick, Akane saw it - a

flash in the other boy's eyes. Instantly, in between the spatters of

cold droplets on flesh, hair tore out from the formerly cloaked

fighter's arms and face. At the same time, his muscles bulged and

expanded, suddenly at first, and then with increasing intensity. His

Chinese slippers dug into the hard ground, sending bits of concrete

into the air at his feet, even as they began to twist and distort, his

ankles rising and reforming higher up and into what might have

previously been his calves. Ten feet he grew, then twenty, until the

mass of dark wet fur was almost thirty feet tall, slightly hunched

over. For something of its sudden size, the creature moved insanely

quickly, and batted the surprised Ranma-chan out of the air easily.



"Ranma!" Akane could only gasp, as Ranma skidded and slid across the

slick ground and almost to her feet, wincing in pain.



"What... what is he?" Ranma's voice was soft, and barely heard over

the now thundering pounding of the rain. Lightning flashed, for an

instant, revealing the massive creature. It had the head of a bull,

crowned by twin arching horns, but it stood on what looked almost like

the body of a man, shaggy and heavy with medium length hair. Wings

sprouted from the shoulder blades, and flexed eagerly. The creature's

legs were like that of a beast, and ended in large hooves that would

easily dwarf those of a large horse. Behind the monster, a slick

looking tail waved back and forth hungrily, and for a second, Akane

could swear that the tail had... eyes? It took a single step forward

that sounded almost like a thunderclap, and both girls felt the

vibration through the ground into their bodies.



"A demon," Ranma-chan gasped, and scrambled back a bit as she got to

her feet, bumping into Akane, "The Demon of Jyusenkyou! Akane... keep

back!"



The creature lunged, and with a titanic fist that barely missed the

jumping Ranma-chan, pulverized the ground where she had been standing

a blink of an eye before. The demon's other hand, however, was quick

to make good where its comrade had missed, and a huge palm again

swatted Ranma-chan like one would a large insect, sending her

crashing, head first, into a concrete wall.



With another thunderous step, the giant creature pivoted, and brought

back a fist to finish the job. Akane frantically readied to run to

Ranma's side, and nearly missed seeing large and fast jump from

behind, past her, and into the amalgam monster. It roared from the

blow, and in front of the creature, a man in dirty yellow and black

landed with a splash.



"Akane! Nabi-chan! Get Ranma out of here!" he splayed his arms wide

and faced the beast, one hand fiercely clutching his closed umbrella,

"Ready for round two, freak? If I can't beat the hell out of Ranma,

you sure as hell can't either!"



It leaned forward, and snarled with a tooth filled maw almost three

feet long. Ryouga jumped, and the monster spun, trying to catch him as

it had the other boy. Ryouga was slower, but this wasn't the first

time he'd danced with this creature, and he ducked his head, avoiding

the strike, and kicking out towards for the beast's jugular.



"Akane! Come on!"



"Nabiki?!" Akane was more than a little surprised to see her sister,

soaked to the bone, and pulling at her left arm.



"Who do you think led him here?" she answered, referring to Ryouga.



"But he'll be killed!" Akane yelled, over the din of the fighting and

the rain. Ryouga had obviously given himself another treatment of the

waterproof soap, but it wouldn't hold up forever in heavy rain like

this, especially with him jumping, avoiding, and fighting that

...creature at the same time.



"Don't worry about Ryo-kun," Nabiki yelled back, as they reached where

Ranma-chan still laid, amid the debris of the destroyed wall, watching

the fight, shock written on her features. Ryouga had stepped in to

help her? Why?



"We brought reinforcements," Nabiki pointed to a far roof, where a

black and white blur, and a small one, were converging on their

location.



"Fall, damn you!" Ryouga back flipped, his feet catching the

creature's jaw as he evaded another titanic fist. He turned just in

time to see the other one, filling his vision like a wall, slam into

him at full force. The lost boy dully felt the ground beneath him

crumple and deform as he fell, but it lasted only a second before he

recovered, rolled back, and got onto his feet. He was about to jump at

the creature again, umbrella first for a crushing blow to one of the

joints, this time, when he noticed the tiny bubbles forming on his

arms.



"No," he shook his head, not believing it totally, "Not already!"



A vicious haymaker ran into the distracted martial artist before the

last word had even left his lips. For a thought's length, Ryouga

imagined his body being torn in two, his torso flying through the air

for over a mile, by the sheer power behind the blow, even cushioned as

he was by his ki and his training. As it turned out, the blow did

twist him around, and sent him off his feet. The lost boy could

distantly feel his heels scratching against the ground as he flew

through the air and directly into a parked car.



"Ryouga!" Ranma jumped to his feet. In the distance, through the heavy

rain, he could just make out the car Ryouga had plowed into flying

back several feet, into a street lamp. The girls spun, looking for

what he saw, but he doubted they had anything like his vision, honed

and enhanced as it was by his ki. The monster turned its massive bulk,

and Ranma caught its eyes - turning back to them.



"Shit. Both of you get out of here!" Ranma pushed the girls behind him

and got into a quick stance. The creature seemed distracted for only a

second, to swat away something else that had hit the side of its face,

before drawing back a fist and heading straight for the pigtailed boy.

Behind him, Nabiki and Akane screamed, but when the blow came, there

was only silence. Happosai stood between the monster and its targets,

a single index finger stopping the patchwork monster's fist short.



"That's enough," Happosai sneered, and laughed evilly, "I'm taking

over this match!"



"The pervert?" Ranma blinked in surprise.



