Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ranma Gets A Clue ❯ Balancing The World With Harmony - The Beginning And End Of An Age ( Chapter 11 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Ranma 1/2 Fanfic "Ranma Gets A Clue"
Written by Asayogure
Stories Archived at www.asayogure.com/rgac
First Draft (10/14/2000)
Last modified (10/28/2001)

Chapter 11, "Balancing The World With Harmony - The
Beginning And End Of An Age."
_______________________________________________________
Authors Notes:

Okay I admit it, I am rather nervous about this
chapter. I haven't released a chapter for this story in
almost a year, and quite frankly I am unsure if my writing
is still what it used to be.

This chapter has been pre-read a few times, and edited
and re-edited by myself numerous times. I started this
sucker back in October of 2000, so obviously this was
written over a large period of time.

This is also the longest original work I have ever
written on anything, ever. This chapter totals about 62
pages by Microsoft Word's count. That is about 31,000
words! So yes this chapter is going to be rather long, so
settle yourself in for a long read.

Don't grow too attached to this chapter though, I am
releasing it, but I am releasing it in a beta version.
There are certain holes in the plot line I want to fill in,
and there are certain scenes I am still not very happy
with. But I know many of you have been waiting for a long
time for this, and it certainly has the basics of what I
wanted to do for this story in it. The storyline is there,
and it is semi-polished. I cut some things I had wanted to
put in the story, and I may go back and add them later on,
but for now the story stands as is. If you want to help me
out and give me Comments and Criticisms for this chapter I
would really appreciate it. I have lost contact with my
old pre-readers, and right now only one of the original
group has seen this chapter. So if you feel like hashing
this story out and digging through the plot holes with me,
drop me a line.

And now without further adieu, I give you the final
chapter to Ranma Gets A Clue.
_______________________________________________________
Begin.
_______________________________________________________

Morning at the Tendou dojo was usually an interesting
affair. Sometimes one could see a rather large Panda
attacking a buxom red-headed girl, who was frequently
without a shirt. Much to the delight of many of the
telescope and or binocular owning residents nearby.
Sometimes you could smell the most heavenly scents coming
from the Tendou kitchen, and other days those scents would
be marred by what could only be described as . . .
composting? Oft times one could hear the sounds of
fighting coming from within the walls of the Tendou estate,
and most of the residents of the Nerima district knew
better than to hang around there for very long. All in all
the Tendou dojo was a rather rowdy place, except for today.
Ranma and Akane were still sound asleep in Akane's
bedroom. Kasumi was in the kitchen making her morning tea,
and smiling to herself with an inner glee. Tofu was in the
sitting room reading the morning newspaper with Soun.
Genma was snoring away in his room as was Nabiki, and
Happosai . . . well Happosai was being quiet, weird, but
quiet.
Sitting at the kitchen table Happosai was quietly
humming to himself with his mini-ironing set on his lap.
On the kitchen table was perched an enormous pile of
women's panties and bras. Kasumi, as easygoing as ever,
noticed them, and made a mental note to sterilize the table
very . . . very thoroughly later, but decided not to press
the matter. Happosai was in pervert heaven.
Smiling peacefully, Kasumi asked the distracted
Happosai, "so grandfather Happosai, were you out late last
night?" Happosai sighed in answer, "panties."
"Oh my, that's quite a collection you have there . . ."
again the answer came, "paaaaaaaanties." Arching an
eyebrow Kasumi smiled and said sweetly over her tea cup,
"your hair is on fire." Happosai nodded dreamily and
whispered reverently, "panties."
'Thought so.' Kasumi grinned to herself.

-

In Akane's room Ranma rolled over and hugged Akane
close to him. She snuggled back into his body in return,
her arms were held close in tight to her chest as she lay
on her side, and Ranma's arms overlapped hers to enfold her
tightly. Her back was to him so Ranma was happily hugging
her in his favorite "spoons" position.
They were both semi-awake, but neither one of them
really cared to break the mood by sitting up, or speaking,
the bed was soft and warm, and although they hadn't
admitted it to anyone yet, they were basically committed to
each other, and had accepted that. They just hadn't quite
gotten around to saying it to each other yet.
The long minutes of half sleep passed and Akane's room
started to grow warm from the sun's glare through the
window. Suddenly three low taps came from Akane's door,
and Nabiki's voice sang out melodically, "you two love
birds better make yourselves seen pretty soon, or daddy is
gonna find out, and you KNOW he will have a priest in here
in 5 seconds to marry you if he catches Ranma in your room
'Kane-chan."
Akane rolled over in bed and met Ranma's panicked eyes
and whispered to him, "as obnoxious as she is, she's right
and you'd better hit the window Ran-chan." Akane referred
to him with his second most common pet name . . . the
first most common being, 'hey idiot.' Ran-chan was the
name Ukyou called him. Akane had NEVER called him by a
nickname. "That is, if you are all better now from your
boo-boos Ran-chan?" Akane asked sweetly and crinkled up
her nose in her cutest smile and kissed him on the nose.
The events of yesterday were coming back to Ranma and
he sat up abruptly and felt around his torso for wounds,
and found none. Glancing at Akane all he got was a shrug,
then a push.
Looking up at her from the floor Ranma put on his best
pouty face. "Not even married yet, and already you're
kicking me out of the bed Akane?" Ranma teased. Akane
blushed and chucked a pillow at his head, which Ranma
absorbed with an audible, "oof."
"Don't joke about stuff like that Ranma!" Akane
admonished him as she attempted to pull off a serious face
as Ranma started to mock cry from his seat on the floor, he
was SOOO cute sometimes!
"If daddy heard you saying something like that, coming
from MY room, we really will be married you dork. Now grab
your stuff and hop out the window before someone catches us
you goober!" Akane punctuated her lecture with another
well aimed pillow, this one got him square in the mouth,
which he had open in mock bawling. Coughing up the pillow,
Ranma gave her a 'you are gonna pay for that with some
serious tickling look,' grabbed his stuff and jumped out
the window. A second later a loud splash could be heard
out her window, and Ranma's indignant cursing in a now very
female voice. . . "Why in the hell do they even have this
stupid pond anyways. . .!? Son of a . . .! I HATE
water!" The curses faded as Ranma made her way towards the
house.
Giggling, Akane rolled out of bed and started to get
dressed for the day. You would think that after this long
the dork would have learned where the koi pond was by now.

-

Grumbling to herself Ranma yanked open the porch door
and entered the morning breakfast area. Plopping down with
a frustrated oath Ranma yanked her shirt off and started to
squeeze the water out of it. Grinning her evil grin Nabiki
eyed Ranma from across the room and grinned. Ranma ignored
her. Soun glanced up from his paper with his custom
toothbrush in his mouth, but only seeing Ranma in her usual
display of an utter lack of feminine modesty he went back
to the news. Genma in panda form slothed into the room and
yawning emptied a kettle of hot water onto his "son's"
head.
"YEEEEOOW!! HEY YOU BLUBBER-BUTTED IDIOT PANDA, IT'S
HOT WATER, NOT SCALDING! YA TRYING TA KILL ME?" Ranma
yelped from his back as he lay panting in shock on the
floor.
Genma not even missing a beat held up a sign with
scribbled lettering that read, 'and get out of my seat ya
ingrate.' Which he followed up with a punt to Ranma's
rear-end.
Ranma went sailing into the yard and landed head first
in the garden, sitting there upside down he growled, "okay,
that's it." With a battle cry Ranma leapt at his panda-
formed father and connected with a full power round kick to
his head. Genma jumped up from the floor and held up a
sign reading, 'you asked for it,' and lunged at Ranma,
their fight soon had them rolling around outside and soon
everyone was ignoring them, except for Nabiki who eyed them
from her perch in the corner of the room on her beanbag.
"Good grief, you'd think one of them would have killed
the other by now." Nabiki muttered before going back to
her morning manga.

-

Up in a tree across the street from the Tendou estate,
Ukyou watched the whole scene with a dispassionate glare.
Her business here today didn't concern Ranma-honey, not
directly anyway. It was time to end it, it was time to
force Akane to release her hold on Ranma and his honor, and
she was just the girl to do it.
Hopping down from the tree Ukyou checked her bandolier
spatulas and her battle spatula strapped to her back.
Setting her shoulders and taking a deep breath Ukyou
steeled herself for the coming battle, not just a battle
with fists and weapons, but an emotional battle as well
. . . this was going to be intense. Clenching her jaw
Ukyou started to march to the Tendou dojo's front gate.

-

Shampoo of the Amazon warrior tribe of Joketsuzoku
China smirked from her rooftop perch three houses down from
Ukyou's tree. This was going to be interesting. Waiting
until she was sure Ukyou wouldn't notice her, Shampoo
stealthily moved to a closer location to get a better view.

-

Reaching the Tendou gate Ukyou paused for a moment
debating whether to hop the fence or knock. She opted to
hop. Clearing the fence top Ukyou landed in a crouch and
unsheathed her battle spatula. Peering out from the crop
of bushes she had landed behind, Ukyou changed her strategy
and resheathed her battle spatula and decided to wait for
the enemy to show her face.

-

Akane yawned on her way down the stairs for breakfast.
It had taken her a good five minutes to yank that stupid
door open. Silently she vowed to make Ranma fix it later.
Entering the family dining room Akane glanced out the
sliding doors to the peaceful presence of nature. No
matter what was going on in her life, she could always stop
and watch nature and feel better about everything. The
wind dancing in the treetops and the grass, making them
sway to a hidden melody. The chirps and songs of the
various creatures that lived around their home. The smell
of the outdoors, especially yummy smells like chimney
smoke, and the fresh smell right after a rain shower.
Smiling to herself Akane took a seat at the table with her
back to the doors and the sun on her back. Ranma sitting
across from her, smiled a quick, secret smile. Akane
smiled back.

-

Seeing Akane enter the room Ukyou had immediately
yanked a fistful of throwing spatulas to skewer her with.
But reluctantly put them back. She was better than a sneak
attack from behind. Sighing to herself Ukyou stood up
proudly and started to walk to her destiny.

-

Seeing Ukyou stand up out of the bushes along the far
wall Ranma froze. Narrowing his eyes he watched her
approach. Ukyou let her steady gaze rest on him for but a
moment, in that brief glance she shook her head slightly
and returned her glare to Akane, signaling that although
her purpose here was for a fight, she wasn't going to
attack Akane without warning. Sighing Ranma reached over
the table and grasped Akane's hand lightly. Whispering
insistently he warned her, "Akane you better swallow that
and turn around, I think Ukyou wants to challenge you."
Her eyes going wide Akane gulped her current mouthful
down and set her shoulders into her "serious and proud
warrior" position. Then she decided to insult Ukyou by
taking the time to take a final sip of tea and wipe her
mouth daintily with her napkin. Ukyou watched her from
behind coldly, and cataloged the insult away.
Finally swinging her legs around to drape over the
porch, Akane calmly met the gaze of Ranma's oldest friend,
the only girl in the world that maybe, just maybe might be
closer to Ranma than she was. Akane in her usual
professional and graceful manner blurted out, "well?! What
do you want Ukyou?"
Ranma buried his head in his hands behind her. When
was she going to learn that she wasn't nearly as good as
she seemed to think she was? When was she going to learn
that meeting every situation with a "can-do" attitude was
useless if the fact remained that you COULDN'T do it! When
was she going to learn that although martial arts could be
about violence and brute force, it didn't always have to
be?! Ranma sighed again and pulled his head up to watch
Ukyou's reaction.
Behind Ukyou the sky was clear and blue. Only a few
wisps of clouds were visible, and the temperature was a
comfortable breezy one for early morning. But for some
reason as she started to speak it seemed to get colder and
the wind seemed to still and the sky seemed to gray.
"Akane . . . I have had enough. I am tired of the
games, I am tired of the fighting, I am tired of the
bickering, I am tired of the jealousy and I am quite
frankly getting tired of you. I have gone easy on you a
number of times in the past because you aren't as strong as
I am, and because you don't have as much training as I
have, and your skill in the art isn't very impressive. But
your callous attitude to this whole fiancee business is
getting old, and your arrogance is becoming insufferable.
I may not be able to win Ranma's favor by beating you in a
fight, but I will win back some of my families honor! So
here it is, plain and simple. I challenge you! I am not
brining Ranma into this at all, this is for bragging
rights. If I win you have to admit publicly that you lost
to me, if you win I'll do the same. We gotta deal sugar?"
Akane's face went crimson and her jaw dropped open,
then she clamped it shut with blazing determination. She'd
show her. She'd show all of them just how good of a
martial artist she really was!
"Fine then, I accept your challenge! Lemme go get into
some clothes and we'll finish this!" Akane snapped then
ran out of the room before anyone could say anything.
Ukyou casually unsheathed her battle spatula and leaned
on it, calling out to Akane as she left the room, "take
your time sugar, I'm in no hurry." Smiling Ukyou let her
eyes travel over the faces of the people still in the room.
Genma was steadfastly ignoring her, leaning over the
table shoveling food into his face. Typical. Soun was
looking at her with the face he used when he was about to
try to sound old, experienced and wise. She knew better
now. Nabiki was watching her with those cool calculating
eyes of hers. Ukyou could tell she was considering calling
the police, or taking bets. Kasumi glanced her way a few
times, but she had no malice in her eyes, she almost seemed
like she wanted to offer Ukyou a seat and some breakfast,
but she seemed to know that Ukyou wouldn't accept. Ranma
looked . . . resolved?
The silence hung for about five seconds then everyone
started talking at once.

"What do you mean you are going to beat up my little
girl?! I Soun Tendou will not allow it! You must first
beat Ranma before you challenge Akane. That is the rule of
this dojo!" Soun started to rant.

"Ukyou dear . . . would you like a cup of tea?" Kasumi
asked hesitantly. Maybe all the years of fighting around
Kasumi had hardened her to the fact that people fought her
family members, and she had just decided to ignore it?

"This is. . . interesting, I wish there were people
around to take bets. I would give five to one odds that
Akane only lasts thirty seconds. Whadda say daddy? Ranma?
Any takers?" Nabiki grinned.

Genma not even bothering to look up held up a sign that
read, 'Kasumi dear could I have some more miso soup?'

