SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS

Destiny

	By arun<arundude1@yahoo.com>
	 <arun2110@sancharnet.in>

	Chapter13 <Originally completed on 05/27/2002>
<REVISION
#1>

	This is a Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon crossover with
certain
aspects of Ramayana.

Disclaimers:

	Rumiko Takahashi and Shogukkan own Ranma and the cast
members of Ranma 1/2. Rumiko Takahashi is one of the
most brilliant
people to walk on the face of this earth. We the fans
of the anime
world are forever indebted to her for giving us Ranma
and co. Thank you
Rumiko Takahashi for bringing laughter back into our
lives.

	Naoko Takeuchi, Toei animation and KODANSHA, owns
sailor
Moon and its characters.

	I do not own the characters of both these shows, nor
do I
even pretend to own them. This work of fiction is but
a tribute to the
above anime shows.

Guys:

	"..." Normal Japanese speech.

	*...* Thoughts.

	<...> Chinese speech.

	{{...}} Telephone conversation.

	~...~ Regular English speech.

	I have used a section which is a combination of the
telephone conversation and regular English speech and
it means exactly 
that. ^_^

Author's notes:

	I originally intended to post the whole chapter in
one go, but I'm too lazy to write right now. There's
another 100k completed and I'll post it as soon as I
have completed the chapter. Until then... ^_^

	This part is just sets the stage for the rescue in
the second part of the chapter. So, don't expect much
action in this one.^_^

	Now, on with the story and please, send me some C&C.
^_^

***********************************************************************


There were many things on Cologne's mind, but none of
them piqued her curiosity more than the decidedly
strange behavior of her grandfather. For someone
supposed to be an immortal and more than two thousand
years old, his behavior was surprisingly... human.

	That was the best way she could come up with to
describe his actions and his behavior towards the rest
of them. Sure, she was three hundred years and some
old, but she was very aware of her own mortality, and
wanted to enjoy life as much as she could before death
came and engulfed her in its cold, or warm, if some
old legends are to believed, grasp. This was precisely
the reason why she acted the way she acted.

	But Ranma, he was practically immortal. Neither man,
or machine and she suspected, kami-sama could kill
him, or rather, was powerful enough to kill him and
yet, he acted as though he were a normal human being,
enjoying life to its fullest, instead of searching for
the ulterior motives behind life itself, or some such
nonsense, which she would have expected people like
him to care about.

	Surely, with age comes wisdom. Then, why was it that
her great grandfather acted like your normal
one-penny, two-penny fool you found in all walks of
life?

	So many of his actions bothered her and so many of
them confused her even more than they bothered her.
And the more she tried to understand the reason behind
his actions, the more her headache grew. Truly, Ranma
of the Qin was the toughest puzzle that she had ever
had the pleasure of meeting in her entire life.

	Lesser mortals would have left the puzzle be, but
Cologne had never thought of herself as a lesser
mortal. In her opinion, she had always been and always
will be one of the best, and the best never failed,
did they? And so, she refused to quit, knowing in her
heart that she'd never comprehend the mysteries that
were her great grandfather and yet, refusing to give
up and say in as exasperated a voice as possible, I
quit!

	The conversation she had with Kasumi earlier in the
day had enforced her convictions. Her great
grandfather, the great dragon, was either as normal a
human as they came, or was a madman the likes of which
the world had never seen before. For some reason,
Cologne could not bring herself to accept the first
and even though the second option sent cold shivers
down her spine, she was very much afraid that it was
most certainly the correct one.

	*Why would he want to go out with the eldest Tendo
when he had said the memories of his late wife, Xas
Min, were still fresh on his mind?* Cologne asked
herself, but as with all the other questions
concerning Ranma, she found herself unable to come up
with an answer.

	*Perhaps, he's madder than I thought!* she
conjectured to herself, but her mind definitely did
not want to think of such a possibility, fearful of
what such a possibility and future would hold for all
of them.

	While she had known a lot of men and women in her
three hundred years, not all of them had been sane and
she had learned to recognize the signs of madness in
the people around her. Now, in the almost twilight
part of her life, the skill had become so embedded in
her psyche that it was almost a reflex. And Ranma,
even though he was most certainly mad, did not show
any of the signs that mentally disturbed people often
display, except for his weird antics.

	"What are you, grandfather?" Cologne muttered,
pogoing out of her room. Just as she reached the
stairs, she paused, seeing Ranma walk up the very same
stairs with an easily recognizable dreamy look on his
face - the same look, which every love struck man and
woman has on his, or her face, when they are caught in
the throes of love. It would have been crystal clear
to even the least observant of observers, exactly
where Ranma's thoughts lay, as he had a vacant, yet,
blissful look on his face.

	Cologne stood there, in his path, watching him
continue walking towards her, unaware that she was
even there, until it was almost too late. At the last
moment, however, Ranma started out of his dreams and
stopped, losing the dreamy expression on his face in
the process.

	A slightly annoyed look came onto his face and he
shot Cologne, his own version of 'the look', "Waah!
What are you doing, Cologne, startling me like that?"

	Cologne smirked at his reaction. Did he really think
that he could act the way he did and not expect anyone
to make fun of him?

	"You were the one, who wasn't watching where you were
going, great, great grandfather."

	"And why didn't you move out of the way when you saw
me coming straight at you?" he asked in reply, his
annoyed expression increasing slightly as he did. That
dream had been just getting interesting and she had
interrupted it.

	"I didn't notice you!"

	It was a blatant lie, which even the most
simple-minded man would have seen through.
Fortunately, a male Saotome's mind, though easily the
stupidest in the world in many aspects, was not so
stupid as to not recognize it. Ranma, having been
presented with such a fine mind, which, thankfully,
had been honed through millennia of observing the
world around him, thus riding it of some of its
stupidity, easily recognized Cologne's statement for
what it was.

	"I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid," Ranma replied,
a playful smirk coming to his face. If she wanted to
play, then play he will and since, there was nothing
that said that he couldn't teach her a lesson in the
process, the game was going to be all the more fun.
"If you want to play, Cologne-chan, I'm all game."
Smile.

	Cologne saw the wicked smile on Ranma's face and did
not like it at all. It reminded her so much of a mad
man's that she was, more than ever before, tempted to
believe the first of her theories, and since, a mad
Ranma was definitely someone she did not want to be
within a thousand miles of, she hated it. Her
knowledge, garnered through nearly three centuries of
observation and studying, did not help her any as it
would have in any other case as it told her that the
dragon was also thought to be an exceptionally skilled
torturer, instead of comforting her by telling the
paranoid part of her brain that all was well.
Therefore, on fear of being skewered on a blunt staff
(a very painful experience), she decided to
capitulate, for doing anything else would be
tantamount to suicide should her theories be true.

	"I surrender," she said, retreating back a couple of
steps and retreating her form into herself, if such a
thing was physically possible.

	"Oh, c'mon, Cologne-chan, you wanted to play, did you
not? Now, we're going to play..." Evil smile. "Don't
you just hate it when some wishes come true?" Another
evil smile.

	"Heheh... I think, I'll pass up the opportunity,
thank you..."

	"Oh, no, you aren't getting anywhere," Ranma said and
grabbed her before she could run off.

	"Please..." Cologne said, her voice dripping with
sugar.

	"Ummm... I suppose that I could let you go, but..."

	"But..."

	"I don't want to."

	"Please, grandfather, pretty please."

	Ranma hesitated a moment and dared to look into her
eyes. He blanched at the sight.

	It was now, Ranma's turn to become afraid. Even
though the experiences he had over the years had
prepared him for almost any eventuality, he was sure
that nothing on Earth could ever prepare him for the
sight of a wrinkled beyond belief, three hundred year
old face trying to pout and look cute. He withdrew his
hands in a blur, almost clutching his chest as his
heart shuddered in fear within the confines of his
chest as it struggled to get free of its owner and run
off to somewhere safe and sound, where there would be
no three hundred years old mummies around to scare it
to within an inch of its life.

	"Okay," he replied, trying to look as nonchalant as
possible and failing miserably.

	Cologne was too caught in her own fears about her mad
grandfather to take proper notice of Ranma's reaction
and thus, could not take advantage of it.

	Ranma watched her for a couple of seconds, trying to
ascertain whether she had noticed his momentary lack
of control over his emotions and trying to bring his
raging heart beat into control, a feat, which was
accomplished relatively easily thanks to Yoga. When it
seemed like she had not, he allowed himself to
breathe, thankful for the small mercies in life and
cursing it for the bigger curses at the same time.

	"I'll be off to my room then," he said, turning away
from Cologne and taking a step towards his room. He
definitely did not want to see that pouting look again
as long as he lived and giving Cologne a little space
would accomplish just that.

	"Wait, grandfather," Cologne said, suddenly, making
Ranma pause in his steps.

	He turned around, his eyebrows raised questioningly.

	"Yes?"

	"I've to talk to you about something..." she replied,
hesitating for a small fraction of a second before
speaking.

	"All right then," Ranma said, catching the tone in
her voice and her look on her face. She wanted to talk
in private, it seemed. "Do you have in mind someplace
private?"

	Cologne nodded. Yes, she had the most perfect spot in
mind.

***********************************************************************

	"The perfect spot is my room?" Ranma asked, looking
at Cologne with no small amount of amusement.

	"Well," she replied, embarrassedly. "I couldn't come
up with a better spot... So..."

	Ranma chuckled and nodded, opening the door, and
walking inside. Cologne followed him, pogoing into the
room.

	"Here," he said, sitting heavily on the bed and
patting the space beside him. "Sit."

	Cologne did.

	"So, tell me, granddaughter," Ranma begun when
Cologne showed no sign of starting the conversation.
"What was so important that you had to talk to me in
private when we're already within the confines of my
home?"

	"Umm... Well..."

	"C'mon, now, I won't have any of that bashfulness
around here," he replied, intent on paying her back
for the joke she had played on it. *And besides I
might die if you throw any cute face again!* "I can
see why you'd be interested in me, though and
therefore, I'll be lenient on you."

	Cologne gagged. Well, she almost did, but her
superior reflexes saved her from making the faux pas.
She looked up to see Ranma smirking at her.

	"Got you there..." he said, proudly.

	"Yes, you did," she muttered in reply. Perhaps he
wasn't as mad as she thought he was. He was madder
than she had thought him to be!

	The silence that followed was uncomfortable. Ranma
shifted a little in his seat and so did Cologne.
Finally, after nearly a minute of silence, she spoke.

	"Grandfather, are you immortal?"

	"Huh?" Ranma replied, using the same wisdom that all
male Saotome's are gifted with. The questioning tone,
however had the desired effect on Cologne and she
repeated the question for his sake.

	"I said, are you immortal?"

	"Of course I heard what you were saying..." Ranma
replied, his voice raising in volume just a tad. "But
for the life of me, I can't figure out why you'd ask
such a question... ever."

	"Well..." Cologne drawled.

	"Yes..."

	"Why then, do you act so unlike it?" she asked.

	The light dawned at the end of the tunnel. Ranma
patted his thighs and laughed.

	"Oh, you mean, why don't I act all-wise and knowing?"

	Cologne nodded.

	"Why, Cologne-chan? Don't you like your grandfather
just the way he is?" Ranma asked, forming a pout and
trying to look teary eyed. Amazingly enough, little
tears appeared on his eyes and his lips quivered as
though he was about to breakdown and do a Soun.

	"Umm..."

	Sniffle. Sniffle. "My granddaughter doesn't like me!"
Sniffle.

	"Well..." Cologne said, getting uncomfortable. *Yes,
he is definitely mad, though I don't think he's as mad
as my mind made him out to be... Or, is he plain weird
like the elder Tendo. After all, his family, er mine,
is definitely weird in every sense of the word.* "It's
not that, grandfather. And I do like you..."

	Immediately, Ranma was back to his normal self. He
had a little triumphant smile on his face, however and
Cologne realized that she had been had. She sighed in
defeat to herself. *He definitely isn't mad. However,
I can't help, but feel, now that I think about it,
that he would've been better off mad.*

	"Then, what is it?"

	"Its just that I always imagined you to be wise and
all-knowing, and your acting like a normal human
surprised me..."

	Ranma nodded, his brows creasing in thought.

	"Tell me," he said, after a couple of moments of
silence. "Would you act the same way around me as you
do right now, if I acted all wise and stuff?"

	Cologne shook her head.

	"There, you have it," Ranma said, victoriously. "I
don't act like a wise sage 'cause it would drive
people away from me..."

	"Oh!"

	"I can act like it," Ranma went on. "But people
wouldn't behave the same way around me as they do now,
and living alone sucks, especially if you're an
immortal for all practical purposes."

	"Oh!" Cologne said in understanding. She decided that
she could sympathize with that. Hell, she'd be doing
the same thing if she were in his place! She opened
her mouth to form another sentence, but a new voice
cut her off.

	"Brother..."

	Ranma and Cologne turned as one at the sound of the
voice and looked at Ryuu with a little annoyance,
while Ryuu stood at the door fidgeting and looking
like he had seen a dead body.

	Ranma raised an eyebrow at Ryuu's condition, hoping
that it would be prompt enough to make Ryuu speak his
thoughts, but as Ryuu did not continue, it, obviously,
was not.

	"Is there anything you want, little brother?"

	"There was a phone call for you," Ryuu said in a
measured and completely emotionless voice, though his
aura was chaotic enough for even Cologne to sense.
Something big had happened making Ryuu restless and a
fear arose like he had never felt before, arose within
Ranma. "It was about Kasumi and Shampoo..."

***********************************************************************

	"What shall we study, today?" Ami asked as she
followed Ryuu into the kitchen, whose sight almost
made her gawk. The kitchen was huge!

	"Um... I don't know," came the wise reply from before
her.

	"Okay..." Ami replied, letting her words trail as she
did. This was going to be a very long evening by the
looks of things, especially if Ryuu was as dumb as
Akane had made him appear to be. She suspected
otherwise, however and hopefully, the evening won't be
as long as the ones she spent with Usagi. Shudder.

	"Ami-chan," Ryuu asked, his head stuck inside the
refrigerator. "What do you want to eat?"

	Ami thought about it, patting her lips with her
forefinger.

	"A tuna-sandwich would be nice..." she replied.

	"A tuna-sandwich, you say..." Ryuu's voice drawled
out from the machine. "Okay, here's your
tuna-sandwich," he said, handing a carefully wrapped
sandwich to her.

	Ami was disappointed that he did not bend again to
get something for himself as the view of his butt had
been quite breathtaking. She tried to mask her
disappointment with a look of surprise, though as it
would not do to have her student know that she had
been gawking at him. Ryuu, of course, did not notice
her bumbled attempt at hiding her emotions.

	"Do you always have a tuna-sandwich in your house?"
she asked.

	Ryuu shook his head.

	"Nah! Kasumi has a sixth sense, or something... She
always seems to know what others need around the
house."

	Ami nodded, dumbly, though she was not surprised, nor
curious as to how her hostess would have known about
her liking for tuna-sandwiches when she had not even
met her before. She had seen plenty of strange things
in her life, however, ever since she became a Sailor
and they did not bother her at all. So much in fact
that what others would consider weird was now, almost
normal to her.

	"Want some cookies?" he asked, moving towards the
oven and sniffing the air with his nose to check
whether the cookies were well done.

	"Yes, I'd like some. Thank you."

	Ryuu donned the gloves and opened the oven, taking
the tray in his hands. A mouth watering aroma filled
the room almost at once, causing even Ami's mouth to
water just a little.

	"We'll let them cool down a few," he said and sat by
the tray, his eyes never leaving it for more than a
second as it darted too and fro around the room. It
was the stupidest looking thing she had even seen as
Ryuu looked as if he was expecting someone to steal
them at anytime, just like in the ninja movies.

	"Um... Ryuu-kun, what're you doing?" Ami asked. *Why
is Ryuu acting weird all of a sudden?* she asked
herself.

	In return, Ryuu looked at her with the same dumb
expression on his face that she had come to recognize
as confusion in the brief period of time that she had
known him as the patented 'Saotome look of confusion'.
Perhaps further explanation was necessary.

	"Are you afraid that someone might steal the
cookies?"

	Light dawned at the end of the tunnel for Ryuu and
things made more sense to him now.

