Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Two Wallets ❯ A Power Rekindled ( Chapter 120 )

A Tale of Two Wallets

(An Altered Destiny)

Written by Jim Robert Bader

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

From The Journal of Saotome-Tendo Kokaku:

Quite recently I made a discovery while shifting through the paperwork stored away in the family attic, a rather unexpected find given all that I know about my parents (both from their own accounts and things I have independently uncovered). I have made previous entries concerning those already noted computerized transcripts that my mother left on her old antique PC hard-drive, (and the even more fascinating accounts of my co-mother's journal), but nothing to date quite like what I discovered then I found a badly worn and partially damaged leather-bound diary that was scrawled in my father's faded handwriting. To say the least this is a treasure unexpected given that I had long believed my father to be far less than inclined to literary transcriptions.

Perhaps I am being meddlesome to re-record his thoughts in his own words down for posterity, but I feel that I owe as much to future generations to let them know the kind of man my father is (if only to clear up certain widely held misconceptions). After all, my father---while hardly the most prolific and talented prose writer that the world has ever known---is thought of mainly as a jock with few thoughts in his head not related to his martial arts skills. Indeed, it might surprise many to know that he could even write legibly at all (a fact he owes in no small part to some studious coaching by my mother).

My twin sister, Kachima, thinks it pointless to pry into the private personal affairs of our respective parents, but I am quite fascinated to read of events that took place long before our birth, and even those events leading up to our coming into this world. In point of fact, learning how Shanma, our older sibling, came close to never having been born at all is an eyebrow raising revelation that I find personally quite harrowing (though Oneechan herself appears surprisingly blasé on that subject, as if her birth were somehow predestined and never seriously in any sort of contention).

Perhaps Kachima can be passé about such matters, but she has studied to be a Lore Master, and thus she probably already knows much of what I am about to relate here, but for the sake of those generations of Saotome and Tendo not yet born I should think a brief recount of events leading up to this matter would duly be in order.

My mother is fond of saying that no story ever truly has either a beginning or an ending, but for the sake of propriety I suppose that I should insert one. The beginning of this story may well be set back around thirty years or so when my grandfather first made his resolution to take my father on his fateful training mission. Ten years later the results of his goal to make my father a great martial artist were in full evidence, at which point he and my mother were summarily introduced to one another and the engagement formalized between the families of Saotome and Tendo. To say the very least, this did not at first go over well with either of my parents since neither one of them had looked to be married at such a tender age, and arranged marriages even then were going out of fashion.

(A side-note here…it's a rather good thing that our parents chose not to follow in the example set by their elders or else my sibs and me would most probably have fiancés of our own by now, even more probably selected from the pool of talent that comprises our current generation. While I much prefer having a choice over the matter of who I will one day wed, I am sometimes given to speculate just which of my peers and closest friends I might have become engaged to, such as Ganymede, who seems to be very fond of Shanma, though my oneechan professes not to return his affections).

And yet somehow, in spite of all their struggles, things did indeed work out for my father and my mother, and after many adventures that tested their resolve they finally did consent to get married. This was after the inclusion within their relationship of a third party, who became my co-mother, the Amazon known as Xian-Pu, or Shampoo to those who habitually mispronounce her name. And yes, in spite of the unorthodox nature of this three-way arrangement, Xian-Pu and my mother managed to work things out with my father, and thus the core of our rather unusual family was formed, which proved to be a surprisingly stable union.

At any rate, the particulars of their courtship has been described in some detail in my previous log entries, but the events I am about to relate took place some months after the formalization of their group marriage. In calendar terms it was approximately three months later when the events my father chronicles took place, roughly some eighteen years ago just on the eve of Shanma's birth, when my co-mother was five months pregnant and showing sign of immanent labor. That is a period in a woman's life when she is particularly vulnerable to mood swings and erratic hormonal surges and a thousand times a thousand different little things can go wrong to upset a pending baby. Add to that the fact that my mother was not yet fully aware of her own looming pregnancy when my sister and me had been conceived and were entering the early stages of our first trimester. That was the moment when we were most vulnerable to outside manipulation, when an enemy might best take advantage of our weakness, and one did just that, which set in motion the chain of events that were to follow.

But rather than to give a summary account of what happened I believe that I will instead turn matters over to different sources, beginning with my father's journal, and in his own words as I will quote directly from hereon after…

Ranma Saotome Writes:

First off, I'm a guy, and guys don't keep diaries and junk like that, so it ain't like I've had a lot of practice doing this stuff, so cut me a little slack here. Living most of my life on the road, being trained by Pop to become a great martial artist, ain't exactly left me a lot of time to put my thoughts down on paper. It's more Nabiki's thing anyway, or even Shampoo's, but as for me I don't see the point. Stuff happens, so what good does it do to write about it, especially if you don't intend to let anybody read this stuff later.

Mind you, I love my girls a lot, and I sure don't got nothing to complain about when it comes to how they do things, but girls got very secretive minds, lots of secrets they don't like to share, and even I can feel pretty left out much of the time as I feel naturally curious to know what goes on inside their heads, but don't even think about me looking over their shoulder 'cause I ain't brave enough to go there.

