[FFML] Quantum Destinies 29

[Jurai Knight]

*** Earth +6.123, +5.298



Genma woke up suddenly when Nodoka moved against him, her naked body warm
against his. He relaxed at the familiar feeling and smell of her,
comforting him after his nightmare. He closed his eyes and was quiet for
several moments.



His eyes snapped back open and stared at an unfamiliar ceiling, blurry to
his view without his glasses but definitely not home. He took stock of his
companion, noting the shorter hair and somewhat more muscular physique than
his wife’s and tried to recall what had happened after their duel. They had
been on their way to see the captain when Nodoka stopped at her cabin for
something she said she needed to do before their meeting. She had offered
him a fruit juice, saying it was a tradition for one of the Joketsuzoku
Order to offer refreshment to a man who had defeated her.



Since she refused to budge until he drank it, he took a sip and could
detect nothing wrong with it, and he doubted she would poison him. Thirsty
after their duel, he drank down the entire cup and handed it back to her.
He remembered her smiling at him lovingly and then not much else after that
other than a haze of intensely erotic images.



When Genma shifted slightly, Nodoka awoke and looked at her new husband
happily, smiling after the events of their wedding night. She felt
languidly content. Her hand caressed his chest, marveling at her memories
of last night. He had done everything with her she enjoyed, as if they had
been lovers for years, and his endurance was pleasing to her. She felt like
a blessed woman.



“Ready for more, my beloved husband?” she purred with a lecherous grin.



“H-Husband?” he gulped. He sat up, his movement pulling the sheet free from
her torso. He could see she had a few faint scars on her flesh from the
many past battles she had fought in but nothing to detract greatly from her
appearance. If anything, her athletic physique had a pleasingly firm
appearance for a woman in her late thirties.



“You defeated one of the Joketsuzoku Order in fair combat, Genma Saotome.”
She reached out to caress his chest again, and he grabbed her hand before
it could make contact with him there. She smiled at this, wondering if he
wanted to wrestle with her now. She had always loved a bit of wrestling
with males during bedroom play. “Under the laws of the Matriarchy, in
recognition of the Order’s commandments, you are now my husband and belong
to me.”



“I’m already married,” he said in firm protest, pushing her hand away.
“Your own analog is my wife.”



She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter who claimed you before outside our
borders. You are in the midst of the Matriarchy now, and you’re mine by our
laws. You and I are married, Genma Saotome. Nothing you say or do will
change that. You proved yourself worthy of me.” She smiled at him, now
understanding how he had known her sexual preferences so well. “I look
forward to having children with you to strengthen the Matriarchy and making
a family together with you, my beloved husband. Fortunately, with
Matriarchy anti-agathic medicines, I still have many years ahead of me to
conceive children. Four seems a good number to me, hopefully at least three
of them girls.”



Genma shook his head. She wasn’t listening to him, a trait she shared with
the other two versions of Nodoka he knew, stubborn once they set their
minds on something. He got out of the bed they were in, a narrow affair and
not really comfortable enough for two. He grabbed his clothes and began
putting them on.



“Take me to see your captain,” he said, trying to stay calm as he dressed.
She had drugged him with something and had her way with him, and he had not
been expecting that. “I need to speak with her.”



Nodoka sat up in bed and stretched, utterly unashamed of her nakedness and
causing Genma to turn around to avoid staring at her shapely body. “Of
course, beloved husband. You’re now a citizen of the Matriarchy through
your marriage to me, so you may speak to her a bit more freely. And, as I
promised, I’ll be your advocate with her, should you need me.”



“Where is the signaling device I built?” he asked, troubled by her
certainty that he would just accept ‘marriage’ to her so easily and still
trying not to think about her trim physique. Were all Joketsuzoku women so
self-confident in this area?



“I’m sure it’s being analyzed by our technicians, along with your notes.”
She went to her closet and retrieved a fresh uniform and underwear. “Don’t
worry. They won’t damage it, and its signal is still active and
transmitting.”



Genma paused in slipping on his shirt, one provided from the ship’s limited
stores of male clothing. “They left it on?”



“Well, when whoever is listening for your signal comes, we’ll be here
waiting for them with open arms.” She stepped into her quarter’s small
refresher unit, closing the door and beginning to shower quickly.



Worries for his son suddenly flooded Genma’s mind. The sheer oddness of his
present situation was beyond anything he could have ever imagined weeks
ago. Ranma was still back in their original world, he was in the flesh of
another world’s Genma after the accident occurred with the resonator, and
now he was dealing with yet a third timeline’s version of his own wife, a
powerful and troublingly alluring warrior woman who called him her husband
simply because he had defeated her in a duel.



“The one who’ll be coming is my son, Ranma.” There was a pause. “And he’s
also the son of your analog.”



Nodoka stepped from the refresher, toweling her hair dry, amused at his
continuing shyness in looking at her after his libidinous performance last
night. His reduced inhibitions with her had been aided by the very special
herb concoction she had added to his fruit juice, herbs used by the
Joketsuzoku Order for millennia. They also had the added benefit of subtly
addicting him to her to ensure his loyalty as her husband. “You have a son?
Well, if Ranma’s as fine a warrior as his father, I know there’ll be quite
a few girls of the Joketsuzoku Order who’ll be very interested in meeting
him. He’ll be well-treated in the Matriarchy, assuming he minds his place,
as will you.”



Genma continued to avoid looking at her while she was naked, suddenly
realizing that this version of the woman he loved viewed males as a form of
property and that this view was a normal thing to her. He suspected that
this opinion was not uncommon among the women here. Oddly, he was reminded
of the version of the Empire he had once seen, where slavery of foreigners
existed and his own analog’s family had recently acquired a version of
Shampoo as a slave for Ranma’s analog there. But here, in the Matriarchy,
males were the underclass, a type of property, possibly viewed as being
little better than slaves. He filed that piece of information away,
planning to bide his time, watch and wait for the opportunity to escape
this place with Soun, hopefully before Ranma was also ensnared by the women
here.



Unaware of Genma’s thoughts, Nodoka mused on the sharing of quality males
as she dressed. There was always a severe shortage of strong men to meet
the Order’s level of demand for them, the answer to that problem usually
being solved with one such male shared among several women as their common
spouse. Thinking about that, Nodoka found herself disinclined to share her
new spouse with any other women, even other sisters in the Order. That
surprised her, since she and Kimiko had frequently shared comfort males
with each other in the past when they were enjoying shore leave together.



“Let’s go have some breakfast and then we can see the captain,” she said
with a smile.





xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Quantum Destinies

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic

By S. Thesken aka Jurai Knight (qd_author at hotmail.com)



Ranma 1/2 and its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. This story is
inspired by her works and the stories from some of my fellow fanfic
authors. Among these are D.B. Sommer’s “Shampoo 1/2”, Jim Bader’s “A Very
Scary Thought -aka- Nabiki 1/2”, and John Biles’ Elseworlds series. All C&C
is welcome.





Other chapters of this story may be found at this website, or you can email
the author for them:



http://www.fanfiction.net/u/3764932/





The list of worlds reoccurring in this chapter:

Earth 0.000, 0.000 - The world of Scholar Ranma (Baseline cluster)

Earth +4.612, +4.509 - The world of Shampoo 1/2 (Shampoo 1/2 cluster)





What has gone before in this story (or at least what will help you
understand what is going on):



On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over
five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world and
has done so for almost a century. Theorizing that one could travel to
alternate timelines by possessing counterparts in them, a young scientist
named Ranma Saotome, through use of a device of his own invention,
accidentally obtained the skills and memories of a martial artist version
of himself. Herb goes through a mental transformation. Professor Saotome
finishes the beacon and activates it, attracting a vessel of the Matriarchy
and two people familiar to Genma and Soun. Perfume and Mousse find a ship
to carry them to Japan. Ranma faces Shampoo in the Arena, arousing interest
from others when he shows his abilities there, including his mastery of the
Amaguriken. Cardinal Synn reveals his true identity and the plans made for
the Joketsuzoku, plans that Ranma’s fighting abilities may have allowed to
come to fruition.





xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Chapter 29 – Worlds Apart



     Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,

     even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor

     spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a

     gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.



                                   - Theodore Roosevelt



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





*** Earth +4.612, +4.509



Nodoka rolled over in her sleep and suddenly woke up, hearing sharp sounds
of battle in the backyard. She relaxed when she recognized them. Ranma and
Shampoo were sparring again this morning, her son’s voice keeping up a
running commentary, apparently trying to get the Chinese girl to open up
and talk to him. That was good. She understood it was their daily routine,
and doing routine things would help the girl heal after the incredible loss
she had gone through. However, she only heard two voices out back, not
three. It had become her husband’s habit each morning to join the two and
offer coaching advice, and Shampoo had been steadily improving with his
guidance, forcing Ranma to work even harder to stay ahead.



She looked a bit forlornly at Genma’s empty futon, still laid out on the
floor, unused. Her husband had not come home last night, and it worried
her. She wondered if he and Soun had gone out drinking. She was happy that
they had retained their friendship after the failure of Ranma’s engagement
to Akane, since Soun had been secretly visiting while the children were at
school. They had made it clear to her that while neither of them was
interested in resurrecting it, they were still friends.



Perhaps he was at the Tendos’ house this morning, sleeping off a drinking
binge or something. His pack was still here, so he could not have gone far.
After Ranma and Shampoo headed off to school, she would visit the Tendos
and check to see if he was there. She hoped he was all right.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



*** Earth +6.123, +5.298



Soun sat with a half-eaten plate of food before him and looked out the
porthole in front of him, seeing the Earth moving below them, gazing at the
sight in wonder. Across from him sat Kimiko, eating her own meal and
occasionally glancing at him. He had spent the night in his cell, waiting
to speak with Genma after his visit with the captain. However, his friend
had not returned all night.



“It’s considered polite to make conversation during a meal,” Kimiko said
suddenly. When he glanced at her, she gave him a cool look. “I could take
you back to confinement, if you don’t like my company.” She speared a piece
of scrambled egg and put it in her mouth and chewed.



Around them in the Kara’s mess hall, uniformed women sat in pairs and small
groups and ate breakfast. Several of them studied him, not quite sure what
to make of his presence, and a couple looked at him as if they despised
him. While he didn’t understand the Solnoid tongue, a few muted
conversations around them seemed to be filled with speculation and gossip
about him, judging by the looks and whispers. Kimiko appeared to tune it
all out, but she seemed irritated at something. She hid it well, but her
manner was so much like his own wife’s that he could tell she was upset.
And it did not seem to be merely over his failure to make conversation with
her.



“I apologize for my silence,” he said with a slight bow before resuming his
own eating. He knew he needed to keep up his strength. Since he was a
prisoner, he had a duty to maintain his health and keep watch for an
opportunity for escape. In his younger days, he had been imprisoned more
than once, usually as part of a mission. Fortunately, his current
incarceration was much less rigorous than any previous ones. “I’ve just
never been in space before.”



“Below us is Solnoid Prime,” Kimiko said, pausing to take a sip of her tea.
“You should feel honored, Tendo-san. It is the original timeline of the
Solnoid Matriarchy. Few outsider males have ever beheld it.”



“I see.” Soun studied the planet. It didn’t look any different to his eyes
from his own version of Earth. “It did not take us long to get here.”



“I suppose not.” She continued to eat and did not elaborate. Soun found her
reticence reminding him, not only of his wife this time, but also Nabiki.
Both had a tendency to be sparse with their words when they were irritated
about something.



At that moment, Genma and Nodoka arrived in the mess hall. Soun watched as
the couple filled trays with food and approached their table. He caught
Genma’s eye, but the other man just shook his head slightly.



“Good morning, Kimiko!” Nodoka said cheerfully, setting her tray down and
sitting. Her friend just eyed her solemnly without speaking.



“Tendo-kun. Nakakami-san.” Genma put down his tray and sat near Nodoka. He
looked at Soun. “I have not yet spoken with the captain about our
situation. There was... a delay.” He began eating, feeling starved.



“You’ll get to speak to her soon, Genma-kun,” Nodoka promised.



Soun raised one eyebrow and studied the other man, noting the honorific she
had used with him. “Delayed, eh?”



“It’s a long story, Tendo-kun.” Genma kept eating and drinking.



“You can talk to your friend later. It’s time to go back to your cell,
Tendo-san.” Kimiko abruptly stood and took hold of Soun’s arm.



Genma and Nodoka watched the pair walk off, Kimiko keeping a firm hand on
Soun’s arm after they returned their trays. Nodoka shrugged and went back
to eating, unsure what was wrong with her best friend. She was sure the
other woman would talk to her about what was troubling her when she felt
ready to open up.



Genma was thoughtful as he watched Soun leave and then went back to eating
his own meal. Ever since he and Ranma had both used the boy’s resonator
invention, life seemed to be getting more complicated and dangerous for
both of them. He hoped his upcoming talk with the captain of this vessel
would be a turning point for his own difficulties, so he could finally
return to his son and beloved wife. He missed them both so much and wanted
to finally be done with all this violence that had come into their lives.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



*** Earth 0.000, 0.000



Ranma woke up rather abruptly in the morning when a cold bucket of water
was poured on his face. He jerked awake with a loud scream. His hands
clutched at his chest, his heart pounding. “YAHH!!! What’d ya do that for?!”



His assailant, Tarou, smirked and casually set down the bucket he was
holding. This Ranma guy sure doesn’t look like much for someone strong
enough to defeat the likes of Shampoo. What a wimp. A little cold water
never hurt anyone.



As the top male fighter in the pigtailed boy’s age category, he had been
given instructions by the Arena Director to ‘welcome’ Ranma to the Arena in
any way that he saw fit. The only limitation on Tarou’s fun was the strict
order that the other boy was not to be damaged in any serious way. Tarou
saw it as a chance to let the citizen boy know his place, like he had a few
weeks ago with Ryu Kumon. He looked forward to it. The guy might have
somehow managed to defeat Shampoo, but he was still nothing more than fresh
meat here.



Ranma relaxed a bit when he realized he was still male. The waterproof soap
was still working for now. He shuddered to think what might happen if he
transformed here, and he needed to get Yumi to bring him some for his stay
here. He doubted he could avoid cold water for an entire week. He was still
lying in his bed in the infirmary, but the IVs and sensors had all been
removed while he slept. His injuries were mostly healed, but hunger gnawed
at his guts now that he was awake.



He was still trying to sort things out when the Chinese boy growled in
impatience and stepped closer to him. What’s his problem? Ranma mused,
looking at the other boy. He didn’t get a chance to pursue that thought any
further before Tarou reached down and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.



“Come on, fresh meat,” Tarou growled, hauling Ranma roughly to his feet.
“You’ve had your bath, Saotome. Now it’s time for breakfast. I know the
others must be just dying to meet you.” He smirked, mistaking Ranma’s look
of confusion for fear. He _should_ fear me, thought the Chinese boy with
supreme confidence. The wimp needed to learn his place before he got ideas
after beating Shampoo. There was only one top fighter here among the males,
and his name was Tarou.