	"Yeah!" he nodded, affirmatively. "I'm afraid that
pop might try to steal them if I'm not careful."

	"Oh!"

	"Yeah!" he continued, "Pop is a real glutton."

	Ami nodded, noting that his eyes had not stopped
wandering even when he was speaking to her. She took a
bite out of her sandwich, thus, buying her precious
time to bring order to her thoughts and ponder the
latest development. There was one positive thing to
his family, though and that made everything else worth
it.

	*Well, his family might be weird, but Kasumi can sure
cook much better than Mako-chan ever could...*

	"Hey, Ami-chan, what do you want to study today?"
Ryuu asked, seeing no response from Ami to his
previous statement and thus, cutting her thoughts off.

	"I don't know... Maybe some history?" she ventured.

	Ryuu shook his head.

	"Nah! Learnt a lot of it while training with pops and
that stuff is mostly boring..." Pause. "I even learnt
some English in the Amazon village," he added,
proudly.

	Ami filed away the information for later use. *He
knows English... interesting.*

	"What do you want to study now, then?"

	Ryuu scratched his head as he thought about it. It
was a gesture that Ami found very cute, though she did
well to not act upon the feelings that it created
inside her.

	"Um... I don't know... I was thinking that maybe we'd
study math, or something... I'm not well... what do
you call that, wessed in it."

	Ami nodded, giggling to herself. Apparently, his
command of the finer points of the Japanese language
needed some work too.

	"Then study math, we shall," she replied, grinning to
herself. She had always wanted to speak in that
manner, after she had seen that Yoda character in the
Star Wars trilogy.

	"Great!"

	Before the conversation could continue any further,
the phone rang.

	Bee-Boop! Bee-Boop! Bee-Boop!

	Ami looked at the phone, then at Ryuu and once again
at the phone.

	"Um... Ryuu-kun, aren't you going to attend the
phone?" she asked, questioningly.

	Ryuu shook his head.

	"If I do that, pop might steal the cookies," he
replied with conviction.

	"I'll take care of the cookies while you attend the
phone," she offered.

	"Are you sure you can do it?" he asked with a hint of
doubt in his voice. Pops was pretty fast and he was
one hell of a thief - the best Ryuu had ever seen and
he had seen a lot of them, after all.

	Ami nodded.

	"I promise, Ryuu-kun, I'll take good care of it," she
replied, reassuringly.

	Ryuu looked at Ami with an appraising eye and nodded.

	"All right," he said, turning towards the still
ringing phone.

	He closed the distance between the machine and
himself in a few quick steps, and took the receiver in
his hands, just as the phone was about to ring for the
last time.

	{{Hello, Saotome residence.}}

	Silence.

	Hearing no reply, Ryuu tried, again.

	{{Hello...}}

	This time, there was an answer.

	{{Is Qin-san there?}} a masculine, unidentifiable,
almost mechanical and quite unsure voice asked.

	{{Oh! Will you, please, wait a moment while I go and
get big brother?}} Ryuu asked.

	There was slight hesitation on the other end of the
line, accompanied by some scuffling, before a new
voice answered.

	{{No, son. There's no need for that,}} the new voice
said, confidently. {{I need you to take a message to
him though. Can you do that?}}

	{{I'd be glad to...}} Ryuu said, a touch unsure
whether he wanted to intrude into his brother's
private affairs, should  the caller be part of them.

	{{Tell Qin-san that we've Kasumi Tendo in our custody
for 'safe keeping' and that we're watching him. Tell
him that we'll contact him in another hour and a half.
Did you get that, son?}}

	Ryuu nodded, slowly, not believing his ears for a
second. Surely, he had gone mad or something, for who
would dare do such a thing to Kasumi?

	{{Hello? Son, are you there?}} the voice asked.

	{{Hai,}} Ryuu said, slowly, then continued in what he
thought was an intimidating voice, {{Who is this?}}

	{{I'm just a concerned citizen who wants the best for
Kasumi Tendo... That's all you need to know for now,}}
the voice replied.

	{{You'd better be joking... For if I get my hands on
you...}}

	{{That's exactly the kind of thing that'll get your
dear Kasumi-chan killed, boy,}} the voice at the other
end snarled. Gone was the kind tone that had been used
before. Now, in its place, there was only contempt,
hatred and... a sense of superiority in it.

	The threat brought Ryuu up short. He could not risk
anything happening to Kasumi. He would never forgive
himself if he did.

	{{Why should I believe you? You could be lying for
all I know!}} he said, his voice strained, but polite.

	{{Why don't you ask her, then?}} the voice said,
following which there was some scuffling on his side
of the line. {{Little girl, your friend wants to talk
to you...}}

	{{Kasumi?}}

	{{Talk, bitch!}} the voice snarled on the other side.

	Ryuu felt his blood boil and a faint red line formed
around his body as his anger made itself felt through
his aura.

	{{Bastard, leave her alone,}} he said, his emotions
getting the better of him, in a voice, cold and devoid
of emotion. If the man at the other end had been
standing in front of him, he would have killed him
right then.

	{{Ryuu-kun...}}

	{{Kasumi... Kasumi, where are you?}} Ryuu shouted,
clutching the phone tighter, his voice now at the
other end of the emotional spectrum.

	{{Unhuh! We can't have you asking such questions now,
can we, Ryuu-kun?}} the voice said, sarcastically.

	{{What do you want? And where is Shampoo?}} Ryuu
asked. The ice had returned to his voice and his
heart, once again.

	The voice tsked.

	{{I don't know about any hair cleansing product,
boy,}} the voice said, contemptuously.

	Ryuu felt his soul freezing.

	{{I ask you again, where is Shampoo and what did you
do with her?}}

	{{Shampoo? Who's that?}}

	Ryuu took a deep breath to calm himself as the man
talked with his associates on the other side of the
line.

	{{You mean the gaijin whore?}} the man asked.

	Ryuu bristled at the comment, but kept his cool, for
Shampoo's and Kasumi's sake.

	{{She's not a whore,}} he told the man, icily. *She's
much more human than you can ever hope to be.* {{And
she's my friend. What did you do with her?}}

	Again, there was a pause as the man spoke with his
associates.

	{{It seems that your 'friend' offered resistance to
my men. She's probably lying right where they left
her.}}

	{{She better be all right, or it's your ass,}} Ryuu
replied, his mouth working faster than his brain.

	{{Now, now, Ryuu-kun,}} again, the sarcasm was
unmistakable. {{You should treat your betters with
good manners.}}

	Ryuu let out a deep breath.

	{{What do you want, sir?}} he asked in as civil a
voice as he could manage given the circumstances.

	{{That's better, though I think that a please would
have been better. Oh well, you can't have
everything!}}

	{{Please, sir, what do you want?}}

	{{That's even better.}} Pause. ((You want to know
what I want?}}

	{{Yes, please.}}

	{{I don't want the police in on this, you hear... My
people are watching you and if they even think they
see a hood around the house... dear Kasumi will be
sent to you in packages, one for each island in
Japan.}}

	{{No!}} Ryuu shouted into the machine, horror
stricken at what the man was saying. {{We will not
contact the police,}} he assured.

	{{Good. It's nice to see that the two of us are
seeing eye to eye on this. second, I'm willing to
overlook it this time, but come next time, I will not
be so lenient. Qin-san will always attend the phone
whenever I call... I don't care how hard it might
prove to be for him, and if he doesn't attend the
phone, then prepare to say hello to those packages.}}

	{{It'll be done, sir,}} Ryuu replied, his voice
strained as he struggled to control the overwhelming
rage he felt in his heart. How dare he? How dare he
threaten his friends? *When I get my hands on you...*

	{{That's all for now. I'll give you more information
when I call in another hour and a half,}} the voice
said, before the line went dead.

	Ryuu stood there, his knuckled white as his hand
exerted impossible forces on the receiver. The
machine, for its part, began to groan and finally,
with a crack, it shattered, the plastic crushed and
compacted.

	Ami immediately rushed to Ryuu's side and checked his
hand, while Ryuu remained uncaring as to the fate of
his hand, with a pale look on his face. Miraculously,
the plastic had not pierced his skin, though there
would be an impression in his palm for sometime to
come.

	"Ryuu?" she asked, uncertainly. "Are you all right?"

	Her voice seemed to bring Ryuu out of his trance
some.

	"Oh, my God, they took Kasumi," he said.

	"Ryuu? What's wrong?"

	He did not reply.

	Ami began to panic. She had been able to follow only
a little of the conversation and regretted not having
heard more, for obviously, the phone call was the
cause for Ryuu's present condition. She grabbed his
shoulders in her hands and shook him, hard.

	"Ryuu, snap out of it!"

	"Huh! Ami-chan... I need to... I need to do
something..."

	"Ryuu, tell me what's wrong."

	"They kidnapped Kasumi and hurt Shampoo," Ryuu
replied in an emotionless tone. "I have to tell big
brother about it," he said and walked past her, acting
as if she wasn't even there.

	Ami just stood there, shocked by what she had just
heard, her mind wanting to not believe it. Kidnapping
people was supposed to be the stuff of Hollywood
movies, and was not supposed to take place anywhere.
To learn that such a thing had happened in Juuban
filled her with a sense of insecurity she had never
felt before in her life.

***********************************************************************

	Ryuu trudged towards the stairs through the hallway,
his mind, a chaotic whirl of anger, disbelief and
fear. What was he going to tell his elder brother?, he
asked himself and even though the answer was obvious,
he could not, for the life of him, come up with a way
of breaking the news. And what had happened to
Shampoo? Was she dead, or was she alive? If she was,
who was taking care of care?

	*Kami-sama, what are we going to do!* he thought, his
mind tiring of the tremendous job ahead of him and
withdrawing into itself for a moment. He tried to
think of a life without Kasumi and he could not. She
was like the mother he never had when he was growing
up. Oh sure, there was Nodoka, his mother by birth, to
fill that role now, but she had never been there when
he was growing up and even though the same could be
said for Kasumi, at least she had been there for the
final stages of his growth, which wasn't something he
could say about his real one. And he knew that it
would take a long time, if ever at all, before the
woman named Nodoka Saotome gained the trust that
Kasumi had gained in short a period of time. After
all, the title alone was not enough... not after ten
long years of separation without ever having seen, or
spoken with each other throughout those ten years.

	And Shampoo... She was one of the few friends he had
made in his short life - and definitely one of the
best, and it sent his mind reeling and filled him with
a sense of hopelessness to think that she might be out
there somewhere, probably lying unconscious, or even
dead with no one to take care of her.

	Anger coursed through his mind in raging torrents,
threatening to break the banks of his sanity,y and
flood his senses with hatred and a soul consuming
desire to kill. Helplessness was not far behind, but
anger was definitely the most powerful emotion that
coursed through his veins, and it was powerful enough
to make him fear it and the darkness it contained. He
felt numbness too, but the ice was retreating fast as
the inferno, which was his anger, gained ground in the
battlefield, which was his mind. He closed his hands
into fists, his knuckles popping in quick succession
as the ligaments protested against the misuse. Ryuu
paid the sharp spikes of pain that his misused organs
were giving him no heed, digging his nails deeper into
his skin and drawing little droplets of blood, which
seemed unnaturally crimson as they dripped onto the
floor in bright red splatters, breaking the silence in
the hallway whenever they hit the floor.

	And by the time he reached the stairs, a faint red
aura was flickering on and off around him. Ryuu, at
last conscious of the aura and the effect it was
having on his surroundings, took a couple of deep
breaths, bringing his aura and his emotions under
tight reign. If his reaction was this bad, he
shuddered to think of what Ranma's reaction might be,
since he was obviously in love with Kasumi.

	He took the stairs, three steps at a time, reaching
the top in mere moments. From there, he walked, slowly
and with a great deal of gravity as though the entire
world weighed upon his shoulders. He could hear Ranma
speaking with Cologne as he neared Ranma's room. The
sounds were faint, though and he could not make out
what they were talking. He realized they could be in
the middle of some important conversation and he might
be interrupting it, but he shoved those thoughts
aside. The present situation was big enough to warrant
his rudeness and they would most assuredly forgive
him, for breaking into their conversation once they
heard his reasons for doing so.

	He turned at the door and without further adieu,
spoke.

	"Brother..."

	Ranma turned towards him, his attention focused on
him, and though there was a hint of annoyance in his
eyes, his gaze was friendly enough, but Ryuu could not
bring himself to speak.

	Finally, after a few moments, which seemed to stretch
for an eternity, Ranma spoke.

	"Is there anything you want, brother?" he asked.

	"There was a phone call for you... It was about
Kasumi and Shampoo..."

	The slightest hint of fear formed on Ranma's face,
though Ryuu could tell that it was only the tip of the
iceberg that was showing.

	"What about them?" he asked, dreading the answer, yet
wanting to hear it from Ryuu's own mouth at the same
time. He had been afraid of the same happening and
that was why he had offered to escort Kasumi. He had
failed and now, his nightmares were coming true.

	"Kasumi... Kasumi's been kidnapped..."

	Ranma was at his face in an instant, causing Ryuu to
take a step back as he had not even seen Ranma move.

	"You better not be playing any tricks, Ryuu," he
warned, though he knew instinctively that Ryuu was
telling the truth. His throat felt dry and his voice
was hoarse. "For I can assure you that this isn't
funny."

	"I... I'm sorry, big brother. I'm so sorry 'cause I'm
telling the truth..." *Though I wish I weren't.*

	Ranma's life seemed to drain out of him. He stumbled,
nearly losing his balance, but he managed to grab the
door and steady himself. Only one word escaped his
lips, that too filled with dread and hopelessness...

	"How?" he asked, even though he knew the answer.

	"I don't know," Ryuu answered, even though he knew
that the question was not meant for him.

	"And what of Shampoo?" Ranma asked, shooting a
concerned look at Cologne, who too, seemed to be in
shock, just as he was.

	Ryuu shook his head.

	"I don't know what happened to her. They... the man
who spoke just now, told me that she had fought
against them and that they had left her lying in the
middle of the road," Ryuu's voice broke a little. He
turned his attention to Cologne and looked at her
apologetically. "Elder..." Ryuu said, his voice
dripping with regret and sorrow.

	Cologne looked at him for an instant and nodded,
slowly. She understood.

	"Why didn't you call me, Ryuu?" Ranma asked, his
words still mere whispers.

	"I wanted to, big brother, but they wouldn't allow
me... I'm sorry."

	Ranma looked into Ryuu's eyes, desperation showing
very clearly in his eyes, in his face and in every
other feature of his body. He remained that way for a
couple of seconds and then, his eyes widened
dramatically, hope returning to his face.

	"Tell me, is Nabiki home?" he asked.

	Ryuu nodded, now quite sure that his brother had gone
mad. Why else would he ask for Nabiki at a time like
this, anyway?

	However, before Ryuu could reply, Cologne did.

	"Yes, she's home..." A semblance of hope returned to
her voice as she spoke and she shot Ranma a grateful
look.

	Ranma tilted his head towards the Matriarch in a
small nod and walked purposefully towards the middle
Tendo's room. On reaching it, he took a deep calming
breath and looked at Ryuu and Cologne, who had
followed him out of his room.

	"Do not interfere," he said and waved his right hand.
Even though his hands never got within two feet of it,
the door exploded, blowing itself off its hinges and
into the other side of the room. He stepped in without
further adieu, hoping that his surprise entrance had
pushed the girl off balance. The girl had to know, he
prayed silently to the Gods. If she didn't, he would
be back to square one and... There would be no hope
for Kasumi.

	"Nabiki!" he said in a cold voice. "I want to talk
with you."

	The girl looked startled and was deathly pale, her
eyes focused on the remnants of the door, but she
managed to nod.

	Ranma scowled at the girl, faint tendrils of white,
blue, red and black caressing his body as his aura
began to expand from its confines. The blue and white
rapidly gave way to black and red, giving Ranma the
appearance of a demon from the pits of hell as it
enveloped him.

	"Sit down, Tendo!" he ordered in a harsh voice.

	Nabiki obeyed.

	"I find you despicable, Tendo," Ranma said, his voice
dripping with unmistakable menace. His flickering aura
acted as an amplifier - a very powerful one, enhancing
his menacing look. "Betrayers of friend and family
have always occupied the lowest rungs in my book and
I've never had much love for them..." Pause. "In fact,
I so positively hate them that I've killed more than
my fair share over the years," he said, summoning a
thin whip of fluorescent energy in his right hand and
flicking it carelessly at her book shelf. The whip
went through the shelf as though it was not there and
the shelf fell to the ground, cleaved neatly in half,
barely a second later. "Do you understand me, Tendo?"