"Happosai?" Akane took a hesitant step backwards.



"About time," Nabiki wiped a bead of nervous sweat from her brow,

mixed with the rainwater that seemed to have brought this monster out

in the first place.



"If you value your life... you'll hand over all of your pantyhose!"

Happosai flexed his left hand, in preparation. The monster's eyes

simply narrowed, his head lowered, and two horns flashed out to cut

the old pervert down. Happosai didn't even flinch.



His hands found purchase, and he smiled, "HAPPO DAI KARIN!!"



The shockwave from the blast hit first. Ranma weathered it, even in

her weakened form, but Akane and Nabiki were easily knocked off their

feet. Before Ranma could even check on them, the cloud of dust and

debris from the bomb expanded, and everything became obscured. Her

ears rang as if the tympana had been replaced by brass gongs, but that

didn't disorient the combat hardened Ranma-chan for more than a few

seconds. Her senses picked up something large moving nearby, and a

brush of fur seemed just beyond reach.



"You fool!" she heard Happosai's voice from somewhere above, "You're

finished!"



"Akane! Nabiki!" Ranma yelled, frantically. They had been behind him a

second ago!



"Ranma! Ryouga! Anyone!!" Someone screamed, and Ranma recognized

Akane's voice as being above her.



"Akane!" he yelled up, as the dark power clouds began to disperse, he

could see Happosai, stopping short of delivering a punishing blow to

the monster from above. The creature held Akane up in one hand and in

the other held Nabiki, who seemed to be unconscious. Flexing its

massive shoulders, the creature's wings began to flap, and amazingly,

defying all logic, it took to the air.



"Damn you! Come back!" Ranma-chan jumped, with all her strength, and

managed to get hold of the tail, but it was a slippery as a fish, and

her grip only held for a second. Falling on her face, Ranma-chan could

only look up as the monster flew off, gaining speed and height.



"Akane... damn him," Ranma screwed her eyes shut, powerless to do

anything, "Damn him..."



***



"WHAT?! My babies have been kidnapped?! How could this HAPPEN?! RANMA!

RYOUGA!!"



Ranma took the words in stride; his ears had stopped ringing, only to

be replaced by an echo of Tendo-san's voice. Ryouga glowered at the

floor, but slowly rose to his feet. His fists were clenched, and his

jaw set, as the Tendo patriarch yelled and moaned. Soun's Demon head

had been looming over them for some time, and both boys seemed too

suffused in their own self-loathing to notice anymore.



There was no excuse he could muster. He had failed.



Ryouga's eyes were shut, but his body was trembling with pent up

anger. The lost boy had had a hand in planning out their little

surprise attack on the pantyhose monster, but neither boy had really

anticipated that it would take one or both of the girls as captives.

It was an oversight Ryouga had no one but himself to blame for. The

added humiliation of being slammed into that car, his curse triggering

as he tried to break free of the wreckage, and being taken home in pig

form for the second time in as many days didn't help matters.



"Quit your yammering!"



Soun's Demon Head faded instantly, and the three men looked at the

source of the voice. Happosai sat, cross-legged, nearby, smoking his

pipe. A circle of smoke escaped his nose, and slowly took on the form

of a soft white bra, before dispersing into the air completely. After

another quick puff, the old man spoke again, "He'll come back to us

soon enough."



"Huh?" Ryouga's head tilted suspiciously, or perhaps warily.



"What do you mean by that, old man?" Ranma added, for good measure.



"He dropped this," Happosai pulled from his person a rather ruffled

looking collection of papers bound by an old hand made strap. The

cover was in Chinese Mandarin and Japanese.



"I remember that book. Its..."



"The Jyusenkyou Registry he stole," Ranma finished the lost boy's

sentence. He, too, remembered signing the book when he visited

Jyusenkyou. Opening its pages, Ranma skimmed through a long parade of

names, none of which he recognized. Each was paired with a date, and a

symbol... but both the date and symbol, added in by the Guide, seemed

to be in either an obscure dialect of Chinese, or some kind of code.

Ryouga snorted over Ranma's shoulder, and the smaller boy could tell

that Ryouga had seen something he himself had missed.



"He says he's looking for a man," Happosai continued.



"And that means he'll try to get the book back," Soun nodded,

understanding.



"Ryouga?" Ranma asked, softly, "What is it, man?"



"That," Ryouga pointed to a small circular scribble in the upper right

corner of the current page, next to one of the names, "I've seen that

before. And not just in this book."



Turning the page, and finally skipping a dozen forward, Ranma stopped

at more recent names he recognized, "Look! He's crossing these out."



"He's attacked a lot of people," Ryouga saw his name, as well as

Saotome-san's, crossed out. Nearly all the recent names with a

particular symbol under their names had been crossed out. Putting two

and two together, he finally voiced what he'd been thinking since

they'd opened the book, "That symbol... it represents gender. This

Pantyhose person has only attacked men with curses, not women."



"Makes sense," Ranma agreed, "What does the stuff under that symbol

mean, though?"



Ryouga frowned.



"Well?" Ranma insisted.



"I... I don't know," Ryouga crossed his arms. He wasn't going to say

anymore, it seemed.



"Hmm, there's one man's name that hasn't been crossed out," Soun

pointed to a name in the middle of the paper.



"That must be the guy this freak is looking for!"



Soun's gasped, and the tears started to flow anew, "Because of this

man, my poor daughters have been kidnapped!"



"But... what is it?" Ranma looked at the name closely, "Is it some

kind of code? And ancient language?"