When Ranma began glaring back and resisting, the Chinese boy released his
grip on the pigtailed boy’s shirt and lashed out with an uppercut that sent
him tumbling to the ground. He took a single step forward, intending to
brutally punish Ranma for eyeing him like that, but then he remembered that
he wasn’t allowed to do harm to the other boy in any serious way. For his
part, as he laid there on the ground, Ranma felt a sudden, strong desire to
wipe the floor with the Chinese boy, but he held himself back... for now.
Getting into a fight before he understood what he was dealing with was poor
strategy. Recalling advice from his readings of Sun Tzu and what Lee-sensei
had told him, he knew he should pick his battles carefully, but the jerk in
front of him was on his list now.



“My name is Tarou,” snarled the Chinese boy. “Look at me like that again,
and I’ll rip your lungs out and stuff them up your ass.” He casually walked
around the cot to where Ranma was sitting. Tarou grabbed the front of
Ranma’s shirt again and hauled him back up to his feet with one hand. “Just
think of me as the god of this place, and I think we’ll get along just
fine.” Tarou spoke pleasantly with a hint of not-so-veiled menace in his
tones. “However, should you cross me in the slightest way, you _may_ live
to regret it.”



“I understand.” I understand that you’re a bastard, Ranma finished in his
thoughts. He contemplated the other boy and kept his temper under control,
unwilling to be provoked by words, trying to do as Lee-sensei had taught
him, but it was more difficult than he could have imagined. He felt a
powerful yearning within himself, to knock the other boy down and
demonstrate his strength.



Letting go of the pigtailed boy’s shirt, Tarou stepped back, a little
disappointed at the response Ranma gave him. Mistaking restraint for
weakness, he wondered how the other boy could have had the guts to step
into the ring against the Amazon. The win must have been a fluke, he mused,
but it had shown every man in the Arena that Shampoo was not invincible,
that she could be beaten. He smiled inwardly at that, his eyes glittering
at the possibilities, fantasizing about what he would do with the girl.



Ranma simply waited. His mind was already assessing his options. He only
had to hold out until his rematch with Shampoo and then he planned on
paying the Chinese boy back in full before he left.



“Come with me,” ordered Tarou. He turned around and walked out of the
dormitory room. After a moment, Ranma sullenly followed along behind. His
stomach was crying for food, and he felt a little weak. He needed to build
his strength back up before he could do anything else.



As he followed the Chinese boy, Ranma mused on last night’s events. After
the others had left, Yumi had come back to explain to him about Golgo, the
man who had died. The assassin had shot him with some kind of a toxin, not
a lethal concoction but one that would have ended his match with Shampoo as
a loss, condemning him to stay in the Arena for months.



Yumi was going to look into who might have hired Golgo through her
contacts, but Ranma had a few suspects already in mind. Two popped to the
top of his list right away: Mikado Sanzenin and Kinnosuke Kashuoh. Both of
them were rich, honorless types, and Ranma could imagine either one hiring
someone like the assassin to fix the fight against him. In addition, he
could not ignore Nabiki’s smarmy new ‘friend’ either: Touga Kiryu. That one
looked the type to pull something underhanded like this too. He briefly
considered Kodachi’s childhood friend, Miki Kaoru, but the stopwatch-loving
boy didn’t strike him as villainous enough to do such a thing, no matter
how much he disliked him for other reasons. And while Tatewaki Kuno was a
stupid pain to deal with, Ranma suspected Kuno had too much bushido honor
to use assassins to do his dirty work.



He would have to be careful while he was in here and watch his step. He was
going to be surrounded by a lot of very dangerous people for a few days,
highly-skilled fighters who might look on his win over Shampoo as a
challenge to them. Any one of them could do something nasty to him in here,
out of sight of the outside world. The Arena was like its own little
domain, and he needed to learn its rules and cliques quickly.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Shampoo ate her breakfast slowly. The food was actually quite tasty, but
she didn’t seem to have much appetite. Her thoughts kept coming back to
Ranma. She had been defeated by a worthy male, a handsome one too, but he
came with problems attached.



The first difficulty was that he was already engaged. The annoying,
short-haired girl, Nabiki, had been quite emphatic on that point, stating
more than once during their rather loud discussion together that Ranma was
hers by means of an arranged marriage their fathers had set up, and she
wasn’t giving him up to an ‘ignorant barbarian’ like Shampoo. The concept
of parents arranging marriages for their children was a strange one to her,
but the Japanese were a strange people. Even so, after the passion he had
displayed to her in the Kiss of Marriage, she found herself doubting that
Ranma could be interested in the other girl very much, so it fell to her to
deal firmly with this unwanted rival. That was fine with the Amazon. She
doubted the other girl was strong enough to stand up to her.



The other problem was her libido. After the Kuonji woman had pulled Nabiki
away before things devolved into savage violence, especially after Nabiki’s
numerous disparaging remarks, Cologne had told her that she would have to
wait until after the rematch before anything intimate with Ranma could
occur. Kissing and hugging him were fine, but nothing more, not until after
his worthiness as a male was proven beyond all doubt, then she could do
anything she liked with the pigtailed boy.



That had been a disturbing conversation to have, especially coming from
someone as ancient and withered as Cologne. It wasn’t helping her mood that
her dreams last night had been of Ensign Shan’s experiences with another
version of Ranma, a comfort male in the Heavenly Pleasures Inn back in the
Matriarchy, extremely erotic dreams. Training hard today would hopefully
take her mind off such things and reduce her edginess, and maybe later she
could spend some time with Ranma and start getting to know him.



She noticed Running Deer consuming her food listlessly. Her friend usually
loved meal times and always ate as much as she could. Despite how much she
ate, she never seemed to gain an ounce of fat on her body. It was clear to
her that she was taking Ryu’s involvement with the Taiwanese girl badly,
and Shampoo found herself resenting the Impie boy quite a bit for his poor
choice in women. Both of them continued to pick at their food.



“Why Running Deer not eating?” asked Shampoo finally, the silence and
tension finally getting to her.



“Dunno,” replied the Apache girl, the tone of her voice showing she clearly
was bothered by something, and Shampoo became more certain than ever it was
about Ryu. “Just not hungry.” She glanced up over Shampoo’s shoulder and
gestured with her fork, glad to change the topic. “Look who’s up and
walking around.”



Shampoo turned around and saw Ranma coming into the mess hall behind Tarou.
He looked much better, just a few bruises remaining from their battle
yesterday, which was about her current condition as well after a good
night’s rest. To see him up and moving so well was a great relief to her.
Their gazes met for several moments. Ranma gave her a nod and smile, and
she found herself smiling back, suddenly feeling very happy inside at
seeing him.



>From her table, Mina Li sat holding court with her cronies and a few of
Tarou’s, the two groups chatting together amiably, and she watched the new
arrival with a calculating look. She studied how he carried himself and
considered what she had seen of his abilities. Despite his brutal battle
against the Amazon last night, he appeared mostly recovered from his
injuries. He moved with surprising grace and was handsome to her eyes. She
idly wondered how he would be in bed.



She happened to glance over at the right moment to see the lingering gaze
he exchanged with Shampoo, and her eyes narrowed at what she saw in his
expression. Unlike the Kumon boy, Ranma’s gaze did not appear to be powered
by animal lust and possessiveness for the Amazon as was true of most men.
Oh, he was very clearly attracted to the Chinese girl, but there was
something softer there as well, a genuine sort of caring in his regard of
her, as if they were two old friends reunited. Mina’s attention shifted
over to Shampoo.



While the look in the boy’s eyes had been troubling to her, what she saw in
Shampoo’s answering gaze caused her to tap one manicured finger irritably
on the table as she pondered her nemesis. The Amazon’s look towards the
pigtailed boy made her feel even worse. She wore the visage of a girl in
love; one could see it in her eyes, the way she gazed at Ranma. The two of
them seemed to Mina like characters from a romantic movie, spotlights
suddenly shining down on each of them the only thing missing from the
scene. She felt envy curdle her soul at the sight of the pair.



The way Ranma regarded the Amazon, even in that brief meeting of their
gazes, told a tale of love, although one that both parties had likely not
yet realized for themselves, and Mina’s heart simmered darkly with jealousy
and hatred at seeing it. No man had ever looked at her that way, not even
her boyfriend Tarou. Men lusted after her, desired her. But love? Her upper
lip curled into a sneer, and she felt a sudden, intense loathing for the
two of them spring to life within her.



Her dark eyes turned to study Ranma again, considering what he had done
last night. He had proven that Shampoo was not an undefeatable icon,
forever shattering the Amazon’s illusion of invincibility. And if she could
be beaten once, then it could happen again. With the Emperor’s Tournament
coming up in several months, she was running out of time to kill the
Chinese girl and regain her proper place as the most beautiful and powerful
woman fighting in the Arena, a spot Shampoo had usurped and irritatingly
retained for a few months. The thought of breaking the other girl was a
pleasant fantasy Mina held in her heart’s darkest place, and she looked
forward to the day when she destroyed the Amazon slowly, a piece at a time,
killing her only after she was satisfied with her vengeance.



She mused vindictively about the new couple as she went back to eating.
True love was a myth, and she pondered ways she could destroy their
relationship while it was still in its cradle. She had never failed at
seducing any man, and Ranma would be no different. It would also serve her
faithless boyfriend Tarou right for his chronic philandering ways with
female fighters, not that any of them dared spend time with him except for
newcomers who didn’t know better. She had dealt brutally with the last
interloper to try, the cocky girl’s broken and bloody body left dead behind
her on the Arena floor when she exited from their match, a clear warning to
others to stay away from her man.



>From where he stood, Ranma eyed the people in the room. Most had turned to
look at him when he first walked in with Tarou. A few had smiled in a grim
sort of way, most likely amused at seeing an Imperial Citizen brought down
to their level. Shampoo was watching him and giving him a more genuine
smile, and he was grateful for that. The tall girl seated with Shampoo was
eyeing him as well, not grimly like the others, but her expression was more
solemn than the Amazon’s.



A few of the people in the room, both male and female, regarded him with
deadly eyes, like the Korean girl he noticed studying him intently for a
few moments. Ranma made a mental note of those faces. He would avoid as
much contact as possible with them until he could get himself out of here.
He made a second mental note to watch everyone here very carefully.
Surprisingly, he found himself missing Nabiki, knowing she would have had
his back in this situation.



He didn’t seem to have any friends here except for Shampoo, his newest
fiancée, although that was still somewhat in doubt. Seeing the people the
Amazon had been dealing with for months, he now truly understood why she
was so strong a fighter. It was a disturbing situation he found himself in,
and it reminded him of a prison he had once visited with his father during
their travels. The inmates had given them the same sort of animal-like
looks.



“Attention, everyone!” announced Tarou in a booming voice. His usual smirk
was back on his face. “We find ourselves honored today with the presence of
an Imperial Citizen. I want everyone to make him feel welcome during his
time with us. I’m sure that he’s eager to socialize with our collection of
warriors.”



Ranma wanted to get some food and go join Shampoo and her friend, but Tarou
kept a powerful grip on his arm. He spied one person seated over in the
corner who hadn’t appeared to pay much attention to his arrival. He was
Japanese, and he seemed to be rather engrossed in eating his meal. An
attractive Chinese girl sat with him. Tarou quickly noted the direction
that the pigtailed boy was looking and smiled.



“Ah,” he said grandly to Ranma. “I see that you’ve noticed our other
representative of Imperial Citizenhood. Let me take you over and I’ll
introduce you two to each other.”



“No need to trouble yourself,” said Ranma mildly. “I just want to have
something to eat.” He tried to twist his arm free. The Chinese boy just
frowned and pulled him along by one arm, maintaining his strong grip.



“I insist,” Tarou said coldly. To avoid a fight, Ranma let himself be led
over.



The Japanese boy stopped eating when their footsteps got closer, and he and
the Chinese girl with him turned and studied the pigtailed boy. He was
Ranma’s age, and he even had a build similar to Ranma’s physique. The other
boy’s brown eyes watched them coldly as the pair got closer. His black hair
was brushed back into a short, braided ponytail, and he wore an outfit that
consisted of a white karate gi with the sleeves removed and a pair of black
pants.



“Ranma Saotome,” said Tarou with a flourishing gesture as he pointed at the
other boy. “Allow me to present Ryu Kumon. He is our other example of what
happens when one of you Impies fights with the Amazon princess over there,
although he didn’t do as well.” Tarou laughed. Ryu seemed to be trying to
ignore him.



“Hello, Kumon-san,” said Ranma politely with a slight bow. Ryu flicked his
eyes at him, his gaze cool, but made no other acknowledgment that he had
even heard Ranma. The young scholar could sense anger bubbling beneath the
surface of the other boy, for some reason directed at him, causing an
answering antipathy to rise within him at Ryu’s rudeness. The two eyed each
other like a pair of wolves.



>From her position, Shenhua noted Ranma’s presence silently with her usual
bored expression while sipping her tea. Ryu’s nearness to her overpowered
any feelings of attraction she might have felt for the young scholar, and
she was also feeling quite languid and satisfied after being with the Kumon
boy for a good portion of the night, helping him work off some of his
frustrations. While she had been with other men before, something about Ryu
was different, arousing within her deeper feelings, a yearning to be with
him that went beyond merely sexual desire. She found herself already
looking forward to another session with him like last night’s.



“It appears that your countryman is not in a talkative mood, Saotome,” said
Tarou in an unfriendly tone. “I may have to speak with him on this later.”
The Chinese boy seemed to take a measure of pleasure in the brief look of
hatred that appeared on Ryu’s face. With another smirk, Tarou dragged Ranma
back to the food line.



Ryu balled his right hand into a fist under the table. His mind focused on
Ranma, feeling a white-hot rage burning within him. The pigtailed boy had
stolen what was rightfully his: Shampoo! He would never forgive him for
that, for denying him his place as the Amazon’s husband. Even more
frustrating, instead of the Kumon School beginning its rise to supremacy in
the world, Ranma’s victory over the Amazon had instead made the Saotome
School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts into an overnight sensation in the
Empire. He had even heard a rumor that the Emperor himself now knew Ranma’s
name.



“Here is where I leave you, citizen boy,” said Tarou with his usual smirk
on his face when they got to the line for food. “You should be able to find
your way well enough from here with your new bride’s help. I look forward
to a day when we might meet together in combat. I always enjoy beating on a
weaker opponent.” The Chinese boy laughed at his own jokes and then turned
and walked away. As he left, Ranma glared at his back. With an intense
effort, he forced his anger back under control, refusing once again to be
baited by words.



I can get through this, he thought as he calmed himself. I’m Ranma Saotome,
the heir to the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts. I’m a man of reason
and learning, not an unthinking brute who can be goaded into rash actions.
I _will_ get through this.