Ukyou rolled her eyes at Soun, Nabiki and Genma. She
politely turned Kasumi's offer down then laid her eyes on
Ranma who hadn't spoken yet. The wind picked up for just a
second and the porch chime rang out. Quietly Ranma spoke.
"Just don't kill her Ukyou. Akane has had this coming
for quite awhile, but . . . I can't allow you to kill her,
okay?"
Ukyou nodded her agreement. Minutes passed and just as
Ukyou was getting ready to go find Akane she came trouncing
down the stairs. She had thrown on her training gi and her
red belt and head band. She looked as uncute as ever and
she glared at Ukyou.
Stomping into the courtyard Akane whipped around and
planted her feet in a traditional ready stance. Dipping
her left shoulder down and leaning back on her right leg
she set herself in a stance that she could duck from, or
kick from or punch from, depending on the situation.
Glaring at Ukyou, Akane held her stance. Smirking self-
assuredly Akane stated, "ready when you are U-chan."
Ignoring the insulting use of her nickname given to her
by Ranma himself, Ukyou casually walked down the steps of
the Tendou porch. Adding to Akane's anger Ukyou unstrapped
her bandolier and her battle spatula, and placed them on
the ground. Meeting Akane in hand to hand combat without
her weapons was rubbing salt in an open wound, her actions
said she didn't even need her special weapons to beat
Akane. Akane vowed to make her pay for that.
Stopping about five steps from Akane, Ukyou folded her
arms and crossed her legs in the most casual of stances,
calmly she met Akane furious glare with an unemotional gaze
of her own. She didn't glare and she didn't have all of
her muscles clenched in anger.
Ranma moaned and buried his head in his hands again.
THE IDIOT! Here the fight hadn't even started yet, and
Akane was already losing, holding yourself in that kind of
stance, with anger boiling through you, making your
thoughts jumbled and unfocused, and having all your muscles
clenched making your body tired, Akane was proving just how
much she didn't know. This was going to be embarrassing.
All Ukyou had to do was act the part of the proverbial bull
fighter, and dodge Akane's wild enraged attacks and hit her
as she passed.
Ukyou simply looked at Akane, she didn't stomp the
ground, she didn't pace, she didn't flex her muscles, she
simply watched and waited. Finally Akane couldn't stand it
anymore, with a battle cry of, "here I come!" She leapt at
Ukyou.
Running at Ukyou at full speed Akane pulled her arm
back and prepared to punch. When she was almost on top of
her Ukyou casually leaned to the side and stuck her right
leg out, Akane going full boar, tripped over the leg and
went sprawling in the dirt. Rolling out of it and spitting
dirt, Akane leapt at Ukyou again.
This time Akane closed the distance a little slower and
directly on Ukyou's center, so Ukyou was forced to use her
hands to block and counter Akane's wild punches.
Unlike Ranma, Ukyou did NOT just avoid Akane's wild
shots. She blocked them, and HARD. Hammer fisting Akane's
wrists and nerve centers again and again as Akane lashed
out, Ukyou beat her attacks away, when Akane would swing
full force with a hook punch Ukyou would duck under it and
sucker punch her in her solar plexus. Akane started losing
speed and momentum and went for more power, throwing full
force chops and jabs and hook and round punches at Ukyou,
Ukyou was forced to do more ducking and parrying, and less
all out blocking.
That however gave Ukyou the advantage of the counter
shot. As Akane would jab in, Ukyou would partially block
her strike and partially lean away from it, as she did so
she would use her blocking hand as a ramp and pathway to
Akane and she would deliver blow after crushing blow to
Akane's midsection as Akane tried to hammer home her
offensive. Finally Akane made a big mistake, starting her
attack from two steps away, Ukyou had time to line her
hips up properly, as Akane stepped in to deliver a full
force back punch, Ukyou ducked under it, grasped Akane's
punching arm with both arms, as she at the same time pushed
her rear-end into Akane, and crouching down, twisting, and
pulling, Ukyou took Akane's momentum from the punch and
turned it into a vicious throw.
Akane went sailing up and over Ukyou's hip, and landed
hard on her back in front of Ukyou. Ukyou retaining her
hold on Akane's wrist twisted it into a shiatsu wrist lock
- a painful one, then Ukyou knelt so her knee was laying
across Akane's neck, slowing putting her into a choke
hold. Akane was helpless and beaten and everyone had seen
it. Ukyou hadn't even broken a sweat, Akane was drenched.
Leaning down to look dispassionately into Akane's eyes,
Ukyou whispered, "you lose." Then smirking Ukyou let her
go and stood up. Turning around Ukyou saw Ranma standing
behind her, sadly shaking his head back and forth. Not
ready to confront Ranma just yet Ukyou calmly walked to her
gear and put it back on. Then walked to the front gate and
let herself out.
Akane just laid there on the ground. Soun sat at the
table with his chop sticks still in on hand, but the piece
of pickle he had been about to eat had slipped onto the
table. Soun's mouth was wide open in shock. Nabiki had
her hands over her mouth, her eyes were wide and she looked
. . . worried? Kasumi just watched, she seemed neither
shocked nor all too concerned about it. She knew how much
damage Akane could and couldn't take. Genma had even
stopped eating and looked on sadly in panda form. Akane
had just been humiliated, and publicly. There was no
telling how she would react to this.
Soun started to try to comfort her, "Akane . . . don't
you worry, we'll train you for your re-match and you'll be
able to . . ."
"No! No she won't mister Tendou. Akane, right now and
as she is, even with your training, could never defeat a
martial artist such as Ukyou. Until she learns better,
this will keep happening to her over and over again."
Ranma stated plain and seriously, cutting Soun off in a
curt voice.
Jerking herself upright Akane whispered. "You bastard.
You choose now, now of all times to belittle me and insult
me and my skills? What kind of an unfeeling monster are
you?" She asked him in shock.
Sadly Ranma replied, "in the world of serious martial
arts Akane, I am as serious as they get. In my world, and
Shampoo's world, and Mousee's world, and Ryouga's world,
and even in Ukyou's world, defeat could always mean death.
Defeat means being helpless, it means letting your opponent
get the best of you. Ukyou walked in here today knowing
you, and knowing how to beat you. She played you like a
drum, and you reacted exactly how she wanted you to act.
Whether or not you choose to accept that fact, you do have
to admit she beat you, in a fair fight, and because of
that, you have shamed the Anything Goes School of Martial
Arts."
Everyone on the porch gasped for breath. Ranma's
statement, while true, was terribly cruel and not what the
situation called for. What was he doing? They had seemed
to be getting along fairly well as of late. Why would he
suddenly revert back to taunting and teasing Akane?
Akane just sat there for a little while. The breeze
played with her hair, and her shoulders heaved as she tried
to regain her breath with dignity. What was the matter
with him? Had he no sympathy? No respect? No caring
feelings for her at all? Where the special moments that
they had been sharing a farce? Was he really this
heartless? Slowly as Akane asked herself these questions
her anger built and her resolve hardened. She would show
him, she would make him fight her for real!
Ranma just stood there, he knew what was coming and he
was ready for it. Purposefully Akane stood up, brushing
herself off and straightening her clothing. Finally Akane
swung her gaze onto Ranma. If looks could burn you to a
cinder, Ranma would have been toast right then.
"Die Ranma!" Akane screamed from the very depths of
betrayed rage and fury. Her words carried all of her hurt
and her disappointment. If she could just get him to fight
her for real! If she could at least match him, maybe not
beat him, but at least match him, that would help to sooth
her shattered perceptions of her Martial Arts skills.
Again and again Akane swung at him. Kicking and
punching and chopping and flailing angrily. Ranma dodged
as he always did, sometimes with little ducks or with
slight leans to either side. Sometimes flipping over and
behind Akane. But through it all he kept his eyes on
Akane, and his expression was that of someone doing
something distasteful, something they didn't want to do but
had to.
His pity was the last thing Akane wanted to see right
now!
Steadily as Akane attacked him Ranma lead her back away
from her family, and closer to the wall. Closer and closer
they came, until finally Ranma was able to hop up on the
wall. Akane was hard on his heels. He wasn't running away
this time!
Hopping down off the wall Ranma started to jog through
the Nerima streets. Akane matched his pace and went
faster, soon they were both sprinting. Street signs,
cars, people, stores, trees, they all flew by Akane. Her
single minded purpose right now was to catch Ranma, and to
make him pay for humiliating her! To make him fight her
for real.
Akane failed to notice the city fading away and the
woods that Ranma so often went to with his father to train
in, started to spring up around them.
Soon they were dashing through the brush and high trees
of the woods. The sunlight filtered down through the
treetops in lazy dusty motes, and the woods seemed to
breath with the gust of the breeze. A small clearing
loomed up ahead, and Ranma veered towards it, and started
to slow down. Reaching the center of the clearing Ranma
stopped and turned around and faced her, then planted his
hands on his hips and waited.
Akane staggered into the clearing on lead feet. Now
that they had stopped she was out of breath. She hadn't
realized how long they had been running. Only serving to
infuriate her, Akane noticed Ranma was standing straight
and tall, and he wasn't breathing hard at all. Clenching
her fists in frustration Akane screamed, "will you just
hold still and fight me for real Ranma?!"
Quietly Ranma responded, "okay Akane, for you . . . I
will fight you for real . . ." he left off leaving
something unsaid, and if Akane had bothered to look, she
would have noticed that Ranma's eyes were wet with held
back tears.
'It's for her own good.' Ranma told himself over and
over again as he readied himself emotionally for what he
was about to do to her . . . May the gods have mercy on
him.
Grinning insanely at his promise Akane cinched her red
belt tighter, and flexed her muscles in one big full body
stretch, then planting her feet firmly in the dirt Akane
bent her knees just as she had seen many movie stars do,
and jump kicked towards Ranma. Her power was stunning, her
form was perfect, her heart was in it, but her skills were
lacking.
With a sad look on his face Ranma side stepped Akane's
mid air kick, which to him looked like she was moving in
slow motion, and twisting his body into a full power strike
he lashed out with a vicious back knuckle to her calf
muscle of her kicking leg as she sailed by. Akane went
down with a gasping whimper and crumpled behind him. Ranma
kept his back to her and let his tears fall silently. He
could at least spare her the indignity of looking at her on
the ground. The tears came in a steady stream. He wept
because he knew she was going to get back up.
Gasping at the pain of what he had done to her Akane
was beyond shock. Her leg was screaming at her and she
rolled herself up into a little ball and rubbed her muscle
trying to work it back out of the pain. She was so shocked
at Ranma actually fighting her for real, actually trading
hits with her, that her mind locked on her goal, to get up
and fight back.
Slowly Akane lifted herself up off the ground. Turning
around she saw Ranma with his back to her. The bastard!
His insulting attitude was unbearable! Growling Akane
shook out her leg and started to run at Ranma in a full
charge, intending to tackle him about the waist and knock
him to the ground.
With the reflexes of a cat Ranma spun about at the last
moment and with unrelenting force chopped both her wrists
hard in outward sweeping circular motions, right in the
nerve centers there. At the same time Ranma brought his
right knee up and jammed it into Akane's midsection.
Without her hands to stop her motion, and as fast as she
was going, Akane ran right into the knee to her gut. She
didn't even have time to tighten her muscles to absorb the
impact. With a whoosh her breath left her and she was
again on the ground.
Laying there choking and gasping for breath Akane drew
upon her inner power, her stores of strength she had built
up during her years of training. Dimly she started to glow
red with the power of her Chi. Ranma looking down on her,
saw it and felt it, and stayed where he was. Ranma wasn't
using Chi or Ki based martial arts, and her Chi was hardly
a concern for him.
Cursing under her breath and dry retching Akane rolled
over to her knees and pushed herself up to glare at Ranma.
Through her tears of pain Akane couldn't recognize Ranma's
tears of emotional agony.
Slowly Akane stood up, then gathered herself into her
best stance, left foot forward and jaw clenched and ready,
left hand held shoulder level and open, right hand held by
her right ear and closed. Vowing to at least make the
fight a draw or die, Akane launched herself at Ranma.
Punching fast and furious she launched a last desperate
attack at Ranma. Ranma's heart broke as he saw her fists
raining towards him glowing with the angry red power of her
Chi turned into feeble Ki attacks. To his eyes her fists
were moving so slow they were almost going backwards.
Slapping away each of her punches with his own hands
Ranma didn't even use his "Chestnut Fist" technique. He
didn't have to, his basic speed was more than enough to
counter her out of control, clumsy attacks. Grimacing
inwardly with what he was about to do, Ranma crossed his
index and middle fingers and flexing them so they were bent
just a little, but rigid, Ranma jabbed them into her
pressure points all along her arms and wrists.
Over and over again Akane drove at him, punching with a
fiercer resolve than she had even punched before, and over
and over Ranma slammed his counter strikes into her arms so
hard her whole body shuddered. Soon Akane's left arm
wouldn't move no matter how hard she tried, then her right
arm failed her. Desperate Akane kicked out with her right
leg to Ranma's solar plexus. Not even pausing Ranma
brought his right hand clenched into a hammer fist in a
sweeping pendulum arc and knocked her kick away so hard
that her whole body spun out and away with it. Twirling
crazily into the dirt Akane landed hard face down. Lifting
herself up slowly on her left arm which was now working a
little bit she barely had time to yelp before Ranma kicked
her arm out from under her viciously. She again slammed
into the dirt hard!
This couldn't be happening! This couldn't be
happening! This couldn't be happening! Ranma wouldn't
hurt her like this! Would he? Suddenly Akane was afraid
for her life. In her mind Akane replayed what he had said
just a few minutes ago at the dojo . . .
'In my world, and Shampoo's world, and Mousee's world,
and Ryouga's world, and even in Ukyou's world, defeat could
always mean death.'
. . . Death?
As Ranma kicked her arm out from under her he closed in
for the kill strike. The force of his kick rolled her onto
her back, her arms were useless. Jumping up and spinning
midair in 180 degrees Ranma landed hard with his feet
scraping against her hips to pin her down, then kneeling
hard on her stomach Ranma grabbed her hair and drew his
fist back preparing the death blow.
"RANMA! STOOOOOOOP!" Akane screamed in fear for her
life as Ranma drove home the killing punch to her windpipe.
He wasn't going to stop in time, she was about to die. Oh
god, oh god, oh god!


Freezing where he had planned to stop anyway . . .
Ranma stopped the punch a good 5 centimeters away from her
throat.


Akane's eyes were clenched shut in terror, and her face
was dirty. Terrified tears leaked from her eyes and
pioneered small wet trails down her cheeks. Ranma relaxed
the sitting hold he had on her, and rolled off to the side
of her and let himself cry. He felt like throwing up.
Minutes or seconds passed, it was hard to tell which,
and Akane slowly opened her eyes. Glancing over to where
Ranma was, she finally saw his body language and his tears.
He sat with his shoulders slumped and his knees drawn into
him for shelter. He held his head in his hands and cried
openly. Slowly the question dawned on her, and the
insistence of it grew, she had to know . . . WHY?

-

Smiling sadly in a treetop a good distance from the two
of them, Mousse nodded to himself at seeing the first step
of the plan completed. It had been ugly but it had been
necessary. Now the healing could begin, the false bravado
could cease, and the end could come about. Truly Ranma's
sacrifice for Akane today was legendary. Maybe Akane
didn't understand that right now, but what Ranma had just
sacrificed of himself was something most real Martial
Artists would never dream of sacrificing. Touching his
right fist to his heart in a silent salute and bowing his
head, Mousse wished Ranma and Akane well. Taking a small
mirror out of his sleeve Mousse flashed it three times in
Ranma's direction, the size of the mirror and the trees
around them made Mousse's signal almost impossible for
anyone else to see. Grinning sneakily to himself Mousse
shimmied down the tree on his way to lead his tail on a
merry chase through out Nerima. Now phase two of the plan
needed to be set into motion. Idly he considered notifying
the national guard and the police department of what was
coming, if ever there was going to be a nation wide
disaster, with the capacity to wipe out Japan, it was
coming up soon. The battle for Ranma had begun.

-

Shampoo narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she watched
Mousse leaving his tree. She hadn't been able to get close
enough to see what he was watching without him noticing
her, almost as if he had planned it that way . . . Shampoo
wanted to see what had happened to Ranma and Akane's fight.
The stupid violent girl had probably bopped her husband
once again . . . aieyah! . . . this whole situation was so
stupid! If husband would just accept Amazon laws and move
back to China with her, he no would have to deal with too-
too violent girls anymore. He would be property of
Shampoo, and law says, no can hurt property . . . growling
in frustration, Shampoo moved to follow Mousse, he was up
to something, Shampoo knew it. She would come back later
to fix husband's boo-boos.

-

Akane gaped at the grief and regret she saw in Ranma.
Akane was beyond confused. But she knew her duty. She had
lost two major duels in the name of the honor of the
Anything Goes School of Martial Arts in less than an hour.
Croaking out in a shaky voice, "Okay Ranma, you win. I
lost . . . I lost for real . . . so I'll leave now. You
can have the dojo, and I will just go away . . . " Akane
bit her lower lip as the reality of what she was saying
sank in, but she had to, her honor was gone, she had lost,
and lost badly!
Glancing up with red rimmed eyes Ranma managed a small
smile. He didn't say anything, but he looked at her
reverently, like he was looking at something precious he
might never see again.
Hesitantly Ranma scooted over to her side. Akane
flinched away from him. Slowly Ranma brought his right arm
up and around Akane, and gently he pulled her close to him
in a hug. Hesitantly Akane let Ranma pull her close to
him. What was he doing?
With his eyes locked on the ground between his legs
Ranma slowly started to whisper to her, "do you see . . .
do you see why I don't fight girls for real now? Do you
understand now why I don't like fighting for real with
girls or even most guys really? Do you understand why I
let you smack me with mallets and frying pans when I do
something wrong? Now do you understand?"
Akane just glanced at him, but kept silent. She
understood but wanted to let him keep talking.
"I hit you hard today, but I didn't use even close to
my full power or strength Akane. In truth all I really did
was let you defeat yourself . . . the old man may not be
good for anything else, but he can train ya in the Arts,
and I have learned a lot of stuff in the years I have been
training that I doubt you have ever even seen Akane. I'm
not sayin this because I am stuck up, or because I wanna
gloat. I'm just tellin ya this because you need to
understand what it means to be a black belt in the Anything
Goes School of Martial Arts. To be a black belt in our
school Akane means you accept any challenge at any time,
and you lay your life on the line each time. I know pop
and Mr. Tendou are always going on about being a true
Martial Artist and stuff, and their level of paranoia and
weirdness is pretty understandable seein as they trained
under the old freak an' all . . ." Ranma trailed off as he
realized he was rambling.
"Okay Ranma point taken already, I said I would leave,
what more do you want from me? Why do you have to rub it
in on top of everything else?!" Akane whispered at Ranma.
The emotional hurt of this moment was more painful than her
physical wounds. This was the same Ranma that just last
night she had been thinking of her soul mate, hah! What a
fool she had been.
"The point I am tryin ta make Akane . . . is that I
want ta train ya. We'll stay out here and we'll get you
ready. I want to help you get as good as I think you can
be . . ." Ranma trailed off helplessly gesturing vaguely
with his hands. This wasn't going as well as he had
envisioned it back on that rooftop with Mousse when they
had first thought up this crazy plan.
Akane just sat in a stupefied silence. Black belt?
Ranma was offering her a chance to make black belt? Akane
hadn't made it to black belt yet, but she hadn't really
been that concerned about it. She had always been able to
beat up most anyone that ever caused her trouble, even that
idiot Kunou . . . until Ranma and those that followed him
came along. She had always just relied on her brute
strength, not the color of her belt. She knew that the
color of the belt was mostly a status symbol - however the
belt was also a symbol of achievement and skill, and that
real martial artists had no use for belts or special
patches or trophies, but then again, Ukyou and now Ranma
had just demonstrated that her sheer raw strength wasn't
going to solve all her problems for her. What should she
do? Ranma was offering to treat her as his student, to
show her the things he knew, could she really pass up this
chance? Even though it would mean having to call him
master?
Ranma's tears had dried and he sat on the dirt floor of
the clearing watching Akane's thought process. She
squinted her eyes up every now and then, or furrowed her
brow, or squinched up her nose. She was so CUTE sometimes.
Heavy heartedly Ranma once again regretted what he had been
forced to do today. He might never be able to regain what
he had had with Akane. Out of the corner of his eye Ranma
caught Mousse's signal and breathed a sigh of relief.
Shampoo was being led away from them, so now Ranma could
lead Akane to the area he had picked out for her training,
it had everything they needed, not to mention all their
gear and food.
Standing up, Ranma offered Akane his hand like he had
done not all that long ago when he asked her to practice on
that special morning.
Unlike that morning Akane winced in pain and bit her
lower lip to keep from crying out as Ranma had to then help
her stand up. Bowing his head in his own personal agony,
Ranma picked Akane up into his arms and started to walk
with her to the camp site. The weight of her to carry was
but a small penance in the long slippery slope he had to
climb to atone for what he had been forced into today.
Akane was tense in Ranma's arms briefly, but exhaustion and
pain soon changed her mind and she settled in to be carried
to wherever he was taking her.

-

Kunou Tatewaki walked along the well worn sidewalk on
his way to school as he always did. This morning, as with
most mornings, his thoughts were occupied with visions of
the pig-tailed girl and Akane Tendou. These pleasant
thoughts were interrupted frequently with images of the
hated visage of his sworn enemy for life, Ranma Saotome!
"ONE DAY . . . ONE DAY SAOTOME . . . I SHALT SMITE THEE
MIGHTILY, AND THEN AKANE AND THE PIGTAILED GIRL SHALL BE
MINE!" He cackled to himself insanely. However in mid
cackle he was suddenly cut off as the weight of a foot was
implanted upon his skull then rebounded off. Quickly
looking up to see whom he was about to kill Kunou spied the
robed fool Mousse bounding away from rooftop to rooftop -
having just used his head for a stepping stone.
"Come back here and stand knave! Hast thee not honor
enough to do battle when thou hast wronged another
warrior?!" Kunou shouted after Mousse.
"Return I,- " OOFing with the weight of another foot
upon his brow, Kunou was again interrupted. This time he
spied the lovely but deadly Amazon hellcat running away
from him in pursuit of the other one no doubt.
Shaking his fist after them and shouting "Curs!" Kunou
rubbed his now tender head and proceeded towards the school
grounds. One of these days . . . one of these days he was
going to heap his retribution upon all the low born fools
who had dared to insult his family.
Muttering vile curses upon BOTH THEIR HOUSES! . . .
Kunou proceeded to march to school. The sound of his
traditional wooden samurai sandals clopping on the pavement
had a soothing effect on him, and soon the wondrous visages
of his two goddesses again graced his thoughts.
Upon entering the gates to the school Kunou's footsteps
immediately swung towards the kendo club's dojo, he wanted
to do a brief workout before classes to work out his
tensions. With his thoughts in the sky and his mind on his
fantasy women Kunou proceeded to plow right into Ryouga
Hibiki, who coincidentally was still looking for the way
back to Akane's house after Ranma had ditched him at the
crazy girl's house.
With an angry shove Ryouga pushed Kunou away from him
as he snarled, "hey watch it you idiot!" As was usually
the case when he was lost and confused, Ryouga was cranky.
Not to be outdone by a filthy commoner Kunou snapped back,
"fear not peasant, I shall smite thee momentarily."
"Whatever you say samurai boy, I could use a good
stress reliever, and seeing as Ranma ain't here to beat up,
you're just as good as anyone else."
Kunou sneered down at the slightly shorter Ryouga and
laughed the insults away as he drew and readied his battle
boken, "I will not be drawn into a battle of wits with an
unarmed opponent."
Ryouga growing angrier by the second growled, "come on
rich boy . . . show me how soft fancy living has made you!"
With a righteous fire blazing in his eyes Kunou
growled, "silly peasant, I have met many people in my days,
and you are not among them. If you insist on trying the
blade of Tatewaki Kunou, then have at thee!"
With that both Ryouga and Kunou leapt into battle, and
just as quickly two tiny little feet came crashing down,
one on each head, and with a thunderous crash and an insane
laugh it bounded away.
"Whoo hoo hoo hoo! Panties! Panties! I got panties!
Red ones, blue ones, white ones and pink ones, you name em
I got em! Whoo hoo hoo hoooooo!" Happosai cackled as he
happily skipped away from the two duelists he had just
flattened.
With his face in the ground Ryouga deadpanned, "I know
that voice. . . "
Kunou joined in, ". . . and he shall DIE!" Leaping up
the two young men started to sprint after the old pervert,
when they were again trampled!
The herd of girls wielding brooms and rakes, baseball
bats and clenched fists raced after the old man with
outraged shrieks,

"Give me back my panties you old freak! I don't have
any more! . . . "
"Come back here and die old man! . . . "
"I swear to god, this time I am sticking the broom up
farther! . . ."
"How in the world did he get MY panties?! I brought my
dad's safe from home to keep them in!"