It's kind of funny though when you think about it. I mean, I'm probably like one of the only guys on the planet who's got an inside track on what it's like to be a girl, but girls are still pretty much of a mystery to me, and even living with 'em for the better part of a year and a half means I'm still just working out the basics.

Take Nabiki for example…she's got a mind that's as slippery as an eel but she's also a pretty terrific girl, and while she's a heck of a lot smarter than me (and I'll even admit it) she's also got that Lore Master thing working for her, which makes her harder to figure out than almost anybody else I know, which is saying a lot. I learned real early from hanging around with her that you gotta watch what you say and never ever take her for granted, 'cause if you say one thing wrong she can always turn it against you. It made things real tough in the early days before she started training under Lotion, and I found out how easy it was to hurt her feelings if you said things the wrong way. I also figured out real fast that she has ways of getting back at you that can be a lot nastier than fighting, so I've mostly worked to try and stay on her good side.

Because the good side of Nabiki is a really nice girl to be around, and I found out real early that not knowing where she was or what she was up to could make my chest feel funny, like I'd been punched in the gut by Ryoga. Being around her makes everything seem right somehow, and I just don't wanna think of what life would be like if she weren't a part of my world. I didn't just marry her because she's got a terrific body, I took her for a wife because I couldn't think of anything in the whole world that I wanted to do better.

Which is pretty much the same way I feel about Shampoo, only with her you get a whole different package of girly stuff that I'm really hung up about. She ain't just beautiful, she's gorgeous, and while she can be the nicest girl in the world around me I've seen her when she gets angry, and believe me when I tell you that it ain't healthy to get on her bad side.

Funny thing is I call 'em both my wives and they get along great with each other, and you pretty much can't find one of 'em without the other most days, and the three of us are a pretty solid team, a real family unit. Like three parts that fit together to make a whole, or something like that. Thing is I wouldn't ever wanna live without either one of 'em. They're the center of my whole life, and the only two things I care more about than training.

Y'know, it's funny when I look back on how we got to this point, and even now I have to shake my head and wonder how I let myself get talked into this whole business, first with Pop and me stumbling into Shampoo's village, then Pop leading us both to the Tendo place, where he and Soun-san engaged me to Nabiki. At the time I met her I thought she had to be the cutest girl I'd ever seen, but then when Shampoo caught up to us in town I had a second look at her and…whoooah! I pretty much knew I'd hit a double jackpot.

I'm saying all this stuff now because I'd really started to think on it and realize how lucky I am, in spite of all the other stuff that keeps happening whenever my back gets turned. I got two great girls sharing a life with me, and one of 'em is carrying my baby (maybe two if those tests Nabiki took the other day come back positive from Tofu-sensei's clinic). It's been six months since we got the news about Shampoo being pregnant, and four months since we formally got married, and all I know is I'm starting to get nervous and wonder if maybe Pop had the right idea about taking another training mission just until my wife has the baby.

Of course the moment I even think of that I got Nabiki all over me, which reminds he of how hard it is to keep secrets from her, which ain't the case in reverse, but why go there? Besides, I ain't planning on spending ten years on the road raising a kid who'll grow up to resent me as much as I did Pop, what with all the stupid nonsense he put me through, so I might as well hang around and do the right thing by my ladies or else my name is a good as mud, and I much prefer to be called Saotome Ranma.

Anyhow, the reason I'm setting all of this down is because of what happened the other day when Shampoo was out shopping for some stuff from a local market. Now, aside from being a foreigner, she kinds stands out in a crowd with her purple hair and odangos, but most folks never seem to mind since she's real easy on the eye and full of charm, but on this one occasion this dumb bastard went and said some stuff that upset her, and that's where I got good and mad about the whole damned business…

"How much is price for powdered curry?" Shampoo asked of the merchant behind the counter, holding up an example of same, "This one cannot find a label."

The merchant took in the foreign customer and looked down his nose at her with clear disdain in his expression. In a voice coached to the minimum level of politeness he said simply, "Four hundred yen, in cash, not foreign currency."

Shampoo looked up at the man with a quizzical expression, "Four hundred yen? Are you certain that is correct?"

"That is what I told you," the merchant said curtly, "Are you having difficulty with the translation?"

Deeply puzzled by now at the man's curious attitude of restrained hostility she said, "In another store where this one made a purchase she found a container of powdered curry for about half that price. Are you saying to this one that the food you charge is more expensive?"

"Why don't you shop there instead of here if that's the case?" the man snapped, "Four hundred yen is what I'm charging."

There was a very slight pause on her side before the heavily pregnant Amazon said, "Excuse this one for asking, but has this one in some way given you offence?"

"Other than by showing your face in my establishment?" the merchant snapped, causing Shampoo to recoil from the vehemence of that statement.

