TRTC Chapter 6 Version (1.0)
Previous chapters can be found on FFN here:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2314624/1/ Or on my website here:
http://www.wagnergrp.com/JBW_Website/

On my website, I've also set up a New UFOpedia, with all the info from
the XCOM game, plus more in-depth fluff on the universe, the weapons,
base locations, etc.


-----

The year is 2005. For six years, mankind has waged a Secret War against
an enemy from Beyond the Stars. The Nerima Wrecking Crew and their
families have been relocated to Seiran Mountain, XCOM headquarters for
the Far East. Between their training, the cursed members of the group
are finally on the verge of curing their curses, so why do they
hesitate?


-----

The Road To Cydonia
Chapter VI
Panacea

-----

Written by:
Capn Chryssalid
jbraveboy@gmail.com

-----

The black helicopter landed to the sound of applause and cheering.

Regulations forbid the use of pyrotechnics or even thrown party favors,
but it didn't keep Soun and Genma from dancing happily at the sight of
the vehicle as it entered the hangar, and it didn't discourage Ranma,
Mousse, Ryouga and Shampoo from giggling and chuckling in eager
anticipation as the pilot brought his craft down for a perfect landing.
There was a tremor among the Jyusenkyou cursed, as they fought off the
almost instinctive urge to rush the helicopter to search for their
valuable cargo. Still, they held back, and waited, hands wringing and
eyes wide.

Too slowly, the helicopter blades slowed to a stop, and the orange
vested work crew came forward to unload the crates onboard. The five
cursed martial artists all but crawled over each other, just outside the
yellow and black boundary markings painted on the floor, each one trying
to get the first glance at the elusive cure. The fate of the last barrel
of Nanniichuan, or drowned man water, back during the failed wedding was
still fresh in all their minds.

At that time, the guide had sent the water to the Tendo Dojo in thanks
for Ranma and Akane defeating Prince Saffron. Soun had gotten a hold of
it before his would be son-in-law, and subsequently tried to keep it a
secret until the marriage was underway. There had only been enough for
one person (a sad oversight on the Jyusenkyou Guide's part), and when
Genma found out, he'd tried to take the water for himself. Ryouga had
busted in, purely by accident, and seen the water, and then Mousse had
joined in just before Ranma arrived, hearing the commotion. In the
ensuing melee, Happosai had ended up drinking the entire barrel of
water, thinking it was sake.

"Not this time!" They had all vowed.

"I see it!" Ranma all but yelped, pointing at a large plastic cylinder
with a number of warning labels applied liberally as stickers, including
"Biohazardous Substances," "Environmental Hazard," and "Class 9:
Dangerous Substance." Then, written in English on a blank white sticker:
"H2O: Spring of Drowned Male."

"Another one!" Ryouga whooped, and pointed, as another plastic barrel
was unloaded with the same labels, followed by a third, and a fourth.
Only then, finally, did a barrel with the label "H2O: Spring of Drowned
Female" appear. The work crew treated the barrels with due safety, and
then finished with the rest of the helicopter's cargo.

The Nerima crew, meanwhile, were huddled near where the barrels had been
set down. Normally, Jyusenkyou water was held in a wooden cask, but at
some point, either the casks themselves or the water inside had been
transferred to secure storage as Hazardous Materials. Each plastic drum
had a hermetic seal on the top, along with a dangling tag describing
transportation routines and warnings associated with the contents
therein. Then, one of the work crew loaded the barrels onto a trolley,
secured them in place, and casually rolled it past the excited martial
artists.

"Its actually here..." Mousse said, smiling almost ear to ear. "Its
actually here!!"

"Where's he taking it?" Genma asked, watching the trolley with hungry
eyes.

"Down to Quartermaster Arugula," Ranma explained, as he started to walk.
"Once he inspects it, all we have to do is sign for it, and it's ours!"

"Congratulations, son! And you, too, Saotome!" Soun slapped them both on
the back, heartily, but then he leaned down and whispered something to
the elder martial artist. Most everyone was so fixated on finally
getting the cure to their curse that they didn't even notice the two
wicked grins on the faces of the older men. Shampoo, however, did
notice.

And she guessed the intent behind their smiles as well.

Soun veered off to take care of his own business, but everyone else made
a point of crowding into the elevator with the surprised trolley driver.
It descended far too slowly for the tastes of the cursed Nerimites,
while a slow calming music track played in the background, driving their
nerves further and further on edge. The worker in the orange vest just
looked from side to side, nervously noting how everyone seemed to be
staring at the cargo in his trolley.

"Ummm..." He said, softly. "Have you people been waiting for this
stuff?"

"For two years," Ranma answered first. "Six months, and five days." He
then gestured towards his father. "Thanks to this idiot taking me to a
cursed training ground without knowing what the curse was!"

Genma's glasses glinted in the light. "Don't be such a whiny girl,
Ranma! It isn't like you went out of your way to learn Chinese either.
Besides... as I recall, you cursed me first."

"I didn't know the pools were cursed like that! And what did you do, old
man? You knocked ME into a pool," Ranma grabbed his father by his white
gi. "Even though you knew it had just turned you into a damn panda!!"

"What?" The trolley driver asked. "A panda?"

"A true martial artist is never caught off guard, no matter the
circumstances! Like so!" Genma suddenly whirled, tossing Ranma to the
side and into Mousse. The elevator was large, but there was hardly
enough room to fight in, and the Chinese Amazon barely saved the back of
his head from hitting the metal wall behind him.

"Watch where you're throwing your children, will you please?" Mousse
said from his position beneath Ranma.

"That's it, old man!" the pigtailed boy jumped back to his feet, and a
furious bout of close range blows and counters erupted between father
and son.

"No fight on elevator!" Shampoo momentarily lapsed into her flawed
Japanese. "No is safe!"

"Typical Ranma; never thinking about where you're fighting. Haven't you
learned anything since you knocked me off that cliff and into my own
personal h..." Just then, Ranma's elbow slammed into the lost boy's
face, cutting short his tirade.

"Sorry, man," Ranma parried two snake fist strikes from his father.
"Didn't see you there!"

Ryouga just chuckled, and the leapt at them, a fist cocked back. "I'll
kill you BOTH!!"

"You idiots! Think about where we are!" Mousse quickly undid the buttons
for his shirt around his wrists. Flicking forward his hands, two long
chains shot out, trying to encircle the warring trio. A second later,
Shampoo joined the fray, trying to 'help her airen.' It was pure luck
that, before things could get worse, the elevator reached its
destination, and the trolley driver hastily exited with his cargo.

The poor guy all but ran from the brawling martial artists. Looking over
his shoulder, he saw the door closing, the five people behind it still
fighting, when suddenly a hand interposed itself between the elevator
doors. The driver yelped, and picked up his pace as the doors opened
again, and the Nerimites started to stream out.

"Stop!" One of them bellowed.

"Hey! Waaaiiit Up!"

"You people are CRAZY!!" The driver yelled back, "Stay the hell away
from meeee!!!"

"We're not crazy!" Another of them answered, as they picked up their
pursuit. "We just want the water!"

"Jyusenkyou water!"

"We...!" Thud! "Damnit Mousse, what the hell are these chains made of?"

"Titanium! The workshop on Level Four has some incredible stuff!"

By the time the five martial artists finally managed to untangle
Mousse's new "Super Chains" and drag themselves to the Quartermaster,
the trolley driver was long gone. He had not left before leaving a few
complaints, however, and Master Sergeant Arugula looked less than
pleased when he saw the aptly named Nerima Wrecking Crew.