The herd of furious young girls went thundering after
the old pervert, and Ryouga and Kunou were again face down
in the dirt.
"Kunou . . .?"
"Yeah . . .""
"I'm . . .I'm gonna go to the nurses office now . . ."
"Are you now peasant . . .?"
". . . um, yeah, so . . . I'll um . . . finish this
duel . . .as soon as I get a kidney replacement . . ."
"Not if I get there first . . . and replace my kneecap
you won't." Kunou wheezed from the ground.

-

Up in her third story classroom Ukyou having just
witnessed the latest spectacle that always followed
Happosai, was rolling around the floor clutching her
stomach in a hysterical fit of laughter.

-

Back at the Tendou household Kasumi was getting ready
to go to the market. Daddy was off crying somewhere, Genma
was still at the table eating, Nabiki was in her room
working on a book she was calling, "Investment For Retards"
- which she swore would take the "For Dummies" market by
storm.
Kasumi stood in the kitchen reviewing her list one more
time, and getting ready to go get her coat, she didn't even
see Tofu walking into the kitchen with that book of his he
had been reading the past few days. Predictably Tofu
plowed right into Kasumi, unpredictably he didn't turn into
an "Insta-doofus."
"Oh . . . Oh, Kasumi . . . how clumsy of me, I am so
sorry . . ." Tofu apologized with that same eerie look in
his eyes he'd had since she had been struck by that big
gorilla the other day. She couldn't say that the new Tofu
didn't excite her a LOT . . . but she wished he had been
able to get to this point with her without having to go
through something like that. Maybe . . . maybe just
spending time with her would do him a little good, maybe
her good mood and positive outlook on life would rub off on
him a little.
"Dr. Tofu . . .?" Kasumi started out. 'She always
hated these opening few lines of conversation, she always
felt clumsy and out of her element, this was supposed to be
the BOY'S problem . . . oh well.'
"Yes Kasumi?" Tofu answered her, meeting her eyes when
he spoke. Something he had never been able to do before
the incident.
"I'm going to the market now, would you like to come
with me? I just don't feel all that safe these days in the
city, not like I used to anyway." Kasumi lied. She still
felt perfectly safe, but she knew he couldn't refuse to
escort her if she asked him to be her protector . . . silly
men.
"Of course Kasumi, I'll go get my coat." Tofu replied.
Not with the eager response of a boy with a crush on a girl
being asked to go with her somewhere, but the resolute
response of a man who had a job to do. She needed to swing
him back just a little bit back towards the, "boy with a
crush" area, he was getting just a little bit TOO serious,
even for her.
Tofu reappeared in the kitchen with his nice white silk
Chinese jacket buttoned up over his undershirt he usually
wore around the house, that in combination with his western
style pressed black slacks gave him a very elegant, yet
somewhat menacing appearance. Regardless he was GORGEOUS!
Kasumi had to really fight herself from just hanging on his
arm and kissing him LOTS.
Wrapping her jacket around her shoulders and grabbing
her shopping list and purse from the kitchen table Kasumi
approached the door and waited as Tofu gallantly opened it
for her. There were quite a few western concepts Kasumi
had picked up on, and liked, and that was one of them.
Kasumi set the pace for their walk, and a leisurely
pace it was. Unlike the few times she had gone to market
with Ranma, Tofu was not a ball of energy looking for
somewhere to go. When she walked with Ranma he seemed
almost nervous to be around her. His usual defense for
pretty girls was teasing and tormenting them, however he
NEVER did that to her, and so he usually was silent, he
really only seemed to like to talk with her in the privacy
of their kitchen in the mornings when no one else could
overhear. So Ranma would run ahead of her, and behind her,
he would do a walking handstand on the railing to the aqua-
duct as she walked, he would practice his forms, in short
he would do most anything EXCEPT walk alongside her.
Kasumi really didn't blame him for his actions, after
all she was older than he was, and he was nervous around
girls, and the odd way his father had brought him up hadn't
helped matters certainly.
Tofu on the other hand walked EXACTLY beside her, and
even held her hand from time to time, he seemed restless,
but not uncomfortable around her. His eyes were pacing
back and forth across the street, covering the bushes and
the rooftops and every other place a possible thug could be
hiding. Kasumi wasn't nearly as slow as the martial
artists in her home might think she was, she knew how
surveillance was done, and how fighters acted and prepared
themselves, just because she didn't practice the art
anymore, not since she was eight anyway, didn't mean she
didn't remember it.
Kasumi could see that Tofu was in full "guardian" mode.
So she decided to try to get him to open up a little bit
now, on the mostly empty street, rather than wait until
they got to the more crowded market.
Starting it off and hoping he would get the hint Kasumi
asked, "so Tofu, what do you see in your future? A house?
Kids? A wife?" Blushing slightly Kasumi bowed her head a
little and waited for his response. Frustrating her once
again Tofu decided to answer her questions with questions
of his own. Pointing out the trees lining the sidewalk in
the full grasp of fall and gloriously displaying the vivid
colors of red, orange and yellow Tofu asked her,
"Do you like this time of year? I do. I like
everything about autumn. I like the crisp air, I like the
holiday season, I like the pretty colors of the leaves, and
later their crunch underfoot. I like the sound of kids
playing in the street, and the eager anticipation and
electric energy that seems to grip people during the fall.
Kasumi nodded, she also liked all those things. Her
favorite things in life revolved around family, home and
the hearth. Warmth and comfort and good company were all
wonderful things to her . . . of course, a husband would be
nice as well . . . someone to share her cold bed with on
those long winter nights would be delicious. Smiling to
herself Kasumi licked her lips just thinking about it, then
blushed as she realized that Tofu was watching her.
They had stopped their walk along the sidewalk,
underneath one of those beautiful trees. The sunlight
filtered down between the leafs and lit up the tiny dust
motes floating to the earth in their eternal motion of
life. Kasumi's breath came to her in shorter gasps with
the magic of the moment, and the nearness of the man she
loved. Tofu stood there next to her, waiting and watching
her. Neither pushing nor pulling her, just waiting. He
was *such* as wonderful man!
Tofu watched Kasumi as she slowed her walk then stopped
all together under the tree they had been walking under.
She seemed to be daydreaming about something, and she was
smiling about something? Watching her Tofu again looked at
her cheek, the cheek he had allowed to be struck by that
animal . . . every time he looked at her beautiful face all
he could see was the way it had been on that day as she lay
on the ground unconscious after that monster had hit her.
He could have stopped it! He should have! Beating himself
up inside Tofu reached over and pulled her close to him,
and held her, more to hide his tears of anger and
frustration from her, than to hug her.
Suddenly Tofu reached over and embraced her! Pulling
her close to him, she could feel his steely arms around
her, so strong, my god he was so strong! The smooth feel
of his shirt against her cheek, resting on his very muscled
chest felt very nice, and she could even feel his heart
beating! He smelled like a man, not like a boy, she could
smell the faint wisp of the shaving cream he had used to
shave this morning, and his musky almost flowery aftershave
as well. It was all just too much for her already over
loading emotions. Nuzzling her cheek into his chest and
snuggling into him, he hugged her closer, and she gasped at
his firm yet tender hold on her, even now holding her like
a gentleman, not trying anything sneaky like a teenager
would do. Sighing happily Kasumi tilted her chin back and
stretched up onto her tiptoes, and searched for his lips.
Tofu held the woman he loved close to him under the
beautiful tree, with the sparkling sunlight dancing across
his face and on the ground as well. Kasumi leaned into him
and even nuzzled his chest as he hugged, and *god* that
felt good! Trying to shut off his tears Tofu hugged her
closely and she responded by stretching up on her toes and
nuzzling her cheek to his, moving her lips closer to his,
responding to her in kind Tofu nuzzled her cheek back and
moved his lips closer to hers, and they met, and they
kissed.
Kasumi let her lips brush his and he moved his lips to
meet hers, his lips were warm and soft and just a little
bit scratchy around the edges. Her first kiss! She was
having her first kiss! And it was with Doctor Tofu!
Melting into him Kasumi let go her final restraints and
kissed the man she fully intended to make her lover.
Tofu kissed the woman he loved, despite the tears
running from his eyes. The kiss was soft at first, almost
like she was exploring him, was this her first kiss? While
he was certainly no dating machine, Tofu *had* been on a
few dates in his time, and he had kissed a few women, but
he had never wanted any of them like he wanted Kasumi! As
the seconds stretched onward Kasumi's kiss changed from the
innocent first kiss a young girl might give, into the
passionate kiss of a woman kissing the man she loved.
Opening her mouth Kasumi explored him for the first time,
and Tofu's tears started to dry up as he fell deeper into
the moment. He was kissing Kasumi! The girl he had loved
from afar for the longest time. The girl turned woman now
that seemed to love him back! As his emotions raced faster
Tofu embraced the moment and her love and literally swept
her off her feet, picking her up and cradling her close to
him as he kissed her back passionately.

-
They stayed that way for quite a while, and those that
happened to pass by whispered amongst themselves that it
was about damn time, but didn't dare to interrupt them.

-

Night fell on Nerima, and Akane and Ranma didn't come
home. Soun paced worriedly back and forth in front of the
phone, and Genma sat on the front steps watching him, and
offering words of encouragement when appropriate. Nabiki
watched them from the back porch quietly wondering about a
great many things. Tofu and Kasumi were in the kitchen
laughing and making dinner. Rolling her eyes Nabiki
muttered, "I wonder if Akane actually brained him for real
this time . . ." Sitting up straighter, Nabiki saw her
daddy talking with Mousse. Mousse seemed agitated and
leaned forward to whisper in Soun's ear, and kept glancing
over his shoulder every few seconds. Soun had stopped his
pacing, and was quietly nodding as Mousse talked to him.
Before Nabiki could even get up to attempt to eavesdrop,
Mousse patted Soun on the back and leapt up and over the
wall, gone almost as soon as he had come. Nabiki narrowed
her eyes suspiciously. Something fishy was going on. As
she watched, daddy and Mr. Saotome leaned their heads
together and excitedly whispered about whatever Mousse had
said. Nabiki shrugged it off, if there was one thing she
had learned about Ranma, it was that weird things happened
around him.
The night came and the world stilled, as if it was
holding its breath. No dogs barked, and no wind blew, but
the chill of the night was very present. The entire Tendou
household slept uneasily that night.

-
"Again! . . . Harder! . . . Again! . . . Faster! . . .
Again! . . . Move it! . . . Again! . . . Get up! . . .
Again! . . ." Ranma shouted to Akane on the very first
morning of their training together.
He had let her sleep in the tent he brought along last
night, warm and cozy in a sleeping bag and everything. But
now the real training had begun, and as far as he was
concerned, she was the student and he was the teacher. She
wasn't his potential future wife right now, she wasn't a
girl whom he had seen heal someone with what could only be
called magic. She was just Akane, a red belt in the school
of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and she was under his
instruction as a high ranked black belt in their school.
Dumping cold water on her as soon as the sun had
cleared the horizon Ranma gave her the first lesson of the
day, to train yourself to wake up, BEFORE someone could do
something like that to you. Of course, it didn't always
work, and sometimes you would ignore the training, but it
was a valid technique nonetheless.
Sputtering Akane had sat bolt upright in her sleeping
bag and started to yell at Ranma,
"Are you crazy, why in the . . ." Her shouts were
suddenly cut off as Ranma chucked her training Gi and red
belt at her head.
"Get dressed Akane, you got one minute before another
bucket of water is heading your way." Ranma said in a
neutral tone. Unlike his father, Ranma had no intention of
making Akane fear him in order to train her. He was just
being firm.
Akane debated refusing to do as Ranma ordered for a
second or two, but she was now WIDE awake, sitting in a
soaking wet sleeping bag and wearing soaking wet pajamas.
Going back to sleep was surely not an option now. So,
grumbling to herself at her stupidity to accept Ranma as
her trainer, she stood up in the tent, which turned out to
be just a little bit shorter than she was, so she had to
crane her head down a little bit.
She managed to clear the tent with two seconds to spare
by Ranma's count. Smiling he put down the bucket he had
been holding. Grimacing, Akane noticed that Ranma had
fifteen more buckets lined up behind the one he just set
down. He had been prepared, that was for sure.