"But…this one has shopped in your store many times before," Shampoo insisted, "And never has she heard a word of complaint from you before…"

"So?" the man glared at her without flinching, "That was before."

"Before?" Shampoo blinked, "Before what?"

"Before I heard the rumors," the man said in a voice no longer even giving pretence of politeness, "Before I learned what a shameless slut you are, you foreign-born hussy."

Under different circumstances and at another time and place those words would have been cause enough for Shampoo to bare steel and flash her weapons at the man's face, demanding retribution, but as things currently stood, with her emotions suddenly in tatters, she just stared wordlessly at the man in bewilderment before mustering the courage to ask, "Why…why do you say these things to Shampoo? What cause has she given you for thinking her such evil?"

"Cause?" the man spat, "I'll tell you what cause I have to object to your just being here in my store! Because you're walking pollution, you contaminate everything you touch! You're worse than Burakumin or Ainu, you Chinese harridan! Sleeping with our youth, foisting your half-breed seed on a once-noble family like the Tendos, living immorally with the husband of a daughter to that house, even tempting his wife into your lustful embraces, bringing shame and dishonor to both families! And that's just the beginning to the list of crimes that you've willfully committed!"

"What crimes?" Shampoo asked, "Why do you find shame in this one's actions?"

"You even have to ask such a thing?" the man spat, "You have even dragged your whole disgusting family into your dishonor, bringing chaos to the whole of Nerima, and you have the gall to ask why? After the havoc and destruction you and your ilk have inflicted upon the entire district?"

Shampoo took a step back and looked on in dismay at her accuser, "You hold this one responsible for that? Why not give blame to the ones who attack this one and her Airen? This one has always done what she felt was best for his family and others…"

"You can't have feelings," the merchant said, "It's not possible for anyone to act so carelessly and thoughtlessly towards the people around her and to still be capable of feeling."

Now Shampoo would have responded in anger at the brazen affront the man was giving her, for no man of her village would have dared speak that way to her without facing the direst of consequences…yet for some inexplicable reason she felt incapable of wrath, as though the very emotion were being suppressed within her, leaving her helpless to react to these charges save by cringing like a child in the face of such groundless accusations.

"This one has feelings," she insisted, feeling tears form at the edges of her widening eyes, "She cares for her family, she cares for others…"

"You care about nothing but your own selfish needs and your carnal desires," the Merchant glared at her with eyes that were more dangerous than weapons, pointing at the Amazon's distended abdomen and saying, "You call that the product of your feelings, you filthy whore? What kind of abomination are you gestating in that belly of yours? You think it will even be human? Not with your genes it won't, and when it comes it will signify the utter bankruptcy of your entire clan! You should do away with it before it arrives, or else it will be living proof of the shame that you have brought upon those who you claim to care for!"

"Why are you saying this?" Shampoo asked, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks, "Why would you hate this one's baby? Why would you say that she is an abomination?"

"Baby?" the man shouted, "Unclean harbinger of filth! That baby you cling to is proof of everything that I've been saying…about you, about the Tendos, and most of all about Saotome!"

"Why?" Shampoo asked, "What about this one's husband?"

"Husband?" the Merchant said incredulously, "He's the husband of Tendo Nabiki, now Saotome Nabiki according to the legal records. He's not your husband, not unless the three of you are breaking the law and living in sin together, which would be a scandal of immeasurable proportions! You don't have any right to claim him for a husband, and if you do then you are dragging his name through the mud and declaring Saotome Ranma to be nothing better than a philandering pig, a cuckolding bigamist who takes two women for his brides when he's entitled to having only one of you, which is all any real man should need in his existence!"

"But…that is not true!" Shampoo protested, "What we do is honorable…it has the weight of long tradition…"

"Tradition?" the Merchant all but screamed, pointing imperiously towards the door, "Leave my store, and never do business with me again! I won't have your kind in my establishment, and neither will anyone else in the Furinkan Financial district!"

Shampoo backed away to the door, not intentionally retreating from the man, but feeling a gnawing dread form in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes were as round as bonbori as she stammered, "But…but you do not understand…this one…she loves her Airen…!"

"Love? Hah!" the man snorted, "If you really cared about the family that's adopted you then you'd drown your brat and yourself in the nearest river! You cling to them out of selfishness, and they've tolerated you out of pity, but soon the world will know just what sort of scum you've been associating with! When that happens it will be the Tendos who suffer, not you! You just think you can do anything you want because you're a foreigner, but we won't tolerate your kind around here anymore! Not me and not the other merchants around Nerima!"

"You…you are saying…that having my baby…will bring shame and disgrace…to this one's family…to her Airen?" Shampoo asked as if finally getting the thrust of this man's argument, if not entirely understanding the racism underlining his feelings.

"Oh, so you've finally understood that much, have you?" the Merchant scoffed, "I was beginning to think you were too stupid to even grasp that much."

Shampoo wasted no more words attempting to rebut the man and his heartless accusations, but rather turned and fled from the shop, crying tears that seemed to flow from somewhere deep within her soul, and without looking where she went she ran off down the street, never pausing to look back and quite forgetting that in her hand she still had the offending container of powdered curry.

