Title: Ancestors
Part: Three
Author: Rann Aridorn
Comments: Guh, written entirely in the early AM yet again. This is the 
"letters home" part... you'll get to see what everyone thinks or says about 
writing back home about their little migration. C&C is appreciated, as I'm 
still very much trying to decide where to go with this.

         The gondola settled into its housing with a faint shudder before 
becoming completely still. After a few moments of muffled bickering from 
inside, the door opened, spilling out a number of individuals that made for 
quite a show, their hair alone like a small rainbow.
         "Good lord, you lot are a miserable bunch to be stuck in an 
enclosed space with," Teritha groused, seizing the front of her tight 
leather halter-top and giving it a few yanks side-to-side, causing Ryoga to 
almost pass out as he glanced in her direction. "Just listening to you 
grouse about who got what seat you wanted sobered me up!"
         "Ribbon girl taking up too much space next to Ranma!" Shampoo 
cried, leaning over and glaring at Kodachi.
         "The Chinese harlot was taking up Ranma-sama's OTHER side, and I 
wasn't going to be displaced, even with that horrid common cookery girl 
yanking on my hair!"
         "Hey, I woulda shoved Shampoo off of Ranchan, but Akane was 
already doing it!"
         "It was just because that spot had the BEST VIEW! I keep telling 
you that!"
         "Shut up! All four of you!" Teritha shrieked, grabbing handfuls of 
her blue hair and shaking her head wildly. "You were fighting so much that 
the gondola was swaying all over the place! Oh, and BY THE WAY!" She 
stabbed a finger towards the still rather pale Ranma. "You're cleaning that 
entire gondola out yourself, bucko."
         "Not... my fault," Ranma croaked, putting one hand over his mouth 
all the same.
         "Yeah, whatever." Teritha ran both hands through her hair, Shel 
having taken her staff for her and already started up the nearby steps, Zek 
tagging along behind. "Before we go any further, lemme get the ground rules 
straight. And LISTEN! Because I'm not afraid of any of you, I'm not gonna 
pamper any of you for whatever reason... you follow the rules, or you get 
punished. That understood?"
         "You wouldn't REALLY spank us," Akane murmured, though she didn't 
sound too sure of herself, the others looking similarly dubious.
         "I might!" Teritha grunted, stretching her back out some, one hand 
coming to rest on her hip, the other on her forehead. "Okay, here's the 
deal. It's my house, and you respect it. You break anything, there'll be 
hell to pay. You make a mess, you clean it up. You pitch in with the chores 
when me or the others tell you to. You stay out of the way. You don't go 
where I tell you not to. In return for these IMMINENTLY followable rules, 
you get free room, board, and eventually all that other crap I told you 
about back in your world. Now! Any questions?"
         Shampoo coughed quietly and raised her hand.
         "Yeah?"
         "Shampoo want know... how high up is house?"
         "Right now, we're about halfway up the mountain. Don't ask me to 
tell ya exactly how many feet or meters or whatever, because I don't really 
know. It's high enough that you'd be dead a long time before you got to the 
bottom if you fell. Which, you'll notice, is why we have the handy-dandy 
railing aaaalllll around here and on the side of the stairs. So it'd be a 
good idea for someone to not, say, run along it?" She looked at Ranma, who 
immediately found somewhere else to be looking as if he hadn't been eyeing 
the railing edge speculatively.
         "Furthermore," the elf woman continued, clearing her throat. "Out 
behind the house is a fair-sized little forest of trees on a plateau that 
got carved out by a very big dragon smashing into the side of the mountain 
before my house was built here. There aren't any railings around the 
plateau, so if you go too far and stumble off the edge beyond the trees, 
the very shortest fall down to the next gradation of the plateau or rock 
outcropping is thirty feet."
         "I can jump that," Ranma snorted, several of the others nodding 
assent.
         "Oh, I know you can jump it," Teritha answered, voice deadly calm 
as she advanced on Ranma. "But in case you weren't aware, my little 
descendant, you wouldn't JUMP down if you ran off the ledge because you 
weren't looking where the hell you were going. You would fall." Sky blue 
eyes pierced and held sky blue eyes. "Maybe you'd manage to catch the side 
of the dropoff with your foot, quick as you are; that leg would bend 
backwards until it snapped, your body tilting forward so that your face and 
front smashed against the rock. Then, maybe you'd just slide down the rest 
of the way until your head impacted a ledge or the next plateau, at which 
point your skull would explode. But don't worry, you'd probably be 
unconscious from the pain of having all the skin and a lot of the muscle 
scraped off the front of your body."