"It looks like a drawing," Ryouga added in.



"Idiots!" Happosai rushed up, and took the registry from Ranma's

hands, "Lemme see it... it says... 'Happosai.'"



Stunned silence followed.... by a flashback.



Over ten years ago:



"Here, sir," a younger version of the Guide frowned. They were on the

east side of the springs, arguably the worst side to be on, "You see

legendary training ground of Jyusenkyou."



Happosai looked over the mist-shrouded valley, flanked on virtually

all sides by rising mountains and cliffs. Well over a hundred large

springs dotted the area, all marked by bamboo poles. The nearest one,

the still ancient pervert noted, had a small symbol etched near the

top. Hardy wild scrubs grew liberally near the springs, but there was

no color to the place - flowers weren't to be seen anywhere, even

though it was late spring, and oddly, there wasn't a dragonfly or

insect to be seen.



"Aiya!"



The Guide peered ahead, and Happosai followed his gaze, "Eh?"



"A pregnant woman," the Guide broke into a run, "And she in labor!"



As the two men got closer, the guide seemed to hesitate for just a

second, before running to her side. The woman seemed to be a normal

Chinese peasant woman, hair cut short, neither especially comely or

not. A basket full of collected eggs had been put aside, obviously

with some care, as none were cracked. She seemed to be in pain, but

was unusually quiet about it. She looked up from him to the guide, and

recognition seemed to flash in her eyes, but she remained strangely

silent.



A pervert Happosai knew he was, but he really didn't want anything to

do with the birth itself. Fortunately, the Guide seemed up to the

task, and became the first thing the baby boy saw when he took his

first breathe. The woman hardly cried out during the relatively quick

labor, but accepted the child eagerly when the guide handed him over.



"Excuse me, sir," The Guide turned from the two, and seemed to be

thinking something over. Happosai, meanwhile, took the opportunity to

see the infant for himself, and when he reached for it, the woman

handed the babe over without a word. The little boy already had a few

strands of brown hair, and strangely accented eyes. Shrugging it off,

he carried the boy to a nearby pool, and started washing him. Without

animals around, Jyusenkyou was quite serenely devoid of sound - not

even the croaking of a frog could be heard.



"AIYA!! Sir, what you doing?!" the Guide seemed to have turned from

calm and reserved to bordering on panic.



"Bathing the newborn of course," Happy held the now wailing child

aloft, and watched in amazement as it transformed, tiny horns

sprouting from the head, the wings spreading from the back...



"But that Niuhoomaorenniichuan!! Is tragic spring where yeti-riding-

ox-while-carrying-eel-and-crane drown two thousand five hundred year

ago! Is most tragic haunted spring in all Jyusenkyou!"



"Yeti?" Soun seemed incredulous.



"Riding an ox?"



"Carrying an eel and crane?"



"Growf?"



"Yes," Happosai nodded gravely, "And so it is that baby..."



Happosai sniffled, "Oh, he'd grown up so well!"



"Whose side are you on, anyway?!" Ranma bopped the old man upside the

head, but Happosai was too busy daydreaming to feel it. Ryouga just

shook his head.



"At least I'm not the only madman here," he faced the open door,

looking out over the pond, "Nabi-chan... Akane-san... I'll find you.

We'll find you."



***



"Ngh," Akane blinked, eyes slow to adjust to the half light,

"Where...?"



"Not the Ritz Hilton, that's for sure," a familiar voice returned, and

Akane looked up at her older sister, still in her school clothes,

hanging over her. In the background, she could make out cobwebs in the

corners of the room, and feel a rough wool blanket and pillow under

her.



"You seemed comfortable enough, though, so I didn't wake you," Nabiki

gave a small smile. She had a small cut on her forehead, and it

instantly reminded the younger girl of what had happened.



"Nabiki," Akane got to her knees, "The monster...!"



"He's over there," she motioned towards a figure in the shadows,

sitting on the edge of some sturdily built wooden railing.



"Huh," the man laughed, "So, she finally woke up, did she?"



"And who do you think you are?!" Akane charged, recklessly, and kicked

at the man before Nabiki could stop her. Her target, however,

effortlessly jumped and avoided the strike. Before Nabiki could follow

what had happened, Akane was face down on the floor, a length of

pantyhose around her left arm, keeping it behind her back.



"Huh," he gave another short laugh, "Do you think I'll be merciful to

you because you're a woman?"



Akane snarled.



"Obviously not," Nabiki interrupted. She walked forward, arms wide and

non-threatening, "Please let her go. She can't do anything to you, and

you know it."



The man frowned, but let go of the pantyhose holding Akane's arm in

place, and took his left foot off the small of her back, letting her

get to her feet. Akane's face was approaching a nimbus of rage, but

some measure of self-control and reason kept her from trying again to

attack their kidnapper.



"Why did you kidnap us?" Akane managed, keeping her anger in check for

the moment.



"I kidnapped you to keep that old man from blasting me again," he

pointed to Akane, then to Nabiki, "And you, to make sure I got the

Jyusenkyou Registry back. Neither of your stupid boyfriends would dare

double cross me with both of you here."



"We're his insurance," Nabiki scoffed, "Not too original, I dare say.

But it could be worse, coming from someone who seems to be obsessed

with women's pantyhose."



"Watch what you say, woman," The man looked at her dangerously, before

turning and jumping from the railing, and into the night, "You don't

know anything."



***



"Get back here, you old goat!!"



<Crash>



"I don't wanna! I don't wanna!"



<Clang>



"Oh my! What a mess!"