"Go on, get out of here, foreign slut!" the Merchant shouted on her heels, then he grumbled under his breath, "I ought to call the law on you for stealing…serves you right if you get hit by a truck…"

Very slowly his words began to die away, and then the man's eyes started to lose focus, his posture slackened and his face became waxy. He did not move---other than to breathe---as he stood his place staring off at nothing…when of a sudden a form began to materialize from behind his register, taking the human shape of a woman with long blonde hair and a leering, malevolent expression.

"I do so love it when they cry," she chuckled softly, "That was almost too easy…and with any luck she really will get hit by something, and won't that serve the both of you right…Saotome Nabiki…"

Nabiki stood where she was within the garden staring at nothing while standing relaxed and at ease, allowing the world around her to exist as it was while she extended her feelings and opened wide the full scope of her perceptions.

Very gradually she turned around and scanned the yard with her unfocused gaze, then very gradually she started to move forward, setting one bare foot before the other, feeling the ground under her toes as she moved away from the main building.

With inexorable certainty she homed in on a particular spot nestled away at the edge of the garden and knelt down before a stone lamp set at one edge of a koi pond and moved her hands to shift through the stones behind a ceremonial rock formation. She then revealed a hidden cache beneath the stonework, and from this removed a small wooden box that was painted black but showed signs of weathering despite its concealment. This then she held up for closer examination before turning and retracing her steps back to the main porch where those who stood in witness were following her every movement.

"Here," she said as she presented the box to the matron of the household, then pressed her fingers against one panel in order to show that person the means of opening the box, and from there her patron carefully removed a folded document that was frayed and yellowed about its crispy edges.

The matron accepted the paper and unfolded it, then held it up to the sunlight and scanned its surface before nodding in satisfaction. She then passed it along to another woman, who took greater care and deliberation in scanning the parchment before pronouncing aloud, "It's genuine. It's even been notarized with an authentic government wet seal."

"You mean it really is grandfather's will?" a man standing to one side asked incredulously, "She found it…just like that? And after everyone else in the family has been searching for the thing for generations?"

"Forty-seven years more like," Nabiki corrected, "And the old man was crafty in choosing his place of concealment. The garden was landscaped with that hidden niche in mind, and no doubt he meant for it to remain hidden until a time and place of his choosing. Too bad for him he died before he had a chance to notify anyone else in the family, though I think in large part it was deliberate spite as he did not get along too well with either of your mothers."

"How on earth could you know that?" one daughter of the household asked incredulously, turning a look towards both her mother and her uncle, "I thought that was only family gossip."

"Grandfather…never quite approved of the man whom I chose to marry, your father, dear," the matron of the house remarked with slightly pained expression, "I know that he wanted the property to remain within the family, but he also knew that the inheritance laws would allow the government to confiscate everything unless he passed it along as a gift to a family member."

"And here I always thought he was just being spiteful, Sis," the man beside her noted sagely, "Passing the both of us over and giving the title to our younger brother, who was a wastrel even in those days. But now that we have the true will and can prove his actual intentions were to give you the property before you got married…"

"I thank you, Saotome-san," the matron bowed respectfully towards Nabiki, "You have saved our family from ruin in having our land taken away to pay my late brother's debts. Since we can now prove that the property was never actually his to own in the first place…well…I am certain his creditors will have a more difficult time proving their case through litigation."

"If so, then my services are available to you to act as an intermediary representing your interests," Nabiki nodded to the lawyer of the matron and added, "No offense to your position, Naoiko-san."

"None taken," the woman in question replied, "But I must say that I am impressed that a lady of your tender years can conduct herself with such modesty and professional integrity…though I would like to know the means by which you were able to find the document just now. I'm having a bit of trouble buying into the argument that you are a psychic."

"It's your prerogative to believe or disbelieve as you see fit, Naoiko-san," Nabiki replied, turning away, "But I do what I do by my own means, and explaining them to you is something that I am neither obligated to do nor inclined. Now, if there is no further need of me at this point, Hanamuri-san?" she let the question dangle in the air politely.

The matron smiled and said, "As much as I would like to invite you to stay for tea and lunch, I can tell that you have other business that you wish to get on about, so I won't keep you any further than I have, Saotome-san. But again I thank you, and I will keep in mind your further offer of service as a negotiator. A promising young lady such as you deserves the respect of her talents, which you so clearly have in great abundance."

"You are too kind," Nabiki said as she turned away, "Ryonami will discuss the rest of the details. You will know where to find me through her if I am ever needed."

"Sure thing, Chief," Ryonami said brightly, turning away from her employer to smile at the matron of the house while politely indicating with an open palm her expectation of a generous "donation."

As the matron reciprocated by fishing through her purse for a roll of thousand-yet notes, her daughter, a young woman named Yurika, frowned as she studied the exiting profile of Nabiki and said, "What's with her anyway? Why does she act so superior and everything? And why does it seem as if she's got her head in the clouds instead of here in the real world?"