	Nabiki nodded, her eyes never straying from the
neatly sliced upper half of the shelf, which lay at
her feet.

	"Then tell me, Tendo, why I should allow your
miserable carcass to live for even a miserable second
on this planet, since you've so obviously betrayed
yours for your thirty silver pieces?"

	"Huh?" Nabiki said, speaking for the first time since
Ranma entered her room.

	"Don't try to lie to me, Tendo. You mightn't live
very long if you do."

	The faintest traces of anger began to flash in
Nabiki's face. Now that the shock was gone, she was
finding her center once again, and did not very much
like the fact that an almost stranger was blackmailing
her inside her own room.

	"What are you talking about?" she asked, summoning
the necessary courage from her reserves to face and
question him.

	The whip flashed, once again, this time so close to
her face that she imagined feeling a slight breeze, a
whisper really, as it passed by her neck. What filled
her with more fear was the sight of several locks of
hair, neatly sliced and about half the length of her
braid, floating down slowly to come to rest on her
skirt and her shoulders. Nabiki whimpered.

	"Silence." Pause. "I'm the inquisitor, Tendo. You'll
do well to remember that. Now, I'm going to make this
short and sweet: You will tell me where they have
taken Kasumi before I decide to slice into so many
little pieces that no one would ever recognize that
the bloody mess is you."

	"Who has taken Kasumi?" Nabiki asked, genuine
surprise in her face.

	The aura flared brighter.

	"I truly don't know what you're talking about!"
Nabiki cried in fear, retreating, or rather, trying to
retreat farther back. Her efforts were thwarted
though, as she already had her back to the wall.

	"Then I pity you, Tendo. The only thing that will
save your life is the information that you can provide
about your Yakuza buddies..."

	"Huh?"

	Ranma spat at Nabiki's feet in contempt.

	"You still don't get it do you?" Flash. This time,
the whip got as far as a few scant millimeters from
her neck.

	Nabiki whimpered, again, almost wetting her pants as
the whip flashed by her.

	"Your Yakuza buddies have kidnapped Kasumi..." Pause.
"My Kasumi, with the help of things, their stupid
minds cannot even begin to comprehend," Ranma snarled,
though inside he was begging the Gods to show a little
mercy on him. Whoever it was that had kidnapped Kasumi
knew ki cloaking techniques that were supposed to be
lost for close to two millennia - which meant that the
kidnappers were most probably Ashura.

	"Oh my God!"

	Ranma spat again.

	"Now, you realize it, huh? It's too late now,
Tendo... It's too late to turn back now."

	"I swear, I didn't know what they were planning, only
that they were planning something... I... I... I would
never let anything happen to Kasumi," Nabiki replied,
trying to defend herself. *Kasumi... Oh my God!*

	"Why should I believe you, Tendo?" Ranma spat, the
whip almost caressing her very naked jugular and
drawing the tiniest beads of blood from her neck.
Sweat mixed with the life fluid and slid down her neck
to taint her shirt crimson.

	"I'm telling the truth," Nabiki spoke, despair
dripping from her voice. "Kill me if you have to, but
I didn't betray my sister."

	Ranma allowed his face to relax, for the first time,
since he had entered the room.

	"Then tell me where I can find her, Tendo," the
hardness in tone did not disappear, however.

	Nabiki nodded. She got up from the chair and went to
what remained of the book case. She took out a
Webster's dictionary and opened it, revealing the
carved out interior. There were a couple of small
notebooks inside, of which she took out one and handed
it to Ranma.

	"There," she said, "I've given you the list of safe
houses that the family has in Japan..." Pause. "You
find her, Saotome, you find her and you bring her
safe... I... I'll take care of the Yakuza." *No one
messes with my family and gets away with it!*

	Ranma smiled.

	"Thanks, Nabiki-chan," he said, flashing her a
grateful smile, his voice at the opposite end of the
spectrum. "I knew you'd come around."

	Nabiki, surprised at the sudden change in manner, did
well to hide it. Of course he had been acting all
along. She was practically family, after all and she
doubted whether he would have killed her even if she
were not. He just did not seem like the murdering type
to her.

	"And what if I hadn't?" she asked, raising an
eyebrow.

	"Then I would have used this..." he said, producing a
folder from inside his shirt and throwing it at her
feet. "You're not the only one with a hobby, you
know?" he said and left the room, pausing at the door
to speak once. "You needn't worry about your Yakuza
buddies, Nabiki. As soon as this matter blows over,
they are as good as dead... I'm going to go after them
and there isn't a place in the world they can hide
from me."

	Nabiki nodded and Ranma turned, leaving Nabiki to
look at the folder, which had her photo and name on
it, in surprise.

***********************************************************************

	"Ryuu..." Ranma said, casting a glance at the
wide-eyed teenager as soon as he had exited Nabiki's
room.

	"Uh?" Ryuu replied, still awed, fearful and
off-balance from the display of power and menace that
he had just witnessed his brother make.

	"Walk with me..."

	Ryuu nodded, stepping alongside Ranma.

	"Cologne?" Ranma said, turning his attention to the
Amazon matriarch as he began walking.

	"Yes."

	"I want you to call every hospital in the north end
of this ward... I sensed Shampoo's ki somewhere in
that vicinity..."

	Cologne nodded.

	"Is she all right?" she asked, drawing alongside him.

	"Yes, she is. Her ki's a little weak, but her
injuries most certainly aren't life threatening."

	"Thank you, great grandfather."

	"Don't thank me now," Ranma said, throwing her a
glance. "Thank me when I'm done mutilating the bastard
who hurt her."

	Cologne nodded and pogo-ed away.

	"Wait."

	Cologne turned around.

	"There'll be a family meeting in fifteen minutes...
I'll expect you to attend it."

	Cologne nodded at Ranma and continued on her way.

	When her form disappeared from sight, Ranma turned
his attention back to Ryuu.

	"Your friend hasn't gone home, has she?"

	Ryuu shook his head.

	"Good. Get father and the grandmaster over here as
fast as you can. When you've located them, you'll find
me with her. I've a thing, or two to discuss with
her."

	"Okay, big brother," Ryuu said, not questioning
Ranma's command, even though he thought it weird that
Ranma would want to talk with Ami.  But he decided
that he had a reason for wanting to speak with her,
just like he had a reason for wanting to speak with
Nabiki.

	"Summon everyone into the house. I want to announce
this matter to them, personally."

	Ryuu nodded, noting the stress on the last word. He
bounced off down the stairs and disappeared from sight
momentarily.

	Ranma, unlike Ryuu, took the steps one at a time,
brooding the whole time and when he was finally on
Terra firma, he made his way to the kitchen, where he
was sure, he would find Ami. The girl looked up as he
came in, oddly from the cookies, which she had no
doubt been staring at all along.

	*Hmm... Why not just pop them into her mouth? They
aren't poisonous, or anything!* he thought before
pushing the thought aside as being too trivial and
cleared his throat, indicating that a conversation was
about to take place.

	Ami stood accordingly, her hands clutched in front of
her in a show of shyness.

	"sensei?"

	"Please, remain seated, Ami-chan."

	Ami nodded and took her seat.

	"Kasumi..." she begun.

	Ranma nodded.

	"Yes, Kasumi's been kidnapped, I'm afraid."

	"Oh!"

	"It's on a related matter that I wanted to talk to
you about."

	Ami raised her head and looked at Ranma, inquiringly.

	"Oh! What of, sensei?" she asked.

	"I'm certain that she has been kidnapped by the
Yakuza with the help of some Ashuras..."

	Ami's eyes widened at the reference to the Ashuras
and Ranma, who had paused to see just that sort of
reaction on her face, was not disappointed. He kept
his elation under firm holds, though and continued as
if nothing had happened.

	"And I need you and your friends help in dealing with
this mess..."

	"Huh?" Ami said, dumbfounded.

	"You know, the Sailor senshi..." Ranma continued
after a pause. "I'm sure that you've some sort of
communication device on you, which you use to contact
your friends... Can you use it to call them here?"

	"I..."

	Ranma raised his arm.

	"Please, don't try to deny it. I need your help and
I'm here asking for it..." Pause. "Even though it's
against my better judgment..." he said in a smaller
tone.

	"But... How?" she asked, her eyes, the size of
footballs. 

	*A secret,* she thought, *A secret that had been so
hard to keep, a secret that could cost my friends
their lives and here he stands, an air of carelessness
about him, saying that he has known about us all
along. But how could that be? Luna said that no one
can recognize us while we're in our senshi uniforms,
and yet, here's proof that she was wrong. True, I had
suspected a lot of things that she told us as wrong,
but never this...

	*If what he says is true then, all along, my parents
and my friends have been at risk...* Ami shut off her
thoughts. She definitely did not want to go down that
lane of thought. All that mattered now was that none
of their enemies had found them out, till now.

	"Well, for one thing, I'm the man, who has been
helping you these past few battles..." Pause. "Your
aura's remain the same even when you change," he
clarified, seeing the confused look on her face.

	"Oh!"

	"I beg you... please, summon your friends here, I
need your help very much and I'd be much indebted to
all of you, if you'd help me."

	Ami nodded, slowly, still not sure whether she was
doing the right thing. Logically, there was no reason
why she should not call the others to help
Ranma-sensei. After all, he too, like them, was trying
to save a life and they owed it to him to help him in
his hour of need when he had helped them in theirs.

	"Thank you, Ami-chan," Ranma said, gratefully to her.
"You need privacy to make your call?"

	Again, a nod.

	Ranma's eyebrows furrowed for a second as he
concentrated.

	"You can make your call now, Ami-chan. No one will be
able to hear you, or even sense that you're here."

	Ami nodded.

***********************************************************************

	"We got to make it up to her."

	"How?"

	Rei glared at Minako, who had asked the question.

	"I don't know how we can do that, Mina-chan. That's
why I'm asking the two of you for ideas..."

	"Oh!" Minako said, blushing.

	"We could take her to the ice-cream parlor?" Makoto
said.

	"I suppose we could do that, but... she seems so sad
and depressed this last week and that stunt we pulled,
yesterday, certainly didn't help matters any..."

	"Yeah!" the other two senshi accepted. They weren't
exactly proud of the way they had fought with the
outers when they should have been helping the wounded
themselves.

	"What do you think we should do then?" Minako asked.

	"Well... I thought about it this morning and I think
that there's no single cure for the way Usagi's
feeling now. I mean, she's lost two of the most
important people in her life and she feels that her
best friends had betrayed her... So, I guess a single
gesture of companionship, or love wouldn't make her
feel like her old self again... At least, not anytime
soon. So, what I'm trying to say is... we could
quarrel less in front of her, or better yet, we could
stop arguing between ourselves... And we could try to
act a little civil towards the outers... What happened
yesterday is as much a fault of ours as it was theirs,
even though they were the ones who were in the
wrong..."

	Makoto and Minako nodded.

	"Yes, we'll do that and a lot more," Makoto replied.

	"Thanks, Mako-chan... And you, Mina-chan?"

	"I'm with you two on this, Rei-chan," replied the
blond.

	"That's settled then," Rei said, turning to Minako.
Now that the decision was made, they needed another
subject to talk about and pass the time. "So,
Mina-chan, did you apologize to Ryuu-kun today?"

	Minako shook her head.

	"Why not?" Rei asked. "I thought you were going to
apologize to him and Ami."

	"I couldn't find them..."

	"You couldn't find them?" Makoto asked,
incredulously.

	Nod.

	"Yeah! By the time I got to the front gates, they had
disappeared and I couldn't locate them. I searched for
a while, but I gave up after twenty minutes and came
here."

	"Are you sure you looked everywhere?" Makoto asked.

	Minako nodded.

	"Yes, I am."

	"They must have been in a real hurry," Makoto
muttered.

	"Don't worry, Mina-chan, you can always apologize to
them first thing tomorrow morning," Rei added,
supportingly.

	"You think so, Rei-chan... Ami will forgive me,
right?"

	"I'm sure that she will, Mina-chan... You didn't mean
to do it, after all," Rei replied, laying a comforting
arm around her.

	"Thanks, Rei-chan. I feel a lot better now," Minako
replied.

	"What are friends for?" Rei replied with a smile.

	Minako hugged Rei gratefully and Makoto joined in,
not wanting to be left out of a group hug. The hug
lasted for all of thirty seconds at the end of which
they broke up.

	"It's nice to see that my friends are getting along,
finally," said a voice from the doorway.

***********************************************************************

	*The nerve of them!* Usagi thought angrily as she
walked out of the park.

	The roads were, strangely, free of any vehicular
traffic, for that time of the day and she took full
advantage of it, drawing in the peace and serenity of
the trees, the air and the butterflies to calm her
anger. It worked. Slowly, her anger faded away and she
was able to think clearly before long.

	"Princess..."

	Usagi stopped at the sound of Artemis's voice,
pausing until the two cats transformed humans caught
up with her. She resumed walking as soon as she did,
silent except for the sound her feet made as she
walked across the concrete pavement.

	"Princess..." Artemis said, again.

	"Yes, Artemis..."

	"I... Are you all right?" he asked.

	Usagi flashed a little smile at him of gratitude for
his concern.

	"Yes, I believe, I am."

	"Thank God, princess. For a minute there, I thought
you weren't..."

	Usagi raised her arm to silence him, smiling at him
all the while.

	"Please, Artemis, stop referring to me as Princess in
public..."

	"As you wish, Usagi-sama."

	Usagi sighed.

	"Please, call me Usagi... As you have always did;
that goes for you too, Luna."

	Luna nodded to the side.

	"But... It was all right then... And now..." Artemis
drifted off.

	"Why was it all right, then and why isn't it all
right, now?" Usagi asked, patiently.

	"Because," Artemis explained, "then you were a little
girl, who was entrusted with the job of saying the
world, but now... Now, you have grown up into the
princess I knew you would grow up into."

	Usagi smiled, thinly.

	"I just wish that it hadn't taken this long for me to
grow up... I just wish Mamo-chan was here..."

	"I know, pri... Usagi. But the past is the past and
you've to let go of it and move on..."

	"You're very wise, Artemis. I'm glad to have a friend
in you."

	"Thank you, Usagi."

	"In fact, I'm very glad to have two such friends by
my side... I just wish that I'd listened to your
advise earlier," Usagi said, ruefully.

	Uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was
leading to, Luna interrupted, before Usagi drowned
herself in more depression.

	"The way you dealt with the outers was a little
high-handed, Usagi. Did you really have to punish them
so?" she asked.

	Usagi took her own sweet time, formulating a reply.

	"I... I think I did right thing. They've roamed free,
without anyone to control them and I think what
happened, yesterday, was a reflection on my
capability, or rather my lack thereof, as a leader. I
want to move forward... to become better, to guard the
innocent and I can't do that by letting things remain
the way they were... They've to change, Luna, and I'll
make them, even if I have to beat it into them... I...
I..." Usagi trailed off, her words failing her and her
cheeks flushing with emotion.

	"Then, so shall it be, Princess serenity. So shall it
be," Artemis pronounced.

	"Yes," Luna said, "we shall stand by your side
through this mess and we shall see it through to the
end."

	"Thank you," Usagi murmured, her eyes glittering with
tears, but never straying to the side towards Luna in
search of comfort as she had to appear strong for both
her people and herself.

	Luna and Artemis looked at her in concern, but
decided to give her the room she needed and followed a
couple of steps behind her.

	The rest of the journey continued in relative peace
with Usagi asking the two transformed cats questions
about the Silver Millennium at sporadic intervals and
they, answering them as best as they could. Finally,
after half an hour of slow marching, they reached the
Hikawa shrine's front gates.

	"Um... Usagi, I think we should transform back into
our normal selves now," Luna said.

	Usagi shook her head.

	"Nonsense, Luna, we'll go in there the way you and
Artemis look right now," she said with a hint of
cheeriness in her voice. The walk with the two cats
had improved her mood some.

	"Okay..."

	"Let's go in, shall we?" Usagi asked.

	The other two nodded and followed her into the shrine
grounds.