"You clowns have a fun time jacking each other off?" He asked, his long
ugly face scrunching up in distaste. Arugula was a former special forced
soldier, injured twice in combat to the point where it seriously
impaired his combat effectiveness. A plasma blast had incinerated part
of his helmet, maiming his face (but saving his life). That same
mission, he'd had his left arm blown off, and had opted for a prosthetic
replacement. Despite being retired from active duty, he wore his uniform
crisply and with the utmost pride.

"Sir, no sir!" All of those involved, minus Genma, snapped to attention
and saluted.

"It was just a misunderstanding," Ranma elaborated. Or started to,
before shutting up and leaving it in the air as to just what was
misunderstood about the five of them getting into a fight in an elevator
with a trolley full of cursed water.

"Shut your hole, kid! And look sharp, you shit faced pukes! Fix. Your.
Uniforms. NOW!" Arugula barked, and Mousse retracted the last dangling
titanium chain back into his right sleeve. Quickly, the master of hidden
weapons buttoned it up, and all three young fighters straightened out
their uniforms. Genma, on the other hand, just hung back and waited.

Finally back in respectable condition, they waited tensely for the
Quartermaster to nod in approval. When he did, he turned and picked up
an electronic notepad. Without talking, he began to write on it, letting
the new arrivals stew where they stood, still at attention. Behind
Arugula and his tiny office, they could see row after row of storage:
crates, equipment, parts, sheets of metal, and even refrigerated goods.
The Armory was a level above here, and also under Arugula's
jurisdiction, but that was strictly for military hardware.

"'Ey, now," he looked up from the e-pad at the four martial artists.
"You jokers are here for the water that just came in. Fine. Fine. I'll
get you out of my hair ASAP. Let's see... Shampoo; H2O: Drowned Female."

Arugula slowly walked over to where the water drums rested nearby, still
on the trolley from before. He checked the tags, before finding the
right one. Shampoo, emboldened by having her name called, was already
there, waiting for permission. The Quartermaster made sure she knew
which one to take, and then directed her to sign her name to an
electronic file on the e-pad.

"Hibiki, Ryouga; H2O: Drowned Male," Arugula then called out; the lost
boy walked up and signed his name before picking up a water barrel.
According to the tag, each one contained 85.6 liters of Jyusenkyou
water. Also included were directions for properly breaking the hermetic
seal, for testing the pH, a notification that the water had been
inspected for biological contaminants, and that trace levels of
contaminants had been detected and not filtered before delivery.

"Mousse; H2O: Drowned Male," Arugula called them out, in alphabetical
order, one by one in an orderly procession. "Saotome, Genma; H2O:
Drowned Male.... Saotome, Ranma; H2O: Drowned Male."

"Good. Good. That's seems to be that." The quartermaster checked off the
five drums of cursed water, and added his own signature to the
appropriate forms. "Now clear out! This ain't no tea house, ya know!"

"Sir, yes sir!" The four youths chorused, and saluted with their free
hands. Each with a cure in hand, they all but skipped back to the
elevator, the fighting from before completely forgotten. As Genma joined
them in an elevator, heading back up to the housing section of the base,
he noticed Ranma's more somber look.

"What's wrong, boy?" Genma asked his son, leaning in closer. "You
seem... more pensive than usual."

Ranma just shook his head. "It's nothing, pop."

"I don't think I can wait till the party..." Mousse interrupted,
cradling his Jyusenkyou water drum with his right arm. "I'm going to use
it in my room. I know I said, I'd wait, but..."

"I believe I, too, will cure myself as soon as possible," Genma seconded
the Chinese boy's decision. "There have been too many close calls over
the years."

Shampoo pushed past Mousse, to stand close to Ranma.

"Don't worry, I'll wait for the party!" She batted her eyes at him.
"It'll be so romantic, curing ourselves at the same time! Why don't you
let me pour the man water on you, while you pour the girl water on me,
hmm?"

"Wouldn't that create some sort of horrible she-male water around your
feet?" Mousse asked, deadpan. The other two teenagers shuddered at the
thought.

"Hey, have any of you thought about what we're going to say... if anyone
asks about our cursed forms?" Ryouga asked, his serious tone catching
the attention of the others. He had his cursed water under his right
arm, and his left hand on one of the barrel handles.

"That's not really a problem for me," Mousse replied, and gave Shampoo
and Ranma a lazy look. "Or Shampoo."

"Why would anyone care what happens to girl type Ranma?" Shampoo asked
lightheartedly, but Ranma and Genma had also taken on austere
expressions.

"If I got cured," Ryouga continued, speaking slowly as if unsure how to
share what he was thinking. "I'd always planned to get Akane another
piglet to take P-chan's place. I don't think that's an option here."

"Well, you were always wandering off before. So it's no different this
time." Ranma pursed his lips and nodded as he thought more about what
he'd said. "We'll just tell Akane that P-chan is lost, or on his own out
there, and not to worry. It isn't like she needs the little porker,
especially with how suspiciously absent he's been this past year. You
aren't going to tell her, are ya?"

"About P-chan?" Ryouga frowned and looked down at the water that was his
cure. "No. No, I don't think so. It would just cause more grief for
everyone."

"Good," Ranma said with obvious relief. "I can't say a part'a me doesn't
want you to get what ya deserve for being such a pain in the ass... but
right now it really isn't worth all the trouble."

"It is your fault I got this damn curse," Ryouga grumbled.

Ranma held up his hand, his own frown deepening. "Let's not go back down
this road... I say you shouldn't have followed me to China, you say I
should've watched where I was going, I say you were late to the duel,
you say I knew you'd get lost and show up late... let's just skip it
this time."

"Fine." Ryouga shrugged. "What about 'Ranko Tendo,' then?"

"Ranko?" Shampoo asked, not familiar with the name. Mousse wasn't
familiar with it either, but he didn't feel the need to make that much
clear. Before Ranma or Genma could reply, the elevator hit their floor,
and the doors opened. After a few seconds, Ranma reached over and held
out his hand to keep the doors from closing.

"I pretended to be Akane's cousin a while back to keep my mom from
finding out about my curse," Ranma explained, quickly. "The only one
who'll miss her is Kuno."

"Well: what about Kuno?" Mousse asked, after a moment. "Sooner or later,
he'll realize his pigtailed girl is gone, and you know who he'll blame
for that."

Ranma huffed at the suggestion. "He can't even remember his precious
pigtailed girl's name. You guys just don't talk about her around him,
and Kuno'll forget about her long before he realizes she no longer
exists. Ok?"

They all looked to each other, and silently agreed: no more talking
about their cursed selves, no more drawing attention to the past. The
elevator doors opened again, and this time they filed out. In a few
hours, they'd finally put an end to two years of suffering.

In a few hours, they'd be free!

-----

Genma adjusted his glasses, reading and re-reading the warning and use
labels attached to his barrel. It wasn't really his style to be so
thorough, even in researching martial arts techniques (much to Ranma's
misfortune), but this was his cure, here! If he somehow messed up using
it, he'd have to try and... appropriate his son's and try again.

He doubted that would go over well.

"Husband?" A knock on the bathroom door heralded the concern of his
wife. "Are you well? You've been in there for some time..."

"I'm fine!" He called back, and opened the door for her. Nodoka stuck
her head in, and saw him fully dressed, and looking like his normal
self.

"Have you used the water yet?" she asked, but he held out his hand,
keeping her well away from the bathtub, and the unlocked but still
sealed water drum that sat there.

"I was just about to," Genma explained, handing her the tag that had
been attached to the barrel, along with a small piece of paper, the end
of which was wet and slightly blue.

