Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Two Wallets ❯ Duck! ( Chapter 41 )

A Tale of Two Wallets

(An Altered Destiny)

Written by Jim Robert Bader

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

"Saotome, you swine!"

Lotion's eyes flew open as she perceived the angry declaration that was accompanied by a response that contained much stress and confusion. She went from a state of full meditative rest to complete alertness, and then she rose up from her bedding, stretching out her hand as her staff flew into her grasp, then at once she shifted through the boundaries of space and time to appear again on the floor downstairs, where she found Cologne smoking her pipe and looking thoughtful.

"Matriarch," Lotion called out with no further preamble, "There is an emergency that demands our immediate attention! Our wards are in danger and I must ask that you come with me without hesitation."

Cologne was sufficiently alarmed to be addressed this way by her old rival so that she did not even question the accuracy of that statement. She grasped her own staff and all but flew to the side of the ancient Lore Master, and then they both vanished from the Nekohanten, the urgency of thought itself lending speed to their travel…

Akane had never before considered how much food people left behind on their plates, coming as she did from a family that was frugal with its portions and rarely left anything behind (especially with Ranma and his father for semi-permanent houseguests). But now for the first time that she had to clear off the plates left on the tables by the people who dined in this restaurant she had a pretty vivid conception of just how wasteful they could be. Considering that many of the portions in a Chinese-style meal were small to begin with that had to say something!

She filled the bus tray, scraping off food to one side and making space for the glasses. As she did this she stole sideling glances at the table where Ukyo and Shampoo were seated, having some kind of personal conversation, the like of which she could hardly guess, other than a general feeling that she did not like it. Akane glowered as she finished stacking her tray then picked up the tub, preparing to head off towards the kitchen when she heard a yelp of surprise from far ahead of her and she groaned, "Not again!"

She set her bus tray back down and hurried to the side of a beleaguered Ryoga, who was backing out and away from the Ladies side of the restrooms, profusely apologizing while covering his eyes with one hand. Akane caught up to him as someone bounced a roll of toilet paper off his head, followed by a hairbrush and a compact, and several other items from the sound of it as they bounced off the door once it had slammed shut.

"Ryoga!" she growled angrily and pointed, "The kitchen is over that way!"

"Uh…I…ah…" Ryoga said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with one hand, then glancing over his shoulder as he added, "I think I left my bus tray in there."

"I'll get it," Akane sighed, "You keep an eye on Ukyo and Shampoo…and for heaven's sakes, stay out of trouble!"

"Um…okay," he replied, but once she was into the bathroom he concluded by adding lamely, "But…how?"

Ryoga heaved a sigh. At this rate he was never going to get back into her good graces! All he ever did anymore was screw things up even worse between them, looking more and more like a fool every time he tried to please her. It was bad enough that his stupid lack of direction kept turning him around whenever he tried to get anywhere, but lately he'd wind up in the weirdest places without even knowing how he got to such odd locations, and without hardly any effort.

In all truth he did not deserve such a girl as Akane, with her warmth and her kindness, her very trust, which he had abused so very callously. He had hurt her deeply, for which he could not forgive himself, and he was bound to hurt her even more if he stayed around to continually remind her of his betrayal with his very presence. He would leave her, but somehow every attempt he had made so far had only brought him back, like a curse. He would bewail his lack of good fortune but for the fact that without her his life would seem so empty.

Only now she had started to show an interest in someone else who had the potential of making her happy. This new guy, Kuonji Ukyo, with his good looks and smooth-talking glib style, which Ryoga knew he could not compete against. The new kid on the block had money and influence, was a good cook and could really charm the ladies. Next to him Ryoga felt like…well…like a mendicant. Guys like that just used women and then discarded them when they no longer served a purpose. Ryoga could never be like that with any girl, least of all Akane, and yet for all he tried to impress her he just kept coming up a distant second!

Ryoga glared back towards the main dining area and felt his anger build up within him like an old, familiar friend. Kuonji was Ranma's friend, and like Ranma he had a way of coming between Ryoga and whatever he desired. Ryoga had recently agreed to call off his vendetta against Ranma, but the same did not hold true for anyone else connected with him. Kuonji had better be on his guard, because all it would take was one misstep to give Ryoga an excuse and-POW! Instant satisfaction!

"What are you doing standing around here?" demanded an angry voice from behind him.

"Gah!" Ryoga almost jumped as he whirled around and assumed a fighting crouch, then belatedly saw that the man was wearing the uniform of one of the Head Waiters, "Er, ah…"

"Get back to work!" the man snapped as he pointed towards the dining area, "What do we pay you for? You're not supposed to stand around like an extra in a Chop-sockeye movie! Go out there and clean tables!"

"H-Hai!" Ryoga cried as he hustled off in search of tables to clean and dishes to bus, thinking to himself that the guy was as scary as any Oni and it was best not to inform him of the fact that Ryoga was technically not on the payroll.

Akane emerged from the ladies room with bus tray in hand a few seconds later, looked around and saw no Ryoga, then muttered under her voice, "That baka…now where did he wander off to?"

Though Akane did not want to admit it to herself she was very worried about the whereabouts of her friend and fellow martial artist. Ryoga could be such a stupid jerk at times, but he was basically good-natured and had a good heart, even if he was at times totally clueless.

She sighed and headed off to where she had left her other bus tray, intending to stack both together and take them in one trip to the kitchen. It was just starting to dawn upon her that she was having man-troubles like never before. In the past boys just wanted to beat her in combat to prove their worth and to force her to date them, but now that this was but a less-than-happy memory in the past she was discovering how complicated courtships really could be. She liked Ryoga and had basically gotten over the discovery that he was also her beloved pet, P-chan, but still he could drive her up the wall at times with his idiotic behavior. And now she was discovering a different kind of man who might appeal to her on a fundamental level, and the guy goes out on a date with Shampoo of all people! It just wasn't fair, and Akane was starting to feel just a little bit on edge about it.

After all, could she really be thinking about courting a guy who had those kinds of looks, that kind of charm and such a kind, generous, winning manner? Every time she looked upon Kuonji Ukyo she felt her heart begin to flutter like a butterfly, or some small cornered beast. Kuonji seemed too good to be real, and Akane kept thinking it would all turn out to be a joke somehow, or that the guy would have some dark and terrible secret that he was keeping well hidden. Surely he must already have a girlfriend somewhere, or maybe he wasn't interested in girls like her at all. She hadn't known him for all that many days since he turned up from out of no where and interfered in that fight on behalf of Ranma, and wasn't that a kick in the head! To think that somebody so cool could be a childhood friend of a perverted creep like Ranma!