"You wouldn't ask such things if you knew my Senpai as well as I do," Ryonami replied while carefully counting the yen notes, "She's a lot more aware of her surroundings than you could possibly imagine, and if you said something like that to her face you'd get a surprise at just how well grounded she really is."

"You obviously respect her quite a lot," the matron noted sagely, "And she did not ask directly for payment for her services but allows her clients to determine the worth of her actions."

"Yes, well…Senpai used to be a lot more material and everything," Ryonami said while putting the "donation" money away, "But ever since she took special lessons in spiritualism and whatnot she's kind of lost interest in material things, at least in the way of most people. She still needs to earn an income to help support her family and all, but that's why she uses me to collect the funds since I'm reliable and good with numbers."

"Lost interest in material things?" Yurika sniffed, "No wonder she walks around barefoot like a hermit."

"Hey, there's a lot more to it than you could ever know," Ryonami frowned, "So be careful what you say about my Senpai. Her head isn't really in the clouds, and she could take you apart faster than spit if you insult her."

"I am sure that my niece did not intend to give offense either to you or to your business partner," the man named Kenjuro Hanamuri tried to reassure the irate teenager.

"Well…just so you know, Senpai is not a fake, she's the real deal, and you guys got one heck of a bargain through me, so don't say stuff about her behind her back just because you can't understand how she does things. Heck, I've known her for years and even I have trouble understanding the stuff she does, but I know she's legitimate, and I won't stand by and hear bad things said about her, you got that?"

"My daughter tends to sometimes speak without thinking her words out," the matron of the family said gently, "Please forgive intemperate words that were not meant to give offence. I really do owe your partner a great deal for the services that she has rendered."

"Even if I still can't quite buy into this mystical mumbo jumbo," the lawyer named Yurika grumbled, "But I'm hanged if I'm going risk finding out the hard way if she knows how to make curses."

Ryonami left the garden and hurried to catch up with Nabiki, but before she could even open her mouth her employer said, "Let it go, Ryo-chan. I've better things to do with my time than waste it fretting about mundanes."

Ryonami was left with her mouth open for a second or two, but then she frowned and said, "Damn…it freaks even me out when you do that."

"Sorry," Nabiki replied with a bit of a distant air to her tone and expression, "They were good people, you know, just a bit old fashioned in some ways and oblivious in others. You can't hold it against them that they lack the sensitivity to solve their own problems…and that's why there are Lore Masters. We exist to fill the perceptual void left in the world by the head-blind and the clueless."

"I know, but it still galls me the way some people think you're stuck up and everything just because you won't look at them directly," Ryonami fumed, "They got no idea of how unnerving it is when you do look directly at somebody, or what you see in them when you use that focus thingy to read their auras."

"I can read the Akashic patterns of force surrounding all living beings, yes," Nabiki agreed, "And yes…it can be pretty unnerving, even for me. Suppose you could tell at a glance which persons you meet are good and decent people and which ones are the real scumbags? Or if you could tell that somebody is going to die within a year from terminal cancer? What exactly do you say to somebody you've hardly even met when you sense that they might have a car accident within the next few months unless they take the necessary steps to avoid a certain street corner? What if telling them the truth made them go to great lengths avoiding one peril, only they stumble into a greater one blindly? You are definitely right about that, Ryo-chan…it can be more than a little unnerving."

"Yeah, what you said," her companion remarked, pausing just long enough to let the point hover in the air before asking, "Want me to give you the tabulated total gross earnings of the past month? This last job definitely put us way into the black…"

"No, I trust you to handle such things, Ryo-chan" Nabiki assured her close companion, "And if you do make a mistake, or try to spend the money on your gambling habits, I will definitely know all about it."

"See?" Ryonami sniffed, "That takes all the fun out of graft and corruption. I can't even make a small calculation error on the books without you knowing all about it. How am I supposed to embezzle large sums of cash for my retirement pay if you can sense that I'm about to do it even before I get even the slightest hint of a temptation?"

Nabiki had to smile at the private joke, but then she said in total seriousness, "I trust you far more than that, Ryo-chan, except when it comes to betting. You're much better placing odds and laying stakes at my direction, but if you do it on your own it will be with your savings, not mine. I need every yen piece we gather to help support my family and make sure that my loved ones are provided for, and the last thing either one of us needs is for you to incur unnecessary obligations."

"Hey, I said I'd pay back that loan to cover my losses…no needs to keep rubbing it in about it, Senpai," Ryonami protested.

"I don't mean to," Nabiki reassured, "But you have to know that there are risks when it comes to betting against the odds. Even at my worst I never risked myself by betting against a sure thing, even if the payoff is a lot steeper when you place your marker against the current."

"You're an inspiration to us all, Senpai," Ryonami cheerfully replied, "But you don't mind if I keep that last comment just to ourselves? We don't want to spoil our business by giving away trade secrets."