         Ranma was looking decidedly more pale by the time she finished, 
pressing a hand over his mouth again. "... Careful in the back yard... got 
it..."
         Teritha glanced around, seeing a heartening mix of shudders and 
pale faces amongst the group, pausing for long moments to look at Kodachi, 
who was merely placidly looking at the clouds passing only a few hundred 
feet overhead. "Okay, then, let's all go up.
         She turned and started moving up the stairs, the others following 
her and tapering into a single-file line, the stairs just broad enough for 
them to walk one-by-one without feeling too cramped. On one side was the 
almost sheer rock wall, and on the other side was the high metal railing, 
the top of it coming to about armpit-height.
         "How come the railing's so tall?" Ukyo called up from her position 
in line. "I mean, I guess it's safer, but it makes it harder to hold on to!"
         "It's to discourage invaders," Teritha called back. "Right-handed 
ones can't wield swords because of the stone, left-handed ones have to keep 
their arms high, leaving them vulnerable. It's a pretty standard way of 
doing things."
         "So you're not just paranoid?" Akane said from directly behind the 
elf.
         "Sometimes people are paranoid for a reason, kiddo."
         The stairs wound in a light arc up the side of the mountain. After 
a few minutes' walking, they came to a semicircular sort of porch, a metal 
door set in a carved-in area on the mountain wall. The area was railed-off 
as well, providing a rather spectacular view of the surrounding mountains 
and land below. Off around to either side, on the rock wall of the mountain 
face, windows were occasionally visible, both on a level with the porch and 
above it.
         Shel and Zek were nowhere to be seen, and Teritha pulled the door 
open without locking it. Directly inside was a small round area with 
several hooks on the smooth stone walls and a large hat stand. Zek's coat 
and Shel's parka were both hanging up already, with Teritha's staff stuck 
in the stand's umbrella-holder. "Coats and boots off in here, people, and 
boots go on the mat next to the stand here! No getting snow or anything 
else all over the entryway if you can avoid it, makes things slippery."
         Inside, a pleasant warmth seeped right into their bodies, not 
hitting them in a rush like heated air from a machine, but sort of settling 
in around them like a sheet being draped. The group followed Teritha 
through the short hallway adjacent to the entryway after they'd hung up 
their coats and divested themselves of their boots.
         Shel and Zek were already lounging on one of the long couches 
fitted against the wall of the depression housing the Chalice of True 
Earth, Shel still in human form and with his feet propped up on a hassock, 
hands resting on his chest, looking large and woodsy with his beard growth 
and patchwork of furs. Zek was sprawled back on another half of the couch, 
bare from the waist up, wild red hair falling down around his shoulders, 
one arm drawn up to rest on the back of the couch.
         "How utterly crass of you to lounge around half-nude," Kodachi 
snorted, her eyes moving up and down the mixed-blood's slim, well-muscled 
chest, darting back and forth from one scar to another, then doing it all 
again just to make sure she was properly scandalized.
         "You got it," Zek replied smugly, leaning back and putting both 
hands behind his head, giving his chest a light flex.
         The four girls looked rather rapt, for a moment, Kodachi holding 
her righteously-disgusted look while her eyes remained fixed on the 
redhead, Ukyo and Shampoo both rather openly leaning forward and grinning 
with sparkly-eyes, Akane putting both hands to her cheeks and turning her 
head a little to try and hide her blush.
         "Hey, maybe we should ask about rooming arrangements," Ranma 
groused, looking at Zek with a mildly murderous glint in his eyes. The only 
sound from Ryoga was a hideous grinding noise as his teeth grated together, 
a faint battle aura flickering up from around his head and shoulders.
         "Fair question," Teritha remarked, padding lightly in her bare 
feet down one of the short flights of steps, and flopping out to sit 
roughly halfway between both men. "Okaaaay... Amazon, cook, you two share a 
room. Akane, nutso, you two together. And my 'legacy' there can bunk together."