As Akane came back within sight of her quarry her focus was not on her immediate surroundings. She was seeing the looks passing between Ukyo and Shampoo and thought she saw something like shared sympathy, or perhaps some other type of emotional bonding. It was clear enough to Akane's eyes that Kuonji felt on edge about something, while the look Shampoo was giving him was almost an accusation. It made Akane grit her teeth and fight the urge to go over there to break things up, but instead she stalked angrily back to the table where her other bus tray was still waiting. She deposited the tray she was carrying on top of it and started to lift them both off the table when something jarred against her leg, almost causing her to drop the whole load. It was an absolute miracle that she managed to avert a calamity of busted dishes that would surely have blown her cover!

She turned an angry glare at the guy who was wheeling the cart that had collided with her and snapped, "Watch where you're going! Are you blind or something?"

"I'm sorry," the tall man with the long black hair replied, and Akane belatedly chided herself as she saw that the fellow did, indeed, have on a pair of thick coke-bottle glasses, "I didn't see you standing there. It won't happen again."

"Uh…sure," Akane felt her anger drain away, to be replaced by a wholly different sensation. There was something about the guy…he seemed somehow familiar. She felt a prickling sensation down her spine and wondered why this fellow radiated a kind of danger by his very presence. She stood by and watched as he wheeled past her, his manner controlled and as precise as a martial artist. It took a moment for her to finally place his profile as he continued on his way, and then she gasped in realization, turning to track his motion as he was headed for the table shared by Ukyo and Shampoo.

"No!" she gasped. It all made sense to her now! Ukyo was the one who had interfered in a fight between Ranma and this guy from Shampoo's village, and now he was back to seek revenge for spoiling his chances of winning the Amazon for his bride. As Akane made this connection she saw the fellow park his cart then remove the covering to reveal a water bucket. The way he picked it up with great care and deliberation implied that it contained something dangerous, like it was some kind of a weapon. She saw him draw back with the obvious intent to splashing those contents upon Kuonji, and that was where she shook off her momentary daze and started running!

Mousse had entered the room with his quarry within sight. He had followed at a discrete distance as he had watched the others leave the Nekohanten in groups of two, one group trailing behind the other, which puzzled him briefly until he decided that they were all seeking the same goal, wherever it was that the lead boy-whom he took to be Ranma-was taking Shampoo on this occasion. He almost had not recognized the boy who had interrupted his fight with the redheaded girl who had substituted herself for the hated Saotome. Some details of that encounter were still fuzzy in his mind, but he recalled vividly the beating he had received on account of that interruption, and so it was that he concluded that the boy with Shampoo had to be the real and original Ranma!

He had only just returned to find the treacherous Saotome was making his move to seduce his Shampoo for his evil lusts, and Mousse thanked his ancestors that he had arrived in Japan at such a time. He still had a chance of winning Shampoo for himself, but first he had to eliminate a certain irritant, and without the interference of the redhead who had fought him…or anyone else for that matter, including an Elder!

So he infiltrated the restaurant, impersonating one of its employees while borrowing his jacket, then acquired what he needed and made his play to track down and deal with his hated rival. Sure enough he had located Shampoo on the first sweep of the premises sitting across from Saotome, so he went to fetch his cart and now was prepared to strike, feeling the thrill of the hunt as it finally neared its inevitable conclusion.

And then he saw what he had dreaded seeing…Shampoo was in tears! He saw the trail of water glisten from her eyes from across the length of the room, and for the first time in his short, unhappy life he was grateful at being farsighted or he might not have seen the trail of water until he was up close, which would have unmanned him completely. He headed at once towards their table like a shark smelling blood in the water, his anger boiling over within him so that he barely acknowledged the girl he had bumped into, mumbling an apology in passing while his goal remained the villainous Saotome!

He moved with almost mechanical precision as he came to a halt, then fetched the bucket that he had paid such a terrible price to obtain. He knew that Saotome was said to have a Jusenkyo curse already, but Mousse had heard the legends about the curses blending or even canceling each other out, and so had selected his revenge with great deliberation, a fitting punishment for someone who had dared to try and come between himself and the object of his desires. As the moment of delivery arrived he felt his rage boil up from within him, and he could not help himself as he declared his intent like a call to battle.

"Saotome, you swine!" he cried, and started to toss the contents of the pail towards his intended victim, only to feel something colliding against him from behind, spoiling his aim completely.

"Akane?" someone had cried from another table, even as the pair directly before him chorused the word, "Saotome?"

"No!" Mousse cried as he lost his grip upon the pail. It wasn't fair, he had almost won against Saotome! With horror he felt his glasses get knocked from his face to go flying somewhere while his weapon of choice arced up over their heads and came down in a slow trajectory, as if everything were moving at once in slow motion.

Ryoga had heard what sounded like Nabiki call out Akane's name and turned in time to see the youngest Tendo girl tackling some guy dressed up like a waiter. He saw a bucket soar up to nearly brush the ceiling, and then come down again with the slow pull of inevitability towards its new unintended victim.

Nabiki got up from her chair with a horrified expression as Ranma just began to turn around and see the bucket falling towards Akane. They were all witnesses as it upended itself and spilled its contents over the short-haired girl's head, and for one single moment Akane had a look of surprise in her expression…and then she disappeared from sight, collapsing into her borrowed clothing.

"Akane!" Ryoga launched himself across the room, praying like never before that the bucket had not contained what he knew in his heart must have been Jusenkyo water.

"Akane!" Nabiki all but echoed his tone of distress, seeing her sister disappear to be replaced by a struggling lump inside what had been the uniform of a bus boy.

"Akane?" Ranma gasped, slow to realize what had just occurred, only to be equally appalled as he groaned, "Oh no…not her too?"

"Akane?" Shampoo stared in disbelief at what had just happened, and so did Ukyo, who was the last to understand what she had just witnessed.

"No!" Mousse cried, startling them all from where he lay sprawled upon the floor next to the cart, "I was so close!"

"Mousse?" Ranma had started to cry, then they all turned to see the form that shook itself free from the discarded clothing.

Akane was wondering what it was that had just happened to her. One minute she was defending Ukyo, the next something had landed on her and gotten her wet, and then something truly strange had occurred as a chill went through her soul, and she felt her body begin to experience its first transformation.