	Inside, Rei, Makoto and Minako seemed to be in the
midst of a group hug and Usagi decided to let them be,
signaling to her two advisors to not disturb the
sanctity of the moment. Finally, they broke the hug
and Usagi choose to break the silence.

	"It's nice to see that my friends are getting along,
finally," she said.
 
	The three inners turned and saw her standing there
with two nicely dressed strangers.

	"Usagi, where have you been?" Rei asked.

	"Out," the blond replied, enigmatically, "meeting the
outers."

	Rei did not know whether to smile, or be angry at the
blond. The bubbly blond seemed to be getting out once
again, which was good, but with her, came the annoying
brat that she found so irritating and that was bad.

	"Usagi, you're back," Rei stated, choosing to ignore
her annoyance at the moment and closing the distance
between them, grabbing her in a crushing bear hug.

	"And apparently," Artemis quipped from the side, "she
won't be staying very long either if you keep crushing
her like that for just a little longer."

	Bam! Bam!

	Artemis rubbed the sore spots on his head, glaring at
both Rei and Luna.

	"You didn't have to hit me that hard, you know?" he
complained, meekly, seeing the angry expressions on
their faces.

	"Yeah, but we had to," Luna replied on both their
behalf.

	Rei was only happy to nod, releasing Usagi from the
hug.

	"Thank you," Usagi said, taking several mouthful of
air at once in an effort to recover from the ordeal.

	Rei blushed.

	"seriously, Usagi," Makoto piped up, "what happened
to you? You look... new?"

	"Yeah! Me too," Minako added.

	"Huh? It's the same old me," Usagi replied.

	"No, you're not," all three replied in unison. They
had Luna's and Artemis's support too, as the two cats
nodded from the sidelines.

	"..."

	Makoto continued.

	"Yeah, you're most... I don't know... Some of the
sadness seems to have fled you..."

	That statement blackened the mood some and Usagi's
face drooped a little.

	"Oh!"

	Recognizing her mistake, Makoto continued.

	"But it's not a bad thing... You have to leave the
past behind, after all..."

	"Yeah, I suppose..."

	The silence that followed was awkward.

	"Where did you go, Usagi, why did you call for this
meeting and who are your friends?" Rei asked, finally
breaking it.

	"For the first question, I was at the park. For the
second, I was meeting the outers and as for the..."

	Usagi never got any further as Rei interrupted her.

	"Hush! We can't about that kind of stuff in front of
strangers," she said, casting a glance towards the
Luna and Artemis. "No offense to you two, of course."

	"None taken, Miss..." Artemis replied, getting into
the act.

	"It's all right, Rei-chan," Usagi said, giggling a
little. "These two 'people' aren't strangers at all.
In fact, they are Luna and Artemis."

	"But... But... How?"

	"We can transform into this form if we want to, Rei,
but it's not something we like to do often," Artemis
explained.

	"Oh!"

	"Usagi, why did you meet the outers at the park? You
could've met them here anytime you wanted," Makoto
asked when Rei showed no signs of continuing the
conversation.

	Usagi walked in and took a seat, taking her own sweet
time to make herself comfortable before answering.

	"Well?" Makoto asked, again.

	"I wanted to talk to them about yesterday," Usagi
replied, her complexion darkening slightly. "I wanted
the conversation to be private..."

	"Then why take Luna and Artemis with you," Makoto
asked. "It's obvious they have been with you through
this evening."

	"They were with me 'cause I asked them too. I
could've asked my loyal friends and advisors, but
seeing that they were hell bent on fighting with the
outers, it didn't seem like the most prudent thing to
do."

	Makoto flinched at the remark, but kept her peace.
They had been the ones at fault, the day before, and
Usagi was right in pointing it out, though she could
have done a much better job.

	Usagi's face softened considerably on seeing the hurt
look on the faces of the three inners.

	"I'm sorry for taking my frustration out at you," she
said. "But what you did yesterday was unforgivable..."

	"We know," Minako said. "We're sorry and we want to
make it up to you."

	The other two inners looked at her with raised
eyebrows, but Usagi failed to notice it.

	"How? I haven't got a lot of time on my hands..."

	"Oh, c'mon, Usagi, it'll be fun," Minako replied,
quickly getting into the act. "We'll have a girl's
night out and we'll go to the movies, the park...
anyplace that takes your fancy."

	Usagi thought about it for a couple of moments before
nodding.

	"All right, we can do it this Friday."

	Minako opened her mouth to reply, but the
communicator beat her to it.

	Bee-Boop! Bee-Boop!

	Usagi was the first to take out her communicator and
flip it open. Ami's face greeted her.

	"Ami-chan..."

	"Usagi..." Ami paused. "Are the others with you?"

	"Yes, they are," Usagi replied. seeing the hurried
expression on Ami's face, she continued, "Is
everything all right?"

	"Thank God," Ami said on the other side of the line.
"Usagi can you get the others and come to my current
location as soon as you can."

	"Sure, Ami-chan, you want us to transform..."

	There was a slight hesitation on Ami's part.

	"Yes, do so... I think it'll be easier that way."

	"Okay..."

	"Great, I'll be leaving my communicator open so you
can find me... see you later."

	"Umm... Ami-chan..."

	"Yes, Usagi..."

	"How exactly do we find you?" the blond, future queen
of Earth asked.

	Ami took a deep breath.

	"As I said before, I'm leaving my communicator
open... All you've to do to find me is focus on
finding me and the communicator will show you where I
am."

	"I can do that."

	"see you later, then," Ami said and vanished.

	"Okay, let's go get Ami, shall we?" Usagi said,
eyeing the inners, who had gathered around her.

	"Is she all right?" Rei asked. Ami had seemed
agitated during the conversation and she was afraid
that Ami had got herself into some sort of trouble.

	"I don't think so, but we can't be sure. So, I think
it'd be better if we get to her as soon as possible."

	The five of them nodded.

	"Good! Luna and Artemis remain here, the rest of you
follow me."

***********************************************************************

	Ami closed the communicator without turning it off
and cast her eyes at Ranma, who had been standing by
her side all along.

	"It's done... They'll be here shortly."

	Ranma nodded.

	"I... I can't tell you how grateful I am," he said,
sincerely.

	"I'm sure you would've done the same thing if you
were in our position, sensei," Ami replied, amicably.

	"Still, I'm much indebted to you... I know that
giving up your secret wasn't easy for you."

	Ami nodded.

	"What do we do now?" she asked.

	"We wait," he replied. "The kidnappers said they'd
call me back in another hour and a half, and there
isn't much we can do until they contact us."

	Ami nodded, once again.

	"Now," Ranma paused. "If you'll please come with me
Ami-chan, I've a few other things to take care of," he
said and turned around to walk out of the room.

	Ryuu and Akane chose that moment to make their
appearance. Akane spoke first.

	"sensei," she said with barely restrained anger.
"Ryuu tells me that some buffoons kidnapped Kasumi. Is
that true?"

	Ranma nodded, shooting the younger Saotome a glare,
causing him to flinch.

	"I thought I made my feelings on the subject clear,
little brother..."

	"I... er..."

	Ranma shook his head.

	"It's all right, I guess, though I'd have been
prouder had you obeyed my words."

	Ryuu hung his head in shame.

	"sensei, is it true?" Akane asked, a little hotly.
She had not interrupted the conversation as it would
have been rude, but now that it was over, she was
going to get her answers one way or the other.

	"Yes, it is."

	Akane's anger deflated immediately, and was replaced
by shock and disbelief.

	"Why?"

	"They wanted to get at me, Akane, but since they
couldn't, they took Kas-chan to use her as a
bargaining chip."

	"Oh!" Pause. "What're we going to do about them?"

	"What am 'I' going to do about them, Akane, since you
aren't going to take any part in this affair. I'm
going to get her back and then, I'm going to tear them
apart, piece by piece, limb by limb," Ranma said, his
voice sending shivers through everyone's spine.

	"Um... Okay..." Akane replied, meekly.

	Ranma turned towards Ryuu.

	"Did you find father and the grandmaster?" he asked.

	Ryuu nodded. Yes, he had.

	"They are waiting for you at the hall even as we
speak," he said.

	Ranma nodded slightly, once.

	"We'll meet them there then," Ranma said, heading
towards the door.

	"Um... Brother, isn't she going home?" Ryuu asked,
pointing at Ami.

	"No. I've asked her to stay here... For purposes
which I'd rather not talk about right now," Ranma
turned to Ami. "Please, join us, Ami-chan. I'm sure
that you'd like to meet the other inhabitants of this
house."

	Ami nodded.

	"Good. Follow me, children," Ranma said and walked
out of the room.

***********************************************************************

	Dr. Ataru Mikagami was having a bad day.

	The morning had started simply enough, with his wife
shouting at him, for forgetting about their date the
night before. And as usual, he had paid her no heed,
preparing for his shift at the hospital while she
blabbed about some this and some that. Truly, the
woman must have been the devil's wife during her last
incarnation.

	They said that marriages were made in heaven and if
that expression was true, then he was sure that he'd
rather end up in hell than in heaven... Hell might be
hot, but it sure would not be as noisy as his beloved
wife, who did not seem to realize that he loved her
very much. In fact, the more he fell in love with her,
the more she fought.

	He had blown her a kiss as he had gotten out the
door, his car keys in one hand and a hastily prepared
sandwich, his breakfast, on the other. By the time he
had gotten to the hospital, his blood pressure, which
was always high early morning, thanks to his
significant other, had dropped considerably. No wonder
his colleagues thought that he was a little tense
around the house... With a woman like her to share the
bed with, who wouldn't be?

	He had entered the hospital premises, a permanent
smile on his face, greeting his friends and
colleagues, before getting down to the business of
saving lives. Thankfully, there hadn't been any new
admittances into the trauma ward while he was off-duty
and he had breathed a sigh of relief.

	Working in the trauma ward was not easy and Ataru
would be the first to tell you, but he enjoyed saving
lives and even though the working hours were pure
murder, he would never have it any other way. People,
hurt beyond belief were apt to show up in speeding
ambulances at all sorts of God forsaken hours and he
saved them, sewing up their mangled bodies and
stabilizing them so that they could be operated on by
the other doctors in the hospital, who were there for
just that.

	And today had been like any other day. There had been
no sign of patients all through the morning, but just
as his fifteen minute lunch break ended, the first
ambulance had come in, bearing a fifteen year old with
a badly mangled leg, which had been broken when one of
the ten gallon containers in the kid's garage had
fallen on him. The boy had been barely conscious,
muttering something about his mother repeatedly in his
delirium. Thankfully, the EMTs in the ambulance had
done their job and did it well, stabilizing the kid's
vital signs, though there was little they could do
about his leg. He had set it right, of course, with a
speed that was characteristic to his job and he had
hoped, no prayed, that the kid would be the last one
for the day.

	He could not have been more wrong.

	The boy had been the first one, a sort of probe sent,
without doubt, by bored Gods, to test the efficacy of
the doctors at the trauma ward and he had been
followed by thirteen others. Eight of them had been
involved in a road accidents and domestic ones around
the prefecture, and the other five had been involved
in fights, or some such equally ridiculous incident.
One had not survived, her brain had been too damaged
and for too long deprived of oxygen for even the
miracles of modern medicine to bring her back. Like
the rest of his colleagues, Ataru had taken it all in
stride, having come to terms with the more disturbing
facets of his profession a long time ago.

	And finally, when his shift was about to end and he
had been preparing to return home for the day, he had
been called to attend to another patient. A girl, a
foreigner apparently, had been the victim of a violent
crime and he was asked to attend to her.

	A phone call and a few loud minutes later, he was
headed for his patient, ready for anything, or so, he
had thought.

	He had not been.

	When he had seen her for the first time, he had,
involuntarily, gulped in fear.

	Ataru had trained in Kenpo when he was younger and
was a third dan in the art. He knew a martial artist
when he saw one and he knew that he would not have
been able to stand up to the girl on his best day with
her being at her weakest. Perhaps that was the reason
why he felt tendrils of fear shoot down his spine when
he saw the condition she was in.

	The girl had been a mass of bruises, with a couple of
broken ribs, which thankfully, had not pierced her
lungs and a concussion to her head. Her left eye had
been swollen shut, and her lower lip broken and
bleeding. He had recovered from his shock quickly and
he had patched her up, treating her injuries as best
as he could, preparing her for the more serious
surgical procedures, which were to come, before the
girl could be allowed to recover in a bed, surrounded
by the grizzly, life-saving contraptions of modern
medicine.

	Now, with all his work done, he sat beside the girl,
thinking about what the girl's condition meant for him
and the other citizens of Tokyo and waiting for the
call to rush her to the operation theater. Whoever had
beat her up must have been as skilled, if not more
skilled than the masters of the art he trained under
and he shivered thinking about the skill required to
beat them.

	It just did not get any worse than the scenario he
was faced with. Having a violent maniac on the loose
was bad enough, but having a highly skilled violent
maniac on the loose was truly the stuff of horrifying
nightmares.

	~Dr. Mikagami...~

	Shaken out of his thoughts, Ataru started and almost
knocked a tray to the ground as he stood up and turned
around to meet whoever had called him.

	It was a westerner - a lady with an effected air of
aloofness, flanked by sub-machine gun bearing men. Two
Americans and a JDF soldier to be exact.

	"Who're you?" Ataru asked, heatedly. When he got his
hands on the fool who had let armed men into the
hospital, he was going to tear his and his mother's
heart out.

	"Please, Dr..." the woman flicked a couple of pages
on the folder, which on closer examination turned out
to be his, in her hands. "Mikagami, speak in English.
My colleagues," she pointed to the two Americans
behind her. "Can't understand your language and
they've been instructed to deal with any threats, be
they verbal and implied, or physical with extreme
prejudice," she said, pointing to the guns. "Will you
do that, doc?"

	Ataru felt cold shivers race down his spine. *What's
going on here?*

	~Yes.~

	The woman smiled.

	~That's better.~ She extended her hand. ~I'm Miss.
Palmer.~

	It was the way that her hands moved. Ataru could feel
the grace in them and knew that this was one very
dangerous and very skilled woman he was facing.

	~A pleasure to meet you, Miss. Palmer. What can I do
for you?~

	~I have been informed that you treated this girl. Is
that correct?~

	Nod.

	~Is she going to be all right?~

	~Yes. Why are you asking these questions?~

	Miss. Palmer pointed towards Shampoo.

	~I'm a friend of her's, doc. That's all you need to
know, for now.~

	Ataru nodded. He had seen her type before while
serving in the JDF and he had no wish to mingle with
them.

	~As you wish,~ he replied, shooting a resigned look
at his 'guest'.

	Miss. Palmer raised an eyebrow at his antic. If it
meant what she thought it meant, then it would save
her a lot of trouble on the public relations side. The
good doctor would leave her alone to do her work
without asking any unnecessary questions and more
importantly, he would keep his mouth shut unless she
asked him not to.

	~I see you have dealt with my kind before,~ she
asked, amusedly.

	Nod.

	~Yes.~

	~JDF, perhaps?~

	Again, a nod.

	~Excellent. You know, then, what I'm after!~

	Nod. He may not have a clear picture of what an
intelligence officer was doing in a hospital, looking
after, of all things, a little girl, but he had his
suspicions. And it wouldn't matter if he answered that
he had no idea why she was there. The woman would
never let him, or any other 'civilian' for that
matter, be a part of her secret world either way.

	Miss. Palmer nodded once in reply and tilted her head
towards Shampoo.

	~Miss. Shampoo, here, is a very important person and
I've been ordered to guard her at all costs. My men'll
take positions throughout the premises of this
hospital and the surrounding perimeter, and we've
informed your superiors of our intentions. This," she
produced a sheet, "is a letter authorizing me to do
anything I need to do to get the job done from the
powers that be. From this moment on, no unnecessary
personnel will be allowed to roam through the halls
and visitors will be kept to the barest minimum...~

	Ataru opened his mouth to reply, but Miss. Palmer
raised her hand into the air, stalling him.

	~Let me finish what I'm saying, doc. After that, you
can complain all you want,~ she said in a very
militaresque tone.

	Ataru locked eyes with her, but she did not back down
and reluctantly, he did. There were some battles that
you cannot win and his brain told him that this was
one of them.