So the training had begun. Taking a deep, refreshing
breath Akane stepped out of the tent with her training gi
on, and her red belt cinched proudly upon her waist.
Finally, looking to Ranma her mood seemed to slip a
notch on the peppy-meter. She still remembered the harsh
lesson she had been taught yesterday, and she still didn't
know exactly how to feel about it. But that was beside the
point for the moment. She had work to do today, and
obviously Ranma intended her to be able to take full
advantage of the day's sunlight.
So they started right in on the first drill. He
grabbed a "focus pad," a simple hand held pad that is
padded on both sides and looks sort of like a flat
overgrown pear held upside down by it's neck, and split
from the top down to the handhold. The purpose of such a
pad, is, if struck from the broad flat side with the right
kind of kick, or punch or chop - the two top parts of the
pad will slap together and make a loud smacking noise.
Ranma had decided to start Akane off with a simple drill.
"Okay Akane I want you to do the following combination.
Right back leg round kick, plant forward, right front hook
punch, recoil and finish with a left back ridge hand
strike." Ranma then held the pad out in front of her
vertically at about her chin level. Forcing her to kick
high.
Akane sized the target up, adjusted her stance, then
with a screaming battle "Kia!" tore into the pad with a
full force back leg round kick. Her aim being way off she
hit the handle instead of the pad, and the jolt forced
Ranma to release the pad, letting it fall down along his
wrist to the safety strap there.
Sighing, Ranma with a flick of his wrist snapped the
pad back into his hand and simply stated, "Again!"
And so it went, over and over Akane kicked at the pad.
Sometimes she would land her strike on the pad, sometimes
she would hit the handle, sometimes she would just flat out
miss. But not once did she get the two pad halves to clap
together, as is the point of using a focus pad.
After around one hundred sets, Ranma called break and
ordered Akane to take the pad. Switching roles, now Akane
held the pad in front of her. Ranma told her to raise it
up as high as she could. Rolling her eyes at his show-off
attitude, she complied. Letting out his breath, Ranma
stared at the pad, then barely even giving her any warning
with his hips or arm movements his back leg lashed out and
slapped the pad - causing it to make the loudest cracking
sound she had ever heard a pad make. Ranma - leaving his
right instep on the pad surface, with his kicking form on
display, started to instruct her as to what she was doing
wrong.
"One of your biggest problems Akane is that you are
overconfident, and you rely on strength far too much. I
chose this drill to illustrate that. Let me ask you, how
hard do you think I kicked that pad?"
The question confused Akane, it couldn't have been very
hard. She knew Ranma was just as strong, if not stronger
than she was. But then again, the pad had popped, and
loudly . . . but she hadn't felt the impact at all in her
hand. "I would say you hit it at about medium power
Ranma." Akane guessed.
Frowning and shaking his head sadly, and still holding
his leg in the same kicking stance he replied, "I hit it
full power Akane, I hit it so hard, that if that had been
your head you'd be dead right now."
"I . . . I don't understand, if you hit it full power,
why didn't it knock the pad out of my hand, why didn't I
feel it in my hand?" Akane frowned as she tried to figure
it out.
"Well, I could go the way that pop taught me and make
you figure that out, but seeing as we are not doing
conventional training I will tell you, technique number one
you must learn today, is the technique of strike recoil.
That means that the instant you make contact with your
target you pull your strike back. That is how you get the
focus pad to pop Akane, not by smashing the two halves
together and driving through them, but by smacking one half
and pushing it forward in the same instant as you pull your
strike back in the opposite direction. This not only
allows you to have lightning fast strikes, but it also
prevents your opponents from grabbing your strike and
throwing you, or holding you."
Relaxing his kicking stance Ranma took the pad from
Akane and tied it tightly with some twine to a nearby tree
branch. Looking back at her Ranma simply stated, "make it
pop Akane." Nodding her agreement, Akane set to work at
making the pad pop.
Ranma walked over to a medium sized rock and, propping
his elbows on his knees and leaning his chin on his palms,
Ranma watched her practice. She had all the grace of a tap
dancing buffalo, but she was learning. She was still flat
out missing the pad sometimes, and that usually caused her
to fall down or stumble. The whole tree was shaking as
Akane wailed on that pad. All the while Ranma shouted
instructions and orders to her.
"Again! . . . Harder! . . . Again! . . . Faster! . . .
Again! . . . Move it! . . . Again! . . . Get up! . . .
Again! . . ."
Akane worked both legs through the morning and into the
early afternoon before Ranma called break and let her rest
and eat. Panting exhaustedly, Akane slumped to the ground
in her now soaking wet uniform. From a pitcher he had
filled up at a nearby stream, Ranma poured her cup after
cup of water. Then, smiling at her, Ranma handed her a
rather large sandwich. The kind he usually made for
himself. Akane wolfed it down.
Finished eating and drinking Akane laid back into the
grass and closed her eyes. Listening to the wind and the
sound of her own labored breathing, Akane tried to find her
inner peace.
Ranma, noticing her meditations, decided that it was
time for another lesson. Getting up and walking over to a
dirt patch of the forest floor, Ranma stood and waited for
Akane to get up.
Minutes later, Akane did sit up and looked about for
her teacher. Spying Ranma a short distance away, she
walked over and asked,
"So now what . . . master?" Akane kinda had to choke
out the Master part. Smiling, Ranma replied,
"You don't hafta call me master Akane, we aren't doin
that kinda trainin." Letting his smile fade, Ranma started
right in on her second lesson of the day, balance.
"Akane where are you?" Ranma asked her seriously.
"I dunno, near Nerima in the woods I guess." Akane
voiced an unsure answer, not understanding what kind of
answer Ranma wanted.
"True . . . but, do you remember when Cologne trained
me to use the "Rising Dragon Punch" technique Akane?"
"Yeah . . ." Akane *snerked* as she tried to hold in a
laugh remembering the embarrassing photos Ranma's dad had
shown to get Ranma to lose his cool. His face remaining
impassive Ranma continued,
"Well now I want you to think of what that training can
mean besides how to control losing your temper or your cool
. . ." Trailing off, Ranma waited and watched Akane as she
thought about it. After a while, Akane just shrugged.
Ranma then walked right up to her, so close they could
kiss if they wanted. He smelled like a man - musky and
sweaty - but also with the sharp tang of his Shampoo and
the soap he used mixed in with that and the odors of his
recently washed clothing.
Akane gulped at Ranma's closeness. Ranma snapped a
long twig off a nearby branch and stuck it into the dirt
near where Akane's feet were. Then walking out and away
from her in a circle, dragged the stick in the dirt leaving
a swirl that radiated outwards from Akane.
Ranma again took up station where he had originally
stood and asked her again,
"Where are you Akane?"
"I . . . I'm in the center of a spiral . . . but, I
don't really understand what you mean Ranma?" Akane
scrunched her nose up in confusion making that cute face
Ranma loved.
"Of course you don't Akane, because you have never
thought of the art this way. Imagine that the center of
the spiral is where you are now, if you cannot cross the
lines of the spiral, what would you have to do in order to
get to me?" Ranma asked.
Looking down, Akane saw that Ranma had ended the spiral
he drew right at his feet.
"I guess I would have to walk along the line until it
got to you . . ." Akane started.
"Describe the path you would take Akane." Ranma
ordered.
"Well . . . I would have to start out in small circles,
then as the spiral gets bigger I would take bigger and
bigger steps and have more room as it spreads out,
eventually I would reach you . . . oh . . . I get it!"
Akane cheered.
"Go on." Ranma smiled.
"Well, I guess what you're saying is that the spiral is
the study of the art, and each student must start in the
beginning, which is cramped and seems to take a long time
to get out of. But as you get better and progress further
you have more freedom on the path, and while not getting
any easier, the path does get broader, so I can . . .
choose my own path I guess?" Akane bit her lip as she
glanced at Ranma.
Beaming, Ranma smiled back at her and said,
"Exactly. That is the first part to balance. Every
student needs a teacher, and all teachers need students.
As the student improves so does the teacher. What a lot of
people don't understand about the art Akane, is that unless
your heart, mind and soul are in agreement with you, your
art isn't going to go very far." Ranma sure sounded a lot
smarter when talking about stuff he really understood Akane
mused.
"Okay so now what Ranma?"
"Now we work on your endurance Akane." Ranma sighed,
not looking forward to the injuries coming up next.
Walking over to the tree where the focus pad was still
tethered, Ranma lead Akane to the back of it. Pointing to
a spot on the rough barked tree Ranma instructed Akane on
her next lesson.
"I want you to punch the tree right here Akane. I want
you to alternate right and left punches, and I want you to
punch it hard. I want you to punch until your arms won't
punch any more. When you are done call me and I will come
look at your progress."
Looking at Ranma like he was asking a baby to say
"goo," or a puppy to chew slippers, Akane went to work.
This would be easy, she broke bricks with her hands all the
time at home, didn't she?
Sighing at the look of confidence on her face, Ranma
walked away and left her to her training. Walking down the
dirt trail leading away from their camp, Ranma made his way
to the meeting place.
Peeking around a shrub on the trail down to the large
rock by the stream where he was to meet Mousse, Ranma spied
nothing. Pausing, Ranma whistled the warning sound he and
Mousse had worked out. An answer sounded from near the
meeting place. Waiting, Ranma watched for a mirror signal.
There, behind the tree near the large rock, a mirror
flashed three times, then two times then four times. The
signal.
Reassured, Ranma walked down to meet Mousse. Stepping
out from behind the tree, Mousse hopped up on the rock and
sat and waited for Ranma to reach him.
"So . . . how's it going Saotome?" Mousse asked.
"All right. She is learning, slowly, but she is
learning. I figure if I can train her out here without any
distractions for a few weeks she will be ready. She
basically already is a black belt, she just needs to fine
tune what she already knows and she will have earned it."
Nodding Mousse looked Ranma up and down grimly before
he spoke,
"How are you doing? I saw the end of it you know, that
must have been rough."
Shrugging, Ranma looked down before he replied. "It
had to be done. I'm not happy that it took what it took to
get her to see reason, and I'm sure I will be paying for it
for a long time to come now, but . . . it had to be done.
How about Shampoo? Did you finally ditch her?"
Grinning, Mousse shook his head no. "She is about
twenty minutes behind me, tracking me. I think she thinks
I have learned some new technique, and I am not sharing.
But I doubt she will give up for a few more days actually .
. . oh by the way I spoke with your dad and her dad last
night. I didn't give them any specifics, but I did tell
them that you were training her."
Nodding at the not unexpected news, Ranma looked around
quickly before whispering, "the plan is going well. I
dunno what you said to Ukyou to get her to attack Akane,
but she was really mad when she showed up . . . next we
need to build her confidence level up. I will have Akane
in town near the Kunou house in about a week, around say -
dinner time. Can you arrange for Kodachi to be in the same
area, and if at all possible, cranky?"
"Can do. See you then man, fight the good fight."
Mousse clasped forearms with Ranma in a brief salute among
fellow warriors, then looking around them quickly Mousse
mouthed silently, 'she is getting closer, I must go, see
you then.'
With that Mousse leapt into the tree tops and started
moving quietly away from the direction of their camp site.
Not that it mattered all that much, Ranma planned on moving
it every night.
Shrugging, Ranma started to head back to camp. By his
judgment Akane's arms should feel like rubber about now.
It was approaching late afternoon and the breeze was
picking up a little bit, carrying with it the fresh organic
smells of the forest.
Stepping back into the clearing that was their
campsite, Ranma could see Akane's endurance was waning
fast. She was now standing squared in front of the tree,
her shoulders limp and her knees were sagging a bit. Her
punches had eroded the trees bark to the softer wood pulp
underneath, and she had punched that wood pulp flat and
smooth. Her punches were coming much slower now than when
Ranma had left, and her breathing was ragged.
Watching her for a second, Ranma smiled and called out,
"break!" Without even acknowledging him, Akane simply
stopped punching and slumped down to her knees, and then
flopped onto her back with a weak, "oof."
Looking her over, Ranma saw many of her knuckles had
cracked and were now bleeding, and looking again at the
tree he could see red stains intermixed with the pulverized
wood pulp. Smiling grimly on the inside, Ranma remembered
his first experience with the tree with pretty much the
same results. Of course his trainer had been Genma, and
Genma had left Ranma punching while he went off fishing,
and had subsequently fallen asleep while do so. Ranma had
punched that tree all day, and into the night, until he
simply couldn't move anymore. When he was at that point he
just fell over and slept. Exercises like that had helped
his endurance tremendously, but had also taken a terrible
toll on Ranma. He now hoped to teach Akane the same
lessons he had learned, but maybe finding a happy medium in
which to do so.
Bending down and picking up his fallen student, Ranma
carried her back to the small clearing, walking slowly
enjoying the warm soft feel of her body cradled in his
arms. Looking for a good place to lay her down, Ranma
decided the patch of grass near the stream would work well.
Its quiet susurration would be a soothing melody in the
background. He carried her to the stream side where the
silky crowns of grass - as delicate as a spider web and
even dotted here and there with a vibrant wild flower -
swayed and danced and shimmered with the whim of the wind,
acting out their own unique and special place in the
universe.
Ranma gently laid her down on nature's natural bed of
spongy ground covered with soft grasses. Moaning a little,
Akane opened her eyes slowly to take in her surroundings.
Making a motion as to use her arms to prop herself up Akane
flopped right back down into the embrace of the earth.
Smiling Ranma took a few pieces of cloth from his
pockets and walked over to the stream and rinsed them off
in the cool flowing water, just cold enough to make his
fingers tingle when submerged. Then walking back to his
fallen student Ranma gently wiped the already drying blood
from her knuckles, and then used the other strips of cloth
to bind her hands to heal. As he worked Akane just watched
him. He wasn't hostile at all, he wasn't mean, and he
didn't belittle her. What was going on? The other day she
had been taught probably the harshest lesson of her life -
that she wasn't as good as she thought she was, and that
humility could be a good thing in certain situations. But
the question kept coming back to her, 'why?! Why? Why?
Why?' What had prompted Ranma to teach her that lesson?
He certainly had been given plenty of opportunities in the
past to teach her that lesson, why now?
"Why Ranma? Why are you doing this?" Akane whispered
before she even really realized she was giving voice to her
inner speculations.
Without even looking up from his work Ranma replied,
"because I think you are worth the pain of trying Akane. I
think that in the end, all of this will turn out all right
if only . . ." He trailed off, seeming like he was almost
afraid to speak further.
As she watched from her grassy bed, Ranma's gaze of a
tender loving care-giver hardened a bit. But the hardening
seemed to affect him more than anything, almost like he was
fighting himself? Then he spoke in a slightly more gruff
tone of voice.
"Don't think that you are done for the day Akane. No
student of mine is allowed to be babied. Rest here for a
little while, then I expect you back in the practice area."
With that said Ranma trudged back up to their camp area.
With questions flying through her mind and no answers Akane
decided to just lay back and rest, who knew when she would
get to rest again.

-

And so her training continued. Akane eventually got
back up and trudged into camp, and Ranma was there waiting
for her. They trained for the rest of that day, then when
it started to get dark they broke down their tiny camp and
moved it, setting it up again as soon as they found a new
spot, and ate dinner, and collapsed into bed - well Akane
did anyway.
Of course as soon as one day ended another one began -
or so it seemed to Akane. Ranma now woke her up by
sneaking to her bedside and flicking her nose. If he
managed to flick her nose, then she failed the morning
test. If she managed to snap awake in time and either
dodge or block the attack, then she passed the morning
test. Then the training would continue.
Sometimes Ranma would set out impossible tasks for her
to do such as 2,000 pushups. Akane would get herself
mentally pumped up for the task, only to make it to three
hundred or so pushups and have her traitorous arms collapse
beneath her. Laying there face down in the dirt breathing
heavily, Ranma would only watch her with those beautiful
blue-gray eyes of his. Eyes that seemed to be asking her a
question every time they came to rest on her. Eyes that
asked her if she got it yet? Did she understand? Were his
efforts to train her worth it?
One day Ranma even made her wade out into the stupid
cold stream and told her to stand there in her battle
stance. When the cold of the river finally got to her she
started to shiver, but Ranma's cold eyes just watched her.
Finally he commanded her to, "stop the water." Just like
that, 'stop the water.' Not really knowing what he meant
by that, Akane tried to obey. Kicking and punching the
flowing water, chopping and just plain holding her arms out
Akane tried to, 'stop the water.'
Of course no matter how she attacked the water, it just
flowed around her. No matter how much she pushed the river
it moved past her. No matter how much she wanted to stop
it, the water didn't care, and had no intention of
stopping. All the while as Akane fought the water, Ranma
just sat and watched her, hoping she would get the message,
that she might start to understand what he was trying to
show her.
Finally Ranma called her out of the water. Shivering,
and with her uniform plastered to her body Akane stumbled
out of the water and collapsed onto the water bank. She
had no idea how long she had been in there, but she
couldn't really feel her legs, and her muscles where very
cranky with her.
Smiling down at her, Ranma chucked a towel at her and
started to walk back to their camp, over his shoulder he
mentioned, "I'll get a fire waiting for ya Akane, don't be
too long drying off."
From the stream bank Akane watched him go. Too tired
and cold at the moment to even snatch the towel off of her
head. Finally harnessing her internal reserves of strength
and stamina she forced herself up and walking, heading for
the fire Ranma had promised her.
Scrubbing her hair dry with the towel Akane entered
their camp site. Sure enough, Ranma was kneeling down in
front of a ring of mid-sized rocks surrounding the makings
of a good fire.
As Ranma snapped two rocks together to spark the tinder
into flames Akane watched him as she continued to towel dry
her hair. Finally Ranma rocked back onto his haunches and
sure enough a small blaze was catching hold of the tinder.
Ranma slowly nursed the fire into growing with
progressively larger pieces of wood, until he could finally
place the large heartwood log on the fire that would burn
throughout the night if he let it.
Shuddering gratefully with pleasure as she neared the
flames and the warmth of the fire seeped into her Akane
just stood there - clutching her towel around her shoulders
like a shawl. Ranma took up a seat on a nearby rock and
watched her with a somewhat more interested gaze than
normal. Blushing a little bit Akane realized that her
white uniform was basically transparent when wet.
Shrugging because there was basically nothing she could do
about it at the moment, Akane let the heat of the fire
continue to warm and dry her. Finally Ranma spoke.
"Didja understand why I had you fight the water Akane?"
"You like to try to drown your potential wives?" Akane
answered glibly. Noticing Ranma didn't smile back at her
comment, Akane swallowed nervously then nodded slightly.
"I think I understand why you had me do that."
"Tell me."
"Well . . . fighting the water seemed to be to me, like
a hopeless battle . . ." Looking up at Ranma Akane waited
to see if she was totally off base, he just smiled and
waited - so she continued. "I tried kicking and punching
it, and that didn't work, I tried holding it back with my
body and that didn't work, and all the while, the cold and
heavy force of the water wore me down . . . so I guess you
were trying to show me . . . that martial arts doesn't need
to be about brute force and violence all of the time?"
Finishing up Akane looked up at Ranma with hopeful eyes,
and was rewarded with his warm smile.
"Exactly! That is exactly what you were supposed to
learn from that drill. Ya know Akane it took me months to
figure that out. Pop would never tell me why I had to do
things, he just chucked me into the water one day and told
me to stop it. Of course I was so mad that I wasn't really
thinking about what I was doing I would just kick and
thrash around in the water until he told me I could come
out. But yes the point of that drill is to show you that
the spirit of the art is unrelenting force. If one way
doesn't work, you go the other way, if the fight cannot be
won, don't fight it! And the easiest way to win a battle
is to wear your opponent down, just like the water wore you
down with the force of it's current, and the cold of it's
water."
Beaming at her, Ranma opened his arms inviting her to
hug him, and Akane hesitantly walked into his waiting
arms. Still a little bit damp, but tired and cold
nonetheless, and besides, Ranma was sitting on a blanket,
which he then pulled up and wrapped them both in. For a
time, they just sat and watched the fire. The bright
glowing coals, the ghostly wisps of vapor and heat near the
base, the cracking flames licking the wood, the smoke
wafting into the near-nighttime sky, the sound of the pops
and snaps and cracks of the wood being consumed by the
flame. It was a very magical moment, and neither one of
them wanted it to end. So Akane snuggled back into Ranma
and Ranma cradled Akane and they both lost themselves in
their thoughts. Akane thought of all she had learned in
such a relatively short amount of time, while Ranma worried
that the next battle that Akane had to face tomorrow, was a
battle she might not be ready for, but there was only one
way to find out wasn't there?

-

Mousse looked out the window of the Nekohanten
restaurant again. He had been watching the sun dip on the
horizon for the past hour now, and soon it would be time
for him to slip away and get Kodachi in position to battle
Akane . . . theoretically anyway. In his experience things
seldom went exactly as the plan had called for. Looking
around subtly for any signs of the old mummy or Shampoo,
Mousse slipped into the back hallway, and listened to the
door to Shampoo's room. Faintly from inside he could make
out both Shampoo and the mummy talking in Mandarin . . .
something about dress sizes, and what height a leg slit in
a dress was the perfect height to catch a husband? Shaking
his head forcibly to knock the image of Shampoo's sexy legs
out of his mind Mousse quietly slipped down the hallway and
out the back door. As soon as he had cleared the
restaurant grounds, Mousse leapt to the rooftops and
started to sprint in the direction of the Kunou estate.
Deciding that the best way to lure Kodachi outside was
a simple ruse, Mousse snuck around the estate looking for
her and carefully stepping over, around or under the myriad
set of booby-traps on the Kunou grounds.

"No you fool! I said the PURPLE bath slippers! Not
the PUCE ones! I swear Sasuke, I honestly don't know why
we feed you!" Came the shrill voice of Kodachi from the
courtyard around the corner. Smirking quietly, Mousse
flattened himself to the wall and waited for Sasuke to
leave.
"A thousand pardons mistress! I shall fetch thy purple
slippers immediately!" A door could be heard opening
quickly and the small thumps of running feet in a hallway
soon after. Seizing his chance, Mousse inched closer to
Kodachi's position and whispered,
"Kodachi . . . Kodachi my love . . .?" Mousse heard a
small gasp from Kodachi, then an earnest reply came,
"Ranma? Ranma my love? Have you finally come for me?"
Trying desperately not to snicker, Mousse replied, "yes
my darling, but you must first find me . . ." trailing
off, Mousse quickly hopped up to the rooftop, and flattened
himself against a small arch, using all his skills of
concealment to hide himself.
"I come my love, to prove myself to you! Oh! Ho! Ho!
Ho! Ho! Hoooooooo!" Kodachi cackled as she sprang from her
courtyard palace into the trees and to the walls of the
Kunou estate, darting thither and yon looking for her love,
and calling out to him in extreme passion. Mousse's face
was turning red from the strain of trying to keep from
laughing.

-

"Come on Akane! Hurry." Ranma shouted to his wife-to-
be over his shoulder as he jogged in the direction of the
Kunou clan's home. Panting, Akane replied,
"But why are we in town Ranma? We aren't done training
yet, and we just ate an early dinner, and I'm tired . . ."
Akane complained.
"Yeah I know, but we just gotta go see someone real
quick, then we'll get back ta trainin' ya." Ranma
explained.