All at once her world had collapsed inward as though she were Alice in Wonderland falling down through the rabbit hole. All at once she found herself covered over in a net of some kind and it was dark all around her. She couldn't move her arms or legs and had to fight her way out, but a source of light offered to her as one end of the tarp gave her some hope of struggling free from her prison. The moment she managed to slip through the hole she found herself looking up from floor level at many astonished faces all around her, including that of her sister. Akane tried waving her hands to assure everyone that she was feeling all right, but they seemed strange and unwieldy for some reason. She opened her mouth to ask what was wrong and why did she suddenly feel this way, but the only sound that escaped from her was something utterly unexpected.

"Quack?"

"Akane?" Nabiki was looking down at her with an expression of abject horror.

"Aw geez!" Ranma exclaimed, his own expression one of contrite sympathy and regret.

"Akane!" all at once Ryoga was down on his hands and knees before her, staring at her with dismay written clear in his expression. He gathered her up into his arms, and she was horrified upon discovering how huge he appeared to her now. She turned and looked up at him, her nose…no! Her beak all but touching his nose!

"No!" she turned at the sound of the one who had splashed her with the bucket, seeing him get up off the floor with an angry declaration, "I won't be stopped now! Not after what I went through to achieve my vengeance!"

Vengeance? Akane glanced down at herself and saw feathers where she should have been skin. Her neck was incredibly flexible now and she could turn to look all the way around to see the wings that were now enclosed by Ryoga's powerful arms. It was slowly starting to dawn on her that she wasn't a human being any more, and there was only one thing that she knew of which could change a person to a thing with the splash of cold water.

Jusenkyo water! The guy had been intending to splash Ukyo but he had gotten her instead! All at once she felt like fainting, laughing and crying at one and the same instant. The creep had actually cursed her, like Ryoga and Shampoo! It was almost too much for her to take in all at once, and the sensory overload left her momentarily stunned and utterly helpless.

She did not see when Mousse went to the cart and pulled out yet another bucket that was full of ice and contained a unopened bottle of wine. He tossed the bottle aside and held up the bucket with the declaration, "I'm not beaten yet! I prepared for just such a contingency with a second bucket of water! Stay back or I'll use it!"

"Not if Shampoo pound you first, Mousse!" Shampoo angrily declared, "How dare you do this to Akane!"

"You…unbelievable creep!" Ukyo snarled, her hand suddenly full of her trademark throwing spatulas.

"Bastard!" Ranma snarled, "I'm gonna pound you into next week for this, you baka!"

Mousse merely sneered in contempt and kicked the cart directly into Ranma's path as he started to charge forward, then whirled about and aimed his second bucket in the direction of the blurry shape he felt certain was Saotome. As it so happened he did indeed have Ukyo dead in his sights, but before the water could strike at her Shampoo threw herself at Kuonji and knocked her to the floor. Unfortunately in doing so she fell victim to the water, which splashed against her backside.

"Aiyeee!!!" Shampoo started to cry out, falling to the floor as she began her transformation.

All at once a tablecloth was thrown over her body, catching her before she could complete her fall, and then Lotion the Elder eased her light burden gently to the floor and said, "I have you, Warrior! Never fear, I will assist you!"

Mousse was staring stupidly at the blobs that he could not quite make out directly before him when he felt the wrath of Cologne's staff against the back of his thick head, knocking him momentarily senseless, though the aged Matriarch had fought the temptation to instantly kill the boy on the spot. Instead she turned to regard Akane and sighed, seeing a waterfowl in Ryoga's grasp such as would normally grace a dinner plate special.

"Alas," she said, "We've come too late. My sincerest apologies for my failure, my apprentice."

"Quack?" Akane asked, then glanced towards the bundle in the arms of the ancient Lore Master.

"Shampoo?" Nabiki broke free from her own dismay to rush up alongside her mentor as she said, "Shampoo…what happened?"

"A very good question," Cologne replied, hearing Lotion begin to croon strange words in their native language, "Apparently young Mousse has recently been to Jusenkyo."

"Well duh!" Ranma said as he joined Nabiki and Ukyo in anxious witness to the actions of the Lore Master, "Is Shampoo gonna be all right?"

Cologne heaved a sigh and said gravely, "I don't know. She has been struck by a second Jusenkyo curse. This is a very rare event, and extremely dangerous to her mental state and welfare. You see, the curses all draw from the same source, and so they sometimes can blend together, or even cancel each other out. In this case I think the blending has created a very unstable situation in which Shampoo's cursed form is now in a state of semi-temporal flux."

"What does that mean?" Ukyo demanded.

"It means that her cursed form is now subject to alteration," Cologne explained, "Only what will be the ultimate outcome I dare not say. It is up to Lotion now to stabilize her new pattern."

"The curses blend?" Ranma gasped, "Did you just say they can be used to cancel each other out?"

"I did," Cologne replied, then waved her staff as if to emphasize the point, "But before you ask, it is not so easy to achieve as you might think. There is a strange quality about Jusenkyo that confounds the attempts of a cursed victim to find the place for a second time. If it was so easy to cure yourself by dousing yourself in the opposite kind of water it would have been used more often to mitigate the more extreme cases. If you tried to find the pool of Nanniichuan to counteract the affects of Nyaniichuan it might take you several years before you actually get there."

"Why is that?" Nabiki asked.

"I don't really know," Cologne sighed, "My guess is that whatever charges Jusenkyo has a purpose for selectively cursing certain people. Hundreds of visitors over the centuries have been drawn to the place for one reason or another, and many of them have received a variety of curses that have actually in some strange way helped intensify their martial arts training. This was why the springs were often used by Amazons of old as a special training ground, or a place of punishment for severe transgressions. Of late it has been used less and less often for that purpose after the High Council declared that it was to be avoided for all but the most extreme of instances."

"But you can use Jusenkyo water to cure a curse, right?" Nabiki asked with an anxious note of hope in her voice.

"I believe that I have just said so," Cologne replied shortly.

"Matriarch," Lotion spoke up as she ended her sing-song, "I have stabilized your great granddaughter, but we need to find secure quarters for the second part of my counter-spell."

"I have just the place in mind," Cologne hobbled over to the side of her fellow Elder, pausing to glance back at the sprawled form of Mousse with contempt plain in her expression, "Consider yourself fortunate, boy, that I owe a favor to your great grandmother, else you would not live to see another sunrise."

And with that angry declaration she turned back towards Lotion, who used her free hand to wave her staff, and all at once the air around them swirled and congealed, and then they vanished from the restaurant.

