Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Hearts of Ice ❯ Souls in the Balance, Part 2 ( Chapter 14 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The characters of the Ranma 1/2 universe are the sole creation
and possession of the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi.
---------------------------------------------
Hearts of Ice
Part 14: Souls in the Balance, Part Two
by Krista Perry
---------------------------------------------

Oh, my love
my darling
I've hungered for your touch
a long
lonely time

And time goes by
so slowly
and time can do so much
Are you
still mine?

I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love
to me.

Lonely rivers flow
to the sea, to the sea
To the open arms of the sea

Lonely rivers cry
Wait for me, wait for me.

I'll be coming home.
Wait for me...

from -Unchained Melody-
The Righteous Brothers
-----------------------------------


Ranma, in his cursed female form, looked down through
tangled red bangs at the lifeless shell of the tengu beside him.

A small frown creased between his wild blue eyes. Reaching
out with a delicate paw-like hand, he swatted at the soft, rust-
colored feathers on the tengu's arm, as if hoping to elicit some
kind of responsive movement.

Nothing. The tengu's eyes stared sightlessly, the five
wounds in his torso left by the Shadowcat's claws slowly
trickling blood, staining the forest grass red.

Ranma meowed in consternation. Something wasn't right.
Something was making his heart hurt in his chest. But he
couldn't think, he couldn't tell what it was, and he couldn't fix
it...

He leaned over and nudged the tengu again with his nose...

As he did, his eyes widened and glazed slightly as the scent
of blood and feathers filled his head...

...and the feline soul that steered Ranma's thoughts told
him, without words, This is a dead thing. And his senses, with
the hunger that burned in his stomach, told him that this strange
thing that bore so much resemblance to the flying things that his
instinct told him to hunt, catch, devour... was food...

Food. He was so hungry. The fish had barely taken the
edge off the ravenous hunger, and he ached with exhaustion from
running all night with the unseen Shadowcat at his heels. His
body cried to be fed...

Ranma paused a moment, blinking as a slight tremor passed
through his female form.

Then, slowly, he raised his hand, his slender fingers curled
into claws, knowing instinctively that a swipe of his paw would
sever enough meat from the carcass to fill him...

Ranma shuddered suddenly, a strangled yowl escaping his
throat, his clawed fingers digging into the earth as something
deep within him... revolted. A tiny spark of something... lost
and smothered... flickered quietly to life, piercing the black
cloud of feline thought and instinct that held his soul in a vice
grip.

No words. They escaped his mind like the wispy tufts of
dandelion seeds caught in a wind.

But feelings, not altogether feline, swelled within him.
Feelings that connected to the strange images that had been
hovering on the edges of his consciousness for so long. Images
that now came into sharper focus.

Images of...

He didn't know.

But it was familiar. It had *...a cute smile...?* liquid
brown eyes that gazed at him in his mind, filling him with both
comfort, and a strange, hollow ache completely unrecognized by
his infected soul.

He wanted to find it. If he found it, the ache would go
away. He knew... instinctively... the only way he was capable of
knowing anything at the moment.

But how could he find something that he only knew in his
head? Ranma blinked in feline confusion as his muddled mind
fought to grasp concepts beyond his capacity.

Fate is often a cruel mistress. But at times, when an
individual suffers her slings and arrows with perseverance that
transcends the human norm, she may soften her hand slightly. She
apparently decided that, after all Ranma had suffered, he
deserved a break. For at that moment, a frustrated, hoarse yell
sounded close by, startling Ranma as the sound rent the silence
of the peaceful spring mountain air...

"AaarrghhhhHHHHHHH... WHERE ON EARTH AM I NOW?!"

Ranma's ears pricked up at the strangely familiar noise, and
all thoughts of the images and feelings were pushed aside as
curiosity overwhelmed him. Without a moment of hesitation, he
turned and bounded off in the direction of the sound...

... not noticing as the body of the tengu behind him
shimmered slightly, then faded away, sparkling into the light of
the afternoon sun...

--------------------

Ryoga looked at the forest that surrounded him, his face
creased with frustration and despair. Where had all the
buildings gone? Just a few minutes ago he'd been in the middle
of a Tokyo suburb, tramping up and down the sidewalks, searching
among the streets, vacant lots, and even the walled yards of
various homes, trying to find Ranma.

"Damn you, Ranma," he muttered softly. He wanted to scream
it out loud, but his initial outburst, when he realized that he
was well and truly lost once again, had left his raw throat
burning. He was hoarse from spending all night and all morning
calling out his friend's name. He even tried calling out "Here,
kitty kitty" every now and then, but the only response he got was
from an elderly lady, out for some early morning shopping, who
felt sorry for him and asked him what his lost kitty looked like.

He had flushed with embarrassment. What was he supposed to
say? He wanted to find Ranma, and if she had seen him, she might
be able to tell him which direction to look. "Well, uh...
ma'am," he replied sheepishly, "he's... not really a cat. He's a
guy. But he *thinks* he's a cat. Oh, and, wait a minute, I
forgot, he's not... a guy at the moment. He's a girl. He... uh,
she... has red hair and..." He trailed off as the lady's look of
concern faded to a scowl. Without a word, she turned and walked
away.

Ryoga's head drooped. Well, at least he knew she hadn't
seen Ranma. He was pretty sure that the sight of a buxom, red-
haired girl running through the streets on all fours would be
pretty hard to forget.

He clenched his fists. "Damn you, Ranma. Why'd you have to
run off like that?"

What time was it, anyway?

The sunlight filtered through the trees at a sharp angle,
casting lengthening shadows on the forest floor. The air was so
quiet, except for the soft chirping of birds, and the rushing,
burbling sound of a nearby stream. How could he have wandered
from the city to the wilderness without realizing it?

It was hopeless. He should have known he could never find
Ranma. Heck, sometimes he couldn't find Ranma even when he knew
exactly where he was supposed to be. And even if he did find
him, who was to say that Ranma would recognize him in his current
state of mind?
Or if Ranma did recognize him, would he just run away again?
Or, even worse, would he attack with the deadly Cat Fist? After
all, Ryoga was the one who scared him off last night, trying to
ki-blast that cat demon...

Ryoga shuddered. After seeing that monster, Ranma's fear of
cats didn't seem so unreasonable. He thought of Kintaro-sensei's
sharp words to Genma from a week before, when the doctor's cat
sent Ranma into a gibbering, mind-numbing panic...

*It's nice to know that you believe winning a fight is more
important than your son's sanity. If you could see what I see,
your opinion of Cat-fu might change drastically. The technique
wasn't banned without reason, you know.*

The words had puzzled him at the time, but no longer.
Ranma's cat phobia didn't seem nearly so funny now. Ryoga
thought of his curse. To have the body of an animal was a
nightmare, but to have the mind of one? Sometimes, when he was
feeling especially depressed after getting unexpectedly doused
with cold water, he wondered what might have happened to him had
the Jusenkyo curse altered his mind as well as his body. The
thought frightened him enough that he usually stopped
contemplating it altogether. To lose your identity so
completely? It was a fate worse than death. It was being alive,
but not really.

At least, as P-Chan, he could reason. He knew who he was;
could think and feel as a human being in spite of his outward
form. The memory of that huge cat flickering with black ki, and
the thought of what it might have done as it pressed its forehead
to Ranma's, made his blood run cold...

Ryoga closed his eyes and shook his head. He was getting
nowhere. The chances of him finding Ranma were practically nil.
He should head back to the Tendo Dojo. If he started looking for
it now, he might make it back in a week or so. And maybe by then
the others would have found Ranma...

His decision made, he began to walk again, hoping, with
little faith, that he was headed in the right direction...

After a few steps, he stopped.

Something...
He looked around, straining his senses as he felt...

His eyes narrowed. *Something's watching me...*

With careful casualness, he took a few more steps. After a
moment, he stopped again.

*No... Something's *stalking* me.*

He was familiar with the feeling. He'd been lost in the
wilderness often enough to know how it felt when some wild animal
thought he might be just the thing to drag back to the den to
feed the hungry little ones. They were usually starving and
desperate. Or crazed. He certainly wasn't the weak or sick type
that usually attracted the attention of the resident
carnivores...

With a smooth motion, his hand reached behind his head to
his pack and slid his umbrella from its perch. Then he turned,
his senses extended, searching...

The wild thing had come up upon him so silently, he let out
a startled gasp, for it was only a few meters away from him...

Ryoga blinked.

"Ranma?" he whispered.

Ranma froze in mid-motion as Ryoga turned. The cursed boy
stood, carefully balanced on his curled, paw-like hands and his
bare feet, watching Ryoga carefully with wild blue eyes peering
through matted red bangs, his female body taut and ready to
sprint away at any moment. His clothes were torn and muddy, and
his delicate, feminine face and arms were streaked with dirt and
blood. His knuckles were worn raw from running on all fours.

Ryoga paled, forcing back the feeling of horror at seeing
his friend like this. "Oh, man. Ranma..."

He recognized the look in Ranma's eyes; recognized it from
other wild animals he'd come face to face with. Ranma was
hungry. And Ryoga knew what kind of appetite Ranma had.
Still... in spite of the look on her...his face, Ranma didn't
look like he was going to attack. Because along with the hunger,
Ryoga could see... a kind of inquisitiveness..?
Did Ranma recognize him?

Ryoga swallowed, and forced himself to relax. He didn't
want to scare him, after all. He couldn't believe it. He'd
found Ranma!

Or rather, Ranma found him...

Ryoga's eyes widened slightly as he noticed a blackened mark
on Ranma's chest, almost as if sh... he'd caught one of
Happosai's happodaikarins just before it went off. What on
earth..? What happened to Ranma after he ran off last night?

Slowly, Ryoga lowered his umbrella and knelt on the ground.
Ranma didn't move, just watched him warily as he removed his pack
from his shoulders and carefully unzipped it, reaching in to pull
out a small thermos.

He hoped the water was still warm enough to change Ranma
back to normal. Not taking his eyes off his cursed friend, Ryoga
unscrewed the lid and stuck the tip of his index finger into the
water, careful not to spill it. If, by some chance, the water
had cooled, he didn't want to risk turning into a tiny black
piglet in front of Ranma's hunger-filled eyes...

He sighed in relief. Yes, it was still hot enough to do the
job.

Now, all he had to do was get close enough to Ranma to
splash him...

Ryoga cleared his throat nervously. "C'mere, Ranma," he
said. Ranma didn't move, except to crouch a bit lower to the
ground. Ryoga felt the heat of embarrassment rise to his face,
and he grimaced as he said, "Here, kitty kitty. C'mon now."