         "But I don't wanna-!"
         "Hey, I-!"
         "Shampoo would rather-!"
         "Ranma-sama will be-!"
         "With Saotome?! No-"
         "Aw, geez, I-!"
         All protest abruptly cut off, the six of them cowering under a 
dark glare from the elf woman, her eyes seeming cast in shadow save for two 
wickedly-gleaming points of light.
         "... Well, someone's gotta keep Kodachi in line."
         "Uh... Shampoo and I are tryin' to learn to get along, guess 
that'll be good practice."
         "Ah... Ukyo is right, it be 'bonding'."
         "I suppose it would not be proper for Ranma-sama and I to be with 
one another... when we are guests in another's home."
         "Um, yeah... I, uh, it wouldn't be manly to room with a girl."
         "Hey, took the words right outta my mouth, Ryoga."
         "Well, have a seat, all of you. We'll get just a little rest, then 
I'll give you a tour."
         The teenagers split up to move down to the sitting area, Ranma 
quickly taking a one-person chair, causing several disheartened looks. 
Shampoo plopped down cross-legged on a pillow, Kodachi almost sinking 
downwards before stretching out forward on her stomach on another. Ukyo and 
Akane both settled in on a couch, and Ryoga, after a long, nervous stare at 
the spot next to Akane, simply sighed and flumped down on the floor.
         "That, by the way," Shel spoke up, unfurling a finger to point at 
the birdbath-like object in the center of the sitting area. "Is what's been 
driving Teritha so nuts."
         "Hopefully, it'll stay quiet from now on. So that it DOES, I'd 
like all of you to write home as soon as you get settled in and explain 
things to your families and whatnot. I don't want it yammering off its 
stand because of search parties and crap being formed."
         "How do we do that?" Akane asked, looking curious.
         "I'll show you. Eh, well, guess I'd better do that tour now, huh?" 
Sighing, Teritha pushed herself to her feet, Shel rising along with her. 
"Everyone, follow us." She mounted the steps. "That's the main fireplace 
there. Don't play with it or burn anything that's not a chopped log in it, 
okay?"
         "Do you think we're children?" Ryoga huffed.
         "Yes." Teritha continued to lead the way while Ryoga seemed 
stunned into silence by the bluntness of that answer. "Okay, that door is 
my room. No one goes in there unless I specifically invite you. Anyone who 
comes in without an invitation gets stripped naked and tossed in the snow. 
AND NO I'M NOT KIDDING!"
         Several mouths snapped closed so fast there was a simultaneous 
*click* of teeth on teeth. They followed Teritha through a wider hallway, 
the stone around them slowly fading from dark grey to an obviously 
artificial white, though whether it was paint of some kind or by magic 
wasn't clear. Either way, it rather took on the look of white marble, and 
was carved out like some sort of Roman building, though the archways 
leading to the rooms were only the size of regular doors.
         "The kitchen is up this little thing of stairs here on the right 
side... dining room's the stairs going down just past it. The drawing 
room... anyone touches my art stuff or any of my art, they die. Library. 
Anyone touches any of my first-edition books, they die. Armory. Anyone 
touches any of my personal weapons, they die."
         "Is there anything in this house we CAN touch?" Ukyo snorted, a 
few of the others snickering quietly in appreciation.
         "Yourselves and each other are fair game," Teritha answered, 
deadpan. The snickering stopped in an embarrassed silence.
         The elf led the way up a squat spiral staircase, the stairs 
looping around several times, each loop only a few feet above the one below 
it. It opened into another hallway, this one with closed doors instead of 
open arches. Teritha let Shel move into the hallway ahead of her, before 
she turned to look musingly at the group. After a moment, she nodded. 
"Shel, take the boys to that big room down at the end? You know, that one I 
never really got around to furnishing?"
         "Ah, yes, I do believe that's about right," Shel grinned, 
beckoning Ryoga and Ranma with one hand, then moving down the hall.
         "Okay, any of you have a problem with heights?" Teritha 
questioned, glancing at the girls. When Akane raised a tentative hand 
slightly, the elf nodded. "Just a little bit, Akane?"