Shampoo watched, undergoing an unaccustomed nervousness within her when
Ranma approached with his heavily-laden tray of food, feeling herself
blushing, an unfamiliar sensation for her. Running Deer studied him as he
sat down, noting his physique with interest and looking forward to hearing
all the juicy details from the Amazon on how her new fiancé performed when
they finally got intimate with each other. Despite her worries over her own
love life, she was very happy that her friend had finally found a man she
was interested in. The Amazon’s celibacy had often puzzled her, and she
suspected her friend was a virgin, although she had never come right out
and asked.



“Hey there, Ranma,” the Apache girl greeted him with a wave. “Welcome to
the Arena.”



“Thanks, Running Deer. Uh, hi, Shampoo.” The pigtailed boy sat down and
busied himself with his meal for a minute to hide his nervousness. His
hunger was like a ravenous beast in his belly, clawing at his insides,
demanding sustenance. He glanced briefly at Shampoo, and he suddenly felt
himself blushing, unsure why he was so nervous, the confidence that he had
felt around Utena last week abandoning him for the moment. He knew three
different versions of the Amazon already through the resonator, two who
loved analogs of him and one a close friend to a third analog. This one
could not be so different from them, could she?



After Ranma returned his attention to his meal, Shampoo eyed him as she
sipped her juice, holding down her own feelings of edginess and coolly
studying him with an analytical gaze as he wolfed down food like a starving
man. She believed she had finally puzzled out how he could have known a
Joketsuzoku technique like the Amaguriken without being taught by a
Matriarch, aided by Ensign Shan’s memories. She strongly suspected he had
obtained the knowledge by using a resonator device. It was not unheard of
in the Matriarchy for those who used the technology to demonstrate skills
transferred over from an analog, but it required the disabling of the
government-mandated engram filters.



Such altered devices were frequently found among the black markets and
underground clubs that did a brisk business in illicit possessions of
alternate selves, something she had heard occurred among the Musk as well.
Most who did so would use those analogs to experience thrills and
adventures they did not dare use their own lives for, often ruining those
other selves with sexual escapades, acts of savage violence, or committing
other illegal acts. Some harvested knowledge and skills from other selves,
but the resulting mental contamination brought on by mixing together too
many multiple lives tended to drive them insane. It was a rare individual
who could handle having more than two or three sets of memories mixed
together in their minds, especially if acquired over a relatively short
period of time. Go past that point and varying levels of insanity became
almost certain for all but the rarest few.



Her Amazon pride was somewhat offended by that, viewing such skill gains as
a form of cheating, side-stepping the hard work that obtaining such
proficiencies required, although she was well aware that she had benefitted
from Ensign Shan’s scientific and technical knowledge. It left her
initially wondering if all of his martial arts ability had been gained that
way, but studying his physique inclined her to think otherwise. He was
well-muscled and athletically built to her appraising gaze, and his hands
showed the unmistakable calluses that could only be obtained from many
years of martial arts training, similar to the state of her own hands and
feet. Also, the flexibility and range of motion in his limbs that he had
demonstrated last night would not be possible without years of heavy
training.



Another thought suddenly occurred to her as she contemplated him: it could
have been accidental. If he was the inventor of such technology on this
tangent, he could have been using it without any form of engram filters
installed, not even knowing that such a thing existed. In that case, his
acquiring new skills would have been unintentional.



Yes, now that she thought about it away from the heat of battle, she could
tell that Ranma had prepared for many years to be such a strong and skilled
combatant, while his knowledge of the Amaguriken was very likely gained by
accident. Her pride mollified at that, she began studying her new
husband-to-be. He was quite handsome to her eye, and, judging by the
feelings of sexual attraction he already aroused within her, she held hope
that being intimate with him would be a rapturous experience for her.



If he was able to perform like the analog she remembered within the
Matriarchy, she would be extremely well satisfied with him as her husband.
Now that she took time to consider it, he reminded her a bit of her father
in his manner, with a maturity greater than his age, although his table
manners needed work. In her imagination, she could easily see herself
standing at his side and facing down any troubles that came their way.



While her newfound fiancé ate, Shampoo pondered the next steps they would
take with each other. In thinking back over last night’s match with him,
she grew more certain that, barring a lucky break or two on her part, Ranma
should be able to defeat her a second time, clearing his claim to her and
removing all doubts as to his worthiness. His ability was marginally better
than hers, a gap she would work hard on eliminating in the future. With any
other opponent, especially against males like those she had faced since
leaving her village, men who had looked at her lustfully, objectified her
and could care less if she even had thoughts or feelings, the notion of
losing to such men would have troubled her greatly. But with Ranma she felt
differently. Once he had proven himself beyond all doubts as worthy of her
hand, she was certain they would begin a wonderful relationship together.



After her heated argument with Nabiki and taking some time to cool off
afterwards, she had done some checking and discovered a few things. As
Ranma’s fiancée, becoming a quasi-Citizen herself at that point, she would
no longer be as tied down to the Arena’s rules as before. She would be able
to travel more freely within Tokyo, even staying overnight with him should
she so choose. She expected she would be exercising that option as
frequently as her match schedule allowed, her gaze studying his physique
and feeling her desires for him rise within her, and then she felt herself
blush again. Flashes of memories from Ensign Shan and her time spent
intimately with that other Ranma assailed her once again, and she banished
them with difficulty.



She began eating with more vigor, her appetite coming back as her worries
eased. They could wed before the Emperor’s Tournament, but it was probably
better to wait. After she had won, obtaining citizenship for herself and
her people, marrying Ranma would be a true joining of equals, the sort of
relationship her mother enjoyed with her father, and she looked forward to
that.



Thinking about the tournament, she hoped Ranma would be interested in
having regular sparring matches with her. With his level of skill, that
would help a great deal to prepare her for it. Sparring against him would
aid her in finding and shoring up any remaining weaknesses in her
techniques and make her abilities as a fighter even more formidable and
flawless.



Then, after winning the tournament, her ascension to citizenship and her
marriage to Ranma, she could return to her home village for a visit and rub
all of her accomplishments in her archrival’s face. It would be glorious to
show Perfume how much she had grown, both as a person and as a fighter. She
was no longer the callow girl who left her village behind all those months
ago and took up the challenge of being an Arena fighter. She had matured
from facing many trials and challenges since her departure, meeting so many
people and seeing so many new places, going up against and defeating
numerous strong foes along her way, and those experiences had forged her
into something greater than she once was. Even the worst parts of her
experience had strengthened her and changed her for the better, when she
looked back at them.



Shampoo found herself smiling, suddenly realizing that having Ranma in her
life would fill a void within it that even a close friend like Running Deer
could not. After their rematch was over, she would give him her heart
without reserve and become his confidante and lover, and no one would ever
keep them apart. Life was looking good to her.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



His face bandaged like a mummy and leaving only his bloodshot eyes and a
slit for his mouth visible, the Arena Director watched Ranma eating with
Shampoo and Running Deer, viewing the trio through a television monitor. An
impotent rage filled him, and he seethed with hatred, one even more intense
now than what he had felt before. The aches in his body that painkillers
could not quite soothe, a gift from the Tigress that would take time to
fade, only seemed to purify his fury against the boy like a forge.



He felt frustrated, forbidden from doing anything to the boy directly, not
unless he wanted to be killed with excruciating slowness and in exquisite
pain by the legendary Tigress. She had spoken to him as if lecturing a
disobedient child while she brutalized him, instructing him in what he was
not allowed to do. Several of his ribs were broken and other bones in his
body were fractured, and she had used her knowledge of pressure points to
keep him from passing out. The Tigress had been very clear to him in her
directives even as she instilled horrible pain into him. The boy was off
limits.



The sports press was having a field day with the events of last night, and
it was starting to spill over into other areas of the media. Videos of
Shampoo’s match with Ranma were spreading across the datanet like wildfire,
accompanied by rampant speculation on the boy. There had been numerous
demands for interviews with Ranma, but he had fended them off so far.



“Y’all had quite the party here, it looks like,” suddenly spoke a voice
from behind him.



Turning around in his chair as quickly as his injuries allowed, he saw a
hooded figure in a brown robe standing there, surveying the damage done to
his office. Ana and Uni were currently absent, the severity of their
injuries requiring them to spend a few days in the infirmary before they
were healed up enough to resume their duties as his protectors, another
debt he added to the Saotome boy’s pile for eventual collection someday. He
studied the mysterious figure, not quite recognizing the voice.



The hood was suddenly thrown back, revealing the face of an attractive
blonde girl at the end of her teens with deep blue eyes. She ran a hand
back through her hair and regarded him calmly, a hint of a sultry smile on
her beautiful face. He recognized who she was immediately, but it wasn’t
possible. The person standing before him appeared to be none other than the
legendary Colt Remington, a former member of the Six Pack, the group of
fighters who had dominated the Arena two decades ago in the famed ‘Year of
the Dragon’ when Jun Fan Lee had won citizenship. However, she looked like
she hadn’t aged a day since then, which was impossible.



“Colt Remington?” he asked, wondering if he was seeing a ghost.



“In the beautiful flesh,” the girl replied in mildly accented Japanese,
quickly coming around his desk to look at the monitor he was watching. Her
gaze became momentarily cold as she saw one of the faces there on the
monitor screen, settling on the Amazon’s. Her smile turned briefly
predatory before returning to its sultrier look. She settled herself on his
desk, the lower portion of her robes parting to reveal shapely, powerful
legs as she crossed them. She wore tall cowboy boots that were somewhat
battered. “I heard tell you had a run-in with the Tigress and the General
last night. Looks like one of them worked you over pretty good.” Her tone
was one of professional appreciation.



“You can’t be Colt Remington.”



“Sure I can, darlin’.” She gently patted his bandaged face with one hand.
“Shadowlaw has access to ways to keep the body young, if you’re willin’ to
pay the price, and I ain’t talkin’ money.”



“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” he said carefully. “I’m an honest
professional, not a gangster.”



“Sure ya are, darlin’.” Colt smiled warmly at him, and her hand moved down
to grip his chin painfully. “You and I both know who you work for, the same
one I work for, but we’ll leave the name unsaid. I saw the China girl’s
match last night, and I heard from reliable sources the boy has the Dragon
for his master. Seein’ him fightin’ the Wombat’s little protégée sure
brought back some memories, like history repeatin’ itself. I also find it
interestin’ that someone like Yumi Kuonji is keepin’ a watch over the boy.
Killin’ someone like Golgo ain’t easy at all, not that he stays dead for
long.”



The Arena Director said nothing, his bloodshot eyes cold as he pondered the
woman before him. “And what do you intend to do?”



“To them? Nothin’.” Colt smiled, her expression growing more predatory
again. “At least, nothin’ right now. China girl’s still not yet ready to
face me, not and make it interestin’, but she’s gettin’ real close to bein’
tough enough. I was actually thinking I’d rile the boy up some for fun, now
that it’s lookin’ like he’s gonna be her man. I’m also thinkin’ of payin’ a
little call on Kuonji-san sometime, now that I know she’s in the area. I
owe her big from somethin’ a few years back, ya see.”



“I’m afraid I don’t follow your meaning.” He kept his gaze on her face as
she bobbed one booted foot, her clasped hands resting on her leg.



“Oh, I ain’t gonna tell ya exactly what I got planned,” she said with a
wicked grin. “I mainly just dropped by to see the Tigress’ handiwork is
all.” She patted him on the cheek again, almost slapping him, causing him
to wince. “You just keep an eye on that boy. He’s got a big week ahead of
him, and I aim to give him a prize he’ll never forget when he wins that
girl.”



She hopped off the desk and sauntered across the office, giving the Arena
Director one last grin before she flipped her hood back up and strolled
out, closing the newly-replaced doors behind her.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Colonel Gendo Rokubungi, the Headmaster of Furinkan Military Academy,
tightened his grip on the sports pages as he studied the article headlined
‘Shampoo Defeated?’ and the face he saw there in full color underneath the
headline. He recognized him! It was the same punk kid who had thrown him
out a window! Not once but twice! And broken one of his fingers! He read
the name again in the article: Ranma Saotome.



Hatred for the boy seethed within him, and he set the newspaper down on the
desk in his office. He adjusted his glasses and leaned forward, resting his
elbows on the desk and lacing his fingers together. He gazed at the far
wall grimly. He would have to come up with something appropriate to pay the
boy back.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



“Nabiki Tendo!”



Already in a sour mood from the events of last night as she left home and
headed off to school, Nabiki frowned deeply when Ryoko Masaki landed in
front of her. The other girl was dressed in a St. Hebereke uniform and
carrying her bookbag. Ryoko ran a hand back through her long hair and
smiled grimly at her.



“What do you want, Goblin Girl?” Nabiki asked in irritation.



Ryoko’s left eye twitched at the comment, her smile at finding her prey
swiftly vanishing. She pointed at Nabiki accusingly. “You’ve ignored my
challenge letter. Why?”



“I’ve been busy.” Nabiki eyed the other girl and then smirked. “But I think
I can pencil you in for a few minutes this morning, Fangs.”



With a roar of rage at the Tendo girl over her continuing insults at her
expense, Ryoko attacked. Fists and feet flew at each other, and Nabiki
actually found herself hard-pressed by Ryoko. The other girl’s strength was
easily Hibiki-level, something she realized quickly when Ryoko’s fist blew
a sizable hole through a solid granite block in a wall behind Nabiki’s head
without causing her any sort of distress.



After several minutes of fighting, the two were at a near standstill. While
Ryoko’s speed was slower than Nabiki’s, her physical strength and endurance
were inhuman. The two broke apart, eyeing each other with a wary regard.



“Not bad, Fangs,” said Nabiki, breathing a bit heavily. She pretended to be
unhurt, despite the aches in her body from a couple of Ryoko’s strikes that
had gotten through her defenses. “You’re pretty good.”



“Same to you, Tendo,” growled Ryoko as she caught her breath. Her hatred
for the other girl burned within her, and Nabiki’s habit of calling her
insulting names during their battle kept her rage at a boil. “It looks like
I get to fight you all out after all. Prepare for your end. I’ll try and
make it quick.”



Nabiki raised an eyebrow when suddenly there was a second Ryoko standing
next to the first. She grimaced as the pair leaped at her. Perhaps she had
been a bit premature in treating the Masaki girl as some kind of a joke.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



*** Earth +6.123, +5.298



“Captain Nogami, thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I hope we can
reach an understanding on this situation.”



Genma and Nodoka stood in the captain’s cabin, space being at a premium on
a military vessel. The captain sat at her desk, her computer station
showing text of some kind to Genma’s view, although the writing did not use
any sort of alphabet he was familiar with, nor was it any form of kanji.
When he was done speaking, she studied the two of them.