Ranma's expression didn't change, but there was a subtle
alteration in his body language as he crouched on the ground.
Ryoga could have sworn that, if Ranma had possessed cat ears,
they would have been pinned back in irritation.

Ryoga scowled. After all he'd been through to find him...
"Now look, you ungrateful... I'm just trying to help you!"
Ranma merely blinked at him.

Ryoga clenched his fist, but then he paused, the frustration
on his face fading slightly. Reaching into his pack again, he
pulled out a small packet of dried, spiced beef from his food
rations. He hesitated as he withdrew his hand. Beef was very
expensive. And he had been saving it for himself, for his long
trips...

He looked over at Ranma to see that she... *he* had perked
up, and his nose was twitching in his direction.

Ryoga felt a strange tightness in his chest. He hated
seeing Ranma like this. Not just in his cursed form, even though
that discomfited him more than he would ever dare admit, because
Ranma's female body was so... so... *What's a safe word?!*
...healthy...

But *this*... This was somehow worse. Ranma was, as he had
always so vehemently stated, a guy. No matter what Ranma looked
like on the outside, he was the same inside. Like Ryoga was the
same inside, even when he was a black piglet.

Now though... Ranma's lithe feline bearing, the feral blue
eyes peering curiously at him from a girl's face that had shed
all traces of human expression... If anything, the Nekoken
enhanced the deceptively fragile beauty of Ranma's cursed form
with a disturbingly attractive, primitive wildness...

Ryoga found himself swallowing hard.

*Don't think about it.* Ryoga forced the unsettled feelings
away from him. *This is Ranma. Somewhere, beyond the face,
beyond the body, beyond... the way he's acting... he's still in
there. He's got to be. And I'm gonna pound him to a pulp when
he gets back to normal for freaking me out like this...*

Ranma meowed curiously at Ryoga, as if sensing the wrapped
food he had clenched in his fist...

Ryoga's head jerked up at the inhuman sound that had just
issued from Ranma's throat, the tightness in his chest squeezing
a bit harder.

That settled it. He had to get Ranma back to normal that
very moment, no matter what it took. Tearing open the package,
he held out a thick shred of dried beef in Ranma's direction.
Ranma's eyes widened with interest.

"C'mon, now," Ryoga said quietly, trying to fight down the
part of him that felt ridiculous treating Ranma like a cat.
"C'mere, kitty kitty. I've got some food for you."

Ranma began to hesitantly edge towards him. Ryoga held the
beef out at arm's length. When Ranma was just close enough to
reach it with his teeth, Ryoga pulled his arm in closer to his
body.

Ranma stopped and eyed him balefully. Once again, Ryoga had
the impression of cat ears flattened against his head in
irritation. Ryoga grit his teeth and forced a smile.
"Ungrateful son of a..." he said in that same calm, almost sweet
voice. "C'mere before I break your neck."

If Ranma understood the words, he gave no sign. Instead, he
edged closer to the food in Ryoga's hands until finally his
petite feminine form was a mere forearm's length away from
Ryoga's body. Ranma looked at Ryoga, as if trying to see if he
would jerk the food away again. Then, in a quick movement, Ranma
snatched the beef from Ryoga's fingers with his teeth.

Ranma immediately began chewing on the tough meat with
feline fervor. Kneeling down around the food, the cursed boy
began to make a contented rumbling noise deep in his slender
throat as he devoured the treat.

Ryoga blinked in astonishment. Ranma was... purring? The
sound was... oddly comforting. He fought the sudden, irrational
urge to reach out and pet the tangled mop of red hair.

Instead, he gripped the thermos tightly, dipping his fingers
in again just to be sure...

More than hot enough to do the job. He smiled. *Okay,
buddy. Here it comes...*

*splash*

Ranma jumped to his hands and feet, unchanged. Still very
much female. His sopping white shirt, now clinging wetly to his
feminine curves, made that very apparent. With the meat still in
his mouth, Ranma bounded away a few meters, shaking his dripping
red hair in feline agitation.

Ryoga stared, his mouth hanging open. "Ranma..?" Sudden
panic gripped him. That should have worked. Ranma should not
only be male again, but in his right mind...

His eyes widened as a wave of horror washed over him.

Ranma was stuck. Stuck in his cursed form.

And stuck in the Nekoken...

Ranma shook his head with a last wet flip, and favored the
stunned Ryoga with a feline glare before bounding off into the
dense growth of trees, the dried beef still clamped between his
teeth.

Ryoga leaped to his feet. "Ranma! Wait!" *Not again, not
again!* "Dammit, Ranma, come back here!" If he lost track of
Ranma now, the chances of finding him again were astronomically
against him.

Shouldering his pack with a quick movement and muttering a
curse, Ryoga plunged into the thick foliage after his friend with
a great leap...

...and plunged right up to his knees into the rushing
stream.

Instantly, Ryoga's clothes collapsed around his changing,
shrinking form, and then he was struggling desperately to swim
out of his tunic before its soggy weight pulled him to the bottom
of the river bed. His hind legs got tangled briefly in the rough
cloth, but he kicked free, and then his snout was above water.
Swimming hard against the downhill current, he reached the mossy
bank and pulled his tiny, shivering body out of the snow-melt
waters.

Ryoga turned and watched as the current swiftly pulled his
tunic and pants downstream. His backpack and umbrella lay
unmoving where they had dropped, half-submerged in the water.

Tears of bitterness and frustration filled Ryoga's eyes.

He'd lost Ranma. He'd lost himself. He was a pig again.
His clothes were being washed away. His backpack was stuck in
the middle of a river.

And it was all Ranma's fault.

Things couldn't get much worse.

He bweed angrily at the injustice of it all. Stupid Ranma.
Try to help him, and what does he do? Run off and leave you in a
lurch. He glared at his backpack, in lieu of Ranma, and tried to
figure out how he was going to get his stove and kettle from the
pack to dry ground...

A slight tingle of his battle sense was all the warning he
had. The little black pig didn't even have a chance to turn
before he felt himself swatted hard. Ryoga rolled and smacked
against the raised root of a tree. He shook his head groggily as
he tried to regain his feet, but his vision was whirling. All he
saw, before another blow stole his consciousness away, was a
flash of red hair, and wild, hunger-filled eyes...

--------------------

In the Tendo dining room, Kasumi quietly served a very late
dinner to the sullen company who knelt around the table. All was
silent except for the occasional low, hiccuping sob from Ukyo as
she tried unsuccessfully to hold back her tears of frustration.
Nabiki, feeling none too happy herself, nevertheless kept her
calm mask in place. She... felt bad for Ukyo. The okonomiyaki
chef was exhausted, her emotions running high after staying out
longer than any of the rest of them, searching, calling...

She came back to rest only because Nabiki, fresh from a
power nap, found her and forced her to return before she
collapsed. Even then, Ukyo had only relented when Nabiki
threatened not to call her if anyone else found Ranma when she
was out searching.

When they returned well after dark, and found Shampoo and
Mousse back from their own search, Nabiki then had to hastily
explain to a furious Ukyo that Shampoo wasn't responsible for the
demon cat, and that they were here to help. Unfortunately, her
explanation didn't come fast enough to prevent Ukyo from giving
Mousse a good, solid taste of her spatula when he stepped in
front of her attack on Shampoo...
Nabiki glanced over at Shampoo and Mousse, who sat at one
end of the table, keeping themselves carefully separate from the
others. Shampoo stared at her hands folded in her lap, seemingly
oblivious to the concerned looks Mousse cast at her every now and
then. Mousse's face was still red from the impact of Ukyo's
spatula. He was going to have one hell of a bruise. But at
least Ukyo hadn't broken his glasses...

Ryoga hadn't returned, of course. But then, she didn't
expect to see him for at least another week or so.

Even Genma and her father, sitting at the other end of the
table, were uncharacteristically grave. The feeling about them
went far beyond their usual mock seriousness, which was usually
just a lot of bluff and bluster anyway.

Genma looked especially stricken, far more so than she could
ever recall seeing him. It made her wonder if the fool was
actually feeling genuine remorse for what he'd inflicted upon his
son, perhaps for the first time in his life. Genma's prevalent
attitude in training Ranma seemed to be that any experience --
whether it be swimming to China, or surviving the attentions of
the numerous fiancees the man had inflicted on him throughout his
life, or being thrown into a pit of starving cats -- was *good*
experience as long as you could eventually crawl away alive.

Ranma was alive, but...

Nabiki picked up a piece of shrimp with her chopsticks and
munched automatically. Though Kasumi's cooking was as excellent
as always, it seemed tasteless to her...

"Eat." Nabiki looked up at the sound of Kasumi's soft, but
firm command, and saw her older sister kneeling across from her,
but looking at Ukyo. "Please," Kasumi continued when Ukyo raised
her eyes to meet her own. "You need to eat to build up your
strength, dear."

Ukyo looked down, her long chestnut hair hanging over her
face, hiding the deep shadows under her eyes. "Gomen nasai,
Kasumi-san," she said, her voice hoarse and scratchy, "but I...
I'm not very hungry."

Kasumi smiled sadly. "I know you're... distracted," she
replied gently. "But you can't help him if you don't have the
strength or stamina to find him."

Ukyo's eyes flickered briefly with despair. Then her
expression hardened with determination. "Yes," she said, and
picked up her chopsticks. "I'll find him..."

Nabiki's cell phone rang in her jacket pocket, causing her,
and everyone else at the table, to jump. Pulling it out quickly,
she flipped the tiny device open, aware of the anxious stares she
was receiving from all around. Ukyo was nearly leaning over
her...

"Yes?" Nabiki said into the phone, keeping her voice
remarkably steady.

Silence. The group around the table held their breath...

Nabiki frowned and closed her eyes.

The people around the table sagged back into their places
with fallen expressions.

"I see," Nabiki said quietly, tightly. "Yes, well, have
them keep looking. Have you checked with the police again? No
reports of... Fine. Expand the parameters again, and keep
moving in a grid pattern. Ask more questions. Somebody *has* to
have seen something... Don't worry about that. Just do it."

She closed her phone, put it back in her pocket, and stared
at her shrimp.

Genma muttered something unintelligible, his head bowed low.

"What was that, Saotome?" asked Soun.

Genma just shook his head. "My son," he whispered. "My
only son. What have I done?"