         "Um, not enough to be REALLY bothered," the short-haired girl 
murmured, eyes aimed at the floor. "But I'd rather not have... big windows 
or something where I'm going to be sleeping."
         "Fair enough." Teritha nodded, then turned and moved to the first 
door on the right, pushing the door open and heading in. "This can be you 
and Kodachi's room, then."
         The other four wandered in behind her, looking around the room in 
interest. The walls here were grey, but a light shade of it, and covered 
either with furnishings pushed against them or tapestries. The room seemed 
done mostly in shades of black, cream, and gold, the tapestries black with 
cream edges and gold embroidery, the two single beds with black comforters, 
cream-colored sheets, and translucent golden hangings gathered up and tied 
at the edges of the tall posts. The beds were pushed back against the wall 
on the right side of the wall with the door in it, with about the same 
space between them as between them and the walls. A chest of drawers was 
pushed up to the wall between the beds, perfectly spanning the gap, its 
height suggesting it double as a bedside table.
         Pushed into a corner across from the beds was an old-style 
roll-top desk of mahogany, a number of pens from various time periods 
arranged neatly atop it, a stack of paper set on a shelf. A matching 
Mahogany wardrobe was against the wall directly across from the chest of 
drawers, a large, double-door one, not overly-decorated, but looking new 
and polished all the same. A few armchairs were settled in corners or 
against walls, and a small, round table with two chairs resides in the 
corner near the door. The place was lit only by a number of little 
brass-and-glass wall fixtures, operated by a small dial near the base, and 
yet they provided enough light to keep the entire room bright and warm-looking.
         "It's up to you two how you keep it," Teritha explained as she 
looked around, as if examining the furnishings for the first time in awhile 
herself. "But you break or tear anything, you'll work to pay for it. Clean 
sheets and other things like that are always in the closet in the hall. 
Don't expect anyone to change 'em for you or keep things picked up if you 
don't."
         "We'll," Akane started, then glanced at Kodachi, and amended, 
"I'll take good care of it." She seemed a little in awe, moving to the far 
bed and gently running her fingers over the comforter. "This is a wonderful 
room."
         "Yes, I suppose it will suffice," Kodachi added, though she too 
seemed rather pleased, leaning over to examine one of the tapestries.
         "While I've got you all in here..." Teritha walked over to the 
desk, waiting until the girls had gathered around her. "There's a desk a 
lot like this in every guest room, I made sure of it. You just write the 
letter with whatever you want, then you press on this." She pointed to a 
small object made of a round piece of polished dark wood shaped like two 
saucers put together, a round green gemstone resting on the top. "A 
delivery animal will appear... try not to scream or yell if it's something 
you're scared of, you get crappy deliveries for weeks after. You just give 
the letter to them, tell them who you want it to be taken to, and off 
they'll go."
         "How will they know who and where just from us telling them who we 
want?" Ukyo inquired, tilting her head and eyeing the device dubiously.
         "Magic, obviously." Teritha raised one thin blue eyebrow. "Don't 
catch on very quick, do you?"
         "... Hey."
         "I'll leave you two to get settled in," Teritha continued, looking 
at Akane and Ukyo. "I've had various visitors in here before, and they've 
left some things... if you find any clothes that fit you, help yourself. 
The bathroom's across from the closet... mind you use the right one," she 
added, grinning to show that the admonishment was a joke. "There's a hamper 
in there you can leave dirty clothes in, and robes and towels. We'll work 
out a schedule for laundry duty later."
         "Thanks," Akane said, smiling some. "I'll write my dad right away!"
         "Thanks, kid. Well, come on, you two."

         The entire wall of the next room was made up of huge panes of 
glass with thin strips of silver running between them to hold them in 
place. The single beds in here were across from each other, residing in the 
corners formed between the windows and wall on either side. The sheets were 
plainer colors, white with blue comforters embroidered with red vines, and 
they weren't four-poster. The desk was against the wall with the door in 
it, a plain rectangular thing with a number of drawers, but a very plush 
chair pulled up to it.
         There was a small chest of drawers on the right and left walls, 
and a bedside table beside each bed. To one side of one of the drawers was 
another door.
         "Closet's there, up to you two to divvy up the space. Probably 
some stuff in there already."
         "Great view," Ukyo said brightly, moving over to the windows. 