"Kami-sama," Ukyo's shoulders sagged, "This is all my fault…"

"Huh?" Ranma glanced at her, "What makes you say that?"

"It was me he was aiming for!" Ukyo declared, "First Akane, then Shampoo…they both got cursed trying to save me!"

"It wasn't your fault, Ucchan," Ranma tried to reassure her, only to start at the cry of outrage that came from Ryoga.

"The hell it wasn't his fault!" the lost boy snarled, still clutching Akane in his arms, "They were trying to save you, only they're the ones who wound up having to pay for it! I'm gonna kill this creep for doing this to Akane, and then I'm gonna come after you and make you pay, I swear it!"

Ukyo actually backed up a half-step as she recoiled from the accusation, but Ranma put himself between her and Ryoga and growled, "Look, this ain't Ucchan's fault! It was that Mousse who did this to Akane and Shampoo! If you're gonna blame anyone, blame him, but leave Ukyo out of this!"

"Why?" Nabiki turned to glare towards Kuonji, "Ryoga has a valid point. My sister and Shampoo both got cursed because of Kuonji, and I think it's about time that somebody came clean on a little matter that you've been withholding, Ukyo."

"Huh?" Ranma said with a narrowing of eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Ryoga demanded.

"Quack?" inquired Akane.

"She's right," Ukyo sighed, "I haven't been honest with you, Ranchan. I've had my reasons…but that's just not a good enough excuse anymore. You see…the truth is that…"

"HEY, you there!" cried the Head Waiter as he stormed angrily into the room, "What the hell is going on here? Are you trying to wreck my business?"

"Uh oh," Ranma said, "I think we're gonna have to do some explaining."

"It's not our fault, sir," Ryoga started to say, "This man attacked one of the guests and…"

"Man?" Hung Lo growled, "What man are you talking about, boy?"

"He…?" Ryoga started to indicate the recumbent Mousse, only the Chinese boy was no longer on the floor.

"Hey," Ranma cried, "Where did he…?"

"Right here!" announced Mousse from the opposite end of the room.

"Wha-?" Nabiki started to gasp when she was suddenly wrapped up in chains and being hauled through the air like a yo-yo. She suddenly found herself being dangled by Mousse, who was backing up towards the exit.

"Nobody move!" Mousse cried, "I'm taking Shampoo and leaving here right now!"

"What?" Ryoga gasped.

"Quack!" Akane protested.

"You Jackass…!" Ukyo exclaimed in disbelief.

"But that's not…!" Ranma started to say, only to halt in his tracks as he saw Nabiki wince as the chains about her tightened.

"Not another move, any of you!" Mousse cried, holding up a ball in his free hand as he declared, "We're leaving!"

He brought the globe down and it produced a cloud of smoke that engulfed the Chinese boy and the middle Tendo daughter.

"Oh no you don't!" Ukyo cried as she and Ranma both jumped into the smoke together, only to have it dissipate with no sign of their missing quarry.

"Nabiki!" Ranma cried in anger and dismay, "Nabiki!!!"

"What's this?" Ukyo asked as she caught a slip of paper that drifted down into her hand. She held it up for Ranma to see, and together as one they chorused, "I don't believe it!"

"What?" Ryoga asked as he came up to join them.

Ukyo turned it for him to see, and now all three of them read the paper that advertised a Chinese traveling circus that was in town for a three-day performance. It boasted the usual array of carnival attractions, but the one that caught everyone's attention was the large-captioned announcement of "One of The Eight Wonders of the World," a trained animal performance in which a duck was displayed with a lady in the picture strapped to a wheel as the duck hurled knives at her…a duck that looked suspiciously a lot like the one in Ryoga's arms, only he wore a pair of form-fitting glasses.

"A challenge letter?" Ukyo hazarded.

"With Nabiki as his hostage," Ranma growled menacingly.

"It sounds almost like a trap," Ryoga said, "It's like he's daring us to go get her."

"Quack!" cried the duck in Ryoga's arms.

"If you're going to be acting this way, boy," said the headwaiter, "Then the least you could do is to take that thing back to the kitchen for plucking. We have an order at table three and…"

Ryoga did not reply verbally to the suggestion, but Hung Lo fast discovered the meaning of the phrase, "low earth orbit."

As the three martial artists (and duck) took their leave of the restaurant one of the patrons timidly poked up his head from behind a table and asked, "Is it all right to clap now? They never told me this place had live entertainment…"

"There you are, child," Nodoka said pleasantly, "I was hoping I might be able to trouble you for some extra pillows. I'm not used to sleeping on such a comfortable bed and…"

"Of course, Auntie," Kasumi replied with unusual haste to her tone and a nervousness that had not been there before, "I'll get you anything you like. Our home is your home, and anything I can do to make you feel at ease…ah…at home here…"

"Is something wrong, child?" Nodoka asked, "You seem a little tense all of a sudden."

"Oh no, nothing's wrong," Kasumi assured her, "Don't be silly, what could possibly be wrong?"

"I suppose you're right," Nodoka smiled at her, "To tell you the truth I'm a bit excited myself at the thought that I'm finally about to be reunited with my son and husband. I do hope Ranma has been taking care of himself and eating the right foods. I want so much to believe that he has grown into the kind of man my husband promised me he would be…"

"Oh, he is," Kasumi hastily replied, "He has…oh dear! What I mean to say is that Ranma is very manly…very, very manly, a real man among men, and so very manly about his…ah…manliness…"

"You think so?" Nodoka replied with lifted eyebrows, "Oh, I do hope you're right, Kasumi-chan. You see…it's very important to me to know that my son has grown to be a man…and to think that he has two women for fiancées! What a man he must be to attract and hold their interest!"

"You think so?" Kasumi asked in surprise, "Ah…I mean…you don't think it makes him less manly that he has my sister and Shampoo at the same time?"

"Well," Nodoka said pleasantly, "Tell me this, do the two girls get along, or are they terribly jealous of one another, always getting into fights?"

"Ah…" Kasumi thought about it and replied, "Actually I don't think I've ever really seen them fight. Nabiki was jealous of Shampoo for a while, but nowadays they do seem to be getting along a lot better…"

"That's good," Nodoka smiled, "Because my son will need to prove himself if he's to be a fit husband to an Amazon, and with two women to pick from he's bound to have lots of children. I do so want to be a grandmother while I'm still young enough to enjoy it."