"According to the litmus test, the water is safe to use... It will
dilute in only three times its volume of regular water, so I'll have to
douse myself rather than simply make it into a bath." Genma stepped into
the bathtub, reached down, and opened the hermetic seal on the top with
a hiss. "Stay back, and make sure none of it touches you."

Nodoka nodded quickly, closing the door slightly as a shield.

With a deep breath, Genma Saotome lifted the water drum over his head,
and began to pour. As the crystal clear waters enshrouded him, his body
blurred and shifted. Nodoka felt an electric tingle in the air that sent
goose bumps down her back and along her arms. Finally, Genma dropped the
empty water drum; it hit the floor and rolled under the sink.

"It... it worked," Genma said softly, and then exclaimed loudly, looking
down at his wet human hands. "It worked! I'm cured, Nodoka! Cured!!"

"Husband!" Nodoka opened the door, but again held back. He was, after
all, covered in cursed Jyusenkyou water. Still, he seemed perfectly
fine. If anything, the water seemed have rejuvenated him in her eyes. He
was a full man once more, not quite the physical specimen she had fallen
in love with, but to her eyes still a dignified and even attractive man.
Seemingly oblivious to his wife's thoughts or interest, Genma just stood
in the bath tub as the cursed water pooled around his feet, staring at
his hands.

"Husband?" Nodoka asked, a little worried by the intensity of his glare,
directed as it was to his human digits.

"Nodoka..." Genma turned slowly to face her, his expression somber, even
stunned. "Something's wrong."

-----

Mousse closed his eyes as the water flowed down his body. It felt cool
and refreshing, and despite the temperature, he knew he was human - felt
that he was human! It was almost orgasmic: he was cold, he was wet, and
he was HUMAN! There was a mild tingle, no doubt from his old curse being
purged, and then it was gone and he was whole. So wonderfully whole!

Mousse shook his head back and forth, his long black hair fanning out
behind him to whip over his shoulders and over his eyes. Dropping the
now empty plastic barrel, he reached up to his face and ran his hands
from his temples to the back of his head, pushing his hair into place.
Remembering the instructions from before, he turned on the shower, and
let yet more wonderfully cold clear water cleanse his body and soul.

Only after he was sure that the Jyusenkyou water had been washed away,
and gone down the drain, did he turn off the shower. Stepping out of the
tub, he reached for a nearby towel, and began to dry himself off. Struck
by the sudden impulse to see himself, he reached for his glasses, and
headed to the mirror over the sink.

Sure enough, it was him.

He was cured!

Running the white towel over his face, and then the back of his neck and
his long hair, he reflected on how long it had been since that horrible
day he'd ... stumbled into the cursed pool in that cursed place called
Jyusenkyou. Of all of them, he had managed the stupidest and most
pathetic story surrounding his cursing. His subsequent turning into a
duck had only one benefit as far as he was concerned, and that was the
times he'd just taken to the sky and flown.

He would miss that, he realized, and closed his eyes. He would miss
being able to spread his wings, seize a lazy updraft, and with powerful
chest muscles, propel himself higher and higher. Mousse tried to
remember those good times, and bit-by-bit, his expression changed from
ecstatic joy, to a perplexed frown. He tried to think about after he had
been first cursed. How he had...

Had...

What had he done?

"I... I can't remember," Mousse whispered, staring at himself in the
mirror. "I can't remember."

-----

Akane was a martial artist, too.

Or so she told herself, and others, whenever the subject came up. In
truth, she had really reached the limits of her interest in the Art. She
had met a wall, which was her lack of specialization in ki - she had
virtually all the other fundamentals down besides it, from weapons to
forms to advanced techniques to even a limited degree of aura control
and danger sense. Even before Ranma had showed up she had known that she
had hit a sort of plateau, but with her then level of the Art seemingly
more than sufficient to handle anything life threw at her, she'd been
content with it.

That, she had come to see, was what made her different from Ranma and
his peers. For them, the Art was an integral part of their lives, and
the way they fought mattered as much to them as their names, their
families, or their very lives. Shampoo was a Chinese Amazon, supposedly
the best of her generation, and she had trained under Cologne herself.
For Ukyou, her martial arts were her cooking, and in their
indivisibility, she was fanatically devoted to both, unable to give them
up even when she thought they stood between her and her Ran-chan.

The boys of the Nerima Wrecking Crew were even worse than the girls.
Kuno and Mousse had honed their respective specialties through grueling
training, the former because of his samurai lineage obsession, and the
latter in a desperate bid to impress and win over Shampoo. Ranma and
Ryouga, however, put even them to shame. Both seemed willing to do
anything for their martial arts, and both had endured training Akane
would never have considered putting herself through. She could still
remember Ranma agonized cries from when he had trained to defeat Picolet
Chardin. Her comparatively weak willed approach to the Art was probably
why she had never developed a powerful ki, or at least she suspected
that was the case.

Still, for all that, she felt that she could understand the mentality of
the martial artist, and reflect the more noble aspects of it in herself.
She was a martial artist, but she was also a human being, and a woman,
and a student; the Art wasn't her life, it was only a part of what she
wanted to be and what she believed in. Ranma, she secretly hoped, would
also be a part of her life, as he had been for the last two hectic
years.

Which was why she was here.

Ranma's door loomed ahead of her, and for the second time, she had
second thoughts about making her presence in front of it known. It
wasn't that she missed him, given that he took pains to drop by the Dojo
almost every day, and that she was always there with her father
overseeing the construction. It wasn't that she was afraid of him being
with Ukyou and Shampoo so much, though when she thought about it, it did
annoy her. Both girls still had ambitions for the pigtailed boy, and
Akane just knew that they took every opportunity to try and manhandle
him, and as spineless as Ranma sometimes was, he probably let them.

She resisted the urge to pound on his door, but bit back her furor and
gave Ranma the benefit of the doubt. After all, it wasn't as if she had
seen him acting that way, at least not recently. She was here because
she had heard about what had happened to Mr. Saotome and Mousse; because
she had heard that Ranma had heard, and because she knew how he was
feeling, and about the decision he had to make. She just dearly hoped
that if she rang the doorbell that she wouldn't open it to see Shampoo
or Ukyou present and trying to "comfort" him.

She rested her ear against the cool metal, but couldn't hear anything
from inside. It wasn't a surprise that individual rooms were
soundproofed, given western standards of privacy, but it only helped to
make the surroundings more unfamiliar and intimidating. Everything was
uniform on the outside, and the same shades of metallic gray, medical
white, or cool blue. It lacked a certain character that came from years
of use and personalization, and even minor imperfection. It even
reminded her, vaguely, of that horrible alien ship they'd been trapped
on.

Finally, she swallowed her anxiety and nervousness, and pressed her
index finger to a small panel that served as both doorbell and security
lock. It scanned her finger, checked her clearance level from the file
of her on the base, recorded where she was and when, and then made her
presence known to the room's occupant. She waited, closed her eyes, and
tried to imagine how she would get Ranma to talk about what she imagined
he really needed to get off his chest.

Should he take the cure?

Even if it cost him all the memories he'd had from when he was a girl?
Akane understood that it wasn't an easy decision to make. Being around
him for so long, and so often, she knew how often Ranma had ended up in
his female body thanks to a careless splash of cold water, being caught
in the rain, or simply not paying attention to his surroundings. Unlike
Mousse, Ranma's cursed form was human, and so he usually hadn't been in
a huge rush to change back. What would getting cured cost him, really?