"Kinda worried about rolling against the window in the night and breaking 
it or something, though."
         "Doubt you could if you tried, kid," Teritha said with a grin, 
resting a hand on her hip again. "The windows are made by dwarves and 
forged with dragonfire. You could fill the room with gunpowder and set it 
off, I doubt you'd manage to even crack the things."
         "Well, that's a relief," Ukyo murmured, tapping at the glass 
suspiciously.
         "Shampoo like too. Is very nice room." The Amazon opened the 
closet, peering in curiously.
         "Go ahead, settle in, whatever. I'm gonna go get some 
uninterrupted sleep for the first time in about ten years." With a quiet 
snort, Teritha pulled the door closed behind her.

         "Man, we got gypped," Ranma grumbled, sitting on the floor and 
pulling his feet in close to himself.
         "Yeah," Ryoga growled, glaring at the one particular object of 
annoyance in the room.
         The room itself was very large, with a high ceiling above, 
spreading out all around. The furnishings were truly minimal, a few 
tapestries and paintings that must have been gifts Teritha wasn't very fond 
of, a wooden slab of a desk with a brown-paper-wrapped stack of paper and a 
package of Bic plastic pens on it besides the device Shel had explained. 
Other than that and a tall, plain chest of drawers with a few knobs 
missing, the only bit of furniture was the bed.
         One bed.
         Admittedly, it was a large bed, king-sized at least, with crisp 
white sheets, a maroon comforter, and a few furs on top of it. But it was 
only one bed. Complaining to Shel had done no good; this was the only room 
that was right for them, and they'd just have to deal with it. So they were 
left in the stark, dark grey room illuminated by some faux torches along 
the walls (the fire looked real but wasn't hot or tangible).
         "Why did they put us in here?" Ryoga grunted, swinging his 
backpack off and giving it a negligent toss to one side, the pack thudding 
heavily and skidding a few feet.
         "I have no clue," Ranma replied, flipping to his feet and doing a 
few random kicks just to stretch. "I mean, it's like they gave us a room 
without anything in it on purpose. Oh, dibs on the bed."
         "No way, Saotome! You'd be having girls in and out of it!" Ryoga 
snapped back, taking a halfhearted swing at the other boy.
         Ranma ducked and danced backwards. "Ha, you're crazy! You think 
I'd ever want that tomboy in my bed, no matter how big it was?!"
         "You come back here! How dare you say that about Akane?!" Ryoga 
raged, pursuing Ranma and swinging wildly now.
         "Ha ha, P-chan likes tomboys!"
         "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

         "Hey, Kodachi, you wanna write your letter home first?" Akane 
called quietly as she ran her fingers curiously along the side of a quill. 
She blinked as she got no reply, and looked to one side to find Kodachi 
still utterly absorbed in the figures on a tapestry. "Hey, Kodachi! ... Oh, 
fine, whatever."
         Pulling out the desk chair and sliding into place, Akane picked up 
a sheet of paper and a marble-patterned inkwell pen.
                 'Dear daddy, I'
         Frowning a little, Akane looked at the page for a moment, unsure 
of how to continue.
                 'Dear daddy, I wanted to tell-'
         Giving a mild growl of vexation, Akane crumbled up the sheet of 
paper up and tossed it in the small wastebasket beside the desk, grabbing 
another piece of paper.
                 'Daddy, I thought you should know, I-'
         Making a louder noise of annoyance, the short-haired girl crumbled 
up that sheet as well, tossing it in the basket a bit harder than 
necessary. Glaring at a fresh sheet, she thought for long moments, then 
sighed softly. Relaxing a little, she put pen to paper again.
                 'Kasumi, something strange and interesting has happened. A 
woman appeared and claims to be both Ranma and Ryoga's ancestor from almost 
2000 years ago. I don't know if this is true, and she grabbed us up in a 
pretty mean way. But she seems to at least believe what she's saying, and I 
don't think she wants to hurt us. She wanted to take Ranma and Ryoga to her 
world, a different Earth, and the other girls because they're attached to 
Ranma. Me too, I guess. I mean, I guess if Ranma went missing, I'd look for 
the idiot. I have before, anyway. But everyone else was saying they were 
going to do this, and it didn't feel right not going along to help out.