Ukyo glared at the man with an expression of disgust
reserved just for him. "Oh, sure," she said, her voice dripping
with anger. "Only now you're wondering? What the hell were you
thinking, throwing a child into a--"

"I think we've had this discussion before," Nabiki
interrupted, holding up her hand. "And it's not going to get us
anywhere. We need to eat and get some rest so we can go
searching again. Any arguments, fights, maimings, or feelings of
guilt can wait until after we find Ranma. Got it?" With that
last, she looked directly at Ukyo.

Ukyo relaxed slightly and nodded, still glaring at Genma,
who hadn't raised his head.

Nabiki sighed. There was another factor to this whole mess
that had been overlooked in the rush to find Ranma.

"And we can't forget," she said, "there's also the matter of
Akane."

Shampoo winced, and her father began to get teary-eyed at
the thought of the daughter he couldn't remember.

Nabiki continued calmly, yet not quite able to cover the
slight strain in her voice. "None of us may... recollect her at
the moment, but we've already established that she does exist,
and not just as a figment of Ranma's imagination or the blood
spell. She's still trapped in the Kami Plane. And, as you've
all been made aware, the Kami Plane is full of demons, like the
Shadowcat that attacked Ranma last night. In fact, Ranma claimed
that Akane was already in the hands of a demon, or an evil
spirit, known as Yuki-onna, the Snow Woman."

Nabiki looked around at the others. Perhaps her words
seemed blunt and callous, but they needed to be said. Even
though they were now aware that Akane was real, it was still so
easy to just... not worry about her. After all, none of them had
any real memories of her to back up what they knew...

"We have to find Ranma," she said softly. "Not just for his
own sake... but because without him, we can't rescue my sister.
The fate of not just one, but two people lie in our finding
Ranma, and bringing him back to himself."

Ukyo stiffened suddenly.

Nabiki noticed, and suppressed a deep, almost annoyed sigh.
Ukyo was not taking the news of the reality of Akane's existence
well...

"Did you hear that?" whispered Ukyo.
Nabiki blinked.

Mousse had his head cocked slightly. "I heard something
too," he said.

Everyone froze. The silence in the dining room was almost
tangible.

Then... a faint mewing...

Ukyo looked over at Nabiki. "Ranchan..?" she said, almost
in disbelief.

Nabiki's eyes widened. "Can't be," she said.

They heard it again, closer.

Ukyo jumped immediately to her feet, and ran to the screen
door, sliding it open and running out into the cool night air,
followed closely by Nabiki and the others.

"Ranchan!" called out Ukyo.

"There!" Shampoo pointed. "Aiya, Ranma!"

Ranma was on the wall that surrounded the house, standing on
all fours, his female silhouette illuminated by starlight.
Ranma's feral blue eyes caught the light shining through the open
dining room door, glowing impossibly from his delicate, shadowed
face, and his wild red hair had somehow been torn from its
pigtail fastening, flowing around his shoulders like a lion's
mane in the darkness.

"Oh my," said Kasumi, coming up behind them. "Is he
alright?"

"I... I don't know," said Ukyo, the relief in her voice
tinged with uncertainty and a touch of fear. "Ranchan?"

Genma looked at his female son, his face carefully blank.
"I'll get some hot water," he said, and went back into the house.

Nabiki frowned, staving off her own feelings of relief until
she knew for sure.... Ranma was back. But he just watched them,
hadn't moved since they emerged from the house.
Then her eyes narrowed, and a sick feeling flooded her
stomach. *Oh no...* "He's got something in his mouth," she
said.

Ukyo swallowed hard. "Ranchan... come down. Please..."
Ranma's shadowed gaze turned on her. He looked so... inhuman.
If Ranma had... had killed a bird or a rat...

She suppressed a shudder. *It's not his fault, he doesn't
know what he's doing,* she thought. *He's back, that's all that
matters.* "Ranchan..." she called, her voice a bit stronger.
"Come here... kitty kitty..."

Ranma paused a moment, then leaped down from the wall and
walked cautiously towards Ukyo. As the light from the house
illuminated Ranma's face, Ukyo gasped, and Ranma froze. "Oh!
P-Chan!"

"P-Chan?!" Nabiki knelt down in front of Ranma. He turned
his wild blue gaze to her curiously, and she saw that he did
indeed carry the tiny black piglet in his mouth, holding it by
the bandana around its neck. The pig was unconscious, or...

Nabiki exchanged a worried glance with Ukyo. Then she held
out her hands. "Ranma..." she said softly. "Give me P-Chan.
Give me P-Chan, okay?"

Ranma just looked at her.

"Is cat, not dog," said Shampoo softly, her gaze, hollow and
haunted, flickering between Ranma's face and the creature he held
in his mouth. "Ranma no give you piglet. He think it his."

"Well," said Ukyo uncertainly, "P-Chan is Ranma's pet, after
all..."

Just then, the little piglet's eyes flickered open groggily.
Nabiki heard soft exclamations of relief from both Mousse and
Shampoo. Strange, that they would be so concerned about a pet
pig...

P-Chan's eyes suddenly widened, and he bweed, wriggling
frantically as he dangled precariously from Ranma's mouth.

"Mrorw!" As soon as P-Chan started moving, Ranma dropped
him to the ground, his paw-like hands on either side of him.
P-Chan landed with a thud and a squeal, then jumped to his feet,
staring at Ranma with wide eyes. Ranma crouched down, nose to
nose with the little pig, feline eyes wild and sparkling.

P-Chan began to nervously back out from between Ranma's
paws, his eyes never leaving Ranma's face...

...but before he could get too far, Ranma pounced gleefully
and pinned him to the ground. P-Chan bweed indignantly as Ranma
began to bat at him with curled hands.

Nabiki didn't know whether to be worried... or to burst out
laughing.

The whole situation was just too weird. Ranma was back,
there was no sign of the Shadowcat demon, much to her relief, and
Ranma was acting... well, the way he usually acted when he was in
the Nekoken, instead of the panicked, maddened frenzy he was in
when he ran off the night before.

"Ranchan!" Ranma froze at Ukyo's sharp tone, and looked up
at okonomiyaki chef, blinking innocently. Ukyo reached out and
plucked the slightly battered P-Chan from between Ranma's hands.
The little black pig was shaking, its eyes narrowed in fury, but
Ukyo didn't notice. She set the pig down behind her, out of
Ranma's reach, and stretched her hands out to her fiance. "Come
here, Ranchan..." she said softly. "Come here, kitty kitty..."

Ranma meowed indignantly at having his plaything taken away,
and watched, tensed, as P-Chan made a quick break for the house.
Ranma made to chase, but Ukyo called him again, with soft urgency
in her voice. He stopped, and cocked his head at her. After a
moment of feline indecision, he came up to her and rubbed his red
hair against Ukyo's outstretched hand.

The cursed boy began to purr.

Ukyo couldn't help but smile, but it was a smile full of
strain. "Where's that hot water?" she asked, her voice tight.

"Uncle Saotome is heating the water right now," said Kasumi.

Nabiki looked at Ranma intently, her mind whirling. After
rubbing up against Ukyo, Ranma sat on his haunches and began to
lick his delicate, curled hand, first cleaning the scrapes on the
knuckles and palm where they were worn raw from running, and then
swiping his hand over his red bangs in swift, precise
movements.

A disturbed frown creased between Nabiki's brows, her
expression a mere shadow of what she was feeling as she took note
of Ranma's injuries. Kasumi would have to clean and bandage his
hands so they wouldn't get infected.

"Here's the hot water," said Genma, coming up behind Ukyo.
Ranma tensed suddenly, and growled low in his throat, his feral
blue eyes narrowing at the man holding the kettle.

Genma's stone expression twitched slightly, and he set the
kettle down. "I'd... better wait over there," he said, and
walked over to stand by Soun.

Ryoga stuck his snout cautiously around the corner of the
screen door. He bweed a soft sigh of relief as he saw that Ranma
wasn't chasing him. The past few hours had been a nightmare. He
would regain consciousness, only to find himself hanging from
Ranma's mouth as Ranma stealthily ran through wilderness and
suburb. After the first few times of waking up dangling in his
precarious position, he finally learned his lesson: Don't
struggle. The moment he would move, Ranma would stop, drop him,
and "play" him into unconsciousness.

The only problem was, in spite of Ryoga's thick neck and
minimal weight in his piglet body, the bandana around his neck
that Ranma carried him by was uncomfortable in the extreme. If
he shifted the wrong way, the bandana pressed against his
esophagus and cut off his air supply, and he would struggle
instinctively for air, sending Ranma into another fit of feline
playfulness. And no matter what he did, he couldn't escape.
Ranma was just too fast. Ryoga's head throbbed from the lumps
caused by Ranma's roughhousing.

The black piglet's eyes narrowed intently as he watched the
scene in the back yard from his safe position. Ukyo was getting
ready to pour the steaming hot water on Ranma's head...

*splash*

"Mrorw!"
Ryoga sagged a bit, not really surprised. So it hadn't been
a fluke. Ranma really was stuck, doubly cursed. He turned and
ran quickly to look for the laundry, grateful that Kasumi had
offered to wash his spare outfits for him, since all his other
clothes and belongings were sitting in the middle of a stream
somewhere. And he had no intention of spending another moment as
a tiny pig with Ranma the way he was...

Ukyo held Ranma, her arms around her fiance's neck,
flinching slightly as he shook the water out of his red hair.
"Wh-what happened?!" she asked, as everyone looked on with
stunned expressions. "Why didn't he change back?"

No one answered. They just stared in shock and horror as
Ranma squirmed out of Ukyo's grip, then began to groom his wet
face and hair with a curled hand.

Then Ukyo's eyes widened, and she reached up with one hand
to touch her face where the water from Ranma's hair had
splattered her. She looked at Ranma for a moment, then reached
out to touch the long, sopping hair that spilled over his
shoulders, and squeezed water from the red strands. Her eyes
went wide, and she turned to Nabiki.

"The water," said Ukyo. "It's cold. Like ice, almost."

Nabiki stared at Ranma. Indeed, Ranma seemed to be
shivering slightly, even as he tried to clean the water from
her... himself. Nabiki took the kettle away from Ukyo and stuck
her hand into the remaining water. "Impossible," she said,
traces of frustration and anger seeping into her level voice.
This was supposed to work. Ranma was supposed to be back to
normal, so that he could rescue Akane. "This water's hot,
there's no way it could turn cold so..."

Nabiki trailed off suddenly, the blood falling from her
face. Ukyo eyes widened. "Nabiki?"

Cold...

The Snow Woman. Akane was with the Snow Woman.

And, last night, Ranma had finally discovered a possible way
of breaking the blood spell, of rescuing Akane from the Kami
Plane.
The Shadowcat came from in the Kami Plane.