All those fights, even most of his speed training with Cologne, had been
when he was in girl form. In addition to cumulative months of time
forgotten, what if he forgot all those fights, all that training, all
that experience? Could he afford to? Mousse hadn't really lost all that
much, she suspected, and Genma - despite how readily he had taken to
being in a panda's body - seemed to be coping well. Ranma had to be
wondering, thinking, about the same dilemma, and she was sure he'd want
someone to talk to about it.

The door retracted into the wall with barely a sound.

"Akane," Ranma said, sounding a little surprised that it was actually
her. He stepped aside, and motioned for her to step inside.

She hadn't actually been to his room before, and it was different than
she imagined. Back at the Tendo Dojo in Nerima, Ranma and his father had
been given the guest bedroom to sleep in, and made rather a mess of it
in little time. Most of the subsequent decor must have been Genma's
work, since Ranma (finally given a room of his own) kept things Spartan
and relatively tidy.

Like almost all the housing in the base, Ranma's room had a simple
design: the main door led to a living area about twelve feet by twelve
feet square. From there, another door lead to the adjacent apartment's
living room, another to the shared bathroom, and another to a bedroom.
They'd all been given some basic furniture to use, and Ranma hadn't
tried anything elaborate. He had a desk in the living room with a light,
his computer, and other work related objects. There was also a small,
low table, and a few matte black zabuton cushions piled on top of each
other.

"Uhm... you want somethin' to drink?" Ranma quickly put out one of the
black cushions, and headed towards a small refrigerator. She was a
little thrown by the good host behavior, but she supposed she'd never
really went to see him at a place he considered his own and no one
else's, where the rules of etiquette were different. For all that, she
found herself liking his sense of propriety, if only as a change of
pace.

"I've got some soda, water..." He rummaged a bit in the fridge. "Um...
grapefruit juice?"

Akane knew she wanted to relax the atmosphere, and that she could be
around for a while, so she took up his offer. "A soda would be great,
thanks."

He took out two classic cokes and handed one over to his guest. Rather
than sit at the table, however, he pulled out the chair for his desk and
sat in it. Resting his drink and his arms on the armrests, he leaned
back, and opened his soda can with a hiss. He struck her as laid back,
even casual in his normal Chinese style silk shirt and pants, and in
total contrast to how Akane had imagined him to be, wracked over what to
do about his curse and cure.

He easily guessed the reason behind her visit. "So: you heard, eh?"

"I... yeah." Akane swallowed an attempt to persuade him it was something
else. They were alone here and there was no way he would buy into such
an obvious lie. So she didn't bother, but did blush at how transparent
she must have seemed.

"You just missed Ucchan," Ranma said, and took a sip from his drink.
"And Shampoo. I'm half out of coke now."

"I suppose you don't want to talk to me about it then, since you've
already met with Ukyou and Shampoo!" Akane clenched her fists, closed
her eyes tight, and got ready to stand up. She mentally rehearsed how
she would thank him for the drink and excuse herself in the same breath.

"I didn't talk to them about anything. It ain't their business," Ranma
added, and shook his head as if sensing how what he had said hadn't been
enough. "I'm a man, Akane. I can make my own choices about what I do
with my body."

Akane started to get up. "I don't even know why I came!"

"Why did you come?" Ranma asked, responding almost on instinct, and
silently kicking himself for being so instantly defensive.

"I just told you I don't know!" Akane snapped back. "After all, a man
like you wouldn't want to talk to a tomboy like me about anything!"

"Look, it ain't like that!" Ranma sighed. "I just... I already made up
my mind. I made it up when Mousse and pops told me what happened to 'em.
I just don't wanna talk about it, that's all. Why can't we talk about
somethin' else? Like the Dojo? Or... or..."

"Or how to use amaguriken speed attacks from a low center of gravity?"
Akane guessed, looking at him with a confused and hurt expression. "Or
how to vary the width and density of a ki attack? Or whether you can
invert a hiryu shoten ha?"

Ranma blinked, surprised and speechless.

"I've overheard you and Ryouga, and even Mousse, talking about martial
arts, but there's more than that to life. We can try and talk about
those things, we can try and talk about the dojo, but..." Akane sat back
down, and balled her hands into fists on her lap, fighting the urge to
run out the door or find something to hit him with for being so hard to
approach. "But don't you want to talk about something else? About this?"

'About us?' she left unsaid.

"Guys don't talk about that kinda junk," Ranma replied, and cut off
anything else he was going to say by taking a long drink.

"Ryouga would," Akane said back. "Is he any less of a guy?"

Ranma rolled his eyes. "That's not really a good example..."

"Akari used to tell me about how Ryouga would bring her flowers, how he
would write poems, about how he would talk about how he felt with her.
Mousse wouldn't hesitate to explain to Shampoo why he... loves her."

"Those guys are... they're different," Ranma interrupted, though his
face showed that he didn't entirely believe himself. "Ya can't compare
me to them like that."

"You're not going to take the cure, are you?" Akane asked, and Ranma
sucked in a breath between clenched teeth.

"No," he replied, after a handful of pregnant seconds. "No. I'm not."

"I guess I... just wanted to hear it for myself," Akane admitted, energy
draining out of her.

"You gonna try and talk me out of it now?" Ranma asked, his voice
resigned to a long argument (or a short and violent one).

"I never wanted to argue... I didn't come here to try and persuade you
one way or the other," Akane explained, with a measured tone of voice.
"What did I even say to give you that impression?"

"Why else would you be here?" he asked, slowly, warily. "Shampoo and
Ukyou, and mom and pop..."

"Ranma." Akane stressed his name. "I'll admit, I... I prefer you as a
guy. I want you to be a guy, all the time. I don't want to take a walk
with you, and have to see you be jittery and alert for sprinkler systems
or gathering clouds. But I'll accept whatever you choose to do, and I'll
stand by your decision. I came here to offer you a sympathetic ear."

"Don't you think I want to be a guy all the time, too, Akane?" Ranma
replied, his voice quiet. "I know you don't like it when I... like hold
you and stuff, after some idiot splashes me with water in a fight or
somethin. I want to be a guy: a full time, always-a-guy, guy. No matter
the weather. But..."

He grimaced, and took another seemingly long drink from his soda. Akane,
sensing she was close, finally opened her own drink, and gave him some
time to compose himself. He was not, by nature, someone to talk about
his feelings, or even his motivations, but she could tell that he was in
the verge of saying more. She took a drink, too, and waited, but Ranma
never spoke up, preferring to stare at the red tin can in his hands.

"But... what? Ranma?" Akane prodded, gently.

"Nothin," Ranma said, and then amended himself. "I mean: I obviously
have my reasons, its just... Damnit! I don't want to lose my memories as
a girl. I don't want to lose my memories of so much of the last two
years. They're... they're precious to me, Akane. Without them, I don't
know who I'd be."

"What do you mean?" Akane asked, even though she had a pretty damn good
idea what he did mean already.

"The more I thought about it, ya know...? The more I tried to remember
good times from a year ago, fun times, the more I realize I was a girl
at the time. A lot of 'em were fights, like that first one with Kodachi,
or at the ice rink with the Golden Pair, or hell: even fighting Ryouga
in the rain. Do you remember that night? And then you clocked him with a
brick or dumbbell or something."

He laughed a little at that. "Even Happosai, and all the fighting I did
with him, and with Cologne. I know it made me stronger. I need those
memories. I need 'em!"

When he paused, Akane nodded her head in understanding. "Ranma..."

"And I...I..." Ranma continued a few seconds after hearing his name,
stuttering a bit. He was still staring down at his drink, down at his
hands. "I don't know how I'll feel without those memories. I don't know
how I'll think or feel about stuff. We... you and me... I think a lot of
what made me... feel about you could go away, too."