	~Moreover, I'm placing this girl under your care...~

	~I'm a goddamn trauma surgeon,~ Ataru replied, his
rage getting the better of him. How dare she come to
his hospital and order him around as if he were
nothing? And how dare she put the lives of innocents
at risk? ~It would be foolish to place her under my
care... I lack the sufficient expertise to treat her
injuries, even though I was once trained for the
same.~

	Miss. Palmer paid his speech no heed and continued
from where she had left off, when Ataru was finished
speaking.

	~You learned once, doc, I'm sure you'll remember
it...~

	Ataru opened his mouth to protest, once again, but
Miss. Palmer shot him a glare.

	~I'm in command of this situation, doc, and I don't
take disobedience very well. Are we clear?~

	Ataru nodded, very reluctantly.

	~Good. I want you to give her your complete
attention... Look after no other patient, but her.~

	~If there's no one else to receive...~

	~You will not leave her side even if a 8.3 magnitude
earthquake hits Tokyo. You will let the other
emergency personnel and services to tend to the
wounded, but you will not leave her side to take care
of another. She will be your first priority through
the course of her stay. Is that clear?~

	~Crystal.~

	~It's all settled then. Please, attend to your
patient while I give orders to my men. I'll be back to
you shortly.~

	Ataru nodded and sat down on the chair besides
Shampoo.

	*Shampoo, is it? Such a queer name, for such a
beautiful face,* he thought as he cast his eyes on her
face.

	Sure, Shampoo's face looked all beat up and plowed
through, but it did not take a genius to figure out
that she had been a real sight for sore eyes before
her run-in with whatever demon that prowled Tokyo's
dark streets.

	As Ataru was brooding about the latest developments
and the intelligence officer in his hospital, Miss.
Palmer addressed her men.

	~Johnson, stand guard by that door. Look sharp and be
on the alert!~

	~Yes, ma'am,~ Johnson, the tallest one, replied and
trotted off to his post.

	~Carson, you and private Kaoru will stand guard by
Miss. Shampoo. Under no circumstances are you to leave
her unattended for even a single moment. I'll send
someone to relieve this post every four hours.~

	~Yes, ma'am,~ two voices, one with an American and
the other, with a Japanese accent hollered in as loud
a voice as was permissible inside a hospital and the
two soldiers took their positions.

	Having attended to her men, Miss. Palmer turned to
Ataru, once more.

	"Doc, can you spare a few minutes?" she asked, in
crystal clear Japanese.

	Ataru looked shocked that she could speak his
language so well, without even the slightest trace of
an accent, but managed to overcome it and nod.

	"Yes. Her condition is stable and I think I can spare
a minute, or two."

	"Then, you wouldn't mind filling me in on Miss.
Shampoo's condition over a cup of coffee, will you?"

	"No, I don't mind at all."

	"Lead the way then, doc."

***********************************************************************

	{{Yes, yes, I understand, Miss...}}

	{{Sakura...}}

	{{Miss. Sakura, but you have to try and look at
things from where I stand...}}

	{{Of course, Cologne-san, but we've a hospital to run
and nearly a thousand patients to care for and keep
track off... And as you can imagine, it's hectic at
all times and some mistakes are bound to be made...}}

	{{I understand your situation, Sakura-san, but I'm
really concerned about my granddaughter and would be
most glad if you'd check and see whether she has been
admitted in your hospital, or not.}}

	There was a brief pause on the other side of the
line.

	{{Tell you what, Cologne-san, you give me your phone
number and I'll get back to you after I've completed a
search for any patient admitted within the last day
with features resembling your granddaughter's.}}

	{{That would be wonderful, Sakura-san, but I wouldn't
want to impose on you... Your workload as it is, must
be huge...}}

	{{Nonsense, Cologne-san. I know that I couldn't live
with myself if I didn't help you now. I have
grandchildren of my own and I know how you must feel
right now, having lost my girl once.}}

	{{Thank you very much, Sakura-san. My phone number
is,}} Cologne gave the Qin residence phone number and
after a few more pleasantries, hung up.

	"Whew! I never thought that it would be so hard to
find someone in a hospital before now," she said,
aloud.

	"Need any help?"

	Cologne looked into Nabiki's helpful face and arched
her eyebrow. She was still peeved that the middle
Tendo had sold Shampoo and Kasumi out.

	"No!" she replied, without even pausing to consider
the offer.

	Happousai raised an eyebrow at the speed with which
she had given her answer, but Cologne paid him no
heed. She felt justified in what she was doing to the
middle Tendo.

	Nabiki sat by Cologne, even though she had not been
invited too. The sat there, alongside one another, for
the next couple of minutes, with Cologne frantically
going through the yellow pages and Nabiki sitting
there, looking disappointed. The men, for their part,
sat quietly, with Soun and Genma whispering amongst
themselves every couple of seconds or so. Happousai
sat taking a puff out of his pipe, his face clouded
with a brooding look. Altogether, the air was filled
with a pregnant silence that made the atmosphere
between the two women more intriguing.

	"You know," Nabiki spoke at last. "I would never sell
out my family."

	"Do I now?" Cologne asked. "You associate with the
Yakuza, blackmail your own kith and kin for a couple
of hundred yen, from what I heard of you from Ryuu,
and will do anything for money.... Now, what do you
think makes me think that you'd sold them out?"

	Nabiki's face clouded with anger and a hint of
another unrecognizable emotion, but she quickly
quenched both of them and restrained herself, a
little.

	"You have no idea," she said, louder than she had
planned to, "no idea at all of who, or what I am. What
gives you the right to pass judgment upon me?"

	Cologne met Nabiki's challenging gaze calmly.

	"'Cause I'm fairly sure that you sold them out..."
she replied after a second.

	Nabiki opened her mouth to retort, but no words, no
seething replies came out and she closed her mouth.
She took a deep breath to compose herself and her
thoughts, and then, tried, again.

	"I know, I haven't been the world's best daughter, or
even the world's best sister... I have done a lot of
things that even the most loathsome bastard on the
face of this planet would be ashamed of, but I'm not a
backstabber. I maybe many things in this world - I
maybe the cruelest bitch, or the bitch-whore as some
of my ex-associates call me behind my back, but I'm
not and I will never be the backstabber, who sold her
family and friends out for a piece of gold, or
silver," Nabiki said, laying stress on the
ex-associates.

	Cologne remained silent, waiting for Nabiki to
continue.

	"When mother died, father..." Nabiki laughed emptily,
her words sounding hoarse and dry to her. "I still
have trouble calling him father..." Pause. "He
abandoned us... We had no one to look after us, none
of those loving relatives and none of those friends
that hound you as if you're the Almighty herself, when
you are rich and powerful... Let's accept it, my
family isn't exactly rich and we had to look out for
ourselves...

	"Do you know how it feels like to be ten and hungry
all the time?" Nabiki asked, a haunted look on her
face. "Do you know how it feels like to be ten and
worry about when you'd eat the next meal? Do you?" she
asked.

	Cologne shook her head.

	"I do."

	Cologne did not reply. Soun and the others had
stopped what they were doing and were looking at
Nabiki with a new understanding. Soun, for his part,
realized yet another of his failings as a father and
he sat, his eyes wide and staring at his daughter,
quietly shedding tears for his family - the family
that he had all but destroyed.

	"I know that I should be ashamed of myself," Nabiki
continued. "But to tell you the truth, I'm not and I
never will be. I did it for my family, at first; but
the fear of going back to the life - the torture that
was my life before was too terrifying... I forged on,
the only way I could... This society for all its
advancements and miracles, still does almost nothing
for the poor... They're left to rot - to die in the
streets and there's no helping hand - no concerned
citizen, who gives them the support they need to get
out of the hell-holes that is their life... I lived in
that hellhole once and I never want to repeat that
experience again. To that end, I was prepared to do
anything and I did. I did the only thing I could... I
became the whore that every man and woman respected,
and was afraid of... But never, never did I become a
backstabber... I have some honor left, elder, though
I'd be most surprised if it's enough to fill a peg."

	"And what do you want now?" Cologne asked, after
Nabiki had finished her speech.

	"I... I may not be able to undo the actions of my
past, but I want to atone for them... Will..." she
looked around the room, her eyes meeting her father's,
his friend's, his master's and finally, Cologne. "Will
you give me a chance to prove myself?"

	"That isn't mine to offer," Cologne said after a
pause. "The chance was always there, waiting for you
to take it, girl, but remember this, fail this once
and no one in this house will trust you, or call you a
friend again."

	Nabiki nodded.

	"I don't plan on failing it as I don't intend on
letting those bastards get away with hurting Kasumi."

	Cologne eyed Nabiki for what seemed like an eternity
to the girl, weighing her against some impossibly
accurate ancient scale. Finally, she nodded.

	"You can start by remembering the names of all the
hospitals in the end of this ward."

	Shooting a little smile of gratitude at the older
woman, Nabiki begun her recital.

***********************************************************************

	Ranma paused at the foot of the door to the hall to
organize his thoughts some and entered it.
Immediately, the people in the room, all five of them,
turned towards him and shot him questioning looks.

	"Is what the boy said true?" Genma asked, a slightly
panicky tone in his voice.

	"When did it happen?" Happousai asked.

	Ranma raised his hand and made them pause.

	"Please, one question at a time."

	"Is what the boy said true?" Genma repeated.

	Ranma nodded.

	"Yes. Kasumi and Shampoo have been kidnapped... I'm
most sure that we're dealing with the Yakuza."

	"The Yakuza couldn't take out Shampoo even if all
them attacked her at once," he scoffed. "Are you
telling me that they managed to beat up Shampoo and
kidnap Kasumi?"

	"You're right. The Yakuza couldn't lay a hand on
Shampoo on their best day... But the Ashuras that're
helping them can."

	"Wha?" both master and pupil chorused together.

	Nabiki, who did not know about the Ashura's raised
gave Cologne a questioning look.

	"Shh!" Cologne replied, quietly. "I'll explain about
those abominations to you later."

	Nabiki nodded and concentrated on the conversation
that was going on.

	"I'm not sure whether the Yakuza are aware of who
their helpers are, but I'm pretty sure that the
Ashuras know who and what we are..."

	"But..." Happousai begun. "But that's impossible!"

	"No, grandmaster," Ranma replied. "It's not. The
chances were slim enough to be considered
non-existent, but the chance was always there... Now,
we have to set things right."

	"Where do you we start?" Happousai asked.

	"I've enlisted some help, but I'm not sure whether
it'll enough. I could make a few phone calls, but I'm
not certain of success in that area as well."

	"And who would be our allies?"

	"Patience, grandmaster. The identity of our allies
will be revealed in a few minutes, but I there's
something much more important that needs to be done
now."

	"Huh?"

	Ranma pointed at Soun's drooped figure, which sat
almost lifeless in the corner of the couch.

	"How is he?" he asked.

	Genma replied in the place of his master.

	"He's taken this hard... Much more than the time
Akane was kidnapped by the Phoenix."

	Ranma nodded, once.

	"Will he be all right?"

	Genma shook his head.

	"No," he replied, casting a concerned glance at Soun.
"He has remained this way since Nabiki," he cast a
glance at the middle daughter, "explained her actions
to the elder and begged forgiveness."

	Ranma patted Genma on his shoulder.

	"Don't worry, father. I'm sure that Tendo-sensei will
be back to normal in no time at all."

	Genma nodded.

	"I'm not sure... I know him better than anybody and I
can see that something within him is broken...
Something, irreplaceable..."

	Ranma cast a glance at Soun.

	"Try to do what you can for him, father. I think
Kasumi will be able to bring him around."

	"I'll do that," Genma said and put his arm around
Soun.

	Ranma looked at Soun for a second before turning to
Cologne.

	"Any luck with Shampoo?"

	"No... we've been trying to locate her, but so far,
we haven't had much success."

	"We?" Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow.

	"Yes, Nabiki, here, has graciously agreed to help me
locate Shampoo."

	"Excellent."

	"Which brings us to the original question: How are we
going to rescue Kasumi?" Happousai asked, jutting in
on the conversation.

	"That's easily taken care of, grandmaster. I believe
that I have secured the help of some powerful people
in this matter," Ranma said, shooting Ami a glance
through the corner of his eyes.

	"And who would it be?"

	Ranma turned to Ami.

	"Everyone, this is Ami Mizuno, one of Ryuu's
classmates and she's one of the people who's going to
help us get Kasumi back," he stated calmly.

	"Are you out of your mind, Ranma?" Happousai said in
a measured tone. "What help can a little girl like her
offer to us?"

	"Yeah! That's what I'd like to know..." Nabiki said
in agreement.

	"A lot, actually," Ranma replied. "She's one of the
sailors and she has agreed to help us."

	Happousai threw up his hands.

	"I don't believe it. Are you saying that a bunch of
teenage vigilantes who depend on our help to win
fights are going to help us?"

	"Yes, I am," Ranma continued, calmly.

	"How?"

	"For one thing, their inclusion will increase our
numbers some and against the opponents we face,
strength in numbers will be a blessing."

	"I'll accept that the Ashura's are incredibly
powerful opponents... Heaven knows they are. But I'm
not sure whether these vigilantes will not be
handicaps in the battle, let alone stand up to them."

	"Against the more powerful ones, they cannot,
grandmaster. That's where we come in."

	Happousai brought his hand to his chin, unconsciously
stroking his beard as he brooded over Ranma's plan.

	"Your plan would work - provided luck is with us, but
even then, I'll not be comfortable with it. Couldn't
you have got us better allies?"

	"I could... And I can, but they'll take too long... I
don't think even my friends in the government can
mobilize the forces needed in the short span of time
we have in our hands... This is our only option,
grandmaster, unless you have some other allies that we
can count on."

	Happousai shook his head.

	"It'll be the sailors then."

	"Anything you want to add, Ami-chan?" Ranma asked.

	"No, sensei. I don't have anything useful to
contribute to this conversation," Ami replied,
stepping forward.

	"Very well, then. Perhaps you could tell us about
your little group? There certainly are a lot of wild
stories running around about your group's origins."

	Ami glanced around nervously at the others in the
room.

	"Do they have to remain?" she asked.

	"Yes, I'm afraid they have to. You'll be placing your
life in their hands before long and they'll be placing
theirs on yours. As such, there can't be any mistrust
between you and them."

	Ami nodded.

	"You're right, I guess."

	Ranma nodded and seated himself between Happousai and
Genma.

	"Please, proceed with your story, then, Ami-chan."

	Clearing her throat, Ami begun.

	"We're actually reincarnated princesses from a time
long gone when the Solar system was united under the
benevolent leadership of the house of serenity. We're
here to restore that very same kingdom, which was
destroyed so long ago and spread the peace that
reigned through the Solar system, once more..."

	"I don't believe it," Happousai said, his hands
clasped behind his back. "Even those legends are
true!"

	"Me neither," Cologne agreed.

	"My sentiments exactly," Ranma added.

	"Huh?" both Ami and Akane said.

	"You just proved true, a bunch of old legends that
the entire martial artist community thought to be a
well crafted lie," explained Ranma. "Of course, in my
view and in the view of many others, the Silver
Millennium was hardly the paradise that you make it
out to be..."

	Ami looked at Ranma with wide eyes.

	"Oh, c'mon, you honestly didn't think that there'd be
no records, no rumors, of such an era in some long
forgotten corner of the world, did you?" Ranma asked.

	Ami shook her head.

	"But still..."

	"Yeah, I know, it surprised you, didn't it?"

	Ami nodded.

	"But..."

	Ranma shook his head.

	"There's always a clue somewhere, Ami-chan, you just
have to know where to look for it. Of course, there
were clues strewn about, waiting for the correct man
to come by and connect them all together... And as a
matter of fact, someone came and did just that. No one
believed him, of course, but myths do not die easily
and right now, there are probably a hundred, or more
people out there who know much of the Silver
Millennium's history."

	Ami nodded, slowly, taking in this new development as
best as she could.

	"Still, you have to accept it's pretty farfetched. I
mean, who would believe that a group of vigilantes
fighting to keep the streets of Tokyo safe from
monsters are the reincarnations of the princesses of a
long dead kingdom," Happousai said, casually.

	"We aren't vigilantes," Ami replied, taking offense
at being repeatedly referred to as vigilantes.

	"Oh, then what would you call your little group,
then?" Ranma asked.