Nabiki blinked, horror building within her as pieces of the
mystery began to fall into place. Standing, she walked over to
Ranma, slowly, so as not to startle him, then knelt down next to
him as he continued his cleaning task. He seemed apathetic about
her close proximity. For that, she was grateful, since he tended
to be a bit skittish when he was a cat.

She put her hand on his shoulder. Ranma paused, and looked
at her briefly before resuming his task.

Carefully, Nabiki poured a small stream of hot water from
the spout of the kettle over Ranma's shoulder, where her hand
rested. The steaming hot water ran over the tops of her fingers,
turning them slightly red, then trickled down, pooling between
her fingers to touch Ranma's dirtied, white sleeveless shirt and
the skin underneath...

... and turned icy cold.

Ukyo felt fear clutch her stomach as she watched Nabiki's
pale face blanch even more as she poured the water over her hand.
"The water turned cold, didn't it," she said. "Why? What's
going on?"

Nabiki just looked at her reddened hand, her expression grim
and silent, her mind churning...

"Is it the Chiisuiton?" asked Mousse softly, not taking his
eyes off Ranma. "Do you think Herb is behind this?"

Nabiki blinked, then turned her icy countenance towards the
Chinese pair, her eyes meeting Shampoo's, rather than moving up
to meet Mousse's myopic gaze. "No," she said, slowly,
deliberately. "Offhand... I'd say the Snow Woman and the
Shadowcat are behind this."

Shampoo paled as Nabiki's meaning sank in.

"The Snow Woman?" Ukyo blinked, and a flurry of emotions
crossed over her face as the meaning of the reference penetrated
her mind. "What are you saying? Are you saying that..."

She trailed off, not wanting to voice the fear that filled
her with Nabiki's serious expression; her confident, yet grave
words...

And yet... She had to know. She had to help Ranma...

Ukyo inhaled deeply. "You're saying that the Snow Woman did
this to Ranma so that he couldn't break the blood spell and
rescue... Akane..." She said it, not as a question. Because, as
the words came out of her mouth, she knew. It was the only
explanation that made sense of the confusion of the past 24
hours. She didn't even see Nabiki's slight nod in response.

Ukyo sank back on her heels, looking at her fiance, her eyes
wide with fear and dismay brought on by desires both altruistic
and... not so. Her mind whirled with the implications, and her
heart tightened in her chest to the point of physical pain.
Tears welled in her eyes. "Oh Ranchan..."

Nabiki stared at Shampoo, watching as the Amazon began to
tremble slightly.

*That's right,* Nabiki thought, staring into Shampoo's wide
violet eyes. *This is all your fault.*

Shampoo stared at the ground, unable to meet the accusation
in Nabiki's gaze any longer. But Nabiki was right. The Kami
Plane... None of this would have happened if she had never cast
the blood spell.

And Ranma... This creature in front of her, with the mind
of a cat and the body of a girl, was a gross distortion of the
man she loved; a twisted mockery of the man who had stood
before her just the night before, so strong and handsome and
noble even in his anger towards her. The man she no longer had
the right to claim as her husband.

All her fault...

Mousse was right. She had to fix it. No matter what the
cost.

But how? Even if she went all the way back to China and
somehow convinced the Ancient One to break the blood spell, it
wouldn't change Ranma's present predicament. And right now, her
main concern was getting Ranma back to normal, not rescuing her
would-be rival from the Kami Plane.

Shampoo's eyes lit with realization. "Aiya," she
whispered. "Great-grandmother."

"What was that, Shampoo?" asked Mousse.

She looked up at him. "Great-grandmother maybe know way to
help Ranma. She know all about Nekoken."

"No way." Shampoo turned at the cold statement to see Ukyo
standing protectively in front of Ranma, her bright eyes, still
shimmering with unshed tears, narrowed in anger. Her hand
reached instinctively behind her to grasp the handle of her
battle spatula. "Out of the question, sister. There's no way
I'm letting that old witch near Ranchan. Heck, I'm not too happy
about letting *you* near him, after what you've done to him!"

Shampoo met Ukyo's gaze solemnly. "Shampoo already say I
sorry," she said quietly.

Ukyo clenched her teeth against the fury that was building
inside her. "Not good enough!" Her battle aura began to flicker
around her. "Look at him! This is all *your fault!* If you
ever really cared about him at all, you would never have cast
that blood spell!" Ukyo's voice caught in her throat as tears
welled with her anger. "You would have... let *him* choose..."

Shampoo's flinched. But then, looking at Ranma, who was
looking up at Ukyo with feline inquisitiveness, her expression
firmed, and she stood straighter despite the ache of guilt that
welled within her.

"Shampoo know it," she said quietly. "And Shampoo vow to
make up for what I do. I no care what you think, spatula girl.
I already lose everything, and I get nothing for help. Ranma
angry at me for what I do. He... never love me. And now he no
like me. Maybe never like me again."

Ukyo blinked.

Shampoo's expression was calm, even though wetness began to
build behind her violet eyes. Still, she looked up and met
Ukyo's surprised gaze. "You lucky," she said hoarsely, gesturing
at Ranma. "Ranma always like you. Even now, as cat, he like
you. Shampoo no even have that. All Shampoo have left is small
chance to restore fallen honor. Only if Shampoo fix what I do to
Ranma, then... even if Ranma no... like me..."

Shampoo closed her eyes, and a single tear slid down her
cheek. "Maybe then... I have... peace," she said quietly.
"Maybe..."

Ukyo's battle aura faded. She looked at Shampoo, the anger
in her eyes softening slightly, even as the wetness remained.
The naked sincerity in the Amazon girl's countenance was
undeniable. "Shampoo..."

And Ranma, who was at that moment examining a small insect
crawling through the grass, froze suddenly. He looked up and
past the people gathered around him, his wide eyes narrowing to
sparking slits of blue fire. Ranma arched his back and hissed.

Shampoo paled. Ukyo whirled, and Nabiki and the others took
an instinctive step back. "Ranchan! What's wrong?"

Ranma wasn't listening. His red hair was spiking, and he
was growling low in his throat, staring at something hidden in
the darkness, above and beyond the wall that surrounded the yard.

"He sense something," said Shampoo worriedly.

"Maybe the demon has come back," said Mousse.

Nabiki looked at Ranma, alarmed, the same thought running
through her mind. "Quickly, we've got to calm him down," she
said sharply. "We can't have him running off again."

Ukyo immediately knelt down next to Ranma and wrapped her
arms around her fiance's tense body, linking her hands around his
neck so that he couldn't run.

"Are you sure that's wise?" asked Nabiki, as Ranma continued
to growl at the darkness beyond the wall. "If he tries to run,
he could rip your arms off."

"Ranma won't hurt me," Ukyo said softly. And she began to
talk to him soothingly. "It's okay, Ranma. It's okay, I'm
here..."

Nabiki's eyes widened, and she raised an eyebrow as she saw
Ranma's tense form relax slightly as Ukyo whispered to him.
Still, he growled in his throat...

Shampoo peered into the darkness, straining her senses to
the limit...

She turned to the others. "Shampoo no think it demon," she
said. "It no feel like it. But... think it good to get Ranma
inside house. Then it harder for him if he try to run away."

Nabiki nodded, peering into the deep shadows and seeing
nothing, *feeling* nothing that might be a threat. That in
itself confirmed what she suspected, and she raised an eyebrow at
Shampoo. "Agreed," she said. "Let's get him into the house.
Ukyo, do you think you can... pick him up? I don't know if he'll
come willingly." Ranma's narrowed feline gaze was practically
blazing with desire to run off into the darkness after the threat
he sensed. But he didn't move against Ukyo's firm, yet gentle
hold on him.

Ukyo didn't reply, she just kept whispering calming words to
Ranma as she shifted her grip, wrapping her arms around Ranma's
tense, petite female body. He continued to growl in that eerie
feline way, but he didn't struggle against her, much to her
relief. She was *almost* glad that he was in his cursed form as
she carefully lifted him into her arms. He was so light this
way...

Shampoo glanced over her shoulder into the darkness. "We go
into house now," she said nervously.

Ukyo quickly carried an unresisting Ranma carefully, if a
bit awkwardly, into the house, followed closely by Nabiki and the
others. Shampoo was the last through the screen door, and Mousse
peered at her intently through his glasses as she glanced out
into the darkness briefly one last time before sliding the door
shut.

--------------------

Cologne watched from the shadows of a neighboring rooftop as
Shampoo seemed to look directly at her before disappearing behind
the closed screen door of the Tendo dining room.

A severe, yet troubled frown creased her ancient face as she
carefully fingered a tiny opaque bottle in one hand.

Closing her eyes, she shook off the feeling without moving a
muscle. She hadn't lived for three centuries without knowing how
to adapt to unexpected happenings.

And *this* was certainly unexpected. She had suspected
something unusual after returning from China to find the
Nekohanten closed and Shampoo and Mousse nowhere to be found.

But this... She snorted softly. That fool of a great-
granddaughter had apparently told all. And after all her
warnings before the blood spell! Shampoo *knew* that once the
blood spell was cast, there could be no turning back from their
course.

Cologne shook her head with weary disgust. Shampoo had gone
soft, abandoning her Amazon pride and honor, all for the sake
of... what? Son-in-law's friendship? His love? Shampoo didn't
realize what a useless, self-defeating gesture she had made.
Their original plan to snare Son-in-law now lay in tatters,
without a hope of salvage.

Not only that, but to complicate matters, it seemed
certain... entities... in the Kami Plane were as averse to
allowing Ranma to break the blood spell as she was, and had taken
drastic measures to ensure he was no longer capable of even
*thinking* about taking action, let alone doing anything about
it.

Ironically, not too far off from what she originally
planned, she thought. Cologne tucked the now-useless bottle
carefully away in her robes. Nekoken or no, there was no point
in using the mind-numbing potion on Ranma as long as he was stuck
in female form; he would be of no use to Shampoo that way. A
cure to unfreeze Ranma from his cursed form would have to be
found first. And once a cure was found, that would take care of
the nasty little Cat-fist problem as well...

But she wouldn't be the one to find it, for two reasons.
First of all, to see if a cure was even possible, she would have
to get close enough to Ranma to examine him properly -- something
she had no desire to do in his current state. Second of all, she
had already experienced more than her share of frustration over
the whole mess. If Shampoo was fool enough to throw her lot in
with those outsiders for the time being, so be it. Let them
suffer, all of them. Let Ranma remain a girl in body and a beast
in mind for a while, and let the others agonize over him.
Perhaps, when they were sufficiently humbled, she might see what
she could do about helping Ranma...