"Ah…" Kasumi replied carefully, "Okay…"

"I can't wait to meet your sister," Nodoka continued on with pleasant enthusiasm, "Can you tell me what she's like? Is she a martial artist, or has she taken on other aspects of my dear, departed friend, Kimiko?"

"Er…" Kasumi thought about it with unusual deliberation before she answered, "I'm not sure in what sense she might be like our mother, but Nabiki is very smart, very frugal, very good with money, in fact…very good at acquiring it, and without her…well, it would have been a lot harder to manage after Father stopped taking in students."

"Ah," Nodoka said fondly, "Kimiko-chan was good with money. Of course she loved to spend it when she had it, but she never bought frivolous things. She could be quite sensible in some matters and in others…well…she had quite a temper, but she dearly loved your father…" she sighed, "I do miss her, even if we didn't speak that often over the years. There was a time when we were very close as young girls, back when your father and my Genma were a couple of handsome rogues being pursued by all the ladies…"

"You mean by Silk?" Kasumi asked, fascinated in spite of her modest desire not to probe too intimately into her father's personal life.

"Well, Silk was among the primary candidates," Nodoka said, "Of course there was also that Ninja woman, and the sorceress, but they never really held a candle next to your mother. In a way I suppose Silk was her primary rival because she knew Soun before your mother. It was an arranged marriage between your parents, you see, just as mine was with Genma, and if family honor had not been involved…well…I at least try to think well of Atsuko and Comb. As a matter of fact I'm just as eager to meet her daughter as I am to become acquainted with your younger sister. Just think, two daughters-in-law! If Ranma chooses to wed both of them, well…I'd hardly raise objections."

"But…is that legal?" Kasumi wondered.

"Perhaps not technically," Nodoka admitted, "But in the days of the Samurai it was quite common for a man to have more than one woman living in his house. Ranma could marry your sister and still have Comb's daughter for a consort, and according to Amazon traditions she would be technically married to them both, so I don't see how there could be any legal problems if they cohabitate together. I'll still wind up with grandchildren, and the union of our families will be complete with a strong heir for the Anything Goes school."

"Ah…" Kasumi said carefully, "I guess when you put it that way, Auntie…"

"I wonder how much this Shampoo takes after her mother?" Nodoka mused, "Comb was quite the spitfire in her day, and while she often denied being in love with Genma, I could tell she held him close to her heart. I was very jealous of her beauty, but now I'm glad to see that she has kept her good looks over these many years. That only leaves the question of what happened to our other rivals, particularly Hibiki Atsuko…"

"Hibiki Atsuko?" now Kasumi was having greater difficulty concealing her growing surprise over these disturbing revelations.

"Ah yes," Nodoka smiled, "Now there was a problem child, and yet I know she had no hesitation about expressing her desire for my husband. She took the news pretty hard when he left her to marry me…oh my…it must be very close to nineteen years now. You don't forget a person who makes that much of an impression in our lives all that easily, I'm afraid. But now I suppose it's all just ancient history, and I'm probably boring you with all my stories. Now, about that tea…"

"Oh, ah, yes…oh my," Kasumi shook herself out of the curious daze that she had fallen into and started to turn towards the kitchen when a bright flash drew their attention to another part of the living room where two gnarled old figures appeared, one clutching a cloth-wrapped bundle in her arms as they hopped off the tea table and headed for the hallway.

"Pardon us for dropping by so suddenly," Lotion said briskly without more than a glance towards Kasumi, "We need to borrow your furo to take care of something important."

"Nodoka," Cologne turned to look at the gentle-mannered woman with no real surprise in her expression and voice, "It has been a while."

"Matriarch Cologne?" Nodoka blinked, then glanced at the other moving figure, "Was that Elder Lotion with you?"

"Excuse us," Cologne called out over her shoulder, "I do not mean to be abrupt, but we have a crisis on our hands and must attend to important business."

"Oh," Kasumi said, "Well, of course, if you need anything…"

"We will not hesitate to call upon for your services, Tendo Kasumi," Lotion's voice called back before the two old women vanished into the bathroom down the hallway.

"Oh my," Nodoka said with no little amusement, "Does that ever bring back memories. They're just like I remember."

Kasumi only blinked her eyes at that, then decided it was a very good idea to turn right around and head to the kitchen for some serious tea making…

Nabiki's Journal Resumes:

All right, I'll admit this wasn't one of my better days. Bad enough to see my sister get cursed before my eyes defending my nominal rival under the mistaken impression that it was a "pretty boy" whom she was protecting, and almost equally bad was watching Shampoo sacrifice herself for that selfsame "boy" while I stood by helpless, but to be grabbed up in chains and kidnapped by that half-blind Chinese lunatic was almost the perfect capper for the day. This is well before the other trouble started, of course, but at the time that it was going on I was beginning to feel a bit more than a little put upon by the kami.

So there I was dangling high above the floor with a cage looming just below me, suspended by that chain that encircled my arms from a canvas ceiling in a darkened tent that had only one old-fashioned oil lamp providing illumination. As if being hung up like a piece of meat to bait the trap that was being set wasn't bad enough it was the idea that it was nothing more than a case of mistaken identity that got me into this mess that was helping me to feel more than a little bit devalued. I mean, at least when the bad guys kidnap you they should have the decency to get your name right, right?

Okay, so I wasn't in the best of moods, and that idiot Mousse was rambling on about how sorry he was and that I would eventually forgive him once he'd taken Ranma out of the picture. He kept calling me Shampoo, a fact I tried to disabuse him of to no avail, at which point I concluded that the boy wasn't dealing with a full deck and was referring to me as Shampoo because his mind could not cope with the knowledge that he had accidentally splashed the target of his obsession with Jusenkyo water.

Personally I was ready to kill the idiot on the spot, but being the helpless victim type meant that I had to suffer through his monologue until he finally wound down like a watch spring, at which point he went from vehement rambling to soulful self-pity. I decided to play along with his psychosis in the hopes of finding a useful chink that I could use to my advantage, as much as it was to give Ranma and the others time enough to find me, at which point I hoped that I would be able to formulate a plan to help us win without anyone else-meaning me-winding up as a further casualty of Mousse's rampage.