"I don't want that," he concluded. "Its what I fought for, and I don't
want to lose it. Gods! I... I hate this curse, Akane... I hate it... but
I don't think I can live without it."

Akane wasn't sure what to say to that, coming out so suddenly, so she
quietly stood and walked over to him. Putting her drink on the low
table, she stood next to him and gingerly placed her right hand on his
left one. Slowly, as if unsure, his hand pivoted until their fingers and
then palms touched. He held her hand in silence, and both teens began to
blush, unfamiliar with the intimacy, despite the engagement, despite the
professions of love a few months ago, despite even seeing each other
naked before. None of that diminished the intensity of emotion that came
from simply holding hands.

"You are a man, Ranma," she assured him, and he turned his head to look
up at her. "The curse will never change that."

"Except when I'm a fifty year old married man, turning into a sixteen
year old girl," Ranma said with a frown.

She smiled and shook her head in tiny increments. "Even then."

Akane froze, as he rose up from his seat, still holding her hand. She
realized, just a moment before it happened, just what he had in mind. A
part of her jumped at the thought that Ranma was finally, finally,
trying to take a step forward in their relationship. Another part of her
was scared, and had no idea how to respond, tending to default to
pushing him away or worse. Their first real voluntary kiss missed by a
few millimeters, and as he pulled back, embarrassed, she moved her head
to correct his miscalculation.

It was awkward and strange at first, and neither knew what to do with
their hands, accomplished martial artists that they were. The fingers
that had been touching gradually interlaced, and Akane felt a bit of a
shock as his other hand, still holding a cold can of soda, rushed past
her waist. She giggled at the sensation, and that he hadn't dropped it
or anything, and he made a huffing sound before putting it on the desk.

Breaking apart, they looked at each other again for a few seconds, eyes
wide and cheeks flushed. As the moment of passion slowly slipped away,
the normal nervousness began to creep into its place. Despite both of
them being objects of affection for so many for so long, they were
almost stunted in deal with it sans violence or anxiety.

"Akane," Ranma asked breathily. "Can I... I mean I'd... ah..."

She could guess what he meant to say, and answered by trying to take the
offensive. They didn't miss the second time, and the electric light-
headed feeling returned in force. A shiver ran down her back as they
pressed more closely together and she became aware of how little was
between them. The base was always a uniform and fairly comfortable
temperature, so she had dressed lightly in a plain shirt and skirt.
Then, Ranma's wayward right hand finally found a place to put itself to
some use, as it rested on her hip.

She thought about moving it, especially given that it was still quite
cold, but it seemed to be behaving itself and slowly warming up in its
current locale. Instead, she made the split second decision to reach up
with her free hand and tangle it in his hair. Not only was it something
she had seen on TV and read in mangas before, but Ranma had thick, rich
black hair as a boy, and she liked the feel of it.

For an instant, she felt the urge to look around and make sure no one
was spying on them, but then she remembered fully where they were. This
wasn't the Tendo Dojo, with prying and over-eager family members, or
dangerous and desperate rivals. No one could hear them much less see
them. Her blush and embarrassment deepened as she thought about the
potential consequences of that fact.

As if on cue, she felt Ranma's hand wander up her side.

"Ranma..." she said, trying to sound stern, but instead sounding
throaty. "Wait a second, Ranma."

He seemed to shake himself from a daze, as he held her but also put some
room between them. His expression went from slightly cross, to
concerned, to afraid, all in the span of a second. She smiled, and made
sure he didn't jump to the wrong conclusions.

"Let's just... think about where we're going, ok?" she asked. "Before we
get lost in the moment or anything."

He seemed perplexed, but smiled back and nodded in agreement. "So, um...
what do we... what are we going to do?"

Akane looked long and hard at him, and slowly made that decision for
herself. Despite the arguments and the fighting, she did love him - or
she thought she did. She had been willing to die for him during the
fight at Phoenix Mountain, and he for her. Frighteningly, she remembered
that embarrassing moment on the alien ship, when she had leaned over him
and seen a little too much about his state of mind.

'Ranma Saotome,' she repeated to herself, half heartedly still fighting
nervous fear and insecurity, 'is the man I want to marry. He is my
fiance.' And finally, she was glad for all that seemingly disgusting
rumor her friends and older sister had seen fit to expose her to. Taking
a deep, deep breath, Akane finally made a decision, and (to her shock)
the more she thought about it, the more attractive it became.

Retrieving her can of soda, she led him to his sparse bedroom.

-----

Discerning motivations, especially in women, were not one of Ryouga
Hibiki's specialties. It was often only in retrospect that he realized
how he had been used, tricked, or otherwise manipulated by those he had
vested small measures of trust in. Over the years, and quite naturally,
this had invested him with a deep-rooted sort of jadedness and suspicion
towards seemingly innocuous gestures he couldn't quite grasp the
reasoning behind.

In that vein, Ryouga wasn't sure why Kasumi had opted to join him
outside, rather than go on with whatever she had been doing. His own
apartment was only a hundred feet or so from Ranma's, down the same
hallway, and when he'd seen the elder Tendo sister near the pigtailed
boy's door, he hadn't given it a second thought. Well, maybe a second
thought, but definitely not a third. It came to his total surprise then,
when Kasumi had veered off and asked where he was going.

He'd curtly explained that, despite the fact that Shirokuro was house
trained, he still walked her once a day outside the base. Kasumi, like
most everyone, had been smitten with the black and white dog, and she
had reminded the lost boy that one of their neighbors also had a dog
named Bess, and that she would feed it when they went away. He hadn't
known that, though he did know of the dog itself, and that it was a
Shiba Inu breed (and thus smaller than Shirokuro, who was mostly a
German Shepard-Akita mix).

He'd expected the conversation to end there, and for her to go her
separate way, when she had asked if she could join him. If any of the
other girls, except Akane of course, had asked that, he would have
immediately wondered what they wanted from him, and as much as asked
them to get right to the point instead of playing around. But this was
Kasumi, and she had not once given him any reason to feel suspicious;
which didn't mean he felt any less perplexed by her offer.

Kasumi, like her sisters, had been given an apartment on the floor above
his and Ranma's. While he waited for her to put on a proper jacket and
outside attire, he reached down and scratched Shirokuro behind her ears.
She was a very independent dog, and still getting used to the new
routine of living in Seiran Mountain instead of the Hibiki Home. He felt
a little bad about that, and about taking her from the house she was
supposed to guard (and lead wayward Hibiki family members towards), but
he took some consolation from the fact that two of her puppies, now full
grown, were keeping vigil there.

Besides: he needed Shirokuro here.

He couldn't afford to get lost, or slip up, or disappear for a few days
or even a week. Not if he was going to get his revenge; his and Akari's.
His parents, if they found out, would probably lament how he had made
their lives a little harder, but they would understand. ... And if they
didn't, then he was resolved not to care what they thought. He would do
whatever he had to, and that was all there was to it. Shirokuro tilted
back her head and looked up at him with something like concern.

"Don't worry about me, girl," he said, and tapped her cold black nose
playfully. "Let's both of us just do our jobs..."

"Sorry for the wait," Kasumi interrupted, emerging from her room wearing
long pants and a light blue jacket. "I wasn't sure how cold it was
outside..."

"It shouldn't be too bad," he replied, not too concerned. The elevation
and cold hadn't been a problem for him when he went out before, but he
was considerably hardier than almost anyone he knew. Kasumi seemed to be
well equipped, and he saw the tips of gloves in her jacket pockets, as
an added precaution.