Cologne narrowed her eyes slightly, annoyed that Ranma had
been able to detect her presence. She had been using all of her
vast abilities to erase all sense of her presence, and yet, when
she had moved the slightest bit closer to gain a better vantage
to watch and eavesdrop on the proceedings in the Tendo yard,
Ranma had known she was there, had known exactly where she was.
He might have attacked as well, had it not been for the
intervention of the okonomiyaki girl...

Just as well. Ancient and experienced as she was, she had
no desire to go up against the power of the Cat Fist.

At least, not yet...

Cologne turned, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, leaving the
Tendo household behind.

She was patient. She could watch and wait, for now. There
was no danger of the blood spell being broken, no danger of Akane
being rescued. As for her great-granddaughter... She would deal
with her later. Perhaps, under the circumstances, her show of
weakness was forgivable. Shampoo may be feeling unnecessary
guilt for the chaos resulting from the blood spell at the moment,
but once they were back home in China, with Ranma at her side,
she would feel better.

Yes. There was still a chance. Even with this setback,
Shampoo's honor could yet be salvaged.

And, with an ease borne of almost three centuries of
practice, Cologne ignored the perpetual hard knot of fear and
guilt in the center of her being that told her it was all wrong,
and kept running...

--------------------

"Oh my," said Kasumi as Ranma snatched another shrimp from
her outstretched fingers with his teeth. "That's the last one.
His appetite doesn't seem to have changed much."

Mousse's eyes were wide as he watched Ranma devour the last
scrap of food on the table. "He must have been starving," he
muttered.

"Actually, this is about normal for him," responded Ukyo
with a half-smile, grateful to recognize a bit of the old Ranma
in her cursed fiance.

Ranma began to carefully wash his face with his paw,
cleaning the smears of food from around his delicate mouth. The
tall ones sitting around him continued to make quiet,
incomprehensible chattering sounds, which he found easy to
ignore.

He felt better. The hunger pains in his stomach were gone.
The bad thing outside was gone, having run off after he'd been
carried into the house by one of the familiar tall ones. He was
home. He was warm and comfortable... and sleepy. Yawning
hugely, he arched his back and stretched, extending his claws and
scratching idly at the floor rug under the dining room table,
inadvertently shredding it.

Somewhere in the house, he could hear that small, familiar
creature that he'd brought home to play with. It seemed to be
wandering around aimlessly, from the sound of it. His ears
pricked up, and he momentarily entertained the idea of hunting it
down to play with again.

But he was tired and he ached, and at the moment, sleep
seemed to be the best idea. He walked over to a soft cushion and
curled up on it, tucking his paws and hind legs under his petite
form, and closed his eyes. The soft, incessant chattering of the
tall ones continued to flow around him, but it meant nothing, and
was almost comforting in a way...

Comforting... Now that his belly was full, and all threats
and distractions gone -- even the tall stocky hairless one was
keeping its distance, much to his relief -- he felt that same
strange ache in his chest. It wasn't really a physical pain. It
was different; a hollowness connected to the images still
floating on the edges of his consciousness. Images of... a tall
one. A tall one who wasn't there with the others in the room.

Ranma stirred on the cushion in discontentment. All was
*not* right. He needed to find this tall one with the shining
brown eyes that would make the ache go away. This need, this
desire, overwhelmed his body's desire to rest. Opening his eyes,
he stood from the cushion and began to pace restlessly. The
chattering sounds of the tall ones grew slightly in volume and
changed in cadence, becoming more intense, almost curious. He
felt their gaze on him, but he ignored them.

He sniffed the floor carefully. So many scents of so many
things, the most recent scents overwhelming the faint traces of
the older ones. And yet... There it was. A scent separate and
distinct from the others. So old, with many new layers of scent
over it, but it was there. And it fit with the images in his
mind.

The ache in his heart swelled and surged at this discovery,
and he meowed, lifting his head and looking around as if hoping
the tall one that he needed would appear. Then another tall one,
the one who carried him into the house, was in front of him,
making soft chattering noises, reaching out to him with its long
limbs. But though this one was nice, and made him feel good,
this one wasn't the one he was looking for.

He turned and, with his head close to the ground, began to
follow the old scent. Sometimes it faded away to nothing,
sometimes it broke off in different directions. He followed
where it was strongest. The other tall ones followed closely
behind him, chattering, chattering...

He followed the scent up the stairs and into the long
hallway. The familiar little black creature that he carried home
was wandering around at the end of the hall. It saw him and
froze, its eyes wide with apprehension. But he ignored it. The
scent was strong, the *feeling* strong, the ache inside him
growing with each step...

The scent stopped abruptly at the base of a strange
barricade. He had seen barricades like this before, and knew
that the tall ones had ways of moving them to get through by
touching the shiny round thing. He reached up with a paw and
touched it, but nothing happened. He looked behind him and the
group of tall ones who had followed him. Oddly enough, they were
staring at him, their chattering silent for once.

He looked at them and meowed, scratching at the door and
sending curled wood shavings fluttering to the floor.

One of the tall ones, the one with short, light brown fur on
its head, blinked at him, then reached out to touch the shiny
round thing, and the barricade opened for him.

The scent was there, old and faded with time, yet still
overwhelming. Ranma blinked as a sound flitted through his mind,
connecting with the scent and the images...

*...akane...*

The tall one he needed so badly should be here. Its scent
was here, almost untainted by other scents. He looked around,
sniffing. It should be here. But it wasn't. The ache hurt.

He called out to it, crying, meowing, over and over again,
hoping it would come.

The other tall ones stood crowded in the barricade opening,
watching him silently. The nice tall one, with the long dark
brown fur tied in a white ribbon, had strange wet streaks running
down its face...

The one he needed wasn't there.

But it would come back... wouldn't it?

He would wait.

Ranma curled up in the middle of Akane's bedroom floor and
closed his eyes.

Everyone, even Ryoga, crowded in the doorway and gazed at
Ranma's curled female form, the significance of their cursed
friend's actions weighing heavily in their hearts and minds.

"Oh my," said Kasumi at last, breaking the silence. "I wish
I could remember Akane. Ranma really seems to care about her."

Ukyo flinched and turned away, wiping her face with her
fingertips. "Excuse me," she said, her voice barely audible.
"There's... something I need to... do. I've got to go now."

Nabiki looked after her retreating form as she walked down
the stairs. "Ukyo."

Ukyo stopped, but didn't turn around.

Nabiki didn't know what to say. What *could* she say, after
that? She was good... no, excellent at reading people, right
down to the center of their pocketbooks. But actual human
relations were definitely not her forte. And Ukyo was hurting
after witnessing...

"Will... you be back?" she asked lamely.

Ukyo paused, still not turning. Then, a barely perceptible
nod of her head. "Ranchan needs my help. Our help. He can't
stay like this forever. We have to find a cure." And then she
was gone, out the front door.

"Well," said Soun, awkwardly breaking the silence that
followed, while looking at Ranma. "*Now* what do we do?"

No one seemed to have an answer. Not even Nabiki.

--------------------

Akane limped wearily and blindly through the thick mists.
She really hated this part of traveling through the Kami Plane.
Even after all the hundreds of times she'd traversed the mists,
she still couldn't get used to it. It was creepy and cold and
utterly disorienting. She never could tell if she was traveling
in a straight line, or wandering around in circles. Then again,
she supposed it didn't really matter since, for all the times
she'd ventured into the mists, she'd never emerged in the same
place twice.

A constant roulette wheel. She never knew where she was
going, or who or what she was going to run into when she got
there.

Akane heaved a great sigh, stirring the dark mist in front
of her face. At least it was never boring. The Kami Plane was
*definitely* not boring. Anything but. There was always
something new. Always some new demon who wanted to drag her away
as a bride or a slave, always some new demi-god or goddess that
thought she might be an entertaining mortal plaything until she
convinced them otherwise with the ki-infused edge of her katana.

Oh *gods,* she wished life was a bit more boring.

Or at least, what passed for boring in her previous life.
Getting mobbed by the male population of Furinkan High School
didn't seem nearly so bad now. Heck, she even missed Kuno's bad
poetry...

Her stomach growled.

Food. A nice, normal bowl of steaming ramen. *That*
sounded good. It didn't even have to be deluxe ramen. Good old,
plain, regular ramen. No exotic or enchanted food that could put
you to sleep or bind you permanently to a domain (she had to be
*so* careful about that), no mystical springs or rivers where you
had to bargain for two hours with a cucumber-craving kappa before
you could get a drink...

Of course, she didn't *really* have to worry about food ever
since she wandered into Inari's realm. The Goddess of Rice
didn't have the power to lift the blood spell, which was too bad,
because she was friendly enough. Instead, she gave Akane a
magical, inexhaustible bag of rice. While Akane had been
extremely grateful to the goddess for saving her from starvation,
she was now so sick of rice she knew could be happy if she lived
the rest of her life without seeing another white grain of the
stuff.

On top of that, she *still* had to make the laborious,
painstaking effort of finding other safe foods so she didn't
suffer malnutrition as a result of a one-sided diet...

Oh, for a little variety. *Safe* variety....

Kasumi's cooking... mmmm...

A scowl crept across Akane's face. Not that she didn't wish
for a taste of Kasumi's cooking. Quite the contrary. But not
even a month had passed since her encounter with Kojin, the God
of Kitchens, and she was still a little upset. She hadn't taken
five steps into his realm before he showed up in a rage and
physically threw her back into the mists with a threat not to
come back. Then he stomped away, muttering something along the
lines of "Why couldn't Kasumi get sucked into the Kami Plane?"
Of all the nerve. And she'd bet anything that he'd never
even *tried* her cooking. For him to insult her like that...

Akane sighed. On the other hand... Oh, what she wouldn't
give to hear Ranma insult her cooking...

She wondered what Ranma was doing right at that moment. If
he was okay.

If he missed her, like she...

*Ah, there it is. You've come full circle again. Let's
see, that was... what? Wow, a good 25 minutes without missing
Ranma. Still trying to beat that 47 minute record, though...*

Akane sighed. She sighed a lot these days...

*I am so pathetic. Why do I do this to myself?*

*So you'll stay sane, baka.*

*Oh yeah. Thanks.*

The mists began to thin, and Akane saw light up ahead.
Could be a good sign. Not necessarily, though. She had learned
that even evil beings liked to hang out in broad daylight
sometimes. Still, seeing light was preferable to those times
when she stumbled out of the mists and it was so dark she
couldn't even tell where the mists ended and the domain began.