"Ranma! Ranma Sweetums! Where oh where are youuuuu?!
Come to me lover boy! Come to thy love Ranma darling!"

Pausing, Ranma listened to the sound of Kodachi's
voice, then, grinning, headed in her direction. Akane
looked puzzled, but followed nonetheless. Running straight
past the Kunou estate, Ranma made sure that he ran by the
wall Kodachi was currently perched on and kept on running,
with Akane hot on his heels. Grinning to himself, Ranma
thought, 'this is gonna be goooooooood.'

"Ran- " Cutting herself off in mid-call Kodachi saw
the love of her life sprinting past the Kunou estate . . .
strange, why would he be running from her . . . AKANE! The
devil-girl, she was chasing her beloved Ranma!
Growling to herself, Kodachi jumped down off the wall
and sprinted after them.
"Don't worry my sweetums! Kodachi will save thee!"
Dodging around a corner, Ranma jumped into some bushes
and waited. Akane came around the corner next and slowed
to a stop. Looking around puzzled, she opened her mouth as
if to call out for him when Kodachi galloped up and rounded
the corner at a full sprint and plowed right into Akane.
Brushing herself off huffily, Akane growled, "hey!
Watch where you're going you nutcase."
Squaring off against her, Kodachi produced her
trademark rhythmic gymnastic competition ribbon, and
started to twirl it in a threatening manner.
"And just who are you to speak to me in such an
insolent manner? You are nothing but a common peasant."
Kodachi sneered.
Looking Kodachi up and down, Akane started to fall back
into her old ways of handling conflict, but managed to grab
a hold of her new training just in time. Standing in a
relaxed posture, she put her hands in her pockets and just
smirked at Kodachi.
"You can call me whatever you like Kodachi, I know I'm
not a worthless peasant like you seem to think everyone is.
And I also know that you're no better than I am."
"Insolent wretch! We will see how sure you are of
those words when I ram them down your throat!" Kodachi
cried as she leapt into the air snapping her ribbon
viciously at Akane's head.
Falling into her training, Akane moved with the motions
Ranma had shown her, inching her head just slightly out of
the way of the ribbon, then back again, fast enough to make
it appear that she hadn't really moved at all.
Kodachi the Black Rose landed on a tree branch and
immediately produced a fistful of clubs, which she
proceeded to throw at Akane.
Akane held her ground and simply moved herself ever so
slightly out of the path of the clubs. Not even bothering
to block them, she just avoided them. From her tree branch
perch, Kodachi scowled.
"I see someone has been training you girl, very well
then I shall have to use my full abilities to teach you a
lesson."

'Here it comes . . .' Ranma cringed to himself.
Kodachi was about to use her full speed and agility to
attack Akane. Akane would either manage to fight her off,
or she would end up unconscious on the ground. Biting his
lower lip, Ranma waited.

Tucking her ribbon back into her leotard, Kodachi
snapped a spiked club into each of her hands as she hopped
down from the tree. Glaring at Akane for just a minute,
Kodachi then charged with a shrill battle cry of,
"Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!"
Akane braced herself and waited, unconsciously she
started to tense her muscles and harden her stance like she
always used to do.
Kodachi leapt at Akane and swung her right club at
Akane's head so fast you could hear the wind whistling
around it.
Ducking under the club attack to the left of her
attacker Akane shot a right elbow to Kodachi's ribs, then
stutter-stepped back out of range. She was doing okay, but
with the intensity of the battle Akane was starting to fall
back on old habits.
Swinging through her strike, Kodachi spun into a
whirlwind attack, striking over and over again towards
Akane with her spiked clubs forcing Akane to block.
Just as Ranma had shown her she snapped her chops and
palms into Kodachi's vulnerable pressure points as she
blocked her. Snarling, Kodachi put everything she had into
the attack and Akane's defense started to falter.
Knowing she had to finish the fight soon if she wanted
to win Ranma shouted from the bushes, "NOW! Akane use it
now!"
The shout distracted Kodachi for just a second and in
that space of time Akane brought her right back leg up and
round kicked Kodachi full in the solar plexus and recoiled
the strike back just as fast. The kick knocked the wind
out of Kodachi and, dropping her clubs to the sidewalk with
hollow metallic clatters, she slumped to her knees.
"How . . . how could a lowly peasant like you beat one
such as I in joined battle? It isn't possible . . ."
Kodachi muttered before she slumped over and was reduced to
moaning as she caught her breath.
Peeking out from his hiding place Ranma spied Mousse
leaving the Kunou grounds down the street. Noticing Ranma,
Mousse gave a quick thumbs-up sign and a wink, then was
gone.
Before Ranma could get out of the bushes to
congratulate Akane, there came a clapping sound from across
the street. Standing up tall from where she had been
hidden was Ukyou.
"So . . . you are training her now Ranma? It took you
awhile but it looks like you have finally chosen haven't
you?"
Standing up slowly from the bushes Ranma met the very
angry and hurt gaze of his closest childhood friend.
"Ukyou . . . I . . . I never ever meant for you to get
hurt at all. I . . . I dunno what to tell ya Ukyou, kick
the crap out of me if it'll make ya feel better, but I
don't love you like that. I love you as my friend, and as
someone that understands me, but that's all . . ."
Trailing off, Ranma forced himself to maintain his gaze
into Ukyou's pain filled eyes.
Jumping down from her rooftop, Ukyou landed and started
to walk slowly to where Ranma stood. Her hands were
clenched at her sides, and tears were starting to fall from
her eyes. No battle aura surrounded her, but her hurt and
anger were obvious to anyone that could see her.
Akane started to move in front of Ranma, intending to
fight her off, but Ranma stopped her with a quick hand
gesture to hold her ground. Any punishment Ukyou handed
out to him now he figured he deserved. Getting the drift,
Akane sighed loudly but took a few steps away from them and
turned her back to give them a small measure of privacy.
Grinning slightly, she decided to busy herself with hog-
tying Kodachi with her own ribbon.
Stopping so close to him that Ranma could smell her,
and could feel the heat of her body Ukyou continued to gaze
into his beautiful eyes for minute after minute, not really
saying anything, those beautiful eyes of his . . . eyes
that she could see didn't love her the way she wanted them
to.
Whispering so quietly that Ranma could barely hear her,
Ukyou started to say her piece.
"Well I guess this is it then. I guess I have to give
up now don't I . . ."
"Ukyou I'm - " Ranma started to say. Putting a finger
over his lips, Ukyou shushed him.
"Don't ruin my noble sacrifice with empty promises
Ranma . . ." When she said, "noble sacrifice," Ukyou
smiled for a minute like she always used to. Making the
moment seem all the more surreal.
"We both know that you have chosen her Ranma.
Regardless of whether you have told her or not, we both
know she is the one for ya sugar. I know you know that I
love ya Ranma-honey. I know you know that I would have
done just about anything to be the one to win you. Maybe
even killing for you . . . but I guess desire isn't always
enough to get what you want is it?" Ukyou asked the
question to no one in particular as she smiled sadly, and
the tears fell quietly from her eyes. Choking back his own
tears Ranma kept his gaze on his oldest and best friend, he
owed her that much at least.
"So . . . now what Ukyou? I know that Mousse goaded
you ta fight Akane, but now that I am training her I really
can't letcha fight with her anymore . . ." Ranma looked
down guiltily for a moment then, it sounded so conceited to
say something like that.
"I know Ranma-honey. I didn't even really fight Akane
because of what Mousse told me, I fought her to make myself
feel a little better, maybe even a little superior. I know
it's small and petty, but there ya have it. I did it
basically to prove to myself that I had at least SOMETHING
she didn't have. But I don't really want to fight her now.
I'm actually happy for her. I really am Ranma, she's a
good person, and she deserves to be loved by someone like
you. She has had just as hard and weird a life as I have,
and if I have to lose to someone I am glad it's her at
least. . ."
"Oh Ukyou . . . I'm so sorry . . ." Ranma whispered as
his tears finally started to fall. It was just too hard,
too hard to do this. Seeing her like this, the pain that
he caused, Ranma almost started to want to go back on his
decision . . .
"No it's okay Ranma. She won ya, fair'n'square. I
want you to follow your heart, just like I'm following
mine."
"U-chan . . . I wish there was something . . .
something I could do for you . . ." Smiling ever so
slightly, Ukyou reached behind her and unsheathed her
battle spatula.
At the sound of a weapon being drawn Akane looked over
her shoulder. But Ranma seemed calm, and Ukyou didn't seem
to be overly emotional, or even really angry, so shrugging
Akane returned to looking away, and gloating ever so
slightly over her now hog-tied and gagged sparring partner.
Ranma met Ukyou's gaze as she drew her battle spatula.
'Here it comes.' Ranma thought. 'Well, unlike last time I
guess I hafta grin'n'bear it.' Ranma winced as he braced
himself for a pummeling.
Then Ukyou did something she had never done before, she
held the weapon out to Ranma hilt first and offered it to
him.
"Here . . . take it. I want you to keep it with you
always, that is what you can do for me. That's what I want
you to promise me, to carry this with you always, and to
remember me. . ." Ukyou handed it to him as her voice
broke.
"U-chan . . ." Ranma whispered. So awestruck at what
was happening that words escaped him, Ranma simply took the
spatula and held it. Finally Ukyou looked up into his eyes
for a final gaze, then slumped into his arms softly and
nuzzled his chin with her cheek, letting her tears fall on
his, mixing them together. Slowly Ukyou wrapped her arms
around her lost love and pulled her mouth up to his and
kissed him. Not hungrily like Akane did, but very soft and
sweet. Very much aware that this would be her first, last
and only kiss with Ranma.
Ranma for his part froze at first, this could dissolve
the uneasy peace of the moment very quickly, but Akane
seemed to be holding on to her unspoken promise and hadn't
turned around to look at them yet . . . so Ranma let her
kiss him. Draping his arms around her awkwardly since he
had a very large spatula in one hand, Ranma tried to hug
her a little bit before she broke away.
Licking her lips sadly, and with a small glimmer of a
smile starting to ease onto her features again Ukyou bowed
to Ranma and saluted Akane's back. Then turned around and
started to walk away. Ranma sadly watched her go.
After some time, Ranma could no longer see her anymore.
He turned around to see how Akane was doing. Smiling he
saw that Akane was now perched atop Kodachi's squirming,
hog-tied body with a rather self-satisfied smirk on her
face.
"So . . . what should we do with crazy here?" Akane
asked innocently.
"Well, we can't leave her like this, it might be a long
time before someone finds her. Lets drop her off at her
front door, then get out of here." Ranma replied with a
little bit of humor returning to his voice. It was good to
see Akane so pleased with herself. Although he just knew
that Kodachi would never leave this alone in the future,
but that was okay as long as Akane could handle her.
So together they carried Kodachi to the front gate of
the Kunou estate, and Ranma quickly scribbled a note on a
scrap of paper and stuck it between part of the ribbon that
had her tied down. Then Akane rang the bell and they both
dashed off into the early twilight.

A moment later the gate swung open and Sasuke peered
outward.
"MISTRESS!! Oh mistress what has been done to you?"
Kodachi answered in a muffled growl.
"MMM! Mhh, mmmh mmmh!" To which Sasuke could only
guess as what she meant.
"Fear not mistress, your loyal servant Sasuke shall
save thee . . . wait a minute, what's this . . . a note? .
. . it says - that you were trying to bite people at the
supermarket, so they had to restrain you?" Looking up from
the note Sasuke eyed Kodachi in a slightly less than
impressed manner. Growing more and more furious Kodachi
growled.
"MMM! Mhh, mmmh mmmh!" Shaking his head as he
started to untie her Sasuke replied.
"Oh mistress . . . if you were hungry you should have
ordered me to fix you dinner . . . it would have been much
easier on your ego . . ." Finally getting free of her
bounds, Kodachi shoved her helper away from her and
sneered, "I'll ego you ya little twerp, c'mere!" Kodachi
shouted as she lunged for Sasuke, who nimbly leapt away.
"But mistress! I have done nothing wrong, I - "
"Shut up fool and die!" Kodachi screamed as she gave
chase.
"But mistress! . . . " And so the Kunou household
reverted back to pretty much normal. As Ranma and Akane
headed back to the woods, to complete the final leg of her
training, to prepare her to fight Shampoo.

-

In the Tendou household Doctor Tofu was staying up late
as he usually did these days, and studying that book that
lately he lugged everywhere with him.
Sitting on the back porch with the book cradled on his
knees, he muttered to himself as he read, and made notes on
a separate pad.
". . . Elemental . . ."
". . . The dark one . . ."
". . . death of magic . . ." He muttered to himself as
he furiously scribbled notes on his notepad, made
diagrams, and translated certain section of Chinese into
Japanese.
Kasumi watched him from a small distance away for a
little bit before she walked out to the porch and sat next
to him. The night time air was chill, and a small wind
blowing made goose bumps stand up on her arms.
Letting the silence hold for awhile, Kasumi finally
cleared her throat rather loudly, prompting Tofu out of his
stupor to look up and acknowledge her. Kasumi then softly
asked him what she had been wondering for weeks now.
"Doctor . . . what's going on? Why do you study that
book so relentlessly, why are crazy people attacking my
family, and my home? Why is Ranma out there somewhere in
the wilderness training Akane? What's happening?" Kasumi
asked with a stubborn tilt of her chin to punctuate her
question. She wanted an answer this time.
Shutting the book slowly and setting it aside, Tofu
adjusted his glasses, which shimmered for a second from the
light shining out to the porch from inside. Then quietly
he spoke.
"Well Kasumi . . . I don't really know how to explain
it exactly. The book you see me studying all the time
claims to be a book of ancient history, and also of
prophecy.
It talks of our world in ancient times as a world of
magic and wondrous things. But also a world of terrible
evil, ravaged by those that would abuse such power.
It says that a mighty battle was fought somewhere in
China a long time ago, and that the most powerful nation at
that time came under siege from the forces of a very evil
being, called the 'Dark One' or Huàide púrén which
literally means in Chinese - servant of evil.
I know it sounds kind of corny to call him the dark
one, but that is the best I can do to translate how they
generally refer to him as in the book. They almost never
use his true name, nor what his true name means.
Anyway the battle ended and left the nation destroyed,
the king dead, and his daughter the princess killed not far
from the castle in a valley. A valley that our friend
Ranma has been to it seems."
"You don't mean . . ?" Kasumi asked as she put a hand
over her mouth in fear.
"Yes, I think the valley of the accursed springs, or
Jusenkyou is the valley the princess died in, and this book
says her last command as a princess of the high order of
magic she inherited from her father, was to take magic from
our world."
"But . . . aren't those springs magical? Don't they
change the people that fall into them?" Kasumi asked.
"Exactly." Tofu answered in a grim tone of voice,
letting the reality of the situation sink in to Kasumi.
"So . . . what is happening now then?" Kasumi
ventured.
"Well . . . I think for the answer to that to come
around, we need to trace the triad that attacked Nabiki
back to China, and find out. But my guess is that someone
or some group has figured out how to resurrect magic in our
world, and is now working on bringing this, 'Dark One,'
back to our world. Which would explain the attacks on our
family, and the strange changes in Akane and Ranma and the
rest of their little gang." Tofu stated rather matter-of-
factly.
"Oh my." Kasumi said quietly.
"Yeah, no kidding." Tofu agreed. "So I guess our next
step is going to have to be to go to China and find the
people, or person responsible for all of this. Which means
I guess we have to go get Ranma and Akane."
Kasumi nodded quietly and scooted closer to Tofu. She
didn't really understand everything that was going on, but
she trusted that he would take care of it, he always did.

-

Ranma snuck next to Akane's bedside swiftly and
silently. Kneeling down next to her bed he readied an
extra-vicious nose flick. Disappointed that she was going
to fail her morning test once again.
Reaching down towards her nose Ranma readied to flick.
At the last instant as his finger was about to fly Akane's
arms shot up and latched onto Ranma's arm with surprising
speed and strength.
"Ya know . . . that is NOT my most favorite way to be
woken up in the morning Ranma." Akane growled her eyes
still shut in feigned sleep.
"Yeah well, it's better than a full out tackling like
pop would do to me in the mornings, so consider yourself
lucky." Ranma said as he smiled proudly at her
achievement.
Getting up and ducking out of the tent Ranma smile grew
even wider, he was very excited about today. Today was the
day that he had been waiting for. Shouting over his
shoulder as he moved Ranma said, "ya better get up Akane, I
got a bucket of water with your name on it out here!"
Grumbling Akane complied inside the tent, muttering
vile things that she would like to do to the mean man that
woke her up at such inhuman hours each and every day.
Cinching her red belt around her waist Akane stepped out of
the tent and froze.
Grinning Ranma was kneeling on a white square of cloth,
laid out very carefully on a patch of fairly flat grass.
Around the cloth were lit candles, that still glowed fairly
bright in the pre-dawn light. In front of Ranma lay a
small rectangular package wrapped in waxed-oil cloth, a
package she had seen in his pack a few times during the
past weeks of training, but had never really thought about
to ask.
Uneasily Akane walked over to the patch of grass and
looked down at the setup.
"Okay Ranma . . . I give up, what are you doing?"
Akane asked perplexed.
"It's time Akane, time to give you what you have
deserved for quite some time now. If you wipe your feet on
the grass and come kneel here with me we will get this
started." Smiling because Ranma was smiling Akane did as
he asked and then knelt in front of him.
"Akane . . . I have never had the opportunity to do
this before, so forgive me if it isn't exactly as you
envisioned . . . but here goes nuthin." Ranma said as he
pulled out a rather elaborate looking scroll case and set
it next to the rectangular package.
Akane just sat and watched. This had a familiar
feeling to it, but she couldn't quite place what Ranma was
up to yet.
"Akane . . . it is with great honor and pride that I do
this today. If you would do me the honor of removing your
belt, and folding it in half, half again and half one more
time please." Ranma smiled and waited.
Akane scowled at him, but since he hadn't asked
anything unreasonable she figured she could humor him, it
beat doing two thousand pushups any day.
Setting her belt in front of her like she had
been instructed Akane arched an eyebrow and waited.
Grinning, Ranma gradually removed the covering from the
rectangular package, slowly revealing it's contents little
by little. Finally, he laid out in front of him a black
belt. A brand new black belt with the name Tendou Akane
stitched in beautiful red kanji characters on one side of
the belt's tip, and Anything Goes School of Martial Arts on
the other side.
Gasping, Akane put her hands to her mouth in shock.
Her black belt! It was her black belt!
"My god . . . Ranma . . . I don't know what to say . .
. do I even deserve this . . ?" Akane whispered.
Smiling, Ranma continued with the ceremony that his
father had done for him many years ago, and he still
remembered very well.
"Tendou Akane as your duly authorized instructor of the
school of Anything Goes Martial Arts, it is with great
pleasure that I ask you to take your black belt oath."
Nodding quietly as tears streamed down her cheeks
unchecked, Akane just sat and watched in awe.
"Tendou Akane, I hereby charge you with the awesome
responsibility of being a black belt of our school. If you
accept this charge you are hereby honor bound from this day
forward to obey the laws of this school, and defend it if
necessary. Do you agree to this?" Ranma's gaze seemed to
drill through her, this was a VERY serious promise he
wanted from her."
"I - I . . . promise . . ." Akane managed to choke out.
"Tendou Akane do you hereby swear that you will uphold
the tenets of the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts from
this day forward, including accepting any challenge at any
time, putting your life on the line if necessary, and
protecting the name and the school of Anything Goes Martial
Arts?"
"I swear." Akane whispered.
"Then it is with great pleasure that I ask you to bow
down to your old belt signifying goodbye please." Ranma
instructed.
Looking down at her very well-worn red belt with tears
in her eyes, Akane slowly bowed down to it - as Ranma
matched her bow - resting her forehead on it for a few
seconds. Then straightened back up.
Reaching over, Ranma then switched the two belts in
place before speaking again.
"Now would you please bow down to your new belt
signifying hello."
Again Akane bowed, and again Ranma matched her bow.
When she straightened up they sat in silence for a second
just enjoying the moment. Finally Ranma spoke.
"And now Akane you get to do something that many people
never get to do in their entire lives, you get to put on
your very own black belt. I would advise you to put it on
slowly, you only get to do this for the first time once."
Smiling, Ranma then just sat there and watched her.
Timidly, Akane reached out for the belt. Holding it in
her hands, Akane unfolded it slowly, looking at it and
feeling it for the first time. Then, slowly Akane started
to wrap her new black belt around her white training gi.
When she had knotted the very stiff and new heavy black
belt around her waist she looked at Ranma again. He was
beaming.
"One final piece of ceremony Akane." Ranma said as he
held up the elaborate scroll case, and opened it. Sliding
out a rather large ornately decorated scroll, embedded with
the seal of the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and
it read in very beautiful kanji:

[Tendou Akane, on this day we confer upon you the
awesome responsibility of being a black belt
in the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts.
We are all very proud of you.