"I don't wanna get involved with that monster!!"



"I'm gonna catch you and give you to him!"



"Damn you, you old fart!!"



"AAAKKKANEEE!!! NAAABBIKI!!!"



Morning.



"Blast it! Its like he's disappeared! Where the hell did that old fool

run off to?" Ryouga snarled in frustration, knuckles white from the

tension in his fists. He was starting to lose it, Ranma could tell.

Tendo-san was no help either.



"If... If the master won't help... then... then..." Mr. Tendo trailed

off, breaking down into sobs.



Ranma sighed. His father wasn't of much use. Still in his panda form,

he spent more time looking panicked and afraid for himself than

searching for his old master. Only Ryouga and Kasumi had been of much

help, but Kasumi was fairly oblivious, and Ryouga rather small reserve

of patience was rapidly running out. Ranma was surprised that the lost

boy hadn't managed to get totally lost while looking around the house

and dojo.



"It looks like I have no other recourse," Ranma finally said, and

reached for an always available nearby bucket of cold water. A few

seconds later, a busty, wet Ranma-chan was poised on the empty pail,

slipping on a frilly piece of pantyhose. The cutesy laugh sealed it -

the bait was irresistible (though Ryouga seemed totally disgusted by

the display), and within seconds, the lure had drawn in the prey.



"Sweeto! Pantyhose!!!"



"Idiot," Ranma's foot intercepted the black blur, stomping Happosai's

face into the floor. Slipping the pantyhose off quickly, Ranma-chan

used it to trap the tiny old man, "Ha Ha HA! Sucker!"



"Curses! A trap!" Happosai strained halfheartedly against his silky

prison to no avail.



"Well done, son!" Soun's tear-works ended as abruptly as they had

begun, "Now..."



"Hey!" Ryouga spoke suddenly, cutting him off, "Does anyone else hear

that?"



Spinning, the lost boy back flipped away from the wall just as a

massive winged form crashed through the fragile wood, kettle in hand.

In seconds, the steaming empty kettle hit the ground, and the dragon

scale vested martial artist stood before the assembled group. Ryouga

snorted in disgust, but he had to admit - that had been one hell of an

entrance.



Nabiki would be pissed about the wall, though.



Which reminded him!



"Wha..."



"What have you done with the girls?" Ryouga cut off his enemy/rival,

"If you've harmed a hair on..."



"They're perfectly fine, I assure you," their unwanted guest smirked,

"I will exchange the two of them for the Registry. ...Two for one. It

is a deal I suggest you take."



"Wait," Soun approached the boy, handing him the wrapped Happosai-in-

pantyhose ball, "Please, accept this gift from us. Contained within is

the man you are looking for."



"Is that so?" he gave the ball of pantyhose a questioning look, and

started to unwrap it.



Finding nothing.



"Calm down! Calm down!" Soun practically jumped up and down, trying to

get the attention of the raging and suddenly transformed boy-turned-

monster. Then, a black blur caught the monster's eye.



"You want the Jyusenkyou Visitor Registry? Its right here!" Happosai

bounced up to the flying minotaur, stuffed the old book into his

mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. Veins began to pop on the

monster's head and neck.



"Well... that could have gone better," Ryouga big-sweated.



"You could say that," Ranma did the same.



"RRAGH!" the creature lunged, and smashed a hole in the floor,

narrowly missing the lightning quick pervert.



"Nyah nyah! Missed me, you fool!" Happosai turned around in midair,

hands to his sides, "Happo Dai Karin Special!!"



For the second time, the dojo shuttered.



"Does he always have to do that?"



"OH!!! My poor house!!"



***



The Nekohanten was practically empty. Most Nerima regulars recognized

that when the local crew of martial artists got together in one spot,

trouble was either afoot, or about to erupt from their midst. The fact

that the group had come into the store with an oddly dressed

unconscious man, draped over a very large panda's shoulder, didn't

engender anyone to stay. As the last customer hastily finished his

food, and paid for the bill, the group of martial artists had just

finished tying the unconscious man to a chair.



"Thank you. Come again soon," Shampoo gave the somewhat rushed

customer a warm smile, which he returned more out of nervousness than

anything else, before collecting the money and adding it to the

register.



"So Happosai cursed him?" Cologne's voice didn't sound the least bit

surprised by what had just been told.



"The old man gave him a bath in one of the Jyusenkyou springs," Ranma

rested his chin in the crook of his hand, "Yeti riding a bull and

carrying a bird or something."



"No wonder he hate Happosai," Shampoo walked over to Ranma's side, and

got a good look at his unconscious prisoner. He didn't look

particularly dangerous, with his head dropped forward, limply, long

bangs covering his eyes and most of his face from view. The dragon

scale vest, however, did seem slightly familiar, somehow - like she

had seen it somewhere before.



"He's the victim here, really," Ranma crossed his arms and gave their

guest an almost sympathetic look.



"He is NOT! I've had just about enough of 'feeling sorry' for this

bastard!" Ryouga roared, slamming his palm on the table loud enough to

get everyone's attention, but short of breaking it in two. Roughly

grabbing the unconscious boy by his vest, Ryouga backhanded him

swiftly, before slapping him again, and ending in another hard

backhand that bruised the other boy's cheek and drew blood beneath the

surface. Shampoo winced at the sight. Ryouga wasn't normally that

violent (except towards Ranma), it was obvious that he'd been building

up his anger and resentment for some time.



"Wake up, you!" Ryouga gave him another hard shake, and their guest's

eyes slowly opened, "Where are the girls?!"