"Let's go, Shirokuro," he said, and patted the dog's side gently. She
looked back from her master to Kasumi, and started to lead them towards
the exit. It was, as Ranma had joked, really her taking him for a walk,
not the other way around. Even the leash was more for his benefit than
his dogs.

How sad was that?

"I'm sorry you couldn't have dinner with us the other day, Ryouga-kun,"
Kasumi spoke up, after they'd walked in silence long enough to convince
her he wasn't going to start a conversation by himself.

"I'm the one who's sorry," he quickly said, and then added more softly.
"I had a lot of work that night."

Kasumi smiled warmly in understanding, but this only seemed to make the
lost boy feel worse. "I do hope you'll drop by more often when the Dojo
is ready."

"I suppose I'll have to, since Commander Yasuda wants me and Ranma to
try and share our techniques." He didn't sound entirely happy about
that, and she wondered why. She wasn't clueless when it came to the
lifestyle of a martial artist, surrounded as she was by them. She'd even
had some training, before her mother had passed away. Out of her
sisters, she was the only one her father had taught his second tier ki
techniques to - it was just a pity they conflicted with her temperament
so sharply.

"Have you thought about just writing them down as scrolls?" Kasumi
asked, as they waited for one of the base elevators. Next to her, Ryouga
pursed his lips, and considered what she had suggested.

"I hadn't thought of that," he admitted. "It's a real good idea,
actually. We should all record our techniques, in case..." he paused,
and reconsidered his words. "In case we don't have the chance to teach
it personally."

"Did Mr. Tendo ever write down his techniques?" Ryouga then asked, as
the elevator arrived and they entered it. "I know the Saotome School has
quite a few techniques that the Tendo School doesn't."

Kasumi hadn't really wanted to get into a talk about martial arts, but
she didn't let that fact show as she answered his question. "Father
brought his scrolls with him when we left the house. I was only ever
allowed to read two of them when I learned the Tendo Ryu: Jigoku Waza.
The others remain sealed."

"Jigoku Waza?" Ryouga took a guess at which technique that was. "Is that
the demon head aura technique I've seen him use?"

Kasumi nodded, a little embarrassed that it was so obvious.

"You can do that?" he asked, unsuccessfully hiding the skepticism in his
voice. The elevator reached the floor with the mountain exit, and
Shirokuro led them out. Ryouga was already reaching into his back pocket
for his ID card. Kasumi's possibly wouldn't let her outside by herself,
but his would, and the cameras and pressure pad in the floor would
record their exit and entrance.

"We all learned some basic aura projection," Kasumi replied, looking
briefly in the direction of the camera built into a nearby corner.

"I've never seen any of you use it, even Akane," Ryouga replied, as they
then boarded a tramcar to take them to the lower base exit. Once there,
they would pass through another final automated checkpoint.

"The technique relies on one's... disposition at the time. For father,
it is easy, but for Nabiki or Akane or myself, it is only possible in
moments of distress and frustration."

"Frustration?" Ryouga asked. He was familiar with the flavors of emotive
ki, and how they could be used to form attacks. Neither he nor Ranma had
ever fully developed an aura projection using confidence or depression,
their respective areas of specialization. Ranma could extend his aura,
and make the people around him feel lighter on their feet (not that that
was very useful), and he could do the same with his heavy ki, producing
an opposite effect. The problem was that, except when he used the
perfect version of his shishi hokoudan, the depressive aura generally
wasn't strong enough to make a difference.

"Yes," Kasumi said, with a wan smile. "Father was quite saddened when he
realized I didn't have the temperament to master the higher level
techniques of our School. Nabiki wasn't interested in more training
after she turned thirteen, and Akane was more comfortable with the
physical aspects of the Art."

"That's why you have scrolls with your techniques, I guess." Ryouga
seemed much more relaxed, talking about martial arts, and he even began
to smile a bit. "I'll bring it up with Ranma and my group the next time
we meet."

"Oh, how are Mousse and Kuno?" she then asked, as the tram sped them
along. "Are you all getting along well?"

He looked at her in a manner that suggested he wasn't sure whether to
talk to her about that or not, but eventually he came to the conclusion
that it couldn't possibly hurt. "There was actually a lot of trouble at
first. Ryu owes me for getting him back use of the Yamasenken, plus he's
the kind of guy who respects strength, so there was no problem there.
But... Mousse complains a lot in private, mostly about Kuno, but I let
him do as he wants for the most part, and that's an arrangement that's
worked so far."

He sighed. "Kuno, though... It isn't that he dislikes Mousse or me; he
just thinks he's better than us. He chafes at orders, and second-guesses
what I tell him to do. I literally had to threaten him to get him to go
to the range and practice every day, and I just know when we actually
see some fighting, he'll go right back to charging at the enemy with his
sword. The idiot'll get killed before he even... "

"Anyway," Ryouga concluded, before he said too much. "It isn't so bad
now. We just need more practice together."

The tram gradually slowed to a stop at the last checkpoint, and the two
stepped out, led by Shirokuro. It was pretty much a straight concourse
to the exit, but the dog knew better than to let that stop her from
leading a Hibiki around. Like a guide dog, she knew to lead without
being told to.

"What about you, Kasumi-san?" Ryouga asked, tacking on the honorific as
always. He had never really felt familiar with the Tendo girls, despite
visiting the house and Dojo so often, and talking with each of them at
least a few times. In Akane's case, he knew she wanted to be respected
by her peers (and Ranma's), and so he had been careful to always treat
her that way. Really, the only girl he'd ever addressed normally, or
with a -chan suffix, had been Akari.

"Me?" Kasumi asked back, not catching his meaning.

"I mean, your internship," he explained, and used his ID card again to
get them to the exit door. It unlocked, and slid into the reinforced
wall, allowing them to finally go outside. Without an environmental type
suit, like the PASGT personal armor, they were immediately met by a cold
wind that made them wince and narrow their eyes. Beyond the doorway lay
the aluminum buildings - just shacks really - of the faux weather
station. Ryouga also knew that, retracted and hidden under the ground,
were three strategically positioned automated turrets nearby.

Kasumi made a polite humming sound, which immediately gave away her
mixed feelings about the subject he'd broached. "I'm... learning a lot."

Shirokuro started to sniff around, and feeling the full bite of the
mountain cold (even in summer), Kasumi took out her leather gloves and
slipped them on. When she didn't immediately continue, Ryouga licked his
lips, and in a rare gesture of genuine curiosity, prompted her to
continue.

"I think we've all learned a lot over the last week," he said, but
looked down at his dog rather than at Kasumi. "Not all of it stuff we
wanted to know. But... I assume you meant that in a good way?"

"Well..." Kasumi took a deep breath. "Yes. I always did want to go to
college, to get a degree in something, and this is like that. But... I
suppose I'd always been more interested in holistic medicine. Here,
everything is so dry and scientific; I think a lot of it is over my
head. The learning machine helps a lot to remember information, but not
to understand it. I feel... I guess I feel a little intimidated by the
other nurses and doctors, and how smart they all are."

"They don't treat you badly, do they?" Ryouga asked, a hard and
protective look to his eyes.

"No, no, not badly. Just..." Kasumi searched for the right words. "Like
an outsider I guess."

Ryouga slowly nodded, as Shirokuro led them away from the clearing and
down a rough path in the forest. "I know how that feels... Like you're a
ghost in a crowd."

"At home..." Kasumi's voice broke a little; she missed it so badly. "It
was almost like being the center of the world. There was a lot of work,
but I didn't mind. I was just happy to always be around my family, and
around people who cared about me. But... but my problems must seem so
inconsequential compared to the important work that everyone has to do
here! I feel silly for even bringing it up!"