	"I..."

	"There's no need to be ashamed of who you are,
Ami-chan. All that matters is that you do the people
of this city good. The people in this room are willing
to live with that and so should you. What people call
you and your friends matters not at all."

	Ami nodded.

	"Ryuu?"

	Ryuu looked up at Ranma and smiled, faintly.

	"Yes, brother."

	"I'm sure that you and Akane have a lot of unanswered
questions in your mind about Ami and her friends. I'm
sure that she'll be happy to explain them to you."

	Ryuu nodded.

	"However, the explanation must wait a little longer.
This is certainly not the time, nor the place for it."

	Once again, Ryuu nodded.

	"Would you mind fetching us all a cup of tea?" Ranma
asked, taking a look around the room.

	"Of course," Ryuu said and excused himself from the
room.

	Ranma then, turned to Ami.

	"When will your friends arrive?" he asked.

	"They'll be here soon," she replied.

	Ranma nodded, turning to face the group.

	"Father, where's mother? I haven't seen her around
the house..."

	"I think she's off shopping, though I'm not sure,"
Genma replied.

	"She went to the Saotome residence to check up on
things and clean the house..." Cologne supplied,
pausing briefly in her work.

	"Oh!" Ranma paused. "In that case, can I use the
telephone for a minute, elder. I have to tell her
about Kasumi's kidnapping and tell her to come here,
lest they try to kidnap her too."

	Cologne nodded.

	"Of course, gra... Ranma," Cologne said. She had
watched the way Ranma had handled the sailor and knew
that he was deliberately keeping a lot of things from
her while extracting as much information from her as
he could. If Ranma did not want reveal everything
about himself to the sailors, then she'd too.

	Nod.

	"Thanks, elder," Ranma said, gratefully.

	Cologne moved aside, giving way to Ranma. He took her
seat and dialed the Saotome residence, trying to keep
the nagging feeling that Nodoka too was taken from
taking control of him.

	The phone rang nearly half a dozen times, by which
Ranma had decided that Nodoka was in trouble. Just as
he was about to hang up, someone picked up the phone.

	{{Hello...}}

***********************************************************************

	*It's amazing how much dirt gathers in a house, even
though I have been away from it for only a few days,*
Nodoka mused as she dusted the table in her kitchen.

	She had arrived a couple of hours earlier, happy with
the way things had gone between Ranma and Kasumi, only
to almost faint when she had seen all the dust around
that had gathered during her brief absence in the
Saotome ancestral home. The plants in the garden too,
had suffered a lot, and quite a few of them were
already showing signs of wilting. She had made
watering them her first priority and now, two hours
later, most of them had recovered, looking as healthy
as ever. And the ones that had not were all well on
the way to recovery, which brightened Nodoka's mood a
little. She had spent countless hours trying to bring
her garden to the level of perfection it had risen to
and she did not want to see all her work laid to
waste.

	And now, with almost all the work done, Nodoka
allowed herself to think about what the future that
would most likely befall the Saotome residence. For a
hundred and fifty years, the Saotomes had lived on the
grounds... And while it was true that the one that
stood now was not the one that had been originally
built on the site, it was still every bit as
traditional and as beautiful as the old one, which had
been destroyed during the American bombing campaign of
World War II by one of the countless bombs dropped
from the B-29 bombers, or the B-sans as the Japanese
respectfully called them. It did not matter to her at
all that she had never seen the old house once in her
life. Her grandmother had said so and Nodoka believed
her.

	There was a simplicity, a beauty about the house that
few, if any of the modern Japanese high rise
structures and the two, or three floor houses that
were so common in Tokyo could ever hope to match,
which attracted Nodoka to the place as if the two of
them were long lost lovers and she regretted having to
leave it, even though she would be united with her
husband and two sons if she did.

	In Nodoka's eyes, the new house, for all the beauty
and the advantages that it offered could never compare
to the ancestral home. It was a mere expression of the
success her first born had reached in his life - a
symbol of his power - whereas the Saotome home was a
part of family history filled with memories of a
happier time - an inseparable part of her family.

	*Perhaps Ranma could be convinced to move out of that
house and into his ancestral home,* she thought to
herself, as she absent-mindedly swiped a tiny fleck of
dust with her linen. *Yes, it'd be nice if he did...*

	Bee-Boop! Bee-Boop! Bee-Boop!

	Nodoka sighed disappointedly at having her thoughts
interrupted by the telephone and let it ring a couple
of times, before walking up to it.

	{{Hello...}} the familiar voice of Ranma said as soon
as she brought the instrument to her ear.

	There seemed to be sense of urgency in his voice, but
Nodoka chose to ignore it, deciding to conduct the
conversation at a more sedate pace.

	{{Son?}}

	{{Mother...}} The words were said with relief and
longing?, followed by a very impressive sigh of joy,
much like the ones lovers are apt to make, on the
other end.

	There was nothing wrong with the sigh at all, though
it would have been considered inappropriate by most
people. *I'm his mother, after all,* Nodoka thought
and with that thought came a dull pain in her chest.
Once, when she had held his minutes old form in her
hands, she had felt that pain and now, she was feeling
it again. She had recognized it as her love for him
then, and now, she realized that she was falling in
love with her son all over again. *Son, I love you...*

	{{Mother, are you all right?}}

	Ranma's voice brought Nodoka back to reality and she
started, her left hand clutching at the spot where the
pain was most acute.

	{{Of course, I'm all right, dear.}}

	{{Thank God. I was concerned about you...}}

	{{Why?}} Nodoka asked, her eyebrows creasing with
worry.

	{{I thought you might in danger and I wanted to check
up on you,}} came the reply.

	{{Whatever made you think I was in danger, my son?}}
*Oh! He really does care for me.* And with that came
another pang of pain.

	{{I... Mother, are you sitting down?}}

	Nodoka nodded, unconsciously as she replied.

	{{Yes, I am. Son, is something wrong?}}

	There was a sharp intake of breath on the other side
of the line.

	{{Kasumi's been kidnapped and I was afraid that they
might come after you too.}}

	{{Kasumi... When? How?}}

	{{Less than an hour ago, mother, by the Yakuza...}}

	{{Why was she kidnapped?}} Nodoka asked, her voice
steel. The Yakuza had to have known that such an act
was tantamount to declaring a clan war. If that was
what they wanted, then she'd oblige them. No one
kidnapped her family, her daughter-in-law-to-be and
got away with it.

	{{They've a disagreement with me and to demonstrate
their displeasure, they took Kasumi.}}

	{{Oh! She's all right, isn't she?}}

	{{I...}} Ranma's voice nearly broke down. {{I don't
know, mother.}}

	{{Hush, dear. It'll be all right.}}

	{{I... Stay there, mother. I'm sending father to pick
you up and bring you to safety.}}

	{{I will, dear.}}

	{{Thanks, mother. I got to go now.}}

	{{see you later, dear.}}

	{{see you later, mother.}}

	Click.

	Nodoka let the receiver remain her hands for a couple
of minutes, thinking about the latest developments and
what it meant for her family, before she regained her
senses and thought of putting it back. After that, she
sat there on the couch, brooding things over and
worrying about her eldest son.

***********************************************************************
 
	Ranma placed the receiver back on the hook and turned
to face the others.

	"Father?"

	"Yes, Ranma," Genma said, looking about and once more
becoming aware of the world around him. He had been so
focused on his friend that he had lost track of time
as well as the awareness of his surroundings.

	"It seems that mother left for the Saotome residence
to tidy things there a bit. I was hoping whether you'd
take Tendo-sensei with you and escort her here."

	Genma looked back into the dojo and then, back at
Ranma.

	"Sure. It would take Soun's mind off his daughter and
this mess, and from what I remember, the ride is a
pleasant one."

	Ranma nodded.

	"Thank you, father."

	Genma smiled and patted Ranma on his back.

	"There's no need to thank me, Ranma. I'm your father,
after all, and if anyone were to be thankful, it
should be me... This little trip would be most helpful
to Soun," he said with a bit on concern in his face.

	"I understand, father... Do you need any money?"

	Genma looked thoughtful for a second and then, shook
his head.

	"Nah! I think, Tendo and I can manage that on our
own. Thanks for the offer, though."

	Ranma, however, wasn't about to take no for an
answer.

	"Time is of the essence, father, and I'd rather be on
the safe side, then worry about it later. Here," he
handed Genma his credit card, "take this."

	"I... Okay. I'd better get going then..."

	"You do that."

	Genma nodded and turned his attention to Soun.

	"C'mon, old friend, we're going out to get my wife."

	Soun grunted something unrecognizable, but managed to
stand up without Genma's assistance, which was a
miracle considering the bedraggled condition that he
was in.

	"I'll see the two of you off," Ranma said and laid a
supporting hand on Soun's shoulder.

	"I'm all right, really," Soun managed to mutter.

	"I know you are, Tendo-sensei," Ranma assured him.
"But even the strongest of us needs a little help
every once in a while and I could never live with
myself if I let down a friend in his time of need."

	Soun raised his head slowly and looked at Ranma.

	"Thank you," he said, softly.

	"There's no need to thank me, Tendo-sensei. It's all
part of the duty that comes with being a friend."

	Soun nodded.

	"Thank you," he said, once again. "I think that I can
manage to walk on my own."

	Ranma looked at Genma and he nodded. Nodding in
return, he gently removed his hands from around Soun's
shoulder. The man staggered a step, or two, and then
begun to walk slowly and a little bit unsteadily, a
little strength returning to him with each successive
step.

	Ranma and Genma, flanked by Akane and Happousai,
followed close behind.

	Finally, they reached the compound gate.

	"Take care, father," Ranma said to Genma. "The night
is full of dangers."

	Genma nodded, slightly.

	"I will, son."

	Ranma nodded once and withdrew to the back. Happousai
stepped forward and looked up at Genma.

	"You two may be the worst excuses of students that I
have ever taught, but you're also the best... I don't
want to lose the two of you to some Yakuza buffoon,"
he said.

	Genma's eyes widened at the statement. That was the
closest that Happousai had ever come to admitting that
he cared for his students.

	"Thanks, master. We'll watch our backs."

	Happousai nodded and Akane stepped up front.

	"Take care, daddy," she said, taking Soun's hands in
hers.

	Soun looked at her hands for an eternity and then,
slowly raised his gaze until his eyes met hers.

	"I have failed all of you so many times and yet, you
still find it in your heart to call me your father,"
he said, near sobs.

	"Daddy, you never failed us," Akane replied, though
her voice was not convincing enough.

	Soun looked at her for a long moment and nodded.

	"I'll return, Akane, and I'll set things right." He
turned to Genma. "Come, old friend, the night grows
long and we need to get to your house as soon as
possible."

	Genma eyed Ranma and Happousai once and turned his
back to the gate.

	"Yes, Tendo, let's go."

	The three of them watched Soun and Genma step out
into the evening and proceed down the street until
their forms were blurred by the fading light. Finally,
they turned to get back into the house.

	"sensei?"

	Ranma cast his eyes on Akane.

	"Yes, Akane."

	"Excuse me, sensei, but I have trouble believing what
you and Ami were saying there about the sailors."

	"Never look a gift horse in the mouth, Akane. It's
never a good idea," Ranma calmly replied.

	"Um... Okay."

	"Any other questions, Akane?" he asked.

	Akane nodded.

	"sensei?"

	"Yes, Akane."

	"Do you know why they kidnapped Kasumi?" she asked.

	"Yes, I believe I do."

	"Can you tell me?"

	"Of course, whatever made you think that I wouldn't
tell you?" Ranma asked, rhetorically. "I think they
took her because I asked the Yakuza to kindly lay
their hands off Nabiki, though those weren't exactly
the words I used."

	"What?"

	"I said..."

	"I heard what you said, sensei," Akane said, raising
her voice. "But I'm having trouble believing it."

	"You can ask Nabiki if you want to," Ranma said,
shrugging. "She was the one who gave me the addresses
of their safe houses... Young lady, don't you walk out
on a conversation with me."

	Akane stopped, midway to the door and turned around.

	"I'm sorry, sensei," she muttered.

	"Sorry isn't good enough," Ranma retorted. "How many
times do I have to tell you to control your anger?"

	Akane just hung her head.

	"All right," Ranma said, sighing. "You're excused
this one time... I better not catch you making the
same mistake again."

	"Yes, sensei," Akane replied, meekly.

	"Good. You're excused."

	Akane bowed and entered the house.

	"You realize, of course, that you haven't diffused
her anger towards her middle sister," Happousai
remarked.

	"That isn't mine to diffuse," Ranma replied, calmly.
"Nabiki's got to live up to her actions and it's her
responsibility to explain herself to Akane."

	Happousai shot Ranma a glance and nodded.

	"Whatever you say, Ranma."

	"I'll be off, then," he said and entered the house,
Happousai following him.

***********************************************************************

	"That's the fourth hospital we've called and still no
Shampoo..." Cologne said, aloud, fears starting to
take root in her mind.

	"I'm sure that she's all right," Nabiki replied,
sparing a moment and looking up from the telephone
directory. "There are still a couple of hospitals left
that we haven't called..."

	"I suppose..."

	Just then, the door banged open and in trotted Akane,
fuming like a raging tiger.

	"Akane..." was all Nabiki managed to say before the
girl brought up her hand and slapped Nabiki full on
her face.

	The resounding crack from the blow seemed to echo
around the room as Nabiki clasped her cheek and fell
back onto the couch.

	"Bitch!" Akane spat, hatefully.

	Silence.

	"Cold-hearted bitch! That's what you are, big
sister," she spat again, contemptuously. "You know,
before today, I thought of you as a cold-hearted
sister of mine, but now, I think you're a money
grabbing whore!"

	"Now, wait just a minute..." begun Nabiki, getting up
to face her accuser only to meet another fist, which
connected with yet another resounding slap to her
face.

	"Don't you fucking dare!" Akane yelled. "Don't you
fucking dare speak to me and tell me that you didn't
know anything about it!"

	Nabiki opened her mouth, once again, to speak and
Akane responded by raising her hand up into the air.
Nabiki continued, defiantly, even as Akane pulled back
her hand, readying herself for another strike.

	"That's enough out of the two of you."

	Both the girls turned as one at the sound of
Cologne's voice, glaring at her. Cologne returned
their glare manifold, making them flinch under her
gaze.

	"You," Cologne pointed her finger at Akane, "have to
learn some discipline before you destroy your life and
the ones around you. Let your sister explain, which
she's obviously trying to do and then, you can decide
whether you want to hit her, or not."

	"I'm sorry, elder," Akane replied, meekly, bowing her
head in shame.

	Cologne nodded and turned to Nabiki.

	"Explain," she said.

	Drawing a deep breath, Nabiki begun.

	"While it's true that the Yakuza, my former
employers," she begun, laying stress on the former,
"were the ones who kidnapped Kasumi, I swear on our
mother, I didn't know they were going to do it until
Ranma... -san... informed me a short while ago. You
can ask the elder, Akane. She was there, when
Ranma-san... informed me."

	Akane gave her a hard stare.

	"Careful, Nabiki. I find out that you're lying and
I'll personally crucify you for staining mother's
memory."

	"I swear," Nabiki said, her voice almost inaudible.
"I swear on mother's honor and I swear on mine... For
whatever it's worth to you."

	Akane gave Nabiki a hard stare, debating in her mind,
whether she should trust her sister and looked
questioningly at Cologne.

	Cologne nodded her head, pogoing close to the two of
them.

	"I don't sense her lying, though I can't be sure with
a person with a reputation like hers..."

	Akane nodded.

	"All right, Nabiki, I give you one chance... one
chance, you hear me, to prove yourself... If you
don't... You better hope that you can, for you
definitely don't want to disappoint me..."

	Nabiki nodded once, her head never raising to meet
Akane's eyes.

	"Ah! I see that the two of you have had your little
chat together," Ranma said, cheerily, entering the
room with Happousai by his side.

	"You knew and you let her?" Nabiki asked, a slight
trace of anger leaking into her eyes.

	"Yes, I knew Akane would take up issue with you and I
let her... It wasn't my job to explain what your
actions have cost this family, after all."

	Nabiki was left speechless by that remark.