She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the light as she left the
mists behind. The sky was a perfect bright azure blue. A grassy
field stretched in front of her, and beyond the field were
forested foothills rising up into majestic jagged mountains. A
light, warm breeze brushed the bottom of the valley, causing the
long grass to sway in graceful, chaotic ripples. The wind caught
at her hair, tied in a loose braid that fell midway down her
back, and whipped a few silken strands free, playing them about
her face. She brushed them behind her ear with one hand.

It was beautiful. She took it all in with wide,
appreciative eyes. In some ways, it almost felt like the mortal
realm. Except the grass was too green. The sky too blue. And,
of course, there was no sun in the sky. Weird, and a bit
unsettling at times, but it was a constant in the Kami Plane. No
sun, and no moon. Stars, but no moon. Weird. Like everything
else.

She could hear the gurgle of a nearby brook. Her mouth felt
suddenly dry. Grimacing, she unhooked her water skin from her
pack, unscrewed the lid and took a few careful swallows. Her
thirst was immediately sated, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
At least that meant that her thirst was brought on by real need
rather than a water sprite summons. She *hated* when that
happened. One of the first things Masakazu taught her when the
two of them left the Snow Woman's realm was that water was not to
be trusted until tested.

She smiled. Too bad Ranma was never given that advice...

Akane began to wade through the tall grass towards the sound
of the stream. If the water was, by some chance, regular water,
she wanted to fill up her skin.

The water was crystal clear, but it wasn't glowing. That
was always a good sign...

Reaching into the side of her pack, she pulled out a small
leather pouch, one of the many things Masakazu had given her
before he left so long ago. She took a small pinch of dusty gray
powder and let it drop in the water.

Nothing. No reaction, no bright warning flare. It was
safe. She plunged her water skin into the calm waters of the
stream and filled it.

She looked at her reflection, distorted and moving with the
ripples caused by her disruption of the water's surface. After a
moment, the water smoothed, and she saw herself.

Unconsciously, she began cataloging the noticeable changes
one by one. The face, still heart-shaped, but narrower, with
sharper cheekbones. The thick, blue-black hair, almost as long
as it was when Ryoga accidentally chopped it off, but less...
girlish, and a bit untamed... The eyes, deep brown... yet
flickering with unwanted knowledge...

Akane clenched her teeth, and pulled her water skin out of
the stream with a yank, destroying the smooth reflection. She
turned away, not wanting to see anymore, unable to stop the tears
rising to the surface as she sealed her water skin with trembling
fingers...

"Yo, Akane." An oh-so-familiar voice, coming up behind her.

Akane froze and blinked, the wetness in her eyes evaporating
almost instantly.

*Oh no. Not now...*

Akane checked inside herself. The hollow feeling, the
feeling of emptiness that appeared in her so long ago, was still
there. Still a gaping hole in her soul.

Anger boiled up inside her. With careful practice, she
pushed the irrationality that came with the rage back down into
her gut. In a single, swift movement, she unsheathed her katana
and whirled to face the intruder.

Ranma held up his hands and jumped back in surprise as the
blade swung towards him. Akane gazed at him, taking in his red
Chinese shirt, black pants, pigtail, and indignant expression
with a sweep of her anger-filled eyes. She held her katana
ready.

"Hey!" yelled Ranma. "What do you think you're doing, you
psycho tomboy?! I'm here to rescue you! Jeeze, I finally make
it to the Kami Plane and all you can do is attack me?"

"Shut up." Akane's voice was calm and cold in spite of the
fury on her face. "I know you're not Ranma. Drop the disguise
now, or I'll carve you up into pieces so small it'll take you a
full ten cycles to pull yourself back together."

Ranma blinked at her, stunned. Then his expression fell and
his shoulders sagged. "Aw. How'd you know?"

Akane snorted softly, not taking her eyes off him. "Oh
please. You get a zero for originality. If I had a yen for
every time someone's tried to pull that one on me--"

"Sheesh." Ranma held up his hands, cutting her off. "Okay,
I get the point." Then he looked up and grinned at her
precociously. "Get it? Point?" He gestured at her sword. "*I*
get the *point*?"
Akane stifled a groan. "You are really pushing your luck,
buddy. Now drop the disguise, or else."

The pseudo-Ranma danced lightly out of range of her blade.
"Well, you're no fun," he said, and stuck his tongue out at her.

Akane sighed. Yes, it was a day for sighing, it seemed.
She leaned over, shouldered her pack and her water skin while
keeping her blade unsheathed. Glancing contemptuously at the
pseudo-Ranma, she began to walk back towards the mists.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Ranma's voice.

Akane clenched her teeth without looking back. "Where does
it look like, stupid? I'm leaving. I'm looking for help, not
harassment, and it's obvious that I'm not going to get the help I
need here."

"Jeeze, can't you take a joke? Besides, I was only trying
to cheer you up." The pseudo-Ranma vaulted over the top of her,
flipping to land on his feet a few meters in front of her,
blocking her way to the mists.

"Cheer me up? Yeah, right." Akane glared at him, and her
blade flashed with blue ki. "Get out of my way."

"What do you see in this guy anyway?" The pseudo-Ranma
looked down at himself. "I mean, look at him. He's just a kid.
You're much too old for him."

Akane blinked.

Then, with an expression like stone, she turned, and began
to walk around him.

The pseudo-Ranma kept pace with her, just out of striking
range. "Just how old are you now, anyway? Twenty-two? Twenty-
three? This guy's only seventeen. Talk about robbing the
cradle..."

Akane bristled in spite of her self. "For your information,
I'm only twenty-one," she said without looking at him.

"And a half."

"Shut up. If you already knew, why did you ask me?"

"I was curious as to what you would say."

"Wrong. You did it just to get your supernatural jollies
over bugging some mere mortal."

"If you already knew, why did you ask me?"

She whirled on him. "Will you just leave me alone?! I'm
leaving, okay?!"

The pseudo-Ranma frowned petulantly. "Aw, come on, don't
go. You don't even know who I am yet."

"I don't know, and I don't care."

"If you knew, you would care."

"Why? It's not like you're all that impressive. Like I
said, zero for originality."

The pseudo-Ranma's eyebrows shot up. "Not impressive? Me?"

Akane stepped up to the tendrils of the mists and glanced
back at him. "You got it," she said, then turned to go.

The pseudo-Ranma stared at her retreating form a moment.
"Hmm," he said gravely, as she began to disappear into the mists.
"Well, I suppose the appropriate thing for me to do now is to fly
into a rage and show you just how powerful I am by leveling this
beautiful landscape to a wasteland and putting a wall of flame
between you and those mists."

Akane stopped and looked back at him, her eyes narrowing.
Was he serious? It was hard to tell with these self-absorbed
demi-gods. Just in case, she began to focus her ki...

He grinned at her. "But then that would be the total cliche
of the wrath of a slighted god. Zero for originality."

Akane closed her eyes. "I don't have time for this," she
muttered, and started walking again.

"Wait! You didn't even ask me if I could break the blood
spell!"

Akane kept walking. The mists thickened around her.

"I can, you know. Break the blood spell, that is."

Akane froze.

*Stupid,* she thought. *He's just pulling your strings. He
said *can,* not *will.**

"And if you come back, you can see Ranma for real."

Akane felt herself tremble slightly.

See... Ranma..?

The last time she had seen him... *really* seen him... was
over two and a half years ago through Yuki-onna's mirror as he
wept over her severed hair... It was this tormented image of him
that she carried around inside of her, as a badge of her own
loneliness, her own grief... and her hope that Ranma still...

"Are..." Her voice cracked. "Are you serious?"

"Completely."

Akane fought to keep her heart from racing. Even if this
guy didn't remove the blood spell... Just to see Ranma again,
for real...

This was a bad idea. She was lonely and homesick enough as
it was. Peeking in on the mortal world, seeing what she had
lost... It would only rub salt in the open wound of her soul.

Still... when would she get another chance like this?

She struggled to keep her voice cool. "I'll come back," she
said. "But first you have to drop the disguise."

"Deal!" The voice was no longer Ranma's baritone, but a
rich resonant tenor.

Akane took a deep breath, turned, and walked back out of the
edge of the mists.
He stood where she left him, looking nothing at all like
Ranma. He was much taller, for one thing, by about half a meter.
He was broad in the chest the way only a demi-god could be, but
his face was surprisingly narrow. Then again, the narrowness
could have been an illusion caused by the sharpness of the
precise moustache and goatee that adorned his pale features. His
black hair fell around his shoulders, and his large, piercing
eyes were the color of obsidian. His age, of course, was
indeterminable -- physically, he appeared to be anywhere from
late 20's to mid 40's.

He was also wearing jeans, sneakers, and an over-sized dark
olive-green T-shirt that read "North Shore Surfers" in black
lettering across the chest.

Akane blinked. The clothing was so incongruous with the
rest of him, not to mention their surroundings, that she couldn't
help but stare. She hadn't seen clothing like that since...

His mouth twisted in a wry grin at her reaction and he
glanced down at himself. "What?" he asked, his tone defensive,
but his demeanor slightly impish. "Don't you like it? Or is it
too 'mortal realm-ish?' I just figured something casual would
set you more at ease."

Akane smothered the perplexed expression she could feel on
her face. "Uhh... It's fine," she said. Great. Just what she
needed. A show-off deity who not only could read her mind with
the ease of flipping through an old paperback novel, but also
thought he had a sense of humor.

The man arched an eyebrow at her. "Well. Aren't *you* the
jaded mortal. Actually, I've never been one to do the tunic,
flowing robe and ornament thing. You know, the standard deity
attire. It's so... archaic."

"Look," said Akane, trying to hold her temper in check.
"You said you could show me Ranma in the mortal plane. Are you
going to or not? Because if you're not, I'm going to leave."

"First things first," said the man. "Don't you even want to
know who I am?"

Akane sighed. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Guess."

Akane fought down the urge to walk for the mists again. "I
really have no idea," she said through clenched teeth.

"You know, that expression really isn't becoming on a face
so lovely. Come on, just guess."

Akane rolled her eyes, but decided to humor him. "Hoso-no
Kami," she said off the top of her head, even though she knew it
wasn't him since she'd already met the forenamed deity.

The man's playful expression crumbled, and he managed to
look supremely offended. "Hoso-no Kami?! The God of Smallpox?!
Do I *look* like the God of Smallpox? Why, that whiny little
weasel-faced runt has been completely useless, ever since that
*mortal* vaccine completely eradicated his handiwork.
Disgraceful."