                 I don't know when I'll be home, Kasumi. I think this may 
be something I have to do. For the others.'
         Akane paused for several moments, then added a slight downward 
stroke before continuing.
                 'I don't know when I'll be home, Kasumi. I think this may 
be something I have to do. For the others, and maybe for myself. This is a 
whole new world I'm encountering, outside of Japan, outside of being 
kidnapped or dragged along. I chose to come this time, and I think there's 
a lot here for me to learn. I can still write you, though I don't know if 
you'll be able to write back.
                 Please explain everything to daddy. I know he won't want 
to listen, and that he'll raise a ruckus. I don't want to make things hard 
for you. But tell him I'm doing fine, and that I'll still be writing. Tell 
him I'm not alone... everyone's here with me, pretty much.
                 I guess that's all for now. Take care, Kasumi. Tell 
everyone I'm thinking of them, and I'll write again soon.
                         -Akane'
         She looked at the letter for long moments, then nodded a little 
before glancing around, opening a few of the drawers. Teritha had said 
something would come to pick up the letter... some kind of animal, an owl 
or a pigeon or something like that, she assumed... and she wanted to make 
it easier to carry. Finding a little roll of ribbon, she pulled off a 
length, cut it, then rolled up the letter and tied the ribbon. Nodding in 
satisfaction, she reached out to press on the green gem, starting to rise, 
thinking she'd have to go downstairs and wait for the delivery creature at 
the door.
         With a small popping sound, a foot-and-a-half long emerald green 
dragon appeared on the desktop, looking around and hissing quietly. Akane 
yelped, jumping backwards and almost knocking her chair over, clapping a 
hand over her mouth. The dragonette blinked its black eyes at her, tilting 
its head and giving a quieter hiss, sounding questioning.
         "Uhhhhh... oh. Um, sorry. I didn't mean to yell," Akane stuttered, 
settling back into the chair and pressing a hand to her chest, her heart 
feeling as if it were trying to batter her ribs into submission. She 
glanced over at Kodachi to find the other girl still standing across the 
room, but now looking at the desk with a sort of distant curiosity. After a 
moment, Akane looked back to the creature. "Uh... here. This is for Kasumi 
Tendo."
         Akane proffered the rolled-up letter, and the dragonette took it 
in one of its eaglelike forefeet, sniffing at it a little, then giving a 
pleased-sounding cheep, apparently approving of its being rolled up to make 
for easier carrying. It spread its wings momentarily and flicked its tail 
before popping back out of existence.
         "... Okay, THAT was interesting," Akane whispered to herself, 
rubbing her head lightly.

         "Hey! Shampoo want write great-grandmother!"
         "This'll just take a minute, sugar," Ukyo replied, not bothering 
to sit down and simply bending over the desk, grabbing a sheet of paper and 
the first pen that came to hand.
                 'Dad, left country, don't know when I'll be back. Still 
with Ranma. -Ukyo'
         Ukyo folded the page in half, then ran her thumb over the green 
gem. Both girls blinked and took a step back as a bright green bird with a 
long blue tail appeared abruptly on the desk. After a moment, though, Ukyo 
simply held out the page to it. "Kensuke Kuonji."
         The bird looked at the half-folded page with what almost seemed to 
be annoyance, then took it carefully in its beak before it disappeared again.
         "That all you going to write?" Shampoo asked, blinking curiously.
         Ukyo shrugged, turning and heading for the door. "... Some people 
don't have much to say to one another, sugar. I'm gonna go catch a quick bath."

         Ranma's tongue poked from the side of his mouth as he worked at 
the desk, occasionally swirling the cheap pen around to get it to work.
                 'oyaji i have @ gone to another world to @@@ train so dont 
worry about me. @@@@@@@ gonna get lots of training oh and akane and the 
girls are here to so dont worry about us were fine and you better not run 
off and hide while im gone old man'
         Nodding in satisfaction, Ranma folded the paper up until it was a 
small triangle, and slapped the green gem with his palm. He flailed a bit 
when the bright blue pigeon popped into existence on the desk, then just 
shrugged and set the paper on the desk in front of it. "Yeah, take this to 
Genma Saotome, and don't poop on it. ... Aw, hell, poop on it if you wanna."