-Signed:
~Saotome Ranma
~Saotome Genma
~Tendou Soun
~Founding Father
Grand Master Happosai]

Handing her the scroll, Ranma stood and bowed to her.
Standing up on shaky legs, Akane set her scroll down and
bowed back. Then lunged forward and hugged him.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you Ranma!" Akane
squealed as she hugged him. Smiling he hugged her back.
"Don't thank me for anything Akane. You sweated blood
and tears to get that. You did all the work, and you have
earned it. As a matter of fact both your pop and mine have
been wanting to give you your black belt for awhile now,
and they just hadn't thought of a good time to do it, so I
asked them if I could before the whole day with Ukyou, and
they thought it was a great idea.
"Oh Ranma . . ." Akane let the words die, the moment
was too pure to try to over analyze it. What was in the
past was in the past, and while she still didn't understand
everything that was going on, she could deal with it at
another time.
"Let's go home Akane." Ranma smiled as he let her go.
Grinning back at him, Akane proudly put her red belt back
into her pack and started to help break down camp, greatly
anticipating her return to home with her new black belt.

-

Nabiki sat in the family room doing some calculations
in her ledgers. Genma and Soun where playing a game of Go
in the corner, and Kasumi was in the kitchen making dinner.
Just like an average evening in the Tendou household went.
Except Ranma and Akane were conspicuously absent, and
Doctor Tofu was sitting at the table reading that book of
his yet again.
It had been many many weeks now that Ranma and Akane
had been gone. Nabiki wasn't worried because daddy wasn't
worried. Since her daddy would be the first to be freaking
out if Akane was missing and he didn't know where, she
assumed they knew something she didn't and just left it at
that, she would find out eventually, she always did.
Kasumi stepped into the family room then with a large
pot of rice. Setting it on the table carefully she
announced, "dinner's ready." In the same sweet voice she
always used.
With eyes perking up and bellies growling Soun and
Genma raced for their places at the table while Kasumi left
to get the rest of the dinner. Tofu jumped up to help her.
Strolling to the table, Nabiki casually took her place,
she would never understand why daddy and Mr. Saotome were
always such goobers at meal time.
Kasumi entered the room again with Tofu in tow, and
finished setting the table. Just as everyone was sitting
down a loud crash sounded from the back door in the
kitchen.
Genma and Soun and Tofu all jumped to their feet into
battle stances, when the telltale voice of Ranma-chan could
be heard coming from the kitchen in a rather annoyed tone
of voice.
"Honestly Ranma, I don't know what it is with you and
water." Akane joked.
"Ha ha, very funny Akane. I swear tomorrow I am
filling in that stupid koi pond with concrete!" Muttering
to herself, Ranma grabbed a kettle of hot water off of the
stove and dumped it over himself.
The entire family ran to the kitchen doorway to peek
inside and see for themselves that Ranma and Akane were
actually back.
And there they were, Ranma was now soaking wet, but
looked the same, and Akane was perfectly dry, but looked
different . . . her belt!
"Oh Akane! You did it! Daddy is so proud of you!"
Soun exclaimed as he raced to his daughter and tackled her
in a very excited hug.
"Thank you dad, dad . . . dad I can't breath." Akane
complained.
As the rest of the family crowded around Akane to
congratulate her, Tofu yanked Ranma aside and whispered to
him, "we need to leave immediately if not sooner Saotome,
as it is I am worried we may be too late."
Nodding his head, Ranma agreed they could use the cover
of darkness to make it out of town without being seen. As
soon as the commotion around Akane died down Tofu cleared
his throat and then announced,
"Well the time has come everyone. We need to go to
China. Akane and Ranma are already packed, and I am ready
to go as is, so the rest of you need to grab what you need
then meet us at the front door."
Nabiki and Kasumi just sort of shrugged and headed up
the stairs to pack. Genma and Soun nodded in a knowing
way, but Akane just stood her ground.
"China?! But we just got back! What do ya mean we're
going to China?!" Akane demanded.
"Just think of it as your first official actions as a
black belt Akane." Ranma grinned.
"Yes but-" Akane started to question him.
"I know, you need a better explanation that that Akane,
but Tofu can explain it better than I can, and we need ta
get going. I'm going to run upstairs and get some stuff
before we go, so ask him any questions ya have, I don't
really understand all this either ya know." With that
Ranma dashed out of the room and up the stairs, and Akane
started to grill Tofu with questions while the rest of the
family packed, and Tofu told her the story he had just told
Kasumi the other evening.

-

That night the entire family snuck out of the house and
caught the train to the coast, and from there they were
treated to a surprise. Tofu had a full sized yacht ready
to go. No rowing to China this time. Tofu, Soun and Genma
took turns that night guiding the yacht to mainland China.
While the rest of the family slept, if restlessly

-

When they finally reached mainland China a chill wind
seemed to suck the warmth out of Ranma's body, and a shiver
ran up his spine. Bad omens indeed.
Gathering their packs the family set off on their long
hike to the valley of Jusenkyou.

-
And as they hiked quite a few sets of eyes followed
their progress.
-

Trudging up yet another hill Akane muttered, "are we
there yet?"
"Now don't you start. We just got Nabiki to stop
asking that question." Tofu said over his shoulder as he
walked and consulted what looked like a map in that book of
his.
Walking behind Akane, Nabiki stuck her tongue out with
a very loud, *Thhhpppbbbbbbb* sound, and Ranma rolled his
eyes. Maybe bringing the ENTIRE family had been a mistake.
But then again, the safest place for them right now was
around a lot of black belts.

-

Peering over a rather large boulder Shampoo smirked to
herself. They were on her home turf now. Then silently
running down the hillside she was on Shampoo raced ahead of
the group to the trap she had planned for them. Unknown to
her Mousse followed her quietly a few hundred meters away.

-

Reaching the bottom of the other side of the last hill
they had climbed Tofu called a halt for a lunch break.
They continued walking to a nearby clearing when a rumbling
sound brought their eyes to the side of the hill they had
just descended. Looking up they saw an avalanche of rocks
and boulders tumbling down towards them.
"Take cover!" Tofu shouted as he grabbed Kasumi and
ran in the opposite direction of the avalanche. Ranma
grabbed Nabiki and followed him, while the rest of the
family ran by themselves.
Coughing and dusting himself off Ranma stood up from
the ditch he had tossed himself and Nabiki into. At the
same time he could see a dark figure slowly walking down
the hillside.
Emerging from the dust strode the figure of Shampoo.
Her face lit up when she saw him.
"Ranma, you come Shampoo's country. This mean you
ready take Shampoo to wife yes?" Shampoo asked as she
continued to walk towards them.
"Shampoo . . ." Ranma started to answer her when Akane
climbed out of the ditch she had jumped into.
"So you're the one behind that avalanche Shampoo! I
shoulda known! Well . . . what do you have to say for
yourself?" Scowling Shampoo turned to address Akane.
"Shampoo say, she miss you again, but maybe third time
the charm, okay Akane?" Shampoo said with a sneer.
"Shampoo . . . that's not funny, you coulda hurt
someone, badly." Ranma admonished her.
"Aiyah, but husband no could be hurt by simple rocks.
Shampoo just playing with you." Looking generally confused
Shampoo beamed up at Ranma with eyes full of love.
"That's it I have had it! Shampoo I challenge you!"
Akane shouted. By now the rest of the family had
assembled, and were watching. When Akane said that most of
them looked at Ranma in doubt. Ranma simply shrugged his
shoulders. It was going to come to this sooner or later,
might as well get it done and over with now. He had
trained her to the best of his ability, and now it was up
to her.
"Shampoo agree . . . on one condition, if Shampoo win,
then too-too violent girl Akane promise to leave Ranma and
never see again, is okay?" Shampoo grinned, confident that
she could win any fight against Akane.
"Agreed, but if I win then you have to do the same,
agreed Shampoo?" Akane grinned back.
"That fine with Shampoo, violent girl can think
whatever she want think, that no make it true." Shampoo
smiled as she squared her stance against Akane and waited.
And Ranma watched his former student face down a truly
dangerous opponent for the first time since she had become
a black belt. Of course no one would know that because
none of them were wearing their gis or their belts.
Shampoo matched Akane's stance and they both waited.
This time though, unlike the fight with Ukyou, Akane let
herself relax like Ranma had taught her to do, and let her
emotions drain from her like Ranma had shown her how to do.
That had been her first lesson when Ranma had started to
train her in sparring. To not fight with emotions and to
fight loose, not tight and tense.
Finally Shampoo made the first move and charged Akane
with a quick kick punch combination. Putting her training
into practice Akane ducked and dodged out of the way of
both strikes, using far less energy than it would have
taken to block them.
Again Shampoo charged her and Akane spun around and met
the attack with an agile grace she had never before
possessed, again dodging and weaving out of the way of
Shampoo's attacks.
Growing frustrated, Shampoo stopped for a second and
analyzed Akane's moves. She was fighting like Ranma! Well
fine, Shampoo knew how to counter that style.
Walking up to Akane Shampoo stopped just out of arms
reach, and started to focus her ki for an attack. Akane,
quickly seeing what Shampoo was doing decided to go for the
easiest block, and promptly dropped down in a swift motion
and swept Shampoo's legs out from under her, breaking her
concentration on her ki attack.
Back-flipping off the ground Shampoo landed and
growled, "violent girl get better Shampoo see. Okay then,
Shampoo use techniques of Amazon tribe. Shampoo was going
easy on you earlier, but now you make Shampoo mad!" With
that Shampoo jumped at Akane and grabbed her shirt in a
throw.
Before Akane could counter the move she was rolling
into the ground. Rolling herself out of it and upright
again Akane barely had a second before Shampoo was on her
again. She was so fast! Looking to Ranma for help all she
got was his steady gaze on her, and a look in his eyes that
said, 'you can do it.'
Steeling her resolve Akane slapped Shampoo's hands away
from her this time, and started to use the Shiatsu
techniques Ranma had shown her. Shampoo would lash out at
her with a kick or a punch and Akane would jab a pressure
point as she blocked it every time.
Feeling Akane hitting her pressure points Shampoo
muttered to herself and changed tactics yet again. Running
towards Akane, she faked a punch then flat out tackled
Akane.
Knocking her to the ground and pinning her Shampoo
quickly flicked a serious of pressure points along Akane's
arms, then vaulted off of her before Akane could kick her.
Using her kick as momentum, Akane rocked herself back
to her feet and tried to raise her arms into a guarding
position. The pain that slammed through her when she tried
to move her arms was so unbelievable that it made her gasp.
Smirking Shampoo asked, "Aw, did Shampoo give you boo-
boo? If you want, Shampoo accept you surrender now, that
way too-too violent girl able to walk home again, yes?"
Growling Akane raised her arms into a guarding position
despite the pain and said, "lets just finish this now
Shampoo."
Shrugging Shampoo started to walk towards Akane calmly.
Gathering her internal chi to channel into a punch that
would end this once and for all.
Akane also started to channel her chi. She needed
something to keep Shampoo away from her for long enough for
her arms to work again. Unconsciously Akane started to
build a chi shield.
Reaching a distance close enough to Akane Shampoo
brought her arms up into a guarding position, and started
to glow red with her battle aura. To her disbelief Akane
started to glow yellow with her very own battle aura, and
Akane's was brighter!
Growling Shampoo launched herself into a devastating
punch. A punch that had been taught to her by none other
than her great grandmother herself, Cologne.
As Shampoo closed on her Akane released her chi into a
ki-based shield just as Shampoo's ki-charged punch drilled
towards her face.
The two energies of the girls met and burst into a
brilliant flare. Shampoo's confident grin turned into
determination, then disbelief as her energy ran out, yet
Akane's seemed to grow if anything. Shrieking in disbelief
Shampoo threw everything she had into the last of her
attack. The energies of the two girls flared up again
violently, then with a final yell Akane's yellow aura
surrounded Shampoo and then exploded. The impact threw
both girls back violently.
Shampoo landed roughly a few meters away, while Akane
seemed to just fall back a little ways.
Rushing to her side Ranma worriedly looked down on his
former student.
"Akane! Akane are you okay?" Ranma asked anxiously.
Her eyes snapped open quickly and Akane grinned up at Ranma
proudly.
"I beat her Ranma, I really beat her, all by myself
too!" Akane said as she kicked herself back up to her
feet. Before Ranma could respond though, Shampoo shouted,
"no! Shampoo refuse to give husband up to you! DIE!"
Shampoo shouted as she stood up and began to charge Akane.
Before she took three steps though her knees buckled under
her and she slumped to the ground. Appearing out of
nowhere, Cologne hopped up from behind Shampoo, with a grim
expression on her face.
"What the . . . old ghoul?" Ranma exclaimed.
"Yes, me. Always me isn't it Ranma?" Cologne said
tiredly. For the first time that he could remember, the
old ghoul called him by his name, and not "son-in-law."
"I saw Shampoo here lose to Akane in an honorable
fight, with the wager on the fight being that the loser
must stay away from Ranma forever." Seems that Shampoo was
over confident, and Akane here, Akane seems to have gotten
some additional training since the last time I saw her. . .
you didn't show her the rising dragon punch did you Ranma?
That is not a technique to be shown to new black belts."
Cologne chided him. Ranma shook his head no.
"Good. Well anyway, Mousse told me what is going on so
I will leave you to it. If I am right, then your family is
the major key to all of this. I bet not even Tofu knows
which one of you will be the one to solve this mystery . .
. oh don't look so shocked Tofu, you think I haven't seen
that book you carry around before? That was required
reading in among our tribe elders." Cologne smiled sadly.
"You know Ranma . . . she really does love you. I will
try to get her to accept her fate from now on. But I
cannot guarantee anything. She never really sought you as
a husband because of our laws. She sought you as a husband
because she loves you. She had plenty of opportunities to
force you to marry her you know. That is what one usually
does in the situation she was in. They knock the poor guy
out, drag him back to the village and marry him under a
guard of Amazons. But Shampoo wanted you to come to her
willingly. Sure she tried a few games with you, but for
the most part I think she was just playing with you.
Shampoo has never known a man as strong as you Ranma, and I
think it delighted her to have someone to play with that
wouldn't end up in the hospital every time." Ranma nodded
his head sadly in understanding. He wished he could have
found a solution to this whole thing that didn't result in
heartache for so many people.
"Anyway I will take her back with me now. I know
Mousse is waiting anxiously back at camp for her return.
He was the one that alerted me to this whole thing, which
is why I was here to protect Akane and the rest of you.
But if Mousse showed Shampoo his true power and stopped her
now, then she would again be under Amazon law to marry.
And as I know you already know Saotome, he doesn't want her
to love him like that, anymore than she wanted you to love
her like that. So anyway, I have said my peace. Good luck
to you all, and go with all haste. You are quite near the
Jusenkyou valley you know, it is only about a half days
walk more in the direction you are headed." And with that
Cologne gathered Shampoo up in her arms and bounded away
before anyone could ask questions or even really move.
Looking down at the ground Ranma sighed and thought
about poor Shampoo, and how she would feel when she woke
up. But now wasn't the time for that. He was sure that
this was far from the last they would be hearing from
Shampoo.
The group agreed to a one hour rest to eat and recover
from the sudden events that had just literally fallen on
them. Then they were back to marching again. As Akane
walked alongside Ranma she finally got up enough courage to
ask him what was on her mind.
"So . . . who have you chosen Ranma? I know it's not
Kodachi, or Ukyou or Shampoo . . ." Ranma sighed and
looked at her, then looked away.
"You know how I feel Akane, but not right now okay? I
feel real weird right now." Smiling Akane just nodded and
grabbed his hand as they walked. At least she could hold
his hand and help to cheer him up.
Hours passed and the group stopped twice more for water
and rest. Until finally Tofu said the magic words they had
been waiting for, "there it is." Pointing up ahead was a
crack in the wall of mountain they had been marching
towards, and a small wooden sign driven into the ground,
and scrawled with both Chinese and Japanese read [This way
to the famous Jusenkyou Springs!]
A collective sigh went up from the group as they made
their way into the pass, and down into the valley. Where
hopefully they would get some answers.

-

From a nearby cliff a lone man dressed in black ducked
his head back out of sight and set his binoculars down next
to him, and then touched a serious of keys on his data
wrist pad. A short thin wire extended from a headset he
was wearing, it beeped a go-ahead signal. He spoke into it
softly. It was powerful enough to pick up the tiniest of
whispers.
"The targets are entering the valley, over."
"Understood, return to base. Out." Nodding to himself
the man clad in black slipped down the cliff side on a rope
that had just recently been set up there. He had no idea
what was going on, and he didn't really care. He had just
been told to watch for a group entering the Jusenkyou
Springs area matching their descriptions.