	"What actions?" Akane asked, shooting Nabiki a
warning look. *If she'd soiled mother's honor...*

	"Didn't she tell you?" Ranma asked her. "Nabiki had
some inkling that the Yakuza were trying to get rid of
me, though she didn't know that they'd choose such a
roundabout method to get to me."

	"Nabiki..." Akane begun in a low voice, making Nabiki
flinch.

	"Your tea, brother," Ryuu said then, entering the
room with half a dozen tea-cups. Ami followed close
behind with a tea kettle.

	Their arrival successfully diffused the explosive
situation.

	"Or would you have yours later?" Ryuu asked,
questioningly, seeing the look on everyone's faces.

	"Now will be just fine," Ranma replied. "I think
Akane'd like some too. It'd relax her some."

	Akane was halfway through preparing a retort for the
supposed jibe before she understood what Ranma was
trying to do. She nodded, once, shooting Nabiki a
dangerous look as she did.

	"I'd like some, thank you, sensei." She turned to
Nabiki. "We'll continue this conversation later, big
sister and you'd better explain everything to me,
or..."

	Before Nabiki could nod, Ranma interrupted.

	"No one's going to have a conversation behind my
back. Is that understood?" he said in a stern voice.

	Both the girls nodded.

	"Good, Nabiki, you can give Akane a more detailed
explanation after you're done helping the elder and
Akane, you'll forget about this whole mess and treat
Nabiki with all the respect due to an elder sister."

	"But..." Akane begun.

	"Give her a chance, Akane. I probably shouldn't have
let you have your conversation with Nabiki, but I
thought that she'd learn an important lesson from it
and I think," he shot Nabiki a glance, "she has. Any
hatred towards her from you, or from any of the others
in this room will only drive her back to her old ways.
Am I making myself clear?"

	"Yes, sensei."

	Nod.

	"Good. That's goes for the rest of you," Ranma said,
looking around the room. "Give Nabiki a chance to set
things right. I'm sure that she has learned from her
mistakes."

	"Thank you, Ranma-san," Nabiki said, her eyes showing
her gratitude, which was beyond measure.

	"Call me Ranma, Nabiki. All my friends do," he
replied with a nod. "And don't you have work to do?"

	Nabiki nodded, turning towards Cologne.

	"Let's get started, elder. The sooner we find
Shampoo, the better."

	"Yes, we'd better."

	"Ryuu," Ranma said. "I didn't know that you could
make such wonderful tea... A skill you picked up at
the Amazon village, I suppose?"

	Ryuu nodded.

	"Thanks for the compliment," he said.

	"And make sure you serve everyone a second cup of
this tea... It is simply marvelous."

	Nod.

	"Ami?"

	"Yes, sensei?"

	"Ami-chan, please tell your friends to change back to
their normal forms a couple of blocks from here... It
might take longer, but it'll be much safer for them
and for Kasumi that way around."

	Ami nodded.

***********************************************************************

	Ataru looked at the intelligence officer and smiled,
genuinely. The tea had been great and the conversation
delightfully refreshing. Once he had started to drift
toward from her job, but had gotten no where near it,
for she had shut herself off, redirecting the
conversation towards something much more comfortable
and pleasant to set the two of them at ease. Truly,
the Americans had done a wonderful job tutoring her in
the art of communication.

	"It's been a pleasure having tea with you, doc,"
Miss. Palmer said.

	"The pleasure's all mine," Ataru replied, smiling
amicably.

	The waitress came then, with the bill.

	"Here, sir," she said, handing it over to Ataru.

	"Thank you," Ataru replied, his right hand going to
meet hers and his left, searching for his wallet,
which he surmised after a couple of pats, was in his
coat inside the hospital.

	"Any problem?" Miss. Palmer asked, her eyes following
the exiting waitresses before settling on Ataru.

	"Ah... Yes, there is, actually. I... I seem to have
forgotten to bring my wallet..." Ataru replied,
sheepishly.

	Miss. Palmer smiled.

	"I'll settle it, then."

	"But..."

	"C'mon, doc, you don't believe in that chivalrous
bull, do you?"

	Ataru shook his head. No, he did not believe in that
nonsense. Once he had, but he had given up that belief
the first time a woman had beat him, soundly, in fact,
in the ring.

	"Thought so..." she said, retrieving the money from
her purse and placing it on their table. "Come, I've
work to do and I bet you do too."

	Nod.

	"Yes, I do," Ataru replied, standing up from his seat
and stretching his legs and arms, though not so much
as to make a scene in the restaurant. "Shall we?"

	"Of course."

	And they walked out of the restaurant and into the
evening. They reached the hospital, which was just a
block from the restaurant in no time at all, and
quickly parted ways, he going his and she going her's.

	Miss. Palmer quickened her steps as soon as they had
separated and almost ran towards the Toyota, which
would take her to the Local Command Center, her troops
had no doubt established by then. The tea and the
chit-chat with the doctor had taken a bit longer than
she had thought it would and now, she had to rush if
she wanted to make the next debriefing on time.

	Reaching the car, she hastily opened the door and got
in, closing the door as she did. The chauffeur, or
rather, the plain-clothed JDF MP, assigned to her as
her chauffeur shot her a questioning look through the
mirror.

	"Take me to the Local Command Center," she replied,
prompted by his cue.

	The chauffeur nodded and started the car, revving the
engine in a rather unnerving fashion.

***********************************************************************

	~Sorry to keep everyone waiting, but I was delayed,~
Miss. Palmer said, eyeing the men gathered around the
table and taking her seat.

	No one replied, not that she had expected any of them
too. Instead, all them opened their laptops, or files,
or whatever they had before them.

	~Any new intel on the subject?~ she asked, switching
on her own system.

	There was some shuffling.

	~Well...~ she asked, again, looking up from her
liquid crystal display.

	~Yes, there has,~ one of the officers at the end of
the table, a thin, spectacled, geeky looking guy from
the surveillance department, replied.

	~And...~

	~You wouldn't believe what we found!~ he said with an
unrestrained voice.

	Miss. Palmer raised an eyebrow. The surveillance
officer was acting like a little schoolboy. *Maybe we
should have the annual psychological evaluation early
this year,* she though. The man seemed to get the
message she was conveying and cleared his throat.

	~Anyways, we got the tapping orders this morning and
I think we got it just in time, 'cause we managed to
record this,~ he said, displaying a miniature cassette
to her.

	~And exactly what's in that?~ she asked in reply.

	The man held the cassette up and shook it.

	~This,~ he said, ~is a copy of a call made by a
member of the Yamaguchi-gumi - you know, the Yakuza -
and it implicates them in the kidnapping of Case
Subject # 7. We traced the call back and even as we
speak, orders are being written to tap into every
phone line to which frequent calls from this number
was placed.~

	Miss. Palmer nodded.

	~Keep up the good work. Anything else?~

	 Pause.

	~Well, that's it for today, then. Mario, forward the
report to Mr. Keichi's desk and Carter, are you sure
that the Yakuza are keeping the Qin residence under
surveillance?~

	~Yes, we're sure. This man,~ he passed a photo of
Akiruno to her, ~is a well known hitman working for
the Yamaguchi-gumi. Intelligence officers have spotted
him in the same spot this whole day and most of the
last.~

	Miss. Palmer nodded.

	~I need to speak with Ranma Qin... in an encrypted
line. Can you make sure that he gets an 256 bit
encrypted cell phone line?~

	~I'm pretty sure that it can be done... Mr. Akiruno,
here,~ he pointed to the photo lying on the desk, ~is
definitely not one of the brighter types that I and my
men have encountered, and I'm pretty sure that one of
my men can get this to Mr. Qin without drawing any
unwanted attention from him.~

	~Good. see to it that he gets it as soon as possible.
I want to discuss some sensitive issues with him.~

	Carter nodded.

	~I'll get to it, ASAP.~

	~You're excused then,~ came the reply.

	Carter looked at Miss. Palmer, confusion written on
his face and finally, nodded.

	~Send a report of this meeting to my desk...~ he said
to her.

	~I'll do that.~

	Carter nodded and exited the room.

	Miss. Palmer turned towards the rest of her men.

	~I want surveillance increased around the Qin house
and I want you to find everything you can about
Yamaguchi-gumi. I don't care where you get it, but if
their boss sneezed yesterday, I want to know about it.
I want surveillance increased on every Yamaguchi thug
that you can identify. Follow them, sleep with them, I
don't care, but I want their locations at all times.~

	~Ma'am...~ one of her men said.

	~Yes?~

	~That which you propose is impossible. We don't have
that kind of resources in our hand at this time... It
would take a couple of weeks at least before I can
assemble that kind of manpower.~

	~Recruit the local police then... Like I said, I
don't care how you do it, but get it done.~

	~We'll be increasing chances of leakage, if we do
that,~ he replied.

	Miss. Palmer nodded, thinking about other
possibilities.

	~You're right. Such a risk is intolerable. Tell you
what, you follow every high ranking Yamaguchi member
and keep tabs on them at all times. We'll extend the
scope of our surveillance when we're ready to move.~

	Nod.

	~And can somebody get me in contact with some special
forces teams. I don't care if they're the green berets
of their JDF equivalent, just get them.~

	~I'll make a few phone calls to Fort Bragg and see
what I can do,~ her military liaison officer, Col.
James Winchester, replied.

	Miss. Palmer shook her head.

	~I'm afraid that's not good enough. I want troops
that're stationed within easy reach and not a couple
of thousand miles away. Call the Okinawan base and see
what they can offer us.~

	~As you wish.~

	~And please, while you're at it, contact the city
administration guys and get me the blueprint of every
Yamaguchi property in this city. I want assault plans
made on all those buildings as soon as possible.~

	The military liaison officer nodded.

	~On a side note...~

	The meeting continued such, for another quarter of an
hour as they discussed some likely assault plans and
strategies, before Miss. Palmer ended it.

***********************************************************************

	Bee-Boop! Bee-Boop!
	
	Cologne picked up the receiver and brought it to her
ears. A man spoke.

	{{Hello, is this the Qin residence?}}

	Cologne took a deep breath and calmed herself. It
wouldn't do to anger the kidnappers, assuming the
caller was one.

	{{Yes, it is. What can I do for you?}} she asked.

	{{I'm calling from the Sanzenin Memorial
Hospital...}}

	{{Yes!}} Cologne said, excitedly. She was now, pretty
sure that the man was not a kidnapper, but was rather,
calling her about Shampoo.

	{{I've in my custody, a young girl named Shampoo
and...}}

	{{Is she all right?}} Cologne asked, hurriedly.

	{{Yes, she is. I'm Dr. Ataru Mikagami. To whom am I
speaking?}} he asked.

	{{You needn't worry, doctor,}} Cologne informed him.
{{I'm Shampoo's great grandmother. How is she?}}

	{{She's pretty beat up, but she'll be back on her
feet in a couple of weeks... even less if she heals
fast...}}

	{{Thank you, doctor... Can I come and visit her?}}

	{{Of course...}}

	{{Cologne.}}

	{{Of course, Cologne-san. You can visit her anytime
you want.}}

	{{Thank you, doctor.}}

	{{Goodbye.}}

	{{Goodbye.}}

	Click.

	Cologne turned to the people gathered around her,
their ears straining to hear something of the
conversation. She flashed them all a smile, which
caused them to grimace unconsciously, but Cologne did
not pay attention to their antics.

	"That was Dr. Ataru Mikagami from Sanzenin Memorial
Hospital... Shampoo's been admitted there and he says
that she's going to be all right."

	"That's great," Ranma said, flashing her a smile. "Do
you want to visit her?"

	Cologne nodded.

	"I'd like too..."

	"Then you'd better get going before it gets too
dark."

	"I'll go and get ready then."

	"Can I come with you?" Ryuu asked Cologne.

	Cologne, in turn, looked at Ranma.

	"Sure, why not?" he replied. "Don't stay over,
though. I need the two of you here."

	"We'll be back soon," Cologne assured him.

	"In that case, why don't you take Nabiki with you
too? She's going to be sitting here, doing nothing,
after all."

	Cologne nodded.

	Nabiki, sensing that Ranma was trying to get rid of
her, opened her mouth to refuse, but thought better of
it. Ranma shot her a discreet glance and smiled, his
eyes saying, he'd tell her the details later, when she
had returned from the hospital. Nabiki replied with a
slight node.

	"Time's a wasting," Ryuu said, impatiently tapping
his fingers on his legs.

	"Yes, indeed. Times a wasting. Cologne, please,
return as soon as possible."

	"I will," Cologne replied, turning and leading Nabiki
and Ryuu out of the room.

	When they were gone, Happousai turned to Ranma.

	"Why did you let Ryuu go? He might be useful around
the house..."

	Ranma calmly took a sip of his tea before answering.

	"From what Ryuu told me sometime ago, Shampoo's one
of the few friends he has... I didn't want to stop him
from visiting his friend when she was wounded and so,
I let him go. I'm sure that we can manage things
around the house while they're gone."

	"We can manage fine without them," Happousai replied.
"But I think Akane would've been a better choice to
send than Ryuu... He can always visit her when this
mess is cleared up in a couple of days..."

	"Hey," Akane said, making her feelings known. "Are
you saying that I'm useless?"

	Happousai nodded.

	"Yes, in this situation, you are," he replied.

	Akane was about to retort when Ranma intervened.

	"Silence, both of you," he said, a little heatedly.

	"But..."

	"You have your opinions and I have mine,
grandmaster."

	Happousai nodded, getting the message that the
argument was closed and that it was no time to argue.
He took a puff off his pipe and blew the smoke out,
forming little rings as he did.

	"So, what do we do now?" he asked, when he was done
with his little show.

	Ranma took a final sip and placed the now empty
teacup on table.

	"Now," he said, gravely. "We wait for Ami's friends
and the phone call."

***********************************************************************

	"Mars, stop!" Usagi ordered when they were within
four hundred yards of Ami's signal.

	The senshi of the red planet looked at her
questioningly as did the other two.

	"Why?" she asked. "She's only four hundred yards that
way."

	Usagi nodded.

	"I know. That's why I ordered you to stop."

	"Huh?"

	Usagi sighed. Her friends could be so dumb sometimes,
just like she had been before. No wonder they had a
hard time with opponents they should have easily
overpowered.

	"We're currently in our sailor fukus and this is a
residential area remember..."

	"Oh!" Rei said, embarrassedly as it dawned to her.

	"And..." Minako asked, still not quite getting it.

	Rei looked at Minako as a man would look at a worm.
*I can't believe how dumb she is,* she thought to
herself.

	"What?" Minako asked, suddenly very concerned about
her appearance.

	"Like Usagi said, this is a residential area... Which
means we cannot go in there looking like this...
People might start asking questions and they'll know
who we're in real life in no time at all."

	"Oh!"

	"C'mon," Makoto said, before the conversation could
continue any further. "We can change in that alley
over there."

	Usagi acquiesced and a brief, but colorful display of
lights of various assorted colors later, all four
girls were back to their normal selves.

	"So, where do we go, now?" Rei asked Usagi.

	"We go that way," Usagi replied, pointing to the
wall.

	The three inners raised an eyebrow as one.

	"Or," Usagi continued, sheepishly, "we could follow
this road in the general direction of the signal and
we should be there in another ten minutes, or so -
maybe even less if we hurry."

	"Let's get going then," Rei said, walking out of the
alley at a busy pace with the rest of the senshi
following her.

	Nearly five minutes later, they arrived in front of a
modest looking house with a dojo on the side. Usagi
stopped at the gates and looked at her friends.

	"We're here."

	The inners let their eyes roam around the property,
expecting some enemy to bounce out of the wood-works
at any instant.

	"This is strange," Makoto quipped. "Why isn't Ami out
to greet us?"

	Rei and Usagi nodded.

	"You don't think..." Minako said, letting the words
hang in the air and afraid to put the rest of her
thoughts into words.

	"It's possible," Usagi supplied. "But I don't see how
they could've discovered our identities."

	"Most likely," Makoto said, choosing to be the voice
of reason in the group. "She's busy inside, or
something."

	Usagi nodded.

	"Let's go in and find out, shall we?" she said,
opening the compound gates and stepping slowly into
the yard. Although she tried to keep her outward
appearance calm and collected, inside she was as
concerned about an ambush as her friends were,
clutching the brooch tightly in her hands just in case
she needed to transform fast.