What I managed to learn in the next few minutes was…to be fair…quite telling. It seems that Mousse grew up a lonely child with a defect that made him a source of shame and pity even to his parents. His bad eyesight had required the prescription of heavy glasses to correct at a tender age, and like children the world over he was marked for name-calling and cruel pranks. "Four-Eyes" would have been a kinder insult than what many children did call him, but it seemed he gained a defender when Shampoo happened along one day and witnessed one such incident of humiliation. An infant Shampoo, perhaps no more than three or four years old, had driven off the bullies then helped the boy to his feet, telling him he should not feel so bad about himself and that she thought he had very lovely eyes, words of kindness that affected the lonely Mousse far more than Shampoo had intended. The two became friends for a time, but Mousse became possessive and tried to challenge Shampoo for her hand in marriage. She defeated him quite easily, but seemed to take it in stride that he would keep trying as they got older. Unfortunately on one such incident he had made the mistake of trying to accost her without his glasses and wound up embracing a pig by mistake, declaring his love for Shampoo in such a way that the girl had been humiliated and insulted.

That began the rift that grew over the years where Mousse would continue to launch sneak attacks against Shampoo, all of them rebuffed with increasing levels of violence. Mousse had, by this time, gained a mentor who instructed him in the art of Blind Fighting and "Dark Magic." Since Mousse is virtually blind and cannot discern objects ten feet away from him with any clarity he had to learn how to sense an opponent who came within striking range, hence his mastery of the White Swan "Crane" technique that he had used so effectively against Ranma. For primary defensive purposes, however, he had been taught to turn his liability into his greatest strength, for Mousse could make out objects with far greater detail if they stood fifteen to fifty feet away from him, and so he mastered the ability to hurl weapons with stunning accuracy while other boys his age were still learning their alphabet. Mousse also mastered the incredible ability to "conceal" objects upon his person without normal regards to time, space and mass conservation. He was literally a walking hardware store, and I was very much surprised that he did not clank when he moved but was very light on his feet and as graceful as a dancer.

All of this made him very formidable in the Amazon village, but though he became the strongest male fighter among the Nyanchiczu, still it did not win him the affections of the woman he most desired. Try as he might he just could not improve his techniques to achieve the same level that she did under the influence of her great grandmother. Worse still Cologne disapproved of any possible union between their houses, holding to a rivalry that was old when she and Mousse's great grandmother were young children. In Mousse's mind the old woman "poisoned" Shampoo's mind against him and made it all but impossible for him to gain her love, which he convinced himself would come in time once he had forced her into marriage.

Mousse was contrite enough to concede that he probably had never gone all out to win Shampoo, that the idea of hurting her to win her love bothered him as an obvious self-contradiction, but still he was certain that it was the only way to happiness, and so he intended to win her love in the traditional manner. He would show everyone that he was not a weakling, an ugly duckling, but rather a swan whom they should all acknowledge for what he was, a prince who would wed his childhood sweetheart and live blissfully content in the house of his parents. That would prove to everyone that he was a man worthy of respect rather than ridicule and insults. They would come to regret his former humiliation, and he could live on with Shampoo into their twilight years as Shampoo replaced Cologne as the Matriarch and took him on as her advisor, guiding the destiny of Joketsuzoku as they sailed on to a bright and happy future.

It was about the time when he was fanaticizing about children when I was getting desperate for some means of escape. The boy was slowly losing it before my eyes and I did not want to be present when he finally figured out that I wasn't his dream girl but Ranma's other girlfriend. From the way he had been savaging Ranma with words before I wasn't exactly keen to know what he would make of a girl whom Shampoo had the cute habit of referring to as her other "Airen."

Of course I couldn't help but be touched in a way by the boy's plight. I mean, I've known what loneliness is like, and what other kids can do to you when they perceive you as being "different." I may have had Kasumi for a mother-figure and Akane for a childhood playmate, but over time the differences between us had grown so severe that I'd begun to wonder if we truly were related. The things I've done over the years to put food on our table and pay the bills haven't exactly made me popular among my school-aged peers, and it was very hard to find anyone whom I could relate to on an intellectual level. In spite of my having grown close to Ranma there still remains that gap between our fundamental outlooks on life, like the fact that I'm an "A" student while he barely passes most of his courses. I have one or two friends in school, but that's it as far as it comes to social contacts.

Yet given all of that I've had it easy when compared to the kind of loneliness Mousse has always suffered. I wasn't at all surprised that he ran away from home at the age of fourteen in order to train himself to be a better martial artist, to try in vain to impress the one person he thought would make the difference in his lonely existence. Small wonder the guy has such ego problems! Next to him Ranma is a pillar of stability, while Mousse feels like he has to prove himself to everyone and only winds up alienating the very people he is trying to impress. No wonder the guy has such a large chip on his shoulder, the only person I know who's nearly as isolated as him is Ryoga!

Okay, enough with the Stockholm Syndrome, the plain fact was that I was feeling pretty scared because Mousse started lowering me into the cage as soon as he'd finished up with his monologue. He locked me into the glass-covered casing while he assured me not to worry, that everything would work out and that I would thank him in the long run. I was still wearing the kimono Ranma had given me but I'd long ago lost my footwear, so I was beginning to feel just a little bit like a Magician's assistant as he wheeled me out into the main tent, where I'd been hearing cheers and applause from what sounded like many hundreds of people.

I've never been one to admire being in the spotlight, so I guess you can suspect how exposed I was feeling when I found myself at the center of a three-ring circus being positioned underneath some kind of arrangement of tubing that looked ominous and promised rather starkly that I would not like hearing the attached explanation. I began to wonder if maybe Mousse had a hidden supply of Jusenkyo water because there was a large vat of the stuff at the top end of the doohickey, and I had a very nasty suspicion of where it was shortly to be directed.

Okay, that's the part where I started to thrash around and act the part of the helpless damsel. I mean, it's one thing to witness other people being cursed or living with their curses, it's quite another thing when you're the one being threatened with a curse. After all, I think I'd look positively silly with feathers, and who wants a beak for a mouth, or webbed feet for that matter? It was obvious that-mistaken identity or no-Mousse was fully prepared to curse me like Akane had been cursed just to lure Ranma out into the open. I can't tell you exactly what thoughts ran through my mind as I sat there looking up at the water spout over my head, but you can take my word for it that those thoughts were anything but pretty!

Thank the Kami Ranma and the others did arrive when they could, just barely in the nick of time, and Akane was with them, restored to human shape and as mad as I've ever seen her!

I won't go into a blow-by-blow of the fight that followed, except to say that it turned out that Mousse was bluffing about cursing me. He'd kept his supply of real Jusenkyo water in reserve and tried to use it once again on Ukyo, who managed to block with her spatula (where she had managed to acquire it on the run I'm not asking), while Akane intercepted another shot aimed at Ranma. Being already cursed she just suffered turning back into a duck again, only now she attacked Mousse in that form, and the boy had to make a hasty retreat before getting splashed himself and joining her in duck form.