“First of all, let me offer my congratulations to the newly-wedded couple,”
said Captain Nogami with a smile. “I heard about your duel from some of the
witnesses. They said it was quite a show.”



Genma started to protest but quickly decided to let the matter alone. He
could not afford to antagonize these women, not with his life and Soun’s
possibly at risk. A plastic smile appeared on his face as Nodoka took hold
of his arm possessively and grinned as she leaned against him.



“Thanks, Captain! I was hoping to take some of my accumulated leave time
and spend it dirtside with my new husband,” Nodoka cheerfully explained. “I
have an analog here that we could stay with. She runs a few businesses in
the capital.”



“That should be fine,” Nogami said with a nod. “It looks like we’re going
to be here for a while. High Command wishes to confer with your new husband
and his friend about the possibility of opening diplomatic relations with
his tangent of origin.”



“Captain?” Genma looked surprised. “Does that mean we could be returned
home soon?” Nodoka suddenly frowned at that question, and her grip on his
arm tightened a slight amount.



“It’s still much too early to say, Saotome-san,” Nogami replied. “I’ve just
received orders this morning to treat both you and Tendo-san as diplomatic
envoys for now. Discovering a new culture with resonator capabilities,
especially one able to reach so far across superspace, has High Command
interested in a possible exchange of technology and opening peaceful trade
relations.”



“That’s excellent news, Captain. Thank you.”



“We’ll be sending you and Tendo-san down to the surface in a shuttle in a
day or two, Saotome-san. Since Lieutenants Kamiya and Nakakami are already
familiar to you, they will be acting as your escorts and liaisons.” The
captain eyed Nodoka. “I trust you and Lt. Nakakami can both behave
yourselves while dirtside?”



Nodoka immediately let go of Genma and stood at attention, her gaze
straight in front of her. She brought her right fist to rest upon her left
breast. “Yes, Captain!”



Genma felt a little more relaxed now. Once he and Soun were back home with
their families, the fakes inhabiting their lives could be sent back home.
Even better, returning home with a spaceship filled with representatives of
another timeline would be definitive proof to his colleagues at the Science
Ministry that alternate worlds did exist.



As far as this version of Nodoka went, perhaps she could yet be made to see
reason. It wasn’t that he didn’t like her. He actually felt quite strongly
attracted to her, but he was unable to see how it could work out between
them since he was already married. And how would he explain this to his
wife? Where could he even begin?



It looked like the problems he, Ranma and Soun had been having, the various
tribulations originating from interacting with these different alternate
worlds, might finally be coming to an end. He hoped that was true.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



“It appears there has been a change in your status, Tendo-san,” said
Kimiko, opening Soun’s cell. Her expression was neutral. She stood waiting
at the door. “You are no longer a prisoner.”



Nodding, Soun stood up. “That is good news.”



“I have been given orders to act as your escort and liaison during your
stay in the Matriarchy.” Her gaze at him was cool.



Walking to the doorway, he paused and met her gaze, puzzled at her
attitude. “Have I given you offense in some way, Nakakami-san?” It felt odd
to him to say his dead wife’s maiden name while looking at a woman who was
her virtual twin.



“Only through omission,” she said, moving aside.



“Could you elaborate?” He stood there, the two of them in tableau for
several moments when she did not immediately reply.



“I had hoped- Never mind.” She turned and left the cell. “It appears my
destiny is to be alone,” she muttered softly.



Realization dawned in Soun. She wanted him to do as Genma had done with the
other Nodoka. “I’m sorry, Nakakami-san,” he said more gently.



She whirled on him, standing tall and proud, her gaze hawklike and fierce.
“Yes, you are sorry! You are a most sorry excuse for a male!”



He met her gaze without flinching. “You are much like the woman I once
knew.”



“Well, I am not her.” Harrumphing imperiously, she turned on her heel.
“Come, Tendo-san. I will escort you to your new quarters on board.”



Nodding, he followed her, his expression calm, but inwardly he was
troubled. She was not the Kimiko he had known, but the similarities were
jarring to his emotions. He would have to watch himself. He could not let
himself fall in love with her. He could never love another that deeply
again.



That way would only lead him to pain.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



*** Earth 0.000, 0.000



“KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!”



Hundreds of punches slammed into Ryoko’s guts and ribcage, and she
staggered back. As awareness left her gaze, her last sight was of Nabiki
standing in front of her before her eyes rolled up into her head. She
collapsed to her knees and then fell sideways. The duplicate Ryoko, already
knocked unconscious nearby, suddenly shimmered and vanished.



Nabiki dropped to her knees on the grass, her breathing heavy and gasping.
Her aching ribs prevented her from taking in a proper breath, and her
vision blurred for several moments. Their fight had ranged from the street
to the empty lot near her house, the same one where she had met the cursed
Ryoga. She was amazed at how tough the other girl was, and she would not
take her so lightly again. She had been forced to use the Amaguriken
technique more than once to win the fight, the Masaki girl and her twin
relentlessly pressing her right up until the very end. The exhaustion began
fading slowly, and she was grateful at not losing consciousness even as the
adrenaline drained from her system.



“Damn it,” she muttered. “I’m going to be late for school now. Thanks a
lot, you teal-haired freak.” She got to her feet and started running as
best she could.



Watching quietly from concealment, Cologne eyed the Tendo girl as she
departed. She had witnessed the entire fight while she was on her way to
handle some errands in the area, one of them being to greet her
great-granddaughter’s prospective mother-in-law and see what sort of woman
she was. Her gaze narrowed as she considered what she had just witnessed, a
second youth who knew the same high-level Joketsuzoku technique that Ranma
inexplicably knew.



Pogoing out on her staff, she paused to examine the unconscious girl,
probing gently at her injuries with her fingers and pressing pressure
points that would speed healing. Despite the beating she had taken during
her fight with the Tendo girl, Ryoko was not seriously injured, likely due
to her very sturdy frame. As Cologne worked to aid the fallen girl, she was
impressed at the bone and muscle structure Ryoko possessed.



The two teens had both been extraordinary, each one fighting at a level
equal to the best Joketsuzoku girls their age. The Tendo girl’s ability to
fight at such a level was a concern to the Amazon matriarch, since she was
a threat to Shampoo’s interests in the Saotome boy. She would have to be
kept distracted. Her gaze fell upon Ryoko, considering the possibilities
the girl offered.



“<May I be of any assistance, Madame?>” suddenly asked a voice behind her
in accented Mandarin.



Cologne, shocked that someone had been able to approach her without her
awareness, whirled around to see Cherry standing there. As they stared at
each other, he smiled at her enigmatically, tipping back his straw hat. She
stood up from her efforts to aid the fallen girl. “I thank you for your
offer, but I require no assistance,” she brusquely answered him in Japanese.



“As you wish, Cologne-san,” Cherry said politely.



The elderly Amazon narrowed her gaze and asked, “You know me?” She tried to
get a reading on the wizened figure in front of her, and while she could
sense only a trickle of power emanating from him, that didn’t necessarily
mean anything. She knew several techniques to tamp down her own emanations
of fighting strength unless she needed them. “Who are you?”



“Oh, pardon my poor manners,” said the wizened monk. “I am Cherry, a humble
follower of the Buddha, at your service.” He bowed. “The girl there is a
recent acquaintance of mine.” He moved past Cologne and knelt down next to
Ryoko, setting down his ringed staff, which had made no sounds until after
Cologne had turned to see him. He began to check her injuries.



“How do you know my name? I did not give it.” She eyed the monk with
suspicion.



“Perhaps we knew each other in another life?” Cherry suggested with another
enigmatic smile.



Cologne harrumphed at that. As she pondered the mystery of the monk before
her, Ryoko returned to wakefulness.



“Cherry?” she asked, sitting up.



“Greetings,” Cherry replied. “Do you need help to stand, Masaki-san?”



“No,” she grumbled, standing up, noticing Cologne. “Who’s the old lady,
Cherry? Is she your girlfriend?” That earned her a sharp rap on the head
from Cologne’s staff. “OW! Hey, watch it, grandma! I’m injured and not in a
good mood!”



Cherry stifled a chuckle, and Cologne frowned at both of them.



Still rubbing a hand on her sore head, Ryoko checked her watch. “Crap! I’m
late! I gotta go. Later, Cherry.” She ran off, grabbing her bag from where
it had been abandoned and heading to St. Hebereke Academy.



“Such a lively morning,” Cherry observed. He picked up his ringed staff and
gave the elderly Amazon a bow. “Perhaps we will see each other again
sometime, Cologne-san.” He started to walk off, his ringed staff jingling,
but her hand falling on his shoulder stopped him. She let go when he turned
around, sensing something in him for a split-second that made her wary, but
it was gone too quickly for her to be sure.



Cologne was reluctant to ask him for help, but she had spent quite a bit of
time wandering the neighborhood seeking the Saotome household without
success. “Do you know where Ranma Saotome lives?”



“Yes, I do.”



When he did not elaborate and just stood there smiling beatifically,
Cologne began wondering if the old fool in front of her had lost his wits
to senility. “Will you guide me there?” she finally said through slightly
gritted teeth.



“It would be my pleasure.” Cherry bowed and began walking briskly, his
staff ringing as Cologne pogoed along at his side.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Ryoga gazed down calmly at the devastated condition of his foe, feeling his
gloomy mood lightening a bit at his victory. The battle had taken longer
than it should have because he wanted to draw it out, especially after
hearing his opponent bragging so much about his skill. A good match against
a strong opponent should be savored, not that he had actually been
challenged very much. He smiled, showing his fangs.



Opening his fingers, he let several white stones fall into the bowl beneath
his hand. They made a distinct clattering sound in the Go salon, and the
small crowd around them let out their collective breath. The gray-haired
man seated across from him glared down at the game board before gazing at
him once again, as if trying to memorize his face.



“I believe you now owe me eight thousand yen,” Ryoga said with a smirk
after beating the man in three straight games. “You can try for double or
nothing again, if you like.”



His opponent grumbled and reached for his wallet, revealing a shoulder
holster with a pistol under his jacket, causing the Lost Boy to tense a
bit. He thought the man was a yakuza until he noticed the peaceforcer badge
at his belt, an inspector’s badge. The older man pulled out eight
thousand-yen notes and slapped them down irritably on the table before
walking out. Ryoga picked them up and added them to his lean wallet. His
stomach rumbled, reminding him that he had not eaten breakfast yet.



Gathering up his backpack and umbrella, Ryoga slipped the pack on, slung
his umbrella and then headed out of the Go salon. When he stepped outside,
another unfamiliar town greeted his gaze, this one somewhere on the
outskirts of Kyoto. All the ones he had seen blurred together in his
memory, and he cursed himself once again for running off without thinking
after his duel with Ukyo. It had been many days since then, and his life
had developed a routine as he struggled to get back to her.



Footsore, out of food and down to his last few hundred yen, he had stumbled
upon a Go salon a few days after the duel. One of the patrons had taken
pity on him and given him a sandwich. He had watched a few games being
played while he ate before he noticed that some of the people were playing
for money, and it gave him an idea. A few hours later, he walked out of
that Go salon many thousands of yen richer, letting him afford a meal at a
restaurant and restocking his supplies. Since that day, he made it a point
to keep on the lookout for any Go salons. He had also started to send
postcards to his family, so they wouldn’t worry about him back home.



Sitting now in yet another town’s small restaurant, the meal he had ordered
on a plate in front of him, he could only think about Ukyo. His face took
on a determined look, the same one he got whenever he thought about his
childhood friend. He would find his way back to her, and he would tell her
how he felt, hoping she forgave him for his stupidity. How could he have
known her for all these years and not known she was really a girl? Was he
really that blind and stupid?



But what if she didn’t want him? What if she was engaged to that guy, Ranma
Saotome? His heart felt as if it would shatter like glass at the thought of
the other boy engaged to Ukyo. Knowing she was a girl, he found himself
scared of her now, something he had never experienced when he thought her a
boy. Maybe she even wanted an arranged marriage. Maybe she didn’t like him
back that way.



No, that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. He remembered the way she used to
smile at him back home, her face lighting up every time she saw him show up.



His hands clenched into fists. Don’t worry, Ukyo, he thought with a serious
look. I’ll put a stop to this travesty. I won’t let you be forced into a
loveless relationship. I just have to find this guy again, this Ranma
Saotome jerk. I’ll make him give you up, if I have to break every single
bone in his body.



His fury rose even higher when thoughts of Nabiki and Ryoko appeared
unbidden in his mind. They needed him too. Ryoko’s family might have
already forced her into an arranged marriage with that Saotome guy as well.
And Nabiki had been so kind to him, an angel of virtuousness and feminine
grace who had appeared to him in his darkest hour. His fragile heart seemed
to shatter within him at the thought of what villainous deeds the Saotome
boy could be doing with all three girls while he was not there to protect
them, imagining Ranma laughing at him. He needed to get back to them, and
he needed to avenge himself on Saotome and that redheaded girl for getting
him cursed to turn into an animal.



He quickly wolfed down his meal, slapped down some bills from his wallet,
picked up his things and then he was swiftly out the door.



“JUST YOU WAIT, RANMA SAOTOME!” he bellowed, heading off in the general
direction of Kyoto.



A few minutes later, a white van pulled up outside the restaurant and two
women in peaceforcer uniforms got out. With them was the man Ryoga had been
playing Go with earlier. He waited outside while the pair charged into the
restaurant and then came back out shortly.



“He just left,” said Miyuki Kobayakawa, the senior officer in charge of the
hunt for Ryoga. A frown was on her face as she solemnly put her sunglasses
back on. “He can’t have gotten far this time.”



Natsumi Tsujimoto, her partner and friend, grumbled at that. They had been
given the supposedly easy assignment of tracking the Hibiki boy, and he had
led them quite a surprising chase across a good portion of Japan, making
them a laughingstock among their peers for not being able to bring in one
teenaged boy. Just when they thought they were finally closing in on him,
he would suddenly veer off in a random direction. There were also numerous
sightings of a panda bear along the boy’s trail, further complicating their
hunt.



Their friends, Yui Ikari and Ayaka Kisaragi, had sent them a small stuffed
panda as a gift. That joke did not go over well at all with Natsumi. After
removing it from the box, she had tossed it into the air and shot it twice
with her sidearm before it hit the ground, stomped on it, set what was left
on fire and then cast the still burning remains into the sea, shaking her
fist at the raging waves and vowing vengeance on the Hibiki boy for making
them look like fools. Miyuki was a little worried that Natsumi was coming
close to losing it completely, each failure to capture the boy bringing her
closer to the edge.



“If you’d sent out an Empire-wide notification, you’d already have him. I
thought there was something odd about the boy, but I’m curious what the
Directorate could want with him. He didn’t seem overly dangerous to warrant
a pair of peaceforcers pursuing him.”



“They want this kept quiet, Inspector,” grumbled Miyuki, having had similar
conversations with other Directorate personnel across more of Japan than
she cared to think about. “If you should happen to see him again, please
take him into custody and let the Directorate know.”