A trickle of blood fell from the mysterious youth's mouth, but he

smiled at the raging lost boy in his face, before turning away

dismissively, "Feh... pig boy."



"What... did you call me?" Ryouga calmly reached down, and picked up

the table with one hand, holding it over his head.



"No!! Don't kill him! We need him to find the girls!!" Soun wailed,

and Ryouga sneered, dropping the table to his side.



"Geez. Calm down, man," Ranma watched as the slowly cooling Hibiki

stalked off a few feet, keeping his distance from the others. Picking

up his umbrella, he twirled it in front of him dangerously. Ranma

recognized the signs - he was just waiting for an opportunity to

attack the guy, whoever he was.



"Listen," Ranma addressed their captive, "The one who caused your

condition is Happosai..."



"What?" the mysterious young man looked up at Ranma, but in his mind's

eye, he saw the old freak, "Him?"



"I know how you feel," Ranma used his best sounding diplomatic voice,

"I mean, of all the things to turn into... a monster! How pathetically

sad is that?"



"Heh. Not like turning into a girl, eh?" the boy's foot lashed out in

an incredible display of dexterity, and not only lifted a nearby glass

of water, but splashed Ranma with it in the same motion, "At least I

don't wear bras and act like a fag."



"Noooo," Ranma-chan reached for another nearby glass, and returned the

favor, "You only wear pantyhose you sick freak!!"



"Aa," Soun backed off.



"You fool!" Genma held up a sign, before diving for cover.



The newly transformed monster roared, sending people outside the store

running for cover. Nothing normal made - that - sound. It only took a

second for the beast to tear through the front entrance, sending the

Nekohanten sign flying across the street and into a fruit vendor's

stand. Rearing up to its full height, now outside the store and in the

street, the monster held its clenched fist high, and in his grasp,

Ranma-chan squirmed and kicked at the creature's face.



"Just try it, Pantyhose-boy!!"



"GGRAAHH!!!"



"Restaurant is mess," Shampoo stated the obvious.



"Yep. ...If you two are going to fight, do it somewhere else," Cologne

lifted her staff, and made a swirled pattern just behind the angry

beast. Her ki flared, and a gust of wind took the creature up and into

the air, still holding onto its would-be prey.



Shampoo felt someone walk up from behind, and saw Ryouga standing next

to her, "Let's go. You lead."



***



"Akane! Be careful!"



"Ha! If he thought we were going to stay put while he was out, he's in

for a surprise," Akane scooted down the rocky side of the bluff, "Come

on, oneechan!"



 "I can't believe this," Nabiki edged down the side of what seemed to

her to be an almost sheer cliff. Akane seemed to be weathering the

challenge easily, but Nabiki wasn't exactly enjoying herself. It was

like the time she'd conned her way into a rock-climbing club, except

here, there weren't any supports or ropes. She felt vaguely jealous of

her more athletic younger sister, who seemed not to be having any

trouble at all.



"Oh oh," Akane gasped at something, just as Nabiki got to the bottom,

brushed herself off and rounded the corner. What she saw was a fierce

rapid of water blocking their escape, at least twenty or so feet

across.



"Well, here we..." Akane seemed about to jump.



"You can't swim. Remember?"



"Ah!" Akane hesitated, and fell short of actually getting into the

water, and only drenching her head and collar. She spurted and gagged

before she realized most of her body was still on dry land, and pulled

herself up.



"Well, this isn't good," Nabiki rested her hands on her hips, and by

chance, looked up at the clear blue sky, "Hey... what's that?"



"HAHAHA!! Just try and drop me, you pantyhose freak!" Ranma-chan got

hold of the creature's horns, and held on as he did another barrel

roll.



"If I stay on him like this, he's just gotta lead us to the girls,"

Ranma-chan reminded herself, and braced as the monster dipped wilding

and bucked, in an attempt to shake her off his back. Ranma-chan's

thoughts were interrupted, as she just barely caught sight of a fist

heading her way. Quickly avoiding it, a loud 'clonk' sounded as it

made contact with the monster's own skull. Another hasty strike leaded

similar results, and the patchwork monster began to wobble in midair.



"The idiot actually knocked himself out," Ranma-chan couldn't believe

it - what a moron! As the no longer flying monster started to fall,

she decided to wait it out and let the buy crash. Scrambling down his

body for the feet as they both plummeted, the beast suddenly

recovered, and pulled out from the uncontrolled spin, leaving the

unprepared Ranma-chan alone in the air.



She hung there for a second, dumbfounded, before freefalling.



"Here he comes," Nabiki stepped back cautiously as the creature that

kidnapped the two Tendo sisters landed just feet from where they

stood, at the edge of the rapids separating them from escape.



"Ranma!"



Nabiki looked from the monster, to Akane, to an unconscious red haired

girl hanging limply onto a floating log of a tree, caught in the

rapids. Cursing silently, she ran to the edge, next to Akane. Unlike

her sister, she could swim pretty well, in calm ocean water and pools,

anyway. But white water rapids...?! Akane looked at her suddenly,

desperately, eyes frantic, and Nabiki balked.



"Ranma," she repeated, this time softly to herself, "I'm coming."



"What?" Nabiki whirled, but her sister had already jumped, "Don't!!"



She hung, over the water, as the jump carried her almost the entire

distance to the tree. Akane grimaced as she hit it, hard, and dug her

hands into the bark. The water was lapping at her, and she had to bite

her lip and focus on the pain to keep from panicking and letting go.

The temptation to flail her arms and escape warred with her need to

hold onto the tree... and to save Ranma.