Oh yeah, I guess I should explain that I'd already figured out that Mousse had previously acquired his own Jusenkyo curse. His talk about us being "mated to one form" was a dead giveaway. Duck or no, however, he managed to find some hot water pretty quick before trapping Akane with a net, then cornering Ukyo by releasing a tiger from its cage. Ryoga went over to assist him and the two of them combined efforts to try and keep the giant "kitty" from running amok in a room full of people.

That just left him and Ranma, who had wasted no time freeing me from glass prison. I was so grateful and relieved at seeing him again that you'd think I would have thanked him properly instead of venting my fury and frustration with a cry like, "What took you so long!"

"Sorry," he said, "We were scanning the whole circus before we got somebody to tell us where you were. This place ain't exactly friendly to locals."

Well, I was ready to forgive him then and there, but Mousse had to cut into our action by proclaiming his intent to finally rid himself of all obstacles between him and me…I mean, Shampoo, of course.

Ranma imposed himself between us and growled, "You idiot! You cursed Shampoo when you attacked her in the restaurant!"

"Lies!" Mouse angrily declared, unleashing another onslaught of heavy weaponry from those limitless pockets he keeps hidden somewhere up his sleeves.

Ranma shoved me rudely to the ground as he dodged and deflected this attack, but Mousse did not let up and kept on attacking. At this point I had taken more than I could stand from the both of them and got to my feet with my body literally trembling with anger. I don't know exactly what it was I felt right then, but it was like something opened up within my mind, letting out a kind of demon rage I had never felt or experienced before, and while Mousse was distracted trying to take out Ranma he was momentarily exposed to me, so when I struck it was without either effort or warning.

I'm not sure exactly what I did, only that I acted without thinking from either instinct or pure reflex. I wasn't physically close enough to do anything, but I felt as if a part of my self coiled up like a serpent and unleashed itself like a spring, striking Mousse from behind and staggering him into Ranma, who took advantage of the moment to deliver an upper-cut that knocked Mousse flying backwards.

As quickly as the anger flared up in me it faded out like a spent matchstick, and all at once I started to feel weak as the proverbial kitten. I sagged to the floor and heard Ranma calling out to me by name, and the next thing I know he's bent over me asking if I'm feeling all right and did something hit me.

"I…don't know," I murmured weakly, "I just feel…a little tired…"

That was the moment that I saw something I never would have believed that I would see in this life. Ranma's blue eyes suddenly welled up with tears as if an emotional gate had been let loose inside him. I think I might have been imagining things but he started to glow in my vision, taking on a bluish cast as if an overwhelming sorrow were manifesting within him.

Then he looked up as Mousse staggered back into my peripheral view, muttering something like, "I'm not beaten yet! Shampoo will be mine!" which is about the point that my iinazuke must have lost it.

I remember Ranma gently setting me down then standing to his full height and gazing at Mousse with what has to have been the scariest expression I've ever seen him wear. It was more than anger, it was righteous fury, and as I stared in disbelief the glow about him shifted from blue to bright red, having only briefly cruised through the purple shades so that he was now radiating heat and light like a neon sign had lit up behind him. He advanced two steps and his hand rocketed forward as if it were jet propelled, and when his fist collided with Mousse there was a bright spark that almost blinded me. I winced internally as the force recoiled within my mind, flaring briefly with the sense of much pain that was shortly smothered by blissful non-awareness.

Then Ranma slowly returned to normal, and my vision cleared. I felt my strength begin to return to me almost at once, and so when he offered me a hand I didn't hesitate to accept it. I of course turned to see where Mousse had been standing a moment before but all I could see was what looked like a large hole that had been torn in the tent canvas. Judging by the angle I estimated that the Chinese Boy had just taken a one-way aerial trip back to his native homeland.

By this point Ukyo and Ryoga had managed to re-cage the tiger, so that was another problem area that had been effectively put to rest. Ryoga freed Akane from the net then made a point of finding her clothing so that he had both in hand while the rest of us began to come down from the high tension that had dominated the moment. The audience, of course, applauded, thinking that we were all part of the circus act while the Ringmaster politely came up and asked us to leave before he called security. We all, by mutual consent, decided that this was a good point to take our leave of the place, so in good order we found ourselves walking back from the outskirts of Nerima, in my case barefoot.

Just as we were within a few blocks of home, however, Ranma stopped us and asked if Ryoga would run on ahead and see that Akane got a bath to restore her to full human. He wanted to talk to Ukyo and me alone, then waited until the lost boy was out of earshot (I won't even speculate on where Ryoga and Akane did wind up since I didn't see either of them until much later) he turned to us and said, "Okay, now maybe we can have that explanation."

"Explanation?" I replied rather weakly.

"Don't play dumb, Nabiki," Ranma said with a cross expression, "I told you before I ain't stupid. I wasn't sure until now if you knew the truth and was hiding it from me or if you'd been fooled just like I was for a while there." He turned a cross expression and glared at Ukyo before adding, "Right, ol' Buddy?"

Ukyo-who was dressed in her warrior gear instead of the suit she had been wearing at dinner-seemed to deflate immediately as she looked sheepishly at Ranma and asked, "How long have you known?"

"I started to suspect something back in the hills," Ranma replied, "But I figured it out just yesterday. I didn't say nothing 'cause I figured you wanted to tell me yourself but was holding back for some reason. What I didn't know was that you knew about it, Nabiki."

"Ah…" I replied, or something to that effect.

"Ranchan…" Ukyo began to say, and I could feel the tension and sorrow in her voice.

"Y'know," Ranma said simply, "With my problem you'd think I'd have picked up it a lot sooner, but it all made sense after Shampoo's mother explained stuff to me, about the differences between guys and girls. I dunno why any girl would want to dress herself up and pretend to be a guy, but I'll bet a year's worth of ramen it's got something to do with the old man."

"You know?" I gasped, which was really very insightful for my part.

"What else could it be," Ranma heaved a sigh, no longer sounding as upset as before as he looked at Ukyo, "Almost everything that's ever gone wrong in my life has had Pop at the center. That deal he made with your father…it wasn't just a simple case of adoption, was it?"

"No," Ukyo swallowed, "The deal was that, in exchange for my father's yatai, your dad was supposed to take me with you as your iinazuke."

I saw Ranma's mouth fall open, and then he softly murmured, "Ucchan…?"