"It isn't inconsequential, Kasumi," he assured her, and this time did
look her right in the eyes to make sure his point got across. "It isn't!
We're fighting for our homes and for the things we love. I thought I had
a reason to fight, to die, to kill, once... but it wasn't anything like
what I know now."

Kasumi blinked and looked at him with doleful brown eyes. "You look so
sad when you say that."

Ryouga just snorted dismissively, and went back to looking at his dog
and where they were going. "Don't you know, Kasumi-san? Depression is
the foundation of my power."

They wandered down the path, dappled light filtering down from above.

"Thanks for sharing that with me, though," he added. "I don't know if
there's anything I can do to help..."

"You listened," Kasumi said, keeping pace next to him. "I feel better
just having been able to tell someone about it. That's what friends are
for, right, Ryouga-kun?'

He looked at her briefly, as if to argue the point, but smiled just a
little and nodded. They walked for a time in silence, but it was a
comfortable mutual sort of silence. Shirokuro didn't deviate much off
the barely worn path, and eventually she led the two humans to the top
of an outcropping of rock, jutting out from the very foundations of the
mountain.

The view that they had from that place was very much like that they'd
experienced flying to Seiran on the black helicopters, except this time
it was still light outside, and the full majesty of the Hida Mountain
range, known as the Northern Alps, opened up un-obscured before them.
In the distance, just breaking the horizon, part of Mount Hotaka-dake
could be seen - at 3,190 meters high it was the second tallest peak in
Japan, second only to Fuji-san itself. Blocking almost all of it, other
mountains crested like waves of dark brown-almost black, checkered by
thick green forests.

They rested there, before beginning the walk back.

"Water?" Ryouga asked, holding out a small flask canteen. Kasumi nodded
gratefully, and took a long draft from it. Another cold breeze flew in,
but neither seemed to mind. Even Shirokuro took moment to find a nice
spot, walking in a circle a few times before lying down.

"You must train in these sorts of places often," Kasumi remarked,
handing him back his flask. Ryouga took a smaller drink from it, and
screwed the cap back on.

"Not so much by choice, but yeah." He was a little surprised by how his
tone didn't reflect how bitter he normally felt about being lost all the
time. It had to be because, for once, he had company... and he wasn't
worried about getting lost, not with Shirokuro around to guide him. Out
in the woods: this was really as close to a home for him as that house
where he read notes from his parents on the fridge, dated weeks or
months ago, and where he kept souvenirs from across Japan and much of
East Asia.

"The Mountains give you room to think. You can go days without an
interruption, weeks without seeing a human face. Not only was it a good
place to develop Sakkijutsu, or danger sense, but to practice all sorts
of techniques without distractions. And... and," he lowered his voice as
he spoke. "Out here... where there was no one to ask directions from, I
could forget that I had no where to go."

"You were always welcome at the Tendo Dojo..." Kasumi offered.

Ryouga made a sound half laugh, half scoff. "Not really." Seeing the
concern and even hurt on Kasumi's face, he held up his hand and gestured
for her not to take his comment too seriously.

"What I meant," he began, but rethought what he was on the verge of
explaining. "Is that, while I was always treated with kindness when I
visited, I felt... guilty. Like I didn't deserve it. I've tried to be
careful with the house, but I know I've done a lot of damage to the
yard, and the dojo, and the wall. Not to mention trying to kill your
brother-in-law."

Kasumi blenched at that.

"Do you really mean that?" she asked. "Did you actually want to kill
Ranma?"

"I wonder about that myself." Ryouga answered evasively at first. He saw
that she wasn't quite satisfied with that, and guessed that it must've
been a serious question for her. She wanted a real answer. He couldn't
imagine why, but he decided to humor her with the truth. She had never
had the privilege of meeting up with real killers, like the warriors of
the Musk Dynasty, but he was close enough.

"I was so angry with him when I finally found him in Nerima," Ryouga
explained, and looked up at the light blue sky; the same color as
Kasumi's jacket he realized. "If he'd been slower, maybe... I think I
probably would have killed him."

He looked over at her. "... Disgusting, huh? I don't even know why I'm
telling you this."

'Maybe because nice people shouldn't give me the time of day,' he
thought, and there was that well of bitterness he'd been missing. 'Maybe
I feel the need to make sure they realize that.'

"You seem to get along with him now," Kasumi observed instead, and he
couldn't tell how she felt about what he had just admitted to.

"Ranma and I deserve each other. I still don't like him, even if he
is..." Ryouga shook his head, and laughed at what he had almost said.
"He's just my rival now, Kasumi. Someone I want to beat. Someone I want
to surpass."

"I think you two remind me of father and Mr. Saotome," she replied, and
smiled enigmatically. "I even saw you and Ranma playing shogi once."

"That damn Ranma cheated, too," the lost boy grumbled angrily.

Kasumi giggled, and the sound of it lightened his mood.

"Do you..." he relaxed a bit, and decided that the chance to get a
little praise was worth parting with some secrets. Living an isolated
life, and being a generally shy person, he tended to hoard every
impressed look and word of encouragement he could get his hands on.
Normally, if he'd dropped by the Dojo and Akane or Ranma weren't around,
he'd offer to help Kasumi with housework, not just out of propriety, but
also out of a need to feel useful and worthwhile.

"Do you want to see something neat I've been working on?" he asked, his
voice hopeful.

"Sure!" Kasumi encouraged, and gave him her full attention. He secretly
suspected that she wasn't interested in martial arts stuff, but it being
all he knew, he still thought that he could impress her with a more
practical application of what he'd been practicing. It reminded him of
when he'd hoped to impress Akane by teaching her Martial Arts
Gymnastics, except with Kasumi; it was platonic... almost like showing
off what he'd learned to a sister or close cousin. He'd never really
talked much to her before, but she'd always had a calming presence, not
like with Akane or even Akari, where there had been that added dimension
of stutter-switch intimacy.

"You probably know about the Bakusai Tenketsu. That's where you use the
breaking point of an inanimate object to destroy it. About the only
things you can't use it on are plastics and things like leather. Almost
since I learned it from Cologne, I've tried to find more effective uses
of it in a fight." He drew three little lines in the dirt with his
finger, all-radiating from one point. "Like tunneling the blasting
point, so it explodes closer to the enemy. Unfortunately, I hit a bit of
a plateau, so after the fight with Saffron I decided to take a crack at
the next level of Construction based martial arts."

"I didn't even know there was a construction based martial art," Kasumi
commented, seemingly interested.

He grinned a little wider and nodded. "It isn't a real combat school,
like Anything Goes. I guess it's more like what I heard about martial
arts eating."

"You heard about that?"

"It cost me an arm and a leg..." he brushed that off to avoid getting
side tracked on how Nabiki could weasel large sums of money out of
someone for small bits of information. "But construction martial arts
doesn't have a lot of fighting in it. Even my ki attack, the Shishi
Hokoudan, is designed to clear rubble. After meeting up with the
engineer who taught me the Shishi Hokoudan a second time, he gave me a
scroll to practice the most advanced technique in martial arts
construction, the Seirensho Tenketsu. I didn't think I'd ever get a real
job, or have a dojo or my own like Ranma, so I figured this was my best
hope."

"This technique, the 'Smelting Point,' is used to vibrate materials to
high temperature and separate them. It isn't really commercially
efficient anymore, but even a small amount of precious metal can be
pawned off for good money. On the other hand, I don't need oxidizing
agents and junk like that. Here," he said, and stood up, taking a few
steps away from her. "This'll be the first time I ever showed this to
anyone. I'd planned to master it... and show it to Akari as a surprise
for her birthday. Let her know I could support her and stuff when we got
married."