Nabiki had to chuckle at that, but no sooner had she started to take amusement out of her friend's wry take on life but then something opened up within her perceptions, and she felt the clarion call of her intuition warning her of impending danger.

"Shampoo," she suddenly said aloud, turning around and looking off in a certain direction.

"Shampoo-san?" Ryonami asked, "What about your wife, Senpai? Is there something the…matter?"

Like that the brown haired girl discovered that she was only talking to herself, her employer and friend having vanished all too abruptly without the slightest trace of her movements, which prompted Ryonami to grimace as she murmured, "I really hate it when you do that, Senpai…but whatever's wrong, may the kami go with you…"

Without quite knowing the why and the means by which she had come to be at such a strange point, Shampoo found herself standing upon a bridge overlooking one of the drainage canals that lined the streets of Nerima, staring down at the passing waters and thinking melancholy thoughts that were quite at odds with her usually ebullient nature. The harsh words of the merchant ringing in her ears, it had seemed to her as if every person whom she had encountered on the streets had taken up the chant and had spat accusatory remarks her way, telling her in no uncertain terms that she was not wanted in this country, and that her very presence was a scandal bringing great shame and dishonor to her adopted family and loved ones.

Ordinarily Shampoo would not have given one whit of concern about what other people said about her, yet for some odd reason her mental armor had been shredded into tatters, leaving her open and vulnerable in ways that were the very opposite of her normal temperament. Her mind was in confusion and her emotions were feeling ravaged, and the thought of ending her misery through decisive action held an enormous temptation that at any other moment would have been dismissed without consideration.

The plain truth was that she cared more about her husband and wife than she did about herself, a fact only intensified from living with them for well over a year, and until that point the fact that she was bearing her husband's daughter in her belly had been a source of great pride and an affirmation of their union. Having anyone call her unborn child an "abomination" was traumatic in her late-term condition, and as her hormone levels were affecting her mood swings she was not thinking clearly at the moment but rather responding with excessive revulsion at the shame of having allowed anyone to get away with slandering her baby.

Why had she not punished the fool who had said such awful things to her face? In Joketsuzoku a male who dared to insult a pregnant warrior would have faced either immediate death or total disgrace for both his family and clan-ties. His own relatives would either disown him or have the fool put to death…and yet that was not the way things were done in this strange country. Here things were very different and the response one was expected to take towards verbal injury was to simply ignore the offender.

The more she thought about it the more convinced Shampoo was that there was something wrong with her, some anomaly brought about by her condition that was causing her to think erratically and feel things that were normally quite foreign to her nature. She was thinking of both Ranma and Nabiki as the pain welled up inside her, for she would have done anything to spare them from dishonor, having come to appreciate how valuable honor could be to a Japanese household. Often a family's name and reputation could affect their standing within the entire community, and having the least degree of shame could hurt them in the form of social ostracism. Traditional minded as many Japanese were, the mere fact that you might have something wrong in your ancestry was reason enough to shun you, though most Japanese would never say openly why they might regard you as sub-human.

Yet Shampoo had lived long enough among the Japanese to have a deep appreciation of their cultural concerns regarding family honor. The Chinese of the mainland had their own ideas about what constituted "shameful" or "dishonorable" behavior, but Amazons were not so deeply tied to the concept that what your ancestors did or did not do was a strike against your family name forever. Amazons were supposedly above such things, believing that it mattered more what an individual did and not just a bunch of dead people who lived their lives in a more primitive context, but even they could be quite animated when it came to losing face before others.

And the very last thing that she wanted was to cause such a loss of face to either her new family or the two people with whom she shared a bond far closer than any conventional marriage.

Without being conscious of the fact that she was doing it she found herself suddenly standing perched atop the rail of the canal staring down at the swift moving currents below her, only a step away from plummeting into that most dreaded of mediums that would trigger her Jusenkyo curse and leave her at the mercy of the fast moving water. To drown her woes and to bring an end to possible shame and disgrace for her family seemed the perfectly logical answer to her deeply unsettled state of mind, and she was but a hairs breadth away from doing it when a voice called out to her from seeming no where, cutting through the weight of her depression.

A voice of deep concern belonging to her wife, Saotome Nabiki.

"Shampoo, what are you doing? Get down from there this instant!" her Airen cried out, and all at once Nabiki seized hold of Shampoo by the waist and was physically dragging her back from the edge with a strength born of horrified desperation.

Shampoo awoke as if from a daze to find herself embraced by her wife as Nabiki clung to her and held her fast against the nightmare and depression, and suddenly it was as though the sun had broken through the clouds, for everything was right once again and she was in the arms of the woman whom she most cared for, her momentary distraction and befuddlement entirely banished. This left Shampoo in an entirely different state of confusion as she hugged Nabiki back to her swollen body, and marveled at the fierceness with which her wife was holding her, as if afraid to let her go for any reason.

For a moment no words were spoken between them, but then Nabiki started to shake from within as a delayed effect of her wife's near-suicide, following which she said, "What were you doing up there? Were you crazy, Shampoo? You were going to jump…and you know what that would have meant for both you and the baby."