         The pigeon gave Ranma a look that was remarkably like the ones he 
got from Akane when he said something similar, before taking the paper and 
disappearing.
         "Hey, Ryoga." Ranma leaned back on the rickety wooden chair, 
flopping an arm over the back as he looked at the other boy. "You wanna 
write anyone?"
         Ryoga just shrugged a little, not turning from where he was 
sitting on the floor going through his backpack. "No one will know I'm 
missing."
         Ranma smirked and started to open his mouth, then closed it after 
a moment. Something about the way Ryoga's shoulders slumped a little more 
as he said that took all the fun out of teasing him.
         "Um, yeah, okay. You wanna fight a little more, then?"
         "You WANT to fight?" Ryoga glanced over his shoulder now, 
glowering some.
         "Well, yeah, it's fun to fight with you!" Ranma hopped up out of 
the chair. "I mean, we got all this room, may as well do something with it."
         "... I don't feel like it right now." Ryoga shoved something back 
into the backpack, seeming to draw his arms and legs closer in to himself.
         "Aw, c'mon, man..."
         "No. Leave me alone."
         "I'll fight you for the bed!"
         "I'm going to use my sleeping bag."
         "Dammit... you're no fun!"
         "So what?"
         Ranma huffed, glowering down at Ryoga, then just trotting over to 
the bed and dropping onto his back. 'Man, you'd think he wasn't my buddy 
anymore.'

         "Kids, c'mon down! Dinner!"
         Ukyo finished tying her hair up with a clean white ribbon she'd 
found in one of the drawers, and shrugged back into her school uniform 
jacket. "Hey, you heard, right? C'mon, let's go, or Ranchan'll finish his 
and ours before we get there."
         "Shampoo come soon, is almost finished," the Chinese girl replied 
quietly, her head bent over the page, the long white feather of the quill 
she was using swaying quickly back and forth.
         Ukyo shrugged, heading for the door, pausing only to turn the 
small knob on the lamp above the desk to brighten the light in compensation 
for the darkening evening sky outside. "Whatever, sugar."
         Shampoo blinked a little, glancing up at the lamp, then over her 
shoulder at the indigo sky outside the window-wall. Hming quietly and 
thoughtfully to herself, she turned back to her letter.
                 'Drawing to a close, great-grandmother, this one is quite 
interested by these people. The elf who claims to be the ancestor of this 
one's husband and your student is very loud and scary sometimes, but she 
also has those rare moments where she is simply kind. When this one sees 
her smile, this one thinks there is something of Ranma there, no matter how 
many generations may separate them.
                 The man named Shel fascinates this one. He is like this 
one in a way, in one form a human, in the other an animal. This is true of 
the others in some ways, but also different. Shel is a canine, and in some 
ways this one feels her cat-part recoil from him in fear. But at the same 
time, that makes this one's human-part more interested. This one wonders 
about him, about what of him is the wolf and what of him is the man.
                 Zek is very strange to this one. It would be easy to say 
that he is careless, foolish... in many ways, what others see in this one's 
husband. But as with Ranma, there is something more there, but very 
different from Ranma. This one is not sure yet, and will have to observe 
him carefully.
                 In final closing, if possible please give this one some 
advice on this one's earlier mentioning of a partial reconciliation with 
one of this one's rivals. This one is unsure of how to proceed. It is good 
to have a friend, but this one is already feeling uneasy. When is it proper 
to be her friend, and when is it proper to be her rival? Ukyo and Akane 
seem to have so few real difficulties with this. They remain friends in 
spite of Ukyo's continued quest for this one's husband. But this one is not 
Akane, and openly desires Ranma. Has this one made a poor choice?
                         -With love and respect, Shan Pu'
         Placing the quill back in its holder, Shampoo carefully picked up 
the paper, blowing gently across its surface, before picking up the other 
four pages of the letter and checking to make sure they were stacked in the 
right order. Rolling them all up carefully, she tied the roll with a ribbon 
at each end and one in the middle before pressing the green gem. What 
looked very much like a bald eagle the size of a large dove appeared, 
shifting nervously from foot to foot. Shampoo smiled and gave it a light 
pat on the head before handing over the letter. "Take to Shampoo's 
great-grandmother Cologne, please."