-

The little group finally made it down to the valley
where the springs were. Ranma grinned ear to ear and
looked for the guide that had been there last time. All he
needed to know was which one was the spring of drowned man.
And he would finally be FREE of this stupid curse of his!
Looking around hopefully Ranma failed to see the guide.
Eventually crestfallen he turned to Tofu.
"You can read Chinese can't you Doc? Which one of
these signs says 'Spring of Drowned Man?'" Ranma begged.
"Later Ranma, first things first okay?" Tofu answered
him distractedly. "I need to find the cave mentioned in
the text." Tofu muttered as the rest of the group set
their stuff down and relaxed.
"Hey Ranma . . . I see some Chinese guys heading this
way, is one of them the guide you want?" Nabiki shouted
over to Ranma as she pointed in the direction of a cloud of
dust heading their way.
Looking up in alarm both Ranma and Tofu swung their
gaze towards the incoming horde of people.
"They seem to all be wearing the same uniforms that
those guys from the 'Jusenkyou Preservation Society,' that
attacked you guys awhile back. But they don't seem to be
very happy do they?" Asked Tofu.
"Nope, they sure don't." Replied Ranma as he assumed a
ready stance, along with Genma, Soun, Tofu and Akane while
Nabiki and Kasumi took a few steps back, just to be sure.
"I don't suppose wa can talk about this, do ya fellas?"
Ranma asked glibly, but the large group of guards continued
to charge.
"Ya know Ranma, you might want to take this a little
more seriously. Don't you remember Kenny?"
"Oh yeah. . . I forgot about that." Ranma replied as
everyone else sweatdropped.
Yelling as they closed in for the fight the Jusenkyou
Preservation guards slammed into the group of black belts.
Genma grabbed two by their necks and rolled backwards
kicking them overhead.
Soun went from guard to guard ducking under their
swords and staves and kicking and punching them
unconscious.
Tofu simply stood his ground with a very angry
expression on his face, jabbing out with his hands and feet
every time the neck of a one of their attackers came into
reach, paralyzing them with shiatsu attacks.
Ranma and Akane fought back to back. Their ki mixing
together and bonding as they fought. So far they had
lucked out and none of the members of the "Muscle Sword
Clan" had shown up.
When the last of the guards had been knocked
unconscious, or rendered unmovable they all relaxed a
little bit and Ranma even quipped,
"paybacks a bitch aint it?"
Smacking Ranma upside the head Akane chided him, "don't
get cocky hot shot. I am sure that isn't the last of
them." Tofu nodded as they gathered up their stuff and
continued searching for the cave Tofu insisted was around
there somewhere, and in the distance the sun slowly crept
towards the horizon.
When it started to grow dark enough that seeing was
becoming a problem Soun and Genma called for a break so
they could unpack the flashlights.
"Why can't we just stop and sleep for the night?"
Nabiki asked.
"Because I would rather be a moving target than a
sitting target myself." Ranma joked, earning him yet
another smacking from Akane.
"As crass as he is . . . Ranma is right, it really
isn't a great idea to try to make camp here. Not with all
the unfriendly people around." Tofu muttered before
returning to his notes and scribbled maps.
"If I am right, the cave should be up in that area
somewhere, in the cliff side maybe." Grumbling the group
headed in the direction Tofu went, sweeping their
flashlights back and forth over the area in front of them
cautiously as they went.
Stopping suddenly in front of a seemingly solid wall of
rock Tofu knelt down and examined some scratches in the
rock wall, then consulted his notes, then looked back at
the wall, then at his notes again, then grinned.
"It's here." He whispered excitedly. Shrugging
everyone else simply accepted his word for it and waited.
"Well . . . here goes nothing." Tofu stated and
without another word, stood up and walked right at the
wall. Wincing at the seriously broken nose the doctor was
about to have Ranma averted his eyes. However, the bone
crunching crack of a breaking nose never came. Looking up
Ranma saw the same scene as before, except Tofu was
conspicuously absent. Suddenly Tofu's head appeared out of
thin air, sticking out of the air.
"Ahhhh!" Ranma yelled. Stepping fully out of the cave
Tofu looked strangely at Ranma, then said,
"Well come on everyone, what are you waiting for?"
Still breathing heavily in shock Ranma yelled back,
"Don't DO that!" You scared the hell out of me. Ranma
muttered darkly. Chuckling Tofu walked back into the cave.
The rest of the group timidly followed behind him, still
not used to walking through solid rock. Upon stepping into
the cave Ranma turned around and looked the way he had
come, only to see a regular cave mouth behind him.
'Weird . . . I guess it only looks like that on the
outside.' Ranma puzzled as he took up the rear of their
little party.
The cave floor started to slope downward and along both
walls were fashioned very old looking wooden beams, worn so
smooth with age and use that their surface almost felt like
glass.
"You guys might want to make yourselves ready for just
about anything. There's no telling what we may find down
here." Tofu whispered.
The slope finally started to level off and spilled out
into a vast underground room, the ceiling of which was so
high that the beams from their flashlights wouldn't
penetrate it's darkness.
"I gotta bad feelin about this . . ." Ranma muttered.
"Me too boy . . what say we head up top for some
dinner boy?" Genma replied as he started to back up
towards the tunnel they had just descended.
"PLEASE . . . STAY! I have been expecting you." A
booming voice carried across the cavern.
Setting his book and his pack on the floor Tofu stuck
his hands in his pockets and smiled.
"So I have finally found you . . . whoever you are.
You care to explain this whole situation to us?" Tofu
demanded as he leaned up against the nearest wall and
waited.
"No . . . not really." The voice answered from the
darkness. "But maybe you have seen me before?" The voice
asked as the sound of footsteps carried across the cavern
air. And emerging from the darkness of the cavern came a
man . . . a sinister looking man swathed in black. He was
tall and wore a traveling cloak askew over his left
shoulder, clasped at his throat with a symbol of a silver
dagger. The cloak did not stir, though the wind in the
cavern was blowing. As he drew closer you could smell what
seemed to be dried tree bark wafting from him, he looked to
have lived a rough life and his muscular build and callused
hands suggested he was adept in the fighting arts. His
hair was disheveled and his knee-high boots were muddy. He
was smiling, but the smile seemed wrong somehow. Both Tofu
and Akane upon seeing him shouted in unison, "YOU!"
Laughing the man answered.
"Yes, me. I take it you have seen me in a vision have
you children? Well good then I need not bother with false
pretenses. You have stumbled upon us at a rather bad time
and I am afraid you are not welcome here. So I am going to
have to have you dealt with." The man smiled as he turned
his back to them and started to walk away.
"Oh, and just with what army are you planning to use to
'deal with us?'" Ranma asked casually as he cracked his
knuckles in preparation for a good fight.
"Why . . . this one of course. Go to it men." The man
in black said as he snapped his fingers and walked back
into the darkness. Looking unimpressed Ranma started to
chase after the man in black when a low grumbling sounded.
Setting their flashlights on the ground the group backed
into each other, trying to see where the sound was coming
from. Out of the darkness a low rough laugh sounded.
"Heh heh heh he . . ." And stepping from the shadows
appeared a host of large men, all of them carrying rather
large Chinese swords. And in their center stood someone
Ranma would rather not see again . . . Kenny, of the
Jusenkyou Preservation Society, of the Cult of the Muscle
Sword, and those with him also seemed to be carrying their
swords like Kenny did.
"Um . . . Ranma . . . I think we're in trouble." Akane
whispered.
"No kidding." Ranma whispered back as she braced
himself for what was coming next.
"GET THEM!" Kenny shouted as he pointed his sword
towards them in a charge.

"WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I NOW!" Came a very familiar
shout from behind Ranma and company - which thankfully also
slowed the advancing Muscle Sword attackers.
Ducking out of the same tunnel that they had come from
just moments before appeared Ryouga. He was filthy.
Covered with dust and dirt and something green that seemed
to ooze off his boots?
"Oh . . . Ranma, there you are! It's about time I
found you, ya coward! I challenge you!" Ryouga smirked as
he issued his challenge.
"Yeah well that's great Ryouga, but all these guys
challenged me first, so you'll have to wait in line man."
Ranma quipped as the members of the Muscle Sword Clan
closed the distance between them.
"I hate waiting." Ryouga muttered as he turned to face
their now common foe.
With a battle cry of determination Ranma and company
met their attackers with their combined might and threw
them back, only to have more pour towards them.
Dodging swords left and right Ryouga unlimbered his
battle umbrella and started to knock the swords of his
attackers away. Spinning suddenly Ryouga met a sword that
had been heading for his back with the heavy force of his
umbrella, and with a mighty *CRACK* the sword split in two.
"Attack me from behind will ya, c'mere!" Ryouga
shouted as he chased after the now unarmed man.
Tofu fought with his back to the wall, and Kasumi
behind him. A fierce determination shown in his eyes, and
his battle aura flared a brilliant blue as he lashed out
again and again striking down anyone that got anywhere near
him and Kasumi.
Soun and Genma also were fighting with their backs to
the wall, with Nabiki behind them.
Genma using his massive size would dodge the swords of
his attackers then either grab them and throw them, or just
run over them. Soun moving smoothly and with a very
determined expression on his face blocked, kicked, and
punched crazily - driving his attackers back.
Every now and then though there would be just too many
attackers and someone would get cut. Tofu got hit first.
Turning to check on Kasumi one of the swords managed to get
through his guard and slashed a deep cut into his shoulder.
Groaning at the sudden wound Tofu whipped his head around
and spying his attacker winding up for another swing drove
his foot into the man's groin with terrible force, dropping
the attacker where he stood.
Genma was the next to be cut, facing three attackers he
managed to tackle the first two but the third slipped
through the rush and spinning around Genma slashed at his
back as he put some distance between them. It didn't cut
very deep, but he started to bleed from his cut shirt.
Ranma and Akane fought back to back again, sweating
under the intensity of the workout they were getting.
Ranma looked slightly worried, but it was anyone's guess as
to what exactly he was worried about. Akane on the other
hand seemed to almost be enjoying herself. Throwing her
attackers away from her, and punching and kicking and
moving much better than she had ever moved before, she felt
a surge of power and a giddy feeling that called out to her
for more, more, more!
As she threw one attacker away from her, he got up and
started to run away. Growling, "oh no you don't," Akane
ran after him. Looking over his shoulder Ranma shouted,
"Akane NO! Come back here." Turning around to run after
her Ranma had to immediately turn back and catch the arm of
another attacker.
"Akane!" Ranma yelled after her, but she was gone, off
chasing the man that had attacked her into the darkness.
Frantically beating aside sword swinging maniacs left
and right Ranma tried to follow her but his progress was
seriously slowed. Growing more and more angry and
frightened Ranma's battle aura started to glow a pale
white, and his attacks started to become charged with the
power of his ki.
Punching yet another attacker out of his way Ranma
growled, and looked for Akane in the darkness. Flaring
into a brilliant whiteness his battle aura sang into the
darkness and illuminated the cavern. Spying Akane with her
Back against the wall and fighting a loosing battle against
half a dozen attackers Ranma roared, "NO!" and channeling
his fear and anger together into a single ball of energy he
let go of his control and unleashed a crackling energy wave
that swept through the room outwards from him. The wave
passed through his friends and family safely, but on
contact with an attacker - it lifted them up and threw them
out of it's way like blades of grass upon a summer's wind.
Panting and sweating heavily Ranma stood slightly
slumped after his outburst. Dragging his suddenly very
heavy head up he looked around the room for Akane, while
the rest of the family shook themselves off, and tended to
their various wounds. Genma was even sitting down and
patiently letting Nabiki wrap a bandage around his cut
chest, while Kasumi tended to Tofu.
Dashing to where he had last seen Akane, Ranma froze in
his tracks as he gasped. Akane lay under a pile of
bloodied bodies, and she wasn't moving.
"Oh no! Akane!" Ranma yelled as he dived for her.
Pulling her out from the press of bodies Ranma laid her on
the cold stone floor and tried to wake her up by patting
her cheeks softly.
"Hey . . . hey, Akane . . . Akane wake up!" Ranma
yelled as he patted her cheeks. "Akane . . . Akane!"
Ranma yelled more franticly as he started to shake her, but
she stayed just as limp.
Walking up behind Ranma, Tofu put his hand on Ranma's
shoulder softly and said, "Let me see Ranma." Nodding
Ranma laid her down softly and scooted back to allow Tofu
to examine Akane.
Lifting her eyelids and feeling for a pulse, and
pressing his ear to her mouth to listen for breathing.
Shaking his head sadly, Tofu tried stimulating her nervous
system by pressing the shiatsu points he knew could bring
her back. Shuddering slightly when Tofu pressed her
shiatsu points Akane's body jerked, but she didn't start
breathing again. Shaking his head sadly Tofu laid her back
down and turned to the family.
"I'm sorry but it's too late . . . she's too far gone
now, there's . . . nothing I can do." Tofu declared.
"NO! CPR, mouth to mouth, something!" Ranma yelled as
he dived for Akane. Pinching her nose closed he placed his
mouth on hers and breathed into her three times. Then
locking his elbows and finding the right place on her
sternum Ranma pressed ten times in quick succession. Over
and over again Ranma repeated the motions, all the while
whispering to Akane, "hang on . . . hang on Akane, come
back to me . . ."
The family watched in horror as Ranma worked
desperately to save her. Kasumi buried her head in Tofu's
chest and looked away, and Soun fell to his knees watching
in desperate hope with tears streaming down his cheeks like
unchecked rivers. Nabiki covered her mouth with her hands,
and tears sobbed.
"Come on! Come on Akane! Don't you dare quit on me
now! Don't you dare! Fight! Fight damn you! FIGHT!"
Ranma screamed as he started to beat on her chest to get
her heart beating.
"Ranma . . ." Tofu started to say as he eventually
leaned forward to pull Ranma away from her.
"Get your hands off me!" Ranma screamed as he paused
for a split second to whip his hand around and hit Tofu so
hard that he staggered back a few steps. Ranma's eyes
flashed quicksilver as he batted Tofu away from him, and
his irises started to glow in an unearthly manner.
Immediately turning back around to Akane Ranma resumed
beating the life back into her.
"No . . . No Akane . . . NO! I won't let you! I won't
let you go . . . do you hear me?! I won't let you go!"
Ranma screamed as he beat on her chest and blew breath into
her mouth over and over again. And as tears streamed down
his face and fell on hers Ranma's body started to glow.
This time it wasn't a battle aura. This time it was a
white almost silvery glow.
'Your fault, your fault, your fauuuuuuult!' Ranma's
mind sang to him.
'You failed, you failed, you faiiiiiiiled!' Ranma's
mind sang to him.
'No! No! No!' Ranma screamed back at the inner
demon's that tormented him.
'Protection and justice. Protection and justice.
Protection and justice.' His mind taunted back. Those
words stabbed at his heart and soul more painfully than any
sword ever could.
'Protection and justice. Protection and justice.
Protection and justice. Protection and justice.
Protection and justice. Protection and justice.
Protection and justice. Protection and justice.
Protection and justice.' Ranma's mind screamed at him as
he worked desperately to save Akane. The shrill words in
his mind HURT! Like a thousand stabbing needles they
lanced into his heart and soul demanding satisfaction.
Reaching inside himself and grabbing onto the outrage
and terror he felt Ranma held on to it, and started to bend
it. Whatever it was within himself that he had grabbed
burned his mind like a living being. Taunting him with a
power he wanted, and singing of his failures.

~ With the words, 'protection,' and, 'justice,'
floating in his mind over and over again, and the pain of
thousands upon thousands of needle sharp stabbing pains
throughout his body, and the desperate need to save Akane
from a fate she didn't deserve Ranma reached into himself
and grabbed onto the source of that terrible pain and held
on . . . and the world froze to a halt as a white light
flashed across his vision . . . vaguely Ranma was aware of
the faraway sound of his voice chanting strange words in a
language he had never heard and couldn't even recognize . .
. but Ranma instead focused on Akane. Silent and unmoving
she laid on the cold stone floor battered and bruised
because she had wanted to help him. Because she had wanted
to help protect the family, because she had wanted to prove
herself. With a roar of outrage Ranma laid his hands on
Akane's cheeks and DEMANDED that the power inside him do
SOMETHING. ~

Shielding their eyes from the incredible glare coming
from Ranma, his family backed away from him trying to keep
a safe distance from what was going on.

~ And the magic obeyed it's new master. Calling a wind
from beyond their world the magic swirled into the cavern
and quickly converged on Ranma. Twirling and howling
around Ranma the wind danced and moved with a life of it's
own. Bringing with it the scent of a mountain spring and
the fresh smell of the first flowers of the year the wind
spun around it's master faster and faster until it
solidified into a solid wall, blocking from view from the
rest of the world what happened next.
Raising his hands to the heavens Ranma called the wind
to him, demanding it's healing powers serve him in the
language of the magi of ancient times. Calling the healing
powers into his body Ranma bent it to his will with the
powers and language of the magi. Then placing one hand on
Akane's chest and one on her forehead Ranma commanded the
power to flow into Akane. With a brilliant flash of light
the energy in Ranma's body surged into Akane's as the wind
swirling around them both instantly died down.~

With a gasping breath Akane's chest rose and fell for
the first time on it's own since she had fallen.
Staggering Ranma stepped back from her almost as if he was
afraid he might hurt her accidentally.

Leaning back against the nearest wall Ranma pressed his
hands to his forehead and leaned his head into the cold
stone of the wall. When he finally put his hands down
Ranma blinked several times like his eyes itched. Looking
in the direction of Tofu and the others Ranma smiled
hesitantly. He looked the same as he always did - except
his eyes were still flashing with quicksilver light.
Whispering Ryouga called out, "Ranma . . . man . . .
you have GOT to teach me that technique someday!"
Grinning Ranma replied, "just as soon as I figure out
how I did that I'll letcha know man."

The hollow sound of clapping echoed across the cavern.
Growing louder as he walked closer the man in black sneered
as he stepped into the boundary of light that their
flashlights created.
"Well done young man, well done. I wouldn't have
thought that an ignorant little child such as yourself
would be capable of standing up to the Muscle Sword Clan,
let alone besting them. And calling your lover back from
the dead on top of it all, I commend you, truly I do." The
man in black grinned as he pulled out a small roll of paper
and began to read in a mocking tone.