"This one knows, Airen," Shampoo answered, "But…this one…I cannot understand…Shampoo does not know what just happened. One moment she was buying curry for supper, and then the store man started yelling at her and saying all sorts of bad things, and then…and then this one started running…and found herself here…"

"Yelling at you?" Nabiki suddenly pulled a way and stared at Shampoo with an intensity that for anyone else would have been unnerving, but for the young couple it opened the floodgates to memories and impressions, and all at once Nabiki knew the details of what had happened and had been said with venomous disdain, and for the first time in many long months she began to feel an intense emotion that had been absent from her existence.

Rage and hate boiled up within her, barely controllable antipathy, and a flaring of a battle aura that shocked even Shampoo, who knew better than almost anyone of the capabilities of her wife when angered. Months of discipline learning to harness and channel the power of her emotions were ripped away with the intensity of an instant, and what flared to life from within her was a horrible desire for vengeance and retribution against the instigator of this near-tragedy.

And all at once Shampoo's own anger over the abuse that she had suffered turned to pity for the errant merchant, for what she beheld in her wife's eyes was the smoldering threat to his very existence, for he most certainly was about to learn first hand the consequences of incurring the wrath of an Amazon-trained Lore Master…

Ranma Saotome Writes:

And where was I during all of this? Working out with my old man, of course, but that was before we got interrupted by the kind of typical business that seems to flare up at our house every so often…and man does it ever feel weird even after all this time to call the Tendo place "our" house. I've never owned property before in my whole life, but ever since I married Nabiki it's been mine as a part of my dowry, including the dojo where I spend much of my time away from school coaching my own class of students…

"Give it up, old fool!" Ranma snarled while launching an all-out assault on his opponent.

"Not in your dreams, Boy!" Genma shot back while managing to parry the rapid-fire punches of his son's Amaguriken attack, countering with an offensive of his own that was backed by his superior size and experience, though his son still had the advantage in terms of speed and raw power.

Ranma redoubled his efforts to pound some sense into his father, but the battle was far from a one-sided affair and both men were trading blows and using ever more sophisticated techniques to equal advantage. As accustomed as he was to measuring himself against the often underhanded tactics his father occasionally employed, it was still a surprise to Ranma to find that---as hard as he trained and as far as he had progressed in the art---his father still knew enough tricks and was resourceful enough to keep it up at an all-out pace with no holds barred or methods restrained.

For the others currently in the garden who took the time to pay attention to such a routine, daily affair, it was a fairly impressive display of incredible prowess that both son and father were demonstrating. Martial arts being a common pastime around the dojo it was natural for many to take an interest in the probable outcome, but as everyone had their preferences over whom to favor or not they stood divided into two distinctive camps, each side rooting for their champion to show up the victor.

"What do you know?" remarked the woman known as Silk from where she was busy cleaning vegetables for the family's impending dinner, "Genma is going all out this time and pushing young Master Ranma to the end of his limits. Of course I'd be willing to wager that the fool won't be able to sustain such a rigorous onslaught for very much longer."

"I don't know about that," Atsuko commented as she handed off yet another pot of pre-cooked beans, "Gemmy-chan's still the sensei here, and as good as Ranma is he's still yet to surpass the mantle of Genma the Destroyer."

"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss young Saotome's budding accomplishments so far, ladies," Soun boasted from where he sat reading the newspaper, "My son-in-law has made great progress as a fighter, and I know that Genma is justifiably proud of his accomplishment from the way he is refusing to hold back, and at this rate, who knows? Another few years and Ranma will indeed be the Master."

"My son is showing great potential indeed," Nodoka agreed as she sipped from the stirring spoon and decided to add a pinch more spice to the confection that she was brewing, "But my husband still has the edge in experience, but I agree that they're both making excellent progress, just as long as they don't destroy anything too valuable or fragile."

As the fight between father and son continued to intensify Silk mused rather idly, "A good point that. Property damages do tend to climb whenever those two really cut loose. I wonder what the trigger point for their current argument was? Something about how much farther young Ranma has to go before he can claim the title of an Anything Goes Master?"

"You would know that better than me, Lore Master," Atsuko sniffed, "And speaking of young apprentices, I wonder where Nabiki is off to this morning?"

"She said something about helping a new client," Soun remarked while turning to the next page of his newspaper, "You know how she's been ever since she took up being an Intermediary and Spiritualist as her newest profession."

"Indeed, that girl is a wonder," Nodoka openly admitted, "So well behaved, and such a nice companion for my Ranma. And look how well she and Shampoo get along together? She doesn't even mind that my other daughter-in-law is having my son's baby."

"I'm sure with the way those three go at it that she'll be having one of her own before very long," Atsuko snorted, "Now if only my Ryo-chan would settle down with his new girlfriend? I'd kinda like to know what it feels like to be a grandmother myself one of these days. Oh well…at least he's over his shyness and doesn't get so many nose bleeds whenever a pretty girl smiles in his direction…"

Meanwhile, at the far end of the garden, yet another houseguest of the Tendo-Saotome residence was even then busy adjusting the towel around her body as she left the sauna-bathing pool area nestled in one pocket behind the dojo, only to pause and see that the morning ritual of father-and-son aggression was well underway and in full martial arts splendor.