“Understood.” He gave the woman a bow. “Happy hunting.”



“JUST YOU WAIT, RYOGA HIBIKI!” Natsumi bellowed before getting into the
car. The inspector raised an eyebrow and watched as they drove off.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Mousse was jittery as he followed Perfume down to the dock area as the
morning sun arose on the China Sea. Seeing all that cold seawater made him
feel distinctly uncomfortable, and he hoped there was a nice, dry hold he
could hide in on the ship until their voyage was over. He had been lucky so
far, the two times he had changed since joining his companion had occurred
outside of Perfume’s sight. Finding water warm enough to revert him back to
human form had been done by stealing tea kettles.



Perfume noticed Mousse give an involuntary shiver and frowned. What was
with the idiot? He had been useful so far in their travels, but her
patience with him was thin. Shampoo was pulling ahead of her again, and now
she appeared to have snagged a strong male for her husband. What was even
worse, he was an intelligent boy, and the thought of her archrival winning
a male who combined brains and brawn irritated her greatly.



She had been doing some reading last night on the name of Ranma Saotome
after the Amazon Challenge match was concluded, looking up everything she
could find about him on a terminal in a dodgy datanet café that she felt
had charged her way too much. Some of the scientific journals she came
across had articles written by an ‘R. Saotome’ she had perused very
closely, picking her way through the mathematics and concepts the articles
discussed with some difficulty. If he was the same person, he was far too
good for an apish imbecile like Shampoo to have as her husband.



When they reached the appropriate dock, Perfume raised an eyebrow, gazing
at the boat parked there. It was a converted military vessel, a survivor of
the many wars that the Empire fought against other nations as it expanded
its grip upon the globe. That much she could tell just by looking at it.
But it was also rusted, pitted with salt water damage in places and looked
like it would fall apart if it achieved a speed faster than a rapid walk.
She was visibly unimpressed.



“<What a pile of junk,>” she muttered in Mandarin.



Ryo Saeba was fueling the boat with diesel as they approached, and he stood
up. “That’s the idea, cutie-pie,” he said in Japanese with a grin,
unoffended by her words. “What? You were expecting a cargo ship operating
out of Roanapur to be sleek lines and shiny? That’s a good way to get
picked up by the Empire. But a ship that looks like this slips by
unnoticed. Dutch and I have made a few special modifications to her as
well. She’ll get you where you need to go.”



He walked over to them and held out his hand. “The money?”



Perfume grumbled and handed over the advance portion of their payment.
Ryo’s eyes glittered with happiness at the sight of the gold in the small
bag. He put it away quickly.



“Aren’t you going to count it?” she asked.



Ryo shrugged. “I’ve got the whole trip for that. Now, you two kids head on
board, and we’ll get out of here.”



“Saeba-san?” Mousse asked, eyeing the seawater around the dock. “I’m not
fond of ocean travel. Do you have a dry area downstairs I could spend the
voyage in?”



Ryo nodded. “Sure thing, kid. But if you get seasick, try and aim it out a
porthole, okay? I don’t want to have to clean it up.”



Nodding, Mousse gingerly headed up the gangplank past him and into the
ship. Ryo grinned at Perfume. He watched her walk past him, her head held
high. His gaze dropped to her derriere when he was behind her, and his grin
grew larger.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



*** Earth +4.612, +4.509



Nodoka emerged from the Tendo household with a puzzled expression on her
face. Kasumi had been the only one home, the younger daughters away at
school. The girl had greeted her when she came in the gate, out sweeping
the walk at the time. After polite introductions were over,

Nodoka had asked her if she had seen Genma. The girl had given her an oddly
blank sort of stare, explaining that she didn’t know him.



What was going on? Where had Genma gone? With the difficulties Shampoo was
going through right now, he had picked a fine time to vanish.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



*** Earth 0.000, 0.000



A freshly-lit cigarette in his mouth, Soun Tendo examined information
gathered by his department on Ohtani Media Corporation, the zaibatsu that
owned Shampoo’s contract. There had been quite a lot of chatter from her
fandom after last night’s events. A great deal of speculation about Ranma
had begun floating around the datanet since then, but that wasn’t Soun’s
concern.



Someone had hired Golgo, the legendary assassin, to attack Ranma and make
it look like he lost against the girl. Even with his bloodstream filled
with a concoction of sedatives, the boy had retained enough fortitude and
quick wits to save Shampoo from Golgo’s falling body, the assassin killed
by an unnamed agent of the Mobius Institute, not that Soun would have been
overly troubled if the Chinese girl had died. He was far more concerned
with what he had seen the boy do in that fight, the shocking level of
competence he had shown.



It shouldn’t have been possible, but this version of Ranma had fought far
beyond Soun’s expectations. There was much more going on with the boy than
just an imprinting of knowledge on his nervous system and a few months of
training at the Imperial Academy. Not even this Ranma’s genetic
enhancements could replace the conditioning that other world’s version of
the boy had.



Somehow, in some way, this boy was a martial artist on a level he just
should not be able to perform at. He had defeated the girl by a narrow
margin, possibly made even narrower than it would have been by the
concoction found in his system. There was also the matter of the boy’s use
of the Sweet Chestnut Fist. The Ranma of Soun’s old world did not know such
an attack, and the speed it demonstrated was astonishing. Fans of the
Amazon had slowed down the video to a crawl and counted two hundred and
forty-two punches thrown into their idol in the space of a few seconds.



The leadership of Ohtani was collectively livid over the matter of Golgo’s
involvement, but they were also speculating on how they could capitalize on
the Amazon’s initial loss to Ranma and the scheduled rematch in a week to
clear any shadow from his victory over her. The boy, as well as the
Anything-Goes School, had attained fame across the globe overnight, and
Shampoo’s popularity was growing even greater as well, their fight being
rebroadcast and their situation debated in offices and homes across the
Empire. Even those who didn’t follow the fights in the Arena were becoming
aware of the new couple.



The press had been given strict orders to give the Saotome family a few
days before anyone questioned them about Ranma, a command coming down from
the Ministry of Information. Since Nabiki had been with the boy last night,
Soun had fielded a few calls this morning asking for interviews with her.
He had replied to such inquiries with very brief statements, asking that
his family be left alone as well until the blackout period on interviews
was done. He pondered how he was going to deal with the fallout Genma’s
stunt with the boy was causing. Things had not turned out as he had
expected.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



While sitting at her desk as lunch began, Ukyo had a small mob of people
surrounding her desk. Since she was known to be Ranma’s friend, everyone
wanted to know more about what was going on with him. They also wanted to
know how she felt about his match against Shampoo.



How did she feel? She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. While she admired
Shampoo very much as a fighter in the Arena (especially her ability to
combine being both a warrior and a desirable woman), she wasn’t sure she
liked the idea of sharing Ranma with another girl. She was already having
enough stress dealing with the likes of the Iron Bitch of the Imperial
Academy, Nabiki Tendo, and the soft, pampered floozy in the next classroom,
Kodachi Kuno.



On the other hand, Ranma’s engagement to Shampoo, assuming it survived the
week, might give her an ally she could then use against those two. Since
she and the Amazon would be his only official fiancées under Imperial law,
they could stand together and drive off all the other girls who sought
after him. It seemed a relatively small price to pay, and maybe she and
Shampoo could even become friends over time. The more she looked at it that
way, the better it sounded to her.



Tsubasa was one of those in the crowd surrounding the ninja, the young Goju
grateful for a chance to get closer to the Kuonji girl. Elbowing her way to
the front, currently shapeshifted to female form as she always was for
school, she stood near Ukyo and hoped to be noticed. As far as she was
concerned, Ranma could stay locked away in the Arena forever.



In the back of the class, Hikaru Gosunkugi looked more haggard than he ever
had before, although he was eating better lately thanks to Frost’s efforts.
He had seen hell ever since the Amazon sorceress and Minami had moved in
with him and began fighting over him. The thought that Saotome could
experience an even worse fate was somewhat gratifying to him. With the
three girls currently engaged to Ranma, something he had learned through
Minami’s visits in secret to the Ranma Saotome Fan Club headquartered in
the basement, adding a fourth girl like Shampoo would make his own trials
seem mild in comparison.



He sincerely hoped they all moved in with him together. That would be a far
worse punishment for Ranma than anything he could ever come up with. Girls
were scary up close. He had never realized before how very scary they could
be.



Next to him, Ghost Sweeper Minami had recently acquired an eyelid twitch
whenever the words ‘Amazon’ or ‘Joketsuzoku’ were ever mentioned in her
presence, so talk about Shampoo was giving her minor fits. At the
terror-filled request of Hikaru’s mother earlier in the week, special
collars had been fitted on both girls, limiting their magical abilities
until they could get used to each other, or at least ceased trying to blow
each other up. If they were needed to deal with something supernatural
menacing the Empire, the collars could be rendered inert by those with the
proper spell keys, such as Ayaka Kisaragi or other select senior Mobius
Institute agents.



Since they couldn’t cast attack spells at each other to settle their
differences, another form of conflict resolution had been occurring between
the two...



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Minami yelped with pain beneath her as Frost twisted the young Ghost
Sweeper’s arm up higher on her back, straddling the redhead and pinning her
to the floor with her weight. Both girls had black eyes and other bruises
on their faces and bodies, each of them had their clothing all askew and
their hair a mess. The Chinese girl was seriously regretting that she knew
only the very basics of Joketsuzoku Kung Fu. Luckily, Minami was about as
bad at barehanded fighting as she was, having neglected all such training
offered at the Institute and the Academy.



“I get to sleep in Hikaru-kun’s room tonight,” Frost growled, her eyes
glinting like frozen chips of hydrogen, muscling the other girl’s arm up a
little higher while Minami yelped some more and spat out numerous
invectives that would have shocked the redhead’s mother. Spending time
around her Airen and the other girl had been stirring her emotions more
than they had ever been aroused before. “Yield.”



“I give! I give!” Minami slapped the ground with her free hand and ceased
her struggles. “You can sleep in his room tonight!”



Gosunkugi sat at the main table, terror filling his being at the sheer
ferocity both girls kept demonstrating against each other in their desires
to be with him, wondering what terrible sin he had committed in this life
or a previous one to be cast into this hell. Across from him, his mother
had a slight smile on her face as she sipped nonchalantly at her tea.



Of course, not every battle went Frost’s way...



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



“Let go of my hair.” Frost gripped Minami’s hand and tried to pry the other
girl’s fingers loose from their hold on her pale tresses. Unable to do so,
she changed tactics, took a firm hold of her foe’s hair and began pulling
on it hard. The redhead yelped with pain, snarled out some truly colorful
invectives and then growled with rage.



“I’m going out tonight with Hikaru-kun, and you’re not stopping me,” Minami
snarled. During their struggle, the Ghost Sweeper managed to push the other
girl up against the wall and then slammed Frost’s head back into it. When
that didn’t produce an immediate result, she did it again even harder,
leaving a skull-shaped dent in the thick plaster and momentarily stunning
the Chinese sorceress.



Quickly balling her left hand into a fist, Minami slugged Frost in the jaw
as hard as she could. Letting go of her grip on the other girl’s hair, she
followed it up with another punch across the cheek with her right. Even as
the Chinese girl’s eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped to the
ground unconscious, the Ghost Sweeper felt pain surge from her sore
knuckles. How did those martial artist jock types do this sort of thing
without breaking their hands?



Outside the closed door to his bedroom, Gosunkugi listened to the sudden
silence in dread and hoped one girl had not just killed the other. Every
night since the two of them arrived it had been like this, the pair
brawling inexpertly with each other. He had been forbidden by both girls
from interfering in their disagreements after his first timid attempt to do
so. His mother was calmly drinking tea at the main table, but her
expression was somber.



After several minutes of ominous sounds and the even more ominous
occasional silences coming from the bedroom, Minami finally opened the door
and came out smiling. She had fixed her hair and makeup as best she could
for her movie date with him. Behind her, Frost was lying on a futon, having
been dragged to it by Minami and deposited there, still unconscious.



“Shall we go, Hikaru-kun?” Minami asked, offering him her arm. Seeing his
look of concern for Frost, she frowned. “Don’t worry about her. I cast a
healing spell on Robot Girl. She’ll be fine by morning.”



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Minami twitched some more at talk of Shampoo in the classroom. The boys in
class were envious of Ranma’s good fortune, snaring a hot girl like the
Amazon. The female cadets wondered why he would even want a foreign girl
when he now had plenty of female fans at the Academy.



The Ghost Sweeper realized she needed to become a better fighter to deal
with the Chinese sorceress. She hoped her friend Yohko Mano would be able
to help her. While Frost wasn’t a very good fighter, Minami knew she was
even less so without her magic, and there was no way she was going to let
that continue. The Chinese girl presented a clear and present danger to her
relationship with Hikaru-kun, much more so than his previous long-distance
adoration of Akane ever had.



Ukyo noticed one of the quieter girls in class still standing near her desk
after the crowd had drifted away to start eating their lunch. She turned to
face Tsubasa.



“K-Kuonji-san,” the young Goju squeaked out nervously and bowed. “I-I’m
Tsubasa Kurenai.”



“Hello, Kurenai-san,” Ukyo replied with a forced smile. “It’s nice to meet
you. Did you have a question for me about Ranma?”



Tsubasa wasn’t sure why she was feeling so nervous, wondering if it was
because of her female form’s hormones or something. When a Goju shifted
shapes like this, they actually changed to a new form all the way down to
the cellular level. “I-I know you and Saotome-san eat lunch together a lot,
and I wondered if- if- uhh- youmightlikecompany?”



Ukyo blinked. This was the first girl who had expressed an interest in
being friends since her fight with Ryoga had taken place, the rest
generally avoiding the ‘cross-dressing freak’ in their midst, as she had
heard whispered about her in the halls. A few girls in the school, and also
a couple of boys, had revealed they would like to be ‘special friends’ with
her, now that everyone knew she was really a girl and just cross-dressed as
a boy. Having a normal girl as a friend would be nice after dealing with
all that, since her cousin Ranko wasn’t around very much. Maybe Tsubasa
could also help her learn how to be a girl, to help her win Ranma’s heart.



“Thank you, Kurenai-san,” she said with a more genuine smile, finding she
liked the shy girl. “I accept.”



Tsubasa bowed several times to Ukyo, feeling happy inside.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Cologne and Cherry sat at the main table as Nodoka served tea and a light
lunch of noodles and cooked vegetable to everyone. The elderly Amazon eyed
him with more than a little bit of irritation as he slurped his noodles and
drank tea. Subtle hints that he should leave and let the two women talk in
private had been ignored.



“It’s so nice to meet with someone of Shampoo’s family so quickly to settle
the details,” Nodoka said with a smile as she settled at her usual place at
the table, eating daintily.



“Details?” Cologne inquired, a little surprised at the statement.