	They reached the front door and Usagi looked at the
inners. They nodded and she reached for the doorbell.
Just as her fingers, which were shaking even though
she tried not to, were about to meet the button, the
door opened and Ami grabbed her in a hug.

	"Thank God, you came at last, Usagi."

	Usagi, meanwhile, struggled for air under the tight
bear hug and her lips begun to turn blue.

	"Can't breathe..." she managed, finally, her voice
nothing better than a squeak, which sounded very
reminiscent of a mouse's.

	Ami blushed, embarrassedly, and let Usagi go.

	"What are we doing here?" Rei asked, her hands around
Usagi's shoulders to support her while she regained
her breath.

	"C'mon in," Ami said, grabbing Makoto's arms and
pulling her into the house, without answering Rei's
question.

	Rei and the other two looked at each other and with a
nod, followed Ami into the house. Ami led them into
the hall, where Ranma and the others were seated.

	"Hello, my dear students," Ranma said, standing up to
greet them.

	"sensei?" Usagi said, disbelievingly.

	"Why, yes, I am," he replied, grinning a little.

	"Why? What?" Rei asked Ami, confusedly. If she was
inviting them to Ranma-sensei's house, why hadn't she
told them so before? It would have saved them a lot of
worry.

	"Allow me introduce my friends," Ranma said, not
giving Ami a chance to answer the question. "This is
grandmaster Happousai of the Matsubetsu Kakuto Ryuu,
and of course, you know Akane Tendo."

	The girls nodded, recognizing as one, the grandmaster
from the description Ami had given of their first
encounter with the Ashura's.

	"It's nice to meet you, Happousai-san," Usagi said,
bowing politely.

	"Please, dearie, there's no need for titles,"
Happousai replied, grinning from ear to ear. There
were so many beautiful girls around him... It just did
not get any better than this. His only regret, the
promise he had made to Ranma and the situation he was
meeting them. If things were different, he was sure
that Ranma would not mind him getting a quick grope,
or two, but they were not and he would have to keep
his itchy fingers to himself.

	Sigh.

	"Uh... Okay," Usagi replied, uncertainly, more than a
little discomfortable at the leer that Happousai was
giving her.

	"Thank you, grandmaster," Ranma said, hinting to
Happousai that the conversation was over before
turning to the assembled sailors. "You might be
wondering why I asked your friend, Ami, to call you
here, aren't you?"

	"You called us?" Minako asked, giving voice to the
unspoken thoughts of the rest of the team.

	"Yes, I did. I called you here to formally ask the
sailors for help."

	Quickly recovering her surprise, Makoto replied.

	"Then why call us? We're your normal school going
students and certainly, not some wanna-be super
heroines," she said in her best impression of
surprise.

	"Ranma-sensei knows about us, Mako-chan," Ami
informed her.

	Usagi and the three inners looked at Ami
incredulously.

	"Huh?" Rei said, unable to comprehend what Ami was
telling her. How could anyone have found out about
their secret identities?

	Usagi, too, stared blankly like her friends at Ami
before comprehension dawned on her face.

	"You told him, didn't you, Ami-chan?" she asked.

	Ami's head bowed in shame and she nodded. Now that
she thought about it, she shouldn't have revealed
their secret identities without having consulted with
Usagi and the others first.

	"Yes, I did... I'm sorry..."

	"Why?" Usagi asked, walking up to Ami and raising her
head with her hands so that their eyes met.

	"He... He already knew about us, Usagi-chan... He...
He wanted to make sure that it was us who had attacked
him and he wanted to ask us for our help," Ami
explained, slowly.

	"Huh?" Rei interrupted. "When did we attack
Ranma-sensei?"

	"Well, we didn't attack him, per se..."

	Makoto gasped.

	"The outers!" the other said in chorus.

	Ami nodded.

	"Yes, the outers. They've attacked him twice now."

	"Twice?" all four asked at once.

	Ami nodded, once again.

	"Yes, they've attacked him twice."

	"Why? Why would they want to do that?" Usagi asked.
What other mischief had the outers been up to while
she had been goofing about, neglecting her duties?

	"Because they thought that he was the one who
stripped Pluto of her powers..."

	"But that's... Oh!" Minako said, comprehension
dawning on her face. She turned to Ranma.
"Ranma-sensei, then you're..."

	Ranma nodded.

	"Yes, I'm the one who has been helping you these past
few days with the Ashura and that... that thing,
whatever you call it."

	"Oh!"

	Ranma smiled, disarmingly at the girls, allowing them
time to digest the information he had given them.

	Akane unable to understand Ranma's contribution to
the conversation looked questioningly at him. He
smiled at her in return and signaled with his fingers
to keep quiet for a minute. His eyes seemed to say:
I'll explain it all, and she tilted her head in a nod.
She'd wait for him, but he was going to explain
himself to her, no matter how long it took.

	"I'm sure you want to know who my companions from the
other day are," Ranma continued after a brief pause.

	The girls nodded, looking at Akane and Happousai
strangely. Akane, for her part, returned the stare,
staring at them with equal intensity.

	"What?" she asked.

	"Nothing," Makoto replied.

	"Then stop staring at me like that."

	The girls nodded, embarrassedly and turned their
gazes away from her.

	"Aren't you one of them?" Rei finally asked.

	"One of who?" Akane replied, confused beyond measure.
"sensei, what're they talking about?"

	Ranma smiled at Akane and laid a hand on her
shoulders.

	"Patience, my dear student. I'll explain all to you."
He turned to the sailors. "Akane isn't one of my
companions. You were close to the mark, though as Ryuu
is one of them."

	"Ryuu?" Ami asked, shocked. *I don't believe it.*

	"Yes, Ryuu, you know, your classmate, fellow student
and study partner," Ranma replied with a smirk.

	"But..." Ami let her words trail, not knowing how to
give voice to her thoughts.

	"Which one is he?" Rei and Usagi asked,
simultaneously.

	"He was the one who beat up that blond one that tried
to attack me," Ranma stated, calmly.

	"I don't believe it," Rei said, aloud. "You have to
be lying. Ryuu can't possibly be that powerful."

	Ranma smirked at her wrong assumption. It was nice to
know that his brother was so advanced in the art that
people were beginning to underestimate him.

	"Sorry to disappoint you, but Ryuu was the one who
beat up Neptune, is it?"

	Usagi shook her head.

	"No, that was Uranus."

	"Right. Ryuu was the one who beat up Uranus." Pause.
"Grandmaster Happousai, here, is also one of us."

	"You've to be lying about him. He's too small to be
any of them and he's older than any of you," Makoto
answered.

	"Nonsense, dearie," Happousai replied in Ranma's
stead.

	"Mako-chan..." Ami said at the same time, making
Happousai to pause.

	"Yes, Ami-chan?"

	"That was one of the people who came to rescue Ryuu
when Neptune beat him up... He's much more powerful
than he looks."

	"Thanks, dearie," Happousai said to Ami.

	"I recognized him from your description that day,
Ami-chan. However, I refuse to believe that he might
be one of them. He might be strong, but he can't be
one of them... I mean, look how short he is... He must
be three feet smaller than the shortest guy amongst
them," Makoto replied. Sure they may have rescued Ryuu
from Neptune, but like Ami had said to them, they were
in numbers and all of them were pretty powerful for
normal humans. Nevertheless, all things said and done,
he was shorter than the shortest of them by about
three feet and such a glaring physical discrepancy was
hard to overlook.

	The other sailors nodded.

	"I think we can explain that," Ranma interrupted.
"Grandmaster, would you care to change for these
girls?"

	The sailors took a step back. They definitely did not
want to see a naked and shriveled old man.

	"No, thanks," Minako replied. She had so many
precious dreams of how men should be like and she did
not want them to be spoiled by the looking at the
natural version of the old man in front of her.

	Happousai grinned, lecherously.

	"I insist, dearies," he said and initiated the
transformation.

	The girls 'eeped' as one and closed their eyes,
afraid of seeing Happousai's natural form. They did
not dare to open their eyes even after Ranma prompted
them with a few chuckles.

	Akane, who had closed her eyes along with the sailors
even before Happousai had started saying 'I insist',
carefully opened one of her eyelids and saw that she
was staring right at the groin of a grown up man. She
'eeped', closed her eyes, shifted her gaze upwards and
then, dared to open them again to see the man grinning
in a very disconcerting manner at her.

	"Did you like what you saw, Akane-chan?" he asked.

	Akane blinked and looked closer at his face. It was
Happousai, all right. She could identify that
lecherous smirk anywhere.

	"Grandfather Happousai?"

	Happousai nodded.

	"None other, my dear."

	The girls had opened their eyed by now and were
looking into the face of one of their rescuers.

	"He really is one of them!" Rei said, giving voice to
her friends thoughts.

	Akane, however, paid no attention to Rei and asked
Happousai a question.

	"Wow! What did you do? How did this happen?"

	"One question at a time, Akane," Ranma replied in
Happousai's stead.

	"It's all right, Ranma. I can handle it," Happousai
said to him before turning to Akane. "I didn't plan
for this to happen, but it happened... You know, the
Big Guy up above wanted us to protect the dragon," he
pointed the finger at Ranma, "and gave me, Ryuu,
Cologne and Genma these gifts."

	"Cologne? Isn't that the old lady who was with
Nabiki-san?" Ami asked, prompting the other sailors to
look at her for further information.

	Ranma nodded.

	"Yes, that's her, all right."

	"So, how long have you been able to transform?" Ami
asked.

	"Only the last week, or so... Ranma, here, doesn't
need to transform though," Happousai replied.

	The sailors gasped.

	"You mean..." Ami asked, looking questioningly at
Ranma.

	"Yes, I'm that powerful."

	"But that black aura..."

	"Is nothing, really. It's just a martial arts
technique."

	"Oh!"

	"It's amazing what one can do when one trains one's
body," Ranma explained, seeing the uncomprehending
looks on their faces.

	The sailors nodded. They had seen Ranma produce ki
balls with ease and were not really surprised to know
that he was powerful, though it surprised them to know
that he was more powerful than Sailor Moon.

	"And who's Genma?" Ami asked.

	"Genma Saotome is Ryuu's and my father. You," he shot
Ami a glance, "haven't spoken with him, yet, since he
went to get my mother from the Saotome ancestral
home."

	"Oh! I think I have spoken him before though..." Ami
replied, recalling the fight between Ryuu's father and
Neptune, which she had broken up.

	Ranma shrugged.

	"News to me. I can't see when you'd have conversed
with him though..."

	"We didn't exactly meet on friendly terms... In fact,
there was nothing remotely friendly about our meeting
at all."

	Ranma raised an eyebrow.

	"He was about to attack Neptune for roughing Ryuu-kun
up when I intervened..."

	Ranma nodded.

	"I guess that explains it then. And finally, the last
member of the group is Cologne - the Amazon elder who
was here until a short time ago. I'm sure that she'll
be delighted to meet such wonderful girls like you."

	The girls blushed as one.

	Ranma saw their look and smirked.

	"Still, you girls seem to have messed it up with
everyone in my family... I should be angry with you,
but I can't, though I think that you and your friends
could have easily made much more prudent decisions on
the field..."

	Usagi bowed her head in shame.

	"We're sorry, sensei. Some of our friends are a
little trigger-happy..."

	"I thought as much," Ranma said, giving her a little
smile. "And there's no need to beg forgiveness, Usagi,
there's a loose gun in every camp," he said, shooting
Akane a knowing look.

	Akane blushed in return and bowed her head.

	"I wouldn't worry about it, though, if I were you,"
he continued, turning his attention back to the
gathered sailors. "Just tell your friends to think
before they leap... They might not realize it, but
every once in a while, they might end up trying to
take a much bigger leap than they possibly can."

	"I said as much to them, sensei," Usagi replied,
humbly.

	"There, there," Ranma said, soothingly. "There's no
need to be apologetic... It's all in the past and I've
forgiven your friends for it."

	"Thank you."

	Ranma took a breath and sat down.

	"Please, be seated, my dear students. It was horribly
rude of me to keep all of you standing for so long,"
he said, amicably.

	The sailors sat down on the couch, and Ranma,
Happousai and Akane sat separately.

	"I asked you girls here not because I wanted to talk
to you about your friends and their escapades, or
anything remotely concerned with our past meetings,
though it is my hope that we'd all work together in
the future."

	Everyone nodded.

	"I want you all to understand that in no way will
what I'm about to ask affect our 'working
relationship' on the streets on this city."

	Again, the sailors nodded.

	"I called you here, tonight, to ask for your help, if
you would give it to me. A friend, a very close and
important person in my life, was kidnapped this
evening. I'm pretty sure that it was the Yakuza that
ordered the kidnapping, and if they were the only ones
who are involved in the kidnapping, I'd easily rescue
her and be done with it. But..."

	Pause. Ranma let his eyes roam around the room,
making eye contact with the each and everyone of the
sailors for a moment before moving on.

	"But they aren't the only ones involved. An enemy, a
mutual enemy of ours - the Ashuras, seems to have
taken part in this abduction. They are hiding her from
me, and if there was only one or two of them, I could
manage, but there are eight different locales in this
city that are invisible to my senses and they are
holding her in one of these locations.

	"The skill needed to execute the technique that's
being used to cloak her was lost to the ages long ago,
which means there are at least eight Ashuras, free and
running about in the city."

	Pause.

	"If this were a different time and if she were
someone else, I wouldn't be here, asking you for your
help, but she being who she is, I can't risk her
getting hurt at all. I can teleport from one location
to another and quickly neutralize every one of them,
but powerful as I may be, I still have my limitations
and there's a good chance that while I'm combing the
locations one by one, they'd kill her. I can't take
such a risk... Not with her, I can't."

	Pause.

	"Which brings me to my current predicament. I need
help, and even though I have my family," he looked at
Happousai and Akane, "to help me, our numbers aren't
enough to take on all eight locations at once..."

	"What Ranma-sensei means is, he wants us to help him
rescue Kasumi-chan," Ami said, taking off from where
Ranma left off.

	Usagi looked at Ami and then, at Ranma.

	"Of course we'll help you, sensei," she said.

	Ranma let out a breath of relief, and so did Akane,
who had not even realized until then that she was
holding her breath. He nodded, gratefully at Usagi and
spoke.

	"I don't know how to repay you... Thank you, thank
you very much!"

	Usagi waved it off.

	"After all that you've done for my friends, healing
Rei, and saving us from the Ashuras and the Daemon, it
is the least that I can do to repay you, sensei."

	Ranma would have none of it, however.

	"Still, I'm much indebted to you and your friends...
Not many would agree to help a stranger as quickly as
you did. Ask anything of me and I'll do it for you."

	Usagi looked like she was about to refuse, but
thought better of it.

	"Very well, sensei," she said, standing up to meet
him, "I ask these two things of you. First, please,
train my friends so that we can protect ourselves and
the innocent civilians better. And second, tell us how
you were able to discover our identities even though
our disguise field is active at all times..."

	"Your first request is acceptable and I'll teach you
all that you wish to learn from me. As soon as this
incident blows over, I'll train you and your friends
to defend yourselves better. As for the second wish, I
can sense your ki and it does not change even when
your disguise field is active. With the proper
training in the Art you should be able to cloak your
aura from unwanted observers. I'm sure that Rei would
be able to explain the theory behind it to you," Ranma
said, standing up and bowing to Usagi as she bowed to
him.

	"It's done then," she said.

	"Yes. Now, all we can do is sit and wait. Would you
like a snack or two?"

	Usagi glanced at her friends. Rei, Ami and Minako
nodded.

	"Yes, please, sensei, we'd like it very much."

	Ranma turned to Akane.

	"Akane, I think that there are some cookies in the
kitchen. Would you please serve them to our guests..."

	Akane nodded and stood up.

	"And Akane," Ranma said, almost as an afterthought.
"I heard about your cooking skills and frankly, I'm
most impressed by the reputation that you've managed
to garner at so young an age. So, please, for the love
of all that is good and alive, don't touch anything
else in the kitchen!"

	Bam!

	"You didn't have to say it to my face, sensei," Akane
growled, looking at the growing bump on Ranma's head
and taking her leave.

***********************************************************************

Notes:

	My new prereaders, I beg your pardon. I had this
finished quite a while ago and thus, did not send it
to you. Hope you can forgive me. ^_^

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