Ranma.



His name galvanized her, and with grim determination, Akane crawled

closer to where the boy turned girl lay, eyes closed. Reaching him,

she frantically started shaking her by the scuff of her shirt, "Ranma!

Ranma!! Wake up! NOW!!"



A harsh slap to the face finally did it, and ranma's eyes started to

open, "A... Akane? ...What?"



"Ranma," Akane smiled, relief flooding out in the form of tears.



"Akane... Akane, hold on!" Ranma jumped up, balancing on the log, as

the flying monster swept down from above for a finishing blow. She

roughly grabbed Akane, and held her close.



"You want me?" Ranma yelled up at the descending creature, "Come and

get me, you PANTYPHILE!!"



The creature's eyes narrowed into cruel slits, and a wild blow smashed

into the tree, just as Ranma, still holding Akane, jumped back and

away. The blow sent one end of the tree into the air, and Ranma landed

on it with both feet, using all their weight, assisted by gravity, to

drive that end back into the water. Before the monster could react or

dodge, the splintered end of the tree it had just punched into the

water came right back up and out, cutting a bloody gash along his

right arm and nearly to the collarbone.



"Take that, you Nylon Neurotic!" Ranma-chan tensed to make another

move, when Akane screamed.



"What? What?" Ranma looked over her shoulder, "W... Waterfall!!"



"No," Nabiki watched, helplessly, still running to catch up to them

along the rapids, as the monster, her sister, and Ranma-chan all

tumbled into the water and off what looked to be a steep waterfall.

After an exhausting run through thick underbrush, she came to the end,

and a truly steep drop off into a small pool fed by the waterfall. At

the bottom, floated the tree they had ridden off the edge on, one end

still bloody from where it had cut into the monster's arm.



With a tremendous splash, something large erupted from the water.

Nabiki hung her head, defeated - Akane was like a fifty-pound barbell

in the water, and from the looks of things, Ranma wasn't coming to the

surface. Ranma had never been her favorite person, but over the last

few months, he'd become less a freeloading stranger, and more almost

like a brother... to all of them, and obviously something very

important to Akane. Salty tears formed, but she quickly wiped them

away, and stood, defiantly. In a single motion, the flying creature

reached down, picked her up in a massive hand, and headed off.



Below, Ranma groaned in exhaustion. Reaching the shore after the fall

had been difficult enough as it was, keeping Akane from drowning

herself had been even harder. He was silently thankful for all the

endurance training and toughening he'd undergone to fight Ryouga -

without them, he almost certainly would have passed out when he hit

the water, shielding Akane's body with his/her own. They'd have both

ended up at the bottom of the pool then. Reaching the shore, Ranma-

chan hefted Akane out of the water, and onto land. Getting herself out

as well, she looked Akane over, and checked for breathing.



"Akane... come on, you tomboy... you're tougher than this," he reached

for her, tentatively. He'd heard the basics of CPR in one of the

physical education classes he'd had, a few months ago, but he'd never

done it.



"Something about pushing down on the rib cage... something about

mouth-to-mouth?" Ranma swallowed, finding his mouth surprisingly dry.

He thought, first, about trying the former, but touching Akane

there... he pulled back nervously. Opting for the latter, he leaned

down.



"A seal. Form a seal," he reminded himself, and without any more

hesitation, dove in. Her lips were slightly cold, but Ranma ignored

the feelings he was getting from his extremities, and concentrated on

getting her breathing again.



Nothing.



"Come on, Akane... come on... please! Please... don't do this..." he

tried again, not even hearing the snapping of twigs behind him from

the bushes.



"Don't," he brushed his fingers down her cheek, "Don't die on me..."



***



Nabiki looked out, over the railing, but saw only water, and the rocky

shore. Her captor had been apt when he called this place the 'Temple

of the Watery Grave.' Frustration almost came out again, and she

fought to control it. The helpless maiden role wasn't one she had ever

really expected to find herself in. She was a businesswoman. She was

independent. Ranma was as tenacious and tough as goat, and Akane...

Nabiki shook her head. Akane was alive. Ranma, Ryouga... none of her

friends would let her die out there.



She knew it well enough not to bet against seeing her little sister

soon.



Rather than getting angry with herself, or even those around her,

Nabiki took a deep breath. Mentally, she distanced herself, and tired

of looking at things from the point of view of a victim, she tried to

imagine herself as this monster-person who had kidnapped her, and

attacked people at random. No... not random. He had attacked people,

men to be specific, since Shampoo hadn't gotten involved, with

Jyusenkyou curses. There had to be a reason; some rhyme and

methodology to what he was doing.



Men.



Men with Jyusenkyou curses.



He had mentioned, in one of his more quasi-talkative moods, that he

kidnapped them to get the Jyusenkyou registry back. He was obviously

after someone who had been to Jyusenkyou, but hadn't found them yet.

He had a curse, too: a freakish curse, but still a legitimate

Jyusenkyou curse. Perhaps he had been kicked or thrown into one of the

cursed pools by this person he was looking for, and wanted revenge?



It wouldn't be the first time something like that had occurred, Nabiki

knew all too well. And if he didn't know who his attacker had been, it

would explain why he was attacking the people who had been there,

hoping to hit the one that had done it. But how would he know if it

was the right person? Someone this thorough wouldn't be content with

simply beating him a lot of people, and hoping or assuming that one of

them had been the guilty party. This kind of behavior was meticulous

and obsessive.



Then there was the matter of the pantyhose.