"But it's all right," Ukyo raised her hands to deflect whatever else he might have said next, "I've already decided to call it off. I mean…I was angry with you for abandoning me, and for ten years I nursed such a grudge, but when I finally met you and got the real story…I felt so incredibly stupid. I never should have let my dad do that to you, Ranchan…Ranma. It was all a big mistake and I'm so very, very sorry…"

"But…why?" Ranma asked, turning a look at me as he added, "You knew about this?"

"It's not her fault," Ukyo said, "I asked her not to tell you. There's this complication involving my father's will…he wanted me to either marry you or avenge myself for being abandoned, but I'm not gonna make you marry me that way, Ranchan. I won't have you on those terms. You're such a nice guy…you deserve a lot better."

"Ucchan?" he asked in a softer tone of voice that echoed the tones of my own thoughts about that moment.

"I mean…look at you two," Ukyo indicated us both with a single gesture, "Anybody with eyes can tell you two were meant to be together. I can't compete with that, and I'm not even gonna try. I made my mind up about that a couple days ago coming down from the hills, and I guess…but I guess I just couldn't bring myself to totally let you go. I was afraid you were going to hate me when you learned the truth, Ranma, and I couldn't stand that!"

"You shoulda told me," Ranma said, turning a look my way that was almost an accusation, "Didn't I have a right to know about this?"

I flinched. This was the moment that I had been dreading for weeks, and now that it was upon us all I could say was, "I…I thought…I…"

"She thought she was protecting you, Ranchan," Ukyo said, "She thought it would hurt your honor if you knew that you had an obligation towards me, that it might…put extra stress on you, and even I could see you were under a lot of strain what with being forced to marry Shampoo, and that old woman locking you in your girl form."

"Protecting me?" Ranma whispered, only this time when he looked my way I didn't flinch, I stood my ground and tried to muster some semblance of my old defiance.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I thought it was for the best. I was trying to figure a way of getting you off the hook while we tried to think of how to explain things…"

"You were protecting my honor?" Ranma asked, then his tone hardened as he added, "What makes you think I would have gone through with this?"

"Past experience," Ukyo and I chorused together.

"Who else was in on this?" he asked narrowly, "Did Shampoo know about it?"

"Almost from the start," Ukyo admitted, "She's a sharp one, that girl, and I hope she'll be all right. It was all my fault that things happened the way they did back there…"

"Really?" Ranma asked, "Funny thing, I thought it was Mousse who attacked you."

"And Shampoo paid the price for defending me," Ukyo squared her shoulder and said, "I owe her for that. Whatever you guys may think about me, Ranchan, I never betray a friend or let a debt go unpaid. If it wasn't for her…I'd be the one sprouting feathers."

"So," Ranma turned back to look at me and said, "You guys have both been keeping secrets from me, huh? Thought we agreed we were gonna do that anymore after Ryoga…"

"This predates that agreement," I at once said, but almost immediately I dropped that objection, "You're right, it was stupid and thoughtless. I should never have kept the truth from you, Ranma…"

"That's right," he said, "You shouldn't."

I felt a slight bristling of temper at the presumption in his tone, but before I could say something that might probably have resulted in an argument Ukyo came to my rescue once again and said, "I was going to tell you, but I wanted Nabiki to give me the chance to say it first, so don't take it out on her, okay? It's my fault, my screw up, my screwed up life, not hers…"

"I know," Ranma said, then shrugged, "Ah, forget about it! I'm too tired to get worked up about this business. You'd think after living so long with the old man I'd be used to bein' lied to, I just didn't expect it to come from you guys."

I winced at that, and I'm pretty sure Kuonji did too, because the next words out of her mouth were a pledge, "It won't happen again, Ranma. I swear I'll never lie to you for as long as I live. You're off the hook with me for marriage, and I'll try and square things out with my father."

"Your old man giving you grief?" he asked, and was rewarded by seeing Ukyo roll her eyes towards the heavens.

"He always wanted a son," Ukyo replied, "He figured I should be married off to you because you and me hit off so well when we were kids…as if that was a good indication that we should be married. I…kind of liked to fantasize, but now I know that's not gonna happen."

"You sure about that?" he asked, and from his tone and expression I think he was joking (at least he had better have been kidding!), especially when he added, "Maybe I might be able to squeeze you in after all."

"Why you…!" Ukyo made a mock-punch at his arm, which was easily deflected as Ranma threw an identical punch that was blocked in an identical manner. The two of them smiled then and embraced like old friends, then Ukyo let go of Ranma and said, "You take care of yourself, Ranchan. I'll be back in a few days, after I take care of some business."

"Where are you going?" I asked as she started to take her leave from us.

"I gotta talk to some people," Ukyo replied, "I'm gonna try and make things right for everyone, Ranchan. You just watch me. A Kuonji always pays her debts, to both you, Shampoo and Akane. Don't tell her the truth about me just yet, I'll want to say something to her when I get back to you later."

And so she walked off into the night, leaving the two of us to our thoughts. She had winked at me in the end, which I wasn't sure how to take, but for some peculiar reason I had a feeling she meant every word of her declaration. It rang with sincerity, which was why I found myself worrying at her intentions.

Ranma heaved a sigh and said, "Man, I can't believe it. She's so much like a guy, but in a way she's also kinda pretty."

I looked at him with a puzzled expression, which he at once caught as he waved his hands at me in a disarming manner and said, "I mean, pretty for a girl, that is. I mean…I can't see why anyone would think she was a guy, even if she does dress up like that."

"Meaning what?" I asked, crossing my arms under my chest and adopting my best neutral expression.

"Ah…" Ranma started to say, when all at once something came hurtling out of the night, startling us both out of our reverie, though in my case it was the alarm brought about by an oncoming collision.

I started to turn from reflex when all at once my face was filled with the sight of Shampoo-Neko coming right for me, and then she hit and I went down in a heap. I found myself clutching at her furry face as she started to lick me and meow for me while Ranma stood off to one side, no doubt having a brief attack of his Alurophobia before making the identification.

"Sh-Shampoo?" he asked, his voice openly a question.

"Gah!" I said as I forced Shampoo to back off so I could look at her and confirm that she was all right in spite of her ordeal, and that was when I got my first hint that something was very different about my "pet kitty." From the front Shampoo seemed perfectly the same as always…it was just that there was something added to her strikingly feline profile. As if in response to my silent query she stretched out her newly added features to a full expanse of just under a meter.

In other words, my pussy now had wings!

Continued

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