Akane shrugged, a veil of apathy covering her growing
nervousness. The man/deity before her was entirely too childish
for her liking. And childish gods were the most dangerous kind.
Maybe she should have left after all... "You wanted me to
guess," she said calmly. "I guessed."

The man frowned. "Fine, if you're going to be that way..."
In spite of the words, his tone was surprisingly adult, his gaze
serious. Akane blinked in surprise.

"You certainly are an ungrateful creature," he said mildly.
"I've offered to help you, and yet you are so intent on not
trusting me, on proving your mortal bravery in the face of the
supernatural, you can't even be civil to your host."

Akane felt a brief flash of shame as she looked at him. But
then she remembered how he had worn Ranma's face and form so
brazenly... how he had mocked her... And the anger grew within
her.

"Why should I be civil," she snapped, "when all you've done
since I set foot in this place is toy with me?! I know you can
read my mind! You knew when I came that I was hoping for help,
but instead of helping me, you show up and try to convince me
that you're..."

She trailed off as her throat closed off with the unexpected
onset of tears. Damn. She did *not* want to cry in front of
this buffoon... She tried desperately to shove back the feelings
of loneliness and despair that constantly skirted the edges of
her awareness, always seeking an opportunity to overwhelm her...

A tear escaped her eye in spite of her efforts to hold it
back, and trickled down her face. She brushed it away angrily
and glared at the man with wet eyes. "You're all the same," she
said, her voice catching. "You think that just because I'm
mortal, because I'm *human,* you can have fun at my expense.
Well, thanks, but no thanks. I'm not going to compromise my
dignity just so you can feel powerful."

Akane turned away to walk back into the mists.

And came to a screeching halt as she found herself nose to
nose with the obsidian-eyed man.

"You," he said, leaning into her face and grinning at her
startled expression, "have *no* sense of humor."

Akane didn't even blink. It didn't matter that he could be
a deity who might have enough power to reduce her to a pile of
ash with a twitch of his eyelid. He had pushed her to the limit.
He was in her face, and he was in her way. Her martial arts
instinct took over rational thought, and she instantly punched
him with a ki-infused fist to the solar plexus, followed by a
powerfully swift side kick to the jaw that sent the god flying
into the edge of the mists. The man landed on his rear with an
undignified "oof!"

Akane stared at the fallen man as rationality returned, her
anger draining away under a wave of shock at what she had done --
and the thought of who she might have done it to. Her offending
fist relaxed and flew to her open mouth as her eyes went
incredibly wide.

"Ohhhh..." she said, swallowing and reaching out her hand as
the man grunted and pushed himself to his feet. "Oh, I'm *so*
sorry, I didn't mean to hit you, it was just... you were there,
and I was trying to leave, and you were making fun of me, and you
startled me, and I'm just so used to defending myself when
something like that happens, it was just, I didn't stop to think,
I just...
The man looked up at her with his piercing black eyes, and
she trailed off, uncertain whether she should get ready for a
fight, or just run for the mists.

The man held her gaze for a long moment. She looked back at
him, tense and ready.

Then, his serious expression cracked... and he burst out
laughing.

"...," said Akane.

"You're the one, alright," the man said, wiping tears of
laughter from his eyes. "What a little spitfire you are. Ready
to tear my head off one moment, and then begging my forgiveness
the next." He grinned widely at her as he rubbed his jaw. "But I
guess I'm glad you only used your fist and your foot rather than
that live blade you're wielding. Although I could repair any
damage you might have inflicted on me, I'm not too partial to
dismemberment." He chuckled.

"I..." Akane hated being confused. A spark of her anger
flared again. "I was *not* begging for forgiveness! I was just
worried if I hurt you, that's all."

The man ignored her protests and just grinned at her.
"Well, at least I understand now why Masakazu was so fond of you.
You *are* entertaining, to say the least."

Akane blinked as she felt the world grind to a halt around
her. "You... you know Masakazu?"

The man walked up to her and held out his hand. "Hi. I'm
Susa-no-o. Welcome to my humble little corner of the Kami Plane,
Tendo Akane."

Akane stared at his hand as her mind tried to deal with the
information being thrown at her. She knew he was doing it on
purpose to keep her off balance. Still...

"Susa..." The blood fell from her face as she found his
name among her memories of legend, rumor and fairy tale, and she
looked up to meet his amused gaze. "Not... The Impetuous Male?"
The words felt strange and full of irony in her mouth.

The confirmed deity threw his hands wide and rolled his
eyes. "Oh, *now* you're impressed, after you've already knocked
me on my butt." He sighed theatrically. "Yes, it is I, 'The
Impetuous Male,' third and most maligned offspring of the
creators, Izanagi and Izanami. My eldest sister is the sun, and
my elder brother is the moon. Too bad they ran out of
interesting celestial bodies by the time I was born. Maybe
orbiting the mortal plane would have kept me out of trouble,
neh?"

Akane was speechless.

Susa-no-o winked at her. "Now don't go all awe-struck on
me. That's what I liked about you in the first place -- your
refusal to be intimidated. And no doubt that's what Masakazu
liked in you as well."

The name of her sensei shook Akane out of her stupor of
amazement. "You... you really know Masakazu?"

"Oh yeah. We were old drinking buddies, him and me, back in
the old days. In fact..." Susa-no-o frowned thoughtfully. "I
think he was with me when I threw that party in Ama-terasu's rice
field." He snorted. "Now *there* is a woman with no sense of
humor. Imagine, going off to sulk in a cave and depriving the
mortal world of sunlight just because my friends and I trampled
on a little bit of rice."

Akane looked at him with both astonishment and skepticism.
"I heard that she went into the cave because you made a hole in
her roof and threw a flayed horse into the room while she was
weaving."

Susa-no-o shrugged noncommittally. "Rice, horse, whatever.
It was just a harmless practical joke."

Akane's eyes were wide. "Not for the horse, it wasn't," she
snapped.

The deity cocked an eyebrow at her. "It was still a stupid
reason for the Sun Goddess to sulk in a cave for a few weeks.
Besides, *I* was banished to hell for a few centuries just
because *oneechan* doesn't appreciate my humor."

Akane looked at him through lowered lids. "Why don't I feel
sorry for you?"

Susa-no-o stuck his tongue out at her. "Ungrateful wench,"
he said.

Akane's eyes widened. There was a dangerous pause. The
tall grasses around her ankles suddenly looked bluish from the
light of her battle aura.

"*What* did you call me?!"

Akane hefted her blazing sword. If this guy was the
Susa-no-o she was familiar with from legend, he probably didn't
have much fighting skill. After all, Susa-no-o was the one who
had to get an Orochi totally passed-out drunk before he would
approach it to cut its heads off...

"Hey, now, let's not get personal..." Susa-no-o was eyeing
her sword with the slightest hint of worry in his black eyes.

"After you call me a *wench?!*"

"Jeeze, sorry!" Susa-no-o waved his hands and looked at
her, his expression suddenly serious. "I'm sorry. Really."

Akane blinked, surprised, and her battle aura faded.

"You can put your sword away, Akane," he said. "I'm not
going to do anything to you. I'm actually not such a bad guy.
After all, I did kill that Orochi to rescue a girl, with
absolutely no thought of personal gain. And just because that's
my only *recorded* good deed, doesn't mean I haven't done
others."

Akane lowered her katana and looked at him piercingly.
"Like you breaking the blood spell?" she asked, trying to keep
the hope out of her voice.

Susa-no-o smiled. "Maybe. I can't break it directly, for
the same reason Masakazu couldn't help you more. The Council
would throw a fit if I did, and I really don't want to go back to
Yomi Land." He grimaced. "I mean, this place isn't heaven, but
at least its not hell, right? You'd think they'd give me a
little leeway, considering I have seniority in the ranks of deity
and all that, but no way." His grimace turned into a genuine
scowl. "Doesn't help that mom and pops gave them instructions to
keep me on a tight leash. I mean, come *on.* How many millennia
have to pass before they get over a couple of practical jokes?"

Susa-no-o glanced over at Akane, who was staring at him
wide-eyed. "That's why Masakazu and I got along so well," he
said, grinning slightly. "That tengu liked to buck the system
almost as much as I do."

Akane looked at the black-haired, obsidian-eyed god as her
turbulent thoughts caught up with what the deity was saying.
Most of his talk of inter-dimensional politics was going way over
her head. But she did catch all the references to her tengu
sensei. And some part of how this man kept referring to Masakazu
was disturbing her greatly, but she couldn't put her finger on
it...

"Do you... know where Masakazu is?" she asked tentatively.
"I mean, you can look into the mortal plane, right? Do you know
why he hasn't come back? Can you see if he was able to help
Ranma, or if he's still working on it? He said it would be a
while before he got back because of the time dilation and all,
but it's been..."

Akane trailed off as Susa-no-o blinked at her, startled out
of his reverie. Then his face filled with a strange,
uncharacteristic expression that was almost... compassion..?

And Akane felt the old, old fear fill her heart, felt the
ache of tears behind her eyes, in spite of the small, hopeful
smile that was frozen on her face, frozen so hard it felt like it
would crack, but she kept smiling, because if she did, maybe the
words wouldn't come, maybe she wouldn't have to hear...

"Akane," said Susa-no-o. "Masakazu is dead. You already
know that. He died over two years ago. Only about a week ago,
in the mortal realm, taking into account the time dilation."

Akane's smile cracked.

She closed her eyes and saw darkness as her heart shattered.

But... he was right.

She had known.
She had felt it, the moment he died, over two years ago.

It was the worst feeling she'd ever felt. Worse even than
when mother died. Because when mother died, she at least had
father and Kasumi and Nabiki, and they were there to surround her
with love, to share the burden of grief, of loss...

Here, she was alone.

And the thought of Masakazu, her only friend in the Kami
Plane, dying because she sent him to save Ranma...

And the thought that he might have failed in saving Ranma
from whatever it was that had filled her with such terror...

And the thought that she had lost *both* of them, forever...

Since that moment, there had been nothing but hollowness.
The terrifying feeling of danger had passed, at least. But
Masakazu did not come back. And Ranma had not come for her. And
she was growing older and older in the Kami Plane as time almost
stood still in the mortal realm. And she was leaving them all
behind, her friends, her family... Ranma... all without taking a
single step. And her chances of returning to them faded with
each passing second, with each new rejection of her constant
plea... And she could not admit to herself that she had sent her
sensei, her friend, on a fool's errand to die without purpose,
without being able to help Ranma, for if she did, her already-
frayed sanity would unravel, would fall to the cold ground in
thin, dissolving strands of light, leaving her a mindless,
unmoving shell without will or desire, having lost everything,
everything...