Shirokuro raised her head, ears perked up, but Ryouga held out his hand
and she didn't get up. The lost boy kept walking, and suddenly stopped,
his hands splayed out at his sides. Kasumi felt a rush of energy in the
air, as he built up his ki aura. Even as dull as her senses were when it
came to such things, she could perceive the difference between his ki
and hers, even if she were hit by the mood to be able to use her own
aura.

She was candle.

He was a volcano.

The air grew thick and heavy, and she could feel the power of his spirit
pulse against her skin, even though her clothes, sending shivers up and
down her body. Then, like a normal person snaps his fingers, Ryouga lit
up like a blast furnace, cloaked in black, green and sheets of ethereal
energy. He clapped his hands together in front of him, and the aura
receded completely, back beneath his skin where it bubbled and churned,
desperate for release.

He clapped his hands again, but the sound was different, not like flesh
on flesh, but more like the meeting of steel on steel. He raised his
hands above him, and slammed them suddenly and without warning into the
ground. She couldn't see anything happening, but on the verge of her
human senses, she could feel it in the earth beneath her. Abruptly, a
vent opened up in the ground, hissing loudly, followed by another and
then a third.

A sulfur smell reached her nose, and the ground began to crack. Veins of
red-hot molten material seeped up and crept along the ground, headed
towards where Ryouga kneeled, hands on the earth. The red glow seemed to
be everywhere, and Kasumi felt a rush of heat blow past her, and then it
was gone. The red, angry looking veins in the ground cooled and sealed
up, leaving shallow rivulets behind. Ryouga stood up, breathing heavily,
and after a few seconds of looking down at something near his feet, he
pivoted and motioned her over.

"Don't worry. It's perfectly safe," he assured her.

Kasumi steeled herself, and walked over, careful not to step on anything
that had once glowed such a hot and burning red. Ryouga stepped aside,
and held out his hand towards a small round pool in the ground. This
alone still faintly glowed from heat, and here the sulfur smell was even
stronger. Still, she couldn't quite see what he was gesturing towards.

"Smells bad, doesn't it?" he asked, amused. "The technique separates the
metal ores from the elements they bond with in nature, usually sulfur or
oxygen. You think this is bad? Perfecting the Seirensho Tenketsu
involves blowing up tens of square meters of rock to get the volume
right, then learning to selectively detonate most of the rock, but not
the parts you want, then learning to detonate the small parts you want,
and not the rest. After that, you have to use a variant of the Bakusai
Tenketsu to melt the material, and then do what you did before, and sort
it. A few months of practice all but killed my sense of smell."

He took out his flask of water, and poured a little on the rapidly
cooling pool, causing it to bubble and turn to steam. Kneeling and
reaching down again, holding his hand over the one molten rock, he
simply said, "Bakusai Tenketsu" and it crumbled. Kasumi saw a bit of
yellow catch the light, and then more, until a jagged chunk the length
of her thumb and half as wide sat motionless and perfect in the shallow
depression. Ryouga carefully plucked the gold nugget out, rolled it into
his palm, and blew on it.

"Sugoi!" Kasumi exclaimed, and leaned in to get a closer look. "Can
I...?"

"It's still a little hot, but you should be able to hold it," he
replied, obviously happy at catching and holding her interest. Kasumi
cupped the nugget in her gloved hands, and blew on it a few times, too.
Freeing her left hand of its glove, she ran a finger along it. The gold
felt smooth and the edges were sharp, but she was careful and rolled it
back and forth.

"That was amazing, Ryouga-kun!" She looked up at him, and he swelled
with pride in, finally, impressing someone. Yes, he'd been able to
impress Akari easily enough, but she had loved him (even his damned
Jyusenkyou curse), and so he never seemed to even have to try for her to
look at him with wonder. For some reason, he thought of Kasumi (like all
the Tendo girls) as more world weary, what with all the fighting and
chaos and RANMA they had circling around them.

"You like it?" he asked, and shrugged. "It's yours, Kasumi-san. Though
I'll ask you not to tell Nabiki where you got it."

Kasumi opened her mouth to say something, but instead enveloped him in a
warm hug. Not used to the contact he stiffed sharply, and she released
him sensing his discomfort and confusion. Instead, she took a step back,
and politely bowed. He bowed back, and anxiously scratched the back of
his neck.

"We should probably head back," Ryouga said, and whistled in Shirokuro's
direction. The obedient canine picked up the end of her leash with her
mouth, and trotted over, seemingly unfazed by the display she had
witnessed with Kasumi just a few minutes earlier. Kasumi quickly slipped
her left glove back on, and cradling the gold nugget in her hands, she
followed Ryouga and his dog back to Seiran Mountain's lower entrance.

"Kasumi-san..." Ryouga interrupted the nice silence they'd both started
walking through. They were back in the forest, and under the cover of
the canopy of trees.

She stepped over a large log, and once over it, looked at him. "Ryouga-
kun?"

"You said before that... a friend is someone you can talk to," he
hesitated in his phrasing, not really asking a question, but seemingly
afraid to continue as a statement. "Kasumi-san. You know about the cure
for Ranma's Jyusenkyou curse, right? And what it will do to him?"

"I heard about it, yes," she confirmed. "Why?"

"I've done some things... things I regret," Ryouga said, and by the way
his shoulders slumped, she could tell he was torn between saying
nothing, and letting his thoughts pour out like a torrent. "Ranma knows
some of it, I guess, but I... I think I want to tell someone about it.
Before I forget, and can't say for sure what I did or didn't do."

It didn't take a genius to guess at what he was alluding to. Kasumi
gasped, and her expression moved from shocked, to perturbed.

"You have a curse," she stated, and frowned at the back of his head.
"You're...?"

Ryouga sighed softly. "Yeah."

"Oh my," Kasumi finally let her trademark phrase fly. "That's not very
nice."

The lost boy didn't offer any disagreement with her statement. He
started at the beginning, that fateful and nearly fatal day at
Jyusenkyou. It was hard at first, especially knowing she was upset with
him, but it became easier the more he talked. Like a great burden taken
as far as it could, he threw it all down and freed himself. He was going
to take the cure, but before he did, he would tell someone what had
happened: every iota of what he had done and felt, because by the end of
the day, it would all be gone.

Even as he spoke, he wondered how it would feel, not just to be free of
the pig, but free of P-chan entirely. He understood that the cure posed
a real problem for Ranma, but for Ryouga Hibiki... it was wonderful
release. Secretly, he hoped and prayed that the shower of cursed water
would wash away all his feelings for another woman besides the one he
had seen die. He hoped and prayed that it would cleanse him of
distractions, and pointless old fears and grudges.

Even those warm and happy moments, so few and far between, that came
from his time as Akane's beloved pet - even those would be gladly
sacrificed. Like before he had come to Nerima, he would hone his hatred
to a fine and deadly edge. P-chan had been an indulgence... how much
more powerful would he be if he hadn't wasted time playing the part of
Akane's pet pig for so long? Would he have been able to save Akari?

Back at the base, alone and naked, Ryouga poured the Nanniichuan water
over his head and braced himself as... one by one... his memories as P-
chan faded and died. He could barely remember even telling Kasumi about
it. In mere moments, time just enough for regrets, it was all gone.
Washed down the drain. He was liberated. He was free!

"Why..."

"Why..." he laughed, and reached up to his eyes with trembling hands.
"Am I crying...?"



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