“Why, for the wedding, of course,” Nodoka replied with a smile. “While I
was surprised at Ranma taking the initiative like this, especially with a
foreign girl, it’s nice that he’s finally embracing the idea of finding a
wife.”



Cherry was sipping his tea calmly at that moment, pausing to raise an
eyebrow.



“Uh, yes,” said Cologne, nodding as she felt herself relax at the ease the
boy’s mother had with the news. She began to eat as well, enjoying the
taste of the food. “The boy does seem to be an excellent match for Shampoo.
He’s a strong warrior.”



“He’s very manly,” Nodoka agreed, sipping her tea. “I’m sure he will have
many strong and attractive children with Shampoo. She’s quite beautiful and
an excellent fighter.” The girl reminded her quite a bit of herself at that
age, when she thought about it. “I just hope she gets along all right with
his other fiancées.”



Cherry raised his other eyebrow to join the first and paused briefly a
second time as he quaffed his tea.



“Other fiancées?” Cologne asked after swallowing noodles. “I was only aware
of Nabiki Tendo making such a claim upon the boy.”



“I’m afraid it’s all my foolish husband’s fault,” said Nodoka with a slight
grimace. “He signed engagement contracts with several fathers. The three
girls now involved are Nabiki Tendo, Kodachi Kuno and Ukyo Kuonji. Shampoo
would be the fourth fiancée. It’s quite a complicated situation.”



“You don’t approve of there being so many?” Cologne managed to keep her
hope that this was so out of her voice, since the other woman seemed so
favorably inclined towards Shampoo wedding the boy. She sipped some more of
her tea, finding it to be quite flavorful.



Cherry continued to eat, not contributing a word to the conversation.



“Not at all,” said Nodoka, shaking her head. “I welcome grandchildren, and
the Empire allows for multiple wives. I only wish Genma had not made these
arrangements behind my back. Assuming I let all of them stand, the question
then becomes who will be the First Wife.”



“I doubt Shampoo will settle for anything less than that.” Cologne ate some
more noodles, contemplating the matter and what little she knew of Japanese
marriage customs. She knew that the First Wife was considered the
preeminent spouse and the one in charge in the husband’s absence, and her
children were first in line in matters of inheritance.



“I fear the other girls feel the same,” said Nodoka. “They are all very
spirited sorts, hence my dilemma as Ranma’s mother. Do the Joketsuzoku ever
have such problems?”



“There is always a shortage of strong men.” Cologne sipped briefly from her
teacup. “In some cases, the women interested in a man agree to share him. I
know of a few such arrangements. They’ve had varying degrees of success.”
She did not mention that one attempt had ended in a great deal of bloodshed
and violence. It was far more common for women who were rivals over a man
to battle each other until one could no longer continue fighting and
sometimes not even that would end it.



“So there’s a possibility it could work out.” Nodoka looked hopefully at
Cologne. It would be nice to have girls in the house to help out with
chores. While she loved her son dearly, sometimes she wished she had a
daughter to pass on her homemaking skills to. She caressed her belly
briefly, wondering if the child growing within would be a girl. She hoped
so.



“Well, yes,” Cologne said thoughtfully. “But Shampoo’s situation is
different from other women in our village who are involved in such an
arrangement. Assuming the boy wins against her a second time to seal his
claim, their engagement will then be enforced by the treaty the Empire and
Joketsuzoku signed well over a century ago. The three girls you mentioned
are engaged to the boy under Imperial contract law, and those agreements
can be broken for various reasons. But only Shampoo can rescind the Kiss of
Marriage once it involves an Imperial Citizen.”



“So her claim is already superior under Imperial law.” Nodoka nodded in
understanding. She wondered if the girl would be moving in. She would, of
course, be sharing Ranma’s room, so space should not be an issue.



“Yes.” Cologne extended a hand holding her teacup and Nodoka refilled it.
“Perhaps one or more of the other girls will choose to drop out.”



The two women considered that as they sipped tea together and then both
chuckled. Cherry was helping himself to another serving of noodles and
cooked vegetables.



“No, I honestly don’t think it will be that easy,” said Cologne with a
smile, accepting more tea as Nodoka poured. She pondered things as she
sipped her drink and accepted an offer of cake for dessert. She glanced at
the mysterious monk, but he was quietly enjoying his meal and tea.



The elderly Amazon found the situation with Shampoo to be troublesome but
not without its benefits. Having rivals for the boy’s attention, assuming
they were all strong fighters like the Tendo girl, would help keep
Shampoo’s skills sharp after she was finished with her Arena career, her
abilities hopefully winning citizenship for the tribe at the end and
empowering the Joketsuzoku to a far more prominent place in the Empire.
Having powerful rivals would also give the girl motivation to take her
training to even more advanced levels than she had so far.



She then considered Ranma. The boy was undeniably strong as a fighter, and
she welcomed the thought of his genes adding to the strength of her family.
Her great-granddaughter had found a good one in him. As far as the matter
of his rather disrespectful attitude towards her went, while she doubted he
would ever be made properly deferential to the superior gender, hopefully
he could at least be taught somewhat better manners. Until that time, she
would do her best to overlook his rudeness.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Nabiki stripped off her sweat-soaked, Chinese-style shirt and tossed it
into her locker irritably, where it landed with a damp thud. The fight she
had with Ryoko this morning had left her more injured than she had realized
and sparring while so weakened had been stupid of her. Kodachi had been
able to press her harder during training today than she ever had before and
then things got worse when the coach left them alone for a few minutes.



The Kuno girl had been steadily improving her abilities as a fighter and
gradually closing the gap between them, which was irritating on its own.
Even though she was still a bit faster than Kodachi thanks to the
Amaguriken training, she was discovering limiters within herself, ones
imposed by her physical conditioning being less than her analog’s. The
sizable advantage she had once had in their relative fighting ability due
to her childhood training with her mother and the download of the
Anything-Goes School was gradually dwindling.



Both of them had already been feeling frustrated over what was now
happening with Ranma, and things had finally verged into an actual fight
between them towards the end, the two of them taking it out on each other.
Thinking about it more calmly now, she didn’t blame Kodachi and might even
owe her an apology, since she had been the first to lose control and thrown
a punch at full power. She dabbed a bit gingerly at her nose with a towel,
crimson staining it when she laid it down. Thankfully, it wasn’t broken,
but it ached quite a lot.



She grimaced when more pain flared up within her, this time from her
bruised ribs. During the ensuing battle after that first blow had been
thrown, Kodachi had managed to drive a solid hit into the most injured part
of her ribcage, a souvenir from the morning fight with Ryoko, and the
ensuing explosion of pain had stunned her at a critical moment. The next
thing she knew, the other girl laid into her solidly, exploiting the
opportunity and landing damaging blows into her body and face. Before she
could rally, she was down on the ground, sitting on her butt, her nose
streaming blood. The coach, just then returned from his brief errand, was
struggling to pull the young noblewoman back.



It wasn’t a loss in Nabiki’s mind. If the instructor hadn’t stopped them,
she was sure she would have gotten back up and reminded the debutante who
was truly the better fighter between them. The other girl had only gotten
lucky this time. She would make sure it didn’t happen again, working harder
on her training than ever before.



Another troubling thing had been the look of triumph on Kodachi’s face,
followed by the other girl actually laughing at her, her wrist held up in
front of her mouth in a mockery of demureness. It was a bitchy sort of
laugh, one trailing behind her as the noblewoman had turned and headed to
the locker room. Nabiki heard the debutante laugh again in the shower. The
sound of it set her teeth on edge and made her want to march in there and
pound on the other girl.



“OH HOHOHOHOHOHO!”



Kodachi relished the feel of the Black Rose’s laugh as it erupted from her
throat one final time. The delinquent girl’s personality was still
ascendant behind her eyes, savoring one last time the memory of the
wonderful beating she had just given one of her nemeses. Unfortunately, she
had not been able to finish her task properly, the coach pulling her away
from Nabiki before she could knock her unconscious. Even so, despite the
pains from her numerous bruises and other injuries, her mood was much
improved from earlier today after her achievements. She turned her face
upwards into the hot spray, the water flowing through her hair and down her
body, rinsing her clean of soap, sweat and blood.



Her ongoing private training with her mother had been bearing fruit,
gradually closing the gap between her and Nabiki, and, while she hadn’t
quite won, today she had finally demonstrated to the other girl that
Kodachi Kuno was a foe to be feared and respected. After the coach had left
to take a phone call, their combined frustrations over Ranma’s situation
with Shampoo had erupted into violence when the Tendo girl hit her in the
face full-force during sparring. Things had quickly escalated from there,
exploding into savage battle between them and the Black Rose summoning
herself forth fully from within her. That aspect of her enjoyed the
ferocious, visceral thrills of fighting and had savored the ensuing brutal
struggle with Nabiki.



The delinquent girl’s personality still retained control of Kodachi’s
gestalt for the moment, the others within her whispering quietly in the
background of her mind as she turned around and remained standing under the
spray. The hot water sluiced down her bruised frame, her wet hair matted
and stringy, some of it falling forward to partially cover her face. Her
gaze grew solemn as she contemplated her situation.



Dancing with Ranma at Ohtori last weekend and on their date during the
middle of the week had shifted her desires perceptibly, increasing his
favor with her over that of Miki Kaoru, her childhood friend. He was indeed
a worthy mate for the Black Rose, remembering how sensuously delightful it
had felt to move her body rhythmically with his to the music during their
time dancing together. Thinking about her fiancé, she began running her
hands slowly down her body, caressing herself, her sensual sighs and
occasional gasps of pleasure drowned out by the thundering spray of the
shower, imagining the raptures they would give each other someday. For a
brief time, she let herself be consumed by an erotic fantasy of them
together.



Nabiki entered the shower area as Kodachi was exiting it, and the two girls
eyed each other warily. The young noblewoman broke the silence first, back
to her more normal self now. The Black Rose was quiescent once again within
her, her desires temporarily sated.



“Tendo-san,” she said simply with a slight nod of her head, deciding an
apology was an unnecessary thing between two warriors like themselves. An
occurrence like their fight earlier was a hazard when passions were roused
during training, and both of them were partly at fault. She then strode
past, head held high.



“Kuno-san,” Nabiki murmured, her hand tightening into a fist at her side.
She had considered offering an apology, but the other girl had not even
mentioned the matter. With a shrug, she continued into the shower area.



As Nabiki showered, she mused about the situation with Ranma. Why was it so
difficult to be more open with him about her feelings? He had fought to
protect her from Kinnosuke Kashuoh, and while he hadn’t won and the thought
of someone trying to protect her when she was perfectly capable of taking
care of herself was extremely annoying, she secretly appreciated the
effort. She had also really enjoyed dancing with him at Ohtori, and she had
been really happy to go on a date with him to see the Arena fights.



Then their date had been ruined, and by Shampoo of all people. Fists formed
at her sides as she stood under the shower spray and remembered the
argument with the other girl last night. In this world, she and the Amazon
bimbo seemed destined to go to war over Ranma, like she was already
experiencing with a certain cross-dressing chef and a spoiled, possibly
even mentally unbalanced, debutante. And there were also the likes of
Utena, Ryoko and maybe even that new girl she had fought with, Ranko
Kuonji, all lusting for their chance at him, if given even half an
opportunity. Each of those girls wanted to take him away from her and make
him their own, and that was just not going to happen.



Her memories from that other world proved to her that she had been
absolutely right to get herself engaged to him instead of Akane. As much as
she cared about her sister, she just wasn’t strong enough to keep him in
the face of so much opposition, and Ranma would have had to keep protecting
her from all these other girls after him. Besides, in this world Akane had
started out as a bully towards him, beating him up more than once, and
there was no way Ranma could ever come to like her after that. He would
never see how loyal she was to her friends, and the softer side she only
let show to other girls.



Nabiki knew that she and Ranma were meant to be together. Every trial they
had faced so far since his first experience with the resonator had only
seemed to bring them together, ever so slowly. After all, in this world,
nobody else was his equal but her. None of the other girls in his life
could honestly claim that. She and Ranma were both heirs to the
Anything-Goes School, both of them carrying within their minds the memories
of ten years of hellish training at Genma’s hands. Knowing that, she would
not let any other girl have him, and she would fight them all with
everything she had within her in order to keep him.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



In the afternoon, the rest of the morning after breakfast having been spent
settling into his new temporary quarters and resting a bit to let his
injuries heal some more, Ranma reluctantly took a long, hot shower, finally
washing off his body the accumulated sweat and dried blood from last
night’s fight with Shampoo. Unfortunately, doing so also washed off the
remaining protection of the waterproof soap, but he decided to take the
risk. Yumi had promised to bring him a bar today, so he only had to chance
it for a short time.



Ohtani Media Corporation had arranged for him to use an apartment on the
upper levels of the Arena’s dormitories, where the top fighters lived. He
wasn’t on Shampoo’s floor though. Hers was on the floor directly above his.



She had been called away to speak with someone from Ohtani right after
breakfast, so Running Deer had taken it upon herself to guide him around a
bit. They chatted a bit, mostly making small talk. When the tour was over,
she handed him off to someone he hadn’t expected to see in this life: Mai
Shiranui.



It turned out the older girl had been assigned as his liaison, to help him
settle into life in the Arena during his brief tenure. She had been dressed
professionally in a finely-tailored suit with a knee-length skirt, and she
had worn her hair up. She also wore glasses, which he had found
unexpectedly attractive. She was shy and reserved, quite different from the
much more carefree woman he remembered from his action movie analog’s life.
He must have drawn upon that analog’s way with women without realizing it,
because it wasn’t long before they were chatting like old friends.



After showing him to his apartment, she had given him her business card and
then surprised him by writing her personal cellphone number on the back,
telling him he could call her anytime for anything he might need. She had
then bowed deeply to him, one which he immediately returned at an equal
level. She smiled at him and departed, leaving him feeling happy to have
made a new friend.



Toweling his hair dry, he was pleased to discover a small wardrobe hanging
in the closet, all in his size, courtesy of Ohtani. He picked out a pair of
black gi pants and a red, Chinese-style shirt, amused that they were there
among the selections available. There was even a pair of shoes like his
martial artist analogs wore.



After closing the door, locking it and then pocketing the key, he headed
down the hallway to the elevator, planning to have some lunch. He needed to
begin preparing for his rematch, but he would take it easy today. While
training, he would also need to keep an eye out for cold water until he was
able to refresh his protection with more waterproof soap. Weighing the
odds, he was fairly certain he would be fine for a few hours.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



“Greetings, my fellow Lords! I am honored that you have accepted my
invitation. I welcome you to my home.”