...everything...

Akane trembled as all the feelings she had pushed from her
for so long filled her with quiet despair. No, she mouthed
silently. No no no nonononono....

"Akane..."

Akane shook her head, her eyes clenched shut, her hands
flying up to cover her ears, fingers entwining and pulling at her
hair. She didn't want to hear...

"It's not your fault Masakazu died, Akane. And he didn't
die in vain. He died with honor, having fought well against a
powerful enemy. Listen to me, Akane..."

Akane wasn't listening. She just wanted to die, to reach
inside her chest and tear out the unbearable ache inside as the
spark of hope that had kept her going for over two years was
cruelly extinguished...

*crack*

Pain lanced through the side of Akane's face, her head
jerked back, and her eyes flew open to see the azure sky tilt
strangely just before she landed on her back on the ground, her
fall cushioned by the tall grass.

"Stupid wench. Why do I even bother?"

Akane reached up with the tips of her fingers and felt her
throbbing cheek where Susa-no-o's hand connected with his slap.
A sharp burst of anger jolted through her. She looked up at the
sneering face of the deity. "You--!"

"Well, whaddya know, it worked." Susa-no-o's eyes narrowed.
"Look, little girl, I want your help, and, at the moment, I would
much rather have you ready to rip my head off than have you
weeping and wailing over something that's over and done with,
okay? The fact that I was just able to penetrate your defenses
and slap you off your feet is an insult to the training Masakazu
gave you. So pull yourself together."

Akane blinked up at him, the surprising force of his words
and the sharp, bitter taste of her own anger in her mouth
penetrating the thick fog of despair that had engulfed her.

"Now, *listen* to me, Akane." The deity gave her a hard
look as she pushed herself up to her feet. "Are you listening?"

Akane nodded, glaring at him with wet eyes.

"Good, 'cause I don't want to have to repeat myself.
Masakazu saved Ranma, but only for the moment. It will be up to
you to finish what he began."

Akane blinked in astonishment. "Wh-what are you talking
about?" Masakazu... saved Ranma? But she had to finish it?

Susa-no-o's hard look dissolved with alarming speed to a
carefree smirk. He leaned back and stuck his thumbs into the
front pockets of his jeans. "Okay, my secrets out. It's true.
I've been waiting for you."

"W-waiting for me?" There was an echo. She was repeating
him. Too many things, too fast. In spite of everything she had
been through the past few years, Akane was having a hard time
absorbing the emotional twists and turns of the past few minutes.
Part of her was still aching with grief, while another part of
her was anxious to run after the tiny carrots of hope the deity
was dangling in front of her. While yet another part did indeed
want to rip his head off.

Susa-no-o smirked, probably reading her thoughts. "That's
right," he said. "Masakazu was my friend too, and, ancient as he
was, he deserved to live a lot longer." He leaned over and
smiled sweetly at Akane. "You see, I want to stick it to the
demon who killed him, the one who still holds your fiance in
thrall, but I can't do it without your help."

"Holds my..." She was repeating him again. She couldn't
help it. Her mind was trying desperately to absorb the
information the deity was so casually flinging out, even as a
part of her cringed away, not wanting to know...

Susa-no-o rolled his eyes. "Come here," he said, turning
and walking towards the stream. "It'll be easier to just show
you."

Akane followed obediently, too stunned to do anything else.

They reached the stream, a wide flowing area where the water
was still and calm, not too far from where she'd filled her water
skin. Susa-no-o nodded. "Yeah, this'll do." He glanced at
Akane who came to stand next to him, looking down into the clear
water. "I told you I'd show you Ranma. But I'm going to warn
you right now. Things have not gone well for him, and it's not a
pretty sight. So prepare yourself. Don't go catatonic on me
again, okay?"

Akane looked up at him, unable to hide the fear in her eyes.
"Wait!" She wasn't ready, she didn't want to see... "Ranma...
He's alive, isn't he?"

Susa-no-o raised an eyebrow at her. "In a manner of
speaking."

Akane felt herself wither inside at his cryptic response.

The deity folded his arms over the "North Shore Surfers"
lettering across his chest. "Are you ready? I'm not going to
show you until you're ready. And you have to promise not to
freak out or anything, but to remain calm so we can discuss this
afterwards in a rational manner."

Akane averted her gaze from him and looked down at the
water. It had to be bad... He wasn't telling her... Would she be
able to handle it? Looking in on the mortal world, seeing a life
left behind over four and a half years ago? Seeing her friends
and family, virtually frozen in time...

Seeing Ranma suffer...

Akane closed her eyes and forcibly steadied herself, drawing
on the training given her by her tengu sensei to focus her mind,
her soul. She *would* handle it. She had faced and defeated
demons before. She could face the ones inside herself. She had
to. If she didn't... what was there to live for? It was this,
or spend the rest of her life hiding from her own pain, letting
it eat at her like a cancer until she was nothing...

She opened her eyes. "I'm ready," she said.

Susa-no-o nodded soberly. "Then look," he said, and passed
his hands over the water's surface.

Akane looked.

The water turned smooth as glass and shone with a soft light
as images began to form on its surface...

"The past first, I think," said Susa-no-o quietly. "Then
the present will make more sense."

And Akane saw Ranma talking with her family in the dining
room, with Ukyo, Ryoga and Doctor Tofu. Her heart leaped within
her at the sight, and tears sprang to her eyes. There they
were, all of her loved ones. Ranma; strong, confident,
determined as he announced that he was leaving for China in the
morning to break the blood spell... He looked just like she
remembered.

So young...

*Oh Ranma...*

Akane reached deep within herself for her center of calm.
She wouldn't cry. She would watch.

Ranma, in his room, quickly packing for the trip, his face
set with determination. He looks up suddenly as if he senses
something. Fear flickers across his face...

The light bulb explodes, plunging him into darkness,
showering him with tiny fragments of glass, but he doesn't notice
as he presses himself into the corner...

And the Snow Woman appears...

Akane choked back a gasp. *Just watch.*

She watches. And though the tears run unnoticed down her
face as she sees and hears the Snow Woman, her former friend,
torment Ranma with lies and then cast her cold spell on him, she
remaines silent and still.

And watches as the Shadowcat comes to steal away Ranma's
humanity...

The images swirl and speed up, only to slow down a moment
later...

And Masakazu is there, in a mountain glade, coaxing a wild-
eyed Ranma towards him so that he can remove the Snow Woman's
cold spell. But the Shadowcat returns, and a battle, a battle
over Ranma's soul, ensues...

Masakazu stuns Ranma with a small, yet powerful ki-blast...
and then freezes, staring at Ranma, his black, inhuman eyes wide
with amazement and wonder...

Akane felt her heart contract with fatalistic fear. *What
is he doing?! Can't he sense the demon coming up behind him?!*

Akane wanted to scream, to shout at him, to warn him... but
it was the past and she couldn't do anything. Except watch
silently...

Masakazu blinks, then turns suddenly, fast, but not fast
enough to avoid the flash of the Shadowcat's huge paw that pins
him to the ground...

"Stop..." whispered Akane hoarsely, the tears running freely
down her face. "I understand already, but please... I don't want
to see this..."

Susa-no-o glanced sideways at her, his hands still stretched
out. Then the image swirled and sped up...

Akane crumpled inside, whether with relief or sadness, she
couldn't tell...

"Eight mortal days have passed since then," said Susa-no-o
quietly. "This is the now, the present of the mortal realm."

Ranma, in female form, curled up sleeping on the floor of
Akane's bedroom. The dirt and blood has been long since cleaned
from his face and arms, and his red hair has been combed and tied
into his usual braided pigtail. Her father, Nabiki, Ukyo and
Doctor Tofu are gathered around him. They look drained and
worried...

"I'm sorry..." Doctor Tofu's voice floats up ethereally
from the surface of the water. "But I've tried everything I
know. And if even Kintaro-sensei can't find a way around this
cold spell..." He trails off helplessly.

The look on Nabiki's and Ukyo's faces mirrors Akane's own
expression.

"You can be sure we'll keep trying, though..." Doctor Tofu
continues.

Ranma blinks awake abruptly. He stands on all fours, looks
up and around the room, his eyes wide and alert, his feline gaze
turning...

...until it appears that he's looking right at them...

He stops and stares, his wild blue eyes peering up at them
from the water's surface, from the two-dimensional image of her
room.

He meows anxiously. Over and over again.

Susa-no-o's eyes widened. Akane's hands were fists, up to
her mouth, pressing back the sobs that wanted to burst out.
"C-can he see us?" she choked.

"Impossible." The deity's eyes narrowed. "Still... he
obviously senses something. It could be his connection to the
Kami Plane through the Shadowcat, though..." He trailed off,
focusing as the image began to waver slightly.

Ukyo goes over to Ranma, tries to sooth him as he continues
to mew anxiously at nothing. But he ignores her. Just stares up
blindly out of the water, crying, crying... Tears begin to
streak down Ukyo's face...

"Dammit, Ranchan..." she whispers, a sound between grief and
anger. "She's not coming back. Why can't you accept that? Why
can't you come back to me?" She begins to sob quietly as Soun,
Nabiki and Doctor Tofu look on wearily, sadly. "Please... come
back to me..."

But Ranma's eyes continue to gaze beyond what he can see...

"Enough." Akane's voice was barely audible. "I've seen
enough."

Susa-no-o lowered his hands. The image faded from the water
as it began to flow quietly once again.

"If I were there..." she said, unable to tear her eyes away
from the water. "I could always bring him out of it... the
Nekoken..."

Susa-no-o turned to her. "Which is precisely why the
Shadowcat took advantage of this opportunity. Because you're
*not* there. Akane..."

Akane looked up at him. Her face was wet, her brown eyes
glistened with tears, but her expression was remarkably calm.

Susa-no-o smiled grimly at her. "The Shadowcat is *here,*
Akane. In the Kami Plane. Masakazu was able to send him back
before he died. But the link between Ranma and the demon is
still very much alive."

Akane understood immediately.

"Where?" she asked.

"In the Gaki domain. The realm of evil gods. I can show
you how to get there. I'd go myself, but if I take a single step
out of my own domain, the Council jumps on my back faster than
you can blink."

"Show me." Akane lifted her blade, which was pulsing with
bright blue ki.

Susa-no-o's grim smile widened. "Atta girl, Akane.

"I knew I could count on you."

--------------------

End of Part Fourteen