What did they represent? They obviously had some great significance...

something unspoken, and deeply etched into this young man's mind. He

had tied a single pair around each of his targets. Why? Was it some

kind of trademark, like a 'Z' for Zorro? If so, why did he get angry

whenever he heard the word?



"We're his insurance," she had scoffed, "Not too original, I dare say.

But it could be worse, coming from someone who seems to be obsessed

with women's pantyhose."



"Watch what you say, woman. You don't know anything," The man had

looked at her dangerously, before turning and jumping from the

railing, and into the night. Indeed, Nabiki saw now, the pantyhose

were the key here, not the man's curse. The pantyhose represented

something, something powerful, some deep and old shame, perhaps. A

woman? No... it seemed unlikely. It was too much of a stretch of the

imagination.



If he was getting revenge for losing a woman, by attacking the man who

stole her from him, or something similar, why the randomness, when he

could just look for her. Besides, when a woman leaves a man for

another, it was Nabiki's impression that he tended to obsess over her,

not the other guy. Besides, the monster-boy hardly seemed the romantic

type. He was more darkly obsessive, like Ryouga used to be.



A murder, maybe.



Perhaps an unknown visitor to Jyusenkyou murdered someone close to

him, and he wanted revenge. The pantyhose, then, could be a way of

reminding them of their crime... but why put it on everyone he

attacked? Again, the sense of random attacking, and hoping to hit the

right one didn't fit in here. No, she decided, it wasn't a murder. It

was something both simpler, and older... something that ran deep.



Pantyhose.



The pantyhose as a trademark.



Or...



"A signature," Nabiki smiled, grimly. That had to be it! The pantyhose

either represented some kind of martial arts style or school, a

possibility, or a name. She was willing to bet on the latter. Turning

around, triumphantly, and bolstered by confidence, she saw him

struggling with tying some of the aforementioned material around the

slash on his arm.



"Cursed cross dressing faggot," he grumbled, holding one end of

pantyhose in his mouth, while trying to tighten it around his arm.



"Pantyhose," Nabiki said it softly, be clearly. He looked up at her,

anger and surprise warring for prominence in his eyes.



"That's your name, isn't it?" she hoped she hadn't blundered, and

ended up looking stupid.



"Don't call me that."



"What should I call you then, huh?"



"Taro. Just... just Taro," he looked away, ashamed.



"Here," she sat down next to him, "Let me tie that."



He 'hmfed' and avoided her eyes, "Its pointless trying to get on my

good side."



"Yes, I know. You don't have a good side," Nabiki quipped, bringing a

length of the pantyhose around his neck to secure it in place.



"Tell me what happened. And why you're holding me captive," Nabiki

tightened the knot, and deciding she'd done enough, stopped. Unlike

Akane, she knew when to stop doing something. Her little sister

wouldn't stop until half her patient's arm had been mummified and

wrapped soundly enough to last a millennium.



Pantyhose Taro spoke, reluctantly, and told his story.



Nabiki listened.



"So you became this way because of Happosai," she rolled her eyes,

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"



"Yeah. But before I deal with that old man," Taro faced her for the

first time since they'd started talking, "I'm going to destroy that

stupid cross dresser."



Nabiki sighed. Ranma's natural charm had apparently once again earned

him a new 'special friend.' She watched, as Taro stood up, and walked

over to a pile of dry wood. He lit one on a nearby oil lamp, like a

torch, and started a large bonfire next to the dusty old abandoned

Temple. It caught fire remarkably quickly, and the flame and smoke

reached high.



"You're underestimating them. You don't know what they're capable of.

I'd be willing to wager that Ranma Saotome isn't the only one who

wants a piece of you, you know," Nabiki brought up, as he watched the

raging fire. It was a signal fire, taunting those below.



Taro lips slowly curved into a cruel smirk, "I know. In fact, I'm

counting on it."



***



"What's wrong?"



Mousse sputtered, spitting fiercely and hacking. Ukyou quickly

realized he was choking, and started slapping him on the back. The

semi-blind Amazon pointed to his mouth, and started scratching his

tongue.



"Mousse?! Come on, sugar! Say something! What happened?!"



"Agh! Terrible! Terrible... taste!"



Ukyou's eyes widened, "What did you say?"



"Terrible taste! Burning... hurts...!"



"Now listen here, you, just what the hell is wrong with my cooking?"

Ukyou yelled, stomping her foot.



"I.... I don't know," Mousse's voice was hoarse, "Something horrible,

though."



CLANG!



"Don't blame me! That sauce was like rancid bat puke!"



"You take that back! I made it myself!!"



"Have you tasted it?" Mouse wisely backed off, out of mega-spatula

range.



"Well... no," Ukyou put her pack down, and took out the small

container of the secret sauce she had quickly taken out of her supply

from Ukyou's. She had put the ingredients together when she was a

child, and sealed it away soon after - it had tasted fine then, and it

should have turned out perfect after the required ten years. She had

taken it along to try it out. Mousse liked her cooking, and being

fairly experienced in culinary pursuits himself, he often gave good

advice. And, in a way, she liked the blind idiot.



Taking a little taste for herself, she instantly spat it out, "What

the hell?!"



"See?" Mousse stepped around where he had dropped his okonomiaki, on

the trail they were walking down. It was just terrible enough to smell

bad, too, even from such a distance and in the clean mountain air.



"This doesn't taste anything like it should! But... that's impossible!

I tasted it myself, sealed it tightly, talked to Ranma and left...

left Ranma," her mouth was moving but no more words came out.