With the sort of smile practiced by many politicians around the world, one
that did not quite reach his eyes, Kinnosuke Kashuoh stood up and threw his
arms wide in greeting, gazing at his newly arrived guests. Being escorted
into the sumptuously decorated dining hall of Kashuoh Manor by Lynx and
Tiger, the two young catgirls both dressed in formal kimonos, were Tatewaki
Kuno and Mikado Sanzenin. Both teens were still dressed in their school
uniforms. The Kashuoh heir had changed clothes to more traditional garb
only minutes before their arrival. Panther stood behind him attentively,
also dressed in a kimono.



“It is a pleasure to be invited,” replied Mikado in his best diplomatic
tones, smiling back with the same sort of smile Kinnosuke had. He eyed the
fine crystal pitchers of water and various fruit juices on the table for a
few moments before his gaze shifted to study the rest of the room. Arrayed
around the chamber were numerous liliths, all dressed as maids, each one
expectantly awaiting an order to fulfill, their eyes downcast and demure.
He took a moment to appreciate the sheer quantity of feminine beauty
present in the room. He allowed Lynx to guide him to a seat, where she
stood next to it attentively. He took a moment to admire the clean lines of
her beautiful face before sitting down and returning his attention to his
host.



“Aye, Kashuoh-san, ‘tis an honor for us as well,” said Kuno grandly. He let
himself be guided to the table by Tiger, smiling at the catgirl regally as
he sat.



“Before we discuss the reason I have asked you here, I sincerely hope you
will enjoy the repast I have had prepared for you, Kuno-san, Sanzenin-san.”
Kinnosuke snapped his fingers and lilith maids began bringing food to the
table.



Lynx, Tiger and Panther took charge of things at that point, serving each
young man seated at the table. Lynx and Tiger did their best to make their
assigned guest comfortable, even flirting gently as they served food and
waited on them. Lynx endured numerous, lingering fondles by Mikado, but her
smile remained warm and her tone pleasant. Panther faithfully attended to
Kinnosuke, lovingly serving him.



As they ate, their conversation was cordial with each other, but nothing
significant was spoken until near the end of the meal. As the catgirls
finished taking away the final dishes, Kinnosuke stood up. Mikado and Kuno
looked at him.



“My friends, now that our meal is concluded, let me offer a toast to us all
as future Lords of the Empire. May each of us serve the Emperor with
distinction, nobility and honor throughout our lives.” He lifted his glass,
a gesture repeated by the other two. He then sat down and smiled at them.



“Well said!” Kuno exclaimed.



Kinnosuke became more somber. “Now that the pleasantries are done, I wish
to speak to you about a serious matter that I understand concerns all three
of us.”



Mikado arched an eyebrow, curious.



“Please, speak on, Kashuoh-san,” said Kuno, relaxing in his chair. “What
trouble is it that you mean?” He took a drink, feeling mellow from all the
good food. He was also looking forward to another date with Juri Arisugawa
that night.



“The matter of Ranma Saotome, of course,” said the Kashuoh heir even more
grimly.



Kuno sprayed his drink in Mikado’s general direction, causing the other boy
to duck under the table with impressive reflexes. Tiger handed Kuno a
napkin to wipe his face. The pleasant mood he had been experiencing
abruptly vanished at the mention of the Saotome boy’s name. Memories of his
innocent and demure little sister being pinned to the floor and about to be
ravished by the cad assailed him, and he struggled with difficulty to
maintain his composure.



Returning to his seat, Mikado gave a brief look of annoyance to his friend
before turning his gaze to Kinnosuke. He resumed a more placid appearance.
“You have been annoyed by him as well, Kashuoh-san?”



“I have indeed, Sanzenin-san. So, I wished to discuss how we might work
together against him. I believe we have a common cause, and by acting
collectively we can each achieve our goals more efficiently. Do I have your
interest, my fellow lords?”



Mikado and Kuno exchanged a look and then Mikado turned back to their host
and said, “I believe you have our complete attention, Kashuoh-san. Tell us
more of your thoughts on this matter.”



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



The Arena Director was taking care of some paperwork when Mai Shiranui, his
secretary, buzzed him on the intercom. He sighed and then grimaced, his
injuries suddenly paining him, reminding him he needed to take more
painkillers. His finger stabbed at the intercom button.



“Yes?” he asked in an irritated tone.



“Sorry to bother you, sir,” said Mai’s slightly nervous voice. “I thought
you should know that you have a visitor.”



“Who?” His tone was puzzled.



“Jun Fan Lee is here, sir,” she said in a quiet but urgent tone. “He has
asked to see you. What should I do?”



The Arena Director blinked. Today was proving to be a surprising day. First
there had been his encounter with Colt Remington, and now this. He had
heard many stories about Jun Fan Lee, of course, but he had not expected to
ever actually meet the man. Even after so many years away from it, he was
still a legend when it came to the Arena, the one and only Dragon. He
paused before speaking. “Give me a minute and then send Lee-san in.”



After swallowing some painkillers and washing them down with water, he
raised the room lights back up to normal levels, wincing a bit as his still
bloodshot eyes struggled to adjust to the brighter light. He had to be
prepared to make use of this event as an opportunity. Sitting back in his
chair, he tried to remember what he knew of the man.



Jun Fan Lee was born in China’s Kowloon Prefecture decades ago, in the Year
of the Dragon and the Hour of the Dragon. Trained in Kung Fu and other
style, he had become the star of the famed Six Pack, the group of martial
artists who had dominated the Arena scene at the time. During the Emperor’s
Tournament that year, he became a legend. Several of his records from his
career as a fighter, such as the fastest recorded knockout, still stood to
this day.



He had used his fame in the Arena as a stepping stone to a film career.
Those early films had been very cheaply made, but audiences around the
Empire had thrilled to his screen exploits. Those had led to larger and
larger productions over the years. Today, Lee was an international
superstar known across the globe, owning his own movie production company,
the cornerstone of a vibrant and expanding business empire, and he earned
many billions of yen annually. It was quite a stunning achievement for a
man who had once fought in the lowliest dog pits of the Empire for the
amusement of peasants.



Now, this legendary man was about to enter his office in the next few
moments. The Arena Director was determined to find a way to profit off of
this event. Jun Fan Lee had not set foot on any Arena premises in years.



The doors opened, and in walked Lee, dressed in a tailored silk suit. His
hair was casual and had the wind-blown look that his female fans adored. He
had never married, and the tabloids often paired him up with different
young starlets, frequently speculating on his romantic life. He was slender
and not very tall, but he had an unquestionable amount of presence.



“Lee-san,” the Arena Director said as he bowed respectfully. “This is a
singular honor for me. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”



Lee bowed slightly in return, as a superior would to a social inferior,
noting the man’s mummy-like, bandaged appearance but choosing not to
comment on it. “I have come in regards to my disciple, Ranma Saotome,” he
stated simply.



“I see.” The Arena Director sat back in his chair.



“I watched his fight with Shampoo,” said Lee as he brought his hands
together. He tapped the index fingers of each hand against their opposite
as he studied the man in front of him for any reactions. He could sense the
present Arena Director was somewhat of a coward, but that would make things
easier. Lee smiled very slightly as he noted the signs of tension in the
man when he mentioned Ranma and Shampoo. They were subtle, but he could
read them as easily as if the other man had shouted at him.



“Quite an exciting fight, wasn’t it?” asked the Arena Director with a
forced smile. He leaned back, his bloodshot eyes fixated on the other man,
his mind yammering at him. He knows something! He knows I hired Golgo!



“I’ve come to prepare him for his rematch,” noted Lee casually, still
tapping his fingers together. “I trust that won’t be a problem?”



“Of course not, Lee-san! It will be an honor!” He debated asking if he
could film Ranma’s training. Such a video would be worth a great deal of
yen to the media in their current feeding frenzy over the boy.



Lee smiled and stood. “Thank you for taking the time to see me. I’ll be
back later to pick up my security badge.”



The Arena Director bowed and then watched worriedly as Lee left.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Opening the door, Frost was startled to see Cologne standing there. The
sorceress was currently alone in the apartment, her fiancé’s mother
visiting with some friends. Her fiancé and her rival for him were at
school. She had been enjoying the quiet, studying a cookbook at the main
table and getting ideas for things to make her fiancé, when the doorbell
rang.



“<Matriarch Ku Lon,>” she said with a startled look, speaking Mandarin.
“<It is a surprise to see you.>”



“<Hello, Frost,>” Cologne greeted her. “<I was in the area and thought I’d
check up on you. I was informed by your guardian that you have found
yourself a man to marry, a young sorcerer of great power.>”



Cologne was shocked when Frost suddenly smiled at her and nodded. Then she
smiled back. Whoever the boy was, she was grateful to him for being able to
break the girl out of her shell. After the horrifying deaths of her
parents, the girl had been closed off emotionally since that time. This was
the first time the elderly Amazon could remember the girl ever smiling in
years.



“<Please come in, Matriarch Ku Lon,>” said Frost eagerly. “<I shall tell
you all about him. You arrive at a most opportune time.>” Her expression
turned more somber. “<I could use your assistance and sage advice in
dealing with a local girl, an annoying pest troubling my relationship with
my intended husband.>”



“<There seems to be a bit of that going around,>” Cologne murmured softly,
coming into the apartment.



“<Did you say something, Matriarch?>” Frost looked at her.



“<Nothing,>” Cologne quickly declared, more loudly.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Shampoo entered the gymnasium level dressed in a worn T-shirt and frayed
cutoff shorts. It was one of her older outfits, left over from her days
with her old trainer during the initial phase of her career as an Arena
fighter, when she was still fighting in the dog pits of the Empire. They
were snug but still comfortable, and she had worn them on purpose to tease
Ranma a bit. A pair of soft-soled shoes shod her feet.



She went to her usual area of the large central mat, and she began to do a
slow stretching routine. She purposely didn’t look at Ranma, but she saw
where he was, noting he was doing a complex kata. Several male fighters
paused in what they were doing to watch the lithe Amazon flex and stretch,
enjoying the sight of her in such tight clothing. The majority of the
female fighters made a large pretense of ignoring her. She either didn’t
notice or didn’t appear to care what her fellow fighters thought of her.
She focused on limbering up every muscle for her usual afternoon training,
feeling twinges from injuries Ranma had given her that hadn’t yet fully
healed.



Her talk with the representative from Ohtani that morning had been
interesting. After some initial dismay over Golgo’s involvement, that
someone had gone to such lengths to fix the fight, they had come to a
consensus that the situation with Ranma was the type of publicity that
money could not buy. There were indications that the rematch fight was
going to be almost as big of a draw as the finals of the Emperor’s
Tournament, upwards of six hundred million viewers or even higher, and that
meant a lot of money was at stake.



After finishing her stretches, she stood back up with a graceful move. The
bruises from her fight with Ranma the previous day were already beginning
to fade, and she felt limber enough for a light workout. She walked over to
one of the heavy bags hanging from thick chains, and she began to do
kicking practice. Each kick was textbook perfect, and the bag jolted with
each strike. After a hundred strikes, she shifted her feet and did another
hundred with the other leg.



A few hundred kicks later, Shampoo shifted to punches. It felt good to
unload against an unfeeling object. She put more and more energy behind her
punches. Each fist strike landed in precisely the same point. After a few
hundred strikes with each hand, she paused to wipe some sweat from her brow.



“If you’re done abusing that bag, we could do some sparring,” she heard
Running Deer say behind her.



Shampoo turned around, a smile on her face. “Okay.”



Ranma worked his body to gauge his health, finding himself hindered a
little bit by his remaining injuries. The pain forced him to move more
carefully. He closed his eyes and went through the motions of a kata. After
he had completed a cycle, he began a new one and added additional elements
to his movements, and the kata became more and more complex. It became
easier to move as his body loosened up.



Opening his eyes, Ranma saw Shampoo and Running Deer sparring on the other
side of the room. He studied the Amazon carefully, trying not to stare at
her chest bouncing within the confines of her tight T-shirt, or how very
snug her frayed shorts were, getting a feeling for her patterns of
movement. It wasn’t anything conscious on his part, and he chalked it up to
the fighting skills of his other selves. While her style had Joketsuzoku
Kung Fu as its core, she had additional maneuvers overlaid on top.



He could identify techniques from across Asia in her movements. Oddly, it
reminded him a bit of his own vast collection of them, and he was coming to
understand why she was so much more challenging an opponent than other
versions of him had come across. Those variants of Shampoo remained limited
to Joketsuzoku Kung Fu alone. While a powerful style, no single style could
match the benefit of being able to draw upon a multitude of techniques to
confound an opponent, and she seemed able to synthesize new maneuvers on
the fly.



He realized he had a unique perspective on her. On one hand, he had an
intellectual appreciation for the physics of her movements from his own
scientific background, idly calculating and visualizing force vectors as
she went. But he also had a wordless intuition taking place in the back of
his mind about how she was going to move at any given moment, an instant
before she actually made the movement. That would be useful in their next
fight.



Mina had been watching Ranma intently as he went through his katas. His
patterns had been easy to predict at first, but then she began to lose
track as he added more advanced movements, combining so many styles and
techniques it astonished her. In a straight fight, she suspected he would
be quite a challenge, possibly even better than her boyfriend, Tarou.



She began doing her own workout routine, loving the feel of her body moving
in the dance of combat. As she moved, she fantasized about some of the
glorious battles that she had enjoyed in the past, recalling the pleasures
of spilling blood and breaking bones in her foes. She shifted her practice
to freestyle movements and imagined herself fighting a phantom version of
Shampoo.



Taking a brief break in her exercises, she noticed that Ranma had paused.
She glanced over in the direction where he was looking and frowned. He was
watching the Amazon. She felt intense envy curdle her soul again when she
saw his face break out in a warm smile. What is it with that horrid Chinese
girl that every man finds her to be so damn attractive? I’m ten times the
woman that frigid ice princess is!



Shampoo took a break in her sparring with Running Deer when she became
aware of something different about Ranma when he started his next set of
exercises. What caught her attention was the faint nimbus of bluish light
that hovered on the edge of her perception around him. It wasn’t a full
power battle aura, but even at full power most people weren’t aware enough
to ever notice one. Shampoo had been taught the trick of seeing them when
she was a young child.



“Why are you smiling, Shampoo?” asked Running Deer. The Apache girl looked
over where her friend was looking. All she saw was Ranma doing some form of
unstructured kata. It was rather interesting to watch, but Shampoo was
oddly focused.



“Huh?” Shampoo replied after a moment. She looked at her friend with an
embarrassed smile. “Shampoo sorry. Shampoo saw something about Ranma.”



Running Deer smiled. “It was his butt. Right? I noticed it too. Kind of
cute, but it’s a little too tight for my tastes.”



The Amazon looked disconcerted. “That not what Shampoo looking at!”



Running Deer glanced back over at Ranma. He was finishing his kata. “I’m
surprised you two even had the strength to walk around today, after what
you did to each other last night,” she said in a more casual tone. “His
durability must be as good as yours.”