"Honestly," Hibiki Kennou sighed while studying their technique, "What is it with those two? You'd think they hated each other from the way they always go at it, or something…"

So intent was she in observing their match, however, that she failed to perceive a curious trembling in the ground directly beneath her sandled feet. But a few instants later, however, and it became quite impossible not to notice how hard the ground was shaking…and seconds later it all but exploded from underneath Kennou, spilling her onto her well-padded backside.

Ryoga coughed and then said, "We made it! I just knew that I could find my way this time…thanks to great-grandmother's handy trinket," he added while holding up an ornately styled compass.

"That's all very good and all that, Ryo-chan," said the somewhat dirty-faced blonde beside him as she made motions with her hand to wave the dust away, "But next time…maybe we should try taking the bus instead of commuting by foot to find your place?"

"Ah…sorry about that, Mina-chan," Ryoga sheepishly apologized while helping his companion out from the hole that they had both created, "Don't quite know how we got into that cave in the first place, but at least we dug our way out of there, so no harm done, right?"

"Ryoga?" Ranma asked as he and Genma came to stand over the new addition to the garden landscape, "Where the heck have you been? It's been three days at least since you wandered off to get some powdered curry."

"Three days?" Ryoga thought a moment as he dusted himself off then said, "Yes…I guess that's about right. Well, anyway, I ran into Mina-chan and the two of us got caught up in this adventure and…"

"Oh dear," Aino Minako turned around and saw the figure who was currently stretched out on the ground behind them, "Is that you, Kennou-san? Are you all right, and what are you doing down there in the first place?"

Kennou was only just beginning to comb the hair out of her eyes as she glared up at her cousin's girlfriend and thought of some appropriate words that she could say on the subject of blonde bimbos (quite ignoring the fact that she herself was rather noticeably of the blonde persuasion). But just then she noticed the looks that the men were paying her and glanced down in dismay to discover that her own makeshift "top" had come undone, spilling out the generous assets that nature had bestowed upon her for easy inspection, and with a yelp of dismay she hastily moved to cover herself over.

"Ah…" Ranma hastily glanced away while Minako thoughtfully covered the eyes of her own boyfriend before Ryoga could suffer a massive nosebleed. Genma looked away with a somewhat contrite expression and said, "Er…maybe you had better put something on, Girl, before you catch a chill."

"Why bother?" Kennou snapped as she got to her feet and stormed angrily back the way she had just come, "I'm taking another bath. I'm suddenly feeling a whole lot more dirty."

As the blonde Hibiki stormed away the others were left to feel somewhat awkward in the silence that followed. Then Minako murmured, "Poor Kennou…sometimes I really feel sorry for her."

"You do?" Ryoga asked, "Ah…actually, I didn't think the two of you…well…you know…"

"Get along together?" Minako smiled, "Actually, I think that's part of the problem between me and your cousin. We both feel strongly about you, Ryo-chan, and in many ways her resentment of me is because she feels that I get in the way of knowing you better. She has only your clan to claim as family, and without even a home of her own to claim, outside of here and at Ganglot's studio…"

"A good point that," Ranma said, "You ought to cut some slack with Kennou, Bro. She's had some pretty hard breaks in her life, and while it's made her a pretty tough cookie, deep down inside she's still just a girl who needs a family, just like everybody else."

"Wise words indeed, young War-Master," said the ancient Lotion as she appeared mysteriously from seemingly out of no where, as was her usual wont, "But think of your own family's needs and the ones who depend on you the most. They have need of you too, most especially my apprentice."

"Huh?" Ranma whirled around, "Nabiki? What are you talking about, old woman?"

"Can you not sense it?" the ancient Lore Master asked with a piercing gaze in his direction, "The gathering of energy, the anger smoldering within her youthful breast?

"What?" Ranma asked, "What are you…"

"Oh my…I can sense it too, grandmother," Silk spoke up as she appeared from the house, glancing off to the side and saying, "Even from here I can feel her smoldering like a torch…the outrage, the need for retribution. Your wife is upset over something that has awakened the power within her, Ranma, and if she releases it at the wrong target…"

"Nabiki's in trouble?" Ranma's tone sharpened abruptly, clenching fists with a sudden need to be at the side of his lady.

"Not just her," Lotion cautioned, "But the one who has incurred her wrath is in even greater danger, for my apprentice is allowing her emotions to overrule her reason, and without knowing the true source of her misfortune…"

"Look can we cut to the details later?" Ranma asked, "You obviously came here to warn me that something bad is about to happen, so…can you just take me to her? It'll save more time than just talking."

"Very well, as you wish it," Lotion gestured with her staff as Ranma joined at her side, and then the two of them were whisked away in the folds of time and transported…elsewhere…

Continued

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