         The house had settled into quiet, dinner having been a fairly 
normal affair, none of the dishes too outlandish or odd to really put 
anyone off. It had been a long day, and everyone had retired to their 
bedrooms, the teenagers dropping into their beds (or sleeping bags) and 
almost immediately falling into exhausted, deep sleep.
         Save one.
         Kodachi tossed and turned, whimpering quietly in her sleep. She 
woke suddenly, lurching up into a sitting position, strangling a scream by 
dint of long practice. The gymnast thrashed her hands and feet almost 
frantically to free them from the entangling sheets. Once she no longer 
felt restrained, she began to calm a little, putting both hands over her face.
         The room was almost pitch black, only two lamps turned on to very 
dim light, the outlines of the lamp showing golden through the drapes of 
the bed. After long moments, Kodachi turned and slid out of bed, pushing 
the curtain aside and padding across the floor as silently as a feather on 
snow. She paused momentarily, regarding the sleeping form of her roommate 
with a sort of confusion, before turning and continuing her path to the desk.
         She slipped into the chair, turning the light beside the desk up 
just enough to cast enough light onto the desktop for her to see by. Taking 
up a calligraphy pen, she regarded a blank page Akane had left out for long 
moments, before dipping the pen into an inkwell.
                 'My dearest brother, I am writing to inform you that I 
have left the world you and I inhabited for another.'
         Kodachi paused for long moments, staring at the page almost in 
wonder, before resuming her careful, quick strokes, the letters forming 
easily and elegantly under the pen's tip.
                 'I have done so in pursuit of my beloved Ranma-sama, that 
he might realize the utter depth and breadth of my love for him. It is a 
world filled with many strange things, and the same sort of commoners unfit 
to associate with nobles such as ourselves. But I will press on, and make 
this world mine as much as it deserves to be, and make Ranma-sama mine as 
he is destined to be.'
         She smiled brightly at that, sitting back and seeming to bask in 
the thoughts for long moments. Slowly, the smile faded, turning to a faint, 
unsure frown, before she leaned forward again.
                 'I regret that'
         She paused. No, that line really wouldn't do, it wiggled all over 
the place. She looked at her hand, discipline taking over as she forced it 
to stop shaking. Then, she continued.
                 'I regret that this means I must break my childhood 
promise never to leave you or our home. I understand the importance of 
childhood promises, and'
         Kodachi bit her lip, almost trembling again, but forcing herself 
not to.
                 'I regret that this means I must break my childhood 
promise never to leave you or our home. I understand the importance of 
childhood promises, and how important it was to you. But I'
         Now she couldn't stop the shaking, but it wasn't so important that 
the letters be perfect anymore.
                 'I regret that this means I must break my childhood 
promise never to leave you or our home. I understand the importance of 
childhood promises, and how important it was to you. But I am not our 
mother, nor could I ever be. I had to leave. I had to leave. I had to 
leave. I had to be with my Ranma-sama. Ranma-sama understands me, he cares 
about me, Ranma-sama loves me.'
         The pen was moving faster and faster, and she was staring at the 
page with wide eyes, feeling scared, feeling liberated.
                 'Ranma-sama loves me and I'm not mommy and I wanted to 
leave and I finally got to leave and I'm NOT COMING BACK! I DONT WANT TO 
COME BACK YOU CANT MAKE ME AND IM STAYING AND IM NOT COMING BACK AND YOU 
CAN GO TO HELL BECAUSE IM NOT COMING BACK!!!!!'
         And suddenly, the trembling was gone, the fear was gone. Oh yes, 
that was much better. Nodding her calm approval of the letter, Kodachi 
watched it carefully as the ink lost its glossiness and dried. Then, 
folding it up in very careful manner, fit for an aristocrat, she reached 
over to touch the green gem the long-eared woman had talked about earlier.
         A bat appeared, giving a quiet little chitter as she handed it the 
folded missive. "Tatewaki Kuno." Giving a quick bob of its head, the 
creature popped out of existence again.
         It was a very good bat. It hadn't commented at all on the tears 
streaming down her cheeks. Bats were rather considerate that way, Kodachi 
thought.

~End part three~


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