Shampoo nodded, but her thoughts were on what she had seen. Raising an aura
of chi was an advanced ability, drawn from the inner essence of a warrior.
It was the sign of a great fighter and could allow someone to do things
that most people would call impossible.



Ranma rested against a wall and drank some more water from the bottle in
his hand, being very careful to not spill it on himself. He settled down
into a seated position and observed the other fighters training. He noticed
that Shampoo and Running Deer were both watching him. He smiled at them
before they turned their attentions away from him, but he saw Shampoo
briefly smile back at him.



He let his body recover for a few minutes. His eyes wandered about the
room, at last settling on Shampoo and Running Deer again. He took the
opportunity to observe their fighting styles some more. They seemed to be a
fairly even match, although he could tell the Amazon had the edge even in
her injured condition.



The Apache girl was an interesting contrast to Shampoo, using an oddly
eclectic mishmash of techniques built around a core of Wing Chun style Kung
Fu. She was more of a linear fighter, making use of her slightly longer
reach and larger size to good effect against the Amazon. Judging by the
sleek muscles in her bare arms and legs, a solid blow would hurt quite a
lot. From her appearance, Ranma was sure that the girl was from somewhere
in the American Prefectures. She had likely been taught how to fight by one
of the Buddhist missionaries there.



Shampoo was countering the other girl with more circular movements,
deflecting strikes around her body with skill. She had a smile on her face,
and she seemed to be enjoying the challenge. The outfit that she wore left
little to the imagination about her figure, and his gaze kept getting drawn
to her derriere in the cutoff shorts and the tight shirt she wore. He kept
expecting the T-shirt to rip at any moment. Shampoo wasn’t as leanly
muscular as the taller girl that she was sparring with, but the way that
her body moved would only be possible if she had powerful muscles
underneath her curvaceous form. She didn’t look much different from her
analogs on other worlds, but she was a little taller and more muscular.



After a few minutes spent watching them, he suddenly realized he needed to
pay a quick visit to the restroom. Tossing his empty water bottle into the
nearest trash receptacle, he made his way out of the gymnasium area. More
than one pair of eyes watched him leave.



“Time to welcome our new fighter properly,” said Tarou to some of his
nearby cronies, pausing in his workout. “You know, to make him feel like a
part of the group.”



The men around him chuckled, and the group headed out after the pigtailed
boy.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Ranma was washing his hands with warm water when the fire alarm suddenly
began ringing. Seconds later, the fire sprinklers suddenly activated,
drenching him with icy cold water. Glancing at herself in the mirror,
Ranma-chan just stood in the torrential spray, frowning.



“Terrific,” she muttered.



After a minute, the water suddenly shut off. Then the door to the restroom
banged open. Ranma-chan glanced around, not wanting to be caught in her
current state. Thinking quickly, she made a move.



“Come out, come out, little Impie boy,” crooned Tarou, coming into the
restroom with a few of his cronies. “It’s time for your initiation, so just
come out and take it like a man.”



After a brief time spent searching, the group was puzzled. Ranma was
nowhere to be found. The entire restroom was empty.



“Now where the hell did he go?” Tarou finally said out loud.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



A panel in the roof of the ladies restroom lifted up, and Ranma-chan peeked
downwards, checking that things were clear. Fortunately, the room was
empty. She lowered herself to the top of a stall, balancing with legs
spread apart, one foot on each of the metal walls, and then she quickly
replaced the panel before dropping down to the tile floor. Luckily, her
smaller form had been able to fit in the area above the ceiling panels,
where she had made her way away from her would-be assailants.



“That was close,” she murmured. She pulled off her shirt and began wringing
it out in one of the sinks. Then she did the same with her pants. With any
luck, the clothing would dry fairly quickly now that they weren’t sopping
wet. She just needed to find a little hot water, and all would be well.



She was just finishing with replacing her top when the door to the restroom
opened and in walked Shampoo, Running Deer and a few other female fighters.
In a flash, Ranma-chan was back up in the ceiling panels again. Grumbling
at the situation, she decided to search for another place to change back.
Exiting as a man from the ladies room was not something she wanted to have
to explain.



A short time later, Ranma-chan’s stomach rumbled as she was walking to the
residential elevators. She decided to make a quick stop to refuel at the
cafeteria. Luckily, no one checked IDs, the assumption being that if you
were here you belonged, so she should be able to grab some food and eat
quickly before heading to her room for a hot shower and clean clothes.



Relaxing at a table in her now semi-dry outfit, multiple steaming plates of
food in front of her, Ranma-chan was eating heartily. A few fighters
watched her in amazement. She was currently finishing her third plate of
food and still going strong.



A worn out Shampoo and somewhat less tired Running Deer came into the
cafeteria, deciding to eat dinner before heading upstairs to bathe and then
relax for the rest of the evening. The Amazon had been planning on inviting
Ranma over to watch a movie with them, but he had disappeared rather
mysteriously a while ago. She suspected that Tarou might have pulled a
stunt of some kind when the fire alarm had rung briefly, but the older boy
and his clique did not seem happy when she last saw them, which didn’t seem
to fit if they had done something malicious to Ranma.



As they moved through the line to get dinner, Shampoo was dismayed to see
that they were out of her favorite dessert. She grumbled under her breath.
First she had lost track of the pigtailed boy and now there was no
cheesecake for her to enjoy, and Saturday night was when they served it
with strawberries. What else could go wrong tonight?



It was at that point that she spied a familiar person seated at a table by
the wall. It was not actually someone she knew, not quite. However, that
face was in Ensign Shan’s memories. When she saw the girl eating a piece of
strawberry cheesecake, something seemed to snap within her.



Savoring her dessert after the full meal, Ranma-chan stuck the last forkful
of savory rich goodness into her mouth and sighed. She had not had such a
tasty cheesecake since she was in Germany for a physics symposium last
year. A shadow suddenly loomed over her and she felt a sense of ominous
menace.



Looking up, the pigtailed girl was startled to see a wrathful Shampoo
standing there glaring at her with narrowed eyes. “Uh, hi?”



“Pigtailed girl eat very last piece of strawberry cheesecake.” Shampoo
began cracking her knuckles slowly. A grim look was on her face. The sight
of that expression reminded Ranma-chan rather eerily of a similar scene
from another world, where her analog had been caught red-handed eating the
prize feast in the village of Joketsuzoku.



In a flash, Ranma-chan suddenly streaked for the door, leaving behind
several empty plates and an overturned chair.



“Shampoo kill!” was heard roared out behind her, followed quickly by the
sounds of a pursuing Amazon running hard after her. A thrown butter knife
suddenly embedded itself to the hilt into a wall, mere inches away from her
skull. That impelled new speed into the pigtailed girl’s feet the last few
feet to the door.



Mina Li, walking and chatting amiably with Shenhua and some of her other
cohorts, was suddenly knocked senseless when the door to the cafeteria
slammed hard right into her face as Ranma-chan came charging out as if all
the forces of Hell pursued her. She laid there stunned, a bruise already
beginning to purple her jaw and cheek.



“Sorry about that!” the pigtailed girl shouted back, not daring to stop or
even slow down. She spared a single glance behind her and gulped at the
terrifying sight of Shampoo still in pursuit, her eyes seeming to blaze
furiously with an inner light. She ran even faster to get away, dodging
past or leaping over people. “Oh man! I was just trying to get something to
eat. What did I do to deserve this?”



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Arriving in Kyoto as the sun was going down, an ashen-faced Perfume and a
solemn Mousse stepped off the gangplank of the Black Lagoon. Behind them, a
cheery Ryo Saeba waved at them, pocketing the rest of his fee. “Thanks for
the business, kids. Feel free to look us up the next time you’re ever back
our way.”



“I will never travel by boat anywhere again,” swore Perfume. Finally, the
world was no longer swaying.



Mousse nodded and adjusted his glasses. There was a slight smirk on his
face. “You don’t look so good.”



“I’ll be fine,” she grunted. Her stomach growled with sudden hunger, now
that her hours-long bout of nausea was fading. “Let’s get a room for the
night and take showers. You smell like engine grease, and I need to wash my
hair.”



A short time later, Perfume felt much better, toweling her hair dry and
wearing a clean set of clothes. She wasn’t tired, so she needed to find
something to do. Spotting a sign on the street below, she smiled. That was
just the thing to clear her head.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Ryoga was playing a game of Go against himself, relaxing and enjoying a
quiet moment. He was laying down pieces and contemplating the results when
a shadow suddenly fell across his table. It remained there.



“You’re blocking my light,” he grumbled, looking up. He blinked when he saw
an attractive Chinese girl standing there, a tasseled sword worn in a
scabbard slung on her back. She was leaning forward, her gaze intent on the
board. He felt a sudden tingling along his nerves and smelled a very
delicate perfume in the air, igniting a severe case of shyness within him.
“Uh,” he said dumbly.



Perfume studied the positioning of his pieces, fascinated at the complex
formations he had created. She was startled when she suddenly felt a
pleasant tingling along her nerves and an intense and sudden awareness of
Ryoga’s presence near her. She met his gaze, her pink hair hiding part of
her face. “Play with me,” she ordered him, sitting down. Her hair remained
hanging down and hiding part of her face, and she felt herself blush,
annoyed to feel so attracted to a boy she had just met, especially one in
worn travel clothes who looked like some kind of a vagabond.



“I was-” Ryoga began, but he stopped speaking at her fierce look. He looked
down and obediently began clearing the board. “Yes, Miss.”



Confident of her skills, Perfume volunteered to take black instead of
drawing for it and then they began playing. Her gaze was intent upon the
board, laying down pieces with a sharp clack each time. Opposite her, Ryoga
laid down his piece crisply right after she made a move; barely a moment
after her own piece hit the board.



Ryoga was puzzled by this strange girl, but it was nice to play against
someone who was closer to his own skill level than those he usually dueled
against. Her joseki (sequences of moves) was oddly archaic, but that only
added to his enjoyment of the game. Even so, the outcome was never in doubt
for him. He wondered what her name was.



Staring at the game board, Perfume was quite astonished at what she was
seeing. The outsider male was beating her at the game handily, as if she
was a mere novice or something. Only those of the matriarchs who played the
game in her village had ever defeated her so easily. Grimly, she continued
on, her pride refusing to let her just surrender.



When the count was made at the end, she had lost by a significant number of
stones, infuriating her. She glared at Ryoga. “What is your name?”



“Uh, I-I’m Ryoga,” he said shyly. “Ryoga Hibiki.” He felt guilty over
feeling attracted to the girl, ashamed of his fickleness. After all, he
already liked Ukyo, but he also liked Ryoko and Nabiki. What was he doing,
feeling this way about yet another girl? A man was supposed to be loyal to
one woman, not several. His mother had told him so.



She studied his physique, noting the broadness of his shoulders and the
calluses on his hands. She ignored the feelings he was arousing within her.
“Are you a martial artist?” she asked coolly.



“Yeah, I am,” he replied slowly, wondering where this was going.



“Then duel me, Ryoga Hibiki.” She reached over her shoulder and drew her
sword. Her expression was grim.



Shocked and not wanting to fight with a girl, he kicked the sword out of
her hand, where it flew up and lodged in the ceiling. He grabbed his pack
and umbrella and ran for the door. With any luck, he would be able to get
away from this crazy Chinese girl and avoid fighting her.



“FREEZE, HIBIKI!” came Natsumi’s shout. “DON’T YOU DARE MAKE US HAVE TO
CHASE YOU AGAIN!”



Whirling quickly, Ryoga’s umbrella unintentionally struck Perfume across
the face, the Chinese girl having come up behind him after retrieving her
sword. She was knocked out instantly by the blow. Her body flew off,
vanishing into the night. Before he had managed to take a step, four darts
struck him in the side and back.



“U-Ukyo,” he managed to get out and then the world went black.



“Did you have to hit him with so many?” Miyuki huffed. “That was enough to
drop an elephant.”



“I’m not taking any chances with this one,” grumbled the other woman. She
picked up his unconscious form and carried him to the van by herself,
laying him down on the seat where he began to snore. Between the two of
them, they managed to heft his pack and umbrella and get them to the van.



“He carried this one-handed?” Miyuki grunted as they carried his heavy
umbrella to the van and hefted it up. The suspension sagged slightly in the
back.



By the time they were finally packed up and were ready to go, Perfume had
managed to stagger back to the scene. She saw Ryoga’s unconscious form
lying in the back as Natsumi shut the side door to the vehicle. She noted
that the plates on the van were government-issued ones.



“Wait!” she demanded. “Where are you taking him?”



Miyuki paused and eyed the Chinese girl. “Tokyo. He’s truant from school in
Nerima, and we’re taking him back there.” The van then drove off, leaving
Perfume behind.



The Chinese girl’s gaze at the departing vehicle narrowed as a mixture of
feelings churned within her. She had been twice defeated, soundly so, by an
outsider male, once mentally and the second time through raw physical
force. She had never met a male like this before, and there was only a
single possible response she could make.



“Airen,” she breathed, finding the word surprisingly pleasing to say.



Perfume retrieved her sword and headed back to the hotel, her gaze
thoughtful. She and Mousse still had a long journey ahead of them to reach
Tokyo. There, she would finally obtain her much too long-delayed revenge
against Shampoo, and she would claim her new Airen.



It was pleasing to her how things were coming together like this.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Tiredly, Ranma-chan opened the door to her apartment. Hiding from both
Shampoo and Mina Li had taken a lot out of her, both girls apparently
intent on doing her great bodily harm. She froze when she realized the
light was lit in her living room, and she didn’t remember leaving it on.



“You look like hell, sis,” said Yumi-kun as the cursed woman rested on the
couch in male form, even though his own nose was still bandaged. “Rough
day?”



Closing the door behind her, Ranma-chan nodded. A bar of waterproof soap
bounced off her forehead. She snatched it from the air before it could fall
to the ground and sighed with relief. “Thanks. I wish you’d brought it a
few hours ago.”



“Jun-kun tried to bring it to you earlier, but you were nowhere to be
found,” said Yumi-kun, standing up and draining the last of his water from
the glass he was holding. “He’ll be back in the morning for you to begin
your training. I volunteered to stick around until you got back, since the
security of this place is a joke to a ninja of my caliber.”



Ranma-chan nodded. “I’m going to take a shower. I feel like I could sleep
for a week.”



“By the way, I swept the place for listening devices while I was here, and
it’s clean. Just be careful, or your secret is going to be out. I’m sure
you don’t want anyone here to learn it.” Yumi-kun headed to the window.
“You want me to stay with you tonight to keep an eye on you?”



“Nah, I should be fine now. Thanks, bro.” Saying that word was getting more
natural each time she was with the cursed woman’s male form, like they
really were siblings.



Yumi-kun nodded and grinned. “Later, sis.” The door to the small patio area
opened and then the ninja was gone.



Ranma-chan headed to the bathroom, looking forward to changing back. She
hoped the rest of her time here would be less stressful.





xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



To be continued...
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