[And so it came to pass that the creator wrought
mankind with a small vestige of his powers. He made the
sky for and of their eyes and gave them the earth to
sustain them. And as the earth and air shall hold
and nurture them so shall they turn their backs to him and
forget Him whom hast delivered their bounty unto them. So
shall He take back his gifts from his chosen and in the
ages to come shall forget them. Thus their loss of faith
and the corruption of their souls when they serve and
pursue selfish ends. Shall herald the end of an era as
mankind rends their own world asunder. And It shall come
to pass that the creator shall take back his gifts and
turn his back to those who would take their eyes from him.
And Man shall henceforth lose all knowledge of the ancient
arts save for a small remnant of the faithful which shall
preserve this knowledge until such a day that mankind
proves itself once again worthy of his benevolence. But
lo all shall not be lost in this time. "When the hour is
nigh for mankind's destruction, a warrior-savior shall be
born in their midst as mankind's final chance." He shall
be pure of heart, but unrefined in word and deed. Thus he
shall have to prove himself in the eyes of those he loves,
and hates, as one beyond reproach in his quest for
righteousness and truth. In the time before the darkness
to come he shall walk the earth seeking to better himself
and awaken the old powers within himself and his charges.
Let it be known that he who walks with the powers of
harmony shall soon awaken the knowledge of old and so
shall he be mankind's final hope and redemption. So it is
written and so shall it come to pass.]

Looking up from the paper the man in black chuckled and
crumpled the paper in his fist before dropping it to the
floor.
"Honestly, the scribes over the ages certainly did get
carried away with that one didn't they. For pity sake they
never even mentioned me in there. Truly I have been
slandered don't you agree?" The man smiled as he placed
his hands on his hips.
"What do you want?" Ranma asked coldly as his guardian
aura flared back to life.
"Oh . . . the young magus seeks to challenge his
better?" The man in black taunted.
"I dunno what a magus is, but I won't let you hurt my
family man, so we have a problem if that is what you are
plannin' ta do." Ranma stated as he drew himself into a
battle stance.
Silently echoing his motions Tofu, Genma, Soun and
Ryouga matched his movements, while Nabiki and Kasumi moved
to where Akane still lay unconscious.
Grinning almost sadly the man in black threw back the
cape on his left hip to reveal the strange looking hilt of
a sword. The hilt glowed a soft silver glow, and the
silver of the metal swirled with different hues of red,
green and blue.
"Actually little pup I really couldn't care less about
you or your family. You see, I have much bigger things to
take care of right now. The fact that you and your family
have managed to stumble into all of this, and even managed
to slow us down a small bit doesn't change that." The man
in black said as he looked them all over one by one,
measuring them and weighing them with his gaze, and finding
each one of them wanting moving on to the next. Finally
allowing his gaze to settle on the young magus, this Ranma
as he called himself. Strange that one so young, and
without any training whatsoever was already able to command
the magical auras of the magi, and to command them in the
language of the magi. He must be an adept - bred into the
magic by nature herself - but no matter he would soon deal
with them all and go back to the matter at hand.
"Don't you see little pup, I am working to make this
world a better place. You yourself just used your magic to
save that girl you love did you not? Well that is what I
intend to do, I intend to bring back magic to this dismally
boring world." The black-clad man said as he raked his
fingers through his equally black hair.
"And how are you planning ta do that?" Ranma demanded.
"Simple young pup. I am going to resurrect my lord and
master - the dark mage. You may know him as Huàide púrén."
Gasping Tofu shouted,
"No! You cannot do that! Do you know the evil that
you would bring to the world?"
"Evil? Who are you to say what is evil and what is
not? Where you there when my master walked the earth?
Where you there to see the great works he wrought? Where
you there to see my master cut down unjustly right as he
had been about to establish a new world order where chaos
and uncertainty were abolished? Where none lacked for a
job, and everyone had a place. I think not. You know very
little indeed whoever you are."
"The ancient texts say the dark mage was a murderer of
incredible evil. That he slew hundreds of children just to
make his staff of power! That he crushed whole cities just
because they slighted him." Tofu argued.
"Is that so?" The black-clad man asked. "Well we
shall see won't we. Let's ask an eye witness about how she
saw it shall we?" Lifting his right hand palm up towards
Ranma the black-clad man's hand started to glow with a
sickly greenish fire. Calling forth the power of his magic
in the language of the magi the servant of the dark mage
gestured towards Ranma. Pointing to him and then making
ripping motions.
Making a motion as if to charge him, Tofu and the rest
of the fighters started to move forward.
Snapping his head in their direction the servant of the
dark mage's eyes glowed red for a moment, then he turned
his attention back to Ranma - leaving Tofu and the rest of
them frozen in place.
Calling out in the language of the magi the dark
servant pulled something from Ranma. Pulling on an
invisible cord the dark servant's eyes glowed red as a
green aura surrounded him. Finally shouting the final word
of the spell the dark servant smiled as Ranma's body seemed
to blur, the ghostly transparent form of a young girl
stepped out from him. She was a girl of average build who
held herself in a regal manner - she was perhaps no more
than fourteen to sixteen years old, with long dark hair and
appeared in a beautiful sapphire gown that would have been
at home at any ballroom dance. Her face was obviously
Chinese and her eyes blazed with hatred.
"I present to you your, 'girl half,' young magus." The
dark servant grinned.
"My what?" Ranma asked.
"Your girl half Ranma." The girl said as she turned to
look at him sympathetically.
"Whoa whoa whoa." Ranma cried as he stepped away from
her. "Happosai already tried this trick once on me, and I
aint fallin for it again." Ranma protested.
"No Ranma. The incense that Happosai used to bring
forth your 'girl half,' as you call me was only able to
bring out your female desires. The desires all men have,
but just bury down far to deep to even be aware of them.
The specter that Happosai called from you was nothing more
than yourself basically." The girl explained.
"So . . . who are you?" Ranma asked.
"I'm . . ." The girl started to say then hesitated.
"Go ahead princess, tell the young magus who you are.
Tell him of your failure and your shame." The dark servant
sneered.
Glaring at him the princess drew herself up to her full
height and announced. "I am the daughter of the wise king
of the light of our nation. The guardian of the
commonwealth and protector of the land. I am the princess
heir to the throne of the silver rose, and I am the
daughter of a nation betrayed." The princess exclaimed
bitterly.
"Oh princess you are so melodramatic. If your general
hadn't betrayed you someone else would have. You know not
everyone was dancing on fields of rose petals under your
father's rule you know." The dark servant taunted.
"Bastard! If your master hadn't spawned you from the
bile of a common toad and the festering sewage of his land,
then maybe my country wouldn't have had to suffer." The
princess spat.
"Temper temper princess. After all, you represent the
greatest nation this world ever knew - until my master
recreates this world in his image that is." The dark
servant smiled.
"I killed you once you bastard, and I can kill you
again!" The princess shrieked as she gestured to the sword
at the dark servant's hip and called to it in the language
of the magi. Responding instantly to it's creators call
the sword leapt from the dark servant's scabbard to her
waiting hand.
Holding it tightly in her whit knuckled fist the
princess stared the dark servant down.
"Ah yes, I had forgotten you were the one that created
that blade. Impressive. Of course, the only reason that
it is still around is because you summoned it wrong you
know. If you had cast the spell correctly it should have
disintegrated after a few hours, but in your haste I
believe you cast the spell for, 'all hours,' which of
course meant that the sword could never be destroyed -
interesting effect don't you think?" The dark servant
asked as he started to glow with a much brighter green
aura.
Turning to Ranma the princess tossed the sword to him
and yelled, "use the sword Ranma! It can cut through any
shield he raises!" Looking on in frustration the princess
watched as yet another man ran to fight this dark
abomination for her. If only she could touch this mortal
plane directly!
Running at the black-clad servant of evil Ranma thought
to himself, 'what am I doing? I don't even know how to use
a sword.'
Smiling the dark servant spun on his heel and dodged
Ranma's clumsy attack, and shouting a command in the
language of the magi shot a bolt of the green energy at
Ranma - which struck him full in the back sending him
sprawling.
Spitting blood and dust out of his mouth and pushing
himself to his feet Ranma gripped the sword in his right
hand and walked towards the dark servant this time. Trying
to judge how and when his opponent would move this time.
Getting into range Ranma took a few testing swings with the
sword at the man, but the dark servant simply shot the dark
green energy at the blade each time. Then moving with
inhuman speed the dark servant charged Ranma and triple
punched him in the face, neck and solar plexus, dropping
Ranma like a puppet with his strings cut.
Sneering the dark servant grabbed Ranma by his hair and
hauled him to his feet.
"Oh no, you don't get to end it that easy boy. For
causing me this much trouble you get to suffer." To
punctuate his threat the dark servant dropped Ranma and
kicked him as he landed. Wincing the princess clenched her
fists in helpless anger.
"What's the matter boy? You seem a little unbalanced!"
The dark servant gloated as he stalked towards Ranma - as
Ranma's mind raced trying to think of a way to fight this
monster.

~ BALANCE! The prophecy had said that the warrior-
savior had to stand in the face of evil balanced! It had
said that unless he was balanced in harmony that he would
fail! He needed his balancing factor, but what WAS it that
would balance him?

AKANE! He had the power to protect and avenge, while
she had the power to protect and heal! ~

Calling out to her desperately Ranma cried, "Akane!"
Across the cavern Akane stirred as her sisters tended to
her, and shielded her from the battle raging before them.
Again Ranma called to her, "Akane!" But while she stirred
she did not rise.
Reaching Ranma yet again the dark servant kicked him
viciously. Sailing even further from Akane Ranma tried
desperately to think of a way to get to him, when the
princess shouted, "the old tongue Ranma - call to her in
the language of the magi!"
With precious little energy left Ranma dug down deep
into himself and searched for that white hot bundle or
energy he needed. Seizing it Ranma cried out in pain as it
lashed out at a master it didn't quite respect yet.
Ignoring the pain Ranma grasped it tightly and as the magic
flowed into him he cried out in the old tongue of the magi,
["Akane - Akane wake up! Wake up you have to help me!"]
Getting worried the dark servant darted his gaze to
Akane then back to Ranma. Snarling he closed on Ranma and
drew a large dagger from his boot. He was going to end
this right now - lunging for Ranma the dark servant slashed
with his dagger at Ranma's neck. Trying to block feebly
but knowing it would never be enough Ranma waited for the
killing stroke.

"ENOUGH!" Akane shouted from across the cavern.

Quickly looking over to her the dark servant cursed at
what he saw as he rolled away from Ranma into a guarding
stance.
Walking slowly towards Ranma, Akane's body flared with
the power inside her. Glowing a yellow so bright that it
was nearly white Akane strode towards Ranma.
Rolling his eyes back into his skull the dark servant
started to chant a spell, and his greed aura around him
immediately flared brighter and brighter still.
Reaching Ranma Akane reached down and grasped him by
the shoulder briefly, sending wave after wave of healing
energy into him.
Smiling Ranma accepted her hand up, and hand in hand
the two of them turned to face the dark mage's servant.
"Ranma here!" The princess shouted as she kicked the
sword to him. Sliding to a rest at his feet Ranma bent
down and picked it up slowly, as soon as his hand touched
the blade it started to glow - changing from a dull silver
to a liquid silver - to a white so pure that looking at it
hurt your eyes.
Ranma and Akane's auras mixed together and swirled back
and forth. Not fighting each other, but instead
intertwining and growing on each other.
With their hands held tightly Ranma pointed the sword
at the dark servant and started to chant his own spell, a
spell of imprisonment. While Akane started to chant a
spell of binding.
Finishing the chant for his spell the dark servant
raised his hands and pointing them at the two released his
terrible energy at them - his simple spell was simply one
of disintegration.
Smiling Ranma raised the sword in his hand to block the
spell, and it met that blade of white energy like a white
hot piece of iron meets a vat of tempering liquid in a
smith's forge.
Squealing against the power of the sword the dark
servant's spell fought to get through.
Locking eyes with each other Ranma and Akane lifted
their joined hands together and pointed them at the dark
servant, and whispering the final words to their spell they
released a torrent of power at the dark servant.
Quickly cutting off his spell the dark servant threw up
shield after shield made from his dark energy, but their
joined spell ripped through them like they weren't even
there.
Slamming into his chest with enough force to drive him
into the wall behind him their spell wrapped him in white
energy that glowed both blue and yellow. Shrinking in on
itself the spell ripped a hole into the fabric of the
universe and dragged the now trapped and bound servant of
the dark mage into it, sealing itself as it went with a
screaming howl.
As soon as the spell left them Ranma and Akane's eyes
cleared back to their regular eye color, and their aura's
left them. Slumping their shoulders the pair looked around
the cavern slowly.
Standing calmly where she had been summoned the
princess bowed to them.
"Thank you both. It is finally over. When I cast my
spell all those ages ago to have the magic ripped from this
world I made a mistake and didn't allow for the possibility
of the dark mage's resurrection. With this final chapter
written into history my promise can be fulfilled, and I can
rest now. You will no longer be haunted by my presence
Ranma." The long dead princess smiled as she bowed again
and then saluted with her hand to her heart. Faintly at
first then rapidly a group of men materialized around the
princess. They all looked at her with loving eyes, and
bowing to Ranma and Akane, then kneeling they saluted them
both with tears in their eyes. Then more and more people
started to appear in the cavern. Men that looked like
soldiers, men that looked like bakers. Women that looked
like ladies, and girls that looked like scullery maids.
Turning around in 360 degree Ranma and Akane looked as more
and more of them appeared. Then as one the people of the
fallen nation bowed and saluted to Ranma and Akane.
Finally appearing next to his daughter, the image of a
wizened old man with a flowing white beard and long unkempt
hair, and enfolded in robes far too spacious for him the
spirit of the dead king bowed to Ranma and Akane and then
gestured to those still frozen in the grip of the dark
servants power - dropping them from their bonds. Smiling
they all faded from view just as rapidly as they had
appeared.
"Let's get out of here." Ranma said tiredly to Akane,
and everyone else in general. Nodding their agreement they
gathered up their belongings and trudged after Ranma and
Akane up the path to the surface.
"Do you know what just happened?" Nabiki asked Kasumi
as she helped the wounded Genma up the long path to the
surface.
"No idea." Replied Kasumi with a shrug as she helped
Tofu walk next to her.

Stepping out of the mouth of the cave, Ranma and Akane
looked back to see that whatever had concealed it before
was gone now, and watched as their family and friends
emerged from the cave.

Smiling Ranma continued to hold Akane's hand as the sun
started to peak over the hills into the Jusenkyou valley
and shine upon a new day, and a new world.

-

They rested for a short while before Ryouga finally got
up and waved to the group.
"I need to get going now. I am sure I will see you all
real soon, but I promised this old lady I would deliver her
mail to the post office you see . . . and that was at least
four or five weeks ago, and I HAVE to find a mailbox soon
or she'll kill me . . ."
Smiling Ranma and company waved back to Ryouga and
wished him well, then they too started back on their way to
their yacht, and then home. The walk back was a very quiet
one, with each person deep in their own thought as to what
had happened, and what it all meant. Soun and Genma talked
to each other occasionally, and Kasumi and Tofu also
murmured quietly to themselves every now and then, while
Akane and Ranma walked the whole way back hand in hand, and
kept a low conversation going the entire time. Soun and
Genma just smiled to each other in anticipation.

-

Back in Nerima Ryouga walked into yet another store
front and yelled, "WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW?!"
"You're in my store, so shaddup will ya!" Ukyou
Kuwonji yelled back from behind her cooking counter. She
no longer wore her battle spatula, but she still had her
bandolier of cooking spatulas strapped across her chest.
Sighing Ryouga walked up to the counter slowly. "Hey
Ukyou . . . you wouldn't happen to know where a mailbox is
would you?" Ryouga asked quietly as he sat down on one of
the stools.
"Sure sugar, hand it to me and I'll place it in my
outgoing mail for today." Ukyou answered as she served up
a hot Okinomiyaki to a waiting customer.
Smiling gratefully Ryouga reached into his backpack and
pulled out a small bundle of letters. They were bent and
worn with age, their edges blacked, and the stamps were
faded. Raising her eyebrows curiously Ukyou took the
letters and stuck them in her mail pile, then went back to
her cooking.
Unsure of what to do now Ryouga just sat there.
Finally he mustered up the courage to ask, "so what are you
up to these days?"
Smiling Ukyou responded, "moving on with my life Ryouga
. . . moving on."
Smiling back Ryouga responded, "me too . . . me too. .
. . . . mind if I hang out here for awhile Ukyou? I don't
really have anywhere else to go today." He asked timidly.
"Sure sugar stay there and I'll whip you up the special
of the day . . . on the house." Ukyou added with a wink.
"T-thank you Ukyou." Ryouga stuttered.
"I have to warn you though, that if you start to make
this a habit like Ranma does, then I will have to make you
wash dishes for me or something." Ukyou joked.
His face turning red Ryouga blushed and shook his head
no violently. "Oh don't worry Ukyou, I doubt I could even
find this place two days in a row. . ." Ryouga responded.
"Oh . . . is that so . . . " Ukyou began a
conversation which lasted well into the night, and well
after all the other customers had left. Joking and
laughing Ukyou and Ryouga let a lot of their pent up
emotions, frustrations, regrets and sorrows out on each
other, and in turn strengthened one another. And when it
came time for bed Ukyou offered Ryouga the use of her guest
bedroom, which he hesitantly accepted, and the next day
they picked up right where they had left off.

-

Ranma and Akane spent a lot more time together after
this "incident," as they came to call it. Tofu also spent
a lot more time over at the house chatting with Kasumi.
No one really wanted to talk about what had happened in
China and that was fine. Ranma and Genma no longer changed
with hot or cold water, and that was cause for many days of
celebration when discovered. Happosai on the other hand
mourned for weeks when he found out he could never again
fondle the female Ranma.
Slowly things got back to normal around the Tendou
Dojo, and eventually unless someone brought it up, most
everyone forgot about the "incident."
However, if Ranma was really upset, or Akane was really
worried, if you looked fast enough, you could sometimes
catch a glimpse of something silvery moving across their
eyes.
_______________________________________________________
End.

All original stories to this series are available at
http://www.asayogure.com/rgac
~
You can also use the feedback form there
to contact me or leave me Comments &/or Criticisms.
~
C&C most welcome, hate/flame mail NOT welcome.
And if offensive or inappropriate enough, I will be
reporting it to the proper authorities.

Respect,
============================================
Asayogure.
Proud member of C.A.U.C.E:
The coalition against unsolicited commercial email
________________________________________
~ I am the epitome of audacity.
~ Being "normal" is highly over rated.
~ Don't believe everything you're told, especially if it
is from the media.
________________________________________
Ask me about killing spammers for fun and profit.
============================================