"Hello? Anyone hope?" Mousse waved a hand in front of her, "Hello?!"



"IT WAS RANMA!!!" Ukyou roared, startling the male Amazon.



"Ah! What? What?!"



"It was Ranma! I left him alone with the sauce... the stupid jackass

probably tried to sneak a taste, spilt it or something, and screwed it

up! Oooo!! Wait until I see that bastard again...!"



Mousse gulped. What was it about Ranma that caused so much trouble,

anyway? The guy seemed to breed misery and anger in everyone around

him. Mousse quickly gave a little laugh, and decided to steer her off

that topic for the time being, "Come on, Ukyou. We're almost there.

Forget about Saotome for now. There'll be time for that later."



"Oh, there will be. That's a promise," Ukyou sighed, and slowly became

her normal cheerful self. They walked down the trail at a brisk pace,

and below them opened a small, mist-shrouded valley. They stopped

momentarily to admire the sight.



"Wow," Ukyou looked from one end to the other. Through the mist, she

could just barely make out a small house, to the south side of the

valley. There were springs everywhere, like Swiss cheese... probably

over a hundred in all, "Just... wow."



"Ukyou Kuonji, I give you the legendary cursed training ground of

Jyusenkyou," he swept a hand from south to north, "Don't fall, now.

That would be a bad thing."



"Whatever you say, Mu-chan," her face was almost shining, and Mousse

couldn't help but smile back.



"You know, I really should teach you some Chinese... ah well," he

shrugged, "Let's go."



"Lead the way," she stuck behind him, as they descended down the

winding path and into the valley itself. An eerie sense of unease set

in, the moment she felt herself walk into the through the Jyusenkyou

mist. Mousse had said that the place was rife with tragedy, and that

it was called cursed for good reason. But she swallowed her

discomfort, and kept going before her companion could notice any

difference. For Nanniichuan, for her closest friends in the world,

this was as nothing.



Mousse would be cured.



What he did from there, Ukyou was unsure.



Ryouga would be cured, and he'd smile. Just for her. He'd taught her

so much, and asked nothing in return except that she follow her heart

(and beat up Ranma a little). No, she would pay him back with this

cure for his curse. They would bring water for Shampoo, of course,

though Mousse had, for a while, grumbled about it pushing her and

Ranma together. And, lastly, she would bring back the cure for her

former enemy... enemies. When Ranma and Genma were cured, it would

close the book on her association with them. She would truly be able

to start with a clean slate.



"Look! Is that the Guide?" Ukyou squinted and saw a rather plump man

in the somewhat baggy clothes of a Chinese solider. He seemed to be

with another visitor at the moment, near the periphery of the south

springs.



"That's him," Mousse headed over, and Ukyou followed.



"Honored guest," the Guide spoke in Mandarin, only some of which Ukyou

picked up, "Here is the Nyannichuan, as you requested."



As they got close, Ukyou got a good look at the Guide's 'honored

guest.' He was a tall man, probably about twenty. Ornate dragon scale

plate highlighted his shoulders and arms, as well as his lower body.

He had a long cascade of stark white hair, broken by what looked like

a blue streak down the middle, branching down into two long locks that

rested on his chest. A white cape billowed around his ankles, and he

had an unspoken aura of authority and ...royalty to him. As he looked

in their direction, noticing the two teens for the first time, she saw

his green-black eyes, but they were slit, like a cat's.



He was also holding a monkey over one of the springs with one hand,

and what looked like a ladle in the other. As Mousse stopped running,

she felt his eyes pass over her, and a virtual wave of ki energy leave

his body. He opened his hand, and the monkey fell just short of

landing in the spring, only to scamper away into the bushes.



"What's going on here?" Mousse turned the Guide.



"A woman," the tall man was still staring at her as he spoke, in

Mandarin, and Ukyou was starting to feel uncomfortable under his gaze.



"What'd he say? Mousse, what'd he say?" she gripped her mega-spatula,

and slowly drew it, "He better quit staring at me like that!"



"He... He Prince of Musk Dynasty," the Guide took a few steps back,

and put one of his hands in his pants pocket, "You two not supposed to

be here already."



"What do you mean by that?" Mousse looked from the Guide to the

Prince, "Wait... he's Prince Herb?!"



"Are you with this woman?" Herb addressed the male Amazon, in perfect

Japanese. By his voice, he wasn't feeling particularly amicable.



"Y... Yeah," Mousse answered. Herb frowned, and with a sweep of his

hand, and a flash of crackling ki, Mousse was knocked off his feet. He

lay where he fell, and twitched, twice, his clothes still smoking from

the power of the ki blast.



"Well, you aren't anymore," Herb smiled, and easily avoided Ukyou's

megaspatula, which had been aimed to slice open his neck.



"Bastard!" Ukyou yelled, eyes red with rage. She moved with a speed

she had been perfecting over the course of months of the most

difficult training in her life. Her ferocity fueled her, and she

slowly pressed her opponent back, though he easily dodged all her

attacks. She was about to reach for one of her new emergency mini-

flour bombs, when a soft tap to her forehead, a pressure point,

followed by two others to the side of her face, sent her motionless to

the ground.



"Very nice," Herb, Prince of the Musk Dynasty, Descendant of Dragon,

stood over Ukyou's unconscious form, "It appears... that Jyusenkyou is

more generous than it is given credit for. Wouldn't you agree?"



"Yes," The Guide scowled, his eyes falling on Mousse's barely

breathing body, and back to the Dragon Lord, "Generous, indeed,

honored sir."













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